I awoke to the scent of coffee the next morning.  I didn’t remember turning on the timer on the machine the night before.  Maybe I had.  I glanced around my room, there was no sign of the red head I felt the night before.  Sadly, I resigned to the fact that it was a dream.

I stood and walked groggily out into the living room. The scent of coffee was followed by the scent of food.  I quirked a brow, for a brief second my heart skipped as I thought that Siobhan was home. I half ran into the kitchen, stopping to see Lara leaning against the kitchen counter, sipping a cup of coffee.  A smile fell on my face as I entered the kitchen fully, standing right in front of her.
“You made breakfast…” I said quietly.
Lara nodded with a soft smile before setting the coffee cup down and pulling me into a close hug, her chin resting on my shoulder.  I felt the tears rolling down my face as I finally realized that I was not in fact dreaming.
“I’m sorry.” I whispered softly into her ear.
Lara tightened her grip on me, truth be told I didn’t want to let go either.  A little under a week wasn’t a lot of time to be without someone, but I had never felt this way for another human being before.  I was just ecstatic that I hadn’t lost her.  Still, I knew we’d need to talk, and soon.

After breakfast I retreated to my room to change.  I stood in front of the mirror.  I hadn’t had time to do much of anything this morning, and the tanktop I was wearing made visible the scar that ran down the left side of my chest.  Usually, I took a good half hour covering it up every morning, and when makeup had started to fail, I used my connections in costuming to secure those strips of fake skin they used to cover up massive tattoos on actors.  Needless to say only a very select few had seen it, and even fewer knew the story behind it. 
I had never been completely honest with Lara in that sense.  If I had told her, or even allowed her to see it to begin with, this whole ordeal might not have happened between her and I.  Then again, there was no time like the present. 
I walked into the living room where Lara was sitting and sat right down next to her, staring blankly at the wall in front of me.  How does one start a conversation like that? I had no idea.  The best thing I could think of was to let her see it and ask me herself.  I disliked talking about it, but I knew deep down that I had to.  My stomach ran itself in circles as I thought about it. 

It took Lara a moment to notice the scar, but when she did, she moved her fingers to it and let them trace it gently. I flinched, it was still force of habit.  She looked up at me with questioning eyes, a mix of confusion and pity.  But not the kind of pity that makes people feel like less of a person, it was the kind of pity someone you love gives you.
“I..what? Where did this come from?” she spoke after a moment of silence. 
I sighed heavily before turning to look at her.  Now was the time to spill my guts.

April 1st, 2004

The air was heavy, and unusually hot for a day still so early in the springtime.  Jake walked out of the bar with a heavy sigh.  She’d gotten into another argument with Siobhan earlier that day, and her eight hour shift at the bar had been *****.  Siobhan’s new boyfriend Laurence wasn’t much of a golden boy, and Jake had made the fact that she didn’t like him known to Siobhan. 
He abused her, and Jake had a massive problem with that, but Siobhan still played too much into the victim mentality to really see what was going on, let alone listen to her friend.   jake’s car was parked a few blocks away on a side street, and Rico the security guard offered to walk her to it, but Jake denied.
“I can take care of myself Rico.” she had told the husky Italian man.
Still, it was quiet and the air was thick.  Jake hadn’t seen Siobhan since that morning with Laurence.  The three had gotten into a hug fight and Jake told Laurence to stay the ***** away from her.  The petite bartender didn’t trust him at all.  There was a dark part to him that jake couldn’t pinpoint.

Footsteps drew Jake’s attention, when she turned she saw only the fading lights of the bar.  She shook her head and continued on.  As she continued walking, she heard the footsteps again.  Jake held her breath as she quickened her pace to the car.  She didn’t look back, she didn’t want to look back.  This was how a lot of bad horror movies started.

As she reached her car, jake’s hands fumbled with the keys, she felt a hand grab her by the shoulder and slam her against the car, the hard weight of another body hit her hard as the offender pressed hisself against her.  Jake could feel his breath and the instant she spoke she knew who it was.
“I told you not to mess with my girl you ***** *****.” his voice was thick and hard.
“Let go of me Laurence….” Jake struggled, and Laurence pressed himself harder against her.
“I don’t think so. I’m a very territorial man, and I don’t like other people ***** around with my property.”
The next thing Jake knew she was being dragged away from her car.  So close, she came so close to being safe.  NOw, fear ran through her like a cold chill.  She knew Laurence was dangerous, but she didn’t know what he was capable of doing.  And right now, she didn’t want to find out.

Laurence threw Jake into the back of his van, following in after, shutting the door.  There were no windows in the back and a sheet seperated the front of the van from the spacious back.  Jake struggled as Laurence pressed down on her, keeping her from squirming.  A sick grin was now twisted on his face. 
“What the ***** do you want?!”
“A little of this, a little of that. But don’t worry…I’m not going to take your honor….” he said with a snicker.
Jake saw the Shiny glint of metal and panicked.  The next move she made was to kick laurence square in groin.  He let out a howl of pain and brought the knife down.  Whether he had really intended to or not, was now null and void.  A sharp pain ran through Jake’s body as she finally processed what had just happened. 
Laurence too seemed disoriented, unsure of what he had just done.  After a moment he shook his head, that sick menacing smile replaced by anger.
“See what the ***** you made me do!?” he screamed before hopping into the driver’s seat.

Jake wasn’t sure how long they’d been driving, the conscious world had begun to fade when she felt the van stop.  Laurence was soon opening the back of the van, dragging jake out by her feet.  She grimaced as her body hit the pavement.  She didn’t know where she was, and  if she could have consciously feared, she would have.  Laurence leaned over her and yanked the knife out, eliciting a scream of pain from the injured woman who instinctively curled into the fetal position, hand clutching the wound that now had blood flowing freely from it.
“Next time I won’t bring you to a hospital *****.”
Jake’s last memories were of the van pulling off and a couple of medics running outside.


Lara stared blankly at me as I finished the story.  Yeah, I hadn’t really talked about since a few days after when I awoke to four detectives standing in my room with one very scared Siobhan in back of them.  She frowned before pulling me into a hug and kissing me on the forehead.  I loved her for that, the way she could make me feel better with something as benign as a kiss on the forehead.
“Now do you get why I freaked out?” I said quietly.
Lara nodded softly.  It was more than what he did to Siobhan, althoguh that was a very very large part of it. He’d nearly killed me, and I hadn’t seen him since that day.  I wanted to tear him limb from limb when I saw him at the screening.  And for whatever reason Siobhan had gone running back to him, to me it was not a good reason.
“We have to find Siobhan.” Lara spoke again.
I shook my head. I had filed a missing persons report but apparently you can’t do that if the person isn’t taken against their will.  I sighed heavily.  I had been through this before with Siobhan, he’d need to nearly kill her before she came back to me.
“So you’re just going to let her bewith that maniac?” Lara said, I could sense the distatse in her voice.
“No.  But I’ve done this before, when she doesn’t want to be found, she won’t be.”
“Still Jake…we have to try.” Lara said.

And she was right.  We did.