**The beginning of this part was originally a standalone (just thought I should let you know that) and it’s original title was "Seconds"** Poh Poh is the Chinese word for "grandmother". Thats what my mother told me and I am pretty sure thats what I called -my- grandmother when I was about five or six years old (I still do, I just never see her). It is pronounced as it is spelt. poh-poh.**

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Part 9

Her hair was beautiful. Long and silky, a perfect shiny leather black. As she walked down the sidewalk, her long skirt accented her small figure and the light coating of make up on her face covered any blemishes while still looking natural.

I was under a tree in Grant park, quite a few meters away, waiting under its shade. As she got closer, her lips gave out her special smile and a warm feeling swept over me like the rays of the sun on a cold winters day. It was good to know that she had been smiling at me, and nobody else. Deb was the only person that ever really smiled at me, with her eyes sparkling and cheeks a rosy red, showing how happy she really felt.

"Deb!" I called out, my voice somehow feeling strong and confident although my knees had gotten weaker and my arms felt like Jell-O.

"I knew you would be waiting here. I’m so sorry that I took so long," her face held a sheepish look, as she brushed back a strand of the perfect black hair behind an ear and out of the way.

"You were worth the wait."

We stood before each other, neither one sure of what move we should make next. There was no tension, just awkwardness. Something I had encountered a lot lately.

But in a second, what I thought would never happen to me in a million years, did. The sound of screeching brakes hit my ear, the smell of burning tires sneaking up my nose and bringing a batch of fresh, salty tears to my eyes. Glass shattered, hitting me in the face like a bucket of ice water and I was thrown back, the impact too much for my body to handle.

I forced open my eyes. I found myself in a heap, my mind in a mush like hot cereal. Red is all I see, the colour of death and life. The smell of fresh petrol is what hits my senses next and I cringe, bile rising up in my throat. Finally getting up the strength to sit, a thought crowds my brain, terminating all other trains of thought for the moment.

Deb.

It seems to take a long time for my mind to process it’s messages into the correct order, but finally it is done and using the last ounce of energy I had left, I yelled with all my might.

"Deb!" However, what came out of my mouth was a weak whisper, of no use to anyone. "Deb?"

There she was. I could see her perfect face now covered in a multitude of bruises, lacerations were prominent on her arms, the abrasions dotting her skin and her bare leg, the dress torn past shreds was lined with angry marks.

"Deb! Deb oh, God, Deb?" I say, crawling over as best as I could, not listening to the dull ache in my left shoulder, almost numbing my arm in an attempt to let me know that it had been dislocated from its correct position.

I finally make it to where she is lying. I pull her into my lap, brushing the stray strands of the once perfect hair from out of her face and eyes.

"Deb, say something please... just speak to me." And then, as though someone had been listening from above, my prayers were answered. Her eyes creeped open slowly, like an old door, a door to what emotions she was feeling inside.

"John? What happened?" she whispered faintly, her face filled with confusion.

"We were hit by a...a car, I think." I say to her, looking around at the small crowds that had gathered, no one wanting to go any closer. A man in a business suite was talking on his cell phone. "There will be paramedics on the way."

"If something happens to me, or to you, I just want you to know something," she sat there leaning against me weakly, looking up at my face and I gently nod, waiting for her next words.

"I love you..."

******

His screams were what woke him up. Sweat poured down his forehead, the clear droplets glistening in the silver moonlight that streamed in from an open window. Rubbing his hands over a nights growth of beard, John tried desperately to get his breathing back to normal. Finally succeeding in his task, he swung his long legs to the side of the bed and watched as the moon seemed to swoop in and out from behind the Smokey white clouds like ghosts running to fight a secret battle of the skies.

"It was just a dream," Carter whispered to himself, eyes still transfixed on the glowing object, "It was just a dream..."

~*~*~*~

She couldn’t get to sleep. The tiny wild flower was now pressed in the palm of her hand as she wrote in the diary that her grandmother had given her as child.

It was quite heavy, made of a deep brown, strong smelling leather and thick handmade paper filled with pressed dried flowers and seeds that had been carefully inserted at just the right places. A bronze lock dangled from its place, a beautiful key with tiny intricate patterns carefully engraved along its edges. Deb was flipping through the first few pages, taking note of the date, then quickly skimming each one of its contents before moving on. She had started writing in it when she was sixteen, a time in her life that had been filled with great moments and laughter. A time when there was not a worry in the world.

When she finally came to the next available page, Deb took out a fine black pen and, just pausing for a second, lifted her hand and began to write...

Deb closed the book, a drop of salty water leaking from her left eye and hitting the page she had been writing on before she could shut it. Before the tears threatened to take over her emotional well-being, she quickly slipped the yellow flower that John had given her between pages and turned the key, locking away the few secrets that she had just written and hoped that no one would ever read them.

The couch seemed to be more comfy than my bed, it’s soft, plush material rubbing against my raw skin as I flopped upon it, my legs dangling over the arm rest. The nightmare had left me with images that were not to be desired, although they were slowly fading away into a deeper part of my brain, a place where I would shove all the painful memories into a bottomless pit, hopefully never to recover them again.

I could hear the less than quiet sounds of Dave getting up in the next room. He seemed to be doing something special in there. Maybe he was moving around the furniture. I glanced at the VCR clock and saw that it was only 3:55 in the morning. ‘Bit early for moving furniture’ I thought to myself.

"Oh god, Dave I want *more*!"

Thats when I figured out that he was doing a hell of a lot more than moving furniture. Quickly sneaking back into my room and pulling on a pair of jeans and a shirt, I decided to leave them to it, leaving the dark apartment with only a few dollars and my keys.

~*~*~*~

Deb knocked quietly on the door to her guest room, the room where Abby had been staying for the past four days. No one answered. Not a sound was heard and she was beginning to get worried. She hadn’t seen Abby since the last shift and that was hours ago. Inching the door open, Deb peaked around it to find the room empty, a lamp on the desk lighting the dark with a warm glow. The bed was made neatly and there were a few personal things on the bedside table. The window was open and she crossed the wooden floor to shut it. As she came closer to the desk, a small white piece of paper was lying open, a few short words scribbled on it in a hurried fashion. There was a small smudge of ink at the last word. Deb picked up the paper and read it out slowly.

‘Well that explains a lot.’ Deb thought to herself before dropping the piece of paper back to its original position on the desk. She left the room, flipping of the light switch as she closed the door behind her.

~*~*~*~

"Damn you Dave!" John yelled out into the depths of the night, deciding to vent his frustration and anger through his vocal chords.

The sound echoed through the still air, the silence that followed almost deafening. The shadows seemed more pronounced then before, the light of a street lamp up ahead the only source of comfort, though a weak one.

~*~*~*~

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His feet barely made a sound on the cold, hard, menacing pavement. Scraps of long forgotten pieces of rubbish lay at the side of the curb, their faces begging to be picked up, to be given a place in this world.

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~*~*~*~

Old, rusting bicycles lay on over grown weedy grass, the flat tires and once shiny handles telling a story of the past filled with great love and adventures through the parks and roads of the district, of chases and escapes from angry neighbors, laughter and teasing.

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~*~*~*~

Windows with its glass broken, the blinds falling apart and shredded in places that rendered it unrepairable, the stark blankness of nothing worth saving behind it giving the onlooker the impression that it was the face of a doll, once the giver of great joy, now its eyes poked out, the sockets staring blindly into the depths of your soul.

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Door frames without so much as a hinge, gates with sharp, rusty metallic edges pointing up to the heavens, daring anyone to try and enter.

Dogs barking shamelessly into the night, their masters yelling at them to shut up.

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~*~*~*~

House after house, the sound of a baby’s endless squalls as a mother tried to calm her young one, the silouhette of a husband and wife’s bitter bickering in the pale light of a kitchen window, their voices carrying out into the street, a broken telephone booth, the hanging receiver transmitting the message of no one to listen.

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

Glass pieces from a bottle once enjoyed crunched under his leather shoes, the bright stars staring down at him like eyes into the future, with an endless entourage of questions, their gaze following his tireless trek through the hell of the night.

Cats weaved their way across the road, the sound of rebel teenagers blasting rap music into the streets and he ran. Without a glance back into the terror he fled.

~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~

John didn’t know he came to be among this neighborhood, but somehow fate had brought him there. To show him what, he had not a clue.

All John knew was that he had to escape from it all, and fast.

~*~*~*~

‘Fresh air is all I need’ Deb whispered to herself as convincingly as possible as she made her way outside her apartment block.

What she wasn’t admitting to herself was the fact that she felt lonely, self conscience and all alone. The companionship that Abby provided had left her wanting more, and she almost suggested that she move in. She had the space.

‘I won’t be in those rooms for very much longer,’ Deb reminded herself, ‘You’ll be staying at the lavish headquarters of Louies castle by the end of the week.’ Even the thought of the honeymoon and what he would expect of her when the time came made her woozy. ‘As long as I can keep Carter as a friend, as long as we don’t take it any further-’

She had been thinking so hard, her face down, staring with concentration at the cold, damp pavement beneath her feet that she didn’t look up in time to see that she had bumped into someone. Someone she held close to heart and soul...

~*~*~*~

"I’m sorry-"

"Deb, what are you doing here?" John asked softly, his eyes drinking in her appearance like a cup of coffee during the graveyard shift.

"Nothing, I just- what are you doing here?" she whispered back, trying to avoid his gaze and change the subject all in one while nervously tucking back a piece of hair behind her ear.

"Dave was a little busy, so I decided o leave him alone for a little while."

"Figures. Abby’s out somewhere too."

"Got a suggestion as to their whereabouts?" asked Carter suggestively, a playful smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he continued to take note of her mannerisms and the way she seemed to be looking around nervously, as though she was waiting for Louie to come up behind her.

"Not a clue," she whispered, shaking her head softly. "You should come up, have some coffee or something."

Carter looked away, his eyes falling on a lone tree across the street, its branches bent and old, the leaves hung loosely like pieces of roughly cut up paper. He considered the proposition for a second and finally said, "Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice."

Deb nodded and reached for his arm to lead him inside.

~*~*~*~

"So, where are you going to live, after ahhh..."

"In his home. Or mantion, I should say," Deb replied as she carried the two mugs of hot, steaming coffee to the couch where John was seated comfortably. He noted how most of the things in the apartment had not been packed up and found it odd.

"Haven’t started the big move yet?"

"My mother has already arranged for some people to come while the wedding reception is on," Deb answered mechanically, taking a sip of the black liquid.

Carter raised his eyebrows yet didn’t utter a sound.

"Okay, so I think its going to be hard to leave everything... I know I’m going to miss everything. Especially having a place all to myself."

"Would you miss me?" asked John quietly. Deb attempted to reach his gaze, but his emotions had been locked away in a solid box and his eyes held no answers. She had been side glancing at him all night long and had hoped that he wouldn’t notice how his stares had effected her each time she felt his chocolate brown eyes focused on a part of her anatomy.

"Of course I’d miss you," she said giving him a huge grin. However, the huge grin seemed to fade into tears and it all came in a gigantic rush. Tears, words and sobs all rushed out and he leaned over and pressing his body into hers, pulled Deb into a close hug.

"I don’t know what I’m going to do John. It’s going to be so hard and I don’t know if I’ll ever learn to love him like I should, I don’t know what I’m going to do, I don’t know why I did it all in the first place. I don’t love him like that John- I don’t! What am I going to do about the mess I’m in. I can’t call it off... I shouldn’t have agreed to it but my father had already received the money and the deal had been made. Oh God, how could I have been so, so damn *stupid*!?!"

He waited till she had calmed down, until he felt her taut muscles relax and he rubbed her back slowly and methodically until her labored breathing had returned to a normal level before he spoke, clearly and concisely. He spoke with a strange air of confidence and that seemed to give her that extra push, to do what had been on her mind all evening...

"You know what you’re going to do?"

She shook her head.

"You’re going to get up tomorrow, go to your mothers house and get all dolled up in your pretty dress. You’re going to have your make up and hair all done perfectly, and your car will be on time. You’ll arrive at the church, you’ll have the ceremony and if you go through with it, you go through with it. If you don’t, because you can’t, or won’t I just want you to know to know one thing."

Deb looked up expectantly and rubbed away as much moisture form her eyes as possible.

"That I love you and I will always be here for you whenever you need me."

Deb leaned over, her lips firmly pressed into his, her hands grazing the long wayward strands of hair and the soft skin of his cheek. His tongue pushed forwards and in a few short seconds he was tasting the inside of her mouth where just minutes before strong, sweet coffee had passed through. John’s eyes closed, letting his hands and mouth do all the work as Deb took him to a wonderful land of fantasy and things were forgotten. Next were the clothes, taken off in a frenzy, strewn all over the room in haste. It wasn’t known how they had made it to her bedroom, but in the heat of the moment, all was lost and a friendship taken to a higher level.

A level that they would never really be able to step down from properly.

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*Thanks to Lisa who beated this for me.
*Lyrics used: "You Remind Me" by Nickelback (Im so sorry to whoever gave me these lyrics... I dont remember your name! Just want to say ... Thanks!)
*All feedback need and very much appreciated at: er_aussie@hotmail.com