For the Love of Justice

Prologue

"I wish you told me from the start."

"Told you what?"

"That you were going to break my heart." - Indy + Marley



* * * *



If trying to unpack an entire house in one day wasn't stressful, then being at a completely new hospital in a completely new town while the daylight outside was growing into night, I didn't know what was.


Damn Spencer. Did she have to just dump me in the cafeteria while she went to get her medical? It's not like I was three and you could just leave me in the supervised playpen.

I had never even liked lego as a kid, what did she want me to do, find an interest for it now?

Spencer was my older sister. 24, a natural red head, insanely beautiful, a detective.

And she was a total ditcher.

I mean, I loved her. She was all I had, family wise. Well, technically, our parents were still alive, but lets just say we didn't exactly talk to them much anymore.

But to disappear from beside me in the hospital and just expect me to find her? I wasn't an invalid, but a little warning of the sudden big sister departure would have been nice.

I sighed when I looked up at the clock on the gleaming white wall right next to the fenced off area of the playpen. The hospital wasn't busy exactly, but it wasn't quiet either. There had been a steady stream of people coming in and out ever since I'd been sitting here. Nurses, paitents, visitors, they were coming and going while I was just sitting by myself, looking lost, and trying to find another colour in this hospital other than white.

Seriously, what drove hospital decorators to overuse the colour white? Why not put some blue on the walls or something. Maybe a nice shade of red.

Even indigo. Anything but white.


Looking around the room to distract me from my colour choice thoughts, I noticed two men at the coffee machine, looking deep in thought and conversation. At one of the tables sat a blonde haired girl and a black haired guy, but they were facing the opposite way so I couldn't see their faces, but their body language told me they were close. Maybe a couple, or just close friends, I couldn't quite tell.


The guy on the other side of the table to them, just looked plain dangerous.

Young, carefree, that sort of thing. I half expected a YOLO tattoo on the side of his neck or something.

I looked away from the other people, my knees starting to jig with sitting for too long. Glancing up at the clock again, I sighed and decided to just go and try to find Spencer. She said she was going to be on this floor, so it wouldn't be too hard, right?

As I stood, I felt a pair of eyes on me, and glanced over to see Mr. YOLO looking at me curiously. His eyes were dark and deep and almost black, but he still had this 'keep away' sort of vibe going on.

And I wasn't going to argue with that. I'd only just moved here, trouble was just what I was hoping to avoid.

The hallways to the hospital were a little quieter, but the occasional nurse or doctor bustled past, seemingly oblivious to me walking around like I was lost.

Which I was. Just saying. Thanks for the help, Nurse Wendy.

The first door was already open when I reached it, and a quick peek inside confirmed that Spencer was definately not in there.


Unless she had grown a beard and put on fifty odd pounds.

The next room was completely dark, with no paitents at all. I closed the door gently and kept walking, until I got to the next door. The blinds were shut, so I pushed the door open quietly and stepped inside, looking up.

I started to sigh in disappointment when a voice cut through the quiet beeping of machines, making me jump and gasp slightly.

"It's okay Harlow, I'm fine, you can-" the voice stopped mid sentence, obviously expecting someone else as my eyes swung to the single hospital bed in the room, noticing the lamp that was casting a soft glow over the person in the bed as their eyes swung to me.

And there was no freaking way that was Spencer.

Half reclining in the hospital bed, wearing a light pale blue hospital gown, was a guy made of lean muscle, dark blondish, brown mess of hair and a shock of grey eyes.

And those grey eyes were so full of conflicting emotions, I just couldn't make myself turn away.

"I'm sorry, I was looking for my sister." I said in a hurried whisper, because I was afraid my voice was going to come out unsteady if I spoke any louder.

Who even looked like that? He had one of those jaws that made you want to make him mad just to see it clench. His cheekbones were high and in the middle of them sat a nose that looked freshly broken, with the redness and bruising still surrounding it. He had broad shoulders, I could see that much by the way his hospital gown was pulling tight over his shoulders, and his hair was roughed up a little, like he'd been pulling at it.

And then between all of that, there were those eyes.

I'd be a little surprised if he didn't have eyes, but I'm straying from my main point right now.

He had eyes. Yes.

But they were the most in depth, unique, beautiful eyes I'd ever seen.

Grey; like storm clouds, a mix of bright and dark, a combination of not quite blue and not quite green.

And it wasn't until I realised I'd opened my mouth again that I realised the bruising all around his face, and the swelling in certain places, as well as a few cuts and a bandage on his forehead.

"What happened to you?"

The instant I realised I had been the one to speak, I kicked myself. The guys eyes flared with something close to panic, and his eyes started to cloud over as he stayed silent for a few moments, his face contorting into a black mask so quickly I was almost shocked to see it change.

And when he spoke, I couldn't even mentally pat myself on the back for my pun about his eyes. "Is that any of your business?"

Well, not really.

But the aggressive tone he used, and the way his body tensed, like he was preparing to have a go at me or something, made me snap my mouth shut and breath out through my nose a little harshly as I met his eyes again.

No emotion. It was freaky.

"I suppose it's not."

I was about to leave, I swear. The guy was currently crushing my first impression of him being some sort of fallen angel when his expression and tone came out rude and arrogant.

And a little on the husky side. But mostly just rude.

But I just had to look at him again. Like I was savouring one last look at this gorgeous guy when my forehead puckered and my eyes zeroed in on the bandage on his forehead. "You might want to get the nurses to check that wound on your head, it's bleeding through the bandage." I really needed to shut up and leave.

"It's alright-" He tried to sit up, pulling his body up by his arms, but the second he got half upright, his breathing hitched and he muttered out something sounding very similiar to 'duck'. His face contorted in pain, the first true emotion I had seen cross his face since the sadness that had been etched there when I had walked in.

And suddenly my feet were moving towards him on instinct, more words slipping out of my mouth as I reached his bedside. "Are you alright?"

"I'm peachy." He ground out through tight teeth, attempting to sit up again but that look of pain crossed his face again. Broken rib? It had to be.

"I don't think you should be trying to do that."

"I don't think I'll listen to you."

Well I'm just trying to help, pal.

Trying to hide the annoyance I was feeling, I blurted out, "Are you always this stubborn?"

If he wasn't just getting comfortable because he managed to sit up, I was pretty sure those grey eyes would be cutting me to pieces right now. "I think it's called independence, but whatever."

I realised my heart was pumping a little harder then normal when I looked down at him from this close up, and tried to tell myself it was the blood seeping through his bandage, but I wasn't a squeamish sort of person, so that one was a bold lie.

"Your head wound really should get looked at." I said in a quieter, softer voice. His face was still so closed off, so reserved and blank, that I almost felt heart broken because of it. What had happened to this guy to make him so alienated from his own feelings? To instantly try and shut out a stranger like he was?

Maybe he's just not friendly.

Something told me that wasn't the problem.

When he didn't respond, I found my hand slowly reaching out towards the bandage, like it had it's own idea's and was just going to touch the white gauze because it was a hand, and it could do whatever it wanted.

And then my hand wasn't alone on it's journey.

A hard, hot hand wrapped around my wrist, causing my heart to leap into overdrive as I gasped, getting caught off guard by this guy who was looking up at me with his cool, grey eyes and an expression I just couldn't read.

He yanked on my hand.

And then his lips were touching mine and my whole body just stopped.

Warm, soft, controlling lips.

Was I kissing a stranger?


I was kissing a stranger.

Yanking back so hard, I almost tripped over my own feet, I stumbled back and froze at the end of his bed, panting slightly as I stared at him in disbelief.

"What...the hell was that?"

"You figure it out, sweetheart." His voice was low and inviting, his eyes beckoning, but I could still see him wrestling to reign all those little emotions in.

Asshole. I felt the anger work it's way up my body as my eyes narrowed in his direction, and suddenly the room was a little too hot. Or was that just the blush covering every single inch of my body?

Couldn't tell.

"You...I hope you get an infection." I hissed at him, turning to stomp out the door. Grabbing the cold metal handle, I glared at him one more time before almost ripping the door off it's hinges and storming out of the room into the brightly lit hallway with all it's freaking white walls and floors and doors and no colour variety.

The nerve of him. Kissing me like he had every reason to.

Now, I wasn't a control freak or a prude or anything like that, but even I could see the kid was mad.

Who kisses a total stranger while they're lying in a hospital bed with injuries from some sort of assault?

Hell, maybe he bet himself up.

I just...a nice, peaceful entry to this new town would have been nice. Lovely, even, for the sake of using a better adjective. I would have loved to have just unpacked the damn house, settled in before school started, and hopefully made my way through senior year as the new girl relatively unscathed.

Instead, I was running around hospitals willy nilly, kissing strangers.

He kissed me.

You kissed him back.

Touché, me.



The next door I tried was the successful one. As I peeked into the room, I saw Spencer just getting off the bed, pulling her right sleeve down over her arm.

She looked up, seeing me, and a smile erupted onto her face. "Oh, hey. I'm done, we can go now." Her eyes narrowed when she took a closer inspection of my face. "Are you okay? You look a little flushed."

"I'm fine." I answered quickly, trying not to blush even more under her inquisitive gaze. "Let's just go home. I feel like unpacking kitchen cutlery."

Spencer laughed, shaking her head. "Someone's in a mood."

And I bet you'd freak if you knew why.


"I've been sitting in an unknown hospital for the past hour and a half by myself. And I'm starving."

"A hungry Indy's always a scary Indy."

It wasn't until we were outside, Spencer unlocking the doors to her car that I realised I didn't even know the guys name.



* * * *



So here's the start of Marley's story! :D I'm so excited to get this up and readable! I was originally going to wait until For The Love Of The Law was completed to put this one up, but Marley's book runs on the same timeline as Harlow's so it just made sense to do both now, and For The Love Of The Law is actually passed the halfway mark so I thought hey, why not get both up and running? This way, you guys don't have to wait for ages once I finish FTLOFL, and I get to write about my fav characters ALLLL at different angles and POVS.

If you really wanna wait until FTLOTL is completed, then don't read on.

:) comment, vote, let me know what you thought!

P.S. It'll be really cool to get you guys thoughts/opinions on Marleys book, so feel free to leave a big, fat comment if you want :)

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