Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 02

"You drag me out of my nice, warm bed at some ungodly hour and then expect me to thank you by getting wet and wild with you? I don't fucking think so, Bobby!" she gritted while my eyes bugged out of my head.

"Remember one thing, Bobby; if you want a long and peaceful life, Shari sleeps late, got it?"

I closed my eyes as I nodded; disagreeing with her right now seemed foolhardy, seeing what she was holding. Shari waited for a few more agonizing seconds, then let go of me.

"See Bobby, that's what you need to learn; in any negotiation-type situation, always make sure you negotiate from a position of strength; mummy taught me that! Now, let's go and have a nice shower, eh?"

I couldn't help but grin as she led me to the wet-room; Shari was always so compliant, always happy to let me take the lead, but, when she really needed to make her point, she had some pretty persuasive techniques to enforce her will, and the willingness to use them when needed. Luckily, by the time I got around to soaping her back she'd forgiven me for rousting her out so early, and promised me a treat later to say sorry for threatening my best friend.

By the time we were dressed, had made up the bed again, and were ready to order breakfast, Yaz and Ricky had joined us, so we called down and ordered a light breakfast, then sat around chatting while we waited for Room Service. We also had some things for Nicky, so Shari and I checked they were to hand, and Shari gave me another long and tender kiss to apologise for earlier, this time with extra squeezing, which meant I had to wait before rejoining the others, as I refused to walk around in front of Yaz with a tent in my trousers...

We were at the coffee stage when there was a knock at the door. Rick answered it, and ushered Nicky and Ashley into the room. Once the niceties were dispensed with, we sat around the table, six of us, all family. Nicky poured Ashley a coffee, and one for himself, then leaned back in his chair, that trademark grin and slightly raised eyebrow so much in evidence.

"So Bobby, I hear tell you guys have something for me, so tell me, I'm agog here!"

Shari left the table to pull something out of her case, and came back to the table, handing Nicky a photograph album.

"We found this in the house, stashed in one of the attics; I think it belongs to you, Nicky."

Nicky opened it, his eyes widening as picture after picture of Barbara was revealed, each page filled with his memories of his mum. His face remained expressionless as he leafed through the album, but his eyes filled, a tear eventually spilling out and running unheeded down his cheek to drip from his chin. Finally, he came to the end, and closed the album, passing it to Ashley, who looked at me in enquiry. I nodded, so she opened it, seeing for the first time images of Nicky's beloved Barbara, and pictures of Nicky as a toddler, a little boy, a schoolboy. Her lip quivered as she looked through the album, her eyes flicking occasionally to Nicky, who sat impassively until she'd finished leafing through it, finally passing it back to him.

"Thank...Thank you for this," he faltered, "it's ..." he broke off, swallowing several times, his throat clicking dryly. Yaz passed him a glass of water, which he accepted gratefully.

"Thank you, all of you; I never had anything of her, now I have this, thank you..."

Ashley pulled his head down into the angle of her neck and shoulder, her hand stroking his hair while she held him, her own eyes bright with unshed tears. Both Yaz and Shari were similarly affected, their eyes also brimming with tears in sympathy for their big brother's pain and loss. Nicky pulled his head away from Ashley and looked at us, all four of us, as we waited for him.

"Thank you, I don't know how to thank you, really..." stopping as Shari held her hand up.

"Nicky, there's more, and I don't know how to tell you, so I'm going to let you read it; then you'll know, and maybe you'll know what to do next. I wish there was another way, something other than this, but it's all we have. Nicky, mummy wants to talk to you, will you let her?"

Nicky looked puzzled, uncomprehending, but nodded. Shari went back to her case, and pulled out a thick buff envelope, which she brought back to the table and handed to him.

"Nicky, this is an affidavit my mother swore out a few days before she died. It concerns you; please read it."

Nicky looked at all of us, then opened the envelope and pulled out the thick sheaf of documents. We all watched as he unfolded the papers and began to read, watching his face alternately pale and darken, his jaw muscles bunching as he clenched and unclenched his teeth, and the occasional tremor in his hand as he read page after page. I knew what was in that terrible document, I had read it, and it had made me sick, and outraged, and deeply grateful that Robert Davies (or Brian Davis, or whoever the hell he really was) was caged up 24 hours a day in a super-maximum security federal prison, and would stay there forever. Just remembering what I had read in that affidavit made the rage churn and roil in the pit of my stomach all over again, but I knew I must be feeling only a pale shadow of what poor Nicky must be feeling right now.

We sat in silence, hardly daring to move, as Nicky read each page, finally folding the document and pushing it back into the envelope. He sighed, a deep, tremulous sigh, then stood up, motioning us down when we would have stood as well.

"No, guys, please, I just need some air, I..." he paused; his mouth worked, then he turned and walked out of the room. I knew Nicky's expressions of old, and right now he was furious. I made to follow him, but Ashley shook her head.

"No Bobby, leave him, he'll come back when he's ready; he just needs to think, he'll be okay, don't worry about him. Do you mind...?" she asked, picking up the thick envelope. I shook my head.

"No, not at all; you're family, so this concerns you too."

Ashley began reading through the document, her face paling and her eyes hardening as she worked her way through it, finally folding it and pushing it back into the envelope, then drummed her fingers for a moment on the tabletop, her face pale and angry, before looking at Shari, her eyes once more bright with tears.

"Shereen, Yasmin, can we talk? Somewhere private?"

Yaz indicated the connecting door into her suite, and led the way, Shari trailing a hand across my arm before following the other two girls, and closing the door behind her. Rick and I sat and looked at each other; no conversation seemed appropriate, and I had nothing to say; crunch-time was here, maybe soon we'd find out if we really had Nicky back, or if he was lost to us forever.

There was no sound coming from the other suite; with the door closed, it was effectively soundproof, but we listened-out anyway, to try and maybe get a hint of what was being said; they probably weren't arguing. Ashley had looked like she needed a shoulder, not an argument, as did the girls; seeing Nicky so affected had obviously reached into them as well, and they probably needed some girl-time right now. Rick and me sat and waited, silent and thoughtful, wondering if we'd see Nicky again today, or any time soon.

After what seemed like several eternities, but was probably no more than 15 or 20 minutes, the door to Yaz & Rick's suite opened and the girls came in, looking like they'd all had a good cry, but also calm, and oddly, upbeat as well. Whatever had been said had obviously done all of them some good. As they seated themselves, there was a knock on the door, and Yaz opened it, to find Nicky there, looking pale and drawn, but no longer furious, no longer expressionless. Yaz slipped her hand into his, and he patted her hand and smiled distractedly at her as she led him back to the table. He'd obviously been thinking and he began speaking almost before he'd sat down.

"Thank you, all of you. I wish I'd come here better prepared for all this, but now I know, that's the main thing. There's just one thing I have to know, Shereen; why did you show me that thing? I was starting to get past all that; going to see her helped me start to let her go; why did you bring this all back to me?"

Shari shared a quick glance with Ashley, who nodded.

"Nicky, we brought you this because I thought you'd know how to get that fucker to pay for everything he did; the authorities in England didn't do much, they just handed him over like he wasn't any concern of theirs, and that's just wrong! Just like you, Bobby and Ricky need closure too, and they need justice, so do I, and Yaz, and Ashley, and I thought this was the place, and you were the one to help. You helped get that filthy bastard caged-up in the first place; please help us find a way to make him pay for everything else; he killed mummy, Nicky, he has to pay, he hurt her, and he hurt her, and she died!"

Nicky started at that, his hand going out to take Shari's hand as two tears ran down her cheeks, pulling her close and holding her against him as she cried silently, stroking her hair as he soothed her. When she'd recovered somewhat, he fished out a handkerchief and dried her eyes, Shari smiling wanly as he did so.

"You're right, Shereen, he did, and I forgot that, I'm sorry, I won't let that happen again! All my sisters have reason to make that bastard pay, so let's do just that. David, Doctor Nixon, has an old friend with the FBI here in Albany, maybe he can somehow use this to put that bastard back to trial, this time on murder charges; he killed Barbara, he caused your mother's death, he did...what he did to Ashley, you're right, he should pay!"

Shari wordlessly hugged him, then gently kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you Nicky, thank you for being my big brother! And Nicky, my family calls me "Shari..."

Nicky grinned, his face losing some of its pallor, suddenly looking again like the Nicky I remembered.

"I'm sorry...Shari, and what should I call you, little-little sister?" he grinned at Yaz.

"Everyone calls me Yaz, so should you...bigger Big-Brother!" she retorted, grinning cheekily.

Ashley cleared her throat.

"Actually, Yaz, you'd be little-little-little sister; I'm older than you, you know!"

Rick looked puzzled, then understanding flared in his eyes.

"You mean...?" and Nicky nodded.

"That's right, Ashley's also my sister, my half-sister actually, which sort of makes her your sister too, although I'm buggered if I know how; I think we need a new word in English for 'the wife of my brother who is also my brother's sister, but is no relation of mine; "sister-in-law" doesn't quite seem to cover it...!"

Rick leaned back and grinned.

"I tell you, when our family sets out to blur the lines, we do a bloody good job of it!" which brought chuckles from around the table.

Yaz seemed to have something on her mind. Nicky noticed and asked her what was up.

"Nicky, mummy said you were badly hurt, that our fathe...Robert hurt you; did he do that?" she indicated the scar above and running the length of his right eyebrow.

Nicky grinned. "No, I got jumped by a tree, but one day my daughter's going to think I got it when I fought a bear, so keep it to yourselves, OK?"

"It was my fault he got that!" said Ashley, her eyes on Nicky as all our eyes swivelled to her. "I left him in the forest at night, I got angry with him when he told me what your father had done to me, and I abandoned him, and he could have died!"

Nicky was by her side in a flash, holding her against him.

"It was a long time ago, baby, let it go, I did, it happened, it's long over, leave it, please!"

It felt good to see Nicky, the one who'd always been left out, be so much in love, to have someone who loved him so much, and to finally be happy. He looked into Ashley's eyes, and smiled at her.

"It's all over baby, it's gone, I promise you." She looked up at him, her face set and resolute.

"Show them, Nicky, show them what he did; your family needs to see what happened to you, what he did to you. Please Nicky, just show them!"

"Ashley, please..." he began, but Shari cut him short.

"Show us what, Nicky? What happened, what did he do to you?"

Ashley looked at him and nodded, and he slowly nodded, and pulled off his jacket and the black "Mark One" polo shirt underneath and turned his back to us.

"Ooohh fuck!" exclaimed Rick, with shocked gasps the only sound from Shari and Yaz. I turned my head away, sickened by the sight before me; Nicky's back was a mass of criss-crossing red welts, from his shoulders to the small of his back, some of them 6 inches long, so many there was virtually no unmarked skin visible between the welts, mute testimony to the savagery of the beating he'd taken.

"Dad...did that?" Rick whispered, "How?"

Ashley snorted.

"He used his belt buckle, like he always did, it was his favorite tool; my mom has some like that on her back as well, but nothing like that. When Nicky came to us, he looked like he'd been flayed alive, it took a year for his back to heal, and he won't admit it, but I know it still hurts him; that bastard damaged so many nerve-endings it'll never stop hurting. I guess this is what he meant by 'a Father's true legacy!'"

Shari had tears in her eyes as she picked up his shirt and handed it back to him, and hugged him as he pulled it down over his head. Nicky held her tightly, his hand against the back of her head as she buried her face in his neck, then Yaz and Ashley joined them in a group hug, Nicky suddenly in the middle of a triple sister-hug, three beautiful girls holding him as tightly as they could.

When the girls had let him go, and more or less got their emotions under control, Nicky called his step-father and explained what we'd shown him. They chatted for a few more minutes, then Nicky hung up and smiled at all of us.

"Dad's calling his friend at the FBI, hopefully he'll want to see this right away, and dad and mum will swing by later so we can have a proper family talk over lunch." He seemed pensive, then cocked an eye at me.

"The only thing here that I find strange is that you guys come to Albany to look for me, and the first person you bump into is someone who knows me, and is engaged to my step-sister; as far as I'm concerned, that's stretching coincidence just a little too far, but then, it's not the first time..."

I looked at him questioningly, so he told us a story about when he'd come home to see Barbara's grave, they'd left the cemetery and were on the motorway back to their hotel, Ashley had flicked on the radio, to hear the DJ play a record request from Barbara to Nick, the Beach Boys' "Little Saint Nick", Barbara's nickname for Nicky growing up.

Rick and I exchanged glances, and Rick nodded, so I told them about why we'd helped Leon in that alleyway; because I'd heard Rick's voice, as clear as day, shouting "help him!", while Rick asserted he'd heard me tell him to help Leon, which is why he'd jumped in. Whoever had called out, though, the result had been that we'd befriended the one person who could lead us straight to our missing brother. Coincidence? Ashley didn't think so.

"Bobby, Rick, I think someone wanted you to meet Nicky, I think they wanted it real bad, because here you are, and here he is. Maybe this 'Guardian Angel' business has something to it after all, or perhaps it's just that so much has been set in motion, it was time for all of you to meet-up again; sometimes fate does take a hand, maybe this is one of those times!"

We talked in this vein for a while, gradually moving on to our lives and what we were doing now. I was intrigued to hear that Nicky was the boss at his lace of work, the "Mark One" logo was the emblem of the company he worked for; in fact, he, Ashley and Judy were co-owners of Mark One Auto Engineering, with a new auto shop opening soon, a specialist shop where they were going to build replica and road-race vehicles and high-performance engines. Leon and Judy were getting the shop as a wedding present, when they married after she graduated from medical school, but it was still a secret, so all Leon knew was that he was going to be lead mechanic at the new shop.

Shari and Yaz gave him a little of their background working in the property business with their mother, and told him about the house we'd bought to redevelop, which was how we'd found the letter that had brought us here. We'd chatted for what only seemed like a few minutes when Ashley's phone rang. She answered it and spoke briefly.

"OK guys, that was mom; they'll meet us in the restaurant in 10 minutes."

I looked at my watch and was amazed to see we'd been talking for over three hours, and now it was gone 12:30, lunchtime. The girls all refreshed their makeup, although they really didn't need any; we Davis men had incredibly good taste when it came to our women, because apparently we'd all picked bronze-haired goddesses.

We'd just taken our seats in the restaurant when David and Julia joined us. Now that I had leisure to see, I was struck by how much Nicky resembled his mother; sure, he looked like dad, so did Rick and I, but Nicky's hair and eyes, the way he held his head, and especially his profile, all pure Julia.

David was smiling and friendly, once again impressing me with how calm and urbane he was; Nicky had done amazingly well to snag him for a step-dad, he gave off the "good-guy" vibe in big loud waves, and Rick and the girls were obviously feeling it as well. Julia looked amused that all of us were responding so well to David; obviously she'd heard stuff about us from Nicky, all true, and was having trouble reconciling that image with the new us, but she didn't look like she was holding any grudges.

After a few pleasantries, and some banter as we ordered lunch, David asked if he could read the affidavit document. He read through it while we waited for our starters, then read through it again, his face becoming set and drawn, his lips thinning to two bloodless lines, and his jaw muscles trembling and rippling as he clenched and unclenched his teeth.

Eventually he put it down and looked at all of us, his eyes hard and angry, and wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. Julia stroked his cheek, her eyes concerned.

"David, what's wrong, darling, what is it?" she asked, and David leaned back in his seat, visibly trying to relax his arms and shoulders.

"I've never in my life...read this, Julia, it's the vilest, most disgusting...dear God, how can anybody sink so low...the FBI will definitely need to see this; God, it's like wading through a cess-pit!"

Julia raised an eyebrow as she took the document from him, her expression becoming set and drawn as she read through it, to finally drop it with a deep sigh, her bottom lip trembling as she unconsciously wiped her hands on her jeans.

"He really did all this?" she whispered, and Shari nodded.

"We were there, we saw what he did to mummy, we watched as he beat and abused her, stole everything from her, and she couldn't do anything; he threatened Yaz and me, he even tried to rape Yaz, but she managed to get away. Everything in there is true; I took an oath when I swore it was a true account, I stand by it now, so does Yasmin!"

Julia reached across and cupped her face, her eyes filled with outrage, but also sympathy and compassion. She gently brushed a strand of hair out of Shari's face and smiled gently.

"He's in jail now, and he will be for the rest of his life; that's punishment enough, and maybe even justice. What more can we do?"

Shari's face set in harsh lines, her anger just below the surface.

"That's not enough! Caging him up isn't justice; perhaps now, with this, we can put a rope around his filthy neck! Brian Davis has too much to answer for, he deserves to die for what he did, maybe now we have a way to make him pay for mummy, and for Barbara! No hell is too much for him, he deserves to burn!"