It had been a productive afternoon, and none of them had dwelled on the trouble of the last few days past.

"How can you be so tired?" Jay quipped.  "You didn't even go on any strenuous rides!  Hell, the most 'wild' ride you went on was the Merry-Go-Round!"

"You liar!" she cried, lifting her head from his shoulder and playfully punching him in the arm.  "You just want them to think I'm a big wimp!"  She hit him again, and Jay let out a yelp as the chocolate ice cream scoop on his cone fell straight down, splattering on his lap, his khakis the unfortunate victim of the frozen dessert.

Adam and Amy couldn't help the laughter with which they were suddenly overcome, but the little blonde swore at herself.

"Oh, God!  I am so sorry!"  She snatched up several napkins and tried to mop off her boyfriend's pants.

"It's okay, Nora," Jay assured her, even though the khakis were a favorite pair of his.  He stood up, and the melting ice cream partially dripped down his right leg.

The platinum blonde diva looked at him with concern, convinced he was in fact really mad at her but keeping it inside for now for appearance's sake.  That was how it had usually been with Paul - and then, when they were alone, he would let her have it by yelling and telling her how fucking stupid she was.

"I'm going to go clean up in the men's room..."  He grabbed some extra napkins and walked away.

Amy took note of the saddened expression on Nora's face and exchanged quick glances with the tall blond sitting beside her.

"Hey..." she said, reaching across the table to her friend.  "...it'll be okay."

"I can't believe how stupid I just was!" the small diva cried.  "What if he's really, really angry at me now?  I wouldn't blame him if he is."

"Nora, chill..." Adam said.  "Jay's a pretty easy-going guy...believe me, if he was really pissed at you, he'd let you know it."

Nora bit her lip, then nodded.  "You're right, Adam...I'm just being silly."  She smiled a little, but inside she was still berating herself - this time for a totally different reason.  This is Jay Reso, not Paul Levesque...What's wrong with me?  Jay is the exact opposite of that monster!

"Come on," Adam said as he stood up, and the redhead got up beside him.  They had all decided to head back to the hotel after finishing their ice cream.

"You guys go on ahead," Nora said, also rising.  "I'm going to wait for Jay..."

*

Adam and Amy walked hand-in-hand as they strolled toward the parking lot.

"Nora's so cute..." the redhead quipped with a small smile.  The blonde had confided in her while they'd been on a ride together - the guys had claimed it was too "girly" for them, so they'd been alone on it - Nora had told her she and Jay had come very close to having sex a couple of nights past.

"Yeah, she seems so crazy about Jay," the tall blond man agreed.  "And I'd bet my right arm that he's already in love with her."

Amy laughed throatily.  "Do you really want to lose your right arm?"

The Canadian laughed with her, playfully pulling her into a headlock as he proceeded to give her noogies.

The redhead cried out between fits of laughter, and Adam let her go, stopping to pull her against him.  Amy gazed up into his green eyes and smiled.  "I had so much fun today..."

"Yeah, so did I...thanks to your great suggestion..."  He cupped her face with both hands, moving forward slowly to kiss her passionately.  She kissed him back fervently, her breath catching in her throat.

After a beat, Adam pulled away and said, "Come on..."  He started walking briskly toward the car, surprised the parking lot was so deserted.  There were only a couple of other people around, although there were plenty of parked cars.

The redhead laughed as she trotted just behind him in an attempt to keep up with him.  His long legs made it difficult for her to do so when he walked so fast.

All of a sudden, all of the fine hairs on the back of Amy's neck stood on end as she detected a movement to her left, in her peripheral vision.  A car was traveling very slowly in the opposite direction a short distance from them, as if keeping up with them.

"Adam!"  She shouted his name as the tinted driver's side window went down a couple of inches.  She caught a brief flash of steel glinting in the still bright sunlight and sprang forward, an extra burst of speed in her step as she positioned her own body in an attempt to block the blond man's.

Adam's mouth went ash-dry as he heard the sound - it sounded strangely like a single firecracker piercing the calm of the beautiful summer afternoon.

"Oh, my God...Amy!"  The redhead was falling, almost as if in slow motion to him, and he reacted instantly, catching her in his arms in mid-air before she hit the ground.

His eyes wide, the Canadian glanced around the immediate area, spotting the car.  A black Mazda this time.  It went screeching out of the small parking lot in a hurry.

"Oh, God!"  Adam knelt down to the pavement, Amy still in his arms.  "Oh, my God!  Angel..."  His eyes widened in even more horror as they took in the dark liquid spreading, staining the very top of her already red baby tee. Oh, Christ... She'd been shot.  Please, God...no... he thought.

The wound was in her chest.  It seemed to be up high in her left shoulder-collarbone region - thank God the bullet hadn't reached her heart - but damn it, she'd still been shot.

"Angel!  Angel, can you hear me?!" he cried frantically.  His vision was slightly blurred by the tears that had formed in his eyes.  Oh, God... She seemed to be losing so much blood - it was getting all over his bare arms and the front of his gray T-shirt, and stained more of her shirt, dripping to the ground.

Amy's eyes were slightly glazed as she desperately tried to keep them open.  As Adam gently eased her to the ground, she moved her lips, nearly forcing the speech out of her.  The blond man knelt down beside her as she weakly clutched his arm.

"I...love you...Don't ever...forget that..."

A second later, she lapsed into unconsciousness.