If you were to see me on the street, I'm fairly average; 5'10, 190lbs, decent shape, dark brown hair with a bit of grey, generally people put me somewhere between 30 & 35 but I'm actually 39, single and while there'd been a few serious relationships, I'd never been married. Generally, I'm a pretty easy-going guy and the Friday night everything started, my plan was to stop at the bar on the way home for a drink or two then grab a pizza and head home to relax. Yes, even though I'm single, that was pretty much my usual Friday night.
I made it to the bar and was just enjoying my first cold beer when things went sideways. There was a couple at the bar and anyone could see that whatever was happening, she wasn't too happy. They both looked about my age, he was a bit taller and thinner, kind of ratty looking. On the other hand, the woman was quite a good looker. About 5'5, maybe 125lbs, nice figure and what looked like natural red hair. Over the next 15 minutes, it went from body language, to louder words and now he was yelling at her. Ok, couples get in fights, no biggie but generally not in a public spot. She went to leave and that's when he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She yelled loud enough for everyone to hear, "Fuck off and leave me alone, we're done! Maybe someday you'll learn there's more to a relationship than sex and you're not even that good in bed!"
Then she pushed his hand off her arm and tried leaving again except this time when he pulled her back, he slapped her and I could see a little blood at the corner of her mouth. Well, that's where my 'easy going' kinda stopped. There were a couple of other guys already getting up but I was closest and when he saw me step toward him, he didn't even say anything, he just swung at me with his left fist. I'd kind of been thinking that all that I'd have to do is let him know that he'd crossed a line and should just let her leave but when he swung, it didn't take much to realize that my original thought was wrong so I brushed his arm to the side with my right arm and gave him a good shot to the kidney with my left. If it had been my right, I think that would have ended it but it wasn't quite hard enough to fully stop him and we went right at it. When I was younger, my roommate had been taking martial arts and I often ended up as his sparring partner and had picked up a fair bit of it. In the end, I had a split lip, an eye that was surely going to blacken and a couple of sore ribs. On the other side, he got carried out by the medics who showed up a few minutes after the cops. I know he had a broken arm, a few broken fingers, at least two teeth were missing, a broken nose, lots of bruises, pretty sure he had a few broken or at the very least cracked ribs as well and they'd need to put his shoulder back in place. He'd obviously been drinking and wasn't giving up, then his eyes kind of glazed over and he started to fall. At first, I wasn't sure what had happened until he dropped, then I saw that she was standing behind him holding a beer bottle by the neck.
When the cops got there, I figured I'd have some explaining to do but the bartender told them pretty plainly that the other guy started it by hitting the woman and then swinging at me. One of the things they asked was why he didn't call right away and he just grinned and said, "The guy on the floor has been an A-1 asshole since he first came in here and this gent was giving him a pretty good seeing to. If I'd thought the other guy was going to might win, I'd have called a lot sooner."
It didn't hurt that I knew a couple of officers with the force through my years working in towing and I found out later through one of them that the guy had several priors for assaulting women which never sat well with police.
They asked if I needed to go to the hospital and I just said, "Na, I'll be a bit sore tomorrow and likely have a shiner but I'll be fine."
I was going to head home but once everyone else was gone, the bartender said, "How about a couple of beer on the house. Yours got spilled and the least I can do is get you a second for the enjoyment of watching him go down."
The woman was still there and he looked at her and said, "Same goes for you, the clunk of the bottle hitting his head was a nice sound!"
We both laughed and agreed so he grabbed us both a beer and one for himself. As we drank, she introduced herself as Rachel and thanked me for stepping in. It turned out that it wasn't their first fight nor the first time he'd hit her which is why they'd broken up. He'd asked her to meet him for a drink to try and patch things up but as we'd all seen, that didn't end well.
I told her I was Grant and after we'd enjoyed a couple more beer, I got a quick hug and a thank you from Rachel and headed home. Soon I was finally enjoying some pizza and another beer before crashing for the night. I slept in a bit the next morning which was fine because I was working 3-12 (or whenever things slowed down enough to stop) for the rest of the week. All in all, it was a pretty quiet week, then on Friday at about 10:30 there was a radio call for a car with a flat tire which was fairly common so I grabbed it figuring it would be an easy one; change the tire, get them on their way and make an easy $100. When I got there, I found two things; one it was four flat tires not one, and two, it was the same woman as the night before.
We were both a bit surprised but at least I got a quick smile when she realized it was me. There was no way to change four tires with only 1 spare and after a quick look, it was pretty evident they'd been slashed. When I pointed that out to her she broke into tears so it was a bit hard to understand but what I think I got was, "That motherfucker....jail.....back at me....fuck!"
When she calmed down a bit, she said that he'd called that morning to say he was being released from jail and blamed her for everything. I was just getting a dolly set I'd be able to tow the car when I heard a slightly slurred, "Well look at that, the bitch's friend is back and I thought I'd only be able to pay her back but it looks like it's going to be a double."
When I looked over, he was in front of the tow truck. I really wasn't sure what he was planning on doing with one arm in a cast but that was answered when two of his buddies stepped up behind him. Now I wasn't enough of a fighter to feel good with a two on one (I really wasn't counting him for much of a third) but it didn't look like I'd have any choice so when the first one came at me, I simply swung the chain strap I was holding and took him out at the knees. The way he screamed, I'm pretty sure there was some damage to at least one knee. As he dropped, my knee caught him nicely in the face and he pretty much crumpled. When I turned to see what the other guy was doing, I was quite surprised to see him stretched out on the ground with a small bat beside him and Rachel holding the tire iron that I'd gotten out to adjust the dolly. She looked a bit shaken but simply said, "He was going to hit you."
I'd kind of forgotten about her ex until I heard him move and when I looked, I saw him coming toward me with a knife in his hand. He was in a perfect spot for me to swing the chain again except this time rather than just swinging, I aimed for his good wrist and heard a very satisfying 'crack' when it hit and he promptly dropped the knife. This was the second time for him and I was more than a little bit pissed so I grabbed him and enjoyed slamming his face into the bumper of the truck a couple of times and then gave him a few good kicks when he hit the ground.