Title: Calico Skies
Rating: PG-13
Setting: Daniel’s apartment, middle of the night. Anna’s twenty-two, Daniel’s twenty-three.
Summary: Anna shows up at Daniel’s apartment after a fight.
Feedback: Feel free to review.
Disclaimer: Anna is mine. Daniel belongs to my friend Cee (as do Fred and Kate, though they’re only mentioned). Chris, Jeff, Matt, and Anthony are also mentioned – they’re mine too.
Story Notes: ‘Calico Skies’ is a song by Paul McCartney which helped inspire the story, particularly the ending.

Whoever was at the door was going be really, really sorry. Daniel pulled his shirt on hurriedly. The blond he was with was whining at him not to answer the door, but the pounding was distracting him. The pounding on the door hadn’t stopped for five or six minutes.

He stomped out to the hall and without checking the peephole or asking who it was he swung the door open, “All right, all right, it’s three-thirty in the fucking morning, what the fuck do you want – Anna!”

He had expected it to be Kate, who he’d fought with earlier that day about some shopping session that he’d blown off when he was supposed to be going with her. He hadn’t actually done it on purpose this time. He’d fallen asleep and slept through it. He just happened to intentionally forget to set an alarm. Kate was a good friend but watching her try on dresses all afternoon was not his idea of a good time – even if it was for her wedding. Besides, it wasn’t like she was alone; she had the entire entourage of their friends and her parents going with her. Daniel figured he’d see the dress she picked eventually, assuming Jeff didn’t decide Kate was too insane to marry. In fact, only Jeff was left out of this grand excursion because it was “bad luck to see Kate in her dress before their wedding day.” Jeff, knowing Daniel was going to blow this off, had called Daniel up and the two of them went out and knocked back a few beers that afternoon instead…though they decided it was better not to mention that to Kate.

Anna, however, was the last person he expected at the door; they hadn’t spoken since last month when she had moved back home after one of their “breakups.” Some of her things were still in the apartment, like some clean clothing, her toothbrush, and some perfume that Daniel occasionally sprayed on her pillow at night when he was alone and couldn’t sleep. She left those things there on purpose, as they both knew she’d return eventually. It wasn’t like this was the first time they fought and one of them moved out. Daniel expected her back at some point, just not this soon, or at this hour.

But it was definitely her. Her hair was messy, and she was looking at the floor. The light was dim and he couldn’t see her face. Daniel could tell something was wrong. Anna didn’t typically show up to see him unannounced and when she did, it was during the afternoon. “Can I come in?” Anna asked quietly, “Or do you have company?”

“Yeah and yeah,” he said letting her into the apartment, and shutting the door behind her, “Make it quick. What’s the matter?”

Anna turned her face up to him and Daniel’s mind went blank. He felt a little dizzy looking at her; she had two black eyes, both swollen, a cut on her nose and a puffy lip. Daniel could see bruises on her neck and she had a cut on her right cheek by her mouth.

“What happened? Was it a car accident? Did you fall down the stairs?” he asked her frantically before she could explain, pulling her into the kitchen and switching on the light so he could get a good look at her. He couldn’t imagine why else she would look like that. And she looked even worse in the light.

Anna shook her head and sniffled. “You remember that guy I went out with a couple of weeks ago?” she mumbled.

“Yeah, I really didn’t like him,” Daniel muttered. This wasn’t really surprising, he never liked any of the guys she met or went out with. “What’s he got to do with – ?”

Anna interrupted him before he could put the pieces together by himself. “We went out and he got drunk. I don’t understand, he’s always so nice when he’s sober, but he got drunk and he was awful! He was like the opposite of you! He wanted to sleep with me, but I said no cause we’ve only been out a few times, but he got really mad and he hit me. He hit me a lot…” she dissolved into tears.

Daniel stared at her, fearing the worst. “Did he rape you?” he asked her gently.

She was still crying, but shook her head. “He passed out before he could,” she explained between gasping breaths, “I really thought he was going to do it.”

He wrapped his arms around her and held her while she cried. Rage like he’d never felt before coursed through him, slowly seeping through his veins; it filled him. He had never seriously wanted to kill anyone before, but going out and killing this guy seemed like a good idea. How could he do this to her? Who would hurt someone as beautiful as Anna, who was sweet and funny and charming? Who would dare touch her, his best girl, who had stuck around with him and had faith in him and had never given up on him once? Who could hurt her like that? Nobody was allowed to hurt her like that. Nobody.

Daniel took deep breaths. He felt so angry he could hardly see straight, but he couldn’t do anything while she was so upset. She had to be better first. When she’d calmed down again he said quietly, “You have to go to a hospital.”

“I already went,” she said shakily. “I would have called somebody but I wanted to go alone. I know who it was so the cops are going to go arrest him for assault but…”

“But what?’

“He knows where I live,” she whimpered, “I don’t want to go home.”

“Did you call any of your friends?” Daniel asked her quietly. “Do you want to stay with them?”

“They’ll kill the guy and then all go to jail for the rest of their lives,” Anna said grimly, “I don’t look forward to telling them in the morning.”

Daniel knew she was right, but he would have completely supported going with Chris, Jeff, Matt, and Anthony to kill this guy. Anna didn’t seem to want them to seek that kind of revenge, even though Daniel thought death was a perfectly suitable penalty for this guy laying his hands on her. “What do you want to do?”

“I thought maybe I could stay here?” she whispered, “For a few days? Please Daniel, I’m scared, I don’t want to go home.”

“Of course you can stay,” he said without even thinking about it. He hadn’t thought that she’d want to stay with him. “Nobody should ever hurt you like this. You can stay with me.”

Anna looked up at him with the appreciative look she gave him whenever he was kind to her. She squeezed him a little bit tighter. “Thanks,” she nodded gratefully.

“I’m going to kill this guy,” Daniel mumbled, “I’m going to find him and I’m going to fucking kill him.”

“The cops will take care of it,” Anna sighed, “Don’t worry.”

“Nobody should ever hurt you like this.”

“Nobody ever has before.”

“One time is too many.”

“Are you coming back to bed or what?” said a voice from behind them. “Because I – oh!” Anna untangled herself from Daniel’s arms and peeked around him. The sight of Anna had shocked the blond woman into silence. The woman was only half dressed, with her shirt unbuttoned and hanging off her shoulder. She and Anna stared at each other. The blond looked shocked, while Anna looked amused. What was the woman’s name again? Daniel had completely forgotten about her. “What happened to her? Who is she!?” the blond demanded.

Daniel didn’t answer quickly enough. “I was just in a car accident, and I’m his wife,” Anna lied, holding up her hand with the ring Daniel had given her for last birthday, when she’d turned twenty-two. Anna doubted the woman would look closely enough to see that it wasn’t actually a wedding ring. “And you would be?”

“Oh my God, I didn’t know, I am so sorry!” she gushed apologetically to Anna, clearly distressed that she thought she’d just ruined a marriage. “You are such a jerk!” she shouted at Daniel. She walked over and gave him a hard slap across the face, buttoned her shirt, grabbed her purse, and slammed the door on the way out.

Daniel stood in shock with his hand at his cheek. Anna also stood in shock. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I didn’t mean to get you slapped!”

“What’d you tell her we were married for?” Daniel muttered, rubbing his cheek gingerly. “That isn’t true.”

“Well, duh, I know it isn’t true. I was amusing myself,” Anna explained with a shrug. “It’s not any worse than that time you told people I was a female escort and you would loan me out to anyone who could afford the fee.”

“I got some good offers!”

“It was degrading!”

“I didn’t tell them we were married!”

“If telling a complete stranger, whose name you probably didn’t even know, that we’re married is the worst thing I ever do to you, you better sit back and be grateful!”

“I knew her name!”

“Oh yeah? What was it?” Anna crossed her arms and waited for his answer.

Daniel glared at her. She knew he didn’t know that blond woman’s name. “It just amazes me that you just had the hell beaten out of you and you’re still in the mood for jokes,” he muttered bitterly.

“Are you kidding? I’m in a lot of pain, you know. You should see some of the bruises I have on my stomach and sides. But I just…I can’t cry anymore tonight. I cried at the hospital for three hours in the waiting room and I cried here for ten minutes and I just…maybe I’ll cry tomorrow. It hurts to cry because I’m so sore. I’d rather mess with your mind than cry more tonight,” she sighed and looked thoughtful. “No guy has ever hit me like this before. But I forget that not all guys are like the ones I love. I’m spoiled. My father and my brother never laid a hand on me. Chris, Jeff, Matt, and Anthony would never let anyone hurt me. Fred wouldn’t hurt me either.”

“Oh and I would?”

“Please. It’ll be a cold day in Hell before you ever raise a hand to me,” Anna’s grin was almost comical because of her swollen lip, but it was a still a grin. “Besides, if you ever touched me I’d kick your ass. You’re terrible at fights. No coordination at all.”

“I am not bad at it!”

“Yes, you are. Don’t think I don’t remember Matt and Jeff bailing your sorry ass out in high school when Fred wasn’t there to do it. Evan and Rick would have slaughtered you.”

“They would not have,” he growled, knowing full well she was right. “I was doing it for you. You were crying! If you think they’re so wonderful, maybe you should go find them.”

Anna and Daniel innocently bickered all the time. It was fun for them. It usually stopped before it turned nasty but every so often it got out of control. Anna could tell by the tone of Daniel’s voice that she had just about gone too far. She was one of the very few people who could badly hurt him if she really wanted, but she’d never do that to him. He was the main guy in her life, even if she wasn’t seeing him exclusively. Daniel had blown into her life like a hurricane when she was sixteen and had been wreaking havoc ever since. Their relationship was very strange, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t important. She didn’t like to think about it too much, but Anna knew she’d be miserable without Daniel around to screw with her life…and even more miserable without him around to go to when she was in trouble.

She sighed, “I picked you, didn’t I?”

“Clearly you think that was a mistake.”

“Of course it wasn’t. I picked you for a reason.”

“Yeah? What reason was that? So you could point out how lousy I am at sticking up for you?”

“I picked you because you were the best looking one!” she joked to get him to smile. He did. Crisis averted.

“That’s true,” he admitted. “I was the best looking.”

“And you’re not lousy at sticking up for me. You always do it when you need to. You just don’t physically fight well. I still think you should let Jeff and Anthony teach you.”

“I’d rather put cigarettes out in my eyes. A boxing lesson from the band geeks? Please.”

“You would not rather put cigarettes out in your eyes! And don’t call them that! I’m one of them!”

“You’re too pretty to be a geek.”

“Ha! I bet I don’t look so pretty right now.”

“Not really, you look a bit like a clown.”

“Oh great. Thanks.”

“You do!”

“It’s not my fault!”

“I didn’t say it was!”

“You’re such a jerk,” she shook her head a little bit, but not too hard, as she was developing a headache. “Do you think we could go to bed? I’m tired and sore and I feel like blah.”

“You feel like blah? What? Did the guy scramble your brains too?” he asked sarcastically. She gave him an icy look. “Yeah, yeah, we can go to bed,” he added quickly, taking her hand and leading her back to where he slept. “You want something to sleep in?”

“That’d be nice,” she nodded, looking at the bed suspiciously. “You didn’t fuck her, did you? Cause I’ll go sleep on the couch if the sheets aren’t clean…”

“No. I didn’t quite get that far, you started pounding on the door before I even got her shirt off. It was too distracting,” Daniel grinned, tossing her a pair of his pajamas.

He knew she didn’t have any pajamas among her things that were still here; she usually slept in his clothes – pajamas, t-shirts, boxers. She occasionally had some sexy nightgown she used to turn him on, but those had gone home with her when she left. Besides, she never did any actual sleeping in those things. Sexy little numbers like that were usually discarded pretty quickly. Those were the nights she slept in nothing at all.

She took her shirt and bra off to change. For once he wasn’t looking at her chest like he normally did when he got the opportunity – he was looking at the dark purple bruises that were an ugly contrast to her fair skin. She had a number of them on her stomach and ribs.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she said when she caught him staring. He looked at her doubtfully. “Well, yeah it is,” she admitted, pulling the pajama shirt over her head, “I am going to be so much sorer in the morning. Nothing’s broken though!”

“Oh wow, how kind of him not to break any of your bones,” Daniel grumbled, “He just tried to turn your face into ground beef.” He felt his anger bubbling up again and forced himself to stay calm. Her legs seemed mostly all right, from what he could see. She crawled onto the bed next to him.

“I’m really sorry about tonight,” Anna said seriously, talking about the blond woman to change the subject. “I didn’t mean to cock block you and then get you slapped.”

Daniel laughed at the very notion that Anna was a cock block. Nobody ever turned him on more than Anna did with her antics. Anna laughed a little bit too, but she winced. “Don’t laugh,” Daniel said quickly, “Not if it hurts.”

“Everything hurts,” Anna complained, “They gave me some pain killers but they haven’t helped too much. I think they were just aspirin.”

“You want me to rub anything?”

“God no! Everything’s all bruised and achy and your hands are big and clumsy,” Anna nodded seriously, but Daniel knew she was grateful he’d offered.

“You seem all right, except for all the bruising,” he commented, “I thought…I don’t know…that you’d be more upset.”

“I felt better once I got here…well, not better. I’m still really upset, but I told you I can’t cry anymore tonight. And I feel much safer. That calmed me down a lot,” Anna nodded.

“Why do you feel safer?”

“Because he doesn’t know about this apartment, or about how I stay here with you when we’re together and because…” she trailed off.

“Because what?”

“Because I know you’d never let anything happen to me,” she shrugged, “I just feel safe with you. And I know you love me – yeah, yeah, yeah I know, I know. You don’t love me; you adore me on good days if I’m lucky enough to catch you in the right mood.”

Daniel shook his head. “I so don’t love you,” he said seriously.

Anna smirked a little bit, “Yeah, right.”

“I don’t!”

“Mmmhmm.”

“Anna!”

“Daniel!”

“You’re doing this to me to amuse yourself, aren’t you?”

“Would you prefer I cried?”

“No.”

They sat in silence for a few moments. “You wanna know something?” she asked him.

“Sure.”

“Remember our last fight?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, even though I threw those keys at your head and told you I hated you, I don’t hate you. Not really. Not at all.”

“I didn’t think you were serious.”

“I kind of love you, you know.”

“I know.”

She pulled his arms around her, put her head on his shoulder and looked up at him adoringly. Nobody else ever looked at him that way. And no matter what he told her, she was still pretty to him…even after she looked like she’d just gone a round with Muhammad Ali.

“You’ll keep me safe, won’t you? Please?” she begged him quietly.

He kissed her forehead. “Of course I will.”

“You’ll hold me if I get scared?”

“For as long as you like.”

They shut the lights and slept.