King of Hearts (House of Cards Series 2) [Student/teacher]

Jack Queen Jack

A/N: This is the fight scene. Means there will be violence. I am not going to tidy up the details, so if you don't like violence, skip past the first section ok?

Trying something different with this chapter. If it sucks, be honest, I can fix it :P

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West was sitting in the hospital, trying not to wince as he shifted positions. Between the cops talking to him, the dried blood on his face and hands, and his knee swelling up to the size of a volkswagon, the rest of the people in the emergency room were giving him some odd looks. On the plus side, he was guaranteed a seat.

Alice was already in and getting stitched up, blood being pumped into her as fast as they could possibly manage. Even though she'd scar, everyone knew how very lucky she was right now. The right person died today. Though that on it's own was a problem. West frowned as he remembered the events of only an hour or so ago, and the look on the Reaper's face when the fat lady sang. If this day was enough to make the Cubano feel elation and self recrimination, what must it be doing to Mal?

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Malcolm hadn't been thinking straight, the moment he caught young West's concerned frown, he was moving. God he hoped he was wrong. That it hadn't been Alice screaming for him. That she was alright and would laugh at his concern. That this wasn't happening.

But the moment he came around the corner, Malcolm felt something inside his heart and brain just peel away, like dried glue pulling from a finger. Time bubbled, giving him a half second to see everything is absolute, minute detail. Alice was on her stomach, feet towards him, face away. On her back was Stuart, the rapist, the would be murderer.

Not my Alice, Malcolm thought, internal voice filled with venom. He had encountered this feeling before, this berserker madness. The last time he'd felt it, he'd been too young to act on it, and had only hurt himself. This time though, Reaper knew what exactly it was he wanted to do. Later he would admit that it was the sight of the blood that pushed him, but right at the moment, Reaper only knew that the things that made him a good man were worthless in this moment. It was the things that made him a very bad man that would help his wife. [A/N: yes I know they're not married yet, but mentally it's how he sees her]

The hallway stretched between Reaper and the man he had to kill, but what felt like one step spanned the distance between and his shoe connected with the deadman's face, sending him flying away from the blood soaked Alice. He dropped to his knees and tried to gather her to his chest, but his Alice was a fighter. She tried to lash out, defend herself even now, but it was pitifully easy to avoid hte attack and pin her in place. His wife was so pale faced, her normally dusky complexion gone waxy and gray as her life's blood pooled and coagulated around them.

"I'll get you out of here Ace." he whispered down at her but then Stuart was back. Reaper felt the burn of a wound in his shoulder at the same time Stuart collided into him. It had probably meant to have been a kick to go with the stab, but the blood on the floor fouled the rapist's footing. Reaper knew that the knife had done damage but he couldn't care.

This wasn's supposed to happen, not again. He remembered the beautiful face of his sister, how much like a sleeping princess she appeared when they laid her out to be buried. Reaper heard the Cubano run into the hallway behind him and even though it felt like an eternity had passed, he knew it had been fractions of a moment.

Reaper's heavy fist connected against Stuart, aimed for the face but a slash and dodge meant that Reaper was bleeding more, and Stuart avoided a face breaking punch, his shoulder absorbing the impact. The young fighter was too eager though, slamming into Stuart, wylaying the physically larger man into the wall. Before Reaper could hail a warning, the hallway was filled with the sickeningly wet sounding pop and a harshly swallowed sound of pain. Stuart had gotten lucky with his kick, West's knee was horribly disaligned, obviously dislocated. Before the rapist could follow up his advantage, Reaper had grabbed the injured Santos and pulled him away from knife reach, laying him next to the Reaper's wife to guard her.