Carmen did not really remember the drive from the club to her place; her mind was not focused on the present. She remembered that Wade stayed with her all the way to the car and held the door open for her, which is something Connor never did. She shuttered at the simple thought of that asshole. Wade raised an eye brow as he was shutting the door, most of noticed her shuttering. Then again he always noticed stuff well, that kind of why she started spending some much time around him. That and Connor was always nervous around the energetic out spoken skunk.

She could help but start thinking about how they first met. She had been with Connor for almost two and a half years at that point. It was before he started hitting her. There was an ad about a new club opening in town for the Punk and Rock crowd. Connor claimed to be a huge fan of rock so they went. Of course she fell in love with Aborted Violence and has been almost every night since it opened. On opening night they had a local cover band in playing named Bloodless Sex. That's when she met Izzy, George, Fred, and the others. Of course she met Wade. He was at the bar ordering a drink when she first seen him. At the time she was happy with Connor, so she thought it was odd when at the sight of a skunk leaning over the bar with a Mohawk and leather jacket made her shy. She could not bring herself to just walk over to Wade at that moment and talk to him, even though out of everyone there she wanted to meet him; to talk to him.

Unable to get the courage up to approach him, she instead went with Connor of to their buddy every called Sporq. He was an odd light blue dragon who collected Sporks, hence the nickname. Sporq was already there hanging out with Vivica and a few others.

"Hey Sporq, didn't expect you here. Never pegged you as a punk rock fan," Connor said without thinking. Carmen of course had talked with Sporq a few times about Punk and other forms of rock.

"Eeyup," was all Sporq said in reply as he drank some of his gin Ricky. Any one that knew him should not be surprised by his short answer. She chatted with everyone and got to know the new people in the little group, and danced a few times to the band. There was a lavender dragoness that was the lead singer and she was doing a great job with every song they played.

After a while she found herself in a group of people that include the male skunk from before. Well not only that, the man was standing next to her. The band started up a cover of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" just as he turned to her and held out his hand and said, "Name's Wade, and you?"

"Carmen," she said as her tail twitched a bit from nerves. Even just meeting her, he raised his eye brow as he noticed. He seemed like he was going to say something to her when...

"There you are Honey! Who is your new friend?" Connor had found her. The entire night he had made a fool of himself and she had purposely misplaced him in the crowd. The Stag held out his hand to Wade, "Name's Connor and you are?"

Even just meeting Wade she could tell by the look in his eye that he did not seem to like the deer before him, but he shook his hand and told him his name. The rest of the night was kind of a blur as she tried talking with another punk loving Skunk with a stag trying to one up them both the whole time. She remembered the date of that night without even trying. It wasn't till much later that she realized that meant something.

"We're here," Wade's voice snapped her out of her mental journey and she look around. She didn't see Conner's car anywhere and let out a sigh of relief. She opened her door and got of the car, waiting for Wade before moving. "I don't see him anywhere, but I still wouldn't go too far," came his warning. She nodded and didn't move until he came to her side of the car.

Wade was at most three steps behind her as they went into her building and started the climb to the fourth floor. That is until they reached landing between the third and fourth floor and one of Carmen's neighbors, and nice old lady, dropped the items she was carrying. Wade stopped to help her, and told Carmen to go head, knowing that he apartment was the first one by the stairs. Carmen Just nodded and got her keys out to unlock her door.

She got the door unlock and was just stepping through the open door when someone pushed her through the door and on to the floor. Her head was in a daze after it bounced off of the hardwood floor but she heard the door get slammed shut. Before she could pick herself up off the floor someone grabbed her hair and picked her up off the floor with it. She reached her own hands up to grab at the arm pulling her up to try and ease some of the pain. She was about to yell out to Wade, when she seen who had a hold of her.

"Keep your mouth shut bitch," Connor spit at her with nothing but hate in his dark brown eyes. His balled fist came across her left cheek hard. And in the daze of pain she realized he had a padded glove on, meaning it wouldn't bruise. "Who do you think you are to ignore me? I told you we weren't finished until I say we are." She whimpered as she saw him raise his right arm again to strike her.

A blow fell, but not the one she expected. What happen was that suddenly Connor was tackled from the now open door and Carmen was dragged with by her hair until the stag released her to try and protect himself. She quickly moved away from the men to the corner of the hallway, curled into a ball and started with wide eyes at what was happening in front of her.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH! I should FUCKING kill you! How DARE you lay a hand on a woman! You FUCKING PRICK! You'll be lucky to be alive when I'm done with you!" Wade yelled as he pounded the stag below him. It didn't take long before the smell of blood was in the air, Carmen winching with each blow that fell. She could take it anymore. If something wasn't done Wade was going to kill him.

"Wade Stop!" she yelled. The skunk didn't reply and kept punching the prone figure below him. She rushed over and put her had on his shoulder, causing Wade to start out of his blind rage. "Please stop. Otherwise you're going to kill him."

"Fucker deserves to die," Wade muttered as he stood, trying to shake the pain from his fist.

"He is not wroth you going to jail for murder, though," she said softly tears in her eyes.

It wasn't long at all before the cops showed up, seems the old lady Wade helped out heard everything from when Connor first tackled her and called the cops. Funny... She always had problems hearing Carmen's loud music through the walls. The cops asked everyone question and took Connor to the ER then to jail.

"Hey, do you need one of the EMT's to look at your knuckles?" the officer asked after taking Wade's statement noticing that they were still bleeding a bit and offering a hand towel.

"Nah, they will stop in a bit. Thanks," he said taking the towel and holding over his right hand, which seemed to be bleeding the worst. "What happens now?" Wade asked looking over at Carmen when was sitting on her couch with her knees in her chest and tail wrapped around her.

"Well, since we don't need her to file against him since we have both you and Mrs. Ettleson's statements, we will go ahead and charge him with domestic assault. Seems Mrs. Ettleson heard sound in the past that sounded a lot like abuse, and whit what you told us he is not likely to get away with this. The state will pay for a restraining order against him for a distance of I think !00 feet in a case like this. Over all my suggestion? Don't leave her alone for a while. If not you, call someone else to stay with her for the next few nights," the officer said with a sigh as he put away his notepad. "Well, if that is all I should get started on this paperwork."

Wade nodded and looked back at the officer. He started to offer his hand when he realized it was still bleeding a bit and stopped. "Thanks again, Officer."

"No problem. Have a good night Sir," he said with a nod of his head. The officer turned to Carmen. "If you need anything else ma'am just give us a call, okay? Have a good night now."

She blinked and looked over at the cop and mutter, "Yea. Have a good night." She didn't seem to notice as the officer left and closed the door behind him. She faintly heard Wade moving around the apartment looking for stuff, but she didn't move. She just sat on the couch and stared out the window.

Wade sighed when the officer left and set to trying to find something to clean the flecks of blood off of the floor. After a few moments he found her Swiffer and the mop pads for it. By the time he finished cleaning the floor he knuckles had stopped bleeding so he put away the Swiffer and made sure to wash all the blood off of his paws. He looked through the cabinets until he found the cups and then opened the fridge. Of course there was Sprite. He poured a glass of it the headed over to couch and sat down the end opposite of Carmen. He held out the glass to her. "Here, I know Sprite tends to make you feel better," he said softly.

As soon as he sat on the couch she blinked and looked over at him holding the glass out to her. She took the glass without a word and pretty much downed the whole glass in one go. She sat the glass down on the side table, and then started crying. It was a matter of moments before Wade was there next to her with his arms open, and she grabbed hold of him and just sobbed. Wade rubbed her back and whispered kind words to calm her, but she couldn't understand any of them at this point. All she knew is that she was scared, angry, and felt alone. It was quite a while before her mind could process anything he was saying to her and by that time her tears had eased.

"It's going to be okay. I'm here for you. I'll keep you safe, you're going to be fine," were the soft words that find their way into her ears.

She looked up at him, tears still coming down her face, and gave him a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you," was all she said and she cuddled up next to him and closed her eyes, worn out from the events of the night.

His eyes went a bit wide at the kiss, but he smiled at her and started stroking her hair and let her take a long as she needed to relax. At the soft sound of snoring he realized she was more than relaxed. He chuckled, but was glad she was asleep. He started to get up and her grip on him tightened. "Carmen, I'm just trying to get you into bed, not leave," He said with a sigh. Her grip lessened and he was able to get up and carry her into the bed room. He figured he would set her on the bed and then go sleep on the couch. Well, when he set her on the bed, she pulled him into the bed with her.

"Please don't go," she whimpered as she looked up at him, eyes still full of fear over what happened. Wade sighed, kicked off his boots, took off his jacket, and crawled into the bed properly next to her. Within second she was curled up against his chest and sound asleep.

He held her close and gave her a kiss on her forehead. "You know this is not how I figured this would start out," Wade said into the darkness before joining her in sleep.