The Queen and the Soldier

Shannon stopped and paused. But even Sandra could tell it wasn't because she was fixing to run. She was just trying to find a way of telling the story.

"Juh-... Judge Walter Franklin. He huh-... helped me muh-... make up my mind."

"Was he a friend? How did you meet him?"

"When I wuh-... went to court. For ill-... illegal underground fuh-... fighting."

Sandra's eyes shot open. "You're . . . kidding, right? You're NOT kidding?!?"

"Nuh-... nope," Shannon said, her eyes a million miles away. "After I muh-... moved out here from the east cuh-... coast, I had an academic scholarship, buh-... but muh-... my loans didn't cuh-... cover much past huh-... housing. I couldn't get a juh-... job due to my cuh-... complete lack of social skuh-... skills. I'd stuh-... started taking martial arts at my luh-... local activity center wuh-... when I was six, so I wuh-... went to a training facility tuh-... to see if I could teach, buh-... but I wasn't from an accredited skuh-... school or anything. I puh-... probably could have found some-... something if I'd tried a luh-... little longer but I was duh-... desperate. Some guy-... guy who had suh-... seen me at the gym tuh-... told me about a way of making some kwih-... quick cash if I nuh-... knew how to use my fists. I shuh-... showed up where and wuh-... when he said, and huh-... had my first fight."

Sandra could scarcely believe what she was hearing. Shannon seemed so reserved! But Sandra knew better. An insecure mind behind a powerful body could lead to some very bad things.

Shannon went on to describe how she had become a staple in the underground-fighting scene. You beat your opponent until they couldn't fight, either by missing a standing ten-count or you made them quit. Quitting was bad, because it made it harder to get fights in the future. Nobody liked quitters, especially the crowd. She had made a hundred bucks her first night. That was food for her. She had sworn she would only do it until she got back on her feet. But then something really bad happened. "It got fun," Shannon said. She had liked the cheers of the crowd. She had liked being respected, or at least feeling respected, for something she could actually do. She didn't have to talk. She didn't have to socialize. She just had to hit the girl in front of her. Girl-fights were really popular, and the prettier the girls the better. Weapons weren't allowed, but they inevitably snuck their way into the fights anyway. That's when things got ugly.

Then, the fights got raided. Shannon had been doing them for almost six months, and had been living comfortably during that time. Thoughts of quitting were still in her head, but they were of quitting school rather than quitting fighting. She hadn't lost a fight, though she'd been in some hum-dingers. But all the fighters and organizers and most of the patrons got arrested. Shannon had spent a couple days in jail. Then she had been brought before Judge Franklin. He had asked her if she understood the charges, and she had been so scared that it had taken her a full minute to complete a sentence. He had found out she was only seventeen and asked why my parents or legal guardians weren't present. Shannon had told him about how she had been adopted and her current legal situation. He had looked concerned and had put her case on the back-burner until he could get her records faxed out form North Carolina. After he had read them, he called her back to his chambers. He said that he had been reading about her and all that had happened to her back at the orphanage and her failed adoption, and he thought he understood her.

Sandra found herself wondering about the "failed adoption." What else had happened to this woman?

"Anyway," Shannon continued, her stutter noticeably diminishing. "He said that he didn't thuh-... think that putting me in jail would duh-... do any good. I didn't understand until later how irregular the whole puh-... procedure was and how many strings he had to puh-... pull to help me out. He basically put me on puh-... probation until I graduated from college. And he guh-... gave me a job. Night janitor at the courthouse." Shannon actually laughed at that. "Told me I had to go to anger muh-... management classes to tuh-... try and get over the bloodlust. Thuh-... that's why I talk to the police psychiatrist whenever I guh-... get into a fight. Not that I'm on probation anymore, but just because I'm afraid I'll stuh-... start to like it again."

Sandra took Shannon's hand. She thought she should be afraid but wasn't. "So that's why you became a cop? Did Judge Franklin push you towards that?"

"No," said Shannon. She liked the feeling of Sandra's hand in her own. "Buh-... but he did represent the law. But there had been thuh-... three major events in my life where I nuh-... needed help up to that point, and each time I was huh-... helped by cops or judges. It makes me mad to hear puh-... people whine about cops because they got a speeding ticket or got aruh-... arrested for doing something stupid, and they say 'Why aren't you people out duh-... doing something useful like cuh-... catching murders.' They are out there duh-... doing just that. I'd be duh-... dead, in prison or worse right now if it weren't for cops. I still talk to juh-... Judge Franklin. He invited me to his house for Christmas a cuh-... couple of times. He retired a couple years ago."

Sandra kissed Shannon on the hand. "So, anything else from your past I should know about? Besides being orphaned, arrested and shot?"

"You stuh-... still wanna know the rest?"

"I was kidding. There's actually more?"

Shannon blushed. "Yep."

Sandra stopped, turned the woman's head and stared into her eyes. "Why don't you tell me when we get back to my place?"

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Back at Sandra's house . . .

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When Sandra opened the door, finally free of yellow police-tape, she stopped dead in her tracks. She flipped on the light and stared at where a man had lost his life on the white linoleum. The stains were gone. The chalk outline was gone. But she could see that man and his blood as clear as day. It wasn't until Shannon walked right through that spot that the illusion vanished and Sandra was able to step inside her own house. She had chosen once to lead a less exorbitant life than her contemporaries. She didn't need butlers or personal shoppers or anything like that. She began to wish that she had. The idea of coming home alone to this place suddenly filled her with dread.

"All thuh-... this stuff going to the bedroom?" Shannon asked? Sandra nodded and led the way up the stairs to her huge master bedroom. There was an enormous round bed in the center of the room and a myriad of dressers containing all sorts of clothes, a large walk-in closet . . . "This place is huge!"

Sandra smiled. Her bedroom was bigger than Shannon's apartment. "Shannon, you earn decent money don't you?"

"I guh-... guess so."

"Why do you live like that? I mean, you could own a car, live in a nicer place, buy a bigger tank for Mr. Ages . . . so why don't you?"

"I've never huh-... had much stuff in my life. Even when I could afuh-... afford it, I didn't think I needed it. Though Mr. Ages cuh-... could use some more space to stuh-... stretch his legs." They shared a laugh at that. "Are you going to buh-... be alright here?" Shannon asked glancing towards the floor.

"I think so," she almost whispered. "What happened was so . . . evil! I've never had anything like this . . . how do you move on?"

Shannon sat on the bed. "You can hide from it," she said. Her face seemed distant, but not without sadness and fear. But her stutter was completely gone. "Try and pretend it's not there. Or you can just turn off the lights so you don't have to see it. Shower in the dark. Make love in the dark. Live in the dark." She looked at Sandra. "But your scar is in your mind. No one has to see it, and you might be able to just forget it. The flesh remembers," she said, grabbing the bottom of her sweatshirt and pulling it off her shivering body. "And you can't leave your flesh behind."

Sandra stopped and stared. Shannon's upper body was actually magnificent. Small but pert breasts were the only body-fat that she could see. Everything else was lightly muscled and toned to perfection. Her shoulders, her arms and her washboard stomach. But then she saw the lines.

Shannon's back was crisscrossed with thin lines where the flesh was even paler than the skin. There was a couple of place where the lines were pink, but they were unmistakable in their origin. Shannon's back was covered in old scars.

"Where . . . how . . .?" Sandra started. Trying to put her dismay into words was almost futile. "Did you get these from fighting?"

"Which ones?"

Sandra turned Shannon and sat on the bed behind her. She saw a circular divot in the upper chest and touched it.

"That was the exit wound fruh-... from when I got shot."

Sandra stared at, leaned in and kissed it. "There," she joked. "All better."

Shannon smiled. She wished it were that easy. She felt a finger being traced along the scar on the other shoulder blade. "That one was from getting smashed through a car window in one fight. That was a tough one." She felt Sandra's lips kiss that one as well.

Sandra noticed a bunch of long strips running the length of Shannon's back. She touched one of them and Shannon noticeably cringed. "Where did these come from?"

Shannon sighed. "Remember how I tuh-... told you about an adoption that didn't work out?"

"Yes," responded Sandra.

"I was twelve when it happened. A stuh-... strange age. Normally kids that old don't get adopted. But this couple said that's why they did that. Because no one else would. Worked great on our caretakers at the time. The man . . . I duh-... didn't like him from the word go, but hey . . . it was a family. The mother . . . she was dead inside. You could just tell she didn't care about anything anymore. They had adopted two other girls, both when they were twelve." Shannon stopped and swallowed a gulp of air. "The real reason, it tuh-... turned out was that twelve-year-old girls turned into thuh-... thirteen year old girls, and that's when the 'man' of the house considered them 'ripe.'"

Sandra wanted to throw up. "He didn't . . ."

"No," Shannon said, "but he tried. Took me down into the buh-... basement for my 'birthday present.' Once I figured out what was going on, I fought back. I'd been taking Karate and self-defense at a local kuh-... community center since I was little. I doubt either of the other two girls he had adopted had any ability to defend themselves. But I did. At one puh-... point, I managed to break one of those high basement windows and scream for help. I saw an elderly couple rushing back into their house. I knew they would call the cops. I thought I would be all right. But I'd luh-... lost sight of the man. He hit me in the head and knocked me silly. Then he took off his belt . . . it had a huge buh-... buckle on it . . . and he started to beat me. That thing left huge cuts down my back where the buckle-hook caught me. I couldn't get away. Then I heard the door upstairs being buh-... busted down and these two patrolmen who had been in the area when the emergency call went in came down. I remember turning my head and looking at them. One of them was Chinese, which for suh-... some reason caught me as odd. Both of them looked so muh-... mad . . . I thought they were going to shoot the guy. But he wuh-... went away for a long time after that, and I went back to the orphanage. I didn't want to leave with another family after that. Being adopted meant nothing but pain. The doctors did their best, but they said the scars wuh-... would never completely go away."

Sandra was perplexed. They were noticeable, but hardly enough to detract from the phenomenal musculature of the woman's back. 'Hell,' she thought. 'They give it character.'

"So why hide them? They're really not that much of . . ."

"Thuh-... they're hideous! I'm hideous!" Whatever calm Shannon had slipped into that allowed her to talk was vanishing rapidly. First she tried covering her body with her arms, then she reached for her sweatshirt. Sandra grabbed it away and flung it across the room.

'She told me too much and too quickly. She's got nothing left to hide,' Sandra thought. Shannon was completely exposed, and in more ways than one. She positioned herself in front of the fiery redhead and grabbed her hands. Shannon had tears in her eyes. "Don't stop now," Sandra said softly. "Don't lose your head. Tell me why you hide them."

Shannon stopped struggling. She knew she could break this beautiful, brown-skinned woman in half if she really wanted to. But she didn't want to. She put her hands together as if in prayer and leaned forward until her forehead reached Sandra's chest. "Because if I dih-... didn't hide them, people would see them. People would suh-... see every time that I wasn't strong enough." Shannon closed her eyes before continuing. "I wasn't fast enough to stop the man wuh-... with the gun. I was so stuh-... stupid that I fought for money. I wuh-... was too weak to stop him from hitting me over and over again." Shannon was crying now. " cuh-... couldn't stop him."

Sandra just held the woman at first, not knowing what else to do. She caressed Shannon's hair and ran her fingers down across the girl's shoulders. The she cupped Shannon's chin in one had and looked into her eyes. "You . . . you are not hideous. You are one of the most perfect creatures that I've ever seen. What . . . what do you expect out of yourself? You were THIRTEEN years old! That you knew enough to fight is amazing, but that you stopped him from raping you is amazing! And so you didn't emerge from every fight unscathed. No one wins them all! And good God woman, you're not Superman! You can't outrun bullets no matter how hard you try, and Bobby would be dead right now if he had been there with anyone but you! You saved his life, knowing what he thought of you! And despite everything that the world has thrown at you, you've survived! Your scars don't make you ugly! They tell the story of a phenomenal, beautiful woman who can't be stopped. Every day, people are safer and the world is a better place because you're in it."

"But the wuh-... world hates me! It's tuh-... tried to kill me so many times that I'm luh-... losing count!"

"And you've kicked its ass! It's given its best shots and you are STILL here. Right now. With me," Sandra whispered. She started crawling forward, pushing Shannon onto her back.

"Whuh-... What are you . . ."

"I'm going to do everything I can to make it clear that there is pleasure for you to have in this world. All you have to do is let it happen," Sandra said, her lips just a hair's-width from Shannon's. Her breath crossed that narrow divide and flowed between Shannon's trembling lips. Shannon started to say something, causing their lips to finally meet. Then Shannon just started kissing Sandra, whatever it is she had wanted to say forgotten. Sandra let her hand trace down Shannon's body, slipping it under the elastic waistband of her sweatpants and under those horrible cotton panties.

"Do you want to feel good?" Sandra whispered in the redhead's ear as she slid her fingers into that incredibly tight pussy. This caused Shannon to shudder all over. The beautiful cop had probably never made love with the lights on before, and she seemed a bit disoriented. "Because I would love to make love to you all night, call in sick and make love to you tomorrow as well." She started working two fingers deep into Shannon's box, curling the tips and pressing them against the woman's forward vaginal wall. She rubbed her palm against Shannon's clit and temporarily lowered her face so she could suck on one of the woman's nipples. When she gently took one of those nubs in her teeth, she got a groan and a jump. 'So those are sensitive on her, hunh? I'll have to remember that,' Sandra thought.

Shannon's body was finally getting into the game, even if her brain was still on the sidelines. She contracted her vaginal muscles, trying vainly to trap Sandra's fingers inside. Her back arched and her incredible abdominal muscles ripple and strain against her pale skin. She bucked her hips against Sandra's hand. Then Sandra's fingers stopped.

"But you have to tell me you want it," she said softly before kissing Shannon again.

Shannon bit her bottom lip. It was almost as if she had been happy so few times in her life that she didn't trust herself to try it. Sandra used her free hand to undo one of the buttons on her blouse, then grabbed one of Shannon's hands and thrust it into the gap. Shannon's hand started caressing one of Sandra's sizeable melons, rubbing her nipple through the satiny material of the bra.

"I want it," Shannon said in a voice that was almost forced. She was scared, but she was also tired of being alone.

Sandra smiled and started moving her fingers again. She kept her eyes on Shannon's face as the woman approached orgasm. She tried spreading that tight box with two fingers while a third went deep. She was able to hit her lover's trigger and Shannon started to cum. Sandra had never seen anything as sexy as a well-toned woman in the midst of genuine pleasure, and that's exactly what she was witnessing. When Shannon's body eased back to the mattress, Sandra withdrew her fingers and licked them clean right in front of Shannon's eyes.

"Yummy," she said. She watched with pleasure as Shannon undid the rest of the buttons on Sandra's blouse, letting her heaving breasts out to breathe. Sandra had to help undo the clasp of her bra, but soon her tits were swinging freely in the air. Then she lay down next to Shannon, and both women slid the clothes off their lower bodies. For the first time in her adult life, Shannon was naked and in the presence of another woman with the lights on.

Sandra knelt at Shannon's side and started sucking on those sensitive pink nipples. Shannon reached one arm out and grabbed one of the other woman's dark globes, squeezing it.

"Ooh," she moaned. "Now you're getting into the spirit of things." Sandra swung her hips around and straddled Shannon's face. "Now I believe you know how this works. It worked pretty well for us the other night." She felt the tip of her lover's tongue almost painfully slowly tracing around her aching box.

"You're suh-... so pretty," Shannon said, mesmerized by the dark, juicy mound in front of her. She kissed those swollen lips over and over again and sucked the fleshy inner lips into her mouth. She remembered that Sandra liked having her ass played with, so she snuck a hand into place and inserted a finger into that perfect rosebud. She was reward for her efforts with a long moan, and then she felt a tongue exploring her own private area.

Sandra had to acknowledge that she was still a little nervous. She wanted to do really well by Shannon and help make the girl feel safe with her, as well as completely satisfied. She certainly planned on doing her best, which was a concept made simpler by how incredibly sexy the woman's crotch was. It was pink and slick with Shannon's juices, and Sandra buried her tongue right in the middle of it. She would flatten her tongue and rub the wide textured surface all across the woman's mound. She felt Shannon gently pinching the fleshy area around the clit against the clitoral region and then tonguing that region, while continuing to finger Sandra's anus. This combination of sensations was enough to push her over the edge, and Sandra moaned directly into her lover's pussy as she climaxed. Her body twitched and trembled and her cum leaked onto Shannon's face. Shannon was close behind Sandra, having her second orgasm of the evening. Both women kept kissing, licking and nuzzling all the way through the process, then started over again until they brought each other to orgasm one more time each.