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unfinished business; Bad Girls / Judge John Deed trilogy
Topic Started: Jun 22 2008, 10:39 AM (19,820 Views)
emtsue
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G3 Curtain and Duvet!
:clap Richard ,once again you have made me feel as though I am a part of all the characters lives,and that's no easy task.
John so deserves the satisfaction he's feeling, professionally speaking.With great strength he's been able to hold fast to his morals and ethics concerning the ever corruptable justice system. He's also had the added fringe benefit of taking Neil Haughton down quite a few pegs!! As for his personal/love life, I have to say I'm feeling a bit sorry for him. I fear once he finds out about George and Alice he's going to have a much more difficult time reconciling his emotions,pride, and male ego.
I must say seeing Trisha and Sallyanne move foward in love and business,after everything they've been through,does my heart good!But I do find it quite ironic that Sallyanne feels so at "home" at Chix,Knowing that this is where the whole mess started!! I suppose it all depends on which direction you're coming from.Nice turn Richard!
As for Helen and Nikki, if ever there was a relationship that could have gone down in flames it's this one!! It is a testament to their strength of mind,courage, and most certainly their love and commitment to each other,that they'll have an exciting(albight bumps in the road) future together.
Thank you again for weaving us a wonderful tale.
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Emms
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G2 landing
I second Axiegirl21--this was a very sweet update and a very satisfying read. It seems Sally-Anne and Trisha are doing well as are our girls Nikki and Helen…which makes me wonder what kind of drama you’ve got in store for us...err I mean them. :girlygiggle
I registered at G Wing and all I got was this lousy tshirt.

“After my time at Larkhall, I deserve to take it easy for a long, long while. I’ve been there, done it, and worn the bloody T-shirt..."~ Helen in: Unfinished Business by Richard

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richard
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I really love all this feedback which reflects so well on all of you in different ways.
To you, Axiegirl21, you really get the flavour of how all the characters are evolving .
To you, Emtsue, you really capture John's situation so perfectly which I shall be coming onto without giving too much awayand I love your comment about Sally Anne. You capture the spirit of optimism and faith so perfectly that I find myself doing a double take on the situation as reflected back to me from all of you.
To you, Emms, I just love your final words that the drama for the characters is also that for the reader.
There is plenty to come.
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Andliv2laf
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G2 landing
Richard, I totally agree with the others, your update was wonderful! You are leaving an open field as to what might be around the corner. You are a great story teller and I am so happy you are sharing your talent with us! Keep up the great work! :tumbup
AND
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richard
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This is really nice of you, andliv2laf. It's really strange in writing so far ahead that I conceive of the fic as an 'interior cinema film' inside my head and it is really great that these fics have meant this much to readers like yourself.

I get a little worried at times in case I inadvertantly overlook a character or two which is very easy and try and focus equally on them which really demands concentration.

What is interesting is that I'm starting to tinker with a fourth in the series and your point about John, emtsue, has started to get me seriously thinking about an interesting plotline. The sort of 'in depth' feedback really does help inspire thoughts besides being lovely in itself.
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hopelessromantic
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Have the lab run a CBC with differential an a chem pro plus stat
Great Update Richard. I must say that I'm extremely please to see the quality of feedback that you are finally receiving here, it's long overdue as often times many read and don't bestow a common courtesy.
In all it’s the polite thing to do, especially after someone has taken the time to share something freely. Being polite is an easy gesture that takes little effort.

Your writing is wordy of all the praises you've received and I know this will inspire you too write even more. Thankyou always ....you've got such an inventive turn of mind.

HR
>>>>>> BGEnhanced <<<<<<

One cannot expect Congeniality when one does not exhibit Courtesy, Politenes and Impartiality.

Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart... Henry Clay
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richard
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Aaah, how sweet your praise is, HR, especially in terms of inventiveness which is something that I've admired in your work. And yes, this sort of thoughtful praise certainly feels good and will inspire me to keep on with my writing.
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hopelessromantic
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Have the lab run a CBC with differential an a chem pro plus stat
Long overdue praises Richard. I've followed your writing for quite sometime prior joining this board and you're one of those writers that write BG and JJD obviously for the love of the characters as well as the art and I admire anyone who takes the time to continue to write and share selflessly.

There's a lot of slighting round these parts and folks make loads of excuses. Simply put...many folks aren't considerate unless it's to their own interest. There's a saying that if everyone was to windowshop then there'd be liquidation sales in abundances.

Keep writing you do it very well. Such quality of writing is what many strive for.

Cheers
HR
>>>>>> BGEnhanced <<<<<<

One cannot expect Congeniality when one does not exhibit Courtesy, Politenes and Impartiality.

Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart... Henry Clay
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Andliv2laf
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G2 landing
HR very well said, thank you for expressing that! A lot of us feel that way we just can't express it as well as you do!! Hats off to you both!! :girlygiggle
AND
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richard
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that's really lovely of you both, andliv2laf and HR. At this point I have a confession to make as this next part switches the storyline quite dramatically. HR's very effective patented plot device is 'keep them guessing.' I've sort of borrowed that but not given any warning. In posting this part, I must give specific credit to shed as I have borrowed their storyline in late Series 5 as you will see but only as a device to know where to follow their line , depart from it and criss cross back and forth.
Enjoy.



......................................................................................................................


Scene Six

All the odds were stacked against such a contrastingly dramatic conjunction of events that Helen and Nikki stumbled into by sheer accident. Here they were, in Helen’s red Peugeot driving around in the dark. They had taken the wrong turn on their way home after the meal at a restaurant and had landed up in an unfamiliar featureless part of London. They could easily, have gone another night or stayed in to cook a meal in as they were more often likely to do. So much that was to happen stemmed from such trivial origins.

The two women puzzled over that strange disjointed territory that they were passing through, where smatterings of old Victorian terraced houses, railway bridges which trains thundered over and modern singles flats built over signed and sealed resident’s car parks.

“Know where you’re going, Helen?” the dark haired woman asked mildly as they drove along one badly lit street after another.
“If my memory serves me right, we go over the crossroads and fork right. I haven’t been this way for ages,” came her attempt at certainty in the smaller woman’s reply.
“So we’re lost, I guess.”
“Trust my instincts, Nikki,” Helen grinned wryly, admitting in a shame faced fashion.” In any way, this place looks like the back of beyond. It’s so featureless.”
Nikki calmly reached forwards to flip open the compartment and pick up the A – Z map of London streets. It looked like they would need it for when the first indication came of what road they were on. Everywhere around them was dark, and desolate. In the meantime, she strained her eyes to try and make sense of the world about them. It looked pretty futile but the two women kept calm. As the crossroads didn’t help out very much and gave little of the area’s secrets, Helen sighed and pinned her hopes to the T-junction that she thought was coming up ahead. The two women smiled at each other. This situation was no big deal to either of them. It was a situation that the two of them would be able to resolve sooner or later, if only the unspoken reserve option of finding someone to ask the way. They each had confidence in each other and in the purring sound from under the bonnet of their Peugeot.

Helen’s sharp eyes spotted a closely placed street lights crossing their path which announced the junction she was nearly almost certain they would be coming to.
“See what I told you? I think we go right here,” she grinned.
“Take it slowly so I can spot the road sign if there is one,” Nikki answered in her easy tone of voice.

The junction they approached was totally bare of everything and at the same time, the illumination took them out of the near total darkness that they had felt their way through. As their car approached the junction, the sounds of a car being driven at speed caught their ears and pretty soon, they saw a sleek green convertible. It wasn’t quite as close to the junction intersection as they were and Helen felt safe in making ready to swing onto the main road ahead of the other car.
“Jesus Christ, he’s accelerating,” Nikki shouted, urgently. In a split second, Helen changed her plans and hit the brakes, letting the other car flash ahead of her. Tight lipped with anger, she swung in after the other car, ratcheted the car up the gears and shot after the rogue driver.
“That car looks like Karen’s,” Nikki observed idly
“It is Karen’s car,” spat out Helen. “That’s her registration number. Her driving hasn’t improved any.”
Nikki hadn’t seen Helen so determined behind the wheel since she had driven Nikki, dressed in her borrowed nurse’s uniform, back to Larkhall after they’d first spent the night- or part of a night- together at their flat. That memory underpinned her present nervousness about the present and compelled her to give voice.
“Helen, you surely can’t do a citizen’s arrest. Just let the idiot get pulled up by the police rather than risk the same happening to us.”
“Can’t I? Just watch me.”
“I don’t get it. If that is Karen, why is she driving like a lunatic? She’s swerving all over the road and doing her best to attract attention.”
Nikki’s questioning tone of voice struck a chord in that background part of Helen’s mind that wasn’t absorbed by her quest. The here and now was frustrated by the fact that she wasn’t cutting down the lead that the green sports car had over her. Karen must be driving like a woman possessed.

Suddenly, the green sports car veered off left down a side street with a screech of tyres and in no time at all, the lights of civilization came into view. Karen’s car swung right round the corner and, tyres screeching tore down the street, a woman pedestrian recoiling at the reckless driving and shouting her complaint. Mentally apologizing to them all, Helen shot after the green car, past a row of terraced houses and swung the steering wheel, as she turned sharp left and then right onto a major road.
“Jesus, Helen, you’ll never catch up with that maniac. Let’s face it, you’re far too sane a driver to compete with that headcase.”
“Why make all that bloody noise? This isn’t like her. I’ve worked with her for God’s sake. Does she want to end up in trouble?”

At last, Helen began to eat up the gap between the two cars and she could glimpse the driver’s unmistakable long fair slightly curly mane of hair. They were approaching a more built up area, the civilization they had craved and could see more late night takeaways and pubs and a small group of people on the pavement and one man standing on the edge of the group in the road. Surely, Karen ought to slow down and carefully swing past them? Helen knew that Karen’s only weakness was summed up in two words, Jim Fenner, and he had since exploited and dumped her. She should know better.

“Jesus,” Nikki exclaimed in horror, vocalizing her own feelings. Helen’s nerves felt as if they were standing out on stalks on her skin as the green sports car showed no signs of slowing but drifted into the left and straight at the man who was paralyzed to the ground in shock. The car careered forward right at the man with an impact that both women felt through their bones and he rolled over the bonnet onto the ground the other side. Karen’s car hesitated just that fraction of a second, then accelerated off down the road, screeched round the corner and was gone.
“Stop the car, Helen. We’ve got to get out and help.”
Helen lifted her foot off the accelerator and brought her car to a stop. Both knew that somehow they should put their own concerns on hold and help out as best they could.

Helen grabbed her handbag and a shawl to go round her shoulders and locked the car. The two women made their way with great determination to the scene of the accident. As they reached the fringes of the crowd, Nikki asked the nearest person in her politest manner, clutching her London A – Z map in her hand.
“I know it sounds like a silly question but exactly where are we?”
The man wearing a workman’s jacket and jeans looked with disdain at this elegant posh woman and pegged her as a typical Sloane Ranger type, except for her short hair, obviously an educated type, never seen the tough side of life that the decline of London’s docklands had brought about. He reeled off a list of directions that Nikki’s quick mind placed them in what was left of traditional London docklands outside the yuppifying effect of Canary Wharf.
A crowd of people gathered round with helpless sympathy at the man who was laid out flat on the ground. A middle-aged man wearing a brown coat had immediately assumed the role of nurse and knelt down to tend for him. The mood was a mingled one of shock and anger.
“Were you involved with that maniac? I saw you driving after her,” an accusing voice greeted them.
“Not if we can help it,” Nikki said shortly.
“Has anyone phoned the police and ambulance because if not, I’ve got a mobile phone,” Helen’s carrying voice cut through the air.
“Better make it the police as well.”
“I’m onto that.”
The man who was tending to the fallen man shook his head in a significant manner and a low murmur of anger rippled round the crowd. Helen took her mobile phone and crisply rattled out the request, helped by Nikki’s directions.

“She didn’t have to do that. She could have driven down the road like any normal decent person,” muttered a middle aged woman who summed up the general feelings accurately.
“You look as if you were chasing after the car?” asked a man who was carrying a crash helmet.
Both Helen and Nikki knew that question was coming and they immediately felt uncomfortable. Nikki was the first to figure out an answer, which had the simple advantage of being the truth.
“Yeah well, the driver cut right in front of us at a T junction and nearly caused an accident. We wanted to catch up with that headcase and give him a piece of our mind only that sports car was too fast for our Peugeot.”
“So you thought you’d do a citizen’s arrest or something like that.”
“Helen here used to be Governor at Larkhall Prison. Old habits die hard.”
Nikki’s quiet pointed words made the slightly suspicious and hostile questioners back off. They suddenly put two and two together and realized why Helen could take control of a situation. They had been deceived by her very feminine appearance. The notion of running a prison carried a lot of machismo in this neck of the woods and Nikki traded on it as much as she deployed her reputation of lesbian cop killer amongst the tougher inmates of Larkhall. Out here, she was just another respectable citizen, more upmarket than the rest of the crowd.
“Look here everyone, we’ve only been out for a meal and got lost on the way home, out in the middle of nowhere. Now this tragedy’s happened, we only want to stay and help in any way,” added Nikki in her most reasonable tones while Helen maintained her stern expression so as to sustain her act.
Murmurs of assent showed that the atmosphere eased a bit. In the stillness of the night the crowd stated to talk in little groups amongst themselves as they waited for the police to turn up. Helen gave a sideways nod to indicate to Nikki that she wanted to talk privately. She leaned up against the wall of the Chinese takeaway and started to explain the concerns that were starting to crowd her mind.

“You know we’ll have to stay for the police and give statements to the police. We are likely to be the principle witnesses, like it or not. ”
“Yeah,” Nikki said nervously, flipping open a cigarette packet and lighting up. The thought of renewed contact with the police in general was starting to make her feel nervous.” They’ll really welcome me coming back into their lives.”
“Be reasonable, Nikki. They have other things to do than remember old grudges. In any case, they might not remember you. You’re a public-spirited citizen… remember that. We could have buggered off like any other selfish sod but we’re staying to help out. What worries me is that we’re going to have to point the finger at Karen when I don’t know what the hell’s been going on. Has she flipped for some reason we don’t know?”
“Other people on the street might have clocked the registration number. Let’s face it, the make and style of that car is pretty distinctive.”
“Now you’re talking, Nikki,” Helen said softly, smiling more freely, seeing Nikki’s considerable reasoning power kick into gear.
“I guess we’ll have to play the situation with a straight bat. That’s one of my dad’s favourite expressions that I thought pretty naff but now I think of things, it’s been my guiding principle.”
As Nikki turned up her jacket collar as she felt the chill night air, Helen surreptitiously squeezed her lover’s friend affectionately. They were feeling more centred and ready to face events, whatever they might be.






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emtsue
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Brilliant Richard!! Seems as those two will forever be linked to Larkhall and the metropolitan police dept.Why do I have the feeling that being up standing citizens is going to cause them more troubled and difficult times!! Christ Almighty, will they ever catch a break?!Not only that,If it was Karen driving, they'll most likely be in a catch-22. Meaning , do they help the police or Karen?
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Andliv2laf
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G2 landing
OK Richard, we already think you are wonderful...how many characters are you going to include in this epic of yours??? This is great as always, and I can't wait to see where this little thread leads!!! I'll be waiting patiently for more!!!! :rolleyes:
AND
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Axiegirl21
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Out of Dorm
Hmm so is it may or may not be Fenner behind the wheel then. :rolleyes: You keeps us all on our toes Richard that I'm not taking anything for granted. Thanks for another great chapter :clap
The past is history.
The future a mystery.
And now is a gift thats why we call the present.



Larkhall Lovelies Rule
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richard
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This is extraordinary to read the fascinating perceptions on this scene which add something to the piece. :)
To you, andliv2laf, you have hit the nail on the head on how the cast of characters is expanding.
To you, Axiegirl21, you have brought out that sense of ambiguity in the scene so well.
To you, emtsue, you have captured so well helen and nikki's dilemma and, once again, the police are dogging their footsteps.
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hopelessromantic
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Have the lab run a CBC with differential an a chem pro plus stat
Nice Twister of a Scene Richard. This fic just gets more grasping as the Scenes unvail...I just love it that Nikki and Helen's characters are just so awesomely written. You do such a wonderful job narrating.

Cheers
HR
>>>>>> BGEnhanced <<<<<<

One cannot expect Congeniality when one does not exhibit Courtesy, Politenes and Impartiality.

Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart... Henry Clay
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