"Linds! I'm home!"

Lindsay groaned inwardly. She had once felt joy and love when Vince stepped through the threshold, but now the sound filled her with anxiety and fear. She hoped with all her heart that he was having a good day. "Hey baby!" she greeted, a fake smile plastered on her face. "How was your day?"

"Good," he said, pulling her into his arms and kissing her passionately. Lindsay grimaced, but allowed him to kiss her, knowing that if she didn't he'd get angry. His hands grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her closer and causing pain to shoot through her body as he squeezed the bruises that he had left on her body days before. She gasped, the pain was so intense, but Vince took it as a gasp of pleasure and shoved his tongue into her mouth, nearly gagging her. "My day was very good." He said, when he finally pulled away.

"I'm glad to hear that," Lindsay said, and she wasn't lying, because the better his day had gone the less likely it was that he'd get drunk or angry and use her as his own personal punching bag.

"You got dinner started?"

"I thought we'd order Chinese, or pizza or something," Lindsay said timidly.

Vince hesitated. "Sounds good. Make the call." He wandered over to the fridge, and pulling out a beer flopped down onto the couch.

Lindsay seethed with anger at his commanding tone, but did what he said, in fear of getting hurt. Her body was too bruised, too delicate to take another blow from her boyfriend. She stalked into the kitchen, yanked the phone out of its cradle and furiously punched in the numbers to the pizza place around the corner. She placed their order, and even though it wouldn't be ready for nearly 15 minutes – they always seemed to be backed up – she told Vince that she was going to go pick up the pizza.

"M'kay," he mumbled before turning back to whatever it was he was watching on the television.

Lindsay left the apartment building and entered the crisp New York October. She loved New York in the fall; all the trees shedding their orange and gold and yellow leaves and the clean, pure feel that the air had – a rare feeling in New York. She slowly loped down the sidewalk, knowing that the longer it took for her to get the pizza, the less time Vince would have to hit her. She entered the pizza parlor, the strong smell of freshly baked bread and garlic and fresh tomatoes invigorating to her senses. She sat down in one of the chairs that they had for customers awaiting take out, and waited. The bell on the door jingled a few moments later, and in walked none other than Danny Messer.

"Hey, Montana," he said, taking a seat next to her.

"Hey, Danny," she greeted warmly. "Waiting for a pizza?"

"Yeah," he confirmed, "I love this place."

"Me too, Vince and I order from here all the time." Danny knew all about Lindsay's live-in boyfriend, Vince, or so he thought. He had even met him once, and didn't particularly like the guy. There was something kind of shady about him, something mysterious, that he assumed was attractive to Lindsay, but this particular quality of his made Danny uneasy. Sure, the guy was good looking, and seemed to be charming, but Danny really couldn't see what Lindsay saw in him.

"Hmm." Danny mumbled, not knowing what else to say.

"You eating alone?" Lindsay asked.

"What? Yeah," Danny told her.

"Why don't you come over to my place? You can eat with Vince and me. He seemed to like you when he met you, that time at the Gala." This was a complete lie, Vince had informed Lindsay that her partner was "cocky, arrogant and a whole lot of trouble," but Lindsay figured that he wouldn't be able to hurt her as long as Danny was around.

"You sure he'd be ok with that?" Danny asked, unsure.

"Yeah, why wouldn't he be?" Lindsay said, even though she could think of about a million reasons why he couldn't be ok with it.

"Cool. Eating alone sucks."

"Yeah, I know," Lindsay laughed.

Their pizzas were ready soon, and they picked both of them up and headed back to Lindsay and Vince's apartment. "It's not far," Lindsay told Danny as they walked with the piping hot pizza boxes in their hands.

Lindsay pushed the door to her apartment open. "Finally!" Vince shouted when he heard the front door squeak faithfully, "What took you so long? I'm starving!" he padded down the hall into the entryway. "Who's this?" he asked, seeing Danny standing there.

"This is my partner, Danny. You met him at the Gala, remember?" She bit her lip nervously. "He was gonna have to go home and eat all alone and I felt bad, so I figured you'd be ok with it." She gave him a look, telling him not to mouth off.

"Sure. Fine," he grunted. "Wanna beer?" he asked Danny.

"Uh, no thanks," Danny declined, "I'll just have a water, if that's ok."

"Yeah," Lindsay said quickly. "I'll go get one." She pulled two bottles of water out of the refrigerator and handed one to Danny. They all sat down at the table and opened the boxes of pizza.

"I hate sausage," Vince muttered when he saw the pizza Danny had selected.

"Well then you don't have to eat it, Vince," Lindsay snapped.

"Calm down, Linds!" Vince raised a hand like he was going to hit her, but seeing that Danny was glaring at him, he lowered his hand. "I'm sorry," he mumbled, to try and distract Danny from his actions.

"It's ok," Lindsay half whispered.

It's not ok, Danny thought furiously. He was going to hit her! He didn't have the courage to pipe up and say anything to Vince, though, so he just took another bite of his pizza.

The meal was awkward, and Danny couldn't wait to leave. It wasn't until he was home that he regretted his decision. Vince was probably beating the living daylights out of Lindsay, just about now.

He was right. "Vince! No please!" Lindsay screeched, trying to avoid his fist. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Why'd you bring him here in the first place? You think he could protect you or something?" he growled.

"No!" Lindsay sobbed, as Vince's fist connected with her shoulder in a very tender spot that was already black and blue. "I thought he was lonely! He's my partner, my friend, I was just trying to help him out!"

"Well, there won't be any more 'helping out'. Got it?"

Lindsay cowered against a wall. "Ok," she whimpered, wiping away a tear that was slipping down her cheek. "I got it."

A/N Uh oh…. not good. Ok, so review and chapter 2 will be up soon!

xoxo

Lia