When Joey first started seeing Katie, everything was pretty nice. She didn't touch his food, or call him stupid, or try to hog all of his attention. She was just this nice, funny, girl that he had fun spending time with.
Then she started hitting...
Joey was honestly surprised when he felt it though the two layers he had on because there was no way someone so tiny could cause any real damage to him... right?
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They continued to go out for a full week. She kept hitting him- usually in the arm or the side, more rarely in the chest or the belly- and each time it seemed to hurt more. Truth of the matter was that her playful punches had begun to leave bruises on Joey's body that made him hesitant to actually move onto sex with her.
It didn't stop them from ending up in bed together though. He had almost hoped that she would see the bruises and cut it out, but no such luck.
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They had been going out for nearly two weeks when he finally worked up the courage to tell his friends that something was wrong because there obviously had to be something wrong. He grew up knowing that he was not supposed to ever hit a girl and that was fine. That shouldn't mean that a girl was allowed to hit him.
Sitting in the coffee house with everybody was so comfortable that Joey forgot all about what he wanted to tell them. It wasn't until Katie had showed up early and left for the bathroom that he managed to bring it up.
Having his friends wave off his concern with jokes was nothing like what he expected.
Friends were supposed to take care of each other. Right? If any of them said they were being hurt then he would have tried his best to help. So, why didn't any of them care when he was the one being hurt?
When Katie came back out of the bathroom, Joey barely managed to resist hugging himself before heading out for Chinese food with her. Maybe he was just overthinking- it could happen. Maybe there was nothing wrong like everyone else said and he just needed to man up.
Maybe what he felt just didn't matter...?
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Three weeks had to be a record, but it was starting to feel like a punishment and Joey had absolutely no idea what he could have done to deserve it.
The playful punching was becoming so common that he couldn't help flinching just a bit every time Katie's hands came up. Just a few days before he had tried to tell her that he didn't like it, but she didn't stop. In fact, she'd seemed to take his comment as encouragement to hit harder because he had been poking fun about her size.
He was tired of it. Tired and sore and he really needed someone to care about it because the longer he was around her, the more scared he felt. He'd never say that out loud though because being afraid of someone as small as Katie was something he would never live down. Even if it was deserved.
The worst part was that it wasn't just around her anymore. Chandler had raised his arm the night before, just a simple stretch, and Joey had taken a step back to avoid it. He had tensed when Monica put her hands on her hips and stepped into his line of sight while she had been arguing with Ross about something. The thing with Katie was messing up his life.
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When Joey decided to break it off with Katie, he pulled out every sweater he owned, plus one of Chandler's and piled them on. She hit hard when in a good mood, there was no reason to think she wouldn't be worse in a bad mood.
They had agreed to meet at the coffee house. Witnesses were good. He hadn't expected to see Rachel there. When he explained his, admittedly odd, wardrobe choice she smiled. It was obvious that she thought he was still playing around.
She didn't think that when Katie showed up and hit her...
Joey's eyes went wide as he witnessed the back and forth between the two women. Rachel was hitting back. When Rachel kicked Katie in the knee, he couldn't help taking a step backwards. The "do something or I'm gone" speech was like a gift from the universe.
Katie walked out the door and Joey let out a relieved breath and wore a grateful smile as Rachel pulled him into a hug.
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That night, Rachel helped him talk to their friends. No one laughed it off when she said Katie's punches had hurt... They apologised for not listening before and promised to never do it again. That was all well and good, but they shouldn't have done it in the first place.
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Joey went home that night and held Hugsy tight until he fell asleep. Hugsy was always there for him.