Beside You

Dan stepped in front of me, glaring at Todd. I held onto his arm so he wouldn’t do something he’d regret, even though I knew he wanted to. If looks could kill, Dan would’ve slaughtered Todd ten times over.

“You got some nerve showing up here, you know.” Dan spat at him.

Todd laughed. “Is that so? I’m not planning on hurting you. I just want to talk to Gretchen.”

I shivered at his voice. I clutched onto Dan’s arm. Dan’s eyes narrowed as he reached his hand back to grab hold of mine.

“I think you’ve said enough. Your presence is no longer needed here.”

Todd took one step closer to Dan and I. He looked over Dan’s shoulder and looked at me.

“You really want me to leave?”

I couldn’t say anything. My eyes were locked on Todd’s and I found my voice caught in my throat. I had no words. Todd chuckled darkly and switched his gaze to Dan.

“I don’t think she minds me being here.”

Dan let go of my hand and stepped towards Todd.

“I’m sorry. Did I say that Gretchen didn’t want you here? I take that back. I don’t want you here.”

Todd kept a small smirk on his face. “Well, like I said before, I’m not here to see you. Just let me talk to your girlfriend for a couple minutes, then I’ll be on my way.”

Dan stood his ground. “Anything you got to say to her, you can say in front of me.”

Todd took a few steps backward, keeping the smirk on his face. He pointed over to me, but kept his focus on Dan. “So, the slut needs a bodyguard, now?” He chuckled. “That’s precious. Now tell me, do you make her do the dishes and scrub your back, too?”

I could feel Dan’s arm tense up. Todd noticed and his smirk grew a little bigger. “What you gonna do, pretty boy? Hit me? I don’t think that the little princess will let you do that.”

Dan let out a long sigh, knowing that I didn’t want him to hit Todd. I just wanted him to go away. Dan glanced back at me and our eyes locked for a few seconds. I was hoping he could see in my eyes that I just wanted to get rid of him. I couldn’t read what Dan’s eyes were saying. I saw the anger, but behind it was a look I had never seen before. He turned back to face Todd.

“Look, I’m going to give you a chance to walk away. I don’t want to fight, because quite frankly, you’re not worth going to jail over. So if you walk away in the next 30 seconds, I won’t call the cops.”

Todd shrugged his shoulders and slowly began to walk towards Dan and I again. Dan moved us to the side, so Todd could walk by. Just as he past Dan, Todd mumbled something that did not fall on deaf ears.

“The bitch ain’t worth it anyways.”

The next thing I knew, Dan had let me go. He grabbed on to Todd’s shoulder and spun him around. Dan brought his left fist back and punched him square in the jaw, causing Todd to fall to the floor. Todd didn’t expect it, but he should’ve. Dan wasn’t going to let that comment slide. Dan looked over at me and nodded. I took that as the signal to call the cops.

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After Todd had been taken by the cops and all the questioning was handled, Dan and I were finally able to go into the apartment. I went straight into my bedroom. I felt like I just wanted to cry. I sat on my bed and put my head in my hands as tears began to flow lightly down my face. I didn’t notice that I didn’t shut my door behind me, so I was startled by Dan’s voice.

“Are you okay?”

I turned my head to look at him, and his face fell when he noticed the tears.

“Oh, Gretch.” He came over and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. He whispered in my ear. “It’s okay, hun. He’s gone now. He won’t hurt you anymore.”

I continued to sob, putting my face into his shoulder. I looked up at him with tears still flowing down my face. “I’m sorry you got involved in this, Danny.”

He pulled away and looked into my eyes. “ Gretch, I’m always here for you. You do not have to apologize for anything.”

I shook my head then looked away from him. “Yes, I do. I’m not worth all of this. You shouldn’t have to be hitting people for me. Maybe I should just go back home.”

Dan put a hand under my chin and made me look at him. “Listen to me. There is no way in hell I am letting you go back there. It took me years to get to where we are right now. I don’t care about Todd. He’s gone now and he’s not going to hurt you anymore. You don’t have to be afraid to walk out the door anymore. Oh, and don’t even try to tell me you’re not worth it. You are worth it, Gretch, and so much more.”

The tears continued to flow as Dan grabbed my hand and pulled me up to stand. I gave him a little bit of a confused look through my tears. He pulled back the covers of my bed and helped me change into some comfy pajamas. I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked at Dan. I mean, really looked at him. He gave me a small smile.

“I’ll be right outside, but I know you need a good night’s rest.”

I smiled a small smile. I was so thankful to have Dan in my life. He understood me at moments when I didn’t even understand myself. He turned to walk out of my room when I stuck my hand out to grab his arm. He turned around to look at me. I gave him a smile and whispered.

“Stay.”

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Dan’s POV

I woke up the next morning with my arm wrapped around Gretch. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I wasn’t in my room. The Winnie the Pooh alarm gave that away right quick. I tried to move without waking Gretch up, but it was no use. I moved an inch, she nuzzled closer to me, if that was even possible. I gently shook her shoulder. I had a morning skate to get to.

“Gretch. Gretch, you gotta move. I gotta go.”

I felt her body tense up for a few seconds before relaxing. Her eyes slowly opened and she looked at me with a confused face.

“Oh…umm…sorry, Dan.”

She moved out of the way, and I got out of the bed. She followed me out of her room. We walked into the kitchen. I didn’t have much time, but I had time enough to have a small bite for breakfast. I quickly made some toast with jam and sat at the small dining table. Gretch was staring at me and I couldn’t handle it anymore.

“Gretch, what is it? You’ve been staring at me for the last 5 minutes.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to say thank you. For last night. You didn’t have to listen to me babble, and you didn’t have to get yourself in between Todd and I.”

I got up from my chair and walked over to her. I put a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “Gretch, I told you last night and I’ll tell you again. I will do anything to keep you safe. If that means I gotta punch out some douchebags, then so be it.”

She let out a little smile and gave me a hug. When she pulled away, she grabbed the piece of toast from my hand and took a bite. I feigned shock as I watched her chew my breakfast. She gave me a cheeky smile and walked out of the kitchen.

I chuckled to myself and shook my head. I was really hungry, but if stealing my breakfast put a smile on her face, then c’est la vie. I walked into my room and began to get ready to leave for the arena.

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Gretchen’s POV

Later that day..

I was waiting for Dan to come home from the morning skate. I wanted to get everything out in the open. I knew that we both had questions on our minds and we didn’t know how to deal with them. I was sitting on the couch with Chief watching Repo Games when Dan walked through the door. I looked over at him with a small smile on my face. I didn’t know how to start the conversation and judging by the look he gave me, I knew he could tell something was wrong. He walked up to me and sat on the coffee table. He grabbed ahold of my hands and held them in his.

“Hey, what’s wrong? And don’t tell me nothing, because I can tell in your face that something is bothering you.”

I sighed. “I think we need to talk.”

He let go of one of my hands and ran it through his hair. “Okay, what do we need to talk about?”

“We need to talk about us.”

He let go of my other hand and stood up. “We don’t have to talk about this right now. Why do we have to talk about this right now?”

I scoffed and ran one hand through my hair. “Well because I don’t want to get into…..whatever this is without bringing everything out in the open.”

He stopped pacing to look at me with a raised eyebrow. “Okay, why don’t you start. What do you need to bring out in the open?”

I could tell that he was getting a bit angry. This was not how I wanted this to go. I wanted us to sit down and talk like civilized adults. I sighed.

“Dan, please sit down. I just wanted to talk like civilized adults. I don’t want this conversation to turn into an argument.”

He sighed and sat down beside me. He patted his lap so Chief would crawl over into his lap. He looked over at me with a sympathetic smile.

“Look, I’m sorry that I snapped at you. I didn’t mean to, I just figured you were going to tell me that you didn’t want to be with me and you’d rather be with Claude.”

I swallowed hard at the mention of Claude’s name. Dan looked over at me and noticed that I was hesitant to answer him and got up off the couch and stormed out of the living room. I sighed and got off the couch myself. I left the living room in search of Dan. I looked in the kitchen and he wasn’t in there. Walking down the hallway, I noticed that there was music coming from his bedroom. His door was open a smidge so I just let myself in. He turned to me and the look on his face made my heart ache. He looked so hurt and defeated. I tried to walk up to him, but every step I took, he took another step away from me. I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. I stood still and looked over at Dan, who was looking aimlessly through his CDs.

“You gonna talk to me?” He didn’t say anything, so I sighed and took a step closer to him. Surprisingly, he didn’t move and let me step even closer. I put a hand on his shoulder. “Dan, you’re taking this the wrong way.”

He turned his head to look at me. “Really? I’m taking it the wrong way?” He began to raise his voice. “Was I taking it the wrong way when I admitted that I loved you and I told you everything Claude said to me in the hospital?! Was I taking it the wrong way when you hesitated after I suggested you wanted to be with him and not me?!”

“YES! You were, Dan!” I could feel tears well up in my eyes. “You did take it the wrong way. I hesitated not because I want to be with him and not you, but because I was remembering everything he said to you in the hospital. I remember that it’s because I went on a date with him that you ended up in the hospital.” I put my hands on his shoulders and leaned him and placed a loving kiss on his lips. “It’s because of him I realized how much I’m in love with you.”

I pulled away to see his eyes widen and his mouth drop. I let out a light chuckle. “Next time, don’t second guess me, Carbomb.”

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Dan’s POV

I wasn’t expecting Gretch to kiss me like that. Hell, I wasn’t expecting her to kiss me at all. I had it in my mind that she was going to tell me that she wanted to forget about the kiss we shared and go running off to Philly and be with Claude.

That wasn’t the case. It was nothing that I should be afraid of. That didn’t seem like it was everything that Gretch wanted to talk about, though. I cleared my throat and gave her a small smile. I wrapped my arms around her waist before speaking softly.

“Is that everything you wanted to get out in the open?”