STORY NINE

Ryden had almost laughed at Wellington the first day the mad scientist doctor had shown him the holding cells he’d had built for the Security Department. They’d just looked so out of place, and had seemed so completely unnecessary, with their state of the art invisible caging and computerized life scanning capabilities. Now however, he was more than a little relieved that Wellington was so completely paranoid. He’d dumped Johnnie into the cell and walked away, letting the computer analyze his bio-rhythms and decide if there was anything seriously wrong with him. Anything besides having been bombarded with enough electricity to kill an elephant.

Mary was sitting beside Ryden in the holding area across from the cell, watching Johnnie’s unconscious form as though in a deep trance. She neither moved nor spoke, just held Ryden’s hand as though it were some sort of life line. Ryden was doing his level best to call up information on the computer screen one handed and sort through the WWC compound’s CCTV footage. Their little encounter with Johnnie had been caught by the cameras, but then of course it wasn’t like he had someone monitoring the cameras 24/7 so no one had seen the events at the time they actually took place. Ryden sighed, trying to decide if this was for the best or not and filed the footage away.

Dez was sitting by herself in the corner of the little room, also staring into the cell that held Johnnie. She still had yet to say anything and Ryden was more than a little concerned with her behaviour. It was down right un-Dez like not to ask any questions or display even the tiniest smidgeon of curiosity. Ryden glanced down at the girl clinging to his arm and frowned. His first instinct was to shake the shit out of her and demand to know what the hell was going on. He was almost angry enough to do it too, who did the damn little whore think she was, busting in here and ruining his good thing? Dez was watching him though and that fact alone stopped him from doing anything he’d most likely regret later. That and… Mary was acting damn un-Lissa like as well… He’d seen her laugh in Johnnie’s face once when he’d threatened to shoot her and when one of Johnnie’s buyers had lost his temper and slapped her across the face she’d spat in his eye and smiled when Johnnie’d beat the man almost to death. So what the hell was going on? Why was she clutching his arm and trembling as though she’d seen the boogey man?

“I’m not going back.” She whispered to him brokenly. “Do you hear me Geere? I’m not going back. I’m not going back to chasing down thirteen year old whores and threatening renegade pimps. Not ever. Not for him, not for anybody. I’m having my baby and I’m going to live a nice normal life, get my own little piece of happily ever after… you got me? And I will put a bullet in the brain pan of anyone who tries to stop me.”

“I got you Lissa baby…” He muttered. Now that was more like the Lissa he knew, he could deal with the Lissa he knew. “You wanna tell me what the hell went down and what this is all about? Cause I might be more than willing to help you out for old times sake, but you gotta start with the truth and if I even suspect a hint of, or a glimmer of a whiff of your usual bullshit Lissa, I’ll be the one putting a bullet in your brain pan, baby or no baby, now have you, got me?”

Lissa nodded slowly, her eyes becoming strangely unfocused as she stared at Johnnie’s motionless form. “I guess you know I used to mule drugs for Johnnie when we first met, just on the corners and stuff, started when I was about ten. Saw a lot of Johnnie actually, he was pretty nice to us kids, nice enough until we turned twelve and were old enough to get arrested and then poof- no more good to him. I remember when I turned twelve… I thought, here comes Johnnie with his standard offer for us girls, but… we’d always been kinda close you know he was always… always friendly to me, asking my advice about stuff… So when he asked me to join up with his crew I thought, no way in hell cause I aint no whore but he said he wanted me to help him out with stuff and be his eyes and ears.”

Lissa turned and swept her gaze up towards him as tears pooled in her eyes. “I mean, Christ Geere he was so messed up he had a twelve year old kid explaining things to him… God, it made me feel so special ya know but- but it wasn’t like that, it was sick and he was sick, only I couldn’t see that. I liked being Johnnie’s girl and I started doing more and more and… he never asked me to get any licensing or anything like that- so I was happy. Most of the time he was so high on whatever he could get his hands on he didn’t know what was going on… I started running just about everything so he wasn’t getting robbed blind. Things were going pretty good and then- all of a sudden he wants me to be around him all the time, wants to know everything I’m doing, who I’m talking to, who I’m friends with- no, he starts making sure I have no friends but him… and then one day he grabs me and holds me down, kissing me- it was never like that between us Geere. Never. I never wanted it… You know him, Geere, you know he’s a god damn psycho… he’s a monster. I never…” Lissa blinked at the tears in her eyes. “So I hit him and he hit me back… and started in on how I owed him and how he’d taken care of me all these years. He could barely stand most of the time but, he’d taken care of me… ? I knew I had to get away… and then one night he must’ve put something in my drink or my food but… I don’t really remember- I can’t remember too much…”

Ryden watched her silently, her breathing had become rapid and shallow and she was obviously lost in memories she probably didn’t want.

“I think he’d been drinking because he tasted like red wine and he held me down as I tried to scream… At least I think I tried to scream… I woke up the next day and walked out the door and never looked back. And I’m never going to either. That part of my life is over. I’m starting again now and… and please, I’m begging you… help me.”

Ryden stayed silent for a while, quietly digesting everything she’d just old him. “I’ll help you babe, but- you gotta decide a few things right now and answer some questions… Is Johnnie your baby’s father?”

Lissa gulped and nodded slowly.

“Then what do you want me to do Lissa? I’m happy to put a bullet in his brain for you. I wouldn’t bother asking, just shoot him for you, but we’re talking babies and parenting shit here. I don’t think you wanna be the one responsible for your baby daddy’s death. No way that’s ever going to be a nice story to tell- and honey, it would get told no matter how hard you try to make it otherwise.” Ryden shrugged. “Murder aint a good way to start out being a mommy kiddo.”

“I don’t- I don’t want him… dead.” Lissa made the admission reluctantly, as though slightly ashamed.

“I know you don’t baby, you’re a good girl, I’ve always known that…”

Lissa smiled faintly… Funny how easily the last six months seemed to have melted away and they were both back to playing the same roles they had always played. She glanced over at Dez who was still sitting quietly in the corner of the room, watching them both with an expression on her face that Lissa would have been hard pressed to define. A strange, almost blank look had settled over her entire being. Lissa shivered.

“Dez, hunny, are you ok?” She mumbled in concern.

Dez didn’t answer, she flicked a glance in Lissa’s direction and the instant, fleeting look of pure rage and hatred on the other girls face made her shiver again, before the blank masked slipped back in to place. Lissa blinked in surprise and glanced up at Geere in confusion. Either he hadn’t noticed or he wasn’t acknowledging the moment.

“I’m raising the oxygen levels in the cell, so Johnnie’s gonna be awake in a few minutes. You two need to have a little chat. Then let me know what you want…”

Lissa nodded slowly, her gaze fixed back on Johnnie’s unconscious form. “Ok.” She whispered, trying to be brave. Johnnie had never scared her before, no matter how he’d threatened her she’d always felt safe around him. Now however, she knew she was not immune to his almost casual cruelty and she was terrified. Even with an invisible, impenetrable cell wall between them she could feel the flesh rising and tightening across the soft skin of her arms.

Goosebumps… she noted to herself absently. She was so scared she had goosebumps.

Ryden stood up slowly, patting Lissa gently on the shoulder. He headed over to where Dez was sitting and reached out a hand to help her stand. “C’mon…” He murmured quietly. “Let’s go.”

Dez stared blankly at the hand outstretched before her and hugged her arms around herself tightly before rising slowly. She didn’t want any part of Ryden touching her. She didn’t even want him looking at her. He’d lied to her… lied and lied and lied… her brain chanted over and over again. She didn’t raise her eyes from the floor and slid past him out the room and stood frozen, yet trembling slightly just outside the door.

Lissa watched the slow rise and fall of Johnnie’s chest and shuddered. She barely even registered the sound of the door sliding closed as Ryden and Destine left the room. All she could see was Johnnie. He filled every one of her senses, choking her with a flood of emotions she didn’t think she could handle. Lissa forced herself to move forward towards the invisible wall that separated her and Johnnie. Her eyes were transfixed on his unconscious form and she flinched as he began moving slightly. She battled the insane urge to call Geere back into the room and forced herself to stay where she was.

And then he sat up. So suddenly that she couldn’t control the gasp of surprise that escaped her. He glanced around without any visible curiosity, his gaze shifting and then focusing back on her. “You shot me.” He drawled typically, half sitting and half slouching on the tiny metal bench coming out of the cell, leaning back against the wall and resting one hand absently against his knee. “Repeatedly.”

Lissa stifled another gasp, how like Johnnie not to look fazed at all, no matter what strange circumstances he found himself in. She felt herself momentarily incapable of speech. She’d rehearsed in her head countless times what she’d say to Johnnie if she ever encountered him again… and yet now that he was sitting right in front of her she was too terrified to speak. He on the other hand looked so relaxed and at ease that Lissa almost flinched. How dare he… how dare he sit there and accuse her of-.

His lazy voice broke into her thoughts. “Baby, you don’t call, you don’t write and then… bam. You shoot me in the face. Not nice sugar, not nice…”

Lissa took a shaky step towards him, almost choking on her rage. “How could you? You… you-.” She gasped out brokenly, her voice catching emotionally. She stumbled forward and pressed her hands against the clear cell wall, curling her fingers into her palm painfully.

He didn’t say anything for a while, and Lissa felt, as she stared into his clear brown eyes that she wasn’t even really looking at Johnnie. There was just something so… unreal about him. Something so… unbelievable in his piercing gaze and calm demeanour. Johnny smiled patiently. “Take your time, I know you have a lot to apologize for.”

Lissa flung herself at the cell wall and smashed her fist into the see-through barrier that separated them. “You raped me!” She screamed, bashing her fists against the cell wall again and again. The words felt as though they’d been wrenched from her. Ripped from her against her will. Seeing him hurt more than she’d imagined, hurt because all the same old feelings were still there. Under the terror and the betrayal was the almost mindless devotion that had been beaten into her over the last six years. The feelings were involuntary and filled her with disgust. She hated him for it all, for her own weakness and inability to break free of his hold over her. Frustration and helplessness seemed to overwhelm her. It wasn’t fair. She’d tried so hard to get away from him and yet here he was, sitting in front of her, the same as always. Arrogant and unrepentant. Painfully indifferent to the horror he’d put her through, and yet… and yet she couldn’t stop loving him. He was like a cancer inside her, a poison eating away at her that she couldn’t stop taking. Johnnie had taken so many drugs to destroy himself, but he'd been her only drug. She wanted to drop to the floor and scream and cry at the unfairness of it. At the cruel trick of fate that the universe had thrust upon her, but instead she simply stood, trembling and staring at him helplessly. “You were my whole world and you put enough drugs in my drink to kill me and then you held me down and raped me.”

Johnnie didn’t even flinch. Lissa hadn’t thought he would. “You shouldn’t have said no to me.” Johnnie muttered quietly. “You left me. You swore to me that you never would and you… After all I did for you-.”

“All you did for me!? What the hell did you ever do for me!? Who kept you from choking to death on your own vomit when you were so wasted you couldn’t even move? Who stopped your girls from bleeding you dry? Or your hired goon squad from getting you arrested because they were too stupid to cover their tracks?”

“I gave you everything you ever wanted…”

“You liar…” She whispered, clenching her fists against the wall in front of her. “I just wanted it to be you and me… just, you and me. I can’t even remember how many times I begged you to leave with me. Just the two of us- but you… You couldn’t even do that for me.”

“You shouldn’t have said no to me.”

Tears ran down her cheeks and Lissa moved to rest her forehead against the invisible shield in front of her. “I just wanted us to be normal.”

“You were right baby…” He muttered, moving to stand next to her. “It should’ve been just you and me and… now it can be. I’ve cleaned myself up. Not even a drink- I haven’t had one since you left. I swear. I did it for you. I can’t- can’t do this without you. It’s not worth it without you.”

Lissa blinked and raised her head to glance at him. “You are such a liar…” She’d never seen Johnnie sober for more than five minutes at a time. He drank vodka for breakfast.

Johnnie shook his head slowly. “I didn’t- didn’t even remember what I’d done and then when I realized you weren’t coming back… I knew I had to find you. I need you.”

Lissa flinched as though he’d struck her. “So what else is new?” She whispered. “You only ever needed me because I made things so much easier.”

“I need you.”

Lissa gave a little moan of protest. “It’s too late for all that now- can’t you see that.”

“No. Things are gonna be different now. I’m not smoking or drinking anymore- no drugs, nothing. I cleaned myself up for you. I did what you wanted. It can be like you wanted.”

“I can’t forget. It’s too late.”

“You belong with me Lissa. You know you do sugar… Just the two of us.”

Lissa laughed almost hysterically. “Just the two of us huh? What about the baby?”

Johnnie’s eyes narrowed as he examined her carefully. In her overflowing sun dress her pregnancy was almost imperceptible. “Something you wanna talk to me about sugar?”

The menacing tone in his voice made her blood freeze.

Johnnie stood up abruptly and walked towards her. Lissa pushed herself back slightly from the wall as Johnnie moved himself as close to her as possible. “If you and that bastard Geere-!”

Lissa took a step back as though he’d slapped her across the face. “Are you out of your mind-?”

“I will kill him Lis. You know I will.”

Lissa shuddered at the calmly spoken words. The look in his eyes terrified her. She’d never seen him so focused, never seen him without a haze of drugs clouding his thinking and judgement. “It’s yours.” She whispered, defeated.

He took a step back from her and smiled. “See baby, I was right. Things are gonna be right now. You and me, forever. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”

“No…” Lissa shuddered and hugged her arms around her chest.

“I love you Lis-.”

“Don’t you ever say that to me again!” Lissa all but screamed. “If you ever say that again I will tell Geere to put a laser through your brain and you know he will…”

Johnnie just shrugged. “Whatever you say baby. How is good old Geere these days? Was sure I’d wake up dead before Geere’d miss out on the chance to do away with me for good.”

Lissa pressed her lips together and watched him grimly.

“Ohhhhhhh, I see. Doing you favours now is he? How touching.” Johnnie ground out with patently false good humour.

“Don’t start this Johnnie. Things can’t be like this again…”

“Right… right… Besides I forgot about Geere’s little blonde cupcake didn’t I?” Johnnie smirked slightly. “And I know how you hate sharing.”

Lissa shook her head slowly, tears shimmering in her eyes. “I think you’re even more of a bastard sober.”

Johnnie smiled. “Now is that nice? I did it for you baby… all for you.”

Lissa stared at him blankly, despair almost choking her, knowing that despite the fact that he was the one in the jail cell, she was the one who was trapped.

END STORY NINE

Author’s note: EEK! Johnnie is really, really evil isn’t he??? No more sunshine and lollipop days at the WWC anymore…

Please review…

Coming up next… Lies are lies as far as Dez is concerned and Ryden realizes that if he ever wants Dez to forgive him, he may just have to tell her the truth. That her whole world is a lie.