DISCLAIMER: Bad Girls and its characters are the property of Shed Productions. No infringement intended.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Today - Part II - Nikki POV
By ratz
It has been about a week since I was released from the hospital and most of my injuries have started to heal up nicely. I am still a little sore and not able to go back to work yet, but all in all I am not doing too badly as it could have been a lot worse. I don't remember many of the details of the attack, just bits and pieces that don't really mean anything.
Helen, however, is still having difficulties with the assault, especially since David has yet to be found by the police. She has been hovering over me and constantly checking up to see that I am okay. I know that she means well, but sometimes it is just a bit much to handle. I can see it in her eyes and on her face that she is still angry about what happened, and that she still blames herself for not being able to protect me. I have tried to tell her that none of this was her fault and she seems to be okay for a while but then that anger is back and she is once again on edge.
I could see how tired and edgy Helen was continuing to get each day with running the shop and looking after me. I have even found her on occasion, that while in bed, she is just watching me, not sleeping. She would have a strange look on her face - it scared me. When I asked her what she was doing, she would just say that she had only woken up and that nothing was wrong. I knew that it wasn't true but I left it alone. The only thing that I knew I could do was to hold her in my arms until we both fell asleep. Helen not sleeping is not a good thing, even when things are going well. I needed to figure out how I could help.
I called on an old friend, Yvonne. I knew that Yvonne had her connections and that she could be trusted. We needed some security, some peace of mind for all of us, especially Helen. Yvonne had her daughter Lauren set things up for us. A few days had passed and when I hadn't heard from Lauren I called her up and asked if she was going to be able to help, and if so, when. Lauren had told me that she had people in place that day; I was shocked as I hadn't even noticed them - they were discreet. I let Helen know what was going on and she seemed relieved. That was a good thing - I could relax, and more importantly, Helen would hopefully start to feel more at ease.
Some time had passed and things were slowly starting to get back to normal. But something with Helen was still off. I knew that something was on her mind, but she wasn't ready to tell me. I was just going to have to wait for her to tell me when she was ready.
Helen had secretly asked Lauren for her help in trying to locate David. She had also made Lauren promise not to tell me about her plan and although she hesitated, she said that she would keep her secret. A week or so later, one of Lauren's employees (Sam) had let Helen know that they had located David in the lower end of town where there were a lot of drugs and violence. It was an area of the town that police did not frequent unless they had to. Apparently from the looks of the building where he was located and in his own appearance, he had apparently been there for a while.
Sam had asked Helen what she wanted him to do with the information, did she want him to let the police know where he was and have them pick him up or did she want to do something about it herself. After finally finding out where he was Helen wasn't sure, she just asked Sam to hold off in telling the police as she needed or rather wanted time to think about it what she really wanted to do. Now that he was finally found, Helen's mind was spinning with all kinds of thoughts especially the one of how she wanted him to feel ever little bit of what they had gone through. But then she thought of Nikki, and what she had done all those years ago in protecting Trish and how it had changed her life.
It took a couple of days but she had decided that her head (or the anger) was telling her that she wanted to confront him and handle this herself, she needed to do this. She had contacted Lauren and informed her of her decision. She did however need Lauren's help in pulling this off. Lauren asked Helen if this is what she really wanted to do as she did not want to have deal with any of the ramifications if something bad happened. Helen was positive that this is what needed to be done. Even though Lauren had her doubts, she agreed to help. It was decided that it was going to happen in a couple of days. The plan was for Helen to go to Lauren's house and two of her men would go with her over to the building where David was staying and deal with him.
For the few days prior to the event, Helen was even more secretive and uptight than before and I knew that was something was up. This was not like Helen at all. The day of the plan to make David know exactly how much he had changed her/their lives had found Helen in a completely different mood. She was still secretive and edgy but there was something else going on. As the day was coming to an end she was more affectionate than she had been in quite a while. I was glad but still a little confused. It was almost like she was acting that she might not see me or any of her friends ever again. I had asked what was going on and she got defensive, so I backed off but I wasn't convinced that things were fine. I was worried and scared, for the both of us.
Later that night, Helen said that she had to go run an errand and that she would be back later. It wasn't an unusual occurrence but I knew that I needed to do something so I decided that I was going to follow her. I followed her to Lauren's place. I was curious as to why she went to see Lauren and was about to get out of my car when I saw them at the doorway. It was Helen, Lauren, and two very large men. Helen was talking to Lauren for a few moments as the other 2 looked away to give them privacy. Lauren looked like she was asking Helen a question with a concerned look on her face. Helen nodded her head as if she was saying yes to something and Lauren still looked concerned but satisfied with the answer. Helen and the 2 men got in to one of Lauren's vehicles and drove off. I started to follow them. I didn't know it at the time but Lauren had spotted me following them and had called one of the men in the car. She told them to not let Helen know that I was following them and to make sure that "I" did not get lost. It was one phone call that she now did not have to make. She really did not want to have to break her promise to Helen and was relieved when she saw that I had already figured out that something was wrong and had decided to follow Helen.
Their car stopped out front of this dingy looking building and a man stopped by the driver's door to speak to them as he pointed to the structure. They had then turned to Helen; she nodded her head and got out of the vehicle. The other man stayed by the car as the three of them went inside. I followed them, trying not to look to out of place, good luck in that. I kept them insight still trying not to be spotted, so I could find out what she was up to, why they were here. The place was awful, it smelled of things I didn't want to even think about and I was glad that I wasn't wearing my good shoes for I had no idea what was really on the floor.
All of a sudden they stopped as they seemed to have found what they were looking for. The two very large men moved over and grabbed a man by the arms and held on to him very tightly - it was David. What was he doing here? Why is Helen here? What's going on? A lot of questions were going around in my head and I didn't like any of them or the answers that I was coming up with. I saw Helen move closer to David and she hit him across the face with an open hand, it was loud but all he did was grin at her. Her body language changed, and she was losing the composure that she had. She started to yell at him saying things like that he had to pay for what he had done to not only me but to Sue as well, and that he didn't deserve to just go to prison for what he had done. I started to move closer as I could only make out part of what else she was saying, that accent of hers when she got angry sometimes made understanding her difficult, and things were starting to escalate in a hurry. Her hands and her jaw both started to become even more clenched and tighter than they were before here screaming. Helen was losing all of her control. I then noticed that she started to reach for something, it was shiny. My heart almost stopped.
I screamed at Helen to stop just as her arm started to move forward. Startled, she turned her head and saw me staring at her, my eyes pleading her to stop. She dropped what was in her hand, fell to her knees, covered her face with her hands and started to sob. I ran over to her as fast as I could and wrapped my arms around her as tightly as I could. She just stayed there crying, not moving, and not saying anything at all. I was crying, as thoughts of losing Helen were going through my mind.
I turned my head when I heard one of the men make a call on his phone and said that 'I had arrived there in time and nothing had happened to David'. Who was he talking to? I then heard him ask the person on the phone what they were to do with him. I heard him mumble something like 'are you sure about that', an 'okay boss', and then he hung up. He then spoke to David saying that if it is was up to him, he wouldn't get off so lucky. He acknowledged to me that they should leave the building as soon as I was able to get Helen to her feet. When Helen and I got up and started to leave I heard what I thought could only be a few well placed punches and kicks that were given to David and then he groaned. I smiled inwardly and thought that you really did get off easy. After we got outside he told me that they were going to take him to the police station and that I should take Helen home. I smiled and said thank you to them and asked them to make sure that they told 'their boss' that I said thanks and that I owed them 'both' a big one. I knew that Yvonne had something to do with this as well as Lauren, and I owed them so much for not letting this become something much worse.
Once I got Helen into the car she just sat in the seat staring out the window, not speaking, tears still falling and looking defeated and ashamed. I gave her hand a squeeze and told her that I loved her with all that I have. I wiped the tears off of her cheek with the back of my hand and smiled. She looked at me and started to cry even harder. I quickly moved over and held her in my arms, kissed her cheeks, her forehead and her lips tenderly and whispered in her ear that I loved her and that everything was going to be okay now. After a few moments the tears almost stopped, I lifted her chin so that she could see the amount of love that I have for her through my eyes. Her eyes and face changed, she didn't look as lost anymore. We were ready to go home. We would have plenty of time to talk about what happened and what could have happened tonight.
The End