It Begins (Deirdre, Dr. O'Doherty, Peter) Rating: PG

[deirdre-ionuin.livejournal.com]

Deirdre knew Peter would never let her out of the house by herself, so she'd slipped into the bathroom, turned on the shower and jumped out the window with her schoolbag she'd stowed in the closet the night before. She was thinking about Richard O'Doherty. The professor who had offered her an independent study and then used it as an excuse to rape her. And he had gotten away with it.

I think he'll resign if we make life difficult enough.

And that was just what she was going to do. Kali said Dr O'Doherty hadn't read her name out when calling role on Monday. Bastard assumed she wouldn't show. Well, she'd show him. As she crossed the picket line, which was for her, students stared at her in the halls, but she ignored it. She walked right past them with her head held high. She was an actress, afterall.

At 10:00 on the dot, she rushed into the classroom and slid in to her front row seat. "So sorry I'm late, Professor O'Doherty." She said, giving him a mock guilty look. He just stared at her for a full minute before shaking his head.

"Uhm...that's...that's alright." Richard O'Doherty proceeded to ask about the reading which Deirdre had finished the night before. She raised her hand for every question and when her fellow students noticed he wasn't calling on her, following Quinn's example they stopped putting their hands up and he had to let her answer. And answer she did. Every question. Perfectly. And she always ended with a demure "But what do you think, Dr. O'Doherty?" It was clearly making him squirm. By the end of the hour, he'd removed his jacket and his shirt had large sweat patches under his arms. She wanted to stay behind to see what he'd do when alone, but that would mean being alone with him, so she exited the room at the end of class as quickly as possible.

She still had to hand in a late assignment to David, so she headed down to his office. He had the door open, probably because he knew if it wasn't it would just get knocked on 28658423 times as people dealt with this mess. She leaned in, not really wanting to be in a professor's office alone with them at all even if it was David. "Hey. I have that assignment from Monday. I know you have to take 4% off of it, but that's okay, I thought I should get it to you." He gave her a concerned and confused look, but before he could say anything, she walked into the room, plopped it on his desk and ran away as quickly as she could.

She had two hours to kill before David's class, so she thought she might go see Isabelle. Afterall, they were picketing the man who had raped her, she should be there. Deirdre spotted a very agitated Peter heading her way like a bizare mother hen, however, and she sighed and let him catch up to her. "Hi." She said softly.

"What...what are you doing?!" Peter asked frantically.

"I'm going to class?!" She said, as if it should be self explanatory.

Peter stared at her for a second, his look very reminiscent of the one David had just given her. They really were becoming one person. "Deirdre...did you...you didn't go to his class, did you?"

"Yes." Deirdre said, defiantly.

Peter swore and he stepped forward to take hold of Deirdre's arms. To both their surprise, she didn't pull away. In fact, up until now it had been easy to pretend she was okay, but it had been all an act and Peter was here now. She could drop it. She'd been terrified every second and seeing him had made all the memories surface. And it still hurt. She leaned against Peter and he wrapped his arms around her. "Why, Deirdre?"

Deirdre started shaking, almost uncontrollably. "I won't let him take this away from me, goddammit!" She yelled into his chest. "I won't! I'm not leaving Uni! I'm good at it and I deserve it and I worked hard to get here! That's a lie, I dropped out of school and took an equivalency test, but I worked hard to be sane so I could take said test and that's MINE. My achievement. And goddammit, I want it!"

Peter kissed Deirdre's hair. "Oh, Deirdre. I want you to have it too." He his his hands on her head soothingly. "I'm very proud that you're not going to let him ruin University for you. But, Honey, you don't have to take his class! You can drop it, I'm sure Dr. Baudrillard will work something out for you. Please...don't go near him again. I...I hate it."

Deirdre pulled away. "I know, that's why I didn't tell you I was coming. That's why I snuck out the window."

"Yes." He said flatly. "Me thinking you'd slit your throat in the shower because you were still in there long after the water would have run cold is clearly better than me being worried about you being in the same room with him." He gave her a stern look.

"Oh. I didn't really think that one through..."

"I noticed. I think you've given me about 12 heart attacks today." Peter paused. "How many have you had?"

Deirdre looked up at him and she gave him a little smile. "329."

"Oh, well that's a good number. Better than 330, which is of course, what I predicted you would say." He reached out and took her hand. "Well see, now that I'm here you should really bring me home. Because if you don't, I going to hunt this arsehole down and pound on him until he cracks. Or...more likely until he knocks me unconscious which never takes long."

"I know what you're doing. You're getting me to come home with you, but making it like I'm taking care of you so I don't feel silly."

"Is it working?" Peter asked.

"Maybe. I have David's class in two hours..."

Peter rubbed his eye. "Deirdre...honey...don't you think you've had enough heart attacks for one day? You proved your point and you were very brave and also silly. Come home with me. I'll either poison you, or order you lunch. Probably the latter."

Deirdre nodded. "Okay. But I'm coming to class tomorrow." Peter gave her a look. "It's just Dr. Baudrillard's class. You're going to come with me and sit outside the door until it's over, aren't you?"

"Most likely."

"It's like it's my first day of kindergarten." Deirdre said sulkily. She turned and walked towards Victoria Lane, still holding tight to Peter's hand.

"Does that bother you?"

"No. No, I like it. You'd really do that for me?"

"Of course I would, Sweetheart, but it's for me too. You'd know I was looking out for you and I'd know you were safe." He looked at the ground as they walked. "I'm heartbroken over this, Deirdre. And I'm not quite sure...I'm not sure how to handle it other than following you everywhere like a freak to make sure no one touches you."

Deirdre stopped and she pulled him back to her. "I think that sounds like a plan I can handle, Peter. I mean...for now. Not...like...when I'm 34 and going to work. That might be weird."

"Oh come on, what's weird about that?! That's perfectly normal." Peter leaned in and he kissed her forehead. They started walking again, slowly. Neither of them were in a particluar hurry to get anywhere and it was nice.

"Normal for you maybe." Deirdre took a deep breath. "I'm sorry you're heartbroken, Peter."

"It's not your fault! I just...hate that terrible things happened to you. You're wonderful and you don't deserve it. And I love you and...stuff."

Deirdre laughed at that. "And stuff? You're as eloquent as I am."

"It's just hard to verbalise how much you mean to me, Deirdre."

"It's okay. I know." Deirdre said, smiling at him. "It's why you can do this." She held up his hand which was still clutched in hers. "And it's why I can talk to you now like everything's normal. Because you make me feel better. Because I can trust you. With you, not everything is so shite. Thanks for coming to rescue me."

"Thanks for not being in the shower when I opened the door." Deirdre giggled and she leaned against him as they walked. "I'm thinking about getting a big white horse. Like the knights in shining armour. What do you think?"

"Peter, you hate animals."

"Oh right. What about a white motorcycle!?"

Deirdre rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculous. You're ridiculous and I love you."

Peter smiled down at her. "I love you too."