AN: ARGH! I uploaded the wrong one, with the wrong title. Shit. Oh well, here's the right one. No real changes, a few grammatical things, and a title change.

BIG thanks to leisltheweasl, GoddessLaughs, and MKOLO for your reviews! Keep 'em comin' folks ;) Also, I am slowly but surely learning how to format these things to make it easier to read. Stick with me, here.

Chapter 3: Thou My Soul's Shelter

Papers, assignments, a crap job at a crap bar. Man oh man, I thought college was supposed to be fun.

Two weeks, a box of red hair dye and one new tattoo into her college career, Elise was ready to slap somebody. She found herself wiping glasses behind the bar of a dive on Williamson Road, just ten minutes from campus, and fending off advances from the somewhat shady clientele. It's a living, Lord. She thought, carrying on her now-daily conversation with her Heavenly Father. She rarely thought of it as prayer anymore, since she was doing it nearly constantly, what with asking for patience to deal with Abigail, who was adorable, but nuts. Kind of like a manic puppy. And classes were, well, tough. And Momma called every afternoon. And keeping up her grades for her scholarship. Plus the job at Pop's and her work-study job in the library.

Oh lord, oh lord. Nearly last call. Thanks, Father. She flashed a crooked smile as she poured a shot of Jack for Professor Marks, from the Classics department. She wasn't sure how, considering that she was taking mostly introductory classes, but she'd quickly become familiar with most of the professors on campus. Marks, however, taught her Greek History class and could always be counted on for a laugh. He was in his late fifties, rotund and red-faced, with a graying mustache that was bushier than the thinning hair on his head.

"Now, don't you have an 8 AM class, Professor?" she joked, emphasizing her southern accent for the Scarlett O'Hara impression that always got Marks smiling.

"Yeah, well, you have your Herodotus paper due tomorrow, too, Missy." He reminded her good-naturedly, gesturing with his cigarette for emphasis.

"Finished it two days ago," Elise shot back, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder and replacing the bourbon bottle on the shelf.

"Good girl. Can you call me a cab, Elise?" Her hand was already reaching for the phone as he asked, and she dialed the cab company's number from memory. As she hung up, she heard a vaguely familiar voice calling,

"Hey, Dempsey! Quit angling for an 'A' and get me a beer!"

Elise turned with a sneer, but was met with a broad grin and sparkling hazel eyes.

"Oh, hey Cameron." She grinned back, her disgusted look melting as she grabbed a pint glass and began pulling a Guinness.

"Hey! What if I wanted a Bud Light?"

Elise snickered and set the half-full glass down to let the head settle as she leaned her elbows on the bar.

"I give you more credit than that, Franklin," she teased. "Besides, what's a nice guy like you doin' in a place like this?"

Cameron chuckled and jerked his thumb over his shoulder at a table full of people of varying ages dressed (as he was, she noticed) in back uniform pants and white shirts with black jackets over them.

"Your gang?" she asked nonchalantly as she finished filling his glass. "Your posse?"

"Please never say posse again, you little southern white girl." Cameron groaned. "No, they're my coworkers. I'm an EMT." He slid a few dollars across the bar and she took them as she said,

"Yeah, your sister mentioned it. One or twice. A minute. For a week." Elise smirked as she opened the register and put his money inside. "And who are you callin' little?"

After Professor Marks had said his goodbyes and climbed into a cab, the next hour had been spent alternately flirting shamelessly with the increasingly intoxicated Cameron and blushing furiously every time he said something nice.

Elise looked up at the clock as Pop (the owner and namesake) peaked out of the office and mouthed 'last call'. She nodded and picked up the mike to the PA system. Although the bar was small enough that, on a quiet night, she didn't really need it, the EMTs in the corner had gotten progressively louder.

"Ok, folks. Last call! Order 'em, and drink up, 'cause I've got class in the morning!"

She filled a few last minute orders and started closing out the register when the blaring TV above the bar switched from a college football game to the news. She looked up at the words "And in national news, notorious Russian crime boss Yuri Csokas was killed today in his New York home. He was shot by three unknown gunmen, although New York police think the murder may be the work of the equally notorious Boston Saints." Three very familiar pencil sketches appeared next to the anchor's head as Elise slid the register drawer closed, her eyes glued to the screen.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Cameron's voice rang out from behind her. She spun, locking the deposit bag and sliding it under the bar and silently sending up a prayer, yet again, for the Saints' safety and freedom.

"What?" she managed to ask Cameron as she unloaded the small dishwasher behind the bar and began drying glasses.

"Love those guys," he slurred. "hey, you got a cigarette?" Elise wordlessly pulled her pack out of her back pocket and slid it across the bar. "Yeah, yeah. I see so much shit, you know, Elise? Like last week. There was this kid shot in a drive-by. Nine, ten years old." He pulled out a cigarette and lit it a little shakily and continued. "Gunshot to the stomach. Couldn't do a fuckin' thing but hold his hand. And you know, I can't tell anybody. Mom and Dad, they don't wanna hear about it. Dad only cares about the bottom line, and revenues and whatever. Mom says it's upsetting."

"What about Abby?" Elise ventured as the customers wandered out the door. Cameron snorted, his lively eyes glazed.

"Abby's just a baby. I love her so much, but she doesn't know. Marie either." He looked up, suddenly forceful. "And I don't want 'em to. They shouldn't have to see the shit I see. And Mark…" he trailed off, voice suddenly sad and his eyes empty.

Elise wasn't sure she should ask, but there it was, just hanging in the air, begging to be explained.

"Who's Mark?"

"My ex." Ah. Ah ha!

"Ok," Elise groaned, leaning back to glance into Pop's office. "Hey, Pop! Dishes are done, deposit bag's under the bar. Mind if I go?"

"Nah, go on, child. Don't you have a paper to finish?" The quirk of his bushy white eyebrow told her he'd heard the conversation with Professor Marks and was trying to get a rise out of her.

"Yep, put it off 'til the very last minute," she joked, grabbing her jacket and purse. Pop's face turned stern and he wagged his finger at her, but before he could scold her she laughed, "Oh come on, Pop. You know I finished it."

Elise slid the jacket over her arms, taking just a moment to enjoy the way the denim wrapped around her. It had been her father's and had gone to Vietnam with him, before she'd stolen it in high school.

"Ok, Franklin, come on," she ordered as she walked out from behind the bar. "Let's go."

"What?" Cameron asked, a little bemused. He looked up at her, eyes glassy and confused and she just smiled and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sure Abby won't mind if you crash on our floor. We'll come back for your car in the morning." The older man put up a token protest but she pushed him out the door and bullied him easily into the passenger seat of her Cadillac.

Outside of the comforting warmth and low lighting of the bar, Elise's confidence slid a bit and the ride back to campus was quiet. She wasn't sure but she thought that Cameron might have fallen asleep with his head against the window. Which meant it would not be fun trying to wake him for the long walk from the parking lot to her building. But as she stopped for the light in front of the entrance to campus, his voice broke the silence.

"Elise, I didn't mean to tell you that stuff." Elise nodded as the light turned green and she took the turn.

"I know. But it's ok that you did. If you don't want to tell Abby-"

"I can't!" He interrupted, his voice strained.

"Does she know about- I mean, that you're gay?" She stumbled a little over the question, unsure if he realized that he'd said that.

"Oh yeah, she doesn't care about that. I just-" he sighed and scrubbed his hand over his face as she pulled into the parking lot. He was quiet as she found a space (a really really crappy one, and why the underclassmen parking lot was way out here by the stables, she'd never know) but as they shut their doors and began walking up the hill to the path that led to her building, he spoke again.

"Abby believes the best about people. Always. And I don't want to take that away from her. She really believes that everyone's got good in them, very deep down."

Elise sighed. As far as she knew, some people were just evil to the core. She remembered lying flat under her tiny twin bed, crushed up with Marie and Claire, listening to gunshots outside. A memorial for a girl in her middle school who was raped and killed. She had been 13. Drug deals at school. A morning where Makayla didn't show up for school and no one asked why, because they knew it was because her father had gotten drunk again last night and she didn't want to come to school with bruises.

"I can't blame you for wanting to protect her, Cam," she said, slipping an arm around his shoulder and offering him a cigarette. He took it and lit one for her. "But you've got to be able to let it out somehow. And, well…" she trailed off a bit as she considered what to say. "I'm not saying you have to talk to me," she inhaled, letting the action and the nicotine calm the shaking anger in her hand. "But I already know how bad people can be. I've lived with it my whole life. You're not going to surprise me or take away my innocence."

Cameron just nodded and slid his arm around her waist, and they walked on. Elise noticed that they were the same height, and her heeled cowboy boots put her over him a bit. They walked on, cigarettes in her right hand and his left, until they came to the door and she had to drop her arm from his shoulders to get her keys.

The walk up three flights of stairs was interesting, and she ended up with Cam's arm over her shoulders this time, so she could catch him if he fell. But as they entered the dorm room where Abby was already asleep, he was walking a little more steadily. Elise collected a few pillows from the mountain of them that Abby kept on her bed during the day but pushed off to sleep and handed Cameron the throw blanket she'd picked up at Wal-Mart.

She had turned off the lamp that Abby kept on for her and changed into a tank top and shorts, and climbed into bed before she heard Cameron whisper.

"Elise?"

"Yeah?"

"I hate them."

"That's ok."

"Thanks."

"Go to sleep, Cam."

AN 2: Wow, that one was hard to get through, for some reason. Next chapter will be a little more action-y (I think) and will probably be up some time tomorrow. I've got three votes 'Yea' for meeting up with the MacManus brothers! As that is a majority of the people I've heard from (total: 5, lol) and 'cause I kinda wanted to do it anyway, look for that. I'll get started on that as soon as I'm done with 'Day of Wrath' which will be Cam's POV. Smooches! ;)