Fate

I sighed with relief as I clocked out for the day. I headed back to the staff lockers to change.
I saw Piper heading out as I walked in.

"Going home?" I asked.

She nodded wearily, "It's been a long day."

"Okay, I'm going to head down to Kosmopol. I need a drink after today."

"That's fine by me. Don't drink too much though, I'm not hauling your butt home."

I rolled my eyes, "When have I ever drank that much? Besides it's a four minute walk home."

After Piper left, I changed out of my scrubs and white coat and into dark jeans, a black motorcycle jacket over a dark gray sequined t-shirt and leather boots.

I enjoyed the walk from the hospital, the crisp fall air felt great after 8 hours of hospital air.

Kosmopol was a lot busier than it normally was but I saw familiar faces. Other doctors, their faces drawn with exhaustion and the struggle of long work hours; interns raucously doing shots at the bar, chasing away the fears of failure; and the bartenders who were just used to it all.

I grabbed an empty seat at the end of the bar, a few stools away from the next person.

"Got any Mount Gay?" I asked the bartender. He was about my age, tall with dirty hair and navy blue eyes.

He nodded, "Rum and Coke then."

"You don't want anything stronger?" he frowned.

"God knows I could use it, but no. I don't want to, nor do I need to, get drunk tonight.Having a hangover tomorrow would not be good."

"Long day?" He asked as he served me my drink.

"It's been hell. What's your name?" I wondered if he would seem even more attractive to me after a few drinks.

"Alex. What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a surgeon and I tend to work in A&E."

"Over at Chelsea and Westminster?"

I nodded.

"Oh you guys have been getting some publicity then haven't you? With Styles and all right? His poor doctor, I'd hate all that attention."

I laughed, "Tell me about it. I am Harry's doctor. I don't know why the asshole had to get himself shot by my hospital."

"You sound like you know him."

"We dated for a few years. But that was ages ago, and before the rest of the world knew him."

I watched as realization dawned over his face, 'Oh my God, that's where I know you from! The showed you on the X-Factor a few times."

"Ugh I truly hate the X-Factor for that." I groaned. "I mean I don't have very fond memories of them in general. They did kind of break up a really long, invested relationship."

"That sucks." he reached down, behind the bar and produced two shot glasses. He poured tequila into them and slid one to me.

"Can you do that?"

He shrugged and smiled, his blue eyes sparkling. "As long as you don't tell."

I hate tequila, but I might as well. I smiled at him and threw back the shot. I winced as the liquid tore a trail of fire down the back of my throat.

I looked back at him, my eyes watering a bit. "Holy shit, that is strong."

He laughed, "It's Russian, that stuff's like lighter fluid. But it's the strongest we have. Look, I have to get back to work but I'd love to see you again." He slid a folded slip of paper to me.

I smiled as I took it, "Thanks."

I turned as I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see a tall man in a suit. His face was red and he'd obviously had too much to drink. He looked like a businessman, the cheating scumbag type. I looked down to his hand, where a wedding ring glinted.

"Hey I heard redheads were fiery in bed." He slurred.

Ugh, this man was irritating and disgusting. "I am not sleeping with you. Besides wouldn't you wife mind?" I asked.

He took his hand off my shoulder and pulled off the ring, stuffing it into his pocket. "What she doesn't know can't hurt her."

"You're disgusting. Do the poor woman a favor and divorce her." I flagged Alex over and paid for my drink. Now if only I could finish it in peace.

The man was still standing there. "Aw honey, don't be that way. I'm just looking for a little fun. Life gets boring you know?"

I finished the last of my drink and stood to leave. I waved goodbye to Alex and walked to the door. I was a couple hundred feet from the door when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned to see that the man from the bar was right behind me. I turned and tried to walk faster and put more distance between us. The man's hand shot out alarmingly fast and grabbed my wrist before I could walk away.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked tugging me closer.

I choked down the bile that rose in my throat. "Let go of me." I tried to tug my wrist away but his grip was like iron. Maybe he wasn't as wasted as I thought. I tried to fight back but he wrapped his arms around me like a vice. I pushed away from him, I didn't want any part of his body touching me. "Leave me alone. Let me go!" My voice rose to a shriek. I felt woozy and like the world was spinning.

That's why he was standing there for so long, the voice in my head said,he put something in your drink. The alcohol can't be helping either.

"You're not going anywhere. Not yet at least." He whirled around and pulled me into an alley. The sidewalk wasn't far away but I knew that we were obscured in the shadows. Panic began to set and I couldn't do anything.

I sucked in a lungful of air and tried to scream. He pushed me forcefully against the brick wall, knocking the air out of my lungs. He forced my hands above my head one of his hands and began unzipping my jacket.

"No, no please no." I writhed and tried to get away. The bricks behind me tore into my hands as I moved, trying to get away, my attempts becoming more sluggish. Black spots appeared in my vision. Something cool brushed my cheek and I looked down to see the shoulder of my leather jacket under my head.

I began to fall forward and I felt his hands catch me as I slumped to the ground. I was vaguely aware of his hand sliding up my back towards my bra clasp. His hands moved to the front of my chest. I felt the drugs and alcohol pulling me back under. As much as I didn't want to remember or feel this happening to me, I had to try to regain consciousness.

I heard a sound to my left and turned to see a pocket of light from an open door. As his hands moved to my waistband, someone stepped out of the doorway. I felt the pinch of my jeans button against my skin. The cool night air hit me, drawing goosebumps across my skin as my clothes were pulled down my thighs. I tried to move my arms, but I couldn't find them, I couldn't move them. My vision blurred as he walked towards us.

"Hey, what're you doing?" My drugged brain wanted to feel relief, wanted this stranger to help me.

Footsteps drew closer, thudding across the pavement. I wanted to see what was happening, but blackness overtook me.

I came to again to the swaying feeling of someone walking. I was in someone's arms, but I couldn't turn my head to see who. I tried to move my head away from the person's chest, but I felt like I was underwater.

"Hey, hey don't move. You're fine, I swear I'm not going to hurt you." A male Irish voice said.

I tried to move just to see who it was my body wouldn't respond.
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I awoke again in bed. I turned my head to see the digital red numbers of an alarm clock shining through the darkness. It was four in the morning, I have to get up in 2 hours. I flipped back over, content in knowing that I didn't have to get p for a while.

Then I realized I had no clue where I was. I shot up and a rush of pain nearly brought me back down. A man was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, talking on the phone, facing away from me. He noticed I was awake and put the phone down.

"Niall?" My voice sounded absolutely horrible.

"Hey, Anastasia. I definitely didn't expect I'd see you again like this." He sat down on the edge of the bed and handed me a glass of water and Advil.

I took them and smiled gratefully. "Where am I? How did you find me?"

He shook his head. "No questions yet, you need to sleep. Wait until later."

He got up and grabbed a pile of clothes from a dresser. He also grabbed my phone. He handed them both to me.

"Sorry I read your messages, you phone kept going off. Piper is freaking out about you."

"It's fine. Can you text her back and tell her I'm fine, and that I won't be coming in today? Tell her I have a good reason, so don't freak out."

He nodded and sent the texts. "I'm going to leave now. You should change and get to sleep. I didn't think you'd take too kindly to me changing your clothes after..." his voice trailed off and he looked down.

"Thank you Niall." I said not meeting his eyes, trying to hide the tears in mine.

He walked to the door and stopped, "One last thing. He didn't rape you did he?"

"No. Thank God no. But that was too close." I shuddered.

He opened the door, hesitated, and turned around. He walked back and kissed my forehead. "I'm glad I found you."

"So am I Niall. So am I."

Notes

Hey, I'm sorry that this chapter took so long. I had a lot of things to work out to make the story line fit, I had to figure out where in London I wanted the story to take place and visualize based off of that.

I hope you guys like it! Thanks as always for reading, voting and subscribing!

Hopeful Directioner