Title: Damaged Goods (6/7)
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down cause I'll never pay!
Rating: I'm gonna go ahead and rate this one an R, for language and some violent, possibly slightly disturbing content.
Pairings: Eric/Maria, Tim/Calleigh, Maria/Hagen (What? Quit looking at me like that, it was her idea.)
Feedback: Review it, or I'll send Maria to your house.
Dedication: Once again, to everyone who reviewed the last part, which was particularly hard to write.
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"Women." Eric muttered into his beer. "Know what I mean, Henry?"
"In the interest of saving time, sure I do." The bartender replied. "Hey, you guys any closer to catching the bastard who drugged Maria and that British girl? I just can't believe it. I got a daughter who's gonna be wanting to go out to parties in a few years. Just makes me sick, thinking about someone doing that shit to girls in my bar."
"Hey, don't beat yourself up, it can happen anywhere." Eric slurred. "I don't even know about the case, none of us are working on it. Boss man thinks we're 'too close.' I don't wanna talk about it, okay? I mean, it's like the Twilight Zone or something. All you ever hear from women is bitching and whining about men who just want sex, and run at the first sign of emotion, and then they go and do the same shit!" He noticed a woman at the bar staring at him. "You know what I'm talking about, don't give me that look. Why can't any of you just make up your minds?"
"Uh...we're sorry?" The woman said, rolling her eyes as she walked away.
"Okay, man, that's enough." Henry said. "You really have a way with the ladies, you know that?"
"I'm not bitter or anything." Eric mumbled.
"No, you're just really wasted." Henry replied. "I'll call you a cab."
"Forget it." Eric said, throwing a few crumbled bills on the bar. "I'll walk, I gotta clear my head."
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"Calleigh, shh." Tim whispered as Calleigh pulled him into the apartment, laughing softly as they kissed. "You wouldn't want to wake up your roommate, would you?"
"And here I thought we came back just in case she needed anything." Calleigh teased, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, but if she doesn't need anything, and we wake her up, then she's an audience that we don't need." Tim replied, catching her lips again.
"Good point." Calleigh gasped out between kisses. As his mouth traveled down her throat, sucking gently, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. "Tim..." He didn't respond. "Tim!" She said, more insistently. He still didn't get the point, so she tried another approach. "John!"
That got Tim's attention. "What the hell?" He looked where Calleigh was pointing, rolling her eyes at him. "Oh. Hagen. Nice to see you." He greeted the other man, in a tone that clearly indicated to him that he was intruding.
"Don't let me interrupt." Hagen said casually, walking past the couple. "I was just leaving, anyway. Just try to keep it down, Maria needs to get some sleep."
"A little self-assured, are we?" Calleigh joked.
"For fuck's sake, Calleigh, that's not what I meant." Hagen shot back, barely turning around. "Get your mind out of the gutter." The door closed behind him.
"Whoa." Calleigh said. "What's his problem?"
"Maybe they had a fight?" Tim suggested.
Calleigh nodded slightly. "Yeah, maybe..." She crept to Maria's bedroom door and pushed it open slightly. In the dim light, she saw the younger woman in her bed, her naked body covered by the crimson sheet. She was sleeping peacefully, a content expression on her face. "Well, whatever's got John in such a foul mood, it doesn't seem to be bothering her."
"Then it's probably none of our business." Tim pointed out, sliding one arm around her waist and kissing the side of her neck.
"You really do have a one track mind." Calleigh sighed. She moaned softly as his lips touched a sensitive spot. "Not that I'm complaining."
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He wasn't quite sure how he'd arrived at his present location. He'd left the bar with every intention of going straight home.
It seemed, however, that he just wasn't calling the shots anymore.
He debated for a few minutes whether or not he should hit the buzzer, not sure if either of them would still be awake, or if they would even be at home. What would he say? What logical explanation could there possibly be for him showing up, falling-down drunk outside their apartment at one in the morning?
Hell, since when did logic have any place in his life?
"Eric? Hey!" A slightly familiar voice interrupted his mental rambling.
"Hi Lisa." He greeted the young woman who lived in the apartment directly above Calleigh and Maria's. "How's it going?"
"Not bad. Just got back from a month in New York, visiting my cousins." Lisa replied cheerfully. "You need to get in?"
"Uh, yeah, sure." Eric said. "Thanks."
"Yeah, no problem." Lisa said cheerfully. "Tell Maria and Calleigh I said hi."
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"Oh my God, what now?" Calleigh groaned.
"Ignore it, maybe whoever it is will go away." Tim mumbled against her lips, slowly pulling down the zipper on her dress and slipping his hand under the black fabric.
The knocking at the front door continued, and increased in intensity.
"Or, maybe just get louder." Tim said, frustrated.
"I'll go see who it is." Calleigh sighed, zipping the dress back up and walking out into the front hallway. "Who is it?"
"It's a drunken, knife-wielding maniac."
"Eric?" Calleigh said.
"Okay, so it's one out of three." Eric replied.
"I would say two out of three." Calleigh rolled her eyes as she opened the door. "What are you doing here?"
"I was in the neighborhood." Eric shrugged. "Can I come in?"
Calleigh nodded and stepped aside. "Can't have you wandering the streets. God, you really are wasted."
"I've had a few." Eric admitted.
"Dozen?" Tim asked from the bedroom doorway.
"Very funny. Where's Maria?" Eric asked.
"Asleep, and she needs to stay that way, so keep it down." Calleigh replied. She pushed him into the armchair. "Sit. Stay. I'll make you some coffee, but then you're out of here."
"All right, fine." Eric leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes.
Tim sat down on the couch. "You know, all I wanted was to spend some quality time alone with the woman I love, without being interrupted every five minutes by a guy who's completely fucked in the head from sleeping with her roommate."
"Huh?" Eric opened his eyes. "Sorry, I wasn't listening. I was just remember the time Maria and I screwed in this chair. God, that was absolutely mind-blowing."
"You're a fucking sex addict." Tim said, shaking his head.
"Nah, I'm a Maria addict." Eric chuckled. "And that's a lot worse. I'm addicted to sex I can't have." His voice got louder as he continued. "Sex I could have, if I could just have kept my goddamn mouth shut."
"Hey, lower your voice." Tim told him.
Too late.
"Who is being loud?" Maria groaned, appearing in her bedroom doorway, wrapped in a crimson sheet.
"Uh, he is." Eric said, pointing at Tim.
"Oh my God!" Calleigh sighed as she came back into the room with a cup of coffee in her hand. "I told you to keep it down. Sorry, Maria. He just showed up."
"Don't worry about it." Maria replied. "I'm awake, might as well be amused."
"I'm not getting laid tonight, am I?" Tim groaned.
"No one here is." Calleigh agreed, handing the coffee to Eric. "Well, aside from Maria."
"Yeah, I got mine." Maria smirked, then disappeared into her room, returning a minute later in a tank top and cotton pajama pants. "Well, since we're all here, you guys want to watch a video? John brought over some Monty Python tapes."
"Might as well." Calleigh said. She picked a video from the pile on the coffee table and put it in the VCR.
"Scoot over." Maria said to Eric. "Might as well let them have the couch."
Eric shrugged and moved over, leaving just enough space for Maria to sit beside him in the chair.
As Maria sat down, however, she discovered that there wasn't enough room for her to sit comfortably without her body brushing against his. She shivered slightly, remembering the last time that they had been in this chair together. Could it really have been only a month ago? She glanced at Eric, trying to see if he was at all affected by their closeness, or their location. He seemed too hammered to be affected by much of anything.
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"Try unplugging it and then plugging it back in." Eric suggested.
"I already did." Maria sighed, pushing a few random buttons on the VCR.
"Maybe it's the tape?" Eric said, leaning over beside her.
"It's not the tape, it's the VCR." Maria replied sharply. "Look, just sit down and let me fix this, okay?"
Eric shrugged. "I want to help."
"Well, I don't need your help." Maria snapped.
"Or maybe you do, and you're too fucking stubborn to admit it." Eric shot back.
"Yeah, that's it." Maria said sarcastically. "I'm completely helpless, can't even fix a goddamn VCR without you there to hold my hand. Back off, okay? I don't need any fucking help!"
"Well, I think you do need help, because you're sure as hell not dealing with it on your own!"
"Okay, I don't think we're talking about the VCR anymore." Tim said, rolling his eyes.
"Gee, ya think?" Calleigh sighed.
Eric and Maria stopped bickering long enough to glance at their friends, then continued.
In Russian.
"Oh, come on." Tim groaned. "If they're going to fight in front of us, they could at least do it in a language we understand."
"Otherwise it's just really uncomfortable." Calleigh agreed.
"Well, would you rather this, or their usual grunting and screaming?" Tim pointed out.
"I honestly don't even know any more." Calleigh sighed.
Eric and Maria paused once more.
"We could go talk in my room." Maria suggested.
"Yeah, why don't we?" Eric said, glaring slightly at the couple on the couch. He followed her into her bedroom, shutting the door behind them. "Maria, you're being way too calm about all of this. You're acting like it's no big deal that you could have been murdered!"
"What, like you fucking care?" Maria shouted.
"Damn it, we have been over this before." Eric stepped closer to her. "I do care, all right? I care about you."
"Eric, don't." Maria said. "Stop it."
"I love you." Eric told her. "I've tried, these past three weeks, I've tried to stop. I can't."
"Shut up." Maria choked out, closing her eyes.
"Tell me you don't love me." Eric insisted. "If you don't feel anything for me, just say so. It won't kill me." His eyes drifted over to the bed, and he felt a pang of jealousy as it occured to him that someone else had been in that bed with her just hours before. "If I can survive seeing you with Hagen..."
"Shut up!" Maria cried, raising her hand, as if to slap him.
Instinctively, Eric caught her wrist, gently but firmly. She froze as his fingers brushed over a patch of skin that had a different texture from the rest.
"Maria, what the hell..." Eric slowly turned her wrist over, and saw something he'd never noticed before. He took her other hand and inspected that wrist, and saw the same thing.
Faint, jagged lines, one on each wrist, running down the blue veins that were faintly visible under her pale skin.
Pulling her wrists out of his grasp, Maria jerked back, stumbling and sitting down hard on her bed.
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"You know, they were right." Calleigh sighed. "It was pretty insensitive of us to just sit here and watch them fight."
"Yeah, it was." Tim agreed. He stared at her face for a moment. "You want to go listen at the door, don't you?"
Calleigh looked down, blushing. "Yeah, a little."
Maria's bedroom door opened at that moment, startling both of them.
"Calleigh, something's wrong!" Eric said breathlessly.
"What?" Calleigh jumped off the couch, and she and Tim followed Eric into the room. "What the hell did you do?"
"Nothing." Eric insisted. "We were talking, she made like she was going to hit me, I grabbed her wrist to stop her. I...I felt the scars...and then she just collapsed."
Maria was sitting at the foot of her bed, her eyes wide as she stared, silently, at her wrists.
"No..." She whispered hoarsely.
"Maria, what's wrong?" Calleigh said desperately. She placed her hand on her friend's shoulders, shaking her slightly. "Snap out of it! Maria!"
******************************
The pain was the first sign that she was waking up.
Or regaining consciousness.
She honestly couldn't be sure if she had fallen asleep, or just passed out.
Or been knocked out.
The worst pain was between her legs. Or maybe it was in her eye. Or her lip. Or her neck.
Steeling herself against the sharp pangs that shot through her, she forced herself to her feet, and forced her eyes open. As much as she could, at least.
He wasn't there. Neither were his friends.
Thank God for small favors.
She stumbled into the kitchen warily, glancing around to be sure that she was really alone in the apartment. His keys were on the kitchen table, and she grabbed them and made for the door, not stopping to put on shoes, or even close the door behind her.
For a few minutes, she drove without any destination in mind. Only sheer desperation to get out of that dingy apartment. To be free, or at least less painfully caged.
Then she realized where she was. Where she was close to. Who she was close to.
What would he say when he saw the state she was in? If she told him what had happened, would he even believe her? Or would he shake his head sadly, disappointed, but not surprised?
Stopped at a red light five minutes away from his house, she stared, almost transfixed, at the pocket knife on the key chain. She flipped the blade up without even thinking about it, tracing the sharp edge with one fingertip.
***************************
"Kids, come on, just eat your breakfast." Anton gently chided his three-year-old son and six-year-old daughter. He turned slightly in his chair and smiled at his wife, Joy. "Will you look at these kids of yours?"
"Right." The petite Hawaiian-Vietnamese beauty said with a smirk as she sat down at the table with a bowl of cereal. "When they're misbehaving, they're 'my' kids..."
Anton's reply was cut off by the loud, sustained sound of a car horn outside. "What in the hell?"
Lelanie jumped out of her chair and ran to the window. Recognizing the car that had pulled up outside, she squealed. "It's Aunt Maria!"
"What's she doing here?" Joy wondered, peering out the window. "And why is she leaning on the horn like that?"
"I don't know..." Anton frowned. He stood up and went outside, approaching the beaten-up old car that belonged to his despised brother-in-law slowly. Terror seized him as he got close enough to see his sister in the driver's seat. "Maria!" He shouted, pulling the door open and catching her as she slid out, just barely preventing her head from hitting the pavement.
Her face, neck, and chest were bruised. One eye was swollen almost completely shut, the skin around it was literally black. Her upper lip was split. Her t-shirt was shredded. Her denim shorts were torn. And her wrists...
"Oh my God." Anton moaned as he became aware of the warm, sticky red liquid that was pooling in his lap as he cradled his sister. His baby sister. "Oh God, no, please..."
"Anton?" Joy's voice sounded so far away. "What's...oh my God!"
"Daddy?!" Lelanie shrieked, appearing in the doorway beside her mother. "What's wrong with Aunt Maria?"
"Lanie, get back inside!" Anton ordered. "Joy, call an ambulance!"
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"Maria?!" Calleigh's voice finally broke the spell she was under, and she toppled forward, landing in her friend's arms.
"I'm sorry." She sobbed against Calleigh's shoulder. "I'm sorry."
"Shh, it's okay, baby." Calleigh said soothingly, stroking Maria's hair gently. "It's okay. You're with us, you're safe."
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"She's asleep?" Tim asked as Calleigh came back into the living room, leaving Maria's bedroom door open a crack.
"Yeah." Calleigh sighed, crossing her arms tightly across her chest. She glanced at the other man in the room. "Eric, listen..."
"No, you listen." Eric sounded like he was about to scream. Or cry. Or both. "I want to know what the hell is going on with her, Calleigh, please. What's wrong? Just tell me."
Calleigh shook her head. "I can't-"
"I need to know." Eric pleaded. "Calleigh, I love her so much. I want to know why this is happening to her."
"All right!" Calleigh sat down on the couch, burying her face in her hands for a moment. "All right, fine." She took a deep breath. "It's hard to say...it's about her ex-husband. About what he did to her."
"She already told me about that." Eric said. "He was controlling and verbally abusive."
Calleigh shook her head. "It wasn't just verbal."
Eric looked surprised. "She told me that he never hit her."
"Well, she didn't tell you the truth." Calleigh said sadly. "He did beat her. And...and worse...much worse."
"What do you mean?" Eric asked. Then it dawned on him, and he sank down onto the couch as his knees seemed to give out. "Oh my God. He raped her." It wasn't a question, but a statement.
"Yeah." Calleigh closed her eyes and shuddered. "She never told me about it, either. Anton did, a few weeks after she moved in here. The night before she finally left him, he beat her within an inch of her life in front of his friends, and then..." She couldn't bring herself to say the words. "The next morning, he was gone when she woke up, so she took his car and drove to Anton's house. But somewhere on the way...I don't know, I guess something in her just snapped, and she cut her wrists. By the time she pulled up to his house, she was passing out."
"Shit." Eric tried desperately to make sense of what he was hearing. "Why didn't she tell anyone? How could she possibly keep something like that bottled up?"
"Denial." Calleigh stated simply. "She didn't even tell Anton about the rape until after the divorce was final. He told their parents, but when they confronted her about it, she denied it completely, and wouldn't speak to any of them for weeks. She couldn't cope with something so horrible, so she just wouldn't accept that it had happened. She repressed it."
"And now, what happened the other night is bringing it all back to the surface." Tim spoke up.
"Holy shit." Eric felt sick to his stomach. Just the thought of someone, anyone, treating Maria like that was unbearable. And the fact that it was someone she had loved and trusted made it even more hideous. "That's why she flipped out, when I said that I loved her."
"That's right." Calleigh's voice broke slightly. She placed one hand over his. "I know. It breaks my heart, too, just thinking about it." A single tear slid down her cheek, and she brushed it away with her free hand. Without a word, Tim sat down beside her and wrapped his arms around her. She closed her eyes and leaned against him as he kissed her forehead tenderly.
"What can we do?" Eric asked. "How can we help her?"
"I don't know." Calleigh admitted, glancing towards Maria's door.
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"Hey!" Maria's cheerful voice pulled Eric out of a deep, dreamless sleep.
She was standing in front of the couch, showered, dressed, and ready to go, snapping her fingers at the three of them.
"What time is it?" Calleigh asked, yawning.
"Eight." Maria replied. "Did you guys just sleep out here last night?"
"Yeah, we were talking, I guess we fell asleep." Eric said, too groggy to register how normal Maria was acting after what had happen the previous night.
"Well, come on, I made coffee and chocolate chip pancakes." Maria said as she went into the kitchen. "Get a move on, or we're all gonna be late."
Eric, Calleigh, and Tim exchanged looks.
Tim was the first to speak. "Well, now what?"
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TBC...
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down cause I'll never pay!
Rating: I'm gonna go ahead and rate this one an R, for language and some violent, possibly slightly disturbing content.
Pairings: Eric/Maria, Tim/Calleigh, Maria/Hagen (What? Quit looking at me like that, it was her idea.)
Feedback: Review it, or I'll send Maria to your house.
Dedication: Once again, to everyone who reviewed the last part, which was particularly hard to write.
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"Women." Eric muttered into his beer. "Know what I mean, Henry?"
"In the interest of saving time, sure I do." The bartender replied. "Hey, you guys any closer to catching the bastard who drugged Maria and that British girl? I just can't believe it. I got a daughter who's gonna be wanting to go out to parties in a few years. Just makes me sick, thinking about someone doing that shit to girls in my bar."
"Hey, don't beat yourself up, it can happen anywhere." Eric slurred. "I don't even know about the case, none of us are working on it. Boss man thinks we're 'too close.' I don't wanna talk about it, okay? I mean, it's like the Twilight Zone or something. All you ever hear from women is bitching and whining about men who just want sex, and run at the first sign of emotion, and then they go and do the same shit!" He noticed a woman at the bar staring at him. "You know what I'm talking about, don't give me that look. Why can't any of you just make up your minds?"
"Uh...we're sorry?" The woman said, rolling her eyes as she walked away.
"Okay, man, that's enough." Henry said. "You really have a way with the ladies, you know that?"
"I'm not bitter or anything." Eric mumbled.
"No, you're just really wasted." Henry replied. "I'll call you a cab."
"Forget it." Eric said, throwing a few crumbled bills on the bar. "I'll walk, I gotta clear my head."
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"Calleigh, shh." Tim whispered as Calleigh pulled him into the apartment, laughing softly as they kissed. "You wouldn't want to wake up your roommate, would you?"
"And here I thought we came back just in case she needed anything." Calleigh teased, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, but if she doesn't need anything, and we wake her up, then she's an audience that we don't need." Tim replied, catching her lips again.
"Good point." Calleigh gasped out between kisses. As his mouth traveled down her throat, sucking gently, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. "Tim..." He didn't respond. "Tim!" She said, more insistently. He still didn't get the point, so she tried another approach. "John!"
That got Tim's attention. "What the hell?" He looked where Calleigh was pointing, rolling her eyes at him. "Oh. Hagen. Nice to see you." He greeted the other man, in a tone that clearly indicated to him that he was intruding.
"Don't let me interrupt." Hagen said casually, walking past the couple. "I was just leaving, anyway. Just try to keep it down, Maria needs to get some sleep."
"A little self-assured, are we?" Calleigh joked.
"For fuck's sake, Calleigh, that's not what I meant." Hagen shot back, barely turning around. "Get your mind out of the gutter." The door closed behind him.
"Whoa." Calleigh said. "What's his problem?"
"Maybe they had a fight?" Tim suggested.
Calleigh nodded slightly. "Yeah, maybe..." She crept to Maria's bedroom door and pushed it open slightly. In the dim light, she saw the younger woman in her bed, her naked body covered by the crimson sheet. She was sleeping peacefully, a content expression on her face. "Well, whatever's got John in such a foul mood, it doesn't seem to be bothering her."
"Then it's probably none of our business." Tim pointed out, sliding one arm around her waist and kissing the side of her neck.
"You really do have a one track mind." Calleigh sighed. She moaned softly as his lips touched a sensitive spot. "Not that I'm complaining."
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He wasn't quite sure how he'd arrived at his present location. He'd left the bar with every intention of going straight home.
It seemed, however, that he just wasn't calling the shots anymore.
He debated for a few minutes whether or not he should hit the buzzer, not sure if either of them would still be awake, or if they would even be at home. What would he say? What logical explanation could there possibly be for him showing up, falling-down drunk outside their apartment at one in the morning?
Hell, since when did logic have any place in his life?
"Eric? Hey!" A slightly familiar voice interrupted his mental rambling.
"Hi Lisa." He greeted the young woman who lived in the apartment directly above Calleigh and Maria's. "How's it going?"
"Not bad. Just got back from a month in New York, visiting my cousins." Lisa replied cheerfully. "You need to get in?"
"Uh, yeah, sure." Eric said. "Thanks."
"Yeah, no problem." Lisa said cheerfully. "Tell Maria and Calleigh I said hi."
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"Oh my God, what now?" Calleigh groaned.
"Ignore it, maybe whoever it is will go away." Tim mumbled against her lips, slowly pulling down the zipper on her dress and slipping his hand under the black fabric.
The knocking at the front door continued, and increased in intensity.
"Or, maybe just get louder." Tim said, frustrated.
"I'll go see who it is." Calleigh sighed, zipping the dress back up and walking out into the front hallway. "Who is it?"
"It's a drunken, knife-wielding maniac."
"Eric?" Calleigh said.
"Okay, so it's one out of three." Eric replied.
"I would say two out of three." Calleigh rolled her eyes as she opened the door. "What are you doing here?"
"I was in the neighborhood." Eric shrugged. "Can I come in?"
Calleigh nodded and stepped aside. "Can't have you wandering the streets. God, you really are wasted."
"I've had a few." Eric admitted.
"Dozen?" Tim asked from the bedroom doorway.
"Very funny. Where's Maria?" Eric asked.
"Asleep, and she needs to stay that way, so keep it down." Calleigh replied. She pushed him into the armchair. "Sit. Stay. I'll make you some coffee, but then you're out of here."
"All right, fine." Eric leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes.
Tim sat down on the couch. "You know, all I wanted was to spend some quality time alone with the woman I love, without being interrupted every five minutes by a guy who's completely fucked in the head from sleeping with her roommate."
"Huh?" Eric opened his eyes. "Sorry, I wasn't listening. I was just remember the time Maria and I screwed in this chair. God, that was absolutely mind-blowing."
"You're a fucking sex addict." Tim said, shaking his head.
"Nah, I'm a Maria addict." Eric chuckled. "And that's a lot worse. I'm addicted to sex I can't have." His voice got louder as he continued. "Sex I could have, if I could just have kept my goddamn mouth shut."
"Hey, lower your voice." Tim told him.
Too late.
"Who is being loud?" Maria groaned, appearing in her bedroom doorway, wrapped in a crimson sheet.
"Uh, he is." Eric said, pointing at Tim.
"Oh my God!" Calleigh sighed as she came back into the room with a cup of coffee in her hand. "I told you to keep it down. Sorry, Maria. He just showed up."
"Don't worry about it." Maria replied. "I'm awake, might as well be amused."
"I'm not getting laid tonight, am I?" Tim groaned.
"No one here is." Calleigh agreed, handing the coffee to Eric. "Well, aside from Maria."
"Yeah, I got mine." Maria smirked, then disappeared into her room, returning a minute later in a tank top and cotton pajama pants. "Well, since we're all here, you guys want to watch a video? John brought over some Monty Python tapes."
"Might as well." Calleigh said. She picked a video from the pile on the coffee table and put it in the VCR.
"Scoot over." Maria said to Eric. "Might as well let them have the couch."
Eric shrugged and moved over, leaving just enough space for Maria to sit beside him in the chair.
As Maria sat down, however, she discovered that there wasn't enough room for her to sit comfortably without her body brushing against his. She shivered slightly, remembering the last time that they had been in this chair together. Could it really have been only a month ago? She glanced at Eric, trying to see if he was at all affected by their closeness, or their location. He seemed too hammered to be affected by much of anything.
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"Try unplugging it and then plugging it back in." Eric suggested.
"I already did." Maria sighed, pushing a few random buttons on the VCR.
"Maybe it's the tape?" Eric said, leaning over beside her.
"It's not the tape, it's the VCR." Maria replied sharply. "Look, just sit down and let me fix this, okay?"
Eric shrugged. "I want to help."
"Well, I don't need your help." Maria snapped.
"Or maybe you do, and you're too fucking stubborn to admit it." Eric shot back.
"Yeah, that's it." Maria said sarcastically. "I'm completely helpless, can't even fix a goddamn VCR without you there to hold my hand. Back off, okay? I don't need any fucking help!"
"Well, I think you do need help, because you're sure as hell not dealing with it on your own!"
"Okay, I don't think we're talking about the VCR anymore." Tim said, rolling his eyes.
"Gee, ya think?" Calleigh sighed.
Eric and Maria stopped bickering long enough to glance at their friends, then continued.
In Russian.
"Oh, come on." Tim groaned. "If they're going to fight in front of us, they could at least do it in a language we understand."
"Otherwise it's just really uncomfortable." Calleigh agreed.
"Well, would you rather this, or their usual grunting and screaming?" Tim pointed out.
"I honestly don't even know any more." Calleigh sighed.
Eric and Maria paused once more.
"We could go talk in my room." Maria suggested.
"Yeah, why don't we?" Eric said, glaring slightly at the couple on the couch. He followed her into her bedroom, shutting the door behind them. "Maria, you're being way too calm about all of this. You're acting like it's no big deal that you could have been murdered!"
"What, like you fucking care?" Maria shouted.
"Damn it, we have been over this before." Eric stepped closer to her. "I do care, all right? I care about you."
"Eric, don't." Maria said. "Stop it."
"I love you." Eric told her. "I've tried, these past three weeks, I've tried to stop. I can't."
"Shut up." Maria choked out, closing her eyes.
"Tell me you don't love me." Eric insisted. "If you don't feel anything for me, just say so. It won't kill me." His eyes drifted over to the bed, and he felt a pang of jealousy as it occured to him that someone else had been in that bed with her just hours before. "If I can survive seeing you with Hagen..."
"Shut up!" Maria cried, raising her hand, as if to slap him.
Instinctively, Eric caught her wrist, gently but firmly. She froze as his fingers brushed over a patch of skin that had a different texture from the rest.
"Maria, what the hell..." Eric slowly turned her wrist over, and saw something he'd never noticed before. He took her other hand and inspected that wrist, and saw the same thing.
Faint, jagged lines, one on each wrist, running down the blue veins that were faintly visible under her pale skin.
Pulling her wrists out of his grasp, Maria jerked back, stumbling and sitting down hard on her bed.
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"You know, they were right." Calleigh sighed. "It was pretty insensitive of us to just sit here and watch them fight."
"Yeah, it was." Tim agreed. He stared at her face for a moment. "You want to go listen at the door, don't you?"
Calleigh looked down, blushing. "Yeah, a little."
Maria's bedroom door opened at that moment, startling both of them.
"Calleigh, something's wrong!" Eric said breathlessly.
"What?" Calleigh jumped off the couch, and she and Tim followed Eric into the room. "What the hell did you do?"
"Nothing." Eric insisted. "We were talking, she made like she was going to hit me, I grabbed her wrist to stop her. I...I felt the scars...and then she just collapsed."
Maria was sitting at the foot of her bed, her eyes wide as she stared, silently, at her wrists.
"No..." She whispered hoarsely.
"Maria, what's wrong?" Calleigh said desperately. She placed her hand on her friend's shoulders, shaking her slightly. "Snap out of it! Maria!"
******************************
The pain was the first sign that she was waking up.
Or regaining consciousness.
She honestly couldn't be sure if she had fallen asleep, or just passed out.
Or been knocked out.
The worst pain was between her legs. Or maybe it was in her eye. Or her lip. Or her neck.
Steeling herself against the sharp pangs that shot through her, she forced herself to her feet, and forced her eyes open. As much as she could, at least.
He wasn't there. Neither were his friends.
Thank God for small favors.
She stumbled into the kitchen warily, glancing around to be sure that she was really alone in the apartment. His keys were on the kitchen table, and she grabbed them and made for the door, not stopping to put on shoes, or even close the door behind her.
For a few minutes, she drove without any destination in mind. Only sheer desperation to get out of that dingy apartment. To be free, or at least less painfully caged.
Then she realized where she was. Where she was close to. Who she was close to.
What would he say when he saw the state she was in? If she told him what had happened, would he even believe her? Or would he shake his head sadly, disappointed, but not surprised?
Stopped at a red light five minutes away from his house, she stared, almost transfixed, at the pocket knife on the key chain. She flipped the blade up without even thinking about it, tracing the sharp edge with one fingertip.
***************************
"Kids, come on, just eat your breakfast." Anton gently chided his three-year-old son and six-year-old daughter. He turned slightly in his chair and smiled at his wife, Joy. "Will you look at these kids of yours?"
"Right." The petite Hawaiian-Vietnamese beauty said with a smirk as she sat down at the table with a bowl of cereal. "When they're misbehaving, they're 'my' kids..."
Anton's reply was cut off by the loud, sustained sound of a car horn outside. "What in the hell?"
Lelanie jumped out of her chair and ran to the window. Recognizing the car that had pulled up outside, she squealed. "It's Aunt Maria!"
"What's she doing here?" Joy wondered, peering out the window. "And why is she leaning on the horn like that?"
"I don't know..." Anton frowned. He stood up and went outside, approaching the beaten-up old car that belonged to his despised brother-in-law slowly. Terror seized him as he got close enough to see his sister in the driver's seat. "Maria!" He shouted, pulling the door open and catching her as she slid out, just barely preventing her head from hitting the pavement.
Her face, neck, and chest were bruised. One eye was swollen almost completely shut, the skin around it was literally black. Her upper lip was split. Her t-shirt was shredded. Her denim shorts were torn. And her wrists...
"Oh my God." Anton moaned as he became aware of the warm, sticky red liquid that was pooling in his lap as he cradled his sister. His baby sister. "Oh God, no, please..."
"Anton?" Joy's voice sounded so far away. "What's...oh my God!"
"Daddy?!" Lelanie shrieked, appearing in the doorway beside her mother. "What's wrong with Aunt Maria?"
"Lanie, get back inside!" Anton ordered. "Joy, call an ambulance!"
*******************************
"Maria?!" Calleigh's voice finally broke the spell she was under, and she toppled forward, landing in her friend's arms.
"I'm sorry." She sobbed against Calleigh's shoulder. "I'm sorry."
"Shh, it's okay, baby." Calleigh said soothingly, stroking Maria's hair gently. "It's okay. You're with us, you're safe."
___________________________
"She's asleep?" Tim asked as Calleigh came back into the living room, leaving Maria's bedroom door open a crack.
"Yeah." Calleigh sighed, crossing her arms tightly across her chest. She glanced at the other man in the room. "Eric, listen..."
"No, you listen." Eric sounded like he was about to scream. Or cry. Or both. "I want to know what the hell is going on with her, Calleigh, please. What's wrong? Just tell me."
Calleigh shook her head. "I can't-"
"I need to know." Eric pleaded. "Calleigh, I love her so much. I want to know why this is happening to her."
"All right!" Calleigh sat down on the couch, burying her face in her hands for a moment. "All right, fine." She took a deep breath. "It's hard to say...it's about her ex-husband. About what he did to her."
"She already told me about that." Eric said. "He was controlling and verbally abusive."
Calleigh shook her head. "It wasn't just verbal."
Eric looked surprised. "She told me that he never hit her."
"Well, she didn't tell you the truth." Calleigh said sadly. "He did beat her. And...and worse...much worse."
"What do you mean?" Eric asked. Then it dawned on him, and he sank down onto the couch as his knees seemed to give out. "Oh my God. He raped her." It wasn't a question, but a statement.
"Yeah." Calleigh closed her eyes and shuddered. "She never told me about it, either. Anton did, a few weeks after she moved in here. The night before she finally left him, he beat her within an inch of her life in front of his friends, and then..." She couldn't bring herself to say the words. "The next morning, he was gone when she woke up, so she took his car and drove to Anton's house. But somewhere on the way...I don't know, I guess something in her just snapped, and she cut her wrists. By the time she pulled up to his house, she was passing out."
"Shit." Eric tried desperately to make sense of what he was hearing. "Why didn't she tell anyone? How could she possibly keep something like that bottled up?"
"Denial." Calleigh stated simply. "She didn't even tell Anton about the rape until after the divorce was final. He told their parents, but when they confronted her about it, she denied it completely, and wouldn't speak to any of them for weeks. She couldn't cope with something so horrible, so she just wouldn't accept that it had happened. She repressed it."
"And now, what happened the other night is bringing it all back to the surface." Tim spoke up.
"Holy shit." Eric felt sick to his stomach. Just the thought of someone, anyone, treating Maria like that was unbearable. And the fact that it was someone she had loved and trusted made it even more hideous. "That's why she flipped out, when I said that I loved her."
"That's right." Calleigh's voice broke slightly. She placed one hand over his. "I know. It breaks my heart, too, just thinking about it." A single tear slid down her cheek, and she brushed it away with her free hand. Without a word, Tim sat down beside her and wrapped his arms around her. She closed her eyes and leaned against him as he kissed her forehead tenderly.
"What can we do?" Eric asked. "How can we help her?"
"I don't know." Calleigh admitted, glancing towards Maria's door.
______________________________
"Hey!" Maria's cheerful voice pulled Eric out of a deep, dreamless sleep.
She was standing in front of the couch, showered, dressed, and ready to go, snapping her fingers at the three of them.
"What time is it?" Calleigh asked, yawning.
"Eight." Maria replied. "Did you guys just sleep out here last night?"
"Yeah, we were talking, I guess we fell asleep." Eric said, too groggy to register how normal Maria was acting after what had happen the previous night.
"Well, come on, I made coffee and chocolate chip pancakes." Maria said as she went into the kitchen. "Get a move on, or we're all gonna be late."
Eric, Calleigh, and Tim exchanged looks.
Tim was the first to speak. "Well, now what?"
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TBC...