6

"What?!" Slick looked at him angrily. "How dare you-"

"She never said she was," Diamonds Droog informed him flatly. "You know that, I know that, she knows that. I don't get why you're so insistent that she was."

Spades looked back toward the window. "What else could it be?" He was beginning to lose what little patience he had left.

"Slick, you seem to forget that he finds such acts of violence very distasteful," Droog reminded him. "Him molesting her would be too extreme, but the part about him touching her face is believable."

"He could have changed." He pointed out stubbornly. He wasn't ready to give up his belief of what happened yet.

"No, he's not the type to change his opinion of those kinds of things so rapidly."

"So what then?" Slick demanded, folding his arms. "This whole subject is just stupid. I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Of course he didn't.

"I know you don't but you're going to have to." the tall Dersite lit another cigarette. "and nothing you think will change reality either. I would suggest you talk to her again and this time you don't jump to conclusions."

"I didn't jump to conclusions!"

Diamond's Droog was blunt. "You did."

Slick turned away from him with a loud curse. He didn't want to talk about any of this anymore. It was stupid, Droog was stupid. The whole thing was just plain stupid and he felt duped, though he wasn't going to tell the other Dersite such a thing. He'd just hold it over him or ask him why he felt that way and he'd be forced to tell him why.

Droog lit another cigarette, watching Slick who remained stubbornly silent. Same old same old for this guy, never willing to admit he was wrong or anything else for that matter. "You're going to find out the truth anyway, whether you believe me or not," the tall mobster said calmly. "either from her or Lord English if and when you go after him to avenge her."

"Who said I was planning on avenging her?!" he snapped, looking horribly offended that Droog would even suggest such a thing. "That stupid bimbo is perfectly capable of taking care of herself! I wouldn't want to soil my hands or any of my knives on him trying to avenge the honor of such a smelly broad."

Droog too a long drag from his cigarette before responding. "Because you think no one but you is allowed to beat her up. You feel as if he invaded your territory." Spades started to protest but the other carapace cut him off. "If you say it's not true it proves you're lying. It won't hurt you to admit it."

"I have got nothing to admit." he said stubbornly.

The taller Dersite shook his head and sighed. He wondered how long Slick would stick to his story. The smaller carapace was as stubborn as a mule so it would probably take awhile for him to face reality.

"If you wish I could take her off your hands," Droog offered after another awkward silence. "Then you won't have to worry about her or the outcome of this incident."

"No," he folded his arms and shook his head firmly. 'This is my problem. If she wanted you to meddle she would have gone to you instead."

"Hmm well you both have expressed that you wish she had gone to me," he pointed out. "I was just leaving the invitation open."

"Well I changed my mind. I'm not interested," he snapped. "And put that blasted cigarette out!"

"Fine." he put it out on the ash tray on the coffee table. "Should I leave as well or would you rather I stay here and make sure you don't kill each other?"

Spades didn't find any humor in that and he made it plain. "Ha ha. Very funny, you know we don't hate each other enough for that and I couldn't kill her anyway and she won't kill me." he pointed toward the door. "Now you can just leave and go to whatever floozy is waiting for you back at your pad."

Droog sighed, turning back to his boss. "I'm going to go," he told him. "But if you decide to change your mind you have my number." he headed for the door. "If not; at least decide what you're going to do with her."

Before Slick could come up with a retort, his comrade had stepped out into the hallway and closed the apartment door firmly behind him.

Once he was gone Slick sighed and turned his attention back toward the bedroom. Maybe he should have a talk with Snowman about the incident. after all? Droog might have been right about him jumping to conclusions, not that he'd ever admit it to him, of course. He told himself he was only going to do this to clear some things up. With that in mind he walked back into the bedroom to speak with her about it.

"All right, wench," he said as a greeting as he trooped back into the bedroom. "I think it's time we had another talk."

Snowman looked up at him with without any emotion. She seemed to know why he'd come back into the room to speak with her and the look in her eyes hinted that she wasn't happy about it. The woman sat up and stared him in the face as if daring him to begin the discussion.

"Did you lie to me?" he demanded.

"About what?" she asked.

"About what Lord English did to you."

She looked away. "I told you what happened, Slick," she told him. "What else is there to say about it?" she rubbed her arm, wincing when her hand touched a sore spot on her carapace. "I would rather not talk about this again, especially so soon."

"Well, I don't care what you want," he responded, irritated. "I think you lied to me and I want you to tell me the truth instead of dancing around it like you've been doing."

"Slick, I didn't lie to you," she replied, her voice strained. "I told you exactly what happened."

"I don't think you did." he responded, sounding angry. "I think you purposely left things out."

"Is this about the fact you think I was molested?" she asked him. When he nodded she said. "Slick, I wanted to correct you about that before but you didn't let me."

"You said you-"

"I don't," she cut him off. "I said he beat me up which is what he did. He tried flirting with me and failed and got angry when I shot down his juvenile attempts at it."

Slick glared at her.

The former queen of Derse was starting to get annoyed and began to glare back. "Are you blaming me that you made a mistake when I told you what happened? Slick, don't be such a child! I'm really not feeling up to arguing about this."

"Well I think we should," he said, folding his arms. "and I don't care if you don't want to."

"I didn't lie to you," she pointed out with exaggerated patience. "You made a mistake."

But Slick was being stubborn and wasn't willing to admit that yet. "That's not what you said," he insisted.

"It was what I said," she replied, testily. "Slick, I did not say he sexually assaulted me, aside from touching my face. You didn't listen because you never do."

"I did so listen!" he snapped, beginning to lose his temper. "But you chose to be mysterious with your explanation and kept avoiding it! What was I supposed to think when you're acting so stupidly?"

"I'm not the one being stupid here," she retorted, her hands clenching into fists. "You jumped to a conclusion and are blaming me for it. I told you already what happened. I don't want to talk about it again, especially right now."

He steeped toward the bed. "I don't care what you want, Snowman!" he snapped. "I want the truth!"

"I told you the truth!" she shouted, getting tired of telling him the same thing over and over. "He beat me up! He made a move on me and when I shot him down he beat the living snot out of me! How many times do I have to repeat myself until it sinks into your alcohol addled brain?!"

He was ready to slap her now, becoming impatient with her, but she seemed to predict his action and grabbed his arm and yanked him over, shoving his face into the mattress wile at the same time jabbing her knee into his spine. She'd done it without thinking, her brain flashing back to when Lord English had assaulted her. She hadn't seen Slick attempting to harm her again, she'd seen the cherub.

Slick yelled into the mattress, squirming in her grip. She was strong when she was relaxed but the events that brought her to the mobster's apartment only intensified this, making him unable to do more than kick his legs harmlessly at air.

"Snowman!" he screamed into the comforter as he squirmed in her grip, attempting to break free. She was suffocating him! "Get off of me!"

But she didn't even seem to hear him, her mind being miles away at the moment. He flailed his free arm around until he managed to jab his fingers into the female Felt member's stomach. She gasped and loosened her grip long enough for him to break free from her hold and roll over, grabbing onto her and pinning her on her back. She yelled at him when he did and fought like crazy to get him to let her go. It was all he could do to keep his hold onto her until she'd worn herself out and then lay there exhausted.

Now he glared down at her, panting. "What do you think you're doing?!" he shouted at her. "What was that for!?"

She kicked at him, trying to make him let her go as she sudden;y gained a surge of new energy. Slick held onto her, even though she didn't stop freaking out this time or seem to grow weary. Eventually he got tired of her screaming and fighting and slapped her across the face.

Her white eyes suddenly lost their glassy look and she stared at him as if seeing him for the first time. "Slick..."

"Yeah, it's me." What kind of stupid statement was that and why did she have that idiotic look on her face?

The look left her face and she was suddenly angry. "Get off me before I make you less of a man!"

"That sounds more like you." he muttered, releasing her and standing back up. No sense going through another round of the psycho woman. "What is your freaking' problem anyway?"

She sat up, her hand over the side of her face where he'd stuck her. "That's not the way to get me to tell you anything," she said irritated and somewhat mortified he'd seen her lose her cool, she'd been doing her best to keep control of her emotions. "Now get away from me before I follow through with my threat."

"You can't threaten me in my own house!" he exploded.

"I just did."

He bit back a smart remark. Now was not the time to argue with her about that anyway. It wouldn't even get him anywhere and she might go crazy at him again. Instead he stepped back and let his mind process what she'd said and how she'd reacted. She had been right, he realized. She hadn't said she'd been raped, he'd just jumped to conclusions about it.

But why? What was the point of that anyway? Did that mean he actually cared about what happened to her? Nah, couldn't be. That didn't make sense anyway. Like he'd suddenly be falling in love with her, yeah right. What a stupid idea.

Okay, that was obvious. So why then?

Duh, I don't want anyone doing it to her but me. How many times do I have to repeat myself anyway? He shook his head. Why was he talking to himself anyway? This was moronic.

"Slick." Snowman was saying something again. He looked back at her, noticing her frowning. "As I said he didn't molest me but he might as well have," she sat up and rubbed her arms as if she were cold. "What he did has shattered my confidence in my own abilities."

He sneered. "You're the universe," he quickly pointed out. "How could he destroy the massive ego of an all powerful and immortal being such as yourself?"

"Slick, I'm serious." she looked angry at him for taking her lightly. "I have all of this power and it was useless around him. I couldn't even teleport myself out of there until he'd left the room! It was like his presence canceled it out..."

Spades made no comment. He'd canceled her out? How was that even possible?

A/N

Hehehehehehe there's more to the story than it seems but what could it be and how could he have prevented her from using her powers? Hmmm...