Set Fire to the Rain

“Remember, I am only talking about this once. Got it?” I said to everyone, but directed it more at Jack. “Monday night on the way to the venue, I thought someone was following me, but when I looked around, there was no one there. I had that creepy feeling I sometimes get, but when I didn’t see anything, I blew it off and went straight to the venue and didn’t give it a seconds thought. And yes, I already know that was a huge mistake. The rest of the night was amazing, but when we left that night and went out to grab the cabs home, I thought I saw David standing at the end of the street. I shut my eyes and looked back at where this man had been standing, but there was no one there. Shannon helped me by looking around too, but there was no sign of him. Then last night before the lights went down and the show started I wanted to run to the ladies room. Everything was fine until I very literally ran out of the restroom and straight into David. He made threats as usual, grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to an unused area of the venue to ‘have a chat’. He isn’t happy with the company I am keeping lately.” I said looking up at Shannon with a small smile, and gave a small chuckle. He smiled in return to that comment. “When he brought me to wherever it was we were, he became upset at the idea of me having a relationship with you and hit me. I tried to explain that we are friends and it only pissed him off more. He threw me against the wall and hit me again, and well, just repeat that again a couple more times. It was the same argument and David doing the same thing always does.” I said sadly shaking my head looking at my clasped hands as they sat in my lap. I explained to them in more detail the threats that had been made and exactly what David had said to me. The last thing I wanted was to relive this fucking nightmare again later.

“David did something that really scared me though, and if it wasn’t for Evan and Ryan, I don’t know what would have happened. He started talking about taking me away and leaving together, then literally started to drag me off somewhere. When I asked him where we were going, he said we were leaving the venue. I actually managed to break free of his hold for a moment but he was on me before I could get help. Thankfully it was only a moment or two after that when Evan and Ryan showed up and scared him off.” I looked over towards Evan and MJ and directed the next part to him. I wanted him to know what his stepping up meant to me, and the people around me. Looking at the tall man that had been sitting quietly in the corner of the room observing through the entire thing, but now had MJ in his lap with his arms wrapped tightly around her, I said “ I really don’t know where I would be if it hadn’t been for you, you know. When I think of what might have happened if you hadn’t shown up at that exact moment. It might have ended so badly. I will never be able to thank you both enough.”

“I am just really fucking happy we showed up when we did. And I don’t want to think about the possibilities of what might have been.”

“I’m with you on that. I also believe that we all are indebted to you both, man. You probably saved my mom’s life.” JT said.

“Um, yeah, so that’s all I can think of. I wasn’t getting it on with another guy anywhere in the venue at any time, and I was rescued by two amazing and truly talented men. Honestly, right now, all I am is just fucking exhausted and really damned soar. All I really want to do is to go lay down. But first I should take a ride to the hospital and have a scan done of my head to make sure I don’t have a concussion.”

Shannon sat closer to me and said,” I am taking Eliza to the hospital for the tests.” There wasn’t even an option in the matter. I looked over at Jack, and he had a sour expression on his face being that he was usually in charge of this stuff. Then glancing at Jared, he was sitting back on the couch with a smile on his face and he winked at me and nodded while he now had Kym’s head on his shoulder, and he was rubbing her arm gently. She had finally calmed down from before.

Then taking both of my hands in Shannon’s larger ones, he looked at me in the eye and asked if I would be alright with him taking me to the have the tests done, and I told him that would be perfect under the circumstances. When you consider I am not speaking to my brother right now. “Ok, why don’t you go get everything you will need, and then we can take off, ok? Is it ok if we take your car?” He asked me.

“Yeah, that’s perfectly fine.”

“Jared, if you want to head back to the city with everyone while I take El to the hospital, that’s ok. Don’t feel like you have to stay or anything.” I stood up and had started to walk away from the Leto brothers as they discussed the plans on getting everyone back to the city. With Evan needing to be back at MJ’s dorm as soon as possible because he had a flight that left at around 1am, so he needed to pack. I walked in the direction of my room when I felt a pair of strong hands on my lower arm, stopping me in my tracks. I didn’t turn to face him. I simply stood right where I was.

“So what, you aren’t going to talk to me anymore? Come on Eliza! They had a right to know everything, it was time, and they are old enough to handle hearing what happened to you over the years.” He waited and tapped his feet with his arms now crossed over his chest. “Fucking hell! Seriously, the silent treatment! Please Eliza, I was only looking out for what was in your best interest. You fucking lied to us to our faces last night! Come on!”

I was becoming seriously angry again at him, and was trying very hard to control my temper because of the headache I had and I was just honestly too fucking tired to fight “You swore you would never tell a living soul the things that I told you. Yet here you are, telling all the people in that room every little detail I ever trusted you with! You broke a promise to me Jack. Something you swore you would never ever do. How can I ever trust you again? How will I ever have the courage to be able to come to you and tell you about the deepest darkest, scariest moments in life, that I have only ever been able to tell you? Thank god I didn’t tell you all of it. Because if I had, it would be splattered all over my living room floor right now and my kids would be so mind fucked right now, I would never be able to forgive you. I need you to leave my home now Jack. I have a lot of thinking to do.” And I started to cry again, and jogged to my room, leaving him standing there in shock and horror.

I sat on my bed and just cried. I pulled Freddy into my lap and held him tightly as the tears flowed slowly. Sitting in my room alone for what seemed like an eternity I was thinking things over in my mind and was actually feeling relief for having the truth out in the open. It was like having a weight being lifted off my shoulders and it was a great feeling.

There was a light knock on my bedroom door and I looked up, calling out for whoever it was to come in. The door opened slowly and Evan and MJ stepped inside together, Evan walked over to the chair that was pushed into my vanity pulling it out and sitting on it facing backwards towards myself and MJ who was now seated on my bed with me.

“Hey you two what’s going on?”

“Well, Shannon wanted to make sure you were alright, and then we wanted to talk to you for a second.”

“That sounds unnerving. What’s up?”

“I have to head back to LA. Tonight...” Evan said with a huge frown.

“I don’t want him to go, and because of school, I can’t go with him.” MJ said in near tears looking over at Evan lips quivering.

“It wouldn’t ordinarily be a problem, but with the chaos your ex is causing, I am fucking terrified to leave her on her own. I mean yeah, I realize that she lives in a dorm with Julie, and I will only be gone about a week, but she’s still going to be out on her own going to classes and she does have a life. I’m really fucking worried. I wouldn’t go ordinarily, but this was totally unavoidable. Kind of an emergency. Then I am coming right back.” Evan said looking up from the floor in front of him directly at Mags with the slightest hint of a smile.

“You really care about my daughter don’t you?” I asked.

“You have no idea ma’am. No idea at all.”

“Good. So what are we going to do about this issue we have?” I asked.

“You trust the Leto’s right?” Evan asked.

“Uh, yeah, I do, why?”

“I was going to talk with Jared to see how long he is going to be in town for. If it works out he will be around, I was going to ask him if he would be cool with watching out for Mags while I’m away, that is if you thought it was a good idea and if it was ok with Mags.” He gave MJ a worried look and waited for her to start yelling at him, but had no response at all.

“I think that is as much of an approval as you are going to get Evan, so take it.”

“Eliza, I think you are right. So what do you think Jared will say?”

“Jared is a really nice guy, and I can’t imagine he would say no. Besides, he would love to play the possible hero!”

“I do not need a fucking hero! I already have my knight in shining armor and he is sitting right there!” MJ said pointing to Evan as he started to blush and hide his face behind his hair and hands.

“I just want someone here to watch out for you while I’m gone. Only until I get back, please baby. I really hate the idea of you out there with your dad running around all psycho like.”

“Alright, alright, talk to Jared. Make sure he knows that there won’t be any sleepovers at my place ok.”

“Absolutely fucking not! He is only checking in on you, not sleeping over with you! Maybe this is a bad idea!” Evan was shaking his head in defeat. MJ just laughed. She thought the whole thing was adorable.

“I will make sure that Jared behaves himself. You go to LA and take care of what you need to, and get your ass back here to my daughter as fast as you can. Do you think maybe you can get back for Jakes 18th birthday? It’s on Saturday next week. Jake had mentioned to me that he would like to go to a local Karaoke bar that night to sing songs and shit to celebrate. I thought it would be a great time, and haven’t had time to tell everyone yet, but since you are leaving, I want to make sure you know about it. It should be fun, so try hard to get back here by then.”

The realization that another whole week will be passing us by so quickly hit me like a ton of bricks. That meant that Shannon and the guys would be going home to LA in a little over a week. This would all end in a week. Where had the time gone, was there any way to slow down time? I know there isn’t, but for the first time in my life, I was asking myself questions that I never imagined. But isn’t that what I wanted all along? For him to go home, and have no strings attached. No relationship. My head is telling me one thing and my heart feeling something completely different while making an already difficult situation, impossible. Now with David making himself an issue you would think it would make things cut and dry, more black and white, but that’s not what’s happening. The thing is I know what I need do. I have to start taking a huge step away from Shannon, because if I don’t do that now, I am going to be the one who ends up with a broken heart at the end of this, whatever it is. I can feel it breaking every time they mention the word home, and that isn’t fair to them, especially when there is no us. Besides, who wants to deal with a psychotic ex-husband crawling out of the woodwork and making everyone’s lives a fucking nightmare? Umm, no body! So that’s it, I am going to back away, slowly and put distance between us, no more hand holding, no more kissing, or holding onto one another. My genius plan is this; there will be nothing physical and the least amount of contact possible, no phone calls or text messages, for my own sanity sake and to keep myself from drowning when he walks away. That’s the plan, but how am I actually going to put it into action, is another question, because I just don’t know if I am capable of doing that honestly. Shannon could probably talk me into anything if he tried, and that’s what I am afraid of.

I was pulled from my thoughts by Evan. Though I was sorry to hear he had to leave for a while, I knew he was going to hurry back to be with MJ. I do believe the man was falling for my daughter. “I think if you talk with Jared on the way back to the city he would be more than happy to help out. Let me know if there is a problem, ok? I will kick his ass and set him straight for you.” I said with a wink and a smile.

“Thanks Ms. C, I will do my best, I promise. Now I do believe that there is a certain drummer out there waiting to take you to the hospital to be checked over. And Jared is taking us back into the city. We should go, I have to pack baby.” Evan said as he stood up walking to MJ and kissing her forehead. Oh my god, they were so adorable.

We walked into the living room and everyone was ready to head home to the city that was leaving. I said my goodbyes to everyone, and they were on their way. Shannon and I gathered up my things that I would need to take to the hospital, plus my keys and jacket, saying goodbye to JT and made our way downstairs and outside to my Volvo Hardtop Convertible. I gave my keys to Shannon with a smile letting him slide into the driver’s seat, and I walked around to the passenger side and got in putting the seatbelt on. I told him the general directions how to get to the hospital, while also putting the directions into the onboard gps system as a backup, and we began to make our way there. There wasn’t much being said, but it was a comfortable silence, and that was ok, neither of us seemed to mind it. He reached over the center console to take one of my hands in his, but I pulled both of my hands away and towards myself in a protective manner. Shannon took his hand back slowly and placed it on the center console leaving it there. Glancing over at him, his eyes held a hurt expression in them. I did that, and I felt horrible for it only wanting to reach over and take his hand in mine and say I was sorry, but I knew that in the end this was where we would end up anyway. I was just saving us the trouble of the crap in between. It would hurt too fucking much to see him walk away in the airport, the day he leaves and I couldn’t bear that pain… The silence of the drive was only occasionally broken up by the voice from the dashboard telling Shannon where to turn leading us to our destination. Finally arriving at the local hospital we pulled up to the doors of the ER, I looked slowly over at Shannon, and told him I would meet him inside. He simply nodded, not looking me in the eye, only looking straight ahead out the front window of the car. Deciding it was best, and there was nothing to be said, I slid out of my car shutting the door behind me, and walked towards the ER doors hearing the revving of the car’s engine behind me, as Shannon left to go park the car. Making my way into the familiar building, I went to the registration desk and signed in, giving the woman who sat behind it the necessary information. Of course there was the usual look of pity in her eyes as she looked me over and the assumption that went with it, like it did with everyone who saw me without anything covering the bruises that littered my face.

By the time I signed in and got the appropriate papers to fill in, I was sitting in the waiting area at the far corner of the room in a plastic chair that was very uncomfortable waiting for my name to be called; Shannon was walking into the waiting area with a very expression on his face. Sitting down next to me, I concentrated on filling out the papers that were on the brown semi-transparent clip board. I couldn’t look at him at all. When I was about 10 minutes through the questionnaire, I felt my cell phone vibrate. I pulled it out from my pocket and saw it was Shannon’s number and a picture that I had taken from the first show I had been too when he was ‘in the zone’ playing. What the fuck. Really? A text? He was sitting right next to me.

S—Is everything ok?

I turned and slowly looked at him and was about to say something, when he shook his head no, and lightly shook his cell phone in his hand. He wanted to talk through text. So that’s what we will do.

S—What’s going on El?

E—I’m filling out paperwork @ a hospital because everyone insisted I come here. All because I have a dickhead of an ex who will never leave me alone or stay out of my life. 

S—That’s not what I mean and I think you know it. You have been acting strange ever since we left your place. Why? You wouldn’t let me hold your hand in the car. Why? 

What do I say to this one, this is going to hurt, and bad.

E—I think

“Ms. Eliza Cahrter!” A woman in Winnie the Pooh scrubs had called from a doorway that was across the hallway. Talk about saved by the fucking bell.

“Yes ma’am, that’s me.” I said standing up, as I put my phone back in my pocket and looked at Shannon.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me. Unbelievable timing...” He grumbled rubbing his hand over his face as he leaned his head back against the wall behind him.

“Are you coming with me or not?” I said looking over my shoulder at him.

“Fuck yes, I am.” Slowly standing up, he reached his hand out and grabbed me by the waist, first turning me around to face him, in one fluid motion he wrapped both his arms around me and pulled me close so that there was no space between us and he looked deep into my eyes for a long moment, licking his lower lip. Bending forward he placed his mouth right against the shell of my left ear and whispered in his gravelly voice, “We aren’t done talking Sweetheart. This isn’t over, so whatever it is you think you are doing, think again. I still have a week here with you and I plan on making the most of it with you doll.”

Then he nipped the outer edge of my earlobe, making me shiver. When he pulled away, he had a devilish smirk plastered all over his face. No, this was not good. I had to stick with my plan, I could not allow him to do this, be all charming and amazing and just…. Well, him.

“Excuse me, is there a problem here?” the nurse asked us.

“Not anymore there isn’t.” Shannon answered with a shit eating grin.

I was still slightly in shock and couldn’t speak. I just looked at him moving my mouth and said nothing. I turned away from him and started towards the nurse who had called me. Shannon chuckled from behind me, following along. This was exactly what I was afraid of. Him getting the opportunity to do little things like this, and I had allowed it. Correction, I had wanted it, craved it. I could say it was a one for the road kind of thing, but that was a bold faced lie and I knew it. Seriously, I have got to be stronger when it comes to my willpower with this man. Right now, if this was a baseball game and I was keeping score it would be Shannon and his sexiness- 1 million and the wall around my heart- 0.