#*holds up jenny green* my wife <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[schrodingers-romy]

Just finished watching dead boy detectives

[newsiesjathrine]

Took a while but my masterlist is done there will be open requests for now while I work on some of my own ideas so here it is

Masterlist:

Nics

Faith

Grace

Kate

Gibbs

Abby

Ducky

Mcgee

Ziva

Jimmy

Jack

Kasie

Jessica

Jenny

Vance

Tony

Ellie

Nick

Reeves(Clayton)

Alex

Maddie

Kelly

Kayla

Emily

Johnny

morgan

Tobais

jackie

Ncis new orleans

Naomi

Dwyane

Laurel

Chris

Sonja

Meredith

Loretta

Sebastian

Patton

Tammy

Hannah

Quitnten

Connor

David

Jimmy

natilie

Ncis la

Chris O'Donnell

G. Callen

Main

Peter Cambor

Nate Getz

Main

Recurring

Guest

Recurring

Guest

Daniela Ruah

Kensi Blye

Main

Adam Jamal Craig

Dominic Vail

Main[a]

LL Cool J

Sam Hanna

Main

Linda Hunt

Hetty Lange

Main[b]

Guest

Barrett Foa

Eric Beale

Main[c]

Eric Christian Olsen

Marty Deeks

Guest

Main

Renée Felice Smith

Nell Jones

Main[d]

Guest

Miguel Ferrer

Owen Granger

Recurring

Main[e]

Nia Long

Shay Mosley

Main[f]

Medalion Rahimi

Fatima Namazi

Recurring

Main[g]

Caleb Castille

Devin Rountree

Recurring

Main

Gerald McRaney

Hollace Kilbride

Guest

Recurring

Guest

Recurring

Main

Ncis hawaii

Alex

Julie

Maggie

Carla

Jane

Daniel

Ernie

Kathrine Marie "Kate"

Jesse

Kai

Rizzoli and isles

casey

lyida

Jane

Maura(dn)

Angela

Vince

Barry

Susie

Nina

Frankie

Tommy

Tj

Sean cavangh

Constance

Hope

Calin

Womens murder club

Linsday

Claire

Cindy

Jill

Inspector Warren Jacobi (Tyrees Allen) – Lindsay's loyal partner. He was up for the lieutenant position that went to Tom, but has not expressed much disappointment that he didn't get the job, seeming to prefer field work to the politics of the higher position. He also seems to prefer the finer things in life, having an affinity for wine, 30-year-old whiskey, and opera. He is thrice-divorced and has a child from one of those marriages.

Lieutenant Tom Hogan (Rob Estes) – Lindsay's ex-husband, who in the first episode was promoted to lieutenant and assigned as her boss. He is engaged in the pilot and has remarried by "To Drag and to Hold," but he still worries that Lindsay's obsession with her work will consume her. Tom was played by Christopher Wiehl in the unaired pilot.

Deputy District Attorney Denise Kwon (Linda Park) - Jill's immediate superior at the DA's office, she clashes with her over her "bleeding heart" style. She is also antagonistic towards Jill due to her past romantic history with Hanson North. When the show returned after the writers' strike, the first episode credits no longer showed her name. But by the second episode, she was back in the credits as a series regular.

Recurring cast[edit]

Luke Bowen (Coby Ryan McLaughlin) – Jill's ex-boyfriend. He is an ER doctor at the fictional Mission Cross North. Jill and Luke have recently broken up after he finds that she had slept with Hanson.

Hanson North (Kyle Secor) – Defense attorney who has a romantic history with Jill and is currently seeing her boss, Denise Kwon.

Ed Washburn (Jonathan Adams) – Claire's husband. Currently uses a wheelchair full-time after being shot while serving as a police officer.

Heather Hogan née Donnelly (Ever Carradine) – Tom's new wife. She is a kindergarten teacher who is eco-friendly, planning a green wedding.

Pete Raynor (Joel Gretsch) – Lindsay's love interest in season 1, who is in town for only two weeks.

Law and order

Actor

Character

Rank/Position

Seasons

Notes

Regular

Recurring

Guest

George Dzundza

Max Greevey

Sergeant

1

Chris Noth

Mike Logan

Junior Detective

1–5

Appeared in Exiled

Dann Florek

Donald Cragen

Captain

1–3

5, 10, 15

Appeared in Exiled

Michael Moriarty

Ben Stone

EADA

1–4

Richard Brooks

Paul Robinette

ADA

1–3

6, 16–17

Steven Hill

Adam Schiff

DA

1–10

Paul Sorvino

Phil Cerreta

Sergeant

2–3

3

Jerry Orbach

Lennie Briscoe

Senior Detective

3–14

Appeared in Exiled

Carolyn McCormick

Elizabeth Olivet

Psychologist

3–4

5–7, 13–14,

16–18

2, 9–10, 19–20

S. Epatha Merkerson

Anita Van Buren

Lieutenant

4–20

Appeared in Exiled

Jill Hennessy

Claire Kincaid

ADA

4–6

Sam Waterston

Jack McCoy

EADA,

Interim DA,

DA

5–17,

18–present

Appeared in Exiled

Benjamin Bratt

Rey Curtis

Junior Detective

6–9

20

Appeared in Exiled

Carey Lowell

Jamie Ross

ADA

7–8

10–11, 21

Angie Harmon

Abbie Carmichael

ADA

9–11

Jesse L. Martin

Ed Green

Junior Detective,

Senior Detective

10–16

17–18

Dianne Wiest

Nora Lewin

Interim DA

11–12

Elisabeth Röhm

Serena Southerlyn

ADA

12–15

Fred Dalton Thompson

Arthur Branch

DA

13–17

Dennis Farina

Joe Fontana

Senior Detective

15–16

Michael Imperioli

Nick Falco

Junior Detective

15

16

Temporarily assigned

Annie Parisse

Alexandra Borgia

ADA

15–16

Milena Govich

Nina Cassady

Junior Detective

17

Alana de la Garza

Connie Rubirosa

ADA

17–20

Jeremy Sisto

Cyrus Lupo

Junior Detective,

Senior Detective

18

18–20

Linus Roache

Michael Cutter

EADA

18–20

Anthony Anderson

Kevin Bernard

Junior Detective,

Senior Detective

18–20

21

18

Jeffrey Donovan

Frank Cosgrove

Junior Detective,

Senior Detective

21

22–present

Camryn Manheim

Kate Dixon

Lieutenant

21–present

Hugh Dancy

Nolan Price

EADA

21–present

Odelya Halevi

Samantha Maroun

ADA

21–present

Mehcad Brooks

Jalen Shaw

Junior Detective

22–

Law and order svu

Jenna

Maureen

Kathleen

Richard

Elizabeth

Eli

Noah

Jessie

Mason

Billie

Olivia

Elliot Stabler

Christopher Meloni

Sr. Detective

Main

Recurring

274

Olivia Benson

Mariska Hargitay

Jr. Detective (S1–12)

Sr. Detective (S13–15)

Sergeant (S15–17)

Lieutenant (S17–21)

Captain (S21–)

Main

508

John Munch

Richard Belzer

Sr. Detective (S1–8)

Sergeant (S9–15)

Main

G

326

Donald Cragen

Dann Florek

Captain (S1–15)

Main

G

G

332

Monique Jeffries

Michelle Hurd

Jr. Detective

M

25

Alexandra Cabot

Stephanie March

Assistant DA

Main

G

R

M

R

G

97

Fin Tutuola

Ice-T

Jr. Detective (S2–8)

Sr. Detective (S9–19)

Sergeant (S19–)

Main

476

George Huang

BD Wong

Psychiatrist (S2–15)

R

Main

Guest

G

230

Casey Novak

Diane Neal

Assistant DA

Main

G

R

112

Melinda Warner

Tamara Tunie

Chief Medical Examiner

Recurring

Main

Recurring

G

Guest

226

Chester Lake

Adam Beach

Jr. Detective

R

M

21

Kim Greylek

Michaela McManus

Assistant DA

M

22

Nick Amaro

Danny Pino

Jr. Detective

Main

G

95

Amanda Rollins

Kelli Giddish

Jr. Detective (S13–21)

Sr. Detective (S21–24)

Main

226

Rafael Barba

Raúl Esparza

Assistant DA (S14-19)

Defense Attorney (S21-23)

R

Main

Guest

118

Dominick Carisi

Peter Scanavino

Jr. Detective (S16–20)

Assistant DA (S21–)

Main

155

Peter Stone

Philip Winchester

Assistant DA

M

36

Katriona Tamin

Jamie Gray Hyder

Officer (S21–22)

Jr. Detective (S22–23)

Main

36

Christian Garland

Demore Barnes

Deputy Chief

R

M

25

Joe Velasco

Octavio Pisano

Jr. Detective

M

15

Grace Muncy

Molly Burnett

Jr. Detective

Law and order oc

Danielle Moné Truitt as Sergeant Ayanna Bell, squad supervisor of the OCCB task force and Stabler's current direct superior and partner.

Ainsley Seiger as Detective 2nd Grade Jet Slootmaekers, a former independent hacker who is recruited to the OCCB task force on Stabler's recommendation. She was requalified as an NYPD officer to work with the OCCB task force. In season 3 episode 16 ("Chinatown"), she is promoted from Detective 3rd Grade to Detective 2nd Grade.

Tamara Taylor as Prof. Angela Wheatley (seasons 1–2), a former math professor at Columbia University, ex-wife of Richard Wheatley, and a suspect in the hit ordered on Kathy Stabler. She committed suicide and presumably murdered Richard at the same time after discovering that Richard was responsible for her son Richie's murder.

Dylan McDermott as Richard Wheatley (seasons 1–2), son of notorious mobster Manfredi Sinatra, now a businessman and owner of an online pharmaceutical company who leads a second life as a crime boss, and was a suspect in the murder of Stabler's wife. He was presumed murdered by Angela after she discovered that Wheatley murdered their son Richie.

Nona Parker Johnson as Detective 3rd Grade Carmen "Nova" Riley (season 2, recurring season 2), an undercover narcotics detective working under Brewster's command to infiltrate the Marcy Killers. She retires from the NYPD and leaves New York after the murder of the gang's leader Preston Webb.

Brent Antonello as Detective 2nd Grade Jamie Whelan (season 3), a detective with the OCCB. In the season 3 finale, he is shot and paralyzed by Kyle Wilkie and later dies in the hospital.

Rick Gonzalez as Detective 2nd Grade Bobby Reyes (season 3–present), an undercover detective with the OCCB.

Chicago pd

Jason Beghe as Sergeant Henry "Hank" Voight, the enigmatic and often mercurial chief of the Chicago P.D.'s Intelligence Unit. Despite his brutal, tough exterior, he is loyal to the cops and detectives serving under him and highly "dedicated" to the victims of the crimes his unit investigates to the point of committing human rights violations, mainly torture, and not respecting the law. He is first introduced in Chicago Fire as a dirty cop who clashes with CFD Lieutenant Matthew Casey after Voight's son, Justin, causes an accident in which a teenager is paralyzed, and Casey, who was first on scene, had intended to testify that Justin was DUI. He is arrested by Det. Antonio Dawson for trying to have Casey silenced by force but is later released from prison and reinstated to the police force by Internal Affairs. As a result, many of Casey's colleagues dislike him, and Casey's superior Chief Boden has a love-hate working relationship with him. It is eventually revealed in the Chicago Fire episode "Let Her Go" that his dirty cop alter ego was part of an undercover operation to catch criminals and other dirty cops. Prior to taking command of Intelligence, Voight worked in the Gang Unit. His father Richard was a former CPD officer who was killed in the line of duty. Voight is a widower; his wife, Camille, died of cancer some years prior. His son, Justin, served in the Army and was killed in the last episode of season 3 while trying to help a friend. Voight took an interest in Erin Lindsay at 14 and raised her as his daughter.

Jon Seda as Senior Detective Antonio Dawson (seasons 1–6), an Intelligence Unit detective who previously arrested Voight for harassment and has since worked alongside him. Unlike Voight, he has limits on how far he will go to get criminals off the streets, as shown by the fact that he asks Halstead to stop Voight from killing anyone while on the hunt for Pulpo because he does not want it on his conscience. He and his ex-wife Laura have two children: Diego and Eva. He is the older brother of Chicago Fire character Gabriela "Gabby" Dawson. In season 4, he is offered a job at the State's Attorney's Office as Lead Investigator, which he accepts. After becoming disillusioned with the job, he returns to the unit in the first episode of season 5. In season 6, Antonio struggles with recovering from a shoulder injury and dependency on the oxycodone he is taking for the pain. After a dealer he owes kidnaps, beats, and rapes his daughter, Antonio, high on oxy, kills him in revenge. Though Voight and Ruzek manage to cover up the incident as self-defense, and Antonio successfully recovers in rehab, mayor-hopeful Superintendent Brian Kelton later gets the case reopened in order to take down the Intelligence Unit, and in the season finale, Antonio relapses after Ruzek is arrested after taking the blame for everything to protect him. In the season 7 premiere, it is revealed that Voight found Antonio and checked him into an off-the-books rehab clinic to get him clean again while also protecting his career. It was revealed several episodes later that Antonio resigned and moved to Puerto Rico to spend more time with his family.

Sophia Bush as Detective Erin Lindsay (seasons 1–4),[7] a tough Intelligence Unit detective and former CI whom Voight took under his wing when she was a juvenile delinquent. Because of this, she is closer to Voight than the other members of the unit. She has a half-brother, Teddy Courtney, who was taken by a pedophile ring at age thirteen and was found turning tricks in New York City 10 years later. She was in a relationship with her partner Jay Halstead from seasons 2 to 4. Near the end of the fourth season, Lindsay is accused of assault after she sticks her gun down a pedophile's throat in the interrogation room; facing possible dismissal from the police force, she accepts a job offer at the FBI in New York and leaves Chicago.

Jesse Lee Soffer as Senior Detective Jay Halstead (seasons 1–10), an Intelligence Unit detective who was Detective Lindsay's partner. A former Army Ranger, he is confident in his abilities and sometimes comes across as cocky. He also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, shown progressively during Season 5, later seeking therapy for it. He is the older brother of Chicago Med character Dr. Will Halstead. He was in a relationship with his partner Erin Lindsay from season 2 until she transferred to the FBI in New York at the end of season 4. He later marries fellow detective Hailey Upton in season 9. Following Olinsky's death and Antonio's resignation, Halstead becomes Voight's right-hand. He later resigns from the force early in season 10 after becoming disillusioned with the gray area the Intelligence Unit has to work in, and returns to the Army in a new job hunting drug cartels in Bolivia.

Patrick John Flueger as Officer Adam Ruzek, a younger police officer recruited straight out of the academy by Olinsky to do undercover work. He is often portrayed as an overeager amateur who dives headfirst into a situation without thinking. His parents are separated, and he split time between his father, "Disco Bob" Ruzek (Jack Coleman), a longtime patrol officer with the 26th District who lives in Beverly, and his mother in Canaryville. He was engaged to fellow police officer Kim Burgess.

Marina Squerciati as Officer Kim Burgess, a former flight attendant turned uniformed patrol officer who was Atwater's partner. She was then partnered with Sean Roman before his departure. Burgess is shot in "Called in Dead" and spends the next episode recovering. She was engaged to Adam Ruzek; the relationship is later broken off because of commitment issues. She later develops feelings for Roman before he moves to San Diego. In season 4, she is offered a job in Intelligence, which she accepts.

LaRoyce Hawkins as Officer Kevin Atwater, a uniformed patrol officer who was Burgess' former partner until he was promoted to the Intelligence Unit. He is responsible for caring for his younger siblings, his brother, Jordan, and sister, Vanessa. After his brother testifies to a grand jury about a crime he witnessed, and Vanessa is threatened with rape for her brother being a snitch, he sends them to live with their aunt in Texas.

Archie Kao as Detective Sheldon Jin (season 1), a tech and surveillance expert. He was discovered to be a reluctant mole working for Internal Affairs sergeant Edwin Stillwell, who had leverage to make him cooperate. He is found murdered in the first-season finale episode, "A Beautiful Friendship".

Elias Koteas as Senior Detective Alvin Olinsky (seasons 1–5), a veteran undercover officer and a friend of Voight who previously worked with him in the Gang Unit. Before joining the force, Olinsky served in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team stationed in Vicenza, Italy. Olinsky mentions in "Called in Dead" that he has eight confirmed kills in the line of duty. At the end of the fifth season, Olinsky is arrested for the murder of Kevin Bingham, the man who murdered Voight's son, Justin, and is later stabbed to death via a hit in prison while awaiting trial.

Amy Morton as Sergeant Trudy Platt (season 2–present; recurring season 1), a sarcastic desk sergeant of District 21, and the immediate superior of the district's patrol officers. Before taking a desk job, she was a uniformed patrol officer, and worked with Dawson. She passed the detective's exam twice. Platt is married to Chicago Fire character Randy "Mouch" McHolland.

Brian Geraghty as Officer Sean Roman (seasons 2–3; guest season 7[8]), a brash patrol officer who partners with Burgess after transferring to the 2-1 from District 31. He transferred out because of his relationship with Jenn Cassidy (Spencer Grammer), who is now a K-9 officer, to avoid breaking fraternization rules. He has his own private security company on the side. After being wounded in the line of duty, and with the department feeling he would be unable to return to patrol, he resigns and decides to join the San Diego Police Department.

Tracy Spiridakos as Detective Hailey Upton Halstead (season 5–present; recurring season 4), a tough former robbery-homicide detective and Erin Lindsay's replacement following her departure to New York. Upton gets transferred to the FBI field office in New York City in season 7 episode 18, "Lines", to temporarily fill in for an agent undercover. She has great relationships with her CIs and goes to many lengths to protect them. Despite a dark turn in Season 7, she is mostly a "by the book" detective. She is married to former Detective Jay Halstead.

Lisseth Chavez as Officer Vanessa Rojas (season 7), a rookie and Antonio Dawson's replacement following his resignation. She previously worked in an undercover operations unit.

Benjamin Levy Aguilar as Officer Dante Torres (season 10; guest season 9[9]), a recruit who had a complicated past and was recruited under Detective Halstead's wing.Recurring[edit]

Samuel Caleb Hunt as Greg "Mouse" Gerwitz (seasons 1–4), the tech and surveillance expert for the Intelligence Unit who replaces Detective Jin. He had served in the same Army unit as Halstead. After he persuades Voight to get a felony expunged, he resigns from Intelligence to reenlist in the Army.

Stella Maeve as Nadia Decotis (seasons 1–2), an 18-year-old former escort and addict whom Lindsay tries and succeeds in helping. She later becomes the Intelligence Unit's civilian administrative aide and was studying to be a police officer. She was murdered by Dr. Gregory Yates in Law & Order: SVU's 16th season, episode "Daydream Believer", the conclusion of the season's second SVU/Chicago crossover event.

Jordan

Vanessa

The lizzie bennet diaries

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bennet (Ashley Clements;[11] Elizabeth Bennet in the novel) is the middle Bennet sister and the narrator of most of the vlogs. She is a graduate student studying mass communications and, like her original counterpart, believes women should be highly educated and do more with their lives than simply pursue husbands. She is very close with her best friend, Charlotte Lu, who was born on the same day as she, as well as her older sister, Jane, while appearing to have a more strained relationship with her younger sister, Lydia. While it is clear that she cares for her family and friends, she can also be fairly prejudiced and quick to judge people who she perceives as condescending or a threat to her way of life, such as Darcy and, at first, Bing Lee.

Charlotte Lu (Julia Cho;[12] Charlotte Lucas in the novel) is Lizzie's best friend and often the director/editor of her vlog. Charlotte wants to be a filmmaker and convinced Lizzie to start her vlog as part of a school project. While the original character of Charlotte Lucas from the books is a minor character, Lu's role in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries has been greatly expanded; she appears in many of the beginning episodes, and, according to both Lizzie and Jane, practically lives at the Bennet house. Charlotte and Lizzie have a falling out after Charlotte accepts Ricky Collins' job offer (which Lizzie originally turned down), but the two soon reconcile.

Jane Bennet (Laura Spencer[13]) is the eldest of the Bennet children, and an overworked, underpaid merchandise coordinator in the fashion world. She is incredibly polite, sweet and, according to Lizzie, "practically perfect in every way."[14] When Bing Lee moves into town, Jane is immediately smitten with him, much to the absolute joy of her mother. Jane is devastated by Bing's sudden departure. She moves to Los Angeles for both a new job and the hope of reconnecting with Bing. She later returns to her home to support her sister Lydia through her difficulties. After this is resolved, Jane is offered a new job in New York City and reconciles with Bing.

Lydia Britney Bennet (Mary Kate Wiles[15]) is the youngest Bennet child, currently attending community college. She is "feisty, energetic, and unapologetic."[16] Lizzie, somewhat less kindly, describes her as "too old to be on any reality shows about having babies in high school."[14] She has also created a series of her own videos starring herself, her cousin Mary, and her cat, Kitty.[17] On the occasion of her 21st birthday in December 2012, she and Lizzie get into a bitter argument about Lydia's perceived immaturity, and Lydia makes plans to vacation in Las Vegas for New Year's Eve, where she meets George Wickham and begins dating. Later, after being the victim of George Wickham's money-making site, she makes up with her sisters.

Bing Lee (Christopher Sean;[18] Charles Bingley in the novel) is a young, wealthy Asian-American medical student who has moved into The Netherfield House in the same neighborhood as the Bennets. He quickly falls for Jane Bennet and begins to date her. Bing abruptly leaves Netherfield and Jane by returning to Los Angeles, breaking Jane's heart, after Darcy suggests that Jane is only engaging in a relationship with him for his money and Caroline tells him that Jane flirted with another guy at his birthday party. However, after a run-in with Lizzie during her time at Pemberley Digital, he makes a return, having quit medical school to pursue his own passions. He and Jane move to New York together in episode 92.

Caroline Lee (Jessica Jade Andres;[19] Caroline Bingley in the novel) is Bing Lee's sister. She is aware of Lizzie's vlog diaries and appears to help Lizzie keep Bing and Darcy from discovering them during Lizzie and Jane's stay at Netherfield. She has a romantic interest in William Darcy, although her feelings aren't reciprocated. She is later revealed to have attempted to manipulate events to keep Bing and Jane apart, as well as (to a lesser extent) stymie Darcy's feelings for Lizzie. Caroline reappears in the sequel, Emma Approved, as Senator James Elton's fiancé, replacing Augusta Elton, the original wife of Philip Elton, from the novel.[20]

Ricky Collins (Maxwell Glick;[21] William Collins in the novel) is a former classmate of Lizzie and Charlotte's, who asks that he be addressed only as Mr. Collins. He has formed an alliance with venture capitalist Catherine de Bourgh, to attempt a foray into the world of web video. Mr. Collins frequently visits the Bennets while in town for a few weeks and, near the end of his stay, offers Lizzie a lucrative job at his company, Collins and Collins. Lizzie turns him down, so he offers the job to Charlotte, who accepts. This decision causes a brief but bitter argument between the two best friends, but they reconcile after Charlotte invites Lizzie to visit Collins & Collins (in the fictional town of Hunsford, California), where Lizzie also learns to tolerate Mr. Collins.

William Darcy (Daniel Vincent Gordh;[22] Fitzwilliam Darcy in the novel) is Bing Lee's best friend and the wealthy heir to an entertainment corporation called Pemberley Digital. He stays with Bing and Caroline at Netherfield until they all leave for Los Angeles. He first meets Lizzie at a wedding, and she overheard him telling Bing that she was "decent enough", which is when her dislike towards him starts. He is described by Lizzie as a snobby and condescending robot, and Jane has difficulty coming up with a flattering descriptor of him, beyond "tall";[23] Charlotte, however, believes that Darcy has a crush on Lizzie.[24] For a long time, second-hand characterization is all the audience has to go by, as Darcy is referred to but never seen, making his first appearance in episodes 59[25] (only from the neck down) and 60,[26] where he confirms Charlotte's suspicions by confessing his love for Lizzie.

George Wickham (Wes Aderhold[27]) is the coach of a university swim team who forms a short-lived romantic attachment with Lizzie. He claims that though he and Darcy were childhood friends, Darcy ruined his life by withholding money Darcy's father had promised, thereby ending George's hopes of a college education.[28] He leaves town for work, eventually re-entering the story after New Year's Day, where he meets and becomes romantically involved with Lydia, as chronicled in her spin-off videos. At the same time, Lizzie learns that George gambled away all the money the elder Darcy left for him, and then took advantage of Gigi Darcy, William's sister, for more. Finally, he attempts to exploit "YouTube Star Lydia Bennet" by releasing a sex tape of the two of them online.[29]

Fitz Williams (Craig Frank;[30] Col. Fitzwilliam in the novel) is Darcy's friend and colleague. Lizzie meets him while dining with Catherine de Bourgh, Darcy's aunt and Charlotte's boss. He has a boyfriend, Brandon, whose name was officially confirmed on Fitz's Twitter, and is particularly good at making care-packages.

Georgiana "Gigi" Darcy (Allison Paige;[31] Georgiana Darcy in the novel) is William Darcy's younger sister and a graphic designer at Pemberley Digital. Her first appearance in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was Episode 77. She is aware of the video diaries, and claims to like them. She and George Wickham were romantically involved, but this ended when William proved that George was taking advantage of her for the money. Twitter posts between Gigi and Fitz suggest that she actively tries to push Lizzie and Darcy together. She is also instrumental in helping to end George's money-making plot: though the website itself did not list his name and George had stopped returning calls, he answers Gigi when she calls him, allowing Fitz and Darcy to track him down. Thereafter Darcy bought out the company which owned the rights to the sex tape, preventing it from ever being released.

Mrs. Bennet is Lizzie's mother. She appears to be a traditional Southern woman, eager to see her daughters married and interested in little else besides neighborhood gossip. She is almost always impersonated by Lizzie.

Mr. Bennet is Lizzie's father. He appears more calm and levelheaded than his wife, though one of his favorite activities, according to Lizzie, is winding her up.[32] He has a special fondness for bonsai trees and prepares a train extravaganza every Christmas. He is often impersonated by Charlotte and Lydia.

Catherine de Bourgh (Lady Catherine de Bourgh in the novel) is Darcy's aunt and an extremely wealthy venture capitalist who is the primary investor in Collins & Collins, the new media firm run by Mr. Collins, where Charlotte accepts a job offer after Lizzie rejected it. Catherine is very attached to her sickly dog who she calls Annie Kins. She is quick with her opinions and judgements. Charlotte said that Catherine is "on Team Caroline," meaning that she wants her nephew to be with Caroline. She is impersonated by Lizzie, and Ashley Clements says her impression is a combination of Julia Child, Miranda Priestly and Dolores Umbridge.[33]

Mary Bennet (Briana Cuoco[34]) is Lydia, Jane, and Lizzie's cousin who has appeared sporadically in Lydia's vlogs and once in Lizzie's. She becomes better friends and occasional tutor with Lydia while Lydia is staying at her house despite their opposing personalities. She is often the "forgotten" character and her Twitter reads, "I am Mary, never forgotten." Mary also has a boyfriend by the name of Eddie (a subtle nod to the character of Edmund Bertram from Austen's Mansfield Park.)[35] In the novel, she is actually one of the five Bennet sisters, being the middle sister between Elizabeth and Kitty.

Kitty Bennet (Rosie of House Wiles) is Lydia's cat who appears in Lydia's vlogs. In the novel, she is actually one of the five Bennet sisters, being the second youngest after Lydia.

Maria

Clara

Chicago justice

Philip Winchester as Assistant State's Attorney Peter Stone, the Deputy Bureau Chief of the State's Attorney's Office Special Prosecutions Bureau. His father is Benjamin Stone, an assistant district attorney in New York City.[3] Stone would later become the ADA of the sex crimes bureau in New York.[4] He previously played professional baseball in the Chicago Cubs organization but his career ended when he tore his UCL.

Jon Seda as Chief Investigator Antonio Dawson. Before joining the State's Attorney's office, he worked as a detective in the 21st District with the Chicago P.D.

Joelle Carter as Investigator Laura Nagel. Also a former Chicago police officer like Dawson, Nagel left the force and developed an addiction to painkillers after a line-of-duty injury. She has been clean for months and is now struggling to regain custody of her daughter.

Monica Barbaro as Assistant State's Attorney Anna Valdez, Stone's second chair.

Carl Weathers as Cook County State's Attorney Mark Jefferies. He served as a Marine during the

Chicago med

Dr. William "Will" Halstead

Nick Gehlfuss

Attending Physician in Emergency Medicine

Main

April Sexton

Yaya DaCosta

Emergency Dept Nurse

Main

Recurring[1]

Dr. Natalie Manning

Torrey DeVitto

Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician

Main[a]

Guest

Dr. Sarah Reese

Rachel DiPillo

First Year Psychiatry Resident

Main

Guest

Dr. Connor Rhodes

Colin Donnell

First Year Fellow/Attending Physician in Trauma & Cardiothoracic Surgery

Main[b]

Dr. Ethan Choi

Brian Tee

Lieutenant Commander, USNR; Emergency Medicine Attending Physician

Main

Sharon Goodwin

S. Epatha Merkerson

Executive Director of Patient and Medical Services

Main

Dr. Daniel Charles

Oliver Platt

Chief of Psychiatry

Main

Maggie Lockwood

Marlyne Barrett

Emergency Department Charge Nurse

Main[c]

Dr. Ava Bekker

Norma Kuhling

Second Year Fellow & later Attending Physician in Cardiothoracic Surgery

Recurring

Main[d]

Dr. Crockett Marcel

Dominic Rains

Fourth Year Resident & later Attending Physician in General Surgery

Main[e]

Dr. Dean Archer

Steven Weber

Interim Chief of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Attending Physician

Recurring

Main

Dr. Dylan Scott

Guy Lockard

Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician

Main[f]

Dr. Stevie Hammer

Kristen Hager

Emergency Medicine Attending Physician

Main[g]

Dr. Hannah Asher

Jessy Schram

Emergency OB/GYN Attending Physician

Recurring

Guest

Main[h]

Chicago fire

Name

Portrayed by

Position

Seasons

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Matthew Casey

Jesse Spencer

Lieutenant, Truck 81

Main[a]

Guest

Kelly Severide

Taylor Kinney

Lieutenant, Squad 3

Main

Gabriela Dawson

Monica Raymund

Paramedic in Charge, Firefighter

Main

Guest

Leslie Elizabeth Shay

Lauren German

Paramedic

Main

Guest

Peter Mills

Charlie Barnett

Firefighter, Paramedic

Main

Christopher Herrmann

David Eigenberg

Lieutenant, Engine 51

Main[b]

Dr. Hallie Thomas

Teri Reeves

Resident Physician

Main[b]

Wallace Boden

Eamonn Walker

Battalion Chief

Main

Brian "Otis" Zvonecek

Yuri Sardarov

Firefighter

Recurring

Main[c]

Randall "Mouch" McHolland

Christian Stolte

Firefighter

Recurring

Main

Joe Cruz

Joe Minoso

Firefighter, Engineer

Recurring

Main

Sylvie Brett

Kara Killmer

Paramedic

Main

Jessica "Chili" Chilton

Dora Madison

Paramedic

Guest

Main[d]

Jimmy Borelli

Steven R. McQueen

Firefighter Candidate, Paramedic

Main[e]

Stella Kidd

[chemist-ana]

The Planning

Summary- Everything is coming together for the biggest day of Anas life, and apparently one of the biggest events in New York. So why the rush?

Book- The Nanny Affair

Word Count- 3008

All characters belong to Pixelberry except for my OCs

Are you serious Ana?! How am I supposed to plan the most important wedding in New York since Sarah Jessica Parker and Mathew Broderick in 3 months!?” I can hear the panic in Justins, one of New York’s most sought after wedding planners, voice as he basically yells at me through the phone. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. 

“I know, and I’m sorry, but things have changed. Its why I chose you Justin, to pull off the impossible.” I knew that if I threw in a compliment it would do a little to help calm him down. I was the bride, wasn’t I supposed to be the dramatic one? I heard him take a deep breath. 

“Alright, let me make some calls, I will be in touch.” He hung up before I could answer him. I rolled my eyes and focused my attention to the endless stream of taxis, cars, and people outside hurrying home after a day at work. Things had changed. We needed to rush this wedding, because my father was going to walk me down that aisle. The Bentley pulled to a stop outside of our apartment building. Cliff, the doorman, opened the door with a smile. 

“Welcome home Ms. Schuyler.” 

“Thanks Cliff, have a good evening.” He tipped his hat at me as I walked into the lobby. My heals click against the marble floor as I walk to the private penthouse elevator. I hear the boys talking excitedly as soon as the elevator doors open into our foyer. I set my handbag down and remove my coat. I follow their voices into their bedroom and see them huddled around their 3D Printer. I decide to leave them to their project and follow the delicious smell of dinner into the kitchen. 

Ellen, our new nanny and house keeper, is standing over the stove. She looks up at me with a warm smile. 

“Good evening Ana.”

“Hey Ellen, whatever your cooking smells divine.” I grabbed a grape out of the fruit basket and opened the wine fridge, pulling out a bottle of Chateau Haut Brion Blanc. I poured myself a glass and immediately took a refreshing sip.  

“Thank you dear, it will be ready shortly.” She answers with a sincere smile. I pad across the oak floor into the master bedroom and stand at the floor to ceiling windows, looking out over central park. My mind wanders to my father, and my wedding day. Originally the plan was to get married next year, giving us time to get everything absolutely perfect, but with the news of my fathers diagnosis, things had changed. I wanted to fulfill the only childhood dream that I had about my wedding day, my father had to walk me down the aisle. After countless hours spent researching ALS time lines, I knew our window was closing, and closing fast. I took a sip of my wine and relished the taste. 

I am broken out of my thoughts by Sams cologne and his strong arms around my waist. He leans over and presses a kiss to my cheek. 

“Hello my beautiful fiancé.” I lean my head back onto his chest and give him a soft moan in response. “How was your day?” 

“Well things are progressing in the lab, but Justin was a little… well upset at our change of timeline for the wedding…” 

“Good thing we hired the best, I cannot wait to make you my wife.” Sams says seductively, as his hands travel down the sides of my waist and he grabs my hips, pulling them back to meet his. I turn around in his arms and thread my fingers behind his neck. I pull his face down to mine and we lose ourselves in an electrifying kiss. 

“To be continued Mr. Dalton.” I whisper against his lips. “Dinner is ready and I don’t want to be interrupted.” I press one last kiss to his lips and pull back with a smile. 

***

The sound of my phone buzzing on my nightstand at 6 AM wakes me up the next morning. I look at the screen: Justin. I groan as I sit up and swipe my finger across the screen. I put the phone to my ear and pinch the bridge of my nose.

“I didn’t know I was paying you to be my alarm clock too.” I said with a hint of sarcasm. 

“Well honey I didn’t get any sleep last night because SOMEONE needed to fast track the most important event in New York this year, and if I am going to pull this off, I need your opinion like yesterday.” I glance over beside me and notice that Sam is still asleep, that man can sleep through just about anything. 

“Give me a moment Justin.” I climb out of bed and make my way into Sams office, flipping on the Tiffany lamp on his desk and sitting down in his Wegner chair. “Alright, I’m here.”

“So I was able to keep your rehearsal dinner at Tavern on the Green. But we ran into a couple hiccups with the venue. After literally hours on the phone I was able to convince 620 Loft and Garden that your wedding was more important then hosting a fundraiser for lost puppies, so we are a go there too.” My eyes settled on a photo of Sam and I on his desk. It was from our vacation to the Maldives when he proposed. I had completely tuned Justin out, admiring the happiness on our faces. I was looking at him like he was my entire world, and he really was. “My dear do you have your dress yet?” I’m snapped back into the present at his question. “Ana- I am judging by your silence that its a big N-O. My god what am I going to do with you? I will call Kleinfelds and get you in today.” 

“Justin today really isn’t a good day-“

“Ana! If you want the designer dress to go with your designer wedding then the designer needs time. True masterpieces take time. I will make your appointment for tomorrow only because you asked so nicely.” I roll my eyes at his remark and lean back in the chair. “Also- you need to talk to your future hubby about cake tastings and guest lists. We absolutely need to get these invites out this week if you want anyone to show up to your wedding.”

“Sam wants to take care of all the transportation and hotels for our guests, but I will finalize our lists with him today. And talk to him about cake tastings. Can I go back to bed now?” 

“Yes yes get your beauty sleep, and call me when you have that list finalized.I will text you soon with your dress appointment time. Ciao Bella.” He hangs up the phone without another word. I shake my head with a sigh and walk back into our bedroom. I straddle Sams hips and lean down to press a sweet kiss to his full lips. 

“Good morning handsome.” I whisper letting my lips graze the shell of his ear. He blinks awake and smiles.

“Good morning beautiful, I will never get tired of waking up like this.” He grabs my hips and gives them a soft squeeze. 

“So Justin just called, we need to finalize our guest list for the wedding.” 

“What time is it? Does this man have any boundaries?” He drops his hands from my hips and laces his fingers behind his head exposing his strong chest. 

“Well its like you said, we hired the best, and we actually want people to show up, so we need to give them at least a little notice.” I lay down next to him facing him, god his profile is just perfection. “Have you talked to Robin yet?” 

He sighs and runs his hands down his face. “No, we have just kept it professional at the office, he hasn’t even congratulated me yet for our engagement or my promotion.”

“Sam, for better or worse he’s still family. I won’t push you to reconcile with him, but I think you should. Maybe he’s just waiting for an invitation to our wedding.”

He turns to face me, reaches his hand up to my cheek, and runs his thumb across my lower lip. “I will talk to him today.” 

My phone buzzes on the nightstand 

Kleinfelds 10 AM tomorrow- I texted your mother, Vivian, Jenny, and Monica. DON’T BE LATE!

“Well I have no doubt that Justin is the best, he got me into Kleinfelds tomorrow, looks like I am going dress shopping.”

***

The ding of the elevator tells me Sam is home. I glanced at the clock on my laptop, 5:15. He’s home early. I had to go over the final list with him, we had finally gotten our list down to 150 guests, hopefully he had talked to Robin. 

“Where is the beautiful future Mrs. Dalton?” A familiar voice rang out through the apartment. Robin walked into the living room seconds later with a smile on his face. “There you are.” He walked over to me on the couch. I had just enough time to place my laptop next to me on the couch before he grabbed my hand and pulled me up and into a big hug. I look over his shoulder as Sam walks into the room and I give him a confused look. 

“Robin can you please let her go.” Sam says with annoyance. Robin unwraps his arms and holds me at arms distance. 

“Sorry bro, just welcoming Ana here into the family, something I have wanted to do for months now.” He says tipping his head towards Sam who is standing behind him. “I really am excited to have a sister.” He looks me in the eyes and gives me a genuine smile. 

“Hi Robin, so it looks like you two talked?” I say looking at Sam. Robin drops his arms from my shoulders, walks over to Sam and claps him on the back.

“We worked everything out. Sam even asked me to be his best man.” I widen my eyes in surprise. “Anyone want a beer?” Robin disappears into the kitchen and Sam walks up to me. He presses his lips to mine in a quick kiss. 

“We will talk later, but now I need to go make sure he doesn’t clean out our bar.” I grab my laptop and follow Sam into the kitchen. 

“So Robin, should I add a plus one to your RSVP?” Robin pauses before putting a grape into his mouth. 

“Are you kidding? And miss out on all the fine ass ladies you are inviting to this party? Not a chance.” He takes a swig of his beer. “Plus, someone needs to live the playboy life if this guys decided to tap out.” He gestures at Sam with his beer bottle. 

“I am going to pretend you didn’t just tell me you want to hook up with all of my friends at my wedding and just say no on the plus one. Sam can you look this list over and confirm your side? I need to get these names to Justin.” I hand Sam my laptop and he focuses on the screen. 

“Hey Ana, by the way, I heard about your pops, I really am sorry.” Robin walks over and rests a hand on my shoulder and gives it a soft squeeze. I take a deep breath. 

“Thanks Robin.”I give him a sincere smile even though it felt like my heart was shattering.

“Looks good to me Ana, let’s send it out.” Sam hands me back my laptop. I sit down at the bar and breathe a big sigh of relief when the email goes out. 

***

Walking into Kleinfelds felt like I was walking into a fairytale. The most beautiful dresses everywhere I turned. I was already feeling overwhelmed.

“I am so sorry I’m late!” I said to the consultant. She had a friendly smile and her name tag read Francine. 

“Honey, this is your day, no need to apologize, let’s find you THE dress. The rest of the ladies are already here, let’s go find them and discuss what you are looking for.” She lead me to one of the show rooms. I see my mother and Vivian on one side of the room, and Monica and Jenny on the other. I hear a loud squeal as Monica turns around and sees me. 

“Ana!!!!” She runs over and squeezes me in a breathtaking hug. “Girl you told me your fiancé was rich, but I didn’t realize he was drop-everything-get-in-this-private-jet rich. I literally flew here on a private jet.” She whispers into my ear. She lets me go and holds me at arms length. I have to remember to thank Sam for getting her here.  

“I’m so happy you’re here Moni.” I bring her in for another hug. 

“Me too, honey, me too. Now let’s find your dress, I over heard Francine saying that she spoke to Sam and money isn’t an object. Jenny and I think we found you the perfect dress.” She grabs my hand and pulls me away from Francine. I look back at her with an apologetic look and she gives me a warm smile. 

“Go ahead, look, pull your favorites, and we will revisit in a few minutes.” She calls after me. 

Jenny greets me with a kiss on the cheek and a hug.

“Ana, look at this one, it’s a Pnina Tornai. This is your dress.” She shows me a long sleeve lace and satin mermaid dress with a plunging neckline. “This is perfect for you.” 

Francine walks up from behind me and grabs the dress out of Jennys hands. 

“I will put this in the fitting room Ana. Let’s get everyone together and have a little chat yeah?” She gives me a wink and I internally thank her. This is overwhelming enough as it is. After I give my mother and Vivian a quick hug we all gather together on the white couch. I glance over at my mother and Vivian, ever since my parents had moved to New York a month ago, they had hit it off. My mother looked at me and gave me a smile, I could see the tears building in the corners of her eyes. 

“So Jenny tells me that Sam has a yummy single brother?” Monica whispers in my ear. I raise my eyebrow as I look over at her. 

“Moni he is a total playboy, I wouldn’t if I were you.” She shrugs her shoulders and we turn our attention back to Francine as she begins talking. 

“Alright Ana, today is a big day! We have some champagne here for you” she gestures at the coffee table in front of us. “My first question is, do you know what kind of dress you are looking for?” 

I swipe a glass of champagne and take a big sip. Honestly I had not found the time to even start looking at dresses. She took my silence as a no. She gave me an encouraging smile.

“Well come back with me and we will start with a few different styles and see if we can narrow it down.” I stood up from the couch and followed her into a large dressing room. The first dress she had me try on was a ball gown. I felt like a princess, but it just wasn’t the one. I didn’t even bother showing it to my ‘squad’ as Francine had so lovingly called them. The next dress was an a-line. 

I walked out onto the show room floor and my mothers tears began to fall. 

“Oh honey, you look so beautiful.” Vivian handed her a tissue as my mother fanned her face. 

“Its beautiful, but is it really the one?” Jenny cocked her eyebrow at me. I turned and looked at myself in the mirror, I knew it wasn’t the dress I wanted Sam to see me in walking down the aisle. I looked at Francine and shook my head and followed her back into the dressing room. 

“Can I try on the dress that Jenny and Monica picked out?” I asked Francine as I lightly touched the sheer fabric on the sleeve. 

“As if you need to ask, of course. It really is a beautiful dress, it’s going to hug those beautiful curves of yours.” She laces me up after I step into it the soft silk caressing my skin. I step out of the dressing room and walk up onto the platform. Everyone stops talking as soon as I enter the room. I turn around to face the mirror. 

The top had a plunging neckline that dropped almost to my belly button and had a tan material behind the lace at the top. The dress hugged my waist and thighs and it was elegant, but sexy. I felt like a million bucks.

“He would love this.” I say under my breath. 

“This is the one.” Jenny said. “It looks like it was made for your body.” 

“Sam won’t be able to take his eyes off of you.” Monica chimed.

“Ana, you look absolutely beautiful.” Vivian said softly. 

“Here.” Francine said and clipped a beautiful veil into my hair that matched the dress perfectly. She spread it across my shoulders. In that moment I could picture it all, walking down the aisle and Sams smile. 

“Mom?” I turned around to look at her, she was the only one who hadn’t said anything. She had pulled another tissue out of the box on the table and was blotting at her eyes. “You look like a movie star sweetie, so grown up. You are stunning.” 

“Do you think it’s the one?” I said tears starting to fall from my eyes.

“Yes.” They all said in unison. 

I looked at Francine. “This is it.” There wasn’t a doubt in my mind. 

Chapter 5: The Emotions

Tag list @secretaryunpaid @lifeaskim 

[tabloidtoc]

OK, March 15

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Britney Spears' revenge

Page 1: Big Pic -- Melissa and Joe Gorga during a beach day in Miami

Page 2: Contents

Page 3: Contents

Page 4: Tiger Woods on the mend -- Tiger is counting his blessings as he recovers from a terrifying car crash

Page 6: Queen Elizabeth announced in a statement that her grandson Prince Harry and his pregnant wife Meghan Markle wouldn't be returning as working royals, noting that it was no longer possible for them to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service, and almost immediately, Harry and Meghan shot back with a seemingly rude reply, saying we can all live a life of service and service is universal -- no one was more disappointed in Harry's response than his brother Prince William and William finds this behavior both baffling and sickening and he can't get his head around it and William feels the family has been understanding and fair while Harry and Meghan continue to sit on their high horse flinging insults and from William's perspective there is simply no excuse for snide and ego-driven swipes made towards the queen -- especially right now, since three days prior to Her Majesty's statement, Prince Philip was rushed to a London hospital and the queen's been worried sick about her husband and should not be dealing with this added stress -- the whole situation has left William feeling hopeless and he fears Harry is too wrapped up in his own self-importance to see the hurt he's caused and that is unforgivable in William's eyes

Page 7: As Soleil Moon Frye's messy divorce drags on, a loyal pal from the past is providing a shoulder to cry on in Brian Austin Green who she reconnected with while shooting her upcoming documentary Kid 90 -- Brian can feel her pain because he's still hashing out his split from Megan Fox so he knows exactly what Soleil is going through -- they've been friends for more than 30 years and they're going to see each other through this tough time

* Tom Cruise got all pumped up for Mission: Impossible 7, but now that filming has wrapped, he's desperate to stay in fighting shape for the next installment -- Tom was thrown for a loop when the studio postponed filming M:I 8 instead of shooting the movies back-to-back so now he's putting himself through the wringer doing crunches, pullups, squats and weights but Tom's brutal, military-style workouts have friends and loved ones, including his rumored new girlfriend, M:I7 costar Hayley Atwell, worried that he could be pushing himself to the breaking point and everyone wants him to take it down a notch, but he won't listen -- physically, Tom still thinks he's invincible, but the fact is he'll be turning 60 in less than two years and if he keeps going at this pace, there's a big change he's going to do some serious damage

* Life has been twice as nice for Christine Quinn since she found out she was expecting -- the Selling Sunset star, who's pregnant with her and businessman husband Christian Richard's first child, isn't holding back when it comes to treating herself -- the famously free-spending realtor has been splurging on designer maternity clothes and lingerie to lounge around in at her L.A. mansion and she has flowers delivered daily for every room in the house

Page 10: Red Hot on the Red Carpet -- stars rock statement-making halter dresses -- Lili Reinhart, Camila Morrone, Brie Larson

Page 11: Chrishell Stause, Naomi Campbell, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Page 12: Who Wore It Better? Uzo Aduba vs. Drew Barrymore, Charlize Theron vs. Kaia Gerber, Bella Hadid vs. Naomi Scott

Page 14: News in Photos -- Steve Martin did what he does best while filming scenes of his upcoming mystery-comedy series Only Murders in the Building in NYC

Page 16: Nicole Scherzinger stepped out for lunch with beau Thom Evans in West Hollywood, a casually dressed Reese Witherspoon matched her shirt to her Draper James canvas tote while boarding a private plane in L.A., Paris Hilton and Carter Reum

Page 17: Rebel Wilson stopped by the gas station to fill up her car in L.A., Mariska Hargitay took a selfie while shooting Law & Order: Organized Crime in NYC

Page 18: Sarah Jessica Parker assisted customers at her eponymous shoe line's store in NYC, Chrissy Teigen at lunch at Wolfgang Puck in L.A., Naomi Osaka with her trophy for winning the Australian Open in Melbourne

Page 20: The Masked Singer panelist Jenny McCarthy in a golden tiara and caped dress before taping a new episode, for a recent date night Outer Banks stars Chase Stokes and Madelyn Cline whipped up a cozy plant-based dinner in L.A., Jason Sudeikis filled up on a sandwich on the set of Ted Lasso

Page 22: Bella Hadid strutting around Manhattan, Helena Christensen and her dog Kuma in NYC

Page 23: In partnership with Ziploc Janel Parrish created the Hot Mess Makeup Line in Vancouver, Cara Delevingne in Puma's new eco-friendly line

Page 24: Usher stopped by the dry cleaners West Hollywood, Padma Lakshmi and her pooch braved the cold weather in stylish jackets in NYC

Page 25: Tia Mowry for Late July Tortilla chips, four days before filing for divorce from her husband Kanye West of nearly seven years Kim Kardashian looked somber while out and about in L.A., during a stroll Busy Philipps stopped to check out something on her phone in NYC

Page 26: Scott Disick matched his 'do to his drink at the Sugar Factory in Miami, Justin Long stocked up on groceries in L.A., new couple Mod Sun and Avril Lavigne were inseparable after a date night in L.A.

Page 28: Inside My Home -- Claire Holt's airy abode

Page 30: Zooey Deschanel and Jonathan Scott have taken the next step in their almost two-year relationship: they've secretly tied the knot -- they've been talking about getting married for about a year and just decided to go for it and the intimate ceremony took place in front of a few family members at Jonathan's Las Vegas home on Valentine's Day and it was spur of the moment, but that's how Zooey likes to do things and now Jonathan too and they put it together in a matter of days and everyone got a verbal invite to come -- Zooey wore a Bohemian-inspired gown and flowers in her hair while Jonathan wore an all-white suit and Zooey serenaded Jonathan with a love song she had written -- guests including Jonathan's twin brother Drew Scott and sister-in-law Linda Phan were treated to a gourmet buffet and video and arcade games -- now the couple's eager to grow their family and Jonathan will be a great stepdad to Zooey's children Elsie and Charlie but he's been saying for months that he can't wait to have kids of his own and they've already started trying

Page 31: Blake Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds are one of the most charitable couples in Hollywood and now the big-hearted duo are ready to take the next step by adopting a baby in need -- Blake and Ryan who share daughters James, Inez and Betty have donated millions of dollars to organizations working to protect the rights of immigrant children separated from their families and awaiting deportation -- day by day they've been warming up to the idea of providing an orphan with a forever home -- Ryan jokes that Blake is a baby machine who would have no trouble getting pregnant again, but their hearts really go out to these kids

* Ever since Bridgerton became a monster hit, the sizzling chemistry between Rege-Jean Page and costar Phoebe Dynevor has fans convinced that they're an offscreen item as well, but Rege-Jean's girlfriend Emily Brown is fed up with keeping their real-life romance under wraps and she's starting to feel like Rege's dirty little secret -- Emily has been dating Rege for two years and shares a home with him in East London -- the show's producers have been happy to let the rumors about Rege and Phoebe fly because it made their steamy sex scenes that much more believable -- Emily, a part-time soccer player and copywriter from Manchester, loves to go to pubs and party, which she and Rege used to do before the show came out -- Rege insists that keeping their relationship on the down-low is no big deal, but Emily wants everyone to know that the hunky Duke of Hastings is spoken for

* Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have got the parenting thing down pat, and they're ready to share their know-how by penning a how-to manual -- their friends have been begging them for advice for years and Mila and Ashton make having kids look like a fun adventure and for them, it really is -- now that Ashton has wrapped up shooting his new thriller Vengeance, he and Mila finally have a little downtime and the handbook will include the duo's dos and don'ts for raising their children Wyatt and Dimitri like they never argue in front of the kids and make sure to treat them equally -- Mila's the stricter one and Ashton's the softie, but it's a team effort and it works and they admit it can get a bit chaotic, but they don't sweat the small stuff

Page 32: New parents Kit Harington and Rose Leslie may be in baby heaven, but they're dealing with the home renovation from hell -- the Game of Thrones alums, who recently welcomed their first child, have been up to their ears fixing up their 15th-century country manor, which is turning out to be a huge money pit -- Kit and Rose bought the $2.4 million spread shortly before tying the knot in 2018 and had no idea what they were getting into and the couple got hit by sticker shock when they finally got their plans approved to put in a new kitchen, master bath, pipes and flooring and it's going to cost them an extra half a million at least -- they still think it's the perfect place to raise a family, but overseeing an army of builders and designers with a newborn at home is leading to some serious sleep deprivation

* As Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles' romance heats up, the couple is planning a heart-to-heart with her ex-fiance Jason Sudeikis -- after filming wrapped on their movie Don't Worry (for the love of all that's holy, please put in a comma) Darling, the lovebirds flew to London to meet with Jason, who's been on the set of Ted Lasso in England because Olivia, who shares two kids with Jason, wants to clear the air and have a calm conversation about how everyone moves forward from here, and she wants Jason to realize that Harry is here to stay and Olivia needs Jason to understand this is a serious relationship, whether he likes it or not

* Baby Boom -- these celebs recently welcomed little ones -- Wilmer Valderrama and fiancee Amanda Pacheco welcomed a baby girl, Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahones and fiancee Brittany Matthews welcomed a daughter named Sterling Skye, Mandy Moore and Taylor Goldsmith welcomed a son named August Harrison

Page 34: Cover Story -- Britney Spears fights back -- she is ready to reclaim her life and she's looking to take down anyone who stands in her way, starting with her father, Jamie Spears

Page 36: In the wake of the #FreeBritney movement, Justin Timberlake who dated Britney Spears from 1999-2002, and publicly insinuated her cheating ruined their relationship, took to Instagram to offer a mea culpa, saying he wanted to apologize to Britney who he cares for and respects and he knows he failed -- he also contacted Britney directly to express his regrets over how he handled their breakup because he wanted to do the right thing and Britney accepted his apology and she was touched by the gesture and thought it was absolutely sincere and they had a nice little chat and it made Justin feel better knowing that Britney didn't hold any grudges

Page 38: They're So Grown Up -- the kids of some of Hollywood's biggest celebs are striking out on their own -- Ava Sambora is the daughter of Heather Locklear and Richie Sambora, Maya Hawke is the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, Damian Hurley is the son of Elizabeth Hurley and Steve Bing

Page 39: Lily Sheen is the daughter of Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen, Jack Depp is the son of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, Lola Consuelos is the daughter of Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos

Page 40: Interview -- Dwayne Johnson -- with a new TV sitcom based on his early years, The Rock reveals all about his rollicking adventures growing up

Page 42: Slim Down for Spring -- how these stars got their best bodies ever just in time for the warmer weather

Page 46: Style Week -- Sara Sampaio is fronting Michael Kors' new campaign for its latest perfume, Gorgeous

Page 48: What's Hot Right Now -- break a sweat stylishly in LoveShackFancy X Beach Riot's limited-edition collection -- Nina Agdal

Page 49: Preppy Tennis Fashion -- Lele Sadoughi turns to '70s and '80s country club looks for its spring/summer 21 accessories

Page 50: Gift Guide -- self-care session -- pampering gifts that benefit body and mind because, hey, there's never been a better time to treat yourself -- Miranda Kerr

Page 52: Chrissy Teigen is a fan of affordable de-puffing and brightening holographic foil eye masks

Page 58: Buzz -- costars reunited -- Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay for Law & Order: Organized Crime, 13 Going on 30's Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner reconnected on the set of their upcoming movie The Adam Project

Page 59: Rachel Bilson shared a snap of herself with O.C. costar Melinda Clarke, Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel who played a beloved couple on Boy Meets World starred in Panera Bread's new commercial for Valentine's Day, Rebel Wilson and Adam Devine of Pitch Perfect met up during Super Bowl LV game in early February

Page 60: Sound Bites -- Jennifer Love Hewitt on her night out with Betty White, Henry Golding on expecting his first child, Drew Barrymore on never going under the knife, Salma Hayek discussing billionaire husband Francois-Henri Pinault

Page 61: Tiffany Haddish on taking a chill day, Colin Jost on letting Scarlett Johansson plan their wedding, Cameron Diaz on whether she plans to return to Hollywood, Kehlani on feeling sexier as a mom

Page 62: Horoscope -- Pisces Connie Britton turned 54 on March 6

Page 64: By the Numbers -- Ana de Armas

[weshallc]

Berns Night.

So we’ve had a lot of birthdays @thatginchygal @rahleeyah @wednesdaygilfillian (sorry I missed that one) @roguesnitch coming up and @ilovemushystuff is celebrating too! and @h4t08 finally joined Tumblr and @clonethemidwife has returned and there are lots of new folk. Sooo I felt like throwing a party and there ain’t nothing like a Crown Inn party!!!!

This was supposed to be a Crown Stoppy Back but had other ideas so I will post the first chapter tonight as people are still recovering from Burns Night. Don’t worry if you are not familiar with the Burns Night traditions they will be explained more in chapter two. Probably 3 in all. We shall see as they say!

As always, I would be lost without @lovetheturners endless patience and thanks to @roguesnitch for encoraging me. This is dedicated to the most bonniest of lads I hope you had a great birthday and Burns Night with the Bard himself this year😉😘🤗 

CHAPTER ONE: FAIR FA’ YOUR HONEST, SONSIE FACE

“Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the pudding-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm : Weel are ye wordy o'a grace As lang's my arm.”  Address to a Haggis by Robert Burns 1786.

Monday 25th January 2016

“His knife see rustic Labour dight, An' cut you up wi' ready sleight, Trenching your gushing entrails bright, Like ony ditch; And then, O what a glorious sight, Warm-reekin', rich!”

The room was swept in darkness apart from the light of the wolf moon and the north star penetrating the cold window panes. All eyes were facing towards a wooden table and the elderly man stood behind it. He was in his 60s and wiry, small for a man, but with a silver mess of what once must have been a bonnie head of fire red hair. The body may have looked weak, but the intensity in his bright blue eyes cut through the dimly lit surroundings.

As he spoke again, his voice filled the room, cut through the anticipating silence. It was a voice that could take a knife and slice right through a soul. The knife in his hand in turn sliced through the offering in front of its high priest. Years of performing the same action with such a passion resulted in precision. The faithful entranced by the spectacle all gasped as one as the incision was violently made. No one daring to speak. Suddenly the trance was lost as artificial light rudely brought everyone back to the present with a blast of the pipes.

“All done then Reverend Mannion? Can I serve the Haggis now? Don’t want it getting cold now do we, not at £15 a head.”

“Aye, Violet the ceremony is over, it’s time for eating and drinking something the bard would have approved of, rightly so.”

The kilted clergyman winked at an auburn-haired girl in the crowd and tipped his whisky tumbler toward her. She raised her own glass and winked back. Her companion at her table was much taller with dark hair styled in a tidy no-nonsense bob.

The tall one leaned toward the small one and asked, “If it’s already dead, why does he have to kill it?”

“What?”

“The Haggis if it’s already dead why does he have to kill it?”

Her friend opened her mouth to speak, but she saw a tender hand take hold of Chummy’s arm and explain it was all just ceremony, it was tradition.

“Like all that malarkey at our passing out parade, the day we got our badge. That wasn’t about police work, was it? It’s just tradition.  It’s what the English do well.”

He had been doing really well up until then, but a golden raised eyebrow made him alter his stance. “It is what us Brits do best.”

The raised eyebrow whispered to the police constable. ”Peter, Chummy really doesn’t think a haggis is a real animal, does she?”

He was not the kind of man that would turn heads, but he had a kindness in his eyes and an openness in his face that she thought some would see as attractive. If only Camilla wasn’t his superior, and they didn’t work such long hours together, what might have been?

She knew her friend well and sensed more queries would follow. Not sure as a Scot brought up on Tweavenside and now living in London she could provide satisfying answers. Picking up their empty glasses and heading to the bar was a strange sort of refuge for a vicar's daughter and inner-city missionary.

There was a queue well sort of a queue. In London a queue was made up of people standing in an orderly line and the person who had been stood the longest getting served first. In Poplar-on-Tweaven it resembled more of a rugby scrum and the person who shouted the loudest being ignored and anyone who called the barmaid by name being bunked up the order. She wasn’t familiar with busy bars but she was bright enough to work out the system.

“Val, when yer ready hen.” The request came from someone not sure that was their own voice they had just heard yelling those words.

All her life she had been immersed in the wonders of the Bible and was still amazed at how so many miracles had been performed. She had heard all the CPR arguments regarding resurrections and all that, and was still not convinced. But she now knew how Moses had parted the Red Sea, he had known the barmaid’s name was Valerie.

“What can I get you, chick?”

“Here! I was first.” A grumpy voice struck up.

“Oh Al, you are always first. Let me serve this lass and then I will sort you out”

“Promises, promises.”

“Yeah in your dreams, pal.”

She was starting to feel uncomfortable she hadn’t meant to jump the queue. Maybe she should go back to the table and let Peter get the drinks. A man’s voice interrupted her thoughts, it was quieter than Al’s but held an authority. It wasn’t a Tweavenside accent, but it had a northern softness.

“You serve our impatient friend Valerie, I will see to this young lady.” Then turning to his new customer, “What can I get you, pet”

“Erm a whisky and lemonade and erm a pint, please.”

“Which whisky and a pint of?”

She wasn’t sure; she nudged her bottom onto a vacant stool for security.

“Are you with the law?” The tall bartender nodded towards Chummy and Peter,

“Yes, yes I am.”

“OK, so that’s a Grouse and diet lemonade, just a dash and a pint of Buckles Best

and for you?”

He stepped back a minute. “Your Reverend Wilf’s daughter?”

“Yes, I am.” Bernie suddenly felt more sure of herself. She was never completely certain of who she was when back in Poplar

“Bernadette?” The stranger was grinning now, his brown eyes glinting under the harsh bar spotlights, or were they green?

“Well, that’s my Sunday name most people call me Bernie, even Dad.”

“Well, since I’ve never seen you in here on a Sunday or any other day. I will call you Bernie. I am Patrick Turner, most people call me Paddy, a few Doc.”

“Oh no, you won’t have seen me here on a Sunday or any other day. I live in London now and before that, well I am not a big drinker.”

“What can I get you then?” asked Paddy loitering near the coke and lemonade pumps.

“A gin and tonic please, better make it a double it’s quite busy, save me coming back.”

Paddy smiled. “Premium gin?”

“Yes.”

While the optic was emptying into the glass, he asked, “You must have known this old place when Evie ran it?”

“Yes, I know Evie and J..Jenny”

“Oh yes. Jen was here when me and the wife took over she was a great help. We get a text every now and again, doing well for herself now all loved up.” He winked at her as he ended the sentence causing her to panic slightly.

“I was sorry to hear about your loss.” She wished she hadn’t said it.

Val had seemed to deal with ten customers to Paddy’s one and now there was just the two of them alone at the bar. He looked at her in a sort of a non-direct, sort of direct way, under that infuriating fringe she wanted to reach out and push back.

“Loss is as much a part of love as is healing,” he replied with a hint of melancholy but without irony.

She was stunned and tried to find a corresponding Bible verse, but she drew a blank.

She focused on what was real and what was present, her dad had taught her to do that. What was in front of her at this precise moment was a glass of gin and ice and a twist of lime. He was now unscrewing a bottle of Mediterranean slimline tonic.

She yelped, “No!” as he lay the bottle alongside the glass.

“Sorry most people add the tonic to the gin and I cannae bear it drowned.”

“Wouldn't dream of it surely that would be very presumptuous of me.”

“Aye well, most people I've met are very presumptuous.”

“Maybe you have spent too much time in London. if you don't mind me saying, Bernie.”

“Well, to be fair we don’t spend a lot of time sitting on stools and propping up bars in my part of London.”

“More's the pity.”

“Can I bother you for a...”

Paddy popped a black straw into her tumbler.

“I will make sure when you come home next time none of my staff will be presumptuous.”

“Oh, I doubt you will remember me, Paddy. I only come up to see my Da. I can't imagine you will be seeing much of me in the future, hardly likely that I would ever be considered a regular.”

“Now who is being presumptuous?”

Bernie went to put the straw between her lips but paused, realizing the stranger was still watching her. She suddenly felt uncomfortable. As heat rose in her cheeks and she suddenly felt awkward on the stool, squirming to find some sort of comfortable position. The stranger smiled in a way she could not understand; it wasn’t smug or suggestive, but as if there were sharing a joke, but she wasn’t sure what the joke was.

She hopped off her seat, for a brief moment realizing her arse was in the air and prayed he had altered his gaze. Focusing anywhere but behind the bar she grabbed her glass and bottle in one hand, put the whisky against her elbow and waist, the pint in her other hand, turned and swiftly moved toward her thirsty friends.

Shelagh Bernadette Mannion don’t you dare look back and see if he is watching you he is recently widowed with a son, Da said. He is, what do they call them now, a bloomer or something like that. God has shown you his path for you and it certainly does not include the Crown Inn, Poplar-on-Tweaven.

He is still watching me, I can feel it.

[fangirlfanwritings]

Ms. Powers- Part 25

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7  Part 8  Part 9  Part 10

Part 11  Part 12  Part 13

Part 14   Part 15   Part 16   Part 17   Part 18   Part 19   Part 20   Part 21  Part 22   Part 23

Part 24

AN: Infinity war content; slight TW about babies

If you haven’t read the other chapters it can also act as a stand alone chapter

*About 2 years later*

You and Steve had gotten the call to action and you two found your lives once again put on hold for the greater good. Flying under the radar for nearly two years had brought you right back to saving the world. You looked at what played before you; alien creatures attacking Wanda and Vision, trying to take the stone from his head. Your smaller missions over the last two years had nothing on this.

You watched as Wanda tried to fend off the woman who attacked her. The train moved quickly out of the way and the woman saw Steve, throwing the glowing weapon towards him. He grabbed it with easy and the two of you stepped from the shadows. Sam took his chance and went for the woman.

Steve and Wanda went for the taller man while you rushed to Vision’s side. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“It’s good to see you again, Y/N,” his voice laced with pain. You lifted him up and carried him away from the aliens. You watched from a safe distance as the two were lifted up back into the sky.

The team walked back to you and Wanda ran to Vision’s side. “They beamed back up,” Sam told you.

“Should have killed him while you had the chance. Something tells me mercy isn’t going to be our friend.”

******

You looked around the building you were back in after all these years. Rhodey ended the hologram of the Secretary and smiled at you all. “It’s great to see you, Cap. Y/N,” he greeted and hugged you and Nat. Small talk about the rough couple years held conversation until the voice of an old friend entered the room.

“Hi, Bruce.”

“Nat,” he nodded.

“This is awkward,” Sam whispered and you smacked his shoulder.

******

You entered Wakanda and watched amazement come over the team. You stepped off the jet and hugged T’Challa. “Good to see you again.” You watched as Steve hugged Bucky with a large smile on his face.  

“Buck, I’ve got someone I want you to meet.” Steve looked back at you and you walked to his side. “This is my wife, Y/N.”

“So this is the Y/N I heard so much about last time.”

You hugged him and smiled. “I’ve heard so much about you, Bucky. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Woah, woah, wait,” Natasha put a hand up. “Did you say ‘wife?’”

You grinned and nodded. “We had a small ceremony with a couple of witnesses; didn’t feel like waiting any longer,” you looked up at your husband.

“Looks like we’ll have to throw a celebration after we defeat this enemy,” T’Challa spoke. “Come, let us talk inside.”

******

You floated into the air and watched from above as the monsters started spreading out around the Wakanda border. You spoke into the com. “They’re fanning out. If they break the barrier we’ll be surrounded and won’t stand a chance.”

“We need to open the barrier.” T’Challa gave the command for windows to be opened in the only defence you all had.

“Get ready,” you said to the team. “Sam and I will cover you guys from above.”

You heard the signal given and watched as the alien’s seeped in. You were off in an instant sending flaming balls, balls of energy, and anything else that could kill your enemies right at them. You saw a large cluster break through and willed the Earth to fold, crushing them in between the ground you rose up.

“Care to do that for all of them,” you heard Sam say.

“Only if you think our ground team could survive an Earthquake.”

“Fair point,” he quickly said before shooting out more enemies on the ground.

You continued your air strike and saw Bucky getting disarmed and thrown to the ground by a large dog like creature. As it began trying to claw at his face you flew down and kicked him off of the soldier. As he gained his senses back you watched as the creature turned around and sized you up. Running towards you, you quickly took your knife out and jumped onto the side of the creature’s neck when it was close, sending the knife into its head and spilling green blood from it. It went limp on the ground and you looked back at Bucky. “You good?”

He nodded slowly and looked at the creature’s body before looking back at you. “I like you.” You smiled just before another alien came from the side and took your out. You rolled with it and managed to fling it off, then sent a deadly electric shock into it.

The fighting continued and seemed like it would never end. You were relieved when Thor arrived, happy to see an old friend and to gain another up against the forces you fought against. You got word from Steve that Vision was in the field and that he had eyes on Thanos. You flew as quickly as you could and appeared in the woods in seconds.

You saw as Bruce was made into a hologram of himself and floated through Thanos, landing and getting trapped in a large rock. T’Challa jumped to attack but was grabbed by the throat and slammed on the ground. Rhodey shot all he had and was crushed while Bucky was knocked aside. The girls were brushed aside like they were nothing and you watched with horror as Steve slid under the giant and stood in between him and you. You watched as he landed blows and held back his hand until Thanos sent a punch that knocked him out. All that was left was you and Wanda.

“You have to do it,” you yelled to Wanda and took off running towards the purple titan. He went to punch you and you caught his hand in yours.

“You’re strong.”

You pushed him away and watched as he skidded back a few yards. You willed water from the nearest creek and had it wrapped around him, forcing it into his mouth and lungs. You watched as he moved his gloved hand and a purple glow shot towards you, breaking your hold. You felt like your breath had been knocked from you and tried to regain your control. This time you sent the earth around his legs, setting his legs in stone and working its way up as you forced the air out of his lungs.

You saw his eyes go wide as he tried to break free and clawed at his throat. Just as the stone was about to grab his gloved hand he managed to send the purple beam out and broke your hold again. “You want to act like a man and fight me fair and square?”

He raised his hand and you saw a red glow. “Not really.” The red came quickly at you and you lost consciousness.

You woke up and strained your eyes to see clearly. Your hearing was muffled but was coming back. “You should have gone for the head,” was the last thing you heard before the click of a snap echoed around you. You got yourself standing and looked at Steve, who was now up and holding his side. Thor stood looking at his axe from its spot on the ground.

“Where’d he go?” Steve looked around. “Thor, where’d he go?”

“Steve?” All eyes went to Bucky as he walked into the clearing. The solid form of Bucky turned into ash in the wind and fell to the forest ground leaving only his gun behind. Steve walked over and got down on his knees looking at what remained of his best friend. He looked to you with pain and suffering that you had never seen.

You looked back at Wanda and saw her turning into dust as she lay over Vision. Thunder erupted from above and you felt a flutter in your stomach. Something didn’t feel right. A moderate pain evolved in your gut and you looked to your husband. “Steve?” He saw fear in your eyes for the first time and stood up quickly.

“Y/N?” The strange feeling grew and you were on knees holding onto your stomach. “No, no.” He was by your side with his arms around you. “Look at me, Doll. You can’t leave me.”

The pain and feeling slowly went away and you looked at him. “I’m- I’m ok. It’s gone. The feeling is gone.” You looked at yourself not sure of what had happened. “I don’t understand.”

“We need to get you checked out and make sure nothing’s going on.” He went to move you but realization hit you and you grabbed him by the collar and held him still.

“Steve,” urgency laced your voice. You weren’t aware of your friends congregating around you. “FRIDAY, connect me to the safehouse.” Fear and worry wracked every fiber of your being as the phone rang and rang on speaker. Finally the small voice answered.

“Mommy? Daddy?” The eyes of all the Avenger’s grew in surprise at what they were hearing.

Tears poured from your eyes. “Hi baby,” relief washed over you. “Are you ok? Is Gracie ok?”

“Yes, Mommy.”

“Mommy, I’m scared,” you heard Grace call from the background. “Aunt Jenny disappeared.” You had left the girls with Jenny while you and Steve left for missions.

“I know sweetheart, I know.”

“Listen to me girls,” Steve spoke. “Stay inside and go to your room. Do not let anyone inside the house. Understand?”

“Yes,” they said and you could hear they were scared.

“I’m on my way. I will be there as quick as I can. We love you.” The girls muttered it back and you hung up.

“We have to go,” you went to get up but Steve stopped you.

“I will go. You need to stay here and get checked out after whatever just happened.”

“I need to go and see them, Steve. I need to see that they are ok.”

“And you will. I will go get them and bring them right back here.” The look he gave you told you you weren’t winning this battle either. He and Rhodey were on the quinjet while Natasha walked you back to the palace.

******

Darkness from the night shrouded the palace and amplified the somber mood that carried in the halls. Steve walked off the jet with two sleeping girls in his arms. Rhodey put their bags down in the room that was set up for them and Steve gently set them in their bed. When he stepped out into the hallway he saw Natasha leaving the room set up for you and him.

“How is she?”

“She’s ok. She’s resting. They ran some tests and found out what you saw out there.”

“And?”

“She was pregnant, Steve. Not too far along but the snap took the baby.”

“But she can’t have kids.”

“I know that, you know that, and she knows that. But it happened. She’s taking it as expected.” He nodded and thanked her before walking in the dark room and sitting on the side of the bed. Your tear stained cheeks were all he could see. He reached out and stroked your cheek. You opened your eyes and looked into his blue eyes.

“Stevie-”

“I know, Doll. I know.” Tears welled up quickly in your eyes again and you looked around for your babies.

“Where are they?” He told you and walked to the room next door. He picked the sleeping girls up and carried them back to your room. Your heart leapt when you saw both of them there. He handed you Gracie and you scooped her in your arms, holding her close.

Ellie and Steve joined you in bed and you extended your arm over your two little girls. Steve did the same and rested his hand on your cheek, rubbing the tears away. “We’re going to be ok, Y/N.”

[melodramaticfanatic-blog]

Lucky in Love

Pairing: Chris Evans x reader

Warnings: It’s safe to assume that all my stories are going to have at least a little NSFW, 18+ and language. Just how I write.

Summary: Y/N became friends with Chris Evans shortly before Captain America fame made him a superstar. Now they’ve been through a lot together but Chris has always wanted more A/N: For @troublermalik. Chris Evans one shot with fluff and some NSFW/smut. This got long (WAY TOO LONG for a one shot probably) because I kept working on it and then putting it on hold and then today hormones made me their bitch so I went in on it HARD (while crying over the soundtrack from The Greatest Showman, naturally.) so sorry or whatever. Oh, and I hate this title!! I tried like 3 and didn’t like any of them

Word count: 8575 roughly.

Gif not mine, credit to owner

Y/N breaking her tooth was the best thing that had ever happened to Chris Evans. It may have been painful for her and required an emergency visit to a dentist, but if she hadn’t slipped while bowling and managed to fall at exactly the wrong angle, they may never have met. 

It had happened 2 years ago. Y/N had been on a blind date, a set up through one of her friends, and the man took her to a cosmic bowling alley. The lanes were dark, disco balls and black lights flashing against neon paint as classic rock pumped out of the speakers. Although the idea for the evening was great and Y/N wanted to enjoy herself, the man who was accompanying her was the worst kind of date. He was overly competitive about the score, utterly uninterested in talking to her (not that he could have even if he wanted to with the volume of the music), and far too interested in her various body parts. 

All in all, when the laces of the rental shoes untied (something Y/N didn’t notice due to the dim lighting) and caused her to stumble onto the slippery wax lanes where she promptly fell on her face, it wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. At least that was her immediate thought before she realized that she had chipped her tooth and the broken shard had injured her lip leaving her with a bloody mouth and damaged smile. She had bid a quick farewell to her date, promising to reschedule without any intention of actually following through on it, and left the lanes while searching google for the closest dentist’s office. That dentist just happened to be Dr. Robert Evans, who’s son Chris was lucky enough to be in the office visiting when Y/N arrived as he had just gotten home from filming his upcoming Marvel debut, “Captain America: The First Avenger”. Despite her bloody mouth and eventual slurred speech due to novocain, Chris and Y/N had hit it off immediately. 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

“You have no idea who you’re messing with.” Y/N narrowed her eyes at Chris and tried her best to look intimidating despite the fact that the man was several inches taller than her with the physique of a superhero...literally. 

“Bring it on Y/N,” Chris taunted back. 

“I’m warning you...”

“If you’re so confident, why not make this interesting?” he retorted with his characteristic easy charm. Despite his light tone there was an undercurrent of competitiveness to his words. Chris played to win at everything in life.

Y/N sized the man up and arched an eyebrow. “Name your terms.”

“If your skills are what you say they are-”

“They are,” she interjected.

“Well then, I’ll owe you a six pack of beer to drink while I wash your car. If, by some freak accident, I prove to be more talented in this particular arena than you are though...” Chris smirked at her for a moment as he thought about what he’d claim as a prize. Then his entire face lit up with mischievous delight. “You’ll be accompanying me to the upcoming Avengers red carpet premier.”

Y/N pursed her lips as she thought about the stipulations. She felt very confident in herself but if something did go wrong...she didn’t like the idea of going to a premier. She had been photographed several times while hanging out with Chris and her picture had even gotten into the tabloids. It was not the most pleasant experience in the world. Many of his fans knew about her; she was his best friend after all so he had mentioned her in interviews a few times. Most fans were very nice in regard to her relationship with Chris, they knew she dated other men and knew that Chris dated other women so they did not see her as a threat. Every time her picture appeared in a tabloid next to the Captain however, a new outcry would rise from the internet and she would be hit with waves of negative comments and anonymous hatred from obsessed fan girls. Going to a premier where there would be rows upon rows of journalists and photographers seemed like pushing her luck. 

“Scared Y/N?” Chris had his most dangerous smirk firmly in place, one side of his mouth lifted and his brow quirked. It was obvious to Y/N that he was teetering on the edge of laughter, ready to break out any second in the full body shaking peals that were never far from the surface. 

“Of you?” She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin defiantly. “Never. I just feel bad that all the paparazzi are gonna be able to snap pictures of you washing my car. Maybe they’ll publish articles speculating about if you’re broke and working for me to make ends meet!”

His smirk just got wider. “Just remember, I like how you look in silver.”

“Thanks but I won’t need to know that. Now stand back in awe.”

Y/N pushed her hand against Chris’s chest lightly and the man took a step back chuckling, more likely to be kind than because the shove had any effect on him. She positioned her feet carefully, shoulder width apart and narrowed her eyes with focus. Her fingers tightened around the grip of the club in her hand and she drew her arms back slowly before swinging them out again in a gentle arc, knocking the bottom of the metal putter against the brightly colored ball on the ground. It connected with a pleasing knock and spun forward along the artificial grass.

“Go baby, go...” Y/N muttered under her breath as she tracked the ball’s progress. “Curve for me...!”

As though the ball could hear what she was asking of it, it swerved and began to ride along the ridge of a hill.

“Yes...yes...YES!” The ball found the perfect course trajectory and dropped into a small cup next to the large flag that marked the hole. “Hole in one! Fear my mini golf genius, Evans!”

Y/N jumped into the air and came down to rest on one knee, celebrating as if she were Tiger Woods and had just won the PGA cup. Chris couldn’t resist shaking with laughter at the display, his right hand coming up to grab his left pectoral as it always did when he laughed uncontrollably. 

“We’ve got a long course to play here, Y/N. Don’t get cocky on me now.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” Y/N retorted with a serious air before her face turned wicked. “Being cocky is your job.”

Chris shook his head and positioned himself at the line between artificial grass and sidewalk. All around him, children and families were delighting in the amusements of the mini golf course: chasing balls that had escaped into water hazards, taking pictures with the fake dinosaurs that lined the Jurassic themed diversion, laughing and lamenting their poor luck as they came out of a hole that was only par 2 with more than 5 strokes. 

He and Y/N often ended up in strange contests like this as they were both competitive and had a fondness for sports...or at least sport like activities. They had done everything from beach volleyball to ultimate frisbee, usually with a small wager attached to the win. Most nights, Chris wanted to win because he liked to win. Tonight however, he wanted to win so that he could have Y/N on his arm at the upcoming premier. He had just broken up again with his on-again / off-again girlfriend and knew that showing up at the premier alone would only result in him being bored out of his mind most of the night. Y/N would absolutely prevent that; she was always fun to be around. 

“You going to shoot your shot Evans or have I intimidated you into quitting already?”

“Oh please, my skills are hotter than the fire coming from that very fake volcano.”

Y/N cocked her hip out slightly and braced her hand against it, striking the international pose of female confidence as her face resolved into an expression of exasperated incredulity. Chris tried not to focus on her, tempting as it was to ignore the game and spend his time watching Y/N and laughing in the unrestrained way she always caused. Instead, he trained his eyes on the blue ball he had picked out (a choice that Y/N had made some very uncouth remarks over) and concentrated on hitting it with enough force to find the cup but not the excessive amount that would cause it to skip right over the hole. With an apparent lack of effort, Chris managed to sink his shot in one as well. 

“Oooooh,” he chuckled and shook his head. “What’s Danny gonna say when you tell him you can’t go out for date night because you’ll be on my arm?”

“I don’t think he’ll be too upset,” Y/N deadpanned back. “After all, I’m sure he’ll be out with his new girlfriend that night.”

“You guys broke up?”

“Yeah, earlier this week.” Y/N ran a hand through her hair, mussing it up prettily as she led the way to the next patch of green. “He was too needy, ya know? Everything was always about him. Like, I’d get home from working a 10 hour shift and he’d be there asking me why I hadn’t made him dinner.” She shook her head in a frustrated way. “Who looks at me and thinks Stepford Wife?”

It’s definitely not the first thought I have, Chris mused silently. My first thought has always been...no, never mind. Better not to acknowledge that thought. 

“Wow, bad time of year for romance all around, I guess.”

Y/N looked at him in confusion, one eyebrow arched delicately. 

“Jenny and I broke up again too,” he clarified. 

“Dude, you know I love Jenny,” Y/N began, her shoulders slumping as she looked at her friend, “but I seriously do not understand how you do it. I get whiplash just watching your relationship from the outside. How do you even keep track of if you’re together or not?”

“Maybe that’s been the problem all along, Y/N. I was thinking we were together when she was thinking we weren’t...we’re just on the wrong schedule! You’ve solved it, Dr. Phil!”

“Don’t you sass me, Evans,” she said as she reached out to smack his large bicep playfully. “I’m not afraid to call your mother.”

“Ok, ok, I’m just teasing. Nah, Jenny is great...and when it works, it’s great. But...” he trailed off with a shrug. 

“But how often does it work? Like a rough percentage?”

“Maybe...10% of the time?”

Y/N looked back at him with her eyebrows raised, her face expectant as he thought over what he had just said. 

“Yeah, I get you. If it’s only working 10% of the time, the other 90% sucks.” 

She nodded at him, a hint of sadness in her face. “You deserve better than 90% suckage Chris.”

Chris knew that Y/N was serious whenever she called him by his first name. Most of the time she referred to him simply as Evans or by some new mocking nickname she had crowned him with. Despite their teasing banter, the two were very close and cared for each other deeply. He knew that she wanted to see him happy just as much as he wanted that for her. 

“I’m tired of the whole relationship thing at the moment,” Y/N continued. “It never seems like the people involved are on the same page. It’s never just relaxed and easy. Like this! The way that we are together.” Y/N reached out and laid her hand against Chris’s chest, stopping their progress along the course so that she could look him in the eyes. “Everything is always good between us. We can talk about anything, we can always have fun, we’re tend to agree on the big stuff and be on the same wavelength...why can’t real relationships work like this?”

Chris gave an easy shrug and shook his head, watching as Y/N turned to move on to the next hole. Real relationships. We could have a real relationship, he thought, we could have a great relationship, even better than what you just described. If only you felt the same.

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“HA! Hahahahahahaha,” Chris had burst into the kind of laughter that doubled him over in exaltation. It ripped out of his belly and shook every muscle in his well toned body as he gripped his pectoral with one hand, his other hand holding Y/N’s shoulder as an anchor. 

“Not fair! If I hadn’t messed up the 12th hole so badly, I could have won!”

Chris could only shake his head as he laughed. He hadn’t just beaten Y/N, he had destroyed her. 

“Seriously, I think there was like, water on that hole or something. There is no WAY it should have taken me over 8 strokes to make a par 2 hole. STOP LAUGHING YOU BIG JERK!” She whined in a voice of fake outrage. 

“Oh, Y/N,” Chris sighed as he finally caught his breath. “You’re my favorite thing in the whole world.”

“Ha! I’ll believe I rank in the top 10, Evans, but I’m not claiming the top spot with your nieces and nephews around. Hell, I’m pretty sure even Dodger comes ahead of me on that list,” she scoffed. “Which is fair as he is such a great dog.”

He just smiled back at her indulgently, trying not to let on how wrong she was. “Whatever you say babe. Now, about what you’ll be wearing to the premier-”

“UUGGGHH!!”

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“UUUGGGHH!!! GRRRR!!! ARRRGGGH!!!”

“You can moan all you want, girlfriend. You made the bet, you have to deal with the consequences.” Y/N’s roommate, Angie, said in her thick New York City accent as she stood outside the bedroom. Years of being away from the city had done nothing to change how she spoke. 

Y/N felt like she had been groaning and moaning ever since she had lost to Chris that night at the golf course. She would never go back on her word so she had gone out and gotten a great gown, silver as requested, and prepared for tonight with a pedicure, manicure and professionally done make up and hair, but none of it had done much to calm her nerves. As happy and relaxed as she always was with her best friend, the spotlight was not her comfort zone. She didn’t want to think about how the next few hours would be spent in front of hundreds of people and in the company of movie stars. Sure, Chris was a movie star...but he was also just Chris. Silly, puppy-dog, can’t stop laughing, dork, sweetest human being alive Chris. Hanging out with him was like snuggling in a giant sweater. He was all fluff and comfort. Tonight was going to be a whole different ball game. 

“Seriously Ange...I’m not saying that I won’t go, but seriously...what am I doing?!”

“I can’t believe you’re whining about this, Y/N,” Angie replied with a roll of her eyes. “You’re going to the premier of a huge Hollywood movie where you’ll be next to some of the hottest men in the known universe. Oh yeah, and you’ll be there as the date of one of those absolute hotties. What is there to complain about?”

“Don’t call Chris a hottie...it’s weird.”

“He is a hottie. I can’t change the facts, girl. The fact that you are somehow magically blind to his intense good looks doesn’t mean I am.”

Y/N looked at her roommate and frowned. She wasn’t immune to Chris’s good looks; you’d have to be 10 kinds of stupid not to notice that the man was handsome. It was more that she chose not to think about him that way. Keeping him solidly locked in her mind under the label of “Friend” made everything much simpler. 

“If you’re going to stand there and mock me, the least you could do is tell me how I look?”

Y/N gave a small spin for her roommate. Her hair was pulled back into an elegant style that she would never be able to replicate again, which complemented her sleek gown nicely. The structured bodice hugged her beautifully and pushed her chest up to put a decent amount of cleavage on display. Its straps lay off the shoulders, a delicate drape of fabric brushing against her upper arm, and the fabric continued in long swaths down the back of the gown, creating a train-like effect. The skirt itself had a small train, really just a puddle of fabric attached to the slim tube that was fitted to her legs. The whole gown fit like a dream, she hadn’t even needed alterations, which was the main reason she had picked this one. 

“You look amazing. You’ll fit right in. In fact, I’ll be surprised if you don’t come home with a date...if you get your choice of the men, go for Tom Hiddleston. I’ve seen him dance; I think you could make good use of the way those hips move.”

“Angie!” Y/N cried out in shock just as there was a knock on the door. 

“What? I’m human, girlfriend.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Y/N responded, brushing by her roommate. “You’re something alright.”

Quickly checking her hair in a mirror and smoothing her hands over the front of the dress, Y/N opened up the door. Chris was standing in the hallway and before she could put up her guard against it, Y/N was struck with exactly how amazing he looked. His dark hair had been gelled lightly and slicked into a dapper style that fit his bone structure perfectly. His beard was trimmed and neat and before Y/N could reign the thought in, she found herself wondering if it would tickle to be kissed by him with that beard. Damn Angie, putting thoughts into her head just before Chris arrived. The best part though was his suit. It was a bright cobalt blue that accentuated his eyes until they became hypnotic. The bright white of his shirt made a gorgeous contrast to the bright blue fabric and the black that lined the lapel of the jacket. 

“Well damn,” Chris said with a frown as his shoulders dipped.

“What? What’s wrong?” Y/N looked down at herself nervously. “Is the dress not good? Do I look terrible?”

“Not at all. It’s just that..” he trailed off with a shake of his head and looked down while she waited anxiously. “Well, I tried so hard and thought I looked pretty good tonight but now it’s not going to matter at all because no one is going to be able to look away from how beautiful you are, babe!”

“Don’t do that, Evans!” Y/N reached out and punched his shoulder as he looked up at her from under his lashes with a wicked smile.

“Couldn’t help myself,” he said with a chuckle. “Seriously though, Y/N. You look more incredibly beautiful than any woman I’ve ever seen.”

“You can keep the compliments coming, I’m not forgiving you that quickly.”

“Since I have your permission, I think I’ll just keep complimenting you all night.”

“When are you just going to ask her out, Chris?” Angie called from inside the apartment. “I’m sick of you two doing this ‘We’re just really good friends and there’s no sexual tension between us’ thing.”

“Angie!” Y/N practically screamed. “I swear, if rent was not so obscenely ridiculous, I would kick you out and pretend we didn’t know each other.”

Chris laughed a bit awkwardly and cleared his throat.

“Alright, if you’re not going to jump on it, girlfriend, I’ll take this bullet. When are you going to ask me out?” Angie had come to the door and was looking at Chris with a cocky expression on her face.

“We’re leaving. Right now,” Y/N said, her tone dark. She gave Angie a small but forceful push back into the apartment, grabbed her clutch from the table near the door and proceeded to slam it behind her. “I cannot even. I don’t know what the hell has gotten into her tonight.”

“I hate to tell you but that was not a tonight only situation,” Chris said as he easily looped an arm around Y/N’s waist. “Your roommate has been flirting with me like that since the first time I met her.”

“And you never mentioned it?” Y/N looked up at Chris in confusion but he just gave a relaxed shrug. 

“She doesn’t actually mean anything by it. Trust me, if I took her up on it and asked her out, she would freeze up and then refuse.”

“And you know this because...?”

“Just one of those things.”

Y/N continued to look up at Chris, her brow furrowing and a small frown creasing her face. She didn’t like the sound of that. Had Chris asked Angie out? Had they actually gone out? As they walked out to the waiting town car, Y/N pondered the possibilities silently and tried to decide why the idea of her friend and her roommate having secrets or a relationship bothered her so much.

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Flashbulbs were everywhere. It was beyond blinding and if Chris hadn’t kept a steady hold on Y/N, she probably would have bumped into someone and fallen down. 

“They’ll calm down in a bit,” he whisper-shouted into her ear. “The only reason they’re taking so many pictures is cause we just got here. A little down the line, you’ll have no trouble seeing.”

“How can you see?!” she asked in a terrified voice.

“I’m just used to it.”

“I don’t understand how anyone could ever get used to this...” Y/N muttered.

Chris took her hand in his and squeezed it gently. He knew this wasn’t where she felt the most comfortable but he also wanted Y/N to enjoy herself. Premiers weren’t always great but if you let them, they could be a lot of fun. 

“Mr. Evans, we need you for a quick chat over here,” an assistant came bustling up to direct him to an interview. 

“Do you want to come with or hang back?”

Y/N looked at him with wide and wild eyes. “Hang back, definitely hang back.”

He laughed and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek for courage. “Stay right here, babe. I’ll be back before you know it.” He pressed down lightly on her shoulders as though he were sticking her in place and moved off to the microphone the assistant had pointed out. 

Y/N took a couple of deep breaths and tried to calm herself. Chris had been right about the flashes calming down and now that some time had passed she was able to see a little better. In front of her were lines and lines of journalists and photographers, all calling out names and questions, but behind her there were bleachers full of fans. Many of them had signs and posters; some looked as though they had been camped out all day. Y/N turned slightly so that she could read some of the signs. 

“Hey, hey, Y/N!” someone called out to her. 

She looked around and spotted a fan at the barrier waving to her. “Umm...hi?”

“HI!! Sorry, this is probably totally creepy,” the girl said with a big smile. “I just feel like I know you from all the times Chris has talked about you.”

Y/N went a little closer to the girl. She was young and had obviously been waiting for a long time. Clutched in her arms was a canvas with all of the Avengers lovingly represented on it. One or two of the characters now bore a signature from the actor who played to role. 

“That’s really cool,” Y/N said pointing to it. “Did you make that?”

“Yeah!” Her face lit up as she held the canvas out for Y/N to inspect. “I want to be an artist when I grow up.”

“Do you mind?” Y/N reached out hesitantly and the girl placed it in her hands. It was incredible, each detail captured, every character given so much emotion. “You’re really talented.”

“Thanks! I was hoping to get everyone to sign it but...I couldn’t get a couple people’s attention. Do you think you could ask Mr. Evans if he’d sign it though?”

Y/N looked up at the girl and smiled. “Hold on to this,” she said, handing the canvas back. “I’ll make sure he comes over...or I’ll kick some Captain butt.” With a quick wink and smile, Y/N turned back to the front of the carpet and moved back to the space where Chris had left her. As if on cue, he finished his interview and returned to her. 

“Ready to keep going?”

“Not quite. I need two favors from you actually.”

Chris stared at Y/N, his eyebrows slightly raised. He could tell by her low and serious voice that she was being sincere. “What’s up?”

“Do you know who’s already inside?”

“Uh, yeah. I know that RDJ, Hemsworth, Mackie, Scarlett, Paul and Tom Holland have made it down the carpet...why?”

“Alright, she caught Rudd and Tom Holland. Do you have their phone numbers? RDJ, Hemsworth, Mackie and Scarlett, I mean?”

“Yeah...again, why?” Chris was beginning to look at Y/N like she had lost her mind. 

“’k, so favor number one: can you send a group text to those guys and the rest of the cast and ask them to make sure they sign this girl’s artwork?” Y/N jerked her head slightly to indicate where the fan stood. “She’s been here for a long time waiting and she made this incredible work of art to honor you all. It’d really mean a lot if everyone did this. If they could just come back out really quick?”

Chris was beaming at Y/N now, his phone already in his hand. He had been worried that she hated every bit of what was happening and it warmed his heart to see her caring so much about his fans.

“Done. Is favor number two that I go over and sign it right now?”

“Well...yeah.” Y/N gave an embarrassed shrug. “Sorry to be predictable.”

Chris wrapped his arm around her waist again, guiding her back towards the fan. “Trust me, babe. This is not an ‘’I’m sorry’ situation.”

Y/N smiled up at him brilliantly before grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the young girl. “Look who’s here! And I didn’t even need to kick his butt. I just told him someone had a picture of his face and he couldn’t be stopped,” she said teasingly, looking between Chris and his fan. 

“It’s true,” Chris said with his trademark charming smirk. “I can’t resist beautiful things.”

Y/N laughed at him and shook her head, stepping back slightly so that his fans could have access to him. Watching him talk to everyone, sign posters and pose for pictures, she was reminded how lucky she was to have him in her life. His presence was something she had almost grown too accustomed to...almost taken for granted. 

“Hey Y/N,” said a low voice just behind her.

She turned to look over her shoulder and spotted Sebastian Stan standing at her side. She had met him several times before through Chris and had forgotten that as another Marvel actor he would be attending tonight. 

“Hey Seb, it slipped my mind that I’d be seeing you.” 

The man reached out and draped an easy arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side. “Ouch, didn’t realize I was so forgettable,” he said with a chuckle. 

“Don’t be stupid,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“He can’t help it, stupid is his default setting,” Anthony Mackie teased as he walked by on his way to sign the canvas.

Both Seb and Y/N laughed at the man, Seb miming a kick in his direction.

“So, did Chris bring you tonight?”

“Yup...I lost a bet.” Y/N hung her head in a comical display of shame. 

“Well you may have lost but I think we all won.”

She looked up at him with her head cocked to the side. 

“You look gorgeous, Doll.”

“Oh,” Y/N blushed furiously, both at the nickname and the words preceding it. “Thanks...?”

Sebastian laughed at the way her word went up at the end, turning it into a question. 

“Hey Seabass!” Mackie called out. “Get over here and look at this. The girl managed to capture my magnificent thighs!”

With a smirk and a quick squeeze, Sebastian released his hold on Y/N’s shoulder. “Gotta go, Doll. Duty calls.” He shot her a wink and walked off to the line of fans, clapping Chris on the shoulder as they passed each other. 

“Alright, I’m thirsty,” Chris said as he reached her. “Ready to go inside?”

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“You didn’t tell me to make sure I had waterproof mascara on, you big jerk!” Y/N punched Chris’s shoulder again lightly, blinking her eyes rapidly and rubbing her hand along her cheek. The movie was fantastic, full of action and great one-liners like all Marvel movies, but it also had heart wrenching, terrible moments that had brought Y/N to the edge of sobbing. 

“I didn’t want to spoil anything,” he replied chuckling. “Besides, you look amazing.”

“I look puffy and red...and if I get a hold on Tom Holland tonight, I’m going to tear him apart for breaking me down like that!”

Chris was laughing in earnest now, his whole body rumbling. “That just means I have to spend the after party making sure you don’t get near him.”

“Good, you do that. Keep me at your side all night or I’m likely to hit one of your friends and cast mates for making me cry.”

“Alright, tough guy. Let’s go get a drink and enjoy the party, huh?”

“I can’t go in there yet!” Y/N looked at Chris in horror. “I have to go to the bathroom and take care of the trash panda mess that is my face! Get it together, Evans!”

She left him chuckling fondly as she strode off to check her makeup and gather herself. Hardly a minute had passed before Chris was joined by Sebastian, the man holding out a beer which Chris gladly accepted. 

“Where’s Y/N?” Seb asked casually. 

“Went to clean herself up. She got a little teary eyed during the screening.”

Sebastian nodded and took a long pull from his beer. “Listen man,” he started hesitantly. “Are you two...I mean, do you...”

Chris stared at his friend with his brow furrowed. 

“She still dating that guy? Davey, Dippy, Dopey...whatever his name was?”

“Nah, they broke up.”

Sebastian nodded thoughtfully. “And what about you?”

“I broke up with Jenny again, I told you that.”

“No, I mean, with her. Are you...would you be pissed if I asked Y/N out?”

Chris just stared at the other man. Sebastian wanted to ask Y/N out? His Y/N?? But she’s not mine, he reminded himself. She never has been. And she’s dated plenty of other men since I met her. What right do I have to tell Sebastian no?

“Uh- I mean, go for it.”

“Do you mean that?” Seb asked, studying Chris’s face.

“Yeah, sure. She did just tell me that she was kinda over the whole relationship thing right now though, so she might not be the most receptive...you might get a better response if you wait,” he added the last bit casually, tacking on a shrug and wondering if he was overacting the casual vibe he was aiming for. 

“I’ll take it into consideration,” Sebastian said thoughtfully. “See how the night goes and play it by ear.”

Chris just nodded numbly.

“Alright,” Y/N called as she approached the two men, “I’m decent enough to hang out with the world’s mightiest heroes again.”

“Would you settle for hanging out with the guy that plays a semi-stable 100 year old man?” Seb asked with a charming smile, stepping out to reach Y/N before she got to Chris. 

“Uh-” she said, glancing between the two men.

“Just don’t let her near Tom Holland,” Chris said, clapping Seb on the shoulder and moving away with a huge fake smile plastered on his face. “She’ll kick his ass and then we’ll all be in trouble.”

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“Mr. Evans, I know it’s a party, but please don’t forget you still have a late night interview after this...it might be wise to slow down on the drinks?”

The small assistant was hovering near Chris’s elbow, his expression anxious as he watched Chris sip yet another scotch on the rocks.

Chris didn’t normally drink, but tonight was not a normal night. “Keep me at your side all night”, that was what Y/N had requested. That was what Chris had wanted. Instead, she had spent the evening on Sebastian’s arm, at Sebastian’s side, laughing at Sebastian’s jokes, dancing with Sebastian. He slammed down the rest of his drink, wincing as it burned his throat, and knocked the glass onto the bar. 

Most of the time, Chris was extremely easy going. He was good natured. He liked almost everyone. Jealousy was not something he felt often but at the moment it was twisting in his stomach like an anaconda around its prey. His center was nothing more than a tight fist of rage. This wasn’t him being competitive, this was a base instinct. Fight or flight. Protect what was his. And maybe it was just the alcohol or maybe it was seeing her with someone that seemed to pose a real threat to him, but at that moment, Chris decided that Y/N was his. She would be his.

“Mr. Evans? It’s about that time to head to the show?”

“Thank you, Harold,” Chris replied to the assistant with a smile, his face easing out of the angry mask it had become over the last few hours. “I just have to go and get something.” With that, he stood up and made his way over to where Seb and Y/N stood, the man’s arm laid casually around her shoulders. “Sorry to interrupt but I actually have to steal you away, babe.”

“Oh?” Y/N sounded surprised but not necessarily disappointed. 

“Yeah, gotta go to that chat show remember? Interview with James Corden for TV? You said you’d come hang out?”

“You can stay here if you’d rather,” Sebastian offered quickly. “I can always give you a ride.”

“Thanks Seb, but I’ll go with. I wouldn’t mind just chilling backstage. Besides, I really like James Corden. He always makes me laugh with his crosswalk musical things!”

Sebastian looked slightly disappointed but didn’t argue, choosing instead to simply give Y/N and Chris both hugs and send them on their way with a promise to call her and arrange lunch. 

“You guys are having lunch?” Chris asked as they left the building and walked towards the town car that was waiting outside for them.

“He offered to take me to a ball game and then buy me food,” she responded with a shrug. “I tried to make it clear that it wasn’t gonna be a date.”

“Oh?” he asked as his heart lifted. “Seb’s not your type?”

“I can’t imagine dating a celebrity,” Y/N replied, her tone laced with disgust. “Besides, I told you, I’m over the whole relationship thing right now.”

“Right...” Chris felt his heart sinking back down in his chest again. This was the first time since he had met Y/N that they were both single at the same time and he was free to try and start a romantic relationship with her. Of course she would be sworn off romance. Will I ever catch a break? he wondered as the car pulled out and began the short drive to James Corden’s studio.

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Y/N sat backstage and watched the monitors of what was happening just around the corner. James Corden had brought Chris out to wild applause from the audience and asked him a few introductory questions about the movie. Chris gave all the right answers, promoting the movie well and exercising his not unformidable charm. 

“And there are deaths in the movie?” James tried to wheedle out spoilers. “Does everyone make it through?”

“Hey, I’d love to tell you, but I’m pretty sure Marvel has snipers in the audience that would take me out before I got a word out,” Chris joked jovially. 

“Well, at least tell me if I should go to the theater prepared with kleenex! That’s just good manners.”

“I’ll say this,” Chris hedged with a small smile, “I have it on good authority that waterproof mascara is recommended.” 

“Oh, well I always make sure to wear waterproof,” James retorted with a flutter of his eyelashes to the audience’s delight. “But who is this good authority? I heard a rumor you were recently single again; was I misinformed?”

“No, that’s true, I did break up with someone not too long ago.”

“Someone new in your life already?”

“No,” Chris said with a warm smile, his eyes flicking down briefly as the smile grew wider. “No, not new. Someone who’s been in my life for a while but I never fully appreciated.”

“Oh?” James tried not to interrupt or even make himself very noticeable. If Chris  kept talking, he may get a huge scoop. 

“That’s not the right way to say it actually. I always appreciated this person. I’ve appreciated her since the day we met...but I always thought that we couldn’t be any more than we were.” 

Backstage, Y/N sat frozen. Was Chris talking about her? She had told him off about the waterproof mascara...but the rest...?

“You’re married right?” Chris looked up suddenly at James who nodded. “Is your wife the greatest person in the world? The one that you want to tell all your stories to? The one that you can talk about anything with and always have fun with? The person who always seems to be on your wavelength?”

James was nodding frantically in agreement. 

“But more than that, right? Like, she also expands the things you know, gives you new experiences, takes you new places. She makes you better than you are. She’s the person that you see first in any room. You could walk into a full three ring circus and your eyes would still find her first. It doesn’t matter what she’s wearing, she’s still the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen. She’s my best friend and so much more than just that; so much more than I can put into words. That’s how it is with her; that’s how I feel about Y/N.”

All the air in the room, all the air in the world, seemed to have disappeared. There was no sound. Not a rustle of fabric or a whine of an electronic device. Y/N’s lungs seemed to be clenched too tightly to draw breath. Chris was in love with her. That was what he had just said, wasn’t it? He hadn’t used those words but what else could he have meant?

“Thank you for sharing that with us, Chris. And congratulations to you and Y/N. On that rather beautiful note,” James turned to the cameras with a smile, “We’ll take a break and be right back!”

The audience clapped and a crew member counted them out, letting James and Chris know when it was safe to relax. The moment the cameras were no longer filming, Chris leapt from his seat, shook James’s hand and practically galloped backstage. He was worried that Y/N might have fled but she still sat, frozen, in the chair she had taken before he made his confession. 

“Y/N?”

She turned her head to look up at him, her eyes wide and dazed. “That was...”

“The truth?” Chris finished for her.

“Was it?” She asked, her gaze becoming more focused on him. “Is that how you feel?”

He nodded. “That and more. I should have told you before, I should have just listened to Angie and asked you out but I...I don’t know. We were such good friends. And you were always dating other guys. And you hate the celebrity thing, you always said you’d never date anyone famous and you hate it when your picture shows up places, and I knew if we were together your picture would be taken.” Chris knew he was rambling but couldn’t seem to stop. “I always thought you just hated my career too much and that you weren’t interested but tonight...you were so great tonight. You took such good care of those fans and you even had fun but then Seb came around and he was flirting with you and you were laughing and touching his arm and I was this close,” he held up his fingers with a small space between them, “to tearing his arm off and beating him with it. Make him even more realistic as Bucky. So I just had to tell you, I had to-”

Y/N flung herself out of the chair and into his arms, her lips colliding against his with all the force of years of repressed passion. Chris responded equally as enthusiastically, wrapping his large arms around her and lifting her off the ground as he pressed their bodies together. Her lips were lush and tasted slightly of vanilla and cinnamon; Chris wondered if she always tasted this sweet and then if she would taste this sweet everywhere else. His hand went to the back of her neck as her fingers tangled into his hair, causing the gelled locks to splay and stick out in ridiculous, messy patterns. She tugged on his tresses lightly, garnering a moan from him, which allowed her to briefly slip her tongue into his mouth. 

Chris held Y/N even closer, his tongue chasing after hers and caressing its way into her mouth. He ran it along her lips, against her teeth, finally reaching out to brush against her own tongue, licking and exploring her as deeply as possible. 

“Chris,” she breathed out raggedly, breaking the kiss to speak. “Dressing room. Now.”

He didn’t hesitate for a moment. She had already been in his arms so it was easy to reach a hand down to the back of her thigh and pull her legs around his waist. Walking quickly, he carried her down the hallway, ignoring the looks of several crew members. He had been waiting years for this moment, god help anyone who tried to interfere or judge.

While they walked, Y/N kissed along his neck, her light nibbling causing his knees to tremble dangerously. 

“It does tickle,” Y/N giggled slightly. 

“What’s that, babe?”

“I was wondering earlier if your beard would tickle me if you kissed me.” She nuzzled against him and giggled again. “It does.”

“Just wait...soon it’s going to be tickling the inside of your thighs,” Chris retorted, his tone darkened with lust. 

Y/N sucked in a deep breath and bit her bottom lip. “I’ll hold you to that, Evans.”

They reached the dressing room and Chris shoved the door open, striding inside and dumping Y/N onto the plush couch. “Don’t move,” he warned before turning to quickly close and lock the door. She wouldn’t have had time to move had she wanted to; Chris moved rapidly and within seconds was over her again, his body a pleasant weight pressing against her, pushing her down into the soft couch.

“I love this dress,” Chris muttered against her lips. “You look so amazing in silver.” He stopped to kiss her again as his hands traveled along her body. “But it’s covering too much of you...”

Chris sat up and grinned wolfishly at her before moving his hands down to her ankles. He went slowly, his touch brushing the fabric upwards as his fingers traced along her skin against her ankles, her calfs...up to the outside of her thighs. As his hands reached her hips, he looked away from their progress to stare at her eyes again. 

“Lift your hips for me, babe.”

She did as he asked and he continued to slip the fabric off her, his palms stroking over her belly, brushing along her breasts and finally coming up to pull the gown over her head. He cast it to the floor of the dressing room and simply stared down at her for a moment, sprawled on the couch in just bra and panties, looking up at him with her eyes full of hunger and lust. 

“Damn, Y/N. You are even more amazing than I imagined...and trust me, I imagined a lot.”

He grinned at her wickedly again as she bit her lip and then trailed his fingers down her neck causing her to shiver. He continued his descent, his hand stopping only briefly to squeeze her breast through her thin bra before moving down again to find the edge of her underwear. 

Never taking his eyes from hers, Chris slipped his fingers into the edges of her panties and drew them down, pulling them away from her and dropping them on top of her discarded dress. Y/N seemed shy, closing her legs and blushing, but Chris coaxed them open, kissing her knee and trailing his hand along her inner thigh. 

“You’re beautiful, babe.”

“Chris, I-” Y/N started but broke off in a ragged gasp as his fingers brushed over her slit. 

“You what?”

“I,” she panted. “I-”

“Is there something you want to tell me, babe?” His tone was teasing as he smirked down at her. He continued to run his thumb up her slit, pressing it against the small bundle of nerves each time. 

“Mmmm...” She moaned and arched her back. “More...please...”

Chris stoked her again, this time pressing circles against her clit when he reached it. “I don’t think that’s what you wanted to tell me, Y/N.” He moved her legs gently so that he was sitting between them, her slick sex fully exposed to him. “What did you want to tell me, babe?” Instead of stroking, this time when he touched her, Chris pressed his long middle finger inside her, groaning at how she squeezed around it.

Y/N was panting and moaning, her hips moving on instinct against Chris’s hand, chasing pleasure, while her own hands squeezed and tweaked her breasts. 

“I love you, Chris,” she said on a breathy exhale. “I love you!”

“I love you too, babe,” Chris said triumphantly. He pulled his finger out of Y/N earning a moan of disappointment that rapidly became a groan of pleasure when his mouth took the place of his hand. 

Chris licked a stripe along Y/N’s wet pussy, savoring the taste of her, every bit as sweet as her lips. Just as he had promised, his beard tickled the inside of her thighs as he went to work, exploring every part of her with his tongue. Every few strokes and licks he would work his way back to her clit, giving it a firm flick with his tongue before sucking it gently. In a matter of minutes, Y/N was coming undone, chanting his name while he sucked on her and shaking as the waves of her orgasm washed through her. She was so overwhelmed by the pleasure, she didn’t even notice as Chris stood and began to undress. It wasn’t until his body weight was above her, pressing her pleasantly into the couch again, that she opened her eyes.

“Hey babe,” Chris whispered, kissing her lightly. His face hovered over hers, bright blue eyes shining down at her with a mixture of lust and love, his hair still standing on end from where she had run her fingers through it. 

Y/N moved her hands to his shoulders, squeezing the large muscles and sliding along the soft skin. He was the most beautiful man she had ever met and he loved her.

“I need you inside me,” she whispered to him. 

Chris wasted no time in complying. The tip of his hardened length had already been aligned with her, brushing against her entrance teasingly. At her word, Chris pressed his hips forward, both of them groaning as he slipped into her. 

“Damn, babe,” he moaned against her neck, his head falling against her, “You’re so tight.”

Y/N couldn’t think straight enough to protest that it wasn’t her tightness but rather his impressive size. Chris was thick and long; he was barely inside her and already filling and stretching her in that perfect blend of pleasure and pain. He moved slowly, pressing into her with gentle determination until he was fully sheathed in her. For a moment they simply stayed that way, as closely connected as possible, but before long, Y/N was aching for him to move, craving the friction and pleasure to come. 

“Please, Chris,” she begged him. “Please fuck me.”

Chris chuckled and kissed along her neck, slowly drawing his hips back and starting a steady rhythm, rocking against her. 

“More,” she moaned as her fingernails dug into his back.

He snapped his hips forward forcefully and she cried out, her back arching as her face screwed up in pleasure. Chris kissed along her jawline and continued, his strokes becoming faster and harder now that she was accustomed to the feel of him. 

“I’m close, I’m so close,” Y/N moaned as he continuously hit the sweet spot deep within her.

“Me too, babe,” Chris said through gritted teeth, his thrusts becoming sloppy. “Let go, Y/N...just enjoy it.”

With one last moan of his name, she came undone again, her nails digging into his back as her body tensed and relaxed, her muscles clenching tightly around Chris and bringing him over the edge as well. He found her lips again, kissing her and moaning her name as he continued to thrust, coaxing them both through the waves of pleasure as they came down. 

For another minute, they simply lay on the couch, twisted in each other’s arms, enjoying the feelings they had been denying themselves for years. Then Chris drew back to stare down at Y/N; her hair was a mess from rubbing against the couch, her cheeks flushed and lipstick smeared. Her eyes were still glazed with recent pleasure and her chest heaved unevenly. 

“You’re just as beautiful as the first time I saw you,” Chris said lovingly, leaning down to kiss her chastely. 

“The first time you saw me I had a hole in my lip and a mouthful of blood,” Y/N scoffed at him.

“Yeah, you did. And you were still the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen.”

“Such a liar, Evans.”

“Not to you, babe. Not about this.” He shook his head seriously. “I was crazy about you from the first moment I set eyes on you.”

Y/N blushed and looked away from him biting her lip. “Hey...what’s our percentage?”

“What?”

“You know how things were only good with Jenny like 10% of the time? What would you say our percentage is?”

Chris looked down at her and laughed, enjoying the unrestrained laughter that she always brought out in him. “About...99.9%.”

She looked thoughtful for a moment before breaking out into a huge smile. “I’ll take that answer.” 

“What percentage would you have said?” Chris asked quizzically. 

“Nope, not telling,” Y/N said with a smile as her phone started to buzz. 

“Oh, come on, babe, that’s not fair!”

“You should have asked me before you told me what your percentage was if you wanted to know! Now I have no incentive to tell you,” she teased while grabbing her phone. 

“Oh, I can give you an incentive,” Chris growled playfully. “Come ‘ere!”

He grabbed her and pulled her laughing back to the sofa, kissing her wildly and tickling his fingers along her body. Y/N’s phone lay forgotten on the table, the screen open to a text from Angie that read simply: “Saw Corden. About damn time!”

[papapiusxiii]

Maurice Sendak inscriptions, letters, and drawings:

Inscribed by Sendak on the front free endpaper, with a sketch of the story's protagonist, Mickey "For Harry and Kathleen Ford, Cock-a-doodle Doo! & Best Wishes to You! With very fond feelings - Maurice Sendak." Inscription dated June 7, 1972. First state of the dust jacket, without the silver Caldecott Honor Book sticker. Accompanied by the simultaneously issued "Coloring Book" edition. [x]

Letter from "Der bat artist" (Maurice Sendak) to Dear Bat Poet & Wife (Randall and Mary Jarrell) with an illustration of a bat holding a paint brush instead of a signature. Mentions the release of the book The Bat-Poet, by Randall Jarrell with pictures by Maurice Sendak. [x] Shortly before publication of The Bat Poet, in 1964, Sendak sent this undated letter to Jarrell. In place of a signature, Sendak signed his letter with a characteristically charming and tiny pen & ink cartoon of himself in the guise of “Der Bat Artist” flourishing his brush in hand (or foot) and about to create. The miniature drawing perfectly captures the spirit of Jarrell’s poetic hero, who, like a real human child, tale is just so eager and sweet and shy and curious, yet manages all this without being too cloying. The small bat wants to know things, and then he wants to sing, and when that doesn’t work, he begins to make up poems, trying to express himself. He sets out to explore the day world, for example, and he gets a creative crush on the vain yet talented mockingbird. Little by little, he puts his observations into words. When he received Sendak’s letter, Jarrell filed it carefully inside his copy of The Bat Poet, where it remained until Joyner Library acquired it in 2010.

Original ballpoint sketch of Carol in a full-length seated pose on a green 6 x 7 sheet of personal stationery, signed below the sketch, "Thank you!!!—Maurice," with Sendak adding the date and inscription in a large speech bubble, "April 2, 88, Dear Minnie, Laurie is lovely—is happy—in good company—refuses to be parted from his new hat and scarf—and send you happy greetings!" In fine condition. A wonderfully presented sketch of Sendak's most famous character, made all the more desirable by the thoughtful and neatly framed inscription. [x]

Pen and watercolor illustration on an Autograph Letter Signed ("M. Sendak"), November 18, 1962, to Lyn, being a self-portrait of Sendak with his dog, (“my dog Jennie who rejoices with me”) fold creases, light edgewear. Sendak writes this charming letter to a friend: “This is a picture of me after reading your letter, so thank you! P. S. Tho I look 6 1/2 I am really 34!”: [x]

Where the Wild Things Are First edition with inscription: "For Jonathan Ward, Maurice Sendak, Sept. 71," incorporating a fantastic original sketch of Carol, saying, "Hi!" [x]

Maurice Sendak Illustrated Books with Drawings on First Page. Includes The Sign on Rosie's Door with 3″x 2″ ink drawing of boy in sheets and Seven Tales by H.C. Andersen with 3.5''x2.5'' drawing of his dog Jennie and Bear. [x]

Two Copies of ''Little Bear'' with Maurice Sendak Ink Drawings Inside Cover. One has 5''x4.5'' drawing of dog and bear with a honey/bones store and the other has 3''x3'' drawing of walking bear. Both dated December 1961. [x]

Pair of hardcover books by celebrated children's author/illustrator Maurice Sendak. Outside Over There" frontispage has black felt tip pen inscription "For Carolyn, Koy, Daniel & Theresa - Maurice Sendak - Sept. 81" w/portrait sketch of Carol from Sendak's award-winning book "Where The Wild Things Are."  [x]

The Art of Maurice Sendak, 1984. Oblong folio (265 x 290 mm). Numerous colored and uncolored illustrations after Sendak. Original grey cloth, pictorial dust-jacket. Provenance: inscribed by Sendak, with an original drawing.  presentation copy, inscribed by the subject and with an original pen and ink drawing. The drawing is of Max holding his ears while Kennny's four-legged rooster is cock-a-doodle-do-ing. The inscription reads: "With all my love! From Max, Kenny's Rooster, & Maurice Sendak. Christmas '92." [x]

Maurice Sendak signed drawing. [x]

[chocolatequeennk]

Always Her Doctor, 5/6

John Tyler is a teacher at Farringham, but he’s been dreaming of another life–the life of an adventure known as the Doctor. When Marion Smith appears in Farringham, he’s immediately drawn to her. And why not? Marion Smith is the mirror image of Rose Tyler–the Doctor’s wife.

Reunion set during Human Nature/Family of Blood, with Christmas overtones.

This was part of @doctorroseprompts 31 Days of Ficmas. Now it’s for Doomsday Month--because we finally have a reunion in this chapter!

Thank you to @lastbluetardis for helping me with this.

AO3 | FF.NET | TSP | Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4

Rose soon discovered that running down a country lane at night was not, perhaps, the smartest idea she’d ever had. She and Martha knew the path through the woods to the TARDIS well enough to make the trip in the dark, but John did not. He was trying to run, but his instinctive caution hampered their speed.

They had to slow down even more when they turned off onto the narrow path that led to the TARDIS. Trees kept sunlight from reaching the ground here, and the frost and recent precipitation made it slick.

“Where are we going?” John asked, his breath turning to tiny crystals of ice.

“Somewhere safe,” Martha replied.

The hair on the back of Rose’s neck stood up, her awareness of danger pressing down on her again. “And we need to hurry. They’re following us.”

Heavy silence settled over them, and they sped up to a jog. Rose kept her ears strained, both for the sound of the TARDIS ahead and for any indication that their pursuers were closing in.

A hand slipped into hers, and Rose felt some of the tension in her body loosen at the familiar feeling. John might not remember their life, but they were still the Doctor and Rose Tyler, running for their lives.

She gave his hand a quick squeeze, and he grinned at her. “Some of that trouble I promised you, Marion.”

Before she could reply, he stumbled and fell, wrenching her shoulder a little when he pulled on her arm. “John!” Rose crouched down beside him. “What happened?”

He groaned and reached for his ankle. “I stepped in a hole and twisted my ankle.”

She and Martha helped him to his feet, and Rose watched anxiously as he tentatively put his weight on the foot he’d injured. The sharp indrawn breath told her what she needed to know, and without saying a word, she draped his arm over her shoulder.

“Let’s go,” she muttered once Martha was supporting him from the other side. They started down the path again, at half the speed they’d been moving before.

Rose’s danger sense sharpened, and her heart sped up. They were still a quarter of a mile from the shed. If they didn’t get to the TARDIS before the Family found them…

She picked up her pace, ignoring John’s pained gasps as she practically dragged him down the path. If the Family found them, going slowly and taking care of his ankle wouldn’t keep him safe.

Finally, the shed came into view. “Come on,” she hissed. “We’re almost there.”

The oily voice of Jeremy Baines stopped them. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”

Rose measured the distance to the shed, but Martha grabbed her hand before she could decide to make a run for it. “They’d shoot us before we could make it.”

“Oh, the maid is clever!”

Rose took a deep breath, then turned to face the Family. Her heart sank when she recognised the maid, Jenny, in addition to Baines. Mr. Clark from the village stood on Baines’ other side, and the fourth… She had to tamp down her anger when she realised the Family had possessed a child.

She casually shifted one step to the right, so she was in front of John. “What do you need, Baines?”

A sly smirk twisted his lips. “Oh, Miss Smith. I think you know exactly what we need.” He lifted his weapon and pointed it at John. “We need the Doctor.”

John huffed angrily. “What are you talking about, Baines?”

Uncertainty flickered in Baines’ eyes, and Rose was grateful she hadn’t told John the truth. His confusion was genuine and convincing.

Rose frowned and looked from one member of the Family to another. “The Doctor?” she repeated. “This is Mr. Tyler, not a doctor.”

“She is lying, Son of Mine,” Jenny said. “If he isn’t the Doctor, why did they flee?”

Rose ground her teeth together when she saw every member of the Family of Blood straighten at the reminder. Four hands tightened around four weapons, all of them pointed at John.

Just another fifty yards and we would have been safe. Behind her, the TARDIS seemed to hum in agreement… and maybe something more. Safe… I want my Doctor safe.

Rose closed her eyes and opened her mind, and the TARDIS’ song thrummed through her. I am the Bad Wolf.

Warning pulsed over their connection, and she snapped her eyes open. Baines had taken a step forward, trying to grab John before she could stop him. She held up her hand, and he froze in place.

“You will not touch him,” she ordered.

The Family all tilted their heads back and sniffed deeply. “You took on female form,” Baines crooned, laughter dancing in his eyes. “Time Lord…”

Rose shook her head. “I am not a Time Lord. I am the Bad Wolf.”

John stumbled back a step and stared at Marion. He’d been stunned when gold light had flowed out of the shed and swirled around her, but those words… he’d heard them before in his dreams.

Mr. Clark laughed. “Whoever you are, you are drenched in time energy. Son of Mine can live of your lifespan as well as he could the Doctor’s.”

Baines’ eyes glittered viciously. “Oh yes,” he whispered. “I will take your essence, and with that power I will bring ruin and destruction on the entire universe.”

John barely understood a word they were saying, but he comprehended enough to know that Marion was in danger. The muscle in his jaw twitched, and he tried to step forward to protect her.

A hand on his arm stopped him, and he whirled around to glare at Martha. But she shook her head and pointed at Marion.

“Let her take care of this, John,” she ordered. “Just watch.” John growled and shook her hand off his arm, but he stayed where he was and watched.

The young girl tilted her head. “This is boring,” she declared suddenly. Before John realised what she was doing, she squeezed the trigger on her gun, and a narrow beam of green light cut through the air in their direction.

John jerked away from Martha and limped forward to shield Marion. He braced for the pain, but the light stopped when it was still four feet away from him. A sheen of gold appeared in front of him for a moment before it disappeared.

Mr. Clark fired his weapon, but it hit the same gold barrier. “What is this?” he growled.

John shifted his weight to his good foot. He could see Marion’s eyes now, lit with gold fire.

She stared at Baines, her arms loose at her sides and her posture ready to move. “What happened to the humans you possessed?” she asked, ignoring Mr. Clark’s question. “Are they gone?”

John shuddered when the maid’s expression twisted into a smirk. “They are consumed.”

Marion nodded. “So they’re dead.”

The calm, matter-of-fact way she said it affected John more than the fact itself. She had known… she’d expected it, even.

Baines scowled and rolled his eyes. “Dead, gone, consumed… They are no more, just as you will be once we have you.”

Marion narrowed her eyes and tapped her finger against her chin. John shivered at the calculations he could see her making—where was the woman he loved in this cold warrior?

But when she nodded, he glimpsed the sorrow in her eyes, and she was Marion again. The compassion he’d fallen in love with was there, under the flinty determination to see justice carried out.

“You stole time from them, and so time shall be taken from you.”

Finality rang in her voice, and their four adversaries turned to run. But the same gold barrier that had stopped their weapons now surrounded them, and Baines and the rest turned back around. Their earlier derision had been replaced with fear.

“You could let us go,” the maid pleaded.

Marion shook her head. “He hid to give you the chance to live out your lives. Instead, you hunted for him and killed four innocent humans. There are no second chances.”

She waved her hand, and gold light streamed from her fingertips to swirl around the four people. “The remaining minutes and hours of your existence are gone.”

John frowned, uncertain of what she could possibly mean. The four seemed to understand, however, for they all opened their mouths to scream.

Not a sound escaped them before they fell to the ground. John didn’t need to look at them to know they were quite dead.

“What happened to them?” he asked.

She turned around, and he was mesmerised by the gold light in her eyes. Again, the sight sparked a sense of recognition, but he couldn’t pinpoint why.

Marion did not shy away from his gaze, but met it directly. “The Family of Blood killed Jenny, Baines, Mr. Clark, and that little girl. They killed them, then used their bodies to hunt for the Doctor. But their natural lives only last three months—that’s why they wanted the lifespan of a Time Lord.” She gestured at the bodies behind her. “I put them in a time bubble and sped up time inside it, so their three months would pass in the blink of an eye for us.”

“You stole time from them, so time shall be taken from you.”

John nodded slowly. He still didn’t understand the power she could wield, but he could understand the balance of her punishment.

When John accepted her explanation, Rose’s shoulders relaxed. Bad Wolf had been certain of the justice of her actions, but Rose Tyler had still worried that John—or worse, the Doctor—would not agree.

John smiled tentatively. “You saved our lives.” He stepped towards her, limping on his bad foot, and Rose knew there was one more thing Bad Wolf could do.

“Martha, can you hold him steady for a moment please?” she asked. When Martha had wrapped her arm around John’s waist, Rose knelt on the ground and pressed her hand to his ankle.

John gasped, and Rose knew he could feel the warmth travelling through her hand into his strained ligaments. She left her hand there until the feeling faded, and she knew the injury was healed.

Then she sat back on her haunches and smiled up at him. “Better?”

He rotated his ankle a few times, then put his weight on it. “How did you do that?” he whispered.

Bugger. Healing him had been so instinctive, she hadn’t stopped to consider how many questions it might raise. Should’ve just waited until we were in the TARDIS, she thought ruefully.

She tried to come up with a conceivable answer while she got to her feet, but some soft sound caught her ear. She whirled around, keeping her body in between John and the unknown source of the noise.

Timothy Latimer stepped into the clearing, his hands held out in front of him. “It’s just me, Miss Smith.”

Rose narrowed her eyes. “What are you doing here, Tim?” she asked, her voice sharp.

She tensed when he reached into his pocket, but he smiled reassuringly. “I came to give you this.” He opened his hand and the silver fob watch glinted in the moonlight.

John’s mouth fell open. “Is that the watch you were looking for, Marion?”

Martha snatched it out of his hand before Rose could answer. “Yes, it is. Why did you take it, Tim?”

He looked at her, then back at Rose. “I heard you in the library this morning. You were worried about a watch. And then I saw it in Mr. Tyler’s study. It spoke to me, told me to take it so you would be safe.”

Anger swept through Rose. The Doctor was always doing things to keep her safe, and this time, it could have killed him. “I could have kept the watch hidden myself,” she said through clenched teeth.

Tim shook his head. “No… I don’t understand, but I think if you’d had the watch, the Family would have thought you were the Doctor.”

And then Rose remembered how they’d reacted when she unleashed Bad Wolf. “You took on female form…” Perhaps holding the watch would have triggered enough of the time energy Bad Wolf had left behind to draw the attention of the Family.

She nodded, then looked at Martha. “Can I…”

Martha’s fingers flexed around the watch, and for a moment, Rose thought she would refuse. Then she sighed and handed it over.

The Doctor’s voice whispered through Rose’s mind the moment she touched the watch. She closed her eyes and listened to his promises that this was almost over—in only a few minutes, they would be together again.

But let go of Bad Wolf, love. We’re safe now.

Rose nodded. The TARDIS pulled back from their connection, and her awareness of time and space went with her.

John glared at the watch in Marion’s hand. Only an hour ago, he’d been anticipating an evening with Marion in his arms. That was lost, and it was easy to place the blame for that on this watch.

“Would someone mind telling me what’s so important about this watch?” he demanded, not caring if there was a bite in his voice.

Marion sighed and opened her eyes, and a tiny pang of guilt hit him when her soft smile disappeared. She closed her hand around the watch and looked over at Martha and Latimer.

“I think I need to talk to John alone.”

Latimer nodded quickly. “I should get back to the school before anyone realises I’m gone.”

Marion caught his hand before he left. “Tim… thank you.” To John’s surprise, her eyes glistened with emotion.

Latimer smiled and shook her hand. “You’re welcome, Miss Tyler.”

Marion chuckled as he disappeared down the path, then she turned to Martha. The maid sighed and pointed at the nearby shed. “I’ll be inside.”

John frowned; why would she want to go into an old shed in the middle of the night? But he and Marion were alone now, and he didn’t care about anything but getting an answer to his question about the watch.

“Marion, please. What is going on?” He paced up and down the path. “Why are you so focused on this watch?”

She opened her hand and brushed her thumb over the watch cover. The strange circular engravings tugged at John’s mind, but he couldn’t imagine where he would have seen it before.

Then she took a deep breath and looked at him. “This watch… this watch is you. You’re not John Tyler. Your name is the Doctor. All your dreams are real, love.”

“That’s impossible,” John insisted. “I’m human.” He put his hands over his heart. “One human heart, remember?”

The wind whistled through the trees and caught one of Marion’s curls, blowing it into her face. She tucked it behind her ear, and John waited while she decided what to say next.

“You became human to hide from the Family of Blood.”

She gestured at the bodies behind her, and John remembered that they’d said they were looking for the Doctor.

“You hid your mind, your memories of your past, in here. And if you open the watch, the Doctor will come back.”

John shoved his hands into his pockets when Marion tried to hand him the watch. “I don’t want that life.” His mouth was dry, and he had to swallow before he could continue. “I want this life, with my students, my books, and—”

Marion looked at him expectantly when he cut himself off mid-sentence. “What do you want, John?”

John could hear his heart pounding in his ears. His hands trembled as he reached for her, cupping her face between them. This face, he’d seen her face in his dreams before they’d even met.

“Rose.”

She gasped.

“You are Rose, aren’t you?”

Rose nodded, and a sob caught in John’s chest. He pulled her into his arms and clenched his eyes shut to hold back tears. “You were gone,” he said hoarsely. “You fell, and I couldn’t find you.”

Rose pressed two kisses to his chest, where he knew his hearts would be. “I know. That’s why I had to find you.” She looked up at him, and the fierce love in her eyes stunned him. “I told you once, I’m never going to leave you.”

She stepped out of his arms, and his grumble of protest died in his throat when she held up the watch. “I came back to you. Please come back to me.”

Rose held her breath until John took the watch. He stared at it for a long moment, then looked at her with a bittersweet smile on his face.

“Rose Tyler… I love you.”

His thumb pressed down on the catch, and the watch cover flipped open. Gold light floated out of the watch and streamed into his eyes, making them glow for a second.

Looks like regeneration, she thought. Only the energy is going into him instead of coming out of him.

The last of the light disappeared and the watch fell to the ground, dropped heedlessly by the hand that reached for Rose. The previously muted bond pulsed to life in her head, and she leaned into the Doctor’s telepathic embrace, even as she tilted her head back to accept his kiss.

I missed you, he told her as his cool lips met hers. I missed you so much.

His hands clenched in her heavy wool coat, and Rose soothed him over the bond. I know, Doctor. But I’m here now.

He nipped at her lip, and she opened her mouth beneath his. Don’t leave me again, he begged as his tongue brushed against hers.

Rose ran her fingers through his hair, then stroked the nape of his neck. I promise, Doctor. Never again.

The desperate edge in the kiss softened to tenderness. Rose swayed into him, and his hands unclenched to gather her as close as possible.

Tears pricked under her eyelids, and when she felt something cold and wet, she assumed the Doctor was crying, too. But when she pulled out of the kiss, she saw fluffy snowflakes clinging to his hair.

“It’s beautiful,” Rose breathed as she watched the first snowflakes drift to the ground.

The Doctor nodded, then he winked at her. “And it’s real snow this time.”

Rose laughed at the memory of that Christmas, so long ago. She stepped back and rested her hands on his chest. “And what are you going to do next?” she asked, almost exactly like she had then.

A slow smile spread over the Doctor’s face, and he turned and held his hand out. “Let’s go home.”

Excitement and relief coursed over the bond as they walked towards the TARDIS hand-in-hand. Neither of them would have to go on own their own any longer.

[bee-kathony]

Chapter 7 of Tales From Fraser’s Ridge: SATURATION

This is a collection of tales about characters that live on Fraser’s Ridge in North Carolina. Most stories are set after or during the book ‘Drums of Autumn’ by Diana Gabaldon. Missing moments I thought would fit in nicely, mostly a look into the domestic simple days of our favorite characters, it’s the little things isn’t it?

Part 1: Tell Me About the Bicycle | Claire & Jamie Part 2: A Song From the Past | Roger & Bree Part 3: Let Me Wash You | Claire & Jamie feat. Bree (briefly) Part 4: Reminiscing | Claire & Bree Part 5: Happy Birthday Sassenach | Claire & Jamie feat. Jenny, Ian, Rachel, Roger, Bree, Jem & Mandy Part 6: By the Fireside | Jenny & Bree Part 7: Saturation | Claire & Jamie (wee bit of Roger & Bree)

Jamie followed Claire’s tracks into the trees, deep into the woods and saw the pile of her clothes near a rock on the edge of the stream.

“Good Lord, she’s naked out here for anyone to see” he said to the open air.

She said she was coming down to wash and of course she couldn’t do that in her clothes. Still, Jamie thought, anyone could come strolling through and see her body, her naked and obviously now wet body. He walked a few steps forward but stopped abruptly, careful not to step on a fallen branch and make any sudden sounds. What he saw in front of him lit a fire deep within, his heart quickened and his mouth began to salivate. Should he be watching her like this?

Claire was definitely naked, she was also lying against the edge of the stream, feet dangling in the flowing water, with her hands curiously roaming over her damp body. Jamie had seen Claire touch herself only once, when they had been in the colonies a short time. That time was by a river too, what was it about water that made Claire so aroused, Jamie wondered.

“A Dhia” he breathed, he should go back and wait for her to return to the house but something wasn’t letting him move from the spot he crouched to watch her in. Before, when he saw her the first time, he could only just make out what her hands were doing to herself in the dark of the night. He had come to her then, they had slid across one another’s bodies, the air humid and damp making their sex quick and slippery.

It was midday, Jamie could see every inch of her. The way her fingers traced lazy circles around her nipples, each bud a deep red against the paleness of her velvet white skin. He watched as her hand then slid down across her wee belly and cupped her mound. It didn’t seem like Claire knew he was there watching but if she did, she wasn’t stopping. That thought made his cock twitch under his kilt. Jamie breathed deeply, skin flush with desire at watching his wife strewn across the earth taking pleasure from her hand.

Claire had told him how she could… finish on her own but that it was always better when a man gave her that pleasure. Should he let her finish, Jamie thought, or should he go to her now like he had done before and take her along the water.

He cursed himself and stayed where he was, just then Claire dipped her fingers inside of herself and moaned, a moan he had heard many a time but usually when he was the one inside her. Jamie couldn’t believe he was sat here this long, it wasna exactly spying he mused, she was his wifeafter all. He moved his hand timidly under his kilt and stroked his length, erect and pulsing with every thrum of his heart.

Claire suddenly arched her back off the ground, feet splashing in the stream and cried out, “Jamie! Oh Jamie” which made his ears turn red and he paused his movements underneath his kilt.

Had she seen him all along?

No. Her eyes had been closed this whole time, she musta’ been thinking it was his hands that now caressed her supple round breasts. He couldn’t wait any longer, the lust growing within him was threatening to consume him if he didn’t show himself to her. Jamie stood up, adjusting his kilt as he crept slowly over to where Claire was now panting, hands out on either side of her body.

“Jamie” she said, startled by his abrupt appearance. “Did you see?” Claire asked, not accusing him but more curious.

“Aye Sassenach, I saw how ye’re wee hands touched yerself,” he bent down so he was crouched beside her and reached out, hands pressing against the sharpness of her collarbones and gliding down along the length of her body, “like this. And I heard ye call out my name mo nighean donn from ye’re wee lips.” Jamie lowered his head, pressing his lips gently against hers, tasting the saltiness of perspiration on her upper lip.

“And did you like what you saw?” Claire asked, eyes alight with the same fire that was burning inside him. She moved her hand to his knee, sliding it menacingly slow along his thigh, she touched his cock then making him almost combust. “Claire…” he sighed, all in one quick fluid movement he was on top of her, kilt shoved aside as he slid home.

“Ye’re quim is slick Sassenach, it feels like the moss that grows on the rocks when I thrust inside ye.” Jamie grunted, hands on either side of her head, body held above her. She slid her hands up his chest and around his arms, holding on as he moved them.

“Are you saying that my ‘quim’” Claire moaned, one leg wrapped around his waist to shift the angle of his cock within her. “Reminds you of a green weed?” She laughed, his mouth capturing the sound, tongue colliding with hers.

“Nah a weed Sassenach” He slid one hand to the point of their joining and moved his thumb against the little hard nub that made Claire bite his lip, he winced but enjoyed the pain. “I only meant the wetness of ye, surrounding my cock, my God Sassenach.” He grunted and moved his hips back and forth, briefly sliding out of her warm centre and then ramming home where he belonged between her thighs.

“Ahhh Jamie” She called out, her eyes looking far beyond his face in front of her, seeing into his soul as he took her. Jamie collapsed in a breathless heap next to her languid body, their sweat and evidence of their arousal shone on her skin. He moved one finger against her neck, feeling her pulse just as she had shown him.

“Ye’re heart is racing as fast as mine Sassenach” he leaned up on one elbow and kissed her, lips parting hers with a tender embrace. “It must be the thrill of being seen at any moment” she growled, moving her nose back and forth against his.

Jamie laughed, fingers brushing off the damp curls that lay across her forehead, “I think ye will need to wash again Sassenach, there’s wee bits of dirt smudged all over ye.” His hands tickled over her shoulders and down to her hips where dirt was indeed smudged across her skin.

Claire moved to sit up and looked down to take survey of her dirt covered body, “Is that so? I wonder how it go there?” She giggled at him, raising her eyebrows before slipping into the stream. “Aha, ye will nah get away from me sah quick” Jamie pulled off his shirt and kilt in speedy fashion and waded into the water after Claire. The water wasn’t too deep, it just reached his hips, ripples came from a few feet away as Claire laid back in the water, wetting her hair once again.

Jamie walked slowly across the stream, the steady rush of the water pushing against him. He found Claire’s waist under the water and gave it a squeeze, “Mmmm Sassenach, I love ye’re body when it’s nice and wet.” He bit his lower lip, picking Claire bodily out of the water and setting her in front of him, his hands lowering to her round arse and bringing her legs to wrap around his hips.

He didn’t take her then, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to, his cock certainly did, wedged between their bodies under the water. But he held her against him, savouring the smoothness of her skin, admiring the way the light flickered in her whiskey coloured eyes. Claire folded her hands around his neck and leaned back, her hair just brushing the surface of the water, he slid one hand from her hips up along her body, resting it in the valley of her firm breasts. “Ahhh” She sighed as he turned them, ever so slowly in circles.

Jamie held her body, almost weightless now in the cool stream, watching the sun dance across the expanse of her skin. He ran his hand over the perky nipples staring him in the face, he scooped up water and let it trickle from his hand over her body, sending chills over her. Claire’s eyes were closed, her arms now floating out beside her, basking in the touch of Jamie.

Roughly one hundred feet away, Roger and Bree were walking through the trees, taking advantage of the sunny spring day. They were talking about this and that, Jem & Germaine getting into mischief, Lizzie and her odd situation with the Beardsley twins. Roger was enjoying the scenery, looking up at the sky, shielding his eyes with his hand. When he looked down over near the stream he stopped dead in his tracks.

“Well ‘Jiminy Crickets’, here they are out in the open.” He exclaimed, squinting his eyes to make sure he it was really Jamie and Claire he was seeing, naked, limbs wrapped round each other, drifting in the water.

“Who’s out in the open?” Bree asked him, glancing in the direction Roger was staring at. “Christ!” She gasped, and hit Roger on the side of the arm, “Will you stop looking at them for crying out loud!” Bree eyed the spot where her parents were, it’s not that she was seeing anything particularly inappropriate, but she felt she was in the middle of a very intimate moment, there wasn’t room for prying eyes, even if her parents decided they could do that sort of thing out in the forest.

“It’s not my fault they’re doing hochmagandy out here now is it?” He laughed, a sudden urge welled up deep within him, he raised his thick brows at Bree and she smirked, shoving him in the chest.

“God Roger, I can’t believe you want to do that after seeing my parents naked! You’re disgusting!” She laughed and with one quick look back at her parents, Jamie’s hands now wound in her Mother’s hair, she turned them both to exit the forest. “I wouldna say ‘disgusting’, I’d say I’m only inspired ye ken?” Roger quipped, his hand slipping down Bree’s back and squeezing her arse making her yelp, covering her mouth with her hand.

“Oh my God.” She was laughing, clearly not turned off to the idea. Roger made a Scottish grunt in his throat and she said, “Oh come on then” and they picked up the pace, reaching the cabin in record time.

“Sassenach, ye look so lovely all spread out, so peaceful and yet while I like to watch ye be still, I canna help but want to make ye squirm.” Jamie sighed, oblivious to their watching party out in the forest. He slid his hand behind Claire’s head and wound his fingers through her hair, cradling her delicate head in his large rough hand.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever made love like this Jamie, in a moving stream…” Claire raised up slightly, her hands finding their rightful place on his chest. She leaned in to kiss him, hesitating before their lips met, “Care to try?” And pressed her mouth on his, not waiting for his response. The twitch of his cock between them was response enough. With one hand held on to the scruff of his neck, Claire moved her other hand below the surface of the water, taking hold of his cock. “Oooo Sassenach, what a fine grip ye have.” He cooed, kissing the side of her jawline.

“Am I being too rough on you?” Claire moaned, her head lolling from side to side as Jamie licked, nipped and sucked across her neck. “Nah mo nighean donn, never.” He found her hips again, guiding her body to envelope around him, he slid between her thighs with the help of Claire’s skillful hand. “Uhhh” Claire moaned, her forehead pressed against his, breath hot against his face, the rhythm of their joining began, a give and take of their souls. He could never tire of seeing Claire like this, her pleasure evident on her face, body surrendering to his with each thrust and twist.

Jamie found it easy to maneuver their bodies in the water, weightless, he bent his knees and thrust in an upward rolling motion, sending splashes of water in the air. “Jamie” Claire breathed, both her hands pressing against his cheeks, her mouth finding comfort in the depths of his. They rode out the waves of their desire, baring everything they had in that moment. They each called out the others name, willing themselves to somehow grow closer, the need to just be was overwhelming.

“Sassenach” Jamie mumbled against Claire’s mouth, her hand had dove under the water, resting on the place of their joining, forcing him deeper inside her. “I love you Jamie” she cried out, her body trembling around his, the vibration of her orgasm over-powered him, sending his head spinning, the rush of the water momentarily making him lose his balance.

Steadying himself, he opened his eyes, gazing at his wife’s astonishing beauty. “And I you” he kissed her, still joined and simply held her against him, drawing life from the nature around them.

[wafflesetc]

Colder Weather Part 5 (Part 1/Part 2/ Part 3 / Part 4 /AO3) @kkruml: Thank you for holding my hand through this fic and guiding me through the angst and helping formulate finishing sentences. This fic is dedicated to you.

And here it is— the final installment of this Colder Weather journey. Thank you all for the kind words, reblogs, tears, and shouty caps. I’ve enjoyed every second of this angsty journey. (PS- I promise the angst pays off!)

He was sullen as he sank into the sofa.  He heard Jenny’s footsteps upstairs, finishing putting young Jamie to bed.

He took a sip of his whisky, the fireplace warming his shins. Jenny crept down the stairs and he felt her small hands as she placed them on his shoulders.

“Are ye alright, brother?” Jenny asked as she rubbed his shoulders for a second then made her way around the couch, sitting down next to him.

“Aye, I think so…. Time will tell.”

“Weel, I have some good news I think ye’d like to hear.” Jenny said. Jamie smiled softly as he turned his face towards his sister.

“What is it, Jenny?” Jamie asked passing his glass to his sister. Jenny smiled, shaking her head at him. He looked at her, puzzled, but putting it all together. “Am I to be an uncle, again?”

“Yes. A wee lass, I’m due in about 5 months. We didna want to tell ye, but ye look like ye could use some good news…”

“I could, thank ye.” Jamie said, a true smile on his face for the first time since he had come home. He reached over, placing his hand on his sister’s small swelling stomach, and giving his niece a kiss. “I’m yer Uncle Jamie, lass.”

“I expect some good foo—“ Jenny stopped as there was a knock on the door. “Ah dhia who could that be it is a bit late and Lallybroch is not in the city….”  She got up walking to the door, opening the front door. “Oh… Dear…”

Jamie took another sip of his whisky as he turned to the door to see who the guest was.

“I’m sorry it’s so late… But, I just… I need to talk to him, I am assuming he is here.” A soft, familiar voice said in the entry way.

“I—uh, think it is time I retire for the night. Ye ken your way around.” Jenny said. He watched as Claire took the step into the house as Jenny escaped up the stairs.

Jamie’s eyes tracked her as she rounded the corner into the living room.

Her eyes were red and puffy, her eyes sunken into her face. Her face a splotchy mess of reds and pinks. She had been crying—correction – she had been sobbing for what appeared to be hours.  

It was all his fault.

“Jamie.” She breathed as she wrapped her arms around her stomach. “It’s all my fault… I am sorry… I am sorry Faith isn’t here, it is all my fault.” He watched as whatever strength she had left to get her to him finally broke—the dam’s release opening the floodgates.

He was up and had his arms around her in record time. Nothing mattered anymore—not the years spent apart, not the heartbreak, not the loss, nothing else mattered in the world except for the two of them.

“Sassenach.” He breathed into her hair as he sank to the floor, pulling her onto his lap. Her entire body frame fitting to his like a glove. “It is no’ yer fault…. It’s no one’s fault. Ye ken that well, I know ye do.”

“But… Jamie…. It’s…. all so much, I feel so much…” Claire said as she clenched a fistful of his shirt into her hand.  

“Sassenach.” He replied, the tears forming in his own eyes.  

“I missed you calling me that.” She half laughed through her tears.

“I missed calling ye that.” Jamie croaked back, tilting her face up to his. “Claire…. I would verra much like to kiss ye, may I?”

Her eyes looked up to his, a shimmer of hope in them appearing through her tears. She nodded, “You may… And Jamie… You need to know, it’s always been you.”

He smiled as he claimed his mouth on hers. She tasted of salt, hints of whisky, her favorite peppermint lip balm, and home.  

“You’ll always be home, Sassenach.” Jamie replied as the shattered pieces of his heart mended together.

3 Years Later

He watched as she ran through the hills, her red hair sticking out amongst the greens and browns of the Highlands.

He felt her rubbing circles on his knees as she was lying between his legs, her large stomach protruding further than he ever thought possible. Her medusa-like curls a mess on his chest.

“Brianna Fraser – watch yourself or you will skin your knee, again!” Claire bellowed as she tried to sit up right to correct her daughter.

“Let me help ye up.” Jamie laughed as he went to stand up.

“No you don’t, Jamie. We’re staying right here. I’m way too large to move and your child is currently doing somersaults in my womb and your backrub is saving my life.” Claire responded as she pressed her back firmly into his chest and laughed.

“It’s a good thing Bree’s father is a true Scot, aye? We can see the red hair from a mile away.” Jamie said as he ran his hands up and down his wife’s back.

“It’s a true miracle.” Claire smiled as she turned her head up towards her husband.

“All of it, Claire, all of it. Thank ye, for the bairns, all three of them. And being my wife. I ken it wasna an easy road to get to here…But I am grateful for it, for all of this.”  He said as he tilted his head down and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her belly.

“I love you.” Claire said as Bree ran up and nudged her way between the two of them.

“Ye little fool, ye canna hurt yer mam and baby brother like that! Remember, Da told ye to be gentle!” Jamie said as he pulled the toddler into his arms, putting some distance between him and Claire.

Claire laughed as she turned herself around, resting her weight on her arms. Bree pulled herself into a small ball as she sat on Jamie’s lap and he kissed her forehead.

He watched as the sun was sinking under the Scottish highlands. Bree used her clammy hands as she patted both his cheeks. He laughed— looking over to his wife, who had thrown her head back, closing her eyes, basking in the sun.

He was thankful for every moment, every detour and hardship that had brought him here.

Faith wasn’t with them, and he would always love and miss her, but as the golden hues of remnants of sunlight highlighted Bree’s red hair and reflected in his wife’s blue eyes, he knew she was watching over them— sending the warmer weather for the rest of their lives.

Fin

[imagineclaireandjamie]

Liv says: Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive of this story! I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I’ve learned from it <3 (I’ve never finished an AU before?!)

Read the fic here.

Our Story - The End

Despite all the years Jamie has been an author—his success turned moderate after a succession of similarly moderate novels—he has never become accustomed to seeing his own face in public. His 35-year old hair, fuller than it is now, on a book jacket. His 35-year old eyes, suggesting a wisdom he is gradually losing, on a poster. The ghost of him, always haunting.

It is a strange thing to see oneself in the hands of strangers—and stranger still to imagine the places in which one’s face has unknowingly been. A woman in Tallahassee carries What My Father Told Me in her beach bag. Two of Us Now is piled among the Strand’s $2 pickings. 

Right now, his current face is looking at his former face from across the aisle of a plane. The reader—a young woman, chipped nails, roughly 30—has failed to notice the resemblance between JAMES FRASER (emboldened, size 45 font, Times New Roman) and Jamie Fraser (human, 6’3”, approaching old age). For this, he cannot blame her. Even he finds the connection between himself and this shade, though only a few feet away, incredibly tenuous.

Over the intercom, the pilot announces their impending arrival with a lilt and un-American vowels—a voice that sounds like home. The young woman looks up from Jamie’s book and squints, as if, by narrowing her vision, the pilot’s words will write themselves into the air, more easily deciphered. Jamie laughs quietly to himself, suddenly proud of the physical (and unlikely) contact between his face, his words, and this person who is so very different from him.

(He has touched more people than he knows.)

Jamie looks out the plane window. Through the darkening light, he can almost spot the places he and Claire will visit in Scotland: Lallybroch, the university. The small studio where he had once made promises that, for the most part, he has managed to keep. He watches his wife, whose head rests just beneath his ear, and listens to her breathing—a whistle more constant than his own reflection. He turns to the reader, then back to window, the sky growing darker, darker. The tarmac coming closer, closer. And as the ground nears, he sees that familiar but foreign thing lying in the shadowed moors: His face, forever a part of this land, staring up at him.

Jamie has begun to write separate reflections, expanding the narrative of their story with brief asides. They are scrawled on napkins, on hotel stationary, on the coasters he has swiped from corner pubs. Jamie has slipped them between the pages of Claire’s notebook, their crumpled edges sticking out like so many erratic pathways, which mirror the aimless movements of his mind. 

In the hotel lobby, Claire reads them before she writes, though she has not mentioned this to Jamie. His honesty—stated so freely in these passages—could find no justice in spoken language. Out of respect, she has let his words sit between them, a significant but mute presence, for the past three days:

Today, I watched you kneel down to touch our daughter’s grave and say, “Hi sweetheart.” Today, I wondered when I’ll forget her. Today, your voice kept cracking and your eyes kept watering, and I thought, Turn away. And I thought, Give her privacy. And I thought, I should have been there, I should have been there, I should have been there. But I did not turn away, and I did not give you privacy—and no, I had not been there on that day in April. Instead, I crouched beside you today. I held your trembling hands today. After all these years I have learned to bear my pain, but still—I can never bear yours.

Today, we stumbled upon a small café and you told me it was planned, it was all on purpose. This was where I kissed you in front of our closest friends, the very first time, did I remember? I could see it meant something to you—my memory of that old gesture and that old kiss—and because you mean the world to me, I lied. “Yes,” I said. “I remember.” Today, you couldn’t stop taking pictures.

Today, you made bannocks with Jenny and sang lullabies in broken Gaelic. You knew exactly where the extra blankets were kept. Today, you did not ask Ian if he needed help carrying in the firewood. You knew it would hurt his pride. And when you passed the portrait of my mother, hanging in the upstairs hallway, I saw you incline your head, just so, as if you knew her too. Sometimes I worry that I have not said “I love you” enough.

Claire returns from the lobby to their room and crawls between the covers. Jamie’s honesty may be unspeakable, but she can acknowledge it with her body: flesh to flesh and mouths in the dark. Her hips, in sure but languid motion, are her own confession. The vulnerable way she shakes when she’s unraveled by his hands—the purest reciprocation she can offer.

A woman lets them into the apartment building on Fury Street. She grins when she sees Jamie and Claire, whose feet—now dancing a nervous shuffle—once walked this path every day. The woman’s mouth reveals crooked teeth, and the grip on her groceries shows the blue-green ropes of her veins. Claire is twenty years her senior, at least—and yet. Standing before the brick and mortar of her past, Claire feels so young, so prepared to beg for the approval of those yellowed teeth and those blue-green cords. She rushes to take a bag and open the door like coming here is a race she could lose. 

“I canna very well let James Fraser wait on me doorstep,” the woman says, once they’ve introduced themselves and their purpose for coming. “Welcome. I’m Fiona, by the way. Fiona Graham.”

It is surreal, climbing these stairs, surrounded by the ghosts of their 20-something selves. The band stickers, once pasted above the landing, have been scraped away. The section of banisters, which gaped like a broken smile, have been replaced. The door does not stick when a man, dressed in an Argyle sweater, swings it open and says, “Well, what have we here?”

“Oh, these people used to live here, Mr. Wakefield. Before the expansion, aye?”

“My, is that so?”

There is also no sign of their former neighbors—a couple whose screams had matched the music of their faulty plumbing. And when Mr. Wakefield shows Jamie and Claire their old studio, having so graciously invited them inside, they can only walk in circles. One thing, at least, has been preserved: the weak floorboards near the entrance. (A fleeting fancy: Claire wants to yell, Babe, I’m home, just to see what it’d sound like again.)

“They tore down the walls to make a bigger place, you see,” the Reverend says. “Hardly enough room for one person, much less two. Don’t know how you folks managed.”

Claire nods, yes, though her eyes are fixed elsewhere, on a certain window just ahead.

This had been their window—the one whose lancing evening light had lit up their bodies in the dark. It was by this window that Claire had learned Jamie’s secrets: the triangular birthmark on his chest, the scar on his thigh, the slight curve of his lips when he slept. It was this window that had given her a view of a world she’d thought was permanent.

To be kind, Jamie says, “It’s verra nice, sir,” though his eyes are fixed upon his wife, whose eyes are still fixed upon the window. This is the window, he vaguely realizes, from which he saw a group of carolers sing and the glare of a golden light, sparkling in the snow. He had paced before this window, a lump in his throat, before packing a bag of clothes—the tiniest clothes—inside a garbage bag. Long ago, he had spoken out of this window and wondered if she could hear him. These memories emerge and bring a hot wetness to his eyes.

“And how long have you lived here, Mr. Wakefield?” Claire asks.

“Oh, about fifteen years now.”

After all this time, Jamie is able to derive the meaning from his wife’s pleasantries and the false bravado of her chin. There is a sadness in the way she is looking at that window, trying to summon the past back through it. 

Jamie steps forward to take the crook of her arm and ignores the Reverend’s endless rambling. He points to the ceiling and says, “Look.”

They had both been secretly hoping it was there—and it is. Like a solar eclipse, a speck of marigold still shines in the northernmost corner.

Claire smiles.

Years later, the Reverend will remember the couple who seemed more at home in his place than himself. He will remark—perhaps to Alice—about the way they moved, as if in orbit. A sort of cosmic revolution that required a certain degree of closeness and a certain degree of separation, for their own balance.

In passing, the Reverend and Alice will say things like, “I’m so glad they came by,” and,  “They were a lovely couple.” On the surface, these will seem like complimentary remarks, but they will mean something else entirely.

What they will mean: I haven’t forgotten.

What they have not forgotten: the way this brief entrance has reverberated throughout their lives. Like two stars, which have long since smoldered, but whose light can still be seen from the distance of a thousand years.

And it will be the same for others as well. A nurse in 1968 can still feel the trickle down her brow, precipitated by the birth of red-haired child. A priest who said a funeral in 1992 still holds the sound of the mother’s remorseful keening. And a writer named Mary McNab still recalls a night of half-hearted passion. She can feel the magnitude of an invisible sorrow, her own willing surrender, and her own gentle possession inside a lonely mountain cabin.

All of them will think of Jamie and Claire Fraser, two strangers who became a part of their own story and changed it—even if just for a moment.

People’s stories are so malleable. One decision causes a ripple and then, however infinitesimally, changes their trajectories. A look, a touch, a conversation—what if the nurse had not delivered the baby into his mother’s dying arms? What if the priest had not said the service? How much of their stories would be different? And for that matter, how much of their stories have been edited by the stories of others?

Jamie and Claire live on in such memories—the small legacies they have carved for themselves in different lives. Pieces of them will remain, thriving, even when it seems they have been forgotten. They are two points, forever at the origin of a stranger’s long-ago decision: to say “push,” to oversee the funeral, to knock on the door at midnight. In this way, Jamie and Claire are immortal. In this way, the universe remembers them.

In the end, we are all echoes carried in the bones of things.

Today, you wore the bracelet I gave you when Brianna was born. Today, I didn’t realize you meant to kiss me, and so you found my cheek like a teenage lover. The charms moved, tinkling, when you held my hand. Have I told you that I always think of this? Those little tokens of your life, calling out as you reach for me. I felt the baby rattle, the stethoscope. The small penguin, with its jewel encrusted eye, pressed its wing into my skin. Here’s the thing, Claire: it has always been forever.

They are at Arthur’s Seat. The wind blows them sideways, and it threatens to sweep them into the city below. Claire’s earring falls from her lobe, and Jamie catches it. Jamie’s scarf unwinds from his neck, and Claire snatches its tasseled ends before it flies towards the sea. Their feet are imbalanced on the uneven terrain, and they duck haphazardly out of tourists’ photos.

Claire, seeing Jamie hoist up a struggling climber, thinks of how recklessly, how wholly she has loved him. And Jamie, seeing Claire let down her hair, marvels at their easy tumble—how effortlessly they have become a staple of his life.

Eventually, the darkening horizon predicts a storm, and the clouds roll in. Jamie and Claire are one of the few still on the peak, most visitors already picking their way down the hillside, hidden beneath plastic ponchos.

“There,” Claire says. She points to something in the distance: a dark-brick building, just on the edges of Edinburgh. “Where we first met,” she clarifies.

“Does it look the same, d’ye think?”

“Yes,” Claire says. Looking down, she laces her fingers through his, as if to give him the understanding of its sameness. “Yes, I suppose it does.”

They both support each other against the wind, thinking of the opening words in their now-shared notebook. Like a dream—to see the place where Claire had once fixed her lipstick, where Jamie had once loosened his shirt collar, where they had once walked together through a crowded room and realized how easy it was to fall in love.

They both laugh when two little girls stick out their tongues to catch the rain.

“So here were are,” Claire says.

“Here we are,” Jamie replies. And he kisses her.

FIN.

And if you’re bored and would like an Our Story playlist—here are the songs that gave me feels while writing.

[bleep-blop-lizard-hop]

9, 11, 19 go!!!

Omg thank you, friend!

“Get out!”

Vastra the lizard woman was getting ready to crawl into bed when her wife Jenny entered the bedroom, appearing to be angry.

“I beg your pardon?” Questioned the Silurian, her head tilted aside in puzzlement.

“I said get out, you stupid daft lizard!” Growled Jenny as she forcefully grabbed Vastra and pushed her out of the room, before slamming the door closed in her face.

Everything happened so fast and suddenly, that it took Vastra several long minutes to fully register the situation. Desperate for answers, she began knocking on the door and asking, “Jenny, my Love, whatever is the meaning of this expulsion?”

“I’m hereby banishing you from our bed,” came Jenny’s indignant reply from the other side. Vastra could practically hear her crossing her arms over her chest as she said that.

“But....but you can’t banish me!” Whined the usually proud and dignified Silurian; Always leave it to Jenny to be the only person who can bring her down to her knees. “That is my bed too!”

Truth be told, this wouldn’t be the first  occasion  that Jenny had expelled Vastra from their shared bedroom, though Vastra still wondered about what she did to upset her wife this time.

Jenny merely rolled her eyes, and shot back with, “Well maybe you should have thought about that, before flirting with that wealthy heiress when we were investigating her case!”

Bloody hell, her wife can be such a damn clueless lizard sometimes! Jenny has a bit of a jealous streak, which she’s completely aware of, and so is Vastra. She knows that Vastra love getting a rise out of her, but she would often take it much too far for Jenny’s liking.

A period of tense silence followed and then there was a faint rustling of fabric as Vastra sunk down onto her knees, seemingly preparing to grovel for her wife’s forgiveness. “I am so truly sorry, Jenny,” she lamented through the door. “I admit that I was out of line, but I never meant to hurt you like this. I love you, more than anything else in the world. So please let me in, my Dear.”

Jenny could hear Vastra’s voice cracking slightly when she spoke that last part, and struggled to remain sternly resolute as she felt a tug on her heartstrings,

“I accept your apology, Vastra,” said Jenny mercifully, though there was also a catch waiting at the tip of her tongue. “But I’m afraid that I will have to bid you goodnight now.”

“Wait what?!” Vastra couldn’t even make sense of Jenny’s words, and cried once again, “No, stay....I’m begging you to let me in, Jenny!”

It was all for naught, however, as Jenny turned her back on the door and sighed, “See you in the morning, Vastra.”

That was the final blow that hurt more than any sword cut or gunshot, and there was nothing left for Vastra to do except press her head against the wooden door in defeat. Being rejected and separated from her beloved human was the absolute most painful torture that Vastra had ever endured. She knew that there was nobody to blame but herself, of course; By the Goddess, if only she would learn her lesson to not be such a promiscuous and daft lizard! Jenny definitely deserve far better than that, and Vastra felt like she should have tried harder to quit her flirtatious ways. Just when the Silurian was about to resign herself to her somber fate that night, an idea suddenly presented itself within her mind, prompting her to rise up and rush toward Jenny’s old room at the other end of the hall.

She soon emerged holding what appeared to be a beaten leather bound book, the cover adorned with rather sloppily embroidered letters spelling Jenny’s name.

Standing near the bedroom door once again, Vastra flipped to a random page in the book and cleared her throat.

“Dear diary…,” began Vastra while managing to keep a straight face. “My Madame was injured today and I drew her a warm bath to help clean the wounds. There were deep cuts along her chest and legs and so much blood. I was really afraid of losing her….”

As if on cue, her superior Silurian hearing picked up the sound of someone sliding off the bed and their feet approaching the door.

“Vastra? What the hell are you doing with my diary?!” Came Jenny’s muffled exclamation, sounding less than pleased.

“Gaining tactical leverage, my Darling,” answered Vastra a bit coyly, grinning like an evil mastermind. “I must say, it is quite enlightening to read about these events from your point of view.”

Jenny merely spluttered in shock and anger, before she was able let out, “How dare you, those writings were strictly private!”

Vastra gently drummed her slender green fingers upon the page and pondered until she reached a viable solution. “Hmm, well I suppose I would be willing to return your diary to you….and in exchange, you will grant me access back into the room?”It was then that Jenny realized the tables have been turned on her, effectively trapping her between a rock and a hard place.

“Nice try, but did you think that I would be so easily persuaded,” Jenny snorted in a last ditch attempt at standing her ground on the matter.

“Suit yourself then,” shrugged Vastra as she continued to read the rest of the entry, “Her green scales were so shiny and smooth, I couldn’t take my eyes off of them. I wanted to touch every single scale on her body, even if it is an inappropriate thought for a maid to have…”

“Alright! Alright! You’ve made your point, I’m letting you in now,” surrendered Jenny, figuring that she was no match for Vastra’s brilliant act of blackmail. Within seconds, the doorknob was twisted and the door opened to reveal a tired scowling Jenny. “You’re Satan!”

“So I’ve been told plenty of times before,” Vastra replied smugly, tossing the diary aside so that she could lift Jenny up in her arms and carry her to bed. “But even devils need to rest from time to time, don’t you think?”

Please remember to leave comments!

[sapphiresassenach]

A Far Away Infinity

This is the last regular chapter! There will be an epilogue posted that will tie up some loose ends. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Part 7 // Putting one foot in front of the other //

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6

“Farewell to the mountains high cover'd with snow; Farewell to the straths and green valleys below; Farewell to the forrests and wild-hanging woods; Farwell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here, My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe; My heart's in the Highlands, whereever I go.”

Ian wiped a tear that was about to fall from the corner of his eye as he finished the last verse of the poem and stepped down from where he stood above the crowd of tenants and friends, reaching to pat Jamie on the shoulder before wrapping a weeping Jenny in his arms as he sat back down to join the rest of the mourners.

She glanced at Jamie, who was looking, not at the casket where his father lie, but at the rolling fields that surrounded them, the ones Ian had so beautifully evoked with his chosen poem to read.

She squeezed his hand tighter in hers and saw a glimmer of a smile grace his lips before the priest began to speak again.

“In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.”

“Amen,” the crowd murmured with him and began to stand, to begin the real part of the funeral, the part where everyone remembers and reminisces about the lost soul. The part where the true healing begins.

“Amen,” she whispered to Jamie again, quietly.

Broken from his trance by the beautiful sun set that Brian’s last farewell had been blessed with, he turned and looked down at her.

The look on his face was something she would remember long past their young years together. It was a look she knew that would live in her heart forever, for whenever she needed it. She could simply pluck the memory after every fight, every hardship and have it warm her like the summer sun.

The glistening of his eyes, the curve of his upper lip, the softness of his evening stubble, the way his eyebrows drew together ever so slightly as he met her gaze. It wasn’t until later that she would figure out that was what love looked like in its purest form. The way a lover looks at his love with nothing but his soul echoed in their eyes, ready and eager to share.

“So sorry again for your loss, Jamie. He was a good man.”

“Terribly sorry, my deary. You’ll be letting us know if ye’ll be needin’ of anything now.”

“I ken that yer father had some trouble with the harvest this year, I’ll be here to help ye next…we’ll if yer staying, that is…”

Jamie reached out and shook the man’s hand with as much patience as he had left. “Aye, aye. I will look forward to yer help, MacDonald.”

The man smiled with the same sympathetic eyes that been looking at Jamie the whole day and walked out the front door, leaving Lallybroch to only those who occupy its walls.

All the breath left Jamie as he shut the door behind the man and turned and slumped into her open arms. His stiff body turned boneless as she held him close, rocking back and forth slightly as he finally let himself relax.

“Shh, its over now…everything’s ok,” she clutched him tighter as the façade of the day began to fade and he let himself cry softly into her shoulder. Soundless, but with enough force to shake her.

“What do I do now, Claire? My parents are dead,” his voice cracked on the word dead and she thought it was the first time it had seemed actually real to him.

“You move on. It’s all we can ever do, go forward with the scars from the past.”

He pulled back to look at her, hair disheveled and eyes puffy, “But how, mo nighean?”

It struck her that he was so young when his mother and brother died, he had forgotten how to grieve the recently lost.

“I wish I knew the answer, but putting one foot in front of the other is usually a good place to start.”

She got what she wanted, a little smile threatening to form on his red lips. Instinctively, she reached out and kissed them, relishing in the fact that she could. That he was hers, once and for all.

After she had confessed that she loved him, their relationship became quite easy, as she knew it always would. Jamie was still healing and without the temptation of sex, they let their old friendship bloom into the love it always was destined to be.

The few weeks after he could leave the bed, they walked the fields, hand in hand, as she always had pictured, as she had always ached for.

He told her about life in America and the emptiness he tried to fill with girls who looked nothing like her. She told him about medical school and her relationship with Frank. They cried and screamed and held one another until they were exhausted from feelings. But when the tears dried and the anger stopped, all their ghosts had been vanquished, left behind in the past where they belonged.

Except one, who was soon to be a ghost himself. About a month after Jamie’s accident, Brian took a turn for the worst and she knew there was no coming back from it.

When Jenny’s eyes pleaded with her to dispute the doctor’s words, when Jamie looked at her like a lost child after seeing his father’s ashen face, she wanted nothing more than to be able to reach out and heal Brian Fraser. Not only for himself, but for the children he would soon leave behind, leaving another generation to begin their own legacy.

But she had no words or power to fix what was to be, so all she could do was reach out and cradle Jenny’s distraught form when the news came that Brian had but days left on earth.

While he dozed in a coma like state, Jamie laid his head on his father’s shoulder as he had probably done so many times when he was small and held her own free hand tightly, trying to hold onto to something to get him through it.

Ian watched from the hall, holding his baby daughter and looking at her over the top of her brown curls as his eyes ached for his wife and brother. There was a silent agreement between them at that moment, that they had to hold their Frasers together as their foundation fell apart.

After the day he had slipped into his coma, Brian only woke once more, she hadn’t been there to see it, but Jamie told her that he made his peace.

And whatever that was, she hoped that Jamie had made his as well.  Brian had died two days later, peacefully in his sleep, with both children at his side. She knew he had been ready. The only reason he had to live was to see his children grown and safe, but he had done his job and the call of his wife and other son was too hard to resist.

Now, as she sat with Jamie on the sofa of the big room, she knew that Brian would never really leave, that like the poem read today, he would be forever engrained in this house, in these lands, in his children.

And that’s what finally gave Jamie some peace as he sat with his head in her lap, talking over the last of the whiskey with Jenny and Ian, the children asleep at their feet and the fire crackling in the background.

A peace came over that had been missing for a long while, a peace that can only come when the stress of watching a loved one suffer had finally passed.

They all talked for hours about everything and nothing, about the future and the past until the whiskey was gone and the fire died and all there was left to do was go to bed to wake up and start another day.

“Ach, that feels better,” Jamie moaned a little as she took off his brace to look at his hand the next night in his room. It had healed nicely and he would be able to start his exercises soon. He smiled as she told him such and grabbed her bottom with his good hand, making her jump in surprise.

“Perhaps, I can use this to help my recovery, aye?”

He ducked as she swatted at his head, but noted that her heart started beating a little faster.

Their intimate relationship had been, well, complicated. Jamie had still been incredibly weak and no matter how willing he was to risk injury and relapse, she put her foot down, no matter how much the ache between her legs said otherwise when he would bring her close with his good hand and kiss her so thoroughly and deeply, she could feel it in her toes. They had still shared a bed every night since, but did nothing more than comfort and hold despite the temptation.

And then after his few weeks of recovery, they had been consumed with Brian. There hadn’t been much time to think about much else for Jamie besides grief. He had spent many nights at his bedside, thinking it would be the last.

But every small touch was a reminder about what was between them, they had only loved each other that one night five long years ago. The memory still lived like a flame inside them, resting in burning embers until they chose the moment to reignite the flames into a fire once more.

“Claire?”

Glancing up at him, she saw the promise of those flames in his eyes as his touched seemed to burn through her t-shirt she wore to bed.

“Yes?” She breathed, hoping that he felt the same tingling as he touched her bare stomach.

“I want ye, mo nighean donn,” he whispered into her chest, kissing right above her breast. “Will ye have me?”

Filing her lungs with air she knew she would need, she straddled his lap in almost pure desperation and took ahold of his hair with both hands and pressed an almost painful kiss to his mouth. “Yes…yes I’ll have you.”

Jamie moaned into her mouth and crushed his face to hers, making sure there was no room between their bodies, only friction.

Lost in a daze of desire, she didn’t remember too much of how they got to the bed, just the rasping of his stubble against her face, neck, and chest.

It wasn’t how she had imagined their second time. In those lost years, she thought over and over about how it would be if she ever got to feel Jamie inside of her again. Lost in dreams or thinking of it while lying next to Frank or if Jamie said her name on the phone, reminding her of when he said her name when he came inside her, she would imagine it.

But as his legs eased hers open, she knew that she could have never gotten it right. Her memory wasn’t powerful enough to remember and evoke the feel of his body above hers.

“I ken it, Sassenach,” he said somewhere against her inner thigh, reading her mind as he had done so many times before. “There aren’t words for this.”

He touched her and she writhed against him, eager and wet under his fingers. “This, this…Christ that feels…god…this love, Claire. It’s all I ever want.”

She watched as his face twisted into pleasure in the firelight as she held him, feeling his want and the echo of his words in his body.

Neither able to wait, she arched up enough for him to slip into her a little and she saw stars almost immediately. She cried out against his neck and his breath was hot on hers as their hair entangled and her legs wrapped tightly around his waist, bringing him closer.

“God, Claire…ah dhia,” he moaned and arched as she welcomed him deeper, not knowing –or wanted to know – where his body ended and hers began. It felt like the marriage of their skins was merging them together with every thrust.

“Jamie,” she whimpered as he came into her harder, answering her calls and erasing all memory of the others they had been with, leaving them with only the blazing heat of each other.

“Oh, Jamie.”

Tears ran down her face and she felt wetness on his, whether from sweat or from tears. He kissed her tenderly then as he couldn’t be tender with his hips. Neither could she. There was too much to be said in that moment, there were no words, so their bodies talked in the language they had always shared and her thighs trembled in response to his call.

And when his back went stiff and her core shook until they both lay breathless, but finally in possession of each other, after all the years of longing and heartbreak and almosts, they clung and kissed and realized that the future was starting.

And they held the key to that door between them, and no matter what comes tomorrow, there would always be this moment. The moment where they felt their hearts beating as one, giving them both the gift of tomorrow.

Continued here

[adragonageau]

Since I mentioned being about halfway finished with my series recently, I wanted to do this so people could see the whole thing. :D Feedback welcome. Please reblog if you have the time!

My Series Masterpost:

Series title: The Forgotten Bard Tales http://archiveofourown.org/series/512260 Rated: M

Tales told by an anonymous bard about the heroes that shaped Thedas throughout the Dragon Age.

Book One: Dread Wolf Guides You http://archiveofourown.org/works/5651809 Synopsis: "Fen'Harel ma ghilana". Bellanaris Lavellan. Warrior and lover of Fen'Harel. But before she met The Dread Wolf, she was an ordinary warrior of her clan. No ships or triggers. Words: 3,787 Chapters: 5/5

Book Two: Collision http://archiveofourown.org/works/4236915 Synopsis: "...jealous of the life they could not feel, could not touch... in blackest envy..." Kinloch Hold. Growing up in a stone tower, always being watched, has a different effect on everyone. Some thrive, knowing they are protected. Others resist, chafing against the cold chains. Light consensual smut & mentions and depictions of abuse/rape *Ships: F!Amell x Cullen, F!Surana x Jowan, F!Amell / F!Surana friendship Words: 20,269 Chapters: 10/10

Book Three: A Smuggler's Chant http://archiveofourown.org/works/5669215 Synopsis: The tales say the not-so-heroic Maroth Tabris is a highly skilled smuggler and thief who preys on nobles. It's only after meeting the quick-witted Red Jenny and her merry band that he decides to give back to the poor. Some know him as a simple family man, but when Vaughan Kendells catches him stealing from his vault, the shem makes the mistake of punishing the wrong man's wife. They say revenge is a dish best served cold, but Maroth of Denerim is not a patient man. TW: Mentions of rape similar as it does in-game without explicit detail, also mentions underaged prostitutes, as well as light, consensual smut between a husband and wife. *Ships: M! Tabris x Nesiara, Shianni x Nelaros, M!Tabris x Aneirin, Sera x Red Jenny Words: 9,760 Chapters: 3/3

Book Four: What Has Been Wrought http://archiveofourown.org/works/6845023 Synopsis: Dragon Age: Origins, a story of the civil war & ravenous blight that shook Ferelden to its core. This tale is told through mutiple viewpoints as a weary band of travelers fight against demons, both metaphorical and real. A tale of bonds made and bonds broken in the dark shadows of war. *Ships: M!Tabris x Zevran, Past!M! Tabris x Aneirin, Past! F! Amell x Cullen, F!Surana x Jowan, Daveth x Morrigan, Daveth x Leliana, Words: 113,390 Chapters: 20/20

Book Five: A Trial of Faith http://archiveofourown.org/works/10733115 Synopsis: Melina Amell is King Alistair's chosen mage advisor after a year of fighting darkspawn at his side. Now, a new warden has come to Ferelden to investigate the darkspawn still threatening the countryside. When Melina is forced to go to Amaranthine as well, her faith is put to the test once again as she meets a familiar face and more than just the darkspawn threat. The events that transpire here will go on to effect the whole of Thedas. *Ships: F! Andras x Sketch, Merrill x Velanna Words: 11,274 Chapters: 6/15

Book Six: A Dance of Crows http://archiveofourown.org/works/10949664 Synopsis: Six months after the Blight, Zevran seeks to change the order of House Arainai. His need for revenge over the loss of Rinna and Taliesen has only grown stronger as time passes, but he can't take on the entire House on his own. So he turns to his former lover, The Dark Wolf, for help. But Maroth's pain and resentment might just be as strong as Zevran's wish for revenge. *Ships: angsty M!Tabris x Zevran Words: 5,695 Chapters: 7/7

Book Seven: Burning Shadows Synopsis: When Anders arrives in Kirkwall, his only thought is to rescue Karl. But even the best laid plans go awry. With nothing left, he stays in Kirkwall. When he's conned into helping the mysterious Sia Hawke, his whole life begins to change. When their goals conflict, he realizes not all change is for the better. *Ships: F! Hawke x Anders, Carver x Merrill **outlined**

Book Eight: Suledin Synopsis: A collection of three short stories full of Dalish lore, mysteries, and a little bit of angst and romance. Split into three parts. *Ships: 1. M!OC elf x Fenris 2. F! Mahariel x Tamlen 3. F! Lavellan x Solas, F! Lavellan x Felassan **outlined**

Book Nine: Holding Back the Sky Synopsis: Maroth Tabris. The Dark Wolf. After helping the Wardens defeat the Blight, he's spent the years making a name for himself as a thief and a scoundrel. Until the sky bursts open and he's left with a strange green mark on his hand. *Ships: M! Tabris x Zevran, F! Surana x Jowan, F! Amell x Cullen, F! Lavellan x Solas **outlined**

Book Ten: The Butterfly Assassin Synopsis: Lialah Tabris was abandoned to a Dalish clan after her mother died . Bitter and alone, she strikes out to make a name of her own to rival The Dark Wolf. But the world of Thedas is not always kind to a lone elf. No ships. **outlined**

Book Eleven: The Call of the Wolf Synopsis: It's been two years since Maroth Tabris closed the rifts and defeated Corypheus. When he hears word from a mysterious assassin that the Qunari are up to something, he calls for his old friends to help unravel the mystery. *Ships: M! Tabris x Zevran, F! Lavellan x Solas, F! Amell x Cullen **outlined**

There will also be a few one-shots and mini comics to be found here:http://archiveofourown.org/series/654866 (I recommend at least reading "Thief Sleeps in my Bed", which tells the story of how Sera meets "Red" Jenny and joins The Friends.)

[the-record-columns]

July 19, 2017: Columns

The sermon from my wife was entitled...

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

Often in this space, last week for example, I often revel in the really odd, eclectic, and unusual things that have either been brought in to me, I have found in my travels, I have purchased, or, shall we say with tongue in cheek, have otherwise acquired.

               On Monday of this week I was recounting the stories that go with my chance encounter some years ago with one Joseph Thomas Redding, III, from Long  Beach, California. Joseph was the grandson of legendary businessman, civic leader, entrepreneur, inventor, and the de facto mayor of the Cairo Community, the late J. T. "Big Tom" Redding. I met Joseph when he was in town to settle the estate of his father, J. T. Redding, Jr.

               Over a period of weeks, I was able to acquire some very special items of local history, including some black history items. These include two cement block-making machines which the senior Mr. Redding invented (and the patent model that went with them), all the way to two 9 foot arched doors from the old Damascus Baptist Church-and a plethora of treasures in between.

               There were some really cool old locks in the in-between stuff, and, while locks had never been a focus of my collecting, Kay and Brenda Ball had given me a some locks from the old Thrift Supermarket some time ago. But these at the Redding estate caught my eye and went along well with the other stuff I was loading up. I took what looked like the better one to Harvey Barlow, local locksmith at Wilkes Lock Service on 10th Street here in North Wilkesboro.

               Harvey is not too easy to impress, but his eyebrows did arch up a few times as he looked over my Redding locks, especially an unusual Yale lock, and pronounced the lot of them as "...well worth saving." With that endorsement I proudly placed the locks, along with some Ford wrenches from the same find, on a window frame just outside my office door at The Record. If I can see them often, I will be be reminded to show then to Sonny Church and crow about beating him to the sale.

               So now I am excited about locks, and one evening I happened to be in a place where I really had no business being-at a minimum it was a judgment call-but curiousity won out over judgment. I went inside the building; it was dark, rainy, and leaking and all I had with me was a small flashlight and a flat head screwdriver. As I stumbled around in the dark and dampness, I spied a lock hanging on a door frame.

               My new found interest in locks trumped ( or is that Trumped?) the fact that it was cold and I needed to go top the bathroom. Upon looking closer, I could see the lock was attached to a hasp that had Phillips head screws. Armed only with a flat head screwdriver, I resolved to dig those screws out if necessary, all the while holding the flashlight between my teeth which was making me drool like a baby. After what seemed like forever, I had the lock in hand and managed to get out of the building without breaking a leg so I could find a bathroom.

               I went straight to the office and began to clean up my treasure-WD-40, Gunk Remover, and fine steel wool soon cleared away years of dirt, soot, and grime off the lock. I grabbed my trusty "Carl W's," the jewelers glasses I have which I named after the wonderful jeweler who worked across the street for so many years, Carl W. Steele. With my Carl W's on, the hair on my fingers looks like a tree limb, so I squinted down to see if I had found a Yale, Slaymaker, Master, Hurd or Corbin lock. I found numbers but no name. After more cleaning, I realized that there was a name on the bottom left, but it was so small and full of dirt I still could not read it, Undaunted, I continued cleaning and spraying till the name could be finally read with magnification. I adjusted my Carl W's once again, peered through the three layers of glass at the lettering. I cannot tell you the emotion I felt as I read, stamped clearly on the bottom of my new lock--"Taiwan." When I looked again, it still read, Taiwan.

               I was crushed.

               All that work, basically breaking and entering, enduring the cold, rain, and leaks; enduring personal discomfort to the point of uric poisoning, and all for basically nothing.

               And to top it all off, the only help I got from my wife was a sanctimonious sermon entitled, "You shouldn't have been there to start with."

         Decisions

By LAURA WELBORN

Have you ever acted on something that seemed like a good idea at the moment and then turned out to be a disaster?  I sometimes forget how much everyday decisions can affect our lifes with great consequences both good and bad.  While an immediate need is satisfied, in the long run the decision lasts a long time.  The story of Jacob and Esau (the twins of Isaac and Rebekah) Genesis 25:19-34 where Esau gives up his birth right for food to Jacob, thinking he was going to die anyway.  While this is a dramatic story, it does illustrate how decisions that are made quickly without care thought about how it affects not only ourselves but others as well.

               The Torah guideline is that" every one of us is responsible for the well-being of our neighbors.  What is right is right and wrong is wrong.".  How we treat others is a direct reflection on ourselves. So we must put faith in action with a lantern to our feet and a light to our path so that with power and determination we can accomplish our goals without harming others.

               So how do we keep from making quick decisions?  This goes back to mindfulness.  The

               It's about being silent, and witnessing the thoughts passing through you. Just witnessing at first, not interfering and not even judging, because by judging too rapidly you have lost the pure witness.  The moment you rush to say, "this is good" or "this is bad," you have already grabbed ahold of the chaos.

               It takes a little time to create a gap between the witnessing of thoughts and your reaction to them.  Once the gap is there, though, you realize - that you are not the thoughts themselves, nor the chaos influencing them.  You are the witness, a watcher, who's capable of letting go, changing your mind, and rising above the turmoil.

               And this process of thought-watching is the very alchemy of true mindfulness.  Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, the confusing, chaotic thoughts start disappearing and you can make decisions that are thoughtful, and do not lead to harm to yourself or others.  

Continue to move through each day consciously. Make an effort to notice at least one insignificant little frustration that you would normally get frustrated about. Then do yourself a favor and simply let it go.  Experience, in this little way, the freedom of being in control of the way you feel. And realize that you can extend this same level of control to every situation you encounter in life.

   Ice cream, sunsets, and green pigs in the dog days of summer...

BY HEATHER DEAN REPORTER/PHOTOJOURNALIST

This column will not make much sense unless you are like me, and weird and random facts swirl through your brain at warp speed 24/7.  

               I'm absolutely addicted to the "this day in history" and the "this is National (insert bizarre shenanigan here) day. In fact my 2016 office wall calendar had an assignment for everyday every day. I went with a simple calendar this year because it proved entirely too distracting, as my publisher , Ken Welborn, did not feel as strongly as I did every week about the public-at-large needing to know it was National rutabaga day and the story behind it.

               But I digress....  This week Ken and I were fortunate enough to find out that this is National hire a Veteran month. He asked me to work up a little ditty about it on page 7B and I did, and we talked about all the awesome guys we know and love at the local VFW Post 1142.

               But not before he  and my editor Jerry, spent the next 20 minutes finding out what every day in July was, rather  (Allow me to share those most notable in my opinion:) the 8th is “bald is in”, the 10th “don't step on a bee day”, the 13th is “embrace your geekiness day”, the 14th is “Robin Hood day”, the 15th is “National gummy worm day” (which is every day for me as its my my favorite candy ever) the  16th is “national snake day”, (bet my daughter makes a party hat for her pet snake) and the 17th is “yellow pig day”. Now, we don’t have any yellow pigs, here in Wilkes that I know of, but Ken says we did have a Green Pig restaurant..)

               For those of you who like Ice cream, (I’m the odd duck who doesn’t...) July is National ice cream month. It’s also Park and Recreation month, blueberry month, watermelon month (sorry, Justin...) sandwich generation month, (whatever that means, but I love a good sandwich)....

               Well you get the idea. Very little work was done Monday morning cause Heather got distracted by the fun fact tunnel, but we all shared a giggle at some of the absurdities.

               I guess that’s enough of that for one day.  (By the way, today is National Hot Dog and raspberry cake day.)

               So, enjoy talking your house plant for a walk (July 27) in the dog days of summer (July 3 - August 11) and remember you deserve a massage (July 16-22).

 The Hounds of Summer

By Carl White

Warm summer days in the South are not uncommon and the Dog Days of Summer take things to another level. For the most part, we don’t mind sweat because we know it’s good for us. Sweat is an equalizer for all people…somewhat that is.

I recall a conversation with Jenny Biddle in Conway SC. We were talking about the hot weather and the sweat of summer. She reminded me that horses sweat, men perspire and women glisten.  This expression seems to have originated from the Victorian era. I listened as she explained and later I did a bit of research because I know that sometimes etiquette suggest we say things in a politer way, and often, there is good reason.

As it turns out men do in fact sweat or perspire more than women do, by as much as 4-5 times. It is also of interest that horses do have a few things in common with humans and two of those common traits are armpits and sweat. I realize that the horse has legs and not arms, non-the-less the correct expression is armpit and not legpit.

As it relates to sweating or perspiring for men. If you look back in time we will see that the many cultures used the expression that men perspire and animals sweat. But time has progressed and for good or not humans are often classified as sweating.  I even asked three of the ladies at the office if they sweat and each answered yes. One even said that her husband glistened far more than she.

So, what’s all this got to do with summer heat, well just about as much as dogs have to do with the Dog Days of Summer. It’s easy to ponder the lazy days of summer with our dogs stretched out and not eager to do anything that requires a lot of energy or at least not for an extended period. We humans can find ourselves feeling a bit the same. It’s just too hot to do much, the heat seems to take away our energy. We spend much of our energy trying to find ways to cool off.

We have established annual traditions that take us high in the mountain for shade and cooler weather or off to the coast we go to play in the waters and then lay in the sun and crisp our skins, which does in fact make us feel cooler when the burn stops.

The Dog Days of Summer are normally the hottest days of the year and last between early July and mid-August. It all goes back to the Greek, Roman and Egyptian ideas and mythology. The star Sirius which is represented by the dog apparently rises with the sun during this time of the year.

It was thought that when joined with the sun, Sirius A which is the brightest of the stars, and with its smaller counterpart Sirius B creates our hottest, haziest and yes laziest days of the year.

When you consider the geography of Rome, Greece and Egypt compared to the Carolinas, it’s hard to tell if the idea is valid, however it is hard to dismiss the heat of our summer days.

And how can we deny the sweating horses, the perspiring men and the glistening women all surrounded by our beloved lazy hounds of summer.

Please remember to apply sunscreen.

 Carl White is the executive producer and host of the award winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In the Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its seventh year of syndication and can be seen in the Charlotte viewing market on WJZY Fox 46 Saturdays at 12:00 noon. For more on the show visit  www.lifeinthecarolinas.com, You can email Carl White at Carl@lifeinthecarolinas.com.