#journal nurse jackie

[transnats]

YJs with blind reader. I can feel like r! Would’ve become blind during the crash some how and since they are blind they can’t really go outside or do much without the others constantly worrying and coddling them

-🪼

oh gosh yeah! misty and the lil nurse she is would constantly be checking on you, asking how your vision was today when you’d given her like the same answer nearly everyday. she’d kinda wave her hand infront of your face and tell you to let her know if you could see anything really. most things had either been blotchy or super blurry, but she notes it anyways.

though nat hides behind that ‘doesn’t give a shit’ personality, i think she’d be by your side the most when she didn’t have chores or whatever. she’d go on and on about her hunting skills and whatever else she had going on with travis. she’d probably gossip with you about some stupid shit one of the girls did or tell you stories about things that happened before the crash. like how some ‘fucking nerd asked her to prom and almost pissed his pants when she even looked to hard in his direction before giving a response’.

lottie and the rest of the girls in her lil group circle thingy she does definitely keeps you in their thoughts somehow. whether it be asking the wilderness to keep you in good health or hoping that they’d be rescued soon so you can get the help you needed, she’s going the whooooole nine yards.

when summer rolls back around, i think shauna would lead you around the forest and describe the scenery, and i know shauna is so effing vivid with her imagination like she will go the entire poet route. maybe she’d even write about your outings with her in her journal. :3

when it came down to anything else, mari would still be cooking and if you needed it, she’d be willing to help you get familiarized with the utensils again. she wants to help you but she’s kinda agressive with it? she’s all like “dude it’s no problem if you need help like, ill totally help you. its no problem, nothing to get all shaken up over. ill help you with whatever other shit you need help with. seriously!” you just assume this is her way of being affectionate or if she was in that kinda awkward teenage girl stage.

jackie gives you pep talks like how she used to before every game. mostly, it occurs when you’re feeling bad because you’re not helping enough. her first instinct, obviously, was to drive those thoughts away from your mind. it was like her sworn duty as the leader of the team. and god she gives a damn good pep talk! she could be some kinda motivational speaker if it weren’t for everyone’s circumstance.

crystal will sing to you constantly. and i mean constantly. she’d go through these long ass songs from her favorite musicals, and at this point you lost track of what it even had been at this point? chicago or something? you had no clue. but you’d listen contentedly as if you knew a lick about musicals.

[jilyandbambi]

#premise up for adoption bc Im too busy to do anything more with this #in my head: they go back and live at jackie's house #it's bigger + Jackie's family has the $$ to keep reporters off their property so the girls are safer there #when it’s discovered that jeff is the father. jeff--who was raised right--starts going to school part time #while working full time at the furniture store #soon becoming assistant manager #jackie's parents BEG her to go to rutgers. not to give up her future for a baby that's not even hers #that belongs to the bf and bff who BETRAYED her no less #(jackie stops talking to them for a month. not for bringing up the cheating thing)#(for daring to say that LD isnt hers' too) #jackie does eventually go to Rutgers though #but not bc her mom promises to stop giving shauna a hard time #she decides to go when Shauna finally tells her about applying to Brown and getting her acceptance letter days before they left #they never would've been roommates at Rutgers. she isn't leaving Shauna behind. she never has #shauna makes a joke about having a hot meal ready every day when jackie comes home #jeff saves up enough money for a dowm payment for a nice house with a lawn and a yard #for him shauna&jackie and the baby--BECAUSE HE WAS RAISED RIGHT #he and jackie build a backyard playset for Luke (Dylan's his middle name now. It's also Jeffs mothers maiden name it all worked out) #yes sometimes they have threesomes #no Randy. Jeff's NOT going to talk about it w you #(he was raised right!!!!!) #a few years down the line Shauna gets pregnant again #all 3 sets of parents' heads tilt to the side #but they keep it amongs themselves so they can keep seeing Luke and baby Callie

so a Yellowjackets AU where mari says something to get herself kicked out of the cabin, and she dies of exposure and gets eaten at the bachanalian banquet instead of Jackie, who LIVES, who's there at Shauna's side when she goes into labor, stroking her hair and letting Shauna squeeze her hand hard enough to sprain her fingers, who keeps Shauna calm enough she has a (comparatively!!!!!!) easier delivery, who is the reason the(ir) baby lives.

who finally, after months of feeling adrift and useless because she’s not a hunter or a butcher or a prophet or a captain (anymore) finds her purpose in the wilderness. who painstaking sews patchwork baby onesies and cloth diapers from the girls' spare clothes (Offerings, not donations). who makes a baby sling from animal pelts and backpack straps. who makes a rattle from sticks and pinecones and some light blue pebbles Jackie found by the lake one day and saved. who makes sure the cabin stays warm and clean for Luke Dylan (from 90210--they couldn't decide whether to go with the actor or the character).

who builds them another shelter from blankets and animal hides after the cabin burns down. who keeps shauna and their baby warm through that first terrible winter and the one that followed.

and one day in 1998, Canadian forest rangers happen upon that American high school soccer team that went missing 2 years back. they find a group of starving teens and a baby, a little over a year old, two of the girls wrapped around him--and each other

and when the rescue team tries to separate them the one with tangled, golden brown hair bears her teeth and Growls

[lynnbeth5172]

Why Can’t You Be Alive? (One shot)

Warning: Slightly dead dove and a bit more hurt than comfort <3 ⚽️

Shauna Shipman realized she was in love a bit too late, when her body was racked with sobs and she begged her dead best friend to wake up. Regretting even letting her freeze outside.

‘Please Jackie…I need you.’

Now she was in the meat shed, she had done a bit of her chores and hence went to the meat shed where the bear meat was. Journal in hand as she wrote and sketched, this time an antlered deer. As she looked up and looked at the propped up body of Jackie.

“Remember how we met?” She knew it looked like she was talking to a ghost but she didn’t care much, as she looked at the face of her frozen friend; trying to imagine her face. When she didn’t reply, Shauna did.

“Met in first grade, someone pushed you off the swings and I took you to the nurse. You asked if you can have my name and I said it.” Shauna yearned for those times, when they didn’t fight over boys but fought over stupid things like ‘Chocolate cookies are better than peanut cookies’ or arguing over who stole Shauna’s apple sauce.

Then boys came into the mix, then a boy named Jeff Sadecki came along. The boy who used to glue his lips together with a glue stick became Jackie’s crush and eventual boyfriend in freshman year, Shauna had a crush on him since sixth grade. Which was when he stopped glueing his mouth closed.

That was when her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a small thud, Jackie’s body was slumped over. Due to rigor mortis setting in; her body was very stiff, sighing and moving up, she fixed her dead friend’s position back to how it was. That was when she noticed her lips, Jackie always had pretty lips. Lips that were always covered in either lipgloss or lipstick, it reminded her of when she used to do Shauna’s makeup and when it came to lips…their faces were almost always dangerously close, as if they were going to kiss.

Shauna pressed her thumb to the lips of her friend, leaning in slightly more as her breath could be seen her almost frozen lashes. She chose to ignore, imagining Jackie alive and what she would say. It was fucked up she knew but…a part of her just wanted her.

She could almost hear Jackie’s voice, her face. Her smile turning into a grin as Shauna moved closer, her breath being seen in the freezing air.

“I know you wanna kiss me, Shauna…do it,” Shauna moved more closer, cupping Jackie’s cheek as she leaned in and kissed her. A warm feeling was there inside her, a feeling that wasn’t there whenever she kissed Jeff. She wanted so desperately to just continue kissing, she wished she had did this before Jackie died. She wished she had dated Jackie.

Her lips were cold and stiff but she still kissed her.

As she moved away slowly from Jackie’s face, she laughed. Almost more mocking than anything

“Poor little Shipman, you can’t have me. I’m long gone.”That was when reality finally broke in, Shauna over Jackie’s freezing face. Her eyes were closed, not open. Her face was neutral instead of her teasing grin; and she was quiet, not speaking.

Shauna’s heart dropped a bit, she kissed her dead friend…dead, not alive, not reciprocating feelings because she can’t.

Her lip trembled as she moved to where she sat, tears started to fall from her eyes as she tried wiping them.

She missed Jackie more than Jeff.

She’ll always miss Jackie more than Jeff, she’ll miss her over anything.

Ever since she had a crush she thought she loved Jeff, but…now she realized that she loved Jackie. But it was too late.

“Why can’t you be alive…” as tears fell from her face she became very clear of the answer. As the corpse still had its eyes closed.

‘Because I’m dead…you can’t have a dead person.’

::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: :::

Short and sad, to all my Yellowjacket followers ❤️tbh I don’t know if I did well but I originally was sorta going for an Oliver and Felix thingy from Saltburn, with the obsession and all.

[deathbecomesnerds]

Lore Drop

@lady-morrigen tagged me in this. Thanks!! Love you!

Do you make your bed?

God, no!

My mom and her mother growing up were very anal about 'you have to make your bed because it looks nice for guests!'. Like--who the *fuck* is gonna look at my bed but me?? And so, out of spite, I don't make my bed except for when I wash my sheets.

Favourite number?

24? It's my birthday, well...day...*shrugs*

What’s your job?

I am a title clerk at a credit union. So, basically when you finance your car with your bank or credit union, I'm the person who gets your car title put in your name and also makes sure our lien is attached to it.

It's very niche, but I love it and it pays my bills til I can make it as a writer. Lol.

If you could go back to school, would you?

I don't think so. After 2 years at community college, I realized that while I love to learn, I'm not an academic, and so I dropped out.

Can you parallel park?

Only if I pray to my god, Jackie Kennedy Onassis hard enough...

Do you think aliens are real?

Yes--but not in like weird green dudes with giant ass brains and say 'Akk Akk!'.

Can you drive a manual car?

No.

What’s your guilty pleasure?

Blind Item Gossip. It's trashy but I love it. I'm a closet gossiper, and I get my fix reading about celebrity gossip without the names.

Tattoos?

Yes! I have two: I have the Four Elements on my wrist (It's a Fifth Element reference), and then I have one of Jackie Kennedy on my back.

Favourite colour?

I'm a pale girl with red hair, and Olive Green makes me look fucking goooddd...but also, it's just a nice fall color, and as someone who wants it to be Fall/Autumn all the time...*heavy sad sigh*

Do you like puzzles?

I do!! I fucking love puzzles!! Why? Do you have one on you?

Any phobias?

I suffer from Lilapsophobia, which is a fear of Tornadoes & Hurricanes. I live in Texas--so jokes on me, I guess. But my anxiety shoots to 1,000 when I get one of those weather warnings.

Favourite childhood sport?

Tennis. I played it in middle school. I was fucking lethal with a racket. I hit so many classmates with balls. So many escorts to the nurses office with a guilty look on my face as my classmates held their broken noses or knots in their head. Probably a good thing I decided to shift into newspaper journalism when I got into high school...

Do you talk to yourself?

Come closer...yes! All the fucking time!! I'm a writer, so it just kind of happens naturally, but then I also have 'The Board of Liz's" in my head and we like to argue about everything.

No Pressure Tags: @rayslittlekitten @lovebarefootblonde @emilykaldwen @phenanthreneblue @red-orchid

@vampire-exgirlfriend

[theonetruebinkly]

2-6-2023

Daily journal entry for 2-6-2023

Events: Morning: Woke up feeling much better than last night, not sore at all B). We recover right boooi! Work: Worked 7-12 because I had to get to class. Met some new coworkers today, worked with Jackie for the first time (girl who interviewed at the same time, nursing student at Baker). Learned and practiced wrapping burritos and soft shell tacos. Gotta work on not spilling oil on the…

[jamespotterthefirst]

Jealousy (Ethan x f!MC)

Book: Open Heart, book 2 Pairing: Dr. Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Dr. Lilac Allende) Word count: 1.2K Warning/ Rating: Language/ T

Premise: They are keeping their relationship hidden... which is why she feels jealous and helpless when an old flame of his returns. 

Author’s Note: A while ago, I said I HC Ethan slept with that editor he had a “good relationship with” before he met MC. Also, an anon asked me for a fic of Lilac being the jealous one. 

A string of female laughter drifted from Ethan's closed office door, fueling the gossip already raging in the corridor. With every overheard whisper, Lilac's stomach sank further toward her feet. Yet, she couldn't step away because, as Jackie put it quite succinctly once, she was a masochist.

“I thought they were over,” one of the nurses said. “She hasn't been around for a while.”

“Almost two years,” someone else added solemnly. “But it didn't seem serious back then.”

As she pretended to study her clipboard nearby, Lilac decided she liked this nurse.

“They were just banging each other's brains out,” the same nurse added, falling from Lilac's good graces.

“Maybe they're just working together? She's the editor of the AJM, isn't she?”

“Or maybe Dr. Ramsey needs someone to fuck his brains out again. Good thing, too. The man has to release all that pent up tension somewhere.”

The nurses cackled at that.

Lilac's eyes, meanwhile, burned into the labs in front of her, her knuckles white from gripping the clipboard so tightly.  Every ounce of her strength was spent on pressing her lips shut lest she informed the gossiping crowd that Dr. Ethan Ramsey already had an outlet for said release. In fact, Lilac had begged him in wanton little moans to take out the day's stress on her the night before.

More laughter emanated from the office, turning Lilac's insides into molten, bubbling lava. Before she had any recollection of making the decision, her feet carried her toward the door. Her mind conjured up a fantasy of bursting through the door with all the confidence and might of an Olympian. In reality, she pushed the door open rather meekly, already having second thoughts.

Ethan glanced up from the redhead before him, a fleeting look of surprise crossing his features.

“Dr. Allende,” he acknowledged, all professionalism.

Lilac said nothing, trying her best to scope out the scene before her. Within seconds, she felt ashamed of the jealousy coursing through her and controlling her movements like some twisted puppet master. Ethan, on the other hand, raised his brows expectantly.

“Did you need me for something?”

“Mrs. Watson's results came back. You asked me to update you as soon as they did.”

Ethan's eyes fell to his companion, as though silently signaling that now was not a good time. The beautiful redhead seemed unbothered, lounging on her chair with a leg gracefully crossed over the other. Lilac didn't miss the way her pencil skirt rode high enough to reveal a tasteful glimpse of her leg.

“Dr. Allende, this is Dr. Sabrina Becker, editor of the American Journal of Medicine. Sabrina, this is Dr. Lilac Allende, the newest addition to our diagnostics team.”

Dr. Becker faced Lilac in acknowledgement, giving her the full effect of bright blue eyes and high cheekbones.

“Lovely to meet you,” Dr. Becker said, sounding distracted. The little amount of attention she gave the introduction was stolen away by the sound of her phone. Dr. Becker picked up the call and signaled that she'd be back before stepping outside.

Ethan took the opportunity to examine the labs and discuss the next course of action for the patient. When they reached a satisfactory solution, they fell into a comfortable silence– comfortable for Ethan. All Lilac could picture is the stunning redhead’s laughter moments ago.

“So…” Lilac started casually. “What was so funny?”

Ethan blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Dr. Becker was dying of laughter earlier. We could all hear her.”

His dark brows climbed high up his forehead.

“I’m just wondering what was that hilarious.”

Understanding seemed to strike him because a devious smirk pulled ever-so-slightly at the corner of his lips.

“You’re jealous.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“No, I’m legitimately confused because you’re not that funny.”

Ethan chuckled at that.

“You can admit you’re jealous, Allende.”

His voice dropped to a deep, dark whisper that made her insides melt. If that wasn’t enough to have her body at his beck and call, the slanted smirk he fixed on her would have been enough alone.

“Fine,” she admitted at last, the admission flooding her with even more shame. “I can’t help it.”

“You have nothing to worry about.”

“I know.” Lilac sighed. “It was just… It wasn’t fun listening to all the gossip about you and her, back when you–”

Ethan looked a bit ashamed.

“God, this is not who I am at all. I’ve never been the jealous type. I feel so petty even saying all of this.”

He stepped forward, filling the space between them.

“You’re justified, Lilac,” he assured her with a soft kiss to her forehead. “Sabrina seems to be under the erroneous impression that I'm single.”

Lilac didn't blame the editor.

“Or in a complicated relationship that's not serious,” she added, recalling the TV interview they did not too long ago.

All traces of humor vanished from his handsome features as he gave her a keen look.

“It's serious.”

The intensity of his gaze sent her stomach into an ungraceful dive. She was so far gone, it was beginning to concern her. Lilac sucked in a breath, rendered momentarily speechless.

“I just regret not being able to tell the world that.”

His lips moved down to her cheekbones, pressing another sweet kiss before pulling away.

“I will, however, make it clear to Sabrina that I'm involved with someone. That way she can tone down the flirtatious banter.”

Lilac snorted at that. “So you aren't totally oblivious. Did you notice the skirt, too?”

“No.”

“Come on! The hiked up skirt? It’s the oldest trick in the book.” Lilac continued with a laugh.  “I would know. I use it all the time on you.”

That teasing, earth-tilting smile was back, making her eyes catch on those enticing lips.

“The difference,” he began, his voice rough gravel at her ear, “is that when you do it, it works.”

Ethan leaned in to kiss her, his mouth moving in lazy, hungry strokes. His fingers, meanwhile, found the hem of her skirt with mastery, skimming the skin of her thigh. Lilac sighed into his mouth, her body already aching for him.

“Ethan,” Lilac protested, stifling a moan. “Someone could come in.”

He pressed her against the office door in response. Before she could voice anymore of the million other problems that could arise, Ethan knelt down before her, his large hands gripping her hips. Eyes locked on hers, he pressed a teasing kiss to her inner thigh.

“She's going to come back.”

Another kiss, this one with a flick of his devious tongue.

“What better way to tell her I'm with someone else?”

“Be serious,” she tried to admonish, but the words became a soft moan.

Ethan chuckled–a dark, sexy sound that rumbled against her thighs. With one last kiss, he stood up. His perfectly sculpted lips looked swollen from their kiss and from the dishonorable trajectory they made up her thighs.

“Come to my place tonight.”

Lilac’s knees trembled in response. “Alright. The nurses seem to think you need an outlet.”

“Outlet?”

“Sex.”

He laughed quietly. 

“I get plenty of that.” 

Before she could tease him, the doorknob rattled. In the fraction of a second, they sprung apart with expert fluidity. Dr. Becker strode into the room without giving them a second glance, her attention on her phone screen. Taking advantage of this, Lilac pantomimed a kiss in Ethan’s direction, satisfied when his ears turned pink. 

“I have to go back to the office,” Dr. Becker announced. “Do you want to finish our chat over dinner?”

Ethan didn’t even hesitate. 

“I’m afraid not,” he returned. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep all of our conversations professional, within business hours, and in either of our offices when possible.”

Dr. Becker blinked. 

“Oh, that’s new. I suppose we could–”

“I’m seeing someone.” 

Lilac could have smacked him across the forearm for his lack of ceremony. She admired her boyfriend for cutting to the chase, but this was blunt even for him. The ensuing silence was nothing short of unbearable and Lilac took that as her cue to leave.

“I’ll see you at our meeting later, Dr. Ramsey.”

“I look forward to it, Dr. Allende.”

Author’s Note: The meeting is sex.

Also, Lilac was like, “I’m out.” Let Ethan deal with his mess on his own. That’s what he gets for being a hoe pre-MC lol

Thank you so much for reading! 

[einsteinsugly]

Jacqueline "Jackie" Hyde (nee Burkhart): A Character Analysis, During and Beyond the Show

Based on @maxgrayarchived's "Are Your Characters Developed Enough?" Originally intended for OCs, but since I further develop the T7S characters beyond the scope of the series in a meaningful way, I'm trying my hand at it.

PS: One question was redundant in Jackie's case, so I omitted it. And another was more of a question for couples, so once again? Omitted it. And I combined a question, because I already answered it in another one.

*****

What does it mean for her to be in love? She wants (and needs) someone to support her lofty endeavors, a stable sail to her moving ship. She needs someone who trusts her and listens, and someone who gets her to think. Beyond the confines of her childhood. Oh, and thoughtful, meaningful presents are nice.

What is she attracted to? Stereotypically masculine men (usually, who can protect her, if need be), shaven faces, smarts (eventually), and general badassery. Kelso's a good friend, but he only has a shaven face. And shaven legs.

How’s her family life? She's reconciled with her dad Jack, after his unfortunate prison stint, and Jack is now an active part of his grandkids' lives. Her mom Pam, on the other hand? It's rocky, to say the least. Pam shows up when she feels like it, and judges her all along the way. Becca's too quiet and weird, and James is too rebellious and hyper and reminds her of Jack. Blah, blah, blah. Jackie's heard it all.

Like, she and Becca don't see eye to eye on everything, but as her mother? She loves her, she respects her, and she guides her as a mother should. And it's the same thing for James, her baby boy. Who she fiercely protects, and actively supports in his worthwhile endeavors.

How’s her social life? She sacrifices sheer popularity with the upper-class elite to stick to her guns. She doesn't look down on bums anymore, and is the people's talk show host,and has the most successful talk show in Chicago. Because she puts herself out on a limb, when others won't, in order to be charitable and help others. And to help her true friends. Hyde, Donna, Eric (sometimes), Kelso, Brooke, Fez, and Rhonda. Her cameraman Amir, her former co-host (in Milwaukee) Manny and his wife Sonia, Buddy Morgan and his partner Vic, and her former little sister Colette.

What’s her sexual and romantic history? She was dating Kelso (a dirty dog and a proven doofus) on and off for a couple of years during her teens, and lost her virginity to him. But then she started dating Hyde, her true love, but Hyde was pretty insecure about her storied past with Kelso, leading to a storied path of their own. He vengefully cheated on her with a nurse when he thought Jackie was cheating on him with Kelso, and left her at the motel when he saw Kelso in just a towel. He drunkenly married a stripper in Vegas, thinking he was marrying Jackie. But he made his bed and seemingly laid in it, if you will.

Thus, Jackie briefly started dating Fez out of desperation and circumstances, as they lived under one roof, but she broke it off on Valentine's Day and left Point Place. Without even surpassing second base. A couple of weeks after, Hyde followed her. Desperately trying to make amends, all while learning a crucial element of any long-term relationship; trust. Now, after making amends with her true love, she and Hyde are married (since '82), with two kids. Becca and James. And are living the good life, like they both deserve.

What is she skilled in, and what are her hobbies? Entrepreneurship, schmoozing, and talking (communicating is the technical term). She has a passion for fashion and design (she has a good eye), gymnastics, skiing, ice skating, and roller skating.

How was her school experience? She was a straight-A student in high school, but played dumb when it was convenient. Now, she only plays dumb to fool people she doesn't like, if only for a second, to abruptly turn the tables on them and claim victory.

Anyway, she was summa cum laude in college, at UW Milwaukee, and she got a BA in journalism and communications. She works hard, and she gets what she wants.

Is she an introvert, extrovert, or ambivert? An obvious extrovert. She's a social butterfly, and a people person.

Is she right-brained, left-brained, or balanced? More left-brained, with just enough right-brain (open-ended creativity) to truly pave her way in the world.

What are her most prevalent strengths and weaknesses?

Strengths: Is smart and savvy, and ambitious and willful. Has an entrepreneurial edge.

Weaknesses: Can be controlling, bossy, and overprotective. Can be overly haughty and judgmental.

What are her goals and dreams?

As a teen, before the basement: To be famous, to weasel her way amongst the social elite. To be a politician's wife, and a good mother to their children.

As an adult: To find success without sacrificing her sanity, to make and keep friends who will support her through thick and thin, and to have a husband who will support her through it all. Oh, and of course, to be a good mother to their children.

What are her fears and insecurities? Losing her family and friends, and secondarily? Losing her income, her house, and all the nice things in life.

What does she believe in? A lot of people can work hard and get what they always dreamed of, but sometimes? They need a little help. And sometimes, the world isn't willing to give it to them, but she is.

Who would she die for? Her husband, her kids, her friends, and most of her extended family. Minus her mom, a paternal aunt, and a few cousins, because they're toxic, terrible people.

[sweeethinny]

I said I was writing random scenes of an original couple that I created to keep myself sane, it doesn't really make sense, and I just wrote the scenes that I wanted to read.

Here's a little about them:

Sebastian is a tall, strong guy, ex athlete, who studies nursing, and has some tattoos all over his body. He dates Jackie, but it's an abusive relationship, and he finds himself caught up in that romance and that teenage love that hasn't been love for a long time.

He's quiet, he doesn't like to go to a lot of parties, and he meets Hope because he and her twin brother are lab mates.

Hope is the opposite of Seb, she is outgoing, she loves parties, she studies journalism, and she is a cheerleader.

She has a big reputation as a bitch through university because she dated a ''lot'', and she suffers from eating disorder.

obviously, after the cut, there will be mention of an abusive relationship and eating disorder

I hope you like it, I haven't done this in a few years.

Hope was there, of course, dancing on the tables, wearing a T-shirt that said 'bitch' in big letters in front, looking more than happy - and a little drunk. Mabel was there too, looking almost happier than her friend, shaking her head over and over again, a huge smile on her face.

It was fascinating, to say the least, to look at these two. They forced you to be happy just to look at them, to witness that energy, all that freedom.

Sebastian thought it must be fun to feel free like this.

When the song ended, not a few seconds after he arrived, Hope stopped dancing, all sweaty, her hair sticking to her forehead and neck, her cheeks a lot more flushed than usual. It was a beautiful sight.

"Hey!" Jackie snapped her fingers in front of his face, making him blink in alarm. "Can you stop looking at them?"

“I’m not looking.” Sebastian defended himself, sighing wearily. It had been a mistake to accept Hope's invitation to a frat party, especially when the theme was 'Slumber Party' and almost everyone was half-naked. It was the perfect place for Jackie to get mad at everyone around her.

"I saw how you looked at their asses," Jackie accused, also looking at the table where Hope and Mabel were dancing, now alongside Ellie.

“For God's sake, Jackie, I wasn't looking at their ass.” Taking another deep breath, Sebastian ran a hand through his hair, looking away from the girls.

As beautiful as the view was, he wasn't coveting any of them, Sebastian knew he wasn't. They were beautiful, of course, Hope had probably known that from the day she was born, but that was it. And there probably wasn't one person at that party who didn't agree with him.

But as if she knew they were talking about her, Hope looked at the people around the table, and when she realized Sebastian was there, she smiled, waving at him. Friendly as always.

He made the mistake of waving back.

“Sebastian!” Jackie yelled, looking hurt, before running away from him.

[...]

‘Want to come here at home? See a movie?’ Sebastian asked, his voice sounding sadder than usual, more despondent, but Hope thought it was a figment of her head, and that it was probably because Jackie had found another reason for them to fight.

She didn't know how he could stand living like this.

"Of course, I'll take the pizza!" She smiled, jumping out of bed and dropping her cell phone, rushing to change into a better outfit.

They had been friends for some time now, and Sebastian had already seen her vomit her guts during the Halloween party, but that didn't mean he needed to see her in those old pajamas, whose pants didn't even stop at her waist anymore.

Hope changed into a pair of leggings and a sweater thick enough that she didn't need to put on any more blouses, and put on her sneakers, leaving the bedroom and running downstairs, feeling excited to see him. There was something about him that left her a little in the air, and maybe it was his black hair, or those brown eyes, or the combination of all of that, but there was something that made her think that if he didn't date, Hope would probably already have hit on him.

During the last party, when Sebastian went shirtless, it was a great time for her to put her self-control to the test.

[...]

"We broke up," he said, looking at the TV like he was on another planet.

'Really?' Hope had seen Sebastian say that enough times to start to suspect now, and not just because she was attracted to him, but because, and a lot more because of that than the previous fact, Hope cared with him, and it had been months since his relationship with Jackie had ceased to be healthy. Probably never had been.

“Yes.” Sebastian looked at her, and he looked sadder than he had at times before. "She hit me, so… I realized that I couldn't do it anymore."

“She hit you?!” Hope jumped on the couch, leaning closer to him looking for bruises, desperate. 'How? Did she hurt you?” She cupped his face in her hands, staring at him like she wanted to make it clear that if Seb was going to lie, she would know.

“It wasn't really hitting, Jackie threw a plate at me, but she didn't hit me.” Seb smiled sadly, shrugging. ‘Ex-athlete reflexes.’

“It was the decision best you ever did,” Hope assured, hugging Sebastian, wishing she could do more than that to make him understand that Jackie didn't deserve him, and that this wasn't love.

[...]

“You're drunk.” Hope chuckled, and Sebastian thought it was the best sound ever. He laughed too.

"I am." He downed the last of the beer he had in his glass, feeling dizzy. Hope's voice was muffled over the phone. 'What?'

"I asked if you need a ride."

“Weren't you sleeping?” Sebastian couldn't help but think about what her pajamas would look like, if Hope wore the ones that had lace and were sexy, or if she preferred to sleep in pants and socks. She was supposed to look pretty anyway, he doubted that in any outfit Hope looked ugly.

"I was, but now I'm worried about how you'll get home." She laughed. “Is Dean with you?” Unlike the times Jackie asked that, Hope didn't seem to want to know out of jealousy but out of concern. 'Or someone who isn't drinking?'

‘I don't think so, everyone is tripping over their own feet. But I'll call a cab.” Sebastian sobbed. ‘I'll let you know when I get home.’

'Take care, anything call me and I can pick you up.'

[...]

"You really came," Sebastian said, a goofy grin on his face when he saw her approaching. Hope wore black sweatpants, a much larger sweatshirt with the uni symbol on the front, and sneakers. She looked messy, her hair tied back, her face a little scrunched up from sleep, but still, he felt that tightness in his chest when he saw her.

“You asked me to come.” She rose on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek, grimacing at the smell of booze. "You look like a drunken possum."

“Have you ever seen a drunken possum?” Seb raised an eyebrow, curious.

“Way to speak,” Hope rolled her eyes. ‘Shall we go to the house, champ?

‘Will you take our boy?! Now that he's started having fun!” Dean interrupted them, dramatically raising his arms and making the other guys look at them, and notice that Hope had arrived. One of them waved at her, a roguish grin on his face.

"I think he had a lot of fun, if the audios I got of him singing Doja Cat means anything." She smiled, looking up at Sebastian who was staring at her unashamedly, a little shocked at how beautiful she looked. "What?" Her cheeks turned red, which he found even cuter.

"I said I'd take him home," Joe said, tripping over his own feet as he tried to reach them, then throwing his arm over Sebastian's shoulders to keep his balance, the beer can steady in his hand.

"No thanks dear, let me take care of him," she said, looking amused by the whole situation. "Let's go home Seb, your carriage is waiting for you."

[...]

"Aren't you going to eat?" he asked, already stuffing half of the pizza into his mouth.

"Um…not hungry," Hope said, noticing how greasy her fingers got when she touched the pizza. Her stomach turned.

“You said you were!” Sebastian continued to stare at her with a certain curiosity in his eyes, watching as Hope seemed to force herself down to her soda. "You can order something else if you want, you know, don't you?"

"I know, it's just…" She grimaced, her throat tight with that craving that had risen just at imagining it all inside her. “I'm not hungry.” Hope smiled sheepishly, pushing the nearly immaculate Coke can at him.

[...]

"Hope, you need to eat," Sebastian interjected, glaring at her worriedly. It was hard to keep up with her rollercoaster of emotions, as one day she was fine and eating, and another day she just went to the gym with a bottle of water and nothing else, or just went through the day without eating anything.

“I already ate.” She held up the empty plate in front of her, but he wasn't convinced, there were no more than three baked potatoes, half a piece of meat and a smear of rice. 'I'm not hungry.'

“You're going to pass out if you don't eat.” He dropped another potato from his plate, into hers. ‘Just one more, please.’

“Seb…” She grimaced.

“Please, for me.” Sebastian smiled, squeezing her hand in an affectionate way, as if making it clear he was there with her. ‘One more potato?

"Just one more," Hope said, cutting the potato and eating it piece by piece. He waited for her to eat it all before cutting another potato in half and placing it beside her fork, hoping she would do the same thing as before.

[...]

“Did you guys sleep together?” Mabel asked, lying on Hope's bed as she changed clothes, a little frustrated at how none of them seemed to fit.

When had she gained weight?

“Yeah, but just sleep.” Hope looked in the mirror again, disapproving of that reflection.

'Just sleep?? What? Are we talking about the same Sebastian? That tall, strong, tattooed guy who looks at you like you're the only person in front of him?'

"Don't be dramatic, Ma." She rolled her eyes at her friend. 'And yes, we just slept. I was tired, so was he, we watched movies and ended up sleeping.'

‘Has he not tried anything? Not even flirted?’ Hope turned to her, starting to worry about it. Should he have done? She had liked that for the first time a guy didn't invite her over to his house just to get into her pants.

Sebastian had been kind, as always, and he'd even waited for her to cook together, seeming to realize that this was the best way to get her to eat.

“What do you mean by that?” She despaired, and Mabel, who'd been friends with her for well over a decade, realized she'd been talking shit.

'Nothing's wrong, I just asked because he's so in love, and so are you, and a week ago you wouldn't stop complaining how he never made it clear if he wanted to kiss you or be your friend, so I thought maybe you had played your charm, you know? When you flip your hair back and lift your chin while you laugh.” Mabel laughed, and so did Hope, a little more relieved. ‘And what is it like to sleep with him? Does he sleep without a shirt or is he one of those with more modesty?’

"He sleeps in a T-shirt," Hope said, turning back to the closet and pulling more pants from the pile of clothes. "And he talks in his sleep, it's really cute."

“You're so in love.” Mabel looked as amused as ever by that, and Hope thanked her for having her back turned because now her cheeks caught fire. "It's been a long time since I last saw you like this, we should celebrate."

'Do not be stupid! I'm not in love.” Hope tucked herself inside her sweater, glad the weather allowed her to go back to hiding under the wool.

[nosfearatus]

So I've been thinking through the rewrite I had in mind for open heart and I've decided to put it together chapter by chapter. I might make it into some kind of fanfiction later, but for now I just want to get the outline down.

Chapter 1: Of Dolphins and Sharks

You are an emergency medicine intern at Boston's premier teaching hospital, Edenbrook. The emergency thorectomy occurs as in the original but when the nurses dreamily sigh over Ethan Ramsey, MC asks if that name's supposed to mean something to them, which starts off the running joke of people asking if MC practiced medicine in the woods, which, no, MC just doesn't care to keep up with these doctors outside of any research they've done. MC heads to get changed and encounters Bryce, a neurosurgical intern, and Jackie, an infectious disease intern, mostly sticking to the original, and they all head to the atrium together for orientation. MC is unfamiliar with Harper Emery, but Bryce mentions one of her more famous contributions to a medical journal and MC recognizes her by that.

Then MC meets their senior resident, Zaid Mirani, he's a bit of a jerk but it's easy to read that he genuinely cares about his interns. Throughout the day MC also meets several other doctors when helping emergency patients settle into other wings of the hospital. Sienna is the intern responsible for a kid in the pediatrics wing that MC helped reduce a fracture on and MC immediately notices how kind and warm Sienna is. Elijah is an oncology intern that MC meets when the two of them get lost and are both conveniently looking for the same cancer patient, who is typically an outpatient but was admitted after getting violently ill at work and was brought into the emergency room by handsome and kind paramedic Rafael Aveiro. Landry is a pathology intern who MC meets when running some blood samples from a patient to the lab and he mentions how he looks up to Ethan Ramsey, while MC offhandedly mentions that maybe meeting your heroes isn't a good thing, Ramsey enters the lab and acknowledges MC but not Landry, a fact that awes Landry and makes MC uncomfortable.

The gem scene in chapter 1 is a 15 gem scene where you can just hang out with your new friend group in the cafeteria at lunch and get to know each of them better and learn why they became doctors. You also realize that you guys are really good as friends and decide to move in together, this unlocks the penthouse apartment because you guys jump on it ASAP. It's sweet and friendly while also providing the premium housing without having to resort to underhanded tactics or selling your friend's services. Immediately after lunch MC is getting some menial filing done when the ER is suddenly thrown into pandemonium as a scuffle erupts. Chapter ends.

[junggoku]

(Don’t) Say My Name - Ethan Ramsey x f!MC

book: Open Heart

pairing: Ethan Ramsey x f!MC (Nina Valentine)

word count: 2,513

summary: No, Nina did not think she was working too much. No, she is not that tired. No, she is fine. Really. She’s fine. (*narrator voice* She was not, in fact, fine)

A/N: Okay guys, just take this. I have no idea what this is, but I made a promise to get this out there and I finally finished it. I’ve been working on this for about a month now and honestly, I’m kinda proud of it. I’m proud that I managed to finish it at least. HELLO MY DEBUT AS A FANFIC WRITER MUAHA. Jk, but seriously. Enjoy! Also, let me know if you wanna be added to my tagslist? I’m not sure if I’m gonna write often but I figured I should throw it out there anyway.

Rainy weather always brought with it a certain restlessness in the air. There was something about the rain that made her lose focus, distracted as it falls and showers the earth. With her head resting in her hand, her attention was directed towards the windows in the cafeteria, watching as raindrops patter and hit the side of the glass. Her eyes tracked the movement of one particular drop, following as it slid down the smooth surface until it disappeared over the edge. 

Dr. Nina Valentine leaned back in her chair with a sigh, taking her elbow off the table and turning to witness the smattering of doctors and nurses inside the cafeteria at this hour. It was later in the afternoon at Edenbrook and she had been pouring over a patient file in an attempt to distract herself from the bone-aching exhaustion seeping in from working 48 hours straight. In between putting her five hours at the free clinic earlier, studying up on diseases for the diagnostics team, and checking up on her regular patients, Nina was about two breaths away from falling asleep atop her file on one Ms. Rebecca Pope.

With a scrape of her chair, she pushed her hands on the table and stood up, gathering all her materials and drifting back out into the hallways of a bustling hospital. Making her way over to one of the nurses’ stations where a small collection of interns had congregated, Nina noticed the head of her own intern standing on to the side alone, brows furrowed as she focused intensely on a patient’s chart. 

“Anything interesting on there, Ortega?” 

With a start, Esme looked up, her eyes wide for a split second before schooling her features. 

“Not particularly, no,” Huffing, the intern lowered the chart, fixing her eyes on Nina. As the resident reached the counter of the station and set her stuff down, she could feel Esme’s gaze sticking, and glanced up at her intern, an eyebrow raised in question. 

“What?” 

“You look like the walking dead,” Esme states flatly, zeroing in on the deep circles under Nina’s eyes, purplish bruises broadcasting to everyone exactly how many hours of sleep she got—or did not get—in the past couple of days. 

“Gee, thanks. Mind you, I think it’s a great look for me,” 

“No, seriously. You look like you’re about to fall over. Do all residents sport eyebags like that or is that just a you thing?” 

Rolling her eyes, Nina doesn’t respond as she turns her attention back to some paperwork on the desk. Esme sidles up, and steals a quick glance down at the files and journals Nina had placed on the counter. “Stuff for the diagnostics team?” 

“Yeah. Gotta turn myself into a walking disease encyclopedia if I’m gonna be able to do my job,” Nina sighs as Esme pulls out an article on gastrointestinal viruses, ignoring the group of interns that was still hovering nearby, a couple of them glancing over at them curiously. The last few hours are starting to get to her as Nina feels herself slipping a fraction, her eyelids growing heavier as she stands. Her workload had grown significantly, something that she already knew and expected, and while it was challenging to keep up with, thinking about the patients she can help—can still help for who knows how much longer—kept her moving. 

Esme flips through some of the pages in the article, “Man, seriously. How do you do it? I’m getting second hand exhaustion just from looking at this.”

The corners of her mouth quirked as she allowed herself to take a breath. “I’m not sure I’m even really doing it.”

It’s getting harder to focus. She’s been putting off sleep so often these days that she knows she’s not going to be able to stand upright for much longer, but she couldn’t afford to. Edenbrook’s situation loomed in her mind so much recently it was hard for her to sleep without thinking about all the patients she could still help if she was at the hospital. 

Preparing to head back to check on another one of her patients, Nina started to turn around. She miscalculated though, moving too fast. Esme’s voice rang out in mild alarm, “Hey-”

It all faded to black.

----

“Is she gonna be okay?” Sienna glanced over at Nina, eyebrows furrowed in worry. Her friend was snuggled up in what looked like three layers of blankets, an almost blissful expression on her face. The light sleep medication was setting in, Nina’s nerves stilled and numbed. Sienna knew her friend had been working late hours and forgoing sleep more often lately, but didn’t notice just how much of a toll it had taken until Nina collapsed, head burning with a high fever. 

“She’ll be alright. She’s still running a bit high in body temperature, but with some rest she should be good as new.”    

With that the doctor walked out, leaving the residents as they all peered at their friend, now snoring lightly without a care in the world. Jackie shook her head, a strand of hair falling into her eyes, “I should’ve noticed. That kid we babysat a few weeks ago saw it right away and even then I didn’t pay attention.” 

“Not your fault. We all should’ve said something. We know how she gets about patients,” Bryce sighed. 

“We shouldn’t be doing this right now anyways. Let’s go and let her sleep,” Casting one more concerned glance at Nina, Elijah slowly wheeled out of the room, the others trailing closely behind. A soft click of the door closing and the world was bathed in quiet once more. 

The air settled, a strip of the moonlight trickled in and Nina opened her eyes, releasing a breath, and tilting her head to look out the slits in the window. 

Raising a hand to her forehead, she continued peering out, a small frown crossing her soft features. Stupid. How stupid of her to end up passing out. And from not getting enough sleep? This was the last thing she needed. Feeling annoyed at herself, the brunette huffed and closed her eyes again. The sooner she rested, the quicker she could get back to her patients. 

Admittedly, being in a bed again felt nice. Good for her neck at least, to not have to nap on the stiff boards in the on-call room. Allowing the numbness from the medications to kick in, she willed herself to fall asleep and relaxed her muscles. It was pleasant, to be honest. Letting her nerves and senses be dulled for once. It’s been ages since she was able to shut down her brain. Everything had been in hyperfocus mode in the past month. 

She needs to be better if she’s going to be helping anyone, if she’s going to save Edenbrook. Her sluggish thoughts are interrupted though, as the sound of the door click signaled a new arrival in her room. Assuming it was one of the nurses, Marlene, coming to check on her, Nina kept her tired eyes shut, “Mar-”

“Nina.”

A pause. It’s in moments like these where Nina swears the world slows down just a little, everything suspended as time lulls for a brief second, like an intake of breath. And while her mother always told her she was a bit dramatic and a bit of a romantic, Nina would argue that she never felt these kinds of sensations, had these kinds of moments and these thoughts before in her life. Not quite in this way. Not until she came to Edenbrook. Not until him. 

Even in her befuddled state, she realized how sappy she sounded in her head. The meds must be getting to me. In this condition, she might have been a little too honest. 

The way he said her name created a throb in her chest, bringing up an emotion she refused to acknowledge at the moment. Still, she was aware enough to hear something else in his voice. Try as he might to control it, there was a hint of anger there.

“Ah. Dr. Ramsey. To what...” Another pause, “...do I owe the pleasure?” Cracking open her eyes, Nina found the tall figure of Ethan Ramsey by the door, his arms crossed over his chest, face carefully blank. 

Even in the low lighting of the room, Nina could see him scanning up and down her frame to make sure she was alright. Ice blue eyes finally connected with warm brown ones and she willed herself not to look away. That bothersome part of her mind started to tickle, but she quickly opted to ignore it. 

“I was told you fainted and landed yourself here from exhaustion. Why didn’t you say anything?” 

The junior fellow broke eye contact, staring straight ahead at the potted plant on the dresser across from her bed. “I just...it didn’t really matter. I was fine.”

“Clearly, you were not fine, since you’re now lying here in a hospital room.” Voice rising, Ethan crossed the rest of the way over, coming to stand right beside her bed. “If your workload was too much, you should’ve spoken up about it. I understand you wanted to keep working, but you’re not helping anyone in your state right n-”” 

“You nag too much, Dr. Ramsey.”

“...Excuse me?” 

Rolling her eyes up all the way to the ceiling, Nina turned her head towards the window again and tried to drown out the deep facets of his voice. “I passed out from being too sleepy and the first thing you do when seeing me is to nag. How sweet of you.” She was growing frustrated for some reason, the medication making it difficult for her to control her emotions now. Would it kill him to be honest for once? 

Ethan’s mouth was opened to respond, but she didn’t let him, her words spilling out. “You always know just what to say. Really. It’s very cute of you. Are you a pine tree? Cause you’re just full of sap, aren’t you,” 

A moment of silence as Ethan waited for her to finish.   

“...That’s a maple tree.”

“Oh,” The brunette frowned. Was it? She really needed to sleep soon. 

They descended into another bout of awkward silence. Glancing back at her boss, she found him peering down at the ground, scratching the back of his neck. In a quiet voice he broke the silence, “I’m sorry.” 

Deflated, the junior fellow shook her head slowly. “No. I’m sorry. I got mad for no reason. Thanks for coming to check on me.” Being around him always made her feel a multitude of emotions, but it was worse in her current situation. She didn’t have her usual self-control nor her filter and the fuzziness creeping at the back of her head told her she wasn’t going to actually remember this conversation the following morning. ‘Least I won’t remember calling him a pine tree like a dumbass. 

Eyes softening a fraction, Ethan spoke again, voice pleasantly gentle this time, “When I heard you collapsed all of a sudden, I was...it was concerning to say the least.” His hand came up to her forehead, lightly brushing away her bangs. His fingers were cool and felt pleasant against the warmth of her skin. Staring up at him, the soft stream of the moonlight accentuated his sharp, handsome features, and her heart stuttered again. 

The furrow in between his eyebrows was irritating her. She hated when he made that face. Like he was disappointed in himself. For not having caught on sooner. As if any of this was his fault.  

“I’m okay now though,” Fixing a smile that probably wasn’t all too convincing, Nina tried to reassure him. “And besides, this was on me. If I can’t handle it I’ll let you know next time. Alright?” Stop making that face. 

He didn’t say anything for a while, seemingly content to just gaze down at her, as though he were trying to find something. Sadly, the brunette wasn’t in any state to try deciphering it now. His fingers had moved lower, caressing her cheek softly. “I’m sorry again for raising my voice earlier. I guess I was just frustrated you weren’t looking after yourself. You make it very easy to nag at you.” 

Feeling slightly indignant at that, Nina pursed her lips into a small pout, but she quickly sagged again, too tired to reply in her usual spirit. Instead, she tried focusing on the feel of his fingers brushing on her skin. 

“It’s alright. Really. I’m sorry too. For snarking at you.”

“Mhmm. That was hurtful,” What looked like amusement lit up his eyes, a minute smirk playing at the corners of his lips, “You even tried calling me a maple tree.” 

“To be fair, you’re as prickly as a pine tree. So I guess it still works.”

Chuckling, Ethan shook his head a little, a quiet fondness crossing his expression as he watched the junior fellow’s eyes begin to droop. 

“I should let you get your rest. It’d be a waste if you didn’t use this time to catch up on sleep,” With that he began to move away, retracting his hand and Nina already missed it. “Goodnight, Nina.” He whispered. As Ethan began to turn around and take his leave, the brunette let the silence linger for a second before speaking up one more time, voice so soft she wasn’t sure he’d be able to hear, “Please don’t say it like that.” 

A pause. There were so many pauses tonight. 

“...What?” Bemused, Ethan spun back around. 

Nina avoided looking at him, keeping her eyes on the ceiling. “Whenever you say my name like that...it hurts.” He’d be able to pick up the rest of what she didn’t say. It hurts to hear you call my name like that. Like you’re saying everything and nothing all at once. Like it’s a wish you want desperately but can never grant. Like you lo-  She blinked, turning her head slightly to him.    

A deep sadness flashes across Ethan’s face, reflecting her own yearning back at her. He audibly released a breath, piecing together what he wants to say. What he can and should say. 

“Nina, I...” It’s always the same game between them. 

“...Yeah. I know.” 

With that, Nina adjusted herself to at last allow sleep to take over, pulling up her blankets to her chin and shutting her eyes a final time, “Goodnight, Ethan.” In her growing drowsiness, she could hear faint footsteps crossing back to her, but she didn’t open her eyes again, sleep quickly overtaking her senses. 

An undefined emotion tickled at the back of her head and her chest throbbed again. She already had an idea of what that feeling was. But tonight, she didn’t want to think about it. She wasn’t ready to give it its proper name. All she wanted tonight was to dream about blue eyes and low chuckles. In her dreams, she could feel a soft brush of her temple, the faintest touch of his lips. It’ll never really be enough, but tonight it was everything.

Fin.

tagslist: @openheart12​ @ethandaddyramsey​ @noboundariesplease​ @ethanramseysgirl​ @sekizincimektup​ @drethanramslay​    

[papermoonloveslucy]

LUCY & BEDROCK! (TWIST! TWIST!)

Lucille Ball & “The Flintstones” 

“The Flintstones” was TV’s first primetime animated sitcom. It was produced by Hannah-Barbara animation and ran on ABC TV from 1960 to 1966. Following the show's cancellation, a film called The Man Called Flintstone, a musical spy caper that parodied James Bond, was released that same year. The show was revived in the early 1970s and several different series and made-for-TV movies. The original show also was adapted into a live-action film in 1994, and a prequel, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, which followed in 2000.

Although not officially recognized by its creators, the show bears a very strong resemblance to TV’s “The Honeymooners”.  Fred and Wilma Flintstone are reminiscent of Ralph and Alice Kramden, and they have best friends and neighbors Betty and Barney Rubble that are very similar to Ed and Trixie Norton.  The original “Honeymooners” (1955-56) also was spun-off into future iterations, including musical episodes, just like “The Flintstones.”  

Lucille Ball admired “Honeymooners” creator and Jackie Gleason and Gleason even played Ralph Kramden on “Here’s Lucy.”  Ball also worked with the show’s other stars: Art Carney (in “Happy Anniversary and Goodbye” and “What Now Catherine Curtis”), Audrey Meadows (in “Mother of the Bride” on “Life With Lucy”) and even Jane Kean, who played Trixie in the color “Honeymooners” (who was seen on a 1966 episode of “The Lucy Show”).  

CAST CONNECTIONS 

Jean Vander Pyl (Wilma Flintstone / Pebbles) worked with Lucille Ball on several episodes of “My Favorite Husband” radio show in 1948. 

Alan Reed (Fred Flintstone) played a train station luncheon counter attendant in “Lucy Visits The White House” (TLS S1;E23) in 1963, while also playing Fred Flintstone on ABC.  He later appeared on an episode of Desi Arnaz’s “Mothers-in-Law”. 

Bea Benadaret (Betty Rubble) was one of Lucille Ball’s favorite performers. She played Iris Atterbury on “My Favorite Husband” and was Ball’s first choice to play Ethel Mertz.  Instead, she played Miss Lewis in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15). 

Mel Blanc (Barney Rubble) was a master of voices best known for Bugs Bunny. He also worked extensively with Jack Benny, once with Lucille Ball. He did two films with Lucille Ball: The Fuller Brush Girl (1950) and G.I. Journal (1944).  In 1969, Blanc did some ADR (dialogue replacement) work on “Here’s Lucy.” 

Hal Smith (Various Voices) is probably best known as Otis the Drunk on “The Andy Griffith Show”. He appeared with Lucille Ball in the 1963 film Critic’s Choice and did three episodes of “The Lucy Show” and one of “Here’s Lucy.”

Howard Morris (Various Voices) played Howard Coe in “Lucy and the Golden Greek” (TLS S4;E2) in 1965. 

Allan Melvin (Various Voices) is best remembered as Sam the Butcher on “The Brady Bunch” and Barney Hefner on “All in the Family.” In 1956, as Corporal Henshaw on “Sergeant Bilko,” he did was seen with Ball in “Bilko’s Ape Man.” Melvin and Ball also appeared together on the 8th Anniversary of “The Ed Sullivan Show” In 1954. 

Harvey Korman (The Great Gazzoo / Various Voices) is best remembered for his work with Carol Burnett on “The Carol Burnett Show”, several times with Lucille Ball. He also appeared on “The Lucy Show” three times. 

Janet Waldo (Mrs. Slaghoople / Hedda Rocker / Various Voices) is best remembered for voicing Judy Jetson on another Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, “The Jetsons” (1962-87). She played Peggy “Keep Jiggling” Dawson on “I Love Lucy” and Lucy Carmichael’s sister Marge on “The Lucy Show.” 

Frank Nelson (Rockbind / Rocky Stone / Various Clerks) did two recurring characters on “I Love Lucy” - Freddie Fiillmore and Ralph Ramsey, in addition to other characters. His distinctive voice was heard on “My Favorite Husband” and he made one appearance, as the harried train conductor, on “The Lucy Show.” 

June Foray (Granny / Nurses) was one of the most famous voice artists in Hollywood, most famous for Rocket J. Squirrel. Coincidentally, Warner Brothers recruited Foray to replace Bea Benadaret as Granny in their cartoons. On “I Love Lucy” she provided the bark of Fred the dog. 

Paula Winslowe (Mrs. Slate / Various Voices) played Mrs. Martha Conklin on “Our Miss Brooks” opposite Gale Gordon. On “I Love Lucy” she was one of the passengers on the S.S. Constitution in “Second Honeymoon” (ILL S5;E14) and a patient (in wheelchair, above) in “Lucy Plays Florence Nightingale” (TLS S2;E14). She was the voice of Bambi’s mother in the 1942 Disney film Bambi.

Verna Felton (Pearl Slaghoople) received two Emmy nominations for her role in the Desilu series “December Bride,” playing Hilda Crocker from 1955 to 1959. She did two episodes of “I Love Lucy,” including playing Lucy’s stern maid, Mrs. Porter. Felton voiced many characters for Disney. 

Howard McNear (Doctor) played Mr. Crawford, Little Ricky’s music teacher on “I Love Lucy.” McNear went on to play Floyd the Barber on “The Andy Griffith Show” from 1961 to 1967, filmed on the Desilu backlot. He was also seen in Lucy and Desi’s 1953 film The Long, Long Trailer.

Herb Vigran (Cop) was one of the busiest character actors in Hollywood. He played Jule, Ricky Ricardo’s music agent on two episodes of “I Love Lucy” in addition to playing movie publicist Hal Sparks in “Lucy is Envious” (ILL S3;23). He was seen in the Lucy-Desi film The Long, Long Trailer and six episodes of “The Lucy Show” - all as doctors!

Ginny Tyler (Daisy) voiced Clementine the sheep in “Lucy Buys a Sheep” (TLS S1;E5) and the bird voices in “Lucy Gets the Bird” (TLS S3;E12) and one episode of “Here’s Lucy.”  She did the voice of the sheep in Disney’s 1964 hit Mary Poppins. Although she died in 2012, her voice can still be heard in the chorus of birds outside The Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Willard Waterman (Gus Gravel) was a versatile voice actor who appeared on hundreds of radio shows in the 1930s and 40s. He is probably best remembered for playing “The Great Gildersleeve” on both radio and TV.  He was seen on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy and The Plumber” (above) and “Lucy the Rain Goddess” (S4;E15).  

Jerry Hausner (Clyde) was best remembered for playing Jerry, Ricky’s agent on “I Love Lucy” (including the pilot). He also did one appearance on “The Lucy Show.”

Sam Edwards (Agent) played the star-struck bellboy in “Lucy Meets the Queen” (ILL S5;E15). He was also the voice of the adult Thumper in Bambi (1942).

Sandra Gould (Various Voices) was best remembered as Gladys Kravitz on “Bewitched”.  She made two appearances on “I Love Lucy” and one (above) on “The Lucy Show.”  

Ann-Margret (Ann Margrock) was one of several celebrity guest stars to be honored with character on “The Flintstones”. She was also a guest star (as herself) on “Here’s Lucy” in 1970 and had appeared on Ann-Margret’s 1969 special. 

Elizabeth Taylor (Pearl Slaghoople in The Flintstones live action film, 1994) was one of Hollywood’s most glamorous and popular stars when she guest starred with husband Richard Burton on “Here’s Lucy” in 1970.  It is odd, then, that she was cast as Pearl Slaghoople, a character that was previously considered frumpy. 

Paul Winchell (Umpire / Thief / Reporter in "Wind Up Wilma” - 1981) was best known as a ventriloquist, but he was also an accomplished character actor who appeared in two episodes of “The Lucy Show” and two of “Here’s Lucy.” 

Arte Johnson (”Flintstone Kids” - 1989) was best known as a cast member on “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In”.  He also did an episode of “Here’s Lucy” as an eccentric bird watcher. 

George O’Hanlon (”Flintstone Kids” - 1989) was best remembered as the voice of George Jetson on “The Jetsons,” another hit Hanna-Barbera cartoon. On “I Love Lucy” he was one of two actors to play Charlie Appleby. 

"I Love Lucy” and “The Flintstones”

First, Lucille Ball bears more than a passing physical resemblance to Wilma Flintstone. In “The Flintstones” it is clear that Fred is the leading character and most stories revolve around Fred and Barney, rather than Lucy and Ethel. The tried and true formula of a leading couple and the best friends / neighbors as the secondary characters is used in “I Love Lucy”, “The Honeymooners” and “The Flintstones”.  

Here are a few more tangible connections:

The animated Lucy and Desi that opened pre-syndication airings of “I Love Lucy” were created by the Hanna-Barbera unit at MGM. 

And both shows were sponsored by cigarette companies; “I Love Lucy” by Philip Morris and “The Flintstones” by Winston.  

Wilma and Betty trying to sneak into the Water Buffalo convention in "Ladies Night at the Lodge" (1964) while disguised as men was very close to Lucy and Ethel disguising themselves as male reporters to infiltrate Ricky’s daddy shower in “Ricky Has Labor Pains” (1953). 

The plot of “Operation Switchover” (1964) recycles the premise and many of the same plot elements of “Job Switching” (1952) especially with the domestic disasters on Ricky and Fred's end: scorched clothes while ironing, a fallen cake, and overflowing rice on the stove. 

Like Lucy Ricardo, Wilma Flintstone’s pregnancy was incorporated into the storyline. It was originally thought that like Lucy, Wilma would have a boy, but merchandisers pointed out that there were more opportunities for products for girls, so Pebbles was born. Like Lucille Ball, Jean Vander Pyl (who voiced Wilma) was pregnant at the time of recording and gave birth to her son on the day "The Blessed Event" originally aired on February 22, 1963.

Fred and Barney undertake a rehearsal for the big moment, including Betty rehearsing telephoning the doctor, just like Ricky and the Mertz’s do for Lucy when ‘the time has come’. 

Wilma seems to get cravings for unusual foods including hot fudge and sardines that Fred dutifully supplies, just like Ricky did for Lucy. 

In the father’s waiting room, a man worries his wife might deliver more than one baby, just like Mr. Stanley (Charles Lane) on “I Love Lucy.”

In “Operation Switchover” a character named Hedda Rocker from Good Cavekeeping Magazine is obviously inspired by Hedda Hopper, the famous gossip columnist who appeared on two episodes of “I Love Lucy” as herself. 

Arthur Murray, who’s innovate dance instruction method and dance studios became iconic, is parodied on “The Flintstones” as Arthur Quarry.  In a 1965 episode, he was named Arthury Murrayrock. 

In “Lucy Meets the Mustache” (LDCH S3;E3) Lucy wants to open a sealed letter so she tries a inserting a knitting needle under the flap, a method she says she saw in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The scene is underscored with “Funeral March of a Marionette” by Charles Gounod, which served as the theme tune of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”. On “The Flintstones” he is parodied as Alvin Brickrock. 

Hollyrock star Rock Quarry is a tribute to Rock Hudson, but talks like Gary Cooper.  Hudson guest-starred on an episode of “I Love Lucy” set in Palm Springs. Previously, Lucy dressed as Gary Cooper (complete with his trademark ‘yup’) to fool near-sighted Caroline Appleby. 

An episode titled “The Soft Touchables” is modeled after Desilu’s hit gangster series “The Untouchables.” “The Lucy Show” parodied their own show in an episode titled “Lucy The Gun Moll” (TLS S4;E25) in 1966 starring “The Untouchables Cast” but using different character names. 

Wilma and Betty’s favorite television show “Peek-A-Boo Camera” catches Fred and Barney acting silly in a 1963 episode that is clearly modeled after TV’s “Candid Camera” created by Allen Funt. In 1971, “Lucy and the Candid Camera” (HL S4;E14) also featured Funt in hidden camera shot plot. Lucy Carmichael also get involved in a hidden camera television show in “Lucy and the Beauty Doctor” (TLS S3;E24).  In that show, the program was called “The Boiling Point.”

The hit Broadway and movie musical movie My Fair Lady inspired many satires (some in name only) including “My Fair Freddy” (1966) and “My Fair Lucy” (TLS S3;E20) in 1965! 

In “Fred Flintstone Woos Again” (1961) Wilma convinces Fred to renew their wedding vows after realizing the official who originally married them wasn’t fully licensed!  On “I Love Lucy” Lucy realized that their wedding was also invalid when she found an error on their license. They go to the spot they first wed to renew their vows, just like “The Flintstones”. 

In “Dial ‘S’ for Suspicion” (1962) Wilma's devotion to a murder mystery novel causes Fred to wonder if Wilma is trying to away with him. In “Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying To Do Away With Her” (ILL S1;E4) Lucy's devotion to a murder mystery novel causes her to wonder if Ricky is trying to do away with her!

When Wilma can’t keep up with the housework, she hires a maid in “Wilma the Maid” (1963). The same situation happened in the Ricardo home in “Lucy Hires a Maid” (ILL S2;E23). While the Flintstone’s maid is an earthy Italian woman named Rockabrigida, the Ricardo’s maid is a humorless woman named Mrs. Porter. Coincidentally, Mrs. Porter was played by Verna Felton, who voices Pearl Slaghoople on “The Flintstones”. 

When superhero “Superstone” is hired for a birthday party but can’t make it - Fred takes his place. On “I Love Lucy” when Superman is promised for Little Ricky’s party, but can’t make it, Lucy takes his place - nearly! 

In “How To Pick A Fight With Your Wife” (1966) spats between spouses escalate to such a degree that the couples split: Fred and Barney are thrown together as roommates, while Wilma and Betty are bunking together at the other house. In “Vacation from Marriage” (ILL S2;E6) much the same thing occurs between the Ricardos and the Mertzes!

The real comparison with Lucy and Desi is something Joe Barbera could have only hoped for in 1960 — enduring popularity. Lucy is still justifiably loved by hoards of fans and “I Love Lucy” is on the air somewhere. “The Flintstones” remains a part of the popular culture, 60 years after the show’s debut.   

[casey-v]

Part 2: “Talk to him!”

Ethan x Casey

Warning: language, a lot of misery, death

Word count: 2K

Disclaimer: characters and part of the story belong to PB

Part 1: “...ending this...”

-------------------------------------------------

Donahue’s was packed with people enjoying a drink after a hard day’s work. Everywhere there was laughter, joyful shouting and chatting. In the midst of this cheerfulness some guests didn’t fit in. At the bar sat a lonely figure, gulping down one scotch after another, and five fellow doctors sat at a table, mourning a dear friend. After a long silence in which everyone was just staring into their empty drinks, Bryce shook his head. “I can’t believe it all happened so quickly. It’s so unfair. Sometimes this job really sucks.” Jackie nodded. “Kyra was always so vibrant. You just can’t imagine that she’s no longer with us. Remember when we went skydiving……” Casey zoomed out of the conversation. She was supposed to say a few words at the funeral. That seemed to her to be an impossible task. Many memories of Kyra went through her head…

Meanwhile Sienna had other things on her mind. She kept looking back to the bar with a concerned expression, where Ethan argued with Reggie about another refill. She turned to face Casey, who was sitting next to her and said, only for Casey to hear “Talk to him!”

Casey was wrenched out of her thoughts and it took her a second to understand what Sienna was talking about. She watched Ethan clinging to his stool and she felt a stabbing pain. “I did talk to him, he refused to talk to me. There’s nothing more to say.” “But look at him, he’s miserable.” “Sienna, whose side are you on? He has made me miserable for months, he has to deal with the problems he has caused himself.” 

Sienna didn’t let go so easily. “Oh, come on. You know exactly that he didn’t intentionally cause ‘those problems’, as you call them. Love just happens. And circumstances don’t make it easy for him. That just wouldn’t be him, to be with you and not worry about the consequences.”

Casey sighed. “I know. The way he takes everything seriously, the way he handles things, the Ethan Ramsey way of doing things, that’s part of why I love him. But that’s why we’re not together. It’s so disturbing.” She shook her head and got up. “But I can’t face this right now. I have to focus on Kyra’s funeral. That’s hard enough.”

And a little louder for everybody to hear she added “I’m outta here. Anybody coming?”

They all nodded, got up and made their way to the exit. Casey passed the bar quickly whereas Sienna stopped in front of Reggie and subtly pointed to Ethan. “You should call Dr. Banerji. He’s the only one he will listen to.” Reggie’s gaze went to Casey exiting the bar. “What about your friend? They seem close.” Sienna grimaced. “Bad idea. Very bad idea!” Reggie nodded sympathetically and Sienna left to join the others outside.

That night sleep didn’t come easy to Casey. The events of the day kept swirling around in her head. When she finally drifted away, sleep was restless and full of crazy dreams.

“Mrs. Martinez, the Chief of Medicine, called Casey to her office. When she entered, she saw Mrs. Martinez sitting behind her desk and on a chair next to her Declan Nash smiled warmly at Casey. Mrs. Martinez accused her of having killed Naveen with a wrong treatment. “I can’t watch this any longer. You have killed more patients than cured. I want you to leave this hospital immediately.” Seeing the shock on Casey’s face Declan came over to her, took her in his arms and put a kiss on her cheek. “Never mind, honey. You can always work as my secretary.”

Casey tried to scream but no sound left her throat. She pushed Declan away and stormed out of the office only to bump into Ethan and Kyra, who giggled and held hands. Sienna approached her and laughed at her horrified expression. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know. They’ve been dating for months.” Casey turned around the corner. The hallway was blocked with people: patients, doctors, nurses. In front of everyone else stood Dolores, a little boy next to her. He pointed at Casey. “ Mommy, this woman killed my frog!”

Everybody was staring and shouting at her. She turned around and tried to run but her feet just wouldn’t obey.”

The angry voices still ringing in her head she woke up, exhausted, sweaty, and relieved.

Then it hit her, reality wasn’t any better.

Trying to get back to sleep would be pointless. She got up, showered for a long time, and then tried to focus on some medical journals, but all the time Ethan and Kyra were on her mind. Eventually she gave up and went to work.

On her way to a patient Casey was about to pass the nurses’ station where three nurses were gossiping. When she heard the name “Dr. Ramsey”, she slowed her pace and hid around a corner to eavesdrop. “Sick? He’s never been sick in ten years.” “Deborah told me, she saw him at Donahue’s last night, totally boozed. Reggie had to call Dr. Banerji to take him home.” “Doesn’t sound like him. And Deborah likes to exaggerate.” “Then why did he call in sick? Maybe it has something to do with Kyra’s death? Were they a thing?” “I don’t think so. They didn’t seem close. Besides, I always thought that he has something going on with Dr. Valentine?”

Casey had heard enough. She went on and the nurses instantly changed the subject when they saw her coming round the corner. She didn’t even notice. Her head was spinning. She felt the bitter urge to go over to Ethan’s apartment and take him into her arms to comfort him and soothe his misery. She had already helped him treat a hangover once. It ended in passionate kisses. Her mind went back to that day and the night before, their first night together, the way he felt….

“Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Get yourself together. Focus on your patients. Dammit!” Casey worked her shift operating like a robot, without her usual passion. Everything around her seemed foggy. After long hours of work, she went home to another night without sleep.

On the day of the funeral Casey went to the hospital early. She checked on all her patients and reassigned urgent cases to Ines. She had hoped to keep her mind busy, but her thoughts always went back to the piece of paper in her pocket.

‘They say that the people you love are never really gone.’

That was all there was so far, and she really didn’t know what else to say at the service. Everything in her head was still in chaos, feelings about Ethan and Kyra mixed, her mind never came to rest. She felt exhausted and tired, hadn’t slept in days.

When it was time to leave, she made her way to the locker room. She would meet Sienna, Jackie, Elijah and Bryce outside, but first she wanted to change into a black dress she had brought with her this morning. Deep in thoughts, with her head lowered, she walked down the hallway when she sensed someone walking towards her. She didn’t have to look up to know it was him. He was almost in front of her, so close she could smell his familiar cologne. Her knees began to tremble.

She hadn’t seen Ethan since the night at Donahue’s. He had tried to call her a few times and this morning she had received a short message.

“Can we talk?!? Pleeease!!!”

All of that was left unanswered. She didn’t dare to look at him now. When she finally lifted her eyes, she was tormented by the state of him: hair disheveled, eyes red, face pale. Pain, guilt and compassion made her stomach cringe. They locked eyes for just a moment then her gaze went back to the ground. She heard a pleading “Casey”, so quiet, that she wasn’t even sure he had really said it. Afraid her feet wouldn’t carry her any longer she mumbled “Good morning, Dr. Ramsey” and headed quickly to the locker room.

  Sitting down on a bench she cried bitterly. How was she supposed to go to Kyra’s funeral now and say a few words? She could barely stand straight. The door opened, and Bryce came in. He didn’t say a single word, he just sat down next to her and took her in his arms.

After a long time, he began to speak. “It’s not about Kyra, is it? It’s Ethan!”

Surprised Casey gazed at him. “What…I…how….?”

“I just saw you talking to him in the corridor, or rather not talking to him…” He smiled a little and wiped a few tears from her face.

“Bryce, I…” She seemed embarrassed, but Bryce gave her a comforting smile. “It’s OK, I’ve known for a long time.” To her questioning gaze he went on. “When you told me last year, that you can’t be with me because you have feelings for someone else, I watched you closely. And after your trip to Miami it was obvious. The way you talked to each other, the look on your face when he was around… When he went away to the Amazon you were a mess and now you left the diagnostics team and both of you run around like zombies. It’s not that hard to figure out the details.”

They remained silent for a moment. Then he added “He’s a jerk. He doesn’t deserve you!” Casey shook her head. “Please don’t do this. It’s complicated. He’s just trying to do the right thing. He is my boss after all, and he is worried about my career.” “I can’t believe you’re defending him”

She couldn’t either. She was using the same arguments she despised so much. But it didn’t feel right to talk badly about him in front of Bryce. She tried to change the subject a little bit. “Why have you never said anything?” He smiled ruefully and cleared his throat. “It’s one thing, to have suspicions. But to hear it from your mouth…”

It was written all over his face, that he still had feelings for her. Fresh tears started to drip as she pulled him into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry, Bryce. You’re my best friend, but…” “I know.”

They held each other for quite a while. Surprisingly, talking to Bryce had given her back a little of her strength and she was ready to face the funeral. “Come on, let’s go, or we will be late,” she said while getting up und turning to her locker. She quickly changed into her dress and grabbed her purse. When she sighed and hesitated, Bryce reached out for her. “You can do this. I’m here.” She took his hand and squeezed it. Together they went outside to meet their friends. They didn’t notice the attending in the entrance hall who watched them leave, holding hands.

 The rain begged to fall. The clouds darkened and swelled, as if they’re about to burst, but still they held back. Gazing up, Casey pleaded with them to break, to wash her away. But they continued their lonely drift overhead. She looked down. She was sitting in the front row of folding chairs on a patch of grass in the cemetery. Then the priest addressed her: “Did you want to say a few words?” Everyone’s eyes were on her, all of them wet with tears. All except hers. With the wind whistling, she stood up and stepped in front of the crowd. She glanced over at the casket beside her and started speaking with an unsteady voice.

“They say that the people you love are never really gone.” She swallowed and had to force herself to continue.

“But this feels wrong. Because if you lose someone you love …” Her voice broke.

A wave of emotion rocked her to the core. She couldn’t go any further. She wasn’t even sure if she was talking about Kyra or Ethan. She felt shattered and just hoped the earth would swallow her. When the rain set in, her tears fell as well. Unable to endure this any longer she started to run….

 (to be continued …)

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Spoiler alert) Sorry Bryce, you’re a great guy and I’m sure you could make Casey happy, it’s just not in the cards for you. I apologize for all the misery, but I think there has to be some drama and the feeling of losing Casey before Ethan can accept that he needs to be with her.

Part 3: “If anything happens to her...” (Everybody is looking for Casey)

Tags: @queencarb  @utterlyinevitable @schnitzelbutterfingers @nerdydinosaursweets 

[defschoice]

The Foreigner Part 3

Youngjae's POV 

Me, Yugyeom, and Bambam are taking care of Crystal until the other boys are back again, hopefully with Jaebeom. Bambam is currently in the shower and Yugyeom is trying to cook some dinner while I'm watching some TV to Crystal's mind off of everything that's going on and that's when I get a call from Jackson...

"Hey Jackson have you found him?" - I said walking a bit away from Crystal

"Yeah that's what I wanted to talk with you about..." - He said sounding scared

"What happened?" - I ask getting worried now as well

"The doctor called and said they have just gotten Jaebeom Hyung in and they want us to come as quick as possible" - He said when I could feel my eyes started to tear up

"Okay, we will be there in 10 minutes. Should we take Crystal with us?" - I asked trying to remain calm

"Idk, we don't know how bad his condition is but if you bring her one of us will have to stay outside with her" - He said as I just said okay and hung up.

I walked over to Yugyeom as Bambam came over as well.

"Jackson just called and Jaebeom is at the hospital. They don't know how bad his condition is but they want us to come as quick as possible, so I'm thinking if me and Bambam head off now then Yugyeom you can feed Crystal and then come afterward, okay?" I said as they nodded their heads when Crystal suddenly stood next to us.

"Is Jaebeom appa okay?" She asked looking at us with her big brown eyes.

"Appa needs our help right now, okay? So me and Bambam will have to go see him and in the meantime, Yugyeom will take good care of you, and then he will bring you to us later, okay princess?" She just nodded her head, I don't think she fully understands what's going on which is good.

Yugyeom's POV

As the boys left I was now alone with Crystal.

"Is appa dead?" Crystal said looking up at me tearing eyes.

"No no appa is alive, don't worry. He just needs a bit of advice from the other boys. I promise you will get to see him soon" I said as she now was sitting on my lap.

"We're going to eat some food and then we will leave to see appa okay?" I said as she just nodded her head.

She started eating some ramen and pork belly while I went to clean the kitchen bit.

"Are you done?" I asked looking at her as she nodded her head.

I walked with her in my arms down to my car.

"Why are we going to the hospital?" She asked tearing up again.

How do I explain this to her?

"Your appa has gotten a small injury but he's okay, don't worry," I said as we arrived and I took her out and we walked inside to be greeted by the other boys so was sitting and waiting.

"Where's Jinyoung?" She asked now fully crying as Jackson went up to take her into his arms.

"Shh it's okay, Jinyoung is in talking with the people who are going to make Jaebeom feel better," I said as she clung to my chest and nodded her head.

A short time after Jinyoung came out and a doctor and a nurse also came out.

"Hello I'm Doctor Jung and this is the Nurse. I want you guys to come with me for a second" He said as we all stood up and he saw Mi Cha with Jackson.

"I will have to kindly ask you to leave your child out here with our nurse as she can't come with you guys in," The doctor said as we looked nervously at each other.

"Sweetie, you'll have to wait out here for a bit, okay?" Jackson said placing her on the chair but she didn't seem to like that idea.

"I want to see appa!!" She screaming jumping up and down when she fell and started crying making a whole tantrum in the hallway.

"You have to wait out here with me and brothers and dad will be back before you know it" The nurse said holding her down as we were told to just go.

We followed the doctor down the hallway and then into a room where Jaebeom was laying hooked up to all kinds of machines. He didn't look good.

"As you can see he's badly injured. We did an x-ray on him to see that his arm is badly sprained and he has hit his head when he reached the ground" The doctor said as we looked at him just laying there breathing lightly.

"How did this happen?" Jackson asked looking at the doctor.

"He was very drunk when he came in and mumbled about the girl out there and cats before he then passed out" The doctor explained as Jinyoung walked over to take Jaebeom's hand.

"Oh Jaebeom..." he said looking at him.

"Is the girl out there his daughter?" The doctor asked.

"Yes, he adopted her a week ago," Jinyoung said smiling a bit while holding Jaebeom's hand.

"She seems to be a lovely girl. How old is she?" He asked looking at us.

"She's 10 but it's been a bit hard for her recently and everything is still a bit confusing for her," Youngjae said looking up at the doctor.

"Well, you can go back to her now if you want," The doctor said leaving the room.

As we came back she was sitting with a lollipop "Uncle Jackson look what I got!" She said running up to him as the nurse just smiled at her.

"Good thing that Yugyeom gave you dinner before you came here," I said kissing her cheek as she smiled leaning into my chest.

"She's an adorable girl. I was looking in her journal and wondering if we could take a few tests on her?" The nurse said as Jackson walked with the nurse.

Jackson's POV

I followed the nurse and walked with Crystal into a room that was decorated for kids.

"Have you seen her journal?" The nurse asked looking at me.

I shook my head as she handed me her journal.

"Name: Seo Yoona

Age: 10

Birthday: September 15th, 2010

Condition: A good and healthy girl but there are a few scars on her back that should be taken care off

Diseases: PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), suffers from anxiety due to abuse when she was younger

Relations: Mum, Dad, and older brother but she was taking away from at a young age"

I handed her the journal back as I just looked at Crystal and smiled.

"So should I just call you Crystal?" I asked as she nodded hiding in my chest.

"It's okay princess she's not going to hurt you," I said sitting her straight up on my lap.

"Okay Crystal I need you to lay on his bed so that I can check you properly," The nurse said as I lifted her up but she just nodded her head as a no.

"Is okay if I lay with her?" I asked looking at the nurse who allowed it.

I laid down on the bed but she still didn't want to come up to me.

"Sir is it okay if I show on you what's going to happen?" She asked as I nodded my head.

"Crystal, look here. I'm going to show you what is going to happen. Okay?" The nurse said as I took my shirt off so she could do it properly.

She started checking my heartbeat which seemed to be fine. Then she took my pulse which was a little high.

"Sir, are you stressed or anything?" She asked looking worried at me.

"I'm a little nervous for my friend," I said as she just nodded her head.

Then she went on to feel my stomach and everything seemed harmless until she reached my hips.

"I'll have to look more into this later on," She said with a little smirk.

"Jackson it looks as to that you're healthy," She said reading and writing in my journal.

"Crystal it's your turn now," I said lifting her up on the bed as the nurse started checking her while I got a shirt on again.

A few minutes after she was done.

"See that wasn't so bad, was it?" I said smiling at Crystal.

"Okay if you go out to the other boys then I'll just talk a bit with the nurse," I said as she nodded her head and ran out to the other boys.

"Now we can start the real check-up," she said smirking slightly while preparing some stuff.

"Jackson if you would take your clothes off and lay on the bed," She said I started removing my clothes.

Jinyoung's POV

After a while, Crystal came running out of a room where to take her up on my lap.

"Where's Jackson?" I asked looking at her.

"He's talking with the nurse," She said leaning her head on my chest yawning.

It's getting late I think it's best if she comes home again and gets some sleep.

"Mark and Youngjae can't you take Crystal home and make sure she gets some sleep?" I said as they nodded and Mark went over to her up in his arms.

Sometime after Mark and Youngjae had left two doctors came walking out with Jaebeom supporting him on each side.

"I will get him a wheelchair and then he's ready to go home. He just needs to take it to slow the next few days" The doctor said leaving for then to come back with a wheelchair.

"Have a save trip home" He said as we started walking when Jaebeom suddenly asked, "Where's Jackson?" As he looked at all of us.

That's right, the last time I saw him he went with Crystal in for a check-up. Damn it I can't even ask her what happened in there.

"I will go look for him," I said as I went into the room he went into with Crystal at first, only to see him shirtless tied to a chair. 

"Jackson wtf are you doing? Let's go. They have released Jaebeom" I said tying him up from the chair as he took his shirt and we went out when a nurse came up to him. 

"Where are you going, Jacky?" She asked putting her hand on his chest obviously flirting with him which we don't have time to right now. 

"Jackson needs to leave now and he won't be coming back," I said taking his hand dragging him with me to the others as we left the hospital. 

Mark's POV 

As we arrived at our dorm I took Crystal out of her child seat when she started screaming and a short time after Youngjae came running down as he was up in the dorm with some stuff. 

"What's happening?" He asked looking worried as he took Crystal over in his arms and he leaned into his chest grabbing onto him. 

"Let's go up and get you in bed," He said walking up in the dorm with her. 

I just want to be close to her as well as the other boys are...

[artificialqueens]

There's No One There, 1/? (Group Fic) - Marmalade

Summary: One student missing multiple classes without warning can be explained away but when more girls start disappearing, it can’t be dismissed. Jaida, Jackie, Gigi, and Crystal may not be friends but if it’s to figure out what’s going on, they’re willing to work together.

A/N: This is my first story for here, I feel like I’m maybe not the best at starting stories but I’m excite for what’s in store so hopefully you’ll stick it out. I’ve never written this genre before so it’ll be an adventure for all of us.

—

“Do you know Nicky?”

Jackie looked up from her book, a sci-fi novel that she had tucked in the sleeve of a medical journal, to see Gigi standing before her. She was practically the queen bee of the school and seeing her without her usually circle of friends in tow was a rarity. While Jackie was by no means a faceless member of the student body, her participation in the honor club and the drama club as well as her status as the lone nurse’s aide did well tying a name to the face, she hadn’t been expecting Gigi to approach her out of the blue, the two shared few classes and have seldom spoken before.

“-She’s in our year, French-“

“Yeah, what about her?”

“Well, we share a dorm and she didn’t come in by lights out and then today in English, she wasn’t at her desk. I know you work with the nurse; I was just wondering if she came in yesterday.”

“I don’t think so? Maybe she had a family emergency come up and had to leave earlier in the day.” Gigi pursed her lips and folded her arms, leaning against the wall rather than join Jackie on the bench.

“She’s my best friend, if she had to leave and didn’t have the chance to say goodbye, I feel like she would have left a note for me.” Jackie closed her book and set it down.

“Okay, yeah it’s weird but she’s probably be back in a few days and she’ll be able to tell you herself.”

After a moment of looking down at her feet, Gigi nodded and pulled away from the wall.

“You’re probably right. If she had to see family in France and had to catch a flight then maybe she didn’t have time to say anything…Thanks.” Gigi made her leave and Jackie returned to her book, not dwelling on the subject.

Gigi had approached her on a Thursday morning. The days rolled by and Jackie hardly thought about it, Gigi hadn’t approached her again, but as Monday arrived and Jackie walked into her history class, she noted that the desk usually occupied by the French girl was vacant and Jackie spent the class making brief glasses as if the girl would magically show up when she wasn’t looking.

If she did have to go back to France, Jackie told herself, then it would make sense if she had to have a longer absence because of the travel times. That was probably it.

-

Crystal peered out from the corner. A decent number of girls were passing through the hall on their way to their next class, all she had to do was not draw any attention to herself. Crystal hurried out and tried to melt into the crowd, picking up her pace as she passed by the woman with jet black hair that stood outside one of the doors.

“Crystal.” Vice Principal Visage’s voice was stern and Crystal stopped in her tracks with a stammer. “What did I say about dying your hair?”

“You said I could dye it natural colors and it’s ah-nh- a lot of people have naturally red or orange hair! Not here but- in like- the deepest…darkest depths of Scotland?”

Miss Visage stared her down with that disbelieving slight sneer she gave any student who made excuses she didn’t like. “…It’s pink.” Crystal was trying to smile like she didn’t know what was coming. “I am not going to have this conversation again with you, you have until Monday to change your hair otherwise-“

“-You’ll shave my head, I know.” Crystal was fairly certain that it was a hollow threat but V.P. Visage was known for being the single most cut throat faculty member. Miss Visage opened her mouth to say more but as the bell rang and Crystal used the opportunity to slip away.

Monday came and Crystal forgot to buy hair dye when the weekend bus came to take the girls into town for daytrips. She didn’t think too much of it until she found herself sitting in the office. Miss Visage was in a meeting at the time and an incensed teacher sat Crystal down in a chair and gave a long-winded lecture about disrespecting the school’s image with her delinquent hair. Honestly, Crystal had stopped listening a while ago and stared straight ahead at the wall with her hands in her lap, the only thing on her mind was the potential repercussions.

An hour later, Crystal stood over the sink in the communal bathroom in her dorm hall with a pair of scissors in her hand and a chunk of her hair missing. The teacher hadn’t even cut it directly on the top or the side, nor was it close enough to her hair line to try to make it into passable bangs so now Crystal scrambled to salvage it. More clips of hair pooled while a few girls giggled and walked out of the bathroom, she could hear them say “Weird girl’s playing hair stylist” as they passed someone walking in.

“What’re you doing?”

Crystal glanced up in the mirror and saw Jaida standing there, her expression was a mix of dry judgement and genuine confusion.

“Uhh- just um, trying to fix this.” The hand holding the scissors circled over the mess that was her hair right now.

“…Do I want to know why?”

“Something about disrespect, I wasn’t listening to be honest.” Jaida let out an amused chortle and stood idly by as Crystal resolved to trying to cut the other side just as short. Another large clump of hair fell into the sink and Crystal looked up to realize that now both the top of her hair and the sides were scruffy and stood out on ends.

“Child- why don’t you just cut the back of it and give yourself a pixie cut?”

“Because I’ve been trying to get my hair to my waist for years! I don’t want to start over now.” Crystal resolve to trying to make the sides even shorter before realizing that Jaida was still there. “What’re you doing here?” It wasn’t like there was a line for the stalls or the showers and the two knew each other from having to work on a project together once but that didn’t blossom into a friendship so much of a ‘If I’m at a place where I don’t know a single person and I see you, I’ll go say hi’ dynamic. Jaida shrugged and looks at her nails.

“I just don’t want to be around my dormmate right now. She’s being weird.” Crystal put her scissors down and turned to look at the other girl. “Jan is normally like the peppiest bitch I know but she’s been real down lately. I’ve asked her about it a couple of times now but like, she just won’t tell me what’s going on. Bitch, she keeps going ‘you wouldn’t get it, no one gets it’ and I got to a point where I told her that if she won’t tell me to go tell a counselor. It’s just not great knowing that she’s having some kind of problem and there’s apparently nothing I can do because she won’t say what the problem is.”

“Is it true that she quit drama and the soccer team? Midterms are in a few weeks so what if she’s just super super stressed about them then BAM!- two full weeks of spring break and she comes back to school doing a big musical number. I think a lot of girls in our level are really worried about exams, Widow’s been kind of out of it too these past few days. She hasn’t felt like dancing, Widow of all people! Like- h-can you imagine?”

“Doesn’t sound like her. It’s not like I have perfect grades in all my classes either but some of these girls are really letting the exams get to them, I’m telling you… Did you hear Nicky got sick or something like that?”

“No, really?”

“I don’t know exactly what’s going on but apparently she had to leave sometime last week. No warning or anything. Gone. Just like that.”

[nix-that-rad-lass]

A Bunch of Links, Receipts, and Sources for my fellow Terves

A Girls Place In The World by William Buckner About the reality of women and girls around the world https://quillette.com/2019/05/09/a-girls-place-in-the-world/

I Was A Lesbian Tomboy Allowed To Be Female; I Fear Young Girls Today No Longer Have That Choice by Tonje Gjevjon About the transing of gender nonconforming girls that would likely grow up to be lesbians if not for being transitioned before they are even old enough to understand what transition is. https://www.feministcurrent.com/2019/06/11/i-was-a-lesbian-tomboy-allowed-to-be-female-i-fear-young-girls-today-no-longer-have-that-choice/

Dagny on Social Media, Gender Dysphoria, Trans Youth, and Detransitioning. A transcript of a talk given by Dagny, a detransitioned young woman and member of the pique resilience project https://www.feministcurrent.com/2019/06/04/dagny-on-social-media-gender-dysphoria-trans-youth-and-detransitioning/

Ross Douthat Revealed the Hypocrisy in Liberal Feminist Ideology, and They’re Pissed by Meghan Murphy Self explanatory title https://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/05/04/ross-douthat-revealed-hypocrisy-liberal-feminist-ideology-theyre-pissed/

A Neo-Liberal Concept of Freedom has Allowed Gender Ideology to Take Hold by Heather Brunskell Evans https://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/12/02/neoliberalism-patriarchy-gender-identity/

Inauthentic Selves: The Modern [LGB(TQ+)] Movement is Run By Philanthropic Astroturf and Based on Junk Science https://medium.com/@sue.donym1984/inauthentic-selves-the-modern-lgbtq-movement-is-run-by-philanthropic-astroturf-and-based-on-junk-d08eb6aa1a4b

Politicians are Betraying Women in the Rush To Support Trans Rights by Jenni Russell Self explanatory https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/politicians-are-betraying-women-in-the-rush-to-support-trans-rights-xzvhcf7m8

“Don’t Forget”, a compilation of sources, receipts, and other resources on male violence, compiled by @astro-didacted on tumblr https://nixtheoneandsecond.tumblr.com/post/188876269165/dont-forget?is_related_post=1

Pretty much a masterpost of RadFem beliefs and resources, compiled by @unleashtherage on tumblr https://nixtheoneandsecond.tumblr.com/post/188804771810/radical-feminism-is-a-political-movement-in

PDF of Lundy Bancroft’s “Why Does He Do That” https://www.docdroid.net/py03/why-does-he-do-that.pdf

The Wikipedia Page for the one and only TERF Icon, Magdalen Berns. She deserved better! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalen_Berns

A bunch of Andrea Dworkins works in a google drive PDF https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1i3r-gSizLC6UbyvM1ZJyCYMHtYvdss-S

Sex Before Kissing: How 15 year old girls are dealing with porn obsessed boys by Melinda Tankard Reist Self explanatory https://fightthenewdrug.org/sex-before-kissing-15-year-old-girls-dealing-with-boys/

Some tea on the tumblr porn ban from 2018. https://fightthenewdrug.org/tumblr-banned-porn-from-its-platform-one-year-ago-how-is-the-site-doing-now/

Why Victims Freeze Up During Sexual Assaults by Jackie Hong Tells about experiences, and the fight, flight, and freeze response. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wd7945/i-froze-up-when-i-was-sexually-assaulted-and-we-should-stop-dismissing-that-response

Why Women Have Higher Rates of PTSD Than Men by Melanie Greenberg (spoiler: its because of sexual violence and misogyny)https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-mindful-self-express/201809/why-women-have-higher-rates-ptsd-men

The Difference Between Toxic Masculinity and Being A Man by Harris O’Malley Finally, a small handful of men are actually attempting to be better and make a difference! Took em long enough! https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-difference-between-toxic-masculinity-and-being-a-man-dg/

Criminal Justice System: The Actual Amount of Sexual Assault Perps, Pimps, Johns, Rapists, and Pedophiles that Get Away With It https://rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system

The First Legal Abortion Providers Tell Their Stories by Alex Ronan https://www.thecut.com/2015/10/first-legal-abortionists-tell-their-stories.html?mid=twitter-share-thecut#

How Much Does An Abortion Cost? by Charlotte Cowles Not only covers the price, but also types of abortion, prevention, and more on reproductive health https://www.thecut.com/2018/11/how-much-does-an-abortion-cost.html

8 Signs Your Partner Is Being Sexually Coercive by Suzannah Weiss https://www.bustle.com/articles/155328-8-signs-your-partner-is-being-sexually-coercive-because-you-can-always-say-no

Why Conservative Women are Okay With Harassment by Jennifer Wright This is regarding not only the general societal expectations which conservative women help uphold and enforce, but also why they are surprisingly okay with electing sexual predators to the government https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a23453699/conservative-women-response-brett-kavanaugh-allegations-sexual-assault/

Archaeologists Find New Way To Determine Sex of Cremated Individuals by Katherine J Wu Because we all run into those TRA’s that say its impossible to know someones ‘gender’ or ‘sex’ by just looking at them, or their remains in the case of those already passed. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/archaeologists-find-new-way-determine-sex-cremated-individuals/

Analysing the Bones: What Can A Skeleton Tell You? by Hayley Dunning Again, because TRAs love to say that skeletons are ambiguous when, in fact, they are not https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/analysing-the-bones-what-can-a-skeleton-tell-you.html

Sex Determination in Skeletal Remains from the Medieval Adriatic Coast - Discriminant Function Analysis of Humeri Hmm, wonder what this is about. You guessed it! More differences in the bone and skeletal structures of male and female humans https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3692335/

Sex Determination from the Talus of South African Whites by Discriminant Function Analysis Woah, more information on telling skeletons apart by sex! Almost like human skeletons differ between the sexes https://journals.lww.com/amjforensicmedicine/Abstract/2003/12000/Sex_Determination_From_the_Talus_of_South_African.3.aspx

The Reliability of Sex Determination of Skeletons from Forensic Context in the Balkans Oh my god, whats this?? More factual evidence of differences in physiology between the *gasp* TWO human sexes?? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/15567621/

Mandibular Ramus Flexure: A New Morphologic Indicator of Sexual Dimorphism in the Human Skeleton Okay, okay, I think thats all the skeleton stuff for now https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199603)99:3%3C473::AID-AJPA8%3E3.0.CO;2-X

Further Evidence to Show Population Specificity of Discriminant Function Equations for Sex Determination Using the Talus of South African Blacks Partner to a previously aforementioned article https://www.astm.org/DIGITAL_LIBRARY/JOURNALS/FORENSIC/PAGES/JFS2003431.htm

Why Talking About Bowie’s Sexual Misconduct Matters by Angelina Chapin Article about David Bowie and his misconduct. pretty much, you shouldnt always separate the art from the artist. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-talking-about-bowies-sexual-misconduct-matters_b_9009230

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English http://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Barbara-Ehrenreich-and-Deirdre-English-Witches-Midwives-and-Nurses-A-History-of-Women-Healers.-Introduction..pdf

This entire blog is gold. To quote them: Saying No To Penis is NOT Hate Speech [ffs] http://thenewbacklash.blogspot.com/?

Steven Hassan’s BITE Model about what constitutes a cult. You know, like the gender cult. https://freedomofmind.com/bite-model/

What Is Darvo? by Jennifer J Freyd DARVO is the reaction that many sexual offenders display in response to being faced with the consequences of their actions. https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/defineDARVO.html

Sick Woman Theory by Johanna Hedva Genuinely just read this, its too good to summarise http://www.maskmagazine.com/not-again/struggle/sick-woman-theory?fbclid=IwAR2cQyCRT5olIzkBGfO_F5HvES28bhdIcbUyc9g1W_p0L6o7U8gopDp5Kxw

Taking Back Your Mind: A Radical Feminist Approach to Recovering from Porn Use by Kitty at medium com https://medium.com/@kittyit/taking-back-your-mind-a-radical-feminist-approach-to-recovering-from-porn-use-8ae9347c3d8f

About Female Infanticide http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/infanticide_1.shtml

About Female Genital Mutilation https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation

About Child Marriage https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/about-child-marriage/

Who Cooked the Last Supper? from @aeroposter

https://aeroposter.tumblr.com/post/166368772300/who-cooked-the-last-supper-by-rosalind-miles

Breast ironing: Abhorrent Practice Becoming Endemic In UK by Alexandra Sims

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/breast-ironing-abhorrent-practice-becoming-endemic-in-uk-a6950521.html

About Forced Pregnancy

http://www.stopvaw.org/harmful_practices_forced_pregnancy

Did Sissy Porn Make Me Trans or Was I Trans All Along? As if we needed any more proof that it is, indeed, a fetish

https://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/2mn8au/did_sissy_porn_make_me_trans_or_was_i_trans_all_a/

Did Porn Make Me Transgender? Who coulda thunk it

https://forum.nofap.com/index.php?threads/did-porn-make-me-transgender.61492/

Jealous of Lesbians? Yep, thats right folks. Transbians really are just rapey straight guys with a lesbian fetish. https://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/55zkbs/jealous_of_lesbians/

Just when you thought men couldnt get much worse... https://metro.co.uk/2013/07/09/peeping-tom-arrested-after-hiding-in-septic-tank-and-staring-at-people-using-the-toilet-3874756/

Houston Man Posed as a Doctor to Rape a Student

https://abc13.com/5730127/

Rape In War: Challenging the Tradition of Impunity

https://www.hrw.org/legacy/women/docs/rapeinwar.htm

Doctors & Sex Abuse: Patients Sexually Abused While Sedated

http://doctors.ajc.com/doctor_sex_abuse_sedated/

Man pretended to be gay in order to get close to a woman and ultimately rape her

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-convicted-of-raping-woman-who-he-allegedly-befriended-by-pretending-to-be-gay/

Complete collection of Andrea Dworkins work

http://radfem.org/dworkin/

[blackkudos]

Lela Rochon

Lela Rochon Staples (born April 17, 1964), known professionally as Lela Rochon, is an American actress, best known for her starring role as Robin Stokes in the 1995 romantic drama film Waiting to Exhale. She also had notable roles in films Harlem Nights (1989), Boomerang (1992), The Chamber (1996), Gang Related (1997), Knock Off (1998), Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998), and Any Given Sunday (1999).

Early life

Rochon was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of Zelma, a nurse practitioner, and Samuel Staples, a business owner and graphic artist. She graduated from Cerritos High School in Cerritos, California in 1982. After high school, Rochon attended California State University, Dominguez Hills where she earned a BA in Broadcast Journalism, with minors in Sociology and Theatre. In 2016, Rochon returned to give the commencement speech at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Career

Early works

In 1984, Rochon appeared as an extra in the movie Breakin’, where she met the man who would later become her husband. From 1986 to 1988, while attending college, Rochon was one of the "Spudettes" featured in over 30 national spots for the Spuds MacKenzie Budweiser/Bud Light TV commercials. She also appeared in the 1985 made-for-television film A Bunny's Tale starring Kirstie Alley and Delta Burke, based on Gloria Steinem's experiences as a Playboy Bunny. She appeared as the love interest of Gerald Levert in the video for "My Forever Love" by Levert, and in Luther Vandross' "It's Over Now" video. She also appeared in the music video for Lionel Richie's single "All Night Long (All Night)", in Al B. Sure's video for the song "Natalie", and in Tupac Shakur's video "I Get Around" as one of the female dancers. She had many guest starring roles in a number of sitcoms, include The Cosby Show, Amen, 227, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper. Rochon made her film debut in 1985, when she starred opposite Fred Williamson in Fox Trap. In 1987, she played the role of Debby in the film The Wild Pair, starring Beau Bridges and Bubba Smith. In 1989, Rochon acted opposite Eddie Murphy in 1989's Harlem Nights, as the memorable "Sunshine" character. She again worked with Murphy in the successful 1992 romantic comedy, Boomerang. In 1995, she was regular cast member during the first season of The WB sitcom, The Wayans Bros.

Breakthrough

In 1995, Rochon landed one of the lead roles opposite Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett and Loretta Devine in the adaptation of the Terry McMillan novel and highly successful drama film Waiting to Exhale. She played the character Robin Stokes, for which she was nominated for an MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. In 1996, Rochon starred opposite Timothy Hutton in the Showtime cable network film Mr. and Mrs. Loving, receiving a Cable Ace Award nomination for Best Actress. Later that year, she played the female lead in the crime thriller film The Chamber. The following year, she starred alongside Jim Belushi and Tupac Shakur in the crime thriller Gang Related. In 1998, Rochon had the leading role alongside Halle Berry and Vivica A. Fox in the romantic drama Why Do Fools Fall in Love, and well starred in Knock Off with Jean-Claude Van Damme, and The Big Hit, as love interest to Mark Wahlberg's leading character. In 1999, she appeared in Any Given Sunday directed by Oliver Stone. In 2001, Rochon made her return to television with one of leading roles alongside Bonnie Bedelia, Nancy McKeon, Tracey Needham, and Lisa Vidal in the Lifetime crime drama series, The Division. She left the series after a single season.

2000s-present

In 2004, Rochon co-starred opposite Katie Holmes in the romantic comedy film First Daughter. In 2009, she had cameo in crime drama Brooklyn's Finest directed by her husband, Antoine Fuqua. In 2013, she played one of leading roles in Regina King's directorial debut Let The Church Say Amen, the film adaptation of ReShonda Tate Billingsley's 2005 novel for BET. She later had roles in films Supremacy (2014) with Danny Glover and Derek Luke, and Reversion (2015), playing Aja Naomi King's character's mother. In 2017, she had a recurring role in the CBS crime drama series Training Day, and in 2019 on the Oprah Winfrey Network drama David Makes Man.

Personal life

Rochon has been married twice and has two children. Her first marriage was to dancer and actor Adolfo Quiñones, better known as Shabba Doo from 1982 until divorcing in 1987. Rochon dated singer–songwriter Jackie Jackson from 1989 until 1991. In 1999, she married film director Antoine Fuqua. Together, they have two children; Asia Rochon Fuqua (b. 2002) and Brando. During her marriage to Fuqua, Rochon suffered a miscarriage in 2001.