Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 10:09:03 -0700 From: RC in Sacramento Subject: Becka the Beast, Chapter 16 This is a work of fiction from a first time author. It depicts acts of sex and sexuality between two teenage females. If such content disturbs you, or you are under 18, get out and stay out. As always, this story can only be reproduced by consent of the author. Becka the Beast by Sacwriter Chapter 16*** When Gia came home from school she found Becka in the living room, watching TV and reading a book. Gia recognized it as one from her father's collection of mysteries, and she could see that the other girl was already almost halfway through it. Good, it looked like she and Oso had something in common after all. "Hey, you," she said, dropping down on the couch next to Becka. She was immediately sorry she did when she saw the other girl wince in pain, but wisely decided not to say anything. Jessie had taken her aside that morning and explained about Becka's feelings of being smothered, so Gia had decided to stop treating her like she was made of glass. Judging from the wave of guilt she just felt, it wasn't going to be easy. "Hey yourself," Becka answered, putting down her book. "Your Dad's in his study, said he had to do bills. Nobody else is home yet, either." "Hmmm, you mean we're all alone?" she asked, grinning. "Yup, just you and me," Becka replied, also grinning. She snaked her hand behind the smaller girl's head and pulled her towards her, their lips meeting hungrily. Their tongues twined, dancing first in one mouth and then in the other, sending familiar ripples of longing telegraphing through their bodies. Gia found herself pulled onto Becka's lap, forgetting the other girl's injuries, forgetting everything but how good it felt to be in her arms. For a while time stood still, only to be broken when Gia shifted her weight and brought a gasp of pain from her lover. "Ohmygod, Becka I'm so sorry!" she cried, as she hastily scrambled off of the other girl's lap. But as she stood up, Becka's hand reached out and grabbed hers, stopping her from pulling away. "You better not be sorry," Becka growled, wincing a little as she pulled Gia back into her arms. "Not after that kiss. Baby I'm fine, I won't break. And what you do to me is medicine. But I guess maybe we better tone it down some, what with your Dad being here and all. C'mon, you can tell me how your day was. Did you get my homework?" Gia took a seat at the other end of the couch, and for the next half hour they just sat and talked, filling each other in on what had happened while they were apart. Becka was particularly interested in the reaction of their friends at school to what had happened. At her insistence, Gia had told Sammie, Kelly and Justine all about her past, and about the events that had led up to her stay in the hospital. She had told Gia to leave out nothing, except for the nature of their relationship, and Gia had done just that. "No more lies, Gia," the older girl had said. "No more secrets. It was all those damned secrets that really hurt me. If I hadn't been so ashamed of people finding out what Ralph did to me, I could have gotten help years ago. I'm not going to be ashamed of it anymore." So Gia had told their three friends the whole story, over lunch in the school cafeteria. The response had been everything she could have hoped for. They had listened in wide eyed wonder to the tale, their meals growing cold and forgotten before them. They had been sympathetic about her mother's death, and shocked when told about the long standing abuse. Becky had actually cheered when Gia related how she had cornered Becka in the woods and told her the truth about her parents, while Justine had cried openly when she told the horrified trio about the rape and subsequent rescue from Ralph's house. At the end, Gia pulled out a folded sheet of construction paper from her book bag and handed it over to Becka. "Sammie caught me outside after school and gave me this to give to you. She said that they didn't have time to shop for a get well card yet, so Kelly made this in art class and they all signed it." Becka looked at the front of the handmade card, and saw that three smiling cartoon faces had been drawn there. The hair styles and colors made them easily recognizable as Kelly and the rest of the Gap Mafia. It looked like something that belonged on a refrigerator door. Inside she read, "We Love You, We Miss You, Get Well Soon, Becka." They had all signed it at the bottom. She noticed that Justine had dotted her 'i' with a little heart. "Wow", she murmured, touched by the card despite herself. "I guess all that accessorizing doesn't rot your brain after all." "Yeah, Yuppies are human after all. Who would have guessed? Hey, that's not the strangest part, though. Sammie knows all about me and you. About us being gay, I mean." Becka gaped at the other girl. "She knows? How did she find out? Did you tell her?" "No, of course not, she just figured it out all by herself. She says not to worry, she won't tell anybody about us, and that Kelly and Justine will never figure it out in a million years. And get this, she says she thinks it's romantic!" "Get out of here!" Becka squealed, laughing. "I'm serious! I think she'd like to see us go public and like date or something. Walk around holding hands, or maybe make out in the hallways like the straight people do. Hey, maybe we can go to the prom together! We could wear matching gowns." "No way! We'd look like somebody's bridesmaids. Hey, maybe I could rent a tux." "Uh uh, then you'd want to lead." The joking went on for a little while longer, getting sillier, ending with both participants breaking down into a spontaneous giggle fit. Eventually Gia asked Becka how her day went, which let to the news about her mother's portrait. Gia insisted on seeing it right away, and she and Becka quickly moved upstairs to their room. * * * "Oh wow, Becka, I can see you in her face! You've got like your Dad's hair and eyes and that dimple, but that's your nose and mouth right here. Wow, she looks so sad, though." "Yeah, that's how I remember her too, always sad. Remember, she has living with Ralph too. I guess all the stuff he did to me, he must've been doing to her first. But I'm glad I got this back. That was just so great of your Dad, getting that back for me. "But you know, I wish he had found your Mom's bracelet, too. I still can't believe that you just threw it away like that." Gia shrugged. "It was worth it. I got you out of there, and that's what was important. Besides, my Mom would have approved." Becka looked over to Gia's desk, and the family pictures there. She reached out and took the one of Lupe Cameron, staring at the smiling face. Then she held the picture next to the one of her mother. "Do you think they would have liked each other, Gia? Do you think if maybe they had known each other, they would have been friends or something?" "I don't know, Becka. Probably. Your Mom sounds like she was a pretty good person. I think my Mom would have liked her." "Do you think she would have liked me?" Gia put her arm around the other girl's shoulder and hugged her tight. "She would have loved you, little girl. No doubt about it." They stayed that way for a while, in companionable silence, enjoying that wordless communication that they had discovered. It was Becka who first broke the contact, straightening up with a cracking of tendons. "Oh, man, I think I maybe overdid it today. I'm pretty stiff right now." She stretched her arms overhead and twisted her neck, trying to get all of the kinks out of her abused body. "We got a couple of hours before dinner. You want to go for a soak in the spa?" "Sounds great! But you're Dad's here, remember? And I don't have a swimsuit." "That's okay, you can borrow one of mine. C'mon." It turned out to be easier said than done, Becka was so much larger than the other girl that none of her suits would fit. They finally found a bikini that almost did, a white one with tiny red polka dots. Becka could barely fasten the ties around her hips, and the top piece seemed to be fighting a losing battle with the big girl's heavy breasts. She modeled the bikini in front of the mirror, looking at the result dubiously. "I dunno, Gia, it looks like I'm going to pop out of this thing at any second. What do you think? Gia?" Becka turned around, and found the other girl staring at her wide eyed, a look of raw desire plainly on her face. Becka grinned, than snapped her fingers a couple of times to get her lover's attention. "Yo, Earth to Gia, I need some advise over here. So what do you think about the suit, huh? Do you think it looks okay?" "Mmmm, I think it looks like gift wrapped sex! No, you're right, you can't go down there like this, Daddy would have a coronary. He's only human. Here, let me get you a T to cover that." Gia produced one of the T shirts she had stolen from her brothers and now used as a nightgown, and helped Becka put it on over the too small suit. The process took twice as long as it should have, as her hands insisted on roaming over the bigger girl's bountiful curves. With a lot of giggling they finally managed to get the T on, and Gia immediately declared it demure enough to spare her father's heart from too much strain. She quickly changed into a suit of her own, grabbed a couple of towels from the bathroom, and then led the other girl down the steps and out to the family spa. * * * An hour and a half later, Gia and Becka were back in dry clothes and sitting out on the patio with Gia's brothers, waiting for Phil to call them in to dinner. It was a relaxed atmosphere, and Becka couldn't remember ever feeling so comfortable in her entire life. She was fascinated by the easy but animated style of the conversation between the siblings, the way that they could tease and dig at each other without either giving offense, or taking it. At one point Gia got into an argument with George, and in the middle of it walked over to him and punched him in the arm. George responded by pulling her onto his lap and tickling her until she apologized, at which point he hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. Then Gia put her arms around his shoulders and responded in kind. She stayed there like that, perfectly at home in his arms for the next several minutes, before retaking her seat beside the other girl. Becka had certainly never seen behavior like that at Ralph's place! Becka wondered wistfully if she would ever be able to do that. To be so comfortable with these young men that she could say whatever she felt, express herself however openly, and not have to worry about how they would react. To be so sure of their love that she would never fear it would be taken away. But how could they ever feel that way about such a total stranger, a dirty kid from such a twisted background? How could they ever love the girl who had turned their sister into a lesbian? Becka felt a pain in her heart like a sharp sliver of glass, as she realized how very much she wanted them to love her, and how unlikely it was that they ever would. The front doorbell rang, and since Johnny was the closest he went to answer it. He was gone for a long time, and when he returned he had a sober look on his face. "Becka, Dad wants to see you and Gia in the living room. Dave Caruso is here, and he's got some stuff to talk to you about." Becka glanced at Gia, and saw the look in her eyes. She reached out and grabbed the other girl's hand and gave it a squeeze, telling her everything was okay. When she rose Gia stood up too, and walked along with her back into the big house. Behind her she felt the presence of the three young men, following along silently in their wake. For the first time Becka experienced the same sense of security that Gia must feel, knowing that all of that strength was always behind her. Family could be a pretty nice thing to have around. * * * Caruso and Phil were seated in the living room, but stood up when the girls arrived. Caruso raised his eyebrow at the parade of Camerons that followed behind the girl he had come to see, but he wisely decided to ignore them. He shook Becka's hand and nodded to Gia, and took his seat after they had sat down first. George, Bobby and Johnny arranged themselves around the room and found their own places to sit. "Becka, it's good to see you out of the hospital. You're looking good. I'm guessing these guys have been treating you well?" "Yeah, Gia and her family have been real nice to me. Mr. Cameron says that they're trying to get them to let me stay here now. Are you here to talk about that? Are you gonna let me stay?" Caruso hesitated, not sure how to answer that. The young girl's voice had been carefully neutral, but he knew how important that question had to be to her. He was saved from answering by Phil speaking up. "Becka, that's not really a police matter, it's between us and Social Services. Dave has nothing to do with it. Don't you worry, though, nobody's taking you away from us, alright?" Becka flashed him a quick smile, but lost it when she turned back to Caruso. Her expression held the seriousness of someone far older than the teenager she should have been, and right there the detective decided to treat her as an adult. She had been through enough, and had earned that right. "Becka, the reason I'm here is to bring you up to date on the case against Ralph Danning, and against his associates who abused you. I also need you to look at some photos and tell me if you've ever seen any of the people in them before. We're doing this to try and positively identify not only the men who hurt you, but also any business associates of Ralph's that you might have seen. Do you think you're up to that?" "Yeah, I think so. But first I've got a question. Is Ralph really going to jail?" "Oh yeah, Ralph is definitely going to jail. It's not just a matter of yours and Gia's testimony, it's also a matter of the physical evidence. Hell, we've even got him admitting to assaulting you and pandering to his friends on tape! Believe me, Becka, not even Perry Mason could get this asshole off." "Ah-HMMM!" Phil cleared his throat loudly, glaring pointedly at the policeman. Caruso winced, looking contrite. "Sorry girls, my bad," he muttered. Gia nodded, not the least bit offended by the profanity, but Becka had a puzzled frown. What was this guy apologizing for? And who the hell was Perry Mason? Caruso took out his tape recorder and turned it on, and then brought out a manila file folder and pulled a stack of photographs from it, mostly mug shots. Becka looked at them, and unhesitatingly selected six out of the pile of more than thirty. She laid them out on the coffee table like cards, then pointed at each one in turn as she named them. "That's Mojo, Mikey, Ponyboy and Clapper. I don't know who these other two guys are, not their names I mean, but they were some sort of big shots that came by a couple of times. They're not locals, I know that, but they made Ralph really nervous." "Okay, Becka, and are you positive of your identification of these men?" Becka winced when she answered. "Yeah, I am. The circumstances makes it pretty hard to forget." "And you did have sexual relations with each of these men? I'm sorry, Becka, but we have to specifically ask these questions." "Yeah, I know. And it's true, each one of these guys had sex on me." "And why did you have sex with these men, Becka?" "Because Ralph Danning made me." "For the record, Miss Jackson has just identified Martin 'Mojo' Carter, Michael Pintauro, Harry 'Ponyboy' Huffman, and Ronald 'Clapper' Gustav as her primary long time assailants. She has also identified Peter and Benjamin Gallego. Miss Jackson, could you tell me if either of these last two men had any particular identifying marks on their bodies? Birthmarks, scars, tattoos, that sort of thing?" "Yeah. Yeah, this guy over here, the one with the sideburns? He had a tattoo of a snake wrapped around his waist, you know, like a belt or something. But it's head was right here, on his hip, and it had - wait a minute, give me some paper and I'll draw it, okay?" Caruso raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything, he just passed over the picture of Benjamin Gallego and a ballpoint pen. With swift, sure strokes Becka sketched on the back of the mug shot two outlines of a man's torso, one face on and the other from the left profile. Over these she drew the image of a snake tattoo, looped completely around the man's body. The head hung down over the left hip, and in its jaws was the body of a black bird. For such a quick drawing the detail was incredible. The young blonde woman had even managed to capture the patterns of the snakes scales. The sight of it seemed to excite the LAPD detective. He made sure that Becka signed and dated her work, and then described it for the benefit of the tape. Everyone else in the room kept silent until Caruso had turned the machine off, and then Phil spoke for the whole family. "Dave, you look like you just won the lotto. So give, tell us who these guys are." "You're right, Phil, I did just win the lottery! The Gallego brothers are drug smugglers who work out of Seattle, and they're considered by the feds to be some serious players. The DEA and our own Narcotics boys have been sure they had a pipeline down here for years, but they've never been able to find it. And now it looks like Ralph Danning and his buddies are that pipeline. Becka's identification of the Gallegos proves it." "Huh. Okay, so just how serious are these guys? Is Becka in any danger?" "Their shouldn't be any danger at all, Phil. We busted Danning for rape and assault, not drugs. The same thing with all of his buddies. The Gallegos won't take these rape charges seriously. "Look, we can charge all of them with assaulting Becka, and we can make it stick, especially with Danning and his losers. That tape we made was pure gold. But these guys all knew Becka and had physical access to her. There's no proof that the Gallegos even know Ralph, or have ever been over to his place. We can and will charge them with statutory rape, but without corroborating evidence about a connection between them and Becka, there's no way we can make such a charge stick. If they don't know this, their lawyers will. They won't try to hurt Becka, Phil, because they don't think she's a danger to them." "Yeah, that's good," said George, his voice taking on an ominous rumble, like rocks in a clothes dryer. "But now you're saying that these guys are going to get away with it. That's not right, Dave." An angry mutter from the other corners of the room echoed George's point. But Dave Caruso was grinning again. He waved the sketch of the tattoo that Becka had drawn, and laid it out on the table. "Don't go putting words in my mouth, George. I said without corroborating evidence we couldn't make it stick. But this drawing of Becka's is a genuine smoking gun. Here, take a look." From the file folder Caruso took another paper, and laid it next to the one of the tattoo. It was a drawing made by a different artist, but it was obviously of the same subject. In much more detail than Becka's, it showed the exact same snake tattoo, but from four different angles that illustrated the entire snake. The new picture gave the impression of a technical illustration. "The DEA got this sketch from the files of the tattoo artist in Seattle who put the thing on Benjamin Gallego. This proves that not only has Becka seen this guy, but she's seen him bare assed naked, too. And that proves the rape charge. "This also proves the connection between Danning and the Gallegos, and after that it'll be a piece of cake to make the connection to the drugs. Phil, this evidence is so strong I doubt we'll even have to have Becka testify. These guys are going down, you can take my word on it." The mood in the living room suddenly seemed to lighten, and there was a lot of grinning all around. Johnny and George even high fived each other. Gia squeezed Becka's hand, and received a warm smile in return. It was Phil who finally got the conversation back on track. "So what about the drug charges, Dave? How is that case going?" "Oh, a few interesting twists. For instance, one of our guys was taking a look at Danning's finances, and got a hold of the deed to his house. And it turns out that it's not his house after all. The property legally belongs to someone else." "Oh yeah? So who's the real owner?" "Miss Becka Marie Jackson." There was a heavy silence in the room, as everyone seemed to blink. Then Gia squealed with delight and hugged the other girl. "Becka, you own a house! You own a house!" The next few minutes were filled with the excited gabbling of the rest of the family, as everybody contemplated Becka's good fortune. But nobody seemed to notice that Becka herself wasn't too happy with the news. She finally freed herself from Gia's grip and stood up, raising her voice to be heard. "Dammit, I don't want it!" * * * The room froze again, this time in shocked incomprehension. Even Detective Caruso seemed caught by surprise, as everyone stared at the blonde haired girl who stood with rigid lines before them. Gia saw the look on her lover's face, and reached out a tentative hand. "Becka...?" she said, softly. "Gia, I don't want anything to do with that place. I lived there all my life, and nothing good ever happened to me there. Nothing! Not even when my Mom was alive. To me it's just a big box full of bad memories. Give it to someone else, or burn it down, it's all the same to me. But I don't want it." Gia was stunned, she didn't know how to react to Becka's declaration. She turned pleading eyes to her father, who walked over to Becka and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Becka, the house is yours, and you can do anything you want with it. But I think you should think about something before you get out the gasoline and matches, okay? "That house was originally bought by your parents. They paid for it, not Ralph, and I'm sure they would want you to profit from it. So I say sell the place, keep the money, and maybe use it to go to college. I think your parents would have wanted that." "Yeah, that's right, Becka," Gia added. "You're Dad started that college fund when you were born. He wanted you to go. Hey, you can use it to go to art school." Becka nodded slowly, thinking about what Gia had said. Her dream, to be a real artist, and it was all possible now. It made sense, it felt right, that her parents would want this for her. She drew in a deep breath, then sat back down next to Gia. So maybe there could be some good come out of that house of horrors after all. "Okay, I'll do that. I'll sell the house. But how did this happen? I mean, how come it's in my name, and not in Ralph's?" Caruso frowned. "Actually, we think there might be a lot of stuff out there in your name. Becka, did Ralph ever have you sign any papers? Official looking documents, bills of sale, things like that?" "Umm, yeah, sometimes. He wouldn't let me read them or anything, he'd just give me a pen and tell me where to sign it, that's all. I remember one of them said 'State of Nevada' at the top. And there was one thing I got a look at, I think it had something to do with a storage place, but I can't remember which one. Why, what does all that mean?" "It confirms a theory of ours, I think. We've been looking for traces of the Gallegos' pipeline, and there haven't been any. Neither of them owns property in California or any state other than Washington, and neither do any of the people who work for them, including Ralph and his gang. But they need someplace large and private where they can process their drugs, and several places where they can store and distribute them. So what I think has happened is, I think they bought all of this property and registered it in your name, and that's why we've never been able to find it. We heard this afternoon that the DEA office in Carson City has already found a ranch house registered to you, and there's probably more that we just haven't found yet." "Hey, that means that Becka might own a whole lot of other property, right? She might really be rich!" Johnny spoke up excitedly. But Caruso only shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not. They may be in her name, but they were obviously purchased by someone else, and for illegal purposes. When we bust these guys, under the RICO laws they'll probably be confiscated by the Feds. But since the house here was bought by Becka's parents way before Danning ever showed up, Becka should still have free and clear title to it." Caruso paused, and then added, "But this does offer us an interesting opportunity." From his seat on the back of the couch, Bobby spoke up for the first time. "Search warrants?" he asked. Caruso grinned. "That's right, search warrants. If as we suspect there are multiple properties that have been registered under Becka's name, than she can give us permission to search them at any time. No warrants necessary. "Here's the plan. We research all property listings in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington for anything under Becka's name. We arrest Danning's crew and the Gallegos on the rape charges, which as I said, the Gallegos won't be worried about. But as soon as they walk into that courtroom we raid all the properties at the same time, so nobody gets warned and they don't have time to destroy any of the evidence. And when the Gallegos finally walk out of that courtroom, there'll be some Federal agents with handcuffs waiting to take them to their new home." "Smart," Bobby said, nodding. "But there's one problem, isn't there? Becka is still a minor, so she can't give you permission to search those places, can she?" "That's right, she can't. Only her legal guardian can do that." "Ralph Danning." "Yeah, Ralph Danning." Phil spoke up, his voice dropping, becoming cold enough to litter the carper with frost. "Who is the same guy under arrest for raping her." "That's right. But Becka is here, and you guys have temporary custody of her. And you've applied to become her legal guardian." Phil frowned, thinking. "So if the Feds want Becka's permission to search her property ..." "Then they have to get Social Services to let us have Becka!" Gia piped in excitedly. Caruso was grinning, and he looked straight at Becka when he replied. "Both the DEA and our people will be talking to Social Services in the morning, trying to expedite the matter. With a little luck, Becka, the Camerons will officially become your foster family sometime next week." Becka was stunned, it took a while for the implications of Caruso's words to truly sink in. When it did her eyes began to burn, and her chest felt like it was swelling. She somehow found herself on her feet and the center of attention of a lot of people who seemed to want to hug her and kiss her. And as the tears ran down her face, she was hugging and kissing them back, too. Yeah, family definitely was nice to have around. * * * Sometime during the impromptu party that followed, Phil pulled Caruso aside and had a few private words for him. The tough little cop looked up in surprise, but then nodded in agreement. Before they went back to the others they shook hands, as if sealing a bargain. (continued)