After having slept on her emotions, Callie awoke feeling slightly better. But that didn't mean she was ready to face Sam just yet. She dressed and ate her breakfast alone, Russ had already left for practise, then headed out into the crisp morning air.

As she finished her morning lecture, she sent Sam a message letting him know that she'd be back for lunch. They were both adults, they would simply talk it out over some tea.

She prepped her apology for acting so coldly as she walked the corridor towards apartment 6. Honestly, she felt kinda bad for reacting the way she did. She knew just as well as everyone else, that Sam wasn't the type of guy to hurt the ones he loved. And he loved her, right?

Well, they'd only been dating for 6 days and had only known each other for just under 5 months. But surely he had still developed feelings for her, right? After all, she had admitted to herself that she was most certainly in love with him. Why else had she felt so upset seeing him in the grips of another woman?

Thoughts still a little jumbled, she took a deep breath before opening their front door. Stepping inside, she called his name.

"In here..." she heard him reply.

Hanging up her jacket and bag and slipping out of her boots, she padded lightly into the kitchen.

What she saw there almost made her fall over. One hand shot to her mouth as a loud gasp past her lips, her other hand gripped the counter to steady herself.

"Heya," Sam drawled from his perch against the work surface. "So, how was your morning?" And despite the state of his bloodied face, he managed one of his trademark grins.

He had a tooth missing.

"Sam!" She croaked, rushing towards him. "What happened to you?"

Tentatively, she placed her fingers to his heavily bruised cheeks. He winced, even though she'd barely even touched him. His lips were split and his right eye was painfully swollen.

"Who did this?" Callie asked, utterly appalled at how damaged he looked. When she went to wrap her arms around his waist, he flinched and took her by the arms. Clearly, his ribs hurt too. Whoever had beaten him up, hadn't held back. He sighed as his hands slid up and down her arms.

"I'm not sure..." he breathed. His broken glasses and tooth were beside him on the work-surface, along with a hand-towel covered in blood.

"What do mean? Why would someone do this? Did it happen here?" Callie felt her breath begin to hitch.

When Sam nodded, she reached for her phone. "We should call the police, or an ambulance or something!" She flustered.

But Sam took her trembling hands and shook his head. "No, I'll be okay."

Dumbfounded, Callie simply stared at him. God, he really did look terrible. Never had she seen such results of violence so heavily etched on someone's face before. Yet he still managed to smile, though it caused fresh blood to trickle from his lip.

"Tell me what happened..." she uttered, taking the towel in her hands and dabbing it lightly against the wound.

After sitting him down on the couch with the first aid kit laid open on the coffee table, Sam began to recount the random event between dabs of antiseptic and hisses of pain.

"When I woke up, they were gone. As well as my damn tooth."

It turned out, the first unexpected punch had sent Sam stumbling backwards. The second punch had sent him to the floor. And that's when they had gone to town, kicking his ribs and landing punch after punch into his face as the ringleader lifted him by the bloodied t-shirt.

"But surely they mentioned something? I mean, it clearly wasn't a robbery!" She gestured around at their apartment. Nothing had been taken. "They must have had a reason?" Callie flustered as she finished cleaning away the blood on his chin and beneath his nose.

Sam heaved a rattled sigh. Without all the blood, he looked a little better. Still, his face was heavily swollen, there was a burst blood vessel in his right eye and the bruises at his cheeks were darkening by the minute. Not to mention he still had a tooth missing. At least none of his bones had been broken.

"All they asked was whether or not I was Sam Gaster..." he breathed, sinking backwards into the cushions of the couch. "And they mentioned something about 'sleeping with the girl.'"

At his last statement, Callie raised her brows. "You think it has anything to with that Toga girl?" She asked, hands balling into fists on her thighs.

Sam shook his head. "Callie, I never slept with Toga." He then closed his eyes and sighed deeply. The action caused him to wince and place a delicate hand across his sore ribs. "In fact, I haven't slept with a girl for..." he ran his tongue over his teeth, trying to hide his apparent sheepishness, before quietly finishing, "for a while."

Callie looked perplexed. "But then..." and suddenly she realised why Sam was acting so withdrawn. She squinted her eyes, feeling anger begin to bubble inside her. "Does Touya have anything to do with this?" She tested.

The look on Sam's face answered her question. Although he said nothing, the tired look that past over his features and the sigh that escaped his lips revealed he suspected the same thing.

Eyes ablaze, Callie snatched up her phone. "Have you spoken to him?" She snapped, fingers scrolling until she found Touya's name on the screen.

Sam shook his head carefully, wincing with every, little movement. "No..." he croaked. And looked too weak to argue with her when she placed the phone to her ear.

"Yo, Callie!" Touya's cheerful salutation sounded down the line. "What's up?"

And Sam merely watched on quietly as Callie began to fiercely relay what Sam had just told her.

"Whoa there, hang on a second," Touya retorted as Callie began to pace the lounge. "They did what? Is Sam okay?"

"Well, I suggest you get over here and come see for yourself!" She spat, fingers tight around her phone.

He was over in a matter of minutes. Unluckily for Touya, however, Russ had also arrived in that short amount of time. As soon as Touya stepped foot in the door, Russ was on his feet and striding towards him.

"You son of a bitch!" And the punch that he threw caught him swift and hard. Touya's head snapped backwards and when he righted himself, blood coated his face.

"Russ, stop!" Callie demanded, rushing to get between the two men. But Touya didn't retaliate. In fact, he accepted the punch with a swipe of his hand across his bloodied face and a quiet nod.

"I know this has something to do with you!" Russ snarled, hand still balled into a fist. Callie's grip on his tensed shoulder seemed to stop it from snapping forward again. She had never seen the warm eyed, bright smiled Russ ever look so menacing. In fact, this was the first time she'd ever heard him swear.

"Russ, please..." Callie cooed.

The look on Touya's face suggested that he did in-fact suspect his own hand in the situation.

"Can everyone just calm down?" Sam's voice called from across the room.

Touya's eyes followed the sound and once they settled on his friend's face, they immediately widened.

"Sam..." he uttered, flopping onto the couch next to him. "You look like shit. Who did this? What did they look like?"

Sam, who was currently holding a frozen pack of peas against his cheek, shrugged gently.

"I dunno, dude. There were three of them. Big guys. They had an accent."

Touya furrowed his brow as his squinting eyes searched Sam's bruised face.

"They mentioned a girl..." Callie uttered, handing Touya a napkin to mop up the blood from his nose. "Something about sleeping with a girl."

"Yeah, specifically 'Sam Gaster,' sleeping with a girl." Sam grunted.

Touya blinked, thoughts clearly processing behind his staring eyes. He remained silent while Callie quietly tended to his face. His nose wasn't broken, and she soon got it to stop bleeding.

It seemed realisation eventually dawned on him during the procedure. He cursed under his breath.

"What's going on, Touya?" Callie grimaced, laying a hand on Sam's shoulder.

"I think...ahh shit." And guilt washed over his no-longer bloodied features. "Okay, so..."

And he relayed a story about how he had had a brief affair with a girl in another town. They had met at a bar and it didn't take long for Touya to find out that she was in fact the daughter of a mob boss. But she was super hot. Hence the reason why, in his drunken stupor, he gave the girl a fake name.

"You used Sam's name?" Russ scoffed, "why didn't you just make one up?" He knuckled his forehead in exasperation.

Touya shrugged, "it was the first name that came to mind."

Callie rolled her eyes skywards. Honestly...

"That's kinda weird dude, not gonna lie." Sam heaved, placing the pack of peas on the other side of his face.

"Listen, things may seem fucked up now, but I'll fix this. I promise."

"And who's gonna fix my tooth?" Sam grumbled, poking his tongue into the space where his tooth should have been.

"Damn, that's knarly," Touya grimaced, "don't worry, I'll pay for you to get fixed up and looking handsome again." And he pushed to his feet. "But first, lemme make sure these guys don't come for you again."

"That would be ideal." Sam muttered, closing his eyes as he gently lowered himself into a horizontal position.

Callie tidied away all the bloodied towels and napkins and fixed Sam something strong to drink while Russ and Touya worked together to track down the men that came to the apartment.

With the help of an information broker that Touya had stored in his contacts, he finally managed to secure a number.

The heavily accented voice sounded down the line. Touya wasted no time in explaining. "Hey, Dimitri? That you?"

Callie watched from her perch on the couch as Touya began to pace the kitchen floor. Sam's head rested in her lap. With the help of some bourbon and the gentle stroke of her fingers, he had eased into a quiet slumber that she kept a careful eye on.

"Yeah listen, you got the wrong guy this morning. Sam Gaster? Yeah. Not him. Well, technically it was him. But not the guy you're looking for. I used a fake name... Natalia. Yeah...back in Kyoto? Uh huh. That's me."

Callie listened as the exchange went on. It seemed Touya's knowledge of all the details clearly showed that he was indeed the real perpetrator and not the young man from number 6, Snowdin Apartments.

"Seriously? Can't we just settled for another beating?" She heard him exclaim. He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled deeply.

When Touya hung up the phone, Callie and Russ quietly stared him down for answers.

"Well. The good news is they believed me. Not that they're sorry..." he began. He stepped towards the table where the bourbon and tumbler glass sat. "The bad news is..." He poured himself a generous measure as he prepped the next part. "They want money."

"Money?" Russ repeated.

"How much money?" Callie added.

The bourbon went down in one, big gulp. The tumbler glass hit the counter with a loud click.

"10 grand."

Russ' head fell into his hand.

"What?" Callie gasped, and when Sam grumbled in her lap, she added in a softer voice. "Ten thousand?"

Touya nodded his head, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose just above his piercings.

"10 grand by sundown, no exceptions."

Callie cast her wide eyes towards Russ who simply stared back in a fatigued silence. "Where are we suppose to get 10 grand from?" She exclaimed.

Sure, Touya was rich and Callie had a lot of savings, but 10,000 in one go? They were college students for goodness sake! Of course, none of them even suggested the option of refusing to pay. They knew where they lived and clearly showed that they were ruthless.

Touya sighed. "It'll sting, but I can pay it off. But I can't make a withdrawal of that amount in one go."

"Sting?" Russ scoffed. "Have you seen my brother's face?"

And when Touya's blue eyes swung over to Sam's sleeping form, his features softened. "I'll handle this. I promise."

Still silently fuming, Russ strode over to him and pushed a finger into his chest. "You'd better, Todoroki." And Callie actually thought Russ looked scary.

"First your damn, crazy ex comes along and almost has Callie believe Sam's cheating on her-"

This was clearly news to Touya, who's face stretched into a surprised expression. "Wait, you mean Toga?"

"...And then some henchmen come along and beat the shit outta him coz you used his name to sleep with the damn daughter of a mob boss!"

When his voice began to grow louder, Callie attempted to shush him. But Sam had already awoken and was pushing himself upright again.

When he winced and clutched his ribs, Callie suggested they at least go visit the medical school to use their facilities to check there wasn't any internal damage.

"And while we do that, you should probably get going." She told Touya as she helped Sam to his feet.

"Get going where?" Sam asked, slowly straightening up.

Callie gently touched his face and smiled softly. "I'll explain on the way. C'mon, we need to get you looked at."

He tried to refuse, but soon gave in to Callie and Russ' insisting.

"Keep in touch." Touya muttered as Callie passed him.

"Likewise." She replied. And despite her earlier anger towards him, she stopped at his side and brushed away a fleck of dried blood from his cheek that she'd missed earlier. "And be careful."

He gave a curt nod as she turned to leave and that was the last she saw of him til much, much later.