John found himself in the living room of Dawn and Edge's house two days later. He was there so he could get his roommate and they could go back home. He was so tired, he was looking forward to getting some sleep, but he had to wait for Lita who was upstairs getting her stuff together.

"So John." Dawn said after she came back from upstairs and sat down next to him on one of the couches in the room. She didn't really care him and Edge were in a middle of a conversation, but it was good because they were talking about something they didn't want her to hear. They were actually talking about the blonde's conversation with the redhead some days earlier.

"So Dawn."

"I just thought of something fun we could talk about. What do you think about Lita?" John was about to say something, but she continued. "Well, not what do you think about her as being a subject of our conversation, but what do you think about her as a person? She's pretty awesome, right?"

Edge shook his head. He had an inkling he knew where this was going. After all, his wife did try this on Lita a couple of weeks ago. "Not this again."

John glanced between both his friends confused. Both of what they just said confused him. One, he was wondering why Dawn suddenly brought that up and two, he was wondering what Edge meant. "Um, I... um, yea. I guess. I mean, she's cool, so yea. I don't... I don't really know what you expect me to say. Any reason you're asking me this?"

"You know what? Screw it. I have to get to my office because I have a meeting with clients later and I'm really not about to waste all my time here with you so I'm just going to be straight forward. Do you like her?"

John was even more confused than before. Why was she asking him this out of no where. He looked over to Edge who was looked like he was trying not to laugh and just shook his head. "Um, yea. She's um she's a good friend. I still don't know why you randomly decided to ask me about her."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "I meant more than a friend. And do not try to lie to me."

"I I I... what?"

"I I I what?" Dawn mimicked which made Edge laugh and John glare. "Just answer the damn question."

John was silent and looked around the room before looking back at Dawn. "I guess... I guess you can say I do. I mean... I just... I do, but-"

"Yay!" Dawn clapped her hands together in excitement as she interrupted John. "Then what are you waiting for? Ask her out!"

John shook his head. "First, keep your voice down, she could hear you."

"You're saying it like it's a bad thing."

John didn't say anything in response to Dawn as he continued after her brief interruption. "Second, it's not that easy. I don't want to scare her off. She's still dealing with Matt. You can tell she's not ready for anything. I don't want to push her into something when she's not ready. And who's to say she feels the same way?"

"And maybe she does. There are just some risks you have to take. I mean, I do remember her saying something about you making her feel safe and..." Dawn trailed off when she realized what she was saying and Lita would probably be angry if she knew she told John what she previously said. But it wasn't like it was a big deal so it didn't matter much. Even so, "I probably shouldn't have said that."

John shrugged. "That doesn't mean anything. And like I said, right now is not a good time. It's just going to scare her away. She's not going to trust me anymore and then just leave or something and she still needs all of us. And... I don't know, but right now is definitely not a good time." He paused for moment but then spoke again when he thought of something else. "Don't tell her anything I just said because then she's probably going to think I'm only helping her because... just don't tell her."

"She won't." Edge said before Dawn could say anything. He turned to look at Dawn who looked like she was about to argue with them. "You know he's right. You know she's not ready to being a new relationship."

"But-"

"Dawn, please stop. If anything is supposed to happen between them, then it will. Just stop."

Dawn pouted. "Fine," she reluctantly agreed. "But the moment that asshole is finally gone, you are so gonna jump to it."

John didn't say anything, just shook his head in response. It wasn't like he would have been able to say anything if he wanted because the topic of their conversation just entered the room. Unknown to them, she pretty much heard all of their conversation. She decided she was just going to pretend she didn't hear anything which wouldn't be so hard because it's not like any of them saw her.

"Um, you ready?" John asked when he saw Lita enter the room.

Lita nodded and gestured towards the bag she brought along with her. "Yup. All ready to go."

"Not so fast," Dawn said as she got up and walked towards Lita then pulled her into another room in the house way from the two men. "We'll be right back."

"What's up?" Lita asked when her and Dawn were in the family room. She had a feeling Dawn knew she heard.

"You heard." Yup, she was right. Still, she was going to pretend she didn't know what Dawn was talking about.

"And what exactly did I hear?" Lita asked, but Dawn wasn't fooled.

"You know what I'm talking about so stop acting stupid. You heard what John said-"

Lita rolled her eyes and shrugged. "So?"

"And how do you feel?"

Lita didn't say anything for a moment and Dawn thought she wasn't going to answer her question so she was about to ask it again, but the other woman spoke. "He's right. Dawn I'm not... I can't. Not right now. Maybe not ever. I don't know. At least not right now. I... I'm not ready for more hurt and disappointment."

"But he won't do that. You said so yourself that he makes you feel safe and-"

Lita scowled. "Thanks for telling him that by the way."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Not a big deal. Li-"

"Dawn, I... The last couple of guys I dated were assholes. None anywhere near as bad as the last one, but... apparently I attract all the jackasses. And I just cannot go through that right now."

"But John isn't like that. You even said he's one of the nice guys. Did you not?" Dawn didn't wait for her friend to answer her question. "Yea, you did. Maybe it's time to break the cycle." Dawn wasn't surprised when Lita didn't say anything and just left.

"Um, we can go now," Lita said when she made it back into the living room with Dawn following after her. She made movement to grab her bag, but John beat her to it. "I can get that myself."

"It's okay. I got it."

Lita decided not to argue with him because she was not in the mood and it was just a bag. She turned around to face the other two in the room and bid them farewell, trying to ignore the last words Dawn whispered to her, encouraging her to give the good guy a chance now.

The two sat in the car, but John didn't drive away, he simply started the car and put his seat belt on. He glanced over at Lita who seemed to be avoiding looking at him. He didn't know what that was about and decided he didn't want to know.

"Um, Edge told me about you wanting to get a gun and learn how to use it."

Lita looked over at him and nodded. "Yea and don't try to talk me out of it."

John shook his head. "Definitely not going to do that. I think it's a smart idea. Don't know why neither of us thought about it before. Maybe Dawn should get one too. Anyways, I just wanted to know if you want to get the gun first, then go to the range or would you like to go to the range and then get the gun later? The one Edge and I usually go to closes at six on Saturdays and there's still a couple of hours so we can have your first lesson today if you want."

"But you just got off a long work week. We can do this another day."

"It's fine," John said and Lita looked like she was about to protest, but he continued before she could. "Really. I'm not tired," he insisted which was a lie. But it wasn't like he was about to pass out any moment due to exhaustion so he knew he would be fine.

"Really John, it's okay. You have your own stuff too and-"

"I told you I was going to help you and this constitutes as helping."

"But-"

"Come on, we're already out so we might as well."

Lita let out a sigh and nodded thinking that he wasn't going to let this go any moment. "Okay. Let's go." John simply nodded in response before driving away.


Matt looked at the building in front of him. He knew this had to be the building where Dawn's office was because he followed her there twice before. And well, he kind of followed her there today as well. He was getting sick of waiting so thought maybe today would be the best time to make his move. He didn't know what floor her office was on, but the building looked to be five floors so he hoped it wouldn't be that hard to find.

The man walked into the building, not really caring whether or not his hood was up and covering his face because it was Saturday and the building would probably be more than half empty. Luckily for him, he spotted a list of the offices in the building in the empty lobby and saw Dawn's name on the area designated for those on the fifth floor. Matt knew the woman worked for herself so he thought there was a great possibility she could be alone unless she had an assistant who was also there. Well, he would take care of that need be.

Matt made it to the second floor and it didn't take long until he found Dawn's office. Fortunately for him, he didn't see anyone else on the floor nor did he see someone else other than Dawn when he peeked into the room. She was too busy doing something at her desk so she didn't notice someone had joined her even though he didn't join her in the room yet.

Dawn looked up from what she was working on when she thought she heard noise coming from nearby. She didn't think much of it and continued with the sketch she was working on for the next house she was going to be decorating. Her clients were scheduled to come in a few minutes so she had to hurry and finish this before they came in. She already had to reschedule with them twice so she knew she had to get it ready in time for the meeting so there wouldn't be a possibility for them to change their minds about hiring her and then go to someone else.

"What in the world is that?" Dawn said when she heard the noise again. She looked up but saw no one. She didn't see many people around in the building that day so she didn't know who it could be other than possibly her clients.

The brunette got up from where she was sitting when she decided to check out the noise herself because she had a feeling it could be her clients who could have went to a wrong office even though that would be a dumb thing to do since hers clearly had her name on the front door. Dawn didn't make it far until Matt decided to make his presence known. Dawn stopped in place out of shock and fear when she saw him.

"Hello," Matt said with a smirk present on his face.

"Get out," Dawn finally said after a while as she backed up closer to her desk where her phone was.

Matt shook his head and walked into her after closing and locking the door of the room. Dawn took the time when he was distracted by the door to quickly grab her phone and run to the back room which she now realized she still hadn't gotten the door fixed so there was no door where it should be. She hurriedly dialed 911 as she looked for a place to hide and buy some time, but she wasn't able to press call because Matt was faster than her and came out of nowhere and knocked the phone out of her hands.

"I don't think so." He stomped on the phone a couple of times to make sure it was smashed so it wouldn't somehow finish calling the number she dialed. Dawn was about to run away form there, but Matt harshly pushed her closer to himself. "Not so fast."

Dawn did the only thing she could think at the moment. She spit in his face, then stomped on his foot and then kicked him as hard as she could in his leg, then took the change to push him hard so he fell hard on the ground. She tried to get out of there before he could get up again, but she tripped and fell. Luckily for her, she got up right away, one glance to Matt and she could see he was struggling to get up.

The woman ran out of the back room and into the main office screaming for help, hoping and praying the other two or three people in the building could hear her. Hoping and praying her clients were right outside the door or something and could call for help which she wasn't able to do at the moment. Dawn grabbed her purse and headed to the door as she looked for something in her purse that could be helpful if Matt made it to her before she got out of there. She took the item out and glanced behind her to see no Matt before unlocking the door. The fact that she was so terrified made that process take what felt like an eternity.

Dawn finally got in unlocked and opened and was about to leave, but that's when she felt Matt grab her from behind. She screamed in pain when her back was slammed hard against the still closed door. She tried to ignore the pain and lifted her hand with the pepper spray in it and sprayed him in the face which didn't get him right in the eyes like she would have liked, but it had some sort of an effect and was enough for him to let her go so she was satisfied with that and ran out her office.

She usually loved being on the fifth floor because the view from her office was nice, but at the moment she was cursing herself for choosing the top floor. There were so many stairs to go down and couldn't even make out the stairs because her eyes were filled with tears. She needed to hurry and get out of there. The brunette heard footsteps and hoped it was someone who could have heard her screaming for help, but one glance back told her it wasn't; it was Matt. She was regretting not trying to spray him again and getting him in the eyes. No problem, she still had it in her hands. She could always try again and get him good. Unfortunately for her, that plan wasn't meant to be because Matt caught up with her when they made it somewhere between the first and second floor.

"Where do you think you're going bitch? We're not done here." He knew what she had planned so he took the item out of her hands and threw it down the stairs.

Dawn tried to hit Matt again, but he proved to be stronger and punched her in the face which took a lot out of her. That still didn't stop her, but it wasn't like it mattered because the punch took a lot out of her. Her trying to fight back didn't help her out much. Next thing she knew, Matt pushed her with force and she went tumbling down the stairs before everything went black.


Thanks for reading. Thanks for the reviews. Hope you liked the chapter. :)