29. Drop Cake

Logan slammed his body into the back door for the fifth time and proceeded to collapse onto the floor with a groan and an aching arm. Maisie walked over to him and stood, hand on her hip, unamused.

"Are you quite done?" she asked.

"I think it's starting to budge," Logan wheezed.

"Really?" Maisie rolled her eyes. "The door is locked and your body mass is obviously too weak to break it down. Give up. Has anyone got a hold of Tony yet?"

Nick sighed, putting his phone on speaker and holding it out to everyone, an unimpressed look on his face. "I'll try it again but he's not answering. Are you sure it's his only number?"

"You think he's savvy enough to have more than one form of communication?" Maisie deadpanned.

The phone rang a few times until there was a beep and Sheriff Small's giddy, recorded voice came through.

"Hey there, sorry but I'm busy right now arresting the town's best baker, sorry Maisie, and this is totally gonna get me Sheriff of the year so I can't take any calls during this fragile time. Thanks, leave a well-informed message after the beep!"

Maisie looked at the phone flatly. "Imbeciles. They're all imbeciles."

"Schwanzlutscher," Andy growled, sitting on a table and throwing pieces of broken wall around the room in anger. "Whiny little Hündin."

"Okay, Mr. Passive-Aggressive, not helping," Keith mumbled. "Why don't we just call Ocean and get him to come over seeing as everyone else in town is conveniently busy?"

Maisie winced. "I saw Ocean walking to Bud's Bakers after the arrest," she admitted.

"Great!" Andy threw his hands up. "All the gays are out to get me!"

Nick brought his phone up to his ear and tapped his foot patiently.

"Yes, hello?" he asked. "Is this 911? It is? Fabulous. I'm in a little bit of a predicament here. I've been stabbed, three times in the chest, once in the thigh. Yes, I know, awful. Breathing's a little heavy, I'll admit. Does it hurt? Now that you mention it yeah, it hurts quite a bit. I'm at the bakery. What do you mean you need an address? You think I know the fucking address? It's the bakery! No, the other one. Right, yeah, thanks."

Nick pressed the end button on the screen and slid his phone into his pocket.

"Emergency services are on their way," he smiled.

"You're paying the ambulance fee," Charity said.

Maisie frowned, her head making up a ridiculous, stupid idea that just might work.

"How long does it take Tony to do paperwork?" Maisie asked herself.

"An hour and a half." Logan said. "He took that long for each of us."

Maisie looked at the time. "Crap, he's nearly done the paperwork. Okay, I have a really bad idea to stall Bud's arrest going through."

"But does it matter?" Keith asked. "Didn't you say you weren't going to press charges."

"I don't own the building," Maisie sighed. "Contractually, it's under Tony's name so he can press charges if he wants and by the look of him earlier, he will."

"Okay," Charity nodded. "What's the bat-shit crazy idea?"

Maisie laughed nervously.

***

The ambulance strolled down the street at the leisurely pace with a police car in front of it, the driver stuffing a donut down his throat as he pulled up to Maisie's bakery. Ben, averagely young police officer with minimal skills, stepped out of his cruiser to look at the bakery he thought he was done with. He sighed, ready to see this alleged prank-call stabbing when Nick ran face first into the window of the bakery, blood all over him.

Ben screeched, watching Nick slide dramatically down to the floor of the bakery, hand leaving a line of blood on the window.

"Oh my god," Ben breathed. "Holy shit. He actually got stabbed. Oh my god! Paramedics! They weren't joking this time."

The man and woman sat in the ambulance looked at the scene with wide eyes before stumbling out of their seats and running to the stretcher in the back. Ben grabbed his night-stick and smashed it against the handle of the door until it popped open weakly. Ben rushed inside to see Nick on the floor and Maisie lying on top of a table, blood all over her clothes with the rest of the boys and Charity surrounding them.

"Oh my god, Maisie!" Ben cried. "Sheriff's gonna kill me."

The paramedics got Nick on a stretcher before running back for Maisie.

"What happened?" Ben asked.

"Tom did it," Charity said bluntly and Maisie smacked her arm before freezing and pretending to groan in pain. "I mean, I don't know. It happened real fast. But like, if you're arresting someone, arrest Tom."

"I don't think I'll make it," Maisie whispered.

Ben's eyes widened in horror and he yelled at the paramedics. "Hurry up! She can't die on my watch, because then I'll die!"

"Ben," Maisie whispered, a line of ketchup running down her neck. "I need you to do something. Get Tony, right now, and tell him that I'm in critical condition and might die if he doesn't get his ass to the hospital. And that if he finishes any kind of paperwork before he comes to the hospital then it increases the chances of me dying."

"Really?" Ben gasped.

"Yes..." Maisie said slowly. "It's been scientifically proven."

"I'm on it," Ben saluted. "I won't let you down."

Ben ran from the bakery and flew into his car, driving off with the sirens blaring and lights flashing. Maisie sighed, lying back in the stretcher and closed her eyes. She waved her hand back to everyone else.

"See you in the hospital," she grinned. "And remember to bring those security tapes."

***

Maisie was lying in a hospital bed, sheets up to her chest and a bag of grapes in her arms. The television was on and her eyes were glued to it as she knocked the fruit back, face still covered with a few splatters of ketchup.

Suddenly, with no warning, Tony came running into the room, decked out in his work uniform. Maisie looked away from the television slowly and gave him a smile.

"Hey Tony," she said.

Tony heaved in breath, hunching over so his hands were on his knees. He took in a few gulps of air before pointing at Maisie.

"Ben...Ben said you were dying," he said. "Lots of blood. Very red."

"Yeah, about that," Maisie winced. "I'm actually fine. She wiped at her cheek and the hardened ketchup fell away. "Just ketchup and Charity's lipstick."

"I don't understand," Tony said. "Why are they letting you stay here if you aren't hurt?"

"Keith dated one of the nurses or something, I don't know, one of those idiots has a connection. And apparently this hospital doesn't see much action and they were bored." Maisie said. "Did you finish the paperwork for Bud's arrest?"

Tony sighed. "No, I stopped when Ben told me about you-"

"Good," Maisie breathed in relief. "Good, good, good."

"Look, Maisie, you might think he doesn't deserve it, but Bud vandalized the bakery. He needs to do something to make up for it," Tony said.

"Yeah, I know, but he didn't do it," Maisie said.

"What?" Tony frowned.

"Tom's the snake," Maisie said.

Tony stared at her. "Maisie I don't know what that means."

"He's the bad guy," she told him. "Tom admitted it and he's on the security tapes putting the vandalism on the window to frame Bud. If Bud goes to prison or does community service, then the bakery goes down to Tom until he's done and by then, Tom could easily just take over the whole place, the manipulative bastard. So, to stop you putting the paperwork through, I had to do something crazy enough so you'd be distracted."

"He must be the guy that came to the station a little while ago. He made a pretty convincing argument to have Bud incarcerated, I'll admit."

"He's the bad guy, Tony," Maisie reminded him. "Get it together."

Tony groaned. "Jesus, Maisie. Don't do this again. You're completely nuts. Your mom is going to murder me. Oh man, she's gonna murder me."

Maisie smiled, holding the bag of grapes out to Tony. "She doesn't have to know. If you maybe did me a favour then this whole thing never happened."

Tony nodded slowly, taking a grape.

"I'm listening."

***

"Do I look like I'm on the verge of dying?" Maisie asked Charity as the latter plumped up the pillows behind her head.

"As dead as you always do," Charity smiled and Maisie glared at her.

She moved away and Logan slowly came forward as everyone got ready around them. Small was trying to figure how handcuffs worked, Ben was swinging his gun around like a wild man and the boys were messing around with the back of the hospital room's TV.

"Is this not a bit elaborate?" Logan asked.

"We're an elaborate bunch," Maisie said and Logan laughed.

He ran his hand through his hair nervously and Maisie reached up, putting her hand on his wrist.

"Don't do that. You'll ruin the infamous spike."

Logan smiled slightly. "Are we...okay?"

Maisie sighed heavily. "I don't know, honestly. I want to be but..."

"I know," Logan said. "How about I try to cut back on the you know what and I promise to take you to Vegas?"

Maisie spluttered out a laugh. "You want to take me to Vegas?"

"City of romance," Logan grinned.

"That's Paris," Maisie mumbled, hand on his cheek. She stroked her thumb under his eye gently and leaned forward, kissing him on the cheek. "Let's start with another date. Maybe along the way you could persuade me to go to Vegas."

Logan turned his head and kissed her wrist. "Deal."

He pushed forward and wrapped his arms around her, Maisie's head tucked against his neck. Maisie pulled back gently.

"Ketchup," she pointed down at herself and Logan laughed, looking down at the few splotches now on his own clothes. "Don't want everyone to look like a bloodbath before the show starts."

Logan winked at her and walked off, being herded out of the room with everyone else. Tony stopped at the doorway.

"He's on his way. Remember, just act dead and everything will be fine. He's a bakery owner wannabe, not a serial murderer," Tony pointed out.

"That we know off," Maisie said and lay back on the bed, readjusting herself as Tony slipped out of the room. She closed her eyes and held her breath in before letting it out slowly and shallowly.

Maisie didn't have to wait long. The door to her hospital room opened slowly - hesitantly. She heard footsteps and a sharp intake of breath. She kept her breaths small and irregular and her eyes still beneath her lids. The footsteps stopped and Maisie lay there, waiting.

Tom stood in front of the hospital bed, pale as a sheet. He was sweating profusely and his wide eyes were looking directly at Maisie who was unconscious and covered in bright red blood. He put his hand over his mouth and stumbled back.

"Oh God," he gasped. "I killed her. I killed Maisie. Oh my God, oh my God. Shit."

He paced up and down in front of the bed and Maisie almost rolled her eyes, needing him to speed up.

"I'm such an idiot," he whined. "I should have known there would be security cameras. And then I went and locked them all in the bakery where they were attacked by a crazy murderer! Oh god, I did this. I did this. My mom's gonna kill me."

Maisie rolled her eyes this time.

She suddenly felt him very close to her, grabbing her hand and crying all over it.

"Please don't die, Maisie!" Tom sobbed. "I'm sorry I destroyed your bakery and made you lose all that money! I'm sorry that I went back again and destroyed your window! I'm sorry I framed Bud. I'm sorry I low-key might have backstabbed Andy. I'm sorry God made me this way! I'm horrible human being."

"Too right, you fucking idiot," Maisie grumbled, opening her eyes.

Tom stared for a moment before screaming at an inhumanly high pitch. The door burst open and Tony came stumbling in, followed by the boys. Tony swung his handcuffs around, but they slipped off his finger and hit the window.

"You're under arrest for vandalism!" Tony yelled. "You have the right for silence and law and orders."

"Take that, bitch!" Andy shouted from the doorway.

Maisie sat upright and looked at Tom who was staring in shock at the hospital TV that showed the security footage of him vandalizing the bakery window on a loop.

"Whatever you wanted out of this," she said. "It's really not worth it. Especially when you ended up losing someone like Andy in between it all."

Tom's wrists were slipped into cuffs and he was walked out of the room, looking away from Andy as he passed. Ben followed after and Maisie began to wipe the ketchup from her face. Logan brought over her clothes from earlier so she could change out of the hospital gown. She thanked him and was about to get up when the door was flung open again.

A flustered and panting Ocean came running into the room adorned in a giant chipmunk suit with a head tucked under his arm. Everyone stared.

"Um," he began. "I heard you died. But I see you haven't. You're just covered in ketchup, which smells really strong by the way. Um, okay. I'm not sure what to do now."

"Ocean, what are you wearing?" Maisie asked.

"Oh this? I uh..." Ocean sighed and placed the chipmunk down on the end of the bed. "I have to do this every now and then to help my dad out."

"Is he a football player in need of a mascot?" Nick asked.

Ocean looked sheepish. "He owns the party store in town, you know, the one next to Bud's and he needs help with sales so I have to wear this and stand outside the store handing out flyers. I didn't tell anyone because like, look at me. This getup is hideous."

"So you aren't a backstabbing traitor?" Nick raised an eyebrow.

Ocean blinked. "Wait, what?"

Maisie sighed and shook her head, walking over and giving Ocean a tight hug.

"Doesn't matter," she said. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you."

Maisie pulled away and shrugged, looking around at everyone.

"Well, this was fun."

- Ellie x