A terrible noise interrupted Zac's voice. Briana Dagnan screamed in horror as her mother gripped the steering wheel and swerved over into the emergency lane. Karen Dagnan, Briana's older sister, bonked Briana in the back of her head with a magazine. Briana swatted her back with the plush, honey colored bear she clutched in her arms.

"MOO-OOM!" Briana wailed pitifully, hunkering down in the middle seat of the van as Karen aimed several various heavy items at her. "Make her quit. She's hurting Tay-Bear..."

Karen kicked the back of the seat. "It's a stuffed toy, Bri. You got it at the dollar store. They had forty five million left. As soon as we get home you can get another-" Karen lunged to grab the bear as Briana sat up warily.

"It's not just a stuffed toy," she sniffed indignantly. "It's Tay-Bear."

Karen stopped mid- swing as their mom killed the engine and sighed, exasperated at both her overheated minivan and her misbehaving daughters. "Both of you, quiet for a moment, would you?" She popped the hood and went around the front of the car to investigate. As she inspected the tangled, greasy innards of her car, Briana and Karen continued to randomly bicker half-heartedly.

Mrs. Dagnan soon decided that overheating was just the problem. For two hours the van had been cruising down the freeway, air conditioner blasting out 50 degree winds as the rest of the world sweated off the 100+ weather outside. She rounded the car as highway traffic zoomed all about. Inside the van, the scene was much more humane than when she had left.

Briana was improvising a song about how her favorite rocks were red rocks and her favorite jelly beans were red jelly beans. Mrs. Dagnan saw no connection and dismissed it as a direct effect of the heat. Karen had digressed to her Discman- no doubt it was turned up all the way to avoid her sister's loud, off-key warbling.

Mrs. Dagnan started the car up again and pulled into the traffic as Briana launched into another interminable verse of her ditty.

"RED ROCKS, ba duba dop ba RED ROCKS, ba duba dop ba RED ROCKS ba DOOO-OOOO-OOO...yeah-eeee-yeeeaaaaahh...You have so many concerts in your life, only one or two hours they last, so yuh gotta scream and you gotta scream some more and it'll be a blast..."

Mrs. Dagnan peered at her youngest daughter through the rearview mirror. "Dear," she began cautiously, but Briana paid her no mind and began to sing louder and louder.

"WHERE ARE THE ROCKS? THEY'RE REALLY RED! THEY'RE OLD AND BIG TOO! WHERE ARE THE ROCKS? THE RED RED ROCKS! THERE'S GONNA BE A CO-O-ONCERT..." Briana took the stuffed bear by the arms and wriggled it around abstractly, presumably trying to make it dance. "Go Tay-Bear, go Tay-Bear, it's your birthday, it's your birthday..."

Once again Mrs. Dagnan looked back at Briana. "Bri, dear, what are you singing?"

And, once again, Briana didn't seem to hear her. "And I guess we'll never knooooow, exactly when those rocks are gonna show...I guess we'll never understand until we reach that Red-Rock land...YEAH! Kick one for Red Rocks, Tay-Bear!" She then proceeded to wrangled the bear around in such a way that it almost looked like it was playing...the air keyboards. Mrs. Dagnan just shook her head and shoved the Hanson cassette back into the car tape deck begrudgingly.

In the backseat, Karen was trying to block out her sister's horrendous performance by blasting her Everclear CD louder than anyone could possibly comprehend, but nothing seemed to help. As her mom pulled the van up and exit ramp the car hit a bump and the CD skipped. For an instant, Briana's high-pitched crooning voice escaped into her ears.

Karen cringed and sank further down in the seat. When the car stopped at a red-light she pulled herself back up and gasped. She slowly brought the headphones down from her ears, and kicked Briana's seat.

"What?" Briana huffed, utterly peeved at her sister for disrupting her performance.

Karen had to gulp for air before she could speak. "R-r-reehhhh...r-r-reddd...R-r-r-uuhhh...R-red r-r-rock-ks..."

Briana's face paled and then lit up like a toddler's on Christmas. "We're...we're HERE?" she gasped weakly. "We're...HERE! We're here! We...we're there! Tay-Bear! Tay-Bear! Look!" She pressed the bear's face up to the window. The amphitheater was just down the road. "Tay-Bear...you're home!"

"WHOA THERE, Missy!"

Briana stopped dead in her tracks and looked up a few feet. A large, sweaty man in a white, sweat-stained polo shirt loomed above her. 'Red Rocks Staff' was embroidered on his shirt pocket, and an All Access Pass hung around his thick neck. A pin on his collar said, 'Hi! I'm HERMAN'.

Briana review the situation and decided that the safest thing to do would be to pull the Cutesy Act. She giggled sweetly. "Hi-eee, Hermy!"

The large man was slightly taken aback. "Hello, little girl. I...you see, you're not...well...no one..uh..." Briana, Karen and their mother had been one of the first groups to get there. That had been a half hour ago. Briana had gotten restless when Karen and their mom insisted waiting in the four-mile long line for barbecue. So Briana went off unnoticed on her search for the Backstage Door. She had gotten as far as past the fence that separated the amphitheater seating from the plaza area when the man stopped her.

She clasped her hands behind her back and flashed an irresistible toothy grin, and thanked her lucky stars she had gone with the Pippi Longstocking pigtail look. Middle aged sweaty men couldn't resist an eleven-year-old with blonde pigtails. Briana was just too cute. "What do you want, Mishter?" She faked a lisp.

He wrung his sweaty ham hands together and pushed a stained ball cap back on his forehead. How Herman hated working these concerts! "Uh, well, you see...no one's supposed to be on this side of the fence until-"

Briana gasped, and then giggled. "Well, Hermy, I guesh you're gonna get in trouble, too! What are you doing back here? Huh? Huh? Tell me that. Tellme tellme tellme! And I bet I know shum other people that are back here. I know their names. I betcha can't guesh...betcha betcha betcha betcha!"

Herman mopped his forehand with a handkerchief and sighed, exhausted. He contemplated seeing a doctor- a shrink- immediately following the concert. Or maybe, he thought, I should just quit this venue work and get a desk job...

As soon as he touched his handkerchief to his forehead, Briana had darted off. She dashed down the center aisle of the amphitheater, the huge red rocks looming above her. Before Herman could say "Happier than a Hermy in a house of hairy hamsters," Briana had made her way to the backstage door.

She paused at the door, her hand on the handle, and collected her thoughts. Tay-Bear, stuffed nicely in a gift bag which she carried at her side, was to be given directly to Taylor Hanson and to no one else. Briana had become very fond of her little stuffed plush bear buddy over the past three hours, and she wanted to see that he was in good hands before she went home.

Bravely, she pushed open the door and stepped backstage. A concrete-floored and walled hallway stretched before her. Doors lined either side. A green glowing EXIT sign was perched above a door at the very end.

Well, Briana thought to herself, I've got to start somewhere. And that man's going to be coming to find me, I know. First things first...I've got to find Taylor! She turned to the door on her left and pushed it open.

Karen balanced her barbecue sandwich in one hand and Briana's in the other. Her sister hadn't been hungry, but Mrs. Dagnan was dead set on feeding her children before the gates were opened so they ordered Briana something anyway. When Karen turned, however, there was no sign of her dear harmonizing psychopath sister. The crowd had grown ten times, but Briana was gone.

"Mom!" Karen nudged her mother in the side urgently. "Mom, Briana is...uhm...gone."

"What, dear?" Mrs. Dagnan replied.

"Briana isn't here."

Before she could reply, a siren sounded shrilly. Red lights could be seen going through the back entrance of the amphitheater. Mrs. Dagnan gasped in terror. "Briana!"

The world moved around in slow-motion as they hoisted Herman onto the stretcher and shoved him into the back of the ambulance. He had tripped and tumbled down the center aisle after Briana got away. Thankfully the Admiral Twin had decided to just begin a quick sound check so they saw his pudgy body flopping around on the ground and rushed to his aide.

"I think he hit his head," Herman heard Jarrod telling the ambulance attendant. "We saw him running and he tripped and just hit the ground. He didn't respond to us but he was breathing--"

Herman grunted. "Get...get the little...small child...blonde pigtails...big bag...ran away...get her...tell the band to stay away...dangerous...very very..."

"Sh, sh..." the nurse soothed him. "I'm sure all the little people will go away as soon as we get going." The doors shut, the siren started up again, and Herman was taken to the hospital with no further objections.

"MOM!" Karen shouted as Mrs. Dagnan dropped her barbecue and careened through the crowd. "Mom, stop! Where are you going!" Karen grabbed the back of her shirt and tried to keep up.

"We've got to find your sister! The sirens- please don't let anything have happened to my baby..." She didn't slow up until she reached the tall fence, to benches expertly hurdled and fourteen bystanders tackled later. "Got to climb it- no! Can't climb. Must find...security guard- no! Karen, dear, come here. Let me hold you up so you can just peer over the top. Come on, I won't let you fall."

Karen unwillingly placed one foot on her mother's clasped hands and pulled her head over the top of the fence. An ambulance was pulled up at the base of the stage and a man was on a stretcher being put inside. She scanned the sides of the stage but Briana was nowhere in sight.

"She's not there," Karen announced as her mother let her down. By now, a small crowd had gathered around them.

Mrs. Dagnan turned to them. "Has anyone seen a small, blonde girl with a Hanson t-shirt running around here today?" The people stared at her blankly and then all turned back to what they had been doing before the small upheaval. She turned back to Karen. "Come on," she directed. "We're going to have her paged."

The door to one of the backstage dressing rooms opened. Laughing to them selves, the three boys threw themselves into three random chairs which were strewn across the room.

"So she's dangerous?" The youngest one asked the security guard that had followed them there. The man sported a full-blown afro and a too-tight sweat-stained white Red Rocks Event Staff shirt- a comical sight.

"It is decidedly so. My sources say yes," he replied in a monotonous voice. "It would be safe to stay here for a while until she is found. She is supposedly carrying a bag of unknown content."

Without further ado, the man closed the door. Out in the hall, he took out his dual-purpose keychain and locked the door.

Inside the room, the boys were flabbergasted. "He just locked us in!" the second-born protested, rising and trying the knob.

"Calm down, Tay," the other brother laughed. "It's just a...just a security precaution, I guess."

Taylor shrugged as he tried the handle again and then sat back down. "Three hours until showtime and we're stuck in a back room because of Mr. Puff Guard."

"Hopefully we'll be out by then..." Zac noted optimistically.

"We will be out by then," Isaac reassured him. "They'll find the girl and give her back to her parents and then they'll let us out. Have no fear, brothers. The Dangerous Girl will be found, no doubt."

Briana wrestled with the bag and pulled herself off the floor. The voices which had once been far down the end of the hallway were coming closer and closer. They were chasing her. Security Guards- probably Herman and his friends- were chasing her. They had found her out. Great, she thought cynically. How am I going to get Tay-Bear to Taylor NOW? I've got to find the right door, gotta find the right room...gotta...gotta...gotta...

Suddenly, Briana had a brilliant idea. Pick a room, any room...She pushed through the first door she came to- the women's restroom. A lady with long blonde hair was washing her hands.

"Oh, hi, Mrs. Hanson!" Briana shouted gleefully. She eyed the window, which was open and low enough for her to open and climb out of. Like a flash, it was open and she was outside on the grass behind the complex. Briana found the next window and peered in.

Victory! she screamed to herself, and threw all of her body weight against the latch. She had to get into that room!

Zac fiddled with the arm of the chair impatiently. "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas..." he sang under his breath. "I want a-" As he realized he didn't know the rest of the song, a short series of thuds sounded from the back of the room. He looked back abruptly, as did his brothers.

"Guys," Zac said warily, stifling a laugh, "I think we've been found!"

A small blonde head bobbed about the base of the window. Outside, Briana was looking around for something to stand on. She found nothing. "Durn it, Tay-Bear!" she grumbled to the bear in the bag. "I'm going to have to use you, buddy!" She dropped the bag on the grass under the window and stepped lightly on top of the bulge.

Briana's entire face was now in full view from inside. She had managed to pry it open a few inches, and now stuck her fingers in the crack and pulled it up all the way with a strength only teenies possess at times like this.

Taylor glanced, concerned, over his shoulder as the small girl hoisted herself through the window on the other side of the room. She jumped off the narrow windowsill like a pixie and bounded across the floor.

"HI GUYS!" she squealed. "I'm BRIANA! I've BROUGHT YOU A PRESENT!

"Hi," they responded in unison.

Looking towards the door wistfully, Isaac said, "Uhm, I really don't think you're-"

"OH, SURE I AM!" Briana assured them, socking him in she shoulder. Then she softened, and twirled a bit of her hair innocently. Briana shot Taylor a Pitiful Puppy Look and sniffed. "You won't make me leave, will you?" she asked quietly, her voice trembling.

Zac gulped. "Well-"

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Briana screamed mercilessly, and flung her willowy body down on the floor at Taylor's feet. "I've brought a present for you....I came all this way just to bring it to you...you've disappointed me! How could you? I...I...don't think I'll get over this...ever!" She twisted her fingers into his shoelaces and kicked about on the floor weakly.

The guys just sat there, dumbfounded.

Mrs. Dagnan tapped her feet impatiently as the head ticket seller talked to the man in front of them. Karen banged her head on the wall impatiently. Honestly, her little sister was more trouble than she was worth.

"Look, ma'am," the short man said quickly, "I want to speak to a security guard. His name is Herman." The man leaned on his elbows on the counter and tapped the linoleum with his fingernails. He had a square red face and greying red hair which puffed out from the back of a green baseball cap.

"No Hoiman heah," she chewed on her gum. "He's been ayt the haaspitle for least a haaf-awah. Saary!"

"Okay, then," the man shrugged. "Could I have some keys to one of the dressing rooms backstage. My, may sons are locked in there. One of the guards said there was some dangerous fan trying to stalk them or something."

Karen's heart skipped a beat. This was...this was Walker Hanson! And his sons were locked in the dressing rooms! This was...this was...this wasn't right. -No way,- Karen thought as the ticket seller willingly handed the man a keyring with some various silver keys strung on. In return, he slid a 50 dollar bill across the counter and she took it.

Mrs. Dagnan seemed totally oblivious to all of this. She stared at the walls of the small office and sighed every once in a while, utterly disinterested. As the Impostor Father turned to leave with the key ring and Mrs. Dagnan stepped up to the counter, Karen looked back and then quietly followed the man out of the door.

The office, which was located behind the main concession stand in the plaza, was connected to the plaza by a long sidewalk with bushes on either side. Karen stepped behind one as if it was totally normal for her to hide out in boxwoods as she watched the man trot easily down the walk to a security golf cart at the end of it. He sat in front and started up the cart and started across the plaza. Karen darted after him.

About three minutes later, the cart stopped at the very back of the backstage area. Karen watched from behind yet another bush as the man got out and picked a large nylon jacket from the seat next to him. He walked quickly towards the double doors that led inside; Karen trailed behind him but only went as far as the doorway.

She watched him mosey down the hall a ways and then stop and try one of the keys in the doorknob. -Fourth door on the left,- she noted, and then let the doors shut quietly behind her as she rounded the building. She counted off four windows and cautiously approached the selected one.

Paying no regards to the battered gift bag that sat under the sill, Karen peered in the open window. VICTORY! she thought to herself. I've got to get into that room!

Briana had finished spazzing and had been helped into an empty chair by the time the sound of a key sliding into a lock was heard. She jerked up in her seat. The brothers all looked towards the door.

"It's me, sons," a deep male voice said as the knob turned.

"Dad?" Zac said, a look of worry crossing his face. He turned to Taylor. "Doesn't sound like Dad..." The door opened fully. Briana screamed.

A short man with a square face and stocky build wearing a green ballcap stood in the doorway. He grasped a black overcoat in one fist and held a gun in the other. "Time to Bop, kiddies," he growled menacingly.

Karen had found the bag by the time she was halfway up to the window. It was a large red gift bag with silver ribbons and a huge wad of white tissue paper inside. "To Taylor" was scrawled on the side in sloppy- and strangely familiar- handwriting.

Before she could open it up, the sound of a young girl's scream of distress echoed from the room. Karen looked up through the window. She sucked in her breath quickly. The man was IN the room, pointing a gun at her sisters and Hanson.

A teenie power surge rushed through her body. Karen swung her legs over the window sill, still clutching the bag, and landed on the floor in a heap. With a mere "Ugh," of distress, she pulled herself up. Squealing like a warrior princess with laryngitis, Karen hurled herself at the feet of the Impostor Father.

The man uttered a string of words too harsh to put into a children's story as he hit the concrete floor. Karen found herself draped across his stomach, but as she tried to get up, Briana catapulted herself onto the man. She landed with a pained "Oof!" on his chest. Karen whacked him solidly in the face with the gift bag.

Slowly coming out of a state of stupor, Isaac jumped up and grabbed Briana's hands and dragged her out of the room through the open door. Zac grabbed the discarded key ring and followed Ike. Taylor and Karen just kind of stood there, dumbfounded, watching the man struggled on the ground.

His finger was apparently stuck on the trigger. With all hopes of completing his mission, he now frantically pulled and tugged on his finger and the gun.

"Come on!" Taylor finally exclaimed, snapping back into reality. "Drop the bag and run!" He grabbed Karen's arm and verily dragged her into the hall and slammed the door. They joined the others in the panting heap of kids which had formed on the floor.

The Brothers Hanson went on to do a great show that night. What'd you think?

The Sisters Dagnan went on to witness the great show that night.

Mrs. Dagnan never got to page her daughter because as soon as the lady at the main officer figured out the PA system the police had come to arrest the woman, who was apparently tied to the attempted murderer.

Herman was released from the hospital with minor bruises and promptly transferred jobs.

Mr. Puff Guard was tossed to the lions and forgotten about forever after entering the Realm of the Minor Fanfic Characters.

The attempted murderer was sent to jail after a lengthy and expensive trial in which the jury decided he DID do what everyone said he did.

And, well, as for Tay-Bear...a custodian picked it up, took him home, and then gave him to Goodwill. Within a matter of hours, Tay-Bear was bought by one of Briana's friends who gave it to Briana as a memorial to the bear she lost on that fateful day at Red Rocks.