Chapter 3: The Beauty Of Angels

Dana woke up with his arms around her. He was still asleep and held himself close to her. She felt little flutter thrills slip through her. This she had not anticipated. When she tried to disengage herself from him, he came half awake, looked at her and screamed, "Nooo. Not again, please."

Sorrow and fear shot through her as she interpreted the look on his face to be a personal rejection of her specifically. "I wasn't trying to do anything." she stammered, "I was sleeping and you grabbed me and I was trying to..." She stopped talking when she saw his eyes were not focused on her. He was looking at a horror she could only imagine.

She slipped over to him and placed her arms around him and whispered, "Hush, it's all right now, hush and just go back to sleep. No one is going to harm you ever again if I have anything to say about it. And believe me, I have a lot to say, sometimes." He snuggled up to her, closed his eyes and became stil once more.

The great welling up of emotion caused her to shudder and tears of gentle pity formed in her eyes. My god, what have they done to you? This she wondered quietly to herself. You poor thing, what have they done to you? Finally she fell back into a dreamless sleep and drew comfort from his closeness.

Daylight came streaming through the windows and woke her up. Dana was oh so gentle as she disengaged herself from his still form and hurried over to close the blinds. She did her best to be quiet.

"I never had anybody hold me close like that before. I liked it," his voice said from behind her.

She whirled around and saw he was awake. "Oh. I didn't mean to wake you up. I'm sorry."

He looked down and blushed, "Aw, I been awake for a while, trying to figure out where I am and who you are. But I liked the way you held me. It made me feel safe."

He looked down at the bed once more, then back up at her, "Will you tell me where I am? You aren't going to make me go back to them, are you?" Her heart melted as she looked at the total helplessness showing in his face. His eyes pled with her.

A dammed up flood of emotion coursed through her and she answered him with a vehemence that startled her. "No, you will never ever go back to 'them, ' whoever they are. I promise." He recoiled when she shouted, "Never!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. But I am a mean, and ugly old bull dog looking broad who yells at and fights everything and everybody that gets in her way." She gave him an apologetic smile.

"But you're not ugly. And you certainly do not look like a bulldog. You have a nice smile, a loving smile." His absolute sincerity shocked her. "I don't think you're all that old, either. You are a very nice person, I can tell." He nodded a counterpoint to his honest, flat statement of fact. "I know nice from the other. I had to learn the difference so I could survive. Some of the others didn't"

"What others?" she wanted to ask, but she reassured him in a gentle voice, "Never mind, you're safe here with me." She sat back down on the bed and hugged him gently. A thrill shot through her and she gasped, sat back as she released him.

"What happened? Did I do something wrong?" He looked at her with timid fear.

Dana felt guilty at the betrayal of her treacherous body as she stammered, "Er ... Nothing is wrong. I just twisted my back a little, I guess. She stood and dramatically stretched.

He smiled at her and said, "You're nice." The smile held all the innocence of a small child's. It was a trusting smile, one that held unfeigned friendliness. The smile made her feel her sense of guilt all the more.

"Are you hungry?" she asked. "What would you like?"

"Could I have a little cereal, maybe? I don't think I could take very much right now. I haven't eaten anything since the wave tipped the boat over." He scowled at the memory.

"Oh my god. What am I thinking of Dim Doc said chicken broth. Here, I'll help you up and..." Her face reddened as she remembered he was completely naked under the tell tale sheet and he had no clothing to wear. "You have no clothes," she said.

"I know," he said.

"I'll let you wear something of mine for right now and then we'll take care of you later." She tried to be business like.

"I wouldn't look good in one of your dresses," he said.

"I don't own any dresses, she said.

"Okay. Let me get into a pair of your pants," he said.

"Okay," she answered. Then she thought of the double entendre and stammered, "I think I have something you can wear."

She jumped up and hurried to the big walk in closet and rummaged around and came up with a pair of shorts. "Ah." she exclaimed, "These ought to work."

"I'll have to help you put these on. Please don't get embarrassed with me helping you." She felt her face flush as she helped him sit up and became aware of his obvious masculinity. He sat on the edge of the bed and she knelt and helped his feet through the legs of the jogging shorts she had chosen. She brought them up to his knees and said, "I'll help you stand and we'll work them the rest of the way up.

Dana gave him a critical look. In his emaciated condition the shorts fit loose at the hips. She looked again and decided they would still flare out because he was slim and her hips were a little beyond "full."

Dana sighed and helped her guest to stand and let him lean on her as she led him into the living room and into the easy chair in front of the television. As he sat heavily down he told her, "These shorts won't work either." She looked down and saw the part of him that had crept down the leg and had begun to poke out.

"Oh my god." she exclaimed and hurried back in the bedroom and came out with a pair of slacks to one of her business suits. She slipped the shorts down and placed his feet in the pants legs of the slacks and worked them up as far as his knees, keeping her eyes averted.

She helped him to stand and brought the waistband up and fastened it. After a couple of meals they would not fit around the waist she decided.

After she helped him to sit down again, Dana hurried into the kitchen and opened a can of chicken broth, heated it in the microwave and served it up to him in a tall glass. He sipped and made a face. Then he sipped some more. Half way through he sat the glass down and belched. "I'm full," he told her.

"What's your name?" she asked him, "I can't yell 'Hey you, ' when I want you."

"Jimmy Wright," he answered, "What's yours?"

"I'm Dana Featherstone," she told him and was surprised at his response.

"You're that 'lawyer from Hell' Barbara hates so much. Once when she came for me she had them tie me up so she could whip me after you beat her in court. That hurt a lot."

"Say what? Barbara who? The only Barbara I know that doesn't like me is Barbara Lamont, the state senator." She looked at Jimmy Wright, feeling a nervous apprehension, as she awaited the answer she knew was forthcoming.

"Yeah, that's her. She says that you ruined a sweet deal for her. Boy was she mad."

Dana was unwilling to ask the next logical question, but forced herself to ask it anyway, "Who did she have tie you up and why? That sounds rather weird."

"My mother sold me to Andre Beaumont when I was sixteen. I've been a whore ever since then until I got away."

He shuddered and added, "I hit Judge Carmichael over the head with a big ashtray and climbed out a window. All I had on was a pair of posing trunks.

"Andre called his cop friends and they tried to bring me back. One of them shot me and killed ... killed ... kil..."

Jimmy broke down and began to sob, "They killed a poor guy asleep on the beach because they thought he was me. They just shot down at him like he was a thing." He began cry incoherently.

Dana rushed to him and grabbed him up out of the chair. She cradled him in her arms, then sat back down in the chair and held him on her lap. She kissed his cheek as he nuzzled her neck and finally stopped sobbing,

She rubbed her cheek against his and felt a new stirring inside her. Although prior to the day before, she had never experienced any such emotions that she could remember, not ever. She was experiencing all sorts of new feelings that were disorienting for her.

Dana was also a sexual awakening such as she had not experienced ever. A part of her wondered if she was becoming some sort of a sex fiend like that Paula What's her name who got off on young boys, or some of the others she had heard about.

"I got to go to the bathroom," he whispered, disrupting her self-recriminations.

She stood and set him on his feet in one fluid motion. "You're strong." he exclaimed with a smile. "I wish I was strong like that."

"Young guy, you have an inner strength few others have. You are much more strong than I am in the ways that really count." She thought of the clumsy sentence she had just uttered and started to correct herself, then stopped. What did it matter?

Jimmy leaned on her and they slowly made their way across the room to the small toilet there. His body touching hers took away all thoughts of correcting her speech. She decided her morals needed correcting much more.

As he performed the personal act of urination while she held him up, she kept her burning scarlet face averted. "I need help getting these things back up," he told her. That brought on another blushing fit that made her face feel like it was going to explode when it accidentally brushed against his penis while she tugged the woman's style slacks back up over his sparse frame.

"Am I really so ugly to you that you don't like to look at me?" he asked in a sad voice. "All those others, the men and the women liked to look at me. Jake, our keeper said that by the time I was twenty-five nobody would want me any more much. I guess he was right."

Her heart went out to his sad, forlorn frankness. "No." she exclaimed, "It's not like that at all. You are so beautiful that I want to. I want to ... I just want you all to myself and I am being some sort of dirty old lady. I'm so sorry," she whispered as she looked down at nothing. "Oh I'm so sorry for wanting you like I do. There is a sweet something about you that draws me to you. I am a fat, ugly stupid woman trying to rob the cradle. Please forgive me."

He almost fell over, "Please help me to sit down, I'm almost ready to drop." He lurched again and fell against her, almost knocking her over. She caught his weight and slowly half carried him back to the chair. He sighed deeply as he sat back and rested his head against the back of the chair. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a bother to you. I'll try to do better. Tomorrow I'll..." His voice trailed off as he went back to sleep.

Dana made up her mind and hurried over to her telephone and called information. "I need to rent a special van with a ramp for a wheel chair. I also need two bodyguards, tough ones. I don't know how to look things like that up in the yellow pages."

"May I suggest, if you can't get an answer today, you call a wheel chair rental place tomorrow during regular business hours. They have carriers designed to fit most cars. I can give you several numbers." The male operator slowly recited three different telephone numbers.

He added, "If you need serious protection, I would suggest you call over to the navy side of Coronado from where you are calling. Ask to speak to the US Seals duty officer. He'll know who is on leave and not averse to earning a little spending money.

My brother just graduated. He said it was the worst thing he ever had to do in his life. Only four of the eighty-three who started out made it. Those guys are awesome. Also up the coast are the Special Ops Guys. They're willing to charge a hurricane and turn it into a whimpering breeze.

"The seals sound fine to me. I won't be chasing hurricanes," she laughed. She hung up.

Dana decided that if she couldn't get a wheelchair right now, it didn't matter that much. Tomorrow morning she would rent whatever she needed. The first place she called was open and had what she wanted.

Then she went through the process of navigating the waters of naval bureaucracy. On what seemed the hundredth try, she finally was connected to the... "OOD Lieutenant Merewether, may I help you?"

"Yes you may," Dana answered. "A young man who works for the phone company recommended I call over to you people to see about some, as he put it, 'serious bodyguards.' He said there might be some of your people on leave who would like to pick up extra money acting as bodyguards."

The lieutenant laughed, "That had to be my cousin Danny. He couldn't make it, but he's proud of his brother who did. We're a close knit family."

"Well, did he steer me right?" she asked.

"Yes and no. The navy does not actually prohibit moonlighting but it is not exactly encouraged, either," the lieutenant hedged.

"Three hundred dollars a day for two men. Five hundred a day if violence is encountered." she interrupted the equivocation. "Also, there will be a minimum of one week's work," she added. "Make that two thousand dollars apiece for at least five men if you have them. That's if there are no problems. If there are problems, we'll make that five thousand each. I have a hunch your guys will be earning hazardous duty pay.

"Ma'am, give me your name, address and phone number. One man will be there within the hour. As soon as I can arrange a replacement, I shall also arrange for emergency leave and be there by six PM latest." All hesitancy was gone.

"My name is Dana Featherstone and I am an attorney." She was interrupted before she could say any more.

"Oh boy. We all know who you are. Some of the guys have pictures of you in their lockers. We all wanted you to be the first full combat female seal to train with us. The way you pounded on those guys who tried to rob you last year was outstanding. Half of us would have asked for your hand in marriage if we had known your address."

His response shocked her. "Oh, very, very nice, when can I expect my first admirer?" she returned in a dry voice.

"Within the hour, ma'am." he answered and she hung up. Jimmy had slept through the whole conversation.