Served

I wasn’t really able to sleep much last night so it was a relief when Guy called me at the crack of dawn to let me know that he and the rest of the guys were waiting for Sean to have his bail set. Zoey helped me pack up my stuff while I was on the phone.

“Zoey and I are on our way down there, Guy.”

“Faith, Sean doesn’t want you to come down here.”

“What!? Why?”

“He doesn’t want you to see him like this. Once we get him released I’ll take him back to his apartment but he practically begged me to convince you not to come down here.”

“Okay,” I said a little hurt, but I understood Sean’s reasons for it, “I’ll have Zoey take me to his apartment, then.”

Zoey and I finished packing all of my stuff and then headed out to Sean’s.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay until Sean gets home?” She asked me once we’d gotten everything settled back into Sean’s place and Murphy was dozing in a window.

“No, I’ll be fine. It’s okay; you have to go to work at some point Zoey.”

She nodded and gave me a hug before she left. I had called Veronica earlier to tell her I wasn’t going to be at work for the next couple of days citing my concussion as the problem and, to be honest, the doctor said I shouldn’t go to work anyway, so I, thankfully, have some time to kind of figure things out and let everything die down a bit before Steve, Suzy, and Dina bombard me with questions about how I got the concussion.

I was in Sean’s apartment for about an hour, unpacking my clothes, putting away Murphy’s toys, etc. when he finally walked in the door.

“Faith!?” He called when he walked in.

I came out of his bedroom and gasped when I saw him. He had a black eye and swollen lip that looked horrendous.

“Oh my God!” I said moving toward him.

“It looks worse than it feels.” He said once I had closed the gap.

We stood in Sean’s foyer awkwardly, unsure of how to greet each other. I don’t think either of us really knew what to expect in regards to the other’s feelings so we just stood there for a few seconds before I gave in and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around me and inhaled deeply. When we pulled apart Sean met my eyes.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten into that fight. I never meant to put you through all of this, -I”

“What? If anything I should be apologizing to you. If I hadn’t come to see you this never would have happened.” I said.

“It’s not your fault, Faith. It’s his, he should never have put his hands on you like that, he could’ve raped you! It’s not your fault, do you understand me?”

Sean held my shoulders and refused to drop his gaze until I slowly nodded in agreement. We hugged again and then went to sit on Sean’s couch.

“Why did you come to the bar last night?” He asked once we were snuggled up.

“I went to my apartment to pick up a few things last night after hanging out with Molly. I got something in the mail that freaked me out and I wanted to tell you about it immediately.”

“What happened?”

“I got an invitation to Kevin’s wedding.” I got up and pulled it out of my duffel bag in Sean’s bedroom so he could look at it. I handed it to him when I sat back down.

He looked at it for a couple of seconds before lightly tossing it on his coffee table.

“Did you tell anyone about it?”

“I told the officer last night, they said they would pass along the information to the detective working on my break-in case, but I haven’t heard anything since then.” I said.

“I thought you said the person in your apartment was too short to be Kevin.”

“I’m almost positive that they were but he seemed like he could have been the mystery person last night. I mean showing up at the bar you were playing at the same night I got that invitation seems a little too-”

“Wait. What?”

I saw Sean stiffen quickly.

“What did I say?” I asked, confused.

“The guy in the hallway was Kevin!?”

“I thought you knew that, I thought that’s why you were so upset.”

“No! I was upset because some dude almost had his hand down your pants and was pressed against your face! If I’d known it was the bastard you dated before me I would never have stopped hitting him!”

Sean was visibly upset and I wasn’t sure what to say to make him feel better.

“It’s okay, Sean, I’m going to press charges against him. This is never going to happen again.” I said rubbing his arm.

“He’s the person who was in your apartment. The fact that he just happened to be at the bar I was playing at the same day you got his invitation, and so soon after the break-in. It’s him Faith, it has to be! He’s probably been keeping tabs on you since you broke up with him. What a sick son of a bitch.”

“I still think the person was too short to be him, but this seems like it’s impossible to just be a coincidence.” I said, “You know, I thought it might be his fiancée but I have absolutely no evidence to back that up. She found out about me right before I ended it with Kevin and if he’s been keeping tabs on me and she found out about it then maybe this is something she did to make it look like it was Kevin.”

“Yeah, but why would she want to get him in trouble right before her wedding?”

“Touché.” I said, “You know it’s possible we’ll never find out who it was.”

Before Sean could respond there was a knock on his door and he got up to answer it.

“Yes.”

There was a guy standing outside in a courier uniform.

“You’ve been served.” The courier handed Sean a packet of papers, had him sign something, and then left.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Kevin is pressing charges against me for assault and battery.” He said.

Sean was as white as a sheet as he stared at the papers.