Chapter 14

"So then he calmly looked at us and said 'I seem to have a splinter, I think that you may need to remove it'!"

I giggled slightly at Brad's story over dinner; he always enjoyed telling his more memorable emergency room stories when we were together, but sometimes he didn't realize they weren't the most appetizing dinner conversations. Thankfully we had just finished eating. This one had been tame compared to some of the other ones; apparently a guy had been in a motorcycle accident and had been impaled by a slat of fence from his ribs to his shoulder.

Lifting the glass of wine to my lips I took the last sip; I'd never been a big fan of the bitter drink, but it seemed like he was really into it, so I drank it to make him more comfortable. He could go on and on about different vintages or specific notes, whatever those were, to each type of wine. I'd much rather have a straight bourbon or mixed drink, or even a good beer, but I guess being a wine aficionado was a thing nowadays.

It was Christmas Eve, and since he had to work the next day, Brad had decided to take me out tonight. We had been seeing each other for about a month and a half now, and things were OK. He was a decent enough guy, and I was truthfully surprised that he hadn't snagged anyone before; most girls would probably sell one of their ovaries to have a chance at the specimen that sat before me. Maybe his hectic work schedule didn't allow for a decent relationship.

The smile still adorned his face after telling his story, and he tilted his head slightly to look at me with those hazel eyes. "You look so beautiful tonight."

My cheeks flushed at his compliment, and I squeaked out a small thanks. He motioned for the waiter that he was ready to settle the check; I had offered to cover my own portion earlier in the meal and he said he wanted to treat me tonight.

We gathered our coats from the claim desk and made our way out into the frigid evening; I instantly pulled my long coat closer to me and it did little to help; at least it wasn't windy tonight. We weren't that far from his place, a gorgeous penthouse that bordered Central Park, so we decided to just walk to the restaurant a few blocks down.

The doorman let us through the door and we took the elevator up towards his suite. Like seriously, I was in awe at how much space he had. I don't even want to know how much he was spending a month on this place. He had just recently moved here, though, saying he was getting a monthly stipend for helping his Uncle Barney with his research. Every time I tried to get more specifics about the project he skirted around the issue, citing that he didn't think his uncle would appreciate any info that could be leaked.

Brad opened the door to his penthouse and let me walk through first before helping to take my coat off and hang it on a nearby hook.

"Would you like another glass of wine?" he asked as he walked over to his under-the-counter wine cooler and pulled out a bottle. I held up my hand to decline and requested a glass of water instead as I walked over to the large plate window that was the entire wall of the apartment. The view of the park was spectacular, even at nighttime. I always loved watching all of the twinkling lights that came with living in the big city.

"It's breathtaking, isn't it," he plainly stated, coming up behind me and handing me the bottle as he wrapped his arm around my waist. I smiled a bit and took the water bottle, opening it and taking a long sip. I wanted to get rid of that wine aftertaste.

I could feel him playing with the waves of black hair down the middle of my back, "Though not nearly as much as you are." His face got close to my neck and I leaned into the kisses that he put in the crook. Slight tingles went up my spine. His hands roamed down my sides before resting in front of my waist, pulling me close to him. I could feel the tightening in his pants and pulled away slightly.

We hadn't ventured to that territory yet. I was not a virgin by any means, but I just kept putting it off when it came to him. I don't really know why, but every time it got close to being unclothed I ended up gently stopping. He like to joke and call me old fashioned. He could believe what he wanted, but for some reason I was just not ready to go down that road with him yet, if ever.

He was really a nice enough guy, but deep down I just don't know if he and I were a good match. There was this little voice in the back of my head that nagged me, saying there was something not right about the situation. I had been ignoring it the entire time, just chalking it up to my prior relationships that ended poorly. My parents thought we were a terrific match, and sure, we looked good together. He liked to say that all the time, but I wasn't just going to be someone's arm candy.

He noticed my hesitance and stopped with his attention to my neck, instead putting a hand on either side of my neck and rubbing my shoulders. That he was good at, I'll give it to him. After a few minutes of massaging he leaned around to look at my face.

"I got you something," Brad said quietly, looking to see my reaction, "I know we said not to bother getting each other gifts, but I couldn't resist. He reached down into his pocket and withdrew what looked to be a small box, something that would normally carry jewelry. I held the box in my hands, raising my eyebrows in question towards him.

His smile widened as he saw my reaction, "Go ahead, open it."

My stomach did small flips as I opened the box. Oh thank god it wasn't like an engagement ring or anything, but it wasn't much better than that either. All that was tucked into the box was a small key.

"I figured we've spent so much time together recently, that maybe we should move onto the next step," he seemed very excited about the whole prospect, "I've got a couple extra rooms here we could bring all your stuff into, oh, and you wouldn't even have to worry about paying rent or anything since I've got it more than covered…"

He actually kept going on, but I kind of zoned him out as time slowed around me. He was wanting me to move in with him. We had only been dating for like, what, six weeks? That's totally not enough time to know someone well enough to move in with them. Hell, if you think about it we'd only seen each other on average like two to three times a week for coffee and dinner dates since he never had time for any other kind of excursion, so only like fifteen times and he wanted me to move in with him?

"And think about it, the other rooms face this way too, so you could wake up to this every morning…" he indicated the park below as he paused to look at me. I tried to put on a brave face quickly enough, but he saw the momentary crack in my mask.

"You're…you're not happy with it?" he asked hesitantly.

Oh, well shit. "No, it's not that Brad…It's a really nice gesture," I saw him cringe when I said the word gesture, but didn't really know what else I could have said to make it sound any better. "I just think this is maybe a little faster than I'm comfortable with."

He stared at me silently for a few moments, before he furrowed his eyebrows as anger set upon his face. He always was so pleasant when I'd been around him I had never actually seen him angry before today; it was pretty unsettling.

"You know," he sighed as he took a step back, his hand on his hip. "There's a dozen girls right now who would do anything to get with all of this," he motioned around the apartment, "to get with me. And hell, some of them have actually even made it in here before."

"But you, I willingly hand you the key to the kingdom and you're going to just turn it down? Seriously?" I had never seen this side to him before; was the entire thing an act? What was he trying to get at then?

He folded his arms across his chest, "I get it now. I bet there's nothing that this poor little boy from the south side could give the princess of Dr. Carter. This is all probably just chump change to you, isn't it?"

OK, now he's crossed a line, and I could finally see all the pieces begin to click into place.

"So you were just using me to get into a better position over at the hospital?" I spat out, feeling my own anger bubble to the surface.

"Of course I was," he hissed back at me, "It takes years to get into a cushier job to where you're not busting your ass every single damned day, and they definitely wouldn't look at me twice given my background. You should know it's all in who you know."

"Your dad told me you had just moved back, so I figured I'd woo you and work my way up the chain in the express lane. But no, you can't just fall in line like all the other rich bitches out there who just say yes and stay out of sight."

Okay, now I was pissed off. Not only was he using me to get his way, but he was dragging my family into it as well. Only I can talk shit about them.

"You know," he quieted down a little and put his hand out towards me, "You could still fix all of this. Just do what you're told like a good girl and everything will be forgiven."

That's it, I'd had it. "Fuck you, take your damned key back," I held the box towards him, "Maybe you can convince some other floozy to take it instead."

His eyes narrowed before his arm thrust out, smacking the box from my hand. It would have been my face, but I leaned back just in time to narrowly avoid that blow.

If looks could kill he would be twitching on the floor right now. I didn't even give him a chance to say anything else as I turned around and stormed towards the door to get my coat and purse. This guy could take a long walk off a short cliff for all I cared.

Right as I was about to reach my coat I felt a strong hand grab my left forearm and clamp his fingers down hard, "Where the fuck do you think you're going?"

Instead of staying and arguing with him I did the first thing I could think of. I whirled around, and with as much force that I could muster I sucker punched him square in the mouth. Pain seared through my hand as I realized it had been open, so some of his teeth had ripped open the skin on my knuckles, but I didn't care. He didn't let go even though he was surprised, so I punched him a second time square on the nose before he could counteract.

I heard a sickening crunch and grinned as he finally let go of my arm. I grabbed my coat and purse with my left hand and got to the door as I saw him dazed behind me.

"Stay the hell away from me, asshole. Oh, and maybe you should get that checked out by a doctor," I spat out as I threw the water bottle at him and slammed the front door behind me.

Of course there was something wrong with him, my body had been screaming at me for six weeks but I had just ignored it. I had ignored the warning signs, but at least I had caught it before we had gone any further in our relationship. Thank God we hadn't done anything else.

The doorman looked at me funny as I stormed out of the building and across the street to the park. It was in the teens temperature-wise, snowy, and friggin cold out, so I shrugged my coat on as I crossed the street. I really began to regret wearing a skirt and high heels tonight. Why couldn't fancier places just let you get by with jeans in the winter? Well, at least the coat covered some of my legs. There was a couple of spots I could cut across to save some time getting over to the subway system, but I just wanted to get home as soon as I could to get out of the cold.

My hand began to throb, and I rolled up my sleeve in order to keep the blood from getting too much on the fabric. I hated laundry more than anything else, and I really didn't want to spend hours trying to salvage this coat. I couldn't really get a good look at my knuckle because it was darker in the park now, but it hurt like a son of a bitch.

Heh, not as much as his face was probably hurting. At least that made me feel a little better about the situation.

But yet again, my terrible choice in men came back to bite me in the ass. Every. Single. TIME.

I realized as I walked that the snow that began falling when I was at dinner had provided another fresh coat to what was already on the ground. I reached down into a small pile and scooped some of the fresh snow onto my knuckles. Oh hot damn that hurt but felt good all at the same time. I was sure going to look weird walking to the subway scooping snow onto my hand, but truthfully didn't care.

"Elena?" I jumped about three feet in the air and screeched at the noise. I had been walking through a more forested part of the park and had been taken by surprise. Though I doubted any attempted attacker or rapist would actually try to get my attention beforehand.

I glanced around before I saw four huge forms emerge from the forest; it was the boys. What were they doing out here at this time of the night? Duh, probably doing their patrols.

A slight feeling of guilt ran through me at the sight of them. I wasn't avoiding them, but hadn't been seeing them nearly as much as I used to when I first moved home. I was spending so much time with Brad that I hadn't seen them as much. I trained down in the sewers like once a week, but something had changed after that night that Raphael and I kissed. There was this tenseness that ran throughout the entire lair, and I could tell everyone felt awkward with me there.

The only person who didn't seem affected was Michelangelo, but he was never affected by stuff like this. That and he was the one who had pushed me to move on for a little while.

Raphael was hardly ever there when I was anyway; it was like he was actively avoiding me, which was fine. Every time I did see him that same tingling feeling had come back as if my body remembered that moment shared between us.

"We thought that was you, is everything ok?" It was Leonardo who had been talking when they emerged from the trees. Sure enough, that spark erupted in my belly when I saw the red clad turtle, who seemed less than enthused at their location. Ugh, his indifference just made me more irritated. I just wish he would tell me if he never wanted to see me again so I could disappear and make him happier.

"If you consider getting into an argument and then dumping your boyfriend as 'ok' then I'm having just a grand old time. Merry friggin Christmas to me," I spat out, though instantly felt guilty. Leo didn't need that kind of attitude from me. He was just kind of in the crosshairs of my frustration at the moment.

"Dude, you dumped Prince Charming?!" Mikey pushed past Donatello to come stand in front of me, "What happened?" What was I, a walking TMZ episode?

"Not really in the mood to talk about it right now, Mikey," I reached up with my bad hand to rub my forehead, but stopped just as I was about to put my bloody fingers on my face. That would look real good in the subway.

"What happened to your hand?" I heard a deep voice say from behind all the others. Before anyone else could speak Raphael pushed his way up towards me and gently took my arm in his hands, turning my hand over to look at the knuckles. He pulled up my other sleeve and saw my other arm where deep purple marks had formed where Brad's fingers had dug into my forearm.

"He do this to you?" he growled out before reaching down to grab some more snow. He cupped his hand and laid mine down in the small pile, making it easier to keep the snow in contact with the torn flesh. The coldness from the snow helped to numb some of the pain that had flared up.

"Well, technically those marks are from him," I indicated at the bruises. I really didn't want to rehash everything that happened right at this moment; it was still too fresh in my memory.

"As for my hand, let's just say that he's not going to be a pretty boy for a good two weeks or more after I got done with him," I smirked as I remember the satisfaction I felt when I broke his nose.

I heard a small laugh erupt from the turtle in front of me.

"That's my girl," he said as he patted the top of my hair. "Maybe we should go pay a visit to Doctor Grant to see if he needs any further…medical intervention."

"No. I just want to be as far away from him as I can," I shivered as the coldness of the snow was starting to make my teeth chatter. I pulled my hand away from Raphael's to see the whole pile of snow had turned red from my blood.

"You need to get that hand looked at," Leonardo stated simply, seeing the amount of blood.

"Yeah, I can't go to the hospital because word will inevitably get back to my dad about it," a sigh escaped me. He had done enough and I'd rather keep him out of this as well. "I'll just tape it up or something when I get home."

"Here," the red turtle before me unwrapped one of the pieces of fabric that he normally kept secure around his wrist and forearm. He gently took my hand in his and was careful not to move it too much as he secured the bandage around my hand. I swallowed nervously at his gentleness; this was the most interaction he and I had had in the past almost two months combined.

"Maybe Donnie should take her home just to clean it up, make sure it doesn't need stiches or anything," I could hear him say to Leo; the elder brother nodded his head in agreement.

"Sounds good. Ok, so Donnie, you go with Elena back home while we finish our patrol," Leo announced as he stood up from where he had been kneeling, "We'll meet you guys back at the lair afterwards. Ok?"

Wasn't really planning on a trek down into the sewers, but I guess Donnie would be a better option than just pouring alcohol over it at the house and butterfly taping it up. Which of course I didn't have any. I had duct tape though. Yeah, Donnie was a better option.

As Donnie and I began to walk away from the group I laughed as Mikey turned around and gave me the hand signals for you, me, girl, and talk. Really? You just had to pretend you had a pair of tits Mikey?

I saw Raphael turn momentarily to look at me as the group began to part, his light green eyes gazing at me intently. And damn if that jolt of electricity didn't make a reappearance again.

Was my body trying to tell me something this time? I had always ignored it before, should I listen to it now? Or would that be yet another mistake?