Rag Doll Ch. 08.1 - Sherry Baby

"It's about fucking time, Danny-boy! Don't worry about running, I'll do it solo, I can see you're otherwise occupied! We can do this another time. And now, I have a 10K to run, so I'll see you at lunch tomorrow, usual table, yeah?"

I nodded and he grinned once more, shaking his head.

"You lucky fucker! I dunno, if you fell in a barrel of shit you'd come up with a gold sovereign between your teeth and a winning Lotto ticket in each hand! Don't do anything I wouldn't do, kids!"

With that parting shot, he jogged down the corridor and disappeared around the corner.

Sherry rubbed her leg along mine, and danced her hands over my stomach, before nipping my ear and patting me on the backside.

"Come on Danny, it's my day off today, and yours; what shall we do? I know, why don't you take a girl out and show her a good time? You buy me brekkie and I'll...well, you'll see!"

As I turned around, Sherry let the towel drop to the floor and I was treated to the glow of her full magnificence in the full light of a perfect day, and it was a heart-stopping sight, one I'll never forget. My hands went all by themselves to hold her by her waist before slipping down to cup and squeeze her perfect bottom. She was just as I had always pictured her, her flawless skin glowing with health and the taut firmness of youth, her eyes as bright, as alive as I remembered them, and her short boy-cut quiff, black and glossy as a raven's wing, emphasised how fair and flawless her features were. In every way I could imagine, she was utterly perfect, and I drank in the vision of her beauty, a thousand times more and better than memory had painted her.

"Never again, baby boy, I'll never let you go again! You're going to marry me, remember?" she murmured as tears welled in her huge, perfect eyes. "You're mine, Danny, you're my own Danny-boy, and I'll never leave your side again, I swear!"

Kissing the tears from her eyes, and tasting the wine of her lips once more was all I wanted to do, forever, and I sensed the truth of her words all over again; she was there, with me, and this was it, we were us now, and it was forever.

She grinned, and gently tweaked my nipple.

"Go get your shower, baby, I need breakfast, and I want to be seen with you, so move it, soldier!"

I grinned back, and, as I wanted to be seen with her, I 'moved it,' dashing into the shower and shaving as I showered to save time. That done, I dressed as quickly as possible, scraped my fingers through my hair, the closest I was coming to combing it, and I was ready to rock and roll. Sherry was already dressed in the striped top and skin-tight leggings she'd showed up in, her hair was once more sculpted into the perfect quiff she always wore it in and her jacket was belted around her waist, showing the world what a tiny waist she really had.

"Where do you want to eat, baby?" I asked her, and she grinned.

"The Piazza, they do a really nice breakfast, or they did, and there's a Starbuck's there, still need my coffee, Danny, some things never change!"

We headed off to the Piazza; they did do a nice full English breakfast, and it was fresh, too, not the grease-soaked remnants I'd eaten elsewhere.

We were chatting quietly outside over a coffee when suddenly a group of students wandered up, and one huge guy, probably a 4th Year man judging by his age, came walking over to us and clamped hold of Sherry's shoulder.

"Hello babe, I was wondering where you'd gone, I see you came back to me, come on, let's go!"

Sherry pushed his hand off her and took my hand.

"Go away Michael, Danny and I are busy!" she flared, making the hulking lout grin nastily.

"I've got unfinished business with you, so come on, and you, feller, just piss off, me and my girlfriend are busy!"

"I am not your girlfriend, I never was, so leave me alone or..." said Sherry, and Michael grinned nastily.

"Or what, you're going to ask this wimp to help you? Yeah, right, just get moving, pal, I want to talk to my girlfriend!"

I stood up.

"You heard her, now piss off, we're busy, so get your meat-hooks off my fiancée."

Michael moved up close enough for me to smell his breath and stared in my face.

"Be smart, little boy," he sneered, reaching for me, "this is between me and my girl; she's not your 'fiancée', okay, so just fuck off, why don't you."

I slapped his hand away as I stood up.

"Listen, fuck-nugget, my fiancée told you to leave, I'm telling you to clear off, so why don't you just go swing your micro-dick somewhere else? Just piss off back to wherever it is you go to do whatever it is you do and quit pestering us, there's a good moron, eh?" I said as insultingly as possible.

I saw the rage rise in his eyes, and his hands reaching up to grab me, so I gave him the knee in his balls just as hard as I could, and I know how to deliver a proper, powerful Khao-Trong straight knee-strike, it was the first Muay Thai kick I'd ever mastered; it's normally a belly strike, but he was a good six inches taller than me, so he got it lower down and his eyes goggled as it mashed his balls. As he gasped in agony and hunched forward, the heel of my left hand came up as hard as I could under his chin and slammed his teeth together, scrambling what brains he had. As I spun away from him, he got a downward elbow strike from my right arm, my dominant arm, hard enough in his kidney area to hurt plenty and probably make him piss blood for the next few days. Michael hooted and dropped to his hands and knees, and I couldn't resist such an open target so I gave him an instep kick in the crotch like David Beckham taking a shot at goal.

Michael screamed and folded over while his stunned posse of hangers-on watched their boss-man writhe in agony on the plaza floor, cradling his pulverised balls and vomiting while the front of his jeans darkened. I nudged him with my foot.

"What are you crying about? Big man like you wants to yank women around, should be able to take a big hit like a man. Come on boy, take it like a man. You know what they say, 'Go big or go home?' That's a really good idea."

One of his friends caught my eye, so I crooked a finger, beckoning him closer.

"Tell your girlfriend down there next time he talks to my fiancée I'll put him in a wheelchair, understand? Now you'd better get him to Accident and Emergency, I think I turned his balls from outies to innies, they might need to yank them out again... if they can find them..."

We walked away hand in hand as Michael's friends stared after us, while Sherry looked up at me in confusion, her mouth an 'O' of surprise.

"How did you do that Danny? Michael's huge; he's twice your size! I never saw anyone do that to him, that was... scary, but it felt good, I bet we never see him again! Really, Danny, how did you do that?"

I smiled right back at her.

"I've been doing this for years now, you must remember, surely? I started when I was still in school, Taekwondo, with some Mixed Martial Arts training, a little Muay Thai, Hapkido, Filipino escrima, anything that worked, all mixed in and shaken around. After you left it was all I had, so I just kept at it. My Sabum, my Taekwondo instructor, didn't believe in limiting us to any one rigid style, so we learned pieces of everything, and we were encouraged to put them together any way that worked. In a real street fight no one cares how you deliver a punch, nobody's taking notes or giving marks for style, all that matters is that you walk away in one piece and hopefully don't die."

Sherry frowned, and her fingers caressed my face...

"I never saw anything like that before, it was...amazing, but no-more, please? I don't want you to get hurt, not now I've finally got you..."

I squeezed her reassuringly.

"Don't worry, I won't; I was just showboating to make him and his friends think twice about coming back for seconds. If they'd all jumped me I would have been one dead chicken, believe me, which is why I took out that idiot first. My Sabum always tells us, if we're outnumbered, go for the leader, take him out of the game and his followers will hesitate. Then you run away before they catch on, just dig-up the Hell out of there! Michael's just a lumbering idiot; he's obviously only ever used his size, but bulk and muscle isn't enough, and he just found that out. Who knows, perhaps next time he'll keep his mouth shut, mind his manners, and keep his hands to himself. Are you going to be okay?"

Sherry was still looking strangely at me, obviously still puzzled at what had just happened, and how fast, but then she smiled and nodded, so I pulled her closer and slipped my arm around her neck so I could look into her beautiful bright eyes, seeing the question there.

"Baby, don't worry, I'll be careful, really, I have to be; even though I've been doing this four years now, I'm still not good enough or stupid enough to take on half the guys and girls I train with. It takes a lot of time and discipline, and I just don't have enough of either; I just do this to keep fit and in trim. I can't smash bricks with my hands, or break boards with my feet, kick someone's kidneys out of their ears, or come off all athletic and leaping around like Jackie Chan or Jet Li. All that stuff's for show-offs, but I do know enough to take care of myself, and you too, and that's enough for me. I have some speed, I can take a hit and my Sabum says I have enough restraint to not kill someone or hurt myself. She says I have 'inner discipline,' which helps with my studies, too, and that's really all I wanted out of all this."

Sherry grinned and hugged herself closer to my side.

"I want you to know, Danny, I never went out with him. He just never let me alone. He's just a brainless thug, but at least I know my fiancé can look after me!" She laughed, and poked me in my side, in my ticklish spot, making me jump, the way she used to do when we were young. "And I still know how to make you say 'Uncle,' Danny-Boy!"

*****

Walking through the campus, I was gratified and more than a little jealous of the number of guys who checked-out Sherry, but she grinned and slipped her hand into my back pocket, squeezing and massaging my buttock.

"Calm down, Sir Galahad, I'm with you, and they're only looking. Besides, all those cute little freshers staring up a storm at you? You see me getting worked up over it? No, you don't, because I'm not. I KNOW you're with me, so chill, Danny-baby!"

I 'chilled,' because she was right, I was just being over-sensitive, after pining for her for so long, and finally having her to myself, and by the time we'd found a table at one of the little coffee shops I was back to just drinking her in and marvelling at how, just when I needed her most, she'd come back into my life.

"So now that we're 'us,' Sherry, what's next? Where do we go from here?" I asked, anxious to find out what came next and how we got there.

Sherry tapped her coffee-stirrer against her bottom teeth, an unconscious mannerism of hers when she was thinking that I'd missed so very much.

"What are you asking, Danny?" she murmured, so I took a deep breath and plunged in feet first.

"What I WANT is for us to run away, forget all this, just you and me, go somewhere and start a life that's just you and me."

She looked startled at that that.

"No Danny, this is what you want, you have to finish..." she began, but I interrupted her

"What I actually think you should consider is coming back and finishing your MBBS; you already have two years, and you've been out for a year now. Pretty soon you'll have to make a decision to come back, re-instate your transcript and take up where you left off again, or let it all go. That would be a real waste. I remember how much you wanted to be a doctor; that's kind of what kick-started me as well."

Sherry nodded slowly, obviously thinking about what I was saying, so I finished unravelling my thread.

"Even if you decide not to come back and finish qualifying, I'm still going to be here. I'm not letting you out of my sight. I do plan on qualifying, but I'd drop that for you in a heartbeat, because I won't lose you again. I can drop out and find a job, we can get married now, today, if you wanted. You should have your mother's insurance payout by now, I know Mum set it up in a trust for you, and I still have Mum's life insurance money, the compensation from the airline, most of Dad's and the money from the sale of the house. We have a lot of money, Sherry, more than enough money to get married, buy our own home outright and start a family, anything else we want; we have options, Shel."

Sherry took my hand, squeezing it tenderly.

"Don't leave medical school, Danny, I know it's what you want; don't mess with your future, and I'd never ask you to. I can wait, baby-boy. I've waited half my life, a little while longer won't hurt, just please don't throw it all away because of me; be who you're supposed to be."

Sherry stood up, bent over, and planted a soft kiss on my lips.

"Okay, buster, now we've got your life sorted out, only one question remains: how long is it going to take you to get all your stuff and move it to my place?"

I goggled at her, and she smirked happily.

"You don't think I'm letting you out of my sight, do you, baby? Get your stuff together, Dan-Dan, we have things to do and we're wasting time talking. Chop-chop soldier, up and at 'em!"

Sherry stepped away from the table and grinned at me lost in sudden contemplation of her perfect behind and long sleek thighs in her glossy leggings. She wiggled her lovely pert little apple bottom at me.

"If we hurry back to my place, sorry our place, you get to peel them off again, baby; you do know I'm 'commando' under here, right?"

That did it; suddenly my jeans were far too tight, and thoughts of medical school, coffee shops, and hulking thugs all fled as thoughts of my sister/aunt/girlfriend naked rushed in to take up all my available head-space.

"Lead the way, Sherry-baby!" I croaked, while her smile broadened and her eyes danced as I took her hand and let her lead me away from the table. This was just the best day of my life, and I wasn't going to waste a single second of it!

****

Sherry's place was a rather swish two-bedroom apartment in an exclusive, newly-built and deceptively modest apartment block in Locks Heath, right next to the River Hamble and all the swish marinas and private super yacht moorings. I walked around in astonishment that a barmaid could afford a place like this; it must have run to at least £2,000 a month, four or five times what my Student Halls accommodations cost. She noticed my expression and grinned.

"Don't worry, baby-boy, it's mine; if I had to live on what I earned at the pub I'd starve under an overpass. Mum arranged with my trustees to pay for this place when I first came down here. All my personal expenses are mine, but I still have the bulk of the insurance payout stashed away in the trust. It was the only way Mum could make sure my deadbeat father, wherever he is, couldn't get his grubby little mitts on it, and, because the trustees have invested wisely, I still have every penny I was paid out, and then some. The interest alone on that money pays for this place, my utilities and any other expenses."

She looked sad, and her lip quivered as her eyes welled up.

"Mum took good care of me, Danny; she may have been my half-sister, but really she was my mum, she loved me like a mum should, and she made sure I was properly taken care of. I miss her every single day, baby... "

I pulled her to me and hugged her as her arms went around my waist as she cried silently into my shoulder.

"I miss her, too, baby, every single day. I miss her nagging me to clean my room. I miss her doorstep cheese sandwiches and her threatening me if I leave any; I miss her laughing at my clothes, I miss her slapping me on the butt as she walked past and asking me when I got so tall. I miss her telling me to get a haircut, I look like a haystack. I miss the early morning cup of tea on my nightstand. Even though it pissed me off, I miss her telling me about all her friends' unattached daughters and all the big hints; I miss her sitting on the couch at night watching those garbage soaps, and I miss Sunday morning bacon sandwiches and a mug of tea with her after a Saturday night out with my friends, but most of all, I miss just seeing her smile and hearing her singing old pop songs while she cooked and cleaned. It's so hard not having her around; it's hard knowing I'll never see her or hear her voice ever again. She was yanked away from us; I never even got to see her off, and then she was gone. It's so wrong, so unfair..."

Sherry hugged me, feeling the loss in me, and when she looked up at me her glorious eyes were two bright wells of loss and need.

"I'm sorry I never came to the service, Dan, I couldn't, it was too much to come and see for real that she was gone and you would have been there... I wasn't strong enough... it was all just too much for me. I mourned her in my heart, baby, and kept her here inside me, because she was my mum, too, and I loved her so much... "

I hugged her even closer, hoping like hell I didn't start blubbing, but then a thought struck me.

"Shel, I used to go see her every Sunday, and every once in a while I'd find a bunch of flowers on her grave, Chrysanthemums, her favourite; was that... "

Sherry nodded, tears spilling down her perfect cheeks.

"I couldn't come while you were there, Danny, you know why, but I couldn't keep away. I wanted her to know... I had to do something... "

I kissed her forehead and held her to me.

"At least you were there for her, Shel, you came to see her, that's good enough, I just wish..." I murmured, and she hugged me even tighter.

"I know, but...I just couldn't, it was too...I'm sorry, Danny, I wish... "

I held her to me.

"I know, but now it doesn't matter anymore, we're good now, yes?"

Sherry looked up at me and blinked the tears from her eyes, swiping her eyes with her cuff before she grinned suddenly, and lightly punched me in the chest.

"Whoa, what was that for?" I complained, and she grinned again as she punched me again.

"That's for making me teary, you rotten little piggy! This is our happy time. I've got you and you've got me, no more sadness, got it? Good, now come and help me work out how the closets are going to work. And Danny, there's a bedroom through there... "

She grinned at me and darted away, squealing as I gave chase, cornering her in a bright, spacious, airy bedroom bigger than my whole student digs, with an enticingly spacious king-sized bed. Sherry squealed again as I tackled her onto the bed, rolling around with her until she ended up on top of me.

"Like it so far?" She smiled, and I squeezed her bottom as I tried to kiss her, as she ducked and grinned while avoiding my attempts to kiss her.

"Nice pad, kiddo, you're doing well for yourself," I drawled rolling her under me with a surging heave so I could kiss her properly. After some long and thoroughly enjoyable kisses she stroked my hair out of my eyes.

"Do you like it here, Danny? We can get another place if you like..." she began, but I kissed her to shut her up, before rolling off her to lie next to her, with my hands still clamped firmly around her lovely juicy little bottom.

"Nah, we'll stay here, it's a nice pad; I think I'm going like dating a rich chick... " I grinned, waggling my eyebrows like Groucho Marx.

Sherry leaned up, smiled and did that sexy, lip-biting thing she did that always drove me crazy, before pecking me on the lips.

"So you're only interested in my money, then?" she teased, and I squeezed her bottom, making her giggle.

"Nope, I kind of like your body, too," I leered, and she kissed me and squirmed sexily against me.