"Nothings gonna hurt you baby, as long as you're with me you'll be just fine. Nothings gonna hurt you baby, nothing's gonna take you from my side."

Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby by Cigarettes After Sex

Lucy sobers up and Mac goes looking for revenge.

/

He knew he could never bring her out with his friends again, or if he did he couldn't get distracted; they didn't seem to care what she was to him and that was a scary thought. Women disappeared in the area sometimes, and he had more than passing knowledge about it. People cooked drugs out in the caves and he knew about that too, because he was one of them. He had kept her separated from that up until now. Now it was knocking at his door and he had to keep her safe.

"Don't ever turn your back on him," Mac said to her the next day after she had sobered up as he handed her a knife to put in her purse and another to keep in her boot, "Or Stanley or Marco, none of them."

"He really dosed me?"

"Yes, do you remember last night at all?"

She shook her head, "Did I do something wrong?"

He shook his head, it would do no good to tell her she rambled all night long and tried to climb him like a tree. Or that if she wasn't stoned he would have let her.

"Nah," He assured her, "Just talked a lot. X does that."

"It makes you..." She tilted her head down just a fraction, hoping he would get what she was trying to say, and he did, as usual. Unspoken words ran rampant between them like they could read each others minds somehow.

"Yeah... I know." He gulped.

"I didn't?"

"No, no you were fine." He said quickly, "But I mean it Luce, don't ever turn your back on him and don't ever be alone with him, he's not a nice guy."

"Then why are you hanging with him?"

"Ain't a nice guy either, no one is around here."

"You protected me last night, you are."

"I only protect you. No one else."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." He said quickly, "Forget it."

She knew him so well and she knew when to press him for answers and when to drop it, this was a drop it time.

"This is my fault," Mac ran his hand through his hair, over his tired eyes then looked up at her.

"Not everything is your fault, Mac."

"I'm older, I'm supposed to protect you."

"You did, just like you always do." Lucy rubbed her head, she had a screaming headache now. "It made me feel good. I remember that. "

He nodded, yeah it did, she was feeling fine and at one point she had offered to suck his dick so he figured she was feeling more than good. Last night had been the biggest test of his will and a fight to do the right thing, because she didn't make it easy the way she threw herself at him.

"Did you ever take it, Mac?"

"Yeah, a few times..." He knew he was going to regret being honest with her because he knew what she was going to say next.

"I want to take it again...we could..."

Fuck no he wasn't taking ecstasy with her! The two of them high and without inhibitions? The very thought was terrifying in the best way, both scary and exciting and he knew to stay the hell away from that.

"Lucy, no drugs! Please don't try any drugs when you go home."

"But..."

He placed both hands on her shoulders.

"There's a lot of crazy people in the world, you can't trust them." Mac explained, like me, "You can't just get high with anyone."

"Except you," She corrected, "I trust you."

"Yeah," He sighed but he looked down at his feet, "But I ain't getting high with you," He didn't trust himself with her sometimes, the night before it had taken every bit of his resolve not to take her up on her multiple offers. There were things she didn't know about him, things he couldn't tell her, beyond the fact that he did some drugs.

Mac couldn't let himself be out of control like that around her, and he promised himself he never would a long time ago. He had kept that promise for a while, but eventually like any promise he made to her, that promise about her was broken as well.

His feelings for her were changed and had been for a long time and although she didn't remember, it appeared hers were changed too.

/

Mac was still on fire and pissed as hell, later that day he left Lucy when she got in the shower and went out looking for revenge. When he couldn't find Martin at home, he didn't give up looking for him. Finally he found him at The Luna Mesa and it was radiating off of him as soon as he walked in the door, even Walter took notice and grabbed for his bat just in case.

Trouble was brewing and Walter watched carefully as Mac found Martin in the back of the bar where he had been playing darts. He had no idea what the boy was all fired up about but it looked like it was going to go bad real quick.

Mac was on him in a second, before Martin even had a chance to react, Mac had him by the shirt and almost off the ground and his face was contorted into a mask of pure rage. The music was loud as usual, Smashing Pumpkins, which second to Nirvana was Mac's favorite, the sad grunge was his thing but he didn't even hear the words to the song on the jukebox, "Lovely Girl you're the beauty in my world, without you there are no reasons left to find, we must never be apart.."

"You go near her again, I'm gonna kill you!" He poked his finger into Martin's chest, then grabbed the dart off the board and held it to his neck, "You understand?"

Martin laughed, "You wont do it."

"The fuck I won't!" Mac growled and pulled him over to the wall and held him up against it. Martin didn't back down and he didn't take his eyes from Mac's, he would never back down, that's not how it was done in this town, even though Mac was snarling in his face and holding a dart to his neck,"They'll never find your body, you know I can do it."

Walter stepped forward, he did not like this dissension in the ranks, these kids were his employees more or less and he knew they needed to get along and not be beating the shit out of each other every five minutes. Especially if they were sampling the merch, which he was sure they were, too much meth up their noses and someone might not just get an ass beating, someone might get killed.

He wouldn't have been adverse to any of that, workers were a dime a dozen, but these kids had families that would report them missing. The cops hadn't been around in a while and Walter wanted that to continue. Keeping ten thousand dollars worth of meth in his safe back in the office might not have been smart, but no one was the wiser. He wanted and needed it to stay nice and calm in his place and he would make sure it did.

"I wouldn't do that son," Walter nodded towards Mac.

"Butt out old man, this motherfucker dosed Lucy last night!" Mac yelled.

Walter was out from behind the bar in a second and in Mac's face with the bat ready to strike if needed. His kid or Martin, it didn't much matter, which ever one threw the first punch would get a hit from "The Persuader", his pet name for the bat.

"Take it out of here!" Walter yelled.

"Nope," Mac pushed the dart against Martin's neck, this time breaking the skin, "He's gonna die for this."

Harley had been across the room and he was next to Mac in a heartbeat along with Marco. Harley the peacemaker, who would one day become a cop attempted to diffuse the volatile situation before him.

"Come on man," Harley said putting a hand on Mac's shoulder, "This jerk off ain't worth it."

"Get off me Harley," Mac pushed him away with the hand that held the dart, then brought it right back to Martin's face, this time by his right eye.

Walter cracked the bat down on the table when he had enough and both of them turned to look at him, "Next time it's gonna be your head Mac, now let him go."

Walter and Mac stared at each other over Martin's shoulder, and Mac knew his father would do it; Mac reluctantly let go of Martin, but pushed him into the table just for effect.

"You and me ain't done!" Mac screamed as Walter pushed him away and towards the door, "I'm gonna fuck you up!"