salute [h.s]

i'd lock you in a cage somewhere (alt. 9)

One attempt at a shove and Samson had managed to get her wrists in each of his hands and was holding them down to the coffee caddy. She sort of lost her confidence at that point.

"One day, princess, you're going to be begging for it," Samson spat at her as he put his face right in front of hers. She turned her cheek to him and he took that as an invitation to drag his disgusting tongue down the side of her face. She shuddered. "You'll be gagging for it and I'll give it to you like the bitch you — "

Piper gasped as Samson's bodily suddenly lifted off of hers, flying backward. Because his hands were wrapped firmly around her wrists, she stumbled forward, just barely catching herself in time to see Harry's tall frame slam Samson back against the opposite wall. His hand wrapped firmly around Samson's neck, holding him in place. His other forearm was pressed against Samson's collar bone to keep him still.

Piper had never seen Harry so angry. His jaw was tense, the muscles in his neck were taught and his biceps bulged, straining against his dress shirt, as he held Samson. His eyes were nearly black, the anger sending adrenaline coursing through him. His hand tightened intermittently around Samson's neck until the other agent was gasping for air.

"S-Styles," Samson gasped out, his hand grabbing onto Harry's wrist to try and pull him off. "What — "

"Stay away from her," Harry growled, his voice low and primal. It made Piper nervous just hearing it and she was standing clear across the room, with Harry's back to her. Samson, who was looking straight up at Harry's face while Harry barked at him like that, was probably pissing himself.

"Who, Stone? The b-bitch just —" Samson began choking as Harry's hand tightened, lifting Samson farther up the wall so that his feet kicked uselessly beneath him.

"If you so much as look at her funny, I'll make sure that you find yourself in a cell in La Sabaneta with a life sentence. Understand?"

Piper wasn't sure whether Harry was over-exaggerating his own connections — how he would go about getting someone a life sentence in the notorious Venezuelan prison was beyond her knowledge — but he sounded damn serious and she didn't doubt that Harry could find a way to make it happen if he wanted to. Samson didn't look like he bought it though because he didn't say anything. Of course, that could have been because Harry had his forearm jammed against the base of Samson's windpipe.

"Do you understand me!"

There was a buzz of noise and Piper looked over to the entrance of the darkened alcove where there was now a crowd, standing around and watching. It looked like people were debating whether or not to intervene. After all, an MI6 employee was being choked right in front of them. On the other hand, the agent doing the choking was not someone to be trifled with. Harry had a reputation around this place for being able to keep his cool. When he lost it, you didn't want to be on his bad side.

"Harry," Piper said softly, not wanting to interrupt in case that anger he was feeling transferred back onto her somehow.

"I said," Harry continued, ignoring Piper completely and narrowing his eyes on Samson, who looked like he was on the verge of tears and who was gasping for breath, "do you understand me?"

It was almost ten times scarier when he didn't yell, when instead he used that cold, calculated tone that sent shivers up her spine. She forgot sometimes that Harry wasn't just another agent. He had carte blanche. He did things that were generally seen as unacceptable. He was lethal.

"Harry!" she called out more loudly, adding some punch into her tone hoping it would get his attention. He looked over his shoulder with a ruthless expression on his face that made Piper take a step back. She wasn't afraid of him, but she was afraid of the state of mind he was in right now.

Her fear did something to him, brought his head back to him, because he turned back to Samson with a sort of stunned look on his face and promptly let the other agent go. Samson fell to Harry's feet, coughing and gasping while he held his throat. When he looked up at the Harry, it was with pure terror.

Harry looked around, as if he was coming back to himself. He noticed the crowds of people and his jaw tensed, his lips set into a thin line. Obviously he wasn't happy about having an audience to his little moment back there. It wasn't the kind of thing that was good for his reputation.

"Stone," Harry barked back at her, waving his hand in his direction, "with me."

Without even a second glance back, he began to walk at a steady clip toward the crowd, who parted like the red sea at his approach. Piper could tell by the way he walked, the rigidity of his gait and the tense posture that his back and shoulders had molded into, that he was uncomfortable and definitely not happy. She decided that doing anything except exactly what Harry had said was going to turn out badly.

She jogged to catch up with him, following his retreating back out of the canteen. She thought she'd lost him when she stepped into the hall and didn't see him but then a hand had wrapped around her wrist and she was snatched away to a deserted side hallway. Before she could say a word, her face was smashed against a hard chest and Harry's arms were wrapping around her so hard it hurt. She held him back because she thought that, maybe, Harry needed her more right now than she needed him. She'd never seen him so out of sorts.

"Are you okay?" she murmured against his shirt. He let her go suddenly, pushing her back away from him and holding her at arm's length, his hands on her shoulders gripping tightly. His eyes were roving over her face, studying her for signs of damage or injury.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his hand coming up to brush back the hair that had fallen out of her ponytail and into her face. His hand rested gently on her cheek, a tender caress that quieted every fear that had been brewing inside of Piper since Samson had first grabbed her in the canteen. She felt so safe with Harry. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"I'm fine," Piper said with a sigh. She doubted Harry was going to believe her. His hands had already drifted down, patting at her arms, at her side, over her hips, looking for something wrong. "I'm fine, Harry."

"I don't want you going near him again," Harry said quite firmly, his eyes now scanning her legs and feet. "I don't want him to touch you, I don't want him to talk to you, I don't want him even thinking about you. Don't let him near you."

"Trust me, I don't want him near me either."

Piper was swept into Harry's arms once more, that same suffocating hold. Except it wasn't so suffocating when it was Harry holding her.

"What if I hadn't been there?" Harry muttered, talking more to himself than to her. "What would have happened?"

"I'm a big girl Harry. I can take care of myself." His hold got impossibly tight and Piper got the message. She hadn't meant to sound ungrateful or stubborn. Harry had sort of just rescued her from potentially being sexually assaulted by that wanker. She could show a little more gratitude. "I'm glad you were there though," she added, tipping her face sideways so her cheek lay against his collarbone. "It's nice to know I'll always have someone who wants to protect me."

"I'd lock you in a cage somewhere if it meant I knew you were safe all the time."

"Harry, you can't say things like that," Piper said with a sigh as she tilted her head up to look at him. "That's called kidnapping and it is quite illegal."

"Legal is not something I understand very well, petal," Harry said, his lips finally tugging into a little smile. Thank God. Piper loved when Harry was protective of her but something had snapped in him back there with Samson and it had scared her a little. This was her Harry. She liked her Harry. "I want you to know something."

"Okay."

"I'll always be there to protect you." When Piper looked up surprised, Harry was giving her the most earnest look, like he believed every single on of those words to the bottom of his soul. It was staggering. "Always," he said again, the weight of his words heavy.

She smiled, leaning her cheek back on his chest and letting him pull her in close. "I know."