#flights from Calgary to the US | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

Text

California to smash prison e-profiteers

On Weds (May 10), I’m in Vancouver for a keynote at the Open Source Summit and a book event for Red Team Blues at Heritage Hall and Thu (May 11), I’m in Calgary for Wordfest.

It’s a double-whammy that defines 21st century American life: a corporation gets caught doing something terrible, exploitative or even murderous, and a government agency steps in — only to discover that there’s nothing it can do, because Reagan/Trump/Clinton/Bush I/Bush II deregulated that industry and stripped the agency of enforcement powers.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/08/captive-audience/#good-at-their-jobs

Man, that feels awful. The idea that extremists gutted our democratically accountable institutions so that there’s nothing they can do, no matter how egregious a corporation’s conduct is so demoralizing. Makes me feel like giving up.

But the law is a complex and mysterious thing. Regulators aren’t actually helpless. There are authorities, powers and systems that the corporate wreckers passed over, failed to notice, or failed to neuter. Take Section 5 of the FTC Act, which gives the Commission broad powers to prevent “unfair and deceptive” practices. Since the 1970s, the FTC just acted like this didn’t exist, even though it was right there all along, between Section 4 and Section 6.

Then, under the directorship of FTC chair Lina Khan, Section 5 was rediscovered and mobilized, first to end the practice of noncompete “agreements” for workers nationwide:

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/antitrust-enforcers-to-ban-indentured

A new breed of supremely competent, progressive regulators are dusting off those old lawbooks and figuring out what powers they have, and they’re using those powers to Get Stuff Done. It’s like that old joke:

Office manager: $75 to kick the photocopier?

Repair person: No, it’s $5 to kick the photocopier, $70 to know where to kick it.

There’s a whole generation of expert photocopier-kickers in public life, and they’ve got their boots on:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

This is the upside of technocracy — where you have people who are appointed to do good things, and who want to do good things, and who figure out how to do good things. There are dormant powers everywhere in law. Remember when Southwest Air stranded a million passengers over Christmas week and Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg responded by talking sternly about doing better, but without opening any enforcement actions against SWA?

At the time, Buttigieg’s defenders said that was all he could do: “Pete isn’t the boss of Southwest’s IT department, you know!” He’s not — but he is in possession of identical powers to the FTC to regulate “unfair and deceptive” practices, thanks to USC40 Section 41712(a), which copy-pastes the language from Article 5 of the FTC Act into the DOT’s legislative basis:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

The failures of SWA were a long time coming, and were driven by the company’s shifting of costs from shareholders to employees and fliers. SWA schedules many flights for which they have no aircraft or crew, and when the time to fly those jets comes, the company simply cancels the emptiest flights. This is great for SWA’s shareholders, who don’t have to pay for fuel and crew for half-empty planes — but it’s terrible for crew and fliers.

What’s more, selling tickets for planes that don’t exist is plainly unfair and deceptive. A good photocopier-kicker in charge of the DOT would have arrived with a “first 100 days” plan that included opening hearings into this practice, as a prelude to directly regulating this conduct out of existence, averting the worst aviation scheduling crisis in US history. That’s what Buttigieg’s critics wanted from him: a competent assessment of his powers, followed by the vigorous use of those powers to protect the American people.

One domain that’s been in sore need of a photocopier-kicker for years is prison tech. America (“the land of the free”) incarcerates more people than any nation in the history of the world — more than the USSR, more than China, more than Apartheid-era South Africa.

For corporate prison profiteers, those prisoners are a literal captive audience, easy pickings for gouging on telephone calls, books, music, and food. For years, companies like Securus have been behind an incredibly imaginative array of sadistic tactics that strip prisoners of the contact, education and nutrition that governments normally provide to incarcerated people, and then sells those prisoners and their families poor substitutes for those necessities at markups that cost many multiples of the equivalent services in the free world.

Think of prisons that reduce the amount of food served to sub-starvation levels, then sell food at high markups in the prison commissary. For prisoners whose families can afford commissary fees, this is merely extortion. But for prisoners who don’t have anyone to top up their commissary accounts, it’s literal starvation.

This is the shape of every prison profiteer’s grift: take something vital away and then sell it back at a massive markup, dooming the prisoners who can’t afford it. The most obvious way to gouge prisoners is by charging huge markups for phone calls. Prisoners who can afford to pay many dollars per minute can stay in touch with their families, while the rest rot in isolation.

In 2015, the FCC tried to halt this practice, passing an order capping the price of calls, but in 2017, the DC District Court struck down the order, ruling that the FCC couldn’t regulate in-state call tariffs, which are the majority of prison calls:

https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/0/C62A026B396DD4C78525813E004F3BC5/%24file/15-1461-1679364.pdf

This was a bonanza for prison profiteers. Companies like Jpay (now a division of Securus) cranked up the price of prisoners’ calls. At the same time, dark-money lobbying campaigns urged prisons to get rid of their in-person visitation programs in the name of “safety”:

https://www.mic.com/articles/142779/the-end-of-prison-visitation

Not just visitation: prisons shuttered their libraries and banned shipments of letters, cards and books — again, in the same of “safety.” Jpay an its competitors stepped in with “free tablets” — cheap, badly made Chinese tablets. Instead of checking out books from the prison library or having them mailed to you by a friend or family member, prisoners had to buy DRM-locked ebooks at many multiples of the outside world price (these same prices were slapped on public domain books ganked from Project Gutenberg):

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2018/07/24/no-cost-contract/

Instead of getting letters and cards from your family members and friends, you had to pay to look at scans of them, buying “virtual stamps” that had to accompany every page (they even charged by the “page” for text messages):

https://www.wired.com/story/jpay-securus-prison-email-charging-millions/

Enshittification is my name for service-decay, where companies that have some kind of lock-in make things worse and worse for their customers, secure in the knowledge that they’ll keep paying because the lock-in keeps them from leaving. When your customers are literally locked in (that is, behind bars), the enshittification comes fast and furious.

Securus/Jpay and its competitors found all kinds of ways to make their services worse, like harvesting recordings of their calls to produce biometric voice-prints that could be used to track prisoners after they were released:

https://theintercept.com/2019/01/30/prison-voice-prints-databases-securus/

Of course, once the prison phone-carriers started harvesting prisoners’ phone calls, it was inevitable that they would leak those calls, including intimate calls with family members and privileged calls with lawyers:

https://www.aaronswartzday.org/securedrop-prisoner-data/

Prison-tech companies know they can extract huge fortunes from their captive audience, so they are shameless about offering bribes (ahem, “profit-sharing”) to prison authorities and sheriffs’ offices to switch vendors. When that happens, prisoners inevitably suffer, as happened in 2018, when Florida state prisons changed tech providers and wiped out $11.8m worth of prisoners purchased media — every song prisoners had paid for:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/08/captive-audience-how-floridas-prisons-and-drm-made-113m-worth-prisoners-music

As bad as these deals are for prisoners, they’re great for jailers, who are personally and institutionally enriched by prison-tech giants. This is textbook corruption, in which small groups of individuals are enriched while vast, diffuse costs are extracted from large groups of people. Naturally, the deals themselves are swathed in secrecy, and public records requests for their details are met with blank, illegal refusals:

https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2018/may/25/laramie-county-prison-phones/

The “shitty technology adoption curve” predicts that technological harms that are first visited upon prisoners and other low-privilege people will gradually work its way up the privilege gradient:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/29/impunity-corrodes/#arise-ye-prisoners

Securus powered up the Shitty Tech Adoption Curve. They don’t just spy on and exploit prisoners — they leveraged that surveillance empire into a line of product lines that touch us all. Securus transformed their prisoner telephone tracking business into an off-the-books, warrantless tracking tool that cops everywhere use to illegally track people:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/technology/cellphone-tracking-law-enforcement.html

In other words, our jails and prisons are incubators that breed digital pathogens that infect all of us eventually. It’s past time we got in the exterminators and flushed out those nests.

That’s where California’s new photocopier-kickers come in. Like many states, California has a Public Utility Commission (PUC), which regulates private companies that provide utilities, like telecoms. That means that the state of California can reach into every jail and prison in the state and grab the prison profiteers by the throats and toss ’em out the window.

Writing in The American Prospect, Kalena Thomhave does an excellent job on the technical ins-and-outs of calling on PUCs to regulate prison-tech, both in California and in other states where PUCs haven’t yet been neutered or eliminated by deregulation-crazed Republicans:

https://prospect.org/justice/2023-05-08-california-prison-phone-calls-free/

Thomhave describes how California’s county sheriffs have waxed fat on kickbacks from the prison-tech sector: “for example, the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office receives 25 percent of GTL/ViaPath’s gross revenue on video calls made from tablets.” Small wonder that sheriffs offices lobby against free calls from jail, claiming that prisoners’ phone tariffs are needed to fund their operations.

It’s true that the majority of this kickback money (51%) goes into “inmate welfare funds,” but these funds don’t have to go to inmates — they can and are diverted to “maintenance, salaries, travel, and equipment like security cameras.”

But limiting contact between prisoners and their families in order to pay for operating expenses is a foolish bargain. Isolation from friends and family is closely linked to recidivism. If we want prisoners to live productive lives after their serve their time, we should maximize their contact with the outside, not link it to their families’ ability to spend 50 times more per minute than anyone making a normal call.

The covid lockdowns were a boon to prison-tech profiteers, whose video-calling products were used to replace in-person visits. But when pandemic restrictions lifted, the in-person visits didn’t come back. Instead, jails continued to ban in-person visits and replace them with expensive video calls.

Even with new power, the FCC can’t directly regulate this activity, especially not in county jails. But PUCs can. Not every state has a PUC: ALEC, the right-wing legislation factory, has pushed laws that gut or eliminate PUCs across the country:

https://alec.org/model-policy/telecommunications-deregulation-policy-statement/

But California has a PUC, and it is gathering information now in advance of an order that could rein in these extractive businesses and halt the shitty tech adoption curve in its tracks:

https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M478/K075/478075894.PDF

That’s some top-notch photocopier-kicking, right there.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[Image ID: A prison cell. Behind the bars is the bear from the California state flag. There is an old-fashioned telephone headset near his ear, such that he appears to be making a call.]

45 notes · View notes

eyeslikewatercoolers · 1 year ago

Note

Erin, my friend, I think the world needs specifically Kiki/Jackae with "My flight was canceled and I went home to find my ex cheating on me, so now I'm at this pub"

Max, my friend, you are absolutely correct.

I'm doing this one first since this doesn't technically take place during the holiday season. So use your imagination for when this takes place, since it's a prequel to Squirrel's Trip.

Read on ao3

"My flight got canceled, so I went home to find my husband cheating on me with my brother, so now I'm here at this pub."

Kiki stared at her friend blankly as Jackae took another swig of pinot grigio after her rambled speech. All she was planning was to just say hi and then go back to dinner with her family, but now she's in an impromptu therapy session.

Kiki took a deep breath, "Okay, can you start from the beginning? Because that was a lot for me to take in after sitting through my kid's soccer game."

Jackae nodded as she put her empty wine glass down on the bar. "I was supposed to go to my old coworker's wedding, but they're having bad weather in Calgary, so the flight got canceled and they didn't have anything until tomorrow," she explained as she took a quick break to eat a fry from her plate before continuing.

"I texted my husband to let him know what happened and I was getting a ride home from Grace. He never texted me back, and I found him in our bed with my brother. So I screamed at them to get out of my house, and now I'm here." she shrugged apathetically.

"Wow, Jackae. That's...that's a lot." Kiki said. She wasn't sure how else to comfort her friend. " I'm sorry to hear that." she put a comforting hand on Jackae's shoulder.

The other woman shrugged, "I have no idea what I'm supposed to do now." The bartender refilled her wine glass as she took a sip of the provided water. "It kinda feels like I should have known it was coming, but it just came out of nowhere."

Kiki tried to sit up a little straighter, hoping to appear more like the put-together friend that Jackae needed right now. "Well if there's anything that you need, just let me know. I'm here for you right now," she said, taking a glance at her family at the table across the dining room.

Her husband was staring at the waitress's cleavage and her sons were still stuffing their faces of the chicken strips they ordered. She didn't think they needed her right now.

Jackae hopped off the bar stool and took another quick sip of wine. "I need to pee, I'll be right back," she said before navigating her way to the restrooms.

With her friend gone, Kiki looked around at the pub around her. Families and groups of friends were all chatting and eating, giving life to an otherwise mundane weekday evening.

Kiki felt so busy keeping up with her kid's extracurricular activities and sports games. All that and keeping up with making sure her husband is happy and all the staff is paid, she never gets a chance to have any time out with her friends.

She watched the mounted television in the corner of the room that was playing a hockey game. The channel went on a commercial break, showing different ads for upcoming shows and restaurant specials. But the last commercial that played was the one that attracted much more of her attention.

"Come stay with us at the Golden Beaver Resort! Here we have invigorating pilates classes, a relaxing spa, daily black-and-white parties, and trips on a private yacht! Rooms are booking up fast, so call now for a special rate. The Golden Beaver Resort LLC is not responsible for any causes of injury, death, or infidelity that may occur on our properties. Rooms booked through third-party sellers may not be eligible for a full refund. We'll see you there!"

The commercial had lively instrumental music, and attractive looking actors as guests and staff members. The resort looked beautiful, with private lake access and spacious rooms. Then she had thought of the perfect thing that her heartbroken friend needed, how she can help.

As Kiki ignored the last part of the commercial, she excitedly spotted Jackae coming back from the restrooms. She had the perfect idea that was going to help not just Jackae, but all her friends.

"I know what you need!" she said while beaming a smile as Jackae got back onto the barstool.

"What's that? A divorce?" she asked as she settled back on the chair, picking up her glass again.

"No, you need-" Kiki stopped herself for a moment, "Well, that too since your husband is a cheating asshole. But you need a vacation!"

Jackae looked away from her wine glass and stared at Kiki after hearing her suggestion, "I just caught my husband cheating on me and you are telling me to just go on a vacation?"

"Well, yeah I am suggesting that," Kiki said, trying to defend her recommendation. "Dwelling on this isn't going to make the problem go away. Maybe spending some time away could help you relax."

Jackae tilted her head in thought, "It's not an awful idea, but who would go on a vacation with a miserable divorcee like me?"

"I'll go." Kiki immediately said. "And we can see if Amber and Ronnie are free. I'm sure Grace won't say no to planning our trip, either," she added.

"Huh," Jackae said as she thought for a moment. "I guess we can also invite my sister too so she can have a break from her fabulous life," she said sarcastically.

"Oooh! Jill would love to go too!" Kiki excitedly said, completely missing Jackae's sarcasm. "I'll call everyone in the morning, this is going to be the best vacation ever!" she waved goodbye to her friend as she went back to her family as her husband paid the bill.

Kiki could hardly contain her excitement for the rest of the night. She wanted to give Jackae the vacation she deserved, and nothing was going to stop her from this trip becoming a total disaster.

#vandergerd #jackiki #cdr3 #squirrels trip fic #my fics #my writing #ask prompts #rusical fics

10 notes · View notes

hockeylvr59 · 2 years ago

Text

Honest Love Part 9 || Cale Makar

Requested: [ ] yes [x] no

Authors Note: When Laura and Gary come to town, a bombshell announcement gets dropped and Gary and Cale talk about some other future life changes. This chapter is a good portion of Secret Love Chapter 25 from Laura and Gary's POVs but there's some new stuff in there as well.

Warnings: none / Word Count: 1,940

~~~~

Laura’s POV

Gary had already had to tell her more than once to relax and they hadn’t even reached Denver yet. But Laura couldn’t help but be excited to go down to Denver and spend a week with her eldest son and his girlfriend who was essentially already her daughter. It had been just over two months since they’d made the big move in together and Laura was anxious to see how things were going for them now that they were living together and planning a future.

They were meeting them for dinner and Laura was itching just to hug them both after so long. Thankfully their flight arrived on time and after renting a car, she and Gary headed to their hotel, checking in and getting settled. They each grabbed a quick shower before dressing for dinner and Gary texted Cale to confirm the restaurant.

Arriving at dinner, Laura held Cale and then y/n tightly noting that there was something different about them both. They still looked happy and completely in love and so she attributed the difference to just how they had settled into their relationship continuing to evolve.

When they were standing, Cale had a hand resting on her lower back and when they were seated, she had a hand resting on his knee but otherwise things seemed normal and content.

“Yeah we’ve been talking a little about maybe buying a house.” Hearing her future daughter in law mention that made Laura look between the two of them before looking at her husband who had raised an eyebrow.

Though Cale wasn’t on a long term contract yet, he was eligible to sign one this summer so it wasn’t a complete shock that they were starting to think about putting down roots.

“After all, someone here wants a dog at some point and you guys shouldn’t have to stay in a hotel every time you want to come visit.” No one could deny that her points made sense and so the topic was left at that. With Cale and Gary talking about last night’s game, Laura inquired about what things they might be looking at wanting for Christmas.

With Calgary drama, Taylor drama, and other topics mixed in, dinner passed quickly and it wasn’t long before they were saying good night after making plans to spend tomorrow afternoon at the apartment.

With Cale having practice in the morning, Laura had made Gary take her out for breakfast before the two of them just wandered around Denver a bit, still getting to know the city their son called home now.

On their way to the apartment they stopped and picked up lunch to take over, but when Laura walked into the apartment she could already smell food and could hear Cale banging away in the kitchen.

“You’re dad texted that we were bringing lunch, why are you cooking?”

“Because Y/N wants soup.�� Cale’s reply left her even more confused because Laura knew that they had picked up y/n’s favorite food and that Gary had texted that specifically to Cale.

“But you knew we were bringing one of her favorites.”

“Mom…she wasn’t feeling well this morning okay.” Cale stated with a sigh. “Soup is easy on the stomach, that is not.”

Y/N had looked like she’d felt fine last night so Laura was worried about what could have caused her to wake up feeling ill this morning.

“Is she sick? Cale, why didn’t you tell us? If she’s not feeling well we can go find something else to do.”

“She’s fine now.” Laura should have known her son well enough to pick up on the fact that he was starting to get annoyed but she was too focused on her son’s girlfriend and her wellbeing to notice.

“Seriously Cale, if Y/N isn’t feeling well she should be resting, not having to worry about entertaining us.” As much as they wanted to see them, they could push this off until tomorrow or Thursday when Cale had another practice only day.

“Mom. Relax.” Cale’s tone was forceful but Laura wasn’t about to let it be.

“Cale…we’d rather her rest now and kick whatever this is quicker than…”

“Y/N’s pregnant.” It was stated so bluntly that it didn’t even process fully and Laura gripped the counter as her face morphed into shock and awe.

“What?” She hadn’t even realized she’d spoken until y/n herself appeared, sliding under Cale’s arm and tucking herself against his side. Looking at Cale and then over at y/n again Laura swallowed the lump forming in her throat.

“You’re pregnant?”

Unlike the lump, the tears welled uncontrollably and when y/n nodded and stepped away from Cale for a moment before setting a series of what were unmistakably ultrasound pictures onto the counter, it all slowly started to click into place.

“How do you feel about being a grandma?” Y/N asked and Laura couldn’t remain in place any longer, flying around the island to pull her daughter into a hug. This was something she had dreamed of for years and now it was actually true after everything.

“You’re pregnant. You’re really pregnant.”

“Yeah mom. I’m pregnant.”

“Oh my lord.”

As the tears finally fell at the realization that her baby was having a baby for real this time, Laura couldn’t help but be a little confused. They had only been together for about six months, certainly they hadn’t made the decision to have a baby already…before they’d even gotten engaged.

“This wasn’t planned was it?”

“No, it wasn’t planned.” Her son confirmed, speaking up for the first time since dropping the bombshell news. Remembering all the drama from what seemed like ages ago but was really less than a year, Laura needed confirmation that this time it was a good thing.

“But you’re happy?”

“We’re so happy.” Cale confirmed. “Best surprise ever.” The way her son looked at his girlfriend told Laura that his statement was absolutely the truth and that he couldn’t be more thrilled that they were expecting, even this early on.

“Oh this is so wonderful.” Laura couldn’t help but exclaim. “How far along are you?” Looking down she couldn’t see any evidence of a baby bump yet and if the ultrasound was recent, it was clear that it was still very early on but she needed to know exactly when they were expecting their first grandbaby.

“8 weeks.” Y/N replied. “So still very early but the doctor says everything looks good. We’re due mid-june.” Wiping her tears away, Laura couldn’t help but bounce. Next summer they would have a grandbaby to dote on and love.

Hugging her daughter again, Laura moved to pull Cale into her arms kissing his head. “It’s so much better when it’s with the right person isn’t it?” She whispered to her son.

“Yeah it is.” He agreed, smiling brightly. “It’s a completely different feeling. I can’t wait to be a dad to our little pumpkin.”

“Pumpkin huh?”

“Yeah. Just a little nickname.” The way Cale grinned suggested there was more to the story than that but that he wasn’t really willing to divulge it. Glancing over, Laura saw her husband hugging their future daughter wishing her congratulations. Then he came over and pat Cale on the back sharing a look with him about there being some things they needed to discuss later with this new news.

That could wait though and with Y/N stirring soup that appeared done, Laura was reminded that it was now far past lunchtime and their food was likely well on its way to cold.

As they sat down to eat, Cale looked at his girlfriend before looking back at them requesting that they keep the news of the pregnancy to themselves for now. It was still early, Y/N was in the first trimester and they weren’t ready to make any public announcements yet. Cale added that he was going to tell Taylor when they played in Boston in like 2.5 weeks so even that was off limits. Laura knew that that made sense and she would respect those wishes as hard as it may be to keep it a secret.

“So this is why you’re really looking at buying a house huh?” Gary questioned as they wrapped up lunch causing Cale to shrug.

“I mean yeah. A baby is only going to fit here for so long. They kind of need their own space. And a house would give us privacy and prevent neighbors from having to hear a crying infant. So it’s something we’re discussing.”

Now knowing that it wasn’t going to just be the two of them for much longer, buying a house certainly made a little more sense and Laura and Gary both knew that they would make a choice that was right for them.

+++

Gary’s POV

Having spent the day inside playing games since it was a little too cold outside and Cale didn’t want Y/N doing too much with how easily she got fatigued, his wife suggested that Cale and his dad go out for dinner and she and y/n would have some girl time there.

With there being things he wanted to discuss with Cale now, Gary wasn’t about to turn that down.

He certainly wasn’t about to pull any punches either. As soon as they got into the car, Gary dropped his first big question.

“So…when are you going to put a ring on her finger?”

“Before the baby comes. I just don’t have the details figured out yet.” The speed at which Cale had an answer told Gary that this was something Cale had been thinking about. “I don’t want her to think I’m proposing because of the baby. I mean she shouldn’t because us getting married has always been a when not an if but…I just don’t want there to be any doubt.”

It made sense and Gary certainly couldn’t fault him for that.

“So you’re ready to be a dad?” Gary transitioned.

“Were you ready to be a dad when mom was pregnant with me? Like I know you were older and maybe a bit more established in your relationship and stuff but like caring for a baby were you ready? Because I’m not sure anyone ever really is, but I would do anything for that little clump of cells she’s growing into another human being, I know that.”

It was a rare occasion that Cale was so certain of something but also spoke with such a fond, emotional tinge. If Gary had at all doubted his maturity in handling this he couldn’t any longer and he nodded. He may not have all the answers but at least he knew which ones he was lacking enough to address them.

As Cale pulled into the restaurant parking lot Gary couldn’t help but throw one more comment at his son mostly in jest.

“Just can’t believe in the span of a year you’ve gone through a scare and an actual pregnancy. And I thought I taught you sex ed.”

Shrugging, Cale smirked and replied before climbing out of the car.

“Yeah I mean using condoms probably would have helped but with y/n it was inevitable anyway.”

Maybe he should rethink that maturity thing after all…or at least go smack some sense into Taylor because one grandchild was more than enough for now.

+++

As much as this had come as a shock, both Laura and Gary were certain of one thing, this baby was a blessing and they couldn’t wait to watch Cale and Y/N raise a baby of their own.

#cale makar #cale makar imagine #hockey imagine #hockey imagines #nhl imagines #nhl imagine #colorado avalanche #colorado avalanche imagine #cavalanche #039

48 notes · View notes

allthecanadianpolitics · 10 months ago

Text

A Toronto man’s trip home from Calgary on a Porter Airlines flight was quickly derailed Sunday after he was denied access to the plane because of his power wheelchair, even after he cleared the issue with the airline before his flight. Ken Harrower was set to board the flight at the Calgary International Airport when he was approached by the pilot, who insisted he couldn’t board the flight with his wheelchair due to the batteries it uses. “The pilot decided to not let me board because I cannot disconnect the batteries on my chair,” Harrower told Global News. According to Harrower, the batteries in his chair can’t be disconnected without a trained technician.

Tagging @politicsofcanada @abpoli

#cdnpoli #canada #canadian politics #canadian news #alberta #airlines #air travel #ableism

183 notes · View notes

mightyflamethrower · 10 months ago

Text

The far-left Washington Post is awfully excited about an electric vehicle (EV) driving 20,0000 miles from the Arctic to the South Pole and just as ecstatic to bury the inconvenient facts about this ludicrously dumb legendary trip.

“They drove from the Arctic to the South Pole – in an electric car,” screams the excited headline from one of the most dishonest publications on the planet.

“Scottish adventurers Chris and Julie Ramsey wanted to prove their electric SUV was as rugged and reliable as a conventional car. To do it, they decided to take it on a drive,” the Post reports.

“That drive started in March on the frozen waters of the Arctic Circle near the North Pole. It ended in December, about nine months and approximately 20,000 miles later, at the south pole in Antarctica.”

“The couple … hoped their feat could inspire other adventurers and any consumers considering electric vehicles,” the Post adds. “We could have failed at any moment, for whatever reason, and you just don’t know if you’re going to make it,” Julie Ramsey told the Post. “It just proves that EVs can go the distance.”

Yep, those amazing EVs, currently stuck in what is far from the coldest of cold weather in Chicago, certainly can go the distance. Who wouldn’t want to purchase a battery-powered car capable of driving 20,000 miles in nine months? After all, such a miraculous accom— Wait. According to my public school math, that’s an average of only 80 miles daily.

Hey, maybe 80 miles per day is impressive, considering the harsh environment.

Or maybe not…

As they continued south through Calgary, Alberta, and Vancouver, B.C., before entering Washington state, the couple said they faced another challenge: unreliable charging stations. The Ramseys praised the size and coverage of the electric-vehicle charging network in the United States but said they often encountered stations across the country that weren’t working.

Maybe I’m being too cynical. Maybe averaging 80 miles daily is a way not to rush and enjoy the trip.

Or maybe not…”The Ramseys stopped to sightsee but spent much of their time on the road, nervously watching their speed and battery levels to avoid getting stuck.”

Hey, at least they made it without any special treatment, right?

Or maybe not…

Before the trip, the couple partnered with an energy company, Enel X, to arrange the installation of more than 20 new electric-vehicle charging stations in countries including Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, where they spotted gaps in the coverage of existing stations[.]

But let’s not pick at nits here. The only thing that matters is that no fossil fuels were burned during this trip.

Or maybe not…”The remote location meant the Ramseys couldn’t eschew fossil fuels entirely – they recharged the vehicle using a gas-powered generator[.]”

Do you have any idea how stupid this all is? The Post wants us to believe this is like Charles Lindbergh’s historic non-stop flight from New York to Paris. Well, it’s not. What Lindbergh accomplished improved travel, sped it up, and made it more convenient than it was before, when the only way to cross the Atlantic was on a slow ocean voyage.

EVs do not improve travel. EVs are a step back in convenience, stress levels, and speed. Driving an EV from the Arctic to the South Pole is more like Lindbergh paddling a canoe across the Atlantic. Great job, Lindy, but I believe in progress.

It’s like these stupid high-speed trains. Hey, you can travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in two hours. That’s not progress. I can do that now in an airplane without spending a trillion tax dollars.

An EV that allows you to unplug at home, make your daily commute, and then plug back in at home… That makes sense if you live in a warm climate. An EV for anything is nothing more than an invitation to stress, breakdowns, and inconvenience.

Maybe someday EVs will become more practical, but even then, why? You power the EV battery with electricity generated by fossil fuels. Won’t somebody please explain the upside to me — other than a sense of smuggery included with each Prius?

5 notes · View notes

ya-pucking-nerd · 2 years ago

Text

4 times you ruined his plans and 1 time he ruined yours - c.makar

Hello lovelies! So sorry for the wait! Please enjoy <3333

taggin the moots: @2manytabsopen @jostystyles @typical-simplelove @youngbeezersmixtape @imagines-r-s @fallinallincurls @hockeylvr59

Small note: reader insert is female!

Very big note: this fic contains mentions of pregnancy and surgery and motherhood

Calgary International. Not exactly how you planned to spend your Saturday, but you wanted to be back in Seattle to rest up before you started your job again. You were on your way back from the short 4-day holiday you managed to snag after Christmas and Boxing Day. You stayed with your brother, Michael, and his family of 7. It was nice, but 5 kids are so many kids.

You had gotten anxious about missing the flight, so you arrived at the airport 4 hours early and, fortunately, breezed through security. All that remained was waiting the 3 hours and 52 minutes until your flight officially left the gate. Well, at least you had a book and headphones.

You sat near your gate, still nervous that you might lose track of time and miss the calling of your flight. But you set an alarm for 60 minutes before the flight would leave so that you would have plenty of time to await the calling of flight AIRCAN1442. So, for now, you set your phone aside and pull out your iPod Nano and headphones. Call it old-school, but that thing worked as well as the day you got it. Your current read is a book called It All Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover. You loved it so much, that it was actually a re-read. And apparently, the guy who sat across from you did, too. You noticed him staring, and at first, you thought it was at your book, but the more you thought about it, maybe he was looking at you.

He was cute in a boyish way. Solidly built, but you could tell a lot of it was muscle. He wasn’t dressed like a snobby businessman, but rather a guy who wanted to be comfy on his flight to wherever he was headed, like you.

In a moment of boldness, you closed your book and said, “Where are you off to?” It was small talk, but hey, you still had 3 hours to kill.

“Oh. Me?” He looked stunned that you even looked his way. “I’m headed back to work in Denver, Colorado.”

“Oh, that’s awesome! I work in the states, too. Seattle, Washington.”

“What do you do?” And for once, he seemed genuinely interested, unlike the men you had met at bars.

“I’m a surgical OBGYN.” Now, that might have freaked him out a little.

“Oh wow. Sorry, I’m a little squeamish about blood. But wow. I can’t even imagine. That must be exciting. I hardly remember when my mom was pregnant with my brother, but I just remember my dad said there was a lot of screaming. Do you get screamers all the time?”

Ok. He was absolutely adorable. His cheeks were getting bright red as he asked, aside from the redness you already noticed. Doctor thing.

“I don’t generally do normal births. More like C-sections and stuff. But, yea, there’s always screaming. Occupational hazard, I guess. I’m Y/N.” You reached your hand out.

“Oh, shoot. I didn’t even ask your name. I’m sorry, Y/N. I’m Cale, like the vegetable, but with a C.” He shook your hand a little longer than most handshakes last. He was still smiling, though.

You giggled a little. He probably got that all the time and had become accustomed to introducing himself that way. Further increasing his adorableness.

You guys talked for about 2 hours until Cale checked his watch. “Shit! I missed my flight! Oh my god.”

“Oh my god! I am so sorry! I-“

“Nah,” he interrupted. “You know what. I think everything happens for a reason. I’m glad I met you. I would miss my flight all day to keep talking to you.” He was so sweet. “But I do need to rebook my flight,” he laughed.

“And I do need one more thing.” You looked at him and nodded, silently asking him what that could be. “Your number?”

You had talked to Cale almost every day since you met him. It seemed the two of you would never get the chance to meet up in person. Until Cale texted you on Tuesday.

From: Cale like the vegetable but with a C

“Y/N! I have a game Thursday night in Seattle! There’s a morning skate, but my afternoon would be free. Wanna grab coffee somewhere? You know Seattle better than me :)”

The butterflies in your stomach were uncontainable at this point. You knew you liked him, but you just now realized how big of a crush you had on him.

Frank, the best birthing coach on the floor, popped up in front of you with a smirk on his face.

“Heyyyyy, Y/N.” Ok. He was up to something.

You put your phone down and took the bait. “What’s up, Frank?”

“Who has you smiling at your phone? You haven’t smiled at your phone since Paul from oncology asked you out on a date. That was three years ago, honey. You, you are not subtle.” Caught red-handed. The worst part was that he was right. Super right. You haven’t been on a date for almost three years. You were a devoted doctor, always on-call. Sometimes it ruined your nights out with your coworkers, but half the time, they ended up running to the hospital with you.

“Frank. I- No. It’s nothing.”

Frank smirked before he grabbed your phone and started texting faster than any average human should be able to. It was no use trying to grab it back because Frank was the sneakiest and most agile person you’d ever seen. Frank could probably do more intense gymnastics than Simone Biles if it meant he would keep your phone.

He comes back with your phone and a smirk on his face.

“First date secured, bitch.” And the smirk grows to a smile. “Thursday at 2 at Pike Place.”

You groaned. “Frank! I’m on-call Thursday afternoon!”

“Y/N, chill. Literally, nothing is going to happen. And if it does, I’ll hold them off. It’s just pregnant ladies.” He laughed it off as if giving birth was something you could just hold like your bladder.

You glared at him but were secretly happy he took the initiative instead of you. You would have typed and deleted and re-typed for an hour before answering.

Thursday morning came, and you woke up giddy. You Facetimed Frank to get his opinion on an outfit. He picked the grey sweater dress with a red flannel tied around the waist, calling it “the perfect winter outfit!” Wallet? Check. Keys? Check. Spare scrubs in case you are called in? Unfortunately, check.

Meanwhile, the boys were giving Cale a hard time in the hotel. He was dressed in his suit because after your date, he had to head straight back to the arena for the game. Nate was messing his hair up. JT hid one of his dress shoes. By the time he got out the door, he was more nervous than ever. He wanted to ask you to be his girlfriend. The boys teased him for his crush, but he knew how he felt. You were his dream girl.

You decided to meet at Starbucks. Seattle, after all, was the home of the original Starbucks. When you got there, you found Cale sitting in a booth, looking incredibly good in his suit. You started to doubt your choice in outfit, but it was too late. He saw you. You straightened your dress out and walked over. He stood up, giving you a hug and handed you a latte.

“Cale, you didn’t have to.”

“I know, but I wanted to. I guessed on the latte. I can get you another if you don’t like it.”

“No, it’s actually perfect.” So now the perfect guy already got your coffee order right. It was too good to be true, right?

Things were going so well. The conversation felt so natural, like you were already dating. You found out he was continuing some online classes while playing hockey, he was a type-a neat freak, and he called his mom at least once a week because he loved her. Each thing you learned about him made your crush on him grow.

About an hour and a half into the best first date of your life, your phone buzzed. Inwardly, you prayed that it was just Frank texting you about a funny hospital story. Unfortunately, it was a page. A mom with twins went into labor 6 weeks earlier than her due date. You groaned out loud.

“I have to go. I’m so sorry. Oh, I knew this was going to happen. I’ve been paged to the hospital. A mom needs an emergency c-section. Cale, I’m so sorry.”

“What? Y/N, go! Don’t apologize. I know your career can be a bit unpredictable. It’s no big deal. Go, save the day!” God, he was perfect. You thanked him profusely before rushing out.

An hour later, you were stripping your gown and gloves. You scrubbed and changed before leaving the hospital. The paperwork could wait. You wanted to call Cale before his game to wish him good luck. You truly felt horrible.

Instead, you found a text from Cale.

From: Cale like the vegetable but with a C

Hey, could I have your address? I don’t know how long surgery takes, but it’s probably tiring, and I don’t want you to forget to eat. Dinner’s on me, just need the address for UberEats.

The shock on your face was probably laughable.

From: Y/N Y/L/N

How about I make you dinner? You can come over after your game and I can make up for running out on you? I promise I’m not tired.

From: Cale like the vegetable but with a C

Absolutely! What did you have in mind?

From: Y/N Y/L/N

Pancakes? Feeling some breakfast for dinner.

From: Cale like the vegetable but with a C

Perfect. I’ll see you around 10 :)

You texted him your address and you wished him good luck in his game. Then, you panic cleaned your apartment. It wasn’t extremely messy, but you were a little sloppy this morning when you were getting ready.

At 10:15, you buzzed Cale in. The two of you shared blueberry pancakes and finished your date.

“I’m sorry, again, for running out on our date. Totally bad first date.”

He smiled and grabbed your hand. “Hey, I’m not mad. I swear. I think your job is so cool, and pregnant people going into labor is like the most unpredictable thing I can think of. Besides, I don’t think this date turned out so bad.” His stomach did a cartwheel when you squeezed his hand back.

You smiled back, loving the way he was rubbing your palm. It gave you butterflies.

“Hey, can I ask you something? I was going to ask you at Starbucks, but I think now is better.” Cale asked. You nodded. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

Cale was the most incredible guy on Earth. You had been dating for one year and a month when he finally asked if you would consider moving in with him. His cheeks turned red when he asked you. He said, “I know you love your job, and I would never ask you to quit it. More like a transfer?” about 5 times. He even told you he asked Nate’s girlfriend, Alyssa, about openings at the hospital. For you, the choice was obvious. You had been thinking about making the transfer when you hit your first anniversary. But watching him sweat because he didn’t want you to feel that he thought you should give up your amazing career was probably one of the sweetest things you had ever witnessed him do.

Your transition from Seattle to Denver was smooth as silk. Maybe because Cale organized the whole thing. He was there to help you pack, and he was there to greet the moving trucks when they arrived in Denver. Slowly but surely, your belongings began to infiltrate his house. The spare bedroom became your storage until the two of you sat down to figure out all the things you could give away. Your seasonal throw pillows decorated his couch, and the smell of your perfume lingered on Cale’s bedsheets.

Cale played the best he ever had the day you finally came to see a home game in person. And it didn’t go unnoticed. The girls you sat with giggled all 4 times Cale assisted a goal and skated over to your section with a toothy grin and a point into the crowd. You assumed the boys were chirping him, too. And when he was named “first star,” he could hear your cheers from the other side of the arena.

One night, you found yourself at a Denver Nuggets game with Cale. He invited you after JT bailed on him. At first, you were hesitant because he told you he got good seats. The word “good” seats usually imply expensive seats, and you weren’t used to people spending that type of money on you. You offered to pay him back for your ticket, which he refused. See, Cale was raised right. His mom taught him that he should always pay for his date, no matter how big or small that date should be.

Cale did invite JT first, but he was relieved when JT said no. He had been feeling like this for a while but wasn’t sure if the time was right. Cale was ready to tell you he was in love with you. He knew how big the words were. And yes, maybe it was a little soon, but they say when you know, you know.

You started walking towards the “General Admissions” entrance, when Cale grabbed your arm and pulled you towards the “LEXUS CLUB” entrance. The two of you walked down one of the many staircases of Ball Arena, Cale making small talk. Then, you noticed just how many stairs down you were walking. When you finally got to the bottom of the stairs and through the door, you realized just how good the good tickets were. They were courtside seats.

“Relax, Y/N.” Cale grabbed your waist, leading you to your seats. They were in the middle of Ball Arena. You stared at Cale in amazement. How could someone so be so amazing?

The game was exciting. You and Cale each got food and some beer. Despite not knowing much about basketball or its players, you were having a good time, until the free throw competition. During a commercial break, people were coming down the stands for the free throw competition. The people were doing pretty good, until a basketball bounced off the rim. You saw the basketball coming towards you at a very fast speed. You completely acknowledged that. Did you move out of the way? Did you use your hand to block your face? Absolutely not.

The ball hit you square on the head. In an instant, Cale was on the floor with you. When did you get on the floor? He was saying your name, but it sounded muted almost. The jumbotron camera man was on your right, pointing his camera at you and Cale. Your vision was a little blurry, but you focused hard enough to see yourself on the jumbotron. It was a sight to see.

Cale was tugging on your arm to help you up. Your balance was definitely off. You must have said that out loud, because Cale said, “Alright. Let’s get you to the hospital. I think you might have a concussion. It’ll be okay, baby. I’m right here.”

You didn’t know it, but Cale was a little disappointed that the night hadn’t gone how he’d planned. He wanted you to enjoy the game, and then he wanted to tell you he loved you. This was not in the plans.

He turned down the lights so you wouldn’t get a headache. You wanted nothing more to sleep on the way to the emergency room, but Cale wouldn’t let you. What if the ball had hit something that made your brain bleed? No, Cale couldn’t take the risk. He turned on soft music in the car to keep you awake and kept talking about anything he could think of to keep you awake.

He pulled up to the valet, despite your insistence that you could be alone for a few minutes while he found a parking spot, but he was stubborn. “I am not leaving you, Y/N. I don’t want you to fall over or something.” If you weren’t so dizzy, you would have found it sweet.

As embarrassing as it was, having your accident go viral on Twitter helped you in the emergency room.

“Hey! It’s Y/N from OB! She just got hit in the head! Let’s get her in!” you heard an intern shout.

You were seen fairly quickly and diagnosed with a mild concussion. No work for a week, stay off screens as much as possible, and definitely no more courtside Nuggets games.

Cale stayed by your side the whole time. He was dozing off holding your hand waiting for the discharge papers. He was doing that thing where he rubs the palm of your hand with his thumb that gave you butterflies. You leaned down to kiss his forehead to thank him for staying with you.

“Love you, babe,” he whispered. You did a double-take. His adorable cheeks flared red. “I- uh- well. Yeah, I love you, Y/N. I was meaning to tell you after the game. I wanted it to be special. I’m sorry it wasn’t more romantic. I wanted there to be roses and champagne.”

“Cale. I love you, too. This is perfect. I’m sorry for ruining your plans.” You giggled. “We can have a re-do sometime. Just not courtside.” You kissed his forehead and then his lips. You really loved this boy.

Generally, you would consider yourself pretty fearless. You worked in surgery with screaming parents for God’s sake. You loved going on adventures, especially hiking through Colorado. But, this test on the counter was scaring the shit out of you.

You didn’t tell Cale. You didn’t want to freak him out in case you were overreacting. You and Cale were certainly not trying, but you had to admit, you would be a little sad if the test came out negative. Already spiraling before you knew the results, you began to think about Cale as the father to your child. You thought he would make the most amazing girl dad. But on the other hand, Cale teaching his little baby boy how to hold a hockey stick would be so sweet.

The timer on your phone went off. This was the moment of truth.

It’s positive. Now would probably be the time to tell Cale. With shaking hands, you texted Cale, asking when he’d be home from practice.

From: Cale <3

Actually, you got me at the perfect time. Practice just ended and no film. Great day! How do you feel about Indian food?

The thought of Indian food made your stomach grumble. In your haste to take the pregnancy test, you forgot to eat lunch. You requested butter chicken and garlic naan.

Cale came back to your shared home with your order and an extra mango lassi. He didn’t even know you were pregnant yet, but he was already doing the most.

“Cale, I wanted to ask you something.” You were so nervous.

“What’s up?”

“I’ve just been thinking about it recently. How do you… how do you feel about kids?” You weren’t ready to ask him about the kid growing in your uterus. You decided to start off your questions in general statements.

“Oh, I love kids. Why do you ask?”

“Well, Cale, I mean, like, your own kids. How do you feel about having your own kids?”

“Kids someday would be nice.” He smiled. He began thinking about his own little boy. Your stomach dropped. He said “someday.” And no, he didn’t know that his kid was sitting in your uterus. How could he have? But his reaction just made you nervous. “Why do you ask, Y/N?”

“Just thinking about it. I work with babies all day, you know?” You felt a bit bad about lying to him, but it wasn’t really a lie, right? You were thinking about it recently, and you did work with babies all day.

Cale knew after that response that something was wrong, but he didn’t know what. He thought he did well with the Indian food, but he knew you well enough that you would have told him upfront if you didn’t want the Indian food. The problem was something deeper than Indian food.

You helped him clean up the food and told him you were going to take a nap and asked if he wanted to come with. Cale happily accepted. You climbed on top of the bed instead of snuggling under your mountain of blankets, and he knew something was really wrong. You loved your blankets. Even in the summer, you turned the AC down so you could still use your mountain of blankets.

“Y/N, please. What’s wrong? You’re making me worried.” He climbed on the bed with you, and tucked you in a blanket, hoping it would give you the comfort he couldn’t.

“I don’t know how to say it, Cale. I don’t want you to be upset.” He was holding both your hands, fighting a few tears. He thought this was the “breakup talk.” He didn’t want to cry, but he could hardly imagine himself not being with you. He wanted to fight for you with everything he had.

“Cale, honey, why are you crying? I haven’t even told you yet.” He looked at you in shock. This wasn’t the breakup talk? What else could it be? “Cale. I’m pregnant. I took a test. It’s in the bathroom. I didn’t know how you would react. I’m so sorry.” All the words fell out of your mouth before you could stop yourself.

Cale felt his entire world freeze. Almost instantly, he pictured the little boy from earlier in the afternoon. He pictured teaching him hockey and how to be a gentleman. Dressing him up with little bowties. Giving him a mohawk when his hair is wet. And above all else, he pictured doing all those things with you.

“Oh, Y/N! This is fantastic news! What do you mean you didn’t know how I would react. Oh God, I am … I don’t even know the words. But, no, I would never be mad. Oh!” He bent down so his face was in front of your stomach. He put his hand on your stomach, and he swore he fell more in love than he even knew was possible.

“Do you know the gender?” His eyes were so hopeful. He wanted a boy so badly.

“No, I just found out. We’ll know around the fourth month.”

He paused for a moment. “Can I tell the boys?”

“Yes.” You rolled your eyes, playfully. He eagerly whipped out his phone, typing fast. You knew the boys wouldn’t be able to hide it from their girlfriends/wives, so you grabbed your phone waiting for the avalanche of texts you would receive.

The first trimester went well, considering the way the first trimester went for other women. You went through bouts of morning sickness and moodiness, but Cale took it in stride. Each time you were bent over the toilet, he was there holding your hair back. When you told the nurses on your floor, they were all so excited for you. They threw you a small party in the break room. They decorated onesies with glitter glue and markers. They told every single patient of yours, too. Every room you entered, you were greeted with “congratulations” from patients about ten minutes from having their own babies. Their excitement made you even more excited for your little bundle of joy. You were barely showing, but you wore slightly tighter clothing just to highlight your stomach.

The second trimester was about to begin, and you and Cale were sitting together in your office, waiting for your appointment. Today was the day you were going to get an envelope so you could find out the gender. You knew Cale would be happy if it was a girl, but you also knew he deeply wanted a boy. He talked constantly about a little baby boy. He even bought little baby hockey gear and skates.

Amanda, your doctor and colleague, came into the room. She explained everything she was going to do, then laughed because she realized you knew it already. Then, the dreaded question. “Would you like to know the gender?”

“Actually, could you just put the results in an envelope? We’re going to give it to a friend. We’re doing one of those gender reveal parties.”

“Oh! That’s so exciting! Will do. But for now, I see ten fingers, ten toes, and a healthy heartbeat. Do you want to hear the heartbeat?” You and Cale both nodded, and you teared up a little bit when you heard the heartbeat. Sometimes, you forgot that you were growing a literal, living tiny human. It was difficult to conceptualize.

At the end of the appointment, Amanda gave you a sealed envelope, and you rushed over to Alyssa Mackinnon’s house to give her the gender of baby Makar. When you told her a few weeks ago that you wanted to have a gender reveal party, she squealed and asked if she could plan it. You agreed, and then fawned over party themes and ideas for the actual reveal.

The party day came. You wore a pink dress. Cale wore a blue polo and khakis. When you got to Alyssa and Nate’s house, the whole team, your friends from work, Cale’s parents and brother, your parents, and your brother and his family were there. All the people that were important in your life were here to see whether baby Makar was a girl or boy.

Alyssa had a few small party games going on along with a blackboard for people to tally their guesses on your baby’s gender. The men took turns racing to put diapers on footballs, while the women wrapped around your stomach with ribbons to measure how round your belly was. Then, Alyssa announced to the guests that it was time to step outside. When you stepped outside, you saw a goal post with a white balloon hanging from the top post. And you got so excited.

You knew what was about to happen. Cale was going to shoot a puck at the balloon, and you were going to know the gender. Cale grabbed the stick from Alyssa and took aim.

DING. Hit the post. POP. The balloon bled pink confetti. A GIRL! You squealed with joy, running over to Cale, giving him just enough time to drop the hockey stick and catch you in his arms. You started to cry tears of joy. Cale was crying, too. But soon, your overactive overthinking kicked in. How did Cale really feel? You were forced to push down the anxiety as your families and friends swarmed you and Cale with congratulations.

The guests slowly made their way back inside Alyssa and Nate’s house to head out. You wanted to stay until the end to help her clean up and to thank her for all the hard work she put in for your gender reveal. You were packing paper plates into a garbage bag when you heard a loud gasp behind you.

“Y/N! Give me that! You are pregnant! Sit down! Kick your feet up! Don’t you dare touch another paper plate!” Alyssa cried. She pointed at your stomach and then to the couch. You handed her the bag and sat down on her couch. She gave you the “I’m watching you” stare before resuming what you had started. A minute later, Cale appeared. He sat down next to you, and you knew this was your chance to talk to him.

“Cale, how are you feeling? I know you wanted a-”

“Y/N. I’m happy. We both knew I wanted a boy, but I’m not upset. I swear. I just wanted our baby to be healthy. Her happiness is my top priority, not her gender.” You could have sworn your heart grew three sizes. You may have ruined his plan to be a boy-dad, but you always had a feeling he was a girl-dad anyway.

The next four months passed without a hitch. The OBGYN floor had a field day with your baby shower. Mel Landeskog planned a separate shower, and with permission from the hospital, she brought the party to your break room. You thought you received a lot of gifts at the gender reveal, but now that everyone knew it was a girl, You and Cale swore you had enough baby clothing that you thought you never would need to do laundry because of how much they got for her. You had enough diaper boxes that they stacked from floor to ceiling in the nursery you and Cale had set up.

At this point, you due date was 15 days away. Your belly was swollen to triple the size it used to be. Your feet hurt if you stood for longer than 20 minutes. You told Cale you just wanted the baby out. He would laugh at you and then take your feet and give them a massage. You really had the best boyfriend in the world.

Truth be told, Cale was more prepared for a baby than you were. He had two go-bags packed – one for you two and one for the baby. You were extremely calm for that aspect of the actual birthing process. You also knew Cale wasn’t happy about you working, but you insisted on working until the minute your water broke. Your rationale was that you would already be at the hospital, and then as a bonus for your patients, you would be able to give them the care they needed. You just knew that the floor would take care of you. You knew each of the charge nurses. You knew how well they took care of their patients. They already told you that you would be their VIP patient.

Today was relatively slow for you. You had no scheduled C-sections, you were only on-call for obstetric exams and emergencies that entered the ER. All of a sudden, you got a frantic call from Steph, the charge nurse in the ER. She was freaking out, as the entire ER staff did when a pregnant lady came in.

You went down and examined the woman and asked the nurses to admit her into the birthing wing when suddenly, you heard screaming. You rushed back over. She needed a C-section. You knew you weren’t supposed to, but you took an oath, and you had to save this woman and her baby’s life. You yelled at any nurse nearby to clear an ER for you and rushed up to scrub.

You were gowned and gloved, finally. Mid-way through the C-section, you felt a pinching in your own stomach. You figured your baby decided to kick. It was only when nurse Kimmy gasped, “Y/N! I think your water broke!”

You barely registered the shout, but then you felt a tightening in your own stomach. A contraction. The nurses were already calling Cale without you even needing to ask them. They knew you were determined to finish the surgery. You pushed through and helped your patient deliver her baby. You took off your surgical gown and the nurses immediately put you in a wheelchair.

“Marci! I can walk myself to the OB wing!” you protested. She just shook his head and kept pushing you. You met Cale in the waiting room. The nurses had prepped a birthing suite for you the minute they found out your water broke. Cale brought both your go-bags into the room and helped you into the bag.

“You really had to be in surgery when your water broke?” he joked. He kissed your forehead, and together you waited and waited for your baby girl to make her grand entrance.

Marci came in periodically to check on you. The whole floor came in to say congratulations and dropped off some food. Maybe it was the hormones, but their love surrounded you, and it made you feel really good about having a baby.

Finally, six hours later, baby girl Makar made an appearance. You and Cale never picked out a name. You could never decide. He thought of a name that you liked, but then you thought of another name. You would try to convince him of the new name, but then he would think of another one. The two of you were stuck. And now she was here!

But as soon as you looked at her face, you knew the name. You looked at Cale, and both said at the same time, “Lilly Grace Makar!”

+1.

Your daughter, Lilly, was three, now. You and Cale were holding off on this for a long time, but you decided that the summertime would be the perfect time to go to Disney World in Florida. She loved watching Mickey Mouse in the mornings before daycare. Even though you both knew she wouldn’t remember the trip, you just wanted to take her for your own personal fun.

At least, that’s what you told Cale. Secretly, though, you had other motives. Cale and you still weren’t married. Not even engaged. Obviously, the two of you were bound to each other forever. Cale was yours and you were Cale’s. But you just wanted the title of wife. It had been over six years since you went on that first date. You thought that was a reasonable amount of time to get engaged and married. And for goodness sake, you had a kid together and you hinted about wanting more for the past few months.

So, that was where you hatched your plan. On a day off from work, you took Lilly to the mall. You told Cale she needed some new summer outfits because she grew out of the clothes she had in the spring. But you also made a quick pitstop at the jewelry store. You stole Cale’s Stanley Cup ring, too, so that you could get an accurate measurement. At the jewelry store, you picked out a solid silver band. Nothing extravagant, but enough for the occasion. At the end of the day, it was about your love for one another, not the extravagance of the ring. You were going to ask Cale to marry you at Disney World.

That same week, Cale entered the guest locker room in New Jersey, and pulled Gabe and Nate aside. He had a very important question.

“Hey. So, how did you guys ask Mel and Alyssa to marry you? I think Y/N’s been dropping a lot of hints lately. I mean I know it’s just a title, because we’re both there, but I’m pretty sure it’s something she wants. I think I’m overthinking it.”

The two men laughed, remembering the times when they felt the same way. They each launched into their stories of asking their girlfriends to marry them. Gabe’s was intimate in Sweden. Nate’s was slightly public, in front of their families on the beach in Cole Harbour.

They gave Cale a lot of ideas. He already knew the ring he was going to get you. He even knew he wanted to include Lilly in the proposal. He just didn’t know how public you wanted it to be. He thought about proposing in secret, like in the hotel room, but that didn’t feel romantic enough. He thought about proposing during the fireworks at Magic Kingdom, but that felt too public.

You, on the other hand, had an exact plan. You wanted to propose in front of the Magic Kingdom castle. You figured that a proposal to hockey’s best defenseman would garner media attention regardless of how private you tried to make it. You might as well get some good photos out of it.

You secured the ring you got for Cale in your carry-on. You had to hide it strategically, knowing Cale probably forgot something and would need to borrow it from your stash. Cale secured the ring he got for you in his suitcase between his underwear. There was no way you’d go through his underwear.

The flight was smooth, Lilly was content to watch Mickey Mouse on the plane’s television screen. Cale insisted on first class, knowing this was Lilly’s first big vacation. She didn’t seem to notice, falling asleep about two hours into the flight.

Arriving at your hotel, you unpacked and got onto the monorail to take you to Animal Kingdom. Lilly loved everything about it. The next day at Epcot was so much fun. She wouldn’t remember it, but you and Cale took enough combined pictures that you would never forget. Hollywood Studios was your favorite.

The fated day finally came for you. Magic Kingdom. You secured the ring in your baby-backpack. You boarded the monorail with Cale and Lilly, as if everything was normal. Every bone in your body was on fire. You were nervous, but you wanted to be married to Cale. It was the only thing in the world that made sense. He was your rock. He gave the best advice. He was an incredible father. And you just knew in your gut he would be the best husband (not that he already wasn’t performing husband duties).

As excited as you were about proposing to Cale, you also wanted to do it early in the day so that you could enjoy the day with your daughter and hopefully-fiancé.

“What do you wanna do first babygirl?” you asked Lilly as you and Cale grabbed her hands.

“Umm… I wanna see the princesses!” she shouted. Perfect. This would be the most perfect opportunity to walk towards the Magic Castle.

Upon arrival, you stopped and pulled Lilly over to the side. Swinging your backpack down, you grabbed your phone and the ring box.

“Lilly! Cale! Smile!” She posed with Cale in front of the castle. Cale put her down while you put your phone back in your bag and turned around with the ring box open.

“Cale?”

His face was in shock, but all of a sudden, he started laughing and reached into his own bag. Suddenly, Cale was down on one knee with a ring box while you stood in front of him with a ring box.

Your face was flushed. People was stopping to look at you. But all you could see was Cale. Your perfect, sweet, caring, thoughtful fiancé.

You screamed yes before he could even get the question out. He laughed as he put the ring on your finger.

“Cale, you didn’t answer my question.”

“You didn’t ask one, love.”

“Will you marry me, Cale Douglas Makar?”

“It would make me the happiest man in the world.” He kissed you sweetly, and you slipped the ring on your finger. The small crowd of people around you cheered for you. Cale picked Lilly up and you handed your phone to a nice-looking couple and asked them to take a picture. And it now served as your wallpaper.

A/N: Yes. This entire fic was based off of this tweet. No, I will not be taking questions. LMAO

https://twitter.com/virgoprincxss/status/1031921634951684097?s=20&t=t5DZrxlxwSquOAQ5pZi32Q

I hope y’all enjoyed!!

#emma writes #nhl fic #hockey fic #cale makar fic #colorado avs fic

51 notes · View notes

d-nessi · 2 years ago

Text

A/N: OOOf that Chapter gave me a hard time cause I'm so inexperienced in writing really cute fluff (even after 10 years of marriage😅🫣 well never wrote it down lol) BUT I think this is a good start for now.

minimum of swearing, also lots of fluff, loveydovey aaaand yes kissing.🥰

word count: 2,3k (welp these chapters getting bigger)

Proofread? : I tried but as always I'm german so...you know ;)

use of HE/SHE

Again the Name of this Chapter is from the song covered by the daugther of craig mazin, jessica mazin! Absolutely beautiful🥰😇

(This is not my YT Video)

youtube

Chapter 3

♡NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN♡

sweet...not too sweet...I slowly take a deep breath and open my eyes dreamily. Totally blurred with fatigue I feel only her soft hair and I immediately realize what is happening here.

I look down directly into the face of Bella, arms wrapped around her and our bodies so close that not even a needle could fit between us.

Silently I just enjoy every second, not that it's over too quickly.

What are we actually? Friends? Lovers?

Bella moves a bit, hums a little and just continues to cuddle with me, unaware that I am not her pillow. I smile while my heart probably wants to kill me from stumbling and I gently caress her cheek.

She is so sweet....simply everything about her is so sweet. Her fawn eyes, her smile and when she laughs it's so incredibly infectious.

Lost in thought, I look at her and I am miserably aware that I am in love with her. I never want to leave her side. I am aware of that but her?

Too big is the fear that something comes in between or she does not share all these feelings with me.

Stillness?

Is useless because even without words it is obvious what's happening here.

Impossible to get out of there today without an ultimatum. Either my heart will be broken or I will have achieved impossible.

We were just 2 girls in a bar and now I'm lying here with her...she absolutely clueless...yet.... Bella's hand moves to my upper arm gently grips and slowly opens her eyes.

Here we go....

"HUGH!?!"

Other than expected to startle, fall down or hit me in the face was her first impulse to hide her face in my chest which doesn't make the whole situation much better. The heat rose in her face and her breath became faster.

"Bella?" I mutter while trying to get away from her rather unwillingly.

"Bella!?! hey..h..hey breathe!"

Her breath is like that of a marathon runner as she continues to cling. "ssshhhh....oi hey it's ok it's just me. You had a nightmare and I thought I'd keep you company."

Her breathing slowly calms down a bit and she sits up without looking at me. I regret it, after all I didn't want to scare her.

"I didn't mean to catch you off guard I'm sorry" I say sincerely.

"It's ok, I...better make breakfast now. I have an appointment with my manager later to prepare everything for tomorrow. I'll book us a single suite, they are always free" She stands up and smiles at me.

"Thank you for taking care of me" She blushes "I liked that...." and she goes into the bathroom to freshen up and make breakfast.

"She liked it...."

My cheeks burning, while my heart beats again in the wrong rhythm and as if that is not enough there is the tingling again.

Sitting at the table I look at my breakfast. "Aren't these suits expensive?" I asked curiously.

"Please don't worry, my manager will take care of it. I invited you so it's fine." We finished our breakfast and did the rest of the things that were important.

*NEXT DAY AT THE AIRPORT*

Rain pours down on us as we arrive at the airport. We finally find our plane which will fly us to New York.

From there we change planes and will get to Calgary. It is getting colder and colder and in Calgary there is probably already snow.

Bella sneezes.

I can clearly see the bags under her eyes. She must have hardly slept the last night. "Make yourself comfortable we have an 11 hour flight ahead of us." She says and yawns.

"Are you tired? You're welcome to sleep. It's still the middle of the night anyway," I look at her, scrutinizing.

He lies down while I order a drink. 11 hours caught, miles above together with the love of my life who still not broke my heart.

She seems to have fallen asleep quickly so I sit down next to her and watch her shallow breathing.

That's a good girl.

Another panic attack wouldn't be so good up here. She sleeps so peacefully so quietly that I hardly notice that I am also drifting off to sleep.

While I slip down more and more without noticing it, Bella snuggles up to me again. I freak out for a second and just let it happen.

Cuddle my head on hers, grab her hand and stroke my thumb gently over the back of her hand.

Her lips draw a small smile on her face.

Fuck........

how much I want to kiss these. Our bodies are so close together that I can literally feel his heartbeat.

For a second I don't think and get so close to her with my face that our noses touch very gently. She sleeps so deep she doesn't even notice.

My whole body feels almost numb It makes me mad to be so close and yet so far away from her. I didn't realize how much my frustration had built up and tears were coming to my eyes.

I don't wanna hurt her...not again.

Bella opens her eyes but this time she just looks at me, feeling her breath makes me super excited.

My body is so fuck'n ready to kiss her releasing all the tingling. As if she internalizes me she blinks a few times trying to close the gap, but turbulence makes our lives hell when we both hit our heads.

I swear I must have a pact with the devil himself. I am sure that our lips have just touched, even if only delicately.

"fuck this stupid weather almost scares me!" I groan and sit up while rubbing my forehead.

"everything okay with your forehead?" she looks at me and also holds her forehead.

"yeah it's fine" I smile briefly and just throw myself backwards on my back.

He looks at me, hesitates, but I feel his body against me again very carefully and with deliberation. Bella plays with the thread of my hoodie and then looks up at me.

"have you ever been to New York?"

"no, only England was my only destination" I say and gently stroke her back. Oh man my heart-doctor is going nuts if my heart doesn't calm down soon. But I love it, the tingling, the goosebumps and Bella....

Actually now would be a good time to say what I feel but I don't want to ruin this one moment.

After all, we still have a few hours left and damn it, I just want to spend them with her! I cheekily tickle her back and promptly get the answer.

"HEY!" she giggles so sweetly and suddently gently bites my arm.

Gaaawd I love her big smile especially when she gets excited. No matter which interview she held together with Pedro I always had to grin wide when she laughed.

"bella..."

"mmh..."she murmurs and snuggles closer to me while tenderly stroking my arm up and down.

"what the hell are we doing here....? What does that mean?"I close my eyes.

"That we're friends and killing time...?" she says playfully with an almost ironic smile.

"Liar...." I say barely audibly and hug her tightly. Everything feels so perfect right now and I can feel exactly that her heart also needs a doctor for God's sake.

Please...never let me down again.....

The rest of the flight we spend with cuddling and just enjoying each others presence without talking much.

It felt so magical and I know that won't be all. Anyway, I will make it clear to her what I feel. I already know when...

***NEWARK LIBERTY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT***

Huge crowds, tall buildings and an incredible amount of lights even in broad daylight.

I feel like I'm in heaven. "I've never been to New York. "I can't get out of my amazement and look around as if I had landed on a foreign planet.

Bella smiles and stands right in front of me. "So we have exactly 12 hours to get on the other plane. You want to have a look around the city?"

"yeah absolutely of course!" I'm getting way too excited while looking arround.

There are advertisings from the current shows THE LAST OF US also other super popular series like House of the dragons.

"you once said in an interview that you watched House of the dragons".

"yes i did, it was great" she smiles

"but no Game of Thrones"

"yeah I just can't see Pedro's eyes being squeezed out" she looks at me mischievously.

"I already know where we are going to look first so come on" she moves on with a confident smile.

I giggle "As you command, your Queen and Highness of Westeros," I say as I bow and stifle a laugh.

"If you don't want to be beheaded right away, follow me immediately, you despicable yeoman!"

I didn't expect that, so I look at her in surprise as I stand up straight again. "Dude I thought you were going to hit me, instead you turn me on".

This time it was Bella who was not prepared for my words and now stands there completely perplexed.

"Bella? Bella Ramsey!?" ... "it's the Ellie from the new show! wow!" People are coming closer and closer to us with their mobiles in their hands.

"BELLAAA!!!" people start to freak out sure we are in New York and there is a higher volume of people.

At first Bella smiles but as fast as the people approach us the more nervous she gets.

"come babe" I grab her hand, pull the hood of my hoodie over my head and just run.

Not just anywhere no...to one of the first places we were going to. after a short sprint and completely out of breath I ask the cab driver if he can give us a lift.

Luckily he can give us a ride and before we know it we are there. When I wanted to take my hand to me, Bella just grabbed it again and lightly pressed it shut. I first look at my hand and then into her eyes. She is obviously smiling happily.

I quickly gave the driver his money and we got out. There it is...The figure standing on a massive pedestal made of a copper shell that stretches on a steel framework in the right hand a gold-plated torch. The Statue of Liberty.

"wow even from here it is really huge" even Bella marveled.

"crazy..." here I am standing on American soil, the Statue of Liberty in front of me, and that together with Bella. That it has come so far I would never have thought but fate means it exceptionally times well with me.

Bella is still looking at the statue without knowing that she is the main attraction here.

Hardly people around us I just grab her hand, pull her to me and without wasting time our lips meet. Everything around us becomes surreal almost empty and at the same time it is as if a bomb has exploded right next to us. Her lips are so soft and tender without resistance.

I more or less detach myself from her lips and look at her silently without even the slightest hint of an expression.

"Friends huh..." I whisper. She didn't resist the kiss. Question answered I thought but hell was I wrong.

The complete answer still comes as she takes my face in her hands, still hesitates a little but finally fills the space between us. This time our two lips are completely in harmony, clearly more demanding and greedy. God how I hope that is not just a dream.

My heart prepares to stop while Bella's breathing gets out of control. We involuntarily and breathlessly break away as we look into each other's eyes. Face to face pretty close I can feel her fast breaths on my lips and the heat.

I bite my lower lip before I lose control not to kiss her once again. "I'm leaving the friend zone," I whisper, barely audible. "fuck" I can't and just steal another kiss from her, she totally melting into it.

Finally, Bella made a sound, but not the one I expected. A soft sigh. She seems to enjoy it. We disengage again, and as we do, I look at her seriously. "You have no idea how big my crush is on you" I take a deep breath and gently grab one of her hands.

"Y/N...." She looks at me lovingly with her red cheeks. "you were just a girl in the bar. I knew WHO you were and I was a fan of yours before...I admit that, but I never thought this would happen. for real!"

She looks at my hand and thinks what to say. "Normally I avoid all the fans, you haven't given the impression that you want to jump on me" There it is again, the sweet smile of hers.

"I wanna be your Lover for the rest of my life!" I speak softly. "I want to be the one who protects you, accompanies you to all possible interviews to stand by you. want to hold you tight whenever you have another nightmare. wake up next to you every day and punch everyone in the face who gets too close to you.

Maaan Bella looks so happy. She hugs me and burries her face in my neck. "you are the cutest I swear!" She mumbles in my shoulder, realizing how people starts looking again.

"we should go" She says shortly and grabs my hand. "I don't care what people saying" We ignore all the people and walking to the different places like coffeeshops and a few other sights until the time comes to go to our next plane.

A/N: Things getting interesting. So If I am done with the whole plot I will be open for requests of yours.

Also smut will comming in the next 1-2 chapters. I will clearly mark that part in chap if some of you don't want to read that and just want to skip.

For more Chapters, stories and more just look at my Masterlist ♡

#bella ramsey #bella ramsey x reader #bella ramsey x female reader #bella ramsey x you #bella ramsey x y/n #hbo tlou #hbo series #lgbtq #Youtube

29 notes · View notes

kevandberniceincanada · 2 months ago

Text

Well hello everybody. After a 2 year gap, yes it's really been 2 years since our last holiday blog, we are back again. Having done every USA State we have now started on Canada. We are flying into Calgary, Alberta and spending a couple of days there. We are then picking up a rental car and driving through the Rockies to Vancouver. On our trip we will visit Banff National Park, Golden and Revelstoke. We then go to Kelowna to stay a few days with our niece Amy and her partner Andrew. We are all then heading to Whistler for a week before they drop us off at Vancouver for a few days. We are away for 25 days and hope to see some beautiful scenery on the way and fall foliage. Our holiday was in some doubt as we were flying with Air Canada but their pilots were in a pay dispute with the Airline. Although being offered a 30% pay rise they turned it down and we had a situation where the pilots could go on strike from midnight on Sunday 15th Sept, and the airline were threatening to close down all flights from the same date. We were due to fly on the 16th. Thankfully an agreement was reached at the last moment. We were able to fly, Yaaaaaay. The pilots got 42% pay rise over 4 years, lucky them.

4 notes · View notes

haltandcatchfiretothemax · 8 months ago

Text

(belated!) FEMSLASH FEBRUARY 2024 #18: In which Donna (and by extension, Cameron) assist in a critical rescue effort

[CN: food/eating mentions; alcohol mentions; fictional plane crash]

[ALSO: spoilers for season 1 of Yellowjackets]

In 1996, Donna and Cameron are elated to celebrate Haley’s graduation, and see her off to college. Donna throws a huge party, delights in taking her graduate shopping for everything she’ll need for her dorm room, and makes an event of taking Haley to school and helping her move in.

But then, after Haley is situated, Donna realizes that she is an empty nester. She copes with it by obsessing over a horrifying and puzzling news story: in May, Flight 2525, carrying a high school girls’ soccer team to a tournament went missing. Watching the news from their living room couch, Donna says, “They’re Haley’s age...most of them should be at college right now, what a nightmare.” After a couple weeks of reading everything she can find about the flight, she manages to get in touch with the Matthews, whose daughter Lottie was a member of the soccer team, and who chartered the flight. When Lottie’s father says that the NTSB hasn’t found anything in months, and that the private former NTSB investigator that they hired hasn’t been able to find anything either, Donna offers to see if any of her contacts are willing to review their findings. The Matthews and the other parents are desperate, and so they accept.

-- When photocopies of the private investigator’s research arrives, Cameron looks at it. “I think getting involved in this is a terrible idea, but I’ve gotten weird about crazier things,” she says. After she goes through everything, she looks at the map again, and says, “I don’t think they’ve been looking in the right place. Like, the projection for the debris field, I think it’s wrong. Did they look in Canada?”

-- Donna calls Risa’s femme aerospace engineering professor ex, who agrees with Cameron, and puts the debris field way north of where the NTSB put it, in Alberta. Donna then finds a search and rescue firm run by a woman who used to be in tech that has connections to the local parks department and wilderness experience, Lottie’s father hires them, and they deploy an all-woman search team. When Risa, not entirely kidding, predicts, “We have lesbians with carabiners on the case now, so we’re gonna see results,” Donna hopes that she’s right

-- It takes the search team a week to find the plane, and it’s unexpected ‘gone to lake’ message, and another day to call in more reinforcements and find the lake. They find a girl sleeping on the ground outside a cabin, and they wake her, and she tells them that the rest of the survivors are in the cabin. Finding the survivors to be in shockingly good health, the search team starts the process of transporting them all back to Calgary

-- The Matthews fly the survivor’s parents to meet them in Calgary, and Donna helps some of the parents to secure hotel accommodations for the trip. She winds up getting hotel room and flight for herself, and Cameron, who isn’t about to let Donna go off to meet a bunch of strangers by herself, agrees to go with her

-- When they gets to the search and rescue firm’s offices, she finds the survivors crowded into the lobby, looking dazed, while a team of private nurses buzzes around them, taking down their information and re-checking their vitals. Cameron and Donna wind up handing out water and protein bars to them while the owner of the firm orders food for them

-- After a literal feeding frenzy that actually kind of scares every non-survivor in the room, Donna talks to the survivors, asking if there’s anything else she can get for them while they wait for their parents. One of the soccer players, a 17 year old girl whose hair reminds Donna of the first time she met Cameron, semi-jokingly asks for a stiff drink, and says, ‘thanks anyway,’ when Donna asks one of the nurses if she has any Xanax.

-- Another girl, who’s wrapped in a blanket, and sitting off to the side, somewhat removed from the rest of the group, quietly asks for hot cocoa. Donna finds packets of instant cocoa in a kitchen, near the carafes of coffee and hot water, so she mixes some. The girl starts crying when Donna brings it back to her, so Donna stays with her for a while

-- A third girl demands to know how they were found, as if she’s angry they were rescued. When the owner of the firm explains that Donna helped find new personnel track down a new lead, the girl glares at Donna from behind her wire rim glasses and poof of curly blonde hair

-- Donna asks the girl who asked for a drink about her, and she says that they probably only survived as long as they did because the girl in the glasses, Misty, took some red cross class, and knew how to sterilize wounds and tie tourniquets. Donna makes a point of talking to Misty and praising her for taking care of her teammates and sharing her skills. Misty seems less angry after that

-- Later, in the privacy of their hotel room, Cameron says that Misty is weird (“which is significant, coming from me, Donna”)

-- When the parents of the survivors arrive, the scene is predictably overwhelming, even before they all start to thank Donna profusely for her efforts. No one claims the girl who asked for the drink, though, because her mother is too sick to travel

-- Before they all retire to their hotel rooms, Donna passes business cards out, and and offers to help anyone who needs to figure out college admissions or job placements before they all return home. The girl who asked for the drink, Natalie, is the only one who takes her up on it. A few weeks into the new year, she calls Donna at work, and tells her that she never really had a plan for after high school, and that she needs to get out of New Jersey

-- Donna invites her out to California, and Natalie ends up moving to San José. Donna helps her find a job, and Cameron gives her a book on code, which Natalie wants to like, but finds boring. After she establishes residency, Natalie starts community college, and two years after that, she gets into UC Santa Cruz, where she goes on to study philosophy.

-- Well over a year after the rescue, Donna gets another call at work, which she picks up herself because her assistant has gone home for the day. When she says, “Symphonic Ventures, this is Donna,” the person on the other end says, “Hi, this is Jackie Taylor, from…the plane crash? You got hot cocoa for me.” It takes a second, but Donna realizes who she is and sits up, and says, “Hi! How are you doing? What can I do for you?”

-- Jackie says that she doesn’t know what to do, and when Donna asks, “About what, sweetie?” Jackie says, “Anything?” She relates a long and complicated story about how she and her best friend got into a terrible fight shortly before the rescue, after which they never spoke again, and how she didn’t have any friends and had dropped out after half a semester at Rutgers because she couldn’t drag herself out of bed anymore, and how she’d probably already peaked in high school

-- Finally, she says, “Did you ever have a friend who you thought would be in your life forever? And like, you were totally fine with that? Like, you would have been happy to hang out with them for the rest of your life?”

-- Donna is slightly bewildered by this outpouring of emotion, but she says, “I felt that way about my partner when we started working together.” “And now?” Jackie asks. Donna grins, “She moved in a few months ago, so I guess we’ll be hanging out for a while.”

-- Jackie asks Donna what their house is like, and about Donna’s job. Donna tells her about Mountain View, and her pool, and getting married young and then getting divorced and into venture capital, and Gordon and their kids and Mutiny and Cameron, and then takes the opportunity to ask Jackie, “What about you though? What did you want to study, at Rutgers?”

-- When Jackie says that she doesn’t know, and that she’s never really been good at anything but looking like an overachiever, Donna ends up inviting her to visit

-- Jackie tears through a stack of unopened birthday cards from relatives and family friends who haven’t know what to say to her since the plane crash and finds enough money to pay for an open ended round trip bus ticket to San José, which she books immediately

-- A few weeks later Jackie arrives in Mountain View. Cameron and Donna find her to be a mostly pleasant houseguest, but scold her for apologizing whenever she asks them for anything. Jackie blushes self-consciously when Cameron tells her, “You’re allowed to take up space.”

-- While in the Bay Area, Jackie takes herself sightseeing and goes to the beach. She visits with Natalie, who actually seems happy to see her, and finds that Natalie is sharing her tiny, one-bedroom apartment with a girl she met through her bookstore job (Jackie is very curious about this, but manages to keep her prying questions to herself)

-- Haley takes Jackie out on her next to last night in Mountain View. She gets dressed up and dances and drinks alcohol for the first time since the plane crash, and she gets so drunk that she kisses Haley while they’re waiting outside the bar’s restroom (Haley doesn’t exactly mind, but also isn’t about to take advantage of a vulnerable young woman

--She does wind up sleeping in the guest room with Jackie, though, partly because she’s afraid that Jackie will be sick, but also because she is very easy on the eyes, and better company than she realizes

-- (Donna asks Haley the next morning how their outing was, and if she ‘showed Jackie a good time,’ and Haley says, “Yeah, and she showed me one too” before sashaying out of the kitchen. Cameron and Donna are delighted by this mildly scandalous turn of events)

-- When Donna drives Jackie to the bus station two days later, she asks Jackie what she’s going to do when she gets home. “I don’t really know,” Jackie says with a tentative smile. “I’ll figure it out, I guess? I have a week on a bus to think about it….” Then, she says, “Thanks for having me, Donna. This was really amazing.”

-- When Jackie gets home, she starts looking for a job and learning how to drive, and starts using the internet more regularly. For a while, she takes every ‘am I gay?’ quiz she can find (they all say 'probably', ‘maybe’, or ‘yes, definitely’)

-- A year later, Donna gets a postcard with a picture of a sculpture called “Gay Liberation” on it. She turns it over, and it says, “Donna, I figured it out! Thanks again, your friend Jackie Taylor (p.s tell Cameron I say hi)”

-- Donna pins the postcard to the cork board in her office, so she can look at it whenever she feels like she doesn’t know what to do, or like she’s not doing enough.

#...this got out of hand (I had to cut stuff bc i ran out of characters?) but WHATEVER: halt/yellowjackets crossover that no one asked for #'did you write this whole thing just to give jackie a happy ending?' yes i did and WHAT ABOUT IT #the 'wrong debris field' bit is jacked from departure which i started watching bc kelly mccormack is in s2~#femslash february #femslash feb 2024 #better living through headcanons!#cameron howe #donna clark #donna emerson #jackie taylor #natalie scatorccio

3 notes · View notes