Title: Cuts Like A Knife
Author: Stress
First written: May 12, 2002
Edited and replaced: January 21, 2005
Summary: Part I of the Soul Mates Series; She thought that life couldn't get any better. She had friends and a family that loved her – she was taken care of and had no complaints. But that was before he came into her life. And, no matter how hard she tries to escape his grasp, he'll never let her go.
The Queens Newsboys' Lodging House
Meanwhile, at the Newsboys' Lodging House, Spindle and Rip had taken occupancy up in one of the two sick rooms. Eager to experience what she had been missing for the past three weeks, Spindle had wasted no time in dragging Rip into the sick room and stripping out of her clothes. Rip, before losing himself in the forced passion of the moment, couldn't help to think how different Jess and Spindle were. "Me 'li'l Miss' always looked like a li'l angel." he thought wistfully as he felt Spindle reach down to unbutton his pants while kissing his neck. "Spindle is just so hardened and tough but at least she's here now." He sighed as he felt his pants fall to the floor. "And it's better to have someone than no one, right?" was the last thought he had before Spindle took it upon herself to pleasure him everyway she knew how.
When they had finished, they laid side by side, naked, under a thin blanket on the bed. "I love you, Rip," Spindle whispered throatily as she snuggled close up to him, putting her hand on his bare chest. "I know that Jess had never made him feel like a real man," she added to herself, feeling satisfied that she, once again, was Rip's one and only girl.
"I...I love you too, Spindle," he said, with a slight distaste in his mouth. It didn't seem right to be saying those words to anyone else. His body tingled as he felt Spindle's hand travel down from his chest to his lower regions. Obviously she was raring to go again. Rip chuckled to himself as he remembered some of the nights he had shared with Spindle before he had met Jess. "I forgot what a tiger Spindle was."
Spindle, taking Rip's chuckles to be a good sign, sat up in the bed and climbed on top of Rip. Straddling him so that she faced forward, Spindle leaned over slightly and ran her fingers through his hair. "Are you up for another round?" she asked with a hint of uncontrollable lust in her voice.
Glad to have something to keep his mind off of the unpleasant news he had received only an hour or so before, Rip went to answer Spindle's question with a kiss. As he reached up to meet her face, he was interrupted when Danger came barging through the door, followed by two very muscular looking newsies.
"Rip, I just can't wait to talk to you any longer," he cried before ducking to cover his eyes. Danger had been waiting outside the door to the sick room ever since arriving at the lodging house. Two other newsies, Rocks and Shifty, had warned him about what Rip and Spindle had gone into the sick room to do. As the three of them had sat there outside the door, Rocks and Shifty guarding the door under Rip's orders, and Danger waiting for Rip to emerge, they heard grunts and moans that assured them that Rip and Spindle were having a good time.
After the moans and groans had subsided, Danger waited to see if they would restart. When it remained quiet, he had taken the plunge and darted across the bunkroom towards the sick room, with Rocks and Shifty on his tail.
As Spindle shrieked and ducked under the covers, Rip sat up and faced the three intruders. "Explain," he stated, his icy eyes sending chills down their spines.
"I'm sorry Rip, but me and Shifty weren't prepared for him to run in here like that," Rocks said uncomfortably as he scratched his head.
"That's O.K., boys. You two just go out there and make sure that no one else comes in here. Danger, what is the meaning of this? As you can see, I'm kinda busy," he said, gesturing toward Spindle. Spindle shot Danger hate-filled looks as she pointed to her shirt that had been carelessly discarded when she had entered the room.
Danger gulped as he saw Spindle's expression and understood what her point meant. If he wasn't careful he was going to get to meet her knife, personally. Fixing Rip with a heated gaze, pointedly avoiding Spindle's murderous looks, Danger addressed Rip. "I know that you probably don't wanna be disrupted or nothing but I gotta tell you something real important. In private," he added, trying not to offend Spindle, but making sure that Rip knew it was something that she shouldn't hear.
Spindle clutched Rip's arm when she felt him start to reach for his pants. "But, Rip... I want you to stay here in bed, with me..." she whined. She didn't know what Danger had to say, but she knew she didn't want Rip to hear it.
Shaking Spindle's arm off of his, Rip pulled his pants on and climbed out of bed. "I'm sorry Spindle, but if one of the boys says that it's important, I gotta hear what he's gotta say. Surely you understand that, right, my girl?" he drawled as he rubbed his hand across her cheek and smiled. She was so predictable; All he had to do was tell her that she was his girl and she melted. It always worked.
This time was no different. "O.K., Rip. I'll be waiting for you right here," she cooed as she batted her eyelashes and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively as Rip and Danger tried not to laugh out loud.
Once Rip had pulled on his shoes and a shirt, he followed Danger out of the sick room, past the bunkroom and into the lobby. "O.K., Danger. What's so important that you had to interrupt me while I was in bed?"
Danger's brown eyed glowed as he told Rip what he had overheard that morning at the distribution center. "So, you see, Rip, Jess ain't dead like Spindle thinks. She's just hiding out over in Manhattan so that Spindle don't make her dead."
Rip had sat in silence during Danger's re-telling of the morning's events, but he found himself no longer able to sit still, much less stay silent. "Then what am I doing here in Queens? I need to go to Manhattan and bring her back here. She can't hide from me," he said as he turned to leave the lodging house.
Danger sat, dumb-struck, as he watched Rip walk out the door. After sitting by himself for ten minutes, thinking about what had just happened and how Rip had just taken off to go to Manhattan, Danger jerked as a sudden realization hit him. "What about Spindle?"