Author: Moon Roses or Moony
Rating: R for language
Disclaimer: Don't own anything.
Feedback: Not necessary but greatly appreciated.
Recap: So that was why he had picked her up and carried her out of the bar. Now it all made sense. Why he had picked her off the floor. Why she was on the floor in the first place. "I'm sorry."

Chapter Eleven

The tension in the car on the way to the motel was as thick as it came and all Shorty wanted to do was dissolve it. Leon was ignoring her and all the while muttering to himself as he drove. He would cast his gaze at her every so often and shake his head before returning his attention to the road. Shorty tried thinking of something, anything, to lighten the mood and could come up with nothing but a joke. So, against her better judgment she turned from the window and shifted until she was sitting cross-legged facing Leon.

"Why did the squirrel sleep on his stomach?" Shorty asked.

Shaking his head again he took his eyes off the road long enough to look at her bruised but grinning face and answered, "I don't know. Why?"

"To keep his nuts warm! Get it? His nuts?" Shorty chuckled and watched Leon's face remain as tense as ever. Maybe even tenser than before she had decided to lighten the mood. "Right, okay, well here's a good one. What's the last thing that goes through a bug's mind as it hits a windshield?"

Shrugging his shoulders he humoured her. "I don't know. What?"

"His butt!" Shorty laughed nervously waiting for his response. She was met with silence. Dead silence.

So when Leon's gruff laughter reached her ears a minute later it was completely unexpected. He kept his eyes trained on the road and laughed, which Shorty considered a tad frightening. Shit. Hector thought her grin was evil, well Hector had never seen Leon laugh like this. Shorty backed away from him uneasily to rest against the door. Leon was still laughing and she wondered suddenly if he had lost it. Maybe he had taken a hit to the head or something, and if that was the case, Dom was going to kill her. Actually kill her for getting a member of his team into this shit.

"Leon?" she prodded softly.

He turned to face her, still laughing, "Never do that again." His green eyes were brighter than usual. Shorty nodded her head to appease him but silently wondered what the hell he was talking about. Figuring it was better not to piss off the man driving her car who was obviously having a psychotic break, she kept silent. "Those are the worst jokes I have ever heard," he laughed.

Shorty sighed with relief and settled into her chair. Well, that explained where the psychotic laughter had come from. No murderer here. No need to plan her escape. He was just a man who had been in a fight and was obviously spending too much time around her. "Hey now, I never claimed jokes were my strong suit."

"Strong suit? Jesus Shorty, you fucking suck."

"Whatever, Leon. You just don't know a good joke when you hear it," she grinned. Tension gone. Mission accomplished. Two gold stars for her.

Shorty yawned and watched as the lights of the city blurred together. She was tired and sore as hell but she knew there were a few things she needed to take care of before she could get a little shut eye. Such as taking a shower, cleaning her cuts and checking in with Spence. Reclining her chair back she rested her head against the cool glass and watched the stars pass.

Arms wrapping around her and lifting her, from wherever the hell she was, freaked her out beyond belief and she struggled until she poked something wet and fell from deaths grip. The ground rushed up to meet her already sore back but she paid it no heed. Opening her eyes and rolling away quickly she looked up to find Leon clutching his eye and glaring at her with his other. "You have some real trust issues, girl," he mumbled.

She looked around and was surprised to find they were at the motel. Confusion riddled her brain and she struggled to figure out how they had gotten to the safe spot so quickly. "Huh?" She asked and stepped closer to look at the damage she had inflicted. When he refused to move his hand she shrugged and snatched the dangling keys from his other hand. Opening the trunk of her car she pulled an extensive first aid kit from the depths and walked back to Leon.

He was blinking his eye, trying to rid it of the uncomfortable feeling of having it touched. "You fell asleep." Well, that explained the quick trip. "You gonna cure an army with that?" he asked and nodded to the huge kit tucked under her arm.

"No army, just us."

Leon led her to a room with the door peeling white paint and the number 14 completely rusted over. He unlocked the door and Shorty realized that the room was not as much of a dump as she thought it was going to be. It was definitely far from a five star fancy hotel with mints on the pillows and cuisine room service. But at least the sheets were clean, and after a quick inspection of the bathroom she found that the towels were clean as well. Throwing her keys and cell on the bed she lay across it and stared at the ceiling fan working double time to keep the room cool. "I'm hungry," Leon muttered as he collapsed beside her, his stomach rumbling to prove his point.

"Order room service. Have them bring caviar and champagne," Shorty joked and sat up to kick her skate shoes off her feet. "Dibs on shower," she shouted and jumping up she ran into the bathroom slamming the door behind her.

Starting the shower she waited until the bathroom was filled with steam before stepping under the scalding spray to wash away the pain of the night. The pressure beat down on her and she cringed when it pounded against the bruise on her back. Shorty turned around so the water ran down her front leaving her back blissfully free of pressure and sighing contentedly she turned the water even hotter. Grabbing one of the tiny shampoo bottles she lathered up her hair, washing away the blood that had dried, leaving her mane matted and tangled. She watched as blood trailed down her body mixing with the water and sliding down the drain a faint pink color.

Shorty only stepped from the shower after she lost track of time and she was sure every drop of blood was gone from her body. The bruises would be there for a while but at least the blood was gone. Shutting the water off she grabbed a towel from the shelf and dried herself off before flipping her head over and soaking up most of the water from her hair as well. Pulling her bra, boy short underwear and black beater from the floor she redressed in them and folded the jeans neatly.

Opening the bathroom door the steam billowed out and left the entire room smelling like the shampoo she had just used. "Your turn, Le," she muttered as she tried to detangle her hair with her fingers. "Mention the underwear and I'll make it your last statement," she warned.

Looking over to the bed she was shocked to see no one lying there. That was where she had left him when she had claimed the shower first. Shrugging, she sat on the bed and pulled the first aid kit to her. Leafing through it she found the things she would need to clean their wounds. She could feel the blood drizzling slowly from the cut by her eyebrow and looking down at her knuckles she could see them bleeding again too.

The door opened a few minutes later and Leon walked in carrying a bag of something that smelt delicious. Her stomach rumbled loudly and she put the first aid kit down. "Grub. Got you a turkey sub on brown. Just the way you like it," he pulled the sub from the bag and tossed it to her. Sitting next to her on the bed he pulled two bags of chips and some cans of Pepsi from the bags as well. "I'm gonna take a quick shower."

When Leon shut the door Shorty returned to looking through the first aid kit absently. She was hungry and her stomach was protesting to the fact that she was not eating. But she figured it was rude to eat without Leon. After all he had bought her the turkey sub, the least she could do was wait for him to finish his shower. He emerged from the bathroom just minutes later smelling exactly like she did and dressed in his jeans and jersey again. Clean and free of blood.

Jumping from the bed she grabbed the first aid kit and pushed him back into the bathroom. Before they could eat she had to clean his wounds. Hopping onto the counter she spread the kit out beside her and let her legs dangle, swinging back and forth while she collected the necessary equipment. Leon had a tiny cut by his ear and she swabbed it with the rubbing alcohol before placing a Band-Aid over it. "Where'd you learn all that karate shit?" she asked as she looked over the bruises on his face. He had a dark blue and purple one on his left temple and a slightly smaller one on his jaw. They would both heal relatively quickly while her own were likely to stick around for weeks.

"My mom's taught me when I was a kid," he said but offered nothing else. Grabbing the rubbing alcohol from the counter he stepped closer to Shorty. Pouring some on a cotton ball he swabbed the gash above her eyebrow silently. Too close. He was too close.

Shifting uncomfortably under his direct scrutiny, she picked up his hand and ran her fingers over the knuckles lightly. Not much damage. Nothing compared to hers anyways. Swabbing his cuts gently she placed a few small Band-Aids over them. She knew they would scab over by morning, so she left them loose to allow for the healing process.

Leon blew on her wound as the rubbing alcohol sizzled and bubbled in the cut. Pushing the two folds of skin together as gently as possible he took some tiny pieces of tape and laid them across the bunched up skin. Shorty knew her lip was fat from getting backhanded and she groaned loudly. She already had large lips, last thing she needed were bigger ones. Leon silently swabbed the cut on the corner of her mouth, before moving to her knuckles. His own lips were twitching as if he was trying to stop a grin from gracing his face.

He took his sweet ass time while her stomach howled, begging to be fed. "I'm not gonna break Leon," Shorty muttered when he gently swabbed the broken skin around her knuckles. "Here, let me do it," she said and grabbed the swab from his fingers. His close presence was making her uncomfortable and she wished to God he would move back a bit. He was standing between her legs and his head was close enough to touch hers as her leaned down to bandage his partner in crime. Roughly dragging the swab over her hands she hopped off the counter, bumping him out of the way and looked up at him. "See? All done."

Retreat. Retreat. Shorty did just as her mind commanded and retreated from the bathroom in a rush. She sat on the bed and watched as Leon waltzed out of the bathroom after her, shit eating grin across his face. Rolling her eyes she pulled her sub into her lap and unwrapped it. "Thanks hey, turkeys my fav."

"No worries. Fighting makes everyone hungry," he shrugged and unwrapped his own sub. The smell of sauce reached her noise and she knew that was the delicious smell when he had walked in earlier. A meatball sub, with extra sauce by the looks of it. "How you feeling?" he asked her, his mouth full of food.

"Backs a little sore but I'll live," she shrugged at him.

Eating in silence they both thought over what had gone down at the bar. What had gone down? Shorty had missed most of it while taking a heavy beating. She wondered though, when Spence was going to call. She hoped everyone else was unhurt and had gotten out alright.

Shorty could not help but also think over what was going to happen once Hector saw her. The gash on her forehead looked worse than it felt but it was accompanied with many bruises. The look on his face when he saw her was going to break her heart. He had trusted her not to get herself into this shit again, and look where she was. Right smack dab back in the middle of it all.

Just thinking of her brother and team made her hunger disappear. It was close to midnight and they were probably all sitting around the front room waiting for her to waltz in. Waiting for her to make up some dumb excuse about why she was so late getting home. But they worried about her all the same. And Vince. She knew Vince had probably called Hector looking for her. She knew he was probably sitting on the porch, shoulders twitching in agitation. His fury was going to break her heart as well if there was anything left after she saw her team's disappointment. Re-wrapping her sub she set it on the little bedside table that held the phone. Maybe she should call her brother and tell him she was okay. But as soon as the thought surfaced, it died. Spence had told them to not call anyone. That was what lay low meant.

Shorty lay back against the pillows and watched Leon finishing his sub. He looked like he was thinking the same thing. Dom was going to have him slung down, and tied up with his head in a guillotine the minute he stepped through the front door. Flexing his shoulders and rolling his head around on his neck he noticed Shorty watching him and grinned.

"What?"

"Nothing," she answered. He had put his life on the line for her. She had her own little protector, her own hero. Of course, she would never tell him that for two simple reasons. One, she was a bad ass bitch and did not need a protector to ride in with his baggy jersey smelling so damn good and looking even better to rescue her. And two, because if he knew she considered him her protector and hero it would go straight to his head and he would tease her until the day she died. "Leon?"

"Yeah?" he asked as he finished his sub and crunched the wrapper up into a ball and threw it across the room and into the trash can.

"Thanks." Shorty knew she was in trouble when that adorable shit eating grin crossed his face again. She reflected to herself how good looking he was but pushed it aside just as quickly. The last thing she needed to think of was those thoughts while in a motel room alone with a gorgeous man. Not just any gorgeous man either, but Leon. Her buddy. Her friend. The guy she played basketball with. The guy who teased her constantly about being 'Lil Coyote. The guy she would never hook up with because it would ruin the friendship they had.

Rolling his head around on his shoulders again he brought a hand up to knead the back of his neck and laughed. "No worries. I got your back." Snapping his head to his left quickly Shorty heard a crack and Leon groan loudly.

She knew she was going to regret this but she figured she owed him this much. "Come on. Lay down. I'll give you a quick massage." Yeah. She was going to regret this so much, later.

He grinned from ear to ear, his green eyes twinkling at her playfully. "Is this a ploy to get in my pants, cutie?"

Shorty rolled her eyes heavenward before smiling at him. "Oh yes, Leon. I've been waiting for this moment since I met you," she laughed softly, perhaps a little nervously and pushed him on his back. "Take off your jersey." His smile widened if at all possible but he did as he was told and peeled it from his body. "On your belly player," she mumbled as her eyes flickering over his muscular chest.

He rolled onto his stomach and propped his head up on his folded arms. Shorty watched as the muscles in his back played off one another, drawing all her attention to them. She was not going to make it out of this one alive. "Think unhappy thoughts girl!"ran through her head but her mind refused to obey. And the minute she crawled closer to Leon her heart sped up and she could not believe she had gotten herself into this situation. Giving herself a mental pep talk to stay focused she straddled his back slowly and lowered herself onto his butt softly.

"Be gentle 'Lil Coyote," he purred at her. Both Shorty and Vince were crude, rude, and angry and the team figured it was only fitting to give her the same name as her surrogate brother.

"Gentle my ass," Shorty muttered under her breath and leaned forward to rub his shoulders. His skin was warm under her hands and the heat from his body traveled to her own and left her slightly chilled. Chilled in a good way. Of course not a good way when she was trying to think unhappy thoughts. She worked the kinks from his back slowly, drawing it out as long as possible, for her own sake. She just hoped he did not catch on to her ulterior motives. But his skin was so smooth beneath her fingertips that letting him go anytime soon was just not in her agenda.

While she worked on his lower back she tried keeping her mind on things that were likely to calm down anyone in a situation like this. Babies. That did it. At least it worked until she started daydreaming of how she had gotten the baby in the first place. Sex. Shaking the thoughts from her head she needed something else to think about and quick. Cars. That would do fine. Until her thoughts turned to her in the back seat of her car. Having sex. Next idea. The beach, which lasted merely five minutes before it turned into sex on the beach. Basketball inevitably led to sex as did waffles, strawberries, lip gloss, tattoos, music, beer, shoes, and fighting. Finally the only thing that could distract her completely was her drawings.

Shorty could see rows upon rows with every color she could ever need lined up in front of her. She could see herself with her sketchbook in her lap and the Mexican sun playing across the ocean as she drew. Picking the right hues of purple, blues, and pinks to demonstrate the perfect Mexican sunrise. The ocean sparkling in its various blues and greens with silvery white glittering across the surface. The water shimmered at her and suddenly she felt like she was back in Mexico, under the sun, with Hector tossing the football to her.

She was so deep in her thoughts that she did not even realize Leon had shifted underneath her and now had his back against the mattress and his hands on her hips. She was straddling him staring off into space all the while massaging his chest. Shorty stayed locked in her dream, completely oblivious to Leon's amused eyes watching her every move. She only stopped when her fingers ran over his pecks and hit his nipple. At first she had thought it was a huge mole on his back and pulled her hands away quickly. But green eyes twinkling at her pushed the thoughts of Mexico away and she realized she was being held in place by Leon's hands.

Shock coursed through her body and naught images flashed across her vision when she focused on the position she was in. Move! Move you fucking idiot! Her brain did not listen to her anymore then her body did. So she sat, straddling his hips and staring into his eyes. Sexual thoughts popped into her brain again and she shifted slightly. Kicking herself mentally when she saw Leon grin at her, his eyes darkened with some emotion she cared not to find out about.

Shorty's brain exploded with plans of escape when he sat up, his body pressed against hers. She glanced around frantically, eyes searching for doors, windows, even unstable walls for which she could crash through and run away. She tried to move away from him but found his hands had wound themselves around her waist and were now settled comfortably on her lower back. His fingers on her face the next minute were extremely gentle as they tested her bruised skin, sending shivers up and down her spine. Leon's fingers slid across her cheek lightly dragging stray hair away from her face and behind her ear, so simple a gesture and one that would dissolve her resolve.

Run! Her mind shouted at her as his hot breath traveled along her skin, quickly dashing her focus. Friend. Leon is just a friend. She needed to stay focused here before she went off the deep end. His eyes were searching hers, asking silent questions. Asking why she was fighting it. Asking why she was trying to escape. Asking why she just did not trust him. Asking why she just would not relax and take it a step at a time. Why? Because Leon is just a friend. Bingo. That was the reason.

And her resolve was crumbling. She could feel it even as his face moved towards her slowly, as if he was afraid he was going to scare her away. He was so close now, she could smell the meatball sub on his breath and his hands where kneading her back. Hot tingles fired down her spine. His eyes were closing and still she was mentally struggling to get away from him.

Her cell phone ringing shrilly offered her the blessed escape she sought. Leon pulled back slowly and gazed at her relived eyes before dropping his arms from her waist. She could see the disappointment flash in his eyes as she crawled off his lap to grab her phone. Heaving a sigh she answered the phone. "Spence, man? Tell me good news," Shorty answered after checking the caller ID.

Shorty collapsed on her stomach, her chin resting on one arm and her other hanging off the foot of the bed. She felt the bed shift under Leon's weight and he laid next to her watching her listen to Spence. "You know what I want?" she waited patiently before continuing, "Position them around the entire house."

She listened for a few more minutes before hanging up and turning to Leon. "What did Spence say? Who's positioned around what house?"

"Spence sent some of his associates to both our houses, to watch over the teams just in case. He says it's unlikely they even know who we are. And everyone got out fine. Bruised but otherwise fine," she sighed when she finished and cast her gaze to the comforter that covered the bed.

Shorty laid her head down on her stretched out arm again and closed her eyes. She heard Leon sigh and felt him molding himself against her body. Throwing a leg carelessly over her own his arm slid around her waist and pulled her to his chest. Kissing her shoulder softly his lips were warm on her skin and lingered there for a few blissful seconds before he laid his own head down and his eyes closed too.

A/N: Thanks so much to my 6 wonderful reviewers! You know who you are! I really appreciate it, reviews inspire me to continue writing Home. I hope you enjoyed this last chapter, and if so – let me know, and if not – let me know anyways. I want to improve my writing so constructive criticism is always helpful. Thanks again, you guys are the best!

I wasn't going to post this chapter until Monday but a little birdie asked me nicely. This is for you Alez. :)