Title: John Dillinger, My Saviour.
Author: Juuuuuustpeachy.
Rated: M.
Warnings: Violence, language and mature content.
Disclaimer: Anything to do with the movie Public Enemies; the characters, the storyline, places belongs to Michael Mann, Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman. I only own my characters and a few pit stops along the way in the plot. I make no my money from this.
Summary: Rachel McAdams is now homeless. She's sitting outside a pub, bloody, cut, bruised and crying. After a successful bank robbery, John Dillinger and his gang go to Chicago to celebrate. When they leave a pub, John and three other men are the only sober ones left out of the eight of them. The four of them get their friends into the two cars, John turns and sees Rachel. He approaches her. After finding out her name and some of the reason why she is sitting out in the street, he tells her that she's welcome to stay with him and his friends. What will happen now? And how will Rachel cope with it?
Authors Notes: This chapter is in Rachels point of view. I'd like to thank those who reviewed, and anyone who has added this story to their alerts and favourites. Anyways, that's enough talking. I hope you like it.
Love Bree.
Chapter 06.
I woke up at some time the next morning, and I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. It was unfamiliar. It was something I wasn't used to staring at when I first woke up in the morning. Then, it dawned on me. I wasn't at home, in my bed. I was somewhere completely different. I was in John Dillinger's apartment. The events from last night came rushing back. It flooded my mind, and an uneasy feeling washed over the contents in the pit of my stomach, and I soon found myself rushing to John's bedroom. I tried to be as quiet as I could and quickly opened the door to his bedroom. I did feel bad. But would he rather me throw up all over the leather lounge and his nice wooden floor? Probably not.
I ran into the bathroom and closed the door before I rushed over to the toilet just in time to throw up. My limbs were shaking and I was breathing heavy. I settled back against the bathroom wall with my legs stretched out in front of me. I stayed like that until I was sure that my stomach was settled, and that I wasn't going to throw up again.
I wasn't surprised when I heard a soft knock on the bathroom door. I knew it would be John.
"Come in," my voice was hoarse. The door opened, and lo and behold; I was right. But really, who else could it be? John entered the bathroom, and he knelt down beside me. Slowly, I looked over at him, and I could see the concern in his facial expression.
"You feelin' okay?" He asked me. The concern in his voice matched the expression on his face.
I ignored his question by asking him, "Did I wake you?"
"Sort of, but it's okay," he replied. "Now, answer my question, are you feelin' okay?"
Another uneasy feeling washed over my stomach again and I knew I was going to go to have another round with the toilet. Why was this happening? All I was doing was wondering why I wasn't at home, in my bed and then everything that happened last night came rushing back. Soon an uneasy feeling washed over the contents in the pit of my stomach and well...here I was. My thoughts halted as I felt a hand touch my back.
I had another round with the toilet; this time was worse than before, and John rubbed my back in a soothing matter.
"Now I am," I told him as I closed the toilet lid and flushed the toilet. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you. I tried to be as quiet as I could. I didn't want you to hear me."
I walked over to the basin and turned the taps on. I splashed my face with cold water and rinsed out my mouth. No words could explain how embarrassed I felt right now. I didn't want John to hear me. Like I said to John, I tried to be as quiet as I could, but it was a little hard when I was driving the porcelain bus.
"Rachel, you don't have to apologise. It is fine," He said as I finished up cleaning myself up. I turned to him, and he smiled reassuringly at me before he grabbed my hand and led me out of the bathroom. I couldn't help but think about how my hand felt in his. Wait, there was no time to think like this. I couldn't think like this. John Dillinger will always be the man who allowed me into his home, let me shower and gave me a bed to sleep in. He will never be more than my saviour and for some unknown reason, I felt sad about that. My thoughts were halted when I was pushed down onto the lounge by John. He let go of my hand and stared down at me. I felt anxious under his stare. Finally, he broke the silence.
"Do you want anything to drink?" He asked.
"Water, please," I replied, and he nodded at me before he left the lounge room. It was a five minutes later when he returned to the lounge room with a glass of water for me and something for himself. I watched as he walked towards me. He held out the glass to me, and I thanked him before I took it from him. He nodded and took a seat on the lounge beside me as I brought the glass up to my lips and took a small sip. The water ran down my throat, cooling my insides. I felt more at ease now. I felt better. I placed the glass on the coffee table in front of me and looked at the man beside me.
"I am sure you want to know what happened last night, before you found me outside the club," I said. John was silent for a few minutes. He took a sip of his hot tea before he looked at me again and nodded.
"Yes I would," he said. "But I only want to know if you're ready to tell me."
"I want to, and I need to. Otherwise, if I don't talk about it, I will go crazy," I replied, and John nodded. He remained silent as I took a deep breath before I told John my story. He sat there and remained silent while I told him everything. I didn't keep anything hidden from him. I told everything that happened up to the moment where he came over to me. I told him about my husband's change.
"Was last night the first time he...forced you?" He asked me.
"Yes," I nodded. "Before he just yelled at me and abuse me, but he never went as far as rape."
"How could your own husband do that?" John asked. His voice got louder by the second, and I sank back, slightly scared. He noticed this and quickly apologised for yelling. I accepted his apology. He took a deep breath to calm himself down before he spoke again. "It's just...I could not at any time do that to a woman. I could never abuse a woman. I can't even bring myself to raise my voice at one. I just can't. I know how it feels like to be yelled at. I know how it feels to be abused. I was abused as an adolescent. I was very young when my mama died and after that, my childhood was ruined further as my daddy beat me because he had no better way to raise me."
At first, I was shocked; shocked that he would tell me something like that, something sopersonal.
I didn't get a chance to reply as there was a knock at the front door.
"I'll be right back," he told me, and I nodded. I watched as he got up from his seat beside me and left the room. I heard the front door open, and I could hear him talking to whoever it was. I strained my ears, and I worked out that John was talking to another male. It was wrong to eavesdrop on them, but curiosity got the best of me.
"Come on in guys," I heard John say. Guys? Were there more than one? Oh, why does it matter? I'm sure I'll find out soon enough. The door was shut, and I could hear their footsteps walking down the hallway. I could hear two sets of clicking heels on the wooden floorboards. So it was a man and two women? John walked into the lounge room and following behind him, were three people. I was right. It was one man and two women. I recognised the man to be Harry Pierpont, but I didn't know the women. The two women were complete opposites, but they were both very beautiful. One was tall while the other was short. The taller woman had shoulder-length brown hair, which was done in loose curls and had piercing green eyes while the shorter woman had curly black hair that fell past her breasts and had pale blue eyes.
"Hey Rachel," Harry Pierpont said as I stood up from my seat and walked over to them. I stopped beside Harry, and he smiled down at me.
"Good morning Harry," I replied and returned the smile.
"Who is she?" The brown-haired woman asked John. I looked away from Harry to see this woman looking up and down at me. There was a tone of disapproval in her voice. The brown-haired woman was clearly not pleased that I was here, and wearing John's shirt and long sleep pants didn't help the situation either. "Some whore you brought home from the club last night?"
The word whore reminded me of the events from last night, telling me that it was still there in my mind. No matter how hard I tried to bury it, it was always going to be there. Constantly reminding me, haunting me.
"Billie, stop," John told the woman. So Billie was her name. I'll give her a piece of my mind. I stepped towards her and to my disadvantage, I was much shorter than her.
"Who do you think you are?" I found my voice. The word whore struck something within me. It sparked my anger. Once I started, I couldn't stop. "First of all, I'm not a whore. You don't even know me enough to call me that! Maybe you should get to know the person before you start throwing harsh words at them."
My voice rose as I talked. I was always the one to speak my mind, to stand up for myself but that was before my husband changed, before he became that...that monster.
"Ladies, let's just stop and calm down, yeah?" John stepped in between us and tried to defuse the situation before it got out of hand. I couldn't blame him though, but she started it. I was only defending myself. Was that a problem?
My thoughts were cut short when I saw the woman with curly black hair, and pale blue eyes step towards me. I looked at her and saw a nice smile on her lips. "My name is Alice; I'm Pete's girlfriend."
"I'm Rachel. It's nice to meet you," I said, and I returned the smile at her.
"It's nice to meet you too, Rachel. Now how do you know John and Pete?" She asked me. Wow, she doesn't waste time in getting to the questions, does she? "If you don't mind me asking."
"No, not at all," I replied.
"Why don't we sit down and have this chat?" John suggested and shot a look at me. I nodded at him, and Alice grabbed my hand. John and Pete shared a laugh as Alice pulled me with her to the lounge.
She sat down and pulled me down with her. Alice and I both shared a laugh together. I could see that a friendship was forming already. She was nice, really nice. Pete was really lucky to have someone like her. Much to Billie's dismay, John sat beside me. What the hell is her problem? I wondered. She glared at me for a few moments before she sat down in the club chair. I haven't done anything to her. I don't even know her. I chose to ignore her. I waited for Pete to sit down before I started.
"Well, instead of me going into the detailed version of the story, I'll just say this. Long story short, my husband sexually assaulted me and abused me. Once he was...finished with me, he pretty much kicked me out of the house after that. So I walked and walked, until I was in down town. I stopped in front of a club to take a breather. I leaned against the wall of the club and slid down it. I stretched my legs out in front of me. I buried my head in my hands and finally let out the tears. As the night moved along slowly, I stayed in front of the club. I was just too tired, too sore to move. It wasn't long until John walked over to me and asked me if I was okay." I told everyone.
"After I found out her name and some of the reason why she was sitting out in the street bruised and crying, I told her that she was welcome to stay with me." John added in.
"Yeah and well, here I am." I said.
"Taking in strays, are you John? It seems a little risky, if you ask me. I mean with who you are and anything. It's not safe for anyone," Billie said, and I resisted the urge to get up and slap that pretty face of hers. I so wanted to, but I managed, barely may I add, to ignore her.
John, on the other hand, didn't. He looked at her, "I didn't ask for your opinion, Billie." He emphasised the word your. "I saw her sitting against the wall and in the state she was in, I knew I couldn't leave her there."
I was shocked that he stood up for me.
"Yeah, I have to agree with John," Alice added in, and I looked over at her, and she continued,"But that's horrible that you had to go through that. I can't believe that your own husband did that. If I ever found out where he lived, I'd go over there and show him a piece of my mind. No one deserves to go through what you went through."
I nodded slowly, in a awkward matter. Pete saw this and changed the subject. He asked me, "So, how long will you be with us, Rachel?"
"I don't know until I find a job and a place, I guess. God knows how long that will take," I replied.
"Well, why don't you stay with us?" Pete threw the idea around.
"Well I am, until I find a job and a place," I said, confused.
"I don't mean it like that. I mean, stay with us, like stay with us. You don't leave us when you find a job and a place. You can travel and run from the G-Men with us," He explained, and I looked at him like he had grown a second head.
"What?" I asked.
"Yeah, what?" Billie asked. She didn't even bother to hide the fact that she didn't like the idea of me travelling with John and the gang.
"Don't what me, I know you can understand me," Pete started, and I smiled at that. "Listen Rachel, it's obviously not up to me, but I definitely want you to stay. I barely know you yet I already like your company. I can definitely tell Alice likes you, and I have known John long enough to know that he also likes your company. I can actually see all of us getting close."
I looked down at my lap as I felt my cheeks heat up at the comment of John liking my company. Did John really like my company? I asked myself. I looked up from my lap and said, "Uh... I don't know. It's up to John, I guess."
"Hey, it's not just my decision. It's yours as well," he replied. "Do you want to travel with us?"
I remained silent and thought about it long and hard. Did I really want to? It's not like I have a life to go back to. I have no home, no bed, no job to keep the food on the table. In reality, I had nothing. I looked at John. "If I decide to stay with you, and I said if, what will I do while you're out doing bank robberies and such?"
He opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Alice.
"Oh I have the answer to that." Alice piped up from beside me. I moved my eyes from John and looked at her. "If you decide to stay with us, you can spend the time with me. I will travel with Pete and the gang if you join us. It does suck when you're the only woman there with a group of men."
"But what about-" I was cut off.
"Billie?" She finished for me, and I nodded. "She doesn't travel with us. She stays here in Chicago."
It would explain why Billie wasn't thrilled for me to travel with the gang while she was stuck here in Chicago. It then dawned on me that she has a thing for John. I can't blame her though. He was attractive with brown hair, deep chocolate brown eyes and tan skin. He had flawless cheekbones, almost feminine lips and a perfect chin. Everything perfect, proportional, beautiful. John wasn't a large man. He was skinny and not too muscular. And to add to it, John was the complete gentleman. He was very sweet and caring. After all, he was the one that brought me to his apartment, the one who allowed to me shower and to get cleaned up, the one who has given me a bed to sleep in. If he was really like the public thought he was, he wouldn't have done those things for me.
Simple as that.
"But either way, it's your choice," John's voice brought me out of my thoughts. How long was I away with the fairies? I lightly shook my head and looked at John. What did he say again?
"Well, if all of you are happy with it, I would love to join you," I said and as Alice let out a deafening scream, I cringed. I swore I just went deaf in one ear. She threw her arms around my shoulders and hugged me. I laughed as I wrapped my arms around Alice's middle and returned the hug. When we broke the contact, I turned and looked at John. I was aware of Billie's eyes on us, and I felt a glare cast on me. I tried my best to ignore it.
"I hope you don't mind," I told him.
"Not at all. If I did mind, I wouldn't have said it was okay, now would I?" He grinned cheekily at me, and I rolled my eyes at him.
"But still," I said.
"It's fine, seriously. Stop worrying," he replied, and I nodded my head. He was right. I needed to stop worrying. He said it was fine for me to travel with him and his gang.
Even though, I may have been deaf in one ear from that deafening scream that Alice let out before, I could still hear perfectly with my other ear. I couldn't mistake the string of profanities that Billie mumbled under her breath.
So, like it? Hate it? Please tell me in a review. I'd love to know what you think. Constructive criticism is welcome. Thank you for reading.
Bree,
x.