BACK IN THE DAY

"STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed.

She could feel the blood trickling down her face, mixing with the tears streaming from her eyes. How could he do this to her? He was supposed to be in love with her.

"Please, Chris," she pleaded with him, "please stop it. I didn't mean to upset y.you" she choked on her words as she fought to breathe. She sobbed, her whole body heaving with every cry. His grasp tightened around her wrists causing her to gasp in pain.

"You bitch!" he spat. "How can you do this to me?! After everything I've done for you?! How could you?!! You are nothing, I don't even know why I bother with you. You are a cheap country whore. You've no class Josephine - you don't deserve someone like me. God! I deserve so much better than you." He looked at her helpless in his arms and laughed, "You're pathetic! You expect me to forgive you?" He kicked her hard in the stomach. "I hope your bastard child dies." He let go of her hands and left her on the kitchen floor crying, nursing her stomach.

That morning Joey had been so happy, she had been to the doctor and he had confirmed what she had suspected, she was pregnant. This would make Chris so happy, maybe now that he was going to be a dad he would stop getting so angry at her, maybe now he would be proud of her. Joey walked home with a skip in her step. New York was great, she was happy to be alive, Chris could be so loving, he could really make her smile, but sometimes he hurt her so much she couldn't believe they were the same person. His words hurt more than any of the punches - but who do you tell when the man you love is beating you?

She got home and made a special dinner for them both, she tidied the house and lit candles on the table. She smiled at her handiwork and went upstairs to change. When Chris had come home she had greeted him with a kiss and they had sat down to dinner. Everything had been going really well, until she told him the news, he reacted in a way she had never expected him to. He refused to believe it was his child. He threw the table over and slapped her. His fingers stung against her face, she held back the tears, as she listened to all the names he was calling her, she held back the tears until he punched her in the head, she felt her skin break and the blood fall. She cried, not because of the pain, but because he had never punched her face before. He was good at bruising her in places that she could cover up.

The baby was gone and she knew it. She could barely cope with the pain, how on earth would the baby. She cried herself to sleep that night, wishing that there a way out of this, some way she could be herself again.

The bruise on her face was really big and it was obvious how it was caused. Joey could go to work with it, there would be too many questions asked and too much gossip. You didn't get bruises like that from falling over. She loved her job at the newspaper, loved all of it. It was her escape from the world, as writing always had been.

The doorbell rang, preventing her from slipping into further self-pity. She checked her self in the hall mirror and answered it. The face smiling at her from the other side of the door brought tears to her eyes, she tried to cover it with a fake smile.

"Hey Potter, are those tears of joy?!"

"Oh God, Pacey, what are you doing here?" she threw herself at her best friend. "Why didn't you ring? Where are you staying?"

"One question at a time Potter!!" Pacey laughed, "I'm here for the opening of my new restaurant in New York, I'm staying at a hotel in the centre. I'm only here til tomorrow and thought I'd pop in and surprise you at work, but they said you were here. Now my turn - who did that to you?"

Joey looked away, "It doesn't matter Pace," she said quietly. A single tear escaped and slid down her cheek.

"Hey, Jo, it's me. You can tell me if something's wrong."

The tears started to fall, despite her best efforts. "Pace, really, it's no.nothing," she sobbed. "he didn't mean to..he's never hit my face before.."

"WHAT!" Pacey shouted, his emotions getting the better of him. "He's hit you before?!! Jo, why didn't you say? One word and I'd have come and got you - god he seems like such a nice guy. I'm taking you with me Joey. No arguments, and I'm calling the police."

"Pacey, please, don't. I can't. He loves me really, he does, it's just sometimes he gets angry...and there isn't really anything to worry about.."

"Josephine Potter, you will do what I say on this one occasion, even if you never do again."

Pacey already had his phone out, and was getting ready to call the police. "Pace, stop. I'll come with you, but please don't call the cops. He won't know where I've gone. He doesn't know you've been here. Let's just go before he comes back. Come upstairs and help me pack my stuff."

Pacey drew her in for a big hug and kissed her on the top of her head. "I love you Potter," he whispered into her hair.