From the telegraph's website.
www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24373007-5007132,00.html
KATIE Milligan finds it hard to believe her life has changed so much in three weeks.
Before August 24 - the day her boyfriend, NRL star Greg Bird, allegedly "glassed" her - she couldn't contain her excitement at resuming her law degree in Australia and living with the man she had fallen in love with almost a year ago back in her home city, New York.
What really happened, and why I still love him
The only thing she knew about Greg Bird when he introduced himself in a bar in Las Vegas on October 19 last year was that he was an "Aussie who played rugby league".
"I was on holiday with my girlfriends from university in Vegas and he was there for an end of season trip. He was trying to sound super Australian so I'd think he was exotic," she laughed. "We instantly hit it off. It was as if we'd known each other forever."
After spending the weekend together, Bird surprised the pretty law student by visiting her in New York instead of returning home to Sydney.
"They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but I guess not because it crosses the country," she said.
Ms Milligan spent the week showing Bird her home, taking him to Times Square and the top of the Rockefeller Centre, where she discovered his fear of heights.
"He's terrified of heights and needles and bugs, he's a big cry baby - that's what people don't know about him," she said.
"We had an instant physical connection but I really fell in love with Greg in New York because that's when I discovered all his little quirks, like that he's a scaredy cat."
She also found out he's a romantic who shares her taste for Billy Joel songs.
"We would walk around the city at night before we'd go to sleep and he'd sing me songs while we shared an ipod. We both love Billy Joel. We joked about
Uptown Girl later, but back then he used to sing me the song
Lullaby," she said.
When he returned home to Sydney, the two set up web-cams and co-ordinated their schedules around the three hours they had to talk each day.
"He asked me to come for New Year's Eve and I did and it was great," she said.
When Greg first mentioned the possibility of moving permanently to Sydney, she was hesitant.
"I had planned to go to law school in California. But when I went home, I felt like I wasn't the same," she said.
"It seriously was like a part of me was missing and I've never felt that way before about anybody.
"I would always ask my Mum, when did you know you wanted to marry Dad and be with one person for the rest of your life?
"She would always say there's that moment when you meet somebody and I just thought it was a bunch of fairytales but that's exactly what happened." On a second trip to Sydney in April, Ms Milligan arranged to study law at the University of Notre Dame and found out Bird was a minor celebrity. "It was weird because, when I met him I thought OK, you're a rugby (league) player and what else do you do?
"And he said 'No, I just play rugby (league).' And I was like, he must be good if that's all he does and he can sustain himself," she said.
"People would come up to us all the time and I asked him 'Are you famous or something, what's the deal?' and he just said 'I guess I'm a pretty good player.'
"And then I came to find out he has played tests for Australia (and State of Origin)."
During her visit, she went to her first league match to watch Bird play with the Sharks.
"He scored two tries and his family said he was showing off. He did this dramatic throwing the ball into the crowd thing," she said.
While moving to another country was scary, she said it was time for her to start her life and her parents and family - she is the youngest of three sisters - remained supportive.
In July, Ms Milligan moved into Bird's beachfront apartment in Cronulla temporarily until she found her own place.
"We were never planning on living together. He wanted me to but that was out of the question for me. My family is Catholic and I'm not really keen to live with someone unless we're married," she said. Living at close range, they discovered each other's quirks, like Bird's penchant for pizza and snuggling, and her late night Cold Rock runs.
"He likes to lip sync in the mirror. He will entertain himself for hours. He's pretty dorky."
His "snuggling" also took some getting used to. "He's a major snuggler and if he wakes up at night and we're not snuggling, he'll freak out," she said.
"He doesn't realise how big and muscular he is and he'll (mimes putting his leg over her body) do this and it feels like an oak tree has fallen on my chest."
Quirks aside, they are "just like any other couple. We like to sit on the lounge and watch movies and we go out with our friends to the pub sometimes."
But on August 24, when the couple went to a pub in Double Bay with Ms Milligan's friends from university, things unraveled.
Instead of leaving together, she stayed at a friend's unit and he went home to Cronulla. She drove home the next morning, but just after 7.30am, neighbours reported hearing shouting and then seeing Ms Milligan staggering from the unit with a bloodied towel held to her eye.
Although she is legally bound not to talk about the incident, Ms Milligan said neither she nor Bird were drunk and she insists he did nothing wrong.
"People think it was the result of some all night bender but that's not what happened at all.
"I can understand why people would question my decision, based on the media reports alone, but at the end of the day I was the one there with Greg. There were only two of us in the room and there are only two of us that know exactly what happened and it might stay that way and people are going to have to accept my decision to stand by him.
"I can say with complete certainty that I consider myself an intelligent person. I wouldn't stand by and support somebody who would ever have intentionally hurt me or, in the future, have the potential to hurt me.
"And if that's not enough for people, I know that's enough for me in my heart."
Ms Milligan was rushed to hospital after the incident with an extensive cut on her left eye and a suspected fractured eye socket.
She said as soon as she got there, the doctors opened her eye and she could see.
"My eye is pretty important to me. I do a lot of reading but it hasn't been a problem.
"My doctors say it's healing well. They said the way it's going now it looks like it'll be fine and it won't need any plastic surgery."
