“Come on, I’ll walk you up. Need to get those cuts cleaned up. I’m sure Ana has something.” He made his way to the door, holding it open.
“You don’t need to come up. I’ll be fine. Thank you for saving me back there.” I entered the door and limped past him, expecting him to say welcome and then head over to fill up on beer and greasy food, but he didn’t. Instead he made his way in the door, a look of non-negotiation on his face, and waited for me to start my way up the stairs. I let out a sigh and started up the stairs, grimacing with each painful step.
As we made it into the common area, McGee floated past me and grabbed the chair from behind Ana’s desk and pulled it out into the middle of the room. “I’ll go get Ana. Sit.”
“No, really. Don’t wake Ana up. I’ll just go clean up in my bathroom,” I pleaded, hoping he’d just drop it all and spare me the embarrassment of being patched up like a little kid.
“Sit,” he growled out, pointing at the chair before heading to Ana’s door and knocking lightly. Man he was bossy.
I heard them make a small exchange and then Ana came rushing out of the room, her curvy figure now being shown off in her short pink night dress. Damn, Ana looked good when she wasn’t hiding behind her baggy clothes. With her hair down and her glasses off she looked years younger than she did when we had first met her. I looked up at McGee who was eyeing her dress with a slight smile and chuckled; he totally dug Ana.
“Oh, my dear. What happened?” She looked down at the scrapes in my knees and then looked up at me with concern filled eyes.
“I fell,” I said quickly, not thinking she needed the full detail.
“She got attacked,” McGee’s voice was deep as he ground out the words.
“What?” Her eyes flashed to him and then back to me.
“Really, it’s not that bad. I think the other guy is much worse than I am.” I cut my eyes to McGee, noticing for the first time since we came into the light the dark red spots of blood covering the front of his white shirt.
“McGee, what did you do?” Ana stood up, placing her hands on her hips and eyeing over at him. I could immediately see him soften in her glare. For such a big man, she sure wasn’t scared of his reaction.
“Handled it, love.” He smirked at her, “Now get to work, bloody woman.” He playfully smacked her ass and she jumped up and inhaled a sharp breath, turning to me with a flushed face.
“Cheeky bastard,” she mumbled to him before turning back to me and focusing on my wounds. It was everything in me to keep from busting out in laughter.
Twenty minutes later I was cleaned and bandaged up. Ana assured me that if I needed anything else for the rest of the night to let her know. I thanked her and McGee once more for their help and then headed off toward my room, smiling as her light giggles came floating down the hallway to me. I quietly slipped into the room, trying not to disturb Joni who was cuddled up on her bed softly snoring. I made my way over and flipped on the lamp that sat on the end table by my bed, blinking my eyes as they adjusted to the brighter flood of light than I’d been expecting. I sat on the edge of my bed, picking at the bandage that was wrapped around my knee as I thought back to the events from earlier.
“You ok?” I jumped as Joni’s sleepy voice pulled me from my thoughts. She took in the bandages on my knees and hands and jumped out of her bed, rushing over to me. “What happened?”
“Long story,” I said, dropping my hands into my lap.
“Uh, bandages and blood require explanation.” She looked at me sternly, geeze what the hell was with everyone tonight? She wasn’t gonna give up on this one.
“When I left earlier I started walking and ended up in some park down the road. I didn’t think anything of it until some guy came out of nowhere and he freaked me out. So I got up and started leaving and when he started following me, I ran. I fell and scraped up my hands and knees,” I explained, looking over at her to see if she was still angry from our earlier disagreement.
“Oh my God. What happened to him? I hope you beat the fucking shit out of him.”
“Well…” I giggled. “He got the shit beat out of him, but it wasn’t by me.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I went to get away McGee pulled up out of nowhere and flipped his shit. Beat the fuck out of the guy and then brought me back here.” I eyed her, trying to gauge her reaction to hearing his name.
“Oh.” I could tell she was a little thrown off by the hero of the story. “Well I’m glad he did, because if not I’d have to go hunt the asshole down and cut his pecker off,” she said with a laugh that faded after a few moments. “I’m really sorry, Starla. I shouldn’t have said what I did earlier. I didn’t mean it when I said I only came because your parents wouldn’t let you come alone. I really do want to be here.”