AN: Thanks for all the interest in the story so far! Most of the action will take place in flashbacks as this story is kind of a retrospective look at Hartley and Billy's relationship and the events that turn them into the people they are around the time of the movie. As always I look forward to your reviews and let me know if the way the story is formatted is confusing or not.
April 2007
Hartley rubbed at her tired eyes and looked into the little mirror on top of her shabby wooden dressing table with a sigh, when had she gotten so old? She puffed her cheeks out with a quiet huff and ran her fingers over her temples, pulling the skin taught. Did other 24-year-old girls feel as worn and exhausted as she did?
Other 24-year-old girls didn't live with Billy Darley.
She looked over her shoulder at his large, still sleeping form sprawled face down across their bed, one tattooed arm tucked under his pillow and the other dangling off the edge of the mattress. Badass Gang Lord indeed.
September 2000
It was a little after two thirty on a rainy Tuesday afternoon when they first met in Frankie's. Hartley had only been working at the hair salon a couple of weeks having graduated high school and been instructed by her mother to get a job, and quickly. College had never been an option - girls like Hartley were to work and earn their keep until they found a guy (preferably not a gang leader) and popped out a couple of kids.
The bell above the door rang and she glanced up from her doodling in the margins of the appointment book. Her hazel eyes met a pair of icy blues and a little jolt of electricity shot down her spine making her sit up a little straighter and wish she was wearing something more presentable than her faithful black jeans and an old plaid shirt.
"Your boss here?" he asked quietly.
Hartley swivelled around on her stool to call into the back of the store but Frankie, the salon owner, had already popped her head around the beaded curtain.
She brushed a lock of peroxide bleached hair out of her heavily made up eyes, "Come on through Billy," the glitter on her long fake nails sparkled under the fluorescent lighting.
All Hartley could feel as his tall frame stalked past her was the heat rising in her cheeks and she looked back down at the appointment book, hoping he hadn't noticed. She was thankful that the phone rang just as he reappeared a couple of minutes later and she could busy herself with something other than stare at his retreating form, or pretend to anyway. Frankie appeared at her shoulder and the two of them watched as he dropped into a beat up black Mustang and roared into the distance.
"Put your eyes back in your head sugar, girls like you don't need boys like him," she drawled.
April 2007
Hartley glanced into the mirror when she heard shuffling from the bed and watched Billy roll onto his back, the white sheet scrunching down to his waist, "What time is it?" he pushed himself up on one elbow and opened an eye.
"A little after eight," she went back to applying her mascara.
"Shit Hart, get your ass back into bed."
She looked at him through her mirror, his deep voice was extra gravely first thing in the morning and it made the hair on the back of her neck stand up, "Would if I could but I gotta get to work." He dropped back onto the pillows with a grumble and Hartley rolled her eyes at him as she twisted her long dark hair into a knot at the top of her head, "We got bills to pay, baby."
Billy grumbled incoherently again, flinging an arm across his eyes.
She shook her head at how childish he could be sometimes and pushed her tired body up from the little stool she was perched on. Wandering over to the bed she knelt on the mattress and swung one leg over his hips before she dropped down on his lap, "You think I'd rather cut and set some old lady's hair instead of hanging out in bed with you?"
He removed his arm from his eyes and peered up at her, his fingers wandered on to her denim clad hips and squeezed where he knew her skin would be tender from being pressed against the kitchen counter the night before, "I'll try and pick up some extra shit this week -"
"No," she cut him off with a shake of her head, "Any extra cash you guys make needs to go to Bones so that he's less likely to shoot your ass."
"You worried about my ass?" he grinned up at her and she could almost see the young man he used to be when they were teenagers, before the tattoos and the shaved head, before the scars - well, the physical ones anyway.
"I'm always worried about your ass."
September 2000
"Cind, this has bad idea written all over it," a seventeen-year-old Hartley complained as she kneeled behind her friend and curled her long blonde hair.
"Lighten up Hart, you need to have some fun and I guarantee you this party will be fun. Besides you told your mom you were staying here tonight so it's not like you can go home."
The dark haired girl sighed, she had a point, "Alright just don't abandon me like you did last time."
"Scout's honour," Cindy laughed, holding up three fingers of her right hand.
Hartley smiled and stuck her tongue out at her friend in the mirror that stood at the end of the bed, "I mean it Cindy, the last time we went to some random ass party who got stuck in the corner with the dorkiest fucking dude there?"
"Alright, alright. We'll stick with Baggy and the guys and just hang out, okay? This party is older people anyway, none of that high school shit"
Hartley raised an eyebrow sceptically, "We'll see."
"A certain Darley will be there," her friend sang with a grin.
"Oh man, would you drop that already? I should never have asked you about him. Besides, I was only interested in what he would be doing in Frankie's."
Cindy held up her hands, "Hey, I'm not judging. Billy Darley is a fucking hottie. It also helps that he works for Marshall Quinn and has that mean and brooding thing down to a fine art."
Hartley shrugged as she finished curling the last straight section of her friend's hair, "It's not the wannabe gangster thing -"
"Oh, Billy's more than a wannabe. His dad, Bones, is the one Marshall works for so as soon as Billy is initiated he'll get his own corners to work and shit."
"Initiated?" Hartley asked and reached into her bag for a comb.
Cindy squirmed, not really sure what to tell her friend other than the truth, "He, uh, has to kill someone at random."
"Shit," Hartley stopped teasing Cindy's hair and sat back on her haunches.
Cindy nodded, "Kill or be killed I guess," she slid off her bed and wandered over to her closet, "Enough of the serious shit, we have to fix your outfit."
"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" Hartley asked, looking down at her jeans and polka dot blouse.
"Oh sweetie, where do I start?"
Cindy spotted them first, congregated in the kitchen and within arms reach of the beer chilling in the sink full of cold water.
"Feeling really fucking self-conscious right now Cindy," Hartley mumbled in her ear. The blonde rolled her eyes and took her friend's hand leading her over to the group of guys. She had forced her into a pair of black jeans that hugged her short legs like a second skin and a dark green halter that dipped low at the back. Cindy had allowed the trainee hair stylist to fashion her own dark waves into a low side ponytail but had taken on the role of make-up artist and had enhanced Hartley's hazel eyes with a delicate sweep of pale gold shadow and a slick of black eyeliner.
"Hey big brother," Cindy grinned at Baggy when they reached the boys.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" he huffed in annoyance, there was only an eighteen month age difference between them but it was enough for Cindy to excel at her position as annoying little sister.
She shrugged, "Just hanging out, it's a free fucking country right? This is my friend Hartley by the way," Cindy pulled the dark haired girl out from behind her and nudged her in the direction of the group, in the direction of Billy, "Hart you know my brother and this is Heco, Jamie, Tommy, Bodie and Billy."
"Hi," Hartley mumbled, nervously .
"Want a beer?" Bodie asked as he produced a bottle from the sink, he could tell she was going to need a little loosening up.
"God yes," Hartley said softly, a smile escaping.
The boys went back to whatever they had been talking about before the girls had arrived, something about carburetors and fuel consumption and Hartley and Cindy chattered away to each other. After devouring her first beer Hartley was starting to feel a little less tense and sneaked a look at Billy - tonight his short brown hair was as unruly as it had been the other day and his outfit of dark jeans and black t-shirt seemed similar too. It was his eyes she noticed, they weren't as cold as they had been when he came into the salon, they were still that beautiful clear blue but just a little less… dangerous.
"Jeez Hart, you made quick work of that," Cindy laughed, grabbing the empty bottle from her friend's hand and depositing it amongst the growing pile on the table behind her.
Baggy laughed, "It's always the quiet ones you have to watch."
Hartley shrugged, feeling a familiar heat in her cheeks, "Well, you guys were talking so damn much what else was I supposed to do?"
The group of boys burst into howls of laugher as Bodie reached into the sink and handed Hartley another bottle, "Oh I like you, little girl."
Billy turned to look down at her, "You're Frankie's new girl, right?" he asked.
She nodded and took a sip of her beer, "Yeah, been working there a couple of weeks."
"What's she like as a boss?" he asked.
Hartley smiled and looked up at him, "Okay I guess, why?"
He shrugged a shoulder at her, "She just seems kind of…"
"Insane?" she supplied.
"Yeah," he laughed and brought his bottle to his lips, "She always such a crazy bitch?" he fixed her with his icy blues.
"Not always, she's pretty harmless most of the time."
Suddenly Billy's relaxed demeanour vanished and his strong shoulders tensed under his flannel shirt, "It's a shame not everyone around here can be so harmless."
Hartley frowned as she followed his line of sight to a guy she had never seen before standing in the kitchen doorway. He was built but broader than Billy, shorter too with bleached blonde hair, dark eyes and what she could see of his muscular arms were stained with ink - a whole lot more than Billy's one tribal piece on his forearm.
"Who's he?" she asked.
"A guy you don't want to know," Billy's jaw set in a tight line as the burly blonde approached them.
Suddenly Baggy pulled Cindy behind him and Billy's arm wound around Hartley's waist, "Don't say a word," he said tightly, glancing down at her confused face.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
"What the fuck do you want Jake?" Billy growled.
The blonde smirked, "Oh you know, just checking out the fresh meat."
Hartley felt violated as his dark eyes scanned her body and suddenly wished she was wearing a hell of a lot more clothing. Her eyes met Cindy's, who was safely sandwiched between Baggy and the fridge, and she tried to force away the overwhelming urge to cry. Billy's arm tightened around her and pulled her into his chest.
"Nothing to check out here man," he stated, the tone in his voice daring the older man to challenge him.
Jake smiled and narrowed his eyes, "We'll see."
"Look, we're just tryin' to have a quiet evening a'ight J?" Bodie intervened in an attempt to break dome of the tension.
"Your bitch asses should be out workin' the streets not partying. One of these days Darley someone is going to knock you off your fucking perch and I hope its bloody. Enjoy your evening, ladies."
The group watched him walk away, the air around them suddenly old and uncomfortable.
"Can one of you take me and Hart home?" Cindy piped up from behind her brother.
"Sure," Bodie nodded, producing the keys to his Mustang from his coat pocket, "Come on little girl," he motioned towards Hartley.
She hung back as the rest of the guys slipped back into conversation and looked up at Billy's hard face, "Well, uh thanks for saving me I guess," she smiled sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it," he spoke softly, realising he was still clutching her waist and dropped his arm.
Somehow Hartley had known then that it wouldn't be the last time she would need to be saved by Billy Darley.