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Rag Doll Ch. 01

By: beachbum1958



This story was inspired in part by the old Frankie Valli song 'Rag Doll' which I first heard when I was a small boy and never managed to get out of my head; listen to the song and you'll get this story too.

As always, my deepest thanks go to Mriceman1964 for his editing, proofing, story prompting and excellent sense of reality, which he imposes on me at every opportunity! 

______________________________

When I was just over 2 years old, my father left my mother and took me with him back to England, where he was born. I never knew this until much later in life. I always thought his wife, Barbara, was my mother, although he insisted I always called her by her proper name. As I grew older, I began to realise that my father was not a nice or pleasant man. He had few friends, and we seldom had visitors, and those we had were usually people like him; abrupt, driven, money-obsessed, and consumed by the need to protect and hoard their possessions, including wives, children, everything they could buy or grab for themselves, at all costs. I was kind of the exception there. Through my formative years I knew I didn't like being around him, and avoided him as much as I could; he seemed to have the same aversion to me, and so his wife, a sweet, quiet lady, brought me up, almost in isolation from his other children, with whom I had soon discovered I had nothing in common with whatsoever, probably because they were smaller, piggier versions of him

When I was 11 years old, he decided I should attend the local secondary school instead of being tutored at home, for which I breathed a sigh of relief; being tutored with my two piggy little half-brothers was an excruciating experience, and I'd had enough of their spoilt whining and excessive demands for attention. Now at least I would be among kids my own age and could finally make some friends. I never understood why my father had forbidden us to attend primary school; I never asked, and he never volunteered an explanation, but at least now I would be free of the house and those poisonous brats he called sons.

I ambled through school, not the most gifted of students, not a slacker either, but definitely not academically brilliant. I wanted to be a mechanic; I loved cars, the thought of driving, of stripping down and rebuilding engines, transmissions, the thrill of firing up a rebuilt engine and having it turn over sweetly the first time was a recurring day-dream of mine as I laboured through calculus and trigonometry, or dissected Gray's 'Elegy In A Country Churchyard' to find the deeper meanings in it.

When my old man discovered the only class I was good at was machine shop, where I discovered I could rebuild overdrives and gearboxes almost instinctively, he literally blew a gasket. In his world mechanics were grease-monkeys, to be hired and fired at whim, and he was furious that the only effort I seemed to be making was a determined one to join the working classes; Oh yes, as well as all his other sterling qualities, my father was the worst kind of arrant snob, and the distaste I felt for him as a child soon transformed into active dislike. His other two sons were just like him, and, distant as we were, I couldn't help but try and put even more distance between us; I couldn't believe that I belonged to such an appalling family, and began to dream of running away, joining a ship and running away to sea, going off and being a vagrant, anything rather than live amongst these people and eventually come to be like them

The only saving grace was Barbara. She was the only person I had any real connection with, her warmth and kindness was a constant reminder of how little else I had from this family, and she seemed to save her best time for me, rather than her own sons, who she seemed to barely connect with at all. When I had sports days at school, she would be there, cheering for me; when we put on a production for the drama class, she'd be there with the other parents, watching raptly and clapping hardest. She was a lovely lady, and didn't deserve what my father did to her; Oh yes, I knew, I could hear, and I'd see the bruises the next day, soon figured out why she sometimes wore long sleeves on even the hottest days. I tried to get her to leave, asked her why she put up with it, but she was so thoroughly cowed all she would answer was "Where would I go, Nicky?"

I went to the local technical college when I left school at 16, to study for my BTEC Certificate in Automotive Mechanical Engineering, and City & Guilds of London Institute L6 Certificate in Automotive Engineering, and eventually qualified as an Automotive Mechanic when I was 21, much to my father's disgust. I tried to ignore what was happening at home, tried to block out the sounds at night, but it never stopped, never eased up, and I grew more disgusted with myself for doing nothing to help that poor lady who'd done so much for me.

It all came to a head one night when I couldn't take the screaming and crying any more, and barged in to see him standing over her with his belt, Barbara huddled in a corner with her hands over her head. I tried to pull him away, got a crack across the mouth for my pains, and he started on me with the belt. Barbara put herself over me, trying to shield me, my father, big man, screaming and frothing as he lashed us both until his arm was too tired to continue. That night I discovered what kind of man he truly was, as the individual cuts from the belt-buckle all merged into one big hurt that burned in every nerve-ending.

Barbara helped me to bed, rubbed ointment on the worst of the cuts and weal's, and I did the same for her. My father was nowhere to be seen, most likely guzzling 12 year old scotch in his study, and that was when she told me about my mother, why he'd left her. She had a picture of my mother, and seeing it woke ghostly half-memories of this pretty woman with dark blonde hair and golden-brown eyes like mine, smiling at me.

"Nicky, your father left your mother because she had an affair and got pregnant. I don't blame her, knowing what I do about your father. You were 3, and you belonged to him, so he took you, and came back here. He didn't want you, but he wouldn't let your mother have you, because you were his, and you know what your father's like when it comes to his...possessions"

She handed me a packet and inside was my birth certificate. I was astounded to see I was born in Albany, New York State. "I'm American?" I asked her, incredulously, and she smiled. "Yes Nicky, until you were sixteen, your father could pick your nationality; he chose to make you British, but now, if you want, you can walk into any American Embassy or Consulate in the world and walk out an American citizen, with the passport to match. I want you to go home, Nicky, you need your family, a proper family, this is no place for you, your father doesn't care one iota for you, and he'll make you suffer. Now that he's done this, he'll keep on doing it. There's some money in that packet, it's all I could scrape together, but it should be enough for you to pay for your documents, and an airline ticket to Albany. Your mother's address and her telephone number is there as well, although I don't know if it's still correct, but it was all I could find out, that and her name. Her name is Lowry, Julia Lowry. Please take it and leave, Nicky, I can't protect you, and you'll get badly hurt if you stay. Don't worry about me; I'm taking you to the train station, then I'm going to fix this once and for all, I can't take this anymore, either.

Barbara helped me pack a bag and took me to the station, and waited on the platform with me until the London train came in, then hugged me, kissed me goodbye and said "Take care of yourself, little St Nick, I love you, sweetheart. Please remember me." Her use of my childhood nickname brought a lump to my throat, and I clung to her, trying to convince her to get on the train with me, but she gently disengaged me. "No Nicky, I can't. You don't know what your father's really like; he's never let your mother go, he won't let me go! I have to fix this, once and for all! Please, go, I'll be fine, it's all going to be fine, don't you worry about me, just you take care of yourself, and please, remember me." That was the second time she'd said that, like she was trying to fix it in my mind, and I was beginning to get an uneasy feeling about it. 

The doors started to chime, so I jumped on and stood there, watching her wave goodbye to me; if only I had pulled her onto the train with me...

I arrived in London at about 10pm, and immediately made my way to the United States Embassy in Grosvenor Square, determined to queue all night if necessary. Many other people seemed to have the same idea, as there was already a long queue outside the barrier, so I settled down to wait, sitting on my bag and leaning against the barrier.

When the Embassy opened its doors at 8:30 I was ready, and queued in the American Citizen Services section, directed there by the imposing-looking US Marine on guard there, his chest a riot of ribbons.

The very helpful lady at the Enquiries desk listened to my story, and disappeared with my birth certificate, qualifications, driving license and two photographs I'd taken in the photo-booth in Euston Station, then briefly reappeared to call me into an Interview room, where a man not much older than me asked me some searching questions about my circumstances. I told him about my father, and his removing me from America when I was three, and my reasons for wanting to return to America. He asked if I wouldn't mind showing him my injuries, and that I wasn't required to, and when I unbuttoned my shirt he gave a sharp intake of breath. 

"Ok Mr. Davies, I can understand why you want to return to the United States, I'll try and fast-track your passport application, but it may take a while. Take this and show it to the guard on duty if you need to leave to get something to eat or drink, there's a very good sandwich place around the corner, and several deli's where you can get a decent coffee. Welcome back, Mr Davies, I just wish it were under better circumstances." He handed me a plastic card with a number on it, and I took a seat in the waiting area, which had enough seats for an auditorium, already almost packed to capacity.

At about 1pm, I was called to the desk again, and was once again escorted to an interview room, where the same man had a package for me. "There you are Mr. Davies, one new passport, and all your paperwork, please guard them carefully, and I would like to wish you well, I hope you can locate your family and that they're well and happy!"

I thanked him, zipped and locked my paperwork and passport into my bag, and left, heading for Heathrow, where I bought a standby ticket to Albany via Newark; I had enough money, thanks to Barbara, to buy the ticket without the tedious business of booking; she had given me £8,000 sterling, almost $14,000, so after I bought my ticket, I changed it all to US dollars; I wouldn't need UK pounds any more, I was never coming back.

I cleared departures without any hitches or visa issues; I was an American citizen returning home, after all, with cabin baggage only, and waited in the departure lounge for my flight to be called, idly watching Sky News on the overhead TV, when suddenly Barbara's face flashed up, and the caption read 'Prominent businessman's wife found dead; police are treating her death as not suspicious'. My eyes blurred as I realised what she'd meant when she said she would fix things, why she'd asked me to remember her, and I swore, by all the angels and saints, and all the devils in hell, that one day I would make him pay, if I had to tie the rope around his neck and kick the chair away myself.

I found an empty cubicle in the men's washroom and cried for the only mother I'd known, the kindest person in my life, who'd stood over me and tried to protect me, who I had left to her fate, my loss and guilt burning a hole through my heart. I swore again, that if it took me the rest of my life, I would find a way to repay that bastard for every cut, every bruise, every mark he'd put on that poor lady, that every tear she'd cried would be repaid with blood and pain and horror, that all the fear and anguish she had felt would be visited on him a thousand-fold. 

I sat in silence through the entirety of my flight, unable to eat or drink because of my guilt at not forcing her to come with me, or taking her somewhere safe; I felt like I had abandoned her to her fate, and the guilt and misery was like an enormous knot around my heart, tightening with every passing minute. Eventually I slept, exhaustion and emotional trauma wearing me down, to dream of Barbara sitting in the front row in the school hall, watching and smiling as we stumbled and fluffed our way through 'Titus Andronicus', our drama teacher still hoping against hope she'd find the next Kenneth Branagh or Scarlett Johansson. I woke as the 'plane began its descent, the 'ping' of the seatbelt alert startling me awake. The middle-aged woman sitting next to me silently passed me a tissue with a mixed look of concern and sympathy, and I realised my cheeks were wet where I'd been crying in my sleep.

Once I cleared customs and Immigration, I looked for a 'phone desk, to try and call my mother, to introduce myself, and ask if I could come and see her. I found the Verizon desk, and dialled the number, it rang a few times and then a soft voice answered.  

"Hello?"

"Hello," I replied, heart in my mouth," is this the residence of Julia Lowry?"

"Speaking, how can I help you?"

My heart leapt. "Um, hello...this is Nick Davies, I'm in New York, waiting for my connection to Albany...I wanted to come and see you if that would be alright?"

There was silence, then "Nicky! Oh my God, baby, where...how...yes, yes, of course, please, oh God, yes! When are you arriving in Albany?" 

I could barely speak as I read off my ticket. 

"Flight UA 4271 out of Newark, scheduled to arrive at Albany at 5:23 pm, I'll be wearing a black leather jacket and carrying a blue holdall. I'll see you then...Mother..."

"Of course Baby, I'll come get you, oh God, Nicky, I didn't know where you were, I couldn't find you...!"

I could hear tears in her voice, and I was almost in tears myself.

"I have to go, I'll miss my Shuttle, see you in an hour or so, OK?"

"OK baby, I'll...I'll see you then...!"

My head was whirling; in little more than an hour I was going to meet my mother, the woman I had been taken from because my father didn't want her to have me, not because he wanted me!

I boarded the shuttle bus for the short hop to the terminal for my flight, and waited in line to board, ticket at the ready. I boarded and, after what seemed an interminable time, the cabin crew closed and sealed the doors and we moved out to the taxi-way, engines gunning as we began the takeoff sequence.

The flight was short, slightly over an hour, and I was quickly disembarked, as I had no hold luggage to collect, and I walked through the concourse, trying to spot the face I had only seen for the first time in a photograph a couple of days ago. I spotted a medium height slender woman, hair the same colour as mine, and my heartbeat quickened. As I looked at her, she turned to face me, and I felt an immediate shock of recognition; her eyes, her nose, her ears, even her chin, were all mine, and I knew immediately, this was my mother, at last, still as beautiful as she was in the picture I had!

I know she recognised me, her hands flew to her mouth and she started running towards me, and I ran to her, to catch her and hold her tight, while she kissed me and hugged my neck almost hard enough to break it.

"Nicky, my poor baby, I never thought I'd see you again, Oh God, he took you away, he said I'd never have you back, that you were his son, not mine, that he was only taking what was his...!"

I was trying hard not to cry, and not succeeding very well. Everything about her was awakening more and more memories, her playing with me and tickling me on a mat of some sort in a big garden, swings and laughter, carrying me on her hip and tweaking my nose, kissing me goodnight, a whole cavalcade of forgotten moments suddenly reawakened and swelling through me, and I reached up on impulse and rubbed the tip of her nose with my thumb. She burst into tears at that. "Oh baby, I never thought I'd ever have you do that to me again, my poor, stolen baby, I missed you so much, I didn't know where he took you, I tried to find you, but I didn't know where to look...!"

She hugged me tightly again, making me wince as she pressed against my injuries, and drawing back with a start. "What, what happened, did someone hurt you, Nicky? Please, talk to me!" I was reluctant to talk about it, the grief over Barbara's death and my guilt still too close to the surface, but eventually it all spilled out, me crying on her as she held me. She gently unbuttoned my shirt, and hissed when she saw my torso, her liquid brown eyes suddenly flashing like polished citrines, hard and unforgiving.

"He used the buckle on you, didn't he? That was always his favourite, just to make sure he marked you properly. There's a special corner of hell for people like him, and he's already staked out his own plot; someone will fix him one day, mark my words!"

She stood up. "Come on, we're going home, your home, if you want it. You will stay with me won't you...?" I nodded. "I would love that, if you'll have me, if it's not too much trouble?"

Mother smiled. "After 19 years, I want to keep you as close as I can; I've got a lot of missing you to get over!"

We walked arm in arm to the short-stay parking garage, and climbed into a 1990 LeSabre that had definitely seen better days, the engine wheezing and hitching as we pulled away. Mother grinned apologetically.

"Sorry about the car, honey, we're not exactly living the high life right now; bills come first, so the car's a little...temperamental right now!" 

I grinned at her. "Do you have any tools at your home, Mother?" I asked her. 

"Sure, my husband's old tool chest is in the garage, why?"

"Because I'm a qualified Automotive Mechanic, well, barely, the ink's not quite dry, but I may be able to do something with this old beauty!" She smiled a big, lovely smile at me. 

"Really honey? Because I've been driving on the edge of calamity with my baby here for months now, I can't afford the mechanic to fix her, so..."

"Sure thing, just let me get some rest and I'll see what I can do!" I smiled.

After training on the endlessly complicated European cars infesting the roads in England, as well as the multitude of design variants each manufacturer came out with every year, I was itching to get my hands on a big, powerful, uncomplicated American road-machine like this lovely old LeSabre.

"Mother, you mentioned a husband, are you...?"

She looked sad for a moment. "No honey, my husband died four years ago, it's just me and Ashley now. And you can call me Mom, honey, no need for formality. You used to call me Mommy!" she said, tears in her voice again

Oh yes, Barbara had mentioned that mum had gotten pregnant. 

"So Ashley, is that a boy or a girl?" I asked, unsure, as it's a unisex name in England.

"She's a girl, your little sister, or perhaps not so little, she's eighteen now, be nineteen soon; she's with friends now, she should be home tonight. You'll like her, she's a good kid!"

We arrived at Mom's house, a medium-sized 3 bedroom ranch-style house in a nice looking neighborhood, with a small yard and a drive-in garage, not exactly ramshackle, but definitely not in the same class as the extensively remodelled homes surrounding it. We jumped out and mum led the way in. The house was neat and clean, but decidedly shabby; obviously money was being spent on the essentials, and there was none to spare for fripperies; I decided I'd better get a job as a priority if I was going to stay here.


Rag Doll Ch. 01



"Mother...Mom, I need to sort out a job, what do I need to do to enter the job market?"

Mum poked her head out from the kitchen. 

"Don't worry honey, once you've settled in we'll go down to the Social Security Administration, get your Social Security number issued, then we'll have to go over to the Department of Labor, get your qualifications assessed. If you got them from a college in England, then it should be accredited, then the next step is to actually find a job. That's when the fun starts!" 

I sat down gingerly; the drive had aggravated all my cuts and bruises, and mum noticed.

"Baby, take off your shirt, I want to look at your back!"

She appeared with a bottle of something and some cotton wool. I carefully took off my jacket and shirt, as the cuts had been bleeding, and my shirt had stuck to me in places. I took it off and whistled at the amount of blood caked on the inside of it, before wondering what my back looked like. 

"OK baby, face away from me!" said mum, and again she hissed as she saw my back. "Oh Jesus, what a mess!"

"What does it look like?" I asked, and she replied, "Not good, but it'll clean up. Now this is going to sting a little, can't be helped, I have to clean this up, so yell if you have to!"

She wasn't joking when she said it was going to sting; it felt like I was being branded, and she kept dropping bloody swatches of cotton wool into the waste bin at my feet, muttering and cursing under her breath all the while.

"OK Nicky, all done, go put on a loose shirt, and don't lean back against anything, and tonight, sleep on your front. Now, are you hungry?" 

Mom had put on a lovely thick beef stew, hot and filling. I'd not eaten anything since lunch the day before and I hadn't realised how ravenous I was, and she just kept filling my plate. I'd never eaten so well or so much; my father believed in moderation in all things, so meals tended to be frugal and uninteresting, cheap ingredients and minimal cooking to save fuel costs.

When we finished, I helped her clear up and wash-up, and she looked at my back again, as blood was still seeping through my shirt, and as I pulled my shirt off over my head a voice behind me said "Hi mom, what's for din...Holy shit, what the fuck happened to you?" I whirled around and the girl standing there hissed like Mom. "What the fuck did that to you?" she gasped.

"Ashley!" snapped mum, "I told you about language like that!"

Ashley stared at me. "Mom, who's this, and what's he doing half-naked in our house?"

Mum sat her down. "Ashley, meet Nicky Davies...my son. Nicky, this is my daughter, Ashley, your sister."

Ashley stared at me, her eyes widening and her mouth forming an 'O' of shock. "The boy you told me about, the one who disappeared? How did he...I mean...?"

Mom held my hand. "Nicky found out about me two days ago, he's been living in England, his father took him there, never told him about me, so he when he found out, he came home!" she was crying now.

"Mom, look at him! He looks like he's been horse-whipped! What the hell happened to him?"

I spoke up. "My father decided to beat up his wife, my step-mother, I tried to stop him, and..."

Ashley looked at me, eyes welling up. "Dear God, your father did this?" she whispered, "What about her, what happened to her?"

I was having a real problem getting the words out now"She tried to protect me, but we both got a beating anyway. She gave me the information about Mom, took me to the train station, and that's the last time I saw her alive; she got me out of there, and then she killed herself, it was all over the news when I got to the airport. That's what my father made her do." Tears were running down my face now, as I relived the guilt and shame. "I should have tried harder to bring her with me, get her out of there; if I had, she'd be alive now, it's my fault she killed herself, I should have made her come with me, I should have dragged her away...!"

Ashley took my hand, hugged me. "No, not true, you tried, but she wanted to do that, she wanted to escape, and you couldn't have stopped her; at least she helped you escape, at least she got you out of there first!"

All I wanted to do was sit in a corner and cry, too much had happened in the last 48 hours, and I was still processing where I was, who I was with, the emotional pummelling of the last couple of days finally caught up with me, I saw the floor rise up and that was all I remembered.

+++

When I awoke, the sunlight coming in the window had that fresh brightness that said 'early morning' and when I checked my watch I saw it was indeed just after 7am. I could smell coffee, and that more than anything else woke me up. I seemed to be in a girl's bedroom, frilly and pink were the general tone of the place, and I'd been lying on a sheet, probably placed there to prevent me bleeding all over the bedding; it was blood-smeared, but not as much as my shirt had been, so perhaps the bleeding had stopped now. I was in just my shorts, so someone had brought me in here and undressed me. Finding my jeans and shoes, I slipped them on and went to find the coffee.

I found Ashley curled up on the couch in the living room, looking massively cute in baggy pyjamas, watching cartoons with a big mug of coffee. She grinned at me "Hi Nick, you want a coffee? We haven't any tea, you know, and I know that's what you Brits like first thing, eh what, what?" she teased. "Love the accent, by the way!"

I grinned at her. "I'm not English, I'm an American, just like you; I was born in St Peter's, right here in Albany, although I only found that out a couple of days ago!"

Ashley smiled back. She really was stunning, mid-length, light coppery auburn hair in a casual twist over her shoulder, smoky green eyes, clear, fair skin with just a dusting of freckles across her small snub nose, and a rosebud mouth with rosy pink full lips, and from what I remembered from yesterday, a slim, lithe figure. "See anything you like?" she asked me in a teasing tone, and I realised I'd been assessing the hottie-quotient of my own little sister.

My face and ears felt hot, clear evidence I was blushing, and her grin grew even wider. 

"Mom says you're some kind of hot-shot mechanic; think you can do anything with that shit-heap parked out front?" 

Her smile was challenging, and I grinned. 

"I can try. Mother...Mom said there's tools and stuff in the garage, can I use them?" 

"I don't know, can you?" she grinned back, so I poured myself a coffee and went to see what was there. I was pleasantly surprised to see a proper mechanics tool-chest, fully stocked with everything I would need, and a rack full of spares for the LeSabre; obviously Mom's late husband had been planning a major overhaul of the car before he'd passed away.

I started the car and listened to the various groans, clanks, wheezes and rattles, mentally made a list of what I thought needed doing, and made a start on that lovely classic 3800 V6 engine, working methodically, logically, as I had been taught, addressing each issue in sequence. I worked happily, stopping now and then to chug down the coffee Mom or Ashley brought out to me, until I felt I'd gone as far as I could without a complete shop and pit. Mom came out and leaned on the car, looking closely at me.

"Would you like something to eat, honey, you've only been out here for nine hours!" she grinned, and I gaped; I was so lost in playing with this classic that the time had just run away from me.

"I think I'm about done. The silencer, I mean muffler needs replacing, I'll get one ordered, tomorrow I want to replace the brake pads, so I'll need her for a couple of hours, if possible, and the air-con needs re-gassing, so I'll have to find somewhere to get that done, but other than that, she should be roadworthy. Want to try her?"

She jumped in and started her up, no clonking or timing misfires, no wheezing, and when she pulled away, she did so without hitching or stalling. I love big lazy V6 engines, but hardly ever got to work on them in England, the cost of fuel there is so high that V6's & V8's are just too expensive to run.

Mom came back around the corner, parked up and slid out. "Honey, I think you just earned a special dinner tonight, what do you want?" she grinned.

"Dinner's on me Mom, you tell me where you want to go!" I still had more than $11,000 burning a hole in my pocket, and I wanted to treat my new-found family.

Ashley ambled on out. "How'd he do, Mom, did he get this shit-box off death-row?" she smiled, and Mom, tweaked my ear.

"That he did, Ashley, you have a very talented big brother!"

Ashley leaned up and kissed me on the cheek. "Thanks, Nicky, we depend on that car, and you really made a difference!"

My cheek burned where she'd kissed me, and I felt a frisson pass through me. I think she did too, because her eyes widened for a second, and she blushed prettily before turning away in confusion.

She tugged me back inside, and I have to admit, my eyes were fixed on her lovely rump, cute and round and shapely in her sprayed-on jeans, and the way she swayed as she moved, her cheeks switching as she walked, was truly entrancing. I washed-up with the can of mechanic's soap I found in the garage, and slumped down on the couch. 

I barley saw Ashley for the rest of the day – she seemed to be occupied in her room, and so Mom and I chatted around sandwiches about my life in England, school and college, which caused some confusion at first. Americans seem to equate 'college' with 'university', whereas in the UK, there are Technical Colleges, and Universities, each completely different from the other. Technical Colleges teach craft skills, universities are more academic than anything. I ended up explaining my qualifications, or trying to, until Mom held up her hands in surrender. "Let the people at the Employment Office work it out, Nick, you lost me with all the British talk!" she laughed.

Eventually I dozed, waking when Ashley sat down on the couch next me and flicked on the TV.

I tried to make conversation. "So Ashley, do you have a boyfriend or fiance?" and her face flushed. "No, nothing like that." 

I persisted. "I find that hard to believe. I hope you won't think this is weird, but I think you're a beautiful girl, you should be fighting them off..."

The expression on her face was unreadable, but her voice was steady. "I said no. There's no-one around here for me. Just let it drop, Nicky!"

I thought that was a most peculiar statement for such a hot girl, and looked curiously at her. "What's the problem, Ashley, I'm just trying to understand why a girl who looks like you should feel so unwanted!" 

She came and sat on the chair opposite me. "OK, you want to know why, I'll tell you why. This is a wealthy neighborhood, do we look rich? This house is the wrong side of the tracks, I'm from the wrong side of the tracks, and as far as the neighbors are concerned, we're one step away from trailer-trash. My daddy was ill for a very long time, and all our money went for his treatment until we had none left, and then everything else went, until this was all that was left and this is how we have to live. We used to be part of this neighborhood, until we lost everything, now we're nobody, just a fucking embarrassment, disturbing their perfect, Martha Stewart, white picket-fence lives, so they don't see us, they just wish we'd go away. When I went to my junior Prom, Mom bought me a dress from a thrift shop, took it in, sewed sequins and changed the hem, added pieces on, made it look really nice, but one of the other girls recognized it as a dress she'd given to Thrift, she told everyone, and they all laughed at me, everyone laughed at me, even the chaperones. They called me Rag-Doll, Dumpster-Diver, Raggedy-Ann, they hurt me, and they laughed at me; for years I had no friends in High School, no-one wanted to be seen with Rag-Doll, even now the only friends I have are the other outcasts and losers. You may have been born here, but you're not from here, and you don't understand what this is about, that anyone can do what they like to me, so no, Nicky, there's no-one in this fucking town for me, OK, did you get that, can I go now?"

She was furious, and I mentally kicked myself for making her tell me about something that obviously hurt her deeply. She stood up and stalked out of the room and into her bedroom, the door slamming behind her.

"You had no way of knowing, Nicky." said Mom behind me, and I spun round to see her looking sad. "When she was little, she had everything, and she saw it all go, and she couldn't understand why no more vacations, no more Birthday and Christmas parties, no more sleep-over's, no more pool parties at her friends' houses. After her father got sick, his business failed, and our savings, insurance, everything, ran out, and I had to go back to work just so we could eat; Ashley knows I'm the only mother in the neighborhood who actually needs to work, and all I could find is a part-time job, so we live the best way we can. This house never used to be like this, but with no money to keep it up, well...

When you used to be somebody, it's a real shock to find out what the bottom of the tree really looks like, and it's been hard on her. Her High School days should have been the best time of her life, instead it was a nightmare for her, and it's my fault. I just wanted her to have just one nice thing, some nice memories after her father got so sick, but it all went so wrong, and you just got the edge of it; I'm sorry, Nicky."

I felt like shit. All I wanted to do was compliment my frankly gorgeous sister, and instead I'd raked up a past she was desperately trying to forget. 

Mom came closer, kissed me gently on the cheek. "I think you need to eat something before you fall over, so go and get Ashley, she'll be OK in a minute, and let's go find someplace good for dinner!"

I smiled and went to Ashley's door, knocked gently. "Ashley, it's me, Nicky. If I ask you nicely, will you have dinner with me, please?"

I heard some faint noises from inside and then her door opened, her eyes reddened where she'd obviously been crying. I wanted to say something first, though.

"Ashley, I'm sorry for pushing like that, I had no business prying, or upsetting you. I'm sorry, please forgive me, I won't do that again. Please have dinner with me, let me apologize for upsetting you."

She smiled back at me. "Nicky, I'm sorry, you didn't know, how could you? I would love to have dinner with you, you smooth-talking Englishman you! Where are you taking me?"

I smiled. "It's your choice, anyplace you like, sky's the limit, besides, it's not like I actually know any good places here!"

"Italian?" 

"Italian!" I agreed, and so we rejoined Mom, Ashley with her arm through mine. 

"Mom, we're going to DaVinci's, Nicky wants to eat Italian, and it's been too long since I had Osso Buco Milanese, so let's go!"

Mom drove across town, and I was pleased to note the car seemed to be humming like a top. We went into what looked like a very popular Trattoria, were seated and placed our orders, and drank soda's while we waited for our meal. Mom excused herself, and Ashley and I were talking when she paled. "Oh no," she breathed, "Monica Delucci, of all the people to walk in, it had to be her!" I asked her why, and Ashley told me she was the one who nicknamed her 'Rag-Doll'.

"Quick, Nicky, pretend you're my boyfriend, please, just do it now!" I wrapped my arm around her shoulder, but she squirmed around and kissed me on the lips, her hands on either side of my face.

"Well looky here, Raggedy-Ann got herself a boyfriend!" said the blowsy looking, piggy-eyed chubby girl approaching our table with a malicious grin pasted on her doughy face.

I decided that now was the time to be Über-English, and in my best phony Hugh Grant accent said to Ashley "Who is this...person, Darling Girl, and why is she dressed so badly, surely mirrors are available absolutely everywhere – is she doing it for a dare?"

Monica flushed, while the people at the adjacent table grinned broadly.

She tried gamely to recover; "So who's the Englishman then, Raggedy-Ann?", and I decided to go for the throat.

"Really, Ashley, Darling, I thought you had better taste in friends. How very boorish, to interrupt us at dinner like this! Whoever you are, young woman... if indeed, you are a woman...please go away, you're disturbing me; after all, I don't turn off the Red Light when you're working!" The people at the next table burst out laughing, and the blowsy girl flushed, going scarlet when I spoke in a piercing aside to Ashley "and such dreadfully bad taste in clothes, really, doesn't she know people can see her, is she colour-blind...?"

Monica waddled off, half the people in the restaurant grinning broadly at her, and Ashley spun in her seat and hugged me. "Oh God, Nicky, that was so cool, thank you for squashing that bitch, she's had it coming for years!" Before I knew it, she'd kissed me again, only this time she slid her tongue between my lips and against mine, holding the back of my head, kissing me just slightly longer than would be proper for a sisterly kiss, and as for the tongue thing...

She broke and stared at me as I stared at her, then she slowly smiled and licked her lips, and hugged me again. "I think I'm going to like having my big brother around!" she whispered in my ear, before lightly licking my earlobe and giving me a minxy grin.

Just then Mom turned up, and seated herself. "You both look extremely pleased with yourselves, did something happen? Come on, what have I missed?"

Ashley's eyes danced with glee. "That fat bitch Monica Delucci tried to put me down and Nicky squashed her; he went all English on her, and shut down her fat face properly, the whole place was laughing at her!"

Mom grinned at me and took my hand. "Thank you Nicky, I knew you'd be good for Ashley!" 

I smiled at Ashley. "Nobody puts my kid sister down, not while I'm around!"

Just then dinner arrived, and we set to. I hadn't realised just how ravenous I was until that slab of lasagne was slid in front of me, and it tasted divine. Even with all his money, my father had seldom splashed out on treats like this, so I had only ever eaten the sad and dejected lasagne they served in the school cafeterias; now, to eat the real thing, it was just amazing, the different tastes and textures like nothing I had ever eaten before.

Ashley smiled at me. "That good, huh?" as I forked it into my mouth, chasing the last of the sauce with a piece of cornbread, convinced I'd died and gone to heaven.

Mom leaned back, her Spaghetti Carbonara just a distant memory. "Thank you, Nicky; I can't remember the last time we ate out, this is a meal we'll remember for a long time."

I cocked an eye at her. "Mom, if I can get a job, I'll take you to dinner at least once a week, that's a promise!" 

She smiled. "Ooh, I might just hold you to that, Nicky! I could get used to this!"

We sat and chatted some more, and then Mom pushed her chair away. "Well, kids, we have to call it a night, I have work in the morning, so why don't we head home and get some rest? You've had a long day, Nicky; you look about done-in."

The waiter brought our bill, and I settled up, and we headed back home, Ashley electing to ride in the back with me, her hand in mine and her head resting against my shoulder, snuggled up against me. 

When we got home, Mom showed me to my room, sparsely furnished with a box spring and frame bed and a small closet, which was fine because all I owned in the world was in my holdall, so I had no pressing need for closet space. I kissed Mom good night, and she went of to her room. I was just putting my things away when I heard my door opening, and there stood Ashley, wearing a long T-shirt and baggy pyjama bottoms. 




Rag Doll Ch. 01



"Hello Nicky, I just came to see if you were OK in here, and to thank you for being my knight in shining armour!"

I smiled at her. "No thanks needed, you're my kid sister, and I'm happy to be your knight in shining armour, 'Sans peur et sans reproche', all dragon-slaying free of charge for you, milady!"

She smiled but persisted with what she wanted to say.

"No Nicky, it's more than that; it feels safer having a man in the house again; ever since daddy died, Mom and I have been alone; if anything bad happened to us, we had no-one to protect us, but I know Mom feels safe again, for the first time in four years. She usually sleeps on a hair-trigger, but last night was the first real rest she's had since daddy died, and it's because of you. Plus the whole 'having you back' thing, her mind's really at peace for the first time in a very long time, so thank you for that; for making us feel safe, and giving Mom some peace of mind at last."

To my surprise, I could see she was almost in tears, and I held out my arms to her, and she came and hugged me, being careful not to hug me too tight, her head buried in my chest.

"Mom was always afraid we'd get robbed, or worse, someone looking for some helpless women, she was terrified of that, so was I, and I know no-one around here would help us, so I'm just so thankful you came home, even if it wasn't the way it should have been!"

I was horrified that the women in my family were so vulnerable, so frightened, so alone, that there was no-one they could depend on. Well, now they had me, and I would protect them. I tilted her head up, and was shocked and distressed to see tears in her eyes, and need for reassurance written on her face.

"Ashley, I will never let anything happen to you or Mom. I'll make sure you and Mom are safe, I promise! Tomorrow, we're going to find a hardware store, and we're getting some proper locks and security hardware, and we'll fit them so you can sleep secure in your bed. OK?"

Ashley looked up at me. "Thank you for coming home just when we needed you, Nicky, you really are a godsend." She looked so sweet, so vulnerable, I bent down to kiss her forehead, brotherly and proper, but she tilted her head up to me and pressed her lips to mine, kissing me properly, and I kissed her back, enjoying the feel of her lips against mine, her body pressed against mine, her sweet breath on me as she broke our kiss to rapidly kiss me on my face, my neck, my throat, and again my lips, her tongue darting in and out of my mouth, fencing with my tongue as I tasted her again, feeling myself harden as she moved against me. Ashley hugged me and held her head against my chest, like she was listening to my heartbeat, and spoke softly.

"Nicky, can I stay with you tonight, please? Just ...stay, nothing else, I just want to feel safe again, like when my daddy was still here."

My heart broke open and bled for her, and there was nothing I could say except "Yes, of course, stay tonight, stay as many nights as you need, whatever it takes to make you feel safe. You just rest now, OK?"

She climbed into the bed, and wrapped the covers around herself, and I lay on top of the covers, with my arm around her. She immediately squirmed right up against me, and, with a happy sigh, closed her eyes, and was asleep in a couple of minutes. I lay awake for a while, trying to sort out how I felt about this girl who had become a part of my life so suddenly. I knew intellectually that she was my sister, but another, more visceral part of me wanted to ignore that altogether, it just wanted her, and I was feeling very conflicted about it. The truth was, I had no experience of her as a sister, we had no history whatsoever as siblings. All I knew was Ashley, the very pretty, no make that beautiful, girl I had just met, and I was enormously attracted to her, and found it remarkably easy to discount the sister aspect of her completely. I wondered how, if ever, I could be more than her older brother to her. She appeared to be opening the door for me, but maybe I was just misreading her intentions –my experience with girls wasn't exactly extensive, and I needed some guidance here, but from whom? My mother? Not very likely! I fell asleep pondering this puzzle that was Ashley Lowry.

I woke with the lark, my watch said 5:30 and I lay there, with an unfortunate morning erection pressed hard into Ashley's rump as she spooned up against me. I tried thinking about doing the work on the car, hoping to make it go down, or at least back off a little, as I was dying for a pee, but it had no real effect. I was desperately doing my French grammar exercises, conjugating verbs in the hope of distracting myself, when I saw Mom, smiling at me through the open door. That immediately had the desired effect, oh yes!

"So she stayed here last night, then?" she whispered, and I smiled and nodded. 

"She was frightened; she asked if she could, I couldn't very well say no, so..."

Ashley stirred and opened one eye. "Could you two please save this for later, I'm trying to sleep!" before patting me on the hip and rolling over to go back to sleep. 

I got up as gently as possible so as not to disturb her further, and found the bathroom, then followed Mom into the sitting room.

She was making coffee, and brought me a cup, sitting down next to me. "I'm glad you're here, Nicky, Ashley already feels safer in her home; she's been afraid for a long time now, ever since..."

I felt a cold hand on me. "Ever since what, Mom?" I asked, suddenly afraid I already knew the answer.

Mom sat down, and looked at me. "She was...attacked, outside, two years ago, a boy followed her home and grabbed her on the porch, dragged her out back, and ...and..." she stopped, swallowed, and continued. "The police found no useable evidence, he used a condom, so no DNA, and she's been hurting and terrified ever since. My daughter was raped because I couldn't do anything to protect her!"

I nearly blacked-out with the shock. My sister, my kid sister, abducted off her own porch and raped, and no-one could do anything about it! That's what she'd meant when she'd said anyone could do what they liked to her! I was outraged, horror-struck, nearly blinded with anger; I'd only been home a few days, but already my protective instincts were kicking –in, and my rage towered inside me, my whole body trembling as I fought for balance, trying to suppress the urge to go looking for him, find him, whoever he was, and throw him around until I'd broken every bone in his body, beat him into a quivering mass of flesh, crush him to pulp with my bare hands.

Suddenly Mom was there, holding me tight, waiting for the rage to subside, smoothing my hair, talking urgently to me.

"Stop it Nicky, leave it, it's gone now, please baby, calm down, it's in the past, you're here now, and she's safe, she's got you to protect her now, that's what matters, please, baby, stop this, don't be the man your father is!"

That brought me up short; blind, unreasoning rage was one of my father's trademarks, and I would rather burn in hell than become in any way like him. Mom felt me relax as her words penetrated the haze of anger and outrage, and suddenly I was back in the room with her, muscles twitching in reaction as I relaxed, tears welling up as I thought of that poor, vulnerable girl and the shocking violation she'd endured, the theft of her most basic right; the right to say 'no'.

"Mom, I promised her I'd protect both of you. Today I'll be fitting new locks and hardware around the house, make this place as secure as I know how, so at least you can sleep easy at night. I'll always be here for both of you, I'm so sorry I wasn't here for you before. If I'd known about you, known how alone and frightened you were, I'd have come to you years ago, please believe me!"

Mom hugged me. "I know, Nicky, I'm just grateful you're here now, my family is back together again, that's all that matters to me."

"So what's with the love-fest?" said a sleepy voice from the doorway, and I looked round to see Ashley, hair dishevelled but looking adorable, standing in the doorway, eyes still sleepy."I'm trying to sleep, but you two yakking in here is keeping me awake!"

Mom grinned. "A miracle, she's up before 11 o'clock!" 

Ashley sat down next to me, leaning against me with her head against my shoulder and her arm through mine, and I instinctively moved my arm to put it around her, hugging her close to me so she could cuddle up against me on the couch, tucking her feet up under her. She pulled my head down and kissed me on the cheek, whispering "Hi, Big Boy!" as she did, and I felt my face and ears heat up again as I blushed.

Mom looked at me, then at Ashley. "Baby, Nick knows, I told him; I thought he should know."

Ashley looked up at me with those luminous smoky green eyes of hers, and said in a small voice "So now you know; now do you think I'm trash, too?"

I nearly choked with all the things I wanted to say, and I hugged her to me, fiercely, protectively. "Ashley, I could never, would never, think that of you; you're my little sister, and my job is to protect you, no matter what. I wasn't here to look out for you before, and I'm so sorry, but I'm here now, and I'll never let anyone hurt you again, I swear!"

She reached up and pulled me down to kiss me on the cheek again. "Thank you Nicky, I'm glad my big brother came home at last!" 

Mom got up and stretched. "I have to get to work, if anyone wants breakfast, now's the time to ask, otherwise I'm getting a shower."

There were no takers, so Mom went to the bathroom and I remained seated, nursing my coffee while Ashley snoozed against me. I thought she'd probably be more comfortable in her bed, but when I tried to get her to move, she just hugged herself closer to me, muttering adorably, and refused to wake up, so I sat there, in my shorts, waiting for her to waken so I could get a shower.

Mom left before 7 am; even though it was Sunday, it was month-end and she had to sort out the payroll at the firm she worked at part-time, and she told me she'd be back late. Kissing her fingertip and touching it to Ashley's forehead, and doing the same to me, she left for work. I was happy to sit there for a while and finish my coffee, but my arm was beginning to go dead from her weight against me.

"Ashley, Ashley, time to get up!" I tried whispering loudly, hoping to rouse her, but she seemed determined to sleep through anything I had to say, so, in desperation, I reached across and pinched her on her pneumatic little backside. That did the trick, as her eyelids slammed open and she gave a little cry as she started up.

"Sorry Ashley", I said "My arm went to sleep, it was really uncomfortable, I tried waking you but..." 

She grinned. "That's OK, Nick, you can pinch my butt anytime you like!"

That was a little unexpected, not to say strange, but I couldn't help smiling at her cheeky grin. "Now you're awake, do you want some breakfast, or do you want to go back to your room?"

"Take me to my room, please, Nicky!" she smiled, so I handed her up from the couch and took her hand to lead the way. 

"No, I meant take me, you know, carry me!" Feeling faintly ridiculous, I picked her up, marvelling at how little she weighed, and carried her to her bedroom and laid her down on her bed. 

"Thank you Nicky, now you shall claim your reward, good sir knight!" she grinned, and as I wondered what she was talking about, she hooked her arms around my neck and pulled me down to her, kissing me again like she'd done last night, lips parted and gentle against mine, her tongue gently probing my mouth. I have to say, it was a very enjoyable kiss, the fact that she was beautiful, and very sexy, adding enormously to my enjoyment!

I suddenly realised what I was doing, and pulled away, stuttering apologies for taking advantage of her, but she just put her finger on my lips.

"Shush, Nicky, I wanted to do that again ever since last night, so don't apologize, I liked it!"

I was a little confused now; she was my sister, and she wanted to kiss me; what was wrong with that statement?

"Umm, Ashley, I really don't think we should do that, it's...wrong, not normal, not what brothers and sisters do...!" She just grinned at me, her grin getting wider as I stumbled over what I was trying to say. Finally I dried up, and just looked at her helplessly.

"OK, are you finished?" she asked, and I nodded mutely. "Good, my turn. Nicky, for a long time I pretended that my big brother would come home one day, save Mom and me, be the man of the house and keep us safe. You came home, and you were as handsome, and as nice as I'd imagined, and you were my Prince Charming on his white horse when I needed him, saving me from the wicked witch, and you were a perfect gentleman, you made me feel safe and protected no matter how badly you were hurting inside. I kissed you last night to welcome you home, and to thank you for coming back to us, and because I wanted to. And I liked it, and I wanted to do it again, so now I want you to kiss me, or I'm going to kiss you. Now come up here, and sit next to me, because either way, it's going to happen!"

I was a feeling a little shell-shocked, and so I sat on her bed, resting against the headboard, and made no protest when she kissed me again, and it was as good as the last time. She seemed to be making an all-out effort to kiss me properly, and it was a wonderful kiss. I felt myself responding, and I slid my arms around her to hold her close as I kissed her back, feeling her yielding softness against me. She broke our kiss to grin impishly at me. "There now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" and I had to agree; not bad at all, which made what I had to say doubly-hard.

She leaned over to kiss me again, and I held her off, while I looked her in the eyes.

"Ashley, where are you going with this?" I asked her, "Because if you just want sex, then perhaps we should call it quits right now. I won't lie; I'm enormously attracted to you, I could seriously fall for you, and if you don't feel the same way, then please don't take it any further; I'm not sure what I want from you, but it's more than just sex, and if you got the wrong idea, that I just wanted a bit of fun, then I'm sorry, I didn't mean to mislead you. There has to be more, I want more than just a bit of slap and tickle, and if you feel the same way, then perhaps we can make a go of with this, otherwise I have to leave, now; I'm sorry, but that's just the way I'm made, and I don't want to hurt you!"

She suddenly slid onto my lap, straddling me with her hands on either side of my face, holding me.

"Nick, when I first saw you I thought you were the handsomest, most charming, nicest boy I had ever met, and I was delighted you were my big brother, come home at last. With all that happened to you, your only thoughts were for your family, for that poor lady in England, and when you cried for her because you couldn't save her, well, I melted inside when I heard that, when I saw how caring and good you were. I thought you were sexy, and beautiful, and something deep down inside clicked and I knew you were the one for me! You make me feel safe, and loved, and protected, and you do that just by being near me, and I want that feeling to keep on happening. I admire you for what you just said; not many other people would have had the character to do and say that, and that just makes me want you more. You are a very sexy guy, did you know that?" 

Now she was pulling me closer for another wonderful kiss, her tongue soft and gently probing against mine, her lips soft and gentle but insistent, and her body slim and supple to hold as we kissed, no more misgivings or doubts. Something was definitely happening further south, and she was well aware of it, sliding back and forth in my lap, rubbing herself against me, teasing me and making my burgeoning erection harder and more obvious. As my erection swelled, so her movements became more insistent, and her breathing started to hitch as she became more aroused. I realised what she was doing, and almost stopped breathing, I was so anxious not to break her concentration. She broke our kiss again to throw her head back, her cheeks flushing and her eyes closed as she squirmed and rubbed on me, until her body went rigid, and her eyes snapped open, and she gave a sobbing groan as she climaxed, keeping up her rubbing motion to extend her orgasm. I wasn't a virgin, although not vastly experienced, but I knew my way around a seduction routine, and this was the first time I'd been ambushed, and it was a doozy!

At last her breathing returned to normal, and she smiled at me, tears in her eyes. 

"I did it, Nicky, Oh God, I really did it! I didn't think I could, not ever again!" 

She glued her lips to mine again for a long and very satisfying kiss, before jumping off me and pulling me upright and off the bed. She began pulling off her pyjama bottoms, and I stopped her.

"Did what, Ashley, what do you mean?" I asked, and she smiled at me, a truly beautiful, happy, dazzling smile.

"I came, silly! All because of you! Ever since I was raped, I never thought I could have that again, but you made it happen for me!"

She carried on pulling off her pyjamas, 

"Ashley, what do you think you're you doing?" I asked her. She grinned that grin again. "Getting naked Nicky, what does it look like, aren't you going to join me?"

I watched her as she finished pulling off her pyjama pants to reveal small tight pink cotton panties with a large damp patch around the crotch area. When she pulled off her top, I almost groaned at the sight. She had small but perfectly-formed breasts, 32B maybe, high and firm, tipped with delectable rose-pink nipples at least half an inch long, just begging to be pulled and sucked, and all I could think was, sister or no, I wanted her, the realisation that I was falling for this girl suddenly rising up and slamming into me, catching me almost unawares.

She grinned as I caught her up and pressed my lips to hers, her arms going around my neck as she ground herself against me, my hands sliding down to cup her tight buttocks and pull her in closer to me. I slid my hands inside her panties to feel her smooth skin and hooked the waistband to edge them down, getting them past her thighs before she stepped away from me to slide them off and stand before me naked and gorgeous, her shaven pussy bare and smooth, the lips just visible as she stood. 

"Your turn, Nick!" she grinned, and I obliged, sliding down my shorts and kicking them away, Ashley stepping close to me again, her hands fondling me as she kissed me, one small hand rubbing and pumping my solidly erect cock while the other gently cupped and massaged my scrotum. I backed up to the bed, and she pushed me lightly, causing me to sit down, and she pushed me over backwards, grinning all the while, as she climbed onto the bed and hooked a finger at me. I needed no further encouragement, and swung up on the bed to lie next to her, enjoying the sight of her nakedness and the silky smooth feel of her supple, sexy body.

Ashley lay on her side, smiling at me as I drank in the sight of her, before I pulled her closer to me, my head dipping down to suck and lap at her lovely sexy nipples, feeling them become taut and rubbery against my tongue and lips, and when I gently rubbed them with my teeth, she groaned and held my head in place as she quivered and writhed against me.

She pulled away from me and gently urged me onto my back, climbing on top of me and kissing me again, her tongue probing and rubbing against mine, while I found her buttocks and slid my hands into the warm cleft, gently brushing her anal pucker and sliding further, to rub gently at her slit, feeling the wetness as her juices flowed and dampened her labia, lubricating her and making her ready.




Rag Doll Ch. 01



Ashley sat up astride me, smiling mysteriously, and reached back to hold my cock as she raised up and slowly slid herself onto it. I don't have a huge cock, but neither do I have a pencil-dick; I would describe it, at seven inches, as better than average, but not excessively so, but it is thick, and Ashley was feeling it as she ground herself down onto me, her eyes narrowing in concentration as she gingerly slid herself onto me. When she'd finished, she began slowly rising and falling, pumping herself on me, her pussy tight and wet and hot, the friction against my cock delightful.

I clamped my hands on her delectable backside, squeezing and massaging the taut firm globes as she pumped above me, before switching my attention to her breasts, lightly pinching and twirling her nipples and massaging the firm little mounds of flesh, her eyes closing and her neck and chest flushing as her arousal climbed. I began thrusting into her as she continued to pump herself onto me, grinding her clitoris against me on the down-stroke, working herself up as she rode me. We began to pick up the pace, feeling the need to orgasm, her breath coming in shorter and shorter gasps as she rode me faster and faster, and my hips thrusting harder and harder as I tried to keep pace with her. Ashley came with a loud and heartfelt groan, her pussy walls clasping me tight as they convulsed around me, her orgasm pulsing in her cervix against me, and I gasped out "Ash, I'm ...oh God ...I'm gonna come...!" She slumped down onto me, her lips seeking out mine as she moaned, "Yes, do it, Nicky, do it, come inside me...!" and with that I spurted jet after jet of sperm deep into her, my orgasm triggering another series of orgasmic waves in her, the pulsations in her vagina milking my cock as I sprayed her insides with my spunk, my hands clutching her buttocks tightly as I continued to empty my cock into her.

At last I stopped ejaculating, and the rhythmic waves in her vagina died away, Ashley still lying on me, her body quivering and trembling as the aftershocks of her orgasm slowly died away. 

"What did you do to me, you naughty Englishman, you!" she grinned. "Not English...American!" I panted, smiling at her impish grin. She must have seen something change in my expression as a sudden chilling thought flashed across my mind now that I was thinking with my brain again, as she picked-up on what had just occurred to me; that I had come in my sister, and I hadn't even asked if she was protected, just fired on all barrels!

Ashley grinned at me. "Don't worry, Nicky, I'm on the pill! After what happened, Mom was taking no chances. We can do this as many times as we like!"

She dismounted me as I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and slumped gracefully down on the bed next to me, tracing the bruises on my side and stomach, checking the state of the open cuts and score-marks.

I hugged her to me, basking in my realisation that she had caught me, that I was hers now, feeling foolish and happy and a multitude of other emotions as her warmth and beauty mesmerised me; she really was an absolute stunner, and she was mine!

She looked pensively at me for a moment, and seemed to come to a decision. "So, what's he like, Nicky, your father, I mean, what's he like? 

I thought for a second, mentally switching-tracks from her to thinking about my dog-cock father. "Driven, grasping, cheap, greedy, obsessed with money but never actually spends any, vicious, violent, believes that rules, of society, good behaviour, common politeness, don't apply to people like him. He's not a good person, or a good man. But, there must have been something about him once, otherwise Mother...Mom would never have married someone like that, so maybe he changed. I know he used to beat her, that's probably why she...did what she did."

Ashley looked up at me with an interested expression.

"What did she do, Nicky?"

I was uneasy about telling her this, this was rightfully a story Mom should be telling her.

"Nicky, does this have something to do with daddy?" Now she was looking agitated.

"Look Ashley," I began, "this is not really mine to tell, and I would be guessing at half of it; perhaps you should ask Mom when she gets home. What I will tell you is that what she did probably saved her life, knowing my father, and yes, I think it does have something to do with your father. More than that I can't say, because I honestly don't know. What little I've told you I only learned the day before I came to America, so there's some big gaps there."

Ashley looked steadily at me. " OK Nick, you're right, I'll ask her!"

With that, she sat up, her lovely little breasts jiggling delightfully, my gaze drawn to them.

She smiled again. "Like the girls, do you?" and I nodded, grinning happily, watching her as she stretched like a cat, her lithe, limber young body glowing with health and vitality, and I thought I'd never seen a more beautiful sight.

"Ash, can I ask you a question, and if you tell me to mind my own business I'll completely understand."

She nodded. "Ask away, I'll try and answer, but I'm not promising anything!"

"So, after what ...happened to you, were you not...afraid to, you know, with a man, because of what he did to you?"

Ashley leaned on my chest, looked into my eyes with her beautiful luminous malachite eyes and pursed her lips.

"Nick, Nicky, today, just now, I did what I did because I wanted to, not because anyone forced me; back then it was about what he wanted, what he could do to me. What he did was take away my choice; what I did today was make that choice for myself; I was ready to do this, and I wanted to, because you helped me to feel I was normal again; yes, I remember the pain and the fear and the loss of control over what happened to me, but that was then, and it's gone, and no, I don't hate all men and want to cut their balls off, just his!"

I hugged her close to me. "I'm sorry for raking it up, I just wanted to be sure that I hadn't added to what you're already carrying around inside; I wanted you to know that not all of us are like that, and I would never take advantage of you, in anything, or force you to do anything you didn't want to do."

She kissed me softly. "I know Nicky, and thank you for thinking like that!" 

I turned on my side to face her, sliding my arm under her so I could hold her buttocks and pull her close enough to kiss her properly. Ashley happily complied, holding herself close to me with her arms around my neck, making sure she didn't touch my still-raw back, kissing me back as warmly as I kissed her.

Eventually she broke our kiss to grin at me. "I guess what I said yesterday isn't true anymore; there is someone for me in this town, after all! Now I have to work out a way to tell Mom...!"

I smiled at her. "We'll tell Mom, it's you and I now, if that's what you want...? I hesitated, not knowing how to continue.

Ashley smiled slowly at me. "Why Nick, whatever are you saying?" she asked me softly.

I smiled back at her. "I think I'm saying that I'm yours, if you'll have me, that I know now how much I need you, and that you will always be the only one for me!"

She gasped, eyes suddenly shining with unshed tears, and smiled like the sun breaking through on a cloudy day. 

"Nick, I told you earlier how I felt about you, how I felt when I first saw you, that hasn't changed in the last hour or so, and I'm glad you said what you said, otherwise I was going to ask you; I'm already yours, you had me the first time you smiled and checked me out!"

I grinned, smacked her lightly on her tight little bottom.

"OK, now we know, I need a shower, so do you, we need to go shopping, I feel like spending some money on my girl, what do you want most in the world right now?"

Ashley gave a wide grin. "I would like a new pair of jeans, please Santa, tight enough to give Mom a stroke!"

"Done!" I said, and her expression became serious. "Nicky, I like the thought of being your girl, it feels right, but I was only kidding! Save your money, please, you'll need it for yourself!"

I demurred "No, Ashley, you need stuff, Mom needs stuff, this house needs stuff, new locks and suchlike, to make it safe, so get ready, we're going shopping!"

After a quick shower together, with Ashley carefully washing and drying-off my back, she applied some fresh gauze dressings and helped me put on a clean shirt, and she appeared in a loose top, jeans and cowboy boots. Mom had the car, so we walked a couple of blocks to the bus stop to catch a connection into the Colonie Center, a biggish mall in town. 

Ashley was in her element; I meant it when I said I wanted to spend money on her, and it felt good to see her face as she shopped for the first time in what was probably a long time, given the state of the family finances. I promised myself again I'd do something about that; Mom and Ashley had gone without everything except the bare necessities for far too long.

Ashley bought shoes and underwear, and then, after we'd toured through what felt like every shop in the entire mall, took me to somewhere called Target, where she loaded-up on tops, jeans and summer-wear. She looked so happy, buying new clothes, and I was astonished at how cheap clothes were here, given how expensive they were in England, one of my father's compelling reasons for hardly ever buying me any. I bought some jeans, underwear and shirts she picked out for me, I'd only brought one pair of jeans with me, and I'd been in them four days now, so a change was definitely due! 

She also knew Mom's size and taste, so she picked up some things for her, blouses, that kind of thing, and then she took me to Home Depot, where I bought proper single-cylinder deadbolt locks, one for each door, a pair of solid, old-fashioned barrel shoot-bolts for each door, and a sash lock for every window in the house. I also bought a PIR porch light and some electrical cable, so the porch would never again be dark enough that someone could lurk there unseen; my family needed to feel safe, and this was the best way I knew how to do it.

We lunched in a famous fast-food franchise outlet, and eventually got back home about 3pm. Ashley set about trying on her new clothes while I got some tools from the garage and began replacing the rickety old locks on the front and back doors. The doors were fine old Red Cedar, aged and tough, but the locks were gimcrack things you could pop with a knife blade, so I removed them and swapped them with the new ones, one for each door; luckily the locks were the same size, just infinitely sturdier, or I might have had a problem; no issues here with replacing old, imperial-dimensioned locks with metric ones, which is still a real pain in England, and at least now the two doors were secured. I knew how to do this because my father had made me do this same task at home, deciding that a tradesman was an unnecessary expense when he had unpaid labour living in his house and eating his food, so I'd replaced all the locks in the house under his critical eye.

The windows were the same, old and solid, but still with sash-bolts from the 1930's, completely ineffective and easily opened with a knife blade from outside, so I replaced them all with proper sash-locks, an easy, screw-in job, and ran in the cable for the light and mounted it on the porch. Tomorrow, when I had more time to work out the electrical system, and better light, I would connect it up. I felt a sense of achievement when I'd finished; my family was as safe as I could make them, now they could at least sleep easier at night. 

Ashley called me to come and see, so I went to her room, and what a sight I saw! She was wearing a white lace bustiere and miniscule panties, white stockings with lace tops, and black stilettos, her hair back-combed into a bouffant, and her face made-up carefully; she looked stunning, something other parts of me noticed right away!

She smiled and slowly pirouetted. "Like it, Nicky? I bought these especially for you, so you'd better say yes!"

I was speechless, she was an absolute dream, a feast for the eyes, how the boys in her school could be so mean to her was beyond me. I stepped up to her, and she draped her arms around my shoulders and kissed me deeply and meaningfully. 

"Now you've seen your present, are you going to unwrap it?" she whispered in my ear, my hands instantly sliding down her back to cup and squeeze her lovely taut buttocks, the silky material of her panties clinging sensuously to her smooth skin.

I began unhooking the back of the bustiere, Ashley's lips glued to mine the whole time, and when the last hook was unclipped, she stood away from me and let it drop to the floor, to stand before me in her panties, her legs long and elegant, the stilettos enhancing the shapely calves and sleek thighs.

I pulled her close to me and kissed her some more, my hands sliding into the waistband of her panties at her hips, sliding them down past her buttocks, down her thighs to let them float to the floor, and now she was naked except for her stockings and high heels.

She popped the button of my jeans, helping me to drag them of and tugging my shirt carefully over my head, so I was now in just my briefs, my erect cock clearly visible to her, the head peeking over the waistband. Ashley kissed me while her hand massaged the front of my briefs, feeling my size and squeezing the shaft through my briefs, her tongue fencing with mine as she groped my cock. She tugged the front of my briefs down, allowing my cock to rear up fully, and she wrapped her hand around it and squeezed gently, sliding the skin back and rubbing her thumb lightly across the head, making me ache as my cock hardened even further, if that was possible.

I slid my hand down her flat stomach and between her legs, feeling the warmth of her pussy as she began to respond to my kissing and fondling of her, her labia dewy and slick with her secretions. I teased her lips apart, sliding my finger into the warm recess, her lips parting against mine as she softly gasped, and her hand on my neck pulling me in closer to kiss her harder. I rubbed and frigged her gently, her hips moving against my hand, pushing herself against me, until she broke our kiss to urge me towards the bed. I stepped away from her and she immediately pushed my briefs down until I could kick them off to be completely naked with her.

Ashley climbed onto the bed and turned to smile invitingly at me, and I wasted no time in joining her, sliding onto the bed and pulling her close to me to taste her lips and fondle her as we kissed.

She slid down the bed and onto her back, and I dipped my head down to nibble and graze on her sweet nipples, enjoying the firm rubbery nubs against my tongue and teeth, making her gasp and twitch as I pulled them gently with my teeth, one hand steadily rubbing and teasing her labia, dipping in and out, circling her clitoris, making her gasp as her face and neck flushed, the flush spreading down to her throat and chest. Now I kissed between her breasts, lapping a trail down her firm abdomen, to point my tongue into her little jewel of a navel, licking and teasing her. 

Ashley groaned, and twined her fingers in my hair, whispering to me "Now Nicky, I need you now!"

I moved between her thighs, Ashley parting her legs for me and taking hold of me, guiding me, and smiling when she was ready. I gently pushed forward, feeling her open up for me, the moist heat wonderfully exciting against the swollen head of my penis. I sank into her, Ashley groaning contentedly as I filled her up again, and when I was in up to the hilt, I began pumping into her, her hips rising to meet mine as we danced together, in perfect harmony, our bodies perfectly matched in need and motion.

I could feel my orgasm building, and she also was approaching climax, her thrusts against me more urgent, more insistent, her head thrown back as she held me with her interlaced fingers around the back of my neck, using me as leverage to thrust against me.

She came with a long, guttural moan, her pussy walls clamping tight around me and her back arching as her orgasm flared through her, her juices squirting from her and coating my midsection with her warmth. The sensation was too much for me, and I gave a deep groan as I came, emptying myself into her in long, pulsing jets of sperm shooting into her innermost recesses. We held that pose until our mutual orgasms died away, strained and straining muscles and tendons finally relaxing as I collapsed against her, her lips seeking out mine as we tenderly kissed in the afterglow of our passion. 

I rolled over, taking her with me, her stocking-clad legs on either side of me as I once again clasped hold of her delightful, pneumatic little bum, marvelling again at the taut, firm springiness of her cheeks, the firm muscular flesh, the way they fitted my hands, as though cast for that very purpose.

"We have to get dressed, Mom will be home in an hour or so, and I need to put some dinner on," she murmured, fingers running up and down my chest, "plus I need another shower, and we need to air this room out!"

I grinned, there was a definite smell of sex in the air, and I really needed another shower too! 

We reluctantly climbed off the bed, Ashley retrieving her bustiere and panty set, and rolling down her stockings. "I better put these somewhere safe; Lord knows what she'll think if she finds them!" she grinned wickedly, padding around the room naked, her long, lithe, dancer's body a graceful, sexy and erotic sight.

We had another quick shower together, Ashley once again helping me with my back, and once we'd dried off and gotten dressed, she went into the kitchen to start dinner while I cleared up and made up a set of keys for each of us for the new locks I'd fitted.

We'd just sat down to watch some TV when there was a knock at the door, and I opened it to Mom. 

"Honey, you installed new locks, how wonderful!" she grinned, and Ashley smiled at her."Sorry Mom, usually I can hear the car from three blocks away, looks like Nicky did a real good job on it, I didn't hear you coming at all!"

I gave Mom her new keys, and showed her how the window bolts worked, and she hugged me. I looked at her and was surprised to see tears in her eyes. 

"Oh Nicky, you don't know what this means to us, to have a man in the house again, someone who can do these things for us, it's like having ...!" She turned away to wipe at her eyes, but I knew what she had nearly said, that it was like having her husband back to do the things that keep a house and family safe and secure. Well she had me now, and I would do my best to keep my family safe.

After dinner, Mom asked Ashley to take me around, show me the neighborhood, so we went for a drive, and I got to see where the local shops were, the local bars, although I had no interest in those, and Ashley's High School. I noted the location, and the route, as I planned on taking her to school from now on, and collecting her; I was wary of the locals after what had happened to her, so I wasn't taking any chances. I asked her if I could drive back, I had a full UK license, so she gave me the keys. "Knock yourself out, stud!" she grinned, "Just remember to stay on the right; you're not in England anymore!" 

I'm not really a big fan of automatics, I learned to drive, as does nearly everyone in Britain, in a stick-shift, but I knew how to drive one, so we swapped seats and Ashley piloted me home, pointing out the traffic signs and what they meant. It felt really good, driving a great big American car down a wide urban road with a pretty girl under my arm, and I thought to myself "I could get used to this, oh yes!"

We pulled up at a set of lights and another car pulled up next to us, the two girls sitting in it staring at us, making me feel uncomfortable, but Ashley just looked up at me and grinned that pixie grin of hers, so I pulled her closer and pulled away when the lights changed.




Rag Doll Ch. 01



"Ash, what was that all about?" I asked her, and she smiled. "Nicky, after Monica Delucci yesterday, and now driving around with a really handsome stranger with his arm around me, you've just made me the talking point of Sanderson High, and not for the usual reason!"

I grinned at her. "So what will they say when I drop you at school tomorrow, and kiss you goodbye?"

Ashley laughed out loud. "That would just curl them up!"

When we got in, Mom had found the clothes Ashley had picked up for her, and asked where they'd come from.

"Nicky took me shopping Mom, I tried to stop him, but, well...!"

Mom laughed. "Yeah, I bet! Nicky, you should have saved your money, baby, you may need it!"

That reminded me. I went to my room and got the remainder of the money Barbara had given me, somewhere around $10, 000, less $500 I needed for the muffler and some other replacement spares, and brought it back out to Mom.

"Mom, I want you to have this, you need it, there's bills to pay, food to buy, and I don't need it; I'm home now, and I'll find a job soon, so you better just take it."

Mom stared at me. "Nicky, how much is there?" 

Ashley counted it. "$10,250, wow!"

Mom sat down heavily. "Nicky, that's all you have in the world, I can't...!" I cut across her objections.

"Mom, I know you need it, all I'll do with it, pardon my French, is piss it up against the wall, so you take it, use it for Ashley's college or bills, or whatever you need to pay. I don't need it now, you do; I'm not taking it back, I don't want it, end of discussion!"

Mom looked at me with tears in her eyes. "This is a loan, OK, Nick? You'll get it back, I promise you!"

I pulled her close to me, hugged her. "I don't want it back, Mom; it's the family's money now!"

"Excuse me, hello, does this mean I can have a laptop?" enquired Ashley with that impish grin on her face, and Mom laughed. "Yes Honey, you can have a laptop!"



Rag Doll Ch. 02



Many thanks for all the favourable and useful comment on Chapter 1, and a huge vote of thanks to Mericeman1964 for his enormous help with editing and reality-checking this story so far, I couldn't have done it without him!

Please note, I'm writing this in England, in 'English' English, so if anyone has a problem with the way I've spelled certain words, please don't tell me, look it up on the Oxford English Dictionary website and see for yourself; in my world, the OED is the ultimate arbiter of common English usage, so I defer to it in the matter of common spelling and proper syntax...

If you like it, please vote for it; if you have a point to make, or have a problem with the story, please, feel free to comment, I do read and absorb all valid comment, all the rude and pointlessly nasty comments get deleted (unless they're funny...) 

And now, to the story...

____________________________

I was waiting to drive Ashley to school. Mother had checked with her insurance company and the DMV to see if I could drive her car using my UK License, and told me that I could drive her car with her permission, so I would be covered with her insurance, but she would get me added to her insurance as soon as possible, and that she would take me to the DMV later to get my New York driver's License sorted out. She was also taking me to get my Social Security number issued, and the Department of Labor to check my qualifications. 

First though I was taking my gorgeous sister to school...

Ashley bounced out of the house, her bag and books under her arm and slid into the front next to me, waved cheerily at Mom, and grinned at me. "Let's go, Nicky, education awaits!"

As soon as we were out of sight, she slid as close to me as she could and I put my arm around her, Ashley giggling at the stir she was going to cause when I dropped her off. This whole idea of popular/outcast, where you're one of the in-kids, or you're nobody was a little hard for me to understand; the schools in England don't work that way, at least I never saw any evidence of it; we were all united in common cause against the teachers, who saw it as their mission to interrupt our bouts of intense lounging around with lessons, and I had happily ambled from one group to another without ever once wondering if they were the 'right' group to be a part of. 

Perhaps it was because there was no premium placed on sporting achievement in the UK school system, none of that urge to win at all costs. I thought about it, but that didn't seem adequate or plausible; teenagers were the same the world over, surely, the same drives, ambitions, likes and dislikes, so what had made them turn so comprehensively on her, made her feel so unwanted? But, at least she was happy right now, so I was happy. 

We pulled up outside the school, and Ashley waited for me to open her door for her and hand her out of the car. She curled her hand around the back of my head and pulled me in for a long, sizzling kiss that was definitely inappropriate at that time of the morning, but far too hot to pull away from! I kissed her back with enthusiasm and all the finesse I could muster, at one point her eyes rolling to indicate the group of other kids watching us with intense interest; then I got it; I was on display. OK, if it made her happy. 

I eventually let her go and handed her all her stuff, pulling her back into me and planting little butterfly kisses all over her face, special deliveries from me to her, making her grin happily. She walked off inside smiling, without a sideways glance at anyone, obviously enjoying every second of the mystery she was creating. I grinned to myself – the girl had style, I had to give her that.

Still grinning, I turned around and headed back home, Mother had a busy day planned for me, time to get started.

+++

True to her word, Mother took me to the DMV, Department of Labor, Social Security Administration, helping me fill in endless forms and declarations, but at last, all my paperwork that properly identified me as an American Citizen with the right to work, pay taxes and drive was in the pipeline, so all I had to do now was wait until they came through. I spent the rest of the day chatting with Mother, helping her plan dinner, installing the automatic porch light, and cutting in the barrel-bolts in the front and rear doors. Now the house was secure, and they could relax at night. I hadn't installed a light on the rear door, as the neighbors had installed one on their rear porch after what happened to Ashley, and anyone approaching the rear of either house set that off, flooding the rear of both houses with light.

At almost 3pm Mother reminded me to go and pick up Ashley from school. She'd called her insurance agent and added me on to her insurance so I could now drive legally. I decided to wear one of the shirts Ashley'd insisted I buy, and drove down to the school to wait for her, being all 'Joe Cool' with aviator shades, leaning on the car, arms folded, my freshly washed hair flopping down over one eye, just posing like hell and laughing gleefully on the inside at myself for being such a poseur, something I'd always mocked and despised!

I got a few interested looks as people started filing out, and I wondered again at the differences between the school's here and back home; there, as soon as the bell rang we hit the blocks and sprinted for the exits, desperate to not spend a second more than necessary in that place, but here, it seemed as much social as educational; perhaps we could learn a thing or two, I mused.

Ashley eventually came tripping out, her books under her arm and her bag over her shoulder, grinning hugely at me, and planting a big kiss on me as she hand-combed my hair back off my face while a gaggle of girls looked on interestedly.

"Oh look, it's the Englishman!" brayed a harsh voice I recognised.

I turned slowly and slid my sunglasses down to look at chubby, stubby Monica, then slowly look her down, then up, then down again, Monica slowly flushing , the flush deepening when I said "Oh dear, Ashley darling, look, she's out again, and dressed like that, this time, will she never learn?!" The kids around her laughed and giggled, and I heard a muttered buzz "it's that guy...this morning...Ashley...English...DaVinci's...that accent...tall...!"

I looked her up and down one last time, trying desperately to keep a straight face and said "have you had enough yet, dear? Because I can do this all night, if you want! Take my advice and find a hobby, over-eating solves nothing! I do hope I see you again, we can play some more!"

After opening the door for Ashley and helping her get in, I walked around the car and climbed in, put my arm around her and kissed her properly, and drove away, seeing poor, piggy little Monica standing there, looking baffled, repartee obviously not one of her strong points, her limited intellect trying to work out if she'd been insulted or not. I was enjoying myself tremendously; the cod 'James Bond/Hugh Grant/Euro trash' accent was completely foreign to my normal mode of speech, but such huge fun to drop on an ignorant bully like Monica; perhaps she'd take the hint and leave Ashley alone from now on; if not, there was so much more where that came from... 

Ashley was delighted. "Nick, everyone's curious about you, the school's buzzing about the mysterious English boy who's been seen around with me! People who haven't spoken to me in three years have been asking me who you are, are you really English, was it true about what you did to Monica in DaVinci's! I'm enjoying my moment, believe me, knowing I'm sleeping with Albany's latest Mystery-Man!" 

I grinned at her obvious enjoyment of the whole situation. "So, did you tell anyone who I really am?" I teased her.

"Are you kidding, tell that bunch the truth about my brown-eyed handsome man? They'd be camping on our doorstep just to get a crack at you! All I told them was that you were English, that you'd come especially to see me, that you had perfect manners and olde-worlde courtesy, were charming, sophisticated, well-bred and completely infatuated with me! By the time I'd finished their mouths were watering and their knees were trembling; damn, it was fun!"

I was a little embarrassed at this litany, but Ashley just grinned, and quickly pecked me on the cheek.

"Turn here Nick, I want to show you something!" she ordered, so I obediently turned, following her directions a little way out of town until we came to a small secluded woodland glade. I put the car in 'Park' and turned to her. "OK Ashley, what is it you wanted to show me?" I asked.

"It's this place, Nick; this is my quiet place. It's where I used to come when things got too bad at school, when the taunting and the name-calling were too much to take. I could come here and be quiet, get some peace, think about daddy and remember the stories he used to tell me when I was small, and tell them to myself again so I could hear his voice inside my head again and feel close to him once more. Don't step there!"

I looked at my feet, there was nothing but sun-dappled grass and leaf litter, and I looked at her quizzically.

"That's Pooh and Piglet's heffalump trap, be careful, there's a few around. Over there, that's where Rabbit lives. Over there, that big old maple? That's where Owl and Piglet live, and here, this patch of cane, that's where the Woozle wasn't, so be quiet, it could be anywhere!" 

At the edge of the glade was a small stream or brook, the water chuckling as it trickled through its stony bed, and she showed me where Ratty and Mole lived, and where they kept their little boat, and where Ratty dived for the picnic basket, and off in the blue distance Toad Hall, just visible if you looked just right, past the little islet where Ratty and Mole worshipped the Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and over across the stream, on the far bank, the Wild Wood and the home of Mr. Badger. 

She looked so adorable, being perfectly serious as she introduced me to her favourite people and characters. Lucy and Edmund, Peter and Susan, Prigio and Ricardo, Bilbo, Frodo, Merlin and Wart, Dorothy, Ozma and Charlotte, they all came out to be introduced again; many of them were old friends from my own childhood, from stories told long ago in a perfect summer, and she made them come alive for me again here, in this place where she still felt safe and untroubled by the world, her lively imagination unfettered and uncoloured by her treatment at the hands of her peers. 

Her sense of wonder at the stories her father had told her when she was small was undimmed by the passing of the years, childlike but not in the least childish; her faith and belief in the values of those characters was clear and compelling, and I found myself in turn enchanted, beguiled and utterly charmed by her all over again. 

At last, though, she decided she'd shown me enough of her own timeless, secret world for now, leaving me feeling privileged to have entered it, if only for a short while. I knew now that this place would always be as enchanted for me as it was for her, and I was grateful to her for allowing me to step into her magical world, if only for a short time.

Reality slowly crowded back in, and now she wanted me to hold and kiss her, be hers, something I was only too willing to do.

We walked back to the car, and I lifted her up and sat her on the bonnet of the car, dipping down to kiss her properly, my hands pulling her close so I was standing between her legs. Ashley wrapped her legs around me and pulled me closer, trapping me against her as we kissed, our tongues fencing, my hands sliding automatically under her top and playing with her perfect little breasts, her delectable nipples. 

As we kissed I tugged and squeezed her nipples lightly, making her sigh against my lips, her hand reaching for my rapidly hardening cock, and rubbing it as it bulged behind my fly.

"Nick, I want you now!" she murmured into my mouth, her hands insistent on me, making me hot and ready for her. I slid my hands up under her skirt and hooked the waistband of her panties, Ashley closing her legs as I tugged them down, and giggling as she kicked them off.

"I meant it Nick, you said you were mine, so that means I own you, and I want you now, so when you're ready...!"

I gently urged her back down onto the bonnet, lifting her legs behind her knees and pushing them up, and dipped my head down to gently kiss her on her bare little pussy, her eyes snapping open in shock; obviously this was a first for her (and to be honest, only a second for me, but the first time I'd done it, damn, it was good!) but as I kissed and nibbled and lapped, she purred and relaxed, enjoying the feel of my tongue on her rapidly swelling labia, and when I pointed my tongue and pushed it between her lips, she gave a loud groan, pushing her hips up to my mouth. I put my hands on her lovely taut buttocks and lifted her to me, licking and lapping at her, her scent rich and fresh and feminine. I licked from her little pink rosebud to her button in its little hood, teasing her and making her writhe and moan and buck against me, pushing her hooded clit against my tongue.

As her clit emerged, slick and dewy with her sweet juices, I lapped at it, making her almost convulse with the sensations emanating from that innocuous-looking little pearl of flesh, her hands coming up to hold my head tight against her pussy to keep on making her feel what she was feeling. Her nipples were rigidly erect, and she was pinching and pulling them as I ate her, moaning and gasping as she writhed under me, her face flushed and her orgasm building as I lapped and licked her. 

At last, when I sucked her clit between my lips and rapidly brushed my tongue across it, she came like a thunderbolt, a scream of release escaping from her as her back arched, the tendons in her neck standing out in high relief as her climax billowed and gusted through her, a spray of her tangy, honeyed ejaculate squirting across my mouth and chin. She collapsed in a breathless, boneless heap on the bonnet of the car, a smile of fulfillment on her face, her eyes closed and breathing ragged as orgasmic aftershocks chased and faded through her. 

Eventually, her breathing evened-out and her flush dissipated. Her eyes opened, and she smiled at me, a sweet, sunny smile. "Holy Shit, Nick, what the hell did you do to me? I have never done that before!" she grinned. Her eyes suddenly widened. "What about you, Nick, that was all for me, what about you?"

I handed her up off the bonnet and kissed her. "I can taste me!" she grinned, "Yum, nice!"

I turned her round and she bent over and placed her hands on the car bonnet, her perfect rump sticking out provocatively.

"Oooh, Nick, this is so nasty, you naughty boy, what are you going to do to me? On my own mother's car, too!" she grinned, sticking her tongue out at me. I moved up behind her and slid my hands up under her top, cupping her breasts and lightly pinching her nipples, still hard as two cherry-stones, rubbing her breasts and kissing her neck, nibbling her ear and licking the base of her throat. I freed myself from my jeans, and Ashley reached behind herself to guide me to her. 

"Are you ready, Sweetheart?" I whispered, and she grinned and nodded, breathing deeply as I slid into her in one long thrust, burying myself to the hilt in her satiny cavern.

I pumped slowly, savouring the experience, enjoying the feel of her firm buttocks bouncing and moulding against my midsection as I pumped in and out of her, the feel of her wet heat enfolding my cock, the bullet-hardness and texture of her nipples as I rubbed and squeezed them as I jammed myself repeatedly into her. 

The most exciting thing for me was the arch of her back as her short skirt rode up, exposing the full glory of her spectacular behind and the contours of the small of her back as she arched inwards under my onslaught. Coupled with the sight of my cock disappearing between those sweet, taut globes into her soaking little pussy, it was almost too much to bear. As I pumped her she moaned and gasped, her hand working away at her clit as she quivered under me, gabbling out encouragement to me as I fucked her.

"Yes, Nicky, fuck me hard, oh God, yes! Shove that cock in me, you belong to me, fuck me 'til I scream, big brother, fill your little sister up with your hot cum!" 

Her words were having a definite effect on me; the sight of this lovely girl quivering under my onslaught, and my cock driving between those delectable cheeks, and her reinforcing the thought that I was her brother was only adding to the erotic and carnal delight of the moment. I was her brother, and I didn't give a fuck, all I wanted to do was hammer this girl with my cock, fill her with my essence, shatter the taboo and make her mine completely. I was besotted with her now, and I wanted to keep on doing this forever, with her and no-one else.

At last, I could hold back no longer. "Ashley, I can't...!" I gasped, and in that instant she clenched her teeth and gave a guttural groan, her pussy clamping down on me as she orgasmed, her whole body tense as a violin string while she shook and shuddered in the throes of an immense climax, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes as she came off on my cock. As I felt her come, I let myself go, shooting pulse after pulse of spunk deep into her inner recesses, filling her up as I fired my tribute into her hot, wet, fluttering pussy. 

Eventually she stopped shaking, and slumped down over the bonnet, me on top of her, my own muscles twitching and quivering in reaction to the stress of orgasm, until my cock softened and slipped from her, a last tail of sperm bubbling out of me and splattering down the back of her thigh, making her giggle.

"That was wonderful, Nick, we should do this more often!" she breathed, twisting her head round to lick and nibble at my jaw as I supported myself on my forearms above her.

I grinned back, standing back up and pulling her upright to turn her around so I could hold and kiss her again, grab hold of her lovely hot silky little backside and grind her against me some more, and lick and nibble her sexy, pouty lips, just the act of doing that making my flaccid cock begin to firm-up and prime for action again.

Ashley bucked and giggled, twisting out of my grip. "Oh no you don't, Nick, we have to be at Judy's place, then we have to get home, if you keep me here any longer, Mom's gonna ask questions! Down boy!" 

With that, she leaned into the car and took a pack of Wet Wipes from the glove compartment, and carefully cleaned the trickle of sperm bubbling down her thigh from her swollen, just-fucked pussy. She handed me the pack. "Better freshen-up too, Nick, we're kind of advertising what we've been doing!" 

Once we cleaned up, Ashley directed me until we came to a very nice, definitely upscale neighborhood, large imposing houses set in their own gardens, mature trees, manicured lawns and sculpted hedges much in evidence, and a Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz or BMW parked on nearly every drive. We stopped outside a large red brick house with tall windows and a large weeping willow in the middle of the front lawn.

As I stopped the car Ashley jumped out and picked up her school bag.

"This is Judy's home, her entrance is round the side, this way, Nicky!" 

She led me around the side of the house to an external staircase and ushered me up to the door at the top; as we got there it was opened by a short slim girl with multi-coloured streaked hair cut in a jagged mop. She was wearing a tiny denim skirt and an off the shoulder reprint Sex Pistols 'God Save The Queen' tee-shirt. She had thick black eyebrows, setting-off a piquantly pretty, pixie little face, with winged, you-be-damned pink glasses and a pendant piercing in her bottom lip.




Rag Doll Ch. 02



Ashley grinned at me and hugged her friend. 

"Judy, this is Nicky, my...friend, from England; Nicky, this is my best friend, Judy Nixon, founder member and current president of The Loser's Club!"

I shook hands with her. "It's nice to meet you, Judy, I'm very pleased to finally meet some of Ashley's friends!"

She beamed at me, and looked at Ashley's secret little smile.

"Whoo, that accent, how do you stop yourself climbing all over him...wait...NO, you already have, Ashley, you slut! Fucking-A, girl!"

Ashley was blushing scarlet, but grinning slyly, and Judy started demanding details. I felt I should say something at this point.

"Hello, excuse me, I'm still here..." and Ashley picked up on what I was saying, damping down her friend with a promise to reveal all another time.

"I brought you the English assignment, Jude, it's not due back 'til Monday, so no need to go crazy. There's also a History assignment, and oh, look, a math assignment!" 

Judy took the papers from her and flicked through them

"Thanks Ash, I was afraid I was going to have to fuck that creep to get my English Lit grade, you saved me from a completely forgettable experience!" 

The two of them hugged and we left as we had to be back to help finish dinner. On the way down the stairs, she explained why she was bringing assignments to her friend.

Apparently Judy likes to wear very short skirts, and very skimpy underwear, and the English teacher always made her sit in the front row, on the pretext that she needed watching. During the lesson, he would gradually slide down lower and lower in his seat until he was staring up her skirt at her crotch. She had objected, vocally, and at some length, using certain short and expressively robust Anglo-Saxon words, and had gotten herself suspended for a week, hence the side-trip for us.

As we were walking back to the car, I saw that one of the double-garage doors was up, and there was a man with the bonnet up on a black Range Rover Vogue, looking baffled. Ashley waved at him.

"Hi, Dr. Nixon! Problems?"

He waved back distractedly.

"Hello Ashley, yeah, something's wrong with the suspension, it's not adjusting, and I just spoke with the dealership, their so-called experts were out here earlier, they couldn't work out what the problem was, and now they're saying 4 weeks for a replacement air-suspension. 4 weeks!"

She nudged me. "Nick knows British cars, do you want him to have a look?"

Dr. Nixon Looked at me. "Are you a mechanic, young man?"

"Yes I am," I replied, "newly qualified, but I have a Jaguar-Land Rover certification."

He looked closely at me.

"English, eh? Well, you should know about these cars then. What's your opinion? New air-suspension system?"

I took the keys from him and turned the engine on and pressed the EAS button three times to jack it up fully, but not feeling the car rising up.

I went to the front of the car and unclipped the plastic cover to the suspension compressor at the left side of the engine bay, undid the three mounting nuts with a spanner from the open tool kit on the bench next to the car, and disconnected the outlet hose from the compressor for the air-suspension system. I could feel the motor gritting and vibrating, and when I put my finger over the outlet nozzle I wasn't feeling anything like the pressure I should have felt if it were working properly.

I grinned over at Judy's dad. "This is your problem, Dr. Nixon; the compressor is basically dead; if you touch it you can feel the impeller gritting and knocking, so the seals and bearings have failed. The good news is, they're nowhere near as expensive as a replacement air-system. They're about £250 in England, so probably about $500 here. It's a common fault with the Vogue and HSE 4 and 4.6 litre EAS models, but not in vehicles as young as this; they usually fail somewhere around 150,000 miles. The good news is, it's easily fixed. If you get your dealer to order you a replacement Land Rover compressor, not an after-market one, I'll come back and put it in for you. In the meantime, don't drive it, you'll permanently damage the suspension, and a complete replacement system costs £4,000 in England, so it would probably be at least double that here."

Dr. Nixon smiled at me, pulled out his cell and dialled a number, when it answered he handed the phone to me.

"Tell him what you just told me, and give him the part you need!"

I spoke briefly to the parts bloke on the other end, reading out the part number on the compressor body, and he gave me a 48 hour collection time.

I handed Dr. Nixon his phone and he grinned at me.

"What's your name, son?"

"My name's Nick, Nick Davies, I'm staying with Ashley and her Mother, I'm ..." Ashley jumped in with "...a family friend from England!"

"Well, Nick, Nick Davies, if you can diagnose the problem in a few seconds, perhaps you and I should have a talk. The so-called specialists from the dealership were here for over an hour, and all they could come up with was that I should probably have the entire suspension system replaced! Are you planning on staying in Albany?" 

I told him I was, that I was waiting for my paperwork, that I was an American citizen but brought up in England, so I had to wait for my papers and qualifications to be issued and assessed, and that I was in the process of getting my Social Security number. 

"OK Nick, if you come back on Thursday, put that back in for me and get it to work, I think we should have a talk afterwards." 

I promised him I'd come as soon as the part was ready, and he thanked me. As we were walking back to the car, he stopped me again.

"Nick, what other European cars are you trained?"

I had to think for a second, all my papers were still with the Employment people,

"I have service and repair certifications for Jaguar-Land Rover, you already knew that, BMW and Mini-Cooper, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Renault and Peugeot-Citroen, SEAT, Volvo and Saab, and I also hold a Lotus powertrain specialist mechanic's certificate. In 5 years, they cram in a lot in Technical College in England!" I grinned.

Dr. Nixon looked at me closely. "Have you got a job lined up anywhere yet, Nick?" he asked, and I confessed that I hadn't looked; I was still waiting for my assessments to come back.

"Look, I have some friends in town who might like to talk to you, how about we get this little problem here out of the way, and then we can start making some calls; with your background, I think some people are going to be very interested in you, so we'll make some calls once you're done here. See you Thursday!"

We shook hands and walked back to the car, Ashley nudging me excitedly. Once we got in the car she leaned over and kissed me.

"Wow, you sure charmed him, Nicky, I'm gonna have to keep a close eye on you!" she laughed. "I think you've scored a hit there! Just imagine, if he could help you find a job, how cool would that be?"

I chucked her chin.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Ash, I haven't done anything yet!" I reminded her, "Let's see what happens Thursday, first!"

We got home and helped mother with the final preparations for dinner, but it was still only not quite 5 pm, too early for dinner for me, so I told mother I'd take Ashley out for a drive, look around town and relax after the busy day.

"Sure, Nicky, whatever you want, dinner at 6.30 sharp, OK?" she smiled.

Ashley followed me out, trying not to grin, and thanked me politely as I opened her door for her and handed her into the car. When we'd first come in, she'd changed into a tight white polo top and grey sweatpants, and looked lithe and athletic with her glossy, bright bronze hair tumbling loose around her shoulders, framing her beautiful face and setting-off her startling green eyes. 

"So where we really going, Nicky, and what do you want to do, as if I didn't know!" she grinned

I looked at her innocently.

"I was just wondering if you had any more 'quiet places' you might want to show me, somewhere we can actually talk, instead of just...you know!"

She cocked her head at me and grinned. "Just...'talk', huh? OK, I'll show you another "quiet place", if all you want to do is...talk!"

I back-pedalled a little. "OK, I may want to do more than just talk, but talk first, OK?"

She winked at me and pointed down the road. 

"That-away, Nicky, and don't spare the horses!"

Following her directions, on a different route out of town, we drove a long, meandering route until we were in a rural, almost wild part of the outskirts of town.

"Where are we, Ash? I'm lost, I'm not sure I could find my way home from here." I admitted.

"We're on French's Mill Road, that's Norman's Kill over there. Daddy used to bring me out here when I was small, he used to say this was as wild as he ever wanted to be and still be able to make it back to town if we saw a bear! Of course, there are no bears...or maybe..." she tried to keep a straight face, but started giggling.

"Oh Nicky, you should have seen your face when I mentioned bears! Nicky, this is Albany, not Yellowstone!"

I had to admit, the thought of bears had unsettled me momentarily; I'd forgotten that America has some large and ferocious predators lurking in the forests, not like the UK, where the largest wildlife you have to worry about is the occasional preoccupied badger ambling across the lawn or urbanised fox rooting around in your dustbins.

"So, Nicky, now that we're here, what do you want to talk about, and remember, we're on the clock, boy, so spit it out!" 

I got out of the car, helped Ashley out, and leaned against the bonnet of the car, Ashley in the curl of my arm.

"Baby" I began, "where are we going here? I told you yesterday what I wanted, that hasn't changed one iota, and I want to be part of your life, maybe the major part, but I want to know how you see us doing this. If we're going to be us, you and me, then Mom...Mother needs to know; I've just dropped out of the sky into the middle of your lives, how am I going to stay there if I hide something this important from her? And by the way; I'm the world's worst liar, I might as well carry a big sign and blow a klaxon every time I try and lie, so I won't be able to tell a convincing story if Mother twigs on and asks me outright what's going on. So what do you want to do?"

She looked into my eyes, seeing...what? Eventually she nodded. 

"You're right, Nicky, we should tell her as soon as possible. If she finds out, or catches us, well, I don't know, but it'll be bad, and look worse, like we were just casual fuck-buddies or something; I know mom was afraid I'd never recover from the...you know, the trauma thing, or that I'd go off the deep end, be unable to have any real relationships and just screw any and everybody in sight because my head was all fucked-up. I want to be able to tell her in a way that shows this isn't the case, that it's not simply the trauma kicking in and I've chosen to self-destruct as a career slut because I hate and can't trust all men. That's kind of an exaggerated take on how she's thinking right now, but it covers the main points."

She grinned at me.

"I know this whole 'long-lost brother' thing is also an issue, but we have to make her see, that's how we can make this work in our favour as a couple; four days ago we didn't even know you were alive, you disappeared before I was born, so you're not my brother, not really, there's no long family history together to get past; to be honest, other than that genetic connection, we have nothing, no shared experience of each other growing up, no sibling bond, anything. The guilt that goes with breaking that taboo doesn't exist here, because I think that guilt is based on the fact that you are disregarding all past connection and breaking all existing bonds in order to go forward with a new version of the relationship. None of that is true in our case; we have no history, period. She'll be hurt, I know, but I think, I hope, she'll see that, she's not stupid."

I was surprised and gratified to hear my own musings of the previous day reflected back at me like that. She'd obviously been giving this whole relationship of ours some in-depth consideration and reflection, and was articulating how she thought we should go forward with a lot more clarity and insight than I had been able to bring to it. For my part, I was well aware that she'd suffered a deep and bruising injury; even if it didn't show externally, there were probably still those memories and unresolved guilt, shame and anger issues lurking inside. She'd thrown herself into this thing with me, and while I'd enjoyed how it had happened, and was enthralled at the thought of continuing with her, a part of me was concerned at how rapidly it had happened. But my concern was solely for her. I was completely smitten with her, and I didn't ever want to give her cause to think or believe that I wasn't 150% into this relationship; to do less would be to damage her all over again, and lose her forever. 

I thought I could understand, in a limited sense, what was going on with her; her apparent rapid recovery was really just her personality reasserting itself, compensating for the hurt and trauma; she had forced herself to get past what had happened to her, but inside, maybe nothing much had changed, maybe she'd just refused to let it dominate her. I didn't know how much or what type of rape counselling was available, but perhaps that was one area I could actually be of use, maybe I could convince her to join a group where she could unload whatever she was still carrying around, and help her to finally let go of the hurt and shame. 

I really loved this girl, but I needed her to be with me because she wanted to be with me, not because she thought I was the only option available to her. I'd come to her when she was deeply vulnerable, so the very real possibility existed that what she was feeling for me was just passing reflexive need to reach out to another person. Once clarity of vision returned, if she decided that I was not the one for her, that what we were doing was not what she really wanted, I would have to respect that and let her go – she was still my little sister, that would never change, and I would never want her to think she had to stay with me simply because she thought she would hurt me if she left; it was all about what was right for her, not about what I wanted, it had to be. 

Even so, the thought that I might have to let her go tore at me like steel hooks, and I could feel my eyes stinging at the thought of losing her, a hollow ache starting to build up inside me. Was this really what love was supposed to be like? Because right now, it hurt like hell, and who was I kidding, it could get a whole lot worse.

Ashley poked me gently in the ribs, and I realised I was staring blankly at nothing as all this ran through my head.

"You were thinking some pretty deep thoughts there, Nick, you were miles away. Care to share?"

I drew a deep breath, blinking away the tears, and Ashley saw the droplets on my eyelashes. 

"Nick, what's wrong, why are you...?" I stopped her.

"Ashley, before you tell our mother, you have to be really, really sure that this is what you want. We kind of fell into bed with each other and started making all kinds of plans, getting all caught up in each other, but I don't think you should be making life choices like this unless and until you know for certain which part of you is doing the choosing. You say you're over what happened to you, and I want to believe you, I really do."

"What you have to ask yourself though is; have you really dealt with it and moved on, or just painted over it and hoped it'll go away with time? When I saw you properly for the first time, I thought you were the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, and I wondered how I could ever be anything more than just your older brother come home. What I don't know is whether you're ready to have, not just me, but anybody, in the same way. What happened to you is bound to leave scars, probably deep scars, you have to know that, and perhaps, just possibly, those feelings from what happened are leading you to make some wrong assumptions about what you want and who you need. I know you're the girl for me, and I don't want anyone else, but how can you be sure I'm the one for you, that you're not just over-responding to me because you think there's no-one else for you? I want to be your anchor in life, not just a convenient lifeline." 

She looked at me with tears in her eyes, and she looked so adorable, so vulnerable, that I just wanted to hold her close and make it go away, but I had to make her understand what I was saying. 

"Will you promise me one thing, Ashley?" I asked her

"Ask me first Nicky, I'm not promising anything until I know what you're going to say!"

"OK Ashley, will you promise me that you won't say anything to Mother until you've considered, really considered, what we're doing here? I want you to be mine, God I think you're perfect for me, but you have to be certain that what you're feeling for me isn't just because you feel like you have no other option, that it's real, and it's what you really want. You've captured my heart, and I want you to give me yours in return, but only when you're completely ready; I'm not going anywhere any time soon, so take your time."

She looked up at me.

"Oh Nicky, I do want you, and I'm sure I'm feeling what you're feeling; it's more than just attraction, it feels right, deep down inside, it doesn't make me want to shut off and cringe like I used to do when I'd be out with Judy and guys would try and pick us up. I used to feel repulsed by that, like it was dirty and unclean, like it would make me even dirtier than I already was, but I don't feel that way when I think about you, or hold you, or make love to you. You make me feel fresh and clean and new inside, like what happened is really over and gone." 

"Maybe I do need therapy, I don't know; I did try it, I went to some counselling sessions with a group, but it only made me feel worse; those poor women and girls, they had really horrific stories to tell; mine was almost nothing compared to some of the ordeals those poor women went through, and it didn't help in the slightest; it made me feel like I was wallowing in their pain and misery, and just brought what happened to me into sharper focus, the last thing I wanted to happen."

She swallowed, and continued. 

"If you ask me to, I'll give it another chance, and see if it helps clear out whatever's remaining, although I still think you're all the therapy I need now. I don't think I can relate to some therapist or counsellor, no matter how experienced or well-meaning; I've spent nights crying about what happened, I've had nightmares about it, I swore off boys and sex because they meant the same thing in my mind, and that was a place I couldn't go, but you changed that for me, so to answer your question, yes I've thought about this, and yes, I think I've made my choice for the right reasons, and yes, I think you're the one for me. That's three yes votes in a row, Nick; you can't get better than that! You're not rid of me just yet, Nicholas Davies, older brother of mine, emphasis on 'mine'!" 

I grinned down at her. She really was stunning, fresh and beautiful, still innocent and trusting, and my heart went out to her all over again. I wanted her, but I could feel deep down inside, in that instinctual part of me that knew what was really going on, that I had to go slowly with her, let her set the pace, so we could make this work.

She hugged me, throwing her arms around me, the blaze of pain as her palms slapped my shoulder blades waking me up in a hurry. "Ashley...my back...my back...!" and she instantly let go, concern written all over her face.




Rag Doll Ch. 02



"Oh gosh Nicky, I'm sorry, I forgot, please baby, take your shirt off, I want to see if I started you bleeding again!"

I smiled at her. "I see, a cunning ploy to get me naked! I've got your number now, Miss Lowry!" I teased her, and she lightly slapped my arm as she unbuttoned my shirt and pulled it down to look at my back and shoulders. There were a few small blood spots on the fabric, but nothing else. She took the opportunity to look properly at my injuries, checking on the state of the cuts and bruises.

"It's starting to heal, but it still looks chewed-up. You look like you've been flogged. You really should have had these looked at, it's gonna be permanently scarred baby, no question! You can tell our kids it happened when you were saving me from a shark attack, be the big hero-daddy!"

I grinned at that. "There's only one teeny, negligible, hardly worth mentioning little flaw in your plan, princess; no sharks in Albany!"

She pouted. "All right, we tell them the truth; that mommy's a screamer and she likes to claw while she's doing the belly-rub! Would they buy that?"

I laughed. "Ashley, you're a very naughty girl and a bad influence, no wonder my mother told me not to play with you!" I followed that up with a gentle pinch of her pneumatic little bum-cheek, making her jump and giggle. She helped me put my shirt back on, not that I needed it, but it was nice to feel her nimble little hands pulling my shirt straight and popping the buttons back in; and suddenly, I was transported back to my childhood, memories of Barbara dressing me when I was small suddenly bright and vivid, her smile as she showed me how to line up my buttons and do my shoelaces into proper bows. Two big tears rolled down my cheeks as the guilt I still had rolling around inside reared up and cannoned into me, reminding me how little I'd done for her, and four days ago, only four days, I'd left her and she'd...she'd...!

"Nicky? Nicky!" Ashley was holding my face in both hands, staring into my eyes. "Nicky, what is it, what happened, why are you crying? Talk to me, baby!"

At that, all my self control dissolved, and I held her tightly, all my shame and guilt at leaving her to her fate roiling inside me, image after image of Barbara flashing though my mind; her sitting with me at the breakfast table, chatting before I had to go to school, her tucking me in at night when I was small and calling me 'Little St Nick' before blowing me a kiss as she turned off the light, her sweet smile, and those terrible bruises and cuts on her arms and face from my father and his scotch and his belt and his fists. I'd never done anything for her, and now I never could, she was gone, at the end, all I had done was run, and I'd left her behind...

I slumped down to sit on the ground, uncaring where I was, my awakened guilt and misery raw and fresh, searing me all over again. I had forgotten her, just four days and I'd already forgotten her! How could I have been so thoughtless, so wrapped up in my own new world that I'd let her go just like that? I deserved some of the blame for what happened to her, she'd tried to protect me, and all I'd done was run, I'd left her and run, I hadn't tried hard enough to save her, she was my world and I'd done nothing to take her away from what was coming, it should have been me, she didn't have to die, I should burn, I should...

"Nick, baby, Nicky, what is it, tell me, please...!" I could hear Ashley's voice, but it was making no sense over the noise of my memories, Barbara shrieking and laughing as I chased her in the garden with an especially long earthworm in my hand, or her telling me folktales from all over England, her soft sweet voice reading to me from 'Dragon in the Harbour' and 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader', her helpless cries as he battered her.

I felt someone tugging me to my feet, but it was a remote sensation, something happening to someone else, and the drive home was a blur of impressions, jarring confusingly with the tumult in my head as I tried desperately to rebuild her, to work out a way that the last few days couldn't have happened so I could have her back whole and safe, so that my shame could be wiped out and that yawning chasm of guilt down the middle of me would close.

We must have arrived home, the next thing I remember is Mother helping me out of the car, but I was such a mess, shaking, crying, gabbling hysterically, that I'm not even sure I'm remembering a true event. But I was home, so Ashley must have gotten me here somehow. I heard her on the phone in the other room.

"Judy? I need your dad, Nick's had some sort of flashback, or breakdown, something, but he's in a real mess, he needs help, and all I could think of was your dad, could you ask him. Could you come as well, please, Nicky's in a bad way. Hurry, Jude, please!" 

Then Ashley was with me, sitting astride me, her fingers interlaced behind my neck, pulling me up to look at her, her voice softly thundering in my ears, speaking slowly and deliberately, but still making almost no sense.

"Nicky, look at me, look at me! Dr. Nixon's on his way over, he's going to look at you, can you talk, can you tell him what's going on? Nicky, honey, it's me, look at me!" Mother watched this with a look comprised of a strange mix of surprise, sadness and vindication, like she'd been proved right over something, not that I was in any real condition to draw conclusions from that; I was still wondering if the top of my head had come unscrewed and God was punching my brain for me.

Minutes or hours later there was a knock at the door and Mother answered, letting in Dr. Nixon, with Judy trailing him, who almost immediately went into a huddle with Ashley in the dining room. I remember him looking into my eyes and questioning me, but I don't have any idea what answers I gave, if any. At some point he unbuttoned my shirt and had mother help him roll me over to look at my back, and I remember him saying "His father did that? How? So mother told him. He gave a snort, and checked it over, saying that it was healing nicely, no signs of infection or reopening of any of the partially healed cuts.

He gave me a quick squirt of something up my nostrils, and asked Ashley and Judy to sit with me while he talked with Mother in the hallway.

"Mrs. Lowry, I gave Nick a shot of Midazolam, it's a mild sedative-hypnotic, it should calm him down, at least enough so he can get some sleep tonight. From what I can see, he's suffering from delayed emotional shock of some sort, coupled with stress, fatigue, and the after-effects of that beating; he's been holding it off pretty well but something triggered this...episode, some memory trigger that's caused a flashback. Whatever the cause, some sort of catharsis seems to have been achieved, but I'm not a psychiatrist, so I can't be sure what I'm seeing here. He's calmed down, so I think he'll be OK for now, but I'd like to see him again tomorrow. What brought this on?"

"Baby, what set Nicky off?" asked Mother, and Ashley told her she was looking at my back, she'd been helping me button up my shirt, when I'd started crying and talking to Barbara. Mother explained to Dr. Nixon who Barbara was, and what had happened to her, how she'd refused to leave with me, and instead had killed herself.

Dr. Nixon looked pensive. "That probably explains a lot. He's obviously still reacting to the news of her death, plus the aftermath of what happened to him. I met him earlier with Ashley when she dropped some assignments off for Judy. How does he come to be living with you?"

"He's my son, his father took him to England over 18 years ago, he's just come home." replied Mother, oblivious to the fact that we'd not mentioned our connection when we met the doctor earlier that day.

Dr. Nixon said nothing, but Ashley went pale, then red while Judy stared at her wide-eyed, before grinning slowly and nudging her suggestively. I watched this byplay uncomprehendingly; right now all I wanted was Barbara, but she was gone, forever, and I needed her so badly I could taste it.

Dr. Nixon chatted for a few more minutes with Mother, and then made to leave, asking Judy if she wanted to come along.

"No thanks Dad, I want to talk to Ashley, help her keep an eye on Nick, she'll drop me home later, right Ash?" said Judy, mugging furiously.

"What? Oh...yes, of course, I'll drop her off later, Dr. Nixon, don't worry!" said Ashley, avoiding his eye. Dr. Nixon started to say something and thought better of it, shook hands with Mother again and left.

Mother came back into the room, shooed the girls out and quickly helped me undress, pulling the sheets back up over me. 

"You get some rest now Nicky, I'll bring you something to eat a little later, OK?" she smiled, and I nodded, although I didn't want anything, I just wanted to sleep. When she left, Ashley came back in and sat next to the bed, and Judy perched at the foot of the bed, grinning archly at me.

"Nicky, do you know who I am?" asked Ashley, and I smiled at such a silly question. Of course I knew, her name was...Ashley?

I looked at her uncertainly, memory still tumbling and whirling, her face one of a whole stream of memories that I couldn't quite grab hold of, all I knew was that she was important to me, although the reason why was just out of my grasp.

"Leave him, Ashley, he's in shock," said Judy, "I don't think he knows his own name right now. He'll be OK after he's had some rest; don't worry, girl, your secret's safe with me, I'm just jealous I don't have a hot brother to manhandle!" 

Ashley looked troubled. "You don't think we're...sick, or, or, perverts or something do you? Because I can't help it, I love him, and he loves me, and we fit together like it was supposed to be; it doesn't feel wrong, just very, very right. Can you understand that, Jude? Really?" pleaded Ashley and Judy just grinned at her.

"'course I understand, Ashley, who you want is up to you, I'm not gonna judge, especially when you consider some of the morons I've dated in the past; at least Nick's a real guy, what you see is what you get, and he's got a bad case of you; he couldn't take his eyes off you, not once! Fuck, I should be lucky enough to have a brother like him; all I've got is a moron cousin who keeps grabbing my tits!"

Ashley smiled. "Thanks, Jude, I needed to hear that. Come on, let's leave Nicky to get some sleep, dinner's ready, I hope you like pork chops!"

As they were leaving, Judy smiled at Ashley and said; "You should have asked my dad to stay, I think he's interested in your mom; he could hardly take his eyes off her ass!"

Ashley spun around, a look of shock on her face. "Judy Nixon, what did you just say?"

Judy grinned back, completely unperturbed. 

"I said,' you should have asked...!" 

"I heard what you said, Judy, I wanna know what you mean by it!" interrupted Ashley. 

Judy looked her in the eye.

"Ash, your Mom's cute, my dad's single, he's coming back to see Nick tomorrow, and for the record, my dad NEVER makes house-calls, and he was all goo-goo, dreamy-eyed when he left, it was sickening, really, so yeah, maybe we should get them together, see what happens, who knows...!"

Ashley smiled at the thought.

"It would be kind of cool for her to date someone, she's been alone for four years now, and you know what it's been like for us, for her, all...this, around us, maybe you're right..."

Their voices faded as they went into the dining room, and I suddenly felt an overwhelming need to sleep, exhaustion rising up out of nowhere and pulling my eyes shut.

I woke early, the sounds of Mother getting ready to go to work clear and distinct in the early morning. She looked in on me, and smiled back when I smiled at her.

"Good morning, sleepyhead, how are you this morning? You had us all quite worried yesterday, so Ashley's taking the day off to stay with you in case you need anything. Dr. Nixon is also coming to see you later, so you just rest, you've been overdoing things a little and you need to get your strength up. See you tonight, honey, and listen to what Ashley tells you!" she smiled mock sternly.

I heard her telling Ashley I was awake, and to listen out for me, and then the sound of the front door closing and the car pulling away. I daydreamed for a while, until I felt eyes on me, and there was Ashley in the bedroom doorway, wearing a longish T-shirt and panties and grinning broadly.

"Hi Nicky, need some company?" she drawled, and my cock immediately jumped. Without waiting for an answer, she peeled off her T-shirt and panties and slid into bed next to me, wrapping her arms around me and hugging me close. 

"God, baby, you had me worried last night! How the hell I got you back in the car is a mystery, you weigh a ton, you big slab of meat! What happened, Nicky, I was so scared!"

I told her what I remembered, that I'd flashed-back on Barbara looking after me when I was small, and how in the midst of all the new things happening to me, especially Ashley, I'd pushed her to the back of my mind, virtually forgotten her, after just a few days, when she'd been the centre of my life from early childhood! 

All the things I remembered about Barbara, and my feelings for her, rushed out of me, snapshot memories, of Barbara holding me and comforting when the dream monsters came for me, kissing it better when hurt myself, walking me to school, her hand in mine, sitting me on her lap on chilly evenings, wrapping a robe around the two of us and making me warm and drowsy, then putting me to bed, and kissing me good night, a million childhood moments wrapped around the woman I'd loved most in the entire world, and now she was gone. 

Once, and only once, had I tried to help her, and a few hours later she was dead, and I could never again hold her, tell her I was sorry, tell her I needed her; all my last chances, to tell her how much I loved her, to take her away somewhere safe, to make it right with her, had been taken from me in one blow. Once again the hollow loss and sick despair rose up and washed over me, the guilt a bright venomous thread through all of it, a stinging lash of reproach for not doing enough when she needed me most, and suddenly Ashley was there, holding me, looking deeply into my eyes.

"Nicky, listen to me, listen!" she said, softly but intently. "She's always going to be there inside you, just like daddy's always there inside me, his voice, the smell of his cologne, the feel of his bristly chin on Saturday mornings when he didn't shave because he didn't have to, and anytime I need to I can talk to him, and hear his voice, and feel connected to him again. That's where Barbara is now, inside you, and you'll always have her, no-one can take her away from you ever again. She may not have been your mother, but she was your Mom when you needed one; she made you who you are, and we'll always be grateful for that."

"She kept you safe, and at the end, she sent you away to make sure you stayed safe, that was her biggest gift to you. Treasure her memory, Nicky, and remember how much she loved you. Baby, you didn't do anything wrong, at the end you did exactly what she wanted you to do. She loved you, and so she let you go, respect that, Nicky, remember her as she was, and keep her alive inside you, just like I keep my daddy alive inside me!"

I looked at her in wonder. Somehow she'd known to say exactly the right thing to pull me back out of myself, and again I felt myself drawing even closer to this enchanting, beautiful, exciting girl whose life I had so recently fallen into. I held her close and kissed her gratefully, thanking her for helping me see what Barbara had done for me, and why.

We lay a little while longer, enjoying the feel of skin on skin contact, the warmth and personal connection it brought. I was beginning to doze again, when I felt Ashley stirring restlessly against me. I turned to her and she seemed preoccupied about something, so I asked her what was wrong. 

She got a little line between her eyebrows, a worry line. 

"Nick, Judy's dad, he knows about us, he asked Mom why you lived here and she told him you were her son, and it sure didn't take him long to put two and two together. Judy's cool with it, she says she's envious of me, but I'm worried. Suppose he tells Mom before we get a chance to?"

I thought about it for a moment. 

"Look, we already decided that we should go slow, so we shouldn't go jumping the gun just yet. When I see him today, I'll ask him to respect a confidence, and let you and I work it out with Mother; besides, I'm his patient, so if I ask him to keep a confidence, he has to respect doctor/patient privilege, doesn't he? Or is that just something for the TV shows? He seems like a decent man, perhaps he'll decide none of this is his business and keep out of it. Have faith, Ash, it will be alright, I promise!"

She grinned at me and her hand snaked down to grab my rapidly hardening cock. 

"Do you swear by the power of this thing that it will be OK?" she grinned mischievously, giving me a quick shake and squeeze.

I grabbed her and disengaged her hand long enough to slip my shorts off, before pulling her on top of me.

"Now, where were we?" I asked her, and she immediately pulled herself up and kissed me passionately, my hands sliding down to grab and hold her delightfully firm and springy bum. Her kisses became slower, more considered, her tongue slowly fencing with mine as she ground and gyrated slowly on top of me, trapping my erect cock between her thighs as she slowly raised and lowered her pelvis. My manhood was throbbing painfully now, all seven inches and more at full stretch, and the sensation of her damp pussy lips sliding along it as she rubbed herself off on me pressed all my buttons and lit up my central nervous system like a Christmas tree. 

She sat up and raised herself up slightly, aiming my cock with one small hand, and then slowly impaled herself on me, sliding down until I was embedded to the hilt in her. Then she started rocking back and forth, rising slightly as she did so, to rub her clit against my pubic hair as she pumped and squeezed me with her talented pussy muscles. Her movements caused my cock-head to flick against the neck of her womb, a sensation she obviously liked, judging by the groan she gave every time she did it, and the flush that spread down her throat and upper chest. 

I rubbed and squeezed her nipples, making them stiff and solid, and each time I flicked them with my thumbs she groaned and tried to trap my hands against her breasts. At last she succeeded, and pressed my hands hard against her nipples, using my hands to stimulate herself. All the while the insistent motions of her hips as she rose and fell and gyrated on top of me were almost more than I could stand.

I dropped my hands down to hold her gorgeous arse, those fabulous globular buttocks drawing my hands like magnets, and as she pumped and shuddered above me, I squeezed and pulled them apart, one finger slowly sliding into her tight little anus, to pump in time with her as she pleasured herself on me. All too soon, her breathing began to hitch and speed up, and her movements on me became more uncontrolled, more frantic as she sped up, pumping and grinding and squeezing.

When her orgasm hit her, she screamed in release, her pussy rippling along the length of my cock like a milking machine, and I could hold back no longer. I cried out in the extremity of my own release, spunk bulleting out of me and deep inside her womb, splashing inside and spraying over her cervix. The sensation of me pumping inside her set her off again and the rippling contractions of her pussy rolled my own orgasm on and on, until at last I was wrung dry. 

Ashley slumped down on top of me, breathless as she recovered from her shattering orgasm, eventually grinning and inching forward to kiss me.




Rag Doll Ch. 02



"Thank you Nicky, as always, that was wonderful, I think I'll keep you!" she grinned. I was about to say something when we were interrupted by the sound of someone clapping. Ashley screamed and dived for cover, and my heart sank as I realised we were caught cold. I looked up fearfully, expecting to see Mother, but instead Judy was standing there in the doorway, leaning against the frame, with one raised eyebrow and a huge grin pasted on her pixie face. She hip-swayed into the room and pulled the covers up over my mid-section, grinning down at Ashley.

"Quite a show Ash, interesting technique; you should get him to try ramming that toad-sticker in your ass, now that'll really make you scream!" she smiled, and sat on the end of the bed.

"Judy! How did you ...when...why are you here?" stammered Ashley.

"Slow down, sweetie! I figured you'd stay home today, girl, so I thought I'd come and get some of the sordid details, help you minister to the fallen, that sort of thing; seems you were 'ministering' quite well all by yourself! You really should check your front door is locked before you decide to fuck your big brother!"

Judy grinned a big, happy, shit-eating grin, obviously having a ball. "Just imagine, I could have been ANYBODY, your mom for starters; I mean, HOW bad would that have been! You are such a dirty girl, your own brother, I'm shocked, I'm speechless, I'm jealous!" 



Rag Doll Ch. 03



Many, many thanks as always to Mriceman1964 for his editorial and story input, and to Firefly for taking the time to read and reality check me, for being wise enough to know when I needed a critic and not a fan, and for liking my stuff enough to actually come back and ask for more!

If you liked this, please rate it, if you didn't please tell me why. If you want to be nasty, be my guest, it'll just get deleted, because I can do that...

All comments are noted and pondered, except for the truly insane ones, which are read, enjoyed and kept if they're funny, or deleted for being frightening and weird...

_____________________________ 

Ashley stared fearfully at Judy, her eyes like saucers as Judy grinned happily.

"Jude, you won't say anything, will you? To...mom, or, or your dad or anybody, will you?" she pleaded, and Judy looked thoughtful, then wrinkled her nose, grinned, and winked at her.

"Nah, I told you before, Ash," she said, "it's your business; I don't care who you fuck, just as long as it's who you wanna fuck. Even big-brother stud-boy here, you sick tramp, you! Nice dick, by the way, now I know why Ashley's so into you!"

I cringed down even further under the covers at that, but Judy seemed to be completely unabashed at finding Ashley and I 'in flagrante', only hugely amused, and completely accepting.

"And you can stop worrying about my dad for now; last night he asked me if I'd known you two were brother and sister, I went all wide-eyed and innocent, and he said something about talking to the pair of you later. He also asked me about your mom, I think she made quite an impression on him!"

She grinned again, even wider this time "Anyway kids, as there's obviously not much wrong with Stud-boy over here, who feels like breakfast? Come on Stud-Muffin, up and at 'em, no need to be shy now, not after the award-winning performance I've just seen!" 

She was obviously determined to wring as much amusement out of the situation as possible, and she wasn't going anywhere soon, and I wasn't particularly body-modest, but Ashley had that line between her eyes again, so I decided not to call her bluff; besides, she didn't look like she was bluffing...

"Do you mind..?" I asked as I picked up my discarded shorts, and Judy grinned and, a little reluctantly, I thought, turned her back while I slipped them back on. "All done now, ogle away!" I grinned, and Judy turned back to face us, me now wearing my shorts to preserve my modesty in Ashley's eyes. As I turned away to pick up a bath towel, Judy gasped. I'd forgotten, my back was still pretty raw, and it couldn't have been a pretty sight.

"Shit, Nick, what happened, you look like you got flayed! What the fuck did that?" she breathed, her eyes like saucers

Ashley pulled my sheet around herself and jumped off the bed to quickly flip the bath-towel around my waist and tuck it in. "His father did it." she said shortly, obviously not happy with me being semi-naked in front of her friend, so I made a mental note to make it up to her soon and not do it again.

"His father? Why, for Chrissake?" breathed Judy.

"Because he's an asshole and a sadist, that's why!" retorted Ashley flatly. "He beat up Nicky's step-mother at the same time, the same way. She gave Nicky our address and sent him to London, then she killed herself. That's what Nicky's father drove her to, that's the kind of man he is, and this is what he did to his son!"

I could see that Ashley was furious, with my father for hurting me, with the world for dumping on her, but mainly with herself for letting Judy catch us misbehaving so recklessly.

I headed her off.

"Judy, could you please wait for us in the living room? I think Ashley and I need a quick shower, we'll be with you in a few minutes!"

Judy grinned knowingly

"OK, fifteen minutes, then I'm climbing in with you, so don't hurry, kids!" she leered happily.

As Judy exited my room and Ashley made to leave, I slid my arms around her waist and pulled her back against me, holding her tight as I licked the back of her neck.

"Let go of me, Nicky!" she gritted, struggling to hold the sheet up and fend me off at the same time, still mad at me, but I licked her again, then licked inside her ear and blew on it, making her giggle and reach behind her and slide down into the waistband of my shorts to pinch my cock (not too tightly, thank goodness!).

"Were you really going to just jump out of bed buck-naked, in front of my best friend?" she asked, holding my (suddenly not so) limp cock warningly.

I grinned, picking my words carefully, mindful of what she was holding onto right then.

"No princess, I just wanted to call her bluff; if she'd stayed put, I had my shorts ready. Did you really think I was going to flash my slack-a-jack at your little friend? Not the breakfast treat I had planned for this morning, believe me!"

Ashley looked at me, her eyes dancing with glee, then tightened her grip on me, making me wince.

"If I thought for one second...! I told you before, you belong to me, and only I get to play with, hold, squeeze, use, see, feel and fantasize about this. Got it, mister?" 

I nodded, happy to oblige, but as she emphasized each word with a shake and squeeze, the inevitable happened; I rose to the occasion.

Ashley looked into my eyes, grinning and biting her bottom lip, calculating, then called out to Judy.

"Jude, change of plans, twenty minutes, starting now!" and hustled me into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her.

"There, that should hold her for a while, now get in there, Nicky, I have needs, take care of them!" Her beautiful smile lit up the room as she dropped her sheet, my cock stretching even further at the sight of her delicious, desirable, naked body. She stretched out and turned-on the shower, stepping in under the hot water and pulling me into the stall, her arms going around my neck as she crushed her lips to mine. Her hands wandered down to squeeze and slowly pump my cock, and my hand in turn slid down her wet body to cup and stroke her pussy, finding her slick and slippery even under the warm water cascading over her body.

She gasped and grinned against my lips, and moved away from me to kiss my throat, my chest, pausing only to gently bite my nipples, the sensation making me gasp and my balls tighten, then continuing down my body until she was kneeling under the jets of hot water, her lips level with my straining cock. She smiled and leaned forward and licked gently at the tip of my manhood, making it jump slightly with the sensation then slid back the foreskin to lick all the way around the purple crown, the feel of her tongue on me absolutely exquisite. 

I leaned back against the cool tile of the cubicle as Ashley slowly licked her way around my head, then slipped her lips over the tip, enclosing me in her mouth as she sucked. I nearly came there and then as I felt that first suctioning, this was definitely the sexiest thing she done for me yet, and I was hard put to not just empty myself there and then, just let my spunk bubble up and boil out me. She looked up at me and smiled, and I nearly lost it again, those big malachite eyes and sooty eyelashes calling out to something deeply primal inside me.

I pulled back, sliding myself out of her mouth and pulling her to her feet to stand with her back to me so I could pull and play with her lovely nipples, pulling them out to stiff points between my fingertips as I wedged my cock in the crack of her lovely arse. All the while, I was kissing her neck and shoulders and the nape of her neck, feeling her shiver as I did so, and continued to kiss down her lovely smooth, white back, enjoying the feel of her skin against my lips. I knelt behind her and kissed her in each of her lumbar dimples, making her giggle and squirm, her cute peach of a bum jiggling and bouncing enticingly as she wriggled. 

Now I began licking her, sliding my tongue into the crease between her shapely buttocks, peeling them apart so I could kiss and lick all the way down into that shadowed cleft. At last I reached my target, her puckered little anus, the folded and creased rosebud that I wanted so much to lick and tease. 

I touched her opening lightly with the tip of my tongue, making her jump. 

"Nicky, no...!" she giggled softly, sticking her beautiful little rump out even further. I poked the tip of my tongue at her again, making her jump again.

"Nicky, not there...!" she protested half-heartedly, meanwhile pulling her cheeks open even wider for me as she stuck her taut arse out further, leaning her face and upper body against the tiles as she supported herself, her hands still firmly clutching her cheeks, holding them open as I invaded her further. I pulled her cheeks open, and Ashley took the opportunity to lean properly against the wall as I bored in with my tongue, opening up her anus as Judy's remark earlier about making her scream looped endlessly in my mind. 

I slid first one, then two fingers, into her tight, hot little arse, Ashley breathing heavily but otherwise making no sound or protest as I plundered her secret hole. 

Her eyes began to water as she shut them tightly, and her breathing quickened as she murmured softly and began pushing back against my hand. My fingers were slipping in and out of her easily now, lubricated by the fluids I gathered as they dripped so copiously from her pussy, so I stood up, and positioned myself behind her, rubbing my cock slowly over her crinkled anus as she rubbed and caressed her pussy.

"Baby, do you want to do this?" I asked her softly, kissing her neck and earlobe, and she pushed back firmly against my surging cock planted so purposefully right against its target.

"Yes, Nicky, do it, ever since Judy mentioned it I can't get it out of my head, I want to try this, do it to me now, please baby!" she whispered back at me with a small, naughty grin on her face, amazing me with how in-tune we were with each other.

I placed my hands on the cool tiles next to hers, and started to press forward, feeling the resistance as her anus fought to keep me out. I was trying to push in, but even with the lubrication streaming from my cock and smearing all over her back entrance it seemed impossible, the pressure that seemed to be required to do this beyond me; I'd never done this before, and I was beginning to wonder if it was even possible. 

Ashley was moaning softly but gamely shoving back at me as hard as I was pressing into her. Suddenly her sphincter relaxed, and the head of my by now bone-hard cock slid into her, the ring of her anus immediately tightening in a noose around my cock shaft, holding me tightly just behind the head. Ashley let out a muffled yelp, and looked back over her shoulder for reassurance from me. I kissed her and moved my hands to her breasts, gently squeezing and rubbing those delectable mounds as I prepared to drill the rest of my cock into her tight rectum. 

"Are you ready, princess?" I asked, mentally crossing my fingers that I was doing it right and not injuring her permanently, and at her nod I began slowly pushing forward, sliding myself deeper into her.

Ashley immediately began gasping, and I stopped, recognising the pain-sounds she was making.

"No...Don't...stop...keep...going...!" she gasped out, and so I kissed her once on the nape of her neck and pressed forward again. Now she began groaning, her hands flat against the cubicle wall as she quivered and pushed back against me. 

"Oh God, it hurts, Nicky, but it feels good too! Don't you dare stop, I want it all!" she gritted, so I obliged. It felt incredible. Her rectum gripped me with an equal constrictive pressure along the entire length of my cock, like a tightly squeezing hand, and I was having great difficulty not coming like a volcano; I could feel my sperm boiling just below the surface as I pushed myself in all the way and paused. 

"Are you ready baby? " I asked her, and she nodded again, and I started to withdraw, Ashley immediately spasming. 

"Oh my God, that feels so good, keep doing that!" she groaned, and I obliged, pulling slowly out and pushing myself back in again. Ashley was panting like a marathon runner by now, and I was really having a hard time (no pun intended!) not coming as her rectum rippled and squeezed at me relentlessly. It was difficult to pull myself back from the vice-like grip of her rectum but going back in was easier as she loosened enough to let my cock slide a little easier. 

I began sliding back and forth in her rectum, Ashley gasping and moaning "oh...oh...oh...!" in time to my thrusts, but I couldn't keep this up indefinitely, I wanted so much to come, but I wanted Ashley to have her moment first. It wasn't long in coming; She began to shudder as I pumped her, her hands coming behind her to clasp and lock behind my neck, allowing her to hold herself upright as she pumped and hammered herself against me, her back arched to keep her lovely rump lined up with my aching cock as I shoved myself up her arse as hard as I could. 

Suddenly she began to shake and shudder. "Nick...Oh, fuck, Nicky, oh yes! God, yesss, yesss, YESSS!!" she shouted, a spray of warmth bathing my upper thighs as she squirted over me in the heat of her orgasm. This was too much for me, and I came like a shotgun, my spunk bursting out of me and spraying inside her anal tube as it pulsed and quivered all around my tightly-wedged cock, rippling like a milking machine cup, sucking all the sperm out of me. I think I came then more than I ever have in my life, all of it for my darling Ashley as I fucked her delectable arse.

We slumped against the cubicle wall, all thought dissipated in the white heat of orgasm, until my softening cock finally slipped out of her rear passage, an obscene blurt of spunk trailing out of her just-sodomized hole.

Ashley turned to me and kissed me deeply, passionately.

"Thank you for loving me Nicky, and thank you for making love to me!" she grinned, "we fuck good, don't we!" she laughed, and I laughed with her, even her vulgarity somehow ladylike and feminine, for my ears only, and not in the least bit crude, given the circumstances!

We finished our shower post-haste, as Judy was waiting, although I still took the opportunity for some free-style groping and fondling, seeing as I had her there, all naked and desirable and available, and briskly rubbed each other down, before Ashley draped her sheet over both of us for the sake of decency as we dashed from bathroom to bedroom. We tumbled out of the bathroom in a flurry of white sheeted limbs and kisses, and there, in the hallway, was our mother, one eyebrow raised, and a strange, calm expression on her face.

"Both of you had better have an incredibly good explanation for whatever's going on here!" she stated. "Clothes on, then living room, now!"

Ashley looked at me in stunned horror, and I must have had the same expression on my face as we shuffled back to my room for Ashley to pick up her T-shirt and panties. I pulled on a pair of shorts, my jeans and a loose tee-shirt, Ashley pulled her tee on, slid her panties back on, and we both made our way to the lounge, where mother was sitting with a scared-looking Judy.

"Sit down, both of you!" ordered mother, and we plopped down on the couch. Ashley was trembling, but I was feeling strangely detached, as though this was happening to someone else; the worst had happened, how much worse could it get now?

"Nick, how long has this been going on, and how far has it gone?" asked mother, her voice still calm, oddly calm, considering the circumstances.

"Sunday, Mother, Sunday morning, and...!" I began, but Ashley interrupted me.

"We're more than...friends, if that's what you're asking!" she stated flatly, the merest hint of a tremor in her voice, but her eyes remained fixed steadily on our mother.

"I see," said mother. "I guessed as much last night. So Nick, just let me ask you one thing; are you intending on forming some sort of attachment with my daughter, or is this just how you amuse yourself until it's time to move on to your next conquest?"

Ashley gasped, and my heart sank at how low her opinion of me must have been at that point. I decided to grab the bull by the horns.

"No, I love her, and I want to marry her one day, if she'll have me!"

Ashley looked at me in wonder, her eyes big as saucers, and Judy smirked at her, safely out of mother's eyeline, or so she thought, however, mother turned and pinned her down with a look. 

"And what exactly were you doing here, Judy, while all this was going on, keeping a watch out for the mom, were you? And were you ever planning on letting me into this little secret you all seem to be sharing? You just sit there, young lady, you and I are going to have a little talk when I've finished with these two!"

Judy subsided, crouching back into the couch, looking helplessly at us, the frosty look mother gave her enough to keep her quiet for now. 

Mother looked sceptically at me. "And how do you know you want to marry my daughter, after, what, 4 days? You came into my home, you seduced my daughter, your sister, and now you tell me you love her and want to marry her? Why should I believe you, even if I condoned this...this, I don't even want to say what it is!"

I opened my mouth to speak, but Ashley got there first.

"I believe him, mom, and I love him too. I'm over 18, that makes me responsible for the choices I make. This is what I'm choosing!"

Mother looked steadily at both of us and sighed as she stood up. I also rose, as did Ashley, and mother looked sadly at both of us. "She's your sister!" she whispered, and right then I felt so bad for her, knowing she was right, but also knowing how much I wanted Ashley. It must have shown on my face, as she took a step closer to me, her eyes never leaving my face, suddenly soft and concerned. I relaxed, and that's when she slapped me so hard it made my head ring. I reeled back and looked at her in shocked surprise, tinged with apprehension as she wrung her hand. She looked at me, shook her hand, and slapped me again, just as hard, her lips set and thin.

"Well, you didn't react like your father would have, so I'm pretty sure you're not going to be the man he was! My daughter can be grateful for that, at least!" she said almost conversationally. "Sit down, both of you, let's talk."

I was stunned. That had been a test? Where was she going with this, and why wasn't she going ballistic right now? Ashley looked at me, equally mystified, as wrong-footed as I was, shock and confusion mingling on her face.

"Mother," I began, "I know how this looks, and you pretty much told me what you think of me, I'll leave now, if that's what you want..."

She waved me to silence. "Shut up Nicky, I lost you once, and I waited 18 years to get you back, I won't lose you again, not even over this. Ashley's right, much as it pains me to admit it, she's old enough to know what she wants. If you go, so will she, and I'll have lost both my children, and I can't, I won't have that. For good or bad, this is what you both have chosen; I will accept that, for all our sakes. It doesn't mean I have to like it; my children are having sex with each other; do you know how much that disgusts me?"

"I'm sorry about just now, I wanted to see whether there was any of the anger in you that your father had so much of, but I guess you missed-out on that part of him. For Ashley's sake I'm glad. That doesn't mean I didn't like it, or that you didn't deserve it; just be grateful it was me, because if Ashley's father was alive right now, what he'd do to you would make your back look like a mild scratch!" 

"If you stay here, then, as far as the outside world is concerned, you're Ashley's live-in boyfriend, because I don't know how you can be my son at the same time; the thought of my son and my daughter together like that disturbs me, so I just have to try and stop thinking of you as my son, and that's the hard part for me; I only just got you back, and now I have to deny you, because of what you want. I know what the two of you'll want to do together, I guess I can't do anything about it, so just keep it out of my sight as much as possible. If you want to sit and hold hands, that's fine; if you want to make out, find another room, or go somewhere else, I don't want to see any of that in front of me; I'm not ready for that yet, and I don't know when I will be. You're going to have to give me some time on that."




Rag Doll Ch. 03



"Just remember, from now on, you're a couple, Nicky and Ashley, not brother and sister; you can't juggle two identities and hope to keep them straight indefinitely, one of you will make a slip. I suppose the fact that you have different names, and you're obviously English, Nicky, means nobody is going to make any connections between you two other than the obvious. Just make sure you keep quiet about who you really are, Nicky. That goes for you, too, young lady!" She shot at Judy, who nodded wordlessly, obviously wishing she was anywhere but here right now.

We both nodded wordlessly. Was that it? Was she really that accepting? I was confused, and I'm sure Ashley was; we were her children, and we'd been caught in the aftermath of a sexual encounter, and this was all she wanted to do about it? In all the possible scenario's I'd concocted, all the openings I'd considered giving myself to tell her about us, this situation here had never occurred as a possibility, and I was mentally gasping for air.

Ashley was the first to speak.

"Mom, do you really mean it? You're gonna let me and Nicky go on together?"

Mother grinned wryly. 

"I can't see a way to stop it, not without driving both of you away! I don't like it, I really hate it, but I like the thought of losing you both even less, so this is how it has to be. Don't you dare let me down!" 

She looked thoughtful for a second. "I suppose, if you'd grown up together, it would have seemed wrong, more wrong than it is, anyway, but Nicky's grown into a considerate, caring young man, not at all like Brian Davis, and he obviously cares for you, so that kind of takes some of the worry out of it for me. It could have been worse, much worse. This way, at least, my kids are happy; I think I'll come to accept it, just don't expect me to dance for joy just yet!"

Something she'd said had caught my attention.

"Mother, who's Brian Davis?" I asked her, wondering what he had to do with all this. Mother looked at me strangely, like I was simple. "He's your father, of course Nick, why are you asking such a silly question?"

It was my turn to look strangely at her. "My father's name is Robert Davies; my surname is Davies, look!" I pulled out my UK Driving License and showed her how my name was spelled.

"Go get your birth certificate, Nicky, I want to show you something!" she said, so I went and rummaged through my flight bag, and came back with the package Barbara had given me. I looked at my passport, my new US passport, and sure enough, my name was spelled Davis, as it was on my birth certificate. I hadn't noticed the different spelling; other than admiring my US passport and noting the part on my Birth Certificate that stated where I was born, I'd completely overlooked the different spelling to what I'd always believed was my surname.

I looked at her in confusion. "What's going on, mother?" I asked her.

Mother looked at me sorrowfully. "This is how your father hid you from me all those years; with a simple name change! His name is Brian Davis, he was born in Wrexham, in North Wales, and he grew up in Coventry, in the English Midlands. All your father did was add one letter to your surname and use his middle name; I've been searching for the wrong name for the last 18 years!" 

She was in tears now, thinking of how she'd been misled by my father's deviousness and petty revenge-taking. He'd changed our name so she could never find me, which was just one more thing I had to pay him back for.

Ashley shifted uncomfortably, wanting to comfort her mother, but not knowing if she'd allow that just yet. I had no such qualms; my mother was crying, and this business with Ashley and I was on-hold for now, as far as I was concerned, so I put my arm around her and held her while she cried silently for the years taken from her with a simple trick. 

I wondered at the mental state of a man prepared to take such a petty, and yet ultimately so profound a revenge on a woman his own rage and abuse had driven into the arms of another man. Even if mother had looked for us in Coventry, or the surrounding Midlands, she'd have drawn a blank; I grew up in Carlisle, in the far North-West of England, in the Scottish borderlands, hundreds of miles from Coventry, or Wrexham, or any of the surrounding areas she might have tried looking.

Eventually she stopped, fishing out a tissue from her purse and wiping her eyes, looking at me sorrowfully. "I tried to find you Nicky, I really did, now I know why I couldn't. I'm sorry, baby!"

I remembered a random factoid I'd read once when googling my name, that 'Davies' was the 6th commonest surname in the UK, and I realised my father had chosen to alter his name for precisely that reason; that any search would turn up hundreds of thousands, maybe a million people with the same name.

Judy stirred. "If it's OK with everyone, I'll just leave now..." she began, but a glance from mother nailed her back into her seat. "Wait there please, Judy, I'll get round to you in a minute!"

Now Ashley spoke.

"Mom, why did Nicky's dad leave you, and what does daddy have to do with all this?"

Mother looked resigned, as though she'd been waiting for this question, and was relieved it had finally been asked.

"Honey, when I was married to...Brian, I was only eighteen, younger than you are now. He was much older than me, almost twenty-eight, and my parents objected, but I loved him, so I married him anyway. After we were married, I discovered what kind of man he was, how violent he could be, what he was capable of. He...assaulted me, many times, and each time I'd leave him, but then he'd come and plead with me and promise not to do it again. I'd go back to him, and things would be fine, for a while, then he'd do it again." 

"Nicky was born the first year we were married, when I was nineteen. Brian was becoming worse; he was dealing with some scary, shady people, and he'd bring them to the house, and there'd be arguments and shouting; on top of that, his fits of rage lasted longer, and came more often, especially when a deal with one of those people fell through or went wrong, and he'd take it out on me, over and over again, until I'd had enough. I met a good man, he was younger than Brian, only a little older than me, but he became a good friend, my best friend, and eventually I couldn't help it, I fell in love with him." 

"I didn't love Brian any more, he and his 'business associates' frightened me, and I wanted to stay with James all the time, he was a better father to Nicky than Brian, so I left Brian and moved in with James, your father, honey, and asked Brian for a divorce. He refused, until I told him I was pregnant. He decided that he wanted nothing more to do with me, but that he wanted his son to live with him. I refused, and he made...threats, against me, against your father, against Nicky, threats I knew he was capable of carrying out, so I insisted we let a court decide."

"Brian petitioned for sole custody, but the court awarded us joint custody, with Nicky residing with me during the week, and with his father on weekends and public holidays; we had a visitation schedule drawn up and had it approved by the court, and at first, all went well. Then one day, when Brian had Nicky as part of his custody, he called me and said that Nicky was his, and he was taking what was his, and put the phone down." 

"When James and I went to get Nicky back, the house was empty and he'd gone. I had no clue where he'd gone except that he'd most likely gone back to England, but I could never turn up a clue as to his whereabouts. Now I know why!" 

Her tears began again, and I hugged her to me again.

At last I had the whole story of who I was and where I came from, and my heart was breaking for my mother; she'd lost so much, had so much go wrong for her, and now this, with Ashley and me. I should hang my head in shame for what I'd done. I was lucky indeed that my mother was human enough to recognise what Ashley and I had, and gentle enough to keep us all together any way she could. This was my family now, all of it, and I would never again do anything to hurt any of them, but especially mother; she'd had enough loss and grief and pain in her life already.

Ashley was silently weeping at the story, the full realisation of what mother had gone through hitting her, and when I held out my arm for her, she crept into the crook of it, burying her head in my shoulder as I hugged both of the women in my life close to me.

Eventually mother stirred and dried her eyes, passing Ashley a tissue so she could dry hers too. Now that everything was out in the open, the atmosphere lightened considerably, and I was able to leave and get dressed properly. Ashley followed me out, her hand finding mine, and mother didn't say anything. 

When we'd dressed, we came back into the living room; mother and Judy still sat in the same places, waiting for us to return. Ashley rescued Judy, taking her into her room and closing the door, leaving mother and me some privacy while we talked.

Mother looked at me sadly, her voice soft, almost pleading.

"Nicky, this whole business here, you and Ashley, why didn't you just tell me? I wouldn't have understood any more than I do now, but at least you'd have come and stood in front of me and told me to my face. Catching you like that was the worst feeling in the world, like I was spying on my kids!"

I hung my head in shame at that. We'd planned how to tell her, and the exact thing we didn't to happen, for her to catch us red-handed, had happened.

I cleared my throat, and tried to explain.

"We'd decided to tell you, mother, truly, we were just waiting for what seemed like a good opening. I've already had this conversation with Ashley, and I told her then how bad it made me feel that we were hiding from you. If you'd asked me outright, I wouldn't have been able to lie to you, I'm no good at that..."

She looked at me steadily, then reached out and gently lifted my chin, raising my head to look into my eyes.

"Right now, I'm feeling very confused, angry, a little sad, and a lot disturbed by all this. I want you to go out, both of you, be gone for a few hours while I get my head round this. Can you do that for me? Just give me some time to think about this, please, I promise I won't go back on what I said, but I really need to be alone here right now. Will you do that for me Nicky?"

I took her hand in mine, squeezed it gently.

"We can do that, sure, are you sure you'll be OK?" I asked her.

She smiled back at me. "Yes, I'll be fine, Nicky, I just need to be alone for a while, just some time to think about how our family's going to work. One thing, Nicky..."

I looked at her. "Yes Mother?"

"You will...be careful with Ashley, won't you?" she asked me almost fearfully, "she's had so much to deal with for so long, please promise me you won't hurt her, she's been hurt too many times already..."

I took my mother's hands in mine. "Mother, I swear to you, Ashley is the only thing I want in this world; I will never do anything to hurt her, or make her doubt me. I know I'm still only young, but I've never been so sure of anything in my life. I love her, and wherever I go, I'm not going without her!"

Mother looked deeply into my eyes for a few seconds longer, then smiled and patted my hand.

"I believe you. Now go, take Ashley with you, and poor Judy, I think I've terrified her out of a year's growth! Be back in time for lunch, OK?" 

I nodded. "Whatever you say, mother, or we could grab lunch somewhere, give you a bit more time...?" 

She shook her head. "No, I want to have lunch with my children." I grinned and went to collect Ashley and Judy. 

"Nicky..?" called mother, and I turned back to her. "Yes mother?"

"Why don't you call me 'mom'?" she asked, a quizzical smile on her face.

I smiled sheepishly back. "I feel weird saying 'mom', it doesn't fit my accent, it sounds phony when I say it, like I'm mocking you, and 'mum' probably sounds just as strange to you!" I said, watching her answering grin.

"Call me 'mum', then Nicky, 'Mother' sounds so...stilted, formal, you know what I mean?"

I nodded and grinned, just glad that we could still talk normally after the morning's revelations. "OK, mum!" and she grinned back.

We took Judy's car and headed to the nearest golden arches, Judy giving a sigh of relief as we left the house.

"I am so glad to be out of there! Next time, remind me not to be so fucking smug, I nearly fainted when your mom walked in the door, and when she asked where you were, I...kind of told her. Look, I couldn't help it, OK? She's just not the kind of person I can lie to...!"

We sat in a corner booth in the fast-food joint after we'd ordered and picked up our breakfasts. While the girls were finishing their coffee's I ducked into the mens room, and when I came out two high-school boys were lounging at the booth, leering over Ashley and Judy. I noticed Ashley was flushing scarlet at whatever was being said to her, so I ghosted up behind them to hear for myself.

The taller of the two was dressed expensively, but badly, a lot of money had been spent on his clothes but he didn't wear them well, and as I came up I heard him say to her "I think you should come with me and my friend here, everyone knows about you, what you are, but if you're nice to us, we'll be nice to you, both of you. How 'bout it, Rag Doll, you wanna fuck?" 

OK, that did it. I clamped my hand over the back of his neck and squeezed, hard, while I smacked his friend in the crotch just hard enough for him to lose interest in things for a while; playing rugby for five years has its advantages....

"Who's this fuck-wit, Darling?" I asked, and she looked at him with cold anger in her eyes. "His name's Bobby Czyzyck, he's a dick!"

I swung Bobby round to face me, and smiled brightly at him.

"Is that right Bobby, are you a dick? Tell you what, you apologise to the nice young lady, you say 'I'm very sorry for being a little dick, Miss Lowry', and I won't kick you 'til your eye-sockets bleed, does that sound reasonable?"

Bobby gabbled out an apology, and then I frogmarched him outside and into the alleyway by the side of the restaurant, turned him round and gave him a kick in the plums that made two little lumps pop up on top of his head. As his eyes crossed and he started to fold over, I gave him an open-handed slap that spun him round and sent him flying into a pile of what looked suspiciously like dogshit. I stood over him and waited until the retching stopped and I'd got his complete attention, then spoke to him.

"Now you listen to me, you little dog's cock; if you come within fifty feet of Ashley again, or look at her, or say anything to her, or try and breathe the same air as her, I promise that I will come and find you and fuck you up, and if you or anybody, doesn't matter who, touches her, I'll chop off your fingers. Think how stupid you'll look, doing up your zipper with your teeth for the rest of your life, and how will you ever jerk-off again? Do we have an understanding here, Bobby? He nodded fearfully, trying to look like he wasn't about to piss himself. Then I had an idea from a film I'd once seen, I think it was 'Goodfella's'.

"Give me your wallet, Bobby. Come on, hand it over!"

He lurched to his feet and passed over his wallet and I took out his driver's license, tossing his wallet back to him.

"OK Bobby, now I know where you live, I can come and find you anytime I like. Remember what I told you; if I turn up on your doorstep, it's because you did something to bring me there, so be very careful what you do, what you say, or where you go." Hollywood definitely has all the best lines...

He lunged at me, trying to grab his license back, and I dodged him, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and rammed his face a few times against the wall, not too hard, just enough to split his lip, abrade him enough to leave a nice reminder, and possibly knock a few teeth loose, then spun him around and tripped him back into that same pile of dogshit; as he lay there, the front of his designer jeans darkened; it really wasn't turning out to be his day. I stood over him and nudged him with my foot.

"That was stupid, and pointless, don't ever try that again!" I told him pleasantly. "Remember, now I know where you live, I can come and have a little chat with you any time I want, would you like that, Bobby?" I watched the colour drain from his face, and he shook his head vehemently, little weasel eyes darting around in fear.

"Good," I said, "Now we understand each other perfectly. We're communicating, isn't that nice. One more thing, you little maggot; never speak to or go near Ashley Lowry ever again, or any of her friends. That goes for you or any of your little maggot friends. If any of your pus-bag little boyfriends want to talk to me, send them over; when I've finished with them, I'll come and find you. I think we're going to be such close friends, Bobby, I'm looking forward to getting to know you really well. Oh, and remember, if you put your bastard's breath in my girl's face again, I'll cut your face off and use it to wipe my arse, you hear me? Anything happens to Ashley, anyone makes her unhappy, anyone says anything out of turn, it's going to be your fault, and I'm going to come and find you. She stays happy, you stay healthy, got that?" He nodded, thoroughly cowed. Good.

No, of course I wasn't going to hurt him; I wouldn't know how, I'm a mechanic, not a thug, and I'm certainly not my father; his response would have been to beat this boy into a body-cast, and for all that he was an obnoxious, stupid, spoiled little prick, he was still only a boy. No, my usual response to major confrontation is to run in the direction of 'away', sobbing like little Suzie. But he didn't know that; for a bluff, it worked pretty well, though, and now, Ashley had a protector, someone who thought their own survival depended on keeping everyone else off her back, forever. I love it when everything goes right for a change...

I went back into the restaurant, where Bobby's sidekick was still hunched over in his own private world of pain. I pulled him upright by the hair just in front of his ear, and he stared at me with wide, frightened eyes.

"Your boyfriend's lying down in the alleyway, go and pick him up, just be careful where you put your hands, he's covered in dogshit, and I think he's pissed himself. What I told him goes for you as well, so I don't ever want to see your face again, and neither do these ladies, understood?"

He quickly nodded, one step away from crying with fear, which was quite gratifying for me; I'd only ever been in three fights in my life, and I lost two of them...

I escorted him out, and sent him on his way with a ringing slap to the back of his head as a reminder, making him stumble as he walked away to retrieve Bobby.

I was getting the 'my hero' vibe from Ashley, and even Judy took my arm when we left, so I walked out of there pleased as Punch, with two pretty girls on my arm; if I'd grinned any wider the top half of my head would have fallen off!

As we walked back to the car, I asked Ashley what the story was with this Bobby character. She was reticent at first, but with Judy prompting her I finally got the basic story. After the rape, when she'd finally gone back to school, this Bobby creep had started pestering her, gradually getting more and more aggressive in his approach, making no bones about his intentions. 

The fact that he was a low-forehead shambling idiot with the IQ of a bowling ball hadn't deterred him. Most of the girls in the school had been on the receiving end of his attentions at one time or another, his step-father's money shielding him from any major repercussions so far. Judy had once given him the knee, but Ashley had been a particular target of his, and he'd been at her constantly for two years now. 




Rag Doll Ch. 03



I was happy to reassure her that from now on she'd be free from his pestering; I'd done better than putting the fear of God in him; I'd put the fear of me in there; I was a lot nearer and much more immediate, so I was confident he'd keep well away from my girl from now on; and if he didn't, well, I might be tempted to take him somewhere remote and, in a spirit of educational endeavour, beat seven shades of shit out of him... 

We went back to Judy's place, mother had asked us to be gone until lunchtime, so we had a couple of hours to kill, and Ashley wanted to talk, somewhere more private than a mall or coffee-shop.

When we got inside, Ashley got right to it.

"Nick, you said to mom that you wanted to marry me. How serious were you?"

I looked into her fabulous dark green eyes.

"Princess, I do want to marry you, but not until you're absolutely certain you want to marry me. I know I kind of got backed into a corner by mum when I said it, but it doesn't change the fact that I meant it when I said it. There's only one life I want; a life with you, when you're ready. And, as I never got the chance earlier, I'll ask you now. Ashley Lowry, will you marry me one day?"

Ashley sat silently looking into my eyes, her lips moving slightly as she replayed everything I'd said. Judy fidgeted for a few seconds then blurted out "Say yes, you dumb bitch, or I'm taking him!"

Ashley burst out laughing, and dropped into my lap, pulling me close to her as she kissed me soundly.

"Yes Nicholas Davis, I will marry you! And now, I think I'd like to stand up for a little, my bum's sore, I wonder why?" she inquired archly, one eyebrow raised in query.

Judy raised an eyebrow at her words, grinned, and then laughed . 

"Ashley Lowry, I never knew you were such a slut! And with your own brother, too! I was only teasing you about what I had said earlier. You actually let him put that pogo-stick of his in your ass? Oh my God! You're braver than I thought, I mean...!"

Ashley looked at her loftily.

"I love him Judy. I would do anything Nicky asked as long as it didn't involve jail-time or folk-dancing! You should try it sometime..."

Judy grinned again, even wider this time. "What, folk-dancing? OK, but I'd have to kill myself afterwards! And as for the other thing, are you offering me Nick as a try-out? The answer's yes!"

Ashley snorted and smiled sweetly."Now who's the slut, Judy 'I am a huge tramp' Nixon!"

I listened to this byplay with amusement, and a certain amount of embarrassment 

"Hello, ladies," I interjected, "just wanted to remind you, I'm still sat right here! Ashley, sweetheart, does it really hurt that bad? I'm sorry Princess, if I'd known...!"

Ashley smiled brightly at me, a great big, phony 'Flight-Attendant' smile. 

"No Nicky, it didn't hurt one bit. But if you want to gain some perspective, sort of see things from my point of view, I could always borrow one of Judy's extensive range of truly frightening dildo's and use it on you so you can feel just what I'm feeling right now!" 

I blushed, deeply.

"Ah, no thank you, darling, I think I'll pass, if it's all the same to you, and I'm sorry, Princess, we don't have to do it again if it makes you feel like this. I don't want to force anything on you, ever!" 

Ashley came round behind me and leaned down to hug me. 

"It did hurt just a little, Nicky, but it hurt so good, you know what I mean? We will be doing it again, I like the idea of you forcing things into me, just give me a couple days!" she murmured, and gently nipped my earlobe.

Once again, I grinned so wide all that was holding the top of my head on was my ears! I slipped my arm around her waist and held her close to me, resting my head against her midriff, listening to her heartbeat. 

Judy on her bed and looked at me quizzically.

"So Nick, are there any more like you back in England, maybe one I can snag, or are you a one-off?" she asked, a slight smile playing around her lips.

I scratched my head. 

"I have two half-brothers; Robert's almost four years younger than me, and Richard's a year younger than him, and you definitely don't want to get mixed-up with those two poisonous little twerps!" I told her, remembering their whining and their attitudes to people, so much like my father's.

"Oh really? Do tell!" she prompted, so I gave her the matinee version.

"Richard and Robert are Barbara's sons, but they're nothing like her; my father made them into younger versions of himself, and I truly believe Barbara had no time for them; I never saw them show or give her any affection or appreciation, or respect; it's like he used her to give him sons, then took them away from her, and I think that's how she felt. But she had me, and I had her, and that was enough for us both. Can we stop talking about this now, please?" I begged her, near tears again, and Judy's little face showed concerned sympathy as Ashley hugged me close, hearing the sadness and guilt in my voice again. 

I buried my face in Ashley's midriff and mopped my eyes on her shirt, and Judy reached out and touched my knee. 

"I'm sorry Nicky, I didn't think..." she whispered, while I wondered how long this hurt was going to keep pulling me down, how long it would be before I could think of her without turning into a quivering wreck; I wasn't indulging myself, wallowing in my guilt and loss, I was sure of that. Ashley had been on the right track; I just hadn't worked out a way to forgive myself yet, nor did I think I'd earned it, not yet.

I got myself back under control, and apologised to Judy for making her feel uncomfortable in her own home. She came over and hugged me where I sat and said "Nicky, it's OK to mourn, and it's OK to cry, you loved her, and it's only been a few days. Any time you need to cry for her, you should." I hugged her back and thanked her for being there for me as well.

Ashley decided at that point that it was more or less lunchtime, so we should be going, and Judy offered to drop us back. As we walked down the stairs I saw an Olde-English silver Bristol car pull into the driveway, and Dr. Nixon got out. He saw us and waved, and stood waiting for us by that stunning car.

"Hello Ashley, Nick, how are you feeling?" he asked. I told him I felt fine, and that I was free if he wanted to discuss last night at all, but he claimed he was too busy, and that he'd drop by later to check me over. I was only half listening to him; my attention was riveted on that beautiful hand-built aluminium-bodied car, and he noticed my rapt gaze.

"Like her, Nick? He asked me, and I could only nod. "Where did you find a 408 in America?"I asked him softly, my attention still fixed on the car, and he sounded impressed.

"You know what it is?" and I nodded; this car was an English classic and a schoolboy fantasy to drive, and I'd only ever seen one, in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire, a mecca for motor-heads the world over.

"She's a 1964 Bristol 408 with the Chrysler of Canada 5.2 litre engine, they only made 83, and you've got one, oh my God!" was all I could say, "I can't believe you drive her around, what if she gets pranged? Is there anyone here who even knows how to shape aluminium body panels for her?" 

Dr. Nixon grinned. "Nope, which is why I only drive her after the rush-hour is over; while the Range Rover's off the road, she's my only transport, and the only way I'll be seen in Judy's Prius is after I'm dead, so I have to go careful; I shudder to think what it would cost to fabricate duplicate body panels from scratch! I know about this marque and this model, so normally she only comes out when I can't resist her any more." 

"I found her twenty years ago in a car lot in Raleigh, North Carolina, the bodywork and suspension were fine, but the engine and gearbox and torque converter were shot, and the interior was tattered; the dealer didn't know and didn't care what she was, which is why I was able to snap her up. It took me nearly ten years to put her back in shape, and there she is! Want to sit in her?"

I grinned and nodded, and he opened the door for me. The car was an import from England, so right-hand drive, and the sumptuous Connolly leather and beautifully restored and polished walnut interior was more like a gentleman's club than the interior of a car. In its day, this car, hand-built by craftsmen, had been competing with Rolls Royce and Bentley for quality, comfort and prestige, and it still showed; it oozed style and elegance. 

I caught Ashley's expression, and eventually managed to tear myself away, reluctantly, and braced myself for questions about Ashley and myself, but none came, so I decided to make the first move.

"Dr. Nixon, I need to have a word with you, is there somewhere we can talk for a few minutes, please? Alone?

He looked at me and nodded, motioning me to follow him into the house while Ashley and Judy stood outside, whispering together as they leaned against Judy's despised Prius. When we got inside, Dr. Nixon motioned me to take a seat.

"So Nick, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"Dr. Nixon, Ashley says you know I'm her brother, well, half-brother. I expect you're wondering what kind of relationship we have?"

He looked at me for a moment, then leaned back in his seat and smiled slightly.

"Actually, no, I think I guessed after yesterday. What do you want me to say? That I disapprove? Speaking as a medical professional, of course I have an opinion, and that opinion is loaded against you. What you're doing is illegal, and by rights I should report you, but, as you've not stated outright what you're doing, technically I'm still unaware, let's leave it that way. My personal opinion is immaterial. However, there's the issue of children. The children of incest have a better than fair chance of inheriting recessive genetic traits that may well end up expressing themselves down through their own families." 

"I can't in all honesty condone what you're doing, if only for the sake of the children you may have, and the burden you could conceivably impose on them. However, I think you're both old enough to understand what you're doing and it's not my place to offer opinion on what you do as consenting adults. My medical opinion you've just heard, anything else is not relevant."

I nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"Ashley looks to be happy, for the first time in a long time. I know what happened to her, Judy keeps me fully up-to-date, and my concern for her was always that she'd never really addressed what happened to her, or found an outlet to express her feelings about it. I do see a difference in her now, so perhaps now she's found that outlet in you, which is no bad thing." 

"That you're half-siblings is always going to be a matter of concern, for the reasons I mentioned earlier, but that's for the two of you to resolve. I see far more bizarre and outlandish goings-on in some of the more...rural areas of the state, believe me! Your relationship hardly raises a tick on the Weird-O-Meter compared to what I've seen out in the wilds of this great state. I guess what I'm really saying is that your affairs are yours, it's not my place to judge, and I'm not going to." 

"I would however urge you to carefully consider what you're doing if the subject of children raises its head. Close monitoring of any pregnancy will be a must, and early testing to ensure no genetic anomalies are being expressed is highly indicated. I would recommend you both come and talk to me before you do embark on a pregnancy, just so we all know where this could go, and if you do go ahead, I would definitely urge an amniocentesis and periodic MRI scans. The clinic where I work has advanced pre-natal care facilities and I can make them available to you if and when you need them. There is a good chance that your children will be unaffected, but there's also a definite possibility that they could, it's a coin-toss, so think carefully." 

"As you are currently under my care, any conversations I have with you, or confidences you ask me to keep are covered by privilege, so I can't and won't discuss this with anyone without your express consent. I hope I've opened your eyes to the possible consequences of your relationship with Ashley. Personally, I hope you and Ashley succeed; I like her a lot, and she needs the kind of stability a strong relationship can offer."

He smiled and stood up.

"Now I think we've left Ashley alone too long out there with Judy, never a good idea! Shall we rejoin them?"

We left together, my mind at ease now. Judy's dad was a regular human-type person when he wasn't wearing his 'Dr. Nixon' hat. He'd given me some food for thought, while clearly stating his intention to stay out of our business, so I could put Ashley's fears to bed too. There was no more reason to hide the truth from mother, but the rest of the community certainly didn't need to know.

As I was climbing into the car a thought struck me, and I looked for Dr. Nixon again.

"Dr. Nixon, as I'm here, are you sure you don't want to check me over again, or..."

He actually blushed. "Actually, Nick, I'm really quite busy, but I'll be over this evening, if you could let your mother know I'll be there about Seven o'clock or thereabouts...!"

I thanked him, watching him still blushing furiously, and told him I'd look forward to his visit, and with that we pulled away.

Judy was grinning like a chimp, so I asked her what had got her so happy.

"He's so full of it, he's not busy, he's not working today, he'll be in his study watching 'Rocket Monkeys' on Nickelodeon all afternoon! He just wants to make sure he has another chance to meet up with your mom!"

When we arrived back home, Ashley dragged Judy in with her, much against her will; mother had really put the wind up her, and she didn't relish spending any time anywhere near her just now, but Ashley insisted; she wanted her oldest friend with her right now, and Judy gave in.

Lunch wasn't strained or particularly atmospheric; mother was friendly and gracious, spooking Judy even further; she sat on the edge of her seat the whole time. I didn't know what she thought, that mother was suddenly going to reach over and stab her with a fork, or gouge her eye out with a spoon or something, but she was visibly relieved when lunch was over and we cleared-up and returned to the living room. Judy noted where mother sat, then chose the furthest point from her; I had to hide a grin, poor Judy really was spooked bad!

Mother composed herself, obviously gathering her thoughts, and began.

"Nicky, Ashley, I've been thinking about what happened this morning, about the two of you, and I need you both to tell me where this is going, what you think the future holds. Ashley?"

Ashley glanced at me, and started.

"Mom, we didn't mean for this to happen, and Nicky didn't set out to seduce me, as you put it; if anything, I jumped him, and he gave me umpteen chances to back out and not have to be doing this someday. I saw him, and I saw my future, I can't put it any other way. I love him, and I will marry him; he's already asked me, and I've accepted. Oh, we're not getting married tomorrow, Nick wants to get a job first, get settled-in, but eventually we will get married, have our own home, babies, everything." 

"Mom, I know you think this is wrong, but it feels right to me, Nicky makes me feel happy all the way through, I believe in him, and I believe he's sincere when he tells me he loves me."

Mother nodded all through this, then cocked an eyebrow at me.

"And you, Nicky, what do you have to say?"

I swallowed, and took-up where Ashley left off.

"I love Ashley, mum, I think I loved her from the first time I actually saw at her, and when I did, it was like something clicked-on in my head, and I knew she was the one. I don't want to break up this family, and we don't have to; like you said, we can't be your kids in here and a couple out there, so we'll be one thing all the time, just Ashley and Nick, a couple, but you'll always be my mum, and we're still going to be your children, that will never change." 

"I want to marry Ashley, I know from deep down inside that she's the one I want, and I promise I'll always make her day end with a smile; I won't promise we won't fight, I can't do that, but I do promise we'll never end the day in anger. That's one thing I learned from Barbara; even when I made her mad enough to send me to my room, she still came and wished me goodnight and told me she still loved me, and I would tell her I was sorry." 

"Life's too short, mum, and you may not ever get the chance to say sorry, so I always say it first. I'm sorry, mum, for not telling you sooner, and I apologise for hurting you, but I love Ashley, and I want her to be my wife; I know it seems too short a time, but it isn't, not for me; I knew from the moment I saw her, and nothing's going to change that. I will always love her, and I will never make her cry, I swear to you."

Mother looked at me, and back to Ashley, then down at her hands folded in her lap.

"This is not what I dreamed for you Ashley. I had so much planned for you. I know that things happened to take all that away, and I learned to live with what I could salvage, but I never thought I'd be giving you away to my son, but..." 

"But mom, you said....!" burst out Ashley, but mother held her hand up to silence her.

"No, baby, let me finish. What I was going to say was, I'm glad for you, because you're happy, at last. Your happiness is the only thing I've ever wanted. All I wanted was for us to be a strong, close-knit family, but I didn't want it at any price, including breaking your heart or driving you away because of what I thought was right or wrong. You love Nicky, and I can see that he loves you. He's an honest, compassionate, loving young man; he'll be a strong arm for you to lean on." 

"My children need to be happy; too much has happened to them already in their short lives for me to take that away from them, and either I fight against this because of what people say is wrong, and lose them, or I accept it because it's right for my children. I have to accept that you both are together, that you love each other, and that you want to make a life together. If you're both happy together, I don't dare come between you and risk losing both of you. I lost my little boy for so long, I can't lose him again just when I've got him back."

"So this is what we'll have to do. You'll both live here, my daughter and her fiancé, we'll turn Nicky's room into your room, we'll move some things around to give you a bit more room in there. What I said earlier, about being...together, in front of me, forget that; if you can't be together and be in love in your own home, why bother living there? And Nicky, please, just keep calling me mum; as far as the world knows or cares, you're my son to-be, so it'll seem normal. In due course, you may decide to get a place of your own, get married and have a family, I'll be there for you both then as well. Did I miss anything?"

I looked on in open-mouthed astonishment. Mother had just given me the biggest, most desired gift of all, Ashley, without batting an eyelid. Ashley was in a similar state; we'd expected hostility, some backtracking and negotiation, but this, this was just...incredible. Ashley was the first to move, hugging her mom tightly, tears on her cheeks while mother smiled indulgently, even though I could see in her eyes what this decision was really costing her. I hung back until Ashley let me near mother, but I gave up waiting and squeezed them both, mother again grinning as I bear-hugged my family.

"Nick...Nick...can't breathe"! laughed mother, and I released them, un-squashing Ashley in the process, who grinned and jabbed me with her elbow as payback for nearly flattening her.




Rag Doll Ch. 03



Eventually Ashley let go of her so I could get a chance to hug her and thank her, choosing to go to our room with Judy and do whatever it was the two of them did in there, and leaving me some space to talk with our mother.

Mother smiled at me. "Something on your mind, Nicky?" and I had to grin. I didn't know where to start.

"Mum...I will do everything I can for Ashley, I wasn't lying, or feeding you a line; she means the world to me, and I don't know why, or how it happened so quickly, but it did, and I won't let her go, not until she wants to go."

Mother looked at me, and leaned over and kissed me lightly on the cheek.

"I believe you Nicky, and I trust you to do the right thing by her, always. She's not just your girl, she's also your little sister, and you have to remember that when you deal with her; there are going to be 'my girlfriend' times, and there are going to be 'my kid sister' times, you have to keep them separate and deal with them like that. I don't think it will be too difficult; Ashley's made up her mind about you, and when she makes up her mind, she tends to be the immovable object, so take fair warning; don't try and butt heads with her unless you want to lose like a girl!"

I smiled; I'd sort of come to the same conclusion, but I also had some other questions for her.

"If Ashley and I decide to have children, and I don't think it's a very big 'if', how are you going to be with that?"

Mother leaned back and smiled to herself. "Nicky, I often wondered during the last two years if I ever would have grandchildren; I didn't think I would, to be honest, I thought Ashley was never going to be whole again, she never dated, she never went out unless she had Judy with her, she always got back before dark, and she made no plans to go to college or do anything. Then you came along, and it's like a light went on inside her, and now she's making plans, she's becoming outgoing and more like herself again, and she's planning her future. That's because of you, Nicky, and if the two of you have children, it'll be because you wanted them, and I'll love them as much as I love my daughter and my long-lost son. Does that answer your question, Nick?"

I had to grin. "Yes it does, mum, and thank you. I'll always try and be worthy of her, she's a fabulous girl, and I still can't believe she loves me as much as I love her, and I promise you, she'll always come first with me, in everything. Tell me one last thing, mum, when you came back this morning, was it because you were hoping to catch us in...er, 'flagrante', or why did you come back so soon?"

Her eyes opened wide, and she grinned.

"I completely forgot, I came back so quickly because I brought something for Ashley and with everything last night I clean forgot to give it to her, it's in the car, and in the middle of all this, I forgot why I came back! Wait here, I'll just get it from the car. Ashley!"

Ashley and Judy came out of her room as mum came back in with a case and handed it to her.

"What is it, mom?" grinned Ashley. 

"Open it, it's for you!" smiled mother.

Ashley opened it and squealed; inside was a new Dell laptop.

"It's got a webcam built-in apparently, and I know we don't have Wi-Fi, but we soon will; the company's paying for a fast broadband link for me so I can work at home, so they're installing a...a hub, I think he called it, so you'll be able to do whatever it is you need a laptop for! Later, you'll have to go downtown with Nicky and buy a printer, I'm sure he knows what to look for."

Ashley was ecstatic, gabbling her thanks to mother, but she waved it off. "Thank Nicky, honey, he gave me the money, and we promised you a laptop, so there it is!"

Ashley kissed me on the cheek, and whispered "I'll thank you properly tonight, baby!" Of course I blushed, mother was standing two feet away! 

Ashley and Judy disappeared back into her room to try out her new toy, leaving mother and I sitting together on the couch.

I finally asked the question I'd wanted to ask since mother had told me about her husband.

"Mum," I asked softly, "how did Ashley's father die?"

She looked at me levelly. 

"James died of advanced Stage Four Pharyngeal cancer; when the doctors finally realised what they were dealing with, it had progressed beyond the scope of available treatment; all they could give was palliative care. Poor James, his tongue and throat were worst affected, he developed secondary cancers in his mouth, at the base of his tongue, and in his oesophagus; at the end he couldn't talk or swallow, or even whisper properly." 

"Ashley saw all this happen, how he deteriorated almost daily, how all our money went on care and pain meds, she was only twelve years old when he was diagnosed, and she watched as he deteriorated a little more every day. He died two years later. That's why I'm so concerned for her; nothing has gone right for her for so long, I really can't bear to see her lose and get hurt again. You promised me you'd always take care of her, please, just make sure you do!"

I held her hands, seeing the plea in her eyes.

"I promised you, and I was telling the truth; Ashley will never have anything from me except the best I can give her, always!"

Mother seemed satisfied with that, and patted my knee. "OK, now that's sorted, let's go and set up that bedroom for you and Ashley, and I can't believe I just said that!" she grinned.

I went and collared Ashley, and press-ganged Judy into helping us clear the room I was staying in and moving Ashley's stuff in there. Her current room was right next to mother's room, to be as close to her as possible at night, and my room was at the other end of the house. I knew why mother wanted us in there, and it did give me a pang for a moment, but Ashley also twigged why mother was moving us as far away from her as possible; sound carries well, at night... 

We laboured for a couple of hours, getting the room just so, according to some complex organisational vision she had, and Judy and I just followed orders; well, I did; after a while, Judy decided to not assist any further and just climbed on the bed and lay back to watch. Her reasoning was disarmingly simple; it was our den of iniquity, not hers, so she didn't see why we couldn't set it up ourselves. As a bonus, the room was larger than Ashley's old room, so she had more room to spread out in. As mentioned earlier, I only had a holdall and a few new shirts, so I wasn't overburdened with a need for closet space just yet. While we, correction, I laboured, mother began putting dinner together.

Once I'd finished, I wandered in and started giving mother a hand with dinner; (and before you think it, I'm not some kind of goody-goody or brown-noser; the fact was, with no job, and Ashley and Judy closeted with their heads together, I'd run out of things to do and people to talk to, I was at a complete loose end, and I don't do sitting around idly well, so I thought I'd make myself useful for a while).

Mother had me peeling potatoes and chopping carrots while she chatted about her job, about her husband, about Ashley when she was small, filling me in on my sister's life a little, giving me a better picture of the girl I loved. From mother's description of how it used to be, they'd had a pretty good life; James had been a contractor, making a very healthy living out of urban renewal projects, and building several housing developments.

They used to live elsewhere in Albany, a place called Crestwood, and they'd bought this house a a development project to renovate and remodel in line with the surrounding dwellings, and then James had become sick, and had to stop working, and the money ran out very quickly. The house in Crestwood was foreclosed, and this dilapidated house became the family home. Ashley had been most affected; she'd lived in a large house with a pool and a summerhouse, with her own playroom, everything she'd wanted or needed, vacations at Cape Cod and Nantucket Island, and then it was all gone.

I pondered all this while we were getting everything ready, and I also reminded mother that Dr. Nixon was coming over later, so perhaps he'd appreciate being invited to join us for dinner...?

Mother readily agreed, flushing slightly. Oho, I thought, Judy was right, there's definitely something there, well, well, well!

I asked her if she needed anything else done, and she smiled and said she was fine, I'd done enough for now, so I went off in search of Ashley. I found her still in my (our!) room. She'd gotten dressed now, out of her baggy T-shirt and into a summer top with spaghetti straps and a pair of unfeasibly tight jeans; they looked sprayed on! They showed every curve and line of her long, elegant legs, and her smooth, rounded, delectable bum, and I have no problem admitting they made my mouth water! Ashley saw me looking and stretched out like a photo-shoot model.

"You like, young Sir?" she asked coquettishly, and I nodded, still busy ogling her, because she was definitely worth every second of ogle I could squeeze out of the moment!

Judy grinned at us.

"Why don't you two get a room? Oh yes, you have! Do you want me to leave?"

Ashley grinned even wider. 

"Shush, Judy, my boy wants to ogle me, I quite like being an object of ogle!"

"You said you wanted some jeans tight enough to give mum a stroke, I'm going out on a limb here and supposing these are one and the same?" I asked, and she smiled back.

"Yup, but they're not really jeans, they're Jeggings, leggings made to look like jeans, feel them, they're made of spandex or something, not denim. Very big in England right now, I hear, so you should feel right at home!"

She undulated to illustrate just how figure hugging they were, her lovely behind and flanks rippling and quivering fetchingly, making me feel weak and horny and completely fetched! I also failed to see any VPL, no matter how closely I looked. Ashley grinned happily at me.

"I'm not wearing any, not with these, well, you just can't...!"

That was it. My PHL (Personal Horniness Level) shot up from tick-over to full throttle right away, as Ashley and Judy just grinned at me, knowing full well what was going through my mind. I was fighting to keep my little friend (well, perhaps not so little...) under wraps and under control, and I just knew that they knew what a struggle I was having; something was going to blow soon

Judy leaned over to pat me on the knee.

"Calm down, Lover Boy, keep your pants zipped, you've got all night, go get a shower, read a book, do a crossword, she'll be here when you get back! Savour the anticipation, Old Bean!" she grinned, "Besides, I thought you English would rather drink tea than fuck, and it's not like I haven't seen your busy little love-token before; shall I make you some tea, or would you like to go somewhere and become...comfortable again? Or you and Ashley could just...?" Oh, she was having so much fun!

"I'm not English, I'm American!" I gritted, trying to keep my condition out of sight, but Judy was trying determinedly to see what was making me so uncomfortable, and I had to keep moving to avoid that interested stare; now I know how a fan dancer feels when she drops her fans. I wasn't so much hot under the collar as heated under the belt-buckle, and she bloody well knew it...

"OK Judy, you can stick a fork in him, he's done!" grinned Ashley, and Judy looked disappointed, but slapped my backside and said "OK Stud-Brother, I'm done too, you can relax now!"

Easier said than done, believe me...

Ashley pulled me down next to her, and I promptly pulled a cushion over my lap, to hide...things. 

"Ignore her, she's a past master at this," grinned Ashley, "I've seen her reduce bigger guys than you to drooling chimps, you got off light! Just be glad she likes you...!" Judy grinned and held up the peace sign, so I did as well, and peace reigned in splendour abundant once again. Well, until the next time she decided to press my buttons, anyway... 

We pretty much camped-out in our room (OUR room!) for the rest of the day, chatting and kidding around until we heard the door chime.

"There's dad, right on cue!" remarked Judy, and left the room with Ashley to go watch the fun when he and mother tried to act all nonchalant around each other.

Mother showed Dr. Nixon into our room, and he did all the doctor-type things you'd expect, but I could see his heart wasn't really in it; he obviously had other things on his mind. Mother too looked different, and it took me a little while to work out that she'd changed into something a little less 'mom' and a little more 'Oh, Hello!'

She had on modest shorts that nevertheless showed off her long, very nice legs, and a short-sleeved white shirt with a couple of buttons undone at the neck and a hint of cleavage. Go mum! 

When he'd finished with me, Dr. Nixon asked me a few questions about the previous night, nodding as I tried to explain how I'd felt, then and now.

"It's OK to feel that way, Nick, and completely understandable," he began, "what you're exhibiting is an almost text-book case of something some therapists call 'Survivor's Guilt'. I assure you, it's normal, and it will pass. I know you feel like you abandoned her, it's natural that you would, seeing as what came after, but you didn't, she sent you away, for your own good, as she saw it. What happened to her isn't your fault, and at some point you're going to have to stop beating yourself-up over it. If you want to speak to a more competent therapist than me, I can give you some names, would that help?"

I declined. Ashley was helping me cope, and Judy, strangely enough. Having their kind of normality around me was pulling me through, and I explained that to Dr. Nixon.

He looked skeptical. "Judy, eh? As a therapist I would have thought she'd fall somewhere between Attila the Hun and Slipknot, but she does keep you awake and aware, I'll give you that! The girl has a beautiful mind, it's a pity she chooses to dress, walk and talk like Cindy Lauper's hooker sister...I sometimes think the only reason the anti-Christ hasn't come yet is because he knows Judy's up here waiting for him!" He grinned and told me to button my shirt, we were done. As he turned to leave, he stopped and turned back.

"Almost forgot, I got a call, the part you ordered is in, so they'll deliver it tomorrow morning at nine, are you still going to install it for me?"

I grinned and nodded. "I'll be there just after, then, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes to get you back on the road; that should save you some peace of mind with the 408!"

He smiled and made to leave, and when he paused to say goodbye to mother, she asked him if he'd like to join us for dinner. He looked pleased, and a little awkward, almost shy, but he readily accepted. Mother had laid a place for him already, so we all sat down to eat. It looked like a typical family dinner, if you discounted Judy and her 'Hot Beaver' T-shirt and her violently clashing hair streaks and pierced lip...

Mother kept calling him 'Dr. Nixon', and he grinned.

"I think we can dispense with the formalities, my name's David!"

Mother also grinned, shyly. 

"And my name's Julia, David!"

Ashley, Judy and I watched this with suppressed grins; it really was like watching two fourteen year-olds on their first date; which it was, in a way. The girls and I wolfed down our food and asked to be excused, mother looking at us in consternation at being left alone at the table with a man for the first time in several years, and asked why we were being so rude. 

Judy piped up.

"I promised Ashley I'd help her with her math homework, so we need to crack on, and Nicky's very busy, aren't you, Nicky?" while jabbing me with a sharp elbow.

I was jolted into awareness of what she was saying.

"What? Oh...yes, I have this...thing I have to do, very busy, got to go now. So sorry!" and I bolted, promising we'd do the washing up later, so just leave everything in the kitchen. 

Ashley and Judy were giggling like lunatics in our room, congratulating themselves on what good plotters they were. I was happy; dinner had gone well, mother had looked happy and relaxed, chatting about everything except our family, and Dr. Nixon looked really pleased to be in her company; maybe there really was something there, and if so, well, she deserved it. 

Eventually Judy decided that she needed to be getting home, she had those assignments to finish for Monday, so she wanted to make a start, so with much hugging, she left, only to come back and call us out to silently creep down the hall so we could peek in the kitchen. Mother was washing, and 'David' was drying, both of them talking and making big eye contact, oblivious to the world. 

Judy left and Ashley and I went back to our room to wait for Dr. Nixon to leave so we could interrogate mother. Eventually I heard him leaving, and we sneaked out to hear him ask mother out to dinner on Friday. She accepted, of course, no big surprise there, and thanked him with a peck on the cheek, making him smile in surprised pleasure. Like I said, like a pair of fourteen year-olds! 

We said our good nights and Ashley and I returned to our room. I was excited; tonight I got to spend the night with my girl, for the first time, and the suspense was killing me! Ashley seemed to be feeling the same, and as soon as the door was closed, she pounced (figuratively speaking), wasting no time in getting my shirt off as I tugged her skin-tight 'Jeggings' off, discovering that she was indeed 'commando' underneath. Ashley slid my jeans and briefs off me, leaving me naked as I tugged her top off so she could join me. My cock was feeling the need for attention, and stood out straining, a fact she took note of as she kissed me, her hand working up and down as our tongues fenced and my hand found her moist pussy and lightly rubbed and slid around between her legs. 

And someone knocked at the door! Ashley squealed as she dived for cover, and I stood there foolishly staring, unable to move if mother opened that door...

"Kids I'm heading to bed. Ashley don't stay up too late, you know it's a school night, and Nicky don't forget about what you told David, I mean Dr. Nixon. I love you, babies, and thank you, I had a fun night!" We heard her walk back down the hall, and then the sound of her bedroom door closing. 

"Damn, Nicky that was close," giggled Ashley, coming back up to my side and pushing my mouth closed. "Breathe, baby, that's it! It could have been so much worse; supposing she'd walked in and found me with my ass in the air and your dick in my mouth? Jeez! Tomorrow, before anything else, you're putting a lock on that fucking door!"

With that, she pushed me back towards the bed, making me sit down so she could kneel on the floor between my legs, her hands squeezing my balls as she slowly pumped my cock back to full recovery, then she started to kiss my length, from the root to the crown. I held my breath as she kissed and then licked the head, finally slipping her lips over the end to envelope me in the warm wetness of her mouth. 

She started to suck, gently at first, then increasing the suction, her cheeks hollowing with the effort, and the effect on me was galvanising. I could feel my orgasm gathering, pressure building as she suctioned me, her head bobbing as she slid her lips up and down over the engorged head and her hands pumping me as she squeezed and fondled my balls rhythmically, readying them to empty into her. 

The end came suddenly, as the dam inside me burst. I felt a wave of electricity mount up my spinal column, flaring all my nerve endings, to burst in a soundless pulse of white light behind my eyes, my stomach and thighs rippling and tensing in sweet anguish as the pleasure burned unbearably though me, and then suddenly all was released in a pulsing, muscular spasm that shot my sperm into her mouth in long, satisfying jets, pulse after pulse bursting out of me, filling her mouth again and again. Ashley swallowed and swallowed again, until I finally stopped ejaculating, wrung dry, for now, and she licked and sucked every last remnant of sperm from my cock, cleaning my head and licking me dry.




Rag Doll Ch. 03



She looked up at me and smiled as I trembled and shuddered in the dying reaches of my orgasm, wondering how she could do that to me, giving thanks that she could.

"That should hold you for a while, stud!" she grinned, standing up and pushing me backwards to land on top of me.

She stood up and gently pushed me backwards, climbing on to the bed to lie next to me, her lips too close to resist, so I didn't. After a kiss that lasted a lifetime, she pulled away to grin at me, a grin I knew well by now. I bent my head down to kiss along her neck down her shoulder and further on down, to lick and gently bite her nipple, enjoying the little cries and starts she gave as I licked and sucked, first one nipple then the other. Meanwhile my hand had found her soft and very wet pussy, and as I kissed her I rubbed and stroked and touched her, feeling her lips swell and part as she became even more aroused. 

One finger found its way into her, and slowly rubbed and touched between her folds of flesh, until it rubbed against the hard little nub of her clitoris. The effect on her was electric; her eyes snapped open, and she leaned up to push me onto my back, and she swung her leg over me to lie on me, her knees on either side of me as she kissed me. She sat up and grinned again, and took hold of my raging cock, lifting up to slide herself back down, the sensation of damp heat and soft velvety pressure as she engulfed me nearly taking my breath away.

Ashley began to rock, sliding herself up and down on me, and grinding against me as she did, her eyes closed as she brought herself off, that little smile never leaving her face. Her pussy was clenching and squeezing me, clasping and releasing as she tightened and relaxed her inner muscles, and the picture of her above me, her beautiful face rapt as she pleasured herself, all these things were having their effect on me. 

I pumped back against her, definitely feeling the need rising again. Ashley sped up, pounding herself against me as she approached that peak, and then, suddenly, her orgasm crashed into her, and she stiffened and leaned forward, gasping as the waves of orgasm crashed through her, her pussy tightening around my throbbing cock as I lost it, pouring stream after stream of spunk into her, her clasping, squeezing pussy rippling as it massaged every drop of sperm out of my straining cock.

She slumped down, utterly spent, her heart hammering and her chest heaving as she fought for breath, my heart rate and breathing a close match. Eventually she raised her head to grin at me, and kiss me once on the tip of my nose.

"That was...amazing, we should do that again soon!"

I could only agree.

In the morning, once again, I took her to school, again going through the whole 'kissing her extravagantly' pantomime just to piss-off the people who'd given her such a hard time, although I enjoyed it thoroughly, as always, then headed off to the Nixon house to install that replacement compressor for Dr. Nixon.

As I predicted, it only took a few minutes, and it worked, as I knew it would, so he was a happy man, a very happy man, so happy he pressed three hundred dollars into my hand as a thank-you for saving him thousands more; not bad for 15 minutes work! When I made to leave, he called me inside, and asked me to wait while he made a couple of phone calls. That done, he came and sat with me.

"Nick, I just got off the phone with an old friend of mine. He has a specialist auto repair facility downtown, handling only European cars. I told him about you, and he's especially interested in the fact that you have a Lotus Mechanic certification; if he has you on board, he can get a Lotus dealership, something he's been trying to do for years; like me, he has a bit of a thing for hand-built British cars, and he wants to see you this afternoon, so I told him I'd bring you over; actually, I had to stop him coming over here right away!"

I thanked him profusely; maybe I was finally on my way to getting a job!

When I left, I mentioned how pleased my mother would be if I could get a job, it would certainly help buoy-up the family finances, and Dr. Nixon grinned.

"I'd certainly like to see her face when you tell her; Julia's a fine looking woman!" he admitted and then blushed scarlet as he realised he'd blurted out something he'd probably not meant to say out loud.

I had to hide a grin, and innocently asked him if he'd like to come home with me, so I could tell mother, and take him out to breakfast as a thank you. Of course he agreed, and we headed back to the house.

When we got there, mother was sitting on the couch, a large envelope in her hand, and a letter. She looked up at me, her face ashen, and that's when I knew something was badly wrong, as did Dr. Nixon. She handed me the letter wordlessly, and my eyes immediately blurred with tears as I recognised the handwriting; it had been on every birthday card and gift tag I'd ever received, on every school Report Card I'd ever brought home. It was Barbara's handwriting, and for a second I considered not reading it, but even a message from beyond the grave was something from her, a link, of sorts, and it was better than nothing...

I read, and as I read, my anger, and my gorge rose. I read it again, and looked at mother. "Mum...?" I croaked, the nausea pulsing through me, the clamour of it almost deafening me as my mouth filled with the sour taste of vomit.

She started crying and shaking, and David Nixon had to catch her or she'd have fallen.

"What is it, Nick, what's in the letter?" he demanded, and I sat down hard as my knees gave way.

I held the letter out. "I know who raped Ashley, and why...it's all here...!" I managed to say through tightly clenched teeth while mother cried and shuddered against him. 

And then I had to stumble to the bathroom and be sick, to retch endlessly until I had nothing left to throw up, and only the pain remained as I dry heaved. 



Rag Doll Ch. 04



Thanks again to Mriceman1964 for his view of the real world, and to Firefly for her ability to tease the better part of me into whatever story I tell.

This brings Nick & Ashley's story to a close, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you liked it, please rate it, if you didn't then please tell me why!

BB1958

__________________________________

I sat huddled against the bathroom wall, the cold tiles feeling frigid against the heat radiating from my face. My throat burned, and my sides ached from vomiting so long and so hard. I couldn't think straight, except to home in on that one huge, horrifying fact. Ashley had been raped, violated, and abused, and it was no impulse crime, no isolated opportunist attack on a defenceless girl; it had been planned, masterminded, set-up; that sick, sick fucker, what kind of mental state did you have to be in to do something like that?

I could hear Mum crying, weeping hysterically as David tried to console her and calm her down, and I thought briefly that it should be me comforting her, but I couldn't bring myself to stand, walk in there and see her face, not knowing what I did now. Now I wanted to kill someone, at last I felt the urge to truly hurt someone, to keep on hurting them until they were past all pain.

Barbara, my real Mum in all but fact, the one person who'd kept me sane as she brought me up, had unveiled what my father had done, how he'd plotted and planned and carried out that cowardly, evil, bastardly act for no reason other than to salvage his own ego. Barbara had told us how he did it, sent Mum all the details she could find, and then she'd died; the postmark on the envelope was the day I was busily getting my new passport. I was preparing for a new life, and she was losing hers. 

I sat bolt upright as a horrifying thought shot through me; dear God, was this why she'd died? The thought of that was too terrible to contemplate, and I heard a low moaning; it was a while before I realised it was me, hovering on the edge of hysteria. She'd died after telling Mum the truth, had she died because she'd told Mum the truth, had she died for helping me come here? I begged God, Yahweh, Buddha, anyone or anything who was listening; please not that, don't make it my fault, please don't let her have died because of me, not after all she'd done for me, anything but that...

I dropped my head down to my hands and cried for her, for what I was sure I'd brought on her, and swore again the same oath I'd sworn in London, after I'd seen the news of her death. I swore that I would give him a lifetime of pain and blood and suffering for all he'd done. I swore I would be there to shove the knife in him, and when I'd stared into his eyes, and seen him recognise me and know who had stuck that knife into him. Then I was going to twist it, and twist it again, and cause him pain that no prayers to God, man or devil would release him from. 

Mum had said she was glad I wasn't the man my father was, but now I knew she was wrong because I wanted to do things to him that only a sick, depraved, evil rat-fuck like him would be capable of. If I was my father's son, so much the better, I would hurt him in ways only he could devise for what he'd done to me and mine, to my Ashley, to my Mum, and most of all to the one I had always loved like a mother. 

I stared into the white tiled wall, seeing Barbara's face, needing her so much it was a physical pain locked in the base of my throat, trying to hear what she was saying to me, trying desperately to recapture the sound of her voice, her laughter, but my mind's eye continually turned to horrific fantasies of how it had been for her at the end, what he'd done to her, the woman I had loved since my earliest childhood, and who'd loved me back unconditionally, who'd made me her own, and had finally made me leave her at the mercy of that evil, sadistic...

"Nick! Nick, where are you?"

I came back to reality with a bump, all the revenge fantasies vanishing on hearing a male voice calling me. It took a few seconds before I recognised it. Dr. Nixon, it was Dr. Nixon. Mum!

I scrambled to my feet, and staggered as a sudden wave of dizziness rolled over me.

"I'm...here, I'm coming...!" I croaked, my throat burning and rasping from the acid vomit I'd been spewing out, and I realised I needed to wash my mouth and clear my head of the horrible taste and smell of what I'd been doing. I also splashed my face with cold water, trying to revive myself and clear some of the fog from my brain.

Finally feeling a little better, I stumbled back to the living room, to find Mum still huddled against David, and a small part of me thought how natural she looked being held by someone again. But the memory of what I'd read returned when I saw that damned, hateful, horrifying letter on the table in front of her. Barbara had spoken to me one last time and what she'd told me had destroyed what remained of my old life, filled me with rage and nausea, and given me one more reason to hate that hell-bastard I called a father. 

I knew what I had sworn was never going to happen; people like me, like us, never get to take revenge or plot payback, we can only fantasize about it, and that knowledge gnawed at me as well. We would have to live with this knowledge forever, and that son of a whore was going to live a life of freedom and ease, never paying for what he'd done, happily giving us the finger from 3,000 miles away.

I squatted down next to Mum and put my hand on hers. She jumped like she'd been burned, her eyes flicking open and seeing me. 

"Nicky, how could he...how...what...?" she stumbled, her fingers twining in mine as she squeezed our hands together. She was still near tears, as she looked from me to David and back again.

"She never did anything...!"

I didn't know what to say; boasting about what I'd do to him was a hollow waste of time and wasn't going to undo this serpents tangle, and all I could do was lean my forehead against her arm to show her I was with her, that she wasn't alone here. The sight of her in distress was making my eyes well-up too, and I was still having trouble believing a man could store up that much hate and rage to commit such an ungodly, diabolical act against an innocent girl.

David was reading the letter again, a look of profound disgust on his face as he absorbed the full nastiness of what Barbara had revealed. Suddenly he looked keenly at me; obviously something had struck him. 

"Nicky, what date was this letter sent, please, check the postmark..." 

I didn't need to, I'd already seen it.

"Last Friday morning, it's time-stamped. And yes, Barbara killed herself that evening, after she posted this. So what, how does that help?" I asked dully, crushingly aware that we were helpless to do anything about it, people like us don't have the resources to make something of a mess like this and so we just had to live with the injustice of it, especially Ashley, the one person in all this who couldn't possibly have roused any kind of ire in that man and yet she'd paid a price no-once should have had to pay.

David looked thoughtful. 

"Nick, I have a couple of friends with the FBI, I think they should see this; this looks like something that should be investigated properly, by the federal authorities. Julia, can I take this with me? I promise I'll keep you fully informed whatever happens."

Mum nodded agreement, and I shrugged because I felt deep-down inside that nothing was going to fix this, and that smug bastard hiding 3,000 miles away in England was going to get away with this scot-free. 

Mum spoke up, talking to David and me. 

"Nicky? David? I don't know if anything will come of this, so please, please, don't let Ashley know about this; that poor child's had enough to deal with without handing her any false hopes or pretending that this is going to come out right, so just keep this between us, OK? We let David's friends do what they can. In the meantime, life goes on as normal. Will you both promise me you won't say anything until something can be done about all this?"

I exchanged glances with David, but Mum was right; the last thing I wanted to do was rake this over for Ashley all over again, but I certainly wasn't happy about keeping secrets from her. If David's friends could swing a way to make that bastard pay for what he'd done, then I would be the first one to tell her, let her know that she had some hope of justice, but until then I would keep silent.

"I...promise, mum, I won't say a word until it's time to tell her. But I get to tell her, OK? If we have a way to drag that sick bitch's bastard over here and stuff him in a hole forever, I want to be the one to tell her, so she'll have no doubts as to how I feel about him. Agreed? "

Mum nodded, her hand tightening on mine as she did, and David nodded as well, sealing our conspiracy. I really hated the idea of basically lying to my girl; even if I was lying by omission, I was still lying, but I hoped she'd understand that we'd been trying to do something about it. It would be so much worse if she found out that we'd known, but had done nothing...

David stood up, folded the papers and documents Barbara had sent and slid them back in the envelope.

"Nick, as you and I were going for breakfast, for the sake of normalcy I think we should go do that, and I think you should join us, Julia; let's make a start on getting everything back to normal as quickly as we can."

I could see she wasn't really in the mood, hell, neither was I, but I understood that we had to try and make things look normal again. Mum and I would carry this if it meant Ashley didn't have to. She forced a thin smile, trying to maintain the charade. 

"This wasn't the build-up to a date I was anticipating, but yes, I think I'd like that..." 

We went to breakfast at a diner David knew, false smiles pasted on our faces, pretending that there was nothing wrong in our world, working hard at letting this all crust over so we wouldn't give ourselves away. It was going to be a hard charade to carry out; I can't lie to save my life, and I really didn't know how I could keep this from her for very long; only time would tell.

During breakfast, David asked me to come with him that afternoon when he went to see his friends, as he wanted to take me to meet his friend with the specialist European car repair shop. Mum would collect Ashley from school, telling her I was with David and I'd gone to see a man about a job, as had been the plan this morning before the world caved-in. Hopefully, if I was offered a job, I could be happy and off-edge enough to not think about what kind of day I'd really had, and Ashley would remain none the wiser. It was a thin hope; she was so in-tune with me she could almost read my mind, but I held on to it.

After he dropped Mum back at home, David asked me if I could talk with him, in private. I agreed, and so we drove back to his house, where we had a long discussion about my father, what kind of man he was, what my brothers were like, and my life with Barbara. As we talked, I could feel myself uncoiling inside. Telling this man about the life I'd had before I came here, about school, about England was almost therapeutic, relaxing, even, and I warmed to him even more. His penetrating wit and warm sense of humour were a delight, and I found myself comparing him to my father and finding no points of comparison. I know now what he was doing, but right then I was drawn to him, not understanding his motive for drawing me out but feeling better for the experience. He'd said to me before he was no therapist; I think I'd have argued that point with him now.

Eventually, after several coffees and a long, searching, and invigorating talk he dropped me back home, my spirits considerably lifted, reminding me that he would be picking me up at two o'clock to drop the documents off at the FBI then we would go to meet his friend.

While he was dropping me off, he had another, brief chat with mum, and whatever he said seemed to have lifted her spirits considerably by the time he left. Mum actually smiled at me several times; it appeared David was good for her too...

Mum and I had a light lunch and were just clearing the remnants when David arrived. Mum looked suddenly worried again, but David reassured her that all he was doing was taking those hateful documents to his friends, and they could decide how to proceed; he and I were focusing on landing me a job, so not to worry, and we'd see her later that afternoon.

David's friend, Mark was a true Brit-car enthusiast, and his shop, Mark One Auto-Sport, was a mecca of classic British roadsters. Scattered around the shop were a selection of MG A's and BGT's being stripped and refurbished, an original Mini Cooper S with rally roundels side-by-side with a pristine Triumph Stag and a stunning silver TVR Cerbera. In addition, a Morgan 4/4 with the Ford Germany Zetec engine, and several older Jaguar's were in various stages of repair. My eyes were drawn to a beautiful Caterham Seven in the classic Lotus livery of British Racing Green with the yellow nose-cone, and Mark followed my gaze.

"She's a beauty, isn't she?" he asked me, and I grinned back at him.

"This is a customer vehicle," he said, "but one day I'm going to get myself an original Lotus 7, with the Colin Chapman badge, just so I can say I own one; then let's see David lord it over me with that Bristol of his!"

We talked about what I'd done in college, the manufacturer certifications I had, and the specific diagnostic skills I had learned, and he appeared satisfied.

"OK Nick, I think you have what I need. I can't start you as a Senior Technician, so I'll make you a deal; you sit out the probationary period as Junior Technician and study for your ASE certification, at my expense, and we'll talk about advancement after your probation is up. The money's not that great to start with, but it'll get better if you show me what you can do. Deal?" 

I looked over at David for a cue, and he smiled and nodded slightly, so I grinned.

"When can I start?"

Mark grinned back.

"Bring your Social Security documentation as soon as you get it, but I see no reason why you can't start...a week Monday? That should be enough time for all your paperwork to be finalized. I have a couple of MG SRV8's and a 1986 Esprit S3 HCi due in for servicing about then, so they're yours. Welcome aboard!"

I was grinning like a pumpkin; I had a job! 

Mark walked me around the shop, and introduced me to the other technicians, who were intrigued at the idea of having an Englishman working with them, and I had to explain several times I was an American, brought up in England, which they seemed to think was odd; if I was American, why did I sound so British...? That aside, they were a friendly bunch, and genuinely welcoming, and I even got to potter around with a couple of them inside the engine bay of a lovely Jaguar XJS while Mark talked to David; I was looking forward to working with them. 

After washing up, David drove us to the FBI building on McCarty Avenue, and introduced me to his friend, Special Agent Mike Walker. After a short preamble, David handed over the documents Barbara had sent us.

"Mike, this arrived from England this morning. Nick's stepmother sent this to him last week; she sent Nick to London to escape his father, and the next day she was dead, apparently she took her own life the same day these documents were mailed, last Friday afternoon, in England. She and Nick were badly beaten by his father the night before, which is why he was sent away. Nick, do you mind...?"

I stood up and unbuttoned my shirt, pulling it up at the back so Agent Walker could see my back. I heard the sharp intake of breath as he surveyed what that man had done to me.

"Jesus Christ, what the fu...!" I heard him mutter under his breath. 

David quickly checked my back and told me to do my shirt up, before turning to the FBI agent.

"His father did this to him five days ago. He abducted Nick when he was a small child and took him to England, and Nick only returned a few days ago when he found out where his Mother was. This is the kind of man we're dealing with here, Mike, and I have to be honest, the coincidence of Nick's stepmother mailing these documents to Nick's mother, his ex-wife, and then dying the following day is stretching my credibility to the limit. Do me a favor, please; ask the police in England if you can what their investigations into Barbara Davies' 'suicide' turned-up, if anything? I just have a bad feeling about this, and from what I've seen in those documents, something bad and very dangerous is going on here; 'by the pricking of my thumbs...', you know what I mean?" 

Agent Walker nodded slowly. 

"I'll pass this on to Alan Dubowski, he's the Special Agent in Charge here in Albany, I think he's definitely going to want to see this; he can get this moved up to a higher level if anyone can. Leave this with me and I'll see if I can get some quick action on it."

We stood up to leave, and Agent Walker smiled at David.

"Please, give my best to Judy. How's she doing these days?"

David grinned back.

"Judy's...Judy, what more can I say?!"

Agent Walker grinned even wider.

"I heard that! One day either she'll be working with us, or her picture's gonna be on that wall out there with a reward notice, and I wouldn't want to bet which one it's going to be!"

David laughed out loud, and we took our leave of his friend, an intern escorting us to the lobby.

I was quiet on the way home, and eventually David asked me what was troubling me. I stayed silent, not wanting to talk about what I was thinking, until I noticed we'd arrived at David's house.

"OK Nick, we had this talk this morning, tell me, what's going on?" He asked. 

"I want that son of a bitch to stand in front of me so I can rip his fucking throat out, that's what I want; I want him to look into my eyes as I kick the chair away from under him, and I want to see the look on his face and the fear in his eyes when he gets that short drop and the sudden stop! I want him to scream in pain, and know it's me doing it to him, and I..!"

David cut me short.

"Stop it Nick, now! This is not you, and you know it. We've done all we can, you've done everything you could; now it's up to the authorities to drag that bastard over here and make him pay. Leave it alone, Nick, revenge is not you, there's too much of your mother in you to behave like him! I heard what you did to those two boys in the burger joint; anyone else would have put them in hospital, but you had enough restraint to teach them a sharp lesson without actually injuring them; that's the mark of a man, not the capacity to plot bloody revenge. Confucius once said 'Before you embark on a journey of revenge, first dig two graves', and you know what? He was right; don't deliberately set out to become the man your father is, you're better than that!"

I sat there and listened to him because I respected him, and because he made sense, but the anger remained, and I had no way of cooling it down without feeling that I'd let Mum and Ashley down. As I pondered his words, I could feel myself calming down; one day, the people here would yank that complacent bastard out of his smug little hideout and stretch his neck, and we'd get, if not justice, then at least payback. Then, we could walk away secure in the knowledge that he was paying for everything he'd done, everything he'd set in motion, and all the hurt he'd caused the innocent.

David watched me calming down and accepting that this was how it would have to be, then grinned, and patted me on the shoulder.

"Good man, that's the stuff. Don't worry, Nick, just have faith in the system, he will fall, believe me!"

I had to grin at his optimism, and clambered out of the car with him, wondering why we'd come back here, so I asked him. David just grinned at me and told me to follow him. He opened one of the four garage doors and there was a silver Dodge Caliber.




Rag Doll Ch. 04



"This was Judy's car until she decided that she was going to save the planet...with a Prius, pardon me while I barf...! Anyway, I don't need it, Judy doesn't want it, so I was wondering if you'd maybe like to borrow it until you can get your own car, or make me an offer for this one. You're going to need a car to for work, and this is just gathering dust, so..."

I was speechless. I tried to thank him but he just waved it off. 

"You need it; I don't, so it's yours for as long as you need it! You may need to use the battery-charger over there; the car's been sitting for several months so the battery's probably dead."

We puttered around with it until we got it started using the jump-box David had. Once it started we let it run for a few minutes, then turned it off and I hooked-up the battery-charger, just to make sure. While we waited, I thought I'd do a little digging of my own.

"So, David, where are you taking my Mum this weekend?" I grinned, watching him blush again.

"I was thinking of a nice Italian place I know on Colonie, I know Julia likes Italian," was his response. I looked quizzically at him.

"You really like her, don't you?" I asked and he grinned ruefully.

"That obvious, huh?" and I grinned happily, glad to have something to take my mind off our troubles.

He continued.

"She's different to most of the women I meet. The dates I've been on recently, well, perhaps not all that recently, were all with women who were either gold-diggers or opportunists looking for a doctor for a husband. Judy used to spot them and launch into them, and I came to trust her instincts, so I kind of fell out of the habit of dating. Your mother, now, she's different; for one thing Judy likes and trusts her, and she's self reliant; she's not looking for a free ride. I know she's had a hard life over the last few years, and I think she deserves a little pampering. Judy filled me in on what it's been like for her, and yet she's kept her head up, and made a life when everything fell apart, and I find her wholly admirable, and beautiful, of course. So, to answer your question, yeah, I really like her, and I hope she likes me too, because I plan on seeing a lot more of her, with your permission of course!" 

I grinned again. "She's over 21, David, and I've only been back in her life a few days; you really don't need my permission, but for what it's worth, I approve, and I feel sure Ashley will too; my mum needs a good bloke, hopefully that'll be you!" 

We chatted some more as we walked back to the garage, where I unplugged the charger and tried turning the engine over. It started immediately, and I grinned over at David.

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" and he nodded back. 

"Go ahead, she's all yours for as long as you need her, my pleasure, Nick, I'm just glad I can help! Oh, and almost forgot; don't worry about tags and insurance, she's fully covered and you'll be covered to drive it. If you decide later on you want to buy her, we'll worry about that stuff later."

I jumped in and waved at him as I headed home; I had a car, I had a job, and I had a beautiful girl waiting for me at home; my life was coming together, and things were changing for the better for my family, except for just one detail; the knowledge of who had raped Ashley, and why, still sizzled in the pit of my stomach. I knew it wasn't New Year's, but I made a resolution; I would do all I could to make those people pay for what they'd done to my Ashley, but I'd keep out of it until the time was right, then anything I could do, I would do. Punishment was due to somebody, and I promised myself I'd be there to see it handed out.

++++

I pulled into our driveway and parked behind Mum's car, bursting to give her my good news. As I came in, the first person I saw was Ashley, her smile lighting up the room as she saw the expression on my face.

"How did it go, Nick?" she asked, and I couldn't help grinning.

"I start a week Monday! I've got a job!"

Ashley squealed and jumped on me, and Mum came out of the kitchen to see what all the noise was about.

"Mum, I got the job, I start a week Monday!" I exulted, making sure I kept all trace of what had happened earlier out of my voice. "And I've got a car, come see!"

Mum and Ashley came outside with me, Mum astonished at the car, and Ashley looking curiously at it. I explained the deal with David and the car; Ashley looked at me oddly as I explained, but said nothing. After we'd had dinner, I asked her if she'd like to go for a drive so I could show her off. 

Ashley looked at me with a big, artless grin on her face.

"So tell me, brother of mine, who are you going to show off; me or the car?" she asked almost innocently, and that earned her a pinch on the bum that made her jump and giggle as I shooed her out the door.

"Perhaps we need to visit a 'quiet place' again, Nick!" she murmured in my ear, and I smiled to myself as I picked-up on what she was saying.

We took a long meandering route this time; I guessed she was taking me to one of her more rural hidey-holes. We drove a fair way out of town, eventually skirting a large lake and following a path through the forest to park in among a stand of broad-leafed hardwood trees; maple, I guessed, although I'm no botanist. 

I admired the view; there was a lot to admire, wild-looking woodland and forest alive with bird sounds and the sound of the wind soughing in the trees, and the occasional glimpse of the dark water of the reservoir just visible through the trees.

"Ashley, where are we?" I asked, and she hooked her arm in mine.

"That's the Tomahannock Reservoir down there, Vermont State line's over that way, and Massachusetts is over there. Daddy used to bring us out here and detour over to the Berlin State Forest because he used to say you can see three states from there. I never saw it, though; one clump of trees and poison ivy looks pretty much like another!"

I leaned back against the car, holding her and enjoying the warmth and smell of her, a delicious light flowery scent with undertones of vanilla; she smelled delicious. She leaned against me, her head on my chest and her arms around my waist, enjoying the silence together.

After a while she began drumming distractedly on the small of my back, a light tapping that I noticed she did when she was thinking, a rhythm that seemed to focus her concentration.

"Nicky," she asked, hesitantly, "If I ask you something, will you be completely honest with me?"

I nuzzled her, enjoying the feel of her hair against my lips. "Of course, Princess, always, you know that! Just ask away."

"Nicky, when you came in earlier, when you saw me you looked like a deer in the headlights; why? All afternoon Mom's been all sweetness and light and all is good with the world. I thought at first she was just happy about having a date for Friday, but then I realised she was acting exactly the way she used to be when she'd come back from the hospital and I'd ask her about daddy, and she'd say he was fine, when we both knew it was all going badly." 

She paused, looking back up at me with her clear, frank gaze. 

"Then there's you, acting happy-clappy and peppy, not your normal self with your little jokes and puns and that goofy grin of yours, and now Dr. Nixon suddenly gives you Judy's car. Tell me something OK? Why? What the fuck is going on? And don't even think about lying to me, I can read you like a book, big brother!"

Shit.

I tried to squirm my way out of it. "It's nothing, babe, I'm really happy I got a job so quickly, and mum's just happy for me too...!" I trailed off as she slowly shook her head.

"Nick Davis, right now I can see a great big 'I Am Lying' sign flashing on and off over your head. What am I missing here? Talk, English-boy, or sleep on the porch, and I mean it!"

I was busted, and she was right, I couldn't lie to her, or to anyone, come to that; I just wasn't set-up that way.

I sighed and wrapped my arm even tighter around her, cuddling her close to me.

"Look baby-girl, it's about ...what...happened to you."

Ashley looked up at me. "I was raped, Nicky, say it, it's OK, it doesn't have any power over me anymore; you can mention it, you know!"

That was encouraging.

"Baby, about the ...rape, we had a letter today, from England, from...Barbara. She sent it Friday, the day..." 

"...the day she died, Oh Nicky, I'm so sorry!" finished Ashley, her hand suddenly cool and reassuring on my cheek. I cleared my throat and continued.

"In the letter she gave details, lots of details, about what happened to you. I'm so sorry, I wish I didn't know ..."

Ashley looked worried.

"What Nick, what is it? Tell me!"

I stared at the ground as I began to speak, unable to look her in the face.

"Baby, what happened to you, it was planned, it wasn't some random lowlife, it wasn't an opportunist crime; someone was sent to do that...by my father..."

Her eyes were two saucers, shock and outrage growing in them. I could feel her tensing and drawing away from me, and I was already regretting my honesty, but it was too late to backtrack now.

"You knew this...and you yet still brought me out here? Why, why would you keep something like that from me?"

I swallowed.

"Baby girl, there's more, oh God it gets worse...!"

She looked at me big-eyed and fearful. "Worse, what do you mean, how much worse...?"

I avoided her eyes. "When that...creature...did what he did to you, it wasn't you he was waiting for; you just happened to walk in at the wrong time...!"

Her eyes narrowed, then widened in horror. "You mean...!" she gasped, her hands flying up to her mouth.

I nodded miserably.

"He was waiting for mum, that's what it was about; my father, that sick, twisted rat-bastard set it up, we saw the emails, Barbara sent them all; he's fucking insane! This was his way of punishing mum for leaving him! Remember I told you he was vicious and vindictive? Well now we know just how far gone he really is. Barbara said he'd never let her go, I should have listened to what she was telling me...

He bided his time, and then he decided to set this in motion, for reasons that only make sense to him, and you got caught in the middle; I'm so sorry, baby, I wish I could make it all un-happen..."

Ashley's mouth was an 'O' of shock, horror rising in her eyes as she realised that she'd been caught in a trap set for our mother, and had paid for it by being raped in her place. I tried to hug her to me, but she pulled away from me, shaking me off and backing away.

"Don't...touch me!"" she flared, looking at me with something akin to hatred in her eyes. "You're his son, how do I know I'm not hooking up with the son of fucking Frankenstein? For all I know you're as bad as that fucking maniac, so keep the fuck away from me!"

The hurt roared through me as she said that, and she knew that because she resolutely turned away from me, her arms clamped tight around herself as she sank to her knees. My eyes blurred as I realised I'd blown it with her, I'd tried to protect her and instead I'd shown her how to hate me.

Her shoulders were shaking as she sobbed silently, and all I wanted to do was hold her and comfort her, but I was the son of Satan right now, and she didn't want to hear anything from me. I tried, anyway, though...

"Ashley, please..."

She stood up, turned, and glared at me, her face working, to stalk up to me and push me aside. 

"Get out of my way!" she gritted, so I did, allowing her to climb back in the car. She slammed the door and I heard the locks go on as she leaned on the wheel. With one last hate-filled glare at me she started the engine and skidded away, spraying me with sour-smelling leaf-mould and leaving me standing there, alone, and pretty much lost in the woods somewhere around the reservoir. I had a sort of clue as to which way we'd come, so I started walking, but I didn't know how far I'd get; darkness was falling, I had no money, my wallet with my ID was in my jacket, and my jacket was in the car, and I hadn't seen any houses or other cars the whole time we'd been here; also, and just to make it easier, it was the dark of the moon, so I'd have nothing to give me any light once full dark set in.

After slipping and stumbling for two hours (according to the trusty 'Transformers' watch Barbara gave me when I was nine), I was pretty much completely lost. As night fell the forest had become first a deep gloomy wall, and then a deeper velvety blackness under the tree canopy, and oppressively silent, except for my yelps as I stepped in things, tripped over things, or walked into things. One of those things' I walked into really hurt, and I did get some light then, big stars that bloomed and faded in front of my eyes as I smelled and tasted brass, and I could feel a sticky wetness seeping down my face and into my eye. Blood, I assumed, but I couldn't tell, as I couldn't see my hand in front of my face by now. 

Eventually I came onto a cinder track, actually I tripped over something and landed on the track, which is how I knew it was there, more a country lane than anything, and where it led was anybody's guess; I was so completely turned around in the dark that I could have been walking to Canada for all I knew. I mentally flipped a coin, and trudged in the direction indicated, again in complete silence. The cloud had been hazy and low earlier in the evening, and now it felt like I was walking in an anechoic chamber where the only sound was that of my breathing. I had never seen a night so black, or so silent, and if I had been of that turn of mind, I would have been freaked by it. At least I was going somewhere, though, even if I had no clue where. I walked along that track for over two hours, seeing no cars or signs of human habitation and by now I would have welcomed anything to break-up the pitch blackness, a house, a gingerbread cottage, three bears, anything. Scenes from 'Deliverance' were beginning to play out in my head when I heard a car in the distance and saw headlights splashing the trees when I looked back over my shoulder.

I stepped onto the verge, not wanting to be run down by whoever was gunning that car along this deserted track at this time of night; they wouldn't be expecting me to be walking along the middle of it at dead of night. They probably wouldn't even see me until it was too late. So, with a vague notion of flagging them down, perhaps begging a ride, or even just getting some directions, I waited on the verge, waving my shirt as it was light coloured, something to catch in a headlight.

I tried not to look at the headlights as the car approached. After so long in the dark the glare was painfully bright, so my eyes were slitted as I waited for the approaching car, not really knowing whether whoever was driving would stop for a battered looking stranger with no shirt in the middle of the night. The car slid to a halt and the door opened.

"NICKY!!" screamed Ashley, running at me full tilt and slamming into me, almost knocking me over.

"Nicky, I'm so sorry, I left you alone out here, oh God, you could have been killed, I went back and you were gone and I couldn't find you and I've been driving for hours looking for you, I left you all alone, Oh Nicky please, I'm sorry, you could have died out here, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she gabbled, her arms locked around my neck. I was just so glad to see her, and apparently she didn't hate me anymore, so no harm, no foul as far as I was concerned.

Ashley tugged me back to the car, and ran her gentle fingers over the nice big lump over my right eye. Now that I had light, I realised I could barely see out of that eye. She pulled down the vanity mirror so I could see the damage for myself; a three-inch gash ran across above my eyebrow, and the blood had caked the side of my face and limned my eye. She ran light, trembling fingers across my face, tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked at the cut, and the blood smeared across my face and forearms where I'd been using them to wipe the blood out of my eyes.

"Look at this Nicky, oh God, look at this, it's my fault, I left you out here alone, you didn't do anything and I just left you here, supposing you'd been killed...!"

I tried to laugh it off by telling her it was my fault for letting a tree bite me, but she wasn't having it.

"Hikers go missing up here all the time, there's sink-holes, dead-falls, or you could have fallen in one of the ponds or marshes, they're everywhere, or fallen in a ravine, and I left you here, in the dark, oh God, you could have been killed, I just ran off and left you out here alone, oh God...!"

I held her close while she trembled and cried, and I have to say, holding her again was the best feeling in the world, after the way she left earlier.

When she'd calmed down, she told me we had to find the Ranger Station. I asked her why, and got an answer that surprised me.

"To let them know you're safe; the Park Rangers, State Troopers, Doctor Nixon, Judy, Mom, they're all out looking for you; this is Pittstown State Forest and we're miles from where I dumped you; you were heading toward Vermont, but if you'd stayed in the forest we might never have found you again, and it would have been my fault...!" 

She started crying again, and I held her some more, calming her, and letting her know it was alright. Eventually she started telling me what had happened after she left me.

After she'd gone a few miles she'd calmed down, and turned round and come back, but I was gone. Not knowing what to do, she'd gone straight to Judy, and told her the whole story. Judy had flipped when she heard Ashley had left me alone in the forest at night, and went and got her dad, who'd driven up to the Ranger Station and told them I was lost somewhere in Pittstown Forest. 

Meanwhile, Judy and Ashley had gone to get Mum, and then the four of them had fanned out along the roads leading away from where Ashley had left me. Ashley got the road I was on by sheer luck. While she was talking, she took a packet of Kleenex from the glove box and wetted one from a bottle of water she found in there, and started cleaning that cut over my eye as well as cleaning off some of the blood from my face, arms and hands. When she cleaned the cut, that's when I discovered how much pain I could take; if she hadn't been sitting astride me I'd have launched right through the moon roof...

Once she'd cleaned the worst of it away, she made me put my shirt back on, and she put the car in gear, turning around to head back the way she came. We eventually got back to blacktop near some houses, and she pulled over and pulled out Judy's spare cell phone, telling me she was calling Judy.

Ashley had a quick conversation with Judy, just telling her I was safe, and that I was going to need her father, no I wasn't badly hurt, just a little dinged-up, as she put it.

We rendezvoused at Judy's home; mum's car was there, and a State Police cruiser, with David outside talking with the two troopers, before waving me in and following us. Mum jumped up when I walked in and her eyes filled when she saw my face, as did Judy's.

"Poor Nicky, you keep getting hurt!" she whispered, and again I tried to laugh it off.

"Mum, I'm OK, really, a tree jumped out at me, but I fought it off, honest!" and I saw a quick smile flit across her face. David came in then and told me sit so he could examine my forehead. When I complied, he pulled on some examination gloves and gently prodded the cut, squeezing the lips together to check the extent of the swelling, and opened a bottle of some brown pungent stuff.

"This may sting a little, try and not cry, kick or bite please!"

He picked up a long curved hemostat and wrapped a length of cotton wool around the jaws, poured the liquid on it, then swabbed the cut. The pain was incredible, like being painted with acid, and I had to use all my willpower not to jerk away.




Rag Doll Ch. 04



"I thought you said it would only sting a little?" I asked.

He grinned. "Yeah, well, I lied, but would you have sat still if I said 'this is going to hurt sooo bad, now just sit there please? I think not. Now sit still and shut up!" 

When he'd finished swabbing it, he picked up a thing that looked like the satanic offspring of a nail-gun and a desk stapler and grinned at me. I shrank back.

"What is that thing?" I asked, and he grinned even wider.

"It's a surgical stapler, Nick, and it does what it says; it staples. Now look over there and keep still!"

"Is it going to hurt?" I asked, and his answering grin was evil, I thought; he was definitely enjoying himself just a little too much!

"Yes, it is going to hurt, I think I can almost guarantee that! I can give you a local, but to be honest, this is will be over in a minute; if I give you a local it's going to feel like your eye wants to fall out of its socket for the next two hours; it won't, it'll just feel like it. It's your choice, quick and painful, or long, drawn-out and weird, which is it going to be? Or I can hand-suture, without a local, in which case it's going to feel like someone's gnawing your eyebrow off. Decision time, Nick!"

I had to grin. "I'll have the quick and painful, when you put it like that, how can I refuse?"

He put three titanium staples in and painted the wound again, dried it off, and sprayed a clear dressing over it.

"All done, the staples will have to stay in at least a week, come see me and I'll remove them for you if they're ready to come out." 

Ashley hugged me, all her anger of earlier forgotten, diluted, I suspect, by a large amount of guilt, but I wasn't going there; I'd come too close to losing her to chance screwing it up again. 

"I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to freak you out, honest!" I whispered in her ear, and the answering nibble of my earlobe was what I was waiting for, her way of telling me it was over. Judy, however, seemed to have something on her mind.

"Ashley, may I speak with you, alone, now!" she gritted, and Ashley let go of me, looking sheepishly at Judy as she trailed after her into the dining room. Mum gently ran her fingers over the swollen lump over my eye.

"Every time I see you, you look more banged-up and injured. This has to stop, Nicky!" she smiled, and I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

"Whatever you say, Mum!" I grinned, and tweaked her nose lightly, making her gasp as the memory of my doing that so long ago suddenly rose up for both of us. Lately, more and more memories were surfacing, images of Mum when she was much younger, with longer hair, and blurry memories of a man, who I assumed must have been James. Something occurred to me, and I thought I'd ask her while we were alone.

"Mum, I remember doing this," and my hands formed into a series of shapes and gestures. "Why do I remember that, what does it mean?" 

Mum smiled sadly. 

"James had a hearing-impaired older sister, Ashley, he was teaching you to hand-sign for her, what you were doing there was 'Hello Ashley'. She died when my Ashley was two. You had quite a vocabulary, James used to talk to you like that, before Brian..."

We were interrupted by raised voices coming from the dining room, Judy's, for the most part.

"....and so you just drove off and left him there? He's only been here a few days, what was he supposed to do, follow a trail of breadcrumbs? Wait for Goldilocks? Hope the seven fucking dwarves found him? Of course he went wandering; it was night, and he was alone in the dark, and he was lost. He could have died out there, but you never thought of that, you got in a snit and you just fucked-off! I thought you loved him!" 

A lower voice, Ashley's, said something indistinct, and Judy's cut her off.

"Whatever his lunatic father did, it wasn't Nicky; didn't you see his back? Don't you remember what brought him here? And with all that, you still just fucking abandoned him in the forest, with no idea where he was and no way of getting home! Who knows what the fuck is roaming around in those woods, supposing he'd startled a bear with cubs? How long would he have survived? Did you even think of that? You might as well have just backed-over him a few times and finished him off; it would have been fucking kinder!!"

I thought I'd better step in there; this looked like it was getting out of hand, but mum put a hand on my harm.

"Wait, Nicky..." as more muttered comments came through the door.

There came the sound of a slap, and mum nodded at me.

"OK Nicky, now you can go break it up!"

As I reached for the double doors into the dining room, they opened, and Ashley came out, her head down and one hand on her face, followed by Judy, red-faced, tears on her cheeks, but her eyes still alight with anger. I took Ashley in my arms and gently tilted her chin up; on her left cheek, was a clear hand-print. Judy looked at me, and I held out my hand to her, and she hugged me too, burrowing her head into me.

"We were so worried about you, Nicky, that place is a fucking death-trap at night!" she muttered into my chest, her voice muffled by my shirt.

I smiled; I hadn't realised I'd made such an impression on her, but it was gratifying to know that I'd made a friend already. As she hugged me Ashley kept her face buried in my shoulder, and she was crying again, which I really didn't want; it had all turned out OK, so no harm done (other than a world-class scar I was going to tell my kids I got when I fought a bear; hey, if you're going to lie, make it a good 'un...)

As the two girls hugged me, Ashley's hand came up and hugged Judy as well, gently stroking her shaggy mop-cut hair as she included her in her hug, so I guessed that particular argument was over as well.

Just then David came out of the kitchen with a large tray.

"Anybody for a late supper? We have Monterey Jack, Ardennes Pâté, wheat crackers, some English Stilton that you really should try, Jewish Rye bread and black olives; dig in or Judy'll eat most of it!"

Mum tried to refuse, saying we'd already put him out enough, but David wouldn't take no for an answer, once again taking the opportunity to spend some time with her; I nudged the girls and glanced over at our respective parents, noting again how good they looked together as they ate and talked, a natural couple if I'd ever seen one.

At last mum decided we really should leave, it was very late, and we'd had a real roller-coaster of a day, so time to rest. Judy and Ashley kissed and made up; the mark on Ashley's face was already fading, and Judy apologised for slapping Ashley, but mum surprised us all.

"There's no need to apologise, Judy, you saved me the trouble! Goodnight, dear!"

Ashley drove me home; my right eye was almost swollen shut now, so driving at night was a little hazardous with almost no depth perception.

When we got in I got a good look at myself. Boy was I an ugly sight; my hair was matted with dried blood, my shirt was stiff and crusted with dried blood, and my face and forehead were streaked with dried blood, while what looked like a bulging third eye was trying to erupt above my eye. Mum stood behind me and studied me. 

"Get a shower, Nicky, just be careful of that dressing; much as it weird's me out to say it, you should ask Ashley to help you, she's a lot gentler than you are!" 

I grinned at that and at mum's expression, and she smiled back, so I relaxed. Ashley came out of our room in time to hear mum suggest I ask her, and of course she said yes. Mum looked coolly at her and walked away, leaving her looking guilty and sad.

"Don't worry; she'll be fine in the morning!"I grinned, and pulled her close for a quick fondle and grope. She smiled as she held herself against me, her nearness enough to trigger a particular male response, and her eyes widened as she grinned, nipping my ear.

"Are you ever not horny, Nicky?" she breathed in my ear, reaching down to tweak the end of my cock. "Wash first, you're covered in blood, you look like Hannibal the Cannibal!"

I followed her into the bathroom and stripped off, Ashley pursing her lips at the myriad small cuts and bruises I'd collected during my walk in the forest. She had me squat down and lean back against the wall as she gently washed the dried blood out of my hair, the sight of the diluted blood running in streams down my body making me feel distinctly nauseous, then she washed the dried blood off my face, finally washing, and dabbing dry, all the little cuts, nicks and grazes. 

She then moved to my back, carefully dabbed and dried me, and declared me fit to be seen in public again. She was of course naked in the shower with me, and I was sorely tempted to take a run at her again, maybe try for a reprise of our last shower escapade, but sanity prevailed when she slapped my hand away and reminded me that mum was still up and around, and she probably wouldn't appreciate the two of us hooting like howler monkeys two doors away from her bedroom; she'd put us in the end-bedroom for a reason...

Ashley toweled me off and left me to do the bits I could reach while she wrapped a towel around herself and disappeared into our room, where I soon heard the sound of a dryer. Once I was as dry as I felt comfortable with, I made haste to join her. She was wearing a long t-shirt and panties, her standard sleeping attire; not for long, if I had anything to say about it! She stood up to hug me again, whispering apologies again, apologies I brushed away; I wasn't interested in hearing her say sorry, only in having her hold me again as though this evening had never happened.

I held her close, needing her presence and contact with her after the trauma of the day, and Ashley responded happily to me, holding me close as my hands roamed over her back and around her waist. I leaned down to kiss her, and she kissed me back hungrily, her hands in turn gently gliding over me, carefully avoiding my back.

My hands just naturally slipped down to cup her lovely firm bum cheeks as we kissed, and she ground against my rapidly hardening cock, making approving noises as she felt it grow against her. I slid my hands into her panties, sliding them down a little so I could hold and squeeze those firm peach buttocks of hers, holding and gently pulling them apart as we kissed more and more passionately. We moved to the bed, and lay down together without once breaking our kiss until I reached down to lift the hem of her shirt and pull it up, Ashley sliding her panties off and kicking them away.

Once I had her naked, I could nibble, bite, kiss, and lick her all I wanted. I kissed her in a line down from her chin, along her neck and between her breasts (not forgetting a quick nibble and suck of her nipples) before continuing down to swirl my tongue in her navel, drawing a quick breath and a giggle from her before kissing and lightly licking my way to her bald slit.

As soon as my tongue brushed her slit, she sighed and quivered, opening her legs slightly to allow me better access. I moved between her thighs and dipped down to lightly lick and brush my flattened tongue against her shaven, dark pink folds of soft flesh. As I licked I could feel those folds start to swell, her scent becoming richer and stronger as her arousal rose. 

She smelled and tasted divine; if I could have, I would have spent the rest of my life licking and tasting her while I inhaled her warm, heady, exciting, scent. Ashley wriggled and murmured as I flicked my tongue along her damp slit, pointing my tongue into her pink little rosebud, making her gasp and wriggle more, then flattening it and licking in long slow strokes to the hood covering her clitoris, lapping insistently at her tender flesh.

I parted the folds of her wet gash, poking my tongue inside her, making her giggle and sigh as her legs opened even further. As I brushed the hood of her clit, I could feel the hard little bean beneath sliding out into the open, slick and buttery with her juices, the scent, and taste of her inflaming and drawing me in. 

As I lapped and probed her, her hand reached for and found my straining cock, and began rhythmically squeezing and sliding up as I worked at her pussy. As I licked she began to gasp, her head moving from side to side as I licked and probed her inner recesses, and when I pulled her clitoris between my lips and sucked, she went wild.

"OH YES! Nick, yesss, like that, oh God, OHHH!! Ohhh! Jeezus, yess, like that, oh fuck, oh fuck, OHH FUCK YESSS!" she screamed, her thighs clamping around my head as her hands twined in my hair. The blood thundered in my ears as her thighs tensed, and as I sucked and rubbed her clit with my tongue, she came like a runaway freight train, her juices squirting into my mouth and face as she screamed in ecstasy, thrusting and hunching her pussy against my probing tongue as her hands and thighs held me fast against her.

At last her straining thighs relaxed, releasing me as she slumped down, her face and neck flushed from the recent storm, a sweet smile of utter fulfillment on her lips, her eyes closed in post-coital languor. I moved up next to her, stopping to dip my tongue in her navel again, making her giggle softly.

"What about you, baby?" she inquired softly, her hand taking hold of me and slowly pumping as she grinned at me.

I knelt up, my aching erection pointing at her, and she leaned up, bending down to kiss and then slowly lick the tip of my bursting cock.

"Mmm, you taste nice, I could get to like this!" she grinned, looking up at me before dipping down again to slide her lips over the end and begin slowly sucking me.

I leaned back, my eyes half-closed the; the first time she'd done this, it was exquisite, what she was doing now was almost unbearably exciting. Her mouth was a paradise of suctioning wet heat enfolding my cock as her tongue rubbed and flicked around and behind the head, and into the slit of my straining cock, making me jump as she gently plated the sensitive tissue. At the same time she rhythmically squeezed and pumped the shaft of my penis with one hand, and fondled my scrotum with the other, gently squeezing it in time with her pumping.

I was in heaven; whoever she'd learned this from had taught her well, so well in fact that I could already feel my scrotum tightening as the urge to ejaculate grew ever stronger, and the muscles at the juncture of my thighs began to tighten, together with my abs, signalling that I was close.

"Uh, Ashley...I'm going to...Ashley!" I tried to warn her, but she just looked up at me and smiled, sucking and licking even harder, and I lost it. 

I leaned back as bolt after bolt of spunk pulsed out of me, splashing into her mouth, and she clamped her lips around me, sucking and swallowing every jet of spunk as it sprayed into her mouth. I must have shot seven or eight strong jets into her mouth, filling it with my spunk, and she swallowed every last one, even swirling her tongue around the head of my penis after I'd finished ejaculating and only a weak trickle of spunk bubbled from my still hard cock. 

Ashley continued to suck until all the sperm was cleaned from my cock head, then she released me with a final kiss to the tip, and a sly grin.

"Looks like someone's still excited," she husked, "I wonder what he should do with that thing?"

With that she lay back and winked at me. My cock twitched and suddenly felt almost painfully solid as I realised what I wanted to do. Ashley held out her hands to me, and I slid up next to her, holding her as I kissed her, tasting myself as we kissed. She took hold of me and slowly pumped and squeezed, the sensation almost tipping me over the edge again.

"Waiting, Nicky!" she grinned, and I took the hint, sliding between her legs and leaning up to kiss and lick her nipples, sucking and nibbling them as my hands slid under her, to cup and hold her delightful derriere.

As I moved forward, Ashley took hold of my cock and rubbed the tip over her wet and swollen pussy lips, teasing us both, before lifting her pelvis up as I slid into her. She felt like warm velvet against the head of my overheated cock, and her breath hissed out as I slid all the way in, burying myself in her wet, hot depths as I stretched her open again.

Almost immediately she began moving against me, lifting her hips to bring her clit into contact with the wiry mat of hair at the base of my cock, pleasuring herself against me as I pumped into her. I slid my fingers around her cheeks to hold her bum more securely, pulling the cheeks apart as I poled into her, my finger sliding into her tight little anus in time to my thrusts.

"Oh God yes, Nicky, like that, yesss!" she muttered as I increased my tempo, hammering into her as she humped and pumped against me. I slid another finger into her tight hole and pumped her as I rammed my cock into her.

"Ooooohhhhh Goooddd!" she moaned as I thrust into her, "Like that, baby, yess, yesss, God, yesss!!" she panted, and I responded by jamming myself into her as fast as I could, pistoning my aching cock into her as both of us reached for release.

She came with a loud whistling groan, her nails digging painfully into my arms as her cunt walls squeezed me as though they would force me out of her. I couldn't resist the sensation, and I came explosively, pumping long ropes of spunk deep into the recesses of her velvety cunt, mating with her, filling her with endless jets of my sperm, all my love for her concentrated in this one act as we joined together in mutual release.

At last, I finished spurting; I had nothing more to give her, and my rigid cock softened as we kissed and touched and murmured in the afterglow of our lovemaking. I rolled away from her, to lie on my back next to her, my arm around her to hold her, maintaining that connection that we renewed every time we made love. 

Ashley was the same, her hand lying gently on my chest, feeling my heartbeat slow down and normalise. She pulled herself closer, and my arm curled around her to hold her close against me. I looked deep into her dove-grey eyes, and saw only love and trust reflected back at me, and I knew, if I had looked the world over, I wouldn't have found another girl as perfect as this one right here in the crook of my arm. We lay in silence, no words needed just yet, both of us enjoying the pre-dawn cool after the heat and sweat of our sexual encounter.

I woke with a start, bright sunshine flooding the room and no sign of Ashley. I smelled bacon, so I slid into my jeans and padded out of the room to track it down. Ashley was in the kitchen, dressed in just an apron as she grilled bacon, and brewed coffee, the two things on this planet guaranteed to make me rise from the dead (apart from Ashley, of course; for her, I'd dig my way out my grave with my teeth...) 

She turned, smiling like sunshine as I came into the kitchen, and I almost had to pinch myself to believe that this was my girl; God, she was hot!

"Good afternoon, Rip van Winkle," she grinned, "I thought you were going to sleep all day! It's almost midday, mom's gone to work, and I don't have any classes today, so you got me all to yourself; just think what fun we'll have -- after we have a little talk, about yesterday, and some other...stuff. Now eat up!" So saying, she passed me a plate of bacon, eggs and toast, the breakfast holy trinity where I grew up; I had had something else entirely in mind for breakfast, but bacon and eggs was good, too...

While I ate, Ashley checked my staples and got a bottle of antiseptic and some cotton from the bathroom cabinet, then waited for me, watching, and smiling impishly while I engulfed the food cooked so well by her fair hand, which I told her made it taste ten times better. She smiled at me tenderly as she said "You are so full of shit your eyeballs are floating! If you want some, ask, but don't try and lie your way into my pants, you're not very good at it...the lying, bit, I mean; everything else is a big Ten, OK!"




Rag Doll Ch. 04



I love that girl's sense of humour!

As I took my plate and cutlery over to the sink and started to wash up, she came over and stood behind me, dabbing something cold that stung on the dozens of little scratches and grazes I'd picked up from my night communing with nature as well as the bumper collection I'd got as a going-away present from my dog- cock father. 

Where it hadn't hurt that much before, by the time she'd finished it would be fair to say I'd been better off not knowing all those little cuts were there; that stuff stung like buggery, and my back and shoulders were now on fire, making me twitch involuntarily every time she touched a raw spot.

Ashley finally grabbed my ear and hauled me down to her level.

"Nick, if you don't stand still I'm gonna rub alcohol on your balls; that'll really give you something to twitch about, now stay still! Jeez, you're like a three-year old girl, quit squirming!"

Once she'd finished torturing me (sorry, 'tending to my wounds'), she pinched my arse and grinned. 

"OK He-Man, all done, grab a coffee; we have things to discuss...and some apologies as well, so chop-chop!"

I followed her into the living room, hypnotized by her spectacular arse twitching as she walked, the fact that she was wearing nothing except a brief apron playing trills and arpeggio's on my libido; I was sporting a more than respectable hard-on within 10 paces, and I had to resort to shuffling to avoid tangling my balls in the material of my suddenly too tight jeans. 

Ashley looked back at me over her shoulder, and the combination of that look, her smile, and the sudden extra bouncy twitch her cheeks developed had me mentally stripping down and listing an Alfa Romeo SZ gearbox before I went off like a Roman candle...

By the time we reached the living room, I was in agony; whatever she had in mind had better be quick, I had something of my own I wanted to get in the open, and certain pressing matters I wanted to press against her! She led me to the couch and climbed onto it, tucking her legs under and wrapping the apron demurely around herself. I sat down, and waited for her to start.

"Nicky, about last night, I just wanted to tell you I was so wrong to leave you alone like that. Judy was right; you could have been killed, and it didn't even occur to me, I just drove off in a rage. I got a couple of miles down the road and I realised what I'd done, and how wrong I was to leave you stranded like that." 

"I came back for you, but you were gone, and I called out for you, I screamed out for you, but you must have been out of earshot; I was so scared at what I'd done, I thought you were lost, and it made me feel like I was in free-fall, like stepping off a cliff, and I felt and scared, and alone. I guess I never really thought about how much you meant to me until I thought I'd lost you; I was just happy to float along being in love with you, without understanding what that actually meant, then when I thought I'd lost you, all I wanted was you, nothing else, forever." 

"Judy warned me she'd make me pay for what I did, but nothing she could do compares to what I felt when I found you gone. I love you Nick Davis, and I want you, forever, no games, no secrets, no holding back, just the two of us. You tried to shelter me yesterday, and I appreciate that, but from now on, no more secrets. There's nothing so bad, so god-awful that you can't tell me, I know that now; yesterday grew me up, and I realized the one good thing I have is the only thing I'll ever need."

She dimpled at me and took my hand.

"I know you asked me once already, but this year's a Leap Year, so right now I'm exercising my prerogative as spinster of the parish; Nicky Davis, the love of my life, will you marry me?"

I gaped at her, then grabbed her hands and held them tightly.

"Christ, yes, yes, a million times, yes!" I whispered in her ear, my heart almost bursting with delight after almost losing her forever just a few hours before

She grinned up at me and leaned in to kiss me, one of those kisses that completely wipes your mind and leaves you slack-jawed and drooling. 

"I'm never leaving you anywhere, ever again, I promise!" she laughed, a clear, bell-like chiming that made me ache for her long legs and smooth thighs just an arm's reach away under a flimsy apron, and my groin tightened almost unbearably. 

There's only so much a mortal man can take, and I pulled her to me, sliding her astride my lap as I squeezed her perfect cheeks, the feel of those smooth, firm globes nearly tipping me over the edge.

"No, Nick, down boy, down!" she giggled, "You haven't got time, Judy's on her way over. Your new boss called, he needs you to sign some paperwork, Judy said she'll take you, so go get washed up, now! Mom won't be home until seven, so we'll have plenty of time to play when you get back!"

I was intrigued as to what I was going to sign, but Ashley just replied that he didn't say. I asked why her Judy had to take me, and she actually blushed shamefacedly.

"I'd like to take you, but...I'm grounded; at my age! Can you believe it?"

I had to laugh, it was just too funny; Ashley looked indignant, but eventually she started to see the funny side too.

+++

Judy was quiet and subdued as we drove into town, saying nothing, and flicking the occasional glance at me, until at last the silence got to me.

"Judy, pull over, please!" I asked her, and she did so without a word. Once she'd parked-up, she sat with her hands on the wheel, looking straight ahead.

I broke the strained silence.

"OK Judy, what's going on? You haven't said a word since we set out, you won't even look me in the eye, what's up?"

She turned and looked at me, and there were tears in her eyes.

"Nick, last night, I thought we'd lost you, and it scared me; Ashley's my best friend; she's like my sister, and I thought she'd abandoned you, and that made me feel sick and really fucking angry, I thought I'd lost you as well!"

She wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands, and stared at me with an almost aggressive expression.

I was getting a funny feeling about this conversation; why was Judy so cut-up over Ashley and I falling out, however briefly?

I had to say something, just to break the thickening silence building up in the car.

"Jude, why would you feel like that about me...ah!"

She grinned at me, a lopsided, 'at last he gets it' kind of grin.

"Yeah Nick, that's right, God help me, and I know it's wrong, but I think I'm in love with my best friend's guy! And you know the real pisser about that? I know he'll only ever have eyes for her, but it still doesn't change the way I feel. If there was no Ashley I'd be all over you, but as it is, I know I'll never have a chance with you, nor would I ever make a move; I wouldn't ever hurt her like that; you're her happiness, not mine. So there we are; now you know!"

I tried to be as gentle as I could; I could see how much pain she was in.

"Judy, I..."I began, but she cut me off.

"It's OK Nick, I know I can't have you, and I accept that. But I had to tell you, just once, just so I didn't explode, and now we can go on with our lives. Just do one thing for me? Hug me, please, just once, let me pretend for a few seconds that you're with me."

I couldn't refuse such a gracious request, and I pulled her to me, hugging her as warmly as I could, letting her have her fantasy, heartbreaking as it must have been. 

One thing I knew for certain, though; despite my promise to Ashley, this was one conversation I would keep secret and take to the grave; if Judy ever felt like telling Ashley, well, that was her right; it was her secret. I would never tell.

After a while she patted my shoulder and let me go, sliding back into her seat and swiping her forearm across her eyes. When she looked back at me, her pixie grin was back, then she looked over her shoulder and pulled away from the kerb. 

By the time we reached our destination, she was almost her old self again, making outrageous and sharply observed comments about every subject we touched on as we chatted. 

While I filled-in various employment forms and applications, Judy wandered around looking at the glamorous sports cars scattered around the service bays. I kept one eye on her as I filled-in forms in triplicate and made various declarations; she was a pretty girl in a tiny skirt in a workshop full of horny mechanics, so I felt a little extra vigilance was called for. Judy, however, seemed quite un-fazed by some of the remarks made to her, and some of her retorts would have blistered paint. 

At one point I saw her leaning against a stunning black Lister Storm that hadn't been there before, smiling, and chatting animatedly with the young technician. He couldn't seem to take his eyes of her, and she seemed to be making a lot of eye contact, so maybe she'd made a conquest; I hoped so. I did love Judy, but only as my girl's best friend and I wished her nothing but the best. 

When I was making ready to leave, Mark grinned as he nodded toward Judy.

"When she was seven, she bit my hand so hard it drew blood. I put her over my knee and spanked her good! She's quite something! Are you and she...?

I grinned back. "Oh no, Judy's my fiancée's best friend. Ashley couldn't bring me so Judy got the short straw."

Mark smiled at me and held out his hand. 

"We're all caught up here, so I'll look forward to seeing you a week from Monday!"

As I left the office, I saw Judy write something on a piece of paper and slip it into the young technician's pocket, and I grinned. Apparently she'd gotten over me...

On the way back, certain things I'd been chewing over in my mind solidified into a plan, so I asked Judy if there was a men's outfitter's anywhere near. She decided to take me to the one her father uses; I wanted to buy some leather gloves, I thought I was going to need them.

I bought a pair of tight black calfskin gloves, thin, and supple, what they call 'Burglar's Gloves' in my part of the world. I asked Judy the way to Bobby Czyzyck's home, I had something to ask him, and I was determined to get some answers. Judy offered to drive me there, curious as to what I wanted with that little weasel.

When he answered the door, he went the colour of old yoghurt as the blood drained from his face. He tried to slam the door, but I had my foot there, and it was easy to reach in there and yank him out. He was nearly gibbering with fear as I held him against the wall, my gloved fist around his scrawny neck; good; just the place I wanted him to be.

"Bobby," I said, in a friendly, even tone, "do you remember when I said that if I showed up on your doorstep, it would be because you did something to bring me there? You've been a bad boy, Bobby, I know what you did to Ashley Lowry, and now I'm going to take you for a little drive a long way from anywhere, and I'm going to hurt you lots and lots. Man-up Bobby, it's time to pay!"

The pathetic little maggot was nearly crying with fear, but I wasn't finished with him just yet. I cuffed him a couple of times to get his full attention, although what I really felt like doing was chaining him to the rear bumper and dragging him a few miles at 40mph.

"I'm giving you a choice, Bobby; you can talk to the police, or you can talk to me, in a forest clearing a long way from anyone who can hear you scream. Now what do you want to do; talk to me, or spill your pathetic guts to the law? You have until I count to five, then you're just a distant memory. One...!"

No, I wasn't going to hurt him; I told you before, I'm a pacifist motor-mac, not a mafia enforcer, but after reading those emails, I didn't feel like asking him nicely for his cooperation. What he did have was a deep and abiding fear of me, and now it was time to build on that, turn the screw a little more. It was his good fortune that I was nothing like the man my father was; if it had been him here, right now, Bobby would just be a pile of anonymous body parts in a garbage sack; I was definitely the soft option here...

"Don't...please...don't...!" he stuttered, "I'll go with you!", which was all I wanted to hear, because I damn sure didn't want to be charged with kidnapping this disgusting little weevil. I led him to the car and shoved him in the back seat, then climbed in next to him, my hand holding him tightly by the scruff of his neck in case he decided to try and bail out of the car once we were on our way.

Judy watched all this in silence until we were in the car, and then turned to me.

"OK Nicky, what's this about, and where are we taking this smelly retard?"

I gathered my thoughts, emphasising my points with a finger tap on his scrawny neck each time, and he jumped like he'd been branded each time I did it, all the proof I needed of his involvement in brutalising my girl.

"You remember Ashley told you about the emails from England, about the rape, and the plot my pig's prick of a father set in motion? Well Judy Nixon, I'd like to introduce you to Bobby Czyzyck, rapist and scumbag, and soon to be convicted felon; he's going to confess, aren't you, Bobby?" I grinned at him, and his eyes rolled up in their sockets as his fear of me overwhelmed him. "Remember, Bobby, if you don't confess, if you try and run, I'll find you in whatever pit you lie low in, and I will drag you into the daylight, and I will fucking chop you up with a chainsaw, are you hearing me?"

Oh I was enjoying playing the heavy! Of the three fights I'd had in my life, I'd lost two, and one of those was to a girl, although, in my defence I was only six, and she was nine, and built like a brick shithouse...

Here and now, I had no intention whatsoever of hurting the little kerb-sniffer, but he didn't know that; all he knew was the scary psycho who'd given him a slapping was back, angry, and out for blood, and he was alone in a car with him and a girl who'd gladly watch him being fed to the hogs. Time to turn up the heat.

"Actually, Judy, on reflection, I think our creepy little friend here might try and wriggle out of our deal; there's no guarantee they'll believe him, and he might try claiming he was coerced into confessing. What do you think?"

Judy picked up on what I was doing right away, smart girl.

"I think you're right, Nick, he could do a deal and never actually do any time at all. I think you'd get more justice if you just took him somewhere in the deep woods, cut him a little to make him bleed, and tied him to a tree so the bears and wolverines and weasels and other fucking vermin can finish him off!"

Bobby was bug-eyed with fright now; hell, so was I; Judy looked like the Angel of Vengeance, and she looked at him like he was already dead. Any doubts he may have been harbouring about our sincerity dissipated as he started blubbering and begging us not to hurt him, and pomising in exchange for not hurting him that he'd tell everything. 

That was what I wanted to hear, so Judy got on the phone and called the police, telling them that someone wanted to confess to a rape. A detective in the Special Victims Unit talked with Judy, and asked her to bring her 'friend' (as she described him) to Arch Street police station, where the SVU was based.

I took a moment to remind Bobby that I would be waiting for him if he walked out of that police station under his own power, and that he could run, but I'd be right behind him every day of his life until he dropped dead or gave up. I think I can safely say, with no fear of contradiction, Bobby would happily have climbed into the tiger enclosure at London Zoo and kicked one of them in the nuts rather than cross me right there and then.

When we arrived at Arch Street, the SVU detective, a tall black woman named Shauna asked Bobby if he understood why he was being questioned, and did he want anybody to be with him, a lawyer, or his parents. He looked nervously at Judy and me, and shook his head, stating that he wanted to talk about the rape of Ashley Lowry.

We waited while Shauna and another SVU detective questioned Bobby in the captain's office, then I saw him being beckoned upright, turned around, and have his hands cuffed behind him while Shauna spoke to him; I'd seen enough cop shows to realise he was being given Miranda, so the little snot was under arrest. Shauna stuck her head out and gestured for both of us to be seated before opening the door and leading Bobby to a holding cell, presumably until his lawyer arrived.

Shauna came back to the desk we were waiting at and sat down, tapping her keyboard. Finally she looked up at me.

"So tell me," she began, "why did Robert Czyzyck confess his part in the Lowry case, and what exactly is your connection to both of them?"

I explained my relationship with Ashley, and the story of how I'd come to America, and the documents we'd received the previous day that we'd passed to the FBI. I gave her the name of the Agent I'd spoken to, and suggested that perhaps she could get a more balanced and in-depth view from him. Shauna snorted.

"The feds will share exactly as much as they feel like sharing, when they feel like sharing it, and if this case involves foreign nationals on their home soil, well, it's not our jurisdiction and they'll tell us to keep our noses out of it. What I can do is put in a request for Agent Walker to brief me on the aspects of their investigation that involve the Lowry case, and just how Czyzyck is involved; he's admitting he was there, but he denies the act; he says it was someone else. That in itself is immaterial; accessory to or facilitating a rape is still a felony violation of Section 130 of the State Penal Code, so he's equally as guilty in the eyes of the law."

Just then her male colleague came over and had a brief whispered conversation with her, then went over to another desk and pulled a gun and his badge out of the top drawer.

"We just got lucky," stated Shauna, "your friend in there just gave us the alleged rapist's name and address. My team member is on his way now to make the arrest; there's no further need for you to remain here, we have your contact information if we need to talk to you any further. Thank you for all your assistance, we'll keep you posted on the progress of the case."

At last, Ashley was going to get some justice for what had happened to her. I still wanted my father yanked over the pond and stuffed in a hell-hole prison for what I was sure he'd done to Barbara, but Judy pointed out that there would have to be all kinds of negotiations before the US Government could grab him and try him. We'd have to settle for what we could get right now; the mills of God etc.

Judy dropped me at home but declined to come in; she had a date, with the young technician, Leon, so she wanted to get ready.

"See Nick, I'm over you already!" she grinned, before blowing me a kiss and beeping the horn as she pulled away. 

When I went in, Ashley was watching TV wearing a long t-shirt, but something about the way she moved told me she was naked under there, so I formulated a cunning plan to confirm it. I sat next to her and slid her onto my lap, having a surreptitious feel while I was doing that; yep, I was right.

"Hi baby, wanna fool around?" she leered happily at me, and my cock started limbering up.

"Of course, my angel, you know me!" I grinned, standing up with her in my arms and heading for the corridor. 

Once we were in our room, I wasted no time in stripping off and joining her on the bed. She was looking particularly appealing right now, probably because I'd come so close to losing her, and all I wanted to do was hold her close (and ravage her, of course, give me time...)

Before we started anything, though, Ashley propped herself up on one elbow and looked searchingly at me.

"OK, Nicky, what's going on?"

I told her all that had happened since I left at Midday, about grabbing Bobby and 'persuading' him to confess to what he'd done. Ashley looked puzzled at that. 




Rag Doll Ch. 04



"Nick, it wasn't Bobby Czyzyck, I know that for a fact!" she stated, and as I knew he'd already said as much in the police station, I asked her how she knew.

"Bobby smells funny, he always has; it's some kind of glandular thing; that's why he's never had any luck with girls, even with all his money. That smell of his is distinctive, and I know it well; he wasn't he one who did it!"

I thought I'd smelled something funny in the car, I'd just put it down to poor personal hygiene on the part of Bobby.

"There's more, baby, "I told her, "Remember I said Barbara sent details of my father's plans, instructions to his accomplice over here? That was Bobby's step-father, his old partner. The emails were instructions from my father on what he wanted done, and to whom, or he was going to expose Bobby's step-father's involvement in something or the other. The fact remains, though; my father was blackmailing Bobby's step-father to have mum raped and beaten as a punishment for leaving him; the instructions were explicit, as were the emails back to my father, detailing exactly what was done; he was supposed to use Bobby, as he could easily control him. I'm sorry. "

Ashley looked levelly at me.

"This is what you were trying to tell me yesterday, isn't it?" and I nodded unhappily; even thinking about it made me depressed and exhausted and angry. 

"There is one final thing, though; the FBI. They might be able to use the UK/US Extradition Treaty to haul that prick over here. It might take a while though; my father is contemptuous of the law, but he won't hesitate to use it to his own advantage; I suppose it all comes down to your State Department convincing a judge in England that they should hand him over for justice in America."

Ashley leaned over to stroke my face gently.

"Then leave it, Nick, let the big boys fight over it now; we've done everything ordinary people can do, and it's in motion now; if it takes a while, so be it. At least we'll know we tried, and look, something's come out of it; Bobby and his father and whoever they used to do...what they did, they're going to jail, hopefully for a long time, so some kind of justice is gonna happen, and I have closure now. How about you?"

I was still keenly aware that there was no justice here for my Barbara, even though I knew in my heart of hearts that the sick son of a bitch had killed her; maybe the police would be able to prove it one day soon, and he'd be punished for that as well, but I still grieved for her, and there was no closure yet and maybe there never would be, not until that bastard was twisting in the wind and feeding the fucking crows.

Ashley pulled me back against her, her uncanny ability to tell what I was thinking letting her know the tenor of my thoughts.

"Let it go Nicky, let her go. She asked you to remember her, so do that; think of how much you loved her, not how much you think she'd want you to avenge her; from what you've told me about her, I think she'd be horrified to see her boy thinking those kind of thoughts, she brought you up better than that!"

Something she'd said had struck a chord; her boy. I was her boy, and she was my mother, and Ashley was right; I owed her more than revenge. She'd asked me to remember her, how could I have forgotten that simple fact? Whether or not she gave birth to me, she was my mother, and she'd brought me up to not be like my father, and she'd succeeded. 

Part of me was part of her, and I realised that as long as I remembered that, she was never going to be far away. As realisation struck, I heard, as plain as day, her low musical chuckle and her voice saying something she'd said so many times when she was teaching me to read; "That's right, little Saint Nick, you've got it!"

I started, and Ashley jumped as well.

"What, what is it Nicky?"

"I just heard her, I heard Barbara's voice! She spoke to me!"

Ashley smiled, and rested her head against mine.

"I know, baby, you finally let yourself hear her again, just like I had to learn to hear daddy again after he was gone. Now you're free at last,Nicky; doesn't it feel great?"

I pulled her close to me, luxuriating in the feel of her warmth against me, her clean, fresh smell, her soft, gentle hands, and most of all the feel of her skin against my hands as I roamed over her. Ashley sighed and laid back down, inviting me to kiss her some more while I stroked and caressed her, the taste of her lips and her hands on me exciting and so very stimulating. As we kissed, my hands cupped her marvellous backside, the firm round cheeks a delight to squeeze and knead, turning me on even further as we kissed and probed each other's mouths and lips.

I slipped between her thighs, licking and sucking her pebbled nipples, drawing them between my teeth and making her gasp, before kissing down her flat stomach to her little navel, kissing, and tipping my tongue in the little jewel before licking and kissing lower. My questing tongue finally found her labia, the folds of flesh beginning to darken and swell as her arousal mounted. 

I probed and licked between the lips, pushing my tongue into her and finding her clitoris behind the little hood. My tongue on her little nub had an electric effect on her. She arched her back as she grabbed my head to hold it in place, her hips lifting to push her mons harder against my mouth, her breath coming in gasps as I probed, licked, and sucked. 

When I flatted my tongue and rubbed against her clitoris, her orgasm reared-up and rolled over her, making her groan out loud, as wave after wave made her pussy convulse against my tongue, but when I pointed my tongue and shoved it as far as I could into her tight little anus that was when she screamed out loud as a giant orgasm ripped through her, her hole clenching and forcing my tongue out as she squirted her fragrant juices in a spray across my mouth and chin.

Ashley slumped back on the bed, her body twitching and shuddering as aftershocks rolled through her and faded. I hovered over her, watching her beautiful features as she slowly relaxed, her lovely smile finally breaking out.

"Nicky, that was so...oh my God, that was so intense!" she smiled. "Your turn, baby!"

With that she lifted her legs and pulled them back, holding herself behind her knees, tilting her entire crotch up at me.

"Can you guess what I want, big boy?" she teased, her little anus gaping open.

I shuffled up to her, sliding my screaming erection into her puffy slit, making her gasp with the sudden penetration, but I was just lubricating myself to do what she really wanted.

After a few strokes, I withdrew, and pushed my swollen head against the tight pucker of her back door, and slowly pushed forward, my solid, bone-hard cock slowly sliding into her. Ashley caught her lip between her teeth as I slid slowly but unstoppably into her, until my entire length was embedded in her tight arse, my balls firmly up against her cheeks. I began to slide out again, and her eyes widened as I pulled back preparatory to pumping back in again.

"Oh God, yes, like that, oh yes, God, yes, harder, baby, do it harder...!" she muttered, her eyes closing as she floated in her own private world. Her rectum pulsed and rippled against me, the whole length of my cock gripped firmly by what felt like a warm velvet hand, rhythmically squeezing me as I pumped into her. 

I couldn't hold out much longer as she pumped against me, and when she draped her legs over my shoulders so she could squeeze and massage her own nipples, the sight was too much for me. 

I felt my cock head swell and jam tight in her as my balls tightened, spunk bolting out of me to spray the inside of her accommodating arse, jet after jet of hot man-fat bathing her insides and coating her bowels with my seed. Ashley screamed as she came, her hands clutching convulsively at the bed as another hot spray of her own juices bathed my lower belly, cock, and balls as we rode the crest our mutual orgasm. 

At last I softened and slid from her, slumping down next to her and holding her close as my heart slowed and my breathing slowly returned to normal.

"Do that to me on our wedding night, OK Baby?" she grinned, stroking my chest and gently running her hand over my back, and I could only grin back as I nodded breathlessly.

+++

Two days later, Judy dropped by with a copy of the Times Union newspaper, and there on the front cover, at the bottom of the page, were three photographs. The first was Bobby, and there was a picture of a greying middle-aged man, his name given as Michael Czyzyck, Bobby's stepfather. The third picture was what shocked me; it was the little maggot I'd slapped outside the burger joint, Bobby's friend. He had admitted rape and felony sexual assault, as had Bobby, and Michael Czyzyck had been arrested and had admitted procuring a rape, procuring a felony sexual assault and 2nd degree sexual assault. He was also being investigated by the FBI under the provisions of the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act. 

Ashley read the article in silence, then walked into our room and closed the door behind her. I made to follow her, but Judy held me back.

"No Nick, let her be, she needs to do this alone. She'll be OK, she knows we're here, you'll know when she needs you."

We sat in the living room, waiting for Ashley to come back, and I asked Judy about her date, more for something to break the silence than out of any prurient interest. She grinned wickedly.

"Let's just say that Leon had certain...qualities that I tested to the limits last night; I only got in at 6.30 this morning! The boy is definitely a keeper!" she smiled happily at the recollection.

"So you'll be seeing him again, then?" I inquired innocently.

""Oh, I think that's pretty much a given, Nick!" she grinned, "Something that good definitely needs a second bite, just to compare to the first!"

I was happy that our friend was happy, hopefully Leon was the one for her, but if not, at least she was out there and not moping in some Emo den somewhere. We chatted about the news until the door opened and Ashley came out again. Her eyes were red and puffy where she'd obviously been crying, but she was smiling.

I was there instantly, but she didn't need me, not now.

"It's OK, Nicky, I'm OK, it's over, it's finally over!" she grinned, and I had to smile back.

++++

Work took up a significant amount of my time. Ashley had decided to go to college, she was studying for an MBA at SUNY right here in Albany, so while I worked, she studied, and mum grew ever closer to David; I suppose the turning point in our understanding of their relationship was the first time he stayed over; I got up early one Sunday morning to relieve myself, and apparently so did he; I almost walked into him coming out of the bathroom. After a moment's awkward silence we both grinned and carried on. As soon as I got back to our room, I shook Ashley awake.

"Ashley, I know something you don't know!" I sing-song'd at her, and she stared blearily at me.

"Nicky, it's Sunday morning, it's too early for guessing games; either tell me or let me go back to sleep!" she croaked.

I was grinning like a Cheshire Cat. "David's still here!"

She bolted upright. 

"NO! Really? Oh my God!"She picked up her cell.

"What are you doing, baby?" I asked, although I had a fair idea.

"Calling Judy, this is big, this is real big!"

She spoke for a few seconds and hung up.

"She's on her way over; she wants to see for herself!"

Ten minutes later, Judy was sitting cross-legged on the end of our bed, grinning like a pumpkin.

"I told you, I fucking told you!" she crowed, "pay up, Lowry, you lose, I win, Oh yeah, I am so smart, you're not, ha ha!" She was obviously enjoying herself immensely.

Ashley looked at me with her hand out.

"Nick?" 

I handed her my wallet and she pulled two tens out and handed them to Judy, who gleefully snatched them and took her time putting them away, smirking cattily at Ashley. I sat there wondering how it came to be that Ashley lost bets but I had to pay up; must be a relationship thing...

We heard mum stirring around in her room, so we all quietly hustled into the dining room and sat around the table waiting for her to show up. When she walked in we all grinned at her at once, big, insincere, happy, innocent grins, and watched her slowly go beet red.

I decided to put her out of her misery.

"We don't mind, mum! We like David, Judy likes you, if you guys want to be...together, no biggie, honest!" 

She stared at us, and smiled guiltily, then looked back over her shoulder.

"Sweetheart, can you come here please?" she called, and he appeared at her shoulder, wearing just pyjama bottoms and smiling slightly sheepishly at Ashley and me; then he spotted Judy. His expression was priceless; I wish I'd had a camera!

"Hi dad!" she piped up, giving him a small wave and grinning slightly maliciously, "What are you doing here so early, and where's your clothes?"

Ashley stood up and hugged mum.

"I'm so happy for you, Mom, for both of you!"

Mum looked relieved, and then sat down.

"You're sure both of you are OK with this? Really?" we both nodded, followed by Judy.

She smiled. "Good, because we were wondering how to tell you, but as all three of you are here, now's as good a time as any." She looked at David who nodded and put his arm around her shoulder.

"Kids, all of you, David and I love each other, and we want to be together. David has asked me to move in with him. I told him I'd only do that if all three of you agreed. I didn't want anyone to feel I was leaving them behind, or," glancing at Judy, "invading their home, so I want to tell you, and ask you how you feel."

Ashley leaned over and kissed her.

"Nick and I are fine, Mom, honest; if it's what you want, do it, David's one of the good guys, so go for it!"

Judy tapped her father on the arm and hugged him, then hugged Mum, before grinning at them both.

"One up-side I can think of springs to mind right away; at last, someone will be there who can actually cook, no more dinners with microwave cooking times printed on them, oh boy, I can hardly wait!"

Mum, David, and Judy soon settled in as the nuclear family, while Ashley and I remained at the house, which I slowly began to renovate; I wanted a nice, cosy, secure home, as we had plans, and we needed our home ready for that part of our life. However, David and mum surprised us with an announcement; they were getting married. Not that surprising, you may think, but part two was; mum was expecting. Ashley was in a haze when she heard, Judy more so. They were both getting a sibling, and they would be step-sisters. Judy asked Ashley if that meant she was entitled to take a run at me, as they were going to be sisters, and Ashley's reply was short, pungent, and to the point; 

"Stay away from my man, you bandy-legged little trollop, or so help me, I swear I'll teach you the true meaning of the word 'pain'!"

Judy just grinned; she was still being bent double and pummeled by Leon at every possible opportunity, she just wanted to see the expression on Ashley's face when she asked her...

I had become Senior Technician at Mark One, and as word got around that they had someone on-board who was actually certified for the various specialist cars from Britain that came in, their owners kept coming back. Mark got his Lotus dealership, and the look on his face when the first tranche of Exige's and Elise's were delivered was a sight to behold. They were sold off the trailer, people were so eager to have them, and because we were a proper Lotus dealership, people knew they had the full warranty and service backup those kind of cars demand.

The day Mark told me he wanted to sell up and live a little was a sore blow; I'd been busily building a relationship with every customer, and with jobs so hard to find, all that would be gone; there were no other places like Mark One; I was sunk. Or so I thought.

I got a call one day to come and see David right after work, so I collected Ashley and went to see my parents, as I now thought of them. Mum was looking radiant; she was nearly seven months along now, and was absolutely beautiful, and David had that soppy 'expectant father' look permanently pasted on his face, but he was still rational, thank God.

After the usual family courtesies, mum went off to make dinner with Ashley in tow, leaving David and me alone. David got right down to business.

"Nick, I heard from Mark what his plans are and I think you and I could do something there. I'm seriously considering buying the business and I'd like you to run it; when Ashley finishes college, she may want to step-in on the business side, I know Judy's not interested, she's finally decided to study medicine, so I need someone who knows what they're doing to be the one to move the business forward; are you interested?"

Of course I was; this was a God-send!

I gabbled out my thanks, but David waved them away.

"Nonsense, this is to do with family, so I'll have a meeting with Mark tomorrow and see if I can't beat him down a little on his price. Now let's go and see if the ladies need a hand."

There was one other piece of good news, and I saw it quite by accident, as I happened to pause my TV channel hopping on CNN one evening two years later. 

My father had been fighting extradition for almost two years now; he and Michael Czyzyck had been very naughty boys, selling black market computer chips and special solid-state batteries, the kind used in cruise missiles, to Iran, through a dummy company based in Odessa, on the Black Sea coast. 

The Court of Appeal in London had finally decided that he had committed an offence against the United States; under the USA PATRIOT Act that constituted grounds for granting the State Department's request for extradition. 

The bastard was coming here, and with any luck they'd stuff him in a cell with a huge rapist where he'd spend the rest of his miserable life being Bubba's gang-bang bitch. I could hear Barbara's laughter as I watched the news segment, seeing that face I'd honestly hoped I'd never see again collapse as the judgement was given against him.

The next morning, I was woken by the sound of Ashley being noisily sick. I immediately jumped out of bed to see if she needed help, but she waved me away as she wiped her mouth and rinsed with mouthwash. 

"Baby, are you Ok? What's wrong?" I asked, hovering over her.

"Nothing baby, I'm fine, everything's fine, this is normal!" she smiled.

I was still worried. "You don't sound fine, you sound terrible, healthy people don't yark like that...!"

She turned and smiled at me, then laid her head on my chest.

"Nicky, we're fine; both of us are fine, honest!"

Now I was puzzled. "What do you mean both of u...Oh, OH! Oh MY GOD! You're pregnant!"

She smiled shyly at me and nodded. I was shaking, I was going to be a father, we were having a baby, OMIGOD!

"Nicky, Nicky, NICKY!"

Eventually I calmed down enough to realise she was talking to me.

"Calm down, baby, we're not having it today, relax! Call Mom and Dad, call Judy, and then get dressed. Move, baby!"

I was floating; after the initial euphoria, all I could think was 'I'm going to be a dad; I'm going to be a dad!'

I never saw or heard of my father again. Much as I had wanted to push him off someplace high with a stout rope around his neck, I knew that was not the way to deal with someone like him; his greed, his contempt for the law, for his fellow man, and for his beautiful, wronged, wives had brought him to this, but I wouldn't rejoice in his punishment; Barbara had brought me up better than that. His punishment was just and fitting, that was good enough for me. The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small...

++++

I knelt by the grave in Stanwix Cemetery in Carlisle, on a cold late-November morning. The wind coming in from the highlands of Scotland, and frigid with the promise of early snow, blew leaf litter and small twigs around me as I finished clearing the gravesite. I dusted a few more away, and then I could finally cry. 




Rag Doll Ch. 04



Ashley stood back, tears sparkling in her eyes, with our little daughter held against her to keep her warm in the frigid wind, letting me have my moment alone with my mother so I could say goodbye properly. The new headstone simply said 'Barbara Davies, beloved mother, taken too soon. I love you, Mum'. We'd had the original headstone, an ornate stone slab covered in his phony, lying, un-felt messages of love, a disgusting monument to my father's hypocrisy, taken down and crushed for road-stone, and had this one put in its place. My father was currently serving a 40-year term in a federal penitentiary 3,000 miles away with no hope of parole, so I doubted he'd be objecting. 

Ashley had finally convinced me to reach out to my two half-brothers, to let them know that I was back, and ask them to meet me one last time; they'd never responded, and I was in no mood to pursue them. There was no evidence they'd ever come here to see their mother, either, even though the cemetery was only half a mile from the house; the grave had been untended, neglected, and overgrown. Even now they'd elected to stay away, but I was relieved and untroubled by their absence. Whatever tenuous link we'd had was gone now, and I was free of any further encumbrance from this part of my family; with Barbara's death, all connection to these people had gone, and that was how it should be.

The baby finally squirmed out of Ashley's grip and toddled toward me, so I picked her up and showed her to her grandmother.

"Mum; this is your granddaughter, her name's Barbara! Baby, say hello to my mummy!"

My little girl dropped the flower she was carrying onto the grave, enunciating lovely little pear-shaped sounds as she grinned toothlessly at me. Ashley knelt and arranged the posy she was carrying in the little flower-holder, and with that there was no more to say or do, so we left, all three of us, to go back to our life and our loved ones; I don't think I'll ever go back; I don't need to; no-one is truly gone until you stop saying their name, and with my daughter named after her grandmother, I will never be done saying her name.

We drove away, and pointed north, heading for the M6 motorway to take us back to Birmingham and our hotel for our flight from Birmingham International in the morning. I'd just taken the southbound exit for the four-hour drive from Carlisle to the airport hotel when Ashley flicked on the radio and my one-time favourite FM station, Lakeland Radio came on. 

I listened to the end of an old Neil Diamond track and the DJ announced the next lunchtime request, another oldie, a special request for Nick, from Barbara. My eyes widened as the Beach Boys sang 'Little Saint Nick'. Ashley went to change stations, but I stopped her; it could have been a coincidence, but I felt somehow that it wasn't, that it was a message for me, my mother finally telling me it was over, and saying goodbye, and so I listened with tears on my cheeks as I said goodbye to her for the very last time.



Rag Doll Ch. 05



First and foremost, my thanks go to Bonnie Hurd for poking, prodding and prying at this story to help me make it intelligible, so many, many thanks, Princess, and to OldKing Clancy for sanity checking at the 11th hour and introducing some logical and much needed changes!

This story follows on almost immediately after the events in Ch. 4, and draws together some of the loose ends from the original series. 

A word of caution; it's a long one, for which I apologise, there isn't really any point in the narrative where I could draw a line and cut it into two halves to make two chapters, there is a lot of scene-setting and new character introduction going on, so please bear with me, the next part won't be anything like as long as this, I promise!

As before, please note this is my world, a reasonable copy of the real world, not a real-life situation in the real world, it's just a story, in a make-believe world, where these things get to happen. 

There's no salutary lesson to be learned here, no priggish moralising (at least, I hope not!), no message, just hopefully an enjoyable read, so go ahead, dip a toe into my world and have a swim in the dark reaches and echoing spaces of my mind!

I do appreciate all comment, even the nasty, scary ones, and I'm saving the truly barking mad ones for publication one day, otherwise, if you have a comment or a point to make, please do be my guest, I'll try and accommodate, where possible, all suggestions, except the anatomically impossible ones...

Please do vote if you like it, or let me know if you don't!

beachbum1958

PS. This is a special mention for Leann, who always asked for "MAAWH", so read and enjoy, darlin'! 

_______________________________

My name is Robert Davies, and this is the story of how I learned to stop being an obnoxious prick and actually made someone happy at last. 

*

I have one older brother, Nicky, but more about him later, and a younger brother, Richard, Rick, who's a year younger than me. We live in Carlisle, on the Scottish borders, in a great big, gloomy barn of a house my father had inherited from some relative or the other. When I was 17, Nicky did a bunk, I don't know where he went, for all I knew he dropped off the face of the earth, but that was just about when all our troubles began, the catalyst, as it were. 

The day after he fucked off, his mother, Barbara went and hanged herself in the old Butler's Pantry, cue police, coroners, and all kinds of disruption while the rest of us tried to live our lives around it. At the time I thought it was the most inconsiderate thing I had ever heard of; why couldn't she go and do it in the public lavatory in town, or the ladies Restroom in McDonalds? Then at least we wouldn't have the Old Bill wandering through the house like they owned the place, something that particularly pissed-off my old man. 

Yes, I know, I sounded like a heartless, self-involved prick just then. Well, back then, before so much changed for me, that's about all I was.

So Nicky was gone, and all was quiet for a few weeks, and then it all started to go pear-shaped; the Americans were trying to yank dad over there on what he said were trumped-up charges that he had violated one of their embargoes; this nonsense went on, and on, and on; dad spent a fortune on legal brains to clear this mess up, and when the last Extradition request was thrown out, as it should have been, we all breathed a sigh of relief; then the bloody Appeal Court got in on the act, allowed the appeal, and suddenly my dad is on a plane to stand trial in America, for doing business in Europe, with countries that had no connection to America; how did that happen?

Anyway, to cut a long story short, he was convicted of crimes against America, and sentenced to 40 years in jail with no hope of parole; basically, he was going to die in jail, they just extended the death sentence by 40 years. So now the witch-hunt started here, too. 

All my dad's businesses, all his bank accounts, all his property, everything he owned, everything we owned was seized by the Serious Organised Crime Agency, leaving just this house; they even took the furniture, the TV's, and most of the crockery and silverware, because they claimed they were bought with the proceeds of crime; they'd be auctioned-off at some time in the future, but I didn't know where or when, and I didn't have the money to buy them back anyway. 

I was 19, Richard was 18, and suddenly all we had was a mostly empty house, no money, and no furniture except a few battered pieces we found in the attics and basements. For various reasons we weren't entitled to any benefits; we had no income, but we owned an asset, a very valuable asset, apparently, so the only answer I got from the Benefits Agency when I asked for assistance was pretty straightforward; if you need money, sell your house; two teenage boys don't need to live in a six-bedroom mansion... 

There was no way I was going to allow the house to be sold; it was my dad's and it was all we had, so I found a job with the City Council, mostly driving the mowing machines that cut the grass verges and public green spaces. It was long hours, at minimum wage, but I jumped at it; I wasn't actually trained to do anything, I'd always believed in my dad's money, and this was where it had brought us...

I should have followed Nick's example; he'd always wanted to be a mechanic, even though dad was dead against him being any kind of manual worker, but Nick persevered, and actually qualified, in spite of dad and his objections. Richard and I however, had no marketable skills, we'd always thought dad was going to hand his businesses to us one day, so here I was, driving the mowing machine, spending all day cutting grass verges, getting sprayed with grass clippings, dogshit, and all the other nasty debris inconsiderate slobs drop on the verges. 

When the grass stopped growing as the year turned, they moved me to pushing a street sweeping machine, which was even worse; I had to buy my own masks, as the ones supplied were worse than useless, and again, the days were long, cold, smelly, and poorly paid. 

Richard couldn't find a job for love nor money, so he used to spend his days either watching the small second-hand TV I'd bought or going through dad's papers, the stuff that had been returned as being 'of no evidential value', and seemed to have found something of interest in there; he tried to tell me about it, but I was usually too buggered after a long day being back-sprayed with filth from the street-sweeper to pay any real attention, or even care, so I guess after a while he gave up trying. 

And then one day, just after his 19th birthday, he was gone. I had a tin under my bed with an emergency fund, almost £200, and that was gone as well. There was nothing I could do about it; he had no mobile phone, we couldn't afford them, and so I just had to accept that he was gone, and my bill-paying fund was gone with him.

So there I was; haunting an empty house, earning just enough to keep me off the breadline, but not enough to actually make a difference or make life any easier, with no friends, no-one to turn to, as dad, in his wisdom, had kept us apart from other kids when we were small, even down to having us home-schooled; at least Nick got to go to secondary school, and then college, his mother made sure of that, but she never lifted a finger for Rick and me; I guess her own son came first, no surprises there, from what dad had told us about her. 

Funny thing is, I never really questioned how, if Nicky was older than us, and if Barbara was his mother, how did we come along? When did our mother come on the scene, and where did she go? Somehow, dad managed to always deflect that question when it arose, and Rick and I never really thought about it; if we had, then maybe things might have been so different...

My job sucked, but I stuck with it; millions of people had no job; at least I had daily employment and a payslip at the end of the week, and with Rick gone, there was enough money for the occasional treat. I remember the first time I bought a real pizza, from the Domino's in town, I was actually drooling by the time I got home, it had been so long since I'd had one; my occasional treat was the 'Saver' version from the local supermarket own-brand range, and the taste of the real thing was out of this world; I had to discipline myself to just eat a couple of slices and save some to last for the next few days; that week was bills week, so no treats until the following month. After putting aside enough to pay the gas bill, the electric bill, and the Council Tax, there was precious little for food, so I quickly had to learn how to eke out what food I could afford as best I could.

And so it went on; work, no real prospects, no friends or confidantes, loneliness and anger; at dad, for letting them railroad him and stripping us of everything, at Nick and his mother for abandoning us, at Rick for leaving me alone, and at myself for landing myself square in the poverty trap. I wanted out of here, I wanted my life back, I wanted my dad back, and I wanted to see that smug scumbag Nicky strapped to the railway lines for what I was sure he'd done; I'd come to believe that Nick had somehow set in motion everything that had happened since he left, and I wanted my hands around his neck so I could choke the life out of him for being what he was; the sly, spoiled little bastard who destroyed my life.

Rick had been gone for almost two years, and I'd become so used to being alone that I hardly ever even thought about him anymore, when that all changed. I came home from work on a cold and windy November evening, badly in need of a shower, as usual, to find the front door open; I was immediately on my guard; there was nothing here worth stealing, the Crime Agency had already stripped us of everything of any value, but there were always junkies who'd steal anything they could sell for a fix, and vagrants looking for a warm squat to doss in, so I quietly eased the door open and slipped inside. 

I immediately smelled something cooking, something spicy, warm, inviting, and my stomach rumbled; it was late in the week, and my budget was stretched to breaking point, so I had baked beans on toast planned for dinner; this smelled a lot better. I heard voices, and realised it was Rick. Rick! After two years, what was he doing here, and what gave him the right to just waltz back in after taking all the money I had and doing a disappearing act?

I pushed the door open, and there he was, looking the same, reading something and talking over his shoulder to someone in the kitchen, someone female, by the sound of it, a voice with a distinct London accent; so, he'd waltzed back in here and brought his girlfriend too, had he? I'd soon put him straight about that! You leave, you're gone, it's as simple as that; sneaking-off like that had taken away any right he had to be here, as far as I was concerned.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I demanded, watching in satisfaction as he jumped, spinning round, to smile at me, a big, wide, cheesy, 'Hi, howya doing!' kind of smile, but I wasn't having any of it; he'd stolen my money, what little I had, disappeared, and never so much a note in almost two years to say where he was, to say sorry, nothing.

"Bobby, God, it's good to see you!" he exclaimed, and I had to grin at the sheer barefaced gall he had to think I was going to welcome him back, just like that...

"Where the hell have you been, and who said you could come in here? This is my home now, you left, so get out, and take whoever the hell that is with you! Get out, both of you, before I throw you both out by the scruff of your necks!"

The girl in the kitchen had come to the doorway, and stood staring at me in what looked like fascination, no trace of fear or apprehension on her face, just interest. I glanced at her, and then took a second, longer look. Whatever my problem with him, I had to admit Rick had good taste; she was exquisite! Tall, slender, possibly late teens or early twenties, olive-skinned, with long, glossy, mahogany-red hair, startling green-hazel eyes, and full red lips that seemed naturally red, rather than through any cosmetic help. She was dressed in a tight Tee-shirt that outlined and emphasised her small, firm breasts rather well, and skinny jeans that she managed to fill most enticingly; she was completely stunning, and I found my gaze being drawn to her even as my anger at Rick bubbled up.

"What do you want here? You take all my money, you disappear for damn near two years, and then you just roll in here expecting a warm welcome? Get out, now, and take her with you!"

I turned away in disgust, weary, angry, hungry, and just too worn-out to say any more. I'd rehearsed this meeting in my mind many times, and all the biting things I'd wanted to say hovered below the surface of my mind, but I just couldn't say them; all I wanted was him gone, and his girlfriend with him. 

"Bobby, we need to talk, all of us, now..." said Rick, and I turned to him, anger threatening to spill over into something physical; couldn't he understand plain English? Why would I want to stand here and bandy words with him; I thought I'd made myself perfectly clear.

"Get out Rick, I told you twice now, are you deaf? Go, before I hurt you!"

"And will you hurt your little sister too?" he asked me, and my head snapped around.

"What did you say?" I croaked, and he nodded slowly.

"Bobby, this is Yasmin, Yaz for short; she's our younger sister, and that's her big sister, our big sister, Shereen over there!"

I looked around in a kind of daze, and there was another girl, almost the double of Yasmin, but even prettier, if that were possible. This girl had paler, creamier skin, and dove-grey eyes, but the same rich mahogany hair, and she was maybe a couple of years older than Yasmin, maybe my age, but the same height as Yasmin, a similar slender, willowy build, and a figure just as tight and alluring as her sister.

"Hi Bobby, I've heard a lot about you!" she smiled, and I sat down before I fell down.

"How...when...did...when...? I managed, and both girls grinned at me.

"Don't worry, Bobby, when Rick turned up at our doorstep, we had pretty much the same reaction!" smiled Yasmin. 

My head was spinning; these two gorgeous girls were my sisters? How? When did this all happen?

Shereen patted my knee.

"Go and have a shower and get changed, and we'll talk after dinner; hurry up, dinner's almost ready!"

I suddenly realised what I must look and smell like, and hurriedly excused myself, taking the stairs two at a time in my haste to get cleaned up and get back to that wonderful smelling food and those beautiful girls! I had a hot shower; I normally had cold showers, to minimise my use of gas; I needed that for when winter really began to bite, when I had no option but to heat the room I lived in, and having a hot shower was a luxury in my circumstances, but I thought the fact that I had company justified it, just this once.

Dinner was incredible; the girls were amazing cooks, and they'd put together a wonderful Madras chicken curry, tangy, hot, and spicy, fragrant basmati rice, sweet and fruity Kashmiri naan breads stuffed with almond paste, coconut, sultanas and honey, and flavoured with cardamoms and other, more exotic spices, and a cool cucumber, sour cream and onion raita. For someone whose meals usually consisted of soup, and beans on toast, it was a banquet I never seriously thought I'd ever get to eat, and I pitched in happily. Conversation was limited as we ate, Rick and the girls watching me as I stuffed my face. I stopped when I saw them eyeing me, and Shereen reached out to put her hand on mine.

"Eat as much as you want, Bobby; we saw what's in the pantry. Poor you, I don't know how you survive on so little, I never knew things were so tough for you! You eat all you want, there's plenty for you, there always will be, I promise!"

Her eyes were brimming with tears, and I bridled; who the hell was she to come in here and start pitying me? I'd managed okay so far, and I didn't need some stranger patronising me! That was my father talking, of course, and even as the resentment flared inside me, I realised how barren it was, how that kind of thinking had left me here to slowly dwindle away. I told you, I was an uptight prick, and never more so in that instant, when I hotly, foolishly, resented the simple act of another human being reaching out to me. 

I looked away in embarrassment, knowing that she'd somehow read every mean and angry nuance of my reaction to her, the embarrassment growing to encompass the knowledge that they knew I was so hard-up I was reduced to living on baked beans on toast and tomato soup. Shereen put her hand on my chin and turned me to face her.

"Bobby, you're my brother, you're Rick's big brother, and I won't ever leave you hungry or cold; when Rick brought us here it broke our hearts to see how little you have and how you have to live, alone and with no-one to care about you. We won't let that happen again; that's a promise, okay? You'll never be alone again, cross my heart!"

I was trying to take this all in; this girl, my...sister, was promising to take care of me, and all I could do was wonder why; I didn't know her, I had no connection to her, and I couldn't understand the deep connection she seemed to feel with me; was I so disconnected from people, so wrapped-up in my own struggle that I'd forgotten how to relate to others, how to be grateful? Had I ever really learned how to do that? With a rush of shame, I suddenly realised I'd never felt gratitude to another living soul, only an almost overpowering sense of entitlement. I'd never related to other people in any meaningful way because I knew I was better than them. Was that really the legacy my father had left me? To be a complete and total ass? 

Rick leaned over and slapped me on the shoulder.

"Take it easy Bobby; it'll take a while to sink in, but it will, believe me! It took me a while, but you're smarter than me, you should be able to figure it out in jig-time! Just take my word for it, it's worth it, honest! Now eat up, we have a lot to tell you, and you're not going to like any of it, but you have to hear it; then perhaps you'll understand better what and who we are, and why everything happened the way it did."

When we'd finished, Rick and Yasmin cleared the table while Shereen led me into the sitting room, and I have to be honest, I was captivated by the sight of her bouncy little bottom twinkling in her skinny jeans as she walked ahead of me. I only had the ratty old couch and a battered prolapsed armchair I'd salvaged from a house being demolished, so I motioned her to the couch and pulled the chair a little closer so we could have that talk Rick had mentioned. 

Rick and Yasmin came in just then, and plumped down on the couch, Rick in the middle of those two beautiful, exotic-looking girls. Rick was definitely uncomfortable, but he obviously wanted to tell me whatever it was that was so important, so I waited patiently.

"Bobby, you're not going to like this; I didn't, it still tears me up inside, and there's so much of it, so here goes; first off, Bobby, about Nicky..."

I rolled my eyes; the last thing I wanted to know about was that spoiled little mummy's boy. Rick looked annoyed at my impatience.

"No, Bobby, you've got it wrong about Nicky; we were both wrong, no Bobby!" as I tried to interject, "Just be quiet and listen, for once, just listen, please!"

I was the verge of walking out, but something stopped me; perhaps it was the look on his face, or the note in his voice...

"Bobby," he began, "We were wrong about Nicky, so wrong; he didn't desert us, or leave us in the lurch; dad beat him half to death, and Barbara got him out of here to save his life!"




Rag Doll Ch. 05



I stared open-mouthed in shock; I was disinclined to believe him, then all those evasions and refusals by dad to give any real answers about where Nicky was, or why he'd left so suddenly re-surfaced; all dad had ever said was that he was a namby-pamby little mummy's boy, and good riddance; now perhaps I was about to get some answers.

"Nicky tried to stop dad beating Barbara up, and dad hurt him; he hurt him really badly. He boasted that Nicky was going to carry those scars 'til the day he died, that every day, when he saw those scars, he was going to remember who put them there; according to him, that was a father's true, lasting legacy; the last time dad saw him, Nicky was a blood-soaked ruin, and he was proud of what he'd done to him; Nicky didn't run; dad almost killed him, and left him nowhere to go; Barbara helped him escape before dad killed him, and he would have, God, he would have..."

He swallowed, then continued.

"You remember how dad always used to lay into Barbara, we'd listen, and just shut the door and ignore it? How we always said it was nothing to do with us? We should have tried, Bobby, maybe if we'd tried, maybe she'd still be here, maybe Nicky wouldn't have gotten so badly hurt! Just once would have been enough, Bobby, just once could have saved her!"

My head was spinning with this, and something he'd said came back into focus.

"Who did he boast this to; who was he telling all this to?"

Now Shereen spoke.

"He was telling this to mummy. We were there, he was drinking and pawing at mummy, and telling her all this stuff, boasting about it, like it was something to be proud of! We were there, but that didn't stop him groping and mauling her. He told her so much more; Rick?"

Rick took up the story once more.

"Bobby, I don't know how to tell you this; I wish to fuck I'd never found out, now I'm going out of my mind, and I don't know who can help me, or you!" He paused for so long I thought he'd said all he was going to say, but then I saw the tears start.

"Nicky wasn't Barbara's son, Bobby; dad snatched him from his first wife and brought him back to England from America. He's not Barbara's son; I am, and so are you; she was our mother, Bobby, Barbara was our mum, and he never told us, and he wouldn't let her tell us either. That son of a bitch stole us from our mother, and lied about her to us all our lives, he made us hate her, he made us into things that sat there and grinned while he beat her and hurt her, and I still don't know why, and now I know why she died; Shereen's mother told me the truth; he killed her, Bobby, he killed her just because she went through his papers, he thought she was trying to find something to give to the police, something to get him put away, so he strung her up and watched her die, and now he's never going to pay. Oh Bobby, what are we going to do?" 

The tears were running down his face, and I couldn't do a thing about it; I was literally frozen in place as the whole, terrible, evil story unfolded. Yasmin was holding Rick as he cried like a small child, but all I could feel was cold rage that my whole life was being turned into a sham, a web of lies spun by a man I'd idolised. All I could do was shake my head in denial; this was a lie, it had to be, it was some weird nightmare, and any moment now I was going to wake up and it would be time to go back to my shit job for shit money and live out the shitty remains of my shitty life. 

"Bobby...!"

I looked up to see Shereen standing next to me. She knelt down and leaned on the arm of the chair.

"Bobby, it's all true. Our father was a vile man, who did vile things because he could; he thought his money made him invulnerable; he hurt mummy so many times, and he'd just laugh and say that's what chilli-cracker whores were for. My mother was a brilliant businesswoman, a London Metropolitan University graduate in business and finance. She owned properties all over London, Robert Davies wanted those businesses and properties, so he sabotaged her arranged marriage to shake her loose from her family, and suddenly he's in her bed, and all her properties, all her businesses, all now belonged to him."

She was looking away into the distance now, seeing something I couldn't, her expression set and her voice flat.

"He'd turn up out of the blue, drink Scotch until he was in the mood, then drag her off to bed, and in the morning she'd be covered in bruises, cuts and scratches, and usually a black eye or two. Sometimes he'd beat her up in front of us; we were small and he was our father but that never stopped him hurting her in front of us."

She stopped speaking to wipe her eyes with the heels of her hands,

"He used to tell us that when we were old enough, he had some friends who wanted to play with us, he used to call us little chilli-cracker sluts, half-breed whores, vile names from a vile man, our own father; he was a racist, but he saw nothing wrong in forcing an Indian woman into his bed, and promising the children he fathered on her to his friends, for a price. Our own father was going to whore us out to his friends, Bobby, he thought it was funny! can you even imagine what it feels like for your own father to tell you his friends were waiting to do to you what he did all the time to mummy? That's what he made us live with, that's the kind of man he is, Bobby." 

Tears were running down her cheeks again, but she made no move to wipe them away this time.

"He used us to control her, he'd tell her what he'd do to us if she ever went to the police, and she knew he wasn't bluffing; he took everything she'd built Bobby, and left her with nothing except her house, and only because it was in a trust and he couldn't touch it, the clothes on her back, and us; he's hurt so many people, ruined so many lives, told so many lies, but I wouldn't lie to you."

"Our father nearly destroyed all of us, but at least where he is now he can't hurt anyone ever again; he did everything he was jailed for, believe me, and more, so maybe now he's being made to pay for what he did, maybe now he's learning what it's like to be powerless and at the mercy of people who don't give a fuck about you. Ricky told me you thought he'd been railroaded, but the system here never caught up to him; at least the Americans saw him for what he was, and stuffed him in a cage and threw away the key; now maybe he's getting some justice handed to him!"

I listened in horror; what Rick had told me was bad enough, and now this; my father was a psychopath, he had to be, to inflict such suffering with no flicker of remorse; we were his children, and he'd lied to, hurt us and stolen from us all our lives. And now I was remembering how Nicky had hinted time and again to us about Barbara; he must have known all along that she was our mother, and he'd tried to let us know, and we'd just snubbed and ignored him...

Maybe Barbara (and even now, after everything I'd been told, I still couldn't call her 'mum'!) was so beaten down, cowed and frightened she made him promise not to tell us; it made sense; the way Nicky was attached to her, he'd have done anything for her. I felt a deep stabbing pang of remorse and guilt for all the things I'd said or thought about both of them, and suddenly I missed my big brother, I wanted to see him again, and to beg his forgiveness for all those bitter, thoughtless words, all the unfounded hate and anger; I needed to know if he was alright, if he'd even survived that beating, if he'd managed to find his way back to his mother, if he had a family who took better care of him than we had, and if his life had somehow worked out.

There was one other thing I had to know, a glaring omission in Shereen's story.

"Shereen, where's your mother? Why didn't she come with you?"

Shereen looked at me levelly, fresh tears welling up in her beautiful eyes and spilling down her ivory cheek.

"She died, Bobby, three months ago. She had a massive brain haemorrhage, she just...went, like that; she didn't suffer, she didn't feel a thing; the coroner thought it was possibly connected to all the violence she'd been subjected to, but she'd taken so much punishment there was no one thing to blame her death on. Ricky helped us get past it; mummy liked and trusted him, loved him, even; she told him most of what you just heard, and made him promise to look after us if anything happened to her; it was almost like she knew what was coming..." 

Rick was still crying softly and Yasmin was cradling him, but she had tears in her eyes too. I looked at my brother, my sisters, and all I could feel was a kind of hopeless, empty dread. Even now, with him in prison so far away, my father was still here, in this room, lying coiled up inside me; he'd made me what I was, and all I'd learned came from him; one day he was going to come out of me, and I couldn't allow that, not now, not after what I'd learned about him, and us. What use was I ever going to be, with that monstrous scab caked on my soul? 

And the worst part was, there was nothing I could do to fix it; our father had put so many sharp bends in me, instilled so many hatreds, so many wrong ideas, it was all I knew, all that I was, so how could I ever hope to be normal? 

The answer, of course, was staring me in the face; I couldn't; I was badly damaged goods. Maybe our mother had wanted him to catch her and do that to her, maybe she knew that there was no way to fix what Robert Davies had done, to her, to us, to all his children, and she'd used him to put her out of her misery. 

Had she sacrificed herself for us, even though we felt nothing for her, sacrificed herself in the hope her death would set in motion the destruction of her husband and free his children? 

That one question hammered at me, but it was too dreadful to contemplate, that someone could be so desperate that they could be driven to that, and now the full horror of what I was, what he'd made me into, hit hard; all I could ever do would be to follow in his footsteps, plough my way through other people like they were chaff in a field, because that was what he'd made me, and the only thing he'd ever taught me, the only thing I knew. 

I couldn't change, I knew that; I was condemned to follow in his wake, and destroy everyone in my path; he'd seen to that. 

Suddenly, it came to me with shocking clarity just how simple it really was; there was a way out for me, one that solved everything for everyone and shut this nightmare off for me forever. 

Rick was still adaptable enough to change, the evidence was right there in front of me, the same for the girls; my father had somehow been unable to worm his way inside them, but me, I knew how damaged I was, how immersed I was in the ways and values of Robert Davies. 

I'd felt at times that the only real cure for what ailed me, the only way out of this fucked-up travesty I called a life, was a bullet in the brain; perhaps that really was my best and most realistic way out of this hopeless nightmare. This whole series of revelations had shown me just how deeply Robert Davies had reached down into me, and what it had shown me with shocking clarity was that there was nothing inside me worth the having, nothing to save and no soul to speak of, just a whole lot of me, and it was fouled and slimed with him and his values, an irretrievably lost cause; all I'd ever accomplish would be to infect, damage, and destroy those around me. 

Everyone at some time in their life has stood on a high place and felt the conflicting twin compulsions, to both jump and step back from the edge; for me the time to make that jump had suddenly arrived, in the first full moment of clarity I'd ever experienced. Authors and philosophers talk about a life worth living, how about a life so fouled and polluted that it should be discarded, for the good of those around you? 

I had to go somewhere quiet, I had to think about what I'd just discovered about me, who and what I was, and where I belonged in this 'family' that had suddenly descended on me. I got up out of the chair and made for the door, Shereen watching me closely. As I reached for the door handle, she called out my name.

I turned to see her looking at me oddly.

"Bobby, where are you going?" she asked me.

"I have something I have to do," I answered truthfully, "Goodnight Shereen, I think Rick needs you; keep an eye on him please." 

I closed the door firmly and walked up the stairs. Once in the bathroom, after locking the door, I picked up dad's old straight razor and sat down on the edge of the bathtub, idly watching the light play on the blade of the old razor, suddenly fascinated by the tiny points of light along the edge, the sign of a well-sharpened blade. 

As I watched the light ripple on the old steel, I thought about what Ricky and Shereen had told me; my father was a murderer, he'd killed my mother, and I was just like him, I was a chip off the old block in almost every way. If I stayed with those people downstairs, and somehow I still couldn't bring myself to think of them as 'family', because they weren't, somehow, in some way, I would be responsible for bringing them down, because that was my nature, that was how I was bred. 

I realised my first impulse was the right one; the blade was my way of protecting them from me, the one thing I could do for them that would keep whatever was still coiled-up inside me away from them forever; this blade was their guarantee of a life free of my father and his influence.

Shereen must have seen something of my inner turmoil in my eyes, because just as I had decided to make that final, sweeping cut across my throat and end this whole miserable existence for me, the door burst open and suddenly Rick was holding my hand away from me in a grip I just couldn't break free of.

"Bobby, what the fuck are you doing, just give...me...that...!" I let the razor go as my hand opened involuntarily, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Shereen kick it out of reach under the bathtub.

"Bobby, what in the name of God are you doing, why would you want to...to...?" she asked, her eyes wide and frightened.

I was having trouble speaking, as Rick currently had his forearm in my throat as he held me flat against the wall.

"Why, Bobby?" she whispered, and I answered her as best I could while struggling to escape from Rick's hold on me.

"Don't you know what I am? I'm him, or I will be! I can't be one of you! I'll break it all up, I know I will, and you all deserve better than that! Please, please, if you really think anything of me, just turn around, close the door, let me finish this my way!" I pleaded with her, my heart sinking as she slowly shook her head, then glanced at Rick and nodded slightly.

"Sorry Bobby, no can do!" said Rick, "Sorry about this...!" 

His fist slammed against my jaw, I saw stars, and then blackness and silence.

*

I awoke in darkness, wondering for a second where I was, then stiffened as the sound of someone stirring came clearly to me. I tensed, ready to jump out of bed at whoever was in the room with me.

"Shhh, Bobby, calm down, it's only me!" came a soft voice, and I relaxed; Shereen; it was all real then, not some weird dream.

I fumbled for the lamp, and she switched it on. She was sitting in the carver chair I had found in the basement, which constituted the sole piece of furniture in my bedroom other than the narrow single bed with the bricks at one end in place of legs, and the battered night-stand next to the bed.

"How are you feeling, Bobby?" she asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

My jaw ached where Rick had cracked me, and Shereen saw me wince as I opened my mouth to speak.

"No, it's okay, don't speak if it hurts. Sorry about that Bobby, Rick was scared of what you might do, he didn't want you hurting yourself; please don't be mad at him!"

I had to grin at her defending him; but then, she probably knew more about him than I did; the Rick I'd seen earlier was nothing like the Richard I'd grown up with; he was almost like a different person, a much friendlier, more together person than I'd ever known. Before Rick left, he'd been morose, sullen, bitter, hostile and angry; just like me in fact. Now it was like he'd had a personality transplant; his smile had been open, friendly, and approachable, as had his whole demeanour, not cynical and devious; something radical had happened to change him, and I was intrigued, in spite of everything else that was crowding inside me just then; had it been these two girls? How?

"Would you like a hot drink?" she asked, and I smiled ruefully.

"I haven't got anything, only water; it's ok, I'll get a glass myself." I said, and she cocked her head as she smiled at me.

"You didn't, but Ricky and Yaz did some shopping earlier, and we have coffee, tea and juice, and a couple of beers if you want something a little more interesting than tap water!" 

It was my turn to look curiously at her.

"I know I asked you this before, but why are you doing this for me? It seems to me you could have a much better life in London, far away from all this. Why are you so intent on making me a part of your life? I mean, I'm no-one to you; don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, especially after that meal, it just seems...strange, is all I'm saying..."

Her hand came up to gently touch the side of my jaw, right where it hurt the most, and I winced.

"Sorry, I just wanted to check for myself nothing was broken." she murmured, "It all seems okay, you'll live! In answer to your question, I'm a few months older than you, so that makes me your big sister. Big sisters are supposed to look out for their little brothers, and that includes not turning their backs while their little brothers make huge, stupid mistakes."

She shifted her wight, sliding closer to me. 

"Bobby, I saw how you've had to live, I know how hard you work and how little you get for it, Ricky told us everything, and I can see for myself how little proper food you get; baked beans and tomato soup; you can't live like that, it may be hot and filling, but it's not nourishing; you need protein, a proper balanced diet, not just empty calories; look at you, you're all skin and bones! You poor baby; you look famished! I'm your big sister and I won't let you live like that again; Yaz, Rick, and me, we're your family, and family sticks together!"

She smoothed the hair back out of my eyes.

"Rick came to us just when we needed him the most, and now we're here because you're family, and you need us, and we need you; Yaz is your little sister too, she needs both her brothers, especially with what she's had to live with for so long, so let's make a deal; you look after your sisters, and your sisters promise to look after you; deal?"

Despite my own damnably suspicious nature, I saw and heard nothing here to put me on my guard; on the contrary, what was radiating from her in waves was just honest sincerity. I smiled at her, probably the first real smile since before Dad had been taken away to appear in court all that long while ago now.

"Okay, it's a deal! Big sister, huh?" and she smiled back.

"Everyone I know calls me "Shari", you could make a start by calling me that too!" she grinned, and I grinned back.

"Okay, "Shari" it is, and welcome to the family!"

She smiled at me, and I had to ask.

"So, really, you're older than me? How much?"

Shereen twinkled at me.

"Oh, a few months, Bobby, enough to make you my "little" brother, anyway! Yaz is almost 20, so she's about a year younger than Ricky, so I guess that makes me the oldest, so you better get used to taking orders!" 

She smiled as she said it, to show she was joking, and I couldn't help but smile back; she had such a beautiful smile, too! 

"Right, Bobby, let's go and make a nice cup of tea, I could do with something hot right about now!"




Rag Doll Ch. 05



We came back downstairs to find Rick and Yaz sitting in the kitchen drinking mugs of coffee, the scent of the fresh coffee nearly making me swoon; I hate tea, and coffee was so expensive I'd given up on ever buying any ever again on my severely limited budget. Yaz saw my expression and silently handed me her mug with a shy smile. I took it gratefully, sipping slowly while savouring the rich bitterness and caffeine bite. I sat at the table while Shari busied herself making tea for herself and another coffee for Yaz. Rick seemed uncomfortable, until I grinned at him.

"That's a sweet left hook you've got there, Ricky!" 

He grinned back, the tension draining out of him when he realised I wasn't going to return the favour and bop him one. Yaz gently turned my head to look at the right side of my jaw.

"There's a bruise coming up, Bobby; would you like some ice on that?" she asked me softly, and I shook my head.

"Thank you, no, it'll be okay in a couple of days." I replied, still processing the fact of these girls, the horrifying story they'd told me, the truths revealed about my mother and what my father had done to her, their mother and what he'd done to her, what he'd done to us, and uppermost in my mind, what he'd done to our big brother. 

Yaz saw my eyes filling as I thought about how I'd treated Barbara, about how she must have felt for her sons to so utterly reject her for no reason, and most of all how she must have felt the loss of Nicky, the only one of us who'd loved and honoured her; she wasn't even his mother, she was mine; she was my mother and I'd done nothing, said nothing, felt nothing when my father had brutalised and finally destroyed her. The tears ran down my cheeks as they finally spilled from me, and suddenly Yaz was there, holding me as I cried for her at last, for never knowing her, for letting her go so easily, and for Nicky, for being the one thing she'd been allowed to keep and love in this entire family.

Yaz led me away from the table, and sat me on the couch in the sitting room, sitting next to me so she could hold me, much as she'd held Rick earlier. She never said a word; what could she say that wouldn't sound false, and trite, and banal? Instead she held me close, giving me comfort with her presence while I cried, probably for the first time in my life. 

At last I stopped crying; the guilt and sorrow had passed for now, leaving me feeling empty and depressed; what did we do now? This house was a mausoleum, we could all live here, but it was almost completely unfurnished; I couldn't even work out where the girls were going to sleep; most of the beds had been taken away long ago to be sold at auction, and those that were left had been unused for nearly two years now; damp and rot would have claimed them by now, and there were precious few bedclothes and linens left, barely enough for my ramshackle single bed. I didn't have an iron or an ironing table, any pillows or cushions, nothing.

Rick obviously knew what I was thinking, as he tipped his coffee at me.

"Don't worry, Bobby, we've sorted out sleeping arrangements. We did some exploring while you were...asleep, and found some single mattresses in the attic; they're old, but clean; someone wrapped and stored them properly, so they're nice and dry, so we moved a couple of the single-bed frames into the master bedroom, the girls will stay there. As for bedding, why don't you help me bring it in?"

I looked confused.

"Bring it from where?"

Nick smiled at me

"From the car, Bobby! We stopped off on the way here and bought sleeping bags and pillows, because I knew the girls would need them; come on, they need to get some sleep!"

I could only stare stupidly.

"You have a car?" I asked, and Rick grinned.

"Well of course we have one; how did you think we got all the way here from London, hitchhiking?" 

He drained his mug and stood up, nodding at me to follow him. Their car, a grey Mitsubishi Shogun I'd noticed but not really registered when I first came in, was parked just a little way away, the luggage compartment and most of the back seat crammed with bags and boxes. Rick told me to wait while he got in and reversed the car into the driveway so we didn't have to traipse back and forth while we unloaded it.

The girls came to help as we emptied the car, and with all four of us working it was just a couple of minutes before all the stuff from the car was piled up in the sitting room, with Rick and Yaz sorting through it all. 

I noticed that Yaz seemed to be more than usually attached to Rick; at first I assumed it was because they were the younger ones, seeking support from their peers, but then I began to understand it was a lot more complex than that; they were obviously connecting at some deeper level as well. 

I was glad; Rick and I had never had any friends growing up; dad had seen to that. Nicky had gone to school when he was younger, but then dad had decided that we should all be home-schooled, so we never had the opportunity to mix and mingle with other people when we were young, and after Nick was sent to secondary school, Rick and I remained at home with our tutor. 

When I'd started work, I had no real idea how to communicate or relate to the people around me; I think my colleagues thought I had some kind of mental impairment, as I never spoke to any of them, but the truth was I had nothing in common with them, no shared background, interests, experiences, nothing; when they'd laugh and talk about girls, I just used to stare blankly; I really had no idea what they were talking about, but I did eventually come to understand that revealing to them that I was still a virgin at almost 22 was probably not a smart move.

I'd not met any girls yet; pushing a street-sweeper and smelling like a midden are not the most aphrodisiac combination, so meeting girls on the job just never happened, as a result of which, I really had few insights and little to no intuition when it came to understanding the fairer sex. I knew about the mechanics of sex, of course; I could read, and I had the usual collection of girlie mags any single man my age could be depended-on to possess, but no actual experience, not even anything that could be called a conversation with a member of the opposite sex.

As I watched Rick and Yaz unpack, exchanging light touches, pats on arm, or shoulder, or knee, and glances I couldn't understand, smoothing errant strands of hair from each other's eyes, or a lightly touching fingertip to the tips of noses, or chins, gentle horseplay, Shari slid next to me, her arm around mine as she pressed herself against me, resting her head against my shoulder.

"They're such good friends, and good for each other; look at them! Ricky and Yasmin hit it off from Day One; they've hardly spent a minute apart since Ricky first came to us. I think it's a good thing; they both needed someone, she found Ricky, and he found her. Mummy was pleased; she trusted Ricky to take care of his little sister, and Yaz needed a protector, someone to look up to and feel safe with after being frightened for so long of what our father said he was going to do with her."

As Shari leaned against me, the scent of her hair teased and tickled my nostrils, and underneath that the smell of her; soap, clean and astringent, and even more subtly, the scent of her skin; I began to harden; it was purely involuntary; I had no thoughts or intentions towards her, good or bad, it was just her femininity, her warmth and humanity, and the fact that she wasn't shying away from me, as girls tended to do. 

I knew what arousal was, and most aspects of sex, or I thought I did, but only from reading the girlie mags under my bed; I'd never even talked to a girl before today, and now I was stirring as my newly-discovered 'older' sister hugged herself close to me.

We continued to watch as Rick and Yaz pulled four bundles out of the pile of stuff we'd brought indoors, four sleeping bags still in their wrappers, and a pile of pillows. We carried them up to the master bedroom where the twin beds had been pushed together to make one large bed. We'd also brought some sheets from the pile of things they'd bought, and we quickly made up the bed for the two girls, sleeping bags laid onto the clean sheets, brand new pillows and pillowcases all ready for them. Rick had reclaimed his old room, so he dumped his sleeping bag and pillows on the little single bed in there, even though the frame was in as bad a shape as mine.

"Tomorrow, Bobby, we need to do something about the bedrooms; Shari wants you to go and do some shopping with her, we need more bedding, crockery, silverware, everything really; four people can't live properly on what we have here, so as you two are the oldest, you get the short straws!"

More bedding made sense to me; I had few spare blankets, not even enough for me, really; winter was always a tough time, and in the past I'd had to resort to covering my feet and legs with old coats on top of the thin blankets I had, as the house was freezing and I couldn't afford to turn the central heating on; it was either heating, or hot water, and not much of either at that.

The following day was Saturday, so I had no work, but I was a little worried about how we were going to pay for all the stuff we needed to make this place habitable; I had no savings other than what I'd set aside to pay the bills, and I said as much to Rick, who just grinned happily.

"Come with me, Bobby, let's have a little chat with the girls!"

Mystified, I followed him to the girls' room, knocked, and waited for them to make themselves presentable. Shari answered the door, wearing a short bathrobe that showed off her long, long creamy legs, and twin peaks in front where I swear her nipples were almost poking through. I blushed, but she seemed quite unconcerned about seeing me while dressed in just a flimsy, short bathrobe. Yaz was dressed almost exactly the same, and I noticed Rick studiously avoiding looking at either her or Shari.

"Shari," I began, "We have to talk about how we're going to live here; I only have a little money saved, and I don't earn enough to support four people, I don't know how to stretch what I earn four ways. How are we going to make this work?"

As I spoke, she began to smile, then shook her head.

"Bobby, it's okay; we have money; a lot of money, more than enough to keep us going for a long, long while yet! Sit down, please, I want to tell you something."

She led me into the room, and sat down on the bed, patting the mattress beside her. Yaz sat on the other side of the bed, with Rick next to her.

"Bobby, remember when I said that all mummy had left was her house by the time our father was extradited? In the two years following that, she managed to build a small but successful property development company, using the house and the trust it was held in to acquire a small portfolio of quite valuable rental properties dotted around East London. Not too many, just enough for her to manage. Ricky had been with us for a while, and worked for mummy, worked hard, too, renovating the properties, doing repairs, keeping them in a fit state for the tenants, and when she died, we learned that mummy had left the business to all three of us."

Sh looked sadly at Rick, at Yaz, then looked back at me.

"We decided to sell everything and come away to find you; none of us wanted to stay in London anymore; too many of Robert Davies' old cronies were around, and Ricky was worried about our safety, so we decided to make a clean start a long way away from London. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we have more than enough money, quite a large amount, in fact, and we want to stay here, with you. All the family should be in one place, and even if we're not really a family yet, I think we can learn to be one; Ricky learned how to be part of our family, now Yaz and I want to be part of yours, if you'll let us."

I was trying to take this all in, but those long, smooth legs and intriguing little points on the front of her robe were giving me serious distraction issues. Shari seemed to realise the direction of my attention, and I swear her back arched a little more to thrust them even further against the already tightly wrapped front of her robe, and the whisper of skin against skin as she crossed and re-crossed her long, smooth legs were almost deafening. 

I caught myself at this point. What the hell was I thinking? This was my sister, for Chrissake! I had no business being so interested in her legs, or her chest, or her clear, satin skin, or her deep-coral, bee-stung lips...just stop it right there!

Shari smiled at me, a warm, understanding smile.

"Thank you for thinking of us, Bobby, but you can stop worrying. We even have all the furniture from the house; when we sold up it was all put in storage, and there's plenty of it to fill up this place; that is, if you don't object?"

She waited apprehensively, biting her lip in a way I found totally distracting and absurdly attractive.

"How can I object when you put it so nicely!" I smiled back, liking the feeling, and Shari hugged me, those intriguing points on her robe pressing into my chest like two little fingertips, and once again I felt the stirrings of interest; sister or no, it felt good, and I had to catch myself; nice as it was, this couldn't be a good thing! 

"I was hoping you'd say yes, Bobby! And no more silliness like this evening, yes? You've got us, now, we've got you, and no-one will ever be left out again, deal?"

"Deal!" I murmured in her ear, enjoying the feel of this beautiful young woman in my arms, a first for me, and a wonderful feeling.

In the morning, Shari woke me with a cup of coffee. She was dressed in skinny jeans and a sweatshirt, furry Ugg boots and a warm jacket, all topped off with a Von Dutch baseball cap; she looked cute, sexy and playful, and once again I had to remind myself that she was my sister.

"Come on Bobby, we need to do some shopping; I spoke to the storage place early this morning and they're arranging to have all our stuff shipped up here for tomorrow morning, so we need to get this place ready, and we need a whole bunch of stuff, so you and I get to go shopping! Come on, it'll be fun!"

I grinned as I drank my coffee; having a pretty (no, beautiful) girl invite me out to have fun shopping was such a new experience I had no pre-programmed response except to nod foolishly and grin like an idiot! Shari ruffled my hair and turned to leave.

"Ten minutes, Bobby, we have to leave in ten minutes, so chop-chop, Big Sister's given you an order!"

I grinned as she threw the "Big Sister" at me yet again, thinking she may be my big sister, but she sure didn't look like it! I watched as she walked out of the room, captivated once again by the sight of her tight little bottom bobbling inside her tight jeans, with yet another moment of guilt for finding her bottom so cute, then jumped out of bed and ran into the shower. I took a cold shower out of habit, even though something told me hot showers were no longer going to be a luxury, and got dressed in double quick time.

Shari was waiting for me downstairs as I tried to get ready to go out with her without showing any unseemly haste; however, I'm not very good at either communicating with girls, never having actually spoken to one before, or understanding their expectations in even the most superficial way, so I think I came off looking more than a little pathetically eager to please her, judging by the small smile on her face. However, she was kind enough to not comment, and even helped me put my old jacket on properly, her eyes clouding when she saw how short the sleeves were; I'd had it since I was 17, and there'd been a couple of growth spurts since then, but it was all I had.

"We'll do something about that soon, Bobby!" she whispered, then straightened my collar and patted my chest in approval.

"Right, Bobby, now you look 100% adorable, let's show you to the world at large!"

Adorable? That word bemused me so much I just followed her out to the car, trying to work out where she was coming from; Shari and Yaz had happened to me so quickly I was still trying to carve out a 'sister' niche in my head to fit them into. 

Rick seemed to have managed it quite well, his ease and easy manner with them proved that; he was obviously completely comfortable with suddenly having two sisters out of the blue; maybe he was just more adaptable than me. 

I knew I had a lot to unlearn, and there was still a lot I was just unwilling to let go of just yet; it was still too soon, despite what the girls had said. Shari's touchy-feely attitude to me was still more than a little disconcerting; it was like she was trying to be my best friend, although her hugging me last night had been more than a little ambiguous, and certainly not what I thought was the way best friends behaved; no, I was troubled by all these sudden changes and revelations, and still a little wary when it came to other people.

Shari scrabbled around on her phone for a while, one of those Galaxy things, then tapped in a postcode on the Sat-Nav and started the engine. I asked her where we were going.

"Bobby, we agreed last night we needed more bed linen, plates, cups, cutlery, everything, so we're going to the Dunelm store on Castle Street to get some basic house wares; Ricky and Yaz are going to start getting the place ready; by this time tomorrow we'll all have some proper beds, chairs, blankets and duvets, home comforts. It's all the stuff out of our old house."

She stopped the engine and looked shrewdly at me.

"Bobby, I know you're still not feeling the love when it comes to Yasmin and me, but we really are your sisters, and we're not going to hurt you, I promise. Ricky wanted to come home, and we love Ricky, so we came with him; he offered us somewhere we could be safe, and be a family, his family, and yours too. I don't want you to feel like we're pushing our way into your home and your life, but the simple fact is, we feel safer with both our brothers than without them. I want to have my brothers around, I want to get to know them, and I want them to want me around, but if you can't do that, we'll go, and I mean that, truly; just say the word and we'll find somewhere else. I don't want to push you out of your home..."

Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke, filled and then spilled down her cheeks. I was mortified; my mean suspicious nature had made this lovely girl cry, who'd done nothing to me except treat me kindly and try to make me part of a family again, to include me in her family. Without thinking I reached up to rub her tears away, wondering at the way she flinched as I touched her. Shari smiled tremulously at me as more tears spilled down her cheeks, and I suddenly realised she was terrified of me; she was probably waiting to see if I was my father's son, if I was going to get violent, and then I suddenly understood why she'd brought me out with her; it was to decoy me away from Yasmin in case I did become violent. 

I couldn't really blame her; all she really knew of me was that I wasn't Rick, but that I was Robert Davies Junior, son of my father, the man who'd threatened to sell her and had beaten and battered her mother repeatedly, sowing the seeds of her death. All the "little brother" business had just been banter, she'd been scared of me the whole time, afraid I was the kind of man my father was. It horrified me to think that someone would or could expect that from me; I'd never carried out a violent deed in my life. 

But there was no escaping that one fact; I was the son of a man who'd done those things as a matter of course, because it was part of his nature. Shari didn't know how much of him was lurking inside me, and so she had every reason in the world to be afraid of me. And now I understood; all the touchy-feelie had been to show me that she and Yasmin were no threat, and to defuse and deflect me, just in case I was readying myself to go off.




Rag Doll Ch. 05



I opened the door and slid out, to lean against the icy metal of the car body; I felt sick; sick that someone could be that afraid of me, sick with the knowledge of what she thought I was, and finally believing what she and Rick had told me last night; the fear in her eyes right now, fear of me, was all the confirmation I needed. What kind of monster did she think I was, and more to the point, how right was she? 

I tried to think straight, but all I could see was the fear in her eyes when she looked at me; she saw me as some kind of monster, how could I possibly convince her I wasn't? Short answer; I couldn't, because one day my nature was going to undo me, and take everyone with me...

"Bobby...?" a soft voice startled me out of my reverie, and I turned to see Shari standing a few paces away, just out of reach, I noted; probably a wise move from her point of view.

"Bobby, can we talk?" she asked me apprehensively, and I shrugged, still preoccupied with my own moment of self-realisation.

"Sure, if you think there's anything to say," I managed. "I know how you must see me, I just got it; I wish you were wrong, but I think you're probably right about me; I'm not Rick, I'm probably too much like our father to change, there's too much inside me that's bent the wrong way, my father saw to that; everything he couldn't put into Nicky, or Rick, he shoehorned into me, until all that's left is someone who can only make the same choices he did. I have to leave, I can never be part of your family, and you really don't want to be part of mine. Keep the house; it belongs to all his children, I suppose, so it's as much yours as it is mine, I'll get my stuff and be gone. You don't need to know where, just forget me, you'll be safer if you do." 

Shari stared at me with eyes like saucers.

"Don't go, Bobby, please. I was scared of you, but I'm not now, just very worried about you; you almost fell last night, but we caught you; if you go away who's going to be there to catch you next time? Your place is with your family, with us. You've convinced yourself that you're the bad seed, the one that's going to turn into a carbon copy of your father one day, but if you can think like that it shows you know the difference between right and wrong. Robert Davies was a violent psychopath, but you're Bobby, scared, isolated, lonely and alone, but still just Bobby, not some axe-wielding lunatic, and you're not Robert Davies, murderer and amoral sociopath! Be part of your family, Bobby, we need you, and you need us!"

She stepped closer, coming within reach of me, but not tense and frightened now, concern and kindness in her eyes.

"Bobby, please don't go; I'm sorry for thinking what I did, but I had to know; Ricky told us how angry and bitter you were, he was sure you'd have grown out of it and be ready to accept your family, but I had to find out for myself; I've had to be the strong one for Yasmin, I was her only protection for so long, but she's been frightened all her life, and she needs her brothers, both of them, to stand up and stand over her. And so do I, Bobby. I've been scared as long as she has, but I couldn't let her know that; now I need my brothers too, I want so much to feel safe too...!" 

She reached out hesitantly and stroked my cheek, her touch almost seeming to burn me, her fingers still trembling. I admired her bravery; she'd been frightened of me, literally quaking in her boots, and yet she'd still decoyed me away from her younger sister, making herself a target should I turn out to be what she most afraid of. Her courage more than anything was what drove me to finally believe in her, her resolute bravery in facing me alone even though she was sure I would turn on her. 

I'd never come across anything like that, and it shamed and humbled me that I'd never been called on to show that kind of inner steel, that I didn't even know how. I had nothing and no-one to defend like that, had never even had any reason to feel like that, but now, now I felt it for my sister, knowing somehow that when I needed it, she would defend me like that if I let her; and right now that's just what I wanted... 

I reached up and took her hand as gently as I could, and kissed the back of it. Shari smiled, blinking the tears out of her eyes, and an abstract part of me wondered at how the tiny droplets glinted and sparkled in her long, sooty eyelashes even as I began at last to connect, really connect, with my (slightly!) older sister. Shari came closer, and finally hugged me; there was no artifice or testing this time, all she was doing was hugging her brother and welcoming him back. I held her close, enjoying the feel of her, understanding at last what being part of a family, a real family, could mean. 

After what seemed like an eternity, Shari pulled away to look up at me, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands as she smiled.

"So, Bobby, are you coming shopping with your big sister?"

I smiled back, surprised at how easily it came after the talk we'd just had, but her quick gesture as she brushed an errant lock of hair out of my eyes told me she wasn't afraid of me or what I might do; now she believed in me the way I believed in her.

We spent most of the morning buying basic crockery, silverware, a new kettle, and a complete set of saucepans; I only had a couple, and they were old and battered, but more than adequate to heat soup or baked beans.

When we got back to the house, Rick had tinkered with the boiler and managed to turn the heating back on, and the place was warm for the first time since the end of summer; at first I was inclined to protest; how did he expect me to pay for it? Then Shari caught my eye and I subsided; of course, we could afford to heat the place now... 

Rick and Yasmin had been busy, clearing the rooms ready for the arrival of the furniture on Sunday, although clearing really meant picking up the random litter of two years of neglect, the kind of detritus that accumulates when a place lies empty for so long, and giving the place a good dusting. 

We'd stopped off at the local fried chicken place and bought a bucket of chicken and sides, again, something I never realistically expected to eat anytime soon, and we had an impromptu picnic sitting on the newly-swept floor of what had been the sitting room when we'd had something in there to sit on! 

Once again I noticed Rick and Yasmin's closeness, the way he picked out for her the pieces he thought she'd like, or picked the juiciest pieces from his own portion and gave them to her, split his French fries with her, and teasingly spooned Coleslaw salad into her upturned mouth, laughing as he dabbed her chin where some of the mayonnaise had dripped. 

I noticed they sat close together, cross-legged on the floor, with their hips touching, seeming more like boyfriend and girlfriend than brother and sister. Shari seemed not to notice; her attention seemed to be concentrated on drawing me out, chattering about London, about working with her mother and Rick over the last two years or so, asking me about my job, girls, probing, but done skilfully.

When I told her I'd never had a girlfriend, nor kissed a girl, she seemed taken aback, given my age. When I confessed that she was actually the first girl I'd ever had a conversation with, she looked sad, her hand immediately coming up to cup my chin then stroke my cheek.

"We'll have to see about changing that, won't we, Bobby!" she smiled, her eyes appraising me as I blushed in embarrassment.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning and dusting, the girls exploring the house as we worked our way from room to room. They were fascinated, and not a little saddened, that I'd lived alone in this empty, echoing barn for almost two years. I'd done what little maintenance I was capable of, mainly checking the windows were tight, the attics were dry, and the roof wasn't leaking, but for the most part I'd done nothing except close all the doors and lock most of the shutters to prevent the sun fading the fine Burmese teak floorboards, something my father had been almost paranoid about. 

All the downstairs doors had fairly new locks, courtesy of Nicky, who'd been forced to replace them all one summer, so the house was as secure as I could make it. My own room used to be a lady's dressing room back when the house was built in the early nineteenth century, an adjunct to one of the bedroom suites, and I used it because it was right in the middle of the house and only had a small window, so draughts were minimal, and it was small enough to keep warm fairly easily. The main bedrooms were huge, draughty caverns, with tall windows and high ceilings, not the kind of place I relished spending a cold winter evening in.

As we worked from room to room, I once again noticed Rick and Yasmin; something about their behaviour didn't seem quite right, not a usual brother/sister thing, but with my limited knowledge of how things worked or were supposed to be, I couldn't put my finger on it, or understand the things they weren't saying. 

What I could see was the two of them almost completely wrapped-up in each other, and I began to resent that; why should he have something that was so far out of my ken, but which he could be so at ease with. Shari eventually noticed my building resentment, and pulled me unobtrusively to one side to talk to me.

"Let it go Bobby; Yaz needs Ricky, he's good for her, and she needs him; he was her big brother before you came along, just give her time; she'll soon be able to be as close to you as she is to Ricky. It's good to see her trusting someone other than me, please don't do anything to hurt that!"

I hung my head in abashed shame at that; she was my younger sister, he was my younger brother, if they were close it must be a good thing; at least they had each other, hell they probably needed each other right now, all these changes must have taken their toll on both of them, and here I was, letting my father do my thinking and resenting for me all over again.

I looked at Shari in apology, and she smiled as she smoothed my hair back out of my eye.

"Don't take it to heart, Bobby," she murmured, "I felt exactly the same when Ricky first showed up, but I soon realised she needed him just as much as she needed me, but in a different way. She'll soon think of you the same way. She already admires you tremendously, you know!"

I must have looked more than a little skeptical, as Shari smiled at me and smoothed my hair back once again.

"Oh yes, Bobby; you lived here all alone in this great, empty, creepy place, working your heart out for a pittance, struggling to keep a roof over your head, and succeeding, eking out a living by eating barely enough to keep yourself alive, no-one to care for you or care about you, lonely and alone, but never giving up or giving in; oh yes, she admires you, her big brother! So do I...!"

I smiled in embarrassment at that, and Shari grinned back at me, again flipping that pesky lock of hair out of my eye.

"I need a haircut!" I grinned, glad of the opportunity to chage the subject.

"No, don't do that, I like doing this!" she smiled, once more sleeking my hair back into place, making me smile once again.

"You really should smile more, Bobby!" she said seriously, "You really are gorgeous when you smile, much better looking than Ricky!"

Gorgeous? I'd been called a few things in my life, especially by school kids as I shovelled up the filth out of the gutters and off the pavements, but 'gorgeous' wasn't one of them, and I could feel my cheeks burning as I flushed. Shari reached over and patted my knee.

"Maybe after tomorrow you'll have more to smile about, eh? Don't worry Bobby, things have a way of working themselves out, you'll see; until then, you have me, and Ricky, and Yasmin. She'll start talking to you soon, she knows you've changed, she just has a little more to be wary of, so give her time."

My ears pricked up at that, and my curiosity was piqued. What was she wary of? I had to know.

"Shari, what do you mean, why is she more wary? I know you both had to watch what my father did, what happened to her that made it so different?"

Shari leaned in and whispered in my ear, and what she told me nearly made me vomit as the full sick impact of it burned into my brain; my father had tried to rape her, he'd actually tried to rape his own youngest daughter while he was drunk, to 'break her in' as he put it, so his friends could enjoy her, and it was only through sheer luck she'd managed to get away; how could he do that? Truly he was a psychopath, or a sociopath, or a fucking demon, or something equally non-human, because no normal man would even contemplate that, let alone threaten it, and to try to do that to his own daughter...

Shari nodded at the pair of them as they sparred and laughed together, oblivious to our conversation.

"Now do you understand why she needs Ricky? He's her safety and protection, things she needed to feel just as he came along. You'll come to mean that to her too, I promise; like I said, she likes and admires you, she just has to learn how to trust you, just as she did with Ricky."

I let it go; Yaz wasn't snubbing me, she had serious trust issues, and I couldn't blame her one iota, not after what I'd just heard. It occurred to me that I'd have to work to gain her trust; Shari would have to help me there. I grinned as I heard myself finally admitting that I needed the help of another person; perhaps I really was changing after all!

When we decided to go to bed, Rick and I walked the girls to their room, ensuring they knew where our rooms were in case they need us at all, and nothing would do but that I must check all their windows again thoroughly, just to make sure they were fully secure; after what I'd heard earlier, all kinds of protective instincts were bubbling up inside me, and that puzzled me, but in a good way. 

I realised that I was beginning to care about someone else other than myself, and it didn't help that Shari's face intruded into my thoughts increasingly often; as I lay in bed that night, every time I paused to think about what we'd discussed, my thoughts wandered to images of her face, her eyes, her lips, the way she tossed her hair back over her shoulder, and the scent of her, that light, flowery fragrance that trailed her everywhere. It confused me that I couldn't shake the increasingly intrusive images of her from my thoughts, nor did I want to. I eventually fell asleep in the wee hours, too exhausted to think about her any longer.

The following day was organised chaos as the huge moving vans arrived early from London and disgorged all of the stuff Yaz and Shari had put into storage; beds, carpets and rugs, dressers, chairs, tables, wardrobes, couches, and armchairs, as well as crates of bed linens, blankets, quilts, curtains, the contents of what must have been a substantial house poured out of the vans, and the movers lugged it all around according to some pre-conceived plan that Shari and Yasmin had. 

Rick and I made ourselves useful, but the real taskmaster was Shari, and she was obviously enjoying herself immensely as she directed the burly movers to put the furniture where she'd decided it was supposed to be. At last, by the end of the day, we had a furnished house again, and the place was looking almost as it had before everything was confiscated. There was enough to equip every bedroom with a bed, a dresser and a wardrobe, and the movers even took away the battered old beds Ricky and I were using when they put the new ones in our rooms; I'd elected to retain my little dressing room bedroom; it suited me and I was comfortable in there. The girls decided to unpack all their clothes and re-populate the wardrobes another day; we were exhausted, so after an order-in pizza dinner, we made for our respective bedrooms.

I was awakened in the early hours by Shari. I came awake as soon as she lightly tapped my shoulder, noting in passing that she was wearing just a short tee-shirt and light sleep shorts.

"Bobby, Yaz is missing, I can't find her anywhere! I woke up and she was gone! Bobby, help me find her, please, I don't where to start looking in this place, it's still so confusing in the dark!"

Of course I jumped out of bed to help, how could I not? I knew this place intimately; I knew I'd find her in double quick time, always supposing she was still in the house.

I picked up a torch and led the way; most of the light bulbs had blown and been scavenged from around the house, and we'd not replaced them yet, so most of the house was in complete darkness. With Shari holding my arm we began at the top of the house, opening door after door, flashing the beam around inside, then going on to the next. 

There were a lot of rooms, spread over 3 floors; the family who'd originally built this place way back when must have been very wealthy, and had created a series of suites, presumably one for each member of the family and a guest suite, so there were six bedroom suites, as well as the attic rooms, which had originally been servant's quarters. Each bedroom had a private bathroom and a dressing room; as we searched from room to room, all I could think was it must have been hell for the servants to clean every day. 

Finally we came to the first floor above the ground level, and started at the back of the house, where Rick had his bedroom. As we approached his room I could see soft golden light around his door, which I thought was odd; it was the middle of the night, so all should have been in darkness. As we approached the door we heard voices; Yaz and Rick, talking softly. I was about to knock when Shari put her hand on my arm and motioned me to silence; she appeared to be listening intently, then gasped softly and pressed closer to the door. As she touched the door it swung open silently just a couple of inches, but it was enough to see the occupants clearly. At first I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing, then suddenly it all swum into focus.

Yaz was on her knees, naked, her body bathed in the golden light of half a dozen flickering candles. Rick was lying on his back, and Yaz was sliding her lips over his thick erect penis, fondling his scrotum as she avidly sucked his cock. Rick in turn had his hand between her thighs, rubbing her and making her moan around the cock she had in her mouth. As I watched, they came to some sort of mutual agreement, and Yaz pulled him out of her mouth, smiling and sighing as Rick pulled her closer to dip his head down and suck her erect nipples. From their familiarity with each other's bodies, their murmured words and fond caresses, I knew this wasn't the first time they'd done this, and as Rick sucked her nipples, Yaz sat astride him, holding his face between her two hands,

"You know what I like, Ricky, do it now, baby!" she muttered, Rick's hands sliding around her waist to drop down and pull her buttocks apart. As Yaz slowly impaled herself on his cock with a groaning sigh, I saw Rick slide a finger into her tight, pink little anus. As I watched, Yaz leaned back, resting her hands on Rick's thighs and forcing his finger deeper inside herself as she pumped and ground against him, her eyes squeezed tight shut as she approached her orgasm.

When it came, she shuddered and quivered on top of him, Rick squeezing her breasts and pinching her nipples as Yaz ground against him. Eventually she slumped forward onto him, kissing him wildly, then pulling back to grin at him. 

"Your turn, baby!" at which she slid off him and knelt on the bed. Rick knelt behind her, his hands slipping around her torso to hold and squeeze her lovely, brown-tipped little breasts, kissing her shoulders before he thrust into her, and again, his lean muscular body rippling with every thrust. Yaz exhaled sharply in time to his thrusts into her, all the time murmuring to him, words of love, of encouragement, telling him how much she loved him, how much she loved what he was doing to her. 




Rag Doll Ch. 05



Shari stood transfixed as her younger sister and brother fucked each other, their bodies slapping together as they pumped and pounded, now giving little cries as they moved together in perfect synchronisation. 

Shari's eyes were fixed on the drama being enacted in front of her, as were mine, my thoughts full of how beautiful Yasmin was, how perfectly my younger siblings' bodies matched each other in their intensity and complete immersion in what they were doing. I was so transfixed, like Shari, that I didn't even notice when she moved up against me, never taking her eyes off Rick and Yaz as they fucked, completely oblivious to their surroundings and to their audience, until I realised she'd backed into me, and that I was solidly, painfully erect, my cock a lead bar in the confines of my shorts. 

Shari began slowly undulating against me, never once taking her eyes off the two younger siblings as they pounded away together. I thought she was unaware what she was doing, until her hand slipped down to slowly trace the outline of my erection with her fingertips, feeling my size as she rubbed slowly, agonisingly against me. Her other hand slipped down to the waistband of her sleep shorts, then inside to begin rubbing herself as she watched her sister. Her movements were trance-like, almost done without conscious volition, an automatic and instinctive reaction to what was unfolding not ten feet in front of us, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she stared in rapt fascination. 

In as much a trance state as her, my own hands came up and around her, to cup her breasts and feel the taut nubs of her stiff nipples as they strained against the material of her tee. As Rick and Yaz pounded, grunted, slapped and sighed together, Shari and I rubbed, squeezed and pressed, our hands moving automatically as our bodies responded to what was happening in front of us. 

Rick began groaning as Yaz gave a high-pitched, sighing moan, and we watched in awestruck fascination as his flanks flexed and tightened as he emptied himself into her, his hands squeezing her nipples as he climaxed in response to her own orgasm. Shari in turn suddenly turned and pressed herself against me, her arms around me and the curve of her pubis pressed against my solid erection as she rubbed herself against me for all she was worth. 

My hands dropped down to instinctively clutch and squeeze her soft, firm little buttocks, pulling her crotch tight against mine as our lips crushed together, and as we kissed so ravenously she climaxed, her body shaking and her breath softly hissing as she continued to rub and undulate against me, the hard little fingertip of her erect clitoris rubbing directly against my cock through the material of our sleep shorts. I couldn't help myself, it was too much for me, and I came like a geyser, spunk bursting out of my over-stimulated cock to drench the insides of my shorts, more than I think I had ever managed before when I'd masturbated. The force of my ejaculation was almost painful in its intensity, and I really think I would have buckled and fallen if Shari wasn't pressed against me, still shuddering in the throes of her own orgasm. 

At long last my head stopped spinning, and I was able to breathe again, a long, shallow intake of breath that alerted Shari that I was back in control of myself again. She stepped away from me and took my hand, motioning me to silence as we softly padded away down the corridor and back to my room. As I opened the door to go in and clean myself up, a slight pressure on my arm made me turn back to her. As I did, she stretched up and kissed me once, softly, gently, on the corner of my mouth.

"Good night Bobby...and thank you!" she whispered, and then she was gone, back to her room to wait for Yaz, I supposed. I went into my room and cleaned myself up as best I could before flopping into bed; this had been one weird night, and I still wasn't sure I believed any of it, or understood what had just happened, but now I was too tired to care, and I had to get up in the morning for work.

I was up and out of the house before anyone else was stirring; I had to be at work for 7 a. m., so I had to leave before 6, as it was a long walk to the Street Sanitation depot where I was based. All day as I worked cleaning the streets of Carlisle I thought about the strange, almost surreal episode with Shari last night; I was having trouble defining what exactly we'd done, and why, and if it would happen again; had I had sex and not realised it, or was it just a...a...thing, something to pass over and forget, to get past and never think or talk about ever again? 

I was like a zombie as these thoughts occupied my mind all day, my work routine almost completely mechanical, ingrained patterns and habits piloting me through the day while my mind was somewhere else entirely. As the day progressed I realised I wasn't exactly straining at the leash to get back and have to look Shari in the face again, or Rick and Yasmin, come to that; I had a suspicion, bordering on near certainty, that they'd take one look at my face and know that I'd been watching while they did something so very personal and private.

At last, I could stretch out my day no longer, and I had to go home; fortunately I had an hour's walk, so with any luck I'd be able to slip in while they were having dinner and go and have a shower before I could think of facing them; I didn't want them to see me anyway, I knew I must smell as bad as I looked and I really didn't need an audience. 

Luckily I had some change on me, so I was able to buy a Cornish Pasty for my dinner, I'd eat in my room while I thought about how I was going to deal with what I'd seen, and what I'd done, and where I was supposed to fit Shari and Yaz into my world after what Rick and I had done with them; I may not have known much about life, but I did know that definitely wasn't the sort of thing you were supposed to get up to with your sisters!

By the time I got home I was just too dog-tired to really care anymore; I could hear the others talking in the dining room, so I went up and locked myself in the bathroom while I indulged in a long, hot, utterly luxurious shower, revelling in the feel of the hot water as it relaxed and calmed me. To lie on my bed afterwards and not have to think about or interact with the others for a while was as restful as it was going to get, but I knew I couldn't avoid them forever. 

I think what was most confusing to me was where I fitted in all this; Shari had Yasmin, Yasmin had Rick, but I had no-one; I wasn't part of that particular equation, I was the nettle in their bunch of roses, and I felt like I had no place in their family dynamic. I sighed as I thought about how they'd become a family before they ever came here, and it was too late for me to fit into whatever they had going on here; I'd been alone for so long it had become my way of life, and I couldn't fit into theirs, I was sure of it; family really meant nothing to me anymore. Whatever had happened between Shari and me last night was almost certainly a one-off, there was no way it was going to happen again, and that thought inexplicably saddened me. 

I was awakened by someone gently shaking my shoulder. As I came awake I saw it was Shari, and my first muzzy thought was that she wanted me to help her find Yaz again, before I came fully awake.

"What, what's the matter, is something wrong...?" I began, but she shook her head.

"Bobby, why didn't you come and eat with us tonight?" she asked softly, and I looked away. She looked at the nightstand and picked up the remnants of my pasty.

"Bobby, what's wrong, we cooked a nice dinner, all the family ate together, everyone except you. Why didn't you join us? Please tell me, we missed you, I missed you!"

I sighed and sat up, Shari immediately brushing my hair back out of my eyes. I gently shook her off; this was going to be hard enough without her touching me as well. Her eyes widened as she pulled her hand back, the look of concern in her eyes replaced by one of apprehension. I didn't beat about the bush.

"Shari...Shereen, I'm never going to be part of this family, not in the way you keep trying to make me. You, Yaz, Ricky, you were a family before you ever came here, and you can't shoe-horn me in somewhere and pretend we're a single unit, because it wouldn't be true. I don't belong with the three of you, and I don't know how I can ever be one of you. I don't have a role to fill; Yaz has her older brother and her older sister, both of you protect her, and she looks up to both of you, so you don't need me; all I'd ever be is an outsider, looking on and never really being a part of anything. What I said before still feels true to me; I have to go and find something of my own, what you've got now doesn't leave any room for me, and pushing my way into your family will eventually make you hate or resent me. I'm sorry, Shereen, you really have only one brother, and it's Ricky. Now please, I'm really tired and I have to be at work in a few hours..." 

Shari looked at me with huge eyes, her lip quivering.

"But Bobby, last night...!" she began, but I cut her short.

"Last night was a mistake, can't you see that? You keep pushing this 'brother' thing on me, but brothers don't do that with their sisters, and if I'm not your brother it had even less meaning; it was just because I was there, not because it was me; it may mean nothing to you, but if I'm really your brother, then we did a really wrong thing and it can't happen again; that's why I have to leave."

Shari looked at me as two tears ran down her cheeks.

"Oh Bobby, last night was wonderful, and it was because of you! Don't leave us, you're our brother, you're my brother, and this is your home, we're your family and you're supposed to be with us, where you're safe. Until we came here, part of us was missing; that was you, we needed you to make us complete. Ricky told us all about you, how hard you worked, for so little, but still you never gave up, and Yaz and me, we both knew we needed to have you with us. We didn't come here to show you how close Yaz and Ricky and I were; we came here to find our brother and put him back where he belongs; in the middle of his family, all of us together, not the three of us and you! We love you Bobby, when you can believe that, you'll find a place waiting for you, believe me! You've been alone and in need for too long Bobby, now you have all of us, and we have you. Don't leave us Bobby, we need you!"

She leaned over and hugged me, her cheek soft against mine, and her breath soft and warm in my ear. When she pulled away I felt the dampness on my cheek from her tears, and smiled at her as she wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands, then looked at me quizzically.

"What we did last night, didn't you like it, Bobby?" she asked me softly, catching me off-guard. 

I had enjoyed it; it was the first encounter I'd ever had with a girl; the only thing that soured it for me was that the girl in question was my sister; other than that, it was just perfect. I looked away, unable to meet her gaze.

"Shari, I'd be lying if I said no, but you're my sister; brothers don't do things like that with their sisters...!"

Shari smiled at me.

"So what about Ricky and Yaz, then? What about what they were doing? Bobby, if you were hurting me, or I was hurting you, or one of us was forcing the other, then it would be wrong; but no-one did, we did what we did because it was what we wanted, and it felt good!"

Shari sat down next to me and slid her arm around my waist so she could rest her head on my chest. My arm came up instinctively around her shoulder, holding her against me. When she spoke again, it was softly, like she was saying something that she only wanted me to hear.

"Bobby, I liked having you make me feel good, I want you to keep making me feel good, and I'll make you feel the same. Why can't we keep making the people we love feel good? Yaz needs Ricky, and she needs me, but I need to have you there too; I felt it the very first time I saw you. I meant it when I said you were my brother, and I mean it now. Please don't leave me, not when I need you. Yaz was frightened, but she had me, and I made it alright for her, but I was frightened too, Bobby, I was frightened the whole time, and I had no-one; I need someone to make it alright for me; I need my big little brother to care about me and stop me being frightened too!"

I realised she was crying, and without thinking I hugged her, letting her cry against my chest, her tears wetting my tee-shirt as she cried silently. Eventually she stopped, my hand slowly rubbing her back as I tried my best to soothe her, to take the fear and sorrow away. Finally she sighed and sat up, looking me in the eyes as she spoke softly, earnestly to me.

"Our father did a lot of harm to us, to all of us; he really was an evil man, but you're not him, you're nothing like him, no matter what you believe he's done to you. You think he's made you into an outsider, well you're wrong; there's a whole lot of things waiting inside for you, Bobby, all you have to do is want them; we want you to come in and be warm, be the part of us that's missing! We all have a past we'd rather forget, but we can't do that; it's part of us, but that doesn't mean it has to tell us who we are for the rest of our lives. Bobby, we can have a future, all of us, as a family, let the past go so you can have a future with us, with your family!"

Her words were spinning and echoing inside me, and I could feel the truth of them, and her sincerity; she really did need me, and it was a strange and not unpleasant feeling; to be needed, to have another soul actually need me to care about them. My fears and feelings of isolation and rejection simply melted away as this wonderful girl spread her soul out for me and invited me to wrap it about myself, the realisation that I could be part of something as simple, as profound, and as warm as a family suddenly filling me. Shari was my sister, and I realised I loved her, her appeal to me for protection and support kick-starting something inside me, those protective instincts I had just discovered rearing-up again and making me determined to keep my sisters, my family, safe from harm at all costs.

Shari watched as my inner turmoil resolved itself, finally smiling as I smiled at her.

"Okay, you've convinced me! I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, I didn't mean to, this is all...so new to me; Rick comes home, and he brings my sisters with him, sisters I never knew I had, and I find out things about my family that I wish I'd never heard, but most of all, I find my sisters are smart, brave, loving, and truly, truly beautiful; at least my father got one thing right in his whole poisonous life!"

Shari blushed and hugged me again, laying her cheek against my chest.

"Hold me, Bobby, please..." she sighed, and of course I did, lying back down so she could lie next to me, spooned against me with my arm around her. I had no ulterior motive for holding her like this; I had to get up for a long day's work in a few hours, and this was the most restful way. Shari obviously realised she was safe with me, pulling my arm further around herself into a more comfortable position. Her warmth, the restful position we were lying in, I was starting to drift away when she suddenly turned to face me so she could hug me closer.

"I meant what I said yesterday, Bobby!" she whispered; "I'm still your big sister, and big sisters look after their little brothers! Now go to sleep, you've had a long day; don't worry about anything; I'll watch over you!"

I grinned to myself at her words, but I have to be honest; it felt so nice to be held and lulled to sleep, so comforting, something I had no memory of ever being done to me before, and I fell asleep with the sound of her breathing and her hand on my waist, her warm body pressed against mine, no sexual overtures or seductiveness, just simple warmth and comfort from her.

I woke just ahead of my alarm, as I had always done, to find I'd rolled over in my sleep and was now lying spooned against her. Shari was fast asleep, still fully dressed but with a corner of my covers pulled over herself and her arm still thrown protectively around my waist. I slid out of bed as stealthily as I could so as not to disturb her, and pulled the covers up over her. 

"...get up in a minute, mummy..." she muttered, then sank back into deep sleep again. I silently collected my clothes and slipped into the bathroom to wash, shave and brush my teeth. Once finished, I dressed in there so as not to disturb anyone, but I guess I wasn't quiet enough; as I came out, the girls' bedroom door opened and Yaz peered out.

"Shari...?" she whispered.

"No, it's me, Shari's still asleep." I whispered back, noting the look on her face. "Don't worry, she's fine; she fell asleep watching me, she must have been really tired, so I left her there; you can check on her if you like, just don't disturb her!"

Yaz made to go to my room, but stopped when I spoke to her again, never raising my voice above a soft whisper.

"Yaz, I just want to say sorry for scaring you or making you feel like I didn't want you here, or for anything else I might have done; I didn't understand, but I do now; Shari explained it all to me, and I'm sorry I didn't say this before, but I want to, now; I'm glad you came here, I'm glad my sisters are here, and I promise I'll always look out for them! I'm sorry I made you afraid of me, I didn't do it on purpose, and I'll never do it again. Can you forgive me?"

Yaz grinned as she stretched up on tip-toes to kiss my cheek.

"Shari said you'd be as sweet as Ricky, you just had to work some things out for yourself first, and she was right. I think I'm going to like having big brothers as sweet as you two!"

A huge weight seemed to lift off my chest, and I realised I'd almost stopped breathing as I waited for her answer. More than anything in the world right now I needed the good opinion of this beautiful girl, my baby sister, and I felt almost light-headed with relief when she smiled and actually spoke directly to me for almost the first time, no longer wary of me.

"I wish you didn't have to go to work today, Bobby!" she whispered, "you look so tired all the time, you need some proper rest and proper food; you didn't have any dinner last night, and now you've got to go and work all day long; Shari's worried about you...and so am I; stay home, Bobby, please, let us look after you; at least you'll get something to eat!"

I was strongly tempted to go along with her, but I'd already committed to working that day, so I had to regretfully decline her request. Yaz looked sad, then once again stretched up and planted a kiss on my cheek.

"There'll be a proper dinner waiting for you tonight, so you be back in time to eat, okay? The least Shari and I can do for you is make sure you get some proper nourishment after what you've been living on, so be here for dinner, Bobby, that's an order!"

I spent that day in a haze; all the unpleasantness that usually accompanied the work seemed to pass me by, and the day seemed to fly by; before I knew it, it was knocking-off time; this time, instead of dawdling along, taking my time cleaning and storing the sweeping machine I gave it a quick once-over, threw my coverall in the laundry chute and hurried home.

Yaz hadn't been lying when she said there would be proper dinner waiting for me; she and Shari had produced a meal fit for a king; roast beef, melting Yorkshire puddings, golden, crisp roast potatoes, steamed cabbage, roasted carrots and parsnips, thick, unctuous, red-wine gravy, and a home-made apple and blackberry pie for dessert. Dad had never laid on such a spread for us; he'd always believed that excess was a sinful waste of finite resources, and that enough was as good as a feast; at least, that's what he told us as we ate cheap food, and not too much of that, either; it's only with hindsight I can see now that he was a tight-fisted cheapskate who begrudged spending any money on quality foodstuffs, preferring instead to buy the very cheapest cuts of meat and finding ways for us to eke it out from meal to meal; he was a very rich man, he could have indulged us, but he never did.




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 01



My thanks to Grand Teton for taking the time and having the patience to unravel my scatter-gun approach to punctuation; that this makes any sense at all is due mainly to his efforts, so a big thank you. Also in there was my darling Lori, who first enlisted the help of her friend GT, she could see I needed help, she went and got me some, so thank you darling. Thanks also to OldkingClancy for his continued help and support, and as always, to Bonnie for being honest in her opinions and criticisms.

Part 2 is hard on the heels of this, I split it in two parts otherwise it would be far too long to read, but part two is more or less completed, watch this space...

As before, you should note that this is my world, not the real world, so things happen the way I want them to, not the way they happen in the real world; hopefully you won't spot any glaring differences, but if you do, please just grin and pass along, and hopefully enjoy the ride. If you needed reminding, all characters are over 18.

If you liked this segment, please vote for it, if you didn't, please tell me why; I can't promise I'll follow all your suggestions (especially the anatomically impossible/illegal/suicidally insane ones) but I will note them and possibly try to learn from them. I answer all emails, so if you would like a reply, don't forget to include your email address.

Your vote is the only reward we authors get for posting our work here, and I do like to hear from the people who like what I've done so far, and those who think otherwise, so please don't be shy about voting, and commenting as well. I never take anything personally and I've made some good friends from some of the people who've written me in the past to tell me what they liked and didn't like. 

Have fun, I did!

bb1958

_____________________________

It felt good to have the space and freedom to consider what to do with my life, and to throw my lot in with my family (and now it didn't feel so strange to say that word...). 

I think I'd finally started to become a better person; of course, the new me was still a lot like the old me; these things take time, there was a lot of garbage still stirring around inside me that I had to unlearn, and there were still social graces and nuances of interacting with other people that I just didn't get at all. 

But now I had Shari, my new-found sister, to help me; for some unknown reason, she loved me; actually, she loved me more than it was proper for a sister to love her younger brother, but I didn't care, because I loved her the same way. Shari was truly lovely, as well as warm, kind, patient, understanding, organised, fiercely protective of her younger sister, Yaz, and loved my younger brother (and hers, too) Rick, who was in love with Yaz, and vice-versa. 

Shari had shown me what it could be like to care for another person. It wasn't long after Rick brought Shari and Yaz to live at the house that I discovered he and Yaz were in love, stumbling on the two of them making love, brother and sister relationship be damned. Yaz was gorgeous; Rick was almost ridiculously good looking, so I suppose it was inevitable the two of them found each other, especially at a time when they so desperately needed someone. Shari had tried to engage me in a similar relationship, but I was too unsettled by what I'd seen, and what little I'd done with her had made me feel like it was somehow wrong and shameful.

Eventually I had seen what and who Shari really was, her vulnerability and her need, and finally understood it matched my own. To my amazement, I discovered what it was to actually love someone and need them, and to have that love and need reciprocated. In a very real sense she'd pulled me back from the lip of suicide, and showed me that life could have meaning, that finally I wasn't alone.

So now Rick and Yaz lived in part of the house and Shari and I lived in part of the house, although we still spent most of our time together. We'd split the house into two dwellings: the upper floor for Rick and Yaz, the middle floor for Shari and me, and the ground floor as a family space, with the dining room, sitting rooms, and the kitchen. I had begun to feel a puzzling, and surprisingly deep attachment to Rick and Yaz; perhaps some of Shari had finally rubbed-off on me. Splitting the house the way we had was my way of ensuring my kid brother and my little sister stayed close and connected to me.

I'd had an epiphany over Nicky, where I realised just how I'd wronged him; Rick had shown me just how wrong I'd been, how much we'd hurt and abandoned Nicky, how alone we'd left him. If it wasn't for Barbara, he'd have had nothing in his life. He tried to be my big brother, and I slapped him away, we both did. We never knew that our father had abducted him from his mother when he was still a toddler; we always thought Nicky was Barbara's son, they'd been so close, and then that fateful night when he disappeared, my father had beaten him half to death. Barbara, my mother, had I but known it, had helped him to leave, but she'd left no clue where he'd gone, and she was dead the next day, murdered by that bastard now rotting in an American prison. Nearly four years after her death, prompted by Shari, we'd finally gone to visit her grave, to apologise for everything, and ask her forgiveness.

When we arrived at the cemetery, we were shocked to find the huge, ornate memorial my lying, despicable father had erected was gone, and in its place was a small, dignified headstone with a simple, heartfelt message of love. I knew straight away that Nicky had done this, and my heart leaped; he was alive, he'd survived, dear God, our big brother was alive, and he'd come back!

I was still reeling from that revelation when Shari noticed something; there was a flower-holder set into the base of the headstone, and there was a handful of what I'd at first thought were weeds, but Shari bent down and pulled a stalk out of the holder, and I saw it was a flower. A few faded blue petals still clung to the stem in among the brown, curled petals, and when she bent the stalk, it didn't snap, it was still fresh and pliable. The implications hit us immediately; those flowers were only put there a little while ago, maybe only a week or two, and there was only one person in the world who'd come here to do that. Nicky had been here just a short while ago, he'd been less than half a mile from our front door, but he'd not contacted us, and once again those feelings of guilt and shame, and loss, too, resurfaced. We'd made him hate us, for our constant rejection of him and our mother, for our steadfast refusal to do or say anything while our father beat the hell out of her, and for being the spoiled little pigs we'd been all our lives.

Shari saw all this going through my mind, and reached up to gently cup my face in her hands.

"It's okay baby, it's okay, he'll come back one day, he's not like how you were, you said that yourself; with all that happened to him here, he still came back to her, and he'll come back again one day, when enough time has passed. Let's go home, baby, it's cold, and we have to talk." 

We trailed back to the car in silence, lost in our thoughts, Shari kept her arm through mine, her warm hand in my pocket holding mine, and when I looked down at her she smiled back at me, with just a hint of sadness in her eyes. Initially it had felt peculiar to me, this connection she was trying to forge with Nicky, but then, when I thought about it, perhaps not so peculiar after all. She had every right to try and find some part of him for herself; he was her big brother too, and if she'd never known him, it wasn't her fault. 

Back at the house, Yaz and Shari set about making lunch while Rick and I sat huddled in our own thoughts, exchanging the occasional guilty look as we flicked through the pile of photo albums, looking, really looking, at our mother, seeing her features in ourselves. There was no doubt in my mind that Rick resembled dad, as did Nicky, but now I could see Barbara in him too, in his eyebrows, his jaw-line, his cheekbones, his ears. 

Rick was obviously thinking the same thing as he constantly flicked his gaze from the albums to my face and back again. Yaz finally broke the morose silence by calling us into the dining room, where the girls had made pork chops and baked potatoes, with green peas, carrots, and creamy baked onions, and a big apple pie for dessert. 

Shari and Yaz tried to keep a flow of light conversation through the meal, but their efforts were falling on deaf ears as Rick and I stared unseeingly at the wall and chewed mechanically, our minds still at our mother's graveside.

"...and so I said he could fuck me, but only if I got to wear a sheep costume and call him Bo Peep!" 

I looked around as that last comment finally seeped into my head.

"Wha...?" I blurted, and Shari grinned at me.

"Finally, the Sleeper Awakens! We've been talking to you two space-cases for the last ten minutes, and both of you have just been sitting there staring blankly with your lips moving! Eat your lunch, it's getting cold, we have things to discuss and a few things Yaz wants to run past all of us; that means you two have to be on the same planet as the rest of us earthlings, so call your mother-ship, tell them you'll phone home later, and get cracking on your lunch Bobby, and you too, Ricky, we didn't spend all that time slaving over it just to watch it get cold."

Yaz smiled minxily at Ricky, who glanced guiltily at his full plate and started forking his food away , as did I, suddenly discovering just how delicious that meal was; my sisters are superb cooks, I have to say, and I'll take serious issue with anyone who says otherwise. All too soon, our plates were empty, and Rick helped Yaz clear the table, finally bringing in a jug of coffee and a handful of mugs from the kitchen. Once everyone was seated again, Yaz started talking.

"Shari, boys, you know we agreed that we'd invest all the money we got from the sale of the business in a new, family venture. Well I think I know what we're going to do. As we're all aware, Shari knows the Property Development game as well as mummy ever did, I know how to assess and negotiate, Ricky knows how to renovate and repair to a high standard, and I think you're going to want to get your hand in as well, Bobby. I've been doing a little research on the property markets in this city, and there's quite a lot that should interest any property developer. Did you know there's a university right here in Carlisle?"

I did, but I'd never paid it much attention; none of the students ever spoke to me or paid any attention to me except to look disgusted and cross the road when I came trundling by with the road sweeper going full blast. Yaz grinned as she continued.

"Where there's a university there are students, and where there are students, there's usually a chronic shortage of accommodation, and Carlisle is no exception. I had a talk with the Housing Officer at the university, and she told me that they are having to board students with families all over this part of Cumbria, just to give them somewhere to live, and the problem gets worse every year as the students have to move out of Halls at the end of their first year to make room for the new intake, and so they have to find somewhere to place that class." 

"There are several places I think we could convert into student housing quite easily; that place two doors along is a good one; it's empty, and has been for a while, I counted at least six bedrooms, it's almost as big as this place, so if Shari likes it too, maybe we should seriously consider buying it and converting it into student housing." 

Shari looked at Rick and me.

"Well, what do you think? Should we go with Yaz's recommendation? Speak up, guys, this is your chance to say yea or nay."

As my knowledge of the property market could have been printed in full on a pinhead, I just nodded, trusting Shari and Yaz on this. Rick sat silent for a few seconds, mulling over what Yaz had said, then cocked an eye at Shari.

"We'd need to move fast, and work even faster, if we want to get anything in place for the early-summer housing rush, but I think we could do it, if we get the right people. Okay, game-on!"

Shari smiled, then sobered up again. 

"Now for the other thing; if you're serious about tracking Nicky down, then perhaps we should do something about it. Maybe we should hire an investigation agency, there must be those that specialise in tracking-down missing persons. If no-one objects, I'm going to give that a try. You two have a think about Nicky, what he liked, where he might have gone, or where he might have been; we know he was abducted from America, could he have gone back there to try and find his mother? Ricky, see if you can dig up anything in that pile of papers in the attic, maybe there's a clue in there, or something that will help an investigator, or if mummy told you anything more, or even just mentioned in passing. That bastard used to boast to her all the time about what he did; maybe he let something slip one time about who and where he took Nicky from."

And so it was decided; we would kick-off the family business with Yaz's recommendation, and while we did that, we'd look for Nicky, now that we knew he was out there. We were all feeling the urge to bring him back, Rick and me because we needed to apologise to him, and the girls because they needed their big brother, period. 

Once the business of the day was concluded, Rick and Yaz disappeared into the family room to watch TV while Shari and I lingered over fresh coffees. We'd both seen the looks and secret little smiles they'd been exchanging, so it was no surprise to find the family room empty when we finally made our way there to sprawl on one of the big soft couches in there. At least whatever they were doing, they were doing it two floors up and out of earshot, so we wouldn't be disturbed, although Shari was looking like she wouldn't mind me disturbing her at all. We sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, finishing our coffees, constantly making and breaking eye-contact, until Shari couldn't take any more, throwing her leg over me and straddling me as she sat in my lap, grinning as she laced her fingers behind my neck.

"Okay, coffee-break's over, time for some happy-time, baby, are you ready to play?" she grinned, grinding herself against the lump that had magically appeared in my jeans. My hands automatically slid around her waist, then down, to cup and squeeze her firm little backside, making her grin even wider.

"Ooohh Bobby, you do want to play, don't you?" she pouted at me, a wicked glint in her eye, as she began to slide herself back and forth on my lap, making my cock grow and harden almost painfully.

Shari leaned down to kiss me, just a light, playful brush of her lips against mine, her tongue flicking out for a second, before catching my bottom lip between her teeth and nibbling gently. Something made me pull her closer, Shari grinning as I suddenly pulled her up against me, crushing her breasts against me as I captured her lips this time, my tongue parting her lips to fence lightly with hers. Shari returned the kiss even more fervently, until we were lip-locked, my hands clamped around her lovely, firm bum, holding her tightly to me. Eventually, Shari broke our kiss and climbed off my lap, much to my disappointment. She must have seen my look, as she leaned down to kiss me quickly.

"Two seconds, baby, just got to get something!" and with that she dashed upstairs; after a few seconds, I heard her light tread as she skipped downstairs again. She came back into the family room carrying a quilt and a couple of pillows. She threw them on the couch and slipped out of her harem slippers and began undoing her jeans.

"Come on baby, aren't you joining me?" she grinned, and I jumped up and began kicking my shoes off as I almost yanked my jeans down in my haste! By the time I got my jeans off and tugged my polo shirt off, Shari was down to her skimpy little panties and bra, and looked like the best reason in the world for a rampage. She grinned at me as I took in the full impact of her long, sleek, shapely legs and tight, luscious little bottom hugged inside her tight panties, her small, high breasts clearly outlined in the light bra she was wearing. Two intriguing, tempting little points poking through the material, and the tumbled mass of her Titian hair, a lustrous cascade of red-bronze, framed her beautiful, heart-shaped face, contrasting perfectly with her creamy complexion.

"Is that all you're going to do, baby, stare at me?" she teased, turning her back to unhook her bra, flirting her gorgeous little bum at me, barely concealed as it was in her filmy panties. All I could do was look at her, taking in the elegance of her long, sleek back and slim waist, her flaring hips and her perfectly rounded, pert little bum cheeks, just built for fondling and nibbling, the smooth skin and perfect muscle tone, and once again the contrast of that silky mass of bronze hair against her creamy skin with its faint golden tinge hinting at her exotic heritage. 

I slipped up behind her and slid my arms around her waist, hooking my thumbs in her panties and sliding them off before moving my hands up her rib-cage to cup her firm little breasts and gently tease and squeeze her hard nipples. Shari giggled and thrust her bum back into my groin, trapping my cock in the tight cleft between her buttocks, and rolling them to squeeze me playfully.

"Bobby, is that all for me?" she whispered wickedly, grinding her bum against my stiffened cock, then turning to once again kiss me while simultaneously grinding her crotch against mine. I was in a state of exquisite agony now; I was holding a beautiful naked girl, and there was only one thing I wanted to do with her, but blindly gratifying myself wasn't part of the new me; I owed my awakening to her, and I knew what I wanted to do to her to make her feel as good as I did right then. 

I slid her off me, holding her by her waist as I urged her down next to me, kissing and licking her taut nipples, making her sigh and moan softly as my teeth grazed the sensitive flesh. I continued kissing and licking in a line down her taut stomach, making her wriggle and sigh delightfully, savouring the feel of her warm silky skin against my lips and tongue, until my tongue-tip lapped at the apex to her fragrant slit.

Shari groaned as I teased her lips apart, flicking my tongue over her clitoris in its little hood. She responded by twining her fingers in my hair and pushing her mound against my mouth as I bored-in, flatting my tongue to lick her in long sweeping passes the length of her slit, feeling her labia pulse against my tongue as they swelled and darkened with her arousal. Her scent surrounded me, filling my head with her sweet, seductive musk, turning all my thoughts to her, losing myself in what I was doing to please my girl, my whole heart and soul in her hands as I drank her salty, tangy sweetness, my tongue gently rubbing and licking her hard little button, her juices flowing over my tongue as I lapped and drank her 

Finally, after a few minutes, or a few hours, I'm not sure which, Shari reached down to cup my face.

"Baby, it's your turn, sweetie!" she murmured, sliding away from me and kneeling-up to kiss me, with me responding by once again holding and squeezing her taut bottom as my lips sought hers. Shari responded by gently grasping my now rigidly erect cock, squeezing me with one hand as she fondled my balls with the other. She broke our kiss to smile wickedly before dropping her head down to lightly lick the tip of my cock. I groaned at the feel of her tongue on me, and at the sight of her gorgeous little bottom thrust so provocatively in the air as she continued to kiss, lick, and finally suck me. I twined my fingers in her luxuriant hair, enjoying the feel of the silken strands as her head bobbed on my cock, anything to distract me from the feel of her hot mouth sucking and licking me so perfectly. 




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 01



At last I could bear it no longer; as I slid into a prone position on the couch, she followed me down, still sucking avidly, her grey eyes looking directly into mine all the while. I sighed and reached for her, pulling her up to me, Shari grinning as she slid up next to me, one hand still wrapped around my cock. She looked into my eyes, guessing what I wanted to do, and smiled as she straddled me facing my erect cock, then dipped down to once again take me in her mouth. I held her hips and looked in fascinated wonder at her beautiful pussy and little pale-brown balloon knot, before pulling her back and up to my mouth so I could taste her and pleasure her once again the way she was pleasuring me.

She still tasted wonderful; sweet, and tangy, with a soft musky saltiness that told of her excitement, and as I licked and sucked at the succulent morsel spread for my delight, so she sucked me, sighing and mewling when I did something she especially liked. She smelled delicious, and I couldn't get enough of her, each probing penetration of my tongue making her sigh and suck me even more avidly than before. She had a really cute, sweet little pussy, neat and feminine, not like some of the fleshy, splayed-open things I'd seen in my porn mags, and she was as much a treat for my eyes as a feast for my probing tongue.

I don't know how long we teased and pleased each other, but neither of us wanted to finish this; it was too intimate, too loving to rush, there was no urgent need to race to a climax, and we were content to please and love each other in this way for as long as we could. Eventually, though, excitement and stimulation began to win out, Shari thrilling for longer and harder as I tasted, licked, sucked and probed, pushing my tongue as far into her as I could, until, on impulse, I licked her quivering little rosebud, gently pushing and squirming my pointed tongue-tip as far into the tight little knot of her anus as I could. 

She screamed around my cock as she climaxed, a flood of her tangy juices spraying gently across my face and into my mouth, exciting me even further; her sucking efforts on my cock redoubled, and as she squeezed and fisted me as she sucked, I too passed that point, groaning out loud as I came in a white-hot rush of spunk, my cock twitching and flexing as if it had a life of its own as I pumped pulse after pulse of my sperm into her hot and willing mouth.

Shari slumped down on me, her body twitching and shaking in the aftermath of her orgasm, her lips still fastened around me as her busy tongue continued to lap at the trickle of spunk oozing from the end of my cock. We lay quiet and unmoving, waiting for the world to come back into focus, Shari slumped on top of me, her tempting, beautiful little pussy and quivering, delicate little rosebud filling my field of view. My hands played and held her sexy cheeks, rubbing and squeezing the firm flesh, revelling in the springy, juicy firmness, the sexy quiver, and the delightful little bounce of her own personal golden globes. At last she stirred, to swivel round and crawl up next to me and lay her head in the crook of my neck with a happy sigh.

"That was wonderful, Bobby, thank you!" she whispered, making me blush. I squeezed her close to cover my confusion, and kissed her once on her nose, and longer on her sexy lips, while allowing my hands to roam over her sexy back and squeeze her deliciously firm bum cheeks some more. There was one thing I wanted to know, not that I had any business asking, and it made no difference to me, but a gadfly of curiosity was at me, and I had to ask her just once.

"Shari, with all the things you know, all the things you're teaching me, I know that I'm not your first, and I don't care, but I've got to ask, and if you tell me to mind my own fucking business I will and never ask you again, but...I'm kind of curious; where did you learn all this stuff?"

Shari looked up into my eyes, possibly looking for any hidden reasons I may have had for asking; if so she'd have found nothing but my own passing curiosity, and I meant it; if she told me to fuck off and mind my own business I knew I'd never ask her again; it really was none of my business. She looked into my eyes for a moment longer, then nodded.

"I suppose I knew you'd ask one day, but really there's nothing there, no secret life as a call-girl or anything like that!" she grinned, and I also grinned, putting her back at her ease.

"I had a boyfriend, a long-term boyfriend, Graeme his name was, we were in school together, after we left school we stayed together, we did all the things boyfriends and girlfriends do, some of which you get the benefit of, Bobby!" she grinned, gently flicking the end of my flaccid penis, making me jump.

"After a while, I realised he'd never taken me back to his house, never taken me to meet his parents or any of his family; he always had a reason, but the upshot was that he always came over to our house, he always picked me up if we were going out somewhere, and he never took me to his parents place on things like Christmas, New Year, family celebrations. It all came to a head when his sister got married, and he never told me. Instead, he took another girl as his date. Of course I was furious; I'd been with him for almost three years, yet I'd never met any of his family, and when he had the perfect opportunity to introduce me to them, he took some blonde slapper he'd met in a pub!"

I could see the anger and the hurt building in her eyes, and tried to dissipate it for her.

"Shari, I'm sorry, you don't have to go on, I don't need to hear any more..." I started, but she shook her head.

"No Bobby, I want you to hear all of this, then perhaps you'll understand a bit more about us, about you and me."

She started again, her eyes far away as she looked at something I couldn't see.

"When I found out what he'd done, of course I was furious; he'd told me that weekend he had to go away for work reasons, and he'd see me when he got back. It was only when one of my so-called friends let slip what he was actually doing that weekend that it really hit the fan. When he turned up on Sunday evening all safe and secure in the knowledge that I was none the wiser he was completely unprepared for the broadside he got. I think I called him a "gutless, pencil-dicked pansy" in a crowded pub, poured my drink over his head, and kneed him in the balls to drive home just how pissed-off I really was. When I found out the actual reason why he did that to me, I was going to hunt him down and slow-roast his cock with a Zippo, believe me! He can thank Yaz for the continued existence of his prick, because if she hadn't stopped me, I was going to find him, yank it off, and barbecue it in front of him!"

She paused to gather her thoughts.

"That little worm was afraid his family would find out I wasn't white, that their precious little Anglo-Saxon paladin been getting jiggy with a jungle-bunny, knocking-off some girl with a touch of the Tar-Brush. His family didn't care to sully their WASP heritage with darkies like l'il ole me, he'd just been too gutless to tell me; but he was quite happy to drag me off on weekenders in isolated hotels around the South Coast so we could bang each other senseless! That's what hurt the most, that he used me like that; I was white enough to fuck, but not white enough to meet his precious family."

She suddenly grinned. 

"I found out later his father was a solid member of that band of primitives, the British National Party; if he'd found out his son was dipping his dick in a darkie he'd probably have crucified him out on the lawn on a burning cross, or burned him alive in one of those Wicker-Man things! Anyway, after him, there were no more boyfriends; I just didn't trust any Englishman not to do that to me all over again. When I first met Ricky and saw how he bonded with Yaz, I kind of revised my opinions a little; he had absolutely no hang-ups about skin-colour or whites versus coloured or any of that nonsense. I don't think it ever even occurred to him that he was any different from her, and he was just so good for her, so I was happy for her, because now she had a protector as well as a new best-friend."

I was at a loss to understand how her ethnicity could have been a problem; however you looked at her, she was stunning, flame-haired and creamy-skinned, with the perfect features of a carved idol in some eastern temple, beautiful and alluring; any real man would give his eye-teeth and his right arm to the elbow for a chance to win her. Her ex-boyfriend's attitude defeated me; prejudice was something I understood, but had never really encountered, and certainly not prejudice of the sort she'd just described. I could see it had hurt her deeply.

"Shari, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to rake that up, I promise you, I'll never do anything like that to you, I swear on my life!"

Shari smiled at me, and curled her hand around my chin.

"I know you won't, Bobby, you don't have that kind of evil in you, I saw that from the start; you were angry, understandably, but you weren't a bigoted idiot. You were just like Ricky in that respect, and you were honest, which is why I found you so attractive; the fact you're gorgeous might have had a little to do with it as well! You're honest, and now all that anger and loss is gone, you're just a regular, decent bloke, and that's why I'm yours, and you're mine, Bobby Davies!"

All this soul-searching and confession was making me more than uncomfortable, plus her description of me seemed idealised and romanticised, to say the least, but at least now I knew what she really thought of me, and it was vastly comforting to know there was one person in the entire universe who I could 100% rely on to be there for me, and it was Shari. Holding her close to me as I did, her warm, lithe body pressed tightly to mine, the reaction of my body to her touch was both inevitable and hardly unexpected, something she was quick to notice.

"Well Hello, Bobby! Someone's in the mood for more fun and games!" she smiled, running her hand down my body to take hold of me and squeeze suggestively, making me even harder. I pulled her on top of me, holding her by her perfect bum-cheeks while she showered my face and neck with kisses, squirming delightfully against me, rolling my trapped cock between our bellies as she kissed me everywhere except on my lips. Shari's favourite way to make love is with her on top, so I tried to manoeuvre her into position, but she had other ideas, instead sliding off me to lie on her back on the couch.

"Make love to me, Bobby!" she whispered, a request I was only too happy to comply with. I kissed and licked her neat little breasts, entranced, as always, by her long, stiff nipples, always the perfect treat for me to suck on, and suck I did, my tongue lapping as my lips caressed those tempting peaks of flesh, making her flush as she sighed and murmured underneath me. She took hold of me, her hands gentle but firm on my now throbbing cock as she fisted me, making me even hotter for her.

"Now, Bobby!" she moaned, and I needed no more urging, sliding between her supple thighs and taking hold of her behind her knees, holding her open for me as I slid forward. Shari took hold of me once again, aiming me as I pushed forward, sliding my engorged cock deep into her in one long, steady thrust.

"Ooooh God, yess, Bobby, yess, like that, yes, baby, like that!" she muttered as I took my weight on my knees and elbows, and as I began to slide back out of her again, she shuddered and twitched under me, her hips thrusting up to meet my thrusts, the two of us pumping at each other in perfect synchronisation. Shari pulled my head down to plant her lips on mine as her long legs folded themselves around me, locking around me and pulling me in ever deeper with every thrust. Our tongues fenced madly as we pumped against each other, the only sound that of our breathing and our bellies slapping together as we fucked so deliciously.

I could feel her excitement growing, igniting a frenzy in me, and I rammed myself into her as hard as I could, until

"Ooohhh God, Bobby, ooohh Bobby, oooh yess! Ooohh Yess! YESSS!" she shrieked, her pussy clamping down tight on me as her inner walls fluttered and rippled against me, squeezing me and setting off my own orgasm. My ears popped and my vision blurred as jet after jet of spunk poured out of me and into her, the feel of me ejaculating inside her sending her into ever more spasms as her orgasm rang and ricocheted around inside her. We peaked at that moment of complete stillness as we strained against each other, finally falling back, drained and exhausted, but utterly, completely satisfied.

As I lay next to her, gasping for breath, Shari suddenly rolled against me, draping her leg over mine, her lips meeting my neck, where she kissed me gently.

"My Bobby, and don't you forget it!" she whispered before falling back exhausted and on the verge of sleep. I was in no better shape, so I pulled the quilt up over our nakedness, spooned her warm body against me, and that was how Yaz found us several hours later; I knew it was Yaz, because when we eventually woke in the early evening, Shari's and my clothes had been neatly folded and stacked on one of the chairs, and a couple of extra pillows had been added to the pair Shari had snagged from upstairs.

*

The negotiations to purchase the house dragged on for almost a month, but eventually the absentee owner quit trying to horse-trade and settled on a price less than we'd been prepared to pay, but more than he thought he'd get, so everyone was happy, and we finally took possession of the property in mid-December. 

By now, it was almost Christmas, something I'd never really paid attention to; our father had always ignored it, but I think Barbara had secretly given Nicky presents for Christmas; at least after it had come and gone he'd have a new pair of shoes, or a pair of jeans, or a new jacket; never anything for us, though, and certainly nothing from our father. I felt a surge of hot shame inside when I remembered how our father had always bought good quality clothes and shoes for us, and almost nothing for Nicky; he always seemed to be in shabby, threadbare clothes on the verge of falling apart, faded jeans covered in darns, and battered training shoes, and yet we'd even begrudged him the few nice things Barbara had given him. 

When Shari learned that Christmas actually meant nothing to me she was outraged, actually disgusted that our father had denied me such a fundamental part of childhood, and so she and Yaz went on a mission: to bring Christmas to me and this house. She secretly bought a tree, and a whole bunch of lights and decorations, and then one night, while I was fast asleep, the two girls and Rick sneaked downstairs and decorated the parlour and the family room for Christmas. They put up the tree with all the lights, decorated it, then must have spent most of the night putting Christmas decorations all over the downstairs living rooms.

When I came down for breakfast I was amazed; I'd never seen a real family home decorated for Christmas, only in films and TV shows, and it felt like something I had never even realised was missing from my life had suddenly appeared, something important and essential; all that tinsel and glitter, the candy canes and snowmen, the tree, was just the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen; the house finally looked like a home; our family home. I didn't know what to say, I was literally speechless, and Shari's eyes were sparkling at my reaction.

"Do you like it, Bobby?" she asked shyly, and I grabbed her and Yaz and hugged them both. 

"Thank you for Christmas, both of you, it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!" I stammered, the last shreds of my old life falling away from me. We were still standing around admiring the tree when the doorbell rang. Yaz went to answer it and came back with a FedEx pouch. She tore it open, and inside was a folder with all the deeds to the house we'd just bought two doors away, and a big bunch of keys. 

The debate started immediately; Shari wanted to wait until after we'd had breakfast, but Rick and Yaz wanted to just go and open the place up and have a quick look around to see if there were any glaring issues, and I had to admit I was curious as well, so we wrapped up warm and trudged down the road to have a nose through our new property. 

After much fumbling, Rick managed to locate the correct keys for the huge old front door, and then we had to really lean on the door to open it. When we got it open we found out why. There was an absolute mountain of ancient and not so ancient mail, circulars, pizza flyers, and old newspapers piled up just behind the door, a very effective barricade. It was almost pitch black in there. Most of the downstairs windows were heavily shuttered, making the place a musty-smelling, lightless cavern; a quick check of the lights confirmed the electricity was off, so we decided to come back another time a little better prepared, and open the place up properly so we could get a good look at what we'd bought. Yaz grinned and grabbed an armful of the letters, saying that she might as well have a sort through to see if there were any with return addresses.

Once back home, while Shari and I busied ourselves making breakfast, Rick and Yaz quickly scanned though the pile of dry, fusty envelopes, piling all those with a return address to one side, joking and reading out the postmarks and dates. It was a few moments before I realised all had gone quiet. Shari and I looked over, and Yaz was holding Rick by the shoulders while he stared at the envelope in his hand.

"Ricky, what's wrong?" asked Shari, drying her hands and taking my hand.

"Bobby...look here...look at this...!" came his strained voice. I came forward and Rick handed me the envelope; it was addressed to me, it had obviously been mis-delivered, but I recognised the handwriting. 

It was from Nicky.

I stared at it, shock and guilt warring in me all over again; this was from my missing brother, sent from somewhere called Albany, way back last summer. 

"Who's it from baby?" asked Shari, and all I could do was mumble "Nicky...It's from...Nicky..."

I looked helplessly at Shari, who gently touched my cheek.

"Open it Bobby, it's a sign, it's what you were looking for. He took the time to write to you, aren't you curious what he had to say?"

I looked the envelope over; there was no return address, just that Albany postmark, and when I looked closely, I realised the stamp was a US postage stamp. This had come from America! I still didn't know where Albany was, but at least we knew one thing; he'd somehow made it home. Did he ever find his family? We knew he'd come back at least once; Barbara's new headstone told me that.

I wavered, not wanting to damage that flimsy envelope, my only link with him, so Yaz gently took it from me and carefully slit it along the top, pulling out a single sheet of notepaper covered in dense handwriting. She looked at me, and I shrugged and nodded; he was her brother too, this concerned all of us now, why shouldn't she read it? She carefully flattened the paper, and began to read out loud.

"July 4th, 2012

"Robert and Richard,

I'm writing to you to request that you meet me in Carlisle at noon on November 9th this year, at Barbara's graveside; I chose the date deliberately, it's her birthday, and I wanted to see her on her own special day, as I have some things I need to say to her, and perhaps you might too, although I realise this might be me being more optimistic than realistic. I really don't want any confrontations, or recriminations, or blame-games; my wife and baby daughter will be there with me and they don't need to see that side of our family, and it's too late for that anyway." 




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 01



"All I ask is that you join me to greet my mum and yours on her birthday; that's right, she was your mother, even though she was never allowed to tell you that. Instead she had to watch as you turned away from her and removed her from your lives, although that wasn't your fault. She never blamed you for that; she knew you didn't know any better. Maybe now we can together offer her an apology for not being there when she needed us most, and to promise her we'll try and do better by the people in our lives than she ever got from the people in hers.

"I have waited for far too long already to come and see her; I left her behind, and it will always tear at my heart that I didn't do enough to save her. I know and freely accept I bear a heavy portion of the guilt for her death; if I had only pulled her onto the train with me that night, who knows, maybe she would still be alive today, and that is the burden of guilt I can never put down, that I didn't try hard enough to save her, that I left her to die alone. All the contrition in this world won't absolve me of my part in her death; I know this; I feel it every day of my life. Her blood may not flow in my veins, but it's on my hands, and I can never wash it away, nor should I. 

"Perhaps both of you will come one day to realise that Barbara really was our mum. She brought me up, she kept me safe and warm, she loved me unquestioningly, and she would have done the same for you in a heartbeat, but you were taken from her, and she was never allowed to have what she wanted most in the world: to be your mother again. In every possible way that matters, she was the best thing in our lives, but we stood back and let her go far too easily, and far too soon.

"However, the past is what it is; none of what happened can be recalled, or undone now, and the hurt has cut too deep to ever sponge it away, but perhaps we can start again, this time as adults, brothers with a common loss and maybe after all this time, a common grief. I will be there whether or not you decide to come. I hope to see you there, but I will understand if you don't, because, after all, perhaps not that much has changed for you. 

"I do know one thing though: regardless of how you feel about her, I know Barbara will always watch over you; even if you never honoured her, she still mourned her loss of you. In her heart she was always your mother, both of you, and because you were once part of her, perhaps one day you will hear her, as I did, and finally understand that she loved and needed you, and never let you go, despite what life and her family had done to her. I hope that one day you will come to realise just how much we threw away, and for that hope, and for our loss, and for her sake, I make this request. Please be there if you can.

"Your brother

"Nicky"

Yaz put down the letter and looked at us, tears on her cheeks.

"After all this time, he's still hurting so much! Poor Nicky, so much guilt and pain, and for nothing! He went away again thinking you didn't care, after he tried to reach out to you one last time, all that hurt and loss...!"

Rick tried to put his arm around her to comfort her, but she shook him off.

"No Ricky, don't...don't touch me, just don't! You did this to him, you and Bobby; he was alone, you left him out, you hurt him and made him hurt, you never once tried to help him, and you let him leave! He was your brother, he's my big brother, he's still hurting so much, and he's not here, and it's your fault! Shari...!"

Rick looked at me in bafflement, but I think I understood where Yaz was right now; Rick and I, we'd been the architects of so much of Nicky's misfortune, our father's puppets, who'd stood by and laughed while so much evil happened right under our noses. Right now, compared to him, we were looking pretty shoddy and worthless. He knew we'd done nothing to help our mother, or tried in any way to save her, and he'd expected no less from us, and so he'd taken the guilt for that failing on himself, because he loved her and thought he'd failed her. And yet, even though he believed nothing had changed for us, he'd still tried to reach out, he'd even invoked his beloved Barbara to watch over us, her two despicable sons. This was why we needed him back: he was the heart and conscience of our family, and Yaz had seen that.

Shari took a sobbing Yaz into the other room so she could compose herself again, while Rick and I stared guiltily at each other; the same thought uppermost in both our minds, I'm sure; if we'd received that letter in time, would we have gone? The answer that scuttled and scurried around in my mind was "No". Last summer I was still too busy being a morose prick to have ever considered any kind of rapprochement with Nicky, and that was the shameful truth that hurt the most. That letter would have made no difference to me. Rick, of course, was nowhere to be found when that letter was mailed, otherwise things might have been very different; his change had already happened, but I had still been alone and sunk in bitterness. 

Now, of course, with my newly-awakened conscience and Shari showing me how to be a proper person, it would have been so different, but by the time I found her (or she found me) it was already too late; he'd been and gone again, and he'd left finally knowing once and for all that we truly were what he'd always believed we were. It was ironic, and not in an amusing way, that the morning I had accepted that Shari was what I needed, the morning I had apologised to Yaz for scaring and rejecting her, the morning I had finally realised just what a complete fool I had been, the morning I accepted that my family really was the most important thing in my life, that was the morning Nicky and his family were there alone, placing flowers on my mother's grave.

Something clicked, and I picked up the letter, scanning quickly through the first paragraph to what I'd heard.

"Nicky has a daughter; he's got a wife and a baby daughter. We have a niece!" I stated in astonishment, Rick's eyebrows suddenly going up as he took that in as well. 

Then Shari was standing at the doorway with Yaz, who flung herself on Rick, burying her face in his neck as she hugged him tightly.

"I'm sorry baby, so sorry, it wasn't just you, you didn't know any better, it's just...I was so sad for him, he's one of us and he's still in so much pain, he didn't do anything except try to help her, and yet he feels so guilty, poor Nicky, there's still so much hurt and loss, and it's not fair, it shouldn't be him, we have to find him and make it right with him, promise me we will, Ricky, promise me!"

Rick soothed her, nuzzling her neck as she cried for her lost brother.

"I promise, baby, we'll find Nicky, and I swear, we'll make it right with him; with him, and his wife, and his baby, our niece; do you remember reading that? We have a baby niece!"

Shari came and took my arm.

"I heard that bit, I was wondering when you'd pick up on it," she smiled. "Under the circumstances, I think we need to ramp-up the search for Nicky. This letter came from Albany, which I know is the capital of New York State, so he must live or work there or somewhere near there. At least now we have a location, it should make finding him a little easier. I think we need to make finding him our priority; this property business can wait; family comes first."

*

The following day, Rick and Shari went shopping, and Yaz took me into town so I could buy something for Shari for Christmas. It was a strange experience for me; I'd never been Christmas shopping, so I'd never actually been in one of the department stores at Christmas-time; I'd never had a reason to, and I was almost overwhelmed by the colour, the glitter, the decorations and displays, and the Christmas music playing everywhere. 

Yaz piloted me to the things she knew Shari would like, and helped me pick out a suitable present for her, then turned her back while I bought something for her as well, something to give my little sister on Christmas Day, and then Yaz parked me with all the bags and boxes while she went off to do a little shopping of her own. I also managed to buy a couple of other presents, then, laden down, we made our way home. I was enthralled; Christmas shopping made me feel, for the first time, that there was a special time happening in the world and I was part of it. Yaz made me stop on the way home to have my picture taken at a coin-op Photo-booth. When I asked why she just replied, "Ask Shari..."

Rick and Shari were also burdened down with bags and packages, and we spent that evening in a frenzy of wrapping and labelling the things we'd bought for each other, and stacking them under the tree. Shari had also stopped in at the post office and picked up passport application forms for Rick and me, which was why they'd made us take our pictures, reminding me that our priority was to find Nicky, and our starting point looked like this "Albany" place in New York.

Christmas Day was quiet but happy: we'd made a start on finding Nicky, we were getting our passports straight so we could go find him, and we were happy as a family as well as the couples we'd turned into. Shari gave me a warm jacket, fleecy gloves, and a handful of warm sweaters, plus some nice dressy shirts, and Yaz gave me a digital camera, so I spent Christmas morning making my beautiful sisters pose for me in their pyjamas while I snapped away. I'd bought Shari a new laptop with the very last of the money I'd saved from that thankless job I'd had (plus some other gifts I hoped she'd show me after bedtime!), and we'd all clubbed together and given Yaz an iPad. Shari and Yaz had given Rick warm clothing, boots, shirts, and underwear. The sight of Rick in his sleep sweats with a pair of silk Mickey Mouse boxers pulled on over the top was something to behold, although it's an image I'm trying to forget... 

I think the present that meant the most to us, though, was one that Shari gave to Rick and me. She'd taken an 8x10 portrait photograph of Barbara from one of the albums and had it framed for us; it was a picture of her that must have been taken before all the bad things started to happen. She looked so young and happy, her eyes smiling as well as her lips, her light-brown hair and grey eyes shimmering in the light and her silver filigree charm bracelet on her wrist. I'd forgotten about that bracelet, and seeing it in the picture brought back a fleeting quasi-memory of seeing it glitter in the sunlight. I briefly wondered where it had gone; it wasn't on the list of things removed from the house, and it wasn't in among her things in the attic. 

Rick and I stared for long moments at our mother, really seeing her for the first time, her beautiful face young and carefree, not beaten-down, cowed and afraid, her smile fresh and radiant, before I took it and placed it on the mantelpiece, where we could see her properly.

Rick and Yaz had volunteered to make Christmas lunch, so I stretched out on the couch in front of the fire with Shari on top of me, watching Christmas TV while roast turkey and all the trimmings happened elsewhere. Shari was grazing on my neck when she happened to look under the tree and noticed there was still a handful of unopened presents. I saw where she was looking, and her raised eyebrow.

"I um, I...got something for Nicky, just a small gift, something with his name on it just so we could...feel like he was here today, too..." I whispered, blushing slightly at the admission.

Shari smiled sadly, her eyes misting.

"How strange baby, so did I, and I think Yaz and Ricky did as well. That was a nice thing you did Bobby. Maybe somehow he'll know we're thinking about him; who knows, maybe it'll call him back home. I put something under the tree for mummy too, just to let her know I'm thinking of her, and a little something for Barbara from you and Ricky, I hope you don't mind?"

I hugged her close, smelling the fresh berry scent of her hair.

"Of course I don't mind, I should have thought of it myself, a little something to tell her I'm sorry and that I'll never forget her."

Shari kissed my forehead, and wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes.

"I think she knows now, Bobby, and once we find Nicky and put our family back together, it'll be over and she'll be able to rest, I'm sure."

She tapped the tip of my nose and grinned happily. 

"Cheer up, now, baby, it's a happy day today. You may not be aware, but it's the most wonderful time of the year!" 

I didn't want the day to turn melancholy, not my first real Christmas, so I kissed her to say thank you, and Shari kissed me back a bit more seriously. We spent the next few minutes making out, my hands roaming over her, squeezing, fondling, touching, holding, while our lips and tongues fenced and chased each other. Shari broke off to look down at me, her eyes wide, and beautiful, and very, very sexy.

"Dinner won't be ready for at least two hours, Bobby, do you want to go somewhere more comfortable?"

I nodded, and she jumped off me and stuck her head in the kitchen, telling the others not to disturb us. With that done, she grabbed my hand and towed me from the room, leading me upstairs and to our bedroom. Once there she began pulling my shirt out of my jeans, undoing buttons as I squeezed her delectable little bum, pulling her against me so we could grind against each other. Shari grinned as she rubbed herself against me, my hands sliding over her and into the back of her jeans to squeeze and knead her taut little cheeks.

"Turn around, Bobby, got a surprise for you!" she grinned, kissing the base of my throat as she gave my crotch a quick squeeze. "I think you'll like this!"

I turned around and closed my eyes, listening to the soft, subtle sounds of cloth rustling as she got changed, my cock throbbing with anticipation that it was one of the gifts I'd given her in private.

"Ok, baby, you can turn around now!" she murmured, and so I did, my eyes widening at the sight before me. Gone were the jeans and tank top, and in their place was a sheer black teddy of the briefest sort, a few wisps of lace covering the strategic places, covering her while contriving to make her look even more naked than if she'd just posed in the buff. The outfit was set-off perfectly with black, elbow-length fingerless lace gloves, sheer black seamed-stockings with lace hold-up tops, and black stilettos, making her long, slim legs look truly endless. A black velvet choker set with a large green stone around her creamy throat perfectly complimented her sumptuous mahogany-red hair.

"Do you like it, baby?" she smiled, doing a slow twirl, and I could only nod in open-mouthed appreciation.

"Well come here, then, baby, aren't you going to unwrap your present?" she crooned, and I obliged, closing the distance between us in a heartbeat, to hold her tightly as my lips crushed against hers, my hands roaming over her all over again, holding and fondling this vision of beautiful young womanhood!

Shari broke our kiss to smile at me.

"So you really like it then? It took Yaz and me ages to find, but when we did, she got a set just like this one too. Ricky's in for a treat tonight! I'm so glad you like your present, baby, I wanted your first real Christmas to be special!"

"God, you look amazing!" was all I could say, "You look like the reason the riot started!"

Shari grinned impishly at the compliment. Her nipples were suddenly obvious, poking solidly through the material of her teddy, the darker circles of her aureoles just visible through the sheer material, and I began to think about how to get this magical garment off my girl; I wanted to see her naked so badly right now, and so did my cock, judging by its throbbing.

Shari slid her hand down and squeezed my swollen cock.

"I see Little Bobby likes his present too!" she grinned, giving me another firm squeeze. 

"Less of the little, if you don't mind, you disrespectful girl!" I grinned as I responded by lightly stroking my fingers over her barely-clad pussy, making her jump and gasp.

"So Bobby, what do you want to do now?" she purred.

I answered her by pulling off my clothes as fast as I could, unbuttoning and shoving down my jeans while Shari finished unbuttoning my shirt. Between us we got me down to my shorts in just a few seconds, and now I could devote some care and attention to peeling my girl out of her underwear, a skill Shari had been kind enough to teach me at some length over the last few weeks.

As I embraced her, my hands explored the back of that teddy, finding the single hook and eye that kept it all in place. While we kissed, I unhooked it, peeling it down from her shoulders and pushing it around her waist. Shari stopped kissing me to smile and give a quick shimmy, and the lacy confection dropped to the floor, leaving her clad in just stockings, gloves, and choker.

That did it for me. With a low growl of lust I pulled her close, my hands sliding down to cup and squeeze her lovely, tight little bottom, her mound rubbing against my now solidly erect cock.

Shari hooked her fingers in the waistband of my shorts and pulled them down; I got the message and pulled them off the rest of the way.

"That's better, baby!" she grinned, kissing me while she wrapped her hand around my cock and began a slow pumping motion in time to the motions of our tongues as we kissed deeply. Shari edged me backwards as we kissed, until the back of my legs met the bed frame, so I sat down, with her sitting astride me, her lips still glued to mine. My hands were still clamped to her lovely bum, and I began slowly pulling those delectable cheeks apart and squeezing them together again, making her gasp into my mouth each time I did it; I knew she liked it, so I kept doing it, feeling her kisses becoming sharper as her arousal climbed the longer we played and fondled each other.

By unspoken agreement we stopped, Shari breaking our kiss to smile gently as she rose up, and slowly impaled herself on my aching cock, head back and eyes closed as she slid onto me with a long hiss of satisfaction. When she was all the way on me, she leaned down and peppered my face with soft little kisses, then straightened up and began to rock back and forth, grinding herself against me as she rose and fell. I could hardly bear it. The feel of her tight pussy squeezing me as she fucked me was out of this world. With the sound of her little cries as she stimulated herself, and the feel of her soft lips when she leaned down and kissed me, I was in a state of almost total sensory overload. That never stopped me kissing her smooth creamy neck and shoulders, though, or nuzzling between her breasts as she rose and fell on me. Her nipples were like bullets now, stiff and solid, and when she leaned back against my encircling arms, I was able to dip down and suck and lick those delightful, stiff little nubs, making her groan and quicken her pace.

When she came, it was like an electric shock convulsing her; her body stiffened, her hands holding my head immobile against her, her body trembling as her pussy clamped down on me, preventing me from pulling out; not that I was going to. The feel of her tightening around me was all it took for my own climax to gather and batter its way through me, and I came in a welter of sperm, jet after jet pulsing into her as her pussy convulsively sucked and squeezed at me, milking me of every drop.

As I finished pumping into her, Shari began to come down, slumping against me to hold me close, our hearts hammering together in the aftermath of our mutual storm. I flopped backwards onto the bed, Shari lying on my chest as I gasped for breath; making love to my girl was always a breath-taking experience, in more ways than one! 

As we lay in our sweat, my softening cock slipping from her, Shari raised her head to look into my eyes, grinning as she spoke.




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 01



"So baby, how did you like your first Christmas?"

For answer I slid my hands around her taut little backside and pulled her close against me.

"Thank you for making it so special for me!" I grinned, kissing her on the tip of her nose as my hands roamed over her, squeezing and stroking her, making her alternately gasp and giggle.

"Stop it, Bobby, I need a quick snooze after that, no, stop it!"

I grinned, and gave up on gently torturing her, Shari smiling back as she snuggled down against me.

"Wake me up in half an hour, okay, Bobby? Please? Don't let me sleep Christmas Day away!"

"To hear is to obey, your wish is my command!" I whispered, pulling her closer and flipping a corner of the bed covers over her.

"My Bobby, love you baby!" she murmured drowsily.

I wasn't in the least bit sleepy, just very relaxed, but I reset the alarm clock, just in case, and turned my attention to looking at my beautiful half-sister. 

I was still a little puzzled at what exactly she saw in me, although eternally grateful she saw enough to stick around and do these kinds of things with me! No, I guess I still felt a little undeserving of her, my overwhelming sense of entitlement having finally way to perhaps just a hint of an inferiority complex. Yaz and Shari had never tried to hold my lack of experience of the real world over me, nor had they ever once been pitying or "understanding"; that would have been just as galling. No, they'd just showed me stuff, told me things, and left me to form my own conclusions about how the world worked. 

Both my sisters believed I was an adult, and left me to it. It was working, although some things I saw or read about just made no sense, because I'd never been a part of the life around me. I had no friends, nor did I actually know how to make any. Conversation was another closed book; I could talk to Rick, Yaz or Shari, because I knew them, but I had no clue how to make that initial approach to someone new, to say "Hello, what's your name, my name's Bobby". I think that was what made Shari saddest, that our father had handicapped us so thoroughly, making social pygmies of us by keeping us apart from the world, probably so we'd feel no connection to it when it came time to take over from him. Rick had managed to break that programming. I was still working my way through it, but with Shari's help, I believed I was making some headway.

Thinking heavy thoughts like this, I must have dozed-off; the next thing I knew, the alarm was buzzing and Shari was lovely and warm and soft next to me, yawning prettily as she stretched. I was tempted to set the alarm for another 30 minutes and huddle down next to her; she was just so nice to cuddle up against on a deep mid-winter's afternoon, and lunch was going to be at least another hour, so we could do this. I leaned over to reset the alarm, and Shari pushed it out of reach.

"Uh-uh, sleepyhead, Yaz and Ricky are working hard to make your first real Christmas special, don't mess with that! Tell you what, though; I need a shower, you're welcome to do my back if you want...?"

How could I resist...

Christmas lunch was superb. I'd never actually eaten turkey before; our father had never bought one, preferring much cheaper foodstuffs for us; we'd never celebrated Christmas, so I'd only ever seen a Christmas dinner in pictures, and my first one was almost overwhelming. Yaz and Rick had really gone all out to make our first Christmas as memorable as possible, and I was dazzled by all the different things there were to eat and enjoy. 

Afterwards, we cleaned-up and retired to the family room to spend Christmas Day together, at the request of Yaz, who'd always treasured the time spent on this day with her mother and sister, and lately, Rick, too. We sat around discussing the things we'd do, with Nicky top of the agenda. It didn't seem incongruous discussing him on this day of all days; Yaz and Shari seemed to have developed a real need to talk about their missing brother, where he was, what he was doing, his family now, what they were like, and how they'd feel if we suddenly turned-up looking for him.

The consensus was that he'd be shocked, but that he'd accept us, all of us. The letter, more than anything else, had convinced the girls that Nicky would be, if not pleased, at the very least intrigued to find out what had happened, and to meet his baby sisters. The day after December 26th, Rick and I were going to see a solicitor to get our passport applications notarised, then Shari and I were driving down to the Passport Office in Liverpool, and once we got our passports, we'd be sending them via courier to the American Embassy in London, to get our visas. Once that was done, we were going to Albany, to find our brother. 

We had no choice but to go; Shari had drawn a blank with locating an agency of any sort that was actually interested in tracing our missing brother; virtually all the PI's she'd found were only interested in doing background and security checks for corporate clients: they had no time or patience for our kind of search. Similarly, a trawl of the internet had proven equally fruitless. No-one by the name of Nicholas Davies was popping up, at least none of the right age, occupation, or ethnicity. As Shari had finally confessed to me one night, we couldn't be sure he was even using the Davies surname; what if he was so filled with disgust and hatred for us and all we stood for that he'd dropped the name entirely? What if he was using his mother's maiden name? We didn't know what that was, so that put an end to our internet search. 

Finally we agreed on one thing; the only way we'd ever find him was if we looked for him ourselves. We would have to go to Albany, visit every garage and car repair shop, show them his picture, and ask the question; does this man work here?

*

And now, all the preparations were over, and here I was, on a cold, late-January day, cooling my heels in the departure lounge at Birmingham International Airport, waiting for our flight to Albany. The girls were excited, but I don't mind admitting, I was scared. It didn't seem possible that the huge jet clearly visible through the panoramic windows of the Departures Lounge could actually get airborne, no matter how many times I'd seen it on TV; up close it just didn't seem credible that such a huge mass of metal could even move at all, let alone leave the ground and fly, and the thought of being inside that thing worried me to the point where I was actually sweating. Shari noticed I wasn't talking or joining in the conversation, and pulled me to one side.

"What's wrong, baby?" she murmured, then her eyes followed my gaze to the monster jet just outside.

"Oh, flight jitters. Don't worry, Bobby, I've been in one of those before; there's nothing to worry about, I promise! I'll even hold your hand, if you like...!"

I looked down at her cheeky grin, and I couldn't help but grin back; her calm confidence more than anything else helped me to level-off a little. Both Shari and Yaz were wearing stretch jeans and stiletto-heeled ankle boots, and smart, military-cut box-jackets complete with epaulettes, and Balmain T-shirts underneath. They'd elected to travel with their fabulous long bronze hair unbound. With their beautiful features and sexy figures, they looked elegant and truly stunning; it was really no wonder more than one pair of eyes followed them around the lounge as we waited to board our flight. Watching the two of them helped to take my mind off things, but eventually I'd return to brooding about getting into that monster and hurtling down the runway at 300mph.

Just when I thought I'd go mad from the waiting, they called our flight. We lined up and filed down the boarding ramp and into the plane. We had adjoining seats, a block of four, so we didn't have to worry about strangers clambering over us or falling asleep, drooling, or getting sick on us. It was a long-ish flight, over eight hours, so I'd brought a book along in case I couldn't sleep; fat chance; I was so keyed-up that sleep or reading were the furthest things from my mind.

When the engines began gunning as the plane lined up on the runway, I heard Shari gasp. I looked at her, her face was twisted in pain, and I realised I was squeezing her hand so tightly it was hurting her. I apologised with my eyes; Shari grinned and patted me gently to show she understood, then Yaz, seated on the other side of me, slipped her arm through mine as well.

"Don't worry, baby, I've got you too!" she grinned cheekily, her touch and warm humour relaxing me slightly. Now I had two gorgeous, exotic redheads huddled up against me, holding my hands and resting their heads on my shoulders; no wonder I was getting envious, resentful stares from some of the other passengers! I jumped when a dull thud sounded underneath us. I glanced questioningly at Shari, and she just smiled back.

"It's okay, Bobby, it's just the undercarriage coming up, no need to worry; we're on our way, Baby, and relax, please, it's safer than crossing the street, I promise you!"

*

We had an uneventful flight, the only jarring note being when we came in to land, as I once again nearly crushed Shari's hand as I waited for the crash! Once we collected our baggage and cleared customs, we followed the signs for the exits and taxis. A man in a peaked cap asked us if we wanted a cab, and when we nodded, he beckoned over a bright yellow MPV-type vehicle with a modern black chequer-pattern on the sides. Rick handed him $5, and he smiled as he opened the cab door and saluted us in.

"Where to, please?" asked the cabbie.

"The Ramada Plaza Hotel, please," replied Shari, leaning across me as she peered out of the window at the freeway rolling past, getting her first look at Albany.

The hotel was only a couple of miles from the airport, and I helped the hotel concierge team unload and separate our luggage while Rick paid and tipped the cabbie. Then we followed the luggage trolley up to our rooms. Rick and Yaz had the suite next to ours, with an interconnecting door. Our room was the largest, most luxurious room I'd ever seen, with an absolutely enormous bed, a gigantic flat-screen television, and a luxurious bathroom with a bathtub you could have swum laps in. Shari sat on the edge of the bed, then flopped back and stretched-out, smiling tiredly at the ceiling.

"Baby, come here a second!" she called, and I left my study of the Albany skyline to hike all the way across that vast room and join her stretched out on that huge bed, our feet on the ground as we stared up at the ceiling.

"Okay, Bobby, now we're here, phase one is done; now we move on to phase two. In about an hour, there's a Private Investigator coming to see us; I spoke with him yesterday, and what we're asking is not what they normally do, apparently none of them do, but I waved money at him, and I guess he couldn't resist it. Anyway, he's agreed to assist us, so we'll need to have every scrap of information you and Ricky can dredge up. After that, maybe we should get some dinner, or just get Room Service; I don't know about you, baby, but I'm absolutely buggered! My watch says it's 7pm, my body clock says it's after midnight, and we've had an eight-hour flight; I really, really need some sleep, so please keep me awake during this meeting." 

I scrambled further up the bed and Shari wearily clambered after me, sliding up against me and slipping her hand inside my shirt and around my waist.

"Mmm, nice and warm! Wake me up in a little while, baby, I just want a quick snooze, ok?"

I brushed her forehead with my lips, but she was already asleep, so I lay back and looked around in wonder; I was actually in a foreign country, in a luxurious hotel room with a beautiful girl. Six months ago the very thought of it would have been dismissed as an impossible fantasy, but it was real, I was really here, and so was the girl! There was no way I was going to fall asleep; I was too keyed-up. Prior to making the preparations for this trip, I'd never been outside Carlisle, so this was an entirely new experience for me, and I intended to savour every nuance of it. 

I was going over the events of the last few weeks in my mind when there was a light tapping at the connecting door between the two suites. Gently disengaging Shari from me, I went over and opened the door. Yaz was standing there, wearing that brief robe she was so fond of. She nodded over at Shari, who was fast asleep again.

"Bobby, that bloke from the detective agency or whatever they call themselves over here is going to be here in about twenty minutes, you'd better wake her up and get her in the shower quickly, otherwise she's liable to fall asleep during this meeting. Actually," she grinned at me and held her nose, "you could do with one as well!"

I turned her around and swatted her bottom, Yaz giggling and stumbling back into her suite, where I could see Rick stretched out on the bed, as flaked-out as Shari.

"You cheeky little bugger, show some respect for your elders!" I called after her, and ducked as she chucked a cushion at me and jumped giggling onto her bed, jarring Ricky awake.

"Okay Bobby, I know, I heard!" came Shari's voice, still blurred with sleep. I decided that after this meeting, we'd have a light meal sent up, and we'd all get some rest. Shari was right, it may have been early evening in Albany, but our bodies thought it was after midnight, and we'd had a long, heavy day. 

Shari sat up and wearily began stripping off her jacket and boots. I moved in and helped her, Shari flopping back on the bed with a sigh as I tugged her boots off, then unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them off, with her lifting her bottom to allow me to pull the tight jeans all the way off. I held out my hand and she took it, hauling herself upright. I looked at her and shook my head; she was exhausted. Maybe planning a meeting fresh off the 'plane hadn't been such a smart move, and I think she was probably thinking that too; but it was too late now; the Private Investigator was due in less than half an hour, so she needed to be fully awake and aware.

Once she'd stripped off, I led her to the shower. She was almost stumbling with weariness, so I quickly shed my clothes and pulled her into the wet-room, turning all the spray-heads on at once, so she was hit from all angles by the hot needle jets. 

"Oooh, yess, that feels so good!" she drawled, leaning against the wall and then sliding down into the alcove seat as the spray pummelled her, her eyes closing as she once again began to slip back into sleep. This was not what I intended, so, after a few second's deliberation, and somewhat reluctantly, I hit the temperature regulator, turning all the spray heads to 'Cold'.

Shari shrieked as the frigid water woke her up in a hurry, galvanising her back to her feet as she gasped, trying to find the shower control panel. I wasn't as affected as she was; remember, for the past few years all I'd ever had was cold showers, but I think this was the first time she'd ever had one.

"BOBBY! TURN THE FUCKING HEAT BACK ON!" she screamed at me, shivering as she groped for the control panel, which I just happened to be leaning against.

"Are you awake now, baby?" I asked her, to get her small fist in my chest as she thumped me.

"YES, YES, YES I AM, NOW FUCKING TURN IT OFF!" she yelled, so I did, then grabbed a gigantic soft towel off the rail and wrapped it around her. She glared at me, her beautiful grey eyes furious at what I'd done.

"DON'T touch me, you pig!" she snarled, wrapping the towel around herself as she shivered, so I ignored her and briskly rubbed her down, helping to get her circulation going again.

"So, are you awake enough for this meeting, or do you want another dose?" I asked her as I rubbed and massaged her, enjoying myself immensely. Her eyes narrowed.

"If you ever do that again, I swear, I'll slap you so hard our grandchildren will feel it!" she hissed, but still wriggled against me as I rubbed her down.

"So we are having grandchildren, then?" I enquired innocently, then gasped as she reached down and pinched my cock, hard.

"Yes, but don't push it, buster, I haven't forgiven you for what you did in there!" she grated, her fingers still applying pressure to my most delicate bits.

"Okay, truce, you can have a go at me later, right now we have a meeting in..." I looked at the wall-clock "...fifteen minutes, so can we get a move on?"

She relaxed her grip, letting me breathe a sigh of relief.

"Okay Bobby, but you owe me!" she whispered, giving Bobby Jr. a meaningful shake before letting go. Five minutes later I was dried-off and dressed, wearing jeans and a pullover shirt. Shari had on just a simple shift dress, something I'd never seen her wear before, noticing all over again just how spectacular her long creamy legs were; she always wore jeans or leggings, so I almost never got to see her legs during the day, and I made a note to myself to make it happen more often; her pins were far too good to be hidden away like that!

Ten minutes to blow-dry and brush her fabulous hair, and we were ready to meet this P.I. character. We'd already asked the Front Desk to ask him to come up to the room, so all we had to do was wait. The connecting door opened, and Yaz and Rick joined us. I was intrigued to see that Yaz was wearing the same pattern dress as Shari; obviously the similarities between the two of them were more than just skin-deep. We were making small talk, Yaz looking pityingly at me when Shari told her what I'd done to wake her up, when there was a knock at the door. Shari tensed slightly, so I patted her hand as she twined her fingers in mine for a second, then I got up to answer the door.

The caller was an attractive young woman, in maybe her late twenties, wearing a subdued, but very smart business suit, and an elegant white blouse open at the neck, her dark hair in a modern but unfussy style, and carrying a black briefcase. She looked for all the world like any young executive one might pass on the street: smart, professional, completely unremarkable, and totally anonymous.

"Miss Shahida..?" she enquired, holding out her hand as Shari came forward.

"That's me. I was expecting Mr. Krall...?"

The young woman smiled.

"I am his associate; my name is Melanie; Mr. Krall prefers to work unobtrusively, so my function is to meet clients, assess the level of information they require, go through the scale of fees, and explain our processes and procedures. I have been given to understand that because this is outside our normal type of enquiry service, a more...personal scale of fees has been agreed, tailored to the needs of this enquiry. I assume there are no legal attachments or impediments to this enquiry?"

Shari smiled back, then sobered.

"No, no legal issues. All we want to do is find our brother; he's been missing for almost four years now, but we think he may be somewhere in this area. We'd like you to find him; that's all. I discussed and agreed the fees and conditions with Mr. Krall when I made the original enquiry, so if you would like me to sign an agreement engaging your firm's professional services, I am prepared to do that right now."

Melanie seated herself at my invitation, and took a sheaf of papers from her briefcase, various contracts and agreements, which Yaz read through quickly, and nodded. Shari signed in duplicate and once Melanie had checked all was in order, she handed one set to Shari and smiled professionally.

"I understand that you have some information that might be of assistance. If possible, we need a recent photograph of the subject, plus any other personal information that might be of relevance in tracing the subject."

I went to my case and pulled out the folder we'd assembled, containing the most recent photographs we had of Nicky, a copy of his college certificate that Rick had found in with Barbara's things, and a copy of that letter.




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 01



We spent the next hour going over everything we knew or surmised about Nicky: the kind of job we thought he'd be doing, most likely a motor mechanic, given that he'd only ever wanted to be one, his height, and any identifying marks; this meant telling her about what our father had done to him, and that he may well have been extensively scarred.

Melanie made copious notes, asked some sharp, insightful questions about our relationship with him, and asked us how we wanted to approach him if and when the agency located him. We decided Yaz and Shari should make the initial contact. Nicky would have no reason to balk at them, as he'd never met them.

Once Melanie left, having left a cell phone keyed to the agency number, in case we needed to contact them or came into possession of any further information, we ordered room service, ate a light meal, and collapsed exhausted into bed. There was no wild thing that night; I was exhausted, both physically and emotionally, as was Shari, and I knew Yaz and Rick were dragging as well, so our first night in America we slept the sleep of the truly exhausted.

I woke to bright sunshine pouring into the room, rolled-up in the warm bedclothes with Shari spooned up tight against me, and my arm around her. I looked around the unfamiliar room in slight confusion before memory reasserted itself, reminding me where I was; I was in America, actually in America, how bloody amazing was that!

I stretched as unobtrusively as possible, trying not to disturb Shari, but that little movement was enough to wake her. I saw her eyes flutter open, then her beautiful coral lips curved in a smile as she too stretched.

"Good morning baby!" she whispered, and burrowed down even further against me.

"Mmm! You're lovely and warm; don't move for a while, please, this feels so nice!" she murmured, her voice still blurred and scratchy with sleep. Of course I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her closer so I could soak up some of the sleep-warmth radiating off her.

I don't know how long we lay huddled together like that. It was so nice to just be warm and loving and quiet together. I was just beginning to get drowsy again, when there came a knock on the interconnecting door. 

"Come in, Yaz, it's open!" I called, and Yaz came in, followed by Rick.

"Up guys, up, it's our first morning in America, I want to explore, but first, I want to eat a real, genuine American breakfast!" grinned Yaz, bouncing on the edge of the bed and shaking Shari and me around.

"Wakey-wakey, hands off cocks, on with socks!" she sang, being approximately 50% correct. "Come on Sleepy and Dopey, I want breakfast!" 

"Who are you calling 'Sleepy'?" I retorted with a grin, getting a jab from Shari's elbow when she realised what I'd left her.

"If we're Sleepy and Dopey, what are you two then?" I grinned, and Yaz smiled adorably as she perched on the end of the bed.

"After the 'Welcome to America!' present I gave Yawning-Boy last night, he'd bloody better be 'Happy'!" she giggled, and even Shari grinned at that. I looked mock-disapprovingly at her.

"You're a bad girl and a very bad influence, no wonder my mum said I shouldn't play with you anymore!" 

Yaz stuck out her tongue and bounced some more, jumbling Shari and me even further.

"Come on, get up you pair of old farts, breakfast awaits, chop-chop!"

I lunged over and grabbed her, making her squeal.

"Old farts, eh? Now you're going to pay!"

Yaz is ticklish, especially her sides, so I poked my fingers in her sides, making her squeal and giggle breathlessly as she squirmed.

"No, no, no, no, Bobby, Bobby, please, no, no, please, Shari, make him stop, no, no, please, Ricky help me...!"

Shari looked at her coolly.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I could have sworn you called us 'old farts', in fact, I'm sure that's what you said, so no, I think I'll let Bobby teach you a lesson. Suffer, little sister!"

I tortured her for a few more breathless seconds then let her go; she immediately reared back and slapped me on the arm, then squealed as I grabbed her again.

"No, no, no Bobby, no, don't you dare, I'm sorry, Bobby, I'm sorry, no...!" she gabbled as I threatened to tickle her again, so I hugged her and let her go. Rick gave her his hand and she slid over to him, slapping him on the arm as well.

"You could have helped me, you know...!" she grumbled. Ricky grinned at her expression.

"Yaz, Yaz, darling, sweet, simple little Yaz, how many times must I tell you; you messed with Big Ugly Bobby; when you mess with the bull, you get the horns!"

Yaz looked at him and snorted.

"You are so full of shit! Now you owe me a big 'Sorry' after breakfast. Are you up for it...stud?"

Rick coloured as Shari and I both tried without too much success to hide our own snorts of laughter. Eventually we stopped, Rick was now a deep plum-colour, and Yaz was smirking happily. Shari grinned and flapped her hand at the pair of them.

"Okay you two, out, I want to get a shower and get dressed. We'll meet you in your room in 10 minutes, order whatever you like for all of us, but I only really want a coffee."

Ten minutes later, we were sitting around the table staring in awe at what an American breakfast looked like.

"Bobby, what is it? Where do we start?" whispered Yaz, unable to take her eyes off the stacks of pancakes, tureens of scrambled eggs, mounds of bacon and sausage patties, a stack of toast at least six inches high, a huge jug of orange juice, a pair of coffee carafes in a double coffee maker, and another trolley loaded with various cereals, jugs of milk, pats of butter, and bottles of maple syrup.

"Yaz, what did you order?" I asked, and she looked at me in round-eyed wonder.

"When I called down for breakfast, the girl asked what we wanted, I didn't know whether they had any cereals or anything from England, so I asked her for a typical American breakfast for four; this is what arrived!"

Rick grinned at me and picked a plate up off the warmer, one eyebrow raised as he surveyed the mountain of food.

"Dash it all, Carruthers, we can't just stand here staring, I'm going in...it's a far, far better thing I do now, I do this for Queen and Country, etcetera, etcetera, tell mother my last words were of her...!"

So saying, he piled his plate with pancakes, bacon and sausage, poured maple syrup over it all, and dug in. Yaz leaned over and tried a tentative forkful, and her eyes lit up, so she grabbed a plate and started piling food onto it, doing her best to catch up with him. Shari shrugged at me, slid some scrambled eggs onto two slices of hot buttered toast, and poured herself a coffee. I followed suit, although I couldn't resist the sausage patties, which were delicious.

Breakfast took about an hour, as we tried to work our way through that mound of food, but in the end it defeated us.

"Now that was what I call a breakfast!" declared Rick, leaning back blissfully in his chair, his plate polished clean, and I had to agree; I was stuffed. I'd just put away enough cholesterol, saturated fats and protein to founder a rugby team, to Shari's frank admiration, although I had a strong feeling I'd be skipping lunch; another meal like that and I'd explode...

Once we'd recovered sufficiently, we began to think about our plans for the day. As we now appeared to have some free-time on our hands, Yaz wanted to investigate the malls in town; the hotel had given us some shopping guides, and Yaz and Shari were eager to do some serious mall-raiding. Rick and I wanted to explore Albany a little; this was the only other city I'd ever been to in my life (eight hours in Liverpool getting our passports didn't count). 

I was pretty sure one mall is much like another, no matter which part of the world it's in, but Albany was bound to be different from Carlisle, and I wanted to actually put my feet on a foreign city's pavements, to walk down a street on the other side of the world.

We compromised eventually; we'd all go to the places the hotel Concierge recommended, the Colonie Center, and Crossgates, and once the girls found a mall where they could let their urge to shop express itself freely, then Rick and I were free to explore as much of Albany as we could find without getting lost or into trouble. That suited me fine; Shari was in the habit of hauling me into women's clothing stores, and asking my opinion of various frilly underthings, then disappearing to try them on, leaving me stranded in the lingerie section like some weird fetishist, getting strange, disgusted looks from the women pawing through the racks. I wasn't looking forward to that here; in England I just got odd looks from the shop assistants; over here I'd probably get arrested!

We took a cab to the first mall on our list, The Colonie Center, and once we walked in, Shari looked around happily, taking in the store directory in a kind of trance.

"Oh yes, at last, I have found my true home, you should go, Bobby darling, I might just be a while!" she beamed. Yaz was in a similar, blissed-out state, so Rick and I arranged a place and time to meet them, and beat a retreat, clutching the maps of Albany the hotel had provided. 

Walking around the town centre was a unique experience; twice I nearly got mown-down by on-coming traffic because I was looking the wrong way when I crossed the street (we drive on the left in England, so traffic is usually coming from the right, and I kept forgetting myself and looking right as I stepped out; only Rick's reflexes saved me several times from getting smeared, until I figured-out that the cross-walks were probably the only way to cross the street safely). 

I was amazed at the width of the streets; back home, Carlisle is a medieval city, or what's left of one, and like most English cities, the street plan echoes the village streets and ancient cattle tracks they were 900 years ago; the grid pattern of the streets here fascinated me, it all seemed so logical and well-ordered.

Rick and I wandered through shops and a few small pedestrian precincts, taking in the sights and sounds of a major American city (well, bigger than Carlisle, anyway!) noting familiar names like McDonald's and Starbucks, and just soaking up the atmosphere of somewhere so foreign and yet so familiar; I'd seen American cities so often on TV that it all looked very familiar indeed, but to be suddenly surrounded by that accent as well, for real, was almost overwhelming. 

We'd just stepped out of a real, genuine doughnut shop, munching something called 'bear-claws', when in the alley at the side we spotted a young guy, probably my age, being worked over by three guys; he was giving a fair account of himself, not just cowering and letting them beat him, but there was only going to be one outcome. I was just deciding that it was none of our business when suddenly it was. 

I heard Rick bark "Help him!" as he brushed past me, and as one of the three looked around in surprise, Rick punched him on the side of the head, sending him sprawling. 

Now I had no choice; a second one rounded on me, so I belted him as hard as I could, the first time I'd ever hit another human being, and watched in gratified surprise as he folded without a sound. The guy who had been taking the beating grabbed the third one and spun him round, smacking him face first into the wall, hard; I heard the crunch of bone and saw blood spurt from his flattened nose. From the boneless way he slumped forward I could see that he'd lost all interest in the proceedings.

"Are you okay?" I heard Rick ask the guy whose party we'd gate-crashed, and he grinned back at us happily, even though he had an abraded cheek and a split lip.

"Never felt better! I'm sure glad you fellers decided to step in; I thought I had them there for a while, but...!"

I had to grin at his breezy confidence, as did Rick.

"What was that about, anyway?" I asked, looking curiously at the quite well-dressed trio we'd just disposed of, and he grinned.

"That guy over there's in college with my girl; he wouldn't leave her alone, I kicked his ass, so he and his friends were returning the favor, then you guys jumped in, so thanks, guys, I owe you one!"

One of the assailants was stirring and the guy we'd rescued walked over, lifted him by his hair, and jabbed him smartly in the jaw, watching his eyes roll up as he passed out again.

"Goodnight, John-Boy!" he grinned, patting him on the cheek, then stood up and stuck his hand out.

"Hi, my name's Leon, Leon Shoemaker, thanks for jumping in when you did, my girl's gonna be real pleased you were here today!"

Rick and I introduced ourselves, and he cocked his head at our accents.

"English, hey? So's my boss, that's why I recognized your accents. Can I buy you guys a drink, or maybe a coffee? It's the least I can do to thank you for saving my ass!"

We nodded, so Leon dusted himself off, ran his fingers through his dark golden hair and walked with us out of the alley and into a coffee shop. Over a Skinny Latte he told us about himself; he was Lead Mechanic in a specialist auto shop, working on classic and performance British cars. He had a few days vacation coming, was going home for a few days, and had come downtown to buy a gift for his mother, who lived in a nearby town, Oneonta; he'd stopped-off to get a coffee, then he got jumped, and then we happened along.

We got talking about our respective work; we told him we had just started a property renovation business in the North of England, and he told us about his job here in Albany.

"I tell you, my boss knows every Brit sports car that was ever made; he's like a genius, any one of us comes up against some dumb, stupid fault that makes no sense, he'll get in there, re-route a cable and tighten a bolt, and she's running sweet as can be; he says it's because low-volume Brit sports cars were built by loonies, sorry, 'eccentrics', so you gotta think like one, and sometimes the only cure is to take out the ashtray, tap it twice on the dash, and put it back in again; he doesn't know why that works, but you know what? It usually does, and it's fucking weird...!"

Rick and I laughed out loud at his description of our proud motoring heritage, and I decided I liked him; the girls would like him, too, so I invited him to have dinner with us that night, and to bring his girl, so she could see not everything from Britain was skewed off-centre!

We chatted for a while, telling each other a little about ourselves, about our girls, about our impressions of Albany so far, and finally parted with a promise to meet again at the hotel at 7 o'clock, and we'd take it from there. With that, Leon headed back to his car, while Rick and I retraced our steps until we found The Colonie Center. On the way there I asked Rick what had prompted him to jump into the fight, and he looked strangely at me.

"Because you told me to, Bobby, why do you think? You shouted 'Help him!' so I did!"

I looked at him in puzzlement. I remembered it differently, I remembered Rick shouting 'help him!', I distinctly heard him say it, and I told him just that, but Rick was adamant that it was my idea to jump in, when I knew damned well it wasn't me. I was feeling unsettled about the whole incident until I saw the girls, weighed-down with bags and packages, and looking shopped-out and very pleased with themselves, so I put it out of my mind; now was not the time to tell Shari about getting into a fight, knowing as I did how sensitive she was about violence of any kind.

Shari jumped up and hugged me, eager to show me what she'd bought me, shirts, cufflinks, belts, that kind of thing, and a bag from somewhere called "Victoria's Secret", which sounded familiar.

"That's for a special occasion, Bobby, just for you!" she grinned, possibly the dirtiest grin I'd ever seen, and now the combination of that grin and her pressed against me was making all sorts of nice things happen lower down.

"Down, boy, we have all evening, pace yourself!" she grinned, surreptitiously tweaking the end of my cock, making me gasp and grin. Yaz had a similar bag, so I assumed Rick had just got the same message from her, to judge by the goofy grin and slightly glazed expression on his face. I hailed a cab to take us back to the hotel, and while we were loading the mountain of bags and boxes into the cab, we told her about our little adventure, Shari clucking when I told her I'd hit someone, but telling Rick and me she was glad we'd helped someone who'd needed a hand. Both girls seemed eager to meet our new friend at dinner that night.

Once back at the hotel, Shari made dinner reservations at a Malaysian restaurant recommended by the hotel, Yono's on Chapel Street, then closed and locked the interconnecting door between the two suites, and grinned at me.

"We have reservations for 7.30, that's over two hours away, we're in America, Americans are big on contact sports, so do you want to tackle me a little, baby?"

I needed no further encouragement, not after that little display in the Colonie Center, almost breaking the world record for getting out of my clothes. Shari smiled mischievously and dropped her jacket on the ground behind her and kicked off her shoes as she advanced on me.

"I think you need to help me, Bobby, I can't remember how to get this thing off!" she pouted, pointing at her blouse, so I obliged, kissing her neck every time I popped a button, until it was completely undone, her two small, perfect little breasts cradled in her lacy white bra. She shrugged the blouse off her shoulders, giving me something more to kiss as I popped the fastening on her jeans and hooked my fingers in the waistband, pushing them down.

"Thank you baby!" she breathed, that grin on her face again. "I couldn't figure out how to get those off either; you're so multi-talented, Bobby, I think I'll keep you!"

That earned her a pinch on her tight little bottom, making her squeal and jump; lucky thing I was there to catch her!

Now she was down to her bra and panties, and as she unsnapped her bra and slid her panties down I got to see once again for myself just what a beautiful girl she was; long, lithe, endless legs, slim, shapely hips and buttocks flaring out from her tiny waist, high, proud little breasts with delicious dark coral nipples, the whole package beautifully set-off by her faintly golden-tinged ivory skin, pale, creamy and exotic. Add to that the face of an angel, and you could see why I stopped dead to just drink her all in, enthralled by her beauty, and once again wondering how a girl like that could even have time for me, let alone love me the way she did. 

Shari snapped her fingers, jolting me out of my reverie.

"Up here, Bobby, my face is up here! What are you staring at baby?" she murmured, and I grinned at her.

"I was just thinking you're not too shabby yourself; I could see myself hanging on to you a while longer!"

She smiled as she closed the distance between us and poked me lightly in the chest.

"There are so many ways you are going to pay for that, mister, and don't think I've forgotten about last night either!"

With that, she pushed me backwards, and as I fell backwards onto the bed, she landed on top of me.

"Gotcha, now do things to me, baby, you owe me!" she growled, nipping my chin and kissing my throat as her hands squeezed her favourite part of me. She didn't need to worry about that; from the second I'd pulled her jeans down I'd been solidly erect, my cock almost supernaturally hard as I contemplated my girl, and she knew it. There was one thing I wanted to do before all else; I wanted to taste her again, I wanted to kiss and lap her pussy and lick up her sweet juices and immerse myself in her tangy sweetness. Shari saw it in my eyes, and grinned, biting her lip as she slid herself up my torso until her knees were either side of my head, and her beautifully bare little pussy-slit was right above my mouth. As she leaned forward to rest her hands on the wall above the bed-head, I clamped hold of her taut little bum-cheeks and pulled her against my mouth. 




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 02



This is the very last part of this story; it's taken me a while to get here, but I've had some great company along the way. All of those fine people who've had a say or a hand in making this happen are offered the biggest possible vote of thanks, but most especially to Grand Teton, who's calming influence and editorial skills have once again tamed my wild, punctuation-scattering compulsions. 

Special thanks also to my beautiful Lori, Mriceman1964 for being in the dugout the whole time, Bonnie Hurd for being objective and critically realistic, but most of all to the loyal readership who've stayed with me and chose to accompany Nicky, Bobby and Rick on the whole ride, and rooted for them as they set out to try and vanquish evil their own way.

As before, I would like to remind one and all that this is not the real world, it's just one of my versions, so things happen the way I think they should, not the way they would in the mundane reality we live in. Please suspend disbelief and play along, who knows, you may even enjoy it! I'm finished with this universe, so I'm going to start hunting for that door again, the door between the worlds that let's me find other realities to explore, play in, and encounter unfeasibly hot girls as and when I need them!

beachbum1958

________________________________________

I awoke from a complicated and confusing dream, or maybe nightmare; in my dream, I was in a plush room, with Leon, and a girl whose face I never saw, and Barbara was there, too. She was trying to talk to me, to tell me something, and I was straining to hear what she was saying, but her voice was being constantly drowned out by the roaring background silence. I knew it was important, maybe the most important thing I'd ever hear, but try a I might, I couldn't make out what she was trying to tell me. Suddenly Nicky was there, his furious face covered in terrible scars and cuts, his habitual grin replaced by a huge scar pulling his mouth down on one side. He reached out and grabbed my collar, cuffing me on the side of the head, shouting "How could you do that, why did you let it happen, where the hell were you? She needed you!"

I jerked awake with a shout, to see Shari's eyes full of concern.

"What is it baby? That was some nightmare, you've been twisting and muttering, do you want to tell me about it?"

I couldn't properly recall the dream; like all dreams, what had seemed so clear and insightful had faded almost immediately; the only images that remained clearly were Barbara's anguished face and Nicky's bruised, bleeding face covered with scars and cuts, hurts put there by my father. 

I lay back, suddenly realising I was covered in sweat, and still too unsettled to go back to sleep. I couldn't work out what had brought that on; I never dreamed, or if I did, I never remembered my dreams, but this one had reached down into me and pulled all sorts of switches and I didn't know why. Shari pulled herself closer to me and looked at me quizzically.

"Baby, you're trembling! What frightened you, what did you see?"

I didn't know, but, for the first time in my life, I felt a deep melancholy, a sadness so profound I wanted to cry. I needed to cry, and I didn't know why, and that unsettled me even more. I felt like I'd forgotten something I really needed to know, and the loss was gnawing at me. Shari sat up and pulled me even closer, cradling my head in her arms, holding me close and gently rubbing my head, the way you'd calm a small child. 

"Let it go, baby, whatever it was, just let it go, you're safe now, I've got you..." she murmured, and for some reason, that picture of Barbara back home on the mantelpiece flashed into my mind, her smiling face and carefree expression, and her bracelet glittering in the light from the camera flash. That jerked me awake again, and now my head was full of that image, entwined with memories of how we'd treated her, ignored her, closed our ears to her cries, and pretended that she was fine, that all was well in our world. There was no more sleep for me that afternoon.

*

We were dressed and ready for dinner with Leon and his girl by 7 p.m., Shari in a deceptively modest black cocktail dress that made her look delicious and my preferred first course at any banquet, the dreams and memories of earlier temporarily banished by the sight of my beautiful girl.

"Do you like it?" she smiled, pirouetting to show off her svelte figure in that figure-hugging dress, and I could only nod, once again lost in admiration of her long, supple legs, her trim, sexy body, and her gorgeous hair tumbling down her back in a riotous mass of red-bronze curls. I was dressed in a pair of dress slacks and a new white dress shirt, and a subdued purple silk tie with a "Hermés" label she'd pulled out of one of the boxes we'd brought back from the shopping mall. 

Shari pronounced me fit to be seen in public, so I knocked on the interconnecting door, which was opened by Yaz. Her dress wasn't at all deceptively modest; on the contrary, it seemed to be competing for the title of world's shortest dress. It was a glittering metallic Teal green, to set off her Titian-red hair, her lips a blaze of almost fluorescent crimson against her pale olive skin, with her hair cascading carelessly over her shoulder, and towering matching green stiletto heels making her already flawless legs look truly endless to finish the look; she looked breathtaking; my baby sister was stunning, no escaping the fact; but then, so was my older sister, and they were going to make maximum impact tonight, I would have bet the farm on it.

We made our way down to the lobby, to wait for our guests, other guests and visitors stopping dead in their tracks to stare at the two visions of loveliness walking through the lobby like they owned the place. Leon was already seated there, waiting for us, talking to a girl with her back to us, with colour-streaked hair cut in a layered shaggy mop. As we walked up to the eating area, he glanced up and spotted us, immediately standing up and smiling. His girlfriend also stood up, smoothing down her really short shift dress as she stood, and turned to greet us. She was a pretty little thing, petite bordering on tiny, with thick, dark eyebrows framing a pretty, elfin face, and a gold pendant piercing through her bottom lip. She smiled broadly, and then, for a second, her smile faltered and her eyes widened behind her pink-tinted pixie glasses as she looked intently from Rick's face to mine and back again.

"Guys, this is Judy Nixon, my fiancée. Judy, these are the two guys who saved my ass today, Rick and Bobby, but I haven't met these two lovely young ladies yet!"

I made the introductions, introducing Yaz and Shari as our girlfriends; it was too complex to explain our real relationship, and they didn't actually need to know that anyway. Judy shook hands with all of us, then looked up at me.

"So, Bobby...and Rick; am I right in thinking that would be short for Robert and Richard?"

I nodded, and she looked appraisingly at me, then flicked her glance over Rick again, obviously comparing our features, noting the resemblance. We chatted for a few minutes while we waited for the car we'd booked to take us to the restaurant, Judy asking about England, what we did, how old we were, all the little things you talk about when you first meet someone. The conversation we'd had earlier that day about his boss and the place he worked came back to me, and so I asked Leon what I thought were a couple of innocuous enough questions, just politeness regarding his place of work and his "English" boss. If I didn't know better, I could have sworn Judy deliberately jumped-in to change the subject each time. I let it go; it didn't seem important, and we'd only just met them, so it seemed impolite to press him about something so trivial...

After a short while, Judy excused herself, and still hadn't returned when our driver arrived, so Leon went to look for her. I led the way to the minivan, and happened to look back, to see Judy and Leon partially concealed behind a potted Weeping Fig tree in the lobby, having some sort of heated conversation, Judy arguing with Leon while simultaneously speaking to someone on her cell phone. 

I turned away; it was none of my business, anyway, and they both seemed fine when they joined us out by the entrance, chatting quite normally and affably as the minivan threaded its way through the downtown traffic.

Dinner was very good, an harmonious blend of traditional Malaysian cooking and American flair, most of the dishes exotic and interesting, although I drew the line at the Mee Goreng; there were just too many tentacles in it for me to want to give it a try. Rick and Leon ribbed me gently about it, telling me that squid was delicious, I really should try some, and to just ignore it if it winked at me; somehow, appetising as they made it sound, I just couldn't bring myself to do it... 

Yaz jabbed Rick with her elbow and squeezed my hand.

"Ignore him, baby, I can't take him anywhere twice! Here sweetie, you can have my Satay instead, I'll take the Mee Goreng!"

I noticed Judy watching all this carefully, interestedly, almost like she was evaluating us, Rick and me in particular. Once we'd got to the coffee stage, Leon grinned and leaned back in his chair, smiling at all of us.

"Guys, you really saved my ass today, I thank you, Judy thanks you, and most of all, my mom thanks you! She keeps saying I need to meet new people; I guess I did, it's just that one set tried to rearrange my face, and you guys came along and saved my ass! Somehow I don't think she meant it in quite the way it happened, but I'm sure glad you guys came along when you did!"

After a good dinner, with good wines and some really good beers, we eventually called it a night, and had the restaurant call us a minivan to take us back to the hotel. Once there, Leon and Judy made their farewells. Leon remarked that he'd be along in the morning to take Rick and me out and show us around, and Judy wanted to show the girls some of the better-kept secrets of Albany's shopping experience, so that was how we left it. 

We were in good spirits when we went up to our rooms, although for some reason the intent, sometimes almost hostile, looks I'd seen occasionally flit across Judy's face puzzled me. I shook it from my mind; I was mistaken, I must be; I didn't really know enough about people to interpret their body-language that well, and I was probably on completely the wrong wavelength.

Morning found us lounging in the lobby, having a coffee and a muffin for breakfast rather than another of those gargantuan meat-feasts, while we waited for Leon, and that was where he and Judy found us. Judy was dressed in a style she seemed more comfortable with than the more or less conventional dress of the previous night; now she was dressed in a tiny red skirt, more a belt than anything else, an off-the-shoulder 'Clash' tour t-shirt with a picture of Joe Strummer on it, and red patent stilettos. Once we'd shaken hands all over again, we said our farewells to the girls after arranging to meet for lunch, and Leon led Rick and me out to his car, a massive cherry-red Dodge Nitro.

For the next three hours Leon, Rick and I chatted and joked as we took in the sights of Albany; a short cruise in an authentic paddle-steamer, a wander round the spectacular Empire State Plaza, which was, for me, absolutely breathtaking, the Museum of Fire-Fighting, which Leon was especially proud of, as he came from a family of fire-fighters, and the New York State Capitol. We tried street food, including the best hot dog I've ever eaten, had a beer in a genuine sports bar, and promised Leon we'd come with him one day to the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. By now it was time to meet up with the girls again, so Leon happily cut the tour short and we hustled back to meet the girls, who'd elected to try the delights of the UNO Chicago Grill in the Crossgates mall.

Lunch was fun, the girls managed to put away an astonishing amount of ribs, and the conversation was light, friendly, and non-intrusive. Leon was curious about why we'd come to America, so Rick gave him the story we'd decided on; we were having one last holiday before we had to get down to work, as we'd probably have no time for the next couple of years at least. We'd settled on that story as the simplest to remember, because none of us really wanted to explain our convoluted family history and circumstances to casual enquirers, and both Leon and Judy seemed satisfied, as they left it at that.

Once we'd gotten to the stage in our lunch where the edge was off our appetites, Leon invited us to spend a few days with his family; apparently his mother wanted to thank us in person for getting him out of what could have been a nasty situation, and had offered us the hospitality of the family home for a few days as a thank you. I exchanged glances with Shari, while Rick and Yaz looked on, obviously prepared to follow my lead. Shari nodded imperceptibly, so it was arranged; Leon would pick us up later that afternoon, and we'd be back at his home in time for dinner. 

"Remember, guys, wrap-up warm, it gets cold out in the backwoods!" he'd grinned.

With that, lunch was done, the girls piled all their mass of shopping bags into the trunk of the big Nitro, and drove back to the hotel with Judy in her little Toyota Prius. 

Back in our room, I asked Shari why she'd agreed so readily to go off on a jaunt with people we really hardly knew. She led me over to the couch and sat down, pulling me down next to her. Once we were seated, I posed the question again; why?

She looked thoughtful for a second, and a little sad.

"Baby, I did it because Leon and Judy are the first friends you've ever made; you've gone your whole life in this kind of bubble of isolation, and that fucker Robert Davies is to blame for that. Even while I'm rejoicing you finally met someone and made friends with them, part of me inside is crying because you've gone your whole life completely alone, without a single friend, or knowing how to make one."

A tear trickled from the corner of her eye, and I wiped it away, wondering at what she was saying. She smiled softly at me, and continued.

"Bobby, you've had to wait twenty-two years to find out what a friend is, all because of that crazy bastard; he took more than your mother away from you, he took the world away from you as well, but now, now you've started to meet real people, and spend time just as friends with them. That's why I agreed to go away with them; Leon likes you for you, someone else has finally seen the real you, not just me, and that makes me very happy!"

While we were debating what to take with us, and what to leave in the room, the cell-phone from the investigation agency beeped. Shari snatched it up, listened intently, then:

"I see, okay, well, in that case, please follow-up all the most plausible leads, I'm sure you know better than I what to do, so I'll leave it with you. We're going out of Albany for a few days, to Oneonta, if there's no cell service available I'll check in with a land-line number as soon as I can. Thank you, goodbye."

I looked at her, smiling hopefully. 

"Well?"

She grinned ruefully.

"No luck so far, baby; quote 'There are currently 189 persons of the correct approximate age listed under the name Nicholas Davies and variants in the Albany, Schenectady, Amsterdam, Sarasota Springs, and Springfield areas. We will of course investigate all those deemed to be most likely, but this will take time, and of course, all costs incurred will be in addition to our agreed scale of fees,' unquote. So nothing so far, sweetie, but it's early days yet, baby, nil desperandum!" 

I looked up the places she'd mentioned; it was a huge search area, how could they ever hope to pin down one Nicholas Davies if there were nearly 200 people with the same name spread out over such a wide and populous area? I resigned myself to the fact that we might be here for a while. If we had to, we had more than enough money to last it out; the sale of Shari's mother's business, their house, and the properties around London had netted a staggering amount of money, several million pounds, so we weren't hurting, nor ever would be, but I was now concerned that we'd be throwing good money after bad in this quest and end up still no closer to the truth. 

However, there was nothing I could do about that, so I decided to take a shower; we still had over an hour before Leon was due, and I'd worked up quite a sweat trudging around the landmarks of Albany, so I ducked into the wet room while Shari chose to have a little post-shopping recuperation. I was miles away, lathering-up and humming a country and western tune I'd heard on the car radio, when two small hands crept around my waist, and two soft lips kissed me between the shoulder-blades. 

"Hello, baby, can I do your back?" she murmured, rubbing her hands in the suds coating my torso and moving south. I grinned to myself.

"Umm, that's not my back, babe..." I said, trying not to laugh, and I swear I could feel her lips curving into her beautiful smile against my back.

"I know Bobby, I know, I'm sort of working my way around you, starting with the bits I know best..."

Her flattened hands slowly circled my torso, spreading the shower soap and pressing slightly as though massaging me, but always moving down, until her hands rested on my hips, pressing and kneading the muscle there. I was enjoying this immensely, if the size and hardness of my erection was anything to go by, and now her hands began to move inwards, closing-in on me, until she was clasping my cock with one hand, and cupping my scrotum with the other.

"Oooh Bobby, look what I found!" she giggled softly, squeezing my shaft lightly, making me twitch in her hand.

"Oooh, it moved, I think it's alive!" she gasped, squeezing harder and gently, rhythmically squeezing my scrotum in time with the hand slowly squeezing and pumping my engorged cock.

I was starting to get more than a little heated with all this fondling and squeezing; I was feeling the need to do a little of my own, but when I tried to turn she let go of my scrotum and slapped me warningly on the backside.

"Uh-uh, Bobby, I'm not finished!" she breathed, and lightly bit me on the shoulder, her teeth barely scraping the skin, but sending a delightful shiver all the way down my spine. I took the hint and stood there, enjoying the feeling as she slowly masturbated me, her soapy hands slick and frictionless as she slid them around my cock and balls. I couldn't take much more of this; I was rapidly getting to the point where I wanted her in my hands, I wanted to play with her and pleasure her like she was doing to me, but Shari seemed quite happy to stay out of reach and pleasure me.

Eventually I'd had enough, and spun round to grab her, making her squeal in surprise, her protests cut short as I clamped my hands on her bum and ground our sexes together as I crushed my lips to hers. Shari moaned and pushed herself against me, her arms locking tight around my neck as we kissed, and when I spun around and pushed her back against the wet-room wall, she grinned and leaped on me, wrapping her legs around my waist as we kissed so hard I thought we'd split our lips.

My engorged cock was still trapped between us, but Shari got over that by lifting up slightly and then dropping down, impaling herself on me. We both gasped at the sudden intrusion, the tightness and heat; I'd not planned to do this with her, but it was welcome, and so hot! With her back against slick marble tiles, and her arms around my neck, I began pumping into her, resting my forehead against the wall to give myself enough leverage to keep ploughing into her. My hands slipped from holding her delectable buttocks to hold her under her thighs as I held her legs apart so I could ram myself ever harder into her. 




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 02



Shari was gasping and mewling, almost incoherent by now, repeating my name over and over as I hammered into her, her pussy clasping and releasing me, sucking at me as I powered into her. A kind of madness overtook us, all thoughts of the outside world were forgotten, there was only the slap of wet flesh against flesh, and her soft groans and whispered exclamations as I pumped into her again and again.

Shari came with a loud groan, stammering my name as she shuddered and quivered in release, her orgasm triggering my own. The feel of me flooding her over and over with my hot spunk, more than I'd ever done before, made her orgasm gather pace and roll through her again. 

We hung there, suspended in a perfect moment, gasping, shuddering, and clasping each other as our release swept through us and became our world. The bright flare of release slowly dimmed, and the billowing steam, and the needle-jets of hot water cascading over us finally brought us back to reality. 

I slipped from her, and sank to my knees, almost no strength left in me after that volcanic release. Shari sank down to lean against me, her lips soft against my shoulder as I cradled her against me. Her gentle hands held and caressed my face as I gasped for air, trying to catch my breath and slow my racing heart.

"Ohohohoh Bobby, that was incredible!" she quavered softly, "we've so got to get one of these installed when we get home!"

I leaned back against the cool wall, letting the spray from the multiple showerheads massage me and relax me, pulling Shari onto my lap so I could kiss her properly, not that frenzied "face-sucking" we'd been doing earlier, Shari kissing me back just as gently and tenderly, then grinned, and giggled as something occurred to her. I looked at her quizzically, and she dimpled.

"Now that you've done that to me, you just HAVE to marry me, Mr. Davies!"

I pulled her close, and kissed the tip of her nose.

"Anytime you're ready! Miss Shereen Amisha Shahida, I would be honoured if you would consent to be my wife; bedraggled as you currently are, I've never seen a lovelier or more desirable spinster, and I would have you to wife! There, how's that for an 'olde-worlde' proposal?"

Shari smiled at me and pulled herself closer to me.

"'Spinster' eh? You'll pay for that as well. To get back to your proposal, and I'm holding you to it, by the way; it was better than a million roses and a whole orchestra, so yes, Robert Davies, bachelor and occasional idiot, I think I will marry you!"

We sat together under the needle sprays, letting the hot water wash the fatigue away as it washed our bodies, until at last Shari kissed me and patted my chest, and climbed somewhat shakily off me and made her way to the entrance of the wet-room; as she made to leave, she paused and softly called out "Oh, Bobby, darling...?"

As I looked up she hit the 'Cold' button, drenching me in high-pressure freezing water from all the spray heads at once. 

"Wakey-Wakey, Baby!" she crowed, finally getting her revenge as I hooted, gasped and spluttered under the unexpected icy deluge. Revenge really is a dish best served cold, or in her case, icy cold!

We were under the clock now; we had less than an hour before we were meeting Leon and Judy, so we had to hustle. We'd already packed all the warm clothes we'd brought; it was January, and the upstate weather was cold and unpredictable. Luckily Shari and Yaz had picked up a pair of vivid turquoise North Face goose-down jackets for Rick and me, and some Thinsulate ski gloves and beanies, and a few more pairs of thermal socks, just in case we decided to do a little exploring.

Getting dried-off and dressed took minutes; most of our slack time was taken-up with drying Shari's spectacular mane of red-bronze hair, but with two driers we were done and waiting for Rick and Yaz in record time. They joined us in the lobby, Rick looking as drained as I felt, and Yaz and Shari sharing a sly, secret little grin, so obviously Yaz and Rick had been taking the same opportunity Shari and I had...

Leon was bang on time, but no Judy. Shari asked him where she was, and if she was going to be there for our visit. Leon grinned as he helped us load our bags into the trunk.

"She had to deal with something, a family thing, but she'll be along tomorrow, don't you worry, she's looking forward to this!"

With that we were off. The drive wasn't that long, something over an hour and a half. As Rick was riding shotgun, Leon chatted mainly with him, so I took the opportunity to grab a little shut-eye in the back seat, Shari nudging me if Leon spoke to me. Otherwise I caught-up a little on my missed sleep.

Leon's family lived on Canterbury Lane, just outside Oneonta, in a beautiful sprawling house backing onto open country. There was snow on the ground, and cloaking some of the conifers, evidence that winter was still very much here in upstate New York. Leon's mother and sister greeted us warmly, his mother a redheaded slim lady whom Leon didn't resemble in the slightest, but a photo on the wall of an older man in a fire-fighter's outfit looked enough like him to clue me in that it was his father. I was curious about the "FDNY" badge and the number 343 incorporated into the frame, but I thought I'd keep it to myself, as there was a black band across one corner of the photograph. His younger sister resembled his mother, but with his sandy blonde hair, grey eyes, and quick smile.

Leon's mother ("Please, call me Kathleen!") couldn't do enough for us, almost falling over herself to hug Rick and me for saving her son. Leon looked more than a tad embarrassed by the whole thing, but I suppose if someone had jumped in and saved my son a beating, or worse, I'd probably be grateful too. 

"Ma, stop it, you're embarrassing the guys!" he complained, grinning and nudging Maria, his sister, who promptly jumped on us and started the whole thing all over again. I happened to glance up while Maria was trying to break my neck with a hug, to see Leon, Yaz and Shari all grinning widely at Rick and me. My face was burning with all this show of affection, as was Rick's, something that made everyone else grin even more.

Dinner was wonderful. Leon's mother was a great cook, and she kept piling our plates up with more food. The crowning glory of the meal was a huge apple pie, hot and delicious, the smell of cinnamon and spices rich and tempting. After dinner, I asked Kathleen if I could go outside; I was feeling the need for a little alone-time, and it was quiet and peaceful all the way out here. She told me to wrap-up warm, the winter chill was still around, but I was looking forward to it; it was a different kind of cold to England, dry and crisp, not raw and damp like winter in Carlisle. 

"Don't fall in the stream, honey!" she joked as I let myself out onto the patio and struck off across the lawn, no real destination in mind, really just wanting to breathe some of that chill fresh air, hoping it would clear my head a little. I sat on an old log stump, watching my breath steaming in the sharp night air, thinking about what we did next, where we went next as a family. I was lost in my thoughts when I heard someone coming up behind me. A small hand came to rest on my shoulder, and, from that shared telepathy couples sometime have, I knew that it was Shari without needing to turn and look.

"It's beautiful out here, isn't it, baby?" she murmured. I stood up and unzipped my jacket, pulling her cold hands inside and around my waist to warm her up again. Shari nuzzled against me as I pulled my thick jacket around us both, her hands rubbing my back as she looked up at the distant mountains glowing in the moonlight. I didn't answer her; I thought she was much more beautiful, and the feel of her against me was triggering all kinds of things inside me. Shari obviously guessed what I was feeling, her hands coming up to cup my face as she kissed me. I returned the kiss, feeling her gently grind herself against me, her movements becoming more insistent as the kiss dragged on. Now I was heating-up, and part of me was wondering why she was doing this to me; we were guests in someone's house and couldn't do anything about it.

Shari proved me wrong. As she kissed me, her hand slipped down to rub and squeeze my cock, already painfully constricted in my jeans, and what she was doing wasn't helping any as I kissed her, hard, still wondering how we were going to do anything about it. I had just decided to break-off and take her back indoors when she swung me round so my back was against the trunk of one of the big conifers on the stream bank and dropped to her knees to fumble with my belt. I watched in horny fascination as she undid my belt, popped my jeans, yanked down the zipper in one smooth move, and pulled my jeans and shorts down so my aching cock was freed. She looked up at me and grinned, her face pale in the moonlight, but with that devilish smile she did so well, then ducked her head and took me into her mouth. The warm, wet succulence of her mouth was almost unbearably wonderful as she licked and sucked me out there in the open air on a freezing winter night, one hand slowly squeezing and pumping my cock, while the other gently squeezed and massaged my balls.  

Ordinarily, I have to be really worked-up for this kind of thing to bring me on, but for some reason the whole situation was extremely erotic, and I couldn't last long, not like this, not with her doing so many wonderful things to me. The end came quickly, even though I didn't normally find oral sex that much of a turn-on, but right there and then...

"Oohh God, Shari, yess, it's... God, I'm coming, Shari...!" I gasped, as an avalanche of spunk blasted out of me, filling her mouth as she sucked me avidly, not spilling a drop as I pulsed and twitched in her mouth, firing salvo after salvo of hot spunk onto her tongue and against the roof of her mouth. I came so hard my ears were ringing with the force of it, and my knees buckled as I leaned against the tree-trunk.

Shari sucked me until I began to go soft, sucking every last drop of sperm out of my cock and polishing the head with her tongue. When I'd finished, and she'd cleaned me with her tongue, she zipped me back up and buckled my belt back on before standing up and kissing me once lightly on the lips. I grinned at her.

"That was wonderful, big sister, but why, and why now?"

Shari pulled herself against me once again, sliding her cold hands around inside the back of my jacket to warm up again.

"No reason, except you're my Bobby, and I wanted to give you something nice. That should hold you 'til we get back to the hotel, but then you owe me one, Robert Davies, and I never forget a debt!" she grinned.

We both laughed at that, and holding hands, made our way back to the warmth of the house.

Leon showed us to our rooms; Rick and I were sharing one guest bedroom, Shari and Yaz another; we may have been living together as couples in England, but Leon's family, his mother in particular, were old-fashioned Catholics with very set ideas about who slept with whom. It had been a long day, with a large meal on top, plus that interlude with Shari out in the moonlight, and I must have flaked-out as soon as my head hit the pillow, because next thing I knew the sun was shining in my eyes. The room had a small bathroom attached, so I had a quick shower and got dressed. Rick was just finishing getting dressed when there was a knock on the door, followed by Leon poking his head round.

"Breakfast guys, come and get it, we've got a long day ahead! Judy just got here and the girls are all up, so come on, di di mao!"

When we arrived at the table, Judy was already seated with Yaz and Shari on either side of her, and she smiled at us, but behind it was that searching, almost hostile glance again, first at Rick, then me. She was starting to unnerve me; she couldn't possibly know me or what I was like, or had been like, and yet she was definitely not as affable or easy with Rick and me as Leon was. 

With the girls it was another matter; she seemed completely, genuinely taken with Shari and Yaz, laughing, joking and giggling with them; it just seemed to be Rick and me she had an issue with, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was. 

After breakfast, while Yaz and Shari helped Judy clear up, Leon took us on a quick tour of the property. The house stood on about three acres, and had a small stream or brook running through the back garden, with a small single-span barrel-vault wooden bridge connecting the two halves of the property. Off in the distance we could see mountains and snow-capped hills, blue with distance, with dense forest covering the lower slopes of the hills. The air held a sharp, refreshing chill, and smelled fresh and clean, tinged with pine, and I felt very relaxed. While we were sitting on some sawed-off logs and talking about England, with Rick telling Leon about London, the girls joined us, Shari slipping next to me, and Yaz plumping down onto Rick's lap. 

Judy remained standing, her expression unreadable, but even I could tell she had something on her mind; she was too tense, too intent, and once again that feeling of disquiet brushed the surface of my mind. She thrust her hands into the pockets of her snow jacket and turned away, looking up at the distant hills.

Eventually she seemed to come to a decision, and turned to face us.

"Bobby, Rick, if I ask you a direct question, will you answer me truthfully?"

I glanced at Shari, and once again she nodded almost imperceptibly, one eyebrow raised, like she knew something was coming, and had been prepared for it. I looked back at Judy and nodded.

"Ask away, I'll be as truthful as I can."

Judy looked at me skeptically, and then once again, that strange, half quizzical-half hostile look flitted across her face.

"Okay then, answer me this; who are you, and why are you really here in America, and more specifically, why are you here in Albany?"

Leon started to protest, but I held up my hand, quieting him as I looked into Judy's eyes, seeing the suspicion there. I looked at Shari for guidance again, and her hand tightened on mine.

"Tell her, baby, it's okay, I think she already knows, but she needs to hear it from you. Go on, it's okay!" she whispered, kissing me lightly on the cheek. I nodded, and pulled Shari closer.

"Judy, I think you know we're not here on holiday, we're not having a junket before buckling-down to work, we came here for a reason. I have an older brother, he's missing, he's been missing for nearly four years now, I want to find him, we all want to find him. Rick and me, we have a lot of things we need to say to our big brother, and Shari and Yaz, they also have their own reasons for wanting to find my brother. My family fell apart because of something that happened, something very bad, and we want to find our brother so he can know it's over now, and so we can ask him how we can make it right with him. We know he came from here a long time ago, and we know he came back, we just don't know where he is now."

Judy was watching me closely as I went through the basic reasons for us being there, her eyes sharp, intent, not missing a thing.

"And if you find him, what then?" she asked.

Rick stood up and cleared his throat, Yaz holding his hand as he spoke to Judy.

"If we find him, we tell him we're sorry, we were wrong, what we did was wrong, what happened to him was wrong, that we went to our mother's grave and we saw what he'd done for her, and that we both wish we'd done it, we should have done it a long time ago. My big brother tried to be there for us, and we pushed him away all our lives; now we need to make things right with him; we want to ask him to forgive us, and to let him know that his family finally understands who he is, and what he means to us."

Judy looked at Yaz, then Shari.

"Okay, I get what you're saying, but I still don't understand why your girlfriends need him back as well?"

Okay, this was it. I looked at Shari, at Yaz; they both nodded and held themselves a little closer to us.

"This is hard to say, and maybe you won't like it, but here goes. Shari and Yasmin are sisters, but you already knew that; what you don't know is that they are also our sisters, or half-sisters; my older brother is their older brother, too, and they need him as much as we do, maybe more. Our father was a vile and evil man, and he did vile and evil things, but one thing he did I will always be grateful for; he fathered these two lovely girls. They're part of our lives in ways you won't understand, that I don't expect you to understand, or approve of, but that's the way it is. Our brother is missing, we all need him, we're all here to try and find him."

Judy was looking at me in open-mouthed wonder, as was Leon.

"So Shari's your...sister? Really? You look nothing like each other..."

Shari spoke up.

"Bobby's my half-brother, we have different mothers. My mother was Indian, and Bobby's mother was English. Everything Bobby told you is the truth; we came here looking for my brother, we know what happened to him to make him leave, all we want is a chance to tell him his family is there when he needs us; we know he has a family here, we don't want to drag him back to England, we don't want him to re-live any of that, we know what pain and sorrow he went through, is still going through. All we want is the chance to tell him that he has us as well, and to let him know that when he's ready, we're going to be there for him, if he'll let us. That's all. All I want is to meet my big brother...and hug my niece as well!"

Judy looked thoughtfully from Rick to me, to Shari and back to Rick.

"And if you find him, what then? Maybe he has a life here. Maybe he won't want to be reminded of the life he left behind, maybe he has all he needs right here, have you thought of that?"

Shari wiped her eyes with the back of her glove and squeezed my arm tightly.

"I hope he does have a life here, a good, happy life; after what happened to him, he needs and deserves all the happiness he can find, or make. All we want is for him to know that we're here, that he has us too, and that it's all finally over. There's only one more thing we need him to know, and...well, I think that's for him, if it's all the same to you, Judy."

Judy looked appraisingly at us, but the flat hostility that had been so apparent before was gone now. Now her look was friendly, compassionate.

"Ok guys, thank you for sharing at last. I hope you find him, I really do, it must be hell, knowing part of your family is missing like that!"

Yaz was hugging Rick closely, her face buried in his chest, obviously affected by Shari's words, Rick stroking her hair as he hugged her, and Judy glanced thoughtfully at her. Leon was looking pretty shell-shocked at all these revelations, turning to stare back at us as Judy towed him back to the house. As we gathered on the back porch, he grinned at us.

"Whatever you do, don't tell mom you're all brothers and sisters! I could give a shit, but she's kinda old-school Catholic; one hint of this and she'll have you on your knees, so keep a lid on it, guys, and I mean it!"

We spent the rest of the morning touring around the town, Leon showing us the various historical landmarks and sites, obviously proud of his home-town. Judy and the girls split away from us, doing some exploring of their own, leaving the three of us to talk in an excellent coffee-shop.

"So Bobby, isn't it kind of weird, you and...you know, your sister and all...?" asked Leon, a puzzled expression on his face, and I struggled to explain the connection Shari and I shared, plus the fact that three months earlier I'd never met her or knew she existed, so for me she wasn't my sister, and that I had no place anywhere in my head that she fitted-in as a sister, so no, it wasn't weird at all; to me she was only and always a beautiful, exotic girl who loved me, and I loved her.




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 02



Leon got that, and grinned. 

"I don't blame you, man, she's a real babe! How 'bout you, Rick?"

Rick kind of grinned too, all the answer Leon needed. With that we headed back to rendezvous with the girls and go back to the house for lunch. After lunch, Judy excused herself, saying she had to get back to Albany, urgent family business, but that she'd see us soon, and left us to sit and talk with the family, Kathleen and Maria filling us in on Leon's past; we learned he'd grown up wanting to be a fire-fighter, like his father and grandfather, but after his father was killed in New York, the family had moved back to Oneonta and Kathleen had made him promise not to join the Fire Department, so his other great love, cars took over. 

At that point he took Rick and me out to the garage and pulled a tarp off his pride and joy; a black 1967 Chevrolet Impala he'd first seen in a TV show called "Supernatural" and had scrimped and saved until he could finally get a broken-down example, which he'd then spent several years restoring. It was a beauty, glossy black paintwork and sparkling chrome, and to my eyes, used to the compact cars of Britain, it looked big as a ferryboat and sleek and menacing as a torpedo.

Dinner was once again a happy, relaxed affair, Kathleen pulling out all the stops, as we'd be leaving the next day to go back to Albany; we'd decided we really should be back there in case the private investigator had any more information. We were just passing round dessert when the telephone rang. Leon took the call, and then called Kathleen out into the hall for a quick, whispered conversation. They both came back in, Kathleen giving us us an odd look, before exchanging glances with Leon and nodding to him, so he turned his attention to us.

"Guys, I'll be taking you back to Albany once we're done here; Judy's in Albany with someone there she thinks you need to talk to, so once we're done, we'll get your stuff together. I wish you could have stayed longer, but Judy says this is real important!"

Rick, Yaz, Shari and I exchanged puzzled glances; what was going on here? Leon wasn't saying anything more, so we finished dinner in awkward silence. Once we were done, Rick and I went and got the bags while the ladies hugged and promised return visits as soon as possible. 

Conversation during the drive back was limited, as Leon seemed to have no wish to discuss where we were going; all he would say was that Judy had asked him to bring us back to Albany as quickly as possible, and that it was important. To be honest, I was feeling a little embarrassed at the abrupt way we'd finished our visit, eating and running like that, so I was not entirely comfortable on the 90-minute drive back to Albany. 

Eventually we began hitting the off-ramp signs for down-town Albany, and we took one, driving through what looked like very nice housing developments and older neighborhoods, lots of green spaces and lawns, large, elegant houses set well-back from the road, with large gardens to the front, and wide, sweeping roadways.

We eventually pulled into the gravelled drive of a large, red-brick house with tall, white-framed windows, and a large Weeping Willow in the centre of the lawn. As we rolled to a stop, the front door opened, and Judy came out with a tall girl with striking red-bronze hair, almost the same titian-red as Shari's, and smoky emerald eyes. She stared wide-eyed at Rick and me, and turned back to Judy.

"Jude, look..they're so much like...it's amazing, look at them!" she whispered, while we looked on uncomprehendingly. Judy grinned.

"I know, told you so. Guys, this is my sister, Ashley. Ashley, this is Bobby, that's Ricky, and these are their girlfriends, Shari and Yaz. Shall we go in?"

Ashley led us into the house and into a large, comfortable family room, with big couches and a bright fire, where she indicated that we take our seats. I was at a complete loss to understand why Judy had brought us here, and was just about to ask her, when a little girl, maybe no more than 18 months or so, came running down the passage and barged into Judy's legs.

"Judeejudeejudeejudee!" she crowed, laughing as Judy picked her up and nibbled her neck, making her laugh and giggle even more, before settling her on her hip. She saw the puzzled look on our faces, and grinned.

"This is my niece, Babs; say hello to the nice people, poppet!"

The little girl grinned happily, and flapped a pudgy little hand.

"This is Ashley's baby, her husband will be along shortly, he has some things he wants to tell you; in fact, here he is now."

I was just turning to see this "husband" who wanted to talk to us, when he spoke, freezing me in my tracks.

"Hello Robert, long time no see! You too, Richie! I hear you want to talk to me!"

Rick jumped spinning around, his expression probably mirroring mine, because there, framed in the doorway, looking just as I remembered him, was Nicky, the same tousled dark blonde hair, the same tawny-brown eyes, the same lopsided smile, a little taller and somehow more "grown-up", but still Nicky.

"Nicky...oh my God, Shari, look, it's...it's Nicky, look!" I whispered, shock, relief, guilt, and sorrow all battling for control of me.

Nicky walked into the room and took the little girl from Judy, grinning fondly as she reached up and pulled his nose, then kissed her and passed her to Ashley, kissing her as she took the child from him. He then turned back to face us, his expression quizzical, but not hostile.

"Judy tells me you came here looking for me, which was kind of a surprise, but here I am. Now you've found me, what can I do for you?"

I was utterly dumbfounded; I'd resigned myself to weeks, maybe months of waiting for news, and yet the people we'd bumped into by the sheerest stroke of luck had led us right here to him. My mouth worked as I tried to say something, anything, but I was struck speechless.

"Speak up, Robert, you never had any problem before!" he grinned, his expression robbing the words of any sting, although, in truth he had every reason in the world to be bitter and hostile, and not one reason in hell to listen to anything we had to say. Shari looked up at me, her expression unreadable, realising I was trying to say so many things that nothing could come out, so she plunged ahead. 

"Nick...Nicky, you don't know me, my name is Shereen Shahida, and my sister Yasmin and I are the daughters of Robert Davies; we're your sisters, you're my big brother, and we've been looking for you. Mummy told us everything she knew about you, what our...what that man did to you, how he hurt you. She didn't know where you were, or what happened to you, but I promised myself that we'd try and find you, because you're my big brother, and I need you as much as I need Bobby and Ricky!"

Nick put his arm around Ashley and squeezed her, smiling at Shari as she stood looking at him, her face pale and drawn, and her eyes glittering.

"So you're my little sister? Hello sis, and hello even younger sis!" he grinned, smiling at Yaz.

Yaz stared silently at him, her eyes shining, breathing out in a gusty sigh that somehow became a sob. Nicky cocked his head and winked at her, and suddenly Yaz was hugging him, babbling into his chest.

"We looked for you, we tried to find you, we all did, oh Nicky, we didn't know where you were, I heard so much about you, mummy said you were badly hurt, I'm so sorry, so sorry...!" 

Nick hugged her, grinning at Shari, as she too moved in to share in his hug.

"Sshhh, it's okay, it's okay, shh now, is that any way to say hello to your big brother? Who knew I had such beautiful little sisters!" He held them both away a little and studied them, his old grin very much in evidence, that charming, lopsided smile of his that had always irritated me so much when I was younger.

"Judy said you were beautiful, but she was only half-right! All my sisters are knock-outs, just look at you! And now I think you should meet the rest of your family. This beautiful girl here is my wife, Ashley, and this is our daughter, your niece, Barbara."

My heart lurched as he said her name, wonder, guilt and loss warring in me all over again. Nick saw me start at the name, and nodded slightly, obviously guessing exactly what had jolted through me on hearing my mother's name again.

Nick pulled Judy closer and hugged her tightly.

"You've met Judy, my sister and my best friend, and Leon, my soon-to-be brother in law you already know. My mother and her husband are waiting for us to get acquainted, you'll meet them later. So now, talk to me, Robert, tell me why you needed to see me so badly. I wrote to you, I asked you both to meet me in Carlisle last year, I heard nothing back, so I assumed that was it. So, why are you here, now?"

Shari looked up at me again, checking if I was up to this now, and I nodded, letting her know I was ready for this. We all sat down as I began to speak.

In a low voice I told him what had happened after our father was arrested and extradited, the way we'd been stripped of everything, how we'd lived, then Rick's disappearance and re-appearance two years later with two sisters in-tow, sisters we'd grown-up completely unaware of. 

Rick took up the tale, how he'd pieced together enough hints and clues to convince him that he'd found something, and how he had indeed found Shari and her family, and learned what our father had put her mother through. He glanced at Shari, who took it up from there.

"Our mother was beaten and abused, raped and mistreated by our father for so long, but she couldn't do anything about it, because he threatened us, Yaz and me. When we were old enough, he was going to sell us to his friends!"

Nicky's look of shock and outrage was echoed and magnified on Ashley and Judy's faces. Nicky pulled her close and held her while she trembled, the remembered fear and terror reverberating through her all over again, and it felt right to watch her be held and take comfort in the arms of her big brother.

"Where's your mother, Shereen, what happened to her?" he asked her softly.

"Mummy died, all the beatings, so many injuries...she had a brain haemorrhage, one day she just...died, peacefully, I think, but he killed mummy, just as surely as if he'd throttled her with his bare hands...Ricky found us, mummy took him in, she loved him, we loved him, he was our brother, and he promised her he'd look after us, and he did. Bobby and Ricky have changed, Nicky, I swear, they're different, they're who they should have been. Yaz and me are safe at last, with them, at least give them a chance please!"

Nicky looked up at us, one arm encircling Yaz, his free hand stroking Shari's hair as he glanced from Rick to me and back again, his eyes hooded, distant.

"I knew that bastard was sick; he's in jail now for the things he did, and he deserves every second of time he'll serve there, but how about you two? What I remember of you isn't good, or happy, and how about Barbara, what about her, what about her memory? She was your mother, you know, I tried to tell you, but you never listened, how do I know you've changed? That part of my life only means hurt and pain to me; why should I let you into any other part of it?" 

Rick stood up and moved next to me, taking Yaz's hand and raising her up. Yaz held herself close to him as he spoke.

"Nicky, all our lives we treated you like an outsider; we thought Barbara was your mother, and neither of you wanted or needed us. Dad always told us we didn't need her or you, and we believed him. I'm sorry I left my oldest brother out, I was wrong, and stupid, and selfish and all kinds of other things. Yaz and Shari, and especially her mother, showed me how wrong I was, they taught me what family really means, and now all I want to do is put mine back together again the best way I can. I'm sorry Nicky, I was wrong, and I want my big brother back. We only found your letter a few days before Christmas, it had been wrongly delivered to an empty house, but we came here to look for you just as soon as we discovered where you were!"

Nicky grinned at me, although there wasn't much humour in his smile.

"And you, Robert, what do you want?"

Shari reached out and took my hand, squeezing my fingers gently, telling me to tell him everything. I squeezed back just once, agreeing with her.

"Nick, I came to find you so I could say I'm sorry. I thought Rick and I were going to be big-shot businessmen one day, just like dad, and I learned how to be just like him, and I forgot you were my brother too. What I learned from dad was all so wrong, I know that now; my sisters showed me how wrong I was. I even tried to kill myself, because I worked out how bad it was going to be, but Shari saved me, literally. She made me see that there was another world out there, and she's showing me how to fit into it, how I could be so much better than whatever I was before. I'm still learning, but I do know one thing; I need my big brother to show me how as well. And it's "Bobby" now, I'm not Robert anymore..." 

Nick hugged the two girls again and smiled enigmatically as Shari slipped her hand in mine and Yaz stayed huddled against Rick.

"It seems the Davis brothers have a lot more in common than you think!" he commented cryptically. "By the way, you should know our family name is "Davis", not "Davies; that sick bastard's real name is Brian Davis, he changed his name to hide me from my mother when she tried looking for me after he abducted me."

He looked behind me into the passageway, and nodded, and a woman in her mid-forties popped her head in the door and smiled at everyone. I could see immediately her resemblance to Nick; not so much the features, but the same eyes, the same hair, the same jawline. This must have been Nick's mother. She in turn looked Rick and me up and down, her eyes flicking between us and Nick, comparing our features. I had noticed the strong resemblance between Rick and Nicky before, but now they were standing side by side, they were almost eerily similar; apart from the hair and eye colour, they could almost have been twins, even more so than Yaz and Shari. Nick stood up and took her hand.

"Mum, these are my brothers, the tall one is Bobby, the handsome one is Rick, and these two lovely girls are Shari and Yaz, my sisters. Guys, this is my mum, Julia Nixon."

I offered my hand, but instead she hugged me, a warm, inclusive hug. She did the same to Rick, and each of the girls, gently hand-combing a large curl away from Yaz's face so she could look at her properly. Yaz smiled at such a motherly gesture, and the ice was broken. At that point little Barbara decided to make her presence felt, and with a grin Ashley handed her to Shari, who sat down with her on her lap, Yaz sitting next to her, the two of them suddenly completely absorbed with their new-found niece. 

Julia took my arm and linked her other arm with Rick, speaking so only the two of us could hear her.

"Thank you for coming, all of you, I'm so glad you came to find Nicky, he needs this, he needs all his family too! Now that you're all here, all that stuff that happened before is finally over. Poor Nicky's been wracked with guilt over what happened, perhaps now he can let some of it go. Who knows, maybe his brothers and sisters can help him do that, you never know. I know how much he loved your mother, I don't blame him; she was all he had, stranded there with that terrible man, and from what I heard, those two girls have the same loss as him. Perhaps all of you can help each other over this now. You're here, and Nicky's family is back together again; before he only had us, now he has you again, or maybe at last. Perhaps now he can find some sort of peace. All of you are going to have to help each other; you know that, don't you? You're brothers and sisters, perhaps now's the perfect time to be just that!" she smiled, letting us both go with a gentle pat on the arm.

I was a little overwhelmed by all this; such a lot had happened in the last hour, and I was still processing where I was, and who was who, and trying to figure-out what happened next. I looked across at Yaz and Shari, bonding with their niece, talking animatedly with Ashley, fitting-in, and couldn't help but feel that perhaps Julia was right; now was the time to be family again. 

Judy slipped her arm through mine and grinned up at me, her little pixie face alight with amusement.

"Welcome to the Nixon-Davis clan! Don't worry, Leon's still trying to get used to this, feel free to feel a little shell-shocked if you need to!"

I sat down on one of the couches, and Judy sat next to me, which was good, because I had some questions for her.

"Judy, when did you put it all together, when did you know or suspect that we were looking for Nick and all?" I asked her, and she gave me that grin again.

"You're serious, right? Bobby, as soon as I saw you two at the hotel I knew! Have you looked in a mirror lately? You and Rick are so much like Nicky it's uncanny; I nearly fell over in shock! He once told me what a pair of little shits his kid brothers were, and then to see you two in the flesh, boy was I conflicted! It was a weird sensation, actually seeing in the flesh two of the people Nicky felt he had most reason in the world to hate, looking so much like one of the people I love most in the world! Even the hand gestures are the same. It's still freaking me out, believe me!"

I had to grin, and agree with her; we had been a pair of despicable little shits, but maybe, just maybe, we'd turned that corner and left that all behind. Something else was also troubling me.

"Judy, what is Nicky going to say about...you know, Shari and me, and Rick and Yaz?"

Judy twinkled at me.

"I think he'll congratulate you on your taste! Tell him, I think you just might be surprised; the Davis boys are a lot more alike than you probably think! Go on, go and ask him!"

She seemed to be secretly amused about something, but not in a malicious way, so I followed her advice. Rick was in the middle of being admired by Nicky's mother and Ashley, much to his embarrassment and Yaz's amusement, so I collared Nicky while he was unoccupied.

"Nicky, can I ask you something?" I began, and he nodded, walking me to a part of the room not occupied by sisters, wives, mothers and little girls.

"Okay...Bobby, what's on your mind?"

Now for it; the only way to ask him was to ask him, so I jumped straight in.

"What would you say if I told you that Shari was more than just a sister to me, that she and I, and Rick and Yasmin, have a...a closer relationship than just simply being brothers and sisters?"

Nick looked at me for a long moment, then slowly grinned.

"I think I'd say that you have incredibly good taste, both of you, they're exquisite!"

I breathed a sigh of relief, but now my curiosity had gotten the better of me.

"So you don't think it's wrong...or immoral, or anything like that?"

Nick looked at me, then glanced over at Ashley, and I was struck how much she had in common with the girls; tall, slender, beautiful, deep red-bronze hair, large, expressive eyes, and something began to click inside me. Nick saw the direction of my glance and pulled me closer, so he was almost whispering in my ear.

"My mother's name before she married David, my stepfather, was Lowry, Julia Lowry; Ashley's maiden name was also Lowry..."

I listened uncomprehending for a second, then it clicked into place; Ashley Lowry, Nick's mother was Julia Lowry, of course; Ashley was his sister! Now Judy's offhand remark about the Davis boys being a lot more alike than we suspected suddenly made sense; that, and Nick's cryptic comment along the same lines a few minutes ago!

I gaped at him, and he grinned happily.

"When I first arrived here, almost the first person I saw was Ashley; and I couldn't take my eyes off her, or stop thinking about her. We met on the first day I arrived here, and we've been together ever since. I felt about her, and I still do, the same way you probably feel about Shari; she's beautiful, she loves me, I love her, the "sister" thing didn't matter to us then, and it doesn't matter to us now."




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 02



He stopped talking for a second to look at Ashley, happily chatting to the girls as little Barbara clambered over all of them, then carried on.

"I think I know why, too, and it's probably the same for you. Ashley and I didn't grow-up together; she was born long after I was abducted, and she was already an adult when we met; I was just a vague story about something that happened a long time ago, so there was no 'sibling bond' or anything like that. Ashley explained it to me once; apart from that one family relationship through a shared parent, we have no other connection, no life together as siblings, so it was easy for us, just as it was probably easy for you, and for the same reason. Or perhaps we just have a twisted gene that makes us bunk-up our sisters!"

He grinned as he said it, and I breathed a sigh of relief, and then sensed someone standing behind me. I turned, to see Nick's mother standing there. She put her arm through mine again, and reached up to stroke Nick's cheek.

"I heard what you both said, and Nicky's right; if Shereen's the girl for you, then that's who she is. When Nicky and Ashley first got together it bothered me, and made me angry, but no-one in the world had ever loved her like Nicky did, she was his whole world, and he was hers, and I eventually saw it too. My husband loves her like a daughter, he thinks of her as his daughter, just like Judy and our little girl, Rachel, and he couldn't have wished for a better husband for her than Nicky, so these things do work out, it just takes a little effort. Forget about what happened in the past, that doesn't matter now, but if you're anything like Nicky, then you've got it in you to make it work too, just let her know once in a while how you feel about her!"

She smiled, and piloted me back into the centre of the family to meet her husband, Nick's stepfather. Doctor Nixon came across as a good man; Ashley obviously adored him, as did Judy, his own daughter. I noticed Ashley called him "dad" as often as Judy called Julia "Mom", so there was obviously a lot of love there, and Nick was just as obviously deeply in love with his little sister, four year-old Rachel, looking sleepy and shy and just adorable in her little 'Pokémon' nightdress. 

I was sitting quietly for a moment while Nick and Leon went to get coffee for everyone, when Doctor Nixon sat down next to me. I'd found him incredibly easy to talk to, he seemed to be able to draw things out of me that I had no intention of mentioning, but he did it so well, and so unobtrusively, that I found myself talking with him like an old family friend.

Somehow, I found myself telling him about Barbara, and what Shari's mother had told Rick about how she'd died, that our father had murdered her, how he'd boasted to her what he'd done, how he did it, and what he did to Nick.

Doctor Nixon looked at me levelly.

"I saw what Brian Davis did to Nick; I treated him for some of it myself. When Nick came here his back and shoulders were a mass of cuts and welts, his clothes were blood-soaked, and he was suffering from post-traumatic shock, almost like those poor boys coming back from Iraq; he was a mess, and that man boasted of it, did he? Well, I'm not surprised, but you don't know the half of it; he blackmailed his associate here to rape and beat Julia, as her punishment for leaving him; he didn't get to her, but poor Ashley walked into the middle of it, and she took what your father had set in motion."

My shock at hearing this, at the final knowledge of just how depraved and evil my father was, must have shown, because Doctor Nixon clasped my shoulder, a warm, human gesture as I let the shock and horror wash out of me. He looked at me sympathetically as I tried to come to terms with what I was hearing. Just then, Leon handed me a coffee, so I took a long sip, letting the rich brew calm me as Doctor Nixon waited. Eventually I was braced enough to hear the rest of what he had to say.

"Please, go on, I know there's more, so please, finish what you were telling me."

He looked appraisingly at me for a moment, then continued.

"Ashley became an outcast at her school after what...happened to her. No-one but Judy was there for her, the others called her names, shunned her, she had no friends, no social life, none of the things a teenage girl should have. Her mother had no money for new clothes or the latest fashions, and that made it worse; the whole school treated her like some kind of pariah, because of what that man had done to her. They used to call her "Rag Doll", and she only had her mother, and Judy, and it was the two of them against the world." 

He paused, staring reflectively into his coffee cup, before continuing, his voice soft and far away.

"Only my Judy was there for her, something I will be proud of until the day I die; that my girl stepped up and stepped in front of Ashley, and faced down the bullies and the name-callers for her friend."

He paused to take another sip of coffee, then continued. 

"It took Ashley a long, long time to get past that, and it was only because of Nicky that she managed it at all, and is who she is today. When I first met her mother, I was filled with admiration for her; she'd managed to make a life for her daughter and herself out of the shards and splinters of her old life, and that is just one of the reasons I married her. Now, Ashley's my daughter, Judy's her sister, and Nick is my son, and they're happy, they're a family at last. Brian Davis has caused a lot of misery and heartache for his family and the people around them, but now he's caged-up in a place where he can sit and twiddle his thumbs for the rest of his life while he thinks about what he's done."

He paused, and looked penetratingly at me.

"Nicky, however, still needs help; he's still mourning for his mother, which is how he thinks of Barbara; he believes he left her to die, that he somehow caused her death, and he thinks he needs to atone for it. We've done all we could, but you, his family, are going to have to help him out of that, he can't do it himself; will you help him?"

Of course I agreed; how could I not? With these final revelations of the true depth of my father's evil, all those little things inside me, the parts of him I hadn't yet exorcised now dissipated, and I was finally free of every molecule of him and his influence. I noticed the little girl, Rachel, standing next to me, yawning sleepily and staring shyly at me, so Doctor Nixon beckoned her closer, grinning as she climbed on his lap and twisted round to look at me again.

"Bobby, this is Nick's littlest sister; Rachel, say hello to Bobby!"

"Hello Bobby, my name's Rachel. Why do you look like Nicky?"

I held out my hand and she took it, clambering from her father's lap to mine.

"I look like Nicky because Nicky's my big brother, just like he's your big brother!" I told her, watching her puzzled look as it slowly cleared up.

"Are you my big brother too?" she piped, her head tilted adorably to one side. I looked at her father, unsure what to say, and he shrugged and nodded, so I grinned back at her.

"Yes, yes I am; and see that man over there? His name's Ricky and he's your big brother too!"

Nicky came over and tousled her hair, grinning his familiar lopsided grin at her.

"What are you doing out of bed? Come on, trouble, before mommy catches you!"

Rachel jumped up and hugged Nick as he picked her up.

"Read to me Nicky, pleeeeaasse! Read me some more about Pooh and Pig-uh-let, pleeeeaasse?"

Nick lifted her up and smiled at her.

"Alright, but only a few pages, okay? Say goodnight to Bobby, pumpkin!" She nodded and dimpled at me.

"Nicky and Ashley took me to the 100 Acre Wood and showed me where Pooh and Pig-uh-let live, and the Woozle, and rabbit's house, Nicky knows Pooh and rabbit, and the Heffalump, and everything! Goodnight Bobby!"

I watched them leave, and felt a hand on my shoulder; it was Shari, a small smile on her lips.

"Who'd have thought you'd be so good with children, Bobby? You know, I really do think you'll be okay! And now we have to go, but Ashley and Nicky will be coming to the hotel tomorrow morning, we have things to talk about, you know what, so let's say goodnight, baby, we'll see them again tomorrow, don't worry." 

Leon drove us back to the hotel, and walked up to our room with us, hugging Yaz and Shari goodnight and shaking hands with me and Rick, before telling us he'd see us again at the house before we left. He still had a while left of his unspent vacation time, so he wanted to spend some time with us, and Judy definitely wanted to spend some time with the girls again; as she'd pointed out with a grin, Yaz and Shari were kind of, sort of, something like, her sisters too, and she wanted to get properly acquainted with her extended family.

When Leon had left, I flopped back on the bed, the events of the day crowding together in my head as I tried to make sense of everything that had happened on such an eventful day. Twelve hours ago we'd been having breakfast in a small upstate town, planning on getting back to Albany so we could quiz the private investigator. Now suddenly Nicky was back; he had a wife, a daughter, a mother and father, and yet another little sister. 

My head was running close to overload, I needed to sleep on all this, because the worst was yet to come; in the morning we had to tell him that he'd been right, that his beloved Barbara had indeed been murdered, and we had the proof. I yawned, the crowded day catching up to me, and Shari bounced onto the bed next to me, jarring me into wakefulness.

"Wakey-Wakey, Sleeping Beauty! I told you, you owe me, time to pay up, buster, come on, get naked, I want to play!"

I grinned and pulled her against me, my hand snaking down to grab and squeeze her taut little bottom. She grinned back at me, and gently bit my chin.

"So you are awake, after all! Good, my turn Bobby, and tonight I want something special!"

I looked questioningly at her hoping for a hint, but she just smiled minxily and bit her bottom lip, the one gesture I have no defence against. I struggled to sit back upright as she began to strip-off, popping her jeans and lying back so I could tug them off her. Underneath she just wore small thong panties, and once she pulled off her tank-top she was naked, except for those panties. I had managed to get my jeans, sweater and polo shirt off, and was left in just my shorts, with the evidence of my arousal plain to see. Shari smiled as she reached out to grab me, squeezing as she scooted closer to kiss me firmly.

"I love you Bobby, and because I love you, I want you to do something special for me tonight. Will you do that for me? You'll like it, I promise!" she asked, punctuating her words with little kisses.

Of course I agreed; I loved her, and anything she wanted was okay with me. Shari smiled at my acquiescence and slid her hand inside my shorts, holding and squeezing my cock, then pumping it gently as she rubbed her thumb gently over the end, spreading the lubricant pouring from me over the head and along the shaft. My own hand was just as busy, rubbing and caressing her damp pussy, teasing the lips apart as we kissed, feeling the little stiff bud of her clitoris harden and throb against my caressing fingertips. 

Shari was gasping softly as I frigged her, her own hand pumping and rhythmically squeezing me as we touched and stroked each other. I pushed my shorts down as Shari pulled her thong off, and now we were both completely naked, a fact Shari took full advantage of by sucking my cock into the back of her throat. I lay back and lost myself in the sensation as she suckled on me, her tongue soft and warm and delightful against the sensitive flesh of my glans. I tried to urge her to move over me, so I could return the favour, but she shook her head and smiled at me around my cock as it stretched her lips wide open. 

I leaned back again, enjoying what she was giving me so freely. Then she released me and slid up next to me, kissing me lightly before throwing a leg over me, to straddle me. I like this position, I love to watch her move, all her muscles moving together in harmony, a sleek wildness about her, absolute perfection of movement in her blend of smooth coordination and blazing sensuality.

Shari grinned and raised-up momentarily, her hand grasping me as she aimed me, then slid slowly, smoothly down onto me, taking me into herself in one long, agonisingly sweet moment of heat and wet succulence. She rested her hands flat on my chest and began to rock, sliding herself on me as she squeezed me with her internal muscles, riding me like a slow-motion rodeo rider as she pleasured herself. Her breasts danced and bobbed in front of me, her nipples fat and swollen, thick as my fingertips in her arousal, and without thinking I reached out to take them, cupping her beautiful small breasts as I gently pinched and rolled her nipples between my fingertips.

Now she began to speed up, working herself against me, grinding her pussy against me as her breathing quickened. The end came quickly, her eyes closing as her breath sobbed in her throat, her pussy tightening around me and pulsing as her orgasm flared and crashed through her. 

She lay down atop me, her heart racing as she fought for breath, her pussy still pulsing and twitching around me as the aftershocks thrilled through her.

After a while, I became aware of two things; her hand was working away behind her, and she was biting her lip again, something she only did when she was up to something. I hadn't orgasmed, and was still bone-hard inside her, waiting for what she wanted to do next, this mysterious "special" thing she wanted to do with me. Suddenly, she sat upright, and took hold of me, squeezing me a couple of times to check whether I was still interested, as if she needed to check that! 

Apparently satisfied, she rose up off me and held me in place, then slowly lowered herself, but now it was different; I couldn't fit into her, it was so constricted, it felt like my cock head was being squeezed in a clamp, and then I suddenly realised what she was doing, where she was putting me.

She must have seen the realisation dawn in my eyes, because she grinned that slow, sly, minxy grin she did so well, her eyes hooded, and squeezed her nipples with her free hand, while looking me in the eyes.

"There Bobby, is this naughty enough for you, you're going somewhere naughty, do you like it, baby, do you like being naughty with me?" she murmured, slowly slipping down on me until, with an almost audible pop! I slipped into her tight anus. Shari gasped as she slid all the way down my shaft, my cock feeling like it was being squeezed in a moist velvet fist along its entire length. I gasped out loud, Shari echoing me as she ground herself down against me, my hands automatically reaching for her perfect little buttocks and pulling them apart as she leaned down to kiss me.

"This is for you Bobby, I love you, baby!" she whispered as she began to slowly pump herself up and down, the ring of her anus squeezing and pulsing around me as she gyrated on top of me. I'd seen pictures of this, of course, and fantasised about it; before she'd come into my life my sex-life consisted of the porn magazines I'd managed to acquire, but I'd never seriously thought it could ever happen to me for real, and now it was, and it was the most heart-stoppingly erotic thing in my entire life. As she rolled her hips and pumped against me, her muscles squeezed and milked me, and I knew I couldn't hold out for long, not with her gyrating and milking me like that, and I was right.

I came with a sudden build-up of the pressure in my groin, my scrotum, and deep inside me; something wanted to explode inside this girl, and it wouldn't be denied. I cried out in ecstatic agony as I came harder than ever before in my life, my cock actually burning with the pressure and force of my ejaculation, long, sweetly agonising bursts of spunk blasting out of me and deep into her bowels, painting her insides with my seed.

Shari slumped down against me, her own orgasm triggered by mine, both of us moaning and shuddering as deep-swelling waves of pleasure crashed and thundered through us; my ears popped, and all sound disappeared in the high-pitched singing note that filled my head as I emptied myself into my beautiful girl in pulsing jets of high-pressure spunk.

Finally I was done, I was empty, I had no more to give as the aura of orgasm faded and sanity and senses returned, leaving Shari clasped tightly against me as my heart and breathing slowed and calmed down again. After a long, still silence, I felt myself fading, my cock slowly slipping from her as it softened. Shari drew a long, shuddering breath, and raised her head to nibble my chin.

"Bloody hell, Bobby, that was incredible, wherever you got that from, I want some more! I need a shower now, look what you've done to me!"

Somehow we both managed to stagger into the wet-room for a much needed shower, and then back to bed, to sleep; we were both exhausted from that incredible experience, and we needed clear heads for the morning. None of us, Yaz, Rick, Shari, myself, was eager for that meeting, but we owed it to Nicky, because he needed to know the truth.

The beeping of Shari's 'phone alarm finally dragged me out of my deep sleep, confusion once again ruling for a few seconds as I tried to work out where I was; I'd been dreaming about when we were young, long before all the bad stuff had happened, and it had been so real, so vivid, that I had to consciously shift mental gears from dream to reality. I was rested though, and as I stretched luxuriously, Shari opened her eyes and yawned, huddling down under the covers and pushing her warm little bottom into my lap. I was tempted to hug her closer while I grabbed another 40 winks, but I couldn't; Nicky was coming to see us, and we had things to say, things he needed to know, and something to give him.

"Come on, up, up, up!" I patted Shari's firm, juicy little rump, "Up and at 'em, babe, things to do, people to see, let's go!"

Shari groaned as she pulled the bed-covers even tighter around herself.

"It's still dark, Bobby, what time is it?" she groaned, and when I told her it was 6:45 a.m. she looked at me incredulously.

"Bobby, it's the middle of the bloody night, go back to sleep!"

I had to grin; for several years now my day had started at four in the morning, and for me 6:45 was a late start, but Shari obviously wasn't an early-morning person. However, Nicky and Ashley were due at nine o'clock, so...

I jumped out of bed and stripped the covers off her, Shari holding on to them like grim death as soon as she realised what I was doing, but I soon had them off her.

"Bobby, it's too early, just a few more minutes, pleeeeaasse!" she whined, and much as I would have liked to just let her sleep for another couple of hours, we had this thing with Nicky to finish.

"Nope, up you get, we need to get showered, dressed, and have some breakfast before they get here, so come on, Shari, don't you want to see Nicky and Ashley again?"

That did the trick. She sat up and scowled at me.

"When this is over, I'm getting you for this, just you wait and see!"

I just grinned, making her even more annoyed, but she slid off the bed and stood up, stretching, and at the sight of her slim, lithe body, parts of me stood up as well. Shari saw that immediately, and grinned happily.

"Oh look, did I do that?" she smiled, and I nodded, and she undulated closer, until she could take me in both hands.

"Shall I take care of this for you, baby?" she murmured, her eyes hooded and mysterious, and I nodded again, happily waiting for her next move. Boy was I in for a rude awakening!

Shari suddenly pinched the base of my cock between her fingernails, making me jump.




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 02



"You drag me out of my nice, warm bed at some ungodly hour and then expect me to thank you by getting wet and wild with you? I don't fucking think so, Bobby!" she gritted while my eyes bugged out of my head.

"Remember one thing, Bobby; if you want a long and peaceful life, Shari sleeps late, got it?"  

I closed my eyes as I nodded; disagreeing with her right now seemed foolhardy, seeing what she was holding. Shari waited for a few more agonizing seconds, then let go of me.

"See Bobby, that's what you need to learn; in any negotiation-type situation, always make sure you negotiate from a position of strength; mummy taught me that! Now, let's go and have a nice shower, eh?" 

I couldn't help but grin as she led me to the wet-room; Shari was always so compliant, always happy to let me take the lead, but, when she really needed to make her point, she had some pretty persuasive techniques to enforce her will, and the willingness to use them when needed. Luckily, by the time I got around to soaping her back she'd forgiven me for rousting her out so early, and promised me a treat later to say sorry for threatening my best friend.

By the time we were dressed, had made up the bed again, and were ready to order breakfast, Yaz and Ricky had joined us, so we called down and ordered a light breakfast, then sat around chatting while we waited for Room Service. We also had some things for Nicky, so Shari and I checked they were to hand, and Shari gave me another long and tender kiss to apologise for earlier, this time with extra squeezing, which meant I had to wait before rejoining the others, as I refused to walk around in front of Yaz with a tent in my trousers...

We were at the coffee stage when there was a knock at the door. Rick answered it, and ushered Nicky and Ashley into the room. Once the niceties were dispensed with, we sat around the table, six of us, all family. Nicky poured Ashley a coffee, and one for himself, then leaned back in his chair, that trademark grin and slightly raised eyebrow so much in evidence.

"So Bobby, I hear tell you guys have something for me, so tell me, I'm agog here!"

Shari left the table to pull something out of her case, and came back to the table, handing Nicky a photograph album.

"We found this in the house, stashed in one of the attics; I think it belongs to you, Nicky."

Nicky opened it, his eyes widening as picture after picture of Barbara was revealed, each page filled with his memories of his mum. His face remained expressionless as he leafed through the album, but his eyes filled, a tear eventually spilling out and running unheeded down his cheek to drip from his chin. Finally, he came to the end, and closed the album, passing it to Ashley, who looked at me in enquiry. I nodded, so she opened it, seeing for the first time images of Nicky's beloved Barbara, and pictures of Nicky as a toddler, a little boy, a schoolboy. Her lip quivered as she looked through the album, her eyes flicking occasionally to Nicky, who sat impassively until she'd finished leafing through it, finally passing it back to him.

"Thank...Thank you for this," he faltered, "it's ..." he broke off, swallowing several times, his throat clicking dryly. Yaz passed him a glass of water, which he accepted gratefully.

"Thank you, all of you; I never had anything of her, now I have this, thank you..."

Ashley pulled his head down into the angle of her neck and shoulder, her hand stroking his hair while she held him, her own eyes bright with unshed tears. Both Yaz and Shari were similarly affected, their eyes also brimming with tears in sympathy for their big brother's pain and loss. Nicky pulled his head away from Ashley and looked at us, all four of us, as we waited for him.

"Thank you, I don't know how to thank you, really..." stopping as Shari held her hand up.

"Nicky, there's more, and I don't know how to tell you, so I'm going to let you read it; then you'll know, and maybe you'll know what to do next. I wish there was another way, something other than this, but it's all we have. Nicky, mummy wants to talk to you, will you let her?"

Nicky looked puzzled, uncomprehending, but nodded. Shari went back to her case, and pulled out a thick buff envelope, which she brought back to the table and handed to him.

"Nicky, this is an affidavit my mother swore out a few days before she died. It concerns you; please read it."

Nicky looked at all of us, then opened the envelope and pulled out the thick sheaf of documents. We all watched as he unfolded the papers and began to read, watching his face alternately pale and darken, his jaw muscles bunching as he clenched and unclenched his teeth, and the occasional tremor in his hand as he read page after page. I knew what was in that terrible document, I had read it, and it had made me sick, and outraged, and deeply grateful that Robert Davies (or Brian Davis, or whoever the hell he really was) was caged up 24 hours a day in a super-maximum security federal prison, and would stay there forever. Just remembering what I had read in that affidavit made the rage churn and roil in the pit of my stomach all over again, but I knew I must be feeling only a pale shadow of what poor Nicky must be feeling right now.

We sat in silence, hardly daring to move, as Nicky read each page, finally folding the document and pushing it back into the envelope. He sighed, a deep, tremulous sigh, then stood up, motioning us down when we would have stood as well. 

"No, guys, please, I just need some air, I..." he paused; his mouth worked, then he turned and walked out of the room. I knew Nicky's expressions of old, and right now he was furious. I made to follow him, but Ashley shook her head.

"No Bobby, leave him, he'll come back when he's ready; he just needs to think, he'll be okay, don't worry about him. Do you mind...?" she asked, picking up the thick envelope. I shook my head.

"No, not at all; you're family, so this concerns you too."

Ashley began reading through the document, her face paling and her eyes hardening as she worked her way through it, finally folding it and pushing it back into the envelope, then drummed her fingers for a moment on the tabletop, her face pale and angry, before looking at Shari, her eyes once more bright with tears.

"Shereen, Yasmin, can we talk? Somewhere private?"

Yaz indicated the connecting door into her suite, and led the way, Shari trailing a hand across my arm before following the other two girls, and closing the door behind her. Rick and I sat and looked at each other; no conversation seemed appropriate, and I had nothing to say; crunch-time was here, maybe soon we'd find out if we really had Nicky back, or if he was lost to us forever. 

There was no sound coming from the other suite; with the door closed, it was effectively soundproof, but we listened-out anyway, to try and maybe get a hint of what was being said; they probably weren't arguing. Ashley had looked like she needed a shoulder, not an argument, as did the girls; seeing Nicky so affected had obviously reached into them as well, and they probably needed some girl-time right now. Rick and me sat and waited, silent and thoughtful, wondering if we'd see Nicky again today, or any time soon. 

After what seemed like several eternities, but was probably no more than 15 or 20 minutes, the door to Yaz & Rick's suite opened and the girls came in, looking like they'd all had a good cry, but also calm, and oddly, upbeat as well. Whatever had been said had obviously done all of them some good. As they seated themselves, there was a knock on the door, and Yaz opened it, to find Nicky there, looking pale and drawn, but no longer furious, no longer expressionless. Yaz slipped her hand into his, and he patted her hand and smiled distractedly at her as she led him back to the table. He'd obviously been thinking and he began speaking almost before he'd sat down.

"Thank you, all of you. I wish I'd come here better prepared for all this, but now I know, that's the main thing. There's just one thing I have to know, Shereen; why did you show me that thing? I was starting to get past all that; going to see her helped me start to let her go; why did you bring this all back to me?"

Shari shared a quick glance with Ashley, who nodded.

"Nicky, we brought you this because I thought you'd know how to get that fucker to pay for everything he did; the authorities in England didn't do much, they just handed him over like he wasn't any concern of theirs, and that's just wrong! Just like you, Bobby and Ricky need closure too, and they need justice, so do I, and Yaz, and Ashley, and I thought this was the place, and you were the one to help. You helped get that filthy bastard caged-up in the first place; please help us find a way to make him pay for everything else; he killed mummy, Nicky, he has to pay, he hurt her, and he hurt her, and she died!"  

Nicky started at that, his hand going out to take Shari's hand as two tears ran down her cheeks, pulling her close and holding her against him as she cried silently, stroking her hair as he soothed her. When she'd recovered somewhat, he fished out a handkerchief and dried her eyes, Shari smiling wanly as he did so.

"You're right, Shereen, he did, and I forgot that, I'm sorry, I won't let that happen again! All my sisters have reason to make that bastard pay, so let's do just that. David, Doctor Nixon, has an old friend with the FBI here in Albany, maybe he can somehow use this to put that bastard back to trial, this time on murder charges; he killed Barbara, he caused your mother's death, he did...what he did to Ashley, you're right, he should pay!"

Shari wordlessly hugged him, then gently kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you Nicky, thank you for being my big brother! And Nicky, my family calls me "Shari..."

Nicky grinned, his face losing some of its pallor, suddenly looking again like the Nicky I remembered.

"I'm sorry...Shari, and what should I call you, little-little sister?" he grinned at Yaz.

"Everyone calls me Yaz, so should you...bigger Big-Brother!" she retorted, grinning cheekily. 

Ashley cleared her throat.

"Actually, Yaz, you'd be little-little-little sister; I'm older than you, you know!"

Rick looked puzzled, then understanding flared in his eyes.

"You mean...?" and Nicky nodded. 

"That's right, Ashley's also my sister, my half-sister actually, which sort of makes her your sister too, although I'm buggered if I know how; I think we need a new word in English for 'the wife of my brother who is also my brother's sister, but is no relation of mine; "sister" doesn't quite seem to cover it...!"

Rick leaned back and grinned.

"I tell you, when our family sets out to blur the lines, we do a bloody good job of it!" which brought chuckles from around the table.

Yaz seemed to have something on her mind. Nicky noticed and asked her what was up.

"Nicky, mummy said you were badly hurt, that our fathe...Robert hurt you; did he do that?" she indicated the scar above and running the length of his right eyebrow.

Nicky grinned. "No, I got jumped by a tree, but one day my daughter's going to think I got it when I fought a bear, so keep it to yourselves, OK?"

"It was my fault he got that!" said Ashley, her eyes on Nicky as all our eyes swivelled to her. "I left him in the forest at night, I got angry with him when he told me what your father had done to me, and I abandoned him, and he could have died!"

Nicky was by her side in a flash, holding her against him.

"It was a long time ago, baby, let it go, I did, it happened, it's long over, leave it, please!"

It felt good to see Nicky, the one who'd always been left out, be so much in love, to have someone who loved him so much, and to finally be happy. He looked into Ashley's eyes, and smiled at her.

"It's all over baby, it's gone, I promise you." She looked up at him, her face set and resolute.

"Show them, Nicky, show them what he did; your family needs to see what happened to you, what he did to you. Please Nicky, just show them!" 

"Ashley, please..." he began, but Shari cut him short.

"Show us what, Nicky? What happened, what did he do to you?"

Ashley looked at him and nodded, and he slowly nodded, and pulled off his jacket and the black "Mark One" polo shirt underneath and turned his back to us.

"Ooohh fuck!" exclaimed Rick, with shocked gasps the only sound from Shari and Yaz. I turned my head away, sickened by the sight before me; Nicky's back was a mass of criss-crossing red welts, from his shoulders to the small of his back, some of them 6 inches long, so many there was virtually no unmarked skin visible between the welts, mute testimony to the savagery of the beating he'd taken.

"Dad...did that?" Rick whispered, "How?"

Ashley snorted.

"He used his belt buckle, like he always did, it was his favorite tool; my mom has some like that on her back as well, but nothing like that. When Nicky came to us, he looked like he'd been flayed alive, it took a year for his back to heal, and he won't admit it, but I know it still hurts him; that bastard damaged so many nerve-endings it'll never stop hurting. I guess this is what he meant by 'a Father's true legacy!'" 

Shari had tears in her eyes as she picked up his shirt and handed it back to him, and hugged him as he pulled it down over his head. Nicky held her tightly, his hand against the back of her head as she buried her face in his neck, then Yaz and Ashley joined them in a group hug, Nicky suddenly in the middle of a triple sister-hug, three beautiful girls holding him as tightly as they could.

When the girls had let him go, and more or less got their emotions under control, Nicky called his step-father and explained what we'd shown him. They chatted for a few more minutes, then Nicky hung up and smiled at all of us.

"Dad's calling his friend at the FBI, hopefully he'll want to see this right away, and dad and mum will swing by later so we can have a proper family talk over lunch." He seemed pensive, then cocked an eye at me.

"The only thing here that I find strange is that you guys come to Albany to look for me, and the first person you bump into is someone who knows me, and is engaged to my step-sister; as far as I'm concerned, that's stretching coincidence just a little too far, but then, it's not the first time..." 

I looked at him questioningly, so he told us a story about when he'd come home to see Barbara's grave, they'd left the cemetery and were on the motorway back to their hotel, Ashley had flicked on the radio, to hear the DJ play a record request from Barbara to Nick, the Beach Boys' "Little Saint Nick", Barbara's nickname for Nicky growing up. 

Rick and I exchanged glances, and Rick nodded, so I told them about why we'd helped Leon in that alleyway; because I'd heard Rick's voice, as clear as day, shouting "help him!", while Rick asserted he'd heard me tell him to help Leon, which is why he'd jumped in. Whoever had called out, though, the result had been that we'd befriended the one person who could lead us straight to our missing brother. Coincidence? Ashley didn't think so.

"Bobby, Rick, I think someone wanted you to meet Nicky, I think they wanted it real bad, because here you are, and here he is. Maybe this 'Guardian Angel' business has something to it after all, or perhaps it's just that so much has been set in motion, it was time for all of you to meet-up again; sometimes fate does take a hand, maybe this is one of those times!"

We talked in this vein for a while, gradually moving on to our lives and what we were doing now. I was intrigued to hear that Nicky was the boss at his lace of work, the "Mark One" logo was the emblem of the company he worked for; in fact, he, Ashley and Judy were co-owners of Mark One Auto Engineering, with a new auto shop opening soon, a specialist shop where they were going to build replica and road-race vehicles and high-performance engines. Leon and Judy were getting the shop as a wedding present, when they married after she graduated from medical school, but it was still a secret, so all Leon knew was that he was going to be lead mechanic at the new shop. 

Shari and Yaz gave him a little of their background working in the property business with their mother, and told him about the house we'd bought to redevelop, which was how we'd found the letter that had brought us here. We'd chatted for what only seemed like a few minutes when Ashley's phone rang. She answered it and spoke briefly.

"OK guys, that was mom; they'll meet us in the restaurant in 10 minutes." 

I looked at my watch and was amazed to see we'd been talking for over three hours, and now it was gone 12:30, lunchtime. The girls all refreshed their makeup, although they really didn't need any; we Davis men had incredibly good taste when it came to our women, because apparently we'd all picked bronze-haired goddesses.

We'd just taken our seats in the restaurant when David and Julia joined us. Now that I had leisure to see, I was struck by how much Nicky resembled his mother; sure, he looked like dad, so did Rick and I, but Nicky's hair and eyes, the way he held his head, and especially his profile, all pure Julia. 

David was smiling and friendly, once again impressing me with how calm and urbane he was; Nicky had done amazingly well to snag him for a step-dad, he gave off the "good-guy" vibe in big loud waves, and Rick and the girls were obviously feeling it as well. Julia looked amused that all of us were responding so well to David; obviously she'd heard stuff about us from Nicky, all true, and was having trouble reconciling that image with the new us, but she didn't look like she was holding any grudges.

After a few pleasantries, and some banter as we ordered lunch, David asked if he could read the affidavit document. He read through it while we waited for our starters, then read through it again, his face becoming set and drawn, his lips thinning to two bloodless lines, and his jaw muscles trembling and rippling as he clenched and unclenched his teeth. 

Eventually he put it down and looked at all of us, his eyes hard and angry, and wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. Julia stroked his cheek, her eyes concerned.

"David, what's wrong, darling, what is it?" she asked, and David leaned back in his seat, visibly trying to relax his arms and shoulders.

"I've never in my life...read this, Julia, it's the vilest, most disgusting...dear God, how can anybody sink so low...the FBI will definitely need to see this; God, it's like wading through a cess-pit!"

Julia raised an eyebrow as she took the document from him, her expression becoming set and drawn as she read through it, to finally drop it with a deep sigh, her bottom lip trembling as she unconsciously wiped her hands on her jeans.

"He really did all this?" she whispered, and Shari nodded.

"We were there, we saw what he did to mummy, we watched as he beat and abused her, stole everything from her, and she couldn't do anything; he threatened Yaz and me, he even tried to rape Yaz, but she managed to get away. Everything in there is true; I took an oath when I swore it was a true account, I stand by it now, so does Yasmin!"

Julia reached across and cupped her face, her eyes filled with outrage, but also sympathy and compassion. She gently brushed a strand of hair out of Shari's face and smiled gently.

"He's in jail now, and he will be for the rest of his life; that's punishment enough, and maybe even justice. What more can we do?"

Shari's face set in harsh lines, her anger just below the surface.

"That's not enough! Caging him up isn't justice; perhaps now, with this, we can put a rope around his filthy neck! Brian Davis has too much to answer for, he deserves to die for what he did, maybe now we have a way to make him pay for mummy, and for Barbara! No hell is too much for him, he deserves to burn!"




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 02



Julie put both hands on her face, pulling her round to look into her eyes.

"No, Shereen, stop that! Don't think like that! Revenge is a dead-end street; the punishment he's living now, a cell deep underground for the rest of his life, that's enough, that's a death sentence for a man like Brian Davis. Don't be like him; if you let him in, you become like him, and he's won; don't give him that! He's a killer, and he deserves his punishment, but don't be so ready to take a life; that's what he did, and now look where he is. Let the system punish him, he's earned it!"

Shari stared defiantly at Julia, her eyes hard and unforgiving, then suddenly her face crumpled and two big tears ran down her cheeks. Julia pulled her close, holding her against her shoulder as she sobbed silently. I went to take her, but Nicky put his hand on my arm.

"No Bobby, let mum handle it, she knows what she's doing!"

David had been on the phone while Julia spoke with Shari; now it was his turn to smile grimly.

"I just spoke with Special Agent Mike Walker of the FBI, he's asked me to bring that document in immediately, and the two witnesses, so Yasmin, Shereen, when you're ready, if you would please come with me, we're going to the FBI building. The rest of you, please carry on with your lunch, the ladies and I won't be too long."

Shari was looking apprehensive, so pulled her a little closer and hugged her.

"Bobby, it's the FBI, what if they..."

I cut her off.

"Just tell them the truth, baby-girl, that everything in that affidavit is the truth, that you witnessed dad telling your mother about what he'd done, and you saw him do some of the stuff in there, both of you did. Dr. Nixon thinks they'll be able to do something, just trust him...I do." 

Nicky leaned across the table and put his hand over hers.

"Listen to Bobby, he's telling the truth; we got that bastard once, this is the way to make him pay for everything else he's done to all of us. Go and make your statement, you'll be OK, Mike Walker's a nice guy, he helped put Brian Davis away before, maybe this time, with his help, we can find a way to really make him pay for what he did!"

Yaz stood up and held out her hand to Shari, who leaned down and kissed me, then squared her shoulders. Ashley stood up and hugged her, and I heard her whisper "Just tell him everything, Shari, don't leave anything out; perhaps this time round they'll make him pay for what he did to all of us. Don't be frightened, dad will be there, he'll take care of you!"

As the three of them walked toward the exit, I saw Doctor Nixon slip his arms around the girls' shoulders in a comforting gesture, the gesture of a father reassuring his daughters. Both girls in return slipped their arms around his waist, holding themselves against him as they walked out to the lobby. Julia grinned as she pointed at the trio with her chin.

"Look, I think we just acquired a couple more kids!" 

Conversation now moved on to us, to our lives and what we were doing. I was still unsure how to deal with Nicky's mother; she had every reason in the world to despise us for what we'd allowed to happen to her son, although she was never less than gracious and friendly. I kept stumbling over what to call her; "Julia" seemed inappropriately familiar, "Mrs. Nixon" seemed cold and formal given her connection to our big brother, and "Nicky's Mum" just seemed childish. Julia seemed to understand how I was floundering a bit when it came to her, so she decided to give me an out.

"Bobby, it's okay to call me Julia, I don't mind, really!"

I mumbled something about how it seemed a little rude and too familiar, making her grin, looking uncannily like Nicky for a split second.

"Alright, then let's try something else; long ago, Nicky told me all about you, both of you, and then last night he told me how it's been for you since he left. I understand how things can change, and I know from talking to all of you last night just how much has changed for you; sometimes, when the scales fall from your eyes, the world you see around you really is new, and a new world means new opportunities...and sometimes, second chances."

She paused to push the hair back from my eyes, something Shari was perpetually doing.

"I know how you were brought up, and I don't hold it against you, you didn't know any better, but there was one thing missing from your life that Nicky had in abundance; he had Barbara to be his mother, and she kept him safe and made him who he is, and I will always love her for that. You and Rick, you had no-one like that, and my heart breaks for you; Shari and Yasmin had their mother all their lives, they only lost her a little while ago, poor things, but you never had anyone, so maybe, if you want to, you can share me with Nicky? Your sisters seem to have adopted David, if you want, you can adopt me; I don't think Nicky and Ashley will mind sharing me!"

I was dumbstruck; I'd never heard such a preposterous, lunatic, unrealistic...and wonderful thing in my life. I looked at Rick, looking for some sort of guidance, something to tell me how to respond. Rick must have got it immediately, because he was grinning and nodding.

"Say yes, Bobby, you need this! I got to share Yaz's mum for two years, and it was the best time of my life; whatever I am now, she showed me how to get here, so give yourself a chance, big feller, you might even like it!" 

Julia took my hand and smiled at my expression.

"It's alright, Bobby, really, there's no catch. Maybe you need to call someone 'mum'; God knows, you never had the chance before. You gave your mother to Nicky, I think it's only fair he shares his with you, isn't that right baby?"

Nicky leaned over and slapped me on the shoulder.

"Go with it Bobby; she's won, you know you want to!"

I drew a deep breath, scared and apprehensive for probably the first time in my life, but Rick and Nicky both smiled and nodded, as did Ashley, so I took the plunge.

"You really don't mind if I...call you mum, even after what I did?"

Julia (mum!) smiled as she once again swiped that fringe of hair out of my eyes.

"Bobby, you're my son's little brother; whatever went on in the past, you're still his family, so that makes you part of my family too. Besides, Rachel's all excited because suddenly she's got two new big brothers; all she did this morning was talk about Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, you may never get her to leave you alone! Judy and Leon had to take her and Barbara to the play center in Rotterdam otherwise she'd be here climbing all over the pair of you, so I think I'll go with her instincts!"

I didn't know what to say, I was still almost in shock, but the good kind; Nicky's mum was being kind to me, and she'd let me into her family, Rick and me; this was how the world changed, a little at a time, but a profound change for me. I had to say something.

"Thank you...mum, I won't let you down, I promise!"

My new mother grinned at me, and squeezed my arm.

"OK, that's all settled, now let's have some lunch!"

*

Doctor Nixon and the girls never made it back for lunch, so the five of us made our way back up to my suite to wait for them. Mum (and I was still trying that word out for size!) looked through the photo album, her eyes brimming as she looked at pictures of the young Nicky the way she should be remembering him, anger sizzling in me that his childhood had been stolen from her. Her attention switched from the pictures of Nicky to those of Barbara, and a copy of the framed picture we had at home. Her eyes flicked from the photo to Rick and me and back again, comparing our features, obviously seeing our mother in us.

"She was beautiful..." she softly observed, and Nicky nodded slowly.

"Yes, she was, she was so beautiful..." he whispered, and my heart broke for him at the raw pain and loss still apparent in his eyes, his voice. Mum caught the look, the tremor in his voice, and pulled him closer.

"Don't worry, baby, we'll fix this; all my boys are here, together they'll fix this once and for all, just have faith, baby, that's what your dad's always telling you, trust the system, it usually works!"

Ashley stood behind his chair and hugged him, her lips level with his ear.

"Mom's right, baby, let the law take care of that lunatic. He's already been kennelled, maybe this time we've got enough to drag him in front of a judge and drive home that he never got away with anything. You said it once, baby; 'the mills of God grind slowly', let them grind him fine and scatter the pieces, and that will be an end to it. Last time was payback, now perhaps we'll see some real justice."

*

It was late afternoon before the girls and Nick's step-father arrived back at the suite. They were cautiously optimistic, especially since one of the FBI's legal experts had gone over the document, and taken fresh statements from both girls. In his opinion, Barbara's alleged murder was connected to the crimes my father had already been convicted of, committed in order to prevent her reporting him to the authorities. With new evidence now come to light, and with the Justice Department agreeing that the affidavit amounted to a "Dying Declaration" made by Shari's mother, the State Department was considering requesting that the UK Home Office either provide a complete forensic report of the investigation into her death and any DNA results obtained from the "suicide" scene, together with the post-mortem examination report, or turn over all remaining physical evidence to the Federal Prosecutor's office for them to start their own investigation. 

That evening, we held a family meeting, to decide our next step. The girls wanted to spend a little time with Nicky and his family. Rick and I were feeling something similar; I'd never bothered to get close to Nicky; the most I'd ever felt for him was resentment that he had Barbara, and that he seemed perfectly happy to have her and not us. Now, however, I was feeling a deep and inexplicable need to be near him, to reconnect with him, almost the way I'd felt when Rick had come home.

Also, I was enjoying having a mum; I was still feeling the wonder of saying that word, a word that had never fallen from my mouth my entire life before this day. Nicky's mother had made us part of her family, and I wanted to keep feeling that feeling a little longer. The girls were obviously in love with Nicky's step-dad; the only father they'd known had been a violent psychopath; now they were experiencing what a real father felt like, and they were understandably reluctant to let that go.

Nicky had invited us to stay with him and Ashley in their home, so the family could all be together; his mum (our mum!) lived a few minutes' drive from his home; we had no pressing business back in Carlisle, no jobs to return to, and abundant funds, so we'd accepted.

Once Shari and I were alone, she began to cry, the memory of the statement she'd had to make rising up and catching her unawares, things she'd forgotten or deliberately suppressed once again fresh and raw, and I had a desperate time calming her as the edge of hysteria cut across her again and again. Finally I managed to calm her, holding her close as she slept fitfully, eventually sinking into a deeper sleep. 

I woke with a start; something had snapped me awake, and my hand automatically felt for Shari, but I was alone in the bed. I sat up, and dimly in the glow from the street lights far below, I saw her, wrapped in her favourite robe, sitting in a chair and looking at the Albany nightscape.

"I'm sorry baby, I didn't mean to disturb you..." she murmured, and I climbed out of bed and padded over to her.

"You didn't, I just missed you, that's all. What are you looking at?"

She motioned me down next to her and draped her legs over mine, plumping up a cushion as she leaned back.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? Look at all those lights. Somewhere down there, there are people trying their best to get justice for us. I'm glad I came, I'm glad the people who matter the most are helping us. Maybe they can really make a difference, maybe mummy, and Barbara, and poor Nicky will finally have some peace. I hope so. Take me back to bed, baby."

She swivelled her long legs off me, and as I stood, she grinned and held out her arms to me, so I picked her up and carried her back to our bed, setting her down gently and climbing up next to her. She smiled gently and pushed my hair out of my eyes and touched her forehead to mine, her eyes luminous in the dim glow from outside.

"Make love to me, Bobby, make babies in me. Nicky and Ashley are so happy, they have such a beautiful baby, that's all I want for us; to be that happy, with your baby growing inside me. I know Yaz feels the same way; she and Rick have been ready for a while now, and now coming here and meeting our family has finally made it all come together for both of us. I'm in love with you, I think I have been from the moment I met you, and I know you love me the same way; all I want is a life and family with you, so make me happy, Bobby, make a baby with me!"

My heart leaped as I listened to her, things I hadn't understood, or didn't know how to express, suddenly becoming clear as day; I wanted so much to have a family with this beautiful girl. I loved her so much it was a deep and abiding ache inside me, but a sweet and infinitely bearable ache, one I would gladly carry for all the days of my life. I wanted to make babies with her; I was ready to begin a family of my own, and to hear her say it unlocked all those things inside me.

Shari must have seen my thoughts and my resolution in my eyes, her smile telling me just how close and in-tune she really was with me. She sat and untied the sash of her brief robe, letting it fall away from her beautiful, lithe body. As always, the sight of her nakedness primed me as nothing else could, a fact she took note of as her small hand encircled my suddenly bone-hard cock.

"Are you really ready for this baby?" she whispered, and I replied with a soft barrage of kisses on her lips, her eyes, and her elegant neck. She pressed me back slightly as she looked deeply into my eyes.

"Tell me, baby, because this is my fertile time, and I've been off the pill for a while now, so you need to tell me now whether you're ready to go wherever this takes us!" 

I squeezed her delightful little bum as I pulled her closer to me.

"Shari, all I want is to make babies with you, tonight; you're all I want, you're all I'll ever want, you, and our babies. I'm more than ready, I have been for a while now, I just never realised it until just now. I know I asked you before, but now I'm asking formally, the way I should have; will you marry me?"

Shari grinned and pecked me lightly on the lips.

"Of course I will, I've been waiting for you to ask me properly for ages! Now make me happy, Bobby, make love to me, make a baby in me!"

All the while we'd been speaking, she'd been gently pumping me, making my already painfully erect cock throb even more urgently. As we kissed, she pulled me over her, her smooth thighs parting as I slid between them and positioned myself. Once more, she checked my eyes, then nodded as I slowly pushed forward, feeling the delicious wet heat and succulence, and hearing her gasp as I slid all the way into her, her hips coming up to meet mine as I pumped into her. Back and forth we went, our hips in perfect synchronization as we fucked, my cock never feeling so hard and rigid as it did right now. Faster and faster we went, faint gasps and soft moans escaping both of us as we approached our mutual climax, the agony of holding back as her pussy squeezed and massaged me matched by the love and intensity of our kisses as we held each other close while we coupled. 

At last, it was too much; Shari gave a loud hissing moan as her pussy clamped down on me, holding me tight inside her. The pressure set me off, and I swear I felt my cock-head swell inside her as what felt like endless pulses of spunk jetted out of me and deep into her, bathing her womb and cervix in my seed. My eyesight dimmed and blurred with the intensity of my orgasm, and my ears popped, only distantly hearing Shari scream as her orgasm gathered and roared through her again at the feel of me pumping hot spunk into her fertile depths.

We made love three more times that night; I couldn't get enough of Shari, and she seemed to feel the same, and so we spent the remainder of the night enfolded and entwined with each other, unable to stop taking our pleasure of each other, the urge to make our baby overpowering and all-consuming. We finally fell asleep, exhausted, in the grey pre-dawn light, satisfied, sated, and hoping that we'd fulfilled our promise to each other. 

*

The progress of the case was agonizingly slow; wheels turned within wheels as our two governments fought and argued and wrangled over the legal niceties; in effect, debating over the true meaning of a peach, until eventually we decided that we'd spent enough time lotus-eating, and it was time to get our own lives back on track. David promised to keep us updated, and Nicky and Ashley promised to come and see us soon, so, with much crying and hugging, we returned to England to wait for things to resolve themselves.

It took almost three months for the British Government to stop procrastinating and comply with the request made by the FBI. The Home Office pathologist's report into the post-mortem was incomprehensible, and, according to Doctor Nixon, so hopelessly botched that it provided no credible evidence one way or another. The photographs taken at the scene were something else; the bruises and cuts covering her body were apparent to all, yet had somehow completely failed to be mentioned in the Post-Mortem report. According to Mike Walker, the pathologist concerned had been suspended pending a competency hearing, and an investigation into his connection, if any, with Brian Davis. 

Other things had also happened. Shari was pregnant, as was Yaz; suddenly our family was breaking out in babies, a new generation to teach about their grandmothers, and bring-up with all the love that had been missing from our lives.

Time dragged on, and just as we were beginning to doubt that anything could be done, the Cumbria Police Forensics Unit sent the evidence gathered from Barbara's supposed suicide. After a tense wait of almost two weeks, we got a call from Nicky, asking us to come home, the case had taken several turns in our favour, and we needed to be there, especially Yaz and Shari. We still had our visas, so it was a simple matter to get flights, and two days later we were meeting Special Agent Walker at his office in town.

When we'd assembled and taken our seats, Mike Walker began to speak.

"In my official capacity as Special Agent in charge of this case, to wit, the investigations into the death of Barbara Morrison Davis, I have to inform you that the Forensic DNA tests, using evidence provided by our police colleagues in England, have provided a positive and conclusive result. The rope that was allegedly used by Mrs. Davis to commit suicide has been found to contain epithelial cells of the person who knotted the rope. Those cells have been matched 99.9999%, with a sample taken from Brian Robert Davis. The laboratory has confirmed there is a probability of better than 1 billion to one against any other member of the human race having tied that rope and left those cells. Other physical evidence also points to a second party having first immobilised Mrs. Davis before knotting the rope in a manner intended to convey to others that she had in fact done it herself. We have therefore formally requested that the United States Department of Justice bring Brian Robert Davis to trial on charges of murder in the First Degree."

I realised I'd been holding my breath, only breathing out as I gradually comprehended what he was saying; they were putting that bastard back on trial, they were going to try him for murder!




Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 02



Special Agent Walker wasn't finished.

"Ordinarily, a murder committed outside United States jurisdiction is considered a matter for the local authorities to deal with, but in this case a Federal judge has ruled that, since your mother was killed by Brian Davis in furtherance of his crimes against America, it would have formed part of the original indictment against him if the evidence had been made available at the time of his original trial. The British authorities have raised no objections, other than the usual, to him being tried under a Federal Indictment for First Degree murder in the commission of crimes against America. Without your help, we would never have been able to bring this about, thank you all for your invaluable help and assistance. The trial will be held as speedily as possible, but it won't be soon; the Federal courts have a long backlog of cases, but I will do my best to keep you updated as and when anything new comes up."

As it happens, that bastard never got to trial; a week later, on the advice of his attorney, he pleaded-out, admitting his guilt for a technical reduction of his sentence. We were in court to watch the bastard allocute to his crimes, listening as he described in sickening detail what he'd done to our mother, and why. Part of his plea-bargain was that he give explicit details, which he did, with no hint of emotion, no signs of remorse, nothing; he could have been reading a laundry-list for all the expression in his voice or on his face. The bastard never once looked at us as we sat there, all his children in a row, all of us there to watch his final downfall. 

At the end of his speech, the Federal Prosecutor confirmed to the judge the terms of the deal that had been struck; that Brian Davis would receive a sentence of 30 years to life for the murder of Barbara Morrison Davis. The judge noted the plea for the court record, and then informed that ...creature that he would serve the term consecutively to his current sentence, ensuring that there was no possibility of him ever leaving prison alive. It was a fit sentence, and a victory for us; at last, justice had been done, that bastard had admitted in open court what he had done, and had been convicted and sentenced for his acts. Now our mother could rest, her "suicide" wiped from the record, and her last resting place could be blessed, something she would have wanted.

We filed out of court in silence; there was no rejoicing, this wasn't something to celebrate, but it was a day to remember; we had seen justice done, and I was content. We had seen and heard that bastard admit his guilt, and really speaking, I had no issues with the sentence; Brian Davis was in his late fifties, he still had almost 40 years to serve on his original sentence, with no possibility of parole, now he had an additional 30 years, sealing his fate, and he'd be doing it from a hole in the ground far from any contact with the rest of the human race. Time was going to drag heavily for him, perhaps he'd take that time and reflect on what he'd done, although that was probably not very likely; people like my father don't feel guilt; if they did, they wouldn't do the things they did. He'd taken a life, and caused the end of another, he'd ruined lives and almost destroyed his children, he'd hurt and damaged us, and caused unspeakable suffering. Now he'd waste his life away in a hole, a forgotten, pathetic relic of a time best forgotten too.

Nicky had been right, and so had Ashley; the mills of God had ground him fine, and found nothing worth saving; he had bought and paid for the fate that awaited him, and there was no-one left who could or would mourn him. I, however, was paradoxically glad that New York had no death penalty; I didn't want his death on my conscience, or that of any other member of my family; that his crimes had condemned him to a tiny cubicle 80 feet underground for the rest of his life was entirely his own doing, and it was justice enough for me.

A month later, a Requiem Mass was said for my mother at our local catholic church in Carlisle, where the stigma of suicide was removed from her and she was rejoined with the Catholic Church. 

Afterwards, a short, but profoundly moving service was held at her grave-side, where our mother's grave was formally consecrated in accordance with her beliefs, and the proper prayers of her faith said over her for the repose of her soul. All of the family was there to say goodbye to our mother, and pray for her to be at peace at last. 

Poor Nicky is still at war with himself over her death, but I think the service gave him some of that peace and closure he so desperately needed, and he has Ashley to help him, and mum, and all of us who played their part in giving our mother peace at last.

*

Two years have passed since the events described above, two full, satisfying years. Shari and I have a little girl now, Ayesha, named after her mother, and the spitting image of Shari. Rick and Yasmin have a little boy named David. We also have another one on the way, as does Yaz, only both girls are having boys this time. 

Nicky and Ashley spend several weeks a year with us, as do Judy and Leon; Shari and I feel very strongly that maintaining close family links is the most important thing we can do for our extended family, so every summer, Nicky, Ashley, little Barbara, and their youngest, Judy, the baby of the family, try and spend at least a couple of weeks in England, and we return the favour over Thanksgiving or the Christmas holidays. The house is always alive with conversation, and the sound of children playing, something I think Barbara would have appreciated. 

I know she's still with us, though, and it's not just supposition; I know, believe me. 

This summer just gone, everyone was here, Nicky and Ashley and their kids, Judy, mum, step-dad David, and of course, my little sister by adoption, Rachel. I was sitting in the family room catching my breath after chasing kids all over the house, with Rachel sitting on me watching the Disney channel on the big plasma in there. Everyone else was in the kitchen, talking and drinking coffee while they got the things ready for the barbecue we'd planned. I was just dropping-off, hoping to catch a little snooze before the barbecue, when Rachel clambered off me and disappeared. In my half-asleep state I heard her laughing and talking in the dining-room. I paid it no mind, settling down to try and recapture my snooze, when she climbed back onto my lap and shook me awake the way she usually did; by pulling my bottom lip and making my head nod.

"What? Don't do that Rachel, please!" I mumbled, so she thumped me on the chest.

"Wake up, Bobby, wake up!" she pestered, so I cocked an eye at her.

"What's the matter, Rachel, I'm tired?" I grumbled, unable to even think about sleeping while she bounced on my stomach.

"I got something for you Bobby, look!"

I opened my eyes, and stared in shock. She was wearing Barbara's charm bracelet, dangling it from her wrist.

"Where...where did you get that, Baby?" I asked her, and she grinned her gap-toothed smile at me.

"The nice lady gave it to me!" she giggled, taking it off and dangling it in front of me, admiring all the tiny charms and medallions depending from it.

"What 'nice lady'?" I whispered, and she squirmed around and pointed at Barbara's picture on the mantelpiece.

"Her! She told me to give it to you, and I had to tell you something, too; she said that she loved you, and Ricky, and Little Saint Nick, and all the babies, and me too! She was nice! Is she your mommy? She looks like you! Who's Little Saint Nick?"

I asked Rachel to go and get Nicky and Rick, and waited until she came back in, towing both of them behind her. Nicky grinned at me as he picked up his littlest sister.

"What's up, Bobby? Rachel said you want to talk to us."

I held up the bracelet, Nicky's eyes widening as he saw it, as did Rick's.

"Rachel, tell Nicky what you just told me." I urged, so she did, pointing at the photograph when I asked her who the lady was. Nicky's eyes filled as he held the bracelet, then he smiled as he picked up and kissed the little girl.

"You're so lucky, baby-girl, so, so lucky. That lady is the loveliest lady in the world, and she came a long, long way to see you, so you must always keep that safe, OK?"

Rachel nodded, reaching out to rub at Nicky's eyes.

"Don't cry Nicky, you're a big boy!" as she hugged him, then kissed him on the tip of his nose.

"The nice lady said I had to give you that!" she giggled, and Nicky grinned back, hoisting her higher as we made our way into the cool kitchen, where our family waited for us.