#jake and steve were the hardest for me :T

[shiftycatstudios]

Ships n' Sidekick Sketches / Resident Evil Edition! (1 of...idk I want to do more, though)

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[wiypt-writes]

Riding On

Ch3: What Happens in Vegas...

Summary: We catch up with what Fliss got up to whilst Frank was living it up in Vegas, before they both face up to the events of the weekend, because this time what happened in Vegas certainly doesn’t stay there…

Warnings: Bad Language words.

Pairing: Frank Adler x Fliss Gallagher

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Fliss Gallagher and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Riding On Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Chapter 2

Just when it seems like everything’s evened out, and the balance seems serene, see the fool I’ll be, still running ‘round on the flesh rampage.

“Hey!” Fliss greeted Bonnie as she walked over to where the woman was supervising the after school club.

“Hiya!” Bonnie smiled “You heard from Frank today?”

“Yeah, before.” Fliss smiled, before she looked and Bonnie “I gotta say, that video of Simon…”

“He’s an idiot.” Bonnie shook her head “Punching his own reflection…I mean…”

“I’m not gonna lie, it’s probably the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages.” Fliss giggled and Bonnie snorted, shaking her head again. At that point Mary came running over, her cheeks pink

“Hey Lissy.” “Hey sweetheart, you ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

“Good, because I got a surprise for you!”

“Me?”

“Yup!”

“Where is it?”

“We gotta go pick it up.”

“Oh, ok…bye Miss Stevenson!”

“See you Mary!” Bonnie smiled as she started to head off to Fliss’ car “Hey, give me a call…we can do lunch Sunday before the boys get back.”

“Sure.” Fliss nodded. “I’ll text you.”

With a final goodbye she headed after Mary and climbed into the driver’s side.

“Where’s Thor?” Mary asked.

“He’s at Mum and Dad’s with Rupert and Fred.” she said, “I thought after our surprise we could stay there for the weekend, use the pool and the Cinema Room…”

“Ok…” Mary looked at her suspiciously.

“I promise you’re gonna like it!”

“Just tell me.” Mary looked at her as Fliss set off driving.

“Sure you wanna know?”

“You’re as bad as Frank.” The girl rolled her eyes and Fliss laughed.

“We’re going to pick Steve up from the airport.”

Mary’s face split into a huge grin, it was a well-known fact that besides Bill, Fliss’ brother was basically her favourite person that wasn’t Frank on the planet.

“Uncle Steeby is coming to stay?” she looked at Fliss.

“Yup for a whole month. He has some work in Orlando and Tampa so he’s gonna be staying in town for a while, and then in Easter Sian and the twins are flying over.”

“Oh man!” Mary grinned, laying her head back on the seat “This is great!”

Mary’s excitement seemed to increase the nearer they got to the Airport, and Fliss had to practically hold her down in the seat as she parked the car, telling her to wait a second. Once she’d managed to park they headed into the arrivals lounge and little after 15 minutes later her brother appeared, towing his suitcase behind him.

“Hey Stack!” he grinned as Mary flung herself at him and he swept her up in a hug “How’s it hanging?” “Same old, same old!” she grinned and he let out a laugh before he placed her down and turned to Fliss.

“Oh my God!” he smiled as Fliss walked over to him “Look at you!”

She laughed “I know…” with a nod she looked down “Nothing until 16 weeks and then wham…now I feel like it’s getting bigger every day.”

He pulled her into his arms and gave her the usual bear hug before the three of them headed out to the car. On the way back to the house, Steve filled Fliss in on what exactly he was doing. The construction company he owned was in the running for a very big job in Orlando building a complete village of holiday villas not far from Lake Buena Vista. As such he was out here to meet a few people and attend the Bidders Conference, whilst also taking a look at some potential office buildings in Lakeland.

“If we win this tender Fliss, it’s going to be huge.” he smiled at her “We’re talking millions.”

“That’s great.” she smiled “You’ve really blown it up since Dad handed over the reins, I’m really pleased for you!”

“I got lucky.”

“No, it was hard work.” Fliss glanced at him.

“Frank says you make your own luck.” Mary added.

“See!” Fliss grinned at her brother. “So, would you guys move out here or…”

“I’m tempted.” he said, “As with anything, I’ll need a project team who can oversee the local suppliers and labour that type of thing, manage the schedules and what not…but our head offices will still be in Liverpool, so I’m undecided. Either way I’ll be spending a lot more time here, certainly in the first 12 months whilst it all gets up and running.”

“How does Sian feel about it?”

“She’s excited. She knows what it means to me, to the business. Obviously she realises it means more time apart as I’ll be out here quite often but…”

“Is it selfish of me to be happy about that?” Fliss smiled and Steve laughed.

“Nope, because we all know I’m the best big brother in the world.”

Fliss grinned and shook her head as Mary began to enthusiastically talk to Steve about school and University and the Girl Scout group she was in. Fliss interjected whenever she needed to but other than that she was happy to let the two of them chat away.

Once home Steve headed over to the Annex where he would be staying whilst Mary went outside to play with the dogs, Fred happy to oversee things from his spot on a chair on the large decking platform which-over looked the pool area. Steve appeared an hour or so later having showered and changed into a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, Fliss grinning at him, calling him a tourist. Whilst it wasn’t cold by cold standards, she found it chillier having grown used to the blazing heat of the summer. Steve, who had come from the chilly early spring in England, simply rolled his eyes and handed her the box he had in his hand.

“It’s a present from me and Sian.” he smiled.

Fliss glanced down and smiled at the selection box of Pukka Tea bags.

“Steeby this is great!” she beamed “I’ve been struggling to find them out here since Sian recommended them.”

She gently opened the box and glanced at the various herbal teas. There were 12 different flavours such as Peppermint and Liquorice, Ginger and Manuka Honey, Chamomile and Rose to name but a few. There was even a handwritten note inside from Sian, explaining which ones had helped her with various symptoms she felt during her pregnancy. She closed the purple and gold box and looked up at Steve, tears in her eyes.

“Hey, come on Titch!” he laughed as she fell into his arms, chuckling herself at her ridiculous tears “It’s just tea bags.” “It’s really thoughtful, thank you.” she stepped back, wiping her eyes “Fucking hormones.” Steve chuckled, rubbing her back slightly before she turned and began pulling the rest of the stuff out for dinner.

“Wanna help?” she asked.

“You really want me to?” He smirked “I’ve still not forgot the time we made brownies and set fire to the curtains at the Farm house.” “Ok, first off those curtains were rank, as Mum said when Dad came home and hit the roof, second off, they were pot brownies and we were already stoned after smoking a load! Cooking and being high do not mix.”

Steve laughed “God, poor Mum didn’t know what to do. Came home, found us both on the floor eating them, with burnt curtains hanging at the window.” “She knew we were stoned, she told me.” Fliss grinned, handing Steve a knife “Said she lied to dad that it had been her to get us off the hook.” “Well that didn’t work because Dad told me he knew full well it was us. He made me pay for the new curtains and told me that if I ever let you smoke that stuff again he was going to beat me within an inch of my life.” Fliss laughed “He was so full of shit, he never raised a hand to either of us. Never would either.” “No, but the threat was there. Even if I was 22 at the time, scared the shit out of me.”

“Thankfully we both grew up since then, huh?” Fliss shrugged, as she grabbed a chopping board to start carving up the meat for the tacos.

“Hmmm, debatable.” Steve nudged her. “Although I can safely say I haven’t done weed since the twins were born…as tempting as it was at times.”

“I can’t remember the last time I did.” Fliss mused “Was certainly before I moved to Boston.” “Frankie boy not dabble every now and then?”

“Nope.” Fliss said “He doesn’t smoke and says the last time he did pot it made him pull a whitey so he steers clear. Hardest thing he does now is Bourbon.” “Huh…” Steve mused “I had him pegged as a bit of wild one…” “He’s not.” Fliss shook her head “I mean he cuts loose when we go out, and I dread to think about the states he’s gonna be in this weekend but…” she shrugged “He’s well adjusted, sensible, level headed…can be a bit of a child at times but, show me a man who isn’t?” Steve shot her a look and she chuckled.

“So, how is he?” Steve asked. “Seems like ages since I spoke to him.” “He’s good.” Fliss smiled “His work is going well. He’s really excited about the baby.” her hand dropped to her bump. “We’re gonna start looking for houses now our landlord had said he won’t hold us to our contract. Frankie wants to move as soon as we can so he can get a nursery ready but I’m not bothered. Not like we’ll need the extra space really until a few months after it’s born.”

“You’d be surprised.” Steve raised an eyebrow “Babies accumulate a lot of stuff…” “Well, we’ll manage either way.” Fliss shrugged “Most important thing is they’re safe and happy. We can figure the rest out as we go.” “You gonna buy or…” “Hopefully.” Fliss nodded “With work and stuff now we shouldn’t have a problem borrowing now but, I don’t know, we’re going to look into it properly once Jake’s wedding is out of the way in a few weeks.”

Steve nodded and took a deep breath “You know, I wasn’t sure about you two at first, not because I didn’t like Frank, I did, I mean I do but, well, I just thought after Dickhead that you needed time to heal and find yourself again.” Fliss looked at him as he chewed the inside of his lip before he turned to her. “But then when I saw you again after your first Christmas together and then over the Easter…I dunno, you just…”

Fliss smiled and looked down, shrugging “I might have healed in a lot of ways before I met Frank but I was still broken Steeb. Finding my way in a new relationship was hard work, it was daunting…I constantly found myself automatically doing things I did with or for John…like you know the first time Frank ever stayed over, in the morning I just got up and was about to make him coffee and he was so puzzled by it.” she shrugged “that could have been so awkward but Frank…well, he didn’t let it feel that way. Simply told me to stay the fuck in bed.” “Don’t wanna know.” Steve pulled a face and Fliss laughed.

“Joking aside, I know it used to bother him because it was almost like on a subconscious level I was comparing the two of them but he never once lost his temper, not really anyway, other than to tell me to stop putting him on a pedestal for being fucking normal…his words, not mine.” she said, framing them in quotation marks with her fingers. “He just gets it. He gets me.” “You finished with the sales pitch?” Steve asked her and she narrowed her eyes at him as he laughed “You don’t need to convince me Titch, I like the guy, I just wasn’t sure you were in the right place but it's obvious he helped you get there.” Fliss smiled.

“And Mum and Dad worship the ground he walks on.” Steve shrugged “Like seriously…”

“Awww you jealous?” Fliss teased and Steve turned, pointing the small knife he was holding at her.

“Behave.” he smirked and Fliss laughed.

“I know what you mean though…whenever we argue they’re both like ‘you need to stop being so hard on him, Lissy’.” She snorted.

“Well, to be fair, you are a little bit…” Steve shrugged “Oh, I dunno, a bit of a pain in the ass at times.” “Fuck you.” she sniggered, as Steve chuckled and once again looked down at her.

“I’m glad you found him. You deserve to be happy.” Fliss smiled, and let her brother give her another hug before she instructed him to get on with his allocated job of dicing onions if they wanted any chance of eating this side of summer. Between the two of them, they had dinner ready in half an hour and the three of them ate inside at the large kitchen table. It wasn’t long after they finished that Frank Face timed. After a conversation with Mary, instructing her once more to behave, she handed the phone to Fliss who smiled at her man and excused herself for a little while so she could go talk to him in private. He told her they were off to play poker, promised he wouldn’t gamble Bean and Mary’s inheritance away, before he apologetically said he needed to go and promised he would message her later, despite her insistence that he didn’t need to keep checking in.

The siblings and Mary, plus animals migrated to the lounge of the villa as Steve yawned, desperately trying to keep himself awake as long as possible to counteract the time difference between Florida and their home in the North West of England. He ended up helping himself to a healthy shot of Bill’s 12 year old Single Malt as Fliss had an apple juice mixed with lemonade, the 2 of them on the couch, the foot stools of the recliners in front of them whilst Mary led on the rug, playing on her computer.

At one point she let out a snigger, and Fliss looked at her suspiciously.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Frank before told me to stop doing maths and do something else…so I’m googling.” she shrugged.

“Googling what?”

“Random pregnancy facts…did you know the longest pregnancy ever recorded was 375 days?”

“What?” Fliss spluttered “That’s over a year!”

Mary grinned “and the shortest was 21 weeks and four days…both babies survived.”

Steve looked at Fliss, chuckling to himself as he took a drink of his scotch.

“Woah, your heart grows bigger too…” Mary said, “and your blood volume increases by 40-50%. That’s pretty cool.”

“No wonder you get fat…” Steve mused and Fliss picked up a cushion, hitting him in the face with it.

“And your voice can change!” Mary looked up at Fliss “Says here that it can get lower…” she studied her for a second before she nodded “Talk to me…” “What do you want me to say?” Fliss asked, dropping her voice deliberately and Mary shook her head, rolling her eyes.

“You’re doing a Frank…” she sing songed.

“Doing a Frank?” Steve looked at his sister.

“Code for being an idiot.” Fliss smiled.

“You’re 18 weeks right?” Mary continued.

“Yeah”

“It says here that’s the time the baby can hear sounds…but it gets more responsive at 25-26 weeks…” she paused “Have you felt Bean move yet?”

“No.” Fliss shook her head, “but apparently for your first baby it’s not uncommon for you not to feel it until after 20 weeks.”

“Huh, they call it quickening…” Mary mused then she grinned “I can’t wait to feel it kicking you.”

“Gee thanks Stack…” Fliss looked at her as Steve let out a loud laugh

“I bloody love this kid!” he grinned and Mary smiled back.

*****

Saturday flew by. Fliss had lessons all day at the yard, Mary hanging around to help Joanne with various tasks before she herself got to ride Monty. She was now fully walking, trotting and cantering off the line competently, so when she asked Fliss if they could try a little jump, seeing as Frank wasn’t there to shit himself Fliss agreed.

Joanna set the cross poles up, leaving the jump at less than half a foot high, but it was enough for what they wanted to do.

“Ok…so…” Fliss said, nudging the ground pole with her foot. “We’re going to just trot him at this for the time being, so when he steps over this pole you have a count of one before he is going to take off. So you need to stand up… and fold forward slightly, giving him the reins. Show me.” Mary obediently stood up, and Fliss moved to help her adjust her legs so they didn’t fling too far back.

“Ok, good…” Fliss nodded. “Joanna’s gonna lead you over the first few times ok, and if you feel like you’re losing your balance then grab hold of this bit at the bottom of his mane. It won’t hurt him, I promise.” “OK, I’m ready…” Mary nodded.

“Alright…” Fliss said, stepping back. Joanna led Monty away, before they picked up trot and ran at the small jump.

“Get ready to fold!” Fliss instructed Mary, as she approached the pole. Doing exactly as she was told Mary leaned forward as Monty took off from the ground and landed perfectly after the jump. Mary sat back up and looked over her shoulder at the jump then to Fliss who gave her the thumbs up.

“Woah, did you see that?” Mary grinned, and Fliss nodded.

“Sure did!” she laughed. “Go again?”

Mary nodded eagerly and Joanna laughed. “Well done kiddo!”

They repeated this 5 or 6 times more before Fliss asked Mary if she wanted to try on her own. Never one to back down she nodded so Joanne unclipped the line and Mary trotted Monty around in a circle before she came at the jump.

“Ok, sit up and look straight between his ears at where you’re going.” Fliss said “Don’t look down…” Mary approached the jump and Fliss held her breath, but needn’t have bothered. Monty, ever the pro took Mary over the poles easily and stopped a few strides at the other side, Mary letting out an excited yell.

“I did it!”

Fliss gave her a huge smile.

“Can we film it and send it to Frank?”

“Damned straight we can!” Fliss grinned, “Do it again.”

She pulled her phone out, filmed Mary once again jumping and then turned her phone off, slipping into her pocket as Mary rode Monty back over.

“That was amazing!” the little girl was beaming ear to ear.

Fliss nodded “Yeah, it was. You did really well Stack. You wanna walk him off now then and we can feed and go home?” Mary nodded as she turned Monty away to let him walk around the outside of the paddock. With a smile she grabbed her phone and sent the footage to Frank. He replied a few minutes later with a load of wide mouthed emojis accompanied by the words “Jesus Christ, what did I say about keeping all 4 legs on the ground?”

“Oh hush Sailor!” she replied “She loved it. Now don’t forget I want a photo of you and Greg in those suits before you go out.” “Yes ma’am…now by my watch it must be nearly 6pm there. Take Mary and Bean home and get some rest.”

Rolling her eyes she responded about him being bossy to which he replied he was entitled to be as she was carrying his kid. A few more jokey messages were shared before Fliss promised to go home and Frank said he would talk to her later.

They grabbed a pizza on the way back and once more joined Steve for dinner, the 3 of them sitting in Bill’s large cinema room later watching Avengers-Age of Ultron. Before it had finished Fliss fell asleep, to be woken by Steve at the end of the film, Mary laughing at her as she groaned and stretched out.

“Sorry!” she grinned and Steve snorted.

“She falls asleep all the time.” Mary laughed “Frank said the baby is like a parasite, sucking all her energy.”

“A parasite?” Fliss snorted indignantly, her hand falling to her bump “You hear that Bean, that’s your dad saying that. Rude…”

“He isn’t wrong though.” Steve laughed. “Sian used to refer to our two as the bloodsuckers.” Shaking her head Fliss stood up and looked at Mary, “Bed, come on. You’re out with Roberta tomorrow.” “Anywhere nice?” Steve asked Mary.

“Just to the beach.” came the reply. “I haven’t seen her in a while so we’re gonna go watch the surfing competition. Roberta likes the shorts the men wear.”

“Sure she does.” Steve smirked, laughing.

“Some of them are brighter than Frank’s shirts.” Mary mused, causing Steve to laugh harder.

They bid him goodnight, getting ready for bed before Fliss tucked Mary in and went to the spare room. She fell asleep not long after but was woken early Sunday morning with a desperate need to pee. Once sorted she text her phone to find a very drunk text from Frank, declaring he loved her and couldn’t wait for Bean to arrive and for them to get married. She shook her head, glancing at the time, it was almost 4 am meaning it was 1am in Vegas. Smiling as she replied half asleep herself, telling him to maybe think about drinking water instead of any more alcohol, she turned over and closed her eyes.

***** Frank sat dumbfounded, his entire body rigid as the person next to him in the bed let out a sigh, and then a deep groan before a head emerged from under the covers.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Frank exhaled and let out a groan as Simon looked at him “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Well, technically this is my room, jerk.” Simon said, blinking “What year is it?

“You scared the shit out of me.” Frank took a deep breath “I thought…”

“You thought you left with the blonde?” Simon peeked up at him “Nah, man. Mind you, wasn’t for her lack of trying. She was all over you. Eventually you told her to fuck off. You were quite rude actually.” Frank let out a sigh, his head falling back against the head board.

Simon sighed turning over, before he peered under the covers. “For the love of- Frank you’re naked.” “I’m aware of that.” Frank groaned.

“Fucking hell…” Simon grimaced, before he rolled out of bed “I’m going for a pee. Put some clothes on.”

Once Simon was in the bathroom he climbed out of bed, his head still spinning as he found his clothes in a pile on the floor. Shoving on his boxers and shirt he looked around the room to see an empty bottle of Jack Daniels and a pizza box on the table.

“Where the hell did we go?” He asked Simon as he walked back into the room. “Don’t ask me.” Simon looked at him, falling face down on the bed. “I know we took Greg back to your room…”

“We did?”

“Yeah he was wasted.” Simon nodded, rolling over as Frank flopped back on the bed. “He could hardly walk so the bouncers asked us to take him out of the club. We threw him in your room then…we must have gone back out…hang on…”

With a herculean effort, Simon pushed himself up and found his phone. After a brief scan his eyes widened and he snorted.

“Look.”

He turned the phone round to Frank, who saw a selfie of him and Simon in front of a face down Greg in the hotel room. Simon then began to flick through.

“Oh, ok so we went to a liquor store…” he turned the phone round to show Frank a blurry photo of a shop front “Don’t ask me why I took that and oh my god!”

“What?” Simon pressed play and a load of cheering and singing hit their ears as they watched footage of a small man dressed as a leprechaun dancing in the hotel foyer, Frank on his knees in front of him, laughing.

“I literally have no memory of that…at all.” Frank shook his head.

“Looks like we called Bonnie as well…” Simon snorted “If this angry text message that I got at 3 am is anything to go by.”

“Oh fuck.” Frank hastily reached for his phone, which really didn’t have a lot of battery left, and he hastily scanned his calls. There were none to Fliss, but he had sent her a message. According to her reply she’d been up to use the toilet, so that was ok.

His phone illuminated then with two messages. One from Fliss asking him if he was hungover, as he deserved to be, and another from Greg asking him where the fuck he was. Deciding to reply to Greg first, as he could picture the man stressing he tapped out a quick reply informing him not to worry, he’d be back at the room as soon as he’d managed to dress himself, which at the moment thanks to his head was proving a little difficult, before he replied to Fliss saying he was indeed hungover and he needed to crawl into a hole and die and as ever, reminded her he loved her.

No sooner had he sent it, she was calling him.

“That was quick…” he mumbled, before answering it. “Hey, honey…” “So, wanna tell me exactly where and what you were doing that requires you to get dressed before you go back to your room?” Her voice was steely.

Shit. He had sent the messages to the wrong people.

“Lissy, it’s not what you think.” He instantly began.

“Oh, you have no IDEA what I’m thinking!” her voice grew louder

“No, listen…I’m with Simon.” He chuckled.

“You think this is funny?” She sniffed and Frank grimaced.

“Baby, stop.” He sighed “Look, we ended up back at his room and I passed out here. That message was meant for Greg as he was asking me where I was. Instead he now has a message saying I’m hungover to fuck and that I love him.”

She was silent and he could hear her on the other end of the line rustling something before she spoke again in a quiet voice “So you weren’t with anyone else?”

“No, Sweetheart I wasn’t. Why would I want to be huh? Most beautiful girl in the world waiting for me at home.” At that Simon let out a retching noise “God you make me want to puke, Adler.” “Oh fuck off Si you dick.” He shot back.

“Hey, Fliss.” Simon leaned over to speak down the phone, grabbing Frank’s wrist to stop him moving it. “Now you, Bonnie and me have all seen Frank nekkid...”

“I swear to God I’m gonna punch you in a minute.” Frank mumbled, jerking his arm out of Simon’s reach and pushing him so hard he rolled over and fell off the side of the bed. Frank let out a laugh as Simon groaned and a hand appeared in the air, flipping him off.

“He knows about you and Bonnie?”

“Apparently so.” Frank mused

“So anything else you wanna tell me about what you got up to? Other than naked spooning Si?”

Frank laughed “We found a dancing leprechaun.”

“A dancing leprechaun?” “Yeah, in the hotel somewhere.”

“Standard.” she giggled “So, are you ready to come home now you’ve spent the last few days acting like overgrown frat boys?

“Yes, I’m more than ready to leave Aldrich Whitaker behind”

“Who the fuck is that?”

“My alter ego for last night. He’s a trust fund ass hole.” Frank grinned.

There was a pause before she replied, snorting “Whatever.”

At that point his phone gave him a bleep to tell him he was dangerously low on battery power. “Look, baby, my phones gonna die. I’ll call you when I get it charged ok?”

“Yeah, sure, hey Frankie, I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions.” She apologised softly.

“It’s okay, I’m not surprised after that message.”

“Yeah but still…” she paused “Can I blame the hormones?”

“If you want.”

“In that case it was totally them.”

He chucked “ Hormones or not, I love you.”

“Love you too sailor”

With that his phone cut off and he glanced down at it, the screen blank as the power had gone. He dropped it on the bed, before leaning back again, his hand against his forehead.

“I’m NEVER coming to Vegas again”

“Oh you not fancy it for your Batchelor party then? Simon teased as he threw Frank a bottle of water from the mini bar.”

“The fuck I do.” Frank shook his head.

*****

“I’d like to say I’m surprised but…” Bonnie shrugged as Fliss snorted, taking a drink of her apple juice from the carton as they walked back to their cars in the setting sun. They’d had dinner at one of the beach bars and stayed simply chatting for half an hour or so, but now Fliss was now ready to head home, shower and bunker down for the rest of the evening until Frank came home.

“I knew he’d end up paralytic.” Fliss said, watching as Mary wandered back towards them, huge ice cream in her hand. “Stack that’s bigger than your head.”

Mary shrugged, handing Fliss her change “It’s good though.” “Mint choc chip?”

“Yup.” she grinned, taking a huge lick. “When’s Frank back?”

“He lands into Tampa in about 4 hours.” Fliss looked at her “Why, you fed up of me already?”

“No, just thinking how peaceful it’s been without him annoying me.”

Fliss grinned and Bonnie gave a chuckle.

“Hey, did you tell Bonnie about you jumping Monty?” Fliss asked.

“Oh, no…” Mary turned to the woman, enthusiastically telling her all about it as Bonnie listened, Fliss walking alongside them, her hand rubbing her bump. She was just thinking about how nice a nap would be right then when Bonnie’s phone went.

“Sorry Mary.” She muttered, frowning at the number. “Hey, Lisa?” Fliss attention turned to Bonnie and she watched carefully as she spoke to Jake’s fiancé, her eyes flicked to her “No, no why…what’s…oh, ok…yeah…”

She cancelled the phone call and instantly tapped at the screen.

“Everything ok?” Fliss frowned.

“Yeah, I just need to check something.” she said. Fliss glanced at Mary who looked at her, shrugging.

“Here…” Fliss handed her the keys to the jeep “Go open the car…” “You know if you want me out of the way just ask.” Mary rolled her eyes.

“Ok I want you out of the way.” Fliss looked down at her. Mary snorted and took the keys, wandering off the 50 yards or so to the jeep. Fliss watched her climb in the back, the door staying open and her legs dangling out of the side. “Bonnie what is it?”

“Nothing…” Bonnie said, far too quickly as she looked up at Fliss. Fliss frowned.

“Bonnie…”

“Honestly, it’s nothing, just something Lisa told me about on facebook so…” Bonnie stuttered slightly so Fliss narrowed her eyes.

“Stop bullshitting.” Fliss said, holding her gaze “What the fuck’s going on?”

“Look, I’m sure it’s not what it seems…” Bonnie sighed, holding out her phone. At those words Fliss felt her heart sink as it could only mean one thing, and she took the phone with a tentative hand. She looked down at it and could see that it was a photo and from the logo in the bottom right hand corner it was from the official club page that the boys had been in on Saturday night.

It showed Jake, Greg, Simon, and a few others that Fliss didn’t recognise but that wasn’t what Bonnie had been referring to. What she had been talking about, as Fliss could clearly see was the background of the shot, which showed Frank with a blonde woman. Her arms were round his neck, his hand was resting on her lower back and their faces inches apart.

“Like I said, I’m sure there’s an innocent explanation…” Bonnie said, but Fliss wasn’t listening. She was busy flicking through the other photos and then she came across another of Frank, the same girl perched on his knee.

She felt sick.

“Sure, perfectly innocent…” Fliss swallowed, handing the phone back to Bonnie, her voice sounding detached. Bonnie looked down at the snap now displayed on the screen and she took a deep breath.

“Look, Fliss, Frank loves you���he was probably just drunk and…” “Touching up some whore that’s sat on his lap.” Fliss shook her head “Save it Bonnie, I gotta go.” “Fliss…”

Fliss turned away from her, the tears stinging her eyes as she headed to the jeep. Taking a deep breath she wiped her eyes, climbing into the driver’s seat.

“Are you ok?” Mary looked at her.

“Yeah, fine…just tired and hormonal.” Fliss shot her a smile.

“We can watch a film when we get back.” Mary suggested “Just chill out?”

“Yeah, yeah we can.” Fliss trying to quell the sick feeling in her stomach that had nothing to do with Bean.

Had Frank really cheated on her? She would never in a million years thought he had it in him to be unfaithful, and she was desperate to believe Bonnie, that there was some perfectly innocent explanation for it all. And maybe, just maybe with the first one she could. It could have been taken at a bad moment, when they were just talking to one another, Frank being friendly…but then again why would they have their arms round one another. And as for the second one…the same girl was sat on his fucking lap with her arm looped round his shoulder.

And he looked perfectly comfortable with it. 

She rubbed her bump again and Mary looked at her. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine sweetheart.” she nodded, painting a smile on her face before turning the key in the ignition. “Let’s go home.”

******

Frank sighed as they all trudged through the arrivals lounge, rubbing his eyes. He was ready for a shower and collapse next to his girl, he felt like he had aged a decade over the last 3 days. The rest of them looked just as bad as they headed to the waiting car, Simon’s phone reminding Frank he needed to turn his on to.

“Oh, shit…” he heard Simon groan “No, that’s not…he didn’t…I swear…”

He glanced at Frank who stood still, watching and leaning on the door frame, his own phone in his hand as it started up.

“Yeah, ok…love you…see you soon.” Simon swallowed and cut the call looking at Frank.

“What is it?” Frank looked at him, a cold feeling washing over him “Has something happened to Lissy or Mary? Or the baby, please tell me no…” “No, nothing like that but you need to call Fliss.” he said, “Frank, there’s photos of you and that blonde chick on the club facebook page. Someone tagged me and Greg in them, Lisa saw them and Bonnie and…” “Photos of what?” Frank frowned “I didn’t do anything…” “There’s a photo that makes it look like you are…and one of her on your lap.” Simon said and Frank swallowed, his stomach churning.

“Oh fahk!”

“Just get in the car.” Greg looked at him from where he stood at the other side. “Call her on the way, we’ll back you up…it’s a misunderstanding.”

“Yeah, it’ll be fine.” Jake assured him.

But it wasn’t fine, because no matter how much Frank tried, or how many messages he sent, Liss wasn’t picking up or replying and when he saw the photos, he could understand her being pissed. He would be if it was the other way round because they looked bad. The drive home seemed to take forever, and when the car finally rounded the corner onto Frank’s road they all offered to come in as well and help him explain, but he shook his head, knowing full well if he did that she would feel backed into a corner. No, this was his own dumbass fault. He’d face up to it and talk to her, make her understand how he’d told the girl to back off…she’d listen, she was reasonable.

The house was quiet when he entered and he walked through to the lounge where Fliss was sat on the sofa, her knees bent up beside her. She glanced over the back of the couch and he could see she had been crying, which made him feel like even more of bastard than he did already.

“Lissy, honey, I swear…” “You know, when I asked if there was anything you wanted to tell me, maybe I should have asked if there was something you should tell me” She sniffed, uncurling her legs and standing up and Thor’s ears pricked up from where he had been laying on the rug.

“Listen, those photos, they’re not…” He shook his head. “I told her to get lost, honestly I swear to you.”

He moved towards her, his hands dropping to her hips but she pushed him hard in the chest, stepping back.

“Don’t touch me. I don’t want you anywhere near me.”

“Sweetheart, I swear to God…”

“I don’t wanna hear it Frank.” she shook her head, walking past him. “Where are you going?” he asked, “Lissy, you can’t leave. Please, sweetheart…” “I’m going to bed, but let’s get one thing straight. The only reason I’m not screaming at you right now and storming out, slamming the door behind me is because of Mary.” she spoke calmly, too calmly for the anger which was radiating out of every inch of her body. She looked at Frank, her eyes watering as she shook her head, turning away. “You can take the couch.”

“Lissy…” “Frank…just stop.” Her voice cracked, and with that she left the room, Thor trotting behind, the bedroom door clicking behind her.

Frank stood, rooted to the spot, debating whether or not to follow her, before he decided not to. The last thing he wanted was to anger her that much she stormed out, or worse, she got so stressed something happened to the baby. No, she’d set the boundaries so he decided to respect them, and turned instead to the couch, sinking down onto the cushions his head in his hands.

She was angry, upset and she had the right to be and like he had said in the car, in her position he knew he would feel the same. She needed to sleep, calm down enough so that they could talk and he could explain, get her to listen to him. And then she’d see that it was a huge misunderstanding, even if she remained pissed at him for having the girl so close in the first place, which, ok, he shouldn’t have done but fuck…the thought of cheating hadn’t entered his mind, not once.

He swung his legs up, rubbing his face over his hands. She’d believe him. She had to, because if she didn’t, then had no idea what the fuck he was gonna do.

**** Chapter 4

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Riding On Ch3: What Happens In Vegas...

Summary: We catch up with what Fliss got up to whilst Frank was living it up in Vegas, before they both face up to the events of the weekend, because this time what happened in Vegas certainly doesn’t stay there…

Warnings: Bad Language words.

Pairing: Frank Adler x Fliss Gallagher

A/N: Imma still running from @sweater-daddiesdumbdork​ and I won’t be stopping at the end of this either…As always, thanks to my unofficial beta @icanfeelastormbrewing​ for the usual inputs and opinions. J Chapter Song: Trouble Loves Me by Morrissey

Series Materlist //  WIYPT Masterlist

Just when it seems like everything’s evened out, and the balance seems serene, see the fool I’ll be, still running ‘round on the flesh rampage

“Hey!” Fliss greeted Bonnie as she walked over to where the woman was supervising the after school club.

“Hiya!” Bonnie smiled “You heard from Frank today?”

“Yeah, before.” Fliss smiled, before she looked and Bonnie “I gotta say, that video of Simon…”

“He’s an idiot.” Bonnie shook her head “Punching his own reflection…I mean…”

“I’m not gonna lie, it’s probably the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages.” Fliss giggled and Bonnie snorted, shaking her head again. At that point Mary came running over, her cheeks pink

“Hey Lissy.” “Hey sweetheart, you ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

“Good, because I got a surprise for you!”

“Me?”

“Yup!”

“Where is it?”

“We gotta go pick it up.”

“Oh, ok…bye Miss Stevenson!”

“See you Mary!” Bonnie smiled as she started to head off to Fliss’ car “Hey, give me a call…we can do lunch Sunday before the boys get back.”

“Sure.” Fliss nodded. “I’ll text you.”

With a final goodbye she headed after Mary and climbed into the driver’s side.

“Where’s Thor?” Mary asked.

“He’s at Mum and Dad’s with Rupert and Fred.” she said, “I thought after our surprise we could stay there for the weekend, use the pool and the Cinema Room…”

“Ok…” Mary looked at her suspiciously.

“I promise you’re gonna like it!”

“Just tell me.” Mary looked at her as Fliss set off driving.

“Sure you wanna know?”

“You’re as bad as Frank.” The girl rolled her eyes and Fliss laughed.

“We’re going to pick Steve up from the airport.”

Mary’s face split into a huge grin, it was a well-known fact that besides Bill, Fliss’ brother was basically her favourite person that wasn’t Frank on the planet.

“Uncle Steeby is coming to stay?” she looked at Fliss.

“Yup for a whole month. He has some work in Orlando and Tampa so he’s gonna be staying in town for a while, and then in Easter Sian and the twins are flying over.”

“Oh man!” Mary grinned, laying her head back on the seat “This is great!”

Mary’s excitement seemed to increase the nearer they got to the Airport, and Fliss had to practically hold her down in the seat as she parked the car, telling her to wait a second. Once she’d managed to park they headed into the arrivals lounge and little after 15 minutes later her brother appeared, towing his suitcase behind him.

“Hey Stack!” he grinned as Mary flung herself at him and he swept her up in a hug “How’s it hanging?” “Same old, same old!” she grinned and he let out a laugh before he placed her down and turned to Fliss.

“Oh my God!” he smiled as Fliss walked over to him “Look at you!”

She laughed “I know…” with a nod she looked down “Nothing until 16 weeks and then wham…now I feel like it’s getting bigger every day.”

He pulled her into his arms and gave her the usual bear hug before the three of them headed out to the car. On the way back to the house, Steve filled Fliss in on what exactly he was doing. The construction company he owned was in the running for a very big job in Orlando building a complete village of holiday villas not far from Lake Buena Vista. As such he was out here to meet a few people and attend the Bidders Conference, whilst also taking a look at some potential office buildings in Lakeland.

“If we win this tender Fliss, it’s going to be huge.” he smiled at her “We’re talking millions.”

“That’s great.” she smiled “You’ve really blown it up since Dad handed over the reins, I’m really pleased for you!”

“I got lucky.”

“No, it was hard work.” Fliss glanced at him.

“Frank says you make your own luck.” Mary added.

“See!” Fliss grinned at her brother. “So, would you guys move out here or…”

“I’m tempted.” he said, “As with anything, I’ll need a project team who can oversee the local suppliers and labour that type of thing, manage the schedules and what not…but our head offices will still be in Liverpool, so I’m undecided. Either way I’ll be spending a lot more time here, certainly in the first 12 months whilst it all gets up and running.”

“How does Sian feel about it?”

“She’s excited. She knows what it means to me, to the business. Obviously she realises it means more time apart as I’ll be out here quite often but…”

“Is it selfish of me to be happy about that?” Fliss smiled and Steve laughed.

“Nope, because we all know I’m the best big brother in the world.”

Fliss grinned and shook her head as Mary began to enthusiastically talk to Steve about school and University and the Girl Scout group she was in. Fliss interjected whenever she needed to but other than that she was happy to let the two of them chat away.

Once home Steve headed over to the Annex where he would be staying whilst Mary went outside to play with the dogs, Fred happy to oversee things from his spot on a chair on the large decking platform which-over looked the pool area. Steve appeared an hour or so later having showered and changed into a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, Fliss grinning at him, calling him a tourist. Whilst it wasn’t cold by cold standards, she found it chillier having grown used to the blazing heat of the summer. Steve, who had come from the chilly early spring in England, simply rolled his eyes and handed her the box he had in his hand.

“It’s a present from me and Sian.” he smiled.

Fliss glanced down and smiled at the selection box of Pukka Tea bags.

“Steeby this is great!” she beamed “I’ve been struggling to find them out here since Sian recommended them.”

She gently opened the box and glanced at the various herbal teas. There were 12 different flavours such as Peppermint and Liquorice, Ginger and Manuka Honey, Chamomile and Rose to name but a few. There was even a handwritten note inside from Sian, explaining which ones had helped her with various symptoms she felt during her pregnancy. She closed the purple and gold box and looked up at Steve, tears in her eyes.

“Hey, come on Titch!” he laughed as she fell into his arms, chuckling herself at her ridiculous tears “It’s just tea bags.” “It’s really thoughtful, thank you.” she stepped back, wiping her eyes “Fucking hormones.” Steve chuckled, rubbing her back slightly before she turned and began pulling the rest of the stuff out for dinner.

“Wanna help?” she asked.

“You really want me to?” He smirked “I’ve still not forgot the time we made brownies and set fire to the curtains at the Farm house.” “Ok, first off those curtains were rank, as Mum said when Dad came home and hit the roof, second off, they were pot brownies and we were already stoned after smoking a load! Cooking and being high do not mix.”

Steve laughed “God, poor Mum didn’t know what to do. Came home, found us both on the floor eating them, with burnt curtains hanging at the window.” “She knew we were stoned, she told me.” Fliss grinned, handing Steve a knife “Said she lied to dad that it had been her to get us off the hook.” “Well that didn’t work because Dad told me he knew full well it was us. He made me pay for the new curtains and told me that if I ever let you smoke that stuff again he was going to beat me within an inch of my life.” Fliss laughed “He was so full of shit, he never raised a hand to either of us. Never would either.” “No, but the threat was there. Even if I was 22 at the time, scared the shit out of me.”

“Thankfully we both grew up since then, huh?” Fliss shrugged, as she grabbed a chopping board to start carving up the meat for the tacos.

“Hmmm, debatable.” Steve nudged her. “Although I can safely say I haven’t done weed since the twins were born…as tempting as it was at times.”

“I can’t remember the last time I did.” Fliss mused “Was certainly before I moved to Boston.” “Frankie boy not dabble every now and then?”

“Nope.” Fliss said “He doesn’t smoke and says the last time he did pot it made him pull a whitey so he steers clear. Hardest thing he does now is Bourbon.” “Huh…” Steve mused “I had him pegged as a bit of wild one…” “He’s not.” Fliss shook her head “I mean he cuts loose when we go out, and I dread to think about the states he’s gonna be in this weekend but…” she shrugged “He’s well adjusted, sensible, level headed…can be a bit of a child at times but, show me a man who isn’t?” Steve shot her a look and she chuckled.

“So, how is he?” Steve asked. “Seems like ages since I spoke to him.” “He’s good.” Fliss smiled “His work is going well. He’s really excited about the baby.” her hand dropped to her bump. “We’re gonna start looking for houses now our landlord had said he won’t hold us to our contract. Frankie wants to move as soon as we can so he can get a nursery ready but I’m not bothered. Not like we’ll need the extra space really until a few months after it’s born.”

“You’d be surprised.” Steve raised an eyebrow “Babies accumulate a lot of stuff…” “Well, we’ll manage either way.” Fliss shrugged “Most important thing is they’re safe and happy. We can figure the rest out as we go.” “You gonna buy or…” “Hopefully.” Fliss nodded “With work and stuff now we shouldn’t have a problem borrowing now but, I don’t know, we’re going to look into it properly once Jake’s wedding is out of the way in a few weeks.”

Steve nodded and took a deep breath “You know, I wasn’t sure about you two at first, not because I didn’t like Frank, I did, I mean I do but, well, I just thought after Dickhead that you needed time to heal and find yourself again.” Fliss looked at him as he chewed the inside of his lip before he turned to her. “But then when I saw you again after your first Christmas together and then over the Easter…I dunno, you just…”

Fliss smiled and looked down, shrugging “I might have healed in a lot of ways before I met Frank but I was still broken Steeb. Finding my way in a new relationship was hard work, it was daunting…I constantly found myself automatically doing things I did with or for John…like you know the first time Frank ever stayed over, in the morning I just got up and was about to make him coffee and he was so puzzled by it.” she shrugged “that could have been so awkward but Frank…well, he didn’t let it feel that way. Simply told me to stay the fuck in bed.” “Don’t wanna know.” Steve pulled a face and Fliss laughed.

“Joking aside, I know it used to bother him because it was almost like on a subconscious level I was comparing the two of them but he never once lost his temper, not really anyway, other than to tell me to stop putting him on a pedestal for being fucking normal…his words, not mine.” she said, framing them in quotation marks with her fingers. “He just gets it. He gets me.” “You finished with the sales pitch?” Steve asked her and she narrowed her eyes at him as he laughed “You don’t need to convince me Titch, I like the guy, I just wasn’t sure you were in the right place but it's obvious he helped you get there.” Fliss smiled.

“And Mum and Dad worship the ground he walks on.” Steve shrugged “Like seriously…”

“Awww you jealous?” Fliss teased and Steve turned, pointing the small knife he was holding at her.

“Behave.” he smirked and Fliss laughed.

“I know what you mean though…whenever we argue they’re both like ‘you need to stop being so hard on him, Lissy’.” She snorted.

“Well, to be fair, you are a little bit…” Steve shrugged “Oh, I dunno, a bit of a pain in the ass at times.” “Fuck you.” she sniggered, as Steve chuckled and once again looked down at her.

“I’m glad you found him. You deserve to be happy.” Fliss smiled, and let her brother give her another hug before she instructed him to get on with his allocated job of dicing onions if they wanted any chance of eating this side of summer. Between the two of them, they had dinner ready in half an hour and the three of them ate inside at the large kitchen table. It wasn’t long after they finished that Frank Face timed. After a conversation with Mary, instructing her once more to behave, she handed the phone to Fliss who smiled at her man and excused herself for a little while so she could go talk to him in private. He told her they were off to play poker, promised he wouldn’t gamble Bean and Mary’s inheritance away, before he apologetically said he needed to go and promised he would message her later, despite her insistence that he didn’t need to keep checking in.

The siblings and Mary, plus animals migrated to the lounge of the villa as Steve yawned, desperately trying to keep himself awake as long as possible to counteract the time difference between Florida and their home in the North West of England. He ended up helping himself to a healthy shot of Bill’s 12 year old Single Malt as Fliss had an apple juice mixed with lemonade, the 2 of them on the couch, the foot stools of the recliners in front of them whilst Mary led on the rug, playing on her computer.

At one point she let out a snigger, and Fliss looked at her suspiciously.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Frank before told me to stop doing maths and do something else…so I’m googling.” she shrugged.

“Googling what?”

“Random pregnancy facts…did you know the longest pregnancy ever recorded was 375 days?”

“What?” Fliss spluttered “That’s over a year!”

Mary grinned “and the shortest was 21 weeks and four days…both babies survived.”

Steve looked at Fliss, chuckling to himself as he took a drink of his scotch.

“Woah, your heart grows bigger too…” Mary said, “and your blood volume increases by 40-50%. That’s pretty cool.”

“No wonder you get fat…” Steve mused and Fliss picked up a cushion, hitting him in the face with it.

“And your voice can change!” Mary looked up at Fliss “Says here that it can get lower…” she studied her for a second before she nodded “Talk to me…” “What do you want me to say?” Fliss asked, dropping her voice deliberately and Mary shook her head, rolling her eyes.

“You’re doing a Frank…” she sing songed.

“Doing a Frank?” Steve looked at his sister.

“Code for being an idiot.” Fliss smiled.

“You’re 18 weeks right?” Mary continued.

“Yeah”

“It says here that’s the time the baby can hear sounds…but it gets more responsive at 25-26 weeks…” she paused “Have you felt Bean move yet?”

“No.” Fliss shook her head, “but apparently for your first baby it’s not uncommon for you not to feel it until after 20 weeks.”

“Huh, they call it quickening…” Mary mused then she grinned “I can’t wait to feel it kicking you.”

“Gee thanks Stack…” Fliss looked at her as Steve let out a loud laugh

“I bloody love this kid!” he grinned and Mary smiled back.

*****

Saturday flew by. Fliss had lessons all day at the yard, Mary hanging around to help Joanne with various tasks before she herself got to ride Monty. She was now fully walking, trotting and cantering off the line competently, so when she asked Fliss if they could try a little jump, seeing as Frank wasn’t there to shit himself Fliss agreed.

Joanna set the cross poles up, leaving the jump at less than half a foot high, but it was enough for what they wanted to do.

“Ok…so…” Fliss said, nudging the ground pole with her foot. “We’re going to just trot him at this for the time being, so when he steps over this pole you have a count of one before he is going to take off. So you need to stand up… and fold forward slightly, giving him the reins. Show me.” Mary obediently stood up, and Fliss moved to help her adjust her legs so they didn’t fling too far back.

“Ok, good…” Fliss nodded. “Joanna’s gonna lead you over the first few times ok, and if you feel like you’re losing your balance then grab hold of this bit at the bottom of his mane. It won’t hurt him, I promise.” “OK, I’m ready…” Mary nodded.

“Alright…” Fliss said, stepping back. Joanna led Monty away, before they picked up trot and ran at the small jump.

“Get ready to fold!” Fliss instructed Mary, as she approached the pole. Doing exactly as she was told Mary leaned forward as Monty took off from the ground and landed perfectly after the jump. Mary sat back up and looked over her shoulder at the jump then to Fliss who gave her the thumbs up.

“Woah, did you see that?” Mary grinned, and Fliss nodded.

“Sure did!” she laughed. “Go again?”

Mary nodded eagerly and Joanna laughed. “Well done kiddo!”

They repeated this 5 or 6 times more before Fliss asked Mary if she wanted to try on her own. Never one to back down she nodded so Joanne unclipped the line and Mary trotted Monty around in a circle before she came at the jump.

“Ok, sit up and look straight between his ears at where you’re going.” Fliss said “Don’t look down…” Mary approached the jump and Fliss held her breath, but needn’t have bothered. Monty, ever the pro took Mary over the poles easily and stopped a few strides at the other side, Mary letting out an excited yell.

“I did it!”

Fliss gave her a huge smile.

“Can we film it and send it to Frank?”

“Damned straight we can!” Fliss grinned, “Do it again.”

She pulled her phone out, filmed Mary once again jumping and then turned her phone off, slipping into her pocket as Mary rode Monty back over.

“That was amazing!” the little girl was beaming ear to ear.

Fliss nodded “Yeah, it was. You did really well Stack. You wanna walk him off now then and we can feed and go home?” Mary nodded as she turned Monty away to let him walk around the outside of the paddock. With a smile she grabbed her phone and sent the footage to Frank. He replied a few minutes later with a load of wide mouthed emojis accompanied by the words “Jesus Christ, what did I say about keeping all 4 legs on the ground?”

“Oh hush Sailor!” she replied “She loved it. Now don’t forget I want a photo of you and Greg in those suits before you go out.” “Yes ma’am…now by my watch it must be nearly 6pm there. Take Mary and Bean home and get some rest.”

Rolling her eyes she responded about him being bossy to which he replied he was entitled to be as she was carrying his kid. A few more jokey messages were shared before Fliss promised to go home and Frank said he would talk to her later.

They grabbed a pizza on the way back and once more joined Steve for dinner, the 3 of them sitting in Bill’s large cinema room later watching Avengers-Age of Ultron. Before it had finished Fliss fell asleep, to be woken by Steve at the end of the film, Mary laughing at her as she groaned and stretched out.

“Sorry!” she grinned and Steve snorted.

“She falls asleep all the time.” Mary laughed “Frank said the baby is like a parasite, sucking all her energy.”

“A parasite?” Fliss snorted indignantly, her hand falling to her bump “You hear that Bean, that’s your dad saying that. Rude…”

“He isn’t wrong though.” Steve laughed. “Sian used to refer to our two as the bloodsuckers.” Shaking her head Fliss stood up and looked at Mary, “Bed, come on. You’re out with Roberta tomorrow.” “Anywhere nice?” Steve asked Mary.

“Just to the beach.” came the reply. “I haven’t seen her in a while so we’re gonna go watch the surfing competition. Roberta likes the shorts the men wear.”

“Sure she does.” Steve smirked, laughing.

“Some of them are brighter than Frank’s shirts.” Mary mused, causing Steve to laugh harder.

They bid him goodnight, getting ready for bed before Fliss tucked Mary in and went to the spare room. She fell asleep not long after but was woken early Sunday morning with a desperate need to pee. Once sorted she text her phone to find a very drunk text from Frank, declaring he loved her and couldn’t wait for Bean to arrive and for them to get married. She shook her head, glancing at the time, it was almost 4 am meaning it was 1am in Vegas. Smiling as she replied half asleep herself, telling him to maybe think about drinking water instead of any more alcohol, she turned over and closed her eyes.

***** Frank sat dumbfounded, his entire body rigid as the person next to him in the bed let out a sigh, and then a deep groan before a head emerged from under the covers.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Frank exhaled and let out a groan as Simon looked at him “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Well, technically this is my room, jerk.” Simon said, blinking “What year is it?

“You scared the shit out of me.” Frank took a deep breath “I thought…”

“You thought you left with the blonde?” Simon peeked up at him “Nah, man. Mind you, wasn’t for her lack of trying. She was all over you. Eventually you told her to fuck off. You were quite rude actually.” Frank let out a sigh, his head falling back against the head board.

Simon sighed turning over, before he peered under the covers. “For the love of- Frank you’re naked.” “I’m aware of that.” Frank groaned.

“Fucking hell…” Simon grimaced, before he rolled out of bed “I’m going for a pee. Put some clothes on.”

Once Simon was in the bathroom he climbed out of bed, his head still spinning as he found his clothes in a pile on the floor. Shoving on his boxers and shirt he looked around the room to see an empty bottle of Jack Daniels and a pizza box on the table.

“Where the hell did we go?” He asked Simon as he walked back into the room. “Don’t ask me.” Simon looked at him, falling face down on the bed. “I know we took Greg back to your room…”

“We did?”

“Yeah he was wasted.” Simon nodded, rolling over as Frank flopped back on the bed. “He could hardly walk so the bouncers asked us to take him out of the club. We threw him in your room then…we must have gone back out…hang on…”

With a herculean effort, Simon pushed himself up and found his phone. After a brief scan his eyes widened and he snorted.

“Look.”

He turned the phone round to Frank, who saw a selfie of him and Simon in front of a face down Greg in the hotel room. Simon then began to flick through.

“Oh, ok so we went to a liquor store…” he turned the phone round to show Frank a blurry photo of a shop front “Don’t ask me why I took that and oh my god!”

“What?” Simon pressed play and a load of cheering and singing hit their ears as they watched footage of a small man dressed as a leprechaun dancing in the hotel foyer, Frank on his knees in front of him, laughing.

“I literally have no memory of that…at all.” Frank shook his head.

“Looks like we called Bonnie as well…” Simon snorted “If this angry text message that I got at 3 am is anything to go by.”

“Oh fuck…” Frank hastily reached for his phone, which really didn’t have a lot of battery left, and he hastily scanned his calls. There were none to Fliss, but he had sent her a message. According to her reply she’d been up to use the toilet…so that was ok.

His phone illuminated then with 2 messages. One from Fliss asking him if he was hungover, as he deserved to be, and another from Greg asking him where the fuck he was. Deciding to reply to Greg first, as he could picture the man stressing he tapped out a quick reply informing him not to worry, he’d be back at the room as soon as he’d managed to dress himself, which at the moment thanks to his head was proving a little difficult, before he replied to Fliss saying he was indeed hungover and he needed to crawl into a hole and die and as ever, reminded her he loved her.

No sooner had he sent it, she was calling him.

“That was quick…” he mumbled, before answering it. “Hey honey…” “So, wanna tell me exactly where and what you were doing that requires you to get dressed before you go back to the room?” her voice was steely.

Shit. He had sent the messages to the wrong people.

“Lissy, it’s not what you think…” he instantly began.

“Oh, you have no IDEA what I’m thinking!” her voice grew louder

“No, listen…I’m with Simon…” he chuckled.

“You think this is funny?” she sniffed and Frank grimaced.

“Baby, stop.” he sighed “Look, we ended up back at his room and I passed out here. That message was meant for Greg as he was asking me where I was. Instead he now has a message saying I’m hungover to fuck and that I love him.”

She was silent and he could hear her on the other end of the line rustling something before she spoke again in a quiet voice “So you weren’t with anyone else?”

“No, Sweetheart I wasn’t. Why would I want to be huh? Most beautiful girl in the world waiting for me at home.” At that Simon let out a retching noise “God you make me want to puke Adler.” “Oh fuck off Si you dick.” he shot back.

“Hey Fliss…” Simon leaned over to speak down the phone, grabbing Frank’s wrist to stop him moving it. “Now you, Bonnie and me have all seen Frank nekkid...”

“I swear to God I’m gonna punch you in a minute…” Frank mumbled, jerking his arm out of Simon’s reach and pushing him so hard he rolled over and fell off the side of the bed. Frank let out a laugh as Simon groaned and a hand appeared in the air, flipping him off.

“He knows about you and Bonnie?”

“Apparently so.” Frank mused

Fliss snorted “So anything else you wanna tell me about what you got up to? Other than naked spooning Si?”

Frank laughed “We found a dancing leprechaun.”

“A dancing leprechaun?” “Yeah, in the hotel somewhere.”

“Standard.” she giggled “So, are you ready to come home now you’ve spent the last few days acting like overgrown frat boys?

“Yes, I’m more than ready to leave Aldrich Whitaker behind”

“Who the fuck is that?”

“My alter ego for last night. He’s a trust fund ass hole…” Frank grinned.

There was a pause before she replied, snorting “Whatever.”

At that point his phone gave him a bleep to tell him he was dangerously low on battery power. “Look, baby, my phones gonna die. I’ll call you when I get it charged ok?”

“Yeah, sure, hey Frankie…sorry I jumped to conclusions.” she said softly.

“It’s ok” he laughed “I’m not surprised after that message.”

“Yeah but still…” she paused “Can I blame the hormones?”

“If you want.”

“In that case it was totally them.”

He chucked “Ok. Anyway, hormones or not, I love you.”

“Love you too sailor”

With that his phone cut off and he glanced down at it, the screen blank as the power had gone. He dropped it on the bed, before leaning back again, his hand against his forehead.

“I’m NEVER coming to Vegas again”

“Oh you not fancy it for your Batchelor party then? Simon teased as he threw Frank a bottle of water from the mini bar.”

“The fuck I do.” Frank shook his head.

*****

“I’d like to say I’m surprised but…” Bonnie shrugged as Fliss snorted, taking a drink of her apple juice from the carton as they walked back to their cars in the setting sun. They’d had dinner at one of the beach bars and stayed simply chatting for half an hour or so, but now Fliss was now ready to head home, shower and bunker down for the rest of the evening until Frank came home.

“I knew he’d end up paralytic.” Fliss said, watching as Mary wandered back towards them, huge ice cream in her hand. “Ok, Stack that’s bigger than your head.”

Mary shrugged, handing Fliss her change “It’s good though.” “Mint choc chip?”

“Yup.” she grinned, taking a huge lick. “When’s Frank back?”

“He lands into Tampa in about 4 hours.” Fliss looked at her “Why, you fed up of me already?”

“No, just thinking how peaceful it’s been without him annoying me.”

Fliss grinned and Bonnie gave a chuckle.

“Hey, did you tell Bonnie about you jumping Monty?” Fliss asked.

“Oh, no…” Mary turned to the woman, enthusiastically telling her all about it as Bonnie listened, Fliss walking alongside them, her hand rubbing her bump. She was just thinking about how nice a nap would be right then when Bonnie’s phone went.

“Sorry Mary…” she said, frowning at the number. “Hey, Lisa?” Fliss attention turned to Bonnie and she watched carefully as she spoke to Jake’s fiancé, her eyes flicked to her “No, no why…what’s…oh, ok…yeah…”

She cancelled the phone call and instantly tapped at the screen.

“Everything ok?” Fliss frowned.

“Yeah, I just need to check something.” she said. Fliss glanced at Mary who looked at her, shrugging.

“Here…” Fliss handed her the keys to the jeep “Go open the car…” “You know if you want me out of the way just ask.” Mary rolled her eyes.

“Ok I want you out of the way.” Fliss looked down at her. Mary snorted and took the keys, wandering off the 50 yards or so to the jeep. Fliss watched her climb in the back, the door staying open and her legs dangling out of the side. “Bonnie what is it?”

“Nothing…” Bonnie said, far too quickly as she looked up at Fliss. Fliss frowned.

“Bonnie…”

“Honestly, it’s nothing, just something Lisa told me about on facebook so…” Bonnie stuttered slightly so Fliss narrowed her eyes.

“Stop bullshitting.” Fliss said, holding her gaze “What the fuck’s going on?”

“Look, I’m sure it’s not what it seems…” Bonnie sighed, holding out her phone. At those words Fliss felt her heart sink as it could only mean one thing, and she took the phone with a tentative hand. She looked down at it and could see that it was a photo and from the logo in the bottom right hand corner it was from the official club page that the boys had been in on Saturday night.

It showed Jake, Greg, Simon, and a few others that Fliss didn’t recognise but that wasn’t what Bonnie had been referring to. What she had been talking about, as Fliss could clearly see was the background of the shot, which showed Frank with a blonde woman. Her arms were round his neck, his hand was resting on her lower back and their faces inches apart.

“Like I said, I’m sure there’s an innocent explanation…” Bonnie said, but Fliss wasn’t listening. She was busy flicking through the other photos and then she came across another of Frank, the same girl perched on his knee.

She felt sick.

“Sure, perfectly innocent…” Fliss swallowed, handing the phone back to Bonnie, her voice sounding detached. Bonnie looked down at the snap now displayed on the screen and she took a deep breath.

“Look, Fliss, Frank loves you…he was probably just drunk and…” “Touching up some whore that’s sat on his lap.” Fliss shook her head “Save it Bonnie, I gotta go.” “Fliss…”

Fliss turned away from her, the tears stinging her eyes as she headed to the jeep. Taking a deep breath she wiped her eyes, climbing into the driver’s seat.

“Are you ok?” Mary looked at her.

“Yeah, fine…just tired and hormonal.” Fliss shot her a smile.

“We can watch a film when we get back.” Mary suggested “Just chill out?”

“Yeah, yeah we can.” Fliss trying to quell the sick feeling in her stomach that had nothing to do with Bean.

Had Frank really cheated on her? She would never in a million years thought he had it in him to be unfaithful, and she was desperate to believe Bonnie, that there was some perfectly innocent explanation for it all. And maybe, just maybe with the first one she could. It could have been taken at a bad moment, when they were just talking to one another, Frank being friendly…but then again why would they have their arms round one another. And as for the second one…the same girl was sat on his fucking lap with her arm looped round his shoulder.

And he looked perfectly comfortable with it.

She rubbed her bump again and Mary looked at her. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine sweetheart.” she nodded, painting a smile on her face before turning the key in the ignition. “Let’s go home.”

******

Frank sighed as they all trudged through the arrivals lounge, rubbing his eyes. He was ready for a shower and collapse next to his girl, he felt like he had aged a decade over the last 3 days. The rest of them looked just as bad as they headed to the waiting car, Simon’s phone reminding Frank he needed to turn his on to.

“Oh, shit…” he heard Simon groan “No, that’s not…he didn’t…I swear…”

He glanced at Frank who stood still, watching and leaning on the door frame, his own phone in his hand as it started up.

“Yeah, ok…love you…see you soon.” Simon swallowed and cut the call looking at Frank.

“What is it?” Frank looked at him, a cold feeling washing over him “Has something happened to Lissy or Mary? Or the baby, please tell me no…” “No, nothing like that but you need to call Fliss.” he said, “Frank, there’s photos of you and that blonde chick on the club facebook page. Someone tagged me and Greg in them, Lisa saw them and Bonnie and…” “Photos of what?” Frank frowned “I didn’t do anything…” “There’s a photo that makes it look like you are…and one of her on your lap.” Simon said and Frank swallowed, his stomach churning.

“Oh fuck…”

“Just get in the car.” Greg said, looking at him from where he stood at the other side. “Call her on the way, we’ll back you up…it’s a misunderstanding…”

“Yeah, it’ll be fine…” Jake assured him.

But it wasn’t fine, because no matter how much he tried, or how many messages he sent her, she wasn’t picking up or replying and when he saw the photos, and had to admit…they looked pretty bad, he could understand her being pissed. He would be if it was the other way round. The drive home seemed to take forever, and when the car finally rounded the corner onto Frank’s road they all offered to come in as well and help him explain, but he shook his head, knowing full well if he did that she would feel backed into a corner. No, this was his own dumbass fault. He’d face up to it and talk to her, make her understand how he’d told the girl to back off…she’d listen, she was reasonable.

The house was quiet when he entered and he walked through to the lounge where Fliss was sat on the sofa, her knees bent up besides her. She glanced over the back of the couch and he could see she had been crying, which made him feel like even more of bastard than he did already.

“Lissy, honey, I swear…” “You know, when I asked if there was anything you wanted to tell me, maybe I should have asked if there was something you should be telling me” she said, uncurling her legs and standing up. Thor’s ears pricked up from where he had been laying on the rug.

“Listen, those photos…they’re not…” he shook his head “I told her to get lost, honestly I swear…”

He moved towards her, his hands dropping to her hips but she pushed him hard in the chest, stepping back.

“Don’t touch me...I don’t want you anywhere near me.” she said quietly

“Sweetheart, I swear to God…”

“I don’t wanna hear it Frank.” she sniffed walking past him. “Where are you going?” he asked, “Lissy, you can’t leave…please, sweetheart…” “I’m going to bed, but let’s get one thing straight. The only reason I’m not screaming at you right now and storming out, slamming the door behind me is because of Mary.” she spoke calmly, too calmly for the anger which was radiating out of every inch of her body. She looked at Frank, her eyes watering as she shook her head, turning away “You can take the couch.”

“Lissy…” “Frank…just…stop.” she said, her voice cracking, and with that she left the room, Thor trotting behind, the bedroom door clicking behind her.

Frank stood, rooted to the spot, debating whether or not to follow her, before he decided not to. The last thing he wanted was to anger her that much she stormed out, or worse, she got so stressed something happened to the baby. No, she’d set the boundaries so he decided to respect them, and turned instead to the couch, sinking down onto the cushions his head in his hands.

She was angry, upset and she had the right to be and like he had said in the car, in her position he knew he would feel the same. She needed to sleep, calm down enough so that they could talk and he could explain, get her to listen to him. And then she’d see that it was a huge misunderstanding, even if she remained pissed at him for having the girl so close in the first place, which, ok, he shouldn’t have done but fuck…the thought of cheating hadn’t entered his mind, not once.

He swung his legs up, rubbing his face over his hands. She’d believe him. She had to, because if she didn’t, he had no idea what the fuck he was gonna do.

[karlz777]

Cruel World

Chapter 1

Summary: Angelina was an ex-HYDRA experiment. She never trusts anyone. The avengers want her to be part of their team, but she is scared for her life. But she can’t keep her eyes away from a certain super soldier.

Soulmate a/u

Characters:

-    Angelina Cameron (O/C)

-    Steve Rogers

-    Marvel Characters (Tony, Natasha etc...)

Warnings: gore, very discriptive bloody scenes, maybe future smut, I would perfer if you were 18+ to read this

My cell door slammed against the wall loudly awaking me from my light sleep.

         “Get up,” Jake demanded.

         I tried to get up as quickly as I could, but he had beat me everywhere on my body the day before. For him it was too slow because he came over and yanked me up by my hair. I yelled loudly as he walked me into the hallway.

         “You could’ve done it faster, but you didn’t,” He sneered smiling darkly at me.

         We kept walking over to the room where he normally experiments on me and he pushed me onto the table. He strapped my arms and legs down so I could move or fight back.

         “You know, if you hadn’t tried to leave me all those years ago, we would probably be happily married with 2 adorable little kids and the white picket fence house in the suburbs, but you just had to run to your little Captain America,” He mocked. He says this almost every day right before he starts just to taunt me.

         “I just wanted to know if he was my soulmate. That’s the only reason,” I quietly said to him.

         “And if he had been your soulmate, you would’ve left me for good!” He yelled in my face, “Now you can’t leave because I own you.”

         He stepped over to his table of tools, but he calls them toys, and picked up his favorite knife.

         Walking back over to me he started swinging it around, “You know I’m actually really happy that your powers didn’t come with fast healing cause now you have all of the scars to remember me by. You can never escape me Angelina.”

         He slices the knife down my left forearm. I want to scream so badly but I hold it in because that just gives him the satisfaction. If I scream, he knows he has all the power. I always try my hardest not to scream everyday but eventually they slip out with him.

         My eyes started turning blue the more he sliced my arm. When I’m in pain, sad, scared or upset my water/ice powers come out. When I’m angry fire comes out. For earth, it’s when I think of my favorite things or when I’m happy. For air, its normally when I’m just thinking around in my head.

         Jake had moved down to my legs now. All I was wearing was a t-shirt and a pair of small shorts, almost like boxers. As soon as he had sliced my inner thigh, I screamed.

         “There we go. I’ve been waiting for that,” he smiled like a madman. He went to cut me again but then an alarm started going off, “What the hell is going on?!” he yelled at the two guards stationed at the door.

         Both of the guards looked at each other looking very scared. Jake had become one of HYDRA’s best scientists, but he was also very feared in HYDRA. He was ruthless. He got what he wanted tearing anyone down if he had to. Right now, we were in one of the most hidden and secured HYDRA bases because if they lost him, they’d lose all his work that he has done to help them.

         “Do I always have to find out everything myself?” he set his knife down and made his way to the door, “Make sure she stays there. No body move her. I’m not finished with her.”

         As he started walking out o the door my vision got blurry. My vision kept going in and out. My throat felt like sandpaper.

         “Water. I need water,” I mumbled to the guards.

         They barely spared me a glance. I was losing a lot of blood from all the cuts on my body. In my mind I was thinking, this is it. This is when I die. I’ll be free of him.

         My vision, still going in and out, caught sight of a bunch of guards running past the room.

         Jake ran back into the room with a very pissed off look, “Well the almighty Avengers have came to take us down. But you’re coming with me.”

         He moved to remove me from the table. Tears slipping down my face. As he finished undoing my legs a loud explosion very close went off.

         He looked towards the door then back down at me, “I won’t be able to get you out in time,” He caressed the side of my face grabbing his knife again, “but if they do take you, I’ll find you again and we’ll be together forever.”

         He stabbed my right shoulder and I screamed. He leaned down to kiss my forehead once I had finished screaming in pain, “I will see you again.” He ran out of the room turning the opposite corner that the explosion came from.

         I looked up at bright light above me and waited. Waited for it to end. My eyes continued to open and close. My eyelids felt so heavy. I let them close thinking it was the end. The world around me going black and I smiled.

Goodbye Steve.

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

-3rd persons pov-

The Avenger had finally all gotten into the HYDRA base. They had taken down most of the soldiers now they were just picking off the rest of them. Natasha was working on downloading all of their files and intel.

Clint was on the roof of the building keeping an eye on outside.

Bruce was still in the quinjet incase they needed him for a code green, but it looked like they wouldn’t need him for this mission.

Thor, Steve, and Bucky were all outside on the ground taking care of the rest of the HYDRA soldiers incase they tied to escape.

Sam was flying around looking for anyone who could escape from the three men outside.

Tony was checking the rest of the rooms to make sure no one was hiding or see if could find their weapons room to confiscate everything.

“Guys, I don’t think this is where they hid weapons,” Natasha said through the comms.

“Yeah I don’t think so either. There way too many prison units in this building,” Tony commented back, “But all of these cells are empty.

“What was this base for?” Clint said but he really only meant to ask himself that.

“Illegal human experimenting?” Steve asked Nat.

“Yep, all the files are over their experiments but most of the people they did experiment on didn’t survive,” Nat said reading through all the files being downloaded onto her flash drive.

“I’m checking all of the rooms right now for survivors. I’ll keep you guys updated if I find anything,” Tony said walking down a long hallway, both sides lined with empty cells.

At the end of the hallway he saw a door that was cracked open. It was different than the cell doors, so he guys either a weapons room or experiment room. He slowly opened the door with his hand blaster ready, but all he saw was a girl laying on the table.

He rushed over to her, “FRIDAY read vitals.”

“Heartbeat detected but she has lost a lot of blood. She needs immediate medical attention,” FRIDAY informed him.

“Guys, there’s a girl here that needs medical help. I’m going to fly her over to Bruce,” he undid the straps on her arms and picked her up in his metal arms.

“A girl? Who is she? Is she a HYDRA agent?” Steve asked.

“I highly doubt it. She looks like one of their experiments but she’s losing a lot of blood,” he took off out of the building.

The girl stirred in his arms groaning in pain, “Hey you’re alright. I’m gonna help you.”

She barely opened her eyes looking at the metal man, “You’re Mr. Stark.”

“I am Tony Stark, what’s your name?” he said trying to keep her awake.

“Mr. Stark please tell Captain Rogers--,” She trailed off losing consciousness. Tony looked at her confused about what she was going to say next. What does she want with Steve? He thought.

He flew faster then landed next to the quinjet, “Bruce she needs your help now. She’s lost too much blood, but I didn’t take the knife out cause she would’ve died.”

Bruce immediately got to work and grabbed what he needed. Tony laid her on one of the cots they brought for if things like this happened. He stepped out of his Ironman suit and started to help Bruce.

Five minutes later the team had returned to the quinjet. Bruce had gotten the bleeding to stop but she would probably need surgery for the knife still in her arm.

“Clint, I need you to get us home fast. Dr. Cho is going to be waiting for us when we get there because of this girl, But I need you to fly fast or she won’t make it,” Tony said quickly to Clint.

Clint nodded and made sure everyone was in so he could take off. Steve walked over to Tony to make sure he was okay but then he caught a glimpse of the girl. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her, “Who is she?”

“She didn’t tell me her name, but she did try to tell me something,” Tony’s brows came together in confusion trying to figure out what she was going to say.

“What did she say Tony?” Steve crossed his arms taking a couple glances at the girl.

“She said and I quote ‘please tell Captain Rogers’ but then she passed out and didn’t finish,” He stared at the ground trying to figure it out, “Does she have a name on her body? Maybe we can contact them.”

Everyone looked at Bruce, “It’s normally under the left collar bone but I didn’t look because I was a little preoccupied.”

Everyone still stared at him. He was looking down at the girl but when he looked up, he saw everyone looking at him expectantly, “I’m not gonna look. That’s an invasion of privacy,” He threw his hands up.

“You all are such big babies,” Natasha rolled her eyes and walked over to the girl. She slowly pulled down her shirt and Tony walked over to also see.

Both of their eyes went wide looking at the name written under her collar bone. They turned towards each other gulping.

“Umm Cap,” Nat looked back to him, “You’re going to want to see this.”

Steve gulped, very nervous, he walked over to the girl. Natasha was still holding her shirt down so you could see the name. He looked at the cursive name under her collar bone and his eyes went wide.

His name sat upon her skin.

Steven Grant Rogers

His knees felt like jelly. He kept starring at the marks on her skin, “How is this possible? I thought I would’ve had a soulmate back in the 40’s I just never had the chance to meet her. Not a soulmate from this century.”

“I mean it’s not impossible. You got a second chance at life and somehow you guys are together now. I guess everything does happen for a reason,” Sam clapped his shoulder.

Steve could barely process it. He had thought he lost his chance to have a soulmate, but she was laying in front of him. He sat down next to her bed and took her hand carefully, “How much longer till we get to the compound?”

“About 5 minutes Cap,” Clint yelled back to him.

He swore, in that moment, that he couldn’t lose her. He finally had her. His true soulmate.

[dreamwritesimagines]

Don’t You Love Me? 14- Twisted [Steve Rogers x Reader]

A.N.: Your feedback makes me so happy and helps me write faster, please keep it coming! <3

Characters: Steve Rogers x Reader, Tony Stark x Pepper Potts, Bucky Barnes, Natasha Romanoff.

Warnings: Drinking, mentions of addiction, self destructive behavior, cussing, explicit language, mentions of sex. Read with care please.

Summary: Sometimes, gifts aren’t welcomed.

Word Count: 2642

Chapters:

1         2       3       4       5       6     7         8       9        10     11   12   13

The beautiful moodboard is made by fictionwillneverdie

Gif’s not mine!

You filled yourself some coffee from Tony’s coffee machine, trying to wake up. The last couple of days had been tough, especially after your talk with Bucky. So far, Trent had been silent and you couldn’t decide whether that was a good thing or a bad thing but one thing was for sure, it meant he was planning something.

HYDRA was planning something.

“You can’t ask me that.” Bucky shook his head, “You- Y/N, you don’t even-“

“Bucky, if HYDRA uses me,” You cut him off, “Or if they get to… if they get to something that I know, the world will be a very different place. Not in a good way.”

Bucky shook his head fervently, “There will be a solution.”

“You of all people know how bad they get.”

“Doesn’t matter. I won’t do that to you, or Steve,” he paused, “Or myself.”

You were pulled out of your thoughts when you felt a pair of arms sneaking around your waist and Steve’s cologne filled your nostrils, making you smile almost automatically and lean back to his chest.

“Hey there.”

“Hey.” Steve pressed a kiss on the top of your head, “Penny for your thoughts?”

You turned around with the cup in your hands, looking up at him. He still looked sleepy, considering almost all of you were staying at the Tower for a couple of days just in case an emergency happened, not that you were complaining.

Especially with moments like these.

“Oh nothing,” You shrugged, “I was just trying to make a mental list, I have a lot to do today.”

“Like what?”

“I gotta meet Jake,” You shrugged, “He said he wanted to see me and for some reason, he couldn’t tell me on the phone.”

Steve frowned, “Why not?”

“Wouldn’t know. Then I gotta come back and do more research on Trent, maybe something escaped our notice-“

“You’ve barely slept for the last two days.”

“Ruining Trent is more important.”

“No, it really isn’t.” Steve said, his eyes intense on you, “Can I come with you?”

“To Jake?”

“Yeah.”

You scoffed, “Sure but why?”

Steve shrugged, “Just in case,” he said, “We don’t know how far HYDRA goes.”

“I’m pretty sure HYDRA doesn’t employ bartenders, capcake.” You grinned, “It’s cute though, this whole thing.”

“What whole thing?”

“Secret jealousy thing.” You motioned at him and he had the audacity to look confused.

“I’m not jealous.”

“Threatened?”

“No.”

“Sensitive?”

“Sensitive?!”

“Who’s sensitive?” Bucky asked, as soon as he walked in, “Or do I want to know?”

You leaned sideways to look at Bucky around Steve’s arm, “I’m meeting Jake and Steve is being weird about it.”

“I’m not being weird-“

“Jake, the bartender who you used to hook up with?”

“Once!” You pointed out, “Just once and it wasn’t even that good, so no reason to feel threatened.”

“I don’t feel threatened,” Steve announced, “Just in case anyone is listening to what I’m saying here.”

“We always listen to what you say, Stevie.”

“Yeah capcake, you’re the boss.” You winked at him and Tony walked in,

“Please tell me you didn’t finish all the coffee.”

You heaved a sigh, and walked towards the counter, “You’re a fucking billionaire Tony, why don’t you have two machines?”

Tony grinned and stole a look at Steve, “Language.”

Steve shook his head, “That will never go away, will it?”

“Not really.” You yawned, “I’m leaving in half an hour, meet you here?”

Steve nodded and you walked past them, then made your way to your room.

                                       *

“You know,” Jake said as he sat down across from you, “The whole point of having a cellphone is to be able to reach people.” He turned to Steve and nodded at him, respectfully. “Captain Rogers.”

“Hi Jake.” Steve greeted him and you shook your head slightly.

“I’ve been busy.”

“I could tell,” he motioned between you two, “So… Should I say congratulations?”

“Or curse my whole existence because you also wanted to hook up with him.”

Jake thought for a second, “Oh yeah, let me know if you ever need to spice it up.”

“You can’t handle one person, let alone two people.”

Jake clutched at his chest while Steve gawked at you two, “My emotions.”

“Oh wow, you still have those?”

Jake’s lips turned upwards, “Listen, two men came in the other day.”

“TMI, Jake-“

“Asking about you,” he cut you off, “They had suits on, and looked very… sort of like an army?”

Steve sat up straighter, “An army?”

“Yeah like one of those- private army types.”

Your heart skipped a beat, “Can you describe their faces?”

“I can show you their faces,” Jake reached into his pocket “I took their photos pretending to text.”

You raised your brows and took the phone from him, and your stomach flipped. Even if it’s been years since you had last seen them, you could still recognize Trent’s bodyguards –which you had commented weren’t necessary, but Trent had said you could never be too careful.

“You know them?” Steve asked and you hesitated only for a second before you shook your head.

“No,” you lied through your teeth, “No idea.”

Knowing Steve, the minute he found out you knew them, he’d want to track them down and-

There was no way you’d ever let him put himself in harm’s way.

Put himself in Trent’s way.

“What did they ask?” Steve turned to Jake, who thought for a second.

“Whether I knew her or not, and if she- if she hangs around here a lot.”

Of course Trent would put a tail on you. Of fucking course.

“What did you say?” you asked and Jake shrugged,

“I said I never heard from you after that one night stand.”

Steve shifted in his seat beside you and Jake cleared his throat.

“I figured they already knew, so I had to make it sound convincing.”

“Yeah.” You nodded and ran a hand over your face, “Sorry about that man, I never wanted to drag you into this.”

“Oh I’ve been through worse.”

“No, you really haven’t.” You said silently as Steve reached out to entwine his fingers with yours, as if trying to assure you everything was fine. Jake averted his eyes and turned to you,

“What do you want me to do if they come back, Y/N?”

“Stay somewhere crowded,” You said, “Make sure people see you’re talking to them. And call me.”

He nodded, and stood up, “I’d better get back to work.” He said, “Captain.”

“Jake.”

With that, Jake walked away and you ran your fingernails on the smooth surface of the table.

“Trent?”

“HYDRA,” you said, and shook your head, “Same thing.”

“Hey,” Steve said, gently tilting your head up “Come on. We already knew he would try something like this.”

“We didn’t know he’d have me followed.”

Steve gave you a small, assuring smile, “I meant what I said, Y/N. No matter what he does, he will never get to you.”

You tried to blink the tears back, “I need a drink,” you said silently, then pulled back, “And a smoke.”

“Y/N…”

“Then we gotta go back to the Tower and never speak of it again.”

                                           *

But you couldn’t go to the Tower that afternoon. Fury had texted Steve, saying that all the Avengers were called into another meeting at SHIELD, so you figured you’d get some of your equipment from your desk to move them to Avengers Tower. In addition to that, rookie agents still managed to look pretty star-struck by Captain America, and some of them even came up to talk to him while you were grabbing stuff from your desk, while Bucky, Natasha and others waited at Fury’s office.

“Y/N!” Eddie, another agent approached you and handed you a file, “You need to go through this one.”

You frowned, “Fury was supposed to sign them already.”

“Yeah, Fury was busy with Alexander Pierce, head of the Council, and Pierce is seeing Wilson Fisk, so Fury said you’re supposed to-“

“What?” You interrupted him, the name having the same affect on you as an ice cold shower, “Wilson Fisk?”

“Yeah, he’s supposed to be this big shot, huge businessman.” He handed you the file, “Just get it back to me before you leave, alright?”

You could feel your heartbeat getting faster as Steve got rid of agents asking him questions, then approached you.

“You’re done?”

“HYDRA is here.” You managed to say, through frozen lips.

Steve’s brows pulled into a frown, “What?”

“Come- just come with me.” You said as you walked out of the office, then made your way to Fury’s office and opened the door without knocking, taking everyone by surprise.

“You let him bring the HYDRA here?” you asked Fury, ignoring Bucky, Tony and Natasha’s glances and Fury raised his brows,

“What?”

“Wilson Fisk is here right now?”

A look of realization crossed Fury’s face, “Pierce says there’s no actual evidence. The whole Council thinks that.”

“Pierce is wrong, so is the whole Council.” You tried to keep your calm, but the whole day was taking its toll on you. The anger and fear you had tried your hardest to suppress was boiling in the pit of your stomach and Steve crossed his arms.

“There’s a HYDRA agent in here?”

“Not an agent. Money donor.”

“The whole room is under surveillance, Captain. And I’m baiting him-“

“He’s one of the biggest names doing business with-“ You turned to Steve, “Can you hold him down while I punch his lights out?”

“Steve-”

“Yeah, where is he now?”

“Jesus Christ, there’s two of them now,” Bucky shook his head as Fury interfered,

“If we can get his trust, he might lead us back to HYDRA. And Von Struckers. I don’t give a fuck what the Council says, he can’t be trusted and if we track him and his finances down…”

“Does Pierce know about that plan then?” Tony asked and Natasha scoffed.

“That man doesn’t know shit.”

Fisk.

He was one of the most important businessmen that did business with Trent, and by extension, HYDRA. While you could find no record of him actively working in it, he still gave them money. You had even met him multiple times when you were still with Trent, and he had always given you creeps. It was as if even back then, you had known something was wrong with him, and his whole attitude.

Just remembering it made you feel like someone had knocked your breath out of your chest and you ran a hand over your face, then left Fury’s room to get to the nearest balcony, Steve darting after you. You walked to the edge of the balcony to hold onto the steel rails and closed your eyes, taking a deep breath.

“Fuck this shit…” You muttered as Steve squeezed your shoulder, pulling you closer to him and pressed a kiss to the top of your head, making you heave a sigh, tension on your body getting less and less with his touch.

“Fury has a point.” he muttered into your hair, and you pulled back to look up at him. “We will get Fisk too, we just- we need to get to Von Struckers first.”

“Both of them are extremely careful, Steve.” You said, “That’s not how it works.”

“We will take them down, doll. One by one.”

You opened your mouth, but were distracted when someone opened the door to balcony and all your blood ran cold.

Fisk took a step inside the balcony, then smiled at you.

“Y/N.” he turned to Steve, “Hello, Captain.”

If looks could kill, you were sure Fisk would drop dead by now because of Steve’s glare on him.

“Wilson Fisk, I presume?”

“It’s an honor,” he had the audacity to say, “You weren’t around when I got here, Y/N. I was wondering where you were.”

Jesus Christ, you really needed a huge bottle of whiskey right now.

“You should go.” Steve offered, but his voice was anything but polite. “Now.”

“I got it, it’s fine,” You muttered to Steve, and crossed your arms, “Why were you looking for me, asshole?”

Fisk shrugged, “To give my condolences, about your…” he clicked his tongue, “Divorce? Or do you call it a break?”

“I’ll break your whole face if you keep talking.”

He looked around, “You know you don’t have to work in SHIELD, right? If you’re doing freelance, we could make use of you in my company.”

You raised your brows, “Me?”

“Yeah.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

Fisk looked almost taken aback for a second before he turned to Steve, “Captain-“

“What my girlfriend said.” Steve’s voice was like a whip and Fisk nodded slowly, then reached inside his jacket, making Steve push you behind him almost automatically. Fisk paused and raised his hand, mocking surrender.

“I’m just a businessman, Mr. Rogers.”

“Yeah and Hannibal Lecter was just a doctor.” You said, as he pulled out a small box with a ribbon on it.

“Our mutual friend sent you this.” He held it out but when neither you, nor Steve moved, he put it down to the floor, “It’s nice to see you again, Y/N.”

With that, he walked away and you grabbed the box, then lifted the lid slightly just enough to peek inside.

“What is it?”

You closed the lid, and heaved a sigh.

“A flash drive.” You said, “Come on. We can’t check it here, it’s not safe.”

“Tower?”

“Yeah,” You nibbled on your lip, “Tower.”

                                     *

Tony gave you a disposable, old laptop as soon as you got to the Tower. While you were sure that there was no way Trent or anyone who worked for him could come up with a virus that would go undetected by your systems, like Tony had said, it was better to be safe.

“It’s like twelve days of Christmas, but an evil version,” Tony commented as you switched the laptop on. Bucky and Steve were talking in low voices at the corner of the room, and Natasha was by your side, eyeing the flash drive.

“You’re sure it’s safe?”

“I’ll get rid of the laptop as soon as we see what’s inside.” You nodded, “Yeah, it should be safe.”

“And there are no files in it.”

“That too.” You opened the box, and a paper stuck on the lid that you had missed before dropped to your lap. You opened the folded paper, the simple writing making you frown.

Don’t do what she told you to do, or else you will regret it.

“You ready?” Tony asked as he plugged the flash drive in and you nodded, then he clicked on the clip after Steve and Bucky approached you.

There was a man strapped to a chair while three other men surrounded him and when the vision got clearer you held your breath, jumping on your feet.

It was Bucky. Strapped to the chair.

HYDRA days.

One of the men pushed a button, making Bucky’s whole body spasm and you slammed the laptop lid shut, your heart beating in your throat.

“Bucky, I’m so sorry-“ You turned to him while he stared at the laptop, then tried to pull himself together.

“Where did he get that footage?” he asked in a whisper and you shook your head, trying to make sense of-

You looked down at the paper, then your eyes snapped up at Bucky, your brain working nonstop.

Don’t do what she told you to do.

The thought hit you like a ton of bricks and Tony opened his mouth but you put your index finger on your lips, signaling him to be silent, then turned the paper over and grabbed a pen, then held up the paper after you finished writing.

Tower is bugged. No one say anything.

There was a moment of silence, all of you staring at each other before Tony heaved a sigh.

“Oh fuck.”

Chapter 15 is here! 

A.N: Now repeat after me: I’ll leave feedback because Dream loves feedback! ❤️ 😂  

Special thanks go to:  @theskytraveler @asongofmarvelanddc @thorohdamnson @girlwhoisfearless @fictionwillneverdie @lilywoood @marss-anonymous @icameforthefanfiction @pandalandalopalis @barnesrogersvstheworld   @lostkizzy @reallyconfusednow @miss-jen-winter @dollbitxhes @fandomcrazie @aikeji @dans-les-details @evanstar @thatprofessionalfangirl @minuialeth75 @leviathan-luncher @kiwngsoo @myrabbitholetoneverland @itsyaboyo @avengemebuckyy @stargeek727  @superwolfchild-fan  @loricwizardbluetoastedcake  @marauderskeeper @whogaveuspermission @thewhinersoldier@iamthemaskhewears @whatiswrongwithpeople @mischievous-fairy @agent-smoak @kimmiestrawberrykiwi @local-space-ace @iwritetoavoidmyproblems @marvels-mistress @screamimalive @probablystarlord @love-for-fanfics @nightm1me  @fandomsfitblrsandfanfics @cleargoopangelvoid  @901seconds @part-time-patronus  @zlixlle @vikrone @justthewinterstarlord @brianna-soto @delusional-of-love and lovely anons! Without you, I wouldn’t be able to write this, you’re amazing! <3

[jenmedsbookreviews]

Well here is a special lady who really requires no introduction (but I’m going to anyway as this is how these things work.) I only have the fabulous Noelle Holten aka Crimebookjunkie stopping by to share all of her book love confessions. Now for the off few of you who don’t already know Noelle, here’s a little bit more about her.

About Noelle

My name is Noelle and I am in my mid-40’s. I am an avid reader and by that I mean I am never without a book! By day I am PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, and by night I read all things crime!! My fascination for books started at a young age and I truly feel withdrawal symptoms if I am unable to read for a few days hence the name #crimebookjunkie! I am interested in many genres, my faves being Grit Lit, psychological thrillers and all things murder. I do enjoy Police Procedurals and legal/action thrillers as well. I tend to keep away from Chick Lit and Erotica…however, if forced at gun point I may give just about anything a read…except Erotica!  I would rather die…..

You can follow Noelle at the following links:

Twitter | Facebook | Website

Childhood Sweetheart Favourite book from childhood

My favourite book from childhood has to be The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis.  I loved the idea of finding a secret world through a wardrobe and all the adventures the children found themselves in.

First love The first book you fell in love with

This is a tough one.  I think Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier – I was probably one of the few students who actually enjoyed reading this as it didn’t feel like homework.

Biggest book crush The book character you’re totally in love with

No! No! No! – I cannot choose just one.  I am a bit of a #BookBoyFriendWhore and have fallen in love with so many – John Cooper from Paul Grzegorzek’s But For The Grace of God, Mark Baines from Stephen Edger’s series of the same name, Jake Boulder from Graham Smith’s Watching The Bodies – and I’m also partial to DI Harry Evans in Mr Smith’s other series….but we won’t tell them! Kenny O’Neill in Michael J Malone’s books, Davie McCall in Douglas Skelton’s books…Washington Poe from Mike Craven’s yet to be released series…. Eddie Flynn from Steve Cavanagh’s books…Lennox from Craig Russell’s series…..see….I am so bad!  You have to stop me!

Weirdest book crush Well… duh

Do I have to say? Hmmm…I guess it would have to be Marcie Steele’s (Mel Sherratt) That’s What Friends Are For….I know…a totally feel good GIRLY book!  WTAF?  But if you tell anyone, I just may have to kill you….

Hardest break up The book you didn’t want to end

But For The Grace of God by Paul Grzegorzek – I LOVE this book and I am still waiting for the next one….I NEED John Cooper back in my life!

The one that got away The book in your TBR or wish list that you regret not having started yet.

There are SO many!  I am desperate to read Rattle by Fiona Cummings.  I have heard great things and it is sitting ever so patiently, waiting for me – I hope to get to it soon.

Secret love Guilty Reading pleasure

I absolutely adore the Bridget Jones’ series by Helen Fielding and I am not ashamed to say that at all!  I think everyone at some point in their lives can relate to Bridget and the books always make me laugh!

Love one, love them all Favourite series or genre

Erm….think that might be obvious but just in case it is not clear….I am a total nut when it comes to crime fiction!  That includes action, psychological, legal, medical, serial killer …any sort of thriller in crime where there is a body and a case to be solved! BRING IT ON!

Your latest squeeze Favourite read of the last 12 months

I totally LOVED the #BookBeast that is Stuart MacBrides A Dark So Deadly.  What a fantastic read!

Blind date for a friend If you were to set a friend up with a blind date (book) which one would it be?

Seriously?  Oh man….there are again so many!  I think I would have to say Angela Marsons’ DI Kim Stone series – it is phenomenal!  They could not just read one….they would have to read the whole series.

Greatest love of all Favourite book of all time.

Fydor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is my favourite book of all time.  I can’t explain why other than to say that it draws on the anguish experienced when faced with a moral dilemma and how one justifies their behaviour while also showing that anyone is capable of murder….Mwah ha ha ha!

…

Thanks Noelle. A brilliant list (as expected). You know I never knew you were so into crime books … ;). Have to agree about A Dark So Deadly. Wasn’t it fabulous? And you are not a book boyfriend whore. It’s perfectly normal to have at least three, four, five or six concurrent book crushes. Perfectly normal! (I feel better about my three confessions noe lol). If you still haven’t read Rattle yet then you must. It’s sublime.

So folks. On the off chance there are still some crime books she hasn;t yet read, any suggestions for Noelle. Or any crime related erotica you think might finally drag her over to the dark side 😉 (Totally kidding – no suggestions required – ever!!!)

Join me next week when Mike Sahno and CJ Harter will be sharing more of the old #booklove.

Have a fabulous day all

JL

#Booklove: Noelle Holten @nholten40 Well here is a special lady who really requires no introduction (but I'm going to anyway as this is how these things work.) I only have the fabulous Noelle Holten aka Crimebookjunkie stopping by to share all of her book love confessions.