Chapter Eight: ** Getting A Little Closer **

Debelah slowly awoke that morning with a new feeling of contentment. For the first time in days, she felt safe.  Not opening her eyes, she stretched her arms with a purr of content, a small smile on her face which froze when she hit something solid.

 “Hey, watch where you’re swinging that thing,” a voice laughed, startling her.

 Instead of opening her eyes to see who it was, she just turned back to her original position on her side, towards the voice and reached her hand out. Her mind still fogged with sleep, she gently traced down the side of a face and ran her fingers over the goatee at his chin. She slightly smiled as she traced his lips, smoothed her hand down his cheek and then tapped him on the edge of the nose. She slowly opened her eyes to see AJ’s face next to hers, his eyes staring back at her.

 Debelah smiled sleepily at him, scooting even closer to him, resting her head again on his chest. “ ‘ello, watcha doin’?” she said tiredly.

 “Watching you sleep,” AJ said lowly, almost laughing at how cute she was when she was tired.

 Debelah was curled at his side, her head on his chest and one hand one his chest next to her head and the other still resting on his stomach. AJ had one arm wrapped protectively around her back and his other hand was resting on her bare skin underneath her shirt, on the curve on the side of her waist. Debelah noticed this and blushed a little, realizing how close they were to each other.

 “Why?” Debelah raised her head to look at him.

 For AJ, the answer seemed to just flow from his mouth.  One of the reasons he’d been awake most of the night was because he couldn’t stop staring at her. He just watched her sleep, and he was content to just watch her breath steadily as she leaned on him.  And he’d been making sure that nothing happened to the angel by his side, and he’d stared at her beautiful, peaceful face and wondered how any man could ever even think of hurting her, how she could have such a horrible past and still be as naturally optimistic as she was.

 “I enjoy looking at beautiful things,” he said simply and watched as her cheeks reddened. “Why do you keep on blushing?”

 “I’m not used to people complimenting like you keep on doing,” she admitted.

 “Well, get used to it,” he said seriously and then grinned,” But in that case….you’re a short little troll with buck teeth and a weird looking belly button.” (A/N: He’s JOKING…sheesh..)

 “Hey!” she laughed poking him in the side. AJ continued to grin at her and he leaned over her with his hands raised menacingly. Debelah just stared up at him and shook her head. “No, Alexander,” she said sternly. A gleam appeared in his eyes and he began to lower his hands to her sides. Debelah’s eyes widened and she put her hands on his shoulders to try and keep him back,” No, Alex, I’m tickl- AUGH!” she screamed as he began to tickle her sides mercilessly. She laughed uncontrollably, tears coming to her eyes and she began to try to squirm to get away.

 “Alex- you need to—I’m ticklish!!” she squealed, making AJ laugh. She squirmed some more and her legs hit AJ’s hard on accident and toppled them out from underneath him. He landed on Debelah, causing her to gasp in shock. They were still for a second before AJ lifted himself up a little and stared down at her worridly,” I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked, as though by falling on her, he had somehow crushed her.  Debelah just shook her head slowly, her gaze not moving from his. AJ’s eyes softened and he slowly leaned down towards her. Debelah’s breath caught but when he paused to silently ask her for approval, she slightly nodded before he kissed her.

 She could feel the electricity going between them even before their lips actually touched, the kiss making it even more aware of how close he was to her at that moment and her feeling for him that had been growing over the past days seemed to explode. She slid her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss while he ran one hand through her soft hair and kept the other one on her hip, not pressuring her.  But awhile into the heated kissing session, he began to lose himself and Debelah’s eyes snapped open when his hand reached under the hem of her shirt.

 AJ, realizing she’s gone still, immediately realized what he’d done and why she’d reacted like that. Pulling himself up, he sat down on the bed next to her, cross legged, and placed his head in his hands, shaking his head at himself.

 “Deb, I am SO sorry. I didn’t mean to remind you of anything or feel bad about anything. I just…like you and-“

 “It’s not your fault, Alex. It’s alright,” Debelah said softly, sitting up.

 “No, it’s not! I told myself I wouldn’t hurt you and-“

 “And you didn’t,” Debelah interjected, getting his attention. She sighed, running a hand through her hair,” I’m just not ready for that. Yet. And, no, you didn’t hurt me. You haven’t hurt me in any way since I’ve met you. Hell, you’ve been doing everything NOT to hurt me. You helped me last night at the club, you helped me tell my story and you stayed with me all night because I was sca- because I needed someone here.”

 “Because you were scared.” He said this as a statement, wanting to know why she couldn’t say she had been scared of what might happen with Dave around.

 “I don’t want to be scared of Dave. It’s over with him. I’m not the scared little girl anymore who just took it. But as strong as I might have gotten since I left him, there’s still a part of me that‘s afraid that, that I’ll just wake up one day,” Debelah closed her eyes, feeling the tears pricking beneath her eyelids.  “and my life will be back to the hell it used to be with him. I’m scared that he might be able to make me go back to that.”

 “He won’t,” AJ said firmly.

 Debelah opened her eyes and stared into AJ’s, "I’m kinda worried about something else.”

 His brow furrowed,” What?”

 “If he does try something, I know I’m gonna lose it and I’m gonna fight back.”

 “Damn straight,” AJ nodded.

  Debelah grinned at his last comment before continuing, "And if I fight back, then he’ll probably tell the press about everything. So how am I supposed to keep him from telling the press and, at the same time, fight back?”

 AJ leaned towards her, "First thing, you fight back if he tries anything. The guys and I’ll be by you as much as we can but there will be times because of the schedule today that we’ll have to be in different places. And if that bastard tries anything then, you fight. You fight and then get out of there and come to where we are. There’s no way I’m going to let you get hurt.”

 “And if he tells the press?” Debelah’s voice cracked, not only from thought of Dave telling the press before she could, but from what AJ had just said.

 “We’ll deal with that if it happens. But your first thought should be protecting yourself,” AJ said seriously.

 Debelah relaxed a bit, loving the way he said ‘we’ll deal with that’. They were silent for a second and she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt nervously,” Alex, I was wondering if you maybe wanted to-“she was cut off by the sound of the door knocking. She stared at it for a second before remembering Kevin had said he would come and get her this morning.

 “It’ probably Kev,” she said aloud to AJ who just nodded. She stood up, fixing her shirt and shorts before walking towards the door. Her hand on the doorknob, she paused before unlocking it and looked into the peephole. AJ watched as her back stiffened and she turned around to look at him, eyes wide. “What’s the matter?” AJ asked, concerned.

 ”It’s Dave,” she whispered, walking quickly back to him.  

 “WHAT?!” he exclaimed and Debelah hurriedly put her hand over his mouth. Bending down so that she was eye level with him, she said quietly,” Don’t let him hear you. Go in the bathroom and then I’ll answer the door.” When he gave her a questioning look, she explained,” He’ll get very angry if he finds you in here with me.” AJ reluctantly nodded,, understanding and she removed her hand to let him walk into the bathroom. He stopped at the door and turned around and looked at her.

 “I’ll be fine,” Debelah quietly insisted.

 “Debelah, open the damn door!” Dave shouted as he punched on the door again. She shut her eyes for a second and AJ’s eyes hardened but he shut the door to the bathroom, anyway, knowing she would only have more trouble on her hands of Dave found out he was in there. Debelah let out a sigh, and unlocked the door as Dave banged on the door again.

 “I’m coming,” she called out annoyed and opened the door a little, standing halfway behind it, to see an angry Dave.

 “Isn’t it a little early for this?’ she asked, struggling to keep in her anger.

 Ignoring her question, he demanded, "Who’s in there?”

 *Oh, crap* Debelah thought by quickly answered back,” I am.”

 “No shit,” he glared at her. “Who else is in there with you?”

 “No one,” she answered back, exasperated. “I had the TV on. That’s probably what you heard.”

 “Bull, I heard a guy talking.”

 Debelah mouth moved faster than her thoughts,” Yeah, they have this new thing now. They’re letting guys on TV now. Weird, huh?” she said sarcastically, her eyes flashing.

 “Don’t you smart mouth me, Deb,” he said menacingly. “Now, who’s in there?”

 “There’s no one in here but me,” she said slowly.

 “Well, let’s see about that.” He suggested sarcastically. And then, he shoved the door backwards to make his way in to the room, causing the door to shoot backwards and slam into Debelah’s hip. She stumbled back, giving him the opportunity to make his way into the room and shut the door behind him.

 “Ow!” she cried out in pain, clutching her side. "Jesus, Dave, you can’t do that!”

 Dave snorted, starting to look around the room, "Says who?”

 AJ, still in the bathroom, had to bite his fist to keep in his scream of rage when he heard Debelah’s cry of pain. He braced his foot against the wall, trying to stop himself from running out there. Debelah, realizing AJ had heard her, said loudly,” I’m o-kay!” Dave turned to her and gave her a strange look, "So?”

 After Dave had looked around the bed and furniture, she jumped when she saw him move towards the bathroom. She ran in front of him, blocking the door, "No!”

 He cocked his eyebrow at her, "No?” as though shocked to hear her say it to him.

 “You can’t go in there,” she said, wondering how she was going to explain this to him. AJ stood on the other side of the door, wondering that also.

 “Why not?” he asked and then his eyes widened, "That’s where he is, isn’t it?! Move out of my way!” he grabbed her wrist to pull her away but Debalah desperately exclaimed, "You can’t go in there!”

 “And why not?” he mocked her.

 Debelah put on a serious face, "Because I got sick last night and puked and then the toilet overflowed everywhere. And I still haven’t cleaned it up.”

 AJ looked from the door, to the spotless commode, back to the door and had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. Dave’s face turned to one of disgust. “Puke?”

 “Yep,” Debelah nodded and then leaned forward conspiratally,” Everywhere.”

 “Well, then,” he moved back from the door, dropping Debelah’s wrist.  He ran a hand through his hair and seemed to regain himself, as he looked at her once again with steely eyes. “When do we leave here? I wanna hear you start spreading the word.”

 “Spreading…the word?” she asked slowly, confused.

 “Well, yeah. What good is it gonna do me to have a famous girlfriend if not everyone knows?”

 Debelah, forgetting she was supposed to agree with him on everything until the press meeting, rushed up to him and said angrily in his face, " I’m not your fucking girlfriend or your little plaything!” The next thing she knew, she was on her back on the floor, stunned, while Dave stood over her.

 “Don’t you talk back to me Debelah. Or this really will be just like old times,” he said threateningly before turning and leaving the room, leaving the door open a bit. Debelah stared at the door for a second, still stunned by the fact that she was suddenly on the floor, before her eyes narrowed. “Oh no he did NOT!” she exclaimed from her spot on the floor. There was a knock on the door and Debelah yelled out, thinking it was Dave,” What the hell do you want NOW!?”

 Kevin peeked his head in and looked at her in surprise, "Debelah, I’m guessing something’s wrong…”

 AJ burst out of the bathroom door a second later and stopped in his tracks when he saw her on the floor. “Debelah, what are you doing on the- he did it, didn’t he!? I swear I thought I heard something when you screamed at him but I didn’t know. That little shithead! When I get my hands on him, I’ll-"

 “- do nothing,” Debelah finished as Kevin and AJ both helped her up. “Not before I do.”

 “Ok,” Kevin interjected, looking at both of them. “AJ, who are you talking about and why were you in the bathroom and, Debelah, what happened?”

 Debelah ticked off on her fingers,” He’s talking about Dave, I asked Alex to stay with me last night because I didn’t want to be alone, Dave came this morning and we fought. Again.” Debelah unconsciously went to smooth the front of her shirt and then winced when her hand hit her hip. AJ frowned.

 "What’s the matter?” he asked concerned. Slowly, Debelah lifted her shirt a couple inches and pushed the side of the shorts just far enough down for them to see the bright red spot on her hip bone and the light black and blue coloring that was already showing.  AJ’s eyes hardened, "Did Dave do it?”

 “No, the door hit my hip bone really hard…” she trailed off. He gave her a look like ‘yeah, right’ and she looked down, shuffling her feet,” …when he shoved it open.”

 AJ cursed under his breath and Kevin exclaimed, "AJ! If you were here all night, where the hell were you when he did all this!?”

 AJ took a step back in surprise and Debelah spoke up sharply, "I told him not to, Kevin. If Dave had known Alex was in here, he would have done a LOT more than he did. Alex didn’t want to go in there, but I told him to and he knew what could happen if he didn’t. Don’t act like Alex just stepped back and let this happen because he wanted to.” She stopped her tirade, took a deep breath and said,” No offense, Kev, though.”

 Kevin stood there for a second, staring at her and then turned to AJ, regret on his face. "Look, man, I didn’t mean it like that. I was just pissed she got hurt and I shouldn’t have accused you.”

 AJ nodded, "I got you. We’re cool.”

 “Kev, what time are we leaving?” Debelah asked, one hand on her hurt hip as she gently rubbed the soon-to-be bruise.

 “In about half an hour. Where’s Dave?” Kevin said the last part with anger and Debelah shook her head.” He’s in the lobby. But, Kev, please don’t do anything. He just can’t tell the press before I do. Besides, I’m fine. It’s just a bruise. It’ll heal.” She put a hand over her heart,” But he didn’t hurt me here.”

 Kevin just stared down at her for a second before enveloping her in a giant hug which she returned, ignoring the pain in her side. When he had left, AJ turned to her, "I guess I’d better go get my stuff back in my room.”

 Debelah nodded and walked next to him silently to the door. He opened it and then turned to her, opening her mouth to say something. But before he uttered a word, she leaned forward and kissed him hard on the mouth. He returned the kiss full force after a surprised second. When they pulled apart, Debelah just smiled at him, "I’ll see you in the lobby, Alex.” And she slowly shut the door, her eyes locked with AJ’s the whole time. When it was fully shut, she leaned against it and brought a hand to her head. She was falling for him. If only she could get rid of Dave.