Last Chance (PunkPrince!)

[Novis]

Jace was standing there waiting for his younger brother to show up. Just like Lucian to be this late. This meeting was important and someone's life hung in the balance. He just had to find away to convince him to go with this. Might not be as easy as he thought.

Lucian walked into Jace's uptown office exactly one hour late. Traffic was bad, calls from the oldest boy's teacher, and god forbid should their mother leave him alone about setting him up with some 'sweet young lady.' Damn that was getting pretty old. So what if Jessica has been dead for nine years... That thought hung with him while he stepped onto the elevator and the standard crappy music played. He groaned at the sappy 70's sounding instrumental piece that was assaulting his poor ear drums and his sense of music. He knew his brother, Jace worked pro-bono, but.. He couldn't afford better music for the elevator systems?

He'd have to donate some money for that. The doors swished open right about the time he considered how much to donate. How much would something like that cost? He had not a clue. Without much though on where he was going, he managed to find his way down the office building corridor directly to his brother's office. "Sorry I'm late.. It's been one of those days."

"Mom?" Jace laughed as he rose from the waiting room lobby and escorted his younger sibling directly to his private office. "Yeah, yeah. Don't let it happen again." Jace waited for Lucian to take a seat in front of his desk. "Look, the reason why I call you was I need a huge favor. I have case that needs a job."

Oh how did Jace know? A chuckle rolled through him as he followed, then slipped into a chair across from the older Marks brother. "You mean.. Doing what? I don't have anything open that isn't on my property research team at the moment." Sitting back in his Chair, Lucian crossed his legs and waited to hear his brother out even further.

"Come off it, Luc. You really need a secretary. You're spending more and more time at the office. You need someone to take a little bit of the work off your hands. You do remember you've got kids, right?" He slid a file case toward Luc and nudged him to take it. "Just read it. She's a transsexual, she had a rough go. She's been arrested for prostitution and if I can't get her a regular job, they are going to throw her in jail.. With men."

Lucian's brow rose. Transsexual. A man that dressed, acted, and otherwise saw themselves as women. Why? Because they felt like women. How had Jace explained it to him, men with a woman's brain. He slipped the file into his hand, opened it. "No fucking way this is a dude!" It contained a simple picture of her and included her assumed name and her legal name. She was strangely very.. girly looking. Most transsexuals he figure he could tell one from the other.

"She's a sweet girl. Please. She needs help, and you need another pair of hands in the office. At least talk to her." Jace was on that edge of begging his kid brother for the help. "Help me Obewan, you're my only hope..."

"Damn Nerd.. Fine... I'll meet her. And let me see what skills she's got and I'll see if I can put her to work." He closed the file and handed slid it back to Jace. Grabbing up is Iphone, he started going through the next days calender. "Have her at my office tomorrow afternoon around one pm."

After Lucian was gone, Jace picked up the phone to Call Marilyn. "I have a possible job for you. Dress as professional as you can, make sure you're beautiful as always and I'll pick you up around 12:30pm."

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The nest day, as promised Jace Marks showed up at Marilyn's at 12:30 pm right on the dot. He'd give her all the information she needed. What floor, the office number, a Name. Everything she needed to get her foot in the door with this property development firm. And of course Lucian hadn't forgotten either. Trying to figure out what things she might be able to do that really didn't require any particular skill but to show up for work, and follow directions.

 

[PunkPrince]

Marilyn lifted her head from the pillow. She had barely slept at all. Too nervous. She'd been arrested last week for prostitution, and it was her own fault. She had always been so careful not to allow herself to be caught by the police. She'd been careless one time, and it had bitten her in the ass. They wanted to put her in jail with men. Her only hope of staying out of jail was if she could find a job. A real job. She had been trying to for ages, but once the fact that she was a transsexual was mentioned, any opportunity she came across flew out the window.

They'd conduct their interviews, polite but obviously uncomfortable, calling her Alexander the whole time, and saying that they would give her a call within a week. Of course, calls never came, and she was always working the streets again.

She hated being on the streets. When she'd been in the back of that police car, cops had treated her like she was out doing what she did by choice rather than desperation. They called her the wrong name, used the wrong pronouns, and made jokes about her gender the whole time. And she couldnt even say anything to them about it. She'd sat there in silence, totally humiliated.

Nobody ever offered her any help. Nobody helped her to get off the streets and stop living the way she was. The police just wanted to toss her in prison. They didn't give a fuck what happened to her after she got out. She would only fall back to sex work again. Marilyn had always been wary of cops, even as a kid. She didn't trust them then, and the way they treated her in the back of that squad car definitely didn't make her want to trust them now.

Then, a sliver of hope. She would not be thrown in jail with men if she could find work. She had accepted the deal, of course, and she was trying her very hardest to find something. Anything. She would scrub toilets if she had to. She had been assigned a case manager, and to her knowledge, he too, was trying to find her work.

She had gotten a call from him last night. He had an interview for her. She looked at the clock. She had about an hour and a half before Jace was supposed to pick her up. She pulled herself out of bed and wandered into the bathroom, staring disdainfully at the shower. She hated showering. Her own body caused her crippling discomfort. She hated touching her body. She avoided showering when she could...but this was important. She had to be clean.

Marilyn stripped of the sweatpants and t-shirt she had slept in and stepped into the shower. She showered as quickly as she could, and then stepped out of the shower and dried herself off, dressing herself slowly. She pulled on a pair of black jeans and a light blue women's sweater, along with a necklace her brother had given to her. It was professional looking enough. And it helped to calm her nerves. That was about as professional as she could get with what she had. Holy shit, she hoped it was enough.

She ran her fingers gingerly over her face. Slight stubble. Not visible, but there. She shaved every day even if nothing was visible. She didn't want hair on her face. She would get rid of it forever if she could, but she couldn't afford laser hair removal. She wasn't even close to being able to.

Marilyn shaved her face, going over it repeatedly so as not to miss anything, and then did her makeup. She had a girly face without it, but makeup definitely worked in her favor. Hearing a knock at her door, she slipped on a classy pair of black heels, grabbed her purse and dashed to open it. It was Jace. "Hi," she greeted him. "Thank you so much for this." She looked down at her outfit. "Is this okay? It's the best I could do."

 

[Novis]

"It's going to have to Mari. But don't worry! This guy your going to talk to, is on the up and up! All you have to do, be pretty, smile a lot, and be willing to let him help you. This is working for a Forbes top 100 company. You'll do great." Jace hoped. He crossed his fingers, prayed, and even crossed his toes. Lord knew, Lucian better not let me down on this. He better, for one make this work. Jace escorted her to his broken down, crappy, falling apart Volvo wagon. Before she slipped in, he handed her a piece of paper. "Now when we get there, you're going to nail this without me." On that paper was written all the information she needed. What floor, what office number, and a name. Mr. L. Marks.

Once everyone was nicely buckled into the car, Jace got them underway. "You need to think about whatever you can on skills. What can you do. Can you type, can you file? Get coffee... Anything since I told him you'd make a great secretary for him." Maybe he shouldn't have but Jace was stabbing at hope in the dark. And her working at fast food joints wouldn't pay the bills, and a Strip joint wouldn't hire her. She'd end up back on the streets in just a matter days. Jace needed to keep her off the streets, to keep her fanny out of D-block.

Within twenty minuets, they were pulling up to a high-rise building with tons of glass everywhere. With a Garden like entrance to the building, Jace pulled in and brought the car to a stop right at the front entrance. "Remember What I said. You can do this. Just be honest, be open minded, and be willing to let them train you. Now. You have ten minuets to get to his office and make this work."

The time was getting closer and Lucian was sitting there tapping on his paper pad, trying to think up of anything he possibly could that needed to be gone over prior to her arrival. The list was already massive. From office protocals, to how to handle the legal paper work such as her paycheck, down to something as little as how he would introduce her to the rest of his staff. He stood up, dropping his pen to the top of his desk. She shold be there shortly, and he slipped back into his sport jacket, adjusted his clothes, and pushed up his sleeve to check his watch.

Ten Minuets and counting.

 

[PunkPrince]

Marilyn nodded as Jace spoke to her. God, this was terrifying. She could feel panic bubbling up deep inside her. She was scared. What if she failed? She would die. She would go to prison, and surely somebody would kill her there. Women like her didn't fare well in general, she couldn't imagine how awful prison would be, much less a men's prison. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. "Okay," she said confidently. "I can do this. I can." She wasn't sure if she believed it or not. She felt like she was going to throw up.

She would have given anything for one of her brother's pep talks right about now. Anything at all. He had no clue what was happening to her. As far as he knew, everything was fine. Marilyn didn't want to worry him. He had finally gone back to school. He was doing something with his life. She couldn't ruin that for him. She couldn't beg him to come back and help her. He worried about her too much already. This would fuck everything up for him if he knew.

"I can do those things," she said to Jace as she slipped into the passenger seat of his car. "I'll scrub toilets until they shine if he wants me to. And if I don't know how to do something, I can learn. I–" her voice had developed a panicked sort of tone in the last few sentences. She stopped herself. "Sorry. I wong do that during the interview. I won't mess up, I promise." She just really hoped she would be able to keep that promise.

The car stopped at a large building. It seemed like a nice place, much too nice for Marilyn to work in. She would stick out in there, she knew she would. She wasn't used to places like this. But she nodded to Jace again and said, "I'll remember," before starting into the building, fingering the necklace from her brother hoping that it might give her some sort of confidence in herself.

She looked down at the paper Jace had handed to her, and made her way to the appropriate floor and office. The door was shut, and through the foggy glass, she could see someone at a desk. She gave the door a light knock and smiled at the man when it opened. "Hello," she greeted politely. "Are you Mr. Marks? My name is Marilyn Havanna, I'm here for a job interview."

 

[Novis]

So this was the woman from the picture. Taller than he pictured in his head, he simply stood off to the side and directed her into his lavish office with the wave of his hand. "Good to meet you. I'm CEO Director Lucian Marks." Maybe by now she'd figured out that they were brothers, even if Jace was starting to go bald. He merely blamed his job for it. Sticking out his hands, he would take hers to shake before he again directed her to a chair sitting across from his desk. "I'm glad you could make it. I hope you didn't have any trouble finding our offices?" Her hand was strangely soft to him, like a woman's hand. He found himself trying to sneak looks to see if he make out the outline of her penis through her skirt. There was none. He wondered how she covered that up.

Buttoning his sport coat, he smiled at her. "Before we get started, can I get you anything to drink? I have Coke, Mountain Dew, and Seven Up." Lucian was known to keep a small mini-frig under his desk with snacks, soda and the like for if and when the kids had to come sit at the office with him for a few hours. He slipped back into his plush office chair still thinking on how hard it was to believe, she was really a he.

"We have a few things to go over here. And I need to you to answer to the best of your knowledge and as truthfully as you can. We'll with you legal paperwork. Lets get the drivel out of the way first." Sitting up straight into his chair, his hand were busy moving things around. "I understand that you are a transsexual. You prefer to use your female name and persona. Unfortunately, on a legal end... I still have to use you legal name and gender. However, since you are comfortable with your persona, I'm more than happy to allow you to work here under the name and look you have provided for yourself. I will, in all honesty will try and keep your male name from being known. It's really no one else's right to indulge into your private life. On your pay check it will have your male name, Your W2 forms for taxes will have to as well. Insurance, any benefits you receive, shares in the firm, have to go in that name."

"If you ever manage to get your name changed.. And whatever else, we can always re-do all of the legal aspects to reflect that. So When I introduce you to the staff, I will introduce you as Marilyn Havanna. It will be up to you if you want to share anything else."

He was all business, little fluff about him right now. He flipped over the form he was writing on and then moved onto something else. "Skills. I need to know what you can do. And what I think you are willing to learn." Damn, he couldn't stop looking at her face.

 

[PunkPrince]

"Nice to meet you," Marilyn said with a smile. He looked similar to Jace, at least in terms of his face. Same last name too. She figured they were related. She shook the man's hand and sat down in the chair across from him. "I didn't have any trouble finding the place," she said. She noticed that his gaze kept traveling to her lap, and she crossed her legs, deciding not to say anything. It made her uncomfortable, but she needed this job.

"No, thank you," she said when he offered her something to drink. She wasn't really thirsty, just nervous. She gave a nod when Lucian said that she would have to put her legal name on her paperwork. She hated the name, but she couldn't afford to have it legally changed. She could barely afford to keep herself alive. She frowned when he used the word "persona," but didn't say anything. She hated the word. It made it sound like she was putting on a character, like she had changed everything about herself once she had begun living her life as she saw fit. She was the same person as always.

"Thank you," she said when Lucian said he would keep her old name from being known and would introduce her by the one she used. "I would appreciate that. I would really rather not share anything else if I don't have to. I don't want to make anything more difficult for myself." Her very existence was difficult for her. People like her weren't fully accepted just yet. Far from it, actually. It made everything hard for her.

He asked what she could do. "I can do anything you want, really. I can type, I can file, I can answer phones. I'll clean bathrooms if you want me to. I can get things done fast and efficiently, and my people skills are good. I'm a fast learner, too. Anything I can't do, I can learn. I'm really not shut off to a whole lot."

She scanned Lucian's features as she spoke. He was really nice looking. Had her circumstances been normal, maybe she would have, at some point, thought about a relationship with him. She put the thought out of her mind. She was anything but normal, no matter how much she wanted to be. Men weren't interested in girls like her. Not unless they were chasers with a fetish. She wasn't sonebody's fetish to toy around with.

 

[Novis]

"Now hold on and breathe for me. I'm not going to ask you to scrub toilets." At this point Lucian realizes the situation was dire in her mind. She's clinging to desperation, and from what Jace had explained, being thrown into a prison of men would have put her in more danger than walking the streets as a hooker. "We'll start there. I'll have you do some typing, filling, answering my personal phone line." Scribbling something down on the pad of papers he looked up at her. "You have a driver's license? I may need for you to run some personal and business runs for me." He had another idea that popped into his head.

Maybe a personal assistant. He wanted to test her out first to make sure she could handle the busy life he lead just at the office. He sat back in his chair and chewed on his bottom lip, a sign he was in deep thought. His mind drifting away for a moment, she was very beautiful and if she'd been a 'real' woman, he would have just asked her out on a date. A bombshell with long legs. His favorite kind of woman. His phone rang and it jerked him out of his thoughts. He wouldn't bother to answer it and he allowed it to go into voice mail. Only to have his cell started ringing. He fished it up out of his pocket and started at the caller ID. It was the school. Oh Lord. What has his child done now?

"I'm sorry, I have to take this. Give me just a moment please." Quickly he was pushing himself out form under his desk and answering the call. She'd hear his side of the conversation as he walked to the other-side of the room. "Yes Mrs. Johnson?" He stood there, looking out over the skyline through the ceiling to floor windowed wall, and she could see his body read he was frustrated. "He did what? Okay, slow down. What happened?" His head would nod. "So this kid he beat up called Phil a Motherless Fag.. And then he what?" It was shocking. And then be busted out laughing. "He tea bagged him! Are you serious?!" He was still laughing but that quickly ended. "I'm sorry, Please.. I know the situation is Serious Mrs. Johnson.. But My question is this; why was that boy ALLOWED to use that word? What exactly are you teaching these children? We don't use words like that in our home, and the boy honed in on the fact that his mother died. Regardless, I've had Phil tell me this same boy has been bulling him at School. I've been down there 15 times in the last two months with nothing being done about it. So excuse me if I'm not sympathetic that he ran his mouth one too many times and Phil retaliated. He stood up for himself and I'm damned proud of that. I will send his grandmother to collect him from school, and You will be hearing from an attorney if you try and make this suspension stick. It's up to you as teachers and school staff to stop these kinds of things form happening and from what I can see, you're not. You need to own up to you're own failure. Good bye, Mrs. Johnson."

He ended the call and busted out laughing again. "He's been hanging out with Jace too much." Then he called his mother, asking her to please go get Phil from school.

 

[PunkPrince]

Marilyn was quiet as he told her he wasn't going to make her scrub toilets. She was desperate, and she was sure it was more than obvious at this point. She was never going to get this job. Desperation didn't help anything. Of course, she was so used to being desperate. The way she had grown up, her entire life had just been a whirlwind of desperation. Desperate for her parents to love her, desperate desire to wake up with the body she had been born without. She hadn't become a prostitute because she'd wanted to. She'd been desperate to stay alive.

"I'm sorry about that," Marilyn said quickly as she tried to calm herself down. He asked if she had a driver's license. She did, though she hadn't driven in ages. She didn't have the money for a car. The liscense still listed her legal name and sex, and if she could avoid using it, she almost always would. Now wasn't the time for her comfort though. "I do have a liscense," she said. "I could do business runs."

Lucian's phone rang, and he walked off toward the other end of the room. She could hear his end of the conversation, and her eyes widened as she heard what had happened. Lucian hung up and returned to his seat, and before she could stop herself, Marilyn said, "Kids are mean. It's good your kid knows how to stick up for himself." She stopped and felt her face redden. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been listening." She was just digging one huge hole for herself.

Kids had been mean to her all through school, but late elementary and middle school had been the worst by far. She was picked on for everything, but her feminine mannerisms had been the most popular target. Alex walks like a girl, Alex talks funny, Alex is this, Alex is that. She had worn makeup to school once. Stolen it out of her mother's bathroom. That had been an invitation for everything. Taunts, beatings, the works. School had been hell. She had never gotten the courage to defend herself. She had only learned to once she'd wound up on the street.

 

[Novis]

He smiled as he re-took his seat at his desk. "No, it's alright. Phil has been going through.. Something. I'm not sure whats going on with him. I don't remember being such an angry child at 11 years old." He started to sit back again. "But then, I wouldn't have thought to tea bag the fuck out of someone either.." Maybe it wasn't the age but the age they were growing up in that filtered into this nonsense. Lucian smiled again, lighting up his face. "Alright, so where were we?"

"I'm going to be perfectly honest here. My life.. Is a train wreck going to straight to hell if I can't get a hold on it. I'm so busy I don't have time to even blink, Date, Drink, or deal with my boys. And the latter I miss a great deal. They are going up and I'm missing it. I'm going to give a trial chance here. Show me you can do the basics, and I'll advance you to being my personal assistant. For right now, I'll have you do my typing. Because I hate typing.. You'll be answering my phone line directly to my office, and.. You'll be greeting my clients. We'll say in 90 days, if you show me you can handle that, I'll start slipping you to my personal assistant."

Snatching up his pen, she wrote something down. "As a personal assistant, you'll be responsible for keeping my life on track. Making sure I'm not over booking myself, and I'm making time for the boys. You'll go to all of my meetings with me, client dinners, and social functions that have to deal with the firm. So that's what you'll be working toward."

 

[PunkPrince]

Marilyn thought for a moment when Lucian said that he didn't remember being so angry at his son's age. Marilyn remembered herself at that age quite well. She had been lonely, and her gender issues had complicated things even further for her. She had never been able to talk to anybody about how she felt. Nobody understood it. So she'd bottled it away and tried to cope with it. It had made her into an angry, mean teenager. "It's a difficult age," she said after a moment.

Then they were back to their job talk. Lucian was busy, and he needed an assistant. Marilyn wasn't surprised. It seemed like he was busy. This job probably demanded a lot from him, and Marilyn knew that she wouldn't want to constantly be swamped with work if she were in his place. She would want to spend as much time with her family as possible.

She was quite jealous of what he had though, not that she'd ever tell him that. She got jealous a lot. Jealous of cis women for having the bodies she had always wanted but would never quite have. Jealous of people with families who still loved them and would never reject them. She wished that she wasn't jealous. She wished she could just be happy. She wasn't dead yet. That was something, right? That was good. But it was definitely not something she should have to worry about as often as she did.

He would give her a chance. A ninety day trial period to prove she could do what he needed her for. She felt her heart leap. She could do this! She could do this and it would keep her out of prison and she would never have to work the streets again! No more sex for money for her. She nodded as Lucian spoke. "I can do that!" she said. "I won't let you down."

 

[Novis]

Lucian would pass along any paper she needed to complete and sign. After that he gave what time to be there for work and saw her to the elevator. He smiled, he was hoping she wasn't going to let him down.

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A Few Weeks Later..........

It was late. Too late for him to be out and yet here he was driving home at nearly midnight. The business social event had gone on late into the night and it hadn't helped he'd down a few drinks. Meeting some very beautiful women that were all single, possible dates. Lucian recounted that he had been smooth, he still had what it took to get a date as his car rolled to a stop at the light. But then his mind shifted, thinking about Marilyn and how well she was doing. Except for the last few days. She'd seemed tired and worn out. Lucian hand't spoken on it, it happens to everyone and that included him.

Even then, Lucian was please with the work she did. She was on time, efficient, and even his male clients loved her when they came in. He could figure out why. She was easy to look at. Lucian always found himself taking sneak peaks at her, even when she bent over and that both scared the hell out of him and confused him. He knew she was in fact a he, but he couldn't help how damned beautiful of a woman he made! She was prettier than nearly all the other women at his firm.

Every other day, Jace would call. Cheeking in how she was working out. Few knew his older brother was gay, and still in the closet from their parents. It didn't seem to bother Jace that his parents thought that one day they'd get grand kids from him. Which was the furthest from Jace's plans. He had his boyfriend, they enjoyed their childless lifestyle, but they could take the next step because of Jace's need to keep his parents in the dark. It constantly caused problems between them.

With that thought, as the light changed and he started to pull off, his eyes caught something familiar. Marilyn? Was that her?

 

[PunkPrince]

"I've given you more than enough time to pay the rent. I can't keep letting you slack off, Marilyn."
"But I have a job now! I'll be able to pay you! Please don't kick me out! Just give me another week or two and I'll have the money to pay off the rest of the rent, I promise!"
"Get your things and leave. I'm sorry, but a business is a business, and services have to be paid for on time."

Marilyn threw her bag down onto the cement floor of the gas station bathroom. It hit the ground with a thump, and she turned back to the mirror as she tried to erase any evidence of the fact that she had just been crying from her face. She'd had no makeup on aside from a bit of eyeliner, but it had smudged from her repeatedly having wiped at it. Homeless. Again. And she had almost had enough money to pay her rent. It had been a week since she'd been given the boot, and she still wound up crying in the gas station bathroom before she went out for her sex work again.

This wasn't supposed to happen to her! She was supposed to be done with this! She was supposed to have started on her way toward a normal life finally. But instead she was dealing with all of this shit again. Still getting fucked for money. What if she got caught again? Then it was going to be prison for sure. But...it was either prison or starving to death. Most of her money had gone toward paying her rent. She'd given the motel owner what she could, and he'd taken it and still kicked her out. She was so stupid. She was right back to where she had started.

She wiped her eyes again and changed into her street clothes, the usual corset, shorts, heels and fishnets. She looked at herself in the mirror for a few minutes to be sure she wasn't going to start crying again, and then did her makeup. It was more dramatic than what she wore every day. She grabbed her bag and slipped out of the gas station, the pimple faced teenager at the counter hardly even noticing her.

She headed for her usual corner, staying near the streetlights that allowed her to both see and be seen. She moved fairly quickly, but slowed down slightly when she noticed a car close by moving slowly toward her.

 

[Novis]

His eyes had gotten a better look at her when she turned to look at him in the car. It was her. Standing there under the street lamp, the light played off her blonde hair. His foot slammed on the brakes of his car and the car came to a stop. He was still staring. With the attire she had on there was no way he couldn't believe she was there hooking. How could she after everything Jace had done to help her? There she was, flaunting herself like a two bit whore. Anger welled up inside of him, not for him, but over his brother's hard work to help her. Lets not mention if any placed her with his firm, he'd be ruined. But he had money, he could live the rest of his life and never work again while still maintain the same lifestyle he already had. Jace didn't get paid if she went to prison. That's how it was.

He'd drive off, circle around to come back. When the sleek black BMW with tinted windows pulled up beside her on the curb. "You've got ten seconds to get in this car Miss. Havanna, or you are fired." His voice said he was very serious, that this situation was dire and if she didn't comply, she's not only be homeless, but jobless as well.

After she got into the car, he'd didn't pull off the curb. Instead he sat there on his phone, texting. A long tense silence hung in the car between them before Lucian took in a deep breath. He had to get his thoughts and his temper under control. "I don't know what is going on, but Why...." He shook his head. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing? Did nothing Jace say to you sink in? Is this some sort of addiction for you?" He didn't understand. But he was a whole lot more pissed off about than he should be.

 

[PunkPrince]

When she saw who was driving the car, Marilyn froze like a deer in headlights. No. Not Lucian. Out of all the people who could see her, not her boss! She needed to keep her job. She had to. It was all she had that could possibly get her out of the hell she was living. She didn't say anything when Lucian told her to get in the car. His words finally registered with her after a full three seconds of frozen staring and she slowly slipped into the passenger seat of the car.

She held her bag on her lap, having struggled to hold it in her shaking fingers. She hid her face in her hands and tried to hold in her terrified tears. She'd fucked up. She'd fucked up so bad. She really hated herself sometimes. Being the way she was. Her life could be so much more normal. She could have her family still talking to her and probably enough money for an apartment. Now she was going to be both broke AND homeless. She was starting to feel sick.

Lucian finished his scolding and looked toward her, clearly expecting an answer. "I'm sorry!" she said. "Please don't fire me! Please! I don't...I don't like this! I hate doing this! I-I don't want to go to prison!" She let out a small squeak as she tried to keep herself from bursting into tears. "I got kicked out of the motel last week because I couldn't pay the rent and the owner took all my money and I just want to make enough to stay somewhere again! I'm starving! I just don't want to die! I'm not ready to die yet! I'm sorry, Lucian!"

She buried her face in her hands again, her entire body shaking once again. She was such an idiot. She always managed to fuck up every half decent thing that happened to her. Maybe she was just a giant fuck up. She was never going to be normal. She was going to end up homeless for the rest of forever. She deserved it. She just wasn't meant to be safe and normal.

 

[Novis]

He just simply froze, his temper had gotten the better of him and now she was sitting there, starving, shaking all over, and nearly in tears. Lucian Marks you are a bastard... His thoughts rang out in his head. His arm reached over, slipped across the back of her shoulders and pulled her to him in a soft hugging embrace. "Don't cry.. Just don't cry." He'd sit there for the longest moment, trying to settled the information she'd dropped on him. "Why didn't tell Jace? Or come to me? If you needed an advance on your check, I would have done it." The tone of voice had taken a different approach. He wasn't yelling. Now he was warm, kind, and caring, trying harder to understand how she ended right back into this mess.

It couldn't have been more than a few moments, when the nighttime sky decided to open up and start pouring rain. "I'm sorry. I surely didn't mean to yell at you." Sometimes he had remember, this double life she lead was rough on her.

Lighting streaked across the sky just second before the thunder hit, shaking the car. Lucian had lifted his head to watch the people scurrying to hurry up and get out of the raging storm. "Looks like I found you just at the right time.." Lucian wasn't looking at her, and if she was still curled up in his arm, he hadn't tried to move her.

 

[PunkPrince]

Marilyn felt tears start to spill over and fall down her cheeks. Fuck. Now she was crying. In front of her boss too, things just got worse and worse as this night went on. Lucian put an arm around her and pulled her into a hug, and she felt some of her panic fall away. He didn't sound so mad at her anymore. Maybe he would let her keep her job after all. She was still shaking and couldn't will herself to stop. "I'm so sorry," she whimpered softly. "I didn't mean to get back out here. I never do. I didn't become a hooker because I wanted to. I hate it."

"I didn't say anything because I didn't want to bother anybody. You'd already done so much for me just by giving me a job, I didn't want to ask you for more money. I thought maybe I could convince him to give me more time since I finally have a job. I was wrong." Her stomach was still growling. She was back to eating as poorly as before once again since she didn't have any money. Her happiness had been short lived.

"Don't be sorry," she said, turning to stare out the window as the rain began. "And I guess it is good you found me. Rain makes my makeup run." She caught her reflection in the mirror and saw that her eye makeup had indeed started to run. "Too late for that, though." She dug through her bag for her pack of makeup wipes and pulled one out. "I look like a damned raccoon." She cleaned up her running makeup and shoved the wipe away again. She jumped at the sudden loud clap of thunder, startled, and then pulled away from Lucian's hug.

"I'm sorry for crying," she apologized quietly. "I've never been much good at dealing with my emotions. I either yell or start crying. My life is just an emotional roller coaster. I'm just trying not to end up dead the same way I've been trying for years."

 

[Novis]

"I know.. I know.." He still continued to comfort her the best he could. "Marilyn, You can't be scared to ask for help sometimes. Even I have to ask for help." The empty arm she'd left him with was dragged back to his own side and the hand placed neatly back on the steering wheel. "You look fine.." His arm felt empty again.

"When was the last time you ate?" The rain wasn't letting up, Lucian flipping on the wipers to help clear the windshield sow he could see what was going on in the front of the car. "And for now on, Marilyn.. I expect you to let me know when you're in trouble. I can't help you and neither can Jace if you can't open up and talk to us. We're not here to hurt you. I swear, I'm a nice guy. Jace... Watch him, he might try to look up your skirt." There was a light humor in his voice as he tried to change the mood, the tension that was bouncing around in the inside of his car.

"Don't feel bad. I think that's pretty normal for most human beings. We call it human nature. Don't be a shamed of it." Lucian offered her a smile and place the car into gear. "We can fix this Marilyn.. You trust me?"

 

[PunkPrince]

Lucian asked when the last time she'd eaten was. She realized that she wasn't entirely sure. She hadn't had a proper meal the entire week. "I don't know," she said quietly. "I ate a bagel earlier this week...like three days ago. Or maybe it was four days ago." The stress of her life made everything together in her head. She was exhausted almost constantly, whether it was from lack of food, lack of sleep, or both she wasn't entirely sure. Probably both. "I'm so tired of being afraid all the time," she mumbled, mostly to herself. She was.

She was very quiet as Lucian told her she needed to ask for help. She laughed softly at his comment on Jace. She knew that they were supposed to be helping her, but there was a part of her that was always wary. She was so used to being scared and defensive. Her life depended on it. She was petrified of dying the same way that Tammie had.

Lucian asked if she trusted him. She wanted to. So far he had been nothing but kind to her, which definitely helped in his favor. She wasn't sure that she fully trusted anyone though, aside from her brother. She was just used to being hurt by people. She was a human punching bag, that was the best way to put it. She wanted so badly to live a normal life, and so far, Lucian had proven himself to be trustworthy. So after a few seconds of complete silence, she turned to him and gave a nod. "I trust you," she said.

 

[Novis]

Sitting back in the driver seat, he was in deep thought over what to do next. She wasn't eating, she had no place to go. Sure, he could just toss money at her. Throw her in another sleazy motel room and hand her a few bucks. But what that solve? It was just slapping a band-aid on the situation that would at some point lead her right back to here. Having been taken advantage of, and sleeping on the streets. The hour was growing late, too late for much left to be open and he'd promised that he would be home at a decent hour. The boys were staying with his parents which meant no one was home. And he'd not have to deal with his mother about 'bringing women home' with the boys there.

"This is what we're going to do. You-" He pointed at her, "Are going to come stay at my house until we can get you a decent apartment, in a decent neighborhood that you can afford." Shifting into the seat, "You have everything?" Lord knew, if that was all she owned, there was going to have to be some type of shopping trip. He'd try to be more giving, it wasn't like he helped people on this level every day. The car suddenly was moving, rolling off the curb to start heading down the street. "It's late.. You can grab something from the kitchen when we get there."

 

[PunkPrince]

Marilyn sighed as Lucian spoke. She didn't want to bother him by staying at his house and eating his food, but what choice did she have? To stay on the street and starve? It wasn't like she had anywhere else she could go. The majority of her family had stopped being her family long ago, and she couldn't disrupt Devin's schooling again. It wasn't fair to him. She kept her gaze locked on the floor of the car, and there was silence between the two of them for several minutes before she spoke again.

"Okay," she said softly. "Thank you, Lucian." He asked her if she had everything, and she looked back at her bag. It held everything she had, which wasn't much. "Yeah," she answered. "I have everything." Some clothes and other essentials, as well as a few other things. She couldn't afford much extra. Most of ehat she made wound up going toward food or other things she needed.

It had been so long since sne'd actually set foot in a house. Her work was mostly done in her motel room, or trashy hotels. Her last venture into a familiar house had been just after she had left home. She had gone back to get some of her things. It had not gone well. Perhaps that had never been her home. Her family had only cared for her on their terms. Her motel room had never been home either. You weren't supossed to hate going home. Maybe she had just always been homeless and never realized it.