Damaged Goods

Chapter 14- When the Goin' Gets Tough...

Aria had been at it all day, practicing with Marcus on her self-defense techniques and could honestly say she'd gotten nowhere. Marcus was afraid to hurt her and treated her like a China doll and Nate insisted she wasn't ready for his level of talent and had went to get groceries. The bastard would probably end up only getting donuts and soda, knowing she needed to eat better than that.

"Aria, focus! This isn't some game!" Marcus hollered.

Yeah, she'd had enough of his attitude too. 'Aria do this, Aria try doing that...' Yes, he was just trying to help save her life but she had been doing to same steps for over four hours now! She was hungry, tired and hormonal dang it! It took most of her strength to keep herself from crying when Marcus would tell her she was doing something wrong.

Damn you Jason Statham for making this look easy!

"Shut up, Marcus! Just shut up!" she reprimanded him, walking closer to him. "I'm tired," another step. "I'm hungry," and another. "And I'm pregnant and fat!" she finished, ending up face-to-chest with him. By this point she actually was crying. She hated the mood swings associated with being pregnant; they were so exaggerated it was insane.

"You're not fat! You haven't even gained two pounds yet, Aria. Just take a deep breath and calm down," he replied softly.

Wrong answer. To any men out there, when talking to a woman, pregnant or not, never tell her to calm down! That's like telling your stomach not to growl. It would decide to growl with an intensity to rival a monster truck's engine.

Her eyes flashed in fury at his request and she bunched up her fists. Her nostrils flared and she gritted her teeth in pent up rage. Marcus wasn't familiar enough with women to understand what he had done wrong, but soon found out. She sent her right fist backwards, and with all her might, just as she'd seen Kim do at the bar countless times, sent it flying forward. Her fist connected with his left cheekbone and though she knew it'd split her knuckle open, was fully satisfied to see once he'd rotated his head back around from the impact, his face was split as well.

Marcus's eyes were as wide as saucers as he looked back at Aria. She'd hit him! It wasn't one of those half-assed hits she had been doing all morning. No, this was a solid, cheekbone splitting punch that could only come from a woman scorned. Note to self, don't piss Aria off.

"That was a hell of a punch! Do it like that every time!" Marcus complimented.

Aria felt all that anger wash away at his praise. If all she had to do was get angry to hit like that and make him happy she'd succeed yet.

"Now can I go eat and sit down?" she whined.

"Yep! Let's get that kiddo fed," he replied and they began walking back inside.

"Oh and Marcus?" she questioned.

"Yeah?"

"From now on I fight Nate. He will fight back and he's a lot better at pissing women off," Aria said dismissively.

Marcus had to laugh at that. Yes, he would be the instructor she needed for a lesson on tough love and he couldn't deny Nate was a professional when it came to ticking off women. He just didn't know who to be worried for.

-- --

"Keep your hands up!" Nate hollered. "How are you going to defend yourself standing like that? Keep your legs shoulder width apart and bend at the knees. I could push you over with a feather right now!"

Aria had been training with Nate a whole ten minutes and was already sick of his mouth. It seemed like she could do no right and she just wished they could move on to gun lessons, Nate being the target.

For the thousandth time she squared her shoulders, leveled her stance and brought her hands up beside her face. She saw Nate's muscles tense preparing to move and she went on alert. Nate sent a right hook flying towards her face and she instinctively ducked and swung her fist towards him. It landed in his gut but he didn't give any sign it'd hurt other than a grunt. She backed away quickly, too afraid to follow up with more punches.

"Better!" he congratulated.

He didn't give her time to praise herself as his leg swung around about a foot off the ground. She didn't see it in time to jump and his leg rammed into her calves and sent her flying on her butt. With an 'oomph' her back smacked against the sand followed by her head.

She really needed to master this if she planned on having a chance against trained killers. Nate sat his boot over her throat and Aria realized she'd messed up thinking it was over.

"Don't give up until one of you is dead, got it?" Nate asked.

"Yeah, I should've known better. Sorry," she replied.

"I think that's quite enough for now," Marcus interrupted from the deck. "Nate you forget she's pregnant and doesn't need slammed to the ground just for training. Aria, are you alright?"

"Yeah, it was my fault for taking time to pat myself on the back. I'm fine and so is the fetus. It's small enough it's still heavily protected," she said getting up and walking back towards the house.

Nate looked at Marcus bewildered. Marcus caught the look and joined him by the water.

"What's with the look?" Marcus questioned.

"Does she always refer to the baby as a 'fetus?' I mean, kind of odd isn't it?" Nate asked.

Marcus shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Yeah, she does. I don't know if it's a medical thing since she's a nurse or what. Maybe she does it because it's so small."

Neither one could think of a good reason for her to say it, but brushed it off for now. They walked inside the house to find Aria and Nate decided to just come out and ask her.

"So do you know what you're having yet?" he casually asked.

"What? The fetus? Oh no, it's still way too early to tell. I'm only about a month and a half along by now and I'll need to be about three and a half," she replied offhandedly.

There it was again... 'fetus.'

"Why do you do that every time?" he probed.

"Do what?"

Nate took a deep breath, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "Call the baby a fetus. It seems pretty strange for a mother to say," he said agitatedly.

"Honestly? It makes it 'less real' in my mind. I mean, I still eat like I should and all because I know it's there, but the timing is so terrible and circumstances of not knowing if it's Colin's or Marcus's. It just helps me distance myself from it for now I guess," she admitted.

Nate was surprised. That was probably hard to admit, but he was glad she did. At least it made sense now... even if the logic was stupid.

"Aria, hun. That baby is coming whether you distance yourself or not. I know this isn't how you wanted it to happen, but we both know that doesn't matter now because it has. You've got a hell of a man dying for the chance to step up and be a father and whatever you will let him be to you. Don't be stupid, Aria. You don't have to do this alone. You'll be a great mom if you just accept that it's coming like it or not. Now smile, frowns don't suit you," Nate advised.

Here goes the waterworks again, Aria thought as he finished his soap-box speech. She couldn't argue with him though. Every word he said was the absolute truth and she knew it. Financially her and Marcus were doing fine, their relationship was going great, the baby was growing good; now she just had to accept she would be bringing it into this world at the worst possible time. She wasn't depressed she was going to be a mother, she felt wonderful at the prospect. She just hated the fact she would bring it into a situation where it would be in so much danger.

"Thanks, Nate," she said with a friendly hug.

Things weren't ideal, but with these two guys by her side, they might just turn out okay.

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