Inficio Diligo AKA: Tainted Love Ch. 2

Ch. 4

Morning eventually came, and things have been sort of tense since Sarlina and Asher had their fight, and the new residents still haven’t felt right at home yet. As Brooke, Archie and David came down to the kitchen the Asher investigation staff instantly greeted them.

While Sarlina was off doing her thing, David, Archie and Brooke ended up getting to know the employees, so in a way they sort of felt comfortable to be around these people. "Hey guys! Come on in, Sarlina's making breakfast." James said, waving his hand for them to come closer to the kitchen counter. "Yeah you're in for a treat! Sarlina makes the best French toast." Felicity said excitedly. Brooke, David and Archie then walked up closer to the counter and took their seats seeing Sarlina cooking. "Morning all." Sarlina said happily, as she flipped one of the pieces of toast. "Morning!" Brooke said with a genuine smile on her face "Hope you all like French toast." Archie then grinned over at her and quickly nodded. "Oh trust me we do!" he said excitedly, Sarlina smiled as she flipped one of the pieces and then looked back at him.

"That's good then."

Just then, Asher came walking into the kitchen, strode directly up to the fridge, and opened it to grab the carton of orange juice. "Morning everyone." He muttered tiredly, James then smiled up at Asher knowing that he probably had a rough night patrolling after picking Archie up from the theatre. "Morning Ash." Asher then looked over at Sarlina standing in front of the stove placing French toast on top of a plate. "Sar's cooking?" he asked in a little more happier tone, Felicity then started to laugh and gently nodded her head. "Yeah Coretta was attempting it but then sent off the fire alarm." Coretta then quickly looked over at Felicity and glared at her. "Hey! All because I almost caught the kitchen on fire that one time, you all will never let me forget it!" Sarlina then started to laugh as she placed the plate of French toast on the counter with a bottle of syrup. "Hence the reason why I shooed you out of the kitchen, stick to your day job Corey yer good at it." She said giving Coretta a wink, Coretta then rolled her eyes, as she picked up her fork and grabbed a piece. "Thanks for the advice." David then allowed out a small smirk amused with the banter that was going on between all of them, he then grabbed two pieces of French toast and placed them on his plate.

"So what do you all do in the morning, since everything happens at night?"

Connell then shrugged his shoulders, taking a bite out of his breakfast. "Eat breakfast, get to work and research, and when it hits night Sar and Ash then go out and patrol… but usually if Sar has to work at Marley's club then she goes out patrolling afterwards." Archie then smiled looking up at everyone. "That is so cool that you guys run an investigation agency!" Sarlina then smiled over at Archie and then shrugged her shoulders. "It's nice, chaotic at times but nice, we're all like one big happy dysfunctional family." Coretta then quickly had a thought and looked up over at Sarlina. "Oh Sar, are you doing anything tonight?" Sarlina then arched her brow at Coretta, picking up the bottle of syrup. "Perhaps, it's depending on what you want me to do." She said in a suspicious tone, causing Brooke and David to forcefully hide their smiles. Coretta sighed as she placed her fork down.

"Well, I'm going out with Tom tonight and he has this friend who is coming from out of town annnnd I was thinking that maybe you'd like to come with us."

Sarlina sighed and slowly shook her head. "Corey you know how I feel about blind dates, I mean bugger the last one you set me up with took me to Hooters." Felicity then looked at her disbelievingly "Did he really!?" Sarlina then nodded. "He did and that's not the only thing that happened that night, the manager thought I'd be a good asset to his lovely facility and asked if I wanted to work for him." Coretta then rolled her eyes. "Oh come on Sarlina that was one date! Not every guy is like that!" Sarlina then lets out a little chuckle. "No it's only every guy you date is like that, why don’t you let me decide who I'd like to date Corey?" Coretta then sighed. "Because! You never date! Sar you can have any man you want and yet you don’t go out there and have fun!" Sarlina then smirked at her. "Have you ever thought that maybe I'd like something a little more serious? You of all people know that I don’t like the whole one night stand thing." Coretta then nodded. "Yeah no kidding your never in for just a little fun." Sarlina then shrugged. "Why don’t you ask Felicity to go with you Corey?" Coretta then frowned. "Because Felicity isn’t his type, you would be perfect for him." Sarlina then glared at her, noticing Felicity bowing her head.

"What's wrong with Felicity? She's a smart and intelligent woman there's nothing wrong with that."

Coretta then rolled her eyes.

"She's just not. Come on Sarlina do this for me pleeeease?"

Sarlina then sighed and slowly shook her head. "Fine." She grumbled, Coretta then grinned and then jumped out of her seat and hugged her. "Oh Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!" she said so excitedly and walked out of the kitchen.

Once she was gone, Sarlina allowed out an aggravated sigh as she got up, picked up all the empty dishes, and carried them to the kitchen. "You know Sar you could've just stood your ground." Asher said knowing that Sarlina hates doing these things. "Yeah I know Ash I know…" she said in a sad tone, Asher slowly nodded while he and everyone else got up to get ready for work.

As soon as everyone left, Sarlina then started cleaning the dishes thinking about how much she wished she didn’t have to go on this date, until suddenly a familiar voice cut through her thoughts. "You know he's right." The voice said in his typical dark tone, Sarlina didn’t have to turn around to know that it was David and allowed out a small smile. "I know he is, but it's just one date what can it hurt?" David then slowly started to walk up towards her, his hands in his pockets.

"A lot if the guy is an asshole."

Sarlina sighed, and slowly turned around to see him standing right in front of her; Sarlina smirked at this and then crossed her arms. "And this is a concern of yours because?" David then smirked back at her and shrugged his shoulders, still having his hands in his pockets. "Never said it was, but you're obviously not happy about the situation." Sarlina then sighed and slowly nodded her head.

"It's not that I don’t like the idea of dating, I'm actually very open to it, it's just Corey has a tendency to date losers and most the time their friends are losers as well."

David then arched his brow as he crossed his arms. "Then why put yourself through that torture?" Sarlina then allowed a small smile as she looked over at nothing. "Because believe it or not I worry about Corey, and what if she went on a date and something horrible happened I'd never forgive myself, so I put myself through the torture just to make sure she has a good time." David then nodded. "Noble of you, if it was me I'd tell that person to just screw off." Sarlina then chuckled. "That's the difference between me and you, you could care or less if you hurt someone's feelings while me on the other hand that's the last thing I'd want to do." David then frowned. "What makes you think that I could care or less about someone's feelings?" Sarlina then smirked at him, arching her brow. David took notice of this and sighed allowing his own smirk to appear on his face. "Alright you're right I really don’t care, I just don’t understand why you're going through with this." Sarlina then shrugged. "Like I said I'm doing it to help out a friend." David then nodded as he cupped her cheek into his palm. "You're definitely not what I thought you would be." He said in an observing tone, Sarlina arched her brow, staring into his icy blue eyes. "And what did you think I was?" David then smiled at her and then gently shook his head, moving his hand away from her cheek. "Some snooty bitch who thinks she's the most amazing creature on the planet." Sarlina then scoffed. "Please not most amazing, I'd say secondly amazing." She said with laughter in her voice, and gave him a wink as she turned back to the dishes. David chuckled, actually amused by her. "Whatever you say cupcake." Sarlina then chuckled. "Cupcake?" she then stopped cleaning and had a thought.

"You know that actually sounds really good right now." She said with a huge grin on her face as she picked up the clean dishes and placed them in the cabinet.

David once again chuckled, not believing how much he was laughing and realized that it's been a very long time since he actually laughed like that. It’s been one heck of a ride for David, Brooke and Archie, it never made sense how they ended up together but they did. The apartment that they previously lived in was Brooke's and she needed help with the rent money so that is how he and Archie came in. Archie became an emancipated minor, due to his family wasn’t well enough to take care of him any longer and he refused to be apart of a foster home, so emancipating himself was the only option. David on the other hand, is a mystery in itself, no one knows where he came from, why his eyes were the way they were or how come he dresses the way he does, but that never seemed to bother Brooke nor Archie.

The only real thing they really knew about David was that he was 25 years old and pretty much ran his own life with out a care in the world. "So what exactly are you doing today?" he asked, Sarlina smiled over at him as she tided up the kitchen. "Research, Talk to clients, try to find something decent to wear for tonight. You know the usual." David smirked at her and slowly nodded his head, placing his hand behind his neck. "What is it with you women and having to spend 6 hours trying to find something to wear?" Sarlina then shrugged. "Donno, personally I should just dress down." She said distastefully, really hating that she has to go tonight. "Maybe I should wear one of my brother's baggy t-shirts and some torn jeans and mess with my hair to make it look like I just woke up." She said with a little devious smirk on her face, David then chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.

"Who knows maybe this guy get's turned on by those kinds of things."

Sarlina then frowned.

"Then can I call you to be my bodyguard?"

David then smirked at her, and slowly walks up closer to her. "Want me to scare the shit out of him, so you can get out of this?" Sarlina then started to laugh. "As much as I'd love that, Corey would kill me, but thanks for the gesture." David then nodded. "Hey anyway for me to be a complete ass to someone is fine by me, I love that kind of stuff." Sarlina then nodded as she realigned the chairs, almost finished tidying up. "I see, so what do you think about the music room? You seemed very intrigued by it." David sighed and looked up to notice that she was now placing everything in the right order. "It's a nice room, thanks for giving me free reign to it." Sarlina then shrugged giving him a warm smile; it was odd for David since most people stared at him in fear, or in utter disgust to his appearance. "No problem, like I said I know what it's like to want to get away from the world and music was always my sanctuary, why not let it be one for you." David then nodded, now placing his hands back in his pockets. "I appreciate it." Sarlina then shrugged. "It's really no problem." She grinned finishing up and then walked out of the room.

Majority of the day had been pretty slow, Brooke and Archie went off to work, since Brooke was insistent that they pay rent for staying at the hotel even though Asher and Sarlina were insistent that they didn’t have to. David decided that after his conversation with Sarlina that he'd go hide back in the music room and practice some of the songs he wrote. It seemed that whenever Sarlina passed by the room, she'd hear a guitar playing various melodies and that in itself caused her to smile. Eventually David figured that he should stop for the day and get some rest since he had to work tonight. Once Sarlina finished all her work, she then climbed up the stairs to her room to get ready for the night.

As Sarlina finished her shower, she then wrapped a towel around herself and then walked over to her closet to see what she should wear tonight. Sarlina frowned, wishing she didn’t have to go out, she'd much rather go out patrolling tonight or just hang out in the music room, but unfortunately she already promised Corey she'd go. So she started to search through her clothes until she decided to just wear a simple black dress, she then grabbed a pair of black high heels and then placed them on her bed. She then walked back to her bathroom and then blew dry her hair, applied on some makeup and looked back at her bed seeing the clothing still sitting there and sighed. "Guess it's now or never." She grumbled as she walked over to the bed and placed on her dress and shoes.

As soon as Sarlina was ready, she slowly walked out of her room, her purse in her hand figuring that she'll have to pay for dinner again and then walked down the stairs to see Coretta waiting for her. "Wow Sar you look great!" she said excitedly, Sarlina then rolled her eyes and slowly nodded her head. "Thanks Corey." She said softly.

Just then, David came walking out of the music room, a guitar strapped against his shoulder when he finally looked up to see Sarlina and Coretta. David instantly stopped his pace and stared at Sarlina appraisingly. "Well, well, well don’t you ladies look nice." He said with a little smirk appearing on his face, Sarlina glared at him while Coretta then giggled. "Aww thanks David." David then nodded his smirk still on his face as he started to walk towards them. he then looked Sarlina up and down, his smirk growing even bigger. "So is this your way of dressing down?" Sarlina glared at him and playfully pushed him. "Shut it David!" David then started to burst out into laughter, his smile growing even bigger. "Well for what it's worth, you look great Sar." Sarlina then frowned.

"Damn now I have to go change, I'm supposed to look horrible!"

She said giving him a wink, David rolled his eyes and then slowly shook his head. "Well mission unaccomplished then." Sarlina then sighed "Yeah I guess so." Coretta analyzed the two and noticing that in a weird way, they have an odd connection to each other, and in a way, she couldn’t help but be curious about it. However, she figured that she should keep it to herself for only right now, she then noticed that David had a guitar strapped against his shoulder and then arched her brow. "So what are you doing tonight David?" David then quickly looked over at her and shrugged. "Playing at the pub I work for." Coretta then gasped as she placed her hand on his shoulder. "You sing!? Oh wow I'd love to hear you play sometime." David arched his brow at her, while Sarlina rolled her eyes.

"Corey when are these guys getting us?"

Coretta then frowned and looked over at her. "We're supposed to meet them about a half a block from here." Sarlina then groaned out of frustration. "You mean they couldn’t come and pick us up? Wow Corey this night is just getting better and better." Coretta then frowned. "Look I figured that you'd like it better that way." Sarlina then glared at her. "Yeah cause you know I love walking half a blocks in high inch stiletto heels." David then smirked and looked over at her. "Well I'm out have a great night." Sarlina frowned and slowly nodded. "We'll try." She muttered, completely irritated that she now has to go walk a block and a half to see her and Coretta's date.

As Coretta and Sarlina walked to their meeting place, they ended up seeing two guys standing outside waiting for them. Sarlina frowned, noticing that the men looked like two guys from a mafia movie. Corey was obviously thrilled when she caught sight of them and then ran up and hugged her date, while Sarlina lagged her pace not wanting to even be a part of this, the guy who was with Coretta's date turned his head towards Sarlina and then looked her up and down appraisingly.

"Why hello there sugar." He said, with a sly grin morphing on his face.

Sarlina rolled her eyes and gave him a fake smile. "Hi." Coretta then quickly turned around, her date having his arms wrapped around her waist. "Guys this is my friend Sarlina O'Riley." Coretta's date then grinned, examining Sarlina like she was a piece of meat. "Wow Cor, you weren’t lying your friend is a real looker." Coretta then nodded. "Told you Tom." She then looked over at Tom's friend. "Mark she is your blind date." Mark then grinned at her and then held out his arm. "Milady." He said in a suave tone, Sarlina glared at him while she crossed her arms. "Where exactly are you two planning on taking us?" she asked annoyed by this man already, Mark seemed to be amused by her and then placed his hands in his pockets. "Well we were thinking of taking you to this nice little place, it's a pub grant it but they have excellent food there and then we were thinking about taking you ladies dancing." Coretta gasped, completely excited with the idea. "Oh I love dancing!" she said happily. Sarlina on the other hand felt that something was up, it's just she couldn’t place her hand on it at the moment. "Alright well let's get going, are one of you going to drive or are we going to have to walk there?" she asked sarcastically, receiving a nice glare from Coretta. Tom chuckled at Sarlina, causing Sarlina to look at him distastefully.

"Don’t worry sweetheart, we're going to drive."

Sarlina then rolled her eyes and then sighed. "Oh how gentlemanly of you two, since you know you both forced us to walk a block and a half to meet up with you." Coretta then grabbed Sarlina's arm, humiliated by the way she was treating their dates and pulled her aside. "Sarlina please! For once in your life behave!" Sarlina then glared at Coretta seeing the two men standing there looking over at the girls as if their a piece of candy they are desiring to have. "Corey, there's something up with these guys, I can just feel it." She said warningly, sensing that something was odd about them. Coretta then sighed. "Well then I guess it's a good thing I have you with me isn’t it?!" she said hotly, Sarlina then rolled her eyes "That's not the point! Do you really want to be with someone who is going to use you!? I mean bloody hell they didn’t even have the decency to come pick us up!" Coretta then shrugged her shoulders. "Does it really matter?" she then turned Sarlina to face the two men.

"I mean come on Sar look how cute they are, are you really going to hold this against them?"

Sarlina then glared at her noticing that one of them were staring at her enticingly, and sensed his adrenaline speeding up, realizing that he was lusting over her. Sarlina inwardly groaned, furious with this situation. "Sodding hell let's just get this over with." Coretta then smiled over at her.

"That's my girl!"

The girls then walked over to their dates and were escorted into a Mercedes convertible. Sarlina rolled her eyes when she felt Mark trying to wrap his arm around her shoulder, and then shrugged his arm off her, while Coretta was chattering away. Tom then started to drive off to their destination which turned out to be in a bad part of L.A. Sarlina frowned knowing exactly where they were and was worried as to what they were up to. 'I should've brought one of my daggers with me' she reprimanded herself as they stopped in front of this old weathered pub. Sarlina arched her brow at the place, seeing drunks gallivanting and causing all sorts of trouble in the front. She then glared at the man beside her. "This is where your planning on taking us?!" she asked furious that these two idiots would honestly bring two women here.

Sure, she wasn’t worried about herself at this point, she's been down in this area plenty of times but she was mostly worried about Coretta handling this place. Tom then chuckled and looked back at Sarlina. "Sorry it's not a 5 class restaurant sweetheart but they do have good food here." Sarlina then clenched her fists furious with these men and wanted nothing more then to beat the both of them down into the ground. "I'm not your sweetheart ya git! And I don’t expect a 5 star restaurant, what I expect is a little respect." Tom then chuckled and looked over at his friend with a knowing grin that Sarlina took notice of.

Just then, Tom then got out of the car and helped Coretta out, Mark was about to do the same thing but Sarlina ignored his hand and got out herself. As they walked into the building that was filled with smoke, Coretta instantly started coughing while Sarlina was just standing observing the area. Mark and Tom then escorted the two women to a table, while one of them walked over to order drinks. "So um this place is nice." Coretta said softly to Tom. Tom smiled over at her and placed his arm around her shoulder, while Sarlina was surveying the area. "Yeah me and Mark come here a lot it's a nice place." Sarlina scoffed when she heard this and then suddenly noticed something odd in the crowd of people.

This person she was staring intently at had the same dark black and red hair as David, and he was wearing the same worn out gray jeans and black t-shirt as he as well. Sarlina's eyes widened when she saw the man turn around and saw the same Icy blue eyes staring back at her in surprise. David then suddenly smirked, realizing that it was Sarlina and Coretta and then started to walk towards them, just as soon as he was about to make it their table, Sarlina still looking at him curiously he was then stopped by another man who was carrying a pitcher of beer and placing it on the table.

"Here you go ladies!"

Mark announced as he plopped himself down in his chair next to Sarlina and wrapping his arm around her shoulder, pulling her body close against his, Sarlina glared at him and pulled his arm off of her. "Thanks." She muttered, as she poured some beer in her glass. David smirked at this realizing that these two guys were Sarlina and Coretta's dates. He noticed that the guy who was sitting next to Sarlina kept trying to put his hands on her and she kept pushing him away, while Coretta was allowing it with the other guy.

In a way this really ticked David off, seeing the way that the one guy kept pushing Sarlina, but little did he know that Sarlina was more than capable of taking care of herself, so he then decided that he was going to make an appearance and let the girls know that it was really him who they saw. He then started to walk up closer to the table overhearing one of the guys talking. "So then I told that idiot just for talking back at me that he can kiss his job goodbye and that loser had the audacity the flip me off before he walked off!" Mark then started to burst out laughing. "Yeah the guy was a real tool." Sarlina rolled her eyes, while Coretta aloud a fake laugh just to impress Tom.

Once Tom finished his story, David then rolled his eyes noticing that every time Sarlina's date would try to get close to her she'd push him away. David then cleared his throat trying to get the girls' attention; Sarlina was the first to react and gasped when she saw David smirking at her. "David!" she said excitedly, as she jumped out of her chair to hug him. David chuckled at this and hugged her as well. Coretta then smiled and rose up from her chair to give David a hug too. "Hi David, how are you?!" she asked excitedly, David smirked and gave her a side hug. "Good what are you guys doing here?" He asked, while Coretta sat back down and when Sarlina went to sit down David held her close to him, his arm around her waist.

"Oh we're here on our date."

Coretta smiled, David arched his brow and then looked over at Sarlina. "You guys came in the worst part of downtown L.A. for a date?" he asked incredulously, Sarlina then nodded. "Yep. David meet our dates Mark and Tom. Mark and Tom meet our friend David." David glared at the men who looked disgusted that he was there. "Hi." He muttered, hearing both of the men giving him an irritated 'hi' as well. Sarlina then smiled over at David as she moved out of his hold. "David please have a seat." She gestured towards the seat next to her; David smirked over at her and then shrugged his shoulders. "Oh I don’t want to impose…" just then they all heard Tom hotly say. "Then don’t! Do you mind Buddy we're sort of busy here." Sarlina then glared at him and then turned towards David.

"No really David it's fine, please have a seat."

David then looked over at Tom and gave him a devious smirk as he sat down in the chair next to Sarlina. "Don’t mind if I do." He said in a cocky manner, Sarlina smiled and then looked over at him giving him a confused look. "David why are you here?" David smiled over at her and then pointed at the stage that was going to be set up. "This is where I work." Coretta then gasped, placing her hand next to her mouth. "Really!? Doesn’t it get dangerous for you at times?" David then shook his head. "Nah, I'm used to drunks and whatnot if they start trouble I'll just kick their asses out of here." Mark then scoffed, ticked off that Sarlina was giving this guy who he would consider a freak more attention then him. "So that is what you do for a living? Sing?" David then quickly looked over at him, giving him an icy glare. "Yeah I do have a problem with it?" he asked in a grim tone, Mark then smirked over at him and shook his head. "No not at all, I figured someone like you would probably work at a low life job such as a singer for a bar." Sarlina then quickly looked over at Mark and glared at him.

"Excuse Mark, but how dare you be a rude incompetent ass? If you even know what this man is capable of you'd be amazed but what an amazing voice he has!"

Tom then chuckled.

"Please… if he was worth anything he'd have a record label by now, and he wouldn’t be sitting here right now with us, trying to prove he is actually worth something."

Sarlina clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white, while David was just ignoring these two idiots' statements. "You stupid Sod." Sarlina said hotly, shaking her head at them. Coretta then quickly looked over at Sarlina and glared at her. "Sar stop it! Enough with this, lets just enjoy our night ok?" Sarlina then scoffed at her. "Whatever." She muttered, crossing her arms in disgust. David shrugged and then looked over at Sarlina and gave her a small smile. "Well I'm on, so I'll talk to you after I'm done." Sarlina then smiled at him and nodded. "See you after the show." David nodded and then rose up from his seat and smirked at Mark and Tom. "Oh and it was a real pleasure meeting the two of you." he said sarcastically as he walked off towards the stage. Mark and Tom glared at him as he walked off and then looked over at the two girls. "That guy is a complete loser why would you even want to hang out with him." Mark asked, Sarlina then shrugged her shoulders and looked over at Mark giving him a little smile. "Because he's fascinating, and isn’t a complete idiot." Tom then rolled his eyes. "Please the guy is a complete freak! Did you see his hair and his eyes!? He looks like he could be a total psycho!" Coretta then frowned. "He's not though, he's a bit moody but he isn’t a freak." Mark then scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah… Right." Mark then looked over at Sarlina and gave her a devious smirk as he placed his hand on her thigh. "Why don’t you be a sweetheart and go get us some more beer." He whispered seductively into her before he laid a soft kiss onto her skin, as his hand then moved further up her thigh. Sarlina quickly looked over at him, her eyes now glowing with rage. "If you don’t get your hand off my thigh I swear I will wear your guts for garters!" she said in a very dark, terrifying tone.

Mark then suddenly frowned, seeing the grim look that was morphing on her face as he quickly pulled his hand away from her leg. Sarlina then had a dark smirk morphing on her face, her fangs just daring to come out. "Good boy." She said condescendingly as she rose up from the chair, grabbed the pitcher, and walked off. Sarlina was in no rush to get back to the table, if anything she'd love to just leave or find a way to just spend time with David. But she knew that she had to stay close because of that nagging feeling she kept having about the two of them.

After about 15 minutes later, Sarlina finally arrived back to the table seeing Coretta just laughing up a storm, and seemed completely un-cognate as to what was going on. Sarlina arched her brow at Coretta's odd behavior as she placed the pitcher down and looked over at Tom. "What's wrong with her?" she asked, Tom then gave Sarlina a devious smirk and then shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing sweetheart, she just had too much to drink." Sarlina then glared at Tom and then looked over at Coretta's glass and then picked it up and took a sip out of it, realizing that they laced her drink. "YOU STUPID SODS YOU LACED HER DRINK!" she shouted, slamming the glass on to the ground causing it to shatter. Tom looked at Sarlina in surprise, not believing that she figured out what they did.

Suddenly Tom became very angry with Sarlina as she tried to pull Coretta up from the chair. "Come on Corey let's get you out of here." She said softly, and then suddenly was pulled away from Coretta, causing Coretta to fall on to the ground. Sarlina quickly looked behind her and saw that Mark was holding onto her, while Tom was sneering at her. "You listen here you little bitch, you will shut your mouth and do what we say." Sarlina looked up at Tom and gave him a very grim smirk. "Mate you have no idea who you're messing with, I'm going to so much fun bashing yer head in." Tom glared at her and then gave her a full frontal slap across the face, causing Sarlina to hunch down placing her hand on her cheek. Sarlina was furious now and as soon as she was about to straighten up and beat the hell out of this guy, she then saw that someone already beat her too it.

Once she caught a full look as to what was going on, she saw that David was beating the hell out of Tom, while Mark still held on to her. Sarlina then inhumanly growled and then elbowed Mark in the stomach, causing him to let her go. She then turned around and punched him directly in the nose causing him to fly away from her a couple of feet from the impact of her punch, Sarlina smirked at this and then turned around to see Corey on the ground, tears rolling down her cheek. She then kneeled down and placed her hand on Corey's shoulder while she leaned over on Sarlina and started to cry even harder, Sarlina frowned and hugged Coretta to her, while watching David pummeling Tom into the ground. Sarlina smiled watching Tom get what he deserved, but then looked back at Corey and frowned noticing that she was still in tears.

Once David knew that Tom had, had enough he then turned around to see Sarlina kneeled down on to her knees hugging a crying Coretta close to her, while she was trying to consol her. David then slowly walked up to the two girls frowning. "You guys ok?" Sarlina then looked up at him and slowly nodded. "Yeah, we'll be ok, I just need to get Corey to bed that's all." David then nodded, and then went to help Sarlina pull Corey up. "I'll walk you guys home." Sarlina then frowned and then slowly shook her head. "You don’t have to David I know you have a show tonight." David then gave Sarlina a very stern look and shook his head.

"No, I'm not allowing you two to walk home by yourselves in this area you understand?"

Sarlina then slowly nodded her head, wishing she could tell him that she's perfectly capable of walking her and Coretta home, but knew that it would go against with what Asher and Felicity wanted. "Yes…" she said softly, David nodded at this and started to walk off with Coretta. "Good now let's get going." Sarlina slowly nodded, watching David walk further out of the bar, holding onto Coretta.

Once she knew that David was further out of sight, Sarlina then looked over at Tom seeing that he was gaining consciousness, so she then had a devious smirk forming on her face and then decided to kick him across the bar to the wall. Sarlina smiled at her accomplishment and then started to walk out of the bar.

As soon as she stepped out, she saw David and Coretta outside waiting for her. Sarlina frowned seeing that Coretta was still in tears and ended up feeling horrible for leaving her like that, she then walked up to Coretta and slung one of her arms around her shoulders and helped David walk her back home. "David thank you so much for doing this." Sarlina said softly, David nodded giving Sarlina a faint smile. "It's no problem I'm just glad that these assholes decided to do this at my work so I could keep an eye on you two." Sarlina nodded and then quickly gave him a concerned look. "David what about your guitar?" David looked up and gave her a small smile. "Don’t worry about it; I can just pick it up later." Sarlina then frowned worried that someone will steal it and then gave him a concerned look. "Are you sure, I mean I can go grab it for you if you want?" David then shook his head. "No it's really ok; the manager will probably place it in my locker so when I come back it'll still be there." Sarlina then slowly nodded and then looked over at Coretta who was now very quite. "Hey Corey how are you doing?" Coretta looked over at Sarlina and frowned. "I don’t feel very well." She said softly, Sarlina gave her a sympathetic smile and slowly nodded. "Don’t worry Cor we're almost home." Coretta nodded, feeling completely weak from what ever they placed in her drink, but obviously knew that she wasn’t in too much trouble since Sarlina would be worrying right now.

As Sarlina, David and Coretta continued on walking, they finally made it back to the hotel once they stepped inside, Sarlina then took hold of Coretta and helped escorting her to her room to help clean her up.

While Coretta was emptying her stomach into the toilet, Sarlina was then placing out fresh pajamas for her and laid them out on her bed. Coretta finally emptied everything out of her stomach and then slowly walked into her room, and with Sarlina's help changed into her pajamas and then crawled into her bed. Sarlina then tucked her in, then walked off into the bathroom, grabbed the waste bucket, dampened a wet washcloth, and then carried them back to Coretta's bed. She then laid the bucket right next to the bed, and then placed the washcloth on top of Coretta's forehead. Coretta drowsily looked up at Sarlina and smiled. "Thanks Sar." She whispered groggily, Sarlina smiled as she turned off the table lamp. "It's no problem Corey if you need anything just let me know." Coretta then nodded and then slowly drifted off to sleep.

Once Sarlina knew that she was sleeping she then quietly walked out of her room and into the lobby seeing David standing out there waiting for her. As soon as David caught sight of her he then quickly rose up from the couch that was formed in a circle, giving Sarlina a somewhat irritated slash concerned look. "Is she going to be ok?" Sarlina then nodded, allowing out a soft sigh. "Yeah… she'll be fine, she just needs some rest." David then slowly nodded, placing his hands in his pockets. "That's good…" Sarlina then gave him a small smile, fiddling with her hands. "Yeah…" David sighed and then looked up at her. "Well goodnight then." Sarlina smiled and slowly nodded her head. "Good night David." David gave her one final nod and was about to walk out of the room until he heard Sarlina call for him. "David?" David slowly turned around to see Sarlina now walking up to him; she then gave him a warm embrace and then placed a soft kiss on his cheek. "Thank you for saving us tonight and thank you for being my bodyguard." She whispered David stared at her in complete shock as he placed his hand on his cheek. "It's really no problem Sar." Sarlina then shrugged a little embarrassed by her rash action. "I know it's just not very often that someone comes to my or Coretta's rescue ya know?" David then slowly nodded and then gave her a small smile.

"It's really no problem after all what is a bodyguard for?"

Sarlina then chuckled as she crossed her arms. "Well thank you for being my bodyguard" David then allowed at a small smirk and then shrugged his shoulders. "It's cool, but next time it'll have to cost you." he said giving her a wink, Sarlina then started to laugh as she started to walk towards the kitchen. "Well next time I'll remember to bring my wallet, goodnight David." David then grinned watching her walk away from him. "Goodnight Sar." He said with laughter in his voice as he walked off towards his room.

Once Sarlina knew that he was upstairs, she then quietly walked down towards the basement, and then walked down the steps to see Asher just getting in. "Hey sis how was the date?" Sarlina sighed as she pulled off her shoes and threw them off to the side as she walked up to the fridge.

"A bloody nightmare, Corey's date laced her drink and she ended up getting completely and utterly sick, and then when I called him out on it he smacked me."

Asher then arched his brow at her, seeing her pick up two glasses at the nearby table, pulled a bag of animal's blood, and opened it to pour the crimson liquid into the two glasses. "Please tell me you kicked his ass." Sarlina looked up at him and frowned. "I wanted to but the bar we went to happened to be the same bar that David works at and I didn’t want to break my cover…" Asher then smirked at her.

"Did he come to the rescue for you two ladies in distress?" Sarlina then scoffed.

"Please I could've taken those two gits, but I have to admit that it was nice to be saved for once in my life. I can see why women love the whole knight and shining armor thing."

Asher then started to chuckle. "I think the boy has a thing for you." Sarlina then arched her brow at him. "I highly doubt it; he's more interested in figuring out what we're hiding." Asher then chuckled once again picking up the glass and taking a sip. "The boy is very inquisitive." Sarlina then smirked at him, picking up her glass and taking a sip as well. "More like the man is inquisitive, and I have a feeling he'll eventually find out soon." Asher then shrugged. "Well if he does, he does. I took some thought as to what you were talking about and maybe it is good for them what we are." Sarlina then nodded. "Have you found anything out regarding the disappearances?" Asher then frowned and slowly shook his head. "No nothing other than some big bad is coming and we have to take care of it." Sarlina then rolled her eyes. "When do we not have to take care of it, it sort of became our job to protect the world." Asher then slowly nodded looking deep in thought.

"I know, but we have to be careful, if anything happens we have to send the new residents to Marley's since she has the protection spell at her place."

Sarlina sighed and slowly nodded. "I know Ash, I just wish we could find out what's going on, more and more people are disappearing and it seems like Iggy has no clue as to what is going on." Asher then nodded looking deep in thought. "Maybe you can go talk to Iggy he always had a soft spot for you." Sarlina shrugged, and then looked up at her brother giving him a concerned look. "Yeah I think I can do that tomorrow. I'm working at Marlena's Club tomorrow so I'll just shoot over there before or afterwards." Asher then took one last sip out of his glass and then placed it down on the table.

"Make sure he tells you everything."

Sarlina smirked at her brother and took a final sip out of her drink as she placed it down on the table. "Don’t worry older brother he'll tell me everything." Asher then smirked at her and slowly nodded. "Good. Have a nice night Sar." Sarlina then nodded her smirk growing even wider. "Good night Ash." She said softly as she walked up the stairs to head to her room for the night.

Meanwhile as David was walking towards his room, he then saw Archie's light on in his room, David arched his brow and then softly knocked on the door. Archie slowly opened the door to see David standing there and smiled. "Hey David just getting in?" David then slowly nodded giving Archie a confused look. "Yeah, why are you still up?" Archie then shrugged his shoulders. "Me and Brooke are just talking, still trying to get used to the new place." David then slowly nodded, seeing Brooke sitting on the ground next to Archie's bed. "You can come in David if you want." Archie chuckled as he opened the door for him; David took his invitation and walked inside the room as Archie closed the door.

"Couldn’t sleep either?"

David asked Brooke, Brooke slowly nodded giving him a small smile. "Yeah, it's weird actually living in a hotel. There's so many rooms, and so much history that went on here." David then slowly nodded. "How did everyone treat you guys when I was out?" he asked protectively since Brooke and Archie were his only family he really had. Brooke smiled over at David as he took a seat on Archie's bed. "Everyone has been really nice, Asher isn’t as bad as I thought he would be, in fact he's a lot like Sarlina." David then smirked at this. "Yeah she's pretty amusing, I actually ran into her and Coretta at my bar tonight." Archie then frowned. "What were they doing there?" David sighed, clasping his fingerless gloved hands together. "Their dates decided that it would be a good place to take them on an outing." Brooke then gasped. "But that is in the bad part of L.A." David then nodded, allowing a little smirk to form on his face.

"Yeah Sarlina didn’t look to happy about it, in fact I think she was about ready to stab a fork into her dates thigh. But Coretta's date laced her drink and she ended up getting very sick, so Sarlina got upset and started yelling at Coretta's date and then he got mad and slapped Sarlina hard on the face."

Brooke then gave David a worried look. "Is she ok!?" David then chuckled. "Yeah she's fine! In fact her date tried to hold her back but she elbowed him and punched him square in the nose!" Archie frowned and then shrugged his shoulders. "Well I guess that's why she's an Investigator; they have to learn self defense and all." David then started to chuckle again. "It was amazing, it was like instincts the way she pummeled that guy." Brooke then looked up at David and smirked at him. "It seems that you've been getting along with her really well lately." David then shrugged. "Believe it or not in some odd why I think she get's me. She understands who I am." Archie then smiled over at David. "She's really nice; she has a funny sense of humor whenever I talk to her." David smirked and slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, it's just I wish I knew what her and Asher were hiding." Brooke then frowned, giving David a confused look. "What makes you think they're hiding something?" David then shrugged, scrunching up his eyebrows, looking deep in thought.

"Because, Sarlina and Asher have this mystery about them and Sarlina was really upset that one night she got in a fight with Asher and when she was in the music room it just looked like she was just dying to say something, something that is bothering her but something is holding her back."

Brooke then shrugged.

"I think that Sarlina and Asher have been through a lot in their past and they still have things that still haunt them which is the reason why they try to distance anything about their past, maybe that's what they're hiding."

David then slowly nodded, looking deep in thought. "Yeah… that could be a possibility, I mean they can't be that bad right? Especially since Felicity is good friends with them." Archie then nodded. "Yeah, I mean if she likes them, then that must mean they are good people." Brooke then arched her brow, smirking at David.

"David do you have feelings for a certain Dark Haired, Blue Eyed, Irish woman who happens to have a very handsome brother?"

David then quickly looked up at Brooke and glared at her. "Why would you think that!?" he snapped, Brooke then started to laugh. "It's just I don’t know every time she walks in the room you have your eyes on her. I mean you have to admit she is pretty and very friendly." David sighed, thinking about how her lips felt against his cheek, how they were so soft and sweet and so warm against his skin that it still tingled from the wonderful sensation, and in a weird way it sort of made his heart flip for even thinking about that innocent little action.

"She wouldn’t be interested in a guy like me." he muttered, realizing that he could never get a girl like her.

Brooke then gave him a small smile. "Why would you say that, she seems to really like your company." David then shrugged. "Did you see the way she acted about going on a date with Coretta; she literally cringed at the idea." Archie then smiled over at him. "Yeah but your not the guys that Coretta hooks her up with, and Sarlina did say that she is interested in dating, she just needs to find the right person." David then scoffed. "Yeah and that person is definitely me." he said sarcastically, Brooke then shrugged her shoulders. "You never know, I mean we don’t really know who her type is, she might be interested." David then rolled his eyes.

"Why the hell are we even talking about this!? Look I don’t look at her that way and she doesn’t see me that way get it!? Why cant you guys just accept that we are just possible friends, she likes music, so do I. She knows how to kick a guys ass, I like kicking peoples ass. She has Dark blue eyes I have Icy blue eyes. That is as much as we have in common."

Archie then smirked over at him.

"Whatever you say David, but I think that you might have a thing for her, since you're usually hostile with anyone trying to get close to you."

Brooke then started to laugh.

"Yeah especially if it's not me or Archie then you really don’t like strangers."

David then glared at them.

"Look, me and Sar are just friends. I find her entertaining and she finds me intriguing. I mean there's nothing more to it. She could have any guy in the world and she would never pick a guy like me, nor do I know if I want to be that guy! So you two just stop assuming shit and just deal with the fact that there is nothing more to this made up relationship you guys are trying to set up on me."

Brooke then placed her hands up defensively. "Ok, Ok David, there's no need to get upset about it, we were just trying to help you out." David then glared at her. "Well Don’t! I don’t need your help you get that!?" he said hotly, Archie frowned and then placed his hand on David's shoulder. "Look I don’t think she'll turn out to be…" David then cuts off Archie. "Don’t Archie! Just please don’t…" he said grimly, as he stood up from the bed and started to walk towards the door. "David!" Brooke yelled before he walked out, David then slowly turned around and looked at Brooke. "David look, we're sorry for pushing you and we understand but at least give it chance will you?" David gave her a very stoic look and then slowly nodded his head as he stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut.

Once he was out of the room, David sighed thinking about the past and thinking about the pretty little Irish woman who he rescued tonight. David couldn’t help but smile as he thought about how cute she looked in that little black dress, and couldn’t help but be amused by her viper attitude towards their dates, and how she defended him when their dates where trying to knock him down. Maybe he really did need to allow a chance and that is when his memories of pain and hurt rushed into him and that is when he realized that he couldn’t risk a chance nor will he ever allow it.

David sighed, feeling his heart hardened into a block of ice realizing that he needed to get that little Irish woman out of his head, and needed to focus on to what is more important to him, the only thing that ever stood by with him and that thing was his music.