The Sweetest Girl

This was actually a little something that popped into my head at like 3 AM. Was listening to Pandora actually….and the Wyclef Jean song 'Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)' was on, as well as T.I.'s 'Dead & Gone'…and *POOF*. As usual, I own nothing CM related…just borrowing. And also, just like any other time, read/review…lemme know what you think…positive or negative…won't know what I need to work on to be better at this if ya don't let me know.

Winter in Chicago was insane. Being the 'Windy City' was bad enough on a normal day; but then you dump an ass load of snow on everything and drop the temperature down around 15 degrees for the daily high….just no.

Derek was back for Christmas. It seemed as though he'd gotten his travelling in at just the right time; the day after he left Quantico, flights were getting grounded because of inclement weather. He had told his mom that he was going for a walk around town. He'd likely stop by the Barfield house and check on James and his family. He would stop by the youth center and see how everyone was doing there….just in general hitting a few old stomping grounds.

As he walked down the street in front of his old high school, he looked across the street at the park where he and some of the neighborhood kids used to play or hang out. The old play-ground equipment from the late 70's and early 80's had of course been replaced; but the park itself was basically the same, they even still had that same old oak tree with the picnic table and grill close by where his family would set up for family cookouts when he was a kid, back before his dad died. Matter of fact, if Derek squinted just right he could almost see his dad out there with his grilling tools and that silly apron he always wore that Fran had gotten for his birthday years ago.

As he looked over 'his' park he saw a scantily dressed young woman arguing with a much larger man; Derek rolled his eyes for just a second. Hookers had taken to using this park in the off season to pick up men; this was likely just a dispute between one of the girls and her pimp.

She had to be freezing; her dress was short, tight, and red. The only thing that she had on that might give her any warmth at all was some raggedy black coat; it was long, hanging almost to her ankles, but it wasn't styled for this weather…it was more like something you would wear during the spring or fall, not in the dead of winter.

Morgan was going to let it go and not even stick his nose into it until he saw the man back hand the woman, sending her stumbling a bit, and eventually falling onto her hands and knees in the snow. At that Derek couldn't stand it anymore; that man was no less than 6'4. That little woman had to be an entire foot shorter than the man; she had to crane her neck to have any chance to look him in the eyes at all. From the distance that Morgan had originally been watching from he could tell that the woman was barely tall enough for her head to rise above the man's elbow. She still hadn't gotten back on her feet; she must have been sort of stunned a bit.

Running quickly over before the man was able to get very far away, Derek just jumped on him and threw a few hard punches; he landed one to the man's left eye…knowing that when it was said and done the eye was going to swell shut, it would be days before the man was able to see out of it again.

"If you wanted your turn at her all you had to do was say so. Because I like your audacity, I'll let you have her at half the going rate…." That was all the son of a bitch was able to say. Derek picked him up off of the ground and threw him towards the street, threatening him to go to hell. Without a second thought to the guy or where he had gone, Derek turned to help the woman stand.

"Ma'am are you alright?"

Dusting some of the snow off of her clothes as much as she could, she began mumbling that she was just fine. But Derek could hear her teeth chattering as she spoke.

Taking her hand and realizing she must have been nearly frozen to the bone, 'Come on, let me at least buy you a coffee."

"Fine." The woman shook her head, resigned that she wasn't going to be able to get out of this. "Can we at least go to the coffee shop on 12th? It's farther away from…" she suddenly looked up at the man who had helped her and her voice stopped, she seemed to forget the rest of her sentence.

"Jasmine?" Derek couldn't believe his eyes. From the distance he had been at previously he hadn't been able to recognize the woman; but now he was able to see her clearly. He had gone to school with this girl. He had been two years ahead of her, but he knew of her. She had always had a long mane of thick brown hair that seemed to hang in large curls; large brown eyes, the most expressive that he'd ever seen, and alabaster skin with rosy pink lips. She had damn near glowed back then.

But she was from the rough side of the tracks, even for his neighborhood. Her mom was hook on whatever drugs she could get her hands on, her step-father…well you could find him quite easily by hunting through the sex-offender registry. Kids at school gave her hell. Derek never went out of his way to pick on her; but somehow, right now, he felt like he had treated her worse yet. He had been indifferent towards her…he had never lifted a finger to do anything nice for her. Maybe he never picked on her, but he sure never helped her either. He had that momentary thought of how would her life had changed if just one person in all those years had done one nice thing for her. If anybody in that school had bothered to help her up when she got pushed down the stairs…or had ever stopped to tell her that she had pretty eyes or that she was attractive at all when she had someone throwing mud at her and picking on her for her ratty clothes. Would she still be in this cold ass park, trying to stand up in two feet of snow dressed in this ridiculous outfit freezing to death? Or would she have been able to find some other way in this world?

"It's farther away from what?"

"Actually, I have to go. I have appointments….." she began to try to scoot away. Derek merely closed his hand around her wrist tighter.

She looked back at him as though she expected him to turn on her, too.

"Come on, it's just coffee. How bad can it be?" He didn't miss the fact that she was looking in the general direction that the other man had gone in as if she was worried he'd jump out of the wood work and come after her again. "Look, as long as you're with me, you don't have to worry about him."

"That's awesome. But eventually you will go home, and it will be a Tuesday. What then?"

"Well at least you can get warm for a little bit and thaw out."

"Alright…."

"At the place on 12th like you said though."

While they were at the coffee shop, Derek actually ordered them a couple of sandwiches to nibble on while they sat and had their coffees, he was trying to give her as much time to relax and get warm as possible. She looked like life had kicked the shit out of her. When she started coughing, he could hear a rattling in her chest and became concerned. They had done so much talking about him…she kept asking him a ton of questions and wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. So he had spent the better part of an hour just answering all of her questions….then he heard her coughing.

"Are you alright Jasmine?"

"Yeah…" She saw the way he was looking at her, and decided to tell the truth. "I'm not well."

He took her hand in his, it was so small; her fingers were about half the size of his…and they were still slightly cold to the touch.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just a little bronchitis….maybe a touch of pneumonia….I'm not sure."

"You haven't been to the doctor?"

"Yeah, 'cause Johnny gives a shit." She kept checking her phone.

"What are you waiting for?"

"I was checking to see if the girl I have watching my baby was going to call me anytime soon. I owe her a little money."

"Boy or girl?"

Jasmine smiled, 'Boy. I named him Michael. I'm only moderately sure of who his father is, so I didn't have to worry about naming him after whoever that is. He's cute as hell though. He's never sad; he giggles and is happy from the time he wakes up until he has to go to bed. I always dream about having the money to get him away from this life, so he doesn't have to grow up like Johnny or even me. But we all have dreams right….You wanna see a picture of him, hang on." Jasmine grabbed her phone again and thumbed through the pictures she had stored on it, looking for a good one of the little boy. "Ooh! Here…."

She shoved her phone over to Derek. Michael was an adorable little boy; big blue eyes and dark hair…dimples. In the picture he was sitting on Jasmine's lap, grabbing for his little sock feet…it looked like he was laughing as hard as he could when the picture was taken.

"How old is he?"

"Six months…"

"Whatever happened Jasmine?"

"What do you mean?"

"After school…what happened?"

"Momma died of an overdose when I was about 19, I think. That wasn't too much of a loss. I mean, a part of me will always love her. She was the woman that brought me into this world. But that was about where her mothering instinct stopped. Even when she was home, she was never actually 'there', she was always high as a kite, tweaking, whatever. She didn't have time to care about me. And Bruce…he got thrown in the slammer a few times over the years for the usual offenses. He never does much time; with a wink and a smile he's out in a few months…if you're lucky, he stays behind bars for a couple years….but as far as Bruce goes, there's a revolving door on the jail and there's no lock. He's a slippery bastard for sure."

"How did you wind up doing this?"

"What did you expect Morgan? I'd become a doctor or a ballerina like all of the other girls? Hardly. There's only so many times life can beat you down before you stop getting back up. There was a time in my life I had thought about wanting more. But there was always someone there with a friendly shove….I was just lucky to make it out of high school with all of my teeth and ribs intact.

When we got out of school, I tried cleaning up my act. I got a little dinky job; it was enough to keep me fed. Then Johnny crossed my path. We went out on a few dates, he seemed nice. Then, somehow….it morphed into him trading me to his friends for money or whatever he wanted; it snowballed from there. Now I can't get away from him. I've tried reaching out for help before. Nobody cares. I'm just another sad story…a statistic. I'm just a prostitute and people in your world don't care about people in my world unless we're part of a case file."

"You could come back home with me, to Quantico…."

"No, it wouldn't do any good. Johnny would follow me."

"We can get him arrested…."

"Look I have to go. If I don't go pretty soon….it'll get worse if I don't go back out there."

"Come on, at least think about it."

"Why are you so concerned by what happens to me?"

"Because, I never did a damned thing to help you back then…somehow that's worse than if I had been one of the ones to pick on you."

"You helped me today. That's enough. It shows that you have changed and that there's hope for the rest. Now really, I have to go."

"Look, at least take my card. If you find yourself in trouble, you can call me and I will do what I have to do to help you."

"Alright.' She looked down and smiled as she filed the card away in her bag. "Thanks for the lunch Derek, you're one of the good people." She stood and walked over to him. Leaning over she kissed him on the forehead, just above his brow line, and rubbed her hand over his bald head…

"For good luck,' she joked as she walked out of the door to the coffee shop and back out into the cold Chicago winter.

Derek was left there contemplating all the things that she had said, all the things he had learned. She seemed so sad when she left, like she didn't really want to go. The walk back to his mother's house was somber for him. When he got in the door, Fran Morgan could tell that something was weighing on her son's mind heavily. After some slight prodding on her part, Derek told her the entire story of bumping into the sweetest girl he'd ever known.

Ok. So that's that. I know there will be at least one more chapter. I haven't decided exactly how long to make this story….but as I have said this one just popped into my head for no good reason. Please lemme know what you think. Smooches….