A DAUGHTER'S LOVE

CHAPTER FIVE - THE MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR PRINCESS

With her fourth day in the Twin Peaks of 1989 being a Saturday, it also meant that Becky didn't have to go to school that day and could use it to put all of her attention on her main reason for being in a year, where her "Other Self" hadn't been born yet. With her still not having much of a clue who could end up saving Laura from disappearing, she'd decided to make out a list in her head of who the potential perpetrator could be, plus a shortlist of people, who could be of help to her in finding out.

There was that change of wording again! Laura didn't disappear; she was murdered! Wasn't she? Suddenly, Becky wasn't sure anymore, but at the end of the day it didn't make any difference because she still needed to be saved from someone, who wanted to hurt her.

On the top of her list of potential suspects was Leo Johnson, for the obvious reasons, since he was clearly a violent psychopath. It wasn't hard for her to picture that he could have brutally murdered an innocent girl and like an ice-cold monster gone on with his life, as if nothing had happened. The big question on the other hand was why he would go after Laura, unless she'd been unlucky enough to find herself in the worst possible place and at the absolute worst time possible. Through her infamous drug-use, perhaps?

Just coming up with a second name was a challenge, considering how strong of a candidate that Leo was, but if she had to name someone that could have done it and covered it up with relative ease afterwards, the two main candidates were the Horne brothers. When it came to Jerry though, after meeting him and in all honesty, kind of getting to like him, she couldn't in her wildest dreams see him as someone, who'd ever hurt a fly, let alone a teenage girl that he must in some ways have known for most of her life. This only left Ben, and after seeing the way that he'd relished in the feeling of power that he'd gotten off on having, when he'd fired that poor girl in front of her, it didn't look all that unlikely to her that Laura, as someone who'd been far closer to the family than nearly everyone else in town was, could have gotten some dirt on him and had been kidnapped or murdered, in order to keep her silent forever. Okay, so he wasn't as obvious of a suspect as Leo, but he was still a clear number two in the running.

For the third name, her attention turned to Leland Palmer, Laura's father, who'd apparently murdered her in the past timeline from what she'd always heard. However, this didn't add up with what the giant had first told her, when he'd said that BOB (whoever that was) had been the real killer and just based on her first interactions with Leland, she had a very hard time believing that he would ever have it in him to hurt a daughter that he loved so deeply in the slightest, let alone take her life. Of course, she couldn't count him out entirely as a suspect either, still if she was going to go by her immediate gut feeling, it almost ruled him out entirely.

Then again, those were the obvious suspects, almost too obvious for her own liking, so she really and truly had to wreck her head to come up with anyone else in town, who could fit the bill. Sure, if she hadn't known him as well as she did, then her own dad would have been on her list too, but if anyone in this world believed that he somewhere deep down, even at this time of his youth rebellion, was an honorable man, it was her. And perhaps her "To Be Mom", but that's a different story altogether! This really only left one name, although even Becky had to admit that her suspicion of him was based on the flimsiest of evidence: James Hurley. She'd always liked him back in her own time and had seen him as being perfectly harmless, it wasn't like that, but he'd never been a guy that spoke much and he'd kept his private life strictly private, so she couldn't say that she knew him all that well, either. Could he have killed Laura in a fit of jealousy, because she wouldn't leave Becky's dad for him? It wasn't completely unthinkable and for this reason, he took the final and unwanted spot on her suspect list.

When it came to the list of those, who could be of help to her in finding out for sure, the list came down to three local teenagers at this time: Her mom (who knew Leo better than anyone else, not that she'd wanted to), Donna (who'd, as Laura's BFF, had the greatest insight into Laura's life) and Audrey (who must have had all of the dirt on her father, not to mention some of the other distinguished figures in the community).

As luck would have it, it wouldn't be long until she got the chance to get to know Audrey a little better.

Before then, however, on her way down to the hotel restaurant, she had the dubious pleasure of sharing an elevator ride with the one woman that she'd met in her life, whom she could honestly say scared the living hell out of her: Catherine Martell. In her own time, Becky had only been unfortunate enough to have to talk to the wife of the dearly departed Pete Martell (who, funnily enough, was the complete opposite of his wife and had been loved by everyone, who'd been blessed with knowing him) three times and all of those times without fail, something in the way that the "Tough as a Two-Dollar Steak" Mrs. Martell had a way of staring her down, had given her immense chills to the bone. Even for these few handfuls of seconds that Becky stood near her, she could feel Mrs. Martell's judging eyes on her and yet again, it made her feel around three inches tall, if that much!

After Becky's short elevator ride from hell had blissfully come to an end, she made her way into the hotel restaurant for some breakfast and some light planning for how to go about her mission from then on. As she'd expected though, the restaurant was packed to the gills and she let out a deep sigh, as she wondered to herself if she had the patience for it to finally become her turn to get some grub into her rumbling belly.

"Not again!" she heard a girl moan out loud right behind her and as she turned around to face her, she saw that it was Audrey, who was looking about as ready to give up as she was.

"Can't the only daughter of the hotel owner get the waiters to serve her first, if she wants to?" she asked Audrey back and got a rather adorable smile return.

God, was this girl drop dead beautiful or what? Even if Becky was as straight as can be, denying it would have been downright delusional and she could now easily see why her mom (in the future) had told her why so many girls at their school at this time had envied her, for how much like a movie-star of the past that she always looked. Kind of like a young version of her near-namesake Audrey Hepburn actually, now that Becky thought about it!

"Let me guess. Laura or Donna told you about me" Audrey answered her with a cute as a button smile to add to it. "I've seen you around school. New in town?"

"You could definitely say that! It's a very long story ... well, actually it isn't! I have amnesia and your family have been nice enough to let me stay here for free for the time being" she somewhat ramblingly explained to Audrey, who took her ramblings with a rather adorable and in all honesty, sort of childish giggle. "I'm Becky, by the way".

"It's nice to meet you, Becky. My dad has already told me about you and made sure to tell me what would happen, if I made fun of you. In fact, he advised me to try to make friends with you. Not out of the goodness of his heart, of course, but he never wants to miss out on an opportunity to kiss some butt if he thinks that it'll be beneficial to us someday" Audrey informed her with a small eyeroll for added effect.

"Why would he think that you'd make fun of me?" Becky asked, seeing as Audrey seemed perfectly nice to her.

"Let's just say that I haven't always kept up the best track record, when it comes to showing empathy at the proper times. You know that tired old cliché about the poor rich girl with a ton of daddy issues, who'll do anything and everything, including some really dumb and far too childish stuff for her age sometimes, even if she already knows deep down that it's bound to be just another failed attempt at catching her uncaring father's attention? Well, you're looking at the walking embodiment of her! What do you say that we skip the wait and eat our breakfast out in the kitchen? I don't know about you, but I just don't have the patience to wait in line right now!" Audrey half-asked, half-stated and suddenly Becky had an immediate "In" with her.

What Becky quickly found out after talking to Audrey some more (over a nice breakfast with some pretty great coffee on the side) were basically three things: Firstly, that Audrey was exactly as naturally sweet and charming as Donna and Laura had described her as and secondly, that poor Audrey indeed was a painfully lonely girl, who deserved so much better than to be seen by her peers as a social pariah in their town, solely based on what her last name was. The final thing that had quickly struck Becky about her, was just how innocent and bright-eyed that Audrey clearly was for an eighteen-year-old. It made her seriously wonder to herself if this girl had been forced by her parents to lead such an incredibly sheltered life while she was growing up, that she'd never had the chance to experience any of the vital life lessons, which most pre-teen kids have learned by the time that they start to reach the beginning of their adolescence.

In any case, she rapidly found it impossible not to start to adore Audrey, whom for her part seemed all kinds of delighted to finally have a friend to talk to and hang out with. Not to mention one that she knew wasn't trying to exploit her for her family's money, like many unscrupulous jerks probably would have done in a second with a very naïve and unwise on the world kind of girl like her.

"What's the deal with your dad?" she asked Audrey while they were entertaining themselves with their second activity for the day: A trip down to the old Horne department store that in her own time had long since been torn down to make way for a modern-day shopping mall (which, it almost goes without saying, was also exclusively owned by the Horne family), but in this time period was still bustling with activity.

"How do you mean?" Audrey asked back, as she browsed through some pretty dresses in the high-priced end of the scale for a place like this.

"I've only met him one time and he seemed kind of sleazy to me. No offense" Becky answered in an attempt not to step on any toes yet still keeping it honest.

"Trust me, you're far from the only one around these parts, who thinks that! He's just my dad, I guess. What else do you want me to say?" Audrey mused with a small hint of pain in her voice.

"Are you a close family?" she asked Audrey, hoping that she wasn't overstepping any boundaries by doing so.

"Hardly. My mom has convinced herself over the years that I'm destined to always stay an overgrown woman-child, who'll never really grow up and my dad is always too busy with some kind of business dealings to pay any attention to me. As for my disabled brother Johnny, I love him to bits, but sometimes I wonder to myself if he even remembers my name. So, to give you a short answer to your question: No, we aren't in any way what you could call close. Honestly, I think that if it wasn't for her fear of having to live as a poor person, then my mom would have left my dad ages ago. Is your family ... sorry, I forgot about your memory-loss for a moment!" Audrey corrected herself with an apologizing look on her pretty face.

"It's okay, Audrey. You can ask me any question at all that you feel like" she reassured Audrey, whose facial expression turned to one of relief.

"I'm sure that you've already been asked every question under the moon about it, since you got here. So, are there any boys here that you have your eyes on already?" Audrey inquired, switching back to a more usual topic of conversation for a pair of teenage girls, who were still getting to know one another.

"Audrey, I've only been here for a little under three days! In other words, just remembering everyone's names is still enough of a challenge without me having to add anything to it!" she told Audrey, who again let out a cute and very innocent giggle. "Is there an incredibly lucky boy here in Twin Peaks that you're crushing on?"

"I don't stand a snowball's chance in hell with him. Not with another girl in my way, who's obviously got him under her love-spell" Audrey sadly replied to her. "The worst part is that she's using him to cheat on her boyfriend, which makes her kind of a bitch in my book, pardon my French! Meanwhile, I still haven't been on my first date yet and she's off playing around with their hearts like it's all just a game to her".

"French hereby pardoned!" Becky quirkily answered. She could also quickly deduce that her new friend's crush had to be on James, seeing as Audrey, from what Becky knew, had never been close at all with either of her parents and for that sole reason, likely wouldn't have known the first thing about one of them sleeping with the other behind Leo's back. "How do you know for sure though, that she's seeing this guy, if she already has a boyfriend?"

"You can call it my sixth sense telling me that you don't look at someone like he looks at her, unless you're already fooling around. It doesn't exactly feel fair, does it?" Audrey asked her, prior to letting out a deep sigh.

"No, it doesn't. Although, if she's not serious about this guy, what's holding you back? The worst that can happen is that he turns you down, right?" she asked the youngest member of Ben Horne's immediate family, whom in turn appeared as if she liked what she was hearing.

"I like you, Becky! You're really a breath of fresh air around here!" Audrey exclaimed, as the pair of girls shared a smile between them.

"Thanks. You shouldn't sell yourself short, though. I was a bit of a late bloomer too before I found my first boyfriend and for some of us, that's just how it is" she tried to assure Audrey, but in doing so had also over spoken a little.

"Was that another bit of your memory that you just got back?" Audrey asked her, sounding interested.

"I guess so. I can't for the life of me tell you what his name was or how he looked, though" she answered, in an attempt to correct her own minor error. "My point is that sometimes, you have to show some initiative, or it'll never happen for you. You know, grab life by the balls and all of that hoo-ha!"

"You're definitely not like any teenage girl that I've ever met before!" Audrey bluntly stated, being brutally correct in more ways than one.

"I've been hearing that a lot lately!" she quipped in return.

"Do you want to take a taxi over to the Double R with me and we can grab a piece of pie? My treat" Audrey offered and soon after they'd left the department store, Becky made a small pledge to herself: To make sure that this adorably innocent girl known as Audrey Horne would be more than well taken care of in the friend department, by the time that she went back to her own time. And, maybe even with a devoted boyfriend, who could treat her sweet little self exactly like a piece of wonderfulness like Audrey deserved to be treated.

"Don't you just love this song? It's so dreamy!" Audrey asked her, referring to the slow and almost hypnotic jazz song that was playing from the jukebox at the Double R, while the both of them enjoyed a piece of cherry pie with whipped cream on top and some damn fine coffee on the side!

"Yeah, it's pretty cool" Becky conceded as she took a gaze out at the rest of the restaurant. Usually, the Double R would be filled with customers on a day like this and probably would have been too, if their local minor league basketball team weren't playing a home game at this exact time and it was one of the few things that the town at this time had to be proud of.

Instead, the only ones in there besides themselves were a pair of out-of-towners, most likely truckers who'd stopped in for a quick meal before they were on their way again, plus a few of the local pensioners that apparently weren't all that interested in basketball. Her mom had the afternoon off too by the looks of it, meaning there was only Norma to handle things by herself for the time being. This was until James walked in and was looking a little shaken up from what she could tell.

"Hey, Norma. Can I have a piece of peach cobbler and a Pepsi?" he asked Norma, who had her service industry smile plastered all across her face.

"No coffee today, James?" Norma asked him back before getting a Pepsi bottle out of the fridge and opening it, prior to putting in on the counter in front of him.

"I've been helping Big Ed out in the garage since this morning. You know how much coffee that he drinks, and I've nearly been following him cup for cup!" James joked back and took a small sip pf his soda.

"Enough said" Norma understandingly answered him, before turning a bit more serious. "James, if you need someone to talk to, you know that you can always come to me, right? I know that we aren't related, but I've known you for so long that we might as well be" Norma offered him, getting a small nod in return before he turned his attention to his culinary treat.

"He looks so sad" Audrey whispered to her, sounding like she genuinely felt sorry for him.

Perhaps this was why Becky made a snap decision to grab the bull by the horns in a figurative way on her new friend's behalf and offered James to sit with them.

"I don't want to impose on your private conversation" he first tried to shyly reject her with, only she wasn't about to give up that easily.

"You won't be, I promise, and we can talk about whatever you want to. You just look like someone, who shouldn't be alone right now" she told James, who batted an eye at her comment about him.

"Alright, I guess. Just to warn you in advance, I'm not really that good at the whole small-talk thing. I can never come up with what to say, past saying hello and talking about the weather" he, again very shyly, told her, like he was almost ashamed of it. A trait in him that she had to admit to finding somewhat adorable.

"You'll do just fine. I'm Becky, if you didn't know already. It seems like news travel fast around here" she joked back at him and could see that he agreed with her, as much as he possible could.

Barely had he sat down with them, before Audrey popped the question that was on both of her and Becky's minds: Why he was looking so mopey on what to the majority of people is the best day of the week.

"You don't want me to burden you with problems, believe me!" James told them while shaking his head, as he took a small break from chowing down on his pie to take a sip of his soda.

"James, you're sitting here with a girl, who almost can't remember anything from her past. Compared to her problem, ours have to be easily solvable" Audrey tried to convince him, while he sent a surprised glare Becky's way.

"Really? What's that like?" James asked her with a curious look on his face.

"Very confusing if you want it bluntly!" she smart-assed answered him and managed to get small smile out of him.

"I can imagine that it would be. Do you really want to know the truth, and do you promise not to tell anyone about it?" he asked the two girls, who nodded back at him nearly in unison.

"The truth is that my mom left town two days ago to go on a bender, and I have no clue when she'll back again, and Ed, my uncle and the one guy that I can always count on, is married to and living with a certified lunatic! I'm talking balls to the wall delusional, out of her mind, bat-shit insane! Do you still think that my problems are "Easily Solvable" now?" he dryly asked them with an understandable shake of the head to match his feelings on the subject.

"You want to hear about my problems? I have a mom, who has absolutely no faith in my possible potential and has no problem with telling me to my face and I have a dad that I don't think could care less about me and only sees me as a burden. Just to add to the "Fun", I have a severely brain damaged older brother that I'll never be able to have a simple conversation with. I'm not saying that your problems are worse than mine, just that we all have them, no matter how easy that some ignorant people think that our lives are" Audrey replied to him and as the two of them looked each other into the eyes, Becky could swear that they were having a small moment, right in front of her very eyes!

"All I know is that the second that I've gotten my high school diploma, I'm leaving this backwater town behind for good! It's never brought me anything but trouble, anyway!" James dryly stated, getting a knowing nod in agreement from Audrey.

That evening, after she'd spent pretty much the entire day getting to know Audrey and constantly finding herself being enchanted by her natural inner beauty, which more than matched her outer beauty, Becky laid down to sleep thinking to herself that she could have done more to work towards her end-goal of saving Laura. Still, who was to say that she couldn't have set herself on the path to finding out something down the line that could make all of the difference in the end?

Apparently though, it wasn't everyone that was happy about the way that she'd been doing her job, seeing as she awoke in the middle of the night to see the giant looking down on her with a somber look on his face. Not that his facial expression ever changed, mind you, but he did seem to have a slightly sadder demeanor about him than he'd had, the first time that she'd talked to him.

"Is this another dream?" she asked him, trying not to sound too confused by what was going on.

"Laura needs to talk to you. Close your eyes" the giant asked of her and when she opened her eyes again, she found herself back in the red room, only this time there was only the much older version of Laura in there. Strangely though, there was music in the air of the same kind of smooth jazz that she'd heard at the Double R earlier that day.

"You're playing a dangerous game" Laura told her, only her voice sounded weird as if it wasn't really her and only an apparition of her.

"Why does your voice sound like that?" Becky tried asking her, if only to get a feeling of what the heck was going on!

"This version of me doesn't exist in this timeline" Laura answered her, as if it was the most natural answer in the world.

"What does that mean?" Becky inquired, probably sounding as befuddled as she genuinely was.

"That doesn't matter. You could erase your own existence, if you keep changing the futures of others. Your mother and father have to create you or this timeline will cease to exist, as will you" Laura warned her and soon after, Becky woke up in the "Real World" bathed in a cold sweat.

For the rest of that night, she didn't dare to go back to sleep either.

END OF CHAPTER FIVE