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naughtyneganjdm · 4 years ago

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The Savior - Chapter 32

Summary: Negan takes Y/N and Asher to the beach house while trying to determine what to do with Asher. After learning about Asher's past, Negan is determined to help the little boy

Characters: Negan, Reader (OC), Asher, etc.

Warnings: Swearing, some smut, talks of parental abuse

AO3 Link: Tumblr won't let me post the link again so look on my AO3 to find it.

“I thought we were at your house,” Asher’s voice spoke up from the backseat of Negan’s car while they drove to the beach house. Negan looked at Asher in the rearview mirror and could see the young boy bouncing around in the seat he was in, clearly still amused with being in Negan’s muscle car. “Does my mom know where we are going?”

“I sent your mom my cell number and the address,” Negan informed Asher who seemed to already not care anymore about the question he even asked. Looking to Y/N, Negan felt a sense of sadness overcome him. This was supposed to be his time to plan his future with Y/N and now they had this all thrown on them. He didn’t know what she was thinking, but she had been extraordinarily kind to Asher since he had shown up. “I have a few things I have to do for work, so we have to be out here.”

It took a few more minutes until they pulled into the driveway of the beach house and when they did, they heard Asher let out a sound of awe, “Holy shit! That’s your house?”

“Hey…” Negan looked back over his shoulder at Asher who was eyeballing the house from the window. Looking to Y/N he let out a long sigh and whispered, “Should I even be correcting him on the swearing since I do it?”

“I mean…that’s up to you,” she didn’t know how to answer. She wasn’t about to tell Negan how to be a parent. If Asher was really Negan’s son, she had no right in giving her opinion as far as she was concerned. She would help to the best of her ability, but she didn’t want to step on Negan’s toes.

“Asher, I don’t have a problem with you swearing around me, but could you do me a favor?” Negan pulled his seatbelt off, turning around in the front seat to give Asher a serious expression. Asher quickly nodded his head and Negan bit at his bottom lip. “When we are in public or you are at school, could you watch your mouth a little bit? There is a time and a place for you to swear. In front of me, it’s totally okay, but around others…”

“Manners, right,” Asher snapped his fingers and his big hazel eyes looked between Y/N and Negan. “Can we go in?”

“Sure, but just…remember there are some things in there that are expensive, so you have to be careful, okay?” Negan reminded Asher who quickly nodded and pulled his seatbelt off. They got out of the car and Negan noticed Y/N pulling her sweatshirt closer to her body. “Isn’t it a little warm for that?”

“I’m chilled,” she lied knowing that she had been wearing baggy clothes so she could wait for the perfect moment to tell Negan that she was pregnant. It wasn’t like she was showing a ton, but for a while she had been wearing baggier clothes to make sure she was hiding anything that was showing. “I’ll be okay.”

Negan waited for Asher to get ahead of them to run up to the door before he moved up toward it. Negan pushed open the door and watched Asher run from room to room. Tension filled his entire body. Asher was a kid, of course he would be excited to see everything and all at once. It took a while before Negan could get him to calm down and he helped set him up in one of the guest rooms upstairs. Asher was excited to have his own room and Negan watched from the door while Asher jumped on the bed.

“You gotta be careful bud. Don’t go too high, I don’t want you getting hurt,” Negan held his hand in the air watching Asher bouncing over and over again. A groan fell from his lips when he lowered his head into his hand. The soft caress of Y/N’s hand pressed in over his wrist and he lifted his gaze to her. “As soon as my doctor is available, we are going to get that DNA test, I am so sorry.”

“Stop apologizing. We are fine,” she hushed Negan, sliding her palm down the side of Negan’s face in a comforting sweep. Looking to Asher spinning before dropping down on the bed, Y/N cracked a smile and called out to Asher. “You want to go see the beach in the backyard?”

“There is a beach?” Asher quickly shot up from the bed and pushed through the both of them to hurriedly move down the stairs. They followed him toward the back of the house and when they got there Asher was trying to figure out how to open the back door. Negan unhooked it for him and Asher shot out the back door immediately hopping down into the sand. “This is so cool! I can’t believe you have a house on the beach!”

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool, huh?” Negan half smiled watching Asher running through the sand. “Don’t get too far into the water, okay?”

“Okay!” Asher ran down closer to the water but stayed near the edge like Negan had asked of him.

Moving to the steps of the deck, Negan dropped down onto one of them. Y/N sat down beside him and Negan looked to her again with his worried hazel eyes, “I am so sorry. You never asked for this when I asked you to marry me.”

“Negan,” she watched him reach for her hand to look over the ring that was on her ring finger. “I’m not going to be upset with you for potentially having a child that you didn’t even know about. More so, I’m mad that Sherry threw him on you last minute. She should have told you immediately if she thought you were the father I don’t understand why she waited until the end of the year to tell you that Asher was yours.”

“That’s why I’m fucking confused,” Negan looked toward Asher and let out a tight groan. Sherry had made multiple attempts to sleep with him, but not once did she make it seem like she had something important to tell him. Having a kid was a pretty big fucking deal, so keeping it from him once she saw him again really bothered him. “I believe I slept with her when I was younger, which makes me fucking hate myself more, but…”

“We do stupid things sometimes,” she assured him with a shrug of her shoulders. It wasn’t something she really wanted to picture. Sherry was someone she had been jealous of for quite some time, but if Negan slept with Sherry and didn’t remember her, that said a lot about Sherry in the long run. She was forgettable and while Y/N shouldn’t have got pleasure from knowing that, she kind of did. It just wasn’t something she really wanted to picture. Although, the conversation she had with Sherry in the locker room felt ridiculously awkward after knowing Sherry had a potential child with Negan. “As long as it was just a past thing and that’s all it was…”

“Y/N, I’m engaged to you. Junior down here in my pants is not going near anyone else,” Negan promised hearing her laugh out at how he described him manhood. “I’m just saying, there is no one else that will be sleeping with me. I feel almost a repulsion for Sherry now, so the idea that I slept with her when I was younger really bothers me. Just thinking about what I did then bothers me so fucking much.”

“I understand,” Y/N swallowed down hard and knew he was upset with himself for cheating on his late wife like he did. “It’s a hard thing to think about.”

“I just wish I would have grown up faster,” Negan looked to Y/N and pulled her hand up to him so he could deposit a kiss over the back of it. “I should have changed for her like I have for you. I was such trash.”

“You’re not trash,” she corrected, knowing that when he got thinking about Lucille, he would often get upset. “You were lost.”

“Which is another way of kindly saying I was an asshole,” Negan reminded her with a half-smile, allowing her to lower her hand into his lap. “I swear, I always thought I was careful sleeping with people.”

“It could have been worse I suppose,” she looked toward the water to see Asher picking up seashells by the water.

“God, look at him. She has him in clothes that are way too big for him,” Negan frowned, looking over the boy that had just dropped into his life out of nowhere. “This poor kid. He’s been through so fucking much and if he’s my son we need to change it immediately.”

It really seemed like Negan was bothered by the way Asher had been living his life thus far and she didn’t blame him. Squeezing her fingers tightly around his, she wanted to be as supportive as she could. This was a lot to take in as it was. It was hard to believe that Sherry would just throw Asher on Negan like she did. Who does that?

The way that Negan was staring out Asher drew her attention to him. He was clearly thinking about something as he called out to Asher, “Hey bud? Do you have a glove to play catch or something in your bags?”

“No,” Asher called out, running back up the beach while holding a few shells in his hands. “I’ve never had a glove that was mine.”

“You’ve never had a glove?” Negan confirmed as his face flushed over with red. “How about we go to a few of the stores out here and get you one? The three of us can play catch together later. Maybe I can get you some new clothes. Some that would fit you. Would you like that?”

“I mean…I kind of just get what I get,” Asher looked down at the shirt he was wearing, tugging on the material before looking up at Negan. “The idea sounds really cool though. You don’t have to do that. You don’t even know if you are my real dad.”

“Let’s not worry about that,” Negan shook his head and stood from the deck. His fingers were still hooked with hers while he spoke to Asher. It was like she was his strength through all of this and she knew that he needed her to be there for him.

“What do you have there bud?” Y/N called out from where she was seat and Asher excitedly moved beside her to lay the seashells down on the step beside her. “Wow, those are really pretty.”

“Here,” Asher reached for one that was very colorful after surveying the shells and held it out to her. “This one is for you.”

“For me?” she looked down at the seashell and Asher nodded, a bright smile expanding over his young features. “Are you sure you want to give me this? It sure is pretty and you worked so hard to get it.”

“Of course,” Asher confirmed, moving forward to wrap her fingers around the seashell. “It’s the prettiest one I found and I want you to have it.”

“I will cherish this Asher,” Y/N winked, reaching out to pat over Asher’s shoulder and out of the corner of her eye she could tell that Negan was watching the interaction between the two of them closely. The way Negan was looking at her made it seem like he was in awe of her and that wasn’t purposeful. She just knew what it was like to have a hard childhood so she was doing her best to make Asher feel comfortable and happy. While this was hard for Negan, it also had to be weird for Asher too. Being thrown around as it was had to be hard for him, but to be dropped off with a complete stranger had to be scary. “Thank you so much sweetheart.”

“Is there a place we can put these?” Asher looked over at Negan when he began to pick the seashells back up. “That way I don’t lose them when we go to the store?”

“Sure thing buddy. Let’s wash them off and then we can dry them on the counter while we’re gone,” Negan offered and Asher excitedly followed Negan into the kitchen. Asher was just a little bit short of the sink and Negan had to lift him up so he could wash his hands. “We’ll have to get you a footstool so you can wash your hands.”

“Thank you,” Asher’s voice almost squeaked while he cleaned the seashells off. “I’m a little short, but maybe one day I will be tall like you are.”

It was actually sweet watching Negan help Asher. Negan wasn’t used to kids and that was obvious, but it had to be hard having a seven-year-old just immediately thrown on you. There was no time to learn and grow with Asher, he just showed up.

After they were done with the seashells, Negan did what he promised he would do. He took Asher to town and got him clothes. Negan was very specific about what he wanted to get Asher. It was almost amusing for Y/N to watch Negan picking out the clothes for Asher. It kind of seemed like Negan was excited to be doing it.

Asher was just happy to have something that was his own, so he didn’t complain at all. In fact, when Negan was getting things that kind of resembled the things that he would wear, Asher was super thrilled. Even if Asher wasn’t Negan’s son, it was nice to see Negan doing this for the young boy. He had clearly felt bad for Asher and to see him helping Asher was the sweetest thing.

“You look fucking sharp buddy,” Negan stood behind Asher in the mirror after Asher had put something on to try. “You know what would make this look better?”

“What?” Asher looked up at Negan and Negan pulled the water bottle he had from his back pocket. Negan lowered down and poured some of his water into his hands before reaching out to push his fingers through Asher’s hair. Styling Asher’s hair like he would often do his own, he could hear Asher’s laugh filling the air and Negan’s nose wrinkled. Asher stepped around Negan to look at himself in the mirror and he posed making both Negan and Y/N laugh. “Oh yeah, I look good. Much better now.”

“He sure is full of personality, isn’t he?” Negan looked up at Y/N from where he was knelt on the floor beside Asher who kept winking in the mirror. “This will all be yours, okay? No more clothes that are too big for you. Is there anything else you want to try on?”

“I can pick?” Asher looked to Negan with a surprised expression. “Like, anything?”

“Anything,” Negan agreed and Asher’s hazel eyes surveyed the store when they fell upon a leather jacket. Negan looked over his shoulder and saw what Asher was staring at. “You liked my leather jacket at home, huh?”

“You look really cool in it,” Asher announced, his eyes wide when Negan stood up and moved across the store. Negan pushed through the jackets before finding one that he thought would fit Asher. Coming back, he urged Asher to hold his arms out so he could help put it on him. Once they were done putting it on, he watched Asher step closer to the mirror surveying it. “I could really have this?”

“Do you want it?” Negan breathed and Asher quickly nodded his head. “Then it’s yours.”

Asher said nothing, simply just turned on his heel and ran to Negan. A grunt escaped Negan’s throat when Asher hugged him tightly and Negan looked to Y/N as if he wasn’t sure what to do. Patting Asher on the shoulder, Negan cleared his throat and his eyes met the store clerk. Negan got a lot of clothes for Asher and they had to make a stop at the car to drop things off before going to get a few gloves for the three of them to play catch. They took their time in picking out the perfect glove for Asher who was shocked that he was getting his own glove to keep. The excitement Asher had toward getting a glove was amazing to see and adorable. Asher was close to a stranger for them, but the fact that something as simple as a glove could make him that happy was beautiful to see.

On their way back to the car after finding the right glove for Asher, Negan took notice of the way that Asher stopped at an ice cream shop window to look inside. The way Asher was staring made Negan realize that he likely wanted something, “You want something buddy?”

“Would that be okay?” Asher looked over his shoulder at Negan who shrugged his shoulders. They had been pampering Asher, but hell…the kid deserved it at this point. “I’m sorry, I just haven’t had any in a while.”

“You don’t have to apologize for wanting something kiddo,” Negan insisted with a shrug of his shoulders, “all you have to do is ask and we’ll get it for you.”

“Really?” Asher looked to Negan with big eyes and he didn’t know how to respond.

“Come on bud,” Y/N reached for Asher’s hand, urging him to follow her into the shop. Negan followed them not far behind and the eagerness Asher had to eat almost worried Negan. Like he may have not been being fed like he was supposed to. Negan watched while Y/N and Asher surveyed the glass covering that had all the flavors behind it. It was sweet to watch them interact and Negan was truly surprised at how well Y/N was taking all of this. “We found what we want Negan. What do you want?”

“Surprise me,” Negan winked and saw her nod while she talked with Asher. When they handed Asher the ice cream cone, he could see how happy Asher truly was over it. “Hey Ash. Why don’t you pick out a flavor you’d like to take home in a quart for dessert later?”

“Yeah?” Asher took a big bite of the ice cream he already had and Negan nodded. Quickly he scurried in next to Y/N again to pick something he would like for later. A laugh fell from Negan’s throat when Asher nearly pressed his whole face to the glass to look at each ice cream closely. “Thanks Negan.”

The look Y/N gave Negan was almost amused before she handed Negan over his ice cream cone. When they were done getting their ice creams, they had walked down by the beach so Asher could get a better look at a large boat that was going by.

“You would make a good dad, you know that?” she stammered and Negan looked to her with a small smile. He obviously thought she was just trying to make him feel better. Negan had been nervous the whole time about messing up and she knew that he was trying really hard to make Asher happy. There was no doubt in that, but it made her start to think about the baby that was growing inside of her. The way she felt about it began to feel awkward as she cleared her throat and spoke up again. “You are a father, Negan.”

“Well, we don’t know that yet,” Negan whispered looking back toward Asher again. That was a fail. He thought she was talking about Asher and she felt her cheeks flushing over. It was almost embarrassment that she felt. How was she going to tell him that she was pregnant with his child? “I mean, I want a kid. I’ve always wanted a child, but…this would make me an awful father wouldn’t it if Asher truly was mine?”

“That’s…not what I meant,” she frowned looking down toward the ground knowing that would have been an awful way to tell him that she was pregnant. Asher was fresh in the mind and clearly that’s what they were going to be stuck on for a while. It was best for her not to ruin the moment for Asher since he needed the attention he was getting. “But you’re not a bad father if you didn’t even know he existed Negan.”

“Part of me feels like I am,” Negan looked to Asher again watching Asher bounce as the boat went by. It was almost sweet how easily he got excited and happy by things. “That little boy is clearly not being taken care of. If I would have known, I could have helped…”

“You’re helping now,” she moved to him and noticed that he had some chocolate on his face from eating his ice cream. Reaching up, she wiped it away with her thumb and then tipped up on her toes to hook her arms around Negan’s shoulders. “You are an amazing man.”

“Not nearly as amazing as you are,” Negan hummed, leaning in to meet her lips in a kiss. The taste of chocolate lingered over Negan’s lips and when his tongue brushed in over hers, she heard Asher’s voice interject.

“Get a room,” Asher snorted and Negan pulled away, his eyes looking down at the boy who was making his way back to them. There was mischief in his eyes and it was clear that Asher was proud of himself for saying what he did. “Adults are weird.”

“Yes they are,” Negan smirked, reaching out to pat his hand over Asher’s head. Asher didn’t seem bothered by their intimacy other than cracking the joke he did, but Negan realized he should probably cool it a bit when they were in front of Asher. “You ready to head back home?”

“Home?” Asher repeated Negan’s words and Negan swallowed down hard. It was clear that Asher thought this was all very temporary in life for him so the idea of Negan’s home really didn’t mean his home for him. “You mean go back to your home?”

“Yeah,” Negan nodded feeling bad at how Asher had picked up on that. Negan reached for Y/N’s hand as they walked back to the car. Asher was enamored with the small town and it was cute to see. The way he had such an awe for things was sweet in itself.

It was toward the end of the night and Negan had decided to order pizza, but while they were waiting Asher was eager to try out his new glove outside. They were in the back in the sand playing together. Asher was having a hard time catching the ball and it was frustrating him. It was clear Asher was being extremely hard on himself and Negan held his hand up in the air.

“Hey, it’s okay. We just have to break the glove in a little bit,” Negan moved before Asher, reaching for the glove. He worked with it for a moment or two and Y/N could see from where she was standing that Asher was embarrassed. “When we first get a glove, it’s a little harder to work with you know? It’s stiff and not as easy to catch things.”

“You are such a good player. If I’m your son and I suck, that’s just…” Asher sighed, his eyes meeting Y/N’s, “sucky.”

“Hey, you don’t suck,” Y/N moved forward while Negan helped with Asher’s glove. “I love softball, but I wasn’t good immediately. It took work and with someone like Negan helping you…you learn fast and you get good.”

“Yeah, but you’re good. I remember,” Asher pointed out with a bright smile when he recalled the time he went to one of the games with his mom. “I was at a game you were at.”

“Yes, you were,” Negan muttered remembering the first time he had met Asher was at one of their games. “She was the best on the team.”

“Sometimes Negan says things to make me feel better about myself,” Y/N chuckled and Asher was eager to shake his head.

“No, he’s right. You’re great,” Asher corrected her. “I agree with Negan.”

“See, the kid knows talent when he sees it,” Negan snapped his fingers and pointed at Asher who smiled even bigger. Asher was proud that Negan liked his comment and Y/N couldn’t help but laugh.

“Well, I was trained by Negan so if you let Negan help you…you’ll be great,” Y/N insisted, reaching out to touch Negan’s shoulder. Giving it a squeeze, Negan looked up and gave her a wink before handing the glove back over to Asher when he felt like he loosened it up a bit.

The pizza delivery guy showed up and Y/N left Negan to play with Asher for a little while longer as she got the pizza. She took her time in setting up the table in the kitchen before going to watch Negan and Asher together for a little while. Standing on the deck, she watched the two of them throw the ball back and forth. For a while, Asher continued to miss until he finally caught one. When he did, Negan threw his hands up in the air and Asher cheered out.

“I did it,” Asher held his hand up in the air, waving the glove to show Y/N from where she was standing on the deck. The way Asher bounced over and over again would have shown his excitement if it weren’t already completely plastered over his face.

“You did it!” Negan repeated with a proud sound. The reaction Negan had to Asher catching the ball was adorable.

Maybe worrying about telling Negan about the baby was silly after all. He was great with Asher, even if he was uncomfortable. Negan was going to be a good father to her child, no matter the outcome. That was one thing their time with Asher was definitely proving to her.

They played for a little bit longer before having dinner. Asher excitedly talked about catching the ball a few times over dinner and after he asked if they could watch a movie together. It was a sweet moment between all of them. Asher requested that he sit between Negan and Y/N during the film which they were obviously okay with.

Toward the middle of the film, she looked to see that Negan and Asher were sharing the ice cream from the quart that Negan had gotten earlier in the day. It seemed like Negan was already pretty damn accepting of the idea that Asher might be his son. It was kind of adorable watching the two of them bond over the small things.

The amount of questions Asher asked during the movie were kind of amusing. It didn’t seem like Asher has a dull moment in his life, but Negan continued to answer his question without getting upset. A few of his questions were quite amusing and it was hard not to laugh at him.

The longer the movie went, the more comfortable Asher seemed to get between the two of them. His head was resting against Negan’s shoulder while he tried to keep himself awake to finish the film with them. Asher was clearly fighting a losing battle because a few minutes later, she had noticed that Asher had fallen asleep on Negan. When Negan noticed he was sleeping, Negan motioned her to turn off the television. There was no sense in finishing the movie without Asher since he had specifically asked to watch it with them.

Carefully, Negan had grabbed Asher and carried him up the stairs to the room he had Asher set up in. Watching Negan with Asher made Y/N’s heart full. She pictured what he would be like with their child and it made her all the more excited for the future that they would share together.

“Do you think he needs anything?” Negan laid Asher down in the bed and carefully adjusted him to pull the blankets in over him. Negan took a look around the room for the bags that Sherry had given him. When they were at the other house, Negan had noticed that Asher slept with a very worn-down teddy bear. Finally finding it, Negan grabbed a hold of it and put it carefully into bed with Asher beside him.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Y/N leaned against the doorframe, watching Negan staring down at Asher while he slept. There was a lot going through Negan’s mind and she could tell that he was in anguish over what he was thinking.

A loud sigh fell from Negan’s lips as he moved across the room to her. Negan’s hands slid in over her hips and he leaned down to press a quick kiss over her lips, “I guess we should go to bed too.”

“Okay sweetheart,” she closed the door behind her when Negan led her out into the hallway after they turned the light off for Asher. Negan didn’t say much once they left Asher’s room. He was quiet, but by the look on his face he was deep in thought. By the look on his face she could tell that he was exhausted. He hadn’t slept that much since Asher showed up and rightfully so, but during the night while they were laying down, he kept tossing and turning. If he was thinking about things, she wished he would have just talked to her about everything instead of keeping it in. “Negan?”

“Sorry, I’m not trying to keep you up,” Negan grumbled, dropping his head heavily back into the pillows. Y/N turned to face him in bed and could see that he was frustrated. With the way he moved and sighed, there was no way she would have fallen asleep even if she tried. With him so upset though, she knew it was best that she was awake to help talk things out with him. “I just…I don’t know what to do.”

“You seem to be doing perfectly fine right now,” she pointed out, reaching out to caress over the center of Negan’s hairy chest. Playing with the curls of hair, she heard him let out a long exhale and she leaned in to kiss over his jawline. “I think you are stepping up amazingly for that little boy”

“Then should I really get this DNA test done? What if he isn’t my little boy?” Negan swallowed down hard, “He deserves to be treated good. Maybe I shouldn’t get the DNA test. This way it guarantees that I get to be in this little boy’s life.”

“That’s completely up to you,” Y/N stated with a small shrug. “I support anything you do.”

“Would I be a monster if I got the DNA test done just to make sure I was the father, so I could get full custody of him if he is mine?” Negan was quiet in the way he asked the question and Y/N’s eyes got a bit wide. “I know that would cause a ton of shit and I guess I should be asking your permission right now if I’m thinking of going through with that.”

“Is that what you want to do?” Y/N saw the frustration fill Negan’s face. That was a lot to take on, but she could see that Negan was sure that was something he wanted to do by the way he looked at her. There was no way that he had to ask her for permission for something like that. If Asher was his son, he had every right to do whatever he wanted. He didn’t have to ask her to do that. “You’re good with that boy.”

“And Sherry isn’t,” Negan pointed out with a frown, “If that boy is mine, he should be with someone who will love him and take care of him, but you never asked for that. This was thrown on you just as much as it was thrown on me. Asking you to be a step-mom to my son full time might be a lot to ask of you.”

“As long as I’m with you, that’s all that matters,” she insisted, meeting him in a kiss and Negan let out a relieved sound. “I will back any decision that you make. She just dropped this boy off not knowing a thing about what you were like. That in itself shows she’s not a good parent.”

“Right? Who does that?” Negan grunted, very frustrated with Sherry and what she had done with Asher. “If that boy is my son, I don’t want him getting thrown from place to place like he has had to live. I want him to be with me. I want to know that he is safe and not worry about what boyfriend of Sherry’s he is staying with next.”

“And I support that,” she nodded, reaching out to caress over the side of Negan’s rough features. “If he’s your son, I think you have every right.”

“It’s so hard knowing what I should do,” Negan scoffed, feeling her crawling in closer to him. The warmth of her resting against his chest made him sigh and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders to pull her close. “I’m so glad I have you here with me.”

“Watching you today with that boy made me realize how much I really love you. You’re going to make an amazing father,” she informed him, her hand caressing over his lower abdomen and Negan sucked in a sharp breath. “You remind me over and over again how lucky I am to be with you by being the amazing man that you are.”

“Hey…” Negan lifted his head when he felt her hand slipping beneath the material of his boxer briefs under the blankets. A nervous sound fell from Negan’s throat as she grabbed a hold of his body. “With Asher here…”

“Just be quiet,” she urged, leaning in to press soft kisses over the side of his neck. Pumping her hand over his flesh in drawn out caresses, she could feel him hardening in her grasp and Negan’s head dropped back. His eyes closed tightly and the muscles in his neck were tense. “Today made me realize that you would be a great father for any child…our child.”

“Yeah?” Negan licked his lips, his eyebrows tensing together while her grip got tighter around him. “I don’t know about that.”

“No, you’d be perfect,” she lowered her head to deposit soft kisses over Negan’s chest and she felt him completely solid within her grasp after a few more strokes. “What do you think of the two of us having a baby?”

“I think…I think it’d be a great idea,” Negan muttered, his soft moans filling the air while her jerking motions continued over his body. It was the first time he had gotten to relax and not worry while her hand caressed over his body. Inhaling sharply, Negan lifted his head to watch the movements her hand was making beneath the blanket and he bit firmly into his bottom lip. “Is that really something you want to take on with potentially having a seven-year-old around the house?”

“Oh, I think Asher would make a good big brother,” Y/N answered, being quiet in the way she moved. Negan swallowed down hard when he saw her reaching beneath the blankets to push her pajama pants down her body. Negan bit down on his bottom lip and watched her carefully move in over him. Licking at his lips, Negan took his time to watch her as she braced herself over him. Negan lifted his hips and helped push the material of his boxer briefs down far enough down to release his hardened body into her grasp. “You can be quiet, right?”

“Yeah,” Negan’s lips were parted as she led the tip of his body into hers and his eyebrows furrowed. He bit harder at his bottom lip when he felt her body enveloping his and his thigh muscles flexed at how incredible it felt. Grasping tightly to her hips, Negan arched his hips up to help her bottom out over him and he saw her eyes close tightly. “The idea of us having a baby turned you on?”

“The idea of you being a good father did,” she reached back, placing her hands over Negan’s hairy thighs to brace herself while she rocked herself over his length. They were careful in their movements, making sure not to be too loud. Their movements were drawing both of them to let out muted sounds that they tried to cover up with their hands or by kissing. Negan’s deep-rooted groans pressed in over her lips while she focused on kissing him to keep him quiet. “The idea that I get to be yours officially makes me so happy.”

“Even after everything that has happened?” Negan lifted his head to watch her body’s movements over his. Licking over his lips, Negan watched her working herself over his length. The way in which she knew to do things now was amazing. She went from being the shy innocent girl to knowing exactly what to do to drive him crazy. “You still want to be with me?”

“Even more,” she maintained, fighting to contain a whimper that wanted to fall from her throat. Gripping tighter to his thighs, she rocked her hips over his and felt Negan’s hips bucking up to meet her movements. “You are the most amazing man…”

“Fuck,” Negan scoffed, his head dropping back when she pressed her right hand forward to brace it on his lower abdomen while the other still was firmly grasping to his thigh. The pace she set was fast, taking him inside of her again and again making Negan grasp tightly to her hips. His right hand lowered between her thighs, his thumb caressing over her clitoris while she took advantage of his body. Each rock forward her hips did over him aided in the caress his thumb had over her sensitive bundle of nerves and she did her best to stay quiet. “I’m going to cum.”

“Yeah?” she felt the muscles in his body flexing beneath her touch and she eagerly rocked harder over him. Her eyes slammed shut when she felt his caress getting harder over her body, trying to get her to a release as well. A whine fell from her throat, but Negan’s free hand reached up to cover her mouth to keep her silent. Negan sat up to press his lips in over hers to keep them both quiet when she reached her orgasm. Her body shook against his, but she tried to keep up with rocking over him until he pulled his lips from hers. His nose nuzzled against the side of her neck and he bit at her flesh trying to keep himself quiet during his release. Caressing her hand over the back of his neck, Y/N played with Negan’s wet hair and tugged on it after he was done. “I have something I need to tell you.”

“Yeah?” Negan rested his head against her clothed chest, cherishing the warmth of her over him. “What’s that?”

The sound of the doorknob being turned was heard and they both quickly moved as Negan called out, “Asher wait! Don’t come in here.”

Negan quickly pulled his boxer briefs back up his body while Y/N reached for her pajama pants. The rate at which they pulled their clothes back on was incredibly fast as Negan let out a frustrated sound and pulled himself up into a seated position on bed with his back against the headboard.

“Okay,” Negan called out when he made sure that Y/N was good and Asher pushed open the door slowly. The look that Asher was giving them was odd as Negan flicked on the light that was beside the bed. “What’s up bud?”

“Were you guys trying to have sex?” Asher blurted out and Negan choked. Negan looked to Y/N and she was surprised herself to hear what came out of his mouth.

“Don’t say that. Don’t…” Negan shook his head and let out a tense breath. “What…how do you even know what that is?”

“I don’t know. I’ve heard a lot of the guys my mom has brought home talking about sex. Mom lets me watch television and goes away with her boyfriends to another room,” Asher recalled in a smaller voice when it was clear that Negan was upset with what he said. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to upset you.”

“You’re seven, you shouldn’t…you shouldn’t even know what that is,” Negan pulled the blankets back and saw the way that Asher looked up at him. The more he learned about Sherry and all the things she had done to Asher; the more Negan was certain that he needed to get this boy away from Sherry. “Does your mother do anything right?”

“I…don’t know,” Asher let out a nervous sound and he cleared his throat. “Should I leave?”

“What’s wrong honey?” Y/N sat up further in bed and reached out to squeeze over Negan’s bare shoulder.

“I know…I know I’m a boy and I shouldn’t be afraid, but do you have a nightlight?” Asher kept his head lowered while he looked down at the ground.

“A nightlight?” Negan repeated and Asher’s face flushed over with a blush. Feeling bad that he got so upset with Asher over what he said, Negan pulled himself to the edge of the bed and nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure I do. Just give me a second.”

Negan searched for a light for Asher while Y/N took Asher back to the bedroom they had set up for him. Asher crawled back into the bed and he was silent before looking to Y/N with a saddened expression, “I didn’t mean to upset him. I made him mad.”

“He’s not mad at you sweetheart,” Y/N tried to insist, knowing that Negan was just upset over the fact Asher was so young and should have never known about sex. “I promise you he’s not.”

“I know I should have knocked first; I didn’t mean to…” Asher reached up to rub at his eyes. Y/N was thankful he showed up when he did and not earlier because if he would have showed up earlier it would have been a lot worse. “I’m just afraid of the dark and with the sounds of the water, I just…”

“Sweetheart, it’s okay,” she hushed him from where she was sitting at the bottom of his bed.

“Dwight, the guy that my mom thought was my dad for a while told me that nightlights were for babies,” Asher explained with a frown, recalling what he was told by one of his mom’s boyfriends. “He told me that I wasn’t a man if I needed a light.”

“Well that guy is an asshole,” Negan’s deep voice filled the air when he moved into the room. Negan found a plug and put in the light for Asher. It was bright enough to make sure that room could be seen from his bed. “We’re all afraid of something and I hate to tell you this Asher, but you are a little boy. You aren’t a man.”

“I know, but he said…” Asher whimpered thinking back to what Dwight had told him in the past. “He just told me I would be embarrassing to him if people found out.”

“Well ignore him because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Negan insisted with a grunt, hating to hear the way people talked to this little boy. “You are still young. You are a boy; you are meant to be a child. You shouldn’t know the things you know and you shouldn’t be talked to the way you are.”

“I know what I said upset you,” Asher repeated his previous worries, his saddened hazel eyes looking up at Negan, “I swear I didn’t mean to upset you Negan.”

“I’m not mad at you,” Negan noticed how desperate Asher was to apologize to him. “I just…you’re a little boy. There are things you shouldn’t know. You’re too young to understand what you are even talking about.”

“You’re not going to punish me, are you?” Asher clutched to his blanket and Negan moved across the room to sit at the side of the bed. Negan reached out to caress at the back of Asher’s head in a soothing manner trying to comfort the boy from his fears.

“Buddy, I’m never going to punish you,” Negan looked back at Y/N with a frown knowing that this boy was clearly abused in the past. That in itself made him realize that he had to get the DNA test done and he was going to fight for full custody of Asher if Asher was in fact his. “Hey, listen…in a few days I’m going to take you to my doctor, okay? And we’re going to get a few tests done and then you will never have to worry about getting punished again, okay? I promise you.”

“Really?” Asher’s worried glance looked between Negan and Y/N. “Never again?”

“Never again,” Negan answered with a firm nod. “I won’t let anyone hurt you, do you understand me?”

“You can’t promise that,” Asher frowned looking down at the blanket and Negan felt his heart breaking for the little boy before him. “I’ve heard that before. Mom had some nice boyfriends in the past, but they never stick around.”

“You’re not going to be hurt while you’re here Asher,” Negan promised looking back at Y/N with tears in his eyes when all of what Asher was saying to him was affecting him emotionally. Y/N was crushed as well hearing the things that the little boy was saying. “Does your mom hurt you Asher?”

“She yells at me a lot, but she never hurts me,” Asher answered with a shake of his head. “It’s always the boyfriends. I get pushed and shoved a lot. Sometimes they grab my wrists and drag me.”

“Jesus,” Negan bit at his bottom lip getting angry at the sound of that alone. “And your mother just lets it happen?”

“She would get hurt if she didn’t,” Asher insisted and Negan found himself wanting more and more to keep this boy completely to himself. The fact that Negan was abused when he was younger connected him to this boy even further. It broke his heart at the idea that Asher could be going through the same kind of abuse that he had a child with his own father. It made Negan feel like a failure that his own son may have been going through abuse over the last seven years and there was nothing Negan could do about it. “I promise I won’t talk about that stuff again.”

“You’re just seven buddy, you need to talk about the things that normal seven-year-old boys would talk about,” Negan pointed out with a shake of his head. “We’re going to work on that together though. Okay?”

“Okay,” Asher laid back in his bed and let out a shuddering breath. “Thank you for finding the light Negan.”

“No problem,” Negan brushed his fingers through Asher’s hair before getting up from the bed. They both said goodnight to Asher before walking into the hallway. When Negan closed the door to Asher’s room, he looked to Y/N and she knew that Negan was about to break. She reached for Negan and took him into her arms to hold him tightly. “We have to take care of him.”

“I agree,” she breathed, pressing a kiss against Negan’s temple when he leaned down to cuddle in closer to her.

“I want to give him a good life. One for a kid,” Negan informed her, thinking of the things he could do while Sherry was away on her vacation. “But we need to get that test done as soon as possible.”

Negan led her back to the bedroom and slumped down to take a seat on the edge of the bed. Sitting down beside him, she reached for his hand and could see that all of this made Negan an emotional mess.

“My whole life I was abused,” Negan reminded her, looking over at her with a sad expression. “I always told myself that if I was a father, I would be the opposite of my own dad. Yet I have a boy in there that may be my son who had to go through abuse.”

“That’s not your fault Negan,” she tried to insist, sliding in beside him to caress over the side of his face. “If you would have known that you had a child, you would have never let that happen. You and I both know that.”

“Yeah, but this is just as much my fault if I wasn’t careful that night with Sherry,” Negan announced with a whimper in his voice. “If I slept with her and I didn’t both to be careful, I didn’t care if I brought that child into the world. By being careless, I brought that child into a world where he would never be safe. Do you know I used to say the same thing about my mother when people would find out I was abused and they asked if my mother let it happen? I would just tell them that she would get hurt if she stood up for me so it was okay. I have to get him away from her.”

“Then we will,” she slid her hand in over the side of Negan’s face knowing that he would be extremely emotional over something like this considering what they both had been through with their parent’s abusing them. “I will back you until the end Negan. We will do whatever we have to.”

Wrapping her arms around Negan, she pulled him in close and knew that she meant what she said. It was something that was important to Negan, so it was important to her. She would do whatever she had to in order to help Asher and Negan.

A few days had passed and Negan had done the best he could do in making every single day with Asher perfect for him. Each day was surrounded around giving Asher a fun experience. Other than when Negan had to go to work to fill out some paperwork, they were doing things to make Asher happy.

This morning both Negan and Asher were together in the kitchen cooking breakfast together. It was cute because they had gotten Asher a footstool to stand on and he was helping Negan crack eggs into a bowl.

“Shit,” Asher blurt out when he got a shell in the bowl and Negan cracked a smile before a snort filled the air. It was kind of amusing hearing the swear words that came from Asher’s mouth. Asher may have not looked like Negan, but he did kind of have Negan’s mouth on him. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s an easy fix,” Negan managed to get the shell out before tossing it in the sink. “See, no problem.”

“I’ll be right back,” Asher dropped down from the footstool and moved out of the kitchen. When Negan heard Asher move up the stairs he looked to Y/N with a frown.

“Do you know that Sherry hasn’t called or texted once to check on Asher?” Negan blurt out with an uneven breath. “What kind of mother would do something like that? He’s seven years old.”

“She’s worse than I could have pictured Negan,” Y/N admitted knowing that Sherry was odd, but she never thought Sherry would be the type to abandon her son. “Do you think he’s bothered by it?”

“He’s mentioned her name a few times,” Negan answered knowing that Asher had talked about Sherry and wondered how she was. It didn’t seem like he was ridiculously upset about not having contact with her, but it was still not something that made him happy. “Do you think this is the first time she left him to himself alone?”

“I don’t know Negan, but the best thing is that he’s getting to spend his time with you,” she pointed out knowing that Negan seemed to be having a good time bonding with this boy. “We don’t know how Sherry is with him.”

“I’m used to her not being around,” Asher’s voice made them both jump as Asher clearly had come back downstairs without the two of them hearing him. Asher had something in his hands and Negan cleared his throat uneasily. “I kind of just take care of myself. She’s home sometimes, but...she has to deal with a lot of pressure.”

“You shouldn’t have heard that,” Negan frowned and Asher shrugged before moving across the kitchen to give Negan what he went upstairs to get. Negan reached for the paper to see that it was a drawing Asher had done with the supplies Negan had bought him the other day. “What is this?”

“It’s the three of us. Here at the house and by the water,” Asher reached for the footstool to drag it across the kitchen so he could help make the eggs again. “It’s not great, I’m not very good, but I thought you might want that. You don’t have to though.”

“No, I like it,” Negan lifted the drawing up for Y/N to see so she could take a look at the drawing Asher did. It made her smile and Negan moved over toward the refrigerator to put the drawing up under a magnet. Asher looked at him with such adoration when Negan pointed toward the fridge. “That deserves a prime location, don’t you think?”

“I think that’s a perfect place for it,” Y/N agreed with Negan, coming to squeeze supportively at Asher’s shoulders. “You’re a talented little man, don’t you ever think otherwise.”

“That’s the first time someone put my art up,” Asher muttered with a frown, but he smiled when he looked at the fridge again. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” Negan moved in beside Asher to help him finish breakfast. “I’d say I’m pretty damn lucky to have you here helping me out.”

“Thank you,” Asher pushed at the scrambled eggs while Negan worked beside him. “I know you didn’t want me here at first…”

“I was just surprised, that’s all. It wasn’t about not wanting you,” Negan reached with his free hand to rub his fingers through Asher’s hair. He messed the little boy’s hair up a bit before giving him a wink. “I’ve had fun.”

“This is the most fun I’ve ever had,” Asher admitted with a grin looking between Negan and Y/N. “You guys are so nice to me.”

“And you are so nice to me,” Negan playfully nudged Asher with his hip causing Asher to fall back into Y/N’s arm who was standing behind him. “Ooops.”

“You got a big butt,” Asher giggled after Negan had knocked him off the footstool. It was lucky that Y/N was behind him to catch him, but Asher seemed completely amused.

“He’s just powerful, Negan has no butt,” Y/N muttered in a teasing tone and Negan gave her a look that made Asher begin to crack up.

“Always getting teased about my lack of a butt,” Negan rolled his eyes and Y/N helped Asher back up onto the footstool they had gotten him.

“Thank you,” Asher was tall enough to hug Y/N and it made Negan smile. It seemed like Y/N had really done a good job in connecting with Asher. It surprised Negan how easily she accepted Asher into their home and was nice to him. “You saved me from buttless.”

“Hey now,” Negan dramatically feigned being offended and Asher snickered. Negan watched Y/N helping Asher finish with things before he spoke again. “Do you like it here Asher?”

“Yeah,” Asher simply answered, reaching up to rub at the side of his face. “Usually I’m alone or mom’s boyfriends take care of me. I eat cereal a lot alone, so I like our meals together.”

“Would you want to stay with Y/N and me? Even if we moved to another house?” Negan muttered and Asher lifted his head. “I was thinking that maybe after we took this test today and we got the results, you might want to stay with me.”

“Really?” Asher stammered; his young voice clearly not sure what to say. “I like it here with you two.”

“So, you wouldn’t be upset if I tried having you with me full time?” Negan confirmed and Asher nodded. “What about your mom?”

“I’ll always love my mom, but…I’m lonely with her,” Asher admitted as he felt Y/N caress over the center of his shoulders. “Here, I’m happy. You make me feel special.”

“That’s because you are special sweetheart,” Y/N assured Asher with a calming tone. “You’re an amazing little boy.”

“This test will see if you’re my dad?” Asher lifted his head to look up at Negan with his big eyes. Negan nodded and Asher spoke again, “Like really really soon?”

“A few days,” Negan answered with a shrug.

“I hope you’re my dad,” Asher swallowed hard and reached for the bowl that him and Y/N had made of the scrambled eggs. Carefully he hopped down from footstool and set the bowl down on the table. “You’re so nice to me.”

“You’d be okay with me if I was your dad?” Negan lowered down to his knee to be level with Asher. “You wouldn’t be upset?”

“You’re already the most amazing dad,” Asher hopped forward to wrap his arms around Negan’s neck to squeeze tightly around him in a hug. “No one has ever been this nice to me.”

“Oh, buddy,” Negan lifted Asher up and held him in his arms. Y/N could see that Negan was getting emotional about everything that Asher was saying to him. At this point, she knew that Negan didn’t care if he was the father or not. He just wanted to take the test to make sure he was his father so he could have sole custody of Asher. “I’m gonna do my best to make sure you don’t have to go back to that, okay?”

“Really?” Asher pulled back enough to look at Negan and Negan nodded. “Thank you.”

“No problem bud,” Negan felt Asher resting his head on his shoulder and Negan slid his hand up to pat Asher between the shoulders. Lifting his head, Negan could see that Y/N was standing in the corner of the kitchen watching them together. There was a grin over her face and Negan felt blessed that she was so okay with this.

They went through breakfast and enjoyed their time together before heading to the doctor’s office to get the DNA test done. Asher was sitting on the evaluation table as Negan’s doctor prepared things.

“This won’t hurt, will it?” Asher pondered, looking over at Negan who was leaning against the wall in the corner of the room.

“They are just going to swab your cheek sweetheart,” Y/N stepped forward to brush her fingers through Asher’s hair. Asher was pale and he was clearly nervous in the way he was rocking on the table. “It’s painless.”

“Negan is doing it too?” Asher confirmed and Negan nodded, his hazel eyes hooked on Asher.

Truthfully, Negan was nervous doing this. Not for the same reason that Asher was afraid, but he didn’t know if he truly wanted to know if he was this boy’s father. Asher had such a horrible life from what it seemed and he wanted to give the little boy something special. By not getting the test done, he could just keep on getting Asher from Sherry, but deep down he knew that if he let Sherry take Asher back, she could continue to do what she had been doing to him. This way, if he knew for certain that Asher was his son, he could keep Asher and keep hm safe. This was the only reason he was getting the test done. To make sure that he could keep Asher with them.

“Will you hold my hand?” Asher requested of Y/N when Negan’s doctor came to do the test. Y/N of course agreed and held onto the little boy’s hand and it took no time at all for Asher to get the test done. “Wait…that was it?”

“That was it,” Y/N smiled brightly and Asher perked up immediately. “No big deal, right?”

“Not at all,” Asher looked to Negan who moved across the small room to help Asher down from the table. Asher ran over to the chair in the corner and sat down while Negan’s doctor wrote something down. “I was sure that would hurt. You’ve got nothing to worry about Negan.”

“Funny how things work out, huh?” Negan’s doctor stammered as he stepped before Negan. “First you find out you’re going to be having a baby and now you have this little boy thrown on you?”

“What?” Negan tilted his head to the side when his doctor grabbed a hold of his face. Negan opened his mouth for the doctor to swab his cheek, but then spoke up. “I think you have me confused with someone else. I’m not having a baby.”

“That’s funny,” Negan’s doctor went to finish things up and Negan snickered.

“Doc, are you getting too old on me here?” Negan breathed out and Y/N could feel her heart hammering inside of her chest. This was the doctor that she had found out she was pregnant from and he just blurt out what she had been wanting to tell Negan for so long but hadn’t. “I think you’re thinking of someone else.”

“No, the young lady came to see me when you were in the hospital,” his doctor explained and Negan looked to Y/N. Her cheeks flushed over with red and Negan cracked a smile, his eyebrow arching up when he looked to Y/N. Clearly, he still thought the doctor didn’t know what he was talking about. “I guess this is congratulations since we haven’t seen each other.”

“Negan…” she called out his name when Negan went to say something more and Y/N nodded. “He’s right. I was trying to find the right way to tell you about things, but so much kept happening. I’ve been wearing baggier clothes to try and hide it from you.”

“Is this a joke?” Negan smirked, watching Y/N reach for the hoodie she was wearing to pull it off. Negan had been so distracted lately that she knew he wouldn’t be able to tell. It wasn’t all that obvious yet, but she knew that she had gotten a little bit of stomach. “You’re pregnant?”

“I’m pregnant,” she nodded and Negan let out a hesitant laugh.

“Oh goodness,” Negan’s doctor looked between the two of them and he gave Y/N an empathetic look. “I’m sorry dear, I just assumed that…”

“We should probably talk,” Y/N stepped forward and watched Negan slowly get up from the evaluation table. His face was pale and Negan nodded. “I’m sorry, I just…”

Negan’s legs gave out and Y/N reached out to grab a hold of him. Negan’s hazel eyes looked her over and he looked extremely pale, “Hey?”

“I’m okay,” Negan waved his hand in the air and Y/N did her best to keep him up. When Negan convinced her that he was okay, she released him and went to talk to Asher so she could have a free moment to talk to Negan. The sound of something falling over was heard and Y/N looked over her shoulder to see Negan grasping onto the table. “Shit.”

“Negan!” Asher squeaked when Negan hit the ground hard and Y/N got up while they both scrambled to Negan. “I thought you guys said that test didn’t hurt.”

“I think he just had a syncope episode,” Negan’s doctor urged them to move aside so he could look at the unconscious Negan. After checking Negan’s vitals, he let out a calm voice and looked to them with a reassuring glance. “This may take a few minutes for him to wake up, but he’s fine.”

“He doesn’t look fine,” Asher slid in beside Negan when the doctor got up and went to get help to get Negan up. Asher tapped at the side of Negan’s face and Y/N felt awful about the way Negan had just found out she was pregnant. “Is he alive?”

“He’s alive,” Y/N assured with a half laugh when Asher poked at Negan’s cheek. “Just shocked. I think that’s it. I hope that’s it.”

----

Tags: @slutlanna976 @nubbinrobin @oreostars @fuckthis-and-fuckthat @jennydehavilland @felicity291 @de-gabyconamor @ibelongtonegan @smallsadjellyfish @labyrinthofheartagrams @msjamesmarch @thebeautysurrounds @hotfornegan @redmercysugar @caprithebunny @iluvneganandjamie @ninamarietwd @tuttifuckinfruitty @emoryhemsworth @a-girl-interupted @akumune @stoneyggirl @darlingmilex

#Jeffrey Dean Morgan #Negan #Negan x Reader #negan fanfiction #The Walking Dead

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oboevallis · 4 years ago

Text

lost

sorry this is so long, i don’t know if it really makes sense but i was talking with him grandmother and she told me this story about how we went to the beach with the family and we went walking and it was late and high tide and we got absolutely completely lost and she didn’t speak great english and had no phone and we were just walking trying to find the hotel which all look the same while everyone was looking for us and that kinda inspired this story (lol sorry i feel like i do a lot of stories based on events that have happened to me so idk if that’s boring or not ill stop talking now tho)

Amelia quietly slipped out of bed once she realized her son was awake and babbling to himself, and she knew if she didn’t quickly attend to him, he’d start wailing causing the rest of the house to wake up. As much as she savored her sleep she enjoyed the early morning feeds, no one else was up, allowing her to be solely focused on her son. She quietly slipped out the back door to get settled on the lawn chair, and was startled when she saw Maureen, almost forgetting the two had come to visit.

“Good morning.” Maureen smiled, nursing her thermos of coffee.

“Morning.” Amelia reciprocated settling in the chair next to her.

“Hope you don’t mind I came back here. Eric is in a work call and I tend to distract him, and I just found myself out here.”

“No not at all.” The neurosurgeon responded truthfully as she guided her son to her breast, which he eagerly latched onto. “Thanks again for taking the kids for the day, it was much appreciated.”

“Of course. We had a great time with them.” The older woman smiled kindly, putting Amelia at ease. She tried so hard to make a good impression on her boyfriends parents and now felt at ease knowing they thought she was good enough for their son. “I don’t know how you and Link do it, especially in a pandemic. I mean you can’t take em to the park, museum, or anything.”

“Me either.” The woman absentmindedly chuckled, she was just taking it a day at a time. The women turned around once hearing the door open to reveal the oldest child.

“Auntie Amelia, I have a proposition for you.” Zola smiled as she walked further into the backyard still in her pajamas.

“A proposition huh?” The woman chuckled, it always impressed her when her niece would use a vocabulary word out of reach for a girl her age in the proper manner.

“Yep, I think we should not do school today, stay in our pjs, build a fort in the living room, and have a movie marathon.” The girl announced jumping on the balls of her feet, as much as Amelia wanted to oblige she knew she couldn’t.

“We can this weekend, but I’m sorry we can’t just not do school.”

“Ugh, but mom would let us.” This caused Amelia to laugh.

“We both know your mom would not in any capacity let you miss school if you weren’t sick.”

“It was worth a shot.” Zola shrugged.

“It was, but I’ll let you pick what we have for dinner tonight.”

“Pizza?”

“You’ve got it.”

“Do you think Link will still help me with my report.”

“I’m sure he’d love to, just let him sleep a bit more and once he wakes up ask him.” Zola nodded and ran back into the house, Amelia sighed in relief there wasn’t a tantrum.

“You’re good with kids, especially remediating a situation.” Maureen commented, admiring the younger woman more.

“I try.” Amelia chuckles, Maureen has only seen the kids well behaved and not in their tantrum state.

“So, I hate to be blunt, but my son doesn’t tell me a thing, are the two of you planning on getting married?”

“Oh, umm.” Amelia blushed awkwardly shifting her son. “Not at the moment, we’re going to wait until things calm down a bit.”

“As long as it’s in the cards.”

“I think it will be.” The neurosurgeon smiled, thinking about Links plans to get married in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

________________________________________

Bailey had an hour break before his next Zoom started up, so Link took the opportunity to take him out on their daily walk and get his energy out around the block while he tried to lull his son. This time though his father tagged along, he still had a lot of resentment towards his parents but was trying his best to be civil.

“That kid almost has as much energy as you did before..” Eric trailed off, but Link knew what he meant. Before his cancer tore his family apart, and made him a shell of the kid he was,but he was determined to only talk about the good things.

“Yeah he keeps Amelia and I on our toes.” Link quickly said, so no talk of his cancer came up.

“I know your upset with your mother and I, but we just want to help. And rebuild our family.” The ortho surgeon did his best to not roll his eyes at the statement, he couldn’t understand why they couldn’t have worked it out in the first place, why they decided to track along across multiple states during a global pandemic, and why they had to keep freaking his girlfriend out with the concept of marriage.

“I really don’t have the energy to talk about this right now, why don’t we just change the subject.” Before Eric could agree his sons phone started to ring. “Crap this is the hospital, I’ve gotta go in. Bailey! We gotta get home” He called up ahead to the boy who was scootering.

“It’s alright I’ll keep walking with them.”

“You sure?” The man asked wearily.

“Of course you know me I love a good walk.” He took the baby out of his sons arms and Link wrapped the baby snug across the older mans chest.

“Thanks dad!” He smiled as he jogged back to the house to grab his car and head to the hospital, while Eric caught up along side of Bailey as he turned another corner.

________________________________________

After Amelia finished helping Ellis with her math homework she realized it had been well over an hour since the boys had gone for their walk it typically lasted 40 minutes and the house was wearily quiet. She made her way downstairs to be met with Maureen folding the pile of laundry.

“Oh I’m sorry, you don’t have to do that.”

“Please, I don’t mind.”

“Do you know where the boys are?” Amelia asked feeling her anxiety start to rise as there was no indication of them being home.

“I assume they’re still walking, they haven’t walked in yet.” The neurosurgeon pulled out her phone and tapped on her boyfriends contact to be met with a scrub nurse who informed her, he was in fact scrubbing in on an emergency surgery.

“Link is at work.” Amelia informed Maureen rather confused, Link always told her before he left the house, but assumed he was so excited by the notion of a surgery and left the boys with his father.

“I’ll try Eric.” Once the older woman dialed the number they heard ringing coming from the coffee table where he left his phone. “I’m always telling him he needs to carry his phone around, he’s terrible with remembering it.” The woman huffed obviously starting to get a little startled.

“Okay.” Amelia took a deep breath. “I’m going to go look for them, would you mind staying with the girls?”

“Not at all.”

“Thanks.” Amelia quickly made her way towards the door and grabbed her keys from the hook, noting her boyfriend failed to bring the diaper bag as it was next to the door. Nonetheless she got into her car and tried the best to calm herself down, though all she could think about were worst case scenarios.

______________________________________

“Do you have any idea where we are?” Eric asked Bailey as he walked beside him, the boy had gotten tired and now just tracked the scooter along side them.

“No we usually don’t go this far.” Baileys fearless persona faltering, he assumed by this point he was late for class and was going to be in big trouble with his aunt and teacher.

“Everything kinda looks the same huh?”

“Yeah.” Bailey nodded nervously biting his nail, a habit he’d recently picked up from his aunt.

“Hey bud, it’s going to be fine we’ll find our way home.” Internally he was cursing himself for not bringing his phone along with him. After some more walking they found themselves on a street with convenience stores, Merediths house wasn’t far from the heart of Seattle but they were definitely far from where they were supposed to be. He was tempted to walk into a store and ask someone for directions but he didn’t have a mask and had two small children so that wasn’t an option. “Alright, let’s go back to that last street and make a left, maybe that right was a bad idea.”

“We’ll never get home.” Bailey said hopelessly.

“We will don’t worry about it.” And if things couldn’t get any worse the baby had started to fuss which in no time would turn into fill on crying.

Amelia slowly drove through the neighborhood looking for the three, not knowing she was on the opposite part of the neighborhood from them. Meanwhile after aimlessly walking and multiple turns Bailey started to recognize where they were and lead the way home.

“Where the hell have you been?” Maureen immediately asked as they walked through the door taking the now crying baby from her fiancé. “You need to have your phone on you!”

“Just strolling.” Eric responded nonchalantly.

“No we were lost. Really lost.” Bailey corrected as he ran into the kitchen to find something to eat since he missed lunch. Maureen followed taking out a bottle for Scout and calling her daughter in law informing her they were home, she heard a large sigh of relief through the other line.

Amelia happened to pull into the driveway the same time as Link, she wiped her stray tears as she had gotten herself into such a state and slammed her car door.

“Hey, where were you?” The ortho surgeon smiled brightly, he had just completed a rather simple surgery but just being in the OR at any capacity was heaven.

“Where was I? I don’t know, where was I?” Amelia chuckled on disbelief. “Where the hell were you? I spent two hours driving around trying to find your father and the boys.”

“What they never came home?” Link asked in a panic.

“They just did. They were lost and struggled to find their way home so they were aimlessly walking around while I aimlessly drove around in the wrong direction.”

“Damn it, how could my dad do this?” The man ran a stressed hand through his hair.

“This isn’t your dads fault it’s yours!”

“Huh?”

“Oh don’t act stupid. First you don’t even take the diaper bag in the walk with all the essentials and a first aid kit and then you up and leave for a surgery without even texting me.” The man was about to interject but Amelia held up her hand. “And you let your father continue the walk, even though the man has been to Seattle like two times and doesn’t know his way around.”

“I thought they were just gonna go the rest of the way up the block and back, and that he’d tell you where I went. That’s what Bailey and I do everyday.”

“Have you been living with Bailey for the past four months? Or has it just been me? Bailey will just keep riding that scooter no matter what and go any which way paying no attention to his surroundings, of course Eric is just gonna follow him around since it probably seemed he knew where he was going. You know what I can’t even look at you, I don’t want to say something I’m going to regret.” Amelia walked past him and quickly made her way into the house, to be met with her sons cries and quickly took the baby from Maureen cradling him closely, the baby immediately calming.

“I am so so sorry Amelia.” Eric apologized obviously upset.

“It’s not your fault.” Amelia forcefully smiled, she wasn’t entirely mad at him mostly at her boyfriend. Link then walked through the front door to be met with his mother scolding him.

“And what the hell were you thinking? Not telling anyone you were going to the hospital, and leaving your father with two kids in a place that’s foreign to him. Is surgery really all you can think about?” For the past couple of months he’d been complaining to his mother how much he hated not being able to operate.

“She would’ve done the same thing.” Link quickly pointed to his girlfriend who was cradling their son in the couch.

“What are we five?” Amelia asked when her boyfriend accused her in such a manner. “And I would’ve had the decency to tell you I was leaving and made sure you had the kids handled before I left.” Link backtracked and took a deep breath.

“Alright how about we just take a moment, they’ve been found so it’s fine.” The tired mother rolled her eyes and walked up the stairs with her baby, not in the mood for her boyfriends best case scenario talk.

“This could have been prevented by the both of you.” Maureen pointed to the two men who’s heads hung in shame.

“You should’ve made it clear to your father it was just up the block and back, and you should’ve texted the mother of your child.” She then directed her attention towards her husband. “And you need to pay more attention and keep your phone on you.”

“Sorry.” The two men answered in unison, ashamed to have messed up so greatly.

_______________________________________

The rest of the night was foreignly quiet, Bailey was exhausted and the couple was avoiding one another. After everyone had dinner together Maureen and Eric retreated back to the RV and the kids were all tucked in their beds. Once Link walked into the bedroom after his shower he sighed realizing Amelia wasn’t there. He quietly trekked into the nursery to be met with Amelia asleep in the rocking chair and her hand inside the crib, their sons hand was loosely holding her index finger. He would’ve smiled at the sight of he didn’t know what she was doing, her plan was to sleep in here tonight to avoid having to be in the same bed as him. He carefully removed her hand and picked her up out of the chair.

“Nooo.” Amelia sleepily groaned. “I’m sleeping in here.”

“No you’re not, your going to sleep in our bed.” He softly affirmed as he laid her down on her side of the bed. Once he moved to the other side of the bed and got settled his girlfriend was now wide awake and turned to face him.

“What happened today can never ever happen again.”

“It won’t I promise.”

“You know we’re so good at communicating within our relationship but not so great outside of it.” Link chuckled nodding in agreement. “You need to tell me when you get called in, and you need to let others know what the plan is, so they’re not getting lost in Seattle woth two small children.”

“I promise.” Link grabbed her hand in a reassuring manner. “I am so so sorry for what happened today, I was just so excited to be operating and I just lost my mind and didn’t think about anything outside of that operation.”

“I know this is hard for you, your not used to kids in the capacity that I am. You didn’t grow up in a loud house and you don’t have a large quantity of nieces and nephews. Your used to dealing with the occasional peds patient for like twenty minutes. I’m not saying your bad with kids I mean the peds floor loves you, it’s just this is a lot really quickly and non stop.”

“Wow you just articulated how I feel perfectly and I haven’t been able to even form a cohesive thought of what Im feeling.”

“Hmm, maybe that’s because you just sleep so you don’t have to think about feelings.” Link chuckled, sliding over to kiss her sweetly.

“I love you.” Link affirmed. “And I’m so sorry about today.”

“Tomorrow will be better.” Amelia agreed. “And I love you even more.”

“Impossible.”

#amelia shepherd #amelink #atticus lincoln #baby amelink #greys anatomy #greysanatomy #ellis shepherd #zola shepherd #bailey shepherd #scout lincoln #marueen lincoln #eric lincoln #greys anatomy fanfic #greys fanfic #marureen lincoln

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saharamae21 · 4 years ago

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All of My Wrongs - Chapter Three

Pairing: Topper x OC and Rafe x OC

Summary: Aurora goes dress shopping with Rafe for Midsummers, but she can’t quite pinpoint how she feels about him. Everything he does feels intimate to her, sending reactions through her mind and body. However, the emotional connection just doesn’t seem there yet. She’s scared that she will never be enough for him. Midsummers just might prove that theory right to her.

A/N: Sorry if these first chapters come off as boring. Its going to be a slow moving fic in order for me to really build connections with the characters. I really like it though and I hope you do too… Let me know what you think! I really want some feedback on this…

Also Chapter 4 is almost done

Get Added to this Series Taglist

____________________________________________

I woke up in the morning, smiling at the thought of what laid ahead of me. I was going dress shopping in the morning. Rafe was supposed to pick me up in an hour and I hadn’t even begun to get ready. I rushed into the bathroom to shower, making sure not to get my hair wet. When I got out, I quickly curled my hair and threw on some natural make up. I wondered if it would be enough to live up to Rafe’s standards. I knew I would really have to step it up to look perfect at Midsummers tonight. I slipped a dressy top over my nicest and cutest bra. I pulled on a white jean skirt and observed myself in the mirror. I looked good. I walked down the steps and waited in the living room, feeling pleased with myself.

“Wow Rory,” my dad said upon entering the room. “You cleaned up very nicely.”

I dramatically made a gagging motion at the compliment, smiling afterwards. He chuckled at me and told me to have fun on my date. Before I could correct him, he was gone. This wasn’t a date, but it certainly felt like it. I was dressed up and nervously fidgeting, just like how I imagined I would be for a date. I heard a vehicle pull up to my house and smiled. I slipped out the front door and saw Rafe, proudly staring at me over the handlebars of a bike.

“Wow, buttercup,” he said, looking me up and down. I bit my lips together, feeling my skin heat up under his gaze. I stared at the bike as he got off and handed me a helmet. I opened my mouth to protest, but he just took the helmet out of my hands and placed it over his head. “I’ll go slow.”

The smirk on his face grew with his words. I rolled my eyes at his cocky attitude and hesitantly got on. He told me to hold on tight and I wrapped my arms around his waist. I squeezed my eyes closed as we sped off. My arms tighten around him as initial fear arose. He slowed down after that. Still, I squeezed my eyes shut the whole way there.

The bike came to a stop and I opened my eyes slowly. Rafe’s huge blue eyes were staring back at me, his pupils dilated. He seemed pleased with how tightly I was clinging to him. I dropped my arms and he got off the bike. He helped me pull the helmet off my head and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked. I wrinkled up my nose at his sarcastic tone. “Come on buttercup, we have a ferry to catch.”

The ferry ride to Chapel Hill was long. I stood next to Rafe, his arm slung over my shoulder as I stared at the water below us. My hands were on the rails, but not tightly enough. I felt something bump into my back, sending me into the rail. Rafe’s arms caught me by the waist, making sure I didn’t go overboard. He shot glares at the younger boy who had ran into me. His hands lingered on my waist as he looked at me. I shifted uncomfortably under the attention, making him chuckle.

“I don’t remember you being this shy when we first met,” he said.

“You think you’re so sly,” I muttered, pushing him away from me. I rolled my eyes as I made my way over to the other side of the ferry. I see Chapel Hill in sight and smile at how beautiful it looks. It looked old and serene.

We got off the boat, moving quickly around the dock. He gripped my wrist as he navigated me to a less busy area. From there we walked to the shopping district. It was lined with cute boutiques and fancy shops. I knew I didn’t have enough money for these places, yet I didn’t speak up. I didn’t want to embarrass myself.

We slipped into a small boutique and Rafe’s eyes bounced back and forth. He was scanning the store for something. Then, out of no way, he grabbed my hand and guided me over to a rack of light blue dresses. I stared at him and then back at the rack.

“Why blue?” I asked. I flipped through the rack carefully.

“Well, you’re dirty blonde hair would compliment the soft blue color,” he said, twirling a strand of my hair. Then his fingers brushed across my shoulder. “The fairness of your skin would also accent it well.” I shuddered under his touch. Everything he did seemed so intimate. I brushed his hand off of my skin and focused on the dresses in front of me. One stood out, but the price tag ruined it’s beauty. I flipped past it, but he grabbed it off the rack. He held it up against my body and smirked.

“Perfect. Go try it on,” he said, pushing the dress into my hands. I looked at it, not wanting to argue with him. I smiled and walked towards the dressing rooms. I slipped into the light blue dress. It was covered with a floral bodice. The skirt portion was short, falling just above my knees. It fit perfectly and when I looked at my reflection in the mirror, I smiled. I looked sophisticated and beautiful. I heard Rafe call out for me, wanting to see the dress. I slipped out of the dressing room and locked eyes with him.

“Wow…” he muttered. His eyes stared at me. For the first time, his face had no smirk. There wasn’t a sly smile and he wasn’t undressing me with his eyes. He was staring. He was admiring me. He was smiling, wholesomely. A warm feeling swelled up inside me. “You look beautiful.”

He took a couple steps closer. I looked down at my feet in embarrassment, but he tilted my chin up to look at him. His smile was contagious as his hand caressed my face gently. He treated me like something special. My face was burning under his attention, my skin was on fire. I must’ve been beet red. He flicked my forehead, completely ruining the moment. I laughed and shoved him.

“Hey, we’ll take this dress,” Rafe yelled at a cashier, while taking the tag off. I muttered at him to not be rude and looked at myself one more time. It looked beautiful, but my parents would murder me. I watched as Rafe walked over the counter and pull out his wallet. I ran over and grabbed it away from him. “Don’t worry about it and go change.”

He took his wallet back and pushed me towards the changing rooms. I opened my mouth to protest, but I knew I wouldn’t win. I walked back into the room and slipped off the dress, allowing it to fall carelessly against the floor. I stepped into my skirt and pulled my shirt on over my head. I grabbed the dress, gently putting it back onto the hanger and walked out. They covered the dress with a garbage bag and handed it to Rafe. He thanked them and smiled, slipping his hand into mine on the way out. It was my first time holding hands with a guy. I bit my lip and wondered if my hand was too sweaty.

We walked a ways, neither of us saying a word. I thought to myself intently. I wondered if I liked Rafe or not. He was fun to be around, but I didn’t have a good read on him. I didn’t know if he would be about to handle me. I didn’t know if I could trust him.

We found our way back to the dock, after taking the long way there. His face was contorted with thought as he sat next to me. I wondered what he was thinking about. I smiled at him before standing up and walking back over to the railing. I loved the feeling of the mist against my face. I looked back at Rafe to see him staring at me. His eyes were different than before and it confused me.

He dropped me off at home, telling me that he would pick me up at 7. I smiled and nodded before walking inside. The dress was tucked tightly on my arm. I tried to slip up to my room undetected, but it didn’t work.

“He’s handsome,” my mom said as wiggled her eyebrows at me.

“He’s a friend,” I said with a smile. I didn’t even know if I was romantically interested in him or not yet. He was handsome, but everything seemed like a game to him. He would manipulate me and use me. I could never subject myself to that when I was already so unstable.

I spent the rest of the afternoon, pacing back and forth. I tried to wrap my head around why I didn’t feel romantically about Rafe. He made my heart flutter, but in the end, I couldn’t picture myself in a long term relationship with him. Maybe I just didn’t know him well enough yet.

I found myself in the dress. My hair was in loose waves and I put a white flower crown on. My makeup was light and natural and the freckles on my face accented it well. I slipped on some comfortable wedges and walked down the steps. My parents were waiting downstairs, smiling at me as I descended down the curved staircase. I felt like a princess ready for the ball. When I got to the bottom I heard laughter from my brother and rolled my eyes.

“Skip, leave your sister alone,” dad snapped at him. “You look beautiful, Rory.”

I thanked him and heard a car in our driveway. I told my parents not to wait up for me and walked out the front door. I was a little scared that he would show up on the bike, but instead it was nice sports car. He got out and I say that he was in this awful light blue suit. I couldn’t contain my laughter. He rolled his eyes as he walked up to me offering me his arm.

“Is this why you picked blue?” I snorted as I laughed.

“Shut up…” he muttered and opened the car door for me. I smirked as I got in. We drove to the country club. I made a joke about his suit every chance I could. I could tell I was getting under his skin a little bit, but in a good way. I think he liked to know that I could dish it out as well as he could.

The venue was gorgeous. There were strings of lights and beautiful decor everywhere. I was stunned by the visuals. I grabbed onto Rafe’s arm and we walked out together, receiving some stares from everyone else. We walked about greeting people and listening to others congratulate Rafe and his father. I could tell by his reaction that he didn’t have the best relationship with his dad. Everytime Ward was mentioned, his body tensed. He wasn’t even trying to hide it. I was standing by the drinks when I notice the boy from earlier. He looked troubled. I thought about going over to talk to him, but I had a feeling he would be less than pleased to see me again. I sighed and looked around. Somehow, Rafe had disappeared from my side. I looked around, searching for any sign of him. Instead, I found Topper.

“Hey Bottom,” I said while walking up. He relaxed for a second when he saw me. His off white colored suit looked amazing on him. I couldn’t help smiling. “Hey Rory,” he said. My nickname sounded so foreign coming from his mouth.

“Have you seen Rafe?” I asked. I looked around and still no sign of him. He shook his head and offered to keep me company. I gladly accepted and sighed at the abandonment. How could he just disappear on me like that? I grabbed a drink, noticing everyone was drinking underage. I was sipping the wine and joking around with Topper when I heard my name being called. I handed Topper my glass and walked towards the lobby. Rafe was there with a few of his friends who I had never met before, “See guys,” he said, grabbing my forearm and pulling me towards him. “Isn’t she beautiful?”

I stumbled towards him as he pulled me. He held me in front of his friends, flaunting me like a trophy. I felt my shoulders sink as he showed me off. This night wasn’t about me fitting in, it was about him bragging to his friends. Everything would cycle back to him and I now knew that. I noticed his eyes were huge, his pupils dialated to an alarming size. I also noticed a white powder on his face and stared. He wiped at his nose as he noticed my gaze. He was high out of his mind right now. I frowned, knowing that this must’ve been a coping mechanism. It must’ve taken his mind off of his dad and all the attention that he drew. I felt bad for him, so I didn’t lecture him that I wasn’t his possession. I didn’t destroy his ego. I bit my tongue like I always did. I watched as his eyes shifted over to a blonde boy, not to far from us.

“Run along buttercup,” he said. “I’ll catch up with you later. The boys and I have some business to take care of.”

With that they walked towards the boy, he looked like he was trying to go unnoticed. I wondered who it was and why they were interest in him. I wanted to go after them, but I knew that would only make them not like me. I wanted them to like me. I wanted them to want to hang out with me, but obviously there were more pressing matters to take care of.

“I’m here if you want me,” I mutter sarcastically, before turning on my heels and heading to find Topper again.

___________________________________________

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fairlyspnfanfic · 5 years ago

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A New Start - Part 3

Part One Part Two

@vicmc624 @waywardprincesa @heyyy-hey-babyyy @carissime72 @deans-baby-momma @formulafun @woodworthti666 @yetanotherreader @crashlyrose @hobby27 @gabby913 @jxackles @polina-93 @supernaturaladdictsblog

Forty-eight. In just six months, forty-eight children missing. And only two had been recovered. The pit in my stomach grew with each missing person’s poster I viewed. With each desperate parent’s plea that I read and every news report that came up, each ending the same way. No leads, and a search party being called to a halt.

I had been researching for hours, long into the night and well into the morning, and my eyes were beginning to cross in the light emanating from the computer screen. My knees strained as I stood up, stretching my arms up above my head. I walked over to the closet next to my bed and pulled out my nicest suit. A high-waisted black pencil skirt accompanied by a stark black blazer over a pressed turquoise V-neck blouse. I threw it on, casually gathering my hair up into a clip, trying my hand at a messy bun. “Good enough.”

In my nightstand drawer was a mahogany box with a portrait of an elephant carved into the top of it. I opened it quickly and grabbed the wallet on the top of the stack of wallets. Flipping it open, I confirmed that it was the FBI badge that I had used so often years ago. It had been lying dormant since then, collecting dust in the box, unused. I hadn’t even given it another though until the disappearances had become so very prevalent. Dean had argued with me so forcefully while we took the photo for it. Not wanting me to have it at all. “You’re not coming, you don’t need it.” I heard his voice saying all over again. “Stay here, where it’s safe. You’re just gonna get hurt.” I shook my head. “What do you need that for anyway? Stay here. Keep digging. Let us know what you find. Stick to what you’re good at. Leave the hunting to us. Please, Y/N.” I took a deep breath and walked over to my shoe rack, grabbed my sensible heels and slipped them on.

It wasn’t long before I was down the stairs and in my car on my way to the police department two towns over, an endless list of questions running through my head. By the time I was opening the door and asking for the lead detective, I was in full FBI Agent mode and ready to go as if no time had passed at all.

“Detective Stehlen?” He nodded. “I’m Agent Stark. It seems you have a bit of a problem here. Forty-eight missing persons. All children. Where are you at with the investigation?” I flashed my badge quickly but made no offer to shake his hand or exchange any pleasantries. His eyes darted around the room, seemingly desperate for a senior officer to bail him out of the predicament he found himself.

“We…Well we don’t have…See there’s not much to go on here Agent Stark.” The words tumbled from his mouth as he squirmed. He nervously ran his hands through his spiky brown hair. “There’s no leads, no evidence. They just disappear. No trace.”

“Uh huh.” I took a step closer to him. “I’m going to need a list of all of the families. Parents, their contact information, addresses. Everything you’ve got. The bureau’s taking this over.” At that, the detective seemed to become indignant, his fragile manhood threatened by his job being insulted.

“Hold on, you can’t just swoop in here. This is my case. It’s still an open investigation and I’m leading it. Nobody’s taking-“

“Stehlen, you’ve had six months and all you’ve managed to do is lose more children. You’re lucky you still have your badge.” My voice rose with as much authority as possible. I paused momentarily to let my threat sink in. “The bureau is taking this case over. I am taking it over. You’re out. If you interfere or involve yourself in any way, I will make absolutely certain that you never work in law enforcement again in any capacity. You won’t even be able to serve coffee to beat cops. Is that understood?” His eyes were wide, a gazelle trapped in the sights of a lion ready to pounce.

“Of course, Agent Stark. Not a problem. I’ll get you the information and all the files right away.”

“Thank you Stehlen. Very kind of you.” My voice softened as I smiled at him. He scurried back to his desk, collecting manila file after manila file. It took about half an hour for him to bring all the paperwork to me and get me set up in a private room so that I could peruse it all. There were hours of information in front of me. Days even. I set to it right away.

All the children ranged from 9 to 17 years old. They didn’t attend the same school. They didn’t live in the same neighborhood. Their parents didn’t work in the same offices, and they didn’t seem to have any interactions with each other. Nothing tied them together. Nothing that I could see in all the paperwork spilled before me. “Start at the beginning” I could hear Sam telling me as if he were standing right next to me. I picked up the file for the first child that had gone missing. A girl. Lorali. Age 12. She had gone to the park down the street from her house and didn’t come back when she had promised to. Her parents hadn’t heard from her since.

I glanced up at the clock. It was nine-fifteen in the morning. More than a decent hour to start contacting people.

Five hours and more than ten families later, my mind was on hyperdrive. I’d found it. The link. I knew what brought them all together. All ten of the families I’d seen, the first ten kids that went missing, had all been active on a new social media site called Tracked. They posted videos, chatted with each other, exchanged information. All without their parents consent or knowledge of course. But they all had accounts. And they’d all been chatting with the same person the day of their disappearance. Each of them had been setting up meetings with them when they were taken. One or two, I could’ve chalked up to be a coincidence. But ten? I knew I had it. “I’ve got you now, Serenader64.”

A quick IP trace, a few firewall hacks, a tiny DNS hijack, and I had not only shut down his access without him knowing it, but I had his exact location at every given second. And no matter what sort of monster he was, this would be the last day he drew breath.

I grabbed my blazer off the back of my chair and slipped my arms into the sleeves. “Stehlen!” I yelled. He came flying into the room. “Yes?” His dejected answer thrilled me.

“I’m running out. I think I’ve got a good handle on these. They can be put away now. I’ve got a hunch. Going to go investigate it.”

I left the department and headed for my car. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and looked at the map; a flashing blue light indicated where the creature was. I pointed my convertible towards it and drove. It was only about twenty miles. So close. I held onto the hope that maybe, just maybe, this monster was keeping the kids alive somewhere. “I so need this to be a win.”

“You have reached your destination.” The voice on my phone rang out as I drove passed the driveway of a large but very bright Mediterranean style home. “This can’t be right,” I said to myself as I put the car in park and turned off the engine. The walkway to the door was well landscaped and the solar powered lights were off. I could feel the gun tucked into the back of my waistband and the smaller knife that I had strapped to my hip pressing into my skin, as if trying to warn me. Slowly, I brought my hand up to ring the doorbell.

When the door opened, the man starring back at me looked to be no more than 35. His hair was brown and cut military style. Short, and clean around the ears. No facial hair to speak of and his brown eyes lit up when his kind and welcoming smile presented itself. “Hello there. Can I help you?”

“Good morning, sir. I’m Agent Stark, with the FBI.” I flashed my badge again. “I’m investigating a few cases of missing children in town-“

“Horrible thing, missing kids. Seem to be a lot lately. Anything I can help with?” His voice was sincere, and his face went from happy and pleasant to intent and focused, as he waved me in the door, and I followed him into the foyer.

“Possibly, sir. The bureau’s been doing our normal investigating and it seems that some of the missing children had been communicating with someone in your home using an app called Tracked. Do you know anything about that?”

“Tracked? No, I don’t know about anything like that.” The words came from his mouth, but his eyes seemed stunned. I watched his pupils seem to dilate, almost as if they were panicked. “Are you certain you have the correct address?”

“Unfortunately, we’re very certain, Mr.? I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get your name.”

“Sean. Sean Smythe.”

“Well, Mr. Smythe, as I said, we’re very certain. Is there anyone else in the home who may have access to a cell phone or computer? Anyone else who may have been communicating through the app?” I asked, already on guard.

He shook his head. “No, just me, myself and I here.”

I glanced around the foyer. “Do you mind if I take a look around? Standard procedure you understand.”

He put his hand up and stepped in front of me. “Actually,” he tensed up. “I’m in the middle of something just now. It would really be better if you came back later. This evening perhaps?”

I eyed him suspiciously. “I’ll just be a moment.” I pushed through his arm and made my way into the living room. A standard couch, loveseat and chair setup with a grand piano in the corner. No TV. Just passed that was the kitchen. Large and full of dishes, both clean and dirty, with milk jugs and cereal boxes strewn about the counter tops. There was a door just to the right. I reached for the knob to open it.

“I’d really rather you didn’t, Agent.” Mr. Smythe’s voice was louder and all pretenses of politeness held within it were now gone. I grabbed the knob and began to turn.

“Fuck,” his voice screamed. I felt a hard and swift knock to my head and my vision went black.

Part 4

#dean x reader #dean winchester #sam winchester #reader insert #oneshot #spn imagine #spn fanfiction #spn fanfic #castiel #supernatural

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francisdominictan · 5 years ago

Text

________________________________________________________________ I always caught myself reading books about creatures of the unknown. It started probably when I was a young kid and would watch documentaries series about aliens, elemento, Bigfoot, and the likes.

Because of that I earned my fair shares of names and bullying in school due to my obsession. Like a good freshman I pushed up my glasses and disregarded it and moved onto college where I earned degree in Zoology and eventually masters and now PhD. Along the way I had discovered the things life had to offer; women, gym, sex, alcohols, and other things. Though, my first love was cryptozoology.

Together with famous scientists, zoologists, and marine biologists, we’re looking for new species and studying others of whom, we knew very little. I spent my late 20’s traveling around the globe. My colleagues and I found new insects, birds, reptiles, but none would fall into the strange or imaginary. In the scientific community, I made myself a name. I might find anything except Bigfoot, people liked to say. I enjoyed my little popularity.

I chose to work somewhere more conventional after those exciting years. As it was fun to create footprints around the world, I was sick of never being in one place over a couple of weeks. I would also like to spend more time to try to find these storied creatures than work on someone else's expedition.

I ended up teaching in the department of biology in a major state university in Northern part of Mindanao in the Philippines. I also started a club in cryptozoology that attracted a large number of students. I would take students to the alleged unearthly places, hot spots of unknown animals, and the likes with permission from the university. We always have a documentary of our trip; a blurred video and a grainy picture. It was enjoyable for the students and me. We never had any definitive information, but it helped them to think outside the box about what our world really is. My curiosity in it was a deep passion for trying to find the elusive that I want to witness.

Like I said before, my first love is cryptozoology until one foundation day of the University. I met Nap there. She was this beautiful brown haired woman about my age, who taught creative writing in the English department. I knew that I instantly fell for her. I'm not now the scrawny nerd from high school anymore. I was fit, effective in my profession, and not too bad looking (I told myself that, at least).I used a corny pickup to show myself. We've smiled, spoke the whole party and exchanged number, and the rest is history.

We moved in together a few months after we began dating. We had many shared interests, but there were also many differences. She preferred to stay in, and I enjoyed the outside. She was more reserved and I was the extrovert. But we both liked a good book and wine. She’s also a writer who particularly likes to write about simulated creatures, which is why we clicked.

“Nap,” I said closing and setting aside her newest book as I lounged out on the sofa in our living room one night. “Did I already told you that you are an excellent writer?”

She was in our room folding the ‘fresh from the laundry’ clothes. “You already did. But I won’t mind if you tell me again,” she playfully responded.

“I’m wondering, where did you get your inspirations for these stories?”

She came towards me. I corrected my sitting and she sophistically took a seat to me. “I got them from my grandmother’s story.”

“Tell me more, please,” I said with agog evident on my face.

“With my cousins,” she began with a look of commemoration on her face, “Each summer, we would visit my grandmother in the Visayas. She was living in a Remote Village neighborhood. Many people haven't been there. It was a lovely town shaded by the dense canopies of the tree. Between the town and the nearest mountain, there was a large forest. Perhaps it was about a few hundred acres. Glassy lake, filled with fish and that emptied into a small river can be found at the base of the mountain. All children in the town would play in the wood, the river and the lake, yet past sunset was strictly forbidden. The town’s people, including my grandma, have strictly implemented this.”

“Continue,” I encouraged her with a smile.

“So my grandmother told me about the forest fairies and how they liked to trick people. They'd take me away forever if I disobeyed my elders. Such tales have always been disturbing to me. My parents didn't like that, but they agree that I should be inside before dark. The stories didn't get me too much worry, until one of the young boys I was playing with got missing in the woods. One night after a fight with his father, he ran away into the forest. They never found him, and the people of the town did not bother to look for him until after sunrise. I can't just believe that people would not go in the forest looking for the boy until it was sunrise, except that they all really believed in the fairies. My books contain fairies that are scary but are much better than those in the tales of my grandma. They never took people away.”

She raised her one eyebrow and asked, “It is your kind of thing, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked at her, frowning.

“You know… The unexplained creatures of the dark.” She looked at me with a smart-ass grin.

“Well, I heard and read about fairy folklore, but many cryptozoologists don't spend a long time on it. I never heard of a city that is fearful of fairies, particularly from an account on the first hand. Anything like that should be investigated.”

A vexatious grin stretching from ear to ear plastered on Nap’s face.” Very Good! My parents would like to meet you and I'd like you to meet them. When I was young, my grandmother died and my parents inherited the house. And a couple of years ago they retired. This summer, you can come with me and solve the fairy problem of the town.” She stood over me and gave me the puppy eyes to agree.

Like this, our summer plans were drawn up, and in early March, with Nap and a bag filled with my recording equipment, we booked a plane ride from Cagayan to Siquijor located in Central Visayas. Once there, we hired a rental car and drove into the forest mountains, which felt like hours. We left the winding road for an even hazardous two-lane mountain road. After 15 minutes, we reached at what looked like a ghost town. Several small businesses were shut down and looked like an unfinished hotel in the 1960s.

We pulled into the driveway of her parent a couple of minutes later. Her parent’s house was sitting in a few dozen houses on a short dead end road. The dark, majestic forest that she described to me lies behind her home. A majestic moon hidden by the cumulus cloud loomed in the distant background.

Her parents greeted us at the door with a smile. Nap kissed her mom and dad with excitement. I tried to cover my nerves and for the first time met my girlfriend's parents, shook their hands quickly and introduced myself as Francis, the man who was here to solve their fairy problem. Before saying through their teeth, they both smiled and paused, “Come now. The dinner is about ready.”

My awkward attempt to be funny seemed to be an outrage. Dinner went well and we spoke about our trip and what I've done at work. With our bellies full, Nap’s father invited me on to the rear porch for a beer.

"So you are a university professor of cryptozoology?” Nap’s father asked until he took a big swig of beer from his bottle.

"No, I'm teaching animal behavior and social interaction. I'd like to teach cryptozoology, but before I can, I need a written and approval of the curriculum." I sat in my porch chair and started enjoying my beer.

"I guess Nap told you a lot of insane fairy tales in our forests?" I took another sip from my bottle and looked at him and nodded a bit. "Everything’s real. Sounds dumb, but the whole thing is true. Those stories have been told by my wife, and I wouldn’t believe them if I had not seen a crazy thing or experienced that one night. Our neighbor's niece disappeared in that forest two summers ago.” He pointed at the wooden line right at the back of his yard and takes a second swig from his bottle.

“You want to see a magic trick?” He asked me excitedly.

"Um, sure," I said half waiting for him to take the coin out from behind my ear.

"Look at the back door. Today's sunrise is around 21:00. The lock will pop up around this time and it will swing open. No hands." He responds shaking his hands upward.

The courtyard of Nap’s parent was closed with one back door that leads directly into the forest. Some of the branches of the forest trees hang over the entrance. I didn't know how to take the statement from Nap’s dad. So I've been waiting. Behind the mountains, the sun slowly crept and the clock reached 21 pm.

As we sat silently in the back porch, I finished my beer. I was about to get up and let Nap’s father know it was the longer trick that I had ever been waiting for, the scraping sound caught my ear from the opposite side of the fence.

It started at the rear of the valley. It sounded like a child dragging a stick over his pickets while he was walking. Towards the gate the sound intensified. I concentrated on the gate and didn't pay attention to Nap and her mother, who had gone with us to the deck. The door latch went Ching and the gate slowly swayed as if softly pushed by an unseen force.

"No way," I murmured, as I started to walk away slowly from the deck to the back gate. I was pulled up on the deck by a powerful hand. I whipped my head around to see Nap’s father violently grab my wrist.

He said with a stern voice and look. "Don't go over there," he said.

Nap pulled me out of her dad. "Mom, dad… stop." She turned to me and said, "Tomorrow, I'm going to take you into the woods. It's all right. You are going to see.” She turned back into the house and graciously marched.

"All you want during the day, you can go into the forest, but once the sun sets you have to come back," Robert cut me off before I could go in. I stopped and looked at him. His face was genuinely anxious. Nap’s mother has the same look on her face.

I agreed and that, as Nap’s parents insist upon being away from the woods after darkness, I came inside feeling a little confused.

That evening Nap and I prepared for bed and she laid her head on my chest. I tried to work together if her family had really believed in "fairies" and if their facial concern was sincere earlier.

"Doesn’t your family really believe in the fairies?" I ask Nap.

She turned around and put up her head in front of me.” "It's humiliating, not because they really believe in this, but because they’re so strongly confident that the woods are a bad place. I would have run into the woods many times if I had been rebellious as a kid. When I was a child, they started to act as my grandmother. I don't know how the gate trick is done by my father, but it gets older. Two years ago he pulled it on me, saying it wasn't him.”

The more she spoke, the more annoyed Nap became. "Tomorrow, I will bring you to the woods. You’ll see. As a child, I used to play there. Nothing's wrong with it.

I firmly held her to my side, gently kissed her. "Ok, we'll go to have an adventure tomorrow." I said before dozing off

After breakfast Nap took me into the forest the next morning. She showed me everything she had been able to remember from her childhood. She showed me her favorite trails, which had slightly become overgrown. She showed me her favorite river spot and her favorite lake shore. Here and there, the lakeshore was littered with dead fish but oddly no trace of rotting fish.

An old foundation to a building that never began was on the lakeshore. Nap said in the 60's it was intended to be a lodge for tourists but it was never done. The crumbling foundation was covered in moss, and looked more than anything else like a pathetic version of Stonehenge.

It was about noon and we decided to go back into the woods to have some lunch at the house of her father. As we walked hand in hand through the woods on trails I was surprised she was still able to navigate memories from her childhood. I noticed the mahogany were almost all brown or brownish green. Their trunks were rather large, even swollen, as if they were stuffed with something, and most of the underbrush was dead or seemed as if it were dying.

Nap reported that the summer and spring of the last few years had been little rain. I thought it was odd that the forest was going to dry out but the river and the lake didn't seem to be at low levels.

Robert brought the subject of cryptozoology and my interest, “Have a chat with John Salon. He is town detective, who lives down a few streets. He is also the last of a tribe who lived here once. He's kind of an amateur historian for the region and has lots of stories to share about the woodland fairies. I'll call him and tell him that you're coming over. "Robert gave me his address and that afternoon, at Nap’s encouragement, I went to his house as Nap and her mother planned to go shopping in the next town.

I knocked on John’s door. The lock unlatched and the door slowly opened revealing an older man.

“Are you John?” I stick out my hand for handshake.” I’m Francis Tan and..-“

“You want to know about the fairies at the woods?” He said cutting me off. “Robert already told me about you. Please come in. I have only few hours before I need to head to work to cover a night shift.”

I walked into his house. It was huge and packed with mounted animals, fish and a number of what seemed to be memorabilia from farther south. He led me to his living room, and guided me to sit down. His living room walled by filing cabinets and bookshelves on all sides. There was no TV, and the most surfaces were caked with a thick layer of dust.

"So what can I tell you," said John, slowly taking a seat in the chair opposite me.

"Well, whatever you know about the forest, or the supposed forest monsters," I started. "I'm researching unknown beings, mythological creatures, or whatever you want to name them, and I'm familiar with folklore fairies, but I've never seen a whole town that seemed to fear these monsters."

For a moment, John leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, as if to recall his thoughts.

"My tribe was the first to settle that area, or rather my ancestors. We were once, as the oral tradition goes, a large and proud tribe that had great numbers in Siquijor long before the Spanish came. A harsh winter run and war with other tribes cut down our numbers and our enemies drove us out of our original land. We wandered around until we found the place. Cold, hungry and desperate for shelter, we felt blessed to have found a place with good hunting, the mountains to shelter us, and a river and lake to provide fresh water for us.”

I looked eagerly at him, as he took a little break to remember his words. He sat up in his chair, and leaned forward.

"Some strange creatures that lived here prevented us from entering the forest. My people would call them Engkantos. They said that they were here before, guarding the forest. The chief seeing his people starving and having no place to live struck a deal with the creatures from the forest. We could hunt fish, stay here and they'd protect us as long as we agreed to give them one of our own once every moon cycle.”

"Wait," I cut. "So ...... just like a sacrifice?”

"Yes" continued John. "We'd send one person into the forest each full moon. The cries will fill the sky of the night. It was a terrible thing but the chief made the offer for us to live and we stuck to it. Many years passed, as we lost ourselves one after another. Our numbers would gradually decrease over time, but those who remained had hunting food and fresh water.”

John got up from his seat and walked up to his bookshelf, pulling out a leather bound book, the edges were yellowed from age.

"This book," he said, "Contains all the stories about Engkantos that have been passed down to my tribe from generation to generation. When I was young, I had started writing them down before they all died. I'm the last one and I thought somebody could record it so others could know what we've been experiencing.”

"When the Spanish came into our land, it all changed. It was one man at first. He was an explorer. We didn't consider him a threat so we let him pass. However, he did find gold in the water and he told other people. Eventually many others turned up in the river looking for gold. They brought crucifix, meats, beads, and weaponry and taught us religions. They were willing to trade for small pieces of land so that they could prospect in here. We consented. The prospectors supplied us with new stuff and we were exchanging small parcels of land for them. The Spanish people cut down trees to make the clearing that now sits out of town. They constructed houses. They fished and hunted. Each full moon, we no longer sent one of our own to the forest.”

"So the sacrifices stopped because you got necessity from the settlers?" I asked. "What about the creatures that you deal with?”

"We lived alongside the Spanish in harmony," John began again. "There was rage among the Engkantos because we broke our deal. They'd watch us in the shadows, from the tree line. The extreme fury could be felt. One night, several prospectors who were fishing the lake in the forest came late. One of them was taken violently by the Engkantos upfront the others. Their screams had filled the air of the night. The survivors did flee and never came back. They left their possessions and even their money for they were so frightened. Those who had been past dark in the woods soon began to disappear. No trace was found.”

John sat down and breathed deeply. "As people began to flee the woods after dark, they tried to trick people into going into the woods. During the night they would imitate the sounds of kids or loved ones. Anyone who enters into the woods would be taken. They took our tribe's three mothers once because the creatures were crying out on the forest line like children. The women fled to save the "babies" only to be killed. They only took one person at a time but began to take more as revenge.”

"They can imitate voices?" I asked.

"Yeah" he began as he rubbed his head. "They can use anybody's voice or sound so you’d be lured into the woods.”

"Why do people still live here, then?" I asked. "If it is cursed, why not leaved?”

“My people agreed to keep this place guarded and keep people from going here. They made a deal and broke it. But, regardless of what they did or said, the word still made it out about the fishing and hunting or gold in the river. People would come and they would vanish. A party heard about fishing, and tried to build a lodge on the shore on the lake. All are gone. We were trying to warn them but they were calling us crazy. This town and forest has only recently gone unnoticed by the outside. In the last 10 years there have been only a few disappearances.”

"I saw the foundation." I sat up in the chair as I got drawn more and more into his stories.

John got up and walked to one of his filing cabinets. He pulled a black binder full of paperwork.

"Here," he said with a motion to take the binder.

"What is it?" I asked him as I take the big binder.

"I am in charge of all the missing people’s cases. They're all here.”

"That’s crazy," I said while opening the binder.

"Many people say I'm a useless detective. I know what happened to those people, but you can't put it on an official report and still keep your job. If you look at the reports, the pattern is the same for everyone. All of those people were last seen in the forest before darkness.”

I finished my conversation with John, as he was about to get ready for work. He had been operating from two towns on a missing person case. He let me borrow the case binder and the book about the stories of his family.

The next day after taking Nap over to the next town for breakfast, I went door to door asking people what they knew about the creatures. Many hesitated to speak with me until I explained who I was, what I believed, and that I intended to study what was happening. I had been warmly welcomed into their homes.

People in the town had a vast array of stories. Tales ranged from family members vanishing to hearing odd voices at night, to seeing groups of travelers vanish without trace. Many were older tales of loved ones wandering late into the forest and failing to make it out before sunset. It seemed that everybody believed in the creatures that inhabited the forest, but no one had ever seen one. An older gentleman reported that his sister had gone on an afternoon walk into the forest and never returned. He could hear her voice calling from the woods to him every night, but he doesn't dare to enter. Eventually the voice stopped.

I devoted the rest of the afternoon to taking notes on all the missing people’s cases. I just stopped kissing Nap farewell, as she and her mother left to get chico fruits in the forest. In an hour, or two, she had expected to be home. I was comfortable with her leaving as it would have been many hours before the sun had gone down.

Every case had the same set of circumstances. No clear explanation was given as to why the people were missing. News clippings placed the blame on people getting lost in the vast outback, or on the likelihood that these people could run into wild animals.

I closed the binder full of cases and sat back in my seat in the living room, exhausted after all my note taking. I took a deep breath and stood up to collect the binder and book that John had let me borrow.

I finished collecting my stuff and walked to John’s house to return his articles. He was sitting at his front porch when I arrived, still in his police uniform with a beer.

I handed the book and binder to him, and took a seat next to him.

“What do they look like?” I asked.

"Who?” John answered sitting up a little straight as if shocked by my question.

"Engkantos or the fairies or whatever you want to call them. So what do they look like? I don't have any descriptions in the text you gave me." I stood up and looked at John with a stern look.

"It's a full moon tonight. In the last ten years just a few people were lost in the woods. They are mad. You can sense them in the current. I will be retiring in two years. I have spent my life trying to find those people that were missing. During day I’m in the forest. They are difficult to see. They are very slender and tall. You can see their outline amongst the trees if you look hard. It's very hard to figure out but hundreds of them are there. They're not going to move until dark but you can look among the tree line and see them standing still, even now.”

John pointed from to the woods that were across the road. I looked hard but in the fading light, I could see nothing but trees. I thanked him for his time and resources, and made my way back to the fading light of Nap’s parents ' house. The sun had set, and a cool breeze swept across the road and into the woods as if the forest itself were breathing in. I walked down the broken sidewalk looking into the dark trees to see if I could get a glimpse of what John had described. The moon was full and bright. With a slightly bluish hue, it seemed almost like day out. There was no echo. No crickets. No animals scratching. The night air was packed with just the wind and my footsteps.

"FRANCIS!!!!!"A scream of blood-curdling echoed just inside the line of the trees.

That voice. I knew that voice. It was from Nap. The hair on my neck was standing up straight. My heart started pounding with a violent fervor. Nap and her mother hadn't come back when I left. What if she did not make it from the woods? What if they hurt her? What if they had taken her?

"FRANCIS!!!!"The scream echoed again. This time it sounded as though she was in anguished agony.

I was twenty yards deep in the woods before realizing what I was doing. My eyes agitatedly scanned everywhere. "NAP!" I screamed. Only dead silence. The moon was so vivid that from the light shining through the tree branches I could make out almost everything. "NAP!”

I was breathing through my mouth. My breaths matched my heart's tempestuous pace. I stood in silence. I looked closely at the thick canopies before me. My vision spotted movement. I'm not alone. There was movement but I could not see exactly what it was. It didn't make any noise whatsoever and it seemed opaque, almost invisible. As if opaque forms melded into reality from nowhere.

They were the height of man. The skin was pale. Their legs, arms, and body structure were thin. Their skin looked dry and it was ridging like worms. A head was in the shape of large white sideways cones with no features but a small black hole in the forehead.

My muscles tensed as pure terror flows through me. I couldn't move. I was awestruck and was filled with terror. There were dozens of those things before me. They all looked the same appallingly. I wanted to run but I couldn't. One slowly moved toward me. It stopped 20 ft away from me. It was dead quiet. My heart shook so hard that I could hear it.

The hole at the front of his head was growing bigger as if something were pushing out of it. Like the peeling of a sausage casing this thing's skin pulled back and the head of a young woman seems to be out of the black.

My jaws dropped. I felt my heart was beating in my ears. Her hair looked black and greasy. Her eyes were ovals black. Her skin blenched. She stares at me. It felt like an eternity as I looked upon at this monstrosity. She opened her mouth.

"Francis," she spoke. I recognized that voice. It was Nap’s. Confusion took over. The woman head on this creature bent sideways in a horrible way while staring at me with a blank expression.

"Francis... Francis... Francis..." Nap’s voice echoed more frequently and more intensely. Then from her mouth burst an ear shattering maniacal laugh. My face was strewn with tears as my lips began to shake. It stopped. The woman's face split from jaw to forehead in half spreading from side to side as if it had been cut by, exposing a mass of razor-sharp teeth and flailing tentacles like tongues.

The creature shrieked. It was so high pitched and growling that it shook the forest and buzzed my ears. I fell on my back and for the first time since I saw the entity, I could now move. I amokly shuffled my legs backwards to propel me away from the entity. The creature fell to all fours, and then charged me as inhumanly as possible. I realized that there was no way I could get up and out run it in time. It was about to consume me. I put my hand up to cover my lip.

"No!" I cried as I looked away. Nothing. I didn’t feel any pain. There was no creature landed upon me.

"FRANCIS... MOM... DAD... NOOOO!!!!" It sounded like a scream from Nap, but this time it sounded like it came from her home's direction. I got up straight away trying to understand what was going on. The creatures had gone but something moved violently away from me in the underbrush, tearing up ground and shaking branches as it went.

"Ana, NO! “Another voice resounded. It was owned by Robert. I was still confused and afraid but I wasn't going to stay any longer in this woods. I raced to Nap’s parents’ house as fast as my legs could manage.

Robert restrained Ana who was sobbing in the backyards, "Let me go... Let me go..."

"She's already gone. They might also take you,' replied Robert, hugging his wife with all his might.

“What happened?” I commanded.

"Oh my God, Francis," said Robert in horror, turning to me. "Nap swore that she heard you scream in the woods, and ran after you. We tried to get her to stop."

In the distance, a cry of Nap’s agony rang out. My fear and the rush of adrenaline transformed into rage. They took my wife. Those hideous things took the woman I loved. I went to the garage without thought, and scooped up the gas can that Robert filled up earlier in the day. I searched the garage frenzied, and found a torch of propane on the shelf. I quickly made my way through their backyard to the tree line.

"Robert, hold this," I ordered while shoving the lighter propane into his arms.

I started to pour the gas on the trees carelessly, and the brush along the forest line.

“What are you doing?” he asked with a puzzled look on his face.

I looked at him dead in the eye and coldly stated, “Give me the torch. I'm taking the woods from them, if they want to take her.”

He gave the torch that I just forced him to hold reluctantly.

The woods were dry. The wind blew in through the forest. I opened the valve for propane, lit a torch and threw it into the brush. There was a towering hell ahead of me in seconds. Robert and Ana were stunned by what I had just done. The fire burned fast and moved faster. Soon the whole town stood on the road, watching the forest they knew about consumed by blaze. With rage in my eyes, I stood still between them.

Suddenly, horror and pain filled the air with inhuman shrieks. They were like a knife cutting other people's ears. The people of the town tightly held their ears to block the screams. Most ran home in terror or grabbed each other for protection.

The shouts resonated tumultuous as the fire burned until suddenly the shouts ceased and only the blaze could be heard.

The fire department was called by someone who warned the forest guards. They couldn't do anything. The fire spread so quickly that the whole forest was burnt to the ground before a plan was drawn up. I admitted that I was the one starting the fire and was arrested by the police that night.

With little or no human contact, I was in prison for three days. The police were going through the office in an uncomfortable way as though they had more work than they could handle. They ignored and only fed me and checking on me before night.

John was there to welcome me when I woke up in my jail cell on the third morning.

I said groggily, "Good morning."

He opened the cell. “You’re free to go, Francis.” He nods at me to follow him. “Come with me." I got up and did as he requested. "They found Nap."

"Is she all right? Is she hurt?" I asked delighted.

“She had some burns, cuts, bruises, suffered from some inhalation of smoke, and she seems to be in shock but is alive.”

“Thank God!” I shouted.

The car ride to the hospital was an hour or so. During our way over, John explained that I was now the least of the problems the town had to deal with. None of the town's houses got damaged. The wind blew the fire the opposite way. Search and rescue teams searched the forest at night and found Nap on the lake shore early in the morning. She was naked and shocked but alive.

The biggest problem the town had to tackle was the hundreds of skeletons discovered in the forest. They weren't scattered around like the victims of a forest fire. The burnt-out trunks of the narra trees contained dozens of skeletons, as if stuffed into the trees. John showed me a picture he'd taken at one of the scenes on his phone. The picture showed a tree trunk that looked bloated and had been burned out. Inside the bark you could clearly see a human skeleton contorted with the tree growing around it in horrible fashion. What appeared like wooden bark threads fused into the skeleton, as if they formed together. Some of the skeletons were identified as missing people in the woods in the 1900’s. Others had been estimated to be centuries old.

At the hospital, John dropped me off and I made my way to Nap’s room. Here were her parents. She was swollen and wounded but lying in her bed looking ahead, agape mouth, not blinking at all. She turned towards me slowly as I came in, not blinking. When our eyes met she started sobbing. I rushed to her, and warmly embraced her.

"They've took me," she said with heavy sobbing. "They ripped my clothes and tried to put me in there."

"Where?" I asked fighting off my own tears as I kept holding her closely.

"In the forest... In the trees," she said sobbing. "They feed the forest with us. The forest was dying and it starved to death.”

No other word was spoken. I just hugged her close, until she stopped sobbing.

With the forest gone, a development company bought all the land and turned it into homes. To my knowledge, no one has since disappeared. There are some rumors that the place is haunted and that odd voices and cries can still be heard at night.

The night of the fire, my camera was recording. I looked at the video once before deleting it. My voice can be heard in frightened tone calling Nap’s name. One can see Nap running into the woods calling for me. As she disappears beyond what the camera can see, there is a voice that giggles like a little child and then, in a raspy high voice, states, "We take." The brush all around is shifting quickly towards where Nap was last seen until her cries can be heard.

#@queenlupitajones #short story

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duckybeth99 · 7 years ago

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A Protector (Past!Fic)

#beth writing #ghosty beth #ghosty blogging #Johnny bosteau

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mintypothos · 8 years ago

Note

I don't really have any prompts, but if you look up the Jamilton tag on @midnigtartist's blog, you might get a few ideas! Aimee is complete Jamilton trash, loves the heck outta them

I did just that! The prompt/feeling I got from that is “Jefferson actually likes kids and takes care of Philip for a day when Hamilton loses track of him, causing Hamilton’s entire view of Jefferson as a person to shift”

@midnigtartist Happy birthday! I was already writing this before I learned it was your birthday, but I hope you enjoy it regardless! You’re art is great! Also, I sent you an ask about this but severely underestimated the size of your inbox. If/when you see the anon that sounds suspiciously like this post, feel free to ignore it!

As much as he’d like it to be the case,Thomas did not at first recognize the kid loitering around theoffice. He did however, recognize that the kid couldn’t be more than10 years old, if that- and was therefore too young to be standingaround anywhere, never mind outside the ‘Washington and Associates’law firm.

It wasn’t quite time to pack up, butThomas figured this was more important. Plus, no one else was dealingwith it, or even noticing. He saved his work, and stood up.

“Leaving early?” James poked hishead up, at Thomas’ movement.

“There’s a kid hanging aroundoutside, it’s distracting,” Thomas explained. James peeked out thewindow, furrowed his brows, and nodded.

“Don’t take too long,” Jamesreminded, turning back to his work. Thomas rolled his eyes andnodded, even though he knew James’ attention was already back to hiswork.

The kid jumped when Thomas opened thedoor, immediately turning around and looking down as if he justhappened to be standing there. It wasn’t very convincing.

“Hi,” Thomas pitched his voice,warmer and completely devoid of his usual sarcastic drawl. “You’vebeen standing out here for a while, is there anything I can help youwith?” Up close, the kid was even smaller. The parents had betterbe nearby, or Thomas would be having words.

“Uhh,” The kid’s head bobbed up,then straight down, his mass of curls hiding his face. Thomas felthis heart thaw, just a bit- the kid was just shy. Which was fair,given Thomas was a tall, mysterious stranger. Even adults tended tobe intimidated. Thomas leaned down, dropping to the kid’s level.

“That’s okay,” Thomas tried to putthe kid at ease. “Could you tell me where your parents are, so wecan find them?”

“Umm,” The kid started again, butthis time he brushed his hair behind an ear and glanced up to Thomas’chin. “Mom’s at her home, I’m s'posed to be with Dad this week, andhe’s s'posed to be here. I think.” He nervously glanced up at thebuilding. “There’s only one Washington law place, right?”

Ah, a divorced kid. “Yes, as far asI’m aware, this is the only Washington law place,” Thomas didn’twant to correct the kid and possibly confuse him. Still, he couldn’tstop an amused smile at the term 'law place’. “Can you tell me yourDad’s name?”

The kid froze, paling instantly. “U-uh,it’s my Dad, um…” He started shaking. Crap.

Thomas thought quickly. “It’s okay,it’s okay!” He smiled wide, waving his hand in what he hoped wasmore comforting than dismissive, though he used it in the lattersense far more often. “Could you tell me your name, instead?”

“Oh!”, the kid grinned. “Myname’s Philip Hamilton! I’m 8 years old!” Thomas nearly flinched.There was only one Hamilton who worked at Washington’s, and there wasno way this was a coincidence. He should have guessed- Hamilton’sdivorce was well known in lawyer circles, and now that he was lookingfor it, the kid’s face bore some resemblance. Standing in front ofThomas was his biggest work rival’s son.

There wasn’t anything for it, though.Thomas was hardly going to just leave the kid out here. “Nice tomeet you, Philip. I work with your Dad. My name’s Thomas Jefferson.”

Philip’s eyes lit up in recognition.Thomas had just enough time to worry about what exactly the kid wasrecognizing. “Jefferson? Dad mentions you all the time! He saysyou’re really distracting!”

Distracting, huh? Not 'evil’, not'idiotic’; nor any of the other insults Hamilton would shout to hisface? Not even 'bad man’, if he wanted to soften it to his kid?Thomas itched to ply Philip for answers, for what Hamilton reallythought; but it was the middle of winter and now was not the time.

“How about we wait inside for yourDad, and you tell me what you’re doing out here?” Thomas spokecautiously, not sure how Philip would react to being asked to gosomewhere with a relative stranger.

Strangely though, Philip’s shyness wentstraight out the window after his introduction. “Oh! That’s becauseDad promised me this time, for real promised, that he’d get off workon time and take me to see a movie! I wanted to make sure he reallywould, so I looked up 'Washington law’ on google and bussed here allby myself!” Thomas led the way to the building as Philip chattered,small hand immediately latching onto Thomas’ fingers.

“That’s very cool!” Thomasenthused, opening the door and immediately shooting a glare at everyperson who stared. “Now, your Dad’s out now, the boss sent him tothe courthouse to drop something off, but we can wait for him,alright?”

Philip beamed. “Alright! This placelooks even cooler than I thought!” He was so enthusiastic, thatThomas couldn’t help but smile back. Hamilton would still be gettingan earful, being so unreliable that his 8 year old child felt theneed to escape his babysitter and bus through the middle of town tocheck up on him. Hell, did he even have a babysitter?

Thomas’ work was left, forgotten on hisdesk. James would clean up for him, this was more important. “Whatdo you say to meeting your Dad’s boss?” He needed to at leastexplain the situation, after all.

“Mr. Washington? Yeah! Dad says he’stoo nosy, and Mom says he’s basically like my second grandpa, eventhough I’ve never met him before.”

Thomas couldn’t stop the chuckle if hetried. “Did he? You’ll have to tell me more, later.” He joked,but Philip nodded anyways. This was far better than finishing hiswork.

–

Alex was determined to keep hispromise, for real this time. He was not staying late, and ifpossible, he would even be home early. Washington owed it to him, forall that free overtime.

Unfortunately, all the owing in theworld meant nothing when Washington ordered him to take someimportant documents to the courthouse, a good half hour away, whenthe day was nearly over. Alex could never say no to a direct requestlike that, even if Washington probably would have relented if heexplained his circumstances.

No, he could do this and still be outon time, if he drove straight to Philip’s school, instead of back tothe firm, first. Alex did so, driving as fast as he reasonably could.

Only, when he did that, Philip hadalready left, instead of waiting for him. In fact, he had left forthe washroom in the last hour of class, and never returned, accordingto the teacher. Alex barely spared the time to chew them out for notkeeping a better headcount, and then he was running off to his carand to home.

Philip wasn’t at home either. Alexstarted panicking in earnest. He could be anywhere, but why would he?Philip was so excited about going to see the movie, he wouldn’t havejust run off today of all days, would he? But he alternative- ifPhilip hadn’t purposefully run off himself- was far worse. Alexstarted by doing circles of the neighbourhood, then the local parks.

Alex was focused; so focused that hisphone remained in his pocket, battery dead before he’d even realizedPhilip was missing.

It must have been hours later, the sunstarting to set, when Alex finally gave up. He had panicked somewhereearly down the line, and never quite stopped. His limbs were shaking.Alex had lost his son.

He didn’t want to even think about thephone call he would have to make to Eliza. But first, he’d check thehouse again, just in case. Alex wasn’t holding out much hope at thispoint.

Alex was just stressed enough to missthe strange car behind his in the driveway. He was not, however, toostressed to notice two people sitting in his living room.

“Hamilton, about time!” Jeffersonwaved his arms enthusiastically, though something sharp glinted inhis eyes. Alex’s brain stuttered for a moment at the sight of hiscoworker/rival relaxing in his home, but then Philip was boundinginto his arms.

“Dad! Where the heck where you? Mr.Jefferson’s called you like, a million times!”

“Wha- Philip, where have youbeen? You weren’t at school, the teachers told me you disappeared,you weren’t at home, I’ve been worried sick, looking for you!”Harsh, panicked words spilled from Alex’s mouth, even as he seizedhis son in a fierce hug. “Don’t scare me like that!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,”Philip hugged back tight, voice suddenly subdued and guilty. “Ijust wanted to find you at work, so you’d actually go on time.”

Alex loosened his hug so that he couldface Philip directly. “Wait, you what-?” Alex cut himself off,remembering the other person in the room. “Jefferson, why thefu-heck are you here?” Philip’s head poked up at Alex’s accusatorytone, brows furrowing in confusion.

“Nice save,” Jefferson smirked,always as irritating as possible. “Also, is that really the way youwant to be speaking to the guy who’s been watching your kid allevening? When I could have been doing anything else with my time?”

There was no reason for Jefferson to belying. In fact, that answer made the most sense, given that Jeffersonhad literally been in his home, watching Philip, when Alex got inthere. Still though, this was Jefferson. Instinctive denial surged inhis chest. “Excuse me-”

“I’m sorry!” Philip shouted again,lip trembling. He wasn’t looking at Alex though, instead facingJefferson. “I didn’t mean to waste your day!”

Alex’s blood ran cold. That was exactlythe opening one could never make to Jefferson- he could never holdback his infuriating sarcastic comments. He was going open his mouthand spout some negative bullshit that would make Philip cry, becauseJefferson was an asshole who didn’t have any kids and probably hatedthem.

Jefferson did open his mouth, but hiseyes were suddenly wide, with surprise and maybe guilt- somethingAlex had never seen him wear. He scrambled off the couch. “No no, Ididn’t mean that, Philip! You’ve been great fun!” Jeffersonassured, stepping over to crouch in front of Philip.

Philip looked up at him cautiously.Alex held his breath, completely taken aback. “Really?”, Philipwhispered, and Alex could hear the tiny smile working its way intohis voice.

“Of course!” Jefferson reached ahand over to ruffle his hair. “I got to read all your poems, andyou got to hear all about the silly things your Dad does at work!It’s just that your Dad’s back now, so I should probable get going.”He gave Philip a wide grin, full of warmth and life.

Alex wasn’t sure he’d ever seenJefferson with a smile like that. It did something to his stomachthat he’d rather not analyze.

“No! You gotta stay for supper! Wecan’t do the movie anymore anyways, right Dad!” Philip bouncedback, both emotionally and literally, on the balls of his feet.

Alex opened his mouth, searching for anexcuse that wouldn’t upset Philip. Then, he glanced over toJefferson. He was fidgeting, glancing away awkwardly. With a start,Alex realized he must have actually had fun. Somehow, Jefferson wasactually really good with kids, if Philip’s excitement meantanything; and now he was standing there, in Alex’s house, lookingmore awkward and vulnerable than Alex had ever seen him.

“Yeah… yeah, he can stay. If hewants to.” Alex didn’t even want to guess what his face looked likeright now. He wasn’t even sure what his feelings looked like rightnow. It was all a mess of exposed wires, his entire worldview turnedon its head.

Jefferson flinched in surprise for amoment, eyes snapping to Alex. Then, he gauged Alex’s pure, undilutedconfusion, and a smile slowly took his face, one that more closelyresembled the teasing smirks Alex was used to. Now though, it seemedjust a little less aggressive than Alex remembered.

“I suppose I can stay and tell yourDad all about how you skipped your last class, looked up hisworkplace online, and then bussed there all by yourself withouttelling anybody.” Jefferson shrugged, nonchalant.

“What! Mr. Jefferson, no!” Philipwhined, even as he smiled broadly. “I’m gonna get grounded!”

Jefferson laughed. “Well, whose faultis that? You’re a little troublemaker!”

Philip spouted denials in betweengiggles. Alex felt his paradigm shift further off axis. “I guessI’ll get started,” Alex said, quiet and distant. He stood up andedged his way to the kitchen. Jefferson and Philip continued to chatin his hallway.

Somewhere between numb and completelyunsure of himself, Alex turned the oven on and got out a frozenpizza. He took as much time as he could retrieving the round pan andopening the pizza box. Replaying in his mind was the smile Jeffersonhad made at Philip. His stomach flipped again.

“Hey,” Jefferson’s voice was calmand subdued, but made Alex jump a foot anyways. “I put the TV onfor Philip.” He was right behind Alex, nearly crowding him into thecounter. “I assume you want to know what’s been going on? No one’sbeen on the same page today.”

Alex swallowed. It wasn’t the firsttime Jefferson had crowded him, Alex had realized over time that itwas more a matter of not knowing about personal space, rather than anactive bid at intimidation. It was also overwhelming, especially now.“Uh,” Alex started, horrified at the squeak his voice made. “Iguess not.”

Jefferson smirked- how could he not?-but relented, backing up a step. “It really wasn’t all that crazy.The kid showed up in the last hour of work, and no one else would doit, so I watched him. Tried to call your phone, I’m assuming it’sdead.” Alex dug into his pocket, pulling out a very dead phone. Hepaled. “No, it’s fine, it’s done.” Jefferson waved his handdismissively. “I didn’t- I mean, it wasn’t awful.”

Alex paused at Jefferson’s stutter. Hisears were pink. Adorable, Alex thought, then shook it from his mind.“Thank you,” he said instead.

“Uhhh,” Jefferson’s ears turnedpinker. “No offense, but that sounds so weird coming from you.”Suddenly, he started laughing. “And I just said 'no offense’, whichis even weirder!”

Alex snorted. Giggles stumbled theirway between his lips, turning into chuckles, then full blownlaughter. “Oh my God,” Alex wheezed, “This is so weird!”

Jefferson was howling right beside him.“I know, right?!”

Their laughs petered off, save for aquiet snicker from the distance. Both their heads whipped around-Philip peeked from the doorway. “Dad hasn’t laughed like that inages,” He said knowingly. “You guys should hang out more. Hey,can Mr. Jefferson come with us to the movie, next time?”

Alex flushed, his mind stumbling to astop, not sure if it was from the sheer audacity of the question, orhow the idea of going out with Jefferson sounded too much like adate. His only saving grace was that it was probably the last thingJefferson wanted, anyways. It didn’t matter that the sight of himbeing so nice to Philip did things to Alex’s heart.

“That sounds nice. If your Dadagrees.” Jefferson gave Philip an indulgent smile, then turned toAlex, question standing. A quiet blush graced his cheekbones aswell. He looked so much more attractive- cute, Alex’s brain supplied-when it was open like this. Usually, Jefferson’s appearance was theonly attractive thing about him. Alex realized suddenly that he wasgone- had been gone the moment Jefferson had revealed a side ofhimself that wasn’t pure opposition to everything Alex stood for.

“Alright,” Alex agreed. He neededto see where this was going. He was going to figure Jefferson out, ordie trying.

#ask #prompt fic #well only kind of since i made my own prompt but oh well #fic #jamilton #i know this is too early to post if i really want notes but oh well #please enjoy and all that #assbutts-and-angelwings #matchmaker pip au

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bffhreprise · 5 years ago

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Entry 320

As I drove up the long drive of Somerset Estate, I was certain that I shouldn’t be here. My family was very well off, but there was no way Dad could maintain this place very long without going bankrupt. I was supposed to be having a job interview today, not entertaining some incredibly wealthy playboy. James always seemed so nice on T.V., but… how was he even affording all of this? The driveway was lined with sculpted bushes, and the very large, fantastical fountain had to be expensive to maintain. The three-story mansion stretched on-and-on to both sides. What type of best friend makes this much money helping people out?

I slammed on my breaks when someone stepped out in front of the car. Did I hit him!? I hadn’t slid, but there was snow all around… except on the driveway. Jumping out of my car, I found a tall man standing there. “What are you doing!? That’s dangerous!” My brain finally registered the beautiful features of the man’s face. Despite his height, he wasn’t that old. This was James Michael Somerset III.

“Sorry. I didn’t want you to miss the house.” he told me, casually stepping closer as he smiled at me as if I hadn’t almost hit him with my car. Who could possibly miss this house? He had called this a ‘house’. “You’re Iris Storm, correct?”

I wasn’t certain what to say and couldn’t figure out how to talk at the moment. I wasn’t dressed for my interview, and had been planning on leaving without doing the interview, but this was James. He was famous enough that I knew about him without being a video game maniac. Why was he so handsome in person!? I always thought there was some special effects or makeup helping him. What if he’s wearing makeup now? Wait… he had said something… Oh, yeah. Am I Iris? I nodded.

“I’m James Micahel Somerset III. Ready for the interview?” he asked me, still smiling.

“Well, I… I guess?” I asked, looking back to the car where the business-like ensemble Mom had bought me waited.

“If you need a minute, we can step inside out of the cold.” he suggested.

“Would that be weird? I mean if I change clothes. I didn’t expect you to be standing out here.” I admitted, regretting it as the words left my mouth. What was I even doing here? My eyes roamed over the insane beauty of the place. “Is this really even the business? Looks more like a mansion. I didn’t see any pictures of it on your website. I shouldn’t have applied. I’m sorry. I’ll go.” I needed to leave. I wouldn’t fit in here. They probably dressed as butlers or something daily, which would drive me nuts.

Life with four older brothers hadn’t prepared me for tea parties and talks about stocks. Father took care of his business. My brothers and I… well, we caused trouble for one another half the time if I was honest.

“Nonsense.” he stated as I started to turn. “We’re both here, let’s get inside and start this interview. I’m sure whatever you brought to wear would have been marvelous, but there’s no need to change. I half-expect some of my friends to still be in their pajamas.”

“Pajamas? You have friends living with you?” I asked in surprise, trying not to picture a bunch of gorgeous guys sauntering around in pajama bottoms. James probably had a six-pack under his… Wow. His clothes looked expensive. There was a subtle sheen to his shirt, and he was wearing a tie while at home. I felt his strong hand touch my shoulders, guiding me toward the door.

“We at Best Friend For Hire are all friends, though not everyone who lives here works for me. I understand that you graduated early and wanted to get working to save for college.”

“Huh? Yeah. How did you know?” I asked in surprise. I had only told my parents that I wanted to get a job and pay my own way last week. They still insisted on helping, but how would James know? Had Dad called to look into this company?

“I do read applications that make their way to me. There has also been a background check already, so any information that wasn’t in your application is from that, such as your tendency to literally shock your brothers.” he replied as if nothing he said was out-of-the-ordinary.

“Wh-What!?” I asked, not letting that slip. He knew! How!?

“I would advise you and Mick to be more careful out in public, but that quality will help you fit in here.” he continued, completely undisturbed by the idea that I could produce electrical shocks at whim.

“Who are you!?” I came to a stop, realizing his hand had dropped away after I was following him inside.

“As I told you, my name is James. I’m the owner and chief executive of Best Friend For Hire. You do understand what we do here, correct?” he questioned, his blue eyes staring into me as if he could see the secrets inside my skull.

“Umm… You act as people’s friends.” I replied, trying to remember what I had read on the website.

“Working here, your job will be to take on whatever role is necessary to be the best possible friend for whoever hires you. You’ll be required to do some studying here specifically for your job, but you can also study on your own toward degrees instead of attending the university as you had planned.” he explained, sounding as if he were telling me what he expected of me. “If you ever intend to step up from part time to full time, you do have that option. A room is already set aside for your use if you ever decide to move in or simply stay the night. We also have a company truck that we use to help clients and employees move.”

“I’m confused. Am I already hired?” I asked to clarify what he was saying.

“Sorry. I’m completely terrible at giving interviews.” he admitted with a small shrug. “Simply stated, my company needs more people, and I didn’t see any red flags in your profile. If you’re interested, Mila will show you to where you can complete the paperwork, not that we really use paper for much.”

A pretty girl with brightly-dyed hair came running toward us impressively fast, but she didn’t seem out of breath as she exclaimed “James! Who is she?” There was a sparkle in her eyes as she stared at me, smiling as if I was the best person to ever walk in here.

James looked from the girl to me and said, “Iris, this is Emma. Emma, Iris. Please be warned that Emma will quite likely try to hit on you. If you need to file a complaint, Mila will assist you.”

“Hey!” exclaimed Emma, punching his arm. “Don’t listen to the man-slave. He’s just jealous that I stopped flirting with him after he got engaged.” she insisted with a grin.

“Have you?” he questioned, sounding doubtful.

“Obviously!” she exclaimed, looking at him as if daring him to argue. Apparently satisfied by his lack of comment, she asked “Can I give her the tour?”

“I’m taking Iris to fill out some forms, but I can notify you when she’s finished.” came a voice from behind me.

I spun to find a very short, extremely beautiful girl in a maid outfit. Her long, auburn hair stretched clear down to her calves.

James quickly said, “Iris, this is Mila. She runs the house and numerous other things. You’ll quite likely get her confused with my fiancée at some point, since they look nearly identical. The maid outfit should help you tell them apart, since Alma wouldn’t ever wear one.”

“She might if you ask nicely.” teased Mila with a mischievous smile. “This way please.” she told me before turning and walking away.

I quickly followed after her after glancing at James, who nodded encouragingly.

Mila commented about the decor as we walked, but my brain had trouble listening with the wonderful smell of cinnamon baked goods in the air.

Noticing my distraction, Mila said, “Ah. Yes. The kitchen is just through here. Would you like to try a cinnamon apple muffin? Marco, our chef, got a request for them, so he decided to play with some variations using slightly different seasonings for each type of apple he selected.”

“Yes, please! That sounds absolutely…” I started before letting out a small scream and falling backward.

In a blur, a girl had darted out of nowhere, nearly running into me, and somehow running up the wall to move around me as I fell, flipping off to land staring down at me with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. She screamed and darted away just as quickly as she had come.

As I pointed and tried to decide what I was asking first, Mila helped me up, easily lifting me, and said, “A fresh batch of muffins has just left the oven. Shall we?” She walked through an open doorway into the kitchen, obviously expecting me to follow.

“B-But…” I started as I followed her, letting it drop as I saw dozens of muffins spread out on a counter.

The smell had me salivating, and I found myself wanting to grab some of each type.

“Marco, this is Iris, our newest employee. Would you mind if I acquisitioned a platter of muffins for her to sample as she goes through the paperwork?” questioned Mila expectantly.

“No-no. Not at all! One needs good food to help with… that.” he replied with a smile, but his attention was focused on one of the ovens. He suddenly opened it, pulling out yet another tray of muffins. How many people was he feeding!? Setting it down, he smiled at me and said, “You need a drink as well, no? Do you enjoy the tea or perhaps milk?”

“Orange juice?” I asked, hopefully.

“Always freshly squeezed here. Mila has an umm… system.” he replied, spinning into action as he spoke.

“Excellent. Shall we be off?” questioned Mila, casually holding a tray of muffins with one hand far too large for a single person to consume in one sitting. “I can carry your drink as well if you like.” she offered.

Shaking my head, I took a sip, instantly wondering if they used some special variety of oranges for their juice. Was this really freshly squeezed? There was no pulp, which suited me.

Mila adjusted the tray to carry it with the handles, and the tour continued down a hall before heading up a couple flights of stairs, with Mila easily managing the large tray while looking graceful despite how heavy the thing had to be.

Sometime during the seemingly endless forms, Mila had brought me another refill for my drink. Three muffins and yet another drink later, I needed to hit the restroom, which was just as decadent as the rest of this grandiose mansion.

“Hi! Mind trying something before you leave?” questioned Emma as I stepped out.

“Umm… what?” I questioned, not wanting to commit to anything.

Grinning, she pointed to a couple black, flat things on the floor with fans around them. “Think skateboarding, but through the air. We call them ‘zoomies’. Kayla, the girl who bumped into you earlier, named them. She wanted to join us, but her brother made her get back to school work.”

“Through the air. You’re serious?” I asked, feeling a bit dubious.

Her grin grew larger, and that twinkle in her eye seemed to grow with it as she nodded. She grabbed the zoomies, handing one over to me before jogging down the hall.

Following, I said, “Are we supposed to be running in here?”

“This ship is too big. If I walked, the movie would be over!” she exclaimed, looking hopeful as she glanced back at me.

I half-heartedly chuckled, not sure why she called the place a ship. It wasn’t, was it? The computer upstairs was weirdly informed and completely touchscreen. Part of the contract had explained that there were many cutting-edge technologies available here that required the strictest confidentiality. After finally getting airborne on the zoomies, I was certain they were included. Emma and I probably goofed around on them for an hour, and I managed to do a couple tricks with some work, but she moved as if she had been using them for years.

When I left for home, I kept going through a list in my head of what I could actually tell my parents beyond that I got the job. I certainly wasn’t going to mention that I got my non-interview in what I was currently wearing. The zoomies were out. I didn’t think I could talk much about James without blushing, not with where my head was at with him around. I’d need to focus on the fact that he was married, so I wouldn’t impulsively do something stupid around him. This was going to be one strange place to work.

#Best Friend For Hire Reprise #Best #Friend #For #Hire #Reprise #Jovial Times #Jovial #Times #Fantasy #Fiction #Story

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