Domestic Dispute, 1/1, R, J2
Jan. 5th, 2010 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vamphileTitle: Domestic Dispute
Author:Vamphile
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: R
Word Count: 2800 +/-
Warnings/Notes Mentions of domestic violence, not To or By the boys. Appearance by Danneel, in which she is kind, understanding and again, a saint.
Summary Meg and her boyfriend have a fight. Jared is a big brother.
Thanks to:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
passing_through and raeschae
Graphics by:brianslave68
Domestic Dispute
Jensen answers the door and has no response to what’s in front of him. Meg, Jared's sister. He has a response to that, but he can’t hug her because… He puts a hand gently at the small of her back and guides her to the couch, disappearing for a minute and emerging with a couple of ice packs wrapped in towels and some aspirin. He sits on the ottoman across from her and gently places the cold pack on Meg’s cheek, where the knuckle print is becoming obvious and the angry red is starting to swell and morph into a deep purple.
“Wanna tell me who did this to you?” He hears Dean's voice, rough and defensive. It’s a sound he hasn’t heard in over a year now, but the murderous urge that it’s telegraphing is strong. Someone hit Meg. Jared's baby sister. And okay, she’s about to finish grad school, and she’s not a baby, but this is immaterial to Jared and pretty much to Jensen too.
He looks up at her and she’s shaking her head, a familiar, familial , half smile on her face. “Who do you think?”
He knew it. He knew before she told him because you don’t get backhanded by random strangers. That’s for boyfriends. Ex-boyfriends. Dead ex-boyfriends. Dead, dismembered, disemboweled ex-boyfriends.
“Can I get you something?”
Meg swallows the aspirin down with most of the water. “A beer, or maybe some tequila, maybe even the bottle?”
She flashes the little girl smile she give when she thinks one of them is going to go parental on her, but it’s deeply marred by the finger prints where someone grabbed her face and squeezed. He nods. He needs the tequila too.
Pours them each doubles and sits next to her this time. Looking at her is too hard. His chest tightens and he wants to call Mac, make sure she’s okay, but his priority now is this. He needs to know what happened; he needs to know Meg’s okay and he very much needs to know that Jared's not going to run off on a killing spree once he comes home from his monthly bore-a-thon with his agent, publicist, and manager.
Jensen drapes an arm carefully over Meg’s shoulder. “He’s a bastard.”
She nods.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Jared is standing in the doorway with a black expression on his face. “Yeah, I’d like to know that, too.” Jensen didn’t even hear him come in.
Meg rolls her eyes. “What’s it look like?”
Jared moves closer, but he doesn’t sit down or reach out to touch her. “Oliver? That fucker? I never liked him.”
“Oh shush, we all liked him.”
Jared's not so easily appeased. “What happened?”
Meg sighs. Jared's body is tensed, he still won’t sit the fuck down, and she’s tucked under Jensen's arm but she pulls away, needing space to tell the story.
“I’m applying for internships so I can graduate next year.”
“Awesome. What happened?”
“There are some great internships around LA, and I’m applying to those, but there are some that are closer to home, to Mom and Dad, and Jeff and the kids. And that’d be nice too, not having to scrape up money for airfare since I’ll be living on student loans.”
“Meg, you know we’ll…”
“Yeah, I know, you two do so much for me. But I want to be practical, plus there are possibilities in Chicago, New York, Miami, London...”
“London, really?” Jared's face is tight and Jensen's never seen the combination of anger and fear and disapproval before, not even when Jensen took a gig in Australia for four months while shooting was still three weeks from wrapping on Jared's show.
“London, really, and that’s what pissed him off. All of them except LA, really. He was all, ‘what about me, what about us?’
“This is my life; where I intern can totally effect where I get my first job, which effects everything else, so really, I wasn’t thinking. I told him that I couldn’t give up any kind of amazing opportunity just to live with my boyfriend of six months.”
“Live with? You’re living with him now? When did this happen?”
Meg rolls her eyes and Jensen thinks Jared should calm down a little, but then he looks more closely at the bruises on Meg’s face and gets just as angry.
“He was apparently thinking we’d move in together when I graduated. And yeah, if I get the internship in LA, and that’s the one I want to take, that’s a possibility.”
“Not anymore.” Jared's voice is fucking rough and Meg looks up at him.
“No, not anymore.”
Jared nods. “Where is he now?”
“Probably still at his apartment, picking up the shit he broke slamming me into a wall.”
Jensen flinches because he can anticipate the response and sure enough, Jared nods and turns to leave. Meg moves fast and grabs his hand. “Jare, no.”
“No?”
“I came to you because; well, because you’re you. You can’t tell Jeff, or Daddy, and please,” her voice goes low and quiet. “I’ve had enough violence today.”
“But you’re done with him?”
“What? Yeah.”
“This stops now. No more. We have to get you a restraining order.”
“No… oh Christ, you think I put up with this, like, on the regular? This is the first and last time. I didn’t know he was like this, I swear.”
“And now that you do?”
“Now that I do, he’s history. If he comes near me again…”
“I’ll kill him.”
“Okay, but since I can’t afford your rates as a body guard, I’m thinking maybe I just carry mace and don’t talk to him when he calls.”
“He’s called.”
“Twice, I’m guessing to apologize. I think he was as surprised as I was by his violent reaction to my news.”
“Just shows he really loves you, huh?” Jensen adds as a joke but they both glare at him so he shuts up. She’s still got a grip on Jared's hand. “Promise me.”
“I won’t go looking for him. If he comes near you again, then all bets are off.”
She nods and Jensen stands up, letting Jared sit against the corner of the couch where Meg can lean on him.
“How ‘bout I get you a glass?”
Jared nods but takes a quick swig out of the bottle anyway.
When Jensen is in the kitchen, he does the one thing Jared knows he’s going to do and one thing he doesn’t.
Ten minutes later Danneel is at their door with a huge bag and what looks like an enameled tiger-print tackle box. “I’ve come with supplies!”
Meg gives a broad smile and then winces and Jensen uses the occasion as a distraction to leave without any fanfare.
///
Jared sits, seething, but at least he knows that Jensen's on his way to make sure Meg stays safe. He wasn’t expecting Danneel, but it makes sense that Jensen called her. She’s got an entire photo shoot’s worth of concealer and a red carpet’s worth of makeup with her. Jared thinks that maybe a girls’ day in which Meg stops looking like a victim might be just what Meg needs.
What Jared needs is for his baby sister to be okay, and for Oliver, the scum-sucking ex, to die a painful death. If his dad or Jeff ever found out he sent his boyfriend to do this for him he’d never hear the end of it, but he needs to be here for Meg.
Danneel is pulling the ice pack away from Meg’s cheek and eye. “Really got you good, huh?”
“I didn’t see it coming.”
“You never do. I was with this guy once, perfectly nice guy unless he was at an industry gig where his ex turned up. Then he drank too much vodka and had a temper. They should fuckin’ tell you this stuff so you know what to look for.”
Meg chuckles and neither of them have said a damn thing that’s funny to Jared. Danneel is smoothing a pale green cream over the worst of the bruises. She looks up at him, “Tones down the red.”
He nods, and wonders how she knows this.
“Great for sunburns, hickeys, puffy red eyes, and bruises. It’s a girl’s best friend.”
“I’d think that’d be something that doesn’t cause bruises in the first place.”
Jared can’t believe Meg actually rolls her fucking eyes like this is no big deal, just another mishap. “Jare, I fell off my bike and ripped my favorite jeans!” Never mind her knee was bleeding. “Jare, I need a band aid.” How a girl cuts herself making cookies Jared has yet to figure out. But this is Meg, and she does shit like that. Dating men who… he goes to the kitchen and returns with diet Cokes, watching Danneel use a makeup sponge to pat on the base, blending two colors to get a natural skin finish.
“So, he’s never done this before?”
Danneel sighs and just looks sympathetically at Meg. “You’re better off answering him. Men don’t get it.”
“What? What don’t I get?”
Meg pulls her knees up and looks at him, big brown eyes sincere, “We know it’s likely to happen eventually.”
And Jared feels a dull, heavy weight in his stomach. “What?’
Danneel leans back to survey her work, never actually facing Jared's direction. “Jared, you’ve been on one, or a thousand, dates before you found my perfect fiancé.”
“Yeah.”
“Ever wonder what kind of physical damage your date’s strong arms or big hands could do to you?”
“No.”
“Is that possibly because you’re a man?”
“It’s because you don’t hit someone you’re dating.”
“And if one of them tried to hit you.”
“He wouldn’t have a lot of teeth left.”
Danneel nods. “That’s a tougher attitude to pull off in heels when you may weigh literally half of what they do.”
“But…”
“But what? Men are violent and stupid animals when sex is involved. Women need to know that. We’re raised to be aware of it.”
“That’s bullshit.”
Meg is staring at him. “So if I told you that I walked from my apartment to that bodega nearby to buy Milky Ways and Red Bull four nights out of seven, you’d say?”
“Alone? You walk in that neighborhood at night, alone?”
“And If Jensen did it?”
“Different issue.”
“I rest my case.”
Jared sits down and looks at Meg, really looks. “Fuck.”
“It’s okay. Trust me, I know you and Daddy and Jeff mean well, but sometimes shit like this happens.”
“It’s happened to you before?”
“No, freshman year in college some boy shoved me when I didn’t want to… you know, with him… but…”
“The list of people I have to kill is getting longer.”
“That was seven years ago.”
“I hate when they shove.” Danneel breaks in. “You can’t get really pissed but it’s still a pain in the ass.”
“You can get really pissed.” Jared adds. “I give you permission to get really pissed and to tell me who the fuck did that.”
“Meh, hasn’t happened to me in a while. “
Jared gives a half smile, “because you’re Danneel Harris?”
“Because I’m careful. Didn’t you see Rhianna?”
Jared drains his soda just as Jensen returns. He kisses Meg’s unmarred temple and meets Jensen in the kitchen, heading directly to the freezer to wrap some ice in a towel. “So?”
“So she fought back. He thinks she over-reacted. Man, I wonder how he thinks I handled it.”
“Tell me.”
Meg is standing in the kitchen. “I asked you not to.”
“And I didn’t.”
She hugs Jensen. “You’re sweet, but you can’t just do whatever he says.”
“He didn’t even have to say a word. You think I wouldn’t do this for you even if I ditch the big lug?”
“Jensen, it’s…”
Jared is standing behind her. “Yeah, I’ve been enlightened, turns out, lots of guys respond like this to bad news or ex-girlfriend sightings so we shouldn’t worry about it.”
“The hell we shouldn’t. That’s what you’re telling him?” He turns his attention to Meg.
“And your ever loving’ fiancé. She’s more careful… now.”
Jensen shakes his head, his expression dangerously unreadable. “Well that’s just the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard.”
Meg sighs and reaches into the fridge for another soda. “We’re both fine. We don’t need you plotting a rescue mission in the kitchen. Can we just let it go?”
“Sure, if you promise me something.”
“What?”
“You’ll tell me if this ever happens again.”
“Jare, I told you as soon as it happened. I’m not hiding it. I’m not some abused little girl. I got in a fight with my boyfriend.”
“Ex-boyfriend” Jensen reminds her.
“He wasn’t my ex at the time, and now he can press charges against you, you know that right? ‘Star of How it Happened, America’s number one comedy, arrested for assault’ is not gonna make anything easier.”
“You think I’m worried about that?” Jensen looks personally affronted; Meg shakes her head. “And what about you, Jared? ‘Past Sins Star involved in domestic violence dispute.’ That really how you want your career to go?”
Jared hands her an icepack. “Put this back on your eye and don’t worry about my career.”
They all file out to the living room where Danneel is packing away her metric ton of makeup. “So, Jen, do you have any bruises I need to cover up or did you get away clean.”
“You knew?”
Danneel turns her attention to Meg. “Darlin’. you’ll convince them you’re an adult, and that you’ll be okay in London, but you’ll never stop these two from treating you like their baby sister. I’m his frickin’ fiancé and I still get that vibe from the both of them.”
Jensen kisses Danneel's temple and sits down next to Jared. “That’s because you still get your picture taken half-naked on a car and think the guys who want that shot signed are sweet.”
“They are.”
“Pervs. They’re pervs, not sweet.”
“Whatever, I’m fine. Meg’s fine. And when you call Mac in five minutes, you’ll find she’s fine too. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you’re not our bodyguards.”
“Not for lack of trying.”
Meg eventually curls up under the soft cotton throw draped over the couch and falls asleep against Jared's chest.
Jared pets her hair and contemplates, trying not to feel the impotent rage that keeps bubbling up at how insufficient any effort he might make to keep her safe is.
After dinner and a drinking game that mostly involves drinking and laughing and taking their minds off of the earlier events she sleeps in one guest room, Danneel in another.
At four in the morning, Jared's downstairs and Meg is sitting on the couch studying her toes and a muted infomercial.
“Can’t sleep?”
She shakes her head. “You?”
“Nope.”
“I’ll be okay you know.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Thanks by the way, for you know, not being a dick about this.”
“I think you’ve had enough dicks in your life.”
“Yeah.”
He sits next to her and eventually they both doze with Harley sitting on Jared's feet.
Meg stays for three more days. When Jared returns from a day on the set her bag is packed. “You can stay longer.”
“I really can’t. Gotta get back to my life, you know, can’t let this derail me.”
“Maybe, I guess. I mean, we have the guest house out back if you need…”
She smiles and kisses Jared on the cheek. “Ask Jensen to follow close so I don’t lose him, no point in pretending he’s not doing it.”
Jared laughs and pulls out his phone. “I’ll tell him, but if Oliver’s there…”
“Yeah, I’ll leave.”
///
Jensen returns an hour later.
“I went in first. Made sure she was safe.”
“Made sure Oliver wasn’t there. Might not ever be safe.”
“Jare, you can’t let it get to you like this.”
“If it had been Mac walking out of here with fading bruises and sad eyes?”
Jensen shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yeah. You gonna be okay?”
“Me? I’m fine.”
Jensen is kind enough to pretend he believes him.
They have dinner out that night, and a week later, when Meg comes to the party they throw when Jensen's movie breaks overseas box office records, she’s laughing and flirting and happy. Danneel poses for some pictures with Jensen, remembering to wear the ring and maybe this time, Jared really is fine… as long as that guy crossing the room doesn’t even think about approaching his sister.
Free Hit Counter
Author:Vamphile
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: R
Word Count: 2800 +/-
Warnings/Notes Mentions of domestic violence, not To or By the boys. Appearance by Danneel, in which she is kind, understanding and again, a saint.
Summary Meg and her boyfriend have a fight. Jared is a big brother.
Thanks to:
passing_through and raeschaeGraphics by:
brianslave68 Domestic Dispute
Jensen answers the door and has no response to what’s in front of him. Meg, Jared's sister. He has a response to that, but he can’t hug her because… He puts a hand gently at the small of her back and guides her to the couch, disappearing for a minute and emerging with a couple of ice packs wrapped in towels and some aspirin. He sits on the ottoman across from her and gently places the cold pack on Meg’s cheek, where the knuckle print is becoming obvious and the angry red is starting to swell and morph into a deep purple.
“Wanna tell me who did this to you?” He hears Dean's voice, rough and defensive. It’s a sound he hasn’t heard in over a year now, but the murderous urge that it’s telegraphing is strong. Someone hit Meg. Jared's baby sister. And okay, she’s about to finish grad school, and she’s not a baby, but this is immaterial to Jared and pretty much to Jensen too.
He looks up at her and she’s shaking her head, a familiar, familial , half smile on her face. “Who do you think?”
He knew it. He knew before she told him because you don’t get backhanded by random strangers. That’s for boyfriends. Ex-boyfriends. Dead ex-boyfriends. Dead, dismembered, disemboweled ex-boyfriends.
“Can I get you something?”
Meg swallows the aspirin down with most of the water. “A beer, or maybe some tequila, maybe even the bottle?”
She flashes the little girl smile she give when she thinks one of them is going to go parental on her, but it’s deeply marred by the finger prints where someone grabbed her face and squeezed. He nods. He needs the tequila too.
Pours them each doubles and sits next to her this time. Looking at her is too hard. His chest tightens and he wants to call Mac, make sure she’s okay, but his priority now is this. He needs to know what happened; he needs to know Meg’s okay and he very much needs to know that Jared's not going to run off on a killing spree once he comes home from his monthly bore-a-thon with his agent, publicist, and manager.
Jensen drapes an arm carefully over Meg’s shoulder. “He’s a bastard.”
She nods.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Jared is standing in the doorway with a black expression on his face. “Yeah, I’d like to know that, too.” Jensen didn’t even hear him come in.
Meg rolls her eyes. “What’s it look like?”
Jared moves closer, but he doesn’t sit down or reach out to touch her. “Oliver? That fucker? I never liked him.”
“Oh shush, we all liked him.”
Jared's not so easily appeased. “What happened?”
Meg sighs. Jared's body is tensed, he still won’t sit the fuck down, and she’s tucked under Jensen's arm but she pulls away, needing space to tell the story.
“I’m applying for internships so I can graduate next year.”
“Awesome. What happened?”
“There are some great internships around LA, and I’m applying to those, but there are some that are closer to home, to Mom and Dad, and Jeff and the kids. And that’d be nice too, not having to scrape up money for airfare since I’ll be living on student loans.”
“Meg, you know we’ll…”
“Yeah, I know, you two do so much for me. But I want to be practical, plus there are possibilities in Chicago, New York, Miami, London...”
“London, really?” Jared's face is tight and Jensen's never seen the combination of anger and fear and disapproval before, not even when Jensen took a gig in Australia for four months while shooting was still three weeks from wrapping on Jared's show.
“London, really, and that’s what pissed him off. All of them except LA, really. He was all, ‘what about me, what about us?’
“This is my life; where I intern can totally effect where I get my first job, which effects everything else, so really, I wasn’t thinking. I told him that I couldn’t give up any kind of amazing opportunity just to live with my boyfriend of six months.”
“Live with? You’re living with him now? When did this happen?”
Meg rolls her eyes and Jensen thinks Jared should calm down a little, but then he looks more closely at the bruises on Meg’s face and gets just as angry.
“He was apparently thinking we’d move in together when I graduated. And yeah, if I get the internship in LA, and that’s the one I want to take, that’s a possibility.”
“Not anymore.” Jared's voice is fucking rough and Meg looks up at him.
“No, not anymore.”
Jared nods. “Where is he now?”
“Probably still at his apartment, picking up the shit he broke slamming me into a wall.”
Jensen flinches because he can anticipate the response and sure enough, Jared nods and turns to leave. Meg moves fast and grabs his hand. “Jare, no.”
“No?”
“I came to you because; well, because you’re you. You can’t tell Jeff, or Daddy, and please,” her voice goes low and quiet. “I’ve had enough violence today.”
“But you’re done with him?”
“What? Yeah.”
“This stops now. No more. We have to get you a restraining order.”
“No… oh Christ, you think I put up with this, like, on the regular? This is the first and last time. I didn’t know he was like this, I swear.”
“And now that you do?”
“Now that I do, he’s history. If he comes near me again…”
“I’ll kill him.”
“Okay, but since I can’t afford your rates as a body guard, I’m thinking maybe I just carry mace and don’t talk to him when he calls.”
“He’s called.”
“Twice, I’m guessing to apologize. I think he was as surprised as I was by his violent reaction to my news.”
“Just shows he really loves you, huh?” Jensen adds as a joke but they both glare at him so he shuts up. She’s still got a grip on Jared's hand. “Promise me.”
“I won’t go looking for him. If he comes near you again, then all bets are off.”
She nods and Jensen stands up, letting Jared sit against the corner of the couch where Meg can lean on him.
“How ‘bout I get you a glass?”
Jared nods but takes a quick swig out of the bottle anyway.
When Jensen is in the kitchen, he does the one thing Jared knows he’s going to do and one thing he doesn’t.
Ten minutes later Danneel is at their door with a huge bag and what looks like an enameled tiger-print tackle box. “I’ve come with supplies!”
Meg gives a broad smile and then winces and Jensen uses the occasion as a distraction to leave without any fanfare.
///
Jared sits, seething, but at least he knows that Jensen's on his way to make sure Meg stays safe. He wasn’t expecting Danneel, but it makes sense that Jensen called her. She’s got an entire photo shoot’s worth of concealer and a red carpet’s worth of makeup with her. Jared thinks that maybe a girls’ day in which Meg stops looking like a victim might be just what Meg needs.
What Jared needs is for his baby sister to be okay, and for Oliver, the scum-sucking ex, to die a painful death. If his dad or Jeff ever found out he sent his boyfriend to do this for him he’d never hear the end of it, but he needs to be here for Meg.
Danneel is pulling the ice pack away from Meg’s cheek and eye. “Really got you good, huh?”
“I didn’t see it coming.”
“You never do. I was with this guy once, perfectly nice guy unless he was at an industry gig where his ex turned up. Then he drank too much vodka and had a temper. They should fuckin’ tell you this stuff so you know what to look for.”
Meg chuckles and neither of them have said a damn thing that’s funny to Jared. Danneel is smoothing a pale green cream over the worst of the bruises. She looks up at him, “Tones down the red.”
He nods, and wonders how she knows this.
“Great for sunburns, hickeys, puffy red eyes, and bruises. It’s a girl’s best friend.”
“I’d think that’d be something that doesn’t cause bruises in the first place.”
Jared can’t believe Meg actually rolls her fucking eyes like this is no big deal, just another mishap. “Jare, I fell off my bike and ripped my favorite jeans!” Never mind her knee was bleeding. “Jare, I need a band aid.” How a girl cuts herself making cookies Jared has yet to figure out. But this is Meg, and she does shit like that. Dating men who… he goes to the kitchen and returns with diet Cokes, watching Danneel use a makeup sponge to pat on the base, blending two colors to get a natural skin finish.
“So, he’s never done this before?”
Danneel sighs and just looks sympathetically at Meg. “You’re better off answering him. Men don’t get it.”
“What? What don’t I get?”
Meg pulls her knees up and looks at him, big brown eyes sincere, “We know it’s likely to happen eventually.”
And Jared feels a dull, heavy weight in his stomach. “What?’
Danneel leans back to survey her work, never actually facing Jared's direction. “Jared, you’ve been on one, or a thousand, dates before you found my perfect fiancé.”
“Yeah.”
“Ever wonder what kind of physical damage your date’s strong arms or big hands could do to you?”
“No.”
“Is that possibly because you’re a man?”
“It’s because you don’t hit someone you’re dating.”
“And if one of them tried to hit you.”
“He wouldn’t have a lot of teeth left.”
Danneel nods. “That’s a tougher attitude to pull off in heels when you may weigh literally half of what they do.”
“But…”
“But what? Men are violent and stupid animals when sex is involved. Women need to know that. We’re raised to be aware of it.”
“That’s bullshit.”
Meg is staring at him. “So if I told you that I walked from my apartment to that bodega nearby to buy Milky Ways and Red Bull four nights out of seven, you’d say?”
“Alone? You walk in that neighborhood at night, alone?”
“And If Jensen did it?”
“Different issue.”
“I rest my case.”
Jared sits down and looks at Meg, really looks. “Fuck.”
“It’s okay. Trust me, I know you and Daddy and Jeff mean well, but sometimes shit like this happens.”
“It’s happened to you before?”
“No, freshman year in college some boy shoved me when I didn’t want to… you know, with him… but…”
“The list of people I have to kill is getting longer.”
“That was seven years ago.”
“I hate when they shove.” Danneel breaks in. “You can’t get really pissed but it’s still a pain in the ass.”
“You can get really pissed.” Jared adds. “I give you permission to get really pissed and to tell me who the fuck did that.”
“Meh, hasn’t happened to me in a while. “
Jared gives a half smile, “because you’re Danneel Harris?”
“Because I’m careful. Didn’t you see Rhianna?”
Jared drains his soda just as Jensen returns. He kisses Meg’s unmarred temple and meets Jensen in the kitchen, heading directly to the freezer to wrap some ice in a towel. “So?”
“So she fought back. He thinks she over-reacted. Man, I wonder how he thinks I handled it.”
“Tell me.”
Meg is standing in the kitchen. “I asked you not to.”
“And I didn’t.”
She hugs Jensen. “You’re sweet, but you can’t just do whatever he says.”
“He didn’t even have to say a word. You think I wouldn’t do this for you even if I ditch the big lug?”
“Jensen, it’s…”
Jared is standing behind her. “Yeah, I’ve been enlightened, turns out, lots of guys respond like this to bad news or ex-girlfriend sightings so we shouldn’t worry about it.”
“The hell we shouldn’t. That’s what you’re telling him?” He turns his attention to Meg.
“And your ever loving’ fiancé. She’s more careful… now.”
Jensen shakes his head, his expression dangerously unreadable. “Well that’s just the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard.”
Meg sighs and reaches into the fridge for another soda. “We’re both fine. We don’t need you plotting a rescue mission in the kitchen. Can we just let it go?”
“Sure, if you promise me something.”
“What?”
“You’ll tell me if this ever happens again.”
“Jare, I told you as soon as it happened. I’m not hiding it. I’m not some abused little girl. I got in a fight with my boyfriend.”
“Ex-boyfriend” Jensen reminds her.
“He wasn’t my ex at the time, and now he can press charges against you, you know that right? ‘Star of How it Happened, America’s number one comedy, arrested for assault’ is not gonna make anything easier.”
“You think I’m worried about that?” Jensen looks personally affronted; Meg shakes her head. “And what about you, Jared? ‘Past Sins Star involved in domestic violence dispute.’ That really how you want your career to go?”
Jared hands her an icepack. “Put this back on your eye and don’t worry about my career.”
They all file out to the living room where Danneel is packing away her metric ton of makeup. “So, Jen, do you have any bruises I need to cover up or did you get away clean.”
“You knew?”
Danneel turns her attention to Meg. “Darlin’. you’ll convince them you’re an adult, and that you’ll be okay in London, but you’ll never stop these two from treating you like their baby sister. I’m his frickin’ fiancé and I still get that vibe from the both of them.”
Jensen kisses Danneel's temple and sits down next to Jared. “That’s because you still get your picture taken half-naked on a car and think the guys who want that shot signed are sweet.”
“They are.”
“Pervs. They’re pervs, not sweet.”
“Whatever, I’m fine. Meg’s fine. And when you call Mac in five minutes, you’ll find she’s fine too. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you’re not our bodyguards.”
“Not for lack of trying.”
Meg eventually curls up under the soft cotton throw draped over the couch and falls asleep against Jared's chest.
Jared pets her hair and contemplates, trying not to feel the impotent rage that keeps bubbling up at how insufficient any effort he might make to keep her safe is.
After dinner and a drinking game that mostly involves drinking and laughing and taking their minds off of the earlier events she sleeps in one guest room, Danneel in another.
At four in the morning, Jared's downstairs and Meg is sitting on the couch studying her toes and a muted infomercial.
“Can’t sleep?”
She shakes her head. “You?”
“Nope.”
“I’ll be okay you know.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Thanks by the way, for you know, not being a dick about this.”
“I think you’ve had enough dicks in your life.”
“Yeah.”
He sits next to her and eventually they both doze with Harley sitting on Jared's feet.
Meg stays for three more days. When Jared returns from a day on the set her bag is packed. “You can stay longer.”
“I really can’t. Gotta get back to my life, you know, can’t let this derail me.”
“Maybe, I guess. I mean, we have the guest house out back if you need…”
She smiles and kisses Jared on the cheek. “Ask Jensen to follow close so I don’t lose him, no point in pretending he’s not doing it.”
Jared laughs and pulls out his phone. “I’ll tell him, but if Oliver’s there…”
“Yeah, I’ll leave.”
///
Jensen returns an hour later.
“I went in first. Made sure she was safe.”
“Made sure Oliver wasn’t there. Might not ever be safe.”
“Jare, you can’t let it get to you like this.”
“If it had been Mac walking out of here with fading bruises and sad eyes?”
Jensen shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yeah. You gonna be okay?”
“Me? I’m fine.”
Jensen is kind enough to pretend he believes him.
They have dinner out that night, and a week later, when Meg comes to the party they throw when Jensen's movie breaks overseas box office records, she’s laughing and flirting and happy. Danneel poses for some pictures with Jensen, remembering to wear the ring and maybe this time, Jared really is fine… as long as that guy crossing the room doesn’t even think about approaching his sister.
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