Shawna was suffering from a case of the shakes.  It was late at night, the moon visible through the skylight.  Shawna lay on the pillows trying to sleep, but she was having a hard time.

It was almost like she had the flu herself; the tremors came and went and she was sweating up a storm, but she knew different.  She tossed back the blanket she was lying under, and with a little difficulty, pulled off her loincloth because it was binding.  She looked at it in the dim moonlight, and thought about finding another one to wear.  What she could see and smell told her that this one had gone the distance.

'Dammit,' she thought, 'I don't even have a change of underwear.'  Shawna wondered where her knapsack and regular clothes were, and thought for a little bit about the bottle of cocaine powder, until the shakes possessed her once more.

Tired and feeling rather vulnerable, she got up and wandered over to Grady's bed.  The big man was fast asleep, in part due to a noxious brew Gabe had forced on him earlier.  Shawna was told he would get an uninterrupted night's sleep even if the room collapsed around him.

Shawna crawled onto the big bed and touched Grady's forehead.  It was burning hot, and Grady was sweating like crazy as well, so Shawna pulled back the covers to let him cool off a bit.

The light from the moon happened to fall directly on the bed at that moment, and Shawna couldn't help appreciating the body laid out before her.  Grady was lying partially on his back, one leg straight with the other bent slightly.  His big muscled arms were folded up fetus-like and were shiny in the dim light.

Shawna reached out and gently ran her fingers along his biceps.  She watched for Grady to react but he slept soundly on, oblivious.

With a smile, Shawna let her fingers travel.  Dirk had been a strong man, but it was a wiry strength, not bulk strength like Grady.  Grady looked like he had something to hold onto, and Shawna's addiction-starved mind wondered briefly what it would be like to make love to him.

She brought her hand down across his hip and looked at his penis.  It was not as big as Shawna thought it should be, but then it was fully relaxed.  Shawna was tempted to play with it, to see what it could do, but resisted.  She was there to take care of a sick man, not take advantage of him, but it was a nice fantasy.

Grady wasn't all bad, she knew he was just having a hard time adjusting to his wife's death.  She was sure that she would be the same way if someone close to her died like that.  This made Shawna think about Dirk, and she wondered, again, why she didn't mourn his passing.  Did he mean so little to her?  Perhaps if Dirk had spent more time wooing her with kindness rather than with drugs, she might have felt more for him.

As she let her fingers trace the muscles of Grady's belly, she wondered if there was anyone close to her at all!  Certainly not her father; that sadistic bastard could go to hell for all she cared.  Her mother perhaps, but that ghost of a woman had never been much of a person to Shawna, even in her tender moments.  Her father's personality completely overwhelmed that of her mother, so she always seemed to be in the background of things, even when alone.

As Shawna thought about the people she knew, she realized that only for a few would it disturb her to know that they were dead.  Certainly none would affect her like Grady was affected.

Shawna felt another bout of the shakes coming on and rolled over slightly, hugging Grady to her.  She held him through the tremors and took strength from his body.  He felt good, warm and solid; it felt good to her to hold a man again, and when the shakes subsided she continued to hold him, throwing one leg across his thighs.

Grady stirred under her, and for a second she thought she had woken him, but he was just shifting his position slightly, and Shawna heard him whimper.  She could tell looking at his eyelids that he was dreaming, and from the expression on his face, it wasn't a good one.

She continued to hold him, wanting to calm the demons that plagued his dreams.  A part of her wondered why she was trying to comfort a man that had forced her into bondage, that had paraded her around naked for all to see.  She should have been mad at him, at ALL the people of the Compound.  But another part of her thought that was stupid.  These people didn't do what they did out of malice, in fact they had gone out of their way to help her.  Shawna knew it would be hard to betray that trust when she finally left.

As for Grady?

Shawna sighed, there were so many conflicting feelings inside her.  She snuggled even closer to him, aware of her naked body in full contact with his.  Her hand found his ass and she stroked it slowly.  He felt so GOOD!

With her leg swung over his thigh, she could feel the hairs of his leg tickling her pussy.  It felt nice, and she couldn't help pushing down a little harder.

She began to rub herself slowly against him, relishing the delicious friction.  It had been a long time since sex was pleasurable, when the feelings from her body weren't masked by a cocaine high or an alcohol induced stupor.  Sex with Dirk used to be pretty good, but for a long time it had just become a way for her to pay for her drugs.  Passion was a thing long forgotten, but as she slowly ground herself against Grady's leg, it began to come back to her.

She began shifting her body more, rubbing her hard nipples against his hairy chest.  It felt so wonderful to her, someone to help take her pain away, to make her feel good again.  Her hands moved quickly all over him, pulling her to him and caressing every muscle.

She felt his body begin to react to her touch; in his sleep he began to become aroused.  His manhood began to grow, and Shawna relished the feel of it between their bodies.

She wanted it inside her, but kept on thinking about the warning they got about not having sex.

Shawna wondered what right the elders had in ordering such a thing; surely two consenting adults could do as they pleased with each other?

But Grady wasn't consenting, was he?  He was out cold while Shawna humped his leg like a dog.  Was that what she had become?  An animal looking for sexual gratification on the first handy object?

Shawna began to feel confused, her emotions and feelings still not well balanced because of her drug problem.  Yet she did not stop what she was doing, she was so close!

Grady began to turn again, his body reacting to the stimuli of a naked young woman rubbing against it.  He rolled toward her, one arm shifting to hold her to him.

It was harder to move now, but the weight of his thigh was now pushing down on her sex, increasing the friction.  Shawna kept moving, building to a climax.

Her mouth found his, tender kisses evolving into something more passionate as her arousal grew.  She wanted this man, no matter what he had done to her.  She thought that maybe what she was doing would be good for him too; it couldn't be healthy, the torch he was carrying for his dead wife.  A NEW woman in his life might just be what he needed.  Shawna was convinced that this was why the elders placed her with him, just so she could do this for him.

She kissed him again, and this time his eyes opened as he woke.  For a moment, he returned the kiss, pulling her closer and shifting his pelvis as a prelude to entering her.  Then the shock of recognition appeared in his eyes, and he pushed her backward so hard she rolled right off the bed.

"What..." he said groggily.

Passion blown, Shawna now realized she had made a mistake.  "I'm sorry..." she began to say but Grady cut her off.

"Get out!"

"What...?"

"GET OUT!  DAMMIT!" he yelled.  He rolled across the bed to her side and stood up, grabbing her and lifting her with ease by the arms.  "I BRING YOU INTO MY HOME AND YOU TRY THIS SHIT!" he shouted, "DAMMIT!  You outsiders are all alike!  You accuse US of being sex perverts when it's YOU that can't be trusted!"

He carried her struggling body to the door and dropped her.  "Just get out and don't come back!"  Grady opened the door and shoved her out into the hallway, slamming the door shut behind her.

Crying and confused, Shawna scrambled back to the door and tried to open it, but Grady was blocking it with something.

The naked woman pounded at the door, screaming to be let in, that she was sorry, but Grady didn't give in.

In minutes, her crying had attracted the attention of Grady's neighbors, and one couple took charge of the sobbing girl.  They walked her to Gabe's, not knowing where else to take her.

Sitting with his back to the door, Grady wept.  His dreams of Cheryl had been invaded by Shawna's attempt at seduction, changing the dreamscape so that it was Shawna to whom he was making love.  He wept because until he discovered it was real, he actually WELCOMED the sexual feelings he had been a victim of.  He felt that he had betrayed Cheryl, cheated on her and he begged her forgiveness in the dark.

Shawna didn't mean anything to him, did she?  She was just some drugged-up outsider sent to make his life hell.

Yet, he could not deny the fact that, for a brief moment, he had welcomed the feel of her in his arms, and the momentary guilt free feelings that came with it.

Crying steadily, he wondered how he could be so weak.

---***---

Gabe Miller wasn't having it any easier.  Shawna had been brought into his clinic naked and crying.  His door always open, he had been woken and brought out to see her.  Now left alone with her, Gabe wondered what had happened.

He sat with her on the pillows in his waiting room, holding her until she regained some measure of control.  Normally he didn't notice the state of dress or undress of his patients, considering that they could be brought to him in any condition from naked to wrapped in winter outdoor furs, but he noticed Shawna.

Not wearing much himself, since he had been sleeping, he was acutely aware of her nude body pressed against his.  He found it disconcerting, since almost from the start he had become attracted to her.

Gabe didn't like this; he had never felt comfortable with the fact that he would have a patient for a partner at some point in his life.  All through medical school and during his internship he had been told that it was unethical for a doctor to see a patient in a romantic way, and Gabe was a very ethical person.  He realized that his position was quite different from that of a big city doctor, EVERYONE in the Compound was his patient, so finding a mate that wasn't a patient was somewhat impossible.  So, with this hang up, he hadn't even tried.

Yet, Shawna had stirred in him the first curiosity in the opposite sex beyond the clinical that he had had for a long time.  He couldn't say why, and wouldn't even admit it to anyone else, but he did find her attractive.

The depth of that feeling hadn't been known to even him though, until the elders put Shawna in Grady's care.  He had fully expected that Shawna would come back with him after her trial, and he was shocked at their decision.  But he had put on a brave face and carried on as if it was nothing.

But, as he suspected, the elders' plans, whatever they were, had failed.  Now Shawna was in HIS arms!

Shawna's tears began to fade, and he felt her relax against him.  He knew that she couldn't help the extreme reaction she was showing, for a while yet her emotional control would not be much better than a small child's.  She would seesaw from one feeling to another, until she was fully purged of her toxins.

"Hey now," he said, "feeling better?"

Shawna nodded.  In her hands was a handkerchief; Gabe had grabbed it for her as soon as he saw her crying.  She wiped her nose with it and held on to him.

"So, can you tell me what happened?"  Gabe wondered why she had been thrown naked out of Grady's apartment in the middle of the night.  Such an action was extreme, even for the Compound.

"I fucked up!"  Shawna said.

"What happened?"

"I...I just fucked up.  I don't want to talk about it."

"It might be easier if you did!" Gabe urged.

"No."  Shawna shook her head, but still held on to Gabe.  The shock of what she had done was still reverberating within her.  How could she have thought that doing what she did was a good thing?  Yet why wasn't it a good thing?

She couldn't figure it out.

It wasn't just the sexual frustration, but the rejection that got to her.  She had been so sure!

Gabe held her for a little while longer, and thought to himself that Shawna wasn't going to talk, at least not now.  He suggested that she get to bed, and offered the use of one of his clinic rooms.

"No!"  Shawna said suddenly.  "Please, I don't want to be alone."  The rejection was bothering her more and more.  Being sent away again was more than she could bear.

"I'll just be through that door," Gabe said softly.  Damn, she felt good in his arms!

"No, please.  Can't I share your room?  I could sleep on the floor, please?"

Shawna looked up into his eyes, and Gabe saw that there was fear there, fear of being alone.  He thought about waking Vicky, to have her come and keep her company, but it would take too long and he thought he could do it himself.

"Okay, come on.  Do you want something to wear?"

As they stood up, Shawna looked at herself, for the first time noticing that she was still naked.  She didn't care anymore, though; there were more important things.

"No," she said.

Gabe led her through to his apartment.  Unlike Grady's single room, this was a family apartment with three bedrooms.  It was large because the Doctor was supposed to be a family man, with a future Gabe Miller in the making, ready to take over some day.

Gabe lived in it alone for the most part, with his sister using one of the other bedrooms from time to time if she needed to stay close to the clinic.  Right now, she was at their parents' home, so he and Shawna were alone.

"I have spare bedrooms," he told her, "you can sleep in one of them."

"No," said Shawna, sounding a bit like a three-year-old, "your room, please!"

Gabe nodded reluctantly and grabbed a few floor pillows as they passed through his living room.  He tossed them on the floor in his bedroom, and went to get Shawna a blanket while she arranged them to her liking.

Soon she was comfortable on the floor, and Gabe crawled back into bed after removing his pants.  Unlike almost everybody else at the compound, he found it a little difficult appearing naked in front of people, so he always dressed for company and for business.  Six years away from home becoming a doctor had changed him slightly.

Thinking of the woman who lay only a few feet from him, he went to sleep.  Shawna lay thinking too; she thought about how stupid she had been, trying to get off on Grady's body.  Then she thought about Grady's response, and she began to think how out of proportion it had been.  He didn't need to throw her out; he could have just pushed her away and said no!

In fact, what right had he to throw her out anyway?  You don't throw a woman out stark naked just for coming on to you!  Shawna became madder and madder at Grady for what he had done with her, so mad that she hardly noticed the case of the shakes that held her in its grip for a few minutes.

What she did notice was that she was still horny.  It had been so long since she had known that kind of passion, that her body ached for more.  It had risen to a height without release, and Shawna wanted that release.

She began fingering her pussy, rubbing those tender spots she knew so well as a teenager.  Her desire to do this had been gone for a long time, but it too had returned.  Yet it wasn't enough; all she could think about now was Grady's body in her arms, the feel of his penis rising against her stomach.  He had felt so wonderful!

"Fuck him," she said quietly, then she thought about that for a second.

"Yeah, FUCK him!"  She grinned; she'd show him.  If he didn't want to fuck her, then she'd get someone else to.  And there was a perfect candidate right on the bed.

Shawna got up and slipped under the covers with Gabe.  It was nice and warm under the blankets, and from what she had seen, Gabe had a pretty decent body himself!  She wriggled close until she was pressed against him, and began to caress him with her hands.

Unlike Grady, Gabe woke immediately, and pulled back from Shawna.

"Hey, you can't do this!" he said, trying to get away.

"Shut up, Doc!" Shawna replied, not wanting to be rejected a second time.

"Shawna..." Gabe said, becoming excited in spite of himself, the feel of her body intensely arousing.  What Shawna didn't know was that he was a virgin; everyone at the Compound was until marriage, or at least was supposed to be.  Even during all those years away, he had remained faithful.

Never having been with a woman before, Gabe had a teenager's reaction to sexual stimuli; he was ready immediately.  "No..." he said, resistance falling away quickly.

"Yes!" Shawna replied, not to be rejected again, and she moved to satisfy her passion.

---***---

The sun was just starting to send rays of light through the skylights in the roof of the Great Hall when Paul found Rhianna.  She was working the early breakfast shift again, doing her part for the community she had become a part of.

While there were a few permanent kitchen staff, most of the labor force was made up of volunteers, women who had other tasks in the community but devoted some of their free time here.

Rhianna worked all the shifts from time to time, but her favorite was the breakfast shift, and her favorite task was making bread.

That's where she was now, at a prep table with several other women, all pounding the dough that would become that day's bread for the community of just over five hundred.  She enjoyed the physical work, manhandling the large lumps of dough; and she enjoyed the company, getting in on the gossip of the day.  It had amazed her at first, how up to date these women were at this time of the morning about what had happened to people just a short while ago; but after a while, Rhianna came to really enjoy her morning gossip, and was able to contribute to it herself from time to time.  It was like having a morning paper to read, as the news of the Compound flowed across the prep table.

Right now the news was of the sudden appearance of Shawna outside Grady's apartment, and his refusal to let her back in.  Speculation ran wild as to the cause of their disagreement, although the general consensus was that it had been a bad idea to put them together in the first place.  It just wasn't done, making an unmarried man and woman live together.  If they had been married, she never would have been thrown out; instead he could have tied her up for punishment, it was only right!

Rhianna listened, half amused at the various theories.

Paul stood and watched all this from a distance for a few minutes.  He enjoyed watching the women make dough, it was one of the few times the serious man let his libido out in public.  The women wore only their loincloths whilst kneading dough, and it took no time at all for their fronts to be covered in flour dust.

Paul thought this a rather erotic sight, and always thought about how this was where he first fell in love with his wife, Elizabeth.  She and Paul had been shyly courting for months, but it wasn't until he saw her youthful body working the dough that Cupid struck with a vengeance.  He asked her to marry him before she got clean, and every day since had been a happy one for him because she was there.

Occasionally, when the kids were away, Elizabeth would bring some flour home, and they would have a little fun together.

Paul smiled at the memory and brought his attention back to the present.  Watching Rhianna made the memories seem that much more real, and not for the first time he silently congratulated his brother for finding such a beautiful wife.

But he wasn't there to ogle the wenches; there was business to conduct.

"Rhianna," he said, walking closer.

The women all stopped talking and watched him approach.  Not very often did a man invade the areas behind the huge stone hearths that divided the rest of the Great Hall from the kitchen area.

"Hi, Paul," Rhianna said.

"Rhianna, can I have a word with you?" he asked.

"Sure!"

Rhianna brushed the flour from her hands and followed Paul out of earshot of the other women.  When Paul turned to talk, he tried not to stare at Rhianna's flour-covered chest.  Although he, like every man in the community, was very used to seeing the breasts of the women who lived here, it was a different matter, to him at least, when they were covered in flour.  He kept his eyes on other things and handed her the paper Sheriff Kinkade had given him.

"Look at this," he said.

Rhianna read the APB, for that was what it was.  It described the bank robbery and the fugitives that were being sought, and included the artist composites of the man and woman suspects.

"I knew it!" said the ex-FBI Agent.  "Damn, I knew she was up to no good.  Who else would ask if we were cops first?"

"It's not proven.  It could just be a coincidence," said Paul, cautious as ever.

"Not too likely.  Are you going to arrest her now, or are you going to bring the Sheriff up to do it?"

"Neither.  I want more proof before I tell anyone."

Rhianna waved the paper in his face.  "This is pretty good proof if you ask me!"

"No.  She was supposed to have been in a plane; where is it?  She was supposed to have had a partner; where is he?  Was what she said true, about him beating her up and leaving her alone on the mountain?"

"If it is," said Rhianna, "you have to admit that it's a pretty good reason for her to have been so high up.  You think that they crashed?"

Paul nodded.  "I want to go up there, to see if I can find it.  I want you to come along so you can show me where you found her."

"When are we going?" said Rhianna, the thrill of the chase suddenly coursing through her.

"Now," said Paul.

"I'm ready," Rhianna replied.

Paul looked down at her flour-encrusted body.  "I think you had better clean up first, and put some clothes on!"

Rhianna, who knew from talking to Elizabeth all about Paul's little fetish, grinned.
 
 

End of Part 11