On Hallowed Ground, Chapter 7 - Xena

[calliopes_muse]

AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, I'm a little late doing this.  This was submitted for Ralst's Epic Proportions challenge.  I thought I'd do a little self-pimping.  This is more or less an original fic that I have been meaning to write for a long time, but I used the basic charactistics of Xena and Gabrielle for our main characters.
AUTHOR'S NOTE 2:  I will post this in chapters for those who like it that way, but the link to the full story is below.
THANKS: To my primary beta, Sofia Lindsay, for listening to my insecurities and reading and re-reading this fic. It wouldn’t have been done had she not poked the daylights out of me. That sounded very wrong! Also, thanks to my secondary betas on this fic, Darkbardzero and Sinjenkai. Last but not least, to my partner Michelle for puttng up with my late nights working on this.

SUMMARY: Young and ambitious journalist Riley Jacobsen returns home to Alabama for an undercover story on her town’s former church and opens the door to more than she ever expected.

RATING: Mature, for descriptions of violence, abuse, and f/f sex.

CHALLENGE: Submitted as part of the Epic Proportions challenge.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.

©April 2009

Feedback is crack, folks.  Let me know what you think.

ON HALLOWED GROUND (link to full story)

By Calliope’s Muse

 

CHAPTER 7

 

Sam woke up to find her head resting on Riley’s naked stomach. She blushed a little at the last memory she had of the night before. Sam hadn’t been sure of what she was doing to Riley, she moved purely on instinct, but obviously she had done something right because Riley passed out at some point. Making love to and with Riley was entirely different than what she had imagined it would be. Her guilt-laden past had convinced her that she’d wake up feeling dirty and guilty, but she actually felt really alive for the first time in her life.

 

She looked up the long expanse of Riley’s body, noticing the dips and curves in the light of day and even the small scratches and imperfections. She kissed a scar closest to her making Riley squirm.

 

“Hey,” her voice was raspy from sleeping and Sam was sure she had died for a moment at the sexy sound of it.

 

“Hey yourself.” Riley was kind of surprised that she didn’t wake up alone. At one point during the night, she woke up and struggled to get back to sleep. She had a dream where Sam was falling further and further away from her. She tried to race after her, but could never get close enough to grab her and stop the descent.

 

“Sleep well?” Riley shook her head at the haunting scenes playing out in her mind.

 

“Not bad, but I’m starving. Want to eat something?”

 

“Mmmmm, sounds great! I make a killer french toast.”

 

“No, I’m cooking.” Sam propped herself up on her arms to look into the stubborn blue eyes.

 

Sam laughed, “I want to live to see tomorrow so…I’m cooking.”

 

Riley rolled out of bed and slipped on a worn t-shirt and boxer shorts, “Go for it, Martha Stewart. I’m going to go get the paper and make some coffee. I can manage that!”

 

Sam laughed as the tall woman headed out the door. She slid off the bed and padded to the bathroom. When she looked in the mirror, she half expected to see horns growing out of her head or something equally demonic. Instead, she saw the same face staring back at her she’d seen for over 20 years.

 

“Funny, I don’t look different, but I sure do feel it.” She turned the shower to a nearly skin-melting temperature and stepped in. Ten minutes later, she padded to the kitchen. Riley was standing at the stove with the paper in one hand while she absentmindedly stirred some bacon around the pan.

 

Sam looked in the refrigerator and got milk and eggs before heading to the pantry for the sugar. When she turned, Riley had a concerned scowl on her face.

 

“What’s wrong?” Riley tossed the small paper on the bar counter in front of her.

 

“Eh, nothing probably. There’s just nothing in the paper about Phillip. It’s just kind of odd that something that noticeable wasn’t even reported. Instead, we have a photo of the world’s largest tomato.”

 

Sam took the paper and flipped to a specific section, “Huh? Interesting. I could have sworn that I saw Bethany Norris here yesterday.” She tapped at the picture of a local reporter. “There’s no report though.”

 

“I’m sure it’s nothing. It’ll probably be on the news later today anyway.” Riley pushed the issue aside and focused on the now burning bacon.

 

*******

 

About an hour later, Sam walked back into the house. She half expected John to be there waiting, ready to attack her for being out all night. Instead the house was frighteningly quiet. She walked upstairs to her father’s room and found it empty. Panic gripped her as her worst fears came into her head. She raced to John’s room and found it empty too. Finally, she went to her room and found a note on her pillow.

 

Dad took a turn for the worse last night. I couldn’t find you and didn’t know where you were at. We’re at Highland Baptist Hospital.

-John

 

Sam flew down the steps and out the door in record time. She prayed all the way to the hospital.

 

“Please God, not like this. Not now.  I know I should have been there. I know…I know…I know. Oh God! What have I done?” For the next twenty minutes, the personal recriminations continued. She had worked herself into a full-blown crying fit by the time she got to the hospital.

 

She burst through the doors of the emergency entrance. Finding John seated between Mrs. Peterson and another elderly woman from the church, she ran over to get a report. John looked at her like a bug that had crawled up his leg. In an instant, he was on his feet and dragging her out the door she had just come through.

 

“Where the hell were you?”

 

Sam stumbled. She couldn’t tell the truth but she didn’t necessarily want to lie either. “I…I was out, clearing my head. Seeing Phillip like that was hard. I needed to get away.”

 

“With Riley? Of all people…Riley? Why not Bobby?” Then John snapped his fingers, “Oh yeah, that’s right, you broke up with him in front of half the town. Couldn’t exactly go running to him now could you?”

 

“Look, we don’t have time for this. We’ll talk about it later. Right now, what’s going on with Dad?”

 

John squeezed a little tighter on the arm he had been holding all this time, “You’re right. We will. You won’t get out of it. As for Dad, well, one of his lungs collapsed. He couldn’t breathe. At least the nurse was there. It made getting him in the car easier. We didn’t have time for an ambulance.”

 

Sam noticed the small jab at her not being where she was supposed to be, but let it go. She didn’t want to get into that right now. “Have the doctors come out to say anything?”

 

John relaxed and let go of her arm as he relayed the simple facts, “Yeah, he’s going to need to stay here for a few days for observation. No surgery, but he will need constant attention.”

 

“Right. Are we able to see him?”

 

“Yeah, I’ll take you down to his room, but I can’t stay. I need to get back and deal with the work on the house Phillip was in.”

 

“Work? Isn’t it a little soon? Have the police even been out yet?”

 

“No, but the coroner ruled it an accidental death. The safety on the gun was off. They think he was cleaning it and it went off.”

 

Sam shook her head incredulous, “Well, duh! The safety has to be off in order to properly commit suicide.”

 

John shook his head and looked at her puzzled, “Suicide? This wasn’t a suicide, just an accident. A very sad one, yes, but still one nonetheless.”

 

“Then explain the note.”

 

“What note?”

 

“The note that Riley found on Phillip’s body and that she handed over to the police.”

 

John laughed at her, “There was no note. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He glanced down at his watch, “Ah, I’ve got to go. I’ll check in later.”

 

Sam stared at his back, astounded at what she had heard. 

 

********

 

It was the fifth time Riley had gone through the paper. She checked every inch carefully, and read each individual obit. She turned on the TV and DVR. Out of habit, if she couldn’t sit to watch the news, she always recorded it. Reporters had to know what was going on in the world and being holed up in a backwater town didn’t stop that. Instead of scanning through the segments, she actually watched the whole thing in its entirety. 

 

She stood up and started pacing the room. She picked up the paper and looked through it half-heartedly this time. She knew she hadn’t accidentally missed it. It just wasn’t there.

 

She tried to calm herself, urging her practical mind to realize that she needed to wait until tomorrow before really calling this what her heart knew it was…a cover-up. She felt it in her bones. There’s no reason why this shouldn’t have been reported. There was too much action around the whole event, even the police and paramedics were there. Certainly, the cops had to report incidents like this!

 

“Son of a bitch!” Riley threw the paper across the room.

 

It was time for some reckoning. She barreled outside and turned to face the house down the street, sitting quietly next to the church. The windows were dark and she found it odd since it was well after lunchtime. Her stomach growled at the realization that it hadn’t been fed yet because Riley went back to sleep after Sam left.

 

“Fine.” She went back inside to make a sandwich, convincing herself that she really didn’t want to run to Sam to talk to her. “No, I can’t take this to her. I can’t lay this at her feet. I’ll go take care of this after I eat my lunch. She was going to have a long couple of days ahead of her in Birmingham.” She sighed and took her sandwich back to the bedroom so she could start packing her bag.

 

**********

 

The machines beeped in a staccato rhythm that annoyed Sam. She mentally tried to shut them out, but they wouldn’t go away. She sat down next to her dad’s bed and took his frail hand in her own. The skin was paper thin, the blue veins standing out in stark contrast to the pasty white skin covering them.

 

The elderly man stirred at the warm touch, and when he looked over to find soft green eyes watching him, he smiled, “Hey, kiddo.”

 

“Hey, Dad.” She fought back the tears. His voice was deep and strong, as if disease had never touched him. She wanted to hold on to that memory, the sound of him confident and proud.

 

He raised his hand to brush his knuckles along her hair, “You’re troubled.”

 

“You’re perceptive.” Sam laughed out around the knot in her throat.

 

“I’m your father. I’m supposed to be.” 

 

Sam looked down at the hand she held, the moments ticking by slowly, “How do you know if you’re in love?”

 

He laughed and rolled his head over to look at the dirty ceiling tiles, “That’s an interesting question to get on your death bed.”

 

“You’re not on your death bed, Dad.”

 

“Is it Bobby?” He looked expectant, almost excited. She hated to crush the moment.

 

“No, no…it’s someone else,” she bit her lip, trying hard not to give anything away. “So, how do you know when you’re in love? How did you know you loved Mom?”

 

“Well, kiddo, there’s no magic road sign that points you to where you need to go. It’s a journey and you won’t know your destination until you’re there.”

 

Sam shook her head, “Alright! Now if you’re done with the analogies and philosophizing, give me the dish. How did you know you loved Mom?”

 

“When I asked myself that very question too. How did I know? My head didn’t, but my heart did. And it refused to stop making me do crazy things until I gave in to it.” He laughed at a remembered memory. “We have these huge water towers back home and she insisted that if I loved her, I would climb to the top of these water towers. I did and I fell about a quarter of the way up and broke my arm in three places.”

 

He continued, lost in his own thoughts, “I would have done anything for her, and I did do everything for her, not out of obligation but because I loved her.” He stopped and looked over to Sam. “Of course, it didn’t hurt that I got these annoying little butterflies in my stomach every time she was near.”

 

Sam listened intently, pegging everything he said to Riley.

 

“Whoever this,” he paused and looked at her meaningfully, “person is, follow your heart.”

 

********

 

Two days later, Sam walked out of the hospital into the light of day. She climbed into her car and methodically started it up. Making her way into the camp, she slowed in front of Riley’s house. She pulled to the curb and slowly got out.

 

After two knocks, Riley opened the door, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Hey, what are you…?”

 

She didn’t have a chance to finish when Sam fell into her arms, crying desperate tears. Riley closed the door and held the blonde tight as they stood in the foyer. Riley stroked her back and whispered comforting words in her ear. When the sobs subsided, Riley pulled back and brushed the tears away from Sam’s cheeks.

 

“What’s wrong?” Sam took a deep breath to gather herself.

 

“My dad. He was rushed to the hospital several nights ago, collapsed lung. They thought he was going to be okay, but something started going wrong,” Sam waved her hands around, “Something about an infection spreading to his brain. He didn’t last long after that.”

 

In the midst of her relating the story, she had gone to the sliding glass doors facing the deck and was staring out at the tall swaying grass in the distance. She didn’t hear Riley come up behind her and wrap her arms around her waist.

 

“Oh, Sam. I’m so sorry,” she rested her chin on Sam’s shoulder and pulled her closer. “I had no idea he was that sick.”

 

“We kept it quiet so the church members wouldn’t be upset or bothersome. He fought cancer for a long time, and I always thought that would take him, not some stupid infection!” The tears started fresh and she turned in Riley’s arms, kissing her fervently.

 

The words of her father rang in her head. She had followed her heart and it had led her right to Riley’s doorstep and into her arms. Right or wrong, she was listening to the only thing that made sense anymore.

 

Sam quickly rid Riley of her t-shirt, pushing her back to the bedroom, only occasional stops along the way as they bumped into walls and doors interrupting their progress. 

 

“I need a shower,” Sam muttered past another kiss.

 

Riley shrugged, “It’s not caffeine, but it’s a damn good way to start the day.”

 

Thirty minutes later, they stumbled out of the bathroom, towels in hand and still attached at the lips.

 

“Christ, don’t you two ever come up for air?”

 

They jumped apart at the booming voice in the room, rushing to cover up with their towels.

 

“Fuck! What the hell?” Riley covered her chest with her hand, her heart threatening to come up through her throat.

 

Sam’s mind reeled at what to do or say to explain the situation and she came up empty, “John, I…”

 

“Don’t bother. It’s pretty obvious what’s going on here, and I can’t say that I’m surprised. You two have been attached at the hip ever since she showed up. Which begs the question,” he unfolded himself from the chair in the corner and stood, “what exactly was your role in this farce?”

 

“What?” Sam looked to Riley who had turned ashen.

 

“Oh, you don’t know, do you? Well, maybe this will clear things up.” He thrust several sheets of paper at her that looked like they had been printed off the computer. She looked at the headline and her hand started to shake. 

 

In bold letters it said, “Ex-Gay Ministry Fraud.” The bi-line was far more damning, “Local Reporter Goes Undercover to Unravel a Small Town’s Darkest Secret.”

 

Riley ran her fingers through her hair, “Sam…”

 

“Don’t,” the blonde held up a hand and sat on the bed, scanning the words on the page but not really absorbing them. It was too much to take in.

 

“How could you, Riley?” The brunette sank to her knees in front of Sam.

 

“Please, let me explain.”

 

Sam looked at her incredulous, “How can you explain this? Everything you’ve said is a lie.”

 

“Not everything. I never lied about how I felt about you. This here, between you and me, it’s not a lie.”

 

“When did you write this?”

 

“What?”

 

Sam stared at her coldly, “When?”

 

“This weekend. After Phillip…they didn’t cover it. The papers, the news…I talked to that woman, Brittany Norris, that you mentioned. She was here. She just didn’t report it. Why? Because she’s a member of your precious church and didn’t want it reflecting badly on her community. I went to the police. Oh, they got Phillip’s suicide note as evidence, but it got conveniently lost.” Riley was standing now, looking back and forth between John and Sam, wanting to smack the self-righteous smirk off his face. “Thank God I have a photographic memory. I recounted it word-for-word for the article.”

 

Sam stood and came close enough to her to whisper, “All of this, after we made love. After I spent the night with you. And you still didn’t tell me the truth.”

 

Riley reached up to brush a tear from Sam’s face, but her hand was pushed away. “I never meant to hurt you, Sam.”

 

“But you did. Didn’t you think I’d eventually find out?” Sam retrieved her clothes from the bedroom floor.

 

“I knew the article was coming out. I was planning to tell you.”

 

“And you know what? It’s not even the article that hurts. We all know this conversion therapy’s crap, especially you,” she pointed at John, “What really hurts is that you didn’t trust me. What kind of relationship can we have without trust?”

 

Sam turned her back and went into the bathroom to change, leaving a stunned Riley in her wake. John sneered at her, “Just couldn’t keep it in your pants, could you, Jacobsen?”

 

“You’re one to talk. I’m not done with you, John. Seems there are a lot of skeletons in your closet just dying to tell a story.”

 

He grabbed her by the throat, squeezing tight on her vocal cords, “If you’re smart, you’ll walk away, bitch. I have ways to make you disappear.”

 

“Fuck you!” She growled out around the pain. When his eyes went wide and his grip loosened, she grinned triumphantly. For extra measure, she tightened her vice grip on his balls, resisting the urge to rip them off and shove them down his throat.

 

“Oh, and John, if you touch Sam again, I’ll feed these to you with a spoon.” With one last squeeze and a jerk, he fell to his knees. “Got it?”

 

When he was finally able to stand again, the color returning to his face in vibrant colors of reds and purples, he hissed at her, “I’ll make you pay for this.”

 

“I already am.” As if on cue with her thoughts, Sam exited the bathroom. 

 

John reached for her, but she pulled away, “Both of you…stay away from me. I’m done.”

 

Riley held it together until she heard the click of the door when they left. She curled up in the bed and slept until late afternoon. When she woke, she functioned just enough to pick up her cell phone and call Al.

 

“I’m leaving. Book me a flight out ASAP.” She didn’t wait to hear the confused question on the other end. She simply rolled over and went back to sleep, this time on the couch where she didn’t have to smell where Sam had slept in her bed.

 

********

 

Al slid a chicken sandwich and salad under Riley’s nose, “You need to eat. You look like hell.”

 

“Gee, thanks! Good thing I’m not on the broadcasting side of journalism. I don’t have to look good to write.”

 

The bulky man folded himself into the chair across the desk from her, “No, but you will need your strength to walk up the steps and get your award. That was a helluva job you did on that article.”

 

She looked up at him with dull eyes, “Then why don’t I feel so great about it?”

 

“Because you miss her. You should go to her. Beg, plead, whatever you have to do.”

 

“I can’t. It’s not that I don’t want to, but damn Al, I’ve never hurt like this before. I don’t think I could go through seeing her damaged any more by me right now.”

 

He looked at her confused, “How are you damaging anything now? The story’s dead, last week’s news…literally.”

 

She leaned back in her chair, fiddling with the pencil in her hand, “I kept digging up info on John Porter…Junior, of course. There are little things that aren’t turning out to be so little anymore. I don’t know if I can turn my back on this now.”

 

“What’s not so little anymore? What did you find out?” He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees.”

 

She pushed a coroner’s report across her desk and Al took it. He thumbed through it for a moment, “I don’t see anything.”

 

“Page two, halfway down.”

 

Al read out loud, “Deceased had a series of marks along his back, moving across from the top right shoulder to the rib cage on the left side. Marks appear to be inflicted by a blunt object. Wounds show evidence of a leather material embedded in the skin.”

 

He looked at her, “I don’t understand.”

 

“Lash marks. Phillip Dwyer was beaten and tortured while he was at the camp. The direction of the marks and the pull on the skin indicate that it couldn’t be self-inflicted, and the wounds were too new to have occurred before he came to the program.”

 

“Jesus, are you saying?”

 

“That someone there beat the stew out of Phillip? Yeah, I am, and I have a pretty good idea of who it was.”

 

Al rubbed his hands over his stubbly face, “If what you’re saying is true, then Sam needs to get out of there. He knows about the two of you, and you’re going out all guns for him. He’s not going to go down quietly.”

 

“What if I’m wrong though and I cause her more pain.”

 

“What if you’re not? Do you really want to live with that?” 

 

********

 

Sam stirred the meat in the pan without really paying attention. A couple of days ago, she put her father in the ground. The service was amazing and the crowd was perhaps the largest that Warrior had ever seen. It was at least the largest Sam had ever seen, and she had been required as part of the church family to attend all funeral services. Tomorrow, she’d have to go to the lawyer for a reading of her father’s will.

 

John came through the door and dumped a pile of bills on the counter. She stopped long enough to open the first one, dropping it back down on the counter when she realized it was a hospital bill. She grimaced at the amount. It would take them the rest of their lives to pay it off.

 

John came over and tasted the sauce in the pan, “It needs more garlic.”

 

Sam wanted to dump it all in the sink and tell him to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine, but she couldn’t. Like it or not, she was stuck here. The program was going to have to continue bringing in new attendees or else they’d never pay the bills piling up. Even if she wanted to leave, Sam was realistic enough to know she didn’t have any skills an employer would want, and selling an employer on the transferability of Bible-quoting skills would be a bit tough, even in Alabama. Except for graduating from high school, she had no other education, and there was no way she could cover all the expenses and her dad’s debt with a secretarial job.

 

“You’re pathetic.”

 

Sam closed her eyes at the harsh and condescending tone in John’s voice, “You’re still stuck on her. That’s just sad. She built up your hopes and dreams, only to shatter them before your very eyes. She was good though, a classic at manipulation. She even got you into bed with her, which is an amazing feat considering how frigid you are.”

 

“Shut up, John!” Sam gripped the knife in her hand, until the handle dug painfully into her palm.

 

“And what are you going to do anyway if I don’t? You can’t run to her. Bobby won’t have you now. Most people know about your…problem, so they don’t want anything to do with you. Looks like you’re stuck in this little slice of hell…with me. Lucky you!”

 

The tears welled up again. Today would be the fifth day in a row that she cried. She missed Riley terribly, but even if she wanted to see her, she couldn’t. There was no way to accomplish that without money.

 

John looked at her disappointingly. If she wouldn’t verbally spar with him, there was little use for him to hang around. He took a beer from the fridge and went to sit in his recliner to watch the news.

 

Fifteen minutes later, she had dinner on a plate at the table. She took the plate to John then headed upstairs.

 

“You’re not eating?”

 

“I’m not hungry.”

 

He shook his head, “Pathetic.”