Chapter Text
Jay pulls up to the curb in front of Kim’s house, killing the engine and turning to face his girlfriend.
“I’ll text you later?” he asks.
“Yeah.” she agrees with a smile.
He nods and she opens her door.
“Shit.”
He glances around, seeing the truck that has just pulled in behind him.
Her dad’s truck.
Shit.
He opens his door, rounding the car quickly to stand next to Hailey as her dad walks up to them.
“Hey Sport.” the man says, his face unreadable, at least to Jay. “Jay.”
“Dad.” Hailey says and he can feel the tension radiating through her even as they deliberately avoid touching.
“Mr. Upton.” he says, offering his hand.
The man ignores it.
“And where exactly have you been with this boy that I expressly told you that you weren’t to see, young lady?”
“Kim and I needed something else for the project.” she tells him. “Jay’s just giving me a ride home.”
Following a lengthy make-out session in a parking lot but somehow he doesn’t think mentioning that will reduce the tension in the air any.
“I thought that’s why you had a car. Why I bought you a car.” her father says and Jay is definitely seeing the anger beginning to surface.
“He- he was dropping something off for Adam and-“
He sees the shift in the man’s stance and steps in front of Hailey just in time to catch the fist heading for Hailey’s face in the jaw.
He stumbles back, redirecting to avoid knocking Hailey over and sees the man moving in for another attack.
He corrects out of his stumble, diving forward to ram into the man, driving him back.
Another fist catches him in the stomach and he grunts, hitting back.
This isn’t his first fight. He’s not an enforcer, his role on the ice doesn’t exactly lead him to a lot of fights, but he’s been in his fair share.
It’s his first without pads though.
And Steven Upton has three inches and over fifty pounds on him.
He’s rammed back against the Burgess’ mailbox and trips, crashing to the ground on his back.
He rolls, pushing up on his hands and knees.
A foot catches him in the ribs, sending him right back onto his back.
Another foot hits him in the stomach before he can even start to try to get up again and he curls on himself, bringing his knees up and his arms over his head to try to protect himself from the blows as they just keep coming.
Hailey is screaming but he can’t make out what she’s saying over the pounding of his pulse in his ears.
She doesn’t know why she’d expected this to be any different.
Screaming at her dad to stop has never worked before.
Maybe it’s because he’s sober this time.
Maybe it’s because it’s Jay that he’s kicking repeatedly as her boyfriend curls up in a futile attempt to protect himself.
Because it’s Jay who’s being brutally attacked because he’d defended her.
She picks up the shovel lying in Kim’s mom’s flower bed and swings.
Her dad drops and for a split second, a part of her wants to keep swinging.
But she tosses the shovel aside, dropping to her knees next to her boyfriend.
“Jay?” she says, hands fluttering uselessly as she goes to touch him and then realizes that she doesn’t dare for fear of hurting him further.
Sound is coming back slowly and she can hear the sirens filling the street, can hear Kim calling her name as she rushes across the lawn toward her.
She stares at her.
“Kim?” she asks, looking around. “Kim, he…”
“I know.” her friend says, dropping to her knees next to her and hugging her tightly. “I know.”
Jay groans and she pulls away, focusing on him.
“Jay?” she repeats, hand finally coming to rest on his shoulder. “Don’t try to move.”
“Hail?” he gasps. “You k?”
“I’m fine.” she says. “A little worried about you.”
“Miss?” an unfamiliar voice cuts in. “Can you tell me what happened?”
Kim squeezes her arm and then pulls away, standing up.
“I called.” she explains. “I can tell you what happened. I think she’s still in shock. And he needs paramedics.”
“They’ve been dispatched.” the police officer tells them. “They’ll have to treat the other man first, especially if he’s still unconscious, because of protocols with head injuries.”
A flash of anger moves through Hailey.
Jay is in pain. Why the hell should her father be treated first when he started this whole thing?
“He hurt him!” she snaps. “And he wasn’t going to stop. Who cares about him?”
“‘mokay.” Jay says, his hand reaching for her. “Can wait.”
“Jay.” she says, taking his hand and feeling tears welling in her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I should have been more careful.”
“‘Sgonna h’pn ‘vent’ly.” he slurs. “d’it ‘gn.”
She sniffles, scrubbing the tears away with her free hand.
“I’ll get a rush on a second ambulance.” the cop promises her and she just nods.
She doesn’t really pay much attention to what’s going on around them after that, her focus locked on Jay’s face as he fights for hitching breaths.
She’s dealt with cracked ribs before, wonders if his might actually be broken, but she knows the pain of breathing through them.
Looks for a spot on his face that isn’t covered in blood. She thinks its just the one gash on his forehead from where he’d clipped the mailbox on his way down but it doesn’t stop it from looking horrifying.
She’s pushed back as the paramedics arrive, needing the space as they get him strapped to a backboard with a cervical collar and she has to take a deep breath to push down the panic as she realizes they’re worried about spinal damage.
She looks around, startled by the number of police cars parked on the street, embarrassed by the number of neighbors that have come out of their houses to see what’s going on.
Hurt that she doesn’t see her mother who she’s pretty sure should be home, who definitely would have noticed the chaos if she was.
Crap. She needs to call Jay’s mom, needs to figure out how to tell her that her son is hurt.
“Hey.” Kim says, rejoining her. “I’ve got you.”
“I need… I should call his mom.”
“I called her.” Kim says. “It’s covered, okay?”
She nods, tears breaking free to roll down her cheeks.
“What… why… how could he do this, Kim?” she asks tearfully. “He… he was sober.”
“I know.” Kim says, wrapping her arms around her.