A/N: So, this chappie is just taking us along toward the fabulous climax…
XXX
Ugly could not take much more of this. She didn't understand how Kinea could smile so much. Her face was starting to hurt. And Spot was completely ignoring her. Well, he wasn't exactly ignoring her; he was just absorbed in his various conversations. He did glance at Ugly frequently and smile sweetly. Nonetheless, Ugly felt like a hopeless failure in the social department. She excused herself to go to the powder room, anything to get away.
As she pushed through the crowds of people in the ballroom, she thought maybe she should just go home. She began walking faster and faster. She swung round a corner and ran straight into a young man in a nice suit.
"Fuck! I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed, before she could censor herself. The man looked shocked.
He tossed back his blonde hair and smiled mischievously. "That's quite alright, milady," he said in a thick accent. "Why all the haste?"
Ugly's head was pounding, damn champagne. "I don't- I just want to get the fuck out of here," Ugly confessed honestly. The young men looked as if he'd won the jackpot. Who didn't want a drunken girl with a dirty mouth?
"Why don't you come outside with me, get some fresh air?" he asked. Ugly nodded. Air was good. She was suffocating in these crowded rooms. He offered his arm.
Ugly refused it. "I have a boyfriend," she confessed. He looked as if that was inconsequential, so she added, "and a husband."
Ugly followed him out to the streets. The cool night air felt so good. It was relaxing just to be on the streets. They were where Ugly felt most at home.
But she hardly had time for respite. Chaotic noises began to emulate from the front room of the building. All of the sudden, a crowd of people formed. A police carriage and several mounted policeman rolled in from the streets. Ugly and the boy she was with strained to see what all the commotion was about.
Policemen scurried into the building. They exited, pushing back the crowd and dragging a boy who was barefoot and wrapped in a brown coat. He seemed somewhat dazed and allowed himself to be shoved along. The crowd was uproarious. Men and boys were straining to see, women shielded their eyes while secretly peeking. It was a genuine scandal.
"Jesus Christ," Ugly breathed.
"What wrong?" the boy asked from behind her.
"That's my husband," Ugly replied.
XXX
It was written up as a burglary. But the "unkempt" appearance of the criminal led to questions of just what exactly had been burgled. One particularly juicy rumor revolved around the mayor's niece, a twelve-year old girl who had been sent very suddenly back to her parents in Boston. No one, except possibly the demented criminal, knew for certain, which of course led to even more talk. Even the clear facts were scandalous enough to generate weeks of gossip. The culprit was Roan Xavier, an infamous underworld delinquent with a sloppy drug addiction. The police carriage he'd been taken away in had gone only a few blocks before it wheeled around and headed for the asylum instead. A few policemen had been left with some very interesting bruises and it was rumored that one may have lost his ability to have children. In the end, the criminal was strapped down on a bed and began the magical journey of detoxification.
XXX
Ugly had not been without her brothers in crime since they kidnapped her four years ago. After the scene outside, she'd searched the maddening crowd for Spot. She finally found him and they exchanged shocked expressions. In the chaos that surrounded them, he'd grabbed her hand. "Let's get out of here," he said. She followed blindly behind him as he swiftly and powerfully pushed through the crowd.
When they finally got away, Ugly took a deep breath. They were both in shock and said nothing. It wasn't until they reached their penthouse apartment that Ugly turned to Spot, who had a concentrated look, like his mind was traveling a mile a minute, and asked, "What are we going to do?"
Spot shrugged. "Nothing," he responded coolly. Ugly felt confused,
"Nothing?" She asked hollowly. Spot was walking over to the bar to pour himself a drink. He sighed in exasperation.
"Come on, Ugly, we all knew something like this was coming. Roan is getting to be kind of…" he motioned with his hands and took a sip of whiskey. "Maybe this will be good for him. Clean him up." Ugly didn't reply. She knew what he was saying made sense, but it still felt wrong. "Anyway," Spot continued softly, "Kinea thinks he was dragging down our reputation, and I think she's right." Ugly couldn't even respond. She couldn't believe he'd just said that. But the last thing she wanted to do was get into an argument about Kinea. She wanted to get into bed and go to sleep and maybe when she woke up, this whole night would have never happened. She couldn't deal with Spot right now. Everything seemed upside-down somehow but she couldn't really explain it. She also couldn't help but think that it all had something to do with Kinea. But Ugly was just too tired to care.
She shrugged. "I'm going to sleep," she said.
She crawled into bed and fell asleep immediately. But it didn't offer the comfort she had hoped. She awoke in the middle of the night in a sweat. Spot stirred beside her. He rolled around in the bed.
"Are you okay?" he asked sleepily.
"Where's Kyro?" Ugly asked.
Spot shrugged sleepily. "I don't know. I'm sure he's fine. Just go to sleep okay?" Spot was back asleep in a matter of minutes, but Ugly was wide awake. She was tempted to run over to Katie's right that minute, wake the whole household and demand where he'd disappeared to. A million thoughts galloped through her head. In particular, she couldn't stop thinking about Katie's dead husband.
XXX
The next three weeks were some of the worst in Ugly's life. And that was saying something. She felt out of sorts and adrift, but she kept trying to act like everything was fine. It was like she was playing a part. The supportive girlfriend; going to parties, smiling, doing routine jobs with Spot. She felt like she was just going through the motions; her mind was elsewhere. Spot seemed suspicious but unsure how to deal with it. He figured she just missed her friends. He had always known Roan and Kyro were important to her; that was part of the reason he'd joined their gang in the first place. But he felt hurt by the fact that he apparently wasn't enough for her.
And of course they never talked about it. Spot was too proud to admit that he felt she was distancing him and Ugly was too confused to sort it out. She also had a slight twinge of betrayal as they continued to run into Kinea and Katie everywhere. Kinea would smile her phony smile and then drag Spot around or whisper confidentially in his ear. Katie was always trying to get Ugly to "have fun" and Ugly was becoming increasingly annoyed with her. The morning after the arrest, Ugly had gone straight to Katie's apartment to ask about Kyro. Katie claimed he'd disappeared after they'd returned to the party. She seemed genuinely irritated by it and had no idea where he'd gone.
Ugly wanted more than anything to talk to Spot about the strange feeling she was getting about Kinea and Katie, but every time she tried to bring it up, he just brushed it off like it was nothing. He'd tell her to not be jealous, he only cared about her, Kinea was just helping him with work and blah, blah, blah. Ugly had grown tired of it all. She had no one to talk to. Her "family" was in the insane asylum/missing, her boyfriend was spending way too much time with a suspicious girl and the only person who wanted to befriend her may or may not have killed her husband. All in all, it was a rather fucked up situation.
XXX
The maid was listening in again. It was the same voices as before and an equally intense conversation.
"So, it's on its way," the male voice said. There was a pause. "You really think you can handle this?"
"Of course I can," hissed the female voice. "How long until it gets here?"
"A month, maybe less."
"Piece of cake," she said simply. "Only one month and it's all ours."
Once again, the maid heard approaching footsteps and ran, eager to share this new bit of interesting conversation with the rest of the household.
XXX
Ugly had decided it was time for a conjugal visit. She needed help and in the past, Roan had managed to get her out of some tricky situations. She knew there relationship had been strained lately, but he was still her friend, after all. And he apparently knew Kinea pretty well. Maybe he could tell her something incriminating, and then she could tell Spot and he'd stay the hell away from her. Ugly was becoming desperate.
She exited the hired cart and approached the asylum with trepidation, which she imagined was not uncommon. She held in her hand her marriage license, which she'd dug out of Roan's drawers. He had scrawled on it in his messy hand "leverage." It was that kind of cold, hard thinking that Ugly hoped could get her out of this bad situation.
The asylum was in a dilapidated building that reeked worse than anything Ugly could think of. She went through paperwork at the front desk. The man behind the counter wore a bleached white uniform and had a large under-bite. After she'd filled out some seemingly arbitrary forms, another man in white entered the waiting room.
"Mrs. Xavier?" He asked, looking around the room as if Ugly wasn't the only visitor there. He had a big face and looked as if he was trying desperately to keep a positive attitude. It didn't seem to be working.
She followed him down a long and dim hallway with many doors. Ugly could hear moaning and thrashing through the rotting walls. She had gooseflesh and didn't even realize the man was talking to her. "...I just hope he doesn't upset you. We've found him to be quite delusional and violent since he's come down from the drugs. It looks like we'll have to hold onto him for a while. There's still hope, though," he smiled wearily. "The court date is in a week, as I'm sure you know. I will, of course, stand behind the insanity plea." They had reached a door and the man was fiddling with his keys. "We try to have the utmost amount of caution with visitors, so he's just been sedated. He may be a bit groggy." The man looked at her, worry etched in his face. It was obvious that he felt terrible that a dear little wife would have to see her husband in such a state. If only he knew, thought Ugly.
He opened the door and Ugly followed him into the room. It was small and bare; only a table and three chairs, one of which was occupied.
"If it isn't my dearest wife," Roan sounded like he was really, really stoned. He looked blissfully relaxed. His dark hair was tousled and his hands were cuffed.
The doctor offered her a chair and sat beside her. Ugly looked at Roan, trying to work out exactly how to broach the subject of Kinea with the doctor in the room. She thought that Roan looked better. He was still pale as death but looked as if he might have had a meal at some point.
Roan, always eager to hear the sound of his own voice, began talking away. "I hope you haven't missed me, dear. Although I suppose you've missed the sex," apparently they hadn't sedated his sense of humor. He looked at the doctor. "You wouldn't know it, Benny, but this kid's a wench in the sack." He turned back to Ugly. "Have you met Benny? He's been a real help, really enlightening. He helped me realize that I've been living in an unhealthy situation. And that I'm delusional and violent. I have a bad temper, did you know that? Know what else I like about Benny? He's real gentle when he gives it up the ass." The doctor turned red and looked at Ugly apologetically.
Ugly cleared her throat and Roan glared at her. It was the first time that it crossed her mind that he might not actually be happy to see her. "There's…umm…some trouble at home…with, um, Kinea," Ugly said.
Roan was definitely not happy. He'd just spent three weeks in absolute hell coming down from heroin and here his supposed friend had showed up only to get his help with her "problems." He had a very strong and sudden urge to show her just what a real problem was. At least it made what he was about to do a bit easier.
He sat calmly for a moment, meditating. Then, he sprang from his chair toward Ugly. He slid a hand up her leg and pulled her knife from her garter. In a flickering, his chained hands were around her neck, and the knife was at her throat. The doctor was on his feet with his hands in the air.
"Now, Roan," he was saying, "You know you don't want to do that, that's your wife."
"Fuck my wife!" Roan snarled, his voice was clear and sharp. He didn't seem drugged up now. "If you don't give me your fucking keys, I swear I'll slit her throat." Roan pushed the knife against her skin. Ugly felt a sharp pain as her skin tore open and blood slid down her neck.
"Please!" She said, to both the doctor and Roan. She wasn't just playing along, she honestly feared for her life.
The doctor fumbled with the keys. "Give them to her," Roan ordered. He placed them in Ugly's shaking hands. "Stand back," he ordered him. "Now, darling, get these things of me," he motioned with the cuffs. The knife was still pressed against her neck as she searched for the key and unlocked the cuffs. They fell to the floor. "C'mon then darling," Roan said, pulling her toward the door. He then pushed ahead, grabbed her hand and they ran down the hallway and through the sitting room to the outside. Ugly could hear someone yelling to call the police. Her carriage was waiting on the street. Roan let go of Ugly and jumped up to the driver's seat. "Sorry, sweetheart," he said to the driver as he knocked him off the carriage. Acting on impulse, Ugly jumped up next to him as he grabbed the reins and smacked the horses into a gallop. They raced through the busy New York streets at a breakneck speed. Roan was concentrating intently. Ugly was trying her best to hold on. After a long and twisted ride, they made it out of the crowded center and Roan pulled the horses to a stop. He gave Ugly an irritated look and hopped off the carriage. She jumped off and followed him. She was rather irritated herself, seeing as he'd just nearly slit her throat.
"Where are you going?" She demanded. He was walking quickly. The few people on the streets looked at them curiously. Roan was, after all, still wearing his asylum-issued clothing.
"I was serious about what I said back there. I'm in an unhealthy situation. I need to get away, start a new life or something," he said, quickening his pace.
"I thought you'd been sedated?" Ugly said, struggling to keep up.
Roan smiled. "Honey, it would take a lot more drugs then that to get me loaded."
"Where are you going?" She asked. He shrugged.
"I gotta lay low for a while. I'm a fucking wanted man again."
"Will you leave the city?" She asked.
He stopped and looked at her like she was crazy. Then he sighed in a very un-Roan-like way. "Look, kid, I think you and Conlon have got a great thing going, but it's not really…me. We had our fun but, I'd really rather just pretend like we never met."
"What?" Ugly asked, confused.
"I mean, this is the end of the line for us. This is good-bye." Ugly was extremely confused. What the fuck was he talking about? He never wanted to see her again? But weren't they friends? You weren't supposed to do that to your friends.
"What about Kyro?" She suddenly remembered. "Have you seen him at all?"
Roan shook his head. "He's probably disappeared too. He gets it. This is the way it goes, baby. Relationships have their natural course. People need each other and then they don't. That's it." He looked like he couldn't wait to get away from her. Ugly couldn't understand what she'd done wrong. She'd never known Roan to make sense, but she'd still assumed he'd always be there, and Kyro, too. They were her family.
"But I need your help!" She pleaded. She couldn't let him go; she needed him to save her. Just one last time. She grabbed his hand in desperation.
He flung her hands off, his temper flaring. "Get the fuck off of me, okay? Just get the fuck away!" He demanded. Ugly was shocked. But she suddenly understood. It was written clearly in his eyes. Roan hated her. She'd been suspecting it for the past several months. Perhaps now that the drugs had been stripped away, his true feelings could no longer be harnessed. And she felt responsible. Ever since Spot had come along, she had neglected him and Kyro. She had ignored them, taken them for granted. She had acted like she was better than they were. She had been so heady and happy in love. And now that she was in trouble, now that she needed them, she suddenly wanted their friendship again. Ugly saw it all so clearly and she felt terrible.
"I'm sorry, Roan, I'm so sorry," she sputtered. Her unhappiness with herself bubbled over so much that she couldn't even look at him. She turned and ran through the streets. She ran and she ran with her skirt furling out behind her. She ran to her only friend in the world. He was the only one who could save her now.
XXX
Aye Caramba! Why am I always left feeling sorry for Ugly? Get some backbone girl!
So, hmmm…will Spotty-kins be able to save his lady love? Even though he is a part of the problem?
And what about Roan and his "new life"? Is he going to clean up his act or just find a new way to threaten and torment people?
And where has Kyro gone? Will he be back?
And what is coming in a "month or less"? What does it mean for our characters?
And why doesn't Kinea just die in a freak accident?
And is the gang really better together, or is Roan right? Will Ugly be able to face Kinea and figure out what is so suspicious about her alone? Will she finally confront Spot and not let him distract her with his cuteness?
Either way, things are going to start to get more exciting and Spot-ilicious I promise…
PS People who review are pretty! (Thank God for stats anyway!)