When Will The Madness Stop: Chapter Ten

Azora wasn't sure why she was doing it, but she was. She was walking down the corridor to the holding area on her way to tell Sonny Corinthos; a man she loathed with every fiber of her being, and he felt the same way about her-- that his sister was dead. To prove once and for all that he was not God, a little g god or other kind of all-powerful deity.

She and Sonny had their own personal mutual animosity society going on. If it were possible for her to hate him anymore than she already did, she would have just killed him by now. She hated manipulators, but she hated people that disrespected others for no other reason than to hate them even more, and that was what Sonny represented to her. It wouldn't have been so bad, and her hatred wouldn't have been so deep had it not been for the fact that Sonny tried to forge her life, one that didn't exist, beyond her "thirteenth birthday".

It was inexcusable and unforgivable.

She was thinking of ways to tell him the news, both nicely, and cruelly, when she heard a shriek that would have shattered someone's ear drums pierce the silence of the corridor.

"What th'hayl?" she muttered, picking up her pace and jogging the rest of the way.

She got to the holding area just in time to see Luis physically carry Brenda out of the room as she screamed and hyperventilated.

"NO! NO!! NO!" She kept repeating intermittently letting out of shriek. "NO! It can't be Cole! NOT COLE!"

"Sssh, ssssh, Brenda, please you must calm down." He spoke in the most calming voice he could manage even as his own emotions mirrored hers. That can't be. This just can't be. He thought to himself as he tried to calm her down.

"NO! NOOO! He's lying! It can't be real!" She bellowed, her body rigid with fear and anxiety.

"Brenda, honey, think of our child." He beseeched quietly as he placed his hand over her stomach. At his words she snapped out of her anxiety attacked and made her body relax, but her heart was still racing, and her mind was still reeling. He leaned his forehead against hers. "He's not here, he's not here. Just keep telling yourself that." He spoke in a soothing tone that helped little to set her frazzled nerves off edge.

"But...But..." She shook her head hard to get her thoughts straight. "He is ... And... He hurt Michael." She sniffled, trying to remain calm for her child and for herself. "Oh, GAWD, Michael... What has he done to poor innocent little Michael?" She sobbed putting her head on his shoulder.

It worried Luis too. "We'll help him." He promised as he pulled her away a bit in order to look into her eyes. "We have information that they are going to need, honey. We are in a position to help him." He could see the pain this information brought in her eyes. "Please Brenda, we can help him." He beseeched.

"I'll have to tell them everything, won't I?" She sniffled, reluctantly.

He shook his head firmly. "No, only the doctors need to know and they don't need details, they just need to know what you and I remember... " He trailed off not wanting to say more.

She nodded in assent. "That poor boy." She whimpered tearfully, falling against his chest needing the security of his arms to protect her from what lay ahead.

"I know baby, I know." Was his only reply as he wrapped his arms around her body and held her close.

Mac just watched in shock. Her reaction was like nothing he had ever seen.

An angry, fiery pit grew in in Azora's stomach at the mention of that mans name. In a burst of white-hot rage she barrelled past the trio and barged into the holding area. She didn't even look around she just took one look at the scraggly-haired man and lunged at him and with one well punch, leveled him.

And she would have done more had it not been for Jason grabbing her from around the waist and pulling her away.

"LET ME GO YOU BASTARD!" She demanded, her arms and legs wriggling and kicking violently.

"NO!"

"LET ME GO!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. But she quickly turned her venom back to where it was originally directed. "I'll never let you hurt my family ever again! YOU HEAR! NEVER!!!!"

"You'll never touch my family again as long as I live!!!" She bellowed her face red as the blood rushed to it. "I'll kill you first!!!" Jason kept a hold of her but it was difficult. For such a tiny woman she had a great deal of strength and power.

Mac came back in and was stunned by the scene unfolding before him. Jason restraining Azora. Azora red faced and looking ready to kill, tears in her eyes, her chest heaving, her eyes were filled with kind of rage he had never seen before. Sonny on the cot, sobbing openly, with his head in his hands, as he realized how close he had come and how much he had done to give Michael's abductors power over him, the power to own him.

"What the HELL happened in here?" He demanded looking at the prisoner on the floor. "And who the HELL did this?" He barked.

"I DID!" Azora ground out as she finally wriggled out of Jason's arms and pushed him away. "And I'd do it again in a New York minute!" She said getting in his face. But suddenly her bravado faltered, the blood rushed from her head leaving her pale and weak and woozy. Before she could continue on with her diatribe she was falling, all the feeling had left her extremities leaving her body limp. Mac caught her as she collapsed, and pulled her into his arms.

"What the HELL is in the water?" He grumbled as he carried her out of the holding area and into his office. Jason followed him, oddly concerned about her. He had never seen anything like that.

Mac looked at his desk and shrugged figuring that spring cleaning would come a little earlier this year than the last as he used Azora's legs and his arm to knock everything into the floor after securing Georgie and Maxie's photos on the book shelf. He laid her out on the desk, allowing her waist long dreads to hang off the side.

The color was returning to her cheeks, but her forehead was covered by sheen of sweat. Jason walked in looking as confused as Mac felt. Mac turned to him. "What the HELL caused her to go psycho on that prisoner?"

Jason shook his head. "I don't know, he's just lucky that she got to him before I did." He said resolutely.

Mac kept himself from rolling his eyes as he turned back to Azora. "Azora?" He whispered tapping her cheek. "Azo...." She grabbed his hand and flipped him over her so that he was on his desk on his back with Azora on top of him, her eyes wild as though she were still in a dream. "Azora... It's Mac... I'm not going to hurt you..." He said slowly as not to startle her. Her eyes held no recognition of him at all. He kept his hands up so that she could see that he wasn't going to cause her harm. "Azora.. It's Mac Scorpio... Remember, I helped you and your men arrange for there to be shifts of searchers looking for Michael Spencer..." Still she looked at him puzzled, even cocking her head to one side like a puppy would and looking at him as though he were an alien, almost curiously.

She looked around the room as she sat back on her knees and looked at Jason with the same foreign, curious, inquisitive look she had studied Mac with. Neither man knew how to reach her, she was strong, she had proven that on the docks many times by carrying the same amount as her men, and sometimes more than her men could on the job site. So they had no doubt that she could pound them to a bloody pulp and neither man had a death wish.

She turned to Mac again as a flash of recognition and then confusion flickered in her eyes. He sighed as she sat back on her rear and started looking around as though startled and and confused. "How in the HAYL did I get in her'?" She looked at Mac and quickly jumped off the desk, her dreads swaying as she dismounted. "Sorry 'bout dat.... Whate'er it wer' I done." She looked around again. "Would SOMEONE kiiiiindly tayl me what/how/ or who got me in her'?" She asked feeling awkward as Mac got off his desk and straightened his suit.

"That's we would like to know. What happened in that holding area?"

"Holding area? I hadn't made it down ther' yet." She snickered. But lost her smile as Jason and Mac shared a look. "What!"

"Azora, do you remember punching an inmate out?"

"No!" She spat incredulously.

"Do you remember me restraining you?" Jason asked.

"Hayl naw, I don't 'member nothin of the sort." She snapped.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Mac asked intrigued.

"Hrmmm..." She tapped her chin. "I was walkin' down the hallway an' I heard Ms Brenda talkin' t'Mr. Luis. And then..." She scrunched her nose. "Then stuff gets kinna fuzzy." She shrugged.

It occurred to Jason that she had a thick drawl, always had, her words were "country-ized" as her man Eduardo had put it so tactfully. Sometimes he thought he needed a translator to help understand her, and yet, when they were in the jail cell he had understood every word she had muttered, and there hadn't been even a trace of a drawl.

He didn't quite understand it, but he had a theory.

He surprised her by grabbing her the same way he had in the holding area.

"HEY! LEMMO GO BASTARD!" She demanded as she fought fiercely to get out of his arms.

"YA NO GOOD LOUSY SUMABIYATCH!! LEMMYASS GO!!!"

Theory proven. He let her go.

She spun around and cold cocked him. He dropped back to the couch holding his face. She definitely packed a wallop, that was for damn sure. Mac looked him at he gave him a withering look that asked him to drop it.

"What th'HAYL wuzzat all'bout!!!" She demanded furiously.

"Sorry, just had to check something." His words made her face turn bright red.

"Ya wanna fight, I'll fight ya... Ya idiot." She sniffed pounding her fist into her palm.

"No, it's not necessary." He digressed.

Frustrated, she turned to Mac. "Listen Mac, I's sorry 'bouts the desk ... Thingy.." She apologized with a bit of a blush. "I just come down her' t'deliver some bad news."

Jason paled and got to his feet. "Michael?"

She shook her head. "Nope, worse."

"Carly?" Jason groaned.

"Naw, it's biological t'Sonny Corleone." She said gesturing to the holding area.

"Who?"

"Courtney." She said sadly.

"Is she okay?" He asked knowing that if she wasn't, that neither was AJ.

She shook her head sadly. "Weren't it Shakespeare that wrote 'If all is right with Juliet then the world is dead'?" She mused, giving Mac and Jason a small glance into her thinking. Neither figured Azora to be much of an arts enthusiast... The things you learn when ones guard is down.

"What are you saying?" Jason asked with a sinking feeling.

She looked him in the eye and Jason was unnerved by her eyes, one so blue and cold the other warm and green (I think that's what color I made it (LOL)). It was like looking into two different portraits of the same picture. "She's dead." She said simply.

Mac's jaw dropped. "How?"

"She wer' on her way upta th'City when a drowsy driver swerved and hit her head on. She wer' goin' relatively slow, but she didn't see it comin' and the du' in the other car was asleep and his foot was asleep..."

"In other words he was speeding and she didn't have a chance?" Jason asked.

"But she felt naw pain." She hoped.

Both men nodded sadly.

"So... Ermmm... Am I excused?" She couldn't help but chuckle to ease the tension. But she did seriously feel like she was in the principals office.

Mac was going to detain her for more questions, but Jason shook his head. "Sure, just don't rile Sonny up too much."

She threw him a wicked grin. "What so eva makes yall think I'd do sumthin' like'at?" She said and then swaggered out of the room as though nothing had happened.

"You going to explain why you wanted me to let her go?" He asked tersely.

"Listen, I know you have questions, but there is only one thing I can think of that explains what just happened."

Mac couldn't help but roll his eyes that time. "And what would that be?" He asked.

"That wasn't Azora that attacked that scum in the holding area."

Mac looked at him queerly. "And who was it? Cybil?"

Jason shook his head. "Have you ever found it difficult to understand Azora?"

He nodded with a laugh. "75% of the time I think I need..."

"An Azora to English translator?"

Mac nodded, but was still confused.

"When she attacked him and I restrained her she was kicking and wailing and demanding to be let go..."

"And your point?"

"My point is that I understood every word that passed her lips."

Mac felt the hairs on the back of his neck perk up. "What did she say?"

"That she wouldn't let him hurt her family anymore, that she would kill him if he ever touched them ever again."

Mac was even more confused. "That's impossible for her to have known him though."

Now it was Jason's turn to feel out of the loop. "That prisoner has a long history of kidnapping, and sexual assault."

"So." Jason asked.

"He was born and raised in and around PC."

Jason groaned. "And she's from Texas." He paused. "What if she was talking about AJ and Michael being family because he works for her and she considers all of her employees as her 'boys'?"

Mac shook his head. "That may be so, but from what you say and what I know, unless we can find out something about...."

"Don't even bother researching Azora, Mac." He warned. Mac looked at him oddly. "Sonny had me look already. And it goes back as far as about 5 yrs ago, but after that it's as though she didn't exist. And what I did find is flimsy, at best, and if I'm not mistaken, some/most of it was falsified."

Mac raised an eyebrow. "And how would you know about that?"

Jason sighed heavily. "Let's just put it this way. Everything we know about Azora Jade is one big fat hairy lie. There is no Azora Jade. There was, but she died. She died when she was 65 yrs old. About ten years ago. Her name, her SSN, her birth date, her everything but her social security checks, and the color of her skin, were passed on to 'Azora Jade' when she came to be, 5 yrs ago. Her prints don't match anyone's, anywhere, from here, to Great Wall of China; believe me, I've checked. No hospital records, that haven't been burned, no school records that haven't been permanently sealed or destroyed, and no work records beyond what she's doing right now and that's because it's hers." He leaned over Mac's now barren desk. "The only thing I could find on her was a five year old murder investigation that was dropped because A) she was too short to be the murderer, B) it was her 'family' and C) she suddenly, inexplicably, and completely disappeared.... Again."

Mac swallowed hard. "Was her entire family killed?" He asked, not liking it one bit.

Jason had walked to the door to leave, but he turned around before leaving. "No, one other person survived."

"Who?"

"No one knows."

Mac shook his head. "Let me guess. They disappeared too."

Jason shook his head no. "Nope, he dropped out of sight after clearing Azora's name."

"Wait, Jason." Jason stopped. "How long have you have had this information?"

"Since a week after she came to town."

"If you've known this, that she might be dangerous, why would you let her near Michael." He asked out of curiosity.

"Simple. I know she didn't do it. That and she protects her own. She doesn't let people she can't protect in her inner circle." He said simply and then shrugged. "And besides that, if we haven't had enough convincing that she can protect herself..." He paused to move his jaw and rub his cheek. "Then I don't know how she survived this long on the run." He sniffed before leaving to go back to the holding area.

There was no doubt in his mind that there was something different about Azora. Something both dangerous and mildly scary, about her. There was a certain hazard element to being associated with her. A certain mystery about her life. Part of him wanted to know so that he could protect Michael. He winced, not that Carly was going to allow him within a New York City block of Michael after his reaction to him. But he still wanted to protect him, more than he had. But another part of him knew that sometimes it was better too, how had Carly put it? Let a sleeping dog lie? This may be a situation where knowing less is more.

He caught up with her near the holding area. The man she had knocked out was gone and Brenda and Alcazar had moved farther down the hall for more privacy. She was standing there in the door way of the holding area her face set, her eyes hooded, and anger radiating off her body like heat from pavement on a balmy summers afternoon.

"I came her' t'day to be the bearer of bad news, Sonny boy." Her words dripped of acid as she made her way towards the cell. "I came her' with incontrovertible proof that you are not the L-rd G-d Almighty. That you do not control things, and that you do not always get yo way."

Sonny looked at her incredulously. "I never claimed to be G-d."

"Pfft. Ya sure? Cause every wher' I go people seem to be unda the mistaken impression that you and the Almighty are like this." She crosses two of her fingers. "But, I know y'ain't. And I can prove it."

"Why don't you just leave, you little worthless skank."

Her head whipped around and she stared daggers at him. "Y'wanna throw around insults? I can play too. You are a smarmy, snaky, holier-than-thou, massive piece of sheeeyot." She seethed through clenched teeth. "You make y'self out to be some great martyr. Always losing for the greata good. Always puttin' others peoples importance in front of y'own. You cry and whine about y'first wife dying in an explosion. Y'whine about AJ hurling Carly down a stair well when everyone, even Carly has admitted that she too had culpabili-tay in that accident. Y'hang men from meat locka's t'get what you want. And yet, her' you are. The last man standing. Always the 'survivor' and nevah the victim." She sighed.

"What's your point!" He demanded.

"M'point?" She sniffed. "Do I need a point?" She asked as she paced the length of the room. "Oh, yes. I come to you tonight, as the bearing us sad tidin's and no cheer. This very night as you sat her' wallowin' in y'own self pity, yo sister was out on the road, on her way t'help Reginald with Leticia."

"Ya see; Reginald and Leticia had left town fer a spell. Leticia was just so upset about lil Mikee being gone like he was. She were guilt ridden. And Carly and Regi convinced her to leave town for a spell to recova. Lil did they know that two day later that the boy that they were so upset about being missin' would be back. And in the midst of a blizzard no less."

"Reginald, being the cordialin' man he be, wanted to bring Leticia back quick, but she was in such hysterics that he was afraid she'd cause dem to have a car wreck on d'way home. So, Courtney, yo sister, AJ's loverly lil wife, volunteered to meet them and bring'em on home." Sonny paled. "Ah, I see ya see wher' this her' story is getting to."

"WHERE IS SHE!!" He barked.

"I don't know! ONLY G-d KNOWS you prig!" She shouted letting out some of her pent up frustration. "You think you run the whole *fuckin'* world. We-e-e-ell ya don't! Ya don't control NOTHING!! Control is an illusion created by those who need to feel as though they are important, hence the ILLUSION of it all!!" Her words silenced Sonny.

"Y'wanna know what happened, well allow me to tell ya. At approximately 2:30 am this mornin yer sister, Courtney Matthews Quartermaine, decided to help out a friend in need and on her way there... God rest her soul," she said making the sign of the cross. "Some mo-ron who was half asleep *plowed* into her killing her instantly!" She told the story unflinchingly, uncaring of Sonny's emotions. He had caused her enough pain.

Sonny sank down to his cot.

"That's right, Sonny Corinthos, 'Master of ALL the *fucking* Universe, couldn't stop his sister from being involved ina head on COLLISON!" She raged at him despite his open sobbing.

"OH FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE! Stop yer blubberin'. No one wants to see a grown man cry!" She leaned against the bars, putting her face in between the bars. "Why should anyone give a fuckk about you when you fail to give a fuck about the people you 'allegedly' love, except fer yo'self of course." She paused, "Gotta look out fer number one after all." It shouldn't have made her so happy but DAMMIT it did. And that was what she was going for.

She stooped down and reached her hand through the bars and pointed at him. "That agony ya feel." She said fighting back tears, after all Courtney had been her friend too. "That, insides feel like they're rotting, gonna die and just shrivel up and blow away like dust, feeling ya got goin' on in your insides right now.... I reckon ya know exactly how Mikee feels right about now, and AJ and Carly. They've gone through hell and back and buddy boy, ya didn't help them one bit." She rose and walked to the door but paused. "Now, if you'll kindly excuse me, I have t'go and assist someone that's not a sorry sack of dog sheeyot cope with the loss of his wife and see to it he don't drown his sorrows in a bottle of Jack." She said dryly before flouncing out. Mac and Jason had heard everything. They were in shock.

"This sucks." He muttered.

Mac looked at him startled. "Don't just STAND there, mate! FOLLOW HER!! And whatever you, for the love of G-d don't let her drive! In her condition she's liable to run some poor pedestrian down!!" Mac ordered, practically SHOVING him out the door.

"But..."

"I'll inform Luis and Brenda that something has come up. Now, for the love of all that is HOLY catch up with her before she plows some unsuspecting bystander down!" The urgency in his voice made Jason double time it down the hall.

(Okay, now I could have SWORN I wrote this scene already, but I think it was just a similar scene. This is what has been holding me up actually, I've gone back and had to scan all 9 chapters to make sure I didn't repeat myself. But again, this could be a fluke, and this could be something I've already written. But here it goes anyhow)

Kristina held Michael close as she rocked in the rocking chair. He was getting better, but it would be a hard and laborious road ahead of him. She was weak from it all. Angel's didn't need sleep, but their energy was zapped by too much use, and as a novice Angel she had used more power in the last two and a half months than some Angels used ever.... EVER. She sighed breaking the quiet contentment that they had been sharing as they had often done during his captivity.

His head was resting against her shoulder, his good arm around her neck, his fingers resting on the nape of her neck and shoulder, his fingers were playing with the streak of white he had in a round about way put in her hair.

She started humming a song in his ear. When she stopped he looked at her in awe. "Is this for really the last I'll ever see my Angel again?" He asked reluctantly. She smiled. Their friendship was like no other and even the Powers That Be, could see it.

"No, this isn't the 'for really last time' you'll ever see me, because I'll always be with you." His eyes brightened. "I'll be right here," she said pointing to his heart.

Michael moaned. "But I wants you to stay wit me forevers!!"

She shook her head and nuzzled carrot top with her nose. "I wish I could say with you forever, too, but there are others in this town that I love and they need my protection now."

"Oh," he said averting his eyes, and feeling ashamed. "I guess I's bein' selfish, aren't I?" He whispered sadly.

She lifted his chin with her index finger and made his eyes look into hers. The same shade of brown looking into the same shade of brown, she thought ironically. "No, Michael, you're being human, that's all you're being. You wouldn't intentionally keep me away from the others. And I know that, you just want someone with you to keep all the scary things at bay, that's not selfish Michael, that's human. Everyone wants someone to hold their hand and comfort them when their scared and you deserve that. But," he groaned, he hated the word 'but', "you already have that. You have a whole host of people just waiting to be at your side. You do realize that don't you?"

He nodded, understandingly, he thought he understood at least, and that's all she could ask. "You mean like AJ and momma." Kristina nodded. Michael thought long and hard before asking a question that caused Kristina to stop rocking. "Why couldn't AJ have been my daddy?" He asked softly, and so innocently, completely oblivious to what he had just said.

Kristina stopped rocking abruptly. "Uhh..."she had to think about this. She didn't want to say anything wrong, so she had to choose her words carefully. It was a few seconds before she came up with the perfect answer. "Michael, when you wake up, I want to look into the eyes of the man that's holding you, I want you too look deep into his eyes and I want you to ask him that very question."

Michael scrunched his forehead. "But AJ is the one holding me." Kristina nodded.

"One day you'll understand."

With his other hand (the one unattached to her hair) he rubbed his forehead and yawned. "You sure it won't makes him not like Mikee no more?" It was one of his greatest fears, second only to his mommy not loving like she did before.

She smiled sincerely. "Yes I'm sure, because you can't change the way he looks at you." The way a father looks at his child. she finished to herself.

He locked eyes with her and could tell just by the sincerity he saw there that the words she spoke were the truth. He sighed again laying his head against her shoulder. They both looked off into the distance where there was a whirl pool that they could look into and see AJ, Carly on the hospital bed, holding Michael as they slept.

"I feel dirty," he whispered forlornly looking at his reflection's greasy icky hair and dirty icky skin. He always looked dirty, but with Kristina he was always clean, his skin wasn't sticky and scratchy and ooowey, like it was when he was awake, with her.

"Soon, baby, you'll be clean soon." She cooed as he let go of some of the tension in his body. He yawned again, but tried to cover it with a cough. "You need sleep, right now though."

"But I is asleepin!" He retorted sleepily.

"Your entire body needs to rest, Mikee, now close your eyes..."

"But da dweams...."

"No more bad dreams, remember, not with your hero near by..." He still looked unconvinced. She sighed. "If you have a bad dream, he'll be there to protect you, like the other times, remember?" He reluctantly complied, "relax, and fall all the way asleep."

He shyly opened one eye. "When I need you, will I still see you in my head?" He asked meekly.

"Of course, I'll always be with you, no matter what happens Michael, I'm going to be your friend forever and for always."

"For always," he sighed contentedly as he drifted off to sleep.

He walked down the corridor holding a silver platter that contained four syringes, each syringe held a different experimental drug that had the combined affect of making whoever took the drugs together feel as though their veins were on fire, as though lava were flowing through their arteries. He smiled wickedly as he stopped at the wooden door, he had missed his little guinea pig. But they were going to catch up soon, he just had to take care of a little business before hand.

One of the guards answered after he knocked. "How long has he been asleep?" He asked tersely.

"An hour sir. We've done as you asked and woken him up once he's slept on hour and then beaten him for three hours before allowing him to go back to sleep and then repeating that process over and over."

He smirked, pleased. "Good, good." He praised, handing him the tray. "But this time, however, instead of a beating, I want you to inject him with these vials and then rub the injection site, but make sure he's restrained, I don't want him hurting himself." He sniggered, as though he cared if the bastard hurt himself. He was going to die eventually, but not before he exacted his revenge. The man went to take the platter from him but he jerked it away. The man looked at him perplexed. He looked into his employees straight on. "And I don't want you to stop rubbing until he starts screaming."

When the other man nodded he cackled. He was enjoying their second foray into experimental drugs as much, if not more, than he had the first time around.

The guard cleared his throat. "Dr. Cole..."

Before he could finish his name Coleman slammed him against the wall with his fore arm against his Adams apple.

"What the fuck did I tell you about saying my name?" He seethed.

"Not to mention in front of the kid, cause he might hear it." He choked out, as his face turned red.

"And don't forget that." He said and then released his hold. As he began to walk away he stopped and abruptly and turned to the man. "Oh, and don't forget the muzzle." He added as the guard nodded and ducked back into the room.

Coleman stood there until the pleasant strains of Zander's muffled screams reached his ears. Then and only then, did he walk away, whispering, "Soon, my dear, you too will be back where you belong."

He reached his office and noticed that the door was ajar. He hesitated before opening the door and peaking in to see if anything was amiss. Cautiously he entered, as he never knew when one of his enemy's might try to sneak up on him.

As he closed the door his high backed chair swiveled around and when he turned back around he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Aww.... Dr. Radcliff, did I scawe you?" She asked, babying him.

"Jeezus H. Christ!" He exclaimed, holding his chest. "What the fuck do you want!?" He demanded.

She narrowed her eyes. "I want to know when you plan on getting that girl back." She hissed.

"SOON! Dammit, SOON! But you've got to stop doing this!!"

"What?" She asked bemusedly, "Startling you or making demands?"

"BOTH! Dammit Petra! You'll get your play thing soon enough!"

"Only after you're done with him." She pouted.

"What-EVER!"

"Whatever?!" She threw her flaxen blond hair over her shoulder in a huff. "You promised me time to *break* him! And from the looks of it it's already done!!"

He looked at her as though she were daft. "Petra, I'm going to let you break him. He's not broken. He's defeated, yes. Broken?" He sniffed flippantly. "Not likely. I'm just bringing him back to the level I had him before I let him loose."

"...and.."

"And, you'll have you're play thing once you've delivered that witchy sister of his to me."

She smiled wickedly, "And when oh wicked brother o-mine, shall I retrieve the little wench for you?" She asked draping her arms around his shoulders and smiling at him playfully.

"The docks, she hangs out there a lot. Her and her nit wit of a brother would sit out there for hours in silence not realizing what they were." He chuckled darkly. "Moron, I tell you Petra, we raised MORONS and let them loose in polite society!" She chuckled at this. "But we get what we want, don't we sister dear?"

"And what do you want?" She asked her eyes sparkling mischievously.

"I want to repay that bastard brother of ours for all the things he's taken from us." Her eyes dimmed and her smile faltered.

"You sure he won't know it's us?"

Coleman laughed at her. "That would require our brother to know something, ANYTHING!" He laughed. "The only one that could possibly spoil this for us is Faithy-Poo, and she and Louie haven't been on speaking terms since the first time she tried to tell him about the twins." They both laughed at the memory of Faith trying to clear her conscience of all the wrong doings partially imparted by her herself, never physical, but she did bandage them up only to send them back into the "torture chamber" that was their life.

"If Luis knew that she was telling the truth... If he could get beyond his grief and see what's looking him right smack dab in the face..."

Coleman pushed Petra away forcefully. "He won't!" He forced out. "He didn't figure it out the first time and he WON'T figure it out the second time." His eyes glazed over madly. "We're going to repeat history, without even having to displace it on anyone." He chortled.

Petra shook ofh her anger at him and joined him in his chuckle. "You know, you were to kind to that girl," she pointed out walking around the room and looking at all the doctor books and medical things he had. "But it was wise to use her as leverage over the boy... But what will you use this time until I can get her?"

Coleman sat behind his desk and put up his feet. "I'm going to use every person he loves to keep him in line. If he acts out, one dies, and the kicker is, I'll just pick a name off the top of my head." He marveled at his own plan.

"And explain to me why you think the girl will just fall upon seeing me?" She asked curiously.

He sighed heavily. He ALWAYS had to explain it to her a zillion times before she got it. "I had them for 13 yrs dammit. Petra, I have them programmed to my liking. Hell, they don't even remember each other and they WORK together." He pointed out as he toyed with a cigar looking at it, but not lighting it.

"You never got the method to my madness back then did you?" She looked at him as though she were upset about his thinking so little of her. "When did I let her see him?"

She thought, "After you punished him?"

"Almost, after or during, but never before." She still didn't understand. He sighed heavily. "When a child connects something traumatic to an event they block out the event." Still nothing, she was the clich�d blonde with no brain. "What I did was connect her knowing him to the trauma of his beatings, in her mind, the moment that .... You know... That last time she saw him, you remember what I did." Petra nodded, remembering all to well what little Justice had walked in on. "Well, that was the clincher, she blocked out everything that involved Coni, and me." He chuckled humorously, "And you as well, and the moment she sees you she'll have the same reaction Zander had."

"Massive headache and fainting?" She asked dryly.

He nodded. "Since she hasn't seen either one of us her reaction will be the same."

"And what if it isn't?"

He glared at her hard. "It will be the same Petra!" He barked.

"You hope..." She muttered turning her back to him. And she hoped too. Because if it didn't work and he had to physically down Justice, er.... Whatever her name was now-a-days, then G-d help her, because she had seen the reports on her and she was a strong little thing, and tempestuous as all get out.

"I'll try tomorrow, then."

"Why not today?" He whined.

"Because, today, well, I would rather wait a day or two before doing it. If she figures out Zander's gone she'll be on guard. Give it a few days and she might not be expecting it quite as much." She explained as she pulled out a six inch syringe and examined it. "And if all else fails, I could always use this on her." She giggled.

Coleman rolled his eyes. That was his sister, all she thought about was sex, sex, revenge and sex. And she wonders why I'm reluctant to let her have Coni so soon. He's not weak enough, and she's just too damned horny.

TBC.

chapter 11

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