Promising Danielle Ch. 09

I lay back down, still holding her tight as I pulled the covers up over us.

"Thank you for being here, Toby." she whispered sleepily.

"Anytime, sweetheart." She made a happy cooing noise, and melted comfortably against me.

***

The good Dr. Carter showed up the next day. I was busy burning Dani's rescue to DVD for backup when Nikki again walked in with her arms crossed.

"Toby, the police are here again, saying you kidnapped Danielle. Again." Her arms were crossed as before, but this time she had a staggeringly stern expression on her face. I made a mental note never, ever piss this woman off.

"I didn't and this time I can prove it." I stood triumphant by my chair. This was going to be the closest thing to torturing Dani's rapists that I would get to experience.

"Is that her, sir?" Three police officers and Dr. Carter had now entered our room. I heard Dani positively fly from her position on the couch to hide behind me, gripping my shirt in her fists.

"Danielle, sweetheart, it's time to come home." Her father said in that disgusting faux concerned tone.

"You are not taking her this time."

"Sir, I'm afraid she's going to have to." The officer said firmly.

"Now hold on a minute. He's been abusing her! She-"

"As I told you last time, young man; it's part of her condition."

"And we have the papers to prove it." he officer said.

"And I have the video to prove he's abusing her. Look, if she is indeed mentally ill, I will prove that he is taking advantage of her, and if she isn't I can offer supporting evidence to her sexual assault."

"What's this?" The officer in charge looked confused. Some of that triumphant smirk was wiped imperceptibly from Dr. Carter's face. That brought me no small measure of joy.

"I rescued her from his house not one month ago."

"Son, you just admitted to kidnapping." The officer said, reaching for his handcuffs.

"No! Watch!" I started the video. Danielle's darkened home shook on the screen. I started to fast forward, making my slow trek through the house take mere seconds. I resumed the normal speed when I got to my discovery of the closet.

"Right here, look." I descended the stairs on screen and discovered Danielle on the table. With the screen full of her crying face, I paused the video. I saw the officer acknowledge her face by shifting back and forth between Danielle over my shoulder and the grainy image on the screen. I then continued the video, letting it play out while I addressed the officer.

"Either way you look at it officer, she's clearly there against her will. If she is indeed mentally handicapped like her father says, what is he doing strapping her naked to a table in a hidden basement? Or could it be possible that her story is true and her father has been using his professional credentials to rape his adopted daughter?" I looked at the officer, forcing him to come to my conclusion. The hand cuffs meant for me immediately found themselves around the wrists of Dr. Carter.

"Look! He's stealing clothing from my house! I demand you press charges!" Dr. Carter shouted as he was cuffed, watching me clothe Danielle onscreen.

"Buddy, you're going to be lucky to find a prosecutor dumb enough to take that one on, let alone a judge who won't laugh you out of court." The cop said, locking the cuffs behind Dr. Carter's back.

"Here." I handed the officer the DVD of what he had just watched. "I hope you get shanked." I told Dr. Carter.

"I'll see you in court." He snarled.

"You bet your ass you will." I growled, more than ready to tear him apart.

I felt a tug at my shirt as I began to follow them out and see him shoved in the back of a police car. Before I could turn, I felt Danielle's forehead rest between my shoulder blades. A quiet sniffle alerted me to her tears. I looked up at a very shocked Nikki, who took the hint and exited to room behind the officers, closing the door.

I turned and wrapped Danielle in my arms, letting her cry on my chest. These weren't gut wrenching sobs, but a copious amount of tears fell nonetheless. I stroked her hair, doing my best to let her know that I was there.

"You're safe." I whispered, kissing the top of her head

"I know." She sniffled, leaning wearily against me. "It feels so good to know he can't hurt me anymore. But at the same time, nobody wants to see their dad arrested. Even if he wasn't my real dad."

"That makes sense."

I let her cling to me for a good fifteen minutes, hearing several cars depart from the front of the house. I knew that they were the police cars carrying her family--no, her rapists--away to jail. I know it's not good to delight in the suffering of others, but the imaginary sight of that smug bastard being shoved into the back of a police car brought a smile to my face. A smile that I'm very glad Dani didn't see.

"What do you want to do now?"

"Can we just sit and watch a movie like we used to?" She asked looking up hopefully.

"Of course we can." Like you needed to ask?

I walked with her to the couch, my arm around her waist. She split off from me and grabbed a movie. I didn't care what we watched. Hell, they were all my movies. I plopped down on the couch and turned the TV and DVD player on, switching it from cable as she slipped the disc in.

She trotted back to me and sat down on the couch. She curled her legs beneath her and rested her head in my lap. She took my hand in hers and held it on her stomach.

"Is it ok if fall asleep like this?"

"Of course it is." I chuckled, stroking her hair with my free hand. "You don't need my permission to do anything, especially to be you."

"Sorry." She smiled. "I just get so tired when I cry and I don't want to be a burden on you."

"Well, right now, you are a very comfortable burden." I think I was beginning to understand people with hair fetishes. The feel of it silky coolness in my fingers mixed with the warmth of her scalp was mentally arousing. My cock was still flaccid as they day I learned to walk, but my mind was truly enamored by the mystery of her hair, and the happiness Dani seem to be getting from my touches.

Dani fell asleep resting on my lap not twenty minutes into the movie. Carefully extricating myself from her, I picked her up and carried her to our bed. I laid her down, pulled the covers up and softly kissed her forehead. Still asleep, she snuggled in with an unconscious moan.

I sat next to her and worked on my homework. After I finished a particularly boring paper on Shakespeare, I decided to take a break. I quietly slipped from the room. It was around 6 and I was hungry. I meandered into the kitchen, where I found Nikki and Stacy.

"Hey. We're making burritos. Care for one?"

"Sure." I plopped a tortilla on my plate and made myself up a burrito before joining them at the table.

"So, what is with all these police officers?" Stacy asked rather innocently. Nikki stared at me intently. I knew the only reason Stacy had asked the question was because Nikki had asked her to. There was no way Nikki could ask without sounding accusing.

I spent the next fifteen minutes or so explaining Danielle's wonderful little life story. They listened and soon stopped eating. I would assume it's because they lost their appetite at the more explicit details of her abuse and rescue. I saw them both look horrified when I finished. Nikki had the decency to look ashamed for a moment. I knew she was remembering the accusatory look she gave me not hours before.

"So, what is the plan now?" Stacy asked looking concerned.

"Well, I think the DA is going to try and build a case, but I'll have to wait and hear back from the police."

"If there's anything you need, let us know."

"I need one of those burritos." Danielle said padding into the kitchen, having just woken up from her nap. Her hair was all tousled and she looked fucking adorable. She plopped down into the chair next to me and leaned on my shoulder, blinking slowly.

"Mmm. You smell good. Like you." she said groggily. She looked up at me with a happy smile, as if my scent was something I picked out just for her.

"Well, I'm glad you think so." I said, giving Nikki and Stacy a confused look. Nikki picked up the remnants of her burrito and began to pick at it. Stacy meanwhile, got up and quickly made one for Danielle.

"Here you go, sweetheart." Stacy said sweetly to Danielle, setting the burrito down in front of her.

"Thanks." She said sitting up.

"I've just been telling them your life story."

"All of it?" She asked her mouth full of rice and sour cream.

"Well, the less flattering parts that explain why the police were here."

"Oh." She said, clearly unhappy at the memory.

"I hope that was ok." I said cautiously.

"Yeah, saves me the trouble." She said, sticking more burrito in her mouth. She chewed for a moment and swallowed before looking up at Nikki and Stacy. "You must think I'm some kind of freak, huh?"

"No! Not at all!" Nikki said, looking rather appalled. "We know it's not your fault."

"I understand." Stacy said in a strange voice. It was quiet, but somehow carried clearly to all of us. "Better than you think." Danielle gave her a perplexed look, inviting her to continue.

"When I was 16, my father got drunk and touched me one night. He only did it once, but I didn't trust men for a long time." Stacy admitted. Nikki looked at her as if she had just announced that she would like a sex change operation.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Nikki asked, a terrible, sad, hurt tone in her voice.

"Because, you didn't need to know, baby." She took Nikki's hand in hers. "I was over it a long time before I met you."

"Is that why-"

"That's a discussion for later, honey." Stacy cut her off. "Right now we need to think about Danielle here and what she needs." They looked at Danielle expectantly, as if she had some sort of emotional shopping list for healing.

"I'm fine right now. Toby's been really good at listening." She held my arm tightly. Stacy, and especially Nikki, gave me a look as though the highly doubted this to be true. "It's just hard seeing them again with the police." She intertwined her hand with mine under the table and squeezed. I squeezed back, letting her know I was there.

"I'm doing a lot better than I thought I would at this point in my life. To be perfectly honest, I didn't think I was going to survive long enough to see this point in my life." She squeezed my hand again. My heart soared. I mean fucking SOARED. Nikki looked mildly disconcerted, and Stacy looked grimly accepting.

"Thank you for your concern though." She smiled sweetly. "But it looks like you two have some things you need to talk about. And so do we." She looked at ma and smiled. There was a determined glimmer in her eye that at once terrified be and filled me with a sense of confidence.

And with that, she rose and positively scampered to our room, leaving me alone with Stacy and Nikki.

"Well ladies, it looks like it's been a productive afternoon." I rose and followed Danielle to our room, shutting the door behind me.

She was standing with her back to the door, not 10 feet from me. She had clearly let her momentum carry her into the room and stopped, waiting to hear the door shut after I entered.

"Dani-"

"I made a decision." She said, cutting me off in a clear confidant tone. She raised her head and spun around to face me. There was something terrible and hungry behind her eyes. Something alive and feral. Something that if you came across in the wood, you would avoid at all costs. It scared me to death.

"I am not going to live my life without you." She said, looking me straight in the eye. "I don't care what you or anyone says. I'm not going on without you. You're going to marry me, we're going to have kids, we're going to retire, and grow old together. Is that understood?" She could have been a drill sergeant in another life.

"Doesn't look like I have much of a choice now, does it?" I laughed, closing the gap between us. I wrapped my arms around her, feeling her vibrate against me. "It's good to see you so alive for once."

"You do this to me." She said, looking up at me, that feral fire still dancing behind her eyes. "If it weren't for you, I'd have killed myself by now."

"Really?"

"Yes." Some of the fire died in her eyes. I instantly wanted it to return. I missed its warmth. "That night first night I slept in your bed. If you hadn't been with me, I would have killed myself the next morning."

An immense swell of self satisfaction roared up in my chest. When someone says that they are alive simply because you were there for them is an indescribable feeling. It inflated my ego to match most celebrities. That smug, egotistical swell of pride was deflated almost instantly at the thought of me being happy from her suffering.

"You have no idea how good that makes me feel, knowing I saved your life." She simply smiled up at me, chin pressing on my chest.

"Part of me is going to miss the 'fragile you.'" I said stroking her hair.

"I'm still just as fragile." She said, turning her head to rest her cheek against me. "The only difference is I'm more confidant now, with you with me. I know that if I fall, you'll be there to catch me." She nuzzled her cheek against me. God she felt good. "And if by some chance I slip through your fingers, you'll pick up all the pieces and put me back together again."

A whole new kind of fear swept over me. I realized I was responsible for her now. If there is something you never want to be, it is responsible for someone else's emotional well being, simply because there are too many things you can't control.

"I can't do it by myself, you know." I said, my fear settling in. "You'll have to help; show me where the pieces fit."

She sighed heavily, almost as if trying to reach another decision. Based on the last several decisions that she had come to, I didn't think I wanted to hear another one.

But then she looked up at me with those amazing eyes. She smiled and I swear...the dying sunlight managed to pierce through the roof and floor above us and shine onto her face. She seemed to bask in it, glowing. What kind of creature did I cradle in my arms? She couldn't be human.

"Ok." She stood on her toes and kissed me. A short peck on the lips, but with all the feeling of a soul wrenching deep lip lock. I didn't know you could convey that much emotion with such a short touch.

"Just two conditions though." She said seriously. "Don't ever tie me up, and don't ever ask me to call you 'Daddy.'"

"Fair enough," I smiled.