This is an Unbeta-ed story so all mistakes are my own and if you spot any please give me a shout to change them!
Most of the characters aren't mine and no copyright was intended. This will contain mentions of spanking so if that isn't your cup of tea turn back now. I don't know where this story is going from here so don't be surprised if this doesn't get updated soon.
Nick's gonna be pissed. It's the first thought that runs through my head as I'm hauled up against the police cruiser. My knuckles are swelling, blood is dripping from my split lip and to say that my ribs feel tender is an understatement. However, to my delight, Brett looks way worse. His pretty, rich-boy persona is ruined as he is sporting a black eye, he can barely stand up and I'm pretty sure that his cheekbone is broken from the way he is holding his face. My hands are pulled roughly behind my back and are handcuffed. The metal bites into my wrists uncomfortably as I'm shoved in the back of the cruiser. The image of Nick's angry face looms large in my mind as the cruiser drives away from the sidewalk- but I still don't regret fighting with Brett. The jackass deserved it and I wouldn't take it back. Even after his Daddy's expensive lawyers make mincemeat out of me in court.
Nick's voice again says to leave a message as I phone his mobile for the ninth time. I'm standing at the booking desk waiting to be released from police custody. However, a legal guardian is needed to sign the release form and my darling older brother isn't picking up his mobile! I eye the policeman behind the desk wondering if he'll let me go upstairs to find Nick. It would work in my favour- at least in front of his colleagues Nick can't yell too loudly at me. Sighing, I dial the number again, hoping that he will pick up this time.
Standing in parade, Nick's phone buzzes for the tenth time that morning. Nick pulls the phone from his pocket and looks at the screen. It displays ten missed calls from the same unknown number and again his phone goes to voicemail. After parade, he decides, that's when he will call this person back. Oliver enters and Nick places the phone back in to his pocket.
The heels from my black boots click loudly on the floor of the police station floor. It's drawing the attention of the other police officers on duty, or maybe that's just me. Dressed all in black, I know I look out of place here, in the neatness and order of the police station. It is then that the parade door comes in to sight as I round another corner. I pause, suddenly scared to interrupt this meeting and ask for Nick. The idea to run for it appears as a backup plan in my mind but I squash it immediately. I'm in enough trouble with the assault charge that Brett's father- Mr Matthews- has slapped on me without adding running to the list. Anyway, Nick's going to have a field day with this charge alone, I'm not stupid enough to add another to the list. Stepping forward and taking a deep breath I knock on the open door of the parade door. The man at the front of the room dressed in white to the rest of the room's blue turns. He has a kind face, trustworthy green eyes that portray his kind and warm heart. He doesn't look frightening at all now up close- unlike Nick's old CO. Now he was scary- all looming muscles, jet-black flint-like eyes and a voice capable of pulling full-grown men to their knees. My nerves die down a bit at this man however, then I turn and find the whole room staring at me and the part of me wanting to run is getting bigger by the minute. "Excuse me Sir, but may I borrow Nick Collins for a minute?" he sir slipped out of its own freewill unbidden driven by the years of talking to Nick's CO in the army, and is the only tell that I'm very nervous. Either this guy is very nice or he is taken aback at the politeness of my request as he just nods, no questions asked. I step forward in to the room and scan the sea of faces trying to find one that I have known since birth.
Oliver begins his speech and assignments for the day. He's only half way through when a knock on the parade room door stops him. Nick takes the opportunity to check his phone- that is until a familiar voice causes him to look up startled. Nick's gaze shoots to the girl in the doorway. At 5'6, Ashleigh looks older than she should do at 18 years old. Her brown hair was in a bun this morning when she had left the apartment but now pieces were hanging around her face. A black tank top was stretched tight across her torso and her black skinny jeans were leaving little to the imagination. Two pairs of earring hung from each ear and her eyeliner, although smudged, was still dark; encircling both eyes. The overhead fluorescent lights fling shadows over her face obscuring and hiding her face. However, the shadows aren't enough to hide the bruise forming over her cheekbone and the cut on her lip.
Nick watches his sister as she spots him at the side of the room. Her heels sound much louder than they did this morning, but that could be just because everyone in the room has gone deathly silent to see this exchange. He can see the cogs in their heads turning as they try to find a link between this girl and him; they can try but no-one except maybe Gail will work out the link. They look too different for that, Ashleigh made sure of that.
As I move closer to Nick, I can see his eyes looking over me; the bruises on my knuckles are found by his keen eyes seconds later. The stares of the other police officers in the room are burning holes into my back and the side of my face as I walk. Stopping just in front of Nick, I hold out the release form. Nick blew out of breath and says in an exasperated sigh,
"What have you done now?" I don't answer. It's a rhetorical question- my knuckles and lip say it all; as does the sheet of paper that Nick takes from my hand as second later.
"I need your signature. I'd do it myself but apparently that's against the law." Nick's eyes flash to my face and I see that now maybe wasn't the best time to be being sarcastic or jokey. But what does he expect me to be, I'm standing in the middle of a room full of police officers staring at me. I'm nervous and I become cocky and rude when I'm nervous especially towards Nick. Usually, he understands and cuts me a bit of slack but today I can see that he is too angry at me for that. I bit my lip to stop any more retorts creeping out. I break eye contact and my eyes dart around the room quickly looking at anything other than my brother and the other people in the room. I suddenly feel very out of place compared to all of the pressed and presentable women in their uniforms. It has been a long time since I have been presentable let alone pressed. The need for a cigarette begins to burn in my chest as I begin to remember the days before I went off the rails and Nick left to serve his country; before Mum and Dad died; back when everything was normal, when we were normal.
Ashleigh's attention is drawn quickly back to Nick as his voice raises to a yell that echoes around the quiet room,
"ASSAULT! What the hell did you do to be charged with assault, Ashleigh?" He is trying to keep his temper but his little sister being charged with assault is just going slightly too far, even for his usual tightly controlled patience. The usual control that he holds over his temper is gone, her blatant disregard for the rules has gone too far this time. He has ignored the skipping school, the swearing, the staying out late and even the smoking and the drinking but assault is just going way past his limit of what he will ignore. Ashleigh's hackles rise and she spits back an angry retort quickly before she can stop or censure herself.
"If you don't know what someone does to be charged with assault, maybe you shouldn't be a cop Nick!" Nick has to restrain himself quickly as the urge to pin her over the nearest table and beat her ass with his belt until she is crying for mercy runs through his veins. However, the image of what everyone would think and their faces is the only thing keeping him from doing what he his instincts are telling him to do.
I sense that I've gone too far the minute the words leave my mouth and I begin to back away slowly from Nick. I don't usually have a death wish but Nick's anger had sparked my own in kind. Nick has his eyes closed and the urge to run for the door is nearly overwhelming, I try to calculate how far I could get before Nick catches me. However, my brain actually decides to work- if he wasn't going to take his belt to me right now for my insolent remark, then he defiantly would if I tried to run for it. We work out together, and I knew for a fact that Nick would catch me before I would get out of the parade door let alone the police station.
"Answer my question, now" Nick's calm voice broke through my internal struggle to make a run for it and that calm voice causes my stomach to twist violently with nerves and relief- Nick being calm when she was in trouble was bad news, very bad news.
"I was in a fight, Cops broke it up." Nick made no reply as he signed the form, his signature a scrawl in the neatly typed lettering. "Take this downstairs, get your bag and sit out there at my desk. You hear me?"" The quiet commands were quick and short. She nodded and grabbed the sheet of paper off of the desk. She knew this Nick- the in-control, giving orders Nick. She knew the consequences of disobeying him and she didn't want them, she was in enough trouble as it was. It was the new policeman Nick that she hated. At the door she turned. "I could be dying of concussion you know! But don't worry I'll try not to drop dead between here and the booking desk!" A small smile flitted across Nick's features revealing her much-loved big brother before he was gone again. Back to this hard, unsmiling, always working Nick. "Can you not die between here and the desk- it's a hell of a lot of paperwork." Nick's light sarcastic comment made his sister smile quickly before her head disappeared out of the door and the sound of her heels clicking on the floor faded away leaving him to deal with a room full of inquisitive friends and a very confused staff sergeant.