Chapter 21: Diving In

"What was that?" Lizzy asked after I hung up with Rebecca.

"I'm not sure yet," Allison said. "I got here the same time you did, remember? I thought the walls were going to explode. From the sound of it and what we saw here, my guess is it was a case that Rebecca asked him to look at. I'd say he found something." She stopped and kissed my cheek, "How am I doing so far?"

"Pretty well," I answered. "We talked earlier about a case she wanted me to take a look at. Partly because there is a sizable reward for catching the guy, but mostly because they really didn't have any serious leads. Four young girls, really young, have been raped out by Palm Springs and I guess they couldn't even put together a decent composite sketch. Probably because of their age, guy likes them young, they were all about ten. I was just going over the stuff, then looking at all the pictures and I started getting images. Flashes from the different people in the pictures, parents dreaming of what they'd do if they got their hands on him, the girls' nightmares, that sort of thing, and then they changed. It took a second but I realized I was seeing images of him stalking them, and I saw how he got their names and information so he could lure them away when he was ready for them. Then it changed again and he was raping one of them, then another ... I got to watch through his eyes."

"Oh jeez," Lizzy said. "No wonder you were so angry."

"Yeah, it was a good thing it was only a memory or it might have gotten ugly. I was so mad I started to lose him, so I screamed for you. After you got here I had to sit through two more before it changed again and I saw him picking out the next one." I paused, running my fingers through my hair and stretching the muscles in my neck and shoulders. I hadn't even realized they were tense until now. Then I remembered where I was and just made the tension go away. "You know those stick figures of their families people put on the back of their cars?"

"Yeah, some of them even put the pets up there. Always seemed kind of lame but then I don't have kids so who am I to judge."

"Well, these people put the names up with them. Anyway, he was eying this new girl and I caught the license number of her mom's van. That was the number I gave to Rebecca. Hopefully it will be enough for her to catch him. I'd hate to think I went through that for nothing."

"Don't worry," Allison said. "She'll get him. All she has to do is watch the girl, seems like it should be pretty easy. She just has to wait for him to make his move and then ... Wham! Meet your new cell mate, Bubba, and I hope he's got a big one, so the fucker can learn what he was putting those poor girls through."

Lizzy was just staring back and forth between us. "You took his anger," she said plainly, still looking intently at Allison. "I can see it in you, fading but still there. How did you do that?"

"I have no idea. I think maybe it started as self defense. Jimmy's projective and over the years I guess I found a way to deal with it. Unless he's really concentrating; then I don't have a chance. Like when he makes love to me, total overload, I lost count of the number of times I've passed out."

Her eyes got wide, "Really? He's made you pass out?" She looked at me again and this time there was a definite hunger in the look.

"Yeah, Shannon and Angela too, I've warned him to be careful if he picks up any more lovers, you know, go easy. Have you ever done it?"

"Passed out? No, but I'm willing to try." Lizzy said with a smile.

Something in the way she said it caught my attention, I glanced at Allison and apparently she'd heard it too. "But you have done it to someone else, haven't you?" Allison pressed her suspicion.

Lizzy's face fell, "Yes, I was careless. My gift..."

"Yeah, but not the way you think." Allison said. "It's probably part of your gift, but I suspect that it's more an outgrowth of it than part of it. You're both."

"What do you mean, she's both?" I asked.

"Plus and minus, she projects like you, but she also absorbs like me. She may not be a true empath, but she's the closest thing either of us is ever likely to see. I'm betting that it's been developing slowly as you learned to use your gift. From what Rebecca told us of how your gift works, you see them, you do your thing, the bad slowly leaves and something else fills the void. Maybe it's just a case of practice making perfect but I'm guessing it's gotten a lot easier to do since you started, and the more you do it, the easier it gets. You did it just now with Jimmy and probably don't even realize it."

"No I didn't."

"Yeah," Allison insisted, "You did. Trust me, I know my limits and I could never have handled what he was putting out there. You took quite a lot of it yourself."

Lizzy clearly wasn't buying it.

"I think she may be right," I said. "I could feel a difference where your hand touched my chest."

She turned her unbelieving gaze on me, "Really?"

"Really, tell me, why did you put my hand on your chest," I grinned, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining or anything. I really liked it..."

Suddenly Allison was laughing, "I don't believe it! You actually made her blush. I didn't think anything could do that."

I rolled my eyes and shifted her onto a stool in the corner with a very tall conical paper hat on her head and kept going, "As I was saying, looking back at it now, it almost seemed like you were completing a circuit of some kind. Did you even realize what you were doing or was it automatic?"

"Totally automatic, I didn't even realize where your hand was until it was over."

"Well, like I said, no complaints here but I think Allison is onto something." I paused before going on, "But that is something we can play with some other time. All that matters right now is that you were there when I needed you and I appreciate that. That and Shannon is going to be here real soon and looking to celebrate. Her dad saw his doctor today for the results from his latest tests and they told him he is cancer free."

"That's wonderful!" Lizzy said, then she got a really worried look on her face, "I don't know if I can take the three of you like that though."

"Excuse me!" Allison called from across the room, "When you get a second, my ass is glued to this stool and the hat won't come off either."

I didn't realize I had gone quite so far, "If I let you go, do you think you can behave yourself?"

"Probably not," she said with a smile, "but I'm willing to try?"

"Okay," I said in my best 'be a good daddy's girl' voice, "Since you were honest I'll let you go, but you better be good or daddy may have to..."

Lizzy interrupted, "Uh, I wouldn't go there right now if I were you." I turned and saw her staring intently at Allison. "She just might take you up on it."

I looked at Allison again and she was beet red. It was starting to look like maybe she was serious about doing a little experimentation. I didn't see her ever going down Amber's road but ... I was definitely going to need to see Lady Jasmine for some training, and soon. I disappeared the hat and released her from the seat but before she could thank me Shannon arrived.

"WhoooHoo!" Came the ear-piercing cry from the doorway, we all turned and there she was, framed in the doorway.

"WhoooHoo!" Allison answered as she dashed across the room to hug her lover. I wasn't far behind, wrapping my arms around them both and hugging hard as they bounced up and down. It didn't take long before tears were flowing.

I glanced back and saw we weren't the only ones crying. Lizzy stood silent, eyes mostly averted, just glancing toward us every few seconds. I gave each of the girls a squeeze to get their attention and pointed with my head when she wasn't looking. The next time she looked away we mobbed her, surrounding her with bodies and arms, taking turns hugging her and sharing our joy. Apparently I had been right; it had been her usual sense of exclusion that was the problem. I still wasn't sure if Allison was right or not, but she certainly seemed to take in our exuberant feelings as she quickly was bouncing right along with us. Finally something seemed to snap and she threw her arms around Shannon's neck and drove her tongue into the younger girl's mouth. Shannon didn't even hesitate, just wrapped her arms around her new dance partner and sounded the bell for round one. I was starting to worry about them setting off the sprinkler system as hands began to roam freely over backs and bottoms. Suddenly Shannon grabbed the bottom of Lizzy's shirt and pulled upward. My first thought was to send them to the cabana but then I remembered what Lizzy had said about the leather furniture. I glanced at Allison, who was looking on in awe at the display. She was oblivious to me as she watched the scene continue to heat up, so I took her hand and nodded towards the door.

"Wow!" She said as we stepped out into the glade. I checked my ring and confirmed we were in her glade instead of mine.

"You can say that again. I'm not sure what I was expecting when we included her, but that wasn't it."

"It's not a problem though, right?"

"Allison, please, don't be ridiculous."

"So, what did you have in mind, a little private celebration maybe?"

I pulled her close and wrapped my arms around her, "No plan, but I could be talked into it without too much effort on your part if that's what you want?"

"Jimmy, I always want, but this is good too. So that's what you pulled Rebecca aside at the restaurant for?"

"Yeah, that's why she had Bob call after school. Now, since we have all this free time on our hands how about getting a little work done. When you spoke to Samantha before did she give you any information on the people she knows about?"

"No," She said, shaking her head. "Nothing I think you could use anyway. She had names on a couple other girls, mostly just first names. As for the bad guys, everybody seems to be Lord or Lady this or that, Master or Mistress depending on the situation."

"Okay, I think it's time we sat down with her and started getting familiar with who she knows. Jasmine knows some of them too, including another doctor."

"Really, when did all this come up?"

"The first time I saw her, it's another one of those weird things I can't begin to explain, I was sent to her, and she was told to expect me; not me specifically, but someone who had a mutual interest. That if she helped me, I would fulfill a desire that had burned in her for some time. Want to guess what that was?"

"You're kidding."

"Nope, seems she got blackmailed into helping train a few of the local girls, including, get this, Amanda and Samantha, plus teaching some of their people so now they can do it without her. She wishes now she had taken her chances with the courts. She told me about another doctor, a woman this time, who sounds like a real hard core bitch. One of the girls Jasmine offered me is seriously into bondage and discipline; she has scars all over her ass..."

"What do you mean offered you?"

"Just what I said, offered, as in pick one on the house and ... Anyway, her name is Tanya, this woman is one of her best customers. I'm thinking maybe there is actually a line she can't cross with the girls she has available and Tanya is her outlet."

"That should be obvious; she can't risk physical evidence on one of the regular girls. Nothing you could show the cops that would make them take you seriously. Can't take the risk, mental cruelty and intimidation is one thing, provable physical torture is another. I expect if she was the reason for an investigation it would not go well for her."

"Yeah," I said sarcastically, "It'd be a damn shame if she had to spend a weekend in the chair." The chair was one of the group's disciplinary tools. "Anyway, unless there is another doctor then I'm thinking between her and Hendricks they're going to know pretty much everyone, or at least all the girls. One or the other would be responsible for their checkups and birth control pills. I want to go see Jasmine and see if I can get enough to bridge her, the same for Hendricks. But I also want to get all the information I can on the girls that she and Samantha know. I'm not going to take it for granted that I'll be able to find everyone just through the two doctors. I'll start with the girls they know and work outward. If nothing else it will give me a chance to evaluate each of them individually, maybe eventually get Bob involved to see what kind of help they are going to need once it's over."

"Well, I can't go with you to see Jasmine so why don't you send me to Samantha and I'll work with her while you talk to Jasmine? I'll get Sam's stuff organized for you so you can get started; I'll have her give me visuals on them. That should make it easier for you to bridge them."

"That's actually a good idea. It would certainly save time. You'll behave yourself with Sam right?"

She grinned, "No promises; don't get me wrong, I'll try, but I think if she has me all to herself she may want... , Jimmy, the only person who ever loved her was Amanda, and I think it was far more than a sisterly kind of thing if you know what I mean. I can't guarantee I'll say no. You're the one she wants, but if I'm the one that's there..."

"I understand what you're saying but what do you mean I'm the one she wants?"

"Oh please, what are you, blind? Jimmy, that girl would do anything for you. And I mean anything. Haven't you noticed the way she looks at you?"

"No, not really, and I'm sure it's just that she is grateful that I'm helping, or trying to help."

"I'm sure it is too, but Jimmy, that girl would trade places with Amber in a hot second, and she doesn't need any training. She worships you, and if you actually pull this off and rescue her and Rachel ... She better never find out who you really are or she'll be knocking on your door."

"Get out," I said.

"No, I'm serious, ask Shannon, better yet; if Lizzy can ever stand to be in the same room with her, ask her. I'll tell you right now though; there is nothing that anyone has ever forced that girl to do that she wouldn't do voluntarily for you."

"Whatever, it isn't going to matter though, because she's never going to know. So go see her, don't worry about what may or may not happen - you know it's not an issue for me, then we can finally get started on fixing this problem." I kissed her and sent her on her way, then focused on Jasmine. Walking to the stream, I whispered her name and watched as her face formed in the clear water. I bowed formally and asked, "Do you have time for me?"

She gave a polite bow in return, "Of course."