#//ALSO i know there are references to jack's mom walking out before his dad

[gas-stxtion-a]

//ok yeah time to outline some thoughts about jack being placed in foster care.

first, obligatory disclaimer: i haven't read volume 4 yet, so volume 4 and its revelations about jack's family mean fucking nothing to me rn. (not to say that i'm going to completely disregard those details once i get there or just say they're *not canon* somehow, but that these are my thoughts *for now* and i'll adjust them as needed once i get my shit together and read volume 4.)

content warnings: this is all about abuse, especially very violent physical abuse, both between romantic partners and directed at a very young child. tread lightly. also talk of drug use and addiction and alcoholism. this post is a goddamn bummer.

jack's father, william, was a white nationalist and an extremely, brutally abusive man, especially to his son. i've thought a lot about *why* that is--not that there's ever a *good* or *logical* reason to beat a child, of course, but also abusers aren't inhuman monsters with no logic behind their actions. there's a reason jack's father was Like That, and yeah sure a lot of that definitely relates to the far right bullshit but still-

and i'll be upfront that i don't have answers for everything that was wrong with jack's parents and their background, but i'm sharing what i've got now.

anyway, jack's parents were both addicts--his father was definitely an alcoholic, and i'm sure his mother, charlotte, had addiction problems as well. based on the references to meth being a huge problem in town, we can probably assume they might've been on meth, but i'm not so sure on that for these two in particular.

at the very least, i don't think jack's *dad* was on meth, because i get the impression he was seen as *better* than a lot of people in the community to some degree, at least up until his wife left him and his kid was taken away and put in foster care. the specific drug isn't super important for this particular post, but i'm putting a pin in this for future reference. we'll get back to that at some point.

ANYWAY, jack was not the only child in even just his kindergarten class being subject to horrific abuse at home. it's a widespread problem in this community, based on the (often joking) references in the series. sure, beating your kids isn't condoned, but this town also doesn't exactly *condemn* it either, and as long as you aren't *open* about it, most people are generally content to look the other way. same for spousal abuse, both of which were happening in this household.

jack's dad was always a piece of shit btw, but over time he definitely got worse. and y'know i hate to say it, but i think jack's birth was one of the factors that made the situation worse. william was elated to have a child, up until said child wasn't immediately the perfect, obedient heir he'd been hoping for.

jack was *too sensitive* and *annoying* and william became less and less patient about that as time went on. making matters worse, jack's mother was hit *hard* by postpartum depression, and she withdrew emotionally more and more as he grew. not to say she was never present, but there was a very noticeable distance between jack and his mother that grew worse with time. her postpartum depression and her addiction fed into each other in a vicious cycle as she got worse and worse and both were left untreated.

and jack's father was... not patient in dealing with that. his wife wasn't performing her duties as a wife and a mother, and he had too much on his plate already to worry about picking up the slack. jack was left alone quite a bit as a child, often having to fend for himself or risk starvation. and when his parents *were* around, they often argued (even if said arguments tended to be one-sided).

eventually, william began drinking more and more, and these arguments grew more and more common. finally, though, when jack was three, william got violent with charlotte. to her credit, she fought back just as hard, but that escalated the situation and made it significantly worse, and jack was caught in the crossfire.

as the years passed, william grew more and more violent towards his wife and child, often brutally attacking them seemingly unprompted and then denying them medical attention so they wouldn't tell the doctors anything. jack's mother became more present and *there* for him, but it was primarily for her own survival. if she was a good mother, she wouldn't be beaten. (now i'm not saying she didn't love jack, but just that she had to care for him in a way she wasn't equipped to, or risk more abuse.)

things escalated and escalated, and then when jack was around six years old, william tried to kill them both in a drunken rage. he didn't succeed in the end, as a neighbor heard the commotion and called the police. jack and his mother were taken to the hospital, and his father was arrested. he'd finally gone far enough that the community wouldn't look the other way anymore.

jack's father was charged, but he ultimately was released and just... left town without a word. he didn't want to face his old community and see what they thought of him. jack hasn't heard from him in nearly twenty years, and he's happy to keep it that way.

jack's mom stuck around for a bit, but after a month or two, she just... vanished. without a word. all she left behind for jack was a little food, a little money, and a note apologizing for not being a good mother to him. jack hasn't heard from her since either, but he still has her letter to him.

it was a couple of days before anyone realized something was wrong, as accustomed as jack was to taking care of himself. eventually, though, *someone* realized that this six year old had been alone for two days. and ultimately jack was taken in by the state. there were efforts made in the early days to locate his mother or other relatives, but none of them were successful. so, he was placed with a very nice local family, assured that he would be adopted any day now. who wouldn't want to adopt him after all?

... that never happened, but it was a nice thought if nothing else.

[whoisalastair]

Birthdays, Holidays, and Surprises // J. Hughes

Wherein Jack’s girlfriend celebrates both Mother’s Day for Mrs. Hughes, Jack’s 22nd birthday, and Jack is given a very special announcement.

(obviously had to include Queen Ellen on her special day <3 -Alastair)

— — — — —

“Really, Y/n?” Jack groaned, trying to hide his smile as I revealed my master plan.

“Really, Jack,” I grinned. “Your mom will love it.” He chuckled and wrapped an arm around me, gently tugging me closer to him in bed. We were visiting the Hughes residence in Michigan for the weekend, and there wasn’t another room for me to stay in but Jack’s.

“She’s your mom too, basically,” Jack huffed, snuggling into my neck as I flushed red. I never really referred to Mrs. Hughes as anything but that, even though she told me I could call her Ellen.

“How so, J?” He peeked up from the crook of my neck to answer, his brown eyes doe-like in the sunny morning light.

“Well, when I marry you, you’ll be a Hughes and then she’ll really be your mom.” Squeaking in surprise, I tried to cover how emotional the explanation made me with a sarcastic retort.

“When you marry me? That’s assuming I say yes.” He smirked and kissed me delicately, his sleepy grip on me softening.

“Gross! Jack, you promised that you wouldn’t do PDA,” Luke complained from the door, which I sadly didn’t know had been open. Jack smiled into the kiss and then looked at Luke with the same smile.

“It’s not PDA if it’s in my room, dude.” Luke wrinkled his nose in distaste and probably considered leaving.

“Well, dad says breakfast is ready.” I grinned at that, hopping out of bed before I realized I only wore Jack’s shirt and blushed. Jack snorted as I crawled back under the covers, Luke’s face crimson as he turned around.

“Sorry moosey,” I called out, him giving a thumbs up in return without turning around as he left. Jack rolled out of bed and quickly put on shorts, his patterned boxers hidden by khakis. I giggled and put on a sundress, kissing his cheek as we went downstairs. We were greeted with the smell of freshly cooked pancakes, eggs, and other delicious foods.

“Happy Mother’s Day!” I exclaimed as Mrs. Hughes wrapped me in a loving hug.

“You too, dear,” she whispered, making me glance over at Jack to make sure he didn’t hear. Only Mrs. Hughes knew about my pregnancy, call it mother’s intuition that she guessed it. Luckily, Jack and Quinn were too busy shoving each other to get food before the other to notice.

“Jack Rowden Hughes, let Quinner go first,” I scolded teasingly, rolling my eyes for effect. He pouted but listened, Quinn sending me a thankful look. I got in line for food behind Luke, his curly hair wild in the morning.

“So, boys, where’s my Mother’s Day hugs?” Mrs. Hughes teased, the boys immediately setting down their plates to give her a group hug. I smiled a little, suddenly thinking of a new plan.

“Boys, give me a Mother’s Day hug too,” I smirked, as Luke was the first to turn around and barrel over to me with no questions asked. Quinn looked at me for a moment wide-eyed, sighed, and then walked over to hug me smiling.

“But babe, you’re not a mother,” Jack said, standing there all confused. I sighed and looked at Mrs. Hughes, who also sighed and ruffled her middle son’s hair.

“I will be in late August.” Jack froze, and for a moment I worried that he had stopped breathing. Finally I noticed that his eyes had started to tear up and he lurched towards me, dropping to his knees to inspect my stomach. I watched as he peppered it with kisses, the tears starting to drip down his face onto the tile floor.

“Best fuckin’ birthday present ever.”

— — — — —

[dib-thing-wannabe]

The Evil and The Genius

Chapter Three: The Beginnings of Change

<<<previous

(Evil Jimmy is mainly referred to as Jack in this fanfic and is wearing a maroon turtle neck, a black hoodie that has a large DNA strand branded on the front of it, a pair of loose black jeans, and a pair of dark grey tennis shoes instead of the exact same outfit that Jimmy has. Be warned that this chapter is easily the longest of the chapters so far. Also, incase you haven't read the other two chapters, this fanfic takes place a year after the show ended. Sorry about not having updated for so long, I ran out of words, aka lost motivation lol)

Today officially marks two whole months since Jimmy had officially started the process of trying to reform Jack, and since Jack has started living with him and his parents, much to both Jimmy's dismay and Jack's confusion. To say that it's also been a living nightmare for Jimmy is a severe understatement.

Despite Jack being confused as to why Judy and Hugh had decided to take him in with only a measly promise that can easily be broken, he still uses this to his full advantage, even going so far as to get himself comfortable with calling them Mom and Dad (as much as he can get comfortable, at least). He even gets to bother Jimmy every chance he gets with little consequences for it, as it just gets deemed by most adults and even some peers as 'brothers being brothers'! Like, for example, 'borrowing' Jimmy's things despite not needing to, going into his room randomly without bothering to ask first, mess with his friends whenever they decide to hang out at Jimmy's place, try to blow up the school with a nuclear hand grenade that was made out of scraped inventions and then blame Jimmy for it because he had left out uranium unattended, just the usual things that a sibling would do.

You would be extremely wrong and also incredibly stupid for even thinking that Jimmy hasn't wanted to kill Jack since day one of this new and unwanted chaos. Today, the chaos will mostly stay the same.. mostly.

Jimmy sat at the kitchen room table doing his homework, sighing occasionally as he stared down at the paper. Here he is, a super genius who has by himself made inventions that are more powerful than the government's, having to do understimulating work for something that he doesn't even need instead of doing anything that he actually wants to do.

Jack walked into the kitchen as he quietly hummed to himself, holding an Ultra-Lord comic book that Sheen had gifted him when he first came back. "Still doing your homework, whippy dip?"

"At least I actually do my homework when I first get it and not wait until the very last second, unlike you." Jimmy responded, not loosing focus on his work.

"Hey, at least I'm not wasting my time on something useless like that when I can be doing what I want instead. Besides, I don't break under pressure, so it doesn't affect anything when just I wait to do it." Jack sat next to Jimmy, putting his feet up on the table.

"Waiting? Like you have been waiting when it comes to reading the very comic book that's in your hand right now?" Jimmy responded, still not looking away from the homework.

".. Oh shut up, we both know that the comic has so many things that just aren't accurate when it comes to simple science, and it's irritating to read knowing that they could have done simple research to realize this." Jack threw the comic down on the table as he leaned back, hands behind his head.

"That's understandable, but you shouldn't continue to give Sheen false hope about you reading it sooner or later. He can be quite sensitive when it comes to all things involving Ultra-Lord."

"Ooooh, okay! Got it!" Jack pointed a finger gun at Jimmy as he chuckled, making Jimmy roll his eyes.

They both sat in silence for a moment before Jack lifted his hand and pointed his finger at Jimmy, slowly inching his finger closer and closer to Jimmy's cheek.

"Jack, don't touch me." Jimmy said, still not looking up from the paper, now having an even more annoyed look on his face.

"But I'm not touching you." Jack said calmly, now not moving a muscle. It's true, he wasn't touching Jimmy. He just held his finger veeeery close to him, yet not touching him still.

"Jack, stop that." Jimmy now demanded him, finally looking up from the paper but not directly at Jack still, instead just staring at what was infront of him instead.

"Stop what? I'm not doing anything."

"You know exactly what you are doing." Jimmy told him through gritted teeth, his eye twitching.

"Actually, You are correct! I do know what I'm doing! And that would be nothing!" Jack spoke in a smug tone as he continued to not move his finger away from or closer to Jimmy.

"DAD! JACK WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE WHILE I'M DOING HOMEWORK!!" Jimmy yelled out, turning himself towards the living room where Hugh is watching tv.

"I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING TO HIM, HE'S LYING!!!" Jack yelled out as well, finally moving his finger and hand away from him as to try and avoid getting in trouble for the third time this week.

"Settle down, boys! Jack, stop messing with Jimmy, and Jimmy, stop being so hard on Jack!" Hugh called out from the couch, not taking his eyes off the tv. Jack crossed his arms and huffed as he turned his back towards Jimmy, who rolled his eyes when his dad told him to stop being so harsh with Jack.

They once again sat in silence as Jimmy focused on his homework and Jack looked out the window. Suddenly, Jack's face had lit up as he noticed something, tilting his head slightly as he got more intrigued.

"What is Sheen doing now?.." He spoke quietly to himself, watching him through the window intensely.

"Probably nothing, Jack. How come you always watch him when you have nothing better to do anyway?" Jimmy asked, glancing up at Jack for a moment.

"His stupidity is entertaining to me. His thought process is so simple that it's also so hard to tell what it is that's going through his head." He responded as he rested his head in his hand, still watching Sheen.

"Eh.. makes sense." Jimmy shrugged as he spoke. Wanting to see just how far his idiotism went was originally how they became friends when they were young children, after all.

Jack continued to watch Sheen through the window, beginning to snicker. "Um, J-Jimmy?"

"What now?"

"Why does Sheen have the Freeze Ray 3.2 that you're still currently working on?"

Jimmy's heart dropped when he heard Jack's words, immediately looking past him to look out the window himself. Sheen was outside, carelessly and dangerously waving Jimmy's latest version of his freeze ray around in the air as Cindy and Libby are trying to physically stop him while Carl was seemingly pleading with them all to calm down as he tried to stay out of their way.

Quickly, Jimmy scrambled to get out of his seat, no longer caring about doing his homework as he sprinted towards the front door. "No no no nO NO-"

Jack, now laughing loudly and manically, quickly follows Jimmy out the door. "Oh, I gotta see this!"

"SHEEN!! PUT THE RAY DOWN!!!" Jimmy yelled and demanded at Sheen once he was outside and had him in his sights, causing Sheen to jump due to his sudden and booming voice, but immediately relaxes again as he saw that it was just Jimmy.

"Heya Jimmy! Heya Jack!" Sheen called out, waving at them with the ray still in hand, which Cindy was still trying to get out of his hands.

"Give me that, you dolt!" Jimmy quickly and surprisingly easily snatched the freeze ray from Sheen. "How did you even manage to get this in the first place?!"

"Well, your lab door was unlocked, and when I went inside I saw that your freeze thingy was out, so I thought I should show it off for ya!" Sheen says gleefully, as if he didn't do anything wrong.

"Without my permission?? Without even informing me?! Sheen, I swear, you could just simply stand still and it would still leave me bumfuzzled, that's how confusing your stupidity is!" Jimmy then sighed as he rubbed his furrowed eyebrows in frustration.

"Well, when you say words that aren't even real, it's hard to tell what your answer is half the time! So I didn't bother asking!" Sheen replied, crossing his arms as if he had a right to be annoyed with Jimny.

"It's a yes or no question, Sheen! If you hear either "Yes" or "No" in the sentence, then that's your answer!!" Jimmy yelled out as he turned away from Sheen and began walking towards his lab to put the freeze ray back.

In turn, Jack stepped closer to Sheen as he struggled to stop snickering. "A-and about that statement with him saying words that are supposedly 'not real', they are in fact real words, it's just that most simpletons like yourself don't know them."

Cindy then spoke out as she stepped in front of Jack. "Well, you can't blame Sheen for that one, because most people don't use the words that Jimmy always use!"

"Yeah, because most people are stupid and only use the words that everyone else use." Jack said casually, putting his hands in the pocket of his hoodie. "At least he's able to get creative with his words, even if only a few can fully understand him because of it."

".. Well, he's not wrong on that one." Libby admitted to Cindy as she put her hand on her shoulder, which caused Cindy to roll her eyes in annoyance.

Jimmy quickly made it back to the group once he put the freeze ray back in it's rightful place, mainly to make sure that Jack wasn't provoking anyone too much or running out of anyone's sight as to cause havock. He let out a small and quiet sigh of relief as he saw that Jack was being civil for now.

Jimmy walked over to Cindy's side, noticing his girlfriends annoyance and was about to ask what was wrong before he noticed that Sheen's face suddenly light up as he remembered something before he turned his focus to Jack and spoke up, his voice filled with his usual excitement. "Hey, did you finally end up reading that Ultra-Lord comic I got ya?! It's his first ever comic, so it should be easy for you to follow the story right now!!"

"Oh, no, no I didn't. Infact, I'm not gonna read it at all. I just can't stomach it's scientific inaccuracies for more than a few pages at a time." Jack shrugged his shoulders as he casually spoke his truth. Everyones besides Jimmy's breath hitched in their throats as the words escaped Jack's mouth, knowing how Sheen can be when it came to people insulting things that he's interested in. Jimmy shot Jack with an intense glare as his eyes dart between Sheen's and Jack's face, waiting for Sheen's reaction before doing anything about the situation.

Sheen's face dropped as he got a disappointed and betrayed look on his face before it suddenly lit up again as he got another idea. "Does that mean that you'll preserve it instead??"

Jack raised an eyebrow at the ecstatic boy before answering him, "Huh?.. Oh. Yeah, yeah, sure, why not-"

Suddenly, out of pure excitement of Jack essentially starting a comic book collection in Sheen's eyes, he picked Jack up in a tight hug, Jack's feet no longer touching the ground. Everyone else let out a collective sigh of relief, as for them, it's common knowledge that Sheen does this with anyone who's shorter than him as a way of showing affection.

Jack, however, was not at all aware of this, as he didn't even know that Sheen's strength had increased enough to so easily lift people off the ground since he got put in the dark matter dimension. Jack let out a small yelp of surprise as he got lifted so suddenly, a small blush of embarrassment appearing on his cheeks. After a second, he began to try and get out of Sheen's grasp, as he hadn't gotten physical affection that lasted for more than a few seconds for over a year and this sudden and tight hug overwhelmed him quickly.

"HEY!! LET ME GO, YOU DAMN HEATHEN!!" Jack screamed out as he kicked his feet in the air as a futile attempt of escaping. Being the clone of a super genius really did come at a cost: being short.

Sheen raised an eyebrow at Jack in slight confusion. Then, he smirked mischievously as he quickly saw an opportunity to get back at him a little for being an annoyance to him. He then began to swing Jack around in his arms as he laughed. "Awwww, but you're so light and soft! I don't think I ever wanna let go!"

Jack's kicking got even worse as he continued to try and get Sheen to let go, his face now red with embarrassment and anger as he yelled out, "I SAID LET GO, YOU IMBECILE!!"

Everyone besides Jimmy began to snicker at the seem, finding Jack's anger about the situation hilarious. Jimmy though wasn't laughing at all as he watched Jack struggle against Sheen. Dare he say, he actually felt sympathy for him at this moment. It wasn't uncommon for Sheen to do something like this to him too, and considering that he absolutely hated it even after getting used to it, he could only imagine how it felt for the one who was unaware of it in the first place.

Jimmy let out a small sigh before he spoke up, "Okay, put Jack down, Sheen, you had your fun."

"Aww, but why?"

"Because he clearly dislikes it, and will probably punch you in the next moment if you don't."

Sheen rolled his eyes as he dropped Jack on the grass. "Fiiiine, fine."

Jack groaned as he sat himself back up and rubbed his head, muttering under his breath, "Asshole.."

Jimmy went over and helped Jack off the ground, talking as he helped to brush off some dry dirt off of Jack. "Anyways, I need to go back inside and finish up my homework. See you guys later.. Oh, and Jack, try not to be a bother today, okay?"

Jack rolled his eyes as he nodded his head, clearly not going to actually listen to him. Jimmy glared at him, also know that he wasn't going to listen, but currently too tired to bother dealing with him. He waved his friends and Jack goodbye before heading back inside his house as to finish up his work.

A few hours later, Jimmy had finished all his homework, now watching Tv as he gave Goddard a quick check up on his joints. Jimmy glanced over at the clock on the wall, it reading 5:15 pm. It was.. strange. Jack hadn't come back to bother him or disrupt the house again yet, and his their mom was just about to start dinner! Not only that, but no one had called either of his their parents of him directly to complain about something that Jack did. It was.. strange, to say the least.

Suddenly, Jack busted through the front door and quickly slammed it behind himself, his back pressed against the door and using his body as to baracade it, panting heavily as he let out nervous laughter. Jimmy's eyes widened at his sudden appearance and look of panic.

"Wha- Jack?! What happened?!"

Jack let out more nervous laughter as he put up his hood and pulled the hoodie's strings as to hide his face, his hair horns poking out. "Weeeeeeell-"

Suddenly, there was loud banging on the other side of the front door as Jack yell out a small squeak, Cindy's voice booming through from the other side.

"JAAACK!! GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW SO THAT I CAN KICK YOUR ASS!!!"

Cindy then began to attempt to break the door down entirely, prompting Jack to.. hide behind Jimmy??

"J-Jack?! What are you doing?!?"

"Hiding, what else does it look like?!"

"Why behind me?! She may be my girlfriend, but that doesn't mean that I'm able to physically stop her when she's this mad!!"

"I don't know, I'm panicking!-"

Then, Cindy was able to kick down the door, currently wearing a mint green sundress that had been drenched in a dark colored soda. Upon hearing the door slam into the ground, the two boy's jumped a little at the noise, Jack quickly hiding himself behind Jimmy more as Jimmy instinctively threw out his arms in a protective position. Cindy's pissed off and raging expression quickly shifted into a more surprised and slightly confused look at the sight of this, as she didn't expect Jimmy to have a protective instinct for Jack yet, though there was still obvious anger on her face as she panted slightly from chasing after Jack.

Jimmy then raised his hands in the air as he spoke in a calm voice. "N-now now, what just happened here? Why were you chasing after Jack??"

Cindy glared at Jack, who was peaking over Jimmy's shoulder as he tried to remain hidden from her sights, as she spoke. "He not only threw a full soda can at me, but he also slightly opened the can before throwing it, making all the soda pour all over me and ruining my new dress!!"

"Girl!! F-for, like, the fourth time, I didn't mean for that to happen!!"

Jimmy's eyes widened as he looked over his shoulder at Jack. For the first time ever.. he didn't mean to cause any trouble?? And it wasn't like he was just lying to get himself out of trouble again, as Jimmy had quickly learned all of his tells. This time, he was being genuine, even if it's being expressed in a more harsh way.

"Well.. what did you mean to happen, then?"

"S-Sheen asked me to pass him a soda, so instead of just walking towards him and handing it to him, I tried throwing it at him since he's such an annoyance!! But Cindy ended up walking into the cans line of sight at the wrong time! I-I'm not sure why or how it was opened though.."

Carl, Libby and Sheen quickly ran behind Cindy, all panting heavily from trying to keep up with the two. Sheen then raised his hand as he was still panting heavily. "I-It was me! I was the one who opened the can enough to where soda would pour everywhere! But it was meant to go all over Jack as he was grabbing it!"

Carl took a few puffs from his inhaler before he began speaking as well, still panting heavily as he spoke. "B-Both Jack's and Sheen's stories are true, I-I was a witness to both incidents!" Libby then raised her hand and held up two fingers as she continued panting heavily, silently saying that she seconded Carls statement.

Cindy's and Jimmy's eyes widened in surprise. Jack was.. innocent? He was genuinely innocent and he wasn't trying to cause any trouble?.. well, not for Cindy, at least.

Cindy cleared her throat as she tried to appear more calm and collected before looking back at Jack, who was still hiding behind Jimmy, though now looked less panicked and nervous due to the others vouching for him, even Sheen. "Well then.. I'm sorry about the misunderstanding, Jack." God, did that feel weird for her to say to him of all people.

"I-it's fine, I guess.. but giiirl, you need to learn to chill." Jack said this as he stepped out from behind Jimmy.

Cindy rolled her eyes as she mumbled under her breath, though didn't say anything about it, as she didn't want to end up proving Jack's point. "Whatever, I'm going back home, it's almost about time for dinner anyways."

The other three, still slightly being out of breath, followed suite, going back to their individual houses. Jimmy and Jack looked down at the broken down door for a few moments before Jack attempted to pick it up to put it in place, only to immediately struggle due to not having a lot of strength. Even if he's different personality wise, he still is a clone of a weak and short boy, after all. After a few attempts, Jack then gave up as he began walking towards his room as to be alone for the next 15 minutes before dinner was supposed to be ready.

"... You know.. I think that, albeit very slowly.. this reformation thing is actually working." Jimmy spoke up as he looked up at Jack, who was halfway up the stairs.

Jack froze for a moment before looking down at Jimmy, raising an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really? And how so?"

"If that very incident happened when you were first made, or hell, when we first started this reformation attempt, you would've taken all the credit for it happening, despite it being unintentional." Jimmy then walked towards the bathroom as to wash his hands, seeing that Judy was about to pull dinner out of the oven.

Jack stood there, frozen and in shock. Jimmy.. wasn't wrong. Unintentionally and unironically, he was very, very slowly being reformed...

"... Fuck..."

[sequinsmile-x]

Summit - Chapter 2

He hates that he feels like a kid. Like the little boy who was let down by his parents again and again. His father’s violence and his mother’s apathy, her overcorrection to dealing with the life she’d found herself living, the building blocks for the fortress he’d built around himself.

Aaron's mom comes to see him after years of silence and no contact.

Part 1

-x-

Hi friends!!

Thanks so much for the love on chapter 1! I think Aaron's background is so poorly explored in the show so I really enjoyed writing this. I have also been working on an AU (a 3 or 4 parter I think) where his Dad is alive and they go on a case to his hometown. Lots of angst and feelings and protective Emily in that too!

I really hope you enjoy part two, and please let me know what you think!

-x-

Warnings: Pregnancy (not the main point of it, Emily is just pregnant in this fic, references to child abuse/domestic violence (nothing graphic/detailed.)

Words: 4.1k

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

“I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam-I-am.” 

Emily smiles as she hears Issac giggle next to her, his little face pressed into her chest as she reads to him. They were snuggled in bed together. He was already supposed to have been asleep. Aaron had put him in his own bed a couple of hours ago, but he’d snuck out of his room, his favourite book in hand, and found her in the living room, a smile on his face that she was bowled over by.  The same smile that Aaron and Jack had, the one she could never say no to. 

She just knew her little girl would be the same, that she’d be wrapped around her little finger from the moment she was born. 

“You are meant to be going to sleep, mister,” she says, poking him in his belly, smiling when he giggles again.

“I not tired.” 

She hums, suppressing a yawn as she does so, “Momma is,” she says quietly, flipping over the page of the book to carry on reading, “Would you eat them in a box-”

She’s cut off as the door opens, and Aaron walks in, sighing as he pushes his cell phone into his pocket, “I spoke to Sean-” he stops himself when he spots Issac in their bed, and he raises his eyebrow, “I seem to remember putting a certain someone to bed a few hours ago.” 

Emily smiles as he walks over and joins them, her eyes searching his face for any kind of hint of how he is feeling. He’d shut down, going silent when Suzanne made it clear why she was here, why she’d broken decades of silence. Emily had asked her to leave, stern and leaving no room for argument as she got up off of the couch, Aaron automatically helping her even though he still hadn’t spoken, as if his instincts to love her, to take care of her, ran so deep he found himself doing it without thinking. She’d walked her mother-in-law to the door, her jaw tight as Suzanne asked her to talk to Aaron, to talk him into helping her. It had taken everything in her not to yell at her there and then, to tell her everything she’d wanted to say ever since she popped back up in their lives, but she knew looking after her husband was her priority. 

They hadn’t really had a chance to talk about it. He’d asked to be alone for a while and she’d respected that, knowing she’d want the same if she was in his shoes, and then the boys had come home. They acted like everything was normal, like Aaron’s world hadn’t shifted on its axis, like he hadn’t been let down by a woman he’d thought had stopped doing that half a lifetime ago. Jack was in his room, playing a video game he was obsessed with a strict deadline of when to turn it off and go to sleep, and she knew as soon as Issac was asleep they’d finally be able to talk about it. 

She watches as Aaron swallows thickly, his nerves as on edge as they ever got, and she looks down at Issac, “Zaccy?” She fake whispers, smiling conspiratorily when he looks up at her, “Daddy looks like he could do with a hug, huh?” 

Aaron barely has a moment to react before Issac throws himself at him, disentangling himself from around Emily and launching himself into his father’s embrace. Aaron chuckles as he wraps his arms around his youngest son, smiling at his wife over his son’s head. He runs his hand up and down his pyjama-covered back and kisses the side of his head. 

“Thanks, buddy,” he says, smiling as Issac pulls back to look at him, the eyes he shared with Emily wide and curious as he looks at his father. 

“Better?” He asks, fighting a yawn, and Aaron nods as Issac rubs at his eyes whilst he settles further into Aaron’s embrace. 

“Much better,” Aaron replies, smiling softly as he looks at Emily, “Now, why doesn’t Mommy finish reading your book and then we’ll get you back to bed.” 

Issac nods as he rests his head on Aaron’s chest, and Emily can’t help but smile at the sight of them together, how her little boy settles against her husband, their matching expressions as they look at her expectantly making her heart swell in her chest. She nods as she picks the book back up, the other hand on her bump as the baby shifts around, and she continues to read. Issac only makes it another couple of pages before he’s fast asleep, his cheek squished against Aaron’s shirt. Emily closes the book and smiles wryly at her husband. 

“Now we’ll never know if he’d like green eggs and ham in a tree,” she jokes, as if they hadn’t read the book every night for what felt like years, and Aaron chuckles, standing up and making sure Issac is safe against him. “Bring him here so I can give him a kiss,” she says, and Aaron does as he’s asked, rounding the bed and leaning down so Emily can kiss Issac’s forehead, “Good night, sweet boy. I love you.” 

“I’ll be back in a minute,” he says, and she nods in response, smiling softly as she watches them go, concern for Aaron simmering in her belly as he leaves. 

Aaron is careful as he lays Issac in his bed, the bedding already in a mess from where he’d climbed out of it earlier on. He smiles as Issac curls up the moment he lays down, his arms wrapping around his favourite toy, a bright green stuffed frog, and he carefully lays the covers over him. He sits on the edge of the bed for a moment and watches his son, basking in the innocence that he and Emily wired so hard to protect. Everything they’d been through separately and together fuelled so many of their decisions as parents, desperate not to repeat their own parent’s mistakes, to make sure their children always knew they were loved. 

He leans forward and kisses his son’s forehead, running his fingers through his unruly hair, “I’ll always be here Issac,” he says quietly, “No matter what.” 

He gives himself another moment before he leaves the room, blowing out a steady breath as he walks back towards the master bedroom. Emily had been incredibly understanding, loving him in the way he needed by leaving him to wrap his head around his mother walking back into his life only because she wanted something. Re-opening wounds he’d thought had long since healed, scars he hadn’t thought about in years. 

He can’t help but smile as he walks back into the bedroom to find Emily sitting exactly where he’d left her, both of her hands pressing into her bump. 

“She’s kicking so much, I don’t think I’m going to get any sleep tonight,” she says, smiling softly at him as he walks over, “I can’t wait until she’s here.”

Aaron climbs into bed and wraps an arm around her shoulder. He places his other hand on her belly, smiling when he feels their daughter move around, “Only a couple of weeks to go.” 

She hums, resting her head on his shoulder, “If I don’t go overdue again,” she mumbles, scrunching her nose up as she thinks of just how uncomfortable she was at the end of her pregnancy last time. She tilts her head to look up at him, biting her lower lip as her eyes flit over his face, the sadness that had etched into it making her ache, “I’d ask if you’re okay,” she says, resting her hand over his on her bump, “But that’s a stupid question,” he links their fingers together and squeezes, “What did Sean say?” 

He sighs, shaking his head before he turns it, pressing his lips to her temple, “She went to see him first, and asked him for money,” he scoffs, “He says he hasn’t heard from her since he said he didn’t have any. He apologised for bringing me up, but he said it was the only way he could get her to leave.” 

She smiles tightly at him, anger aimed at her mother-in-law once again climbing up her throat, forcing her to swallow it back so she doesn’t say something she’d later regret, “I’m so sorry honey,” she says, cupping his cheek and making him look at her, running he thumb back and forth over his cheek, his stubble rough against her skin, “You deserve so much better.” 

He chuckles humorlessly, as if he doesn’t believe her, and she files it away for another day, knowing now wasn’t the time to have the conversation they’d had countless times before. Both of them convinced they didn’t deserve the other, something that had delayed them from getting together at first. 

“I can’t explain it,” he says, shaking his head at himself, “But I think I want to give her the money. But…I don’t know if I could bear to watch her walk away after we give it to her.” 

She sighs, well aware that this was likely the road they’d go down. Above all, Aaron was a good man. The best. And he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he knew his mother was struggling. 

“Honey-”

“I know it’s technically your money,” he says, and she raises an eyebrow at him, both of them exchanging a soft smile as he nods. It was a conversation they’d had several times over the years. Her trust fund something she considered to be for their family, for them. Something they had used to buy this house. She always chastised him when he called it her money, and it reminded her of the argument they’d had when he first found out just how rich she was, his shock turning into anger he didn’t understand. “Okay, our money. But it feels like the right thing to do.” 

“If that’s what you want to do,” she says, smiling softly at him, “Then that’s what we’ll do. But you don’t have to make the decision now.”

He nods, leaning in to stamp a kiss against her lips, “I know. I love you.” 

“I love you too,” she replies, “So much.” 

He kisses her again, the action lost to a smile as the baby moves, and he pulls back, “Do you two need anything?”  

She smirks, shrugging nonchalantly before she nods, “Baby says she wants ice cream.” 

He chuckles and kisses her again, grateful for a moment of normalcy in what had been a difficult few days. “Ice cream coming right up.” 

___

Emily keeps looking back and forth between the entrance of the diner and her phone on the table in front of her, her nerves increasing with each minute that ticks by. She groans as she feels a particularly sharp kick from inside of her and she looks down, placing her hand on her belly that was pressed up against the table. 

“Sorry, sweet girl,” she says, “It’s a bit of a squeeze in this booth with both of us.” 

She hears the bell above the door ring and she looks up at the door and spots Suzanne walk in. She watches for a moment as the other woman looks around, frowning slightly at the bright pink and white seats, and the slightly tacky decor that Emily and Aaron both got a kick out of. Suzanne spots her and smiles tightly before walking over, slipping into the opposite side of the booth. 

“I was surprised to hear from you,” she says as she sits down, placing her purse next to her before she looks at Emily, “Is Aaron here?” 

Emily shakes her head, “No. He is not.” 

It wasn’t a decision she’d made lightly, but in the few days it had been since Suzanne had come to their home she’d seen the impact it had on Aaron. He was struggling, desperately trying to figure out what he wanted to do, his confusion and sadness covered up with irritation. An old coping mechanism that had meant Derek and Dave had both called her separately to ask what was wrong with him.  

She knew ultimately he’d agree to give his mother the money, that he would push past his own pain and hurt to help her. Under it all, all the scowls and scars, he was still just that little boy who wanted his mom. If anyone could understand it, it was Emily. 

She knew how it felt to want to be loved in the way she always should have been. 

“Does he know you’re here?” Suzanne asks, her eyebrow raised. 

Emily shakes her head, “He doesn’t, but he will,” she says, linking her hands on the table in between them, “We don’t keep secrets from each other.” 

Suzanne opens her mouth but is interrupted as the waitress comes over. 

“Mrs Hotchner,” she says, making both of them look at her, but all of her focus is on Emily, “Look at you, you look just about ready to drop.” 

Emily smiles, “Hi Marjorie, just over a week to go now,” she says, well aware of Suzanne’s gaze burning into her.

“That’s so exciting,” Marjorie looks around and seems to realise Emily doesn’t have Aaron or the children with her, “Where are those adorable boys of yours?” 

Emily’s eyes flash over to Suzanne for a moment before she looks back at the woman speaking to her, “At home today I’m afraid, so no need to make any of those smiley face pancakes.” 

Marjorie smiles at her, “What can I get you instead?”

“Just a sweet tea would be lovely, thanks,” Emily replies, watching as Marjorie turns to Suzanne, who clears her throat before she makes eye contact. 

“The same. Please.”

“Two sweet teas coming right up.” 

Emily feels awkwardness wash over them as they are left alone again, making the air thick with it. 

“So you guys come here often?” Suzanne asks, sounding far too casual for Emily’s liking, as if she hadn’t torn her eldest son down by showing up after so many years of absence. 

“Jack and Issac like it,” she says, smiling as she thinks of how they’d spend as many Saturdays here as possible, “They love the pancakes, but they say Aaron’s are a close second.” 

Suzanne nods, briefly smiling her thanks as Marjorie places their drinks on the table without comment, clearly having picked up on the tension between them. 

“So, if Aaron isn’t here, why are we?” Suzanne asks, she smiles, an edge of bitterness to it that makes Emily’s irritation spike, “He couldn’t bear to tell me himself that his wife won’t give me the money?” 

Emily clenches her jaw so tightly she’s surprised she doesn’t feel it pop and she glares at her for a beat longer than necessary, feeling a strange sense of achievement when Suzanne becomes visibly uncomfortable, avoiding her eye contact. She casts another glance at her mother-in-law before she reaches for her purse. She pulls out a folded piece of paper and places it on the table, pushing it towards Suzanne. 

“You have two options,” she says, clearing her throat as Suzanne picks up the piece of paper and unfolds it, her eyes going slightly wide as she realises what it is, “The first is you take that cheque,” she shrugs, settling her crossed arms on the top of the bump, “It covers the debt you told us about and you can go back to your life and we can go back to ours.”

Suzanne raises her eyebrows, looking at Emily over the top of the cheque, “No strings attached? Just $40,000?” 

Emily bites the inside of her cheek at the way Suzanne has phrased it, the fact she seems unaffected by the implication she wouldn’t have to see her son again. She shakes her head as she responds, “No strings attached. You can just walk away.” 

“And my second option?” 

“I’ll pay off your debts for you to the bank directly, and then make sure you’re comfortable going forward, as long as you work on a relationship with Aaron, and maybe even eventually the kids.”

Suzanne huffs out a laugh, the cheque still firmly in her hand, “You’re bribing me?” 

Emily grits her teeth, “No, I’m giving you two options. One of which is a life with your son. The other is what you came here for.” 

Her words hang between them, her accusation clear. Suzanne sighs, “I do love my children.” 

“I know you do,” Emily replies quickly, shaking her head at her, “But that’s not enough, in fact, I think it makes it worse. Aaron knows you love him but it still didn’t make you try and keep him in your life.”

“He didn’t try either-”

“He’s your son,” she says, cutting over a defence she didn’t want to hear. She leans forward, well aware they have drawn more attention than she wanted to, “No matter how old he gets, how many kids he has himself, he’s still your son. At some point, the buck stops with you.” On some level, she knows she’s saying what she’s wanted to say to her own mother for years, what she’s stopped Aaron from saying on her behalf. She wants to say more, to tell the woman opposite her exactly what she thinks, but she stops herself, aware that Aaron wouldn’t want her to, “So if you take the money today you can’t contact us again. You can’t come back and ask for more. I won’t let you hurt him any more than you already have,” she hears her voice crack and she gives herself a moment, “If you don’t, if you can prove to me you’d have come back anyway at some point, we can go from there,” she shakes her head, letting one more thought push through, no matter unkind it was, “I think we both know what you’ll go for.” 

Suzanne stares at her, her eyes, the ones she’d passed on to Aaron, boring into Emily’s, as if she was trying to read her mind. She eventually laughs humourlessly, “He really landed on his feet when he found you.”

Emily shrugs, “I think it’s the other way around. I always wonder what I did to deserve him,” she smiles as she thinks of him, “He’s an incredible man,” she watches as a smile of pride flashes over Suzanne’s face, “Despite the cards he was dealt.”

Suzanne’s smile slips away and she looks at the cheque again, clearing her throat in a failed attempt to hide the shake to her voice, “I’m glad he found someone like you,” she says, her eyes still fixed on the paper in her hands, “I liked Haley, don’t get me wrong, but I always thought she was wrong for him. He needed someone who knew who he became, not who he was. He’s lucky,” she looks back up at Emily for a moment before she looks back at the cheque, folding it up and slipping it into her purse, “He doesn’t need a reminder of his past, of how I failed him, every time he looks at me.” 

Emily sighs, closing her eyes as she shakes her head, “Suzanne-”

“You said it was my choice,” she says as she stands up, crossing her arms over her chest as she does so, as if holding herself together, regret for so many things, but not this, shining in her eyes, “This is what I choose. Look after him.” 

“I always do,” Emily replies, “It’s what we do for each other.” 

Suzanne nods, her eyes drifting back to Emily’s stomach one last time, “Good luck with the baby.” 

Emily smiles tightly, “Thank you.” 

She watches as her mother-in-law leaves without looking back and she sighs, covering her face with her hands as she blows out a steady breath. 

“Everything okay, Mrs Hotchner?” 

She looks up at Marjorie and nods, not sure if she believes herself, and she smiles, “Yes, Marjorie. Everything is fine, can I have the bill please?” 

Now she had to figure out how to tell Aaron, how to dash the small amount of hope she knows he’d let bloom.

___

As soon as she’s through the door Jack runs up to her, his arms tight around her, almost knocking her off balance with the force of his affection. 

“Hi, Mom!”

“Hi sweetie,” she replies, ruffling his hair as he pulls away, laughing when he grumbles like she knew he would, “How are you?”

“Me, Dad and Zac came up with some new names for baby sister.”

She smiles as she sees her husband appear in view before she turns her attention back to her eldest, “Oh really, what’s on the list today.” 

“Zac and I like Winnie, like Winnie the Pooh, but Dad said that wasn’t a good idea.” 

She looks back up at her husband, exchanging a knowing look with him as she undoes her jacket and he steps behind her to help her out of it, “Dad really is a spoilsport, huh?” 

She can almost hear the way Aaron rolls his eyes before he addresses Jack, “Buddy, go play with your brother we’ll be there in a couple of minutes.” 

Emily turns to look at her husband as Jack does as he’s asked, calling his little brother’s name as he runs away. “So…Winnie’s on the no list?”

He shakes his head at her and wraps his arms around her, leaning in to stamp a kiss against her lips, “On the maybe list. For middle names,” he replies, he tucks some of her hair behind her ear, pausing for a moment before he carries on, “How was Mom?” 

She sighs, leaning forward as best as she can with her bump pressed between them, briefly resting her forehead against his shoulder, “One of these days, it will annoy me that you know me so well.” 

He smirks at her, shrugging slightly, “What can I say, it’s my life's work,” he jokes before his smile slips from his place, replaced with the look of a lost little boy that she’d seen too much of this week, “She took the money and left didn’t she?” 

Her silence is answer enough, but she follows it up with a nod, “Yes, she did. I’m so sorry honey.” 

He sighs, shaking his head at himself for feeling upset when he knew deep down this was how it would end. That her arrival back into his life would be nothing more than a blip, convenient to her because she wanted something. 

“It’s okay…” he says, laughing bitterly, “I don’t know what I expected.” 

“You expected your Mom to want to be in your life,” she says, pulling back to look at him, cupping his cheek, “And that’s okay.” 

He nods, blowing out a steady breath, “I’m sorry you had to deal with all of this,” he says, frowning, “You’re about to have a baby you should be resting.”

“You have nothing to apologise for,” she says, smiling softly at him, “Plus, I famously have mommy issues myself,” she shrugs as she pulls a smile out of him, the sight of it making her skin fizz, “This is kind of what I’m made for,” her smile widens when he shakes his head and laughs. “What can I do to help?”

“You’re already doing it,” he assures her, leaning forward to stamp a kiss to her forehead and then her lips, “Just by being you.” 

She knows there are more conversations to be had, and that he had a long way to go until he was okay with this, but she was happy with that was a start, “Okay, I’ve been told my whole life that I’m unapologetically myself, so I can do that.” 

His response is cut off as Jack calls for them, his voice echoing around the house. Aaron smiles at his wife and puts his arm around her shoulders as they walk towards the living room. 

“Just think, it won’t be too long until this house gets even louder.” He quips, making her smile as he says it, her hand pressed into her stomach as they go. 

Ava Winnie Hotchner is born five days later, and as Emily watches Aaron tell the boys how to hold their baby sister, she knows they’ll be okay because they had each other, and the family they’d built from scratch. 

-x-

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[cheese-ducks]

TWRP ORIGINS

Chapter 10: How Did This Happen?

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It felt like a police interrogation. The dining room chandelier was suddenly too bright, the wooden chair suddenly uncomfortable, and his brother's glances from across the table made Jack increasingly sweaty. That or it was too hot for the long sleeve he usually wore under his graphic tees. It also didn't help that Sung, who kept insisting he'd had everything under control, wouldn't stop frantically rambling. 

"How was I supposed to know he would be up this early? I've used that window countless times and no one is ever there! I mean, you never wake up until well after the sun has risen! And come on, it's DOCTOR Sung! How could he get that wrong? How do you think he found out? Aren't you going to answer me?"

Jack couldn't answer him. He was the only one who could hear Sung's annoying voice, and he wasn't about to look more insane than he did that morning. 

"Well," An exaggerated pause solidifying his annoyance. "I guess I'll just go fuck myself then!" 

Slightly less nervous than before Jack began the conversation. 

"How did you know?"

"Well, I started getting suspicious when you kept calling me Stone for some reason." How long had Sung been doing that? Come to think of it he'd never said his brother's name correctly. He seriously wondered if it was by choice.

"Yeah, he can't pronounce anything right." As he rolled his eyes he could feel Sung getting offended. He couldn't help but laugh. 

"And I was convinced when I saw you in that spandex while you were gone for days."

Jack's heart practically jumped into his throat. "Days?" 

"Yep. You were gone all weekend."

It only felt like a night. How had a whole weekend passed? He put his head in his hands trying to comprehend how much trouble he'd be in. He couldn't even imagine how worried his parents were. 

"Can I explain myself before you turn me in to mom and dad?" 

Stan quietly exhaled what sounded like a laugh. "Sure." 

"All this bullshit started when I left Andy's party. While I was walking home I saw this huge shooting star and I decided to follow it."

"Why did you follow it?"

"I thought it was cool, I guess." 

"Alright then, continue." He shrugged.

Retelling all of this felt like trying to remember a lucid dream. A dream he'd just made sense of himself. 

"Turns out it wasn't a shooting star, it was actually a spaceship," Thinking back to that moment, knowing everything he'd learned since, it put a lot of what happened into context. "And I think when I walked up to it and Sung opened the door he took control of the vessel for the first time, which caused me to black out."

Stan paused, trying to figure out what that could've meant. "You lost me, pal."

"Oh shit, sorry. I'm just trying to find a way to phrase what happened next that doesn't sound bad." 

"It sounds like you got possessed." 

"See that's what I didn't want to say." Jack had gotten used to referring to his body as 'the vessel', but possession still sounded super creepy. 

"So, what happened next?" 

"After a couple nights of weird dreams I woke up wearing that costume." He felt Sung's usual irritation when people called it a costume. 'It's obviously armor. Very tough, very cool, very tall armor.' He would say. 

"That's when I decided to tell you about it." 

"Oh yeah, I was worried about you, man." Stan patted his little brother on the shoulder.  "I'm not looking to judge, I just want to know what the hell happend." 

"Fair enough." Jack sighed. 

"I think that night was the first time you called me Stone." 

It was, and it was confusing to Stan at first. He thought his brother had already gone to bed until he heard repetitive knocking on his bedroom door. 

"Hey, ...bro!" The words sounded unsure, like it was the first time he'd said the word 'bro'. "Where are the pages of genius I gave you? I- I want them back for some reason." 

Stan assumed he was being sarcastic about the genius comment, so he laughed off the other strange things. 

"Sure, pal. I'll drop off your genius musical endeavor in the morning." He replied half asleep.

"Thank you, brother Stone!"

'Holy shit, could Sung have been more obvious?' Jack thought. 

"I thought you were trying something new," he chuckled "I didn't think too hard about it." 

"That's one way to put it." 

"I didn't believe the alien thing until there was that whole parking lot alien fight. I knew you wouldn'tve been interested if you didn't believe it." 

"I still have no idea what that was about." Jack whispered to himself. "Anyway, my personality started to fuse with his and I started going crazy." Thinking back to his extroverted outbursts made him facepalm, he must've looked like a total freak. 

"More than just your personality went nuts, man. You carried your entire drum kit to the van in one go! That's pretty damn cool." 

"Thanks, I guess." He shrugged. "He's the reason I missed the concert. All day I kept blacking out and having super intense flashbacks, I was fucking phasing out of my skin or something." 

Stan knew what he was referring to. His brother was especially anxious during the soundcheck, playing faster and faster, fervently shaking with either terror or excitement, then a sudden stop. He saw Jack frantically wiping beads of sweat dripping down his face as his drumsticks hit the ground. It was the most scared he'd been for his brother in a long time. 

"Then, I blacked out and woke up at home. I felt so bad about it he confessed right then and there."

"The alien?" 

"Yup. I'll spare you the monologue I got from him and say he can't be on Earth because of the atmosphere, so he's been using me as a host because we look similar, and his name is Doctor Sung,"

"Doctor? What is he a doctor of?" 

He paused, realizing he'd never thought to ask that before. He'd wondered if the lion commander was legit before he asked the being he was literally sharing a body with. 

"Good question. What are you a doctor of?"

Stan watched as his brother went silent, waiting for an answer from the alien. 

"Dude, that's not an answer." 

More silence.

"I never told you to go fuck yourself. I just didn't wanna talk to you in front of my brother but he had a question so..."

More silence. 

"Whatever, man. I'll tell him that." He looked back at an extremely confused Stan. "He said he's a doctor of vibes and high kicks and it's very nice to see you again." 

"Oh, tell him it's nice to see him again too. You guys totally rocked the other night." Stan's doubts and fears about his brother's alien possessor slowly dissipated as he watched the conversation unfold. From what he'd seen this guy was just as much of a dork as Jack. 

"Wait, the other night? What other night?" 

"The first night you didn't come home. How often does this guy make you forget stuff?"

"All the fucking time. So even what happened?"

.........................................................................

It had been hours since Jack had left the house. He said was going on a walk and he was never out by himself for longer than half an hour. Stan didn't think there was anything to worry about at first, but now he was searching the streets for his little brother like his life depended on it. He checked all the likely spots; the gas station, the comic book store, the dog park, the community college he went to, his band mate's houses, the various music shops they would browse, and still he had nothing. He wasn't even answering his phone calls. The possibility that Jack was hurt or worse was too terrifying to genuinely consider, so he kept looking. While walking near a street corner SeX-rays considered busking on he heard a faint drum solo, followed by the sound of his brother laughing. He raced toward the source of the music, relief washing over him. Jack was okay, he was okay and alive and laughing! Stan's worst fears faded to the back of his mind as he got to the scene, and as luck would have it there was his little brother, playing a keytar and laughing with a cone on his head. It was a strange sight up to be sure, four costumed weirdos playing eighties music slightly too loud at ten o clock at night. They looked similar to the descriptions of the alien sightings, a tall man with a lion's head, a black and white robot with glowing red eyes, and a short, caped man wearing a traffic cone. He'd already accepted that they were actual aliens, his main concern was what they wanted with Jack. While they set up for the next song Stan approached the cone man. 

"Stone! I'm slightly worried and mostly ecstatic that you're here!" He was practically vibrating with excitement.

"Jack, I've been worried sick! I haven't seen or heard from you for hours! Where have you been?" 

His smile faded as he pulled Stan away from the band to talk more privately. 

"I assure you I am perfectly safe and I'm truly sorry for making you worry." His words had a genuine empathetic tone to them, as if he felt exactly what Stan was feeling. "I was afraid of what you'd think if you knew about this." 

"What I'd think about what exactly?"

"All of this, I suppose. Performing while dressed as strange as this is extremely unlike me. I was afraid you'd be as embarrassed of me as I was." 

"Why?"

"I have no clue, you're a very kind person. I don't know why I was so scared." 

They both laughed as one of the band mates, the only one Stan didn't recognize, gestured for Jack to get back in front of the microphone. Before he left Stan gave him a tight hug, it seemed to confuse his brother more than anything. 

"I'm just happy you're safe, Jack."

"Splendid." He said, sounding unsure of how to respond. "And it's Doctor Sung when I look like this." 

"Ooh, kickass stage name, brah! I'll let you do your thing." 

Stan ended up staying for the entire set, or more accurately until the cops came by to shut them down. It was amazing to watch him play. His little brother, who usually couldn't step in front of a microphone without stuttering or biting his nails, was dancing and playing without a care. Maybe it was the silliness of it all that got him to come out of his shell. Whatever it was he looked happier than he ever did behind a drum set, and Stan couldn'tve been prouder.

.........................................................................

"And afterwards you said you were going back with the band so I headed home and told mom and dad you were staying with some new friends from school." 

Jack stared in total shock, attempting to comprehend everything he'd just heard. Sung spilled his guts, guts that weren't his to spill, without him even remembering. To be fair Jack probably never would've said any of that on his own, even though he'd been meaning to. Sharing a body with someone who could perfectly articulate emotions was kind of a nightmare. A very helpful nightmare, but a nightmare nonetheless. 

"Yeah, that sounds about right." He said standing up and pushing in his chair. "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go to my room, lie down and never move." 

"Alright." Stan stood and hugged his brother's shoulders. "Love ya, brother." 

"Later, dude." 

As he walked away Stan heard him murmur "Now I'm telling you to go fuck yourself." 

Silence

"I'm being sarcastic, I think."

[lithuanianking]

I'm officially done whith both my newsies shows,it's so bittersweet but i don't want these characters to be lost forever so I'm going to tell you about them.

Oscar delancey:

-in typical delancy fashion me and morris cried the entire last show (and I mean entire) and morris attempted to cheer me up at the end,it kinda worked.

-im the more childish one I do a lot more smiling and taunting,I even stuck out my tounge at some kids.

-I'm way meaner,I hit race so hard on the face right in the mic,I throw papers at people's face,hit everyone at any point and worse.

-I went on a date whith seitz in meddas theater and we "made out " at the end

-in reality I overcompesate for my cowardnes

-I have a really wihinny bitchy voice

-at the end I put my arm around wiseal and morris puts his arm on me,but the last show I basically just hugged wiseal still crying

Alonzo "Lonnie" vitkas:

-flushing newsie

-very childish

-yells "all the way from flushing for this???" As we boo jack

-hypeman for wiseals newsie

-kicks pats newsies everytime

Donnie-allen "cards" Calloway:

-Richmond newsie

-during carrying the banner me + fiesty (my friends newsie) play war for cash,I'm fixed to win then she gives me money and I wave it around and act like I'm buying dinner Richmond cheers for me + more people thought I'd win in the first place because that's my thing,fiesty also steals some of my cards and has them in her pocket as a reference all show

-fiesty is my charcthers best friend,I help her walk(she litterly broke her foot ),we hug and over all are just best friends

- cards has played cards whith the following characters ether backstage or on stage

>morris delancey

>albert

>fiesty

>sy(friends newsie)

>six(friends newsie)

-stilts(friends newsie)

-and several otther newsies

> everytime I'm on stage I have cards

> I liked this role so much that final show I changed back into him from bill because I love cards so much

>I led Staten Island in Brooklyns hear whith the sign

>fun fact morris delancey and albert taught me some fun card games

-I have a pin of a random victorian lady and everyone told me it's my dead mom so that's apart of my character I guess

-also waaayy to fancy for a newsie

Bill:

-I hug fiesty during once and for all

-i give wiseal a nod right before final because I'm right next to him and one if the shows we posed together (he played morris delancey in our otther show)

-I act really confused that Jack didn't know willam Randolph Hearst is my dad

[austin-cartwright]

Coming back home hadn't been a difficult decision for the redhead to make, but staying? Not having a ticket out already booked? Being devoid of a departure date left the photographer feeling a bit lost and at times, anxious. She was always on the go with one foot out the door, running from and to something, anything, that could make her feel alive. Always chasing the love she so desperately wanted yet seemed to evade her- probably because of her uncanny ability to run from that as well. But on the other hand, coming home meant meeting people like Eddie. A kindred spirit she probably wouldn't have otherwise met out in the world and for that, she was grateful. It wasn't often you found someone who understood a feeling you yourself didn't have a full grasp on. And she was grateful for the budding friendship.

"What look?" Giving him her most innocent look, Austin was only able to hold in her laughter for a brief moment before it spilled past her lips. Growing up with Chey, she knew the beautiful brunette hadn't had it easy in life so it warmed Austin's heart to know that people like Eddie and Max were drawn to her kind nature. Chey deserved all of their adoration and more. Even if there was a small part of her that she'd shoved deep down into herself that was jealous. "I'm glad you had a good time. Did you guys make plans to hang out again?" She spoke once her laughter died down, leaving a warm smile in its wake.

Smile widening into a grin, she playfully shot Eddie a wink. "I knew I could trust you." She mused, ready to pull out her flask and show off the thing that had gotten past many security guards since it looked like an old digital camera, but stopped short when he said he didn't drink liquor anymore. "Does Jack Daniels' Tennessee Fire count as hard liquor? Because that's what I have." She chuckled, though she didn't push the subject. It wasn't her business and she didn't care, as long as he didn't care if she went ahead and poured a healthy amount into her own cider. "After this, we also have to go over to Classic Donuts stand. I literally dream about their cinnamon sugar donuts when I'm away."

When he didn't disparage her little walk down memory lane, the adventurous woman's smile grew. Especially when he was able to relate. "The mulled wine is a treat, but definitely not necessary. Which, I never thought I'd say. But I love that sense of community, you know? Which, probably seems like something I wouldn't be into since I'm not around for it much anymore but..." She sucked in a breath and shrugged. "I love it. So much. It's such a..." She paused, struggling to find the words to phrase the feeling. "A warm feeling? If that makes sense. Like yes, this is home." Chuckling softly, Austin nodded her head in understanding. "We did the same thing in our old neighborhood. Though, mom was never a big fan of us riding our bikes so she'd get dad to load us all up in the back of his pickup and drive us over. Every time I got a full sized Reese's I was ecstatic." Moving up in the line, it took Austin a moment to understand his reference before she laughed, nodding her head. "Yeah, I guess I did. Though, didn't she try to write someone a check after she ran out of candy or something like that? Because I could never. Cash is more of a surprise in an Easter egg hunt thing to me." She grinned. ( @eddieaguilcr )

All things considered, yes, he knew it was something. It was more than he got the last four-ish years or so... so of course he was grateful and humbled by the opportunity given, but that didn't change the fact that they were both different people now, and that Chey had probably moved on to better things, which, he was okay with. As long as she was happy, even if it wasn't with him, but, as long as she was happy, he would be happy, too. "Don't give me that look." Eddie rolled his eyes as he gently nudged Austin with his elbow.

He knew of the redhead's close proximity with Cheyenne and was glad that the woman he was desperately still in love with had found such a good friend in Austin, but still, it made him self-conscious of sharing some thing with her. He feared she would just up and tell Chey about his lingering feelings as an attempt to set them up again. "But it was fun. I'm happy it happened." The bodyguard said with a nod as he allowed the woman to guide him towards the food stands. His stomach rumbled at the sound of apple cider, letting his gaze wander to the different scents and sounds by the stands. "Your secret's safe with me." He told her in a lower tone, his raspy voice even raspier at that. "I don't do hard liquor anymore."

Eddie had always been a better listener than a talker, so he let Austin ramble on and on about her favorite things about Halloween and it reminded him of how things used to be back home. It didn't sound lame or boring at all... it sounded nostalgic. "We used to do that in my neighborhood, too. Except we didn't really have mulled wine." He shrugged. "And we would often ride our bikes to nicer neighborhood, because the candy was usually better." He chuckled, and in all honesty, Eddie didn't have any opinion on little kids as he has mostly been around his nieces and nephews, so he was biased. "So you pulled a Rachel on them. I see." / @austin-cartwright

[descendantofthesparrow]

Buff! Reader x Simp! Harry - Oneshot

gif by TDOHERTYGIFS on twitter 

-info-

*(y/n) is Gaston's daughter, one he hasn’t claimed since he “doesn’t do girls” a few months older than Gil (dude went through a good handful of women at a time to try to get boys) and is very strong due to her trying to prove her worth to her dead beat dad (stopped doing that around 13 and just got fucking jacked for the hell of it) and genetics, and is also very tall; 6ft 3. something from her mother's side not Gaston's*

outfit/style reference;

=

“Are you fucking serious” you muttered as you lifted a beam into your shoulder, narrowing your eyes as you spotted your little brother walking towards you with a sheepish grin. “what happened?”

“uh” Gil started, rubbing the back of his neck and kicking a stray stone out of his way as he came to a stop in front of you. “well, Harry kinda-had a fight, and um, I need your help moving some stuff out of the chip-shop before Uma’s mom sees it” you groaned and rolled your neck back, setting down the beam and wiping your gloved hands on your pants.

“lead the way” you droned and Gil turned on his heel and bolted, leaving you to run after him “Not that fast!” you yelled after him and quickly took off, your long legs letting you catch up with him even with his head start. When you arrived at the chip shop, you could easily see why Gil had come to get you.

It was just, an absolute mess, chairs and tables were everywhere, the fucking organ was tipped over, the main stage had somehow been split off from the catwalk, nails sticking out from the splintered wood, and multiple light fixtures were either about to fall off or were already on the floor.

And in the middle of it was a sheepish Harry Hook, one of Gil’s friends you had not seen in a good couple years, and Uma scolding him, waving her finger in his face as he stared down at his boots. “how in the hell did he do this?” you asked, gesturing to the destruction and Gil shrugged.

“He got into a fight with Jr and third, and their gang jumped in” you hummed at that, the twins were just destruction incarnate, even breaking Hook’s prized piano at one point, and that thing was tough as shit, built out of very strong wood and metal, and weighing over 500 pounds. “and it just-escalated…so?” Gil gestured to the mess and raised his brows at you “Uma said there would be pay involved?”

At that, you started to work, taking off your rings and jacket, revealing your very built arms covered in tattoos and lower arms wrapped in bandages. Harry had long stopped staring at his boots, his scarlet-colored face staring directly at you, or well, your arms. He watched as you took off your rings one at a time and slid them into your jacket pocket, then slid off your jacket to reveal a pair of arms that just had him fucking drooling. Your abs were in full view as well, making for a very-very! Lovely sight for the pirate who loved tall, and very strong; women.

“who-who is tha’?” Harry suddenly whispered out, breaking Uma from her current scolding of Harry. She furrowed her brows and turned, letting out an ‘ooh’ sound as she spotted you; already flipping up tables and righting chairs, throwing out ones that were too busted.

“that’s (y/n)?” Uma said as if Harry should know you, but he didn’t, well, he recognized the name but-not you? “Gil’s sister? (y/n)? Dude come on, we met her years ago, she was at Evie's party?” Harry just continued to stare at you, his jaw-dropping in awe as you easily lifted the organ back into place, something that even Gil had an incredible time trying to lift, and you had just-done it without breaking a sweat.

Uma glanced between you and Harry, then she smirked, patting Harry’s shoulder “ahhhh I see” Harry’s eyes snapped back down to Uma, brow raised as the red flush across his cheeks faded. “you like her~” at this Harry slapped his hand on Uma’s face, pushing her back as she cackled “oh my gods you do!”

“shut” Harry grumbled, curling in on himself as you glanced back at him, wondering what Uma was laughing about as you put tables and chairs in their rightful places. “fuck” Uma chuckled at Harry’s quiet curse and pulled Harry’s hand off her face, pushing it into his chest and then turning him towards (y/n) “go on~” Uma cooed, leaning into Harry and pushing him with her shoulder as he stood stone-still, staring wide-eyed at you.

Uma sighed, leaning off of Harry and walking towards you, leaving Harry to silently panic a few feet away. You turned to look at her, setting down the broken chandelier that had fallen from the ceiling and looking down at Uma as she came to a stop in front of you. As she told you what needed to be done, you noticed Harry staring at you, eyes blown wide and cheeks dark pink. You tilted your head at him, a slow smirk drawing on your lips as he ducked his head down, ears turning red as well.

You hummed as Uma called your name, looking back down at her and crossing your arms “think you can do that for me? I'll pay double?” Uma asked, talking about you repairing any damages to the chip shop along with simply putting everything back. You nodded, turning and getting to work as Uma sighed in relief.

For the next four hours as you worked, Harry continued to stare at you, only looking away when Uma or Gil got his attention, then he would go back to you. Mostly at your arms or back as you lifted, shoved, pulled, and repaired many things around the chip shop. And soon you had completed the job, the repair jobs were patchy due to the lack of resources for them but-it worked for now.

You picked your jacket up and slid it on, taking the rings from your pocket and putting them on as Harry continued to stare you down. You stood to your full height and walked over to him, smirking as he completely froze and stared up at you. “you’ve been staring at me all night” you grumbled and Harry flushed as you trapped him against the wall, arms on either side of his head. “got any problems?”

“i-“ Harry squeaked unable to speak as you tilted your head. You hummed, pat his cheek twice, then stepped back and turned on your heel to leave the chip shop. Leaving a furiously blushing Harry behind, his knees wobbled and he fell to the floor, covering his face as he let out a few harsh breaths “fuck”

-

And that’s pretty much how things went whenever you were called to the chip shop to repair something either a customer or Harry broke, the son of Hook always standing nearby you and either staring silently with a heavy blush or; something he recently started doing, singing your praises to the isle.

“yeh do tha’ so easily” he sighed out dreamily one time, watching as you lifted two tables above your head, and carried them outside. You would smile, flex, and chuckle as he turned red and lost his balance. If you had to be honest, he was adorable, practically simping for you and your build. One of those days, where someone the night before had been an asshole and broke a floorboard; you were in the middle of fixing it when you felt a hand slap your ass. You went to stand and slam your fist into the perpetrator's face, only to see Harry already on him, hook in the greasy man's face and eyes flashing red. “yeh don’ treat a lady like tha’ yeh filth” he snarled, the edge of his hook slicing into the man's cheek.

“it’s not like she’s your girl or anything?!” the man yelled as if that justified his disgusting action. You closed your eyes and walked forward, grabbing Harry below his armpits, making him release the man as you picked him up with ease and set him on a nearby table, kissing his forehead as you took off your jacket and set it on his lap. Ignoring Uma as she whistled as you turned to the man, easily standing over him. You smirked as you saw a dark spot grow in his pants, he hadn’t realized just how big you were; you grabbed his neck, picked him up, and walked him outside. You tossed him into the pile of fish guts that were being disregarded by some fishermen, those surrounding the chip shop burst into laughter as the man flushed in embarrassment for being put in his place by a woman, one that was stronger and much taller than him no less.

You nodded with satisfaction, turning on your heel and walking back into the chip shop, retrieving your jacket from the frozen form of Harry, whose entire face had turned red from the moment you had picked him up. You chuckled and slid on the black denim jacket, then picked Harry back up and set him on his feet, kissing the top of his head. “thank you Hooky” you purred, smiling as you could see steam coming off his face as he stared up at you. “same time tomorrow?”

“aye-aye” he whispered, watching you walk off with a pep in your step as the chip shop whistled for him, Gil laughing his ass off as his sister had left the usually very talkative and flirty pirate speechless.

Harry had always had a thing for women who could bench press him.

-

A few weeks later, (y/n) was hardly seen without Harry by her side, unless he was needed for first mate duties. If she was eating, he was right next to her, his legs in her lap at her insistence, being carried over her shoulder when he was tired (if you can’t tell im taking inspo from YashaxBeau lol), the first time this happened; it was a late-night after one of the rival gangs attacked Uma’s ship, wanting her territory. They failed, obviously, not expecting the six-foot-three buff as hell amazon warrior of a woman to be there.

But after the crew celebrated their victory, (y/n) was getting ready to head out when Harry pulled at her jacket sleeve. She turned to him with a raised brow, smiling as he shyly whispered something out with a heavy blush on his face. “what was that?” (y/n) asked, leaning down to get into his face, practically caging him against the table, which he didn’t mind at all. “will-will yeh carry me?” he asked again, just barely loud enough for (y/n) to hear.

Her teasing smirk turned soft and she nodded, picking Harry up in a fireman's hold and carrying him out of the chip shop, Uma and Gil giving Harry an enthusiastic thumbs up. He winked back, cuddling into (y/n)s warmth. She let out a low chuckle and Harry froze, knowing she had felt his movements as he wordlessly praised her to Uma and Gil from behind her back.

She set him down in front of his room, kissed the top of his head and waved to him as she walked off, laughing as she could spot his scarlet red face from the docks. He was a simp, but he was her simp.

-

Harry; behind the scenes.

After that first night where (y/n) had repaired the chip shop, Harry burst into Gil’s room, his face still beet red and eyes blown wide “dude-the fuck-“ Gil said, leaning back as Harry got into his face. “I’m really disappointed,” Harry started off, pulling away from Gil and waving his hands around as he spoke “yeh didn’t tell me about ‘er?! How did this escape my attention, I can’t believe no one, especially yeh, told meh about her! What in tha’ fuck did yeh not tell meh about-(y/n)! yer sister!”

Harry ranted as he paced around Gil’s room, who now sat on his bed amused as Harry pulled at his hair, a stupid dreamy smile on his lips “six feet and three inches tall are yeh kidding me!? Six feet-what tha’ fuck!” Harry spun around to face Gil, holding his hands up in defense “I’m not one fer objectifying but-hades balls-okay?! How-how many times have I said, I want a woman who can crush my head in between her thighs, and-!” Harry pointed into a random corner of Gil’s room, motioning to a person that wasn’t there “-any part of her body can crush my head. And I know what part yer thinking of, and that’s just-one of several options!”

Gil groaned, leaning into his hand, this was going to be a long night of listening to Harry simp for his sister. “and hades-fuckin’-Look at her! No one told me!? I had ta find out about this today?! She’s a fuckin goddess Gil, a goddess! And yeh, didn’t, tell, me!!!” Harry walked up to Gil and shook him, Gil snorting and rolling his eyes. He pushed Harry away, letting him continue to rant into the wee hours of the morning, knowing if Harry got his simp energy out now, there would be less to deal with later.

….

There wasn’t less to deal with later

-end-

I FINALLY DID IT, IM HAPPY WITH IT AND THATS WHAT MATTERS, ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU @itstheimperfectwriter​ FOR WRITING THE OG SIMP HARRY X BUFF READER THAT U DID FOR ME  I STILL LOVE IT WITH ALL MY HEART.

okay permtaglist (we gotta new tag to add too~!)

@queer-cosette​ @sephiralorange​ @lunanight2012​

@daughter-of-the-stars11​ @musicarose​ @rintheemolion​

@random-thoughts-003​ @remembered-license​ @imtryingthisout​

@thecaptainsgingersnap​ @verboetoperee​ @saryguerrero​ 

@dai-tsukki-desu​

[randomgamefan]

Playtester AU is finally back after I had to spend forever focusing on essays for school!! Yay!!

First | Previous | Next (coming soon!)

This chapter took so long, but chapter 6 will probably take longer and I'm not prepared wjdheksj. Big thanks to the Inscryption discord server for beta reading a chunk of this fic to help me find the problems lmao, hope it's improved guys!

Also! Luke's Siblings are mentioned in this chapter, for reference his family is based vaugly off my own! But I figure it's good to have them down so you know who I'm talking about :]

In order from oldest to youngest!

Luke - 21

Carter - 19

Jacob - 17

Alyssa - 15

Jack + Abagail (twins) - 12

I do want to give credit to @shiocreator for letting me use the name Carter! It was her idea, and I just loved it so much I had to include it. Also, if you haven't read their Carder Siblings AU, what are you even doing?

While we're here, I'm also going to tell you to read @lemonzone 's Cabinet Man AU, I literally love it so much! Stolen my entire brain smh.

I am so happy I've got to meet both of these people and read their writing, as well as everyone else on the server! Y'all are so amazing and kind and this story wouldn't be what it is without you.

Anyways, that's all I've gotta say, hope you enjoy this chapter!

"Luuuke!"

It was Christmas morning.

That was the first thing that came back to Luke, maybe out of habit, since that’s all he focused on when he was younger. Truthfully, he was still just a kid on the inside. Or, perhaps, it was because he was hoping for something great this year.

Or, maybe, he was just trying to remember why the crowd of his younger siblings were here to wake him up at only 7:00 in the morning.

"Wake up!" Carter repeatedly chanted, holding a rolled piece of paper to his mouth like a megaphone.

Jack and Abagail had no hesitation jumping on Luke’s bed, making him sit up rapidly with a laugh. 

Jacob and Alyssa stood aside Carter, chuckling to themselves as the twins stole a hug from Luke. 

"I'm up, I'm up!" Luke managed with a giggle, ruffling his younger sister's hair. "Jeeze, real early this year, huh? Have you guys woken up mom and dad yet?"

Jacob shook his head. "We were waiting for you, sleepyhead!" He teased. 

Luke sighed dramatically, falling back onto his bed. "oh no! Guess we can't get up, I'm going back to sleep!" He closed his eyes, much to the dismay of the twins. 

"Come on, Luke!" Jack huffed. "It's Christmas!!"

Luke peeked one eye open, before laughing. 

"Alright, but next year I get to sleep in! I'm an old man, I need my beauty rest." He said, swinging his legs out of bed before picking Jack up and putting him on his shoulders. 

"You're only 20," Alyssa commented with a chuckle, looking up from her phone with a grin. 

"I know, and I'm already an old man, guess what you'll be going through in 6 years!" Luke replied, ruffling his younger sister’s hair.

Carter rolled his eyes, as he began to lead the group into the hallway.

Luke's mind drifted to Christmas itself as they walked to wake up their parents - he probably had a lot of card packs underneath the tree. His channel had just exploded last month, and well, for card pack opening channels, there was a constant need to have more card packs. 

Still, there was one thing he was really hoping was waiting down there for him - the new Tengu party game. Being an online game, it was the perfect way for Luke to keep playing games with his siblings while he was away at college. 

Welp, guess he'd just have to find out for himself, watching Abagail tear through their parent’s door. 

"Wake up, it's Christmas!"

It was summer again.

Luke's family always went on a summer vacation, usually something small in idea, but their mom had a tendency to splurge for her kids. 

This year, they were out at a lake in a rental house. It was large enough for the family of 8, they had enough space and then more. 

Past midnight, most of the family was asleep, but Luke and Carter had snuck out to go sit by the lake.

"It really is beautiful," Carter commented, gazing out across the ripping water. The lake wasn't huge, but far large enough for the kids to enjoy. 

Luke nodded. "It is.. I'm glad I got to come. When I was younger, I figured mom would stop inviting me to these things when I turned 18."

Carter chuckled. "Like mom would ever do that! We love you, and she already misses you enough since you left for college."

"Same can be said for you!" Luke grinned. "I've heard Alyssa talking about it, she said mom missed you more than me."

"Now that's just a lie." Carter giggled, shoving at his older brother, not enough for him to end up in the lake though. Luke couldn't help but laugh, staring back out at the rippling water in silence.

There was a good 5 or so minutes of quiet before Carter spoke up again. 

"Hey Luke?"

"Hm?" Luke ruffled his brother’s hair.

"How do you do it? Living alone in a new town, especially so close to the woods like that. Aren't you scared?"

"Not really." Luke shrugged. "I've got a big gate outside the house, and the only thing in those woods is crickets and deer. Most people wouldn't bother coming up the driveway, past the gate, and to my door to bother me. Plus, I've been thinking about getting a dog."

Carter chuckled. "Oh my god, we would visit so much more often if you had a dog. Please get one."

"This time I get to name it! Thank god" Luke grinned. They had a family dog named Crackers, named by the twins when they were little. 

"Well, obviously you would get to name it, it would be your dog." Carter rolled his eyes. "But Crackers is a good name if you’re not dramatic."

The brothers took a moment to laugh, before Carter paused, frowning in thought.

"Actually, I brought that up because.. I've been thinking of switching degrees. Maybe even schools."

Luke blinked. "Wait, really?" Carter had been interested in biology his entire life, ranting and raging about all the discoveries he could make in the field. He'd never gotten a chance to explore it much before college, but from his determination, Luke would never have guessed that Carter wouldn’t love it.

"Yeah, actually. Bio just doesn't stick out like it used to, and there's so much I've found that I'm just.. squeamish about."

"Well, what degree are you thinking of?"

Carter paused, before shyly suggesting, ".. game development?"

Luke's eyes lit up, realizing quickly what his brother was implying. "Wait, are you saying you'd be coming to my school?" He felt himself grinning. 

"I-If you're okay with it!" Carter said quickly.

Luke hugged his brother. "Of course I'm okay with it, You can even come live with me! A lot cheaper than the dorms." 

Carter grinned. "Yeah, I'd like that!"

Luke sighed, looking out on the waves. 

"Guess we've got a lot to plan for."

Carter nodded. 

"Yeah, we do."

Luke woke with a start, sitting up quickly, only to find himself buried under some rather scratchy blankets. A soft surprised noise came from his right, and glancing over, he noticed Lone watching over him.

Oh right, Luke was in the final game he ever played, the cursed thing. Oh yeah, he was dead too! He put a hand to his head, squeezing his eyes shut.

He'd never see his family again, he'd never get to finish college, he'd just drop off the face of the earth. God.. how could this have happened? He should have never dug up this cursed game, much less played it. It should have stayed in the dirt. 

The feeling of someone touching his hair startled Luke out of his thoughts. Lone flinched back, with a startled "sorry!"

The wizard was quite small, eyeing Luke fearfully yet curiously. Poor thing probably just wanted some stimulation, he must not have been out of his horrible situation for long. 

Luke sighed, reaching over to pat the wizard on his head, which he seemed to enjoy immensely. After maybe a minute, Luke chuckled, pulling his hand back.

"Why did ya stick around here, bud?" Luke asked, pushing the uncomfortable blankets off him, only to notice he was laying on more. Did Magnificus have anything good for other people in this god-forsaken tower? 

"P03 and the other scrybes asked me to watch over you!" He chirped, bouncing in place. 

Luke nodded. "I see.. I assume they're probably fighting over something else now."

Lone gave an overdramatic shrug, with a half yelled “I’unno!” He fidgeted with his hands a lot, which made Luke wonder if Lone would prefer something to hold and mess with. Did they have Rubick cubes here? That seemed like something the small wizard would enjoy, not even to solve, but to mess with. He’d have to find out, give Lone something to do.

"I'm.. going to go find them. I need an explanation." Luke muttered softly, as if assuring himself.

"I'LL COME WITH!" Lone practically yelled, jumping up and down. It was an excitability that honesty reminded Luke of the twins. He smiled softly and genuinely, before offering Lone his hand. 

"Alright, bud, we'll go and find them together!"

Lone continued to bounce excitedly, taking Luke's hand as the two began looking around for the scrybes, though Luke could guess where they were by the sounds of argument coming from above.

Up the stairs, to the top of the tower.

They were fighting.

Luke didn't know what else he was expecting. 

Magnificus and P03 were shouting at each other from opposite sides of the circular room, looking about ready to brawl. Leshy and Grimora stood near the back, avoiding Magnificus' canvases, and apparently the two other scrybes. No one had noticed Luke in the doorway yet.

“I do not think jumping to conclusions is the best source of action here,” Mangnificus muttered, his voice steady yet with an accusatory tone. 

“Jumping to conclusions?!” P03 countered. “I think it’s pretty damn obvious. Unless you have found a way for us to move forward without a challenger.”

“Hmm, perhaps not, but I still believe it is not unimaginable that there is something we can do. Something that doesn’t have irreparable side effects, such as your last idea.” The scrybe of magicks seemed to glare across the room.

"And what plan do you have?" P03 asked Magnificus accusatorially with almost a growl, as much as a robot could conceivably growl. “I have already attempted to connect with the servers of wherever we are, and it’s all locked down. If you all hadn’t stopped the Great Transcendence, we could all be out of this mess already!” 

“Your ‘Great Transcendence’ was nothing more than a power show.” The bush wizard bit back. “Its failure was inevitable, you effete contraption.”

“Wow, insults again? That really helps your case, you blundering wizard. If y-”

Luke's babysitter instincts kicked in before he really had a chance to think about it, stepping in the room to get in between the two. 

"Alright, enough." He said firmly. 

This was treated with a great deal of surprise from everyone around the room, the scrybes taking a step back. Had Luke really just done that? Well, no way back now. 

"You fighting clearly didn't get you guys anywhere before, and it won't now. If you want anything productive to happen, you all need to work together. No more power grabs, or arguments, or sly planning behind the scenes." He took a deep breath, noticing Grimora nodding with a sly smile. "But, after all that, I need a fucking explanation. *Especially* from you." He pointed to Grimora, whose smile dropped.

Luke was shaking. This was a lot to process, and he was shaking. Did he just treat the scrybes like his little siblings? 

P03 and Magnificus glared at each other, neither wanting to relent. However, Grimora stepped in before either could open their mouths to bitch back at their surprise babysitter. 

"I agree with Luke.” She said, her voice calming and steady. “Now, will the both of you please come over here? Enough with this pointless argument."

That got a grumbled "fine" from the scrybes, muttering under their breath what Luke could only imagine were curses much older than he was. The scrybes mostly kept their distance from one another, but now stood in a manageable circle. 

Luke sighed.. thank god that worked. He went to stand alongside the edge of the circle, by the door. Admittedly, he didn’t quite like being in the spotlight, at least in real life. 

As he went to stand near the doorway he had entered through, Luke noticed a mischievous Lone had started climbing onto everything around him and had begun poking at the candles lighting up the tower. Luke would have to make sure he grabbed the small wizard on his way out, not trusting Magnificus to make sure Lone didn’t burn himself to a crisp. 

Luke took a deep breath, returning his attention to the scrybes, who were seemingly looking to him to start this ‘peaceful’ meeting. He took a deep breath, readying himself before speaking up.

"Alright. Let's talk."

[you-cant-spell-subtext-without]

ahdflksjaklf;jsls ok buddies - I hate talking about 14x13: Lebanon, but it has relevancy in the “John Winchester is a villain and cannot and should not be redeemed” discourse as well as being a crucial piece of finale denialist lore so I Have Been Thinking About It Too Much.

As you may recall, the Occult Object of the Week - the pearl - in Lebanon is supposed to grant Dean’s “heart’s desire.” Dean and Sam are Very Sure this means expelling Michael (the Dean Winchester Must Be Saved installment of season 14) (honestly that premise always seemed a little slim to me, I was hoping for Dean’s heart’s desire to be Cas, on Dean’s car, naked, covered in bees). 

Instead they summon Dad of the Year, which at first feels infuriating.  However after discussion with my earworms, I Have Fixed It (and also turned it into a grenade to launch at 15x20.)

Finale denialists and John Winchester derogatorians ASSEMBLE! and let’s discuss after the cut.

I’ve written in depth about Dean’s struggles with the cycle of abuse, so I won’t go too far into it here, but if you want to revisit any of that meta this is a good place to begin.  This post hinges on the same theory - that Dean’s true freedom is established in his release from that cycle - that is the logical outcome of any hero’s journey for him, and where he would finally be able to accept happiness and love.  This logically would also make release from the cycle of abuse and the feelings of self-hatred Dean struggles with his “heart’s desire” for purposes of the pearl.  When it comes to emotions, we also know Dean doesn’t deal with them well.  He punches things instead.  So odds are, Dean hasn’t really worked through these feelings.  

Dean also mentions when John returns that “it was what [Dean] wanted since he was 4″ - when they lost Mary, right before John became obsessed with revenge.  Season 12 Mary canonically remembers John as a “good dad,” so we can draw a line from that to the abuse really starting shortly after her death.  This is also corroborated by Dean himself:

DEAN: You know when you died, it changed Dad. 

(A visual of the John Mary remembers) (just my excuse to put pictures of Matt Cohen on your dash) (I shouldn’t need an excuse) (Matt Cohen hi you are on Tumblr please don’t read any of this I’m embarrassed).

So what Dean has is pre-Mary’s-death John and post-Mary’s-death John, post-Mary’s-death John being the one whose abuse created Dean’s own damaged persona.  Dean thinks the fix is to stop things on the front end (he is ignoring any process-centered solution, he just wants it to never have happened, he is in denial that he has to work through this and just wants it to be erased, etc etc etc).  

***also keep in mind that going back in time to change things on the front end as a “fix it” is a storyline SPN repeats regularly***

***and it always ends up being impossible to do*** 

Ok so for Dean, his damage/anger/brutal nature/darkness is always linked to John, and this cycle “began” for Dean once their family was torn apart by Mary’s death.  So the fix is his “blood family” together.  That’s his heart’s desire in Lebanon because Dean hasn’t really worked through any of his emotions, and it’s his very Dean way of fixing it - “oh if my family gets put back together I will be put back together too.”

***speaking of quick fixes, I’d like to note that any case in SPN that is referred to as a “milk run”  inevitably becomes complicated and messy***

***continuing the thematics of there’s no such thing as a quick fix***

This is no different.  Stopping the cycle by simply erasing it from the narrative erases anything else that happened along the way during the journey.  It erases this Mary (who they know as a person by this point and not just the mom on a pedestal) 

and (most importantly) it erases this Cas (the episode specifically replaces Cas with one who Doesn’t Know Dean).

We Emphasize This Of Course In The Dialogue In Case You Missed It

DEAN Cas, you know us. ALTERNATE CAS I don’t know you.

***Simply erasing the origin of Dean’s trauma erases all of Dean’s growth.  It erases this family that Dean is so proud to tell John he has now. It erases everything he has already overcome despite how hard it was to achieve it.

So, John goes back.  In that way, the pearl does give Dean his heart’s desire - his realization that this is not about a quick fix, it is about the journey to the good, and all you gain and become along the way (kind of similar to “Happiness isn't in the having. It's in just being. It's in just saying it" eh?).  it’s the process.  It’s every moment along the way.  It’s the people who help him get there.

And then he starts the healing journey by taking control of his own life, by owning his feelings instead of displacing the blame, by recognizing he is NOT guided solely by the actions of his father and this cycle:

DEAN

And for the longest time, I blamed Dad. I mean, hell, I blamed Mom, too, you know? I was angry. But say we could send Dad back knowing everything. Why stop there? Why not send him even further back and let some other poor sons of bitches save the world? But here’s the problem. Who does that make us? Would we be better off? Well, maybe. But I gotta be honest – I don’t know who that Dean Winchester is.

And the episode fucking ends with Cas, the Cas Who Knows Them coming into the bunker and asking them what happened, calling each of them by name just to emphasize again That He Knows Them, because Cas knowing Dean, and Cas being Dean’s family is the cornerstone of what Dean’s heart desires.

[CAS walks in from the door at the top of the stairs. SAM, DEAN and MARY walk out from the library to see him.]

CAS Mary, Sam, Dean. What happened?

So yeah, it took 14 damn seasons but Lebanon is where Dean realizes he can be defined by more than the acts of his father.  (That’s why it’s so terrifying for Dean when Chuck snatches back any control he gained in Season 15.  Because for Dean, Chuck is just John Winchester Controls My Every Action all over again, except he’s God which makes it even worse.) 

That’s also why the final blow to Chuck is not Dean killing him. 

The last stage in the journey that begins here with Dean’s “I’m good with who I am” - [I’m still bad and dark and damaged but I’m good with it]

is Dean’s “that’s not who I am.” [the most caring man on Earth; the most selfless, loving human being I will ever know]

Thats equally why 15x18 is so brilliant, 15x19 is at least acceptable, and 15x20 simply does. not. work.

Dean Winchester’s perfect heaven cannot possibly center on the blood family.  It does not have John Winchester and Mary, husband and wife, who took away his own free will.  It is THIS FAMILY.  The found family.  Cas and Jack and Sam and the Mary that was resurrected.  Dean’s entire character arc supports this journey, and to have it culminate in something that is so established in the season prior to this one as something Dean knows he no longer wants is maddening.

I’m even more mad now because I just remembered that the most prominent picture above Dying Sam’s bed was the blood family portrait from this episode; almost like they wanted us to remember this particular stupid lesson.  This show is so stupid when it could have been so so so very good.

***I want to say thanks again to all of you who read my spiraling if you got this far.  It’s therapeutic for me to do it, but it makes it all the better that people actually read it.  Seeing you in my notes MAKES my entire day****

[gas-stxtion-a]

//also i wanna be the smallest amount of !!! about some ideas real quick so i wanna share one other thing i've been taking notes on with the new profiles i wrote for the carrd

anyway yeah all my muses here have parents with actual names. feels like a small thing. and did i have to do that? no. no i didn't. i really didn't. but i've wanted for a while to develop these characters' parents, and that starts with giving them names.

does any of this matter? probably not. but i think this is a fun thing to consider for their characters and establishing more of where they each come from, even if a majority of these characters' parents are dead or otherwise not in their lives.

also goes without saying but a lot of my thoughts here are speculation or based on limited evidence in canon, since many of these characters' family backgrounds are just not explained, especially not in any significant detail.

anyway thoughts under the cut

spencer's parents: john and hannah middleton

i've actually had the idea in mind for like a year now that spencer's mom's name was hannah. if you know why.... keep your mouth shut. (kidding)

spencer's parents are dead. he killed them both in retaliation after years of abuse and neglect stemming from their genuine fear of their son's mental illness. basically everyone in town knows he did it, but there's very little chance of him being prosecuted for it. not because anyone thinks it was justified, though--more because, though everyone *knows* he did it, there isn't enough *concrete* evidence.

tony's parents: alejandro caballero and inés torres

so i've talked a little about tony's parents publicly, but not in a lot of detail. the main thing i wanna point out here is that neither of his parents' surnames are vargas. because i'm going all in on "antonio vargas is a fake name." vargas is the surname i gave him but yeah it's all fake babeyyy!!!!

forget if i've said anywhere publicly yet, but tony's legal name is oscar caballero torres! or as he'd mostly be referred to in the U.S., oscar torres. (not sure on exactly *what* specific national heritage his family has, but in at least most spanish cultures, people traditionally have two surnames, one associated with each parent, though in the U.S. for example they tend to go by their matronym. so yeah legally he'd be oscar torres.)

(the only reason i'm giving each of his parents one surname each here is simplicity, but their names would also follow this tradition.)

anyway, tony's father alejandro died when he was a young teenager, but his momma is very important to him and a major figure in his life.

jack's parents: charlotte townsend and william evans

so i mentioned earlier this year that i think it's very possible that jack's surname, townsend, isn't his *original* surname. and i've decided to just commit to that.

my original idea was that jack adopted the name townsend from one of his foster parents, possibly his first, as a way of symbolizing him leaving behind his old name and past and basically just. restarting his identity (which is also how him being trans flew mostly under the radar with his neighbors). i ended up dropping that, though, and instead i think townsend is his mom's maiden name.

jack's mom, charlotte, walked out on him and his dad when he was *very* young, and before that she wasn't super present in his life. i don't think she was actively abusive towards him like his dad was, but i also think she wasn't exactly mother of the year. (idk, i go back and forth on how sympathetic to her i am.)

ANYWAY i have a lot more thoughts on jack's parents that are best saved for another post, but basically. jack's mother left her shitty abusive husband and young child behind and started a new life, and jack took her maiden name as he grew when he started a new one as well. i doubt it was intentional on his part, and honestly i think it came down to an issue in the paperwork when he was entered into foster care.

jerry's parents: daphne and matthias pascal

so this is where i am nervously ignoring canon and just kinda doing what i want with the references to jerry's family while picking and choosing what i want from those references.

jerry's parents are a pair of old money types who settled in delaware, and who are definitely *not* happy with the fact that one of their children ran off to join a cult and hasn't spoken to them in well over a decade. his parents cared less about who he was as a person and more about what he could do to further their legacies and reputations. the cult honestly probably started in part as rebellion against them.

in present day, jerry's parents don't know where he is, and he's happy with that. occasionally, the private investigators they hire to try and find him get close to figuring him out, but he's gotten good at evading them.

rosa's parents: elisa vasquez and lorenzo rivera

again, tying in with what i mentioned about spanish surnames under tony's section, rosa's full legal name would be rosa rivera vasquez. ditto for her parents having more surnames, though i'm sticking just to the ones they would've passed down to rosa.

anyway, rosa has two loving parents who genuinely care about her and are active parts of her life, though she has been making a rather significant effort to be more independent and not rely on them as much as she did when she was younger. (ignoring the fact that she *is* still very young.)

i won't pretend they've never had conflict, but for the most part their relationship is healthy and strong. her parents love her and she loves them.

amelia's parents: celeste o'brien and james ambrose

amelia was raised by a single mother, which is where a lot of her drive to be a strong woman and handle everything herself comes from. i originally considered the idea that her father was mostly absent from her life, but i've decided to scrap that idea. she knows her father and has spoken with him, and he has made an effort to be part of her life. he didn't walk out intentionally, and he's been trying to make it up to her.

buuuut she's not particularly impressed with him. she doesn't want to give him a chance, so for the most part she's just. not going to. she has a relationship with him and it's mostly cordial, but she doesn't really get along with him. her relationship with her mother is similarly tense, but they're definitely closer than she is with her dad.

she is, however, *very* close with her aunt natasha. natasha was there for amelia when no one else really was when she was a kid, and she never forgot that. hell, half the reason she moved to this shitty little town in georgia was to be there for her aunt.

sabine's parents: amanda and joseph lemoyne

yeah, i finally named the gas station owners. about time! i could only deal with calling them pops and mamaw for so long.

sabine's parents were a pair of right-wing doomsday preppers who neglected their daughter severely in favor of preparing for an apocalypse and other conspiracy theorist bullshit. they did their part to prepare sabine as well, but for the most part, they tended to just... have her take care of the home while they dealt with everything else, very rarely giving her the support she needed. generally, the lemoyne's had a reputation in town for being very strange but well-meaning, though, and very few people raised a fuss about anything they said or did.

(and yeah, the fact that the lemoyne's were right in some respects about some of what they were paranoid conspiracy buffs about doesn't take away from their rancid-ass beliefs or their treatment of sabine.)

[starrybouquet]

On Seasons 9 and 10 of Stargate SG1

A note: I wrote a series of essays several weeks ago, when I was feeling particularly crappy. I'm not particularly proud of them--they're pretty dramatic--but they do explain several of my more personal fandom feelings. I know I don't always tend to be the best at explaining things on the spot, so I'm posting these with the hope that I can refer people to them the next time that happens.

Um, I mentioned they're a little dramatic. I'm really, really sorry about that. But hey, if I can't be dramatic on Tumblr, in fandom, where else is that gonna go?

But still - if you're feeling a little sensitive today, maybe you wanna skip this. Or not. Just a light warning. :)

This piece is on seasons 9 and 10 of Stargate SG1, but they aren't all Stargate-related. I'll be posting them in the next few days, hopefully.

To those of you who like s9-10: I have nothing against you. Some of you I know better, some less well. In general, though, I like you, you seem like fine people. This is not about you, I hold nothing against you for liking those seasons. In fact, I envy you. This is more a personal post about why I'm an idiot. If you want, feel free to scroll down past this. I won't be offended. I'd put it under the cut but I'm on mobile.

Okay. Why, hello, those of you willing to read this rant...

No matter how much I denounce and ignore it, I cannot get past the pain of seasons 9 and 10 of Stargate SG-1. I've never watched them in full. Seen a few episodes here and there.

I cannot, repeat, CANNOT stand the thought today. It hurts.

It's an old pain, and it's not just SG1. SG1 is just one of the highlights in a long line of books and shows that have repeatedly broken my heart by being SO GOOD and then taking an, uh, precipitous right turn, shall we say. Because a hard right seems too kind, and a precipitous drop too harsh.

I love SG1. I love love love it. I like the plots and I love the science, but what I really fell in love with was the characters.

I loved all of them. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if Sam, Daniel, or Teal'c had been on any other show, I guarantee you they would have been my favorite by far. Jack is just so...Jack that he has to be my favorite. That's SG1 for you.

I've never had super close friends. I have good RL friends, don't get me wrong. They're nice people. But we don't have much in common.

That's okay. That's been my experience forever--really nice folks who maybe didn't always get me or have anything to say to me, but were good, decent people.

And this is good. Really, it is. It's just that SG-1, for me, has always represented the promise that there *are* people out there that are your true friends, and you will do brave and brilliant things with them. It will happen.

It's naive, I know. But I haven't been able to let it go. Maybe someday. But not right now.

Which brings me to s9-10 of SG1. It hurts.

It hurts that SG1 scattered to the wind.

It hurts that they sent Jack away from a place where he was happy, where he'd found friends and meaning in life again, away to fucking DC. To be...what? A politician? I could write a whole post just about this. Actually, I have. I could still write more posts about it!

It hurts that Sam went to Area 51, and nobody seemed to mind, the 'Gate didn't spontaneously combust as we were always led to believe it would.

It hurts that Daniel's personality supposedly changed that much, in the absence of his friends. Though some of his lines are funny, they aren't the earnest, idealistic, thoughtful Daniel I fell in love with. I get the idea that new-look Daniel would roll his eyes at s3-8 Daniel, and beat up floppy hair Daniel. And floppy hair Daniel is my baby and anyone who doesn't appreciate his brilliance can face my wrath. That includes you, buff s9-10 Daniel, and also whoever decided/approved that change in characterization.

Really, the only one who doesn't hurt is Teal'c. Because it feels like he's moving forward, toward happiness.

So...here we are. Season 9. Mitchell, Landry.

I often say I hate Mitchell. Do I resent him for replacing Jack? Yes. I do. We can talk about plot reasons and all that, but at the end of the day, I was going to hate anyone who tried to be Jack.

This is true in real life, too. You can't try to be anyone else. You've gotta walk your own path.

Now, people say that I didn't give Mitchell a chance. I say that the way he was portrayed, in the few episodes I've seen, tells me enough.

I can think of lots of ways Mitchell could have been interesting. How would Daniel and Teal'c react to an old, actually bad tempered (not Jack bad tempered, actually bad tempered) hardass after eight years of their best friends leading them? Or--start with his actual character. Mitchell, he hasn't been at the SGC. Wouldn't he get some flack from the longtime team leaders of SGs 2-5ish? They'd be insulted, right?

Or we could've gotten a nice Daniel Teal'c episode arc and then we could've had one Samantha Carter as team leader, though we won't get into that.

Bringing me to my next point. Co-leads?? Seriously?? You're trying too hard, folks. Telling me Sam used to know Mitchell does not actually make me like him.

Same thing with Landry. Unlike Mitchell, I guess I don't really have an opinion on Landry. He's just....there? No character development for this man.

Anyway, back to the team.

One of the things I love about SG1 is how the humor and friendship was so damn natural. Other than a few episodes (Urgo comes to mind), the plots weren't intentionally humorous. They were campy sci-fi plots sometimes, sure. They were funny because Jack was funny, yeah. They were lower budget than some other sci-fi. But they were as serious as sci-fi gets. It was how the characters reacted that made it funny.

Similarly, we were never told SG1 were found family. We just Knew. Because of the way they acted with each other. Because of the way Jack would "order" them to do things.

And hey, by the way, they weren't always family. Sam used to be less willing to ignore Jack. Daniel used to be less willing to trust Teal'c. Jack used to be a little more stern.

So...they meshed together. Like all found families do.

Every time I see a photo of new-look SG1 in seasons 9 and 10, I can't help but feel that they're trying too hard. I don't get the family feel because they aren't a family, damn it. It doesn't matter how many times you *tell* me they're super close. One of the reasons the original team got so close is because they all needed each other. Jack was depressed, Daniel was grieving, Sam was alone and had lost her mom and wasn't speaking with her dad and had never opened up to anyone in her life, Teal'c was an alien fighting for freedom after spending 100 years essentially as a slave.

And partly because of that, by season 9? Daniel and Teal'c (and Sam, when she comes back) don't need a family the way they used to. They have each other. They have Jack, or at least they *should*. *Glares in angry at Jack in DC vibes*

So...they simply don't have the relationship with Mitchell they do with each other.

It'd be different if Mitchell needed a family. It's not that SG1 hasn't added people before--I think Jonas is a perfect example of this. He wasn't Daniel, and that always hurt. But he was young, and naive, and innocent, and he needed SG1 because he'd left everything he'd ever known.

And that worked.

Without needing family, Mitchell is just a coworker. He can be a friendly coworker. A friend. But if he wanted to become better friends, family, he needed to show depth and vulnerability. He needed to need SG1.

And he never does, from what I've seen and heard about and read about. Or if he does need SG1, he doesn't need them badly enough to show more than an occasional bout of thoughtfulness before returning to his normal pale-Jack-imitation ways.

Now, I don't know why that is. I lean toward bad writing. I haven't watched Farscape (it's on my to watch list) but it seems like Ben Browder is a fine actor.

So, seasons 9 and 10 are probably fine TV. I'm never going to watch them through, so don't ask. I've tried and failed and every time it just tears my heart a little more and I'm won't be doing it again.

Those seasons...they just lost everything I watch SG-1 for, and so...yeah. I feel the hate strongly. Not because they're bad--I think they're different, not necessarily bad. My hate is only because in creating those seasons, they tore down the parts of SG1 that I loved most.

So s9-10 show me a few nice hugs and laughs? That's nice. I like comedies, I do. However...that's not my Stargate. Not the one I love. I liked the sarcastic one, the one full of wonder, the one where they had to scrape and claw their way through the galaxy with naivety and courage and brilliance. The one where they ate together, fought together, died together, were resurrected together.

It hurts, man. It hurts when the things I love turn into something that's lukewarm. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

That's why we have fanfic. And, with any luck, I'll actually start that AU I've been talking about.

It's fanfic, and so it'll be my Stargate. The ending I wanted--which really wasn't an ending at all, more of a closure of one chapter of the story.

Damn, did that turn dramatic. Um, sorry about that, and also sorry for spilling my feelings all over you guys. Thanks for reading, if you got to the end of this.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Trollhunters: “the book” versus “the books”

The Book

Trollhunters, a standalone horror-suspense novel by Daniel Krauss and Guillermo del Toro. It inspired the animated series produced by Dreamworks. 

This is the story people are usually referring to in Trollhunters fanfiction when they say they got an idea from the novel, or, the original novel. 

A general and spoiler-tastic summary: 

In San Bernardino, California, Jim Sturges Junior and his best friend Tobias ‘Tub’ Dershowitz discover trolls are real, and that Jim’s dad had legit reason for his paranoia because James Senior’s older brother Jack really had gotten stolen by monsters when they were kids. Jack works with the trolls, fighting Gunmar alongside Johanna M. ARRRGH!!! and Blinky, and has not aged since disappearing. 

Now they’re recruiting Jim because being a Trollhunter is a matter of genetic predisposition - the amulet is solely a translation device - and it looks like Gunmar’s going to escape from where Jack imprisoned him and they’re going to have to actually kill Gunmar this time, so they need all hands on deck. 

Jim’s crush, Claire Fontaine, is one of several kids who go missing in the next few weeks. Those kids are luckily rescued before they can be eaten, and it turns out Claire has the same genetic predisposition for Trollhunting. 

Gunmar spawns many unnamed babies on the football field during his attack on the surface. Jim’s dad acts as a cavalry in that scene, mowing them down with a landscaping vehicle. Steve Jorgensen-Warner, the school bully, is exposed as a Changeling when forced to touch a football helmet for the rival team, who use a horseshoe logo. We never do learn exactly what was up with Professor Lempke, but he was involved in the rebuilding of Killaheed Bridge (respelled as Killahead in the show) and implied to also be a Changeling. 

The Books 

Dreamworks Trollhunters Tales of Arcadia, a series of six novels by Richard Ashley Hamilton written as supplementary material to the animated series. 

These are the stories people are usually referring to in Trollhunters fanfiction when they say they got an idea from the novels, plural. 

A general and spoiler-tastic summary: 

The Adventure Begins: overlaps the first couple of episodes, Jim discovering the Amulet and becoming the Trollhunter. Also has some bonus scenes, like Kanjigar pleading with the Amulet not to pick Draal as Kanjigar falls to his death, and Jim’s knife-spinning trick being to dry the blade after cleaning it, and Barbara meeting Claire and Claire revealing Jim got the part of Romeo but learning Barbara didn’t know he was auditioning and Barbara promising to act surprised when Jim tells her. 

Welcome to the Darklands: in the start of the gap between Seasons 1 and 2, showing what the kids told Barbara had happened to her house, how they got the Glamour Mask, what Jim’s first few days in the Darklands were like and some interesting characters he met there, and why Nomura ended up in Gunmar’s dungeon. 

The Book of Ga-Huel: some time in mid-Season 2, a Changeling polymorph tries to assassinate the main characters and Blinky has to thwart a prophecy that implies he will die. Uhl is allergic to iron and thus mistaken for said Changeling. 

Age of the Amulet: early Season 3, a broken Kairosect results in Jim, Blinky, AAARRRGGHH, Toby, and Claire getting sent back in time and fighting a Trollhunter who cracked under the pressure of the job and joined Gunmar. In the present, Vendel’s grandfather has been brought forward in time and wants to eat humans, and Eli attacks Gunmar while under the influence of a grit-shaka. (Previously misremembered in this post as Gravesand - thank you @goodfish-bowl for the correction.)

The Way of the Wizard: Merlin, despite supposedly having almost no power, tampers with the Shadow Staff so they can’t portal from his tomb back to Arcadia, and the cast meets Draal’s mom while walking home, but Draal’s body gets exploded (possibly to justify why he can’t be revived with the Creeper’s Sun antidote they used on AAARRRGGHH) and his soul ends up in the Void. Somehow this is supposed to show Merlin being nice? Porgon the Trickster, who appears in 3Below, is also in this novel. 

Angor Reborn: Jim turning into a troll was a gradual process after the bathtub teleported him to a lake in the forest. During this, he meets troll versions of Romeo and Juliet, befriends a wolf cub, considers running away to live in the wilderness because he can’t fit in among humans anymore, and fights Angor Rot. Meanwhile, Barbara yanks Merlin around by the beard searching for Jim. 

The Other Books 

Yes, there’s more. There were a few “bonus content” books released. These are less likely to be referred to by writers, but handy for artists. 

Jim Lake Jr.’s Survival Guide: A journal written by Jim about the events of Season 1, added to here and there by other characters. (Unlike most of the Tales of Arcadia spin-off books, this one is credited to Cala Spinner instead of Richard Ashley Hamilton.) 

A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore: Volume 48: A glossy book with screenshots and descriptions of key moments and artifacts in Trollhunters Season 1. Has a framing device implying it was somehow put together in the, what, twelve hours?, between Strickler leaving Arcadia and Jim going into the Darklands. There are a few pull-out pages. 

The Art of Trollhunters: A coffee table book with production notes and concept art from the show’s development. This one goes all the way through Season 3.

The Comics 

You know, while we’re here. The comics disconnect from what was established in the show in jarring ways sometimes (like Draal joining Kanjigar on Trollhunting missions in the comics, when the show says their relationship suffered because Kanjigar started avoiding Draal after being called as Trollhunter), but they’ve got some fun ideas in them. 

The comics were written before Wizards aired and do not share a continuity. In the comics, there were Trollhunters before Deya, Deya herself was Trollhunter for at least a hundred years before the Battle of Killahead took place, and Kanjigar was Deya’s immediate successor. 

These, obviously, are the stories people are usually referring to in Trollhunters fanfiction when they say they got an idea from the comics. 

The Secret History of Trollkind: Blinky tells Jim, Toby, and Claire about the Battle of Killahead Bridge, the trolls’ decision to leave Europe for the Americas, Deya the Deliverer’s death, Kanjigar’s first few centuries as a Trollhunter, with sidenotes about Blinky and AAARRRGGHH’s slow journey from enemies to acquaintances to friends. 

The Felled: After the events of ‘Hero With A Thousand Faces’, Jim returns the Aspectus Stone to Vendel, who tells Jim and Toby some stories about various past Trollhunters: Spar the Spiteful (who met an Akiridion, which I was expecting to come up in 3Below but did not), Maddrux the Many, Araknak the Agile (mentioned here as being one of Blinky’s ancestors), Unkar the Unfortunate, Deya the Deliverer (on a quest to punch Merlin in the face), and Kanjigar the Courageous. Jim then goes to fight goblins with Claire.

[sequinsmile-x]

Day-to-Day

Emily is the glue that holds the family together, aka five times the Hotchner family needed Emily.

A story in the “5 times + 1″ format.  

Part of the Whatever Tomorrow Brings universe.

Chapter 1 - Amelia. 

Read on AO3 via this link, or below the cut

March 2010

Aaron wakes to his bed being empty. He rubs his eyes, trying to remove the last remnants of sleep, and he turns to check the alarm clock, groaning when he sees it’s 3am. He touches the other side of the bed and feels that the sheets are cold, indicating that his wife had been gone for some time. Amelia had been off the evening before, their usually happy baby grouchy and sleepy. Which was always the first sign that she was coming down with something. Theo had been ill the week before, a bug he’d picked up from school, and Aaron had naively hoped they’d managed to avoid it being passed on to the youngest Hotchner.

He sits on the side of the bed and spots light filtering out from under the ensuite door. He walks over, opening the door to find his wife laying back in the bath, Amelia dozing on her chest. Emily looks tired, a small smile on her face when she spots him. “Hey.” She rasps out, staying quiet so she doesn't wake their daughter.

“Hey, sweetheart.” Aaron walks in and kneels on the floor next to the bath. “Everything ok?”

“She woke up about an hour ago, she had a fever. I thought a lukewarm bath might bring it down, but she started to cry every time I tried to put her in here herself.” Emily says gently, placing a hand on Amelia’s forehead. “It’s come down a bit.”

“You should have woken me up.” He says, placing a hand on their daughter's back. “I’d have helped.”

“It’s ok, honey.” She says placing her hand over his. “You need your sleep, work has been rough on you lately.”

“Right.” He says, with a raised eyebrow. “Because your job is a piece of cake.” Aaron links their fingers and runs a thumb over her knuckles. “You don’t have to do it all on your own anymore, Em. I’m here now. We’re all here.”

She purses her lips together and nods at him. It was still her instinct sometimes to try and do it all by herself, especially anything to do with the kids. Memories of those months spent alone waiting for Foyet to be stopped were sharp, and sometimes it still took her breath away. How close they had come to losing everything.

“Can you take her?” She asks softly. “She should be fine for now.”

“Of course.” He lifts the toddler off of his wife's chest and wraps her in a towel. Amelia wakes almost immediately, grumbling at being removed from her mother. “Let’s go get you dressed sweetie.”

He takes Amelia to the nursery and puts a fresh diaper on her, and a thin sleepsuit. He frowns at the warmth still on her skin, and soothes her when she starts to cry again. “I know what you want, you want Mommy.” He lifts Amelia into his arms and kisses her forehead. “I don’t blame you, I always want her when I feel sick too.”

Emily is already in bed dressed in one of his shirts when he walks back into their bedroom. Amelia immediately reaches out for Emily, the little girl's face already scrunched up as she cries. He passes Amelia over, lets his wife take him into her arms. “Mama.”

“You’re ok, sweet girl.” Emily says, running a hand over the back of her daughter’s head. She kisses her forehead and frowns. “It’s gone down, but she’s still warm.”

“We’ll call the doctor if she’s still got a temperature in the morning.” He says. Emily nods, settling Amelia so she is resting against her chest. The little girl's favorite place to sleep when she was sick or sad. “Sweetheart, you aren’t going to get any sleep if she’s in here.”

“I know.” She replies, soothing the small coughs coming out of Amelia by rubbing her back. “I’ll get someone to drop some case files and paperwork here tomorrow, work from here until she’s better.”

“And if you get a case?”

She glares at him. “Then I’m sure the team can handle it without me. It’s not like they haven’t before.”

“Sweetheart-”

“I’m not leaving her if she’s sick, Aaron.” She says, her voice firm. “She only settles for me if she’s sick and I’m not putting either of you through that.”

He knew his wife somehow felt responsible for his delicate relationship with his daughter. Things were better now, so much better, but he couldn’t say it didn’t hurt when Ameila, or any of their kids, immediately reached for Emily when something was wrong. The six months they had spent alone together had formed a bond he loved, but that he was also, in his worst moments, jealous of.

He wants to argue, wants to say that eventually something would happen with one of the kids when she wasn’t there, but he knows this isn’t the time. That it can wait until it isn’t almost 4am and she has their feverish daughter pressed against her.

“It’s a good thing your boss is so understanding.”

Emily smiles at him. “Well, I do repay his understanding with blow jobs so I think it’s earned.” _________________

May 2024

Ameila was Emily through and through. It was something Aaron, and just about everyone they knew, said frequently. She looked like Emily. She had her nose, her dark eyes and hair, and the same smile that had always been able to convince Aaron to do just about anything. Amelia had inherited her fathers jawline and his seriousness, her frown, a pure ‘Hotch’ look that Penelope had often joked would serve her well in whatever she decided to do in the future.

She also had Emily’s attitude. A need to know everything, to push all the boundaries around her, that often drove Aaron to the edge of his sanity in a way neither of his sons ever had. Elizabeth often commented on how similar Amelia and Emily were, and he never missed the way she smirked at him when she said it.

Emily was fiercely protective of Amelia. Aaron knew it was because their daughter was the only one of their kids who didn’t remember the incident with Foyet. She was so small when it happened, only a few months old when her family was torn apart by the actions of a psychopath, and they were grateful for it. Jack and Theo still bore the scars of what happened, years of therapy had done them wonders, but it still surfaced at times, almost unexpectedly. Leading to Theo calling in the middle of the night, the now 21 year old plagued by nightmares that his mother was dead, only calmed down by the sound of her tired voice over the phone.

The first time Amelia really pushes the boundaries with her parents is when she comes home one day with her nose pierced. The ring in her nose was massive, big enough to allow for the swelling that would follow, drawing her parents attention to it immediately.

“What the hell is that in your nose?” Aaron asks, annoyance clear in his tone.

“It’s a nose ring, Dad.” Amelia answers, her eyes rolling as she hangs her keys up. “I got it done after school.”

“And who said you could do that?”

“It’s my nose. I didn’t realise I needed permission.”

“Ok.” Emily interrupts, placing a hand on her husband's arm to try and diffuse the situation. “I think what your dad is trying to say is that you should run this stuff past us, ok?”

Amelia scoffs. “Well it’s your nose I inherited, surely you understand why I wanted to do something to it.” She walks past her parents and goes up the stairs before the conversation can go any further. “I have homework.”

_________________

Aaron walks into their en-suite later that night to find Emily standing in front of the mirror scrutinising her appearance. He leant against the doorframe and watched as she turned her head side to side, running her finger down the slope of her nose. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at herself straight on again, her finger pressed into the tip.

“Em?”

She turns to look at him, taking her hand away from her nose as she does. He doesn’t miss the shy look on her face as she wrung her hands together. “Do you think my nose is weird?”

He frowns at her. “What? No.”

“I know it’s ridiculous. I’m 53 for fuck sake.” She mutters to herself.

He kisses the tip of her nose and she smiles at him. “You’re beautiful.”

“And you’re ridiculous.” She wraps her arms around him anyway, pulling him in for a kiss. “It will look better when she can switch to a smaller ring.”

“It will look better when she just takes it out.”

Emily laughs, shaking her head at him. “Come on, let's go to bed. Some of us have work in the morning.”

He raises an eyebrow at her as he always did when she referred to his early retirement, even though it had been years since he left the FBI. “Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

_________________

The casual mention of a boyfriend, a boy from Amelia’s art class called Chase, almost sends Aaron orbital. He manages to keep his opinions to himself until Amelia has gone to bed and he’s just in the kitchen with his wife, helping her with the dishes even though it was long ago established as her chore since she never cooked.

“She’s not that bad, Aaron.”

He scoffs at his wife. “She’s going to make me go grey.”

“Honey. Amelia is a teenage girl. A pretty well behaved one in comparison to what I was like.”

“Suddenly I feel a lot more sympathy for Elizabeth than I ever have before.” He mutters as he continues to put dishes away.

“What was that?” She raises an eyebrow at him.

“Nothing, sweetheart.”

She narrows her eyes at him as she passes him another plate, patting his cheek with her spare hand. “You’re already grey, Aaron. It’s got nothing to do with the fact our daughter has a boyfriend. Or a nose ring.” _________________

Emily finally loses her cool two weeks later. They are eating dinner, just her, Amelia and Aaron, when she spots something on her daughter's wrist as she reaches for more salad. Emily grabs Amelia’s arm and pulls her sleeve back slightly to reveal a, admittedly very small, heart tattoo onto her daughter’s wrist. It was crude, slightly wonky and clearly not a professional one.

“What the hell is this?” She asks, staring her daughter down.

Amelia tears her arm out of her mother’s grasp and pulls her sleeve back down. “It’s a tattoo, Mom.”

“A tattoo? When did that happen?” Emily looks over at Aaron, who to her annoyance looked slightly amused that she was finally reacting like he had been all along.

“We did them at school.” Amelia answers, taking another bite of her dinner.

Emily’s initial reaction of telling her daughter how dangerous that was, how stupid, was drowned out by her overriding fear of who exactly had done this. “What do you mean ‘we’?”

“Chase and I did them. We have matching ones.” Amelia says, looking at her mother with a challenge on her face. “I don’t see what the big deal is Mom, you have tattoos.”

Emily glares at her husband when he chokes out a laugh at that, and he quickly excuses himself from the table. She turns back to her daughter. “Amelia, it really wasn’t very safe to do that. You have to let professionals do this kind of thing.”

Amelia rolls her eyes as she takes the final bite of her dinner. “Whatever.” She gets up from the table, already half out of the dining room before she speaks again. “I need to go FaceTime Chase.”

Emily puts her head in her hands as soon as she is alone. Her daughter was too much like her for her own good, independent and wilful almost to a fault. Emily loved that Amelia was like that, that she was so sure of herself in a way that Emily certainly hadn’t been at her age. She took it as a testament to her and Aaron’s parenting, but right now she was struggling with it. She just wanted to sit Amelia down and tell her that not everyone in the world had her best intentions at heart, and Emily had an increasingly sinking feeling that Chase was one of those people.

She blows out a breath and stands up, starting to collect the dishes from the evening meal. Emily hears her husband re-enter the room. “I’m going to get her some antiseptic cream to put on it. Who the hell knows where they got the needle they did it with from.”

“Emily-”

“She gave herself a matching tattoo with her boyfriend, Aaron.” She says, putting the dishes she had been holding back down on the dining room table. “They’ve been together for 8 weeks.”

He steps towards her and places his hands on her hips. “What was it you told me last week? That it will work itself out eventually.”

“She thinks she loves him, honey.” Emily lamented, allowing her husband to pull her into his arms. “And I know he’s going to break her heart.”

Aaron kisses her. “Sweetheart, we can’t protect her from that.” He kisses her again, cupping her cheek with his hand. “All we can do is be here for her if it happens.”

Emily rests her forehead on his chest. “Now who's being annoying ok about all of this?”

_________________

“This is where I found out I was pregnant with you.” Emily says offhandedly, a wistful smile on her face. It was so long ago now, but she still remembered the joy she had felt when she first saw Amelia on screen. The baby she had always been told she couldn’t have was now this amazing person she couldn’t imagine her life without.

Emily looks at her daughter when she doesn’t get a response, and she stops herself from laughing when she sees how pointedly Amelia is ignoring her. “Oh really, Mom?” She says to herself. “That’s so interesting.”

“Mom, I cannot believe you are doing this.” Amelia seethes, looking at the floor of the clinic they were in. Embarrassment coming off of her in waves. “This is so embarrassing.”

Emily rolls her eyes, and bites back a comment about how if she found birth control embarrassing then she should think twice about having sex. “I just want you to be safe, ok? You’ve got a boyfriend now and whilst I am not exactly delighted at the idea of you having sex.” She says, not missing how her daughter grimaces. “I don’t want you to take any chances.”

“Amelia Hotchner?”

Emily and Amelia look up to see Joanne standing at the door to her office looking expectantly at them. Emily smiles at her, Amelia does not, and the latter sighs as she stands up. She takes a few steps towards Joanne, only pausing when she realises her mother isn’t following her.

“Well you may as well come in. This was your idea after all.” Amelia says, annoyance colouring her tone. Emily sees past it, spotting the way her daughter nervously wrings her hands, fingers digging at her cuticles in a way she had picked up from her.

“Of course, sweetie.” She stands and walks up to her daughter, and guides her into Joanne’s office with a gentle hand on her back.

_________________

“You did what??” Aaron asks, seething, as they get ready for bed side by side in their ensuite. He turns to her, a disbelieving look on his face.

“I took her to get birth control.” Emily answers around her toothbrush, spitting into the sink. She rinses it and places it next to his in the holder.

“Why?” He is glaring at her, and she's suddenly more glad than ever that she hadn’t broached this subject with him until after Amelia had a packet of pills sitting in her bathroom cabinet, with very explicit instructions on the importance of taking it correctly from both Emily and Joanne. “Is she sleeping with him?”

“I don’t even know if she is having sex yet. But you know these things happen. I bought the boys condoms when they were teenagers.” She purposely misses out that she had also bought Amelia condoms, thinking that admission might make her husband's head explode. “I wanted to make sure she takes precautions if she takes that step.”

“She’s 15, Emily.”

“Yeah, and so was I.” She closes her eyes and sighs, turning to look at her husband as she crosses her arms across her chest. She looks at him and bites her lip, trying to figure out what she’s been wanting to say. “Aaron, I just don’t want what happened to me to happen to her.”

Emily can see the moment it registers in his head. The way his brow unfurls, his whole body unclenching as the anger seeps out of him, replaced by concern for her. He takes a step towards her. “Sweetheart…”

She shakes her head at herself, wiping a stray tear away that had fallen at the admission. “She deserves better than that.”

He sighs as he drags her into a hug, one she gladly returns, wrapping her arms around his back. “You deserved better than that too.”

Emily buries her face into his neck, breathes in the scent of him that had comforted her for more than half her life. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” _________________

Three days later it becomes a non issue. Amelia is out with friends, and Chase, leaving Aaron and Emily with the house to themselves.

Emily is sitting in her husband's lap on their couch. His hands up her shirt and his tongue in her mouth, when she hears it. A car door slamming on edge of her consciousness, someone running up the steps of their porch. She pulls back from Aaron, the dazed look on his face surely matching the one on her own. “Did you hear that?” She breathes out.

They hear a key in the door and break apart like they’ve burnt each other, both standing as the front door opens.

Amelia bursts in, tears streaming down her face. She drops her bag at the front door, her school things abandoned in the foyer of their home, and as soon as her eyes land on Emily her face crumbles. The steady stream of tears turning into sobs. “Mom.”

“Amelia?” She closes the gap between them, concern for her daughter overriding anything else, any lingering hopes she had of alone time with her husband gone in an instant. Amelia is in her arms in seconds, clawing at her shirt to try and get as close as possible. She buries her face into Emily’s shoulder and weeps. Emily cups the back of her daughter’s head, and runs her other hand up and down her back. “Oh sweetheart, it’s ok.” She soothes. “You’ll be ok.”

Emily exchanges a concerned look with Aaron over the top of their daughter's head and she shakes her head at him slightly when he takes a step towards them, silently asking him to leave it to her. He understands, just like he always had, and leaves them to it despite wanting to know exactly what has upset Amelia this much.

“Mia, honey.” She says gently, hand still tangled in her daughter's dark hair. She tries to pull back slightly, cupping Amelia’s cheek, but she holds on to her tighter, sobs still tearing out of her throat. “Let’s move over to the couch, ok?”

Amelia nods against her but doesn’t separate herself from her mother at all. Emily carefully guides her over to the couch and sits down. Amelia curls into her, wrapping herself around her in a way she hadn’t done in years. Emily wraps her arms around her, and whispers random words of comfort into her daughter's hair.

“Sweetheart.” She says gently, pulling away enough that she can cup Amelia’s face in her hands. She wipes tears away from her cheeks with her thumbs. “You don’t have to tell me what’s wrong, not until you’re ready, but I need to know if you’re hurt.”

Amelia shakes her head. “Not hurt.” She says, her words choked by her tears. She leans back into Emily, pressing her face into her neck.

“Ok, sweet girl.” Emily says the old nickname, one she hadn’t used since Amelia was 9 and turned her nose up at it, slipping out without thinking. She presses a kiss on her daughter's head. “I’m right here.”

It takes almost 30 minutes for Amelia to calm down, for her sobs to dissipate into sniffs and a hoarseness in her throat as she takes in ragged breaths. “He broke up with me.”

Emily frowns, holding her daughter impossibly tighter. “What?”

“Chase broke up with me.” Amelia says, pulling back so she could look at Emily properly. “He said I was boring.”

Emily covers her reaction to that, keeping her surprise away from her face. Boring was not a word she would have ever used to describe Amelia. She tucks some of Amelia’s hair behind her ear. “I’m so sorry, baby. I know you really liked him.”

Amelia snuggles back down into her, sniffing as she lays her head on Emily's shoulder. Emily runs her hand through her daughter's hair, soothing her as she finishes calming down. “What do you want to do?” Emily asks. “We could get Dad to go out and get Taco Bell.”

Amelia chokes out a laugh but shakes her head. “I think I just want to go to bed.”

“Whatever you want.” _________________

Aaron is pacing their bedroom when she enters it, softly closing the door behind her. He stops and looks at her, an expectant look on his face.

“He broke up with her.” Emily says. “She is heartbroken.” She hears how her own voice breaks as she tells him. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like that.” She shakes her head at herself. “The worst thing is when she told me what happened I felt relieved. She’s sitting there absolutely hysterical and I’m relieved?”

Aaron closes the distance between them and hugs her. “You’re a fantastic mom, Em. I won’t let you believe anything other than that.”

She chokes out a laugh, somehow still surprised after all these years that he was able to guess what was really bothering her without her saying it outloud. “You’re a pretty great dad yourself, Mr Hotchner.” Emily lets herself relax in her husband’s embrace for a little longer, she pulls back and looks up at him. “I’m going to go in and sleep with her tonight.”

“Ok, sweetheart.” He kisses her quickly before letting her go so she can get ready for bed. He watches as she pulls on pyjama pants and a soft t-shirt that once belonged to him.

Aaron admires his wife as she takes off her makeup from the day and puts her dark hair up, smiling as he catches sight of some grey flecks that she hates as she twists it into a bun. She never believes him when he says it, but he thinks she's more beautiful now than she was when they first met all those years ago. Emily had always been beautiful, from the 22 year old she was when they first met. Teasing smiles and flirty comments as she coaxed him out to a bar with her.

Emily always lamented aging, wondering where the time had gone. More self conscious now than she had been the entire time he had known her. All he saw in lines on her face that she thought made her look old was all the laughter and joy they’d had over the years. She was softer now, her hips wider, evidence that she had given him two of their children that made him find her even more attractive. The grey flecks in her hair, that he knew she’d get dyed again soon, that showed him just how long they had loved each other.

They had been together 31 years and sometimes Aaron felt every moment of it, every single thing that had happened to them since she kissed him at one of her mother’s events. It somehow also had passed in the blink of an eye, decades gone in seconds and he was still somehow lucky enough to have her by his side.

“You’re staring.” She says, pulling him out of his thoughts with an amused look on her face and a teasing tone to her voice.

He pulls her into his arms again, kisses her cheek, then her nose. Making her laugh as she tries to squirm away from him. “You’re beautiful.”

Emily rolls her eyes at him. “You’re ridiculous.” _________________

Ameila smiles shakily at her mother as she walks into her room. Emily walks over to her bed and climbs in on the spare side, settling down for the night. She lays on her side and looks at Amelia, tucking some hair behind her ear. “How are you doing, sweetie?”

Amelia sniffs, suppressing a sarcastic laugh. “I’ve been better.” She settles into her mother’s side, resting her head on her shoulder. In the darkness of her bedroom, with Emily’s arms wrapped tightly around her, she finally feels like she can admit the truth. “It’s because I wouldn’t have sex with him.”

“What do you mean?”

Amelia closes her eyes as she catches the tone in her mother’s voice, the dangerous edge to it that she was so rarely on the receiving end of. She had only ever really overheard it when she was talking to someone about work over the phone, or one the rare occasion her parents had a full blown row, their angry voices soon turning into other noises that Amelia thanked whoever was listening for the invention of noise cancelling headphones.

“That’s why he broke up with me.” Amela says, feeling tears build back up in her eyes. “Because I wouldn’t sleep with him.”

She feels her mother’s hold on her tighten, and the sharp intake of breath that she takes beneath her head. Emily kisses the top of her head. “You’re ok, sweetheart. Go to sleep.”

Amelia drifts off to the feel of her mother stroking her hair, something she hadn’t had happen since she was younger. She was surprised to realise how much she had missed it, regret for how she had started to rebuff her mother’s affection a few years back building in her chest. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too.” Another kiss to the top of her head. “Now get some sleep.”

She falls asleep, completely unaware of how Emily laid awake for hours, anger for a teenage boy she had only met once burning through her veins until she came up with a plan. _________________

Emily wakes in the morning to the sound of Amelia’s door opening. She opens her eyes to see her husband standing there, a takeout coffee holder in his hand, and an unsure look on his face.

She smiles at him as she sits up in bed and beckons him in. He switches the light on, which immediately wakes Amelia, her groans the first indication that she was up.

“Morning, sweetheart.” Aaron says kissing his wife before sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Morning.” She murmurs against his lips, before lifting the coffee she knew was intended for her. Cold brew with enough sweetener in it to rot your teeth.

“You guys suck.” Amelia groans from below the comforter, voice still thick with sleep.

Emily chuckles. “I think you’ll change your mind when you see what your dad has brought you.”

Amelia lifts the comforter from off of her face and shoots up when she sees her favourite frappuccino in her fathers hands. “Dad, you are the best.” She takes a sip and moans, the sugar hitting her tongue. “No wonder Mom has put up with you so long.”

Aaron laughs, glad to see that she seemed her usual self after how devastated she had been the night before. “Are you ok, Mia?”

She smiles at her dad, a shaky thing that was always the first indicator from his wife and daughter that tears were on the horizon. “I will be.” ______________

Emily’s first thought is to set Penelope on Chase. Let her hack into his social media accounts and digitally ruin his life for upsetting her little girl. For trying to pressure her into something she didn’t want to do. She knew Penelope would do it without a second thought. She was the most trusted confidant of all of the younger Hotchner's outside of their parents. Jack had asked for her help planning his over the top proposal to his now wife. Theo had come out to her first, a nervous teenager in her office asking for help on how he could tell his parents. Amelia went to her for advice on everything from boys to elaborate hairstyles, and Penelope gently discouraged her from dying her hair bright purple when she was 13, knowing it would have given Aaron an aneurysm.

Emily was finishing getting ready for work, Amelia already on her way to school, as she started to formulate a text to her friend, a cryptic request to come see her as soon as she got to work, when Aaron snuck up on her in the kitchen.

“You can’t get Penelope to ruin his life.”

Emily jumps, cursing under her breath. “Damn it, Aaron.” She turns to look at him, a sheepish look on her face. “I wasn’t planning on doing anything of the sort.”

“Oh really?” He raises an eyebrow at her. “You weren’t thinking of having her hack all of his social media accounts and freeze his bank account?”

Emily flushes and puts her phone down on the counter. “I can’t just let him get away with it.”

Aaron smiles at her and pulls her towards him with his hands on her hips. “Baby, this is something we have to let her deal with ok?” He kisses her cheek, his smile deepening as she narrows her eyes at him. “No getting Penelope involved.”

“Fine.”

Plan B it was. _________________

Emily is never happier than when she has all of her family in her house. The boys were coming round for dinner, Jack and his wife Sara and Theo and his new boyfriend Zach, someone he had met at college. Theo texted her that morning, a list of strict instructions of things that absolutely couldn’t happen the first time Zach was meeting the family.

She had just let them in, hugging her son fiercely as he walked in and feeling love bloom in her chest when he hugged her back just as tightly, no embarrassment at giving his mother this affection in front of Zach.

She lets him go and turns to the young man standing next to her son. “You must be Zach, I’m Emily.”

He shakes her hand, a nervous smile on his face. “Nice to meet you.”

Amelia bursts into the house, slamming the front door behind her, and immediately breaks the first rule on Theo’s list. “Мама, какого хрена?”

“Не сейчас, милая. У нас гости. И не ругайся.” Emily replies, tilting her head towards where Theo and Zach were standing.

“Ты должен был подумать об этом, прежде чем угрожать моему бывшему парню!”

Zach leans in to Theo, a confused look on his face. “Are they speaking Russian?”

Theo sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose as he did so, and looks at his boyfriend. “Yes.” He turns to his mother. “Ne pouvons-nous pas le faire? C'est la première fois que Zach rencontre tout le monde.”

Amelia rolls her eyes and Emily smiles at Theo. “Je suis désolé, chérie. On va bien se comporter.”

“Are you speaking French?” Zach asks, looking even more confused at the complete nonchalonce all of the Hotchner’s were showing at the multiple languages being thrown around as if it was nothing. The slight look of amusement on Aaron’s face as he walked into the room. “How many languages does your mom speak?”

Theo grabs his boyfriend's hand and leads him further into the house, away from the rest of the family. “Six. Seven if you include English.” _________________

Emily eyes Sara curiously when she turns down wine with her dinner, a small look passes between her and Jack when she asks for soda instead. Emily shares a similar look with her own husband, a look on his face saying he had spotted what she had too, and she gladly gets an alternative drink for her daughter-in-law.

Amelia sulks all the way through dinner. Rebuffing her brother’s questions about school, a glare fixed on her mother almost the entire time. It’s when she refuses her favourite dessert, cheesecake, that her brother’s interest is piqued.

“Mills.” Theo asks, amusement on his face at his sister’s behaviour. “What’s up with you?”

“Why don’t you ask Mom?” She said, pointedly looking at her mother. “Мама пытается разрушить мою жизнь, вот в чем дело.”

“I did not try and ruin your life, Amelia.” She says, rolling her eyes at her daughter's dramatics. She looks at her sons and their respective partners. “All I did was have a conversation with the boy who made Amelia cry herself to sleep a couple of days ago.”

“Yeah. By explaining that you’re a Section Chief at the FBI, whilst you had your gun and badge on display.” Amelia exclaims.

There was a moment of silence at the table before it descended into laughter, confusion all over Zach’s face on whatever he had walked into.

“Oh sweetheart.” Aaron says, looping his arm around the back of her chair to place a hand on her shoulder. “Not again.”

Amelia frowns, looking at her parents in shock. “Not again? What the hell does that mean?”

“Mom’s crazy, Millie.” Theo says, a laugh bursting out of him.

“Hey, I resent that.” Emily says, sinking back into her chair slightly, glaring at Aaron when he laughs at her and kisses the side of her head.

Jack gives Emily a look with his eyebrows raised before looking back at his sister. “My first ever girlfriend broke up with me the day before homecoming, Mom scared the absolute shit out of her by showing up at her cheerleading practise the following day. She somehow managed to mention that Dad once killed a guy with his bare hands.”

“Your dad did what?” Zach asks, leaning in to Theo who just shook his head. A silent promise that he’d explain later.

“In my defence.” Emily says, crossing her arms across her chest, a slight flush to her face. “This one was really sick at the time and I was pretty sleep deprived.” She says pointing at Amelia. “I wasn’t entirely in control of my emotions, and you were just so sad.”

“She also made me very aware of what she does for a living when Jack and I first moved in together.” Sara pipes up, nothing but amusement on her face when she looks at her mother-in-law. She turns back to Amelia. “I think it’s sweet.”

Amelia shakes her head at them all and turns to Zach. “Run whilst you still can.” __________________

Emily closes the door behind Jack and Sara as they leave, promises of getting together soon uttered in between lingering hugs.

“Mom?”

Emily turns to see Amelia standing behind her, her hands in her pockets as she avoids her mother’s gaze. It’s the calmest she’s looked all evening, any frustration she had towards her and her actions having melted away.

“Look, I’m sorry, Amelia.” She says taking a step towards her daughter. “I know I probably shouldn’t have done that. But you were so upset, and he deserved to-”

Her ranting is cut off by Amelia throwing her arms around her waist and placing her head on her shoulder. “Thank you.”

Emily smiles and hugs her daughter back, kissing the top of her head as she pulls her closer. “You’re welcome, sweetie.”

“I always thought it would be Dad, or Theo or Jack who went after a boy for me.” She says against her mother’s shirt before she pulls away. “At least I can tell any future guys that my mom is crazy.” _________________

Emily turns to lay on her side as Aaron joins her in bed, she smiles at him and pushes some hair off of his forehead before running her blunt nails over his temples, the mix of dark and grey hair rasping as she goes. “When do you think Jack and Sara are going to tell us she’s pregnant?”

A laugh peels out of Aaron before he leans forward and kisses her, pulling back only to press his forehead against hers. “Whenever they are ready.”

Emily shifts so her back is against him and pulls his arm over her waist, sighing when he settles his chest against her. “You’d think they’d learn they can’t hide anything from us.”

He kisses the top of her head and holds her a little tighter. “We’ve got some pretty great kids.”

“We really do.”

“You have got to stop threatening anyone who hurts them though.”

“Sure, love.” She says, pulling his hand up to her lips to kiss his knuckles. “I’ll stop.”

They both know she won’t.

[moonbearmeliox]

The Kids

Pairing: BAU Team x Reader; Spencer Reid x Reader

Summary: The BAU team get a case to track down an escaped serial killer, but things take a turn for the worst when two members go missing

Warnings: kidnapping, depictions of violence, stabbing, descriptions of torture

A/N: Whoo! I’m glad to have this out, I loved writing this. Criminal Minds have been added to my Request Guidelines, so if you have any Criminal Minds Requests send them. Hope you enjoy.

Request Guidelines

Another day, another case and you once again found yourself sitting in the meeting room. Most of your team was already here but while you waited for the others, the topic of the team’s dynamic came up.

 “Ok, but us as a unit is basically a family and if anyone is the big brother, it’s Morgan.” You said before taking a sip of your coffee.

 “And why’s that?” Morgan asked.

“The amount of times you’ve refused to let me go in before you when we’re busting an unsub just proves you’re the big brother.” You told him

 “But he also likes to kick down doors and he can’t do that if you’re in front of him.” Emily said. Morgan let out a small chuckle.

“While that is the main reason, I also don’t want to see you get hurt.”

 “Awww. You’re proving my point even further that you are in fact the team’s big brother.” You said.

“Alright. What about everyone else?” Morgan said.

“Hotch is the team mom.” You stated

 “Why would you say that.” Hotch said, walking into the meeting room. You almost spit out your coffee, not expecting him to hear that.

“You’re always looking out for us but not in the dad way that Rossi does. You’re also stern when it comes to things we do. We’re basically your kids.” You told him.

 “The only kid I have is my son Jack. But if you’re talking about the dynamic of the team, the kids would be you and Spencer.” Hotch deadpanned, but you swore you saw a hint of a smile as he referred to you and Spencer as kids.

 “C’mon Hotch, me and Spencer are in our 20s. We aren’t kids.”

“(Y/N), you keep a box of juice boxes under your desk.” Hotch said

 “Which Emily steals, but I don’t hear you calling her a kid.”

“We got a new case!” JJ said as she entered the meeting room with the file in hand. You and the team dropped the conversation to give JJ your attention.

 “Two people in West Virginia have been murdered.” JJ said, displaying the image of two dead bodies. “Taryn Klien and Polly Neal. Both were severely tortured before being shot in the head.”

“The police would usually call us in after more than two deaths. Why call us in when there’s only two?” Morgan asked.

 “Because the police think that it’s the work of the serial killer named Mark Sutthers. He escaped from prison last week and this message was left at the crime scene of Polly Neal’s murder.” JJ displayed a picture of Mark Sutthers and the message that was left on the screen.

“Punishment will come to those that put me away.” Reid read the message out loud.

 “After Garcia did some digging she found that Taryn Klien was the judge at his trial and Polly Neal was the prosecutor.”

“He’s doing this for revenge. Going after the people that put him in jail.” Rossi said

“Which means he’s either going to go after the people that were in his jury or the police that made the arrest.” You inquired.

 “Let’s hope it’s the latter. Police can protect themselves better than civilians. If he goes after the police it will give us more time to see who was on his jury and try to warn them but let’s hope we can catch him before he hurts anyone else.” Hotch said

 “Didn’t we help with this case?” Spencer asked.

“We did. So we need to pull everything we have from that case so we can find something that will help us catch Sutthers. Garcia should pull information on everyone in Sutthers’ jury. Morgan and Prentiss I want you to go down to the West Virginia police station and see who was on the Mark Sutthers case. Reid and (L/N), I want you guys to go over everything we have on Sutthers. Me and JJ will check in with local authorities to see if there’s been any sightings of Sutthers.”

It wasn’t until late in the evening when you and Reid decided to call it quits for the night. The two of you had gone over everything about Sutthers and had been able to piece together enough information to have a rough prediction where he’s going to strike next but by then most of the team had already left and you had to wait until tomorrow to present your findings.

 “Hey Reid, can you give me a ride home? My car’s in the shop and the buses stopped running thirty minutes ago.”

“Yea, sure. Your place isn’t that far away from mine.” The two of you packed up your things and made your way to Spencer’s car. 

 “I still can’t comprehend how you can listen to classical music while you drive.” You said once you and Spencer were on the road.

“Today’s music just isn’t my style. Plus with classical music, you can’t get distracted by the lyrics because there are none.” Reid explained.

 “Is that your argument?” You asked. Reid looked over at you.

“Maybe. But I still think classical is-”

 “Reid!” You pointed and Reid turned his attention back to the road to see someone standing directly in the path of his vehicle. Reid couldn’t hit the brakes in time, as the person was struck by the car and rolled a few feet away. The two of you were stunned for a second, making brief eye contact with each other before quickly getting out of the car to help the person.

 “Oh my god. Are you ok?” The two of you ran towards the person. It was a man, who looked to be in his thirties. He was unconscious.

 “(Y/N), there’s a first aid kit in the center console of my car. Can you go grab it? I'm going to call 911.” Reid said. You ran back to the car and dug through the console until you found the white plastic box with the first aid supplies. 

 “Found it!” You said, turning back to the scene at hand. But you found that it wasn’t the man on the ground. It was Reid. You were going to call out to him but there was a sudden electric jolt to your neck before everything went black.

Reid woke up in a dimly lit room, sitting in a chair. His brain not fully awake, Spencer thought that he was having a nightmare, that he's back in the clutches of Tobias Hankel. It wouldn’t be anything new, he had those nightmares a lot. It wasn’t until he tried to move did Reid know that he was not having a nightmare. His hands were restrained behind him. With Spencer's eidetic memory, he remembers everything about his encounter with Hankel, he remembers that his hands were restrained in front of him, not behind. With that realization, Spencer became more alert. 

He had hit a man with his car on his way to drive you home. That’s what he remembers. He told you to grab the first aid kit from his car so he could check how badly he had hit the man and call 911. But the man had a taser, it was unexpected and the man had tased Spencer before he could warn you. You. Did the man take you too?

 “(Y/N)?” He said. He didn’t want to call attention in case the man came to wherever the hell they were but Spencer hoped you were in the same room as him.

“Spencer?” He heard behind him. Reid turned around the best he could and saw you in the same predicament he was.

 “Are you ok?” He asked.

“Yea. Are you?”

 “Yea. That man I hit with my car. He had a taser.”

“And used it to knock us both out.” You said “Now the question is why?”

 “My message should have been obvious.” Spencer and you turned to see a man standing in the doorway, holding a knife. You and Spencer recognized that man. After staring at his picture all day you knew that it was Mark Sutthers.

 “Mark Sutthers.” You said.

“I knew it wouldn’t take long for the FBI to be called in to investigate my murders.” Mark said, walking closer to the two of you. “Let me guess, you thought I was going to go after the police that arrested me?”

You and Spencer didn’t say anything.

 “I thought about that. But I knew that it would lead to my capture too quickly. No, I said punishment will come to those who put me away. And that includes the FBI.” Sutthers squatted down to be eye level and pointed the knife at Reid.

“You, the genius who picked apart the trauma of my life,”He said, before pointing the knife at you, “and you, the forensics analyst who pieced it back together to lead the police and the rest of your team to arrest me and keep me in a cage for three years. Special Agent (Y/N) (L/N) and Doctor Spencer Reid, your punishment will come.”

Hotch should have known that his own team could have been one of Sutther's targets. Spencer had even said that the BAU worked on his case, but Hotch was certain Sutthers was going to go after the police or jury first before he even thought about going after his team. He was wrong and now two members of his team were missing, the only proof that they were alive was printed photos and a note saying “This is your punishment.”

 “Do we have any idea where Sutthers could have taken them?” Morgan asked. Ever since he found out about their abduction, he looked into everything about Sutthers, pressing Garcia for everything she could find. (Y/N) was right about Morgan, he was the big brother and to him (Y/N) and Spencer were like his younger siblings. Knowing that they were being held captive by a serial killer made him distraught and angry.

“Garcia’s been looking into Sutthers records to see if there’s any property that he owns or has owned in the past, but so far she hasn’t found anything.” Prentiss said. This didn’t please the team. From the moment they found out  they haven’t done anything but try to find you and Reid.

"I just got something.” JJ said, rushing into the meeting room. “A local landlord said he rented a small warehouse to a man matching Sutthers description. Garcia just sent us the addresses.”

 Sutthers was true to his word about punishment. You and Reid were tortured the same way the previous victims were. Various cuts and wounds littered your bodies, enough to do damage but not enough to cause you to bleed out. There was one small comfort in the gratuitous toruture the two of you faced. Sutthers had placed you back to back with just enough room for the two of you to squeeze each other's hands as the pain went on.

 “You know…” Sutthers said as he plunged a knife into your chest. You let out a pained scream and clenched Reid’s hand. “This has been fun.”

Sutthers got up, leaving the knife embed in your chest.

 “Torturing people is how you get off. Of course you would have fun.” Reid said. He was doing better than you but even with the absence of a knife in his chest he was in a world of pain.

“Is that what you profiled about me, Doctor? You think I get high off of hearing your screams.” Sutthers stood in front of Reid.

“I think you’re a psychotic monster who’s going to pay for what he’s done.” Reid made direct eye contact with Sutthers, who punched him in the face.

 “You’re right on both accounts.” Sutthers moved over to a table and wiped the blood off his hands. “Like I said, this was fun. But all fun things must come to and end.”

After the blood was wiped off, Sutthers moved to stand in front of you. You mustered all the energy you could to look at him, and wished looks could kill because Sutthers would have dropped dead at the hatred in your eyes.

 “I planned this out the whole time I was in prison. No mistakes or slip ups. This has gone perfectly. Once the two of you are dead, I’ll skip town and wait until the heat dies off before I go after the rest of your team.” Sutthers pulled out a gun from his back pocket and pointed it directly at your forehead. “Hate to ruin such a pretty face.”

"There's one key mistake you made in your plan!" Spencer exclaimed. This piqued Sutthers interest.

 “Really? And what’s that? Everything has been going perfectly. I caught you off guard by not going after the police. It was easy to target the weak links of the BAU. It will take your team too long to find me. Even with the photos I sent.”

"Yes, you caught us off guard by going after the BAU instead of the police like we thought. You struck at reasonable enough time so that you could get a few hours of tourture in before anybody knows we are gone and you went after what you consider the two weak links of the team.” Spencer explained “But there is one key mistake you made.”

 “And what is that?” Sutthers asked.

“You went after the kids.” Hotch placed his gun to Sutthers’ head. “Lower your weapon and get on the ground.”

To say you and Spencer were relieved was an understatement. Your team stood in the entrance way, bar Hotch who was directly behind Sutthers. Their guns were raised and you inferred they would shoot Sutthers if given the chance because they looked pissed.

 “Drop your weapon and get on the ground.” Hotch said calmly. Sutthers was hesitant. He lowered the gun away from your forehead and dropped it. He then slowly began to kneel but suddenly wretched the knife out of your chest and went to take a swipe at Hotch. Your eyes were closed due to the erupt knife pull but you heard six gunshots. Opening your eyes, you saw Sutthers lie dead in front of you. You kicked his head for good measure. He was dead. Without hesitation, the team was on you and Spencer in seconds. Rossi and Morgan went to help Spencer, while Hotch and Emily assisted in uncuffing you.

 “I knew you and the team would come for us.” You told Hotch.

“I wasn’t going to abandon my kids.” He said. You smiled. They got the cuffs off and the team led you and Spencer to the awaiting paramedics so the two of you could be taken to the hospital. Morgan rode with Spencer to make sure he wasn’t given any painkillers while you got Hotch.

 “You were right, you know?” Hotch said.

“About what? You being the team mom?”

 “That we’re a family. Once you and Spencer were taken, the only thing we could focus on was finding you two. The team had the energy you only find when someone hurts your family. And what Sutthers did, he hurt two members of the family.” Hotch explained. You didn’t know if it was because your injuries were catching up to you or Hotch’s words but you felt tears begin to roll down your eyes.

“Are we really your kids?”

 “Of course you guys are.”

[lunmelia]

Some more Team Free Will raising Jack

Taking a break from recording all of Dean and Sam’s injuries, time for some more raising Jack headcanons

----

It takes a village to raise a nephil. Cas, Dean, Sam and Mary manage as best they can, but once Ketch hands Gabriel over and they convince a handful of angels to be on their side, it becomes significantly easier. Mostly everyone, even Gabriel, are still pretty clueless though. No one’s ever really attempted to raise a nephil before. Except maybe the Queen of Sheba, but there’s basically no evidence of how she was raised, and the angels don’t know a thing since she was somehow successfully hidden from them. So, really they just gain additional babysitters who can give only theories on how to raise Jack. But nonetheless, the bunker becomes Raising Jack Central, angels popping in and out, some staying permanently, hunters visiting and pitching in, even some demons wanna check out the child of the devil, though they’re promptly told to fuck off.  -- The angels react to Jack in different ways. Some immediately want to kill him, he’s an abomination and that’s just what they do to nephilim. Some approach him cautiously like he’s a ticking time bomb. Some look like they want to vomit at the sight of him. Some look at him with hope, like he’s their new saviour. Some look at him like they’re just confused, trying to figure out how and why he exists. One of the confused angels held Jack, turned him this way and that before they tipped him upside down and gave him a shake. That resulted in an explosion of sound as Jack started crying, and Dean, Cas and Sam jumped in to snatch Jack from the angel. Dean held Jack closely to his chest while giving the angel the stink eye and Cas fussed over the baby.  -- Jack was kept in and around the bunker for the first 7 years of his life, raised by angels and hunters who are human but sometimes don’t act like they are. He was mostly kept in the bunker and the house because it takes a lot to convince a nephil to not use their true voice when they have a tantrum. By the time Jack reaches 8-years-old, he finally understands that if he wants to scream and cry with his true voice, he has to do it in the safety of the bunker.  -- Being raised in a secluded bunker and a house by angels and hunters is just another cause to how weird Jack is. He either blinks too much or not enough, and he sometimes looks at you like he’s inspecting your soul (which he is). And he just sounds. off. Most of the time he sounds american, but no one can pinpoint where in america. He almost sounds like he’s from everywhere in america. But sometimes he sounds like he’s from england. His teachers can’t tell if he’s pretending or if he really does just sound like that. They become even more confused when they meet Dean and Cas, and Sam, and Mary because they can clearly tell where his guardians are from, so why does he always sound so off?? -- Sometimes he calls Dean and Cas dad or father, but actually he just calls them Dean and Cas a lot of the time. He understands that they’re his dads, but no one else ever calls them dad?? Everyone else refers to them as Dean and Cas, those are their names, so he just. calls them by their names. simple as that. On the same note, he actually refers to Mary as ‘mom’ a lot because Dean and Sam, and sometimes even Cas, call her that all the time. It actually took him a longer time to understand that her name wasn’t mom but Mary, than it did to understand that his dads’ names were Dean and Cas.  Other kids ask him why he doesn’t call his dads ‘dad’ and he just shrugs and goes ‘those are their names’.  -- Jack with his insane dad Cas and his equally insane uncle Sam. Jack, as the first nephil who is being actively raised by hunters and angels alike, is a complete mystery. And Cas and Sam love a mystery. They never do anything that will physically or mentally harm Jack, but they do perform tiny little experiments. Dean comes home one day and finds Cas and Sam lying flat on their stomachs on the floor, a two-year-old Jack between them and they’re all staring at a pencil. Dean: ... what are you doing? Sam: trying to see if he’ll move this pencil with his mind Dean: *flashback to that one time he walked in on Cas jumping off a roof to see if Sam could catch him with his telekinetic powers* Dean: oohhhh no. no no no no you don’t! you’re not experimenting on my baby! -- Sam: ... I wonder what would happen if I drank nephil blood? Cas: ... we’ll wait until Jack’s older for that one -- Dean: yeah he hit the ball and it just went... it disappeared into the sky. He broke the bat Sam: you WHAT!? Cas: how far do you think the ball went? Jack: personally I think it went into space Sam, getting up from where he was sitting: we gotta test this right now -- 16-year-old Jack: ... could I escape holy fire? Cas and Sam: *eyes slowly widening* Dean: don’t you dare- Sam: I’ll get the holy oil! Cas: I’ll get the lighter, Jack go stand outside Jack: okay!  -- Did you ever have those friends in primary school who were smaller than you but they were so strong they lifted you up and spun you around? Because I did. Anyways Jack lifts Dean up when he’s like 11 because uncle Sam told him to and Dean just screams.  -- Eileen being able to be around baby Jack when he’s throwing a tantrum because she literally can’t hear him. She holds him and smiles and Jack goes quiet and frowns because even though he’s a baby he knows the difference between a human and an angel, and the humans are always either wincing when he cries or wearing things in their ears, but this human is just holding him and smiling? Huh?? So he just becomes quiet around Eileen because he’s so confused as to why she’s not reacting and he starts to become excited whenever he sees her and she’s definitely his favourite aunt. -- Sam and Eileen’s kids are just as weird as Jack. Maybe a little less so, but look they were also raised around angels and hunters, have an angel as an uncle and a nephil as a cousin. They’re a bit weird.  -- If Sam and Eileen do have multiple kids, Jack definitely holds all of them at once and parades them around like “look! look at my cousins! I have cousins! these are my cousins!!” with a beaming smile. He’s so happy to have cousins because he’s always been the youngest! He’s never been around kids that are younger than him! He’s so curious and when he held his first-born cousin for the first time when he was 5 he just stared in awe because it was the first time he’s seen a baby! Babies are tiny! And their souls are so bright! He couldn’t stop staring and asking questions like “how did they come out?” “what do they do now?” “can they see? they haven’t opened their eyes” “do they know who I am? Do they know who you are? Should I introduce myself!? Have you guys introduced yourselves? What if they don’t know you’re their parents you should probably introduce yourself”