This is a work of fiction, using characters from the film, “Proof of Life”.  No insult or invasion of privacy or infringement of copyright is intended. The story is for readers over the age of 18 only, and contains adult language. The writer is not responsible for any "discomfort" caused to the reader by this language and these situations.

Full Length Of The River

©2008 by: Darrin

Chapter Eighteen

The rest of the weekend passed quietly and Monday was just as uneventful, even with the visit to Dan’s office.  Dino called a few times and each time, the call was ended with Stephanie and Alaina chatting.  Terry found it so odd yet encouraging that the two women were becoming fast friends, finding so much to talk about while having never met in person.  At last, Alaina was cleared to come home and they made a time to meet after Alaina’s friends and family had a chance to welcome her home.  She’d barely been reported missing and Terry got a phone call from his FBI contact thanking him for clearing this case for him before he’d barely had a chance to start.  Terry had a big favour waiting for him at the bureau, the man assured him and Terry tucked that knowledge away, certain he’d be able to call it in, one day.

So with meeting Alaina still a few days away, Terry and Stephanie concentrated on working with Dan.  The sessions were difficult for her.  She was so filled with hope and energy now that the horrors of the camp were finally put to rest, that dealing with her memories from Minnesota frustrated her that she couldn’t just ignore it all and go on.  Terry agreed with Dan, though, that she needed to sort it all out in her head and come to terms with what she had been through.  She needed to be able to return to her flat and deal with closing that part of her life before being able to move onto the next part.  So the three of them worked together, encouraging Stephanie to become whole once again.

She decided, with Dan’s help, to choose Stephanie Jasper.  It was how Terry knew her and Dan agreed that while she was reintroducing herself to Jasmine Stephens, she still had grown apart from that time, had made the decision to “divorce” herself from those terrible events with some success and now it was time to merge and grow.  By the time Thursday’s session was over, all three of them were feeling much more confident that Stephanie would be out of therapy in a few weeks.  Terry graciously accepted the quiet compliment from Dan that it was his involvement that made everything go so smoothly.  Dan did caution him privately though, to keep an eye on Stephanie.  Even the most resilient people could have a relapse and Terry took Dan’s concern seriously, remaining watchful for anything out of the ordinary.

Dino had returned and delivered Alaina to a very grateful set of family and friends.  He showed up for French Toast Friday getting almost barreled over by Stephanie when he walked in the door.  Breakfast was lively with tales of his South American adventure and Terry took the opportunity to nip down to the jeweler’s while Dino kept Steph occupied and pick up the promise ring that was now ready.  When he came back, Maggie spirited Stephanie away on some pretext so that Dino and Terry could talk.  The one thing that got the most discussion was how different Alaina’s homecoming had been to Stephanie’s.  The two men hoped that that one major difference wouldn’t affect the two women’s friendship, given how excited Stephanie was to have made a friend after all the time that had passed with her being alone and unable to make any kind of social connection.

After Maggie left for the day and Dino took off as well to get ready for the evening’s plans of meeting Alaina, Terry and Steph went for a walk in Central Park.  They took a break on what had become their favourite bench, with its view of the Park and all the activities around, while affording a little privacy at the same time.  Terry could feel the little blue velvet box burning a hole in his pocket, but he waited until the right moment, when Stephanie was completely distracted.

“Steph?”

“Yes, T?” Steph answered, watching a pair of Labrador puppies chasing each other nearby.

“What would you say to making you living with me a little more ‘official’?”

She turned to him and blushed a pretty red.  “Um… How would we do that?”

“So, you want to?”

“Of course, T.  I can’t imagine my life without you.  Anything you want to do about it, I’ll do.”

Terry grinned.  He had thought once upon a time that he wanted the type of woman who wasn’t always compliant, who was very independent and very much her own person; not defined by him.  But at the end of the day, it turned out that who he really wanted was someone with Stephanie’s strength and fortitude with that innate ability to love and trust him completely.  Trust, that was the key.  A man like him needed that complete, unwavering trust, simple and sure.

“That’s good, because I already got something.”  He pulled the little box out of his pocket and lifted the lid.  Steph’s eyes went huge and she looked up at him hurriedly.

“That’s the ring I liked from the store that time!  How did –”

Terry chuckled, picked up her right hand and placed the ring on her third finger.  He clasped it tight in his and kissed her knuckles.

“Stephanie Jasper, I promise I will always take care of you and never let anything harm you as best I can.”

Steph’s eyes filled with tears and she smiled, causing them to spill down her cheeks.  “I promise too, T,” she finally whispered and kissed his fingertips.

Terry pulled her close to him and kissed her mouth tenderly before letting her settle against his chest and admire his gift.  She alternately giggled and sniffed away her tears as he intertwined his fingers with hers rubbing them gently.

“I love you, T,” she whispered.

“Love you too, babygirl.  Always.”

The two of them sat together for a long while, occasionally kissing until the kisses became a little too passionate for public.  They walked back to Terry’s flat quite a bit faster than they’d come and soon were closing the door as Terry pulled her to him and kissed her deeply, squeezing her breast with one hand, the other at her neck, keeping her where he needed her to be.  His hips ground into hers as he pushed her against the door and her hands were busily working at his belt and fly reaching in at last to wrap her hand around his thick length.

Terry growled as she touched him.  “Need to be inside you, Steph, fuck…”

She moaned in an attempt to say yes and he hitched her up onto his hips once her jeans and panties had fallen to the floor.  He slid into her easily, lowering her slowly onto his cock as they stared into each other’s eyes.  She kicked her clothing away and wrapped her legs around his middle as he braced her against the door and began moving in and out of her while she held onto him tightly, returning to their kiss as he worked to bring them to climax.

Stephanie arched back as she came, her hips moving feverishly against his.  Terry fought not to come with her, letting her enjoy the sensations, still ever-mindful that she get as much pleasure from him as possible to make up for all the horrors that had befallen her.  When she came back to him and began kissing him once more, he grinned as he felt her spasms still causing her to lose her rhythm with him.  He concentrated on simply following her movements to bring her to another peak before he joined her, spurting into her with each firm thrust of his hips, his shaft buried deep inside her, filling her with everything he had.

Their frenzied movements finally slowed, then stopped and Terry laid his forehead on her shoulder as he caught his breath.  Stephanie held him, doing the same and Terry could feel her sweetly heated cunnie still spasming around him.  It made him smile knowing they’d been a lot more passionate this time and not a single haunted look had passed through her eyes, not a single sound from her throat that wasn’t purely for him.

He carried her just like that into their bedroom and kept her cuddled to him as he laid down.  He slipped from her body then, their legs tangled together still, holding hands as she rested her head on his shoulder.

~*~

That evening, Dino brought Alaina over and the two men spent most of their time chuckling together as Steph showed Alaina her room and the two of them chatted away like magpies.  Oddly, the subject of the camp still hadn’t come up yet.  They just seemed to be able to fill the time with chit chat, Alaina would say something, Steph would have questions and off they’d go.  Terry also observed Dino spending an awful lot of time watching Alaina and while he longed to rib him about it, something told him to leave it uncommented.  He had the sense that if something was blooming there it needed to be delicately cared for, like a rare flower.  Dino had always been the tomcat and if anything akin to a relationship was blossoming, the last thing that Terry would do, would be to jeopardize it in any way.  Plenty of time for good-natured zooing when it became firmly established.

The girls kept chatting so Terry and Dino went into the kitchen to fetch more beer and catch up on shop talk.  A little while later, Terry heard a noise that caused him concern and he turned sharply from speaking to Dino and held up his hand, looking to the living room.

They heard the sound again and it was definitely what Terry had suspected.  At least one of them was weeping.  He took two steps to the door of the kitchen, full of worry, then stopped short.  Dino joined him, then chuckled softly behind him.

Stephanie had her arms around Alaina and was brushing her hair softly back from her face as Alaina cried on her shoulder.

“Shh,” the two men heard her whisper.  “It gets better.  It gets a lot easier.  I promise.”

Terry and Dino stepped back quietly into the kitchen and smiled knowingly at each other.  Terry sighed with a huge sense of relief.  The huge leap that scene represented for Stephanie was staggering.  Dino clinked his bottle against Terry’s and the two men returned to their conversation.

When the conversation began to dwindle, Dino got Alaina up and they all said their goodbyes with Stephanie and Alaina promising to get together as often as possible.  Terry noticed how brightly Steph’s eyes were shining and the excitement in her voice… It felt almost a little excessive, like there was too much emotion flowing through her.  He decided they needed to keep a low key for the weekend and to bring it up to Dan on Monday.

In bed that night just as Terry was drifting off, his cock still slick with his and Stephanie’s juices, she sighed and turned in his arms waking him back up.

“T?”

“Yes, babygirl?” he replied sleepily, cuddling her close.

“I want to go to my apartment.”

“That’s good,” he said and kissed the top of her head, settling to return to sleep.

“No, T, tomorrow.”

That woke him back up completely.  “Tomorrow?  I thought we agreed with Dan to wait until he could be with us.”

“Can’t you call him and see if he’ll make a special trip?  I feel ready.  Meeting Alaina and seeing I can be a good friend to someone… I’m ready.  So I want to go sooner.  Like tomorrow.”

Terry looked down into her eyes and raised a dubious eyebrow.  “Are you sure it isn’t just the excitement of the evening talking?  I really think we should wait until Dan feels it’s a good idea too.”

“Will you call him, at least?  Tomorrow?  Just to see.  Maybe he was going to say Monday anyway and this way we can get it out of the way and I can get out of therapy sooner.”

Terry stared at her for a bit, realizing what was happening.  “Steph, Alaina’s going to be seeing someone too, you know.  You aren’t alone in this.”

Steph sighed and Terry felt he’d hit the nail on the head.  “I know,” she said, “but… I just want to be normal.  I don’t want all this… stuff plaguing me.  I want to be able to make plans without worrying about if it will interfere, you know?”

Terry stroked her hair back from her face.  “I do understand, sweetheart.  I just feel we should let Dan make the final decision.  But I’ll call him tomorrow and talk to him about it.  Good enough?”

Steph smiled and snuggled close.  “Okay, good enough,” she whispered.

~*~

In the morning after brekkie, Terry did as he’d promised.  Dan was dubious as expected.

“Did she say why she felt ready?”

“No, mate.  But I got the sense from her that it’s because she wants to be normal like Alaina appears to her, able to make plans and just live her life without what she feels is a crutch of the sessions.  I explained to her that Alaina would be seeing someone too, but I think what happened is last night Alaina must have asked to see her at a time she’d be seeing you and that disappointed her.  She’s just so excited to have a friend after all this time, you know?”

“Yes, peer pressure is always a strong motivating factor.  It’s why group therapy is so successful much of the time.”  There was a long pause and finally Dan said, “Look, try and put her off until Monday and then we’ll make a plan together.  If she’s absolutely insistent, then tell her Monday’s session will take place in her apartment and we’ll kill two birds with one stone; make it so we’re both there with her and give it at least a couple of days before it happens.”

“Goodo, I’ll get her to agree to that at least.  Thanks, Dan.”

“Sure thing, Terry.  See you Monday then.”

The two men said goodbye and Terry went to explain what Dan wanted to Stephanie, hoping she’d go for waiting altogether, but suspecting they’d be at her apartment Monday afternoon.  This was something new, but Terry wasn’t surprised to see a stubborn streak in Steph.  Strong people always had one.

When Dino walked in ten minutes later, the argument was going strong.

“I don’t see why I can’t say when I’m ready.”

“Because, luv, Dan knows about these things.  He says Monday will be better.  He didn’t even want to go then, but—”

“But nothing!  I’m an adult, I can say!”  Stephanie actually stomped her foot, completely missing how ironic that was given what she was stomping her foot about.

“What the hell is all this?” Dino asked, raising his voice above both of them.

Stephanie whipped around speaking quickly before Terry could get a word in edgewise.  “Dino, if I say I’m ready to go see my apartment, I should be able to go, huh?  It’s MY damned apartment, why can’t I say I want to go see it?!”

Dino looked to Terry with complete surprise.  Terry just shook his head, feeling frustrated and wanting to put his foot down like he used to with Henry as a toddler.

“Now, Princess, why the rush?  It’s only a coupla days until Monday, why can’t you wait?”

“Because…”

“Yes?”  Terry hid a grin as Dino pulled their version of the good cop, bad cop routine.

“Because… I don’t want to wait.  I want to go now,” Stephanie finished lamely.

“Oh, well, that’s important then.  Anything you want, honey, you should have.  Isn’t that so, Terry?”

“Why yes, Dino, it is,” Terry replied, thanking fuck a cooler head had walked in just then.

“But see, the problem is, I was hoping we could do some fun stuff this weekend, you know, before I have to get all serious again and go back to the office.  Think you could help me out with that?”

Stephanie blushed a deep crimson as Terry saw it dawn on her how naughty she was being and nodded, ducking her head down.  Dino chuckled, said, “There’s my sweet Princess,” and pulled her to him for a quick hug, before looking up at Terry over her head, exchanging winks with him.

“Okay, so… Coney Island?  Or should we be cultural and go to the museum?”

The vote was unanimous and Coney Island became their destination.  They spent the entire day there, enjoying the rides and eating a ridiculous amount of junk food that would have raised Maggie’s eyebrows beyond her forehead.  By the time the trio returned home, Stephanie was practically asleep on her feet and Terry and Dino were chuckling at how well they worked together, even when the plan was unspoken.

As Terry laid her on his bed, pulling off her shoes and jeans, then tucking the covers around her, Dino chuckled from the doorway.

“We do good, hermano.”

“Yeah, we do.  What about tomorrow?”

“Ferry?  Take her up the Statue?”

“That’ll definitely hold her interest and exhaust her like today.  Good idea.”

And so it was that after a truly exhausting weekend and a lovely lazy Monday morning spent making love and eating brekkie and dismissing Maggie early so they could sneak off to the bedroom again, Terry and Stephanie finally got ready for their Monday afternoon appointment with Dan.

Again, Terry saw the too-bright excitement in Stephanie’s eyes and actually heard her breathing heavily with anticipation.  In the cab on the way to Steph’s flat where they would meet Dan, Terry kissed the back of her hand he was holding and turned her chin to him.

“Steph, you mustn’t put too much stock in this appointment today as being the last one.  There’s still a lot you need to work on with Dan, remember.  He showed you his game plan.”

“I know,” Steph answered but Terry saw the distant possibility of disappointment pass over her face.  “It’ll be good though, T.  You’ll see.  I can handle this.  And then the appointments will get finished easier and faster and then it’ll just be me and you and… maybe I could even go back to work, you know, part time or something.”

“Steph…”  Terry’s gut was suddenly clenching tight.  Something was seriously wrong.

“I know, T!  I said.  It’ll just be easier now, you know?  Faster.  That’s good, don’t you think?”

“I dunno, luv.  Dan seems to feel sticking to the game plan is best.  We should listen to him.”

“Yeah, okay,” she said, off-handedly.  Then the cab came to a halt and Terry paid the cabbie while Steph bounded out of the taxi, walking swiftly over to where Dan was already waiting.

After greetings, the three of them headed up to Steph’s flat.  Stephanie rushing ahead of them while Dan and Terry barely kept up.  Terry’s gut tight with worry and now the hairs on the back of his neck were raising as well.  Something wasn’t right but he had no idea what to do about it.  This was foreign territory for him.  He wanted to tell Dan but couldn’t with Stephanie right there and needing to be watched closely.  He just had to hang on and hope for the best.

At the landing, Terry took Steph’s hand in his as Dan unlocked and opened the door.

Stephanie walked right in, but finally took a deep breath and slowed down.  Terry held onto her hand tightly and was gratified to feel her tighten her grip as well.  They walked around the living room and on into the kitchen.  Nothing was abating Terry’s apprehension, but neither was anything leaping out at him as being dangerous for Stephanie to see.  But of course, they hadn’t come close to the closet yet.  When Steph marched resolutely towards it, Dan cut in.

“Now, Stephanie, I want you to go slow.  This is a very bad memory for you and despite the current euphoria you’re feeling, it’s very important that you understand this is a significant event.  You need to allow yourself the time to comprehend what happened here.”

 

“Okay,” Steph said, sounding subdued at last.

Dan opened the door to the closet and Stephanie walked in, Terry’s hand still clutched in hers.  Terry followed her in.

She stared at the walls.  Her breathing began coming a little more raggedly.  Terry put his arm around her shoulders after transferring her hand to his other.

“S’okay, luv.  Just go slow.”

“Uh-huh, I am.”

Stephanie reached out her right hand to one of the newspaper articles.  The one that mentioned the multiple body parts that had been found and that she was still recovering from the brutal rape.

Her hand stopped midway and Terry saw her staring not at the article, but at her hand.

Which was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane.

“No…” she whispered in the softest of voices.

“What is it, luv?  What’s the matter?”  Terry’s nerves were now singing a high aria that made him feel as if he needed to rip his skin off his body to feel comfortable again.

Stephanie turned to him and looked into his eyes.  “But…  You can’t…”

“Stephanie, what is it, what are you trying to say?”  Dan’s voice held the same heightened sense of concern Terry was feeling.

“Can’t…” Steph shook her head and suddenly wrenched the ring from her finger, dropping it on the floor, a mean feat given how hard she was trembling all over now.  Then collapsed to the floor herself.

“Steph!” Terry cried out and fell to his knees beside her before she landed.

Stephanie looked up at Terry then crawled away from him hurriedly.  “No… No… Can’t… Not fair… No…”  She barreled into Dan who was crouched down at the doorway, trying to make sense of what she was saying like Terry was.

“Stephanie,” he said firmly, “tell Terry what you need to say.  What’s not fair?  What can’t you do?”

Terry felt an inexplicable lump in his throat.  Something itched at the back of his mind but he simply could not make sense of what it was.

“I can’t be… You shouldn’t… Don’t love me!” Stephanie screamed the last and then her eyes rolled back and she passed out at Dan’s feet.

“STEPHANIE, NO!” Terry cried out and gathered her up into his arms, holding her close and rocking her, alternately patting her cheeks and holding her to his chest.  “Steph, babygirl, please… Stay here with me…”  He had no idea what he was saying, just knew that she hadn’t really pass out, but that she had gone somewhere in her mind and he needed her to come back to him.

Or figure out a way to follow her.

Dan had whipped out his phone and called for an ambulance, then went to the bathroom and brought a wet flannel and a glass of water.  The two men tried to bring her back to consciousness, but nothing worked.  A few minutes later the EMT’s entered the flat and took over, but still she remained unconscious.

After getting her ready for transport, they wheeled her out.  Terry followed, leaving Dan to lock the flat.  He got into the back of the rig with Stephanie behind the EMT, reminded of the night they’d landed at Ontario airport.  Dan confirmed which hospital they were taking her to and said he’d meet Terry there.

Terry took hold of Stephanie’s hand and kissed it.

Where had she gone?  What the hell had just happened?!

Chapter Nineteen