Shed Productions made the original Bad Girl element of the characters, wrote the stories, and have full copyright to them. I am using these characters simply for non-profit, entertainment value. Likewise I am giving credits to G F Newman who wrote the Judge John Deed copyrighted characters and storylines via BBC Productions in this cross over fiction and similarly to Patricia Cornwall for borrowing characters from her Kay Scarpetta.

I am happy to accept comment, but am not looking for any criticism (negative or positive) either publicly or privately--only general encouragement

Scene One


The bright spring weather cast sharp shadows on the stiff armed trees and the budding daffodils on that special April morning. It blew gentle breezes that didn’t have that bitter chill of winter but carried that suggestion of life that was later to blossom. Just a few fluffy white clouds were carried along high overhead, slowly moving their way across the sky like slow moving galleons. The sun shone down on the world bestowing perfect equality of favours. It glanced in through the large side window of Helen’s flat, through the trim lace curtains of the digs where John and Monty slept the alcohol fuelled sleep of the righteous and illuminated the modest modern semi detached house where Claire and Peter slept. It did not need to wake up the Julies in their narrow garret window in their cell in G Wing cell as the clang of the opening door woke them up already. It worked in vain to rouse the alcohol sodden Fenner, crashed out asleep in his cheap boarding house, having obliterated his consciousness at Wade putting one over him. Only little children had that innocent desire to explore outside and see what the bright new morning had to offer. Those who had laboured hard during the week sympathized in spirit but needed that time to recuperate, to let rest heal the system. Those who wished to opt out of the world missed the spirit that was offered to their disadvantage and no remission for good behaviour. It was highly fitting weather when life had renewed itself and could start out afresh.

By contrast, Nikki laboured in dark spaces, hidden from the world. The only light that was above her was a scanty row of very dim bulbs that seemed designed to show the futility of illumination. It was only just enough to show her where to place her feet. Presently, she could see a line of grim, contrasting rough painted vertical parallel bars block her way forward. Automatically, she felt inside her jeans pocket but it dismayed her to reach for her keys and they weren’t there. There was something obviously wrong, wasn’t there. Surely that wasn’t just? Nikki sighed and told herself to be practical about things. The place was totally deserted with no one in sight. In a bored fashion, she leant against the wall and her eyes peered in both directions but there wasn’t a sign of anyone around, especially as the more distant view receded into fuzzy obscurity. She shook the bars to test them but, as expected, they were solid. About the only thing working in this dump, she sniffed sardonically.

It’s typical, she reasoned, when you actually want a screw, there’s no one in sight. She resolved take matters in her own hands as she normally did and to walk back to where she had come from, wherever that was. At least the lights, such as they were, gave as much illumination traveling this way. She was out on her own but hadn’t she been on her own all her life. At least she wasn’t lonely, her nature being inclined that way.

As she strolled casually along, she saw the shape of a payphone that was clamped to the wall. She smiled at the sight of it and, as she drew closer to it, she automatically felt for her jeans back pocket for the usual phone card. She wasn’t really sure just whom she was going to call but she needed contact with the outside world. She ruminated on just who would be trusted to provide the good sense that would be welcome to her. Helen was an obvious choice, her friend and lover but if she was engaged, she reflected that she was on good terms with Claire Walker, who wasn’t just Helen’s friend. If that didn’t work, Jo’s warm smile, unpretentious friendliness and solid knowledge of the territory that was foreign for ability to see through
She could even go to the top and phone John Deed. He belonged to the profession that she’s once dismissed as ‘pricks in wigs’ but that was long ago. She had established communication with him and even that spark of intimate friendship. Surely one of them would give her the directions to get out of this hole. It was only when she picked up the phone when discovered that the numbers that should have shown up even in this lousy light weren’t there. There was no dialing tone either.
“Bloody phone,” Nikki swore shortly and carried on her way. The corridor seemed endless and the interminable gloom was starting to strain her eyes. On and on, her trainers took her ever onwards. The suspicion was starting to gather in her mind, which solidified as the view became clearer of a second set of bars ahead. As she got to them, she gave way to a flash of anger and shook the bars impotently. The reverberating sound of clanking metal echoed and reechoed down the corridor and into nothingness. It was only a few minutes later that the faint shouting could be heard, immeasurably far away.

She surprised herself in becoming almost unnaturally calm, as if this creepy gothic landscape could have no sway over her moods or her reasoning. She spotted a narrow side alley and decided to pursue this line of escape and see where it took her. She could see that the dim line of lights suddenly stopped dead after a while. Her heart started to sink as the way forward faded into darkness as she got to what must be the end. However, when she edged her feet forwards to what must be a dead end, she spotted a pinhole of bright light. This gave her some illusion that she should not lose hope but the almost total blackness made it more and more impossible. The possibility of freedom and her present state of helpless imprisonment put an unbearable strain on her. It was only out of sheer desperate inspiration that she fumbled inside her jeans pocket and fished out a cigarette lighter. It made her smile ironically that she had the lighter but no cigarettes. She struck at the flint and the glow from it was positive illumination to her light starved eyes. However, it was enough to show her what looked like a light switch and that at the end of the tunnel was an ordinary looking door fastened by a padlock through the hasp. What she did notice was what looked like a light switch right in the corner so it wouldn’t be noticed. Sighing with faint hope, her left hand idly flicked the switch. Nothing else worked in this dump so why shouldn’t this, she thought with cynical lack of faith. To her total surprise, illumination dawned over her head, nothing substantial by ordinary standards but riches from heaven by comparison. What delighted her even more was the fact that the door didn’t look particularly sturdy and, best of all, a heavy sledgehammer was leaning against the corner. It invited her to lay her hands on it, which she did, and felt the weight of it.
“You can’t go in there, Wade. This is government authorized property, only for the use of its employees,” hailed that hated voice from Bodybag out of nowhere. The dim lighting outside the illuminated area of the lamp over her head was thrown into total blackness by contrast so that Bodybag’s voice called to her from out of the void. Only the clomping sounds of her footsteps announced that she was getting closer.
“Oh, can’t I, Bodybag? Just you wait and see.”
She picked up the thick shaft of wood and the heavy weight on the end of it and swung it in a perfect arc. It hit the lock with a crash and the metal bent under the blow.
“You’re damaging government property, Wade. You’ll be down the block as soon as I catch up with you.”
Nikki could swear that Frobisher and Fenner were also shouting at her. She laughed contemptuously. After all, they had no hold over her anymore.
“That’s tough luck as I’m breaking my way out .You have no hold over me.”
With that, she aimed a second blow right on the spot that she landed the first and the padlock flew off the hasp with a metallic clang. All the time, the hurrying footsteps grew louder as did the gasps of breath from the out of breath and frantic prison warder. Nikki put her shoulder to the door and with a grating sound it gradually gave way with comparative ease. At once, the blinding daylight streamed into Nikki’s eyes and she put her hands to her eyes as she stumbled forward as her feet took her. It was only after a couple of minutes when she became aware of voices and felt hands pat her on the shoulders when her eyes came back into focus, whited out faces appeared as finally, she was starting to see again. She realized that Helen was hugging her closely while Claire, Jo, Trisha, Sally Anne, Nikki’s father, John Deed, Monty Everard and Joseph Channing smiled on approvingly.
“Helen, I can’t believe I’m finally out of here”
“Wild horses wouldn’t have kept us apart, sweetheart,” Helen whispered with fierce devotion. The strange thing was that her voice sounded strangely muffled.
“We got you out of an unjust sentence before, Nikki. This time, we felt helpless that we couldn’t offer any practical help. The least we can do is to welcome you to the first day of your life, completely reborn.”
John’s words of kindness melted Nikki’s heart and brought tears to her eyes even though his normally carrying voice didn’t have the resonance that she remembered so well. Everyone smiled on her so approvingly.
“This feels so fantastic. I never knew I had so many friends. I can be anyone, go anywhere, do anything,” she breathed.
“An Englishwoman’s home is her castle,” put in Nikki’s father with approving smiles from Trisha and Sally Anne who were surprised at the depth of understanding shown by this die-hard Conservative male.
“So what do I do now?” Nikki asked, rhetorically.
“As soon as you wake up, we’re going to have a lie in today, sweetheart, and the weekend is ours to decide,” Helen’s voice sounded in her ear, much sharper and clearer than before.

Nikki opened her eyes at the contrast …….and……and……she blinked her eyes to stare upwards at the angles of the clean white ceiling and the lampshade hanging over her head. She gradually realized that she was lying flat on her back, her nightie twisted round her and a piled up quilt all around her. This wasn’t the view she could remember. Helen’s face hovered overhead with an expression of concern on her face, her hair hanging down. Nikki breathed a sigh of relief. At least what was before her eyes looked relatively normal.
“What......where the hell am I, Helen?”
“In our bed. Where you should you be on a sunny Saturday morning after the trial? Everything’s just fine but it’s a bit early as it’s half past seven in the morning.”
“So there’s nothing to worry about?” mumbled Nikki weakly.
“Only that you’ve been having some sort of nightmare, twisting and turning about. I didn’t want to wake you except that you started to call out to me so here I am.”
“Hey it wasn’t that bad. I was in this underground jail with Bodybag and Fenner after me so I smashed down the door and everyone was there to congratulate me, even my dad and all the judges. I’m safe now.”
Helen’s face was a picture. She could tell how real the dream had been for Nikki as she slurred out the words through the fog of sleep. She looked happy enough with a faint smile on her face having achieved victory in her dreams. Nikki was luckier than she had been in her choice of subconscious wide screen entertainment.
“You get all the luck, Nikki. Look what happened to be a few months back. I got cornered in Larkhall and Fenner was threatening to rape me.”
“As if I could ever forget all the shit you ever took from him, darling,” Nikki murmured, her voice dripping with sympathy and she reached upwards to brush Helen’s cheek before continuing on a sharper note of concern.” Hey, you are talking about that horrible dream aren’t you?”
“As much as you are talking about yours,” came Helen’s straight-faced reply. Nikki moved her head wearily from side to side. This conundrum-ridden conversation could carry on forever and she was tired.
“Hey, I’ll come down and lie next to you, darling,” sweetly urged that ever so softly spoken Scottish brogue that made Nikki feel weak at the knees. She crossed the short distance back to Nikki and her arms reached out for the taller woman. Gently, they drew each other close and planted little kisses on each other’s lips, cheeks and necks. The gentle pressure of each other’s arms told each other, in its quiet way, how profoundly they loved each other. The sunlight streamed through the gaps in the blinds and bathed them in a gentle glow. This was paradise.
“We can be anyone, go anywhere, do anything.”
“That’s what I said earlier on, Helen,” put in Nikki which caused Helen’s expressive face to reveal her astonishment. She could remember no such thing except Nikki mumbling in her sleep.
“In your dreams, sweetheart.”
“Oh that explains everything,” Nikki responded brightly.
Helen laughed softly at her very remarkable partner. Even in her dreams, she could beat the powers of darkness. This was their new morning.


Claire lay spread out on her double bed, dead to the world until late on Saturday morning. She had slept the sleep of the righteous and utterly exhausted. While the soft early morning daylight permeated the bedroom, Claire was sunk into a state of total dreamless oblivion. The driving sense of purpose that had propelled her these last few months had been disconnected. It was right that she should recharge her batteries in the most natural way possible.

This was what Peter thought when he woke up moderately early and looked round at his wife with gentle affection and tremendous pride. She was increasingly taking on high profile cases, which engaged her emotionally and practically. When she was totally engrossed in them, that continued into the evening but Peter was an amenable human being. For a start, all solicitors tended to let work intrude into evening time and this was par for the course. For another, he was unambitious and was content to handle the run of the mill cases and his wife’s success did not make him feel threatened. It wasn’t the case that he had made a big public declaration of being a ‘new man.’ It was more the case that it came natural to him. He recalled how last night, he’d come home from the normal conveyancing work to find her stretched out on the sofa, the lids on her eyes lowered. He kissed her on her cheek, passed her a small glass of sherry and she gently smiled and murmured at him. He’d virtually had to carry her up to bed and forget any ideas of staying up late because the next day needn’t wake them up on time. The weekend was theirs to enjoy last night just as it was on this brand new morning.

When her eyelids blinked open, split second impressions of the high white bedroom comforted her and gave her that lazy contented feeling. She was given context in place and time by split second images of her sliding away back home leaving the others to head off to Trisha’s club to carry on the party. She wasn’t bothered then any more than she was now. She wasn’t a particularly dedicated party creature, forever worrying in case she was missing out on the fun. Being desperately tired made that decision for her. As the others had chatted away earlier on, she had slipped in and out of a waking dreaming state not much different than now. The big advantage she had now was lying full length where she lay, rather than prop herself up in a hard wooden chair. She let those memories slide through her fingers. Now was not the time for purposeful self orienteering. The time would come later.

Hey Richard very pleased that you've began posting on the sequel... lovely title ... and an excellent start.
I know there's many many more great Chapters ahead. But then again anything you write is always well written,I'd read your writing off the pavement and it still would be greattttt. Thanks for an early Christmas and Birthday present buddy. :hug2

Richard - as usual a good solid well thought out story line. I am thrilled to get another fanfic from you.

Your first paragraph is beautiful flowing words and incredibly visual and peaceful, a stunning beginning. Love how you then took us right into the dark Nikki nightmare of where she's been into the light of where she's going with the face of Helen being her focus. So, we also get to find out that Helen's also had some bad dreams but the two of them are sharing the burden with one another. They are really taking tender care of one another."This was their new morning" was just lovely.

Loved the imagery with Claire as well. She's lazin' around in bed with Peter after a hard fought victory for Nikki.

You definitely have an elegant way with words Richard. Loved waking up on Saturday morning to your posting. Woo Woo

That's brilliant feedback from you both, HR and Lahbib Lover. There's plenty more written that is to come and I think I'm on the home straight in writing the fic. Great that you've enjoyed it.

I'm loving it, Richard... so rich and descriptive!

I have a total love affair with words, and these, here, rocked my world.

This was such a powerful statement.

You've set a wonderful tone for this sequel... I'm so looking forward to more.

That's fantastic praise, Emms and you have a great selection of quotes. Thanks ever so much.

I couldn't resist putting up Part 2 and in doing so, I thought I'd provide an explanatory not in John's description of Nikki's sexuality as Monty is traditional old fashioned and the choice of word is deliberate.


.......................................................................................................................


Scene Two

Jo Mills was even deader to the world than Claire was. Everything in her life had been so tightly focused in on the trial. It might be said that all roads lead to Rome but all trains of thought focussed in relentlessly on the task that must be accomplished. This trial wasn’t just a legally intense and complicated matter where she had to outwit the opposition by second guessing his game plan. What was far more at stake was that the very ‘rules of the game’ could be changed like lightning due to behind the scenes political interference. It was like a three-dimensional game of chess. The only constant factor in these battles and her only hope was in John’s strength and, as she found at very short notice, in that very remarkable and quick witted woman who was her client. Somehow, everything had come together that day, as it needed to. As she lay in bed, she couldn’t believe that the trial was over. Logically, she could let her mind run free and take it easy but she knew from experience that it would take some time for her mind to stop racing and she could seize the time for some tranquillity in her life. She needed these spaces in her life to refresh herself for her next case.

****

The digs had that discreet refined atmosphere where meals were laid out for those with time to contemplate the day. A long table, set with a starched white tablecloth, gave scope for those members of the judiciary to socialize and make small talk.

On this Saturday morning, John made a late appearance at the digs, looking very pale and blinking at the sunlight, which hurt his eyes. He wavered before picking a quiet corner to sit and shortly after, Monty made an appearance. John’s tired eyes took in the welcome fact that his wife, Vera, wasn’t with him. The sight of her bright pink suit would have been hard for his eyes and her loud opinionated voice would have been quite too much for him, let alone her inane bigoted opinions.

“I’ll never drink again, Monty.” John murmured. “It really doesn’t suit me.”
“What you want,” grinned Monty understandingly,” is to avoid giving in to temptations and also suffering the kickback the next day.”
“You’re surely not a puritan killjoy in thinking that pain and penitence must follow pleasures,” groaned John.
“Nonsense, I’m just being pragmatic about it,” boomed Monty more heartily than John would have liked. “The chances are that you’re not a regular drinker so that celebrating on Joe’s lethally enjoyable malt whisky meant that you were on a bender. You have to train up on regular drinking so that you can enjoy a special celebration and not regret it the next day.”

John grinned at Monty’s honest explanation of the pleasure principle in contrast to the miserable mineral water morality of the current political clique in control. Certainly, he had heartily enjoyed last night. He recalled the feel of being amongst the circle of armchairs, gathered round and the comforting sensation that he didn’t have to go anywhere. Joseph Channing was left to dispense regular top ups and he, Monty and Joseph felt like brothers in arms, having won a glorious victory. The large armchair in Joseph’s chambers encompassed him and made him feel incredibly grounded and certain of his place in the world. Monty was right, of course, in saying that John wasn’t a practiced drinker but he did enjoy getting fuzzy at the edges but at the same time, their conversation wasn’t some meaningless drunken ramble. All of then had that delicious feeling of fulfillment about them, that they had truly done what they had been destined for. The only fly in the ointment was that his head didn’t feel so good and he wished that he could get back to that heightened feeling of normality and purpose.

“You’re right, Monty. It’s just that I envy you right now.”
“Try this Alka Seltzer and plenty of water.” Monty kindly offered.
John reached eagerly for the tablets, the water gourd and a glass and barely let them fizz their power into the plain water before he drained the glass.
“Do you want to read the morning papers, John?”
“Will they make me feel any better?”
“Well, we’ve had the honour of being flayed alive in print along with Nikki Wade. We really are Public Enemy Number One,”grinned Monty. As much has his limited senses let him, John was glad that Monty was not the slightest bit worried by the prospect.
“By the way, I gather that you had a long conversation with her,” he added with a conspiratorial smile.
“I had an extraordinarily intimate conversation with Nikki in full knowledge that she is homosexual and there isn’t the slightest possibility that any intimacy would be anything more than strictly platonic. I mean it, Monty.” John insisted quietly.
“For once, I’ve misjudged the situation, John. I have heard many stories of your brand of charm and how far it gets you with the fairer sex. I remember the French judge at that Conference who I was pursuing for three days only you turned up,” Monty replied in even tones, without malice.
“She is an extraordinarily intelligent, gifted and above all, compassionate woman who will go far in life. I’ll deeply treasure the memory of the conversation. I can tell you we did better than we knew in finally throwing off the shackles that have held her back,” John observed slowly with a faraway look in his eyes.
Monty could tell that there was a wealth of meaning and feeling that John was hiding behind. He wanted to help him out as a friend yet hesitated in forcing a confidence. He was of the old school after all and was uncomfortable with naked emotions on display. He settled for a tentative approach and coughed nervously.
“I don’t want to be intrusive but I’m interested in what happened. This stays strictly confidential.”
“You mean Vera as well?”
“Especially from Vera. She has no sense of discretion whatsoever,” pronounced Monty firmly in response to that sharp, inquisitive look.
“I was in a verbal scrap with Sir Ian, Lawrence James and George who were throwing the collective rattle out of the pram and blaming it all on me…”
“The damned cheek,” interjected Monty, which elicited a smile in response.
“……when Nikki chimed in at just the right moment. She’d left her handbag in the witness box you know. The battle royal that took place was splendid and, together, we drove them headlong. After that, my curiosity was roused and I wanted to talk to her, to find out what she was like. Well, I certainly got more than I bargained for…..she has exactly the same sense of justice that I have. The similarity is extraordinary. You feel that there aren’t any barriers and you can talk the same language. Above all, she asks good questions and you have no problems in just going with the flow.”
Monty was fascinated to see the various moods flicker over John’s face as he spoke in a meditative abstracted fashion. By some miracle, his headache must have receded to the edges of his consciousness or else he had remarkable self-control.
“That’s only fair as the three of us certainly asked her a fair few questions,” came Monty’s slightly lighthearted response. That prompted a rush of words from the other man completely stripped of his normal suave self-control.
“There’s more to that, she has that uncanny ability to look into my soul. She sees my strengths and weaknesses but I know that, for once in my life, I need have no fear of being seen for who and what I am. She’s incredibly kind hearted. She even invited me to pop round if I ever wanted to.”
“Nice idea, John but that might be a bit impractical,” observed Monty slightly stiffly. In truth, he felt embarrassed though he couldn’t say why.
A silence hung on the air on that bright spring morning. The sunbeams hurt John’s eyes and so he didn’t answer Monty. His eyes flitted every which way until they fastened on the newspaper that Monty had laid on the side.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” John suddenly exclaimed in loud hearty tones.

‘Trial outrage- lesbian cop killer given a clean ticket.”

“In an astounding display of judicial perverseness, Nikki Wade who killed a policeman in cold blood four years ago was given a clean slate. There may be a do gooding element that has crept its way into the judiciary but their ill thought out liberalism is not wanted by public opinion who want justice for the victims of crime, especially the grieving widow of the dead policeman. Public opinion has tolerated the eccentricities of judges of England parading around in their wigs and robes and their eccentric sense of justice but this verdict is surely asking for a bill in parliament to restrict their powers. Sources close to the Home Secretary complained that Ms Wade was judicially having her cake and eating it and should have been grateful for the act of mercy, which gave her freedom at the original appeal hearing. Judges should remember that this is the twenty first century and they cannot do as they please. …………….”

At that point, John threw the paper to one side derisively and turned to remark to Monty.
“This is the government’s childish temper tantrum and all because it couldn’t get its own way. In a few days time, the press will find another hate figure to tar and feather at the stake.”
“That’s all very true, John but we may have bitten off more than we can chew.”
“Well, we could always go on strike, Monty.” John spoke half jokingly.” That would show them.”
“That will be the day,” Monty laughed.” Mind you, it would clog up the wheels of justice pretty effectively. Who would they get to take our place? Can you imagine Lawrence James with his shaky ideas of justice coming up before such unruly barristers as Jo Mills? He would be taken to pieces.”
“Ah well, I don’t suppose it will come to that,” mused John as they toyed with this interesting abstraction, as if it were a debate over an abstruse point of law.
“I suppose we shall have to get used to Sir Ian scowling at us for the next three months and I don’t suppose the next luncheon will go with a swing if we’re there and Haughton
turns up. I suppose he’ll forgive and forget, eventually. He can’t hold a grudge that long, surely.”
“Don’t you believe it, Monty,” John warned. “The man hoards grudges like others hoard precious silver. He is a power junkie and hates to be deprived of his fix.”
“In which case, why on earth does George stay with him? I would have thought she would have better taste.”
“Why indeed? I suppose he makes a good trophy partner. He’s successful and it gets her into the sort of circles where she can show off her expensive taste in dresses,” John answered in hesitant tones, for once not sounding convinced by his own reasoning.
“Yes, but what I can’t imagine is them in bed together?”
John closed his eyes and shuddered at the prospect. The image that was conjured up was totally grotesque and one he did not want to dwell over. His hangover headache threatened to return with a vengeance.
“Let’s not ruin our appetite by speculating on Houghton’s sexual habits, if he has any. Let’s enjoy this hearty breakfast and celebrate our famous victory.”
Monty grinned at John’s jest. He was hungry and ready to tuck in to his breakfast even if John still looked a little queasy.

A brand new morning for everyone ... and a brand new story for us! Thanks for the early Christmas present, Richard. Loving it so far. Your writing as always is a pleasure to read ... rich, detailed and imaginative.

And you're going to make it into a three-card trick by introducing some of the Kay Scarpetta characters. Look forward to that.

I read this yesturday and i didnt get a chance to comment, so here i am now, im loving your sequel Richard, thankyou :) I read your last one but didnt get round to leaving feedback much, but this time i will leave feedback more often :)

As usual another fine update. I am also looking forward to the intro of the Scarpetta characters.

Hi Cassandra, Lizi and Lahbib Lover. After the break I've taken in getting the bulk of the fanfic written, it is a pleasure to be able to be able to share a new piece with an appreciative audience. Feedback is certainly welcome from you all.

With everything being busy round Christmas time for everyone, I'll post the next piece after Christmas.It will also help in writing the final chapters (Also the lead on my internet has gone on the blink and I'm borrowing my daughter's laptop till I get sorted out again in the next few days- groan)

So glad to see you've continued this story.

Here are my particular favorite phrases <G> :

lol
You've seen my home under the new energy saving lightbulbs.

I have them all the time.

If not now, when? <G> I struggle with this daily. ;)

Hah! Just so.

another well flowing piece of your writing, keep it coming

Patti

Wow, Jeanna and NlovesH, this is definitely praise indeed which I definitely appreciate. I'm having to post this from the library internet as my broadband connection has gone on the blink. In the meantime, I have used the Christmas break to get near the end of the fic and in particular, nail the important scene which I need to get technically right.

Here is a very tender Scene 3 where I have sort of shuffled present and past around to make the past seem a dream that is real. Enjoy.


Scene Three


Sally Ann Howe’s dimly functioning eyes sensed that she was in a bedroom that was softly feminine but it wasn’t her lonely room. She was vaguely aware that she was lying on her side and that her skin was unencumbered by any material. That wasn’t usual for her but the thought surprisingly pleased her normally tidy minded nature. A wide smile spread across her face as her fingers traced a pattern on the smooth soft skin of another woman’s back and her eyelids parted wide to look over the smooth shoulder and reveal the long blonde hair and delicately carved face of the woman next to her. She couldn’t believe her good fortune that she should enjoy such an impossibly intimate moment. In her life, she had only mentally confided her dreams and desires to her pillow during too many lonely nights on her own and were dissolved away by the daylight and company the next day. She had always desired Trisha, if truth be known, from the first time that accident caused her to first set eyes on her.

Memories started to return to Sally of the night before. The music of the club had been in her ears as she had climbed up the staircase in Trisha’s flat. All her fears and inhibitions had been banished and her senses of pleasure had been heightened as she had found herself in Trisha’s very feminine looking bedroom. She had kissed Trisha passionately and deeply before drawing slightly apart, gazing in adoration at the other woman so close to her. An inviting smile had been spread across her face and her blue eyes had never left Sally’s.
“I can’t believe I’m here with you….darling,” she had spoken slightly shakily as if the word of endearment to another woman didn’t come easy on first try.
“You’ll believe it, babes, when we’re between the sheets. I want you so much, Sally.”
Those practiced fingers had slipped Sally’s suit jacket from off her shoulders who copied her and had followed every move she made. Sally’s eyes had been wide open as that slim figure came into full view and slid over her as she lay back in that sweet smelling bed. This was unexpected heaven as the other woman had been so very gentle and tender in the way that her lips and fingers caressed her neck and shoulders and tasted her body. She had fallen in love with the texture of Trisha’s smooth body next to her and her own fingers had slid along the other woman’s back. This was heaven. This was like nothing she had ever encountered before. She had realized now that what had been holding them back was the clothes they’d both been wearing and wondered why she hadn’t thought of that before. Her body had started to move rhythmically and she cried out ecstatically as her nipples were delicately caressed. She had known all along that Trisha must be expert in lovemaking as much as sexual confidence had exuded from her but she hadn’t been prepared for such consideration. As Trisha’s hand had slid down to her belly, she had known what was to come- indeed, she had fantasized this scene. This hadn’t stopped her flinching slightly.
“Relax, babes.” Trisha had murmured.” I just want you to feel good about yourself again.”
Sally had lain back and gently stroked Trisha’s cheek and the tension had flowed out of her body. Trisha had smiled knowingly and had moved her hand lower down. A huge feeling of relief had run through Sally as this fair-haired vision hadn’t being in the slightest way impatient but had slowly and gently caressed her. It had told her that the time was hers to choose. She had reached up, planted little kisses on the other woman’s neck and had run her fingers through her long hair. She had been incredibly grateful and moisture had run from her for this generous lover of hers.
“Are you ready babes?”
“I want you inside me, darling. I know everything will be fine,” she had whispered
Smiling, Trisha had gently slid her two fingers into the other woman and had gently pushed down on her. She had cried out in pleasure and astonishment that another human being could have given her that first feeling of sexual pleasure and it was hers. In no time at all, she had got into the rhythm that Trisha generated, her face hanging over her as surely and confidently, she had drawn Sally upwards to a hugely satisfying climax that had left her gasping and spent. They had lain down side by side, their arms wrapped around each other, drinking in the faint perfume from each other’s bodies.
“You’re amazing Trisha. Now I know what I’ve been missing out on for all these years. I love you,” she had whispered in total adoration.
“You’re not the first woman who’s ever said that. When you think about it, making love to another woman is easier than you think,” she had laughed invitingly.
Sally Anne had got the message. It had been her turn to give pleasure to Trisha. The prospect of that had entranced her as their bodies had adjusted so that she had looked down in the half-light at the woman she desired. Her long blond hair had streamed across the pillow and her soft lips had been slightly parted. A faint breath of wind had wafted through the window and breathed on her naked back. At this moment, she had all the confidence in the world as desire had driven her to kiss the blond haired woman full on and her tongue to express all her desires. She had known that her lover would cry out with desire, as she had tasted that slim, small-breasted woman who was everything she could want.

It was the morning and she had absolutely no regrets. What had happened in the past the night before was absolutely real and was no illusion that would fade away in the daylight. The bedroom was exactly the same as last night only it was daylight. All that was different was that she was sleepy, having made love half the night. Her love for another woman was right out in the open and her life was transformed. She only wished that Trisha would turn over and they could embrace each other. In the meantime, she planted a series of delicate kisses on that soft, smooth skin. It drew a murmur in reply.
“Give me a little while to wake up, babes. I never knew that you were going to be such an insatiable and hungry lover.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing, darling?”
“Definitely good,” murmured Trisha as she slithered over and, to Sally’s delight, the soft breasts and nipples came into view.” Let’s have a cuddle and lie down for the moment.”
They wrapped their arms round each other and Sally exulted in the feel of soft skin against skin and the sleepy way they gently kissed. Trisha’s lips were as soft as she had remembered last night. Even while Trisha appeared to be drowsy, some instinct made her fingers draw a sleepy trail on Sally’s collarbone and slide down to her breasts. Her body gently pressed itself against Sally’s who wrapped one leg round Trisha’s. The blue eyes the other side of the pillow slightly parted and a murmurous sound escaped her shapely lips as they pressed themselves against Sally’s.
“Still not regretting last night, Sally? Some do, you know.”
“I loved every minute of it, darling,” Sally’s soft voice answered with a thrilled ecstatic undertone to it.
“So I look good in the daylight?” Trisha answered, letting her arm drop to her side. Despite her lack of sleep, desires built up in Sally that she had never felt before that early in the morning. That sleek body looked as desirable in the morning as it had last night.
“Just you let me show you how much I want you,” came that most certain answer, laden with all the desire in the world.
The surprised and gratified Trisha lay back, her arms outstretched and she stared upwards at the dark haired woman. Naked, she was every bit as desirable as she had always promised to be even when they were so called friends. Similarly, her tight constrained manner and her tight, two-piece suit had not deceived Trisha and this was proved to the hilt as these had all been thrown to one side in a careless pile. Now that she had loosened up, Trisha could see qualities in her that Sally never knew in herself until today. She was taller and bigger and her large breasts made her desirable. Her long curly hair hung loosely over her shoulders and made her look strangely virginal. It touched Trisha to witness the newfound dimension open up in Sally’s life. All this was new to her while, by contrast, there had been many woman who had shared Trisha’s bed. As a whole souled smile spread across Sally’s face, these depressive thoughts were banished when she recalled those unexpected talents following last night’s crash course in lesbian love making. Trisha’s desires rise up in her as she knew above all else that the centre of Sally’s desires lay between her own already parted thighs and that the dark haired woman would soon be tasting her juices.

Hours later, as Trisha’s heartbeat settled down to normal, she reflected how delightfully and unexpectedly her life had changed for the better in the last few days. She had done her bit in finally laying to rest the mixture of trauma, separation and guilt that Nikki’s imprisonment had haunted her with. Nikki had finally come back to her life in the curiously stable and angst free situation of friend helped by her very remarkable and astute girlfriend. Best of all, she had a new lover in her life. That thought caused feelings of tenderness to well up in Trisha and she drew the dark haired woman next to her bosom, cradling her in her arms.
“There’s one question I was going to ask you, Trisha and that is, there is a future for us? This isn’t just one night, …is it?”
Trisha’s lips parted in a smile at this question, put so tremulously. She owed it to reassure this woman who was so clearly in love for the first time.
“Of course, babes. Love you always.”
“Then everything’s all right then,” came the simple reply.” I mean, this is so fantastic, so much better than anything I’ve ever experienced before.”
“You mean with men?”
“Yeah,” sighed Sally as her memory swept over collected memories, not wanting to linger more than necessary.” Where I came from, there was never any idea there was anything else. My teens weren’t very happy and when I got into the police force it got twenty times worse. Let’s say we were expected to be easy meat, especially……”
“There there, babes. Let’s forget about the past,” that soothing voice soothed and caressed her as much as her touch from somewhere up above her. Sally snuggled up against that soft warm skin which felt very natural to her and she ran her fingers through the long blond hair. She calmed down and relaxed as all this felt very real to her. The past could fade away where it belonged, especially Gossard, her worst and most tenacious nightmare that had held her life back and had emotionally crippled her. She had that glimpse of the future with nothing holding her back.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“Well, it’s different. You’ve got me now,” that clear speaking voice articulated with a note of optimism. She needed Sally to drive away those ‘single girl blues’ that depressed her from time to time, that no relationship in her life had ever lasted. Perhaps this time it will be different, she hoped. The sexual ecstasy of last night and this morning helped keep her spirits up in the precious interludes from the rigours of running her club.

I really like what you've done with Sally and Trisha's relationship Richard. As usual really well thought out and very smooth flowing language. Clever how you sneaked Nikki and Helen into Trisha's thoughts. Nice laid back romantic piece. :kiss1 :hug2

how about another chapter richard, this is coming along very nicely, love the fact that you too have paired trisha with sally anne, this paring really gives a pleasantly new light right along with your articulate way of expressing words, how very thought of

Patti

I really love the way,Lahbib lover and N loes H, that you're taking to the Trisha and Sally Anne storyline which, interestingly enough HR and I independently happened on our individual variations on.. In the TV series, I couldn't really see Trisha as the total 'villain of the piece', that she has her point of view and it makes for another minor character to be developed.

I've not been posting very often, partly as I have fugured out that people are busy over Christmas and partly as my normal PC internet connection is still on the blink. I'm using a borrowed laptop so I'll get down to the library and put up the next part tomorrow. I'll try and post more often in future.

Here is the next part as promised


Scene Four


George had got used to Neil Haughton’s habits over the last few years and could just suffer his flashes of petulance, his domineering tendencies, his total self-absorption and the red Cabinet boxes that he obsessively worked his way through most evenings. She couldn’t really complain about the last foible, as she tended to shut herself away with her cases. There were compensations of a pleasantly material nature, which her growing expensive wardrobe testified to. She was unashamed and honest about her appetites for the material pleasures of life. She had to admit that she enjoyed flaunting Neil Haughton to John and thereby teasing him mercilessly. John would never resist rising to the bait in verbally slashing her boyfriend’s character to pieces in conversations with her. She knew how her contrary argumentative nature drove her to disagree with him even if she inwardly agreed with some of his conclusions. At moments like these, poor John overstated his case and hopelessly betrayed his jealousy.

Friday night was an especially dismal experience for her and hit a new low. She had made her way home after the trial in an especially thoughtful mood. Her spat with John was a perfectly normal occurrence in her life and she inwardly admitted to herself that they both found exchanging verbal bolts of lightning somehow pleasurable. She could never say that life was boring whenever John crossed her path. As she drove home, she couldn’t help thinking also of her clash with the formidable Ms Wade. Her impressions of the case, such as she had been aware of it, was that the culprit was some loud publicity conscious crop haired lesbian out to cause trouble. She had come across a woman who had certainly given her a run for her money even if her brand of caring liberalism irritated her. She had to smile at the way she had made a fool out of poor Ian but, then again, he did walk headlong into the most obvious traps. She sneakily considered that the woman had style, helped from a background in some minor boarding school and she wasn’t unattractive in her rather mannish fashion. In other words, Ms Wade was something in the same league as she was. What had given her most food for thought was her comments about the need for women to be protected from rapists. She couldn’t help worrying about Charlie on the loose at Sussex University and John’s foolish, rose tinted faith that everything would be all right.

As soon as she got home, she could feel solid waves of fury radiating outwards from the living room even before she opened the door.
“I am telling you, once and for all, I have absolutely no comment about the trial. None at all,” he snapped and slammed the phone down.
“Careful, Neil. You’ll have a stroke if you carry on that way.”
“It’s that wretched ex husband of yours, He is infecting the other judges with that bleeding heart liberalism that I thought had been stamped out decades ago along with union wreckers.”
“You mean Mrs Thatcher?” George replied impulsively and then immediately regretted her gaffe. Before becoming a born again New Labour politician, Neil Haughton had originally made his pile in advertising and it would have been supremely tactless to say that Brand X and Brand Y were virtually identical. He set great store in branding even if the man in the street was unversed in subtle presentational distinctions. His move into politics was less of a radical change of direction than the casual observer might think.

Neil glowered at her, his expression daring her to say that one more provocative word. More than ever before, John’s attractions came to the fore as both of them would have no hesitation or inhibitions in launching into an all out battle of words. It was one thing in their lives together they both agreed on as well as on deciding Charlie’s upbringing..
“Would you like a cup of tea, mineral water or something stronger,” George offered in her best polite drawing room fashion.
“Just for once, a scotch and mineral water but not too strong mind you.”
George smiled inwardly. What he really wanted was a stiff shot of spirits and a dash of water to dilute his sin with something health giving. It contrasted with Daddy’s unabashed love of malt whisky. She duly poured out the drink he really wanted and sat back in her armchair.
“Did you have a hard day, darling?”
“You can say that again. That wretched Wade trial goes pear shaped and the press are on my back straight away. Far from being tough on crime and cleaning up the streets so that it is safe for law-abiding citizens, I look a perfect fool for apparently getting it wrong in the first place. It’s so unfair as it was all my predecessor’s fault. I mean, why should I take the blame for something I didn’t decide in the first place? I’m due to address the Annual General Meeting of the Police Federation and this trial is bound to be brought up and used against me. Never mind, I’ll have those recalcitrant judges under my heel yet and they’ll sing my tune if it is the last thing I ever do.”
The rest of the evening was a total washout. George did her best to distract the man but nothing worked. The worst of it was that periods of rage made the man impotent as he could think of nothing else but his damaged ego. Again, she couldn’t help but think that John by contrast was totally reliable in this one area of their marriage, infuriating though he could be otherwise.

From waking up on early Saturday morning, Neil Haughton continued to be as tiresome as last night. George came to an instant decision. She would go and see Daddy.
“Have you the usual Cabinet papers to go through,” she called out as he was up already and in the dining room.
“Even more than usual. I simply must get on top of them.”
“So you don’t mind if I go and visit Daddy?”
Neil Haughton glared at her but didn’t exactly lodge an objection. He was conscious of the pile of work he had to get through and if the wretched press would leave him alone, he would be able to concentrate single-mindedly on his work.
‘If you have to, George.”
“I know that he has annoyed you but he is my father. I simply can’t allow that trial to come between us.”
“You know that your loyalties lie with me,” he grumbled.
“What’s done is done, Neil. I absolutely refuse to talk shop and I’ll stop Daddy from doing the same.”

With bad grace, he turned his head in her direction while she graciously lowered her cheek to him and she left the room quietly. She made the one phone call, adjusted her elaborately arranged makeup and lipstick and she was off in her shiny Convertible car. If she peeked within herself which was rare, she admitted that a lot of time she was either ratty, dissatisfied or else feeling as if she had to control her facial expression and her words to play a part which she hadn’t written. For that reason, she was almost disappointed that Neil hadn’t provoked an argument as that would have released something out of her pent up system. The rest of the time, she was playing a part except that her thoughts of the formidable Ms Wade challenged her normal thinking.

“I didn’t expect to hear from you George but you are as always, very welcome,” Joseph Channing greeted her in his palatial mansion and waved her through. His sharp mind noticed that her smile of greeting and manner was unclouded and as it normally was. Her knew his daughter’s willful personality and, in being caught between a clash of loyalties between him and Haughton, he would expect to be on the receiving end of her anger.

Instead, George’s roved round the living room with satisfaction that it was at it had always been. The room contained overstuffed old-fashioned armchairs, which she always remembered sinking into, not like this modern functional inferior rubbish that awaited the next fashion fad of ‘Changing Rooms’ to dispose of. Everything here was built to last and hadn’t changed since she was a little girl. It was comfortable and reassuring.
“I’m surprised you are coming to see me after the events of the previous day.”
“I’d rather not talk about it, Daddy,” George said quietly, putting her hand to her head as if her head hurt.
“You don’t look well, George.”
“It’s nothing that several hours spent in peace and quiet won’t cure.”
“I expect that you are totally furious with me as well as John and Monty.” Joseph said guardedly with a slightly ingratiating smile on his lips.
“Not with you or even John. I caught up with him after the court hearing and gave him a piece of my mind and got all the anger out of my system.”
“It’s perhaps unfair that he was the sole recipient of your wrath,” chuckled Joseph with a vivid mental image based on solid experience.
“Daddy, it’s what he’s there for. Haven’t you understood that one by now?” George grinned with total aplomb.” Besides, he’s the only man I’ve known that has ever given me back as much as I’ve given him. It’s very therapeutic. It kept our marriage going as long as it did, despite his infidelities.”
“So how do you feel about it now?”
“I’m sick of having had my ear bent by Neil last night and this morning. This was the reason I came to see you today. Anyway, enough of it. I’m sorely in need of a drink.”
As Joseph pottered around to carefully pour two measures, it struck Joseph how animated George became when John’s name was mentioned and how quickly Houghton was dismissed. It suited his purposes. When her father returned, her sharp eye spotted her father’s small measure and drew understandable conclusions.
“Daddy, I do believe that you are becoming abstemious in old age.”
“Not so much that,” admitted Joseph with a weak smile “ but the after effects of a celebration last night with John and Monty.”
‘You mean a drinking session.”
“Well, we did put away a lot of drink as well as enjoying good conversation. If you think that I’m not at my best, John must be totally hungover. He has splendid endurance in keeping up with Monty and I but he hasn’t the practice,” Joseph chuckled with an evil leer in response to George’s bald reply.
“You know, what puzzles me is how you and Monty and John apparently have got on so well during this trial. For one, John has a hopelessly interfering nature that even Jo Mills objects to. For another, you and Monty are died in the wool Conservatives and John is, well, John.”
“It’s been a curious experience. For a start, John has been remarkably amenable and perceptive. Jo Mills presented her case excellently while Frobisher was pedestrian. Ms Wade acquitted herself splendidly under tough questioning from the three of us. I must admit that she is also a remarkable woman since she was given no prior warning that she would be called to the stand.”
“I know. I crossed swords with her after the trial and I don’t think I got the best of the encounter.”
Joseph raised his eyebrows sharply at his daughter’s behaviour. She was a notoriously bad loser yet she spoke in slow thoughtful tones without any trace of malice or resentment.

The Sunday morning passed off in total peace and tranquillity yet throughout this pleasant interlude, he was conscious that there was a lot that George was mulling over in her mind but she wasn’t saying. She never referred to Haughton again whereas she chattered away affectionately about Charlie and occasionally spoke uninvited about John. There was a note of regret in her manner when she finally explained that she was having to set off for home and she didn’t hurry herself in getting herself ready. He knew better than to intervene and that when she was ready to speak, he would hear soon enough.

What was wrong with this update?

Absolutely nothing. <G>

Excellent. You've made me enjoy a series I've never seen and characters I only know through your description.

Oh wow, Jeanna. That is a huge compliment to pay me that I have made the storytelling real to you. It is really appreciated. :)

I like Jeanna do not know these characters except thru your writing. Your language is what captivates me most. As I've said many a time before, you do have a way with words, Richard. Look forward to the next update.

Hey Richard Happy NewYear well I'm back to the living as you can tell... excellent read catching up with the last 2 Chapters .

There's really not much to say as your writing speaks volumes all by itself... I mean you're just absolutely magnificent in your words and you know that I so love that paring of Sally Anne and Trisha from the get...I see the readers have picked up on our welcomed coincident of the pairing shared.
And yes I can't see Trisha being the villian ... it was just unfortunate circumstances that took place.
Cheers and please grace us with more my friend...
HR

I thought I'd mention that I got cracking with finishing off the fic and I did a lot of writing over the Christmas break and I'm very pleased with the way it finished up so there's no problem in being able to guarentee being able turn out the chapters. My only problem is with my PC internet router so I am dependent on a library PC.

Again, huge compliment paid, Lahbib Lover and the interesting coincidence on the sally Anne / Trisha storyline, HR. I couldn't agree more with your views on Trisha, HR, as in the final resort, she persuaded Nikki to go after Helen (The TV version)

one thing I wasn't sure of was just how often to post chapters on the fic as I wouldn't want to disappoint the eager but I have a conscience about overloading the heavily committed. Am open for comment.

Next part will go up tomorrow night for a start as I need to download it onto a floppy disc and post from there. Oh to achieve PC normality.

This next part shows Nikki demonstrating the self control she's learnt and I'm sure everyone who has worked in an office has come across characters like this. Enjoy.

..................................................................................................................


Scene Five

When Nikki got up on Monday morning, feelings of anti climax and depression started to creep in and peaked as soon as she entered the door at work. What was she doing here, she asked herself. It was all too much after all she had gone through leading up to the trial.

Before the big day, she had fought down her fears as the trial grew ever closer for her to venture forth to do battle to clear her name. When she got into the witness box, she had felt strangely elevated as she had been at the centre of a historical pageant illustrated in bright, bold colours. It wasn’t every day she had successively told her side of her story to three very astute judges, engaged in a verbal dustup with John Deed’s enemies, enjoyed a bitter-sweet intimate conversation with him and celebrated her triumph with those who were dear to her. The dreamy and blissful weekend with Helen had lasted an eternity and, here she was, back at work again. Everything ought to be spectacular after such a triumph but the normal washed out beige colours, impersonal office furniture and same old people greeted her. She felt temporarily diminished and washed out and just wanted to be allowed simply to slip into her space and bury herself behind the computer screen but of course, that wasn’t to be her fate.

“You know, I’m sure I saw her on the television last Friday but then again, I can’t be sure. I flicked over to Neighbours so I wasn’t really looking.”
“I know what it’s like. You see someone when you’re out shopping and think, hang on a minute, I’ve seen that person before.”
“Don’t know what you’re on about. I was watching Eastenders.”
This inane conversation rambled on for a few minutes, arousing Nikki’s feelings of cold contempt straight away. She decided to cut to the chase and get it over with.
“You’re talking about me, aren’t you? Why don’t you spit it out and ask me straight?”
The long pause betrayed the other women’s slavery to custom of not wanting to get involved in an embarrassing confrontation. It wasn’t even as if a voice prohibited them from acting but more as if each of them had a defective fuse that prevented them ever making that connection.
“So are you that woman who was on the news last Friday?” a voice finally asked her after a lot of hastily exchanged looks. This was only because the longer time went on, the absence of an answer to Nikki’s blunt question kept them on the spot and got more painful by the minute.
“What do you mean?” asked Nikki blandly.
“You know, the woman who stabbed that policeman.”
“And what if I was?” came Nikki’s icy calm reply and raised eyebrows. Her cool demeanor froze out the neighbourhood gossips who were stuck for figuring out their next move. The only person who was close to this strange apparition was Tony and he was no earthly use in getting the gossip and dishing it. Why he should be a friend with a lesbian was anyone’s guess but then again, he was standoffish and strange.
“Didn’t you think to tell us about your past? I mean, we’ve treated you perfectly normally without us knowing that you had something to hide.”
“Did I need to tell you anything that goes on outside these walls and if so why?” Nikki asked with raised eyebrows.
She smiled to herself afterwards, as she suspected that this facility to frame sharp questions to bat back awkward questions came from her acquaintance with the legal profession. It sounded something like Jo Mills might come out with.
“You never know. You might lose your temper.”
Nikki sighed, and turned to face the row of suspicious eyes. She did her best to address them in reasonable tones.
“Just get this straight between us once and for all. I’ve come here to do a job and earn a living. I’ve been here for the past four or five months. I’ve been pretty cool, calm and collected and haven’t trodden on anyone’s toes. I’ve been the diplomatic one, both with customers and with the rest of you. Is there really any reason why this shouldn’t continue? Does whatever the tabloids and the television come out with alter the way I behave? The judges told me that my record is as clean as theirs is. You have to take my word for that as, after all I was there.”
Despite Nikki’s calm words, she knew that feelings of rage were boiling up within herself and they etched her voice with jagged edges. She knew very well that it wasn’t good for her to react that way however much she clearly intimidated all the neighbourhood sneaks all around her. Her capacity for anger really worried her after that dreadful day years ago which had put her behind bars. Intellectually she reasoned to herself that feeling anger wasn’t a crime but only the violent expression of it could be. Emotionally, she wasn’t so sure and she could only square that circle by controlling her tendency to speak first and think later. This was where Helen’s presence had been so invaluable over time in showing her that there were other ways of handling a situation.

“That sounds fine by me, Nikki.” A fresh voice hailed from the back of the assembled crowd. “I saw what you had to say and you were brilliant. You really told them straight.”
A brilliant smile spread across Nikki’s face and her eyes glowed brilliantly. Trust Tony to be a real friend and help her out. It immediately dissolved away those blocked feelings and made her feel at the top of the world.
“Thank you, Tony. This is the first intelligent remark today. It’s great to hear it.”
“So how did you swing it with the judges?” came the final grumpy question after a stony silence.
“How do you mean? Are you talking about bribery and corruption on my pittance of a wage, my pulling power with three middle aged male heterosexual judges or maybe, just maybe, they recognized the justice of my case. If the bastard who tried to rape my girlfriend hadn’t been taken out, he would have stood in the dock, not me,” Nikki retorted, her smooth tones rolling over the critics with incisive logic and an undertow of cutting sarcasm. At once, she felt better about herself in handling the situation and finally squashing these narrow minded morons.
“So what did happen?” came a question without an ounce of sympathy or understanding.
“That’s for me to know and for you to work out. If you don’t mind, I just want to get in here and back to my job. You managed to cope without me for just one day? Yeah?”

Nikki promptly clicked on her computer monitor and checked out the day’s accumulation of e-mails. Handling something fairly mundane and easy enabled her to drop back into normal operating mode. She felt mentally closed off from her surroundings in the dead stillness of the office. It was only till break time that Nikki finally got to talk to Tony.

“Tony, can I have a private word with you,” Nikki said in a low tone of voice. She had turned matters over in her mind and could see the writing on the wall. He nodded back at her and led the way out of the room.
“We’d better borrow the cleaner’s room. We can’t exactly go into the toilets and talk,” Tony volunteered.
That made Nikki laugh out loud. The guy was as much of a friend to her than any of the women she had known through the clubs. They threaded their way to this very cramped room, which was stacked with bottles of cleaning fluids and mops and buckets. The room was a dump with a small table in it with only room to stand. However, Nikki drew a breath of relief.
“I get the idea that you’re very close to walking out of your job, Nikki,” Tony volunteered.
“How did you guess?” marvelled Nikki.
“It’s obvious. You’ve been getting more and more uptight in the last few months and I could tell that you were in serious danger of losing it today.”
“Are you sure you weren’t a lesbian in an earlier life.” Nikki asked, a smile curving her lips. “I mean, there are always possibilities in reincarnation.”
“You mean, how did I come to spot something that’s very obvious?” counter queried the man with a wry smile on his face at the back handed compliment.
“You really have the knack of figuring out how I’m feeling.”
“It’s obvious that you don’t really fit in around here though you’ve tried your hardest.”
“So are you stopping me from walking out on that lot?”
“Not till you’ve got somewhere else to go. I know little of your partner but by the look of the picture of her, she looks as if she has a strong personality. I’d guess she’s not the sort of person who would let you give way to a mad impulse.”
“You’re right enough there,” came Nikki’s slightly awestruck reply at his sharp perception. This was a quality that she was used to only from women.
“Is this what being part of the straight world is about? If it weren’t for Helen keeping regular nine to five hours, I would never have bothered.”
“You’re just unlucky to be among the more backward part of it.”
“So why do you stick around here? How long have you worked here for?” Nikki asked with great intensity. She had never had the time to talk properly to the man. She needed some answers urgently to get some perspective in her life. She couldn’t and wouldn’t do anything until she could unlock this conundrum.
“I’ve been here since I left school, Nikki. I’ve never had any real ambition and I’ve been here far too long to think in risking my security to move elsewhere. I suppose I’m part of the furniture. I live at home so it’s no great hardship.”
“There’s a big wide world out there, Tony. I was expelled from my boarding school due to ‘lesbian activities.’ I worked every bar and club you name till me and my partner got our own club together and everything was fine….till Gossard, that bastard policeman came around one night. Because I took him out to stop him raping my partner, I ended up doing three years in Larkhall. I would have been stuck there for life if it hadn’t been for my first appeal.”
“Still, I suppose you got free board, TV and meals…..” Tony said casually. The warm, intimate temperature of the room suddenly changed and dropped to one of frozen anger.
“What I can’t work out, Tony,” Nikki spoke at last in a steely tone of voice as her face darkened,” is how come an intelligent guy like you talks a load of shit like this.”

There was an embarrassed silence. To Tony, Nikki was just another working woman who was highly capable so that he couldn’t get his head round the idea that she had once been a prisoner. Prisons were a million miles away from his rather constrained family life, something that you read about on the news.

“I’m sorry, Nikki,” he said at last.” I’ve never met anyone who’s been in prison before. I only know what I read in the papers. If you don’t mind me saying, you don’t look like the sort of person who’s ever been in prison.”
Nikki sighed patiently at the awkward yet honest answer of the man before her. She laid her hand awkwardly and briefly on the arm of his jacket.

I could write a whole book about what I went through in prison but, you take it from me, even as we speak, there’s a man just like Gossard, who’s got power over vulnerable prisoners and doesn’t he just know it. You wouldn’t believe half the stories I could tell, drugs, suicides, you name it, I’ve seen it. If Helen hadn’t have pushed my appeal through the Home Office, I’d still be in prison till God known when.”

Tony’s eyes widened at the intensity of the mental picture that Nikki conjured up. He turned red in the face in embarrassment, which temporarily choked his capacity for words until human decency struggled to the surface amongst all his confusion and finally framed his thoughts.

“I’m sorry. I take that back. It was a stupid remark but what’s important now is what you do with your life for the future.”
Nikki gave him a quick forgiving smile as she calmed down and paused for reflection.

“I don’t know, Tony. I know I’m not staying around here forever. Now I have a clean record, I’m going to look out for other jobs. I’ll stick it out till I find somewhere better…….” came Nikki’s dreamy, abstracted reply as she was thinking aloud. Then her eyes focused in on Tony and she realized that she’d only partly achieved her initial quest before her attention had been diverted.

“……anyway, we were talking about you. How in hell have you stuck it out in this dump for all these years? I mean you don’t get medals for bravery for staying here, you know.”
“I just stay in the background and observe silently what goes on around…until you came here and I had this unaccountable desire to stick my oar in and interfere.”
“You watch it, Tony. Just remember, I’m spoken for,” warned Nikki in joking tones.
“Don’t get me wrong, Nikki. One mistake is enough. You’re just a good friend. I’ll miss you when you’re gone.”

Nikki was touched by the man’s loneliness. It seemed to be a common feature of London life. A city should supposedly bring all the lonely people together and all the social facilities for people of all kinds of persuasion to get together. Instead, there was something about the modern, revved up pace of city life, cars roaring their way to urgent destinations, single people with their ‘own space’ that drove people apart. Walking along the streets, you were as likely to come across someone with a different language and different culture.

“I’ll still here for now, Tony. I’ve got to dig my escape tunnel yet. That won’t necessarily be that easy.”
“You’ll make it, Nikki. I’ve got faith in you.”
Nikki was touched by the generosity of spirit of the man. She didn’t know what to do or say but realized that, if she were successful, she would leave him behind like other friends like Yvonne and the two Julies. She was about to say something when her worst enemy knocked officiously at the door. Both of them jumped and realized that they had an unwelcome visitor.

“I thought I’d find out where you two had sneaked off to. There’s work that needs doing. You can’t expect us to cover for you both.”
“At least you know that the two of us hadn’t been kissing and cuddling somewhere. It’s against my principles, you know, out and proud lesbian found alone with a straight guy. Now, that would exercise your vivid imagination if you had one,” replied Nikki impishly, grinning from ear to ear and the words jumping out of her mouth from nowhere. Tony laughed at Nikki’s outright cheek and the way she set out to confuse the stupid woman. They felt like two naughty schoolchildren. He wished he could be more like her.

Nikki strolled lazily back along the corridor, on her way back to work while the other woman stomped on ahead. She felt somehow that she’d been in this movie before but she couldn’t work out where.

Richard,you know for quite sometime, am 'awe- struck' with your way with words :) another well written Chapter ... your characterization is fascinating as always...

HR

I like this particular scene as it blends in the serious and light hearted and was written at a time when I was betaing HR's very well written and worthy fic and it is likely that I picked up a bit from her very interestingly different writing style. I am also incredibly grateful for your generous praise. Enjoy, anyway.

........................................................................................................................


Scene Six


As soon as Helen came to pick up Nikki out of work, her eyes sharply observed her partner’s manner. All last weekend, they had simply luxuriated in the delicious feel in being finally free. They hadn’t realized it at the time but all the setbacks that Nikki had suffered had weighed on them both heavily and Helen had keenly felt it for her. Ever since Helen had become as intimate with Nikki as prison regulations allowed, Helen had that strong image of Nikki as a free spirit, free to fly and soar, for her mind to be unfettered, both in her mind and in their relationship, for her to realize else above all else that there should be no restraints put on her, save for her own perceptions of what was right and moral. What obstacles had been between them was Helen’s own inability to pass through that glass barrier so that she could live the way her own heart desired. Helen had bitten down her growing perception over the last weeks that Nikki hadn’t been so free that they had first thought since they started living together. Thanks to their contact with Claire and Jo, it became clear that the establishment had vengefully sought to clip Nikki’s wings, that the job applications would be turned down and finally, that her passport application should be denied. That moment tore at Helen’s heart as she came to realize that not all the bolts and bars belong to prisons.

Despite all their luxuriating in their triumph, Helen knew that Nikki had to return to the same old job and that some of those she worked with would inevitably share the views of the hostile reporters and the dreadful tabloid headlines, which embodied those unthinking reactionary attitudes, which she had loathed with all her heart and her passions. To her intense relief, Nikki trotted out the door and her manner was resolutely normal.

“So how did your first day go, sweetheart?” Helen said with deliberate sense of warm positivity. She kissed and hugged her briefly and as her lips rested against Nikki’s ear, she spotted the studiously blank looks of disapproval from the obvious narrow-minded critics. By contrast, a fresh faced man with that ageless look about him grinned and waved at them both.
“Pretty weird but there’s nothing I can’t deal with,” Nikki said shortly. “Come on, let’s head for home.”
“Isn’t that your friend, Tony?” Helen observed as she put the car into second gear and Nikki waved at the man who was headed for the nearest underground station.
“That’s him and he’s been fantastic.” Nikki said warmly as a smile spread across her face.” If it hadn’t been for him, I might have seriously walked after taking a lot of shit from the obvious culprits.”
Helen’s senses jangled at the deliberately flat, deadpan tone of voice with which Nikki spoke with just that flicker of a forced laugh. She knew that Nikki was deliberately understating the situation. She wanted to squeeze her hand in sympathy but that wasn’t compatible with tricky gear changes and steering in London rush hour traffic.
“……It’s just as well I wasn’t born in mediaeval times, Helen. I’m sure I’d have been burnt long ago as a witch with plenty of their kind to build the bonfire and set it alight…….”
“In what way, being a lesbian, an outspoken trouble maker, a free thinker or just simply existing?”
Nikki’s laugh became more real. Helen had put her finger on her nature with sure precision.
“Good question, Helen. I guess all of them in no particular order.”
“In a way, it’s a backhanded compliment for them to think that way of you. Just think if Fenner had ever thought that I was soft and easy going, I would have known for certain that I was seriously going wrong …..”
Helen instantly noticed a flicker of doubt in Nikki’s eyes. She realized that she was sounding glib and superficial, as if the situation could be so neatly packaged up and everything would be fine. She hastened to leap onwards and reach Nikki’s need for emotional healing.
“…………That’s not all of it. I know only too well that it doesn’t make it any easier in dealing with the pain of it all. What it does do is make it a little bit easier to stop them getting to you. You know I’ve been there…..”
“You’re the only one I know who has the right to tell me that.”
“So come on, let’s think positive. For a start, what’s this Tony like?”
“He’s a good guy. It’s strange that he’s shy and diffident or at least thinks of himself that way but he’s been inside there to seriously think of getting out. He’s a little like Dominic, except that it takes him a lot to get roused.”
Nikki’s observation temporarily petered out as she could see how engrossed Helen was with her driving. The smaller woman knew very well that Nikki couldn’t wait to unburden herself until they got home. The most important thing was that her lover’s state of mind was on the level. Helen smiled reassuringly and patted her shapely fingers and propelled their way homewards.

Once inside, Nikki reached out for Helen and slid her arms round Helen’s waist. The smaller woman could feel the neediness emanating towards her and their mouths sought each other’s out eagerly and passionately. Their coats were cast carelessly on the ground at their feet. The feel of each other’s hands running along each other’s backs was both reassuring and seeking comfort as they pressed against each other. They planted little kisses on each other’s skin and breathed in each other’s perfumes.

“I know you don’t want to go to bed with me, at least not yet,” Helen volunteered with perfect confidence.
“I want to lie down with you and talk. As for the rest, darling, I can be easily persuaded,” came Nikki’s reply, neatly mixing the serious and the seductive.
They moved straight towards their bedroom where they lay down and faced each other. Nikki’s head lay between Helen’s breasts and she delicately rested her hands along the smaller woman’s flank while being gently caressed. Even though they were both fully dressed, they felt as intimate as if nothing separated themselves from each other than their skins. Helen forbore from saying anything and waited for Nikki to gather her thoughts. It was the way things had always felt between them now that they shared a history together.
“Darling, it will be no surprise that I want to change my job.”
“I expected that. You’ve been incredibly strong to stick them out as long as you have done, along with the trial.”
“I don’t want those buggers to drive me out of my job. I’ll go when I choose it. I’m going to get back to filling in application forms and take whatever rejections I get. No matter how long it takes, mentally, I’m out of there now. What keeps me hanging in there at work is the paycheck and Tony’s friendship.”
“Not counting me? If I didn’t know you better, Nikki, I might be starting to get jealous.”
That quirky remark made the taller woman laugh out loud at herself. God knows, she could do with some lighthearted humour in her life. They had been compelled to be oh so very serious, determined and very focussed over the past months. She knew beyond doubt that it was necessary, as important as everything she had striven for in her life, whether it was the club she had helped set up or her university degree. Now she came to think of it, everything they had done to make progress in their lives since she had got her freedom had been deliberate and purposeful, even down to initiating Helen into the realities of living with another woman. She might have thought in what way was blissfully enjoying nights of sexual experiences with this passionate woman was in any way like work but it was purposeful but it was something to strive for. She suddenly realized that, at some point in time, Helen had truly arrived at what her heart had told her she had wanted to be and her bridges were gloriously and thankfully burnt.

“Helen, I really thought that I’d experienced everything life had thrown at me but this takes the biscuit. You know of course, darling, I have ways of showing you what my sexuality is like when it is roused,” Nikki replied with a smooth, silky insinuation in her tone of voice that started to describe very pleasurable pictures in the other woman’s imagination.
“And what might they be, babes?” Helen breathed back in her best sultry tones, while her fingers deliberately started to unbutton Nikki’s shirt and caress her bare skin.
“You definitely have the almighty cheek in casting aspersions on my sexuality. I am a one hundred per cent lover of women and you in particular, Ms Stewart. You will find out the truth from me.”
It wasn’t so much her words but the way Nikki moved around on top of Helen and slid her out of her businesslike suit jacket and started to unbutton Helen’s shirt. Helen’s nipples stiffened and her own desires swelled up inside her but her conscientious nature made one last stab for responsibility.
“Nikki, as much as I love to be ravished by you, we were going to talk about your future. Duty calls.”
“Later, babes,” Nikki replied sexily.” You know how it is, pleasure first and plenty of it, mine and yours, and then business later, much later. We will do both. Trust me.”
‘Oh yes. I want the truth, lots of it,” sighed Helen, eagerly surrendering, as her clothes suddenly seemed far too constricting. Nikki stared down lustfully at her partner, her smart skirt having slid up, exposing a generous view of her right thigh and her white lacy bra in clear view inadequately concealing her shapely breasts. Desires surged up inside her as Helen slid her own shirt off her back and a flurry of the rest of their clothes was soon scattered around on the floor. Nikki looked down open mouthed at the perfection of smaller woman’s shapely curves and the invitation on her lips and eyes and she moved down to taste all of the perfumes that Helen needily offered her. Everything was simple and complete in Nikki’s mind about her sense of identity. This was what mouths and lips and fingers were made for and Helen proved herself as adept as any female lover she had ever known in triumphantly bringing her to orgasm.

“You once promised me a good time when you got out or was it me?” Helen dreamily mumbled against Nikki’s nipple. The taste of Nikki’s juices in her mouth reminded her of the soft feel of Nikki’s body locked against her and the rhythms of her ecstasy pulsing through her and the abandoned verbal expression of her desires.
“You mean you promised me nights of sexual delights. I thought you once said you weren’t into women,” laughed Nikki sleepily, still gently pushing against Helen, their limbs intertwined.
“Ah well, I didn’t know what I really wanted then. I just needed a little encouragement, babes,” came the answer with false innocence, gently licking the bare skin on offer.
“That is the understatement of the century,” laughed Nikki,” but it does mean that I have the best lover I’ve ever had, not just the woman I’m most in love with. You understand the difference,” Nikki urged, sliding her slim fingers gradually down Helen’s stomach.
“More than I could ever say in words,” came the slight gasp in her throat, as the husky voice continued,” but perhaps you could remind me.” Nikki could feel the lurch in Helen’s stomach and the thrilling sensation of where those fingers were heading for. Nikki’s mixed feelings of accomplishment, desire and love rose to a climax as her fingers slid in and pressed hard against the center of Helen’s sexuality. It was at moments like these that Nikki was overjoyed at how much of an unashamed sensualist Helen had become, or maybe always was if she had but known it.

“It was all Tony’s fault,” sleepily murmured Helen much later.
“I’ll forgive him and you.”
“And now for business. You promised,” came the more businesslike tones.
“Must we get dressed?” moaned Nikki regretfully.
‘Why should we? This isn’t a business meeting. We just have to talk of the future. We can be as naked as much as we like, so as long as you don’t try to seduce me. At least not yet.” came the playful reply.
‘Oh good.” came the relieved reply.
“Well, come on, then.”
Nikki felt replete and very much like a lover and less like a business planner. It took a real effort of will. Nevertheless, her recently developed business head let her put her lusts on the back burner and she forced herself to concentrate, even lying next to Helen. This woman temporarily became her respected co planner, the owner of a sharp, astute and sympathetic mind. Background thoughts peeped out to remind her that this solid reliable support made her even more of a perfect lover.

“Yeah, well. I think I can stick in there at work. I laid it on the line who I was, how I should be treated and I think they got the idea that I won’t take any shit and I’ll do the job to the best of my ability. I think a mixture of force and firmness will do the trick. There are a lot of them but I can face them down. None of them have any bottle.”
“What about behind your back, Nikki?”
“I think I can fix it that I’ll watch Tony’s back and he’ll look after mine. I think that will hold the situation.”
”Does he know that you’re moving on? He might feel differently if he’s going to be left on his own.”
“Who knows? People change the habits of a lifetime, just like you,” grinned Nikki.”I’m lucky. He’s a good straight friend. He knows I’m not secretly dumping on him.”
“So that’s fixed then. Just what help do you want from me?”
“Hmmm,” Nikki said thoughtfully before feeling her way in a slow and intuitive fashion before slowing down to her conclusion.” I suppose I could do with your patience and any advice you can think of …….and most of all, honest advice. I don’t know also if I need to brush up my interview technique. I’ve been doing the interviewing for years without all this human resources crap. At Chix, I was the ‘human resource.’ Everything there was a bit more rough and ready. It was my rules and Trisha’s that counted. My only experience in the world I want to get into, or something like it, is this job and either it was a sheer fluke or they were desperate for anyone off the streets……. I think that’s about it…apart from watching out for anything I miss. This is definitely an area of life that you are one up over me.”
“I don’t think there’s anything you missed, Nikki.”
Helen’s warm comforting tones wrapped themselves round Nikki’s senses. She felt better with every idea explored, everything out in the open. All the stiffness in her bones was eased away and she stretched herself luxuriously against Helen.
“I’ll get onto the passport application and we’ll see Jo Mills about the covering letter. We’ll bust that one wide open especially from what John Deed told me. After we get that, darling, we ought to seriously think about a holiday together,” Nikki pronounced in more definite businesslike tones.
“Oh yes,” breathed Helen,” there are other beds that we can christen with our presence.”
“Now where did you ever get such a one track mind from?” Nikki questioned softly, a smile of satisfaction spreading across her face and her own desires suddenly breaking through to the surface.
“Well, if you lie back, sweetheart, then just let me show you,” came that sultry Scottish brogue that promised such delights as did those slim fingers, which expertly stroked her neck and shoulders. Nikki was bedazzled by the sight that glorious full-breasted figure with soft lips, straight determined nose and large eyes, a vision of wonder, which hovered over her and promised her such certainty of a lifetime of delight.
“Then you can convince me…all night long,” whispered Nikki as she lay back and waited for her lover to take her into her possession.

Hi Richard,
I only know the Judge Deed characters through your stories because I live in Florida. (even if we got the show over here, I can't stop reading H&N fanfic long enough to watch it :) ) Anyway, I've grown fond of the characters and really enjoy reading your stories. I was thrilled at Nikki's vindication. I always had a problem with that in the original series, but now I take comfort from your version of the re-trial. Keep writing because I look for your updates everyday! Your stuff is well writen and captivating. **sits on the edge of seat waiting** :popcorn :fanfic

Hi JAM. I remember watching the original Series 3 finale with the trial scene and I am absolutely thrilled that you consider my version in 'Cleanup Time' can stand in the same area and be convincing. Like so many non Brit BG fans, you have obviously assimilated the whole Bafd Girls phenomenon as much as any fan anywhere and it feels especially good that I have managed to make the Judge John Deed characters real to you, as if you had picked up a novel for the first time. I love writing the mix of characters so that they interact as freely across the 2 original dramas and I'm pleased that you like my writing.

There is plenty for you to read and I hope you enjoy it. Having written the fic, I can guarentee regular postings.

"As soon as Helen came to pick up Nikki out of work, her eyes sharply observed her partner's manner". This first line really pulled me in immediately. I could see and feel Helen's love and concern for Nikki.


Richard I'm getting to where I'm becoming redundant when it comes to verbalizing about your writing. Scene six is beautifully constructed with so much emotion between Nikki and Helen. Wonderful tender moments as well as humour laced with erotica.

Hi Brenda (LahbibLover). You don't have to worry about your comments being redundant, Like other posters, you often zero in on key bits in the writing that sometimes, I'm not fully aware that they have that impact. Feedback on the later part of this scene is especially important as I attempted a writing style which I hadn't really had a crack at before and I'm really pleased that it worked. Thanks ever so much.

Hey Richard, Erm ... you know I'm like totally enwrapped.
As I’ve mentioned to you previously about this Scene… I love the quality of the intimacy you've depicted… really loving. Also the coolheadedness composure Nikki has show amongst her colleagues in Scene 5 is winning and I'm happy to see what myself and am sure many other readers have always felt was Nikki’s exactitude.
I’m marked by great meekness that you’ve felt comfortable to taking on a twist in your already catching style of ingenuitive writing…I know this fic gets better and better as the Scenes emerge deeper…so lay it on… when you write like this you leave some of us hanging for more… :rolleyes:

Cheers buddy
HR

Thanks ever so much for your very kind feedback, HR, which is especially welcome in attempting something new in writing style. There's something very magical in reaching out for an idea or where certain words of dialogue come straight out of the imagination as you will know from your own writing. I'm really glad that both scenes are convincing and there is plenty more to come.

This next part is a contrasting Sally Anne and Trisha piece which explores the relationship between the two women. I hope you enjoy it.




Scene Seven



“Do you mean, you really want me to move in ….and live with you,” Sally stammered, hardly being able to believe her ears. The next second, her imagination was ignited and a picture of seventh heaven irradiated her senses. This was such a contrast with months of living alone, her nerves in shreds, no job and no love. She was coming home. Out of nowhere, comes rescue for the damsel in distress at the hands of this dashing white knight. As the prison gate opened and freedom beckoned, confusion suddenly set it. Was she really worthy of this paradise?
“……….I mean, I’ve never lived with a woman before.”
“There’s always a first time for everything, babes.” Trisha said with unsettling confidence as she laid her hands on Sally’s shoulders. “Sometimes, you’ll never know something until you try it. I mean, did you anticipate a month back that you would be sleeping with another woman and that, as lovers go, you are really special?”
“You’re really being ever so kind to me but I’m not so sure. I mean I haven’t known you that long, Trisha …….”
“This is the start of the new millennium, babes,” Trisha urged, not for the first time to past lovers over the last couple of years, “ I mean, this isn’t the land of Jane Austin, of eligible spinsters, chaperones, two year long engagements, betrothals, etc etc. It’s really so much simpler these days between women. There are two simple questions, babes. Question one, do I want to share our lives together full time; question two, do you want to share our lives together full time. From my experience and my feelings tell me, my answer is yes. So perhaps you tell me what you feel?”
Trisha’s manner mixed the seductive and the dominating in one confusing mixture and Sally felt contradictory urges of intense desire and frameless fear. She wanted to be held forever in Trisha’s arms and was scared at what she was letting herself in for. She feared that this would change her life forever and there was no going back but she couldn’t say for the life of her what made ‘going back’ something she might want. Her head was whirling.
“What I don’t get is your reaction, Sally. I’m not sure if you’re simply being modest in underestimating your obvious charms, that you’re inhibited or are you simply getting cold feet?”
A more sympathetic tone underlay Trisha’s words as she uttered these words. Her desires had run away with her and she realized that she ought to be more patient. As a mid thirties lesbian who had been ‘out’ since her schooldays and had long since left home to live in the big city, her lovers since Nikki, had been women equally as experienced as her. Not everyone was like that as she was belatedly discovering. Sally Anne remained silent.
“What I don’t understand is how come you had the courage to take the stand at Nikki’s first appeal and face up to that evil barrister and yet you find this so frightening. I saw you face up to a real ordeal with no trouble yet a life of pleasure is a problem to you.”

Sally blushed and nodded dumbly several times. She was totally unable to put the kaleidoscope of feelings into words. In reality, it suited her if somehow the choice was taken away from her, and she arrived in the situation of living with Trisha without a conscious effort of hers. Once she was there, perhaps her fears would go away which is what part of her really wanted. The blond haired woman frowned briefly at Trisha’s apparent lack of enthusiasm for the idea. Nikki’s enthusiastic and decisive reaction in similar circumstances all those years ago floated back into her memory. She sighed wearily, feeling that this wasn’t what she had expected when she had proposed to her. A peevish instinct at the back of her mind was beginning to feel that she was carrying this relationship like a ball and chain but warmer and more charitable thought challenged this perception. She reasoned to herself that Sally Anne certainly wasn’t Nikki and that when her dark haired partner had moved in, she’d feel more confident and relaxed. She thought that she should give her time and make allowances.

Once the decision was made, Trisha was impressed by the energy with which Sally Anne
prepared for the move. When she came round on Sunday morning, lots of cardboard boxes and wooden crates filled up the front room and the furniture that was hers was placed ready to be moved. Sally Anne looked slightly red faced and out of breath and dressed in her most practical outfit of loose fitting jeans, trainers and casual top, far away from her normal outfit of smart suits. She smiled bashfully as Trisha knocked quietly at the door to her flat and put her head round the corner.
”Everything’s under control, Trisha or I think it is. I’m sorry at the state of me.”
“No pressure, babes. You’re hardly like to get packed in high heels and a tight dress. I’ve dressed down a bit to help you move.”
Sally Anne couldn’t help thinking that, even while Trisha was wearing casual clothes, she still looked stylish. The dark haired woman just felt flustered and out of breath. She looked around uneasily, her fairly logical plans having flown out the window.
“You tell me what wants moving first and I’ll help carry it,” Trisha said gently.
“Ah, yes. The big packing cases first. I’ll warn you. They’re heavy.”
Trisha gritted her teeth as the full weight of her side pressed heavily on her hands. Sally Anne was clearly stronger than she looked. Nevertheless, Trisha gamely staggered along to the van while the dark haired woman expertly slid the case into a recess of the van, making the best use of the spare space. The rest of the morning carried on this way and, now Sally Anne was active and doing something, she became positively single minded. It’s that training in the police force that must be responsible, concluded Trisha, starting to feel unpleasantly sweaty and her hands rough. Sally Anne looked happy and content as she gradually filled up every bit of spare space and as her former flat was left bare and empty.
“No regrets, babes?” Trisha asked softly.
“Not now the show is on the road. I find it hard to deal with changes in my life and it was just all an upheaval. I just want to leave my past behind. I have too many unhappy memories of this flat. I want to move onwards and upwards.”
Trisha felt the smile on her facial muscles, which she knew was emotionally real. It was that it was masked by the tiredness in her bones, muscles and her hands. Whatever regular exercise she took at the gym somehow missed these muscles, which had just been worked to death.
“Are you ready to go, Trisha? I’ve got to check the flat, shut up behind me and post the keys through the letter box.”
“Were you a girl guide when you were a kid?” Trisha asked in weary tones, a stray untidy strand of hair flicking irritatingly in front of her eyes. Only such a background and a spell on outward-bound course would explain Sally Anne’s unexpected aptitude.
“Of course, Trisha. Becoming a policewoman was logical for me what with everything else I’d done.”
“….including working as a steeplejack, babes.”
“Not quite that far,” laughed Sally-Anne.
Everything was ready and presently, Trisha sat behind the wheel, ready for the off. She wasn’t looking backwards at the flat but was full of unnatural energy. She put the van into gear, manoeuvring with confidence the big white square sided slab of a vehicle drove it capably enough that bright Sunday afternoon. Trisha knew that she would be enthusiastically organizing where everything went when they got there but charitably considered that such confidence was precisely what she had been urging the dark haired woman to have in the first place to move in with her. She had only got what she had asked for.

When they arrived at Trisha’s spacious flat, Sally Anne was surprisingly resourceful in squeezing her belongings into every unregarded, obscure recess that Trisha had walked past every day. It was only when the dark-haired woman walked up to Trisha’s dressing table that she blushed slightly. This intimate representation of a shared relationship wasn’t some children’s ‘make belief’ game of ‘let’s play houses’. This was for real.

“So here we are at last,” Trisha said brightly, spreading her hands. She summoned up the warmest, most reassuring smile she could manage to reassure those flickering eyes.

The dark haired woman swayed on her feet and suddenly rushed into Trisha’s soft, welcoming arms. The gentle touch of her fingers running through her hair and the subtle perfume emanating from her reminded her that this was what she really wanted. After all, she thought, as both women shed their clothes like leaves, this part of living together was what she had been getting used to ever since the night of Nikki Wade’s reappeal. It was just the case of becoming as neatly settled in as the furniture was.


Sally had remembered with fond nostalgia, the first previous occasion when they had first danced and kissed on the dance floor at Chix and at that time, the club was a romantic backdrop in which other couples silently performed the communal siren dance. Everything had melted into a dim background in which only Helen and Nikki stood out as their friends, beckoning them onwards. The first night Sally Anne came down to the club to help out Trisha showed a completely different slant on things.

It was now that she saw Trisha interact with a number of women in a way that showed a familiarity of a shared background. Her manner could even have been taken to be flirtatious in an enigmatic kind of way depending on your point of view. The problem was that Sally simply didn’t know what her point of view should be and what was reality. It was all very confusing to her. Trisha introduced her to a bewilderingly large number of women, all very confident of themselves and possessing that sheen of attraction. They glided in and out of their appointed spaces and Sally felt flat footed and gauche.

The only woman who stood out in her mind was Trisha’s assistant, Gill, who had some indefinable quality that troubled Sally in a way that she couldn’t put her finger on. She tried to do her best to socialize but she didn’t feel normal even if the other women did. It made her wonder just what Trisha saw in Sally in comparison with how more desirable these women were in comparison with her.

Ah Richard we've come to the U-Hall lesbian Scene :dazzler ... sweet great to see Trisha being a strong force of support for Sally...Err Gill ...I'm getting a little leery perception of her thou... this was nicely written...

Cheers till the next scene
HR

Uh Oh do I see a little awkwardness with Sally among the lesbians? Gill sounds like she could make some waves. Look out Sally this might not be smooth sailing with Gill lurking around.

Thanks for your valuable support as always, HR and Lahbiblover. I've posted a nice little reflective Nikki Jo scene as a change of pace. Hope you enjoy it.



Scene Eight

Give my love to Jo, babes,” Helen called out cheerily as she was ready to head out the door after a quick hug and kiss on her cheek. “Gotta go.”
“That’s what you always used to say when we were both at Larkhall,” said Nikki jokingly.
“Aah, but you didn’t have me to sleep with you at nighttimes and keep you satisfied, sexually, emotionally and any other way I can think of. I didn’t talk this way either, did I?” retorted Helen, a big grin on her face, her eyes glowing, and her hair floating in the wind.
“Ah, but you felt it, darling. I could feel the vibes coming off you even before you knew what they were,” came Nikki’s gently teasing tones.
“Well, obviously so,” came the answer with total aplomb as she moved forward to Nikki and gave her an extra special final kiss. That was her answer. With that, Helen moved towards the door and a back draught of wind and the closing door marked her exit.

Nikki chose the spare time to catch up with her reading in the snatched moments of solitude. She wouldn’t have it any other way as she had once spent far too much time in her lonely cell with far too much time to think. At that time, her books were friends that she could rely on. After a while, she smiled with satisfaction as she gently laid the paperback book of poems down and closely examined the opened letter on the mantelpiece, which contained her shiny new purple passport. It had recently slipped through the letterbox, accompanied by the usual government advice leaflets but without the fanfare of trumpets, which could have been her due. As far as she could recall from previous years, nothing was in any way different from the last time she had been granted a passport and from the looks of it, she appeared to be just another customer. The small portraiture inside the passport managed to capture her cool confrontation of the outside world. This time around, she knew that Jo Mills’ covering letter would have speedily directed her application through the system and the ordinary minor functionary, someone doing the same level job as she did, would process the application. As far as that functionary was concerned, her record was clean white, immaculate. She opened the first page and the declaration of her right to cross boundaries and territories caught her eye. Even in the age of mass production, the calligraphy still managed to stand out to her eye in its stylishness.

Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State requests and requires …. to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary……..

These rolling phrases from a bygone era still managed to convey some sense of poetry as opposed to the modern drabness of bureaucratic language. Despite being a modern woman, this pointed to just why Nikki had read so readily the dusty, forgotten Victorian novels in the Larkhall Prison library. The phrase ‘passing freely without let or hindrance’ reverberated powerfully through her imagination. Wasn’t her life at Larkhall a sustained struggle against arbitrary and unfair hindrance? Even when she had won her freedom, she had still been bound by invisible restraints that limited her to the second rate job she had endured stoically. That would now change, she vowed as a letter for a job interview with the Howard League for Penal Reform had landed on the doormat.


It was not in Nikki’s nature to casually accept help kindly made help without acknowledgement. This occasion gave her a reason to look up that kind-hearted wielder of justice, Jo Mills and thank her personally. A mere letter wouldn’t do, as it wouldn’t convey the depth of gratitude that she felt towards her now that her life was opening up.

Nikki strolled slowly down the street, heading in the direction of the nearest bus stop. She raised her coat collar high on this overcast and drizzling spring day. Despite the yards of headlines expended at the time of her trials, she had sunk back to being an average middle thirties woman making her way round London. She made her way to the top flight of the bus and was content to look downwards at the streets and at people passing by through the smeared, steamed up windows. It crossed the back of her mind that her preference for the elevated perspective contrasted appealingly to looking upwards at the rectangle of sky outside her prison cell. The thought blew past her like an idle breath of wind that left her in peace. At the appointed place, she clattered down the metal staircase and off onto the hard pavements of upmarket, professional London. The neat, unobtrusive office down a side street guided Nikki’s feet to the friendly receptionist who recognized who she was.
“Just give her a couple of minutes and she’ll be ready for you,” she announced, replacing the phone and gesturing to the thoughtfully comfortable chair into which Nikki gratefully sank. In a few minutes, she was courteously ushered into Jo’s office and Nikki smiled affectionately at it. A large old fashioned polished oak desk was flanked by a book case, overloaded with law books and just about accommodated the files and an armchair for the client. As Nikki took her place, Jo moved the file she was working on and greeted her with a friendly smile. The look was all very unpretentious and functional and Nikki felt quite at home in it immediately. She recalled that when she had discussed her forthcoming trial in depth, it was at Claire’s office.

“I’m sorry, Jo, if you are very busy……”
“It’s no problem, Nikki,” she interrupted her in her friendly way.” I’ve been working too hard on my latest case and I need a break. I can’t think of a better way than socialising with you unless there’s a business reason as well.”
“This is just a personal call. I just wanted to pass by and thank you for everything, for sorting out my passport and cleaning up my record. You’ve done so much for me.”
‘It goes with the territory,” Jo said automatically in an unassuming tone of voice before
consciously rejigging her words to fit her feelings moiré closely. “At least with my territory. I think you know what I mean.”
“It’s as much a load off Helen’s mind as mine. Everything that happens to one of us happens to the other and before we met you, we were getting stressed out.”
“You and Helen must be very close.”
“We are,” answered Nikki, a faraway look in her eyes.” We’ve been through so much together. It’s a million miles away from being attracted to a woman on a dance floor and inviting her to my place for a cup of coffee.”
Nikki’s wholehearted words moved Jo immensely without triggering jealousy in the slightest way. The way that Nikki described same sex courtship had a curious sense of foreignness, as if she were studying a culture just that bit removed from her own. Nikki was clearly lucky in her experience of love. By contrast, the only love of Jo’s life wasn’t her late husband, but John Deed, but too many barriers stood in the way of being reunited back to where they were, many years ago. Those boundaries helped her feel curiously safe. It was clear that, by contrast, Nikki craved physical and emotional closeness. Nevertheless, they felt like sisters under the skin.
“Where are you and Helen thinking of going on holiday?”
“Do you know, I really don’t know,” answered Nikki with a slightly comic puzzled expression on her face.” I’ve always wanted to go to San Francisco but Helen fancies Paris in the spring. She is of course a total romantic,” she added with deep affection.
“Well, I hope the US Government don’t get called upon to act as long stop in blocking your visa application, the British government having failed as wicket keeper,” joked Jo but Nikki did not smile at that remark.
“We’ve got time to work that out and in the meantime, I’ve got an interview with the Howard League for Penal Reform this afternoon. Of course, it’s only an interview but hopefully a way out of my present job.”
“That’s excellent news, Nikki.” Jo beamed at her in genuine pleasure at her in a way that warmed Nikki’s responsiveness to honesty.” I’m absolutely sure you’ll be uniquely qualified for the job.”
“I’ve got to get through that door. Just one more barrier to break through,” came Nikki’s slightly bleak observation.
“And you’ll make it. Haven’t you been doing that all your life, Nikki? I can tell a fellow warrior a mile away.”
“You mean sometimes you get scared too, Jo? I can’t believe it.” Nikki said, comically misunderstanding Jo’s meaning and revealing her nervousness. Jo laughed freely and kindly at Nikki’s misunderstanding as it revealed a very human slightly fallible side of her.
“You got me wrong. I mean a fighter like you and Helen and John.”
“How’s John doing these days?” came her animated reply after enlightenment dawned.” I keep reading the papers, expecting to see him on the front pages.”
“Hardly that, Nikki. He has been known to do interviews with the Times when he has been fighting a particular battle with the establishment and has to go public. There are rumblings afoot that the government is intending to severely restrict the powers of judges. There have been press leaks of this, which of course are always officially denied. You know the score of what that means. John is quite obviously Public Enemy Number One but what has puzzled the government is what to make of Monty and Joseph, the other two judges. These are dangerous times.”
Nikki opened her mouth wide. She clearly remembered the almighty row that she and John had fought with that female barrister and those two civil servants. The row was quite as spectacular as anything she’d seen at Larkhall, only in educated language.
“Well, I wish I could do more than cheer from the sidelines. Of course, if he ever wants some backup in an argument, I don’t mind helping him out.”
“I’m quite sure he would appreciate that. He has often spoken of you with fond respect and he sees you as a particularly kind hearted woman.”
“I’m flattered,” answered Nikki politely.
“You are in a unique position where John is concerned. Normally, he is incapable of being attracted to a woman without wanting to sleep with her. His gift of charm for the opposite sex is a mixed blessing for him and for those around him with the scrapes he gets into. In your case, he knows that there is not the slightest possibility of that happening for obvious reasons. The result is that he can safely admire and respect you. He has his problems in sustaining long-term relationships with women but I tell you that he has no problems with platonic friendships. Right now, he is under pressure and he needs all the help he can get.”
“You’re in love with him, Jo.”
“More fool me,” Jo answered Nikki’s soft words, shakily.” He was my pupil master at law school and I owe him his high-minded ideals and everything I’ve come to believe in. He is also a womanizer and that put paid to our relationship years ago. I could never be safe being too close to him whereas you will never have that problem.”
“John is for real and he has the courage of his convictions and for that reason, I admire the guy. The problem is that his circle of work is in the legal system and mine isn’t. We only entered the same world when I needed justice and we’re bound to go our separate ways. I did once tell him that if he ever wanted to call in on Helen and I, he’d be welcome.”
“John won’t forget that so don’t you be so sure of what the future holds,” answered Jo with all the certainty of the world. Her blue eyes were almost luminous as she was more of a soothsayer than anything else, or so Nikki intuitively felt.
“As a highly practical and successful barrister, I still believe that those whose lives are bound up with each other will end bound up, even in this world which scatters people to the four corners of the world. Relationships can come and go but friendships will endure. You will, of course, include me amongst your friends, Nikki?”
Nikki nodded eagerly, her emotions of joy rising to the surface. She felt incredibly centred and realized that she needed reminding from time to time of fundamental wisdoms of the world. It was as if she had been transported out of time, out of her everyday cares. All she was doing was taking the morning off work to repay a kindness and then going on to her interview. Instead, she had received a curious sense of spiritual enlightenment.

Cass read eagerly, her emotions of joy rising to the surface. She felt incredibly centred and realized that she needed reminding from time to time of fundamental wisdoms of the world. It was as if she had been transported out of time, out of her everyday cares. All she was doing was taking some time out this morning to catch up with some fanfic. Instead, she had received a curious sense of spiritual enlightenment. Thanks richard. Love your writing as always. You've developed the characters and their relationships nicely. Look forward to more.

Wow, I seem to have missed lots of great updates here, in spite of your thoughtfulness at going slow over Christmas. Don't worry about overloading the heavily committed, they only commit me every so often .... :)

Wow, Cassandra, your post makes be feel so good. This type of feedback is something that makes everything anyone could strive for feel validated. :)
I'm posting slightly slower than with cleanup time as I got the feeling that after I'd finished posting, readers were gradually catching up. The good news is that there is plenty more to come.

I like the sound of 'lots more to come', lots more reading about our two favourite ladies and John Deeds :rolleyes: Am loving this Richard, keep it coming :D

Here we go again richard. Loved this update. The first paragraph makes me want to pinch your sweet cheeks. You are such a romantic and have the writing ability to make Nikki and Helen so real. Gave me chills when I read "I didn't talk this way either, did I," retorted Helen, a grin on her face, her eyes glowing and her hair floating in the wind". That is definitely a perfect picture of Helen.