Nia Ch. 03

"Jamie, did you ever read something that made you feel like you needed to take off your skin and wash it on the inside as well?" she asked me, her voice quavering, and knowing how near to tears she was I hugged her as close as I could, stroking her hair and back, calming her down, soothing her.

"You need to stop now, princess," I told her, "this stuff can wait, don't try and wade through it all tonight, you have to pace yourself. Little bites, princess, little bites."

"I know, Jamie, but after so little to go on, this is a goldmine, but it still makes me retch with disgust, that a man could do that...!" She was near tears again, and I could only hold her as she echoed and resonated with all that she had learned, her heart breaking for all those children that man had taken, all those families he'd shattered for his thirty pieces of silver.

As I held her I rocked her, as though she were still the little girl who'd cry on my lap because she wanted something, or had lost something, or sometimes just had the blues,

I could feel her tenseness slowly dissipating, her breathing becoming stronger, slower, less angry, her jaw muscles against my cheek loosening as she unclenched her teeth and relaxed.

Finally, she looked up and looked into my eyes, her eyes clear and calm again, her face relaxed and peaceful. "OK Jamie, I'm good now, thank you, baby!"

I grinned with relief. "if you're ready, Nia, you should have a shower, we're supposed to be having dinner with the parents in..." I looked at my watch, "just over an hour, so you better get a move on, princess!"

Her eyes widened. "Shit, Jamie, why didn't you...!" she said as she jumped up and darted around, rummaging in the linen closet for a bath towel, muttering at me "You could have said something, Jamie, I mean, you knew what time we're..."

I held up a hand. "Less talk, more shower, now!"

She darted past me, clouting me on the back of the head with the rolled-up towel as she ran into the bathroom. I was starting to feel tired now, even though I'd slept for nearly the whole 12-hour flight from Hong Kong to Heathrow, but it was edging up to 6pm, and my body clock was telling me it was 2am, and I had the nasty suspicion I'd be passing out with my face in my plate. Knowing dad, he'd probably just decorate the top of my head with whipped cream and take pictures for the fridge; after all, I know what he's like, it wouldn't be the first time I've starred in one of his little pranks...

Nia came bursting in and jolted me awake, muttering and fuming, still mad at me for not disturbing her sooner. I manfully held my peace, as I am allowed to be in the right approximately Zero percent of the time, and pointing out to her that she's actually in the wrong is both futile and extremely hazardous to my hearing.

Nia eventually settled on what she was going to wear, which baffled me; we were going to have dinner at mum's, not sip tea with the Queen, she could have worn sack-cloth and ashes and no-one would have batted an eyelid. I was wearing what I always wore at home, and I classed the parents' as home as well as here; jeans and a sweatshirt. As I watched Nia dress, I was reminded of the old colonial cliché, keeping up standards abroad in front of the natives etc, dressing for dinner, everyone dressed in black ties and dinner suits and sipping sherry by 7pm, dinner at 7:30m sharp.

"What are you grinning at, Polar Boy?" snapped Nia, still miffed that she hadn't had 4 hours to dress herself in exactly what she was wearing now, to go to dinner round the corner, at our parents place.

"Nothing princess, if you've finished, shall we make a move? Mum's expecting us in 15 minutes, so di di mao, Nia!"

Nia grinned at me using Vietnamese slang at her, almost my entire vocabulary in one sentence.

"You're a bloody disgrace, Jamie!" she grinned, "if mum heard you using language like that she'd slap you one! All those years trying to get some Viet into your thick head, and that's all you can say, I'm ashamed of you!"

Well, at least she'd recovered enough to banter with me, that was a good sign.

Mum was all over me. I'd only been gone 3 weeks, you'd think I been gone three years the way she fussed over me, Nia looking at me from behind her with one slightly raised eyebrow as if to say 'Lap it up, boy, don't expect this when we get home!'

"So happy little boy come home safe! Vietnam still not safe place, maybe in holiday resorts in Nha Trang or Halong Bay or Hue, but tourists protected there, everywhere else you just wealthy foreigner, people want to take you money any way they can, you get hurt, they not care!"

I protested that I wasn't wealthy.

Her answer was succinct. "They not know that, it enough that you look like you have dollars on you. Promise me you not go again, little boy!"

As I'd already been warned away, it was an easy promise to give, and the evening warmed-up again in no time at all.

Mum really is an excellent cook, a talent Nia had inherited, but there was something about mum's cooking that kept us coming back. Many evenings I'd come home to find the flat empty, and I'd stroll around the corner and find Nia and mum chatting in the kitchen, usually cooking something together.

I'd brought gifts for mum and dad, a Peridot and Burmese ruby brooch for mum from Ho Chi Minh City, and a pair of ruby-inset silver cuff-links for dad from Hong Kong, both received graciously and with a thank-you kiss from mum.

Dinner was the usual, dad keeping us in stitches with his off the cuff remarks and stories about the antics of his team at work, his sense of humour coming to the fore as he gave me a run-down of the news in the three weeks I'd been away. He'd accepted that Nia and I were a couple, had no issues (or none that he ever raised with us) with us living together, had even helped us find the flat. Mum had put her foot down and insisted we live locally, which wasn't as awkward as you might think; this is South London, move two streets away from where you were born and you become a complete stranger, entirely anonymous, so it was easy for Nia and I to be just another couple of young professionals in a sea of them. It was also for that very reason that if I was away for more than one night, Nia stayed back at the parent's.

Sometime around 9pm I must have flaked out, the last thing I remember was sitting on the couch and chatting with dad about the global economy and the oil business in general, and the clock finally caught up with me. For me, it was 5am, Hanoi time, and the conversation became surreal, then just silly as I slipped further and further into sleep.

I woke at 4 am, according to my watch, slightly disoriented, and covered in a throw, my back killing me from being slumped on the couch for so long. As it was still dark, I thought I'd find our room, sneak into bed, and stretch out for a few more hours; today was Nia's graduation, and we had to be at The LSE Old Building at 11 am to collect her robe, mortar-board cap and ecclesiastical purple tabard with the gold border, then walk her to the Peacock Theatre for the actual Graduation ceremony, then photographs etc, so I wanted to be fresh and alert.

I'd ditched my own Graduation ceremony, technically speaking I'd graduated as soon as I received my transcript showing I'd passed all course modules, so I'd collected my degree from the Course Director's secretary and blown out of town to come home. I was anxious that Nia have a perfect day, she'd worked hard and long hours, working toward her Law degree with an Anthropology Honour, so she deserved to have her day. I'd managed a good Second Class degree, but she'd earned an Honours Degree, so a little bit of pomp was due.

I gently opened the door on the top-floor bedroom and eased it open, sure enough, there was Nia, just visible in the faint light from the pre-dawn sky, fast asleep with her arm thrown across the pillow next to her, her customary sleeping pose. Many was the night I'd woken and removed that arm from my face or the back of my head, or been woken when it conked me one as she turned in her sleep and dropped it on me. She was wearing a T-shirt and panties, and I stood and enjoyed the view for a few seconds before quietly stripping off, no thoughts other than to get a couple more hours sleep.

I moved her arm gently, sliding into bed slowly so as not to disturb her, pulling the covers back up, and sliding my arm around her waist.

"Mmm, hello Jamie" she sighed.

"Sshhh, go back to sleep." I murmured back to her, rubbing her tummy lightly, something that always sent her back to sleep, and she turned on her side and spooned me, wriggling herself up against me and sliding her arm onto my hip, her hand gently patting me.

I tried to get back to sleep, but damn, my body clock was still ticking on Hanoi time, and it was telling me it was nearly midday; added to that was Jamie jr, who'd woken up and was nudging Nia in her delectable, panty-clad rump, so conveniently pressed right into my lap.

I tried ignoring it; she had a big day coming up, and she needed her rest, but then, to add to my discomfort, she began rolling her hips, rubbing her buttocks against me, pushing herself back against me.

"Are you awake?" I whispered, and heard her intake of breath.

"Uh, Yeah, Jamie!" she whispered back, squirming round to face me. "I've been waiting for you to come to bed for hours now, hold me, Polar Bear!"

I slid my arm under her, and pulled her to me by her tight little buttocks, kissing her soundly.

"You need to rest, baby, you've got a busy day ahead, you don't want to fall asleep in the middle of it!" I whispered.

"I can rest later!" she whispered back," right now I want to do this!" and she grabbed hold of me and pumped hard, twice.

I needed no further encouragement, sliding down her panties while she tugged off her T-shirt. I slid my shorts down and Nia immediately took hold of me, sliding her hand up and down gently as she cupped my testicles.

"Oh yes, someone's in the mood all right!" she giggled, and gasped as I slid a finger into her moist little pussy, turning into a sigh as I rubbed and slipped my finger in and out of her.

"Oh yes, Polar Bear, just like that!" she breathed, her grip on me becoming firmer as she pumped me harder, her lips more insistent as we kissed, our tongues fencing and darting against each other.

Nia rolled onto her back and her legs parted, allowing me to dip down and nibble and lick her lovely firm nipples, savouring the feel of their rubbery hardness against my teeth as I drew them out.

Her breathing quickened, and she pulled my head up to kiss me.

"Now Jamie, please...!"

I positioned myself between her thighs and leaned over her, slowly sliding my cock into her sopping pussy, feeling her open up to accommodate me, her grunt of pleasure as I filled her with myself. She wrapped her hands around my neck and pulled me down to her, kissing me as I began pumping into her in a regular rhythm, her hips rising up to meet me as she ground her pussy against me.

We pumped and ground at each other, in perfect opposition, as I pumped down, she rose up to meet me, our movements speeding up, gaining urgency as we approached our mutual climax, my whole world centered around pleasuring this beautiful girl who loved me, and I loved above all else, my sexy, sassy, exotic sister.

When her orgasm hit her, Nia cried out loud, her hands gripping my shoulders like talons and her head thrown back to show her neck muscles and tendons in sharp relief as her pussy massaged my cock, the ripples as she clenched and unclenched in time to the waves crashing through her milking me. I couldn't hold back any longer and jetted my sperm deep inside her, long, fast spurts blasting out of me, one after the other, until I had no more, and my cock dry-heaved as my climax slowly eased and finally faded.

The ripples and sucking sensation gradually died away, and her hips dropped back down to the bed, to pull me to her and kiss me hard and with serious intent.

"I love you, Nguye't Morrison, did I ever tell you?" I asked her, nuzzling her and finally grazing on her lips.

"I love you too, Polar Bear, don't ever forget that!" she grinned as she broke our kiss, and I realised I could see her much more clearly now. Dawn would be breaking soon, and we both needed to get some more rest before Nia's big day started in earnest.

We came down for breakfast at 8:30, mum already in the kitchen grilling bacon and sausages, making toast and scrambling eggs, how one tiny woman did all those at the same time was beyond me, but she'd long perfected the art of making the difficult look easy, and the impossible merely slightly difficult. Mum sat with us while the coffee was brewing, and smiled knowingly at us, Nia, and probably me as well, going scarlet as she realised mum had heard us in the early morning.

Mum handed me the butter and said "Naughty little boy!" grinning all the time.

Nia piped up. "Mum, about this morning, I...!" and mum just shushed her, smiling broadly.

"It alright, you live together, you supposed to do this things. Besides, it give daddy ideas...!" she smiled archly.

I choked on my coffee. No, no, no, no! Too much information! Oh Dear God, please rewind so I didn't just hear that...

Nia looked stunned, her face paling as she took in what mum had just said, then she started to blush again, and my ears were boiling hot as I reddened again.

Mum looked at us with that half-smile on her face, one eyebrow raised, then turned away and went back to making toast, humming under her breath.

Dad came in then, trailed his hand over the back of my head and walked over to mum and hugged her, kissed the top of her head and sat down at the table, that knowing grin pasted on his face as well. I braced myself for one of his not-questions, or some thinly-veiled innuendo, but he just buttered some toast as he grinned at the two of us. This was getting too weird, so I excused myself, took my plate and went through to the lounge, anywhere to escape the thought of the two of them awake, listening, grinning, getting...Eeuwww!

Nia came found me. "OK , that was more than slightly weird, and huge creepy, never again are we going to do anything like that again in this house! They might as well have been standing there with their ears pressed to the walls!"

She suddenly giggled. "You should have seen your face, you looked like you'd just bitten into a slug!"

She got up and went to shut the door.

"Jamie, I found out some more about Hu'e, got a description of her from mum, and it wasn't easy, believe me. Anyway, I saw something about a child who matches that description in ...!"

I cut her short. "Not today, Nia, this can wait, it has to. If you go digging through that stuff again this morning you won't want to leave it to go and graduate! First things first!"

She looked rebellious, but calmed down as she thought about what I'd said.

"OK Jamie, then you help me remember, OK? Mum said she had a birthmark on the left side of her neck, just like her. One of the children Thuyet abducted in 1983 from Hoa Hiep, in the Lien Chieu district in Da Nang, where mum lived, was described with the same thing; he said it was a girl, end of 1983, 'sinh dánh dau vào phía bên trái cua co cua cô; birth mark on the left side of her neck'! Jamie, that was Hu'e, and we know where she was taken! I listed all the purchasers' names he'd given, and I remember that one because it seemed the most likely match for her. We know where she went!"

I had to calm her down, now she was becoming agitated, so I compromised.

"OK Nia, this is what you do. When we get back to the flat, I want you to highlight and annotate that child on your spreadsheet and email it to me. I know, from what I've learned, the babies stolen from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos go through Luang Prabang in Laos to the Snake-Head people-trafficking gangs in Chiang Rai in Thailand, and from there to Chiang Mai, and are sold and sent out into the world from there, so the best chance of tracking her is a guy I sort of know in the Thai Border Protection Force on the Laos/Thai border. I'll email your spreadsheet and ask him nicely to have a dig-around, find out which of the snake-head gangs was operating in the area in 1983. If he can find that out, I'll take a trip, and no, you can't come; a girl like you is worth a great deal more than any baby out there, you won't be safe for an instant, so you stay here. Deal?"

She nodded, pleased to actually have a plan, and with that, we decided to head home, we needed to get changed and get Nia to the LSE Old Building to get her cap and gown and photograph. Mum and dad would be at the Peacock for 12:30, so we'd see them then.

The ceremony was all it promised to be; almost 150 Law graduates and their families, speeches from the Senior faculty, and the Commencement Speech given by the Course Director in his red Rector's robe and soft black hat, then all the graduates were called on stage to be congratulated and shake hands with the Dean of the School.

Eventually Nia was called, mum weeping and even dad looking a little teary as she was called.

"Nguye't Laura Morrison!" and Nia walked across the stage beaming, to shake hands with the Course Director and Dean of the School, everyone applauding as she joined the ranks of graduated students on the left side of the auditorium.

When the ceremony was over, we took photographs outside, then returned to the old Building for a wine and canapés buffet laid on for the new graduates, and after we'd toasted Nia, and I'd gotten a big and very heartfelt kiss from her, dad not looking pained, for a change, he nodded at me and tapped his pocket.

"Nia," I began, "I know how much this means to you, and to celebrate, I have a little surprise for you" I took the package dad handed me. "When we've finished here, we're going to St.Pancras. We have a Eurostar to catch, we're going to Paris!"

Nia was speechless. I know the bracelet was her graduation gift, but that was for her; this was for both of us. We needed to get away, recharge, just be a young couple for a while. This whole thing with Hu'e was eating us up, and I wanted Nia to get some perspective back in her life, be a 22 year-old girl for a while instead of the vengeful seeker of justice stance she was increasingly adopting.

Mum and dad had picked up the flight bag I had packed for us the previous evening, while Nia was so preoccupied with the papers I had brought back, stashing it in the car, so we collected it and stopped a passing black cab, kissing mum and waving off dad as we left to go to Paris.

The journey was amazing. Once we cleared the tunnel, the train flashed along at nearly 250km and hour, and in just over 2 hours we were standing on the platform at Gare Du Nord in Paris. We hailed a taxi and went to the hotel I'd booked, the Hôtel du Collectionneur Arc de Triomphe on rue de Courcelles, in the 8th Arrondissement, looking towards the Arc de Triomphe.

The room was magnificent, Nia quite overwhelmed by the view, looking directly down the Avenue de Wagram to the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees, and the fact that the hotel was convenient for Montmartre, Les Invalides, the Louvre, the Jardin des Tuileries, and the Luxembourg Palace.

"So, darling, are you pleased with your gift?" I asked her, grinning, and watched her eyes soften.

"Oh Jamie, you already gave me such a lovely gift, you didn't have to do this as well!" she murmured, "But I'm really glad you did!"

"Right, Nia," I said, "what do you want to do first?"

She looked at me for a second. "What I would really love to do, is find a cafe and drink coffee on the sidewalk and eat patisserie!"

I had a quick word with the maître and followed his recommendation, finding a really nice bistro with sidewalk seating and waiter service, and we ordered café, brioche, tarte tartin, and pain au chocolat and watched Paris while we munched our patisserie. At last, Nia seemed to be relaxing, that edginess I'd been seeing starting to dissipate, her eyes bright and interested in something else for a change.