CHAPTER SEVEN
Bah Humbug

It was exactly three weeks after Parker and Sophie had that conversation that what Parker had predicted had come true. She came to her door once she heard the bell ring, putting down her Christmas decorations she was trying to hang up at the moment. Lights, holly, mistletoe, wreaths. She didn't know why she was even doing it, but it was Christmas, and she was told by Eliot after she asked that that's just when people do. Putting down the last string of lights, she walked to the door and when she opened it Sophie stood there, mascara smeared from crying so much, looking a disaster… with a bloody lip.

"Shit," Parker swore, and took her hand, leading her inside. She couldn't very well just leave Sophie looking like that. Sophie cried and wrapped her arms around Parker, burying her face in her shoulder, uttering incoherent things that Parker only caught the gist of, like the words 'wanker', 'drinking', and 'bloody Christmas.'

Sophie didn't know what to do. She didn't want to go to Parker's just because of what Parker had said to her, but she had no where else to go. If she went to a hotel she would just end up thinking somehow that it was all her fault and she'd come crawling back to him, like she always does, but even more so because of the Holiday. It's sick, really, the way he had warped her brain.

Parker tilted Sophie's chin up with her finger before wiping a bit of blood off of Sophie's lip with her thumb, before putting it in her mouth. "Damnit," she said, looking her over, touching the bruise on her chin delicately.

"Don't… blood…" Sophie tried to get out, trying to tell her she shouldn't randomly lick other people's blood like that, but she couldn't even get out the words though her tears.

"You got any diseases?" Parker asked her, though it was probably a question too late. Sophie shook her head, so Parker replied, "Then don't worry about it. Lay down." She guided Sophie into her bedroom and put her on her bed, and Sophie curled herself into a ball as Parker put the covers over her. She sat next to her, and looked at her like she didn't know what to do.

She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to go over to Sophie's house and kick Nate's ass so bad his scrotum would bleed out of his mouth, but she knew Sophie didn't want her to. And that was stopping her… so far.

She looked at the woman curled into her bed, and creased her brow in upset before putting her hand down on top of Sophie's, not knowing what else to do. She patted it kind of awkwardly, not good with the whole comforting thing, and waited for her to talk. Because if she came over here instead of going somewhere else, than she wanted to talk about it.

Sophie curled her hand around Parker's to hold it as she cried for a bit, and Parker waited as patiently as she could, but it wasn't one of her strong suits. "Why?" she asked suddenly into the silence of the room other than the sound of Sophie's distress.

"Egg nog… the bloody fucking tree…. kept falling over… pissed off…" Sophie tried to get out through her tears, and Parker shushed her. It wasn't going to help if she can't tell the whole story. So she decided to try to be patient again and laid down next to Sophie. Sophie sniffed and laid her head on Parker's breast, and Parker looked down at her with this odd look, eyes wide, that meant that probably wasn't the best place in the world for her to lay on her, but Sophie was upset so she needed to be okay with it. She put an arm around Sophie and just waited until she calmed down.

Sophie hugged Parker tighter, feeling safer now. Ever since that night, she knew that as bloody fucked up as it really is, Parker is her knight in shining armor. She's the one that will protect her. She knew she was all over her, which she also knew Parker wasn't very fond of, but she just needed it, and the way Parker didn't protest made Sophie think that she knew that she did.

Why did this have to happen on Christmas Eve, of all nights?

When Sophie could finally breathe and calmed down a bit. She looked up at Parker, wiping her eyes, before looking back down and noticing something. "Oh, sorry… I seem to have gotten blood all over your blouse."

Parker looked down, and seeing a couple blood spots from where Sophie's lip was she just sat up, making Sophie sit up too for a minute before pulling it off over her head and discarding it to the floor, leaving her there in just her bra. She laid back down without saying a word.

"Do you want me to wash it for you?" Sophie asked, trying to be polite.

"I want you to tell me what happened," Parker said seriously, and Sophie looked down before sniffing again and deciding to curl back on top of Parker, head on her breast again, though this time it was only on her bra. She thought she could feel Parker take a sharp inhale of breath, but then she was relaxed and Sophie was sure she just imagined it. She rested her hand on top of Parker's stomach, enjoying the softness of it.

"We were trying to put up the tree," she explains softly. "Nate was drinking eggnog… a lot. The kind with rum in it, you know? And he couldn't get up the tree, and it was funny to see him struggle so I laughed a bit, you know? And he got mad, started calling me a 'good for nothing bitch' saying I'm not even trying to help and he was trying to do this for me anyway because he doesn't bloody like the Holidays…." She paused and started tracing little circles on Parker's stomach trying to distract herself. "I got mad, he kept calling me names… so I threw my glass at him. I didn't expect it to hit him, but it did. So he…" she coughed, not wanting to say it out loud. "I pushed the tree on him and then left," she finished.

"You pushed the tree on top of him?" Parker asked, surprised, but yet at the same time seemed almost amused at the mental picture in her head, and she smiled. "Good." Another pause, "So you're not just… taking it then."

"Of course not," Sophie said, looking at her like she was a bit mad for even suggesting it. "It's not like I'm one of those women that just lays there and takes it. I've stabbed him in the leg, pointed a gun at his chest, and once I even took a can of hairspray and a lighter. He backed up quickly from that one." She sighed heavily. "I defend myself, I do… but sometimes I can't help but think that I'm the one that always bloody starts it. He never hits me unless I hit him first."

"It doesn't matter," Parker told her. "Look what he does to you, I barely ever see a scratch on him. Except the singed forearm hair… and the leg… was that the dog thing?"

Sophie didn't answer for a moment, just closed her eyes and stayed silenr. "I don't want to go back," Sophie admits quietly, finally, and stops tracing circles on her stomach to look up at her.

"Then don't," Parker tells her. "Get a hotel room or something."

"But I can't…" Sophie says, sighing a bit. The circles started up again. She pursed her lips, then winced at the pain and went on, "I can't just leave… you know? He'd be a wreck without me."

"He's a wreck with you now, obviously," Parker says, still feeling very awkward from Sophie being all over her like she was, but not knowing the significance of it, if it even had one. She knew Sophie felt safe with her, but there was no reason to be making imaginary pictures on her stomach with her finger. "He started drinking again, then," she finishes, but it wasn't a question. Just a disappointed repeat.

Sophie just sighed and looked down at her fingers, concentrating on making an imaginary picture of a world where all this shit just didn't happen anymore. "Where's Patrick?" Sophie asks finally, "Thought you'd be with him."

"We broke up," Parker tells her, and Sophie looks up at her.

"What? When?"

Parker shrugs, "A week ago? He was trying to get all 'let's call Parker my girlfriend though I only know her as Sarah' and it was just… weird. I don't know." A pause. "He was nice… but he had a drug problem that I just…" she just shrugs, finishing. She looks down at Sophie and pushes a piece of hair out of her face, since it seemed to be sticking to her lip a little. Parker didn't like seeing Sophie all beat up, just as much as she didn't like the fact that she was bleeding on her either. "Here, sit up for a minute," she tells her, and when she does she gets off the bed to go get something.

When she comes back she has a wet face cloth, and she sits back down on the bed in front of Sophie and starts dabbing the wound gently. Would hopefully stop the bleeding all over herself… and Parker. Sophie sniffed and looked down as Parker cleaned her up, and as Parker put her hand down after she was done, Sophie held it, stilling her. Parker looked confused before Sophie leaned in and kissed her softly on the cheek, making Parker's eyes flutter closed for a moment.

"You're my knight," she tells her in a whisper, then a small smile.

"Yeah well… I have the white car. Probably should get a horse after this, but they poop everywhere," Parker says with a smirk, then looks down and shakes her head, angry with Nate. "I want to hurt him, Sophie."

"Please, just… let it go for now, okay?" Sophie pleaded, and squeezed Parker's hand that she was holding, making Parker drop the facecloth on her sheets. Sophie laced their fingers together and repeated, "Please… for me?"

"Do you want to owe me your life or something?" Parker asks her, wondering why she keeps doing this.

Sophie shrugged and says with a little smile, "Might be better if I did. You seem to make me happier, anyway."

Parker smiled a little, and squeezed Sophie's hand back a bit more. "Come on, I'll feed you. I ordered pizza this time, Christmas and all." She goes to get up but Sophie stops her, not letting go of her hand, and Parker is pulled back on the bed.

"Parker…" she starts, then stops, not even really knowing what she wanted to say. Instead she pulls her into a hug, burying her face in her neck, thinking briefly how nice Parker's hair smelt. They stayed there for a bit, until Sophie pulled away really slowly. They both looked at each other, face only and inch away, and Sophie could feel the breath catching in her throat.

"Food," Parker spits out automatically, looking uncomfortable, effectively breaking the spell. Sophie shakes her head and then nods, moving away from Parker.

"Right."

TBC…