#robbie mitchell

[soulmusicsongs]

I Lost My Love (In A Beggar's Dream) - Robbie Mitchell & Robbie Mitchell (I Lost My Love (In A Beggar's Dream) / No-One Can Do The Things You Do, 1970)

[soulmusicsongs]

No-One Can Do The Things You Do - Robbie Mitchell & Darryl Patterson (I Lost My Love (In A Beggar's Dream) / No-One Can Do The Things You Do, 1970)

[ashstreet-blog]

Robbie Mitchell, Pink Floyd Concert

Ink

18" x 24"

2010

[beakerknowsbest-blog]

"I'm Alive." - A Short, Random Chapter From An Epic Series I'm Working On.... Again

A few things you might need to know before reading this? Um... Rio and Robbie are detectives, partners, who've been hunting a serial killer for the last five or so years. Rio had been captured and tortured by him for two days. She's married to Ace, another detective. And Robbie's sister was a victim of this serial killer...... Okay, I think that's all..... Enjoy :)

    Rio sat uncomfortably in her office, going over the paperwork, rifling through her own memories and trying to pull the emotion out of the situation. At least long enough to write it all down. Jack had offered his services, to act as scribe, but she’d turned him down. She’d turned everyone down. Rio was strong and stubborn. She wasn’t going to recall the events to anyone. She didn’t want to tell them what happened. It was bad enough she had to put word to paper, in detail, about her horrific capture, subsequent torture and eventual rescue. She wasn’t going to dictate them to anyone. She’s suffer through it all again on her own.

                She watched from her office as people scuttled by, all of them turning to look at her as though she were in a glass enclosure at the zoo. They’d turn and whisper as they passed. She read their lips as they spoke, calling her The One Who Lived. She paused on that for some time before getting back to her report.

                Ace poked his head into her office before he left, asking her quite softly if she was in want or need of anything. She smiled at his efforts and answered in the negative. I’m fine, she told him. He smiled again at her and closed the door when he left.

                It seemed almost everyone did the same. Sporadically people would knock on her door and ask if she was alright. Or if she needed their help with something. Or if she just wanted to talk. And every time she’d answer them in the same monotone voice, the same rehearsed speech. No, thank you though. I’m fine. Really. She was starting to annoy herself.

                After eleven hours of it she’d had enough.  And in some sort of kismet, Robbie was the straw that broke her back.

                He’s knocked on the door at five after seven that night. He wasn’t going to leave the station without her, she was his partner after all. He felt like crap enough over the whole situation. He didn’t want her to be there period, but she’d insisted on doing the write up herself. He wasn’t going to leave her until he knew she was safe at home. It just didn’t feel right.

                Robbie had spent most of the day in the office next to hers, the one that used to be Jack’s. He followed through with his own paperwork while keeping an eye on Rio. She knew he was watching her, she felt his eyes burrowing a hole in the side of her skull for most of the day, but she’d kept her mouth shut. She wanted to go over there and scream at him once or twice, but she refrained. Rio knew how upset he was over the whole thing. She wasn’t going to make him feel worse about it.

“Hey.”

                Robbie started small, leaving Rio no room to argue straight off or dismiss him instantly. She had to reply back.

“Hey.”

“Is it alright?” Robbie gestured towards the chair that sat vacant across the desk from Rio.

                She nodded and he closed the door behind him. He sat in the soft leather covered chair and watched as Rio continued to type and look over her notes.

                Robbie let her continue for a minute before he spoke, hoping that she’d set aside the work to talk to him. He should have known better. She was a focused and determined person. Even insisting on walking from the barn she was being held at though she was severely dehydrated, delusional and unable to stand on her own accord. It took Robbie and Ace twenty minutes to convince her to see a doctor before she returned to work.

“How you doing?”

                Rio abruptly stopped typing and rubbed her eyes with a sigh. She was really tired of that question.

“And don’t tell me you’re fine because I’m not buying that crap show.”

“What does it matter Rob?”

“Matters to me.”

“What do you want me to say? Huh?”

“The truth Rio. I just want you to be honest with me.”

“Two hundred and forty three.”

                Rio closed the file next to her and finally ignored her computer screen to look to him. She still avoided eye contact, looking past Robbie to the corridor and Ace’s office across the hall. He had left already, at her behest, and was waiting at home for her. She pushed what she’d said to him out of her mind for now, and focused on her partner, friend and the man who saved her, sitting across from her now.

“Huh?” Robbie was confused.

“That’s what he told me. Two hundred and forty three women. That…. thing. He took the lives of two hundred and forty three women. Told me how he kept them locked away, some for hours, some for years. Some of the things he did to them…”

                Rio had started to cry again. She never cried. Robbie had never seen her shed a tear over anything. Always so stubborn and disconnected from things. Now that she had truly witness what these women had gone through…

“some of the things he did to me, what we had to endure. It’s indescribable. And now I’m supposed to relive it all to this computer. How I couldn’t save them. How I couldn’t save myself. I couldn’t do a damned thing. Do you know how it feels to be defenseless against a creature who’s told you he’s kept two hundred and forty three women captive and alive while torturing them for years? I couldn’t handle two days Rob. I can’t imagine what they went through. It’s no comparison, what he did to me. That was nothing compared to what he said he did to the others.  The worst part about this whole thing is knowing that number.”

“Because we’ve only found thirty seven bodies.”

“Because we’ve only found thirty seven.” Rio repeated.

                Rob let it soak in a minute. He let that thought settle in deep. Two hundred and forty three victims and they’d only found thirty seven of them.

                There were still two hundred and six women who were yet to be discovered. And if he was keeping them alive for years—

“He said I was the last one.” Rio cleared up for Robbie. They’d known each other for so long, had been partners for quite some time. She knew what he was thinking.

“He said that?”

“Like I was some kinda Holy Grail. Said that the first was someone close to you, so the last would be too. And because I was a detective and hunting for him it was extra challenging. He seemed really… pleased with himself.”

                Rio took a Kleenex from her desk and patted her eyes with it. The tears were starting to sting the long, deep gashes on her face. She dried them as best she could without irritating them more. Robbie noticed her hands were still swollen and bloody. It looked like she’d tried to scrub the remnants away, but they just wouldn’t leave her.

                She took another Kleenex as she tossed the first one into the pale next to her desk. Robbie could see it was half full with wet tissues. She’d been like this for most of the day. Off and on attacks of tears.

“C’mon, why don’t you let me take you home.”

“I still have—“

“So help me if you say ‘work to do’ Rio—“

“Ace’ll be waiting up for me. I don’t want to deal with him right now.”

“He’s worried. Called me six times.”

“It’s none of his business.”

“I hate to disagree with you when it comes to him, but he is your husband…”

“I just.. He’ll be expecting me to tell him what happened and to cry on his shoulder and let him hold me and shit. And I don’t get whiney and chick flick out like that.”

“Trust me, I think he’s learned that by now.”

“You’d be surprised. He comes off as such as ass when he’s here, but he’s more the woman at home.”

                Rio looked up quick, making real eye contact with Robbie for the first time.

“Don’t tell him I told you that.”

“I could talk to him, without letting him know you said that. Get him to back off a little.”

                Rio mulled it over, her tongue jutting out to swipe her lip. It had started to bleed again. She thought about how she was going to get home. Her car was in the parking lot, but she was in no condition to drive it. Robbie would have been one of the last people in the building she really knew and felt she could trust. She’d have to let Robbie take her home or call Ace to pick her up. She was liking the first option better.

“Alright. Let’s go. I can finish this tomorrow.”

“Fuck it. I’ll finish it tomorrow. You’re not coming in tomorrow.”

                Rio rolled her eyes at her partner. She was going to insist she was alright to work, at the very least to sit behind the desk, but it was no use. She needed help getting up. She couldn’t get away with telling him she was fit for duty when she couldn’t stand on her own.

                She asked for his assistance and Robbie obliged. He took her at her elbows, the only part of her that wasn’t worse for the wear, and let her rest her weight in his hands. He kicked the chair out of the way when she was ready and grabbed her purse from the chair in the corner as he had done so many times. Their routine was in sync, if only playing in slow-motion.

                The halls were empty as the pair shuffled slowly down the hall and to the elevator. Rio’s feet aches and her ankles were still ballooned out from being tied to tightly. The rope burns rubbed against the County Sherriff’s grey and gold sweatpants she was wearing. Rio counted her herself blessed that there was a change of clothes in that old man’s trunk.

                She was lucky after all. Rio had her husband, loving if somewhat persistent and emotional, waiting at home for her and a partner that stopped at nothing – even risking his own life – to save hers.  She counted her blessings there too, because of the two hundred and forty four women who've seen the murderous hands of Spencer Mathew Burton-Coggles she was the only one who walked away with her life.

                The elevator doors dinged open and Robbie helped her scuffle in before pressing the capital G button they had designated for ground. They dinged shut again and Robbie moved his hand around her waist to help her standing. She smiled and turned to him.

“I’m alive.”

                She moved her hand over his back and onto his shoulder, half slapping him playfully and half needing the extra support. Her smile was rough. It pained her to pull her muscles in such a way, but the light in her eyes was back. The playful cheer he was used to was coming back.

                What she had gone through was by no means an easy experience. She’d never forget it and probably never fully recover from it, but she was right.

                She was alive. And that was a start.