Violence Warning/Disclaimer: This story depicts scenes of violence and/or their aftermath. Readers who are disturbed by or sensitive to this type of depiction may wish to read something other than this story.
Sexual Violence Warning/Disclaimer: This story depicts scenes of sexual violence and/or their aftermath. Some readers may be disturbed by this type of depiction and anyone who is sensitive to this particular issue may wish to read something other than this story.
Love/Sex Warning/Disclaimer: There are blatant discussions, references and description of sexual relations between consenting adults. You must be over the age of 18 and it must not be a crime to read material of this nature at your present location. Some of the scenes depicted are explicit. If this bothers you, you should find other reading material.
Language Warning: The language is representative of street language. Therefore is quite vulgar. You must be over the age of 18 and it must not be a crime to read material of this nature at your present location. If this bothers you, you should find other reading material.
Note: My thanks to my beta reader Katia for her wonderful help in writing this piece.
A special thanks to the new love in my life, Shuana, for putting up with all the late night writing and all the time not spent with her.
Part 10
Zan eyes went wide as she frantically thought of what she wanted to say. She played for a delay and replied, "Let's move this into my apartment and will explain everything. We need to get her dressed and on her way out of here."
Brie realized the practically of Zan's response and said, "Okay, you're right, but it's only a stay of execution, not a reprieve."
The blonde bureaucrat dressed quickly and quietly as she looked from face to face of the two people in the room. The looks on their faces were far from friendly or understanding. Brie broke the spell and asked, "How did you get here?"
The woman realized that there were many questions involved in that one simple question. So the young bureaucrat decided to answer the obvious question, "I came by cab."
Brie sighed, "We can't let her go by cab. One of us needs to drive her to her office. Right now I don't want that to be you. I also don't want to leave you here alone until we talk."
Zan fought the darkness inside her that just wanted to confront her young lover, but Zan was in control and responded, "I'll call Carl, he can come over and drive her to her office. Then we call talk all you want."
Brie smiled, she was glad her teenage lover was going to reasonable. The green-eyed blonde nodded and said, "Make the call Zan, while I talk to our guest."
The look on the small blonde scared the confused bureaucrat. The petite social worker walked over the taller bureaucrat and threw her to the ground and said, "This is the second time you have come between me and my lover. If there is a third, we will finish this discussion. Do I make myself clear?"
The older woman nodded her understanding and just wanted to get out of there alive.
Carl came over and understood the situation instantly. He looked to Brie and advised, "Remember she loves you and that she's a little broken."
Brie smiled and responded, "Carl, there is no-one more aware of that than me. I love her."
Carl smiled and said to the distraught bureaucrat, "Come on, before you experience anymore of the wild side. Maybe next time you'll think before you go slumming. If you really want to experience it fully, I have a friend who would love to eat you alive."
After Carl removed the distraction, Zan instantly kneeled before her young love and pleaded, "Brie, believe me, nothing happened. I started to, but I remembered you and I couldn't. Brie, something happened today, and something inside me woke up and I'm having trouble getting under control. But whatever happens you have to know that I love you and have never and will never love anyone else."
Brie laughed that was the most she had ever heard the stoic Zan speak in one breath. The blonde lover replied, "Zan, Cassy called me and told me something happened that shook you badly. She couldn't ethically tell me what happened, she said you would need my help."
Zan took a deep breath and remembered Cassy's advice about being more open with her blonde lover. So the dark teenager said, "Sit down and I will tell you what happened."
Brie had sat quietly while listening to her young love relate her sad story. The young woman looked desperate as she paced the floor and waved her arms while vividly telling her story. The green-eyed social worker finally interjected, "Zan, please sit down, you're rocking the boat."
The dark teen chuckled lightly and sat down abruptly onto the floor. Brie laughed at the normally stoic teenager's attempt at humor. Brie sighed through the laughter, "Oh Zan, Cassy is certainly doing something right. You're loosing up a bit."
Brie went to her purse and brought a prescription bottle. She took out two pills and got a glass of juice from Zan's refrigerator and had them to teenager, while saying, "Cassy gave me this prescription. She told me to give it to you after you told me your story. She wants you to get a good night's sleep. So come on, we're going to bed."
Zan started to protest, "Baby, I'd love to, but I've been neglecting things since we've met. I have go through the mail and pay my bills."
Brie folded her arms across her chest and glared. Zan knew she was defeated and took the two pills and allowed her lover to put her into bed. However, Zan insisted that Brie come to bed with her. It had been a hard few days for Brie as well, so she relented and soon was asleep beside her young lover.
Brie woke up to a dark room. She glanced at her watch and found it was only 11:30 p.m. and she was wide-awake. She untangled herself from her sleeping lover and went to she if she could help her young love out.
She retrieved the young woman's mail and started going through it. She pitched all the usually junk mail. Anything that looked personal, she set to the side. She pulled her checkbook and started working on the bills. Finally, she came to an odd looking bill. It was a bill for two hundred and seventy-five dollars from a lawyer.
Brie noted the name and continued on with the other bills. When she had completed writing out the checks and stuffing the envelopes, she went to mail them. She encountered two Warriors, who offered to escort her. She accepted their offer. She didn't want any trouble, and with the two Warriors with she was guarantee not to have any.
When the young blonde got back to the apartment, she realized they were going bowling tomorrow night and that they had forgotten to get her bowling stuff. It was too late to get it tonight. They would have to go during her lunch hour tomorrow. The young, green-eyed social worker climbed back into bed with the love of her life and fell to a deep slumber in her arms.
Zan awoke just before five in the morning. She had slept over ten hours without any nightmares. She had not felt so refreshed in years. The dark teen went to the bathroom and took a much-needed shower. When she got out of the shower, the young woman went to make some coffee. As she passed the kitchen table, she realized that Brie had gone through her mail.
The raven-haired teenager chuckled, her lover insisted on helping her so she would have to live with it. The blue-eyed teen called Horry Hamilton on the phone, when he answered, she said, "Hi, Horry, this Zan Agair, Brie's girlfriend."
The surprised attorney yawned, "Hi, Zan, I quite remember you. We have an appointment at three, could this wait until then?"
Zan realized the hour and was slightly embarrassed, but quickly recovered to answer, "Well, that's why I'm calling. I want you make up a power of attorney for me. I want to give Brie power of attorney for everything I have. My attorney's name is Paul Dean, he can give you the particulars."
Horry queried, "Zan, why not have him do it?"
Zan replied with conviction, "Because, I want it by this afternoon's meeting. I want to do at the same time Brie signs her papers for me. I love her and this is the only way I can think of to show her with something concrete."
"I understand, Zan," responded the big lawyer, "I will have it by this afternoon... Zan, I wasn't sure about you at first, but now I'm convinced that you and Brie were made for each other and I for one am happy for both you."
"Thanks," replied an embarrassed teenager.
"Good bye, Zan," said the gentle attorney as he hung up the phone.
He turned to his lover and said, "Bill, I need you to contact Paul Dean and get the information from him on our new client Zan Agair. We need a power of attorney for her, giving control of her affairs to Brie, just in case."
The smaller man smiled, "So, they're both taking the plunge."
"Oh yeah."
Brie woke up to a cold bed. Zan had obviously been up for a couple hours. The blonde's nose for food smelled fresh eggs and bacon. Her green eyes shot open and the hungry woman jumped from the bed and raced through her shower.
The young social worker came out the bathroom in an oversized tee shirt and a towel wrapped around her hair. The tall teenager noticed her lover enter the room and said, "Baby, would you like some eggs and bacon."
The dark teen was answered by a growling stomach. So she smiled and said, "That's what I thought."
Brie was finishing her third egg and asked, "Have you forgotten that you promised me a shopping trip to get bowling stuff?"
Zan replied, "I'm sorry, Babe, but I was a bit preoccupied yesterday."
The blonde woman said, "I'm giving you a second chance at lunch."
The tall teen shrugged her shoulders and responded, "Okay, but remember I have a ten o'clock with Cassy and we both have a three o'clock with Horry and Associates."
The green-eyed social worker exclaimed, "Damn, I forgot about the lawyers. Okay, we have a full day so let's get started."
Brie stormed into the office like a tornado. She had a morning full of appointments, which was great by her, because she wouldn't have to worry about Zan and her appointment with Cassy.
Marge brought in a stack of files and a cup of coffee. She put the files on Brie's desk and handed her the cup of coffee. Then the office manager went into her professional mode, "You have six morning appointments. You have the files. The first two are waiting to come in."
Brie sighed and said, "Send in contestant number one."
Zan entered Cassy's office and told Jennifer that she needed to see Cassy in the outer office before her appointment. Zan had decided after the session from yesterday that she would only feel comfortable with Cassy as her therapist. So, she wanted to tell Cassy to get rid of the other doctor.
At seven minutes to ten, Cassy came out to greet her best friend's lover and asked, "What do you want to talk about Zan?"
The young woman took a deep breath and answered, "I wanted to tell you that after the last session, I won't feel comfortable talking to anybody except you. I know you want to feel uncomfortable with me being Brie's girlfriend and all, but I don't want strangers knowing my business. Yesterday scared me and I don't know what else we will find, but I don't want anybody who doesn't understand me to hear it."
Cassy smiled and said, "I agree with you. After yesterday's session, I knew you wouldn't want anyone else listening to your past. I called off the consultation. Now, if that's it, we can get started."
The raven-haired teen reached out and indicated that there was something else. Then she said, "I want Brie involved in the sessions. I don't want to keep any secrets from her and I want her to hear it unfiltered."
Cassy thought about it for a second and then responded, "I'm not sure that is a good idea. I'm not sure of the consequences of having her in the sessions."
The blue-eyed teenager sighed, "I want Brie in my life completely and she has to trust me. So I have to show her that I trust her. Can't you see that she will never completely trust me if everything she hears is filtered by either you or me."
Cassy knew her friend, and Zan was right. Brie and Zan needed each other and trust was vital to their relationship. So, Cassy consented, "I will tape this session for her to hear and schedule you both for the next sessions."
The dark Warrior smiled and got up then headed towards the young psychologist's office. Cassy was only a couple steps behind.
Zan went to the couch and plopped down on it. Cassy smiled at the action, the stoic teen was starting to loosen up. The former gang leader was starting to act like a regular teenager. The young psychologist told the young woman, "We're not going to use hypnosis today. It's too soon after yesterday's very emotional session. We need to talk about what we discovered yesterday. I have blocked off two hours, so we can really explore what we learned. What did you feel when you realized how you dominated that cheerleader?"
The dark teen fidgeted a bit then replied, "I didn't feel anything that I don't usually feel."
Cassy smiled weakly and said, "I can't help you if you're not open with me. Now, tell me how you felt."
Zan sighed, "I like being in control. I hate it when I'm not in control. When I'm not in control, people get hurt. People I love."
"People like your mother," queried the young therapist?
Zan nodded, yes and started crying.
Brie hit the intercom and asked Marge, "Anyone else?"
Marge's voice responded over the intercom, "This is the last one. You're not going to like this one. Look at the file. Her ex-husband is trying to take her kids, because she's living with another woman. She's come to us for help, but there's not a lot we can do."
Brie scanned the file and nodded, "Send her in."
Zan sobbed, "I saw her hanging there and I knew it was her. I had seen pictures of her all my life. When I confronted Callie she laughed at me. She told me I was just like her, she said she made me. She had been watching me waiting since she took my mom. She took my mom and broke her because of me."
Cassy soothing said to the sobbing teen, "You were a little girl. You had nothing to do with it. Callie was a twisted person, who needed to corrupt others so she could live with how she was. It was her guilt, not yours."
The young woman was opening crying and gasping for air, "I... should've... done something... right then... but I... just stared... for a minute... and then... I ... ah... ran."
Now, Cassy understood Zan's problem with stress. Whenever the young woman was stressed, she relives what happened with her mother that night. The labored breathing was a remembered response from when she was forced to quit running when she ran out of breath. Cassy had to make the dark teenager understand it wasn't her fault.
The young psychologist said quietly, "Zan, listen to me. Listen closely. You were fifteen years old. You were a kid. You reacted like a kid. You didn't know what to do so you ran. Now, you can stop running. You have help; you have people who love you. You don't have to keep running."
Her name was Shuana Parker. She was thirty-two years old. She married Hakim Parker when she was sixteen years old after he had made her pregnant. Within six years, she had five children. By the age of twenty-two the once ninety pound teenager weighed one hundred and eighty-two pounds.
Using her weight as an excuse, Hakim started playing around and got a seventeen-year-old girl pregnant. He dumped his wife and children for the younger woman. Without an education or support, the young woman was forced to seek state help.
She worked hard to get her GED, and within two years was working as a secretary in a real-estate office and was off the welfare rolls. Within another year, she had her realtor's license and was making enough money to buy a car. That's when she met Nicky, who was working a computer technician for a company in the same office building as the real-estate agency.
Nicky had a car to sell and had advertised its sale on the office building bulletin board. Shuana answered the ad and made an appointment to test drive the car. They met and became fast friends. Both women were recovering from very bad relationships and this was the first real friendship either woman had ever had. Nicky had three children of her own.
Nicky was an exercise junky and got Shuana to join her health spa. Soon, Shuana was a healthy one hundred and twenty and starting to have strange feelings for her friend Nicky. What she didn't know was that those feelings were reciprocated. The two women danced around these feelings for nearly a year, until after one workout they gave in to their feelings.
Now they had lived together for five years. Hakim had lost his third wife and wanted to come back to the now very nice looking and mature Shuana. Shuana didn't want him back, because she knew he was just looking for someone to support him.
So, he filed for custody of the children on the basis that Shuana was an unfit mother, because she was a lesbian. He offered to drop his suite for ten thousand dollars. Shuana and Nicky were like any other average middle class couple; they lived paycheck to pay check. Shuana had come to Brie for help.
Brie didn't like it, but there was nothing the agency could do for her. For one thing her household made too much money and for another, officially the agency thought that homosexual couples were not good role models for children. Sometimes Brie hated her job.
Zan needed Brie. The young woman was not coping very well with her memories. Cassy regretted her earlier decision to exclude her friend. She had made a mistake. She called her receptionist and told her to call Brie and tell her to come right away.
Cassy went and got a glass of water and handed it to the troubled teenager, who drank it straight down without taking a breath. Cassy smiled her best smile and asked, "Do you feel any better?"
The raven-haired teenager wiped away tears with the back of her hand and said, "Not really, but I'm dealing."
Brie had had a very unsatisfying appointment with Shuana. The young social worker had been forced to tell the disappointed woman the facts of government assistance. The green-eyed blonde had offered to help middle-aged black woman personally, but she refused the help.
After the dissatisfied woman left, Marge came in and said, "Jennifer called. Cassy says to come to the office right away."
Cassy was afraid to push the young woman any further, but she knew they were close to a breakthrough. So, the young therapist pushed back her fears and asked, "Zan, after you stopped running what happened?"
The distressed teen remembered, but was too ashamed to say what happened, but she knew she needed to let it go. Her fear was gripping her and she was having trouble catching her breath. She forced back the fear and refused to run anymore.
Then to her ultimate relief, Brie came into the office and rushed to young lover and held her. The tall teenager fell into her lover's arms and said, "I am so glad you're here. I needed to hold you so bad."
Zan and Brie sat hand-in-hand on the couch as Cassy asked, "Zan, what happened after you ran away?"
Zan took a deep breath and looked at the trust in her lover's green eyes and answered, "I ran until I couldn't run any more. I ended up on Bond St. and I knew I was out of bounds. I was in Lords country. So, I carefully slipped into the shadows and I thought I had gotten out of there unseen.
However, I didn't know that Callie had formed the Lords when she was my age. So Callie had told them I was trying to infiltrate their territory for a take over by the Warriors. I have no idea what she thought she would accomplish."
Brie interjected, "Revenge."
Cassy and Zan looked at the young blonde, who expanded on her idea, "She was after revenge. She was pissed that Zan had spoiled her fantasy and wanted to get even."
Cassy nodded, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
Brie and Zan both gave the young psychologist the oh-come-off-the-cliche-kick. Cassy shrugged her shoulders and said, "Okay, I was just trying to lighten the mood."
Zan chuckled at the admission and continued with a lighter heart, "I went back to find my mother. I was going to take her from Callie if necessary. When I got there, Callie was ordering my mother into her car. Before my mom got in I rushed in and knocked Callie to the ground. Then, I took my mother by the hand and started dragging her home.
She kept screaming and yelling that she didn't want to leave her Mistress. She pleaded with me; she was afraid that Callie would get her back and beat her. I tried to reassure her that I could protect her. She had seen me take Callie down, so I think she figured I had taken her for myself, because she started calling me Mistress.
I didn't know what else to do. So I started ordering her around and calling her slave. I treated my mother like a slave."
The blue eyes of the teenager were red from constant crying. Zan fought for control as she continued her tale, "I managed to get her to the apartment building, when I saw the light on in the restaurant. Mom and I went into the restaurant and found my Papa in a pool of blood. Then something strange happen Mom snapped out of it for a minute and went to my Papa.
She didn't say a word, she just stroked his head. He mumbled something to her and she twisted his head rapidly and snapped his neck. I screamed at her and all she said was, 'He needed to be released.'
The graffiti on the wall told me that the Lords had killed my Papa. I told my Mama to stay and I went after the Lords. Only my Mama didn't stay. She followed me."
Brie reached out and with her other hand stroked her lover's raven colored hair and asked, "Zan, didn't you tell me that you killed your father?"
Realization came into Zan's eyes, she hadn't killed her father, her mother had. The tormented teenager looked to young therapist for an analysis. Cassy smiled at Zan and answered her unspoken question, "You took your mother's guilt. You could deal with your mother killing your father, no matter what the circumstances. Since you blamed yourself for your mother's enslavement, you felt you needed to take her guilt as well. Zan, none of this is your fault. You are not the evil person you think you are."
Cassy wanted to go on, but she saw the stress in the young woman and knew that it was time to end it and take it further on Monday. So she suggested, "I think we've done enough. Brie, I want her taking the sleeping pills all weekend. I don't want her stressing on this stuff. We will continue at nine o'clock on Monday.
Zan, I want you to have fun this weekend. I don't want you thinking about all this stuff. Brie, you are going to have to keep the girl occupied. I can help. I want you to come for dinner on Sunday. I'm entertaining and I'd like to introduce my two best friends to my other friends. Brie usually doesn't come to my parties, because she thinks I'm going to be setting her up. So, no excuses this time, Brie."
Brie smiled, acknowledging the factual accuracy of her friend's statement. Then the young blonde said, "Okay, we'll be there at...?"
Cassy chuckled, "Seven."