Posted by Cheryl on June 22, 2001 at 04:00:55:
Angel/Bonds 3
By Verity
Cheryl drooped her head, just a touch. No one who didn't know this woman would understand how utterly destroyed she was right now. She could, would, hold herself together under anything, but this was using up the last of her reserves. Not only did she go through the challenge, the commitment, of essentially raising a new and badly damaged child, but then she had to watch that child die hideously, brutally. No Mother, adoptive or otherwise, should have a child die first. But when you find that child's mutilated body, and wonder, did she call out for you? And was bringing her here, teaching her that her desires weren't evil, was that what killed her? Guilt was too pale a word. Was she sure right up to the last that you'd save her somehow? It was astonishing that Cheryl was functioning at all.
And now she had to hunt down the fucker who had taken that child's life, had to find out that it was someone she and her husband had considered a friend, perhaps someone she had to see every Goddammed day. She couldn't solve this problem as she had every other in twenty years, with her lifemate at her side, because she instinctively knew that if she didn't do this herself the nightmares would never end.
She laughed under her breath and took a sip of Verity's vile-tasting cosmopolitan. It was enough to drive a woman to drink.
Finally she pulled her shoulders back and her head up, tightened her body, and looked into the huge brown eyes of her Shadowsister. "Jeez girl, you have some sort of information fetish, always have, you always have to know it all right away. Okay, questions." She began ticking them off on her fingers.
"Sam. Sure, we both know he could handle it. He'd change into that beast, that hunter and track the guy to ground. He'd make sure I was safe at home, all tucked in, and he'd find the bastard all by himself and handle it all by himself and then he'd never tell a soul what happened in those final moments. And although he knows damned well I can take care of myself and that this one should be mine, because he'd feel betrayed and because Angel's death has scared him as much as anything ever can, he wouldn't let me do this, not the way I need to do this. I could argue all night and all the next day and he might even say "Okay and then one night he'd disappear and when he got back it'd be all over."
Verity narrowed her eyes angrily and nodded. "Point taken. Okay." She sighed loudly and angrily and tugged at her very-short skirt. Cheryl tried to smile and shook her head. "Stupid looking and uncomfortable?"
Verity gave the "I'm a blonde!" laugh again and then shook her head. It's not the damned skirt or the fuck-me shoes as much as it is this sweater. Why don't they tell you how much cashmere itches?" With another unobtrusive tug at the midriff revealing shirt, and a glance around that took in and returned the glances she got from the guys filling up all the other wooden tables near the two women, she turned back to the issue at hand. "Okay, so where did this doomed dickhead hurt Angel, do you know? Are you sure who he is? And the cameras?"
Cheryl looked more pulled-together again as she got the information organized in her mind. "He had to have done it off-premises. I found out from talking to some hangers-on who don't know the score around here that he'd seduced her into "playing" with him someplace other than here, and I've found out where. So yeah, I know exactly who he is, and why he did what he did. He was getting back at me; he's said some things to my face and behind my back that make it pretty clear that he can't handle a confident, sexy woman who doesn't want to fuck him." Verity barked a laugh before Cheryl continued. "So he lured her out of here…I guess she thought she was rebelling, you know? A teen, given permission to do pretty much what she wants to do, it's tough to rebel. So she manages it by going off with a sleezebag to play dangerous sex-games where nobody can protect her." There were dark circles under Cheryl's eyes and Verity realized how little sleep she'd been getting. "Then after he-after he brought her and dumped her. He knows shit about the computers and cameras that Sam has monitoring this place, and he engineered a five-minute glitch in the alley. By then he had her dumped and he was walking back inside." Dammit!"
Verity jumped at Cheryl's outburst but then settled. Both women had noticed that Sam had moved closer to their end of the bar, clearly thinking about coming over and breaking up the conversation. Understandable; he didn't know what the hell Verity was doing there, and he would remember very well how things had ended between the women before. He would probably be considering the possibility that Verity was upsetting Cheryl in some way. But when Verity giggled and Cheryl managed a smile that was more a snarl but good enough in the dim light, he backed off again with a significant "I'm warning you" look at Verity. .
Cheryl went on in a more quiet tone. "Do you know that the first thing he did when he came back in was come over and say "Hi" to me? I remember because I remember thinking it was odd, maybe he was changing his fucking misogynistic stripes, just before Denny ran down from the control room yelling about Angel and I was out through the alley door to her-"
Verity made her tone stern. "That's not going to do her any fucking good, Cheryl." She knew her tone would anger Cheryl and that probably was the best thing for her. "Okay, so we know the prick's name. We know where he did Angel, and how he got her back here. We think we know that Sam hasn't figured it out yet because the guy is still alive. And we know why, in addition to just wanting to take a little girl who didn't know better than to stay away from him. Now we have another problem, Cheryl…oh, wait, sorry, listen to this song if you can hear it, please?" A tune had just begun, techno-sounding, and Cheryl couldn't catch all the lyrics. But she heard enough.
"I nearly died ..I nearly died…I came to rip you up, I came to cut you down, I came to tear your little world apart…rip your soul apart…"
Some of the patrons were dancing; the song was catchy and the stage currently empty. Some of them were improvising on their own with the blades nearly everyone seemed to carry, and all of which seemed to be shiny, sharp and each different in their own way. Verity let herself watch out of the corner of her eye, knowing the show would bring back vicious memories for Cheryl but not being able to keep from being aroused.
Then she got back to the job at hand. "Okay, here we go, problem. Cheryl, what the fuck about Sam and his henchmen? Denny for instance? Have you noticed that he's watching you nearly all the time, and there's some other guy on the other side of the room who seems interested in me but not because he wants to take my sweater off? We have to call off the hounds or we'll never get near this fuckface."
Cheryl nodded morosely and ordered a drink. The waitress seemed wary of Verity and upset when she ordered another pink drink. "Um…I'm supposed to tell you we're out of cherries…" Verity nearly growled "Bullshit, tell him to order out then", but instead she smiled and said that was fine. And suddenly in her animosity with Sam and the spark between them, the way just seeing his damned eyes had nearly ripped away the hard-won distance of all these years, she figured it out. "Cheryl, I think we can do this thing, all we need is a little misdirection and to convince Sam that I'm as stupid as I currently look. Here's the deal…"