Don't Fight Me

Amelia sat back in the prep room assigned to Tommy Riordan, biting her lip as she anxiously stared up at the wide screen television mounted on one wall. He had forbidden her to watch him out in the arena, but he could do nothing about the video feed playing live back to her. As it was, before he had stalked outside to the ring, he had glared up at the TV, back muscles tensed.
“Ignore it” he had said to her. “Don’t watch it.”
And she had nodded at him, though she had no intention of doing what he wanted in this circumstance.
Now she was sitting and watching the screen, riveted as she saw Tommy getting beaten by his older brother. She had been told by Tommy that Brendan was going to be fighting him, but she’d thought the younger brother had every chance at winning, but now it looked different. Brendan had Tommy on the floor, pinned in a flailing mass of limbs and landed hits.
Amelia looked confusedly at the screen, waiting for something else to happen. Then it did. She saw a quick wrenching movement and Tommy shouted out in pain. Brendan let him go and he backed away to the side of the pen, his left shoulder and arm at a wrong angle. She sucked in a breath and jumped to her feet, panic rising like a tide up her throat.
“Tommy” she whispered to herself in the quiet of the room.
He’d told her to stay where she was, no matter what happened. But, so far, he’d knocked out each opponent and returned to her within mere minutes. Now, though, he wasn’t coming back in less than ten minutes. She made up her mind in a flash, running for the door leading out into the corridor. Amelia sprinted along it, and slammed into a solid wall of muscled flesh. Scowling and panicky, she stopped and looked up at the security guard staring down at her.
“Where do you think you’re goin’?” he snorted at her, his arms crossed over his chest.
Amelia craned past his shoulder to where she could see Tommy sitting down, head back against the cage.
“To check on Tommy Riordan!” she said frantically, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.
She was itching to kick this guy in the shins with her boots, but she didn’t think she’d get very far if she tried. The man in front of her slowly shook his head.
“No, you don’t” he said. “I don’t know who you are.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes impatiently in response.
“My name is Amelia Grey. I’m his...friend” she faltered.
He raised his eyebrows at her words.
“His...friend?” he repeated, mocking her.
She narrowed her eyes, sick of this obstacle. She was about to say to heck with it all when a dark haired, handsome man walked up to them. She vaguely recognised him as someone from Brendan’s team.
“Did you say you’re here for Tommy?” he asked her, glancing up at the security guard.
She nodded.
“Uh huh, I am.”
The man stuck out his hand, grasping hers. Instinctively, she went to pull away but he wouldn’t let her.
“I’m Frank Campana” he told her. “Tommy’s brother’s trainer. I know we’re technically opposition, but I can take you to the boy if you want.”
Amelia wanted to fling her arms round his neck in relief.
“Thank you!” she said breathlessly, letting him drag her to the cage.
Frank led her to a space right beside where Tommy was sitting, eyes closed and breathing heavily. Amelia attached herself to the cage, linking her fingers through the gaps in the metal. She couldn’t quite touch him.
“Tommy...” she said quietly, ignoring the metal digging into her skin.
His eyes snapped open and he swivelled his head to meet her eyes close up.
“What did I tell you?” he growled through tightly gritted teeth.
Amelia sank her teeth into her bottom lip again and ducked her head, still hanging onto the cage.
“To stay where you put me” she mumbled.
“Exactly” Tommy managed to get out. “So what you doin’ out here when I told you to stay in there?”
“I saw your shoulder come out” Amelia told him.
Tommy closed his eyes again, rolling his head slightly away from her.
“That’s not a good excuse” he muttered.
“It’s not an excuse! It’s a reason!” Amelia snapped back at him.
He opened one eye and looked at her again.
“All right, firecracker, I got precisely thirty seconds before I go back in, so is there anythin’ you wanna say to me before I do?” he asked slowly.
Amelia nodded.
“Yeah, I do” she said softly.
He gazed at her, waiting.
“Don’t do it. Don’t get up and fight again. He’s going to kill you.”
Tommy snorted and pushed himself to his feet, heading away from her.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me” he muttered to himself as he walked back to the centre of the cage, feeling her eyes on his every move.
His older brother Brendan saw him moving again and shifted back to match his position.
“Don’t do it, Tommy” he urged him, but his little brother wouldn’t listen.
Amelia’s hands covered her mouth as Tommy started another beating that he surely would not win this time around.
“He’s gonna kill him” she said, sounding hurt. “And he doesn’t give a damn about it.”
Frank put a hand on her shoulder.
“Brendan won’t kill him, kid” he said quietly. “I promise you that.”
“He might kill this, though” Amelia answered, tapping a closed fist against her heart.
Frank pursed his lips, not saying anything else. Amelia turned back away from him, staring through the cage at Tommy as he tried to dance around his older brother, trying to avoid getting hit; but he couldn’t avoid it, and Brendan got him onto the ground again, waling on him and trapping him there in place.
“Damn it, Tommy Conlon!” Amelia yelled, stamping her foot on the ground. “Stop it! Would you tap out already?”
And then she saw it, the tiny movement that made her sigh with relief and sag against the metal cage; Tommy had tapped out quietly, answering her request with an affirmative for the first time ever in her memory.
“Thank you” she whispered, mostly to herself in that moment.
She felt Frank take her hand again, tugging her gently over to the entrance to the cage where the two Conlon men were now standing, ready to walk out now that the fight was all over. Tommy was in so much pain he was about to faint on his feet, but he lifted his head just enough to see Amelia hesitating in front of him, wringing her hands nervously.
“Hey” he muttered, barely audible.
“Hey” she replied, stopping her fidgeting. “Thank you.”
Tommy lowered his head onto his brother’s shoulder again and nodded very slowly, closing his eyes once more. Brendan nodded to Amelia even though he didn’t know who she was; she must be someone important if his brother had surrendered in a fight for her.
“Hospital?” Amelia queried hopefully.
Tommy groaned his disapproval, but Brendan nodded, ignoring him.
“Hospital” he repeated, gently hitching Tommy up higher against his shoulder.
“Good” Amelia muttered. “I’m coming, too.”
“No...” Tommy mumbled.
“Yes” she retorted, snapping at him. “I am coming, too!”
She looked up at him and saw his eyes rolling wildly behind his closed lids.
“Do as she says, Tommy” a new voice said, and Amelia glanced up to see Paddy Conlon standing there. “She loves you.”
Tommy snorted, swaying where he stood.
“She doesn’t love me” he replied, and Amelia stared at him.
Paddy glanced at her and then back at his youngest son.
“She’s here, isn’t she?”

The hospital felt cold to her as she sat and waited for Tommy to wake up, to open his eyes. She leaned forward finally, scuffing her chair closer to the bed and resting her head on the white coverlet, shutting her eyes, just for a short moment...

The next thing she knew, there was a hand in her hair, on the back of her neck, fingers locked in the strands. She slowly lifted her head to meet his blue eyes, they were bluer than blue.
“Hello” he said quietly.
“Hi” she replied, not looking away.
“You’re still here.”
She shrugged.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“But what about your dreams?”
Shrugged again.
“What dreams?”
“Going to New York and singing for the rest of your life. You told me that’s what you’ve always wanted to do” Tommy reminded her.
She didn’t need the reminding.
“I didn’t know that you were listening to me” she murmured, glancing at the bedspread.
Tommy sighed.
“I was” he told her. “I do listen to you. Everything you say.”
Amelia smiled in spite of her feelings.
“Okay.”
“You want to know what else I listened to?”
“Not really” Amelia mumbled.
“Too bad” Tommy said tersely.
He patted the bed next to him, wincing at the dull ache in his shoulder that had been popped back in place a few hours earlier. Unwillingly, Amelia pulled herself onto the bed, drawing her legs up like a croissant and folding her arms tightly over her chest.
“What” she said bluntly, secretly terrified in her heart of darkest hearts.
“First, look at me.”
She did as he bid, staring him straight in the eyes.
“Yes?”
“I listened to all the times you breathed lying next to me, telling me you loved me without the words. And then I listened to my dad telling me the same thing, that you love me” Tommy said lowly. “I remember never telling you the same thing.”
Amelia lowered her head and shook it from side to side.
“That’s because you don’t have to say it” she told him quietly. “You don’t mean it, so you don’t have to say it. So don’t worry about it.”
She slid carefully off the bed, planning on leaving and wandering away for good, even though it would mean tearing her heart free of her chest and leaving it behind. But she didn’t move far. A strong pair of hands grabbed her waist, stopping her in her tracks. She closed her eyes tight, freezing to the spot where she was standing.
“Don’t do it, Tommy” she said softly. “Please don’t. If you can’t love me, then just let me go.”
“Who said I can’t? I used to say I won’t, but never I can’t. Are you listening to me now, Amelia?”
His voice in her ear sent chills up and down her spine, propelling her backwards slightly against his chest.
“Yes, I’m listening.”
“Good.”
Amelia waited, listening to him breathe, and then she heard the words she’d been longing to hear for months.
“I love you, Amelia.”
Her breath eased out slowly and her shoulders released their tension, softening her all over. She turned around and faced him, inches shorter still. She looked in his eyes and managed a shivery smile.
“And I love you. And as for those dreams, Tommy?”
“Hmm?”
“They paled in comparison to the future I saw when I laid eyes on you. You could get beaten up every single night of the year and I will still be waiting for you at whatever home we have, ready to patch you up and take care of you. Singing can wait” Amelia told him.
He raised a single eyebrow.
“Can it wait forever to be with me?” he asked.
She nodded.
“It can wait forever.”
There was a scuffling sound in the doorway and Amelia turned halfway to see Paddy standing there, eyes trained on them. She smiled awkwardly, caught in the middle of pouring her whole heart out into his son’s bruised hands.
“Kiss her already, boy” Paddy grunted. “Get it over with, why don’t you.”
She blushed, turning back to Tommy, shaking her head slightly. She couldn’t have been more surprised when the man in front of her gently took her face between his roughened hands and kissed her, his mouth hard on hers for a few short, searing seconds.
“That’s more like it” Paddy muttered.
Amelia broke away, laughing. Then she flung her arms around Tommy’s waist, burying her face against his broad chest, careful to avoid his shoulder.
He loved her. Yes, everything else could wait forever.