Hi, here we are again. We've escaped from the Diamond Club, leaving a trail of angry dommes and somnolent subs in our wake, so let's go home, and find out a little bit more about Sally on the way.

Thank you for your reviews, and for staying with it as long as you have.

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Tori sat quietly in the car. The song had ended, and by unspoken agreement they'd turned the music down to a low murmur. Eventually she spoke.

"Prospective mother-in-law?" she said.

"What?"

"In there. You called my mom your 'prospective mother-in-law'."

Jade glanced at her. "Don't panic, Vega," she said with a laugh. "That wasn't a proposal."

"Oh."

"Man, if we ever went on one of those game shows where you had to say where you got engaged, I'm pretty sure we'd win hands-down with that little story."

"I guess."

"Maybe it would have been worth it, just for that." It dawned on Jade that perhaps that wasn't what Tori wanted to hear. "I mean, not just for that, obviously, I..."

"It's fine," Tori said, in the tone of voice that said it wasn't.

Jade sighed. "Look, I love you, okay?" she said. "And I'll happily spend the rest of my life with you. But if and when I do propose, it's not going to be in the middle of some god-awful bondage club. It's going to be done... right."

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"'If and when'?"

"Okay, 'if'."

"I prefer 'when'."

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"So what now?"

Jade shrugged. "I guess we go home. Tomorrow I'll dig around, see if I can turn up anything on Caroline." Jade was surprised by how easily the name came to her now.

"I'll help."

"Thanks." Jade bit her lip. "I'm sorry about some of the stuff I said in there. I didn't mean to-"

"No," Tori cut her off. "Don't be. You were right, I should have said something, stuck up for you."

"Yeah, but you were up against your mom. That's a tough call to make."

"It shouldn't have been."

"And technically, I was lying to you."

"But that's the point, isn't it? I'd have done the same if it had been real."

"And if it had been real, I'd have said something."

"Would you?"

"Of course I would," Jade said. "You don't really think I'd have let you get away with that kind of thing if I'd actually wanted to do this, do you?"

"But-"

"I'm a devious little gank, Tori. You said so yourself. I let you be that way because I needed you to be that way. I needed you to be a 'true believer' because that was the only way we'd get into the Club. If we'd been doing it for real, there would have been rules. And if you didn't play by them, I'd have walked." She paused. "Or stuffed you down the garbage disposal. One or the other."

"You know, I like to think that when you keep talking about doing me actual bodily harm, you're joking."

"Yeah," she leaned over and squeezed Tori's leg kindly. "You keep on thinking that."

"Hmm. Anyway, we had rules."

"Not your rules, you dunce. My rules. Rules about us, our relationship, what you were allowed to do. Your kind of 'rules' are just flim-flam, they're only there to give you an excuse to get your freak on. They don't mean anything. They're pointless. They have to be."

"Why?"

"Because there's nothing kinky about following rules that do mean something, is there? No one gets a kick out of driving carefully, or filling out their tax returns on time. The fun for the dom is in setting and enforcing arbitrary rules, and the kick for the sub is in either following those rules, knowing they're ridiculous, or breaking them to earn their 'punishment'. It's the perfect exercise in futility, if you ask me, but then I can't see the point of 'Monopoly' either. Probably explains why I was so bad at it."

"Monopoly?"

"Being a sub."

"You weren't bad at it," Tori said. "I thought you were a great sub. Apart from all the lying, and everything."

"You said I was terrible!"

"I meant you were bad at it because you let me get carried away. As far as 'pleasing' me goes, you were textbook."

"Gee, thanks," said Jade. "I'll get it on my résumé. Anyway, it's easy to keep up the big act. It's the details, really. The little things."

"Example?"

"All right. Well, for instance, I'm pretty sure a real sub," she said, "wouldn't have done what I did to your lipstick after the whole Robbie thing."

"After the… wait, what? What did you do?"

Jade said nothing.

"Jade?"

A slow grin started to spread across the other girl's face.

The penny dropped. "You didn't!"

"Yeah, I kinda did."

"Oh, God. Please tell me you kept the lid on."

Jade's smirk said no.

"Jade!"

"I was mad at you, okay? You were way out of line. Besides," Jade said, "you were the one who kept wanting to ram stuff up there."

"But-" A horrible thought struck Tori. "Which lipstick?"

"Um…"

"Which one?"

"…All of them."

"Ack!" Tori spluttered and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. She glared at Jade. "I kissed my mom with that lipstick," she said accusingly.

The laughter that Jade had been struggling to contain finally broke out. "Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Kiss my ass', doesn't it?"

"You… you…"

"I'm sorry," Jade said, sounding anything but. "I won't do it again. I promise."

"You know, I don't think I want to marry you now."

"I haven't asked you yet."

"Well if and when you do," Tori said. "The answer's no." She folded her arms, defiantly. "I think I liked you better as a sub, even a fake one. You were a lot easier to handle."

"Yeah." Jade accelerated towards a red light at the intersection, causing Tori to shriek in terror until it turned green at the last moment.

"But I'm a lot more fun now, right?"

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"You said in the Club that 'Caroline' wouldn't have liked it," Tori said.

"Yeah."

"So why would she go at all?"

"I don't know. Maybe she didn't know what it was like. Maybe she was invited. Maybe Sally made her go."

"Made her go?" Tori said. "You know, the more I hear about Sally, the less she sounds like any kind of 'submissive'."

"She wasn't. Not in the way you mean."

"Then why..?"

"Sally liked pain, Tori," Jade said. "That's what she craved. That's what drove her. The submission was just something she offered in return, as a gift. As payment, if you like."

"To Caroline?"

"Yeah. Sally got what she wanted - a chance to push her limits, prove herself, test her mettle against an experienced domme - and in return Caroline got what she wanted. A pretty slave girl to boss around three times a week."

"They didn't live together?"

"No. It was purely an arrangement. They weren't in a relationship, there was no sex involved." Jade chuckled. "There didn't need to be. Sally used to go home and frig herself stupid for hours afterwards."

"Jade! There's such a thing as oversharing, you know."

"Sorry."

"And what about Caroline?"

"I'm pretty sure she didn't do that."

"No, I mean, didn't she want... you-know-what?"

"I don't think so. I think Caroline just wanted to do it for its own sake, to practice her 'craft'. And maybe to make Sally happy. She was pretty devoted to her. I think in some ways she was a bit lonely. Sally was the closest thing she had to a daughter."

Tori snorted. "That's the weirdest mother-daughter relationship I've ever heard of."

"Is it?" Jade turned to her with a look of amusement. "Is it really?"

Tori reddened. "Maybe not," she muttered.

"And maybe she had something to prove, the way Sally had."

"What?"

"I don't know. But I got the feeling from what Sally said that something bad had happened to Caroline, something she was trying to get over. Maybe she was trying to be as good a domme as she could, just to show that she could."

"You never mentioned any of this before."

"I didn't really remember. It was the name that brought it back. Sally used to talk about this stuff a lot, but I never really listened because I was too busy being horrified at the thought of the girl that I looked up to, more than anyone in the world, letting someone else spank her ass. But some of it must have sunk in. I remember Sally saying sometimes she used to break the rules deliberately, just to get some action."

"And did she?"

"No." Jade smiled to herself. "Caroline always knew."

"Was she mad?"

"A little bit. She didn't like to be played, or lied to, so Sally would lose her session. But the next time... The next time she'd change it up, do something different, make an effort."

"Why?"

"Because she knew it was a sign that Sally was bored, that she wasn't getting what she wanted."

"Couldn't Sally just tell her?"

"No."

"Why not? You just said that's what you'd do."

"Well I'm not Sally, am I?" Jade said, more harshly than she'd intended. "She wouldn't say anything, because she'd see it as a sign of weakness. She'd never ask for something. She'd rather get what she wanted by her own devices, even if it meant manipulating people she cared about."

"She sounds like a bit of a bitch." Tori said without thinking. "Sorry," she said, realizing. "I didn't mean-"

Jade laughed. "Don't be," she said. "She was. She was a cast-iron, stone cold bitch sometimes. Especially to me."

"Then why would you be friends at all?"

"Because she was there for me," she said, "when no one else was. And I owe her for that."

Tori stayed silent for a moment, a vision of an upturned boat drifting through her mind.

"Anyway," Jade went on, "what I'm saying is, maybe they got to the point where Caroline couldn't keep up with her. From what Sally said, she wasn't a well woman. Or maybe Sally insisted. So they went to the Club to give her a chance to experience something else, not knowing what kind of place it was."

"And then what?"

"I don't know," Jade said. "That's what we've got to find out."

"Right," said Tori. "So we start by finding Caroline."

"We what?"

"We start by finding Caroline," Tori repeated. "If anyone knows what happened to Sally, it's got to be her, surely?"

"I guess, but-"

"But what?"

"I..." It had honestly never occurred to Jade that Caroline might be a real, actual living person that could be found. She'd just assumed she belonged to the past, that she'd ceased to exist the moment Sally disappeared. The thought of meeting her seemed disconcerting. "Nothing."

"Okay," Tori said, firmly. "Tomorrow I'll get my dad to look her up. He's got all kinds of police data doohickeys that he's always on about, I'll ask him to... Oh." She noticed they were turning into the end of her street.

"What? What's up?"

"It's just... it's getting kind of late, and everything..."

"And?"

"...And I kind of told my mom I'd be staying at your place," Tori said. "Sorry. I didn't realize we'd be going on a crime spree, I thought we'd be, well... you know. Doing stuff."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Is it a problem? I mean I can wake them up if it is-"

"No, no problem."

"...it's just that they deadlock the door after midnight, and-"

"It's fine, Tori."

"...Really?"

"Why wouldn't I want you to stay over?"

"I don't know, it's just... you haven't suggested it much," Tori said. "And you drove me here, of course," she added, "which kind of-"

"Well I do."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Positive?"

"Yes."

"You're not just saying that?"

"Well, I'm starting to rethink it now, Tori, because frankly you're-"

"Too late! You've said it."

"Ugh. Right. Let's go."

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Truthfully, all Jade really wanted to do was climb into her bed with her laptop and research the living daylights out of Caroline Mulhearn, but it was clear that Tori was expecting something.

No. Scratch that. Tori had gone through hell tonight just to help her, risked life and limb, hung in there when she should have walked away. She'd served above and beyond the call of duty. Tori deserved something. Something special. Something... formal. Jade was well aware that her efforts at being a domme had been ad hoc at best, illegal at worst, and while they'd both had a blast, it probably wasn't what Tori had been expecting. So tonight would be different. Tonight, Tori was going to get what she wanted.

Tonight Jade was going to get her domme on.

She wished she'd had time to prepare. As it was, she was going to have to make do, improvise. But that, of course, was the challenge.

Of course they'd done this before, the night Tori had come to the house to make the video. But that had just been for fun - there had been a lot of giggling on both sides, and Jade had made no pretence of being in charge, letting Tori direct the proceedings even though she'd been on the receiving end. But tonight had to be different.

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There was no one in. Her dad was away at a sales conference, and her mom was staying with her long-suffering Aunt Janice, no doubt holding a conference of her own about mid-life disappointment and the ingratitude of teenage daughters. They went up to Jade's room.

"Go take a shower."

"Am I on the clock again?" said Tori. "Or are you just being bossy?"

"Clock."

"Right."

Jade waited.

"I mean, yes, Mistress. Right away. " She hesitated. "Are you joining me?"

"No."

"Oh." Tori stripped off her black sweater and leggings and headed for Jade's shower. Jade waited until she heard the door lock, and raced down to the family bathroom. Tori's showers were usually epic affairs, lasting anything up to an hour, but there was no telling how long she'd take tonight. Jade showered herself quickly, and came back into the bedroom. Now...

She rooted through her wardrobe. This, this... not that. This? Yes, definitely this. It was a little cruel to flaunt it, but then cruelty was part of the game.

She bundled the clothes into a bag and put them by the shower door. What else? She got down on her hands and knees and looked under the bed. Bingo. She knew some stuff had fallen under there when Tori had emptied her bag. She held the picture in her head for a moment, the incongruent eroticism of a happy, smiling, teenage girl proudly producing an arsenal of sado-masochistic weaponry from her bag and inviting her to use it. She fished out the couple of remaining items - not much to go on, but what had Holly said? Something about how people would pay good money just to sit in the same room as her? Well, time to put that to the test. She wondered what her own mom would have thought if she'd found these. Not that her mom was allowed in here, she willingly paid the price of doing her own cleaning for that privilege. She put one of her finds in the bedside drawer and considered the other, before pulling open a drawer and pulling out a pair of long, velvet gloves. She got to work.

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Tori hummed in the shower. She'd have preferred Jade to be here, but there was no denying the luxury of having it to yourself. She shouldn't take too long, though, Jade had seemed a little snappy. She wondered if she was mad at her for wanting to stay the night.

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Dress now? No. Make an entrance.

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Tori emerged from the shower eventually, wrapped in one towel, drying her hair with another. "I'm..." she tailed off in confusion as she saw Jade in a towel, clearly fresh from a different shower, a shower that she hadn't been invited to, or required in. She checked her natural inclination to mope, knowing how Jade felt about that, but her confusion didn't lift as Jade beckoned her over to stand by the side of the bed.

"Stand," Jade said. "Here."

Tori stood, as realization dawned.

"Strip."

Her towel hit the floor almost before the final plosive.

"Kneel."

Her knees followed.

"Wait."

Jade turned without another word and headed into the bathroom.

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She began to apply her make-up quickly, before realizing she didn't need to hurry. It was warm in her room, Tori would be fine, and a little anticipation would do her good. She relaxed, and reached for her mascara.

Finally she stepped back from the mirror, and stared at herself critically. Hair swept back tight into a neat bun, eyes alluring but not terrifying, and lips... She ran her tongue lightly over them. Not the jet black of the subversive submissive, but the full red of the confident domme - cool, detached, elegant, untouchable. She reached for her clothes, pulling them on, relishing the feel against her skin, and stood back, admiring herself.

"Jade West," she murmured, "you have definitely missed your calling."

Satisfied, she took a deep breath and opened the door.

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Tori kneeled patiently in the middle of the floor, hands palm-down on her thighs, back straight, head up. She was concentrating on holding this pose so hard that for a moment she didn't hear the bathroom door open, didn't realize Jade was in the room, until she heard the voice, rich and deadly, iced coffee and cyanide, dripping down her spine.

"Hello, baby girl."

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Well, shall we just draw a veil over proceedings there, and move on to the next day? Or does anyone actually want to see Jade getting her domme on?