Author's Note: It's been five months to the day in which I first submitted this story…and since then, I've received at least four hundred hits, fourteen comments, and one subscriber. I've also noticed some good pieces of work floating around in this fandom, so…I believe some thanks and congratulations are in order:

Thank you and congratulations to LetitBeXO for giving this character a chance, and for creating a story that a hard-edged devotchka like me could sink her zoobies into.

Thank you to Dan Sickles for taking a moment to drop by, if only once, and also for beginning a look through Frank Alexander's eyes so that everyone can see how the loss of his beloved bride affects his outlook on the world.

Thank you to KissingFairies for an alternate viewpoint into the life of droogs, specifically the four main Nadsats and the devotchkas who love them.

Thank you to AshleyFiction for a nice battle of wills in her story, 'Bruises and Bitemarks' (which I hope will continue!).

And last but certainly not least…thank you to PandaLove01 for being here from the start, and providing a constant, welcome source of cheerleading for my inspiration and hard work. May this latest chapter be the next rung in what I hope will be a ladder of twists and turns that makes for a great story.

Eleven

Today might have been the last time I ever viddied our starry junkyard up close.

That was the messel that crossed my rasoodock as Jerome yeckated us past it on our way to the Courts. The hospital staff had let him take me away all too easily, because the two of us looked scruffy enough to be like considered father and son. I was a little bit glad that Em had already told me that wasn't true, otherwise I might have shived myself a long time ago to avoid the shame of it.

At the same time, I hated myself for not having at least one glazzie on the horizon long before me and my shaika raised our rookers against that Lydia Walker. We could have viddied Alex and those others coming a mile away, and so maybe ittied off somewhere else besides into that old ex-music hall so that we would not have been interrupted one malenky bit. We should not have been so gloopy like we were that nochy. If we'd wised up for just one minoota, we could have all enjoyed Lydia's favors and not viddied no trouble until long after the big climax. If I'd wised up, I could have taught my lesson and then moved on to the next bit of filly-time, no questions asked. Instead, we all got taken by surprise by him, and barely lived to tell about it later.

That was the first veshch I would have to keep in mind if I ever wanted to viddy those streets again, and if I ever got the chance to viddy them, also. Failure would not be a dobby veshch for me and mine, and neither would it be welcome for my house if I didn't bring 'em as much of the like shiny stuff as I dreamed about. I would also have to figure out some better way to enter those nightly bitvas, because swooping down on anyone and getting my gulliver bashed in was no longer the way to go. If I managed to get a light punishment today, and if such veshches were possible, I would find a better way to drat and viddy to it that my brothers got taught that better way. And once we had all become better and like able to properly defend ourselves…all the other shaikas would have to always look over their pletchoes, lest they found us standing there, ready to take 'em on.

The second thing to remember was this—never forget to make sure Toby checked the area out first, and foremost. I had done just that in the heat of my own madness, and so I could not risk falling short like that a second time if I wanted the streets all to myself. Before, I had succeeded at least half a dozen times on my oddy-knocky when it came to stray devotchkas like begging for lubbilubbs, or whatever they called that cal these days. They labeled it as 'hooking up,' of course, but for me and mine, we called it filly-time because it would never last very long with someone like me. Once I got 'em all drunk enough and completely off their guard, it stopped being lovely at all. Period. Half a dozen on my own, oh yes, and at least three or four times more in the company of my shaika. The vino was what we used on 'em if we were in a good mood, and if the soomkas angered us first, we would just cut to the chase and have our way with 'em properly. Only once had I ever gotten like drunk alongside the devotchka of the nochy, and as of today, I had long forgotten her eemya. Therefore, if I got lucky and didn't have to be locked up in the stripy hole forever, I would have to put away any messels of that as an eegra. Instead, I would concentrate on the old twenty-to-one as a means to my vengeance where Miss Perfect Lydia was concerned.

And once I had taken care of her and won my place on the streets, if dobby fortune was mine…I might just then go looking for Miss Purple, if only to find out whether or not she could have used a true Nadsat in her jeezny. Until that time arrived, it was off to the State Court building, and everything it stood for. Jerome had taken us halfway there, because I could viddy very easily that the Building itself waited in the distance. It was hard for someone like me to miss, because it stood out as a thin black skyscraper in the middle of grays, blues, and whites like some lovely obelisk in a museum. I could not, then, feel anything else but bolnoy to my stomach at the sight of it, because that could be the last building I went to before they locked me and mine away for Bog knew how long. For one malenky second, I imagined pushing my auto door open and tumbling out onto the road before Jerome could hit the brake; then like miraculously running away from the entire city and Jerome, too, just like that gloopy Southern Yankee malchick had ran away from those bullies in the sinny.

Then came the big Tower Bridge, and my chance at getting away came and went. I could not leave that auto unless I wanted a drop of several hundred feet into the freezing Thames River, and so off to my early death as well. It was tempting, considering how the infamous Tower of London rested a handful of blocks away from where I sat now…but I resisted, even if only a little. Besides, if there were two things I never wanted to viddy up close; it was a thin sheet of ice and freezing water right underneath.

"Ain't that a charming spot up there, Tony? Nan Bullen lived there right before they chopped her head off. Who knows? Maybe you'll be next!"

Jerome busted out smecking at his version of a joke, but I remained silent, even though I wanted to remind him that her gulliver had been shived off, and not chopped at all. I found that I had no messels whatsoever about that damned Tower, just as long as I didn't have to come anywhere near it anytime soon. It was that other tower that bothered me, that tall dark veshch that just kept creeping closer and closer as we drove. What else waited for me up there, besides the obvious State Court and whatever sentence they decided to drop into my lap? What else did those lewdies inside it do all day, besides slapping the wrists of low-level criminals like me and mine?

I didn't have too long to think that question over, because the next thing I knew, Jerome had stopped the auto, climbed out, and then started clopping on my door so that I would do the same.

"Out with you, Tony, and be quick about it. Not much time left 'til four o'clock, is there? Hurry up, now!"

It was a slow, painful gooly to the entrance on crutches, and from there, through the hallways until we found the reception desk somewhere around the middle. I tried like peering around to see if Leo or any of my others waited nearby, but they were nowhere in sight. Next came another painful walk to the elevators followed by a slow fall to the floors below, after which the doors opened with a dinging collocoll, and what should I viddy at last but that red red hallway and the white door at the very end?

Something about that door made me not want to go a single step further, oh no. Maybe I wouldn't have gone at all, if Jerome hadn't tugged my broken arm and made me wince my way into following him out of that elevator. Something about today told me that my most repeating dream was not about to come true at all, because there was no way Jerome would have dragged me all the way out here just to show me who he thought my Pee could be. There was also no way that rozz would have found out what I wanted that easily, because there was no such veshch as like mindreading or wish fulfillment in the real world. That would have made me happy, not poogly out of my rasoodock as I was right now.

No, I was going off to my doom, and there was nothing to be said or thought of it besides hoping my case didn't involve some big-time Executioner. I could only limp along after Jerome on my way to that white door, counting the times my broken leg hit the ground, adding it to the times my crutches did likewise, and making up a little warble to keep myself from losing it.

Thud-thump, thud-thump,-thud thump…

One, two, I'm coming for you…three, four, you can't hide any more…

Thud-thump, thud-thump, thud-thump…

Five, six, let's pick up some bricks…seven, eight, let's throw them straight…

…Thud-thump.

Nine, ten, here's trouble, men!

The both of us had stopped just outside of that white door, and Jerome had to be the one to open it because I felt a bit too poogly that a big red krovvy river would come pouring out of that door any minoota. I got to spend a malenky bit of time peering in at that Court room, if only to viddy the two pits that got carved into the floor, and to find out that one of those pits was for me and mine while the other was meant for the judge and jury, sort of. Miss Perfect got the place of honor right smack in the middle of the room, because the Courts always knew just how to honor the accusers. As I limped my way in and over to that first pit, I watched her glance up at me, cringe, and then hide her litso in her Pee's pletcho, as he had been like sitting very close by along with her Em. Horrorshow. Injured as I was, I hadn't lost my ability to scare any devotchka I came across.

"Let's get this thing over with, shall we?" Jerome wondered out loud, ready to start in on a malenky bag of peanuts as surely as any lewdie in the sinny. My big big Trial Date had begun.