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"Holy shit," Alicia said upon reading the frantic email from her cousin Kit.

"What?" her boyfriend Mikey asked. She turned her laptop toward him so that he could read the email. "Christ," he said. "Kit's your cousin from Louisiana, right?"

"Yeah," she said absently. "The one I told you about, who was having problems with Jim a few years ago. I had no idea things had gotten this bad." Alicia was eighteen years old, and she'd always worried about her younger cousin. She knew things had gotten bad when Kit's mother had died and she'd been left at the mercy of her disgusting step-father Jim, but she'd never realized that the problems had evolved into abuse and other such terrible things. She suddenly turned to Mikey and clutched his shirt in her hands. "We have to get her out of there," she said.

"Okay, okay," he said, gently prying her fingers off of his shirt. "We'll go get her eventually."

"Mikey," she said. "We have to get her now."

"Well, how are we going to do that?" he asked. "We're leaving tomorrow." They had been planning a weekend trip to Canada together for months. "Don't tell me we're gonna have to cancel now," Mikey whined. She sighed.

"Well, I don't want to leave her there, she had to move every piece of furniture she had in front of her door so he wouldn't be able to get in," she said. "What else can we do?"

They thought for a minute together.

"We could send Gerard to go get her," Mikey suggested finally.

"Say what?" she asked. Mikey repeated his suggestion. "Kit doesn't know Gerard," she said.

"I think, at this point, she'll leave with anyone who's willing to take her. Just call her and tell her you're sending someone to retrieve her," Mikey said.

Alicia twirled her brown hair absentmindedly as she thought this over. She didn't know how she felt about Gerard. Gerard was silent most of the time, a man of few words, but he was sexy, and he was very aware of it.

"Leece, Gerard's not a bad guy. Sure, he's quiet, and sure, he's a little bit of an arrogant bastard, but he really isn't bad," Mikey said. "Come on, you said you needed to save her now, and we have to go to Canada. It's the only option."

"I could skip Canada," Alicia said softly, but the idea really wasn't so appealing now that there was an alternate possibility.

"You don't really wanna skip Canada, do you?" Mikey asked softly, nuzzling her neck. "I promise you, Gerard is nothing to worry about. He's my brother, after all."

"Yeah..." she said. "Well, how are we going to get him to agree?" Mikey bit his lip.

"That's going to be the hard part."


Half an hour later, Mikey and Alicia were camped out in front of the window, watching Gerard's sleek, black SUV pull into the driveway.

"Where was he?" Alicia asked Mikey. Mikey shrugged.

"No one ever knows where he is," he replied. She shook her head.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked.

"Leece, he's my brother. Nothing is going to go wrong. I promise." The door opened and Gerard sauntered in, wearing his usually attire, which consisted of black shirt, black jeans, black boots, and sometimes even a black jacket in case it got cold or something like that. You never really know with Gerard. His straight black hair came down to his shoulders, and he wore the slightest traces of eyeliner around his eyes. No one really knew what that was about either. He glanced at Mikey and Alicia, who were crowded up next to the door staring at him, and gave them a slight eyebrow raise, which, for Gerard, signifies utter confusion.

"Something you need?" he asked.

"We need you to drive to Louisiana and pick up Alicia's cousin," Mikey said. Gerard's eyebrows lowered in question.

"Why do you need me to do it?" he asked.

"We have that Canada trip," Mikey replied. Gerard didn't look convinced.

"Please," Alicia said. "Her home life is terrible, and it's really starting to take a toll on her. I'm afraid if we don't get her out of there now, he'll make sure she's permanently out...if you know what I mean."

"Sounds intense," Gerard said. "Why don't you get her a plane or something?"

"I wanna make sure she's okay," Alicia said.

"Will you just do it?" Mikey asked. "Really. I read the email, and it sounds like it really sucks over there. Can you do it for me? Please?"

Gerard concentrated on Mikey, working his jaw around while he considered this. Finally, he inclined his head a fraction of an inch.

"Okay," he said. Alicia let all the air out of her lungs and sagged onto the floor in relief. Guess she just couldn't take all that suspense.

"Thanks," Mikey said.

"Do I need to leave now?" Gerard asked.

"As soon as possible would be ideal," Alicia said from the floor. Gerard turned around and walked up the stairs. "He really creeps me out," Alicia said. Mikey pulled her off the floor.

"He's really not that creepy. He's just not so social. Girls have a tendency to be intrigued by him though…somehow," Mikey said, looking confused.

"Well, he's incredibly good looking," Alicia said, glancing towards the stairs. Mikey raised his eyebrow. "'Course, not as good looking as you," she modified. He smiled.

"Nice save," he said.

A couple minutes later, Gerard came back downstairs. He was carrying his car keys, a black backpack on his back, and he was wearing a black hat that said "Fuck the World" on it. Good attitude, there, buddy.

"What's with the backpack?" Mikey asked. Gerard just looked at him. Gerard wasn't big on sharing. "Right," Mikey said. Alicia handed Gerard her cousin's address, and he left the house. Alicia shook her head.

"I can't believe I'm putting my baby cousin's fate in that man's hands, sweet ass or not," she said. Mikey smiled and moved in close.

"She'll be fine," he murmured into Alicia's forehead. "You know, he's not the only one in the family with a sweet ass..."

"Mikey, you have no ass."

"Okay so sweet asses are overrated," he said. "But I have other good attributes." Alicia couldn't disagree with him there.

Mikey and Alicia had been dating for three years, and they'd been living together for about six months. Mikey was nineteen, and Alicia was eighteen. Gerard lived with them also, sometimes. He had a room there, and he had a bed, but that was really the extent of his residency there. His appearances at Alicia and Mikey's apartment were getting more and more sporadic. Sometimes he'd be gone for weeks at a time. So no one really knew whether he really lived there or not. He paid his share of the rent, and to young adults who hardly made any kind of living, that's all that really mattered.

"Well, maybe we should explore those other attributes," Alicia said.

"Step into my office, and I'll let you do all the exploring you want," Mikey said, yanking her into the bedroom and slamming the door shut.

Who knew exploring could be so much fun?