A Beast and His Beauty

A/N: Just another story I felt like I had to put out there. Sorry guys, I am working up to updating RETURN TO ME.

Chapter One:

Raquel "Rokki" Mankiller was staring down the barrel of a gun.

"Tell him I'll get him his money! Please!" her mother, Shawna Matheson, pleaded. "That's my kid!"

"Shawna, you were told there would be consequences", the man known as "Debo" stated matter-of-factly, "You need incentive."

"Incentive?" the petite woman spat, "If you kill my kid, I will come after each and every one of you."

Debo laughed at the comment and turned his attention and gun towards the older woman.

"You got balls, for a bitch", he growled, "For real though..."

He was cut off mid-sentence by a blunt object hitting him in his left knee, bringing him down. He caught the bat at eye-level as Rokki went for his head. He started to aim his gun at the teenage girl when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. It was familiar and just as debilitating as the last time he'd been shot.

Debo coughed up blood as he laughed to himself. He didn't bring anyone with him to confront Shawna because she was supposed to be a "simple" bitch and the fact that she had kid wasn't really a factor. He could tell it was a kill shot and he'd bleed out before an ambulance came.

"Stupid ass bitches!" he roared as he shot off his gun.

All Rokki could hear were gun shots, her mother screaming, and ringing in her ears. She felt a weight pull her down and cover her, instinctively she wrapped her arms around what she knew to be her mother.

Debo kept shooting in the direction of the young girl. He was taking someone with him and he would be damned if he didn't finish the job he was given. The gun dropped to the floor with a thud after it began clicking. The enforcer fell down on his knees and then to his stomach. He wasn't about to choke on his own blood, but it was already happening. It was getting harder to breathe and his eyes were getting heavy. The last sight Cedric "Debo" Rogers saw was the teenage girl cradling a lifeless Shawna.

"Mom!" Rokki shouted to her blood soaked mother, "Momma!"

"Ro...Rokki", Shawna choked out, "I... I don't have much time..."

"Shhhh...shhhh...", the young girl tried to hush her mother, "Save your strength."

"No...no...", her mother gurgled, "Go to Evelyn... Evelyn Mercer... you remember her?"

"Yeah I go to school with some of her kids...but why?" Rokki began to sob.

"She's...she's gonna watch out for you", the older woman whispered, " I...I'm sorry, Baby Girl and I... I love you..."

Horror struck the normally unshakeable teen as she felt her mother's body go limp. Rokki crushed Shawna's face into her chest as she let out a gut wrenching scream. She was alone in the world and her mother's dying wish was for her to go live with strangers.

The sirens wailing outside and the door busting open barely registered until an officer touched her shoulder. "Miss?"

"Yeah?" a whisper was all she could manage.

"Are you alright?" he asked again, nodding to his fellow officer, acknowledging that the apartment was clear.

Rokki began shaking her head "no" as she closed her eyes. Curling up into a ball away from the world seemed fair but the searing pain in her leg and shoulder caused her body to shut down completely. She had the vague sense to feel herself fall backwards into the cop's embrace.

Next Day

Rokki felt like she had been hit by a Mack Truck. She couldn't even manage to open her eyes. Voices... she heard voices and thought perhaps she had died. Panic began to hit her once more as she vaguely heard the beeping noises. She barely heard a female voice yelling jibberish. It was only after a few seconds she began to register that she had to be in the hospital. One voice was starting to become clear...

"Is she alright?"

"Ms. Mercer, please... we have to calm her down", another voice called out, "Get Dr. Stone!"

"Ms. Mercer, I understand you are worried for her right now, but we need you to move out of the way so the doctor can evaluate her."

"Rokki!... Rokki?... It's Ms. Evelyn... I'm going to have to leave you right now but I promise I will be right outside...I'm not leaving you!"

The next voice that Rokki heard, she assumed was the doctor.

"It seems she is starting to wake up... make sure her morphine is adequate...She'll be in enough pain as it is", a male voice commanded, "Rokki?... Rokki, I am Dr. Stone... I am the doctor in charge of your care. I need you to calm down a bit, dear. I know that this is all new to you and you may not know what is going on, but you were shot twice and that is why you are in the hospital."

The young girl tried to calm down a bit, knowing she was in good hands, but the memories of last night's events started to come back. Her mother, her best friend, and her guardian was dead... she had felt the life leave her. Her mother was in with some bad people and she knew they had sent one of their best to deal with them. Her panic began to come back full throttle.

"We are going to need a sedative", Dr. Stone's voice came through the fear, cutting it like a knife.

Rokki tried to calm down because she knew she had to be fully aware in case someone came to the hospital looking for her. She couldn't be sedated. She knew the type of people her mother had gotten involved with. They could pay off the hospital staff and the police to make sure that if she died, it wouldn't be investigated. It would be another unsolved murder, or worse, it would be a natural death from her wounds according to a coroner.

This thought in mind, the young girl tried to ease herself down. She tried to remember good memories between her and her mother... she could feel her heart starting to race again. No... at this moment she couldn't think about her mother. That wound was too fresh. She had to think of something else. Ms. Mercer... her and her boys. Rokki was good friends with all of them and tried to look forward to spending her time with them.

The monitor that had been beeping began to slow. The doctor looked shocked as he saw the young woman begin to calm down. He could tell by her breathing that she was trying to control it. It took him a moment to realize his team was waiting for him to give orders. "For now, I think it would be alright to leave her be... I don't want to send her body into shock."

"Dr. Stone?", a nurse questioned, "The girl's guardian is demanding answers..."

"Let Ms. Mercer back in. I think it might do some good for her to have someone familiar.." the doctor sighed as he began to walk away. He stopped short and whispered, "You did good."

Rokki's eyes shot open at the response. She was not expecting to be praised for her efforts. She saw Evelyn Mercer sitting next to her. The young girl tried to sit up but hissed as her whole body rejected the notion.

"Stop it, Rokki", the older woman cooed as she grabbed her hand.

The girl tried to speak but there was no voice to project.

"You don't have to speak either", Evelyn smiled, "Just calm down and relax...You've been through alot."

Rokki tried to squeeze the woman's hand but all she could manage was to barely move her thumb to caress the warm hand holding her own to acknowledge her.

"Rokki, I'm sorry about your mother and I am sorry about what happened to you. I am not sure about the details, and they don't have to be explained at this time. I know the police are itching to get at you, but don't you worry... They have to go through me first", she stated matter of factly.

There was a slight nod from the young woman, acknowledging she understood. She was grateful to the older woman for being willing to take on the task of being her guardian. It was going to be hard and to be honest Rokki was thinking of ways to get back home. Home was in what seemed like a completely different world now. She knew at least there she could disappear. She couldn't put Evelyn and the boys in trouble.

"Ma?" a voice called from the hallway, as the head of one Bobby Mercer poked in. His eyes grew wide as he noticed the state of the girl in the hospital bed. His mother said that she was in bad shape, but he was not expecting her to be a ghost. "What the hell?"

"Bobby", Evelyn's voice was quick to stop his verbal assault of the situation. She knew that he was the last person who needed to see this. He always had a sense of street justice. "Leave her alone for now."

The eldest Mercer boy came into the room and walked right up to the bed. He was at a loss for words. She was normally a vibrant young woman, always laughing with his younger brothers when he saw her. Her eyes used to light up anyone's world that would look at them, at least they lit up his. They were a light brown, but he noticed the twinges of gold and green in them. She was exotic to him since she was not from the city. She had come from the South and it showed in her olive tone complexion that still held a twinge of being sun kissed after being in Michigan for over two months. Her dark hair seemed dull and was a mess behind her head. She seemed smaller than usual laying in a large bed. It just wasn't Rokki.

"I promise you, Rokki, whatever bad happened to you, I'mma fix it", Bobby swore as he gently cupped her face, "Just you wait."

Rokki managed a small smile, but at the same instance it worried her. She knew how Bobby Mercer was. He believed in serving justice rather than waiting for the court system. All she could do was close her eyes and enjoy his hands in her hair as he soothed her to sleep.

"Bobby... we don't know the extent of what kind of trouble she is in", Evelyn stated, "It could be dangerous, so we will have to keep a lookout..."

"Yeah, Ma, I know. I'll tell you something else... you taking her in, makes her a Mercer, and we protect our own", the young man swore, "Ain't nobody gonna touch her."

Evelyn smiled to herself realizing her suspicions were true. When she told the boys what she knew about the state Rokki was in, they were outraged. Bobby voiced his opinion more than the others. She knew he had underlying feelings for the sleeping beauty before them. He never talked about her the way he had about other girls, meaning she was hardly mentioned, whereas his brothers spoke nothing but praise of her. Bobby only ever kept something precious or secret to himself. Rokki was either a secret or precious, it didn't matter though, regardless, she belonged to Bobby.