Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Revenge of the Heart ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: I Don't Own Gundam Wing, How Many Times Do I Have To Say It?????

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Reve nge of the Heart

Chapter 5

Aislinn finally managed to convince Rashid to let her out at the City Transport stop. He got out first and waited for her to exit the vehicle. As she set her feet on the pavement and turned to leave, Rashid grabbed her arm. She looked at him startled and he glared coldly back.

"Master Quatre is far to kindhearted for his own good. Mind what he said today and never think to hurt him again because I promise you girl, if you do…" He paused and relaxed his furious features before continuing.

"If I do what?" She asked sarcastically.

His face darkened again and his fingers tightened on her arm as he whispered dangerously, "If you do, you had better pray that Master Quatre or the police get their hands on you before I can."

He shoved her away roughly and turned to step back into the car. He looked at her before closing the door and spoke, "Mind my words girl!" After slamming the door the limo drove away quickly stirring the bits of newspaper and other litter about her feet and leaving her on the deserted street alone.

She watched it drive down the street a few blocks before turning a corner and leaving her sight. The moment it left her vision she felt the whole day seem to leave her shoulders and the waves of relief flooded her senses so much she felt lightheaded. Her legs felt weak and she sat down on the curb at the side of the street. She sighed heavily and held her head in her hands running everything through her mind.

She had been so close, so close. And she had failed. Everything, five years of her life in hell, wasted: wasted on a plan that had seemed so perfect. Everything she had done had been perfect and because some damn camera had been broken it was all worth nothing. Her parents and brother were still dead and un-avenged and after today they never would be. She could always wait for him in the alley where she had so often watched him get out of his car in the morning. She could pick him off easily, there would be no problem.

But even as she ran the scenario through her mind, she knew it would be fruitless. He had her ID, it would be turned into the cops just as he had promised and they would come and drag her away and throw her in prison. The twins would be taken away, split apart and god knew what would happen to them in the foster homes where they would spend their lives. She couldn't do that to them. Quatre had known just what he was doing when he took her ID. He had known she would have no choice but to let her pursuit of his demise go if she were to keep her family together. She felt absolutely wretched. She wanted to cry but no tears would come, She wanted to scream in anger but her voice was too tired, she felt as though she wanted to be sick but she hadn't eaten anything that morning and therefore, nothing would come up.

She let out a shaky breath and got to her feet, her trembling legs barely supporting her. She knew what it was, the adrenaline rush she had been on for the last two hours had finally given out and she was running on absolutely nothing. She walked along and stepped around a puddle of water on the sidewalk and glanced into it, doing a double the at the sight of her own features. "Oh my God…" She trailed off as she looked at herself. She knew she had split her lip and probably had some bruises on her eye where the one Maguanac had slugged her after she had taken a bite out of his hand but she wasn't prepared for what she saw. She looked worse than the first time she had gotten jumped on the street by the thugs who had heard six pennies jingle in her pocket and thought she was an easy target. She gently probed her eye and cheek groaning. There was no way she was going to hide this! Jack was going to be furious! She shrugged lightly and pulled her bag higher on her shoulder. She would deal with it when she got home.

She began walking along the route to her home, keeping a ready hand on the TADS, and almost hoping someone would try to ambush her. She wanted something to take her aggressions out on. Fortunately, her journey home went without complications and she began climbing the four flights of stairs up to the balcony walk to her floor. She made her way to Jack's door and knocked. She had barely removed her knuckles when the door was flung open and the old man's face came into view. At first his expression was one of pent up nervousness but when he saw her face it became one of horror. "Jesus Christ lassie!! What the hell did you do?!"

"Don't start with me Jack. Where are the kids?" She said in a monotone voice and shoved past him.

He grabbed her arm and looked her right in the eye, "You tell me what happened!"

She shook his arm off and said in the same tone, "I got caught. Where are the twins?"

"YOU WHAT?!?!?!" He nearly screamed.

"I GOT CAUGHT!! ALRIGHT ARE YOU HAPPY!??!" The earlier vestiges of careless indifference were lost as she turned on the old man. She had lost her temper and regretted it instantly when she saw his face fall into an expression of hurt and concern.

"Aisee? What's goin' on?" Aaron's little face peered around the corner of the playroom and stared at her.

"Nothing Aaron, you go back in and play with your sister. We'll go home in a few minutes. I need to talk to Uncle Jack, okay? Close the door."

"Okay." He said and smiled sheepishly before doing as he was told.

The moment they heard the click of the door Jack turned her and shoved her into a chair. "Start talking." He ordered as he headed to the bathroom for a first aid kit.

"What do you want to hear first? How they caught me? How I got the shit beat out of me? Or how about when I met the guy face-to-face and he took my ID card so now he knows everything about me and can set the cops on me at anytime?"

Jack came back shaking his head and fumbling with bandages and alcohol and various other treatments for her injuries. He turned on the hot water in the sink and ran a washcloth through it. He sat in a chair across from her and for the next few minutes neither of them spoke as he cleaned her up. He put some kind of slave on her lip that seemed to close the split somewhat and after icing her bruises and eye smeared some kind of cream that seemed to magically take some of the darkness of the broken capillaries away. "Anywhere else in bad shape?" He asked sternly.

She leaned away and sat back in her chair trying to accustom herself to the burning of the different treatments that seemed to have set her face on fire. After a few moments and adjusting to the pain she said as well as she could through her lip, "Nothing that anybody's going to see."

Jack snorted and tossed the different articles back into the box and the used papers into the trash. "Spill it." He said and gave her a look that dared her to argue.

"I went in, got a shot off, winged him, and I got caught. They held me until he regained consciousness and then he spoke to me, took my ID, and gave me a ride home in a limo. End of story Jack."

"A limo? Lassie you never told me before and I want to know now, who was it?"

"Winner." She said softly.

"Ehh?" Jack put a hand up to his ear and gave her a look that warned her not to fool around anymore.

"Quatre Winner." She said flatly and simply stared at him.

Jack looked as though he had just seen a pink elephant with yellow polka-dotted wings appear before his eyes, his eyes grew wide as saucers and his mouth fell open. He made a move and clutched at his heart and sat back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling, trying to absorb and process what she had just told him. "Quatre… Winner… Quatre… Winner…" He whispered over and over, unable to accept it. "You're kidding right? Lassie, tell me you're kidding."

"No I'm not kidding and I don't have time for this Jack, I'm really tired and want to get some rest." She shoved her chair back and stood. "Thanks for watching the twins Jack. I'll tell you more later okay?" She looked at him and smiled softly. Jack simply rolled his head forward to look at her and nod; the old man was totally gone.

"Maybe I shouldn't have told him…" She thought as she went to the play room and plastered a smile on her face as she opened the door and announced, "Okay brats! You've got three seconds to get home and get some lunch!"

The twins grinned at her and grabbed their bags and scampered out passing Jack and telling him goodbye.

Aislinn patted the old mans shoulder before leaving and whispered to him that she would be back later. The twins huddled close to her as she unlocked the door to their apartment and swung it open wide to enter into their kitchen area. As she door opened she noticed their table. She had thought that the day couldn't get any worse but apparently it could. Seated in one of the rickety chairs sipping some cup of expensive coffee from an uptown café was a handsome young man with chocolate brown hair and piercing green eyes, dressed in khakis and white shirt with a dark blue sport-coat and perfect, un-scuffed loafers. At first sight, most people thought he looked like a fine young man who worked at a desk in some corporate office. Jack and everyone else in this building knew him as Lee Boswell, chief slumlord of the Smithtown ghetto. Aislinn saw him as the same thing, but the reasons for her hatred of him ran deeper than that. His face broke into a smile and he rose from the table. "Aislinn! I haven't seen you in a while so I thought I'd come by and let myself in and wait for you to come home."

"You see me every month Lee, remember? Rent time." She said dryly and laid her hands on the heads of the twins who each hugged one of her legs in fear of the man standing before them. "You'll be seeing me in two days."

"Yes, yes, I remember but actually that's what I came by to speak with you about." He said, his smile growing wider, crueler, she thought and felt a tightening in her stomach as he continued with his well rehearsed speech. "As you know times are a bit tough lately. I've had a few deals fall through in the past couple of months and, well, I'm so sorry to do this to you Aislinn dear, but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to increase your rent."

Aislinn's face never changed, she patted the twins and told them to go to their room and she would call them when she had their lunch ready. They fairly bolted from the room to get away from "bad Lee" as they had taken to calling him and left their sister to deal with him. Aislinn faced him and leaned back against the counter, her expression somber. "How much this time?" She asked.

"Not too much just $100.00 to what you're paying now. Oh, and I know it's short notice but I'm going to need that with this months rent Monday." He said sweetly.

She felt the blood drain from her face, there was no way she could cover that even if she dipped into the meager savings she had! She struggled to find the best words to deal with him. "I can make it if I put in enough overtime at the library but I'm not going to be able to make it this month Lee. Not the full hundred anyway, I might be able to make $50.00 though."

"I'm sorry Aislinn, but that just isn't going to work. I must have that money with this months rent. You know how things are. Besides, as it is I already rent this place to you for less than everyone else is paying." He looked at her, his smiling expression changing to one of unstated victory. "You could, of course, always reconsider my offer."

"That won't be necessary Lee. I'll find a way to get you you're money." She turned and headed to a cabinet to grab a box of macaroni and cheese before she punched him.

"I don't know why you're being so stubborn about this Aislinn." He said, sounding like an exasperated parent speaking to a wayward child. "Any other woman would jump at this opportunity you know, I don't see why you're being so stubborn. Think about it. You'd be out of this hell-hole living the life you deserve and the twins would be in one of the finest schools in the country. "

"This place wouldn't be a hell-hole if you kept the building in good repair and the twins would be in the finest boarding school's thousand's of miles away." She said acidly.

"Details, details." He said and swilled down the rest of his coffee and tossed the cup deliberately on the floor and glanced at his Rolex. "Look I've got to dash, I'll be expecting the check on Monday, if you change your mind about my offer, you've got my number." He opened the door and paused looking at her, "You know you can call me anytime." And he left.

She heard him laughing on the other side of the wall as he headed towards the stairs and she slammed her fist on the counter, "Dammit!!" She whispered in helpless fury and crushed the Styrofoam cup beneath her foot before bending over to pick it up and throw it in the garbage.

She was never going to be able to pay that kind of cash at the last minute, he knew just what he was doing. "Him and his damn rent!" She thought, "Him and his damn OFFER!!"

She closed her eyes and tried to think of how she was going to get that cash by the time he said he needed it. He didn't need it, this was just another of the schemes he had come up with to make her accept his offer. She took a deep breath and wondered for the millionth time why had Lee's father let him inherit everything after he had died.

When she had first come to the neighborhood, Lee's father, Jason Boswell had been an old man who had taken pity on the young girl and had let her have one of the larger apartments for half the rent that they usually went for. He had told her it was just until she was totally on her feet and could afford to pay in full, but it had remained the same until he had passed away a little over a year ago. Then Lee had taken over all his father's properties. Lee was a soulless bastard in every sense of the word. He had grown up spoiled and indulged by both his mother and father. He had been sent to the finest schools and colleges that had taught him to be a brilliant but ruthless individual who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. And ever since he had seen Aislinn for the first time when she was fifteen and he was twenty he had wanted her. He hadn't dared go near her when his father was still alive. The old man hadn't been nearly as protective of her as Jack had been but he would let have given Lee absolute hell if he had bothered her. So he had bided his time waiting until his father had died and he was in charge. The first thing he had done was raise Aislinn's rent with no warning and no reason.

He had known that at first she could afford it but it would certainly cramp a few things like new clothes for the twins. Then three months later he had raised it a bit more and a month later, even more. She hadn't complained once since she had a good idea of why he was doing it. While he had never made an advance towards her before she hadn't missed the long looks he had given her that were filled with intent. After the third raise however she had been forced to ask him to give her a break she could only skim so much from her family but now it was going to be hard to afford other bills. He had listened to her with mock sympathy and she could just she him waiting for her to finish so he could speak. He looked at her and gave her the usual speech of how she was paying far less than anyone else in the building, and times were rough, etc. when his eyes lit up as though the idea had just come to him.

"You know, I may have a solution to your problem." He had said. "I've had a horrible time keeping a housekeeper at my home and I think you would be perfect. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for those less fortunate and I think I'd like to help you. Why don't you get rid of all the junk in your little apartment and you can come and have a nice, cushy, live in job with me. Why I'll even get the twins out of that school you've been having them attend and send them to one of the best on the west coast. You can have a nice room in my house, all you could ever hope to eat, why, I'd even be willing to pay for the surgery to remove those scars you've got." He had told her.

She had merely ignored him and told him she wasn't interested, that she would somehow find a way to keep paying. He had let it go at first, expecting her to come around to his way of thinking in a week or two, but when she had not, he had taken it as a declaration of war. He had done everything he could to drive her to him. He had let a leak in the twins' room go un-repaired for three months, he had continued to raise the rent, he had even some electrical work done to the building that had accidentally resulted in her power being shut off for three of the coldest days of winter. She wondered how much longer she was going to be able to hold out before she was forced to find a cheaper (and worse) place to live.

She ripped open the box and turned on the stove to put a pan of water on to boil. After twenty minutes she had one of the usual meals she and the twins shared together made and she called them into the kitchen. Aaron set out bowls and silverware and Anne toddled back and forth from the sink to the table with the water glasses. When everything was set Aislinn scooped out large spoonfuls of mac and cheese and set a piece of fruit by each bowl for dessert. They ate and Aislinn asked what they had done with Jack that day.

"Played checkers, I won twice!" Anne said proudly and Aislinn smiled knowing the little girl had probably won fair and square, Jack was the worst board game player she had ever met.

Aaron filled her in on how he and Jack were putting together a model spaceship of some sort. Aislinn listened to their chatter about the little things they were doing in Jack's apartment and how he had promised to take them to the ocean again next Saturday if the weather was nice. She looked at them. And for a moment wondered when she had stopped being that innocent. When the biggest crisis she had faced at one point was running out of glitter for an art project or her red crayon getting lost just as she was getting ready to make a picture of Rudolph for Christmas. She watched their little faces light up at the smallest thing or word as they talked and felt a surge of joy that she was here with them now instead of some freezing cell downtown. She wondered again why he had let her go. She knew he was some kind of pacifist but she thought back to the war. He had killed, not just her family but hundreds of people. Why would a man who had killed so many in a war not turn her into the police when she had tried to kill him? It didn't make sense, it didn't fit with the Quatre she had pictured in her mind. It was almost as if he were holding true to his live and let live policy that he seemed to go by now, but in the war…

"Aisee, what happened to your face?" Aaron's voice brought her out of her reverie.

"What? Oh, it's nothing Aaron. I just bumped into a door or something today." She said lamely.

"How many times?" Anne's innocent little question suddenly made her burst out laughing so hard she nearly choked on the forkful of food she had been chewing.

"Don't worry about me alright? Let's just have a nice quiet night at home okay?" She said the last of her chuckles leaving her body.

The twins understood that something they didn't need to know about was going on and wisely quieted themselves and finished their dinner. When they were had finished, they cleared the table and washed the dishes. Then went into the room that served as both living room and Aislinn's bedroom. The twins sat on her bed and watched the old TV while Aislinn gathered pens, checkbook, envelopes and stamps to begin the usual monthly bill paying routine. A few hours later and her balance showing a negative, she threw her pen down in disgust. She wouldn't have to worry about food at least, they had finally been accepted to the low income grocery program that allowed them $325.00 of groceries a month, but what was she going to do about the fifty dollar overdraw in her account? She sighed knowing that she was going to have to pay another visit to the plasma donation center, "Ughh." She thought, she hated needles.

She glanced at her watch and was shocked to see that it was 9:30. Where had the day gone? She shook her head and clapped her hands together gaining the twins' attention. "Alright you two, brush your teeth and get your PJ's on. Time for bed!"

"But it's not even ten yet!" Anne whined.

"Kids I don't have the patience tonight okay? Just do what I say and get in bed. We'll go to the park or something tomorrow I promise. Right now I really just need you two asleep."

Brother and sister looked at each other with one of their unspoken messages and they hopped off the bed and hit the floor at the same time. Both ran to the bathroom and brushed their teeth and got dressed. Aislinn went in their room and tucked both of them into the bunk-beds they shared. "No skydiving tonight you got it? Ms. Kent downstairs said you were doing that last night and knocked one of her paintings off the wall." She told Anne sternly.

The little girl blushed bright as her hair to know that she had been caught jumping off the top bunk again and mumbled something about how she wouldn't. "Good." Aislinn finished getting the blanket tight around her neck and smiled, knowing her sister would wait an hour or two until she thought Aislinn was asleep and then all 60 pounds of the little girl would be vaulting from her high spot in the room to hit the floor and annoying their cranky and artistic neighbor that lived on the floor below them.

She turned to leave the room when she heard Aaron ask, "Aren't you gonna' sing to us?"

"My voice is a little sore tonight, how bout tomorrow?" She replied, feeling the scratching against her vocal cords from all the screaming and yelling she had done earlier in the day.

"Just one?" Anne pleaded.

"One. And a short one at that." Aislinn said and leaned against the frame of the bunk bed, one hand reaching for Aaron's hand and the other resting on top of Anne's flaming hair, smoothing it gently. "Which one do you want?"

"The one daddy sang!" Anne said, and Aaron quickly agreed.

Aislinn shook her head and cleared her throat and hummed a few notes to tune her voice and begin the twins favorite bedtime song. "I wish I was in Carrickfergus…" Her voice had always been sweet and clear thanks to the vocal lessons her mother had insisted she take since she was 7 and though they had stopped abruptly after the massacre at Dalton Harbor, it had instilled a life long love of music that she had managed to pass on to her younger brother and sister.

"Only for nights, in Ballygrand…" She continued with the song and a smile touched her voice as she watched Aaron close his eyes and a contented smile covered his features as he listened to the words. She was always amazed that the twins liked this song. Her father had sung it and many other tunes that had been passed on to him from his relatives that had come from the old country to all of his children when he had laid them in their cradles. She remembered well the days when his strong voice had lulled her to sleep with the same lyrics she now sung to the children in their little beds, and wondered about the day when they, as she had, would for the first time, actually listen to the song and realize just how sad it was.

"But the sea is wide and I cannot swim over, nor have I wings so I could fly…" Anne moved slightly under her blankets as she searched for a more comfortable position.

"But I am sick now," she neared the songs end, "My days are numbered. So come all ye young men, and lay me down."

"Happy?" She asked leaning down to kiss her sister's hair.

"Mmm hmmm." Anne said quietly.

"Okay, try to rest now." Aislinn said and straightened.

Satisfied the twins were snug and comfortable, Aislinn walked to the door and turned out the light. She stood in the door for a moment looking at the bunk-beds with her siblings in them. She and Jack were going to have to build a new one in a year or so at the rate the twins were growing. She looked at them, Aaron in the bottom bed already sleeping like a log, the little boy had always been able to sleep through a blast-off, and Anne on top, pretending to be resting, just waiting for the door to close. Aislinn smiled at them, a surge of protectiveness coursing through her as she thought of Lee again. He hated the twins and had never made much of an attempt to hide the fact that if she ever accepted his terms they would be shipped away somewhere. "No one's breaking up this family!" She thought to herself and clenched her fists at the conviction. She relaxed after a few minutes and turned to close the door and return to her own room.

Entering it she turned off the TV and the annoying children's program that was blaring from it. She switched on the battered clock radio and turned the volume down so that light music came from it and laid down on her bed. She ran the events of the day through her mind again. She was still haunted by the look that she had seen in Winner's eyes when she had told him about what he had done to her family. It had been as though he was in as much pain as she had been as she relived that awful night. She thought back on his apology for Dalton Harbor and how sincere his eyes had been. She had also felt what had been going through his thoughts. While her empathic powers had never been as strong as her mothers she had always been able to sense emotions and she had somehow felt a sense of remorse issuing from Quatre Winner when he had made that apology and then had the audacity to ask for her forgiveness.

How had he done that? How had he been able to generate that kind of false emotion of sympathy and make it seem real? Was it possible that he truly did regret what had happened in the war? Maybe Jack was right, maybe he was just following orders, that was the exact same thing Quatre had said after all… NO!! He had slaughtered her family!

Even if he had been carrying out orders in destroying the two buildings her mother and father had been in, she knew that he had seen her and David looking out the window up at the face of Gundam 04. She had heard that Gundam's had accurate tele-cameras that could pick up objects from far away, so there wouldn't have been any problem in seeing her brother staring out of a window as long as he had from only 25 feet. He had known there was at least one person in the house and he had demolished it.

"But he had hesitated…" She said out loud, then shook her head violently to rid herself of the treacherous thoughts she was having. It was as though she was trying to make an excuse for him! Like her mind was trying to release him from all guilt by placing him under the guise of a soldier just obeying commands! What was she thinking?

Aislinn rolled to her side and wrapped her arms around herself, her left hand absently began feeling the texture of her skin through the thin shirt she wore. Where other girls had smooth flesh hers looked like melted plastic body of a doll she had once seen thrown in a fire. At least it was only her back and her right arm, she was able to conceal her scars with long sleeved shirts and sweaters. Most people never realized she was different, even Lee hadn't known until one day soon after he had taken over his fathers estate, he had barged into her apartment as usual with his master key and seen her washing dishes in a tank top. At first he had been shocked and a little repulsed but later had decided that if she came to live with him he would have her skin repaired by some genius cosmetic surgeon. She had never gotten completely used to the marks on her flesh.

"I didn't enjoy the things I had to do in the war, Aislinn, I never did."

His deep, tenor, voice came back to her with all its sincerity and she curled into a fetal position, fighting the rising emotions that were coming from nowhere without warning. "No." She said. He hadn't cared. He was a killer. She hadn't spent five years of her life chasing after something that wasn't real. He was exactly what she had always thought he had been. A murderer. A soulless murderer.

"I had to follow orders whether I liked them or not and most of the time I wound up hating myself afterwards."

She was bombarded with the emotions she had felt from him, they were real, he was sorry. "No. No. No. No!" She chanted over and over. He wasn't sorry he couldn't be. She felt tears form in her eyes, no she wouldn't cry, she had shed enough tears today and she didn't plan on starting again now.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you and your family because of me, I truly am."

She wasn't wrong! She hadn't been wrong for five years! She couldn't have been! But even as she listened to herself screaming excuses inside her head, deep down, she could hear that little voice telling her otherwise. That Jack and Quatre had been right. He'd just been following orders.

"I know you came here today because you thought it was necessary. I want you to know that during the war I was doing the same thing but I didn't have the luxury of following my conscience the way you did."

"Oh God. No." Was all she was able to say before the tears that had been filling her eyes overflowed and spilled down her cheeks to dampen the pillow she rested her head on. She had been wrong. She had been so wrong. It had been a war just like Jack had reminded her over and over again. She and her family had just been another casualty of arrogance and stupidity and now she and what was left of her family were suffering because of that. She turned and buried her face in the pillow she hadn't cried in so long. She was still shocked that she had started again in front of Winner in his office today. For the second time that day she cried at first they were little sniffles as she tried to come to terms with the fact that she had been wrong. But then as she realized the situation she was in her body was racked with huge, nearly painful sobs that did nothing to ease the pain of knowing that all this time, she had been wrong. Winner couldn't be blamed for what had happened. In a sense, he was just as innocent as she had been in the war.

All this time she had always thought that if she could just get her revenge on Winner then everything would be alright. She had thought that if she had peace of mind knowing that he was dead then things would change but now she realized they weren't'. She was stuck here. She was overloaded in the best paying job she could get at the moment, the twins needed to be put through school, they needed to be raised and clothed and fed, they needed a place to live and this was the cheapest in the city but she was trapped by Lee. She knew what he would do. He would just keep finding way's to raise the rent and squeeze her until she couldn't afford the apartment any longer. She could barely handle it now. When she couldn't pay, what was she going to do? Jack had told her that she could move in with him, that she and the twins could share the spare room that the twins used as their play room and that way there would only be one rent to pay. But she knew that was pointless. Lee would either raise Jack's to the point where he couldn't afford his home and then they would all be on the street or he would simply get a court order to remove her and the twins from the building. She had told Jack this once and he hadn't wanted to believe her but they both knew it was true. There were only two options, she and the twins either took to living on the streets or she had to accept Lee's offer.

Her stomach turned at the thought. Lee wanted a housekeeper huh? Fat chance. She knew exactly what her duties in his home would be. Random duties like making him breakfast and making the bed after he got through using her for the night. She had already heard stories about him from various other tenants, stories about how before he had taken over for his father he had been in trouble with the law. Something about being slapped with assault charges by a couple of former girlfriends and even a restraining order from another. She had no doubt that even if he did keep his word to get the surgery needed to remove the burn scars, he would soon compensate for their lack with a few he made himself. She had no delusions that his intentions towards her honorable in any way.

She was trapped. Financially, spiritually, and physically. The only reason she had to go on was Anne and Aaron. They had to survive. They had to get out of the ghetto one way or another. Lee had promised that he would send them to school. Even though it would be far away, if she had some part in the choice process she could see that they made it into one that could give them every opportunity and could go out and make decent lives for themselves. Maybe it would be worth it? "NO!!!" Something inside her screamed. She couldn't do that. "At least not just yet." Some tiny voice inside her amended. She wasn't at the breaking point yet. She wasn't completely without means just yet. She didn't have to take that route yet.

Her tears had finally run dry and she got up. She walked into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face and dabbed at it with a towel, noting the puffy red eye's that only added to the bruises that were still quite colorful despite Jack's little kit of miracles. She walked back into her room and undressed to pull on an old T-shirt and shorts and climbed into bed. Her mind was racing with thoughts and plans of how to get out of her latest predicament. She could only sell so much blood and pawn her family jewelry before she hit her limit. She had no idea how to handle this, maybe file for bankruptcy? No that would be the last straw. Maybe she could make another search for family? It was always possible she had missed someone in her last three? Maybe she should go through entire database in Ireland, her mother and father had always spoken of their relatives in the homeland. True most of them had died in the war when Belfast had been attacked but still, perhaps one had survived. Yeah, and the sun revolved around the earth.

All she could hope for was that a solution would be presented that could save her and her siblings from this whole mess of Lee and life. She yawned remembering the old Cinderella story and smiled faintly. That's what she needed. Some handsome prince to come from out of nowhere and save her from her from the life of poverty and fruitless labor. She snorted and yawned again, that sort of thing didn't happen this day and age and it probably never had. Though her thoughts were going a hundred miles an hour, her earlier tears had made her sleepy and she could no longer stay awake. She turned over and soon fell into a deep, if uneasy sleep.