Chapter 52

Flashback – Jack and Ben – The trip to hell ... at the hospital.

The Butterbar came back with the Captain and the Captain complained, "What's this I hear that Sgt. Reynolds is going back to the base and the Lieutenant is taking over as your spotter."

I pointed to the unconscious Jack and answered, "Yes Sir! That's correct. Even though I repaired the bleeder, he still needs more medical attention than I can give him."

The Captain scowled and asked, "Why did you choose the Lieutenant for your spotter?"

The Butterbar interjected with a slight lie, "Sir! With you here I am redundant so it was my suggestion."

The Captain laughed and insulted him, "Hell, Lieutenants are always redundant."

I wanted to point out the fact that not so long ago he was a redundant Butterbar but wisely held my tongue. The Captain said, "Well, get your asses to the roof."

I was going to refuse and the Butterbar beat me to it when he reminded, "Sir! We will comply with that order as soon as Sgt. Reynolds is on the transport back to the base. Sir, would you like to make the call or should I?"

He shook his head and said, "Hell you do it, I have more important things to do."

He left for the roof, I looked at the Butterbar, smiled and said, "Thanks, I was going to tell the Captain to shove it up his ass."

The Butterbar said, "Yeah, I figured you were going to do something to get yourself in trouble. If you remember, Colonel Maggie ordered me to take care of you so I was just following her orders."

I remarked, "That Captain sure has a bug up his butt. What the hell is his problem?"

The Butterbar added important information, "I guess you didn't know but he was good friends with Captain M. Let me find the radio and get a chopper here for Sgt. Reynolds."

Shit now everything made sense - no wonder the Captain was more of a pain in the ass than most Captains. The Butterbar left to find the radio and I headed to Jack's side to check his vitals (yeah, I should have done it earlier).

Flashback – Masha – A short but sweet...

I heard the hooligan girls start to bang on the front door and one of them yelled, "Come on out bitch, we have something for you!"

I didn't answer the racket and the banging turned into kicking the door which only added to my anger. There was no way I was going to let them destroy my house so I made a tactical decision. I checked one of Jack's 1911's to make sure it was loaded and had a round in the chamber, then I tucked it into the waistband of my pants. The banging on the front door continued as I grabbed the Remington 870 shotgun, made sure it was fully loaded. I moved the table I had placed against the door out of the way, opened the door, stepped into the hallway and worked my way to the front room, staying as far away from the door as possible.

The hooligan girls finally broke the door and they flew into the house, but I had the Remington 870 pointed directly at them. The ones in the front stopped so quickly the ones behind them didn't and they all fell to the floor in a huge mess. I kept the Remington 870 trained on them and said, "I should do the world a favor and kill all of you."

The mouthiest leader made a mistake since she laughed and taunted, "You don't have the balls to do that." She then stood up, pulled out a knife and rushed me. I was smart enough to be across the room from them so I had enough time to pull the trigger. The noise and flash was deafening and the leader's chest exploded. The other girls jumped up and one of them yelled in terror, "She's one crazy bitch! Let's get out of here before she shoots us!"

They ran out the door just as the friendly policemen and two other police cars drove up. The friendly policemen came toward the house while the others chased the hooligan girls. As they approached one of them said, "Ms. Reynolds, please lower your weapon."

I didn't realize I still had it pointed at the mouthy leader. I lowered the weapon, sat on the floor and began to cry. Then I heard Linda crying so I left the shotgun on the floor and told the policemen, "I need to get Linda, she's crying."

I went back to Jack's gun room, moved Linda out of the way, put the pistol and all the other weapons back into the safe and locked it. I came out of the room holding Linda and my house was a flurry of activity. There were more people in my house than I could imagine. The police officer from the station rushed over to me and asked, "Are you okay?"

I forced myself not to cry (because I needed to be strong for Linda) and replied, "No! I am not okay! I just killed a girl!"

He led me over to a chair where I collapsed. Louise ran into the house, saw the dead girl and said, "I'm glad I called the police when your phone went dead. Wow, you really did protect Linda, you're such a badass!"

Linda began to coo and held out her hands for Louise so she took her out of my arms. The police officer from the station said, "Ms. Reynolds, we would like to talk to you about what happened."

They asked what seemed like a million questions, which I tried to answer the best I could. But I was dazed and confused and was sure I made many mistakes. I had killed men, but killing a young girl, even a hooligan girl, was different. Finally the police officer from the station said, "Ms. Reynolds we have to give this information to the DA but it appears to be an open and shut case of self-defense to me. So I don't think the prosecutors will file charges against you."

I looked around, noticed Jack's shotgun and the corpse were missing so I asked two questions, "What is a DA? And where is my husband's missing shotgun?"

The policeman apologized, "DA is police terminology for the District Attorney; they are special prosecutors who work for the government. They have the final decision on whether someone is charged with a crime after we provide all the evidence we can collect. Your husband's shotgun is evidence so we had to remove it from the scene."

I ask, "What about the other girls who were with..." I point at the blood on the carpet.

He said, "Thankfully we captured all of them and they are going back to jail to be charged for many new crimes."

I continued to look at the blood stain on the carpet and asked, "Who will clean up that mess?"

The nice policeman admitted, "Unfortunately, that task falls on your shoulders."

I looked around, noticed that Louise and Linda were missing and I was very depressed. I was sure that Louise would never bring Linda here again. Once again my days would be lonely and more depressing.

I changed my clothes to old work clothes, took out a bucket and some cleaners and began to clean up the dead girl's blood.

Then I had an incredible surprise...

Flashback – Jennifer and Glen – on the way to the shrink

I thought about Daddy's reaction when I told him I was going to be a Goth and realized something: I had a weapon which I could use against him (and I was sure it would also work with Daniela) if I ever needed it. I never guessed that Daddy would be so bothered by my looks. Heck, I guess I assumed he never cared about my looks. This was a revelation for me!

I practically pleaded, "Daddy, can we stop by the BX before the meeting with the fricken shrink? It's embarrassing wearing this dress."

Daddy shot down my idea when he said, "Jennifer, unfortunately we are late already so we can't stop before the appointment but we can stop afterwards before I take you home. And young lady, you need to fix your attitude about the psychologist."