Disclaimer: We don't own it, and J.K. Rowling might faint if she actually read this chapter. However, we do thank her for creating two of our characters. Oh well, at least it's not slash.
Warnings: Violence, adult language, and dark subjects.
Chapter 21: When Did We Start Hosting Fight Club at Our Apartment?
Paige rounded the corner and froze. "Shit!", she exclaimed and turned to Sirius. "Stay here.", she ordered and took off towards the apartment at a run.
She raced up the apartment stairs only to see Remus being dragged away in handcuffs by Vegas Magical Metro. Two officers were visible through the smashed door; they were helping a very battered Kate to the couch. Jack was in the bushes singing a bastardized version of the COPS song, as the officers escorted Remus to the squad car.
Paige walked over to Jack. "What the hell is going on?", she demanded.
Jack was too enthralled by his song to notice her. "Bad wolf, bad wolf, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you…"
Paige smacked him. "What the fuck happened, Jack?"
Jack beamed. "Evidently, they fought. You know how werewolves get.", he said gleefully.
"I'm gonna kill Sirius.", she growled in response.
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Why? What is going on, Paige?", he said in a somber tone.
"If I knew that Jack, I wouldn't have asked you.", Paige sneered. She climbed the stairs to the apartment to find a female officer resetting Kate's hip. Kate let out a squeak as a loud crack indicated that it had popped back into place.
Paige's eyes went wide. "What the fuck did he do to you?" She didn't get an answer though, because Kate had fainted from the shock. Paige looked at the female officer.
The officer looked at Paige. "We were called on a domestic, when the downstairs neighbors heard a woman screaming. We found her pinned to the floor by the perp in custody a few minutes ago. She wasn't coherent enough to comment."
Paige narrowed her eyes. "What all did he do to her?"
"I'm sorry I can't tell you unless you are an officer.", the officer replied.
Paige pulled out her badge from her back pocket. "Agent Paige Pierce, Dark Arts Security."
The other woman nodded. "When we found her, she had a dislocated hip, cuts and bruises on her arms, and a bad bite on the back of the neck. Typical domestic though; she was begging us not to take him away, probably scared half to death of him by the looks of it."
"I'm assuming he's being taken to jail." Paige stated.
The officer shook her head. "Airport, actually. He's a non-citizen so we are sending him back to England to have their Ministry handle it."
Paige dashed down the stairs and caught up with the arresting officer before he closed the door to the squad car. "Agent Paige Pierce, Dark Arts Security. Can I have a word?", she asked breathlessly. The arresting officer stepped out of the car. "Oberon?", she exclaimed.
Oberon smiled. "Hey, Paige. What's up? You're not assigned to this jerk are you?"
Paige smiled. Thank God, I've dated him, she thought. "No nothing like that but the situation is a little on the rough side. This guy is a werewolf." Oberon snorted but Paige continued. "Unfortunately for us, the person he attacked is also a werewolf. If you go through with the arrest we will all be doing paperwork for months and that's if we are lucky enough to not have the ACLU or MCDCDL involved." He nodded and gave Paige a thoughtful look. "We could do this under the radar?", she asked coyly.
Oberon smiled. "I could give him a warning, maybe rough him up a bit."
"The victim is my roommate. I'll take care of it.", she stated, cracking her knuckles for effect.
He grinned. "You sure? Ol' Marty and I would love to have a chat with him.", he said as he fingered his nightstick.
Paige stepped up to him, running her hands down his chest as she leaned in. "Oberon, I'm perfectly capable of handling one little werewolf. If you get another call, I'll let you rough him up.", she said in his ear.
He gave her a wicked grin. "As you wish, but if I get another call tonight I doubt I'll let him out of the desert.", he declared as he threw Remus out of the patrol car. "He's all yours." He tipped his hat to Paige and drove off.
Paige helped Remus up. "Before we go back to the apartment, you're going to have to tell me why you hurt Kate." She lead him behind the dumpster at the back of the complex.
Remus studied the ground. "I didn't mean to. She was going to leave and I couldn't let her, Paige. I love her; I just couldn't let her walk out."
Paige nodded calmly. "Would you like to go up the apartment to revive Kate?"
Remus blanched. "What's wrong with Kate? She was awake when I left…"
"Well for starters, she passed out after the officer reset her hip.", Paige casually remarked as she crossed her arms over her chest.
Remus started shaking. "Is she alright? Why didn't you take her to a mediwitch?"
Paige set her jaw. "Do you want to go up there?"
Remus's eyes lit up. "Yes", he stated and moved to push past her. Paige grabbed for him but he dodged her stepping towards the apartment.
She whipped her wand out and cast "Imperio."
She leaned against the dumpster and smiled as he ran full force into the stucco wall. He came to stand before her. "Now, this is more like it. You can go back up when I've taught you not to abuse my friend."
Sirius stepped behind the dumpsters. "Paige, what are you doing?"
She shrugged. "Getting to the bottom of things."
Sirius paled. "What happened?"
"Explain everything, Remus.", she demanded.
Remus smiled brightly. "Nothing to worry about, mate. I'm just planning a surprise for Kate and Paige is helping me."
Paige looked at her nails. "You see. Now can you go check on Kate?" Sirius nodded warily and headed back.
Paige smiled and straightened up getting down to business. "Now where were we? Ah…yes. Finite Incantatum. I want you in your right mind for this."
Remus shook off the after effects of the Imperio. "Paige, I realize I deserve this. I probably deserve more than this but I need to see Kate now.", he growled.
Paige blocked the exit. "You're not going to see her until I say you can."
He took a small step towards the exit. "I need to see her. She's hurt, she needs me."
Paige narrowed her eyes. "She's hurt because of you.", she said before she stepped forward and punched him in the stomach.
Remus bent at the waist. "Paige, listen…"
"No, it's your turn to listen.", she hissed in his ear. She slammed her knee into his groin making him completely double over before she elbowed him in the kidney. "I just saved your goddamn life, after you beat my roommate into submission." She pushed him over on to the ground and kicked him soundly in the stomach. "And if you think a little apology is going to stop me, you're wrong. Kate's gonna be pissed at me, but you deserve this."
Remus groaned and retracted into a ball. Paige gave a sadistic smile in satisfaction. "And to prove what I nice person I am, I'll send Sirius down for you in a while." She turned and went back to the apartment without a second glance.
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Sirius entered the apartment to find Kate lying unattended and unconscious on the sofa. He picked her up and took her to bed wincing when he saw the bite on the back of her neck. Out of practice with healing spells, he decided it was safer for Paige to handle it when she got back. He sat down in a chair near the bed and studied Kate, while he waited.
Guilt coursed through him and his eyes came to rest on the bite mark just barely visible at this position. "Damn it, Moony. I didn't think you'd go this far. Paige tried to warn me and I didn't listen. She's smarter than I give her credit for.", he said to himself and sighed heavily.
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After staring at Kate for around twenty-minutes, Sirius walked out into the living to find the front door mended and Paige crying. "What's wrong, Paige? Why is Kate unconscious?"
Paige drew in a calming breath and went to the bathroom to get supplies. "Go get a towel and wrap it over some ice, alright? Then I'll explain." Sirius nodded and quickly came back with said materials to see Paige still crying as she performed several spells on Kate's neck trying to get the wound to close.
He gave her the towel and the ice. "Paige, I'm so sorry I didn't believe you. This is all my fault.", he said quietly.
Paige shook her head vigorously and pulled the band of Kate's pants down so she could put the ice on her hip. "No, Sirius. The monster behind this is Remus."
Sirius looked around. "Where is he anyway?"
Paige stifled a satisfied smile. "Oh, he's outside thinking things over." She stood up and pulled out her wand. "This isn't going to be pretty. Enerv…"
Sirius quickly placed his hand over Paige's mouth. "Sorry, but we don't want the aurors to show up again. Silencio."
Paige nodded. "Right.", she replied and cast "Envervate" on Kate.
Kate bolted upright in the bed and let out a bone chilling shriek. Paige cringed at the sound and crawled on the bed to hold her while she sobbed uncontrollably.
Sirius stood staring awkwardly at the pair, until both he and Paige startled at the sound of the new repaired front door slamming open.
"Where the hell is my daughter?", Bob bellowed from the front room.
Paige looked at Sirius. "Show him in."
Sirius went into the hall and motioned for Bob to follow him. Bob and Abigail went to the bedroom, and an unknown man took a seat on the couch.
Bob saw Kate on the bed in Paige's arms and stifled a gasp. "What happened?", he growled.
Paige sighed. "Calm down, Bob. She'll be fine. Take a deep breath and I'll tell you."
He grunted and took a deep breath before continuing. "What happened, Paige?"
"Jack brought Remus to Kate's performance today and a fight ensued when we got back. Against my better judgment, Sirius and I left so they could work it out in private and things got out of hand from there.", she stated.
"Where is that son of a bitch?", Bob growled.
Abigail stepped forward and rubbed Bob's back. "Calm down, Robert. It's done, no use making things worse." The one eyed witch opened the door and called down the hall. "John, we need you."
Sirius took a step back as John entered the room. He was a striking African wizard with amber eyes and a mane of gray and black braids. He was a few inches taller than Sirius and seemed to radiate energy. He gave a nod to the wizard as he stepped further into the room.
John adjusted his spectacles and turned to his wife. "Yes, Abby?"
"John, can you please escort Bob home?", she asked.
He clasped Bob on the shoulder. "Come on, Bob. We can't do anything here.". He then led his pack mate out of the apartment.
Abigail watched them leave before climbing on the bed. She stroked Kate's hair, causing her sobs to lessen to a quiet whimper. Abby turned to Paige. "Where is he?", she whispered.
"Thinking about things.", she snapped and Kate gave a slightly louder whimper.
"Shah…It's alright, sweetheart." Abigail frowned at Paige but refrained from commenting. "We need to get her on her stomach so we can tend to the bite."
Paige gave the older werewolf a forced smile. "I already did all that Abby."
Abigail nodded and looked at the back of Kate's neck. "Well, it's healing, that's a good sign. I don't like how the left side is scabbing; you'll need to keep an eye on that."
Paige got slightly annoyed and Sirius piped up. "Can I go get Remus now? He's been thinking for an awfully long time."
"Nope, I gave him a lot to think about.", she replied.
At the mention of Remus's name, Kate gave a high pitched keen and started to shake. Paige rubbed her back and made shhing sounds.
Abby brushed the hair out of Kate's face. "What happened, sweetheart?"
"All my fault.", Kate sobbed, wrapping herself around Abby.
"Bullshit!", Paige snorted.
Kate pulled away from Paige and whimpered. Abigail held her protectively and glared at Paige. "What happened, Katie?", she coaxed.
"I forgot, I didn't see it right away. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.", Kate whimpered.
Paige sniffed on the verge of crying again. "You didn't do anything wrong, Kate. What happened after we left?"
Kate gasped for a breath and tried to calm herself. "I didn't read him right at Ren. Faire. He was showing all the symptoms of Parlo anxiety. I should have just stayed with him until he calmed down but I just reacted and wanted to flee.", she said, between sobs.
Paige let out a breath. "Shit."
"He didn't mean to hurt me, it's just the reaction. Remember when we brought James to Dad's house?" Kate said settling some.
Abigail nodded. "He wouldn't let you out of his sight the first week. Did he hurt you out of anger?"
Paige grimaced. "Sirius go get him and take him into my room.", she whispered.
Kate started sobbing again. "No, he just didn't want me to leave."
Abigail stroked her hair and made a low thrumming sound. "It will work itself out, sweetie. You just need to get some sleep and this will all look better in the morning. You know, before our first full moon John put me in the hospital. Of course, that was the same time I put him in intensive care." She pulled two vials from her robes. "Here, drink these." Kate drank the potions and fell asleep within a few minutes.
Paige eased off the bed. "Well, do you want to help me clean up some of my own handiwork?"
Abby smiled. "Of course.", she replied and followed Paige into the hall.
Sirius and Remus were walking down the hall, when Sirius spotted Paige. He glared at her. "You have a lot of explaining to do."
Paige nodded. "Maybe later, for right now I need to take care of Remus."
Sirius stepped between them. "I think you've done quite enough of that. Stay away from him."
Paige gritted her teeth. "You know what, Sirius? I've gone through quite enough tonight and I don't need to deal with you. Now move before I hurt you!"
Abigail took a step forward. "Paige, kindly talk to Sirius. Mr. Lupin, please follow me.", she said gently as she directed Remus towards the guestroom.
Paige held her ground. "Sirius can wait. He's used to doing that because he got so much practice in Azkaban."
Sirius turned white and pulled his wand on Paige. "Shut it, bitch.", he spat.
Paige clenched her fists and moved to stand next to Remus. "Please let me just clean you up."
"I just want to see Kate.", he said barely above a whisper, not bothering or unable to look up.
Paige grimaced. "We'll clean you up in Kate's room. Please let me repair some of the damage I've done to you."
Remus ran his hand across Kate's door with a far away look. "I'll be fine. I just need to see that she's alright."
Paige cast a sidelong glance to Abigail, who motioned her head towards the door, suggesting they go in. "She's sleeping at the moment." Paige paused, thinking over the decision to take Remus into Kate. "Why don't we go into the guestroom and get you cleaned up first? Please just let me apologize."
Abigail stepped behind Remus. "Where do you need to be Remus?", she asked, ignoring the glares Sirius and Paige sent her. He made a soft keening noise and fell to his knees, pawing at the door.
Sirius pushed Paige out the way. He crouched to hug Remus and avoided her gaze.
Remus ran his hand down the door again. "I'm so sorry. I didn't want to hurt her. I didn't realize…", he broke down into sobs.
Paige shoved Sirius off and opened Kate's door. "She's fine, Remus. In the morning, she'll be a little achy but no major damage."
Remus turned to Paige. "Thank you.", he whispered and headed into the room.
Abigail cut in front of Paige before she could enter the room. "Leave them be. I will check him out and get him to sleep." Paige opened her mouth to protest. "I think a little guilt is not uncalled for on your part, you can wait until morning to clear your conscience. He needs sleep more than apologies at this point anyway." Paige clenched her jaw and nodded. Abigail then closed the door to Kate's room, leaving Paige and Sirius alone in the hall.
Paige brushed past Sirius, intent on sleeping and cooling off. She went straight into her room and tried to close the door, but Sirius had other ideas.
He forced the door open, knocking Paige back into the wall, and stormed into the room. He looked around, realized where she was, and grabbed her arm. "Just what in Agrippa's name possessed you to put Remus in the state he's in? Do you enjoy hurting people?"
Paige glared at him. "If the situation is right, I do what I feel is necessary to make sure that it doesn't happen again."
"Tell me, Paige, is being a sadistic freak something that comes natural to you or is it something you learned in school?", Sirius sneered.
Paige willed herself to calm down and responded, "Sirius, I'm really wound up right now and we're both very tired. Why don't we discuss this in the morning when we feel better and have had time to think things over?"
His grip on her arm tightened and he shook his head slightly. "No, Paige. I want to talk about this now, not in the morning. You've hurt Remus and I can't allow you to avoid facing the consequences."
Paige swallowed, suddenly appreciating how dangerous Sirius could be, and regained her composure. "I lost my temper tonight, Sirius. I wanted to tell Remus that I am very sorry; you couldn't keep your mouth shut long enough to let that happen. If you will just leave me alone and go away, I'll be able to do it first thing in the morning before work, alright?"
Sirius laughed coldly and shook her slightly. "Oh, so it is my fault that he didn't get to receive the apology that he deserves? I guess I should do the right thing, then, and let you go."
Paige shook her head and tried to break free, but Sirius's hold on her was too tight. For her struggles, she was rewarded with a backhand that left her tasting blood.
She looked away from him and wiped her mouth. "You fucking bastard.", she spat.
Sirius glowered at her, deciding what to do next. "It's better to be a bastard than a stupid chit with twisted ideas of justice."
Paige whipped her head up to look at him and he backhanded her again, but she was ready this time and kept looking into his eyes. "Keep it up, Sirius, I deserve it and I want it. Hit me again, though, and I will fight back."
Sirius took this as a challenge and punched her in the face, his fist connected with her eye. Paige lost the little self-control she had left and wrenched out of his grip. "Sirius, you will regret this.", she said and threw a hex at him. He managed to dodge out of the way and was caught off guard when she threw him to the ground. He used the move he'd seen her use on Erik use earlier that day, and thrust his palm upward, firmly hitting her solar plexus. She gave a strangled gasp and he pushed her off.
Gritting his teeth, he growled, "You have hurt one of the few things I hold dear. I won't regret anything I do here tonight!", he looked down at her impassively and continued. "You, on the other hand, I'm quite sure will learn to never, ever upset a Marauder."
Paige had gathered her wits back together and hooked a foot behind his knee as she kicked him in the thigh. He toppled over backwards and hit his head on the corner of her desk. He growled when blood started flowing freely down into his face. Paige used this distraction to stand up and stepped back, allowing Sirius to stand. "Be careful, Sirius, this is what I do for a living and I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing here more than you do. My patience is wearing very thin about now, especially with you, so please leave.", she asked. As an after thought, she muttered, "Silencio."
Sirius glared at her and looked around for his wand, which seemed to have gotten away from him at one point. He didn't see it right away and opened his mouth to summon it, but no sound came out. He tried again and had the same results. He cast a nervous glance at Paige and readied himself to dodge whatever she planned on doing, making her laugh.
"Sirius, I have no intention of hurting you if you leave now, alright? I just know that you can do wandless magic and I am in no mood to put up with whatever half thought out spell you throw at me. If you decide to stay, we do this purely physical, no magic.", she stated and took a fighting stance.
Now more furious than ever, Sirius lunged at her. His hands locked around her neck, making Paige grimace. She tried to break free, but couldn't, so she whirled him around into the wall. His grip loosened just enough for get out of and she danced back. Sirius recovered and swung a fist at her, knocking her to the ground as he split her lip. She stood back up, facing away from him and he put her in a head lock. Paige dropped to her knee and rolled her shoulder, throwing him to the ground. She punched his chest, right below the collar bone, next to the socket for his arm, and backed away.
Sirius groaned as his arm went numb, yet every nerve in it seemed to be on fire, and rolled onto his side. Tears started forming in his eyes, but he didn't notice them.
Paige did, however, and stood back from him. "Sirius, I'm sorry, I didn't have the whole story alright? I lost my temper and hurt someone very dear to two of my friends."
He opened his eyes and saw his wand lying under her bed. He lunged for it and cast a sonorus before jumping to his feet. He glared at her and raised his wand.
Paige froze completely, he wasn't stable at the moment and she didn't want to do anything to provoke him. She realized that she was completely unarmed and started inching toward her desk, her mind on the gun in the top drawer. Sirius didn't waste any time, though, and sneered, "Locomotor mortis."
Paige's legs shut together and her eyes went wide as she realized how much Sirius was in control. She made her face impassive again after a moment, and matched Sirius's unflinching gaze. As he stared at her, he tried to figure out what to do next. "You know, I was starting to care for you. You have done things for me that no one has; but I can't forget that you have betrayed me and I am tired of people doing that."
Paige felt a tear make it's way down her cheek and shook her head. "Sirius, I'm sorry. My temper got the best of me and I made a mistake, alright? Please, let's just talk about this later when we're not so high-strung. Please?"
Sirius let her out of the leg lock and slumped back against the bed frame tired of fighting. "Alright, but I want to know why I should listen to you. How will I know that you aren't lying?"
Paige kneeled down, where she was, and took a deep breath. "I lost my temper, Sirius…"
"You already said that part", he snapped, interrupting her.
Paige nodded. "Yes, I know, but you don't seem to be getting anything through your head right now so I thought that I should repeat it. The point is, I am not perfect and I messed up. It's not the only time someone here tonight has done something that they regret."
"I don't regret anything, I've done tonight." Sirius growled.
"Yes, Sirius, I get it. You feel completely at home kicking the crap out of a woman, okay? You don't care who it is or what they want, you like hurting people. Now shut up so I can talk!", she shouted.
Sirius sat up straight and pointed his wand at Paige. "Don't you talk to me that way!"
"Well, stop interrupting me and I might. For now, though, I wish that the silencing spell was still on you so I could talk without getting interrupted!", she retorted.
Sirius sat back warily and crossed his arms, huffing as he waited for her to speak again. Paige looked at him for a minute, letting him have a chance to speak before she continued and said, "I messed up, Sirius. I don't expect you to be okay with that, but I do believe you understand what that is like. I messed up and I wanted to apologize to Remus tonight. If you hadn't started yelling in my face, I would have gotten that chance. Now, I'll have to wait until after work tomorrow, since he won't be up by the time I leave. If that isn't what you want, then I'm sorry. I can't please anyone today and tomorrow is just too busy."
Sirius frowned. "I can understand that but I....I...What would you do if I started beating Kate? How would you react?"
Wincing, Paige responded, "I think that question has already been answered when Remus did it."
"Maybe we aren't so different then.", he announced, turned on his heel and left the room.
Paige swore under her breath and reached for the phone; she needed a friend right now…
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Soon enough, Justin was knocking at the front door. Paige opened it and threw her arms around him. "Thank you for coming, Gopher."
Justin smiled at her and stepped inside. "Is everything ok? You sounded really upset on the phone."
Tears sprang to Paige's eyes and she looked away. "The entire fucking house has been brawling all night and it's my fault. Now Kate's passed out in her room, after having her hip popped back in place. Remus suffered quite a few blows to the stomach, and I got the crap kicked out of me by Sirius."
Justin tilted her chin up and surveyed the damage. Her lip was swollen, her neck bruised, and her cheek was starting to purple. "That guy you were with today, that's Sirius?" Paige nodded somberly and Justin straightened up. "Where is that abusive bastard?", he demanded, clenching his fists.
Paige took his hand and led him to her room. "Don't worry about him. Please. I will take care of it in the morning. For now, could you do me a favor?"
Justin let out a breath and wiped some of the blood from her nose with a Kleenex. "Anything, just ask."
"Will you stay the night?", Paige asked softly.
A/N: Aw… one of the romantic leads went to bed with a man, who is not one of the heroes of our tale. Oh well, even Sin City has its off nights. Anyway, just FYI, in Nevada arrests are required on Domestic Violence calls and it is illegal for an officer to reset someone's hip. Kate would have been taken by paramedics to a local hospital, where a doctor would have reset her hip; but this is fanfiction and we needed a handy-dandy plot device.
So thank you for reading our lovely little tale, I know it seems bleak but the sun will rise again. And as always thank you to our wonderful reviewers.
Sassafras: Well, the good news is Remus is no longer mad at Kate. Unfortunately, he is pretty broken at the moment and he will get mad again, but not to worry it will be a more constructive anger. Thanks for the review.
Jen: I greatly appreciate that you don't mind crazy Remus, too much. He was rather hard to write and I claim full responsibility for him. He will get better, he just has a lot of baggage to work out. Actually, all our characters have a lot of baggage to work out; must be why we chose boxing day for the release date on this chapter…Hmmm…But I digress, Sirius is safe from LVMMLE for the moment. Thank you for the review.
Surfergurl16: Thanks for the review, we really don't know why the cops showed up. But we think it was either Kate slamming into the floor and alerting the downstairs neighbors or the screaming thing. One of the two, perhaps they were simply profiling English werewolves.
TheBeautifulLetDown: Yay! They didn't take Remus away. Oh wait a minute…Ow, that's got to hurt…Maybe Azkaban wasn't such a bad option. Thank you for reviewing.
And that is all for today folks. Happy Boxing Day!! Our next installment will be on New Year's Eve. Feel free to review and tell us what you think, we appreciate the input. Thank you, Prof. Pendragon.