Authors Note: Happy Valentines Day everyone! Just thought I'd update as a little treat :) Hope you enjoy! P.S. Thank you to CupKatyCakes for the review!

Ch. 2

A Surprise Visitor

"See, this is what I'm talking about! It's things like this that tear us apart. Why, upon walking in here, do you immediately assume that I was the one who did this? There are so many possibilities as to how this could have happened yet you choose to blame me!"

"Leah!" Kayla practically yelled out as she closed the door behind her, trying to restrain her voice, "there is blood everywhere! And all over you! How can I not think you had something to do with... what the hell happened anyways?"

"What? What are you talking about? There's barely any blood on me. I mean... there's a little here but-"

"Leah! Please, try to focus."

"Yeah, yeah," she replied, waving her hand.

"So?" Kayla pressed. "Mind telling me what happened?"

Leah took a deep breath before exhaling slowly. "Alright. Do you remember Jason?"

"Jason... Jason..." She tossed the name around in her head for a moment before she place what Leah meant. "Wait, do you mean the psycho, drug peddling gang member you used to get high with? That Jason?"

Leah rolled her eyes. "If you mean my ex-boyfriend, then yes."

"If that's what you want to call him."

"That's what he was! Look, I know you only remember the bad stuff we did together, but he was more than that to me, OK?"

Kayla lifted her hands in surrender. "OK, I'm sorry. So, Jason. What about him?"

"Well, he was here."

"What? Leah, what the hell was he doing here? You know how I feel about him-"

"I know, I know," she sighed. "But I'd asked him to come here."

"Why?"

"We had some unfinished business," she shrugged.

Kayla narrowed her eyes. "Way to be vague. Would you mind elaborating?"

She watched Leah's reaction and realized that her friend had no intention of telling her. This aggravated her to an extent, but she knew she had to accept the fact that the girl had a right to her own privacy. Plus, ever since she had gotten away from Jason, he had become a sensitive topic. "Fine, don't tell me. But do you mind at least explaining all the blood?'

"Oh, that," she replied absentmindedly, as if she had forgotten all about it. "It's Joe's blood."

"Joe?"

"Joe Darley."

She felt as if her heart stopped. "Joe Darley... The Joe Darley... Leah, what the hell have you gotten us into!"

"Please stop being so melodramatic," Leah sighed. "Joe is fine. At least, he is for now. He's in my room, whining like a little baby. The bullet barely grazed him."

"Bullet? He got shot?"

"Yeah... about that. Remember how I'd said Jason came over? Well, while I did tell him to come over, I didn't know when he was coming over. While I was waiting around, Joe randomly stopped by. Now, I almost told him to get lost cause I thought he was coming over on behalf of his brother to chew my ass out, but he didn't seem to know anything about that. So, me being friendly and all, I let him in."

"You let him in, knowing Jason was coming over?"

"No, no, no, it's like that. I'd told Jason to come over days ago but he never showed. He sent me a text the day before telling me he was coming today, but I waited around forever and he never showed. By the time Joe stopped by, I didn't think he was still coming."

"But he did come," Kayla continued.

"Right," Leah nodded. "And I did everything I could to make sure they wouldn't see each other. I specifically told Joe to stay in my room while I answered the door but his nosy ass just couldn't stay put. You remember that whole little dispute those two gangs had? Well, they sure as hell remembered. You should have seen their faces when they laid eyes on each other. They were at each other's throats in a second."

"So they fought," Kayla sighed, "and then what happened? How did Joe get shot?"

"Well, Joe was beating Jason up pretty badly. I tried to stop the two but that's like trying to separate two rabid dogs. Then, Jason pulled out his gun and pressed it against Joe's head. That was enough to stop him, at least for a minute. Once Jason got to his feet, Joe lunged at him and he pulled the trigger." She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to shake the memory. "All I saw was Joe's body hit the floor. Jason had to have left after that, 'cause I can't remember seeing him anytime after that."

Kayla shook her head slowly as she pictured the incident in her own mind. "Leah, I love you to death, but after all you've been through, I would think that by now you'd have learned to avoid situations like this."

"How is this my fault?" She immediately became defensive. "Were you even listening? It's not like I'd planned for this to happen."

"But you did let it happen," Kayla shot back. "I can see about a million ways all of this could have been avoided."

"Well I'm sorry I'm not a genius like you who sees everything before it happens."

She rolled her eyes. "That's not at all what I meant. You're always getting yourself into situations like this, and it seems like you don't learn from any of them. For instance, do you ever stop to consider that there are other men out there besides gang members?"

"I'm not you Kayla. I don't have the luxury of being the type of girl a rich corporate boss's son wants to date. Besides, how can you just throw them all under the bus like that? You don't know these guys like I do. They're not all that bad. But you wouldn't even give them the time of day to know that."

"I don't need to. I've seen what they've done to you, and that's all the proof I need." She sighed, worn out from this whole situation. "Is Joe still in your room?"

Her face showed that she desperately wanted to continue the argument to clear her name, but she knew there was no use. Utterly dejected, she gave up and nodded.

Kayla made her way up the stairs to Leah's room. When she opened the door, she was met with the sight of Joe staring at the large wound in his side. There was a pile of bloody towels by his side and a few failed attempts at bandages.

"Oh God, Joe! Could you not?" she cringed at the sight, turning her head away.

Joe lifted his head at the new voice. A smile spread across his face as he realized who it was. "Oh hey, Kayla. Long time no see."

"Not long enough," she murmured as she slowly turned back to look at him. The wound still made her a bit squeamish, but she sucked in a deep breath and walked over to him. She knelt down at the bedside and looked over the wound. Leah had been right; it hadn't made a very large wound. However, it seemed to refuse to stop bleeding. "How long has it been?"

"That's a good question… it has to be at least, what, 2 years now?"

She rolled her eyes. "I meant how long as it been since a bullet ripped through your side." She grabbed one of the lesser bloodied towels and pressed it hard against the wound.

He cringed as she pressed the towel against him, but bit his tongue to keep from making any noise. "Geeze, ain't I hurt enough already?"

She shook her head. "You signed up for this life. There's only more of this to come, might as well get used to it."

"Kayla!" Leah cried from the doorway.

"No," Joe shook his head, grinning a little, "it's fine. Looks like you haven't changed one bit."

"I'll be right back." She grabbed his hand and held it against the towel. "Keep pressure on that. It'll help stop the bleeding." She then stood up and walked out of the room, Joe's eyes following her.

Leah hesitantly walked over, sitting down beside him on the bed. "Um," she began rather slowly, "may I ask how you two know each other?"

"Who, Kayla?" A slight grin spread across his lips. "Me and her go way back."

A confused expression crossed Leah's face. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, let's just say Kayla wasn't always the good girl you know her as. Back in the day, she used to run around with kids like us."

Leah was completely dumbfounded. They couldn't have been talking about the same girl. Ever since she'd known Kayla, she was anti anything gang related, and Joe was definitely gang related. Leah's own experiences with gangs didn't help, but the way Kayla acted seemed as if she'd never want anything to do with them.

"Wait, so, Kayla used to hang out with you guys?" She took a moment to process this information. "Even Billy?"

"No," he shook his head quickly, "no, I think they only really been around each other once or twice. She mostly hung out with me and my friends."

She shook her head, unable to believe this. "Kayla, my Kayla, used to run around with you?" She tried to say something more, but could think of nothing and resigned to shaking her head again.

"Yeah," he laughed, "I know, it seems hard to believe. But you know, there was a time when we were practically inseparable."

Leah's eyes widened slightly at this. "Wait, you two? You... and Kayla... like, together?"

"What? Oh, God no. No no no," he shook his head, though he couldn't help but smile at the assumption. "We were never like that. She was more like a sister than anything."

"Oh," she spoke softly, wincing in embarrassment at her accusation. "So, what happened?"

"Life," he shrugged, reaching for a cigarette in the pocket of his jacket. He pulled one out and slipped it between his lips. "I don't know. Was probably when I started gettin' into all this stuff." He paused as he pulled out his lighter, taking a long drag as he lit the end. He blew the smoke out in a large white cloud before continuing. "You know, even when it was just me and my friends, and we were only pulling small stuff, she would try to get us to stop. She knew who I was, where I was headed, but I suppose she chose to ignore it. When I started hanging around Billy more, musta finally set in, scared her away I guess."

Now that sounded a lot more like the Kayla she knew. She was about to ask further into this but stopped herself when Kayla walked back in. Now, however, Leah couldn't take her eyes off of her.

"Found just what you need," Kayla announced as she walked over to Joe with gauze, a roll of self-adhesive medical tape, and a bottle of peroxide. She scrunched her nose up as the smell of smoke hit her senses. "Do you mind not smoking in here?"

Joe raised his eyebrow as he looked over at the medical supplies in her hand, ignoring her statement as he took another long drag. "Damn girl, is this treatment one you do on a regular basis?"

She rolled her eyes at his unwillingness to cooperate, but just went along with it. She knew there was no point in trying to fight it. "Well," she went on instead, "when you're living with this one, you never know." She said this while teasingly gesturing towards Leah.

"I could say the same to you," Leah replied almost automatically, without realizing what she'd said. Joe shot her a look, but Kayla only looked at her with a confused expression before shrugging it off by mouthing an 'OK'.

Kayla pulled Joe's hand away and peeled off the soaked towel. She searched around the pile to find a lesser soaked one, which was not an easy task. Once she managed to get a hold of one that was relatively clean, she opened the bottle of peroxide, balled up the towel at the base of his wound, and carefully poured the solution over his wound. Upon hitting the raw flesh, it bubbled and hissed, but Joe kept silent as he watched. The only visual reaction he showed could be seen as his muscles tensed.

She glanced up at him momentarily, making sure she wasn't causing too much pain, before closing up the bottle and wiping away the excess liquid. Once she finished with this task, she tossed the towel onto the pile of bloody rags and gently placed the gauze on the wound, making sure to put enough to cover the entirety of it. When she placed it where she wanted it, she pulled the medical tape around it tight so that it would hold close to his body with sufficient pressure. After administering what she felt was enough tape, she cut it from the roll and pressed it down for the final hold. Stepping back, she placed her hands on her hips and admired her work. "Not bad, if I may say so myself."

Joe glanced down at her handy work, poking slightly at the bandage. "Yeah, I guess. For someone who doesn't know what they're doing."

She rolled her eyes. "I know more than you do, so I'll take that as a thank you. And you're welcome."

He grinned and stood up stiffly. "Still the same as always I see," he said as he grabbed his shirt off the bed and pulled it on.

"I could say the same to you."

He nodded, "Yeah, I suppose you could." He looked at her for a long moment, as if trying to discern something from her expression. When it looked as if he would have no luck in finding what he was searching for, he sighed and held out his arms for a hug. "For old time's sake?"

She wrinkled her brow at the suggestion then pointed to the spot on his side where his wound lay. "Ain't you hurt enough already?" she mimicked his own words.

He sighed and dropped his arms. A slight grin tugged at the corner of his mouth as he shook his head, turning towards the door. "Same old Kay," he muttered, slipping the cigarette back between his lips and walking out of the room.