AN: Thank you all for your reviews. I cannot stress how nerve-wrecking publishing the first chapter was for me. Here is the second installment of ANGW (I am not sure if there will be a third part but I am considering of writing Thorne's POV. Let me know what you think)

Sadly, I do not own the Lunar Chronicles nor do I own any of the characters that appear in the Lunar Chronicles. Only the plot and original character belong to me.

Cress woke up on a warn brown leather sofa, that she had become well acquainted with from all the time she had spent at Thorne's apartment, with a pounding headache. She scanned the room, not quite sure why she was there

"Oh thank the stars" Thorne said sighed. He was sitting on the armchair in the corner of the room diagonal of Cress. There were bags under his eyes and was wearing crumpled clothes that told her that he had not slept the previous night.

"Captain?" Cress whispered while moving to sit up on the couch, wincing at the pounding in her head. "What happened? Why I am here?"

Thorne hesitated for a moment, pursing his lips as if he was debating how much of the previous night's events he should tell her. After a few awkward seconds, he finally looked at her and said, "You were roofied by that guy you were talking with. He was trying to get you out of the club…" Thorne trailed off "Spades, if I didn't see him with you I don't what would have happened."

"But how could that happen?" Cress asked alarmed, more to herself than to Thorne "I never leave my drink and… and…. Stars I can barely even remember having a drink last night." At this realization, Cress began wracking memory to try to remember anything from the night before but most of her memories were hazy.

"Don't try to force it." Thorne told her reassuringly "Take a deep breathe then try to tell me the last thing you can remember."

She followed his directions, trying once more to get the memories of the prior night to resurface. As she did this, Cress noticed how Thorne was trying to keep his worry and anger out his features for her, but the absolute anxiety that was radiating off him, combined to how tightly he was clenching his fists told her how difficult all this was for him.

" I… I remember going to the club to support your new job" Cress spoke quietly, almost as if she was afraid that if she spoke too loudly it would startle the memories back to that hazy void they had already disappeared into once. She looked Thorne in the eyes with a disappointment that she didn't fully understand " And you left to grab my drink…"

"Keep going Cress, your doing great"

And then it clicked; the reason Cress felt a pang of sadness while looking at Carswell Thorne, and the reason she would speak to the man who most likely drugged her the night before. "And... I saw you flirting with some girl. I felt so upset and decided to leave… when that guy bought me a drink."

As she finished recapping the memories as best she could, she looked at Thorne once again, but this time his careful composure was gone. In its place was a look of confusion, self-loathing, and guilt.

"Cress…." Thorne sighed as he got p from his armchair to sit on the floor next to the couch so that he could be eye level with her "I would never do that. Especially not to you. I'm not sure exactly what you saw but I can promise you that I would never encourage the attention of another woman. Especially if it would upset you."

"But I saw her! I saw some beautiful girl all over you!"

"Cress, I won't discount what you saw, but I swear that if anything like that happened, it is only because some customers think that if they can get a bartender interested in them, then they'll get free drinks. I don't encourage this and more times than not, I have to tell them that I have no interest in them."

"Oh" feeling slightly relieved and embarrassed, Cress felt a blush spread across her face.

"And besides," Thorne continued, somewhat awkwardly " I was hoping that my girlfriend could help me fend them off in the future"

"Captain, are you asking me?" Cress didn't finish the question, but there was a sparkle of hope in her eyes that warmed Thorne's heart.

"Yeah, I guess I am"

"Of course, I will." Cress barely got the words out before Thorne pulled her to him in a bone-crushing hug, kissing her on the forehead.

After a long moment that Cress could have reveled in forever, Thorne pulled away slight as said "Come, let's get ready for the day. You can help me hack into the club's security cameras to identify that creep"