A/N: I don't think I'll be posting every day of next week even though I've got some ideas, so I thought I'd give y'all a heads up!

Sequel thing to "Her" if that idea/AU isn't your bag. Deals with themes of transitioning, referenced child abuse, and safety.

It's only been a week since April left home and stayed with Leslie. Only a week since, in the Parks offices where it was only the three of them, she told Leslie and Andy. Seven short days, April thinks, and she hates work more than ever. Every day, somehow, Ann is there and she gives April strange looks - odd, leering stares that make her more vulnerable than ever - and she tries to remember that she's safe.

Safe.

That word doesn't mean much to her. The fresh bruises from before she left are slowly leaving her but they imprint more than she lets on. At Leslie's house she can barely see two feet in front of her, but the frantic pace the woman lives at means she's never really there, and April just drinks from the massive stores of hot chocolate.

Her parents don't know she's there, and she's especially thankful her father doesn't, but other people at work notice that they go in together. They notice, but they don't say anything. Ann knows, that realization having made April sick to her stomach, and she visited once to make sure she was eating and going in to continue her appointments in Eagleton. April does, but it's not because of Ann. It's because of the oafish guy waving at her from his stand in City Hall.

"Hey," Andy says loudly, waving her over to him before kissing her quickly, "are we still on for tonight?"

"Yeah, Leslie's gone for the night so we'll just hang out there," she responds. "We can watch TV, or burn all of those National Geographics, or..."

"But we're gonna make out a lot, right?" he asks, nodding his head and smiling.

"Totally," she smiles and walks off after a short hug.

She's never known someone as supportive as Andy has been. April, at first, didn't even expect him to understand what she was going through - and when she told him she thought he didn't really know what the word 'transwoman' meant - but he tries. He offers her a space in a house he doesn't even own, and he says he'll go sell his guitars so she can stay in a motel if that's what she wants, and it's important to her that he tries.

It's almost important that the hesitation she expects in his touch is never there. The few moments she feels comfortable going beyond small pecks on the lips are hard at first. They fall asleep together that first night he knows, both of them in Leslie's spare bed. At first he stays on the floor, out of some weird childish chivalry, but things are quieter without him up there.

"Andy," she whispered into the dark room, hoping he was awake. "Andy?"

"What's up," his voice is slow and hoarse like he just woke up.

She moved out from under the blanket, lying outstretched with her head closer to him at the opposite side of the bed. She let her hand fall down and find him in the dark. He quickly slipped his alongside, taking her hand, and she hoped that he wasn't rolling his eyes or squirming instinctively away from her.

"I'm scared," she admitted to him.

April breathed ragged after that and Andy only responded by continuing his thumb's motions on the back of her hand. He doesn't say anything to her after that, standing up, and he walked over to her. That night, she fell asleep with Andy. With their eyes used to the darkness, she on side of the bed and he the opposite and facing her, April watched him fight back sleep until she herself drifted off - her hand still in his.

April knows that she's blessed to have found Leslie, or rather that Leslie was just as good a person April hoped she would have been, and she's happy to be around Andy more. His jokes, all of them so terrible, get her to laugh more at him than anything else. He falls a lot more than she ever thought possible, but he has no shame or embarrassment about it at all.

To not be terrified of living in her own house, it's something April hasn't known before and with Leslie she never feels that.

"I have to go to this public forum, April. It's only an hour, two at most, then I'll be back," Leslie tells her slowly, putting on her jacket. "So if you need anything, you can call me or Andy."

"Thanks," April answers, standing up awkwardly and unsure.

"You can even call Ann-"

"Ew, no," April grimaces but lets it fall quickly. "But really, thanks Leslie. For everything."

"Oh, don't-" Leslie starts but doesn't get far.

April walks forward and gives her a brief hug before moving away like her hands stung from being so close. Leslie has to walk away because she's stammering and April swears there are tears in the other woman's eyes, but neither of them are going to bring that up. April's left alone then, alone with nothing but her thoughts. Thankfully she can feel calm in those thoughts, have a little more comfort, and it's a beautiful feeling.

When she thinks about the nights she sat in her room, terrified her dad would ask her to come into his room, there's always Andy there. In seven days she remembers those nights - living nightmares - twice, though she's tried to obliterate them from her memory, and both times he's there when she calls him, shaking.

Ringing.

Three times, and her heart beat so fast with each successive tone April thought she might pass out. Every inch of the room she was in feels too small, and everywhere she managed to walk made her body feel too large for its confines. Then, when she wants to scream, the tones end.

"What's up!" he answered excited, and his voice brought her back to metered breaths. "April? You there?"

"Yeah... I just," she stopped, savoring the oxygen, "I really just wanted to hear your voice."

"You okay?" and he sounded more serious than just moments before.

"Can you make it here tonight?" she asked him.

"Still at Leslie's right?"

"Yeah, just-"

"Gimme ten minutes," and he hung up on her.

"Thank you," April ended up saying to the dead call.

April woke up with a start, her chest ready to burst. The dream - that same one - and she scrambled for her phone. She remembered what it felt like to come home after the second appointment, right before the hormonal treatment, and seeing her father staring at her like she had committed murder. She remembered what that first beating was like.

It was well past a reasonable hour, and she swore that he was playing a show, but she can't help calling him again. He doesn't answer her the first time, or the second, or the seventh. By the time there are eight missed calls on his phone April assumed that he lost his phone or was calling her parents and telling her exactly where she was. He was betraying her, just like-

And then, her phone vibrates loudly.

"Andy?" she had been close to hyperventilating and his name came out in a harsh rush.

She's answered by the sounds of people shouting. Silence from him. At least, that's what she recalled hearing but apparently Andy had been saying something to her.

"-be there soon, don't worry," he yelled over the sounds of other people in the background.

When Leslie's doorbell rang loudly an hour later, April bolted for the door. Andy's hands are different from her nightmare. They're calloused and rough, yes, but their intentions are different. He's soft, and he held her close. Leslie had apparently just gotten to sleep, and was obviously agitated, but she said something about catching up on next month's licensing waitlist and left them alone.

He doesn't leave her that night, and he makes it clear that he's not letting her do this alone.