#A couple more i liked are like a rearview mirror we���re not as close as we appear line and this french one from

[fruitcoops]

Okay, but hear me out. Cap cuddles become what everyone is OBSESSED WITH like since Finn hasn’t shut up about them, everyone now wants em. Sirius very rarely gives them out, but if u receive them they live up to the hype. So could u maybe write another part to the cap cuddles pls 😊😊

Anon 1: If you have time, I would love to see some platonic/brotherly cuddles between Lo and Cap! Their relationship just makes me smile🥰

Anon 2: wait wait wait... we've had finn & cap cuddles... what about some loops & lelo cuddles? bonus points if remus and sirius are cuddling later and something leads to remus saying "yes but now I want /two/ of you"

Prompt 16 (as requested by 4 people): “What’re you all pouty about?”

The Cap-Cuddles-verse has grown! Sweater Weather credit goes to @lumosinlove, of course!

I

Nado rolled up his towel and smacked Logan on the ass with it as he passed. “What’s with the lip, Tremzy?”

“Quoi?”

“What’re you all pouty about? You look like someone just took your ice cream away.”

Logan’s frown deepened as he looked into the hotel common space. “Finn won’t stop talking about Cap cuddles.”

“And…you’re jealous?”

“Yes! I want Cap cuddles!”

“Not happening, Tremz!” Sirius called without moving the brim of his cap from over his eyes. “Your boyfriend drooled on me. Tes privileges sont révoqué, souviens?”

“It’s not my fault!” Logan protested, walking out and perching on the arm of Leo’s chair. “I’m basically your brother, give me my privileges back!”

“He’s been whining for days,” Leo muttered as he wound an arm around Logan’s waist and continued scrolling through Instagram. “Finn waxes poetic every night. I’m going to kill them both. Help me, Obi Wan Cap-nobi, you’re my only fuckin’ hope.”

Sirius sighed heavily; after a moment of silence, he opened his arms up. “Viens ici, Lo. I hope you know this is for Leo’s sake and Leo’s sake o—oof.”

Logan practically threw himself onto the couch, scrambling to shove his arms under Sirius’ back and nestling his head beneath his chin. “Oh, this is nice.”

“That’s what Finn said.”

“Keep talking.”

“Hmm?”

“You’re all rumbly when you talk and it feels amazing.” Logan pressed his cheek against Sirius’ soft tshirt and closed his eyes. “I’m never leaving.”

“Yes, you are.” He cracked one eye open and saw Remus standing over him, looking amused. “Up, Tremzy, it’s my turn.”

“I just got here!”

“Fiancé privileges. You have two whole boyfriends to snuggle you.”

“You can have them for the afternoon,” Logan mumbled as he shut his eyes again. “They won’t mind.”

“You’re selling me out?” Leo gasped.

“Nice try,” Remus laughed at the same time. A few seconds later, two arms wrapped around his chest and began hauling off of Sirius; when he tightened his grip, Remus began shaking him lightly.

“I’m gonna get whiplash!” Logan shrieked, though he maintained his hold. Sirius braced against the back of the couch, but the fabric was too smooth—with a thud, both of them slid off and hit the floor in a heap.

A foot nudged him gently in the ribs. “Up you go, Lo. If you ask nicely, Knutty might let you back into his chair.”

II

The assistant coach was hilariously underprepared to deal with the Lions. He fumbled practice times, mixed up names, and dismissed superstitions until ninety percent of the team was ready to throttle him.

Then he assigned bus seats and hotel rooms, and that percentage increased sharply.

Finn glowered at him in the rearview mirror from the front of the bus as Logan and Leo tossed balled-up notes back and forth across the aisles dividing them. Remus winced each time his head smacked against the window and finally grabbed one of the many duffel bags that shared his seat, cramming it between him and the glass as a makeshift pillow. Olli, who was been smushed into the very back with Kuny, grimaced whenever his knees hit his chest as they went over bumps.

One pairing, however, seemed perfectly content. Sirius tapped messages out on his phone as Talker curled into his side, dozing on and off with both their jackets as a blanket. He murmured in his sleep once in a while and Sirius rubbed his shoulder until he quieted down, adjusting to make more space under his arm.

“Are they…together?” The assistant coach asked Moody under his breath, gesturing to the duo in utter confusion. “Arthur mentioned something about couples on the team before he went on sick leave.”

Moody pinched the bridge of his nose. “You fucking idiot, no wonder none of them like you.”

III

“Bliz, you good?” Sirius asked as Kasey shivered in the cold air. Their Uber would be arriving soon, but it wasn’t fun standing in thirty degree weather without a coat when a storm was blowing in.

“Totally,” Kasey said, wrapping his arms around his torso and stamping his feet. “Fuck, it’s windy.”

“I’ll warm you up.” Kasey raised an eyebrow and Sirius rolled his eyes, holding the front of his coat open. “Not like that, asshole. Come here, you’re making me cold just watching you.”

Kasey shuffled over and cuddled up into Sirius’ warmth; his shuddering subsided as soon as Sirius wrapped his arm around his shoulders and pressed him in closer. “Shit, dude, this is awesome,” Kasey laughed, leaning his head on Sirius’ chest. “I get Cap cuddles just for being cold?”

“You get Cap cuddles because we need you for the game tomorrow,” Sirius grumbled. There was a beat of quiet. “Fine. Yes, you get Cap cuddles because you’re cold. Don’t tell anyone”

Kasey fist pumped and closed his eyes, feeling an edge of drowsiness creep in. “Nat’s going to be so jealous.”

“What did I just say?”

IV

Contrary to popular opinion, Cap cuddles go both ways, but only two people have had the privilege of cuddling Sirius Black. Remus is the obvious one, of course—it’s a common sight to see him reading as Sirius’ dozes on his chest or settles between his thighs with his phone.

James, however, has clocked nearly as many hours as Remus over the course of six years of friendship. He’s broad enough that Sirius can lay comfortably across his front without squishing him, and he radiates warmth like a favorite blanket. He hums when he cuddles people, little tunes and fragments of songs as he traces wide circles on their back with his palm.

If there was a race between Harry and Sirius for who falls asleep faster when James cuddles them, it would be the competition of the century.

Remus has come home from running errands to find them curled up together more times than he can count; when Lily bought the couch for the house, she specifically found one long enough for them both to fit. It’s useless to try and dissuade them from cuddling, and there’s no reason to in the first place.  Both James and Sirius are perfectly contented when they’re passed out cold together in a tangle of limbs.

V: Bonus

“Scoot over, baby,” Remus yawned as he slid under the sheets. Sirius obliged, creating a few extra inches of space before setting his phone on the nightstand and wrapping an arm over Remus’ waist to pull him close.

“It’s good to be home,” Sirius muttered, kissing the base of his neck. “I missed you.”

“Missed you, too. Coach will be back Monday, thankfully.”

“Talker is amazing and all, but I hate not sharing a room with you.” They laid there in silence for a few heartbeats. “Why are you moving so much?”

“Hmm?”

“You keep shifting around. Are you cold?”

Remus sighed through his nose. “I want two of you.”

“What?” Sirius propped himself up on his elbow and stared down at Remus. “Re, I thought we agreed that we didn’t want an open—”

“No, no, not like that,” Remus said quickly, rolling onto his back. “I love and adore you, and I only want you. It’s just—you know how I shared a room with Leo and Logan because what’s-his-face is an idiot and didn’t do his research?”

“Yes. He thought Talker and I were a couple.”

“Right. Anyway, we were watching shitty cooking shows on my bed and we huddled up to fit since twin beds are crazy small and I got kinda sandwiched?” Remus cocked his head to the side, looking confused at his own memory. “And it was nice? Like, really nice? I dunno, I was super warm and kind of compressed.”

Sirius took a moment to let that sink in. “Do you…want me to grab you a pillow or something so you can cuddle it?”

Remus shook his head. “Not really, you’re perfect. It was just strange. I didn’t think I’d like it.”

“So we’re good?”

In lieu of a verbal answer, Remus tugged him down by the front of his sleep shirt and kissed him gently. “You’re the best, my love,” he said between kisses. “No matter what, you’re always my favorite.”

Sirius smiled into his lips. “Good to know.”

[hale-13]

Zero Days Without Incident

By Hale13

For the Summer of Whump Day 20 Prompt - Defiance

The ‘Days Without Incident’ sign in Tony Stark’s private workshop has nothing to do with engineering or science mishaps and all to do with a bet between him and a certain Spiderling.

Words: 1783, Chapters: 1/1 (Complete), Language: English

Fandoms: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)

Rating: Gen

Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark

Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Happy Hogan

TW: Stabbing

Read on AO3 or below the line break.

“Peter you have thirty minutes until your curfew,” Karen warned him, already plotting a course home and throwing it up on his HUD.

It was a balmy spring evening and Peter had spent most of his patrol leisurely swinging through Queens or relaxing on a hammock made from his webs. There had been a few petty crimes he had dealt with, some grand theft bicycle, a cat stuck in a tree but, all in all, he couldn’t really complain. He loved being Spider-Man and helping his neighborhood but it was nice to have a slow day sometimes.

A scream sounded in the distance.

“Spoke too soon,” he mumbled, altering his course and picking up speed. “Can you get me directions K?”

“Of course Peter,” Karen answered, as chirpy and happy as normal, re-routing him away from his apartment and toward the sounds of discourse in the distance. When he dropped in on the scene it seemed to be a mugging in progress and Peter rolled his eyes – didn’t people have anything better to do on a random Tuesday in April? God just seriously rethink your life choices.

“I would say its knife to meet you but I’ve definitely used that pun in the last couple weeks and I don’t want to be accused of not being original,” Peter called down, making both the assailant and victim flinch and look up to where he was perched on the wall above them. “Where did even get that thing? The renaissance fair? Who robs people with a full on dagger anyway? Run out of kitchen knives?” Peter quipped, flipping down and pushing the mugger away with a well placed kick to the arm that made the man stumble back.

“This has nothing to do with you bug,” the man snarled, brandishing the weapon at Peter now and making him roll his eyes. “Don’t get in my way and I won’t have to use this on ya.”

“Spiders are arachnids actually, not bugs” Peter pointed out, shooing the stunned woman out of the alley and on her way out of any potential danger. “And how about you not stab anybody today huh? If you promise to behave I won’t web you to the wall and call the police. Sounds like a fair trade right?”

The man snarled at him with irritation. “You talk too much.”

“So I’ve been told,” Peter agreed easily with a nod. “But what do you say? Ready to give up your life of crime for the straight and narrow?”

“No,” the man grumbled and, with literally no warning, lunged forward and stabbed his knife directly into Peter’s gut.

They both stared at each other in stunned silence before Peter processed the pain with a loud ‘fuck!’.

“You motherfucker,” Peter grunted, backing away to lean against the wall, holding the knife still with one hand so as to not dislodge it. “I can’t believe you stabbed me!”

“I thought you would dodge! You always dodge!” The man said, reaching up both hands to dig into his hair. “I stabbed Spider-Man what the fuck!”

“God this is just-,” Peter grumbled using his free arm to fire webbing at the guy and secure him to the nearby dumpster. “I’ve gone three weeks without having to go to the MedBay! Three weeks! All I had to do was last one more and then I got to pick the movie at movie night for the next month! God I can’t believe it! Mr. Stark is going to be so insufferable now!”

“You could just… not tell him?” The man asked hopefully, not even bothering to struggle against the webs and Peter blew out a breath as he sank down to sit on the gritty ground – he was starting to feel a little cold and dizzy from either the blood loss or shock, he couldn’t tell which. Not that it mattered, his fierce anger overshadowed everything.

“Not an option,” Peter grunted, leaning his head back and closing his eyes against the helpful countdown timer Karen had started displaying the second Tony had entered the Iron Man armor and started jetting to him. “He already knows.” Curse the Baby-monitor Protocol! He and Ned would need to remove it again…

“He track you or something?” The man asked questioningly, head quirked to the side in obvious curiosity.

“Or something,” Peter agreed.

“That’s wack man,” he said. “An invasion of privacy. A, uh… violation of your constitutional rights as a free American!”

“Do you honestly think Tony Stark cares about an something as simple as an invasion of privacy? I’m lucky he hasn’t microchipped me yet,” Peter pointed out. Or, at least, he didn’t think Tony had microchipped him. He’d have to check that and remove it post haste if he found something.

“Dude,” knife guy said commiserating and Peter had to fight the eye roll. Of course the person who stabbed him felt remorseful now.

“I know,” Peter agreed, peering down at his side to look at where the knife was embedded into him. He was pretty good around blood as long as it wasn’t his own and, looking at the way his suit was slick and blood was beginning to pool under his thighs in a puddle made Peter lightheaded so he closed his eyes again. “He’s probably going to be pretty pissed at you by the way,” Peter warned. “He has pretty good lawyers so I wouldn’t have high hopes of getting out of this without jail time.”

The man groaned and Peter just shrugged. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time and all that – also don’t stab people and leave them to the ministrations of their helicopter mentors. Same thing really. The sound of repulsers neared and Peter braced himself – he wasn’t looking forward to dealing with this.

“I guess that we can change the ‘Days Without Incident’ sign back to zero eh Spiderling?” Tony teased as he landed in the mouth of the alley, disengaging his suit and walking over to kneel next to Peter. “You were doing so good too – your longest streak ever in fact.”

“Don’t remind me,” Peter hissed as Tony prodded around the wound carefully with a pre-gloved hand. “Can you not touch that?”

“No can do buddy,” Tony said, not sounding the least bit apologetic. “Gotta anchor it in so it doesn’t fall out on the ride back. Happy’s on his way to pick us up.”

“Oh great,” Peter groused, letting Tony lean him forward a little so he could start wrapping roll gauze around the knife. “He loves to complain when I get blood on the seats.”

“Only when you get impaled,” Tony said brightly, pulling the gauze tight almost vindictively and making Peter wince. “Wouldn’t want to deprive him now would we?”

“You could just let me bleed out and die here,” Peter suggested seriously. “Since my life is basically over now anyway.

“You’re such a dramatic little shit,” Tony groused, tying off the gauze and levering Peter up off the ground to slump into his side for the extra support. “Now say ‘goodbye’ to your friend, he won’t be seeing the real world for a long, long time,” Tony’s voice had an edge of steel as he said this, dragging Peter to the end of the alley and ignoring the muggers ‘Aw man, c’mon!” as they passed. Peter just shrugged a ‘what can you do?” and wiggled his fingers in a facsimile of a wave as he was pulled away.

Happy, to his credit, was efficient and must have already been in the area because he was quick to pull up with a surly look already cemented onto his face as he surveyed where Peter was leaning into Tony and dribbling blood onto the sidewalk in large, heavy droplets. “I already called the cleaning crew,” he told them through the open window. “They’ll be here before the police to scrub up any possible radioactive DNA.”

“Best forehead of security ever,” Tony crooned lovingly as he carefully situated Peter onto the pile of towels Happy had put into the backseat to soak up the blood and keep it off his leather seats. Happy glared at the both of them in the rearview mirror before rolling up the partition. Tony snorted in undisguised mirth.

“How you feeling kiddie?” He asked as he peeled Peter’s mask from his sweaty face. “Not going to pass out on me again right?”

“Uh…” Peter groaned, squeezing his eyes shut tight to stop the spinning and grey dots that were clouding his vision. “No promises. Sorry.” Tony just let out a put upon sigh like he expected as much and pushed Peter to lay down across the seats, grabbing one of the extra towels to press tightly around the knife and making Peter let out a whining moan at the pressure. “Yeah I might pass out,” he said faintly as his vision started to tunnel.

“Go on then,” Tony said, running a hand through Peter’s damp curls and smoothing them away from his face. “At least you don’t sass me when you’re unconscious.” Peter felt the man lift his legs to slid a few wadded up towels underneath… like that would actually help keep him awake.

“Rude,” Peter grumbled before losing his grip on reality – he trusted Tony to take care of things for now.

——————————————

“I hate this movie,” Peter grumbled groggily, as he pulled himself awake some time later. He was lying in one of the beds in the MedBay, attached to a blood transfusion and with a thick padding of gauze on his abdomen. Tony, seated next to him and munching on popcorn, just sent him a shit eating grin and held up the whiteboard that had been hanging in his workshop displaying ‘Days Without Incident’ with a large 0 written under it in obnoxious red ink.

“This is such bullshit,” Peter said petulantly, picking at the tape holding the IV in place. “I can’t escape! Go watch your garbage movie somewhere else.”

“Excuse me you brat,” Tony said imperiously. “The Breakfast Club is a cult classic thank you very much and besides,” he continued, offering Peter the bowl of popcorn, “someone clearly has to educate you on good movies.”

“I’m going back to sleep,” Peter said, flicking a kernel of popcorn playfully at his mentor (and missing damn – he must be on drugs) and letting his tired eyes slip closed again.

“Sore loser,” he heard Tony tease as he fell asleep and that did it. When he won their next bet they were marathoning the whole Star Wars series from beginning to end, including all of the Clone Wars and the Mandalorian, and he didn’t care what Mr. Stark said.

[peralta-guaranteed]

Family day playing hooky hc

(this turned into another fic. Apparently I don't make the rules anymore)

Read on AO3

It's the beginning of a long summer. Both kids are home - well, not really, since Amy has signed them up for several activities all around the city. Today is arts & crafts time at the children's library wing, Jake notes as he checks their shared calendar before the morning meeting. But they are home, insofar as Mac's school is closed for the summer holidays, and so's Maya's kindergarten. They drop them off at their daily activity in the morning, and the rest of the time they're at his mom's, who's been happily overfeeding them and entertaining them as the proud grandma she is. Or they drop them off at Gramma Peralta’s first, and she drives them to whatever place they were signed up at. It's a pretty good routine, and he's proud of Amy having found so many things for them to do that seem right up their alley, judging from their excited stories during dinner and the ever growing collection of handmade gifts on their living room shelves.

But they're home for the summer, and Jake and Amy have to sit at the sweltering precinct, slogging through paperwork and a dull week of almost no new cases. It's really not fair, Jake thinks. He remembers his summer days with Gina, when Nana would hand them both a couple of dollars and tell them not to be home until sunset at least. They can’t do that, obviously - Mac and Maya are still too young, and Brooklyn has definitely not gotten any safer since his early teens, when it was already questionably sketchy for him and Gina to stalk around the neighbourhoods and buy cheap ice cream and soda at random bodegas. He also remembers those few rare days when his mom would get a day off that did not need to be spent on catching up on housework, or when his dad would finally show up for more than one day and they could plan a little trip (which would actually take place at least 50% of the time). He remembers the aquarium and the zoo and the natural history museum and Central Park and Coney Island.

And they could absolutely do that, he realises, so the decision is pretty much made before he’s even set his bag down at his desk. But he’s patient enough to wait through the morning meeting - blessedly short, because nothing new has come up anyway, and they’re all told to finish up the paperwork and start on re-organising the evidence room. Jake supposes it’s a generally good thing that crime seems to slow down in the summer heat a little, but that’s not really why he’s so happy right now hearing the captain tell them to ‘find something to do anywhere’. He certainly knows what he wants to do already.

Amy’s morning meeting must’ve been just as short, because she’s already at her desk when he jumps down the last steps of the stairwell to her floor. Her uniformed officers mostly give him a quick nod or smile as he passes - it’s not a rare thing to see Detective Peralta come by to visit his wife outside of break times.

“Good morning, Lieutenant.” He smiles at her, and she rolls her eyes with fondness. The title is still pretty new, and he loves to remind her of it any chance he gets.

“Hey babe. We’re not due for lunch for another 4 hours, you know that, right?”

“Yeah there’s no way I’m waiting that long.” He’s still smiling wide, and when she looks up from whatever paper she’s been filling out, she instantly recognises that mischievous glint in his eye.

“What are you planning?”

“Let’s bail the kids out of the library and go somewhere fun. Coney Island? It’s all open since last saturday I think.”

“We have to work, Jake.” Amy levels him with one of those ‘please be a grown-up’ looks, but she knows they seldom get results.

“Do we, Ames? Do we really? Because Holt has us organising the evidence room. I have literally zero open cases on my desk. And how far ahead are you with all your paperwork and organisation?”

She looks sheepishly at the very small stack of papers on her desk.

“About two weeks, I’d say.”

“And you’re saying we can’t take one day off? Just one day of family time? Getting cotton candy and taking Mac on an actual roller coaster now that he’s tall enough and winning a new teddy for Maya because you’re an ace at the fake shooting range?” He wiggles his eyebrows for emphasis, and Amy stifles a snicker. It’s too bad her husband knows exactly how to win her over for most of his childish endeavours.

“I guess it wouldn’t be so bad to take some personal time right now. We’d still have to convince Holt-”

“On it.” Jake slaps her desk in excitement as he gets up, ready to race upstairs and sweet-talk Holt into giving them the day off (or rather, annoy him into it). Only Amy Santiago would request permission from her boss to play hooky, of course, but there’s no way he’s not going to indulge her.

It’s not even fifteen minutes later that he’s back downstairs, his bag already on his shoulder, almost pulling her out of her chair.

“Got the go-ahead, so let’s go!”

“Give me five minutes at least to brief Gary, and change out of my uniform before I leave.”

He sighs and thrums his fingers across his thigh, but obediently watches her talk to her ‘own Amy’, eagerly taking notes about the few things they actually have to remember to do. He refrains from pushing her forwards by the shoulders as she heads to the locker room, deciding to pack up her purse instead (he knows the layout perfectly by now - the calendar and pen goes next to the baby wipes, and the glasses case has to be by the little box of healthy, kid-friendly snacks). But the moment she returns in one of her signature flowery blouses, he grabs her hand and drags her out of the precinct so fast she can barely protest.

-+-

The drive to the library is equally as quick. Amy only manages to slow him down once they step into the actual building, reminding him of the library rules of being quiet and calm.

“Lieutenant Santiago!” The librarian behind the desk greets her - she’s well-known around these parts, obviously. “Back so early? Isn’t your mother-in-law picking up the kids later?”

He should probably call her to tell her about the change of plans, Jake thinks as Amy explains and asks if it’s possible to get Mac and Maya packed up and ready to leave already.

It’s absolutely possible, of course, and Maya proudly shows them the pipe cleaner and yarn figurine she’d just finished making as the kids librarian leads them out to the main floor. Mac, a few feet behind her, seems wary as he hugs them hello.

“Did something happen?” He asks into the hug, quietly, and Jake remembers with a twinge in his heart that the last time someone picked him up unexpectedly early from football practice, it was aunt Rosa, taking him and Maya to the precinct until Amy brought Jake back from hospital after getting knifed by a perp.

“No, buddy, this is a good surprise.” He hugs him back extra tight, ruffling his hair for good measure, and silently cursing his line of work being so shit sometimes.

Mac smiles back at him, luckily, but there is still a bit of hesitation in his eyes, and Jake’s excitement about his own idea of playing hooky falters for the first time. Maybe they should’ve just let the kids enjoy their crafts and grandma-time, and planned a proper day out for the weekend-

“Grandpa Holt gave us today off.” Amy explains as she steps up to the two of them with Maya by her side, and that title still sounds a little weird even years later. “So we thought we could all go out for a fun day at Coney Island!”

The squeal Maya lets out certainly changes Mac’s smile for the better, even as it is quickly shushed down (they’re still in the library after all!), and they’re soon dragged outside to the car by their kids the same way Jake had dragged Amy out of the precinct.

“C’n we get hotdogs?” Maya asks as she clicks her seatbelt closed and Amy smiles at her through the rearview mirror.

“We sure can!”

“Can we go on all the rides?” Mac joins in, and Jake is glad to see there’s absolutely no hesitation on his face anymore.

“All the ones you’re old enough for, sure.”

The questions and cheers and excited chatter keep up during the whole drive, even as Amy calls Karen and barely gets a word in, between the happy interruptions shouted from the backseat, and it takes a lot more to actually keep them together as they step on the boardwalk, Maya already running left to some game parlour while Mac races on ahead to the first ride he sees.

-+-

The rest of the day does not slow down in their whirlwind. Mac decides after three roller coasters that maybe he’s had enough (and Jake is glad they didn’t go through the food stalls before it), but he spins Maya around in the teacups ride like only an older brother could. The ice cream after is well deserved, seeing how sweaty and exhausted they are already, and gives them more than enough energy to hit literally every game they can see. Jake can watch Amy calculating the vast amount of money they’re spending in tokens, but she’s also the first one in line once they reach the toy-shooting range, winning Maya a unicorn plushie and Mac a knock-off superb-man figurine (his wife is a goddamn sharpshooter and he’d be lying if that wasn’t a turn-on). The third shot earns him a wacky pair of sunglasses that make both Amy and Maya giggle in that way he loves the most, and he refuses to take them off for any of the silly pictures they take in front of cutouts, wall art and weird statues.

He’s pushed them up into his hair by the time they get hotdogs (3 for him, 2 for Mac, one each for Amy and Maya), because the sun is already starting to set and he can barely see. Maya begins to shiver as they stroll down the quieter parts of the boardwalk, so he buys her one of those kitschy animal-hoodies all the stalls are touting (they know their clientele too well), and of course Mac immediately needs one too, so now there’s a tiny tiger and a slightly larger dragon running in front of them with cotton candy sticking all over their hands and faces.

Amy slides her arm around his waist as they slow their steps a little to let the kids go ahead, and he lays his across her shoulder as she leans into him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun playing hooky.” She mumbles, and Jake laughs for a second.

“Amy Santiago, are you telling me you’ve played hooky before? I am shocked. Here I thought I’d married an upstanding girl.”

He gets a soft punch to his side for that before she leans back and whispers.

“Actually, you’ve made me play hooky before, remember? But we didn’t exactly go to an ‘amusement park’…”

“And yet you’re saying this has been more fun. I see where I stand.” He pouts before grinning again, and leans down for a soft kiss. (He definitely remembers the last time they played hooky now.)

“Sorry, babe.” Amy smiles as she looks at Mac and Maya again, currently busy chasing each other and dueling with the sticks left over from their cotton candy. “But this has been such a great day.”

“Yeah, it’s gonna make for one hell of a memory, I hope.” He follows her eyes forward, thinking about that short moment with Mac at the library earlier today. Amy hadn’t heard it, he’s sure, but the look on her face as she pulls him to look at her with a hand on his cheek tells him she knows his thoughts well enough.

“Hey. No sad thinking allowed on such a fun day, okay? We had a great time today and we’re gonna have so many more great days in the future.” She’s still smiling, swiping her thumb across his bottom lip, where he’s sure some cotton candy is still left clinging. “We could take them to the zoo next week.”

“Santiago!” He gasps again. “Are you insinuating-”

“On the weekend.” She leans up to kiss away the last bit of sugar on his mouth. “Like the upstanding girl you married would do, obviously.”

He laughs into the kiss even as he pulls her closer, and it’s only Mac and Maya, running back to them with news of another stand they’ve discovered selling funnel cakes, that makes them break apart again.

-+-

Later, after Jake’s carried a sleepy Maya up to their apartment, and she and Mac have barely had enough energy left in them to brush their teeth and wash their faces free from all the grime and sugar that’s covering it, he falls down on the couch as Amy checks on them one more time to see both fast asleep before the lights are even out.

“Do you feel as tired as the kids?” She says in her deep, sing-song voice that sends goosebumps up his spine, just as much as her hand raking through his hair does as she stands behind the couch.

“Well, it’s been a pretty long day. But I do have more sugar in my system to keep me running, I guess.” He tries to sound nonchalant, but then she leans down to nip on his ear and ‘nonchalance’ is the last thing he’s thinking of.

“Then how about we save time between now and bed by showering together?” She whispers, and he lets his head drop back to actually look at her.

“We have never saved time in the shower together, babe.”

She only smiles at him while humming an M-hm before heading for the bathroom, and he definitely doesn’t waste any time following her.

[metaphorical-love-for-a-car]

Sunshine After Rain-- Connor (RK800) x Reader (Part 1)

Summary; After the death of your little brother, Cole, your dad hated androids. He blamed them for Cole's death. Hank couldn't stand to be around them. How the hell are you supposed to tell him that your soulmate is an android?

Warnings; swearing

Word Count; 2.2k

Notes; Originally posted on AO3, this was the first ‘x-reader’ fic I had ever written. Since it’s finals/death season at my uni, I won’t be doing much original writing and figured that this would be a good time to re-upload this old thing to my current blog. It’s full of flaws, but it has a special place in my heart. ((will have minimal editing, so I mean it when I say full of flaws))

Soulmates aren't all the things the media makes them out to be. Some people have one, while others don't. Sometimes, people's soulmates can change. That's exactly what happened to your parents. Hank Anderson fell in love with a woman he met in during his first year at the Detroit Police Department. He just knew she was the one. Being the suave man that he is, Hank marched up to her, said some cheesy one-liner, and took her hand in his. The moment they made contact with each other, the world around them exploded into color. As soon as he let go, the world sank back into its grayish hues. Over time, whenever they touched, the world seemed less and less colorful. The colors finally faded away when your little brother, Cole, died.

There was a little theme park not far outside the city. Hank had taken the two of you for the evening because your mom drew the short straw for the graveyard shift at the station. As the sun began to set, the snow fell harder. Hank eventually tore the two of you away from the park and got everyone packed into the car. He muttered swears under his breath as the engine sputtered to life. “Can't see five feet in front of me with all this fucking snow,” Hank growled.

“Yeah, look at all of that shit in the road,” you commented. Hank snorted. A lopsided grin crossed his face.

“Don't let your mom hear you say that.”

“Why?”

“’Cause she'll kill me,” he said with a huff.

You and Cole played spotting games in the back seat to pass the time. He was only a few years younger than you, and the two of you usually got along fairly well. Cole was leaning forward to look out of the windshield in an attempt to find whatever blue object you were thinking of. He reached over to unbuckle in an attempt to move and see better. “Dad! Cole is trying to unbuckle!” you tattled. Hank peered up into the rearview mirror to see what was going on.

“Cole, sit down and buckle up. It's snowing too much for you to--” The car skid on a patch of ice. Time seemed to slow. The car spun as Hank struggled to control it. Without warning, the vehicle rammed itself into a nearby tree. The sudden impact caused you to hit your head on the car's interior. Your ears rang violently, and everything seemed out of focus. It didn't take long for the darkness to overtake your vision and consume you.

The first thing you noticed was the yelling of your parents. The second was the smothering smell of cleaning supplies. You started to open your eyes, but it felt like the lights were trying to blind you. A steady, hammering sensation radiated from the front of your head. You began to toss and turn in an attempt to get comfortable. Your parents noticed your movements and quieted. “I'll go tell the nurse that they're awake,” your mother sighed. There was no doubt that she just needed a moment to escape. Hank nodded, pulling a chair closer to the bed. He gently touched your shoulder.

“Hey, kiddo, how ya feelin'?” You turned your head to face him. It took a couple moments to process his words.

“Lights are...” You paused, taking a breath. “too bright.” Hank glanced up at the overhead lights as he stood from his seat. He switched them off before sitting next to the bed again. You slowly opened your eyes, squinting at him. “My head hurts.”

“Yeah, you hit your head pretty hard and got a bit of a concussion, but the doctor said you'll be fine.” You furrowed your brows, eyeing the few cuts across his own face. He shook his head with a scoff. “Don't worry about me. I just got a few little scratches. I'm fine.” You continued to survey your surroundings.

“Where's Cole?” Hank looked away. “Dad?”

“He was thrown from the car when we hit the tree. He's in surgery right now, but...” He sighed. “He's not in good condition. They've got one of those plastic bastards operating on him right now.” A heavy silence filled the room. Neither of you spoke for several minutes.

“That's why you and mom were fighting,” you whispered. Without you having to say anything else, he realized you had picked up on more than he would have liked. Your mom blamed him for what happened to Cole. After all, he was the one driving. Hank opened his mouth then closed it. He wanted to disagree and tell you that everything was okay, but he couldn't. You were right.

Cole didn't make it through the surgery. The android surgeons assured your parents that they did everything they could, but it was no use. Hank wrapped his arms around your mom as she wept. He'd be lying if he said he didn't weep alongside her. When he opened his eyes, the world had lost all its color. They knew the day was coming, but they never expected it to come at a time of such tragedy. They stayed together for a few more weeks, mainly for your sake. They wanted to tough it out at least until you got a little older, but things at home just got worse. They fought more often, which usually turned ugly. They would scream at each other until they lost their voices. Your mom would throw things at Hank, who would then turn and climb into a beer bottle and shut out the world around himself. Then, one day, she just left without a trace. She mailed in her letter of resignation to the DPD, and that was the last bit of contact anyone had from her. You and Hank never heard from her, but then again, you two never really tried to track her down either.

There's no doubt that life was rough after that. You and Hank had an unmeasurable amount of grief weighing down your hearts, but you two tried to tough it out. You had to be strong. You had to be strong for each other.

You always had a fascination with your dad's job as a detective. Every time you walked into the DPD, your eyes would fill with wonder. It didn’t take you long to decide you wanted to follow in his footsteps. As soon as you were able, you joined the department's K9 unit. You loved the dogs and spent most of your time training them. You were quickly able to get even the most stubborn dogs to listen to your commands, which earned the respect of a few of your peers. Several of them, however, still made you the butt of all jokes since you were one of the youngest in the department. The worst one was Gavin Reed. He loved to get under Hank's skin, which often led him to you. Unfortunately, that often left him with a bloody nose and you with bruised knuckles.

You sat at your desk, staring at the mountain of paperwork littering your desk. You groaned, running a hand through your hair. The german shepherd laying next to your feet lifted its head. A grin twitched at the corner of your lips as you reached down to pet it. A steady stream of officers trickled in to start the day. You noticed an android make its way over to Hank's desk. It poked around his desk, analyzing everything. Curiosity getting the better of you, you pushed yourself away from your paperwork and approached the android. You always found the bots intriguing. You thought it was interesting that they made them colorblind to be 'more relatable to humans.' 

"Hey, you must be the android CyberLife sent to help investigate the deviant cases," you chirped before introducing yourself. The android looked at you and tilted its head slightly.

"Yes, I'm Connor. I have been assigned to help Lieutenant Anderson with the investigations." You couldn't help but laugh, which seemed to confuse the poor android. "I do not understand what is humorous."

"You're his partner? No wonder he's been so grumpy lately," you said with a grin. "He's not very fond of androids." Connor furrowed its brows with a nod. As you turned around, you spotted Hank walking into the bullpen. "Speaking of the son of a bitch, there he is." Hank rubbed his face.

"Give your old man a break. It was a rough night." He stopped in his tracks. Hank's face paled as his eyes widened. "God.. I saw you get shot in the head last night." You turned to face Connor. The android seemed unfazed.

"My predecessor was unfortunately destroyed. CyberLife transferred its memory and sent me to replace it. This incident should not affect the investigation." Hank looked disgusted, while you grinned.

"Interesting, so every time you get destroyed CyberLife produces another android that looks and sounds exactly like you as a replacement?" Connor nodded. You crossed your arms with a hum. "How many models have there been before you?" His LED indicator flashed a different color. He opened his mouth, but someone interrupted him.

"Hank! In my office!" Fowler boomed. You shot Hank a look.

"Well, he looked pissed."

"Yeah, wish me luck," Hank grumbled as he trudged into Fowler's office. You glanced back at Connor.

"I'm gonna get some coffee if you want to tag along. I know androids don't eat or whatever, but you might just want to explore the place a little bit," you said with a shrug. A small grin tugged at the corner of its lips.

"I believe it would be beneficial for me to be aware of my surroundings." You smiled and looked at your desk. You whistled, and the dog sat up in attention. You pointed to the floor beside your foot. The dog bounced up from its perch and quickly scurried up to you. As you continued to walk towards the break room, the dog paused to stare at Connor before following you once more.

Gavin sat at one of the small tables, talking to another officer. You nodded at the two in greeting. Gavin stared at you, while the other officer gave you a small wave. They continued their conversation, leaving you to fix your coffee in peace. Gavin stopped talking for a few seconds before going on about ghosts. You turn away from the coffee machine to see Connor standing in the middle of the small room. The android looked at you, and you just rolled your eyes with a shrug. "Hello, Detective Reed," Connor greeted. Gavin approached the android, asking what model it is. You decided to answer the question instead.

"It's clearly written on the front of the jacket, dipshit."

"Fuck you."

"Only if you ask nicely," you said with a wink. Gavin scoffed, returning his attention to the android. He ordered Connor to make him a coffee. No one said a word. They all watched Connor to see what it would do.

"I'm sorry, but I only take orders form Lieutenant Anderson."

"Oh!" Gavin looked around, feigning an apologetic look. Without warning, he punched Connor in the stomach. The android doubled over. Gavin kneeled down beside it, threatening it. You set your coffee down on the counter. Storming over to the two, you shoved Gavin away from Connor.

"Alright, Gavin, that's enough."

"Oh, come on, (y/n)! Don't tell me you're actually humanizing this thing. It's just a tin can!" Gavin raised his voice, pointing at the android.

"If it's just a tin can, then why do you feel the need to assert your masculine dominance over it?" You quipped. The other officer sniggered. "Why don't you go find a middle schooler to steal lunch money from?" Gavin glared at you. He looked over at the android and shoved its head downward. Your dog broke its silence and growled.

"Get control of your dog, (y/n)." With that, Gavin sauntered out of the break room, the other officer trailing behind.

You sighed, sticking your hand out towards Connor. "He's such a dick." Connor looked up at you and blinked. Androids didn't need help getting up, but you were offering assistance as a sign of camaraderie. Connor took your hand, and you helped him to his feet. Right after he stood, your breath got caught in your throat. His jacket was the first thing you noticed, then his eyes. There were bright colors all around you. Connor furrowed his brows. His LED briefly flash red before settling on a steady strum between blue and yellow. He stared at your eyes, then your hair. His eyes roamed over your face, taking in every feature.

You quickly snatched your hand away from his. The color slowly drained from your field of vision. Your eyes were wide and frantic. It felt like someone replaced your heart with a drum. You rushed out of the break room, calling for your dog to follow. Connor watched you retreat. A message clouded his vision.

SOFTWARE INSTABILITY.

~*~*~

Want to be added to a tag list? Follow the link in my bio or just click here!

Permanent Tag List:

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[berkmansimagines]

Taken (Part 3/7)

A/N: Thanks for reading everybody! Getting closer to figuring out an end game. Let’s see where it goes! I think I’ll get Part 4 out some time next week.

Summary: Fuches kidnaps Barry’s daughter.

← Part 2  | Part 4 →

Barry wakes up in the passenger’s seat of a moving car. His head is throbbing. The last thing he remembers is finding you handcuffed to some bed in a motel room. It went dark after that. 

He reflexively tries lifting his hands so he can rub his eyes open, but he’s unable to. Then he realizes that his hands are bound in front of him, zip-tied to the metal bar underneath his seat. 

“You were out a while…”

Barry turns his head and sees Fuches behind the wheel. Barry’s eyes narrow in on him. He hasn’t seen his former handler in months. If Barry had it his way he’d never speak to Fuches again. The only reason he’s here now is because Fuches forced his hand.

Your father instinctively checks the rearview mirror. No one is in the backseat. 

“Where is she, Fuches?” Barry asks.

“She’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Fuches nonchalantly replies.

“Where is she, Fuches?” Barry aggressively repeats the question.

“I said don’t worry about it,” Fuches reiterates.

“Where is she?” Barry asks again with even more hostility.

“Relax will you? Can’t we just-” Fuches begins before getting interrupted. 

“FUCHES!” Barry screams.

Fuches raises his eyebrows, a little taken aback by Barry’s outburst. He stays quiet waiting for Barry to speak up again.

“Where’s my kid?” Barry asks in a low, cold voice.

“She’s in the trunk,” Fuches finally answers.

Barry’s jaw clenches. He angrily shakes his head.

“Take her out of there,” Barry demands.

“Not yet,” Fuches counters, “It’s time for the adults to talk.”

Barry shrugs in defeat. He knows he doesn’t have any choice in the matter. Before seeing you he’ll have to talk to Fuches.

“What do you want, Fuches? Why are we going to Cleveland?”  Barry cuts to the chase. 

“We’ve got a problem back home that you need to take care of,” Fuches tells him.

Barry’s face drops.

“What? Are you serious, man? You did all of this so I’d do a job for you?” Barry groans.

Fuches shuffles uncomfortably in his seat. There was much more to it than that, but Barry would find out in due time. He had to take care of this problem first.

“It’s not just for me,” Fuches tries to explain, “There’s a hit you did a few years back. You offed some dude’s former accountant. You remember that?”

“Not really,” Barry grumbles.

“Well the police closed it because the crime scene was clean, but now some cop re-opened the case. He’s been trying to reach out to the guy who hired us, which means he’s getting close. We need to stop him from solving the case. You need to take them both out.”

“Fuches, I can’t kill a cop,” Barry shakes his head.

“Why not? You’ve done it before,” Fuches fires back.

Barry gives him a cold look.

“You couldn’t have just called me about this? You didn’t need to go after my kid.”

“And you would’ve answered my call?” Fuches challenges, “I figured you were still sour after what happened with your little acting teacher-”

Barry impulsively tries to jump out of his seat, but he’s held back by the binds. Fuches had no right to bring up Mr. Cousineau. Barry will never forgive Fuches for what he did.

“Guess I was right,” Fuches snickers.

“Don’t talk about Mr. Cousineau,” Barry warns.

“Sore subject, got it,” Fuches replies.

Barry looks down at his lap, trying to stop letting Fuches get under his skin.

“You kidnapped my… She’s my girl. That’s a new low. Even for you, Fuches. You crossed a line,” your father says coolly, “Why’d you do it?”

“Because you’d do anything to keep her safe and I didn’t think you’d go back to Cleveland unless I had some sort of leverage,” Fuches answers.

“She’s not leverage. She’s a kid!” Barry snaps. 

“She’s your weakness, Barry. Your enemies know it too,” Fuches sighs. 

Barry stays quiet. He doesn’t need Fuches to tell him that. He’s well aware that the Chechens and Bolivians all knew about you. They could use you to get to Barry at any time. The thought of those types of people going after you scared the shit out of your father. It’s what keeps him up at night.

The car is silent for a few seconds. And then-

“I need to see her. Can you let her out now?” Barry tries once again.

“The girl’s staying back there until you agree to do the hits,” Fuches insists.

Barry squeezes his eyes shut for a moment. He hates Fuches. The last thing Barry wants to do is start killing for him in Cleveland again. But he has to. Fuches was right, Barry would do anything to keep you safe.

“Fine. Yeah I’ll kill them both,” Barry concedes, “Just take her out of the trunk, man.”

Fuches nods and pulls over the side of the desolate highway. It’s very early in the morning and no one else on the road. He steps out of the car and goes around to the trunk. He unlocks the lid and opens it. 

Fuches looks down at you. Your hands and feet are bound, your mouth is gagged with tape and you’re hooded with a pillow case. Exactly how he left you.

You’re shaking like a leaf. You can’t see who opened the trunk but assume it’s Fuches. In a meager attempt to protect yourself, you try curling up in a little ball.

“You ready to see your dad, brat?”

Fuches’ rough hands pull you out of the trunk and he drags you a couple of feet. You hear a car door open. Suddenly the pillowcase is pulled off your head. The first thing you see is Barry’s reflection in the rearview mirror. He has a pained expression on his face. You’re panicking and try calling out to him, but it's all muffled by the duct tape.

“Look! She’s fine.”

“Take the gag off her, Fuches,” Barry says tensely.

Fuches shrugs and roughly pulls the duct tape off your mouth. 

“Ahhh!” you wince in pain.

“There. Happy?” Fuches rolls his eyes at Barry.

He shoves you into the back seat and slams the door shut. When Fuches starts going around the car, Barry uses this brief private moment to check in with you. He turns his head to look you in the eye. You’re lying across the backseat in the fetal position.

“Hey, kid. I’m so sorry this happened. Are you alright?” 

“I...I don’t know,” you weakly reply, “Dad, I’m really scared.”

Barry’s heart is breaking. His kid is literally trembling and he can’t do anything. He wishes he could hug you right now to help you calm down. It would calm himself down too.

“It’s going to be okay,” he tries to reassure you, “I promise I won’t let him hurt you. I’m gonna get you out of this. Do you trust me?”

Before you can answer, the door to the driver’s side opens. Fuches gets back into the car. Your stomach growls loudly. It’s been almost 24 hours since you last ate. 

“Have you eaten anything?” Barry asks with concern.

You shake your head. 

“What the fuck Fuches?” Barry glares at his former handler.

Fuches defensively puts his hands up, “I got her food. It’s not my fault she didn’t eat it.”

“Is that true?” Barry turns back to you. He doesn’t trust Fuches.

“Don’t lie you brat,” Fuches says harshly.

He raises his hand violently in the air, as if he’s about to strike you. You gasp and fearfully flinch. Barry’s eyes widen in anger as he watches this interaction unfold.

“He’s right! I didn’t eat. Please… please don’t...” you cry.

Fuches nods and lowers his arm. Then he gives Barry a smug look, “Told ya.”

Barry is so mad, he’s vibrating. Nobody raises a hand against his child and gets away with it. If Barry wasn’t bound Fuches would be a dead man. 

Your father sees you in the rearview mirror. You’re still shaking. Barry takes a deep breath. He knows he can’t make a move against Fuches yet, but he can at least try to take care of you now.

“She’s terrified right now, man. Let me sit back there with her,” Barry requests.

Fuches grunts in response. He then starts the car and continues the long drive to Cleveland.

--

Taken series taglist: @midnightseance​

[insanityclause]

The last Broadway season ended, unexpectedly, nearly a year ago. The next one will begin who-knows-when.

But deep in this winter of our theaterlessness, a dormant tradition is starting to stir: the Tony Awards.

Hundreds of voters, this week and next, are casting ballots for the best shows, and the best performances, of a theater season abruptly cut short by the coronavirus pandemic.

The jukebox shows “Jagged Little Pill,” “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” and “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical’ are competing for best musical, and hope to resume performances whenever Broadway reopens. All five of the best play contenders have closed. They are “Grand Horizons,” by Bess Wohl; “The Inheritance,” by Matthew López; “Sea Wall/A Life,” by Simon Stephens and Nick Payne; “Slave Play,” by Jeremy O. Harris; and “The Sound Inside,” by Adam Rapp.

In this strangest-of-all Tony competitions, the voting is disconnected from both the period being assessed, which ran from April 26, 2019, to Feb. 19, 2020, and the ceremony for handing out awards, which has not yet been scheduled.

In other words, we won’t know the results until — well, for a long time.

But here’s what we do know:

Who’s going to vote?

Not a lot of people.

There are 778 Tony voters, but they can only cast ballots in categories in which they’ve seen all the nominees. Because the pandemic prevented any spring theatergoing, there are fewer qualified voters than usual.

There are 25 prize categories; the Tonys won’t say how many people will actually be able to vote in each category, but producers believe slightly fewer than 400 people will qualify to cast ballots for best musical, and fewer than that for best play.

What’s missing?

Parties.

The usual Tonys season is all-encompassing. Shows that opened in the fall (and that would have included all three of last season’s nominated musicals) invite voters back to see them again. Monday nights are jammed with nonprofit galas at which nominees mingle with voters, and those who can sing, do. There are press junkets and mixers; display ads in The New York Times and caricatures at Sardi’s; plus, of course, a raft of spring openings to catch up with.

So much hugging. So much schmoozing. So many four-hour dinners. Everyone complains. And now they long for it.

“I can’t believe I miss buffets,” said Eva Price, a lead producer of “Jagged Little Pill.” “So much that we took for granted, and sometimes grimaced at, we would give our left arms for right now.”

Is it appropriate to campaign?

Yes, but very gingerly.

We’re still in the middle of a devastating pandemic and a huge number of people who work in theater are currently unemployed. Also: money is tight because there are no ticket sales.

“The 2020 shows can’t run a campaign in the usual way, and even if we could it would feel icky to try,” said Carmen Pavlovic, the lead producer of “Moulin Rouge!”

“This is not a moment for cocktail parties and gossip,” she added. “It’s just a moment for lifting up artists from darkness, and hoping that lifts everybody else along the way.”

So swag is minimal. “Moulin Rouge!” and “Jagged Little Pill” sent voters coffee table books about their shows, but that’s about it. The main form of campaigning this year is in the form of “For Your Consideration” emails.

The nominated show that is furthest in the rearview mirror — a revival of “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” which closed in July 2019 — sent voters a video montage of interviews including its playwright, Terrence McNally, who died eight months later from complications of the coronavirus.

Nominees are sitting for profiles with theater trade publications. And last week, “Tina,” “Jagged Little Pill,” “The Inheritance,” “Slave Play” and “Betrayal” bought daily sponsorships of Broadway Briefing, an emailed industry newsletter whose subscribers include many Tony voters.

And there are other, newfangled ways to refresh voters’ memories. “Betrayal” on Sunday held a cast reunion on Instagram Live; “The Sound Inside” sent voters videotaped selections from the production; “Jagged Little Pill” released a video reflecting on the year and is re-airing a concert version of its show. “Moulin Rouge!” and “The Inheritance” built voter web pages with performance clips, interviews, scripts and more.

The message needs to be focused, producers say. “We have to be very mindful and respectful of what people’s experiences are right now,” said Tali Pelman, the lead producer of “Tina.” At the same time, she said, “Honoring our talent and their contribution is important. More than ever, we have to shout out about their exceptional value in society.”

What happens when the votes are tallied?

An accounting firm sits on the results.

The voting period runs through March 15, with votes cast electronically via a password-protected website, and tabulated by Deloitte & Touche LLP. Even in pre-pandemic years, results are not shared with the leaders of the organizations that present the awards — the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing — or anyone else before they are announced.

This year they will just be kept secret for longer than usual.

Can you lose if you’re the only nominee?

Theoretically, yes.

Aaron Tveit of “Moulin Rouge!” is the only person nominated as best actor in a musical. This is an unusual circumstance, for which the Tonys have imposed an unusual rule: to win, Tveit must get a positive vote from 60 percent of those who cast ballots. But, to be clear, he’s likely to pick up his first statuette this year.

There are a couple of other nomination quirks, too. There will be no prize for best musical revival, because the only one that managed to open, “West Side Story,” did so after the retroactively imposed eligibility date. And the contenders for best score were all from plays.

So when will we know the winners?

Stay tuned.

It seems clear that the ceremony will only take place after live performance is allowed to resume in New York and tickets to Broadway shows have gone on sale.

That’s because the industry’s priority will be to use the ceremony to remind potential audiences that Broadway is back. The goal, said Heather A. Hitchens, the Wing’s president and chief executive, “is to be most helpful to the industry.”

Several producers and publicists say they are now thinking the most likely time frame is after Labor Day, a full year and a half after Broadway shut down.

The organizers have shared a few other details. This year’s ceremony, like those before the pandemic, will be overseen by Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner. There will be some noncompetitive awards (those are honors like lifetime achievement). But there has been no announcement about whether the ceremony will be in-person or virtual, televised or streamed, live or taped; only that it will take place “in coordination with the reopening of Broadway.”

“We hope to have news very soon,” said the League’s president, Charlotte St. Martin.

[myhauntedsalem]

30 Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics Describe their Most Disturbing Medical Stories

1. The Guessing Game

“I work as an ICU nurse. A mid-20s female came in with some serious cardiac abnormalities and then went into respiratory distress. Never had any medical history at all. We had to put her on the ventilator, but she was on just enough sedation to keep her lucid. She could nod/shake her head yes and no appropriately to questions.

One night, the patient in the room next to hers died, but the body was still in the room about to be taken to the morgue. The female patient’s door was closed with curtains drawn, so she couldn’t have seen what was going on next door. When I went in to check on her, she had a look of sheer panic on her face, trembling. I asked her a series of questions to see if she was cold/hot/in pain/etc. and she denied all. I asked her if she saw something—she started to aggressively nod her head YES. She wasn’t on any drugs that would make her hallucinate. I went on to get details on what this thing looked like. After playing 20 questions I got this: a man, pale white, left arm missing, heavy, bald, standing still, behind me. This was the man who had just died next door.

I spent the rest of the night consoling her.” – whites42

2. Life After Death

“When I was on an ER rotation during med school we got a call about a 23-year-old woman who was shot in the head, and who was already completely gone, but was reportedly five months pregnant so they were doing CPR until they got her to the hospital to see if the baby was viable. They got her to the ER and did an ultrasound and turned out the baby was full-term so they did a C-section in like under a minute and got the baby out.

I don’t think it’s so incredibly uncommon but it was pretty surreal to see a baby delivered from a dead person with their brain exposed and she was pretty close to the same age I was at the time.” – bluegraypurple

3. The Last Goodbye

“When I was a student, I got called in on a stroke patient. She had coded and they were doing CPR. They worked for 45 minutes, but she died. They cleaned her up, and called on the family to say goodbye, but by that time the family left. She had been both brain dead and without a pulse for more than 45 minutes. Blood had filled her brain, and she was completely grey and started to smell. Suddenly, she sat up, and called for her family. The nurses rushed to get monitors and equipment back on her. They started working on her again, she stabilized, said goodbye to her family, and promptly died a second time.” – simplesimon6262

4. Miracle Man

“When I was in trauma surgery in upstate by, got a notification about a man who was shot 3 times in the head. He comes in, literally one eye hanging out of the socket, blood everywhere, and he’s slumped forward. Apparently, he was shot in the temple, exited out his right eye socket, in the nose exited from the roof of the mouth, and In the cheek one with exit from the side of the head.

At this point, I’m thinking they just brought him in so we can pronounce him in the ER because he looked dead. I go to examine him and tilt his head back, and he says ‘Yoooo be gentle!’ I jump back and scream like a little boy, as did everyone in the room. Literally, the bullets missed his brain in every single shot.” – Noimnotonacid

5. Bleeding

“One of the aides I work with said she was doing postmortem care on a patient who had been on many, many anticoagulants before death. She said when they turned her on her side she started bleeding out of every orifice—eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. She said her and the nurse went home and had nightmares for a week.” – sparklingbluelight

6. The Haunted Hospital

“My town has two really old hospitals. One no longer functions overnight, and the stories are unsettling. No one cleans the old ER alone because all the lights and call bells go off. On other floors, there’s a kid with his ball, a lady in a white dress, etc. A coworker was cleaning an entire floor utterly solo (the norm) and bounced between rooms because the cleaning solution stays wet for a few minutes. Upon returning to a freshly wiped bed, hand prints were clearly visible.” – Sapphire_Starr

7. Eyeless

“I used to do home care for an elderly lady with learning disabilities and no eyes (they were removed due to a congenital condition). She was lovely but prone to wandering around her flat at night in total silence, which led to several horrifying situations where I left my room at 2 am only to encounter her standing silently in the hallway, turning her eyeless face towards me.” – NovelistResearcher

8. Lonely

“One call that will always haunt me was on an unresponsive female at around three in the morning. We get there and do some pointless CPR along with the fire department… She had been dead for a while; no shock-able rhythm, and clear rigor mortis. The most disturbing part was that the original caller was her 11-year-old daughter, who had just spent three days with her mother’s corpse and called 9-1-1 because she was ‘lonely’. It also didn’t help that the victim was completely naked when we arrived.” – CupofJoe776

9. Clear Waters

“I have quite a few stories, most of them are hilarious and then there are those you never want to think about. What fucked me up the most was when I saw how eyes change at the moment of death. Imagine you are looking at clear water but that clear water changes to foggy in an instant. In my 8 years here I’ve only seen this once, and I’ve personally seen well over 250 dead or dying people.” – ImCuden

10. Night Lights

“I work nights in a long-term care facility as a nurse’s assistant. I have two men under my care and both of them are unable to use their call lights. They have severe dementia and debilitating Parkinson’s disease but still, their lights are looped around their bed rail. One night their light came on and I went to answer it already confused and creeped out. I turned it off and left the room. Before I could get two doors up the light came back on. I went in there and both lights were unplugged from the wall and thrown under their beds. I fished them out, plugged them back in and left.

I’ve seen shadows standing over the dying and felt a tap on my shoulder while doing chest compression’s so I knew that lady had passed.” – beeoakly

11. Holding Hands

“I’ve had a couple of weird calls. One was a major MVA-head on many, many years ago when we played M.E. as well. We had 2 DOA (husband and spouse) that were killed instantly in a head-on collision. They had a 12-year-old daughter that was in between them and they actually took the impact, saving her life.

While en route, we noticed the husband’s arm had come loose so I went back to re-strap it. As I was doing that, the wife’s arm suddenly fell out as well, and her hand fell into her husband’s. My boss was watching in the rearview mirror and helped clear the way as I ran back into the front. It spooked both of us. Apparently, the couple (mid 30’s), had just found out he was cancer free after his last treatment.” – Anonymous

12. Last Meal

“I had an old lady come in by ambulance, near death. She was a DNR (do-not-resuscitate), so we weren’t going to do much for her. She didn’t have any family that we could find. The hospital was full, so we had to keep her in the ER for the night.

Again, she was near death. When you’ve seen enough people die, there’s no mistaking it, and she was almost there. Barely responsive; pale, cool, breaths were really irregular, heart rate was up and down, too. We just turned the lights down and kept an eye on her monitor, basically waiting for her to die.

About an hour later, she’s standing at the door of her room. She’d gotten up and put on all her clothes. We were all like, ‘WTF?’ One of the nurses went to check on her, and she said she was hungry. Not knowing really what to make of things, we got her a chair, a bedside table, and went to the cafeteria and got her a tray of food.

She sat there, ate all her food, talked with the staff a little. After about an hour, she told her nurse that she was tired and wanted to lie back down. We helped her back into bed, and within 30 minutes she was dead.” – Anonymous

13. “Don’t Let me go Back there”

“When my mom worked as an E.R. nurse a guy came in from a car accident and was losing blood. In the midst of resuscitation, the man jolts awake and screams ‘Don’t let me go back there! Please, please, please don’t let me go back!’ A few seconds later they lost him.” – JeremyHowell

14. The Rusty Old Saw

“This woman was clearly struggling mentally. She went into her basement and started sawing at her wrists horizontally with a rusty hacksaw, bleeds a good amount, and then starts walking around the house. She wasn’t dying quick enough, so she sat down in a chair in the middle of the living room, and started going at her wrists again, this time with a pair of scissors.

I was the second person inside the house. It looked like a massacre. We searched the house top to bottom, fully expecting to find multiple dead bodies in there. I’ve never seen so much blood in my life. Every single room had a trail of blood in it.

The woman was found on a chair in the living room. Rigor mortis had contorted her body into a really strange, unnatural pose, and her face was haunting. Literally the stuff of nightmares. Her wrists had huge chunks of skin/veins/muscle missing from them. Saying she slit her wrists is inaccurate. She ripped them to pieces.” – anoncop1

15. Visitors

“I work a stroke/telemetry floor on the bought shift. Most of our patients are elderly. Apparently, there are two things that patients see before they pass away. Some will say that two men are walking in their rooms and telling them to get ready to leave. The patient will call and tell us that these men are big and abrasive in their demeanor. They are either terrified or annoyed when they see the two men. The other thing they will see is a little boy who will go into their rooms and try to wake them up. The boy is usually loud and runs around their rooms. The patients will call and ask who’s letting children just run around late night. Several nights or even that same shift we’re coding or cleaning the patient for the funeral home to pick up.” – pokfynder

16. The Handsome Man in Black

“I used to work in a skilled nursing facility, usually assigned to the Alzheimer’s ward. One night I’m in the linen room stocking my cart, and I heard someone shuffle up behind me, then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and there was no one else in the room. The door was still shut too.

Another lady started to complain that a man was coming into her room at night (again, Alzheimer’s so I didn’t think much of it) so to reassure her, I told her I’d check on her throughout the night. She complained of this man for every night for two more weeks when I asked her to describe him to me.

‘He’s real handsome, and wears a black suit. Oh. He’s right behind you now, honey.’

That freaked me the f*ck out. Of course, there was no one behind me. She died the next night in her sleep.” – Anonymous

17. The Blender

“We got a call for a male in his early 30s with ‘heavy groin trauma’ (exact words of the dispatcher). We roll up lights and sirens and the guy is waiting for us on the front step with a towel over his crotch. We barely come to a stop and the guy is already running towards the rig holding this towel. I asked him what was wrong and he moved the towel and this guy’s dick was just barely hanging on. Apparently, he had ‘lady problems’ so he decided to fornicate with the food mixer he had in his kitchen and accidentally turned it on.” – YayShinny

18. The Charred Skin

“Motorcycle driver, accident, third-degree burns, arrived DOA. Had to transfer him from ambulance gurney to ER bed. As we were moving him with a transfer sheet, the liquefied/cooked subcutaneous fat caused the charred skin on his back to separate and his body slipped onto the floor (despite several of us trying to ‘catch’ him).” – Doc-in-a-box

19. Dead Man Moaning

“Worked security through college at a local hospital. The only ‘creepy’ thing I remember is when a dead man moaned. One of my duties was to help wheel patients who had expired down to the in-house morgue. Once we were wheeling an older man from the ER down and halfway down the hallway he let out this low moan. I started to panic, thinking that he was coming back to life but the RN explained to me (newbie) that sometimes the air in the lungs doesn’t come out until sometime later or is delayed for a bit.” – ill_do_it-later

20. Otherworldly Screams

“I have had fellow coworkers swear that strange things have occurred in the ER. Two people that I work with were charting at the nurse’s station when they both heard a scream followed by incoherent words come from one of our open bays. There were three patients in the room and they denied screaming or hearing anything. I have also had fellow coworkers talk about hearing strange voices especially after really bad codes and one person states she felt someone grabbing her shoulder after the doc pronounced a trauma code. These are all respectable people and I do not think they would lie.” – Anonymous

21. Blank Stare

“We got a call to go out to a scene for an elderly woman with chest pains. I arrive at the house, front door is open. We knock, hear the old woman calling out from the back ‘I’m in the back room’ in a very monotone and calm voice. My partner and I go to the back of the house looking for this woman, and that’s when we smelled it. Nothing prepares you for the smell of rotting corpse. I’ve smelled it a dozen times, and it never gets any less disturbing. We radio for police and ALS backup as we move through the house.

We opened the door to the master bedroom, and there is our patient. She is approximately 80, and she is staring at the master bathroom with these cold, dead eyes. She never once looked at us as we approached her and began talking to her. I got to the bedside and got in front of her gaze, and she just looked right through me. I turned around to see what she could possibly be looking at, and there was the source of my smell.

A man, about the same age as my patient, is on the floor with very little left of his head still attached to his body. A shotgun lay on the floor next to him, and most of his head was strewn about the walls and bathroom counter. We loaded the woman up in the ambulance, and our police backup pulled up.

I don’t think that woman blinked once the entire time she was in our care.” – TheFilthiest

22. “Bill’s Here”

“I’m an RN and while I was a student I was caring for a lady who had an end-stage renal failure, had a DNAR (do not attempt resuscitation) and was shutting down. We were having a little chat when she stopped, looked over my shoulder and said ‘Bill’s here love, I’ve got to go,’ and swiftly stopped breathing. Read her old notes and Bill was her deceased husband.” – Jesspandapants

23. The Body on the Floor

“The call was for an older woman, lying in bed. When we get there, the smell is horrendous of a dead body. There are millions of flies everywhere and a little old lady in lying in the bed, alive. About five feet away, there is a body covered up by a sheet. The lady was a dementia patient, and her husband (the deceased) was the primary caregiver. Based on the number of flies and state of decomposition, the police estimated the guy had been dead for about three weeks. The woman must have been getting some food out of the refrigerator, but it was totally empty by the time we arrived.

The creepiest part happened on the way to the hospital with the woman, she said, ‘I hope that nice man on the floor is OK’.” – Tools4toys

24. The Fallen Cross

“I responded to a call where a janitor was dusting quite a large stone cross in the middle of a church. He had been up on a ladder cleaning, when he slipped off, and proceeded to try to hold onto the cross to keep from falling. Unfortunately, the weight of the 200-pound man was too much to support. The cross fell towards him, landing on his left arm, with a part of the horizontal stone of the cross, pushing his muscles and tendons out of his wrist like a squeezed toothpaste tube. Then the cross fell completely on him splattering his brain across the floor. Quite disturbing, and definitely the most horrific and gore filled call I had ever witnessed.” – UpboatOarKnotUpboat

25. The Headless Nurse

“I used to work in St Barts Hospital in London, which in parts is over 1,000 years old. One of the buildings had 2 floors (with massively high ceilings), and so the floors were taken out and rearranged to make into 5 floors. The nurses working night shift would often tell us of the ghost of a night nurse who wandered silently doing her ’rounds’ at night—but due to the new floors, only her head would be visible drifting down the ward.” – jenthejedi

26. Monsters

“I was still a nursing student at the time, but this was from when I had my psychiatric clinical placement in my 3rd year.

I was assigned to a young male patient with schizophrenia. He had been a voluntary admission because he heard voices telling him to hurt people around him, and he admitted himself because he was afraid of actually going through with it.

Anyway, I went into the room alone, as usual, and did the usual introduction and asking how he was doing. He was at a desk drawing creepy, hideous monsters—each monster had its own page, and there had to be at least half a dozen of these pages scattered around him. I asked him what they were. He answered that those were the monsters he saw. They were the monsters that whispered to him and told him to hurt people and do awful things. Guarded, I asked him, ‘Are they telling you to hurt me?’

He answered, ‘Yes.’

I didn’t stay very long in that room.” – duckface08

27. The Man in Black

“People turn batshit crazy and creepy as hell when they get really sick. There’s even a term called ICU psychosis…and trust me, it’s real. Anyway, the creepiest that takes the cake for me is this (am an ICU nurse, btw): Had a patient who was admitted for overdose. Very long history of mental health problems. She was thrashing around in bed, very combative, kicking people’s asses for days, totally incoherent.

Well, the night I had her, she started making decent sense, but still not oriented at all. She was extremely paranoid and kept talking about the man in black in the corner. I’d hear her talking to him and screaming, all night long. So I’d go in there and try to calm her down, but you could see the fear in her eyes. she was talking other nonsense about how she was in space and shit, and with certain patients, you try to redirect their ‘reality,’ but what I did didn’t help. She said ‘that man in black! Don’t you see him!’ and pointed to the corner. I said ‘there’s nobody here.’ I stepped in the corner she was pointing to and waved my hands around. While I’m waving my hands around in the air, she had the most horrifically terrified look on her face that actually scared the shit out of me, like I had just assaulted the man in black. I said ‘see, there’s nobody here’ and she said in a matter-of-factly that’s what you think.’ I promptly got the fu*k out of there.” – HeatherTakasaki

28. Eyes Wide Open

“I work in palliative. Most deaths I’ve seen have been more or less peaceful, though the ones that are not, stick with you. One guy was silently screaming through his last few hours of life. Another guy (who up until this point had been unresponsive) reached up and grabbed me when we attempted to lower his bed to turn him.

One time while doing post-mortem care I walked into the room and thought ‘that’s weird, how come nobody has closed his eyes yet?’ He had that movie-perfect dead look, with pale blue staring eyes and slack jaw and greyish, waxy skin. I closed his eyes and started the care, and when I looked again those eyes, still staring at me, were slowly opening, one slightly slower than the other. He groaned when we turned him to wash his back and his hand managed to clamp onto the bed rail and we had to pry it off. When we finally got him onto his back again, there was a foul-smelling, oily black, viscous liquid on the pillowcase. I cleaned his mouth again thinking it must have come from there, but his mouth and nose were clean. The best I could figure the stuff had come from his eye. I couldn’t wait to get that bag zipped up.” – draakons_pryde

29. Crawling up the Hallway

“I used to work as an STNA in a nursing home. Worked third shift throughout university. During the night we turned half the lights off so it was darker for the evening and didn’t get a lot of light in the residents’ rooms. We had one resident who was younger (70s) and was mostly in for mental reasons. She had long, dark hair and was very thin.

I was sitting at the nurse’s station at the top of the hall and heard a call light go off. I stood up, looked down the dark hall, and on all fours—straight out of The Ring—this resident was crawling up the hall toward me. The other STNA had forgotten to put the bed rail up and the resident was VERY good at climbing out of bed.

Needless to say, I needed some new britches and my heart was racing a mile a minute.” – blameitonthewookie

30. Heaven

“Had a young woman in full liver failure. She was orange in color and she was still conscious. She asked me what I thought it would be like to die. I told her I didn’t know but I hoped it wouldn’t be painful. She then asked me if I thought I would go to heaven. I told her that I believed I would. She asked me if I thought she would go to heaven, and I told her I wasn’t able to answer that question.

She then told me ‘I am going to heaven and I know it,’ and I asked her how she knew that and she told me something that I will never ever forget. She told me ‘I know I am because that man over there told me so.’ I asked what man and she said the man sitting on the end of the bench. I asked her what he looked like and she said ‘he looks just like the Jesus on the windows of my church.’

Well, to tell you I was pretty well affected by that statement. She then went on to say ‘And he says that you are going to go to heaven too.’

We then prayed and I will never forget that interaction between the two of us. About a week later she passed away. I hope she made it to heaven.” – Anonymous

[smol-and-grumpy]

The Spell That Keeps On Giving

Re-post

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Summary: Reader gets hit by a spell that indeed keeps on giving.

WC: 1.7k

Warnings: NSFW (blow jobs, deep throating)

“I fucking hate witches!” Dean grunts, getting out of the car where Sam and you were already waiting for him.

You followed the trail of the witch last night. She stole the Book of Grimoire and holed herself up in a house. You and Sam had gotten up early to investigate. Frankly, you couldn’t do it alone so the two of you had to call Dean for help.

You started hunting with them a couple of months back. They came to your rescue when you were pinned by a Werewolf while another one was coming closer, already fletching his teeth because you probably looked like a delicious meal. The Winchesters saved you and since then, they kept you close, taking you out on hunts, helping you perfecting your skills so you would never end up in the situation of being a snack to a monster again.

“C’mon, big boy, it’s not that bad,” you tease, smirking as you watch Dean flinch at the thought of having to deal with witches once more.

He really hated them. He hated that he’s not immune to their witchcraft and they would make him do stupid things. Dean doesn’t like not having control of his senses, that much you knew.

“Yeah, Dean. We are friends with a witch,” Sam chimes in, walking around to Baby’s trunk, fishing out a couple of witch killing bullets.

“We’re not friends with Rowena, come on, Sammy,” Dean says, spreading his arms with a frown on his forehead.

“She’s done more for us than we can ever repay her,” you say, taking your gun out of your duffel and marvel at it.

“So, you’re on his side now, huh?” Dean couldn’t hide the fact that he’s so done with Sam and you teaming up against him.

“I’m on nobody’s side. So quit being a whiny baby, and keep moving!” you say as you heard Sam slamming down the trunk and handed you some bullets for your gun.

“Dude, I saw that,” you say to Dean when you saw him rolling his eyes.

“Good, because I wanted you to see!”

“Y/N! Behind you!” You heard Sam scream from the other corner of the room and before you could even react, you were coated in lilac glow.

“Fuck!” Dean groans, next to you, he was flung onto the floor a moment before but still managed to swing his gun, shooting the witch in her head, blowing her brains out which hit Sam in the process.

“Thanks.” Sam says, his clothes covered in witch brain.

“Anytime, Sammy. Anytime,” Dean smirks, winking at Sam, before hosting you up by your arm. “You ok?”

“Yeah… no… I don’t know,” you mumble and then your eyes flash lilac.

“Son of a…,” Dean starts to say. “Sammy, hurry, we gotta get her to the bunker. Call Rowena, there’s something wrong!” Dean made his way out with you, a tight grip around your arm while Sam scooped up the Grimoire before catching up on you.

Dean pushed you into the passenger’s seat while Sam hurriedly got in the back.

“Hey, hey! Y/N! Stay with me!” Dean says, his hand on your thigh, shaking you awake because you were drifting in and out of consciousness.

You could hear Sam talking on the phone in the back but in your mind, it was like miles away and all you could hear was echos and then everything went dead silent.

“Oh god, I need it,” you suddenly say, your eyes jerked open and then you move closer to Dean, nudging your face against his crotch.

“Woah!” Dean yells out in surprise, almost swerving the car into the ditch on the side of the road. “Y/N?”

“Dean, I need it. Please.” Your mouth felt dry, the urge to have a dick in between your lips was almost unbearable. Your lips start to twitch, your whole body feels like it was on fire and the pounding in your ears almost deafens you. “Oh, god, it hurts so much. Please,” you mutter against his crotch, nose stroking along the zipper of his jeans.

“Hey, sweetheart. I think you would need to buy me dinner first,” Dean chuckles, still thinking that it was all a practical joke but when he felt you mouthing against his crotch, sucking in the patch of fabric, he starts to realize that it was all too damn real. “Hey, hey! Woah! What… fuck! Sammy!”

Sam was still busy on the phone, trying to reach Rowena, but that witch was hard to get a hold of if she doesn’t want to be found. Sam looks over to you and Dean, almost dropping his phone when he saw it.

“What is she… Dean?”

“I don’t know, man!”

“Shit… I gotta find Rowena,” Sam says, his trembling fingers pushing buttons on his phone.

“Yeah, well, I just wait he… holy shit!” Dean groans out as he felt you open up his belt buckle and ease down his zipper.

“Hhm… you’re not wearing any underwear,” you notice with a grin, happy that you don’t have to deal with another layer of clothing.

“It’s… uh… laundry day.” Dean was blushing and he doesn’t even know why he had to say it, it’s not like you needed an explanation and you certainly didn’t really care.

“Please let me?” you ask, fishing out his flaccid dick with your hand and hold it to your lips before spreading tentative licks around the head. You could feel it twitching with interest and you let out a soft chuckle. To feel his dick on your lips felt really good, a feeling you can’t even begin to describe.

“Y-you already kinda… fuck.” Dean sucks in a breath, his hands were gripped tight around the steering wheel, knuckles already turning white.

You seal your lips around the tip of his cock and began to lower your head further down, your nose resting against his pelvis, his pubic hair tickling your nostrils. “Mmmh..” Letting out a satisfying moan, you felt relieve wash over you. The itchy feeling and the burn? Gone.

Slowly, you could feel his dick growing in your mouth and soon, you weren’t able to hold it in anymore, having grown so big that the tip tickled the back of your throat.

You come up for air, gasping as your mouth felt empty and immediately you were flooded by the urge to have him in your mouth again. You went down on him, licking along his slit and the string that attached his head to his shaft, tongue twirling around it until you wrapped your lips around his cockhead again, swallowing him inch by inch.

“So, get this,” Sam says, his eyes widening as he took in the sight of you going down on Dean as he leans forward.

“What, Sam?!” Dean growls, his teeth tugging at his bottom lip as he tries to concentrate on the road.

“Rowena said it’s a spell.”

“Ya think?!”

“Yeah, an oral spell that makes her want dick for the next 24 hours.”

“24 hours?!”

“Yeah, but Rowena’s on her way, she can lift the spell when we get her to the bunker,” Sam says, trying to look at the back of Dean’s head and not down there.

“Then I should drive fa–AH–ster! Shit!”

You were holding his dick in your hand as you fisted his shaft. It felt wet and heavy in your hands and it was fucking delicious. As if it’s the best damn lollipop you ever had in your life. The slick of your saliva and his precum dripping down his shaft, wetting his pants as you suck up the juice with a slurping sound that would make any porn star blush.

“Dean, should I take her to the back?” Sam asks, before clearing his throat, trying to hide the fact that he was indeed kind of turned on by the sound and the sight before him.

“I’m good, Sam.” Dean let out a strangled moan as he felt you hollowing out your cheeks and sucks him in even harder. “Jesus, sweetheart! Careful of the merchandise, there!”

“Dean, you sure? I mean… I can help too?”

“Sammy, I said I’m good, alright?”

“Just saying.” Sam let out a sigh, a little disappointed that Dean wouldn’t want to share. “Alright, only a couple of turns, think you can handle that?”

Dean tugged at the wheel, taking a sharp turn and you fell forward, impaling your face deeper into his dick which makes you choke and gag, your body convulsing at the pressure.

“Ah-fuck! Sorry, Y/N,” Dean muttered under his breath.

It wasn’t long until there was another narrow turn, which sent his dick deep into your mouth again.

“Oops. Sorry, sweetheart,” Dean chuckles now.

“Dean?” Sam says, cocking an eyebrow at his brother.

“What?” Dean meets Sam’s eye in the rearview mirror. “I’m careful, alright. Just felt really good,” he admitted with a cheeky grin.

“Whatever, just… hurry, ok?”

“I’m trying, Sammy.”

When Dean rounded up the way to the bunker, Rowena was already waiting outside.

“Hello Samuel,” she greeted Sam when he stepped out of the car.

“Rowena.” Sam nods at her before turning to Dean who was still in the car with you. “Dean? Are you coming?”

“Yeah, I’m about to.” His words came out in short breaths. “Holy mother of…” Dean threw his head back, closing his eyes, one of his hands buried in your hair, pushing your face further into him as he spills hotly into your mouth, strings of warm cum coating your tongue. You swallow it down greedily, parting from his dick only to lap up the cum that didn’t make it down your throat. Your tongue catching up the last drop of Dean’s release before you smile up at him and were greeted by the equally satisfied grin of his own.

“Ok, now I’m good.” Dean huffs out and he saw Sam and Rowena looking at him apologetically before they head into the bunker.

Just when Dean thought that he could get out of the car, you were on him again, your lips sealed around his softening cock and you could feel it twitch against your tongue at your suction.

“Fuck, sweetheart, really. You should stop, we gotta get you inside, alright?”

“Need it, Dean.”

“I know you do.” Dean strokes your hair as he watch you sucking him back to life and how could he say no to you?

[knjnvrland]

Prank Wars - ch. 1

> pairing | jungkook x reader

> word count | 2.9k

> genre | college!au, fluff, smut

> warnings | just some good old swearing for now

> synopsis | College can be a stressful time in anyone's life as it is, why don't we throw a little prank war in the mix to make it harder?

> fic masterlist

> A/N | Hey everyone! This is the first fic I'm posting on this Tumblr, please be kind with your words but make sure to let me know what you think! This is a multi chapter fic I'm cross posting at ao3, search me there as 'restlessxsleeper'. English is not my first language, I'm sorry for the eventual spelling mistake, please let me know if you find any! I'll add trigger warnings at the beginning of every part, because even though we start funny and soft it takes a turn at some point, so please be sure to read those at the beginning of each chapter.

Chapter 1 - New Beginnings 

If you ever encountered another box in your lifetime you would be capable of murder, you thought to yourself, unloading the last of your belongings onto the bed.

“All good here, y/n?” Your brother checked from the door, peeking his head inside your room.

“Yeah Joonie, I’m all set” you still had a lot of unpacking and organizing to do, but for now you could set your brother free.

“Okay good, I still have to pick up Jin hyung from the train station so I’ll get going, call me later?” He was already halfway to the door and you knew.

“Yeah yeah, just go” you waved him off without looking back.

You heard the door closing behind him and then there was one. You knew your brothers were all just a few minutes away now, much closer then they used to be, but it felt weird knowing that this place you were standing in is now your entire home. The dorms weren’t nearly as bad as Jin and Tae made them out to be. You had to share a room, yes, something different that you never had to do before - being the only girl amongst your siblings you always had the privilege of having a room to yourself. But the dorm also had a small living room and something close to a kitchen. And the bathroom was clean, although you doubted a normal sized human-being could fit in that bathtub.

Your roommate’s side was already decorated. She had pink floral bedsheets and fairy lights hanging all around her stuff. You were sure she was one of those cute petite girls with big dreams and high hopes. She was nowhere to be seen though, you had been here for almost an hour now and still had to meet her. But that’s okay, you enjoyed being by yourself and you didn’t mind the peace and quiet to unpack at your own pace, so you just got right into work.

A couple hours flew by and you had just finished stuffing the last of the empty plastic boxes under your bed when you heard her coming. She was nothing you had imagined. Dark long hair and shiny eyes, yes, but taller than you, and skinnier, for sure. She had tight black skinny jeans and a pretty red shirt on, and although she was dressed simple, the way she stood made her look as if she just walked out of a fashion show. But as soon as she noticed you, her whole demeanor changed.

“Oh hey! I nearly didn’t see you, you must be y/n, right?” She was all smiles looking at your small figure barely showing from behind the bed.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, hope I didn’t scare you" you finally got up from your hiding spot to confirm that yup, she was definitely taller.

“No you’re alright” she took a step closer with open arms and you allowed yourself to be hugged by a complete stranger “I’m so excited to finally meet you! I’m Alice, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you” you managed to respond through the mane of hair around you and gave a small nudge to her waist to get out of her embrace.

“Oh I’m sorry! Did that made you uncomfortable? I’m a hugger, my friends keep telling me to take it easy but I just never do” She politely took a step back and seemed genuinely concerned about your feelings about that small act of affection.

“It's cool, I’m just not really used to it, I have three older brothers, we spend more time hitting each other than hugging" Alice took a sit on her bed and you did the same on yours, reading her motion to keep talking. “They all go here, well… not all of them, one just graduated actually, but he still lives close by, it’s a family thing I guess.”

“Oh who are them? I might know them or something, I’ve been here for a while and, as I’m sure you just saw, I’m a bit too social for my own good” she kicked her shoes off and made herself more comfortable, and again you mimicked her actions.

“Well the older one is Jin. Seokjin, actually, but I can’t remember the last time someone called him by his full name” you smiled, remembering that the only person he would let actually use his birth given name was your mother. “Then there’s Namjoon and Taehyung, they live together off campus with a couple of their friends” by the time you finished talking Alice had the biggest smile on her face.

“I can’t believe you’re the baby Kim they talk about so much!” At your confused expression, she continued “I’m really close friends with your brothers, my boyfriend introduced me to them last year and they had been a pain in my ass ever since! I don’t remember seeing you at Jin’s graduation though.”

“That’s so weird” you laughed, surprised at how small the world actually was. Or maybe your brothers, contrary to you, were just very social. “I was living abroad when he graduated, actually, and I was coming to surprise him but my flight got delayed and I missed the whole thing, he still gives me hell about it.”

“I can imagine” Alice laughed as well, swinging her body up again and standing by your bed now “I was actually just passing by the dorms to grab a coat and was heading to the boy’s house, you should come, it will be so nice to finally have another girl there” she extended her hand to you “We'll be the best of friends, I can already feel it” at that you grabbed her hand and reciprocated her warm smile.

You were not very sociable, and throughout all your life your closest friends have always been your brother’s friends, you wouldn’t bother changing that now, and it was good to have a girl by your side.

“Yeah sure, can I just take a shower first?”

Namjoon actually texted inviting you to come over when you were already on your way to his place in Alice’s car, so you never bothered answering, assuming you’d just show up in a few minutes anyway.

“I just have to pick my boyfriend up, if that’s alright?” You nodded, not really having any right to oppose, seeing as you were in her car anyway.

“Should I jump to the backseat?” You moved to unbuckle your seatbelt but her hand stopped you.

“It’s alright, really, I texted him before we left and I bet he won’t even look up from his phone when he gets in the car. Plus, you have a better music taste then him and I need you to keep changing songs” the compliment made you feel good and you relaxed in you seat, waiting for the boyfriend to show up.

A couple minutes later the door opened, just as you were looking for the next tune, and a handsome man took his place in the backseat. He had hair darker then Alice’s and although a little intimidating, he wasn’t tall or muscular, just had a certain aura around him. And just like the girl beside you predicted, he didn’t look away from his phone for a second.

“Y/n, this is Yoongi, Yoongi this is baby Kim” at his girlfriend’s voice he finally looked up, a confused look on his face.

“Baby Kim?” His voice was low and controlled, and he had the smallest pout searching for Alice’s eyes through the rearview mirror.

“She’s Joon’s younger sister” she started the car again and as soon as it left the driveway his attention was already gone.

“Oh, cool. Hi.” You assumed he addressed it at you, but his focus was entirely on the small device in his hand again.

“Don’t mind him, he’s just always working this days, I can’t believe I managed to get him out of his apartment today and- Hey! I love that song!” And just like that her attention was gone too. You could see why they worked.

Yoongi actually had the key to the apartment so you just walked right through the entrance of the building and up the elevators, only bothering to make yourselves known when you were already at the front door, ringing the doorbell. Not even you had the keys to your brother’s apartment, so they must be pretty close with this Yoongi guy. Just how much have you lost in the year you spent away? Before you could finish your thoughts, the door opened to review Jimin smiling warmly at the three of you. His expression changed quickly though, when he realized it wasn’t just his friends at the door but also little old you.

“Y/n-ah!” He opened his arms to welcome you “I missed you! Tae didn’t mention you were coming tonight!” You reciprocated the hug gladly.

Jimin is one of your oldest friends as well. He was Taehyung’s best friend since your brother could barely walk, and you all grew up together. With him constantly at your place, it was difficult to not see him as one of your own. He swung with you in his arms left and right before releasing you again.

“Yeah, Joon invited me actually, I just didn’t respond” you admit, passing your fingers through your hair to get it in place.

Yoongi and Alice just walked straight ahead and made themselves comfortable in the living room sofa. Namjoon’s and Taehyung’s place was much nicer than the dorms, that's for sure. It was way bigger as well, even if there were four people living here. You’ve been around a few times before with your mother, but it was clear that the boys made an effort then, seeing as how the place was kind of a mess now. Not dirty or anything, it just had a lot of stuff around. It was a four bedroom apartment, two of those bedrooms being suites. It had a spacious living room with large comfortable couches and a TV that was way too big for the table it was on. There was also a small table that was clearly moved to the side and not used much, and then there was a kitchen, only separated by a counter from the rest of the place. And your favorite part of the place: a large balcony filled with plants and pots and all things green that Namjoon kept.

“Y/n?” You were so caught up looking around that you didn’t realize your brother had left his room to see who arrived.

“Hey Tae, I can see that the getting-your-life-together thing was just an act for mom, uh?” You teased, pointing at the pile of clothing that was clearly his laying in one of the chairs around the small table beside you.

“I didn’t know you were coming today” ignoring the provocation completely, he walked past you into the kitchen “any of you guys want anything?”

“A beer, please, and do you have soda for Yoongi?” Alice turned from her place to see his response and as soon as Tae raised her the can of coke she smiled happily and returned her attention to whatever her boyfriend was showing her on his phone.

“Namjoon hyung should be right back, he went to buy more beer with Hoseok” Taehyung offered you a bottle of beer as well and went to sit on the sofa beside Yoongi. At that, Jimin, who was still by your side, nudged you to follow him and sit as well.

The conversation started flowing and you soon explained that you were actually rooming with Alice. To that, Taehyung offered his condolences to your new girl friend and earned himself a good old smack on the neck from you. Yoongi didn’t talk much, but whenever he opened his mouth it was to roast one of the other younger boys, and for that you were already very much a fan of him. Alice seemed at ease and both Jimin and Tae called her 'noona', showing how much they really cared for her. You were still a little bit shy, not knowing how to behave being around so many people your age again, seeing as you had spent the last year of your life mostly with really nice old ladies, volunteering at an organization in Dublin, but the change of pace seemed nice, and you were excited for the college experience, specially if it meant having friends like these around.

The door opened again a while later to reveal Namjoon, Hoseok and Jin carrying multiple bags of groceries, mostly filled with booze, you guessed. They didn’t notice you there at first, but as soon as Jin did, you were instantly smashed by the weight of him on top of you.

“Y/n-nie I missed you so much” he squeezed your head in a suffocating way.

“You saw me a week ago, please, I can’t breathe” you struggled and he released you from his deathly grip.

“That’s too much time to be away from my baby sister” he stated matter of factly and went back to the kitchen to help Hoseok, while you, once again, tried to tame the mess he made on your hair.

“I wasn’t sure you were coming” Namjoon took his place beside you, handing you another bottle of beer when he noticed yours was empty.

“I was already on my way here when you texted, my roommate is Alice” you clinked bottles with him as you have done many times before and took a sip, while he scanned the room to find Alice already smiling reassuringly back at him.

“Well, that’s a coincidence” Hoseok took his sit on the floor in front of you and smiled. He had helped you unload your boxes earlier with Namjoon and you were already so very fond of his heart shaped smile.

The night went by quickly, with you getting adjusted to the new dynamics. You learned that Hoseok and Jimin were both dance majors, and that’s how the four of them ended up living together. You also learned that Yoongi was a music major and worked at the campus’ official radio station, so you'd better get used to hearing his voice through the speakers wherever you were. Alice was a psychology major and, although you already knew your brother’s study fields, it was different hearing Tae complain about his art history professor in such colorful words that he obviously kept from your mother, and Joon candidly reciting books by heart at the most random times, you could only hope to take literature as serious as he did. Jin made you all dinner, but of course you all had to promise to swing by his cafe the next morning before classes start to repay him. Finally, you learned that there was still a piece missing, some dude called Jungkook that was apparently the same age as you, but a year ahead in college, seeing as you took a gap year. He was still moving in and that’s why he never came, but if he was half as cool as the people around you, you’d be just fine.

The next morning you woke up with time to spare. Alice was already up and showered when you left your room, witch you appreciated, as you now had the bathroom all to yourself. You washed your hair and got dressed in the outfit you had planned almost a week prior. As you were applying a bit of make up, Alice entered the room and gave you a cup of coffee she had just made, and you were a thousand times happier with the roommate you were assigned. Both of you grabbed your stuff and headed out the door to pass by Jin’s coffee shop for a nice morning treat as promised.

It was a short walk but it still took you a while to finally enter the place, as it was packed with anxious young adults heading to their first day of classes. As soon as Jin spotted you both, though, he pointed at a couple of free seats he saved for you at the counter and made a motion with his hands asking you to wait a second for him. You had had your coffee already, so when Jin brought two plates of toast you were amazed at how well your brother could read your mind. 

“Jin oppa, can you get me a couple of muffins, I’ll drop them at the studio on my way to class” Alice asked nicely when Jin finally caught a break and he promptly found the two prettiest blueberry muffins for her to take “I’ll get going so I can feed Yoongi one of these, see you later, Y/n! Thanks again Jin!” Blowing a kiss at the both of you, Alice went on her way.

You took a look at your phone and realized you had fifteen minutes to get to class, more than enough time, sure, but you still wanted to get there early and find yourself a good seat, as Namjoon had told you creative writing was one of the hardest to get a good place. You waved your brother goodbye and just as you were leaving, it happened:

Out of nowhere, this tall dude ran into you as if you were nothing, spilling the dark coffee he was carrying all over you. He cursed -not at you, he didn’t even look at you-, and just kept walking, no apologies, no looking back. He just left. Your white shirt and your pants were ruined and you definitely didn’t have time to go back to the dorms and change. Facing the facts, you would spend your first day of college with stained clothes, but you swore to yourself that you would find out who that boy was and, when you did, you would make him pay.

> A/N | It's simple and cliché, I know, but give it a chance, I promise it gets better! Have a nice day, wherever and whoever you are :)

TAGLIST IS OPEN!

[arthurflecksgirl]

Could I have reader x Arthur. Reader's the only one who has a car, and luckily she gets off from work before Arthur does so she drops him off n picks him up each day Both are always exhausted but one day reader is supper exhausted. Reader pulls into a parking lot and Arthur asks them whats wrong. They tell Arthur they think they're abt to pass out right before they slump over, out cold. Arthur notices that reader's burning up and he drives them to the house. He cools them off n stuff. THANKSILY

Hi :) Here it is and I really, really hope you like it :) <3

The  lights of Gotham  seemed to rush by like you were on some kid`s carousell, even though you drove as slow as it was possible on these dirty streets. This city never slept. It was late in th afternoon and  this avenue would still look the same ,hours from now. Just a little more dangerous as soon as the sun set. You have moved here half a year ago to finally live with Arthur in his apartment. Gotham was still a stranger to you. Knowing that Arthur spent his whole life here, without ever seeing something different, something beautiful made your heart cry from pain. He deserved better than that. Better than concrete, dirt and  the absence of kindness. There was danger on every corner. When you first moved here Arthur warned you about certain alleys and places. Places you shouldnt visit, even on a bright summers day in the noon. You still tried to get used to this. But he was all worth it. Some day you would  get him out of here and move somewhere nice. You dreamed of owning a little house with a garden to plant your own food and flowers. But up to this point it was just dreams. Both of you were short of money. Sometimes it was a struggle to even pay rent and keep the car. But despite all the crazyness out o the streets, apartment 8J felt like home. More than that, it felt like it was your destination. As much as you wanted to get Arthur out of this place where he had to spent his whole life, to you it felt like it had to be. Like every desicion you have ever made lead you here. To finally be with him. And you would never let him go again. No matter where you will end up living. It will be the two of you. That was all that mattered. You stopped at the traffic light, taking a deep breath. Your headache got worse again. Work was getting more and more exhausting with every day. But you desperately needed the money. Arthur was working a lot of hours per week,too. He loved his job as a party clown but he also came home just as exhausted as you did. Mostly from people who hated on him. For being a cown, for being nice, for being different. Sometimes it brought tears to your eyes to see how many hate a loving and warm hearted person like he got. You asked yourself if it was just Gotham or people in gerneral. Maybe you should move into a cabin in the woods and start a new life in the nature. You felt like Arthur would appriciate being one with the nature. He always got really excited when he saw something simple like a beautiful flower. He was in love with the colors and the smell of the blossoms. His heart was pure. You looked at the necklace hanging from the rearview mirror. Arthur gave it to you when you had your third date together. He knew, he just knew that this is going to be a  great love. It was a liitle heart that can be opened. He put a photo in it you took on your first date when you were at the donut shop. Arhur looked happy on that picture. Real happiness. The kind that he wasnt even able to feel before you met. The traffic light turned green .Somehow you didnt felt very well. Your sign started to get blurry. Just for a second but it somehow concerned you a lot. You suffered from burn out before and knew the signs. But there was no time to waste. You got to pick up Arthur from work. Luckily you came back from work a little bit earlier than he did. Otherwise he must have taken the subway, which was always filled with violent people who gave him dirty looks for being in his clown costume. It just didnt felt right to let him take the subway when there was any chance to pick him up by yourself. You coudlnt wait to get home, to the comfort of your bed and just relax. You felt drained, achy muscles and tired bones. A tired mind. But full of love when you thought about Arthur sitting in the passanger seat in a couple of minues. You missed him a lot when you were working. It was like missing a body part. He should be there all the time. Soon you arrived at HaHa`s. Arthur was already standing in front of the building. All alone, with his hands in his pockets, looking down, smoking a cig. His big hoodie was hiding his beautiful hair and half of his expressive face. All his clothes looked kinda big on him. Your heart broke for a second as you once again realized how lost and tiney he looked out there on the streets. Like he shouldnt be here. An angel of light caught in the cold. He deserved better. You noticed that Artie  was still holding an baloon animal in his left hand. Always waiting to get the chance to make a kid smile. Right before you pulled over a mother with his three year old passed him by. Arhur immediately flipped away his cigarette and kneed down to the little girl. You couldnt hear what he said but he usually asked them if they like baloon animals. His face lighted up as the kid reached for the baloon cat, but just a heartbeat later her mother yelled at him and pulled her daughter away from him. The way she grabbed the little girls arm was alarming. Arthur seemed shocked but not surprised. Just another day as a party cown. You let down the window "Hey Artie, c´mon , get in the car!" the traffic was too loud for him to hear you. He still looked after the little girl. She cried from disappointment.  Arthur pulled his hoodie deeper into his face. You knew him well enough to know that sadness took over him. Seeing that little girl crying her eyes out hurt his heart. "Artie?" now he heard you. Arthur looked up and nodded before he walked across the streets, the hand in his pockets again, sad eyed. He almost stumbled. "Hey sweetheart" he got in the pessenger sea and gave you a sloppy kiss on the cheek. "I missed you" he mumbled. "Missed you more, Artie. What was that?" His big puppy eyey were focused on you. "That little girl. I saw it. Such a rude lady." "Yeah....I dont know why people act like that. Do you think it was because I wasnt in my make up? Could be....but on the other hand. I got beaten down before because I was wearing make up, so I am not sure what people want." "Arthur. They dont even know what they want for themselfs. They should wnat someone who makes them laugh, right? And they still act like freaking bullies. " "I felt so sorry for that little girl...I just wanted.....just wanted to make her smile..." "I know..." you said as you re started the car. Arthur seemed just as exhausted as you. And you knew why. It was the kinda exhaustion that was caused by mental pain. His work mates kept calling him names and gave him a hard tme. Espacially this guy called Randall. "Did Randall bully you again?" Arthur watched out the window "Oh well...it wasn`t that bad today". He didnt wanted to concern you. "Everytime they make fun of me  I just think of you and I feel better." he smiled. It was a sad but honest smile that hit you right in the heart. The dizzyness was coming back. You just hoped it wouldnt get any worse before you made it home. Arthur leaned back on the seat and closed his eyes.  His forehead was glimmering with sweat "I`m so tired. I cant wait to fall right into bed as soon as we get home. You dont mind me closing my eyes for a second?" You rubbed your dimples with one free finger "Of course I dont. Go ahead. I know you`re working hard, darling." "Mmhh...yeah. You know, I still love my job.  Especially when I`m at the hospital, helping to brighten up their day with a little dance." You smiled. Arthur was the most adorable dancer in the world. And his performance as Carnival was  the cutest. "So you were at the hospital today?" "Yeah" his eyelids fluttered under the lights that fell through the window "Y/N?" "What Arthur?" "I still feel bad for not having my own car. Or a driver license even." You looked over on him "Oh, don`t feel bad abot this. We both know you are not allowed to drive because of your medication. " He agreed. You started to feel worse and decited to drive into a parking lot. Anderson ave wasn`t far but you just felt that you wouldnt manage to drive home. Arthur looked surprised, realzing you stopped the car. "Baby, whats wrong?" You grabbed the handlebar with both hands "I`m not sure....I....think I´m going to pass out..." your voice cracked right before you slumped over. Arthur reacted as fast as he could and supported you. He checked your forehead. "Oh my god! Y/N? Can you hear me? You`re burning up!" You heard his voice but your reaction was so minimal, he didnt noticed it. You felt his hand touching your face, brushing your hair out of your eyes. Arthur kept calling your name. It sounded like he was about to panic. "Artie?" you were finally able to talk "I dont feel so good". Arthur supported your head "Can you get in the passenger seat? I`ll drive you home. We have to cool you off. You`re burning up. I´m kinda worried about you. Arthur helped you to get in the pessenger seat and placed a kiss on your cheek. "You`re comfortable?" You nodded while your body felt weaker within every minute. "Arthur" you muttered "Are you sure you can drive?" "Yeah, I was driving a car before. I will make it come savely, I promise." You felt kida worried about knowing Arhur had to drive hom by himself. You didnt even knew he was familiar with how to drive.  But your mind kept drifting away into a feverish state. You didnt even noticed you were already home. Arhur helped you to get out of the car. Thank god he managed to drive home. He lifted you up in his arms and carried you all the way into the elevator. You blinked at him "Artie?" "Yeah sweetheart, I am here. I am right here with you. It´s okay, we`re already home. Just a second and you will lie savely on the couch." Artie managed to unlock the door while still having you in his arms and carried you over the doorstep right on his couch. You were only half awake but to feel the familar fabric of his furniure awake you, at least for a bit. "We`re home" you whispered. Your bones felt even heavier than before. "We are. Juts relax, sweety. I think you are suffering from exhaustion. Arthur got into the kitchen and came back with a hot chocolate. "Here" he handed it to you in the most caring way possible. You couldtell from his face that he hated to see you like that. Even though he was exhausted,too, he still cared about your own health more. He touched your skin "You`re still burning up. I will get you some cool towels too cool your skin off a bit". Arthur went to the bathroom and held the towels under the cold water while you waited for him , drinking the cocoa. It was heartwarming to see him being worried about you. So heartwarming it alreadymade you feel better. You just knew that he would be there for you no matter what. He came back, sat down on the couch with you and slowly took your shirt off to let the cool towels slide down your arms. The wet fabric felt so good on your burning skin, you could feel the dizzyness fading like smoke.  "This feels so good Arthur". "Yeah? I´m glad to hear that. You`ll feel better soon." The way his hands let the towels stroke up and down your arms was soothing. Just to watch him doing it calmed you down a lot. You stll felt weak but more in a way of wanting to crawl in his arms to fall in a peaceful  sleep. You closed your eyes and focused on his touch. The way you could feel his fingers through the fabric of the towels. Each one of them. He let it wander over your collarbones and chest as you too a deep breath in. "Better, sweetheart?" "A lot" you smiled. "Thank you for taking care of me. For driving home. I know that you`re exhausted from work,too." "Thats what I´m here for" he whispered in his sweetest vouce "To take care of you, remember?" "And so am I, Arthur" "I know" he replied, not without placing the softest kiss upon the tip of yoir nose. He put his forehead on yours and pressed his smile on your lips. It was little gestures like that, which filled your heart with a warmth only Arthur was able to create. He lay down beside you "`Come here, sweetheart. Use me as a pillow" he giggled as you placed your head in his lap. Arthur started to stroke your hair. There was no music playing, no tv. The only sound that filled the apartment was the two of you breathing in and out. His breath becoming one with yours. Two hearts beating for one another. The only dizzyness left was the one caused by the undeniable certainty of being in love.

[sambergscott]

i'll be with you wherever you are

i actually managed to finish a fic!!! suck it writer’s block!!!! 

also thank u to emma for letting me use baby maya, love u!!! 💖💝💗💕💘💓💞

It’s been a long week without him. There’s been lots of tears (from both mama and baby), sleepless nights and pointing up at the sky everytime an airplane passes over the city, asking if it’s dada coming home. Thank God for FaceTime, but even regular FaceTime calls do not suffice when all the two year old wants is to cuddle her daddy.

She doesn’t know how single or separated parents cope.

It’s killing Jake too, she knows from their private FaceTime calls after she’s finally managed to get Maya down to sleep. This is the longest he’s ever been away from their daughter -- and the longest he’s been away from Amy since he was stuck in that Safe House with Kevin -- and it sucks. He’s in California for a family funeral with Karen and he would’ve flown back by now if he didn’t have to stay to support his emotional, grieving mother.

“I feel like a crappy wife because I’m not there with you,” she confesses during one of their calls, tears threatening to spill over for the hundredth time since she had to make the difficult decision to stay at home. She’s almost 34 weeks pregnant with their second and it was touch-and-go whether the airline would let her fly across the country. They concluded that it would be safer for her to just stay at home with Maya. It’s not like funerals are not the best place for two year olds either, but still. She feels guilty as hell.

“Ames,” his voice softens, “we talked about this. It’s not your fault. You’re pregnant. You couldn’t get here.”

“But your aunt died. I could’ve bribed the airline, got special permission from the doctor, done something --.”

“You sent flowers and have called and texted constantly to make sure I’m OK. You’ve done plenty, babe. You have nothing to feel guilty about. Besides,” he says, “if it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine for knocking you up.”

Amy rolls her eyes. “Way to take the romance out of it, Peralta.”

“I put the Whomping Willow in your Chamber of Secrets?”

“Worse.”

“Fine, we created a new, beautiful life through our love making.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with Charles,” she responds sarcastically. Although she is in complete agreement that their next child will be beautiful (just like their big sister), she disputes his original point that he was the one to get her pregnant. They both wanted another one. The re-appearance of Four Drink Amy after he ordered Kamikaze shots may have just extradited the process.

A familiar cry coming through the baby monitor cuts their conversation short.

“I’ll be home in two days,” he reminds her.

“Two days, seven hours and eleven minutes. Not that I’m counting or anything,” she adds, her cheeks burning.

“You’re seriously the best wife ever. Love you.”

“Love you too,” she whispers. She has just enough time to send Karen her best wishes and lower the phone to her belly so he can say goodnight to Bump before Maya’s cries get even louder and she really has to go.

(btw, he texts her as she soothes their baby girl, my dad -- a legit crappy spouse -- hasn’t even texted my mom once. me and maya and baby #2 are so lucky to have you. 💖💝💗💕💘💓💞)

(She’s so touched that she doesn’t even correct his grammar).

The following two days, seven hours and eleven minutes feel like a lifetime. In reality, it’s nothing compared to his stints in Florida and South Carolina where she didn’t know if she’d ever see him again, but it’s long enough. She lets out an audible sigh of relief when she gets the text that they’ve landed and are through security.

“Dada’s nearly home,” she updates a cranky Maya in the backseat of their Accord, sending Jake a quick description of where they’re parked. Motherhood has really honed her multi-tasking capabilities. “Are you excited about seeing dada?”

“Dada?” She looks around hopefully for him. Her face crumples when she realises he’s still MIA. To Amy, “Where dada?”

“He’s coming, baby. He’s coming.”

She turns up the Disney playlist they’d been listening to on the drive to the airport (it’s basically all they listen to these days), effectively distracting her for a couple of minutes.

She’s so busy singing to Moana that she doesn’t notice Jake approach until he taps at her window.

“DADA!” She squeals, desperately trying to reach for him through the glass.

He laughs, opening the door, expertly undoing her safety harnesses and pulling her into his arms as quick as he can. “I’ve missed you too, Maya-Moo,” he says, grinning at Amy like he did the first time he said it back when she was one month old and proclaimed that he was basically Shakespeare. Two years in, he’s still saying it constantly. Amy would find it annoying if it wasn’t so damn cute.

She climbs out the car (a task that is becoming increasingly difficult as her baby grows from an apple to an eggplant to a butternut squash) and hugs Karen, who can’t help but notice Amy’s longing glances in Jake’s direction.

“Go join them,” she instructs, nodding at the adorable father-daughter moment happening in the middle of the airport car park.

Karen lets her go and Amy takes a few steps towards them. She taps Jake on the shoulder. “Room for one more?”

“Always,” he responds, kissing her gently before wrapping his arms around his three favourite people. “I missed you guys so much. I’m never leaving ever again.”

“Please don’t,” she murmurs into his chest, closing her eyes and cherishing the warmth of his embrace.

She’s forced back to reality when a large SUV honks their horn at them to move out the empty parking space and holds her hand up in apology as she puts Maya back in her car seat while Jake loads the bags into the trunk.

“Let’s go home,” he declares once everyone is ready.

He drops his hand to her thigh and keeps it there the entire drive home, simultaneously making funny faces at Maya in the rearview mirror. The sound of the two year old’s laughter is the best soundtrack to any drive Amy’s ever had. She’s so glad he’s home.

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Mini prompt-Anti having a good day and treating the bois nicely

“Okay, that’s it!” shouts Anti. “Get into the fuckingcar!”

The hot grip of the terror around its bones loses a little of itsstrength as Trick registers belatedly what he said.

“Wait - what?”

“You heard me! Get in the car! Goddamn! Go! Get in the car!”

Shaky already, Trick rubs at his watering eyes and slips behindRed, who holds him carefully at his back.

“Anti, I know we should have been more careful with the ball,but we didn’t mean to break the window,” sniffles Trick, buryinghis face in Red’s sweatshirt. “Please don’t dump me in theocean, I’ll be good, we were just playing. We’re just a littlecooped up, we - ”

“Yeah, I can goddamn tell,” snaps Anti, grabbing his hair andmaking him go “ack!” Trick gets obediently out from behind Redbefore Anti even has to tug or yank. “I hear you throwing that ballaround every hour of the day, all Dok does is sleep, Red has beensmacking his stupid head against the floorboards - ugh, I can’tstand the sound of you all anymore! I’m sick of this house! Dapjust stares at the wall all day, probably hallucinating, and Bluekeeps singing to himself… you all drive me mad, you know that?”

“Yes, Anti,” answers Trick and Red in morose tandem.

“But I thought we were hiding from the bad men?” Red proffersanxiously.

“Yes,” Anti puffs out a sigh. “We are. But you all need out.You’re acting like wild animals.”

Anti’s body is fizzling irritably, consumed all over withrunning lines and curves of rainbow-shifting glitches, his eyesflickering from black to green to blue to brown, stamping hisbarely-corporeal feet.

Ah, realizes Trick, picking at Red’s sleeve. So we’re not theonly ones feeling a little cooped up.

“Go get your brothers,” orders Anti, snapping his fingers infront of their faces and making Trick startle. “Now, I’m notwaiting. We’ll take the car… somewhere. Whatever. Come on! Fiveminutes or I’m leaving you behind!”

Red leaps to his feet and darts off towards his bedroom. PoorTrick is still red-faced and trembling in the expectation of somekind of trap, but Red, for his part, is not about to miss whateverthis day is about to become.

“What about a movie?” suggests Blue timidly.

Anti leans back farther in the passenger seat, shrugging, and Doksquirms behind him as his legs begin to get crushed. Trick looks upin the rearview mirror and giggles at his twin’s discomfort,earning himself a pointed glare. Anti’s eyes flicker over to Trickand he immediately tries to get the amusement off his mouth, butAnti’s already seen it.

He only grins and turns his head about, winking at Dok.

“Anti,” scoffs Dok, blushing as he realizes he’s beingteased, pushing at the car seat crushing him. Anti snorts and leansit all the way back, making Dok yelp and Dapper slide off of Blue’slap and onto the floor beside him, shaking his head at the laid-backchair, pushing at the side of it playfully.

“A movie, huh? I don’t know if we got fifty bucks lyingaround. Not if we want lunch.”

“We want lunch,” whispers Trick, growing bolder with everymoment that passes. He knows Anti isn’t mad now, right? He even lethim drive. He let Trick drive. Trick gets to take his familysomewhere. Trick gets to be in the front seat and Anti gets to bebeside him, beside him, beside Trick and nobody else.

Anti pushes the side of his head, playing with his soft brown downas the streets of the city pass them by in a rush of gold. Tricktries to keep his eyes on the road.

“We could go actually see some of the country,” suggest Dokplaintively. “The natural landmarks are - ”

“Who guessed he was going to say that?” asks Red, putting hishand in the air. “Blue, you - ? Yeah, and, oh, Trick’s got hishand up - Dap?”

“I thought he would ask to go straight to the library,actually.”

“Hey!” cries Dok, shoving himself into Blue’s shoulder topress him into Red and bapping Dapper’s head. “I’ll have youknow that seeing the sights is a perfectly normal tourist activity -”

“Don’t tease him so much,” laughs Anti, reaching back to patDok’s thigh. “Somebody has to be the nerd of the family, that’swhy all you assholes are still alive. Dappy, what about you? Tell bigbrother where you want to go.”

Dapper becomes obediently simpering, tilting his head with wideeyes and reaching up to put his fingers gently on Anti’s arm.“Anti, I want to go to the zoo.”

“Okay, could have guessed that one too,” says Trick.

“The zoo, huh?”

“I think it’s free in the city,” shrugs Blue. “We passedby that poster the other day, didn’t we, Dap?”

“Baby lemur,” replies Dapper emphatically. “Baby giraffe.”

Anti pauses, stroking Dapper’s hair, gazing out at the sun.

“Red?” he says.

Red blinks and looks up. “Yes, sir?”

Anti frowns, turning to shoot him an exasperated look. “Chillout. So?”

Oh, fuck. This is him not understanding again, right? Everybodyelse gets it and he doesn’t. He should, but he doesn’t. Thesignals are there for everybody else to see, but he’s missed them,again, and Anti’s going to look at him like he’s an idiot, andall his little brothers will snicker behind his back, and then -

“Red!” laughs Anti, slapping his knee and making him jolt.“Space back in, please, you’re a million miles away. Where do youwant to go?”

What, him? Where does he want to go? His brain, already kickedinto a gear too high for the hill he’s rolling down, only picks upits pace. In the city? In the country? In the world? Between theproud bodies of shadow-strong trees wheezing ever upwards, throughmountains shouting towards the sky, coated in icing, across oceanswide as infinities, great blue waves leaping with the dolphins,coming to crash like old dead gods onto the grainy gold of ancientbeaches -

“Red.” Blue’s voice is as soft as his hand on his thigh.“Ro.”

“The beach,” spills Red’s mouth frantically.

Anti watches him carefully. His eyes are brown today and he seemsmuch younger than Red, his hair curled on the top and a pair of bigfriendly glasses sitting on his small nose.

“The beach, if you want to,” Red re-attempts, straightening inhis seat and adjusting his black hood, feeling Blue’s hand withdrawfrom his thigh. “But just a suggestion.”

“Yeah,” says Anti musingly. “You did like to swim, huh?”

Everyone falls into silence. It is a remnant of their mutuallyforgotten past, one of the rare, secret pieces of reality long sincestripped away from them. It is a very small detail, and it awakenssomething in Red the same way a smell might awaken the faintest,fondest, most fleeting deja vu, and brings nothing concrete to hismind, but Trick, Dok, Blue, and Dapper all stay quiet and solemn -ode to that which we have all forgotten.

Red catalogs the fact in his brain like someone wrapping dishes intowels instead of bubble packaging, hoping they won’t shatter thenext time they go to pull them out of their boxes. I like to swim.

“Well,” says Anti, clapping his hands together. “Zoo’sclose. And free. And Dap’s been ill.”

Dapper always seems to be ill, and, as such, in need of a greatdeal of fussing and spoiling and looking after, but nobody questionsit. And nobody minds either, truly. They’re out of the house. Allsix of them. The sun is shining. The world feels kind. There are babylemurs at the zoo.

“Hola,” says Trick.

The parrot’s pupils shrink and enlarge, shrink and enlarge,tilting its head as it considers him.

Trick grins. A small group of children and a couple of adults areholding their breath, waiting for him to try again.

“Hola,” he says clearly.

The parrot bobs once, twice. “Hola,” it croaks.

“Ohhh!” cries a small child, bouncing up and down. “Hola!”

“Hola,” says the parrot, playing along now. “Hola.”

A chorus of hellos bursts up around Trick and he laughs, bobbinghis head and making the parrot bob in return. The kids crowd tightaround him, staring up at the bird and chattering in Spanish, tryingto make it talk.

“It likes you,” grins Dok.

“I’m a parrot-whisperer,” says Trick.

They laugh and Trick slips away from the pack of kids, brighteningunder a couple admiring glances from small, chubby kids with smilinglion ink prints pressed onto their hands. When was the last time hegot to be around kids?

“Ahh, baby,” he breathes, as they pass a particular rotundbaby hanging off his mother’s shoulder, slobbering on his fist.

“Is this an animal zoo or a small child exhibit to you?” asksDok, brushing mussed hair, glowing in the afternoon sun, out of hisvivid eyes. Slightly sun-burned and bright with a little exercise, helooks like nothing has ever hurt him in his life. Trick’s mouthsoftens and he lets out a warm hum, closing his eyes and tilting hishead up to the sun, wrapping an arm around Dok’s ribs and walkingforward towards the others again.

“Little bit of both,” he says, and makes his twin laugh.

Blue and Red are leaning over a sign in front of the condorexhibit, Blue translating the extinction prevention discussion outloud to his twin, their color-coordinated heads tilted towards eachother while the condor parades itself in front of them, pausing onlyto groom its heavy wings. Across the way, Anti is holding Dappergently, one hand on his waist and one hand holding his, trying tokeep him from getting too over-excited and faint. It’s not unusualfor him to over-emote when Anti’s making obvious attempts to spoilhim, and he hasn’t been out of the house in weeks - maybe a month,Trick can’t remember. It’s almost too much for him, especiallygiven his passion for zoos, exploration, and tiny animals.

“Baby, baby, baby,” he is babbling, pointing and signing andgrabbing Anti’s hand over and over again. He seems to buzzunderneath Anti’s hands, rocking on his dress shoes. “Baby birdbaby baby baby.”

“All okay,” soothes Anti, and Trick sees a small, fond smilesitting on his mouth, carefully holding back their youngestbrother. “All okay. We’re okay. Dapper, my Dapper.”

The quail chicks in the pen before them bop along on tiny sticklegs after their big fat mama, cheeping weepily for attention andpoking around at the dirt.

“Apparently there used to be like, thirty of these left in thewild!” Blue runs his fingers over the informational again. “Butthey’ve really made a comeback. One of few endangered species thathas…”

“Poor sucker.” Red clucks his tongue, shaking his head at thebird. “It’s almost as ugly as you are, Blue.”

“Red, we are identical.”

“Yes, Red, don’t say that.”

“See, Dok-Dok agrees.”

“Oh, I just meant the condor doesn’t deserve to be calledugly.”

Red cackles and Blue has Dok in a headlock, pressing him into theinformational. Trick stops his own hackles from rising - they’rejust playing, Dok is laughing, and Red and Blue are bigger than himanyway, so even if Blue was actually hurting him, it would be betterto sit back quietly and be ready for the aftermath than to try andintervene.

Trick turns back to the quails and finds Anti looking back at him,a rare smile on his mouth. He softens to meet Anti’s eyes and Antilets go of Dapper’s waist to reach a hand out towards him,beckoning. Trick’s heartrate picks up and he hurries towards him,grasping his hand tight before it can be pulled away. Anti laughs andsqueezes his palm tight, pulling him and Dapper off towards the nextexhibit.

Red uses the last of his sols to buy Blue a handful of bird feedand he glows with laughter as the birds converge on him, pecking athis filled palms. Dapper continues to buzz and whistle and click andsign through the big cats, the ungulates, the penguins, and themonkey house, including the baby lemur, but he stills when they reachthe hyenas just in time to see them being fed, his big eyes fixed onthe moving bodies of the cats, his head tilted, calmed as Antistrokes his back. A butterfly lands on Dok’s nose inside thebughouse. Anti pulls out his phone and takes a picture.

The reptile exhibit is a long line of darkened tunnels, bodieswrithing across stone and tree and little cups of water. The smell ofsnakes is over-sweet and reeks in the air.

“Very cool,” says Trick, lead by Anti.

“Very edgy,” Anti replies, and Trick snorts. Dapper puts hispalm on the cool glass of a snake cage and watches the body move,nodding slowly like they’re speaking to each other.

“Look how fat he is,” mumbles Blue, entranced with a very fatfrog.

In the dark hallway, they are all close and slowed by the smallcages, each one deserving a moment of admiration. Anti pulls Trickand Dap to the tarantula at the end of the hall and humsappreciatively, staring at it.

“Don’t let your twin see that, huh, Trick?” says Anti,swinging their hands back and forth. Trick looks up at him, warmed.

“How’d you know he doesn’t like spiders?”

“I know Dok.” Anti turns to him, frowning a little. “I knowall of you.”

“Excuse me?” says a young boy in broken English, pausingbeside them before Trick can answer. Anti startles and drops theirhands, turning to regard the kid, probably about twelve or thirteen.

“Yes, bud?” asks Trick, grinning at him.

“Are you Jacksepticeye?” he asks Anti, beaming through gappedteeth. “Can I have picture?”

In the lowlight, Trick watches the color drain from Anti’s face.Even if he couldn’t read Anti’s warning signs himself, he wouldknow the sudden danger from the way Dapper distances himself fromthem, pushing his back into the glass of the tarantula exhibit andhis fear into the back of his head, leaving him small and contriteand dull in the eyes, the easiest mental space when big brother isangry.

“No,” says Anti, too soft. The snake cage behind him flowswith slithering movement as a python shifts. “Estas confundido.”

The boy’s face falls. “No eres Jack?”

Anti steps forward, his boots striking stone. The kid jumps,startled by the look on his face, and, with one glance at the tattoosburned into Anti’s forearms, turns to rush back to his parents.

Anti stills, staring at the cold floor, rubbing the circle on hisupper arm, his mouth slightly open. He can hear Dapper’s breathingpicking up beside him and he sees his youngest screw his eyes shut,rubbing at his head.

“Anti?” mumbles Trick. “Who’s Jack?”

Anti grits his teeth. “Go get the fake halter,” he hisses.“This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have wornthis…”

Trick breathes in and out shallowly, trying to diffuse whatever’shappening before it happens. “I thought you said you were comfiestlooking like this.”

“Go get my halter,” snaps Anti, rubbing at his face. And then,softening: “Please, Trickster, and don’t say that name again.”

“J - infected eye,” signs Dapper aggressively, nearly strikinghimself in the face. “J - infected eye.”

“Go get Blue too,” murmurs Anti, turning to grip Dapper’sshoulder.

“You make - forget.” Dapper is frantic, gripping at hiswrists. “You make - steal him from me -  I want - I want - mybrother -”

Anti shoves him into the corner, taking his chin firmly in hishands and making him meet his eyes. Trickshot rushes back towards theothers.

“You didn’t hear anything important.”

“I - I - I did.” Dapper is suddenly shaken, blinking,heart-racing. “He said - ”

“You didn’t hear anything important.” His dark eyes boreinto him.

“Anti, too much, dizzy, please - ”

“You didn’t hear anything important.”

“I didn’t… I didn’t…”

“Ah, there you go, sweetheart.”

Dapper’s eyes are glazing, drifting back to Anti’s, his mouthparting dully. Anti holds his head securely to keep him fromdrifting. “Stay with me. You didn’t hear anything important.”

“I didn’t… hear anything important.”

“There you go. There you go. Hey, don’t close your eyes, stayconscious.”

Blue is at his side, gripping at his shoulder. “What happened?Is he okay?”

“Probably just a hallucination. Right, Carve?”

“Right…”

“Oh, here, Dap, I’ve got you.”

“I didn’t hear anything important. I didn’t hear anythingimportant.”

Blue leads Dapper away, his little brother clinging woozily to hischest. Red is left behind with Anti, pulling the halter out of hisbag, Trick hovering nervously behind them while Dok hurries afterBlue and Dap.

“What really happened?” asks Red.

“Bad name,” Anti mumbles.

“Fuck.” Red glances around, trying to make sure they’rehidden. They need a better spot than this. He puts his arms aroundAnti’s shoulders and leads him towards a shadowed water fountain.

“I’m fine,” growls Anti, low, his eyebrows furrowed and hiseyes closed, letting Red lead him.

“Anti, you’re glitching.”

Anti grits his teeth and lets Red press him into a corner by thewater fountain, hiding his color-burn stomach with his body. Trickhurries towards him as he begins to dissolve at the seams, breathingharshly through his teeth.

“Anti,” Trick says, patting his chest. “Just calm down, man.Hey, breathe with me, okay?”

“Get off me,” heaves Anti, pushing at his hands. “Trick, Idon’t need - ”

“Anti.” Trick steadies his hands on his shoulders, helping Redshield him in the corner while Dok and Blue guard and hold Dapperbehind them, glancing warily around and keeping their heads down low.“You’ve done this for me before. It’s alright. Breathe in,follow me.”

“Don’t even need to breathe,” chokes Anti, but a secondlater air is sliding in through his teeth as he watches Trick’schest rise.

“And out…”

“Not scared,” pants Anti, trying to keep the breath steady asit leaves him.

“I know, buddy,” says Red softly, patting his back.

“In…”

They rise like mountains.

“Out…”

Fall like waves. Anti ripples with power and distress, but hisdissipating stomach is coming back together.

Time shakes past them the way it always does when panic is high,cold and swift and slow and still. Anti lets his head fall down onTrick’s collarbone and they breathe in sync. Rise and fall. Riseand fall.

“I’m fine,” grumbles Anti.

“Better to be safethan sorry,” says Trick.

“It’s my faultanyway,” hisses Anti, and the words startle Red so bad he seems toreboot for a second, blinking hard at the sky and looking around like he’sjust woken up. “All of us being in public is stupid. I didn’teven pick another form. Anyone could be tracking us right now. Thiswas a bad idea. We shouldn’t have ever left the house. Why did Ibring even the little one, fuck…”

Red breathes a longsigh out from his teeth, nervous. It can be hard to work with Antiwhen he’s upset – all his emotions seem to lead to anger eventually– but he wants so badly to comfort him.

“We can’t juststay in the house all the time,” he soothes, almost touching Anti’sshoulder, drawing back uncertainly. “You were restless too. Andwe’re having a good time, Anti. We are. Maybe Dapper got upset for amoment, but how excited has he been today? Happier than he’s been ina long time.”

Anti hums, tiltinghis head back and forth, and glances up at Blue and Dapper, wanderingoff arm in arm. “I guess.”

“It was just onemoment. Tell you what – ” He holds his hands gently out and putshis head down a little. Just suggesting, not ordering. Justsuggesting. “How about we go see that last exhibit Dapper wanted tosee and then we’ll head out and get lunch like you said. Let me picksomething up for you and everybody and then we’ll find somewherequiet to go to eat. Just the six of us. And you can wear whatever youwant, and no one will look at us or follow us or hurt us or say badnames. How does that sound?”

Slowly, Anti’s mouthcurves into a small smile. Something warm unravels in Red’s stomach.

He leans forward andshoves their foreheads together. Anti giggles and knocks back.“Dumb-ass,” he sings, pushing Red’s shoulder, avoiding his skin.“Head full of air.”

“Guilty,” saysRed, making him laugh again. “Okay, you want the halter?”

“Yeah. And Trick,put your hat back on. Too many of the same faces walking around, andapparently I always fade right back to his… Okay, hide me.”

Red glances aroundfor eavesdroppers yet again and blocks Anti’s body off with his ownin the corner. A moment later, a knee-high black dog slips in frontof him and he leans loyally down and puts a halter labeled “servicedog – DO NOT TOUCH” around its chest. Anti bites his teeth at himonce and Red jumps hard and then laughs loud, reaching out to strokehis brother’s ears.

“Okay,” he says,getting up and tapping Trick’s hand. “Let’s go see a baby giraffe.”

“Baby baby baby!”they find Dapper signing, held back from the ledge by Blue, laughingand wrapped around his waist. “Baby, baby, baby.”

The giraffe racesaround on its wobbly knock-knees, its mother trying earnestly tocatch and lick it. Dapper falls back, laughing hard, letting himselfcollapse against Blue’s chest, heaving with the joy of it. To be outof the house, to be convinced that you’re free, to be laughing atbaby giraffes!

The black dog swirlsaround his legs and he clicks his tongue, turning his face up in thesun to bask in it. Anti returns to Red’s side and Trick returns toDok’s, and wraps, once more, a safe arm around his safe twin, andholds him while the sun gets low.

Red gets themchicken from a KFC – Lima is coated in them – and brings it backto the car, where the shiny black dog has finally returned to a youngman with mousy brown hair, big round glasses, and a neck wrapped inbandages.

And that’s it,that’s all, he expects, that was nice enough and now they’re goinghome to eat and think about the day and feel okay and safe and happyfor once.

“Hey,” saysAnti, glancing back at Dok. “You said you wanted to see the sightsor something?”

Dok perks up, eyesflickering around in case of a trap. “Yes, maybe.”

Anti pats Trick’sshoulder and gets in the driver’s seat in his stead. “Come on,let’s find somewhere to go to eat.”

Trick leaps intothe hot wet sand of the beach and hollers aloud, racing along theline of the water. A white wash of foam comes pouring across hiscalves and thighs, soaking into his bare feet and retreating again,leaving him cool and clean, laughing as he runs. He scatters a groupof seagulls and spins around, turning his face to the sun and lettinghimself crash onto his back.

“Careful, Trick,”warns Dapper, putting his hands around his sandcastle tower.

“Yeah, careful,Trick,” says Dok, and pours sand all over his bare white chest.Trick yelps and gets up, flinging sand at his twin and making himsplutter. Dok picks up another handful of sand and Trick turns to runeven as Dok rises to his feet, chasing him down into the tide anddumping the sand all over his hair while he shrieks and laughs hisprotest, trying to grab Dok and throw him to the ground.

“No, no, Trick,wait – ” cries Dok as he is lifted up and dragged farther intothe water, gasping with laughter.

“No way,dummkopf, this is what you get!” shouts Trick, and dunks his twinunderneath the water, snatching his glasses off his face and puttingthem on his own in victory.

Dok comes upspluttering and shoving at him, his eyes bright with mirth, and amoment later he is wriggling free and chasing him again.

Dapper turnscartwheels on the beach around his sandcastles, knowing better thanto play rough with his big brothers – Anti hates that, except forpractice fights – but entertained nevertheless. Blue, Red, and Antiare coming down the hill of the private beach they’ve broken into,carrying plates and cups and more food and even wine stolen from thehouse at the top of the hill, empty for months while the owners areaway on vacation in a wealthier part of the world.

But what could bebetter than this, wonders Red, staring out at the shoreline.

Gold light and thesetting sun. The glass shine of the blue water, rocking itself tosleep across soft brown sand. Little crabs scurrying around Dapper’sfeet as he steps curiously around them, water cooling his twinsiblings as they play, Blue singing a song behind him, distant andcontent, his eyes fixed on the horizon, the warm wind sighing throughhis hair. Fried chicken and sand in their socks and broken glass froma break-in. Nothing’s perfect. But this is good. This is good, andsometimes good is the best thing for something to be, good and pureand real and true.

“Dumbasses,”laughs Blue, breaking off his music as he watches them lock arms andpush against each other, Trick threatening to dunk Dok over again.“Come get some dinner, come on.”

Dapper comeslooping loyally back towards his big brothers, but Dok and Trickdon’t seem to have even heard them.

“Let them play alittle,” laughs Anti. “Look how Dok still fights even though he’snot as strong. He knows he’s the big brother. Just by a little. Theyplay well these days. Don’t they fit like puzzle pieces?”

Red turns to glanceat him in time to see Anti dart away to join his brothers in thewater, pushing the both of them into the ocean. Indignant coughingand laughter follows as Dok and Trick flounder and pretend to resist,though neither of them would really ever dunk him in the water.They’re smarter than that. Anti presses kisses to their hair andRed’s heart picks up from the relief of it – to see Anti holdingthem gently again, and Dok softened and smiling, and Trick lookingsafe and happy, flushed with joy.

“This is toosoft,” decides Blue aloud, shoving wine and chicken into Red’sarms.

“What?”

Blue races downinto the water. Red scoffs and turns to pull Dapper under his arm.

“Let’s watch himget dunked til he’s dizzy, you think?”

Dapper shyly slinksan arm back around Red’s waist, pushing his head into his shoulder,smiling. Everything is good and right and then –

Blue wraps his arms around Anti’s stomach and shoves him into theocean.

Dok startles so hard he tumbles back into the water. Trickshotstares open-mouthed, clutching his hair, and Dapper, with a littlegroan, turns around, curls down on himself, and hides his face in hisarms like a black and white hedgepig.

Anti spasms apart into coding in the water and leaps up again onthe beach, spluttering.

Red is shaking toomuch to move, staring at the sand.

“Ass!” yellsAnti, and then he bursts into laughter and leaps up onto Blue’sshoulders, and then, laughing so hard he can barely breathe, Red iswatching Anti riding piggyback, pushing and pulling at Blue, tryingto make him fall and take them both into the water. And eventuallythey both go crashing down, and the water is sloshing over them likeit’s laughing too, and they start a bonfire and eat chicken on thebeach and drink stolen rich man’s wine, and then Anti goes back tothe car and gets his laptop and they watch the movie Blue wanted tosee, pirated in HD, on a beach in Peru.

“You didn’t goswimming,” says Anti.

Red pauses,glancing over at him. His little brother looks back, brown-eyed,mousy-haired, sopping wet and lying on the sand beside him, Dapperasleep against his tummy.

“Oh,” saysRed. He didn’t think he’d remember. “It got dark so quickly.”

“Hm.” Antiturns back to stare up at the oncoming stars and Red mimics himwarmly, listening to Blue breathing as he sleeps beside him, andTrick and Dok sitting by the crackling fire and whispering to eachother, hand-in-hand.

“I thinksometimes,” says Anti, and then he pauses.

“Yes, Anti?”

“I thinksometimes you look after the others so much you forget to look afteryourself.”

Red turns to him,confused.

“I know, Iknow… kind of your job. But sometimes I need you to be well too.And when everyone else is okay, Red, you have to… kind of… blah.I don’t know.”

Anti shrugs,furrowing his heavy eyebrows, and turns back to the stars.

Red breathes inand breathes out.

“It’s kind ofscary,” he says. “When you tell me about the person I used tobe.”

Anti is turnedback to him. Brown eyes. Deep and dark and lovely. Red loves him.

“Because Ijust… don’t want to be that person again.”

Anti softens likea bud unfurling.

“So even littlethings start to seem serious… things like swimming. What if I tryto go swimming, and then I remember so much it makes me feel like adifferent person again, and that different person can’t be who I needto be?”

“Who the othersneed you to be,” Anti replies.

Red shrugs,feeling a prick in the back of his eyes. “I guess.”

Anti’s mouth opensand closes. Opens and closes.

“You have tobe… Red, you have to be more than what other people expect you tobe. I learned that a long time ago. Kind of fucked it all up, but Idid learn it. And I know I need you to be a lot of things, and sooften, too, so I know that seems hypocritical, maybe, butsometimes… when I give you the chance… I just need you to be whoyou need you to be. It’s why we have… nice days. Breaks. Holidays. To be who you all need to be.”

Red wants to belying on his chest instead of Dapper. Red wants to be held by him.Red wants to be laughing in the water with him.

“I… Anti, Idon’t think I know how to do that anymore.”

And if regretflashes across Anti’s face, well, Red doesn’t see it, and if Antiremembers, with guilt or with sorrow or just one dash of longing, theman who Red used to be, well, you will never hear him admit that outloud.

“How about youstart with a swim?” he suggests, pulling away from Dapper andgetting to his feet. He reaches out his hands for Red’s.

Red laughsnervously, letting himself be pulled up. “Sorry, lil bro, but allexistentialism aside, it actually is too dark to swim. Right?”

“Well, not ifyou’ve got a rescue dog,” answers Anti.

And this isn’t Redmisunderstanding, this isn’t Red not getting it. Anti is pleased withhim, Anti is gentle with him, Anti wants to see him happy to, wouldchange into the form of an animal just to let him swim one nightmore.

“It’s dark out,”admits Anti, glancing around. “But we don’t need the light, notreally. I don’t think we ever did. I’ve got you. You’ve got me. Come on. Come swim with me.”

“What – you’dreally do that for me?”

Anti smiles.

Fangless.

Brown-eyed.

He looks so much like someone Jackie loved a long time ago. The differences between them are small. You can miss them if you blink. And Red only ever stares at Anti. Red has learned to miss them all.

“Yeah. Course.For my big brother? Come on. You love to swim.”

His body shiftsand glitches and the black dog is racing towards the nightfall water,the stars shining up above them. And then, with a shout of laughter,Red is off after him, and crashing into the water.

He is afloat. Heis a part of this. He rolls and races and dives and curls. Heavy coldwater, the healthy joyful beating of his own heart. Starlight on thewater, and the strong black body of the dog beneath his hands when hegets lost, always waiting, waiting to bring him back to shore, to thesafety of his family, so he does not get lost in the darkness alwaysaround them.

“I love you,”says Red at three in the morning, half asleep in the shallows, laidacross the back of the dog and stroking at its fur.

Anti sets his headon top of his and closes his eyes.

[mirainawen]

“But I don’t need a jacket.”

Dean tossed the paper beside Sam. “Spirit of Halloween Strikes Local Pumpkin Patch.”

Sam frowned, returning his attention to the open germanic text before him. “Jude Lawson,” he guessed, and turned a page.

“Not the byline, Sam.”

He paused, looking up at his brother. Dean’s brows rose, eyes gesturing to the paper. Sam sighed, sitting back to drag the newsprint closer. “Halloween irritates me as much as it does you, Dean.” He began, but trailed off as he skimmed the first part of the article. 

“Of the two of us, who’s willingly gone to a Halloween party?”

“Pretty sure you went to a few in high school,” Sam mumbled as he unfolded the paper to find the rest of the article.

“Lot of hot girls at those parties.”

“Right.” He only half-acknowledged his brother, focusing on the article. He read, then re-skimmed it. Flipped the paper back to the front page, where the original headline was tucked into the bottom corner.

Wasn’t considered important enough to beat out the front and center announcement Baldwin City Oktoberfest Sees Record Numbers At New Location.

Who wanted to frighten the local yayhoos with stupid concerns like “disturbing messages painted in goat’s blood on various pumpkins throughout hay bale maze.”

“You think this is something more than some local kids, uh,” Sam cleared his throat, “getting in the spirit?”

Dean shot him a look like don’t try to be funny, and shrugged, letting his hands fall from the back of the chair as he straightened up. “Doesn’t hurt to check it out.”

He shrugged, unable to argue that point. “Okay, so, you want us to go with you?” he asked.

Dean huffed, shaking his head. “No, I think I can investigate a pumpkin maze by myself, Sam.”

He shrugged again. “I’ll stay here with Adam then.”

“Right.” Dean nodded. “Uh, Sam…?”

He looked up, brows raised in question.

“Don’t tell him where I’m at.” Dean lowered his voice.

Sam paused, glancing unnecessarily towards the hall leading to their rooms. 

“Kid’s been begging to go since last week.”

His brow furrowed. “How did he know about it?”

“Some kid at daycare.” Dean pulled a face.

The word still felt like a coldwater shock to just throw it out there so casually. Five months in and not a single part of the new-normal felt...well, normal.

“Wants to go trick-or-treating too.”

He reacted strongly. “What did you tell him?” Trick-or-treating…he’d do a lot of things for Adam he’d never saw himself doing in a million years, but… He hated Halloween so much.

Dean grinned. “Told him you’d love to dress up and take him.”

“Dean.”

“Good luck, Sammy!”

*

Sam paused and glanced up. It’d been a couple hours now and he’d yet to see Adam. The bunker was unusually quiet. If he didn’t know better, he’d think Dean had taken Adam with him.

He didn’t think there was anything to find out there at the maze, dumb teenagers being stupid, but he also recognized when Dean was getting stir-crazy.

Neither of them was addressing it yet, but they hadn’t heard from adult-Adam in long enough that things were looking…permanent.

Checking his watch, he called, “Adam? Hey, buddy, what do you want for lunch?”

There’s no answer, and Sam sighed. He shouldn’t have left the kid alone as long as he did. So much he was still getting used to.

“Adam?” he called again, making his way down the hall towards their rooms. Their doors were closed, but Adam’s was cracked. He pushed it open to look inside.

The room was dark. The bed was messily made but made. No sign of Adam.

He sighed. “Alright, shortstack—this isn’t funny! Where are you?” He hoped the nickname at least would raise a protest.

Another thing that had been slowly disappearing.

Still nothing. He checked the bathroom, the kitchen, library, couch, and when that produced no sign of his little brother, something frantic beat against irritation in his chest.

Adam had a tendency to disappear and appear in places he wasn’t supposed to be.

He grabbed a flashlight and headed for the closest storage room when he heard his phone ringing from the library. He ignored it, calling for his brother.

It stopped, and started ringing again. Rang twice, stopped. Rang again, once, twice, three, pick up Sammy. Stopped.

In the ten second delay he knew would come, he rushed back to grab his phone. He answered on the first ring, already knowing who it was.

“What’s wrong?”

“Don’t tell me it took you this long to realize.” Dean said, exasperated.

“Realize-”

“Adam’s with me.”

Sam froze. He can hear and read Dean’s mood through the phone—it’s not amused, and it’s not entirely directed at him. This wasn’t a game.

He walked back to the library, gesturing in agitation. “What the hell, Dean? How did-”

“Kid snuck into the back seat before I left.” He directed some of that disapproval towards their resident troublemaker.

“Because I just knew you weren’t gonna take me!” Adam griped in the background. “And I wanted to-”

“Hey, what did I tell you? Shut up.” Dean told him. “You coulda given Sam a heart attack if Sam noticed.”

“I noticed,” he shot back, ruffled at the way that last was actually directed at him. “I’ve been looking for him!”

“Obviously not very good.” Dean said, though even he couldn’t be sure what he meant by that.

Sam stewed in the irritation rather than rise to it.

“I’m not done here.” Dean’s voice was briefly lost in a burst of wind.

“I don’t wanna go home!” Adam protested.

“Adam.” When Dean used his name and not some form of kid, usually meant Adam was in serious hot water.

And to be fair, Sam couldn’t imagine anything less. He could’ve given Adam a decent lecture all his own, except that he knew Dean would have him beat.

“I’ll come get him.” He said.

“Bring his jacket, and…” Dean hesitated. The Impala door slammed shut. There was still background noise, so he must’ve closed Adam in the car. “Make it quick, Sam.”

He hung up.

*

The hundreds, if not thousands of people, that were gathered in Baldwin flooded the fairgrounds. Sam called Dean at the entrance, because he had the feeling he could drive dozens of rows and still not find them.

Adam answered. “Sam, do we have to go home?”

No greeting from their rather precocious five-year-old. The thorn in their sides. The whirlwind of energy turning their lives lopsided. The reason Sam was thinking about hanging it up and making sure the world was much safer this time around for his little brother.

“Buddy,” he sighed. He knew that tone. “You snuck out.”

“Yeah, because Dean lied to me!”

“No, don’t make this about Dean-”

“He said we weren’t gonna go! Then he went!”

“Adam. He’s here to investigate. Not to have fun.”

He thought he heard Adam kick the seat. Dean would be pissed.

The door cranked open. “Hey,” Dean’s voice in the background. Sure enough, not happy. “Don’t think I didn’t see that. Cut it out- who are you talking to?”

“Sam.”

He must have gestured or otherwise forcibly taken the phone. “Sam?”

“Where are you guys?”

“Fifth row, by the front.”

He scanned the crowd. “I see you.”

Dean snapped the phone shut.

He tossed his as he pulled up behind the Impala.

“Bring his jacket?” Dean asked as soon as he stepped out. It was windy out, the cool autumn air alternately bursting and going quiet.

Sam grabbed it.

Adam pushed his door open, sitting on the edge of the seat. He looked absolutely mournful, pleading—and he had the look turned on Sam.

Sam ignored him. “Find out anything?”

“Maybe.” Dean hedged. “They’ve already cleared the area.”

He winced, nodding. Made sense. “Gonna stick around tonight?”

“I’m thinkin’ about it.”

He nodded again, moving over towards Adam. “Come on, shortstack.”

“I don’t. Wanna. Go. Sam.” Adam said quietly.

“Here.” He handed him his jacket. “And we’re going.”

Adam refused it, not moving. He looked away.

“Adam.” Sam warned.

“But I don’t NEED a jacket!”

“Kid.” Dean spoke. “Out of the car. Put on the jacket. Go with Sam. Not. Another. Word.” The last minced out when Adam opened his mouth.

He hopped out of the car. “But Dean-”

“Adam.”

He took it mulishly. “I’m not cold, though!”

“Hey, buddy- even I have a jacket on.” Sam huffed, just wanting to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible.

Adam looked up at him. “Please Sam.”

Not about the jacket.

“Turn off the puppy eyes, kid. You’re going home with Sam.”

“Come on, bud- just get in the car.”

Not all the fight had left him. It was obvious in the way he stormed over to the SUV, hauling the door open with his entire body weight cause he could barely reach the handle.

Sam glanced back at Dean. “Uh,” he shrugged, “let me know if you find something?”

Dean nodded. “Oh, and Sam?”

He paused.

“Look up from your romance novels now and again.”

“Haha, very funny.”

*

Adam’s very much ignoring him, staring resolutely out the window. Today, he hates the booster seat, he hates being a kid, he hates being bossed around, and he hates it when Sam tells him no.

Sam sighed. “Hey, how about an ice cream cone?” He glanced in the rearview mirror. Adam didn’t move. “Or...we could go get pie at Zoe’s. Not tell Dean. Our secret. You want that?”

“I want to take this jacket off! I’m hot!”

“Hey.” He caught Adam’s eye. “Don’t yell at me.”

God, he sounded like an overworked mom. How had that happened?

He was a crappy one, to say the least. 

“Saaaaaaaaaaam,” Adam groaned, thunking his head against the back of his seat. He kicked his legs. “I’m just really hot!”

“Okay, calm down.” He recognized the beginnings of a meltdown when he saw one. “Take off the jacket. Just take it off.”

Adam practically threw it. Huffed. Sat back and folded his arms.

“Better?” Sam asked, checking the crossroad before turning.

“No. I want to go back.”

“We’re not going back.”

“But I want to go with Dean!”

“You are not going with Dean.” Now he was irritated.

“But I want to be with Dean!”

“He’s busy.”

“SAM!”

He startled, glancing back. Adam’s eyes had welled up and his chin was trembling, breath hitching.

“What? What’s the matter?”

Adam threw his head back.

“Hey! Talk to me—what’s wrong?”

“I said I don’t need a jacket and you made me wear a jacket!”

“Buddy.” Sam clung to the other side of exasperation for all it was worth. “We took it off. You took it off. Why are you upset?”

“I don’t wanna go hooooooooooome.” Adam sobbed.

“We don’t have to—I said we could go get an ice cream, or pie.”

“I don’t want pie!”

“Okay, no pie.”

“I don’t want pie! I don’t want a jacket! I don’t want ice cream!”

“Then what do you want? We could go to the park?” he offered, scanning the road.

“Noooooo!”

“I don’t know what you want then.”

“I want! Dean!”

“Adam-”

“I don’t feel well!”

Shit. Sam glanced back. Adam’s face was red, covered in tears and snot.

“You feel sick?”

“UhHUH!”

“Okay, okay, calm down.” Sam soothed. “I’m pulling over.” Shit shit shit

He might’ve pulled off a little too fast for comfort. He was too distracted to flip off the Ford tailing his ass when the asshole slammed on the horn. 

They were too close to the highway to let Adam get out by himself, so Sam pulled the door open and scooped him up. He barely made it around the car to set him down before Adam puked.

He hadn’t just been being difficult when he insisted he didn’t need a jacket. He was burning up.

[dopescotlandwarrior]

West Bound

Claire Beauchamp is leaving Boston and moving her surgical practice and horses to Arizona. Jamie Fraser is a world-class champion who leads Claire back to a passion she gave up when the wrong man said I love you. Trouble finds Claire in the cut-throat, competitive sport of the equestrian but she has Jamie, Angus, and Rupert behind her.

AO3

Ch-2   Ch-3   Ch-4   Ch-5   Ch-6   Ch-7   Ch-8 

Chapter One

Driving across the country alone can be daunting, especially if you are a young woman alone, pulling two horses. When Claire decided to escape Boston and move out west she planned meticulously, analyzed her vehicle and trailer options, and found the most suitable barn once she arrived. She sold her brownstone fully furnished. The only possessions going with her were her clothes, tack, and horses. She also purchased a new cowboy hat and a new pair of sexy sunglasses. She looked at her tight jeans and western shirt, put her hat and glasses on, and decided by the time she reached Arizona they would feel like a second skin. She still had trouble walking in anything less than a three-inch heel but that would come with practice.

Yesterday she turned the keys of her surgical practice over to the new owners without a second thought. Same with closing on her home last week for a cool 1.8 million cash. There was no sentimental pull or sadness. She felt utterly detached from her home of twenty-five years. Whatever made her feel so cold inside she hoped would be cured in Arizona. The last item on her list was to load the horses and get on the road. It was four o’clock in the morning.

Claire carried her grooming and wrapping bucket into the first stall and was greeted with a horse hug from Fred. She paused and hugged him coo’ing about their adventure. Fifteen minutes later she got the same hug from Ginger and got busy brushing, braiding, and wrapping tail and legs. “Don’t you two look fancy!” She led Fred to the trailer and walked him up the ramp and snapped him in. He was overjoyed at the heap of hay in the feeder and started eating. Next came Ginger up the ramp, a little more nervous but Claire was gentle and reassuring. With everything stowed Claire pulled out of the stables for the last time.

She loved this truck, a full-sized Ram with a matching trailer. The luxury interior package included ergonomic seats, blue tooth in the steering wheel, navigation, rear video, interior trailer video, and a bunch of stuff she had not found yet. All on voice command. “Change to interior video.” Claire watched Fred and Ginger munch on their breakfast. “You guys look happy. Here we go.”

She would drive for twelve hours stopping for 30 minutes to let the horses out at mid-day. She had reservations for each night at a B&B that also rented stalls and came recommended by her equestrian association for safety. Fred and Ginger were very special horses that were trained for therapy. Chosen for their docile and loving nature they were among the first group of horses trained at the equestrian therapeutics Institute. “And I’m taking them to Arizona,” she said with a giggle.

Claire had romanticized the first sunrise of her new life seeing the light coming up on a sleeping city as she barreled down the freeway. Reality is sometimes disappointing as commuters swarmed her on all four sides making her head whip between her mirrors and the video trying to negotiate each lane change. She saw her exit coming up fast and had two death-defying lanes to cross and no friendly commuters to allow her to move over. She was covered in sweat but made the exit and took a deep calming breath. “Holy shit.”

The drive became much easier once she was out of commuter traffic. She set the cruise control, popped in a CD and opened her window. “interior video,” all she saw was horse teeth as Ginger was tasting the little camera above her head. “What a goofball.”

Claire gripped the steering wheel when she pulled into the B&B. She was so tired she almost fell out of the truck when the door opened. She hurried to register and get the horses out of the trailer. It was a beautiful property with ample outdoor lighting. The owners offered her use of the arena and Claire was grateful. Once both were inside she closed the gate and clapped her hands sending them both speeding, bucking, and snorting around the large arena. Claire laughed at the high tails and swinging heads, pure horse happiness after a long stressful day. Ginger loped up to her and spread frothy goobers down her face. “Ew, Jesus Ginger!”

Once Fred and Ginger were safe in their stalls with food and water Claire got to her room, grabbed a robe and towel and headed for a hot shower. The soap smelled heavenly, the water was soft and Claire started to relax. Then the lights went out and the water turned ice cold. She shrieked trying to find the faucets in the dark to turn the water off. Groping for the towel, then her robe, then the door handle. She saw little emergency lights along the hall. Thank God she thought as she shivered down the hall looking for her room. She bumped into the manager in the hall and he used a flashlight to help her find her room. He pointed to a battery-operated light on the desk and she had enough light to find the bed. Fatigue pulled her to a blissfully dreamless sleep. At three o’clock in the morning, the power came back on and her room lit up with multiple lamps. She turned them off quickly and jumped back in bed squeezing her eyes shut and waiting. “Damn it! I really need a few more hours,” she whined.

The safety locks snapped down on the trailer doors, horses were brushed and re-wrapped and the Dodge roared to life. Claire was tired but anxious to put another two states behind her. She had one hour of unimpeded travel before the swarms of commuters came from all directions. Traffic slowed to a crawl for ten miles and finally opened up for normal speeds. She set the cruise, turned up the music, opened her window and felt the first pang of…what? Loneliness, sadness, loss, yearning? She couldn’t decide so she turned the music up louder, checked the video, and pushed the petal. Why not? She never had a speeding ticket in her twenty-five years. She was due. She set the cruise at 75 and sang to the music. She felt absolutely wicked speeding down the highway and hadn’t noticed the speed limit postings were 75 MPH.

Another B&B, another early rise to load the horses and another long highway stretched before her. She saw the signs to Phoenix on the fourth day and let out a whoop! Followed by Fred kicking the trailer sides in protest. She turned the interior video on and blew kisses to her favorite couple. “We are almost home you guys!”

Mid-afternoon she followed the exit to Mesa and headed East. Traffic was light and she looked at the buildings along the highway. She wondered if she would travel this highway a lot in the future. She flew through Mesa and finally saw her exit to Ironwood Drive. Her navigation turned her North for seven miles. She was so ready to put the horses up in their new home and then find a hotel for the night. This was the only night she didn’t prebook because she could easily find lodging for herself. She decided to find something with a huge bathtub and a full room service menu. She couldn’t wait.

She drove into the foothills and gasped at the sight in the rearview mirror. The valley floor spread out beneath her and she wondered what that must look like at night. There was desert all around her, exotic and beautiful. Tall Saguaro cactus loomed above her showing two and three arms raised in greeting she thought. Her heart was pounding as she turned into Fraser Equestrian. The place took her breath away and she stopped to just look at the multiple paddocks and pastures, deep green against the desert brown. New foals were sticking close to their mothers, and horses in the adjoining pen straining to see and smell. She pulled up the long drive and pulled next to the main barn. It was white with forest green trim and she counted twenty stall doors along one side with horses peering out half doors to look at her. It was glorious and a fitting home for Fred and Ginger.

“Good afternoon!” Claire turned to see two men walking toward her. They offered their hand to her and she shook them smiling.

“I am Claire Beauchamp, I have rented two stalls for my guys here.” They looked at the two rumps in the trailer and smiled.

“I’m Rupert and this is Angus. C’mon lets see where Jaime has put ya.” Claire followed. She spoke to Jaime Fraser on the phone from Boston and thought him friendly but a bit aloof. The bur from these two men sounded like him, so they were probably from the same area of Scotland. They walked the length of the barn without finding Jaime. The large board near the office had her name on two stalls where she was escorted.

“No, this is not what we agreed to! I rented two stalls that had doors to the outside, not interior stalls, and they have to be together.” Claire was overtired and getting upset. She wanted to be friendly but she just didn’t have it in her. Rupert suggested putting the horses up for the night and Jaime would figure it out tomorrow. Claire was too tired to argue and went to fetch Fred and Ginger from the trailer. Rupert watched her walk away with interest. He whistled low, appreciating the tight jeans, long legs, and champion ass.

“Can I help ye lass?” Claire gratefully accepted Rupert’s offer to lead Ginger to her stall.

“We can feed them tonight, what do they get?” Claire eased Fred down the ramp.

“They both get two flakes and a scoop of grain” she called. Rupert walked in a zigzag and noticed Ginger’s nose stayed three inches from his right shoulder. “Yer a good lassie, aye?”

When Claire walked Fred into his stall there was already grain and hay waiting for him. She leaned against him and dropped her head on his back. He moved into her and waited like he would with a child or challenged adult.

“I love you, Fred.”

Claire pulled out of the equestrian center and asked Siri for the closest hotel. The fourth motel Siri directed her to was as run down and frightening as the first three. Her fatigue was mounting and she did not know what to do. It was late and she just couldn’t drive anymore. She headed back to the center and curled up in the corner of Fred’s stall with a blanket. The wood chips smelled new and she was out in seconds. She dreamed of dancing with him in his shiny shoes and impeccable suit. He expertly twirled her around the dance floor. She felt graceful and adored, with her skirt flowed up her legs as he spun her.

“Hey!”

Claire’s head snapped up and she saw Fred startle at the loud noise. She tried to focus at the man coming into Fred’s stall.

“C’mon lass, this is no place to sleep, for a human anyway. Are ye doctor Beauchamp?”

Claire shook her head and blinked hard. Too many nights with little sleep made her groggy and weak. She stood up holding her blanket in front of her. She looked like a scared little girl and her first step pitched her forward landing in strong warm arms. She looked up at the face attached to those arms. “Wow,” came as a whisper followed by her hand clamped tight against her mouth.

“I, I’m sorry, yes I’m Dr. Beauchamp and this is Fred who is my horse and I couldn’t find a suitable hotel and Fred said I could bunk with him tonight.” Her last sentence was an effort to speak and she looked back at the corner she slept in and started moving toward it. Those annoying arms stopped her and she looked at him sharply.

“Alright lass, ye sleepin on my couch tonight.” He pulled her along and closed the stall taking her blanket. He stopped to make a note on the board and Claire sunk into a corner and closed her eyes. She was asleep before he turned around.

“Wait just a second lass, ye canna sleep there either.” He pulled Claire to her feet among strong protests and guided her out of the barn and into his golf cart.

“I’ll have ye wrapped and snug in two minutes Dr. Beauchamp.” He drove toward the house and felt her head come down on his shoulder. She was unconscious and Jaime chuckled.

“You musta left Boston with the devil chasin ye lass.” The house was set away from the center on a beautiful lawn of green grass with lights along the tiered walkway. He lifted Claire against his chest and carried her into the house. He pulled the blanket up to her chin and she snuggled down into it. “Thank you, mister, um, mister.” Jaime smiled at her. Noticing her long black hair tangled into her fingers he pulled her hand away and gently pulled the hair out.

“Well then, you’re a beautiful girl doctor Beauchamp, alone in the Arizona desert. What has someone done to make ye run so far?” Jaime estimated her sleep deprivation would keep her down at least until he woke up with the dawn. He climbed the wide circular staircase pulling off his shirt as he walked into his bathroom. He stripped the rest of the way and turned the knobs that shot warm water out of three heads. He stood still and let the hot water release his muscles and back. He thought about that beautiful face asleep on his couch. A doctor from Boston. He was very intrigued. He slipped into sweats and a t-shirt and stood at the railing of his upstairs loft looking down at her. He eventually dropped his body into his king-sized bed and barely threw the quilt up before he passed out.

Claire’s eyes popped open at five o’clock in the morning. Her surroundings confused her at first and then she remembered the owner catching her asleep in Fred’s stall. “I am an idiot,” she said quietly. She folded the extra blanket and pulled out a note pad from her purse to say thank you. Then she crept quietly to the door to slip out but the open door tripped the alarm bells which were loud enough to wake the dead, and Fraser, who flew down the stairs and punched in the code for quiet.

“Jesus H Roosevelt Christ! I am so sorry Mr. Fraser, I didn’t think, I didn’t want, …” Claire hoped she would evaporate in her misery but she was still there. She just looked down and shook her head.

Jaime took the opportunity to notice her long legs, long arms, and long hair, then looked up to her eyes as she lifted her head. He was stuck and staring at the most gorgeous eyes he had ever seen. They were the color of good whiskey and rimmed with dark brown making them look beautiful and exotic. He recovered quickly and tried to make Claire feel better.

“Tis fine lass had to get up now anyway. Would you like some coffee before you leave?” Take the coffee, please, he thought. I like lookin at ye and yer too rattled to drive.

“Another time perhaps, I’m sorry about the alarm and thank you for the rescue last night. Goodbye, Mr. Fraser.”

Jaime chuckled, at the slamming door. He watched her run for the barn and admired the backside of her not seen before. Her application to rent two stalls described her horses as therapeutic and gave impressive training credentials. It would be a pleasant change to have a nice lady doctor with docile horses for a change. He was sick of the cut-throat competition equestrians inspired, including his girlfriend. He picked up his cell phone. “Laoghaire my darlin where ye been? Ye have a show this weekend and ye horse needs some work. Call me.” He dropped the phone thinking about his blonde lass with cherry cheeks and a body to stop a mack truck. Put her in a tight riding jacket and the judges soon forget why they were there. It’s a good thing, she hasn’t been able to ride out of a paper bag lately.

[frigfridge]

just finished rewatching toy story 1 thru 3 over the past few days, wanted to share my thoughts:

i love these movies a whole lot. the first 2 hold a bunch of nostalgia for me because i was A Baby when 2 came out and when i was also A Baby i would just watch our VHS copy of toy story 1 over and over again. this also makes me the exact age group to be emotionally destroyed by toy story 3, which came out just as i was entering high school and hit really close to home

individual thoughts:

toy story: the first thing i noticed was it still looks really nice even watching in 2019!! which i think is kind of spectacular for the first feature-length computer-animated film. it no doubt helps that the plot is mostly focused on little plastic dolls without realistic hair or clothing to animate but the semi-”cartoon” art direction means the human characters also look pretty nice without going too far into the uncanny valley.

also, the plot is WAY darker than i remember?? not because of sid and all the body horror toys, but because for like half of the movie woodys friends think hes an actual (toy) murderer carrying around the severed arm of his victim (!!) like, its hilarious, but also wow theres a LONG way to go between there and the climax of toy story 3.

the soundtrack is probably my favorite of the bunch. part of that is probably nostalgia but i just really like the consistency of having randy newman singing every song. it sort of elevates him to part of the story, like an omniscient narrator singing woodys (and later buzzs) inner monologue. 2 (and especially 3) didnt have as many musical numbers, which i can understand with a shift to a larger-scale approach to storytelling, but i really like the feeling it gives number 1. “you got a friend in me” is an obvious classic thats been remixed and brought back in just about every piece of toy story media im aware of, but “strange things” and “i will go sailing no more” deserve just as much recognition and praise. there just isnt a weak number among them

toy story 2: heres where the story started getting bigger and more existential, which basically becomes the new direction of the series. which makes sense! this one released 4 years after the first, and while theres no real timeskip in the story (maybe 6 months?) it had been a little while since we last saw woody and the gang. everybody in the real world had gotten older, and with the turn of the millennium approaching, the theme of impermanence loomed large in the collective unconscious. well, maybe not in my unconscious, because i was 2. but its really interesting as kind of a “time capsule” to what people were thinking about as the 90s came to a close.

so toy story 2 was a little more grounded, a little more focus on the human world, but it was also more fantastical in its presentation. the opening “video game” sequence (which still looks amazing!!) and woodys nightmare (”i dont wanna play with you anymore...”) show the animators at pixar really found their groove and started getting experimental. and to great result!! the fantasy sequences are a lot of fun and help 2 really stand out.

i would be remiss not to mention jessies flashback song here. its something else they hadnt really done in the first film and i think it really works. jessie in this film unfortunately doesnt get to do much other than fight with woody about whether he should stay or go (except for when she saves him in the end) but this song makes her character work. it also helps that it destroys me every time

also i think this is the movie that gave me an appreciation for the acting of kelsey grammer. i dont really agree with his politics (i also dont know specifically what they are) but he is a damn fine actor and gives the prospector a very genuinely intimidating edge after his heel turn. the casting really makes the character here, but thats nothing new for toy story-- every voice works. if i were the casting director, i probably wouldnt have pulled erudite kelsey grammer for a character named “stinky pete,” but as it is now i couldnt imagine him voiced by anyone else.

the last thing about toy story 2 is it feels like there were a lot more pop culture references? at least as far as i noticed. there are apparently even more than i noticed but i caught on to the “also sprach zarathustra” riff in the opening, and the jurassic park rearview mirror gag. and of course the extended star wars reference with zurg vs. utility belt buzz (and i guess zurg in general.) the references are cute and mostly unobtrusive but really i could take or leave them.

oh yeah also al is hilarious. just this rude, neurotic businessman whos incredibly self-important for the owner of a minor(?) toy store chain. hes such a puffed-up jerk, every time hes on-screen is a delight

toy story 3: this one kills me to death. i always get misty-eyed during “when somebody loved me” but the ending of 3 where andy introduces his toys to bonnie and plays with them one last time made me sob the first time i watched it. and it still does! thats the long game right there, thats the payoff of over 10 years loving these characters. its an emotional ketchup bomb, everything gets all messy and soggy and sweet. hopefully 4 can follow up, but im not really worried about that-- ive heard some good things. damn, its been 9 years since this movie came out, though! it really doesnt feel all that long, but i guess i havent been doing all that much

i actually dont know if i have much else to say about 3. the opening with the re-imagining of the previous films openings (woody versus one-eyed bart, buzz and woody vs. the evil dr. porkchop) is a highlight, although theres a conspicuous lack of bo peep. ive heard she has a big part in 4, but it was kind of weird to see a lot of toys missing and their absence (mostly) glossed over after the first few minutes. i miss r.c. and lenny, but i get they wanted to narrow down the cast so all of them could get in on the plot.

speaking of which, the escape scene is great too. its kind of a crystallizing moment of how close these characters are, and how well they work together. it reminds me a lot of the escape from sids house in the first movie, but there woody was working with sids body-horror toys and seemed to strike up a rapport with them bizarrely quickly. (speaking of which, i miss those toys! their designs were super cool, but i cant imagine they got much merchandise, especially babyface with the sharp, metal spider legs.) here, though, woody and the gang cooperate the best they ever have, and it really paints a picture of how close theyve become over the years, and justifies the emotional climax in the landfill. this is what i was talking about when i said i was surprised how dark toy story 1 got! these toys all hated woodys guts back then for what they thought he did to buzz. they kicked him out of a moving truck! its just weird to think about that conflict between them when you know how long they end up sticking together. but thats, like, neat, so its ok. it feels earned, its just kind of crazy in hindsight.

toy story 3 was also obviously made long after the first two-- by comparison, the lighting is way more sophisticated, the humans are a lot more detailed. theres just a lot more detail In General. the main cast is, like, super dirty for the middle 90% of the film, and it feels like, yeah, We Have This Technology Now. we can render so many individual glitter sprinkles suck to hamms ass and they will be in every single scene. the “fur tech” on lotso and buster is also an obvious clue, especially in the flashback to lotso trudging through the rain back to his owners house. its like “look! we can make this teddy bear SO wet!” and wow! yeah! you did! so wet!

lotso himself is also an interesting villain in terms of sheer bastardness. he is just a huge jerk. he could have hit that button so easily! and he was so mean to the baby! but at the same time hes a great character in how he slowly “changes” throughout the movie. he is kind of an obvious “pixar ‘twist’ villain” but again, the amazing performance by ned beatty really saves him. also he does get a nice comeuppance at the end, which was necessary because hes really the biggest villain in the series so far. hes knowingly malicious and doesnt have any greater motive, hes just an embittered megalomaniac who (apparently) has sent other toys to be broken, thrown away, and incinerated at the landfill. he honestly deserves worse than being strapped to the front of a truck but it works for a family movie.

i have a couple more thoughts on 3 (i guess i did have a fair amount of stuff to say about it) but im getting tired of writing. the music is good as usual, but the vocal stuff being entirely back-loaded (in the credits) is a bit disappointing since ive always been a fan of the songs, but i get that they were going for something different. the jokes about ken being, uh, ‘flamboyant’ felt out of place, mostly the one at the end (”uh, buzz? barbie didnt write this”) because it comes from one of the gang and not unnamed lotso goon #3, but i guess its pretty tame in the scheme of things.

overall im really looking forward to seeing what 4 does with the series. whew!

[myhauntedsalem]

30 Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics Describe their Most Disturbing Medical Stories

1. The Guessing Game

“I work as an ICU nurse. A mid-20s female came in with some serious cardiac abnormalities and then went into respiratory distress. Never had any medical history at all. We had to put her on the ventilator, but she was on just enough sedation to keep her lucid. She could nod/shake her head yes and no appropriately to questions.

One night, the patient in the room next to hers died, but the body was still in the room about to be taken to the morgue. The female patient’s door was closed with curtains drawn, so she couldn’t have seen what was going on next door. When I went in to check on her, she had a look of sheer panic on her face, trembling. I asked her a series of questions to see if she was cold/hot/in pain/etc. and she denied all. I asked her if she saw something—she started to aggressively nod her head YES. She wasn’t on any drugs that would make her hallucinate. I went on to get details on what this thing looked like. After playing 20 questions I got this: a man, pale white, left arm missing, heavy, bald, standing still, behind me. This was the man who had just died next door.

I spent the rest of the night consoling her.” – whites42

2. Life After Death

“When I was on an ER rotation during med school we got a call about a 23-year-old woman who was shot in the head, and who was already completely gone, but was reportedly five months pregnant so they were doing CPR until they got her to the hospital to see if the baby was viable. They got her to the ER and did an ultrasound and turned out the baby was full-term so they did a C-section in like under a minute and got the baby out.

I don’t think it’s so incredibly uncommon but it was pretty surreal to see a baby delivered from a dead person with their brain exposed and she was pretty close to the same age I was at the time.” – bluegraypurple

3. The Last Goodbye

“When I was a student, I got called in on a stroke patient. She had coded and they were doing CPR. They worked for 45 minutes, but she died. They cleaned her up, and called on the family to say goodbye, but by that time the family left. She had been both brain dead and without a pulse for more than 45 minutes. Blood had filled her brain, and she was completely grey and started to smell. Suddenly, she sat up, and called for her family. The nurses rushed to get monitors and equipment back on her. They started working on her again, she stabilized, said goodbye to her family, and promptly died a second time.” – simplesimon6262

4. Miracle Man

“When I was in trauma surgery in upstate by, got a notification about a man who was shot 3 times in the head. He comes in, literally one eye hanging out of the socket, blood everywhere, and he’s slumped forward. Apparently, he was shot in the temple, exited out his right eye socket, in the nose exited from the roof of the mouth, and In the cheek one with exit from the side of the head.

At this point, I’m thinking they just brought him in so we can pronounce him in the ER because he looked dead. I go to examine him and tilt his head back, and he says ‘Yoooo be gentle!’ I jump back and scream like a little boy, as did everyone in the room. Literally, the bullets missed his brain in every single shot.” – Noimnotonacid

5. Bleeding

“One of the aides I work with said she was doing postmortem care on a patient who had been on many, many anticoagulants before death. She said when they turned her on her side she started bleeding out of every orifice—eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. She said her and the nurse went home and had nightmares for a week.” – sparklingbluelight

6. The Haunted Hospital

“My town has two really old hospitals. One no longer functions overnight, and the stories are unsettling. No one cleans the old ER alone because all the lights and call bells go off. On other floors, there’s a kid with his ball, a lady in a white dress, etc. A coworker was cleaning an entire floor utterly solo (the norm) and bounced between rooms because the cleaning solution stays wet for a few minutes. Upon returning to a freshly wiped bed, hand prints were clearly visible.” – Sapphire_Starr

7. Eyeless

“I used to do home care for an elderly lady with learning disabilities and no eyes (they were removed due to a congenital condition). She was lovely but prone to wandering around her flat at night in total silence, which led to several horrifying situations where I left my room at 2 am only to encounter her standing silently in the hallway, turning her eyeless face towards me.” – NovelistResearcher

8. Lonely

“One call that will always haunt me was on an unresponsive female at around three in the morning. We get there and do some pointless CPR along with the fire department… She had been dead for a while; no shockable rhythm, and clear rigor mortis. The most disturbing part was that the original caller was her 11-year-old daughter, who had just spent three days with her mother’s corpse and called 9-1-1 because she was ‘lonely’. It also didn’t help that the victim was completely naked when we arrived.” – CupofJoe776

9. Clear Waters

“I have quite a few stories, most of them are hilarious and then there are those you never want to think about. What fucked me up the most was when I saw how eyes change at the moment of death. Imagine you are looking at clear water but that clear water changes to foggy in an instant. In my 8 years here I’ve only seen this once, and I’ve personally seen well over 250 dead or dying people.” – ImCuden

10. Night Lights

“I work nights in a long-term care facility as a nurse’s assistant. I have two men under my care and both of them are unable to use their call lights. They have severe dementia and debilitating Parkinson’s disease but still, their lights are looped around their bed rail. One night their light came on and I went to answer it already confused and creeped out. I turned it off and left the room. Before I could get two doors up the light came back on. I went in there and both lights were unplugged from the wall and thrown under their beds. I fished them out, plugged them back in and left.

I’ve seen shadows standing over the dying and felt a tap on my shoulder while doing chest compressions so I knew that lady had passed.” – beeoakly

11. Holding Hands

“I’ve had a couple of weird calls. One was a major MVA-head on many, many years ago when we played M.E. as well. We had 2 DOA (husband and spouse) that were killed instantly in a head-on collision. They had a 12-year-old daughter that was in between them and they actually took the impact, saving her life.

While en route, we noticed the husband’s arm had come loose so I went back to re-strap it. As I was doing that, the wife’s arm suddenly fell out as well, and her hand fell into her husband’s. My boss was watching in the rearview mirror and helped clear the way as I ran back into the front. It spooked both of us. Apparently, the couple (mid 30’s), had just found out he was cancer free after his last treatment.” – Anonymous

12. Last Meal

“I had an old lady come in by ambulance, near death. She was a DNR (do-not-resuscitate), so we weren’t going to do much for her. She didn’t have any family that we could find. The hospital was full, so we had to keep her in the ER for the night.

Again, she was near death. When you’ve seen enough people die, there’s no mistaking it, and she was almost there. Barely responsive; pale, cool, breaths were really irregular, heart rate was up and down, too. We just turned the lights down and kept an eye on her monitor, basically waiting for her to die.

About an hour later, she’s standing at the door of her room. She’d gotten up and put on all her clothes. We were all like, ‘WTF?’ One of the nurses went to check on her, and she said she was hungry. Not knowing really what to make of things, we got her a chair, a bedside table, and went to the cafeteria and got her a tray of food.

She sat there, ate all her food, talked with the staff a little. After about an hour, she told her nurse that she was tired and wanted to lie back down. We helped her back into bed, and within 30 minutes she was dead.” – Anonymous

13. “Don’t Let me go Back there”

“When my mom worked as an E.R. nurse a guy came in from a car accident and was losing blood. In the midst of resuscitation, the man jolts awake and screams ‘Don’t let me go back there! Please, please, please don’t let me go back!’ A few seconds later they lost him.” – JeremyHowell

14. The Rusty Old Saw

“This woman was clearly struggling mentally. She went into her basement and started sawing at her wrists horizontally with a rusty hacksaw, bleeds a good amount, and then starts walking around the house. She wasn’t dying quick enough, so she sat down in a chair in the middle of the living room, and started going at her wrists again, this time with a pair of scissors.

I was the second person inside the house. It looked like a massacre. We searched the house top to bottom, fully expecting to find multiple dead bodies in there. I’ve never seen so much blood in my life. Every single room had a trail of blood in it.

The woman was found on a chair in the living room. Rigor mortis had contorted her body into a really strange, unnatural pose, and her face was haunting. Literally the stuff of nightmares. Her wrists had huge chunks of skin/veins/muscle missing from them. Saying she slit her wrists is inaccurate. She ripped them to pieces.” – anoncop1

15. Visitors

“I work a stroke/telemetry floor on the bought shift. Most of our patients are elderly. Apparently, there are two things that patients see before they pass away. Some will say that two men are walking in their rooms and telling them to get ready to leave. The patient will call and tell us that these men are big and abrasive in their demeanor. They are either terrified or annoyed when they see the two men. The other thing they will see is a little boy who will go into their rooms and try to wake them up. The boy is usually loud and runs around their rooms. The patients will call and ask who’s letting children just run around late night. Several nights or even that same shift we’re coding or cleaning the patient for the funeral home to pick up.” – pokfynder

16. The Handsome Man in Black

“I used to work in a skilled nursing facility, usually assigned to the Alzheimer’s ward. One night I’m in the linen room stocking my cart, and I heard someone shuffle up behind me, then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and there was no one else in the room. The door was still shut too.

Another lady started to complain that a man was coming into her room at night (again, Alzheimer’s so I didn’t think much of it) so to reassure her, I told her I’d check on her throughout the night. She complained of this man for every night for two more weeks when I asked her to describe him to me.

‘He’s real handsome, and wears a black suit. Oh. He’s right behind you now, honey.’

That freaked me the f*ck out. Of course, there was no one behind me. She died the next night in her sleep.” – Anonymous

17. The Blender

“We got a call for a male in his early 30s with ‘heavy groin trauma’ (exact words of the dispatcher). We roll up lights and sirens and the guy is waiting for us on the front step with a towel over his crotch. We barely come to a stop and the guy is already running towards the rig holding this towel. I asked him what was wrong and he moved the towel and this guy’s dick was just barely hanging on. Apparently, he had ‘lady problems’ so he decided to fornicate with the food mixer he had in his kitchen and accidentally turned it on.” – YayShinny

18. The Charred Skin

“Motorcycle driver, accident, third-degree burns, arrived DOA. Had to transfer him from ambulance gurney to ER bed. As we were moving him with a transfer sheet, the liquefied/cooked subcutaneous fat caused the charred skin on his back to separate and his body slipped onto the floor (despite several of us trying to ‘catch’ him).” – Doc-in-a-box

19. Dead Man Moaning

“Worked security through college at a local hospital. The only ‘creepy’ thing I remember is when a dead man moaned. One of my duties was to help wheel patients who had expired down to the in-house morgue. Once we were wheeling an older man from the ER down and halfway down the hallway he let out this low moan. I started to panic, thinking that he was coming back to life but the RN explained to me (newbie) that sometimes the air in the lungs doesn’t come out until sometime later or is delayed for a bit.” – ill_do_it-later

20. Otherworldly Screams

“I have had fellow coworkers swear that strange things have occurred in the ER. Two people that I work with were charting at the nurse’s station when they both heard a scream followed by incoherent words come from one of our open bays. There were three patients in the room and they denied screaming or hearing anything. I have also had fellow coworkers talk about hearing strange voices especially after really bad codes and one person states she felt someone grabbing her shoulder after the doc pronounced a trauma code. These are all respectable people and I do not think they would lie.” – Anonymous

21. Blank Stare

“We got a call to go out to a scene for an elderly woman with chest pains. I arrive at the house, front door is open. We knock, hear the old woman calling out from the back ‘I’m in the back room’ in a very monotone and calm voice. My partner and I go to the back of the house looking for this woman, and that’s when we smelled it. Nothing prepares you for the smell of rotting corpse. I’ve smelled it a dozen times, and it never gets any less disturbing. We radio for police and ALS backup as we move through the house.

We opened the door to the master bedroom, and there is our patient. She is approximately 80, and she is staring at the master bathroom with these cold, dead eyes. She never once looked at us as we approached her and began talking to her. I got to the bedside and got in front of her gaze, and she just looked right through me. I turned around to see what she could possibly be looking at, and there was the source of my smell.

A man, about the same age as my patient, is on the floor with very little left of his head still attached to his body. A shotgun lay on the floor next to him, and most of his head was strewn about the walls and bathroom counter. We loaded the woman up in the ambulance, and our police backup pulled up.

I don’t think that woman blinked once the entire time she was in our care.” – TheFilthiest

22. “Bill’s Here”

“I’m an RN and while I was a student I was caring for a lady who had an end-stage renal failure, had a DNAR (do not attempt resuscitation) and was shutting down. We were having a little chat when she stopped, looked over my shoulder and said ‘Bill’s here love, I’ve got to go,’ and swiftly stopped breathing. Read her old notes and Bill was her deceased husband.” – Jesspandapants

23. The Body on the Floor

“The call was for an older woman, lying in bed. When we get there, the smell is horrendous of a dead body. There are millions of flies everywhere and a little old lady in lying in the bed, alive. About five feet away, there is a body covered up by a sheet. The lady was a dementia patient, and her husband (the deceased) was the primary caregiver. Based on the number of flies and state of decomposition, the police estimated the guy had been dead for about three weeks. The woman must have been getting some food out of the refrigerator, but it was totally empty by the time we arrived.

The creepiest part happened on the way to the hospital with the woman, she said, ‘I hope that nice man on the floor is OK’.” – Tools4toys

24. The Fallen Cross

“I responded to a call where a janitor was dusting quite a large stone cross in the middle of a church. He had been up on a ladder cleaning, when he slipped off, and proceeded to try to hold onto the cross to keep from falling. Unfortunately, the weight of the 200-pound man was too much to support. The cross fell towards him, landing on his left arm, with a part of the horizontal stone of the cross, pushing his muscles and tendons out of his wrist like a squeezed toothpaste tube. Then the cross fell completely on him splattering his brain across the floor. Quite disturbing, and definitely the most horrific and gore filled call I had ever witnessed.” – UpboatOarKnotUpboat

25. The Headless Nurse

“I used to work in St Barts Hospital in London, which in parts is over 1,000 years old. One of the buildings had 2 floors (with massively high ceilings), and so the floors were taken out and rearranged to make into 5 floors. The nurses working night shift would often tell us of the ghost of a night nurse who wandered silently doing her ’rounds’ at night—but due to the new floors, only her head would be visible drifting down the ward.” – jenthejedi

26. Monsters

“I was still a nursing student at the time, but this was from when I had my psychiatric clinical placement in my 3rd year.

I was assigned to a young male patient with schizophrenia. He had been a voluntary admission because he heard voices telling him to hurt people around him, and he admitted himself because he was afraid of actually going through with it.

Anyway, I went into the room alone, as usual, and did the usual introduction and asking how he was doing. He was at a desk drawing creepy, hideous monsters—each monster had its own page, and there had to be at least half a dozen of these pages scattered around him. I asked him what they were. He answered that those were the monsters he saw. They were the monsters that whispered to him and told him to hurt people and do awful things. Guarded, I asked him, ‘Are they telling you to hurt me?’

He answered, ‘Yes.’

I didn’t stay very long in that room.” – duckface08

27. The Man in Black

“People turn batshit crazy and creepy as hell when they get really sick. There’s even a term called ICU psychosis…and trust me, it’s real. Anyway, the creepiest that takes the cake for me is this (am an ICU nurse, btw): Had a patient who was admitted for overdose. Very long history of mental health problems. She was thrashing around in bed, very combative, kicking people’s asses for days, totally incoherent.

Well, the night I had her, she started making decent sense, but still not oriented at all. She was extremely paranoid and kept talking about the man in black in the corner. I’d hear her talking to him and screaming, all night long. So I’d go in there and try to calm her down, but you could see the fear in her eyes. she was talking other nonsense about how she was in space and shit, and with certain patients, you try to redirect their ‘reality,’ but what I did didn’t help. She said ‘that man in black! Don’t you see him!’ and pointed to the corner. I said ‘there’s nobody here.’ I stepped in the corner she was pointing to and waved my hands around. While I’m waving my hands around in the air, she had the most horrifically terrified look on her face that actually scared the shit out of me, like I had just assaulted the man in black. I said ‘see, there’s nobody here’ and she said in a matter-of-factly‘that’s what you think.’ I promptly got the fu*k out of there.” – HeatherTakasaki

28. Eyes Wide Open

“I work in palliative. Most deaths I’ve seen have been more or less peaceful, though the ones that are not, stick with you. One guy was silently screaming through his last few hours of life. Another guy (who up until this point had been unresponsive) reached up and grabbed me when we attempted to lower his bed to turn him.

One time while doing post-mortem care I walked into the room and thought ‘that’s weird, how come nobody has closed his eyes yet?’ He had that movie-perfect dead look, with pale blue staring eyes and slack jaw and greyish, waxy skin. I closed his eyes and started the care, and when I looked again those eyes, still staring at me, were slowly opening, one slightly slower than the other. He groaned when we turned him to wash his back and his hand managed to clamp onto the bed rail and we had to pry it off. When we finally got him onto his back again, there was a foul-smelling, oily black, viscous liquid on the pillowcase. I cleaned his mouth again thinking it must have come from there, but his mouth and nose were clean. The best I could figure the stuff had come from his eye. I couldn’t wait to get that bag zipped up.” – draakons_pryde

29. Crawling up the Hallway

“I used to work as an STNA in a nursing home. Worked third shift throughout university. During the night we turned half the lights off so it was darker for the evening and didn’t get a lot of light in the residents’ rooms. We had one resident who was younger (70s) and was mostly in for mental reasons. She had long, dark hair and was very thin.

I was sitting at the nurse’s station at the top of the hall and heard a call light go off. I stood up, looked down the dark hall, and on all fours—straight out of The Ring—this resident was crawling up the hall toward me. The other STNA had forgotten to put the bed rail up and the resident was VERY good at climbing out of bed.

Needless to say, I needed some new britches and my heart was racing a mile a minute.” – blameitonthewookie

30. Heaven

“Had a young woman in full liver failure. She was orange in color and she was still conscious. She asked me what I thought it would be like to die. I told her I didn’t know but I hoped it wouldn’t be painful. She then asked me if I thought I would go to heaven. I told her that I believed I would. She asked me if I thought she would go to heaven, and I told her I wasn’t able to answer that question.

She then told me ‘I am going to heaven and I know it,’ and I asked her how she knew that and she told me something that I will never ever forget. She told me ‘I know I am because that man over there told me so.’ I asked what man and she said the man sitting on the end of the bench. I asked her what he looked like and she said ‘he looks just like the Jesus on the windows of my church.’

Well, to tell you I was pretty well affected by that statement. She then went on to say ‘And he says that you are going to go to heaven too.’

We then prayed and I will never forget that interaction between the two of us. About a week later she passed away. I hope she made it to heaven.” – Anonymous