Cathouse: Restoration

[x-aerial.livejournal.com]

The abused women finally see a friendly, familiar face and receive the care they need.



Once the various minions and Barry had been loaded into the van out back Vanessa had left Laura and Jean-Paul to see to the girls and the johns still inside. None of them really cared about the johns, but Vanessa supposed some of the ones inside could have been decent. Relatively speaking, anyhow. The girls hadn't hated it before so it stood to reason some of them were not only not vile but alright guys. Some people just had particular sexual fetishes or lacked both the time and desire to date while having the money for a prostitute. To each his own, right?

When Vanessa emerged from the brothel she was still in her normal colored alt. Crystal's image induced alter ego was easy to spot with the sun glistening off her sparkling skin. It really was amazing what technology could do. Beside her was Madame Libertine. The metamorph greeted each with a smile. "The guys who took over are all out," she told them with a satisfied tone. Vanessa was so ready for this to be over. Tonight there would be a bubble bath and something luxuriant to relax even though she didn't really do baths or luxuriating much at all. "My people are checking on the girls and the clients. The ones you wouldn't have allowed in before probably won't get out unscathed, but we can help clean up any blood if need be."

Madame Libertine gave Vanessa a smile, obviously thankful, though the expression was somewhat strained. "I appreciate this - you really have no idea how much. Really, if there's ever anything I can do to help you, all you have to do is let me know." She held her hand out to the other woman, squeezing gently. "Is it alright for me to go check on my girls now?"

Riley glanced at Vanessa. She'd missed out on all of the action inside and was somewhat torn on her feelings about it. On the one hand, a part of her had wanted to be involved in the actual take-down, but on the other hand there had been plenty of people in there, and someone had needed to stay with the madam. And now she still had an important part to play. "Is that OK? Can we go in now to check on them? The sooner I can look at their injuries the better." She had her supplies in a plain-looking backpack in order to avoid calling outside attention to the fact that she had come prepared with medical supplies.

"Yeah. There's a number of clients knocked out as well. My people are still inside and you can tell them which clients are reputable and which you don't want in there. We can take care of removing them from the premises and leave the rest to be attended to along with the girls." Vanessa stepped to the side and gestured for Riley and Libertine to go on inside. "I'll get your little one to you later tonight. It's an hour commute each way out to where I've got her."

"Thank you, again," Madame Libertine said, giving Vanessa's hand another light squeeze before releasing the younger woman and heading for the front door to her "spa." There were several girls downstairs who hadn't been seeing clients when X Factor had come in and they'd been roped into helping the girls who had been with clients.

Riley picked up her backpack, relieved that she wasn't going to be asked to give medical care to the men who had abused the women working in the brothel. It was one thing to take care of someone and not know what they might have done in life, or to answer an official call while on duty and be required to treat someone even if it wasn't a secret that one of the people who needed help hurt people, but this whole situation with buying and selling women, "punishing" them, forcing them to do things against their will... it made her sick. "I'll see to the girls first," Riley told Madame Libertine as they walked inside. "I can look at the men after you figure out which ones need medical attention."

"Excellent," Madame Libertine said, leading the way into the building. Several girls had minor scrapes or lacerations, most of them had bruises, and a few had fractured ribs. As the madame walked amongst her girls, she checked not only on them, but their families. None of them were particularly happy with their lots in life, but getting into the sex industry had been a choice for all of them and while she couldn't fix what had brought them here, she could at least make sure they were taken care of while they were with her.

Riley's sparkling face looked around the room for a few moments and began to walk around to assess the various injuries. Luckily, no one seemed to be in immediate need of life-saving measures. She would probably recommend visits to a doctor or clinic for several of the girls, but there was no indication that anyone needed to head off to a hospital right at that moment. Selecting the first woman to treat, she knelt down beside her and offered a smile, finally trying to fit the name she had been told was a spunky one. "Hey, I'm Riley. What's your name?"

"Haley," the girl said, sitting very straight in her chair. There was something about the woman kneeling next to her with her backpack that was vaguely reassuring. Uncoiling her tail from her waist, the fur bristling just a bit before relaxing, she twitched her ears forward. They'd been laying back against her head, but she didn't feel threatened any longer. It was nice, having Madame back - perhaps that also gave her current situation something of a positive note.

"Go ahead and tell her what's hurting, Haley," Madame Libertine murmured, resting her hand on the girl's shoulder briefly.

Lifting the hem of her shirt, Haley turned so Riley could see her back. There were welts running up and down her spine, what looked like slices made by something sharp on her sides, and a great deal of bruising. "Cat o' nine," she said, her voice holding more anger than anything else. "Bastard let it wrap around. Liked the way the blood smelled, he said. I'm alright besides this, but if you could check it, tell me how bad they'll scar. Barry didn't give us much time to recover and I don't have a healing factor."

"There will be scarring," Riley said, "but there are ways to reduce the visibility of scars." If the injuries had been made only recently, there was more that could be done, but some of these injuries had been there for days or even weeks, and bruises and cuts had been added on top of already existing ones. "I'm going to do my best to make sure these cuts stay closed to help healing and minimize scarring. You have someone who can help you with checking on your wounds?" It wasn't impossible to look after yourself with these types of wounds, but having extra eyes was always better, plus the location of the injuries weren't exactly the easiest to see on your own. And all of these women could use extra support right now; it would be good to know that it was there for them.

"I don't mind the scars so much," Haley said, "And yeah. My boyfriend can check them for me. I haven't seen him in a while."

"You'll have a chance to spend some time at home," Madame Libertine said quietly, watching the exchange and frowning at the parts of Haley's back and sides that she could see. "I think we could all use a break from work for a little while. I'll make sure everybody gets paid their usual amount while you're recuperating. And it'll give me time to go over the books, make sure everything's in order." She didn't know if their regular clients had been scared off by the changes that had taken place or not, but she needed to put her feelers back out in the community. Hopefully the spa would be able to bounce back.

"Thank you, Madame," Haley's voice was soft as she spoke, her ears twitching forward a little more before relaxing.

A while later, Riley stood up, picking up her now mostly-empty bag. While helping keep a brothel open had never been on her top ten list of things to do, she also knew it wasn't her place to tell these women how to live their lives. All that was important right now was that they were safe and cared for, and it was quite obvious that Madame Libertine cared for the women who worked for her and they trusted her. She'd spoken both individually with the women and with Madame Libertine, leaving instructions and her recommendations. The girls would rest, and she planned to come back in a couple of weeks to check on them, both physically and mentally. She'd been involved in this since the moment she found out about it, and she planned to see it through to the end.

But for now, she really needed a vacation.