#South Carolina Graduation

[em-dualism]

Rey, what do you think of carnivorous plants? Have you ever seen them in person?

"Like venus flytraps? They ain't bad, for plants. Wish we'd look at stuff like that more."

"But no, I haven't. I dunno, maybe Pat saw 'em in a store or something somewhere... I don't remember and I don't feel like wracking the brain about it. I wanna watch one eat a bug or something."

[camuscomprix]

Got to see 3 broad toothed skinks!

[thedailycounternews]

Help Sought By Columbia Police Department In Fatal Shooting of Julian Keel

Today would have been this young man’s 17th birthday. Julian ‘JuJu’ Keel was shot & killed two days ago while attending a graduation party. His deep-rooted family of faith describes him as ‘a light in our world.’ Help them & #ColumbiaPDSC investigators find Keel’s killer. They have generated a QR code & link so you can submit confidential information about the crime to law enforcement. Keel’s…

[thenumberedloversofdukeellington]

In Absentia

Sorry I have been gone for so long but I have good news:

I AM GRADUATING IN TWO WEEKS

Currently screaming like an opossum out of excitement and fear

[kiss2012]

people used to think up crossovers for tfc and trc (an objectively BATSHIT thing to do by the way because it makes absolutely no sense) and fancast reece king as ronan and matt or kevin or some other character at the same time. he just existed in multitudes. no one saw anything wrong with this.

[illnessfaker]

tw: murder, transmisogynoir

( article published feb. 24th, 2024 )

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina man was found guilty Friday of killing a Black transgender woman in the nation’s first federal trial over a hate crime based on gender identity.

After deliberating for roughly four hours, jurors convicted Daqua Lameek Ritter of a hate crime for the murder of Dime Doe in 2019. Ritter was also found guilty of using a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting and obstructing justice.

A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled. Ritter faces a maximum of life imprisonment without parole.

[...]

The four-day trial over Doe’s killing centered on the secret sexual relationship between her and Ritter, the latter of whom had grown agitated by the exposure of their affair in the small town of Allendale, according to witness testimony and text messages obtained by the FBI. Prosecutors accused Ritter of shooting Doe three times with a .22 caliber handgun to prevent further revelation of their romance.

[...]

Doe’s close friends testified that it was no secret in Allendale that she had begun her social transition as a woman shortly after graduating high school. She started dressing in skirts, getting her nails done and wearing extensions. She and her friends discussed boys they were seeing — including Ritter, whom she met during one of his many summertime visits from New York to stay with family.

But text messages obtained by the FBI suggested that Ritter sought to keep their relationship under wraps as much as possible, prosecutors said. He reminded her to delete their communications from her phone, and hundreds of texts sent in the month before her death were removed.

Shortly before Doe’s death, their exchanges grew tense. In one message from July 29, 2019, she complained that Ritter did not reciprocate her generosity. He replied that he thought they had an understanding that she didn’t need the “extra stuff.”

He also told her that Delasia Green, his main girlfriend at the time, had insulted him with a homophobic slur after learning of the affair. In a July 31 text, Doe said she felt used and Ritter should never have let Green find out about them.

[...]

Green said that when he showed up days later at her cousin’s house in Columbia, he was dirty, smelly and couldn’t stop pacing. Her cousin’s boyfriend gave Ritter a ride to the bus stop. Before he left, Green asked him if he had killed Doe.

“He dropped his head and gave me a little smirk,” Green said.

from the HRC:

Doe’s friends and family remembered her on social media as having a “bright personality” and being someone who “showed love” and who was “the best to be around.” Another friend wrote, “If I knew Friday was my last time seeing you, I would have hugged you even tighter.”

according to NYT's article, she also worked as a hairdresser. she was only 24.

[andrasthehun]

Highlights of Year 2022

Highlights of Year 2022

January 1, 2023 When we crossed the border to Canada from the United States, driving north on Interstate 81, I asked the Canadian border guard: “no ArriveCan?”. He just laughed and let us through with a quick look at our passports. A few months ago we had to fill out the ArriveCan forms to cross the border and even with a correctly filled out form, which was a challenge to do, it still took a…

[hcsiqs]

hii could u write caitlin x reader where they used to date in hs but then they broke up and now years later they got back in touch and they have feelings again? pls and thank u

| feels like a fever, like i’m burning alive

• pairing: caitlin clark x ex!girlfriend

• summary: ^^

• warnings: erm angst? idk man

You had just placed the last box into the trunk of your dad’s car. Today was the day you’d be leaving to drive to South Carolina, a sixteen hour drive from Des Moines, Iowa to there.

When you had picked to go to USC you had never really realized how far away from your family and Caitlin you would be and it was all now just hitting you. You were gonna be in a brand new state without knowing anyone and you would have to make friends all over again.

You felt the tears form in your eyes as you closed the trunk and took time to notice that this would be the last moment you would get to be with Caitlin. Once you both had committed to college and recognized the seventeen hour travel distance, you knew that staying together wouldn’t be an option. With her busy basketball schedule and you being on the pre-med track, it was obvious that you wouldn’t be able to make time for each other. Especially since for you, traveling back home for holidays would be hard, which just meant you would only ever see your girlfriend over summer. You both decided it would cause too much stress for the both of you.

You used the back of your hand to wipe away the tears from your eyes before turning around and seeing the beautiful brunette standing there, hands in her hoodie pocket and her head adorned with the hood. You slowly walked over to her and as soon as you were in arms reach she pulled you in with all of her strength, causing you to slightly bounce back. Her hands wrapped around your shoulders, one of her hands gripping at the back of your neck, trying to savor the smell of you for one last moment. “Please don’t go,” she whispered, her voice breaking as her grip tightened.

“I have to,” your hands went under her hoodie, wrapping your arms around her bare waist.

“Please Y/N,” she begged and you could hear the sadness in her voice as her tears soaked your USC sweatshirt.

“I’m sorry baby,” you dropped your forehead into her shoulder, your arms pulling her stomach against your own leaving no room. You pulled back, your hands traveled up to her perfect face that now had tear stains covering it. “You’re gonna do amazing things at Iowa,” your thumb ran against her cheek.

“It won’t be worth it without you,” her lips formed into a deeper frown, attempting to stop herself from crying.

“Yes it will,” you nodded your head, “You’re gonna change the game, I know it,” you smiled, but your face still held all of the sadness you felt right on the barrier.

“I love you,” she sniffled, pulling you in once more.

“I love you more,” you squeezed her waist before hearing your dad call for you. You reluctantly pulled back and then placed a soft kiss on CC’s lips, tasting the salt from her tears. You then moved away from her, her hands lingering on your waist until you were out of reach and they fell to her side.

“We’re gonna be together again. Someday,” she spoke up as she watched you walk towards the car.

“I know,” you smiled sadly before getting into the backseat of the car. Your dad quickly pulled out of the driveway leaving Caitlin standing there in her Iowa Hawkeye sweatshirt.

From never ending classes, due to you taking them even in summer, you had been able to graduate earlier from USC and were now working as a medical intern for the Indiana Fever. Lucky for you Aliyah Boston had been drafted by them the same year and you two had developed a strong relationship as you were also a medical intern for the Gamecocks women’s basketball team during your college education.

And even though you worked for the WNBA you tried to stay out of the basketball scene, not paying much attention to it as you wanted to separate your life and work. So, while you had an idea of all the amazing things your ex girlfriend had accomplished during her college career you weren’t really too knowledgeable on it. You hadn’t even watched the draft so the first day back on the job you weren’t expecting to see Caitlin Clark walk through the doors. You had just finished going over basic medical history with the other rookies, Celeste Taylor and Leilani Correa.

“Hi I’m Dr. Y/L/N, but you can just call me Y/N,” you said to the person who walked in, not looking up from your work just yet.

“I’m pretty sure I already know your name,” a familiar voice entered your ears making you look up so fast you swore you could have given yourself whiplash. You felt your heart freeze as you looked at the girl in front you, wearing all Fever practice clothes. You blinked hard several times to make sure this wasn’t just some cruel prank your brain was playing on you.

“Caitlin,” your voice trailed off as you stood up to look at her. She looked the same since the last time you saw her, but also didn’t at the same time. Her muscles were more prominent, her hair long and now changed to a middle part, but she still had that same smile on her face that you had fallen in love with when you were a teenager.

“Miss me?” she asked, even though it had the most obvious answer. You stood up from your chair tackling her in a hug. Her skin was just as soft as you had remembered it being and her embrace was just as warm. It really was Caitlin standing in front of you.

“I didn’t know you got drafted here!” you revealed, stepping back to look at the tall girl in front of you.

“First pick,” she smiled, and your hands slapped to your face. She let out a noise that you had missed hearing all these years, her laugh.

“I’m so proud of you Cait,” you beamed and you felt yourself wanting to slip back into that past state of you two. Wanting to just pull her in for a kiss and never let go. “So how's everything going? Dating anyone?” you asked, but then immediately wanted to slap yourself in the face for asking that.

Caitlin awkwardly coughed into her hand before answering, “Um yeah I’m dating this guy I met at Iowa,” she answered, her eyes falling to the floor like she wanted to melt into it.

“Oh cool, cool,” you nodded, walking back to your little desk to sit back down at.

“Yeah,” she nodded her head, walking over to the chair across from the desk, “How bout you? You dating?”

“Um no,” you shook your head, “So! Let’s get into this medical history,” you so desperately wanted to change the topic.

“Right, yeah,” Caitlin agreed, sitting down in the chair.

It had now been three months since Caitlin had joined the W and she somehow always found a way to get into your office during a practice even if she didn’t need to be there. Your guy’s connection had immediately come back, almost like y’all hadn’t been separated for those four years of college.

And as you had spent these months together, you noticed those familiar feelings rise once again. Your heart always started beating faster when she was near and you found yourself unable to think sometimes just because her green eyes were looking at you. And now you would be sharing a hotel room during All Star Weekend in Arizona because she had decided to take you as her plus one.

She had broken up with her boyfriend only a couple weeks ago, so you figured that’s why your emotions and feelings were going crazy every time you looked at her, just because there was even a slight possibility that you could be back together.

The All Star game had just ended and Caitlin was running your way, emotionally high on the win she had just gotten against the USA olympic team. She practically crushed you as she brought you into the tightest hug.

“Almost broke Sue’s record,” you giggled into her ear.

“Almost,” she pulled back. Her eyes scanned your whole face, glancing at your lips a little too long here and there.

“So, what does this All Star wanna do tonight?” you asked, a smile tugging at your lips.

“Go back to the hotel,” she smiled.

“Really? I thought you’d wanna go out?” your eyebrows knitted together as you looked up at her.

“I just wanna hang out with you,” she smiled and placed a kiss on your forehead before being called over by the WNBA team to take pictures to celebrate their win. But once she was done with photos and media, as well as had gotten her stuff from the locker room she had the two of you get into a car to drive you back to the hotel.

“To you and all your amazing accomplishments,” you giggled, holding up a shot that was in the back of the car. Caitlin did the same, you two clinked them together before downing them and then a few more after. And once the car came to a park, the two of you sluggishly got out of the car and stumbled your way back to your room.

Once inside Caitlin dropped all her bags to the floor and her hands found your hips, pushing you against the door. “I really wanna kiss you,” she whispered against your lips.

“Please,” you nodded eagerly. Her lips crashed against your own, your hands pulling her face closer to yours as her body pinned you against the hotel door. There was literally no space between the two of you, both so hungry for one another. CC pulled back to take a breath but before she could go back in for another kiss you stopped her, “I’ve missed this so much.”

“Me too baby, me too,” she smiled, bringing you into another deep kiss, her hands going under your top. “So much,” she smiled against your lips and walked you over to the bed.

allies corner

this is lowkey long and i can’t tell if it’s trash or not

[mimi-0007]

Paul Adams 1920-2013, joined the Tuskegee Airmen shortly after graduating from South Carolina State University. He flew with the 332nd Fighter Squadron (the famed "Red Tails") throughout WWII. He would retire from the military in 1962. He then would become a teaching in the Lincoln (NE) public school system. They named Adams Elementary school for him in 2008.

Paul Adams and his fellow Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American aviators in the U.S. military, whose distinguished record many historians credit with helping pave the way for the civil rights movement.

The group set an unprecedented record, flying more than 1,500 missions in Europe and North Africa. Adam served in nine major campaigns and received the Commendation Medal with three Oak Leaf clusters, each of which signifies subsequent bestowals of the same honor.

Doane College recognized him with the President's Honor of Distinction Award the same year. In 2007, he received the Congressional Gold Medal along with other Tuskegee Airmen, who were known as "guardian angels" by white airmen who were escorted by the African-American pilots during the war. Adams received a bronze replica at a ceremony in Lincoln. Doane College recognized him with the President's Honor of Distinction Award the same year.

And two years later, Adams, at President Barack Obama's invitation, attended the inauguration of the first black president along with other Tuskegee Airmen. Adams went on to become one of the first black teachers in LPS, and in 2008, his accomplishments were honored when the district named a new school after him.

He became a frequent visitor at Adams Elementary, where books about Tuskegee Airmen fill the library and teachers make a point to read them to students. The history became an integral part of Adams Elementary school

[mydaddywiki]

Pat Conroy

Physique: Husky Build Height: 6' 1"

Donald Patrick Conroy (October 26, 1945 – March 4, 2016; aged 70) was an American author who wrote several acclaimed novels and memoirs; his books The Water is Wide, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini were made into films, the last two being nominated for Oscars.

Recognized as a leading figure of late-20th century Southern literature (and as a hot chub daddy), who has written several acclaimed novels and memoirs. A former military brat with daddy issues, if he was born a woman, he would have turned into a stripper or whore. Instead he became an author that I'd still take to a back alley for a blow-job. Sure the comb over might be a problem, but I’m positive I won’t be focused on that whilst said dick was in him.

Born in Atlanta, GA, Conroy moved often in his youth, attending 11 schools by the time he was 15. He did not have a hometown until his family settled in Beaufort, SC, where he finished high school. During his senior year in high school, he was a protégé of Ann Head who was an influence on his future writing. His alma mater is The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in Charleston, where he graduated from the Corps of Cadets as an English major. He briefly became a schoolteacher (which he chronicled in his memoir The Water Is Wide) before publishing his first novel, The Boo.

Conroy lived on Fripp Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina until his death in 2016 at his home from Pancreatic Cancer. Living in South Carolina, I use to imagine running into him and offering him THE DICK. Then write his own biography about how we were secret lovers for years. Fucking like dogs in heat every time we get together. Yes… that would be a top seller.

Conroy’s first two marriages ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, the writer Cassandra King; four daughters: Jessica Conroy, Melissa Conroy, Megan Conroy and Susannah Ansley Conroy; five stepchildren: Emily Conroy; Jake, James and Jason Ray; and Gregory Fleischer; and seven grandchildren.

Works: 1970: The Boo 1972: The Water Is Wide 1976: The Great Santini 1980: The Lords of Discipline 1986: The Prince of Tides 1989: Unconquered (teleplay) 1992: Essay on the Hidden Subculture of Military Brats at the Wayback Machine 1995: Beach Music 2002: My Losing Season 2003: Unrooted Childhoods: Memoirs of Growing Up Global 2004: The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life 2009: South of Broad 2010: My Reading Life 2013: The Death of Santini 2016: A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life

[offender42085]

Post 1240

Before and After....

Charles Davenport, Jr., South Carolina inmate 378281, born 1993, incarceration intake November 2018 at age 25, scheduled for release November 2035

DUI resulting in Death

In November 2018, a former University of South Carolina student was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in the DUI death of another USC student.

It was one of the harshest DUI-killing sentences handed down in recent years in South Carolina, where drunken drivers who kill innocent people typically are sentenced to six or seven years, said a spokeswoman for the South Carolina Victims Advocate Council.

State Circuit Court Judge George McFaddin handed down the sentence for felony DUI involving death to Charles Davenport Jr., 25, during a lengthy hearing. McFaddin sentenced Davenport to 25 years in prison — the maximum sentence — but suspended five years of that sentence.

In November 2017, Davenport was driving his pickup truck at an estimated 76 mph — more than twice the legal limit — and accelerating on Rosewood Drive when he rammed a moped driven by David Newell, according to evidence. Evidence presented at the hearing showed Davenport had a blood-alcohol level nearly double the legal standard for being under the influence. He also had ingested Xanax — a sedative — and THC, a chemical that produces marijuana’s “high.”

Newell, a 22-year-old graduating senior from Maryland, just had finished his last exam at the School of Business when he was killed.

The combination of drugs and alcohol, along with Davenport’s excessive speed, were factors in Judge McFaddin’s 25-year sentence.

Along with members of Newell’s family, about 40 members of Newell’s Chi Psi fraternity also were in the courtroom and told the court about their loss.

During the hearing, Davenport apologized.

Since Davenport's incarceration he has been described as a model inmate.

4y

[kaijuno]

LOUISE JENKINS MERIWETHER

(May 8, 1923 – October 10, 2023)

Louise Jenkins Meriwether, a novelist, essayist, journalist, and social activist, was the only daughter of Marion Lloyd Jenkins and his wife, Julia. Meriwether was born May 8, 1923, in Haverstraw, New York, to parents from South Carolina.

After the 1929 stock market crash, Louise’s family migrated from Haverstraw to New York City. They moved to Brooklyn first and later to Harlem. The third of five children, Louise grew up during the Great Depression, a time that would deeply affect her young life and ultimately influence her as a writer.

Louise Jenkins attended Public School 81 in Harlem and graduated from Central Commercial High School in downtown Manhattan. In the 1950s, she received a B.A. in English from New York University before meeting and marrying Angelo Meriwether, a Los Angeles teacher. Although this marriage and later marriage to Earle Howe ended in divorce, Louise continued to use the Meriwether name. In 1965, Louise earned an M.A. in journalism from the University of California at Los Angeles. Her first book, Daddy Was a Number Runner, a fictional account of the economic devastation of Harlem in the Great Depression, appeared in 1970 as the first novel to emerge from the Watts Writers’ Workshop.

The circumstances surrounding this photo are largely unnatributed to larger context but some citation indicates that Jenkins-Merriwether was being questioned by police at a protest.

[willowbeesims]

Caroline Rhode Downing 🤎

Caroline Downing (26) grew up in the suburbs of Charleston, South Carolina with her older brother, Eric, and younger sister, Kaia. She was quite reserved as a child, preferring to bury herself in books and daydreaming rather than rambunctious play like her siblings. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in English language and literature, she has been working as an editor at a local publishing house for several years.

Her parents, Richard and Maria, are owners of an award winning winery in Charleston and a renowned equestrian center in the Scottish Highlands. Her brother, Eric, was positioned to oversee the building of the family’s equestrian center in town when he tragically passed away in a fatal car accident last summer.

Life for the Downings haven’t been the same since. Though a semblance of normalcy and routine have returned, each member has been on their own journey with grief and healing. This experience of loss has brought them closer than ever and as the season changes, they hope to commemorate Eric’s memory by completing his passion project and finding gratitude in simple things.

Caroline’s outfit inspired by @classicpixels new lookbook!

[pfctipper]

Kind of fascinated by this little section in one of Dick’s books:

Our OCS class graduated on July 2, 1942 […] Following lunch at the officers club, we were free to go our own way, though few of us had actual assignments. Nixon was assigned duty at Fort Ord, California, and attached to the military police unit on post. With no immediate openings in the paratroopers, I returned to Camp Croft to train another contingent that had recently arrived. As an officer I didn’t last long at Croft: about five weeks to be exact, before receiving orders to report to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, at Camp Toombs, Georgia […] Following a brief leave, I arrived in Toccoa in mid-August. Disembarking from the Southern Railway train adjacent to the Toccoa Coffin Factory, Lewis Nixon and I were directed to board an army truck for “Camp Toombs” - Richard Winters and Cole C. Kingseed, Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters (2006)

Camp Croft is in South Carolina and Fort Ord is in California. I don’t know much about the USA rail system, or how involved the army would have been in coordinating their travel, but regardless of whether Dick was travelling from South Carolina or wherever he was on leave - how likely is it that they’d end up on the exact same train into Toccoa? Maybe something they’d either planned themselves, or they’d departed from the same place (maybe Nix had leave too?)- or a coincidental train/station reunion after five weeks apart? Who knows, but very sweet that he makes a point of highlighting that the two of them (and only the two of them?) arrived together anyway.

[thedeviltohisangel]

All The Things I Did (7): I Thought About Thinking It Through

a/n: ok so the first blurb of the sleep talking interlude has been somewhat negated so I apologize but promise it is worth it. heavy shit this chapter as we get the full story on sidney landry. but john might say the L word...

warnings: mentions of domestic violence, mentions of character just wanting it all to stop

When John walked into the pub that night, the sounds of an angel laughing reached his ears but the cause was making his fists curl. Cass was seated at a table in the back corner with a man, who he presumed was Mr. Foster, sitting across from her. Her chin was in her hand the way it was whenever he told her a funny story. Her smile was as soft as candlelight as she nodded along to whatever he was telling her. Swears he felt his blood boil when her hand brushed against his across the table.

“Hey, baby, I didn’t think I was going to see you here tonight.” His annoyance was washed away as she turned to greet him with a smile. She said his name and brought him in for a kiss, John using her proximity to press a few more to her lips.

“John, this is Captain Will Foster. We went to spook school in Maryland together.” John kept one arm around the back of her chair as he shook the man’s hand. 

“Major Egan, it’s an honor, sir.” 

“Hear that, Cass, some people think it’s an honor to meet me.” She rolled her eyes as she took a sip of her soda. “You’re the one who’s going to keep an eye on my girl in Berlin?”

“I’ll do my best, sir, but this is Cass’ operation. I’m just here to do what she tells me.” Cass blushed and ducked her head. “Lieutenant Cooper graduated top of our class. Highest marks the entire year.” 

“It’s not that impressive,” she began. “Not like I can fly a plane.”

“None of that,” John stated as he gripped her chin between his fingers. “You are the smartest, most gorgeous, most impressive woman that has ever walked this earth.” She smiled in spite of the ridiculousness and let him pull her in for another kiss. 

“Careful, John, or all this is going to go to my head. Then I’ll be truly insufferable.” 

“I have never once complained about your company.” As it always did, the rest of the world sealed itself off from the space between them. As soon as they had their eyes on each other there was nothing else that mattered. “Can I get you a refill?”

“Yes, please.” John kissed her forehead and was off in the direction of the bar. 

“You and the Major, huh?”

“He is…a welcome surprise. I saw him get off a plane one day and couldn’t shake the look in his eyes.”

“Curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back,” Will replied with a swig of his beer. “You always were good at learning everything about your target without giving up even a hint of yourself.”

“John’s not my target. He’s my-” She stopped. What was he? Was there a word to describe their relationship status? Partner seemed too severe and official. Boyfriend seemed too trivial. “Mine. He’s just mine. And I’m his.”

“Simple. That works.” Oh, if he only knew. The feelings they had for each other, ability to express them agnostic, were simple. They were pure. They were real. They were warm and comforting and made her nerves tingle. But the world around them was so complicated. The lives they led as individuals were complicated, how were they supposed to twine them together? “And to think you were a runaway bride when I first met you.”

“Runaway bride?” John chose the perfect time to return. Catching the one part of that comment that Cass felt in her chest. “You?”

“It’s an exaggeration of the circumstances.” Cass transitioned to damage control. The topic of why she had left South Carolina in the first place hadn’t come up between her and John. And she had wanted to keep it that way. There was no use pouring salt in her old wounds.

“Oh, come on, Cass. Engaged to marry the big time banker’s son and fleeing the engagement party to enlist in the OSS? It’s an incredible story.” For the second time that day, John found himself furious with the tone someone was using to speak to her. She had fully retreated into herself, focused on the condensation rolling down the side of the bottle, her hands shaking in her lap at the reminder of that night. 

“Doesn’t seem like she wants to talk about it, Captain.” There was authority in his tone. It was protective. Purposeful. No room to misinterpret his words. “You okay?” It looked like she was having trouble breathing. As if the amount of trauma trapped in her chest was suffocating her. 

“No. I just need some air. Alone.” She doesn’t think she could look John in the eye. Not when he now knew the awful truth. Not when she was now nothing but damaged and spoiled goods. John watched her walk away with a clenched jaw. 

“Major-”

“I don’t know what the fuck happened in South Carolina, Foster, but if I ever hear you mention it again it will be the last thing you ever do.” John drained the rest of his whiskey and slammed it on the table. He didn’t wait for a response. He meant the words he said. And Will knew it.

----

“There’s more than one of them,” John mocked as he sat across from the RAF officers. “I can see more than one of you, too. I could knock all of you out.” Cass hadn’t come back into the pub and John had just drowned his anger and worry in amber liquid. Buck and Veal helped settle him down as he yelled he could do it in only one punch.

“You want to get Major excited? Baseball. Specifically the Yankees,” Curt offered.

“Really? I would have thought it was the little poppet who left close to tears.” No one tried to stop him when he stood this time. 

“Say that again,” he threatened. 

“Why don’t we make a bit of sport out of it, Major?” 

“I’ve got him, John, let me take care of him,” Curt reasoned. Really, they were all afraid John might kill him. A better man would know when to step aside. Let a more level head prevail. But John wasn’t in any particular mood to take the high ground. 

“Not this time. People in this goddamn pub need to stop talking about her.” They all milled outside and John tossed his blazer into the grass. He wondered if Cass would appreciate the gesture or be repulsed by it. If she ever believed violence was the answer or always chose to think her way out of everything. He ducked the weak hand of the Brit as he thought about the way she looked earlier. The way she had hid herself from his gaze and his touch and requested she be alone. He didn’t like the hole in his chest that she left whenever she wasn’t near.

His fist landed square on his target’s face and the sickening crunch of breaking bone echoed throughout the night air. He pictured Harding’s lovesick eyes when his Cass entered the room. Pictured Foster and his words quelling the fire inside of his Cass in an instant. Pictured this pompous asshole watching his Cass walk from the pub with a shake to her shoulders. Cass was a deity that mere men were not meant to get too close to. John didn’t even believe he deserved the way she looked at him. The way she touched him and comforted him and made him feel at home in a faraway land.

“You good, Bucky?” The others were cheering and laughing and slapping him on the shoulder but Buck looked concerned more than anything.

“I gotta protect her, Buck. I can’t let this place take her from me.” He couldn’t even feel the wounds to his knuckles or the blood of another man trickling down his fingers. “I’ll find you guys later.” John ignored their groans and pleas and grabbed his jacket from the ground before heading off in her direction. His north star. He would always follow her home.

----

He knocked softly against her door, Mary not hiding her eye roll at his disheveled uniform and bloodied knuckles when she had begrudgingly let him in, his forehead landing against the wood as he waited for her to answer.

“You found me,” she whispered softly as she cracked the door open an inch. 

“Always will,” he replied sincerely. “Can I come in?” She nodded and opened the door wider, John closing it behind him as she sat on the edge of her bed. He looked around and noticed a packed bag on the floor and a stack of envelopes on her desk. The one on top looked like it was addressed to her parents. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t come back after…” John shook his head.

“You were upset. He shouldn’t have said what he said.” Cass chuckled drily and looked at the ceiling. 

“You have my back, just like that? Without even knowing what it was he was talking about?” He sat down in her chair, elbows landing on the top of his thighs. “What happened to your hand?” She surged forward and held his hand in hers with a delicacy that made him shudder.

“I was having your back.” Not asking any further, she opened a drawer and pulled out a first aid kit. “And to answer your question, yes. It doesn’t matter what he was talking about. If it made you uncomfortable, it needed to stop.” He didn’t wince as she cleaned the blood from his hand, kissing each knuckle for extra measure, and wrapping a bandage to seal in her love.

“I appreciate that, John, but what he said was true.” He winced now. 

“About being another man’s bride?” The thought made him sick. The thought that Cass was already someone else’s. That she hadn’t told him and let him fall in love with her and share in those sacred moments together. That maybe that was why she so rigidly didn’t want him to say so. 

“I was supposed to be. Before I left for training, I was engaged.” She paused and waited for his reaction. Waited for him to be angry or upset and tell her she wasn’t worth the trouble. 

“And I’m sure you left for a reason, Cass.” His desire to understand her almost hurt her chest. It reminded her exactly why she had left. Why Sidney Landry was most certainly not the man she was meant to marry. “You don’t have to tell me. I don’t want to drudge something up if you’ve already gotten over it.”

“No, if…if me and you are going to be me and you, you need to know. You deserve to know.” John leaned forward to hold her hands, kissing the back of them with all the love he could muster. “His name is Sidney Landry. His father is the biggest banker in the state and they’ve been looking to get their claws into my family’s business for decades.” Her hands shook slightly and he squeezed them tight.

“I’m here,” he whispered. “I’m not leaving.”

“By all accounts it was an advantageous match. They were wealthy and powerful and Sidney could have any girl in Charleston that he wanted but for some god awful reason he wanted me. My mother was so delighted. She had found a man who was willing to try to tame me.” A tear rolled down her cheek and John’s thumb wiped it away. 

“Cass…”

“I had no choice but to say yes and let him parade me around like some blue ribbon. I was so miserable every second I was with him. He would grab my arms so tight they bruised everytime we went somewhere. He would say the crudest things about me having his children. I spent months just wanting it all to stop.” The tears were coming in full force. Her hands grasping John’s like he was her anchor in the storm. His own eyes were swimming with emotion as he watched her exorcize these demons from within her. “One night he had been drinking so much I couldn’t understand what he was saying. But he was so angry I wouldn’t let him touch me. So angry that he…”

“You don’t have to tell me,” he repeated, “I know all I need to, Cass.” John already knew he was going to kill Sidney Landry. Didn’t know when but he knew it would be slow. 

“His hands were around my neck and I thought he was going to kill me. I hit him as hard as I could over and over before he stopped. I ran and I ran and I ran until I couldn’t breathe.” 

“You ran all the way to London, huh?” he said in the hopes of getting a smile to crack across her face. It worked. 

“I thought I ended up here because I was running away from him but maybe I was really just running to you.”

“That sounds about right,” he murmured as he stroked the top of her cheeks. “What you went through…You are so fucking strong, Cass. You deserve to be happy and to feel loved and protected.”

“I’m so damaged, John. I’m not meant for a life of teacups and doilies and standing there silently. No one is going to want this version of me.” Now that he knew the truth, she expected him to run too. To find a simple girl who could be the wife he deserved and the mother to his children he deserved. 

“That’s not true, Cass, because I,” he swallowed and held her face between his hands, steady and strong, “because I love you. I am so fucking in love with you, Cassandra Cooper. I love every last bit of you and I love this version of you and know I’ll love every version that comes after.” She kissed him ferociously, not able to get enough of him even with no distance between them. “Come home with me when this is all over. Do me the honor and make me the happiest man alive.”

“I will, John, I will.” He kissed her with a groan, eager to lock this promise between them. “John, you need to know that I leave for Berlin in the morning. The operation it’s…it’s…others have tried and they haven’t come back.”

“I’m not letting you say goodbye,” he reasoned. “Not when you got me thinking about an after.” Oh it was so cruel and dangerous for the universe to do this to him. Give him the one thing he’d been wanting only to have her live her life on the same edge he did. 

“If something happens to me, I need you to know I feel the same way you do.” She just needed to get through this. If she could survive Berlin, she could survive this whole thing. She could love John Egan wholeheartedly and unabashedly. She could find the courage to go back home if he was with her. “When I went to see Harding this morning, I went to turn down Berlin.”

“Turn it down?”

“I would have rather been here with you than anywhere else. No matter what those consequences were. But then I saw Buck’s letter and I was so angry.”

“I know. I deserve that.” She shook her head.

“No, you don’t because here I am doing the exact same thing.” 

“Hey, you’re not going to need those farewell letters on your desk, okay? You’re going to go to Berlin, kick someone’s ass or steal state secrets to end the war and you’re going to come right back home to me. Just like how I am always going to come right back home to you.”

“Forever and ever?” she asked. 

“Forever and ever,” he promised. “You going to let me hold you while we try and get some sleep tonight?” 

And that was how Mary found them before the sun rose the following morning. John protectively wrapped around Cass from behind, their fingers interlocked at her middle. And they both studied each other for a few more minutes until Mary said it was really, really time for Cass to go. John not wanting to forget a single thing about this very moment. Cass not wanting to forget a single detail about the face of the man she loved. The face of the man she was fighting to keep safe. 

“Don’t get distracted by thoughts of your love for me while you’re flying,” she teased as he pecked her lips a few times. 

“I am going to fly so much faster with that admission off my chest.” She giggled and fell back into him easily, her plane whirring to life behind them. 

“If you do, I might let you show me how much you love me when I get back.” That twinkle of mischief was there that he loved so dearly. 

“Is that so? You better hurry then. I’m a patient man, Spook, but not when it comes to loving on you.” 

“Cass! We got to go! Weather’s moving in!” Her heart dropped along with her smile as she turned back to John. The part she was dreading.

“I’ll see you when I get back,” she said, her fingers tracing the contours of his face one last time. His knuckles brushed her cheek and he kissed her one last time. 

“I love you. You come back to me in one piece. That’s an order, Lieutenant.” 

“I’ll do my best, Major.” She pulled him by the front of his jacket for her own last kiss. To tell him she loved him without saying the words. Those would be for after. 

She walked backwards until she couldn’t anymore. Her hand pressing to her lips before she released it into the wind, John catching the sentiment with ease. He had never felt such torment watching a plane take off as he did in that moment. It was carrying everything he held dear off to a faraway place. 

“Please come back to me, Cass.”