Shannon walked down the hall and went over to Rosie's cell. "Hey Rosie, come on."
Rosie got up and walked over to Shannon, put her hands behind her back and turned around.
"No need for that," Shannon said as she held the cell door open for Rosie with a huge smile on her face.
"What, I don't understand?" Rosie said.
Shannon looked up at her and said, "You're a free woman."
"You mean, are you saying...?" Rosie was shaking as she looked at Shannon almost as though she was afraid that the answer was not what she wanted to hear.
"Rose found your daughter. They're on the way over right now."
"...and he was really nice. All the other ones were yuckee. He gived me Spooky and told me he would find Santa and that Santa would bringed, oh sorry, I mean bring, Mr. Danny told me that was the wrong word, back to you. So anyway he let me keep him and now he's up to J. He has treats but if we run out we can get more right? Is my room still the same? Oh, and I don't want to talk to Uncle David any more cause he is yuckee. Big big time yuckiee. Mr Danny lived in LA. I can show you where that is on the globe if you want. Oh and if you don't know what a globe is I can tell you. It's a ball but you can't bounce it cause it breaks. Anyway after I learned that Mr. Danny got me a new globe and a globe is a ball that has pictures of places on it. I can show you where we live and where Mr. Danny lived and that's called geograly or something like that but I'm really smart to know any of that cause you learn that stuff in like the third grade. Do you gonna live with us Rose or just come visit? Either way is good but I think you should live with us. Oh mama can we order a pizza? I want pizza. I haven't had pizza for a lot, lot, lot of days. It's my favorite Rose. Do you like Pizza Rose? Mama likes pizza but I don't know if Spooky does. Oh, oh I know what else, can I watch Little Mermaid when we get to home? Are we almost home yet cause I gotta go potty."
When she finally stopped Rosie and Rose looked at each other and began to laugh.
"What?" Harley asked from the back seat.
David sat across the table from the detective who was interrogating him. He had yet to say a word to the officer and had no intention of doing so.
"Okay, so you're going to make this difficult I see. Look, David, you're in a lot of trouble here. Do you know how much?"
"I ain't worried about it. I got my lawyer on the way."
"Fair enough, but I think you might want to look in that phone book there and see if you can't find a couple more numbers."
"And why is that? I already gave you the number for my lawyer, and I want to talk to him. No one else, just him."
"Well you see David, there's a small problem with that. At this very minute he's en route here, but it's not to see you. He's been placed under arrest with about, oh I don't know, Grace, what's that warrant count up to now?" he asked the young woman who was busily typing away on her keyboard.
"Seventeen," she answered. "And that's only from the first hour of video."
David looked up, his smirk slowly disappearing. "What video?" he asked.
"That, Mr. Spaughton, would be the video we recovered from the house where you had stashed you four year old niece," he answered, unable to keep the disgust from his voice. The detective then hit the call button on his desk and asked the person on the other end to bring the cage in. "Does this look familiar to you Mr. Spaughton?"
David looked at the cage, not a hint of his smirk remained and he didn't say a word.
"Well, does it?" the officer repeated.
"No, I don't know nothin' about that. I ain't never seen it before." He was squirming around in his chair a bit now as he was beginning to realize how deep in this he was.
"Well that's funny. You see, there's something here I would like you to see." The officer then got up ,went over to the TV across the room. He pointed a remote and a video began to play on the screen.
"David, we have some things we want to talk to you about. But keep it quiet, we don't want to wake up the kid," Leo said.
"Alright then what?" David asked.
"Well we were just sitting here thinking about how reckless you've been," Leo answered.
"What do you mean reckless?" he asked.
"You're taking unnecessary risks David."
"Like what?"
"Well for one, when you and your boys did the hit on that lawyer Hills, you used the police database run the tags. You and I both know how dangerous that was."
"Well it didn't make no difference did it? Ain't nobody found out about it did they? Garrison and Rogers used the suicide cover up deal. Ain't nobody questioning it?"
"Not the point David. Like Danny pointed out here, every problem we have is because of you. This whole mess started when you killed that cop on that drug bust. If you hadn't done that your old man would never have started snooping around now would he?"
"Well ya I see your point there but it didn't hurt us none. I handled that there. That's gonna be solved here in about twenty two days right?"
"Yeah, you lucked out pretty good there. If your sister hadn't have showed up when she did, we would have never been able to cover your ass on that. You shot him with your own bloody service weapon. You should have let the people who where supposed to kill your father take care of that. Hell, we're lucky we got the judge and lawyer we got on you're sister's case," Danny added.
"Lucky my ass. We got half the third district Judicial in our back pocket and you know it."
"What do you mean half. As I see it we got four," Danny said counting down on his fingers as he went thru the list mentally. "Harris, Kline, Orteze and Kittridge."
"No, see you forgot LaVeete, and Stasion. That's six outta ten. That's better then half," David answered.
"Say that's true, we'll take your word, why on God's green earth would you have Walker and Taams beat your sister nearly to death only one day after you called the hit on the lawyer? This is what were talking about here. Reckless," Leo said.
"Not just that," Danny added, "Harling is thinking about cutting it off with us. Finding a new lot. If he does that were all up a creek. You know how he handles loose ends."
"Awe bullshit. He ain't gonna pull out a nothing. We're the best thing he's got goin' here. I've gotten him re-elected twice already. That district's as sure as his if he keeps us on."
"Well David, I think you need a lesson in good judgment. You're one lucky man I will tell you. If it weren't for us needing this thing to stay low, we would just as soon kill you where you stand," Leo said. "Guys, take David here up top and teach him some good judgment."
"Hey now wait a minute here! Look I'm sorry, I made some mistakes, sure, but hell I done good work for your people too."
"Boys get this chicken shit punk ass up top and teach him some good manner now," Leo said. The two members took David one on either arm and began to escort him up the steps.
"Hey, hey come on now, Danny help me out here huh?"
"No, sorry mate. But I do want to watch."
The detective then hit the stop button. "How about now? Is it coming back to you? Come on now David, according to the time stamp here this just happened twelve or so hours ago. And judging by the looks of you, I think you would probably remember," the detective said referring to David's beaten appearance.
"Well there is one other thing I'm curious about. Now we know you gave that picture to your sister. We got it on the prison video tape, along with you paying off three of the guards, who, by the way, are also being arrested right about now. Why did you take that picture outside when, from what we can tell, the rest of them were taken on the inside? Not that I'm complaining, we never would have found her if you hadn't have done so, and why would you take it right in front of something that would give away her location?"
David's mind began to replay the steps that led to this.
Hammer in the hook to mount Spooky's cage on.
His hammer missed its mark smashing into the light fixture overhead throwing the room into almost complete darkness.
"Alright, why don't you just get your fucking picture and get the hell out," Danny said.
"Can't get a picture in the dark now can I?"
"Then well go up top and take one out by the dust bins."
"If I were you, I would seriously think about lettin' her hang on to that picture instead of showing it to her."
'Danny you son of a bitch. You set it all up. The camera, the picture, the meeting,' David thought to himself.
"The other thing is this. Of all the footage here we haven't got not a frame of the fella. Do you have a name on this guy?"
Donny sat and thought. No. He had never heard Danny call himself anything but Danny, no surname. Donny shook his head and said to himself, "He got us all. And they'll never find him."
Danny stood at the Virgin Airlines ticket counter at George H. Bush airport in Houston.
"Okay then, that's one way to London Heathrow, first class and you'll be paying cash. Is that right Mr... Padilla?" she asked.
"Yes that right."
He collected his ticket and went to board the Airbus A320. He got to his seat, sat down and ordered a beer. He sat for a minute thinking about all that had happened in the last couple of weeks. He would miss his Spooky, but more than that he would miss his 'Lil Harley' He reached into his pocket and took out the picture of the little girl with the parrot on her shoulder, and a smile broke across his face. He put the picture away and then thought about what would happen to David once he got to prison. David was:
1) a cop
2) a cop killer
3) would have been willing to kill a child.
There was not a group of people in that place that wouldn't want to make him pay. From the guards to the inmates, he would be in for a world of hurt on a daily basis until the State ended his miserable life. His smile grew wider and he tilted his head back and laughed harder then he had ever laughter in his life.
Shannon and Bria stood in the hall as they watched the HPD lead the four crooked guards that were on duty to the station for booking. As they saw them walking by, Shannon made special note of when Vanessa passed. She turned to Bria and gave her a long slow kiss on the lips. She broke the kiss and they both stared at Vanessa. Shannon lifted her hand into her uniform pocket , took out her note pad, turned to Bria and said, "See I told you Rosie's lines would come in handy some day." Then Shannon repeated them to Vanessa and the rest as they left the prison.
One month later:
So she's finally asleep?" Rose asked as Rosie came down the stairs.
"Yep."
"So what did the doctor say today?" Rose asked.
"He said that everything looked great and has seemed to have healed up just fine."
"Well that's good news then isn't it? So you ready for bed Rosie?" Rose asked.
"Well you could say that."
Rose looked at Rosie a bit confused. "What do you mean?"
Rosie stood up walked over to Rose, put her hand out for Rose to take it, and helped her to her feet.
"I mean, everything is healed," she said as she pulled Rose to her. She leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on Rose's lips.
"OH," Rose said, her eyes widening. They had yet to make love because of Rosie's injuries. They had kissed and and touched a little but not what they really wanted to do. "So you mean we can... with the... I can... to you and you for me you know... That stuff?"
"I'm not sure what you just said but I think you got it."
Rose was the first to move and she led Rosie by the hand and walked slowly to their bedroom. She closed the door and turned around. Rosie's eyes were looking directly into her own but she didn't move.
"I'm nervous a little," Rose said as she played with the hem of her shirt and looked downward.
"Why are you nervous baby? It's just me."
"Well the last time we did this I was really loud. And I said something's that I wouldn't normally say."
"Rose, sweetie, we've never done this."
"Oh yes, yes, we did. You weren't there but you know... I Promise, I was loud and you know... sorry. I'm a little insane at times."
Rosie felt a shot of arousal hit her body as she realized what Rose meant. Her throat felt suddenly dry and she swallowed hard. She waited for Rose to look up and when she did she began to move toward her slowly.
"Are you talking about a dream?" Rosie asked still moving forward..
"Yes, one of them."
"Oh, so you dreamed about loving me?" Rosie said her voice barely a whisper. She was surprised at how aroused this was making her. When she reached Rose she continued to move till she had Rose backed up against the door. She lifted Rose's head up with her fingers under her chin. She wanted to look at Rose when she asked her next question. She did a quick inventory with her eyes of Rose's l face, her gaze stopping at her mouth. She felt her heart beginning to beat a bit faster and her breathing was becoming slightly labored.
The tip off her tongue came out of her mouth and slowly licked first her bottom then her top lip.
"What did I do to you, Rose? In your dream," her voice low and hushed, her eyes now leaving Rose's mouth and landing on her eyes. "How did I make you scream?"
The fingers of Rosie's hand where now on the move over Rose's face. She ran them up behind Rose's ear and then weaved them into Rose's hair and allowed her palm to cup the back of Rose's head. She moved her head down and her lips latched on to Rose's throat and she gently began to kiss her there. Her mouth was moving now, kissing her way upward till it landed at her ear.
"Did I touch you Rose?" she whispered into her ear as she moved a hand between Rose's legs and pressed her fingers downward sending a jolt of pleasure into Rose's body. "Did I touch you there?"
"Oh God," Rose whispered out and thrust her hips forward into Rosie's hand. "Yes."
"Yes? Yes what Rose?" she said as she began to rub her hand up and down and then around Rose's clothed legs.
"Yes," Rose rasped out, her words barely audible, "you touched me there."
The hand at the back of Rose's head slowly made its way downward till she reached the first button on Rose's shirt. The hand that had been pressing into Rose's center then made its way upward to join the other as she slowly began to unbutton Rose's shirt. She continued to undo the buttons on Rose's shirt, her eyes never left Rose's. She could see that Rose breathing was beginning to come quicker and the sight of her chest rising and falling raised her arousal to a greater level.
"Is that all I did Rose? Is that the only way I touched you?" Rosie's hands were now beginning to shake.
"No, you touched me other ways," the last word coming out on a shuddering breath and she had to close her eyes for a moment. Rose continued to undress Rose and she pulled the shirt free of Rose's body and dropped it to the ground.
"How else did I touch you Rose?"
"Like this...."
Rose said, "Let me show you."
"Oh yes, Rose. Show me....."
Rose sat there a moment with her head resting on Rosie's stomach.
"Are You okay baby?" Rose asked.
She wasn't sure actually, she though that perhaps she had died from the pleasure. She had to concentrate on forming words and her answer came just a slight bit delayed. She opened her mouth to answer the question, but all that came out was a giggle that soon sent the both into a laughing fit.
"Do you have the slightest idea of just how much I love you?" Rosie asked.
"Yes baby, I think I do. Rosie?"
"Yeah sweetie?"
"Will you marry me?" Rose asked as she leaned over to her bedside table and pulled out a ring box from the drawer.
"God Rose. I can't believe this. How could we let this happen? What are we going to do? What am I going to tell her happened? She's coming back from your mom's in two days. Two days!"
"I don't know Rosie. Look, maybe we can just go and buy another bird. They all look the same. Maybe she won't notice," Rose said looking down at her hands that were folded on her lap.
"Are you kidding? We're talking about Spooky for Gods sakes. Of course she'd notice. That trick might work for Goldfish Rose!. Not for parrots that know their alphabet up to 'M'."
"Well Rosie, I think that you should just be honest with her. Tell the truth. Tell her what happened. It's something you'd have to explain to her eventually anyway right? I'm mean it's part of life. It's part of nature."
"Me? Me? What about you? It's your fault. This never would have happened if you'd have just closed the damn door."
"Yes I know, I know. You're right, I'm sorry," Rose said as she kept her eyes on her folded hands.
"No, no, Rose I'm sorry. I had something to do with this to."
"Something?" Rose said quietly under her breath. "It was a little more than something."
"What did you say Rose? If you have something to say, say it," Rosie said.
"Well it's just, I'm not the one that said that. You're the one that said it."
"Are you joking here? I never said that. I say sweetie. You're the one that says baby. You know it."
"Ohh baby, baby, that's it, right there, right there. Is that very good? Spooky get treat?"
"NO!" Rose and Rosie yelled at Spooky simultaneously.
One year later:
"Rose. Are you ready?" Bria asked.
"As ready as I'm ever going to be."
"Are you nervous?"
"No, I'm not actually. This is the one thing I've done in my life that I've been sure of."
"Ya I know what you're saying."
"How about Harley? Is she ready?"
"Yes Shannon has her in the reception area. She saved your cake, I'll have you know. It was about to have a long finger shaped piece of frosting missing."
"Harley tried to do that?"
"No. Harley stopped Shannon."
"Oh."
"Well let's do this."
"Okay, I'm ready."
Rose walked out of the small room and made her way to the hotel lobby. She had on a long white dress with white roses on it. Rosie had picked out their dresses herself. She had seen the dress at the bridal shop and she was in shock. It was the very dress she had seen Rose wearing in her dream. Harley wore the same pattern.
Rose looked in the room and began to see who had shown up. She saw her parents sitting in the front row and Harley was sitting on her dad's lap. She smiled when she saw that. Harley had missed her grandfather very much. Rosie's dad had spoiled her and they were very close.
It was wonderful the way her parents had just accepted Rosie and Harley from day one. They loved them both and Harley would spent at least one weekend a month with them.
It was hard for Rosie sometimes. Rose understood why of course. She knew that Rosie knew that she had become just as much her parents' daughter as she was.
The music cued and Rose looked up and saw Rosie walking in from the other end of the lobby. God, she was beautiful. Rose was amazed by this women.
Everyday she was near her the more she loved her. She remembered the first time she had seen her. She remembered thinking that she had felt some kind of connection to her.
Rosie and she had so much to learn about each other when this whole thing had finally ended. The last year they had had some difficult times. It had nothing to do with their relationship and the difficult times were in fact made easier by the love that they shared. The difficulties came when all the trial began.
They were lucky that they had the video tapes because it meant that Harley didn't have to testify at all. Rose always hated it when kids had to testify against family members. Being an attorney she knew that it was sometimes unavoidable. Still she would try to avoid it when ever possible.
The most amazing thing of this was this woman, unbelievable goodness. Her inability to hate or be spiteful. The absence of the desire for revenge. Her unbelievable ability to forgive. When the trials took place Rose would see that Rosie would turn her head away whenever her brother was brought into the court room. Rose had assumed it was because of how angry and hurt she was or even because he disgusted her.
The truth off it was that the sight of her brother caused her pain. Not for heself but for him. During the trials David would enter the court room and most of the times he showed signs of having been beaten. Black eyes, swollen lips, even a broken nose.
He would usually be limping and you could see in his face that he was suffering the pain of these attacks. Even after all the things he had done to her, this woman was still capable of feeling compassion for him. He was her brother and that was that. She couldn't stand to see him suffer.
She remembered the night of the execution. Rose had woken up, and found that Rosie was not in bed. She had gone downstairs and she saw Rosie standing outside looking up to the sky and leaning against the oak tree in their backyard. She had gone to Rosie and she spoke her name quietly as to not startle her.
She turned to her and smiled. Rose walked up behind her and wrapped her arms around her waist and let her head rest on Rosie's shoulder.
"What going on up there?" Rosie asked referring to her mind.
"I was just out here thinking about David," She took a quick glance at her watch. "He's going to die in about twelve minutes."
Rose had forgotten about that. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to be sorry. She certainly didn't feel sorry.
"Well... it's a good thing right?" Rose said.
"I remember one time when I was seven. We had gone to an Easter egg hunt at our camp. There was about twenty kids there. I was the youngest. When it was over I was sitting on the ground crying. He came over to ask me what was wrong. I told him that I didn't find any prizes. He told me to stay where I was and close my eyes and he would be right back. So I did..." Rosie paused for a minute and pulled in a quick breath. Rose could tell that Rosie was crying now.
She continued, "...and when he came back he told me that he thought I had made a mistake. That I should go and look around some more. Then he took my hand and we went to the playground and he started pointing and saying, "See Rosie, there's one." So I was running around and I was finding prizes everywhere. I looked at David and he was smiling a great big smile and clapping for me whenever I would find one. It wasn't until about two years later that I realized he had taken all of his prizes and hidden them so I could find them."
"When I think about David, that's what I want to remember."
It was in that moment that Rose realized Rosie had forgiven him. She also then realized Rosie had just lost her brother.
The next day when the news story was out they said that when David was asked if he had any last words he said yes. "Please tell my sister Rosie and my niece that I'm sorry. I love them both" A slow tear fell down his face as he spoke his last sentence.
She heard her cue and began to walk up the aisle to the front of the room where her beautiful Rosie stood. It was an amazing thing that was happening to Rose at this moment. The room was now empty to her save one person.
'This,' Rose thought, 'is amazing. How can I possibly love this woman anymore than I do now?' But it was happening now. She was falling more in love with her by the moment. Suddenly the walk to the makeshift altar seemed to be far too long, so desperate was she to go to her love, her life, her everything.
When at last she did make it there she gave a sigh of relief. She walked to her and turned to face her. She placed her hands in Rosie's and the thing that happened to them whenever they were together began. No one else, there was no one else in this room.
They stood hands connected, eyes seeing into each other. They were no longer Rose and Rosie, they were each other, the Roses. So connected that this love had made them one. One single being that occupied one single body mind and soul.
They were so much a part of each other that Rose thought they would cease to exist if one of them were no longer there.
The thought still chilled Rose when she would sometimes think about how close she he'd come to losing this woman. When the thought would come it would paralyse her. She would be momentarily lost. She would have to close her eyes and literally shake it out of her mind like one would shake away a bad memory. And in those moments she would have to, not choose to, find her where ever she was and just look at her to make sure that she was still there.
As she stood here now, ready to commit herself for the rest of her life to this woman she thought about how it came to be. She had gone to the prison to try and find a way to save this woman. Instead this woman had saved her.
The end.