Queen of Spades (House of Car...

Alice was bout twenty-five minutes late for Mr. Vega's English class when she finally came in. The movie was almost over with, the class eager to go. He frowned at her but she held up a slip of paper from the doctor. At around 4 in the morning she'd started to throw up and Salali took her to the emergency room. With a fever at 41 degrees (105 farenheight), the hospital immediately admitted her and hooked her up to IV.

Malcolm guided Alice back into the hallway as he read her doctors slip excusing her tardiness. "You alright?" he asked, concern in his voice.

Alice gave a tired smile. "I'm on nuclear reactor strength anti-biotics. Nasty bug going around but these suckers should nuke the hell out of it." she rattled her new medication.

"You really were sick yesterday..." Malcolm commented softly, more to himself than Alice. He saw her frown. "You looked fine when I caught you in dance class." his voice was apologetic. He hadn't believed her.

"That's because I'm a professional. Would it surprise you to find out that the only reason I wasn't violently ill yesterday was the pill Kim gave me and my own stubbornness?" Alice asked, too tired and medicated to be offended.

"The stubbornness part, no. I know how very determined you can be." Malcolm's eyes had a hint of humour mixed with a little reminder of less appropriate things. But the humour fell away as he thought of something. "There's something I need to talk with you about though, so if you're feeling up to it after school..." he trailed off as Alice nodded.

"Back to class." Alice wandered in and slumped down, catching only the very end of the movie.

She blinked her way through the hallway towards Science class when someone grabbed her from behind and hauled her into the guy's changing room. Alice put up a fight, twisting, scratching, trying to bite the hand that covered her mouth, muffling her screams. She didn't get a chance to cry out before she was slammed back against a wall, breath whooshing out of her lungs. She started to cough trying to suck the air back in, taking stock of what exactly was going on.

The boys she'd seen at Suede's were all leering down at her as Ace got back on her feet, stuck with them between her and the door. "What exactly do you think youy're doing?" Alice asked, trying to keep calm. She had a sneaking suspicion, having seen that same gleam in Stuart's eyes too many times.  

"We're going to have a little fun." the one guy smirked at her.

There had to be a smart way to get out of this. Unfortunately for Alice, she was heavily medicated and not likely to think of that option. Her mouth opened and in her sick and drugged state, there was no brain filter. "So you three idiots are going to rape me in hte school changing room. Did it never occur to any of you that A) I will report it B) You will be arrested C) You all will go to jail?" she listed them off on her fingers.

"It's not rape if we pay you for it whore." lead moron sneered.

"It is rape, especially since I'm not a whore." she rolled her eyes. This was serious starting to annoy her. "Listen, you guys obviously have the wrong idea here, so I'm willing to just walk away and forget any of this ever happened. Alright?" she asked them, hoping they'd see some reason.

One of the guys held up a little ziploc bag with a handful of pills in it. Alice did not like the look of that. "Oh, we've got that part covered. See, I cram one of these down your throat and you won't even remember what happened." his voice was almost sign song in happiness.

"I'm guessing this is s*** you've done before." Alice stated, not making it a question but they all nodded in prideful triumph. "Wonderful." she muttered, then started to scream for help. She only got one bellow out before the leader of this trio slammed his fist into her stomach, dropping her to the floor again. He knelt down next to her and wrapped his hand over her mouth, fingers digging into the jaw. He had her other hands pinned together in his meaty paw.

"Eddie, bring them here." he snapped at the guy with the roofies. "First you're going to swallow these, then I have something else to ram down your throat." he promised, Eddie trying to pry her teeth open. She snapped her teeth around his finger and bit down as hard as she could. Hot copper filled her mouth as he shouted in pain, other hand tearing at her hair to try and pull her off. Her head got bounced against the floor, and her body went slack, ears ringing. The pills were stuffed into her mouth and someone held her nose shut, clamping her jaw again until they felt her relfexively swallow, trying to get some air. Her head was bounced down again, Eddie was obviously still unhappy about his finger.

Having her head dribbled like a basketball was not helping it feel any better, and she was terrified of what was about to happen to her. But he had his hand clamped over her mouth again so she couldn't scream more, his nasty smelling breath wafting over her face. She tried to insult him, "You make the Predator look pretty." But it came garbled out because of his hand.

"I'm sorry what was that? You want me and my two friends here to take you? Why I think we will!" the leader mocked, laughing and his friends joined in. Ace started to fight, knowing that if she'd never been able to keep Stuart from doing this, there was no way she could stop three guys. But even without that hope, she still fought. One hand raked nails down the leader's face, making him jerk away with a curse.

"MALCOLM!" Alice bellowed as loudly as possible before a dress shoe connected with her forehead. It hadn't been a full soccer kick but it still rang her ears and sent a shockwave of pain through her head. But no other abuse followed. Ace lay curled on her side in the fetal position, trying not to black out and with a building wave of nausea crawling up her stomach. She held her face because it felt like that kick had shattered her skull, tears leaking out of her eyes. When she could concentrate passed the overwhelming pain, she heard sounds of fighting just next to her.

Alice peeled her eyes open, the light stabbing into them but she gritted her teeth and endured, needing to see. There was one of her attackers on the floor, limp and eyes rolled into the back of his head. His chest still rose and fell, so she knew he wasn't dead, but the grayish tint to his skin announced that it might not be long before he stopped entirely. She looked passed the critcal student to see Eddie with the bloody finger go flying into a lovker head first and drop to the floor.

The leader of her attackers was standing between her and her rescuer, and the leader had a sick looking switch knife in his hand. "I'm going to f*** you up." he threatened the other guy.

"You are going to try. But you will fail." a familiar voice replied.

Alice's stomach burned and she threw up, doing her best to remain forgotten in the background. Dizziness swam through her and she was starting to feel tingly and numb all over. Which was probably a really bad sign. It would probably been less damaging to stay still, but Alice started to slowly crawl towards the hallway, unable to remain still and hope her rescuer was victorious. She hadn't made it halfway to hte door when she heard a pain filled yell and the thud of someone hitting hte floor. Footsteps walked quickly over to her and she reacted out of fear, trying to scuttle away.

"Hey it's alright, I'm not going to hurt you." West said softly, kneeling down to try and look at the damage down. Alice looked at him, panting as the heat in her stomach built up again. "We need to get you to a hospital." He stated and her head split into agony as he lifted her up, cradling her in his arms. Alice closed her eyes against the bright lights of the hallway, shakes starting to attack her body.

She heard a distant commotion of people worrying over her as they noticed West carry her out of the change room. The last thing she saw was a blurry visage calling her Ace, voice filled with worry. 

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Waking up in a hospital with no recollection of how she got there, Alice just stayed still, panic creeping up her spine. She didn't hurt in the wrong places, which helped her relax, whatever had happened, she hadn't been violated again. One eye was covered with a bandage,a and she carefully felt her face, realizing most of her head was wrapped up. Her stomach hurt but there were no bandages there, just a hideously dark bruise that wrapped all the way around.

Ace was staring down at herself, fear balanced with confusion as she could not remember what had happened. She may blackout during a beating, but never before had she forgotten the beating entirely! She pushed the nurse call button, the dim lights and hushed silence letting her know it was night time. A few minutes later the E.R nurse from a few weeks ago came rushing in, a blank smile on her face.

"Well look who woke up." she cheerfully greeted. "How are you feeling?" she asked, coming around the side to check on the machine stats and to flash a light in Alice's good eye.

"Like I got jumped on by an elephant." Alice replied, voice craggy. She coughed, clearing her throat but it burned. The nurse passed her a glass of water and waited while Alice slowly drank it. "What happened to me? I don't remember anything passed my alarm going off this morning." Alice asked.

"From what I've heard, you were attacked by some students but another one intervened and then brought you here. The memory loss is caused by rohypnol, roofies. They were trying to ensure you couldn't remember the incident. Thankfully that nice young man of yours stopped them before any permanent damage could be done."

Nice young man? Alice wondered. Did she mean Malcolm? "Why is my eye bandaged?" she asked, concerned over loosing the orb.

"The eye itself is fine, we were just concerned about a hairline fracture in the zygomatic arch. Your eye socket." the nurse explained. "There was concern over internal bleeding but thankfully you weren't that badly hurt. In the morning we'll take the bandages off and see how you feel. I'll go get you some sleeping pills so you can get back to resting. It's the best thing for you now." the nurse patted Alice's hand and walked away.

Alice sat in the hospital bed for a moment, still kind of shocked. Then the tears started, slipping down her face as she realized that it didn't matter that she wasn't with the foster family anymore, she was still getting victimized. She muffled the sobs, her body hurting as it shook with the emotion. The bandage around her eye was soaked with tears and her face ached and throbbed in time to her heartbeat. The nurse came back in and set everything down, rushing to her side to awkwardly hug her and offer babbled words of comfort. Alice didn't hear any of them, too overwhelmed with her pain and emotions to focus just yet, but hte nurse seemed to get that.

"I'm going to call those friends who took care of you last time. Screw visiting hours just this once." the nurse murmured to Alice and scuttled away again. Alice's hands shook as she carefully wiped the tears, but they just wouldn't stop. Even though her head hurt if she moved, Alice sat up, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. Face buried against her legs, she let the tears fall, needing to get it all out before the others came and saw.

Soft footsteps and a hand to her shoulder let her know someone had arrived. Alice reluctantly looked up, wishing she could wash the evidence of her crying away. Malcolm settled on the edge of her bed and wrapped his arms around her, not bothering to say anything. Just having him there, physically keeping her safe started the tears again and Alice hid her face away. Malcolm's gentle fingers rubbed against her back, soothing and calming, letting the storm of her weeping pass.

Tears finally exhausted, Alice felt numb and like she was wrapped in padding. "I'm sorry." she finally said, voice thick.

"You don't have anything to be sorry for." Malcolm replied. "I'm the one who's sorry. I am so sorry I didn't hear you call for help. I am so sorry that those hijos de puta ever hurt you." he kissed the side of her cheek softly, not caring that Salali was standing at the foot of hte bed, watching silently.

"What happened?" Alice asked, leaning into Malcolm's warmth. She still felt so cold.

"West saved you." Malcolm stated, tone of voice betraying that he wasn't thrilled with the prospect of West being her hero this time. "He put two of your attackers in the ICU, one's still in surgery." he stated, not really answering her question.

"Who?" Alice asked, needing to know.

"They've already been expelled, and once out of the hospital they will be charged." Malcolm deflected. Alice was too tired and numb to press the issue.

"I just want to go home." she said softly. Malcolm kissed her cheek again, seeming to understand that she wasn't talking about going back to the apartment. No, Alice meant she wanted her father here, but he was dead. She hadn't felt fully safe ever since he died.

"I brought something to take your mind off this." Malcolm said suddenly.

It's hard to frown with one eye bandaged up, but Alice managed. "What?" she asked suspiciously. Now that she'd gotten her little breakdown over with, she could try and move on, even if it was an act.

"The homework you're missing. The doctors are letting you out tomorrow, but they aren't letting you back to school until Monday." Malcolm explained, trying to lighten the mood.

"Alright guys, I think it's time she got back to sleep now." the nurse said as she came back in the room.  

Salali had been silent the entire time and came around the bed, Malcolm moving so she could fit. Sal leaned over and enveloped Alice in a gentle hug.

"I have something that will help." Salali's rough voice promised. "We'll spend the weekend catching up with ourselves." she added in, and Alice nodded like that made sense. Salali left then, her bulky mass ushering the nurse out before her.

Malcolm watched as Alice took the sleeping pills and gingerly lay back down. He sat next to her again, trailing a gentle finger over her cheek. He leaned over her and lightly kissed her lips. Even though her face hurt, she kissed him back. "We'll have a chance to talk after the weekend. I'm pretty sure it can wait until then. But if you need me at anytime, text me and I'll come running." he promised.

Alice gripped his hand and nodded, already feeling the sleeping pills blunt her emotions away. She yawned and winced as it hurt her face. She lay down and Malcolm was still there, which was the only reason she could close her eyes and drift off without fear.

By the time she went back to school Monday, the bandages had come off and word had gotten around school. Like the last time she'd come in after a beating, the student body seemed to put a hold on it's general animosity towards her. Several of the girls came up and hugged her, and a few of hte guys patted her shoulder as she walked by. Having caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, Alice couldn't really blame them. There were clear handprints bruised on her face and neck, though surprisingly her quasi broken eye socket never bruised. According to the doctors it might not, one of the strange quirks of a facial fracture. To make matters just more fun, she still had the damn flu and between the pain killers and antibiotics, Alice was feeling fuzzy and funky.

The class went quiet as she walked in for English and she stood in the doorwya, fighting the relfexive urge to run. "Wow, don't I feel all special." she blurted out as every eye was turned on her. "Nothing to see here folks, just your average raw hamburger face." slipped out right afterwards. Oh this was going to be fun, no mental filter and completely unable to stop the sarcastic comments, Alice just bit her lips together and tried to shut up, slinking into her seat. It'd been like that all weekend, with her unable to maintain control over her snarky comments. Salali had loved it, though Ace had felt very foot in mouth the entire time. The police officers who'd come by to take her statement and fill out the report had kept professionally blank faces even as Alice snarked at them, at herself, at everything. THe younger one cracked a smile as they were leaving and Alice cheerfully called out that she hoped to never see them again, in the kindest way possible.

Alice sat in her seat, the bruises along her ribcage dulled to bearable by the wonders of modern medicine. Even having missed so many days last week, she'd caught up on the homework over the weekend, just like Malcolm had figured. Hamlet was over and gone with, and they were winding into exam season. Alice took notes, doing her best to ignore the frank stares sent in her direction. Every now and then she'd lock eyes with Mr. Vega and have to remind herself that staring at him was going to give the whole game away. That and having her heart pound just made the pain worse. Because when she caught him looking at her, his eyes always had that fire in them.

Class ended and she stepped out into the hallways, suddenly nervous. But Butch was waiting across the hallway for her, and walked with her towards her science block. "Are you my honour guard then?" she asked him, touched by his thoughtfulness.

"What's an honor guard?" he asked, confused.

"I meant are you here to keep me safe." she explained, soft smile dancing around her bruised face.

Comprehension lit his face. "Oh, yeah! I am. This way miss, if you please." he made a broad sweeping gesture with his hand and Alice laughed. It hurt but felt good at the same time.

"Butch, my class is that way." she pointed in the opposite direction. He shrugged and fell in beside her, shufflnig his feet. The students rushing passed them to class all gave her gawking looks but hurried along, as if they were afriad to got caught staring. In science class it was even more obvious. Anytime Alice looked up, people looked away, and she caught everyone glancing at her out of the corner of her eye.

I know I look bad but why is everyone gaping at me like that? she passed a note to Gabby.

You're big news. Everyone heard what West did to save you. And that he's threatened anyone with worse if they bother you again. Gabby's note read.

That stunned Alice a little. She was grateful that he'd come rescued her, but she didn't understand why he was so violently ready to help her. The old saying is 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth', so Alice shrugged and accepted his concern. Not like she could do anything to stop him anyways. Another note dropped onto her desk.

Rumor mill is saying you're his secret girlfriend. Gabby's next note read. Alice grinned at it and shook her head. Of course they all thought that. It wasn't often a guy went mental to defend a girl and they weren't sleeping together.

Not even close. Only met him Wed. My bf isn't a student. she replied.

The teacher passed by, making the note passing stop and Alice spent the rest of class just taking notes and ignoring the glances. Theresa walked with her to the cafeteria. She wasn't looking forward to lunch, having the entire cafeteria watch her did not appeal and she ended up grabbing her food and huddling at the table with her friends. After the next handful of pills, pain killers and antibiotics, lunch was a forgotten blur.

It was time for dance class. Alice changed quickly, unable to explain why she felt so nervous as she dashed to class, a little amused to see that Kim and Justine were her guards this time. She entered the dance class and searched the room for one face only.

"Where's West?" she asked, looking at her friends.

"Right here." he said from behind her. Alice whirled to see him and he smirked down at her.

"I hear I owe you a thank you." she stated, suddenly unsure of how to speak to him. She didn't remember him helping her and it felt weird having that blank in her memory.

"You don't need to thank me." he replied, voice lower.

"Alright, I won't." Ace replied, then surprised him by hugging him around the waist. She never saw Malcolm step into the performance hall, because when he spotted her hugging West, he turned around and left.

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Please do not kill me for what I just did :D
PS I want to hear your guesses about what you think Malcolm needs to talk to her about. I'm very much sure that none of you will guess it right, not that you aren't a smart bunch of freaky darlings. I mean that in the best way possible BTW.