As always, before anything I'd like to thank your kind comments! You sure know how to put a smile on my face. I'm thrilled that you are enjoying this. Please keep on sharing your thoughts!

There's a happening here that was inspired by when I found a small dent on my car, soon you will know what I'm talking about. So, as much as I cursed the idiot who did that, I thank you for giving me inspiration. I wish you could read this.

There are some stuff going on in this chapter, so I'm gonna get going… enjoy!

Chap. 7 Soundtrack:

Bon Jovi - Blood on Blood

Cobra Starship – Bring It

The Bravery – Above and Below

The Pierces – Three Wishes

The Kooks – Sway

Bon Jovi – I'll Be There For You

7. Blood on blood

If Billy could observe himself, like in a movie, he'd have shouted to himself to stop right there. But that obviously couldn't happen.

The Mustang and the Plymouth Duster came to a stop in front of a bakery. The place looked dirty and nobody ever brought a single bread there, they didn't have those to begin with. Like Bones had used the body shop to cover his gun business, Carlos used the store as a cover up for drug dealing.

Carlos Santiago, the newest leader of the Halls gang. Apparently he was well informed. Billy Darley's gang wasn't to be messed with. But they fucked up big time.

This man wasn't here searching for explanations, he wanted blood.

Carlos himself showed up on the top of the stairs right when Billy closed his car's door. Bodie parked on his right side.

"¡Hola, Billy!" His obvious spanish accent didn't hid his concern. "We need to talk, man."

"I don't wanna fucking talk and you know that. Give me Austin." He ordered. Billy wasn't about beginning a gang war now, but he could change his mind all too easily.

"Now, Billy, there's no need to retaliation. I understand your anger, but-."

Carlos was cut off by the sound of a Buick Skylark parking right beside Billy's car. The passenger, a sweaty Italian-looking guy, opened the door with all his strength and so far that it reached out to hit the Mustang.

Billy looked back and saw the moment a small, but obvious, dent was left on his automobile. Baggy, Tommy and Bodie heard the noise of guns being cocked upstairs and they got theirs ready, but Carlos lifted his hand up, so his guys would hold their fire.

Bodie's eyes only left Carlos when he heard the loud thud of a body falling against a car. Billy had stridden to the man and punched him right in his nose. The fat man didn't have time to reach out.

"Are you fucking nuts?" Billy yelled. The driver went to help his friend, but Carlos left out a low whistle. Billy Darley had free pass to do what he pleased with that man.

The Italian guy fell on his knees. Billy grabbed a handful of his greasy hair.

"You see what you fucking did? HUH?" He pretty much twisted the man's neck and slammed his head against the Buick Skylark over and over again. He pleaded for help, but Billy just wouldn't stop. He only let go when the man passed out on his bloodied hand. Billy tossed the heavy body and then kicked it aside. He wasn't dead, but it wouldn't be a surprise if he was left with a glitch in his brain for the rest of his life. In the end of it all, the dent Billy left on the other car was much bigger.

"AUSTIN!" Billy yelled, more like roared like a starving lion before his prey.

Carlos was annoyingly calm, that caught Tommy's attention. He went beside Billy, who was breathing hard and had already taken off his long leather jacket. One could easily see his hard chest going up and down. He was in the rawest state.

"AUSTIN!" He yelled again.

"Billy, man, Carlos' got an arsenal pointed at ya from upstairs. Don't fucking do that."

His boss lightly tilted his head sideways to speak. "Shut the fuck up, Tommy. My business ain't with Carlos. AUSTIN!"

Austin finally appeared, he walked out the front door and stood behind Carlos.

"Took you long enough, motherfucker." Carlos greeted, keeping the calm façade. "I ain't risking a gang war right now because of your fucking mistake." While saying that he kept facing Billy and his gang, his arms comfortable crossed in front of his chest. "Not now." He said more to himself, it was so tempting. "Go clean your fucking shit and know that even if you make it out alive, which I don't think you will, you are no business of ours anymore."

"What?" Austin felt the air being taken away from his lungs, only he had not already been hit. He grew up on that gang, he knew nothing else.

"Here's your boy, Billy." Carlos smiled with sympathy, like he was handing his opponent a glass of the greatest beer, and pushed Austin forward. The young man stumbled down the steps and fell with his face a mere foot away from Billy Darley's feet.

Billy didn't say a word. He simply grabbed Austin by the jacket's collar and tossed him inside the black Mustang. Heco, who had stood behind this whole time, went over and tied his wrists and ankles. The cherry on the top was the silver tape on his mouth. Billy wasn't stupid, he wouldn't leave his traces on this enemy's front yard.

Billy and the others drove straight to the office. While the leader thought of the most painful torture techniques, Bodie thought of how easy it had been. Something wasn't right and he couldn't grasp what. Were they really that afraid of their gang? They pretty much had all of their heads, including Billy's, on a silver tray. That was a matter that had to be discussed when his boss recovered the little sense he had.

At The Office, Heco and Baggy carried Austin to the dirtiest room. There were a couple of rats over there and it was dark. They locked him up in that place, as Billy had asked. The bastard wasn't being shipped off so easily and he knew it.

...

"Are you excited for your birthday tomorrow?"

"Yes, Ally. I can't wait to celebrate my birthday in a hospital bed. Super rad." Julie didn't even need to fake joy, her sarcasm was too obvious at the ridiculous question.

"Oh, come on, Julie. Out of this mess, you do have something to be happy about. I mean, now you finally know that Billy's clean." Ally smiled to her friend, knowing that had been eating up Julie inside.

"I'm sorry?" Julie furrowed.

Before Ally could say something else the hospital door was open again. Part of Julie hoped to see Billy. She was growing impatient on the lack of news and it had been over two days since she last saw him. But instead of the gang lord, a cop entered her room, the badge hanging proudly around her neck. Detective Wallis, Julie remembered her name. She had inquired Julie about Billy some time in the past.

"Miss Lane, mind if I come in?" The detective asked with a small smile, half of her body already in the room.

"You are already in", Julie wanted to answer. But she had to play nice for Billy's sake. "Sure", was her reply instead. She didn't put effort on sounding pleased at the visit.

"I understand what you have gone through and that things must be confused right now. I'm terribly sorry for what happened to you, but we need to talk."

"It's ok. What do you want to know?" Julie decided to find out what the detective had already, so she could throw them on the other direction. Being defensive would only raise a flag to the police.

"What do you remember?" Yeah, Wallis was no fool.

"Not much to be honest… I had just found this lost little girl and was talking to the manager when the hooded men entered the store." She said casually.

"Do you have any idea why they harmed you and left everyone else untouched?" Wallis didn't write down anything. She was watching Julie's reaction closely.

"One of them wanted the kid for hostage but I didn't let go of her."

"Why would you do that?"

"Are you kidding me? What did you want me to do? Give that poor little girl to an armed man?" Julie raised her voice.

"Calm down, Miss Lane. It's my job to ask… So, it seems you are related to Billy Darley, is that right?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business." She couldn't help but get defensive right now.

"He's a gang member and I'm a cop, anything related to those two facts is my business." Wallis said straight out, her tone a bit petulant.

"Well, detective, if you insist to know, we've been fucking each other all right." Julie stared right at the cop who seemed to be defying her. This was becoming personal.

Ally chocked with the water she was drinking, making both women to break eye contact to look at her.

"Ok, I'm fine!" Ally exclaimed, her face still red.

"Anyway, Miss Lane, do you got a chance to see a face or something? Some witness said you ripped someone's hood." Detective Wallis had totally lost her patience.

"I'm not sure, I don't remember. I might have done that, but I had been stabbed already. I blacked out before I saw anything." Julie said with no tenderness or self-pity. "But now that you mentioned... I think I saw an eagle tattoo."

"An eagle?" Wallis got curious. "Are you sure of that?"

"Yes." She had read in the newspaper that some Bostonian gang had the eagle as their symbol. They were from the other side of the town.

"All right, then, Miss Lane. Here's my card." Wallis placed the piece of paper on the nightstand. "Give me a call if you remember anything else. We want to know who did this to you. Remember that we are on the same side."

"Sure, detective. We both want to catch the bad guys." Julie let a smirk play on her lips at the pun of her sentence.

Wallis left the room without saying another word.

Julie had barely recomposed herself from the question & answer section when the probable other one entered the room. Dan's eyes widened when he saw Julie lying on the bed.

"What the hell happened to you?" He half ran to where she was.

Julie summed the best of her self control to not roll her eyes at him. "Just my luck." Only Dan knew her all too well and could see past her sarcasm.

"Yeah, 'cause you sure would let someone stab you that easily."

"Ah, Dan! I just told the cop what happened. I don't wanna talk about it all again. It was a robbery. I protected a kid and they got back at me."

"So you telling me this has nothing to do with Billy Darley and his gang?" Dan confronted her.

"Absolutely not." She shortly answered.

Dan glanced at Ally. "Do you mind giving us a moment?"

Ally furrowed at him. What an ass. "Sure". She answered without really meaning it.

"I didn't know she was your girl, man!" Austin cried like a little kid. He could see nothing. The only thing he knew is that he was now in a brighter and wider place but aside to that, nada. He couldn't have known the guys put him in a room to be beaten up to death.

Austin had already lost three teeth and both eyes were probably purple by now. The room looked like a movie set for Saw.

Billy Darley sat aback to enjoy his despair. He was in his second cigarette when Bodie entered the room.

"Dawg, are you gonna take long? We wanna grab something to eat."

"Then go. I don't wanna rush the process."

Austin heard a different voice from Billy's and started yelling for help. In his despair he could not realize that was another gang member.

"Are you fucking serious, Billy? I can't believe you're wasting that much time in that piece of shit. If he at least fought back…"

"Fucking leave, Bodie. My business with this fuck ain't over yet." Billy dismissed his loyal friend and threw the cigarette butt on the floor and smashed it with his boot.

"If ya sayin' so…" Bodie shrugged and left with no further speaking. Billy needed to be done with this shit soon.

As if it was possible, Austin got more desperate when he heard Bodie leaving. Billy truly was starting to get annoyed at his winning. He had had enough guts to stab his girl, where was all this courage now?

Billy got up and with two large strides he was before the chair where Austin was tied down. He grabbed the cloth around his head and ripped it off. His prisoner was blinded for a few seconds, after spending so much time in the dark.

"So… you motherfucker think you know it all, huh? Yeah, 'Darley won't come after us', 'and I don't care if he does'. Ain't you a fucking macho, eh?" Billy was on Austin's face and the young man spitted on his face.

Billy turned purple. He cleaned the spit with his long sleeve and then his fist met Austin's nose with all his strength. Seconds later it was broken and bleeding a lot. Billy was so beyond furious that he didn't say anything else. He walked to the balcony close by, put on a very thick glove and grabbed a bottle of their strongest acid, wondering how long it'd take to go through the bones.

Sixty seconds.

He observed as the slightly blue liquid melted the hair on his arm, pretty much on the same time his skin started boiling, a yellow liquid started flowing. Then his muscle was exposed, just to be putrefied. It did take a bit longer on the bones, those were thicker. They started burning up as if they were on fire and started turning black.

Billy enjoyed watching all the phases, so he decided that better than to blow each of his members with a gun was to watch as they detached themselves from his body with acid. Yeah, that was much better. So he let the liquid fall more on the already abused arm.

Austin didn't endure the pain and passed out. That made Billy to lose interest in his latest science project. He was actually hungry as well. He took his gun out of his waistband and shot Austin in the middle of his temple, just to be sure the fucker wouldn't come back to mess up with what was Billy Darley's.

"How the hell did you get involved with a guy like him?" Dan asked, his arms crossed in front of his broad chest.

"Dan, seriously, are you gonna give me a hard time now? I'm in a hospital bed." Julie gave him the puppy eyes.

"I wouldn't care if you were stuck in a wheelchair. Spit!" He was too agitated to sit down. His reaction kind of reminded her of Billy. Billy, who was MIA. Great.

"Dan, you're my best friend. So I'll tell you everything you wanna know and be done with this. And just so you know, I don't care if you use this to bargain my comeback with the General. I ain't coming." Julie stated with a business-like voice.

"You're not in position of negotiating here, Julie. Hell, stop being a stuck up bitch! I'm trying to be your friend here, damnit!" He stormed on her.

"Fine! You want the truth? So we met at the hospital. He was hurt and I helped him to get a doctor. Then he felt like he owed me something, so kept track of me. He made a fucking bet with his friends that he'd sleep with me. And he did. But it didn't stop there. And we're together ever since. There, want details?" Julie said through grinned teeth, since her recent scar was bothering her big time.

Dan shook his head. "Why did you always want to go against the rules, Julie?"

"It's not about the rules, it's about living the way I want to. Why should I live under someone's command?"

"You know your father will kill you, right?"

"He won't ever know if you don't tell him."

"This man is dangerous, Ju… You can't expect me to know you're dating a killer and let it slide."

"I live with him, Dan." Shock was splashed across his face. Her friend was devastated at her stupidity. He didn't honestly know if she did this only to: call attention to herself, show the world she liked to live on the edge or to prove she was mentally problematic.

Dan got so frustrated at her that without saying further word he walked out of her room and left her, he didn't even look back.

Julie's eyes teared up and she started saning to the empty room. "We'd be so less fragile, if we're made from metal and our hearts from iron, and our minds from steel, and if we built an army, for of tender bodies, could we love each other, would we stop to feel…"

A nurse entered the room and smiled sweetly at Julie, who ignored her. She simply looked at the ceiling and kept with the lyrics, not minding at all that a stranger was there with her.

"And you want three wishes: one to fly the heavens, one to swim like fishes

And then one you're saving for a rainy day, if your lover ever takes her love away…"

The nurse had entered the room to inject more painkillers in her bloodstream. "Your husband called to check on you."

Julie heard her, but since she had no husband she kept on singing to herself. The nurse was an old lady, probably confused her with another patient. Julie kept on singing, hoping that she'd take a long time to open her eyes again.

"You say you want to know her like a lover, and undo her damage, she'll be new again, soon you'll find that if you try to save her, it will lose her anger, you will never win…"

"Julie!" Someone shook her awake. It was Ally.

"What?" She crankily asked. She was having a good dream that involved green apples.

Her friend amusedly laughed. "You were talking out loud about fruits."

Julie rolled her eyes. She should take on the ride of being stuck in this hospital and have a doctor to check her head. It wasn't right for someone to speak in their sleep as much as she did.

"Yeah, it happens." She shrugged, thankful the stitches weren't pulled, or at least they got her hard on painkillers.

Ally half-heartly laughed at her friend. She hated to see Julie like that. She looked so pale, her highlights needed to be redone and her nail polish was peeling out. But that wasn't the worst. The very worst part was to know that she had been hurt again. Not only physically, but Billy hadn't showed up to the little party there were about to throw her, even though she asked Tommy to let him know this was going on. Ally knew he was the one Julie wanted to see, not the colored balloons that were about to fill in her room.

"I think someone called my name." Ally said out of the blue and went outside, closing the door behind her.

Julie furrowed. Not that she cared, but it was weird for Ally not to acknowledge her birthday. She let it slide, it's not like she wanted it to be celebrated in any way.

Ten minutes later her room's door was open. She thought it was Ally coming back, but it was just the old nurse that apparently had taken over her case.

She sweetly smiled at Julie. "Your husband just called."

She snorted. "I'm sorry, I think you've mistaken me. I don't have a husband."

The old lady smiled at her again. If this woman weren't so caring she'd be creepy as shit. "It may not e official, but you got his heart. There's nothing missing, you know." She stated after checking all Julie's vitals and before leaving.

"Craa-aazy." Julie said to herself.

Then a loud chorus made her to jump slightly. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Dan, Kristin, Ally, Ashley, Baggy's sister, Hayley, the little girl from the grocery shop, and her mom, Demi, yelled out. Everyone was holding something between balloons and stuff to eat.

Julie scanned the smiling crowd and although she was content at their attempt to make her smile she knew there was someone missing. Pretty much everyone knew.

"Are you gonna send flowers or something, then?" Joe asked his brother, who was already about to lose it with this discussion. Joe just couldn't believe Billy wouldn't show up at the hospital, especially today that was her birthday.

"She's fucking allergic to them. You remember… last time she fuckin' threw 'em on me." Billy snickered.

"A box of chocolate, maybe?" He tried again.

"I don't want to stop by, don't you fucking get it, Joe?" Billy snapped, getting up from the couch where he had been sitting for the past half an hour.

"Why the fuck not, Billy?"

"I can't bear to see her in that fucking hospital bed, alright? So fragile, so damn fucked up! No! I don't wanna see her like that!"

"So you're gonna let her get through this alone?"

Joe's words hit home. Billy didn't say anything else and only stormed out his own apartment. She already had his heart, his blood and now she was taking his sanity. What else did she want? What else could he give to her?

The days passed by.

Julie sat on the wheel chair, locked on the top of the hospital's stairs, facing the street. Ally was supposed to pick her up and take Julie to her place, where she'd be staying until she could figure out the Billy Darley issue.

She looked down her hands. They were paler, skinner, unhealthy. But she looked her best now ever since she got into this hospital. Ally had managed to bring a hairdresser and a manicure. They had taken good care of her as far as her nails and hair were concerned.

She looked lower, past her hands. It was stupid for her to be sat on this chair. She could walk just fine, the stitches weren't even there anymore. Damn the hospital's policy.

Julie buffed. Ally knew she was supposed to be released by six in the afternoon, what he hell was taking her so long to take there? She rested her elbow on the chair's arm and placed her chin on her cupped hand.

Just them she heard an engine noise all too familiar to her ears. Sure enough her eyes fell upon the black Mustang only seconds later. He parked in the ambulance's local, again. The security guard got up from his stool to ask him to remove his vehicle, but then he took in who had just parked there and left it as it was.

Billy was alone. He got out of the car and was about to walk through the doors when he saw, by his peripheral vision, that she was sat outside. In a wheel chair. He fully turned to look at her, his brows pretty much became one. Even though his face was a hard set, she saw the life being sucked out of him when he took in her "condition".

He then quickly turned his back to her and started rubbing his bald head and the back of his neck, pacing around. He had yet to say a word to her.

Billy finally turned back to her. Julie could see the blood red eyes. His throat was being held tight. He was about to lose it.

She could quickly say it was a misunderstanding, but he hurt her by not showing up during the two weeks she had been held in that hospital. Julie wanted him to speak up first.

"What the fuck did they do to you?" Billy held his head with both shaky hands. His voice, although rusky and deep as ever, wasn't more than a whisper.

"Billy…" She opened her mouth to say something else but he stopped her with a raised hand.

He hadn't been there to not see her suffering and he had to come to this? Billy Darley lost his ground. He wanted to kill the whole world, including himself. And now he couldn't bear to hear her voice calling his name. Because it got him thinking how many times she must have called him in that plain room at night and he never answered.

Julie simply shook her head and got up.

Billy stood dumbfounded for a moment and then looked down at her legs. She was perfect. It only took a heartbeat for his strong arms to embrace her.