Well, he's home," Kelly said, her voice already a little shaky.

"It's fine. We knew he probably would be." Joey walked around to her, taking his place beside her as the stood in the paved driveway.

"Maybe I should go in alone first," she said quietly. "Just to talk to him…try and calm him down. If you walk in with me he's going to think the worst and then things really might get out of hand. I just…"

"I'm coming in with you," Joey said, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I heard the way he talked to you earlier. He won't ever talk to you like that again…not as long as I'm here." Taking her hand in his, he gently pulled her towards the door. "Come on. Let's get this done."

Joey watched as she softly knocked on the door—yet another indication that she wasn't an equal here. She couldn't use a key and walk in—she had to wait to be invited. This was sick and he couldn't watch it any longer.

The door swung open with a force that startled both of them. Scott stood behind the door, the smell of stale beer permeating the air. "Well..Well..Well," he muttered, his speech slurred, "Look who decided to come home." Grabbing her wrist, he pulled her inside. "Get in here."

Kelly tried to protest..to warn him, but she couldn't. His grip was too strong and the alcohol only fueled his anger. He was on a roll—so much so that he hadn't even noticed Joey's presence.

"You think you can just walk out of this house like that?" he sneered at her, waving a half empty bottle in her face? "Is that what you think?" he screamed hovering in her face. The sound of the bottle as he threw it against the wall made Kelly flinch and Joey had seen enough.

"You're gonna want to back off now," he said, stepping inside. He'd never considered himself a fighter—in fact, in school he'd been the guy that usually stayed out of the way when the fights broke out, but where Kelly was concerned, logic took a back seat. The fact that the guy was clearly drunk meant nothing to him. He'd put his hands on Kelly and that was unacceptable.

"Who the hell are you?" Scott spat at him, looking quickly between Kelly and Joey. Walking over to Joey, he stepped up to him, "You want her?" he asked him, his breath indicative of something far stronger than beer. "She been whoring around with you? That where she's been?"

"Scott…stop, please," Kelly said tearfully.

"You shut the hell up," Scott screamed at her. "I deal with you later."

"Go get your things, Kelly," Joey said looking at her.

"Joey, I don't think that's…." Kelly had seen Scott angry. She'd seen him drunk and angry, but she wasn't sure she'd even seen him quite like this. He was feeling cornered and that could be a dangerous situation. She didn't want to leave Joey with him…Scott was a bully, but he was also clearly drunk…and when he was this drunk, he didn't use his head. Things happened when he got drunk. People got hurt.

"Kelly…it's fine. Go upstairs and get your things," Joey repeated.

"Wait a minute," Scott said, staggering over to Kelly and grabbing her again, pulling her roughly towards him, "You don't come in my house and tell my woman what to do."

Joey took a step towards Scott and looked him in the eye. "Kelly isn't staying here with you. You don't deserve her. You've hurt her. You've disrespected her and you're doing it now. You've got your hands on her. Get them off."

Scott looked at Joey and released Kelly's arms, "Oh, I get it," he said, laughing, "You're gonna come in here and be a hero….rescue the damsel in distress. You think you're gonna bring her home and clean her up…think she'll make a good trophy wife for you? I've got news for you..she's trash," he sneered. "You come in here judging me….you think you can do better. She's out there sleeping with all the guys, like the whore she is…acting like some slut. How would that make you feel? You do what you have to do to keep her in line."

Joey might have been able to write off his maniacal accusations as a drunken, pathetic fool's ramblings if it hadn't been for Kelly's sobs. Those sobs incited a fury in him he couldn't describe and before he realized what he was doing, he felt his hand connect with Scott's jaw.

As he saw him slump to the floor, he looked over at Kelly, "Go get your stuff," he said softly. "I'm going to call the police and get somebody out here."

Kelly didn't move. She sat on the stairs hunched over, her body shaking with silent sobs.

Joey walked over to her. "Hey," he said, touching her back. She shuddered at his touch. "It's ok," he said softly. "It's gonna be over soon. Go get your stuff. We'll send for the rest. I'll make sure he stays right here. Ok?"

Kelly looked up at him, her eyes still filled with tears, her hands still shaking. With Joey's help, she slowly stood from the steps and climbed them one by one.

Joey watched her walk into the room and then looked back at Scott. Picking up the phone, he dialed the 911, he wanted him out of here. If he woke up again, he wasn't sure what he'd do.

Joey watched as the police cuffed Scott. He'd been worried initially that they wouldn't have grounds to arrest him without having to question Kelly, but Scott's rants and raves after regaining consciousness took care of any concerns he had. Drunk and disorderly was the charge for now, but Joey explained the situation to the police and they gave him a card to come to the station with Kelly later.

As he watched the squad car pull away, he stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what to do next. There was a part of him that couldn't believe she would stay with a man like that. Kelly was always a bit of a hellion and the thought of her succumbing to anyone was a bit of a stretch. The woman he'd seen a moment ago…hunched on the steps, afraid to move—that wasn't Kelly. That was someone else. Scott had broken her…shattered her spark, her confidence, her love of life. Now it was his turn to pick up the pieces.

He climbed the stairs and turned into the room he'd seen Kelly disappear into earlier. Kelly sat on the bed, in an almost trance—mindlessly folding a few clothes and placing them ever so slowly in a bag.

"Need some help?" he asked, sitting beside her.

"Sorry," Kelly said looking up at him, "I'll try to hurry."

Joey hated that—the way she was so quick to apologize. It was as if she'd been programmed to think everything she did was wrong. "You don't have to apologize, Kel," he said softly. "Look at me." He waited for her to slowly turn her eyes toward him. "I'm not Scott," he said, his voice kind but firm. "Scott is on his way to the police station. He's not ever going to hurt you again. I'm here now."

It was as if she finally heard him and he could see some of the tension leave her shoulders. He moved closer and let her lean against him as he wrapped his arm around her.

She took a shaky breath. "This is it," she said, gesturing to the bag on the bed.

"This is all you want to take today?" Joey asked, taking note of the small size of the bag.

Kelly shook her head, "No, this is it. That's all my clothes."

Joey ran his hand through the stacks, ten..maybe twelve shirts, some jeans, some pants, a sweater or two..a few pairs of shoes. He looked up at her his eyes asking all the questions his mouth was afraid to.

Kelly understood and answered before he had to ask. "Scott thought my clothes were too….revealing and he went through this thing a few weeks ago. He took most of them and cut them up. When I came home from the grocery, I found them on the bed…shredded."

Joey didn't know what to say. He looked at Kelly noticing her outfit, "This is nice," he said gesturing to what she wore.

"I stopped on the way to Llanview and bought a few things and the dress I had on the other night," she said, looking at the floor. "I knew if I showed up wearing something like this," She reached into the bag and pulled out a long sleeve crew neck t-shirt, "you'd be suspicious".

Joey forced a smile, "Yeah, that's not exactly your style." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Is there anything here that you care about," he asked.

Kelly nodded, walking over to the side of the room where the wardrobe stood. He watched as she opened a drawer and shifted the contents around, clearly looking for something specific. She pulled out an old watch box.

"A watch," Joey asked a little confused. Since when do you care so much about watches?

Kelly slowly opened the box and pulled out the watch, sitting it on the bed. As she pulled the foam, Joey understood. It wasn't the watch at all. It was what the watch was hiding.

She pulled out a ring, and held it for him to see. "This," she said softly.

Joey's breath caught. He'd know that ring anywhere. That was the ring he'd given Kelly when he asked her to marry him. Walking over to her, he slowly closed his hand around hers and softly kissed her forehead. "Let's get out of here," he said softly as he led her to the doorway.

Joey sat in the straight chair waiting for Kelly. As he saw the female office handing her a cup of water, he stood, walking over to them. "Everything ok," he asked?

Kelly nodded. "I think I'm all finished here," she said quietly.

The officer nodded, "You did great. We'll call you if we need anything else. For now, I think we've got more than enough to charge him and keep him here." She reached over and patted Kelly's arm. "You take care."

Kelly nodded and looked back at Joey. "Can we go now?"

Joey nodded, walking her out. "I have an idea".

Looking back at him, Kelly actually smiled. There was a spark in Joey's eyes. That spark was something she'd missed so often in the last year—"What?"

"Let's go get you some clothes," he said smiling at her.

"You want to go shopping," she said, her eyes widening a little?

"What?" Joey said, feigning indignation, "Men can shop too. It's just that…well, you don't have any clothes and while all the single guys in Llanview probably wouldn't mind if you walked around in nothing at all, you'd probably get some not so nice looks from the married women."

Without even realizing it, she laughed. "You are incredible." Looking up at him, she couldn't help but smile. "You come here and go through all this with me and you actually make me laugh. How do you do it?"

"What can I say? It's a gift," he smiled.

"It's you," she said softly, leaning in to him…"It's who you are, and I'm so grateful you're here with me."

Joey leaned down to kiss her forehead, "Me too," he whispered.

"You don't have to do this." Kelly couldn't help but smile as she looked back at Joey who could barely see over the armful of bags. "Really, I don't need all this."

Joey sat on the bench and went to work consolidating the bags. "You deserve to be pampered a little. Besides—I've missed Christmas and your birthday and all the holidays in between…consider this back pay."

Kelly smiled, "Well, you're certainly all paid up now. We need to get back to the hotel. The flight leaves early in the morning."

"Not yet," Joey said. "One more store…"

Joey grabbed the three larger bags, now much heavier since they held all the smaller ones and directed Kelly towards the last store. "What else can I possibly need?"

Rolling his eyes and pretending to be put off, Joey looked at her, "If you insist on knowing, I made dinner reservations tonight and you're going to need a dress—a nice one. This is the perfect place."

Kelly was stunned. "When did you do that?"

"I work fast….and you did slip off to the dressing room for a little while." He smiled at her surprised expression. "Why don't you go inside and pick out something for tonight and let me go and make a quick call just to make sure everything's set with the flight tomorrow. I'll be in in a minute."

Kelly nodded and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "You're incredible," she whispered and headed into the store.

Joey smiled as he watched her disappear. He quickly strolled into the small store a little bit further down the mall's aisle.

"It's ready," the store clerk said, pulling out the small bag from under the counter.

"Thank you," Joey said

"Special night?" she asked.

"Yeah…yeah it is, and this is going to make it perfect."

Joey made sure his bag was totally hidden within the maze of bags as he stepped into the dress shop. He saw Kelly still empty handed.

"Hey," he said, approaching her, "Having trouble finding something you like?"

"No…no..it's not that at all," she said, a little ashamed of the real reason she hadn't tried anything on. "These dresses are beautiful…all of them. It's just that they're strapless or strappy and…"

"Kelly," Joey said slowly, "You don't have to worry about that. I think you're beautiful and Scott…he was crazy. You can dress any way you want."

Kelly shook her head. "It's not that," she said quietly. She looked around the store, taking Joey's hand and pulling him to a corner where she was sure no one would see. As she pulled the shirt away from her collarbone, Joey understood.

"God, Kelly," he said, touching her skin softly. "I didn't know."

"I just…I can't wear these dresses..not like this…"

Joey felt terrible. He knew it was bad with Scott, but seeing her skin bruised, it somehow made it more real. He wished he'd done more when he'd had the opportunity. He wished he had left some bruises of his own. "You know what," he said, touching her face. "Forget the dress. We'll pick up food and take it back to the hotel."

"I ruined your evening," Kelly said softly.

"Don't you ever think that," he said softly, taking her face in his hands, "You didn't ruin anything. We're just changing gears. Instead of shopping for formal wear, we'll shop for pajamas and slippers. Come on.."

Kelly smiled and followed him from the store. For the first time in a long while, she really felt as if things might be ok.