Rag Doll Ch. 06 Pt. 02

Leon got that, and grinned.

"I don't blame you, man, she's a real babe! How 'bout you, Rick?"

Rick kind of grinned too, all the answer Leon needed. With that we headed back to rendezvous with the girls and go back to the house for lunch. After lunch, Judy excused herself, saying she had to get back to Albany, urgent family business, but that she'd see us soon, and left us to sit and talk with the family, Kathleen and Maria filling us in on Leon's past; we learned he'd grown up wanting to be a fire-fighter, like his father and grandfather, but after his father was killed in New York, the family had moved back to Oneonta and Kathleen had made him promise not to join the Fire Department, so his other great love, cars took over.

At that point he took Rick and me out to the garage and pulled a tarp off his pride and joy; a black 1967 Chevrolet Impala he'd first seen in a TV show called "Supernatural" and had scrimped and saved until he could finally get a broken-down example, which he'd then spent several years restoring. It was a beauty, glossy black paintwork and sparkling chrome, and to my eyes, used to the compact cars of Britain, it looked big as a ferryboat and sleek and menacing as a torpedo.

Dinner was once again a happy, relaxed affair, Kathleen pulling out all the stops, as we'd be leaving the next day to go back to Albany; we'd decided we really should be back there in case the private investigator had any more information. We were just passing round dessert when the telephone rang. Leon took the call, and then called Kathleen out into the hall for a quick, whispered conversation. They both came back in, Kathleen giving us us an odd look, before exchanging glances with Leon and nodding to him, so he turned his attention to us.

"Guys, I'll be taking you back to Albany once we're done here; Judy's in Albany with someone there she thinks you need to talk to, so once we're done, we'll get your stuff together. I wish you could have stayed longer, but Judy says this is real important!"

Rick, Yaz, Shari and I exchanged puzzled glances; what was going on here? Leon wasn't saying anything more, so we finished dinner in awkward silence. Once we were done, Rick and I went and got the bags while the ladies hugged and promised return visits as soon as possible.

Conversation during the drive back was limited, as Leon seemed to have no wish to discuss where we were going; all he would say was that Judy had asked him to bring us back to Albany as quickly as possible, and that it was important. To be honest, I was feeling a little embarrassed at the abrupt way we'd finished our visit, eating and running like that, so I was not entirely comfortable on the 90-minute drive back to Albany.

Eventually we began hitting the off-ramp signs for down-town Albany, and we took one, driving through what looked like very nice housing developments and older neighborhoods, lots of green spaces and lawns, large, elegant houses set well-back from the road, with large gardens to the front, and wide, sweeping roadways.

We eventually pulled into the gravelled drive of a large, red-brick house with tall, white-framed windows, and a large Weeping Willow in the centre of the lawn. As we rolled to a stop, the front door opened, and Judy came out with a tall girl with striking red-bronze hair, almost the same titian-red as Shari's, and smoky emerald eyes. She stared wide-eyed at Rick and me, and turned back to Judy.

"Jude, look..they're so much like...it's amazing, look at them!" she whispered, while we looked on uncomprehendingly. Judy grinned.

"I know, told you so. Guys, this is my sister, Ashley. Ashley, this is Bobby, that's Ricky, and these are their girlfriends, Shari and Yaz. Shall we go in?"

Ashley led us into the house and into a large, comfortable family room, with big couches and a bright fire, where she indicated that we take our seats. I was at a complete loss to understand why Judy had brought us here, and was just about to ask her, when a little girl, maybe no more than 18 months or so, came running down the passage and barged into Judy's legs.

"Judeejudeejudeejudee!" she crowed, laughing as Judy picked her up and nibbled her neck, making her laugh and giggle even more, before settling her on her hip. She saw the puzzled look on our faces, and grinned.

"This is my niece, Babs; say hello to the nice people, poppet!"

The little girl grinned happily, and flapped a pudgy little hand.

"This is Ashley's baby, her husband will be along shortly, he has some things he wants to tell you; in fact, here he is now."

I was just turning to see this "husband" who wanted to talk to us, when he spoke, freezing me in my tracks.

"Hello Robert, long time no see! You too, Richie! I hear you want to talk to me!"

Rick jumped spinning around, his expression probably mirroring mine, because there, framed in the doorway, looking just as I remembered him, was Nicky, the same tousled dark blonde hair, the same tawny-brown eyes, the same lopsided smile, a little taller and somehow more "grown-up", but still Nicky.

"Nicky...oh my God, Shari, look, it's...it's Nicky, look!" I whispered, shock, relief, guilt, and sorrow all battling for control of me.

Nicky walked into the room and took the little girl from Judy, grinning fondly as she reached up and pulled his nose, then kissed her and passed her to Ashley, kissing her as she took the child from him. He then turned back to face us, his expression quizzical, but not hostile.

"Judy tells me you came here looking for me, which was kind of a surprise, but here I am. Now you've found me, what can I do for you?"

I was utterly dumbfounded; I'd resigned myself to weeks, maybe months of waiting for news, and yet the people we'd bumped into by the sheerest stroke of luck had led us right here to him. My mouth worked as I tried to say something, anything, but I was struck speechless.

"Speak up, Robert, you never had any problem before!" he grinned, his expression robbing the words of any sting, although, in truth he had every reason in the world to be bitter and hostile, and not one reason in hell to listen to anything we had to say. Shari looked up at me, her expression unreadable, realising I was trying to say so many things that nothing could come out, so she plunged ahead.

"Nick...Nicky, you don't know me, my name is Shereen Shahida, and my sister Yasmin and I are the daughters of Robert Davies; we're your sisters, you're my big brother, and we've been looking for you. Mummy told us everything she knew about you, what our...what that man did to you, how he hurt you. She didn't know where you were, or what happened to you, but I promised myself that we'd try and find you, because you're my big brother, and I need you as much as I need Bobby and Ricky!"

Nick put his arm around Ashley and squeezed her, smiling at Shari as she stood looking at him, her face pale and drawn, and her eyes glittering.

"So you're my little sister? Hello sis, and hello even younger sis!" he grinned, smiling at Yaz.

Yaz stared silently at him, her eyes shining, breathing out in a gusty sigh that somehow became a sob. Nicky cocked his head and winked at her, and suddenly Yaz was hugging him, babbling into his chest.

"We looked for you, we tried to find you, we all did, oh Nicky, we didn't know where you were, I heard so much about you, mummy said you were badly hurt, I'm so sorry, so sorry...!"

Nick hugged her, grinning at Shari, as she too moved in to share in his hug.

"Sshhh, it's okay, it's okay, shh now, is that any way to say hello to your big brother? Who knew I had such beautiful little sisters!" He held them both away a little and studied them, his old grin very much in evidence, that charming, lopsided smile of his that had always irritated me so much when I was younger.

"Judy said you were beautiful, but she was only half-right! All my sisters are knock-outs, just look at you! And now I think you should meet the rest of your family. This beautiful girl here is my wife, Ashley, and this is our daughter, your niece, Barbara."

My heart lurched as he said her name, wonder, guilt and loss warring in me all over again. Nick saw me start at the name, and nodded slightly, obviously guessing exactly what had jolted through me on hearing my mother's name again.

Nick pulled Judy closer and hugged her tightly.

"You've met Judy, my sister-in-law and my best friend, and Leon, my soon-to-be brother in law you already know. My mother and her husband are waiting for us to get acquainted, you'll meet them later. So now, talk to me, Robert, tell me why you needed to see me so badly. I wrote to you, I asked you both to meet me in Carlisle last year, I heard nothing back, so I assumed that was it. So, why are you here, now?"

Shari looked up at me again, checking if I was up to this now, and I nodded, letting her know I was ready for this. We all sat down as I began to speak.

In a low voice I told him what had happened after our father was arrested and extradited, the way we'd been stripped of everything, how we'd lived, then Rick's disappearance and re-appearance two years later with two sisters in-tow, sisters we'd grown-up completely unaware of.

Rick took up the tale, how he'd pieced together enough hints and clues to convince him that he'd found something, and how he had indeed found Shari and her family, and learned what our father had put her mother through. He glanced at Shari, who took it up from there.

"Our mother was beaten and abused, raped and mistreated by our father for so long, but she couldn't do anything about it, because he threatened us, Yaz and me. When we were old enough, he was going to sell us to his friends!"

Nicky's look of shock and outrage was echoed and magnified on Ashley and Judy's faces. Nicky pulled her close and held her while she trembled, the remembered fear and terror reverberating through her all over again, and it felt right to watch her be held and take comfort in the arms of her big brother.

"Where's your mother, Shereen, what happened to her?" he asked her softly.

"Mummy died, all the beatings, so many injuries...she had a brain haemorrhage, one day she just...died, peacefully, I think, but he killed mummy, just as surely as if he'd throttled her with his bare hands...Ricky found us, mummy took him in, she loved him, we loved him, he was our brother, and he promised her he'd look after us, and he did. Bobby and Ricky have changed, Nicky, I swear, they're different, they're who they should have been. Yaz and me are safe at last, with them, at least give them a chance please!"

Nicky looked up at us, one arm encircling Yaz, his free hand stroking Shari's hair as he glanced from Rick to me and back again, his eyes hooded, distant.

"I knew that bastard was sick; he's in jail now for the things he did, and he deserves every second of time he'll serve there, but how about you two? What I remember of you isn't good, or happy, and how about Barbara, what about her, what about her memory? She was your mother, you know, I tried to tell you, but you never listened, how do I know you've changed? That part of my life only means hurt and pain to me; why should I let you into any other part of it?"

Rick stood up and moved next to me, taking Yaz's hand and raising her up. Yaz held herself close to him as he spoke.

"Nicky, all our lives we treated you like an outsider; we thought Barbara was your mother, and neither of you wanted or needed us. Dad always told us we didn't need her or you, and we believed him. I'm sorry I left my oldest brother out, I was wrong, and stupid, and selfish and all kinds of other things. Yaz and Shari, and especially her mother, showed me how wrong I was, they taught me what family really means, and now all I want to do is put mine back together again the best way I can. I'm sorry Nicky, I was wrong, and I want my big brother back. We only found your letter a few days before Christmas, it had been wrongly delivered to an empty house, but we came here to look for you just as soon as we discovered where you were!"

Nicky grinned at me, although there wasn't much humour in his smile.

"And you, Robert, what do you want?"

Shari reached out and took my hand, squeezing my fingers gently, telling me to tell him everything. I squeezed back just once, agreeing with her.

"Nick, I came to find you so I could say I'm sorry. I thought Rick and I were going to be big-shot businessmen one day, just like dad, and I learned how to be just like him, and I forgot you were my brother too. What I learned from dad was all so wrong, I know that now; my sisters showed me how wrong I was. I even tried to kill myself, because I worked out how bad it was going to be, but Shari saved me, literally. She made me see that there was another world out there, and she's showing me how to fit into it, how I could be so much better than whatever I was before. I'm still learning, but I do know one thing; I need my big brother to show me how as well. And it's "Bobby" now, I'm not Robert anymore..."

Nick hugged the two girls again and smiled enigmatically as Shari slipped her hand in mine and Yaz stayed huddled against Rick.

"It seems the Davis brothers have a lot more in common than you think!" he commented cryptically. "By the way, you should know our family name is "Davis", not "Davies; that sick bastard's real name is Brian Davis, he changed his name to hide me from my mother when she tried looking for me after he abducted me."

He looked behind me into the passageway, and nodded, and a woman in her mid-forties popped her head in the door and smiled at everyone. I could see immediately her resemblance to Nick; not so much the features, but the same eyes, the same hair, the same jawline. This must have been Nick's mother. She in turn looked Rick and me up and down, her eyes flicking between us and Nick, comparing our features. I had noticed the strong resemblance between Rick and Nicky before, but now they were standing side by side, they were almost eerily similar; apart from the hair and eye colour, they could almost have been twins, even more so than Yaz and Shari. Nick stood up and took her hand.

"Mum, these are my brothers, the tall one is Bobby, the handsome one is Rick, and these two lovely girls are Shari and Yaz, my sisters. Guys, this is my mum, Julia Nixon."

I offered my hand, but instead she hugged me, a warm, inclusive hug. She did the same to Rick, and each of the girls, gently hand-combing a large curl away from Yaz's face so she could look at her properly. Yaz smiled at such a motherly gesture, and the ice was broken. At that point little Barbara decided to make her presence felt, and with a grin Ashley handed her to Shari, who sat down with her on her lap, Yaz sitting next to her, the two of them suddenly completely absorbed with their new-found niece.

Julia took my arm and linked her other arm with Rick, speaking so only the two of us could hear her.

"Thank you for coming, all of you, I'm so glad you came to find Nicky, he needs this, he needs all his family too! Now that you're all here, all that stuff that happened before is finally over. Poor Nicky's been wracked with guilt over what happened, perhaps now he can let some of it go. Who knows, maybe his brothers and sisters can help him do that, you never know. I know how much he loved your mother, I don't blame him; she was all he had, stranded there with that terrible man, and from what I heard, those two girls have the same loss as him. Perhaps all of you can help each other over this now. You're here, and Nicky's family is back together again; before he only had us, now he has you again, or maybe at last. Perhaps now he can find some sort of peace. All of you are going to have to help each other; you know that, don't you? You're brothers and sisters, perhaps now's the perfect time to be just that!" she smiled, letting us both go with a gentle pat on the arm.

I was a little overwhelmed by all this; such a lot had happened in the last hour, and I was still processing where I was, and who was who, and trying to figure-out what happened next. I looked across at Yaz and Shari, bonding with their niece, talking animatedly with Ashley, fitting-in, and couldn't help but feel that perhaps Julia was right; now was the time to be family again.

Judy slipped her arm through mine and grinned up at me, her little pixie face alight with amusement.

"Welcome to the Nixon-Davis clan! Don't worry, Leon's still trying to get used to this, feel free to feel a little shell-shocked if you need to!"

I sat down on one of the couches, and Judy sat next to me, which was good, because I had some questions for her.

"Judy, when did you put it all together, when did you know or suspect that we were looking for Nick and all?" I asked her, and she gave me that grin again.

"You're serious, right? Bobby, as soon as I saw you two at the hotel I knew! Have you looked in a mirror lately? You and Rick are so much like Nicky it's uncanny; I nearly fell over in shock! He once told me what a pair of little shits his kid brothers were, and then to see you two in the flesh, boy was I conflicted! It was a weird sensation, actually seeing in the flesh two of the people Nicky felt he had most reason in the world to hate, looking so much like one of the people I love most in the world! Even the hand gestures are the same. It's still freaking me out, believe me!"

I had to grin, and agree with her; we had been a pair of despicable little shits, but maybe, just maybe, we'd turned that corner and left that all behind. Something else was also troubling me.

"Judy, what is Nicky going to say about...you know, Shari and me, and Rick and Yaz?"

Judy twinkled at me.

"I think he'll congratulate you on your taste! Tell him, I think you just might be surprised; the Davis boys are a lot more alike than you probably think! Go on, go and ask him!"

She seemed to be secretly amused about something, but not in a malicious way, so I followed her advice. Rick was in the middle of being admired by Nicky's mother and Ashley, much to his embarrassment and Yaz's amusement, so I collared Nicky while he was unoccupied.

"Nicky, can I ask you something?" I began, and he nodded, walking me to a part of the room not occupied by sisters, wives, mothers and little girls.

"Okay...Bobby, what's on your mind?"

Now for it; the only way to ask him was to ask him, so I jumped straight in.

"What would you say if I told you that Shari was more than just a sister to me, that she and I, and Rick and Yasmin, have a...a closer relationship than just simply being brothers and sisters?"

Nick looked at me for a long moment, then slowly grinned.

"I think I'd say that you have incredibly good taste, both of you, they're exquisite!"

I breathed a sigh of relief, but now my curiosity had gotten the better of me.

"So you don't think it's wrong...or immoral, or anything like that?"

Nick looked at me, then glanced over at Ashley, and I was struck how much she had in common with the girls; tall, slender, beautiful, deep red-bronze hair, large, expressive eyes, and something began to click inside me. Nick saw the direction of my glance and pulled me closer, so he was almost whispering in my ear.

"My mother's name before she married David, my stepfather, was Lowry, Julia Lowry; Ashley's maiden name was also Lowry..."

I listened uncomprehending for a second, then it clicked into place; Ashley Lowry, Nick's mother was Julia Lowry, of course; Ashley was his sister! Now Judy's offhand remark about the Davis boys being a lot more alike than we suspected suddenly made sense; that, and Nick's cryptic comment along the same lines a few minutes ago!

I gaped at him, and he grinned happily.

"When I first arrived here, almost the first person I saw was Ashley; and I couldn't take my eyes off her, or stop thinking about her. We met on the first day I arrived here, and we've been together ever since. I felt about her, and I still do, the same way you probably feel about Shari; she's beautiful, she loves me, I love her, the "sister" thing didn't matter to us then, and it doesn't matter to us now."