The Daring Dance Dilemma

She must have seen the murderous rage spreading across his face, because she risked one last contact, taking his hand and lifting him up.

"Mr Mitchell," Even at this time she was able to keep up the pretence, "You need to take Sara to a hospital."

"But..." he began to argue, already planning the slow and painful way he would kill Malcolm and Tyson, even if he had to do it here in the school parking lot with a thousand witnesses.

"Now! She needs medical help, you don't know what they gave her," Neither of them were in any doubt any more that Sara had been drugged by now. When Mike was about the speak again, arguing he needed to help catch those little punks, Becca gave him a little shove and insisted, "Go! I will handle this. They won't get away with it. Trust me."

Mike looked at her. He knew from the perspective of the others he should have no reason to believe a high school girl could do any such thing, but Mike knew Becca now. He knew that if she said she was going to do it she would, and better than anyone else could. He gave her a grim nod, squeezed her hand once, and then stooped to pick up his limp daughter.

If the teacher or the two girls caught the strange familiarity of the exchange, they gave no indication.

The next few hours passed in a blur for Mike. He could hardly remember bundling Sara into the back seat of his car, or the drive to the hospital. He remembered his panicked call to Carol, but not the words he said to her, nor those of the doctors and nurses he spoke to in the hospital.

The worst part of it had been the tedious hours he spent in the waiting room, anticipating the worst. Would Sara be okay? Had they poisoned her? Had they raped her?

He felt sure the hospital furniture would splinter under his white-knuckled grip, while he allowed all his rage and self-recrimination boil away violently inside himself over the sleepless hours that followed.

It was better when Carol arrived. She had dropped their son, Jack, off at her parent's house for the night. They sat side-by-side, hands intertwined fiercely in a way they hadn't done since they first started dating, back in college.

There was no recrimination from Carol. She was wonderful like that, and Mike wondered what she would have done if she knew the full story of where he had been. As he sat there he grew more and more uncomfortable in the realisation that he had had no chance to wash. If he could still smell Becca on him, surely his wife would notice it at any moment.

The girl seemed to have invaded his every pore. His skin still felt tacky in the places where their mingled fluids had dried.

Christ, he still had Becca's panties in his jacket pocket! When he shifted in his seat he occasionally got a powerful waft of her rich scent. Even worse, each time it came he felt a renewed stirring in his groin, despite the fact that his oblivious wife was still clutching his hand. A hand which, he realised with burning guilt, had so recently been used to spread Becca open while he tongued her little clitoris to orgasm.

He really was an asshole.

Eventually a nurse came to let them know that one of them could go in and sit with Sara. She was not awake yet, but her stomach had been pumped and she was now sedated, but stable. Carol did not even have to ask, Mike nodded and she rose to follow the nurse. He was left behind, mired once more in his own dark thoughts.

Could he have done something to prevent this? He had seen the boys with the champagne and could have confiscated it as he was supposed to. At the time he had thought it was silly, reminding himself of how he had been as a teenager. He had done some underaged drinking and to him it had not seemed like something worth ruining a kid's life over. If only he could have divined their true intentions.

He also might have followed Sara all night from the shadows, but he could not do that forever. She had to be able to make her own good choices.

He kept coming back to his decision to follow Becca backstage. That was where he had betrayed his family, and left his daughter to those wolves. But even that was not entirely true, if he had not gone with Becca he would not have knocked the light off the platform. The dance would not have ended so abruptly and Sara's would-be rapists might not have been disturbed before they were able to do the unthinkable.

That, at least, the hospital had been able to confirm, to Mike's immense relief. If she had actually been violated he was not sure what he would have done. He suspected that murder might have been the least of it, given mind-splitting rage he felt even contemplating the possibility.

Mike buried his head in his hands, it was all too much to consider. Deep down though, he felt the guilt had to lie with him.

"Mr Mitchell?" The voice was one he did not recognise. It was a man's voice, and it sounded like it needed confirmation of his identity before it would proceed.

"Yeah," He said, slowly looking up. He saw the speaker was a uniformed policeman. He also had a female partner behind him. Mike visibly flinched back when he saw the figure accompanying them. It was Becca.

She looked tired. He could see dark rings were under her eyes. She looked even younger than he remembered, but perhaps that was the oversized sweatshirt and jeans she wore. Despite all this, she was still so beautiful it hurt to look at her.

Fuck! Did they find out what he and Becca had been doing? Had she told them everything?

"Mr Mitchell, I am sorry to disturb you right now, but we wanted to talk to about what happened last night."

Mike felt trapped, he wondered if he should run, but he could not leave Sara and Carol now. They needed him.

He risked a look to Becca, feeling a cold sweat breaking out on his body.

In the uncomfortable silence the policeman tried again, "First of all, I just wanted to let you know that we have just had confirmation from the hospital that yourn daughter was drugged with GHB."

"It is a date rape drug," the female officer interjected.

The male officer nodded. Mike expected to be taken aback, but actually found he appreciate their forthright approach. The man continued, "We wanted to go over some details with you but, for now we wanted to let you know that we have taken two suspects into custody for the attack on your daughter. We are charging them with attempted rape, amongst other things."

Mike gaped like a landed fish, "How?" Was all he managed to get out.

"It all happened pretty quickly, largely due the assistance of Miss Williams, here," the female officer said, pointing a thumb over one shoulder at Becca, who had not yet met his eyes, "She just finished signing her statement a little while ago down at the station, and asked if she could come down here with us to check up on her friend, your daughter. You both have a lot to thank her for." Becca visibly blushed when Mike's dumbfounded look fell on her.

"You see," The cop went on, "She was right by the stage when the light fell, and was the first one up there. She was there even before the teachers and saw at least one suspect climbing down a rope that formed part of the stage set up." He looked to Becca, who nodded in confirmation.

The man, who was consulting a notebook continued, "By the time we had arrived on the scene you had already left with your daughter, but Miss Williams was there to explain what she had seen. Her story was confirmed by the two teachers who claim they also saw someone climbing down from the platform above the stage. We might not have known the two incidents were related if not for Miss Williams."

Mike stayed quiet. He also had no idea how the two incidents were related, and he had been the cause of one of them. He felt sure that if they looked at his face now they would immediately be able to tell that it had been him climbing, or falling, down from the gantryway.

"Miss Williams then indicated to us that she had heard one of the suspects drop something in the vicinity of the stage, as he ran away, but had not had a chance to look for it. " Mike was puzzled by this, but said nothing. "We searched the area and found a cellphone which must have been dropped during the escape."

Mike's look shot back to Becca, who shifted a little uncomfortably.

"We found some pretty damning stuff on there, I won't go into all the details, but the suspect will probably be on the hook for a lot more than what they allegedly did to your daughter," Mike was very aware of the careful way the officer was phrasing the accusations.

Mike began a question, he needed to hear the identity being confirmed, but the officer preempted him, saying, "The phone belongs to one," he consulted his notes again and read off the name, "Malcolm Richardson. Do you know the boy?"

Mike nodded slightly, but added nothing more. This seemed to be enough for the policeman, who continued, "Well we brought it to him, ostensibly for what happened with the light, but really because Miss Williams informed us of a rumor she had heard about him and another boy going around offering girls, your daughter included, a taste of a champagne bottle they had with them."

The female officer added helpfully, "This was confirmed by two friends of your daughter, who were also witnesses." Mike knew she had to mean Ruby and Taylor.

"The kid broke down and told us pretty much everything the moment he sat down in the interview room. He was able to give us the location of where they had tried to dispose of the bottle, in the bushes not far from where your daughter was found. The bottle was broken, but I am sure we can still pull prints off it. The boy blames it all on Tyson Hess," Mike was unsurprised when the police officer had no need to consult his notes to recall that name. "Richardson said Hess came up with the plan alone, he was just going along with it out of fear." Mike could hear the dubiousness in his tone.

The man continued, "Either way, it looks like both boys are in a heap of trouble. When your daughter is feeling up to it, we would like to take her statement but, to be perfectly honest, it seems pretty open and shut. We have all the evidence and, almost as important, we have the eyewitness account of several of Sara's friends, as well as this young lady here." Again he referred to Becca, who visibly colored under the scrutiny of the three adults.

The female officer spoke again, saying, "From what Richardson suggests, The Hess boy got the drugs during a road trip he took south of the border with his pot-dealing cousin. He crushed them up and put them in the champagne with no good intention in mind. We suspect he was too dumb to know anything about dosage strength, because, from what the hospital just told us, he might have caused your daughter to overdose even on the small amount she imbibed."

The male officer held up his hands and said, "Obviously we still have some loose ends to clear up. For one thing, the Richardson boy admits to everything except nearly killing the DJ with the light. He says has no clue how his cell phone ended up where it did. He, uh," The officer looked a little sheepish as he added, "He said it was you who took the phone off him."

Mike schooled his face not to react.

The officer continued with a small smile, "But we have the account of Miss Williams here, who says she saw you in a corner on the other side of the room right before the incident. We also have," He flipped through his notes again, "A Miss Taylor Leone who places you in the hall, helping to organise the evacuation, just moments after the incident."

The man sighed before continuing, "He's in deep this boy and I have a feeling that he is going to accept the first plea bargain we offer him and admit to everything, the light incident included, so I wouldn't worry about your involvement, Mr Mitchell. We would rather you focused on helping your daughter get healthy again."

Mike gave his most earnest nod.

"And that's it," The officer finished, "As I said, We owe pretty much everything to Miss Williams and her vigilance. Without her we would not have caught those kids as fast as we did. Not that they would have got away, mind you, they are not exactly master criminals."

After the police officers concluded there was little else to say. Mike unenthusiastically answered some more clarifying questions. He was wary of disturbing Becca's delicately constructed tissue of lies, so he kept his responses nonspecific and vague. He reinforced their misapprehension that he had had no involvement in the events and sought to play only the part of the aggrieved father.

It took only a few questions to satisfy them, then they sat in awkward silence while the officers waited to see if they could speak to Sara. Eventually Carol came out and met the officers. After a brief discussion between Mike, her, the police officers and the medical staff, it was agreed that they could talk to Sara briefly. But, only if Carol were present. Mike didn't fight it, he felt he probably should be there for Sara, but Carol was the lawyer after all and therefore the best person to be with her during the interview. He would have plenty of time to give Sara after this all calmed down. He would make sure of that.

Once everyone left the waiting room it suddenly felt very empty. It was almost a shock to realise he was now sitting alone with Becca again, separated by the vast chasm of the two vacated chairs the police officers had left. He resisted the urge to go to her.

For a long moment they sat in awkward silence. Finally Becca spoke, "I am really sorry about what happened to Sara." There was a heart-wrenching sincerity in the hoarseness of her voice.

Mike took a deep breath before replying, "Thank you, and, thank you for what you did." He furrowed his brows and asked, not a little bemused, "What exactly did you do?"

Becca gave a small smile that only brought out the dimple on one side of her face. Mike saw that, but followed her gaze down to the toes of high-top sneakers, which she was twisting into the dull hospital carpet.

She began the tale slowly but sped up as it unfolded, "So, After you and I realised that it had to be Tyson and Malcolm behind this I decided to make sure they would have no way of getting out of it. I also realised we needed someone to take the heat for what we did backstage. Who better than a couple of date-raping psychos?"

They both looked away at this, neither willing to meet the other's eyes.

Becca continued, " After you left with Sara I went back into the hall, under the pretence of helping to sweep the gym for stragglers, or people hiding, and hid the phone close to where the harness you came down on lay. Then I simply waited for the cops. When they came to talk to me I made sure I was standing near the two teachers who nearly caught us," Here he found it adorable that she still had the modesty to blush, "They overheard what I said to the policemen and confirmed it, as I suspected they would. They even backed up some details that I knew they could not have seen, given how far away they were and how bad the light was. After hearing my account they were suddenly one hundred percent convinced about the build and height of the escaping figure. Strangely enough, he looked nothing like you and bore a strong resemblance to a certain Malcolm Richardson."

She took a breath before continuing, "Malcolm can deny that is how it happened, but the way I see it is that if he doesn't agree to that order of events the only other option is that he was in the bushes with Tyson and Sara. He claims that, after you confronted him, he got scared and backed out of his and Tyson's little rape pact. He says he went and hid in the boys' bathroom and it was Tyson who went off to go and find Sara. He knows nothing of what happened after that."

She must have seen Mike practically grinding his teeth in anger, because she held up a placating hand and added, "Malcolm is a minor, and can't really get much worse than is already coming to him anyway. This way at least he takes some heat for the the light incident. Besides, I'm inclined to believe that Tyson was the real poisonous influence here, don't you?"

Mike seethed a moment before giving a reluctant nod.

"Tyson is over eighteen, he has repeated a few years, no surprise, so he is going to face the full extent of the law. With Malcolm singing away like a canary there is no way he is going to get off. That, as far as I can figure it is a win. Or as close to one as you can get in a fucked up situation like this."

Mike shook his head in admiration. "Thank you," he repeated, "You really are a marvel, in every way." He meant it more sincerely than he had meant anything in a very long time. He saw a flash of her dimples again, but her gaze did not raise up to meet his. Not immediately anyway, when it did, she seemed a little taken aback by the pained expression he now wore.

"What?" She asked, that shyness he did not associate with the Becca he knew, in evidence again.

"I appreciate everything you've done for me. I cannot tell you how much. You saved me and helped serve out justice to those assholes. I probably should regret the things we did together, but I simply can't. You are the most amazing, incredible, delightful person I have ever met and I," He felt strangely choked up, before he struggled on, "and I wish that I was twenty years younger and unmarried, because then I could let myself fall in love with you."

She looked uncomfortable now, sucking in her bottom lip and looking anywhere but at him.

He ploughed on, before he could lose his nerve, "I can't... We can't do this anymore. It's not just the age thing, or the marriage thing. My daughter could have been raped or killed. That is on me. I seem to be on a path to self-destruction and you are my kryptonite. I could drag my whole family down with me. I could drag you down with me, and I would hate myself even more if I did that."

"Mike," She was clearly trying to sound playful, "Are you breaking up with me?"

He let his silence be his confirmation. He let his head hang dramatically, knowing that it was the right way to end it. He had only to wait for her to storm off tearfully and leave him to his morose self-contemplation.

As ever, she surprised him. Suddenly she slumped down in the chair next to his. Her hand reached out and lifted his chin so that they were once again staring into each other's eyes. With her, each time they did this, it seemed as intimate as when he was deep inside her again.

"Oh, Mike." She shook her head and made a small tutting noise with her tongue, "You really aren't too bright, are you."

He had no way to answer, his mind was too confused by her response.

"You had nothing to do with what happened, Mike. You did everything you could to protect your daughter. Sometimes shitty things happen, and the sins you commit are entirely unrelated. This is not the end, Mike. I do not accept that. What we have is something remarkable. I'm new to the whole sex thing, but what we have seems like the kind of thing most people only read about in books. As I said, there are no strings to this, and I agree there can be no future. But there is still now. I still want you, Mike, and I intend to have you. We will just have to be a little more careful."

Mike started to open his mouth, but she darted forward and placed her hot open lips on his, hungrily lapping at him with her tongue. Then, just as quickly, she drew back and curled up on her chair, cat-like in her pose and smugness.

Mike was once again, speechless in front of her.

She grinned her wicked grin once more and added, with a small pat to his cheek, "You're mine Mike, you know that. I'm going to take what I need from you, and you are going to thank me for every second of it."

Then she stood, placed one last kiss on his forehead and sauntered out of the waiting room. Helpless to do anything else, Mike watched the sway of her small, perfect, denim clad bottom as it disappeared down the corridor.