His third phone call sat on the bed beside him, putting her shoes on. After the first one hung up, and the second got confused and clocked out, he tried a third time, wondering why he needed to talk so bad at two in the morning. She was a good listener. Gave him a lot of advice, and in return he gave her his address. They still talked, he even made her a cup of tea, which she gladly accepted. She was funny too, and would make jokes to cheer him up, and bring a smile to his handsome face. He'd look at his hands when he talked, then look back up to see his audience had scooted closer on the couch. She'd say she couldn't hear him. He believed her. Sometime during the night the 'little devil' took his form, and left him lying there on the bed, out of breath and out of mind.

Her weight shifted on the bed as she leaned down to pick up her other shoe from the carpet. Her red hair was a mess, and she combed it through with her fingers giving it a wind-showered look. She took to buttoning her shirt up, pulling it over her shoulders with a sigh. Then with a turn of the head, addressed him. "My name is not Hannah," she said.

He turned to look at her, and her back was already facing him again. "She's-she's just a friend of mine."

She scoffed. "A really good friend by the sound of it."

Angus put a hand to his head. Laced with sweat and hurting a little. He closed his eyes hoping maybe the woman would think he fell asleep, and leave without giving him any trouble. But he knew she wasn't unaware of her surroundings. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"Me too."

A knock on the door surprised the both of them, Angus then realizing he forgot to put up a notice. He looked to his companion, who grabbed her earrings from the nightstand and put them on. She looked at him too when the visitor knocked a second time. "It's not my hotel room."

Sighing he sat up, the room spinning a second or two. Regaining his senses, he scanned the room for his clothes, only seeing his shirt lying on his suitcase, his jacket still on the couch in the living room, his bathrobe in the bathroom, and his pants completely hidden from his view. He checked throughout the sheets for any sign of them, the knocking outside growing more consistent. "For fuck's sake..."

"Jus' grab something!" Angus gave her a look as he pulled the sheet off the bed, signalling with his eyes that she needed to move in order for his actions to work. She complied, then sat back down to put her other earring on. Angus wrapped the sheet around himself not unlike a dress, and answered the door, standing slightly behind it.

"Is this where 'Young' is staying?" A man stood in the other side, dressed like he worked there, even at such an hour. It made Angus feel even more aware of his attire.

He cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah, that's me."

The man ignored Angus' appearance and situation and for that he was grateful. A paper was given to him, no envelope or anything. "This was taken at the front desk from a phone call a few rooms down. They asked to take a message and send it to you."

"Oh, thank you," Angus said, giving his best smile he could manage. With a polite bow of the head, the man left. Before reading a word Angus stole to the bathroom and grabbed his robe off the counter, changing into it. Dropping the sheet off on the bed and heading for the living room to sit on the couch, away from the transgressions committed in the other room.

Only a few words were scribbled on the paper. No names, just a few words regarding an emergency, come to room four oh four, and be quick about it. Room 404 was Malcolm's room. Angus didn't like the sound of an emergency, and was quick to look for his pants. The woman came out of the bedroom and stopped him. "Who was it?"

"Man with a note." She let him pass to the bedroom.

"Who from?"

"No one."

"With your hurrying around I can wager it's not no one," the woman responded. Angus found his pants kicked under the bed and put them on, grabbing his dress shirt from the floor he still hadn't changed out of. "Is it this 'Hannah' you mentioned?"

"I told you, it's none of your business." The woman frowned and grabbed the note from him, the buttons of his shirt occupying his hands. Her eyes scanned it, obviously looking for a name. "It isn't signed."

"Whose room?"

"No one you know." Angus grabbed the note back and stuffed it in his pocket. He grabbed his jacket off the couch, unsure why. It caused him this whole trouble in the first place.

"Is this how you treat all your guests?" the woman asked. "Invite them over, spend the night while thinking of another girl and rudely leave them after?"

"No!" Angus sighed realizing his volume was less than polite. "I'm sorry for all this, I shouldn't have called you in the first place."

"You wasted my time."

"Talking wasn't a waste, was it?"

"I don't know." The woman walked up to him, looking up at him. Angus wasn't used to staring down at anyone. "Doesn't seem like you paid an ounce of attention to me tonight."

"I'd beg to differ," Angus said again forgetting his manners. He didn't have the time to stand and talk to her. "I apologize again, love, I'll make it up to ya'."

"I hope you're not gonna pay me for this," she said putting her hands to her hips. "That's not what I do this for."

"I realize that, I respect that," Angus said remembering what Bernard said, or whatever his name was. "I-wouldn't dream of paying you."

Her reaction only solidified his belief of being the biggest nimrod on the planet that minute. Time wouldn't stop for his idiocy. "Gee, thanks."

"I meant-look, I'll make it up to ya' somehow, I'll-I'll..."

"Don't bother," the woman said leaving for the bathroom to fix her hair. "Just go off and help your friend, leave me to clean up." Angus shook his head and walked to the door. "Leave me to tidy up your room, that's fine."

"Don't clean my room, I can do it."

"You're so kind."

Rolling his eyes and quite tired of being polite to this woman, he opened the door. "I'm goin' now."

"I'm using your shower before I leave," she called after him. Angus wondered why she would spend so much time putting her earrings back on just to take them off again to shower.

"Fine, go ahead. But I want you gone by the time I get back," he said, the last of his manners out the door before he was. He shut the door behind him before she could answer and made for Malcolm's room.

He found 404 with the door propped open with one of Malcolm's shoes. Pushing it aside and the door open, he looked around in an empty room, no sort of light on except a lamp by the couch. It was quiet save for the heater turning on to warm the room of its two a.m. chills. "Mal?" he called quietly, sneaking into the room and shutting the door. "Mal, you're alright?"

"Ang." A voice whispered from the couch where the lamp was. Malcolm's forehead and eyes were poking out from behind the side of the couch, furrowed and narrowed in the light. Angus walked to the couch and saw Malcolm lying there, a small girl lying as well on top of him, fast asleep. Malcolm was only wearing one shoe, and a collection of tissues was scattered across the floor and on his chest. Angus was immediately at her side.

"Hannah!"

"Lower your voice."

"Is she okay?"

"She is now. Where were you?" Malcolm asked with a truck load of annoyance. Angus retaliated.

"Take a wild guess." Something pulled at his heartstrings when he looked at her. He stretched his arms out. "Here, give her to me-"

"I'm not movin' her till she wakes up."

"I know what's happened, just give her to me."

"You weren't there, you don't know a damn thing!" Malcolm said forgetting to keep his voice down.

"Like you had a front row seat?" Angus asked. "I'm sure Travis had somethin' to do with this, the piece of shit he is."

"It did. But I didn't call you here to wake her up, I called you here to be here when she wakes up. She'll tell you what happened."

"Why don't you?"

Malcolm sighed. "Don't wanna get anything wrong..."

"Don't care, what happened?" Angus knelt by the couch running a hand through the girl's hair, waiting for Malcolm to begin the story.

"I was sleepin' ya' know, an' the door woke me up, so I answered it an' Hannah was on the other side, cryin', glass in her hands, and so I brought her inside." Angus could see in the light how dark the skin under his brother's eyes were. "She was cryin' a lot, tellin' me she went to your room first, but you didn't answer." Angus swallowed. "Travis did somthin', what, she couldn't say. I brought her here an' let her sleep a bit so she could calm down."

"I'll kill him."

"Not a bad idea," Malcolm thought aloud. "You think he threw somethin' at her, or cut her like he did me?"

Angus grit his teeth. "Could have been anything." Hannah's words of secrecy jumped right through the window, leaving a sharp hole behind. "He's abusin' her, Mal."

"What?" Malcolm asked.

"It's fuckin' obvious! I had it right there in front of my face an' I ignored it!"

"Angus be quiet, you'll wake her up," Malcolm whispered.

"He's not feedin' her, he controls what she does, makes her pay off his debts-check her arms, Mal? Check her arms."

"Angus, what are you-" Malcolm unsuccessfully tried to push Angus away from the girl, her sweater sleeves rolled up to reveal dark circles of burnt flesh. Malcolm's gaze hardened, a hand reaching up to touch one. Angus watched him, waiting for a reaction. "Who...fuckin'...did this?"

"Who the fuck do ya' think?" Angus stood up to let Malcolm take in all that had been shared. Hannah couldn't keep this from him, not when he sent her running away at two in the morning with broken glass in her skin.

"You knew about this?" Angus frowned, knowing exactly where this was going. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because jus' like so many years before it, this was her secret to tell," Angus said. "She told me not to, both of thinkin' she'd be okay if she left with us next month."

"And where was she goin' after that, huh? Back home, ya' bugger!"

"Not if she kept her job in Australia somehow, or got a new one. She could have stayed there, like I said!"

"Shut up, Angus!" Malcolm whispered. Groaning into his hands in frustration, Angus let Malcolm carefully roll her sleeves back down and think about what he just learned. Think about what they should do. "We can't wait until next month," he finally said.

"You already booked the flight."

"I'm cancellin'. Gettin' the closest one, don't care how much it costs. We can't wait any longer, we have to get her out of here, somewhere safe." Angus didn't argue. He felt relieved that something was being done, finally. "Anything else happenin' that I don't know about?"

Angus' heart dropped to his stomach. That bruise on her neck was still a light purple, not given the chance to turn darker when she stopped him. The reason why came crawling back. "Uh, it would seem he may have tried somethin' on her...a few years back."

"Tried what?"

"Seems he got a little drunk, then got a little fresh."

"When did you hear about this?" Angus hoped the light of the lamp wasn't bright enough to see the shade of his cheeks.

"Few...few days ago. I may have...tried a little somthin' myself-"

Malcolm looked at her neck. "I knew it. Got her upset, did ya'?"

"A little bit, yeah. That's when I offered to take her with us." Malcolm smoothed a few stray hairs back from Hannah's face. Her cheeks were still wet with tears, as if she cried herself to sleep.

"We'll leave tomorrow," Malcolm said.

"Do they have a flight available?"

"They will when I'm through with 'em. We'll call the police on Travis first thing, so he can't charge us first with-kidnapping or somethin'." Angus shivered, knowing that was certainly something he'd try if he could. "I'm sure he's got a few crimes on his own time they can pin on him too."

Angus stood there, watching Hannah sleep in such a peace he hadn't seen her in in a long time. And to think, it could have been his couch she was on, using his warmth for a bed. Had he only heard the first set of desperate knocking on the door over his...racket.

His eyes trailed over to the table the lamp was set on behind Malcolm's head. Under the table was a bottle, the contents half gone. Angus didn't need a chemist to find out what it was. "You have a little somethin' to go along with your sandwich, Mal?"

"It was just a small one, a beer is all."

"What happened to how great you felt, how terrific the day was when you didn't drink that day? Huh?" Angus asked. "Start gettin' the shakes?"

"Not the shakes," Malcolm said. "Jus'...got a little thirsty, is all, thirsty for somethin' other than bloody hotel water."

"Oh, a hotel whiskey then?" Angus nodded.

"I told you, just a beer."

"And what if that beer wasn't enough, Mal? What if you were still thirsty an' you grab just one more, an' then another after that, and another and another...when does it stop?"

"Contrary to popular belief, I don't jus' keep a stash of alcohol in my room to take whenever I feel I need it," Malcolm said moving fallen hair from Hannah's face again.

"I know better, Mal, you think I didn't see your drunk ass attempt to hide the bottles when we were here the first time?" Malcolm's face turned bright red. "You have a lot to share yourself, Mal. Saw them all under the bed."

"I know I've got a bit of an issue with it, but it's not a dependence. Sure maybe I miss it after a day but I can control it. It ain't nothin' your big brother can't handle." Angus wasn't so sure, but knew his brother was a man to be respected. His word was truth. "Enough about me, Hannah's problem is a lot more serious."

"I wish she would wake up," Angus said without thinking.

"I think she needs the sleep after a night like this, wouldn't you agree?" Angus did, but didn't say anything. "With you ignorin' her I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't want to see you." Malcolm's face contorted to one of utter disgust. "Or smell you. Fuck, Ang, you reek!"

It was once again Angus' turn to go red. "Well I wasn't exactly sleepin' when you sent your carrier pigeon."

Malcolm frowned. "Sherrie left...didn't she?"

"Yeah, the day I told you."

"Then..." Malcolm's eyes widened and his voice rose. "Angus, you damn bugger!"

Angus, after a night of feeling what he preferred to feel, proceeded to experience a different sensation. He was kneeling on the ground again, but not by choice. Malcolm laid his foot back on the couch. "Thanks-a lot, Mal," he wheezed.

"Argue with me, I'll do it again."

"No-no, I deserved-" He inhaled. "I deserved it. Prolly deserved it a long time ago..."

"You're a man, Angus, not a rabbit, so quit actin' like one."

"It jus' happened, Mal, we were talkin'-had some tea an'-"

"So that's why you couldn't sleep instead," Malcolm said. "Oh, but I can't have half a beer?"

Angus glared at him, and didn't try a second attempt at standing. "It jus' happened."

"That doesn't jus' happen, Ang. That mark on her neck didn't jus' happen, you had to have known what you were doin', drunk or not. Travis knew exactly what he was doin', though he won't take responsibility for it."

"It's like-" Angus took a minute to compose a reasonable sentence. "It's like it wasn't even me, somethin' jus' kinda...took over. Like when I'm onstage, ya' know?"

Malcolm looked at Angus' shirt. "That shirt came from your uniform, didn't it?" Angus nodded. "That explains it."

"I've worn more than the shirt before an' nothin' happened, the uniform isn't it." Malcolm, feeling a hint of guilt from seeing the look of pain on Angus' face, decided to step in with some brotherly wisdom. Mindfulness of Malcolm.

"Maybe...all this has got you actin' funny. I mean, with everythin' goin' on ya' get a meldin' pot of feelin's, ya' know? Add some anger, confusion, a touch of love," he added with a small knowing grin. "Stir 'em an' you got a whole monster's blood runnin' your veins."

Angus didn't say anything. Whether he didn't want to or couldn't due to the footprint on his front, he didn't want to decide. Of course, the one shoe Malcolm kept on was the foot within range of kicking. Angus wished he never set eyes on a soccer ball. Hannah stirred on Malcolm's lap. She turned her head one way to nuzzle into him, then turned the other way to open her eyes and see the room. Angus made sure he was the first she saw. "Look who's awake, huh?" he whispered.

"Angus?" She blinked and yawned, rubbing her eyes and getting her hands wet. Malcolm grabbed a nearby tissue.

"Here, still got a few tears on ya', then." She closed her eyes and lay still had Malcolm wiped them away as gently as he could. "There you go, good as new. Look, Ang came to see ya'."

"Hi," he said brushing the hair away from her face.

"Hi," she mumbled, still tired. The broken glass had been removed from her hands, her hair a mess. "I'm sorry to wake you all up."

"We're sorry if we woke you up," Malcolm said. Giving Angus a look he continued. "Angus makin' quite a show with his cryin' over there, ain't he?"

"Only 'cause Malcolm's got a nutcracker, ain't that so, Mal? Ain't even Christmas yet."

Malcolm ignored the comment. "Hey, Angus here told me what Travis has been doin', an' don't get upset with him, he had to. You're gettin' very hurt by this man, ya' know that?" Hannah nodded, feeling a little guilty she hadn't come out with the truth herself, again. "We're gettin' out of here, tomorrow mornin'. I'm callin' someone to change the flight, an' you'll stay with us until then, yeah?" Hannah nodded.

"You're goin' home, Hannah," Angus said. "Your real home, eh?" He smiled when she smiled.

"Angus, you'd better go pack, an' get some sleep after your night of..." Malcolm paused, thinking of something else to say. "...tea drinkin'."

"Wait," Hannah hiccuped, sitting up a little. Malcolm sat up as well. "My stuff is-is still at the house, Travis m-might be up again."

"Up again?" Angus asked, anxious to hear the events of the night. Malcolm answered.

"You'll have to leave it behind. Clothes an' all that we can get you once you get there, we're not lettin' you get back in that house until the police take Travis under their supervision, alright?" Hannah nodded again. "We'll keep you safe, yeah? You can trust your brother. Your brother an' Ang."

Hannah turned to Angus who smiled weakly at her, the expression growing when she leaned into him giving him a hug. He wasn't sure his current scent appealed to her but she didn't seem to mind, or at least say anything if she noticed. He rubbed her back and closed his eyes. "Not a time limit, huh?" She laughed a few tears onto his shoulder and Angus gripped her tighter. "It's alright, we're getting out of here. We're goin' home."