I'LL KEEP YOU MY DIRTY LITTLE hankercheif

Julie scowled and went to slap him across the face again, because he so deserved it.

This time Roy ducked and Julie missed.

"Haha," he laughed out loud. "You missed."

"Why are you such a jerk to me!? What did I ever do to you?" Julie demanded, starting to get upset. Roy was okay when he was high, but now that he was sobering up, he was back to his old bullying self. The self that seemed to want to hurt Julie for no reason.

Kaiden had been walking through the ruins when he heard two very familiar voices. He tilted his head a little, why in the hell would Julie be with Roy? Then he heard shouting from Julie and he started running towards the voices.

He walked in on Julie trying to slap Roy, but missing.

"What the fuck is going on here?" he growled at Roy, pushing him.

Roy was almost surprised to be pushed by Kaiden.

"Oh hey there Kaiden," he said to his friend. "Just messin' around with Julie."

Julie paused for a second, a mixture of surprise and confusion on her face, and a mixture of dozens of conflicting emotions inside. "Kaiden?" she said in a quiet voice, which was distorted by the aforementioned dozens of emotions.

Kaiden wasn't sure why he was so fucking pissed off, he just was. "And who told you you could fucking mess with her?" he asked angrily.

"I didn't know I need permission," Roy replied. "Why do you care? You have feelings for Julie or something?"

Confusion still dominated Julie's conflicting emotions. Was Kaiden...defending her? Kaiden? Jerkface Kaiden who acted like he wouldn't care if she lived or died, as long as he didn't have to raise a baby? Defending her? From his fellow jerk, nonetheless.

"Um...Not that I don't appreciate it...but why do you care?" she repeated Roy's question. This wasn't some stupid trick they had both planned against her, was it? She wouldn't put that past them.

Kaiden chose to ignore Julie because he wasn't exactly sure why he cared, really he wasn't sure if he cared or not or if he was just angry in the same way that Gage had been angry with Roy for flirting with Lily.

"Shut the fuck up, Roy," he growled, stepping closer to him. "I'm thinking you should go home right about now."

"Man," Roy said pushing Kaiden away. "Get out of my face."

Roy was feeling really irritated right now. So believe it or not, he actually left.

"Ah whatever," he said while throwing his hands into the air. "I'm outta here."

Julie watched Roy leave without a word of protest, since she obviously had wanted him to leave from the very moment he spoke to her. She turned to Kaiden, unsure of what to think or feel about what just happened.

"Why did you do that?" she had to ask, though of course she didn't sound unhappy with the outcome.

Kaiden shrugged with an annoyed look on his face as they both watched Roy walk away.

"He's got no, ugh, I mean, it's not his place, he shouldn't," flustered, Kaiden gave up trying to explain his reasoning.

"See ya," he said gruffly, turning to walk in the opposite direction Roy had. He didn't feel like talking to Julie at the moment, though he wasn't sure he felt like leaving her there alone, either. "You should go home too," he added, over his shoulder, "it's getting late."

But he didn't stay to see if she had listened to him, or stayed just to defy him. Kaiden had some very conflicting emotions raging inside him right now and he didn't know what to make of them. He was going home.

Julie stood there confused for a moment. Then she started after him, taking long strides to cover the distance he had created as he walked away. "Hey, uh, wait!" she called. He was walking away pretty damn fast. She almost had to jog just to keep up with him, let alone catch up with him. "Kaiden!"

Kaiden heard him call for her, but he didn't stop. Even when she caught up to him he didn't stop his stride. "What?" he asked in an annoyed sort of voice.

Julie kept walking with him, despite his fast paced and annoyed tone of voice. "I wanted you say thanks," she told him, sounding hurried but not quite out of breath. "For making him leave. Even if you don't know why you did it."

"Whatever," he muttered, just wanting her to go away.

"Listen, Julie," he finally said, stopping and turning to her, once it looked like she wasn't going to go away. He sounded exasperated, "It doesn't matter what happened back there. I still don't want anything to do with you. It would be best if you left now."

Even though he sounded convincing out loud, a silent war was raging in his head.

Julie's face fell. Maybe she'd been hoping, just a little, that Kaiden's little display of, erm, chivalry? whatever it was, had meant that maybe...just maybe, he was starting to care, even a little bit. But obviously not. Why was she even dumb enough to get her hopes up like that?

"...O-oh. I mean, I knew...I was only..." she stumbled over her words, looking away from him. "I-I just wanted to say thanks...a-and not that I did, I...should be going. Yeah." She blinked a few times and swallowed the lump in her throat as she turned around to walk away. Her eyes stung a little.

Was she going to cry? Aw man... "Wait, Julie," he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her back to him. "I didn't mean... I don't want..." He stumbled, searching for the right words that would convey his feelings but not all of them.

Then he saw her glistening eyes that hadn't released tears yet but were totally on the verge to. And he saw how absolutely beautiful she was, and thought about how terrible it would be to see her crying. So, without knowing if it was exactly the right thing to do, or the best thing for him or her, he pulled her into a hug.

Surprisingly, for him, it wasn't as awkward as he would have thought, had he been in his right mind. Which was weird, because even though they had had sex before, he had never truly hugged her.

Sighing, he ran his fingers through her hair. "I'm sorry, Julie," he said quietly.

If Julie had been confused before, it was nothing to how she was feeling now. What did this mean? Was he really sorry? Was he just trying to get her hopes up again so that he could crush them? She didn't know how to react for a moment.

"...I don't understand..." she said finally, allowing him to hug her, but not hugging him back.

He shook his head gently. "Either do I," he whispered, almost quiet enough that she couldn't hear him.

It didn't make sense that he feel this way about her. She was just another girl, just some chick he had met at a night club. So why was he feeling this way? If she was just another girl, why did he want her safe?

Okay, this was definitely weird, but not altogether unpleasant. What she was feeling wasn't anything romantic (so don't freak out, Brenna) but for some reason Kaiden's comfort meant so much to her. And if he was serious...maybe...

"Um, Kaiden," she muttered. She wanted to know if he actually wanted to be there for her, or if this was just...something else. "In like a week I have this doctor's appointment...you know, to make sure the baby's healthy and stuff...if you wanted, you could come with me."

She was wondering if maybe deep down he really did want to be a part of this, but was just to scared to admit it to himself.

Kaiden's insides were rumbling about. Go with her to the doctors? Seriously? He started to shake his head, but then Nala poked into his head. 'Say yes!' she ordered, from his pocket.

"Sure," he said. He released her from the hug because suddenly, it did feel awkward.

Julie's eyes kind of lit up. "Really?" she replied, surprised. She didn't think he'd agree, especially so quickly. Suddenly life was taking an optimistic little turn for the slightly better. "Okay, um, great! You can stop by my house and we'll walk there together. It's a week from today, at noon." She smiled.

Kaiden was a little surprised, too. Actually he was a lot surprised. "Uh, alright," he said, not looking at her. He really felt awkward now. "I, I guess I'll see you then."