Flower Ch. 06

"Sean's friend Mary is driving over to talk to us and Sean is bringing Edward here so we can all be either interrogated or informed, as he so nicely put it."

"Mary is one of my friends too," I said with a small smile "and 'a bit of both' is probably the true answer to the interrogation/information question."

"I've only met Mary twice," Gabriella answered with a smile "but I would say you're probably right. I liked her the moment I met her though. I even started hoping that she and Sean would find each other, because he really seemed to like her without going all hopelessly goggle-eyed. He's even able to speak in full sentences when she's around, imagine that!"

I felt a short stab in my chest at what she was saying; Sean and Mary? And that strange feeling, as if someone was squeezing my heart, could it be some sort of aftereffect from him saving me, a mild hero worship of some sort? Or had my soft heart decided that I wanted Sean for myself?

"I figured it out when I saw them together the second time we met though. She wasn't a true girl in his eyes, probably because of the way she kept talking to and laughing at him; she was just one of the boys to him."

My breathing evened out and I felt annoyed, this time at myself. Mary would be perfect for Sean, the way she kept teasing him, just the way Gabriella and Elena did, the way she independently walked her own path in life, the way she seemed perfectly able to take care of herself, and the whole world for that matter. Sean wouldn't need to keep up his protective ways around my friend, she would protect him instead. I nodded, my mind deciding that the idea was a sound one, despite the whispered complaints from somewhere deep inside of me.

Gabriella asked if I wanted to take a short walk down to the lake with her and I agreed, thinking that sitting in the kitchen waiting would be painful enough even without my current conflicting thoughts and emotions.

We walked in silence and I let my eyes take in the calm, beautiful scenery around us. I tried to think if had ever been in a place that felt as peaceful as this one, but was unable to find even a childhood memory of something quite like it. When I grew up my life had been happy and full of love, and as I had been an active, energetic child, calm really hadn't been something I strived to achieve. But now it felt like a precious gift, a place and time where I could just rest, restore some of my lost energy and collect the still shattered pieces of my true self.

"Thank you!" I whispered to Gabriella as we stopped by the edge of the lake.

Gabriella smiled back at me and bent down to run her fingers through the water. I crouched beside her, pushing my hands into the lake, surprised at the warmth of the water and the way that the repetitive motions of my hands sent me into an even calmer, almost meditative, state of mind.

We sat there for quite some time before the sound of an engine disrupted the calm around us. We walked slowly and silently up towards the house and was met by a sleek silver car and a slightly rumpled Mary jumping out of it. She came walking towards us, looking tired but with eyes that were still as alert as always. Somehow, as much as Sean's face and mouth seemed to get my attention, in Mary's case it was always her eyes that drew me in. It wasn't until Gabriella gasped and called out "what's happened?" that I looked at her properly and found that her lips were swollen and cracked.

"The short story is that I needed the help of an old friend, and one of his conditions – we didn't exactly part on good terms the last time we met – was that he'd get to hit me, just once. Don't worry, he hits like a girl... you know, a girly girl. And if Sean asks what happened, I fell asleep by my computer, fell off the chair and hit my face on a metal box underneath the table. Ok?"

I nodded, my head filled with thoughts about the strange ways of the world and men hitting women until I realized I still didn't know what had happened to Susan.

"And Susan then?" I asked, keeping my voice low, trying to draw some strength from the calm that seemed to have deserted me once more "Did she fall and hit her face too?"

"No," Mary answered "she was hit by a guy at work, a real piece of shit according to public and not so public records. But he's being handled as we speak. And well, Susan's being taken care of too, but in a slightly different, and very much better, way."

The wicked smile she sent my way, her eyes twinkling, amused by some secret knowledge, made me smile back at her, curious but happy that Susan's "situation" had been taken care of. I thought about asking more questions, but the sound of another car made me turn towards driveway.

Edward came walking towards me, hesitating slightly before pulling me into a warm hug. A happy bark separated us and I laughed softly as a big, goofy dog came running up to us, pushing his head under my hand. I dropped to my knees and patted and hugged him, and got licked in the face a couple of times in the process. I laughed out loud as Alfred circled around me and then came back for more hugs and "kisses", a wonderfully freeing laughter, full of love and joy.

Sean introduced Edward and Mary, and Alfred, to each other before we all walked into the small kitchen. With extra chairs from the other rooms we all managed to fit at the small table, with Gabriella at the head of the table, Mary and Edward on one side and me and Sean, and Alfred, on the other side. Sean was sitting really close, his arm softly touching my arm, sending zings of energy through me on one side, with Alfred sitting on the other side of me, his warm head in my lap, sending waves of calm the other way. I could almost feel the zings and waves meeting inside me, the golden energy of human attraction calmed by the soothing blue waves of canine love.

I let my self be rocked back and forth by the feelings inside of me as Sean asked Mary what had happened to her face and Mary gave her "it was an accident" answer, before cheekily asking him if he wanted to kiss it and make it all better. I felt Sean's arm tightening slightly before he blew out a frustrated breath and refused to answer her question. That "thing" deep inside of me was happy when he leaned away from Mary and seemed to settle in closer to me instead.

With short, quick sentences, Mary started telling us about the progress she had made in her attempts at finding the information we needed. She had been able to hack something – I didn't quite understand what – to find still pictures of women, but had failed to find any films or other material that tied my husband to any evil doings. She pulled her hair, looking a bit frustrated, before she told us about seeking out an old friend who was now helping her get through the last layer of security around some sort of cloud backup site she'd been unable to access by her own. She was confident that we'd have what we needed in just a few more hours.

We spent at least two hours around that table as Mary asked us tell her everything about our lives. Edward told us about his father, his mother and brother, his fight to save Sean, his calm, loving life with his wife and his grief when she died. Gabriella told us shortly about her sister and her own life as a single mother before Sean came to live with her and Elena. Sean told us nothing about his life before he came to live with Gabriella, but had plenty of loving things to say about his relatives, and some things to say about his work as a police officer as well.

I didn't think I'd be able to tell them about my life, but I managed to quickly outline what my life had been like, with the rules, the schedules and the punishments. I told them about the last week's change in my husband's temper and him no longer following his father's "no visible marks" policy. No one spoke as I continued my painstaking journey through memories previously untold. I didn't dare look at them as I spoke, but I felt Sean's reaction through my arm. He seemed to tense up, perhaps reading himself to jump up, run out, fight, to do something.

When I told them about being pushed into the street twice and Sean saving me the second time it happened, it seemed he couldn't take it anymore, because he jumped up and stood, his hands going into tight fists. I sat silently looking at my hands waiting for him to sit down again, before I continued my story by telling them about the way my attempts at getting away from my husband had made me ask Josh for help, and the way Josh had responded when I had told him about my financial situation.

We sat silent for a few minutes, all of us processing what we'd been told, before Mary started asking questions, seemingly skipping from unrelated event to unrelated event. When she asked me about the person that had pushed me, I answered as much as I could, with Sean adding what he knew. When Mary muttered under her breath that "it didn't fit in the pattern" and something about "unknown factor", I tried to follow her reasoning, but my tired mind refused to help, because it was occupied processing the feelings that Sean's protective arm around my shoulders was generating. I almost laughed out loud at the zing-a-ding-ding sound that seemed to be ringing in my head.

Mary stood up and looked at us all, raising an eyebrow as she saw Sean's arm around me. I could almost see the teasing words that were on her tongue before she shook her head and asked me to walk her out to the car. Sean stood up and pushed himself against the wall to let me out of the kitchen, and I passed him quickly, my cheeks going red as I took care to make sure I touched him as little as possible on the way out.

Mary told Sean to call his contact at the homicide unit, to alert him that they would have what they needed soon, and to make sure that they would have a team that could be trusted available on short notice.

We walked up to Mary's car, and as she stopped, leaned against the driver door and looked at me she probably saw my red cheeks, but she thankfully didn't comment on it. She sighed, ran her fingers through her hair and started talking, keeping her voice low.

"We have a plan, something tangible that we're working on to capture the devil you married, and to free you from the life you should never, ever have had to live. But at this point, when I can't do anything to help, when I can only await the result of someone else's efforts, all this anger and frustration that I have inside is almost killing me. I need to kick something, break things or scream. Or... I can find another way of using this energy I have inside... but I wanted to ask your approval first. It seems that your husband's family haven't really treated you right either. And I wanted to ask you if you'd be very sorry if I put some effort into breaking down the little empire they've built for themselves? I am quite capable of tearing it and them into tiny, little, non-important pieces of pocket lint. So may I... please?"

Perhaps it's true that we all have a vengeful side to us, that it's built into our human nature to get mad, to get even, but that wasn't the only reason why I nodded to her before she drove away. If the family treated one of its own the way they treated me, what were the odds that they treated other people even worse?

I smiled as I saw Mary speeding away, thinking that powerful female friends were even better than my previous short thought about finding myself a powerful man. And I was sure that the wrath of this particular woman, although not scorned in the true sense of the word, would mean hell on earth for those deserving of it.