Dr. Yuma had picked up his phone. It was time to make do on his promise to Ms. Clarke. Dialing the number, the line rang several times. “It's early. Why are you calling me at the ass crack of dawn Yuma?” A gravelly voice grumbled.
Yuma cleared his throat, “I am calling in regard to the young woman Morrigan Clarke your Honor, I’ve made my assessment of Ms. Clarke and have put through the paperwork but felt as though I should inform you ahead of time given how long it takes to go up the mailing chain.”
“Good, and what would your disposition?” the judge spoke with annoyed curiosity.
Yuma nodded to himself, “well as of 13:00 Saturday, I have released Morrigan Emery Clarke from my consul under the successful passing of all assessments I could…”
“Excuse me, what?”
“Your Honor, Ms. Clarke has demonstrated exceptional control over her emotions, as well as given no evidence of ill-will towards state, government or any figures of authority for that matter. Therefore, I have deemed her both socially and psychologically healthy,” Yuma stated firmly.
There was a paused on the other line. “Dr. Yuma, you do know this girl committed a double homicide, one of those deaths being that of a Denver police officer and assaulted several others as well as a distinct history of violence and anti-mage rhetoric, correct?”
Dr. Yuma did his best to maintain his composure, he did not want them to know he knew her version, which was far more believable than the reports he had received. “Yes, I read the report thoroughly.”
“And you believe I let this cop killer go free?” the judge asked pointedly.
Yuma swallowed hard, trying to think of the best way to move forward. “I was thinking more like opening a deeper investigation as to what happened that night, I had made it known to her that we should continue sessions which she accepted, therefore the court and I can—”
“That will be enough Dr. Yuma,” the judge said sharply.
Yuma shut his mouth fast enough to make his teeth click. “Your services will no longer be required, if you're inclined to set a cop killer free in my city then I will have to handle Ms. Clarke another way,” the judge stated.
“Your Honor?”
“None of your concern and you'll do best to eliminate all contact with the Clarke family. If I find out you’ve been in contact with them after this conversation, there will be severe charges brought against you, and as for that alien girl you have working for you…” the judge left the statement hanging to emphasize the length of the consequences he had in mind.
Yuma swallowed dryly, “understood your Honor.”
With that the call ended with a hollow click of the line. “Shit. What have I done?” he asked himself.
Mo’Emori entered his office with his morning coffee. Immediately she could see the worried expression on his face. “Is everything alright Mr. Yuma?” she asked as she set his coffee on his desk.
He looked up at the bright-eyed receptionist. He gestured to a chair, “please. Sit.”
The way she frowned at him was the tell-tale sign that she knew bad news was coming. He sighed, “it seems I may have done more harm than good in regard to Ms. Clarke…”
Mo’Emori blinked several times, cocking her head sideways in a way that would have been adorable if the topic were not so grim. “How so?” she asked.
“It seems the judge was not happy with my decision to release her. Nor did he seem to accept anything I had to say. Claimed he would ‘handle her another way'.” He tried to rub the stress from his eyes. “He also painted a big target on our backs, you especially, if we say a word about this to the Clarke family,” he summarized.
Her eyes narrowed at him in a contemplating manner, “how do you want to handle this then?”
The truth was he had no idea. He felt responsible and more so the need to keep Morrigan Clarke out of the judge’s grasp. The biggest problem was he had no idea what it was the judge had planned. The woman was a fighter, that much was given, and she would not go down without a fight. It seemed like he had no options, especially since he could not contact her father. It was her father after all that fought tooth and nail to keep her out of the penal system and used every trick in the book to circumvent the court until they were forced to concede to a self defense plea and momentary probation on the stipulation she could pass an emotional and psychological assessment. Upon completion the self defense plea would be ruled as a ‘situationally just homicide' and her probation would be dropped.
“I guess we should move on with Oscar Wilson Two following a Beta Upsilon Forty-Five.”
She furrowed her eyebrows in concern, “are you sure that’s the route you want to follow boss?” she inquired.
Breathing a heavy sigh as he mulled it over in his head one last time, he nodded. “See to it,” he ordered.
Accepting his answer she stood, “understood. I’ll get started right away,” she said as she made for the door and exited his office.
ΩΩΩ
Morrigan woke up to her alarm that following Monday morning. She slapped it repeatedly with a frustrated groan, abruptly ending the droning sound. She winced as she tried to sit up, still sore from the night before. She had zero desire to get out of bed, much less go to school. Only three more days, she told herself as she removed the blankets. Moving hurt, standing hurt, and putting pants on would hurt. It was going to be one long day for her.
Her set of D.S.T.U. armor caught her eye as it sat over her computer chair, she could not help but smile. All the pain she was in was well worth it.
She dug into her closet and found one of very few dresses she owned. She was never one to wear them, always opting for more of a tom-boy aesthetic. Grabbing a dark blue dress that would hug her frame and highlight what curves she had, she shrugged. “At least I'll will look nice for Taylor for a change,” she thought. After she got dressed and tamed her hair, she grabbed her backpack and made her way downstairs muttering silent curses with each step.
Both her parents were awake and livelier than she was. “Good morning sweetheart! Oh, look at you!” her mother hugged her tightly. Morrigan winced as she hugged her mother back, the pain in her ribs was at least less than her hip. Her father started laughing quietly as he filled a cup of coffee and slide it across the island, “sore huh?”
Morrigan grimaced as she sat on a stool and took a sip of the black brew, “Like. All. Fucking. Hell,” she forcefully enunciated.
“Language young lady!” her mother chided as she poked her daughter in the free arm. Morrigan rolling her eyes.
Even her father chuffed at that, “you know, I think she earned the right to say that last night.”
Helen smiled, “is that so?”
Morrigan nodded with a mouth full of coffee as she passed the cup back to her father for a refill, which made him laugh out loud.
“Yup! Even have the pain and bruises to prove it.” She said slightly proud of herself.
Coffee got passed over again as she took a massive burning drink. Morrigan considered it necessary hedonistic torture. “See, she even drinks coffee like an officer now,” her father said as he drank coffee himself.
“So, the team is basically a bunch of masochists then?” she grinned over her cup thinking she could trap him.
He shrugged, “basically.”
Both Helen and Morrigan shook their head as Helen moved to the other side of the island to join her husband. She placed a hand on James’s back, “well, at least your father is.”
James backed away from the island as Morrigan choked on her coffee, luckily catching everything back in her cup and coughed painfully as the muscles in her ribs spasmed. “Eww!” she forced out between coughs as her mother cracked up.
“Fuck my life, this is how I die! Drowning in bean juice while the last thing I hear is a gross fact about my dad,” she complained as she held her side and began laughing.
For the first time that she can recall, she saw her father’s face turn red and she savored every second of it as he awkwardly drank the rest of his coffee, she may not have been the direct cause of his embarrassment, but she would take it regardless.
An amused silence fell upon the three of them until Morrigan sighed in delight. “Thank you though,” staring into her reflection in her coffee. “As weird as it is to consider a thoughtful birthday present is taking your 19-year-old daughter to a training session for elite police officers, which is very weird by the way…” She looked up at her parents and smiled deeply. “But I had a lot of fun yesterday, and it made me realize how many things I miss dearly, especially your team of weirdos Dad.”
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Both her parents smiled as her father leaned forward, “well they definitely missed you too, you should’ve heard of all the praise Santiago and Simmons gave you at the bar last night.”
Morrigan grinned, though she believed she would have been teased non-stop all night if she had gone out with them. That was a level of embarrassment she did not have the energy for. She would not admit it out loud but she missed Jennifer Simmons the most. All her life she only had her mother as a female role model until her father joined the D.S.T.U. then she was introduced to the outspoken bad ass that was Simmons.
Helen leaned forward, “and you make it sound like we’re not weird.”
Morrigan laughed, “oh I think you just proved that Mom, no normal parent discloses their bedroom habits with their daughter.”
Helen reached across the island to poke her daughter’s nose as Morrigan pretended to try and bite her finger, “and you get your weirdness from us missy.”
Morrigan stuck her tongue out as a horn honked. Taylor was there to pick her up; there was a perk to having a boyfriend after all. She waved her parents goodbye as she grabbed her bag and made for the door.
Her parents taught her to drive however, the sacrifice to living in a better neighborhood was that they could only afford her father’s truck. It was a blessing that her mother was able to work from home after the government set up cyber security at their house. Normally her father was off to work before she even woke up. That meant she had to walk or take public transport to school until she started dating Taylor. Since then, he had been there to drive to school together.
She smiled brightly as she saw his old pickup truck in her driveway, especially when she caught him lower his sunglasses to get a better look at her in her outfit.
As she got in the truck, setting her bag on the floorboard and leaning in for a kiss Taylor inquired, “what’s the special occasion?”
“The special occasion is taking two tags in areas that aren’t meant to be hit with high velocity rubber bullets,” she sneered. Which only earned her a look of confusion as he backed out of the driveway.
She shook her head in disappointment, “long story short, it hurt too much to squeeze into pants.”
Taylor nodded as it made sense, though he never saw the bruise on her hip and ribs, he could imagine how that would complicate getting dressed. His nod turned thoughtful, “well even though I always tell you how beautiful you are, I have to say you do look even more gorgeous when you do decide to dress up,” he said.
She gave him a sideways glance and smirked, “oh? What would you do if I ever started wearing makeup?”
He spent a moment thinking, “well, I think the list would be significantly shorter if it was ‘what would I not do',” he retorted, earning him a sharp smack on the leg as she laughed and smiled. It was a purposeful lie, Morrigan knew her boyfriend hated the concept of makeup, believing beauty is natural rather than fabricated. At least when it came to people.
Falling into a comfortable silence, they made their way to their high school.
Morrigan had no desire to be back at the school, glaring at everything and everyone especially the mages who walked from their private cars that their rich mommies and daddies bought for them. Taylor opened the door for her as the gentleman he was and took her hand in his. Together they walked towards the school entrance that was packed with teenage mages and magic-less students. The closer they got the tighter her grip got on his finger which he took notice.
He leaned down to her ear, “don’t worry it’s only three more days hun.”
She did her best to relax, “I know… a very long three days.”
He smiled, “well I was thinking about that, how about on our day off before graduation we head out to the Rockies and do some hiking?”
“You know, right now my body is telling me no, but yes I’d definitely like to go hiking, my body will just have to get over it,” she said grinning. Morrigan loved adventure, and anything away from the city and people was a good idea in her book.
Her first class was physics, which was something she decent at. Though a lot of that had to do with her father teaching her long distance shooting, even if she did miss her shot in round one yesterday. She chalked that up to being forgetfully nervous.
That class was followed by two more excessively boring classes: English and Chemistry.
She did happen to notice several guys in her classes staring at her, mages and magic-less alike. That was the second notch in her annoyance that day. Everyone knew her and Taylor were dating and just because she wore a dress for perhaps the second time in all of four years of high school did not mean she was available or desired to be eye-fucked, as she liked to put it.
The only highlight to her following creative writing class was that Taylor was in it. At least there she got to spend the whole time eye-fucking him because, well, she was allowed to. It honestly made her more excited for their hiking trip, to be alone with him and no humans around for miles. Except for the occasional fellow hiker of course. She daydreamed of laughing and rock climbing, kicking dust into his face as they raced to the top of some rock face they climbed.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end in some degree, she thought as the school bell rang signifying that class period was over. She said her temporary farewell to Taylor as he made off to his athletics class, another class she wished she had with him. However, it was lunch time for her as she made her way to the cafeteria.
She grabbed her food and found an empty table to occupy herself. She did nothing but radiate hostility when surrounded by that many students. Even though she was kinder to magic-less, she did not care for humans as a whole, only the idea of humanity if it ever truly existed. The truth was, if mages could rise to power and play the dominate sub-race, magic-less should fight for equality or even superiority in sheer numbers. Between the multiple planets humanity occupied, magic-less outnumbered the mages 1,000 to 1, and yet, the magic-less are simply okay with rolling over and accepting their role as the lesser part of their species.
Maybe one day she would change that, be the beacon of hope that the majority of humanity really needed to stand up against their oppressors. However, she was only 19, soon to be fresh out of high school, humanity would have to wait and preferably, leave her alone.
Problem was humanity never truly left her alone. She spotted Thomas Larson, obviously skipping class, entering the cafeteria. He too noticed her and approached her with a shit eating grin on his face. She kept her head down muttering silent curses as he made his way to her table.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Morrigan Clarke sitting all by her lonesome,” he declared.
“Piss off Tommy,” she growled as she stared down at her food. He let out a thoughtful hum.
She had seen him levitate himself around the table. She nearly jumped as his hand appeared next to her, instead she looked forward sharply, realizing he was standing right behind her. He got close to her ear, “what a lovely dress you’re wearing,” he said through a cocky grin.
She lowered her head enough to make sure he couldn't see down the front of her dress, her hidden hand curled into a tight fist that had her nails digging into her skin. “I told you to fuck off.”
He leaned forward enough for her to feel his breath on her neck, “funny, we all know you’re on probation, which makes you less threatening without that big meat head of yours to protect—”
She cut him off by elbowing him in the chin. The sound of his teeth snapping shut was music to her ears as she wrapped her arm over him. Digging her thumb nail into the soft spot behind his ear, she used the rest of her hand to slam his face into the table, holding him there.
Her voice had a predatory tone in his ear, “jokes on you worm. I got released two days ago. As much of a gentleman Taylor may be, he knows damn well I don’t need him to defend me,” she said baring her teeth and pressing his head down harder. There was a wet suction noise has blood began to pool under his face, his nose obviously broken. Her smile became sinister. “Now listen here dickhead, if you so much as look in my direction, speak a word about me or about this lovely chat we’re having, I will hunt your pseudo-superior ass down, break more bones in your body than you can count and make you the third notch in my tally. Is that understood?”
All he could do was cough blood before nodding. “Good,” as she shoved him away from her, smearing the pool of blood on the table. The young mage quickly got off his ass and onto his feet clutching his face as blood began pouring and ran out of the cafeteria.
She looked at the table and grabbed as many napkins as she could from the dispenser in the middle and started cleaning up the blood.
Feeling eyes watching her, she looked up to see over half the cafeteria watching her, but as soon as they met her gaze they returned to whatever conversations they were having. It seemed no one’s curiosity was worth inquiring on that confrontation.
She managed to get most of the blood that had spilt before returning to her food. She could hear nervous footsteps ahead and looked up to see Todd Brogan, the young 16 year old magic-less who was cornered by Larson and two others the week before. “I-I just wanted to say th–thank you beating up Tommy,” he stammered out nervously holding his tray of food.
She gave him a curious once over as she rinsed her hands off with a bottle of water onto the floor. “Don’t mention it, literally. I just got off probation,” she said dryly before it dawned on her that the young man was not just timid, but by the wide eyes he looked at her with, he was terrified of her. She decided some changes could be made now. “Go on and have a seat,” she said gesturing to one of the connected stools.
“Are-are you sure?” he asked meekly.
“Of course,” she smiled as warmly as she could, coming down from the adrenaline high she was on. He sat down and began eating. She grabbed her fork and returned to her food, “go on, tell me about yourself Todd.”
There they sat and told meaningless stories about themselves for the remainder of lunch. She supposed it was not meaningless, though it did not mean a lot to her, but it meant the world to Todd to be interacting positively with someone strong enough to push back when pushed against.
After lunch she had her health class, which she found strange to have a class that showed various diseases and grotesque images right after kids just ate, but luckily, she was not squeamish. She however, had forgotten that the last lesson of the year was a short course about sex and pregnancy. Her face burned red the moment her teacher mentioned anything involving getting pregnant. She silently cursed her father for that semi-serious joke he made the previous morning.
Her thoughts kept drifting to Taylor who was thankfully not in this class of hers. What would their kids look like? Did he even want children? Did she?
She drove a finger into the bruise on her hip to drown out all the questions she was not ready to answer and did her best to tune out the teacher as students snickered and giggled throughout class.
The rest of her day went by uneventful. Morrigan stood out by Taylor’s truck waiting while all the mage kids took off in their cars and magic-less students piled on public transport. “Only two more days,” she told herself.
Taylor saw Morrigan waiting as the students thinned out, he broke away from the small crowd of friends that had gathered so he did not keep her waiting long. She would not get mad at him though; she may not have had friends, but she knew he did and was perfectly okay with him spending time with them. It was a conversation she started almost every day for the first six months of their relationship. By the incredulous look she was giving him, after almost three years, she still found it hard to believe she was more important in his world.
She hugged him and gave him a kiss before climbing into his truck. As he pulled out of the parking lot, he looked to her and asked, “how did your day go?”
She looked out the window to hide her blushing, health class still wandering her mind. “Well, I broke Tommy Larson’s nose,” she stated.
“You did what?” he exclaimed.
She smiled and laughed a little, “pretty sure I chipped one of his teeth too.”
He scratched his head as he watched the road, “can’t even go eight hours huh babe?”
Morrigan shrugged, she knew he was not really scolding her, Taylor knew how much of an asshole the kid was, “well, the douchebag thought it was a wise idea to target me because you weren’t around. Little did he know I earned my freedom back and took every liberty of reminding him that I am not one to fuck with. The fucking creep.” Taylor nodded, “I’m sure he won’t forget.” She concurred. She wanted to bring up health class and her father’s terrible joke, but she was too scared to, of all things to be afraid of. That was okay by her though, she had plenty of time to overcome that fear.