This story is totally original and is written for entertainment
purposes only.  I have tried not to infringe on the copyrights of
Shaun Cassidy, MCA Universal, or CBS.  The name American Gothic, as
well as the characters Selena Coombs, Gail Emory, and Lucas Buck are
used without permission.  I am not making a profit from this story.
	This story takes place after American Gothic's final episode,
and is in no way connected to the Virtual Seasons.
*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	

Cliff-Side
by Leah


	The sky was a brilliant shade of blue, a stark contrast to the
storms that had descended upon Trinity the last few weeks.  Although
the town had gone on with their routines, a quiet panic had fallen
the moment word broke of the death of Lucas Buck:  beloved town
sheriff and local savior.  Citizens scrambled to take care of their
affairs as they realized no one would be around to honor their deals.
Exactly how many deals there were was unclear to most.
	Still, Lucas's death and other, less public events struck some
harder than others, and Selena Coombs was one of them.
	First, there had been shock.  Sure, she had wanted to kill him.
Hell, half the town wanted to kill him, but that didn't mean she was
prepared for Lucas to actually die.  Desperation set in, and she
grasped for anything that had to do with him, smelled like him, and
Caleb Temple was it.  She would have done anything to get into that
boy's good graces, he possessed so much of his father's powerful
appeal.
	There was something else that suggested Lucas as much, if not
more than Caleb.  It was someone else to be exact, but Selena wasn't
about to risk her hide to help it.  No, Gail's unborn child was the
last thing she wanted to see in this world, so she decided to kill two
birds with one stone, so to speak, and help Caleb to destroy it.
	Then, all at once everything changed.  Lucas was alive!  The man
for whom she had done everything and would still do anything to please
was looking her straight in the eye.  Not only was he alive, he
_knew_.  He knew about everything she had done:  her involvement with
Gail's coma and miscarriage, her partnership with a blossoming Caleb,
the way she had plotted with Billy to wipe him off the planet before
Yancy Lydon beat them to it.
	He even knew about the tears she had shed at his funeral, but
there wasn't anything she could do to convince him that she cared.  He
kicked her out the door, told her she wasn't even worth the effort it
would take to kill her, just like that.  Without so much as a second
glance, she was shunned by the one man in this whole damn town that
gave her the time of day.  The only person that she actually needed,
although she would never admit it to anyone.
	Selena adjusted her sunglasses.  The afternoon sun shone off the
yellow paintjob of her sports car, making it seem like one big
fireball flying down Main Street.  The woman inside was cool as ice,
wearing a black mini-skirt and tank top combination that would have
made any man in town do a double take.  Well, almost any man.
	Selena drove without a destination in mind, only knowing that the
idea of grading the pile of book-reports in the car's backseat gave
her a headache.  Work could always wait an hour or two.  Besides, she
thought to herself, spring days like this are not meant to be spent
indoors.
	The trees above her rippled in the breeze.  It was a good thing,
because spring days in South Carolina could easily turn stagnate if
the sun baked everything for too long.  Trinity was pretty much as it
always was.  It's citizens leisurely walked along the sidewalks and
in and out of shops, mildly glaring at the flashy automobile as it
sped down the road and disrupted their lives with a backwash of
rumors and innuendo.
	After a while Selena found herself near the edge of town, and a
strange feeling started to form in the pit of her stomach.  Suddenly,
the idea of running away and hiding under her bed, or even better, on
top of a barstool, was starting to look pretty good.  She hit the
accelerator and tried to escape her unease with the roar of a well-
tuned engine and a gust of wind from her open window.  Still, before
she even realized she had made the decision, her car was pulling into
the side-lot of Fulton County General.
	Selena took her time coming up the front steps, which luckily gave
the hospital receptionist enough time to scrape her jaw off the floor
at the sight of the scantily clad woman.  Well, it's just going to be
one of those days, Selena thought, and let a coy smile creep across
her face.
	"Gail Emory?"
	"What?" the young woman answered and squinted a little.  Selena
took off her sunglasses with perfectly manicured hands and leaned forward
over the woman's desk.
	"Gail Emory, please," she repeated slowly, as if she were talking to
one of the dimmer members of her class at the elementary school.
	"Second floor, Room 15."
	Selena smiled and turned, letting her fingers trail along the edge
of the receptionist's desk as she went.  Choosing to ignore an
obvious sigh of relief coming from behind her, she walked under the
bright murals that someone had made the mistake of commissioning in
the late eighties and made her way up a flight stairs.
	Gail's room was flooded with sunlight that streamed off the bright
walls and across the woman's still form.  Selena stood in the
doorway.  To say that the pair hadn't gotten along would have been a
gross understatement.  Even though they barely spoke when they were
together, waves of animosity and competitiveness passed between them
that were cold enough to freeze Trinity River in July.
	Selena's heels tapped on the linoleum floor as she strode over to a
chair hidden against the wall and pulled it closer to Gail's bedside.
Not too close, just far enough that she wouldn't be stuck in a
corner.  She looked over at the woman in the bed, quiet and serene,
all her problems sent away to blessed oblivion.  It was almost an
enviable position.
	Gail had tubes leading to her nose and a clip attached to her index
finger to measure her blood-pressure, but little else to suggest that
she was doing anything but taking a catnap.  One of the nurses had
even brushed out her hair when they removed the head-bandage so the
long, brown mane flowed smoothly past her shoulders.  Selena was
disappointed to see that there weren't any split-ends.
	"Well, honey," Selena said to the comatose woman, "what a 
mess we've gotten ourselves into."  As soon as she had said it, that 
gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach came back.  Before she 
could stop it, a little voice in her head reminded her that Gail's coma 
had been her fault.  She had set-up the woman when she knew Caleb 
was just itching to use some of that Buck power that was so hard to 
control.  She had dropped Gail right into the lion's mouth.
	"No," Selena whispered to herself and shook her head.  Gail 
just lay there, mutely passing judgement on the woman who had been 
sharing Lucas's bed long before she had even arrived in town.  "I 
may have gotten you in some trouble," Selena told her, "but the 
baby was your own damn fault."
	The hospital was beginning to get to Selena.  The smell of
antiseptic was enough to overpower the deadliest skunk ever born and
the inescapably bare walls made her understand why a percentage of
the patients there took the short drive from Fulton County General to
Juniper House.  For a place of healing the building had more than its
fair share of demons.
	But, that's the way it was in this town.  It looked pretty 
enough on the surface but just underneath the demons really ran 
the show, and she could think of one demon in particular that 
counted on it.  Hell, his influence still echoed in the very room 
where she sat looking at the most irritating sleeping beauty ever 
created.  There wasn't a friendly face in the whole hospital since 
Matt Crower lost it and Billy gave up the chase and moved back 
to Africa.  He had said something about not wanting to date a 
woman who broke all seven deadly sins before breakfast and 
only worried if she broke a nail.
	"Poor baby," Selena muttered and glanced out the window.  
Not much chance of lightning striking and putting me out of my 
misery today, Selena thought, staring at the clear sky.  She looked 
back at Gail and mildly wondered which sins she had committed to 
lead her down this particular path.
	"Why did you do it?"
	The question appeared in her mind like an apparition, 
demanding to know how she had managed to screw herself so 
thoroughly.  It had started with Lucas.
	Ah, Lucas, the love of her life!  She had wanted to murder 
him so badly she would have done anything to see it accomplished.  
She realized too late that it was hopeless.  Selena could have sooner 
cut off her own arm then cut Lucas Buck from her life.
	"I guess you learned that the hard way, though," she 
whispered to Gail.  "Loving that man is like expecting the wind to 
do your bidding."  A picture of Gail at Lucas's funeral, confessing 
her love to what everyone assumed was a corpse flashed in Selena's 
mind and she smiled a little at it.  Gail was a fool to think that man 
would return her feelings.  She thought she could just waltz into Trinity
and investigate its secrets, sleep with its.... whatever the hell
Lucas was, and still be everybody's favorite.  The only good idea
that woman had ever had was to try to throw herself off a building.
	"About half as good as your idea to murder me, huh, Selena?"
	Lucas stood in the threshold of the room with his elbows 
resting jauntily on the doorframe, staring at Selena with a coldly 
amused expression.  Her breath caught a little in her throat, but 
she was used to Lucas's tricks enough to hide it.  He regarded her 
like a piece of road-kill that had made its way under his polished 
boot, then turned a softer eye to Gail.
	Selena watched as he strode over to the woman's bedside, 
looking annoyingly handsome in a red shirt, black jeans, and his long, 
gray coat.  Her eyes narrowed as she saw him purposefully walk to 
the opposite side of the bed to give her a clear view, and then cup
Gail's cheek with his right hand.
	"Don't worry, darlin'" he said in a voice Selena knew to 
be about as sincere as a rattlesnake's, "we'll get another chance to 
start our family."
	"Oh, please, Lucas," Selena sighed, "she means about as 
much to you as a pedigree cocker spaniel, so why don't you cut 
the Waltons' moment?"  Buck threw her a glance.
	"You never could accept the obvious, could'ja, Selena?" he 
said, adopting a patronizing expression.  "Sex is sex," he explained 
as he stroked Gail's face with his thumb, "this is love."
	With that, he leaned over the comatose woman and narrowed 
his eyes in concentration.  From the shadows, all Selena could do 
was hope that Gail would become nauseous and wipe that smile 
from Lucas's face.  After a moment, Gail's eyes fluttered open and 
she fixed her gaze on Buck, who smiled down at her.
	"If you don't get your hands off me now, I'll tear your throat 
out," she said coldly, but with that same, serene look that she had 
when she was comatose.  Selena chuckled.
	"Looks like you're going to have to change your plans, 
Lucas," she said.  He glared at her, then back at Gail.
	"Maybe I should come back when you're feeling a bit more....
rested.  After all," he said as he looked back towards Selena and
gave her an intense stare, "I know seeing me alive has been a shock
to some people in this town."
	"I don't know, Lucas," Gail answered strongly, "I'm beginning 
to think I was better off without you."  Buck stood up straight and
regarded her a moment, then shook his head and strode out of the 
room without giving Selena so much as a glance.
	Gail rolled her eyes a little, then took notice of the other 
woman in the room who was still sitting stock-still in her chair.  
Selena's back was straight and her skirt cut up to high-heaven, 
but Gail could almost see a touch of fear in her eyes.
	"How long was I...." she trailed off, suddenly feeling very 
weak.
	"Nine days," Selena answered, then watched in apprehension 
as Gail's hand slid down to her abdomen.  "Gail, I...." she began 
quietly, but trailed off as a look of realization crossed the woman's 
face and tears started forming in her eyes.
	"Well," Gail said miserably after a while, "at least that bastard
doesn't have a reason to make house-calls anymore."
	"That would seem to be the case with both of us," Selena 
answered in a cool voice that was just a bit too detached and 
looked out the window again.
	Gail just stared at her, then down to her empty belly.  She 
felt as though she had woken up from a long, horrible dream, but 
the place was too alien to make her feel like she was really awake 
yet.  So much had happened to bring her here, but somehow she 
was sure she had missed the worst parts.  Hell, the last thing she 
remembered was her dead boy friend coming to save her from 
her completely insane, ten-year-old cousin.
	Lucas and Selena were the first things she saw when she 
woke up, but something was wrong.  Selena had always been on 
Lucas's side, but a few seconds ago he was barely acknowledging 
her presence in the room. 
	"I thought you were going to meet me cliff-side, Selena.  I 
guess we both broke our date."
	"Did we?" Selena asked with a little tremor in her voice.  
Gail was about to offer an answer, but wasn't sure that she could.  
Nothing seemed clear, not even where the edge of the cliff began.
	The two woman sat in the afternoon light for a while, Gail 
in her white hospital gown and linen sheets and Selena in her black 
skirt and tank-top and a lot of well-tanned flesh.
	"What do we do now?  I don't think splitting town is really an
option," Gail said suddenly and turned her head so she could see
Selena better.  Selena thought about this for a while, then stood up
slowly and walked over to the woman's bedside.
	"All I know," she said with an air of defiance, "is what I'm 
going to do.  Your life is your own business.  Maybe you should 
try journalism again," she went on with a smile.  "It's safer than 
what you've been doing lately."
	"Hmmm," Gail sighed and glanced at the doorway where 
Lucas had departed.
	"Besides," Selena went on suddenly as she took a step 
backwards from the bed and smiled, "a nice girl like you doesn't 
deserve Lucas Buck."  With that, she walked out the door and 
started making her way down the hallway.  Gail didn't even 
catch her double-meaning until the little yellow sports-car was 
pulling out of Fulton County General's side-lot and speeding 
down the road.
	"Maybe I'll catch a drink on my way home," Selena said 
out loud to herself as she shifted into fourth gear.  A smile crossed 
her lips as she looked forward to creating some excitement at the 
local bar. Nothin' like old times to make a girl feel human again.

END