3 comments/ 18682 views/ 2 favorites Saving Virgil By: Cinner "You're asking me to take my clothes off for a stranger? For money?" Catherine could not believe what she had heard. Virgil had got himself into trouble yet again and needed her to clean up the mess for him. This she had come to expect, but it seemed that she was never able to do enough for him, never able to convince him to stay in rehab long enough to get well. Now, he was asking the impossible of her. Without discussing it with her, he had promised some artist to whom he owed money that she would pose nude for him. "It's not as if it's prostitution or anything!" Virgil whined. "Don't be like that!" Catherine wanted to hit the young man standing in front of her. There were times when she hated him, and this was one of those times, but she knew that she would do as she always did; she would try to help. She had promised their parents that she would protect him if ever he got into trouble. She had meant it at the time, but now she wondered if the pact made with her father, three months before he died, wasn't really one made with the Devil himself. "Look, how much do you owe this man?" "Four thousand dollars." "In what currency, Virgil?" Catherine held her breath. "US..." "Four thousand dollars, US! Jesus, Virgil! How comes? Are you fucking crazy? Why would anyone lend you four thousand US dollars? What did you do with the money?" "You're always telling me to get a job so I was trying to start my own business," he replied sulkily. "Start your own business?" she realised that she couldn't decide if her brother was actually on something and lying to her during this conversation, and that thought scared her. "Doing what? What sort of business did you start, Virgil?" "I was going to start my own gardening service; you know, mowing lawns and trimming hedges and stuff like that." It was not the answer that she had expected, and that served to knock her off balance. The speech that she had prepared stayed on the tip of her tongue and instead, a wave of pity for the lost young man swept over her. "I don't see why you'd need four thousand dollars for that, but if that is what you really used the money to do, we have to find a way to pay him back!" she whispered instead. "He doesn't want the money anymore. He wants you." "He want's me? Why the hell would he want me?" Her blood pressure began to rise again. She knew that she had to hear Virgil out, but it was the last thing that she wanted to do. "He saw you with me the other day, and he knew that you are my sister, and he said that if you did this favour for him then he'd forgive my debt," he whined. "He said that perhaps you could help him..." he trailed off, only slightly embarrassed at last. Catherine became angry again at the too casual way in which her brother said this. She knew that it was true that she was his main asset, but this transaction was just too literally commercial for her taste. Did her brother and his creditor really see her as a commodity, something to be traded freely? Wasn't this kind of thing illegal? "You know something, V; it's your problem. You have to learn some responsibility. I'm not doing it. Work your way out of this yourself," she said changing her mind again. "Look! How many other girls can say that someone paid them four thousand dollars to pose nude for two hours? It's not as if he's asking for sex or anything! He says that he thinks that you're beautiful. He said that you reminded him of his wife or something." "His wife? Are you kidding me? So what would she have to say about this? Look, if your friend wants to see a naked woman he can go surf the Net! I am not doing this." Virgil didn't raise the issue again for two days and Catherine hoped that they had drawn a line under the incident. She couldn't imagine how that could be true, but she wondered if he was at least trying to figure things out for himself for a change. Then she heard him whispering on the phone in her kitchen while eating food that he'd pilfered from her refrigerator. "Look, I'll get your money! I just need more time. Things didn't take off as I thought they would; some guys pay their sons or do it themselves... I'm trying to run a legitimate business... I just need some time!" Virgil sounded desperate. The conversation that she had overheard lent some spurious credence to his claim to have been starting a gardening service. For the first time she wondered what sort of person had given him the money. Knowing him, it was probably a loan shark; someone who would probably kill him if he failed to pay it back. If that were true though the man could be looking to her for long-term prostitution, incredible promises of debt-forgiveness aside. Did Virgil really try to sell her for US$4,000.00? Catherine did not know what she thought would happen when she pressed the button at the gate of a huge manor on the outskirts of the town. A movie set was the image that came into her mind. The endless carpet of green lawn was ruffled in the distance by small, decorative hillocks and artistic roughs. She could imagine someone playing golf here except that he might interrupt the two horses that grazed serenely beside a nearby stream. The water flowed lazily under some old-looking moss-covered weeping willows away to her right. It was incredible that people actually lived this way in Jamaica. That a loan shark would have this good taste surprised her in the extreme. The man who opened the door surprised her even more. He looked as if he might be in his late 50s or early 60s, more a successful writer or academic than a sleazy usurer. His mane of iron-grey hair suggested that he was once a redhead. It was swept back aristocratically and very nearly hid the slight thinning at the back. His bushy eyebrows could have looked fierce except that they hovered over laughing eyes. He was a little thick around the middle, but all in all, Catherine felt that she would have hugged him if she could. He was her type, her Daddy-bear type. She felt a little sorry that she had not dressed up a bit more, though she had thought it wise at the time not to do so when she had decided to try to reason with the man to give her and her brother more time to pay him his money. She had not expected to find herself talking with the man with whom she slept every night in her fantasies. It disappointed and shamed her to think that she was interested in this man. "You came, Ms. Carmichael! Thank you," the man exclaimed, extending his hand and apparently not noticing her discomfiture. "I'm not sure that I had any choice. I hear that my brother owes you a great deal of money. I wanted to discuss a payment plan with you if you don't mind," she said, coldly. The man hesitated as if unsure of what she was talking about. He touched his ear and she noticed that he seemed to have in a hearing-aid. He couldn't seem to stop smiling at her though and again, it surprised her because it was not the greasy grin that she had expected. The situation was proving to be so startling different from what she had expected that she had not processed fully that he was not as she had imagined him, and so she continued to address him according to her initial rehearsed script. "I take it that Virgil has told you that I needed to see you?" "He told me that you needed to see me naked!" Catherine was suddenly angry again. The man's mouth fell open in shock. The bushy eyebrows went up toward his hairline. "What! I don't know what you're talking about! I didn't tell him anything like that! I told him that I wanted to see you, yes, but I told him that I wanted to discuss his case with you since you are his only close relative." "Discuss his case?" Catherine was confused. There was an obvious disconnect between this man and her. It was not sounding as if he was the monster that she thought him to be. "Yes, I'm a doctor! Who did you think I was? Your brother's been trying to get back into the programme that I run at the Goleman Clinic, but he's dropped out of it three times before now and so I told him that I would need to speak with you before I'd even consider letting him back in." The man paused as Catherine blushed scarlet. He sighed. "I think that we need to start over, Ms. Carmichael. I am Christopher McDermott, the head of the Goleman Clinic where your brother has been coming to sessions for rehab on and off for several years. I have never dealt with his case personally, but the buck does stop with me about letting him in again. I wanted to see if he had the support to make it stick this time. We cannot continue to waste our scarce resources on someone who is not ready to follow through. I spoke with him and he has given me his assurances, but I wanted to see you as well." "So why couldn't we have met in your office?" Catherine asked defensively. She was not ready to believe that she had got it so wrong about this man and embarrassed herself again because of her brother. Her anger was still real, and its source remained the same, her brother; but it was crystallising into a rage that she had never felt before. "We begin a new programme on Monday and I need to know if he'll be a part of that. Believe me I was not luring you here under false pretences. I assure you that I do not require you to be undressed for our discussion." Catherine flushed again. She wished that Christopher McDermott would have been gentleman enough to have ignored her accusation when it became apparent that Virgil had lied yet again. "Why would he say...?" she began. "I really don't know," Christopher McDermott cut in. "You are very lovely to be sure, but I really don't need you to do that for me." "Please forgive me, Dr. McDermott. I don't know what to say except that I'll be killing Virgil when I leave here!" "Ahh! Forget it. It's probably sibling playfulness of some sort. A bit sick really, but there is no harm done." He paused, looking her over before ushering her through the door. "So may we discuss his case now? Imagine if you had actually come in and taken me up on Virgil's offer! I would probably have had a coronary; so it's just as well that you're not that sort of girl, and I'm not your type," he said chuckling gently. Their meeting was very successful. Catherine and Christopher McDermott decided to give Virgil one more chance. Given that he had initiated the process himself, they had hope for him this time. She sat chatting with the doctor long after they stopped talking about her brother, discussing his work at the Clinic and her work as a teacher at the Mandeville School with some of the nation's most inventive teenagers. "You remind me of my wife you know! My late wife actually; she was an educator too," Christopher McDermott declared suddenly during one of the rare lulls in the conversation. "I haven't laughed so hard in years; not since she died actually." So, Virgil hadn't been lying about that! "That is not a comforting thought for me, Dr. McDermott. I'm not superstitious, but I don't want to remind anyone of his late wife. It's just a bit unnerving," she said becoming guarded again. Christopher McDermott threw back his head and laughed heartily again. His eyes crinkled and he actually shed tears. Catherine was captivated once more by the youthful visage that emerged when he was genuinely amused. She wasn't sure that she wanted to be the source of that amusement, but she needed something to lighten the mood again. She knew that if this man were really to insist on touching her that she would have little choice but to allow him since neither she nor her brother knew where the first dollar of his money would come from to pay for Virgil's treatment. She realised suddenly, that they hadn't got around to talking about that, but given the tales of his success she knew that Virgil needed this man to work with him personally. She sensed that he would not tolerate any foolishness from her brother; and she believed unequivocally, that the tough love approach was what Virgil needed. She knew that she didn't have the strength to do it for him, but since she needed him to recover she was prepared to do whatever it took. "I suppose you're right. It is weird, but I assure you that there was no foul play involved in Fiona's death. She had leukaemia. I did all that I could for her, but in the end the good Lord took her from me. Just for one evening, I've enjoyed chatting freely about my work like I used to do with her. Please relax Ms. Carmichael; I mean you no harm. Call me Christopher; please! All my friends do." "Virgil had said that you wanted me nude," she couldn't stop herself from saying the words and then she wanted to kick herself. "He said that you wanted to paint me. Is that how you hoped to be paid for your services with his treatment?" she asked quietly, suddenly depressed again. "No! For the last time, I promise you, your brother and I did not discuss anything like that," the man paused. "I only said that, I needed to see you to discuss his case, but I can see that you're very worried now about the payment. There is no need, my dear. I'm sorry that this whole situation was presented to you in such an unfortunate light, but I promise you, I am a gentleman; I'm not a sleazy low-life. Actually, I'm surprised that you came here if you thought that of me." He looked at her curiously, but then simply gestured toward his kitchen, a large, fully-equipped room, again taken from a page in Architectural Digest. "It was just probably Virgil's twisted idea of a joke," he continued. "Get you to come to our meeting if you thought that I was somehow in a position of power over him. I can see that you love your brother. I'm sure that he sees it too." He frowned slightly, considering the implications of what had obviously passed through his patient's mind. "I hope that you would have come even if you hadn't thought that I was trying to coerce you into something though. He is a very troubled young man. Childish and petulant, but I'll do my best to fix him for you. Don't give it another thought," he continued merrily after a while. Catherine still looked unhappy and the man looked at her beseechingly, urging her to forget her brother's stunt. "Please, have some coffee and muffins with me... I baked them myself!" he beamed by way of encouragement. Catherine did not want to eat anything with this man who was still, despite everything, a stranger, but since he was offering to give Virgil a chance despite knowing what a liar and screw-up he really was, she didn't want to offend him either. Christopher McDermott noticed Catherine's hesitation and guessed its source. He knew that she was suspicious of his generosity. In a way it made him happy since he realised that she probably would have stripped for him if he insisted on that as payment for this fictitious loan. He would have to have a very serious talk with Virgil on Monday. There was obviously much more to the young man than his sister seemed to suspect, and McDermott did not like the picture that was emerging. "Catherine, your brother does not owe me anything," he said making a sudden decision. "He'd become part of a study that I'm doing, so there is no charge for his treatment at the clinic," he lied smoothly. "Please do not give this another thought... Stay and have dinner with me; let's talk about something else; what are you reading now; or are you more of a movie buff? I haven't seen anything recently so you'll have to tell me what's good." Catherine stayed, and eventually helped Christopher McDermott to cook their dinner. The man was very charming. She learned that he was indeed a returning resident. His father was an American-Irishman, but his mother was his Jamaican link, and she had raised him to see himself as being a product of the island and owing it some due. He had come to live permanently in Mandeville only three years earlier walking away from a successful practice in upstate New York after his wife, Fiona Goleman, had died. They had had no children, so it was an easier decision to make than people had thought it should have been. It was difficult for her to leave him when their evening came to an end five hours later, but Christopher McDermott told her that he would take care of everything and that she wasn't to worry about her brother. He seemed to be genuinely touched when she gave him a tight bear hug as she left his home to drive back to her small townhouse on the other side of the town. Catherine didn't see her brother, or hear from him, for several weeks after her meeting with Christopher McDermott though the doctor called her once per week to give her general updates on her brother's progress. The doctor urged her to visit her brother, but she couldn't bring herself to do it since she was still angry with him. She didn't get an explanation about the alleged four thousand dollar loan and it became more of a mystery when she learned that participation in the programme in the Clinic cost twenty-five thousand dollars unless it was a pro bono case. She wondered why Virgil would have merited a pro bono spot given his record, but since Christopher McDermott had couched it in terms of Virgil being part of a study she didn't want to ask for anything more by way of explanation, fearing that he would become offended as the suggestion that he too had somehow lied to her. When he wasn't speaking with her on the phone Christopher McDermott was in her thoughts. In reality, he was always a gentleman and he treated her like a lady. He seemed genuinely interested in her; but, disappointing her, he never stepped over the line into the salacious fantasy that she was building around him. Images of the distinguished older man tormented Catherine in her dreams each night. It excited her to think of him undressing her slowly and being impressed by her curves. Her hands relished the rise and fall of her breasts and the flare of her hips and round buttocks as she showered while thinking of him touching her, and as she lay carelessly, yearning for him before she slumbered. She really was a pretty girl; not beautiful, perhaps, but pretty enough. However, because of Virgil's antics she had not dared to get close to anyone for fear of her brother becoming a burden to the man as well. She lived the life that she wanted only in her fantasies. Alternatively being angry with Virgil and feeling like a martyr because of him, she trudged through her squalid little existence. Over the many weeks, Catherine developed quite a fantasy romance with Christopher McDermott, serving him as a treasured concubine in his sultanate every night; or at their home which looked suspiciously like the one in which she had had her first meeting with him. She envisaged what it would be like if she went to work with him and hid under his desk while he spoke with prospective clients. She imagined herself spreading his legs and releasing his cock. She saw herself laving it with her tongue to a full hardness. She enjoyed the thought of watching him squirm under her ministrations as he tried to present an outwardly professional demeanour. He always lost to her in her thoughts, cumming helplessly as she deep throated him. In her fantasies he always fucked her senseless after she did this to him when the clients left. Catherine wondered constantly what sort of lover the doctor would be. Would he be as playful in bed as she was? Would he be into role play? Would he be into age play? She couldn't imagine that he would need to boost his ego with a younger woman. She felt the impossibility of her situation and resolved to, at least, maintain her dignity when around him. She was shocked one day when he was introduced to her and the other teachers as being the new physician on call at the school. She was informed that he had generously offered his services pro bono! She managed a frozen smile, but little beyond that during their introduction by the principal. Saving Virgil Predictably, Christopher McDermott seemed to take his role seriously. He visited the school regularly and spent hours chatting with the children, their parents and the staff. Despite the fact that there were many opportunities to speak with him, Catherine avoided him during these visits. Indeed, she avoided him as much as possible during her waking hours because she didn't want her desire for him to show. He was unfailingly friendly when they did manage to meet and so it was a real possibility that she would disgrace herself. He had asked her to call him Christopher on several occasions but she couldn't bring herself to do it while Virgil was still his patient. His casual Americanisms although meant to engage her served only to make her uncomfortable, in thrall as she was with her more formal British-Jamaican upbringing. However hard she tried though, she couldn't escape the delightful visions of what happened when he visited her in her daydreams. She couldn't ignore her body's lustful response to how he romanced her and how he peeled her clothes from her form in her fantasies, how he caressed and cuddled her with confident, loving hands. He was what she wanted and in her private world, she made him want her too. She couldn't disregard the fact that her cunt ached every time she even thought of him or how hopeful she felt when she heard him talking to someone on the corridor at her school. She tormented herself in the bath where she caressed her body lovingly imagining what his hands would feel like on her flesh. Her soapy hands explored the deep crevasses between her round buttocks and her full cleavage and she revelled in the gentle turn of her shapely legs and arms as she hoped that he would. She giggled thinking about how Christopher McDermott would examine her body and then flushed when she remembered that as a psychiatrist, he was not that kind of doctor; and ironically, given how they met, there would be little chance that he would ever want her to take her clothes off for him. She plucked at her erect nipples while reclining drowsily in her bed and imagined what he would do if she offered them to him. She imagined that the hands stroking her swollen clit so gently, were his. She speculated about what he would do if she surprised him by turning up at his home one night as his private dancer. She found herself wondering what sort of woman turned him on sexually. She wondered if he separated his woman's sexuality from the other areas of her personality. She imagined herself impressing him beyond reason alternatively with her intellect and her wit and her kindness and her beauty. Catherine could hardly get Christopher McDermott out of her mind. "Catherine? Ms. Carmichael?" Catherine started on hearing someone call her name so closely. She turned to find herself looking at Christopher McDermott's concerned face. "Are you alright, Ms. Carmichal?" "Y-yes!" "You seem to have zoned out there for a while! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to invite you to the Family Fun Day that we're having at the Goleman Clinic. I think that your brother has done quite well and so I have given him the right to participate in that activity... I'm sure that he'd be happy to see you," he finished lamely. An odd mixture of joy and disappointment warred in Catherine's emotions. With the invitation came an opportunity to see Christopher McDermott socially, but it also highlighted the fact that he knew the sordid side of her family life. She was overjoyed by the news that Virgil was doing well and could likely recover completely this time, but he was her only link to this man and without Virgil being at his Clinic soon there would be no reason to see him again since his work at the school would cool off during the Summer holidays. She was confused. She had worked hard not to see him but now that she wouldn't do so she didn't want to let him go. Catherine shrugged to bolster her courage at losing her fantasy lover. She smiled bravely at the man who looked down at her with a confused expression on his face. Tossing her hair, she stared into his eyes and projected a confidence that she didn't really feel. "I would be happy to come, Dr. McDermott! Should I bring anything?" "No, no. That isn't necessary. I just think that it would be good for him to see approval in your eyes. Do you think that you can do that for him? He really is trying this time, Ms. Carmichael. You don't seem all that convinced, but I give you my word that he's improving." "No! I am happy for him! I'm very happy. I just got distracted by something else. I'm sorry. Your news is wonderful! Thank you, again, for what you're doing for him! I'm very grateful to you, doctor!" she hastened to assure him, suddenly realising that he might have seen the conflict that his invitation had caused her. She extended her hand to shake his formally and when he took it she pulled him into a clinging bear hug. He held her closely, and rubbed her back comfortingly, burying his nose in her hair. Catherine pulled away quickly before the tears that threatened, became a reality. She thanked him again briskly and turning abruptly, she strode away, missing entirely, the sudden tenting at the front of Dr. McDermott's pants. The Family Fun Day turned out to be an extremely pleasant affair. There was a carnival-like atmosphere with food and music and silly games set out to be enjoyed by the patients who had earned the privilege during the quarter to attend, and their guests. Christopher McDermott and his staff were gracious hosts and everyone seemed to be having a good time. He did not spend a lot of time with her, but somehow he managed to make Catherine feel special in the few minutes that he could spend with her occasionally. Virgil did not look nearly as fresh as Catherine had hoped he would, but she trusted the judgement of his doctors. She supposed that his drawn appearance had something to do with his withdrawal symptoms. He chatted with her shyly for a few minutes before he disappeared from her side. In a way, Catherine was relieved by his abandonment of her because she did not know what to say to him. She had inquired about his progress but beyond a few more dutiful questions she had very little to say to him. "Ms. Carmichael, I have to speak with you privately," Christopher McDermott looked at her seriously. Instinctively, she knew that something was wrong. She hadn't been fully conscious of it before, but since he wasn't smiling at he now she suddenly realised how much he had always reserved a friendly cheerfulness for her. She braced herself for the worst since she guessed that the second police car arriving on the premises had something to do with her brother. "Y-yes, Doctor!" she said stepping away from the people with whom she was chatting. She followed him into the building and into his office in which Virgil sat handcuffed in the presence of two uniformed policemen. There was also a man covered in a bloody sheet being taken away by two of the Clinic's attendants. "Virgil?" Catherine exclaimed. She reached for him but one of the policemen stepped in front of her to block her access to the sullen young man. She turned toward their host, a wild look in her eye. "I'm very sorry Ms. Carmichael. Your brother attacked our security guard violently while we were all outside enjoying the party. I came in to get some extra drinks and found him sitting here with the drugs cabinets burst open and poor Peart here with his head split open. As it is, he is lucky that he didn't kill Mr. Peart! It would have been much worse for him then!" "I know that it looks bad, but are you sure it was Virgil?" Catherine pleaded with him. "I'm afraid so, the place has a security camera and the whole thing was recorded. I had no choice but to call the police." "But you said that Virgil was improving!" "I know. I believe that he was, but he started to explain his actions to me. I advised him to tell his attorney before he tells anyone else." "Virgil and I can't afford an attorney!" Catherine exclaimed. "I will pay for one for you." "You're the person sending him to jail in the first place! Is that supposed to fix things?" "He is sending himself there if it comes to that. He..." "Shut up!" Catherine shrieked, pushing past her host roughly. "We don't need your charity! You said that he was getting better! You promised me!" "Catherine! Please!" he called desperately after her. Virgil was found guilty of aggravated assault and sentenced to five years in prison. It was a bitter blow to his sister. Christopher McDermott was there for them and even appeared in court to give medical evidence. His testimony did not overcome the videotape that he had provided of Virgil committing the crime, but it helped to keep the young man out of a maximum security facility, and get him into yet another drug rehab programme while in jail. It would be even tougher than the one at the Goleman Clinic, but it was yet another chance at recovery and redemption. Throughout the brief trial, Catherine ignored the doctor, coldly. When their eyes met they were both quick to look away, ashamed. After the verdict he tried to speak to her, but she did not have anything to say to anyone at all. She left town immediately returning weeks later for the start of the school term. She was upset to discover that Dr. McDermott had also returned for the new school year. He kept his distance for the most part after she snubbed him during their first two encounters. She couldn't ignore him though on the evening when she was forced to deliver some papers to his home. She had tried to get out of the errand, but her boss had begged her for the favour and given her family troubles, she didn't want to disappoint one of the few persons who were still kind to her. She had hoped that he would not be in and that she could just leave the thick envelope with his housekeeper. She was not an especially lucky woman up to that point and so she was not surprised to find that he was at home and that he answered the door himself. "Please speak to me, Ms. Carmichael. I feel horrible about how things have turned out. Please, come in and have a seat. Let me explain things." "It is quite alright, Dr. McDermott. I can't blame you. Virgil was troubled and I owe you an apology. I have wanted to tell you this for a long time, but I was too embarrassed to face you. You have been very kind to us, giving V a chance like that. He was the one who messed up. I knew it at the time, but I couldn't admit it that we had failed yet again." "I was the one who failed him!" he said gently ushering her into the chair opposite him. "No, he and I have to grow up. You have been wonderful! You were strong where I was weak. Coddling him wasn't helping him at all. It's just that I promised my father that I was going to protect him and then he became too heavy for me to carry. I wanted him to just go away. I wanted him to be well so that I didn't have to deal with his problem. I just didn't know how to help him." Looking out over the serene garden she paused, sadly. "I wish that I could say that I did my best, but I can't. The truth is that I still don't understand why people take drugs. They know that it doesn't really help! It doesn't make their problems go away, they just increase! Virgil knows this! I can't understand why he began using in the first place! We had a decent life when my parents were alive. They left us comfortably off! We weren't rich, but we were okay. I was angry with him for spoiling everything." "People don't think that addiction will happen to them. They just want a few minutes peace. They don't think beyond those few minutes." "I suppose not," Catherine stood up gathering her things. "I'm sorry I really have to go now. I just came to deliver those papers and to tell you that I was sorry about how badly I've behaved toward you." She extended her hand, offering to shake Christopher McDermott's as a peace offering and as her final parting from him. "Do you really have to go or are you just avoiding me again?" Christopher McDermott asked, bitterly. "I beg your pardon?" "You heard me. You have been avoiding me for months! Am I so distasteful to you? There are times when I think not, but at others you can't seem to get out of the room from me quickly enough! Even now, despite all that you've said you haven't looked at me twice. Don't you realise that you're needed here now more than ever? Virgil needs your support!" "Quite the contrary, I feel that it is Virgil and I who don't deserve to be in your presence," Catherine admitted shamefaced. "I keep expecting to see scorn or pity or something..." "Why would you think so? Have I ever treated you disrespectfully? You, on the other hand have made me feel like an ass! I have wanted to kick myself for managing to disgust you so much. You have caused me to question my own ethics! You..." he paused fighting down more vitriol. He was being as unfair to her as she had been to him. His feelings were his own. She had not caused them. He had chosen to be a victim to her effects on him just as her brother was to other drugs. "I have wanted to ask you out for months, Catherine. But I refrained at first, because of my relationship with your brother; but by the time that was over it seemed that you had no interest in me at all; and you were always so formal with me even when things were good for us. I didn't dare think that a lovely young woman such as yourself could be interested in an old fart like me especially after I was involved in your brother's imprisonment, but I have liked you...No, I have LOVED you since the day we met! I took the job at your school pro bono in order to be able to see you on occasion. I missed you when Virgil started to get better and I didn't have to call you with the updates. I just wanted to hear your voice. It was why I was so precipitate in allowing Virgil to do a Fun Day. I'm sorry, he really wasn't ready and it was my fault that he was there. I have felt guilty and ashamed about that." "He said that this all started when you gave him four thousand dollars to pay off a drugs bill! He told the police that and swore to it in court! You are the only person who we know with that kind of money!" she cut in, refusing to be persuaded by him; refusing to believe what he had just said about loving her. "You facilitated him!" "He lied to you! Why don't you trust me for a change?" the man seemed genuinely exasperated with her. "I gave him four thousand dollars to pay off some money that he owed his bookie," he confessed, heatedly. "I checked! It was a gambling debt! I would not have paid for someone's drug habit! I've spent my entire career trying to defeat that kind of lifestyle!" He stepped in front of her to prevent her from leaving. "Listen to me Catherine! I deserve even two minutes of your time!" he held on to her tightly. "Look, I did not lie when I told you that he doesn't owe me anything because I told him to pay it forward. The Clinic stay, the money afterwards, everything! I told him to pay it forward! You had shown up on my doorstep with your story of repaying me for money that I hadn't lent him. At first I thought that you might have been in something with him." He saw the outrage on her face that told him that he had guessed right. Catherine had had nothing to do with Virgil's scheming at any point. "People do things like that for family!" he continued quickly. "But watching you that first afternoon I knew that Virgil had got himself into serious trouble again, and I knew that you had nothing to do with it. I figured it was why he wanted to get back into rehab at my clinic; you know, disappear from the world, and the people looking for him, for a while." She was breathing rapidly, still upset, but she had remained next to him. He forced himself to calm down even more. He reached for her hand and played with her pliant fingers tenderly. He stroked her empty ring finger gently. "You seemed so defeated though that I didn't want to tell you outright that your brother was scamming you. I think we both guessed it, but I tried to make it sound like a childish prank. I guessed, correctly as it turns out, that what he wanted was to blackmail me if you told him that I had allowed you to strip for me that afternoon." His brow knitted in disgust. Virgil had been his most difficult case, and one of his few failures, but if Catherine would only hear him out and forgive him and perhaps marry him in time it would have been time and effort well spent. "I didn't want him to use you like that anymore, so I just gave him the money and warned him that if he ever placed you in any danger that I would kill him myself. I told him that he had no choice about remaining in the programme this time, because if he didn't I was going to the police and I was going to tell them that he had tried to blackmail me and pimp you." He continued quickly having seen the wince on Catherine's face at the stark truth. "I asked him to consider how long it would take him to end up a three-time loser in the justice system without either of us in his corner" he paused, breathing hard; "then I gave him a black eye." Catherine laughed, despite herself. Regardless Virgil's embarrassing treatment of her, she saw no judgement in Christopher McDermott's face. It was true that he respected her in spite of everything. It amazed her that he had done so much for her and how he had tried to do so much for Virgil, without asking for anything in return! She wanted to offer him everything that she had; but given the way that her brother had treated her she didn't want to come off like his labelling of her as a prostitute had any credence and she had very little else to offer. "It was for his own good really. He needed some tough love and I wasn't giving it to him. Thank you, Christopher," she said shyly. "You have been very kind to me, and strong for Virgil. I will consider staying on for his sake, but I really need to leave here for a while, just to think things through. Five years are a long time and I don't think that anyone can begrudge me a little time for myself," she said bitterly. "I'll be back though, I promise," she said quietly after a while. "My parents didn't raise two weak children. I think I'll go somewhere quiet; up on the cliffs above Negril perhaps; I used to hike there as a student. It's been my favourite place, until recently." She looked around again at the stunning scenery around her, at Christopher McDermott's lazy slice of river, at his retired horses enjoying the soft grass, at the romantic gazebo in the distance where they had had the dinner that they had cooked together that first night. She tried to memorise the way that this idyllic place looked because it would be something to which she would return many times in her mind. She sighed softly and had to fight the tears that threatened to overwhelm her. She would always feel safe here, but the realisation that she had nothing to offer this man except her abiding love for him saddened her. With the disparity in their lifestyles he might think that she was after his money and social status to save herself. He had been kind, but his actions in sending Virgil to jail even after being kind to him had suggested that he was not a man to be trifled with. "Okay, I understand" he said quietly, coming to stand behind her. "Actually, I own a villa in Negril. You may stay there for as long as you like," he hesitated. "Mrs. McDermott?" he whispered. "Yes, Dr. McDermott?" she smiled and then opened her eyes wide when she realised what he had said and what she had responded unthinkingly. Catherine froze when she heard no answering chuckle or teasing. She turned, startled, into Christopher McDermott's lowering kiss. She claimed his mouth with equal ferocity to his own demands of hers. He had offered love twice today, and she had accepted it at last and had not been rejected. Saving Virgil "I don't think that I'll be long, Dr. McDermott," she whispered when they came up for breath. "I don't think that I will be in Negril for long at all this time." Christopher McDermott chuckled happily, yes, Virgil may have been difficult, but he would spend the rest of his life trying to save him; one did that for family.