#maggie knows what swears are but literally does not have the means to say them (speaks through pre-recorded messages)

[ragsy]

I, someone who habitually curses like a sailor, keep somehow making tabletop characters who everyone forgets can say fuck

[heavyhitterheaux]

We're Somebody's Parents

First Babies of Private Garden Instagram AU

Liked by jackharlow, urbanwyatt, neelamthadhani, maggieharlow, quiiso, yungskylark, cozane, and 2,861,052 others

y/ninsta: Axel a.k.a. Lil Urb says hi everyone lol

jackharlow: my main man 😍

saweetie: so happy you came to visit me. he is the spitting image of the both of you. can't deny him if you wanted to

urbanandjack25: wait, why is he called Lil Urb?

y/ninsta: urbandjack25 because of his middle name

urbanwyatt: godfather checking in

neelamthadhani: urban takes his job seriously lol

urbanwyatt: neelamthadhani of course I do. I'm convinced he even looks like me.

jackharlow: urbanwyatt don't fucking start because no he doesn't

yungskylark: urbanwyatt he only kinda looks like you when you both wear bucket hats. don't get it twisted lmao

allthingsy/n: yesss y/n in her mommy era! we stan!

quiiso: if urbanwyatt could just kidnap Axel and have him all to himself, he would

urbanwyatt: quiiso they shouldn't have named him after me. that's my kid now.

y/ninsta: urbanwyatt well in that case come get him. and your dumbass wanted all three of them named after you

urbanwyatt: y/ninsta I don't see the problem?

y/ninsta: softtcurse girl come get your man because he irky

softtcurse: y/ninsta what makes you think I want him?

urbanwyatt: softtcurse outta pocket

y/ninsta: damn. double homicide.

Liked by y/ninsta, saweetie, claybornharlow, dualipa, champagnepapi, urbanwyatt, neelamthadhani, taylorrooks, and 2,791,264 others

jackharlow: Ivy actually stayed still and let me do her hair 😭

saweetie: jackharlow ain't no fucking way you did her hair

jackharlow: saweetie yes I did! ask y/ninsta!

saweetie: y/ninsta EXCUSE ME, MISS MA'AM!

y/ninsta: saweetie he did her hair and did it without my help. jackharlow good job daddy!

claybornharlow: now jackharlow can add hair stylist to his resume

jackharlow: claybornharlow catch me at NYFW next year backstage. I'm putting in weaves next and gluing wigs with lace fronts. y/ninsta come here and let me practice on you.

theestallion: jackharlow lmaooo aye yo

y/ninsta: jackharlow no. get somebody else to do it.

quiiso: those practice sessions with y/ninsta paid off!

allthingsy/n: I LIVE for domestic daddy Jack 😭

urbanwyatt: jackharlow has been doing y/ninsta's hair since quarantine so I would hope that he knew how to do his daughter's hair by now

jackharlowsource: urbanwyatt oh? do tell!

jackharlow: one day when I was of course driving her up the wall, she randomly said, if we have girls you need to know how to do their hair and from then, she let me practice on her.

y/ninsta: never seen a white boy who can part my hair as good as he does so when I'm too tired, he definitely does it for me

jackharlow: in my hair stylist era 🥰

normani: I am living for the heart shaped part in the middle! good job Jack Jack! maybe you can do druski2funny's wig

druski2funny: normani now why am I in it?!

jackharlow: druski2funny I'm charging you extra

druski2funny: jackharlow why?! I'm your life partner!

jackharlow: druski2funny you got a big ass head, that's why

lilnasx: jackharlow lmaooooooo

Liked by jackharlow, maggieharlow, urbanwyatt, claybornharlow, yourmomsinstagramname, danivalentine, djdrama, yungskylark, and 3,702,163 others

y/ninsta: Jackman, come get your youngest NEOW 😭😭😭

jackharlow: WHY MY BABY IN THE FRIDGE?! y/ninsta EXPLAIN THIS

y/ninsta: jackharlow WHAT DO YOU MEAN, EXPLAIN?! HER ASS OPENED IT AND CRAWLED IN THERE

claybornharlow: Autumn is literally the no limit soldier out of the three of them lmao

urbanwyatt: 😭😭😭😭😭

y/ninsta: I noticed that it was a little too quiet and I swear that I only turned around for a second and her ass was GONE. Next thing I knew, I hear something from the kitchen and look what I find

y/ninsta: maggieharlow come get the grandchildren you wanted so much because I am DONE

urbandjack25: NOT Y/N TRYING TO GIVE THE BABIES TO MAGGIE LMAO

jackharlow: well y/n did you at least take her out? lmao

y/ninsta: jackharlow yes and she is now in Harlow baby jail

jackharlowsource: HARLOW BABY JAIL?! WHAT IS HAPPENING?! 😭

y/ninsta: jackharlow it's her third offense this week. she keeps messing around, she'll be there until 21.

jackharlow: y/ninsta 😭😭

maggieharlow: y/ninsta she's so cute!

y/ninsta: maggieharlow now mom..... she has been driving me up the WALL

maggieharlow: y/ninsta she's jackharlow's offspring. did you expect any different?

jackharlow: maggieharlow MOM! WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!

urbanwyatt: maggie stays coming for her oldest lmaooo

claybornharlow: jackharlow maggieharlow she means that you drive your wife up the wall too so of course Autumn does too

jackharlow: claybornharlow let's fight

y/ninsta: jackharlow touch little baby and you sleep on the couch for a week

jackharlow: y/ninsta SERIOUSLY?

claybornharlow: jackharlow love you 🥰🥰

jackharlow: claybornharlow 😐

Liked by y/ninsta, urbanwyatt, softtcurse, 2forwoyne, saweetie, claybornharlow, privategarden, dojacat, dualipa, and 3,802,819 others

jackharlow: first date night with my baby in a while 💕

That ended with us sitting in the car for thirty minutes before we went inside when we got home to our kids after giving ourselves a pep talk lol still can't believe we're somebodies parents

y/ninsta: jackharlow thank you for being the amazing person that you are. I love you, BAD 😭

jackharlow: y/ninsta I love you more and don't you ever forget it

urbanwyatt: can't wait to see how lit the comments under yall posts will be when the triplets get older

jackharlow: urbanwyatt NO.

y/ninsta: urbanwyatt Autumn will be the main one, I already know. 2forwoyne how did she do for you tonight? jackandy/naremyparents: love them forever

2forwoyne: y/ninsta if I still have hair tomorrow, I'll be surprised

y/ninsta: 2forwoyne well Jack still has his and he stays fighting for his life so you'll be okay

jackharlow: y/ninsta for now smh

saweetie: wait a minute, what was this pep talk about?

jackharlow: saweetie to hype ourselves up as parents because we felt like we weren't doing such a good job

maggieharlow: jackharlow y/ninsta you learn as you go and the two of you are doing amazing so far. those three are blessed to have you as their parents

y/ninsta: maggieharlow don't make me cry because you already know that I will

maggieharlow: y/ninsta I call it like I see it!

claybornharlow: yeah I guess jackharlow is doing alright

y/ninsta: do I spy a compliment from little baby to big baby? never thought I'd see the day

jackharlow: claybornharlow what you up to? because I know you are up to something

claybornharlow: jackharlow 👀

jackharlow: claybornharlow look I get stressed out enough from my kids and I'm not adding you to that list too

claybornharlow: y/ninsta whenever you're ready to drop him, I'm here

jackharlow: AND THERE IT FUCKING IS!

y/ninsta: play nice you two!

dualipa: I second what claybornharlow said

y/ninsta: dualipa lunch dateeeeee saturday!

jackharlow: yall can't let me live for shit

dualipa: y/ninsta and leave your sperm donor at home!

jackharlow: dualipa HER WHAT?

dualipa: jackharlow you HEARD me jackharlow: y/ninsta baby, how much is a flame thrower? y/ninsta: NOW JACKMAN!

Liked by jackharlow, urbanwyatt, theestallion, normani, saweetie, shloob_, 2forwoyne, champagnepapi, estgee, theshaderoom, and 4, 284,097 others

y/ninsta: now I KNOW yall see why I let this man impregnate me 😭

Whewww shit my husband fine as hell

Okay back to your regularly scheduled programming

jackharlow: I mean I can do it again 👀👀

y/ninsta: jackharlow don't play with me

jackharlow: y/ninsta who's playing? do I look like a video game to you?

y/ninsta: jackharlow 👀

saweetie: not yall horny asses plotting on having more children already

y/ninsta: saweetie my man fine as fuck sis and I will give him all the children he wants

jackharlow: y/ninsta OH

y/ninsta: jackharlow WAIT, HOLD ON. WITHIN REASON. WE ARE NOT HITTING DOUBLE DIGIT NUMBERS SO YOU CAN FUCKING FORGET IT.

jackharlow: y/ninsta nah nah, back up all that shit you were talking

urbanwyatt: so late night food runs so you can leave me at wing stop again? COUNT ME OUT

y/ninsta: urbanwyatt you love me and you will do anything for me and that was one time

urbanwyatt: y/ninsta as long as it doesn't get us arrested, I'm all for it and ONE TIME TOO MANY

jackharlow: y/ninsta don't get quiet on me now

theestallion: y/ninsta he about to tear that ass up lmao

urbandjack25: WE WANT ALL THE HARLOW BABIES!

jessicakelce: urbanandjack25 I SECOND THIS

y/ninsta: jackharlow so you can hide in closets again because of my raging hormones? remember that?

2forwoyne: y/ninsta lmaoooo that was wild

quiiso: jackharlow was convinced that his dick was going to fall off

y/ninsta: quiiso I woulda glued it back on

jackharlowsource: Y/N PLEASEEEEEEE LMAOOOOOO

jackharlow: y/ninsta look, we don't talk about dark times

Liked by y/ninsta, saweetie, dualipa, dojacat, urbanwyatt, 2forwoyne, taylorrooks, neelamthadhani, danivalentine, and 5,872,018 others

jackharlow: my favorite MILF 😍😍

y/ninsta: jackharlow well look who it is, my favorite DILF 🤭

blancahood: okay snap back is crazy. TRIPLETS WHERE?

y/ninsta: blancahood oh trust sis, the stretch marks and cellulite are there hiding lol

jackharlow: y/ninsta you don't take the meat off the grill until it's well done with the lines on it

urbanwyatt: jackharlow did you just compare your wife to food?

jackharlow: urbanwyatt fuck yeah I did, I literally EAT HER OUT. she is my favorite meal. suck that shit right off the bone.

y/ninsta: jackharlow you so cute lol and so nasty I love it

thestallion: good lord. number 4 is probably coming soon yall lmao

y/ninsta: theestallion ehhhhh

jackharlow: she's back on birth control so not any time soon

jessicakelce: jackharlow the same one as before? lmaoooo

blancahood: swallowing is the best form of birth control

y/ninsta: blancahood I second this lol

y/ninsta: jessicakelce look I'm to the point where whatever happens, happens. I'm really happy with my little tribe and if we add to it, I'll be happy too

normani: since my predictions are always right. I vote twins next.

y/ninsta: normani WHAT?! NO!

normani: y/ninsta it's less than three!

y/ninsta: normani and that's supposed to make it better?!? jackharlow you better fucking NOT

jackharlow: y/ninsta I DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING

y/ninsta: jackharlow NOT YET ANYWAY with that muthafuckin super sperm your ass has

jackharlow: y/ninsta maybe I agree with normani

y/ninsta: jackharlow well you must be the person carrying them because ISSA NO FOR ME DAWG

jackharlow: y/ninsta you say that now, but you'll fold. you always do.

Taglist:

@harlowsbby

@babyharleezy

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@jackiehollanderr

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@neon-lights-and-glitter

@awhore4moree

[nix-moon]

GOOD OMENS SEASON 2 SPOILER AND ME TRYING TO COPE WITH IT

Long text, don't bother reading, I just literally have NO FRIENDS to talk to right now, bc mine are still watching...

Analyzing the S2 finale:

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You know, I love both Aziraphale and Crowley, ofc sometimes I tend to go a liiiiittle bit more to Azi, but I can't like, "pick" one of them. And I'll tell you what, I think it's completely possible to keep loving a character and not agreeing with everything they do.

But when it comes to the end of season 2, I swear to you guys, I really got deep down hurt by Azi's decision, at first, and thought that he was marked forever in my heart negatively. Buuuut I knew what was going to happen BEFORE properly watching it, so I could like, process it and see it from another perspective, which I'll explain now.

I like the modified coffee theory, but as much as it BREAKS ME to say this, I believe more that yes, Aziraphale wanted to do what he did by his own, uninfluenced choice. Why? Because we can see - multiple times - that he has never actually left Heaven behind. It's a very central part of his construction as a being, I would say, specially his personality. He can acknowledge how Heaven's decisions are not always, in his judgment, alright, but he firmly believes this is something "ineffable". He is oblivious, and, as Crowley himself say, "pure of heart", and considering Crowley never actually told him how Heaven treated him when they switched bodies, I find it very hard to believe he could see any harm in them, or anyone actually, specially Crowley for all this years, even though he is a demon.

And he is extremely positive. I don't think this is bad, I just think that his optimistic point of view doesn't allow him to see that he is not a savior, that kindness doesn't always change things, that Heaven isn't this good and that Crowley isn't willing to be good, or bad, he just wants to be himself and mind his own business. Azi saw Crowley pre-fall so brightly, passionate and excited that he believes he can't be completely happy as a demon, because this shows a contradiction that is not easy to deal with if you believe everything is "fixable" and will be fine in the end (what does this even mean?). He takes actions believing in it, plus the fact that, like Maggie and Nina said, they don't communicate, at all, like in a proper way, exposing their beliefs and not just supposing what the other one is feeling, or thinking.

That is why I believe this finale brought a very necessary emotional impact, which, IF GOD ALLOWS A SEASON 3 (amen) could lead to a very interesting explore of this plot, character growth, and the acknowledge from both parts that they have a past, and a personality constitution that goes way beyond just their relationship. They have feelings, beliefs, and just the awesome love they feel for each other isn't enough to make things work, just like any relationship, you've got to deal with hard contradictions. I think both of them will suffer to understand that, and so will all of us, but I also believe that, even if love itself isn't enough to make everything okay, it's also a compass that leads you to remember that, if you love somemody so much, you also have to know how to let go of some things that are yours, and make it work.

Sorry about all that long talk, I feel better now. Maybe I should've written it in a diary only for my own personal suffering and coping, and it probably would be easier in my NATIVE LANGUAGE, but anyway, if you read it 'till here, may God bless you.

[invisiblegarters]

Never Let Me Go Ep 4

Why am I not surprised that Palm’s dad couldn’t be bothered to show up for him after the altercation in ep 3? Like, it’s nice that Nueng wants to storm in there and fight for him, but his dad should be there, too. 

Honestly I’m surprised that they were both punished, since Phum’s family is clearly better off than Palm’s. Perhaps it’s because he was caught on the CCTV?

Chopper is still my favorite, and I still dread his inevitable turn to the dark side. I hope it’s not a permanent one (or that I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am, They’re setting Nueng up as his rival in too many ways for him not to lose it at least a little bit at some point). I fully believe that his eagerness to hang out with Nueng this ep was mostly about Ben, though. Poor boy’s crush isn’t going anywhere fast. 

Oh, Maggie. I like you, but you are barking up the wrong tree. 

This episode should have been named Thirsty because literally everyone is. Palm for Nueng, Nueng for Palm, Maggie for Palm, Chopper for Ben, Ben for Nueng. But noticeably not Nueng for Ben. More on that later, though. 

Oh, Chopper honey. His whole heart was just visibly breaking during the scene with Ben. And you won’t convince me that “I like people who are like me” wasn’t a jab. I am so curious what happened there, because I actually get the sense that it’s actually not just Chopper who has complicated feelings about their former friendship. Whether it’s that Ben figured out that Chopper was after more than friendship (because that boy is so transparent), or something else, it’s still clearly bugging both of them. 

I still think that Palm and Chopper should hook up though. They can bond over selflessly standing back and watching while they people they like hook up with each other. And then they can have angsty makeouts about it.

Speaking of makeouts, I actually really liked the kiss between Ben and Nueng. Not because it was a good one, but because that whole scene showcased for me that Nueng isn’t really as into Ben as Ben is into him, although I have to admit the flirting at the dance was very cute and believable (maybe the first time I’ve really felt chemistry between them). But ultimately I think the Ben thing boils down to this: Nueng likes being wanted, and the person he wants to want him either doesn’t or won’t say it if he does. And here’s Ben, pursuing him with seemingly no ulterior motives, telling him he likes him and asking to kiss him. And Nueng wants to be wanted for himself so badly that of course he’s going to reciprocate - even if he can’t quite bring himself to become his boyfriend and close that door on what (I think) he really wants. 

Interesting how that same thing becomes unacceptable suddenly when it’s Palm playing nice with Maggie, though. He’s such a spoiled brat, I swear. 

And now for the drunken mess he made of himself. I get thinking that Nueng is being honest while drunk, and it’s true that sometimes it makes s reveal things that we think but would never say. But sometimes it just makes us mean, and Nueng was already in a crappy mood when he started. The loss of inhibitions there, to my mind, wasn’t about revealing how Nueng truly feels but not stopping him from doing his best to wound. This isn’t making excuses for the bullshit that was coming out of his mouth - and I really hope Palm doesn’t just forgive him for it - I just think it was coming from anger and jealousy and hurt rather than some dearly held belief that Palm is beneath him. Maybe I’m giving him a little too much credit, I don’t know. I suppose we’ll see. 

Next ep looks interesting, though why do I feel like the Palm & Nueng kiss isn’t going to happen? I am suspicious by nature, I think. Also looks like Ben might throw Nueng under the bus to save his own skin. The thing that amuses me is that he was a lot less suspicious to me this ep and then right into the next he apparently is at best a giant coward. I can’t believe that’s it for him and Nueng, though. 

I’m still liking this a lot. The drama feels a little OTT but in a way I enjoy. Looking forward to the next episode for sure.  

[homoose]

Love Has a Learning Curve: Part III (x OC)

Summary: Spencer has to face Anita and Sam— and learns a little about Maggie’s past. Maggie and Spencer babysit for Michael and Henry. 

Pairing: Spencer Reid x OC

Category: fluff, a tiny smidge of hurt/comfort

Warnings/Includes: implied smut, drinking/alcohol, vague mentions of previous emotional/mental abuse (Owen)

Word count: 4.2k

a/n: This picks up right after the end of the tmsidk epilogue! I also worked two requests in here.

Series Masterlist

———

Spencer stacked the last of the tiny chairs in the center of the room, stepping back and dusting his palms on his trousers. He looked over to see Maggie playing a sort of container tetris with the bins of supplies in her closet. He smiled a little to himself, his head still in the metaphorical clouds with her confession of love. 

She maneuvered the bins to her satisfaction and shut the closet doors, pushing against them to squeeze everything in until the latch clicked. She turned to see him watching her and wiped imaginary sweat from her brow. She gave him a wink and a grin, and he was falling all over again. 

She perched on the corner of her desk with a tired sigh, and he made his way across the room to her. She reached for him as soon as he was within arms length, wrapping her arms around his middle. She snuggled into his chest, and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Let’s go to dinner to celebrate.”

She laughed and looked up at him. “Celebrate what?”

He shrugged. “You. Summer.” He brought his arms around her shoulders. “Love.”

She smiled and scrunched her nose at him. “You just want me to say it again.”

His lips twitched. “Maybe.”

Her hands came to rest on his hips, her fingers squeezing lightly. “I love you.”

“I love you,” he answered immediately and rather dreamily.

“Yo, Brooksy!” 

The call of her name from the hallway startled them both. Anita began to step over the threshold, continuing, “You ready to get absolutely crunk tonight or— oh.” She stopped dead in her tracks, eyes tracking Spencer’s frame. “Dr. Reid.”

Spencer stepped back from Maggie, smiling a little awkwardly at the formality and giving a wave. “Mrs. Lopez. It’s, um— it’s nice to see you again.”

Anita hummed noncommittally, and Spencer shoved his hands in his pockets. She turned her attention back to Maggie. “So, are we going out or what?”

Maggie groaned. “Anita, I’m exhausted. Can we keep it low key? Oh!” Her eyes lit up with an idea, and Spencer could already see where this was going. “Spence and I were gonna get dinner to celebrate, um— summer. Call Sam; we’ll all just go together.”

Anita spared a glance in Spencer’s direction before sighing heavily. “Fine. But I’m drinking.” With that, she turned on her heel and disappeared back into the hallway.

Maggie chuckled. “I swear she’s not actually an alcoholic.” Her eyes landed on Spencer’s face, and she smiled gently. “I know you weren’t expecting a Meet the Friends night, but it’ll be fun.”

“She hates me,” Spencer surmised.

“She does not hate you.” Maggie stood from the desk, pressed a reassuring peck to his lips. “She’s just… protective. That’s all.”

…

Maggie was entirely wrong. Anita Lopez hated him. That was the only explanation for her absolutely icy demeanor. 

They’d met up with her and Sam at a Mexican restaurant in Tenleytown. Sam was wonderfully kind and funny, even apologizing for having “flipped him the bird” the last time she saw him. And it was a good thing Sam was being friendly, because Anita was decidedly… less so. 

Spencer understood completely of course. He’d broken Maggie’s heart. Penelope had been ready to hunt her down at the mere thought of him being hurt. As Maggie’s best friend, Anita had every right to be wary of him. She had every right to hate him. He’d just... hoped that she wouldn’t. 

Thankfully, Maggie and Sam were more than happy to carry the conversation— he and Anita chiming in here and there. He learned that Sam worked as an attorney at a firm specializing in family law. She and Anita had two kids, Riley and Sidney— one in 2nd grade and the other in preschool. 

“Maggie is still Riley’s favorite teacher ever,” Sam told him. “I mean, it helps when she’s also your aunt, I guess.”

“He didn’t get any special treatment,” Maggie insisted. At Sam’s raised eyebrow, she laughed. “Okay, maybe a little special treatment. But you raised a good kid! And I can’t help it that he was the most trustworthy of the bunch.”

“Oh my god, the field trip,” Sam groaned, rubbing a hand over her face. 

“The field trip!” Maggie turned to Spencer. “My group of kiddos from two years ago— they were kind of a tough group.”

“Kind of?” Anita squeaked. “Let me just tell you, I can hear them through the floor. The entire middle school is literally dreading the day they make it upstairs.”

Sam piped in, “I chaperoned on said field trip to the zoo. And I vowed that I will never, ever go on another field trip. Ever.”

“What happened?” Spencer asked incredulously. 

“So many things,” Sam baited. 

Maggie covered her mouth to stifle a cackle, leaning a bit into Spencer’s shoulder. He couldn’t help but smile, looking around at the three women. Even Anita was chuckling, and she’d barely cracked a smile all evening. 

“Okay, so many things happened,” Maggie started, “but the worst was—”

“The poop!” Sam wheezed. “The poop was the worst part of that day. The smell alone, oh my god.”

Maggie composed herself as best she could, gesturing over the table. “So after this nightmare of a day, we get on the bus, and there’s this— smell.”

“The absolute worst smell you’ve ever smelled, Spencer,” Sam assured. 

“It’s awful. It’s so bad,” Maggie agreed. “And I’m literally going seat to seat, checking to make sure no one has shit themselves.”

“You could not pay me enough,” Anita chimed in. 

“And I get to the seat that is very clearly where the smell is coming from. And I can’t, like— hold my nose, right? I don’t want to embarrass him!” Maggie turned to Spencer with flushed cheeks. “So I ask, ‘Sweetheart, did you have a bathroom accident?’”

Spencer let out a nervous laugh. “Oh no.” 

“But oh, it wasn’t a bathroom accident,” Maggie clarified, waving her hand. “No, no— that would be too easy. This child had somehow managed to obtain copious amounts of poop from one of the zoo animals and packed it into his lunchbox to take home.”

Spencer could feel his jaw drop. “Oh my god.”

“So, he unzips his lunchbox and it’s just— overflowing with shit.” Maggie dropped her head into her hands, overcome with giggles. 

“And don’t forget the worst part: his mom was on the field trip!” Sam lamented, throwing her hands up. “I will never understand.”

Maggie lifted her head with an exasperated grin, and he wasn’t sure if it was the story or the fact that she loved him, but Spencer felt like he could float away into outer space. 

“I told you I had a lot of poop stories,” Maggie lamented to him, drawing another round of laughs. As they composed themselves, the waiter came by their table to clear some of their plates and refill their water.

“God, I said we were keeping it low key, and then I drank half a pitcher,” Maggie complained, pushing back from the table. “I’m just gonna go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.” 

She gave Spencer a reassuring smile, and he tried not to panic as she stood and left him with Sam and Anita. And because the universe was toying with him, at that exact moment, Sam’s phone began to ring. She pulled it from her pocket with a sigh. 

“Shit— I’ve been waiting on this call all day.” She kissed Anita’s cheek and stood from the table. “So sorry; I’ll just be five minutes, I promise.”

With that, it was just the two of them, staring intently at their water glasses. Spencer was certain he should say something, but he wasn’t sure what. Anita broke the silence first. 

“You know what’s annoying?”

Spencer wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “Considering that the issues one might classify as an annoyance vary for each individual person, there are over seven billion potential answers to that question.”

Anita tilted her head with an unimpressed purse of her lips. Spencer hedged, “And I understand now that it was probably rhetorical.”

“I actually kind of like you.” She leaned across the table with an irritated sigh. “I wanted to hate you, but I don’t.”

He cleared his throat. “Well, I’m, um— I’m glad to hear that.”

“You’re good for her. Smart, humble, kind. Enamored with her, as you should be,” she deadpanned. She dropped her chin into her hand. “Almost as hot as she is.”

He laughed a little at that. “Thank you?”

“You’re welcome.” She dropped her hand back to the table. She still didn’t crack a smile, and her gaze bore into him. “I don’t know how much you know about Owen, and she’d probably kill me for saying anything. But he was a real piece of shit.”

This was not the direction he thought this conversation would take. He didn’t know anything about Owen; he’d tried not to think too much about anyone Maggie might have been with before him. 

“It didn’t start out that way.” She drew her brows together. “Well, I don’t know— maybe he was always an asshole, and he was just good at hiding it.”

She shook her head and leaned back in her chair. “The point is, I didn’t know he was treating her like garbage until it was too late. He was already all…” She gestured wildly around her head. “In her head, telling her lies about herself, fucking her up, isolating her. For years he did that. And then it took her years to get him out of her head. To— unlearn all the lies. To build herself back up.” 

He could see her grinding her teeth, trying to calm down. He was intensely grateful to not be on the receiving end of Anita’s wrath. He was also immensely glad that Maggie had a friend like that. And his blood absolutely boiled at the thought of her ever feeling anything less than adored. 

“You’re a fed or whatever, so I shouldn’t be telling you this,” she continued, “but I would love nothing more than to put that fucker six feet under.” She ran her hand through her hair, and when she continued her voice was the quietest he’d ever heard it. “All that to say, I… I wasn’t there for her when Owen was destroying her from the inside out. And I will never let that happen again.” 

Anita locked eyes with him and her voice was resolved. “I like you, Spencer. And I want to keep it that way. So, just— don’t give me a reason not to.”

She didn’t drop her gaze, and he couldn’t quite think of the appropriate response. He opened his mouth, and then closed it again. His brain was still fixated on the idea that anyone had ever hurt the loveliest and kindest woman he’d ever met.

 “Where’s Sam?” Spencer turned just as Maggie slid back into the chair beside him, a comforting hand coming to rest on his knee. 

“Some bullshit from the office that her idiot partner can’t handle.” Anita raised her eyebrows at Spencer, and he nodded minutely. She shifted her gaze back to Maggie with a grin. “Don’t worry. I didn’t scare him too much.”

…

“Easy.” Spencer steadied Maggie with a hand on her waist as they made the way up the stairs to his apartment. 

“Jesus, I’m so sorry. I just— really can’t drink like I used to.” She clutched a little at the railing, and he held his breath until they were at the top of the stairs. 

He slipped an arm back around her waist as they crossed to his apartment door, fumbling with his keys and fighting back a shiver as she snuggled close and ran her hand low over his tummy. 

“Can’t believe I’m tipsy from a couple margaritas.”

“To be fair, you had four,” he chuckled, turning the key and pushing open the door. 

“Okay, okay,” she relented. “But I used to be able to have a whole pitcher and be totally fine.”

“A pitcher?” Spencer laughed as he locked the door and turned to face her. “I can’t even have one without being completely incapacitated.”

She ran her hands up from his waistband, over his chest, and wrapped them around his neck. “Mmm, so you’re a lightweight.”

“Very much so,” he confirmed, bringing his hands to her hips. 

“Just one more sweet thing to love about you, sugar.” 

He couldn’t stop the smile from stretching across his face at the endearment, the way that North Carolina dripped syrupy and thick over every syllable. She pulled him down to meet her in a sweet kiss, quickly deepening it as he dug his fingers into the softness of her hips. Her hands wound into his hair, tugging lightly and holding him close. 

He broke away to rest his forehead against hers and catch his breath. She laced their fingers together and leaned on him while she kicked off her shoes. He toed his own off and then allowed her to lead him toward his bedroom. 

She sat him down on the edge of the bed and straddled his lap, bringing her hands up to tangle in his curls once again. 

Before she could lean in for another kiss, he murmured, “I’ve been thinking.”

“Sounds dangerous,” she teased, ghosting her lips over his.

“Ha, ha.” Part of him wanted to bring up Owen, but she was so happy and warm and comfortable in this moment. He didn’t want to ruin this night of celebration. He didn’t want to ruin this day that had been so full of love. They had plenty of time to discuss Owen. 

He wrapped his arms around her middle. “You’ve met Penelope. I’ve met Anita. Now that the school year is over… we could tell Michael.”

She pulled back, and the smile she gave him could only be described as radiant, and he knew he made the right decision. “He’s gonna lose his mind.”

…

A week later, the pair of them were strolling up the sidewalk to the LaMontagne house. Will and JJ were long overdue for a date night, and Spencer had jumped at the opportunity for the two of them to babysit. When they reached the door, Spencer rang the bell and Maggie waited slightly behind him. 

They could hear the joy from behind the door before it even opened, Michael’s high pitched giggle and Will’s booming laugh. Spencer was already leaning down in preparation, and Michael absolutely launched into his arms as soon as the door swung open. Spencer clocked the moment that Michael spotted her, purely because he practically squealed and squirmed right out of Spencer’s grip. 

“I knew it!” Michael cried. 

He wrapped himself around Maggie’s legs and squeezed tightly, and she rubbed a hand over his hair with a bewildered smile. Michael broke away to turn back to Will with a grin. “I told you.”

“You did, buddy.” Will gave Spencer a lopsided smile as Michael tugged Maggie forward by the hand. “Michael had an… inklin’ that uncle Spencer might be friends with Ms. Brooks.”

“Not friends, Daddy,” Michael said exasperatedly. “He’s her boyfriend.”

“Oh, excuse me, sorry.” Will held his hands up in apology as he stepped aside to let them all in the door. “Michael had a feelin’ that uncle Spencer might be Ms. Brooks’ boyfriend.”

Maggie’s cheeks had turned a very pretty shade of pink. “What— um, what made you think that?” 

Michael waited patiently for her to take off her shoes. “Well firstly, he started picking me up all the time, which was nice but weird. And then he wouldn’t stop asking about you. It was kind of annoying.” Spencer made a choking sound, and Will stifled a laugh. 

“You guys wear the same shoes, and you both love Halloween and tea and reading. I knew you’d like him if he could be a guest reader.” As he led her into the living room, Michael continued, “Oh, and you wore his purple scarf. He doesn’t let anyone wear the purple scarf.”

Spencer vividly remembered that morning— she’d slept over after a midweek date night in April. The temperatures in DC had plummeted overnight, and the outfit she’d brought left her woefully under-dressed for the chilly spring day. He’d wrapped her up in the soft, purple scarf without a second thought. 

She caught his eye with a shrug, and Will tried not to look too smug. Spencer watched her be dragged further into the house, turning to Will with a sheepish smile.

“Well, guess I can’t take all the credit,” Will decided. “Who knew we had a mini matchmaker this whole time?”

Spencer huffed out a laugh as Michael pulled Maggie into the playroom. “This is the best,” Michael sighed. “Now we can play restaurant forever.”

…

Spencer pulled his legs up in the tiny chair, resting his elbows on his knees and taking a moment to watch the scene in front of him unfold. Usually on nights like this, Michael ran him ragged with demands for magic tricks, story time, and playing pretend. Tonight, he’d actually been able to catch up with middle school (middle school!) Henry, because Michael was totally and completely enthralled by Maggie. 

She was helping with the last of the setup for the “restaurant,” organizing Michael’s menus and straightening his clip-on tie. Of course he’d seen her with kids before. But something about being in this playroom— one that he’d spent so many hours in, watching two of his favorite kids grow up— had him feeling warm from head to toe. 

Henry had bounded down the stairs at the news that uncle Spencer was dating his former kindergarten teacher. He hadn’t realized that she’d taught Henry, too, although with the timeline of her teaching career he should have put two and two together. The generally reserved middle schooler had positively beamed when she gasped out, “Gosh, I always forget how tall you’ve gotten!”

And now three of his absolute favorite humans were in one room, and he couldn’t stop smiling. 

“Hen!” Michael called. 

Henry turned from his spot in the chair across from Spencer. “What?”

“You’re the chef,” Michael informed him. 

Maggie tilted her head. “I thought I was the chef?”

“No, no, no.” Michael pushed her toward the kid-sized table. “You and uncle Spencer are on a fancy date.”

Henry rolled his eyes playfully and stood from the chair, pulling it out for her like a perfect gentleman. She beamed at him and gave him a wink. “Thank you, sir.”

She dropped lightly into the chair across from Spencer and laughed a little at his folded limbs. “You look very comfortable.” 

He laughed and stretched his legs out straight. “The picture of comfort, really. These chairs were clearly designed with six foot men in mind.”

“I’m sorry I’m so under-dressed for our fancy dinner date,” she teased, dropping her chin into her hand. 

“You look stunning, as always.” He gestured to the messy braid Michael had folded her hair into. “I especially love what you’re doing with your hair.”

She sucked in a dramatic breath, bringing up her hand to pat lightly at her hair. “You’re making me blush, doctor.” She peeked behind her and then lowered her voice. “I’m probably going to cry when I try to brush the rats out.” 

He looked at her sympathetically. “I know the feeling. I think I’ve got a wide tooth comb, and I can help. I’ve gotten pretty good at detangling Michael’s handiwork.”

Before she could respond, Michael made his way to the table, holding a dish towel over his arm. “Good evening, sir, madam.” 

“Good evening,” they chorused, with barely suppressed grins. 

“Compliments of the chef.” Michael held out his hand to reveal two slightly smushed strawberries.

“Oh, wow,” Maggie said, eyes wide and gesturing to Spencer. “Honey, do you want to—”

Spencer waved his hand, eyeing the berries warily. “No, no, please, help yourself.”

Maggie held back a smile and accepted the strawberries, holding them carefully in her hand and turning her attention back to Michael. “Thank you so much. What a wonderful appetizer. Could we hear the specials?”

That helped Michael remember the menus, and he pulled them from his pocket and cleared his throat. He handed them the construction paper menus. “Our specials tonight are roasted octopus and a steak tartar.”

From the kitchen, Henry mumbled, “Tartare.” 

“Tartare. Steak tartare is our special,” Michael corrected. 

“Hmm, I don’t know if I’m that adventurous. Maybe my boyfriend is though,” Maggie told a grinning Michael. “What do you recommend for a picky eater?”

“My favorite is the chicken nuggets.”

“Well then, sign me up. One order of chicken nuggets.” Maggie handed him the menu. 

Spencer was still perusing the menu for Le Chateau LaMontagne. He smiled at Michael’s handwriting, but particularly at the places where he could tell Maggie had helped. “Everything looks delicious,” he finally decided, “but, you know... I think I’m also going to have the nuggets.”

…

When the boys were finally in bed, Spencer and Maggie settled down in the living room to untangle the mess of her hair. She sat on the floor in between his legs as he gently pulled each braid strand free. He smiled at the way she arched up into his touch, shivering when his fingers brushed over her neck. 

“You’re lucky,” he remarked, laying the last braid strand back into its original place. “Michael seems to have gotten a little better at braiding.”

She leaned her head back into his hands. “You detangled the whole thing?”

“Mmhm.” He leaned forward to press a kiss to her forehead, then her nose, then her mouth. She brought her hands up to hold him against her, trying to deepen the kiss before laughing at the awkward angle and giving up. 

He sat up as she stood and moved to the couch, snuggling up close to him and tucking herself under his arm. “I’m very lucky,” she agreed. “For many reasons.”

Her hand drifted to rest on his tummy, her fingers immediately tracing little shapes over the fabric of his shirt. He pressed a kiss into her hair. “And tired, too.”

“Hmm?” 

He leaned his cheek against her head. “When you get tired, you, um— you start drawing on my stomach.” 

Her finger paused. “Do I?”

“Yeah.” She shifted to raise her head to look at him, and he shrugged. “I don’t mind. I’ve just— noticed.”

She smiled a little sleepily. “You know I love all of you. But I— well, I don’t know, really. I just like your tummy.” She gave it a quick squeeze. “It’s just— nice and comfy and perfect for resting on.” 

He covered her hand with his own and leaned forward to press their mouths together. She drew his bottom lip in between her own, sucking a little and then giving it a quick peck before pulling back and stifling a yawn into his chest. “Man, I am tired.” She snuggled back into him and resumed her tummy tracing. “What, um— what else have you noticed?”

He rubbed his hand down her arm and pulled her impossibly closer. “You like to play with my hair.”

“Mmmm, guilty as charged.”

He smiled at the sleep creeping into her voice. “I like it, too.” He ran his fingers up to her shoulder, and then back down to the crook of her arm, soothing her closer to sleep. “Hmmmm. You always have at least one point of contact on my body at all times. It’s usually your hands, but sometimes it’s your head or even your toes— like when you tuck them under my leg.”

“Ugh— I’m sorry. Clingy and putting my feet on you,” she mumbled.

She might have been joking, but Anita’s words were replaying in his head. He couldn’t change what had happened in the past. He couldn’t go back and prevent her from being hurt by someone else. But he could be different in every way. He could be open and honest and vulnerable with her like he’d promised. 

“I’m not sorry. I love all of you,” he murmured, pulling her in closer and repeating her words back to her. 

“Even my feet?” 

He could also show her that there was absolutely nothing that he didn’t love about her. “Especially your feet.”

She huffed a sigh into his chest. “Y’got a foot thing I don’t know about?”

He laughed a little at that. “Only for yours. They’re very cute feet.”

“You’re weird,” she muttered, but she hugged him tighter when she said it.

“You love it.”

Her fingers on his tummy had come to rest comfortably just above his waistband, and he knew she was on the very edge of sleep. “Mmhm. Love you.”

He thought of all the little moments over the past few months.

Doesn’t live up to expectations? Sorry for overstepping. Are we dating? Sorry for being clingy. Sorry for taking so long to tell you. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

“I love you, too,” he murmured. “So much.”

———

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Series tags (x OC): @kyomito​

[tinyboxxtink]

"...So I Married A Monster" *Part 5*

When it says he has "a manic smile and crazy eyes" this is what I picture. lulz.

Chapter 4

Chapter 6

Gotta say got mixed reviews on who people are mad at, and honestly I'm shocked.

Y'all really just toss Y/N to the wolves like that? OLIVIA'S ALWAYS THE BAD GUY

Hahaha. I'm just kidding. Not really.

Anyway she's punished, so I hope you're happy.

@madamsnape921

@lolliepopsicle

@chasingeverybreakingwave

@milkshqke

@wanniiieeee

@gibbs274

@sassyada

@aprildecker-blog

@bookishfanfic

@stars-in-the-skies-world

@stars-trash-18

@omgsuperstarg

@objection-argumentative

@thatesqcrush

@shittanyy

@mrsrafaelbarba

@word-scribbless

@storiesofsvu

@believinghurts

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

It was a long train ride and a drive home to your house in Jersey, you cried the whole way. You had to get all your tears out before you got home, you knew you couldn’t cry over Rafael in front of your family. But why were you crying over him? He just betrayed the shit out of you. He just sat there and defended that psychopath Olivia to you; After she physically assaulted you. And then he had the audacity to tell you he loved you? What a fucking dickbag.

You pulled makeup out of your bag and began to hide the mascara and eyeliner mess your current face was covered in. When you were sure it was decent enough to walk into your house with, you grabbed your bag and briefcase and headed inside.

When you opened your front door you saw Billy on the couch, one of the girls on either side of him. They were watching Frozen, and eating popcorn. Both Maggie and Kylie jumped up to greet you when you walked in the door. You dropped your bags and barely caught Kylie before she knocked you over.

“Mommy!” She cried happily.

“Hey baby girl,”

“Mom, is it true? Dad’s moving home?” Maggie asked, causing you to shoot Billy a shocked and stern look.

“We haven’t discussed it yet,” You said it smiling, but through gritted teeth.

“Why don’t we do that now then, sweetheart?” He smiled warmly at you while you cautiously approached him, putting Kylie down.

“Sounds good,” You didn’t respond with a pet name, meaning business. You let the girls get back on the couch and watch the movie while Billy followed you into the dining room to talk, just as you and Rafael did before.

“I straight up told you Billy, you can’t just start telling them things!”

“Well it’s the truth isn’t it?” He kept calm.

“I told you I’d think about it--”

“And I told you to go talk to Barba, so you could get your head cleared,” He gave you a look. “And you did, so--”

“So what, you think Rafael is the only thing standing between us?”

“Well, obviously babe,” He put a hand over yours. “I mean, let’s be real. I left you,”

“Wow…” You snapped your hand away from his. “You really know how to woo a girl, don’t you?”

“Oh come on babe you know I was just--” He teased, trying to take your hand.

“Oh I know what you were just,” You huffed.

“...Look I don’t know why you’re mad at me, Barba’s the one who chose that bitch over you,” Billy scoffed.

“....What did you just say?” Your mouth fell open.

“What? I mean--”

“Were you--” Your eyes darted back and forth on the table as you tried to process what this meant. “Were you spying on me?”

“No,” He shook his head. “No, I just wanted to make sure you made the right decision,”

“What does that mean?” You narrowed your eyes.

“Oh I think you know what it means, Y/N,”

“You?” You raised an eyebrow. “You had to make sure? You couldn’t have just trusted me to make the ‘right’ decision?”

“Oh come babe don’t be like that, you know I love you--”

“Do you?” You narrowed your eyes. “Love is trust,”

“This is about what Barba said, isn’t it?” Billy's tone turned dark.

“Wha-- No!” You looked at him like he was delusional. “This is about what I’m saying!”

“Well what are you saying, Y/N?” His eyebrows arched.

“I’m saying, you can’t move in,” You said seriously.

“Yeah, that’s not what I’m hearing,” Billy laughed.

“Excuse me?” You barely exhaled, starting to see the beast behind the mask.

“Did I not speak clear enough, honey?” Billy’s voice suddenly turned very sinister. “If I say I wanna come home, I’m coming home,”

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

Meanwhile at Barba’s Office

Rafael paced back and forth, trying to figure out his next move. He knew Olivia would already be on her game trying to link you and Lewis together, at least she didn’t know where you lived. She’d send squad cars out there before he could even issue a warrant. But he wasn’t giving up on you that easily. He dialed your number, praying you would answer.

“Hello?”

“....Lewis,”

“Well obviously, who did you think it was gonna be, Barba?”

“Where is she?”

“What do you mean ‘where is she’?” He asked him like it was the stupidest question in the world. “Obviously she’s right here with me and our children, y’know where she’s SUPPOSED to be,”

“I want to talk to her,”

“Well you know Barba I really don’t think she wants to talk to you, y’know since you chose Olivia over her and all,”

“I didn’t--”

“Go on babe, tell him.”

“...He’s right, Rafael,” He heard your voice come through the phone. But it didn’t sound like you, not your normal self.

“Y/N, are you okay?”

“...No, I’m not,” You sniffled. “You broke my heart, Rafael,”

“See? Such a bad man, Barba,” Lewis chastised him.

“Shut up,” Rafael growled.

“Hey now man, no need to get testy with me,” Lewis said innocently. “I’m not the one who screwed up royally with my wife,”

“She is NOT your wife!” Rafael barked.

“Oh, I think she will be officially once again, soon enough,”

“Not if I lock your ass up first,” Barba threatened.

“Is that a threat, Barba?” Lewis’s voice grew softer and grittier. “Are you threatening to send cops here? Because I really, really don’t think you wanna do that,”

“And why wouldn’t I want to do that?”

“...Give me one sec,” Lewis pulled the phone away from his ear. Rafael heard a camera sound and some buttons mash, and then a text notification.

He opened it to see a picture of your daughters sitting on a couch across from you, totally engrossed in the move. They were in the background of the main focus of the photo, you and Billy. Billy had his classic smile in full effect, you had the most uncomfortable smile on your face.

And then, he saw it. He pinched and zoomed, but he could see Lewis had a gun pressed against your back. He knew it. He knew you were in trouble. He knew you needed him.

“Lewis I swear to God if you hurt her--”

“What? No, never Barba,” Billy shook his head while he pushed the gun up against your back with a creepy smile as he lowered his voice so the girl’s couldn’t hear.

“But, y’know if you start sending cops here, you know wires get crossed. Maybe your cop friends shoot the wrong person, then I try and defend my family, it turns into a shoot out, I mean-- people could die,” He warned.

“Alright, look Lewis don’t do anything stupid,” Rafael backed off. “I know you want your daughters safe, that’s your main priority right?”

“Oh you bet it is, counselor,” He beamed at his two precious princesses, completely oblivious to the horrors going on across the couch from them.

“So then just-- just take them, leave Y/N alone,”

“Oh I’m sorry, are you offering up our children to negotiate for my wife? Because I’m pretty sure she’d have a problem with never seeing our girls again, wouldn’t you babe?”

“Rafael I’m not leaving my kids, just-- just leave us alone, okay? Forget about me,”

“He has a GUN on you, Y/N!” Rafael cried erratically. “How am I supposed to just hang up and pretend everything’s okay if he has a gun on you?”

“It’s just…” You looked at Billy who had crazy eyes and a now manic smile on his face. “It’s just...protection,”

“Protection?” Rafael scoffed. “Protection from you?”

“FOR me,” You lied. You were scared out of your mind right now, but you couldn’t show Billy that. Why didn’t you listen to Rafael? Why didn’t you at least hear him out?

“This is your fault anyway Rafael, so just-- live with it,”

“My fault?” Rafael asked in disbelief. “How is this MY--”

“When you chose Olivia over me!” You hissed, trying not to alert the girls.

Billy was just grinning at the conversation, reveling in you having it out with his nemesis. He couldn’t help himself, he grabbed you and kissed you. You pulled back in surprise, yelping a bit. But as soon as Billy gave you a warning look, you gave him a nervous smile and a peck back.

“Baby…” You tried to sound giggly embarrassed. “Not in front of the kids,”

“I can’t help it babe, you’re just so sexy when you’re berating that fu--” He glanced at the girls. “Fugly ADA,”

“Did he kiss you? Did he forcibly kiss you Y/N?!" Rafael was ready to crawl through the phone.

“Baby,” You put a hand over the receiver. “Maybe I should take this in there, so I can really yell at him without upsetting the girls,”

“Oh, I think I’ll come with, dear,” He stood up and took your hand while holding the gun behind his back. “Hey babies me and mommy will be right back, gotta refill the snacks!”

The girls barely acknowledged him, too engrossed in the move as you and him walked into the kitchen away from their eyes and ears.

“Now where were we?” Billy gestured to the phone, encouraging you to continue.

“Rafael, if you hadn’t sided with Olivia after she literally attacked me, I would have--” You looked at Billy. What were you gonna say you never would have gone back to him? That would surely result in a bullet in your head.

“You wouldn’t have left and walked straight into that monster’s arms, I know amor--”

“Hey, no no-- no amor, amigo,” Billy warned. “She ain’t yours anymore, comprende?”

“.....Look, Billy and I are-- starting over. He apologized for leaving me and we’re gonna make our family work. So just--” You had to hurt him to save him; if he tried coming after you Billy would surely kill him.

“....Just go be with your fucking detective and leave us the fuck alone!” You started to cry, unable to help it. You really were overcome with anger and sadness, though you really sure which was more apparent right now.

“Awww, see Barba?” Billy wiped your tears with his thumb. “You went and made my baby cry,”

“She is NOT your--”

“Oh I think we all established who belongs to who now, Barba, don’t you think?” He mocked him, referring to Oliva's little crush on him.

“Now, listen to my wife and leave us the fuck alone. Or pay the price,” He warned one last time before hanging up.

“Can you believe the nerve of that guy?” Billy gave you a smile and a half laugh.

“Yeah, totally…” You nervously laughed. “Billy, now that that’s-- done, can we just--” You glanced at the gun. “Can we just be us, now? No...protection, needed?”

“Y’know what babe, I think that’s a great idea,” He nodded, pulling out one of your drawers and placing the gun inside it. Then he took a lock from the drawer and put it in the drawer, locking it tight and putting the key in his pocket.

“Can’t be too careful with kiddos around the house,” He gave you a sly grin before pulling you into a deep, sloppy kiss. This time you didn’t dare back away or resist, you just kissed him back.

You hated yourself for thinking it, but for a second it felt nice, memories of when you’d have secret make out sessions in the kitchen like this while the girls watched a movie all the time came flooding back to you. But this wasn’t that, this wasn’t the same at all.

“Y’know…” Billy looked in on the girls. “They’re pretty into that movie, and the sequel is next in the queue,”

“So…?” You didn’t like where this was headed.

“Sooooooo,” He replied in a singsong tone, his eyebrows wiggling. “I say we get….reacquainted , while we can,”

Oh god. He meant sex. He wanted to have sex with you right now.

“Oh um--Billy,” You blushed. “I haven’t...I don’t...have any protection,”

“So what?” He waved his hands. “So we’ll have another baby, we can handle it! Come on babe, just like the old days. I’ll even do that thing you like…”

You tried not to physically vomit at the thought of carrying any more of this man's children. God, there was no way of getting out of this was there?

“....Okay, sounds...awesome,” You did your best to get an arousal smile going.

“Good,” He picked you up bridal style. “Girls, mommy and daddy are gonna have some alone time, be good!”

“Ew, gross dad,” You could hear Maggie fake gagging. “TMI!”

“She has gotten so sassy, that one,” He laughed as he groped your mouth with his lips and tongue, hauling you off the to bedroom.

------

Olivia’s Office

Rafael stormed into the bullpen, where Olivia was already briefing the team on the new developments.

“Barba,” She smiled nervously. “Just the man I wanted to see,”

“...Why?” Rafael looked around at all of them with curious eyes.

“Why don’t we talk in my office?” She led Rafael into her office and closed the door.

“Liv look--”

“Now Rafa I know you don’t want to, but you’re going to need to give up Y/N’s address,”

“What? No! Why?” Rafael shut that down real quick.

“Because we know that’s where they are,” Olivia stated like it was totally obvious.

“You mean where he has her,” Rafael clarified.

“He has her?” She laughed. “She went willingly--”

“Because I betrayed her!” Rafael cried angrily.

“Excuse me?”

“Look, Liv--” He sighed and took her hands. “You are my best friend, and I’ll-- I’ll go down swinging for you, you know that,”

“But--??”

“But--” He sighed harder. “Y-You have to think about what it looks like to outsiders, what you did to Lewis--”

“What I did to him?” Her eyes went wide with shock. “What about what he--”

“I know,” He stopped her by gripping her hands tighter. “And--And I’m sure it was hell, whatever he put you through. But--”

“Well, go on,” Olivia scoffed, tears coming to her eyes as her best friend turned on her.

“....It is all just hearsay,” He gave her a sympathetic shrug.

“Are you serious?” Olivia did her best not to flat out scream in rage. “You don’t believe that I had--”

“I believe that you did what you thought you had to do,” Rafael assured her. Olivia scoffed and moved away from him, not believing this was happening.

“And- And I know Lewis is a monster, but I should have handled it better with Y/N. Especially because I know how charming and silver tongued he is. And she was--- is, in love with him,” Rafael looked down at the floor as he remembered your words.

Could you have just been saying that to hurt him? Because he was choosing Olivia? You didn’t look like you loved Lewis in that photo he sent him. For fuck’s sake he had a gun on you to keep you sitting there. And you didn’t sound fine on the phone. He knew you. Even if Lewis knew you longer, Rafael was sure he knew you better. He knew you were in trouble.

“But he has her there against her will,” He finished firmly.

“Oh please--” She laughed cruelly.

“Does this look like compliance to you?!” Rafael shoved the photo Lewis had sent him in Olivia’s face. She blinked at it, trying not to have a PTSD freak out just seeing Lewis’s grinning ghoul face.

“And he said if I send cops there, he will kill her,” Rafael's voice shook as he thought of what could happen to you.

“So you just wanna let him walk?” Olivia asked accusingly.

“NO,” Rafael said very adamantly. “But I’m saying we need to do this smartly, not just go in there guns blazing. Besides Y/N, she’s got two little girls in there. We can’t get them in the crossfire,”

“No, of course not,” Olivia nodded in agreement for the first time. If there was one thing she was on the same page with Rafael, it was protecting the kids.

“Thank you,” Rafael gave her a small smile and a hug. “...Are you going to be able to handle this?”

“What, because it involves the woman you love, or the psychopath that I hate?”

“Both,”

“I think I can cope,” Olivia gave him a look as she opened the door to her office back into the bullpen.

“Alright troops,” She announced to the squad.

“Time to get to work,”

[bibbawrites]

Made Your Mark On Me, a Golden Tattoo - Single Dad!Charlie x Owen

THIS IS PART 10 OF THE SINGLE DAD!CHARLIE SERIES, YOU CAN FIND THE OTHER PARTS HERE

Request: none

Word Count: 3760 words

Summary: Part 10 of Single Dad!Charlie, Owen comes to LA to stay with Charlie, Margaux and Meghan, and the boys go on their first date

Warnings: swearing, sexual references, implied sexual content pretty sure everyone knows at this point but this does include romantic chowen, remember this is fictional, if you dont like that just dont read :)

A/N: another day another part lol, i have far too much written for this series considering there is no demand for it but i’m enjoying it so i’m gonna keep writing purely just for @happinessinthedarkesttimes​ and myself lol also! a new nickname for margaux has been unlocked haha she has far too many cause every person keeps giving her their own nickname and ive lost count of how many there are... anyways, enjoy! 

Tag List:  @happinessinthedarkesttimes @molinaroberts @joynersgoatblog @courageous-she​ @littlemissaddict @gloomybrieyxb​ @itsyagorlemmalyn @jatpxmultifan​ @moneybagmgk​ @emeliii1​ @mybradforddream​ (the strike through means it wont let me tag you)

Char sent a message to OPJ

Char owweeeennnnnnnnnnn

Char come to la

OPJ why?

Char i miss you

Char wanna kiss your pretty face

Char and your pretty lips

Char and your pretty 🍆

OPJ charlieeeeeee

Char what? i did nothing wrong

OPJ you just said you wanna suck my dick

Char i never said such a thing

Char read the messages, i only said i would like to kiss your pretty face and your pretty lips and your pretty 🍆

OPJ and we all know what that emoji means

Char get your head out of the gutter honestly

Char maybe i just love eggplant

OPJ ugh whatever

Char so will you?

OPJ will i what?

Char come to la

Char we’ve been officially boyfriends for almost three months and we haven’t even had our first date yet

OPJ when do you want me

Char right now

OPJ that’s not possible bub

Char bub?

OPJ trying something, yes or no?

Char meh i don’t hate it

OPJ i’ll keep looking then

Char anyways, i booked you a flight...

OPJ char you didn’t have to

Char i know i’m just so desperate to see you

OPJ what time and day?

Char ...

Char today 3pm...

OPJ it’s 11am now

Char you better get packing

OPJ already am 

Char oh i know you are ;)

OPJ i didnt mean it like that and you know it

OPJ you’re gonna be the death of me Gillespie

Char i know ❤️

-

The second Charlie spotted Owen exiting the gate he was jumping into the blond’s arms, glad that they both had masks on to prevent him from kissing Owen senseless with hundreds of people around.

“God I missed you.” He muttered, face pressed into Owen’s neck. 

“I missed you more.” Owen replied, pulling back slightly. “Where’s Maggie?”

“With Meghan. She’s visiting for a little bit so she offered to look after her while I came to get you.” Charlie explained, grabbing Owen’s carry on as they headed through the airport to baggage claim. 

“Is she staying with you?” Owen asked. 

“She is, but I may or may not have booked the four of us into a hotel for a few days. She leaves on Thursday so if you wanna stay after that we’ll just go back to my place.” Charlie said. 

“We’re staying in a hotel?” Owen grinned, coming to a stop at the baggage carousel, his eyes focused on looking for his suitcase. 

“Yeah! Mags is pumped, she loves hotels, especially high rise ones. We’re going back to mine to collect the two of them then we’ll head there.” Charlie said

“Does Meghan know about...” Owen trailed off, glancing over at Charlie who shook his head. 

“I didn’t tell her, I wanted to find out what you wanted to do first.” Charlie replied. Owen smiled. 

“I’m okay with telling her.” He said. 

“Or maybe we just act like a couple around her and see how long it takes her to notice.” Charlie suggested and Owen shook his head. 

“You’re evil.” He spotted his bag, leaving Charlie’s side for a few moments before coming back over, his suitcase trailing behind him. 

“Don’t think it will take long, cause the second that front door shuts behind us I’m gonna be all over you.” Charlie grinned, taking Owen’s free hand once the younger boy was back by his side, leading him out of the airport. Owen blushed slightly. 

“Can’t wait.”

-

True to his word, the second that the door was shut Charlie was shoving Owen against the wall and kissing him with so much force that he thought his lips might bleed.

“Fuck, missed you so much.” Charlie mumbled against Owen’s lips, groaning when Owen’s fingers dug into his hips.

“Char...” Owen gasped out and Charlie just kissed him harder, wanting to make up for lost time.

“When you’re done trying to swallow each other, we’re in the kitchen.” Meghan’s voice called and Charlie groaned, stepping back from Owen. He didn’t want to stop, but he knew if they kept going they wouldn’t be able to.

“We should go to them.” He said, and Owen nodded, still slightly stunned from the aggression of the kiss.

“Probably.” He agreed, but neither of them made any attempt to move, so Charlie nuzzled his face into Owen’s neck, just taking in the familiar scent of his boyfriend. 

“This hotel, how is the room situation going?” Owen asked, his hand trailing through Charlie’s hair. Charlie lifted his head up.

“I booked a two bedroom suite. Margaux and Meghan can share one room and we’ll take the other.” He said. Owen smiled. 

“Okay good.” He replied. Charlie raised an eyebrow. 

“Why?” He asked. 

“Remember your texts?” Owen smirked, and Charlie’s eyes widened at the realisation. 

“Don’t be so horny.” He muttered, hitting at Owen’s arm. Owen grinned. 

“Says the guy who just had me pressed up against a wall.” He retaliated. 

“We can hear you, you know that right?” Meghan called, and both Charlie and Owen froze. 

“We did not.” Charlie called back, and both boys decided that was their cue to head into the kitchen, where Meghan and Margaux were waiting.  

“Papa!” Margaux exclaimed the second they entered the room, jumping down off her chair and rushing over to Owen, jumping into his arms. Meghan gave Charlie a look, eyebrows raised. 

“So, finally got your shit together then?” She questioned. Charlie glanced towards Owen and Margaux, a smile appearing on his face when he saw the way the four year old was clinging to the blond boy. 

This was how things were supposed to be. 

- 

Less than an hour later the family of four had checked into their home for the next few days and travelled up to the fourteenth floor to find their room. 

Once they found it Charlie tapped the keycard against the door and pushed on the handle when the light changed to green. Margaux pushed past him, running into the room and heading straight towards the door to the balcony, pressing her face into the glass. 

“Woah!” She exclaimed, standing on her toes to try to see the road below. 

“Good view?” Charlie asked, placing the bags he was carrying down on the couch, before opening the door and letting Margaux out onto the balcony, trailing closely behind her as Margaux rushed over to the railing. 

“Look Daddy.” She grinned as Charlie squatted down behind her, placing a hand on her back gently. 

“Wow look how tiny those people are.” Charlie said, and Margaux giggled. 

“They’re ants!” She replied, leaning back into Charlie. 

“For someone who travels as much as she does you’d think she’d be used to it by now.” Meghan joked quietly to Owen as the two of them stood and watched the interaction.

“Especially since we lived in an apartment building in Vancouver while we filmed.” Owen replied. 

“Kids.” Meghan shook her head in amusement.

“You wanna see your room baby?” Charlie questioned, and Margaux nodded excitedly. 

“Okay let’s figure it out.” Charlie stood back up, taking Margaux’s hand and leading her back into the main room. 

“Am I gonna stay with you Daddy?” Margaux asked, and Charlie shook his head. 

“No you’re gonna stay with Meggy.” He said, motioning towards his younger sister. 

“It’s gonna be like a sleepover.” Meghan grinned. Margaux pouted. 

“But I wanna stay with Daddy.” She whined. 

“You’ll be with Daddy until you have to go to sleep, okay?” Charlie told her, pushing open the door, revealing the room with the two double beds.

“And look at this nice big bed you get to stay in all by yourself. You can fit all of your toys around you.” He added, and Margaux frowned but didn’t protest. 

“Which bed do you want Mini? The window one?” Meghan questioned. 

Margaux glanced at the beds before nodding. Charlie placed her bag onto the bed, unzipping it to reveal the several stuffed toys and dolls they had packed.

“Look, we’ll put all your friends on your bed.” He said as he placed the toys out onto the bed, pulling out Margaux’s blanket last. “And your blankie, and look how nice this looks. You’ll have so much fun sleeping here.”

“And we can even sing with each other at night, or gossip about secret girl stuff.” Meghan added, sitting on the edge of her own bed. 

“What girl stuff?” Margaux questioned, climbing up next to her aunt and snuggling into her arms. 

“Butterflies and glitter.” Charlie joked, and Owen rolled his eyes at the reference, turning and leaving the room as a response.

“We’ll stay up all night talking about boys.” Meghan grinned and Charlie’s smile instantly turned into a frown. 

“Hey! No.” He reprimanded.

“I’m joking Charlie, don’t be a party pooper.” Meghan rolled her eyes. 

“You joke, but we had a full conversation a month ago about how someone wants a boyfriend.” Charlie said, and Margaux looked up. 

“I want a boyfriend.” She chimed in. Meghan laughed. 

“You’re four, why do you need a boyfriend?” She asked. Margaux frowned. 

“Daddy has a boyfriend.” She stated. Meghan smirked, looking up at Charlie. 

“Does he now?” She teased. 

“Shut the fuck up, you knew that. You literally just asked if I had gotten my shit together.” Charlie said, and Meghan rolled her eyes at him. 

“You didn’t confirm it.” She retorted. Charlie shook his head. 

“Hey Meghan, Owen’s my boyfriend.” He stated, ignoring the flutter in his chest at those words. 

“Wow! Thank you so much for telling me, that’s so nice of you!” Meghan replied, her tone thick with sarcasm. 

“Don’t be sarcastic.” Charlie retaliated. 

“What’s that Taylor Swift lyric? The one about looking at him like the stars, that’s you and him. It’s honestly about time that you got your shit together.” Meghan said, flopping backwards onto her bed, giggling when Margaux climbed on top of her. 

“Tay’s my boyfriend.” The tiny blonde stated and Charlie sighed.

“Who?” Meghan shot him a confused look. 

“Taylor Kare. Who played the young version of Bobby in the show. For some reason she’s decided she wants him to be her boyfriend.” Charlie explained. Meghan grinned. 

“I don’t blame her, he’s cute.” She said. Charlie shot her a look and she rolled her eyes before sitting up, Margaux clinging to her like a koala. 

“Hey Mini, why don’t we go get some food and bring it back while your Daddy unpacks all of your stuff.” Meghan suggested. Margaux smiled. 

“Yeah! Can we get KFC?” She asked. 

“Of course we can.” Meghan grinned, before turning to Charlie. “Want anything?”

“Just get one of those big buckets of chicken and we’ll figure it out.” He said as Meghan stood up, grabbing her mask. 

“Okay. I’m stealing your wallet.” She told him. 

“Of course you are.” Charlie rolled his eyes, but handed his wallet over to his younger sister nonetheless, before leaning in to kiss Margaux gently on the side of her head. 

“Bye baby, have fun and be good for Meggy, okay?” He said. Margaux nodded. 

“Bye Daddy, love you.” She replied. 

“Love you too.” Charlie smiled. 

Meghan and Margaux left, the four year old chattering away in her aunty’s arms about something she had seen in Bluey, and Charlie waited until he couldn’t hear their voices anymore to move. 

“Owen?” He called, starting to head across the suite to the room he and Owen were sharing. 

“Yeah?” Owen called back. Charlie pushed open the door, finding a much larger room with a large king size bed in the middle of the room, and a flat screen tv hung on the wall. Owen was unpacking his bag, hanging clothes in the wardrobe, when Charlie entered. 

“Meg and Mags went to get food.” Charlie told him. 

“Okay cool.” Owen replied, looking up after a few moments and frowning when he saw the look on Charlie’s face. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Remember the texts?” Charlie raised an eyebrow and Owen’s eyes lit up. 

“Come here.” He said, but Charlie didn’t move. 

“We’ve gotta be quick.” Charlie informed him and Owen nodded. 

“Got it.”

And with that Charlie rushed over to Owen, kicking the door shut behind him.

-

They were a naked mess of sweaty bodies and tangled limbs when Charlie decided to bring up their plans for the night. 

“Oh by the way, I have our date planned.” He said as Owen played with his hair. 

“Am I allowed to know what it is? Or when?” Owen questioned. Charlie nodded slightly. 

“Tonight. At 10:30pm.” He informed the blonde. “And it’s a surprise.” 

“10:30?” Owen repeated. Charlie hummed in response. Owen sighed. 

“That’s all I’m getting?”

“Yep.” Charlie murmured. 

“We’re back!” Meghan’s voice called through the suite and both Charlie and Owen jumped up in fear. 

“Fuck, get dressed.” Charlie instructed, tossing clothes towards Owen, before calling back to Meghan. “Coming!”

In record time they were both dressed and came out of the bedroom, trying to look as casual as possible as they walked over to the table where Meghan had placed all the food. 

“Daddy, you didn’t unpack my stuff.” Margaux pouted, and Charlie placed a soft kiss on the top of her head as an apology. 

“Sorry baby, Daddy got distracted.” He told her as he grabbed some food for her and put it on one of the plates Owen had brought over to the table. 

“Oh gross, you didn’t.” Meghan groaned, glancing between Charlie and Owen, who had turned a bright red in embarrassment. Charlie just shrugged, a guilty smile on his face. Meghan fake gagged. 

“That’s disgusting Char.” She reprimanded. Charlie shook his head. 

“It’s natural.” He retaliated. Meghan hit him. 

“Shut up, I don’t want to know anything else.” She said. The table fell silent for a moment, before Margaux decided to speak up. 

“Daddy we saw a puppy when we were walking.” She grinned, and Charlie pulled a shocked face. 

“Oh my gosh, really? Tell me all about it.” He replied, and for the entire meal Margaux rambled, telling them story after story. 

-

Just before 10:30, Charlie and Owen arrived at their date destination. Owen looked up at the sign, frowning slightly when he saw it. 

“A tattoo parlour?” He questioned. Charlie smiled, despite the fact that Owen couldn’t see it through his mask. 

“You’ve been talking about getting a new tattoo, so I figured we could get a new one together.” He suggested. Owen’s frown melted, a soft look replacing it. 

“Why is that oddly sweet?” He teased, leaning his head into Charlie’s shoulder. Charlie grinned. 

“Cause I’m oddly sweet?” He replied. Owen laughed. 

“That you are.” 

“Do you have any ideas of what you wanna get?” Charlie questioned as he held the door open. Owen gave him a small smile, walking through the door as he answered. 

“I have a couple of ideas.” He said. “Things that I think would look cool.” 

“Oh yeah? Like what?” Charlie’s eyes lit up with curiosity. Owen shook his head. 

“Secret. Want it to be a surprise.” He grinned. Charlie chuckled. 

“Fair enough.” 

After going through the basics and signing some paperwork, it was time for them to get their tattoos. The tattoo artist led them through to the backroom and for the whole time they were there Charlie and Owen didn’t once let go of each other’s hands. 

- 

The two boys left the tattoo parlour a few hours later, hand in hand and new tattoos covered in a protective cling film. 

“Do you wanna head back?” Charlie questioned, swinging their hands between them. Owen sighed. 

“Not really, but we probably should. It’s late.” He answered. Charlie nodded in agreement. 

“True. Plus the date doesn’t have to end just because we go back to the hotel... There’s a nice comfy bed and some red wine with our names on it.” He raised an eyebrow and Owen smiled. 

“Fancy.” 

“Only the best for you.” Charlie grinned, and Owen pulled him close, pulling down their masks so that their lips could meet in a rough kiss. 

And if it took them almost an hour to make the 15 minute walk back to the hotel then that was just between them. 

-

Charlie unlocked the door to the hotel room and pushed it open, frowning when he spotted Margaux sat on the ground, staring out the window at the city lights.  

“Why are you still awake Mags?” He asked as he pulled off his mask, drawing the four year old’s attention to them. 

“Missed you.” She said softly, her voice wobbling. 

“Oh baby, come here.” Charlie squatted down and the four year old ran into his arms, burying her face in his neck. Owen nodded towards their bedroom and Charlie gave him a small smile to let the younger boy know he understood. 

“You were gone but you said you wouldn’t go.” Margaux mumbled. 

“You knew I was gonna go out with Papa for a little bit, remember? It’s okay, I’m back, and I promise I’m not going anywhere. Okay?” He tangled his hand through her curls and the four year old hummed in response. 

“Okay.” She agreed, her voice no louder than a whisper. Thinking quickly, Charlie decided the best course of action would be distraction. 

“Hey, you wanna see Daddy’s new tattoos?” He asked, and Margaux nodded, moving back slightly. Charlie smiled at her. 

“First I got this one here.” He lifted his arm to show her the heart tattoo on his ribcage, the plastic mostly obscuring it. 

“And I got this one here for my favourite person in the whole entire world.” He finished, showing her the tiny cursive M inked into his wrist.

“An M for Margaux, so I always have you with me.” He said, and she peered at the tiny ink on his wrist, a small smile appearing on her face. 

“I like it.” She told him. “Can I have one?” Charlie laughed.

“When you’re all grown up, okay?” He replied, ruffling her hair. 

“Okay.” She agreed. They fell silent, and Charlie was just about to suggest that it was time for Margaux to hop into her bed when she spoke up again. 

“Daddy?” Her voice sounded small. 

“Yeah baby?” Charlie replied. 

“Can I sleep with you tonight?” Margaux questioned, already leaning back into his arms. 

“Of course baby. You got Mr Penguin?” He asked. 

She held the penguin up and Charlie grinned.

“Great, let’s go.” 

He stood up, taking her spare hand to lead her towards the bedroom, pushing the door open to where Owen was sat, already in bed with Netflix loaded on the TV. 

“Papa! I’m gonna sleep here with you.” Margaux exclaimed, diving onto the bed as Owen raised an eyebrow, looking towards Charlie with a knowing look.

“Oh really? What about your bed?” He asked.

“She was sad.” Charlie pouted, and Owen just shook his head. 

“Come on baby, in you get.” Charlie said, letting the four year old climb into the bed before climbing in after her, grinning when she settled into his arms, her head on his chest. 

It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep, and once she did, Owen spoke up, his voice soft. 

“You know one day you gotta stop letting her climb into bed with you.” He whispered. Charlie made a noise in response, his eyes never once leaving Margaux. 

“One day... just not today.” He replied. 

“The longer you give in the harder it’s gonna be for you. Cause I know it’s as much you as it is her.” Owen said, and Charlie sighed, his fingers tangled through Margaux’s curls as the four year old slept peacefully in his arms. 

“I know.” He started. “I just...” 

Owen reached out, linking his hand through one of Charlie’s and giving it a light squeeze. 

“It’s stupid.” Charlie mumbled. Owen moved slightly, placing a kiss on the side of Charlie’s head. 

“I’m sure it’s not.” He assured the older boy. Charlie was silent for a moment before talking. 

“She’s just always been with me and has always needed me to do everything for her, and now she’s getting older and she can do all of these things on her own, and I just get worried that she’s not gonna need me any more, or she’ll decide that she doesn’t want these nights where she asks to sleep with me.” He rambled. 

“You’re her dad. She’s always gonna need you Char.” Owen assured him. Charlie hummed in response, and Owen took that as a sign to change the topic, a small smile appearing on his face. 

“So I’m guessing no post date make out session or red wine.” He joked, and Charlie sighed. 

“Sorry.” He muttered. Owen rolled his eyes, snuggling as close to Charlie as he could get without disturbing Margaux. 

“I was joking Char.” He said, and Charlie moved to place a soft kiss on Owen’s lips. 

“I had a really good time tonight.” Owen whispered against Charlie’s lips and Charlie smiled. 

“Me too.” He agreed. 

“Do we have any plans tomorrow?” Owen inquired, and Charlie paused for a moment. 

“Not that I know of. Why? Have something in mind?” He moved back slightly so that he could look at Owen’s face. 

“I thought maybe the four of us could go play mini golf or something like that?” Owen suggested. Charlie smiled. 

“That sounds like a lot of fun.” He answered. They fell into a comfortable silence, both boys closing their eyes, but there was something that Charlie knew he had to say. He opened his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking.  

“Hey Owen?” He whispered. Owen opened his eyes, focusing on Charlie instantly. 

“Yeah?” He questioned. Charlie smiled. 

“I love you.” He murmured. Owen smiled, rubbing his nose against Charlie’s. 

“Love you too Char.” He replied. Charlie shook his head. 

“No... I’m in love with you.” He clarified. Owen’s jaw dropped slightly, but he recovered quickly. 

“I’m in love with you too.” He returned, and Charlie lent in to kiss him gently. 

“It scares me.” Owen whispered once they pulled apart. “How much I love you.” 

“Honestly, me too. But we’re in this together. And I love you as much as you love me, so don’t overthink it, okay?” Charlie replied.

“Okay.” Owen agreed. 

“We should get some sleep.” Charlie said after a moment and Owen nodded, placing once last kiss to Charlie’s lips. 

“Sounds good. I love you.” He whispered, and Charlie could already feel himself drifting off as he whispered a response. 

“I love you too Owen.” 

[johannstutt413]

(requested by mathmaticalknight) TOURNAMENT ARC

Nearl was in her room, tending to her equipment, when there was a knock on her door. “I wonder who that might be...Maria?”

“Sister!” Blemishine wrapped her arms around Margaret’s neck and pulled her in for a close and loud hug (armor plates). “It took me forever to find someone who knew the way to your place, but you’re actually here!”

“When did you get her, Maria? I thought you and Zofia were still working out the details.”

The other Nearl simply beamed at her. “She said she’d be here soon and that I could go ahead. It’s a good thing I did, too - there are posters all over saying you’re fighting someone today. Is that true?”

“I am, yes,” she confirmed. “The Doctor organized a tourney for Operators in all positions to prove themselves, if they so desire.”

“Are you gonna go easy on them, or is the Radiant Knight going to be fighting in a new venue?” The look on Maria’s face was a blend of concern and excitement - after all, it’s not every day she got to see her sister fight.

The older Nearl thought about it for a moment before going for another hug. “My opponent is my sparring partner, and I know she will be giving this fight her all. It would be a dishonor not to do the same.”

“Then I’ll be watching you from the stands.” She sighed. “Next time I see you, though, can we hug without all this metal in the way?”

“If you’d like, you can come to dinner with me.” Margaret hadn’t had the chance to ‘properly’ introduce her to her girlfriends, after all.

Blemishine nodded. “That sounds good to me...Alright, you need to finish preparing for your fight, so I’m going to find the Doctor. I heard there’s an Engineering Department here, and I want to go talk to them before the match. Good luck!”

“Thank you, Maria.” As the shining knight left, the Radiant Knight returned to her maintenance. “Tonight, however, luck will not be a factor.”

TOURNAMENT ARC: NEARL VS HOSHIGUMA (continuing...sort of from this [I keep forgetting which ships are already established in some of this multiverse soup going on; can’t make it a direct continuation because of the first fic in that two-part series, but Tourney!RI still has a horse triumvirate nonetheless. ANYWAY.])

——–

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, Operators, Staff, and Esteemed Guests! Welcome one and all to the Top Operator Tourney!!! *crowd cheers*

“Thanks, Hung! I love how consistent he is with that...Anyways, hi! You’re probably wondering why we’re here-”

“We should introduce ourselves first, Swire.”

“Good point, good point. Well, I’m Swire, aka Hoshi’s biggest fan, and here with me in the commentator’s booth is Meteor. You’re Nearl’s girlfriend, right?”

“That is why I’m here, yes. I appreciate the Doctor allowing us to do this, especially since you and I don’t talk very often. Do you have the statistics in front of you? My tablet and I are having a fight.”

“Yeah, I’ve got ‘em. *clears throat* So, looking at the numbers, my girl’s got the advantage when it comes to size, experience and stamina, but Nearl is faster, more tactical, AND she’s got some serious Arts at her disposal. Hoshi’s got an uphill battle ahead of her, I say.”

“It’s important to note that Margaret Nearl and Hoshiguma both are in the top three seeds for the Defender bracket - first and third respectively - which means regardless of the apparent discrepancy, both are incredibly skilled combatants. Accounting for the amount of time they spend dueling each other to keep their skills sharp, and I suspect this fight will be much closer than the numbers would imply.”

“I certainly hope so! No offense, but I do want Hoshi to win this - if Nearl loses, you’re still in the tourney, after all.”

“That is true...But we’ll simply have to agree to disagree.”

“Yeah. Well, let’s get to the action!...Also, why did you say her actual name rather than her codename?”

——–

Hoshiguma and Nearl walked into the coliseum, fully prepared for the fight ahead of them. The Oni took up a defensive stance, holding her shield just above the ground and planting her feet. “Well, Marge, today’s the day. Promise you’re not gonna hold back on me?”

“I swear by my honor as a knight: today, I will not stay my hand.” The Kuranta unsheathed her blade, already glowing beneath the bright lights above. “I entrust your life to the Medics of Rhodes Island. Ready?”

“It’s your time, not mine.”

A curious turn of phrase...With that, the fight was on.

Nearl’s first goal was knocking out that shield arm. Fixing amputations was something the Medics could do (at least, Aak and Warfarin could), but ideally she wouldn’t have to do that much damage. She charged forward, feinted going one direction but bounded the opposite way, and swung for her opponent’s arm, lighting up her blade as she did with a dazzling gleam-

-only for Hoshi to pull her arm towards her body, forcing the Knight to clip the shield instead and feel the sting of her opponent’s Thorns. “You’re taking this seriously. Good.”

“Of course I am.” The Kuranta had lost all her forward momentum thanks to the deflection, but that didn’t stop her from spinning around; her next attack was an attempt to knock the Oni’s shield out of the way with her own before landing a sword stroke, once again lighting it up before the attack would land. “Hyah!”

“Good try.” Rather than block the swing, Hoshiguma punched Nearl’s sword arm, taking the blade to her forearm but nevertheless crippling her opponent in the process. The counterattack sent the disarmed warrior backward and left Lungmen’s strongest with a choice: charge forward, get Hannya spinning, and go on the warpath? Stand her ground and do the same?

The Kuranta got to experience the answer firsthand as her opponent began to simultaneously spin her shield and run forward. ‘I can’t let her hit me with that attack, whatever it takes...’ Unfortunately, she didn’t have enough time to get to her feet and get out of the way. There was only one option she could see...

——–

“Alright, she’s getting to her feet; she’s not done yet, but damn Hoshi’s spinning Hannya as fast as she can.”

“Margaret, what are you doing?! Get out of the way!”

“She’s holding her shield up with both hands- wait, that light-”

“Glasses on!” *flash* “...No!”

“There’s no way she’s getting up after that...Aak and Warfarin are making their way out. Hoshi’s tossed Hannya to the side and seems to be trying to help.”

“She’s done enough.”

“Meteor, you’ve seen some of the other fights-”

“They didn’t have my Marg’ret in them...We’re done here, right?”

“Yeah, that’s all she wrote. Everyone at home, have a good night, and we should have FEater and Click back up here next time. Thanks for tuning in!...I’m gonna make sure my co-host doesn’t do something she regrets.”

——–

By the time Meteor had made it to Medical, there was a small group in the waiting room. Platinum and Blemishine were talking cordially, Swire was talking to Ptilopsis at the desk, and Hoshiguma...Hoshiguma was there, in a chair, as stoic as she’d ever seen her.

That stoicism didn’t change when the huntress walked over to her and slapped her across the face.

“Miss Meteor,” Ptilopsis observed from her post; Swire had already turned around after hearing the sound, “violence is not tolerated in the waiting room.”

“It’s alright, Tilly. I deserved it.” The Oni cracked her neck as she looked up at her attacker.

The Kuranta sat down next to her. “At least you agree.”

“I didn’t expect her to try and block me like that,” she continued with a sigh. “The flash actually made it worse for her.”

“Why did she do that? It makes no sense.”

At this point the other two Kuranta in the room walked over; Platinum immediately sat in Meteor’s lap for a chair-hug. “We got here before she did, and they rolled her past us...” There was now a silver-haired puddle in the Sniper’s lap.

“Are all the fights in this tourney like this?” Maria shuddered. “The sport is the same everywhere, I guess.”

“Well, the good news is, Nearl’s Arts were enough to stabilize herself,” Swire reported, joining the group and sitting on the opposite side of Hoshiguma, who immediately set her head on her shoulder.

The huntress, stroking her assassin-girlfriend’s hair, nodded. “Thank you, Swire. I’m sorry we’re meeting like this, Maria.”

“We’ll have a second chance at it when my sister’s back on her-” At that moment, there was the distinctive sound of armor jangling from down the hall. “Eh? One second.”

“It hasn’t been five minutes,” Hoshi muttered as everyone, including herself, stood up.

Sure enough, Blemishine walked around the corner with Nearl’s arm around her shoulder, gear beaten to shit but otherwise okay. “I’m taking her back to her room for a change of clothes, but she and the doctors both said she’s good.”

“Maggie!” Platinum practically became her jacket with that hug. “I’m so glad you’re alright! Even Hoshiguma was worried.”

“I’m not surprised. My training partner proved herself the better fighter today.” The smile the Radiant Knight sent the Oni’s way literally made her take a step back.

Meteor continued the original thread. “You’re feeling alright, though? Does it hurt anywhere?”

“The soreness will remain for a few days, but no lasting damage, certainly.” She looked down at her armor. “Not to my body, at least. Maria, could you help me fix this later this week?”

“Of course I will!” Her sister already had some thoughts on how to stop something like the Spinning Shield of Death from doing so much damage again.

The Feline in the room, glad to hear the all-clear straight from the horse’s mouth, nudged her girlfriend. “Go on, I know you want to say something.”

“I’ll talk to her later.” The Oni picked up her girlfriend. “Let’s go home.”

“Hoshi?” Nearl called out to her, and she froze.

The moneycat in her arms answered for her. “Yes, Nearl? Margaret, more specifically?”

“Either is fine.” Another warm smile. “That was a good fight. Good luck in the rest of the tournament.”

“...Thank you, Maggie. Goodnight, everyone.”

New destination: the bar.

[amelink66world]

Love of my Life

Heyy guys!!! This is the next part in my multi-fic. You can even read this story on wattpad by the same name. Enjoyyy!

Caught in the Act!!

Calling their act of keeping their relationship under wraps 'stressful' was an understatement. When they decided to break their promise of 'taking things slow', announcing that they were together in front of the entire hospital on the loud speaker was not discussed. Already hiding it from Meredith was daunting enough. Amelia was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to tell her. She just needed some time to brace herself for the opinions and thoughts Mer would have about them.

In the mean time, keeping her hands off the gorgeous Ortho God tarting around in those tight, little blue scrubs added more to the injury. Link was definitely doing it on purpose. On more occasions than she could remember, he often caught her drooling while he consulted on a patient in the ER. He would merely smirk in her direction and leave. JUST LEAVE!! Look at the nerve of that sexy, filthy, dirty, little man. Riling me up like this. She huffed in frustration and always went after him. It was like a game they were playing. He frequently sought her out in her lab during his free time between surgeries, trying to pry her out of her chair. This was the time where she played hard to get and he would get so aroused that he would literally pull her out of her chair and push her in the direction of the on-call room. Amelia was more than happy to comply.

Today was no different. She was reviewing her charts at the nurse's station when somebody slid close to her, bumping shoulders. She didn't even have to look up to know who it was, she just knew Link's touch. She smirked when he started rubbing their arms together silently urging her on. She locked eyes with him, smiling and got lost in his stormy grey orbs. He was definitely seeking some action. Time for some aerobics! 

                 He desperately wanted to kiss that smug expression right off her face in front of the entire hallway but he knew he couldn't do that. Word spread like a wild fire in this damn hospital and he knew Amelia needed some time to go public. So he respected her decision but that didn't stop him from staring into her beautiful, ocean blue eyes. God he loved those eyes. They were the most beautiful, innocent and equally sexiest pair of eyes he had ever seen!

After a few seconds of staring, Amelia sharply nodded and entered the nearest on-call room without attracting attention. Link stealthily followed seconds later. As soon as he was inside, he felt himself being forcefully pushed against the door with Amelia attacking his lips. He smirked at her eagerness and responded immediately. His arms went around her body to her ass and he squeezed her butt cheeks roughly, bringing their hips closer than ever. Amelia groaned in his mouth and Link used this opportunity to deepen the kiss. She buried her fingers in his soft, dirty blonde hair overwhelmed with how good Link's swirling tongue felt.

            Link switched their positions and it was him now who did the pushing against the door. Amelia groaned and hooked a leg around his waist rubbing their cores together. Link growled and broke the kiss, moving to her jaw, almost marking her. He knew how much she liked it. He pushed his hands inside her scrub top, inching them swiftly to her breasts. He roughly squeezed her breasts, making her moan loudly. Amelia was panting with arousal and tugged at his hair sharply. She pried his hands away from her with much resistance to yank his scrub top off of him.

She unabashedly stared at his bare torso for a few long seconds then ran her fingers through his muscular chest and rock, hard abs. God I love this man's body! Freaking Adonis.

Link was smirking and letting her enjoy the view but the twitch in his pants was becoming unbearable. It was as if she could read his mind and suddenly slid her hand inside his pants, groping him. Link groaned and twitched swiftly in her expert fingers and palm. Motivated by his reaction by what she did to him she sank to her knees and pulled down his pants along with his boxers. She looked up in his eyes before taking him in her mouth. Link groaned loudly and overwhelmed with pleasure, rested his forehead against the door. Save me from this Goddess!!! Fearing he won't be able to last long at her frequent pace, he pulled her up by her neck. Amelia licked her lips and smiled innocently up at Link. He could actually feel his eyes almost turning black and attacked her.

                   He almost tore her scrub top whilst fervently kissing her. He pushed her pants down and moved down to her neck. He nipped at her pulse point and she but her lip in anticipation. He squeezed her ass before pulling her legs around his waist and started maneuvering them towards the bed. Amelia yelped at this sudden change and held onto his shoulders for dear life. He was kissing her breasts when he pushed her down on the bed, between the sheets. Amelia was confident she had never moaned like this before. It was like she had unleashed an animal. His touch was igniting a passionate fire inside her body. She was tingling all over. Heck she feared she might come right then!!  They hadn't even gotten to the part where the real action happens!!

She was so overwhelmed with pleasure that she never even realised when he maneuvered his hand south. She arched her body and groaned oh, so loudly when she felt his cool finger down there. Her voice was hoarse and thick with arousal. Link was having a hard time keeping himself in control. Her voice was slowly breaking his resolve. His lips were swiftly and smoothly moving down her jaw but she could swear that he had a smug smile on his face. He will definitely be the death of me! She sighed and arched into his body when he added a finger. She was completely going out of her mind and was about to reach ecstasy when BAM...

The couple whipped their heads to the door and came face to face with none other than...

"ALEX!!!!", Amelia screeched at a wide-eyed and grimacing Alex and Link recovered from his state of initial shock to quickly cover them with the sheet in the hope of saving whatever dignity they had left. Every single person in the room was astonished at the turn of events, Amelia more than others. WHAT THE HELL MAN!!! I WAS JUST ABOUT TO FINISH! UGGHH.

Alex grumbled loudly and hurriedly replaced the shock registered on his face with a grimace. " Wait. This is happening too??!! Now when did this start?! "

He cursed under his breath, " My freaking luck! First Nico and Glasses and now you two! I'm running a mad house here!! "  He then loudly said, " This place is filled with horny teenagers who cannot keep it in their pants!! Can't even sleep around here...and I'm not talking about sleeping with people!! " He groaned audibly.

Alex was beyond appalled with this course of development. He considered Amelia more like a sister and kind of felt a protective twinge towards her but also knew that she was with Link. That guy was the kindest person he had ever met ! At least he was happy that she had found someone who could keep her happy. No matter how much he liked having these two around, he no way in hell wanted to be in this situation and witness them bumping uglies.

Alex was so engrossed in his thoughts that he actually forgot the part where he barged in on Amelia and Link having sex!! When he still didn't seem to move, both of them simultaneously shouted,

"Alex, get your ass out of here!!"

"Come on, maaaan. Please go! "

That seemed to break his reverie and he grumbled before slamming the on-call room door and practically running out. The couple couldn't actually comprehend what just happened and stared at the closed door. Amelia, wide-eyed, turned towards Link to gauge his reaction and found his mirroring hers. They turned their astonished faces towards each other and both noticed the teasing and bright gleam in their eyes. They couldn't hold it in any longer and broke out into a fit of laughter. Link half collapsed on her body and half on the mattress but she didn't seem to care about his weight and continued laughing. Amelia was kind of famous and known for always barging in on people or interrupting them whilst having sex but this was the first time something like this happened with her. God! Now I know what Addison and Maggie and many others would've felt!

Link was now lying next to her, facing her. The laughter slowly died down and they just laid there staring at each other with radiant smiles on their faces. Link suddenly got worried. " Now the secret is out! Alex will obviously tell Meredith. What are we gonna do?! "

Amelia weirdly felt really calm and okay with this predicament. All of Link's worry quickly dissolved when he took in her calm exterior. Seeing his confused expression, she answered, " Well I'm no longer worried about Meredith anymore. As long as I lo...like you, nothing else matters. But she is still my sister. I value her opinion but I won't let it cloud my judgement like last time. I'm weirdly comfortable in our relationship and the Revis nothing to worry about even if the whole hospital comes to know about us. Word travels like wild fire in this damn hospital."  Link obviously noticed her almost slip up but was confused as hell. Does she love me too?! As far a I know her, she'll freak out if I reveal my feelings. He ignored his inner turmoil and concentrated on what she was saying. She chuckled. Her voice dropped an octave and she whispered with a smile, " As long as we're together right? "

Link was exuding elation at what she was saying. "As long as we're together, nothing could you. I'll make sure of that. We'll be okay," he whispered softly. Amelia was ecstatic when she heard his words. She gave him the softest of her kisses and gazed into his gentle eyes full of love and endearment with admiration.

Link was blatantly staring in her kind, bright, blue eyes. She always gets this different gleam and shine in her eyes when she laughs and is happy. I've never seen anything prettier than this. He smiled softly at her and gently placed his palm on her cheek, rubbing his thumb softly near her eye. Amelia raised her eyebrows and grew confused why he was grinning so stupidly at her. " What? ", she smiled gently.

Link just leaned in and kissed both her eyelids eliciting a soft sigh from her. His lips then lingered at the corner of her mouth before he pulled away. She leaned into the palm of his hand and sighed. Amelia opened her eyes and saw nothing but adoration and...love? in his eyes. She slightly quirked her eyebrow at him, prying him to answer her stealthily abandoned question. Link just shook his head and marvelled, " Nothing. It's just...your eyes! They hold a certain glint and shine in them. They shine brighter according to your moods. I just love your eyes. They're so beautiful! You...you're so beautiful, Amelia."  She felt so loved at his answer that she kissed him sweetly on the lips acknowledging and thanking him.

She leaned back and smiled radiantly at him and the gleam in her eyes from before returned and she grinned mischievously at him. She swiftly closed her eyes and whispered , " What color are my eyes?"  Link laughed out loud remembering the moment she was reminding him of. The last time they talked about her eyes! Amelia had a cheeky grin on her face and he just wanted to smother her face with kisses at her cuteness. How can someone be so adorable? 

He pretended to ponder the answer before kissing her cheek and breathing in her ear, " Well, sometimes they look green and sometimes they look blue depending on the..." , repeating the exact same words he uttered last. He trailed off waiting for her shush him again. She surprised him when she urged him to continue. " What? I'm waiting.Go on."  Link grinned at the prospect of finally being able to complete his statement. "...depending on what's going on in that head of yours. Like when I do this..." he kissed her lips softly, "...they turn bright blue and when I do this...", he turned her body in his arms and kissed her jaw, "...they turn grey."

Amelia sighed and was appalled at his attentiveness. She couldn't believe how much he noticed her. She felt herself falling deeper and harder for him with each passing day. She breathed, " Oh yeah? "

" And when I do this...", he tugged at her hair, exposing more skin and she moaned, " they turn a darker shade of grey. When I do this...", he suddenly stopped everything he was doing and pulled back from her. Amelia grunted at the loss of his touch and opened her eyes in frustration. She looked at him questingly and irritatingly only to be met with playfulness in his eyes. "...when I rile you up or when you get angry, your eyes hold a fire in them and turn fiery green. " He grinned smugly down at her before laughing out loud. Amelia felt an urge to wipe that smirk right off his face and on an impulse took him completely by surprise.

Link was shocked, more than amused when she flipped their positions and now straddled him. "Didn't know you could actually write a book about my eyes! " It was now her turn to smirk when she grinded down on him and his eyes turned stormy. She turned the tables on him. He groaned audibly when she bit his earlobe and whispered breathing in his ear, " When I do this, YOUR eyes turn the darkest shade of grey known to man."  This was his undoing. He knew it in his soul that she was doing this to rile him up. Well, it worked. He snapped.

He suddenly sat up, taking her by surprise. She was about to lose her balance but Link pulled her flush against his chest and kissed her with fervor. Amelia was more than happy to reciprocate. They then passionately resumed what they were interrupted from doing.

LATER...

During lunchtime, Amelia was as usual running late and Link was waiting for her in the cafeteria when out of nowhere, Jo plopped down in the seat next to him. Maggie was with Jo. She had a stupid grin and mischievous look on her face. Oh shit, this cannot be good!! Link inwardly groaned at the upcoming onslaught. Maggie sat down at the table too and was cluelessly looking between the two. " Um, what's going on? "

Jo smirked and turned fully towards Link who was busy staring at the sandwich on his plate which suddenly interested him to no deal.  "You should definitely ask Link! He can tell you better about his recent activities."

Maggie connected the dots and laughed. " Oh! If you're talking about Link and Amelia getting 'caught in the act' by the Chief of Surgery, then I'm aware. I've actually known for a while. "

Link whipped his head in Maggie's direction, " Wait. You know about it?! I can understand Jo, she's Alex's wife but you know it too? "

Maggie chuckled, " Amelia told me. And I was there when you took Amelia out on a date. Remember?  Also, probably the whole hospital knows by now, Link. Aren't you aware how this hospital works? "

He whined, " But it's only been an hour! " He huffed petulantly and crossed his arms.

Right on cue, Amelia sat down beside Link, flushed, with her tray. " I am so sorry. Again. I'll try my best to come on time the next time." Amelia laughed. She quickly recovered and got confused seeing Jo and Maggie's amused glances and Link's embarrassment.

Then, Alex dropped down beside his wife with a tray full of food and pecked her on the cheek in way of greeting. He then seemed to realise the people he was sitting with. He loudly groaned. " Not you two again. I don't want those pictures in my head!! I don't know what's happening man. Everywhere I go, sex is following me. On my way here, I actually walked in on Hunt and Altman about to do it in the Scan Room. I mean, come on, man! Then there's Nico and Schmitt and you too!"

Everybody laughed. Just then Meredith joined them, with Hayes trailing slightly behind. She called out to him when he was going to sit at a different table, not wanting to disturb the friends. " Hayes, you can join us." All the women on the table perked up and urged him to join Mer. Alex and Link shook their heads and just chuckled at the women's enthusiasm. Obviously almost all of the attendings knew about Cristina's gift except Hayes. Hayes smiled at everybody before sitting beside Alex.

Meredith takes in everybody's amused faces and quickly changes the topic fearing her meddling sisters might reveal something in front of Hayes. "So, what are we talking about? "

Jo was quick to answer amusedly, " About how sex is following my husband and he has become the second Amelia, barging in on people."  Meredith raised her eyebrow at Alex and shook her head whilst laughing. Hayes was shocked at the topic of conversation and how he was so unfamiliar with people talking so openly about sex everywhere in this damn hospital! He knew word travelled fast here and was shocked to know how much he knew about people's dating lives! This hospital was undoubtedly different from all of his previous working places, that's for sure.

Amelia stealthily glanced towards Meredith cautiously once but Meredith noticed. She teasingly addressed her and Link, " So when were you planning on telling me, huh? " She laughed at Link's shocked expression and Amelia merely shook her head hopelessly. " What? Obviously I know, guys! What do you think, I don't know my sister? This one..." she points towards Amelia, "...wears her heart on her sleeves and this one..." she points towards Maggie, " cannot keep her mouth shut when she's excited! "

Amelia gave Maggie the stink eye. "MAGGIE! "

" What? I swear she already knew by the time I told her! Scold Alex. He told her!", she defended herself with mock innocence.

Alex piped in, " Well, all I'm saying is, I don't wanna see your wiggling asses bumping each other the first thing after a very long surgery when I desperately need a nap! "

Link, clearly very embarrassed, says, " Sorry, I'm definitely not gonna forget to lock the door the next time around! "

Jo interrupts him, " Oh shut up, Alex. You're one to say. Mer, remember when he slept with every freaking intern of my class? "

Meredith laughs loudly, " Oh, yes!! People started calling him the next Mark Sloan! So gross."

Alex, now vengeful, " Hee, hee, hee, very funny, Mer. Don't make me remind everyone of your sexcapades! "  The person in question sobered up and threateningly looked him square in the eyes. Hayes was seemingly interested now more than ever. He leaned forward in his chair, now curious. All the other parties cheered loudly. Alex, oblivious to Mer's gaze, continued, " McDreamy and Mer did it all over the hospital! I highly doubt there's a place left where they didn't do it! "

" Hey! How do you know that?! I never told you this!"

Alex ignored her. " There was this one time when Addison pinned Mer's panties on the bulletin board on the surgical floor because she found them in McDreamy's coat! Bailey was so maaad! "

Hayes's eyebrows shot up to his forehead and he looked towards Meredith. Four simultaneous "WHAT??!! " were heard in response. Meredith just shrugged and wave it off, chuckling, " Shut up, Evilspawn."

Maggie was laughing the most. She had never heard of this story. Amelia dropped the bomb. "What are you laughing so much about, traitor? " Maggie immediately stopped laughing and was about to stop Amelia but she beat her to it. " Don't forget I had caught you and DeLuca going at it like sex crazed bunnies twice in one day! And remember when you thought DeLuca gave you a UTI ?! " Everyone erupted in laughter. Maggie was super embarrassed but looked cautiously towards Meredith, trying to gauge her reaction on hearing DeLuca's name but she was laughing heartily. Oh, thank God!

Hayes and Link simultaneously spoke up, " Maggie and DeLuca were a thing?! "  Everyone nodded their heads.

" Wow."

"Guys, remember when Jo had sex with Glasses?", Meredith spoke up. Jo whipped her head in her direction, her face cringing. Alex groaned audibly and smacked his head, " Don't remind me that, Mer."

There was not one person who didn't laugh at the recollection of that memory with the exception of Link and Hayes. Link asked. " Who's Glasses? "

Everyone replied together in chorus, " Schmitt!! "

Link looked at Jo, horrified, judging her silently. "Is he not gay?! "

" Well he wasn't !! Before Nico, that is."

" You had sex with Schmitt?! Brooke, seriously?! "

" Hey! No judging here. Alex is to blame here. I tried to get over him when we broke up at the time by having a one night stand. Not my proudest moment." She groaned.

Hayes was more than astonished and cried, " Was everyone having sex with everyone ?! "

Alex piped in, " Like I said earlier, this hospital is filled with sex-crazed, horny doctors! " Everyone laughed heartily while shaking their heads. No matter what, each and every single one of them had great memories in this hospital and no place could ever replace Grey Sloan Memorial! "

Link still hung up on the whole Glasses thing, inquired, " I have one more question though. Why did you people call Schmitt, Glasses? "

Jo guffawed, recalling that memory, " Well, he was in surgery with Mer and me when he looked down and his loose glasses fell down in the open body cavity! Hence the name Glasses!! "  Meredith grimaced which prompted the others to laugh out loudly.

Maggie now interrupts, " We are missing the point! We should never forget to lock the on-call room doors from now on to avoid the Amelia and Link situation! I have already seen Amelia in all of her naked glory enough times already to last a lifetime! "

Link who drinking his juice, choked and coughed up loudly hearing Maggie. Amelia who was clearly very offended shouted defensively, " Hey! Not so many times! You are clearly exaggerating."

Maggie counters, " Remeber when we caught you and Owen on Mer's couch! Even the kids saw Owen's penis! " Amelia groaned at that memory and Alex barked in laughter.

" Please don't remind me that. I had to make some lame excuse to Zola who was asking about what her Auntie Amelia was doing without any clothes on. Horrifying experience. Ughh."  Link visibly cringes and tries to block his mind from conjuring up the images of Amelia and Owen.

" Yeah. Maggie remember when Amelia was totally naked in my car and changing her clothes because she was so damn late, as usual? "

Hayes and Alex stood up and left, clearly very uncomfortable, " And, we're out."  Jo laughed and shook her head before she was paged down to the ER. Link's interest piqued hearing Mer's story and he quirked his eyebrow slyly in Amelia's direction who just shrugged and waved him off.

The sisters and Link resumed their hilarious conversation before Meredith and Maggie had to leave for their respective surgeries. As soon as they departed, Link turned towards Amelia and announced excitedly, " I'm coming to pick you up in my car from now on. EVERY FREAKING DAY. " Link wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and she smacked him in the chest before chuckling. Link frowned and said, " What? I'm serious! ", making her laugh out loud. 

" I understand the being late part. But why were you completely naked? And in front of your sisters?!"

Amelia shrugged nonchalantly, like it was no big deal. " I ran inside the car in my robe with nothing underneath..." she noticed Link's eyes darkening with each passing second but tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. They just had sex three freaking times in the on-call room and he is making me aroused again!! How?!  "...and then I put my jeans and top on."

Link intercepted with mirth in his eyes, " Without the panties, right? " He proceeded to point towards her crotch and continued, " Because she likes to breathe? "

" Damn right, she does! " and then she laughed. Link shook his head and chuckled at her antics. The laughter soon died down and he bent slightly to plant a chaste kiss on her lips. Both of them were grateful and relieved that they could finally act like a happy couple in front of everyone instead of hiding their relationship. Amelia, now panting, smiled up at him after breaking their kiss and gazed in his eyes. Link whispered, " I have a surgery. See you later? " Amelia nodded and he turned to leave but stopped to say one last thing. " Talk to Mededith, Amelia. You'll feel better."

Amelia was amazed at how well Link had come to know her in such a short span of time. She was ever grateful to have him in her life and thanked whatever God was up there for him. She desperately needed to know what Meredith thought of them as a couple.

Later, while walking towards Mer's car in the parking lot, Amelia jogged up to Meredith who was walking a few steps ahead of them. Maggie continued walking a few steps behind, knowing Amelia needed some privacy to talk to Meredith about her relationship with Link.

" Hey, Mer."

" Hi, Amelia." Meredith smiled towards her sister. She knew what Amelia wanted to talk about.

" Sooo...you obviously know about Link and I. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I was actually trying to take things slower this time around and not jump head first like I previously did, you know? Sooo...what do you think? ", she knew she was rambling and braced herself.

Meredith chuckled trying to ease her sister's worries. " Don't worry about me, Amelia. I already had a hint that you and Link were a thing! " She waved off Amelia's shocked expression. " I own this hospital, darling. I know things! "

" Fair enough."  Amelia shook her head. So all that tension was for nothing?!

Meredith continued. " I'm actually really happy for you. Sorry I couldn't tell you this earlier today. Link is a really great guy. I'm glad you're taking things at your own pace this time. But don't hold back in fear of doing things wrong. Be you and...be happy. You deserve happiness, Amelia. "  She smiled kindly at her sister. She was genuinely happy for her. She was glad that she had finally found the right guy for her who would keep her and her needs before everything, unlike her past relationships and keep her grounded. She had the tendency to panic and get restless whereas he was calm in tense situations. She had told them how Link had stood up for her and handled her family in New York. She was highly grateful that he took care of her sister when she desperately needed support. Her sister was finally walking on the right path, relationship wise. If only her other sister could find someone. Clearly Jackson was a very, very wrong choice. She grimaced and shook her head.

Tears were welling up in Amelia's eyes hearing Meredith's words. She was finally so content and happy in her life! She was relieved that Meredith approved of Link. Her sisters were her family. They were all she had! Their opinions obviously mattered the most to her. Overwhelmed with emotion, she pulled Meredith into a tight embrace. Recovering from her initial shock of the rare display of affection from this sister of hers, she tightened her arms around her.

A few steps behind, Maggie had an endearing smile on her face, witnessing the whole scenario.  She wiped her eyes, tears leaking with emotion. This was her family! She didn't need any man as long as she had her sisters by her side. They were her strength, her family. She hurriedly rushed towards them and joined in on the hug.

Author's Note :

Heyy guys!!! Did you see the new episodes??!! DEREK!!!!! My heart exploded with all the MerDer and AmeLink scenes. I finally found my inspiration and wrote this in a single night! XD

Sorry for being AWOL but I had lost the will and inspiration to write! Also I was so busy with school work!!

I've made a few changes in the story. Owen and Teddy are still going strong. I don't want their drama here in my story now. Probably later. Also, Alex never left and is still the Chief of Surgery. Cormac Hayes is the Chief of Peds and when Bailey is back from her sabbatical, Alex and Hayes will obviously co-chief. I also included some Mermac in the story because I absolutely love those two!!!! <333

I really hd a lot of fun writing this chapter. Hope y'all like it too!! Please write your suggestions and remarks in the comments! I always appreciate your input! Open for prompts!

Next up some jealous AmeLink fun!!  *squeals*  Enjoyyy. Until then.

[misha-moose-dean-burger-lover]

anyone wanna hear the story of how i found out supernatural was ending and proceeded to have the worst morning of my life?

(super-excessive rambling ahead. do not read the whole of it.)

so i don't remember the date but it was the day of my english 10th board exam. boards are like a series of subject finals, kinda the biggest exams conducted in a student's education in india, plus they're nationalized. so yeah, a massively big deal, and obviously the first thing i do waking up on this massively important day is open tumblr. there are about seventy messages and i'm confused cause i think i barely "talked" to ten people back then, but before i've even checked them out, the first post i see is a textpost about how the longest running joke universally across fandoms is that 'spn has been going on way too long and needs to end' but now that it is ending, all people can do is cry about it. for some reason, i don't process that post as fact™, assuming they mean a general "ending" instead of a "j2m announced last season" ending. anyways i move on to my messages, and all of them are people who've freaking the fuck out for at least a few hours (the advantages of being in a timezone different from of most people) and i go to my activity, still stunned, and someone's tagged me in a meta of some kind, and i check it out completely dazed and it's got gifs (already!) of the three of them standing there with teary eyes and jensen actually saying the words everyone had been screaming about in the chats, and it finally hits me that it's ending, supernatural is ending, it's going to be OVER, and it's already been decided when. obviously, the tears start, and literally crying in my bed, still under the comforter, i think i watched the video twice, without headphones in fact, which is extremely weird because i virtually NEVER do that, but as if anything else mattered at the moment!

i don't remember what all i felt in those moments but one of the thoughts that REALLY stood out was that i wish, wish, wish it lasted just one more year — so maybe supernatural could end at the same time as highschool ended for me, and it'd feel like the end of a phase of my life, but no, according to what they predicted (and not even kidding, now it's even worse) supernatural was going to end smack in the middle of senior year for me, obviously a super important, super stressful year, and god, i wished so hard it'd just go on ONE MORE YEAR somehow but look what happened now it's ending like three months before my college entrance exams and the competitive engineering exams and shit which is just absolutely perfect because it's doing wonders to my attention span and mental health and yeah i'm getting off topic i'm gonna come back to the topic now

it's two am rn and i'm weirdly tired of typing so what happens next is fucking wild, but i'm gonna hurry because i need to go cry some more into a pillow or a ao3 tab or something. so like a whole HOUR later i get up from bed. i've got to get dressed and shit, most important exam of my life YET and everything. so i start brushing, obviously scrolling through tumblr, obviously failing to not cry, and my mum walks in, and she doesn't know a thing about supernatural (even if she did, she would consider the idea of me crying over them announcing an ending RIDICULOUS) so she just assumes i'm sniffling and tensed up because i'm STRESSED and she tries reassuring me like i need fucking reassurance for ENGLISH of all things. anyway anyway anyway i have maggi for breakfast i think and i'm still pretty out of it and stuff but i get dressed in my uniform and put on the fucking blazer though its HOT outside but i like wearing the school blazer for exams but i underestimated how much of a physically draining effect the news and reacting to it would have on me, so then there's me sweating literal buckets and then we set off.

we're already late in leaving the house (why, i don't remember) and once we're at the centre, and my parents have dropped me off and wished me luck, i go to the gate, right. and THEN the guard gestures to my uniform and tells me i'm missing my fucking class ID. now i know i'm late so i panic on cue because shit shit shit i'm gonna be even more late, and i legit turn and look for mum and dad (we weren't allowed to carry our mobiles for the test) and what i see is that they've reversed the car and are about to drive out the gate and obviously my brain isn't really working so i fucking RUN AFTER THE CAR, like, i'm really not an athletic person, i avoid running as much as i possibly can, and i fucking lose my shit and chase the car down in like ten seconds of running cause it's only like ten metres away actually but the highlight of it all is that i run. in a public space. unprompted. with a shitload of emotions and anxiety and panic, and i basically almost sob in relief when dad immediately stops the car and pretty much pulls me in and tells me to stop worrying cause the house is like ten minutes away and i might miss the general waiting part and stuff but i wasn't gonna miss the exam. so THEN we start driving back and obviously because they are who they fucking are, they start arguing about which of them is at fault for this and who was supposed to check in on me carrying my seriously important ID and other crap, and then obviously they're yelling and that does even more wonders for my state of practically hysteria, but i hold it together until we get home and i get the ID (which is on the bed, probably was under my blazer or something) and we set back off, and i know we're late, and i know supernatural is ending, and i know it's going to take a part of me really, and mum and dad just won't stop yelling at each other about god knows what, and i manage to squeeze in the first time in SO many years that i cry in front of my parents right there in the backseat, and they're sort of stunned because i really don't cry (in front of people) and then there's just me losing it in a mixture of helplessness and nerves and anger for some reason and just. whoa.

ANYWAYS we get to the centre (in time for the exam, but like fifteen minutes later than i SHOULD have gotten there) and dad talks to the teacher and stuff and it works out because obviously it's a really important exam they're not going to make me skip it, and i go straight to my classroom — also did i mention these exams aren't held in our own schools but like, different test centres, so basically a different room and desk each day in a different school from mine, ugh, i hate new places — and i find out i have the FIRST bench of the second column which lowkey sucks because it's too public really, but at least my best friend's sitting like diagonally from me on the left, and my friends are basically sprinkled around the classroom as well and i see them eyeing me worriedly cause they were scared i might miss the exam but also because i was a MESS with bloodshot eyes and an outofit look in them and did i mention i was sweating like a dog all this time wearing a blazer because i'm just that idiot because yeah.

so then i calm myself down the best i can. sitting under a fan helps, taking off my stupid blazer helps, and seeing dish (beforementioned best friend) helps — because apparently she heard about the ending too (she's not in the fandom she just keeps up with news for my sake, yes, im very lucky to have her) and tries to cheer me up about it, but then it's time for the paper, and they give them out and...yeah.

three hours later, the exam ends, and i step out of that hall the most mentally exhausted i've been in YEARS. also i swear off tumblr until i've had lunch and napped and stuff because i was also functioning on extremely little sleep but i really think that part was obvious.

as it goes, i ended up getting a 95% in that paper :)

but to this date, my sister jokes about how i ended up getting my personal least marks of that year in english of all subjects which was supposed to be of my strongest suit heh all because of a six-ish minute video released in a different part of the world about something that wasn't even going to happen that year...and like. yeah.

that's it.

that's the story.

[neworleansspecial]

Accidents Happen (The Med Groupchat)

Part Eight - Previous Parts and this one available on AO3

crickett: it was an accident i swear i didnt mean to i didnt

Nat: @Ethan Choi @connor can one of you take his phone

connor: he’s nonverbal rn

Bekker: Has anyone heard what happened?

Dr. Lanik: According to the paramedics, Crockett’s car was stationary. They were sitting inside, not driving, because it was cold. They were eating and smoking when a drunk driver hit them from behind. They were near the cliff side, so their car fell about ten feet before getting caught on the rocks and first responders rescued them. 

Dr. Lanik: Crockett has a moderate head injury and some scrapes and bruises. Maggie is stable with an open fracture of the radius, closed rib fractures. Sarah has broken glass injuries and a shoulder dislocation. Elsa is the worst off with a head injury we’re still controlling the bleeding of, a partial pneumothorax. 

crickett: didnt mean to

connor: he’s being evaluated for shock right now. it doesn’t help that he’s still high. 

Bekker: Sarah too. It’s making her calm at least. 

Ethan Choi: He’s probably never going to smoke again

FreeWilly: is that really what ur worried about 

Ethan Choi: That’s not what I meant

crickett: didnt see the car

Bekker: We know, honey. It’s not your fault. 

no-ah: is everyone going to be okay?

April: Physically, it looks like it. Elsa is in a rough place but I’m sure she’ll be fine. 

-

Crockett: didnt see the car i didnt mean to

Crockett: was driving

Crockett: foot on the brake 

Crockett: no i was 

Crockett: accident

- 

Other Bekker: my hands have been released from prison

Bekker: (plastics pulling the glass out of them and bandaging/stitching where necessary)

no-ah: do you remember what happened?

Other Bekker: most of it

Other Bekker: its not @crickett’s fault 

Other Bekker: the other driver had a 0.13 BAC on the scene, and crockett wasn’t even driving. he wouldn’t until he sobered up a little 

Ethan Choi: I called his outpatient center and they suggested returning to inpatient for a few days for his safety while he processes this.

Other Bekker: is that what crockett wants

Ethan Choi: It’s what he needs

Other Bekker :/

Dr. Lanik: Elsa is awake!

Nat: That’s good! How is she?

Dr. Lanik: A bit disoriented, but that’s to be expected. Her waking up is a really good sign. The chest tube is in place and we have her on supportive care. 

April: I’m glad everyone will be okay

no-ah: and hows mags

Maggie<3: I’m okay, they’re taking me to surgery

no-ah: good luck !

crickett: iwanndhohiewnalredyitguers

Nat: ???

FreeWilly: I speak high he wants to go home and hes in pain

Nat: That raises more questions than it answers 

Ethan Choi: What hurts?

Dr. Lanik: I’ll come give him another checkup, see if I can’t figure out what’s going on

connor: probably a headache from the head injury

Dr. Lanik: Probably but better safe than sorry. I’d rather rule out anything else. 

- 

Dr. Marcel: head

Dr. Marcel: like gyutar 

Dr. Marcel: sleep?

-

April: Good morning everyone, how are you all feeling?

Queen Elsa: Like I got hit by a bus <3

Other Bekker: it was a four door sedan actually

Queen Elsa: That’s not helpful 

Other Bekker: :)

Maggie<3: I’m doing good, just sore. 

Ethan Choi: I took Crockett to his hospital today, he’s inpatient for five days, longer if he’s a threat to himself or his sobriety

Other Bekker: hot take but did he agree

Dr. Lanik: We spend so much time talking about Crockett

FreeWilly: theres always something to talk about with him you know

Bekker: on another note, we’re hosting a movie party next week if anyone’s interested. Kid friendly for our daughter. Disney movies, no alcohol, lots of food.

Queen Elsa: I’ll be there! I love disney

Queen Elsa: If I’m out of the hospital

April: You probably will be @QueenElsa

connor: @OtherBekker Crockett didn’t want to go at first but he eventually agreed it was best. he’s allowed to have his phone and if he passes three evals in a row, he can check out. he failed this morning’s eval obviously

no-ah: i worry about him

connor: don’t, besides, he wouldn’t like that 

Queen Elsa: how ever will we be stuffed with his home cooking? /s

Dr. Lanik: What’s /s

Queen Elsa: It means I’m being sarcastic or making a joke, since tone doesn’t always come over text

Dr. Lanik: That’s such a good idea? 

Queen Elsa: It really is, and it’s really helpful for neurodivergent and anxious people, like me.

Other Bekker: solidarity

Dr. Lanik: What’s neurodivergent?

Queen Elsa: It describes someone who has an “abnormal” (I don’t think that’s the best word?) development or brain function. Basically it just means that your brain doesn’t function the same way as most people. I’m neurodivergent because I’m autistic. 

Other Bekker: me too because I have ADHD. and Crockett.

Dr. Lanik: Oh. I’m neurodivergent.

Other Bekker: neurodivergent squad

crickett: adhd/ocd babey

Bekker: Does OCD count?

Queen Elsa: Depends who you ask but most people say yes

Nat: I’ve literally never heard of this 

crickett: point and laugh it’s a nt

Queen Elsa: (NT means neurotypical, which is someone who isn’t neurodivergent)

Queen Elsa: That’s not very nice Crockett.

crickett: natalie isn’t very nice to me about being nd so 

Dr. Lanik: Oh?

connor: to be fair Nat you’re kinda rude about stuff that’s out of people’s control

Nat: Why am I being attacked right now?

Other Bekker: you’re not lmao

Dr. Lanik: Let’s all take a deep breath and calm down. 

FreeWilly: That’s a yikes from me

Maggie<3: I’ve never heard of that stuff, thank you Elsa.

Queen Elsa: No problem. I have some good websites for reading if anyone cares.

Dr. Lanik: DM them to me please 

no-ah: I think I might be neurodivergent

crickett: squad goals

Other Bekker: never met a neurotypical friend group, always most of ems got to be divergent

-

Dr. Lanik: Thank you, I didn’t know that there’s a whole… community, if that makes sense?

Elsa Curry: Yeah no problem. I didn’t know until I was in college, and I joined a club for Autistic people like me. It’s really nice to talk to people who understand what it’s like and have shared experience. 

Dr. Lanik: Are there organizations like that for adults? As in, ones for people like me?

Elsa Curry: Probably! You can look it up online and I’ll keep an eye out for something you might like. 

Dr. Lanik: Thank you.

[woulddieforperrytheplatypus]

To distract myself from this awful political scene I'm forced to watch for history class: can you give us some obscure side characters (like, Dr. Diminutive, Newton the Gnu, type characters) you absolutely love for no reason? :) <3

Okay I am literally so late because I was doing my chem reading and my writing hw BUT I can’t refuse a chance to scream about my favorite characters (but y’all can refuse to listen to my scream about them so here’s a cut)

First of all, I want you to know that I haven’t even started listing characters yet and this ask has already lead me to spend almost $4 on Agent P’s Guide to Fighting Evil and that’s why I don’t look at the PnF wiki when I’m tired thank you for coming to my TED talk

I almost feel like I’m cheating by starting with Dr. Diminuitve but HOW CAN I NOT LIKE TELL ME THAT LIL MAN IS NOT THE BEST CHARACTER THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN OKAY FUCKIN DO IT JUST KIDDING YOU CAN’T I mean come on, one of his first lines was literally “I don’t have a Napoleon complex; Napoleon had a ME complex!” I had to check the wiki to see if that was his first line ever and I’m very disappointed that it wasn’t and then in OWCA’s Going Down when all the evil scientists were just vibin against the fence and they started doing that West Side Story snappy walk and Diminutive was so into the snaps that he just didn’t fucking move and then he opened his eyes and the rest of the gang was halfway off the screen fjdskhfkalsfhaskl I just really love him okay the more I think about it the more convinced I am that he’s actually my favorite character

Idk if this counts as an obscure side character but he is incredibly underrated so I gotta throw in: LAWRENCE FUCKING FLETCHER. He’s just such a pure and innocent lil dude. He sees the boys doing dangerous shit and he’s just like, “Well that’s happening,” or better yet, “Hey, that looks fun!” I mean, the airplace? The flying carpet? The monster trucks? He genuinely gives zero fucks and I love him for it. I wholeheartedly believe that Lawrence knows Perry is a secret agent -- or at least that he’s smarter than he acts -- but he’s literally so indifferent to everything going on around him that he never mentions it because life is full of fun and exciting things like that and he can’t talk about them all, you know? And he gets so excited about his antiques and he’s so passionate about history and ughhhh I love him 

I was about to say I feel like I’m cheating by using a special but it just occurred to me that that’s lowkey how I’ve prefaced all of these so no, fuck that, I’m using a special and that’s just how it’s gonna be. CARL FROM THE LAND OF INTERNUS WOULD HAVE MADE A MUCH BETTER ENDING THAN THE ACTUAL BOOK HAD AND FUCK YOU MONOGRAM FOR CUTTING CARL OFF BEFORE HE COULD TELL IT HOW HE WANTED TO

These two kinda go hand-in-hand but Bunka Da Bunkaquan and Sweary the Swan are my favorite alternative Perrys. As far as the specials go, Steampunx isn’t one of my favorites, but Sweary the Swan is just... How do you even describe Sweary the Swan? He is life. He is the reason I wake up in the morning. He is the only thing worth living for. And then Bunka Da Bunkaquan is just so fuckin cute and anyone who disagrees needs their eyes checked. And tbh while we’re talking about Tri-Stone area, I gotta throw in a mention of Doofengung no of course I didn’t have to google what his name was what are you talking about because I love how he just stares at the water and every time it drips he just fuckin cackles lmaooo

Okay one more special (maybe) but Doofenshmirtz in The Temple of Juatchadoon brooo I just googled it to make sure I spelled that right and I did woah my power is unmatched is lowkey my favorite Doofenshmirtz. I don’t know if it’s because I actually like him more than every other Doof or if it’s just because his first scene was with Phineas Ohio Flynn and they knew each other and they had actual interactions throughout the episode and the Doof/Phineas relationship is my favorite underexplored relationship, but Juatchadoon Doof makes the list anyway

The “what did you think, _________ was just going to fall out of the sky?” couple — who 100% deserved that cameo in catu

I’m almost afraid to say this in public, but I actually really like Roger. I was mostly indifferent to him at first, but then Delivery for Destiny happened and I was like wait a minute, why am I sleeping on his man who literally orders boxes just to give to his cat? And once I realized that he was kinda cool, it started sinking in that he was never actually a bad guy. Heinz never even really claimed he was -- if anything, his problem is that Roger isn’t a bad guy, and everyone in Gimmelshtump and Danville knows it. And I gotta give Roger credit for not being too harsh on his brother, because yeah, he can be a little stuck up (I’m looking at you, stupid golf game), but you can’t really blame him for thinking he’s better than Heinz, you know? But at least he’s not a dick about it like their parents are. Also the entire latter half of this paragraph was me trying to find a way to work in the other part of that scene with the cat box and it didn’t work so I’m just gonna tack it on to the end because this isn’t an essay for English class and I can do that lmao. Paul mentions that he just delivered something to a Heinz Doofenshmirtz, and Roger is like 😬 because let’s be real, no one wants to be represented by the type of dude to try to juice City Hall, but he’s obviously not going to say that because he’s still a respectful dude, so he’s just like “Charming... man... isn’t he...” and he’s literally so uncomfortable and it cracks me up every time but also it’s lowkey kinda wholesome because Heinz may make it his life mission to embarrass his brother but Roger doesn’t reciprocate. but I accidentally discovered a few weeks ago that John O’Hurley is a raging Trump supporter so I gotta dock points for that one

In the same vein, Paul the delivery guy. What more do I have to say?

If my love of Roger didn’t turn the world against me, this one probably will, but I’m going to say it loud and proud anyway. I LOVE PETER THE PANDA. He’s just??? so??? cute??? Like when he was tearing apart Doof’s inator and he was just... actually no scratch that I need pictures for this because I can’t explain this in words

THIS IS NOT EITHER OF THE PICTURES I WAS LOOKING FOR BUT LOOK AT THIS LITTLE GUY OH MY GOD

Peter really said “this bitch empty, YEET!”

okay but the ones I was actually looking for are...

I mean, how can you not find him adorable? And don’t even get me started on his relationship with Perry because Meapless in Seattle was just... B R O Perry flew halfway across the country (probably I mean idk where exactly Danville is but they use EST so Seattle is probably halfway across the country?) just to go grab a coffee with him. They went on a lil date at a fancy restaurant I know Dan said it wasn’t a date but he's been wrong in the tiktok comments before which means none of his opinions are canon lmao. They’re just? So? Cute? I don’t even know what to make of their relationship but I live for it.

And I can’t mention Peter without bringing up his nemesis, who, to be entirely honest, I also don’t know what to make of and he’s mostly on this list because I like the line “How did you get chorus girls in here?” and when I downloaded and cut a bunch of songs that you can download from Google Drive here if you want, I specifically kept that part in because I love it lmao (I do gotta point out tho because it’s been bugging me since I last watched the episode: I don’t think we have any proof that Professor Mystery even exists in the PnF dimension. I had just assumed he did for the longest time, but that entire episode takes place in a dimension where Lawrence is a polar bear. Who knows what other differences there are?)

I love all the grandparents and I don’t even have an explanation they’re just all adorable

Okay I know I said no more specials but TECHNICALLY at2d isn’t a special; it’s a movie. I am physically incapable of not brining up the muffin time Normbot and the “I use aggression to mask my insecurites” Normbot.

While we’re talking about Norm, his old head would 100% swear all the fucking time if it wasn’t a kids’ show and i gotta respect it

Dan Povenmire does one line for a dude named Vinnie in Mission Marvel and off the top of my head I don’t remember who he is but it was the beginning of the episode and I think (?) it was during the New York scene and he does it in the Vinnie Dakota voice long before Dakota was even a concept (I’m assuming) so he gets a mention

Jerry the Platypus gives me Paper Jam Dipper vibes and they are both valid as fuck (the fucked up Doof copy is not valid as fuck tho we’re gonna pretend he didn’t exist)

Don is literally the best part of Where’s Pinky and I’m not just saying that because I’ve been watching Whose Line for years and I was super excited to see Wayne Brady in the credits (and the fact that he was also in both the quarantine rap and catu makes me incredibly happy)

Ooh I almost forgot OWCA Files existed but Harry the Hyena playing the trumpet and the subsequent “you’re gonna be wearing that in a minute” is the best part of OWCA Files and tbh just Doof, Perry, and Harry could have carried an entire series by themselves (though I do also love Karen and Maggie)

WAIT A SECOND THE BUG TRIO FJDSAHFLKSAJD I was trying to pick a favorite last time I watched OWCA Files and every time one of them spoke they were my new favorite like I lowkey thought their plotline was boring but the characters themselves were hilarious

WAIT ANOTHER SECOND HOW DID I GET THIS FAR INTO THE LIST WITHOUT MENTIONING MONTY HOLY SHIT I’M SUCH A FAKE FAN BUT I LOVE MONTY OKAY HE IS LITERALLY JUST OZ FROM BTVS EXCEPT MONTY AND VANESSA HAVE BETTER CHEMISTRY THAN OZ AND WILLOW AND NO I WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING CRITICISM

Wait I forgot Vlorkel too omfg these two belong way higher on the list but Vlorkel is the love of my life (and I lowkey wish she had met Steve the giant chameleon because they would have become best friends)

I wanna keep going but it’s currently 1:45 in the morning (this is why I’ve been avoiding asks during the day: I get way too into them and spend a solid hour and a half on them and I’d never get any schoolwork done lmao) and it’s far from the first time I’ve stayed up this late but I figured it was fine because I have no classes tomorrow but it occurred to me like four seconds ago that I DO HAVE A CLASS TOMORROW SHIIIIT I had an anatomy exam on Tuesday during my usual class time (which if you read my tags you might have known about because I was having an existential crisis over it) so he moved our class tomorrow excePT IT’S NOT TOMORROW IT’S TODAY IT’S LITERALLY IN LESS THAN SEVEN HOURS FUCKING HELL I GOTTA GO TO BED ASAP

[parrlyn-4life]

The Girl Who Spoke French: Part 1

(A few parts of this are inspired by @moan-jeutas and their series, “We’re Just Human.” I really recommend that you guys read it because I’ve been reading it on repeat all day-)

TW: Mentions of disabilities & mental illnesses, swearing

“It’s raining again?!?” Screamed Anna of Cleves. Cathy Parr looked at her.

“Yep,” Cathy said. Jane Seymour walked away over.

“The news said that the storms might go on all week!” Jane said. Anna’s jaw dropped.

“You’re kidding,” Anna said. Jane shook her head. “It’s Tuesday! We should be outside, having a picnic! Not inside!” Anna screamed. Jane and Cathy nodded.

“Will you keep it down? I’m trying to read!” Screamed a voice. The trio turned their heads to see Catherine of Aragon, holding a book called, “A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning.” Cathy had introduced the series to Aragon and now she absolutely loves it. This was the third time Aragon was starting the series all over again.

“Sorry, Lina!” Jane screamed. Aragon just went back to reading. “Gosh, she’s really into that series, isn’t she?” Jane said.

“I regret showing it to her now,” Cathy said, face-palming.

“Well, at least she’s not talking about religion anymore,” Anna said. Cathy and Jane laughed.

“Hey guys, where are the cookies?” A new voice asked.

“Kitty, we told you this already! No cookies before lunch!” Jane said.

“We literally just had breakfast, mum! It’s 12:18!” Katherine Howard said. Jane looked at the time.

“Oh. Well, you can eat four cookies, Kitty, but that’s it, ok?” Jane said. Kitty smiled.

“Thanks, mum!” Kitty said before rushing into the kitchen. Jane laughed. 

“The party has arrived!” a voice screamed as the front door opened. Then walked in four more women: Elizabeth (Bessie) Blount, Margaret (Maggie) Lee, Joan Meutas, and Maria de Salinas. Three of them were ladies in waiting for three queens in the room. One hasn’t seen the queen she served yet.

“How’s it like out- Oh,” Jane said before turning around and seeing that the women were soaking wet, even with raincoats on.

“This sucks,” Maggie said, hanging her raincoat on the coat stand. 

“What in the world happened to you guys?” Cathy asked.

“The storm happened,” Bessie said, hanging her raincoat as well. 

“Thought it was just gonna be rainfall. We were wrong,” Maria said. Joan nodded.

“You guys must be cold. I’ll go make some tea for you four,” Jane said, getting up.

“Uh, Jane?” Aragon said, looking out the window.

“Yeah?” Jane asked.

“You better make an extra cup because I think someone’s trying to get through the storm!” Aragon said as she watched a cloaked figure walking through the rough storm. Jane walked over to the window and saw the same thing.

“Oh my! Should someone go get them?” Jane asked.

“I’ll go. I didn’t take off my raincoat anyways,” Joan said, opening the front door and walked back outside. The others got up and watched as Joan went to get the person, who kept slipping and falling down. Joan took their hand and lead them back into the house. Kitty opened the door for them and Joan quickly ran back inside with the person. She took off her raincoat, revealing her wet hair and wet clothing.

“You must be soaking wet! Walking in a storm like that!” Cathy said. The person said nothing.

“Who is it?” Anna asked, getting curious. The person took off their over-sized raincoat to reveal a woman some of the queens and ladies in waiting have met before.

“Anne!” Maggie screamed. Anne looked at her.

“Maggie! Où suis-je?” Anne asked, looking around at the environment. The others were confused.

“What’s she saying?” Bessie asked.

“It’s... French! Anne taught me French so I understand a little bit of it!” Maggie said. “She asked ‘Where am I?’”

“Does she know she’s been reincarnated?” Aragon asked.

“Anne, tu sais que tu as été réincarné, non?” Maggie asked the French woman.

“Oui,” Anne said, nodding.

“Pourquoi tu marchais dans la tempête?” Maggie asked.

“Un ange m'a dit de te chercher,” Anne said. Maggie nodded in response. “Je pense que son nom était Timothy?” She continued to say.

“What’s she saying?” Kitty asked.

“She’s saying that an angel named Timothy told her to find me,” Maggie said.

“Wait, don’t we know Timothy?” Aragon asked.

“You’re right! He’s the one who brought Anna, right?” Jane asked. Aragon nodded.

“I’ll go give him a call,” Aragon said, walking over to a table and sitting down, pulling out her phone. She went into her contacts and pressed the name ‘Timothy.’

“Lina?” Timothy asked as he picked up.

“Tim! I was wondering if you know a woman by the name of Anne Boleyn?” Aragon asked.

“Yeah! Why?” He asked.

“Because Joan just went out to get a person who was walking in the storm and that person was Anne,” Aragon said.

“It’s still raining out there?” Timothy asked.

“Yep,” Aragon said. “But why is she here now? Wasn’t she dead before the others?” She asked.

“Well, it’s a long story. Are you willing to hear this?” He asked. Aragon thought for a moment.

“Yes,” Aragon said.

“Well, yes, Anne was dead before the others but she was hard to teach about the new things in the reincarnation. It took her a whole 3 months just to learn how to use a phone!” Timothy said. Aragon laughed slightly. “Anyways, my angel pals and I gave her translated tests to see if she has any disabilities or mental illnesses,” Timothy said. That’s when Aragon started to worry.

“What were the results?” Aragon asked in a concerned tone.

“Well, she got high scores on depression, anxiety, PTSD, and intellectual tests. We ran a couple of scenarios for each situation and....” Timothy trailed off.

“What?” Aragon said, fear and worry coating her voice.

“She has all four of those... When we gave her an autism spectrum disorder test, we were stumped. She reacted to touch, sound, and pain for a few minutes but then she stopped. Then she started up again, which is why we took so long to send her to the reincarnated world. It was like, one minute the senses were stronger and the next the senses just went back to normal,” Timothy said. Aragon’s jaw dropped.

“What does it mean then?” She asked, sounding like she was about to cry.

“We’re still trying to figure that out,” Timothy said. She let a single tear roll down her cheek. “Lina, are you... Crying?” He asked.

“No,” Aragon lied. She quickly wiped the tears away from her face.

“Wait, does anyone there know French?” Timothy asked.

“Maggie’s speaking to her right now,” Aragon said.

“Perfect! Also, I gave Anne a note to give to Maggie. Can you see if she has it?” Timothy asked. Aragon turned her head.

“Maggie, Timothy said that Anne has a note to give to you. Do you have it?” Aragon asked. Maggie shook her head.

“Anne, Catherine dit que tu as quelque chose à me donner,” Maggie said. Anne thought for a moment before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a folded piece of paper, handing it to Maggie. Maggie gave Aragon the thumbs up.

“Now she gave it to her,” She said, turning back to the phone.

“Ok! Well, I have to go. We’re training a new arrival right now,” Timothy said before hanging up. Catherine put her phone down and just sat at the table, staring straight ahead. What the fuck was going on with the French woman?

“Lina? You ok?” Jane asked, walking over to the table. Catherine looked at her.

“Tim told me the reason they’ve kept Anne so long,” Catherine said in a sad tone.

“Wait, can you give me a minute? I’m going to give them their tea,” Jane said, placing a tray with ten cups, placing one next to Catherine and another where she sat. Catherine nodded and Jane got up, carrying the tray over to the others. “Drink up now, guys. We might be here a while,” Jane said, placing the tray on the coffee table. Everyone reached out for a cup of tea, all of them getting one.

“Merci, Jane,” Anne said, giving her a small smile. Jane gave her a small smile back before walking back over to Catherine.

“So, what happened? Why’d they keep her so long?” Jane asked as she sat down. Catherine sighed and started to tell Jane what Timothy had told her. In the end, Jane started to cry as well. “Oh my gosh,” was all she had to say.

“I know,” Catherine said, wiping away her new tears. “I feel bad for her too,” she said.

“What do we do now? I mean, where is she going to stay?” Jane asked.

“I think she can stay with us. I mean, you and Cathy share a room, as well as Kat and Anna. It’s not fair for me to be the only one without a roommate,” Catherine said. Jane thought for a moment.

“Maybe,” Jane said. “But how are we going to speak to her?” She asked.

“I found a translation app that was free the other day... Maybe we could try that?” Catherine asked. (Ok, in my mind, this is a perfect Utopia and every app in the App Store is free and you don’t pay for anything. Even to get rid of ads-)

“I think that could work!” Jane said, smiling through her tears.

“Are you guys ok? Why are you crying?” Joan asked from the living room.

“We’ll tell you later,” Jane said, laughing while wiping away her tears. Joan just looked at her.

“Ok?” Joan said, confused. Catherine and Jane laughed. They both looked over and saw that everyone was trying to talk to Anne but Maggie just ended up translating everything. Catherine smiled at the scene she was looking at.

“Do we ask her now or later?” Jane asked. Catherine thought for a moment.

“Later,” Catherine said, looking at Jane. Jane nodded and continued to drink her tea.

___________________________________________________

FINALLY, I’M DONE WITH THE FIRST CHAPTER!!!

Tag List:

@radcowboyalmondtree

@toomanyfamdom

@sweetestrequiems

@the10amongstthese3s (If they are reading this, hi! I was the anon who told you that I was writing something sort of sad and asked if you wanted me to tag you-)

[athina-blaine]

“Hey, everyone, welcome back to my channel. My name is Maggie Abernathy and today we will be continuing our investigation of the, uh, eldritch monster slash English teacher who calls itself Jonathan Sims.”

-

Maggie is determined to catch Mr. Sims via her channel, and then everyone would see how cool and smart she was, right?

For @skyberia​, check out their amazing art!

Chapters: 1/1 [Complete]

Words: 5,998

Tags: POV Outsider, Teacher AU, 160 Never Happened, Scotland, The Eternal Struggle for Validation, Statement-Related Trauma, this ended up being a little less crack humor than i had first intended lmao, i blame jonny

~

The video opens to the image of an empty school courtyard. There’s a grunt, and then a young girl runs into the frame, turning to face the viewer. She has wild hair and even wilder eyes and is patting the wrinkles out of her grey, baggy hoodie. She couldn’t be more than 13.

“Hey, everyone, welcome back to my channel. My name is Maggie Abernathy and today we will be continuing our investigation of the, uh, eldritch monster slash English teacher who calls itself Jonathan Sims.”

Cut to a classroom, the camera peeking through a zipper.

A man with dark hair and nice clothes was standing at the front with his back to the other students, writing on the board.The video quality drops sharply, a faint whine humming in the background.

A low-quality dub begins playing over the image.

“Jonathan Sims came here in September of 2019. After some investigation, I have discovered that he previously held a position at the Magnus Institute in London, which investigates paranormal activity. Coincidence?”

There's a shift, and a voice from within the video speaks out.

“Mr. Sims, I have a question!”

The man turns, and there’s an touch of impatience to his expression.

“Miss Abernathy, this is not the time for—”

“Where’s the ark of the covenant?”

A sigh. “It was dismantled and melted down in 588 BC. Miss Abernathy—”

“What’s written on the Voynich manuscript?”

“Astrological readings and herbal recipes.”

“Who killed—”

“Miss Abernathy,” the man says, stringent, “please stay focused on the lecture. I’ll answer any questions at the end of class.” He turns back to the board. “And put away your phone.”

A hand appears over the camera, shoving it deeper into darkness. Another fuzzy dub plays over the image.

“Mr. Sims knows all these things he shouldn't know! Everyone says he's just joking, but I think it's something else. Maybe he's an immortal?"

Cut to a bustling lunchroom.

T he camera stares between a carton of milk and an orange, pointed towards a table filled with adults. One of them is the man from before, sipping from a porcelain mug. His back is to the camera again.

Suddenly, a mysterious object sails through the air. It’s a cup of vanilla pudding. The man turns sharply, eyes landing on the incoming projectile, before it hit him square in the face.

“Did you see that!” a voice hisses as the man scrambles for napkins. “There’s no way he could have known what was coming unless he literally has eyes in the back of his head! Researcher’s note: he might literally have eyes in the back of his head. Investigate further.”

“Miss Abernathy—”

The camera spins to an older man with graying hair walking into the frame, and, with a bitten off swear, the image spins away entirely.

Cut to an empty, school hallway. The camera is facing the door to a classroom.

“Every day, at the same time, give or take an hour, Mr. Sims returns to his classroom for some reason. He always makes sure no one's nearby before going in and locking the door. What's he hiding?"

The man walks into frame, glancing up and down the hallway, before walking inside, closing the door behind him.

“I bet he's doing some kind of dark ritual or something. I swiped a key from the teacher's lounge," the camera points down to a hand clutching a silver key, "so let's bust him."

With a jerk, the camera rushes towards the classroom and bursts into the door.

“Mr. Sims, Mr. Sims, there’s an emergency!”

The man shouts, dropping a bag full of tapes and papers.

“Miss Abernathy, please,” the man, startled. “Where did you get that key?”

Another dub plays.

“Okay, so I didn't catch him doing anything weird, but it's only a matter of time, right?"

Cut to a pair of feet walking across the sidewalk, the camera rocking back and forth.

“Every Friday, Mr. Sims leaves the school grounds and goes into town. He might be meeting some other eldritch thing. Hopefully, we'll find out.

The camera peeks around a stone wall. At the end of the sidewalk, there’s the man talking to another man with short hair and glasses. They seem friendly. The second man glances directly into the camera, then lifts his hand and waves.

The first man whirls around and, with a tight mouth, begins storming over. There’s a muffled shriek and the image blurs, footsteps clacking wildly on the pavement.

“He does have an accomplice!” the girl says, panting.

Cut back to the courtyard. The girl is wringing her hands, and she clears her throat.

“So, I haven't found anything substantial yet, but I think I'm getting close. Remember to, um, like, comment, and subscribe, everyone, and I’ll see you next Tuesday.”

She walks out of frame and the camera is jostled. The video ends.

 Maggie’s alarm was going off. Reaching over, she tapped around for the snooze button. Five more minutes.

Failing to find the button, she groaned, and lifted her head.

6:43.

Her alarm was set to go off at 6:15. School started in 17 minutes, and it was a 20-minute bike ride, minimum.

Swearing, she ripped off her bedsheets and ripped clothes off their hangers in her closet. No, no, she already had detention this weekend for the pudding cup thing. She couldn’t be late today. Crap, where was her backpack? She plucked it out of a pile of discarded clothes on her floor, threw on her hoodie, and ran out her bedroom.

Speeding through her bathroom routine, she ran into the kitchen, snatching up a granola bar, before tearing through the living room. The sound of deep, rumbling snores stopped her.

Dad was sprawled on the couch, still wearing his work clothes, blanket knocked aside. He hadn’t even taken off his watch and his work boots were caked with mud. Maggie had been up until 3 AM editing her video, which means he must have come home even later.

Jeez.

She fixed the blanket and shoved a pillow under his head and he barely stirred. He must have been really exhausted. Maggie dropped a kiss on his head before sprinting through the door and clamoring onto her bike. If she really pushed herself, she might make it before attendance.

By the time she rolled into school, the second bell was ringing. Her name was second on the attendance sheet. She wasn’t going to make it.

Dumping her bike near the rack, not even bothering to lock it up, she burst through the double doors and raced up the stairs, throwing open the door to her first period classroom.

“—Abernathy.”

“Here!” she said, squeezing the word out of her overwrought lungs.

Mr. Sims looked up from the attendance sheet.

“Welcome to class, Miss Abernathy," he said, unperturbed. "Right on time."

It wasn’t. It was, in fact, five minutes after attendance was usually taken. Maggie didn’t have the energy to process that, though, slumping into her seat with relief, heart racing in her chest. Ugh, she was sticky and sweaty and felt gross. She hated cardio.

Mr. Sims finished taking attendance shortly after, and then asked for the class to turn in last night’s homework. He went from desk to desk collecting their papers, and he slowed when he reached Maggie.

“I would ask that you not stay up so late in the future."

He said it with a gentle, knowing curl of his mouth.

Maggie stared up at him. Any other time, she would have pulled out her notebook and jotted down such obviously suspicious activity, but, for now, she let herself savor the fact that she wouldn’t be having double detention this Saturday, and shrugged, pulling out her English journal.

There was time for investigating, later.

 It was pizza and green beans for lunch today. Maggie scanned for available seats. Today, she was lucky. There was a seat open by Cynthia, from math class.

“Um, hey,” she said, approaching the table. There was a hushed silence as eyes swiveled towards her, and she swallowed, nervous. “Can I sit here, today?”

One of the boy’s eyes shot towards another, who shrugged.

“Yeah, go ahead,” he said.

Pleased, she sat down. Usually, she’d have to sit in the far corner of the cafeteria. It was much colder over there.

“So, I, um, posted a new video last night, on my YouTube channel,” she said to Cynthia, stirring her green beans, “if you guys wanted to check it out.”

“You’re still making those things?” said Cynthia with a raised brow.

“Oh, uh,” she said, pausing at the tone of her voice as she said things. “Well, yeah. I’ve gotten, like, three new subscribers.”

“You’re so obsessed with him, you know that? It’s kind of creepy.”

Maggie barely held back her flinch. “I’m not obsessed, I’m investigating—”

“Isn’t he married?” said one of the boys. “I think I met his husband at the bake sale last month.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” said Cynthia. “My mom sees them both all the time in the café. Won’t shut up about how cute they are. Oh, that reminds me, we had this customer the other day—”

“I bet he’s doing something really freaky during study hall,” Maggie said. If she could just get them to care … “You know, whenever he goes back to his classroom? He always looks around to make sure no one’s watching and locks the door. Isn’t that suspicious?”

“Yeah, sure, weird,” said Cynthia, turning to the boy across from her. “So, we had this customer, and I think he must have been from Wales or something …”

Maggie opened her mouth, but nobody was looking at her. Embarrassment flushing her face, she stared down at her food, because still, still nobody cared about her videos. She briefly fantasized about huffing and picking up her tray and dramatically storming off, but there was nowhere else to sit. Nowhere but that cold back corner of the cafeteria.

She’d just need to dig up something more exciting to put in her videos. For instance, what it was that Mr. Sims got up to during study hall. Then they’d check out her videos. Then they’d see what a good detective she was.

She plucked up one of her green beans, but found she wasn’t hungry.

 Maggie knew there was something weird about Mr. Sims since pretty much the moment she met him; when the principal was introducing him to the class at the start of the semester, and he was taking attendance.

“Maggie Abernathy,” he had said, and Maggie’s eyebrows shot up, stunned.

“Um. Here?”

He didn't react to her surprise, moving on to the next student. At the end of class, she walked up to his desk, fidgeting with her hands in front of her chest.

“Why did you call me Maggie?”

Mr. Sims looked up, one brow raised. His expression was so severe and dignified that Maggie had to look away, too intimidated to make eye contact.

“It’s your name, isn’t it?”

“Actually, my name’s Margaret.”

“Oh, that’s,” he lifted the attendance sheet, squinting. “Yes, that appears to be the case. I apologize.”

Well, she didn't know about all that. Yes, Margaret had been her name, but she hated it. It was so old and came from her grandmother, who yelled at her all the time. She’d always wanted to have people call her Maggie, but she had this terrible vision of people calling it stupid. Only her diary knew what she really wanted.

Mr. Sims smiled, his expression gentling. It made him look a lot younger, and she flushed.

“Unless you would prefer to be called Maggie, Miss Abernathy?”

The heat on her face became that much worse, and she fixed her hair.

“Um, yeah, that would be cool.”

At home, Maggie was working on her new video and decided talk about her new teacher. She had titled it, My new teacher’s a cryptid!, half-jokingly, but it had received the most views she’s ever had. Almost 200! She had received one comment, the only one she'd gotten that wasn't from her dad, and it had said she should keep investigating.

So, she just sort of … started investigating. She hadn’t really expected anything else to come of it, but then Mr. Sims just kept acting strangely. Nothing to prove anything, not really, but just enough to make Maggie wonder that, maybe, there actually was something more going on here. And if it got her videos more views, then, well, she supposed it was a win-win.

It was more than just the name thing, after all. She always got the feeling Mr. Sims was … watching them, somehow. Even when his back was turn to the class. He always knew who was playing with their phone under the desk, who was cheating, etc.

Even outside of class, she sometimes got that feeling. It only became more obvious when the feeling went away; it felt like taking her backpack off at the end of the school day. That’s how she knew the best times to continue with her investigations. Like now, for instance.

Maggie waited until Mr. Sims left before sneaking over to the classroom. She could have anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, so she needed to be quick. He locked the door, but Maggie had just swiped the key from the teacher’s lounge, again.

It’s not her fault they just left them dangling on a hook where anyone could grab it.

As quietly as she could, she slipped inside and closed the door behind her. Now, to investigate.

Pulling out her phone, she cleared her throat.

“Okay, um, hey, guys,” she said, voice low. “I’ve successfully infiltrated Jonathan Sims’ classroom. Hopefully, we’ll discover more information about whatever it is that’s happening here.”

Reaching for the desk, she froze. She hadn’t had a problem imagining going through his desk, but being here, actually faced with doing it, she found it much harder. This was his desk. What if he had something ridiculously private in here?

Come on. The camera’s rolling.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the first drawer, but found it to be locked. She tried all the drawers, but they were all locked. Dammit. What was she supposed to do now?

She scanned the desk with her camera just to have something interesting to put in the video.

“What’s with this weird tape recorder?” she mumbled, fingers brushing the buttons. “Looks ancient.”

Then, she heard a voice. Mr. Sims.

Crap. It would be suspension for sure if she was caught having stolen the key again. Trying not to move anything out of place, she sprinted towards the back of the classroom and into the closet. She could see though the slit panels as Mr. Sims entered the room, talking on the phone.

“—go straight home,” he said, taking his seat. “If you buy one more scented candle, I’m going to—”

He sighed.

“Yes, alright, fine. I love you, too.”

He hung up, and then pulled the tape recorder closer to him, grabbing a file from the stack of papers. Intrigued, Maggie held up her phone, still recording. Perhaps this wasn’t a waste of time after all.

Mr. Sims cleared his throat, and then pressed a button on the recorder.

“Statement of Timothy Dale regarding an appointment with his acupuncturist. Statement recorded by Jonathan Sims, former Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute.”

Maggie narrowed her eyes. He was taking a statement? Like some kind of cop? He had mentioned the Magnus Institute just now. Did this use to be his job?

How … boring. No wonder he left if this is what he did all day.

Mr. Sims took a deep breath, and then his voice … changed.

“I didn't think I had so much blood,” he said, softly. “I don't think I have so much blood. I don't know how I'm alive.” He paused, seeming to collect himself, before continuing, “It started when I went to visit my acupuncturist. I’m a pretty stressed out guy, you see. It’s funny, how something can sound so painful, like being stabbed with dozens of needles over and over again, can actually be quite relaxing, but Mrs. Lloyd had a magic touch.”

Maggie shuddered. Gross. She hated needles.

“Mrs. Lloyd wasn’t there that day, though. Instead was a strange man who called himself Mr. Bail. I asked where Mrs. Lloyd was and he said she was on an extended leave of absence, but that he would be able to provide a level of care even better than Mrs. Lloyd, if I was interested. Obviously, I was interested, I had been looking forward to this appointment all well, and I figured he was trustworthy since Mrs. Lloyd left her facility in his care, so why not?”

It may have just been the needles, but Maggie was starting to feel weird. Unpleasant. Maybe recording this was a bad idea, after all? But even though she thought about it, she couldn’t bring herself to lower the phone.

“The procedure began, and it didn’t hurt, but it felt different. Everything was fine until the end, when I noticed that some of the puncture marks were bleeding. I hadn’t even felt it. I confronted the man, enraged, but he said it was all a part of the healing process. He said it all with a smile. The front desk person was sensible enough to give me a refund. They were lucky I didn’t call the police. But something wasn’t right. The marks wouldn’t stop bleeding. No matter how long I kept the bandages on, they kept bleeding. Days went by and they just kept bleeding.”

This was gross. This was really, really gross. Did some guy really go to the Institute and make this kind of statement? It must have been a prank. Mr. Sims had to know he was being pranked, right?

She didn’t think he knew, though. He sounded scared. Why was he reading it if he was so scared?

She needed to get out of here. She might be suspended, but she didn’t care anymore, she just wanted to get away from this awful, awful story. But when she tried to move her legs, she found, with a sinking feeling, that they wouldn’t go. She willed herself to open the closet door, but it was like she was encased in a stone mold. She couldn’t even lower her phone.

The only thing she could do was shake, and breathe.

“I’ve lost so much blood these last few weeks. I don’t know how I’m still alive. My chest hurts and my breathing’s shallow and I’m so pale and cold, but more just keeps coming out. It’s gotten on everything; my clothes, my bed, the walls. And the smell …” Mr. Sims frowned. “Have you ever been around that much blood before? You can taste the metal in the back of your throat, all the time. It doesn’t go away.”

Stop.

Please stop ...

“And it just keeps coming.”

He talked and talked and talked, until Maggie’s eyes burned and her legs cramped. She was shaking so hard, she thought that at any minute Mr. Sims would hear her and save her from whatever this was. But he just kept reading.

Finally, Mr. Sims' voice returned to normal.

“Mr. Dale committed suicide shortly after this statement. Due to the amount of blood discovered in his home, the police initially suspected a burglary gone wrong, but there were no signs of forced entry. There’s little else to be gleaned from scanning through online archives.” He sighed. “Even the statement file had blood on it. It sounded like a pained existence. End recording.”

Maggie slapped a hand over her mouth to hold back her gulping gasp for air.

It was over.

Leaning back in his chair, Mr. Sims let out a long breath. The lines on his face seemed deeper. More tired than before. But there was something else. Something … satisfied. Nausea curled in Maggie’s stomach. He looked as if though he had just had a big dinner.

At last, Mr. Sims got up to leave, and she could have cried. She so, so desperately wanted to get out of this closet. She wished she had never come here in the first place.

But then, just as Mr. Sims fingers brushed the handle, she saw something on the back of his hand. Some kind of wrinkle, gnarled and ugly. How had she never noticed such an eyesore before?

But then, it opened.

It was an eye, bright green, and it was staring right at her.

When Mr. Sims closed the door, she slid to the floor, arms and legs wracking with tremors. Tears streamed down her face.

What did she do? What did she do? Lifting her phone, she tried calling dad, knowing full well he was likely in the middle of his shift, but she needed him.

“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” she whispered, biting her lip. It went to voice mail, and she buried her face in her knees, tears trailing down her cheeks in thick globs. “Please …”

She needed to get out of here. When the shaking subsided and Maggie felt like she could move again, she stumbled towards the school entrance, not even stopping to grab her bike.

She wasn’t sure where she was going, but anywhere was better than here.

 The 403 bus would be coming in another 34 minutes. It could take her to the Glasgow airport. She didn’t know exactly what to do with this information, although a vague plan of buying a ticket back to America was forming in the back of her head. Mom would probably be mad to see her, but there was nowhere else that Maggie could go.

A bus pulled into the stop, but it wasn’t hers. It was still another 23 minutes. She really hated living in the countryside, sometimes.

“Excuse me.”

She looked up. There was a man with soft brown hair and glasses standing near the bench. He must have just gotten off. There was something familiar about him, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

He smiled.

“Are you Maggie Abernathy?”

She straightened up with shock.

“Sorry,” he said, holding up a hand. “I’m a big fan of your YouTube channel. Your videos are very good."

Maggie's jaw dropped. Well, that was certainly ... unexpected. She tried to say something, but it kept getting twisted up by her tongue. She’s been so desperate for anyone to take even the slightest interest in her videos, that, now that she was given the chance, she didn’t even know where to begin.

“I, um, not really,” she said, tracing the pattern of her jeans. “I just copy stuff I see from other channels. You know, BuzzFeed, Ghost Hunt UK, and stuff.”

“Oh, Melanie King fan, are you?”

“I mean, yeah. She’s only got the best ghost hunting channel online. People say its Franco Overton’s channel, but they just like his dumb humor." She kicked at the gravel with a pout. "King has the real stuff.”

“I’ll be sure to pass along the compliments.”

It took a moment for her to process the implication, but when she did, it hit her like a brick wall.

“You’re friends with Melanie King?”

“Well, ex-coworkers, really,” he said, scrubbing the back of his head. “Although I’ve been trying to get her and her partner up for Christmas. She and my husband don’t really get along, though.”

Maggie only knew of two out gay couples in town, and, with a sinking feeling, she figured this man wasn’t Mrs. Adair. He wasn’t wearing nearly enough hair spray.

“You’re Mr. Sims husband, aren’t you?”

“Oh, does my reputation proceed me?” he asked, smiling. “My name is Martin Blackwood. It’s nice to meet you.”

Maggie lifted a hand in greeting, too stunned to form a polite response. If Mr. Blackwood knew about her videos and was watching her videos, that must mean …

“Does … does Mr. Sims watch my videos, too?”

“Sometimes. I keep telling him to talk to you about it, but he says to let you have your fun.” He laughed a little, “Honestly, I think you intimidate him."

Somehow, she had never considered that Mr. Sims could be watching her videos, too, and all the terrible things she did and said. Mr. Blackwood was watching them, too, who seemed so awfully nice.

Now Maggie remembered where they had properly met before, outside of her ambushing. It had been at the bake sale last month. Maggie had brought scones, but they were wrinkled and soggy, even though she thought she had stored them correctly.

Mr. Blackwood had advised her to sprinkle her scones with flour before putting them in the oven, that way the glaze would set in right. He still ate one, and said it was delicious.

What was such a seemingly normal man doing with ... whatever Mr. Sims was? Had she made some kind of mistake? But that was impossible. Even now, she could see the image of that, that thing on his hand.

Another image came to her, though. Mr. Sims had tried one of her scones as well. His eyes had widened, exclaimed them to be "Quite good" and asked what she had put in them, to which she said orange zest. At the end of the day, he had come back for a second scone.

Maggie's video that week had been all about how Mr. Sims seemed to have some kind of compulsion power, and all the malicious ways could potentially use it.

Maggie lowered her face in her hands, her stomach roiling so badly she thought she might vomit.

“Are you okay?” said Mr. Blackwood, taking a seat next to her. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I didn’t mean to …” She trailed off, not even sure what she had even meant to do. “I just wanted to do something cool.”

“I think your videos are pretty cool.”

“No you don't," she said, under her breath. "No one does. Everyone at school thinks I'm creepy."

“I suppose you do get a little intense, sometimes. Although, I was really impressed how well you aimed that pudding cup.”

Her face flushed bright red, more embarrassed than she had ever thought possible.

“I’m sorry,” she sniffled, wiping her face. “I don't think those things about Mr. Sims. I just thought this channel would make people want to talk to me.”

Mr. Blackwood hummed, looking out towards the road.

“Well, I think you have the right idea, personally,” he said. “If you do the things you love long enough, you might meet people who love those things, too. And they might want to be friends.”

Maggie looked down at her feet. It was hard to process anything with how much was stuffing her brain. But Mr. Blackwood was nice. She liked the sound of his voice. Having him sit next to her, silent and patient, helped her senses settle themselves.

She grimaced. Had she really been thinking of flying back all the way to America?

Seeming to sense her struggle, Mr. Blackwood turned towards her.

“Is it alright if I ask what you’re doing out here?”

She futzed with her hands, trying to find the right words. This was Mr. Sims' husband, after all. “I saw Mr. Sims reading something. I think he called it a statement.”

Some of the color drained from Mr. Blackwood’s expression, and she fully expected him to call her crazy, because, yes, it was a little crazy, but instead, he said,

“That must have been rather frightening.”

Maggie blinked. He knew.

Mind racing with questions, she started with, “Why did he do that? It looked like he enjoyed it or something, but also like he didn’t. Like he was, I don’t know,” her nose twisted, “eating it.”

“It’s complicated,” he said. “He doesn’t enjoy it, though, but if he doesn’t do it, well,” he glanced down at his feet, “he won’t feel so good after a while.”

Maggie leaned back, considering the trees on the other end of the road. It sounded awful, having to read those terrible stories all the time. No wonder Mr. Sims looked so old.  She’d only listened to one, and she was pretty sure she was going to have nightmares for weeks.

A noise caught her attention. A car was pulling up to the bus stop, and when the door opened, every muscle in her body stiffened. It was Mr. Sims.

“Jon,” Mr. Blackwood said, rising to his feet and Maggie jumped up alongside him. Mr. Sims glanced at him, surprised, but his attention turned back to Maggie. She glanced at his hand, but nothing was there.

“Miss Abernathy,” he said, voice laced with distress as he closed the car door and began approaching them, “you can’t just disappear like that. The entire school is—”

Mr. Blackwood pressed a hand to his husband’s shoulder, leaning in close and whispering something into his ear. The expression on Mr. Sims’ face shifted from barely concealed concern to stark horror, the color draining from his face.

“Oh my god,” he said. “Miss Abernathy, are you—”

“I’m fine,” she said, quickly. Mr. Sims didn't seem to think it was fine, though. It unsettled her, seeing that fear in his eyes.

“I am so sorry," he said, holding his hand out, as if he were placating a wild animal. "You were never supposed to see that.”

“Is …” She hesitated, picking at a frayed thread in her hoodie. “Is it okay if I go home early today?”

Mr. Sims didn't seem capable of formulating a response. Mr. Blackwood squeezed his husband's shoulder, and smiled at Maggie.

"I'm sure that will be fine. How about we go back to the school together and wait for your parents?"

Her eyes slid over to Mr. Blackwood before returning to Mr. Sims. Both of their eyes held nothing but concern. Mr. Sims had brown eyes. Not green. She hadn’t noticed that before.

She nodded.

 Maggie got to stay home for the rest of the week.

After her voicemail, dad had lost his mind. She said she just had a bad nightmare after falling asleep in class, but that didn’t seem to be what was troubling him.

It was only later that day, towards the end of dinner, that he gently admitted he was furious at himself for missing such an important call. She told him it was fine, he was working, she knew that, but that didn’t seem to make him feel better.

He even took a few days off to spend time with her, make sure she was okay. They watched TV and played board games together. It was the most she'd seen him in months.

And she didn't have to go to school! Much as she loved her dad, that was still probably the best part. She had all her assignments emailed to her and she would sleep in until noon.

There was still her channel, though. During a bout of intense guilt, she had deleted it, barely giving herself time to second guess. She just couldn't stand the thought of all the things she'd said and done being bared before the world. Then, she turned to her phone. 

It took her hours to build up the courage, but when she finally played that video, she was almost disappointed to find that it was distorted beyond all recognition. She deleted it.

By the time the nightmares finally abated by the time Monday rolled around, she was actually starting to feel better, just a little bit.

 Maggie was in the school library when she saw Mr. Sims again. She had been in the middle of staring at the tail of a mountain hare, scratching her chin, when the door closed. She looked up to see him juggling an armload of books.

“Hey, Mr. Sims!”

He jumped, the books tumbling out of his arms and onto the floor with a loud crash. Maggie winced, and shot up from her computer, but Mr. Sims held out his hand.

“That’s alright,” he said, leaning down to begin picking up the books. “It’s good to see you again, Miss Abernathy. How are you feeling?”

“Better."

“I’m glad to hear it.” As he straightened up, dusting off the sleeve of the books, his expression shifted to something a bit more unpolished. “I should have told you this much earlier, but I wanted to apologize for frightening you so badly.”

Sheepish, Maggie soothed down a loose strand of her hair. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it.”

Mr. Sims frowned, clearly deciding it mostly certainly wasn't okay. “Still, you can rest easy knowing I won’t be taking statements on the school premises any longer.”

"I shouldn’t have snuck into your classroom in the first place.”

“It’s not your fault, it was mine for not being more diligent."

Still, it must have been awfully inconvenient for him, but the way his lips curled downwards made her think he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. She cleared her throat.

“I’m also sorry about filming you,” she said. “And stalking you. And throwing food.”

“It's alright. I’ve been through much more harrowing experiences than a wayward cup of pudding.”

Maggie had no trouble believing him, fully aware of the rumors of the scars that pocketed Mr. Sims skin, but she was pulled from her musings when Mr. Sims glanced down at her monitor.

“What are you working on?”

“Oh, um,” she fixed her hair, blushing, “the multimedia club asked if I could put together something for morning announcements. They wanted a segment on the rabbits that live nearby.”

“Did you get these images yourself?”

“No, I’m just editing it. Frank is the one who films it. He’s got this amazing camera his dad got him for his birthday.”

“Seems like it’s coming along nicely.”

“Thanks,” she said, taking her seat, picking at her cuticles. She wasn't quite sure what exactly the boundaries were, but she couldn't know until she asked. “So, like, you know everything, right?”

Mr. Sims raised a brow.

“Do you know when Brendon Urie is dropping his next album?”

“Unfortunately, precognition is not among my list of skills.”

Maggie pouted. Mr. Sims looked torn for a moment, before sighing.

“I believe there’s talks for a holiday release, however.”

“No way,” she said. “Do you know when he’s going on tour? Is he gonna come to London again, or maybe Glasgow? Is it—”

“Have a good day, Miss Abernathy,” said Mr. Sims, continuing further into the library. Maggie huffed, but returned to the monitor. The school had way better editing software than what she had at home, so she was hoping to finish this before school ended.

“Hey, Maggie.”

She turned. Frank lifted a hand in greeting, dropping his computer bag on the table and she smiled.

“Hey there, Frank. You got some really great footage today.”

“Oh, um, thanks,” he said, a light red staining his cheeks. “It’s hard to take a bad picture with this camera, though."

"No way, you've got a real knack for it." She pulled up an image of two rabbits cuddling next to each other. "This looks so good! You must have waited around for hours to get a shot like that."

Frank scrubbed the back of his head, the flush  of his face growing bright. "Yeah, I had to work for that one a bit. By the way, Alice is inviting the club over to her house later so we can go over our videos together. Her mum’s bringing snacks. You wanna come with?”

Maggie's hand paused on the keyboard. “Oh, um ..." Be cool. "Yeah, that sounds fun.”

“Great. See you there.”

Frank waved and Maggie waved back. Oh, shoot. Now she’d really need to finish the video before school ended if she wanted it ready to share with the rest of the club.

Pulling out her phone, she sent her dad a quick text about her plans, before turning back to the monitor.

[justjessame]

The Deal Chapter 69

I was still at Mom’s, playing with RJ and waiting for a moment to take Judith off on her own to give her a stern talking to about her attitude toward Mom, when Laura came in and told me that a delegation from Hilltop was asking for me. Very little upsets my equilibrium, or at least outwardly, but this was one time that it did.

Mom had a multitude of questions, and so did I, but they die in our throats when the man tells us that Daryl asked for me specifically. Michonne’s eyes met mine and we both knew that whatever I’m needed for at Hilltop it’s of the utmost importance, because Daryl wouldn’t ask for me for anything less than something paramount.

I insist, since I’ve been paged, that I be allowed a chance to tell Negan first. I can see the wince, the twinge of irritation at the announcement, but too fucking bad. After hugging RJ and kissing Judith and promising I’ll be back safe and sound as fast as I can, I head to my house to pack a small bag and stop by Negan’s cell to let him know I’m off to Hilltop for an unknown purpose.

To say that he took it poorly would be an understatement. His distrust for Daryl is palpable. His distrust for Maggie, Glenn, Hilltop in general is so heavy that I’m shocked that he can breathe through it.

“You don’t even know why you’re fucking going, Jessi.” He sighs, eyes tight, looking like every muscle in his entire body is wound as tight as a spring. “What if-”

“What?” I shook my head and stepped closer, putting my fingers through the bars, touching his skin and pulling at him so he would move closer and I could touch more of him. “What if, what?” My eyes locked on his, drinking him in, this man who even caged was a riot of strength. “They bind me and lock me away? I dare them to try.” He rolled his eyes, but his long arms reached through the bars and wrapped around my back pulling me into him, the bars keeping us apart, but only just. “Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, will keep me from seeing you again, Negan.”

“I’ll hold you to that, Jessica Grimes.” He leaned down, lowering his head, his lips and mine meeting through the gap in the bars for a kiss before I had to head to Hilltop to see what was so important that Daryl needed my attendance.

 “Says her name is Lydia.” Daryl was telling me as he led me down a set of cellar steps. “She was easy to catch, makes me think they left ‘er behind on purpose.” I nodded, letting my eyes adjust to the dim light of Hilltop’s very own jail. “Something ain’t right about her, Jessi. And if anyone can get it out of her-”

I nearly snorted, but then my eyes landed on the girl. Dirty as hell, straggly hair, teeth that looked like they’d never seen the sight of a toothbrush, and eyes like a cornered animal. Yeah, this was a different breed of human, alight. Movement caught my eye in the cell next to hers, and I did snort then.

“Henry? Is that you?” Dear Lord, Ezekiel’s son was locked up in Hilltop. “What the literal hell did you do to get locked up in the Hilltop clink?”

“Hey, Jessi.” He sounded defeated, upset, embarrassed, and defensive all at once. Impressive for a snot nosed teenager. “Didn’t know you did a lot of visiting.”

Well spotted, I thought, but kept it to myself. “I’m the tri-community cell inspector. Newly minted.” Nothing, until I heard a tiny grunt of laughter from behind me and had to bite my lip to hold back my own giggle. Fuck, I think I got a chuckle out of Daryl Dixon of all people. “Hilltop’s look more spacious than Alexandria’s, since you’re from The Kingdom’s, you have insider knowledge of those? Any help is appreciated, might save my ass a trip.” My eyes were on Henry’s, but I swear to God, I felt Daryl’s snort in my toes.

Henry’s eyes were wide, and I felt pretty sure he was trying to decide if I was serious or not, but my eyes went back to the young woman in the cell next to his. She was tucked into the furthest corner from where I stood. Her eyes were darting between the three of us, since Daryl hadn’t left the cellar yet, but I planned on getting his ass out soon enough. Her fingers were tugging at the cuffs of her sleeves, and I was trying to focus on whether it was simply a nervous habit, or if she was hiding something at that spot.

“Daryl?” I didn’t raise my voice, there wasn’t a need and I didn’t want her to jump. “Could you bring me something cool to drink? I’m a bit parched, and I want Henry here to give me some insider information on those Kingdom cells.” He grunted his assent and after the door gave me the proof that he was gone, at least from sight, I smiled at the girl. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your cell neighbor, Henry?”

Henry blinked at me, I could see him out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t let my attention move from the girl. I wanted her to know that I was entirely focused on her. If she was primal, then showing her that I was in charge was important.

“Oh, right, sorry.” Henry, the adopted son of the self-styled King Ezekiel of The Kingdom, finally found his fucking manners. “Lydia, this is Jessica Grimes. Her mother is the leader of Alexandria.” Close enough, I thought, trying to keep from rolling my eyes. “Jessi, this is Lydia. She’s-” And that’s where he faded. Helpful.

“Hello, Lydia.” Voice still quiet, pleasant. Keep soothing, make sure that she knows I don’t bite. Unless it’s necessary. I watched as one hand stopped fidgeting with her sleeve and went to her earlobe. “Does your ear hurt?” My head tilted as her hand dropped along with her chin, but her eyes never left mine. “Lydia?”

“She has an ear infection.” Henry, the world’s worst or strangest ventriloquist. And it hit me, teenage love. Shit. He was into her. Dirty and traumatised as fuck, Lydia was his type. How weird. “Daryl brought medicine with food, but-”

“Do you not trust the medication?” I addressed Lydia. While Henry was helpful as the puppet voice, I wanted to get Lydia involved in the conversation. “It’s hard to trust people who put you in a cage, I do know that.” Trust me, I DO.

“Jessi really does, Lydia.” Thank you, Henry, I thought. Right there as the world’s best/worst backup singer. “She fell in love with-” I couldn’t hold back the long sigh that hit me. I had to, it had to come out. Sorry not sorry. “Sorry, Jessi.” Yeah, pretty fucking sure that Henry was in the clink to dry out. Verbal diarrhea tends to be a symptom.

“Not a problem.” I was still studying Lydia. “Daryl tells me that you’re a member of the group that attacked and killed our people.” Her eyes flickered around the room, landing on Henry, the window, the door, the bars, me, and again making a route. “Lydia, I’m unarmed.” I lifted my shirt, took a slow turn to show her that I truly wore not a single weapon. “I haven’t fought anyone hand to hand for a very long time.” Also true. “I am NOT here to harm you.” I wasn’t. From what Daryl told me, and Tara had reiterated while I listened and took mental notes, was to find out how dangerous this girl was. Whether she was important to her people and whether that made her valuable and dangerous.

I take a seat on the ground, ignoring the wooden chair that sits nearby. I know that Lydia is probably wondering why Daryl hasn’t returned with the cool drink I asked for, but I plan on distracting her with other tactics. Henry, with a short glance his way, follows suit. Lydia, after a few beats, joins us.

“I heard that you said ‘hunger is a gift,’” I tell her, leaning against the wall behind me, getting comfortable. I want her to know that she is correct, as I’m sure she was thinking that she’s been eavesdropped on. “Hunger is what you make of it, nothing more, nothing less.” I watch her as she puzzles through my words, I can see the war fighting inside her head. “My father, his mentality throughout this entire mess, ebbed and flowed. On one hand, he wanted us to learn to use every single hardship that this fucked up world handed us to make us harder and stronger and fiercer.” Her eyes blazed as they met mine and I knew that whomever she feared or learned from had put that idea firmly inside of her. “On the other side? He was terrified that in doing that, in gripping the hard and using it to brace us and build us harder, it would steal the best and ONLY reason worth surviving. Our humanity.” I thought of Judith, of RJ, of Mom, of Negan, of Daryl, of Carol, Maggie, Glenn, and on and on-

“Hunger isn’t the gift, Lydia. LIFE is the gift. Never forget that.” I sighed. My eyes landed on the medication bottle lying close to me near the bars. I reached out and took it into my fingers. “Dealing with pain when you don’t have to? That’s martyrdom for martyrdom’s sake, and it’s stupid and shitty.” I tossed it to her and smiled when she caught it easily. “Good hands, now take the fucking meds.” Henry was staring at me, but I was gratified to see a smirk on the girl’s face. “Now tell me about Alpha, and how often you’re beaten for no apparent reason so we can discuss whether the cell is a permanent situation or not.”

 Daryl had listened in on Henry and Lydia’s conversations before I’d come. I HAD insider information. I didn’t need to wait and dig, but I did want to see what I could garner without using it.

And what I learned was that Henry was overprotective and Lydia was more than willing to let him do the talking. Lydia was abused. She watched her mother kill her father. She watched this woman run roughshod over EVERYONE and no one stood up to her. Why would she suddenly choose to stand up for herself among strangers?

Which was the point where I gave up. Why not just admit that I knew it all? Cut out the middle tape and the middleman and get to the damn point of it all?

Plus, it’s HILARIOUS to freak out teenagers. Seriously. Try it sometime. I dare you.

“It’s not for-”

“No apparent reason?” I asked, biting back a yawn. “Lydia, listen, I’m here because I have this uncanny ability to cut through bullshit. OK, not really, but I do have a background in trauma.” Henry’s eyes were zeroed in on me so hard that I swore I’d end up with fucking marks. “When I first met Henry’s mom,” I heard him shift and I knew he was thinking of what he’d shared with her about Carol’s past. “I knew that she was abused by her husband. Not only because of her hair, but her eyes.” Lydia’s were still locked on mine, as though I were telling her a fairy tale. “People who are victims of repeated terrorization by loved ones, their eyes are haunted. They’re also fidgeters, they twitch and they jump.” Just like you, I wanted to add, but I didn’t.

“But I should do better,” she was still fighting to prove that her mom, that her leader wasn’t in the wrong. That she EARNED her ‘punishments’. “I shouldn’t-”

“Irritate her?” I offered, raising an eyebrow. “Upset her?” I leaned forward, raising my knees to prop my elbows on top of them. “You shouldn’t say whatever you said, whenever you said it, however you said it, to get her to hit you? Or you shouldn’t have looked at her in that tone?” I shook my head. How often had I heard it? Or seen it? When I’d volunteered during high school and college? “Abusers will never take credit for being the ones who perpetuate abuse, Lydia. The blame will always lay at the feet of those who they victimize. Even if that victim is an infant.”

 The next round of questioning came with the subject of how important Lydia felt she was to her mother and people. Would they come for her? Would they attack our people again? At what cost?

[holycatsandrabbits]

Dead Eye

Original fiction ficlet, rated G

Written for the Morning Coffee zine, a free, original art and fiction zine on the topic of coffee. The art pieces were even painted in coffee! Thanks to @yummi-gummi-zines for modding!

It took Gayle an embarrassingly long time to realize that something was off about a certain customer at the coffee shop where she worked. It should have been rather obvious. For one, the man, Craig, spent time every day in the shop, but he didn’t drink any coffee. Craig carried a silver travel mug with him, but he never bought anything to go in it. He didn’t even use the free creamer like a lot of rude people did, bringing coffee from home just to help themselves to what extras the shop put out for free. In fact, Gayle had never actually seen him take a drink from his mug.

For another thing, Craig didn’t talk to anybody. That in itself wasn’t so strange, some people just weren’t social. But it was also the case that nobody ever talked to Craig. When people sat at the table he was occupying, no one ever said Excuse me or Mind if I sit here? And if Craig continued to sit by them instead of moving, they completely ignored him. Gayle only knew his name because she’d tried to strike up a conversation once. He’d given her a bit of a surprised look and introduced himself, but he hadn’t seemed to want to talk to her either.

And finally, Craig was dressed like someone who was employed— nice slacks, dress shirt, and a tie— but he showed up in the coffee shop at all kinds of weird hours, and he never brought any work with him, not a computer, or notebook, or even a phone. He just sat in a chair, usually the one by the window, with his mug in his hand, and watched people.

Even with all that, it still didn’t dawn on Gayle that the man was dead. It took her co-worker Maggie mentioning the coffee shop ghost for Gayle to finally put it all together.

“What ghost?” Gayle asked, as they were cleaning up after closing.

“Oh, I should have figured you hadn’t seen him,” Maggie said, with a dramatic sigh. “You don’t have a psychic bone in your body, I can tell.” She pointed to the table by the window. “I saw him, right there. Wish I hadn’t, though. He’s bad luck. Right after that I broke two china mugs. Jess saw him and she twisted her ankle on her way home. Grant dropped his phone and cracked the screen. It was a couple of days later, but it still counts.”

“What’s he look like?” Gayle asked.

“Nothing scary. Just like a customer. Brown hair, brown eyes. Handsome. Grant saw him twice, and says he carries a silver mug. Nobody ever sees him come in or leave, he’s just in here sometimes.”

“So how do you know he’s a ghost?” asked Gayle.

“Because he doesn’t order anything, doesn’t work on anything, and doesn’t talk to anybody.”

“Oh,” said Gayle. “Huh.”

Maggie went into the kitchen then to mop the floor, and a voice spoke up behind Gayle. “The ankle and the phone weren’t my fault. But I may have been responsible for the mugs. I don’t like Maggie. She always makes the half-cafs full-decafs.”

Gayle turned around to see Craig sitting on the counter she’d just cleaned, his mug beside him and his feet swinging in space.

“You, on the other hand,” he said, “I like. You only sabotage the orders of rude people.”

“Huh,” said Gayle, again.

“Want to know what happened?” Craig asked.

“Sure.”

“I had a heart attack.” Craig pointed to that table by the window. “Right there. Five years ago, before you or Maggie started here. I never saw it coming. I was an athlete, ate a good diet. Maybe I drank too much coffee.”

“You do look healthy,” Gayle said. “I’d never have guessed you were dead.”

Craig nodded. “I was wondering how long it was going to take you to figure it out.”

Maggie hollered from the kitchen. “Who are you talking to out there?” She poked her head out into the seating area. “You better not have let in a customer—” She looked around— counters included— and apparently saw no one.

“Just thinking out loud,” Gayle said, and Maggie went back into the kitchen.

“Nobody sees or hears me as well as you do,” Craig said. “Not a psychic bone in your body, my ass.”

Gayle started cleaning the glass display case. “So how come you didn’t pass on? You know—” She waved her hand. “Go upstairs? Downstairs?”

“No idea.”

“No grander purpose? Unfinished business? Didn’t commit some atrocity and get damned to stay here until you make amends?”

“Huh,” said Craig slowly. “I didn’t think of that last one.” He slid himself off the counter. “I mean, it wasn’t an atrocity.”

“What did you do?”

Craig put his hands up sort of defensively. “Well, look, nobody died. But I may have… possibly… robbed a bank.” Craig looked slightly remorseful.

“You robbed a bank,” Gayle said.

“Well, I worked at a bank. Made it easier. I just used a computer program.”

Maggie came out from the kitchen. “That’s good enough. Let the morning shift handle the rest.” She frowned at Gayle. “Are you okay? You don’t usually talk to yourself about robbing banks.”

Craig popped up again the next Saturday morning when Gayle came in by herself to start the baking. He appeared by the oven, wrinkling his nose at the orange-cinnamon scone batter. “I never liked those,” he complained. “So how does one make amends?”

Gayle gave him a surprised look. “Why are you asking me?”

“Because there’s literally no one else I can ask.”

“Well— I guess you apologize to the bank.”

“Can’t. Most people can only see me for a few minutes at a time, and nobody can hear me except you.”

“Well, then you swear not to to it again.”

“Can’t do it again, I’m dead. What would I even do with money now?” Craig scowled at a platter of blueberry muffins. “This doesn’t make any sense. If I’m supposed to make amends to the bank, why am I not haunting the bank?”

“It does seem like poor organization,” Gayle agreed.

Craig looked thoughtful for a moment, and then he said, “Well, maybe I’m supposed to help you. Since you can see and hear me so well. I mean, you don’t want to work in a coffee shop all your life, do you? You’ve got to have dreams.”

“Oh, I do,” Gayle assured him. “One of them is owning this place. I’ve always wanted to have a coffee shop. I’m going to school for my MBA right now.”

Craig stared at her a moment and then said, “Huh.” He seemed to sort of phase himself through the counter until he was sitting on it again.

“I’ve already included you in my plans,” Gayle said. She pointed out toward the seating area. “When the shop is mine, I’m going to put a sign on that chair you like— Reserved for the Ghost.”

“A haunted coffee shop?” Craig said, looking rather impressed.

“If we get TV crews in, could you give them a bit of a show?” Gayle asked.

Craig nodded. “I can do stuff like with Maggie and the mugs if I try really hard.”

“I’ll probably have themed drinks, too,” Gayle mused. “Ghost white. Phantom Frapp. Dead eye already works.”

Craig cocked his head. “That all sounds nice, but I have to say that helping you make money doesn’t really seem like a good deed on my part. Not exactly making amends.”

Gayle frowned. “Well, I was thinking of having a policy of giving all my day-old food to the needy.”

Craig snapped his fingers. “That could work.”

Gayle paused halfway through filling a muffin tin. “Do you think you’ll move on, then, when I’ve got it all set up?”

Craig shrugged. “I guess we’ll see. I’d almost hate to, though. Sounds like it would be fun. So how long do we have to wait for all that?”

“Well, I’m almost done with school. But I’m going to have to save up enough to buy the place.”

Craig looked thoughtful. “You know— I might know where you can get the funds.” When Gayle raised her eyebrows at him, he said, “The bank never caught me! I died before they could. Money’s just sitting around in an account I set up and nobody even knows about it.”

“Well,” said Gayle, “it’s certainly not doing anything sitting around in some account, is it?”

“Definitely not feeding the needy,” Craig agreed.

The door to the kitchen banged open as Maggie came in. “Sorry I’m late,” she said. “I didn’t want to be here. Are you talking to yourself again?”

“No,” said Gayle. “I’m talking to the ghost.”

Maggie gave her a confused look. “Don’t try to be funny. You aren’t.”

That day Maggie broke three mugs.

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