AN: Apologies for the delay! As always, thank you for reading and sticking with Billy and Hartley. I added dates to the previous chapter so that it is a little easier to see how the story plays out (I was getting confused so I don't know how I thought you guys were following it!)

January 2001

Not knowing what else to do Billy had called Marshall. When the older man showed up Hartley was sitting on the top step of the staircase, her chin in her hands and her elbows on her knees, staring into space. Billy wasn't even sure she noticed when he and the gang lord walked past her.

"She did this?" Marshall asked as he stepped into Hartley's bedroom. His large, masculine frame looked completely out of place in amongst her feminine clutter and the stuffed animals loitering on the end of her bed.

Billy nodded, leaning against the doorframe and crossing his arms.

"Fuck man, don't let her catch you cheatin' she'll cut your fuckin' balls off," Marshall chuckled and made a snipping motion with his tattooed fingers.

Billy shifted uncomfortably and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, "What do we do?"

"You do nothing, Jake's on his way. Anyone coming back to this house tonight?"

"Nah, her mom's working til 10 in the morning and the kid's with a sitter," Billy told his boss.

Marshall ran a hand across his stubbly jaw, "Alright, you pack up some of her shit and take her to your place," he walked out of the room and into the hall, "I gotta have a little chat with your girl."

"Something tells me you're scared shitless right now?"

Hartley blinked as Marshall dropped down next to her and it seemed to take a lot of effort for her to swivel her eyeballs in the large man's direction.

"Your boy and I will handle it, don't worry about anything."

"I didn't mean to do it, I just… before I knew it he was right there and I just, I just," she made a stabbing motion with her hand.

He waved a dismissive hand, "You don't gotta explain yourself to me sweetheart, to be honest you did the motherfucker a favour by takin' him out before Billy and me got to him."

She nodded, "What am I going to tell my mom?"

"She'll come home, find that the asshole and all his shit is gone. If she asks, you came home and grabbed some clothes to stay at Billy's. You weren't here long enough to notice anything was different. Men like him get skittish real easy so if she's got any brains she won't be too surprised or suspicious," Marshall explained.

Hartley nodded again, "You sound like you've done this before."

He chuckled, "Yeah, well this is the first time I'm cleanin' up after a 17-year-old girl, I'll tell you that."

As she dropped her head to her chest, Marshall hooked a finger under her chin and gently forced her face up to look at him, "You did the right thing, kid. Ain't none of it going to blow back on you or your family, you got my word on that."

She blinked her watery eyes and nodded slowly.

A throat cleared behind them and Billy's voice met her ears, "Ready to go?"

Marshall stood up and made his way back up the stairs, "Make sure you get her face cleaned up," he commanded Billy on his way past the younger man.

Hartley looked up at her boyfriend as he hovered above her, "I'm sorry."

"You got nothin' to apologise for baby," with a hastily packed duffel bag over his shoulder he reached down with his free hand and gentle gripped her elbow, guiding her to her feet, "Let's get you home."

They made it to Billy's little run down building a dozen or so blocks away without any trouble and he silently ushered her up the three flights of stairs to his tiny one bed apartment. As he locked the door behind them Hartley stood in the short hallway, not really sure what to do with herself.

"You wanna take a shower? Lay down? Eat?"

She shook her head, his voice sounded muffled, as if it was far away in the distance.

Billy let her duffel bag fall off his shoulder and onto the floor as he pressed his hand against the small of her back and slowly maneuvered her motionless body around so that they were facing each other.

"You gotta talk to me baby," he said softly.

She blinked, "I just… can we, just I don't know," she shrugged, "I just want to forget tonight even happened."

He looked down into her pretty hazel eyes, he'd never seen them so empty before and if he was being honest, it scared him.

"Sure," he nodded, "We'll get you cleaned up and then we'll get some sleep, okay?"

She nodded, "Okay."

They shuffled silently towards the bathroom where Billy carefully cleaned the cut on her face and applied a few butterfly closures to it rather than risking a visit to the hospital for some stitches. They were silent as they moved through to his bedroom where he produced some sweatpants and a shirt for Hartley to change into.

Billy took the opportunity to escape to the tiny kitchen area and plucked a bottle of Jack from on top of the fridge and downed a few mouthfuls, he needed something to help make this evening make sense. His girl had just murdered a man twice her size and more than twice her age, and now she was just going to crash at his crappy apartment like any other night after a party. Billy was starting to wish he could have convinced her to come here a few hours ago but she had wanted to go home so she could get to work in the morning. But how was she going to do that now?

He couldn't help but think that all of this would have been easier if he'd looked up seconds earlier. His lot in life was already decided – he was going to be a bad guy – he already had most of the boxes ticked, murderer wouldn't make any difference to him but Hartley? She was as innocent as they came and he had never thought about it before tonight but he wanted to keep her as innocent as she could be with him in her life, it was up to him to keep her as untainted as possible and he had failed.

Slipping the bottle back to its home he sloped round to his bedroom doorway and took a deep breath as he crossed the threshold. Hartley was lying on her side, knees pulled up to her chest and her hands folded neatly next to her pretty face, he suspected it was as peaceful as he was going to see her for a while – tonight's repercussions were going to be mighty on his precious little girl. Billy rubbed his large hand over his stubbly face and through his short dark hair – when had he turned into such a pussy? Before he met Hartley he had a slew of girls sniffing around him and he liked it, the lack of commitment, the constant fawning and ego boosting, it was free and easy and just how he liked it. Then Miss Carter had stumbled into his life and he hadn't looked back.

Quietly Billy stripped down to his boxers and flicked his bedroom light off before maneuvering over to the bed where he slipped in behind Hartley. Taking her much smaller hand in his own he wrapped his arm across her chest and pulled her body flush against his, determined that she would never need to repeat an incident like that night ever again.