#cour four

[radioactive-earthshine]

JLA: Secret Files (1997) #3

"I just know, okay? I just know!"

[fantasylandbitch]

Summary: After You abruptly get off the phone with Sam, the Core 4 makes it their mission to find you knowing you only have a certain amount of time left to live before you freeze to death in the Hudson River. Will they find you in time? What will become of you when they do?

Warning: Long Chapter, Angst, Family, Big Feelings, Sad Sam, Ethan being a Grade A Creep

Chapter 1  Chapter 2  Chapter 2.5  Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 4.5  Chapter 5 Chapter 5.5 Chapter 6 Chapter 6.5 Chapter 7 Chapter 7.5 Chapter 8 Chapter 8.5 Chapter 9 (Chapter 9.5 Coming Soon)

After Sam heard the splash of water in the background of your call with her, Sam couldn’t believe her ears. She felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach and suddenly it felt like everything was going in slow motion around her. When a car would pass by it looked as if it wasn’t moving an inch even though she could see the wheels on the car move or the wind that would dance in her hair it was like she couldn’t even feel it.

“S-Sam?” Tara calls her older sister, noticing the glassy look in her sister's eyes. 

“Y-Y/n” Sam whispers your name like if she said your name any louder her wish for you to be alive wouldn’t come true. Sam was so caught up in her feelings for you that she couldn’t hear her sister calling her name. Because to Sam, you were a part of her world and now the other half of the earth is no longer there, while her little sister is keeping her tethered to the other part of the rock she lives on. She knows that her heart shouldn’t be so attached to you but it is and her heart is calling out for you, which is why she started to run like her body had a mind of its own, no longer allowing Sam to idle on the sidewalk.

“Sam!” Tara yells out to her sister as she sees her running down the street before following after her. As soon as Tara ran after her sister, Mindy and Chad gave each other a look before following, leaving Ethan behind as he contemplated running after his friends considering what he had gone through earlier. Before he turned to look at the photography building across the street so he could examine his face from afar using the studio's tall glass windows, he noticed the blood on the side of his forehead feeling pain there before following everyone else across the crosswalk as he fished out a tissue from his pocket.

“Wait up guys!” Ethan yells out to his friends as he stops at another crosswalk and when he is able to, he walks over as Sam continues to run through the park with Tara hot on her heels “How do we even know she’s here?!” he questions.

While running, Sam eventually comes to a stop not wanting to run any farther as she can feel herself starting to feel the guilt eat at her as she tries to hold back the tears that threatened to spill. With Tara running up beside her, Tara steals a glance at her older sister before noticing your phone on the ground “Sam?” Tara says as she slowly starts to understand why her older sister is acting that way around her. Before she looked at the railing behind her and as soon as she put the pieces together Tara’s eyes started to water “Sam? Wh-Where is-?” Tara tried to make a sentence but couldn’t as Mindy and Chad began to catch up to them. They both stopped mid-way causing Sam to look over at the twins as some of her tears started to spill while she went to pick up your phone to put in her bomber jacket.

Then Mindy decided to take the initiative "Guys we can't stand around, we need to look for Y/n and quick!" She yells aloud at her friends because she doesn't want you to freeze to death in the water when she knows you might still have a chance.

"How do we know she hasn't been taken, swept away by the Hudson River?" Ethan yells over Mindy as he gets closer to the group. He sort of wants to see you alive sure but after what you did to him earlier he just wants to see Sam suffer, maybe even see her snap.

"We don't Ethan, that's why we need to check! Maybe she had enough strength to hide herself somewhere that we can't see her" Chad says to Ethan, thinking that while yes you could've been swept away by the Hudson River he had dubbed you as the final girl other than the women present in front of him, himself included even though he knows there's a 50/50 chance for him. 

Sam nods trying to collect herself for you and Tara “The twins are right” she says wiping the tears off of her cheeks before continuing “Mindy and Chad you guys walk around to the left of the park, Try not to go too far where we can’t see you. And Tara-” Sam says looking over at her little sister “You’re with me,” she says as everyone starts to split into their groups.

“W-What about me?” Ethan says, stopping the Carpenter sisters in their tracks “What do you guys want me to do?” he says feeling left out when he notices Sam’s face change from sad and concerned to angry and murderous while looking at him.

“What about you, Ethan?” she says seriously, feeling disappointed in him for not protecting you better because to Sam she equates going to the gym as not just a healthy activity to practice but to also use what you’ve gained at the gym to protect those close to you and therefore protecting you with his life. “I think you’ve done enough,” Sam says next, knowing that the little information that Mindy told her about at the gas station was only going to make her even angrier as she replays Mindy’s words over and over again in her head and she kind of wants to hit Ethan now until Tara held her hand to snap her older sister out of her angered state before speaking up.

“Ethan I think you should wait on the bench and if we need anything we’ll call you,” Tara says taking a deep breath before pulling her sister forward walking up the pathway and towards the edge of the park to begin looking for you. “You didn’t have to say that to him, Sam. I’m sure Ethan feels bad for not looking out for Y/n more while they were at the apartment together” she says looking around before turning her back to the river to look at her sister as Sam approached her.

Sam with a heavy heart, cups the sides of her little sister's face and says “Tara I don’t think you know how much he could have done and unlike us, I don’t think he cares as much as we, our family does about Y/n and her well being” before wiping the tears that started to spill from Tara’s eyes as Sam brought Tara into a hug. 

Then with the little space between Sam’s arms, Tara noticed something past the entrance of New York’s water taxi sign, a dock, and something obscuring a ladder that was attached to the side of it. “Hey Sam, if you turn around and look at the dock that's blocked off can you see the rest of the ladder?” Tara asks her older sister as she pulls away to see if her eyes are playing games with her, making Sam turn around to see what she’s talking about. 

Sam sees the gated path leading up to the floating dock and part of the ladder beside it and soon she and her sister are walking in the direction of the dock to get a better look, while Sam tries to recall what you were wearing earlier that night. While Sam walks with her sister to the location, Chad stops Mindy as he gently puts his hand around her bicep looking at where Sam and Tara are looking “Mindy do you think that could be Y/n?” he questions.

Chad’s question makes Mindy turn her head before her eyes land on the dock’s ladder and suddenly she walks closer to the railing separating her and the Hudson River before she starts walking back to where they had their little meeting pulling Chad’s arm along with her.

As Sam and Tara walk closer to the docks Sam starts to remember what you were wearing and the memory with it. She knows you wore a soft (color of your shirt) t-shirt because Sam remembers rubbing the sides of your waist feeling the soft fabric that hid your torso from her and the cute (favorite color) jeans that adorn your legs as you both held each other's hands underneath the table. Sam started to hear her heartbeat in her ears while her breathing became a little heavy with anticipation of what she was about to find before she looked over to see Mindy and Chad starting to run over to the entrance of the water taxi and this caused Sam and Tara to do the same.

As they got closer Tara yells for you “Y/N!!” as she sees you hanging on to the ladder but you're not responding to her call and Tara’s yell makes Ethan get up from sitting on the bench, running over to the gate to stand side by side with Tara, looking down at you from the railing. The sudden urgency causes Sam, Mindy, and Chad to jump over the gate to get onto the floating platform, and as they do Sam almost runs off of the dock if Mindy and Chad hadn’t stopped her by grabbing her arms.

“Slow down,” Mindy says to Sam as she tries to figure out how they should pull you up without getting into the water and hurting you further. 

“H-” Chad started but was abruptly cut off by Sam pulling items from her jean pockets to stuff in her bomber jacket.“Sam, what are you doing?” Chad asks, something Mindy is about to question herself as they both watch Sam take off her shoes “Sam, don’t I’m pretty sure the water is cold” he warns, and before anyone can do anything Sam jumps into the water.

“HOLY SHIT” Sam whispers yells to herself while breathing heavily trying to adjust her breathing to the sudden change in temperature of her body before swimming around to face you and the ladder. “How the fuck did Liv in Keep Breathing do this..Y/n,” Sam says to herself even though she was whispering to you not wanting her friends to think she was crazy before pushing up against your back “M-Mindy! C-Chad! I’m going to try and hoist Y/n up. I’m going to need you guys to lift her up by her armpits. Can you guys do that?!” Sam asks as she's starting to shake from being in the cold water.

Mindy responds to Sam’s question taking a moment to assess you and mentally prepare herself for your body temperature “You didn’t need to ask” she says, bending down on the dock so she can get ready to retrieve you from Sam.

After Mindy's response, Chad speaks up “Say less Sam, we’re here for you and Y/n” he says genuinely as he kneels getting ready to take hold of you while Tara is crying by the entrance with Ethan beside her getting anxious wanting you to get out of the water already.

“O-Okay ready?!” Sam says as she sees Mindy and Chad nod getting their hands ready for you without taking a dip. “One! Two! Three!” Sam yells into the air before pushing her feet against the ladder and hoisting you up while the twins carefully pull you up by your armpits as they eventually lay you on the dock. Then Sam takes hold of the ladder shaking as she gets out of the water with Chad helping her up as Mindy drags your body out of Sam’s way before trying to resuscitate you. As Sam stands tall on the dock she jumps up and down to gain some heat so that her body isn’t cold even though the wind is hitting her before she runs over to Mindy’s side to try and bring you back “Come on Y/n!” She says as she rubs your chest with the palm of her hand before she performs CPR “Come on Y/n! Don’t die on me please!” Sam yells your name as her eyes become glassy while putting her hands over each other and pressing down on your chest. Then she goes to cover your nose to breathe air back into your lungs trying to force whatever is in your system out before going back to pressing down on your chest again as she can feel your chest cavity break beneath her “Y/N!” Sam yells your name again and this time she’s balling.

With Sam yelling your name it makes Mindy look over at Tara and she can see her crying before looking over at her brother in front of her. She can see how Chad’s face is slowly betraying him under the fluorescent light, his eyes are red as he gets up to face the Hudson River and Mindy starts to feel some of her own tears start to stain her cheeks.

Then Tara hears the ambulance arrive at the park, and she turns her head in the direction of the sound as Ethan runs over to the paramedics to not only yell at them but to tell them what happened so they can bring the proper equipment. Then as Ethan runs over with the paramedics behind him, Tara can see her older sister still trying to bring you back before the paramedics arrive and open the gate to take over but they struggle against Sam. "NO I can save her!" Sam yells as she continues to give you compressions before pushing the paramedics away from your body. "NO, DON'T TOUCH HER" Sam yells again but this time she's protective of your body she doesn't want anyone to touch you.

Tara knows that her older sister doesn’t want anyone else touching you and it causes Tara to cry harder as she pushes past her friends to get a hold of Sam “Sam let her go, please” she says hugging her older sister with tears streaming down her face. "They can save her, let her go" and as she lets you go with the paramedics Sam holds on to your hand as she gets up and walks over to the entrance of the dock before your fingers slip through hers as they take you away, Sam becomes quiet as she slips into her shoes and picks up her jacket.

“Ethan..go with Y/n to the hospital please,” Sam asks Ethan quietly and he nods walking with the paramedics to their truck as Sam herself, Tara, Mindy, and Chad follow after them. Sam watched as the paramedics were still giving you CPR while the other paramedics started working on your wounds by making sure that they were sterilized before applying cloth and light bandages to them, before placing a blanket over your body as they drove away. Then Sam takes Tara, Mindy, and Chad back to your car so they can meet you at the hospital but before Sam goes into your car, she quickly changes into another pair of clothes. While walking to the back of your car Sam assumes she's stashed extra clothes away in the trunk but little did she know there was none, Sam gives a frustrated sigh trying to find some clothes until she lifts the floor of your trunk to find yours, She sees your blue sweatpants, and one of your cream-colored mockup sweaters from the store you occasionally help out. “A Mothers Love A Women’s Bakery” Sam whispers before changing near the car and after stuffing her wet clothes into one of your spare grocery bags. After the clothes are in the trunk Sam walks over to the front passenger door to take a seat next to her sister as Tara GPSs a way to the hospital before pulling out of the parking spot she’s in. 

While on the drive over Sam can’t help but lift the neckline of your sweater up to her nose taking a deep breath in as she can smell your scent through the fabric. The smell of you through every thread that makes the sweater almost makes Sam want to cry all over again as she begins recalling your last words that were addressed her. ‘Sammy’ she hears your voice in her head ‘spending time with you these past few months’ her heart slowly starts to ache. ‘You have made me the happiest woman I’ve ever been and I am happy I was able to be a part of your life’ Sam continues to hear you as she sinks further into your sweater pulling the hood slowly over her head as she attempts to hide from her thoughts, your voice, and her guilt. Until she takes another deep breath in, it’s like your scent was made to soothe her woes and clear her mind as she slowly relaxes against the soft fabric as it slowly lulls her to sleep in the car.

In the ambulance where you are accompanied by Ethan, the paramedics were able to get the water out of your system before putting an oxygen mask over your mouth so you can breathe while they’re driving to the hospital. “Your friend is going to be fine,” a paramedic says to Ethan, as he looks over at them and they continue “Her girlfriend did a great job at keeping her alive,” the paramedic says smiling at Ethan before walking to the front of the truck to sit next to the driver “she's stable” was the last thing he heard before Ethan turns his head to look at you. As Ethan watches your chest rise and fall, he slowly tilts his head before quickly looking over at the paramedics and then back at you with a clenched jaw before leaning forward to glide his fingers through your damp hair wondering if he should just kill you in your sleep, even though he knows it would just take the fun out of it. But instead, he just shakes his head smiling at your sleeping figure as he leans back in his seat because he’s amazed at how you’re still alive even though he had graced your body with a large wound, of course, not large enough to to see your guts spill out of you. He likes a good chase and would never want to out right kill you unless he felt like it. But Ethan’s smile slowly drops as he leans forward wondering as to HOW in your fucked up state managed to outrun two of the best Ghost Faces he’s ever teamed up with and what he thinks might be the anwser makes him cover his mouth as he laughed. He doesn’t want to get ahead of himself though, thinking that you could possibly be just like him, but he is excited by the turn of events because he figures with you in the hospital, he can play with Sam and Tara all by himself after he finds a way to kill his roommate Chad and his sister Mindy.

"Fuck the script," He says to himself before his phone buzzed so he pulls his phone out of his pocket to see who it is only to be disappointed. "Of course, you fucking do" Ethan whispers before texting back his accomplices, shoving his phone back into his jeans before sitting back again as he watches over you, and before he knows it, you both arrive at the Rosemary Hospital a place not too far from home. “Time to act like I care,” he says looking back at your sleeping figure on the stretcher as he made his eyes start to water before turning his head to the back doors as someone opens the trunk so they can bring you into the hospital. Then on Ethan's way into the hospital with you, he thought he was allowed access to you and the assigned room that you would stay in but was soon stopped by a security officer. “I’m with her, that's my friend!” Ethan yells aloud as he pushes against the security officer before backing away and begins walking back and forth in the lobby waiting for Sam, Tara, Chad, and Mindy to arrive.

Eventually, Tara does arrive at the Rosemary Hospital driving around the parking lot until she can find a parking spot closest to the hospital entrance and when she does the sudden stop wakes her sister up. As soon as Sam opens her eyes she looks around the car when her eye catches the hospital's logo and the instant feeling of needing to see you causes Sam to immediately take off her seatbelt and step out of the car. When Sam got out of the car, she looks around the parking lot on the lookout for any threats before noticing Kirby’s car in the next lot.'What is Kirby doing here?' Sam ponders before turning her head to look at the hospital as she waits for her sister and the twins to get out of your car. After they get out, they all fall in line walking to the hospital allowing Sam to trail behind them, upon stepping foot in the brightly lit building, Sam passes the twins and tails Tara reaching for her little sister’s shoulder to comfort her just in case because Sam knows that Tara doesn’t like hospitals.

“Any updates on Y/n?” Chad asks looking away from Sam and Tara to look at his roommate and all Ethan can do is shrug making Chad nod, not realizing how incompetent his roommate seems to be before sitting down and thinking about your well-being as Mindy joins him in the waiting area thinking about you as well.

The shrug causes Sam to look away from Ethan before shaking her head trying to swallow her anger as her grip on her little sister’s shoulder tightens a little. Her grip although firm wasn’t a cause for concern for Tara but she did want her older sister to be grounded and not allow her anger to get the best of her so Tara reached her hand up to her shoulder to rub Sam’s hand in an attempt to calm her down. It works making Tara smile to herself as Sam loosens her grip on her before moving her hands up to Tara’s face to rub her cheeks as she takes a deep breath. “I’m going to see what room she’s in okay, Tara?” She spoke before looking down at her sister and Tara nodded before walking over to Mindy to sit next to her while Sam went to the counter to talk to someone.

“Hello Miss how can I help you?” a women at the customer service desk says to Sam as she slowly looks the older Carpenter woman up and down with a smile.

“I have a friend who was just admitted to the hospital here and I wanted to know what room she was staying in?,” Sam asks, trying to look calm but her hands betray her as she taps her fingertips on the counter, just not hard enough for there to be sound.

“What's their name?” the woman asks going into her computer database before looking up at Sam.

“Y/n, Y/n L/n,” Sam says to the women before she turns to look behind her to see Tara walking over to the counter, Tara reached for Sam’s hand to comfort her because Tara could see from where she was sitting that Sam was unable to stand still.

“We have her in room 110 but you would need access to go up there,” the woman says looking at Sam and then at her sister before looking at another monitor.“Unfortunately, only family can go up there,” she says and Sam sighs looking down at her hands.

“What are you serious?” Tara says before pushing her older sister out of the way so she can get to the counter to give the customer service agent a piece of her mind. But before she could, Sam lifts her sister up by her waist before walking over to the waiting area as her arms and legs flail like a lion trying to get out of her grasp. "Sam put me down, now!" Tara yells at her sister but Sam doesn’t budge, she waits until Tara calms down a bit before slowly allowing her little sister’s feet to touch the ground. “How dare-” Tara started as she was going to give Sam an ear full before her older sister was called by someone.

“Sam” Kirby calls which causes Sam to look beyond the reception’s desk noticing the blond “This group can come with me” Kirby says taking her badge out to show the security officer that she was in fact a federal agent.

“Kirby!” Tara yells with surprise walking up to Kirby to give her a hug and Kirby hugs her back with a tired smile.

“Hey Tara” Kirby says releasing the little Carpenter from her clutches before turning her head to Sam and looking her over “I feel like the sweater suits you but not the sweatpants, Sam. Wait are those my si-” she started before she was cut off.

“Yeah I’m barrowing her cloth-” Sam says before stopping mid way because she just noticed what Kirby was going to say next but she wasn’t alone in what she heard because Mindy and Chad’s ears perked up at the same time as Tara and Ethan’s. 

“Y/n..is your sister Kirby?” Tara says looking at Kirby briefly before looking over at her older sister making eye contact with one another. 

Kirby takes a deep breath, nodding as she looked down at Tara before waving everyone over to walk with her to the elevator “I’ll catch you guys up on the way to her room” she says before taking a walk.

“She must be adopted because there is no way you two are related to each other. Unless either your mom or your dad had an affair” Mindy starts as she walks into the elevator with the rest of her friends, making Kirby laugh.

“You're funny but no. I got married to Y/n’s older sibling Cam two years ago and I’ve only known Y/n for about the same number of years and if I didn’t know something was fishy in their family it would have been a year.” Kirby says in the quiet elevator and for a few minutes it was silent between everyone as they took in this new information about you, realizing that they never once asked you about your home life.

Until Tara asked Kirby a question about what she said “What do you mean by that Kirby? By if you didn’t know something was fishy, it would have been a year?” The little Carpenter asked which was something Sam was wondering herself, keeping quiet, Sam can feel something in the pit of her stomach developing.

“Well, Y/n has another older sibling named Tomás and well……as a pompous little prick he is, he made Y/n miss our wedding. I thought that was fishy because Cam knew she wouldn’t miss her estranged older sibling’s wedding like that so we visited their family and let's just say it wasn’t good.” 

Kirby ended the conversation as the elevator doors opened to your floor and as everyone walked out into the hallway Sam watched your sister in law stop to collect herself trying to remember which hallway to go down before she walked right. While everyone continued to follow Kirby down the long hallway Sam kept seeing rooms with people hooked up to monitors and other machines before looking over at her little sister who slowly inched closer to her. The Carpenter sisters soon reached out for each other's hands to comfort each other as they got closer to your assigned room. Soon enough Sam spotted the numbers 110 like the women at the counter had told her earlier and as Sam walked closer to your room her legs started to come to a stop while Tara felt her older sister’s grip on her hand tighten.

The sudden resistance from Sam causes Tara to turn around and look at her while Sam stands there in the hallway feeling sick to her stomach because she’s afraid to see what state you're in, afraid to see you hooked up to a bunch of machines like her sister once was, and ultimately afraid to see what Ghost Face had turned you into in her absence away. “I’m here with you Sam,” Tara says to her older sister as she gives Sam’s hand a squeeze making Sam look down at her. “Let’s see how Y/n is doing. I’m sure she is waiting for us to see her” Tara says to encourage Sam while Kirby takes a seat outside of your assigned room before looking over at the Carpenter sisters and getting back up as she watches Tara guide Sam into your room.

“Let’s clear the room guys” Chad says wiping a tear from his eye before walking out of the room to take a seat in the hallway. 

“Stay strong Y/n” Mindy says quietly to you before silently walking out of the room to join her brother while Ethan stands in the far corner of the room ringings his hands, not sure of what to say to you while he watches Sam and Tara walk up to your bed.

To Sam’s surprise you were not hooked up to too many machines making her release a heavy sigh of relief that she didn’t even know she was holding as she watched her little sister approach you. “H-Hey Y/n” she heard her sister say to you as Tara started to tear up “I-I’m so sorry Y/n for being so mean and for accusing you” she apologizes as she takes her hand from her sister to put it in yours. “You are not like Amber or Richie. I was just afraid of people getting close to my sister…I didn’t want either of us to get hurt again” Tara continues as she said the rest of her thoughts in a whisper to you while wiping her tears but the beginning of her sentence didn’t go unheard.

In the corner where Ethan stood, his ears perk up at the sound of Richies name as his eyes scanned the room before settling on Tara. He watches closely at her form, looking her up and down with such intensity that he can almost witness her brutal end imagining her squirming beneth him while he looks down at her, while Tara looks around for help only to see her friends dead on the floor while he let Sam watch as he puts his knife to Tara’s throat. But the murderous act he imagined in his head stops when Sam’s knuckles hit the rim of your bed bringing him back to reality and from the corner of his eye he can see Sam slowly reaching for your blanket. He could tell she was curious about your wound and he slowly smirked because he really wants Sam to see what horrors he can do, like an art director admiring his work but his smirk drops because Sam can’t bring herself to see it or touch you almost as if you would break under her finger tips.

“You want to say anything to her, Sam?” Tara asks her older sister while watching Sam fix your blanket making it neat like she never touched it at all before shaking her head quietly and walking out of the room to join the twins. But Tara stayed with you for a minute before she kissed your forehead for Sam and giving your hand a gentle squeeze for herself before leaving your room to join her sister.

When Tara joined her family in the hallway Kirby started asking questions. “Okay can any one of you recall what happened to my little sister while I was at work?” Kirby asks calmly, looking at everyone in front of her and not just at Sam who feels solely responsible for your current state. “You guys have to give me something before my partner calls asking for answers and a superior ready to rip me” and while they converse with each other to get to the bottom of what actually happened to you, Ethan approaches your bed.

As Ethan walks around your bed to be on the side where he wounded you, your heart rate picks up as the heart monitor made a light beeping sound as if you can sense a bad aura in your presence before your heart rate went on like normal and he noticed this. Ethan gives your state a light smile because he feels content with where you are but he couldn’t deny that he had it bad for you as he tried in the beginning to get you to laugh at his antics or show off his muscles to you with Chad in the gym but he hated that you always searched for Sam and Tara whenever you two were hanging out. “Oh Y/n, I am so happy I didn’t kill you right away even though I really really want to” he says to you causing your heart rate to pick up again, making him smile a little more as he leans toward your head. “But you see your role is, in my script at least, is a little important for several reasons. You want to know why? Because with you out of the picture..”he whispers as your heart rate picked up more as he got closer to your ear “Your friends are lost without you especially Sam which means I can easily kill them with their guard down even with her fuck buddy Danny in the apartment.”

“I left Ethan with Y/n last so maybe he might know” Sam says to Kirby, and as Ethan got done with what he wanted to say to you Sam notices your heart monitor going off which causes her to get up to attend to you while Mindy follows.

“Hey shy and dorky!” Mindy yells at Ethan making him jump without a warning before turning around. 

“Yeah? What’s up?” Ethan says innocently to her as he put his hand over his chest briefly before watching Sam walk past Mindy so she can see why your heart monitor is acting up.

“Get your ass out here so we can discuss what happened with Y/n” Mindy says, trying to get Ethan away from you so Sam can have a bit of your time and it works.

While Ethan is engaged in a conversation with Kirby and the rest of the gang Sam approaches your side before looking over her shoulder at her family. Then her eyes followed the beeping sound to the heart monitor in the room before looking at you so Sam brought down the bed rail so she could sit next to you on the bed making sure she sat away from your torso. As she slowly sits down Sam looks over at the heart monitor again noticing how it's not going off like it did before, it's steady like it should be, she looks over at you and for a moment Sam smiles at you as she tries to hold back her own tears. Sam is comforted by the fact that her presence makes you feel safe but it doesn’t take away from the fact that she feels this deep sense of guilt for what happened to you because Sam feels like she should have known that Ghost Face would go after you eventually since you’ve been there for her and her family. In fact Sam can remember the many times you’ve saved her and her family’s asses like in the bodega where you pushed the shelves into Ghost Face so her and Tara can run, when you had let Mindy and Anika go over the ladder first, where you caught her from falling to her death in front of Danny’s apartment window, and when you went to save Gale from Ghost Face and somehow remembered some medical technique from a show you both watched months ago to cover her wounds. Sam sees you as her hero and her equal someone Sidney Prescott could never be despite their circumstances and that very realization makes Sam’s heart swell that the very feeling makes her cry a little.

“Hey Sam?” Chad calls, making Sam quickly wipe her eyes to look at him.

“What’s up Chad?” Sam responds looking at him as her brows furrow wondering why Chad seems uneasy so she scans the hallway through the windows of your room to see that the rest of her family looks the same way before getting up. However, before Sam leaves your side she pulls up the bed rails so you won’t fall off the bed knowing she would have to leave your side for the night considering what time it is. After pulling up the rails for you Sam walks over by the door to your room and leans against the door frame crossing her arms as she gives everyone a tired look “What?” Sam questions.

“Bro tell Sam what you told us,” Chad says trying to encourage Ethan to speak up as Sam scans the faces of her immediate family noticing how her little sister looks mad at Ethan while Mindy looks like she’s going over information as her eyes darted across the floor before looking up at Kirby who had her back towards the group and then at Ethan.

“First hear me out, Sam. I think Y/n is Ghost Face” He says ripping a groan out of Mindy, Tara, and your sister in law Kirby while Chad looks stressed about the information and when Tara looks over at Sam she thought she would see daggers being thrown at Ethan but to her surprise Sam seemed unbothered. “While I was with Y/n at her apartment the lights in the building went out and she made this grand plan to go to the basement to get the power on so she handed me a flashlight and a taser while she had a bat and a knife on her. Then we leave her apartment to go down to the basement and she jokingly threatens me with her knife saying she would tell Chad that I had abandoned her down in the basement” Ethan says in disbelief that you would even do that making Sam look over her shoulder at you eventually looking over at Ethan while Chad is eating this information up.

“Listen I know that I can be dramatic but get to the point already Ethan” Mindy says aloud looking at Ethan briefly before Chad tapped her shoulder giving her a look that says ‘He’s getting there, calm down’. 

“SO I got to the breaker to turn it on thinking that Y/n is with me and when I turned around she wasn’t there so I assumed she went back to the entrance of the basement before I blacked out. When I woke up next Chad was checking if I had a pulse before looking around the basement” Ethan finished his thought. Ethan’s story causes Kirby to turn around and look at Sam while Sam looks over her shoulder again to look at you for a little longer before looking back at Ethan again because to her something about his story doesn’t add up.

Before she could ask any questions, however, a nurse walks by the hallway to tell everyone that the visiting hours are done for the night and to go home with the exception of Kirby staying back to watch over you while Ethan and the Core 4 went back to Danny’s apartment. The whole night was quiet, no one spoke a word, not even Danny himself as he read the room which he found unsettling. When it was time for bed everyone took residence in the living room. Ethan settles by sleeping near the window, Chad settles near his roommate, Mindy settles by one end of the couch, and the Carpenter sisters settle in the middle of the living room right before the TV. But they never went to sleep because everyone had something keeping them up. For instance, Chad was wondering how you could be Ghost Face when you were a sweet golden retriever like him and Anika, Mindy was thinking about the live video feed of you that Ghost Face sent Sam on the way over to your apartment, Tara who has snuggled up to her sister was thinking about how your last moments might have played out, and Sam well she couldn’t sleep knowing you weren’t near her in someway.

While the Core 4 knows you're not dead, they are still restless because you aren't physically in the apartment with them. In fact little did you know that you play an important role in their family dynamic because they placed you in a place that isn't necessarily a parent figure like Sam who just wanted to be there for her sister or a friend how you initially planned to be but perhaps a combination of the two.

A family dynamic that Ethan plans to prey on in the best possible ways, knowing that your lack of presence in the apartment might possibly be the Core 4's downfall. Ethan is hoping that your wounds are severe enough that you don't wake up anytime soon in the hospital to save your friends.

Chapter 1  Chapter 2  Chapter 2.5  Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 4.5  Chapter 5 Chapter 5.5 Chapter 6 Chapter 6.5 Chapter 7 Chapter 7.5 Chapter 8 Chapter 8.5 Chapter 9 (Chapter 9.5 Coming Soon)

Stay in my mentions crew: @daddy-carpenter @lummaland @screechcat @grandpatrolnut @octaviasnextmeatcube @fanboy7794 @werewolfbansheelove

Scream 6 : A Love so Understanding Playlist

[gretahayes]

literally nobody fucking asked but here's my idea for a core four repair shop au.

they're young adults, like 21, and are out to forge their own paths as heroes and stuff. they're back together as a team—the four of them, again and always—and go to a quiet town with minimal, if any, other hero activity. tim's a city boy, but he makes the commute to the nearest city to get resources and stuff, and they've got a zeta back to gotham since everyone else can fly/has superspeed to get back to their cities.

they buy a nice house tucked away, get it soundproofed, and decide to renovate it themselves despite tim quite literally begging them to let him pay for someone else to do it.

while making a mess of the renovation, they find a quaint little shop for sale and are enamored by it, so they (read; Tim) buy it, and set up a shop, because hey, why not, and they put their plentiful skills together and make a repair shop.

(it's got no name, because they couldn't think of one, but they call it the fixing shop. locals call it that too, and when anyone needs something fixed, they take it to the fixing shop)

what does it repair? well, everything.

that's not a joke. if you broke anything, there's at least one of them that can fix it. from cars to metalwork to tech to dolls, if it's fixable, they can fix it.

the shop's a mismatch of several different workstations, an interior designer's worst nightmare, but it's cosy. homey.

there's general prices in their heads but like none of them are really doing this for the money? so it varies based on circumstances and how hard the job is.

if a kid comes in crying with a broken toy, cassie fixes it and accepts whatever the kid can pay for payment—if nothing, she does it for free. some snobby asshole comes in wanting to fix the expensive car they crashed while drunk driving and kon fixes it, sure, but the bill comes up to close to a million. and kon's sort of the only one that can fix it this well? so the person just pays and leaves, fuming. a distressed college kid comes in with a cracked to hell laptop but they can't afford another one and tim makes it good as new—the several, several parts he replaced make sure of that, like seriously it's barely the same laptop anymore—for ten bucks. he refuses to be paid any more. a nervous teenager comes in with a ripped dress, bart stitches it expertly well—and expertly fast—and charges fifty cents.

locals wonder about their scars, wonder about where their families are, wonder about the visitors they get, wonder how they have so many skills, but the core four just smile and say "trade secret"

if you come at the right time, kon's pulling a fresh batch of pastries or cakes or various other sweets from the oven and he hands them out. they're ma's recipe, made with love and all, so of course they're delicious.

cassie's finishing university locally, her mom wanted her to, bart and kon do it online, so their working hours are a bit odd. but they did accelerated classes and busted their asses to graduate a year early, so they're really proud of themselves.

tim finds ways to occupy himself.

it may or may not be a hotspot for supernatural activity, but they made friends with the creatures so it's fine

when cissie needs a break she comes to stay with them and everyone's happy. sometimes anita carves out time to spend in their peaceful little safe haven, and greta comes and goes when she has the time.

it's almost sickeningly domestic. sometimes after a fight they stumble home bleeding and sweaty and hurt, but happy.

[angel-gidget]

DC Plot Bunnies on my Brain

Time-traveling Kon talks to his younger self about Tana Moon. I’ve been exploring the 90’s Superboy corner of fandom lately, and boy do those guys have some thoughts about Tana Moon. Muy negative.

I think an adult Kon who had a chance to talk to his younger self might also be able to express some criticism of Tana, but he would not be harsh about it. I think he would still view his younger self as having a lot of agency, and he would still remember how much he loved her.

So how do you explain to your younger self that the current “love of their life” isn’t actually good for them? Very veeerry gently.

Kon bed-hopping fic. I actually started this one over a year ago and have snippets of it on my hard drive. Basically, after the Gemworld and multiversal hopping, Kon has a paranoia about being alone, and he doesn’t have a place to stay. (I wrote this before reading about the Kents remembering him after all, so this is written with the assumption that he has nowhere to go.)

So Young Justice takes turns housing him. And then the sleepovers end up being a pretty effective way of catching up with old friends like the core four and getting to know the new ones like Amy, Naomi, and Jinny.

Kon/Lophi slow-burn. In my current Kon fic, I imply that if YJ had showed up later than they had, Kon would have felt duty-bound to stay on the Gemworld to raise baby Martha. I could write a story exploring that as well as his and Lophi’s relationship. However, core four fuzzies would still be involved, bc the team would 100% find a way to visit Kon on the regular if he were stuck in another dimension.

Kon/Amy slow-burn. Set after the YJ multiverse hopping storyline. With no way to return to the Gemworld, Kon and Amy are left to mourn it together. This leads to bonding. Amy does, however, have some experience with going between worlds and have some coping mechanisms to offer Kon. In turn, he’s able to make her feel more at home with the team.

Amy Winston character exploration via Young Justice. There is a LOT to explore. For one thing, Amethyst was never a very character-driven comic, so there’s a lot of scenarios where I have no clue what Amy would do. So I gotta start writing to find out.

In her own 80’s title, Amy can go back and forth between being confidently heroic and remembering that she’s a scared kid. Part of that was the physical transformation she would go through. Turning into a physically 20-something a la Shazam made her feel more confident. But she doesn’t have that trait in YJ continuity.

So maybe her magic is the key? In the 80’s series, Amy’s magic was very strong on the Gemworld, but would fade to nothing when she crossed over to Earth.

So what if in this Wonder Comics YJ ‘verse, her magic is fading away slowly while she’s stuck on Earth and that gradually eats at her confidence? What if she does bond with the core four, but then becomes scared to tell them that the thing that (in her mind) makes her a superhero is fading away?

Post-Mini Series Amethyst story. I have a very detailed write-up of this in my drafts. I was very frustrated with Amy being turned into, like, a Gemworld deity thing at the end of her OG series. But I write out a plot taking place after it that would allow me to really come to terms with it and have fun with where the characters are at that point. Might post the outline later. Basically makes Amy, Young Princess Emerald, and Donal (Topaz and Turquoise’s son) all co-protagonists.

Tim/Cassie detective competition. In a (fairly recent?) Wonder Woman storyline, Cassie referred to herself as a detective, and asked for time to investigate the murder of Hypolyta. What if that had consequences? What if there is some kind of, idk, Teen Detective Competition and maybe Donna enters Cassie’s into it bc she thinks she’d be into it?

Of course, Tim has entered but only because he sees it as chance to get close to someone else he’s actually investigating. But as soon as he sees that Cassie is one of the entrants things get… genuinely competitive for both of them. And then the trash-talking somehow turns into flirting when neither of them were paying attention?

Tim/Cassie preboot Identity Exploration. Cassie is reveling in having Kon and Bart back from the dead. She and Kon are “just friends” now, and tho a lil’ awkward, it’s still good. But a few passing comments between the three of them lead Cassie to realize that some of the things she knows about Tim’s civilian identity are contradictory.

She begins to obsess a bit. After all, Tim was her main support through OYL and other hells, so shouldn’t she know him better than anyone?

Meanwhile, she is utterly failing to make a go of her “Drusila” identity. When Tim hears about that, he offers to help. And as Tim teaches Cassie how to be someone else, he ends up revealing things about himself that clarify some of those contradictions that stumped her earlier.

Tim/Greta set during 90's YJ. Steph gets frustrated with Tim's lecturing and breaks up with him. Secret sees this as an opportunity, and shoots her shot. Tim has had an insane day and decides "ok, why not?" Queue their relationship subtly changing events throughout the YJ and Robin series.

[cowandcalf]

Hawaii Five-0 - Pilot

The transformation of Steve’s facial expression from the moment he steps foot onto Hawaii for the first time in 10 years up to when he hangs out with his new team after they solved their first crime as the new Governor‘s task force.

BONUS:

Smiling at Danny. . .

[awhitehead17]

Day by Day - Chapter 8

Chapter preview:

Up until the afternoon his mood has been on and off all day. Sometimes he would be feeling foul and other times he would be feeling at ease and content. Tim wouldn’t be able to say why that is, it’s just how the mood swings have hit him throughout the morning for no apparent reason. He tries to not think about it too much or else he’s going to give himself a headache and he doesn’t want to be dealing with that.

At lunchtime Cassie somehow managed to find him as he had been coming out of class and proceeded to drag him to the canteen. Not in the mood to protest, and not really wanting to anyway, Tim allowed her to do so and soon enough he found himself surrounded by the usual group.

Bart had about five different snacks surrounding him and he was eating each one separately before trying out different combinations between them. Jamie, whose sitting next to him, watched with obvious disgust and often remarked on the situation in Spanish. Cassie was absorbed in her phone for majority of the time. Tim ended up helping Greta revise for an upcoming quiz, the poor girl was a panicking mess so Tim offered to go through questions and answers with her.

[yourelosingains]

core four this, core four that, but what about the core seven?

[vinyhaaa]

The main four after still being the best fighters even going toe to toe with the most skilled dojo 🗣‼️

[dazaistabletop]

BSD Season 5 Promotional Poster

(Plus a screenshot from the PV)

[lemongogo]

ahyways hi . liteally hey .whats up

[plutoslvr]

nobody understands how much fondness i have for young justice (comics) im going to go insane

[sovamurka]

Bubble Comics released a new VK sticker pack! This time it's Exlibrium-themed so prepare yourself for a big dose of little shadows and extremely hilarious reactions made by Lilya, Nightingale, Inga and Sasha!

[gretahayes]

Gun to your head, rec some good core four fics that doesn’t bastardize any of their characters

They go to a gala

Tim goes back to high school

General team shenanigans part 1 and 2

Anddd The yj fic Ever

[colorisbyshe]

every time we get close to escaping this piece of shit it keeps extending itself 😭 fucking end it so fans can hate the ending and let it go

i want to stop hearing about it

[cospinol]

oh my goddddddddd… my dream came true, they added the kei sha backstory omake to his death scene this episode ;_;…….

.. with the framing modified because it’s from his pov instead!!!!!! ;___; first portion of the flashback (which is positioned as a memory of ri boku’s in a little anime-original sequence at the very beginning of the episode, where he’s somehow…??? receiving real-time news about kei sha’s forces getting caught in kan ki’s trap. from his manor in kantan…) follows the omake identically, but as for the second part that’s placed directly after shin’s blow comes down in the anime… this is what that sequence looks like in the manga:

but in the anime these are the angles we see:

it’s ri boku as kei sha saw him & his proposal as kei sha heard it, instead ;__________; just absolutely as perfect as it gets, this is even more than what i could’ve hoped for for this scene thank you ;____; i went into the episode reasonably hopeful that we *would* get this like I’ve been talking about for months, just because s4 made time to include relevant omake content for both sei kyou and shi haku in the lead-up to their respective deaths, but this execution is so thoughtful and sweet for him, I don’t think I’ll ever recover ;_;

of course the other thing that makes this episode really sweet (as it needs to be to prepare your palate for next week’s campaign progress) is what a truly just victory this is for shin ;_; kei sha is a sincerely-met opponent who he can cross blades with on level footing and who’s aiming for his position amongst zhao’s three greats with a similar respect for the station and earnest desire for martial glory as shin is for the rank of great general, and this battle is a Proper one that you can actually relish winning as an earnest, straightforward martial victory, appropriate to the image you’re trying to live up to…

.. which is as good as it is because, of course, that’s not going to be the thing that wins this campaign at all. same goes for kyou kai, whose victory against ryuu tou and subsequent promise to him to protect the people of rigan (oh, and of course she returns his doll. ;_;…) takes it even a step further:

kyou kai has been engaging with the problem of waging warfare in this region at all significantly more directly than shin has, and significantly more directly has come to the conclusion that it’s a soldier’s duty to keep military activities like this as clean and honourable as possible, finally reaffirming her desire to protect the people as she comes to terms with her similarity to and sympathy for ryuu tou in his final moments here. and all of that is, if anything at all, even for the worse, shin’s clean victory and ryuu tou’s death just galvanize ki sui’s will to fight..

prolonging the campaign towards Kan Ki’s Next Step. it wasn’t about meeting kei sha or ki sui or anyone else in honest battle at all, lol. it’s literally time for Real Koku You Amethyst next week!!!!!!

[toskarin]

I don't think getting four hours of sleep, served in two hour (interrupted) split-cour format, necessarily gives you weirder dreams. but if I'm any sort of impromptu test subject for this exciting new high concept sleep experience, it did make me remember a weird number of completely indecipherable dreams overlaid on top of each other. so it might just work for you