Bandit

I had no sooner gotten them separated when Bobby folded his arms across his chest and said calmly, "Gentlemen, what you are going to do is stand aside while my deputies place him and her" he motioned to Misti's mother, "in handcuffs and put them in the backseat of your nice warm cars. Then, while we are waiting for the ambulance to show up, you are all going to come inside and look at some new evidence that has come to light since your initial investigation."

Turning to one of his deputies he added "Don't let that bastard bleed out. Put him in one of their car and her in the other until the medics show up."

"Sure thing Sheriff." he said smiling then adding, "Ya know Boss, somedays it is really fulfilling coming to work."

"Yep." Bobby said grinning from ear to ear.

Misti was smiling broadly as she watched her would be rapist get rolled over onto his stomach in the freezing snow and placed in handcuffs. Then with me and Bandit at her side, we walked across the yard toward her mother and Misti stood silently, watching as the woman who had thrown her to the wolves break down in tears when the cuffs were placed on her wrists. Taking her hand in mine we turned together and walked into the house to talk to the men who were here to take her back to Florida.

It ended up a lot better than I ever dreamt it would. Once the JPD detectives and the FBI agents looked at the text message exchange between Misti and her mom, they both agreed that her mother had left some facts out of her statements to their agencies. Like knowing that she had told Misti it was okay to have the car for a day or so, telling her that she could pay the money back over time if she spent any of it. Asking her to forgive her boyfriend for trying to rape her, that he was drunk and that she loved him and didn't want to see him go to jail.

It all added up to, attempted rape of a minor age 16 or younger, falsifying a police report, impeding an investigation and lying under oath for him; felony child endangerment, falsifying a police report, impeding an investigation and lying under oath for her. Those were the minimum charges that the JPD detectives promised to bring. Then one of the FBI agents said smiling, "I won't even have to look hard to find something that will put them in Federal prison once they get done with the state time."

As they were leaving with their two new suspects in custody and an old cell phone as evidence, Bobby turned to me smiling and said, "Is there anything else you need Asshole?"

"Yeah, call the power company and see if you are a big enough deal around these parts to get my power back on. We are freezing up here."

Then he whispered "So, I gotta ask, is there anything going on between you two?"

"Nope. She is too messed up for me to try anything like that. Seriously, she needs a lot of help." I said honestly.

"I'll see what I can do about the power." Then looking at Misti and Bandit standing side by side on the front porch, he added, "One of these days, I'm going to get a dog like that for the department, he was something else today Sam."

"He is something else every day Bobby." I said proudly.

Misti started shaking violently as the adrenaline rush wore off. I sat beside her on the couch with my arms around her, just holding her and telling her that everything would be alright now. It took the better part of an hour and her rushing to the bathroom once to throw-up, before she had finally settled down enough to stop shaking. I remembered what it felt like after my first real fire-fight. There is nothing that can prepare you for how your body will react after that much stress has been experienced. So, I tried to do for her what nobody had done for me, I just held her close and let her know that she was still alive and safe.

Sitting beside her in the growing darkness I couldn't help but wonder what other traumas she had experienced since she left Florida. It would probably take years of therapy before she could even think about leading a normal life again; that much I did know. She would have bouts of frustration, anger, depression and other emotions that can't be described. I just needed to let her know that she didn't have to go through it alone, so I whispered to her that if she wanted to stay, she had a stable place to call home, food to eat and a soft bed to sleep in for as long as she wanted.

Then the lights came back on and with it, the heat. I slowly unwrapped myself from her and got up to begin shutting down the heaters in the other rooms. I had finished the bathrooms and was in the kitchen when I felt her arms slip around my waist and her head nestle into my back.

"Why?" she asked quietly.

Turning around and looking down at her I said, "Why what?"

"You risked everything you had for me today. Why?"

"I told you, you need to start believing that you are worth it. That sacred woman I met in the parking lot on Saturday? She's gone. The one standing in front of me today, she is worth the effort. You tried to call me a hero Saturday night. Hell, Misti, I had help doing what I did and surviving it; you've done this by yourself for almost three years with no support. That is a hero." Then I leaned down to kiss the top of her head, or at least that was my intention.

As I leaned down, she turned her face up toward mine and our lips met. I started to pull away, but she pressed her body against mine, gripping me tighter with her arms. By the time I finally did pull away, several seconds later, we were both gasping for air.

"Where did that come from?" I asked her, looking into her eyes.

"The heart." she said simply. "Bandit isn't the only Ladies' Man around here. You do a pretty good job yourself you know?"

"I'm not trying to seduce you." I said honestly.

"I know," she said smiling up at me, "and it makes it that much sexier that you're able, without trying to." Then she turned around and walked confidently out of the kitchen.

Bandit had been standing by the table watching this unfold. As Misti walked out of the room he trotted over to me sat down beside me and pressed his body against my leg. I couldn't help but shake my head and smile. "No shit Boy," I said as I stood there feeling the coolness of the marble counter top, smelling her scent in the air and looking out the window at the mountain. "No shit."

It took a few minutes, but I finally calmed down enough to get the kitchen squared away. We would have to start thinking about dinner soon and I still needed to move the mattresses back to the bedrooms. I was going to pop a couple of steaks in the microwave to thaw out and then thought to myself, "Nope! This is still her domain.", then I walked into the living room and said, "What's for dinner Chef?"

She was smiling up at me from the couch and said, "A salad, steaks and a baked potato sound okay?"

"You just read my mind!" Then she helped me move the mattresses back to the bedrooms.

My medium rare steak ended up a little more medium than rare but other than that dinner was good. We sat on the couch smiling as we watched the local news broadcast where they announced, "A shocking new twist in the case involving a runaway from Florida who had been wanted for questioning by the FBI and the Jacksonville Police Department." Her mom didn't look at all happy in the mug-shot that had her name and "Federal Bureau of Investigation" on the nameboard beneath it, as she peered down at us in hi-definition. I couldn't help but smile as I thought to myself "Karma truly is a bitch." Then I laughed out loud when Misti muttered "Karma is a bitch, ain't she Bitch?"

I had just dozed off when I felt my covers of my bed being lifted and then I felt the warmth of Misti's body as she slid under them and next to me. I rolled over onto my side and as calmly as I could and asked her what she was doing. She just lay there beside me silently looking into my eyes and then, she smiled at me.

"Going to sleep. Eventually."

"Misti, you don't want to do this, you may think you do but seriously, I am broken beyond repair. You don't need my troubles in your life right now. Honey, the age difference alone will end this sooner rather than later."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"No Misti, I can't allow this to happen. I can't. I told you when you got in the Jeep on Saturday that sex was off the table."

"No, you said that sex was off the table as far as me paying you back. That debt was cleared when I promised you that I wouldn't use it to entice a man to give me something that I wanted." she whispered, then she held up her pinky finger and smiling at me said, "Remember?"

She reached out slowly and brushed her fingertips across my cheek and then tried to continue, "Sam,"

Sitting up and turning on a bedside lamp I said, "Misti, no. I'm sorry but, no. This is something that I'm not even going to consider. It can't happen. I'm not going to ruin what little trust you have in me by sleeping with you. I can't."

Her shoulders slumped and then she silently climbed out of bed, reaching to the ground she grabbed her nightgown and throwing it on over her head, she walked out of the room. Bandit tried to follow but she firmly told him "No." and then walked down the hallway. I waited a for a full minute trying to pull my thoughts together and then tossing the covers back, I followed her.

I knocked on her door and waited for an answer, after five or so seconds I knocked again. When I didn't get a response, I gently eased it open. She was lying face down on the bed with her face buried in the pillows and I could see her shoulders heaving as she sobbed. Bandit immediately pushed past me and went to her bedside whimpering and trying to climb up beside her.

"Misti?" I whispered from the doorway.

I heard a muffled sound that resembled "way" come from the pillows.

"Misti?"

She rolled on to her side and I could see that her eyes were red from crying. She stared at me as though she saw me, but she was looking past me. I know that look, it had been on my face for over ten years before I finally admitted that I needed help.

"I'm going back to bed, but you need to know a few things before I do. I've been where you are in the recovery stage. Today was a roller-coaster of emotions and what you gone through these past few years should never happen to anyone, let alone someone as young as you are. Honey, you need help, lots of it and I am here to help you and if you let me; I always will be. I promised you that on Saturday, on Sunday and today; and I'll promise it to you every day that you will stand there and listen to me; if you let me. I'm leaving Bandit with you tonight. Please don't do anything stupid like try to run off in the middle of the night. It is too dark, cold and far too dangerous out there right now. If you want, I will take you to the bus station and buy you a ticket to anywhere in the United States tomorrow morning, but you have got to promise me now that you won't try and run tonight. Will you at least do that?"

She hesitated for a moment but eventually she nodded and softly said "Yes."

"Thank you." Then I smiled and added, "Besides, you'd never make it out of the county. In case you didn't notice today; I know the Sheriff."

She almost grinned.

"Seriously, we can finish this discussion in the morning after we've both had some sleep."

"Okay."

"Really?"

"Yes Sam." She said as Bandit had finally managed to climb onto the bed with her.

"Good night Misti."

"Good night Sam."

I started to ease the door shut.

"Sam?"

"Yes." I answered.

Hugging Bandit for all she was worth she said, "Do you remember me saying that you were the only decent person that I have met in two years?"

"Yes."

"I meant it."

"Good night Sweetie."

Tuesday morning was, to say the least, awkward. I walked into the kitchen to grab my morning coffee and found Misti standing at the stove cooking breakfast. For some reason that surprised me, and I stood in the doorway for a minute asking myself why she was doing it.

"Good morning Sam." she said with a half-turned glance over her shoulder.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked confused.

"Him." She said, motioning toward Bandit who was lying beside her with his tail thumping on the floor.

"Oh."

"I kept my promise; I'm still here. How would you like your eggs?"

Walking toward the coffee pot I said, "Whatever is easiest on you."

"Raw it is."

"How about we go with Medium Scrambled instead?" I said freezing in my tracks.

"Okay." She replied with no emotion in her voice.

After breakfast we started talking, or I started talking and Misti sat there patiently while I did, listening to me explain why I had done what I did last night. About three minutes into it she said "Just stop! Seriously, shut up!"

"Huh?"

"Look Sam, I've been on the streets for almost three years. I'm not nineteen years old yet and you have no idea of the number of men and women I have had to fight off me just to try and survive. You were the first one with the integrity to tell me 'No.', so I took it kind of hard. I don't care why you did it; you did it and after I calmed down I realized that I had found the one man on the planet that didn't want me around for my body, you wanted me around because I was just me."

"Okay, please, go on." I said, hoping this would lead somewhere that I could handle without freaking out.

"Yesterday I told you that it was sexy that you could seduce me without trying. Do you remember that?"

I nodded vigorously.

"Well, it is. But last night I also realized that you really were more concerned about me than you are about getting laid. So, for the time being, I'm going to accept that you are willing to help me get back to a normal life; or at least as normal as my life will ever be. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes, it is." I said, relieved beyond measure.

"Cool. With that said, I haven't had a Christmas morning or a Christmas tree in two years. We need to go shopping. I want a live one. I want a great big, fill up the entire front window, Chevy Chase-Christmas Vacation, it's gonna scrape the ceiling, live one. Where can we find one?"

"I have no clue, but we just started looking." I said, determined to find a tree that would give a Christmas Elf a stroke.

"Cool!"

It took three lots and sixty dollars, but we finally pulled back into the driveway with a ten-foot-tall Douglas Fir strapped to the top of the Jeep. Getting it into the house was quiet the adventure and getting it set up another. It took up a quarter of the living room and required me, Misti and Bandit to go to Wally World to buy about two-hundred dollars' worth of lights, garlands and ornaments to decorate it. I figured what the Hell, it's only money and I hadn't had a Christmas tree in six years myself. Honestly, I was a giddy as a schoolboy who had just gotten kissed on the playground.

Later that evening we sat on the couch together with the lights blinking while we watched George C. Scott's A Christmas Carol. I had changed into a pair of sweats and Misti into her pajamas. I poured Misti a glass of wine and I had grabbed a beer before the movie started. I knew she was underage, but after all she had been through, I reasoned with myself that she was far more mature than the average twenty-one-year-old could ever could be. With the fireplace roaring and Bandit curled up on the couch with us we started watching the movie.

I couldn't help but think back of the times that I had been deployed and wished that I had been sitting at home with my wife and children in a similar scene. I sighed, perhaps a little too loudly, and Misti picked up on it immediately.

"Reminiscing on the Ghosts of Christmas Past Ebenezer?"

"Well, what do you know? Belle has read Dickens!" I said, and then immediately regretted saying it that way.

"She has!" she said, looking at me with a smile on her face. "It was required reading in my sophomore year of high-school. You know, three years ago, well after you turned so ancient and decrepit."

"OUCH!"

"Still want to play?" she asked laughing softly.

"Nope."

"That's too bad; I was sitting here thinking of what the Ghost of Christmas Future might bring."

"And that would be?"

She hesitated for a moment, almost like she was thinking of how she should answer it; then she stretched out on the couch and placed her head in my lap. There was nothing sexual about it, she just stretched out and placed her head there. Settling in she said, "I am hoping He brings, Love, Hope, Joy and Peace; but most of all, Peace."

"That would be nice Belle."

"Wouldn't it Ebenezer?" she said laughing gently.

"I'm not a Scrooge"

"Uh huh." she said giggling as I began to absentmindedly run my fingers through her hair.

The entire time the movie was playing Bandit was curled up on the other end of the couch asleep. Not one time had he moved or reacted. He was basically nothing more than an eighty-pound couch potato. I should have seen that. I should have recognized that the service dog that I owned, the dog who had been my constant companion for the past two years, the dog who was trained to the core of his soul to recognize my stress, anxiety and anger, hadn't flinched in the past ten hours; but I didn't.

Ten minutes later I felt her body relax and her breathing soften and just after that, she began to gently snore. As Tiny Tim was saying "A Merry Christmas to us all; God Bless us, everyone." I eased her head from my lap then stood up, reached down, picked her up and carried her to her bed. Her breathing never changed even when I turned down the covers and lay her down on the bed. She snuggled in and sighed as I covered her up and the Bandit and I turned to go to my room. As I was closing her door I heard her softly whisper "Good night boys."

"Good night Misti." I said as I closed the door.

By the time Christmas rolled around we had pretty much settled into a routine. The mornings were spent with me tutoring her for her GED classes and at least two hours a day in the afternoon was spent studying for her driver's license. On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons she spent an hour talking to a mental health counselor that I had found in town.

I could tell that her getting a GED wasn't going to be a problem because we had gone to a local community college to do a math and English assessment test and she had tested out as a college level Senior in English and up to Trig in math. Basically, she just had to complete her GED and she could enroll there for classes in the spring. She was thrilled that she could go back to school and I was happy that she would finally be around kids her own age in a normal situation during the day.

Christmas morning arrived bright and early and Bandit and I strolled leisurely down the hallway to grab some coffee. Instead of finding Misti in the kitchen I found her sitting beside the Christmas tree holding the smallest of the three gifts I had gotten her. She had tears in her eyes when she looked up and sniffing she said, "No fair Sam. I couldn't get you anything."

"Yes, you can."

"What?" she said looking down at the floor.

"I get to watch a beautiful young woman open her Christmas presents sitting in front of my Christmas tree."

"And on Tuesday she will be talking to her therapist about some prescription strength Daddy issues." she said looking back up at me and laughing.

"We all have to make some sacrifices Lady." Still smiling I added, "Go ahead and open them, but open the smallest one last."

She squealed with delight as she opened her iPad and again as she opened her iPhone 6S. I figured that she would need the iPad for school and the iPhone was an afterthought. I mean she was an eighteen-year-old girl and she would eventually have friends that she would want to talk to; about whatever eighteen-year-old girls talk about.