MS - Rav's newest story

[Friðbjörn]

indeed haha

[Ravynlee]

Thanks for clearing that up

 

Just a short update tonight. Been working today so not much time to write. And I'm changing Internet providers so I might drop off the face of the earth for a few days soon while that gets established. Fear not, I'll write when and if I can if I don't make it online so when I do you'll have more to read. Lucky you

 

Rashell, this is for you

 

---

 

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

Turning her head on the pillow Rashell smiled. She tried to speak but all that came out was a whisper.

“Save your strengths,” he was telling her.

Rashell nodded and reached out to take his hand. Her smile grew to one of satisfaction feeling his lips on her fingers then on her forehead. She sighed and closed her eyes, relishing in his presence.

“I’ve missed you.”

“Missed you too,” she murmured.

When she opened her eyes she watched Mike settle on an outstretched arm over her. She continued to smile weakly. She was tired, and it was a conscious effort to keep her eyes open, but she endured. The sounds of machines beeping above her were driving her crazy so she wanted to make the most of this distraction. Mike was kissing her hair again causing her to giggle a little. His breath tickled her. When she found herself staring into his big dark eyes her smile faltered a little with sadness.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

Her throat felt raw from the intubation and her chest felt heavy but she nodded to show she was otherwise fine.

“I was so worried. I thought I’d lost you.”

“We’re okay,” she rasped. The oxygen hissing in to her nostrils was cool and hypnotic.

She heard Mike swallow. His breaths were ragged for a moment as he smiled at her and bowed to kiss her face again and then her lips.

“I’m sorry,” he uttered. “I should have listened and I didn’t. I should have listened when you told me not to go ahead-”

“Shh,” Rashell cooed and nuzzled against him.

Though he was too close to see his face clearly she smiled encouragingly as best as she could. The feel of his cheek beneath her hand was warm and scratchy. Even at such close quarters she could tell he was tired, she could pick up the little nuances from the way he seemed to wilt to her touch to the exhaustion to his tone. Feeling tears come upon her Rashell sniffled them back and drew into the pillows enough so that she could see his eyes clearly. He stared at her, his eyes big, lost and lonely.

“I love you,” she whispered. That was all that mattered. She repeated it again but her ruptured throat stole much of it. She closed her eyes feeling Mike’s fingers sweep both sides of her face.

“I love you too,” he said. Rashell clasped to his arm to show she reflected it. After a moment he pulled back and looked into her eyes again. He was, at last, his old self once more.

“The doctor said you should be out soon. A few weeks. See how you feel.”

“Good,” Rashell nodded. It was a marathon effort to lick her dry and cracked lips as she felt the familiar waves of exhaustion coming back over her again. “Mike… I want… to go… home.”

“Soon, babe, soon.”

“No,” she whispered to the warm darkness. “Home. Back to California.”

Mike said nothing. All she could hear were his steady nasal breaths as they gently caressed her face. Though she struggled hard to see if he was still there Rashell could only manage to weakly flutter her eyes lids.

“Mike?”

“I’m here.”

“Please…”

“Yeah,” he said. He sighed heavily. Rashell smiled rolling her head aside to rest against his hand. “Maybe it’s not such a bad idea.”

“It’ll be good for us… remember?” She smiled. Memories of happier times descended upon her. It was as if she could feel the warm sun, taste the sea breeze, hear the waves lapping at the shore and the gulls cawing above it all. She sighed. “We were so happy… then.”

She felt Mike’s fingers tighten around hers and delicately Rashell peeled open her eyes.

“Yeah. Would probably do you good to get away for a while. Catch up with your family, all your old friends, get some fresh air, all that.”

“I meant us, Mike,” she said, frowning back in consternation. “As a family… Just you… and me… and-”

“I can’t,” he said. Curling his fingers around hers in a kind of fist he bowed his face and muttered his words against it. He shook his head. “I can’t, babe. You know that.”

“We could start… a new life… there… a new beginning-”

“There’s still so much here I have left to do.”

“You can’t… be serious?”

“It’s not like that. Come on, babe. Rashell, don’t be like that,” Mike said, watching Rashell roll her head on the pillow away from him. He opened his mouth to speak and for a moment said nothing. He glimpsed down at their hands united to find he was the only one maintaining grip anymore. His broad shoulders fell. “Sweetheart- Your family, they don’t-”

“I’m tired,” Rashell said.

She was tired but staring at the vacant chair and the blinds drawn over the window the look on her face for once did not testify to it. Too hurt to be angry and too disappointed to cry, she stared ahead at some point and didn’t even see it. In her peripheral vision Mike continued to loom before he drew back and huffed decisively beside her.

“I know you’re upset after what happened but… running away… it won’t solve anything.”

Mike waited. He was searching her face, her profile for signs, seeking cracks in her façade that would signal her usual compliance but now there was none. He pondered the silence a moment longer accompanied by the constant beep of the vitals monitor, unhindered by anything but his own burgeoning thoughts. His brow furrowed into a little frown.

“I know, I haven’t been there for you lately. I know why you’re upset. You have every right to be, I get that, I do, I just…” He sighed and appeared to reconsider his options. “You know what, maybe you should go away. Maybe it’s better that way. At least then you’ll be safe-”

Rashell pouted and rolled her eyes back just enough to stare at him, hoping he could see the absolute pain and despair still shimmering in them. But Mike was looking down over her gravely. The grip of his hand was warm but it was mechanical. His voice was distant. He looked the same as he always did but there was something foreign to him too. The soft lights in the room illuminated his tanned face and created a gleam about his eyes. But there was no joy on his face anymore, just hardness. When he blinked aside and caught her stare he may as well have been reciting her eulogy.

“Safe from what?” she begged.

“From me,” he said.

Rashell’s lips quivered willing words to spill to the surface that never made it past her throat. Tears rendered her vision useless as she saw her husband bleed out into a mass of rippling shapes and kiss her hand again firmly. When he stood up a moment later he slid his hand free from around hers.

“I’ll let you get some rest,” he said.

Rashell winced instead of speaking. Her fingers, curled into a weak fist atop the crumpled covers, floundered towards him. Mike smiled. His face was reminiscent of anyone that visited these lonely halls, full of tragedy and hope and fear. Bringing her hand up to his lips he kissed her knuckles and stroked the hair from her pallid brow. The band on her finger glimmered in the soft light as he lay her hand back down against the coverlets and gently patted it.

“I’ll come and see you tomorrow.”

Unable to speak all she could do was sniffle at him. Watching him walk away Rashell called out and felt her lungs constrict with the effort. She coughed a little and recoiled at the coppery taste of blood.

“Jason,” she said, with what was left of her depleting strengths.

Mike looked up and glimpsed at her over his shoulder, his face now bathed in a monochromatic mass of shadows.

“Want… to call… him Jason,” she wheezed. Then she sunk back against the pillows. Machines started going off around her but Rashell’s eyes slammed shut and she didn’t see anything else. The cool oxygen hissing into her nostrils briefly deafened her as she gasped for a full breath. Feeling a grip on her leg she smiled, hearing a nurse rush in and clamp an oxygen mask over her face.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” the nurse instructed.

With fingers splayed Rashell weakly reached out for her husband. Her hand fell as sweet, blissful air saturated her lungs. Her body was rent now with exhaustion. She felt Mike’s fingers pat her leg before he let her go.

“Get some rest,” he said.

She didn’t even hear his footsteps retreat or the door draw to a close as blissful rest once more took hold and darkness overcame her.

 

---

 

More in a few days... maybe

[Pheonix791989]

oh that was good mum. still want more but I can wait a few days lol I guess if I have to..

[Ravynlee]

oh that was good mum. still want more but I can wait a few days lol I guess if I have to..

Yeah sorry bout that, I know it's short for me but only did that after work tonight and cause I have an early start tomorrow and a party to go to after that (oh poor me with the hard drinkin and stuff huh? haha) so I more likely won't get a chance til at least Sunday... fingers crossed anyway. See what happens in the meantime. If I didn't have to work to pay the bills and could sit around and just write all the time I'd be stoked - but being stoked doesn't pay the bills does it?

Thanks.

More as soon as I can get to it

 

 

PS - less of mine to read means more time for you to work on yours then huh? *hint-hint* haha

[Pheonix791989]

yeah tell me about it. I got my first job yesterday and I start on monday!! im so happy!!

[Ravynlee]

yeah tell me about it. I got my first job yesterday and I start on monday!! im so happy!!

Congratulations!! What'cha doin?? And hey, at the risk of spamming thread, let me just say sincerely am stoked for ya! *does happy dance*

All the best Mel!! :clap:

[andrea]

Wow. Caught up again, hehe. Loved the cliffhanger with Rav and Nick. That was total what the hell moment, lol. Can't wait to see what happens from there. As for the recent update, thanks for making it for me. I really loved it. Missed the intimate connection with Mike and Rashell and was starting to wonder if it was every going to came back, lol. I must say that it was a sweet touch with Rashell wanting to name the baby Jason. That's a nice honor to do for Mike's lost. Now I don't was Rashell go to California by herself, she defiantly got to have Mike go with her, hopefully she can convince him that it is a good move to make. Can't wait to see what happens.

 

Edit: this came to mind after I posted this last night. If Rashell convinces Mike to move to California with her he can go and take over L.A., hehe.

[Ravynlee]

Thanks!

I am currently working on three chapters and should have them up in the next few hours - cross fingers. Just have to keep quickly checking back way back at the very beginning to see if the info I give is correct or I'm making that great mental leap again between what I think has happened and what I actually penned.

Give me a few hours. And thanks again

[Ravynlee]

Okay here goes.

Now before I post these be warned - I am pushing the proverbial envelope here and the following does contain the usual gore, graphic details, foul language, depravity - and more. Honestly I've probably broken more than enough official 'rules' here in this story I'm surprised they keep it going, but hey, while I'm on a roll I'm going to keep at it. Just be forewarned. There is heavy stuff ahead and some may choose not to read it.

Matt I apologize in advance. I have nothing at all against you, I just borrowed your name and identity (loosely) for a while and now and this is what I've come up with. Again no insult intended, it's just a story, it's not a threat or anything stupid like that. Hope those that read it don't take particular offense to what's coming. I'd list and apologize to everyone I've made suffer in this story but I'd end up taking over the whole thread. Point is people will die in this update and some of you may not like it. There's room for misinterpretation and that's actually deliberate. I have to keep you guessing what happens next so you'll come back and hopefully read more :spiteful:

 

See what you make of it.

 

Thanks again and here's what I have for you tonight.

Again, it's just a story. Don't get your panties in a twist over it. Read or read something else. Choice is up to you

 

---

 

Squeezing the bottle of Vodka in her fist Greyfoxx stared back viciously. In front of her the young man stood slouched and misshapen. He was obviously in pain but with teeth grit and with limbs shaking he was defiantly and determinedly standing his ground. His hair was messed up and indiscriminate patches of dirt and dried blood caked his clothes. The sleeve of his jacket and the knee of his trouser leg were grazed. He had obviously been beaten as the smell of fear and desperation still clung to him like the sweat that stained his collar. With darting eyes he surveyed the room before once more regaining his focus. Stealing another mouthful of strong clear liquid from her bottle Fox swallowed, exhaled loudly, and then began to contemplate the half-drained bottle.

“What are you even doing back here?” she asked him.

Her voice was low and guttural and resounded around the room like a threat. It was accompanied by the sound of music wailing from a nearby stereo making the already terse atmosphere amplify some ten-fold. By the time the young woman looked up the heavy guitars and angry vocals had kicked in and reflected the look now festering in her glare.

“I thought I told you never to show your face back here again.”

“I know. I know what I did was wrong. If it’s about the money, I can pay it, you know I’m good for it, Foxx, you know that I-”

“I know you’re a thorn in my fucking side,” Foxx shot back, shifting about in her seat irritably.

Angry riffs kept filling the room, keeping tensions high and the silence at bay, as the handful of people spattered around the room all stared motionless at the young man now silent in front of them.

Sweeping her hair back from her face Foxx sighed before she slumped back into the corner of her chair. Adjacently Dave Draiman watched on with his face furrowed in seriousness. Meeting his eyes Foxx shared with him a look. They were like exasperated parents pushed to the end of their proverbial tether. As Dave sipped at his beer Foxx returned her attentions to the other man and stared at him for a solid minute saying nothing. She just stared into him, into his anxiously twitching face, and right through him. Sipping from her bottle again she set it down but continued to maintain grip on it.

“Give me one reason why we shouldn’t gut you now, right where you stand, and feed what’s left to the dogs.”

“I can explain,” he said.

Foxx smiled at him. It wasn’t funny or threatening, it was the epitome of sinister.

“You don’t have to, Matthew. I already know what you’re going to say. I’ve heard it all before, from you and every other coward just like you,” she said, watching his face for signs of weakness and grinning happily when he was forced to look away. “Were you behind what happened here earlier, you and that fucking… what’s his name? That little pissant, the one that used to follow Chester around all the time… Bully, that’s him. Doesn’t ring a bell? No? Then why were you found out there on the sidewalk only a few blocks away? Did he ditch you? He did, didn’t he? Can’t say that I blame him, always was the opportunist our Bully. Don’t worry, he’ll get what’s coming to him, believe me, you don’t bight the hand that feeds and not expect some fall out. But you, Matt, don’t tell me you’ve added attempted robbery and extortion to your list of petty crimes. You’re not a thug, Matt, really, what the hell happened to you?” she asked as if she were truly concerned for his welfare. “We used to be so close you and I. You used to make me laugh. You used to make me money before you resorted to stealing from me too.”

“I didn’t-” he began to defend, clearly struggling with the pain it caused in his rib cage. But Foxx silenced him with a simple solitary word.

“Don’t. Don’t lie to me. That may have worked once, but it won’t work anymore. I don’t buy the innocent act. Never have. You were supposed to bring the money to me but instead you leave town with my stash and my money – and you come here now, why? You that much of a masochist?”

Dave s******ed amusedly a few feet away from her. Though the chairs they sat in were facing towards the centre of the room he was relaxed back into the corner cushions, a man without a concern or fear in the world. Matt watched him drain the last of his beer before he sat up and slowly made his way to the edge of his chair. The sounds of the springs creaking were lost beneath the heavy music still thrashing around the room, but the move was no less ominous. Taking a step back Matt was met by another individual who snagged at his arm that was tucked in against his ribs and gave him an unceremonious jolt. Matt yelped in both pain and fear. In truth, despite the fact he was shaking and physically looking remiss, the sound of his voice betrayed his usual cockiness as he called Foxx’s name as if to bargain with her.

“Foxx, it’s me, come on, you know me. You know me. You know I’d never intentionally do anything-”

“Keep talking,” Dave uttered with his self-important leer, “dig yourself a deeper grave, boy.”

“But it’s about Chester, man, his kid, I just-”

With a nod the man at Matt’s side drove a sharp left hook into Matt’s injured side before he was sent back to the shadows again leaving Matt winded but otherwise still standing, crudely, in the centre of the room. The party-like atmosphere around him had been subdued by his entry but now it was ending as people began walking out. Matt watched on with anxiety starting to blossom on his face. In his haggard clothes and unkempt appearance he looked as out of place as he obviously felt. Unsure whether to stay or to leave he remained in place until the curtain to the private room at the rear of the club fell into place and settled across the doorway like a waterfall of blood.

[Ravynlee]

Foxx sighed and continued to drink as Dave watched on. She was in no hurry to meet his eyes but shared a simple gesture when she did. She was obviously pained and couldn’t reflect the look that Dave was wearing.

“Don’t mention that name around me again,” she said. It was more a warning as she watched Dave reach out and gently stroke her hair as if in comfort. Fox didn’t react but nor did she oppose it. Turning to Matt she said, “That man’s dead to me. I used to worship him and he abandoned me. Just like you did. Only he didn’t come back and fill my head full of bullshit like you’re doing, he just fucking disappeared.”

“But I can explain,” Matt countered.

His bravery faltered as Dave approached and skulked past, walking too close and too ominously as he did so. He followed Dave with his eyes and watched with a degree of relief as the other man crossed to the other side of the room and stopped in the corner and with a clink of bottles began to pour himself a drink from the mini bar. Clearing his throat Matt returned his attentions back to Foxx who sat slumped in her chair looking downright bored with his presence as much as the conversation at hand. That changed the moment he mentioned his relationship to Chester’s daughter.

“Her name’s Ava. She’s- she’s my niece, man-”

“What?”

The sound of a bottle thudding on a hard surface made Matt fall silent as he braved a reassuring look over his shoulder. But Dave wasn’t looking at Matt he was looking past him and at Foxx seriously. In her chair Foxx seemed to freeze and stare off into space like she had been shot. When she blinked up it was into Dave’s dark and menacing eyes.

To Matt she repeated a little more composedly, “What did you just say?” but Matt didn’t appear to have heard her.

Perhaps he chose not to.

Still caught up now in this dire state to offload everything in the fastest possible time, Matt shuffled so close he was practically leaning against the side of Dave’s previous chair, holding himself up and at the same time half hiding behind it at the mercy of Foxx’s vicious stare.

“I know, I should have told you sooner, and I wanted to,” he said and grimaced at a sharp twinge to his rib cage. The empty bottles of alcohol and cigarette packets on the coffee table between them caught his attentions as he licked his lips and blinked up longingly. “You know I wouldn’t have kept something like this from you without a good reason, but I had to. I knew if I said something then others would have come after her. My sister didn’t want anyone to know and she made me swear not to. I didn’t want to, Foxx, you have to believe me, but I knew if I didn’t she would take Ava away and-”

“You knew she was Chester’s kid the whole time and you kept her from me?”

“If you’d just let me explain,” Matt implored, looking at the cigarettes and practically quaking with need. Bravely he made a play for one and wasn’t stopped as Foxx merely watched on saying nothing. Slipping the smoke between his lips he struggled to keep it there as the words continued to pour out. Whether it had been his intention to tell her only a little to satisfy her curiosities or to confess everything and redeem himself in her eyes, Matt fumbled to ignite a flame from the lighter as he hurriedly offloaded his burden. He rationalised that though he had done wrong in ripping both Foxx and Chester off years ago he had returned with a plan in mind to make it up to them. His plan, though sketchy, required Matt acquainting Chester with the child he never knew he had, and he had succeeded as far as writing an anonymous letter and slipping it under the door of Chester’s lawyer, in hopes she would pass the message on. While Matt was vague with any real detail he was quick to rationalise his cloak-and-dagger behaviour in kidnapping his own niece and hiding her was not just for the child’s protection but for Chester and Foxx’s benefit too. If anything happened to her, he argued, Chester would have been devastated, but the sight of Foxx’s face still taut and ferocious clearly contradicted his argument.

“You have to believe me,” Matt said, “I was bringing her here, to you. I just had to make sure the coast was clear, you know? I had to play it safe you know, smart-”

“Please,” Foxx quipped with a vehement scoff, “Safe and smart are two things you aren’t, Stenners. Don’t insult my intelligence. You thought you could be smart and sneak her past me, right? Get her to Chester first that way he and your bitch-of-a-sister could go play happy families somewhere else and leave me here and forget about me. What happened? She turn on you too? You got your ass kicked by a little girl? Where is she, Matt, and no more lies or I fucking swear…”

Matt swallowed loudly and drew deeply on his cigarette.

“I don’t know.”

Before Matt could shift his eyes to the sound of movement he was ambushed from behind. In a heartbeat Dave had twisted both of his arms up behind his back. Matt yelped as he felt the tendons and sockets of his shoulders strain. The cigarette hit the floor. Panicked and in pain, Matt was wincing and grimacing, struggling to maintain a brave face. It was a fight he lost when Foxx pushed herself up from her seat and in two short strides drove a fist into his ribcage. Matt hacked and buckled but was held firm by Dave’s relentless grip. He was coughing and choking on his words but his pleas for mercy were drowned out as Foxx got into his face and demanded to know who had previously hurt him.

“Come on, Matt, I know someone already ambushed you. I know you think it but I’m far from stupid. Someone knew what you were up to and beat you at your own game. Who was it? Was it one of Mike’s crew? Was it Mike himself? It’s definitely something he would do. Anything to get at Chester. Between you and me I almost wish it was. I hate that man with a passion but in this case I almost agree with him. Chester doesn’t deserve her. He doesn’t deserve anything. I loved him and he left me. One week and not one fucking word. I hope he rots wherever he’s hiding. Fuck him. And fuck his so-called kid too. It should have been my kid, but no. It had to be with your slut-of-a-fucking sister. Good. They can have each other. I’ll see them in hell. I’ll see all of them in hell. Everyone who’s ever fucking crossed me. They won’t get a second chance, will they Matt?”

Squinting back incredulously and wincing in pain and fear Matt watched as Foxx bent down and swept the cigarette up between her fingers. She took a drag and blew the smoke into his face. Matt coughed and uttered something by way of an apology. It didn’t make much sense between the jagged gasps and low grunts his battered body was making. After a moment’s consideration Foxx held the smoke out for Matt to suck on. He hesitated and looked at Foxx with wild skittish eyes. The grip on his arms didn’t ease so Matt tentatively leant forward. As he did so Foxx withdrew the cigarette, turned it around, and stabbed him in the eye with the glowing red tip. The instant sizzle was cut short by Matt’s woeful scream. Matt jerked his head back reflexively distancing himself from the pain. Suddenly his arms were free but his neck was hot. It took him a moment to realise in his horror that Foxx had jabbed a needle into his jugular and drove the plunger down quick. His ensuing cries were silenced in shock as he clutched to his neck. Matt staggered a few steps with his arms flailing as the low and amused laughter of both Foxx and Dave Draiman echoed around the room along with the music. Suddenly the pain in his ribs weren’t as prevalent as he took hold of the syringe and ripped it from his flesh. Swinging his fists he reached towards Foxx but with a shove he was propelled backwards. His legs were fast buckling as both Foxx and Dave continued to laugh, circling him like schoolyard bullies. But there was no absolution in their amusement. It was clear they were more than content to watch him die. In less than a minute Matt was staggering and falling towards the carpet and bouncing off nearby chairs and low tables knocking over half filled bottles and drinks with the clink of glassware. Dave was behind him again looming like a shadow as Matt blubbered for his help. Foxx scoffed at him.

[Ravynlee]

“Shhh,” Dave smirked.

Matt whimpered and struggled to hold himself upright against the back of a booth seat. As Foxx drew a long heavy drag from the cigarette Matt’s eyes, one squinting in pain and the other wide with panic, began to roll back in his head quickly losing focus.

With a cloud of smoke Foxx scoffed and exhaled before dropping the cigarette on the floor. Then she crushed what was left under her foot. With a heavy thud Matt’s body soon followed. As the song ended and another began Foxx watched the young man’s limbs begin to dance and twitch and jerk involuntarily. White foam-like substance was bubbling up in the corners of his mouth. He groaned and gurgled. It was clear by the sharp raspy sound of his breaths that he was choking. Again Foxx scoffed and raised her eyes up to look at her boyfriend. She smirked.

“Showed him,” she said. Then the look on her face darkened.

“What?” Dave asked. His voice though naturally low and husky was slightly breathless from adrenalin.

“It doesn’t matter,” Foxx said eventually. Then she told him to dispose of the body.

Blinking down at the young man in a heap on the floor Dave grunted as if it were barely worth the effort.

“Where?”

But Foxx didn’t care. She didn’t care that Matt was still breathing, albeit shallowly, she didn’t care where he went, whether he lived or died, she didn’t care about anything right now, her focus, as always, in some form or another, was on Chester.

“Fuck him! Fuck all of them,” she grumbled, snatching the bottle up from the table. Foxx thirstily swallowed what was left before she hurled the empty bottle at the nearest wall. Glass exploded and rained down like crystals and glitter beneath the dim lights. Before the sound had barely dissipated into the ensuing music Foxx promptly stormed from the room. “I’m sick of people fucking with me!” she barked on her way out. “I’m not going to take it! No more, you hear me!”

Dave watched her go. The look on his face too darkened with her exit.

“Bitch,” he scoffed under his breath. “Fucking Chester again. What am I, invisible?”

His eyes narrowed as he reached down to snag fistfuls of the unconscious man’s clothes between his fingers.

“There’s more going on in this city than where the fuck he is. Like anyone cares. Bitch needs to grow a set of eyes in the back of her head. She thinks she’s got enough to worry about? You wait. Her days are numbered too. You just wait and see... Well, maybe not you, my friend,” Dave smirked.

He stared at Matt’s face that was bright with color now and his eyes were so far back into his head that all Dave could see was the haunting white of his eyes and the red cracks of broken blood vessels. Again Dave scoffed. He had seen more than his fair share of junkies in his time overdose and knew with certainty that there would be no losing sleep over this piece of trash. In fact few in the city would mourn him. Each to their own, he mused. Then with a grunt of exertion he hefted the body up and began half dragging, half carrying his unconscious audience from the room.

Slumped low and lazily into his booth seat a few meters away a young man sat listening and turning his head in the direction of movement. He didn’t speak and he didn’t make a sound to expose his presence with his eyes narrowed in consternation. He just listened. With his beer poised in front of his lips he sat slumped mentally processing what he had just heard. Snaking the tip of his tongue across his lips, he snorted amusedly to himself. Then when he was certain he was alone with the music he swigged from the bottle and huffed out a heavy, yet happy sound. Sinking back comfortably into the cushions he continued drinking with casual abandon in no rush to divulge the information that he had just heard. Ville Valo was a patient man and he knew good fortune when it came his way. Today was his lucky day, and with a smile steadily growing on his face he took his time to savor it.

 

---

 

Anyone see where I'm going with this yet? No? Keep reading and see if you make the connection

[Ravynlee]

Again I reiterate, this one gets heavy You were warned.

 

---

 

“He’s going to know something’s up. We’ve been gone all night. He’s going to start freaking out. We have to get back there. God, we can only hope he’s still there and okay,” Nick muttered tersely into his hands.

Scuffing up his hair he blinked up at the evening sky with a frustrated sigh. To the sound of footsteps approaching he looked down and folded his arms across his chest. Ravyn and Ava came out of the shadows tentatively holding hands.

They had stopped on the edge of some wooded park to let the little girl go to the toilet. After her screams of terror and her tears and pleas to go home to her mother the child was pale and weak, her little steps slow and heavy as she was now physically and emotionally exhausted. In those initial moments of panic Ravyn had scurried over onto the back seat to console the then terrified child. Though she was obviously malnourished and scared she didn’t cry for long, her ordeal even before Nick and Ravyn had stumbled across her had done it’s work in subduing her. After she had tentatively calmed down and a sense of order however fraught with tension once more settled throughout the car Nick and Ravyn had tossed questions back and forth about not only what they were to do now but what they had interrupted in their plight to make their escape and hijacking someone’s car.

“Do you think maybe he was a child molester or something?” she had wondered, looking down at the little girl with the pale face and bloodshot eyes with an overabundance of guilt and sympathy.

Nick dismissed the notion with a shake of his head as he drove them as far from the city and from immediate harm as he could manage it.

“I doubt it,” he said. “The guy who had her, I know him, I know of him. Stains? Stenners?”

“Stenners?” Ravyn repeated. Then her insides sunk. She knew she had known the face; she just hadn’t been able to place it at the time.

“He has a reputation as a party animal, but so far as I know nothing like this. He’s not into the kiddie scene. If I knew it I wouldn’t have hesitated in pulling the trigger back there,” Nick said. He sniffed sharply and met Ava’s eyes in the rear-view mirror before he spat aside out the window with disdain.

Emerging in the clearing now Ravyn broached the subject again as much to abate the stillness away from the chaos of the mainland, as it was to establish their next course of action.

“So does he have any family?” Ravyn asked of her one-time dealer. “Maybe they know something?”

“He has a sister out west. A doctor. The only reason I know that is because she almost lost her license before he did a runner, stole all these prescription medications from her and sold them on the street for a profit.”

“Sounds familiar,” Ravyn murmured disparagingly.

“Luckily she wasn’t involved but it would have been a different story if she had. She was investigated but wasn’t charged. I never heard of her having a kid though. I can’t say I took any notice. He shot through and then the Chemist got put away,” Nick shrugged. “Here we are.”

“Do you think it’s possible-?”

“What? That she’s the mother?”

Nick chuckled and it died off with a shrug.

“This is New York, Rave, the guy’s had more women than I’d ever see in a lifetime. Who the hell knows? She sure as hell isn’t saying anything,” he said, returning his focus briefly on the little girl’s upturned face. “But he’ll tell us.”

“Who?”

“Who do you think? Her father.”

Crouching down to meet Ava’s eyes, Nick forced a smile, clearly unaccustomed to dealing with children.

“I bet you don’t even know what he looks like, do you? Your dad, I mean. Do you know who your dad is sweetie?”

“Nick,” Ravyn warned. She chewed her lip anxiously as he blinked up and looked at her. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“Why not? He’s family. If that were me I’d sure as hell want to know.”

“But think about it. There’s got to be some reason her mother wanted to keep them apart. I think we should do the right thing and find out who she is and take her home. She has to be worried sick by now?”

“Are you kidding me?” Nick said as he got to his feet. His grin was wide but bordering on incredulous as he loomed a few inches above her. “This is bullshit. We shouldn’t even be having this conversation. Chester’s my friend, always has been, and if this is his daughter then I think has a right to know who she is. He should at least get to meet her.”

“I’m just saying, I don’t think we should get involved-”

“Get involved? Look at us! We already are!”

“I could make a phone call-”

“And do what exactly? All right if she’s just some random then there’s no problem, we’ll drop her off at the nearest hospital, no harm no foul, right? But Rave think about it. You said it yourself. She fucking looks like him, not many people could. The whole fucking city is going nuts trying to find her and here she is. Imagine what he’ll do if he found out we had her and let her go. Better yet, imagine what he’ll do when we take her there now.”

Ravyn’s eyes lowered with uncertainty. She was too busy chewing the inside of her lip to form any kind of rebuttal. Beside her Ava stared between them with her wide eyes tired and anxious. There was no mistaking the look on her face as being anything but fear. With her little fingers slack inside Ravyn’s palm she knew on some level, regardless her age or intelligence, that running was futile. She was after all in a place she didn’t know with two strangers she had never met referring to her as tender rather than an actual human being. Her life was in their hands, and after days of suffering already with her party-loving uncle she looked as haunted and as traumatized as she could possibly be. That was why, when Nick asked her if her name was Ava, that she only blinked back and said nothing.

“She’s scared,” Ravyn said and crouched down now beside her.

Ava stared back like an animal cornered. She wasn’t appeased by Ravyn’s uncertain smile.

“No one’s going to hurt you,” she said as Ava merely blinked back and continued to say nothing.

Lowering her eyes Ravyn rubbed her little arm that was pale and cool to the touch from the cold early morning air.

“Are you cold?”

Ava shrugged. She sniffled. She looked like she wanted to say something but Nick scoffed above them impatiently. Fearfully her little eyes fell as he stormed off, heading towards the front of the car.

“You’re not helping,” she cried over her shoulder.

Nick reefed the door open on its rusty hinges and leant inside.

“Yeah well neither is this. Time’s fucking wasting and your sitting there playing babysitter while we could be back there and have this shit already dealt with. I need a fucking hit.”

The sound of his voice carried across the empty car park as Ravyn weathered his attitude with a dismal pout before she picked up her previous smile to face the little girl with empathy.

“Here,” she said.

Letting go of Ava’s hand she peeled the hooded jumper off and turned out in the right way. As the little girl watched and said nothing Ravyn held it up and pulled it down over her little frame that was immediately lost behind the excess of material. The hood on her head almost completely obscured her face. She made a little whimpering sound as Ravyn inched the hood back. “Here you go, that should keep you warm, huh?”

With only her little feet poking out the bottom and her tiny face peering out beneath the hood Ava looked dubious, yet thankful. With a smile Ravyn reached in and pulled her arms through the sleeves and rolled them back almost all the way until the little girl’s hands were visible. Her arms were forced out by the excess of rolled material, looking like inflatable armbands that youngsters wear around water, but at least she appeared happier as color soon rushed back to her face. Adjusting the parker to sit just so on the child’s shoulders Ravyn sighed and wondered. In the tinge of tail-lights if she didn’t think too hard she could almost convince herself she were looking at her son all grown up and older, smiling back at her slightly in his introspective way. She reached out and cupped the child’s face hidden away behind the hood with the palm of her hand. Her lip quivered.

“Rave, lets go,” Nick urged behind her. “Come on.”

[Ravynlee]

Pushing herself to her feet Ravyn stared at the darkened clumps of trees and the glimmer of streetlights beyond them and felt a sudden impulsive urge to snatch Ava into her arms and run. But again she didn’t. Taking the child’s hand she made her way towards the car. Ava’s step faltered fearfully.

“I was thinking, maybe we could stop somewhere and get a room for the night. Just the three of us.”

“And do what?” Nick grunted, still half hidden away behind the car seat.

“I don’t know. Rest. Think.”

“There’s nothing left to think about.”

“So that’s just it. We take her back there and he walks off into the sunset with her to do god-knows-what and we’re supposed to just let him?”

“Rave, we made a deal. You made a deal, remember?”

“I know-”

“No, you don’t know, for some reason you’re not thinking straight. What the hell’s the matter with you? You’re getting attached to her as if she were your own and she’s not. She’s someone else’s kid, alright? She’s Chester’s kid and you and I are taking her home to be with him, just like we said we would. I don’t see anything unclear about that, do you?”

“I’m not getting attached. I just think her mother would be missing her.”

“Her mother’s not part of this equation anymore, is she? Matt saw to that. The sooner we get her where she needs to be the sooner he can help you with your little problem. That was the agreement you made wasn’t it – or don’t you want Mike to pay for what he did to you?”

Ravyn’s eyes lowered to the ground beneath her shoes dismally. Nick scoffed sounding equally pained and amused.

“Are you fucking serious?”

Peering back over his shoulder he looked at her, his brow furrowed in a frown. The powder on the foil sheet that he held between his fingers made a crackling sound as he waved a lighter beneath it. Ava’s grip tightened on Ravyn’s hand as she watched him sniff at the cool air before he stooped over the foil with a small tube and sucked up the fumes. He held his breath, internalized a cough, and let it go. When he looked back to Ravyn he was smiling again strangely.

“It’s not our problem anymore. Just let it go. Come on, one for the road.”

Ravyn swallowed loudly grounded by the tight grip on her hand.

“What is it?” she asked.

Nick s******ed at her.

“What the fuck does it matter? It’s toot. Christ, just do it already so we can get where we have to go.”

Looking down at the little girl Ravyn struggled not to focus on her worn and fearful eyes. They were blue, like Nick, like this Nick she thought, not dark like her ex-husband’s or her late little boy’s. Maybe on some alternate universe this kid really was his daughter, this Nick, and if she wanted Ravyn could be her mother. She could have a family at last; all she had to do was let go of reality and everything that went along with it. But still, something strong was churning away inside of her. The force of it was making her ill. It could have been guilt. It could just as easily have been craving. With lips twitching and breaths suddenly haggard Ravyn let go of Ava’s hand and met Nick in the car doorway. Nick stepped around her and opened the car door, urging Ava to get in. As Ravyn drew back on the vapors she felt her lungs burn and her head grow dizzy and heavy with a sudden rush. Before she knew it she was reeling to the sound of screaming and it took her a moment longer than usual to realize it was the little girl on the back seat struggling not to get clipped into her seat belt.

“Mommy! I want mommy! I want to go home! I want Jos!” she was screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Shut-up!” Nick ground through clenched teeth.

He took the little girl by the jaw and shook her, enforcing her silence. By the time the door slammed shut tears of exhaustion had once more replaced the child’s screams. Slumped face down against the vinyl she sobbed, her little face lost beneath the over sized hood. Frowning in disapproval Ravyn drew the last of the smoke before she pushed it out, letting it dissipate into the darkness above. When she looked down Nick was staring at her.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“No, I saw that. You know the name don’t you?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“Well either you know it or you don’t, which is it?”

Ravyn opened her mouth to speak but words failed her. It wasn’t that she didn’t know what to say it was more the fact she had so much to say at once that she didn’t know quite what to spit out first.

“My sister. She has a friend by that name. She used to baby-sit. I don’t know. It was a while ago-”

“Where she live?”

“I don’t know-”

“Where’s your sister?”

Ravyn looked up at him and smiled incredulously.

“No,” she said, and shook her head. She grinned. Her heart was racing and her whole body seemed to be reeling, just one physical live wire barely contained beneath the flimsy layer of skin.

“We can’t go there.”

“Why not?”

“She’s my sister-”

“So?” Nick asked.

He was already sliding in behind the wheel of the car and Ravyn barely saw him move. No that wasn’t right, she saw him move faster than her brain could process. She was reeling as things around her seemed to move on fast-forward. Even waving a hand in front of her face held her captivated and rigid with fear. Some part of her brain knew what she was experiencing wasn’t real but she didn’t really care for the details. The buzzing noise in her ears was distracting most of her thinking anyway. By the time she clambered into the car she already felt as though they were driving. The road was a blur and the surrounds sweeping past in the headlights terrified her. In one horrifying moment she thought she was having a heart attack and began gasping for breath feeling her face burn up from the inside out. Feeling Nick’s arm on her she clung to it and begged him for help.

[Ravynlee]

“You’re fine, everything’s all right,” he was assuring, but he didn’t sound to be that convinced either.

Before she knew what was happening the car seemed to careen through the streets faster than physically possible. All she saw either side of her in the car windows were lines of color. She laughed even though a cold fear had settled like cement in the pit of her stomach. Beside her Nick was talking and it was too fast to decipher exactly what he was saying. She couldn’t process much anyway as thoughts came and went in flashes and quick impulses. By the time Ravyn felt her heart rate eventually slow to anywhere near normal the car had stopped and she found herself sitting sideways across the passenger seat. Nick was straddling her but he wasn’t violent. His movements were slow. There was nothing overly menacing about it. Car headlights flashed in the rear view mirror and Ravyn squinted against the sudden intrusion. The feel of ragged breaths on her face and her body being repeatedly jolted brought her focus back to the present. Rolling her eyes forward in her head she stared at the adjacent mirror and into the face of a terrified child behind her. She went to say something but couldn’t. Her breaths were rent to little more than grunts as she felt Nick inside of her. She grimaced and closed her eyes rolling her head away from his kiss. Ava was watching but Ravyn couldn’t do anything. No, she physically didn’t want to. Closing her eyes in shame she gasped. Then she heard the car door scream. She battered open her lids in time to see a set of arms reach in and reef Nick backwards away from her. Ravyn thought she screamed but didn’t - the small kid on the back seat was reacting, not her. In truth she was still in shock and reeling with the drugs coursing through her system. Though she could feel everything, even the slight temperature change as cool air caressed her now exposed flesh, some part of it still refused to mentally compute. When she moved it was reactive. She heard what sounded like scuffling outside and gravitated towards it, quickly moving to cover herself.

“Nick!” she cried. “Nick! Where are you?”

The kid’s screams echoing around in the car’s cramped interior further disassociated her from reality as Ravyn crawled forward, feeling numb and cautious. Kneeling on the seat she peered out. With eyes squinted against silhouettes Ravyn cringed, only able to make out a form on the ground and another bringing his foot down with a heavy thud on the other. She screamed again. The attack was swift, surreal and brutal. In less than a few seconds the sound of thuds and grunts was over as the man that was standing swept down and grabbed the slumped form of Nick by the collar. Ravyn fell from the car. Dust choked her. It blinded her. Only able to see movements through the severe light like flashes of a strobe light or a camera flash she staggered towards the figures, driven by sheer panic and impulse with her heart kicking up a noisy erratic rhythm against her ribcage.

She begged. She pleaded. But less than a meter away she heard Nick gasping and heard the man above him apologize - it was followed a split second later by the sound of a dull wet crack. Ravyn couldn’t hear Nick’s ragged breaths anymore and a sense of eerie stillness set in. She couldn’t react even though instinctively she already knew what had happened. Watching the slumped figure slide sideways to the dust she back peddled. Only now did she hear the kid screaming again. It was as if, for an instant, she wasn’t able to hear or think or do anything. But suddenly she was moving again, making a mad dash for the car she had just escaped from. Terror blanketed her, exaggerated by the sheer pitch of the little girl’s cries. Though she was gasping for breath Ravyn heard herself uttering a prayer in spite of her atheistic beliefs. In that one horrific moment she was sprinting for her life through her apartment once more, trapped by her memories, feeling death rushing upon her and knowing with every fiber of her being she wasn’t going to be able to escape his clutches a second time, no matter what she did.

“Please-please-please-no-” she sobbed.

Feeling a fist on the back of her shirt she threw herself forward to get away from him. In one swift jerk she felt herself being dragged backwards and saw the flash of headlights as they caught on the side of the man’s face above her. He was tall, too tall, and the grip with which he held her with an arm wrapped around her chest and hand over her face barely seemed human. Ravyn sobbed knowing that she was about to die and knew there was nothing she could do to stop it.

“Forgive me,” he panted.

Then he dug his fingers into her neck, at either side of her esophagus and squeezed hard. Her heart hammered as she gasped her dying breaths into his palm.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he murmured. He winced.

Ravyn’s eyes were wide with absolute fear and horror.

“Rob?” she struggled to say, she couldn’t believe it – but all that came out was a muffled whimper as he squeezed her against him.

“Shhh,” he soothed her.

She could feel his heart pounding against her back, struggling against hers that seemed on the verge of breaking through her ribs in their panicked state and escaping. But weakness was fast taking over. Her panic and her sobs of distress were ending and being replaced by the submission of her body letting go. She felt his breath blast her temple as he cuddled against her and held her tight, squeezing the last vestige of fight from her. He lent back a fraction lifting her feet off the ground. It was a mere few inches but it was enough. The toes of her shoes frantically scuffed for something solid to propel herself off but there was nothing. His arms, his limbs around her like steel were shaking with strain but he didn’t relent until she stopped making noise. When darkness overcame her and it was still and sudden and absolute. Her head was too heavy to hold up anymore and limply slumped aside. She couldn’t even hear the child screaming anymore as everything just stopped.

 

---

 

 

(Sorry! I know what you're thinking... I warned you!! BTW, am hoping that I have all the relevant details correct. Tried rereading the older stuff and got lost in it. If something doesn't add up please let me know, I mean, aside from the end of this update :spiteful: Thanks as always. More in the works as we speak. Hope to have it up by tomorrow night at the latest. Thanks again).

[Friðbjörn]

wow, trippy stuff, I'm pretty confused here lol

 

but yeah, the return of Rob! *insert DOOM sound* lol

 

but yeah, great, cant wait to read more

[Ravynlee]

^ Haha, that's the idea... well, sorta

Thanks. More soon (which should clear it up for you, I hope)

[woodyloveslinkin]

*insert the sound of someone falling off their chair*

 

Yeah I'm with Fribby....WTF? Return of Rob? Wow that was so unexpected. What a nasty little shock some characters are gonna be in for, I dare say.

 

When I read the part where Rav was thinking of having her own family consisting of a child she originally doesn't own, I was like "Go to hell bitch she ain't yours."

 

I'm so looking forward to the day that Nick's ass gets kicked by at least someone, hopefully my character for taking Ava. And wtf? All Matt can do is say "she's my niece" and do nothing about it? I was gobsmacked at his reaction....

 

Fuck it. No one's having Ava. Not Ravyn, not Greyfoxx. She's Sarah's daughter by birth. I especially want Ava away from those junkies.

 

Fuck (again lol)...Not even the warning that you gave us could compensate for the rollercoaster ride you had us in for.

 

Good job, once again. Made me yell at the screen twice this time.

[Ravynlee]

*insert the sound of someone falling off their chair*

 

Yeah I'm with Fribby....WTF? Return of Rob? Wow that was so unexpected. What a nasty little shock some characters are gonna be in for, I dare say.

 

When I read the part where Rav was thinking of having her own family consisting of a child she originally doesn't own, I was like "Go to hell bitch she ain't yours."

 

I'm so looking forward to the day that Nick's ass gets kicked by at least someone, hopefully my character for taking Ava. And wtf? All Matt can do is say "she's my niece" and do nothing about it? I was gobsmacked at his reaction....

 

Fuck it. No one's having Ava. Not Ravyn, not Greyfoxx. She's Sarah's daughter by birth. I especially want Ava away from those junkies.

 

Fuck (again lol)...Not even the warning that you gave us could compensate for the rollercoaster ride you had us in for.

 

Good job, once again. Made me yell at the screen twice this time.

Thanks! Great to hear. Glad I had that kind of reaction, as I said, that was the idea

More soon.

[Ravynlee]

More

 

---

 

“You going to join in or what?”

Feeling a tattooed arm drape around his shoulders Frib blinked up and smiled.

“Come on, it’s meant to be a party! Get with it, little brother!” Benji declared.

With a playful tussle the younger man pulled back, patting down his hair with a look of feigned annoyance. He accepted the beer with a thankful smile. Though he didn’t like the bitter taste of this particular ale he sipped at it anyway, happy of nothing else for the distraction. Folding his arms and resting them atop the bar in front of him Benji hunched down to watch the other man over his shoulder.

“What’s up?” he prompted.

Frib shrugged and let his eyes wander.

The bar was packed with people and music was warbling away from the old style Wurlitzer in the corner. No matter where he looked there was colour and movement everywhere, more than he was used to seeing here on the rare occasions he and the rest of his team had come to unwind after a particularly stressful day. Sipping at the beer and licking the foam from his upper lip he pouted again and echoed his friend’s body language across the bar top. He opened his mouth to say something then stopped.

“It’s just… this thing with Lupe and stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?” Benji asked around the rim of his beer.

Frib shrugged and shook his head, struggling to mentally process it and not knowing where exactly to start.

“I don’t know, something just doesn’t add up. Someone said it was a drive-by but we know from Ballistics it wasn’t. It was a point-blank shot right in the head.”

“Hard to dodge that one,” Benji seemed to joke.

Frib snorted at him, more frustrated that what he was trying to express wasn’t getting through clearly enough or as coherently as he mentally wanted it to.

“No. What I mean is, why would he have everyone believe it was a drive by when we know it wasn’t-?”

“He?”

“Mike!”

“Oh not this again-”

“I’m serious,” the young detective urged as Benji rolled his eyes.

They had been discussing theories back and forth for days now, since well before Lupe Fiasco’s untimely passing, and the paper trail that one way or another Frib was convinced all lead back to the Manhattan businessman.

“Just think about it-”

“I think you need to forget about work for a few hours and just let it go.”

“But that’s exactly my point! I think that’s what he’s counting on-”

“Who?”

“Mike! Damn it, aren’t you listening to me? It’s like he’s deliberately trying to fuel the fire or something by making it look like Chester’s team had-”

“Listen little brother,” Benji said, sliding his arm around the other man’s shoulders again and drawing him close like a confidante sharing a secret.

“In case you haven’t noticed, okay, we’re at a goddamned party, you see that? You see those women over there dancing? You see? Let me give you some advice, brother to brother. Chicks hate it when you bring your work home with you, hear me? It’s boring. And let’s face it, it’s depressing. If you want to get laid get your sorry workaholic ass up and get over there and introduce yourself before I die from old age or something, alright?”

Benji chuckled and slapped Frib on the chest. The shirt that Frib wore felt unusually dressy compared to Benji’s usual punk-rock garb. Smoothing out the material with a nervous hand Frib gave back a small chuckle as Benji tugged him with his arm again to stress his point – and to roughhouse him. It was endearing how the older twin had taken the young detective under his wing in recent months, especially with Rob’s passing, but in some ways it was kind of unsettling for the young man too. Benji may have had the heart of a gentle giant but the intimidating size of his arms covered in tattoos gave off an opposing impression. Sculling more of his beer Frib watched the women, three in all, dancing to their individual beats on the other side of the bar half a room away. They were all young, pretty, slender but not waif-like, with nice legs spilling out beneath short skirts and smooth skin pouring from out the top of their brassieres. His eyes studied them all as he mentally sized up his ideal prospect amongst them. He wasn’t looking for anything in particular but he allowed a moment for his mind to wander where his hands, at least for now, weren’t allowed to traverse. The thud of Benji clapping him in the chest with the back of his fist stole his attentions again with a less than impressed glare.

“What?” he hissed setting his beer down.

He turned his head in the direction where Benji was nodding. Across the room Joanna and Joel were dancing together with their arms respectively draped around one another’s shoulders and waist. Frib pouted. He couldn’t help but glance down at the woman’s ass before he guiltily lowered his eyes to the floor. He had always considered Rob’s widow attractive but had never entertained the notion of actually putting the hard word on her after her late husband’s disappearance. Truth be told he had morally and ethically opposed such a move when he learned Joel had beat him to it, but jealousy was fickle and on occasion just as fleeting. He smiled as Benji raised his glass to them and nodded as if saluting.

“See? That’s what it’s all about. That shit right there.”

“What, dirty dancing?”

“No, douche bag. Love.”

“Listen to Hugh Hefner over here.”

“I believe it was John Lennon. The Beatles.”

“All you need is love,” Frib stirred.

[Ravynlee]

Taken aback by the rare ribbing Benji opened his mouth to protest then wrapped his arm in under the other man’s chin and scuffed his knuckles across Frib’s scalp like kids in a playground. They tussled a moment before they were interrupted by another’s voice.

“Is this a private party or can… anyone join in?”

Slowly raising their eyes up the two men fell silent staring at the young woman known only as Phoenix. They both blushed and chuckled and struggled to recompose themselves.

Mel smiled and glimpsed around. The bar was crowded and cramped but she rather liked it, it was disorganized chaos, the kind that in some ways reminded her of a home full of siblings. Though she didn’t know anyone and felt out of place she relished in the anonymity here, even chuckling a little too as she waited for one of them to say something.

“I wasn’t too sure if I had the right place?” she started.

Benji grinned at her. His eyes followed her every move and with a little thrill Mel actually relished it. It wasn’t like it was with Mike who seemed to be trying to invade her head space every time he stared at her with those big dark eyes. Feeling herself blush Mel looked around again, folding her arms across her chest to trap her nervous fidgeting fingers behind. When she heard Benji say something over the music she turned back and nodded, more entranced by the colors inked into his skin than what he was saying. She enjoyed rebellion; it was a trait in her line of work she could inherently relate to.

“I didn’t think you were going to show.”

“I wasn’t sure myself, but… here I am.”

“What changed your mind?” Benji asked.

He smiled at her still nursing an arm around Frib’s neck as if the two of them were the absolute best of friends. Mel chuckled and couldn’t maintain eye contact. It wasn’t from the fact that the other man, Frib, was staring at her awkwardly, but it had more to do with her own inhibitions. She didn’t know what had changed her mind, only that on some level she knew she needed to break out of the rut that she had found herself in, and tried for a while at least convincing herself that her decision had nothing at all with trying to get over Shwag’s sudden departure. With a shrug she looked up. She heard people bellowing and realized someone was calling out a toast to the happy couple.

Mel balked to feel Benji’s breath blast the side of her face and ask her what she wanted to drink. Mel shrugged again. She didn’t care. She didn’t even notice as she watched the blushing couple on the other side of the room Benji stealing the glass from Frib’s hand and passing it over. Blindly Mel accepted it and smiled in thanks. With an incredulous scoff Frib rolled his eyes and sunk back into the shadows. Benji had slipped his arm free anyway; vacating space he hoped at some point would be available for his new best friend named Phoenix.

“For Joel and Joanna!” someone cried and everyone cheered them.

Dozens of drinks were held aloft towards the ceiling as the happy couple embraced and thanked them. They kissed and people clapped and whistled. Even Karl and Oded, two often-stern faces of the NEU were caught cracking toothy grins to the salutations. As Frib wove his way to the other side of the room he lingered just outside the men’s room door, sweeping his eyes around the room full of cops, detectives, their partners, children, and loved ones, and smiled fondly. A real sense of peace overcame him. For the first time in his life he actually felt as if he were right where he needed to be and it was a feeling so new to him that at first all he could do was stand there and kind of revel in it. Then someone in the crowd made a wisecrack about the happy bridegroom-to-be and he even chuckled along. Even without anyone beside him he felt happy, well, a sense of contentment anyway which was a tiny ray of hope in his otherwise mundane existence. Staring at Benji and his new friend canoodling near the bar Frib scoffed to himself with a degree of acceptance. Sure she was cute but on some level Frib must have known subconsciously she was not meant for him. Still, the idea had been fun while it lasted. Turning his back he made his way into the bathroom and let the music of the party mask the door squeaking to a close behind him.

 

---

[Ravynlee]

(By the way worth mentioning, cause sis isn't here to ask, and she's kind of all-things-Madden aficionado that I could be wrong on who's older. Tried Yahooing it but just got distracted. Meh, correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks )

 

---

 

“I wish we didn’t have to get a sitter for Haily,” Joanna murmured against Joel’s lips. “I wish she was old enough to be here. This is a special day for her too. She’s going to have a new daddy soon.”

“I know,” Joel smiled. Their lips met in another quick peck. “But it’s a party and she’s still so little. Can’t damage her ears yet. She’ll do that to herself when she’s older.”

“Yes she will.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Are you happy?”

Joanna pulled her head back a fraction to meet her fiancé’s eyes. She smiled disbelievingly. “What?”

“I’m just asking,” Joel confessed. His arms were warm around her and tight. Joanna s******ed and shook her head in amazement before she leant forward again to align herself against his chest.

“Yes, I’m very happy. Thank you. Why? Are you?”

“Are you kidding? I’m marrying the most gorgeous woman in the world, what’s not to be happy about that?”

Joanna giggled and burrowed her reddened cheeks into his shirt. She smiled up at the underside of his jaw.

“You mister,” she marveled. She didn’t quite have the words to say what she wanted, nor in a bar full of people was she in the right time or place, but smiling with her gleaming eyes and rosy cheeks she leant forward and nuzzled another kiss against his lips. She purred. Joel s******ed at the sentiment. Then he sighed.

“But?” he asked.

With her arms locked around his neck she lay her head on his shoulder and lightly shook it. Now that he couldn’t see her face she let a glimmer of truth slip out. She tried to cover it with a smile but the gesture sat uneasily on her face. The fact he already seemed to know her so well to tell when there was something worrying her was disarming as much as it was a comfort.

“Is it your sister again?” he asked.

Joanna nodded closing her eyes to the feel of his warm hand sweeping her spine.

“I’m sure she’s okay,” he reassured, his voice reverberating through his chest more than resounding in her ears over the din of the music. Someone was playing some poppy ballad but the two of them were locked together seeming to sway and rotate to their own internal beat instead. With a sigh Joanna nodded again to affirm she agreed with his statement when her heart told a different story. Looking out at the sea of faces that surrounded her Joanna searched in vain for Ravyn’s face but didn’t see her. Her sisterly sense told her what her eyes already knew – wherever her wayward sibling had gotten to it was nowhere near here.

“I hope she can at least make it to the wedding?” Joanna said as if trying to make light of an otherwise plummeting conversation.

Joel agreed. He kissed her mane of thick dark hair and ran his fingers through it, sweeping it back over her shoulders. Then he kissed her upturned brow and held her back.

“Let’s have another drink.”

Joanna went to stop him but couldn’t. The faces all grinning around her made her objections die prematurely in her lips. It was a celebration after all but without her baby and her sister she was feeling somewhat incomplete, robbed of the ability to completely let herself go with the joy of the moment.

When Joel returned a moment later she was weaving her way through the crowd. The cocktail he held before her face had more color to it than a sunset over a Greek beach front but she shook her head and apologized without taking it.

“I’m just going to call home quickly, see if Jos and Haily are-?”

“I’m sure she’s fine, someone would have called,” Joel rationalized sensibly. He was still wearing his fedora inside, as his brother was, making the unacquainted few that didn’t know the difference occasionally call the wrong twin by his brother’s name to some amusement, and shifted it atop his head as someone jostled him from behind. He laughed at the dance floor antics but Joanna wasn’t laughing along. Even though Mike’s wife was still laid up in hospital and Jos was free and had offered her services free of charge, doubts and fears still niggled at the young mother in a way that words couldn’t express. Assuring him with a quick kiss and a smile that she would be back she walked away again only to find Joel had snagged her arm and stopped her. Frustrated Joanna frowned at him.

[Ravynlee]

“Please, just for a few hours, can’t you just stop worrying about everyone else and just be with me?” he seemed to plead.

Joanna stared at him. In her peripheral vision she saw people had noticed but didn’t know if they had heard or were just assuming with their jovial grins that the couple were sharing one of those tender moments in full public view. She stepped closer towards him. It dawned on her that not that long ago she had said these very same words, or their equivalent, to her late husband Rob. The outcome then had been far from desirable and here she was now on the verge of starting a new life with a new love repeating the mistakes of the past… and guiltily she smiled at him. She took the drink and thanked him with a kiss agreeing to let the impulse slide for a while longer. Joel even offered to call Jos himself if it would make her feel better, just to put her at ease. Joanna nodded. She loved him and it showed in the rosy glow that radiated from every pore of her face. Agreeing that they would mingle a while longer and that they would go after that if she was still feeling uneasy Joel slid his arm around her and led her back to the dance floor. Together they were joined at the hip and moved as one. People watched and others joined them but the happy couple didn’t care. After making the rounds and sharing idle conversation Joanna was happier to dance than to talk - though the room was full of well-wishers she couldn’t escape the nagging voices in the back of her head that kept reminding her that they were all cops, that they all knew her late husband in some form or another, and behind their kind words and happy smiles lay their disapproval behind Rob’s much maligned decent into corruption. They were looking at her with disdain, sympathy and a mixture of joy and relief that she was taking this positive step. Joel Madden after all was also a great cop and few had a bad word to say about him, at least that Joanna had heard. She smiled happily because she was happy but no matter what she did or thought or said there was always that unsettling feeling churning away inside of her. She put it down to fear for her sister but when Joel asked her is she wanted to go home and rest Joanna shook her head and smiled at him.

“Well okay, how about another-?”

“No, just water for me, thanks.”

“Water? Who the hell has water at a party?” Joel scoffed, slinging his arm around her shoulders. “What are you pregnant?”

Joanna’s smile dwindled and fell away guiltily as her eyes quickly followed suit. When she glimpsed up again Joel was staring at her as if she’d slapped him.

“What?”

Joanna chewed her lip and nodded. She cringed. She could feel eyes starting to fall on her and hadn’t anticipated such an intimate moment becoming such a public spectacle, feeling her stomach rise and nosedive in one sickening motion. When she smiled it screamed nervous and uncertain.

“Surprise,” she squeaked.

Joel just stared. Then slowly his lopsided smirk crept out.

“Are you serious?”

“Are you mad? I’ve been meaning to tell you, I just-”

Her explanation was cut off mid-sentence as Joel shoved his empty glass aside and swept down gathering his fiancé into his arms. He held her around the legs and kissed her stomach to her half-squealing, half-giggling elation, before she slid down enough so that he could kiss her lips in passion. The moment was accompanied by a thunder of applause. Nursing her face between his hands Joel told her he loved her and Joanna confessed the same. Then he threw his head back and cried out triumphantly.

“I’m gonna be a father! Drinks on me!”

Joanna laughed watching Benji wrestle his way through the crowd with a woman by his side to tackle his twin. The two men hugged and laughed before Benji turned his focus on Joanna. When she watched the twins hug again and the rest of the team make their way over to congratulate him, Joanna felt her smile slowly fade at the memories that haunted her. In her head she could see Rob amidst them jostling and wearing their digs and jibes and grinning with joy, even hugging his friend doomed to be his replacement – but she knew that wasn’t meant to be. Nor apparently was she spared the loss of her sister’s absence feeling the sharp pangs as she watched the revelry between Benji and Joel. Sweeping a hand to her stomach she smiled, distracted by the feel of a colorfully tattooed arm drape around her shoulders.

“Come sis, there’s someone I want you to meet,” Benji declared with an arm around his brother’s neck too.

The lady in front of them looked out of place in deathly black with piercing eyes and a stern look to her face that was barely softened by the delicate smile she forced.

“Guys, this is my new friend Phoenix. Her real name’s Melissa. Mel, this is my crew.”

“Phoenix,” Joel repeated as he shook her hand and kissed her cheek in greeting. “Don’t I know you from somewhere? You look familiar.”

“She works for the big guy,” Benji stirred as Mel shared her congratulations with Joanna on her engagement and new surprise.

“The church?” Joanna asked blankly.

The comment was met by sporadic laughter as Benji resumed his position on Mel’s side with an arm now bravely slung about her shoulders territorially.

“No, she works for Mike. Mike Shinoda. MS.”

“Yeah? Doing what?”

“Dispatch,” Mel said smoothly.

Then Benji laughed at her.

The joke was obviously a cop thing because Joanna was the only one not laughing as she studied the other woman on her brother-in-law-to-be arm with a dubious frown. That feeling of unease got progressively worse as Joanna excused herself and hurried off to make a phone call. She had to call Jos to tell her the news.

 

---

 

Congrats, by the way haha

[Ravynlee]

---

 

She awoke to sickness. Her stomach was hot and churning and her throat burnt. Her heart and pulse raced in fading echoes, and her head was dizzy. Her face was numb. Peeling open her eyes she quickly realized she was face first on a mattress. She groaned. Bile bubbled on the back of her tongue and she choked it down. On shaky limbs she reached out and pushed herself up a fraction. She wasn’t alone and swinging her head aside, to the detriment of her lagging senses, she saw him. She swallowed and a loud dry knock resounded.

“Am I dead?” she wondered.

There were tears in her eyes. It was panic and it was residual, huffing on her breaths with dread at the prospect.

“You’re dead. You’re dead so I must be dead too, right?”

He was sitting on the floor with a knee up lazily picking at something dangling from his fingers as Ravyn pushed herself up as if to crawl. But she moved backwards rather than towards him.

“You’re alive,” Rob said.

It was more an utterance than reassurance as he limply tossed the distraction away to face her. Ravyn sniffled and shook her head.

“No. You died. We buried you. You’re dead. You shouldn’t be here-”

“Neither should you.”

Rolling his eyes aside he stared up out the window to where a strip of blue sky could be seen wedged between two high-rises. Though only a few meters away the profile of his face was so familiar it caused her to shake her head again. Bathed in shadow festering across the barren floor Rob stared out the window and stopped when he heard her muffle a sob into her palm. He paused before lowering his eyes to his lap guiltily. Dressed in faded denim, scuffed boots and a loose fitting tee and jacket he looked weathered, slumped back against the corner of a built-in wardrobe, a sorry sight from the dashing figure he once cut in his brushed black and gold of the NYPD. Though his hair was longer, shaggier, and his face was laden beneath a haggard beard, the look in his eyes was familiar when he briefly raised them up to watch her. He pouted as if in apology but there were no words forthcoming as Ravyn stared back like she was staring at a ghost. In the barren room that she now found herself without artificial light, without blinds on the window or furniture around her or even carpet on the floor, it felt as if she had awoken in purgatory. For an indeterminate moment she was all-but convinced that she was dead, regardless what he told her. Unable to think and feeling hot sharp spasms stab her stomach and bowls she buckled over and pushed herself to the edge of the mattress feeling his eyes upon her every inch of the way. Ravyn stared at the cold grey cement in trepidation. She didn’t know where she was or how she got here or even what had been done to her since her arrival, she didn’t even know if what she could see and hear and feel was real but she wasn’t brave enough to test it. She panicked at the prospect that the minute she left the mattress the floor would disappear and she would be sucked down into some terrifying abyss – but the terror of remaining here to be haunted for all eternity by her past and the pains of her dying body unable to come to terms with it’s demise pushed her forward. On hands and knees she crawled across the floor but was forced to stop. The pains racked her insides. It was indescribable, hot, churning, stabbing, all at once.

“Oh god help me, it hurts,” she whimpered helplessly at the cement. With teeth gnashed angrily she got back up. Nausea was making her shoulders heave. “I’m gonna die-” she said.

“No,” Rob behind her muttered. He sounded like he didn’t care. “You’re just withdrawing.”

Just? She wanted to scream. Just?! “How the hell- would you know?” she challenged over her shoulder. “You’re not even real.”

“I’m no more dead than you are,” he said, but his lifeless monotone implied something else.

As she coughed and hacked and dry-wretched he rolled his eyes aside and kept staring out the window. Though she didn’t know what time it was all she could guess was that it was mid morning or late afternoon judging by the way dark shadows dissected the red bordering buildings.

“I showed you what I had to. I had to make you think that-”

“Why?” Ravyn barked at him. On her knees she clutched at her stomach with one arm and used the other to feel her way back to the mattress behind her. As the sound of her voice echoed off the empty walls and cracked ceilings she curled up on the dirty crumpled sheets that stunk of sweat and age and shivered with beads of sweat gathering in a pool on her lower back.

“Why would you do that?”

“To protect you.”

“From what? You?”

Rob said nothing as Ravyn glared in his general direction. In truth she didn’t want to see him nor could she as she curled up into something of a fetal position as she had awoken, facing in the opposite direction, facing a closed and darkened doorway. She sniffled and the sound morphed into another groan. Delicately she gripped at her neck and rubbed it, feeling the heat impressed into her skin radiating with a sudden new pulse – but it wasn’t a new feeling for her. She sobbed and lost herself briefly in the horror of her memories that made no sense caught between the past few months, the past few hours, and the seconds now passing down.

“You- you tried to kill me- last night-”

“No,” Rob disagreed adamantly. “I just did it- I had to shut you up.”

“By choking me?!”

“10 second hold. Standard procedure.”

“Standard? You fucking killed him! I saw you! You broke his fucking neck! With your bare hands! I saw it!”

[Ravynlee]

The sound of her voice pitched in anger and despair and wrenched with sobs and gagging coughs, echoed around the room. It quashed the hope for anything else. But Rob’s retaliation wasn’t as loud, it wasn’t even impassioned, as he kept staring at some point at the floor like a child being yelled at and accepted it guiltily.

“I did what I had to.”

“Why? He never did anything to hurt you! He didn’t even know you! I fucking loved him and you murdered him in front of me! You’re a monster!”

“Love him?” Rob finally asked with pitch to his voice. He turned his eyes to face her peering back just barely over her shoulder. “How could you love him, Rave? He was your god damned pusher that’s all he was. Trust me, the world’s better off without people like him-”

“Who gave you the fucking right? You’re not a god!”

“I did what I had to do!” Rob bellowed back, raising his voice and drowning hers out with due vehemence flashing on his face. “And I’d do it again! In a heartbeat! Believe me Rave, the man you knew, or the guy you thought you knew… he’s done a lot worse - He was a fucking pimp, all right! What did you think he was going to do with you when he-… if you knew what I knew, you-…”

Falling silent Rob huffed out his words left unspoken through his nose and slumped back against the cupboard door again. It made a dull thudding sound as it bounced on its aging hinges. Hearing a squeak Ravyn pulled herself up and struggled to cup her cresting nausea behind her palm. She stared across the room near Rob where she could just make out a blanket lay strewn on the floor. She frowned as movement on the other side of him briefly stole his attentions. A moment later a small face peeked up from behind him. With her bright blue eyes and pale face peering back beneath the hood Ravyn felt the wind being ripped from her lungs. She internalized a gasp and sobbed again.

“Oh god,” she murmured.

It was a physical reaffirmation of her worst possible nightmare, that the horrors of the night before had actually happened and she hadn’t dreamed it. It wasn’t her late son it was Ava, Chester’s daughter, and whether it was the new light catching the side of her squared little face or the cold fist of reality slamming into her brain with the drugs breaking down in her system, she finally recognised the resemblance.

“I had to bring her here,” Rob rationalised as Ava crawled up onto her knees to seek shelter behind him.

She gripped his sleeve with her little fists and squeaked as if to say she had no intentions of going anywhere now with anyone. Rob smiled at her. She blinked up into his face and smiled back. Though it was tiny and reactive it was Ava’s way of thanking him as she appeared to regress back into infancy amidst the turmoil of the last few days. Then she lay her head down against his arm and curled a little finger into her mouth as she stared warily at Ravyn like a wild dog she was trying to steer clear of. Lightly Rob put his arm around her and patted the little girl’s back.

“I couldn’t let you take her to Chester. Her life’s in danger as it is even away from him. May as well paint a target on her back, Rave. She’s four years old. She didn’t need it.”

“Listen to you. You’re all heart,” Ravyn scoffed with her jaw tight. “What about her mother?”

“Sarah,” Rob said. He looked down at Ava. “She’s not in the best position to take care of anyone.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning… she’s in hospital. Mike’s buddies got to her. She’s not in a good way.”

“And why would they do that?”

“Why else?” Rob asked.

He looked again at Ava who stared back with her eyes so full of wonder and more trepidation than no child her age should ever have to endure. The sound of Ravyn’s guttural scoff a few metres away severed the moment, sounding equally dubious, bitter, and spiteful all at the same time.

“Why do you give a shit? She’s not even yours. You abandoned your daughter, remember, and now you want to save his?”

Rather than retaliate as the look on his face sorely attested, Rob pursed his lips and nodded, weathering the insult with his usual defensive silence. With a sniff he drew his shoulders up and motioned to the little girl’s worried stare that they should soon make a move.

“I’m not going anywhere with you. You’re a dead man.”

“Do what you want,” Rob said, pushing himself up to the pop and creak of his joints. “But it’s only a matter of time before someone finds your friend’s body, and when they do, they won’t be looking for me. I’m dead, remember?”

“You’re a murderer,” Ravyn hissed. She paused for a sneeze. When she stopped Rob was standing at the foot of the mattress holding the little girl’s hand. He stared at her, a towering giant with lifetimes of anger and pain in his eyes.

“We’ve all done things we wish we hadn’t,” he said.

He paused watching her writhe around on the mattress without the slightest modicum of interest or sympathy. He sighed. He told her in a grunt that she had to get up and get something to eat.

“That… would be a first,” she snickered up through hot slitted eyes. “You were always telling me when we were married to stop.”

“Things change. Now get up. You need to put something back in your system or you’ll dehydrate. The withdrawals will get worse.”

“Since when have you been an expert?” Ravyn pondered, getting to her feet.

She was unstable and fell once before she managed to push herself up all the way.

Rob reached out to help her but she slapped his hand away. His lackluster attempt at goodwill was enough to warrant her abuse as she leant up into his face and barked at him with her jaw locked tight, “You weren’t even a Narc a few months before you fucked off!”

Ava whimpered and darted behind Rob’s legs. She didn’t let go of his hand.

[Ravynlee]

“I mourned for you! I grieved for you, me and my sister, Rob! Your wife! You have no idea what you put us through, and now you come back and expect what, that I’d just instantly bow down to you? Why should any of us listen to you? Where were you for us? For Haily, for your little girl, you remember her don’t you? Fuck you and fuck your help. We don’t need you, none of-”

Her tirade was silenced as he snagged her collar in his fist and dragged her close. Ravyn fell silent – but only briefly. She wept but it was as much in anger as it was shock and fear and anything else running rampant through her toxic system. Ava squealed but she was left standing rigid by the mattress. In one, two, three hurried strides Rob tore Ravyn across the room and shoved her loose. He pushed her forward and stabbed a finger at the floor sharply.

“See that?” he cried. “See that? Look at it! Now you tell him! Tell him!”

It took her a moment to realize through the tears and her spinning head and distorted focus that she was on the other side of the room. Shadows festered around her ankles but the light from the nearby window reflecting off the barren walls or maybe something subconsciously seemed to keep most of it at bay. There was carpet here and in her peripheral vision Ravyn realized there was no other carpet left in the room besides here. Though graffiti marred the walls and detritus lurked in the corners marking it as a squatter’s hovel, the fact that such a precious commodity for warmth remained untouched struck her as odd – until she realized there was a large dark brown discoloration to it that made it stand out from the rest. It looked like a giant rose that had blossomed and was left to wilt and die and meld into the fiber. Seizing the back of her head Rob pushed her face towards it brusquely.

“Tell him! Tell him his fuckin’ mother’s a junkie! Tell him I’m a monster! Say it! Say it loud enough so the whole fucking world can hear!”

With a pained wince Rob shoved her loose and took a step back, uttering what sounded like the word ‘bitch’ under his breath. But whether he said it aloud or not, Ravyn wouldn’t have heard it anyway – his point had been made. In her tears she saw it, she saw the room in her peripheral vision reverting back to the way she remembered it to be, she saw the paint come back, saw the soft glow of the fluorescent light, she heard the sound of the TV playing in the next room, some cartoon he used to love, and then she saw him – she saw herself holding him, on her knees, clutching the lifeless corpse of her son in her arms. She could still feel his body heat; she could still smell the stench of gunpowder and fresh blood, like burning copper, as the sound of her voice rang wretchedly around her. It seemed never-ending; the sounds, the smells, the tears, as Ravyn found herself once again on her knees on the carpet. She cried into her hands until the memory went away. When she looked up again Rob was hefting Ava into his arms. She stared back still lost beneath the baggy jersey with the word MATIX branded across her legs. Ravyn sobbed morosely and smeared her eyes with the back of her hand that wasn’t just trembling it was quaking.

She wanted to say something, she wanted to yell and scream, she wanted to ask him why he brought her here, why he forced her to remember any of that at all, but before the words made it to her throat sense kicked in. She saw all the proof she needed in his guilty stare.

“You left me,” he uttered. “You left me first... I call it even.”

Ava tugged at his shirt.

“I want my mommy,” she mumbled. Rob smiled at her. It was as soft a gesture the haggard six and a half foot giant could manage now as he jostled her in his arms.

“I know. But your mom’s very sick right now. When she’s better I’ll take you to her and you can go home, okay? I promise.”

“Will Uncle Matt be there?” She wondered. She asked so quietly that it barely came out as a coherent sentence more a fearful garble of sounds. She pouted when she looked up into his face again. Rob shook his head.

“No. No he won’t hurt you or your mom anymore. He’s… gone away.”

“Where… um… where did he go?”

Considering his answer a moment Rob turned to Ravyn as she slowly peeled herself up from the stain on the floor. He looked at the little girl again.

“He’s gone to Heaven,” he said with his voice thick.

“Is he a angel?”

“Maybe.”

“Can I be a angel one day?”

“One day, when you’re old I guess. But not right now. You know why? Because your mom needs you. All kids need to be with their mothers. It’s not right otherwise… It hurts, doesn’t it?”

Ravyn blinked up to meet Rob’s eyes. She nodded sadly.

“Yeah. It does.”

Stepping around the stain on the floor Ravyn made her way across the room to meet them, stealing glimpses backwards every few feet. With arms tightly folded she drew to a stop. Rob slid an arm around her and pulled her into a one-armed embrace against his side. Ava watched on, still on high alert. Sniffling against his jacket Ravyn pulled her head back and shook it. She didn’t say anything else. Then she pulled away completely. She felt so unwell that she didn’t even have the strength left to fight him anymore. They had reached a tentative truce, but only because she refused to speak to him. Making his way to the door with Ava still on his hip, Rob pushed it open and stepped out, lingering on the other side waiting for her to join them. Glimpsing back at the dark stain on the carpet Ravyn shivered and squeezed her folded arms against her chest tighter. She sniffed and bowed her face, then she slowly walked out. The door creaked to a close behind her.

 

---

 

All good?