(Joesette: Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA! Calm down babe . . .

Last chapter!)

…..

…..

…..

After she came in from the stoop, they both sat in silence at the kitchen table, neither not knowing quite what to say until Arnold broke it. Helga had finished telling Arnold everything.

"You need to tell the police," he finally said.

"And then what Arnold?" she demanded. "A trial where all our dirty laundry is aired? Those pictures make it look like me and him were having an affair!"

Arnold looked down at the pictures.

"Look, his wife said she had hired a private investigator to stalk him, catch him in the act. Maybe he got something else?" he said.

"Like what?" Helga asked.

"I don't know!" Arnold yelled. "Jesus Helga! How do you get yourself into these messes!"

He immediately felt bad at the look on her face, but also a bit satisfied. He hated that side of him, the one he would bash down until no one, not even him, would know it was there. But this time he didn't.

"I'm sorry," she chocked. "I-"

"I'm ringing his wife. I'm demanding to know who that PI is," he said. He left the room and Helga, sitting at the table staring at the photos.

…

At ten that night there was a knock on the door and Arnold opened it to let in no other than Brainy. Both Helga and Arnold were shocked. He was a PI?

"Uh, hi," he said uncertainly. "You wanted stuff on Arden Ross?"

"Brainy?" Helga asked, shocked.

"Yeah."

"Oh my God!" Helga exclaimed. "How are you?"

"Good. Married, one kid. A girl," he said smiling. "Can I come in?"

Arnold moved to the side and let him in.

"I'm sorry it took me so long. I had to wait for him to leave before I got into his office. I have microphones and cameras in his office. I haven't reviewed the footage yet," he warned them. "Or listened to the audio. And it wont hold up in court, though if there is a way to at least let a jury know it exits, they will get suspicious if the court wont play it."

"Why is his wife doing this?" Helga asked.

"She wants to divorce him, but she also wants to take him for all he's worth, but also keep what she came into the marriage with," Brainy told them. "It's in their pre-nup, that if infidelity is proved by either party they can divorce taking what they came in and suing the other for emotional damages, blah blah blah."

Brainy proceeded to hook everything up to the television. When he switched to the footage it showed him standing behind the door and Helga entering.

"I can't watch," she said, getting up and leaving the room.

"Is there audio?" she heard Arnold ask. She took off upstairs.

She sat on the bed a cried quietly, then finally just closed her eyes and fell asleep. She woke when she heard movement and sat up, panic racing through her.

"It's just me," she heard Arnold say. He sat next to her and was quiet for a long moment. But Helga could feel the rage radiating off him. "Your drink that night."

"What drink? What night?" she asked, confused.

"That night," Arnold growled. "He spiked it. Brainy got footage from the bar, which shows him dropping something in the drink he gave you."

"My drink?" she asked. Of course! That explains why she got so much drunker so suddenly. And her racing heart, and the heavy feeling, and the confused, dazed half memories, and being sick. "Oh my God!"

"He also has the footage of his raping you in his office with audio," he said, his voice breaking.

"Rebecca," Helga whispered.

"Rebecca?" Arnold asked. "What about her?"

"Something she said to Sasha and I once. She said before she went and worked there she was engaged. Then her and Mr. Ross slept together and it fell apart. Sasha said something like 'no one forced you' and it was her response. At the time it gave me the creeps, but I pushed it aside and didn't think anymore about it," Helga told him. "Maybe he did this to her, too?"

"In any case, that's two counts of rape for you alone. Maybe if you can get Rebecca to talk, she might be able to add something else, I don't know," Arnold said.

They were both quiet for a long period in the dark until Arnold remembered that Brainy was still downstairs, and left.

"I made three copies, just in case," Brainy told him. "You can take one set to the police, one to the lawyer, and keep one in a safe place."

"We have a vault at the bank," Arnold said. "We'll keep a copy there."

"I always keep copies myself, as well," he said. "Never hurts to have more than two copies."

…...

…...

"That fucking sod!" Sasha cursed. "He raped you. Twice!"

Helga was quiet.

"Is there anything you can tell us about your experience?" Arnold asked. "Or do you know anyone who would be willing to speak against him?"

Sasha was thinking it over.

"Well, I wasn't drunk," she said. "I thought I was in love. He's so charming. But I know a few who left or didn't come back. I can see if they will talk."

"I was wondering about Rebecca?" Helga suggested. Sasha shook her head.

"You couldn't pry that girls lips apart with a jackhammer to get her to talk about her time with him," Sasha said. "Trust me. I've tried."

"So how come no one has ever said anything?" Arnold asked.

Sasha shrugged. "He's never had to try so hard with a woman, like he had to with Helga."

"Really?"

"He tried for six months!" Sasha exclaimed. "It's the longest he's ever had to chase after someone. Some of us never even lasted six days playing hard to get! But Helga . . . she's a legend."

Arnold said nothing, but took what she said in.

"Look, I can help, but I don't know how much help I'll be."

…..

…..

"Rebecca?" Helga called out. Rebecca smiled when she saw who it was.

"Helga, hi!" she came over and they hugged. "How have you been?"

"Fine, listen can I talk to you?" she asked, leading her into a café. Rebecca looked over her shoulder nervously, then smiled.

"Sure, but just for a moment," she said, hurrying along with Helga. When they sat down they ordered coffee and Helga tried to think of how to start the conversation. She decided to just dive in.

"So, there's video of Mr. Ross spiking my drink," she said straight out. Rebecca's mouth dropped open.

"Really?"

"Yup. And also of him raping me in his office," Helga continued.

Rebecca went pale.

"Ra-rape?" she stammered.

"Yeah," she said. "Audio and everything."

"He raped you?" she asked.

"Twice. Drugging someone then having sex with them counts as rape," she said. "I've gone to the police, and they're starting an investigation."

"Into Arden?" Rebecca asked.

Arden? That's funny. Helga had never heard Rebecca refer to Mr. Ross by his first name before. A little alarm went off.

"Yeah," Helga said. "Problem?"

Rebecca shook her head.

"Rebecca, is there something you want to add?" Helga asked. "Did he rape you or something?"

"I can't talk about it," Rebecca said.

"Why not?" Helga demanded. "Did he or didn't he?"

"Yes, he did," she confirmed, tears coming into her eyes.

"Then why did you never say anything?" Helga asked.

Rebecca was silent for a long time.

"Rebecca?"

"Because he's my brother-in-law."

…..

…..

Going into the police station Rebecca saw her sister sitting in the waiting area.

"Rebecca? What are you doing here?" she demanded. "And with her? What do you have to do with this?"

"I'm not his only victim," Helga snapped at the woman.

"What!? When? Why didn't you tell me?" the woman demanded.

"I thought you would say I was lying. And that you would hate me, and the rest of the family would hate me," Rebecca said. "I'm sorry, Kym."

Kym stood there a moment watching her younger sister cry before moving forward and hugging her.

"You should have told me!" she said.

"Well, she's telling you now," Helga said. Kym looked over at her.

"So you never slept with my husband?" she asked, sounding almost disappointed.

"Not willingly. But I'm pretty sure you can still do him over in your divorce. A few other woman are coming forward," Helga told her. "So if nothing else."

A few more woman from the office came in, and some others who Helga didn't know. Mingling among them she found that four of them had filed a rape complaint about him, but nothing had come of it.

"No proof," they all said. His trick was to lure them into first, a legitimate "relationship" or make it seem as though that was going on. Then, when they resisted he pulled the stunt on them that he pulled on Helga. He would then tell their husband or boyfriends about it. Boast in their faces. He was responsible for many relationship breakdowns.

And yet, he still kept some woman on the side. It was why so many wouldn't leave. Because they were still "in a relationship" with him.

Or so they had thought. The running joke of how he "broke them in", suddenly wasn't so funny anymore. This was six rape complaints he was facing, from six individuals. Helga was the only one he had raped twice though.

"Probably because you were so hard to catch," on of them suggested. "He wanted to get what he saw was his due."

"This time, if nothing is done, I'm going to the media with it," one of the other woman said. There was a mumble of agreement. Rebecca and Helga were quiet the whole time.

The rest of the day was spent talking to the various woman, getting character references, getting their stories. Two cases were pulled out of storage. They had been marked as Closed. But they were far from it.

"Guess you have someone covering his arse from the inside, huh?" Helga said.

The cop interviewing her glared, but he couldn't deny it.

"If there is, I wouldn't want to be that person," the cop said.

After Helga had gone and done her statement, she went home, giving Rebecca a hug as she went.

"You can do this!" she said.

"Oh, trust me," her sister Kym said. "She will."

…

…

It was quiet when Helga and Arnold got home. Olga had the twins for the night, so it was just Helga and him.

"What do you want for dinner?" she asked.

"Pizza," Arnold said, dropping onto the couch."Okay, I'll go order it," Helga said, going to the phone in the kitchen.

While she was gone Arnold kept thinking, over and over. Would she have slept with him even if he hadn't spiked her drink? The thought of some other man touching her, kissing her, using her . . . it repulsed him. He couldn't help it. It was for that reason that he hadn't touched her or kissed her since it all came out. As stupid as it was, she seemed dirty and contaminated. He would shake the thought from his head, but it would stay there and he couldn't get rid of it. He hated feeling this way, but he just couldn't help it.

"Twenty minutes," she said, coming in and sitting on the couch next to him.

It was time to just bite the bullet.

"Would you have slept with him willingly? Ever?" Arnold asked.

"Are you kidding me?" Helga asked, standing up. "Are you seriously fucking kidding me? Because that is not funny!"

Arnold looked down.

"You seriously think I would cheat on you? That I would throw away everything we have? For what? A charming rapist?" she demanded.

"You didn't know that he did that before he did it to you," Arnold pointed out.

Helga just stared at him, shocked.

"You know what, Arnold? That says more about you, then it does about me," she snapped, and left the room. "Enjoy your fucking pizza!"

…..

…..

Breakfast the next morning was quiet. When Olga rung she got a feeling, and volunteered to have the kids another night.

"That would be great, Olga, thankyou," Helga said, before hanging up.

She looked over at Arnold, who was reading the paper.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Well what?" he asked, not even looking at her. It made her angry and she ripped the paper out of his hands.

"Are we going to talk about this?" she demanded.

"I asked you a question," he said.

"And the answer is no," Helga snapped.

She sat across from him and they were both silent. There had been a lot of silences between them lately.

"How are we going to work through this, Arnold, if your not going to talk to me?" she asked.

"I've already organized a councillor," he said, taking a card from his wallet and pushing it towards her.

"I already have one, thanks," she said sarcastically.

"This is a marriage and relationship one, Helga. It's just as much for me as it is for you," he said.

"You need a councillor?" she asked.

"Yes, Helga, I do. Okay?" he snapped. "I need to learn how to work through the fact that some other man has used my wife in a way only I'm supposed too. I need to find a way to help you through this. This isn't easy on me either, Helga. I don't know what to do. And I have so many conflicting emotions myself!"

He got up, threw his plate in the sink and walked out, leaving Helga sitting there stunned.

She hadn't even thought about the impact this was having on Arnold.

"It's like your contaminated, okay?" he said, coming back in "I don't want to touch you, I don't want to kiss you. I don't even want to be near you, and I hate feeling that way!"

Helga looked up surprised. She had thought he had left.

"I don't want to feel that way, Helga, but I do!" he finished. "I'm sorry."

Helga didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry too," she said. "I never even gave you a thought-"

"Jesus, Helga, if I were in your shoes, I never would have given me a thought!" he yelled. "I'd be too busy thinking of myself, and everything else to worry about you!"

"Don't spare my feelings, football head," she said sarcastically, smirking.

"I'm still hurt by the whole ordeal okay?" Arnold admitted. "It's made me a little insecure. And I'm also angry, because there were so many signs, that even you admit now you noticed, and you ignored them all. You let it all go, and now look!"

He picked up the paper and flipped to the second page.

"It's in the media now, Helga," Arnold told her. Helga gasped. "Everyone is going to read this, everyone is going to learn everything. Someone blabbed."

She skimmed the article, then saw what she was looking for.

"He's had reports against him before" says one victim. "And nothing was done about!" Her complaint had been filed away as closed, when in reality no one had done anything. This is leading to a thorough investigation, not only into the Arden Ross saga, but also into the handling of the complaints.

"Holy shit," she said.

"I don't know about the holy part, but shit's about right. And it's hit the fan, and splattered all over the fucking city."

Helga looked up at him.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked.

"Nail the bastard to a fucking wall then burn it."

….

….

It was another four months before the trial actually happened. As predicted, he had called in the best lawyers. After the video and audio evidence was denied being played, Helga noticed frowns and confusion on the faces of the jury. She could practically hear them collectively thinking 'Why? What don't him and his lawyers want us seeing?'. It was helped by the fact that when Helga was up on the stand she mentioned that there was video and audio of him spiking her drink, and raping her in his office.

"That's why you didn't want it played, right?"

"Objection!"

Arden Ross had come in confident, and smirking. But by the third girl he wasn't smiling at all. Even his lawyers were nervous. They had hired their own investigators to find any dirt they could on the woman, and found nothing, except their links to Arden Ross. It was also revealed that not long after one of his victims was raped by him, she committed suicide. There was a collective gasp. Arden's lawyers looked back at him, shocked and stumped. He hadn't mentioned this to him. The woman's journal entries were read to the court, being treated as a "victim impact statement" of sorts. Helga looked around and saw Brainy. He'd definitely come through for her and all the other woman.

It took two weeks, but by the beginning of the second, even Arden Ross knew he wasn't going get away with this. And even if he did, his name was mud.

His wife was striping him for all he was worth in the divorce. He had a collection of luxury cars, that she sold, and ended up giving the money to shelters. When she sold his mansion, she donated the money to the SPCA. He had been ropable when he'd found out. It was a quick divorce too, thanks to the pre-nup and the fact they had no kids. It also helped that he was probably going to get locked away.

Helga's case alone held two counts of rape, and one of kidnapping and false imprisonment. Her lawyers had argued that she was in no sound state the night of the first rape, to go anywhere willingly. And the cameras from the hotel showed her at various times, actually attempting to pull away from him, stumbling as she did, in which he then picked her up and carried her into his room.

That was shown in court. Helga had buried her head in Arnold's shoulder when it was played. She couldn't watch it. They had also taken video footage from the office - not his own one - and the elevators, and had spoken to the people who were in the elevators at the time, calling them as both witnesses, and character references.

Going deeper it was found that he was indeed connected to a murder. It was briefly touched upon, but was not mentioned again as it had nothing to do with this case. But it looked like that case was going to be dusted off.

When they adjourned, and left the courtroom, Arnold couldn't keep quiet any longer.

"He's fucked," he said. "No one can get away with that much without a prison sentence."

"We'll see," one of the woman said.

"Murder though!" another woman said. "I never knew he was that evil!"

Helga ignored the chatter going on around her. She leaned into Arnold and for the first time in a while he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her head.

"I'm sorry your going through this, Arnold," she whispered.

"I'm sorry your going through this at all," he whispered back. "And I'm sorry for making it that much harder. I'm trying."

"I know. And I love you even more for that."

"Let's go get lunch," he suggested. A few others followed their lead. Two hours later she got a call from Rebecca.

"The jury's back, hurry up!" she yelled down the phone.

"They jury's back!" Helga called out. Other patrons watched, curious, as the place practically emptied out. They all rushed back. Once everyone was seated the judge called order.

Everyone was quiet as the judge was given the paper with the fate of Arden Ross on it.

"On the charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment, how do the jury find the defendant?" the judge asked.

"Guilty" he finally said, in a loud voice.

"And on the multiple counts of rape?"

"Guilty on all counts, your Honour," the jury member said, again loud and clear.

"The sentencing date will be two weeks from now. In the meantime the defendant will be held in remand, without bail." Then the judge banged the gravel. There was a cheer from Helga's side of the court room. The judge went mental on his gravel, calling for order.

Eventually everyone calmed down enough to take it outside of the courtroom.

…

…

A year later Arnold and Helga were once again on a family holiday. Things had slowly gone back to the way they were before the mess. Kym had taken over the business that Arden Ross had once run. She had hired Helga on as a CEO. She had kept a majority of the woman, though some left.

Arden Ross was sentenced to forty years, with a non parole period of twenty.

It would be a very long time before he would ever be able to hurt another woman again.

Arnold had become a Dean at the university, still teaching his lectures. The twins were happy, and never knew anything about what had happened between their parents, or that their little family had almost broken up. There were still hiccups between Arnold and Helga. After the trial Helga got night terrors for about seven months. though they had mostly died down, for the first year after it all, things weren't as active in the bedroom as it had been before the incident. But they were working on it.

Two years after it all Helga found she was pregnant. She had always thanked her lucky stars that she had never gotten pregnant from the rapes. She wouldn't have kept the baby. Wether she would have given it up for adoption or had an abortion she didn't know, and was glad that she never would. They welcomed another boy into the world.

Sasha and Lorenzo eventually married. Rebecca was introduced, and got on well, with Sid of all people. Arnold and Helga had gone to their High School reunion, then had had a get together with all their old friends they could contact.

Things had worked out pretty okay in the end.