A/N: Apologies for the extremely long time I've taken. Updates much more frequent from now though. I recommend a re-read of at least the last three chapters. They do all mould together.
Please note: THIS CHAPTER IS RATED K+ / T (leaning more towards the teen side). Please check out the meaning of these abbreviations if you do not know them already BEFORE READING THIS CHAPTER.
Thanks
Summary:
Ronnie's lead singer of Roxy's Albert Square band
Danielle plans to take driving lessons with Patrick
Things with her father are a little hazy and she left awkwardly
Danielle plans on helping Ben and Abbi with their violin practice.
Ronnie/Ricky mysterious envelope
Scariest sound Danielle has ever heard. Note all her reactions at the service station and here.
********
"Alright, for fuck's sake I'm coming!" Roxy barged down the beige-carpeted stairs of The Queen Victoria, tying the belt of her bath robe in a neat bow as she approached the commencing steps. She pushed open the creaky door which separated the Mitchell's place of residence from the soulful, heartily pub house. Taking large strides around the bar, she ran her fingers through her hair and wiped the moisture away on her fluffy pink gown. On careful approach, she cautiously unbolted the grand entrance door, pausing to listen out for any clues as to who dared to shake the natural morning ambience developing from the many members occupying the nest. With a swift tug, she gently swung the door open.
"Blimey, what do you lot want." Her eyes spanned from left to right, widening as they focused on the people before her. They were the type of people that instinctively made you feel guilty.
"We need to speak with Veronica Mitchell."
******
"Dan there's a cuppa down here for ya!" Stacey had reluctantly decided to extend Danielle's holiday by a further day. What could she say? She was becoming too soft in her old age. Lord knew what time the girl had got in yesterday. Stacey had barely managed to get a word in edgeways since her friends return from Telford.
Danielle stumbled down the Slater's stair case. She placed her hand on her chest, questioning herself as to why her heart refused to reduce the rate of its beating ever since she'd woken up. It was common knowledge to her that there would be an adjustment period after visiting her father in her home town, but being with Ronnie yesterday had given her mind no time to give it any thought. It seemed that her heart had finally caught up with her.
"I'm guessing it's my turn to open up today right?" A teenage blonde stumbled into the kitchen, grateful for the steaming cup and slice of toast set neatly on the table before her.
Stacey sighed. "You alright Dan? You don't seem yourself." A wordless response came in the form of a nod.
The bold brunette cleared her throat "Why don't you join me in the afternoon eh? Can't have a mess like you scaring all my customers away can I?" Stacey ruffled Danielle's disheveled hair as the blonde took a seat at the table. "I'll see you later Dan. Say 'hi' to miraculous Mitchell from me won't you?" She giggled at Danielle's playful annoyance as she approached the front door.
Danielle swung around. "And what makes you think I'm seeing Ronnie this morning?"
"Ha!" Stacey slammed the front door in her traditional, attention drawing manner. Her one-worded answer and swift exit left a young girl thinking. Danielle smiled to herself, not being able to fully accept how open she could be about meeting Ronnie in these better days. The previous night had been a magnificent, blissful dream and Danielle was thankful for every moment.
Just as she was about to rummage her robe for her phone, there was a jingle at the front door moments before it swung open. "Dan!"
The teenager jumped at the sudden bawling disturbance, wanting to make her location known as soon as possible so that Stacey didn't wake the entire square.
"Have you talked to Ronnie yet this morning?" Only moments before had Stacey Slater left the building. Danielle rolled her eyes in anger and pivoted in her seat once again.
"Look I get that we've been spending quite some time together but try to understand Sta…"
"No Dan, I mean, do you know what's going on outside?" Stacey swung around to face her seated companion, letting her keys crash to the table, the red and white checked cloth preventing any scratches to the cheap marble underneath.
Danielle squinted with her eyes as confusion set in, naturally manipulating her small face so it scrunched itself. "What?"
"Dan there's at least three police cars outside the pub." Stacey worriedly watched for Danielle's reaction. It was strange how they were both of similar age, yet Danielle always seemed a child in Stacey's view.
Her eyes now wide open; the shorter girl jumped from her seat, slowly walked into the living room and threw the net curtain over her head. Her hand flew up to her chest as a vain attempt to calm her heart. Above the blinding flashes of blue lights, Danielle saw glimpses of blonde hair and Phil barging into the pub. She wasn't sure if it was a good sign that she hadn't seen Ronnie yet. Stepping back, Danielle turned to face Stacey.
It took only a glance in the pale blonde's direction to notice her distraught and petrified face. It was almost like she was giving up all hope on everything she'd ever wanted. Waving goodbye to a lifetime of hope and a crack at contentment when she didn't even know what was going on. Stacey was having none of it. She grasped her best friend by the shoulder and hauled her away from the window. "Hey come on babe, Peggy's probably been playing bingo with their alarm system or something."
A single tear dropped from Danielle's eye. She prevented any successive falls after realizing her stupidity. After all, this could have been anything, although her racing heart thought otherwise. "Yeah" she sniffed and walked out of the room. "I'll be back in five Stace!" It didn't take Einstein to figure out where Danielle was heading. The teenager grabbed her keys, slipped on a pair of black flip-flops and barged out into the mid-April morning. The unique but usual bustle of the morning market traders was present as always while Danielle cautiously crossed the square. A small crowd had gathered a few feet away but the blonde held back, it not being in her character to pry into the lives of other people, more so at a time of apparent adversity. The locals were all speculating over the latest episode at the centre of Albert Square's social community. A female police officer was aggressively requesting that the crowd break up. Penetrating bright blue flashes had initiated a light headache within Danielle, but this was the very last entry on her long list of worries as a short, stumpy police officer came into view. "Veronica Mitchell!" He bellowed through the double doors.
The nineteen year-old couldn't hold back any longer. She wanted to find Ronnie, to be reassured that this was nothing more than what Stacey had hypothesized. "Excuse me!" She literally pushed Ms Masood out of her way when she'd refused to let Danielle through. The short girl had cursed under her breath at the lady's arrogance rather than apologies for her overly large thrust. She'd even surprised herself, yet the sight of long, straight blonde hair amplified Danielle's physical effort to barge forward. Just as she broke away from the sea of people and into the view of her target, Ronnie immediately started towards her.
Suddenly everything went into slow motion. Ronnie reached out a hand to Danielle but was restrained from moving as another hand tugged at the elegant woman's left arm. The large officer's back replaced Ronnie in Danielle's view as he stepped between the two of them. Her entire visional range was now focused on the word 'Police' set deep onto the fabric of a lime colored reflective jacket, its emitted light throbbing at Danielle's brain. The audible buzz around her had been substituted with a painful, trenchant silence. It only lasted a few seconds however.
"Veronica Mitchell. You're under arrest on suspicion of the murder of Andy Jones. You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court, anything you do say may be given in evidence."
The words hadn't registered with Danielle. Her eyes burned with tears as knees went weak. The distinct clicking of what was presumed to be a pair of handcuffs brought her back to reality; a cruel, venomous world which ruthlessly denied her a drop of serenity and happiness in her life. She was sure her vivacious soul had vacated it's body.
Yet she looked up, noticing that the officer who had previously prevented her sighting of Ronnie had now moved away.
"Danielle! Baby they've got it wrong!" Ronnie's face had gone from ghostly pale to an agonizing red. Her screaming had maliciously seeped into Danielle's initial analysis of the scene before her. "Let go of me! That's my daughter!" The stunning blonde was no match for the aggressive, middle aged man in formal uniform who had now thrown Ronnie into the back of a patrol car. The slamming of the door meant Ronnie's attempts to communicate with Danielle proved useless.
Dressed in intimately inappropriate clothing, Danielle watched on, as the whole event unfolded before her eyes. Her face remained emotionless as each word registered in her brain. Every word had been buffered but the processing delayed. Her body shook as a high pitched siren threw her into a perplex state. By the time she could notice Ronnie's banging of the car window, the vehicle had sped by into the distance, the Doppler affect on her ears unavoidable.
Within seconds, whispers and gasps spread, building to an over amplified buzz around Danielle's head. She placed her hands over her ears and stumbled through the dispersing crowd, not realizing how all eyes were on her.
The short-haired girl staggered around, her tearful eyes and now banging headache preventing her from moving in any sort of graceful manner. She eventually crashed through the doors of the pub, stumbling into Tracey who appeared to have been given the day off. "Danielle dear…"
"Move out of my way!" For a small girl, Danielle's dry, sour and violent tone sounded mighty perilous. Tracey cleared her throat, grabbed her jacket and hastily exited the pub.
The entire scope, customarily filled with locals socializing, drinking and unwinding after the stresses of daily existence now presented an eerie, isolated desertion. The combinational scent of liquor and cleaning agent lingered in the air and it was defiantly colder in here than it had been outside
"…murder of Andy Jones." Danielle plunged down, lucky that she landed on a corner sofa unit, although her cushioning nothing more than lucky. Taking in three successive sharp breaths, the distraught girl pulled out her mobile phone. Three new messages. She punched the corresponding buttons which would enable her to extract information from them. However, all three had teasingly been useless, only notifying her that she had three new voicemail messages awaiting her attention. Throwing the handset to her ear, Danielle waited with baited breath for the advertisement from her network provider to pass. The girl's increased rate of breathing would be a sign for concern to anybody who cared enough to notice. Within seconds she could make out the hysterical voice of her older brother.
"Danielle, its Gareth. Dan something terrible…" The voice had been cut off by three intense bleeps making her hand jolt, pushing the phone away so not to deafen her. The intrusive pulses made her shiver, a flat green line suddenly occupying her entire vision. Danielle brutally blinked her sorrowful eyes and the distressing memory melted away. Looking back to her phone, the cause of the painful blare from the earpiece became apparent.
'Battery empty.' Two words which sent her onto consequential levels of rage. With one swift swing, the helpless device went flying into a bottle of vodka prominently hinged to the wall behind the bar. Within seconds, a rapid bustle was audible from upstairs. Danielle was quick on her feet, running through a barrier she'd passed so many times this week, each time with different emotion; a doorway which separated business from home for the Mitchells. A new found strength allowed her to take the steep stairs three steps at a time, her petite body soaring to more family orientated settings within the property. The upper portion of the prized building boasted warmer shades of orange, a lower ceiling and the distinct scent of coffee left meandering around. Danielle was about to throw all her weight to the living room door when Roxy emerged from an adjacent room.
"Danielle, sweetie I need you to listen to me please." She swiftly advanced towards the anguished woman whilst buttoning up the remainder of her shirt, but the girl coward backwards.
"What's happened to my father? I need to find out." Her instincts told her there would be a phone in the living room. There had to be a phone some where in this god forsaken hellhole. Danielle intended to push past her maternal aunt but Roxy grasped the girls swinging arm. "Now you're going to listen very carefully Danielle. No one is going to hurt you if you just hear me out." The prominent woman's voice was just above a whisper. Her mouth was set before Danielle's left ear, but her words soaked every part of Danielle's body.
"Roxy you're hurting me!" She wriggled her arm, listening out for any other sign of life within the building, almost choking on her own breath. From what she could gather, there was no else about.
The older woman's clamping hand remained arduously molded onto Danielle's sleeve. "Ronnie's wanted you all her life you know. Because of you, I've never really ever had my sister; not properly." The minty aura of toothpaste filled Danielle's nostrils. Red liquid started oozing through her absorbent gown as Roxy's long, green painted finger nails submerged themselves into the girls arm.
Roxy moved closer, causing the floorboards beneath her to creak and break the unnerving silence ridiculing Danielle with the fact that there was no one to come to her rescue. The growling woman's nose was mere millimeters away from her addressers cheek. A hound like breathing the only sound Danielle could hear making the hairs on her neck stand to attention.
"We couldn't have anyone taking you away now could we eh? After all, they'd already kept you away from us all so long." The evidence of this shattering reality apposed to a bloodcurdlingly realistic dream came from the chrome clock hinged high above on the opposing wall, it's shiny, circular perimeter reflecting light from the opposing bulb. "My beautiful niece eh?"
With an immense punch into the air, Danielle broke free from the skintight clutch. With Roxy's immensely tight clench, the process of bursting away had caused the sleeve of the girl's robe to be sliced. Surprised at her sudden lack of restriction, Danielle took a small step backwards. "What have you done?!" Her voice unexpectedly steady, deeper and much firmer than ever before, Danielle rummaged again for her mobile phone.
"We're going to be the happiest family in the world darling!" Roxy beamed, her voice elated. She approached her niece with open arms.
Danielle squealed and scrunched up her face. She had backed into the corner as far as she could. Roxy was approaching, a pair of iniquitous, censurable hands accelerating towards her once again.
With all of her might the blenched teen screamed and pushed forward, both arms defensively outstretched. Once she'd made contact with Roxy's shoulders, Danielle propelled herself with her left thigh, sending both of them gliding forward. The offending girl regained balance on both feet. All she could do was watch the feisty blonde opposite her struggle to remain on her feet. Danielle's eyes suggested a unwelcomed ability to decelerate the images they received. Roxy was rotating both her arms as an instinctive reaction to regain balance. When that failed, her body naturally went to grasp the rail to her side. Just missing it, the middle-aged blonde tumbled down the steep flight of stairs, the aftermath of Danielle's break for freedom concluding with a vociferous thwack.
Tick tock, tick tock…
"Roxy?" Danielle shivered. The silence wounded her to the core, the tormenting time-teller reminding the girl that time stopped for no one. Her right hand had risen to her chest as she dared to look over the banister. A fraction of a glance later, Danielle pivoted about her left foot, threw her head towards the floor and threw up the remaining contents of last night's burger on the Mitchell's stain-free carpet. Taking in sharp breaths, the girl let her eyes venture over the balcony once more. Set before her eyes was a woman of about thirty, her neck reshaped by a dislocated bone and her head bobbed to the side. A pool of blood had quickly developed around the still, vacant looking body of a woman who had greatly confused Danielle in the last few minutes.
The teenager let her tears fall. There really was no stopping them anyway. The only creature brave enough to offend the silence was sat proudly on the wall behind her, badgering her brain to think. She needed to act fast. Panicking was an act Danielle executed to perfection although this was certainly not the place to do it. Mentally telling herself not to touch anything with her hands, Danielle burst through every door she could see. Every bedroom within the home had its own stamp on it, but admiring the lively interior was not her want. Almost certain that no one else was present within the house, the frightened teenager was about to brave the stairs; her only way out.
A piercing wail froze Danielle to the ground, her heart even taking a chilling break from its never ending pound. Melting away the locks on her feet, Danielle swung her entire body and grabbed a boy of about thirteen from behind. Her right hand flew to the boy's mouth, pushing with such force as to crack one of his foremost teeth.
"Shhh!" Danielle took advantage of her predominant strength and pushed the younger teen into a wall, his head hammering into the solid plane. Her effort to shock the lad into silence worked a treat. "Now listen to me carefully Ben." She whispered violently into his ear, ignoring the irony of how her position from moments ago had suddenly been promoted. It now being Ben stumbling to break free.
"Aunty Roxy here appears to have slipped, doesn't she?"
The boy's whimpers pounded through her chest, the microscopic time frame she had to leave the pub becoming increasingly shorter.
Tick tock, tick tock…
The central time piece encouraged her to force an answer from him. Her hand tightened around the younger teen's stomach, pushing his entire diaphragm upwards. "Now I need you to answer me Ben." Danielle's anger towards the Mitchell's was at an all time high. The thought of the name made her want to pound the boy to a pulp. He wasn't a child, damn Roxy wasn't a mother. Right now, they were Mitchell's. Suppressing her antagonism was going to be her toughest challenge yet but she knew exactly what she was doing. Daniele's life had just began, the misfortune of someone as selfish and worthless as Roxy were not going to ruin everything her parents had works so hard to give her. Danielle had already made plans to get out of Walford. It was the obvious thing to do.
"You know," she rubbed the boy's stomach, pinching it in random places as to send pulses of pain shooting through his body, her hand threatening to wander down to his groin as her finger twiddled with the strings of his tracksuit. "The police seem to think my dad is dead. So I need to go make a few phone calls quite quickly to clarify everything." She dropped her voice even lower, so close to Ben's ear that she tickled his hairs with her soft breath. "You wouldn't know what's been going now would you Ben?" She loosened her grip in the slightest manner so a response would be heard.
Ben shivered, drawing in shuddering breaths as Danielle placed two kisses on his cheek, the second of which was far too centralized with respect to his face causing the boy to rotate his head.
"Ro..Roxy's dead!" He sniffed, wriggling and sending his elbow fiercely into his capturer's stomach.
Danielle ignored his thrusts, shoving one of her legs between his and pushing him up against the wall. The woman cringed against the impact. Although she couldn't place her finger on the exact time she'd stared remotely viewing her actions from her own eyes, the responsibility for her actions melted away. She watched herself committing all her actions, her mind trapped in revolutionary anger, but it wasn't her fault. Her brain fought with its entire mite, trying to recover strands of control as a devilish character flooded into every paw of her body, it conceived out love and respect for her parents. Her body may have been owed to Ronnie, but her character and being belonged to them. Maybe that was why she saw her body from outside, one which she could think within, but not direct.
"Well she should watch where she's walking now shouldn't she eh?" Danielle's voice deepened, her teeth gritted as she spoke directly into Ben's ear, ending her sentence with a playful bite on his earlobe. There was no reply. "Shouldn't she?!" She hissed, louder. The girl tightened her grip, instantly initiating a series of cries from the teenage boy.
"Yes!" Ben sobbed.
Danielle smiled. "Now, I'm going to walk out of here. I hope you remember this chat of ours Ben, especially if anymore police officers come around." She stroked his hair gently. "I can't have you lot ruining my life okay? I promised myself that one slip from Ronnie and it would be the end. This is the end Ben. I move on and as you can conveniently see," She tightened her grip on the boy's stomach, exhaling heavily due to her efforts, pushing his face right up against the wall resulting in his glasses cracking, "I'm much stronger for it!" Her hissing concluded as her hand slipped further down Ben's stomach. The nagging sensation which she had mistaken for a headache no longer pleaded with her to call an ambulance, or to release Ben and go get help.
The boy cringed as Danielle's crotch pushed further against his buttocks. "Where did Ronnie go after I left last night darling? I know the repair men have kicked her out of Ian's flat." Particles of tea from her mouth infected the surrounding air. She nuzzled her head into Ben's neck, inhaling his scent.
Ben whimpered softly, "She said she had to go meet someone. She said she wouldn't be back until the morning."
Danielle pulled Ben backwards just before thrusting him into the wall once again. His screams would have cracked the entire building straight down the middle had it not been for Danielle reinstating the immense pressure to his mouth. Her playful hand however ventured lower still, now pinching harder at the top of the boy's tracksuit bottoms.
"She's killed my father hasn't she?" The question remained directionless. Ben began to cry heavily, unable to take advantage of Danielle's distraction which had caused a fractional release on him. "You Mitchells really think you're the best eh?"
"Please Danielle, I'm sorry." It took a great effort to conjure the words.
The devilish girl smiled, "sorry eh?" Stepping back and untwining their legs, Danielle directed Ben towards the stairs from behind, one hand welded tightly onto his face. The sight before his eyes catalyzed his breakdown.
"Poor aunty Roxy, she wanted to control my life. We don't want to have a fall like she did do we baby?" She smiled, her words provoking the reaction she'd aimed for. For a moment, the question of why Roxy's lifeless body evoked no emotion within her left her stumped. An adjacent figure of the lifeless form of her father justified whatever answer they may have been.
Ben violently shook his head, trying his utmost best to push against Danielle's towering form. He shuddered when she bent down and kissed him gently on the neck.
"Good. Now you tell your precious aunty Ronnie that I want her to rot, top to bottom in hell and beyond!" Her voice rose, her mouth spitting into Ben's left ear. "If I even hear a mention of her name…God help her. I told her didn't I eh baby? I'm not weak without her am I?" The person her words were aimed at seemed to have quieted down. "Am I?!" She shook the boy aggressively, growling into his ear.
Ben unmistakably shook his head once again.
"I'm doing this for my parents Ben. They always wanted me to be somebody! They'd do anything to make sure I made something of my life." She noticed the never tiring clock go about its effortless work. "But your precious aunties thought they knew better eh? They've not known me five minutes, but oh they judge like tigers eh baby?" She stroked Ben's neck with her nose. "Mmm." She smiled at his useless efforts to increase the distance between them. "But you should be alright Ben. After all, Roxy really should have been watching her step, right?"
***
Within 15 minutes, Danielle had managed to tie Ben up into his four poster bed. He lay sobbing uncontrollable, wearing his pajama T-shirt - which Danielle had insisted she change him into – and his boxer shorts. The elder teen was fully aware that it was late morning. Noticing his cluttered room, Danielle was careful as to not touch anything with her bare hands. She approached the young boy at his bed.
"I'm going to go now baby, Remember what I said won't you? I'll always be able to find you, just like I found Ronnie after all these years." Smiling at his terrified expression, Danielle leaned closer, placing two gentle kisses on his cheeks. Smiling at his animosity, she moved lower down his body, moistening her lips prior to them making contact with his belly button. She held her position for a few seconds before moving lower still, her face hovering over the extreme tip of his stomach, which by now had began to shake with cold, or more likely of fright. Danielle licked her lips and smiled villainously before retreating her arched body. "Good bye baby." She sent a hand intimately through his hair, his stirs not going unnoticed.
Passing Roxy had been no trouble. Danielle skipped the last five steps of the stairs landing with a thud onto the Mitchell hall. If she listened carefully, she could still hear the signal of time from above, something she spent too much of here already. Within seconds, the teenager vanished, desperate to find a telephone.
A/N: Well, what'ya think. Long, constructive reviews more than welcome! I will reveal what the scariest sound Danielle has ever heard is! Next chapter will hold the normal rating.