21-

"I should just leave."

"Leave?"

Mark wasn't just worried. And he made the leap to connecting things much quicker than Glen or Darcy had. "Yeah. Leave."

They were in his room over the garage. Ava had come out of surgery and was sedated so that the healing process could begin. The doctors said she would wake up in the morning. Glen had refused to leave her side, and Mark insisted on taking Darcy home. There wasn't anything they could do at the hospital – they have found the source of Ava's internal bleeding and had stopped it. As far as they were willing to admit, everything seemed fine, including her pregnancy.

Mark had been even quieter than usual on the ride home. Darcy tried to draw him out but he couldn't concentrate. He was rattled. Even more than when the bike had shown up.

"Darcy, not to belittle what your friend is goin' through, but that coulda been you in that car."

"I realize that."

"Do you? Because if you did you'd understand why it would probably be best for everybody if I just disappeared."

"You're serious." Darcy was looking at him as if she'd just seen a spider crawl out of his mouth.

"I usually am." Mark was looking around the room, avoiding looking in her direction. He had to. Because Darcy sounded near tears, and it would kill him if he saw that and knew he was the cause of it. "I should have known better. I don't want this shit touching you, Darcy. You or Glen or anybody else. It's my problem. Not yours."

"Little late for that." Darcy pointed out.

"Yeah well. I'm a slow learner." Mark jumped when his door slammed. He looked and Darcy was gone. He sighed and went after her, not wanting her to be angry at him. She almost made it back to the house when he caught up to her. "Wait!"

"Why? What's the point?"

Mark tried to touch her arm but Darcy jerked away. "The point is I don't want to see you get hurt." He said softly. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me Darcy. If something happened to you because of me…" He couldn't finish because just the thought of it chilled him.

"I'm the best thing that's ever happened to you, and your first thought is to leave." It was a flat statement.

"You think I want to leave? It's not a matter of what I want, Darcy."

"If you leave, you're letting them win again." She said, her voice flat again. Mark frowned down at her. "Giving up without a fight, packing up and disappearing. You might as well let them put you back in jail, Mark. And if it's not a matter of what you want, then make it about what I want. Because I'm pretty sure I should have a say in things between us, too."

"Darcy…"

She didn't let him finish. "I'm tired. I'm going to go up to my room to lie down for a while." With that she turned on her heel and went inside the house. Mark stood there for a few minutes, just trying to process her anger. She couldn't actually believe that he wanted to just pick up and leave her here, but he didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. It was either that or risk her getting hurt because of him. Obviously Adams or whoever was doing this was willing to cross a pretty big line to prove a point. Although what that point was, Mark had no idea.

He stood on the porch for a few minutes, thinking. He could leave. In theory, it would be the simplest thing in the world to go up to the apartment, throw his things into a couple of bags, and take his stash of money. Glen hadn't wanted any rent up front, so Mark had saved a decent amount. He could take the bike. Eventually he could find a place to settle in and then find a way to repay Glen for everything.

But that left his situation with Darcy.

He hadn't been lying. She was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He knew he didn't deserve her – there was no way a guy like him deserved a girl like her. Which was why leaving would be even harder. But to protect her? Even if she got pissed off…he wasn't willing to risk her life. The person who had run Ava off the road was all too willing to put a life in danger. Darcy would be angry but she would be alive, and that was all that mattered.

Mark looked at the door to the house, debated going up and trying to talk to Darcy again, and decided not to. She was mad enough as it was. If he was really planning on going – and to protect her, he should – it would be best to just make a clean break and then hope she would eventually forgive him for it.

He didn't see that happening. But if it meant that she would no longer be in danger, then it was worth the loss. He'd sooner she was alive and happy than dead because of him, because of a stupid mistake from his past. He went down the hill and into his apartment and grabbed his bags from the closet. Ignoring how his chest tightened and his heart hurt, he started packing his things. He didn't want to drag it out more than he already had.

Mark had everything packed in under half an hour, including the money he'd stowed in the upper shelf of the closet. And he hesitated. Not because he wanted to prolong cutting his ties, but because he realized if he left, Darcy would be alone at the house. Etta was there of course but still…the more he thought about it the more he knew he would have to wait until Glen got back.

Of course he had no idea when that might be. He paced around his room until it got dark outside then he couldn't take it anymore. He went down the stairs and up the hill to the house to see Darcy again.

It was quiet. Most of the lights were already out. He'd skipped supper but that was all right – he'd never felt less like eating. Mark went up the stairs and did not hesitate before going to Darcy's door. He opened it and saw she was sleeping on top of her blankets, still wearing her clothes. Her bathroom light was on as well so she wasn't sleeping in the dark. He debated with himself for all of thirty seconds before shutting the light off and taking off his boots and shirt. He crawled into the bed beside her and pulled her close, wrapping an arm around her waist.

Darcy muttered and shifted but didn't wake up. She was emotionally exhausted. He understood that. But Mark couldn't sleep, even with her warmth against his side. He stayed with her until well after midnight, until the sound of an approaching vehicle caught his attention. He carefully got up without disturbing Darcy and grabbed his things before heading down the stairs. He met Glen on the front porch.

"Hey. Didn't mean to wake you up." Glen looked exhausted.

"You didn't. I wasn't sleeping." Mark leaned against the wall and tugged his boots on, then shrugged back into his shirt. "How is she?"

"Awake. In pain. But she told me to get the hell out and go home, so she's improving already." Glen smiled although it was tired. "She gave her statement to the police too. Wanted 'to get it over with'." He imitated Ava's tone. "She's pissed. But that's good because she's a fighter."

"And what did she tell the cops?"

"That she was driving, minding her own business, when a truck came up behind her and tagged her rear bumper. She thought they were just trying to pass so she went onto the shoulder and that's when they tagged her again, hard enough to jolt her off the road and into the tree." Glen's voice stayed steady but Mark saw the way he kept clenching his fists. "Single male driver, dark hair. Dark blue single cab truck. That's all she got. It happened too fast."

"But she's all right."

"Yeah." Glen smile again. "She's all right. Hates anybody to see her down." He paused and the smile fell. "She's also plenty pissed that I found out about the baby."

Mark nodded. It still stunned him and he hardly knew the woman. No wonder Darcy had been so preoccupied the past week or so. Ava had dumped it on her lap when she'd needed to vent and Darcy had been chewing it over.

"Darcy sleeping?"

"Yeah. Guess the day caught up with her."

Glen nodded. He was studying Mark closely. "We need to talk about this."

"Yeah. I know."

"But it'll keep 'til morning. I'm gonna message Chris and tell him to handle the garage. Darcy won't want to miss class again since she missed all day today. We'll deal with it after we've had some sleep."

Mark nodded and Glen clapped him on the shoulder. "Get you some sleep. Pretty sure Darcy wouldn't mind you bunkin' in with her for a change."

"Yeah." He'd not be mentioning the argument they'd had earlier. They were all too drained to deal with it. "Good night."

"Night." Glen smiled tiredly and walked up the porch, going around the corner. Mark listened to his heavy footsteps on the stairs before sparing a look at the house's front door. He hesitated, then opened it and locked it before closing. If Glen had been less tired, he probably would have read Mark's intentions as clear as day. Lucky – or unlucky – for him, Glen had been worn out. Mark knew if he meant to go, then now was the time. No messy confrontations, no arguments, no promises. And even though it hurt him he turned and walked down the hill to the garage.

He grabbed his bags and made sure he had everything. There still wasn't much. He made sure to leave his key where it had been hanging the first night he'd stayed there. He went down to the garage and found a couple of tie-cords, which he used to secure his things to the back of the motorcycle. Starting it was out of the question of course. It would wake everybody up. So he kicked it into neutral and began pushing it along the driveway. He paused once, and couldn't help but look back at the big quiet house. A few lights burned in the lower floors – Etta would have left them on. He wavered but only for a moment. It was for the best. He would take his trouble and go and let them get on with living their lives. He turned back to the task of pushing the big motorcycle far enough from the house where the rumbling engine wouldn't disturb anyone sleeping.