Beatrice (measuredsands) wrote in nevermore_past, @ 2016-02-09 17:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | andromeda, lancelot |
WHO: Andromeda & Lancelot
WHEN: Summer, 2011
WHERE: Andromeda's home
WHAT: Lancelot rescues her from the Bad BoyfriendTM
WARNING: domestic violence
Andromeda had never been good at making the right choices, too caught up in following whatever her heart said and being loyal to those who didn't always deserve it. And now she was coming to properly understand that she'd done it again. She'd given herself to a man who treated her badly and she didn't know how to stop it now.
Most days Andromeda just kept her head down, just went with the flow of the world around her, but tonight Jonathan was in a worse mood than ever. He'd lost a lot of money and was ready to blame it on anyone else. Andromeda, who tried to calm him down and soothe him, was getting the worst of it.
So while Jonathan made himself another drink in the kitchen, yelling after her about what a bitch she was, Andromeda locked herself in the bathroom and pulled Jonathan's cell phone out from her pocket. She'd managed to get hold of it a little earlier, before things had gotten too violent but after it became apparent she might need it. He'd smashed her phone that afternoon after calling her a cheating slut, right before he'd pushed her against the wall and shook her by the throat.
In the bathroom she dialed Lancelot's phone, keeping the wrist she thought was broken cradled against her stomach. She didn't want to be here. She wanted to be safe and okay and anywhere but here. And Lancelot.... he would help her, wouldn't he? She had faith that he would come for her if she called him. And he was close too, staying at a motel not far away while he tried to close in on Jonathan. Well, Jonathan was here tonight and for all Andromeda cared, the bounty hunter could have him.
She slid down against the door, listening to the ringtone and whispering, "pick up, pick up, please pick up..."
Lancelot had settled for a few five minutes on a bed and not cramped in a car. He hadn't slept much in the last three days, he needed to close his eyes. He'd drifted off for a good half hour when the phone went off with an alert! Startled he jumped up patting the bed for the phone. It took him a couple of blinks before he could focus on the number. Why his target was actually calling him was very, very suspicious.
He was already tugging on his boots as he answered. "Yes," he said in that deep rasp. He wasn't expecting to hear Andie on the other end.
Andromeda felt a wave of relief and fear when Lancelot answer and she pressed herself into the corner of the bathroom and spoke as quietly as she dared. "It's Andromeda," she said. "Lance... I think he's going to kill me tonight."
She didn't have to say anymore, he had grabbed his keys and was out the door. "Stay calm and quiet. Don't provoke him by having any sort of conversation. Where is he now?" He was not going to let anything happen to Andromeda tonight, and maybe she'd see this was not the sort of man she needed to stand by.
"He's drinking in the kitchen," Andromeda whispered. "I'm in the bathroom but... I can't stay in here, he'll look for me, he'll be angry." She listened against the door for sounds outside, but there was nothing yet.
"Stay on the phone with me. Don't hang up until I tell you to." He had to make sure she was going to get through this, he needed her to be calm. "Can you lock yourself in there? Is there any furniture you can move in front of the door?" Lance was going down his mental list until he could break down the door and save her.
And he would save her.
"It doesn't lock and there's nothing in here," Andromeda was working very hard on not being shrill. "I have to go back out there because he's waiting and if he has to come find me it will be worse." She pressed her forehead to the door and took a deep breath. "I'll try and keep him calm but please, please, just hurry."
"I'm on my way, just stay calm. Leave the phone on and in your pocket. I'm right here with you. I promise I won't leave you alone." He sped up, going every bit of thirty over the speed limit. The girl needed him, he wasn't going to fail this mission with a dead body.
The idea of leaving the phone on was terrifying and Andromeda was sure it was going to end with her getting caught, but she listened to Lancelot because she had no better ideas and he was much smarter than she was. She slipped the phone into her pocket and opened the door, slowly making her way back down the hall, her wrist against her stomach.
Jonathan looked up as she entered and rolled his eyes. "Would you stop looking at me like some wounded puppy, for fuck's sake."
"Sorry," Andromeda whispered, dropping her eyes. "Can I get you anything?"
"I don't know, Andie," he snapped, standing up and advancing on her. "Can you get me thirty-thousand dollars? Or are you just fucking uselessly taking up space in my house - as usual." On the last words he'd grabbed hold of her by her injured arm and she'd screamed in pain, feeling it like fire through her veins. The sound only made him angrier though and he shouted at her to shut up before backhanding her. Another flare of pain. Andromeda stayed down on the ground, because it was better. Jonathan gave her a kick in the stomach and snapped something about her being worthless to him and then went back to his drink. Andromeda tried to breathe very quietly so as not to upset him.
Lancelot would come. Lancelot was on his way.
All she had to do was stay quiet and good and easy.
Eventually Jonathan told her to get off the floor and stop making a scene and so she stood up gingerly, feeling muscles complain and pull in her stomach as she straightened. "I'll clean up my mess," she told him, referring to the things she'd just knocked off the cupboard behind her when he'd pushed her into it. It seemed like the best idea: be useful but not in his way. Just wait.
Lancelot wasn't going to leave Andromeda to the wolves. The more he contemplated all the bad things that could happen, the more determined he was to make sure that didn't happen. It was only about ten to fifteen minutes before he got there, though in the face of fear it probably felt like a lifetime. Every second counted in this race to who reached her first.
Lancelot stepped through the driveway debating on if he just barged in or if he came more casually.
He knocked on the door so that he could have Jonathan face to face, then he could attack, because this guy was not going to go down without a fight. He would struggle, and the goal was to keep Andromeda far from his reach. If he barged in it could spook them both and potentially land her in a far worse place than she was right now.
There was a knock on the door and both of them looked out towards it. Andromeda didn't offer to answer it, because she looked a mess and Jonathan wouldn't have let her. But she was praying it was Lancelot, or even just a concerned neighbour who'd been hearing their fighting. Jonathan looked at her as though she'd caused this and then he got up, leaving his drink, muttering something under his breath that she didn't hear.
As he went to the door, Andromeda followed a little, lurking in the doorway so that she could see who it was. Please be the knight, she prayed. Merciful Hera, please let it be him.
The man on the other side of the door was unfamiliar to Jonathan and he asked, "what?" Recognising him, Andromeda straightened and managed to smile, even though her face hurt to do so.
Finally Lancelot was face to face with this guy he'd been trying to get a hold of for months. He resisted the urge to tackle him to the ground right away until he saw the handiwork he'd left on Andie. Then Lancelot was like a bull that had been let out of his cage.
Suddenly it had turned into a fight and Andromeda shrieked, darting across the room and into the hallway so she wouldn't get caught in the middle of it. Should she call the police? But Lancelot was sort of the police, wasn't he? But what if he got in trouble instead of Jonathan??
She forced herself to leave the safe spot she'd found and rushed into the room again, still keeping clear of them both. "Stop!" she yelled at them, although she didn't know if they would pay attention. "Stop it!"
Lancelot was skilled in defeating aggressive components. Jonathan was just a useless drunk. He used that adrenaline pumping through his system to keep him going. It didn't mean Jonathan didn't get a few good punches to Lance's face, a few in the side. Seeing Andromeda in that state pushed Lancelot to get this guy with his face ground into the floor. He grabbed a hold of Jonathan's arm, twisting it back behind him to slap one of his cuffs down across the wrist. He wasn't lax on crushing it in the process.
The guy could struggle all he wanted, Lance wasn't letting him get away.
Jonathan was swearing and wriggling, but Lancelot had him pinned hard and there was nothing much he could do. Andromeda leaned against the wall to help steady herself and then she nodded, breathless, to Lancelot. "Thank you," she said tearfully. She didn't mean for stopping. She meant for coming at all, for helping her.
Lancelot cuffed the other wrist, dragging Jonathan to his feet to push him out the door. He promised Andromeda he'd come back once her boyfriend was in the car. She wasn't okay and he could see that.
Andromeda watched the two men leave and then the house was eerily silent, with her own sniffling sounded louder than anything else. She walked out into the kitchen slowly and surveyed the mess of plates and started picking them up with on hand, keeping the other out of the way. She didn't know what else she was supposed to do.
The knight returned as he'd promised stopping to take the plates from her hands. "Andy, I want you to come with me. He can't hurt you once I take him in. Maybe get you a hotel, or have you stay with someone you feel comfortable with." He would prefer she let him be that person but he wasn't going to push her too far. "Get some things together and you can ride up front with me or I can come back for you once I turn him in. I want to do what you're comfortable with." The girl needed a shower, some comfort and someone to talk to.