A/N: Warning – this chapter contains domestic violence. If you don't want to read it then please wait until the next chapter is up.

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Zoey, a 22 year old, started searching for a clean pair of jeans she could wear the following day for college. She found a pair that had been thrown in to the back of her cupboard but had more creases in it than a used hankie. She knew her boyfriend was downstairs ironing a shirt or something but she was terrified to ask him to do her jeans for her. She wasn't very good at the domestic stuff such as cooking and cleaning. The best she could do was heat up a pizza or boil the odd egg. Justin was better at all that which was why she couldn't believe her luck when she met him and moved in with him as they had agreed that as long as Zoey dealt with their finances, something she knew more about, he would do the domestics. However what she didn't realise was that he was a drunk – actually not so much a drunk, more of an alcoholic. She also didn't realise when she agreed to move in with him was that he got violent when he drank. Slowly peering in to the living room, she could see just over half a dozen cans of beer rolling around the table and lying on the floor. There was one or two on top of the television which she had to quickly remove before they got knocked over. This was the usual state of the apartment when she got home from her part time job at a day care centre. She worked there whenever she didn't have college so she could pay the bills and the weeks food shopping. She never got a social life – she didn't have the time. If she wasn't at college doing an economics course, she would be at the day care centre cleaning up after other people's 2 year old babies. When she got home, she would be cleaning up after her 28 year old boyfriend, although she never noticed the difference between the babies and Justin. She didn't dare ask him to tidy his cans up once he had finished with them. The last time she did that he went mental, screamed at her and ended it with slapping her across her face a few times. Tears welled in her eyes at the memory of both cheeks stinging at each contact. That wasn't her boyfriend; it was just the drink talking. She tried to avoid him when he got in that state, staying at the day care centre later than she should or going off to college to finish a paper she had handed in a few weeks earlier.

Zoey drew in a breath and walked in to where Justin was doing a shirt. He had done a couple of others that still had a few crease in but who was she to argue. "Baby, as you're doing those, could you possibly iron these jeans for me please?"

Justin looked at her like she had just suggested he jumped off a cliff or something. Zoey held her breath. She hated it when he looked at her like that because she knew exactly what was coming ….

Meanwhile …

Mark Sloan and Derek Shepherd were hanging around the nurses' station gossiping together like a couple of teenage school girls. The nurses were pretending to be busy doing something but kept an ear out for something interesting.

"So, yeah, last night they were up all night and all I wanted to do was go to bed. Even when I promised Meredith sex, it just didn't work." Derek complained to his best friend.

"How would that have worked? Surely if you guys had sex then you wouldn't be going to sleep." Mark asked him.

"It would have stopped the girly screeching! I'm glad she and Lexie are getting on now but a man has a right to some sleep right?"

Mark nodded and turned round to lean his back up against the desk. He clocked Lexie Grey walking out towards the elevator. Their eyes locked together and he winked at her. She may have been forbidden fruit but there was definitely something about her. Perhaps it was because she's forbidden fruit or perhaps it's because she's only 24. Either way, she excited Mark. The first girl to do so in 5 years ….

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SLAP! Zoey's cheek stung from the contact of Justin's right hand. When Justin told her he wouldn't iron her jeans for her, she had stupidly asked him why not.

"It's about time you learnt to do it yourself!" He yelled at her. "I'm fed up of doing everything around here for you! You're not a baby anymore – about time you fucking learnt!"

"I don't know how to." Zoey started to explain feebly. "If you showed me how …" She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as a fist had swung for her and had knocked her for six. "I don't have time to do it, baby." She managed to splutter through the blood that was now coming out her mouth. Knowing she needed to get to the hospital and fast, she knew that trying to argue back was not going to get her anywhere.

Justin got down to her level and pulled her face up by her jaw and leaned in "Make time then!" he screamed at her. Standing up to leave, he kicked her while she was down, literally, and walked out. Crying out in agony, Zoey pulled her phone out from her pocket and rang the first number she thought of. When the other end picked up she said, "Derek, I'm coming in. No, it's my jaw this time."