It was a slow night.

Surprisingly, not that much was going on, Diego stopped a robbery before going to an empty parking lot and that wasn't even phoned in to the police yet. Diego knew he had to pick and choose which crime he should go to in hopes of not getting any run ins with cops.

He sighed and leaned forward to turn on the ignition to go home when the dispatcher had called in a domestic violence report, not far from where he was. It would've been 5 minutes for him to get there on foot. He continued to start the car anyways.

He parked his car in the alley as he began to understand why there was such an urgent call, even from the outside, Diego could hear the woman's screams and crashing of furniture. With a quick ease, he hopped the fence and used one of his knives to unlock the back door. His shoes crunched on an already broken plate as his chest tightened when he saw the blood on the floor and countertop. This was bad.

A woman was thrown down to the floor just outside of the kitchen as a man towered over her, Diego kicked him in the back of his knee. The man let out a cry as Diego punched him on the side of the face, creating room to get himself in between the woman and the attacker. The man tried to lunge at him but Diego quickly moved away and connected his knee to his stomach. A gasp came from the man as Diego went behind him and started to put him in a chokehold. He struggled for a bit, but the man finally went limp and crashed to the ground as the woman backed up, terrified of the masked man.

"It's alright" Diego said as calmly as he could, "I'm not going to hurt you."

She was visibly shaking as she said, "Who are you?"

"Someone who just gave you a second chance at life" Diego responded before he said, "The police will be here any minute"

"What do I say about all this?" She waved around at the mess.

Diego shrugged, "The truth. He beat you up and a stranger came in and stopped it… if there's a Detective Patch that answers to this call, she'll believe you"

The sirens started to sound in the distance as the woman slowly straightened herself up, "He's not going to wake up anytime soon, is he?"

"Only when he's in handcuffs" Diego turned and kicked the man roughly in the stomach before he said, "For good measure"

That was nearly a week ago, normally he wouldn't think twice about the people he saved during his Vigilante nights but this one beckoned his call. It was almost closing time for the gym, about an hour or so when there was a strange hush over the building that made him look up from sweeping. He would've just thought she was any normal attractive woman who came in just for the looks from the boys, it's been done before. What Diego noticed was the bruises still visible on her skin, her skin was painted in blotches of ugly brown or pale blue. She looked almost just as scared as how he saw her the night in her apartment.

Her eyes scanned and glanced to his, shit!

Al walked over to the woman and gently touched her arm, just slightly but it was enough to make her jump back and the old man to wave his arms up as if he meant no defense. They started to talk when the young woman showed him a small piece of paper. He only glanced at it before looking up and meeting Diego's eyes. He turned his back on them and tried to pretend that he actually enjoyed sweeping in the corner.

There was no way she could've saw me, no way! I didn't even stick around for her to try and ask personal questions. How the hell did she find me so quickly?

Al yelled out Diego's name, making Diego stiffen as he wished he could disappear but instead, he turned around. Al and the woman were standing in front of him.

"You have a client"

"What?"

"You came as a high recommendation for this little lady here" Al turned and looked to her, "She wants you to teach her self defense"

Diego glanced over and looked at the bruised woman up and down, "Haven't you been through a couple rounds already?"

"Diego!" Al hissed out.

"What I mean to say is that you shouldn't be trying to fight whoever did this to you" Diego said, "Go to the police, file a report, and let justice do its work"

She opened her mouth and said in a small voice, "I- I did, y- you were the o- one my detective mentioned, she said y- you could help protect me?"

She. "What was her name?"

"Patch" the woman cleared her throat, "Eudora Patch, she said you owe her a favor"

"Son of a bitch" Diego rolled his eyes.

"Diego, can I have a word with you" Al turned to the woman and smiled to her, "Excuse me, sweetheart"

He roughly took Diego by the arm and dragged him across the otherside of the boxing gym, "What the hell is the matter with you?! Can't you give this woman some respect? She's been through hell!"

"This isn't her place" Diego said, "She shouldn't be here"

"She needs your help" Al exclaimed, "Can't you just give her lessons? I'll pay you for it"

"Why would Patch send her over to me in order to help her?" Diego asked, "You do realize she might get cocky and want to go a couple of rounds on the person who did this to her, right?"

"What if this man will come back and do the knock out on her, or worse," Al said, "Do you want that on your conscious as she walks out of here?"

No. Of course not, he's heard of a couple of cases where the boyfriend comes back, regardless of the restraining order or not. He glanced back over to the woman who seemed so scared that each sound of the punching bag made her jump. Diego couldn't help but pity the woman, usually he doesn't think twice but now seeing the aftermath of abuse, he did feel pity. He sighed and glanced to Al and only gave a small nod before going back to the woman.

"We'll start your first lesson when your bruises have fully healed" Diego said, "We'll train either an hour before the gym opens or after it closes, understand?"

"Yes" she swallowed.

Diego watched him before he said, "The person who did this to you? Will he come back?"

She glanced down to her bruises before she mumbled, "I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

"Just to be clear; this is for defending yourself not going seeking out revenge on him" Diego said firmly.

"Of course" she looked up, "I would never want to be in the same room with him, ever again"

"Let's hope that never happens" he reached out for her hand, "My name is Diego Hargreeves"

"Ava" she glanced up to him, "Ava Thomas"