Izzy walked into the house quietly trying not to be noticed. It failed, Joey was waiting for her.
“Izzy!” Joey said when she walked in; he knew there was something wrong when she wouldn’t show him her face. He went over to her and pulled her to face him, he gasped when he saw her face. She had a black eye and a bruised cheek.
“Who did this to you? Was it Gina’s boyfriend?” Izzy sighed,
“Joey it’s no big deal, really it doesn’t even hurt.” She said pushing away his hand,
“Why didn’t you call me!! You promised me that you would call if things got out of hand! I should never have let you go there! You are not going back there tomorrow!”
“If Gina needs me I’m going! I can take care of myself Joey!” She yelled back at him.
“Yeah it really looks it Izzy, Jesus! What’s it going to take till you realize that you’re putting your self in danger!”
“She’s my sister! She needs me to be there for her and I will not turn my back on her!”
“Well you’re not going without me!”
“Or me.” Lance said as he came down the stairs, “Oh, Izzy why didn’t you call us?”
“Because I handled the situation, I don’t need you guys getting involved.”
“Yeah, well we’re involved now whether you like or not.” Justin said coming down the stairs with Chris.
“That is totally not cool Izzy what that guy did to you.” Chris said.
“Well, he got it worse than I did, trust me.”
“Ah, Kung Fu mama.” Chris joked and she laughed.
“But seriously you guys, you don’t need to get involved and I’m sure that’s the last thing your record company wants you to do.”
“We told you that we’re already involved, guys should not hit women, especially women who are our friends. We’re gonna find this bastard,” Lance started,
“And I’m gonna kill him.” Joey growled and Izzy placed a hand on his arm,
“It’s okay, I don’t want you, any of you,” she looked at the other three guys, “getting into trouble on my account. I get myself into too much trouble as it is.”
“That’s for sure.” Joey remarked and Izzy smiled,
“I just really want to go upstairs and take a shower.” She began to walk past Joey and her body gave out on her and she grabbed Joey,
“Izzy!” Joey said as he grabbed her waist and steadied her,
“I’m fine, I just got a little dizzy and lost my balance.”
“Maybe you should get looked over by a doctor or at least lie down.”
“No need to fuss, I’m fine.” She said and Joey was about to object when there was a knock on the door. Justin answered it and there were two police officers standing there.
“Is there a Miss Isabella Mariani at this residence?” Izzy turned,
“Yes, I’m Isabella Mariani.”
“Miss Mariani, we have a warrant for your arrest.”
“What?” Joey said, “She’s the victim! Can’t you see her face? What are you arresting her for?”
“Assault on an officer of the law.” One of the officers came towards her and Izzy looked up at Joey,
“Did I forget to mention that Gina’s boyfriend was a cop?” She said half heartily and turned so that the officers could handcuff her. Joey stood in their way,
“No, you can’t arrest her, she was defending herself! Look at the bruises!”
“Son we have our orders, if you don’t move then we’ll have to arrest you for obstruction of justice.”
“Slap on the hand cuffs because you are not taking her in.”
“You’ll have to arrest all of us.” Justin said stepping in front of Izzy; Chris and Lance followed him.
“And we do mean all of us.” Lance finished,
“Boys really, this is all very valiant of you but it’s not necessary.”
“Izzy you’re not the criminal here that officer is.” Joey said.
“Son we have an officer with his arm broken in four places and his leg snapped in half. I don’t know where you’re from but in Florida we don’t call that self defense, now please get out of the way.” The boys looked wide-eyed at Izzy and she shrugged,
“Remind me never to get you pissed at me, Iz.” Chris said and she smiled,
“I will, now boys move so that they can handcuff me.” She moved between the boys up to the officers and turned. They slid up the sleeves of the sweatshirt to reveal more bruises. Joey’s anger rose again but her eyes told him to keep calm. They placed handcuffs on her and began to read her, her rights.
“This isn’t fair Izzy.” Joey said sadly,
“I know, it’ll be okay, I have a good friends.” She smiled at the boys and the officers led her out to the awaiting police car. Suddenly another cop car sped into the drive and an officer jumped out of the car,
“Don’t arrest that woman, un hand cuff her now!” He shouted and everyone stopped.
“By whose orders?” One of the officers yelled,
“Your boss.” The officer came into the light and the other officers stepped back a little,
“Chief! What are you doing here?”
“Saving your careers, now un hand cuff her now.” They did so and the chief turned to Izzy, “You okay Izzy? They weren’t too rough with you?”
“No, they were perfect gentlemen.” She said as Joey rushed to her side with the boys in tow,
“You’re free Izzy?” Izzy looked at the chief who nodded,
“Yeah, I’m free.” He just smiled and the boys cheered.
“But chief what about Jones?”
“I’ll discuss that with you later, now you two are dismissed.”
“But chief!”
“I said that you two are dismissed.” The chief said sternly and the officers quietly got back in their car and left. Izzy felt a bit dizzy once again and leaned on Joey. He scooped her up in his arms,
“Let’s get you back into the house.”
“Would you mind if I came? I would like to talk to Izzy.”
“Sure Jerry, come on in.” Izzy said weakly and leaned her head on Joey’s shoulder. Everyone piled back into the house and Joey took Izzy straight up to her room and put her down in her bed. “Thank you, Joey.” Jerry came in after them and sat down next to Izzy in the bed,
“I’m sorry about Ted, I should have known.”
“Jerry, don’t beat yourself up over it, no pun intended there. I swear I look worse than I feel.”
“I’m sure Ted can’t say that.” Jerry joked.
“How do you know the chief of police, Izzy?”
“Jerry’s a good friend of Gina’s. Jerry this is my best friend Joey Fatone.”
“Is this the Joey that Gina always talks about?”
“The one and only.” She laughed and Joey stood up and shook the man’s hand,
“It’s nice to meet you chief.”
“Joey Fatone? I think my daughter’s in love with you.” He said and everyone laughed.
“I can’t thank you enough for getting Izzy out of being arrested.” Joey said,
“Well those officers didn’t have the full story. I’m just happy that I got here in time. Now Izzy I know you’re not going to be around but in order to press charges against Ted I’m going to need you to give a statement. And it would help if I took some polaroids of the bruises that he inflicted on you. Is that okay?”
“Whatever helps Gina the most, I’m willing to do.” Izzy said
“What would you like to do?”
“Pictures, please.”
“Okay.” Jerry gently said and pulled out his camera and he took a few pictures of her face. Joey helped her pull off his sweatshirt that she had been wearing. Around her tank top her body was spotted with bruises, one shaped like a foot was on her chest,
“I could kill him, Izzy why didn’t you call me?” Izzy just laid a soft hand on his cheek,
“Because I didn’t have time, I was too scared for Gina. I kept on thinking of what would have happened if I wasn’t there, he could have killed Gina.” Tears began to form in her eyes,
“Shh, baby girl it’s okay.” Joey said kissing her forehead,
“Izzy you really should get checked out by a doctor, just in case he did any real damage.” Jerry warned,
“I’ll have one come to the house tomorrow.” Izzy was too tired to protest.
Once Jerry had photographed all the bruises over her entire body, which were all over her arms torso and legs as well as her face, he wanted to take her statement,
“Joey do you want to stay? You already look so upset.”
“I’m not upset at you, I’m upset at what this guy did to you. Izzy what were you thinking?”
“I was thinking about Gina.” She simply stated and Joey rubbed her back,
“You’re too good for anything.”
“So is Gina, I want to do this for her so,” She said looking at Jerry, “let’s get this over with.” Jerry took her statement quickly and Joey looked like he was going to kill with every word that Izzy said. He couldn’t believe the terror that she had been through. That he had let her go through, what kind of a friend was he that he let her go through that alone?
“Well that’s all, thank you Izzy and don’t you worry about any of this any more. I’m seeing to it personally. And don’t worry about Gina, she’s going to be staying at my house till all this is taken care of. I’ll stop by tomorrow to see how you’re doing if that’s okay with your friends.”
“Yeah you are more than welcome.” Joey offered.
“Okay then I’m going to say goodnight and I will see you tomorrow.” Jerry got up from his seat and looked at Joey, “I’ll see myself out.”
“Goodnight Jerry.” She said and Jerry dropped a kiss on her head,
“Goodnight Izzy, goodnight Joey, it was nice to meet you.”
“Yeah same here, goodnight, chief.” Jerry quietly left the room and they were silent for a few minutes. Izzy read Joey’s thoughts,
“Don’t even think that way Joseph, you are in no way responsible for this. I did this, I put myself into trouble.”
“I should have stopped you.”
“When have you ever been able to stop me when I’ve put my mind to something? I know how stubborn I am.”
“Yeah, I know.” He smiled, “Well JC missed an interesting night.”
“I can’t believe he slept through it all, I’m sure he would have loved to see me get arrested.”
“JC’s not sleeping, he went to go visit his brother Tyler for the night.”
“Oh god there’s more than one, lord help us all.”
“Give him a break Izzy he’s a good guy.”
“Okay, for you I will, but if he starts anything, deals off.”
“Okay.” There was a quiet silence between the friends,
“Joey, can you stay with me tonight for a little while, just till I fall asleep?”
“Yeah sure Princess.” He said and curled up around her in her bed.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome”