"What do you want me to do, Letty? Just let this asshole use her as a punching bag?" Dom shouted, in the heat of a five-beer argument.

"That's not what I'm saying and you know it. I'm saying she may still be a kid, but you can't go around treating her like a ten-year-old or she's going to pull back from you, and then where will that leave you?"

"So I should just sit here until she comes to me? She could be comatose by the time she realizes that she needs help."

"Then you be there for her when she comes out of her coma. You can't run her life, Dominic."

"So this is all my fault, is that what you're saying?"

"No," she began, "one of you is just as stubborn as the other. She has to grow up and realize that part of growing up is asking for help. And you have to grow up and realize that you can't solve everything with your fists and a ¾ inch socket wrench."  The reference to Dom's prison record stopped him cold, and Letty wanted to take it back as soon as the words left her mouth. She opened her mouth to apologize, but she knew how pointless any words would be at this point, so she just let the words hang. He covered his face with both hands and leaned back in his chair. She watched his chest rise and fall, shakily. Almost certain that he was crying, Letty didn't want to embarrass him any further, so she stood silently and left.

After he heard the door close behind Letty, he waited for a few moments before picking his head up. He stood and made his way to the kitchen, grabbing another Corona. He downed half of it in one pull. Maybe Letty had some good points, he thought to himself. He couldn't run Ali's life, no matter how horribly she was doing it. But dammit, this was not the time to keep out of it. The girl could have had some broken ribs today, and why? Because that other son of a bitch was pissed at her for some damn reason. It just didn't seem right.

And what the hell business was it of Letty's anyway? She didn't even like Ali. Why did she give a damn about the relationship between him and Ali? He took one more pull on the bottle, finishing the beer. He had just dropped the bottle in the trash can when the house's quiet was shattered by three quick knocks on the front door. He ran a hand over his face quickly to make sure there wasn't any remaining moisture there and made his way to the door. Looking out the window first, he saw a shadowed figure.

A woman standing sideways on his porch, as though she was looking at something down the street. Long hair. Tubby. Looked kind of like Ali. He flipped the porch light on. It was Ali, but she didn't flinch at the sudden change in lighting, as if she'd been expecting it.

He opened the door, but she didn't move much. She remained where she was standing, giving him only a profile, looking down the street. "Hi, Dominic," she said quietly.

"Aliana," he replied, sticking his head out of the door, trying to see what she was looking at down the street. "What's up?"

"Not much," she sniffled. "Look, Dominic. Umm, you doing anything tonight?"

"No," he replied, suspiciously.

"Nothing? No plans with Letty or Vince or anything?"

"No," he replied. "Letty and I had a fight and Vince has a date."

"Hmm," she snorted, "amazing."

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, Steven is still at my place and I need somewhere to crash for the night. I know I was kind of harsh earlier, but I was wondering if I could hang here, just until tomorrow morning when he goes to work."

"You know you're always welcome, Ali. Come on in."

"Now you're sure that you don't have any plans or anything like that?"

"What is the big deal?"

"Well, I just don't want to be left here all by myself. I mean if you have somewhere to go, then tell me now, and I'll go somewhere else, but I just don't want to be alone. So you're not going anywhere?"

"No."

"You swear? You give me your word?"

"Yes, Ali. You have my word."

"Ok," Ali said, as she turned completely away from him, to set the alarm on her car, then she turned to him full-face and he saw why she had been only half-facing him. Her left eye was deep purple and swollen almost shut, and her lip was split open and bleeding.

"That son of a bitch!" Dominic yelled. "I'm gonna kill him."

"Not tonight you're not," she said standing in his way. "You gave me your word that you weren't leaving me."

He looked down at her, suddenly realizing that he had fallen straight into that one.  "Dammit!" he exclaimed. "You sneaky little grease monkey."

She smiled as best she could, as she pushed her way past him, "Yeah, well, since you can't go and beat the shit out of him, how about you come in and patch me up?"

"Yeah, all right," he said closing the door behind them, following her to the kitchen.

"Where's Mia?" she asked conversationally, as she sat at the table.

"Study group."

"It's eleven thirty. That's some badass studying."

"Um-hmm," he agreed, as he walked out of the room, and up the stairs. She could hear him opening cabinets in the bathroom overhead.  For Christ's sake, Ali, she thought to herself, just tell him. Her thoughts were interrupted by Dom's entrance back into the room. He held a small bottle in one hand, and a washcloth in the other. He set the bottle down on the table in front of her, and walked to the sink to dampen the washcloth.

"Look, Dominic," she began, with his back still to her. "I wanted to…a—apologize for this morning. I know you were just trying to help, and maybe if I had listened to you, then I wouldn't be here now, bleeding on your table." She waited for him to turn around and fix her with that 'I told you so' stare of his, but he made no move to turn. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry," she finished, swallowing thickly. Still no movement from him, and she began to nervously fidget with the bottle that he had brought down, while she licked the blood from her lip.

"Yeah, well, Ali…I'm…I'm sorry too." She raised an eyebrow at him. She definitely hadn't been expecting this. He turned towards her, "It isn't any of my business. And if you had wanted my help you would have asked for it."

"Well, that's true," she said as he straddled a chair in front of her. "But I still had no right to go off on you the way I did."

"That's true," he said, soaking some of the bottles contents onto one corner of the washcloth.

"Especially since you're patching me up now."

"Yeah, well, since you did go off on me this morning, I'm really going to enjoy this part of it," he said as he touched the corner of the washcloth to her lip.

"Ow," she cried, pulling back from the sting. He smiled to himself, as she narrowed her eyes at him. "That hurt."

"I know," he replied, using the other corner of the washcloth to wipe away the blood that had trickled down her chin. As he gently held one of his hands over hers, Ali blinked several times trying to clear her head of all of the thoughts that she was having about what she would like to do to him, now that they were alone together, preferably on this incredibly sturdy tabletop. Focusing on him again, she realized that he was looking at her, and she blushed, looking away.

"What?" he asked, half-laughing.

"Nothing really," she lied, then decided, 'Aw, what the hell'.  "Just thinking how much I would love to have my way with you right here, right now." He sat back, mouth nearly agape. "Surprised by my blatant honesty? Come on, like you didn't know."

"Well, yeah, but…"

"Awfully direct, huh? Well, I've decided to stop bullshitting people. You just happen to be at the top of my list. And since I'm on the subject and I'm coming clean, you want to know why I love you?"

"Oh, do tell," he replied.

"You remember back when Mia and I were in tenth grade? And there were those assholes at that corner store that used to always shout shit at me cause I was fat."

"Yeah, I remember."

"Well, I started thinking about finding another way home, but Mia said that I should stick it out. I didn't want to, but I thought Mia knew what she was talking about, so I just kept putting up with it. It never got any better, then you walked home with us one day. Now today, I can't remember how many of them there were or how old they were, or anything, the only thing I remember is that after it was all over with, you came to me and asked me if I was okay. You had just left these guys bloodied and battered, but you were checking to see if I was alright. I appreciated that, Dominic. And it felt damn good to know that you were there for me to ask me if I'm alright."

A slamming car door outside caught their attention. "I'm home," Mia called, as the front door opened.

"In the kitchen," Ali called as she sat back in her chair.

"Ali," Mia said as she stepped into the kitchen. "What are you doing…Jesus, what happened to you?"

Ali smiled, and shook her head, "I'll tell you later, but I'm tired as hell, and I'm going to sleep."

"I take it you two kissed and made up?" Mia asked pulling a bottled water from the fridge.

"Unfortunately only made up," Ali said, smiling at Dominic. "But the almighty Dominic has taken pity on me and provided me with a place to sleep, at least for the night," she said standing, and stretching. "So, I'm going to take advantage and get some rest."

"Me too," Mia began, "'night, Dominic."

"Night," Dominic replied as he watched Mia go. "You can sleep in my room, Ali."

"Suppose it would be way too much to hope for that all of my gushy emotions got to you and you'll join me in bed, huh?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding, "too much to hope for."

"Well hell, then you keep your bed, Dominic. I'll sleep on the couch." She gathered some blankets from upstairs, and was laying them out on the couch when Dominic came in to say good night.

"You sure you'll be alright out here?"

"Don't worry about me, Dom, I'll be fine."

"Ok," he replied, "Good night then."

She crawled under the blankets on the couch and listened to Dominic go up the stairs and move around overhead, until she fell asleep.