I decided to take Ms Lukes advice and poured myself a tumbler full of liquor from a dusty bottle that had been my dad's. Like him, I seldom drank except with clients to be sociable, so the large glass of straight liquor hit me hard.

I debated having a second but I was already wobbly from the day's events and it hit me hard. I climbed the stairs slowly and simply fell on my bed. I didn't bother to change. In minutes I felt myself slipping away. It seemed like only moments later that I woke to a sunlit room, a blinding headache and a ringing in my ears.

It took me a few moments to figure out the ringing was my cell phone. I wondered if Ms Lukes was calling already but it wasn't. It was Christina.

"What the hell did you say to Ms Lukes last night? I called Dan this morning to explain why I left yesterday and about having to quarantine myself and he told me he didn't care because I didn't work for him anymore! And then he hung up on me!"

I tried to make sense of what she was saying. Ms Lukes said she would take care of it when I told her about Christina being exposed but I didn't think she would have her fired! Either Dan had decided to defy his wife or there was a serious misunderstanding. I was sure I'd find out the truth from Ms Lukes but until then I had a very big problem with an angry, weeping woman on the phone.

I'd already pissed her off yesterday lecturing her about me helping her stand up to the bigots. She probably thought I had her fired so she'd come crawling to me for help. It was just the sort of thing a lot of guys would do just to get a girl in bed. Before I could say anything she shouted at me.

"I should have known you'd be like all the rest. As soon as I can make other arrangements Jessica will be moving out of your guest cottage!"

And hung up.

I tried to call back but she must have blocked my number. My headache disappeared in a blaze of anger. I knew I wasn't thinking straight but I needed to straighten this out. I threw on some clothes and drove to her house as fast as I could. I cooled off a bit before I got there which is probably the only reason I wasn't pounding on her front door.

I rang the doorbell several times until she shouted at me to go away. I tried to convince her to talk to me and I was raising my voice when I heard another voice behind me.

I just couldn't believe I'd been fired. I thought Ms Lukes wanted me to get Tony back. Did he insist on changes she couldn't or wouldn't make and decide to just chuck the mess and me with it?

After I called Tony to give him a piece of my mind for whatever part he played in ruining my future I couldn't hold back the tears. I was so close to my goal and to have this happen just when I needed the money the most.

The last thing I needed now was some door to door salesman as the doorbell rang. I ignored it hoping whoever it was would just go away but they wouldn't. I peeked out a window and saw it was Tony. I yelled at him to go away.

I was having flashbacks to when I was a kid and Billy Gates chased me home threatening to pound my faggoty ass for supposedly staring at him in the showers after PE.

I had hidden behind our locked door as he pounded on it making threats until a neighbor came out and told him to go away before she called the police. When my sister found out she had gone to the principal with the video from.the security camera our parents had installed. He'd been expelled from school as it wasn't the first time he had picked on another student.

With that memory floating around in my mind I reached for my phone and called 911. When they asked what my emergency was I could barely stutter that there was a man outside my door that wouldn't leave me alone. They asked if he was threatening me or if he was armed. I told them no but that he had been exposed to the virus. I didn't think to tell them I had too.

The officer must not have used his siren because minutes later I heard a deep voice asking Tony to step away from.the door. When I looked out the window I saw an officer wearing this face mask like a welder and gloves and holding what looked like a taser standing several feet from Tony.

I got worried and opened the door to talk to the officer. When I did Tony turned to my voice and the officer must have thought he was going to go after me. He shot his taser and hit Tony in the back! I'll never forget the look on his face as the taser hit and he fell face first convulsing onto the lawn.

I couldn't help it. I screamed and ran to him shouting his name, yelling, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" over and over as I tried to hold his face off the lawn.

I was about to speak to the officer when I heard the door open behind me and like a fool I turned to see Christina. Just then a mack truck hit me in the back and every muscle in my body contracted and then released. It felt like a giant charley horse and I knew I was falling but could do nothing to stop it.

I must have passed out for a few minutes as I woke up on my stomach on a gurney with a man telling me not to move. Hell, I don't think I could have if I wanted to. I could hear Christina's voice shouting, "I'm sorry," over and over again. I wanted to go to her but couldn't get my body to move. I just whispered to the man to tell her it's ok.

I was able to lift my head just enough as they put me in the ambulance to see her face. She looked so scared kneeling there in the grass. I tried to say, "I love you," when the doors shut and I was taken away.

I found it ironic to find myself wheeled into the very hospital I had left less than 24 hours ago. I went to lift myself from the gurney only to realize that one hand was handcuffed to the gurney. There wasn't much I could do about it at the moment. I was more concerned about the pain in my back. There must be barbs from the taser in my back. My observation proved correct as a nurse began cutting my shirt off and a young man in a white coat appeared and without comment carefully removed the barbs and bandaged the small puncture wounds.

An officer appeared and after a brief discussion with the doctor he came and unlocked the handcuffs. I noticed he was wearing gloves and a face mask just like the nurse and doctor. They must have known I'd been exposed to the virus.

To this point no-one had said anything to me about what happened. I suppressed the surge of anger seeing as how the last one had resulted in me being tasered. I rolled over and managed to sit up and asked the officer if I was under arrest and if so why.

The officer said no but he sounded unhappy about it. I asked him if he was the one who tasered me and he got defensive while admitting he had. I suspected he thought there might be repercussions. I asked him why and he said he thought when I turned that I was going after Christina. After all she had called 911 and reported he wouldn't leave her alone.

He must have been in an awkward position. If I really meant harm and he hesitated she might have been hurt. I'm sure if I wanted to I had a good case to sue the city but I didn't want to ruin a young man's career over a judgement call. As long as the city picked up the tab for the hospital I would be satisfied. I was more concerned with why Christina felt so threatened that she called the police.

As they took Tony away in the ambulance I just knelt there. Visions of Billy and Tony were comingled in my mind. I didn't realize how much I must have been traumatized by Billy's attack. It must have been a flashback. I never would have called the police on Tony but I did!

A voice penetrated the fog surrounding my thoughts. She might have been speaking to me for several moments before it registered. It was another officer, a female officer and what she was saying finally sank in. She was telling me I might want to go back inside and put more clothes on.

I looked up to see a small crowd of onlookers and I was kneeling there in my flimsy nightgown. At least I was wearing panties as I jumped up and rushed back into the house hoping no-one noticed the bump in my panties that had no business being there.

The officer trailed behind and asked if it was ok for her to come in. I shouted, "yes," as I made a beeline to my bedroom. As I quickly dressed I thought about Tony at the hospital again. It must be hell for him to go back there. Or did they arrest him? Was he sitting in some jail cell right now cursing the day he met me? I needed to speak to that officer!

When I came back the officer was standing by the door. I noticed she was wearing gloves and a mask. In fact all the officers and emergency personnel had been. Maybe the officer that used the taser thought he was trying to infect me! I tried to remember exactly what I had told the 911 operator. Or maybe it was just some preventative measure just in case. Whatever reason the woman wasn't taking any chances.

The first thing I asked was if they had arrested Tony. She assured me that they hadn't after determining he was not threatening me. My reaction had told them that I wouldn't press charges and was more likely to support him if he sued the police department. She didn't say that, she didn't have to.

My only thought now was the same one I had yesterday. I needed to go to Tony. I grabbed my keys and headed for the door. The officer rushed out ahead of me when she realized I was coming. I just ran past her to my car. Luckily it wasn't blocked by Tony's car or her police vehicle. For a moment I thought she might try to stop me. That would be the ultimate irony, both of us tasered but she thought better of it and just watched me leave. Maybe she'd call them at the hospital. I didn't care, I needed to find Tony and tell him I was sorry.

Once again I was lucky not to get pulled over as I made it to the hospital safely. I parked and rushed to the ER entrance and there he was. I knew it was stupid but I ran to him and jumped into his arms. He nearly fell and grunted in pain but had a grin on his face a mile wide.

"Take me home you silly man!"

"I would but my car's at yours. Now just kiss me like you mean it so the officer doesn't taser you too!"