Chapter 21

Jennifer left Nick's not much later. Neither had the answers they needed, so they left the issue hanging mid air, unsure of what to do with it. Jennifer was hurt at Nick's surprise – she wanted him to be excited, ecstatic, that what he had always wanted was quite possibly happening. It would've made her a whole lot less scared about the situation. But he was only dumbstruck, and it was not comforting. It only confirmed for her that he was as terrified and shocked about it as she was.

As she drove back to the house she shared with Matt, she thought about just how much her life might be changing before her very eyes. She was scared, nervous, terrified to the very depths of her soul. She knew she should get a pregnancy test – confirm her fears. But she didn't. She had far more important things to worry about – like sending Matt off safely to rehab the next day. She knew a fortnight away was going to seem like an eternity to him.

When she walked into the house not much later she found him sitting at the kitchen table in the semi darkness. She hovered by the door, unsure whether or not to approach. She noticed the glass in his hand.

"Matt?" she asked quietly, throwing the question out into the darkness.

He looked up from his glass and over to her. "What?"

"Are you okay?"

He threw back the last gulp of his drink roughly. "I'm fan-bloody-tastic."

Jennifer pressed her lips together, suddenly nervous to get any closer. She stayed by the door.

"Where have you been?" he asked with a snarl in his voice. It was the snarl that gave away just how much he'd been drinking. That snarl meant he'd had at least three or four. Jennifer's breathing became uneven. For the first time he was asking her his question with accusation in his voice.

"Just at the office…finishing up some paperwork," she murmured back, not meeting his eyes.

Matt picked up his glass and slammed it back down hard on the table top, a few drops flying out of it and puddling the wood finish. "BULLSHIT!" he roared. "Don't lie to me Jen. I called there!"

She'd been caught in her lie, and they both knew it. She didn't know what to say.

"Can I not trust you anymore?" he continued to yell.

Her head shook. "You can Matty," she replied, insisting.

But they had both lost all their trust, and they were finally being made to believe it. She couldn't trust him not to succumb to the drink, and he couldn't trust her to be faithful.

"Don't lie to me!"

"Matt…" Jennifer hovered at the bottom of the staircase, stepping up onto the first step.

"You've been with Nick haven't you?"

She couldn't answer. If she'd said no he would've accused her of lying. If she said yes he'd be proved correct in his raging suspicions. She couldn't win either way. So she said nothing, which also gave her game away.

She stepped up another step.

Matt hurled his glass across the room and it smashed against the wall by the refrigerator. Jennifer gasped and watched as he destroyed the nice organisation of work he'd had assembled on the other end of the table from where he'd been sitting in one fell swoop, sending it sprawling to the floor, the papers fluttering down slowly like huge snowflakes. He grunted in angry rage, frowning incredibly hard, his face so red. He shoved over a chair, and then with that out of his way he came closer to her.

But she wasn't waiting around to let him get too close. She bolted up the stairs, breathing hard, terror in her veins, and locked herself in the bathroom on the second floor. She sunk to a crouching position between the back of the door and the bathtub and pulled out her mobile phone. Her hands shook uncontrollably as she dialled Nick's number.

As she waited for him to answer, holding the phone, trembling, to her ear, she could hear Matt still yelling downstairs, thrashing around, the alcohol he'd drunk bringing out the person in him she never wanted to know. A lone tear slipped down her cheek as Nick finally picked up.

"Hello?"

"Nick I'm frightened," she breathed. Matt was making enough of a ruckus downstairs that he never would've been able to hear her anyway, but she felt the need to whisper all the same.

"What? Jen? What's the matter?" Nick could hear the fear in her voice.

But she was so frightened she could barely get out any words. She cried into the phone.

"Save me."

Nick ignored the speed limit his entire journey. He was so concerned about Jennifer's safety that he figured he'd worry about speeding fines later. He had to get to her. If that animal's hurt her he thought viciously, clenching his teeth with fury over Matt laying even a finger on this woman they both loved so much.

You're just hanging onto your pride

Hold onto me now

I'm on your side

I'm on your side when you think there's no one

I'm on your side when darkness falls

I'm on your side

All you gotta do is call

The time of night was late, thankfully, and because he had sped so much he got to the house in half the time it would've normally taken him. The light traffic had helped immensely. But he didn't care about that as he flew out of his car, not even shutting the door behind him, and ran across the front yard and to the front door.

When he got to it he stopped, breathing hard. It was ajar – a sight that chilled Nick to the bone. Were they even there? He thought to himself. What had happened? He pushed the door with one finger, opening it just enough to step inside. The house was silent as he tiptoed into the entryway.

Then came a crash from the direction of the kitchen and Nick ran towards it. It was so dark by then, well after 8pm, and Nick fumbled blindly almost, towards the sounds. He came face to face with Matt's back. He was leaning against the kitchen counter, having just swept another appliance off it, determined to sweep anything aside that was in his way or looked at him wrong.

Nick's mind squealed, wondering if Jennifer was huddled in the darkness somewhere that he couldn't see, and maybe he would trip over her if he stepped into the room. Or maybe Matt had already hurt her.

"OI!" he boomed. He reached for the light switch and turned it on, and the scene before him was astounding.

Matt turned around, squinting his eyes, like a deer caught in the head lights, stunned. When he realised who it was who had called out to him he ran another hand across the counter top, coming into contact with a coffee mug, and sending it smashing to the floor.

"You!" he bellowed looking right at Nick.

Nick stood firm, not about to back down. He was already breathing easier as with the turning on of the light he'd been able to see Jennifer was nowhere in sight and it enabled him to hold onto the hope that she was tucked away safely, unharmed, elsewhere.

"What the hell have you done to Jen?" Nick bellowed back. "Where is she?"

"Like I'm going to bloody tell you! You're the one who she's been rooting around with behind my back!"

Nick and Matt locked eyes, the fury heavy between them, all over one scarlet woman.

"Where is she!" Nick yelled back.

Matt shook his head angrily. "I figured it all out Nick," he spat, ignoring Nick's question. "A moment of clarity." He was still snarling, and it was an ugly sound, if ever Nick had heard one. "The unslept in bed, the constant denials about being over you, the lunch dates with girlfriends. You bastard."

Nick stepped up to the plate. "If you've hurt her…"

"I think I actually knew it a long time ago, but I tried to ignore it."

"Is that why you've turned into a drunk is it?" Nick spat back. "Don't have the balls to stay sober and keep your woman? Keep her happy so she doesn't stray?"

That was Matt's final straw, broken. He lunged at Nick, throwing a sloppy punch that tapped Nick's chin on its way down. Nick expertly avoided the brunt of the blow, hurling a punch instead straight into Matt's stomach as he stumbled over in his drunken stupor after missing his right hook at Nick.

"Ooofff," Matt breathed out raggedly, struck down by Nick's powerful blow.

Nick looked down at him, now hunched over, recovering. "I don't think she was ever happy with you mate."

The accusation propelled Matt up again, ready to fight on, and Nick was momentarily caught unprepared, not thinking Matt would have the strength to get back up. Nick stumbled backwards, falling half a dozen steps rearward, into the entryway and closer to the stairs. Matt this time got in a perfect punch, catching Nick right in the hard bit of jaw by his earlobe, and sending him sprawling even further backward, falling onto the first couple of steps.

But Nick was in a better state, not drunk like Matt, so was able to recover quicker. He got right back up and threw a retaliating punch just as Jennifer finally emerged from the bathroom in time to see the commotion at the bottom of the staircase. She hurried down the stairs, clawing at each of the men's shirts, trying to break up the fight, and they staggered oddly, trying to still punch each other but avoid her.

"Stop it!" she yelled, using all the strength she had to pull them apart. "Stop it!"

She didn't know what else to do, or say, but thought for a second it must've worked because they came apart easily, light from the kitchen shining between their bodies again as there was distance put between them. Jennifer was confused for a moment, wondering where she had got such strength from, but then she realised she hadn't done it at all. Stanley and Duncan had appeared out of nowhere and separated the two sparring men. She'd already forgotten she had called them. And they had come to her rescue not a moment too soon.

"Duncan, take Matt out to the car." Stanley's voice was gruff and serious and Duncan did immediately as he said after throwing a worried, sympathetic look in Jennifer's direction.

She had sunk down to sit on the stairs, her knees raised, her arms folded across them. Her hair was a mess, her breathing still shaky. She'd been involved in brawls before, regularly in fact, as part of her line of work. But this was something else. Only a brawl between two men you loved inexplicably, and who you had once placed so much love and trust in, could make your hands shake like hers were right then, she thought.

Stanley stood square in front of Nick, blocking him from Jennifer's view. "Jennifer, are you all right?" he asked calmly.

She nodded, still not saying a word.

Stanley nodded right back. "Neither of them struck you?" he asked.

She shook her head.

"Good," he finished. "I want you to stay here with the super intendant then."

Jennifer suddenly looked up and beyond Stanley and Nick as her boss said his last few words. There was Bernice, standing officially in the corner of the room, allowing Stanley to dismantle and calm the situation, before she swooped in and neatened up the loose ends now the fracas was over.

Bernice walked over to where Jennifer was sitting and Jennifer hurriedly got to her feet. "Ma'am."

"It's all right Jennifer," Bernice soothed, putting a hand on Jennifer's shoulder. "You can stay seated if you want to."

Jennifer sat back down on the step despondently, taking her eyes away from her superior's.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Bernice asked again.

Jennifer nodded. "I'm fine…" she answered quietly. "Just…shocked."

With that raw answer Bernice's armour was stripped away and she became a friend, a counsellor, an advocate for violence against women, not Jennifer's uber boss. She sat herself down next to the young blonde.

She sighed as she began to speak. "You can't let anything shock you Jennifer," she said in a hushed tone. "You should know that by now. Haven't you been in the job long enough?"

Jennifer nodded sadly. "I know. But I never thought Matt…"

Bernice softened further, realising then just how many deep scars this experience would leave Jennifer with for life. "He's not himself like this Jennifer," she explained, referring to Matt, now out of their sight in a CI car outside. "But you have to decide if you can hang on and fight for the old him to come back…or if you want to end the fight. Has he pushed you past the point of no return?"

Jennifer thought back over the last year, the poignant moments like flashes of light through her head. "I don't know."

"Well whichever," she replied. "You shouldn't have to put up with this Jennifer."

Nick stood just metres away, watching the interaction and silently agreeing with Bernice's every word.