The Hedge Pt. 04

"I've just had a thought, I need to do some research when we get home that might help" but Aaron wouldn't say any more about it but disappeared into the study to use the computer when they got home.

An hour later he found the women sitting and talking in the lounge.

"Come and see this!" and they followed him back to the study, "Sit down and watch those two videos I-cee."

She watched a martial arts film in which a man used two sticks to defend himself against an attacker with a knife, the second one showed two men using the sticks or batons to spar. They were obviously experts because they attacked and defended at such speed, then the film was showed in slow motion so the viewer could see the actual moves.

"Do you think you could do that with your sticks?"

"Not as fast as that and the handle part would be awkward but the technique would help and an attacker would not expect it."

"Good, because I've ordered two new walking sticks for you to practice with and I'll get a broom handle to cut in half to use against you, Vicky can have a go too."

On Tuesday night Sharon arrived at Ashley's house and was welcomed by the girl and her mother, who had only been told that her daughter had wanted to discuss something important with her and wanted Sharon to be there. Pam made them drinks and they sat in the lounge to talk.

"Is tea okay with you Sharon or do I need to get us stiffer drinks?" she asked, smiling.

"Tea is fine for me thank you and anyway I'm driving" Sharon replied.

"Mum..." Ashley started and the look on her face showed Pam that this was going to be serious. "It's about Baxter!"

"I guessed that this subject would be coming up at some point but I don't really think that he's..."

"I lied to you Mum, he raped me and the Lane brothers raped Annie Dickens!" Ashley said firmly.

WHAT!!" Pam cried, her face going paler than normal, almost grey with shock.

Ashley repeated it, tears flowing.

"Where... when and why the fuck didn't you tell me!!" her mother almost shouted.

Ashley explained that she started to but was so ashamed that she changed to story so her mother would not get mad or upset with her.

"Ohh you poor child, if only you had told me we could have put the bastards away for years and poor little Annie killed herself and no one seemed to know why... please tell me what really happened."

She sat next to her daughter with her arm around her and Sharon sat on the other side holding one hand and handing out tissues to both of them to mop their eyes. It took over twenty minutes for the girl to relate the events of the day, with plenty of stops for all of them to use more tissues.

"BASTARD! BASTARD! BASTARD!" Pam shouted, not worried what the neighbours might think, "If I see him I'll cut his meat and veg off and stamp on them. I'll go to the police and he'll get done for child rape and ordering his mates to do the same to the other girl!"

"I'd like to do the same Pam but unfortunately there's no evidence and it's Ashley's word against his, the other girl and the two boys are all dead. Maybe if Annie's family would confirm what Ashley has told us it might make a difference but if you accuse him he will probably come looking for both of you, he might even come looking for her anyway, when he gets out in a few months' time" Sharon explained quietly.

"What the hell can we do about it?" Pam asked, calming down a little.

"I thought I'd move to a different town or city and get a job there, maybe change my name, I'm saving up for driving lessons and a car, Sharon is going to take me out in hers when my licence arrives, Mum but I couldn't give you my name and address" Ashley added.

"How would I contact you or see you?" Pam cried, now crying too.

"You would have to go through us as we would have those details" Sharon explained.

"Thank you Sharon, you have been like an Auntie to her and thank your friends for teaching her to defend herself, I appreciate it."

"Both Aaron and Vicky have had run-ins with Baxter in the past too and will do anything they can to help you both" Sharon told her.

"I'll make enquiries to see if the Dickens family still live around here or whether they moved away and Ashley can let you know, maybe before she goes to your friend's party this weekend."

"Thank you Pam; that might help" Sharon said and stood up to go.

Pam stood up too and hugged her for some time, then released her.

"Thank you again Sharon."

"Goodbye Pam." And she headed for the door, followed by Ashley.

Out of her mother's sight they hugged and kissed and Ashley said,

"We'll talk about this after training tomorrow night Redi, bye."

"Goodbye Ashley" and Sharon drove home, relatively pleased with the result of the meeting.

42.

The sticks arrived on Wednesday and that evening Arron cut them to the correct length for her.

"They are made of beech wood and are very strong with a crutch style handle, try them for a day or two and see how you get on with them instead of your usual ones."

"Thank you my dear, when do we start to train with them" she said smiling but not expecting to be able to do anything except fall over.

"Friday but you could practice your manoeuvrability with them before that, just do it away from furniture to start with."

"Ahh, it's nice that you have so much confidence in me" she snapped, sarcastically.

"I just don't want to have to clean the blood out of the carpet" he replied, grinning.

"Stop it children!" Vicky exclaimed, "Now kiss and make up or I'll spank both of you."

"Now that sounds like fun Roni, want to try it?" Alice said knowing he wasn't keen on being spanked.

"No thank you but a kiss would be very nice" and as they did, they gave each other a friendly pat on the ass and laughed.

"Good, now go and cut your broom handles Roni, while we start dinner" Vicky said.

He'd actually had to buy four broom handles to make four sticks the same length as Alice's walking sticks. He measured and cut them before rounding the cut ends. The problem was where to practice without smashing the house up.

The only large, clear space was the lawn at the side of the house but not so good in the middle of winter. At least to start with, it would all be done in slow motion so the lounge would do but away from the big screen TV.

Alice liked the new walking sticks, although the handles were a little slippery. Most of the time, when she was indoors, she hadn't been using any aids at all, walking carefully but she was fed up with having to use them anytime. She was far more confident using the buggy and could go at quite a good pace now (when she was on her own).

She decided to call and ask Sharon if she could stay for a weekend at her house in a couple of weeks to use her cross trainer and go walking using her sticks, while her friend carried the baby in the sling.

"Hello Redi, how did it go with Sasha's mum?"

"Quite well after the shouting and swearing" she replied and Alice heard laughing in the background so knew Ashley was still there.

Sharon explained what had been said and asked her to pass it on, Alice asked her if she could stay for the weekend after next to use her cross trainer and that was agreed too. She hung up and told Aaron and Vicky the information.

"I doubt that the girl's family will want all the hurt and emotions being brought to the surface after all this time. We all need to come together and formulate some sort of plan to make sure Ashley and her mum stay safe" Aaron said.

The next day she tried turning and swinging the sticks around out in the garden for a few minutes before the cold drove her back inside, she found them to be a bit awkward and she couldn't remember the techniques required.

That afternoon she studied the videos and tried doing the same things slowly, she could do it fairly well as long as she didn't try to turn. She did this for an hour, took a break to feed Alexis and continued for another hour as soon as she was asleep again. She found that holding the left stick half way down allowed her to block easier and quicker with either end, while the right could be used to attack.

Alice did the same thing on Friday and was quietly confident with her technique and hoped to impress Aaron and Vicky that evening before dinner. She prepared the vegetables and then had a rest until they had both come home, showered and changed.

All three watched the videos a couple of times then went to the lounge to practice.

"You've been practicing I-cee" Aaron stated after watching her and she explained what she had done during the last two days.

"That's actually very good because it gives you an advantage over us able-bodied learners, you can teach us to start with" he said and Alice felt a surge of pride in herself.

They worked slowly and gently, re-watching the videos occasionally, they stopped after an hour and sat and discussed the session.

"This could be a very useful thing for Ashley to learn, she's not very strong yet but is very fast" Aaron explained.

"I'll give Redi a call, Sasha will be still there so I can ask her if she would like to try it this weekend" Alice said.

"Will she have time to do that with all the fucking she's going to be doing with him and the rest of us?" Vicky added and laughed.

"You make us sound like sex maniacs Honey" he replied.

"Well we are aren't we, five of us have all been fucking each other except Sasha and Roni and that will change tomorrow!"

"We are not nymphomaniacs dear, we just have high libidos" Alice put in politely, "And we certainly do not want to scare the poor girl away, she could still change her mind."

At nine am on Saturday, Sharon collected Ashley with her bag and drove to Aaron's house and were greeted warmly by everyone. They sat and talked about the latest developments over hot drinks and Ashley told them that her mother had found out that the Dickens family had moved away, a few months after their daughter's funeral and had not left a forwarding address.

Everyone got changed into their training gear and had a normal session of Katas and sparring. Aaron was impressed at how much better Sharon and Ashley were since the last time he has seen them a month ago.

He sparred with Sharon, who was smaller than him but was getting stronger as well as faster.

She made him work hard at defending himself but when he attacked her at the same speed she was not as good at defending.

"You need to work on your defence Redi but your attack is very good" he said, praising her.

Next it was Ashley's turn with Vicky, the petite girl was very fast and made Vicky work hard in both attack and defence.

"Well done Sasha" Vicky said panting slightly, "You made me work almost as hard as Roni."

Judo was next and Sharon used her strength to her advantage and threw Aaron around a few times and used a strength hold to make him submit.

"Good technique and you're getting stronger too, well done Redi."

Ashley did even better with Vicky although her strength was less, meanwhile Alice was doing exercises to increase her strength and mobility. They took a drinks break and discussed using the sticks, Aaron showed them the ones he had made and Alice's walking sticks.

They went to the study and watched the videos a couple of times each and returned to the lounge to try it out. They all lined up to watch Alice as she demonstrated her method of using her walking sticks to block and to attack but didn't move very much.

"I cannot move as well as you so I have had to adapt but I have good upper body strength so a good whack with one of these could easily break bones. This is the reason we will do this in slow motion, to learn the technique involved, speed can be added later, with care."

Aaron took over and they learned the moves as seen on the demonstration videos, repeating the moves many times to get them right. Finally they paired up and took turns to attack and then defend, all in slow motion and even at that pace there were a few rapped knuckles.

To finish for the day Aaron, Vicky and Ashley went for a run, while Alice and Sharon took Alexis in the buggy for a good walk, with Alice setting the pace as though Sharon wasn't there.

"I didn't know you could walk at this pace I-cee."

"They don't know either, at some point I will surprise them but if I just use the walking sticks I cannot go as fast. That's why I want to come to you and use the cross trainer and for you to carry Alexis while I can concentrate on walking longer distances than just down the garden and back" Alice explained.

"I want to be able to have a walking stick with me as a choice and for defence, not because I need it to walk properly and I want to achieve this by the second anniversary of the incident."

"I will help you as often as I can, I think we should both be on our periods next week but should be free for the weekend, if you want to 'cum' and stay" Sharon said, grinning and emphasizing the 'cum'.

Alice laughed and agreed as they continued their walk.

Unbeknown to the extended family plus Ashley, her mother Pam had gone to the police about what her daughter had told her. She was interviewed by a detective and a female officer and told them everything that she remembered. They asked her questions, firstly why she hadn't reported all this before.

"I didn't know, apart from what she told me at the time about him trying to put his hand into her panties, she didn't seem too upset at the time so I thought it was accidental and he was just being friendly and trying a bit of wrestling. If I had known what they did to them, I would have put a knife in his back, castrated him and gladly done the time for it!!"

The officers said nothing but both thought they would probably have done the same.

"Would you like a drink Mrs Hunter? I need to speak with a senior officer, Helen here will make you one" he asked.

"Yes please" Pam replied and he left.

He looked at the case of Annie Dickens suicide and concluded that there was no relevant information in it, then he spoke to a superintendent. A few minutes later he returned to the interview room.

"I have looked up what little information we have on Annie's suicide and there is nothing that would help us in this situation. I have also spoken to my superintendent who informed me that as Baxter and your daughter are the only ones still alive it would be her word against his" he explained carefully.

"I believe what you have told me but there is no physical evidence or other proof we could use against him."

"So when he get out of prison in a few months, there will be nothing to stop him coming back home, a few houses away from us and possibly doing it again!" Pam shouted angrily.

"This was his first time in prison, he maybe a reformed character or he may just want to leave the area altogether and make a fresh start somewhere else, hopefully. We cannot keep him under surveillance on the off chance he will assault you or your daughter, we do not have the manpower.

What we could do is have one of our patrols pass along your road at night as a deterrent. If he comes back, keep your doors and windows locked at all times and be wary when you go out alone and always have a mobile phone with you" he explained.

"Where is your daughter now Mrs Hunter, why didn't she come with you?" Officer Helen asked.

"She's staying with friends for the weekend, two of them have had run-ins with Baxter when they were at school and he is teaching her Karate so that she can defend herself but she's very small and he's very big so I doubt she could stop him if he catches her" Pam replied unhappily.

"I'm sorry but that's the best I can do" the detective finished and stood up.

Pam stood and shook his hand and officer Helen's too and left rather dejectedly and went home to decide whether she should tell Ashley she been to the police or not. She sat with a cup of tea in her hands and decided 'not' as she hadn't got anywhere except to make herself feel even guiltier about brushing her daughter's statement off, rather than sitting her down and getting the whole story.

The runners arrived back first having sprinted past the walkers, just to show off. They allowed Ashley to shower first while the made drinks and prepared ones for the walkers. Aaron and Vicky showered together to save water (their excuse) and had some soapy fun but no sex, they were dressed and downstairs when Alice and Sharon came in with Alexis in the buggy.

"Show-off's!" Alice called to the younger ones and heard them laughing from the kitchen.

They remove their coats and the baby's padded suit, Ashley carried two mugs of coffee through to the lounge for them and they sat down to talk again, Alice and Aaron in the armchairs (with Vicky sat on his lap) and Ashley at one end of the settee, Alexis in the carrycot at the other, leaving Sharon in the middle.

"I'm sorry everyone but I cannot wait any longer, please tell how we are going to do this tonight" Ashley asked nervously and blushing at the same time.

Sharon held her hand and kissed it before asking,

"Are you eager, excited or nervous Honey?"

"A bit of everything really but most of all, I'm hoping that the sight of Aaron naked and ready to go, doesn't make me panic and go screaming naked down the drive in panic at the memory of... you know. I will NOT mention his name as this is supposed to be a happy weekend..."

Vicky kissed Aaron and stood up she stepped over to Ashley took her hands and gently pulled her to her feet. She sat in her place and pulled the girl down to sit on her lap and cuddled her, then gave her a gentle kiss.

"You feeling all of those things is quite normal after what you went through Sasha, but that was... eight years ago, you were a little girl then, now you're a little woman..."

Hey! I'm not that little, 'Lippy Vicky!'"

"What was that?" Aaron asked. Now it was Vicky's turn to blush.

"She was called 'Lippy Vicky!' because of her smart-assed comments to everyone, even to some of the teachers" Ashley continued and everyone else laughed at the girl's discomfort.

"Well that's better than being called 'nipples' as I was for quite a while" she replied grumpily to more laughter.

"I had to put up with the usual midget, dwarf, gnome and smurf jokes from about ten until I left school at sixteen" Ashley said, "But now I don't care because my new friends love me for the way I am, not the way I look."

"Actually we love both" Alice added. "Anyway, you asked a question and it would be rude not to answer it. You were offered three scenarios by Redi, one on one with Aaron, as a threesome with her or as a group with all of us and I believe you chose the latter, am I right Sasha?"

"Yes, I thought that as I had been with some of you, it would be nicer for me to be with all of my friends."

"And we appreciate you wanting to share this moment with us. We will have an early dinner and get that out of the way to give us plenty of time before the Princess wakes up to be fed at ten. We'll do it here in the warm and then decide who is going to sleep with whom but I suggest that us older girls share him tonight and you youngsters get him tomorrow, would that be agreeable to you all?" They all nodded.

They played cards for a while after lunch, then prepared dinner and watched a film with Ashley told to sit on Aaron's lap for some of the time and she felt his cock harden under her small ass and he apologised for having to adjust himself and she giggled, kissing him gently and then more firmly but that was all.

43.

After dinner with wine finished and the dishes had been washed up and put away, Aaron played barman and served stronger drinks to all of them. They started with a group hug and separated into groups of three and two, for kissing and caressing, swopping frequently and with clothes slowly being removed until only Ashley and Aaron had any clothes on, he in boxers and she in bra and panties.