I sat down on the floor and smiled at the little two year that was zooming around with a small toy car.
"I am sorry, K. I tried to make her be a little bit more quiet but you know how she are. NO, Jennifer, you cannot drive on the cat." My sister ran after the surprisingly fast Jennifer and I laughed. The tired look in my sisters eyes made me get up and start making breakfast and as I opened the fridge I realized that we needed to go to the store to get more food, but I found some eggs, bacon and a sad-looking but not moldy tomato.
"Hey Jenni, how about helping uncle make an omelet? " She made a happy sound, left the cat and hurried, as fast as her small legs could carry her, over to the kitchen and I placed her in her chair. My sister, Kaily came to me when she was pregnant and begged for help. As I was not a douche I promised I would help her and I had come to truly love the little kid. She did not look like her mother at all. Jennifer had curly blond hair and big blue eyes. Not like me and Kaily with light brown hair and hazel brown eyes. If I had not seen my sister big as a house I would never had guessed that the kid was truly hers. After we had breakfast Kaily and Jennifer left to go shopping and left me alone. We had moved here when Jennifer turned one and I was proud that I could afford the more expensive apartment, even if it was a bit rundown. The water never stayed warm for more than five minutes, the walls were really thin and the windows rattled when the shuttles thundered by. But with some effort we had made the place really homey and safe for a little girl. As I threw a glance at the clock I knew that I was going to be late for work...again..
The stranger were there again, drinking a beer, with the hat dragged far down, casting his face in deep shadow. I was super busy and that annoyed me a bit because I had hoped to talk to him and that way maybe figure out who he was. But there was a gang of very rowdy young men that yelled for more to drink once every five minutes. I looked around for security and wondered if they did not find these men troublesome, but as I saw no one, I guess I was just being sensitive and irritated over them keeping me from the dark haired blue-eyed stranger. Loud and rude costumers came into a bar all the time and I knew that apart from being assholes they were often good for a bar. Young assholes wanted to get drunk and that meant that they would spend money. Money that would make sure Dolores would not need to fire me.
"Ey, bartendy. Another beer!" I turned around, a polite smile plastered to my face as I filled yet another plastic cup with out finest beer. "Are you a boy or girl?" The man that leaned over the counter and took the beer out of my hand seemed to be the leader of the pack and I just smiled at him. I had found that most often they did not want to be answered, just noticed.
"It is a dude.. Probably one of those gays.." The group laughed and I turned around. It still amazed me that there were people that found being gay a reason for insult. When I was a kid I used to think that kind of narrow mindedness was simply something out of the history books in school. The fact that there had been a time when people like me could not get married or, worse, was killed for simply being had been something I could not imagine. But growing older I had learned that some things never change. There was only ten minutes and then I could go on my break and I hoped that the men had left when I got back. There was only so much rudeness that I could take without being rude back.
The fresh air was lovely and and took a deep breath. I always did, otherwise the smoke from the bar would give me a pounding headache. It was a little after midnight and the streets were starting to calm down and the blue streetlight fell on empty sidewalks. I could hear the quiet buzz from the air purifiers and the far away rattle of the shuttle traffic that never calmed down, not even in the middle of the dark night. When I heard the doors of the bar open I did not put to much thought into it other the wishing for my peaceful quietness back.
"Ey, it is that gayboy!" My whole body went stiff and I somehow knew that this was bad. I was totally alone and it would be half an hour before Dolores would wonder where I had gone. My only hope was that they would be rude, call me names and then leave.
"I wonder if he really is a boy.. Maybe we should check." I shot out from the wall and started to walk as fast as I could in the direction of the bar but strong hands grabbed me from behind and pushed me down. Fat dirty hands clasped my feet and hands, holding me down like I had a ton of concrete on top of me. Other hands touched my chest and they tried to act surprised that my chest was flat and when I opened my mouth to call for help I was slapped hard over the face and closed my mouth in fear that the next punch would be harder. I felt the panic flow trough me and I tried to fight them with all my might but the man that held my arms was big and I could not move and inch, their hands kept touching me all over. It was first when I heard the whisper of a zipper going down I realized that they were actually gonna rape me. The man that held me down put a hand over my mouth and his sweaty smelly palm almost made me gag. Hot tears started running down my cheeks and I tried to get away again as I felt them pulling at my clothes.
"Don't worry, pretty boy. You will like it." I shut my eyes tight and prayed for them to go away, I felt really sick and started to just hope that it would be over soon.
"The fuck?" It was not the voice of one of the men and I mustered the last of my strength to struggle some more, hoping that the men might be surprised and let up on me a little. My eyes flew open when I felt the weight on my arms disappear. The stranger from the club stood surrounded by the five young men and jet he looked perfectly calm.
"Really, boys. You wanna go up against me?" The fat man that had been holding me down threw himself forward but the stranger moved out of his way and grabbed the fatty and pushing him hard into one of the other men. Both went down hard. I got to my knees and frantically pulled my pants up and fastened them together. When I looked up again I saw the man giving one of the two men still standing hell. He was not really kicking his ass, it was more like when the man attacked him the stranger turned his attacks against him by moving out of the way or he dodged. One of the men had a knife in his hand and before I knew what I was doing I threw myself forward and jumped his back, reaching for the knife, desperate that he should not hurt my savior. I felt the pain in my wrist and sank my teeth into the arm of the man and when I saw the knife slip out of his hand I felt a strong sense of accomplishment. I could fight back.
"Let go of him NOW." I knew that he was speaking to me when I met the strangers eyes and I loosened my grip on the man and tumbled down on the ground, in the same second the stranger punched the man in the face, sending his head snapping back. The pain in my arm was getting worse and I could smell the blood as well as feel it's hotness drip down my fingers.
"Are you okay?" I looked up into blue eyes and tried to focus on them but the world around me kept getting blurry and before it even happened I knew that I was going to pass out.
I opened my eyes slowly. Shit, I was probably gonna be late again. The sharp pain in my arm made me jump a little and I started becoming aware of my surroundings. I was on a bed that I did not recognize, the bedroom looked almost empty, like no one lived here. The dresser had nothing on top, not a speck of dust, and the desk was empty apart from three newly sharpened pencils, neatly ordered notebooks, a lamp and a phone. It was the rumples sheets of the bed that told me that there was someone that usually slept in this bed. I had no idea where I was and it was when the ache in my arm started becoming worse that the memories of what had happened fell back into my mind. I could again feel the dirty hands on me and it seemed that my eyes were not too sore for more tears.
"You should not cry." The stranger stood in the door. He hesitated before he walked into the room and sat down on the bed beside me. I felt so bad for not knowing who he was. I would just have to ask and put an end to it.
"What is your name?" Much to my big surprise the man smiled and before he said anything he carefully took up my arm and started changing the bandage. "My name is John." The name said me nothing else than that I did not know him. I had never know anyone that was named John. I took a glance down at my arm and quickly looked up at the ceiling again, trying to recite the alphabet backwards, fighting back the sick feeling in my stomach.
"John what?" I was now just trying to make myself think of something else. Blood had always bothered me and the blood from this injury came coupled with how I had gotten it. "Shepard.. Commander John Shepard.." I suddenly knew where I had seen this man before. I could see the posters and huge billboards with his name. Some of them talking of the great things he had done and some of them asking young men to join the Alliance. This man was the legendary Commander Shepard.. Savior of the galaxy.. Suddenly I had to lay back down again.
"Do you want some water?" I nodded and the Commander left the room. It all made sense to me know. I understood why he had the hat on inside the bar and why I had recognized him. He had been the hero for humanity from a young age and just three years ago he had done things that had made him the savior of the whole galaxy. He walked into the room again and handed me the water. I studied him as I drank. His hair was almost black and wavy and it was longer than what he had on the posters, the eyes were blue, really blue, and his body was honed from what I now knew to be years and years of training. He was limping a little. He had almost died in the last battle of the galaxy and the limping must be one of the remaining injuries.
"What is your name then?" I had a slight notion that he already knew and just asked me in an attempt to be polite. "I am Kasey. " He nodded and took the now empty glass out of my hand and placed it on the desk, in perfect alinement with the pencils. He had a clock on his arm and I felt a pang of panic in my stomach when I saw the time. I had miss work, almost all of it. He must have seen the horror on my face because he smiled and said:
"Don't worry. I called them and said that you had fallen sick." I knew that Dolores would be furious so that did not really calm me down at all. "You can say that Commander Shepard wanted you for something.. So you had to leave, otherwise I would not have returned to the bar." His blue eyes were perfectly calm, like someone abusing his name was something he was so used to that it did not even bother him anymore. But it would bother me.
"But using you like that.. It would be a lie.." He raised his eyebrows and smiled again. "You don't like lying?" I shook my head and pulled my knees up to my chest and then I saw, to my great horror, that I had clean much to big clothes on me. I could feel my cheeks get hot and I knew that I was turning the same shade as the tomato I had in my omelet when I made breakfast.
"Why did you save me?" Now a look of surpise arose on his face and he knitted his brows together. I had always imagined a soldier as someone with a face made of stone, with no feeling or expressions, now I knew that I was so wrong. "You clearly needed help.. So I gave you some. Simple as that" He shrugged, got up from the bed and walked over to a closet and pulled out a leather jacket. "Do you want me to give you a ride home? Or do you wanna rest here?" I had to get home but I wished that I could have stayed to get to know him better. But my sister would worry herself sick if I was not there when she woke up. I got up from the bed and smiled a little when I felt that my legs still carried me.
He stopped the car outside my apartment and turned in his seat to face me. The darkness inside my home told me that everybody was still sleeping and I sighed with relief.
"Thank you, Commander. I would have been in a lot of more pain right now if it were not for you." I blushed again and hoped that what I had said truly showed how grateful I was towards him. "You should not call me Commander.. I am not the Commander anymore.. Just call me John." I unfasten my seat belt and got out of the car and I stopped myself just before I shut the door.
"Will you come to the bar tonight?" I knew that I sounded hopeful and I did not mind. My hope might induce him to really show up. When he nodded I shut the door and smiled as he saluted me before driving away.
Well, there you have it.. Part 2..
English is not my native language, so it would be kind if you could comment. I just ask you to be polite and I will try to better myself.
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