For Joe, I totally pictured Dwayne Johnson (The Rock).

The next morning when Priestly woke up he was alone in the large bed. He groaned, dreading the next few lonely days. After getting ready for work he walked to the door and glared at his broken board that had betrayed him. Returning to his room he dug out the parts to fix it and sat down to mend his broken transportation. Once he was satisfied it was not going to break again he took the board outside and hurried to work. It was a little after two when Tish walked into the grill with an unknown man.

Tish and the man walked to the counter before she introduced the stranger. "Hey everybody! This is my brother Joe." Piper and Jen nodded politely with wide eyes and introduced themselves. Trucker wiped his hands off on a rag and walked over to shake the large man's hand.

"If you don't mind my asking what is it you do Joe?"

Joe smiled at the hippie's firm grip, he could appreciate that. "I'm with the FBI."

Priestly, who had been staring with a slacked jaw expression this whole time finally spoke.

"Holy shit you're huge. How many wheaties do you eat in the morning?" Priestly could only gape at the massive man next to his girlfriend. He was at least 6'4" and was pure muscle. Priestly wasn't exactly sure how he even fit into Tish's car.

"And you are…?" Joe asked. He wanted to laugh at the kid's appearance but something stopped him. Joe liked to consider himself a pretty good judge of character, after all his job depended on it. He took in the man's bright blue mohawk, tattoos, piercings and pale blue shirt that read 'The jerk store called. They're running out of you'. He also noticed the eyeliner, chipped black nail polish, rings, and spiked cuffs. What concerned him though was that even though the guy seemed simple and silly there was a nervous air about him. Like he was expecting Joe to attack him or something.

"Priestly" he answered with a defiant incline of his head.

Joe's attention was again grabbed by the bright blue hair, "Nice hair there buddy" he stated in a condescending tone.

Priestly opened his mouth to fire a retort but at the last second settled for a glare. He turned around to face the grill to avoid saying something he might regret. The last thing he wanted to do was upset Tish, or draw attention to himself.

Sensing the hostility Tish changed the subject and explained their visit, "I thought we'd swing by here to get some lunch. Six inch veggie for me and a twelve inch turkey for Joe."

Piper wrote down the order and turned to begin making the sandwiches as Tish and her brother slid into a booth.

Joe turned his attention to his little sister, "So what's new?"

"Not much, just working here."

Joe nodded before going for the jugular, "You got a boyfriend or anybody I should know about?"

As much as it killed her to say it she stuck to the plan, "Nope, no one right now." Trucker, Jen, and Piper looked at each other surprised but stayed silent. She saw Priestly in her peripheral vision approach the table with the two subs. He met her eyes for a fraction of a second before turning away from the table. He had been watching them since they came in. He was finding it much harder than anticipated to act like he and Tish weren't together.

Joe began unwrapping the sub and jerked his thumb towards the counter, "Well as long as you don't end up with somebody like that guy we're good."

Tish noticed Priestly's steps falter slightly, but he kept walking until he was back behind the counter. Piper, Jen, and Trucker cast nervous glances at each other, hopefully this wouldn't get ugly.

She glared at her brother. "Why would you say that? You don't even know him."

Joe shrugged, "Well he looks like a freak."

The sound of a knife being stabbed forcefully into the cutting board made everyone freeze. Feeling everyone's eyes on his back Priestly threw down his apron and announced he was gong on break. Tish could only watch as Priestly disappeared into the back fuming.

"You're an ass Joe, these are my friends. Get over yourself!" she whispered furiously before getting up and running to find Priestly.

She found him in the back of the restaurant pacing back and forth. She immediately walked over and grabbed him into a hug, rubbing the back of his neck affectionately. "Don't listen to him. You're not a …" she never said freak, 'Priestly' and 'freak' weren't two words that should be in the same sentence. "You're Priestly, my Priestly. I'm sorry by brother's such an ass."

He forced himself to relax and kissed Tish, "I'm sorry, it just caught me off guard. Everything's fine, no worries. You better get back in there, he might come looking for you."

"I know," she whispered before kissing him one last time. She walked back into the grill, sparing one last glance at her boyfriend who was watching her with hurt eyes.

She walked back to the booth and snatched her purse forcefully, "Come on let's go."

Joe sighed and followed her out into the warm California sun. She's pissed. "Look I'm sorry ok? Where is he, I'll go apologize."

Tish stared at him, wondering if it was a good idea for Priestly and Joe to talk again. Trusting her brother she answered, "Out back, and you better be nice."

Joe nodded and walked around the back of the building. Turning the corner he saw the tattooed man leaning against the brick exterior. As he walked towards the man he began to grow apprehensive. There was something about the man he just did not trust.

Priestly cautiously watched the man approach him. "What the hell do you want?" he snapped. He knew he shouldn't push his luck but he was still pissed.

"I came back here to apologize" he held out his hand "can we start over?"

Priestly eyed the hand wearily before stepping forward to shake it. He would do this for Tish. The second his hand was in Joe's hand he felt Joe squeeze hard. The man kept squeezing Priestly's hand, almost crushing it until Priestly was brought down to his knees gasping.

Not my bad hand, not my bad hand! Priestly screamed in his mind.

Forcing himself to not show too much pain Priestly bit out, "What the hell's your problem? Huh?"

Joe kept his death grip on the younger man's hand and pointed a long finger in his face, "You, you're my problem. I saw the way you looked at my sister. You stay the fuck away from her, got it? She's not interested in a piece of shit like you. I don't trust you. I know you're hiding something jackass, and I will find out what it is."

Joe finally released the younger man's hand and disappeared around the corner of the building. Finally alone Priestly gripped his right wrist and squeezed it tightly. The pain was unbearable. The bastard had tried to crush Priestly's bad hand and now he couldn't get his fingers to go straight, they were stuck in a loose fist. Tears sprung into his eyes as he tried over and over to get his hand to work with no avail. He forced himself off his knees and back into the restaurant. When he entered Jen and Piper were missing but Trucker was still there. He instantly noticed the young man clutching his right wrist, "Priestly, what happened?"

"Nothing, can I head out early today?" he ground out. The ache in his hand was starting to spread up his arm.

Looking at Priestly's shaking hands he asked again, needing to know what happened.

He finally answered, "That fucker tried to crush my bad hand" he felt tears forming in his eyes again, "Truck I can't straighten my hand."

Trucker heard the panicked undertones in the young man's voice, "Go, go take care of your hand. Take tomorrow off too." He watched the younger man grab his things. He wanted to kill Tish's brother for harming Priestly but knew he had to let it go, it wasn't his place to get involved this time.

When Priestly reached the front door he turned. "Thanks Truck, don't tell Tish ok?"

Trucker looked like he wanted to object but held his tongue, "Ok."

Priestly ended up walking home, his hand hurting so badly he couldn't focus on riding. When he finally got inside his apartment he got a bowl of ice water and dipped his pounding appendage in it. He couldn't believe Tish's brother had done that, who did he think he was? Grinding his teeth in anger he grabbed the remote and turned on the tv trying to distract himself.

A few hours later he felt his phone buzz from his pocket. Digging it out with his left hand he saw a new text from Tish. He smiled as he opened the message.

'Miss you'

Even though it was slightly difficult with his left hand, he texted back. 'miss you too. where r u?'

A second later his phone buzzed again, 'home, want to meet up?'

Frowning at his still throbbing right hand he answered, 'not tonight, tired'

'ok night'

'night'

Priestly chucked his phone across the couch in frustration. He hated not seeing Tish, especially because of her asshole brother. He flipped off the tv, walked to his room and climbed under the covers, waiting to fall asleep and for this horrible day to end.