Natalie turned and saw an unkempt middle aged man. His hair looked like a birds nest and his clothes were very dirty and had holes scattered all over the place. He looked her up and down in a very disgusting, perverted way making her feel vulnerable and violated. "What's a pretty lady like you doing out at a time like this?" He asked yanking her toward him as a sleazy smile spread across his face.

"Let go of me!" Natalie screamed trying to pull her arm away from him. But the man was much larger and stronger than her so she was hardly even able to make him budge.

"Now don't be like that little lady. We wouldn't want anyone to hear you now would we?" The man joked sickly as he shoved her up against the chilling brick wall of a building and covered her mouth with his callused, repulsive hands. Chuckling as she struggled against him, he continued to force himself onto her.

"She said to get off of her," Natalie heard. She instantly recognized the voice as Jerome, but in some way he sounded completely different. Of course his voice had been not as furious sounding as it was now, but even the tone of his voice seemed to change. Right now it sounded so much more deeper and almost raspy sounding. It make him seem so much more threatening and dangerous right now than he had in the restaurant.

"What are you going to do about it boy?" Tested my attacker. Suddenly, Natalie heard laughter. Again this was completely different from the gleeful laugh he sported in the beginning of the day. It sounded so evil, manacle even. Some how he manage to make it sound so scary that goosebumps rose on Natalie's skin out of fear.

"You'd be surprised at what I could do," he said quoting his line from earlier in his same deep, raspy voice.

Natalie felt a pang in fear in her gut. She didn't want a fight to break out, she was afraid that Jerome would get hurt if it did. So she did the first thing that came to her mind.

"Ouch! You little bitch," screamed the man as Natalie bit into his hand. The disgusting taste of iron filled her mouth as her teeth broke through layers of skin.

The next thing she felt was an acute, agonizing pain in the left half of her face. She could taste her own blood in her mouth and she was suddenly falling from the force of the hit. The last thing she remembered feeling was a sharp, stabbing pain in her head as she delved into the concrete.

Jerome was more furious than he could ever remember being. He doesn't even remember being this angry at his whore of a mother after she and her sex partners spent the evening beating him. But it was like he was seeing red as he watched as his beautiful Natalie fall to the ground after being hit by this repulsive excuse for a man. He was already planning on how he was going to kill this man, but now he didn't care so much so for the showmanship of it. At this point he just wanted it to be long and agonizing. In his head the only upside to Natalie being passed out on the concrete currently is now he doesn't have to censor anything he is about to say or do.

"Do you want to know what makes me angry?" Jerome asked in his sickeningly dark, sinister voice, tilting his head slightly off to the side as if he was actually expecting an answer.

As the man was turning his body toward him, Jerome slipped a small, clean knife out of a pocket on the inside of his jacket. When the man was fully facing him, he quickly stabbed the man deeply in his side, and surprisingly the man didn't scream at first, just staring at Jerome with a look of shock and disbelief. Jerome wouldn't have cared if he did scream, he would've probably actually preferred it and had gotten pleasure out of it. Though it would have attracted attention, considering this was Gotham, this was pretty much a normal experience for all of the citizens. They just try not to get involved and try to ignore what's going on just outside their doorsteps.

"When people touch what's mine."

As the man began to hunch his body forward in pain, with a flick of the wrist, Jerome twisted the knife in the man's side. The man's screams were ones that made you blood run cold and your heart stop beating, though for Jerome, he was savoring every minute of it. He enjoyed the sight of the man's mouth turning ridged and being stuck open as he wheezed through the searing pain that coursed throughout his body. You could watch and see as the man's face became more pale as the blood drained from his face and onto the solid, cold concrete.

"Want to know what makes me even angrier?" Jerome was now almost nose to nose with the man at this point, still holding the knife firmly into the man's side. The man tried to push back at Jerome to try and escape from him. Though because of the blood loss, his arms were much weaker, rendering him useless against Jerome although he was a lot more bulky and bigger than him.

Letting go of the knife, Jerome wrapped his hand around the man's neck and shoved him as harshly as he could up against the wall causing his head to smash into the rough, solid brick. Jerome felt great pleasure in putting this man into a similar position to the one that Natalie had been in just moments ago. He wanted this man to feel all the fear that she was feeling and more. Although Jerome realized he was actually going to have to hurry up if he wanted to finish in time, the man's body was becoming more lax up against him and his head was beginning to fall of to the side.

Slapping the man lightly a few time on the side side of the cheek as if he was trying to wake the man, Jerome stated, "Hey pops, I'm not done! Don't die on me yet." Then Jerome put a finger to his chin. "Where was I?" he asked himself before continuing. "Oh right," he added with a smile before his facial expression abruptly changed to a frown. "Want to know what makes me even angrier?" Jerome asked once again staring into the man's eyes, watching as they were beginning to glaze over. Jerome tightened his grip on the man's throat, restricting his breathing. The man began to make small choking noises, satisfying him.

"When people hurt the few things that I care about," Jerome added before crushing the man throat with him hand. The man made one last noise before sagging into Jerome's body, finally dead. Pleased with his work, Jerome laughed before yanking the bloodied knife out of the corpse and letting it fall to the ground.

Turning back towards Natalie, Jerome sat down onto the cement and gently put his coat around her to protect her from the cold, night air. He stared down at her, his eyes softening immediately, all of the blood lust and hatred instantly left his features. His hand reached out and softly stroked her face, trying to get her soft, silky hair out of it. He decided he really liked how her hair felt in between his fingers. Natalie stirred a little, and mumbled something unintelligible.

"Shhh," Jerome hushed running his hand across her cheek trying to sooth her back to sleep. "It's okay, I'll take care of you," Jerome mumbled in a sweet, soft voice as he picked her up carefully, trying to not jostle her to much. In his arms, Natalie's head lolled off to the side, laying on his shoulder. He could feel her soft, warm breath up against his neck sending wonderful chills down his spine. She gave him so many wonderful feelings he's never experienced and he was loving every second of it. Even with blood and bruises covering her face she was still perfect in his eyes.

Jerome wasn't sure what to do though now. The selfish part of him wanted to sweep her up, which he already did, and keep her all for himself. But the part of him that was worried for what Natalie would want was telling him that she would want him to take her home. Even that part though was still suspicious. 'Wouldn't be a little suspicious though if I took her home when I shouldn't even know where she lives yet though?' Jerome thought, reasoning with himself. Agreeing with himself, Jerome decided that the best thing he could do was take her to back to where he was staying at Theo's place.

Natalie felt comfortable for once when she woke up. Although she had a headache and her cheek was sore, it wasn't nearly as bad as how she would usually wake up after one of her fathers beatings. But then last nights events rushed at her like a freight train. She sat up in the bed abruptly, noticing that the room looked nothing like her own, which frightened her. And the fact that she was dressing in a set of comfortable, pink pajamas wasn't helping with that feeling at all.

Quickly jumping out of the bed she looked around. Such quick movements made her vision blurry and her head hurt worst but she needed to at least try to hide. Her heart was pumping like crazy and her breathing was also becoming uneven in fear. What are you suppose to do when you get kidnapped? Frankly, Natalie had no idea. Then Natalie remembered something and gasped.

What happened to Jerome? Tears welled in her eyes at the idea of his being injured or dead right now. She really cared about him. It may have been such a short amount of time since she met him, yesterday to be exact, but he made her feel so much better than anyone else has ever been able to do in her life. It was almost like..."

"Oh honey!" Jerome sang sarcastically as he walked through one of the two doors connected to this bed room, holding a small white box.

"Jerome!" Natalie yelled running up to him and wrapping her arms around his neck. Relief instantly filled her knowing that he was okay.

"Wow, what a nice well home present sweet cheeks. What's the occasion?" Jerome asked shining a huge smile as her.

"You're okay!" she answered nestling her head on his shoulder and hugging him even tighter.

"Of course I am. I told you you'd be surprised at what I could do, didn't I?" He stated with an amused laugh before hugging her tightly back as well.