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Nora was beginning to hyperventilate, her entire body grown from normal to warm to downright hot. The brunette tried her best to breathe, her hands fanning at her face as Jay began to react to her sudden condition.
"Breathe, honey - breathe!"
The young woman gazed fearfully into his blue eyes, realizing how it strangely sounded as if she were in labor or something. If the situation had been slightly different, she would have laughed. But it was in reality a *nightmare*. She knew she hadn't misheard what that anchorwoman had said.
"Nora, you... stay right there!" Jay cried, his hands palms-out as he jumped from the bed. "I'll be right back, and don't you move!"
The brunette nodded weakly, not missing her husband's sudden nervousness. Nervousness that was all *her* fault...
After everything that had happened to her three years past, she'd developed an anxiety disorder and suffered from panic attacks. At first, they'd occurred every so often, but then, as time went on, they'd grown farther and fewer between to the point that she hadn't had one in a long time. Extreme stress had been removed from her life, and she hadn't had to worry much - until now. If what she'd heard was indeed accurate, and Paul had escaped from prison, she was in serious trouble...
"Here, breathe into this!" Jay exclaimed as he dashed back into the bedroom. He thrust a small paper bag at his wife, concern flooding his blue eyes as Nora accepted it. Then, slowly, she began to breathe in and out of the bag, her eyes growing more placid. She was feeling more normal, more like herself - at least where her breathing was concerned.
The blond man let out a sigh of relief as he sat on the edge of the bed, gathering Nora into his arms. He held her against him for a long moment, his hands caressing her silky dark hair while she leaned against him, silent. Then, he pulled back just enough to gaze down into her pretty but worried face.
"Are you... *sure* you heard right?"
The young woman nodded, her eyes beginning to well up with tears. Her bottom lip quivered ever so slightly as well. As frightening a concept as it was, and as desperately her mind wanted to reject it, she couldn't.
"My God... You actually heard-" Jay's words were cut off by the sudden ringing of the telephone situated to the side on the nightstand. Nora jumped a bit in his embrace, then settled back as he reached for the receiver.
"Hello?" For a few seconds, the Canadian feared he was going to hear the voice of the evil Paul Levesque on the other end. But when he heard Adam speak instead, he calmed down immeasurably.
"Jay, were you and Nora just watching the news?"
The bottom just about fell out of the short-haired man's stomach. At the same time, his mouth went ash-dry. Not that he hadn't believed or trusted in what his wife had told him, but hearing Adam ask the question made it all the more real.
"Adam, what are you talking about?" he asked, hating the monotone inflection in his voice. Come to think of it, it was a miracle he could speak at all.
"I'm talking about Paul Levesque," the blond man on the other end spoke, his tone near furious, though Jay knew that emotion was not being directed at *him*. "Amy and I were just watching the news... Jay, he's escaped from prison...!"
*
A half-hour later, Adam and Amy - along with little Angelina -, Stephanie and Kurt and Shane and Torrie were at the Resos'.
"I can't believe it..." Angle muttered as he paced back and forth. "I just *can't* believe it!"
Torrie was crying. The platinum blonde was sitting beside Nora on the sectional couch in the living room, weeping in her friend's arms. The two women were clinging to each other, and Shane stood off to the side, a sadness on his face as he felt impotent to comforting his girlfriend.
Stephanie sat in a plush armchair just beyond the couch, her hands neatly folded in her lap, her large blue eyes staring, unfocused, at some portion of the sky blue carpet. She seemed deeply lost in her own horror-filled world.
On the other section of the couch were the Copelands, Amy holding her daughter up and as though for dear life - as though, because the little girl so completely depended on *her* for safety, that same dependency was somehow reciprocated right back to her mother. Angelina, of course, was sound asleep.
Adam didn't know how it was that he was managing to sit still beside his redheaded wife. His hands clenched into fists at the extent of rage he felt - much more intense than the anger Kurt was expressing. He swallowed it down for the time being, as he didn't want to scare any of the women or his baby daughter.
"What are we gonna do?" Jay asked weakly, hating the way his voice sounded. He was sitting on the arm of the couch next to Nora, and he had to admit, he had no idea as to an answer to his own question.
Adam looked up, his green eyes hard. Everyone seemed to be looking toward *him* as their leader, but he sure didn't feel like one.
"I say we all stick together - like *last* time..." he practically spat. "We watch our backs and keep our eyes and ears open..."