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She looked at her watch and was surprised to see it was almost 11.00 pm. It wasn’t the first time this week that she worked that late. She quickly logged off her account, then set the computer in sleep-mode. She glanched at what she had been working on, a campaign for a new woman’s perfume called “Memories”. She had started making a collage to help her come up with ideas for a commercial. On the big sheet of paper, she had created a romantic ambience, with red roses, black silk, but also photographs of an ice pick, a forest covered in snow and a wooden cabin. She kept staring at the piece of paper for another ten minutes before she realized she should really get going. She smiled, then tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear. She loved her job, but sometimes liked it too much, for her social life almost didn’t exist at the moment. She worked in advertising, which suited her creative personality well. She decided to now really call it a night, go home and take a long hot bath. She got her purse and put some unfinished work in her red case. Maybe she could take a look at it on the weekend. “Wendy, you’re a workaholic,” she said to her herself. And a nut too, now that you’re talking to yourself as well. She took one final look at her desk, headed for the hallway and closed the door of her office on her way out. She checked to see if she had her cell phone, found it in the left pocket of her jeans and walked over to the elevator, which seemed to take forever to get to her floor. When it finally arrived, she stepped in, pressed one of the buttons and waited for the doors to close.

While the elevator was going down, her thoughts went over to Brian. She wondered what he was doing. It probably hadn’t anything to do with work. Even though he loved his job, he also made sure he had enough time for a social life. She should join him sometimes, see the guys again. But not now, not now it was crazy at the office. She smiled, when wasn’t it busy at McKinleys?

Her thoughts were interrupted when the doors of the elevator slided open. She walked out of the elevator and headed for the exit, hoping she’d be able to catch a cab quickly. When she got outside, she was surprised that the weather was still that nice at this hour and she decided to walk home instead of grabbing a cab. She would take a shortcut through the park, so she could be home in 10 minutes most. If only she knew what would happen, she wouldn’t have walked home..

While walking through the park, Wendy thought of her friends, Phoebe and Suzie, who didn’t even know each other. It was too bad Suzie lived in Australia, now they didn’t see each other as much as the did back in the old days when they both were still at high-school. Thank God for e-mail. They e-mailed each other at least once a week and every now and then they called each other to pick up where the e-mails had ended. Phoebe and Suzie should meet someday, they could be friends as well, she thought. Phoebe, dear Phoebe. She left work at a normal hour for once. She was just as much as an workaholic as Wendy, but had a headache, so she decided to turn in early so she could catch up on work during the weekend. Suddenly, Wendy heard a sound coming from behind her. She had no idea what it had been, so she looked around to see with her eyes what her ears had heard.


Meanwhile outside of the “Bella”restaurant

“That was great!”, Nick belched.
“We noticed, Frack! You were eating as if someone was about to take your plate away!” Brian laughed while shaking his head as he walked over to Nick’s car, since he was the one who’d drop him off.
“I did not!”
“You did too!” the other four guys replied in unison.
“Ok, so maybe I did, but hey, I haven’t eaten anything for at least...”
“Half an hour!” Howie, who was leaning against A.J.’s car, was also shaking his head and laughed as he saw Nick’s face turn just as red as the tomatosauce he just ate. “Come here you!” Nick said while he was walking over to hit him on the head. Howie, now acting to be terrified, tried to hide behind Kev for shelter, thinking that might scare his young friend off, but it didn’t. Nick caught him, hit him on the head, Howie smacked him on his arm, and so they continued to horse around, as the other men were watching them. A.J. rolled his eyes, but then decided to join in on the fun as he jumped on Nick’s back, who then desperately tried to shook him off.

Brian was just about to join in as well when his cell started to ring, so he took it out of his pocket to see who it was. He was surprised to see “Wendy” in the display, because she never called this late. He opened the cell, and covered his left ear to block out the noise made by the others. “Hey Wendy, what’s up?!”
“Bri, it's me, I need some help.. so much pain.." Wendy whispered.
"Guys, SHUT up!", Brian yelled as he turned around. The guys instantly stopped moving and yelling, A.J. still on Nick’s back and Howie caught in the blonde’s grasp. "Where are you?" he continued, his voice filled with worry.
"Central Park, by the pond.. I think."
"Stay with me, baby. Wendy? Wendy??!!", but she couldn't reply. Her whole world just went black.
“Owh my God, owh my God.. Wendy?!” Brian was panicking, hands shaking, causing him to almost drop his cell. “Bri, what’s going on?! Tell us man!” A.J. grabbed him by the shoulders and gently shook him, trying to get his attention, but Brian kept staring at his cellphone in disbelief. It wasn’t until A.J. yelled his name that he snapped out of his state of shock. “We have to go, NOW!”
“But where are we going, what the hell is going on?!”, Kevin fearfully asked, puzzled of what was going on.
“Nick, come with me, the rest of you, go with Kev! Alex, I’ll call you from the car to fill you in, okay? We have to go now!! Come on!!!” Brian rushed out as he turned around.

None of this made any sense to the other four men, but seeing how scared their friend was, they decided to not ask anymore questions and just get in the cars. “Nick, you drive!” Brian said while he jumped into the passenger seat. “Where are we going?!” the blonde asked, as he roared his car to life. “Central Park, just put the car anywhere near it!” Brian was trying to dial A.J.’s number, but his hands were shaking that bad, he just couldn’t do it. When his cell rang again, he slightly jumped before answering it. ” I-it was Wendy.. S-she could barely speak.. and she.. she asked me for help. She’s hurt, Jay.. Hurt bad.. I can tell... Central Park, by the pond... Don’t know.. She never replied.. Owh God..I-”
“ Bri, relax.” A.J. replied with a quivering voice. “She- DAMN!! We’ll see you guys at CP, we just got stranded in front of a traffic light. Don’t go anywhere without us, okay?” Brian closed his cell and looked over at Nick, who also had fear written all over his face. “We’ll find her Bri, and everything will be allright.”
Brian shook his head as he tried to hold back the tears. “You don’t even believe that yourself..”

~~~~

“Okay. Let’s go!” Brian jumped out of the car, but was stopped when Nick grabbed hold of him. “Shouldn’t we wait for the others, so we can split up and find her sooner?” But Brian didn’t even hear him anymore. He shook off Nick’s hand and ran towards the pond as fast as he could. Nick shook his head, but decided to follow him and make sure he wouldn’t be out there by himself when he found her. From what he had heard, things might be really bad.

“That’s just great. Where the hell are they?” A.J. said as he, Kevin and Howie ran into Central Park.
“Calm down, Alex, we’ll find them.” Kevin spoke with a soft voice. Just as he finished his sentence, his cell started to ring. “Hey Kev, it’s Nick. Brian ran off towards the pond and I couldn’t stop him. Just meet us over by the information sign and the three benches in front of it. Do you know where that is?”
“I know. We’ll be right there.” Kevin closed his cell and let out a deep sigh. He just hoped things weren’t as bad as they looked right now.

Brian’s heart was pounding like crazy, and he ran like crazy as well. That’s probably why he didn’t see the object in the middle of the path, causing him to fall face down on the ground. “Bri, are you alright?” Nick yelled as he ran over to him. Brian rubbed his knee, but appeared to be alright for the most part. “Yeah, I’m ok, just a few scratches. We sure could use a flashlight or something.”
“You rang, sir?” A.J. said while he turned the switch on the flashlight he was holding. “Why are you on the ground? Did you find anything?!” Brian pointed at the object that caused his fall. “I tripped over something right there.” Kevin walked over to take a look at the object and picked it up. A.J. shined it with the flashlight so everyone could see what it was that Kevin was holding. As soon as Brian recognized it, panic returned at full force. “Owh my God..owh my God.. it’s.. it’s her case.” He said with a cracked voice.
“Then she can’t be far, Bri! We’ll find her!” In his heart, Nick wasn’t so sure.

The men used two flashlights to have a better look at the surroundings, but couldn’t find her. They tried calling out her name, but never got a response. Just when they began to think she couldn’t be there, Howie looked in the bushes behind the benches and let out a scream like he had just seen a ghost. The others ran over to him and were as shocked as he was when they saw her. Because of the shock, none of them were able to move even an inch. Kevin was to first to come to his senses and kneeled next to Wendy, to see if she had a pulse. “Is she.. she can’t be.. tell me, Kev, is she..” Brian couldn’t even finish his sentences as he sat there shaking.

“She has a pulse, but it’s very weak. We have to get her to a hospital as soon as possible. Forget about calling an ambulance, A.J.” he said as he saw him opening his cell. “We have to get her there ourselves.”
“But maybe we do more damage if we transport her ourselves.” A.J. replied.
“Believe me, that’s hardly possible.” Kevin said as he let out a sigh. He scooped her up, as carefully as he could and then started to walk to the car as fast as possible. A.J. opened the door to the backseat and took place behind the wheel. Kevin carefully put her in the backseat and sat down next to her. He held her tight, and continued to check her pulse, which seemed to be getting weaker every second. A.J. looked to the rear view mirror. “I’ll get us there as fast as I can, while still driving safely. Just hang in there, sunshine..”
Kevin now got to get a good look at her. Her face was all swollen, her nose was bleeding, so was most of her upper body. It looked like she had been stabbed or something. This definitely didn’t look good and Kevin felt anger growing inside of him. What kind of idiot would do this, to her or to anyone? But when he looked at her, the anger disappeared to the background and sadness took its place. And right there, that minute, he made a promise. I’ll be there for you, Wendy, just like you were there for me three years ago and we’ll get through this together, you, me, Phoebe, and the guys.