#i might change my design for him later but i imagined james looking similar to pike mage (amber)

[show-tunes]

So long to this wretched form

[sarahjtv]

BNHA Chapter 312 Spoiler Analysis: Hero Turned Assassin

It’s Friday, my dudes!  That means the leaks for the new chapter is out!  This time, we’re focusing on our new lady assassin villain who we ended with last week.  Ngl, I love her design and concept.  I actually wouldn’t mind if she stepped on me 😳  All that aside, this was a damn good chapter, but I really hope Deku’s going to be ok taking her on by himself:

Alright, the chapter starts off with a little flashback of Hawks talking to Deku as Deku is suiting up to leave Central hospital.  Hawks reassures Deku that he should be ok from AFO and Shigaraki for now since they aren’t at full power yet.  Their best option would be to take Deku in alive rather than dead.  Hawks can only think of one person who might be capable of capturing Deku: the assassin woman.  Turns out, that woman was his senpai back at the Hero Safety Commision and she’s dangerous.

So, as far as we know, Deku’s most likely going to live several more days even if he does get captured.  However, he’s being hunted down by a highly skilled assassin who was also Hawk’s senpai back in the day.  The fact that Hawks of all people is warning Deku to run away from her if he can say something about her skills.  I can only guess how good her skills are, but I’d say they’re probably somewhere in the S-tier range if Hawks is afraid of her.

The next couple of pages help properly introduce our new villain: Lady Nagant!  A few points here: 1. The bullet is made from her hair which is colored dark blue and pink.  I personally love those two colors, so I’m glad to see that color scheme used on her.  Also hair bullets is such a great concept, 2. That rifle is definitely coming from her elbow which she can bring out and retract at will, which is badass as hell, 3. I looked up the word “Nagant” and it’s actually type of (Russian?) gun that ranges from a 7-shot revolver to a sniper rifle, so that’s a good Villain name for her, 4. She was a former hero under the Safety Commision who decided to go to the dark side for some reason.  Like, did she see the bad side of Hero Society and that caused her to change?  Did she see something in Villainy that caused her to change her POV?  I want to know what?, 5. Again, love her design like hoo boy, Horikoshi snapped with her. 

So, Deku’s on the run from her and he is completely on his own now that his phone is broken.  He doesn’t even know what happened to All Might 😭!  He’s also afraid that All Might and Hawks will be targeted by her.  Deku’s debating wheaher he should run or face Nagant face on.  With someone like Muscular, I wasn’t worried about Deku because he’s not only improved a lot since last time, but he’s taken on Muscular before so he knew what he was fighting.  But, this is a brand-new villain.  Not much is known about her and Deku has never fought her before.  I’d say run, but someone has to take her out.  Maybe Hawks will swoop in and have a reunion with his senpai.  Though, he doesn’t have wings now, so I’m not sure what he can really do against her besides have a chat…

And Deku is shot!  Not fatally thank god, but he did get hit.  Turns out Lady Nagant can actually curve her shots.  Even Deku’s Danger Sense couldn’t detect it in time good lord.  So she can just straight up made bullets that can curve too that is absolutely insane.  Any marksman would be jealous of her.  

Fun Fact of the Day: Based on Horikoshi-sensei’s comment of the week, Lady Nagant and her curve bullet are actually based off the 2008 film Wanted staring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie (he even thanked Ms. Jolie!)!  I decided to IMDB the film to see if I remembered it and it turns out that I have actually seen a little of it before.  You know that gif of McAvoy smacking Chris Pratt’s face with a keyboard and the loose keys spell out “Fuck You”?  Yeah, that’s from Wanted.  Also, the curved bullet Horikoshi is talking about is when Jolie manages to “curve” a bullet enough to kill a group of assassins who were standing in a circle.  Look, I don’t know if physics can actually make that work in real life, but I’ll be damned if that doesn’t sound badass.

Back to the story, we have a bit of flashback to an old TV special that interviewed 100 active Noteworthy Heroes.  The 25th Pro Hero being interview is none other than Snipe, one of UA’s teachers!  It’s been a hot couple of years since we’ve seen him around.  Actually, we don’t even know if he’s alive…  Let’s assume he is and continue with the story.

Anyway, Snipe was having some good friendly competition in the Long-Range sniping with Lady Nagant back in the day.  He explains while his Quirk, “Homing” allows him to lock-on to anyone within a 600 Meter range, he can’t choose where his attack hits and the hit isn’t that powerful (Shigaraki could’ve actually gotten killed back in the USJ if Snipe wasn’t careful enough damn).  Lady Nagant, on the other hand, has a range of 3 Kilometers with insane accuracy.  I did some quick calculations and it turns out that 3KM = 3,000M!  That’s 5 times farther than what Snipe can do.  That is absolutely nuts!

Lady Nagant’s Quirk is called “Rifle”!  Turns out that the secret lies in her bullets made out of hair.  When she mixes her duel colored hair, it works like epoxy putty.  Epoxy putty is a substance that hardens over time.  It’s normally used as a seal for cracks and holes, and it’s both highly-resistant and unshrinkable when hardened.  So, when Lady Nagant pulls strands out of her hair to mix and mould them, she can harden that hair into a bullet which explains the dark blue and pink fibers in the speaker bullet she fired at Deku’s phone.  Apparently, she can make any kind of bullet she wants ranging from hollow bullets to curved bullets.  She can then load and fire those bullets from her rifle into her right arm.  God, there’s so much potential for a Quirk like this.  The only limit I can think of for this Quirk is if she runs out of hair for bullets similar to how if Ibara Shiozaki from Class 1-B (or 2-B now I guess) would run out of hair to use her Vines.  I wonder if Lady Nagant using her hair so much is the reason why it’s shorter now than when she was a hero.

I gotta say, I think this is one of the coolest and unique Quirks Horikoshi has come up with in a while.  It’s just so unique and imaginative!  I don’t think I could ever come up with an idea like this.  I like that her Quirk is almost like a 2-in-1 thing: the putty hair and the rifle in her arm.  They’re both different functions that work in tandem together.  I also love Nagant hero outfit!  She was rocking the long ponytail work, had a visor and antenna on her right eye for accuracy, and a belt holding her hair bullets.  She’s also freakin’ stacked as hell, but I’ll let this one slide because her design is so freaking great.  

Back to the present, Deku managed to catch the bullet, but his left gauntlet has been damaged.  So, it looks like Deku won’t be punching with his left arm unless All Might has some backup Mid-Gauntlets.  Thankfully he’s found out where Lady Nagant is based on where she shot from just twice.  She’s only about 1KM away and Deku wants to get in closer.  God, Deku is so freaking smart.  I want to know his IQ because it must be insanely high for him to figure out where a trained sniper would be after just 2 bullets.  Nagant also says that Deku’s the first one to deflect 2 of her bullets, so yeah, goddamn Deku!

Now we’re finally getting a look at Overhaul (I’m cool with calling him by his villain name instead of his real name for now btw).  Dude’s broken.  Just completely mentally broken.  I don’t think he even notices Deku.  All he can think about is how he wants to go back to his adoptive father, Eri’s grandfather, the man Overhaul put in a coma.  I thought that Overhaul would be confronting Deku himself, but it looks like he can’t.  Maybe him not being able to get his father out of his coma traumatized him real bad with a lot of guilt.  He probably wants to go back to try to heal his dad.  If he can do that, again, I wonder how now that his Quirk probably functions somewhere else besides his hands.

Anyway, Lady Nagant is kind of protecting Overhaul for now.  She most likely has a plan for him later since she mentions helping Overhaul as soon as she’s done with Deku.  Overhaul would be a useful ally since his Quirk can literally destroy and restore matter both living and non-living.  There’s also that glowing effect on her arm again.  If it’s not a taser like I thought before, then maybe it’s some kind of strength enhancer her Quirk gives her.  That arm gun has to be heavy.  IDK it’s not really explained.  

Flashing back to the Tartarus Prision Break, AFO and his ugly mug are talking to Nagant, calling her the “Traitor Hero” and how it’s an honor to meet her.  Again, Lady Nagant’s skills must be incredibly high enough to be recognize by AFO.  Also, her turning her back on Hero Society must’ve been a big story at the time.

AFO tells Lady Nagant of his plan to capture Deku as he predicted this earlier.  So, either AFO is stupidly good at predicting things or he has a future-sight Quirk like Nighteye had.  I want to say it’s the latter since AFO probably did pick up a Quirk like that sometime in the past.

Lady Nagant originally refused to listen to AFO in a very sassy way LOL!  But, AFO seems to have made a deal with her.  He even mentions that Nagant killed many of her fellow heroes to cause the fall of Pro-Hero Society.  Yeah, killing your fellow colleagues will definitely get you sent straight to Tartarus…  I REALLY need to know what made her turn to the Dark Side Anakin Skywalker style.

Also, personal theory that I highly doubt is true, but I wonder if Lady Nagant is the real “UA Traitor” not any of the students.  If she can make bullets that she can remotely talk through, then she could probably make bullets that can eavesdrop on people.  Maybe she listened in on UA and told the LoV about the training camp.  Or she was locked in Tartarus before then and I’m just projecting my hopes/fears onto her.  That could be it too.

Actually, I just realized that she could probably wrap objects around her bullets and fire them.  So, she probably wrapped a speaker around her hair and that’s how she remotely spoke to Deku.  Eh, she could still wrap some listening device around her hair and eavesdrop that way.  I’m just Pepe Silvia’ing the possibilities of Rifle at this point.

AFO uses Overhaul as an example of someone who became a victim of Pro-Heroes.  This give him enough leverage to make a deal with Lady Nagant.  So, as part of the contract, AFO granted her his Air Walk Quirk!  On paper, a passive Quirk like Air Walk doesn’t seem very useful.  But, this series has proved to us time and time again that passive/support Quirks can be just as/if not more amazing than raw-powered Quirks.  So, a Quirk like Air Walk can get Lady Nagant to so many places for her to fire her bullets.  It’s an incredibly useful Quirk for a sniper.  I do wonder what the limits of it are (because all Quirks have some sort of limitation), but I guess we’ll find that out later.  I really do wonder how Deku’s going to handle Lady Nagant and Overhaul though.  That’s going to be interesting.

Oh boy, that the chapter!  Solid chapter per usual.  Gah, my fingers hurt after typing so much.  I’m glad we got to know more about Lady Nagant!  She was a mystery for weeks, but we finally got some backstory on her.  So, some answers, but a lot of questions are left behind.  I’m actually glad we’re still sticking with Deku so far.  I still want to see Bakugo and Shoto, but we also haven’t gotten a purely Deku-centric arc for a while, so this is good.  Horikoshi truly doesn’t miss!  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to be screaming about the next anime episode and Shoto Todoroki sakuga for the next week I will not apologize.         

Me @ Horikoshi every chapter:

Also, this is the Wanted scene I was talking about before:

[softboywriting]

Healing Touch | Doctor Shawn AU

Summary: Starting a new job in a new town is hard, but meeting someone like Shawn is going to change all of that. You didn’t move to Twin Pines looking for love, in fact, you thought you were pretty happy with your fiance. But things change in the blink of an eye, everything is not as it seems and you and Shawn will need each other to heal. [fluff] [angst] [mentions of bad relationships] [doctor!shawn] [nurse!reader]

Word Count: 23k

|Masterlist In Bio|

The bright early morning sun shines off the snow outside your bedroom window. The room is aglow with soft yellow and orange light as it fills the nearly empty room and it's white walls. You lay there, staring at the ceiling and feeling nervous, excited, eager to start the day. You had arrived in Twin Pines yesterday night, having flown into the nearest city of Southgate. From there you took an hour long cab ride through the darkest highway across the middle of nowhere in the snow to small town of Twin Pines. Today is the start of a new adventure, a new life with a new job.

You run your hand over your mess of hair and sigh softly. It was hard sleeping without your fiance, Ben. He was still back home, looking for a job in Southgate here before he made the move with you. It wasn't ideal, and frankly you didn't understand why he needed to wait. There was plenty of money for the two of you to live on while he job searched. But Ben was stubborn and insisted on staying behind until he was sure of employment. You look at your phone and there's no missed messages. Ben must still be asleep.

You get up and go through your morning routine, breakfast, bathroom, and a shower before getting dressed in your pink scrubs and putting your coat on to head out to go to work. It's your first day and you had seen the small clinic on the way into town last night. It wasn't far from your place and you're grateful because you won't have a car until it arrives with all your stuff with the moving service.

The bell over the clinic door jingles as you step in. The small lobby is clean, modern and warm. The cozy tones of the waiting chairs and decor combined with the soft smell of vanilla is incredibly inviting. You look around for a receptionist, or even another nurse since they often did double duty in small places like this. “Hello?” You call softly, peeking into a door on your left. It's so quiet you wonder if anyone is truly there.  

“Hello!” A male voice cheers from down the hall behind the reception desk. A young man appears, about your age, maybe a year or two older, and as he gets closer you realize he is very attractive. Tall, dark wavy hair, brown eyes and a strong jawline with gorgeous defined features. He's dressed in fitted black slacks and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. You can't help but wonder why he's working in a doctors office and not on a runway or for a fashion magazine.

“Hi,” you raise your hand and wave awkwardly. “I'm supposed to meet with Doctor Mendes? I'm the new nurse.”

The man grins and comes around the desk to stand before you. He is so damn tall, like at least a foot taller than you. “You're looking at him. You can call me Shawn.” He holds his hand out and you take it. It's strong and warm as he shakes it in yours.

“You're a lot younger than I imagined.”

“Thank you.” He laughs and runs a hand through his hair, fluffing it and making it look even more like he just walked off a photoshoot. “Let me show you the place.”

An hour later and Shawn has given you the full tour of the small clinic. He showed you each room and where it's supplies were. He took you to the office and showed you the filing and his desk. He explained that he shares the clinic with an older man, Doctor James Hudson who's semi retired and works the weekends. Shawn gives you a run down on everything you needed to know. It seems nice and quiet. A complete change of pace from your last job.

______________________

“So, what made you want to move to the pines?” Shawn asks over lunch. He bought lunch from the diner down the street and brought it back for the two of you.

“Just needed a change of pace. My fiance and I have been looking to move out of our hometown for a while and my old job at a clinic there was going to be gone in a few months. The place was closing down and it was find a new job or be out of work. The offer here was great and housing was affordable in this area. I was excited to start a new job, a new adventure in my life.”

“Was?” Shawn asks over a bite of his sandwich. “You said “I was excited.” Are you not now?”

You shrug. “The town is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I don't think Ben is going to like it here.”

“Ben is your fiance?” He asks and you nod. “I promise it's a nice place. It is definitely quiet but there is plenty to do. Is Ben not here now?”

“No.” You look at your phone and see a reply to your good morning text. “He's back home still. He wanted to get a job before moving up here.”

“In Twin Pines? Or just the city?”

“City. He does construction.”

Shawn nods and polishes off his lunch. “Well, I hope he gets here soon. You seem pretty down.”

You crack a little smile. “Gee thanks.”

He chuckles and shakes his head. “I’m just being observant. But really, I hope he gets here soon.”

_______________________

Your first two weeks pass in the blink of an eye. For a small town the clinic was fairly busy. You ended up meeting a lot of residents and they are all very friendly despite being ill or injured. Shawn is sweet, an absolute pleasure to work with. He's funny, smart, kind. He loves to teach you, to have you sit in with him if it's not too busy at the front. He says he wants you to be like his partner, to suggest things and give your input on diagnosis. It's wonderful and you really feel like he is doing a lot to make you feel included.  

It's Friday night, your fifteenth day in town and your stuff finally arrives. There had been some delay due to weather on the drive there. So for the two weeks you were sleeping on a fold out cot that the landlord lent you and living out of a suitcase.

Ben hasn't replied to you all day and you're exhausted. You had been texting him asking about how his job hunt was going. About how the moving company was finally arriving. How your lunch from the diner was really good and you think he'll like it. All that and he didn't say a single thing in return. You decide to call him but as soon as you do, the movers arrive.

Several hours later and your house is sort of put together. It's a haphazard mess of boxes and furniture placed in general spaces where they might belong. You're too tired to care about moving anything so you head to bed. You would call Ben in the morning.

________________________

Loud knocking wakes you from a deep sleep. It was lovely to have your own bed to sleep on again. You were finally getting some good rest and someone had to ruin it. You get up and put your blanket around your shoulders for extra warmth as you head to the front door.

“Hey,” Shawn says with a smile and a wave as you open the door. “Good morning.”

“Good morning? Can I help you?”

He chuckles. “Actually I came to help you. You said the movers were arriving yesterday and I figured since Dr. Hudson is at the clinic on the weekends, I could come help you out.”

You smile and get butterflies flutter in your stomach. Shawn was really this sweet of a guy. “Wow, thank you. You don't have to do that.”

Shawn shrugs. “I know how hard it is to move on your own. So can I come in?”

“Of course sure,” you hold the screen door open and he steps inside, thumping his boots against the door frame so he doesn't track in snow. “How'd you know which place was mine?”

“You said you moved into the townhomes up the street from the clinic. There was only one place for rent that wasn't anymore. I put two and two together.”

“Oh.” You run your hand over your messy sleep hair and laugh. “It's definitely a small town huh?”

Shawn nods and hangs his coat on the hooks beside the door and you can see he's dressed in dark jeans and a soft looking red flannel shirt that stretches with his toned back as he moves. He looks good. Damn good. You look away, chastising yourself because he was your coworker and you have a fiance. You should not be ogling this man.

“Let's get going yeah?”

“I need to get dressed first and have some food but make yourself comfortable. There's some books in the box by the TV stand.” You drop your blanket from your shoulders on to the couch and Shawn chuckles. “What?”

“Your pajamas have ducks on them.”

“Yeah? They're comfortable.”

“It's cute.” He leans against the back of the couch. “I'm used to seeing you in your scrubs. It's different is all.”

“Right,” you look down and pull your shirt out to look at it. “Thanks? I'm going to go get dressed now.”

“I'll be out here. Promise I won't snoop through any boxes.” Shawn laughs and you roll your eyes as you head to your room to get dressed.

_________________________

A few hours later and you're completely unpacked. Everything's in its place and Shawn even helped you rearrange your living room a little. The two of you find out you have a very similar taste in movies and music. Talking with Shawn is easy, natural and comfortable. You get so comfortable that when the two of you are done and collapsed on the couch together you ask his opinion on your situation with Ben.

“Do you think it's weird Ben hasn't been texting me or anything?”

“What do you mean? I see you on your phone at lunch all the time.”

“Usually I'm just texting him about my day. He doesn't reply back.” You stare at the ceiling, making little designs in your head out of the swirled paint. “I’m worried something has happened.”

“Something bad?”

“Yeah, but if that were the case his dad would call me. So I dunno, it's just weird.”

Shawn turns a bit to look at you and you tilt your head to the side to look at him. “Communication is really important. If he isn't talking to you, that sounds like something is wrong. Did you guys have an argument or something?”

“No, I can't think of anything. I'm just confused I guess. It's hard being here alone and not knowing anyone. I mean, I know you now obviously. But you know what I mean.”

“I do. I was new here once too. I totally understand the feeling.”

“When did you move here?”

“Almost a year ago. I finished up med school and after finalizing my divorce I packed up and left the city. James, Dr. Hudson, was looking to semi retire and I was looking for a fresh start.”

Your eyes widen. Shawn was so young. The word divorce throws you for a loop. “You were married? You're like what, twenty five?”

“Twenty seven, and yes I was married. It was,” he pauses, chuckles and shakes his head “it was a huge mistake. We were twenty one and stupid. She...uh...she left me for a guy almost twice my age.”

“Oh my God.” You lay your hand on his arm. “That's insane.”

“It was pretty shitty there for a while. We had been married for a year almost. The divorce took way longer than I would have liked, but that's because she moved to the other side of the country with her sugar daddy.” He rolls his eyes. “It's done now though. I made it through med school and got out of there. I got a fresh start here.”

“That’s great, I'm glad you came out okay. But y'know this story isn't really helping ease my anxiety about Ben.”

“Fuck. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to tell you that to insinuate that Ben is being shady like my ex or something.”

“Oh I know. But it is something I've considered, though I don't really think he would do anything like that. I've known him since I was sixteen. He is probably just busy.”

“Doesn't matter how long you know someone. I learned that lesson too. You should call him. If you're feeling uneasy, talk to him. I'll head out so you can call.” Shawn pushes up off the couch and goes for his coat. “Thanks for letting me help out. It was fun.”

“No, I should thank you. I would still be unpacking for days of you hadn't stopped by.”

“I'll see you on Monday.” He says as you hold the door open for him. “Oh, and about your question earlier.”

“Which one?”

“The one about printed scrubs. I don't mind if you wear them. I like the ones with the roses on them.” He smiles and steps down the porch, heading for his Jeep. “See you later!”

“Bye!” You wave and close the door. Was he flirting with you? Or was he just being genuinely complimentary? He knew about Ben. He knew he was your fiance. No. You're just reading into it.

________________________

You call Ben that evening and lay across your bed while the phone rings and rings. You're a little annoyed, considering it's too early for him to be in bed, but not too late, he could be out with friends. Finally on your third call he answers.

“Babe what's up?”

“What's up? I've been texting you for two days. What gives?”

“Hold on I can't hear you.” He goes quiet and you wait. “Okay, now I can hear. What'd you say?”

“I said I wanna know why you haven't been responding to my texts?”

“Oh shit, I'm sorry. I lost service for a few days. My bill didn't auto pay or something.”

You narrow your eyes at that bullshit. “So when was your phone turned back on?”

“It must have been just tonight. I hadn't checked it all day.” There is sounds of a couple people laughing loudly in the background. “I'm on the phone! Be quiet!”

“Where are you?”

“Dave’s party for his engagement. Him and Sarah are finally going to tie the knot.”

“Oh.” You are kind of annoyed. Why hadn't Sarah told you? The two of you were pretty good friends through Dave and Ben. “I didn't know.”

“Sarah must have forgotten to text you. Anyway, can I talk to you later? They're about to start beer pong and I have to be on Dave's team.”

Really? He was prioritizing beer pong over his fiance who he hasn't spoken to in days. “Yeah. Sure. Call me tomorrow.”

“No problem. Good night babe!”

You drop the phone and let it fall to the bed beside you. Something about all this felt wrong. Sarah would have told you about the engagement. Ben wouldn't have lost service because the bill is paid out of his credit card and you're on the same plan but pay with different accounts so you know if he lost service you would have too. He's lying and you're pissed.

__________________________

Monday you wear your rose printed scrubs to work. Shawn notices immediately and grins the moment you walk in the doors. He knows you're wearing them because he said he liked them and he's right. The day is busy, and for that you're grateful. It's not until lunch that you realize Ben hasn't replied to your texts again, even after the conversation you had Sunday afternoon when he called you back.

“What's wrong?” Shawn asks over the table you're sat together at in the diner.

“Nothing.” You set your phone on its face and smile at the waitress as she drops off your drinks. “It's fine.”

“No, come on. That face says not fine. Is it Ben?”

“Yeah...he's just...he's being weird. I called him on Saturday night after you left and he was at some party and then I talked to him Sunday too. Nothing he told me added up and I'm irritated.”

Shawn leans back and folds his arms over his chest. “What'd he say?”

“He said his phone was shut off and the party he was at was for our friends engagement. But I know the service was fine because we're on the same plan, and our friends didn't text me anything about the engagement. Then on Sunday I asked him about finding a job and he said he had been looking but there was no openings anywhere. But just Friday when Josh Hammond was in he said they are short handed at some construction site in the city and he didn't want to be late for work. I just don't know why Ben would be lying.”

“Did you check Facebook or anything to see of the engagement was legit?”

“Yeah,” you turn your phone over and bring up your Instagram. “That's another thing. I think Ben blocked me, and so did Sarah and Dave. I don't know what's going on.”

“That's is definitely a red flag. Have you call your friends?”

“No, I didn't want to seem like that crazy fiance who is untrusting of her partner.”

Shawn scoffs and rolls his eyes. “There's a fine line between paranoid and something actually going on and trust me, you're on the side with the signs pointing to some sketchy shit.” He leans forward and takes a drink. “If I were you, I'd go back home and try to get some more information while no one knows you're in town.”

“I...I'm scared though. What if Ben is cheating on me?”

“Then good riddance. I sincerely hope that isn't the case because you absolutely do not deserve to go through that kind of heartache. It's shitty. But you need to know what's going on.”

“But I need to be at work.”

“As your boss, I'm giving you time off to go take care of this. Find out what's going on so you can move forward with your life.”

You sigh and turn your phone off, putting it in your purse. The server arrives with your food and you smile at her in thanks. “I'll check into flights tomorrow.”

“Seriously. I hope it's nothing bad going on and he's just trying to surprise you or something. But either way, you need to know.”

“Right. Thanks by the way. For the time off and stuff.”

Shawn smiles around a bite of his burger and covers his mouth with his napkin. “You're welcome.”

__________________________

Unfortunately due to an impending snow storm, the next available flight out of the city won't be until next Monday. It's fine. You'd just have to go crazy with your thoughts while stuck in a blizzard in the middle of nowhere. It was really, really fine.

Wednesday. The snow starts in the early morning hours and by the time you wake up for work there is already four inches on the ground on top of the snow that was there already. The snow shows no signs of stopping and you can't even see across your backyard to the treeline a few yards away.

You check your phone when you get out of the shower to find Shawn has texted you that the clinic would be closed today. Wonderful. You wouldn't even have work to distract you now. Just perfect. You get dressed in some sweatpants and an old tee shirt since the only thing you'll be doing is binge watching TV and maybe cleaning the place a little.

A knock at your door shortly after you finish breakfast, a pop tart, half a pint of ice cream and two cups of coffee, makes you think that you've lost your mind. Surely no one was going to be out in the middle of the snow storm. It had to be the screen door rattling in the wind again.

The knock comes again and this time you look out the peephole to see who it is. All you see is a bulky scarf and some chin. You open the door and find Shawn bundled up to his eyeballs standing on your front porch.

“What in the hell are you doing?”

“Visiting.”

“At nine on a Wednesday morning during a blizzard?”

Shawn looks back at the snow falling heavily, whiting out the world as you know it. “Nah, this isn't a blizzard yet. Just heavy snow.”

“Either way! Why are you here? Don't you have a couch of your own to lay around on all day? Or some paperwork to go over?”

“Nope. See, there's this girl and she is going through a rough time right now. And I know she wants answers but this snow storm is making it kind of hard. So I thought maybe I should stop by and keep her from going insane.” He grins at you and you just cannot believe what a dork he is. “I'd really appreciate it if she let me in. I kind of walked across town to see her.”

“Oh my god, come on then,” you laugh as you hold the door open for him to step in.

Shawn sheds his layers slowly and you hang his coat and puffy black coveralls over a chair you drag to the entryway. He puts his hat and scarf on the hooks by your coat and he kicks his boots off on the shoe tray.

“You're ridiculous.” You shake your head, watching him do a little stretch. “You should have just stayed home. I'm fine.”

“Somehow I doubt that, and that's why I'm here.”

Hours later and you and Shawn have watched two movies, eaten a few bowls of popcorn, some sandwiches and a bag of cheese puffs between the two of you. It's well into the late afternoon and you're feeling tired, sluggish from the lazy day.

“How's your family like Ben?” Shawn asks just as you start to doze off.

“I thought we weren't supposed to be talking about him. You're supposed to distract me from that.”

“I know, it just, I dunno. You could have your parents check on him?”

You shake your head and laugh. “My parents would rather push him off a bridge than talk to him for any length of time.”

“That bad?”

“My parents always wanted better for me. That's what they say anyway. They don't think Ben is going anywhere in life. They think he parties too much and acts like he's eighteen.”

“Does he?”

“No? Well I guess sometimes? He's just having fun. It's not like he's not working, he just goes out on the weekends with friends.”

“Do you go with him?”

“Not usually. I'm not that into house parties and stuff anymore. I'm usually pretty tired from work and I have errands to run.”

Shawn shakes his head. “What do you and him do together?”

You're quiet. It wasn't until now that you realize you're not really sure what you and Ben have in common anymore. In college you would go to parties and drink and play games, but that was college. You can't remember the last time the two of you went out for dinner or just sat in and watched a movie like today. “I...don't know.”

“I'm not a like a relationship counselor or anything, but I think you guys need to reconnect. Maybe the distance isn't so bad for him because you weren't as close as you once were before you left? Have you wondered about breaking up? I'm not say you should, but I mean in the event that he wants to or if you do?”

You lean your head back and close your eyes. It's hard to think about. You and Ben have known each other since you were sixteen, been together for five years and engaged for almost one of them. But...this move, the new job, meeting Shawn, it's made you see the cracks. Ben never wanted to talk about a wedding, never wanted to plan beyond the ring. Why propose to someone and then not want to have a wedding? Then there's this whole game of phone tag and social media fallout. The cracks are getting wider and you're starting to see through them. Soon it's all going to fall apart.

“I think you're right.” You look over at Shawn and he raises his eyebrows. “I think we need to talk and find out where this is going. If he...if he loved me he would have moved and found a job here by now right?”  

“I can't say for sure and honestly I don't know.”

“If your fiance moved for a new job, would you go with them?”

“Yeah, but that's me. I have a job that can find work nearly anywhere.”

“Yeah...so does he.” You reach for the remote and turn up the volume. You're done talking about Ben. It's too much. You want to enjoy the rest of your snow day and forget the rest of the world.

__________________________

Friday. You called Ben before work. It's always you calling him. He never calls you first. You talked to him about your last few days, carefully omitting the fact you hung out with Shawn. It wasn't that you wanted to hide your friendship with Shawn, it's just you know how Ben is. He will get jealous and start comparing himself to Shawn. Now you think about it, maybe you should mention him and see how Ben reacts.

“What're you doing tonight, ducky?” Shawn asks, leaning against the front desk before his next appointment arrives, his biceps straining against the sleeves of his red button down. God he was fit.

“Ducky?” You raise your eyebrows.

“Your scrubs, they have baby ducks on them.” Shawn points to your top. “They're cute.”

You look down and smile. “They're my favorite pair. I love the little yellow ducklings.”

“They definitely are very adorable. So what're you doing after work?”

“Nothing. Probably laying on my couch and watching reruns of NCIS.”

“Want to hang out with me?”

“Sure.” You smile big. This would be the perfect opportunity to get a reaction from Ben and see what he thinks about Shawn. He still followed you on Snapchat so you could post a photo or something to your story. “What are you thinking?”

“There is a bar by the park that has really good food. Ever have fried pickles?”

“No? What the hell is that a thing?”

“You're gonna love it.” Shawn turns and you look up as your three o'clock appointment has arrived. “See you at closing time?”

You chuckle and roll your eyes. “Yes, but I have to go home an change before we go out.”

“Me too. Meet at my place? It's pretty close to where I want to take you. It's nothing fancy though, so don't get too dressed up.”

“It's not a date! I am not gonna get dressed up!”

“Yeah I know, but like the place is a bar and grill. Nothing fancy. Just...thought I'd warn you.”

“Maybe you just can't handle me being all dressed up.” He looks surprised and you wave him off. “I'm kidding. Nothing around here is fancy enough for me to get dressed up for so don't worry. I'll meet you at your place around five.”

__________________________

At just before five you find yourself walking up to Shawn's house and his garage is open. You'd only been by once before and it was to drop off a book you borrowed. In the garage there is a black and red sport bike. It's one of those expensive ones racers used. Not something you'd expect to see in the garage of a sweet friendly doctor.

Shawn steps out of the door to the house and waves at you. “Hey, you made it. Did you walk?”

“Yeah. I figured why waste the gas.”

“Ah, whatcha looking at?” He chuckles as he looks to where you're gawking at the bike. “My bike?”

“Yeah. You don't seem the type.”

“My dad and I rebuilt that a few years ago. He got it really cheap one summer for my birthday because I always wanted one. I used to go dirt bike racing when I was a teenager.” He lifts his sweater and shows your his lower stomach where there's a thin scar up his side. “Flipped over the handlebars when I was sixteen and the bike came down on me. That was a nasty accident.”

“Ohmygod, that’s horrible.” You run your fingers over the scar and he giggles, shirking away instinctively. “Oh sorry, does it hurt?”

“Tickles.” He grins and leads you to the doorway before putting in the code to close the door. “Maybe when the weather isn't too cold I'll take you for a ride.”

“Oh yeah? With a scar like that I'm not sure I want to ride with you.”

“Oh come on,” he laughs and unlocks his Jeep. “I'm a much better driver now.”

“Uh huh sure.”

A short while later you find yourself in a little booth at the bar Shawn mentioned. It's right across from the park and you sit by the windows to get a good view of the lit up trees lining the path that circled it. It's beautiful. Like twinkling stars had landed in the trees of this tiny town.

“You're flying out Monday right?”

You look away from the lights and stare at the man across from you. He has no business looking so attractive under the dim golden light of the lamp overhead. Everything about Shawn was gorgeous, from his eyes to his lips, his ears to his shoulders. Everything. It's hard not to feel something for him. “Yeah. Monday at noon.”

“Good.”

“Maybe I shouldn't go though. Maybe I should wait longer.”

Shawn picks up a mozzarella stick out of the basket of appetizers in front of the two of you. He had ordered the combo so you could try everything. “Don't get cold feet now. You need to know what's going on. You can't be stressed for much longer, it's not good for you. Trust me. I'm a doctor.”

You roll your eyes. “I'm just worried I'm paranoid.”

“You're not. Believe me, from a guy who's been cheated on and dumped, it's best to trust your gut. Don't make excuses for Ben.”

“But-”

“Ah!” Shawn shoves a fried pickle in your mouth and you make a noise of surprise and annoyance. “I'll drive you to the airport if I have to. You're going. That's that.”

You swallow your pickle and take a drink of water. God damn it was spicy. “Fine. I'm going.”

He smiles smugly then points out the window to a horse drawn carriage that's trimmed with Christmas lights. “Check it out. They have the horses out.”

Your eyes go wide. It's beautiful, like Cinderella's carriage but with blue and white lights. “Oh my God! I've always wanted to ride in one of those.” The horse trots on by with a family in the carriage that are looking at the tree lights and decorations around the park.

“Why don't we take a ride? It's like six dollars.”

“What? No, I mean, can we?”

Shawn dusts his hands off and laughs. “Of course we can. Let's finish up here and I'll take you to the place where they sell tickets. I think it's runs until nine so we got time.”

You sit back in your seat, grinning like a kid. Ever since you were little you had wanted to ride in one of those. There was one that used to run in town during Christmas time when you were in college but Ben never wanted to go on it. This was going to be perfect.

The carriage ride is everything you hoped and more. The wind settled down and it's a chilly crisp night. Shawn is sat beside you, arm over the seat behind you, taking it all in as you are. His body heat keeps you nice and warm.

“This is amazing. I'm just at a loss for words.” You snap a picture of some giant ornaments on the park lawn. “I've always wanted to feel like a princess on her way to the ball.”

“And you should get to.”

“It's childish though isn't it?”

“No. It's not childish to want to feel a certain way and it's definitely not childish to do something you've always wanted to do.”

You turn your phone and point it at him. He grins big and goofy for you. You snap the photo and he laughs. “You're fun y'know.”

“You are too.”

“Thank you. For everything, I don't know what I would have done without having you to talk to.”

“You're welcome, and I'm always here.”

The carriage comes to a stop and the two of you get ready to get out. There's a lady standing by the ticket booth who is one of the people who run the attraction. She waves as she comes to help you and Shawn down safely. “Would you like a picture together with the carriage?”

You look to Shawn and he shrugs, leaving it up to you. “Sure, I wanna remember my first carriage ride forever.”

You pass your phone over to the lady and she backs up to take the picture. Shawn steps closer and puts his arm around your shoulders. On the count of three you grin big and cheesy. The lady gives you back your phone and you look at the picture. Shawn is grinning just as big and dorky. It's a cute photo and you can't wait to post it to your Snapchat.

__________________________

Monday you head to the airport in the city. Shawn stopped by before he opened the clinic to wish you well. You're nervous. Nobody responded to your Snapchat story with you and Shawn and photos from the carriage. You're not sure if that's a good thing or not. But what makes you the most nervous is finding out the truth.

Two hours later and you're on a flight home. You're sick, throwing up from nerves in the plane's bathroom. This is horrible. You don't want to go home. You don't want to find out what's going on. The plane lands and you head straight to Ben's apartment. It was better to get this over with as soon as possible.

You take a cab to his place and ask them to wait. You're not sure why. You have a hunch he isn't there. You enter the door code and head up to his place.

“Hello?” A man asks, opening it and you realize it is not Ben. “Can I help you?”

“I’m sorry. I was looking for Ben Grayson. He used to live here?”

“Oh. Well, I just moved in two weeks ago. Sorry.”

“Right. I'm sorry for bothering you.”

“No problem. Hope you find him.” The guy shrugs and closes the door with a soft smile.

You turn and face the elevator doors and sigh. Ben moved. He moved and didn't tell you. Was he heading for Twin Pines? No. He's been out of this place for two weeks at least.

You head out and get in the cab, asking the driver to take you to Shirley's Diner. Ben's sister Megan worked the day shift there. She would know where he is. You don't particularly want to let anyone know you're in town but you aren't sure where else to look for Ben.

“Megan!” You call out as you take a seat at the vintage counter in the diner. The girl at the end of the counter turns and looks at you like she was seeing a ghost.  

“Holy crap, you came back?”

“Yeah, not permanently. I'm looking for Ben. He moved out of his apartment?”

“What do you want to talk to Ben about?”

“He's been acting weird and not answering calls and he still hasn't moved to Twin Pines. I wanted to find out if something was wrong.”

Megan leans in and drops her voice. “Are you okay? Did you hit your head?”

“No? Why?”

“Because you and Ben broke up? When you left you called it quits. He said you didn't think he fit into this new chapter in your life.”

“What?!”

Megan shushes you. “Yeah, is that not true?”

“Megan. No. He's lying. I've been trying to get him to come up there with me. I've been calling and texting like every day and he hardly responds. He blocked me on Instagram and Facebook. So did Dave and Sarah.”

“Oh...shit. I knew it seemed weird, like, you guys were engaged.” Megan grabs her notepad and scribbles something down. “This is Ben's new address. But...”

“But what?”

“He might have company.”

“Oh you have to be kidding me.” Your stomach churns and you thank Megan as you make for the doors. The address on the paper isn't too far from the diner so you decide to walk, to rehearse what you're going to say to the lying cheating bastard.

Ben's car is on the side of the street and you debate going full Carrie Underwood on it before you see the security camera on the building. You made decent money, but not enough to get yourself out of the trouble that would put you in.

You put in the door code that Megan gave you with the address and sure enough you get in. Ben's apartment is on the first floor and you head straight for it, counting the doors as they pass until you get to number seven. Two sharp knocks on the door and you step to the side out of view of the peephole.

The door locks rattle and then the door opens. You step forward and watch as Ben's face goes white. You thought Megan looked like she had seen a ghost, Ben may as well have seen a zombie.

“Hey, new place huh?” You smile sarcastically. “Funny, I thought you couldn't afford a different place with your income alone.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh no Ben. The real question is what are you doing here?” You look around the hall which is nicer than his entire last apartment. “What are you doing in a new apartment on the west side of town? Why aren't you in Twin Pines with me?”

“Well, I just had to move because of the uh...the rent. So I moved in with a friend. I-I’m still trying to find work in Twin Pines. I told you that.”

You step forward and he holds on to the door for dear life. He's hiding something. “Right, right. Well I happen to know that in Southgate they're short on construction workers. Seems a man of your abilities would be able to benefit from that. Y'know, if you had actually looked into a job up there. But you haven't, have you?”

Ben rolls his eyes and you could just punch him square in the mouth. “I don't qualify for tho-”

“Oh cut the shit Ben! I know you lied to everyone that we broke up when I left. Your sister told me the whole fucking story.” You shove the door open and on the couch just beyond the entryway you see a blonde girl looking your way. “Yeah. Figured that one.”

“Listen I-”

You hold your hand up. “No. There is nothing you can say that will fix this. You cheated on me, and for God knows how long if you've moved in with her.” You slide the ring he gave you off your finger and throw it on the ground. “Take your ring.” You look to the girl on the couch. “I hope you're comfortable with knowing that he's been cheating on me, his now ex fiance, the entire time he's been with you. I hope you don't have to fake it as often as I did.”

Ben steps back and you head down the hall to the doors. He says something but you don't hear him over the blood rushing to your head. You don't stop walking until you get to a bus bench around the corner. It's then that everything comes crashing down around you and your emotions get the best of you. You crumple, body deflating as you sink heavily into the metal bench.

Your phone buzzes and you look at it, expecting it to be Ben trying to talk his way out if this. It's not. It's Shawn. He wants to know if you landed okay and if you've talked to Ben yet. You hit the call button and hold the phone up to your ear.

“Hey! Did you get my text? Did you land okay? How was the flight?”

You take a shaky breath that turns into a sob. “It's over. You were right, I was right.”

“Oh no. You've already seen him? What happened? Where are you? Are you okay?”

“H-he lied to everyone and said we b-broke up.” You wipe your nose and try to take a deep breath. “He's been seeing someone probably since before I left.”

“For fucks sake. I'm sorry. Are you okay? Physically are you okay?”

“Y-yeah. I'm just sitting here crying at a bus stop. I'm gonna c-come home.”

Shawn sighs heavily. “I should have gone with you. God you don't deserve to be alone right now.”

“I'm fine. I'm going to go to the airport and get a flight. I don't want to be here any longer.”

“Let me know when your plane leaves. I'll pick you up in Southgate.”

“Shawn, no. You have to work.”

“James comes in at four today for urgent care hours. I will be there.”

You look around take a deep breath again, trying to get your self calmed down. “I'll see you then.”

__________________________

The second you walk into the boarding terminal leading to the main concourse of the airport you see Shawn. He's heading straight for you, eyes trained on yours as he pushes past people.

“You came.” You smile weakly.

“Of course I did.” He wraps his arms around you and that's it. It's all over and you start crying. You grip his back and he holds your head to his shoulder as you shake.  “I know, I know. It's okay, let it out.”

“I hate him,” you sob. “I hate him more than anything.”

“He's a piece of shit. You don't deserve this.” Shawn pulls back to look down at you and wipes your cheeks. “No one deserves to be screwed over, but especially not you.”

“It hurts.”

“I know. Take it one day at a time, I promise it'll get better.”

“I just want to go home.”

“I can do that. Do you have luggage?”

You gesture to the bag on your back. “Just this. I didn't plan on staying.”

“Good.”

The two of you walk out to the parking area and you don't see his Jeep. You look around just in case but there's no car in sight.

“Where's your car?”

Shawn chuckles. “About that. The Jeep wouldn't start for some reason so it's sitting in the clinic parking lot.”

“How the hell did you-” That's when you see it. The sport bike from his garage. It's sitting a few parking stalls down from the walkway you're standing on. “You brought the bike?”

“I had to come get you.”

“Shawn, I would have called a cab. It's so cold, were going to freeze.”

Shawn shakes his head and grabs the helmet off the handle. “I promised you I'd be here. We'll be fine. Here, put this on.”

“And where's yours?” You pull it on and buckle under your chin.

“That is mine. I'll be fine. I promise I won't speed.” He climbs on and scoots forward for you to sit behind him. You get on and wrap your arms around his chest, pressing your head against his back. “Ready?”

���As ready as I'm gonna be.”

Shawn moves and the bike starts up, rumbling to life beneath you. He takes off slow, heading for the parking lot gates. Once he hits the highway it's all you can do to hold on to him and that's all you want to do. Hold on to Shawn and never let go.

__________________________

One month later

Picking yourself up is hard after having the world come crumbling down around you. The echoes of the fall out haunt you day in and day out as things remind you of him constantly. You want to make new memories, and you are, but it's hard. Cutting ties with everyone but your parents back home is the hardest thing you've ever done, but somehow it feels right. Maybe Ben was a little bit right in his lies. This is a new chapter in your life and he doesn't fit in. No one from back home did.

“So, uh, what're you doing this Saturday?”

You look up from the desk and leaning on the counter is none other than Luke Dempsey, the mechanic down the street. He was a fairly handsome guy and he knew it too. Tall, fit, sandy blond hair, somehow always a little tan even in the dead of winter.

“This Saturday?”

“Yup. Got plans?”

“Not really. It's not like I can leave town with the weather coming in.”

Luke grins big, teeth too white to be natural. “How bout you and I go out for dinner?”

You take a deep breath and relax your shoulders a bit. Were you ready for this? Yes. Yes you were. You cannot let Ben haunt you. It's over. It's time to move on and live in the now. “Sure, six okay?”

“Absolutely. I'll pick you up.”

You smile and nod, waving as he leaves the office. To your right you can see Shawn step out of a patient room and give you a questioning look. You shake your head and go back to your paperwork.

__________________________

“What're you doing this Saturday?”

“I have a date.”

“What? With who?”

You look up from your salad and smile just a little. “Luke down at the auto shop.”

Shawn rolls his eyes and scoffs.

“What?”

“That guy is a tool. He's more interested in his hair and whitening his teeth than he is in a relationship. Why would you want to go out with him?”

You set your fork down and cross your arms, staring at Shawn across the table. “I thought you'd be excited I'm actually trying to move on from Ben.”

“I am, but not with that guy.”

“You got something you want to tell me?”

Shawn pushes his salad around in it's bowl, becoming very interested in his croutons suddenly. “I just don't think he's a good idea.”

“It's one date. If it's shit I won't pursue it.”

“Yeah, yeah you're right. I'm sorry.”

“What're you doing on Saturday?”

“Nothing, just wanted to see if you'd come over and watch a movie with me or something.”

“I'll have to take a raincheck.”

“Yeah,” he sighs softly and keeps eating.

You return to your lunch and there is a quiet tension between the two of you as you both finish your food in silence. You can't say you didn't expect some sort of reaction out of Shawn about the date. The two of you obviously have chemistry but you're not sure if you should date your boss, or was he just a coworker? Besides, you don't want to push boundaries.

__________________________

“So I got into working on cars because my grandpa used to take me to his shop all the time. I think it's because my mom couldn't afford a babysitter but it's cool. I learned a lot growing up.”

You smile and nod as Luke keeps prattling on about himself. Seriously the last hour has been the Luke Show. You haven't gotten a word in edgewise and it's goddamn annoying. The last time you spoke was to order, and even after you said you didn't want an appetizer, he ordered one. Then proceeded to ask why you didn't have any but no need for your response because he just kept talking.

You glance at the clock over the bar and roll your eyes. The two of you have been in this bar for an hour now. Yes. A bar. Luke's idea of a good date was taking you to O'Malley's Pub and getting you bar food and drinks made by a bartender who looks like they're eighteen. It's not going great.

“That's so funny right?”

“Hmm? Yeah.” You chuckle and sigh.

Luke tosses back the rest of his light beer, gotta watch those calories you know, and grabs his phone from his pocket. He actually answers a text. Sitting there in front of you. On a date. He texts someone and even laughs. That's the final straw.

“I think we should call it a night. I told Dr. Hudson I would help him with some paperwork tomorrow morning.” You grab your purse and slide out of the small booth.

Luke puts his hat on and lays a couple bills on the table for the tab. “Alright, I'll drive you home sweetheart.”

He could keep the pet names. You don't want to see him again if you could help it. The drive to your house is quick, it's not too far from the center of town. You slide out of his overly large truck and land in the pile of snow at the end of your driveway. He doesn't get out and help you, just leans over and says goodnight before driving off. Ugh. What a tool.

You walk up to your house and suddenly, right as you step on the porch, your feet go out from under you. One moment you're on you’re upright, the next you're on your back. A wave of nausea washes over you and you're dizzy for a moment before your head and butt begin to ache horribly. You lay there staring up at the darkened evening sky, lit up to a soft brown color from the snow reflecting back. It's cold and you feel like if you move you're going to throw up.

In your pocket your phone buzzes. You know you need to get up, that you cannot lay here. You have to check out your head and get some heat or something on your backside. Ever so slowly you reach into your pocket and get your phone, stomach revolting as your vision gets all fuzzy from the movement. You press around on the screen until you hear ringing and bring it up to your ear.

“Hello? Hello? Did you butt dial me?”

“Shawn, I fell. Can you come over?”

“What? At home?”

“I'm outside the house.”

“Oh my God. I'll be right there. Stay on the phone.”

You do as he says and after a few minutes, your butt going numb in the cold snow, you finally hear tires crunching in the snow nearby. Shawn's footsteps are unmistakable and he drops to his knees beside you, his beautiful face coming into view.

“Hey,” you smile and close your eyes. “There's ice on the steps.”

“Yeah no shit honey.” His hands go to your head and he carefully parts your hair, turning your head ever so slightly. “Are you dizzy?”

“I was. It's fading now. I didn't hit my head too hard. My body hurts though.”

Shawn slides his hands under your upper back and helps you sit up. “Your head looks okay. I'll still check for signs of a concussion. Let's get inside and I'll go over you.”

Minutes later you're stripped down to your underwear in your bedroom while Shawn looks over your back. He says there's scrapes from the cement where your lower back and butt hit. There will definitely be bruising. You feel like someone's beaten you with a baseball bat.

“I know you want to rest but I don't want to risk it. I am not seeing any signs of a serious concussion but I'd like you to stay up a while longer. I'll stay just in case.”

“Can you get me an ice pack from the freezer?”

“Of course.” Shawn gets up and goes to the kitchen.

“You were right by the way!” You shout as you put on a big tee shirt and some shorts with a little more effort than usual. “Luke is a total tool bag!”

“Oh yeah?” Shawn returns with the ice pack and you lay down with it on your back. He stretches out on the bed next to you and turns on your TV.

“Yeah. I should have gone home with you instead.”

“Hindsight is twenty twenty.”

“Sure is.” You lean your head on his shoulder and his puts his arm around your back. It's unmistakable, the way you both feel about each other. He knows you don't mean go home as in friends going to hang out at someone's house.

________________________

“How's your back?” Shawn asks from the exam room opposite your desk.

You look up and he is washing his hands in the little sink. It's been a week since you slipped and Shawn's kept a close eye on you. “It's okay. I've got a little achiness but nothing I can't manage.”

“I think I have a new prescription for you.” He walks out of the exam room and hands you a little slip of paper.

You unfold it and see it says TLC on it. “Shawn, really?”

“Yes.”

“I'm fine.”

He leans on the top of the desk, arms crossed as he stares down at you. “You need to rest. I'm serious. Doctor's orders.”

“And who's going to run check in and help get patients ready?”

“I'll get a temp or see if Rhonda will pick up a few extra days.”

“You know she only works weekends with Dr. Hudson.”

Shawn scrubs a hand over his face. “One day? Just one day of rest?”

“Are you asking or telling?”

“Depends. You wanna defy your doctor?”

“You're my doctor now huh?” You grin cheekily and he flushes at the flirtiness.

“You know what I mean. One day. Tomorrow. You're off.”

You sigh in defeat. He was right. You needed to just relax and lay down, take a hot bath and chill out. Straining your back every day wasn't helping at all. One day. You'd take just one day off...and the weekend. Dammit. That was his plan all along probably.

________________________

Sunday morning you wake up and feel much better than you have been. You took a few of the pain medication that Shawn prescribed you. Nothing too serious, just a higher dose of an advil equivalent than available over the counter. It's actually really nice to just lay in bed and not think about anything. No aches and pains. No thoughts of Ben. Nothing. Just the peaceful sound of your fan over head and the cardinals outside singing their morning song.

Christmas was coming fast and you didn't have anything for anyone. Not that you had many people to buy for anymore. Your plan was originally to have your parents fly out and visit you and Ben for the holiday. But that just didn't seem like a good idea now. You would just fly home and see them.

You look at your phone on your pillow and see Shawn's name pop up. He's texting, asking if you're up and if you want to go shopping with him in the city.

“Good morning,” you laugh as you hold the phone up to your ear. You'd much rather call Shawn than text. His voice was soothing and you quite liked when he talked, and even though you heard him talking forty hours a week, it never got old.

“Good morning to you too. Must be pretty cozy in that bed if you're still in it.”

“It's pretty warm. I've got a fuzzy blanket too. Jealous?”

Shawn laughs and you beam. “Oh definitely. So how are you feeling? Up to shopping in the city? I haven't gotten any presents yet and it's a week or so away from Christmas.”

“I'm doing a lot better. I guess my doctor was right. But shouldn't I be resting?”

“I bet your doctor knows a thing or two.” You grin at his sarcasm. Gods he was wonderful. “And I think I can convince him to let you go out.”

You laugh at his dorkiness. “I think I'm up for shopping. Funny thing is, I was just thinking about buying some stuff for my parents. I also need to look for some new snow boots, mine are pretty worn out.”

“I'll pick you up in half an hour?”

“Sure. See you then.”

Shawn brings you coffee when he shows up and he even put your favorite vanilla caramel creamer in it for you. He's the best. You sip on it while he drives toward Southgate and the two of you listen to the morning talk radio. It's a comfortable silence between you two, a sleepy and soft one as the trees whiz by with their snow covered branches. The roads have been cleared recently so the drive isn't so long, only half an hour or so.

The two of you head into the mall where Shawn has stopped and immediately you feel like you're back home, but in a good way. Being in a big city again felt strange almost.

“Anywhere you wanna go first?” You ask as Shawn strolls along the shiny tiled floor aimlessly beside you. He's in jeans and a sweater, and it's such a simple outfit but on him it's incredibly gorgeous.

“I thought about getting my mom some puzzles at the entertainment store. I'm sure they probably have a pretty good selection.”

“My mom loves puzzles too. We should definitely go there.”

As the two of you browse the game section at the big games and toys shop you can't help but wonder why Shawn hasn't shopped already. He didn't seem the type to put things off, and especially not something important like Christmas.

“I hate last minute shopping.”

Shawn looks up from the pile of board games he's looking at. “Yeah, me too. I don't usually do this sort of thing though.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I'm kind of hoping Christmas will just like...not happen?”

You chuckle and shake your head at him. “What does that even mean? You don't like Christmas?”

“Yes I like it.” He laughs. “It's just since my divorce and all the crap with my ex, my parents are always asking about my love life. Every year for the last five years I hear the same spiel. They're so worried they won't ever get more grandkids.”

“More?”

“My sister Aly, she's two years younger, she has a little daughter. But she said she doesn't want more kids after she had Grace. It was hell on her body.”

“Oh. Wow.”

Shawn waves it off. “She's okay and so is Grace. But my parents are just so invasive every Christmas. I'm tired y'know?”

You grab a puzzle with some cats on it and decide that it's definitely the best one you've seen. Your mother loves cats. “We could spend Christmas together? I'm sure the theater will be open and the chinese places here in the city?”

“I'd love to but my parents expect me. I can't not show up. You don't have plans?”

“I do but I don't? My original plan was to fly my parents here to see me and Ben. Now I think I'll just fly home and spend the holiday with them maybe.”

“Oh, yeah. I'm sorry.”

You shake your head, not wanting to dwell on Ben. “Yeah it's whatever. Come on, let's go check out the movie place and see what they’ve got on sale.”

________________________

“Hey Mendes!”  

Shawn turns around and a snowball you lob at him hits him square in the chest. The white compact snow explodes across his dark coat. “Really? A snowball fight?”

The last few days have been hectic at the office. Today was no exception. You scoop up your next projectile and he just stands there. “Yep. You need to chill out. Better duck.” You send your next one sailing and it whizzes past his head.

“Hey!”

“I said duck!”

Shawn scoops up some snow and his ball is much larger than yours. “You're gonna pay for that first one.”

“Am I? Or are you all talk?” You bounce a ball back and forth in your hands. “Gonna fight me?”

Shawn sends his flying and it explodes across your stomach. “You started this war!”

“And I'll win it!”

Shawn ducks behind his Jeep in the car lot in front of the now closed clinic. It had been a very long day, there were fifteen appointments since it was less than a week before Christmas and the clinic would be closed from Christmas Eve until the day after. Both of you were stressed to the max.

“No fair! I don't have shelter!”

“Maybe you should have driven to work!” Shawn shouts as a snowball comes for you over the hood of his Jeep. “You came unprepared!”

“Cheater! No shelter! Face me like a man!”

Shawn stands up and comes around the front, three balls in hand. “Like a man huh?”

“Yeah.” You smirk, throwing a ball and nailing him in the chest again. “Like a man.”

He strides towards you and you back up, he aims and hits you right in the leg. His next one hits your stomach and finally his last one gets you right in the forehead. The snow rains down in your eyes and on your face and you are stunned still.

“Oh shit. I didn't mean to hit your face.”

You wipe the melting snow off your face as Shawn quickly approaches mumbling apologies. He holds your head to check that you're okay. He doesn't pay attention to the ball in your hand or that it's suddenly going up the back of his coat.

“I win!” You whisper with a smirk.

Shawn shakes around, getting the snow out as it melts against his button up shirt. “You little shit!”

“I got your mind off work didn't I?” You stop him, grab the back of his coat and the snow falls out.

“You did.” He sighs. “Thank you. It was a shitty day and the holiday looming so near isn't helping either.”

“I know. You wanna come with me to Southgate? I have to pick up the bed frame I ordered the other day while we were at the mall.”

Shawn shakes his head. “I think I just want a nap and some dinner. Thank you though, and if you need help getting it out of your car let me know. I'll stop by tomorrow morning if you need me.”

“I should be good. I'll see you tomorrow.”

________________________

One moment you're singing along with the radio to some song you barely know and the next you are panicking. The steering wheel is jerking to the left as you slide down a hill and you can't control your car. You head straight for the barriers on the side of the road where a creek ran under a small bridge. You just miss the barriers and go into the snow heading for the treeline.

You don't remember the crash. You don't remember anything besides seeing the trees approaching rapidly and jerking the wheel to try and stop. When you open your eyes you are laying on the roof inside your car, a tree limb is through the window to your right.

“Fuck...fuck.” You wiggle your fingers and toes, tilt your head side to side. All basic function seems to be fine. You feel your chest and stomach, tender but no blood. Your neck hurts a little but it's not bad. Your body aches as you make a move to get up. Glass crunches under you and you maneuver yourself onto your hands and knees. The remains of your seatbelt hang in your face and you're not sure how you got out of it. It's very disorienting to be in a car this way.

You look around for your purse and find it under the tree limb that's coming through the windshield. It seems the car rolled on to the tree limb as it's pushed up through the overturned windshield. You fish out your phone with a shaky hand only to find you have no signal. Of course not. The stretch between Twin Pines and Southgate was nothing but forest and farmland and you were in the start of the valley.

You grab for the door handle and shove open the driver side door. You crawl out into the snow and collapse beside the car, vision becoming blurry and dark. Everything hurts. The only way you can describe it would be like you fell down a flight of stairs, which you did once as a kid. It's awful. Your face hurts too, like you've been sucker punched a few times. You lay there, opening your eyes and staring up at the cloudy sky overhead that threatens to bring snow at any time, thankful you're alive and trying to hold it together.

The only way you're going to get help was to get up the hill you came careening down in the car. To get there you'd have to get out of the ditch first and that sounded about as appealing as chewing your own leg off. But you have to do it. You push yourself up on your knees and use the car for leverage to bring yourself up. One look around the area and you know you're alone. There are no cars as far as the eye can see. Your car is completely fucked, even if it got towed you'd have to total it. That is the least of your worries right now though.

Ten exhausting minutes later you are at the top of the hill. You're frozen, hands red, face aching and wind burnt. Your body feels absolutely no better than it had before and your thighs are cold and tingly. You hit Shawn's name and call him first. You don't know why. Maybe because you know he can get there faster than the ambulance from Southgate. Maybe because you wanted to hear a familiar voice. Maybe because he was the only person who you needed in your life in general.

“Shawn,” you croak, voice foreign to your own ears. Your throat is dry and it hurts to talk from huffing and puffing in the crisp air. “I need you.”

“What? Where are you? Did you slip again?”

“No. My car went off the road. I'm by the bridge over the creek going to Southgate.”

“Are you okay?” his voice is panicked. “Have you called an ambulance? I'm on my way right now.”

“I hurt, but I don't think I'm too bad. I dunno.”

Keys jingle and you hear a car door close. “Call for an ambulance.”

“Shawn.”

“I'll be there shortly, as much as it kills me you have to hang up and-”

“Shawn!”

“What? What happened?”

“There's ice. Don't go too fast. Please be careful.”

“I will I promise. I'll be there as soon as I can. Hold on okay? I'm going to get you. I'm going to be there soon.”

“I'll be the crumpled heap by the road.”

“You're not making this any better y'know.”

You let out a little chuckle. This was no time to be laughing or making jokes but here you are. Coping you suppose.

“I'll see you soon. Are you warm enough? I'm going as fast as I can. I'll be there. I promise.”

“I'll be okay. Stop talking and driving before I have to come find you in a ditch too.”

“For fucks sake...Okay. Okay. I'm going to hang up now.”

As soon as you hang up on Shawn your phone flashes and the power goes off. Shit. You sink down into the snow and watch for Shawn's Jeep to approach. It'll be a while, you were about fifteen minutes out of town. The cold seeps into your skin and you shiver, body revolting against the contraction of muscles. You let out a cry, no longer able to hold back. Your strength has dwindled. Not even dry humor was going to help you now.

You look up at the sound of tires on gravel and you don't realize how long you've been spaced out but your hands hurt really bad, prickly and numb. Shawn is practically falling out of his Jeep to get to you. He runs across the snow, zero regard for the ice beneath it. You've never been happier to see him, or anyone, in your whole life.

“Oh honey,” he breaths, dropping to his knees beside you. “Look at me.” He gingerly guides your face up and he looks like he's about to cry.

“I didn't call for help.” You whisper, holding out your dead phone. “It died.”

Shawn pockets the phone and grabs your hands to warm them up. “Where's the car?” He looks around and back to you.

“Down the hill.” You point to where your car, a dark heap, lies against the tree trunks at the bottom of the hill past the creek. “I didn't have signal down there.”

Shawn's eyes widen. “Holy shit. You didn't say it rolled. You walked up here?” He helps you stand up and opens your coat. “I don't see any blood, how's your ribs? Your stomach? Are you coughing up blood or do you feel nauseous?”

“My ribs hurt. No blood, no nausea.” You lean against him for support and groan. “My body hurts.”

He wraps his arm around you and takes you to the Jeep. “I'm going to take you to the hospital. You could have internal damage. Were you wearing a seatbelt?”

“I was.” You let out a yelp as he helps you up into the passenger seat. “But when I came to I was on the roof.”

“You weren't belted in the car when it rolled?” He pulls the seat belt over your lap and latches it for you.

“I was, I just said that. I don't know how I got out of it.” You lean your head back and let your eyes close. You're tired. It hurts to breath and talk. Your head is on fire and you just can't deal with it anymore. “I just need to rest.”

“Honey, stay with me. Keep talking.”

“Tired.”

Shawn cups your face tenderly, careful not to be too rough as he forces you to look at him. “Keep talking to me. I know you're tired, but you have to stay awake. Remember? Concussions make you tired?”

“Fuck.” You tear up, eyes burning as you let your emotions get the best of you. “I'm scared Shawn. I don't want to pass out and not wake up or something.”

“I'd never let that happen.” He leans forward and kisses your forehead before closing the passenger door and going to the drivers side. He takes your hand after he gets out onto the road. “I need you to keep squeezing my hand so I know you're awake okay?”

“Yeah.” You squeeze and he rubs his thumb over your fingers. “I can do that.”

________________________

A while later you're walking through the doors of the emergency waiting room at the Southgate Memorial Hospital. Shawn gets you a wheelchair from the little cubby of them for injured patients and pushes you up to the desk. He discusses your situation with the nurse and they take you into triage for basic assessment.

Everything happens so quickly and you just do whatever Shawn and the nurse tells you to do. It's so strange, you feel like you're in fog. As if you're viewing yourself do things. You know how this works, you'll be taken to a room and the doctor will come in to see you. A nurse will check on your vitals again. You've been here, done this for three months in your training back home.

“Shawn?” You ask, looking over to where he's filling a cup at the sink. “Shawn?”

“Yes honey?” He asks, turning and taking your hand. “What's wrong? Do you need something?”

“You're a doctor.”

“Yes I am?” He tucks your hair back.

“You're my doctor. Why am I here?”

Shawn pets your hair back and you lean into his hand. “I think it's best for you right now. I'm too emotionally involved to treat you. But I'll be here.”

“Shawn, long time no see.” You look past Shawn to see a man in a white coat. “What brings you to my ER tonight?”

“Trevor. Good to see you. Well, not like this but, y'know.”

“I'm Dr. Collins,” Trevor introduces himself to you, hand on your shoulder. “Let's go over what happened.”

Four hours later and you're released. You're bruised and cut up just a little from the broken glass but overall okay. The fogginess has subsided and you feel more alert. Dr. Collins didn't find any signs of cracked ribs or internal bleeding. You're sent home with a prescription for pain medication and rest. You pass your car on the way and you feel a pang of sickness course through your stomach. Your car is destroyed. Just a hunk of metal now. That was a process you'd have to deal with later. Right now you're doing good just to deal with the reality that you could have died.

________________________

“You need to rest. Why are you out of bed?”

You startle and lean against the counter for support. Shawn gets up from your dining table to come meet you. You didn't know he stayed the night again. “It's Monday. I can go to work. I'm just bruised.”

“I won't have you in the clinic. I took today off so I can be here with you for the whole day.”

“Shawn! You can't just close the clinic!”

“I already spoke to James. He understands, and it's not closed. He's taking my hours for the day.”

“Why are you doing this?”

Shawn steps forward and holds your shoulders. “I care about you, a lot. You're my friend and you're all alone here. I cannot in good faith leave you by yourself after an accident like this. Have you talked to your parents yet?”

“No. I'll tell them later.”

“When you go home for Christmas and you're bruised all to hell?”

Tears prick your eyes and you look down. He was right. If you went home like this your parents would freak out. You don't even know if you should fly, and driving was obviously out of the question. “I guess I'll have to stay here for Christmas. I'll just tell them I'm snowed in.”

“You can come with me.”

You look up and Shawn brushes some hair off your face. He was always so gentle with you. “Go with you?”

“Yeah. Go with me to my parents house in Baytown. It's on the other side of Southgate. I'm sure they would love the company.”

“I can't do that.”

“You can. Please come with me, I'd really like to keep an eye on you.” He takes your hands and you squeeze gently. “Please?”

You look up at him and he looks so soft you can't say no. He has your whole heart and you're sure he must know it. “We'll see.”

________________________

Christmas Eve. Shawn's hand finds your thigh as you bounce your leg nervously in his passenger seat. You're almost to his parents house, it's in a small town outside of Southgate so the drive isn't much farther than going to the city. But you're anxious. It wasn't like you had a problem with meeting new people, your job required you to be pretty social. This was different though. It was Shawn's family. It felt like it had when Ben had taken you to meet his dad for the first time. But that was because you were dating and you were afraid his dad wouldn't like you. You and Shawn are not dating, so why is this a big deal? Why does it feel like you're about to meet some board of directors for judgement?

“Hey,” Shawn says softly and you tear your eyes off the road.

“Yeah?”

His thumb rubs gently against your jean covered leg. “Relax. My parents are super nice. My mom will love you, she loves company.”

“I don't know why I'm so nervous. Probably because my face is still bruised up and stuff. They're going to wonder what happened.”

“You’re fine. It's hardly visible. I promise no one will notice.”

“If you say so.” You put your hand over his and he turns it over so you can hold it. It's comfortable. Ever since the accident when he had you hold his to stay awake, you've found comfort in holding his hand. It feels warm, intimate, safe. It feels right.

The moment you arrive at his parents house, his mother runs out the door to meet him. She's all bundled up in a bright red sweater as she clamours through the snow down their lawn toward the Jeep. As soon as she sees you she stops, eyes going wide and she yells something back toward the house.

“That's my mom.” Shawn laughs and shuts off the car. “I didn’t really think about this before but she might think you're my girlfriend.”

“Oh.”

“It's okay, I'll explain the situation.”

“No.” You look over at him and he raises his eyebrows. “I'll be your girlfriend.”

“What? Are you serious? You mean just pretending right?”

“I think we both know that-”

“Shawnie! My baby!” His mother cheers as she pulls his door open and wraps her arms around him. “Who's this? You didn't say you were bringing anyone!”

Shawn turns and puts his arm around you. “This is my f-”

“Girlfriend.” You reach over, take his mom's hand and introduce yourself.

“I'm Holly, I'm so excited to meet you. Shawn hasn't had anyone over in ages. Not since his divorce. We worry about him.”

“Mom,” Shawn groans.

“I know I know. Thank you for coming.” Holly holds your hand between hers and looks you over. “And you're so beautiful! So lucky Shawn!”

“Mom.”

“Thank you.” You flush and look over to Shawn who's just as red. “I'm excited to be here.”

“Right! Come inside, it's cold out here. I've just got cinnamon rolls out of the oven.”

You meet Shawn's dad, Mike, and he is quiet but his demeanor shows just as much as excitement as Holly's. Shawn's sister is due to arrive tonight with her daughter and shortly after you're settled in, Holly says she has to go do some shopping before Aly gets there. Shawn says she's going to buy you presents, and you just roll your eyes.

“You want to be my girlfriend huh?” Shawn asks a while later when the two of you are settled down in his old bedroom that is now a guest room. His mom is still gone shopping and his dad is taking a nap in his chair. “I can't say it's not a little unexpected.”

“So you're telling me that you don't want to date me?”

“I didn't say that.”

“I think it's time we acknowledge that we're both really attracted to each other. It's more than just attraction really. You were the first person I called when I nearly died. That's something I don't even know if I would have called Ben first for. It takes a special kind of person to be the first one to be called in a time of crisis.”

Shawn steps toward the bed where you're sitting and puts his hand in your hair, thumb brushing over a small bruise on your forehead. “You're right, and I want to be that person. I want to be there for you all the time.”

“And I want you to be that person.”

You look up and he leans down, lips brushing yours, asking for permission. When you nod slightly, he presses more firmly. You fall back and he crawls over you, lips locked onto yours. Your hand goes to his hair and he growls playfully, biting and you moan softly. Kissing him is incredible, he tastes like honey chapstick and whatever he was drinking earlier. It's sweet, salty and very much like Shawn and you love it.

“Ben really fucked up,” he says, leaning up on one arm over you.

“He did?”

“Yeah. You're beautiful, and smart and unbelievably enticing.” He leans in and kisses you softly. “Can’t believe we waited so long.”

“Guess we had to sort some things out first.”

“Mmhmm, and I'm glad they're sorted now.”

________________________

Aly shows up a shortly after dinner is served. Shawn's mom had made a big salad and some rolls for every one. A light dinner before the Christmas feast tomorrow. Just when you thought you couldn't have any more feelings for Shawn, you're proven wrong. The moment Grace, Aly's daughter, runs into the house Shawn scoops her up and spins her around. He's amazing, playing with her hair and telling her a story about something that he saw at the mall. You definitely can't help thinking about having a child of your own with him.

Aly is surprised to see you. Your presence a shock to her as much as it had been his parents.

“How did you and Shawn meet?” Aly asks after introductions.

“Work. I'm a nurse in the clinic.” You look over at Shawn who's got Grace on his shoulders. “We kind of hit it off right away.”

“He needs someone good. He's been through a lot.”

“I have too. We understand each other, he's amazing. I'm so lucky to have met him.”

Aly smiles and folds her arms over her chest. “Which one of you said it first?”

“Hmm? Said what?”

Shawn wraps his arms around you and you melt back into him, heart fluttering at this new sort of contact. “What're you guys talking about over here?”

“You.” Aly smirks. “I was going to tell her all your nasty habits.”

“Oh please, I work with this woman every day. There's not much she doesn't know.”

Aly raises her eyebrows and you just smile at her, not sure what to say. He wasn't wrong. The two of you spent forty hours a week together and then often times a few hours after work.

“Fire mom!” Grace exclaims jumping up and down by the fireplace under the TV mount.

Mike is starting a fire in the fireplace and you wander over and curl up with Shawn on the couch as his mom turns on the TV. Aly and Grace sit opposite you, and his parents sit in their chairs. It's nice, and feels like home.

You feel bold, comfortable with Shawn's closeness. He has his hand on your thigh, rubbing up and down gently. Your hand eventually finds its way into the back of his hair and he leans back into your touch. It's something you've always wanted to do. His hair looked so soft and thick, you dreamed about running your hands through it. His eyes flutter closed as the TV plays a Harry Potter movie marathon. He's beautiful. He just relaxes completely and enjoys your hand gently scratching his scalp as his hand comes to a stop on your leg.

“I need something to drink.” Shawn murmurs after a few minutes, pulling away from your touch reluctantly. He gets up and heads for the kitchen. You scoot over into his warm spot and wrap up in the blanket the two of you were sharing. It smells like his cologne and you could just fall asleep right there curled up in that spot. That thought leads you to thinking about later in the evening. The two of you would be sharing a bed, like, actually sleeping together.

Shawn returns and hands you a cranberry sprite as he drops down into your old spot. “Your favorite right?” He wraps his arm around your shoulders and tucks his feet between yours on the foot rest.

“Mmhmm. I can't believe your parents have some.”

“I told Mom to pick it up for you.”

“You guys are gross.” Aly laughs and you roll your eyes. “Grossly cute.”

“Jealous?” Shawn asks, sipping his water bottle.

Aly just shakes her head and Grace gets up to grab a present from under the tree. “Mom! Can I open one tonight!?”

“Grace, it's not Christmas yet. How about we go see the lights?”

“Lights?”

“Remember the Christmas lights at the park? I think Santa's reindeer might be there too.”

Grace's eyes light up and she runs for her coat.

“You wanna go see the reindeer?” Shawn asks you softly. “They're really cool if you've never seen them.”

Aly gets up and says something to her dad as she helps Grace with her coat. Holly says she will go and both her and Mike get up to get their coats on. You are torn between staying in the house alone with Shawn and seeing reindeer. You know the two of you won't get much time together alone while you're here. Not that you wanted to do anything risque. It'd just be nice to be together for a few minutes without anyone around since this was still very new to you.

“You guys coming?!” Grace asks excitedly, grabbing at Shawn's arm and tugging him up. “Come see the reindeer! Come on Uncle Shawn!”

Holly scoops Grace up and puts her on her hip. “Let's let these two go at their own pace Grace. They'll show up.”

“Boo. Lame.”

Aly laughs from across the room as a breeze of crisp night air blows in through the front door. Everyone files out and leaves you and Shawn alone in the living room.

“Do you not want to go?” Shawn asks worriedly.

“We can go. I just wanted a moment.”

Shawn rubs your arm. “Are you feeling alright? You're not overwhelmed are you? We don't have to do this. I can take you home and we can go on like we never discussed being more than friends.”

“No, no. I'm fine. Let's go.”

“You're sure? Are you hurting? How's your ribs?” He reaches for your shirt and pulls it up a bit but you push his hand down.

“I'm fine. I'm just not used to this.”

“We'll take it one day at a time okay?”

You nod and he stands up and hauls you up against him. He eyes you skeptically, and you give him a curious look but he lets it pass as the two of you go to get your boots and coats on.

________________________

The park is huge and set up like a little Santa's workshop town. There are little elf statues everywhere, games kids can play, reindeer are in pens with their handlers and there is even a guy in a santa suit wandering around. It's adorable.

Shawn bumps your hand and you let him grab it, threading your fingers together. They way it feels to have Shawn's affection is unlike any other. Not even when you first started dating Ben did you feel this warm and safe. There was something about Shawn that was different in all the right ways.

“What did you want for Christmas as a kid?

You look up and Shawn is looking over at a reindeer as it passes with it's caretaker. “Uh, I dunno I guess.”

“There has to be something. A pony? A password journal? Barbie dream house?”

You laugh and he smiles at you tenderly. “Okay, yeah I wanted a Barbie dream house, but I also wanted the car. I remember asking for them for months.”

“Did you get them?”

“Yeah. My grandma got the car for me, but no dream house. It was the yellow Volkswagen Bug that comes with stickers to decorate it. I loved that thing.”

Shawn chuckles. “Sounds like me when I got my first guitar. I begged my parents for ages.”

“Oh yeah? You can play?”

“I could. I learned on YouTube. Classes weren't my thing so I just watched videos to figure out how to play songs I liked. It was fun, I don't know why I ever stopped.”

“What kind was it?”

“A fender, electric.”

“Ohmygod, I figured it would be one of those starter acoustic ones y'know?”

Shawn chuckles. “You'd think right? No, I had to have electric. I was dead set on it.” He pulls out his phone and shows you a picture of himself holding the guitar up and grinning. “Here I am, brace faced and ready to play.”

“Look at you! Ohmygod it's really pretty. I like the color of the body. Do you still have it?”

Shawn shakes his head. “No, I sold it when I went to college. Didn't get much for it, the body was pretty worn from years of use. I should get another one and see if I still remember how to play.”

“Maybe Santa will bring you one.”

“Oh yeah?”

You tug him by his hand toward the santa that is taking pictures with some teenagers by a giant present. The kids wave goodbye and you approach him. “Santa, do you take requests for gifts?”

“Of course young lady!”

“Really?” Shawn chuckles and you tug him closer.

“What's wrong young man? You don't believe in Santa Claus anymore?”

“I...uh...”

You cut him off and shake your head at the santa. “He's had a rough few years. I think he needs some reminding of the magic of Christmas.”

Santa laughs and lays his hand on Shawn's arm. “My boy, the magic of Christmas comes from the heart. You've got plenty of heart don't you?”

“Yes sir, I do.”

“And do you young lady?”

You nod.

“Christmas isn't about toys and lights and gifts. It's about love, and the two of you most certainly have that.”

You turn scarlet and so does Shawn. “Santa, we aren't that f-”

“You can't fool Santa! The two of you are made for each other! I know that look, it's the same one I had when I met Mrs. Claus. Now you had a request? What can I do for you?”

“N-nothing Santa. Thank you so much.” You smile politely and he walks off with a you're welcome and a cheeky smile.

“What the hell was that about?” Shawn laughs, looking at Santa round the corner of a game booth. “That was weird right?”

“Totally weird. I just wanted to goof around and ask him to bring you a guitar. That was just wild.”

Shawn looks up at little snowflakes that start to fall around you. He brushes a few out of your hair and lets his fingertips linger against your temple. “You look beautiful,” he murmurs to himself, eyes soft as he looks over your face.

“Thank you?”

“What?”

“You said I look beautiful?”

Shawn's cheeks flush bright red up to his ears. “I didn't say that out loud?”

“Yes you did.”

“Jesus Christ.”

You laugh and grab his hands in yours. “You're beautiful too.”

“I-”

“Are you gonna kiss?” You look down and see Grace standing beside the two of you. “Because gross.”

“Oh really? Kisses are gross?” Shawn teases, squatting down to her level.

“Yeah. Super gross.”

“Oh. I see. You mean kisses like this are gross!” He pulls her to him and kisses her cheek a bunch of times as she squeals and squirms against him.

“Ew! Uncle Shawn germs! Gross! Mom!”

Aly, Holly and Mike appear from around a tree nearby and Grace runs to her mom.

“There you are. We were wondering if you guys came,” Holly says as she leans into Mike's side. “We we're just about to go see if the carousel was still running before heading back home.”

“Sounds good,” Shawn says and puts his arm around your back as you follow the group toward the other side of the park.

“There's a carousel?”

“Yeah, they have Christmas themed animals to ride on and stuff. You'll love it.”

The carousel is still running for the next half an hour and you all buy tickets to ride. The usual circus animals you would see on a carousel are instead replaced with reindeer and santa sleighs of all different colors. Mike and Holly chose a sleigh while Grace picks a reindeer and Aly stands beside her. You and Shawn go for two reindeer side by side, Comet and Cupid are emblazoned on their saddles.  

“Please no running, walking, or changing of reindeer or sleighs while the ride is in action. All first time riders and children under six years of age must be accompanied by an adult at all times. I will announce when the ride is finished and when it is safe to exit. Thank you and have a great time.”

As the ride starts, you begin going up and down slowly to the tune of Christmas songs blasting on the speakers overhead. It feels like flying and it's absolutely incredible.

“I haven't done this since I was a kid!” Shawn laughs.

“I've never been on one before!”

“What?! How?!”

“Never came up!”

Shawn slides off his reindeer and crosses the gap to yours. As yours goes down he gets on the back and you’re sure that's not allowed but you're not sure if the reindeer will hold two people. Surprisingly it does, and keeps going up and down despite the extra weight. Shawn's arms wrap around your waist and he rests his chin on your shoulder.

“First time riders shouldn't ride alone. Didn't you hear the rules?”

“They also said don't get off the reindeer or walk around while the ride is going.”

Shawn chuckles softly. “That's so kids don't get hurt. Besides, I couldn't leave a first time rider all on her own. What if you fell off?”

“You're ridiculous.”

“Just a little bit.”

________________________

Everyone settles down for the night and Grace is put to bed as soon as you all get back to the house. The remainder of the evening everyone sits out on the enclosed back porch with the heater on, just talking about life. You're next to Shawn on the swinging bench and you're tired. The day has caught up with you finally. Shawn is discussing a case he saw come through the office with his dad and you just lay down, head on his lap, listening to the men talk quietly among each other. Shawn's voice, soothing and sweet, vibrates through his body and into your ears as you lean your head against his stomach.

You're not sure how long you are asleep, or if you ever were really asleep at all, when suddenly you hear someone else talking. It's Aly, her voice is nearby, closer than it was before.

“Shawnie is in love,” Aly says with a soft sigh.

A hand in your hair glides gently across your scalp and pulls away just to make another pass through, over and over. “Shut up Aly.”

“You are. You look at her the way you used to look at Alena. Actually, I think you hold back with her. You shouldn't do that, she should know how you feel.”

“Aly. Please, I don't need relationship advice from my baby sister.”

“I'm not that much younger don't call me a baby. But I'm right and you know it. You hate it and you know it.”

Shawn pushes the swing back and let's it swing forward, rocking the two of you gently. “You are, but shut up.”

“You're no fun.”

“I'm not. But don't tell her that.” His hand stills in your hair and he rubs his thumb across your eyebrow carefully. It's a strange but intensely intimate feeling. “She's too good for me.”

“Shawn no, don't think like that. I know Alena really fucked you up with what she did, but don't let that reflect on your future with her. You're better than that.”

You decide you've had enough eavesdropping because you're about to start crying. You move slightly, eyes opening to meet Shawn's staring down at you tenderly. The soft warm glow of the heater reflects off his eyes and makes them look even more like honey than ever before. You're absolutely in love with him.

“Hey, you were sleeping pretty good. Did we wake you?”

“No, just woke up.”

Shawn's hand moves in your hair and he lifts your head as you sit up. The world feels slow, like time has stopped for a few minutes and it's trying to catch up again. The deck is warm and toasty, only Aly remains with the two of you.

“Let's go to bed.” Shawn stands and you look up at him. You've got sleepy limbs that feel heavy and sluggish. Shawn steps forward and puts an arm around your back and one under your legs, lifting you up carefully. It makes your heart stop. “I gotcha.”

“I can walk,” you yawn and he just chuckles.

“This is more fun though.”

“I'm right,” Aly whispers teasingly as he passes into the house, and Shawn looks back with a glare.

Shawn sets you down gently on the bed and goes to close the door. “Do you want to sleep on the side with the wall or the open side?”

“Open side.” You sit up and grab your bag that has your pajamas in it.

“Perfect I like the wall side.” He walks toward you and pulls his sweater up over his head and for the first time you see him shirtless. It's like a punch to the gut. You knew he had to be fit, his arms and general figure gave that away. But to be as toned and straight up jacked as he is, you couldn't have guessed. “What are you staring at?” He laughs and leans over his bag to get a sleep shirt.

“You. All that,” you gesture up and down his body. “How?”

Shawn looks down at himself and chuckles. “I have a home gym. I've always worked out, it's a stress relief for me.”

“Well. GQ called they want to book you for a sexiest doctor of the year photoshoot.”

He laughs, full on belly laughs and walks over to you. “I'm glad you think so highly of me. You want me to sleep shirtless? I can.”

You nod.

“Okay, scoot over so I can get in.”

Shawn wraps his arm around your waist and pulls you back against him once you're both settled down. He kisses the back of your shoulder and you melt. The tenderness was too much. He felt so perfect against you, like you were made to fit the shape of his body.

“Is this okay?” He asks lowly, moving some of your hair out of his face. “I guess I just assumed you like to cuddle.”

“It's perfect. Ben never liked to cuddle much but I sleep best when I'm held.”

Shawn hums. “Alena didn't like being touched when she slept. It was hard because I'm very much a physical sleeper. What was Ben's problem?”

“He always said he got too hot.”

“Oh,” he noses your neck and you giggle. “We must be temperature compatible.”

“What's that?”

He chuckles. “Y'know, like you said, Ben was too hot. You and I must be the same temperature so we're comfortable being close. It's special.”

“Oh, yeah.” You press back against his chest and he puts his feet against yours. “Maybe it's because we were meant to be together.”

“I think so too. Now let's sleep, we don't want Santa to skip our house because we're awake.”

You giggle and he tightens his arm around your middle, sighing softly into your hair. He's everything you've ever wanted in a partner and you find yourself drifting off quickly

________________________

Christmas morning. You wake up early, far earlier than you should. It's a little after five in the morning when you sit up and realize the bed is empty save for yourself. Shawn's side is warm to the touch, and the bedding still smells faintly like his cologne. The door opens and dim light from the hall night light pours through the open doorway.

“Hey,” Shawn whispers lowly as he closes the door behind him. “What're you up for?”

“I dunno.”

The bed sinks under his weight as he crawls into his spot against the wall. He runs his hand over your stomach mindlessly and you scoot closer to him. “I probably woke you when I got up.”

You close your eyes and let yourself get lost in his touch. “I was sleeping so hard, I can't remember the last time I had such a good sleep.”

He chuckles. “Do you want to sleep a little longer? I'm up for cuddling for a while or we can get up and make coffee if you want. I'm sure my parents will be up soon too.”

Cuddling is tempting, but sleepy morning cuddling and exploration could quickly lead to more. This wasn't the place to do more. “Yeah, let's get up. I'm not tired anymore.”

Shawn crawls over you and hauls you up out of bed by your outstretched hands. You pull on one of his sweaters out of his bag on the floor and he smiles big. “Already wearing my clothes?”

“Yes.” You wrap your arms around yourself and smile. “They're much better than mine.”

Shawn pulls on a tee shirt and kisses your cheek. “I suppose I'll let it pass since you're so cute.”

The two of you head for the kitchen and turn on the lights behind the sink only. It's a soft light that's easier on the eyes than the overhead ones.

“Excited for Christmas presents?”

“Kind of? I have no idea what your mom could have gotten me.”

“It'll be a good surprise then. But I think you'll probably like it.”

You jump up on the counter, legs dangling against the cool cabinets. “You know what it is then?”

“I do. She texted me to find out what you like.”

“And what do I like?”

Shawn flips the lid closed on the old coffee pot in the corner and steps over to you. He wedges himself between your legs and plants his hands on the counter on either sides of your thighs. “Well, you like me.”

“She got me another Shawn? I dunno if I could handle two.”

“Ha ha.” He says with a smirk and you grin like a cat at your own joke. “You're so funny.”

“Tell me what she got me.”

“Never. It's a surprise.”

You bring your hands up and cup Shawn's face, cradling it ever so gently between them. “Would you tell me for a kiss?”

“That's dirty. You're playing unfair.”

You drop your eyes and lick your lips, giving him a look that has him pressing against you. “Tell me Shawn.”

Shawn leans in and you tilt your head back against the upper cabinets to avoid a kiss even though you want nothing more than to kiss him for hours. There were terms to be agreed to right now. His mouth passes yours and he kisses down your jaw, driving you insane.

“Sh-shawn,” you tremble as his hands go to yours, his mouth still placing kisses along your jaw and neck. “You're the one playing dirty now.”

“You have no idea how dirty I can't can get.”

You let out a little moan as he bites your neck over your tender pulse point. He soothes the bite with his tongue and you grab his hair, making him growl against you. He slides his hand up your shirt and you know things are getting out of hand.

“Uncle Shawn!”

Your heart stops and you look past Shawn to see Grace standing on the opposite side of the kitchen in her pony pajamas.

“Yes Grace?” Shawn asks, still facing you as he slides his hand out from under your shirt.

“Is she okay? Did she get hurt?”

“I'm okay Grace.” You smile and Shawn drops his head on your shoulder before turning to face the child. “Shawn and I were just talking.”

Grace walks over and Shawn picks her up. “Mom always has me sit on the counter when I need a band aid because I scrape my knees a lot. Are you sure?”

“Yes honey she's just fine. Why are you awake?” Shawn asks, bouncing her on his hip. “What if Santa hasn't come yet?”

“But there's presents under the tree. He's been here.”

Shawn leans over a little to see into the living room. “Well, I guess we should wake up your mom and grandma and grandpa then huh?”  

“Yeah!” Grace wiggles out of Shawn's hold and runs for the back of the house to get everyone.

“Kids,” Shawn sighs softly with a smile.

You reach out and grab Shawn's arm, running your hand up over his shoulder. “Can we talk later?”

Shawn slides his arms around you and lifts you off the counter, holding you to his chest. “Can we talk now?” He nips at your jaw and kisses across your face to meet your lips.

“No, everyone will be out here soon. Later,” you giggle, turning your head away from his kisses.

“What? I can't kiss you?”

“Later.” You smile cheekily. “Maybe I'll let you kiss me elsewhere too. It depends on what you got me for Christmas.”

“You think I got you something?”

“I know you did. You weren't slick trying to sneak that package out of your backpack when we got here. I saw you.”

He hangs his head and smiles. “It was supposed to be from Santa.”

“It still will be. I have no idea which one it is, so I suppose I'll have to guess.”

“I think you'll know.”

An hour later and gift opening is in full swing. Holly and Mike are parked on the sofa with coffee mugs and piles of presents around them that they will open last. Grace opens first, then Aly, Shawn and you. You volunteered to go last but as the guest they wouldn't hear it.

“Your turn Uncle Shawn!” Grace says, bringing him a little box that's wrapped with white shiny paper. It's the one from you.

“Thank you Grace.” Shawn inspects it carefully, shaking it a bit and you elbow him. “What? Is it from you?”

You roll your eyes.

“Snuck one in did you? I wonder what it could be.”

“Open it last.”

Shawn smiles and sets it aside, asking Grace for a different gift. Six boxes later and Shawn has opened everything from the family. He has a new pair of pajamas, boxers, socks with french fries on them from Grace, a new set of kitchen knives, a variety pack of teas from around the world and a gift card that Aly wrapped in four boxes for the laughs. It was finally time for your gift and suddenly you're nervous. What if it wasn't good enough?

Shawn opens the package slowly and pulls the top off the small box. Inside is a black slim leather wallet that he pulls out and holds up. He turns it over in his hands and looks at you. “It's beautiful, I needed a new one.”

“Open it.”

He opens it and inside there is a little blue SM embroidered on the first pocket opposite the brand insignia on the other side. “Oh wow, this is custom?”

“Yeah. It's not much, but I thought it was nice, and I know you needed a new one.”

“It's perfect.” He leans over and pulls you into a hug. “Thank you so much.”

Grace walks over with three boxes and puts them next to you. “Your turn!”

You look around nervously and open the first box slowly. Inside is a pink desk organizer with a built in file holder and pen cup. It's super cute and you smile at Shawn but he shakes his head. Not his gift.

Shawn gets up and grabs fresh coffee while you open the next gift and you know it's not from him if he was leaving for a moment. The next gift is a pair of snow boots. They're brown with soft white fuzzy fur trim, just your size too.

“These are perfect!” You hold them up as Shawn walks in with two mugs.

“I hope they're the right size. Shawn couldn't remember your exact size so I got the bigger of the two.” Holly says with a smile.

“No they're perfect. Thank you so much Holly. I've needed some new ones for a while now.”

“Mines next,” Shawn says softly and hands you the box wrapped in plain white paper. “I didn't have Christmas paper at home.”

“It's wrapped at least.” You take a drink of your coffee and place it next to you before tearing into the paper. It's in a shirt box and you lift the lid off to reveal a pile of tissue paper and two smaller boxes nestled into it. You open the first box to find a pair of rose gold earrings that look like little roses.

“Shawn!”

“Keep opening.”

The next box is a tennis bracelet of the same rose gold color and it has charms on it of a rose, a little stethoscope, a heart and a ducky. Tears well up in the corners of your eyes and you look at him. “You didn't have to do this.”

“You deserve it.”

“Thank you,” you whisper, his hand over yours. “They’re beautiful.”

“You're beautiful. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.”

________________________

Shawn has been dying to talk to you all morning since the interrupted...conversation. He has been all over you too, hand on your back, arms around your waist, kissing your cheek when you hand him something he needed to make the breakfast bake. He is so affectionate you think you're going to combust. The gentleness of every action and synchronization as the two of you move about the cramped kitchen helping Holly make breakfast feels unlike anything you have ever experienced with anyone else.

You eye Shawn as he bounces along to the Christmas music Grace is playing from her Barbie boombox in the living room. He's so cute, loose wavy curls falling in his face as he scrambles a bowl of eggs. To spend every day with him like this would be a dream.

“You got something on your lip,” Shawn says, pointing at your face. “I think it's whip cream from your cocoa.”

You wipe at it with the back of your hand. “Did I get it?”

“Nope,” he chuckles, steps over to you and swipes it off your upper lip under your nose. “There you go.” He pops his finger in his mouth and you smile as he grins at you, eyes playful. You're absolutely gone for him.

“Can we talk now?” he asks as he turns and puts the breakfast bake in the oven.

“Is something wrong?” Holly asks, looking over from where she's putting on a new pot of coffee.

“No, of course not. We just started a conversation this morning that got cut off by presents.”

“Oh.”

Shawn wipes his hands on a towel and grabs your hand. “We'll be on the deck mom,” he says and she waves him off.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” He asks with a smug look as he flips on the heater.

“Us?”

“Us?” He grabs your hands and walks you toward the swinging bench. “Is this about earlier?”

“Do you think this is a little fast?”

“Are you uncomfortable?”

“No, but I'm afraid we're rushing into this.”

Shawn's eyes search yours in the silence that consumes the deck. Only a light wind breaks the quiet as it blows against the covering that surrounds the structure. There is laughter from inside but you don't look away from the hazel eyes begging you to stay. Not that you were going anywhere any time soon.

“I heard you last night,” you say quietly and Shawn's eyebrows furrow. “When I was asleep on your lap out here. You admitted that you love me to Aly.”

“I did,” he looks down, face falling, “and it's foolish of me. I should know better than to let my heart rush into things.”

You bite your lip then smile unabashedly. “I guess I'm a fool then too. If you're okay with this, then I'm okay. I just needed to know if you were alright.”

“I'm more than alright with it.” He cups your face and leans in. His lips meet yours and they're soft and warm. He tastes a bit like coffee and caramel from earlier. Your heart feels like it's coming out of your chest and you can't stop the tears that start to run down your cheeks. Crying during a kiss, how embarrassing. His thumbs wipe over your tears and he stops, forehead against yours as his eyes meet yours in a panic.

“Why are you crying? Did I hurt you?”

“No,” you smile and let out a little half sob. “I'm just so happy I can't stop it. I've never felt so safe and connected to someone before.”

“Gods you're perfect.” He wipes away a few more tears. “I think this feeling is what people mean when they talk about soulmates.”

________________________

After Christmas, things change dramatically. You and Shawn are officially together and you couldn't be happier. It feels like a dream as a month passes and the two of you spend every day together openly happy and affectionate. But the euphoria doesn't last forever. In fact, it can come crashing down in a matter of seconds when three words are uttered by the right person.

“Where's my husband?”

You look up from your desk in the clinic to see a tall, thin, dark haired woman about your age. She has a confused look on her face as she looks around behind you. “Ma'am? Can I help you?”

“Yes my husband works here. I'd like to speak with him.”

“Ma'am the only man here is Dr. Mendes and he isn't married. I think you've got the wrong office.”

“Yes! Shaw-”

“Can you restock room seven I just used all the-” Shawn freezes and you turn to look as him as he dries his hands on a wad of paper towels. “Alena.”

“Alena?”

The woman smiles and leans against the desk, arms folded on the top. “Shawn, you look amazing. How are you?”

Shawn let's out and nervous laugh and looks around as if he's not sure if he's really seeing this. “I'm just fine. What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you.”

You stand up and put your hands on the desk to keep your composure. “You'll need to make an appointment then,” you say through gritted teeth.

“I need an appointment to talk to my-”

“Yes.” You snap and Alena stops talking. “You need an appointment to talk to your ex husband. This is a clinic and he has patients to tend to right now.”

“Shawn, can you spare a few minutes? It's important.” Alena begs, dismissing you as she looks to Shawn.

“No. I have work to do. You can make an appointment or leave.” Shawn says, stepping closer to you. “My nurse here can schedule you.”

Alena scoffs and pushes off the desk and heads for the door. “I’ll find you after work then I guess.”

The moment the door closes you take a deep breath breath and let it out slowly. “Why?”

“Why what honey?” Shawn asks, hand going to your arm and rubbing to ease the tension rolling off of you in waves. “I don't know why she's here.”

“I don't like it.”

“I never took you for the jealous type. You do know it's over with me and her, right?”

You cut him and glare and he raises his eyebrows. “She's up to something. No one cheats on their husband, divorces him and runs off with a sugar daddy to the west coast just to return and want to just talk years later.”

Shawn steps closer and puts his arms around you. “Easy now. I know you want to defend me, but you should know I have no interest in her or whatever she has to say to me.” He looks down at you, eyes on yours. “I'm with you. Don't forget that.”

“I know.” You soften a bit, letting your shoulders slump. “I know. I'm sorry.”

He kisses your temple. “Now, can you restock the paper towels in room seven? I need to go see Mr. Carter in room two.”

________________________

That evening you and Shawn leave together around five and head to the diner for dinner. It had become a Friday night tradition that the two of you went for dinner and drinks to end the week.

“So, what do you think Alena wants?”

“I don't know.” Shawn takes his coke from the waitress with a smile and takes a big drink. “I have nothing to say to her, and I don't want to hear anything she has to say to me.”

You nod. “I just know things ended bad and it wasn't a clean break on your part. I imagine seeing her must have triggered something in you after all this time.”

“It did. I thought I'd died and I was in hell. There is no scenario in my head where she would ever come back into my life and I would want her. I'm completely thrown for a loop right now.”

“You're not like... considering hearing her out? She was your wife and all. You have a history.”

Shawn reaches over the table and tips your chin up to look at him. “She was, and that's the past and it's completely over, mistakes made. I'm not a kid who thought he was in love anymore. I'm twenty seven and I'm absolutely in love with someone who couldn't hold a candle to her. I love you, and just you. Understand?”

“I understand.”

“Do you? Promise me you'll stop worrying and let me handle things with Alena.”

“I promise.” You hold your pinky finger out and he hooks it with his. “I will let you handle it.”

________________________

The weekend passes and you don't hear anything more about or from Alena. Somehow you can't help but wonder if she's playing some sort of mind games with Shawn. You hope he isn't texting her, or messaging her on Facebook or something. You find yourself worrying about it when you promised Shawn you wouldn't.  

Sunday morning you run to the store while Shawn goes to his sister's house to help her set up a playset for Grace that she got for Christmas. The clinic had run out of gauze and peroxide and the next shipment wasn't due until Monday afternoon. You round the corner to the health and beauty department and at the end of the isle you can see her. Alena.

You grab your gauze and peroxide before heading toward her as much as you don't want to. She is standing in front of the tampons that you need for your own stock at home. You take a deep breath and try to remain as anonymous as possible as you step in front of her for your item.

“You're Shawn's receptionist right?”

Fuck.

“Yeah, his nurse actually.”  You mumble as you drop the box of tampons into your hand basket.

“I don't like your attitude.”

You raise your eyebrows at that. “Excuse me?”

“Your attitude when I said I wanted to talk to Shawn on Friday. You're a pretty poor receptionist if you get that lippy with clients.”

You smile sickeningly sweet. “Well, see I'm not just Shawn's nurse, not receptionist, nurse. I'm his girlfriend. And when his cheating ex wife shows up demanding to see her husband, who is not her husband and hasn't been for oh, I dunno, five years now, saying she wants to talk to him, I get a little irritated. I'm sure you understand why I don't like you.”

“Oh, fucking his nurse? That's rich. You think you’re not just a bed warmer to him? How long have you been together? A few months?” Alena laughs and rolls her eyes at you. “Shawn and I have a very long history. We're basically soulmates, and I fucked up but he'll forgive me. Shawn's always forgiven me before, he loves me so much that the last five years will be like they never happened.”

“Shawn moved on.”

“Oh honey, you realize that you have no idea who he is right? Shawn and I have been together since we were sixteen years old. You think he's just going to forget all that? For some nurse?”

You grit your teeth and swallow thickly. “He isn't going to take you back. You should just leave.”

“He will. I know just how to get to him, to remind him of where he belongs. Start packing your bags now if you don't like it sweetheart. You're going to see a lot more of me around here.”

You swallow thickly. How do you respond to that? She was actually crazy. “You have a good day, Alena,” you smile and turn to walk away. She says something else but you don't hear her. This was some bullshit and you needed to let Shawn know what was going on before Alena got to him.

________________________

 “Am I a bed warmer?”

Shawn shifts in bed, pushing himself up off his stomach to look at you. “What?

“Am I a bed warmer? Just someone to pass the time until Alena came back.”

“Honey, what are you talking about? Of course you're not.” He sits up and brushes your hair back against the pillow. “I would never do that to anyone, and especially not you. I love you.”

You close your eyes and remain quiet as you hold back tears. He sounds so hurt that you would ask something like that. To be fair, you didn't think he would ever do that, but you couldn't help but want to know, to want reassurance.

“Talk to me. Where is this coming from?”

“I ran into Alena at the store and she-”

“You ran into her here in town?”

“Yeah.”

Shawn makes a disgusted noise. “She must really want something if she's staying in town. I have no idea what she-”

“She wants you. It's pretty clear.”

“No I got that, but I don't understand why. What did she say to you?”

You sigh and he lays down, arm around your middle, head on your shoulder. “She thinks I'm just a bed warmer and that you're her soulmate and you're going to magically forgive her for everything because you have a long history.”

“Absolutely not. I wouldn't forgive her for anything. What she did was disgusting and I don't care if we have known each other for one or one hundred years. I won't take her back under any circumstances. I've moved on and found happiness.” He kisses your neck tenderly. “I've found the love I've always wanted. If she wants to talk about soulmates, then she should start with you and I.”

You turn and he holds you against his chest as you press your face into his shoulder. He threads his finger into your hair and holds you close.

“I promise I'll take care of this situation. She's gone too far and upset you directly. I'll tell her to leave or I'm getting a restraining order.”

“You think that will work?”

“I'm sure it will.”

________________________

You and Shawn are in a room cleaning up after putting stitches in the hand of one of the bartenders from the place by the park. He had slammed a glass into the corner of the bar while turning too quickly. It broke in his hand and resulted with his coworker bringing him in frantically for a stitch job.

“Have you heard from Alena?” You ask as you put some gauze into a biohazard box on the wall.

“No. I'm not sure if I should be afraid or relived.”

“You're not considering anything are you?”

Shawn looks over at you from where he's getting down new alcohol wipes to replace the ones you used. “Like what?”

“Hearing her out.”

He chuckles but you don't find anything about the conversation funny. “You're worrying too much.”

“I would understand if you wanted to y'know. The two of you were married and stuff so-”

Shawn presses his finger to your lips and you look down at his hand. “Stop. I love you, and only you. I swear nothing she tries to say or do will get me to change my mind.”

“Are you sure about-”

“Hello?” A lady’s voice calls from beyond the patient room and you look to the doorway.

Shawn drops his finger from your lips closes his eyes, leaning against the counter as you exit the room to go greet the patient. It must be the three o'clock appointment arriving early.

“Hello, sorry I was just-”

“Hello.” Alena smiles as she turns and she is holding a toddler on her hip. A little boy who looks to be about three or four. “I have an appointment with Dr. Mendes at three? It's for my son, Dakota.”

You grit your teeth until they ache as you look down at the computer. Sure enough. Dakota Moore. “For Moore?”

“Yes. That's him.”

“I'll let Dr. Mendes know you're here. I'll see if he is willing to take an early appointment.” You turn and go down the hall to the room you just exited, closing the door behind you softly.

“What’s wrong?”

“She has a kid.”

“What? Who?”

“Alena.”

“What do you mean she has a kid?”

You cross your arms and let out a little laugh of disbelief. “Yeah. A kid, she has a kid. That's who the appointment is for. A fucking kid Shawn.”

“It's not mine.” Shawn leans on the counter with the sink, facing the cabinet above, knuckles white around the wood edges of the smooth top. “It can't be mine.”

“No, it can't be. The kid looks to be about three or four.” You step forward and lay your hand between his shoulder blades. “Shawn, breathe.”

“She’s going to say it's mine. I know her. This is her angle, this is what she wants. I could just skin  her.”

“Easy there big guy. Remember, there is a child here, and this is a professional setting. Keep your temper in check. Just go through with the appointment and see what she says.”

Shawn turns and your hand falls from his back. He kisses you gently, his hand on your cheek. “I'll be professional, but I may need my nurse's help today.”

“Of course, I'd be happy to assist you Doctor Mendes,” you smirk playfully.

“Why's it so hot when you say it?”

“Because you're hopelessly in love with me and I could say anything in that voice and you'd think it's hot.”

Shawn kisses you again and then goes to the door, inviting Alena and Dakota back to the room for their appointment.

Alena remains civil for the majority of the check up. Shawn has you type up symptoms and general information while she answers Shawn's questions and explains that she just wanted to bring Dakota in for a check up since it's been a while since his last one and his ear has been bothering him. It's not until Shawn has decided a diagnosis and is writing up a prescription for an ear infection medication that Alena decides to make her move.

“Y'know his dad used to get ear infections a lot. I wonder if it's hereditary.”

Shawn pauses his writing and you watch him close his eyes and take a deep breath. “Alena. I know what you're trying to insinuate.” He turns and hands her the prescription.

“Excuse me?”

“You're here because you want to convince me that Dakota is my son right?”

“He does look like you doesn't he?” She fluffs Dakota's dark mop of hair.

“No.”

“Well he should, because he is your son.”

Shawn sighs heavily. “Alena, stop. You know full well this child isn't mine.”

“But he is.”

“If he's my child I want a DNA test.”

Alena's jaw drops. “What...how could you even say that?”

You narrow your eyes at her from behind the computer. The lying little skeevie wench wasn't going to get away with this plan of hers.

“Either you prove to me that Dakota is my son, or you leave me alone. And don't you ever, say a word to my girlfriend again. You can speak to me, lie to me, whatever. But don't ever talk to her again.” Shawn crosses his arms and stares her down.

“I didn't say-”

Shawn raises his eyebrows. “I know you talked to her. She isn't like you, she communicates with me when something bothers her. Besides, if you're sure Dakota is mine, what are you worried about? I just want proof. I'm not sure how a three year old could be mine though when we've been split up for almost five years.”

Alena looks panicked, caught in her lies. Did she really think that you wouldn't tell Shawn about the supermarket run in? “I-I just wanted to get help with Dakota. I moved back to Southgate in hopes you would be there and if you were single I was going to see if you wanted to give it another shot.”

“Right. Well I'm not. So now you can leave Twin Pines and go back to Southgate. I'm not interested in seeing you or your son again. I have no business with you since he's not mine.”

“But Dakota needs a good primary physician and-”

Shawn holds his hand up. “There are plenty of physicians in Southgate.”

“But-”

“Alena. Stop. It's over. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to see you. I have my own life here and I'm very happy. If you continue to interfere I'll take legal action.”

Dakota squeals and tosses a toy car across the room. Alena picks him up and stuffs the prescription Shawn wrote up in her pocket. “Have a nice life Shawn,” she spits as she leaves in a fit of anger.  

Shawn turns to you and he looks drained. “I told you I'd take care of it.”

“You sure did. Wow.” You stand and wrap your arms around him. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” He lets out a deep breath and lays his chin on your head. “That was hard, but I'm okay.”

________________________

Two days until Valentine's Day and you find yourself in a pawn shop in downtown Southgate. You want to get Shawn a guitar because it's been since Christmas that you've wanted to hear him play. The shop has a good selection of gently used ones and as you browse you can't help but think they just aren't what you're looking for. Until you see it. Sitting in the corner behind the counter there is one propped against its case. It looks kind of old, well used. It kind of looks like Shawn's old one.

“Can I see that?” You ask, pointing to the dark blue and red guitar on the floor.

“That? It needs some body work but I can cut you a deal.” The employee sets it on the counter for you and you look over the body. “We just got it in, someone traded with with some other stuff they were cleaning out. It's got a case and everything.”

“How much?”

“Hundred dollars? It's pretty beat up but the mechanics and setup is still good. A little TLC it'll be like new.”

You turn it over and on the base of the neck is carved initials. SM. It's Shawn's. There is absolutely no doubt about it. Giving Shawn a guitar for Valentine's Day was one thing, but to give him his first guitar back on Valentine's Day? He's going to cry. You pay the seller and take it in its case home. It would be perfect.

________________________

Valentine's Day. You're so ready to give Shawn his guitar. You've been antsy since you got it, thrilled with how perfect of a gift it is. You wake up and he isn't there. Strange. His side of the bed is cold. A moment of panic runs through you. No. This wasn't Ben. This was Shawn. He's probably just in the bathroom.

You get up and wander into the kitchen. No breakfast is made. You peek into the bathroom and it's a little steamy, condensation on the mirror. He showered. Where the hell was he? You go into the living room and sitting there is a big pink unmarked box. “Shawn?” You look around, expecting him to jump out. “Hello?”

You lift the box up and sitting there is a fully assembled Barbie dream house just like the one you wanted as a child. You can't help the grin that spreads across your face.

“You're up!” Shawn exclaims as he closes the front door behind him. “I figured you'd be asleep a while longer.”

“Shawn! You- I- how dare you upstage me!”

He laughs and sets down his bag from the grocery store. “I’m sorry?”

You turn and go to the hall closet. You grab the guitar case and bring it out. “You upstaged me! I got you this! And it was supposed to be this huge surprise because it's what we talked about at Christmas but you upstaged me.”

Shawn walks toward you and grabs the case with shaky hands. “Honey, you didn't have to do this.”

He looks at the case and you can tell, he has an idea of what's inside. “Oh my God.”

“Open it.”

“No...there's no way. You couldn't have gotten this.”

You grin big, pushing it at him. “Open it Shawn.”

He unclips the side latches and folds the top open to reveal his guitar. He falls to his knees and lays it down beside himself, lifting the guitar out and running his fingers over the strings. “How did you get it? How? I sold this ages ago!”

“I was shopping for one and found it in the pawn shop. I couldn't believe it either. It's like it was meant to be.”

Shawn stands. He's got tears in his eyes as he cups your jaw, and kisses you lovingly. “This is way better than a ring. I definitely didn't upstage you.”

“A ring?”

“You didn't...oh...fuck.”

You pull back and hold his shoulders. “What is going on? What ring?”

“You didn't open the elevator on the dream house did you?”

“No? You walked in right as I took the box off of it.” You circle the couch and kneel down in front of the house, pressing the elevator button. It chimes and the elevator stops at the top. Inside there is a little black box. “Shawn...Shawn no.”

“Open it.”

You grab the box and hold it against your chest. “I can't! I can't open it! No, no ,no!”

Shawn comes around and kneels down in front of you. He brushes your hair back and you look at him. “Open it please.”

You shake your head, biting back tears.

He reaches for it and prys it from your hands. He opens the top and reveals a beautiful gold ring with a diamond studded rose focal. It's easily the most incredible piece of jewelry you've ever seen and matches your Christmas gifts and favorite scrubs perfectly. “Will you marry me?”

“You can't be serious!”

“I am,” he laughs holding it out for you. “I've never been more sure of anything in my life. I want to marry you and have babies with you and be a family. I want to wake up to your beautiful face every single day and tell you I love you because you are the single most important person who has ever walked into my life. I know I've rushed into marriage before, and I know it bit me in the ass. But you and I have a bond like no other and I can't wait to make you happy every single day.”

You take the ring with shaky hands, plucking it from the box. “You're sure though, like for real?”

“Yes.”

The ring fits over your finger perfectly and you stare at it with a little smile. “Then yes, I'd love to marry you Shawn.”

Shawn surges forward and wraps his arms around you, knocking the two of you back on to the floor. “I Iove you.”

“I love you too.”

“I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“Me neither. One day at a time right?”

He grin and kisses you softly. “One day at a time.”

End.

[belphegor1982]

How about the first chapter Tommy appears?

[Pick any passage from any fanfic I’ve written, and stick that selection in my ask/fan mail/submission box. I will then give you the equivalent of a DVD commentary on that snippet!]

Thanks a lot!! (Also I answered this kind of ask about a passage from chapter 2, if you want to take a look - it’s all spoiler-free!)

Here’s Thomas Sean Ferguson’s grand introduction, then :D Oh god, it’s kind of awkward, because like with Blake there’s a certain amount of early installment weirdness. Also I go on and oooooooon (sorry about that). But let’s go!

_________

Quite lost in his thoughts this time, [Jonathan] barely registered that he was walking past the Museum (where Evy is, right now, negotiating the Cairo Museum “lending” the Diamond of Ahm Shere to the British government - which kickstarts the plot) before somebody knocked into him, hard enough for both of them to crumple, breathless, on the ground. It took Jonathan thirty seconds to get his lungs in working order again and, instinctively, check his pockets for anything missing.

A lot of this commentary risks being “this used to be [thing] before I tweaked it in the rewrites”, and a lot of it is because I’ve gained some insight in the past twelve years. Jonathan’s first thought being checking his pockets (which - and I made it explicit in the second or third paragraph of the story :D - comes from his being a skilled pickpocket himself and knowing how it works), however, was there from the very beginning.

“So sorry I bumped into you, mate, didn’t mean to,” came the voice of the attacker. Jonathan’s eyes widened at the sound of this voice and he squinted up at its owner.

And cue Tom Ferguson :D He wasn’t my first OC, far from it (that dubious honour would probably belong to the buttload of OCs I created for my Marauder era story which died when Order of the Phoenix came out), but he was the first I got to really explore and develop, and he ended up one of my favourites ever. Em, I answered an ask of yours way back in 2015, “introduce us to two of your OCs” :o) The first was him, the second was Marguerite LeBeau.

“Tommy? Is that you? Tommy Ferguson?”

The diamond is the reason the O’Connell-Carnahan gang goes to Egypt, but without Tommy, there’d be no plot. Hamilton would probably still find a way to “retrieve” the diamond from the museum, only without Evy and her family getting personally involved and then having to go back to the UK saying she failed her mission. and then cue the end of the world about a week and a half from there, but shhh - spoilers!

The fellow shook his head, still looking a bit dazed; then his own eyes, round and brown, (so he’s the opposite of Jon in almost every way, physically speaking. Like I said in the aforementioned OC ask, I designed him as a foil for Jon, fundamentally different in some ways but very similar in others. Physically speaking he’s basically Sean Astin (with some James Corden thrown in) with brown eyes, blond hair, and a Liverpool accent.) went even rounder as he stared at Jonathan. “Jon! What the hell are you doing ‘ere?”

For the longest time Tommy used to call Jonathan by his last name here (and Jon’s earlier line used to be “Ferguson? Is that you? Tommy Ferguson?”). I changed it quite recently. I think I wanted to convey the idea that school friends at the time often called each other by their last names; but since he calls Jonathan “Jon” 100% of the time - and is the only one to do so, which I have Feelings about - I went back to correct it.

“Glad to see you too, old chap,” laughed Jonathan, standing up and dusting himself off before offering a hand at the man on the ground, who accepted it gladly.

Heh. Look, one of the staples of Mummy fanfiction was and still is the old school friend of Evy’s who follows either the siblings (TM time) or the whole family (TMR/post-TMR time) to Egypt and falls in love with Ardeth Bay. I’m not throwing stones here; I’ve read a couple I really liked. There’s the odd Jonathan/OFC romance, too. What I set out to do as a baby writer (I was 21 at the time!) and unsuspecting ace was to write something completely devoid of romance (except the odd Evy/Rick snuggle and, of course, all-encompassing love for each other). And then, as I reread the story for rewrites a decade and a half later, I became more and more convinced that Jonathan and Tommy used to be more than friends, and then when Elizabeth came along the three of them got together as a thruple and very happy for a while. (For some reason I couldn’t work this explicitly into FTaH, though - it felt too much like hinting at this huge story I was never going to write and might have made FTaH much too crowded. So it’s up to the reader to decide, really. Personally, I like both options.) So here’s 37 year old me shipping Jon with a female OC and a male OC, and quite enthusiastically, at that. *chuckles* Wonder what my 21 y-o self would think of it…

He hadn’t seen Thomas Ferguson since some time after the end of the war, what felt like ages ago. They’d made quite a pair at Oxford, the two of them – the scrawny, foppish Southerner with the quiet grin and the sticky fingers, and the broad-shouldered, round-faced Scouser with the laughing eyes and the deceptively innocent face. They’d rowed for the Dark Blues for a bit, got properly pickled on Boat Race Nights, and helped each other out of many a tight spot. Oh, for the halcyon days of youth.

One of the reasons I picked up FTaH again is because the second half of 2019 was very, very British for me. I saw (and read) Good Omens for the first time in early June and my feelings exploded; July was very much about discovering the delights of P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster (TV show and books). Halfway through that month I remembered my everlasting fondness for the characters of The Mummy and realised the protagonists and Bertie were the same generation, more or less, and I started imagining a crossover. By the time August rolled in I was fully into TM/TMR again, reading fic and my fingers itching to at least correct some iffy parts of FTaH. This last sentence, about Jon’s and Tom’s Oxford days, would never have come out that way if I hadn’t read Wodehouse.

As soon as Tommy was on his feet he was wringing Jonathan’s hand with all the energy he’d been famous for as a boy. “Sorry, Jon, mate, I was a bit stunned –” After all these years, he still retained some of that accent, too! “– En’t everyday you bump into a pal from Oxford in the middle of Cairo! How’d you get here, for starters?”

…Tommy’s accent. *sighs* I’m not a fan of writing accents phonetically in the first place. When I write Newkirk (Hogan’s Heroes) and his Cockney accent, there isn’t much except the odd “me” for “my” or things like “d’you”. I did have to make it obvious Tommy had an accent, though, if only because later Jonathan is surprised when he tones it down to speak with the curator. (This is something his 18 year old self found incredibly difficult, btw.) @thisstableground oversaw the first chapter and gave me very valuable tips, including “en’t” (// “ain’t), which was super helpful in giving Tommy’s accent its own specificity and meant that I didn’t need him to drop “h”s and “g”s all over the place. (which he does do, but hopefully not in a way that takes you away from the story.)

As for why he’s from Liverpool as opposed to, say, Manchester or the East End of London, the answer is very simple. I’d discovered the Beatles a year or two prior and they remain one of my favourite bands in the whole world ♥

“Well, I followed my sister,” Jonathan replied, grinning. In fifteen years or so, he had not realised how much he had actually missed this accent. “She’s giving a hand to the curator of the Museum of Antiquities – she’s something of an authority now, as a matter of fact.”

“Oh aye? That’s fantastic. I en’t forgotten how you’d talk about her, y’know. On and on and on. I’m curious to see what she looks like.”

Somethingthat didn’t change after rewrites is the idea that Jon was verysecretive about his Oxford years. Tom and Evy never met before this,and Evy hadn’t even heard about Tom before.

Jonathan stole a glance at the entrance steps of the Museum, and turned to Tommy with a smirk. “Really? Well, if you really want to, I suppose I could…”

His sister had just appeared on the stairs, accompanied by the curator, an elderly man with greying hair and whiskers. The curator, Dr Fahad Hakim, has a somewhat larger role later on, but this is just a cameo to let you know he exists :o) There’s another mention earlier, too. Tommy followed Jonathan’s gaze and looked at them, goggling at Evy in particular.

“Jon – are my eyes mistaken, or is this gorgeous woman Doctor Evelyn O’Connell? I’ve read about her, she’s famous in my line of work… According to what I’ve read, she was one of the first people to make it out of the City of the Dead alive –”

He doesn’t say what his “line of work” is, but we (and Jonathan) can infer it has something to do with archaeology or Egyptology. And, incidentally, I’m setting up the first alarm bells here because, as Evy points out in the following chapter, at the time her name was “Carnahan”, so how come Tommy didn’t seem to make the connection between Jon’s bookish sister and this English librarian with the same name? The answer is: because he’s nervous (because he’s in Cairo on secret Chamber of Horus business) and as delighted as he is to see Jon again after so many years his brain went “YOU KNOW NOTHING” then backpedalled and went “…OKAY, YOU KNOW SOME THINGS.”

Jonathan’s grin widened as he nodded. “Yes, that’d be her.”

Tommy rambled on as they walked closer to the stairs, “That’s bloody amazing! I thought she’d look, you know, like in the pictures in the paper, the bookish type with glasses – your typical Southern spinster,” he added with a wink. They waited for the curator to bid her goodbye, and Jonathan, greatly enjoying the situation, crept up on his sister to kiss her on the cheek.

“Hey there, old mum – how’s your day been?”

Evy started, then her expression shifted from slightly irked to a smile at her brother’s laugh. She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Jonathan, the things that amuse you…”

SIBS!!! I love writing siblings, and those two in particular. One of the things that I find amusing/endearing is how comfortable they are with each other, physically (and emotionally) speaking. It’s all gentle touch here, light slap there, running hand in hand, lots of things you wouldn’t expect from two Very English siblings from the first half of the 20th century.

“You’re just miffed that I startled you. C’mon, I’d like you to meet someone – an admirer,” he added with a grin to Tommy, who stood there, his eyes wide. “Thomas Ferguson, an old school friend of mine. Tommy – Evelyn Carnahan O’Connell, my famous baby sister.”

There’s a couple of instances where someone introduces Tom as “Thomas”, or Tom introducing himself as such. Most of the time, though, he’s “Tommy” - until chapter 9, where we spend some time in his head for the first time and see he thinks of himself as “Tom”, and when we go back to Jon’s PoV in chapter 11 Jonathan made the mental switch to “Tom”, as well, to separate the boy from his youth from the man he’s become. I actually spell it out in chapter 17: “A lot had happened since that late afternoon in Giza when his friend had pointed a gun at him and stopped being ‘Tommy’. ‘Tommy’ was a warm memory of loud laughter, daring escapes, bright eyes over pints clinking in the comfortable darkness of a well-loved pub. Tom, on the other hand, was a fairly decent man chucked into a complex situation, who had a wife he loved dearly but lied to about his job, who had not wanted to bring harm to an old friend but had done so anyway.”

Evy held out her hand, which Tommy grabbed and shook heartily. “So you’re the old scoundrel’s sister? No wonder he talked about you – though you don’t quite fit the description now…”

“What exactly did you tell your ‘school friends’ about me?” asked Evy, warning in her voice, though the twinkle in her eye did not quite disappear. Nevertheless, Jonathan preferred to ignore her question, earning a hard nudge in the ribs.

He bragged, actually. A lot. Since he thought Tommy and Lizzie would never meet Evy, Jonathan considered himself free to speak quite enthusiastically of his baby sister’s achievements and how bright she was. Of course, he also complained a good deal, because even at 12 Evy had a penchant for being bossy that came out even in letters.

“So, what did you say your ‘line of work’ was?” he asked Tommy.

“Well – don’t laugh. I work at the British Consulate in Cairo, specialising in antique stuff. Oh, I’m sorry, Dr O’Connell,” he stammered with a glance at Evy who had an eyebrow raised, “I mean I’m one of the chief agents in the British Antique Research Department.”

No he’s not! He’s actually a secret agent, kinda :D And not remotely close to a “chief agent”, at that. Tom Ferguson is deeply in love with his wife and nothing will ever change that state of affairs, but he might have a little intellectual crush on Evy, which leads him to… wanting to impress her a little bit.

“I’ve heard of you!” exclaimed Evy. “At least of that Research Department. They’re gradually cutting off public funds – encouraging individual financing – but that won’t do any good for scientific research! Such a stupid decision is only going to –”

“So you lot are the ones she kept fuming about for half a year!” Jonathan snorted. The infamous Ferguson rotten luck struck again.

I still regret I didn’t find more opportunities to showcase how ridiculously unlucky Tommy could get sometimes. Ah well.

Tommy looked dejected. Evy must have seen this, because she bit her lip and said, in softer tones, “Look, I’m sorry I snapped at you. But as my brother said, I’ve been… rather upset over this. There’s been some pressure on the British Museum lately by private patrons who threatened to pull out their funding on some… sensitive collections. Without the Crown to back us up, we might have to cave in to their ridiculous demands.”

Before the rewrites, Evy’s speech used to be a lot more “private funding is bad” without much nuance or justification. I changed it to something that hopefully makes sense and justifies her previous outburst. 

“I’ll – I’ll tell my superiors about it,” said Tommy, still looking unsure. “See what I can do. I’m sure it won’t be much, but… Well. I’ll have tried.”

“That’s nice,” Evy said cheerfully, taking Jonathan’s arm and starting to walk. See what I mean about physicality? She doesn’t even ask him with a look, just takes his arm and that’s that. And he lets her, because he’d do the same thing. “Look, the two of you – I’ve had something of a rough day, so I’ll go home, if you don’t mind. You can –”

“Brilliant idea!” said Jonathan, flashing a grin at his sister. “I thought of going to the Sultan’s Casbah, but you might find it a tad – let’s say – dingy, my good friend.”

The Sultan’s Casbah, in the novelisation of the film and my personal headcanon, was the bar Jonathan patronised the night before the first time we see Evy and where he stole a valuable-looking puzzle box from an unsuspecting drunk American. 

“Worse than the Turf?” Seeing Evy’s puzzled look, Tommy explained, “Sorry, private joke. I mean the Turf Tavern, that’s where I saw him for the first time. Me family didn’t ‘ave much money, so I used to work there to pay for my studies. Very nice pub, didn’t deserve the reputation.”

The Best Beloved and I took a trip to Oxford in the spring of 2003 (by bus - 20 hours to get there, same to come back home) and while we were so broke we had to settle for a soup and some rice in a lovely Thai restaurant we did go for a drink at the Turf. I remember a dimly-lit room with dark wood, and I think either they changed a lot of it or my memory isn’t that good because it doesn’t really look like that on the Google Maps pics. Still, I liked it, and when I needed an Oxford pub for the story it’s the one I worked in. Incidentally, there was a lot of illegal gambling going on in there in the 19th century, hence Tommy’s mention of the pub’s bad reputation.

“I’m sure you did indeed see a lot of my brother there,” Evy slipped in slyly. Jonathan threw a mock glare at her.

“To think you are almost my only family. What a shame.” Then, as Tommy looked uncertain, he added, “Carry on, Tom.”

“All right. So I was one of the only students who needed a job, and there were some others who thought that it was – how’d they put it? – a ‘disgrace’ to our university.”

“Preposterous,” said Evy sternly. “As if money could take you further than talent.”

Jonathan bit back on the cynical comment that crossed his mind. Sometimes Evy’s naïveté baffled him.

“Right,” said Tommy uncertainly, glancing at Jonathan. “So, one day, a little bunch of lads come in, and Jon here was sometimes hanging with ‘em at the time –”

Because Jonathan likes to gamble with people with deep pockets :P

Evy glared at Jonathan in advance, and he threw his hands in the air. “Don’t look at me like that! I haven’t done anything!” Evy’s gaze softened, and Jonathan finished, “…Yet.”

That earned him a playful slap on the arm, and a laugh from Tommy, who went on, “Anyway, one of the blokes orders somethin’ or other, and starts to poke fun at me. Well, I was used to it, so I let them be. Then they continued, and I finally noticed that skinny lad in the corner who was makin’ fun of them for making fun of me. Didn’t quite understand what the hell was going on – oh, sorry, Dr O’Connell – what was happening.”

While John Hannah is not “skinny” by any stretch, he is rather svelte, and one of my unimpeachable headcanons for Jonathan is that he was skinny as a rake in his youth - until he went through basic training (then WW1) and his shoulders filled out a little. It’s more or less what happened to the Best Beloved, so I feel quite secure in this headcanon’s plausibility. Plus, picturing 18 year old Jonathan as a mix of awkward gangliness and skinny limbs and aristocratic poise is just funny. (and I find the comparison with Tommy - who at that point was soft and a little chubby but already had broad shoulders - rather endearing.)

Evy smiled. “You’ll have to watch your mouth in front of my son, but otherwise it’s fine. And please, call me Evelyn.”

Tommy beamed. “Right, uh, Evelyn. So, uh –”

“What he didn’t know at that point,” interrupted Jonathan, “was that I had my eye on that fellow – what’s his name – Farbow. He owed me quite a bit of money, but wouldn’t repay me. So I was looking for a way to get him back for it.”

“And get the rest of his wallet in the process, of course.”

“Evy, he owed me seventeen pounds. (Which used to be £70 until I did some research and saw that £17 was A Bloody Fortune a the time.) And he was not what I’d call a ‘decent bloke’ – nasty, disdainful piece of work he was, and his little friends with him. Always a dirty word about the Scouser who worked at the Turf Tavern, just because he didn’t belong to his snobby little world. I did the community a favour, really.”

What he doesn’t say is that Edwin Farbow also had a lot to say about “half-Egyptian mongrels” who thought they belonged in those ancient walls. Too bad I couldn’t find a way to work it in this particular fic. If I ever manage to finish at least Tommy’s part of One-Step, Two-Step, Waltz, the first chapter of Pirouette features the whole scene.

“Don’t push it, Jonathan,” warned Evy.

Tommy carried on. “Well, I was glad there was at least one person who didn’t think like Edwin Farbow – nice change. Then Farbow said something – I don’t remember what it was about, I just remember it made me really angry, really. An’ it’s not a pretty sight when I’m really angry at someone.”

It’s always the quiet, genial ones, isn’t it.

Jonathan remembered, but thought it wise to keep his mouth shut.

Both because what Farbow said was pretty damn offensive to Tommy’s character, background, and lineage, and also because Farbow’s rant included “It’s bad enough they let inpeople like Carnahan, who only exists because a glorifiedgrave-robber shagged some darkey and didn’t even have the decencyto pretend otherwise –” and he really doesn’t want to bring this up in front of Evy, who’s had to deal with her own share of this kind of racist bullshit and doesn’t need a reminder.

“An’ – an’ I just lost it, y’know? I dropped his tea over his ‘ead –”

“I say, that one was pretty funny,” Jonathan said, smiling widely at the memory. The strangled yelp that had followed had definitely been one of the best parts.

“So they all leaped for me, obviously – began to punch me, the five or six of them – hey, I still managed to get back at them!” Tommy added quickly, as if defending his honour. Evy hid a smile, and it occurred to Jonathan that that last sentence had something very Rick-like about it. “But I en’t a fool. I know a losing fight when I’m in one.”

“Don’t tell me. Jonathan bravely threw himself into the fight to take on as many attackers as possible.” There was mischievous laughter in Evy’s voice, and her eyes were twinkling. If anyone other than her had quipped that way about him, Jonathan would probably have taken offence, or at least pretended to. But they knew each other enough not to cross the line.

Tommy raised an eyebrow. “Well, that wasn’t quite Jon’s style – I don’ know, might’ve changed since then. But yeah, he did. One moment I was squashed under five or six, the next I found out we were two on the floor.”

This was perhaps the biggest suspension of disbelief I’m asking the reader to make - which, in a story where governments have secret agencies to keep an eye on magical ancient artefacts and a diamond has magic powers, is saying something. Jonathan throwing himself into a fight because someone he loves (ie. four people in the whole world that we know of) is in danger? Yep, that checks out, that’s what he does both in TM and TMR. But an (almost) complete stranger? I needed one hell of a justification. Which ended up… 60% Farbow’s money and 40% Farbow being a giant arsehole who had no business making decent bartenders look like that.

Evy began to laugh. “Why, Jonathan? My Jonathan, in a fight, for someone he barely knew?”

At that Jonathan cleared his throat, a mite embarrassed. “I told you, I was looking for Farbow’s wallet. That was the perfect diversion – you should’ve seen that twit looking in every corner for his lost wallet afterwards. It was three months before he gave up.” And it’s lucky you didn’t see me then. I was a bloody mess. “Why’re you looking at me like that?”

“Nothing.” Evy smiled. “You never told me that.”

To be fair, there’s a LOT of things he never told you, old girl ;o)

“Should I have?”

“I don’t know, it’s – it was nice of you to do that, even for the wrong reasons. I’m proud of you.”

Jonathan felt an unexpected lump rise in his throat. Not a very big one, but enough to keep him from talking for a few seconds. It was always like this whenever she said something really nice to him. It caught him off guard each and every time.

Look, it took me years to realise it, but I’m a sucker for validation. Sometimes it bleeds out on characters I write.

After a little while, Evy stopped in front of a door and announced, “Well, we’re home.”

“Nice house,” commented Tommy, taking in the sand-coloured neat front and the curtains at the windows.

“Our ‘old haunt’ since the family moved to Egypt,” Jonathan said, opening the door and stepping aside to let his sister in. “Evy wasn’t even walking then.”

In the first film, Evy, Rick, Jonathan and the remainder of the American party go straight to Fort Brydon, and the next thing we see is Evy emptying her suitcase while Rick tries to fill it. Since both Carnahan siblings actually live in Cairo, I thought they would live in an actual house, and from there I extrapolated that the family had one house in England (the manor we see in TMR) and a smaller pied-à-terre in Cairo.

“I do believe I was,” Evy protested.

Jonathan snorted. “Oh, you weren’t. You crawled.”

si b l i n gssss ♥♥ And like, you can always count on a big sib to remind you that you could be ridiculous as a kid. I should know, I’m the big sister :D

Evy seemed to resist the urge to slap her brother and walked into the living room, her nose in the air. She was greeted by two simultaneous voices:

“Mum!”

“Hey, hon.”

Rick’s first words in this story, and it’s greeting his wife ^^ I didn’t do it on purpose, but it’s. Y’know. There.

Jonathan waited a few seconds, then walked into the room in turn, and grinned at the sight of his nephew looking genuinely eager to see him. He was not fooled, however – as soon as Evy wasn’t looking, Alex mouthed the words “Got one?” and frowned as his uncle shook his head. No, he still had no present for Mum’s birthday.

Evy’s birthday mainly originated as a device to get characters (especially Jonathan) moving. It’s the reason he’s roaming the streets of Cairo just before he bumps into Tommy, and why he and Alex go to the bazaar in chapter 5. It also pops up further on in the story, but I’m not saying anything because spoilers.

“Uncle Jon? Who’s that?”

“Who, him?” Jonathan pointed at Tommy behind him, looking uncomfortable at the family reunion, and Alex rolled his eyes. “Tom Ferguson, he was in class with me at Oxford. I ran into him by chance today.”

Tommy stepped past Jonathan and held out his hand to Alex, nearest to him. “Hi – glad to meet you. Jon’s nephew, eh?”

“Yeah,” said Alex, eyeing him with all the suspicion of a ten-year-old who’d seen what he had seen. Behind him, Rick’s eyes spoke loads about his own distrust. But mistrust towards Jonathan and everything related was par for the course on his part, and, admittedly, reasonable.

Alex has Seen Things. This may sound tongue-in-cheek, but it’s true. After what happened in TMR, he’s 100% entitled to being suspicious of strangers. As for Rick, I took my cue from one of his first lines to Jon in TMR being “What did you do this time?” implying that the weird shit happening right now, with the men in red and the sexy lady waving snakes around isn’t exactly unheard of. Hence the “and, admittedly, reasonable”, which I added in the rewrites.

“Thomas Ferguson, British Antique Research Department,” said Tommy, holding out a hand towards Rick, who shook it slowly, still reluctant.

“Rick O’Connell.”

“So you’re Dr O’Connell’s husband? Pleasure to meet you, sir. I’m impressed, you’ve no idea.”

Rick raised an eyebrow. “Impressed?”

“It seems I’m rather famous in the Research Department,” said Evy, laughing.

“Make that infamous,” quipped Jonathan.

“The Department owes your wife a great deal. She was the one who uncovered a huge amount of our information about some obscure periods of Egyptian history, as well as the major part of serious knowledge we’ve got on Hamunaptra,” Tommy pointed out, and Evy blushed. “She’s a legend – one of the original three who managed to go to Hamunaptra and live to tell the tale! But… I assume you’re another one?”

Oh, Tommy. MATE. You’re saying you know three people made it out of Hamunaptra alive, one of whom a woman with the exact same first and last name as your best friend’s sister who had a passion for ancient history, but you had no idea he was one of them as well? 

Incidentally, the early installment weirdness I mentioned earlier mostly consists in Tommy being a lot more energetic and innocent-looking than he later proves to be (which is a little more grounded and pragmatic than Jon). In fact, he and Jonathan’s first couple of scenes together give the impression that he’s the red and Jon’s the blue in the “Bue oni, red oni” trope, when later chapters show Jon as a little bit more of a disaster while Tom struggles to make better choices and be more sensible. Which in the end would make them shades of purple, really.

“Yeah,” said Rick, looking a bit nonplussed. Jonathan definitely didn’t regret bringing Tommy in. Seeing Rick O’Connell confused was a very rare occurrence, too rare to be missed.

“I never knew – who was the third one?”

Jonathan was now struggling to keep a straight face. Rick blinked, and pointed at his brother-in-law. “That was him.”

“You!?” God, the look on his face was priceless. “You were at Hamunaptra?”

“Yes,” risked Jonathan, laughter rising in his voice. “And believe me, it wasn’t exactly a picnic. Oh, by the way, there were four of us, not three.”

Meaning Ardeth, of course. My take is that Tommy - and by extension the Chamber of Horus - know about as much about the Medjai as Evy knew about the Book of Amun-Ra prior to the events of TM: a non-negligible amount of information, but all of it second-hand and some of it a bit dicey.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Rick roll his eyes and grinned, undaunted. This was proving to be a fun evening.

Make the most of it, people, because it’s all going to go downhill fast…

Thank you ♥♥♥

[sternerstufftoys]

In America they call it an ‘Edrevator’

It's fair to say that Drift had one of the worst starts imaginable. Debuting out of nowhere midway through All Hail Megatron he was the first time a new character had been added to the established G1 roster and... hoo boy, it was a right shitshow. The obvious comparisons with Poochie off of That Simpsons were valid. Tensions were already high as Shane McCarthy's AHM was never a particularly good series and had been pushed through to slam the breaks on Simon Furman's glacially-unfolding megastory. And here was a previously unmentioned character showing up to steal the show and put all your favourites in their place. He was a Decepticon turned Autobot, he fought with swords - three swords - he was kinda sorta Japanese despite not having been to Earth at all, and his debut had him showing everyone else up. You know, your favourites.

And you were supposed to love him for it. Three swords, man. That's fanfic level character design.

And then something incredible happened. It didn't happen overnight, it didn't happen after a long absence, it just happened... gradually. Drift put the legwork in. Drift began to earn his place in Transformers. A spotlight, a miniseries, a few dotted cameos here and there, and finally a lead role in More Than Meets The Eye under the careful stewardship of James Roberts. Eventually he'd managed to fit right in, no longer the new bug, no longer the exaggerated caricature, no longer the 'Mary Sue'. And all credit to Shane McCarthy for carrying on the character development when he returned to Drift with Empire of Stone.

(and then the movies and cartoons looked at him, saw 'Japanese' and 'swords' and gave him a stupid samurai helmet because it was less work)

So the toy's release in 2010 came at a bad time. The fandom had passed judgement, and it was not good. TFWiki's page on him was not shy about mocking his over-the-top forced coolness, and the idea that Drift of all characters should get a toy in the very first wave of Generations's launch seemed almost like it was taking the piss. What gave him the right? A lot of people passed on him, as an unknown character, because they knew him and hated him, or because they'd rather get the Blurr retool a few waves later. Hell, I didn't bother either. Drift who?

Which is a real pity because Drift's toy is incredible. Simply put, one of the single greatest carbots of the decade, and he came at the very start! Just look at him. Seriously, scroll back up and drink him in. Or get yours out and give it a good old fiddle. Go on. He's tall, he's elegant, he's well proportioned, all his gear stashes away neatly without needing to replace it for transformation... and oh man, the colours!

See, the whitish car parts are not his body, they're armour. His actual body is done in dark grey, giving him a layered effect, like a Stormtrooper or a Halo Spartan. The face, the only bit of exposed 'skin' is a shiny silver. There's serious thought gone into the placement of every piece of colour on his body, something that wasn't followed up with on the later Blurr retool or a great deal of similar transformers, and the overall effect makes him look protected, but mobile and flexible. And being able to put his swords away into scabbards while not in use is a luxury shared only by him and ROTF Bludgeon, who makes a distinctly apt foe for him.

It's not all good news though. Gush though I might over his lush form, the mighty shoulder kibble is somewhat restrictive for posing power, and Drift struggles to lift his arms outwards away from his body. Forward and backward are no problem though, and he's got the rare ability to hold his big sword - sorry, Great Sword - in both hands. Luxury!

Transformation is a hoot as well, in a way that I kinda still have trouble believing. Somehow a figure like this feels like it ought to be a massive faff to get from mode to mode, but it just isn't. Everything just folds away neatly, giving plenty of room for movement as you ease everything into place. Considering this is the same line that gave us the nightmarish Straxus, it's a real achievement.

And the car mode is... it's a car. It's a nice car. It's got a stupid kanji of Drift's own name on the door, but that's hardly the worst fashion crime in Transformers history now, is it? Our beloved Thunderclash just had the Transformers logo splashed all over him like the cocky corporate sellout he was. At least Drift's in control of his own branding. I have no idea if this is the sort of car used in actual drift racing, as I never got past the first Fast and Furious movie. Let's assume that it is, and Drift just sideways-drives everywhere. And then has to change his tyres every few miles because the tread's worn right through. The mug.

One last thing on Drift is that he's getting increasingly rare. Repeated movie and cartoon toys (and a spotty reputation, even today) meant that this is the only Generations Drift released so far, and most people who own one have little reason to sell him on. And now I've said this, there'll be a WFC Drift announced like tomorrow or something and the aftermarket price for this chump will drop and I'll have wasted my money and apifjaosifsiodjbr. Well. A new Drift would have to be something pretty spectacular to beat this one for shelf space. I wub him.

[theoldestsoultrilogy]

First and foremost, it saddens and sickens me to hear that yet another Hollywood child star has died. The world woke up to the shocking news this morning that, according to about 20 billion articles online which all contain a freakishly consistent uniformity,

“Cameron Boyce, best known for his roles in a number of Disney Channel films and television shows, has tragically passed away at the age of 20. According to Boyce’s family, the young actor, dancer and singer passed in his sleep after suffering a seizure, the result of an ongoing medical condition.”

This young, absolutely adorable, freckle-faced boy at the beginning of his life is now gone. For good. How are we to make sense of this utterly tragic news? But, what if I told you, like with most if not all child star deaths, all is not what it seems.

What if you knew there was more to the story? A lot more.

It took me less than 20 minutes of digging to connect Cameron Boyce to shady charities involved in child slavery, pedophiles and predators, and dicey elites like Richard Branson. All while the evil overlords at Google seem to have begun dramatically ratcheting up their control of the flow of information. These draconian measures seem to have increased in the past week, which was not a good one for squeaky clean, allegedly family friendly Disney.

https://twitter.com/Tiff_FitzHenry/status/1145017021794529281

Disney megastar Bella Thorne revealed that she was being molested from the time she was 6-14, AND EVERYONE AROUND HER KNEW, AND NO ONE DID ANYTHING.

I want you to think about that for a moment. Let it sink in. Who could or would allow the sexual abuse of a 6 year old to go on? Why might they do this?

Once you begin to allow yourself to mull these horrific questions, and mull them we must, you’ll start to find the timing of Cameron Boyce’s sudden death particularly odd. Are other Disney child stars, with stories like Bella’s to tell, becoming emboldened? Had Cameron experienced similar things? Did those closest to him turn a blind eye? How plausible is it that a person who’s been famous for 11 years dies suddenly of a supposed health condition that’s serious enough to take the life of a perfectly healthy-seeming 20 year old and yet this mystery condition has never been mentioned before? Not anywhere that I can find at least.

Today I just want to present you with 10 relevant facts you likely may not know about Cameron Boyce his career and the people who surrounded him, but as always I want you to draw your own conclusions, think for yourself, and feel free to share your thoughts with me on Twitter.

Start here: Cameron’s IMDB. It is extensive and includes not only a long list of Disney shows and films such as Jessie, Shake It Up, Good Luck Charlie, and the recent Descendants, but also Grown-Ups and Grown-Ups 2, a new TV series called Paradise City (a spin-off of the very obscure and not successful 2017 film American Satan) cause, obviously.

As well as films such as Mirror and Eagle Eye which Cameron starred in alongside fellow former Disney kid Shia LeBeouf

and Cory Booker’s reluctant “girlfriend” Rosario Dawson, whom an inside source has shared with me has no say in the situation whatsoever. A virtual slave.

https://twitter.com/Tiff_FitzHenry/status/1144082428551712768

Alright, here we go.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA DEATH HOAX IN 2017

When you start to understand more deeply that the information that reaches you is being shaped and molded in order to shape and mold YOU, and that celebrity influence is owned and controlled for the very same reason, you’ll begin to look at things like “leaked nudes” and even “death hoax’s and rumors” a little differently. You’ll start to consider that perhaps these are tools used to influence the influencers, to modify behavior when they’re off message, or stray from their instructed course. Here Cameron Boyce and his Descendants co-star Dove Cameron joking about the ‘death hoax.’

But can you imagine anything more traumatizing than seeing headlines tearing across the internet announcing your own death to the world? Consider the possibility that things like fear, humiliation, and loss of control are used to keep celebrities in line. Consider the possibility that this was a veiled threat.

Case in point, the front page headline on Snapchat the very next day after the recent bombshell Bella Thorne interview [posted above] went viral.

The humiliating ‘story’ was snagged from a random Instagram post back in 2016, but it just happened to be front page news the day that articles in major outlets were carrying the story of the revelations from her recent interview.

For the record, Bella herself retweeted the video of her interview from my original tweet. Kinda makes you think, right?

2. MEET KENNY ORTEGA

Friends, if you haven’t heard the name Kenny Ortega, I guarantee that you soon will. He is an A-list Hollywood Choreographer and Director whose #MeToo moment is rumored to be decades overdue. He is the Director of Cameron Boyce’s most recent Disney project, the Descendants (parts 1, 2 and 3) where he played the fictional son of Cruella De Vil.

With a long list of impressive credits including everything from Disney’s Newsies, and the mega-hit High School Musical franchise to Dirty Dancing, and Pretty in Pink, as well as a distinguished run directing iconic music videos and live tours for the likes of Gloria Estefan and Michael Jackson, Kenny Ortega is the Hollywood equivalent of a mafia ‘made man.’ As if to prove it, which the cult loves to publicly do, Netflix (cough cough the C.I.A.) just entered into a very lucrative multi-year overall deal with Ortega, announced April 9th 2019.

So, how does one become a ‘made-man’ in Hollywood?

There are several ways, all of which involve selling your soul.

One way is to appear as the key witness in the $40 million dollar wrongful death lawsuit brought by Michael Jackson’s mother and three children, and lobby on behalf of concert promoter AEG.

‘He wasn’t being very responsible!’ This Is It producer Kenny Ortega testifies Michael Jackson and Conrad Murray were to blame for untimely death

What’s the big deal anyway? Ortega’s longtime ‘friend’ and admitted ‘greatest inspiration’ is already dead, Dr. Murray is in prison and everyone who profited the most off MJ rode off into the proverbial sunset. Zero accountability. Suffice it to say, Kenny Ortega is on Paris Jackson’s very telling shit list, right next to Oprah and David Geffen.

3. CRAZY DAYS AND NIGHTS 

Another way to get on the inside of the Hollywood Prison Pyramid is to be a compromised and or compromise-able person (depending on what level you’re at.)

You see, Hollywood might look like it’s about movies and TV shows and acting and stuff, but it’s really just about something called “controlled influence.” It’s about owning and controlling all those who are ‘given’ the platform to influence YOU. In order to get that platform you have to be ‘willing to do anything.’ Even as a screenwriter with several hot projects, I was instructed to say these very words. Words which I was told, in no uncertain terms by my high powered agent, that the head executives at places like ABC (Disney) were waiting to hear me say. Yeah, let that sink in.

And, think about it, isn’t it easier to own people who routinely do things that could put them in jail if anyone ever found out? This is why sick degenerate behavior is rampant amongst the influential. They’re not only enabled to get away with it (see Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Louis C.K., James Gunn, Brett Ratner, Les Moonves, etc.,) criminal behavior is encouraged! Yes, Hollywood and Washington are a cesspool by design! Neat, right? 🙄

It’s my opinion that the death is referring to Cameron, the ‘director’ is Kenny Ortega, and the franchise is High School Musical or the Descendants, where underage actors and actresses were and are being ‘turned out’ — all as a part of this cesspool system. When it comes to the children, it’s the parents who sell their soul on their behalf.

There’s a long list of Creepy Kenny Ortega stuff to dig up, the latest clip wigging people out is his handsy way with Cameron Boyce’s Descendants co-star Dove Cameron.

Moving on.

4. THE KENNY ORTEGA JEFF BEZOS CONNECTION

As if you needed one more reason to claw and hiss at Kenny Ortega should you ever encounter him, he’s been involved with C.I.A. Amazon Jeff Bezo’s now ex-wife’s ‘anti-bullying’ organization, Bystander Revolution, which she founded in 2014 for whatever dumbass reason.

No seriously I bet this foundation is really changing the world you guys (she said SUPER sarcastically)

5. ORTEGA, EISNER, SANDLER OH MY!

You can learn a lot by who says what, and when. The very first ‘public figures to address Boyce’s death on social media this morning was Kenny Ortega, followed by Disney CEO Michael Eisner, and quickly thereafter by Adam Sandler. Sandler wrote, starred in and produced Grown-Ups and Grown-Ups 2; Cameron Boyce appears in both.

To the keen observer, this little tweet parade felt extremely coordinated, intentional and quite frankly pre-planned.

View this post on Instagram

My Love, Light and Prayers go out to Cameron and his Family. Cameron brought Love, Laughter and Compassion with him everyday I was in his presence. His talent, immeasurable. His kindness and generosity, overflowing. It has been an indescribable honor and pleasure to know and work with him. I will see you again in all things loving and beautiful my friend. I will search the stars for your light. Rest In Peace Cam. You will always be My Forever Boy! 💔

A post shared by Kenny Ortega (@kennyortegablog) on Jul 6, 2019 at 7:42pm PDT

“My forever boy.” Yeah, that’s not creepy at all.  Ortega later clarified that this was a Peter Pan reference, which makes it even worse if you understand the pedophile troupes in Peter Pan.

https://twitter.com/RobertIger/status/1147858501021995008

https://twitter.com/AdamSandler/status/1147859788794961921

Nice picture Adam, real subtle. Don’t worry, you’re ‘signal’ has been sent and received.

Adam is being such a good cabal puppet these days ya’ll.

Here you see he’s being rewarded:

Netflix reveals 30M accounts viewed Adam Sandler-led ‘Murder Mystery’

At a time when box office is limping along like the terminally wounded wildebeest it is, allegedly this film would have CRUSHED opening weekend, had it been released at the box office of course, which it wasn’t. I guess we’ll just have to take Netflix’s word for it since they (somehow) get to keep all their data to themselves for whatever as yet explained or justified reason! 👍

Now that I think about it, there’s someone else who does that too. They’re really powerful and super secretive, who is that again? Oh that’s right, it’s the C.I.A.! (Netflix is the C.I.A.)

I’m sure the fact that Murder Mystery was filmed at cabal kingpin George Clooney’s favorite lake in Italy where weird high brow art/child trafficking things go down, and written by an actual fucking Vanderbilt has nothing to do with anything.

I’m sure all that’s random. It’s not like there’s this handful of psychopathic elite bloodline families feasting on the blood of children who’ve held humanity hostage for generations or whatever.

Alright, onward internet friends. As you may have noticed, there are thousands of images of Cameron Boyce online. You have to really search to find this one where he’s got two fingers framing his left eye and covering his mouth, as if he’s been silenced by some group (hint: see above paragraph).

Well done, Adam. Good thinking choosing this picture to post alongside your tribute. This might even get you an Emmy nomination. You see, Adam isn’t bloodline, so he has to do stuff like this to keep his cult membership in good standings.

Note another very recent sudden celebrity death. This is Mac Miller’s final Instagram photo, which posted just hours before his death by ‘accidental overdose.’

Well would you look at that, 2 fingers framing his left eye, and his mouth covered. Almost as if it’s a sign to others not to speak out or they’ll whack you

Here’s the final Instagram picture Cameron “allegedly” posted of himself, also just hours before his death. There’s that left eyes again. Hmmmm.

6. CREEPY JOE BIDEN

Cameron introduced former Vice President Joe Biden at his Biden Courage Awards back in March. Today, Biden tweeted his condolences.

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1147991178689810437

I think we can all agree that children and Joe Biden don’t mix.

6. HE RECENTLY FIRED HIS AGENT OVER SEX ASSAULT CHARGES

After Stranger Things child star Finn Wolfhard fired APA agent Tyler Grasham over sexual abuse allegations which came to light, Cameron, who was also represented by Grasham, fired him the same week.

However, in predictable Pedowood fashion, the LA prosecutor won’t prosecute the felony rape charges from multiple accusers. Now it looks like he’s escaped criminal charges altogether, and Hollywood is even looking at rehiring him in a talent agent capacity.

At this point, there’s no disputing that Hollywood protects pedophiles. The question you should be asking yourself is, why?

7. RECENTLY DISCUSSED THE DARK DAYS

“For about a year of my life, if I didn’t have to leave my house, I wouldn’t,” he said in a recent interview of his darkest period. “It was a bad way of dealing with fame, but it’s a scary feeling to know that everybody is looking at you all the time.” Cameron has learned to cope with it, though, and is adamant that he’ll use his platform of over 7 million Instagram followers for good. He’s started working with a charity called The Thirst Project, and is spreading the word about the group’s push to bring clean water to millions around the world who desperately need it.”

8. THE THIRST PROJECT / WE CHARITY

It appears that Cameron Boyce was involved with two separate but equally suspicious charities (side note: charities are just slush funds for rich people).

The Thirst Project’s list of partners includes the notoriously dicey Clinton Charities among multiple Hollywood studios. By its own admission they appear to be all about water but in reality focus most heavily on tailoring curriculum to influence political activism in school children in the United States (which is what the very powerful are most focused on right now).

Similarly, WE Charity, formerly known as Free The Children, is “an international development charity and youth empowerment movement founded in 1995 by human rights advocates Marc and Craig Kielburger. The organization implements development programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America, focusing on education, water, health, food and economic opportunity. It also runs domestic programming for young people in Canada, the U.S. and U.K., promoting service learning and active citizenship.”

So, the same thing.

This link is a must read eye-opening article about the 2 brothers who started We Charities – The Cult of Kielburger

We Charity – connected to child slavery  

We Charity is connected to Unilever, Microsoft

We Charity – connected to Richard Branson. The brothers co-authored a book with Holly Branson, daughter of Richard Branson. Richard and Holly also produced the docu-series Shameless Idealist with the We Charity founders.

I am certain there is much more to be unearthed down the rabbit hole of these two charitable foundations/elite slush funds. For Cameron’s part there’s a good chance he was either unaware of the corruption or if he was aware, involvement was not his choice but a decision that was made for him.

Side note, Necker Island (Branson’s) is about thirty five miles from Epstein’s island.

You know Jeffrey Epstein who was arrested Saturday and being arraigned as we speak for running an international child sex trafficking operation to entice, entrap and ensnare elites particularly in Hollywood, DC and the UK, in order for even more powerful people to control their influence. His indictment was unsealed at 9am this morning.

Is it all connected?

9. HOLLYWOOD GAY MAFIA

Michael Ovitz, once President of Disney and founder of Hollywood mega agency CAA, who was run out of town, famously said that Hollywood is run by a cabal led by  Dreamworks co-founder David Geffen which Ovitz described as the “gay mafia.”

Here’s a little deep dive on Geffen/Oprah

In addition to Geffen, the list he rattled off of this “gay mafia” included The New York Times Hollywood correspondent Bernie Weinraub, Disney Chairman (and former employer) Michael Eisner; Bryan Lourd, Kevin Huvane, and Richard Lovett, partners at CAA, Universal Studios president Ronald Meyer (Ovitz’s former partner at CAA); and Barry Diller.

In regard to Cameron, I can’t help but think twice about the very first episode of Disney show Jessie, his break out role. For a good portion of the episode, he’s in his underwear.

It is no secret that young boys are systemically abused in Hollywood, but how deep does all this really go?

10. DEBBY RYAN

Cameron’s Jessie co-star Debby Ryan started her career on Barney and Friends

Alongside future Disney starlets Selina Gomez

And Demi Lovato

If you remember, the actor who played Barney was arrested for selling child pornography of children as young as 10.

After that, Debby Ryan had a stint on the Disney show Suite Life on Deck for which Disney hired Brian Peck to work as dialogue coach with the kids, after he’d been to jail for child molestation and was a registered sex offender.

Yes, you heard that right.

Disney hired a convicted child sex predator and registered sex offender to work on their children’s show. Did I mention he was hired specifically to work with children?

Brian Peck remains a registered sex offender to this day and was still being employed by Hollywood as recently as 2016.

Ryan was also featured on The Jonas Brother’s, Wizards of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana before getting her big break and a starring role in her own Disney Channel show, Jessie.

We’ve all watched the personal issues Gomez, Lovato and Debby Ryan have had over the years. It’s time we understand what we’re looking at, a system I call The Prison Pyramid.

Conclusion

I hope you’ll dig further into all these data points and start to connect all the dots that need connecting. Cameron Boyce’s death strikes at the heart of why I’m building a new Hollywood. 

Love and Light to all.

In Unconditional Love,

Tiffany

    Cameron Boyce, Pedowood, and The Disney Death Machine First and foremost, it saddens and sickens me to hear that yet another Hollywood child star has died.

[lilydeerwrites]

A Muggle Studies Moment: 2

The Gryffindor Common Room was buzzing with quiet activity as groups of students chatted softly over notes and books. It was that time of the year when exams were imminent. Lily and Remus were surrounded by books and papers. A floating teapot steamed as both students absently sipped tea. Remus had charmed it to stay warm and refill their cups as needed. Lily filed that knowledge away for later experimentation. They had started out on a sofa, but their notes and books began to spread out to the point that it became necessary to move down to the floor. Now, Peter was sprawled out behind them, occasionally asking for help with his Charms work.

The arrival of James and Sirius was heralded by the sound of running feet and laughter. When they entered the Common Room, several pairs of eyes gazed at them reproachfully.

“Oi, Padfoot ... why is it so quiet in here?” James whispered urgently.

Sirius shrugged. “Exams, I guess?”

“Exams?” James glanced at Remus, Lily, and Peter. “Exams. Yeah. I suppose I should probably ... do that.”

Sirius let himself flop inelegantly to the ground beside Remus, causing some of his notes to flutter. His teacup rattled indignantly.

Just when he was about to be annoyed, Sirius burrowed close, hugging his knee so awkwardly he had to chuckle instead. He gave the shaggy hair a gentle pat.

James looked as though he would very much like to do the same to Lily, but fortunately for him, thought better of it and sat beside Peter on the couch.

“Shove over a bit, would you, Pete? I suppose I should do a bit of review. Accio my Charms book!”

James’ book came hurtling down from the dorm in a manner very similar to its owner.

“What were you two off doing anyway?” Peter asked

James shrugged. “A bit of research. For Muggle Studies,” he said, a little too nonchalantly.

Lily cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. “What sort of horrible Muggle-Magical hybrid did you two unleash? I haven’t forgotten when you charmed the outdated, terribly stereotypical Muggle outfits to have a walkabout.”

Sirius rolled onto his back, his proud smile at the memory so genuine it actually made Lily want to give him a pat on the head as well. Remus might be the werewolf, but sometimes, she thought privately, his boyfriend was positively canine.

“Those clothes were so stodgy. Like all of the Muggles are going about dressed like that! I know Muggle fashion and all I had to do was pay a bit of attention,” he said.

Lily nodded her agreement. Sirius could make a band t-shirt, ripped jeans, and a blazer look like he should be on a runway. Not that she would tell him that. His head was already big enough. He looked adoringly up at Remus, who blushed and let his arm rest across the other boy’s chest.

Instead, she said, “You do know that most Muggles don’t go about dressed like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, right?”

Still grinning at the memory of stodgy old Muggle clothes having a stroll and then a waltz around the classroom, Sirius replied, “Only the cool ones.”

“Pads, your arse is on my Charms book. That can’t be comfortable,” Remus raised an eyebrow, then rolled his eyes. “Unless of course you’re actively trying to get me to reach for it. Attention hog.”

Sirius, who was once again wearing Remus’ oversized rust-colored jumper sighed happily. “I love how well you know me.”

Ever since Remus had given him the sweater when he had been hurt, Sirius found reason after reason to wear it. Remus had complained that when he wore the jumper it made him look shabby, but somehow made Sirius look artfully disheveled.

Her attention drifted to James, whose eyes flickered studiously across the pages of his Charms book. He hadn’t asked her out once since the incident around the holidays, and she was annoyed that this bothered her. Maybe he was embarrassed that she had seen him so upset? Sirius had been much worse off, and he didn’t seem awkward about it. If anything, he had started spending more time with her, gotten to know her, told her she was pretty, and thanked her a few dozen times for aiding in his rescue. Remus explained later that Sirius liked positive attention so much himself that he could go a bit overboard when he was trying to make someone feel good about themselves. She hadn’t minded.

She sighed, shut the book, and stretched her arms. “I need a moment. My brains are turning to mush.” She leaned back against the sofa, eyes closed, and felt the back of her head brush James’ knee. He tensed, but didn’t pull away.

Hmmm. Interesting. She decided to file the information away. Maybe he was over her? Embarrassed? Under orders from his friends to behave like a human being? If she asked the other Marauders, they would certainly tell James that she had asked, but maybe that wouldn’t be so bad?

She felt a wad of paper hit her face, then another. She opened her eyes to see the papery bird-creature Marlene had accidentally transfigured Lily’s essay into earlier in the year. The awful thing had been flapping about the Common Room ever since, letting out its mysteriously-appearing paper droppings at will. She had long since rewritten and turned in the essay, but the fact that she had not been able to stop the essay-bird was infuriating.

Peter had seen what happened, and he chortled gleefully. “That thing’s just had a dump on your forehead, Evans! I thought you and Marlene stopped it weeks ago.”

Lily sat up, glaring at the flappy, papery thing. “We put it in a bin, but it escaped. Marls dumped water on it yesterday, but it’s made a full recovery since. She swears she doesn’t know what went wrong to make it this way.”

Stirring his tea thoughtfully, Remus asked, “In some cultures, it’s good luck for a bird to have a poo on you.”

Lily raised an eyebrow at him and he hastily changed his direction. ”Have you asked McGonagall? I’d imagine she could stop the little pest.”

James laughed. “Can you imagine if she went after it in cat form? I’d pay to see that!”

Sirius was looking way too thoughtful, as though he was trying to engineer exactly how to have that happen. She envisioned his brain looking like a Rube Goldberg design on the inside. “Minnie could do it, that’s for sure.”

“The point is that it was my essay and I want to figure it out,” she said firmly. “It’s not hurting anyone. It’s just occasionally annoying. Rather like you lot, these days,” she said, her tone more affectionate than critical.

She stretched again, then pulled her book back into her lap. “What were you two up to earlier? What type of research were you doing?”

James turned a bit pink. “Nothing important. Not a prank, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said.

“Sirius?” Lily asked. “Anything you wish to tell me?”

He turned as pink as James. “Ah, well, you see ...”

James crossed his arms, scowling.  “Traitor.”

“Look at her eyes, James! She’s giving me those sad baby animal eyes. You know I’m powerless here,” Sirius rationalized.

James glanced up at Lily and nodded. “Fine, then.”

“So ... James and I, we got rather ... interested in that episode of Muggle tell-o-vision we watched in class.”

She frowned. “The one with the doctors? The medical soap opera?”

“That’s the one. You see, I like a good story, and so does old Prongsy. When we were first years, Moony used to read out loud sometimes, just in the dorm, you know? Hard to sleep sometimes when you’re little and off alone the first time, right?”

Peter snorted. “First years? Moony still reads him to sleep sometimes - “

“Anyway, the point is that me and James, we got really sort of invested in knowing whether or not the surgery was successful.”

“What?” Lily watched them both, confused.

“Like, did Mr. Morris die? Did he live? How did his wife take it? Did he ever find out his son wasn’t really his? Did his brother find out? You can’t just show a bloke one chapter and not ever let him see the rest of the book!”

Sirius sounded so indignant she was torn between wanting to laugh out loud and hug him.

James took over. “I hate unresolved story lines. So, we sneaked into the lab to see if the Prof had more of it on the - the tape, was it? Are they tapes? Because I thought tapes were the new records?”

Looking thoroughly scandalized, Sirius protested, “Nothing will ever replace vinyl, Prongs. It’s not right.”

She laughed and caught Remus’ eye. His smile lit up his face, she suspected as much by the admission of story time as by their insatiable desire to find out how the unfortunate Mr. Morris had fared.

Trust serialized Muggle television drama to ensnare the minds of the most ridiculously curious members of Gryffindor House.

“Did you find it?” She asked.

They exchanged glances. “No ... but we did knock over the entire tell-o-vision catalog. We tried to put it right, but Filch was on the move, and we had to bolt,” Sirius explained.

“The films - those are the round ones, right? They were rolling about, and we had to go out the window and climb up to avoid being caught,” James finished.

Surprising even herself, Lily laughed out loud at their tale. The Muggle artifacts in the lab were just that - artifacts. Most of them were so old they were from her parents’ time rather than the current decade.

“First of all, it’s absolutely adorable that you’re so interested. Especially since shows like that are mostly watched by Muggle housewives with awfully boring lives. Secondly, my mum and my sister watch that soap opera, I believe. I can inquire over the summer and send you an owl, if you like.”

The hopefulness in their eyes was so ridiculous that Peter and Remus burst into guffaws as well.

Helplessly, Remus managed, “We’ve always said James was a bit mumsy. When his Quidditch kids get hurt, when one of us needs him - aww, don’t blush, Prongs. It’s actually very sweet. I mean it.”

James shook his head, joining in the laughter. “An owl would be great, Lily. We’ll both be at my place this year, so ... two birds one stone? Er ... okay, bad taste there, Potter. No killing, then.”

Lily smiled as sweetly as she could. “There’s only one bird on my kill list, and it’s the one that was formerly my essay.” She gestured with two fingers from her eyes and pointed at the roosting paper bird. “I’ve got my eyes on you!”

Sirius squinted at it from his position on the floor. “What if - no, it couldn’t ...”

“What?” She asked. “What if what?”

Hesitantly, he continued. “What if ... when it, well ... shits, it’s actually editing your essay? Have you unwrapped any of the droppings?”

She made a face. “No, I have not unwrapped the droppings. Ugh!”

James stood, bowed before her, and went to pick up some of the little balls of paper. He gave a small cry of disgust. “Why is it ... moist? Padfoot, help!”

“Can’t. ‘m comfortable. If I get up, I’ll die.”

“Drama, much?” Remus asked, dryly.

“Drama always,” Sirius sighed happily, hugging Remus’ knee even tighter.

James pushed on, peeling back the mushy paper bits, making a face the whole time.

With a monumental effort and a long sigh, Sirius pushed himself upright. “It doesn’t eat, mate. It can’t be that bad. You’ve spat parchment loogies twice that size and somehow didn’t get poisoned,” he said, taking a little paper ball into his hand as well. “Christ, it’s mushy! That’s quite distasteful.”

At that point, Peter joined in, picking an old one off of the end table next to the sofa. “You’re right, Pads. It’s ... damp.”

Remus sighed heavily. “As I’m out of synonyms for the word wet, I suppose this is up to me.”

He pulled out his wand, levitated the paper ball, and then cast a drying charm on it. “Remember? We’re magical?” He asked, sarcastically.

Remus unwrapped the now-dry ball of paper and read aloud, “Remove third paragraph, take the fourth sentence and use it as a thesis statement. Rework.”

“Well!” Lily fumed.

Sirius did the same and read his, “Must pare down. Far too long-winded.”

Peter read, “Too wordy. Please summarize Paragraph twenty.”

“Really!” She growled.

James looked at his, looked back up at Lily, and thought better of it, stuffing the paper ball into his pocket. “Um ... Lily? Were you and Marls partnered on this essay, by chance?”

“Yes, why?” She asked, expectantly.

She was finding herself most distracted by the way he rubbed at his arm when he was nervous. When had she noticed that he did that?

“Because,” he said, a little reluctantly. “I think she may have pranked you but good. There is no way this is accidental magic or a mistake. It’s bloody brilliant!”

“If Marlene did this, we’re missing out on a potentially amazing pranking resource! Where is she, anyway? Haven’t seen her all day.” Sirius stood on a chair, trying to gently scoop the paper bird into his hand. It flapped indignantly to a higher perch.

Moments later, all four Marauders were after the bird, shouting, laughing, and levitating furniture and one another. Remus tried an Accio on it, but it didn’t work.

James let out a low whistle. “Merlin, she’s good! What did you do to piss her off, anyway?”

Lily thought, but couldn’t come up with anything. She winced at the sight of Sirius, being levitated by Peter toward the overhead lamps.

“Steady on, Pete! Don’t drop me, mate!” He called as he reached for the essay-bird. His hands were about to close around it, when the door opened to admit Minerva McGonagall.

“It’s a bit noisier than usual in here. Is anything wr - “ She stopped, taking in the sight of Sirius mid-air, James on a chair, and Remus on the floor, still guarding their notes and books, and his floating teapot. “Mr. Black! You come right down here this moment! Mr. Pettigrew, put him down. Gently!” Admonished the Gryffindor Head of House.

When Sirius was safely on the floor, she asked calmly, “Could someone explain the wild rumpus I could hear through the wall in my study?”

Sirius grinned at her. “I knew you cared, Minnie.”

McGonagall ignored him, but there was no fire in her glare.

Lily and James started at the same time, “Well, Professor,” “You see, Professor, I - “

The essay-bird took its opportunity to swoop free of Sirius’ grasp, and dump a wet little paper ball on McGonagall’s head. Without a single moment of hesitation, she transformed into a cat, leapt into the air, and caught it in her teeth, giving it a little shake for good measure.

All of the students stared, but the Marauders and Lily were momentarily speechless. Professor McGonagall transformed quickly back into herself, removed the paper bird from her mouth quite daintily, and tucked it into the pocket of her robe.

“Was that the trouble, then?” She asked.

“Yes, Professor McGonagall,” Lily answered. “It - it used to be my old Charms essay. I had to rewrite, after, well ...” She gestured to the pocket area of the professor’s robe.

“An excellent essay you turned in, Miss Evans. It will be curious to have a look at the old one, if I can get it to unspell itself without destroying it.” She glanced around the room to where James and Sirius were still a bit star-struck from her heroic feline actions. “If everything is well, I shall return to my grading?”

Satisfied that her students were safe and much quieter, she left.

“Merlin,” James breathed. “That was brilliant!”

“It was like a prophecy. I wished for it, and it happened! Did someone slip me a luck potion or what?” Sirius exclaimed. “She just ... transformed ... already in the air and took it down, like a little tabby tiger for the kill!”

It took a few minutes for the excitement to die down, but as Lily returned to studying and drinking tea with Remus, she cast another surreptitious glance at James. Huh. Not hideous, a bit mumsy, and loves a good story. Who knew?

[alifeiwishwasreal]

Sparky - Remus Lupin Oneshot

Character: Remus Lupin Gender: Female Warnings: None Info: Reader is a Pureblood with a keen interest in dragons, from no specific house.

Christmas was rapidly approaching at Hogwarts and Remus laughed as Sirius ran his hand through his hair for the tenth time that minute. “Remind me again why you waited until the last minute to get your secret santa present?” Remus teased as Sirius looked helplessly at all the shops. “Because you know me Moons, it goes away in my head and then I forget.” Sirius said as he saw the bookshop and ran for it. He scoured the shelves as Remus sat in an armchair and flipped through the first few pages of another romance novel about matching Patronus’.

He was into the second chapter when Sirius clambered up to him with his arms full of books, putting them down on the floor as the lady at the counter glared at him. “What about this one?” He said, holding up the copy of Dragon’s and Tails. “Already has it.” “This one?” “Read it.” “That one?” “Twice.” “What about this?” “It’s her favourite.” Remus looked back down at his book uninterested as Sirius groaned. “What do I get her then? She’ll have read every bloody book about dragons in here.” Sirius whined as Remus put down his book and sighed. “Go put them all back.” “But-” “Before we get kicked out. We’ll split up, meet back here in 10 minutes.” He commanded as he went through the high bookshelves before he bumped into someone familiar. “Remus!” You beamed as he smiled. “Hiya Y/N/N. How you doing?” “I’m doing well. I’m trying to refrain myself from buying any more books. I’ve got enough to read.” “But it’s hard?” “Tremendously.” You confirmed as he smiled giddily. “I understand your struggle my friend.” He said dramatically as you chuckled. “If anyone would, it’s you.” You smiled as you pulled your house scarf tighter around your neck. “Well I’m gonna leave until I force myself to buy that copy of ‘Goblin’s and Faires and Dragons, oh my!’” “Where’s that?” He asked. “Hidden in the back. Original hardback copy. Beautiful cover. And if I don’t leave now I might need you to drag me out by my ankles.” You smiled. “See you for hot chocolate?” “Of course.” He smirked as you bid each other farewell and he surged towards the back of the shop, finding the book hidden in the cluster of old copies that were forgotten, desperate for someone to love them. And this book was going to be treasured.

-

“You sad you can’t go back to Romania for Christmas?” He asked as your hands grasped the mug held to your chest, watching the snow fall outside. “I get that it’s expensive. I’ll still get Christmas cards and presents. Sure, I’d like to go back and see everyone but now I get to spend Christmas with you guys.” You smiled content as you sank into the sofa, your body turned sideways to face Remus. “Which Dragon will you miss the most?” “Sparky. Obviously.” You stated taking a sip as his eyebrows raised. “Sparky?” “Oh sh. I was 5 when I named him. We’ve grew up together. The first ever egg I hatched. An Antipodean Opaleye.” He watched your eyes trail away as you thought about him, and he could see you getting a bit down. “He must be beautiful.” You looked up and smiled at Moony. “He is. I’ll have to introduce you to him one day.” “Don’t worry. You’ll have plenty of time to do that when you start running the Sanctuary.” He winked at you before taking a sip of his drink, your cheeks going red.

Remus was the only one who support the idea of you taking after your grandmother. Being from a pure-blood family, it was thought you should go into the ministry, but you quickly got hooked after the summer visits to Granny’s.

“And I’ll name one after you. It’ll be a Hebridean Black. Because it grows to be the longest.” You teased happily, Moony rolling his eyes at your pun about his height. “Well, someone is off my Christmas card list.”

-

Remus ran up to Sirius and grabbed him by his wrist, dragging him to the desk and placing a quill and paper in front of him. “You said you owe me one for the book and so you’re doing it now. Write a letter to Y/N’s grandmother. Fast.”

-

“Y/N/N! Get up!” You felt someone jump on you. Now you really regretted taking Frank’s bed for Christmas break. “Presents time. Presents time.” James chanted as Sirius rolled off and followed him down the stairs. You opened your eyes to see Remus standing over you with his hand out to pull you up. “Remind me why I decided to stay here over Christmas?”

Remus dragged you gently down the stairs, your sleepy figure encased in a Falmouth Falcons Jersey as you came down to see everyone else sat around the fire.

One by one everyone was given their presents, Lily trying to hide her blush at the silver pendant with a doe on.

Remus watched as closely as Sirius when you took the lid of the box, gasping as you saw the copy and fishing it out. Remus watched as your eyes widened, your smile as you ran your fingers over the spine and intricate design. You then fished out the photo, carefully clutching the frame as if it would break. “Sparky.” You whispered and Remus knew you were looking at the picture of the dragon snuggling up against your grandmother, both of them content as you put it on top of the book, crawling over to hug and thank Sirius.

You sat down and Remus watched you look at the picture until his voice was called. Your head snapped up and you began to smile as the wrapped present was placed in his lap.

He unwrapped it to find a stack of chocolate, a nice new navy jumper but a leather diary underneath. On it, was a piece of parchment saying, I’ll explain later. He opened it and flipped through until he saw a little moon in the corner. He turned to the next page of dates and found it tracked the movements of the moon, the full moon showing him when to prepare. He looked over at you as you gave him a gentle smile. “T-thanks.” “You’re welcome.”

-

Everyone had headed down to eat early but you grabbed Moony’s wrist on the way down, sitting on the coffee table across from the armchair as you pulled him down. “I assume you want to know how I figured it out.” You said quietly as his eyes went down to his lap. “I-I just- I didn’t tell y-you-” “You don’t have to explain anything. I understand Remmy.” You scooted forward to take his hands. “When I was in Romania this summer, my cousin had to be taken away from the Sanctuary a couple of days because he was bitten. I saw how fatigued he got and I kept track of the days he was going to get bad.” You began to tell him. “I carried on to send him letters throughout the month to see how he was coping with going back to Uni and everything when I noticed some similarities between you and him. And when you got the new scar on your neck in November, I guessed it must be true.” You squeezed his hands a little tighter, looking up at his eyes watching you closely. “And I know you might be mad at me for prying-” “I’m not mad. I could never be.” He voiced with a croak as your heart started racing. “It’s just, I didn’t want your opinion of me to change, or, when the boys found out, they wanted to help. And I didn’t want you to try and throw yourself in the line of fire for me.” He admitted, looking down. You slipped away one hand and brought up his chin to look at you. “You are Remus Lupin. That is who you are. Not your condition.” You told him gently as he slid off the chair and knelt in front of the table, sliding in between your legs to hug you close. “I have other ways to help. There’s a potion that’s quite useful for Lewis. With the aftermath.” You told him as he smiled back at you. “I’m just glad my present was as good as yours.” “What?” His eyebrows furrowed as you noticed his arms were still around your waist. “As much credit as I would like to give Sirius, he wouldn’t think about that in a million years. But you would.” His eyes met yours and god you wanted to kiss him. So you bucked up your strength and you did. It was small and stern but it turned out his lips were as soft as you imagined. “So thank you.” You said as Remus watched you with wide eyes. “Now, I think there’s a turkey waiting downstairs that will not eat itself.”

-

You sat and watched your friends in the corner of the Gryffindor common room, sipping the warm alcohol as mulled wine made your body relax. A hand was stretched out in front of you, like this morning, which you took. Smooth jazz played on the radio a familiar christmas tune. One arm was around his waist, the other in his hand as you both swayed from side to side, your chin on his chest as you looked up at him.

“You see? And this is why you’d have a Hebridean Black named after you.” He laughed, his head going back as if that was the last thing he’d expect you to say. “Happy Christmas Moony.” “Happy Christmas Sparky.”

“Mistletoe!!!” A drunk Sirius called out, pointing above the two of you as Remus swooped in and attached his lips to yours, feeling smiley and giddy as he pulled you closer, hearing Marlene woop in the background. “The lovebirds first kiss.” Lily teased as he hugged you close but they’ll never know.

That first Christmas Kiss was something only for you two to share.

[63824peace]

Tuesday, 22nd of november 2005

A friend pulled me into conversation this morning without even saying hello. "I saw a Quake-Cloud last week. It was terrible, frightful... just awful."

He claimed to have clearly seen a cloud shaped like an arrow, pointing from the sky to Roppongi Hills. He said it was obviously a Quake-Cloud... a premonition that Roppongi would suffer tremors.

The sight had shocked him so severely that he couldn't tell anyone about it until today.

"Last week?" I said. "But when? Which day?"

"I don't remember... perhaps Thursday."

"I hadn't heard any news of this."

"No, there's no mistaking it!" he insisted. "I saw a Quake-Cloud!"

He usually watches all sorts of television programs related to these matters. He's probably an expert by now.

"A Quake-Cloud, eh?"

What do Quake-Clouds even look like? Are they magnetic fields created from seismic distortions in the bedrock? I'm clueless on these matters.

I listened to him doubtfully, and he seemed to lose patience. The prophet muttered his forecast: "A huge earthquake will hit within two weeks." He appeared somehow relieved, and then he hastily tottered away.

A big earthquake, huh... maybe it'll come, and maybe it won't. If I start to worry about something as small as this, I might as well worry forever.

I should still prepare for the worst though. I have readied myself for the reality that a huge earthquake will hit someday.

I relayed the story as a joke to Matsuhanan, and he reacted with a serious expression.

"What's wrong?" I said.

Matsuhanan lowered his voice. "I'm not saying this to scare you, but--" His voice cut on the word. He leaned closely and hardened his expression. "I dreamed of an earthquake over the weekend."

"So?" I said. "What about it?"

"I had a dream, and in it we all got hit by an earthquake."

"Hmm. Well, still, that's just the sort of thing you'd expect from a dream, right?"

"However," he said. "On top of that, my wife also dreamed of an earthquake that very same morning."

Two similar events can happen, and we can still dismiss them as coincidences. Something more enormous than mere coincidence emerges when three similar events occur. How ominous....

Everyone who had not paid attention to our conversation earlier now listened intently. The air thickened, and the very atmosphere changed immediately.

Matsuhanan and I had both experienced the Kobe Earthquake. Memories from that time bubbled to the surface of my thoughts. I don't ever want to experience or see anything like that again. I decided to shut off these negative emotions as soon as possible.

"So you and your wife both dreamed of earthquakes? The answer's pretty simple here--you must have been on top of your wife without knowing it!"

"H-hey! That's not true!"

"Sexy Matsuhanan!"

"Oh, be serious."

I managed to ease the tense, nervous atmosphere with a little juvenile obscenity. We settled the matter with laughter.

We've seen some pretty scandalous problems lately regarding cover-ups of some buildings' vulnerability to earthquakes. The news broke when everyone concerned themselves with earthquake preparations. "How can we prepare for the big earthquake?" they asked. "And what will we do after the earthquake actually hits?"

I heard that some buildings can topple even under a small earthquake. If a building will collapse under just a small one, what will we do when the big one hits?

Dangers fill our world.

An earthquake will definitely hit us one day. No one knows when, of course, but Tokyo can't avoid its fate. It may hit tomorrow, within ten years, or even fifty years from now.

Still, we can't squander time worrying. We live in Tokyo, and we can't leave it. We certainly won't abandon it. We live with the possibility of disaster every day. Most importantly, we must avoid panic while also keeping ourselves prepared for our future quake.

A long time ago, Toho produced a movie called Jishin Retto (1980). Kaneto Shindo wrote the film's scenario; he's one of my favorite directors. The last scene disappointed me because it was just a rehash of the famous panic movie, Earthquake (1974).

The film's contents aside, the advertisement copy was great. It went something like this: "I knew it would hit one day... but I never thought it would hit today."

Over the past weekend I finally got to watch the bonus disc's extra footage from War of the Worlds. It lasted a total of 165 minutes.

They presented the Previsualization Method developed by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). The method draws out the full potential of scenes that use a lot of CG and CGI.

Film-makers traditionally edited the CGI and V/A composition into the film after they had finished shooting. There's a problem with that method though. According to these traditional methods, we needed to shoot the film against a blue screen background. We could have a hard time feeling out where the non-existent objects, scenery, and atmosphere belonged in the shooting studio.

Each person's imagination differs from other people's imaginations. We have a lot of room for miscommunication and misunderstandings. The shooting studio only becomes more chaotic when everyone on the set works out of sync with the total scenario conveyed on the blue screen.

ILM invented Previsualization to solve this problem. Think of it as a storyboard transferred into 3D images.

Each person can coordinate himself with the total scenario when he examines the Previsualized images in the shooting studio. People can arrive at a consensus understanding among themselves before they shoot... the actors, the special effects team, the stuntmen, and the CG team.

We can use this to determine how all the visual elements will correlate. We'll also work more efficiently with ILM's Previsualization Method. Production costs will drop. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

James Cameron made a small model of his set while working on Terminator 2 in order to shorten his production period. He used a small camera to test various angles, and then he started to shoot. He cut back on the time needed to make his set that way.

Previsualization uses the same idea. We can decide how to adjust our special effects and our camera placement by moving character models through scenery in 3D space. We can decide how to handle our set, visual characteristics, props, and CGI usage after selecting the camera location.

This is how they produced War of the Worlds so quickly. Spielberg is known for a quick turnaround on his films, but Previsualization made this one possible.

I thought about how similar Previsualization seems to resemble our own development methods when I saw it in motion. We naturally used those methods when games became 3D in the late 1990s. We didn't pick it up from anyone... it's simply necessary to make our games.

We first construct the game using simple models and scenery. We treat the cutscenes the same way because they require cinematic effects. We test the module while minimizing all our resources, such as processing speed, MGS-defining characteristics, camera, and general operations. We must reduce everything to its bare qualities in our Previsualization Phase.

Once we fix everything using trial and error, we move on to full-scale production. The film industry's shooting phase equates to this.

Likewise, we don't use the older methods of making the game's map. Instead of drawing it directly, we structure the game according to the script team's provisional map. Once we've done that, we hand everything over to the designers. The pre-production period always lasts the longest while making a game.

The film industry could only have realized its Previsualization Method through digital technology. Film has finally evened out with the game-making process. Some aspects of game-making are behind the times. Other parts, however, are well ahead.

I ate lunch at the Nishi Azabu restaurant La Brace. I ordered spaghetti with ground chicken and Chinese cabbage. I wanted a drink of wine, but I controlled myself. Customers all around me wet their throats.

It's only on the lunch menu, but that was a big salad.

The pasta tasted delicious too. I paid a cheap price considering how much I ate.

We held our hiring interviews in the afternoon. After that we worked on our projects for MGS4 until evening, just like yesterday.

The project certainly is fun. I'd love to work on it twenty-four hours a day. I only want to create.

I'll totally shift my focus onto MGS4 once our new PSP project gets off the ground. I'll try to avoid entanglements such as interviews, clients, meetings, or lectures. I have to focus on my work during the pre-production and Previsualization periods.

At the bookstore I bought the fifth volume of Complete Cobra. I buy manga to read at a later date these days. I haven't got time to read any of them now, and the same really goes for novels. I finished reading Mr. Kurokawa's book Ansho, and I have started reading Parker's latest, Melancholy Baby.

I received my copy of NewWORDS, an entertainment magazine for mature adults. Kadokawa Publishing will release it November 25.

The cover really impacts the reader. It's a shot of Natalie Portman with her head entirely shaved! It will catch the attention of people in the bookstore. The magazine's first issue comes with a UMD Video that contains an episode of Blood+. I think it's really hip that they're not just including a regular DVD.

I wish this mature entertainment magazine great success.

I am actually helping NewWORDS by giving them an interview and writing introductions to movies. I'd like many adults to read it.

People in the past used to call Otaku a new type of subculture. Now we have all become adults. These Otaku now work as members of society, and they pay the usual taxes. They register to vote, and they participate in politics. They have married and now take care of families with children. They have become aware of their larger human community.

The Otaku's loneliness has disappeared, but his responsibilities have increased. These Otaku swore never to grow up -- yet they grew up without even noticing.

Nonetheless, games and anime still mean a lot to them.

People started calling manga "graphic novels." Manga became acceptable as dignified adult entertainment as time moved on. We also ought to have anime and games made specifically for adults.

But here's the question: will supply or demand come first?

Nothing will happen if we just wait for an answer. We're not looking at an issue of "When will it happen?" We're dealing with an issue of ‘Who will do it?’"

Who will innovate products to serve this market?

Now that I think on it, people in the last century used to call Otaku a new type of human being or an alien race. I think that Otaku should take a lesson from War of the Worlds -- they should return as adults from underground.

Our bodies retain the sturdy weight of our time's residue. As adults at last, we shall shed the filth on our own.

[thewebofslime]

Home Breaking News Radio Hot Topics Advertising About Home/Conspiracy, Featured, Main/If Ambassador Stevens Had Lived, the Benghazi Child Trafficking Practices Would’ve Been Revealed Previous Next If Ambassador Stevens Had Lived, the Benghazi Child Trafficking Practices Would’ve Been Revealed Dave Hodges May 23, 2014 The Common Sense Show On May 1, 2014, Tosh Plumlee told Alex Jones and his audience that he has firsthand knoledge of US gun running and ancillary drug running to support Black Ops operations in the Middle East. This is the same exact pattern which was utilized to fuel the Iran-Contra Affair in which the Russian backed Sandinistas would be opposed by the Contra using funds derived from CIA basked drug operations which led to the rise of drug-related street gangs in South Central LA. The implication is that the same thing was going on at the time of Ambassador Stevens death in that Stevens was running guns to al-Qaeda. Mr. Plumlee, your information is good, very good, but please tell us something that we do not know! I printed the same allegations in November of 2012. The admission, of a former insider, that guns were being run to al-Qaeda, reveals nothing new except for Mr. Plumlee and his very well described operational experiences. His story is compelling but there is more that the elite are doing now to fund these regime change operations. This is the equivalent of rubber necking motorists passing by an accident and a police officer says “move along, there is nothing to see here”. By admitting to what we already know to be true, Mr. Plumlee, in my humble opinion, is indirectly conveying the message that there is nothing else to learn about the death of Stevens as it was a gun/drug running operation, period! This is just not the case. This article will reveal new insider information that there is a lot more to learn about the goings on at Benghazi and how it will shake this country to the core once the details are known. Same Song Second Verse My sources tell me that this same CIA pattern, that was in play in Libya at the time of Stevens death, was followed and perfected with the Fast and Furious Drug and Gun running operation that the Department of Justice oversaw as it ran American guns into Mexico in order to bolster the drug operations of certain Mexican drug cartels. The subsequent profits from the drug money are skimmed off the top and used for Black Operations elsewhere in places like the Middle East where CIA operatives such as Chris Stevens were running guns to into Libya and Syria in order to promote a regime change. Disinformation Agents Abound Retired 4 Star Admiral James Lyons revealed that Benghazi was an off the books false flag operation that went bad. Supposedly, Lyons states that Stevens, unbeknown to him, was to be kidnapped by jihadist extremists and Obama would negotiate a release of the Ambassador in exchange for the release of the known terrorist, Omar Abdel Rahman. However, according to the Admiral, the plot went bad and the Ambassador was killed. Admiral Lyons stated that this false flag was designed to boost Obama’s lagging ratings right before the 2012 election as Obama would endear himself to the American people by “saving” an American Ambassador from certain death. If anyone believes this disinformation, you will soon be knee deep in excrement. Right now, my stomach hurts from laughter. Lyon’s handlers better not quit their day jobs and begin writing Hollywood scripts as the core of this plot is not believable. Admiral Lyons is clearly part of a damage control designed cover story if there was ever such a thing. As we all know, or should know is that Stevens was silenced at a time when many in the alternative media were questioning the penchant for the CIA to run guns and drugs to fund off the books in illegal operations. The gun running to al-Qaeda was already being discussed. And as has been revealed, extensively, Stevens was running guns and had to be silenced because there were too many questions being asked just three short months before the 2012 election. My confidential sources tell me that wherever one finds gun running, they will also find drug running in order to fund the operation. However, as I am learning, there is a third element that is coming into play, and this element is being used to as an alternative source of funding for clandestine operations involving regime changer projects. A New Fundraising Opportunity for Clandestine Operations Please allow me to briefly reveal what I have discussed before. All 50 CPS agencies are unified under Human Health Services. which was mandated by Obamacare. Obamacare has provisions which micromanage child welfare and children can be seized for literally no reason whatsoever. Last year, I detailed how nearly 80 Wards of the state in Oklahoma simply went missing. The late State Senator from Georgia, Nancy Schaefer, showed us how CPS has been used to funnel kids into child sex trafficking. Child sex trafficking is big business. It is connected to the porno industry and snuff films. It is also connected to satanic rituals involving some of the elite (as per Brian Gerrish). And since I published the criminal activities involving the Virginia CPS, my sources have come forward and have informed me that this is the new version of Iran Contra. Drugs are still used to fund clandestine, regime change operations. Increasingly, as I am being told, a portion of child sex trafficking profits are being funneled into funding these same operations. According to the same sources who accurately told me that Admiral Gayoutte and General Hamm were launching a rescue mission designed to save Chris Stevens when they were arrested by CIA personnel serving in their ranks, these men wanted to save Stevens to expose Obama’s betrayal of this country and it ideals. This was an old-fashioned coup. By saving Stevens, Hamm could have leveraged this information to obtain an American regime change based on these explosive revelations. We know that much of the former military leadership in this country favor a regime change which remove Obama from power. Hence, there are 260+ senior command officers that have been fired by Obama. If one cares to do the research, I was reporting on these facts that Obama had survived a coup attempt at this time. A few months later, people like Glenn Beck decided they would publish similar information after criticizing me a few months earlier for printing what they would eventually publish. These same insider sources are telling me that child sex trafficking was helping to support the arming of the rebels in Libya and Syria. Yes, I am saying that General Hamm was part of plot which would have brought down Obama and Clinton in one fell swoop. This was an attempted military coup just as I had previously reported. What If Chris Stevens Had Lived? As I have pointed out before, many senior members of the military want Obama removed from office. Imagine if Stevens could have been saved by General Hamm? If Stevens understood he was being targeted by Obama in order to plug the leaks involving not only drug running and gun running, but he would have revealed to the world that his operation involved child trafficking as well. Can you imagine the scandal? How many journalists would have begun to look into the nefarious practices which lead to the multitude of missing children in CPS? My sources are stating that this information is on the verge of breaking. Also, there is a decided purge going in key federal agencies which are ridding these agencies of potential whistle blowers through the taking of their children by CPS. I had a hard time getting my mind around this fact until I was contacted by Monika Wesolowski. In addition to Monika, I have been contacted by 6 other federal employees who are, at this point, hesitant to use their name. The strategy seem to be to seize their kids and they will be to consumed and debt ridden in an effort to get their children back, to effectively expose this high level of corruption. An Accidental Discovery When Monika Wesolowsky, a State Department employee with a security clearance contacted me with the horror story of how her five year son was taken by the Virginia CPS without the mother being charged with anything, I thought this was just another case of CPS overreach and their nefarious connections to the underworld of child sex trafficking. However, Wesolowsky’s case represent one of several cases that have been brought to my attention that have the same dynamics. In all of these cases, a federal employee, usually with a security clearance, is targeted by the CPS in their area (four cases in Virginia’s Arlington and Fairfax County area). Everyone of these federal employees openly embrace Tea Party conservative causes. Monika Wesolowsky was additionally targeted by the IRS for an audit. This might mean nothing until one considers the fact that the IRS is the enforcement agent for Obamacare. Obamacare has oversight over all 50 CPS agencies. Wesolowsky recently had her security clearance threatened because she has $12,000 dollars in credit card debt. If she were to lose her security clearance, she would lose her job and that seems to be the goal! What about fellow State Department employees who have a mortgage or a car loan debt? Are you kidding me? There is no doubt that she is being purged for her conservative beliefs. Why? She is being purged for the same reasons as employees at other federal agencies and for the same reason; she is not on board with the ultra liberal vision of this new administration and represents a threat to become a whistle blower. Conclusion As soon as this story runs, I am going to be contacted by even more federal employees who are being victimized in the same manner as Monika Wesolowsky as I believe that this practice is very widespread. More former CPS agents, who have left their employment over their disgust for these heinous policies, will be providing more inside information as well which will she further shed light upon this. My insider sources, just as they did in the aftermath of Benghazi, are providing me with valuable information which is slowly but surely being verified by federal employees who are beginning to come forward. There is no question that we will soon have enough information to demand of authorities the arrest of certain politicians for their role in these nefarious activities. I feel I can state without hesitation that child sex trafficking is being used to help fund clandestine operations and your local CPS has a hand in this practice. Isn’t it nice to know that our children’s welfare is being used to support the banksters foreign policy? By Dave Hodges| May 23rd, 2014|Conspiracy, Featured, Main|27 Comments Share This Story, Choose Your Platform! FacebookTwitterLinkedinRedditTumblrGoogle+PinterestVkEmail About the Author: Dave Hodges 27 Comments tim sweeney May 23, 2014 at 7:56 am Yes but, why are you so quick to dismiss the Lyons story about trading the Blind Sheik for Stevens? Because if true, all the other pieces of the puzzle fall into place. What if it IS true? I get the impresdion from your writing style that you would never admit to being wrong about anything. I guess I’m blocked now for saying that. David May 23, 2014 at 8:30 am “As soon as this story runs, I am going to be contacted by even more federal employees who are being victimized…” What a bunch of nonsense that statement is. Federal employees being victimized? It’s federal employees that victimize the American people. And I mean every federal employee. I’m sick and tired of these people getting a pass. “They’re just doing their job…” Yeah, right. As Nietzsche said – “Everything the state says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen.” And that means that every federal employee is paid with stolen money. Money stolen from you Dave and money stolen from me. With regard to Chris Stevens and the others that were killed, you live by the sword you die by the sword. I have little sympathy for those people. They knew precisely what they were getting themselves into when they went to work for the government of the US. EDITOR’S NOTE: THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO SAY THIS, YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE IDIOT!!! DO YOU THINK EVERY FEDERAL EMPLOYEE WANTS TO VICTIMIZE AMERICAN CITIZENS? YOUR LOGIC IS MORONIC AND CHILD LIKE. Leo R. Lindquist May 23, 2014 at 8:40 am Like Dave mentioned the other day, get the book, Conspiracy of Silence, or watch excerpts of the documentary on youtube. While reading the book, I had to stop and close the book three or four times due to the sickening information that was contained therein. Also, in the book, you will find out about the documentary about child sex trafficking and satanic rituals, that was supposed to be shown on one of the cable networks, but was cancelled before it was shown. Some people may say that John DeCamp made up the book, but if he did, then why aren’t the people named in it, suing for libel and/or slander? We truly “fight against spiritual wickedness in high places,” as the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to Ephesus. It goes far beyond party labels, and such abuse of children will never be solved until as individuals we stand up for what’s right. At the same time, we must remember, that when we’re fighting monsters, that we don’t become a monster ourselves. Let’s look at our own hearts first and repent as needed, so that we might be as salt that has NOT lost it savour. Arizona May 23, 2014 at 9:13 am HERES the reason the children can’t be saved,EXCEPT by GOD himself,Tim Sweeney,and all the people who don’t give a dam about the children,THIS is nation wide,every parent says MY KIDS,MY KIDS,but you have to standup,to save the kids ,and thats the reason this mess is on going,THE POLICE GANGS,are demons from HELL,and until their taken down,you’ll never get to the head of the snake,AND you won’t get any americans to admit the police gangs protect the KIDNAPPERS,BUT not only do they protect the kidnappers,THEY ARE THE PRIME FACTOR,who helps in the kidnapping,AND THAT IS THE FLY IN THE ONIMENT,the american people are so decieved,they can’t see the forest for the trees,I’ve been after these guys for 40 years,and its just been getting worse and worse,THE american people will protect these BASTARDS till not a single kid is left to kidnapp,THEY JUST CAN’T SEE WHO THE MAIN PROBLEM IS,and judging by what the LORD has shown me,the POLICE GANGS and THE US MILITARY are about to attack everyone ,A REAL “RED DAWN ATTACK” by their own government………………. Arizona May 23, 2014 at 10:00 am COMMONSENSE,is a rare thing now days,SOMETHING lost in america now,LET me see if I can open some eyes,OUR FATHER YAHUWEH, runs the entire UNIVERSE,everything,HIS angels report whats happening, to HIM,YOU DO “NOT” want to cause him to intervine in this planets problems,OUR DEAR LORD “YAHUSHUA” has been tring to keep everyone in line,FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS,well you’ve finally destroyed the planet,ITS DIEING NOW,and I hope everyone is happy,CAUSE whats coming next will TERRIFIE everyone,THERMONUCLEAR WAR,it will be the LAST STRAW,that will bring in the FATHER,and he will clean up the aftermath,AND even though he loves everything he created,INCLUDING HIS CHILDREN,he WILL turn the planet upside down and shake it till all EVIL has been removed,AGAIN,then it will be restored,MINUS the people,HE will only save those who he knows,and that won’t be many,ARE you guys starting to get the picture here yet?……….. Arizona May 23, 2014 at 10:17 am LET me add this last one thing,PUNISHMENT,its what happens, when your hearing aid is turned OFF,THE FATHER ,will not let the wicked go unpunished,HE WILL ALLOW,SATAN to bring every kind of evil he can dreamup, to be unleashed on the planet,JUST REMEMBER WHO SATAN IS,you’ve chosen him to lead the planet to destruction,OF YOUR OWN FREE WILL,thats the bad part,THE “MARK OF THE BEAST” will finish off the population of earth,THEY won’t fight back,THAT will be the final mistake……POLITICAL CORRECTNESS right up till the end..THIS IS INSANITY in full bloom…………… Pat May 23, 2014 at 10:17 am Folks need to get up to speed while the internet is available. Stop believing the Obama news networks and think outside the box. Evil isn’t just gonna jump out of the closet when the tribulation begins. It is ever increasing. With its roots in our highest offices it will take the masses like an avalanche should the willing blind consent to remaining so. Thank you for your articles. Reality is a hard message to explain. iwitness02 May 23, 2014 at 10:24 am This makes more than one crack in the wall. Light is starting to shine through onto places it was never supposed to shine. There will be consequences. Consequences because once people see this and understand the vicious ruthlessness of our governments apatite for money they will react. The people will react Just as Bush Sr. predicted back in the early 90s; as we were reminded recently. Anything that supports the bankers foreign policy, is harmful to the rest of mankind. Mankind in general seems to be slowly recognizing this fact. There will be consequences. I predict that the human race is going to get very bull headed about submission to the likes of all of Satan’s best. Satan’s best, is humanities worst. The Truth is strong. Lies are weak. Fact of life. My apologies if this posts twice. I can’t find this story on the Home page now. I have seen some strange glitches on this site, but this is the most puzzling yet. If Ambassador Stevens Had Lived, the Benghazi Child Trafficking Practices Would’ve Been Revealed | May 23, 2014 at 10:25 am […] Dave Hodges is the Editor and Host of The Common Sense Show. […] Ms. Monkey May 23, 2014 at 10:28 am Dave, I can not thank you enough for all dots you connect. I would love to hear you and Steve Quayle again on Hagmann and Hagmann. It’s funny Dave, I read Amiral Lyons stuff and thought it is BS. It seemed like everyone thought this is true. It just didn’t make sense to me. Same thing with Plumlee. God Bless you and your family, Dave! Wally May 23, 2014 at 10:29 am Dave I appreciate your articles. There are so few places to get the facts anymore. If we thought people were upset over the VA scandal could you imagine the outrage that would come over your last two articles if they became mainstream headlines? I think this has been going on for many many years I am afraid. I used to think what has happened to all of the missing kids that are never found? I knew I just didn’t want to admit it. The Government is running weapons, drugs, children and anything else they can make a buck on. It is becoming painfully obvious that the globalists could care less about anyone other than themselves. If a billion have to die so be it. They could careless. There is a great scripture that is 100% true: Ephesians 6:12 – For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms…The globalists are just not going to go into the night. This is going to end very badly for most of us. People are starting to ask the “wrong” questions. People are waking up. The globalists are running out of time. Brandt May 23, 2014 at 11:08 am Can’t we move on to more important issues facing our country?! This is a dog and pony show to attack Hillary before 2016 and continue to stonewall Obama on every relevant issue. At every turn of the corner, the blame is placed solely on the POTUS as if he were an Emperor without a system of checks and balances. Watch the GOP apply the blackface and bamboozle our President at https://ift.tt/2tZFtB3 EDITOR’S NOTE: PUBLISHING THIS EXPOSES THE DISINFO AGENTS IN OUR MIDST- THIS ARTICLE GOES SO FAR ABOVE CLINTON AND OBAMA, THAT YOU OBVIOUSLY MISSED THE POINT. WHAT IS TRULY SAD HERE, IS THAT YOU ARE DEFENDING CLINTON AND IGNORING THE CARNAGE TO OUR CHILDREN. AT SOME FUTURE POINT, YOU WILL BE MADE TO ANSWER FOR YOUR DEPRAVED INDIFFERENCE TO HUMANITY Mark Scacs May 23, 2014 at 11:35 am Dave – It seems to me the only way to get rid of Obama and these other maniacs that are like him or support him destroying America is if we have military intervention. I only hope that Obama has not so decimated the military of good commanders that there is no one left who has the spirit in them to move on this guy. I refuse to refer to him as president because he is not even close to deserving the title. My blood is boiling over all this information and the more I hear about Obama the more I am in disbelief that so many people in positions of power know what he is all about and just sit there and let him continue to destroy America. I never in my life thought I would see this day. It is shameful that there are no men or women willing to make a stand against this guy. What kind of power has he acquired that everyone just refuses to even admit there is a problem with him? Either they are all in on it and approve of what he is doing (which is really scarey) or he has everyone blackmailed or threatened with losing their careers or their lives or the lives of one of their family members. At this point what do they have to lose? We are going to lose our jobs, freedoms, families and probably our lives if someone does not stop this madness!!!!! Barclays Fined For Manipulating Price Of Gold For A Decade / Russia’s $400B Gas Deal with China | paulthepaperbear May 23, 2014 at 11:54 am […] https://ift.tt/2VNEKin READ MORE […] dave stearns May 23, 2014 at 12:25 pm Here is a new Revelation. DHS is building a 5-10 million man army to invade the US. In 90-91 we invaded Iraq a nation of 30 million using 500,000 combat troops. The US has 300 million people so do the math and multiply by 10, a minimum 5 million man army is required to subdue the American People. The military planners who work for DHS know this. The Russian and Chinese Generals and Admirals know this and yet this invasion is going forward. US combat troops are issued 210 rounds of ammo in combat theatres. Let’s use 200 as it simplifies the math. If you give 200 rounds each to 1 million men that equals 200 million rounds of ammo. If you give 200 rounds each to 10 million men that equals 2 billion rounds of ammo. DHS has purchased 2.2 billion rounds of ammo and that is enough to equip an 11 million man army. The Chinese have 12 military bases in Northern Mexico. Just one of those bases south of Laredo Texas has enough APCs for half a million men. I did the research, that trucker underestimated what he saw by a factor of 5. The Chinese built 25,000 garages 40 feet by 40 feet in this location. It’s on the web look it up yourself. That is enough for 50,000 APCs. Fifty thousand APCs is enough for 500,000 men. With twelve military bases that is enough for 6 million men. If those who have military planning skills like I do will do the research they will find the Chinese have enough military equipment in Northern Mexico for 6 million men. There are over 1 million enemy combatants in the US right now. By the end of this year it will be 2 million. And RIMPAC is not a peacekeeping force. It is an international invasion force targeting the West Coast of the US with amphibious invasion. Similar invasion forces are being prepared for the East and Gulf Coasts of America. Were talking 10 million enemy soldiers here. How is that for a Revelation? This is fact people and I’ve got massive research to back this up. The problem I have is I mail my reports to dozens of people and nobody reads them. Some people in the alternative media get so much mail they don’t read it all like Alex Jones and Doug Hagmann.. Ezekiel 38 and 39 we are the land of unwalled villages a fact that HAWK keeps trying to tell people. Dave Hodges you do excellent work but even you need to wake up. This is much more massive then even you know. I pray for you Dave, please keep doing what your doing and don’t ever lose faith, God will intervene. Jo Mistry May 23, 2014 at 12:51 pm Being in the UK, I have followed Brian Gerrish’s work for a while now. Families are being torn apart and children placed in real danger once the Gov gets hold of them. Countless child sex abuse scandals in the uk and hardly any of the top brass investigated. Care home teenagers being groomed etc and it scares me to think about the poor little ones who just “disappear”. God Bless you Mr Hodges. Please pray for these families and children. Jasper May 23, 2014 at 12:58 pm To unravel all this, just follow the case of Hollie Greig in the UK. The valiant Robert Green will lead us to justice and truth. Elaine Coker May 23, 2014 at 3:34 pm Even if Stevens had lived and exposed what this corrupt regime is doing, I do not believe anything would change. The news media would continue to white wash and cover it up, just as they do everything. There has been enough revealed already to impeach Obama; However, since we have a bunch of GOP cowards, nothing will ever be done. They are all just a bunch of liars. They think they are getting away with all their corruption, smut and filth, but judgement is coming. God will not be mocked forever; And He is coming soon, for I feel it in my Spirit. They are all going to get their justly punishment; And it will be ETERNAL and FINAL. David May 23, 2014 at 3:54 pm “DO YOU THINK EVERY FEDERAL EMPLOYEE WANTS TO VICTIMIZE AMERICAN CITIZENS?” No I don’t. Not wittingly anyway. However, I do know that every federal employee does in fact victimize American citizens. They victimize Americans by stealing from them. Every dollar that they are paid comes from immoral taxation. They are thieves. Period. Perhaps you don’t mind being stolen from but I certainly do. Here’s a question that every single person has to ask themselves when they are getting a paycheck or benefit: Is the source of this income or benefit based on an involuntary or voluntary transaction? It’s really pretty simple. Every federal employee is paid with dollars that are involuntarily paid by someone else. “MORONIC AND CHILD LIKE”? That’s laughable Dave. To absolve federal employees from responsibility for what they do and the government that they enable is ridiculous. That’s kind of like saying “Well, Roe v Wade made abortion constitutional so the doctors and nurses that perform them bare no responsibility for the murders that they commit.” Federal employees, every single one of them enable a government that is out of control. Finally, I don’t mind a little name calling but I’d rather just have an intelligent debate. That seems more civil. Some people however aren’t capable of that and have to resort to name calling when they can’t defend their position. EDITOR’S NOTE: NOT POSSIBLE TO HAVE AN INTELLIGENT CONVERSATION WITH THIS KIND OF MENTALITY- FINAL WORD ON THE SUBJECT: IDIOTIC AND CHILD-LIKE LOGIC: 1. ALL JEWS ARE…. 2. ALL BLACKS ARE… 3. ALL WASPS ARE … 4. ALL HISPANICS ARE … 5. ALL IMMIGRANTS ARE … 6. ALL POLITICIANS ARE … 7. ALL FEDERAL EMPLOYEES ARE … If Ambassador Stevens Had Lived, the Benghazi Child Trafficking Practices Would’ve Been Revealed « wchildblog May 23, 2014 at 5:01 pm […] The Common Sense Show, by Dave […] News Links for Friday of May 23 of 2014 | Scribe Cave Press May 23, 2014 at 9:08 pm […] https://ift.tt/2tYd6mH; […] Diana May 23, 2014 at 11:09 pm Stevens was hard core, Hard Left and was the front man for Obama in dealing with the rebels in Libya. He helped overthrow Qaddafi and then was killed in the exact manner that Qaddafi was murdered by the same people! Muslims would use the Hard Left and then turn on them. He was a friend of Hamas. ” … incredulous that the U.S. State Department would appoint a gay man as ambassador to a Muslim country, especially now that it has come out that the Muslims who murdered Stevens also raped him repeatedly, before and after his death.” insert from article: https://ift.tt/2VQAT41 Bill May 24, 2014 at 3:04 am Big picture, people…wake up! Please re read these articles by Dave before commenting. This will keep you from exposing your ignorance. Instead of nit picking the little things, stand back and understand what is being exposed. Ter ber May 24, 2014 at 5:19 am You are a brave watchman on the Wall Dave. Thank you for the updates. You wonder how it can get worse and then EVIL tops it! Oot Der Hoos May 24, 2014 at 5:38 am Here is one of the Robert Tosh Plumlee interviews that got mentioned in the comments: https://ift.tt/1mPxIUA The last hour by “W” was excellent too, because it filled in some blanks for my view our war opposing communism was valid, pre-1990, and some terrible shift happened around 1990-92, and not mainly at the time of Kennedy’s assassination. I think “W” says the shift was us losing control of our ownership of the narcotics money to Clinton’s gang (and the child traffic money now, ugh, I suppose), with which we wrestled the USSR and Chinese communists to stop the finance of their advances in central/south america; eg. Nicaragua/Columbia 1980s. I think Clinton had Chinese communist ties and overcame the Reagan conservatives. I think the Bush lineage of multiple leaders was playing both sides. It is a more complex narrative than is typical. I recommend hearing “W” describe the reasons and double-crosses. I still think some good noble persons were present pre-1990, slowing the globalist bankster semi-communism. The tares outnumber the wheat now. William B Stoecker May 24, 2014 at 6:14 am The federal government and many state and local governments have persecuted conservative employees for decades. When I worked for the Social Security Administration I was one of the most productive employees in our office, but I was continually harassed and threatened, suspended without pay, and finally fired. Later, unable to get any other job due to having only worthless liberal arts degrees (my own fault), I worked as an Eligibility Worker for Sacramento County Welfare, and received the same treatment, only this time they had armed goons search me and threaten me with arrest for unspecified crimes (I had committed no crimes). They eventually fired me. Both the feds and the county wound up having to give me all my back pay for my periods of unemployment and I now have a county pension as well. Courageous and principled employees are in every government agency, but they are usually in the minority and fear for their jobs and even their lives. Even in the FBI, hostage negotiators openly opposed the child sacrifice at Waco, and whistle blowers exposed the cover ups prior to 9/11. And there are principled officers in the military as well, but, overall, the general and flag officer ranks are dominated by CFR traitors. We can hope for a coup, but remember that similar men of honor in the German military failed in their attempt to kill Hitler. Chris May 24, 2014 at 9:52 am Stay on this story Dave. This is some of the most bizarre and diabolical material I’ve ever heard regarding Benghazi. This story should be revealed on Hagmann for further exploration. On a another note, where is Chris Steven’s family members on his death? They are suspiciously quiet. I also heard that Stevens was a gay man. If so, shouldn’t the gay community be up in arms over this brushed over scandal? EDITOR’S NOTE: STEVENS WAS REPORTEDLY GAY, WHICH I DO NOT THINK THIS IS A FACTOR- HIS FAMILY IS STRANGELY QUIET UNLIKE THE FAMILIES OF THE MEN WHO WERE KILLED WITH HIM- I AM SENDING TO DOUG HAGMANN- Comments are closed. RECENT ET Disclosure or the Great Deception? Steve Quayle on the CSS- Hr 1 The Four Horsemen of the Democratic Party Are Upon Us The Democrats are Provoking Russia and China to Attack the United States This is how Democrats will steal EVERY election going forward: counting ILLEGALS in the census and allowing them to vote with impunity Using Food As a Weapon-Intentional Weather Modification is Endangering the Food Supply CATEGORIES 9/11 About Activism Agenda 21 Breaking News Conspiracy Education Featured Gulf Coast Health Immigration Main Martial Law Show Descriptions tragedy Transhumanism United States War STREAMING The Four Horsemen of the Democratic Party Are Upon Us The Democrats are Provoking Russia and China to Attack the United States This is how Democrats will steal EVERY election going forward: counting ILLEGALS in the census and allowing them to vote with impunity Using Food As a Weapon-Intentional Weather Modification is Endangering the Food Supply The Great Deception Is Among Us…CSS-Dr Ted Broer Destructive Democratic Economics Are Changing Where You Should Put Your Money Get News Alerts Contact The Common Sense Show Copyright © 2019 The Common Sense Show Facebook

[bffhhoneymoon]

Entry 4

 Aaliyah had vanished, so I followed my husband as he started to walk along the beach.  In a couple easy strides, I caught him and took his hand.  As we walked, I took note of the island’s nearby fauna.

 There were  bird-like creatures with something similar to translucent feathers covering their hide.  When one took flight, I felt entranced by the beauty of it as the feather-like protrusions seemed to fill with gas, changing color and size as the creature flapped its wings.

 I felt some sort of aquatic creatures out in the ocean, jerking along in a motion more similar to a spring than a typical fish.  The creatures’ fins seemed to jut out of their body as they compressed, pushing them forward as the creatures elongated again.

A two-legged creature no larger than my fist ran towards us, balancing its furry body with its long tail.  I was amazed when the creature passed between us without a care.  Were there no predators on the island?

 “Strange little thing, wasn’t it?” inquired James.

 Nodding, I said, “There are some weird ones back home as well, but these things out in the ocean might be worth seeing.  They have an interesting means of locomotion.”

 “Your turn to be unfair now.  I can’t sense nearly as much as you, having to turn and look whenever I catch a peculiar sound.” he insisted, smiling at me.  The smile faded as he tilted his head, listening.

 I heard the hum of an engine not long after and was able to feel the heat of it when the craft slowed to approach us.  The design was interesting, landing on the craft’s belly in the water before using its thrusters to glide toward us.  The roof opened just before reaching the shore, revealing a dark-skinned humanoid with prominent, ridged forehead and very large eyes.

 I wondered if we were about to be attacked as numerous creatures hurried down the front of the craft, which had converted into stairs.  Their arms stretched down to their knees, though most were carrying different types of devices.  None of them wore footwear, which was understandable given that their three-toed feet ended in long, curved claws.  With their squat frames, I had to wonder if they leaned back on their arms to attack with their feet.

 The one who wasn’t carrying anything did a form of bowing before saying, “Mister and Misses Somerset, we are quite proud to be your hosts today.  I am Zezzel’an, your assigned host.  Sorry for the late arrival, but we missed your landing.  As our staff assembles the luxury amenities, is there anything I can get you?  A refreshment, perhaps?”

 “Your English is incredible.  Where did you learn it?” inquired James.

 “Thank you, sir.  Your secretary took the liberty of supplying us with a full course on this language, and I was assigned to actualize all of your desires.” he replied.

 I was assuming this species had gender at least.  I couldn’t really tell.  “Is there anything dangerous around here?” I inquired, wanting to gauge his reaction.

 He looked confused for a moment before saying, “No, ma’am.  As I’m sure you’ve heard, Bu’ular maintains a death rate of zero, save for those who die from complications due to advanced age.”

 “Do you at least have armaments prepared in case of invasion?” I asked, thinking of Xiaqara.

 He laughed and said, “Pleasant joke, ma’am.  There thankfully have been no suicides here in hundreds of years.”

 “I’ll take some refreshments.  Please choose which for me.  I’m regrettably not versed in your planet’s cuisine.” stated James.

 “Me too.” I quickly added as I considered what sort of defense mechanism would equate invasion with suicide.

 Zezzel’an nodded and walked back onto the nearby craft.

 “James, do you not find this disturbing?” I inquired.

 “Which part?  The staff seems perfectly amiable, and the view is gorgeous.” he replied.

 I sighed as James took a seat in a chair that was brought over to him.  When I realized that these seats were specifically designed for our bodies, I frowned.  Aaliyah had no doubt given them our measurements, but did they go to such great lengths for all of their guests?  If the entire planet was a resort, I could see the potential for such action, but wouldn’t the cost be extravagant?  If even half the planet was as much of a paradise as this, why wouldn’t some species want to take it?

 Of course, there was no way to tell how much this was costing us.  Even if I asked, the currency wouldn’t have any meaning to me at this point.  James’ company could even have some deal with the planet.  If James’ company protected this world as they did Xiaqara, wouldn’t Zezzel’an have simply told us?  Aaliyah had brought us here to show us a mistake she made, but what mistake?  I felt annoyed.

 “Sit, relax, and try to remember we’re on our honeymoon.” insisted James.

 “Is that really what you call what we’ve had?” I inquired, crossing my arms as I gazed down at him..

 “Don’t people normally go to exotic destinations and try new things on honeymoons?” he teased.

 I rolled my eyes but took my seat by him.  I felt Zezzel’an returning with our refreshments and didn’t want to be perceived as troublesome guest.  I sighed, sat, and did my best to relax.  The refreshments had no flavors I recognized, but some were enjoyable.  Others were at least interesting, though the moss green liquid wasn’t particularly palatable.

 Most of the crew boarded their craft after setting up a bar, changing rooms, sound systems, and a number of devices with purposes I couldn’t even guess.  Zezzel’an explained to us how he could be reached simply by calling his name, since one of the devices was some sort of voice-activated communicator.  Then he inquired if we had any other requests before boarding as well.

 James and I were quick to get up and explore the island more.  My initial assessment proved accurate from what I saw, the island had no predators of any kind, though there was an abundance of flora and fauna.    As the sun grew low over the ocean, James and I took to our seats again to watch it set, but I still didn’t understand what we were supposed to be seeing here.

 “You’re supposed to be enjoying your honeymoon, obviously.” stated Aaliyah, now standing a couple feet from my right.  “As for the mistake, I was a very young girl when I first arrived on this planet.  There was a war that had lasted decades, and I took a side and helped to end it.  Unfortunately for the victors, I was developing a knack for deciphering minds at the time.  When I saw the twisted thoughts of those who I had helped, I killed them.  I continued killing every last person on the planet who I felt was corrupt.  When my anger was finally sated, there were relatively few adults left alive, and I warned them to change their ways.  I altered the course of an entire planet because I was young and foolish.”

 As she talked, I shuddered, imagining her power in the hands of a child.  If she had been home when she first learned to read thoughts, who would have survived?

 She gazed up at me and smiled before saying,  “Later, I returned to find a peaceful people on the verge of being annihilated by invaders who were about to bombard the planet.  I complimented the Bu’ularans on their attempt at utopia and swore I’d allow no harm to come to them through violence if they kept their ways.  Then I made an example of the invaders, and few have come here with intent to do harm since that day.”

 “I must question you on one point.” I told her.

 “Yes, I was everywhere, but I didn’t realize it yet.  The older part of me could have easily stopped the younger part, but this was all part of who I needed to become.” she replied.  Grinning, she said, “Yes, Alma.  I’m needed.”

 The simple statement was startling in that I was considering if Aaliyah had a part in the prophecy the dragons told.  Knowing she constantly read my mind could make the statement a response, though she could just be taunting me, since I often wanted to remove her from my family’s affairs.  Either way, she didn’t tell me, just standing there and watching the sunset.

[bestfriendforhire]

Entry 290

 “Oh.  I should have asked if Aurora was down here.” I muttered.  Between jobs and spending some time with my friends, I had managed to get two more suits enchanted over the past couple days.  I came down into Jarod’s lab to work on another.

 “I was going to warn you, master, but mother told me not to say anything.” explained Mila.

 “What?” I blurted.  Why would Aaliyah…  I grinned as I watched Aurora float off the ground on the latest test model of the flying contraption.  “I see.”

 “Oh?” inquired Mila.

 “I just realized I want to enchant more than the suits.  Would you be able to apply the battery compartment adjustment you planned for the suits to those flying devices?” I asked.

 “You’ll have to adjust your spells for the different power requirements.” she warned.  “But yes, although Aurora will probably want to make adjustments on the rest of the design to take advantage of the lighter weight.”

 “I suppose I can wait.  Mind running the idea by Jarod before you get her on it?” I inquired.

 “I wouldn’t proceed any other way, master.” she replied.  “After his approval, I’ll try to get Aurora to work on the new design.  If she’s not comfortable with the change, I’ll make the adjustments myself.”

 Nodding, I said, “Just let me know the specs when you have them, so I can work the spells out.  Oh!  Tell me if you want to cheat a little with the propulsion.  I can do some fancy stuff with air now.”

 “If Ai and Mai get mad, I’m laying full blame on you.” stated Mila.

 “Why would they be mad?  I think they’ll enjoy these.” I insisted.

 “Master, the honeymoon’s started.” replied Mila.

 “Oh.  That’s great!  You could postpone telling Jarod until he’s back.” I told her.

 “I believe Jarod will want to know about your idea immediately, so I’m not deleting the message from his phone.” she replied.

 “Are you upset about something?” I asked.

 “Why would you think that, master?” she inquired.

 I sighed and said, “If I’ve done something to offend you, I really have no clue what.  Please tell me.”

 “Oh, master.  I was just hoping you’d offer to give me an upgrade as well.” she admitted.

 “Huh?  What do you mean?” I asked.

 “My bodies use similar muscle structures to the suits, so enchanting them for me shouldn’t be difficult, though certain adjustments to the bodies and the spells would be necessary, I’m sure.” she explained.

 “Ah.  Sure.  I can get working on that when Aurora’s finished.  I don’t really want to get enough energy while she’s here, due to the side effect.” I told her.

 “You’d make my baby girl wait for such a silly reason?” complained Aaliyah, now staring up at me.

 Mila picked her up and said, “Yes, mother…  Not only did he fail to consider that I might want to benefit from his work as well, but he wants me to wait for an indefinite future.”

 “Oh, please.  You both know why.” I told them.

 “Who does he think is protecting Aurora from his magic when she’s away from here?” inquired Aaliyah.

 “I don’t know, mother.” replied Mila.

 True.  Was Aurora simply not affected by me for some reason?

 “Oh, boss-man, sir, Aurora’s been affected by your enchantment since before you met her.  Alma wasn’t too far off when she suggested half the state was affected when you worked on the suits.” claimed Aaliyah.

 “She doesn’t really pay attention to me.” I stated.

 “Sure, she does.  Remember when she saved you from being electrocuted?” asked Aaliyah.

 “The imaginary electricity, sure.” I replied.

 Grinning, Aaliyah explained “She’s always watching you when you’re around, but she has no idea how to express her feelings.  She really, really likes you even though you don’t talk with her.”

 “Well, glad I have a new reason to feel guilty.” I mumbled.  I really didn’t know how to communicate with Aurora.

 “Wow.  Under a second, and you already thought of one.  Brilliant!” exclaimed Aaliyah.

 “I don’t really think it’s that good of an idea.” I insisted.

 “What?” asked Mila.

 “He realized he could relay messages through our friend there.” explained Aaliyah as she pointed at the little fairy.

 I almost asked when she got down here, but Aaliyah probably brought her.  I never meant for Aurora to see her.  If Aurora actually noticed, she gave no sign of it.

 “That could work.  Otherwise, I could probably relay things for you, master.” stated Mila.

 “Onto upgrading my baby!” exclaimed Aaliyah as she hugged Mila.

 “I don’t even know where to begin yet.” I admitted.

 “I’m already fabricating materials for mother to install on my bodies, master” stated Mila.

 “Just study the wall there, boss-man, sir.” ordered Aaliyah.

 I didn’t recognize a number of the spells being displayed and saw no explanation for how they worked.  This wasn’t going to be easy considering these spells were even more complicated than what I had used for the suits.

 “You’ll manage, boss-man, sir.  Have some faith in yourself!  If you really want an explanation, there’s a full course now available.  Jarod had based Mila’s skeleton off my grandfather’s designs, so some of the enhancements will be affecting that instead of ‘human’ flesh.  The other adjustments for her muscles are more similar to what you did to the suits, but I tweaked things a bit.” explained Aaliyah.

 I nodded and started committing everything to memory.  Aaliyah had also made adjustments to the spell I designed.  I wasn’t completely certain, but I believed she streamlined the spell a bit more for me.  I took a while to realize I was being hugged and nearly jumped to find Aurora was the one doing the hugging.

 “Told ya.” stated Aaliyah as she used some device on Mila’s skin to reseal it.

 Before I figured out what I should do, Aurora wandered off back to her work area.

 “Are you certain she wasn’t simply feeling cold again?” suggested Mila.  “She does that with me often.”

 “She was cold, but she also picked James.  No, she didn’t pick him because he seemed less busy, staring at the wall.” replied Aaliyah.

 “As you say,  mother.” stated Mila.

 “We’re all set, so let’s go!” exclaimed Aaliyah.

 “Go?” I asked.

 “Yep.  You’re going to enchant four bodies for Mila and the rest of the suits at once.” claimed Aaliyah.

 “I can’t.  Doing a single suit’s a struggle, and a single body’s even more complicated.” I argued.

 “First off, you don’t really struggle enchanting a suit.  That’s just concentrating, boss-man, sir. Furthermore, you’re going to do it all at once.” insisted Aaliyah as she stepped onto the lift.

 I didn’t see how I could possibly live up to her expectations, but I couldn’t win an argument with her either.  Somehow, this was going to work.  I stepped onto the lift, turned around as it started rising, and realized Mila wasn’t following.  My little friend was frozen mid-flight. between us.

 Before I could jump off, Aaliyah grabbed my hand and said, “She doesn’t need to be there, boss-man, sir.”

 I nodded dumbly, feeling more and more confused.  As I followed Aaliyah back into my house, I spotted Brandon grinning in the hall.  I was tempted to take a picture of him as we passed, so I could show him his goofy expression later.  I could always claim Mila took it.

 “Mila’s going to love that one!  She’ll actually take it, so you won’t even have to lie!” exclaimed Aaliyah.

 “We’re not going to the forest?” I asked, feeling even more surprised.

 “No need.  In a sense, the forest will be coming to you.” she stated.

 That wasn’t an entirely pleasant notion.  Aaliyah led me through the house and down into a passageway beyond a hidden door.  I remembered these stairs.  I once thought Jarod died down here.  The eerily glowing room was entirely made of stone.  Countless engravings covered the sphere.

 Aaliyah quickly assured me “Not countless, boss-man, sir.  You could easily count them if you took the time.”

 “True, but I doubt I’ll ever bother.  Why are we here?” I asked.

 “First, a precaution.  If you ever use the room with someone other than me inside, you’ll kill them instantly, so you probably want to make sure to seal it first thing.” she informed me with a grin.

 “Lovely.” I replied sarcastically.  “How do I seal it?”

 “Open your mind to the room like you would to the fey, boss-man, sir.” she told me.

 The idea sounded odd, but I did as she instructed.  The door instantly closed.  I could feel my entire mansion.  I knew where everyone was, though I wouldn’t say I was seeing them.  I was just aware.  I was aware of the army of “dolls” who did the cleaning.  I was similarly aware of Marco’s cooking in the kitchen.  I wondered if this was how Emma felt her plants, since I felt as if every blade of grass in my yard was a part of me.  The energy of the forest moved at my whim, and I could feel every last fey.  I didn’t realize quite how many there were.  I hadn’t met them all yet.

 My vault sat below the forest.  I hadn’t known quite where before.  There was so much energy around it, but not the type I could use.  This was something else, like a white star burning under the forest.

 “You could put a star out with that, but I wouldn’t recommend it.” whispered Aaliyah, directly into my mind.

 I felt so tiny as I focused on her.  She stretched on and on past the farthest stars.

 “Look away, James.  You’ll go mad.” she ordered.

 I instantly did.  Part of me yearned to keep looking, but the presence of her voice in my mind was overwhelming.  I felt like I could touch planets.  If I thought about any given one, I grew more and more aware of it.  Many were lifeless, but I found ones that weren’t and saw beings like I had never imagined.

 “Focus, boss-man, sir.  You know why you’re here.” stated Aaliyah.

 “But there’s something odd nearby.  I don’t know how to describe it, but I can sense the thing throughout the world.  Throughout many worlds… so very many worlds.” I told her.

 “That’s the Intergalactic House of Awesome Sauce.” she informed me.  You can eat later, boss-man, sir.  Focus.”

 I resisted the urge to look at the thousands of interesting things I was sensing.  I found the suits.  I found Mila’s bodies.  Enchanting them was easy.  Practically effortless.  I suddenly felt scared.  I shouldn’t have this kind of power.

 I was on the ground, trembling.  I heard the sphere’s door slide open.  Aaliyah knelt beside me and hugged me.  “How long have I been in here?” I asked.

 “To most everyone else, no time has passed, but you experienced nearly an hour.  You got a bit lost for a while there.” she replied.

 “Aaliyah, can you destroy this thing?” I asked.

 “Of course, but why would I?” she inquired.

 “I shouldn’t have that kind of power, Aaliyah.  What if someone else figured out how to use this?  It’s so simple… terrifyingly simple.” I warned her.

 Squeezing me tighter, she said, “Don’t worry, boss-man, sir.  No one else can use it.  Well, I mean… I could if I really wanted, but…”

 “You don’t need it.” I whispered.  Even remembering what I felt when I focused on Aaliyah started to make my head ache.  “Is there no end to you?”

 “To me?  That’d be boring.  Besides, everywhere needs a little Death!” she exclaimed, winking and smiling cheesily as she pointed her fingers at me.

 “Will you destroy this?” I asked again.

 “Of course not.  You’ll want to use it again someday.” she insisted.

 “That’s what frightens me.  I felt like I could do anything.” I told her.

 “But you can’t.  You can do some really amazing things once you get the hang of it though.” she replied.

 “I don’t want to get the hang of it, Aaliyah.” I argued.

 “No, but you will.  You’ll never enjoy it, boss-man, sir, but you’ll use it to save people.  Another thing you should know is that you’ll get attention when you use it.  Everyone capable of using magic throughout the world would have sensed what you did if they could feel anything right now.  Now let’s get back to see how my baby girl likes her upgrade!” exclaimed Aaliyah, lifting up her arms to be carried.

 I picked her up and started to move.  I was still trembling, but the shaking subsided as I walked.  Aaliyah had frightened me before in many different ways, but never so intimately.  I was scared of myself.

[stubbornlikeyeah-blog]

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