"Thanks Tom, really! You're a great help as always." sighed David, rolling his eyes with disbelief.

"Sorry, I didn't know it was a secret. I've thought…" he tried to answer, but David just closed the door on him, still didn't dare to turn around.

"… When did you want to tell me he was here?" she asked, her voice was surprised and desperate at the same time, "David?"

"Actually," he turned to face with her. "I guess, never."

"Fine, at least you're honest."

"Look, I didn't want you to worry." he explained. "I just tried to spare you somehow."

"But I have to know about these things, why don't you understand that?"

"Why? Because you freaked out even from a text message…"

"Then you think I wouldn't freak out, if all of a sudden you just… wouldn't come?!"

"Why wouldn't I come?" he asked completely at a loss, then a moment later he already knew the answer. "Oh, please don't start it again…"

"You don't know Roger!"

"Of course, because you don't tell me what happened!" he replied without thinking, but seeing her desperate and distracted reaction, he immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…"

"…" she just looked down.

"He is a bastard, that's all I have to know." he tried to fix it, while his stomach was already in a cramp. "And I won't disappear, okay?"

"I only hope so…"

"Hey, I won't… I promise you."

"Please don't promise what you can't keep," she added barely audibly, watching him as he stepped closer, grabbing her hands.

"I never let anything bad happen to you, remember?"

"Yeah, sure." she nodded, battling with her emotions. "So… would you tell me finally what happened?"

"…"

"He tried to get in? I didn't hear anything."

"No, of course not." he pulled himself together. "He is not allowed to step into this building. I just got a message that he was heading this way, so I went down and waited him to arrive, then… we had a little argument, nothing serious." he tried to be nonchalant.

"Nothing serious, right? And what about that 'fight' Tom mentioned?"

"Maybe there was one or two slaps, but that's all."

"Uh-huh, so you smashed him to pieces."

"Well… nearly."

"Oh my God, David." she murmured with eyes closed, then seeing his puzzled face, guilt replaced her fear. "Look, I do not want you to think I'm not grateful…. of course, I am."

"I know, you really don't have to say anything," he tried to stop her, but she just had to tell him.

"It means everything to me…"

"Really?" he could not hide his smile.

"Yes, of course." her eyes were shining. "It's such an amazing feeling that you're here and just go and… and beat somebody up for me." she waved theatrically. "I love this feeling, I truly love… but I shouldn't get used to it."

"…"

"You know, I was always alone in my life… even if I was in a marriage." she added with a sigh. "I always had to be strong at every circumstances, had to fight with everything and everybody on my own. So this feeling, that I'm not alone in every sense of the word is quite new to me."

"But you don't have to feel that way anymore, I'm here for you… and I'll always be." he added softly and saw as she was on the edge of crying.

"And that's the problem exactly…" she whispered and rushed into her bedroom, hiding behind the door in the semi-darkness to calm herself down. She didn't want to cry in front of him… not again. What could he think of her anyway? She was always crying when they were alone, it's so not like her, this woman is not her… she was concentrating hard, trying to hold back her tears, when she nearly jumped from fright as David placed his hands on her shoulder, "Gosh!…" she barely could breathe.

"I'm sorry…" he was puzzled for a moment, feeling as she was shaking against his touch. "I did not want to scare you."

"No, I just didn't notice you, sorry." she turned around, her words sounded defending.

"You okay?"

"Yes…. yes, of course."

"You hurried away so suddenly. Did I say something wrong?"

"No, not at all." she sighed. "I just didn't want to cry again… this is not me David, believe me!"

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with crying." he stroked her face. "You don't have to be always so strong, you can relax a bit… at least when you're with me." he said lovingly and she just nodded, trying to smile. "But how did you mean it's a problem that I'm here for you? I don't understand…"

"But it's simple. You suddenly stepped into my life and since then I… I fear… I awfully fear that it's just temporary. Life was always so hard on me, so what if it's just some kind of a cruel joke?"

"A cruel joke?"

"Yes, showing me 'it could be like that', then when I get used to it, Life will take you away from me… I awfully fear that I'll lose you, David."

"But that won't happen… I never let that happen, okay?" he whispered, looking deep into her eyes, finally understood her worries. "… I would go to hell and back for you." he added softly and she perfectly knew, he ment it… so she could not help just slowly, tentatively snuggled up to him and soon she completely lost herself in his closeness. In his arms was the only place where she could forget everything, he was her hiding place and somehow, he was fully aware of that… so he just held her tight and made small circles on her back to comfort her… maybe it could be a perfect moment to finally love her the way as he yearned for the most, but something held him back very strongly. The way as she jumped from his touch really concerned him… and those imaginations started hunting him again, hunting him so strongly, that he just instinctively drew her closer, as if he would try to keep her safe from the outside world… but soon a phone's ringing took them back to reality. As he loosened his hug on her, she went to the living room and grabbed the phone… it was David's.

"That won't happen, right?" she asked desperately, holding up the device, showing who was calling him…

"It's just Ms. Craddock, don't worry."

"Uh-huh, and why is she calling you on Saturday, hm?"

"It could be anything."

"Of course, right after you beat Roger up on the street…"

"Just give it to me please… I have to answer it."

"Okay, but put it into speaker mode." she asked and David just nodded, while he finally pushed the answer button.

"Good morning, ma'am. What can I do for you?"

"David, I know it's your day off, but I have to speak with you in my office right now."

"Uhm, may I ask what it would be about?"

"Everything has its time, so I'll tell you when you're here." she answered on her bossy way, and that was enough for Julia, she picked the phone out from David's hand.

"Morning Ms. Craddock. This is Julia Montague speaking…" she said on her professional way and her tone was completely devoid of her earlier weakness.

"Uhm… good morning, ma'am." she was awfully puzzled.

"I had a very… difficult night." started Julia. "David and I were up all night." she explained into the phone, but looking at him, she stopped for a moment. "… so the point is, David cannot go to meet you, because I still need him… what?" she whispered the last bit only to David, who covered his face with his hand and she finally realized how may it sounded… but then she just waved it away, she didn't give a shit on what Ms. Craddock may think.

"I'm terribly sorry ma'am, but I really have to speak with David."

"I'm sure work can wait until Monday, do you agree with me?" she tried.

"With respect ma'am, it's not about work, it's something personal. Some good news, but I really cannot tell more."

"Well, in that case…" Julia was still suspicious, but finally agreed. "Right, but don't take that too long, he has to be back within an hour." she said firmly and just ended the call.

"See?" smiled David. "There's nothing at all. That bastard is just a talker."

"I still don't trust in this whole thing, mostly in Ms. Craddock."

"Right, then I'm not going." he stated. "So problem solved."

"No… no, just go. I don't want to get you in trouble with your boss."

"I really don't care about what she wants," he stepped closer. "I won't leave you here."

"But it's just an hour," David still didn't move. "Then… then call Tom back for that time, he can't be far."

"Okay…" he sighed, knowing he couldn't win. "But I'll be back as soon as I can."

"And you know, if you would rather go home to sleep a bit…" she started, but he cut in.

"I'll be back," he said confidently and stepped back to hug her tightly for one last time, feeling how hard was to her to physically let him go…

As he left her apartment, he immediately called Tom and waited downstairs until he got back… in the midst of swearing of course.

The meeting with Ms. Craddock was quite different than he thought and it turned out that Julia was right. Roger made a complaint as expected, so Ms. Craddock just warned him to be more professional at work, because this kind of a behavior was a shame for the whole department etc. etc… so as the winging ended, he could finally rush back to Julia. He was just thinking on her nonsense idea to go home to sleep, when he arrived back and spotted Roger's car at the back entrance of the building. He immediately knew this could only mean one thing, so he started to run towards the building in panic, meanwhile upstairs her doorbell was ringing…

"You got back pretty fast." she opened her door happily, but the man at the door was not who she was waiting for.

"I hope you had fun last night you fucking bitch!" hissed Roger and slapped her so hard that she fell on the ground…

To be continued…