Fallen Angel, (Part 2 of ?)

[duwinter]

Title: Fallen Angel

Author: duwinter

Fandom: DWP

Pairing: Eventually Miranda/Andy

Rating: Hard “M”

Setting: The world of the movie, save for a very different Andy.

Summary: The twins runaway from home. Miranda is worried. An AU Andy, who's formative years were quite different than what is normally written in the fandom, returns them home.

Disclaimer: The Devil Wears Prada and it's characters do not belong to me. No profit being made here. I'm just playing with the characters for a short while and I promise to put them away neatly when I'm through.

Dedication: This story is dedicated to the two members of our fanfic community that made the July Fic-A-Thon a reality. Thank you punky_96 & xenavirgin! Congrats Ladies! Your organizational skills have garnered us a plethora of new fics for the second year in a row!

Author's Note: This piece is far darker and gritter that anything I have attempted to write in the past. It is not a happy piece, but it is an idea that wouldn't leave me alone. In it I use language that I am not comfortable with in my normal work-a-day world. I use it because it is how I hear the characters speak in my head. In this reality Miranda is forty-seven, the twins sixteen and Andy twenty-four.

Trigger Warnings: Implied Gang Rape. Implied Hetro Sex, Graphic Violence.

Comment: Comments feed the muse and the Muse is always hungry. Remember, a fat muse is a happy and productive muse. Comments and constructive criticism eagerly encouraged.

Credit Where Credit Is Due: To the two wonderful betas who helped me so much on this installment, meg22591 & punky_96. You two are stars in my book! Thank you so much for both your help and encouragement! This story has been tweaked since the last beta read-through so any and all mistakes are strictly my own.

Part 2

Andy hid in the bar downstairs from her apartment and watched through the grimy window as Nate left to go and gather his 'boys'. As soon as she was sure he was out of sight she left the barroom and quickly returned to the apartment. Entering quietly, she stealthily made her way past the living room where Lily was loading a pipe bowl of marijuana and explaining to the twins how she had filled the bong water-pipe with ice to make the smoke cooler and easier to inhale.

Andy went into the room that had been hers and that the twins were presently staying in. Rooting around in the closest she pulled out her duffel bag. She rapidly sorted through the hanging clothes, pulling things off their hangers that she had purchased and stuffing them into the carryall. She left those things that Nate had given her. Her treatment of the dresser was the same. She emptied the drawers and sorted out those things that she had bought for herself and into the canvas sack the items went. Her few personal treasures were stored in a lockable wooden case, about the size of a cigar box. She had picked it up at a yard sale years ago. There was nothing of any real fiscal value in the box, only sentimental value. She wrapped the keepsake box in some of the clothing and placed it in the canvas sack.

She wished that Dougie was home, but he was out again, schmoozing the owner of a new gay porn production company. Nate had the ambition to install Dougie as their star attraction and Dougie had been dispatched over the last several weeks to do whatever was necessary to seal the deal. He was spending virtually every day in the man's company and probably a great deal of his time on his knees. She hardened her resolve. She wouldn't get a chance to say goodbye right now, but once she was set up elsewhere she would find a way to make contact and let her only real friend know that she had had to leave and that she was alright.

Leaving her duffel bag in the hallway and moving on silent feet, she slipped into the bedroom that Nate was sharing with Lily. Crouching down by the small lockable file cabinet that Nate kept his “business” in, she drew a folding knife from her purse. The knife was an inexpensive one that had been purchased at a rather shady Army Surplus store as a 'collector’s' item. It was made of good steel and featured a blade longer than the legal limit in LA allowed. It was called a tactical knife and was meant for self-defense. It had a wicked looking blade fashioned to plunge smoothly into flesh and tear when coming out. Its inexpensive nature was preferable, because if it was ever found in Andy's possession by the police, it would be confiscated. Andy wanted it as a tool at the moment, rather than as a weapon. She wanted to use it as a pry-bar to break the lock securing the drawers on the file cabinet.

Andy wondered at her sanity as she slipped the tip of the blade into the crack between the drawer and the frame of the filing cabinet near the lock. Carefully, she pried. If Nate caught her doing this he'd beat her within an inch of her life. She bit her lower lip and twisted the blade harder, wondering why she was sticking her neck out for two girls she barely knew anything about. She felt the lock on the cheap piece of furniture give way and she pulled the drawer open. There, on top of some things inside, was a roll of money secured with a rubber band. Beside it lay two small glassine bags of what could either be cocaine or draf. Andy quickly undid the roll of bills and counted it. There was just over eight-thousand-four hundred dollars in her hand. Doing a quick mental calculation dividing by four, she counted out twenty-one hundred dollars and stuffed it into her purse. She then re-secured the balance of the money into a rubber-banded roll and placed it back in the drawer. She then transferred the two bags of drugs into the pocket of the jeans she was wearing.

Casting a glance back into the open drawer she became aware of what the money and drugs had been sitting on top of. DVD cases. Lots of them. All of them with glossy labels and pictures. Titles like Anal Hoes and Leather Lezzy Bitches. Every movie Andy, Dougie and Lily had ever appeared in. Even some with Sienna in them.

Andy hadn't met Sienna. She was already gone when Andy had been brought into Nate's stable. But Andy had frequently been told the story of how Sienna had been repeatedly disobedient. The final straw, the story went, was when Sienna betrayed Nate by doing a shoot on the side and not cutting him in for his share of the money she had been paid. Nate supposedly took her down to Mexico and gave her to Diego Alejandro.

The boogeyman of the industry, Diego Alejandro had become the fate managers would threaten talent with to keep them in line. Rich collectors would pay top dollar for snuff films, where an actress was tortured to death-no special effects, just pain, blood and a slow agonizing death. Law enforcement in the U.S. claimed that no genuine snuff film had ever been documented. Andy didn't doubt such films were available if someone had the right contacts and could afford to pay for them. She had learned through bitter experience of the perversity of some patrons of the sex industry and how far some people would go to get their rocks off. She had started stripping soon after her sixteenth birthday, then worked peep joints and eventually ended up in porn. Making films had seemed a better choice to her at the time rather than prostitution, because at least those in the production end of the business insisted that the talent were tested for HIV and AIDS regularly. Over her journey of years she had known several acquaintances and even a few friends who had been murdered in the course of working in the industry. For some men, and a few women as well, brutality, violence and causing pain were a desirable part of sex. She wholeheartedly believed that if Diego Alejandro didn't exist someone like him certainly did and that they were likely involved in the darkest part of the industry. She'd heard his name and his myth from too many different sources to doubt its authenticity. She closed her eyes and thought again of the twins and what would happen tonight if she didn't intervene; what future they would face. She grabbed a handful of the DVD cases from the drawer as she rose from her crouched position and she left the bedroom. Grabbing her carryall as she passed, she marched resolutely for the living room and the coming confrontation.

She stepped into the living room to find Lily cajoling Caroline to take a hit out of the smoldering bong. “Why don't you tell them what's in store for them the rest of the evening, Lils?” Andy demanded, an edge to her voice. “Tell 'em about the entertainment for the party.”

Lily, shocked, looked up from where she sat cross-legged on the floor, trying to sweet talk the uncertain teenager into doing what she wanted her to do. “I'm doing what Nate told me to do and showing these two fine ladies a good time, Bitch,” she grated. “Maybe you should mind your business? Don't you have someplace you're supposed to be?”

Andy stepped around her to the entertainment cabinet that dominated one wall of the room. In a few deft moves she had opened one of the DVD cases she carried at random, inserted the DVD into the player and used the remote control to turn on the big screen television.

Within seconds the title sequence flashed onto the screen. Typical of this kind of hardcore 'loop' movie, which was vignettes of graphic sexual encounters without true plot or purpose other than prurient interest, cut scenes flashed in rapid succession, showing brief glimpses of the ten women who appeared in this particular film. Each few second clip showed men roughly using the women's bodies. Some scenes were one woman and two men, some one on one, some two women and one man. None of the scenes shown could be called lovemaking.

Caroline fidgeted uncomfortably, colored incarnadine, and turned her eyes resolutely away from what was happening on the screen. Cassidy watched, her countenance shifting between curious, disapproving and disgusted. Lily rose to challenge Andy as Cassidy's eyes widened. “Andy,” she said, pointing at the screen, her voice coming out as nearly a squeak, “that's you!”

Caroline's eyes were immediately drawn back to the television screen.

“Yeah,” Andy answered, looking hard at Lily. “And it'll be you if you stay here and let Nate have his way. Fucking on film is how Dougie, Lily and I make our money. Nate got us into the business. And you can be sure, if you stay here, he'll make certain he gets his cut of every God-dammed penny you ever earn.”

“Girl, you are crazy,” Lily declared. “You fuck this up for Nate and he'll beat you till you'll wish you were dead!”

“I'm done, Lils,” Andy stated flatly. “These two aren't going to end up like you and I have. I'm getting them out. Get in my way and we're gonna have a problem.” She looked to the twins, who were apparently shocked and, consequently, slow to respond. “Get moving you two,” she urged. “Go put on the clothes you came in. Don't take anything that Nate's given you. You don't want to owe him anything. If you do he'll twist it all around until he ends up owning your soul.”

“Andy,” Lily hissed. “Nate's gone out to gather his boys. They're expecting a party when they get here!”

Andy could see the fear in Lily's body-language. If the twins weren't here to be the entertainment at the party, Nate would lose face, and would likely take it out on whoever he could reach first. “Translation,” Andy said coldly, her comment directed at the two sisters. “Nate has gone to get six or eight of his scumbag acquaintances and they're coming back here to fuck the both of you in every hole you have.”

“We wouldn't do that,” Caroline said in a small voice as she wrapped her arms around herself protectively.

Andy smiled at the teenager, but there was no humor in it. “You won't have a choice,” she answered quietly. “Oh, you'll cry, and beg and plead. They'll just beat you and hold you down and do exactly as they please. It's how they break new talent in. When they're done you'll do as you're told, because you'll know what will happen if you don't.”

Lily backed up, shaking her head. “Don't act crazy, Andy. He'll kill you. He'll do worse than kill you when he catches you!” She made a grab for her cell phone, which lay on the coffee table. Andy got there first and with a quick flip of her wrist and a hard throw, the cell phone smashed into pieces against the wall.

“Sorry Lily, can't have you phoning Nate.” Andy said softly, her face inches from Lily's. “I know I've got to go now, because you'll dime me out. You'll tell him about this even if I changed my mind and stayed. You'd tell him knowing what he'd do to me.” She glanced at the twins. “If you want to avoid what's coming, you'd better get your act in gear. There's only so much time before he and his friends get back here and I want a running head start. Some of those guys wouldn't mind beating the shit out of me and adding my ass to the party.”

Cassidy, whose eyes had been continually going back to the television set in a sort of repulsed fascination, was suddenly on her feet and had a hold of her sister's arm, pulling her towards the bedroom they had been staying in. “Come on, Caro,” she said urgently. “Do as Andy says!”

Caroline shook her head, “But Nate's been really nice to us. He's given us all sorts of stuff and he treats us like we're adults.”

Cassidy stopped and turned. She pointed to the TV screen where a young woman she didn't recognize was crouched down on all fours, having her head savagely pulled back by her hair and being roughly taken from behind. Another man stepped into the shot, slapped her face, unzipped his pants and proceeded to force his cock into her mouth. ”You don't get it!” Cassidy exhorted. “It's what Andy has been trying to warn us about all along! Nate figures it's time we pay the piper for all he's done for us. I don't know about you, but I don't want my first time to be like that!”

Shocked, Caroline’s wide eyes returned to the screen and then back to her sister. “But if we said no it would be rape,” she exclaimed, evidently shocked to the core by the very idea.

Lily shook her head disgustedly. “Stupid rich cunt,” she spat and then looked at Andy. “You need to hit me. Hard,” she said softly. "If I can't show Nate I tried to stop you, he'll take your running out and taking these two little bitches with you out on me.”

The twin girls edged out of the room before they could hear anymore and made haste to change back into their old clothes and gather what little they had brought with them.

Back in the living room, Andy nodded. “He'll take it out on you anyway, Lils,” she answered relentlessly. "He's bringing his boys back here and they're expecting a party.” She glanced at the woman “Don't be stupid,” she almost whispered a note of pleading entering her tone and her eyes caring, “Come with us.”

Lily shrugged helplessly, hopelessly. “I can handle pulling a train. I've done it before,” she answered quietly and shook her head. “I don't have anywhere else to go. Nate's what I've got. You're the one who's being stupid. You don't have anywhere else to go either!”

Andy's moment of mercy passed, she canted her head and considered for a moment. She really didn't feel she owed Lily any favors, but thinking about it, being able to cold-cock Lily as hard as she could for all the petty bullshit and aggravation the woman had caused her over the years was just too good an opportunity to pass up.

Andy hit Lily with a wicked left roundhouse to the eye and a quick right jab to the midsection. Lily woofed out all her air and crumpled to the ground. Andy unceremoniously stepped over her and proceeded to knock some of the furniture over so it looked like there had been a hell of a fight. She looked back down on the woman who lay writhing on the floor. “I did you a favor, now you do me one,” she demanded. “You tell Nate that I didn't take any more than I was owed. What I took with me, was mine, not his. Tell him you heard me talking about taking the train out of town, that way he won't look for us at the bus station.”

Caroline and Cassidy had returned to the living room, dressed in the somewhat, worse for wear, clothes they had arrived in. They reentered the room in time to hear the last exchange between the two women. Andy motioned to the door. “Let's get out of here,” she said as she led the way.

At the bottom of the stairs Andy opened the door and stopped, surveying the street. Comforted that Nate had not yet returned, she guided the twins across the road and then down a side street.

“Should you have told her about the bus station?” Caroline asked worriedly, nervously watching the street behind them over her shoulder. “Are you sure she won't tell Nate about it?”

Andy continued at a brisk pace and smiled a nasty smile. “I'm counting on her telling Nate about it. He thinks everybody but him is stupid. Lily is going to be frantic to get back into his good graces, so she'll sing like a goddamned bird. She'll tell him that I told her we're going to the train station. Then she'll tell him that she managed to overhear that we're actually going to the bus station. She'll make it sound like I didn't mean for her to know that because it will make her look better in his eyes. The bus station is the first place Nate and some of his boys will go look for us.”

Cassidy glanced at Andy. “So we really are going to the train station, aren't we?” She asked.

“Yes,” the older woman replied, nodding. “And when we're not where Nate went to look for us, Lily won't be able to tell him any differently because she'll be caught up in her own lie. The train station will be far enough down his list that we should be long gone by the time he figures it out. I should have enough money to get you two home. After that, I'll figure out what the hell I'm going to do next.”

The twins were quiet as Andy led them out of the side street onto the next street over and hailed them a cab. As they got in the back, Andy told the driver to take them to Los Angeles Union Station.

*****

Waiting for anything wore on Miranda’s patience. The lack of news about her daughters was beyond unacceptable. She had pulled every string she could reach in politics and law enforcement and the results had been no news for nearly two weeks. She had hired the most reputable private investigation firm in the city and virtually given them carte blanche and the fools had botched the simplest limitation demanded of them The only caveat she had placed on them was that she did not want it to become public knowledge that her daughters were out there without the protections her power and authority usually imparted to them. She didn't want people trying to take advantage of her girls, who she knew to be somewhat naïve about the realities of the world, because she had sheltered them and kept them that way.

Her PR flack Leslie, had somehow, managed to continue to keep the twins' disappearance out of the tabloids, until now. Her assistant Emily, acting like a woman on her way to the gallows, had entered Miranda's office ten minutes ago with the offending paper in hand. The idiot private investigation firm had sent its agents out to speak with the girls' friends. Those friends were the sons and daughters of the upper echelon of New York society. The moneyed and powerful of the city shared one thing in common and that was leisure. Gossip often filled their long and empty hours. As soon as those fools the detective agency dispatched had spoken to the twins' friends the news started spreading in her social circle like a cancer. She was, in truth, surprised that it had taken this long for someone to speak to the press.

Now the news of her daughters being missing, complete with photographs of the twins from one of the social engagements they had attended were in the paper. People who might use their notoriety against them would know what they looked like and that they were runaways. It was a wholly unacceptable state of affairs, and one she could do absolutely nothing about.

*****

Reginald Fieldworth III was a man born of privilege and wealth. His great grandfather had made the family fortune in heavy industrial machinery during the time of the robber barons like Carnegie, Vanderbilt and Astor. His grandfather had increased the familial holdings. His father then took the family company both public and international. Reginald had never been interested in acting as CEO of the corporation, his ambitions had always been political. He had held a number of state offices, Now he was on the verge of his destiny. He was running for national office. If the polls continued the way they had been going he had a better than fair chance to be the next Senator for the State of New York. Even with the election still almost a year off, he had spent the last two weeks careening around the state at a breakneck pace on a campaign bus tour. The bus had stopped in every little rat-hole town on the bus' circuitous route and he had spent his time making stump speeches, kissing babies and shaking hands.

Now he was finally back in Manhattan and he could call Miranda. They had been publicly dating for several months and she was becoming an integral part of his plan to be elected. He had even suggested that they consider marrying. He hadn't bothered to marry to this point in his life. He'd been too busy chasing his rise to power, but now, according to his campaign advisers, marriage and a family were extremely desirable and Miranda Priestly and her two daughters, were, as if, tailor-made for the role. Rich, politically well connected, powerful, well respected in the community and beautiful to boot. His advisers had done some preliminary polling and it was agreed all around that the family would look wonderful in campaign ads.

He was perfectly aware that there wasn't anything remotely resembling passion between himself and Miranda, but they understood each other. For Miranda, her magazine would always come first. It was how she defined herself. For him, endgame was the Presidency of the United States and he wouldn't stop until he had achieved that goal. When they were together they could talk about things and sometimes even managed a laugh or two. For people like them marriage wasn't about love, it was about alliances and bettering one's social standing.

While he had been campaigning the last several weeks he had a few brief telephone calls with Miranda, but she had seemed uncommunicative and distracted. There wasn't anything terribly unusual about Miranda being so. Towards the time of the month when the magazine she ran was going to print she had things other than small talk on her mind.

He was in his car, outside his campaign headquarters when one of his advisers informed him about the two Priestly girls having run away and told him him the information had just become public in the last few days.

Aware that the press was following, he did what any good politician would do. He instructed his driver to immediately take him to Runway so he could rush to Miranda's side to see how he might help her in her time of need.

*****

Andy had purchased two sleeper car roomettes from Los Angeles to New York for the three travelers and now they stood on the platform awaiting Amtrak's Southwest Chief train which would take them as far as Chicago, from there they would board another train to complete the journey. The twins were quiet, shaken by what had occurred at the apartment and beginning to understand what could have happened to them.

Cassidy was silent, somewhat sullen, as she knew that their adventure had come to an abrupt end. She was enough of a realist to know that she and her sister weren't ready for the world they had encountered. It was time to go home and face the music. Their mother would be furious, but what she'd do to them would be far preferable to ending up being raped and then forced to perform in pornographic films. Running away had been her idea, so she was contemplating the best way to spin their actions, to keep as much of the blame and the punishment she knew would result from falling on Caroline's shoulders.

Caroline kept glancing at Andy, blushing and quickly looking away.

Andy's eyes scanned the crowd, apparently keeping watch for anyone she might recognize as a possible danger. “Is there something you want to ask me Caroline?” she inquired.

Caroline looked down at the floor, her voice small when she answered. “How can you do that?”

Andy stopped looking at the crowd and turned her eyes on Caroline instead. “Do what?” she asked, her tone genuinely confused.

“Let them film you, ...doing that,” Caroline sputtered, embarrassed.

Andy snorted; it was an amused sound. “Dayamn girl”, she answered in a jiving voice. “What little you saw on that DVD was tame. I was with only one guy at that shoot, I've done way nastier stuff than that.” She then considered for a long moment . Shaking her head, she sighed and her tone became more serious. “To answer your question, it's because I can't do anything else. You can't really live any kind of life if all you're capable of earning is minimum wage working at some fast food joint. I figured that porn was better than whoring. At least in porn, the pay is decent, the guys I fuck get tested regularly for H.I.V. and I'm not expected to be alone with some John that just might be a crazy serial killer. Some serious shit happens to girls that work the streets.” Andy turned back to the scanning the crowd.

Caroline was thoughtful as they boarded the train and were shown to their roomettes on the upper level of the sleeper car by a conductor. Their two small rooms were opposite each other across the central hallway . Each roomette contained two comfortably large seats facing each other and a small table that could be folded down between them. At night the two seats could be converted to a bed that would take up most of the space in the small room. The second berth was affixed to the wall above the windows and folded down, locking into position for use when sleeping. Necessary facilities such as bathroom and shower were on the lower level of the train-car.

As Cassidy and Caroline settled into their roomette, Andy dropped her duffel bag between them. “I've got some clothes in here. Pick out some stuff you want to wear the next few days.” Andy then disappeared into her roomette across the hallway.

Caroline quickly followed. Knocking on the door-frame as she entered the small room. Andy was already seated and staring out the window. “Can I talk to you Andy?” the younger woman asked.

Andy turned and looked at her. “You can, but I'm not sure you'd like what I might have to say.”

Caroline nodded. “You think we should have never left home,” she offered softly.

Andy nodded. “You have a Momma that cares about you. You were having problems with her rules, but now you see that maybe she had reason to be worried about the stuff she was worried about. I know half a dozen girls that work in the sex trade that came from homes that cared about them. Most of them don't see anyway they can ever go home now.” Andy shook her head and turned back to the window.

“What about you?” Caroline asked. “How did you end up with Nate and them?” She slid into the seat across from Andy.

Andy sighed. She didn't turn away from the window as she spoke not looking at the young woman across from her. “I was fifteen when Momma put me out. She had a new boyfriend who was crashing at our place. Momma worked nights. When she was out, he started sniffing around me. Coming into the bathroom when I was in the shower. Coming into my bedroom when I was in bed. Talking to me real sweet and buying me little things. One night he tried to fuck me. I fought him off. When Momma came home he told her I'd come-on to him. She tossed me out that night and told me not to come back.”

“What did you do?” Caroline asked.

Andy snorted an unpleasant chuckle. “I was on the street. I tried to hold it together for a little while; tried to keep going to school. I was probably in the same grade you're in now. After a week going to class without a change of clothes or a regular place to shower or sleep, people started to talk. Who am I shitting? They'd been talking; they just stopped worrying about whether I could hear them or not. I dropped out and left the little town I'd grown up in."

*****

“Was that somewhere close to LA?” Caroline asked, looking at the young woman across from her with a combination of sympathy and poorly masked pity.

Andy again sounded a short bitter laugh. “I'm no Cali girl," she replied. "I was born and raised in the wilds of Ohio. Cincinnati was the local city of any size. Winter in Cincinnati is a bitch, especially if you're on the street. I was young, fairly good looking, and didn't have shit to my name. One of the local beat cops for the area I hung out in rousted me regularly. Threatened to run me in for soliciting or vagrancy if I wasn't 'nice' to him.” Grunting and disgusted at the image conjured in her mind, Andy continued. “Some damned alley, with him in uniform and me on my knees on the cold concrete. One day I just couldn't take it any more. The cold, the wet, and that asshole. So I split."

"I drifted west, looking for some place that didn't have winter. I ended up in LA. I met another girl that was on the street and we started hanging out. Ended up looking out for each other. She danced at a strip joint sometimes to make money. She had a serious jones for heroin.”

Caroline sat riveted, listening to Andy talk. Cassidy joined them, standing in the arch of the doorway and leaning against its frame and sharing a curious look with her sister.

Andy just sighed and continued her narrative as if the second twin had been there the whole time. “Most of the time she was too messed up to work. One night she tried to go in when she was high. The boss wouldn't let her in the club but it left him short a dancer for the night. I happened to be standing there and he offered me a chance. He told me I could make five-hundred a night by taking my clothes off and shaking my ass to music. That's how I started stripping.”

Still staring out the window, Andy continued. Her tone was almost as if she were talking to herself. “It was rough at first. As a stripper you work different clubs and as a new stripper with no following and no real draw potential it can be hard to get a gig. Club managers are real motherfuckers as a general rule. They pay poorly, insist on taking a large percentage of a girl's tips, and figure that stripper means whore and you should fuck them for the favor of giving you a job.”

With a slight jerk, the train began to move. It was only a moment before they were clear of Union Station and on their way east. Andy appeared to relax a little now that they were off and away. She turned and looked at the twins and shook her head sadly. “I did some shit I'm not proud of in those early days. I gave head to a bunch of those sleazeballs to get or keep jobs, even though I felt like the bastards were ripping me off of the money I'd earned.”

"Some clubs had their shit together," she went on. “They had bouncers that knew their jobs and the girls didn't get grabbed or mauled by the customers when they were on stage or giving lap-dances. Other places, not so much. It got so I could walk into a place and just know whether I was going to have a good night or a bad one.”

A flash of emotional pain crossed Andy's eyes and then it was gone as swiftly as it had appeared. Caroline had a quick thought about how many times she'd seen her mother shut down her emotions the same way, as if you didn't show it, you didn't feel it.

“The girl that I'd been hanging out with OD-ed in the abandoned building that the local junkies had been using as a shooting gallery,” Andy said, returning to her story. “She'd been dead and lying there for almost a week before the cops found her. It was a couple of days later that I identified her body at the morgue.” She glanced at the doorway. “Christ, I could use a drink,” she complained. "Lets go to the dining car and see what they've got that's cold.”

Andy rose from her chair and lead the twins through the lounge car and into the dining car. She chose a table and took a seat. The twins took seats across from her. In a few moments a waiter approached and Andy ordered double Vodka on the Rocks; the girls ordered sodas. Once the drinks had arrived and they were left to themselves, Andy sat silently turning her glass on the coaster where it sat on the table. She seemed completely lost in the introspection of her past. She looked meaningfully around at the other passengers in the dinning car, shook her head and spoke quietly. “If we're going to continue this conversation, we should probably take it back to our rooms. If anyone overhears, they're likely to freak out.” She watched the twins to see what they seemed to want to do. Caroline was on her feet in a heartbeat and headed back the way they had come.

Once they had returned and done what they could to make the three of themselves comfortable in a room meant for two, Andy continued her tale. “Over the next couple of years stripping I heard a bunch of other girls talk about working the peeps. Peep shows are sort of like stripping, only you work inside a booth instead of on a stage. There's a glass panel between you and the customer. The panel is covered by a curtain. The customer sits in a chair on one side of the panel and you're on the other. He puts his money in a little machine thing that's there. It'll take currency or credit cards. Put your money in and curtain opens for a few minutes. He can talk to you on a phone that's there. Tell you what he wants to see. Sometimes they want you to strip for them. Sometimes they just want to see you naked, Sometimes they want to watch you play with yourself or use a sex toy. They always have their dick in their hand and they always jerk off.”

Caroline gasped, a mixture of horror and embarrassment playing on her features. Cassidy failed in trying to look both stoic and understanding. She too was obviously uncomfortable with the narrative. It was apparent to Andy that in their naivete, that they had likely never heard anyone speak of doing what she did for a living as commonplace. To Andy, what she was talking about was just another day at work. She lifted her glass to her lips and drained off about half of the liquid there. She sighed, went quiet and played the tip of her index finger around the rim of the glass in her hand. She decided to wait and see if the two girls would just let the subject drop.

Some pregnant moments passed and then Cassidy looked at Caroline. There was a long silent moment of their uncanny, wordless communication and then Caroline nodded, evidently a consensus having been reached between them. “Please go on, Andy,” Cassidy implored. “We really want to know about you.”

“Why?” Andy asked. “What's the point? I'm just another loser. Plenty like me in the world. You both have a future if you'll just reach out and grab it. It doesn't seem easy to you now, but believe me, it's an easier road than I've had. And it's likely to end a whole lot better.

Caroline moved from her seat and knelt down at Andy's feet. “You gave up everything for us! If Nate had caught up to us he would have hurt you!” she offered with emotion in her tone. “I want to know who you are Andy. I want to learn all I can about you. Learn all I can about what you've been through, so maybe Cassidy and I can understand enough to be friends to you.”

Andy shrugged again and took another pull from her drink, then took up the thread of her story where she had left off. “The only reason that working the peeps is more bearable than stripping is that there's more money in it. The few minutes that curtain is open in a peep booth costs anywhere between three and five dollars. A john will literally spend an hour sitting there at a couple of bucks a minute and a girl that will give a good show will have a line of customers waiting for him to leave. There's even a way that that the customers can tip a girl, using that box in the booth, too. So if you give them a good show, you might make some extra cash. The normal deal with the owners is a sixty/forty split, with the girl getting the sixty percent. There were some nights that I walked out of the peep I was working with a thousand dollars cash in my jeans. Add that to the fact that the customers couldn't touch you and it was an all around better gig than stripping. Some of the girls made even more money by making dates with customers after they got off work, but soliciting on the premises was strictly against the rules. It could get the place not only closed down, but padlocked. You'd get fired if you got caught and owners wouldn't let you work in that peep again. I wasn't into whoring. Life was messed-up enough without doing that for a living.”

Her attention turned from the twins and she stared out the window of the moving train. "I've tried to better myself little by little. I worked for a while in some GED prep booklets that I picked up at a used bookstore. I even signed up for a high school equivalency course, but the first day I was supposed to go to the class, the peep I was working at called me and asked me to come in early and work a double shift. Seemed a bunch of the girls had come down with a bug that was going around and they were really short handed. I was hard up for money at the time and rent was coming due. I chose work over the class." Andy took a breath then went on. “I never managed to go back.”

"Then it was self-help books. Now I read books on acting and I try to learn a new word a day. I have hopes of one day working for one of the big production houses like Vivid or Wicked Pictures. I kept bugging Nate to let me take some acting classes but the cheap bastard didn't want to spend the money. He said I didn't need to act for what I do."

She looked down and shook her head, contemplating the melting ice in her glass. "What can I say about being with Nate? I met him about three years ago at a party one of the other girls at the peep and her roommate were throwing. He was charming and funny. I'd been on my own for a long time and I guess I was lonely. A couple of days later I was leaving the peep after my shift. It was about three in the morning. I was walking from the building to the bus stop. This big gang banger started hassling me and it got real scary real quick. He had me backed up against a wall and I figured that there was no way that I could take him. And suddenly there was Nate with a gun in his hand. He told that guy that if he didn't back off me he'd kill him.” Andy looked closely at her two companions. “Sound familiar?” She asked knowingly.

Cassidy made a small sound, deep in her throat and Andy turned and nodded. “Big ugly son-of-a-bitch, Latino, tattoos all over him. He has a heavy accent. His name is Jodido. I'd bet dollars to donuts that he's the one you two ran into. Nate uses him to make new prospects feel they owe him. Jodido puts the fear of god into the girl, or in your case, girls, that Nate is interested in owning. Then Nate just happens to be there to save the day. Nate pays Jodido a 'finder's fee' and then Jodido gets to be one of the first in line at the party where Nate breaks the new talent in. I don't even want to think about what that bastard made me do that night that Nate turned me out.”

Caroline was breathing rapidly, nearly hyperventilating and Cassidy had gone pale. “It really could have happened to us, couldn't it?” She asked, her voice small. “If you hadn't stuck your neck out, Lily would have let it happen.”

Andy chuckled an unpleasant chuckle. “Let it happen?” she asked turning back from the window. “She would have been knee deep, right in the middle of it. When the guys had had their first round of fun, they would have wanted some entertainment while they rested up for round two. They would have stood around and watched while she taught you to eat her pussy. It's not about sex for Lily. It's about power. The only thing she hates more than herself is anybody that she thinks has had it better than she has. She thinks of the two of you as rich, white and privileged. A triple threat. She'd just love to be lording over you and be the one making you two hate yourselves like she hates herself. Somehow she thinks it will make her feel better about her situation.”

“When Nate and those men..., when that happened to you..., when it was over..., why didn't you go to the cops? I mean they raped you!” Caroline asserted.

Andy shrugged and sipped from the liquid in her glass before she spoke again. “How was what they did any different from what that cop in Cincinnati was doing to me?” she asked by way of reply. “If I'd gone to the cops they would have found out I was working in a peep and they would have thought I was a whore. Nate would have told them that I'd demanded more money after agreeing to be the entertainment at his little party and that when the guys there wouldn't cough it up I'd cried rape to the cops. I would have likely been the one to get arrested. And when I was back on the street, Nate and his boys would have made sure I paid for ratting them out to the cops.”

“After that Nate 'talked me into' doing porn shoots, on top of working the peeps. Nate made all sorts of promises to me. That he knew people and could make me a star. Believe it or not, if you're working for one of the big production companies, you really are a star. Pretty clothes, big cars, first class hotels, decent money. You don't need a manager. You can run your own show, choose the projects you want to do. The whole diva bit. You can even win an AVN award. That's like an Oscar for the industry. And fans. You have fans,” Andy sighed wistfully. “I took the screen name Angel Noire and started fucking on film.”

Andy glanced out the window for a long moment at the passing scenery, then clutching her drink, she drained the glass before continuing. “Of course three-quarters of everything Nate ever said was total bullshit. Out of all the shoots I did, only five had any kind of plot and I only had speaking parts in three of those five. I never had anything close to a staring role. The real difference from before I was with Nate to after was that I wasn't keeping any of my money that I brought home. Nate claimed that he had expenses. He took everything I made, everything Dougie made and everything Lily made.”

Andy looked down at the table and ran her finger around the water ring her glass had left on the cardboard coaster. Looking up at the girls she nodded and forged ahead. “There's a lot of drugs around the industry. Mostly coke. I started doing lines before filming. It made me feel pumped and creative, like I could rule the world. Once that had started I'd do lines before an audition, or at a party, or just for the hell of it.” She shook her head. “I'm a junkie. You two are going to see that before we get you home because I don't have enough on me to get me through the trip. Day after tomorrow I'll start going into withdrawal. It's going to get pretty ugly before we get to New York. Once I've gotten you home, I know some places I can go. Places that will let me dance. And the girls there will have connections to people that can get me what I need.”

Caroline and Cassidy had listened to Andy's story with rapt attention and a sickened fascination. This woman, who had risked her own safety and left the life she knew behind to save them from what she herself had suffered, sounded so hopeless and matter of fact about her narrative. It was as if what she had described as her life was perfectly routine and simply to be expected. Her due, as it were. It broke Caroline's heart and raised ire in Cassidy at the people that had abused the woman traveling with them.

*****

Nate was seething. Andy had made a fool of him in front of his bros. He had promised his boys a party to end all parties. Identical twins, young stuff, cherry, that the seven of them could do with as they pleased. He had returned to the apartment with six other men to find only Lily in residence. She had been quick to tell Nate what had happened and the bruises on the woman, combined with the evidence of a struggle in the apartment's living room seemed to add credence to her story.

Nate was quick to go into the bedroom he'd been staying in and check his stash of money and drugs. He discovered the broken lock on the file cabinet. Checking the contents he knew that Andy had stolen from him. She had stolen some of his money, all of the drugs he had in the house and the worst thing he could think of. She’d taken his Willie Wonka shining golden ticket to make a name for himself in this industry-she’d stolen the twins.

Lily followed him into the bedroom. “Nate, baby,” she offered, a tremor of fear in her voice. “Andy told me she was taking the train out of town, but a few weeks ago when she was high, she was all bragging that she had a plan if she ever needed to get away. The train thing is a dodge. She said she'd tell someone that she knew would tell you about the train, and while you're at the train station looking for her, she'd be on her way out of town on the bus. She and the girls are headed to the bus station!”

Nate saw red. “That stupid little cunt thinks she can take what's mine and just walk away?!” he growled. The three intended to escape. Nate wasn't about to let that happen. Striding out of the bedroom to face his 'boys' he spoke. “Come on! The gashes are heading for the bus station! If we're quick, the party is still on for tonight!”

The group of men then rushed to the bus station. They searched the waiting area frantically and spoke to the ticket agents demanding to know if anyone matching the description of Andy and the twins had purchased tickets in the last several hours. No one they spoke to could remember any such group of people in the bus station that day.

Jodido was the first to start complaining that they had been promised a party, Some of his other boys were soon echoing the sentiment. Nate knew he needed to save face, but he also needed help. He had to get to the airport and see if Andy hadn't gone there to try and escape him. He thought fast. LAX was both huge and crowded. He'd need eyes and ears when he got there in order to cover enough ground to have a prayer of finding the three runaway women. “Only one bitch at my place right now,” he said. “And she only has three holes. So unless three of you want to stand around with your dicks in your hand, only three of you should go at a time. Go back to my place and tell Lily that I expect her to be particularly nice and accommodating. Tell her that I'll be very disappointed if she's not. The other three of you come with me. I want to find these three bitches. And when we do, you'll get to play with the twins and you'll get to play hard with Andy. Because the girl needs a lesson.”

Within a few minutes Nate's six friends had drawn straws to see who would go back to the apartment first and who would accompany Nate. He hurried the three losers with him into a taxi that they had flagged down in front of the bus station and sped off in search of the runaways.

*****

The first days of their journey across the country were a revelation to the twins. The two girls dressed in the clothes Andy had offered, although they were very self conscious as to what their traveling companion had to offer. Wearing the revealing clothing left them feeling as if their dress was what their mother would have called questionable. They were fairly certain that their friends back home would have simply giggled and said they were dressed like a couple of sluts.

Andy stayed close and acted almost like a momma lioness, scaring off people, mostly men, that seemed to take an interest in two beautiful young girls traveling alone. During each day Andy's mood would slowly deteriorate until she became snappish and the girls now noticed her near constant sniffle. She would, at different points in time, disappear for a time into her sleeper for a short while, then return, her mood suddenly manic. When she was up, she was talkative and willing to share her life experience. The twins found her world a dark and unforgiving place. She had never graduated highschool, never been to a school dance or homecoming, The men she'd dated were all from the periphery of that twilight world of the sex trade. The only person she spoke of with any true affection was the girl she had met on the streets of LA when she was first in town and who had later died of a heroin overdose.

On the second day of the trip, just before they rolled into Chicago to change trains, Andy told them that she had done up the last of her coke and that things were going to get progressively uglier from there on out. Tomorrow she would start to get sick and by the time they reached New York City she'd be in the full throws of withdrawal. She sat them down and tried to prepare them for what was coming. “I'm likely to be agitated, nervous. I won't be able to sleep much. When I do sleep, I'm going to have bad dreams. I may wake up screaming. And I'm going to want some coke more than anything.” She sighed softly. “Want it so bad that I'm likely to get stupid trying to find some. It's a good thing that we'll be on the other train and out of Chicago before that happens. Otherwise I might run off abandoning you two to go looking for a fix.”

“You took care of us Andy,” Caroline started, reaching across where they were seated on the viewing deck of the lounge car and taking Andy's hand in hers.

“So now we'll take care of you,” Cassidy concluded in the uncanny way they had of finishing each other's thoughts and placing a comforting hand on Andy's shoulder.

*****

Andy and the twins had been gone a couple of days and Nate's mood had been nearly unbearable. He was obviously beyond furious and on a very short fuse. Dougie was happy to have a reason to be out of the house most of the time, especially after seeing what kind of shape Lily was in after she'd been the entertainment at a party Nate had thrown for some of his buddies. She had been beaten up until she was bruised all over, with a nasty black eye to boot. She had been used sexually to the point that she was so sore she could barely walk. They'd really slapped her around. Dougie was glad to have not been present. He was spending all of his time entertaining the porn producer that Nate wanted to go into a business arrangement with and his asshole was sore enough, thank-you-very-much.

Dougie felt sorry for Lily, but he was secretly glad that Andy had finally gotten up the courage to leave Nate. Dougie had always known that Andy didn't belong with them. She was better that that. She had dreams. He knew being with Nate was just pulling her down and now, if she could really get away, she'd have a chance at a real life.

To placate his feeling bad for Lily's plight he brought her gifts when he came by the apartment. Ice cream or Popsicles to sooth her sore jaw and the trashy tabloid newspapers and magazines she loved to read. Dougie always figured that those pieces of trash were Lily's favorites because reading the crap written about the people that the paparazzi they employed preyed upon could always make you feel better about yourself no matter what you did for a living.

Dougie handed her the items he'd brought her this time as he passed on the way into his bedroom. He needed to hurry and change clothes as the man that Nate had him schmoozing was taking him clubbing.

*****

Andy and the twins managed to see a little bit of Chicago and experience the impressionistic painting collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, which Caroline had really wanted to see, as well as trying Chicago's famous deep dish pizza during the six hour layover they had between disembarking from the Southwest Chief and boarding the Lake Shore Limited. The group left Chicago in good spirits although the twins were aware of Andy's lack of appetite and her increasingly jittery mood. As the train made its way east, Caroline and Cassidy watched Andy become sicker and sicker. They were aware of her seeming inability to relax and when she did finally manage to drift off to sleep they knew it was troubled. On the second day east of Chicago she pathetically begged Caroline to find her some cocaine. The poignant plea and the hopelessness in Andy's demeanor left Caroline in tears. As the train left the station in Poughkeepsie in New York state Andy took to her bed with such an air of general malaise and depression that the twins were afraid to leave her alone even for a moment. Caroline longed to help the woman who had helped them, but was unsure of how to do so. Cassidy had attempted to get a waiter to bring alcoholic drinks to Andy in the sleeper berths, but the request was refused because of her age and that liquor wasn't technically supposed to leave the dinning car.

*****

At close to midnight, the night before they were due to arrive in Manhattan, Caroline lay, wide awake, in the lower berth of their sleeper, staring up at the bottom of her sister's bunk. “Are you awake?” She whispered to her other-self in the darkness above her.

“Yeah, I'm awake,” Cassidy responded in the same quiet voice. “What's up?” she asked, knowing from their twin bond something was on her sister's mind.

“I'm worried,” Caroline confided, staring up at the shelf her sister slept on. “We're really out-of-our-depth trying to help Andy out. I mean, I don't have any idea how to go about helping somebody get off drugs? Do you?”

Cassidy stuck her head over the side of her berth and looked down at her sister. “People go to rehab,” she offered, doubt in her voice.

“People we know go to rehab,” Caroline answered, her worry clearly evident to her twin. “Rehab costs big bucks. Andy is spending most of what she's got to get us home.” Caroline shook her head. “If we let her go when we get back to Mom, then she told us what she'll do. She'll go find one of those places to dance in and the other druggies there will help her get more drugs.”

Cassidy nodded. “If you've got an idea, Caro, I'm all ears.”

Caroline closed her eyes. “We need to get Mom to help us. We need her to help Andy get off drugs and get a real job. Something she can make a decent living at without having to do what she's been doing. Nobody should have to do that for a living,” she concluded, disgust tinging her tone.

Cassidy looked down at her sister where she lay in repose. “You're kidding, right?” she almost squeaked. “I mean can you imagine the conversation? “Mom, Andy works in a place where she takes off her clothes for dirty-old-men, and works in porn movies. We want you to find her a straight job. Oh, by-the-way, she's also a cocaine addict.” Cassidy shook her head. “If it wasn't for that witch that Dad is screwing we'd have a better chance getting him to help us.”

Caroline nodded and rolled over onto her side and faced the window, watching the passing darkness. “I don't think we can do it on our own, Cass,” she replied sadly. “Our allowances aren't enough to rent an apartment and Andy is going to need to go back to school if she's ever going to do anything real. We're just going to have to convince Mom that Andy needs her help. If we tell her the truth, Mom will see how deserving Andy is of a chance. She'll help us. I'm sure of it!” She closed her eyes, “Goodnight Sis,” she whispered.

“Night, Sis,” Cassidy replied, rolling onto her back and staring at the ceiling of the train car. Sleep was a long time coming as her thoughts ran in circles. She was no where near as certain of her Mother's aid as her sister seemed to be. Yes, Andy had saved them from some real danger, but Andy was also one of what her mother called the 'little people'. Those that weren't the movers and shakers of the moneyed classes. Just another young woman without skills or education. Someone who hadn't pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made something better for themselves. Someone beneath the great Miranda Priestly's notice. Other than being attractive, but not attractive enough to be a model, Cassidy wondered what Andy might have to recommend her to her fashion-editor mother?

Caroline often knew how their mother would react in a given situation, but Cassidy understood how her Mother's mind worked. Her mother would likely hear the twins out upon their return home and then thank Andy politely with a fake smile. Then Miranda would have Andy shown the door. Dark thoughts started to stir in Cassidy's brain. She knew how her Mom thought, so now she questioned how her Mom would handle the situation if is she were in Cassidy's shoes. How would her mother force someone to do what she wanted done? Cassidy smiled into the darkness. Mom believed in the hammer approach. Threats, blackmail, or, if absolutely necessary, bribes, used to bend someone to her will. Cassidy nodded to herself. Now that she had a plan, she could sleep. Today was likely going to be both a long and an emotional day.

*****

It had taken Lily a couple of days to read through the majority of the trashy tabloids that Dougie had brought her. Like most people, she was far more interested in what was occurring in her locality rather than on the other side of the country, so her reading was, at first, Hollywood and California centric. It took her some time to work her way down to the New York news. She was glancing through one of her partially perused tabloids disinterestedly when she felt her breath catch. There, in the middle of the layout was a photograph of the twins at some high end party in New York City. Under the photograph were not only the names Caroline and Cassidy, but their last name, Priestly. Another picture of an imposing white haired beauty, and the name of the girls' mother, Miranda Priestly, Editor-in-Chief of one of the world's major fashion magazines, Runway. This information would put her back in Nate's good graces. With this knowledge, he could go and reclaim what was his. Lily would be the wellspring from which such ability flowed. Nate would be allowed the opportunity for his revenge, and the two little white cunts would come to dance to Lily's tune.

*****

Somehow they made it to their destination, although once off the train and inside Penn station, Andy was immediately ready to part ways and go in search of a fix. Cassidy had to forcefully remind her that she had promised to take them all the way back to their mother. Andy was contrite and guiltily agreed that she had made that promise. She rallied herself and told Caroline to go find them a cab and suggested that Cassidy stay close to keep an eye on her. Cassidy was impressed with Andy's resolve and her evidently strong desire to keep a promise to her and her sister even in the face of adversity. It was not something that the twins had often gotten from the adults in their lives.

In their private discussions between the sisters, Caroline continued to cling tenuously to her opinion that their mother could be counted on to help them in their desire to help Andy. Her sister remained unsure. Their mother had been work obsessed, distant and self-absorbed before they had run-away and now Cassidy was uncertain what they were returning home to. Their mother and they had argued just before the twins had left for their father's about their mother's new boyfriend. For all Cassidy knew her mother might be seriously considering his off-handed proposal of marriage by now. Her mother seemed to have had this weird idea that the twins needed a 'father figure' in their lives. Cassidy didn't feel any such need. All she wanted was some involved adults and perhaps a bit of parental affection.

The teenager had no illusions that their mother was going to be extremely angry with them and unless she and her sister could remain adamant in the face of her anger, which was all but impossible for her two children to do, Cassidy's plans would come to naught. She had now convinced herself that the entire journey to California and all of their adventures and hardships were leading up to bringing Andy back to New York and helping her find a better way to live her life. If she couldn't stand up to her mother's wrath, her mother was likely to try and send Andy away. If that happened, well, to put it simply, all hell was going to break lose.

Entering the cab that Caroline had flagged down, the twins now were on the doorstep of what to do. Having the means at hand at close to seven in the evening, they needed to decide whether to beard their mother in the dragon's den at Runway or to go home and await her arrival at home likely around ten. As Andy climbed into the cab next to the driver Cassidy whispered to her sister. “I don't know how you feel about this, but you need to know where I'm at. I vote we go and face mom in her office. It will give us more leeway if we need to leave.”

“Leave?” Caroline exclaimed, “Cassidy, what are you talking about? We just got home!”

Cassidy looked to the obviously unwell woman in the front seat of the cab and shook her head. “Time to choose, Sis. If mom doesn't agree to take Andy in and help her, I'm going to force her hand. If Andy goes, then I go. I'm going to make that fact perfectly clear to Mom. If it takes stripping on stage or working a peep to make my way, then that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do whatever's necessary to help Andy get clean and to make her life better. You need to decide if you're with me or not, because I don't have any other choice. We owe her and come hell or high water, I'm going to pay that debt. If mom won't help, then I can't stay. Andy put everything on the line for us, now it's our turn.”

Caroline shook her head. “I love you, but mom is going to freak!

Cassidy nodded and turned to stare out the cab window. “Yeah, she is,” she answered. “So you need to know what you're going to do when she does. We won't have time to discuss it then. She'll try to have us stopped so we'll need to move fast.” She paused for a long moment waiting for her sister to digest what she'd said.

Caroline nodded, “You know my answer, Sis,” she replied. “We owe Andy everything, so I'm with you all the way. If mom balks, we run again.”

On to Chapter 3