It's really very simple. She's his and anyone who hurts her has to die. Not literally of course, because then he would, ya know, be a serial killer; but you get the point. No one is allowed to touch her as far as he's concerned, but he fears respects her too much to tell her what she can and can't do with her own body; especially since he has no actual claim on that part of her. Right now though, he's finding out that someone touched her without her permission and there's just no way in hell he's going to let go of that.

She's on a date with Dean and after a while, Justin figured out Dean was almost as protective as he was, so he wasn't really worried when she was a few minutes late. A few minutes turn into an hour and still he's not worried, but now he's pissed. What is she doing? Are they having sex? Did they go to some sleazy night club with fake I.D.'s? Finally she stumbles in at midnight and he's about to yell until he takes a good look at the state she's in. Her eye makeup is running down her face, her clothes are torn and her arms and neck are bruised badly. She's trembling and he runs to her side immediately, helping her to the couch.

She clings to him with all the force she can muster, as if he would ever leave her like this. She sobs into his chest for what seems like forever, but eventually she calms down enough to speak.

"Did Dean do this?"

She shakes her head emphatically. "He would never."

"Then what happened sweetie?"

She takes a deep shuddering breath. "Dean's dad called him when he was walking me home. There was some sort of family emergency and he had to get home as soon as he could. He was gonna finish walking me before he left, but I told him I'd be f..fine. Normally he wouldn't have, but he was panicked so he left. I wanted to get home faster and I took a short-cut. A guy pulled me into an alley and started.."

She hides her face in his chest, not wanting to say.

He rubs her back comfortingly.

"Started what?"

"T..T..Touching me"

He tenses. "Did he.."

She sobbs. "No, but he almost did and I had to use a spell…"

"It's okay."

She pulls her head from his chest. "Justin, what if I hadn't been a wizard? He could've done anything and there would've been nothing I could do to stop him."

"Shh, you're okay now. Did you know him?"

"It was Matt from the football team. He's been staring at me for a while, but I just thought he liked me! I didn't think he'd try to… I didn't think he'd do that."

She looks up at him with those big disbelieving eyes, and even though she got away, a little bit of her innocence is gone. His grip around her tightens slightly and he fights the urge to go find Matt and kill him slowly and painfully. Alex needs him.

Alex must've read his mind because she said, "Justin, promise me you won't go after him."

He looks down at her, confused. "Why?"

She looks flustered. "Because he's huge! You can't take him on by yourself! You'll get hurt!"

Any other time he would've argued, but she doesn't need that right now, she needs comfort.

He rubs her back. "Okay, Alex. I promise not to take him on alone."

She sighs, knowing it's the best he can do. "Okay"

She snuggles into his chest and falls asleep.

He carries her upstairs to her bed and goes into his room to deliberate. There's a small, petty part of him that wants to blame Dean. He's her boyfriend! He should've protected her. Then the bigger, more sensible part of him remembers that arguing with Alex when she has her mind made up is not something you can do when your concentration is split. Not to mention they've only been dating a few months, his family should come before his girlfriend. It's hard to imagine Alex needing someone to protect her anyway. She has a certain air of invincibility.

Dean is the good type of bad guy, if that makes any sense at all. He breaks the rules, but he doesn't hurt people especially not the people he cares about. He's the type of "Bad Boy" that beats up the guys that mess with his girlfriend but would never hit his girlfriend. Dean would almost be just as pissed as he is.

He'd promised Alex he wouldn't go after Matt alone, and he doesn't plan to.

He doesn't know Dean's phone number, so he has to sneak into Alex's room and steal her cell phone. He's probably more likely to answer if he thinks it's Alex anyway.

"Russo?" His voice sounds groggy and Justin can tell he's under strain.

"Not the one you were expecting."

"Justin? Why you callin'?" Dean's unpolished way of speaking doesn't even bother Justin tonight.

"Something happened with Alex."

That seems to wake him up. "Is she okay? What happened?"

Justin does his best to calm the boy down long enough to finish. "She's a little shaken up and she has a few bruises but she'll be fine. You know Matt Hays on the football team."

He can tell Dean is filling in the blanks. "Yeah. What'd he do to Russo?"

Justin hears the beginnings of anger in his voice. "That bastard tried to rape her."

"WHAT? Is she…?"

"She's fine; or at least she will be."

Dean is furious. "Oh that motherfu****'s gonna die."

"My sentiments exactly. She made me promise not to go after him alone."

Dean had to laugh a little at that. "Typical Russo. Don't worry, there's no way I'm not in on this." after his anger had faded he went back to worrying about Alex. Justin was starting to like this kid.

"Should I… come over or something … I don't… Is there anything I can do to help?"

Justin smiles at his concern. "No, I just got her asleep. You'll have to hang around her at school tomorrow though, in case he tries something."

"I was gonna do that anyway, but I doubt he'll try anything after I'm … we're done with him."

He chuckles. "Good point."

"Uh, I know you're the big bro and all, gotta protect her, but…"

Justin can tell where this is going and he's trying his best not to be offended.

Dean sighs on the other end of the line, giving up his lame attempt at tactfulness. "Look, I know you can probably handle yourself, but Russo will kill me if you get hurt. I can handle this, is there any way I can convince you…?"

"Not a chance. So you're scared of my sister eh?"

"Terrified."

"She has that effect on people."

Dean snorts. "Don't I know it."

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