Stacy's Date: Part Four

Laura enjoyed a nice lunch with her sister. Stacy hadn't opened up further after the emotional outpouring and Laura hadn't pried more, yet. So Laura had showed the pink haired girl the suite and they'd talked of other things. How their mother was doing and about Laura's work.

Stacy had been quite glad to hear that Anna and her were back together again. She'd always thought they were made for each other.

Laura was glad Stacy hadn't lapsed back into her hard assed facade. In fact she appeared almost back to her old self, but was still avoiding topics.

"Stacy I have to ask, what happened between you and Tracy? Where did this animosity come from? I know the gulf between us opened up because of the fallout from that but I can't bridge the gap there until I can understand the other."

Stacy's look did harden then. "I really don't want to talk about it."

Laura sighed. "Stacy please don't make me order you to tell me."

"Shit. You wouldn't!"

"Stacy this is important. I have to know what happened before I can know what to do to make things better. I don't want to **** your hand here but I will if I must."

"Fuck. Fine, but I'm not doing this sober." Stacy got up and walked to the dumbwaiter calling in a order to the phone. "Vodka, lots." Shortly later the door chimed and the short woman pulled a tray out that had a large glass carafe of clear liquid and two glasses with ice in them then walked it over to the table.

"Straight vodka? I'll stick to wine, thank you." Laura refilled her glass and took a sip of the hearty red.

"More for me then." Stacy dumped the ice from one glass into the other and poured a generous amount of vodka into the empty vessel before tossing it back. "Damn, that's top shelf."

"Only the best for my prison." Laura said sardonically.

Stacy snorted "Look I'm not happy about this but I don't want it **** out of me so whatever, but I want something from you too."

"Oh?"

"If I'm giving uncomfortable truths here I want some back from you. You know what I'm talking about."

Laura blanched then sighed and shrugged resigned. "Fair's fair. But you go first."

"Fine. How to I put this... Growing up with Tracy was not easy. She always knew what she wanted and for the most part I went with it. But doing what she wanted the way she wanted made it really hard to struggle to find my own identity. I didn't want to just be Tracy's shadow but it was easier that way."

"You did everything together back then. I had no idea there was a problem, you both seemed quite happy."

Stacy shrugged and continued. "Then we went to collage and things changed. She doubled down on her classes, did the same thing you did in cutting out out a social life. And I did the opposite. In the socializing and the parties I found a part of myself that was free from Tracy. I could be my own person at last. Unfortunately school suffered without my focus on it so eventually I dropped it."

Laura sipped her wine and mused, she'd never known Stacy had struggled with her own identity like this. "And when me and mom came down on you for dropping out you felt like we were trying to make you be more like Tracy again?"

"Something like that I guess. Maybe I went too far, I could have tried to balance the two. Could have gone into something besides engineering and made my own way there, but I was enjoying myself. Living my own life. And she never looked back so neither did I."

"Hang on. First you didn't want to be in her shadow and now you felt abandoned by her?"

"Look, it's complicated. She's still my sister, still my twin." Stacy poured and downed another measure of vodka.

Laura took a moment to try and process some of this.

"And what about Tracy and you sexually?" Stacy looked away at the question. "Come on, I know you two had a history, don't try and pretend different now. What happened that caused you to change?"

"I said I don't want to talk about it." Stacy grated out and started to reach for the vodka again.

"Tell. Me."

The command knocked the breath from Stacy's lungs, she gasped and before she could stop herself blurted out. "She cheated on me! She started having sex with other people without a care how I would feel about it. As soon as we got to collage she moved on, and I didn't." She poured more vodka but hid her face behind the glass instead of drinking.

Laura was shocked. It was still unnerving to learn her sisters had had a sexual history together but apparently feelings had run deeper for one of them. And Tracy probably didn't even realize.

"I think it's safe to say at this point you're both your own persons. No one here is going to mistake either of you for each other. But I think it's also safe to say the both of you are carrying a lot of resentment towards each other as well."

"Fair enough." Stacy sipped from her glass. "So what now?"

"So we sit down together and hash things out. Clear open communication. Can we do that?"

"Yeah okay fine. Now tell me about dad."

Laura had finished her wine and looked at the empty glass with a sour expression. "He died. What more is there to say?"

"How!" Stacy stood from her seat yelling. "No one will fucking say a word about what happened! twenty fucking years you and mom have kept me in the dark! What fucking happened?!"

Laura set her wine glass down then picking up the second cup that came with the vodka, tossed the ice over her shoulder onto the floor, poured her own measure of the clear spirit into it, and drank with a shaky hand.

Looking down at the table she started in a quiet voice. "We were out driving, looking at Christmas lights. Dad was keeping us out of mom's hair while she worked on dinner. The two of you were in back, in car seats, while I sat up front. Dad stopped at a light and suddenly there was a man with a gun. Dad got out to reason with him, pay him whatever he wanted, but he wanted to take the car and we were inside. So dad said no. And he shot him. And I had to watch him die."

Tears streamed down Laura's face and it was Stacy's turn to hold and comfort her sister. "I didn't know. No one would tell me." She whispered.

.

Susan sat in the bar with Carla and Kim having a liquid lunch after playing. She couldn't believe how much fun she was having with the duo. No one had said anything about helping her today, she hoped they weren't resenting her score. She'd milked herself the first day she could do it again if she had to, getting a little drunk might even help.

Her musing was broken by Kim. "So tomorrows the event eh? Challenge, whatever. Do we have a plan or are we just winging this shit?"

"The first challenge was just Laura rating how much she liked us, I doubt it will be that all over again but how do you plan for something like that if it is?" Susan asked the redhead.

"Can't be like that every time." Carla said. "You get away with it during a big introduction sure, but on it's own you'd bore an audience to tears. No it will be an event, game show like."

"Or like Survivor." Kim interjected.

"Yeah that makes sense." Susan sipped her beer. "They even call those challenges, probably individual and not team based though. Like the late rounds."

"So we pull a Survivor and form a alliance then?" Carla asked.

"If we can help each other out tomorrow I'm in." Susan got up to refill her glass. "Team of two technically but it's better than nothing."

.

Misty was more than frustrated. Gabriella tried to help, rubbing her back and whispering encouragements, but something was blocking her. She could feel it.

"It's no good, I don't think I'm allowed to see anything about the challenge." She set down her cards and took the other woman's hands. "Lets just go get something to eat and we'll deal with whatever happens tomorrow together."

.

Tracy sat with Candy and Anna in the dinning area. "Where the hell is everyone?"

"You'd think people would be smart enough not to go exploring the day before the challenge." Anna said while massacring a short rib. "Especially after what happened with Stacy yesterday."

"Speaking of Stacy, no change in her score so far. Is that a bad sign do you think?" Candy was pretty worried for her, finding the big point treasure only made her certain there had to be as equally bad traps out there and twenty five points would ravage Stacy's current score.

"Well she hasn't lost any yet, and that's kind of a miracle in itself." Tracy was hoping her twin did well today, whatever their differences. "I half expected her score to plummet when she had to ask Laura to let her eat her out."

Candy gasped "I didn't think of that!"

"Not to worry, I let her take care of me this morning before breakfast. She should be good." Anna cracked a rib like a fortune cookie and looked shocked for a second. "Damn, I've got to be more careful about that."

"Might have been better if you hadn't though." Tracy said. "She could really use the points and it would have been a first time."

"I think we're good for now unless someone does something stupid before the morning." Tracy winced at Candy's words. "I really doubt even last place is going to cost more than twenty points."

"right, people are losing points this round. You think the last four punishment slots?"

Anna nodded at the short woman. "that sounds likely. Possibly scaling up later."

"Well we were in the top of last round, I've no doubt we can dominate this one too." Tracy enthused, while stealing a short rib off of Anna's plate.

.

Shar polished the golden bracelet with a cloth, admiring the bas-relief of a World Tree on the flattened side. She really hoped none of the girls had gotten up to something stupid while she was busy. At least Tracy should be warry for now, and Stacy would be busy with Laura. Well it couldn't be helped, and certainly pointed out a real need for a assistant.

Still it had felt wonderful to work with metal again after so many years. Maybe she'd forge another set of armor or three if another set of eyes gave her more breathing room. Anna would look fantastic in a gladiatorial set piece, or maybe a set of ornamental plate to give Laura a real commanding look...

Still no time to waste. She needed to make sure nothing had blown up and put out any fire if it had, then to make sure the rooms were ready for her guest. Probably best to double check how things were going for tomorrow's preparations as well though there was all night for it to get done.

This was almost as exciting as getting ready to greet her cast had been, and not nearly the same amount of time to do it in.