Part 6
Philadelphia, 1855
"You get away from me you, bastard. You're just a filthy old man that my father sold me to for money," yelled a female voice.
Both Aaron and Penelope reacted to the scene that was happening almost right in front of them instantly.
"You listen to me girl, I paid for you fair and square and you will do exactly as you are told or you will regret it," came a smarmy male voice.
"I will not," the young woman exclaimed defiantly. She was really young Aaron instantly noticed, as she looked no more then 16 or 17 at most and was likely younger then that.
Aaron immediately waded into the fight with Penelope following, as she wasn't about to be left out.
Penelope had changed considerably from the somewhat naïve young woman that Aaron had met and saved the life of over hundred years ago now, but then as many experiences as the two of them had had that wasn't surprising. Penelope had been considerably less naïve than most of the women of the time, but she had still been innocent in certain ways, although not anymore, as she was well aware of the evil in the world now.
Aaron simply pulled the much older man off the young woman and held him tightly with his hands behind his back so that he could possibly wiggle loose.
"You have no right to interfere," the man threatened. "I bought her fair and square."
"And what were you intended to do with her? Rape her against her will?" Aaron growled, shaking the man, hard enough that he almost rattled. "She can't be more than 17 and she's probably younger than that and you're what 50? Now while I have nothing against relationships with that much of an age gap the woman has to be willing and she obviously wasn't."
Penelope meanwhile was comforting the young girl and soothing her as best she could. The girl was currently crying in her eyes out and Penelope had her arms gently wrapped around her.
"What are you going to do turn me over to the authorities? They'll see my side of things, I'll make sure of it," the man said. "I'll have you arrested for daring to interfere in my business."
"You won't be alive to do so," Aaron told him quietly letting his fangs drop.
The man stared at Aaron for a moment then tried his best to get away, even if he knew it was impossible, as apparently the man that was holding him was not human, and the lady that had been with him was likely also a vampire.
"I can offer you money, anything you want," the man pleaded.
"Sorry, bribery isn't going to work, as both Penelope and I have more money then we'll ever need," Aaron said.
"And even if we didn't, there is no way that we would ever be involved in something so wrong," Penelope added.
When the man started to speak probably to tell Penelope wasn't wasn't her place to interfere Aaron simply growled at him and his mouth snapped closed before he could speak.
"Don't even think about opening your mouth to disparage my wife or I will do more than simply put you to death," Aaron promised with a vicious smile, letting his fangs drop again causing the man to gulp fearfully and also wet himself.
"We need to get out of here before we're spotted," Aaron told Penelope in a low voice, so low that no human would be able to pick it up. "I doubt we'll be recognized in the dark, but still, it's better to be safe than sorry. I don't want any police coming to our door, even if we wouldn't have any trouble dealing with law enforcement."
"Still, it's trouble we don't need, as if this scumbag disappears it probably won't even be noticed, but to get rid of a policeman it's different," Penelope said.
"We could do it, and then bury the body where it would never be found, but still, I'd rather not, since they are the good guys after all, well, the ones that aren't corrupt anyway," Aaron said and Penelope nodded in agreement.
"I'll see what I can do about speeding things up, so we can get out of here," Penelope promised. "Come on sweetie, don't worry my husband will deal with this situation," Penelope added in a louder voice.
"But what's going to happened to me?" JJ asked finally lifting her tears streaked face, from Penelope's rather ample bosom.
"You'll come with us, for the moment anyway and then, after things get back to normal you'll decide what to do with your life and it will be your choice, as neither Aaron or I will force any type of decision on you," Penelope said.
"What do you want and we time for being so generous?" JJ asked, just a little suspiciously.
"Nothing, that you are not willing to give as my husband and I aren't like that," Penelope promised. She knew very well that she could just hypnotize this young woman into coming along, but she also didn't want to do that unless necessary, as it would just cause problems in the future. Besides, she needed this young woman to trust her and Aaron and hypnotizing her into obeying, even for her own good was not a good idea.
"I might as well, as it's bound to be better than being a plaything for him," and the young woman's voice dripped with disgust and contempt.
"So do I get to know your name or are you just going to be hey you?" Penelope gently teased her. "My name is Penelope by the way, Penelope Hotchner and this is my husband Aaron."
"I'm Jennifer, Jennifer Jareau, but I prefer JJ," Jennifer said.
"Jennifer is a beautiful name," Penelope said, as she helped the now named young woman to her feet. "However, we really must depart before someone looks out a window or something and sees us here. It's just better to disappear quietly," Penelope gently explained when JJ look confused. "It's better if your father thinks you have simply run away or are dead and that way he won't come looking for you."
"I doubt he would come looking for me anyway," JJ snorted, although she could certainly see the sense in what Penelope was saying, "but I suppose it's better to be cautious."
"Yes, it is," Aaron said approaching JJ cautiously. "I'm Aaron Hotchner."
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Hotchner," JJ said, as the handsome man kissed the back of her perfunctorily.
"Just call me Aaron, there's no need to be so formal," Aaron suggested, with a smile.
"So what did you do with the scumbag?" Penelope asked.
"Oh, he's not going anywhere," Aaron said grinning evilly. "He's unconscious, for the moment and we'll simply bring him along."
"What are you going to do with him?" JJ asked a little tentatively.
"You might not want to ask that question," Penelope told JJ. "Aaron's not very forgiving when some man attacks a woman not to mention buys her from her father, someone who should love and protect his children, particularly his daughters. It was obvious that you were resisting him in every way you could, but unfortunately, men are stronger than women, as a general rule and so he was overpowering you rather quickly."
"Yes, he was," JJ said with a visible shudder. "I can guess exactly what would've happened to me if you two hadn't come along."
"Well, we did, and now you're under my protection until you decide otherwise," Aaron told her.
"Trust me, that's a very good thing, as it means that Aaron will fight anybody that tries to take you away, or does something else like forces you to do something you don't want to do. Of course, pretty soon you're probably going to be unrecognizable from your former self so that is unlikely, but still, I would accept," Penelope advised.
"Alright then," JJ said, still sounding unsure, but then neither vampire could really blame her for that for she was no more than 17 and had probably been at least mostly sheltered from the outside world.
"So how old are you?" Aaron asked trying to sound casual, as he and Penelope led JJ towards their home. Aaron of course, remembered to pick up the child molester and slung him over his shoulder unceremoniously, not caring how uncomfortable he was as he would soon be very dead.
"Just 15," JJ admitted, not seeing any harm in telling the couple to age.
"Your father sold his 15 year old daughter, to a 50-year-old man? How could he?!" raged Penelope.
"Oh, my father's been wanting to get rid of me for years and has since my mother died and I suppose he figured he might as well make some money as well," JJ admitted.
"Why would he want to sell his own daughter?" Aaron asked trying to keep his voice calm, although on the inside he was absolutely raging.
Her father would be dealt with as well, but that was for later.
"I don't really know," JJ shrugged. "I suppose that he always wanted to son and not a daughter."
"A lot of people want sons, but that doesn't mean they sell their daughters to a lecherous old man who should know better," Aaron growled. "You'll barely of legal age to marry, for the love of god and no decent parent would ever give consent, well not unless the boy was of similar age to yourself like 17 which is the legal age for a man to marry without parental consent."
"Just by a year, as my birthday was just a few days ago, not that it was much of one, but then my father has never celebrated my birthday, not since my mother died when I was 5," JJ said and the hurt in her voice was not hard for the two vampires to pick up.
Here was a teenage girl who had been neglected since her mother died when she was five. He knew that he was a centuries-old, but he would never understand why or how a parent could mistreat their own kids and it wasn't even like JJ had committed some kind of great crime, as all she had done was try to live her life as best she could with an uncaring father.
Aaron suspected that she hadn't been shown any type of affection, ever since her mother's death, she likely hadn't been touched in years, although in this case it was probably a good thing, because JJ's father seemed like the type that would probably abuse his daughter instead of giving her hugs and kisses.
"Well, now you can stay with us, at least until you're of legal age," Penelope said, "and after that it's your decision as to stay with us or perhaps, go your own way. Luckily, this isn't the 1700s hundreds where it wasn't really possible if the woman didn't want her reputation in tatters for being a whore. No, female left their father's house until they married and if they did not then they stayed in the home of their birth until their parents death. The only exception to this rule was a woman who was a widow or somebody who was considered too old for marriage, like someone in her late 30s. Woman married young back then to and just like now they had to have parental consent if they were underage and personally I think you're too young to marry until you're at least 18, so I think that's a law that needs to be changed unless the situation is very unusual."
"You sound as if you lived through it," JJ said studying Penelope intently as much as she could in the dark.
"I did sweetie, Aaron found me when I was dying of smallpox and changed me into a vampire, because I was his mate. The rest of my family, except for my sisters that were married and had moved away died from the epidemic that was hitting Connecticut where I was born and raised," Penelope explained. Penelope watched her closely to see how she reacted to the word vampire, as a lot of people had an irrational fear of their kind. Or perhaps, it wasn't so irrational since a vampire, even the females were stronger and faster than any mortal and could drain you of all your blood until you were nothing but a corpse in seconds. Just because she and Aaron never did that unless it was absolutely necessary didn't mean that others of their kind did not.
JJ gasped at that, but she had no other reaction as both Aaron and Penelope were listening to her heartbeat just in case.
"Well, you don't seem to have a fear of our kind like a lot of humans do," Aaron said approvingly.
"My reaction would have been different if you had just rescued me, from Mr. Egbert C. Zeller," JJ explained the disgust in her voice plain, causing Aaron to smirk into the darkness. "The way I see it is if you wanted to kill me you just would have drained my blood and been done with it, not put me under your protection. At the very least you could have taken me back to my father or not rescued me at all and just walked right on by, like most other people would have. You're wife didn't have to comfort me, when I burst into tears, but she did, which tells me that you're good people. It is often said that actions speak louder than words and your actions so far have been very kind."
"You do have a point," Aaron conceded smiling seeing that JJ was very intelligent, much like Penelope before her and she also wasn't totally innocent considering how her father had likely treated her, ever since her mother's death. At best he had basically ignored her existence and at worse had abused her.
"I think it's best for right now that you're my sister that's come to live with us because her parent died," Penelope suggested. "Or maybe it's better to say we're cousins since we don't look all that much alike except for all blonde hair and cousins don't necessarily look alike, while sisters do a lot of times. Yes, that might be a more believable explanation and you're also much younger then I am."
"You know that is a very good idea, as we can put out the story that we are JJ's only living relatives," Aaron said. "Just so long as it's okay with you JJ, as you have as much say in what we tell other people as Penelope and I do."
"It seems like a reasonable solution," JJ admitted, startled that Aaron was actually asking for her opinion, as most men wouldn't have listened to a woman's opinion much less asked for it.
"Alright then, once we get you some new clothes and other necessaries, so that you look totally different from your current self that's what we'll tell everyone and those people will spread it farther until it is the accepted story," Aaron said.
"So where do you live?" JJ asked tentatively, as she didn't want to upset the pair that had already been so kind to her.
"Just a few miles from here in the really rich neighborhood," Penelope answered.
"Then what were you doing in my neighborhood?" JJ asked. "It's not grateful for what you did..."
"We do understand," Aaron told her gently. "But the explanation is we just moved here and it's always good to know your territory in case you have to escape on short notice."
"A lot of people hate vampires," Penelope explained farther, "and while we can't be injured by any human weapon whether it's guns, knives or anything else that humans have invented to kill each other, we can be killed by fire."
"It's happened in the past that a vampire didn't take care of some kind of threat like where say a group of men threatened them for no other reason then they were different. Or because they hated vampires and then those men found where they lived they perhaps, put the house they lived in on fire. Now while we can jump from any height and not be injured what if we have children at the time, ones that don't all escape? Even if they do it's the principle of the thing, as we have possessions we don't particularly want to lose and if we don't take care of the situation then others will feel free to do the same thing once word gets around."
"It might even come to pass that they kill someone who is not a vampire, but who someone either believes was, or because they hate that person for whatever reason," Penelope continued the explanation. "No, it's better to nip that kind of thing in the bud, as the one thing you can count on is the depths of human stupidity."
"Particularly if they get themselves all liquored up, as it is often said that alcohol gives you a kind of liquid courage," Aaron added.
"So basically, you were just in the right place at the right time," JJ said, as she had listened quietly to their explanation.
"Basically yeah," Penelope told her new friend chuckling a little.
"Well, I'm grateful that you were there when I needed you then," JJ said.
"You're welcome," Penelope said. "Personally, I think you'll be a perfect addition to our family, as Aaron and I don't have any children present. Besides, the vampire life can be rather lonely, even when one has a mate and I haven't had any good human friends in a very long time."
"We're not really close to other vampires, besides our own children of course," Aaron added. "Most of them are so arrogant and full of themselves that you don't want anything to do with them anyway. I'm not claiming that all vampires are like that, just most of the ones we've met over the years for the most part."
"And the ones that aren't we just haven't clicked with, as our interest are just too different to be anything more than casual acquaintances," Penelope added. "In many ways, we're just like humans as we can get lonely, but we're also very lucky, because at least we have each other and many vampires are not as lucky as we are."
"I believe I understand," JJ said, as she thought about their words. "You're saying that you haven't met any vampires that shared similar interest to yourselves and therefore you're not really compatible when it comes to making friends."
"Exactly," Penelope said. "If we ever run into them again then we'll be happy to see them and even let them stay with us for a few days if we happen to be living in the area, but really that's as far as it goes."
"The ones that are all arrogant and demanding though will immediately be shown the door," Aaron smirked, "because I won't have some vampire come into our home and start demanding things or treating my mate like she's their personal servant or slave. Of course, it's happened a couple of times that one of our kind truly believed they could lay their hands on her, do whatever they wanted and not suffer the consequences. Trust me, when I say that you don't want to know what those consequences are."
"You would think that vampires at least would know better, because they should know that if Aaron's mate that he's not going to put up with their overbearing attitude or them touching me intimately," Penelope said.
"They're so full of themselves they figure that they can get away with it or it's possible they don't know our kind only has one mate, not that it matters," Aaron growled.
"So you're saying that vampires are a lot like humans," JJ said after a moment of silence.
"Yes, as a lot of them like both me and Aaron were once human and it's not known where vampires originally come from, but well, it is just assumed that they were once human. After all we look basically human, except we live forever, we have to drink blood as our true substance, we're nearly impossible to injure, except by another of our kind, we have hypnotic powers and we don't technically have to breathe," Penelope said.
"We can also run incredibly fast," Aaron added, "and also jump from a great height from the ground or from ten stories up."
"So basically you're like gods and goddesses, as no human has that kind of power," JJ said with awe in her tone.
"Some vampires act like that, like they're some kind of deity," Aaron admitted, "but most of us just try to blend into society as it causes less trouble in the long run."
"Of course, not every one of our kind think like Aaron and I, but a great many of them do. It helps us not be so full of ourselves that we lose touch with our humanity as once that happens, well, we can turn very arrogant and it's extremely hard to come back from that once it occurs," Penelope said.
"More than one vampire has met their deaths at the hands of another, because they misstep, because of that arrogance, but some of our kind are just as easy to anger as a human and a lot of times it ends with the death of the vampire in question, not always, but a lot of times," Aaron said.
"I think that's enough information for awhile," Penelope finally said, "JJ is very tired and luckily, we're nearly home."
"It's really too bad we couldn't get a cab this late at night," Aaron said regretfully, "as it would've saved you the walk JJ, because I know humans can get tired and not only have you had a major emotional upheaval, which drains a human, you've also walked several miles."
"I would've walked more than that if it meant I didn't have to marry that old lecher if that was indeed the plan," JJ said.
"I wouldn't worry about Mr. Zeller," Penelope told JJ placing and arm around her shoulders, which were rather thin. "Don't give him another thought, as he doesn't even deserve that much of your attention. Just be grateful that he never actually had the opportunity to rape you, as that would have likely left you shattered, because I've seen it happen in the past."
"Here we are," Aaron said finally. "Why don't you show our guest to one of the empty guest rooms, where she can get some sleep while I deal with Mr. Egbert Zeller," Aaron suggested to his mate who nodded.
"I'll lend you one of my nightgowns for tonight, although you're going to be swimming in it, since I'm much bigger busted then you are, but you're not trying to make a fashion statement after all. Maybe tomorrow we'll go shopping for some clothes for you, since you had to leave all your things behind."
"But I don't have any money," JJ protested.
"Don't worry about that, as it's on Aaron and I," Penelope told. "Trust me, we have more money than we know what to do with and buying you whatever is necessary won't even put a dent in it I promise you. You're now technically, our ward, even if it's not legally and since you are a ward of the house Hotchner that means we pay for everything you need and some things you don't necessarily need, but want."
"Alright then," JJ said giving in, in the face of her new friend's determination. Besides, she did need things, as her father had never given her any money of her own, so she didn't have any to purchase anything herself. Hell, he had barely remembered to give the housekeeper money to take her shopping when she outgrew her clothes or to buy groceries. If she was going to be living with the Hotchners now she supposed that she would have to let them provide for her, although she also intended to pull her weight and do whatever chores needed to be done in order to pay them back for their generosity.
"Good, I'm glad you're not going to argue with me because you wouldn't win anyway," Penelope told her with a smile
"I can see your point as I do need things, since all I have are the clothes on my back and I don't have any money of my own," JJ explained simply.
"Here is your room," Penelope said finally leading her to a guest room on the second floor where there were several rooms with beds in them.
"I would think vampires would have beds since they can't sleep," JJ commented.
"They came with the house," Penelope said with a shrug, "so all Aaron and I really did was buy new comforters and sheets for them, since the others weren't fit because they were so worn out. Apparently the family that owned this place before never replaced anything unless they absolutely had to, whether or not they had money. I'll go get you one of my nightgowns for tonight and I want you to sleep yourself out. Don't get up on our account."
"Thank you," JJ said simply and Penelope seemed to understand because she gave the young girl a hug.
"You're more than welcome. What happened to you was in no way right, but unfortunately, I have learned ever since I was changed into a vampire that a lot of people are very cruel, even a child's own parents. I'm afraid that's the way of the world. I, unlike you was sheltered by my parents from the harsh reality of the world, although not as much as the other girls I grew up with. I'll tell you the story sometime, but not tonight, as are you exhausted. The bathroom is through there, why don't you use the facilities while I get you one of my nightgowns," Penelope gently suggested.
"Yes, ma'am," JJ said yawning hugely.
"Now none of that yes ma'am stuff I'm Penelope or Penny and my husband is Aaron, as neither one of us is very big on formality unless it's absolutely necessary, like if someone is arrogant and rude," Penelope gently scolded her guest.
JJ nodded tiredly and went into the bathroom while Penelope raced up to her and Aaron's room to retrieve one of her clean nightgowns for their guest. She returned only seconds later and laid everything required on the bed before departing shutting the door gently behind her.
~~~Aaron and Penelope~~~