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psychedellic-phase · 4 years

Text

Fifteen (pt 7)

A/N: This part contains more season 7 spoilers!

tw: language arguing

word count: 3.5k

masterlist

“Hey, it’s me.”

The voice belonged to Derek.

It wasn’t you. Spencer was foolish to think it would ever be you. He stormed off to the chess table again. He didn’t want any visitors and what was it now? 6:15?

“Reid? I know you’re in there,” Derek called in, but Spencer didn’t move from his position. He didn’t want to see anyone except you, and that wasn’t really an option.

Derek knocked again, harder this time, “Kid I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

Spencer still didn’t budge; just staring out the window at the falling snow. If he did talk to Morgan, where would he even start?

“Hey the love of my life moved across the country to get away from me but luckily she left me a box of stuff to cry over!” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

After Emily went to London, Derek had become a close friend of yours. He became another one of your ‘girlfriends.’ He was who you would rant to when you’d argue with Spencer. He even got invited to ‘Girl's Nights’. When you officially broke up that went from close friends to basically inseparable. At work you’d go wherever Derek went. When you got home, you and Derek would go get drinks, or watch a movie, or literally anything else. When he’d ask where you were JJ would just give him a sad look and say “with Derek.” If Spencer hadn’t known any better he would’ve assumed you had gotten together. But he knew Derek was just being a good friend, letting you lean on him in your time of need.

“Reid? We’re worried about you.”

Still nothing.

Derek sighed, “We gotta talk about Y/N.”

Well that got his attention. He huffed and dropped the stacks of handwritten letters onto the chess table, knocking over several pawns. He opened the door and allowed Derek to enter.

“Are you okay?” Derek started with.

Spencer just looked at him. The bags under his eyes were a deep purplish gray color, and that was answer enough. He looked and felt like shit.

“What do you want to talk about?” His voice was strained and hoarse from all the crying and yelling.

“We gotta talk about how you’re doing with all of this,” Morgan said, gesturing around at the mess of books and mugs that littered the room.

“I’m fine,” Spencer stated plainly, trying to play it cool.

“I know you’re not fine. You’re allowed to not be fine, Reid. You just can’t hold it all in and close me out like you usually do.”

Spencer ran his hands through his hair and sighed before asking the one question he wanted the answer to most.

“Did you know?”

“Did I know what?”

“Did you know she was leaving?”

Derek didn’t answer, which was an answer in and of itself. He knew. You had talked to him about it at length.

“You knew?!” He snapped, “You knew she was leaving and didn’t tell me? You didn’t try to stop her?”

Derek paused, thinking of what he should say.

“I did try to stop her and it worked for a little while. If it weren’t for me she would’ve left a month and a half ago.”

Spencer rolled his eyes.

“She wasn’t happy here, Reid. You and I both know that.” Derek spoke calmly, hoping Spencer would follow suit. He didn’t.

“It was getting better! We were getting better!”

“Better? Reid, you only spoke to her at work as needed. It wasn’t ‘getting better’. It wasn’t fine when she was on mandatory leave for a month and you avoided her. It wasn’t fine when you broke up. It wasn’t fine when she took even more time off and you would show up at her door every night. And when she came back?” Derek took a deep breath, “The two of you could barely be on the jet together. We can’t work like that.”

Spencer nodded sadly, “I know. I was fixing it though. If only she gave me more time...”

“More time? Kid, she gave you two months. As much as I wanted her to stay, I couldn’t make her. She was miserable here. It’s been so hard on her–“

Spencer cut him off shouting, “Hard for her? Yeah Morgan, I know how hard it’s been for her. Did anyone ever think about how hard it was for me too?”

“I’m not saying it wasn’t, I’m just saying she had every right to leave. You blocked her out when she needed you most.”

“Oh is that what she told you? Did she care to mention how she couldn’t respect that I needed space on any of your platonic dates? Is that what they were Derek? Or is she just another body for you?” Spencer sneered, but didn’t actually mean what he said. He was just angry, so fucking angry.

“You know that’s not fair. I took care of her the way you should’ve!”

They just stared at each other, daggers coming from Spencer’s eyes.

“Get out.”

“Reid, c’mon I’m sorr—“

“I said get out,” Spencer practically hissed, knocking the books off his coffee table.

Derek backed away slowly, edging towards the door. Before he left he calmed himself down.

“Whenever you’re ready to talk about this, I’m here. I know you’re mad kid. I do. I miss her too but we can get through this, together.”

Spencer didn’t respond, sitting back at the chess table and staring blankly at the mess of wrinkled letters and chess pieces in front of him. If only this were as easy. He can always predict how many moves it would take to get a checkmate, but there's no magic formula for this. There’s no handbook on heartbreak.

He didn’t even look up to see Derek leave, eyes trained on the letters. He reached out for #6.

“This is a group picture from JJ and Will’s wedding. This is the last time all of us were together. By all of us I mean the core of us: You, Me, JJ, Derek, Dave, Hotch, Penelope, and Emily. I miss those days. The eight of us were unbelievably close. We still are, to some extent. I call Emily when our schedules work and the six hour time difference doesn’t interfere. Derek is my closest friend right now. He let me lean on him so much in the last few months, it’s amazing. I can’t thank him enough. Pen will always be my go-to when I need to smile or laugh or find out someone’s life history. I’ll miss getting advice from JJ. She always knows what to say. I’m sure I’ll ask Rossi for recipes and Hotch for help running the field office. It’s not goodbye. I know I’ll see you all when Seattle gets a crazy serial killer or something else I’ll call you guys for. I love you all. But for now, I just need a break. I need to put down my own roots and not depend on people that I share with you Spence. I need my own people. It’s so hard to go. It is. It’s probably harder than anything else I’ve ever had to do. But it’s for the best. How lucky am I to have friends that make saying goodbye so damn hard?”

He sighed. He completely understood where you were coming from, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. In fact, maybe that made it hurt more. He knew that your connections in DC and Virginia were through your group mates. You rarely had the time to go out and make new friends, and now all your friends were also his friends. It was just too complicated.

Part of him was now hoping that a twisted killer would spring up in Seattle soon, just so he would have to see you again. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t help smiling at the thought.

“Okay anyways, back to the picture. Back to JJ’s wedding. The most beautiful and fun wedding I have ever been to. It looked beautiful; I expect nothing less from Dave. And you, God, you looked unreal. You always do, like you’re some kind of angel or statue carved by Michelangelo. And in a tuxedo? Otherworldly.

Weddings always make me cry. They just do. Seeing two people love each other so much that they want to spend their lives together is too much for me. I miss feeling like that. I felt like that about you, and this is the night I realized that, among other things.

When you were doing a magic trick with the rings for Henry. The smile on your face had never been wider. He giggled and asked you to do it again and again and you did. And you picked him up and spun him around until he laughed so hard he couldn’t breath.

“Isn’t he just the best with him?”

It was JJ. Stunning, beautiful, bride JJ.

“Yeah, he really is,” I said. I was looking at you dreamily, through the rose-colored glasses I’ve always viewed you through.

“You know he wasn’t always like this?”

“Really?” I didn’t believe her. You were always good with kids for as long as I’d known you, which was not as long as she had.

“Yeah, we used to call it the Reid Effect. Kids and dogs hated him.”

We both stood there admiring you and Henry. I should’ve seen that as my first red flag, but I didn’t. I didn’t see the way she looked at you with the same dreamy expression I had painted on my face. I was too busy falling even deeper in love with you.

“He wants kids, you know?” JJ said.

I nodded, “He told me he wants a village. As many as he can have.”

She smiled and grabbed my arm kindly, “I hope he gets that.”

“I want to give him that.” I blurted it out. I hadn’t even thought about it and suddenly it was out there. She just nodded and walked away, over to her real husband, as I looked at you. My heart was pounding because I saw everything right in front of me.

“Hey Henry!” I said to him, interrupting your precious play time, “How are you dude?”

He smiled and shook his adorably long hair around. Seriously I don’t think any other kid can pull off that hair but him.

“I’m good! Uncle Spencer showed me a magic trick.”

“Well can I see the magic trick, Uncle Spencer?” I said, squatting down to Henry’s level. You grinned at us, taking the ring out and making it magically disappear and reappear.

“How do you do it?” Henry clapped.

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” You said, squatting down with us and giving him the ring, “You can’t lose this Henry, okay? Mommy and Daddy really need it.”

He nodded and held onto that ring for dear life.

That’s when I realized I wanted you to be the father of my kids. You’re so good with him. It makes my heart hurt to know that you will never be the father of my kids. You’ll be the best dad, Spence. I mean that.”

A dull ache bloomed around Spencer’s heart. He didn’t want kids unless they were with you. And you had gotten so close. It killed him to know that he was so close, but somehow so far away.

“When we sat together, holding hands, watching JJ and Will devote their lives to one another, you squeezed mine. When we stood up to clap for them after their first kiss as man and wife, you snaked one arm around my waist and whispered “I love you, Love” to me. I could see that being us. White dress, flowers, rings, everyone we love watching us be in love. Derek would be your best man and Penelope would catch the bouquet. I could see it. Honestly, I still kind of can. At that moment, I realized that I wanted to marry you. I realized that I wanted to spend every moment of my time on Earth with you, Spencer. I wanted the house with the white picket fence. I wanted Christmas mornings with a village of kids. I wanted me and you, ninety years old in a nursing home still holding hands. I wanted forever with you and even that just didn’t seem long enough. It still doesn’t. Time always seems to get away from me.

I didn’t tell you how I felt. I should have. That night I should’ve taken you aside and kissed you and asked you to marry me. I should’ve grabbed that minister before he left and kept us together. I wanted to spend my life with you so badly, Spence. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. But I didn’t. God, I wish I did.”

Spencer let out a shaky breath, memories of that wedding and so many other moments hitting him hard. He wished you had done all that; he wished he had done all of that.

“I saw something that I also never told you about. And that thing is what stopped me in my tracks that night. We had taken a break from dancing. I went to get a drink and you were sitting at the table. You were watching JJ. You had a look in your eyes that I know well, because I saw it in my own every time I looked at you for years. Longing. Coincidentally it was the same way she was looking at you just hours before. On her wedding day. Minutes before she got married.

I almost dropped my glass.

I always had a sneaking suspicion that there was something between you two, but I never pressed it. She was your best friend, like Derek is to me. You guys were almost inseparable when I joined. I used to say you were like Woody and Jessie. A dynamic duo. I realized then that it was more than that for you. There was more than a sibling love shared between you. I only ever knew JJ as a devoted mom. I knew her post Will and Henry, so of course you guys were just friends, right? I mean you’re her son’s Godfather. And it was her wedding Spence. You looked at her with love in your eyes as she devoted her life to a man who isn’t you. I had half a heart to stomp up to you and pick a fight, but using my better judgement I decided to believe that whatever was there was long over, just a meaningless crush. Well, I was wrong. Things that never begin can’t end, Spence. But there you were, staring at her the same way I stared at you a million times.

That was the first time you broke my heart, Spencer Reid, and you didn’t even know it. I didn’t approach you. I didn’t trust myself to keep it together. It felt like you reached into my chest to rip my heart in half. I fumbled back to the bar, suppressed my tears and sipped my drink as I watched. I watched you go and steal JJ for a dance. An innocent little dance for the only person in the world who calls you ‘Spence’. Except I also call you Spence, and so do so many other people. But you only care about it coming from her. I watched you tense up as you put your arms around her. I wanted to hurl. After a few minutes of watching you and your two left feet dance with the bride. I went inside.

That’s where I saw Emily.

Talk about a whirlwind of a night.

We all knew coming back from the dead had been hard for her. Who wouldn’t have a hard time? She was going to see a therapist and seemed to be getting better. She had us. She had Sergio. She was going to be okay. That night she was off, and I know Em when she’s off. She was watching all of us like we were in a fish bowl, like she was an outsider. I had to talk to her.

“What’s going on Em?” I asked her.

She just avoided my gaze and I sat next to her, holding her hand, half for myself and half for her. “I got offered a job in London. Chief of their Interpol office.”

She still didn’t look at me and I squeezed it. I knew she was leaving, again.

“You’re taking it?”

She just nodded, “Yeah, I-I just need to talk to Hotch I guess.”

I nodded. I wasn’t mad at her. I was just sad. It felt like we just got her back, and she was leaving again. I don’t know how much more leaving the team can take. I’m sorry for leaving too.

“What’s going on with you, Y/N?” She asked me, clearly she was able to tell that I was distraught, “Is it me leaving?”

I shook my head, forcing the tears to stay inside, “No, not you. You should go. You should be happy.”

She sighed and said something then that I didn’t understand at the time. Now I do though.

She said “I just can’t grab onto my old life and pretend that nothing happened.”

I feel the exact same way right now. I can’t hold onto my old life. My life with you. And pretend that I’m not a different person now. I am. Maybe I’m not a better person, but I am definitely a different person. And I think I need to leave, just like Em, to go learn how to be that person now. You can’t fit a square peg into a round hole, and that’s what I’ve felt like for the last few months. I feel wrong. I can’t survive a life I built with you without you. So now it’s time for a new one.

So here’s the photograph of the last time we were all together. Admire it. Remember it. Miss it, I know I will. We’ll never be like that again.”

Spencer paused and looked at the photo, taking it all in. You were next to him with your arm on his chest, and his arm was around your waist, but he wasn’t leaning into you. He was leaning into JJ; classic ‘I’m attracted to you’ body language. He felt gross.

He remembered that night and how distant you had been once you came back from the bar. You barely spoke, barely even looked at him. You hung around the bar much more than you usually would. He assumed it was because of Emily, but now it made so much more sense. He wished you would’ve told him so he could’ve told you that he did have feelings for JJ at some point in time, but they didn’t hold a candle to how he felt about you. If JJ was a flame, you were a forest fire.

He didn’t know about any of your feelings that night. He felt the same way of course. He knew he wanted to marry you the second you showed him those film festival tickets. He was certain he would marry you, and he almost had. You didn’t know that though. You didn’t know how he wanted you, and he didn’t know how you wanted him in the same way. How terribly sad it is when two people love each other but end up two worlds apart.

It dawned on him that it seemed he didn’t know about your feelings a lot of the time. You just took him on a roller coaster, from being absolutely ready to marry him to being heartbroken, to being double heartbroken because you were losing yet another person. Maybe he never did really understand you the way he thought he did.

The photo was wrinkled on the corners and had “JJ&Will” and the date written on the back in the same handwriting that he had been pouring over for hours now. Your handwriting. He took it to the cork board and put it right next to the film festival ticket. He decided to put the locket and the book in front of the board too, collecting all the pieces of you he had left in one place. Kind of like a little shrine to the love he once knew.

He stared at the photo some more. The way Garcia held onto Derek. The way Hotch was smiling with his whole face, something he didn’t see often. The way Rossi held Hotch and Derek’s shoulders like they were his own. Emily on the end next to you, smiling the last genuine smile he had ever seen from her. His heart ached. That family was still there, just in different places now.

Family. What an interesting word that means so many different things to so many different people. To Spencer, it meant those people in that photograph. He had lost Emily, lost you, and he was done losing his family. He picked up his phone, which was at 27% percent. Just as you said, it was never above 30. He plugged it in as he sent a message to Derek.

“Meet me at 8”

And then he waited.

Part 8!

taglist: @l0ve-0f-my-life @aperrywilliams @helloniallslovelies @random-ravings @ajwantsapancake @andiebeaword @boiled-onionrings @frnks-stuff @icantevenanymore1

#spencer reid #spencer x you #spencer reid fic #criminal minds fic #criminal minds #reid #dr spencer reid #reid fic #spencer reid one shot #mgg #matthew gray gubler #cm #cm fic #spencer reid x reader

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apples-r-rubbish · 4 years

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John (11 x reader) Part 2

Word count: 3.1k Warnings: Violence (!!!), death mention, alcohol mention, knives mention AN: I couldn’t wait to post this! So I ended up rewriting and editing some of this at a ridiculous time in the morning. Hope you like it! Thank you for the support on the first part, I know it’s not a lot but it means a lot to me. So thank you! Part 3 should be up in a few days maybe.

PART 1

You woke, after a dreamless night, memories rolling about your head, smells of burning throughout the house. Jumping to your feet, you began to panic, assuming the worst had happened you bolted down the stairs, dressed in nothing but the nightshirt john had leant you so you weren’t sleeping in a heavy dress.

“I smell burning, John, is everything alright? John?” You shouted as you entered the kitchen. John, noticed you and turned quickly to face a wall to hide his flushed face

“Dear, everything’s ok, I just burnt an attempt at breakfast, I’ve lifted out a spare toothbrush for you in the bathroom at the top of the stairs,” His breathing faltering slightly, realisation hitting him as he firmly faced the wall, hand covering his eyes “Maybe we could go out for breakfast considering I burnt this one?”

“Thank you, I’m so sorry I just was worried something was wrong. Especially after last night,” blush now radiating from your own cheeks.

You went upstairs brushed your teeth and changed quickly, and came back down the stairs,

“Do you mind if I use your phone again? I have another call to make, sorry,” You apologised quickly

“I’m going to start charging you for using it, but yes sure,” He teased before giving you some privacy. You dialled the Williams’ number again, Rory this time was the one to answer “statue, 45 minutes. We’re safe, currently playing music,” you said as you heard the radio turn on in the other room and lifted the phone in hopes he could hear it

“Statue? With him?” Rory asked, it was a meeting point to discuss things

“Nope just us, I’ll distract him before he gets to us,” You smiled into the phone and hung up before he could question you any further.

“Are your phone calls always that peculiar or is it just something you do when you're with me?” He asked with a small laugh as you entered his front room the radio loud

“Oh, only when you’re around. I have secrets to keep and friends to meet in three quarters on an hour,”

“Dance with me please,” He cut you off and then extended a hand to you, “no ifs, no secrets, no friends, no knives, just dancing.”

“Fine, you should know I am atrocious though,” You accepted his hand, with a small, sly smile

“At this point, nothing could surprise me, you could be a dancing champion and you’d still be humble about it,” You swayed awkwardly together, his hand on your waist, the other holding yours. He was surprisingly good, despite the doctors natural inability to dance. At one point he attempted to spin you and failed miserably, causing laughter to erupt between you both, your faces inching closer gradually. You blinked and his mouth was on yours, it felt foriegn and wrong, very un-doctor-like and confident. You realised and slapped him.

“No, you’re not doing that, we aren’t doing that. Not now,” You spluttered stepping back suddenly, teeth bared, wiping your lips with the back of your hand aggressively “You aren’t him, stop it, back off ”

“I’m not your old friend, (Y/N), I know, I just- I thought we had-”

“Save it. I’m leaving to meet my friends, thank you for the talk, and the bed, and the dance, but I’m leaving,” You picked up your coat, bag and slammed the door behind you, leaving John in awkward strong silence, rubbing his sore cheek.

By the time you’d met Amy and Rory you’d started weeping. You explained the whole situation to them, “I mean at least he’s still oblivious to the actual danger, that’s got to be small positive in all of this, they haven’t actually begun anything” Rory stated adjusting the cuffs on his shirt

“Not so great about the kissing though is it?” You finished sending a sharp glare back at him

“Definitely less of a positive, more of a neutral point, really, just a thing, that happened,” He stumbled "We'll go out tonight and you can forget about it.". They had found the watches one real, one fake, one in the TARDIS the other in his classroom. Plans could be set in motion. It was a Friday, the school day only began at 12 as the majority of students and staff attended a church service in the morning. You arrived with a handful of minutes to spare, ignoring the judgemental glares of your colleagues. The school was quiet, which wasn't a bad thing typically, but silent Fridays felt wrong and uncomfortable.

At some point during your day, an unfamiliar man walked into the office.

"Hello sir? Can I help you?" you questioned

"Ah yes, girl. I'm here to speak to my son. An issue has occurred at home and I need to make him aware of it. I'm Henry Baker, my son is William," he sounded stiff when he spoke as if his lines had been rehearsed

"Ah, he's in Mr Smith's class currently, I'll have to escort you there I'm afraid, school rules," you spoke, fake confidence filling your voice. You reached Mr Smith's classroom, cautiously you knocked not wishing to disturb his ramblings about ancient Greece or tudors.

"You may enter. Ah Miss (L/N)? What are you doing here? I- I mean how can I help you?" sadness crept into the edges of John's voice. You avoided his eyes, not wishing to think about dancing with him this morning and the feeling of his mouth against yours.

"William Baker, where is he?" you asked shortly

"Uh, no I believe he isn't attending today," he said leaning over his plinth and running a hand through his slicked down hair. It wasn't him.

"Thank you anyways, sir," you turned and left the room as the ramblings started again

"I'm afraid your son isn't here today. Allow me to escort you to the exit, Mr Baker," you apologised a fake smile plastered to your face, not allowing the man to argue or get into the classroom. He huffed, insisted it was fine and left silently. You wished you could sit in on one of John's lessons, listen to his monologues. They were too similar to the rants the doctor would go on when you caught him discussing an alien planet or a story from centuries ago.

After a mind numbingly boring few hours, the day ended, rushed home, got changed quickly and rushed back out again. The dance hall was busier than usual, when you arrived. You took a seat with Amy and Rory and were handed drinks. You had long calmed down after the events of the morning and simply wanted to drink, dance and smile with your friends and forget about the double life. John had entered the room and sent you a glance, you ignored it and Rory put his arm around you, like a protective big brother. Amy was rambling about a customer from work that day and their miniscule complaints about something, when a man approached your table, you had noticed him around a few times. He was gorgeous, dark brown eyes with freckles covering his face. His eyes seemed slightly dimmer than usual. “Excuse me, miss, sorry, my name’s Tom, I’ve seen you around here for a little while and I’ve always wanted to dance with you, I just never had the courage to ask, until now,” You accepted the invitation. His hand was colder than usual, and from the corner of your eye you watched the man that resembled the doctor shrink slightly in his seat. It’s true, Tom had been observing you and you had wanted to dance with him, if it weren’t for John and the aliens you would’ve asked him yourself.

You laughed and danced together for a few songs, until you had decided to sit back down at the table and Amy handed you another glass of wine, “Well you certainly had a good time, and he was cute, what a positive,” Amy spoke. You all laughed, John approached the table nervously. The laughter died in your throats. He’d dressed differently, rather than the standard longer tie, he’d swapped it for a bowtie and you all went pale upon realising it. “I don’t want to hear whatever you’re about to say unless it’s an apology,” You remarked before you could stop yourself, the wine taking initiative.

“I am deeply sorry, I crossed a line, I’m sorry the adrenaline from last night hadn’t worn off and I just think you’re really beautiful and I thought we’d connected,” he rambled, his hand rubbing the back of his neck “anyway, what I’m trying to say is I’m sorry and I’d like to ask you to dance again, to make up for last time.” Rory shot you a concerned look and you stood up, ready to accept.

The doors swung open. A gang of men entered various voices shouting about an alien, and one of them waving their arms about.

"Everyone get out of here!" you screamed as they ran, "Get him to the school now. It's time for the plan. We need him. I'll follow. School! Now! Go!"

Amy and Rory nodded, pulling John away despite his many protests and attempts to fight back. If you were about to die, you were going to put on a show.

"What are you doing here madam?" One of them spoke

"Oh. Hello. Well you see the thing is I was about to dance with a man i did rather like but unfortunately, he's left now, shame really," you scoffed sarcasm dripping from your words, heart beating out of your chest. A cracking noise erupted from the men. You finally looked at them. Dotted amongst them was Mr Roscoe, Tom, Mr Baker and Edward Gray. Their heads tilted back in unison, as their mouths hung open, eyes now white and pale. The voice spoke. It was low,threatening and heavy.

"Where is the timelord? We can sense the artron energy on you. We are aware of your connections," the voice boomed. It wasn't coming from any of the people, it was simply existing appearing from nowhere as their faces twisted as they appeared to be choking.

"Let them go and we won't have any trouble-" You were cut short by a hard fist colliding with your face, and another in your stomach, and another, and another. Thinking fast you pulled out the sonic screwdriver and pressed a button on it. The men collapsed with a high pitch screech falling from then. Get out, was your only thought. So you did.

You ran, faster than you had ever possibly ran before. You’d reached the school quickly pushing the old oak doors open and slamming them behind you, then you were bombarded by two sets of arms around you

“God, I thought you weren’t going to make it,” Amy cried a few tears on her face.

“With no offence meant, (Y/N), you look terrible,” Rory laughed tensely “I’ll have to look you over in a second, and before you ask, he’s fine and safe, just shaken and concerned about you,”

After Rory had checked you over, you pushed open the door to John’s classroom, he ran to you and tried to hug you

“Beware, I have quite a number of bruises, so I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” you said still rubbing at you split lip

“Oh God, did they do this to you? Are you alright? How could you have been so stupid?” John scalded through tears. He still acted like the doctor despite everything.

“John, I’m fine, it gave you and the others time so it’s ok. We need to barricade the main entrance,” You turned to the others “Pin, glass, soon. Do you have the needle too?” Amy nodded, she handed you a fake watch. More code.

“Great,” You smiled more at the item than her

“What? Why do you keep speaking in code? What is that? What does it mean? (Y/N), I’m tired and I need to know,” John stressed angry tears slipping from his eyes, this was too much for him.

“Hey, shush, it’s ok you’ll find out soon, we just have to get out of this situation and you’ll know all about it.” It technically wasn’t a lie.

“(Y/N), they’re coming,” Rory shouted from the other room. You grabbed John’s shirt in your hands, pulled him towards you, and kissed him, not giving him to process it. It’d seemed more like the doctor rather than the quiet confidence of John. “We’re even now. Don’t tell my friend” A small smile escaped your mouth.

“I promise, I won’t,” He whispered in response, shock still clearly in his system, an awkward laugh breaking the tension. Hopefully he wouldn’t remember. You walked into the hallway, a barricade in full effect “Amy get into the other room, keep him safe, try to convince him to open the watch,” She nodded and headed to the other room.

Rory was handed the fake watch, the needle, and an old antique sword from one of the many walls “Still got it, centurion? I’m going to need you to run as far as you can get that thing away from here, and get them to fight over it and get back here as fast as you can,” He nodded and ran out the back door after saying a brief I love you to Amy. Another antique sword was pulled off the wall by yourself and scabbard disregarded on the floor. There was a brief struggle against the old wooden doors and the barricade before they were smashed open.

“Hello, again, boys,” You smiled, waving the sword in one hand and sonic screwdriver in the other. If you wanted him to live, you had to act like the doctor “So unfortunately, I hate to break it you but if you are looking for the item that we refer to as the needle, it’s travelling as fast as possible in that direction with a 2000 year old roman centurion armed with a sword so unfortunately this detour has been a little bit pointless, I’m afraid dears.”

“You will die soon,” the voice rumbled,

“Will I now? I mean we all will at some point. I will say, however, it’d sound more convincing if I wasn’t a time traveller from the 21st century holding a sword and a powerful scientific device somewhere far beyond this planet, with enough knowledge of this town for you to lose in me for months.”

Their numbers had lowered, there were roughly seven left from the original back of twelve. Edward Gray stood in the centre, his head following your movements. Mr Roscoe was no longer with the group.

“Split up. We’re wasting resources. We’ve already lost some due to the device” The voice rumbled. Four of them including Edward and Henry rushed past you. Their feet dragging slightly along the floor as they ran, their footsteps uneven and heavy. One of the men that you’d seen around town took a step forward, his arm reaching for you, swiping your sword at him, you caught his neck. The body coughed up a blue liquid, mouth still hanging open, as he crumpled. Another ran at you, he thrusted something at you, a sharp pain in your neck. You pressed the sonic and waved it at him, he fell backwards, with a groan. The final man stepped forward, Tom. “Tom stop, fight it, think of your family and your friends, fight-” you were silenced by him slamming you against the wall by your throat. You were caught off guard breathing faltering. Tom grabbed the sword and twisted it towards you, the cool metal catching your skin.“You will die, you will die, you will die,” The voice repeated “insufferable time traveller, you will pay for this,” You screamed, the agony and blood hot. “Amy,” you wheezed, as your vision began to blur from the pressure on your throat. The door swung open, Amy slipped out quietly

“Hey, weirdo! Leave my friend alone,” She shouted her fist colliding with the face knocking him out. Slipping down the wall you gasped, relief and oxygen flooding your system.

“(Y/N), are you ok?” she asked observing the fresh wound

“I’m fine. I’ll be fine. Go after Rory, a few of them went after him, he needs you,” You explained kicking the sword towards her. Taking the sword in her hands, she nodded and ran. Feebly, you pulled yourself up, putting pressure on your wound as you wobbled into John’s classroom. He was crying slumped against a corner, “Are- Are you alright? Good God! You’re bleeding, did they hurt you? What happened to them?”

“John, dear, I’m fine just little scrapes,” you whisper kneeling down to his level your voice still weak “You’ll understand in a bit, we just need to do something first,”

“Amelia, already tried to convince me. I- I- I don’t want to open it. (Y/N), I don’t want whatever that was to be the normal for me, I’m scared, and I know that watch has something to do with it” He cried

“I know, it’s terrifying, but it’s the perception filter, making you think that,”

“And- And there you go again, nonsense words, unfathomable concepts. I heard what you said, the 21st century, the future, the amount of pain you must have seen. Do you think I hadn’t noticed the pain and loss in your eyes? I’m not your old friend, I’m John Smith, I’m a teacher here. Whoever you think I am, I can assure you I’m not,” You patted his arm, “I’m sorry you need to open it. I’m so sorry. I want to help but this is the only way I can” He looked between you and the watch, he cupped your face nervously and paused for a second, you nodded. Your lips gently collided.

“John, dear, I’m sorry,” You mumbled into his lips after a few calming kisses. He turned to the watch, you pushed yourself up and walked to the other side of the room. He turned the watch in his hands examining it gently

“I’ve loved you since I met you. You are beautiful, intelligent, and amazing. Maybe in another life,it might’ve worked out for us,” He looked up at you, tears still falling.

You opened your mouth to speak as the watch flicked open, you heard the man scream first, then windows shattering, squinting in an attempt to see him despite the golden light filling the room. Glass flew everywhere, wind bursting into the room. Eventually screaming stopped and so did the light. He fell to his knees with a thud.

“I’m back,” he mumbled his head slamming forward, the final wisps of gold light dissipating. Panic struck his face as he saw you.

PART 3

#doctor who x reader #doctor who x you #11th doctor x reader #11th doctor x you #11th doctor #eleven x reader #Eleventh doctor x reader #self insert #self insert doctor who #self insert fanfiction #Doctor who #doctor who fanfic #doctor who fanfiction

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swanqueeneverafter · 4 years

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The Once & Future Queen Pt.17

Storybrooke. Swan-Mills House. (While Henry puts Maria to bed upstairs, Ella stares at the token from Flynn's in her hand. Noticing a half empty glass on the coffee table, Ella picks it up and takes it to the kitchen. Suddenly stopping in the hallway, Ella thinks for a moment and places the glass on the floor. Hurrying back to the living room Ella lays back on the couch. Closing her eyes, she takes a deep breath and then tosses the token over her head. Upon hearing a 'plink', Ella opens her eyes and sits up to look back at the glass. As the water swirls, Ella smiles, having just found the sign she needed.)

Camelot. Guinevere’s Chambers. (Guinevere brushes her hair and checks it in a small mirror when someone knocks on the door. She opens it to find Arthur leaning against the door frame with a charming smile. She’s surprised.) Arthur: “May I come in? (Guinevere is disturbed:) I only want to wish you well.” (Guinevere smiles uneasily and opens the door for him.) Guinevere: “I never thought I’d see you again.” Arthur: “I know. When the veil separating our worlds was torn, I was watching from the other side. I saw you standing there at the altar. Then when I saw the sacrifice Robin Hood made as he walked through the veil, it was his courage that inspired me to return.” Guinevere: “For what purpose, to reclaim your throne, perhaps?” Arthur: “Of course not. You have made a wonderful Queen, Guin. You are the leader Camelot deserves. Your love for your people is surpassed only by your love for Lancelot. I came here to make amends. (Arthur pulls out a cloth and unwraps the bracelet:) Please, take this as a token of my sincerest apology. May it bring continued good fortune for you and for Camelot. (Guinevere looks at the bracelet sceptically. Holding it up:) I’d like you to wear it. (Taking her hand, Arthur places the bracelet on her wrist. Guinevere gives him a small smile. She tenses uncomfortably when Arthur steps closer and takes her face in his hands. He kisses her forehead and she relaxes with a relieved sigh and smile:) I wish you and Lancelot everlasting happiness, Guin.” (He looks back at her with a smile and leaves. Guinevere smiles back, but it fades as she looks uncertainly down at the bracelet.)

Storybrooke. Granny's Diner. (While David bounces Maria in his arms, the ladies of Storybrooke catch up over morning coffee.) Lily: (Laughing:) "I can't believe you got stuck in the past and still managed to bang Regina." Emma: "Hey it's not like I planned it to happen. Mulan can back me up, we had no intention of meddling with the past." Mulan: "That's true, but once you did bump into Regina, you didn't try very hard to not see her again." Ruby: "Well I think it's sweet. Almost as if Emma and Regina were meant to be no matter the circumstances." Snow White: (Clearing her throat loudly:) "My daughter's love life aside, I'd like to get back to your announcement. You and Regina are planning to retire?" Emma: (Nods:) "Yep, we've been talking about it for awhile now. The Sheriff's office is running smoothly and Lily's practically Sheriff now anyway so it's not like I need to be there. And as far as the Mayor's office goes, you-" Snow White: (Cutting in:) "I don't want to be Mayor. I was only helping Regina out while you were gone. I-I love to teach, I don't want to be anything else." David: "Wouldn't there need to be an election for a new Mayor? I don't think it's a position you can just pass on to your friends and family." Emma: "Sure, and it's the same with Lily for Sheriff, she'll need to stand as a candidate." Lily: (Confidently:) "I'm not too worried about it." Mulan: "Especially since you have the outgoing Sheriff's backing." Lily: (Leans back in her chair:) "Mmhmm. Piece of cake." Snow White: "That's all well and good, but it still leaves us without a candidate for Mayor." Emma: "Well, I guess Regina and I can think of some names." Ruby: "Ooh, I can see the posters now: 'Vote Maleficent For Mayor'. Has a nice ring to it actually." Lily: (Considers this:) "Mom might enjoy being Mayor. I mean, can you think of a better people person?" (Everyone laughs, apart from Snow White.) Snow White: "You know what? I don't mind being in charge of finding a new Mayor. I'm sure you and Regina will have better things to with your time." Lily: "Yeah, like each other." Emma: (Elbows Lily in the ribs:) "O-okay, if you're sure?" Snow White: (Smiles:) "I'm sure." Emma: "Thanks, Mom."

(Sitting at the counter, Elsa, Anna and Belle reminisce.) Elsa: "It's so weird to think that I met Mulan and Emma in the past but for them it was their future." Anna: "No, that's not right is it? I mean, it would still be the past for them, but it was your present? I'm confused." Elsa: "Well all I know is that they were there on the dock when Kristoff and I watched you sail away on your journey to Misthaven." Belle: "It's best not to think too hard about it, but I know what I would do if I could change the past." Anna: "What's that?" Belle: "I'd forget about that stupid stone and would've saved you from falling off the cliff." Anna: (Touching her heart:) "Belle. You don't still think about that, do you?" Belle: (Nods:) "I still feel guilty about it." Anna: (She stands and pulls Belle into a hug:) "There's nothing for you to feel guilty about. It's not like you pushed me. All I remember is you trying to save me. I had no idea you felt this way." Belle: "I guess it's easier to forgive someone else than it is yourself." Anna: (Pulls back and looks Belle in the eyes:) "Well I forgive you, so you should too." Belle: "Thanks." Elsa: "I only wish that more people were able to forgive and forget. It would help unite the realms even more." Belle: (Nods:) "What I've learned from being with Rumple, is that the quest for revenge is a very hard thing to let go of." Lake. Rowboat. (The search for Morgana has taken the foursome across the water as, thanks to Anastasia's magic, they follow Morgana's trail.) Merida: (Glancing over her shoulder while she rows:) "We'll be passing Dun Broch soon at this rate." Anastasia: "Perhaps if we listen closely we'll be able to hear them voting for a new leader? Fickle bunch that they are." Merida: (Gives Anastasia a look:) "There'll be no more challenges to the throne anytime soon. Macintosh and his band of misfits have been taken care of and my mother assumes power in my absence." Anastasia: "How nice for her." Merida: (Looks over her shoulder again:) "Are you sure this is taking us the right way?" Anastasia: "Quite sure, yes. Morgana's power practically oozes from her, that kind of magic always leaves a trace." Merida: "You know, I heard you were living the quiet life with your sister somewhere. What happened?" Anastasia: "Many things, but I suppose mainly when you spend most of your time thinking about all the bad things you've done in your past, you can only despair for so long. Eventually, there comes a point where you decide to do something about it." Merida: "So you're looking for redemption? (Nods to Xena:) You're in good company then." Anastasia: "Redemption is partly why I'm here. Revenge is another." Merida: (Smiles:) "Aye." Anastasia: "But mostly I'm searching for my place in the world. Drizella and I have already found a new sister we never knew we had. Who knows what else lies ahead for me?" Merida: "I'd say a nasty confrontation with Morgana for one thing. Are you sure your powers can match hers?" Anastasia: "There's only one way to find out, darling." (Sitting at the far end of the boat, Xena watches their exchange with curiosity.) Xena: (Quietly to Gabrielle:) "I feel like a chaperone right now. I mean look at them it's-" Gabrielle: (Slumped over the side of the boat:) "Nauseating." Xena: "Well I wouldn't go that far." Gabrielle: "No. I mean this damn boat." Xena: (Shaking her head:) "How can you be seasick in a rowboat?" Gabrielle: "It's the motion of the water, it has nothing to do with what vessel we're in." Xena: "Uh huh. You didn't seem to have problems those times we were rowing away from the Horde." Gabrielle: "Remind me to thank you for your sympathy when we're back on dry land." Xena: "Maybe you should take a turn rowing, it might help take your mind off it?" Gabrielle: "No. I can hardly move, just... let me wallow in my misery." (Xena takes pity on Gabrielle, rubbing her back as she leans over the side.)

Caerleon. Castle. Tunnels. (Morgana arrives outside Caerleon’s castle. She magically opens a door to the tunnels and heads inside. A guard spots her.) Guard: “Halt!” (Another guard steps in her path and she is surrounded.) Morgana: “Please. I mean you no harm. I wish only to speak with your Queen.” Throne Room. (The guards escort Morgana into the throne room and pull off her hood.) Queen Annis: “Morgana Pendragon. Stealing into my castle in the dead of night. You must have a death wish.” Morgana: “Sorry for the interruption, Your Majesty, but I’ve come on urgent business.” Queen Annis: “What business could you possibly have with me, witch?” Morgana: “I come in the name of my father.” Queen Annis: “Is that so?” (Annis stands and approaches Morgana.) Morgana: “Your Highness… (Morgana shoves off the guard holding her, walks up to Queen Annis, and bows down to her knees:) Your Highness, Uther was a curse upon this land, as is his son.” Queen Annis: “Arthur. Your brother?” Morgana: “Arthur is my brother by blood alone. We were not raised as siblings and I knew him only as a knight in my father’s army.” Queen Annis: “Regardless, your brother killed mine. Fergus was slain by Arthur’s hand.” Morgana: “Yes, Your Highness.” Queen Annis: “When news of Fergus’ death reached me I was ready to lead my army into Camelot. But then Arthur was deposed and killed soon after and I saw no need to-” Morgana: “Arthur has returned, Your Highness.” Queen Annis: “What?” Morgana: “My brother has returned from the other side and even now plans to reclaim the throne of Camelot.” Queen Annis: “Well, this changes everything.” Morgana: “Indeed. I seek revenge for wounds they have inflicted, as do you. If you will accept it, I’ve come to offer my help.” Storybrooke. The Dragon’s Lair. Storeroom. (Regina is struggling to move a keg when Rumplestiltskin arrives behind her.) Rumplestiltskin: “It always amazes me. (Regina jumps and glowers at him:) You are one of the most powerful purveyors of magic to ever live and yet you still insist on doing things the hard way.” Regina: “Exercise is good for the soul. Perhaps you should think about that the next time you share a box of doughnuts with your pal, Hook.” Rumplestiltskin: (Pats his stomach:) “I’ll take it under advisement, but that’s not why I’m here.” Regina: (Flatly:) “I’m breathless with anticipation.” Rumplestiltskin: “Belle tells me you and Emma are thinking of retiring.” Regina: “That’s right.” Rumplestiltskin: “Will that be after you’ve both dealt with Morgana?” Regina: (Scoffs:) “I’ve just got my wife back, Rumple. I won’t risk going through that again.” Rumplestiltskin: “You know that your shared magic is the only thing powerful enough to stop Morgana.” Regina: “That’s not true. Zelena handled her pretty well by herself.” Rumplestiltskin: “You expect me to put my faith in Zelena’s temperamental magic? She doesn’t have the discipline to withstand a magical duel against a High Priestess like Morgana.” Regina: “What difference does Morgana being a High Priestess make?” Rumplestiltskin: (Sighs:) “The High Priestesses were the chief servants of the Triple Goddess. They were a group of highly skilled and powerful sorceresses, mistresses of magic and spells and detained the power over life and death. In short, there was a reason the Dark One stayed out of Camelot.” Regina: “So that’s it. You’re afraid. (Rumplestiltskin doesn’t reply:) Well it is not down to Emma and I to save everyone.” (Regina magics herself and the keg out of the storeroom and reappears behind the bar.) Rumplestiltskin: (Following her:) “Perhaps you’re right. But if neither of you are prepared to lift a finger to stop Morgana, that leaves us with only one viable option.”

Camelot. Training Grounds. (Sir Gwaine steadies the punching bag for Lancelot who is pummeling it relentlessly.) Sir Gwaine: “You seem tense.” Lancelot: “What do you mean ‘tense’?” Sir Gwaine: “You know…agitated. On edge. Angry.” Lancelot: “This is not anger, Gwaine. This is controlled aggression!” (Lancelot punches the bag off of the hook and Gwaine falls to the ground with it.) Sir Gwaine: “Great. I’m glad we cleared that up.” (Leon arrives.) Sir Leon: “Sire. A messenger this minute arrived.” Lancelot: “What is it?” Sir Leon: “An army. They crossed our border at first light.” Lancelot: “An army? Whose army?” Sir Leon: “Caerleon’s queen.” Storybrooke. The Dragon's Lair. (Ella fills Henry in about the previous evening.) Henry: "It went in?" Ella: (Nods:) "Hand to God. It was an even trickier shot than the one at the barcade." Henry: "Okay, so what does this mean?" Ella: "I guess it means we find ourselves an adventure." Henry: "Great. So, where to?" Ella: "I don't know. I was hoping you had some ideas?" Henry: "Uh... well geez, I'm not sure. I mean there's lots of places we could go, but..." Ella: (Cuts in:) "The United Realms cover a lot of ground and there's no telling how long it may take us to find something?" Henry: "Exactly. That's not to say I'm not totally down for whatever comes our way." Ella: (Agrees eagerly:) "Absolutely. But maybe..." Henry: "Maybe for the time being we both concentrate on doing the responsible thing? At least until the right opportunity comes along, obviously." Ella: (Nods:) "Obviously. The minute something exciting or dangerous comes our way, we drop everything and-" Henry: "Jump in with both feet." Ella: (Extends her hand:) "Agreed." Henry: (Shakes Ella's hand:) "Agreed." Swan-Mills House. (Descending the staircase, Regina reaches the bottom just as Emma returns home.) Regina: "Hey." Emma: "Hey." (Emma stands on one of the two steps that leads into the house while Regina closes the distance between them. Cupping Emma's face, Regina leans down and kisses her as Emma places her hands on Regina's hips.) Emma: "Mm, good day?" Regina: "Not bad, you?" (Regina continues on to the kitchen while Emma climbs the last step and follows.) Emma: "Yeah I guess. I broke the news to everyone about us retiring."

Regina: (Spins around:) "And?" Emma: "It went pretty well. Lily's more than ready to become Sheriff." Regina: "And Snow?" Emma: (Shakes her head:) "Mom doesn't want to be Mayor, but she's taken on the job of finding someone suitable." Regina: "Well, at least they were accepting of the idea." Emma: "Yeah, although I still get that frosty feeling from Snow. I can't believe she's pissed that I was the mistress of my own wife back in the past." Regina: (Chuckles:) "Snow will always be Daddy’s little girl. Just like her daughter. (Emma smirks:) If it makes you feel any better, my day wasn't much better." Emma: "Oh?" Regina: "I had a visit from Rumple." Emma: "Ah. Let me guess, he wants us to go up against Morgana again?" Regina: "Yep. I told him that we're not the only ones with magic around and it shouldn't always be down to us to-" Emma: (Placing her hands on Regina's arms:) "Don't worry about Rumple. It's not our job to police the realms. Besides, I'm totally not dressed for it." Regina: (Her eyes light up, excitedly:) "Are you still wearing it?" Emma: (Nods:) "Mmhmm. That was the dare, right? Gotta says it's a little distracting. No wonder guys are always thinking with theirs." Regina: "And no one suspected anything?" Emma: "I don't think so. I had to be pretty careful when getting out of my chair though. A longer skirt would've helped." Regina: "But would've been far less sexy. (Regina leans in and kisses her wife as her hands move over Emma's hips, lifting her skirt and exposing Emma's not so little 'distraction' to her eyes. Regina's fingers play with the straps at Emma's hips:) So, we never did discuss what you'd like if you won the bet?" Emma: "No, we didn't. (Raises her eyebrow:) I'm sure we'll think of something." Regina: (Smiles:) "Yes... (Slowly sinks to her knees:) I'm certain I'll come up with an appropriate reward." (Emma watches Regina with a barely restrained hunger. At the very moment Regina's tongue passes her lips to brush the tip of the toy protruding between her legs, Emma's resolve falters. Moaning with desire, Emma places her hands on Regina's shoulders for support and watches while Regina continues her scandalously skilled display.) Camelot. Arthur's Chambers. (Guinevere walks across the hallway, the bracelet on her wrist, and sneaks into Arthur’s room where he is dressing.) Guinevere: “Here…let me.” (She helps him with his jacket.) Arthur: “Thank you.” (Arthur smiles darkly as Guinevere slides her hand down his arm. Guinevere circles Arthur, running her hand over his shoulders, the bracelet glowing on her wrist. She entwines her fingers with his and kisses them tenderly.)

#sq #swanqueen #swan queen

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sometimesiwritebadly · 4 years

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The Lost Girl (Part 2)

Summary: In the past, Raven and Pan run into two people Raven never thought she’d see again. In the present, Raven convinces the Heroes to allow her to help save Henry with a plan of her own.

Notes: wow the part two that no one asked for but i wrote anyways is here!!! I know no one reads ouat fanfics anymore but this story has been living rent free in my head for years so dammit i’m gonna write the thing. This is kinda filler-y but i’m gonna write the next part like now so (hopefully) it won’t be long before the next chappie is out

Warnings: Language probably. (See warnings for the whole story on the series masterlist page)

Word Count: 2.3k

Series Masterlist

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“So you weren’t speaking metaphorically about the grave then?” Emma said. The six of them had made their way to a cliff high above the mermaid lagoon. At the very edge was a large rock, with the name “RAVEN” carved in messily. Just beneath her name were multiple rows of tally marks.

“Nope. After...everything with Pan, I ran away. Pan and the lost boys wouldn’t stop looking for me, so I needed to do something to get them off my back.”

“So you faked your own death?” Snow said, shock evident in your voice.

“I did what I had to do to survive. Pan thinks I’m dead, lost boys stop looking for me, I can hide until I figure out a way off the island.” Raven explained.

“And Pan bought it? It was that simple?” Hook questioned. Unlike the others, he knew part of Raven’s history with Pan, so it was understandable why he was so hesitant to believe Pan would back down so easily.

“Well, I used a little magic, made it more believable. Besides, the point isn’t how I pulled it off. The point is I must’ve fucked up pretty bad in order to resort to faking my own death. And, I’ve been able to avoid getting caught in my lie for,” Raven looked back at the grave, pointing at the tally marks, “That many years.”

“Isn’t marking the years on your own gravestone a bit of a giveaway?” Regina walked towards the stone, tracing her fingers over the carvings. Raven assumed she was using magic to make sure the grave wasn’t a fake, and that it had indeed been sitting there for years.

“It would be. If I was the one who added the marks.” Raven paused before giving an explanation, “Some of the lost boys, the ones who still care about me, they come around every year or so and add a tally. It’s hard to keep track of the years in Neverland, so it’s probably off by a few years.”

“How long have you been here?” Emma asked. From the look on her face, Raven could tell how worried she was. If Raven had been stuck for so long, how long would it take for them to get Henry back?

“I have absolutely no idea. You don’t age on Neverland, plus time works so differently here. Two weeks here could be just a night back in the Enchanted Forest. That’s why it’s so hard to keep track.”

“Aye, the lass is right. I couldn’t tell you how many years my crew and I were stuck on the Roger here in Neverland.” Hook confirmed. This was now the second time in one day Hook had agreed with her on anything - An event that probably hadn’t been achieved since they were children.

“Anyways. Clearly I’m not lying, so will you let me help you save the bo-” Emma’s glare cut Raven off, so she quickly corrected herself, “Henry. Let me pay back my debt to Bae?” The team of so-called-heroes all glanced at each other, no one wanting to be the first to admit that they needed Raven’s help. Unsurprisingly, Snow was the one to take the leap of faith.

“Of course. Help us find Henry, and we’ll take you back to Storybrooke with us.” Snow had a large smile on her face as she said the words, but only received a hint of a smile in return from Raven.

“Do you have any plans then? Or are you as useless as Hook?” Regina snapped, annoyed as always at any pleasantness from Snow.

“You guys got any rope?”

~~~ A Very Long Time Ago ~~~

“What the hell are you doing?” Raven yelled across the beach. Pan was at the shoreline, staring out at the ocean. When he heard Raven’s voice, he turned and smiled, waving her over. Raven prepared to run across the hot sand, but paused, remembering the tricks Pan had begun to teach her. With only a moment's hesitation, she reached for the magic within her. Not a second later, she landed with a slight stumble next to Pan.

“Not terrible. For a girl, anyways.” Pan joked, not even flinching at her sudden appearance next to him.

“Shut up. What are we staring at the ocean for?” Raven asked, only seeing the calm sea ahead of them.

“Look up.” At Pan’s direction, she looked to the sky and, to her surprise, saw a ship flying down from the stars. It clearly belonged to some kind of Navy back in the Enchanted Forest, save for the large, feathery sail.

“Interesting.” Raven said, taking a step closer to the ocean as the boat landed safely in the waters.

“Very.” Pan’s arm landed on her shoulder, causing Raven to look up at the boy. He was already looking down at her with a smirk ghosting his face. “Let’s see what kind of trouble we’ll be getting into today.”

~~~ Present Day ~~~

“A trap? That’s your plan?” Regina said, judgment evident in her voice.

“The lost boys want to come after us, we need to go after them. It’s a good plan.” Snow replied as she diligently worked to make the net.

“Glad to see someone appreciates it.” Raven mumbled, as she tied together her own piece of the net.

“Why not simply use magic to trap a lost boy? Or use magic to make the net, at least?” Regina said, glaring at Raven as she did so.

“Well, Your Majesty, in case you haven’t noticed, Pan is extremely powerful. If we used magic to even make the net, let alone to actually trap a boy, he’d be able to detect it. And correct me if I’m wrong, but we’re actually trying to avoid that, right?” Raven said, meeting Regina’s glare with just as much ferocity.

“You really think a lost boy is gonna betray Pan?” Hook asked, taking another sip from his flask.

“I did.” Raven answered, looking back to her rope and away from Regina.

“David?” Snow ignored the bickering between everyone, addressing her husband with a softness not normally found in Neverland, “We need more vine.”

“On it.” He answered calmly, before addressing Hook with more anger than Raven thought he was actually capable of, “You’re coming with me pirate.”

Raven smirked as Hook sulked off after him, and continued to diligently work on tying the rope they had left.

~~~ A Very Long Time Ago ~~~

“Are you two lost?” Pan asked, causing the two men who had landed on their shore to turn towards him, drawing their weapons.

“Men.” Raven thought, rolling her eyes as she appeared behind them, without their knowledge of her presence.

“You look lost to me.” Pan said, smirking at both the men’s weapons and Raven’s appearance behind them. She could tell he was proud that she’d landed without a stumble this time, even if he’d never admit it.

“Identify yourself, boy.” One of them asked, not taking his eyes off Pan. Raven felt a sense of familiarity at his voice, but she couldn’t place it.

“I’m Peter Pan. I live here...Who are you?” Pan asked, without an ounce of respect that Raven was sure the soldiers would’ve been accustomed to.

After deciding that Pan wasn’t a threat (A rather stupid decision, that Raven was sure the man would regret), He put his sword away, causing the other man to follow. “Captain Jones. And my Lieutenant. We’re here by order of the King.”

This caused Pan to raise his brows, and glance at Raven as subtly as he could. Even though she couldn't read his mind, he knew his thoughts were somewhere between disbelief and making fun of the soldiers.

“The King huh?” Pan chuckled a little, before answering seriously, “We don’t have any kings in Neverland. Just me.”

“You mean I’m not the Queen of Neverland?” Raven took this moment as her chance to join the fun, causing the two men to once again draw their swords. They both had a look of shock on their faces, and neither seemed like they would actually harm her. Raven disappeared once more, and landed herself at Pan’s side this time before speaking again. “How disappointing.”

The men turned once more, but their swords were at their sides instead of in position to fight. “Impossible…” The Captain mumbled, staring at Raven with a look she wasn’t fond of. Now that she was looking at their faces, the pair did seem somewhat familiar. But it wasn’t until the Lieutenant spoke that she placed them.

“Talia?” He asked, putting his sword away completely this time. He took a step forward, but both Raven and Pan took one back, with Pan’s arm now protectively pushing her behind him. Raven couldn’t address them, she couldn’t even look at them anymore. Has she really been on Neverland for so long? Long enough for her friends to grow up and become the leaders of their own ship?

“Get rid of them.” She said, looking only at Peter. He turned to look towards her, silently asking if she was alright. “Your Queen is bored.” She attempted to joke, but knew Pan would see right through it. So she simply used her magic to transport herself back to camp, where she would hopefully never have to look at her old friends again.

~~~

When Pan arrived back at the small camp, Raven immediately began questioning him about the encounter with Killian and Liam.

“What happened? Why are they here? Did they ask about me? Do they-”

“Slow down, love, I only just got back.” Pan joked, chuckling a bit before he noticed the serious look on Raven’s face. He cleared his throat before speaking again. “They did ask about you, but I didn’t answer any of their questions. Figured that you could answer them yourself if you wanted to see them. As for why they’re here, well, turns out they work for a pretty ruthless King.”

“What do you mean?” Raven asked, stepping closer to Pan as a few lost boys walked past the two of them, not wanting them to overhear or interrupt the conversation.

“Well, their king sent them after the dreamshade. Only he told them it was a medicine, not poison. So either this king is a complete idiot, or he’s merciless.” Pan said, before Felix came up to them to report to Pan about something. Most likely the damned heart he’d been searching for.

Raven’s thoughts were moving faster than the best ship in the realms, but she knew that she’d have to confront Liam and Killian about dreamshade. She hadn’t seen them in at least a decade, sure, but she knew Liam and Killian like the back of her hand. They’d never willingly bring a weapon so dangerous back to the Enchanted Forest, which meant they must be in the dark. They hadn’t believed Pan’s warning, but maybe they’d believe a childhood friend.

~~~ Present Day ~~~

“A sextant? And you’re telling us about this now?” Emma asked, shocked that Hook would keep something so important from them.

“How do we know you’re not lying?” Regina asked. Back when they were kids, Hook could barely tell a lie, but years of being a pirate had made him annoyingly hard to read.

“Oh, you don’t. But I’m not.” Raven scoffed at his answer, but no one took notice. Or, they simply all chose to ignore it. “This is the best hope yet we’ve had of an exit plan, and don’t forget we’re gonna need one.” He said, looking at the three women as David stood behind him, gathering supplies. Raven’s attention wasn’t on Hook, but instead David.

He looked...off. Sure, she’d noticed that he didn’t seem entirely right the second she’d laid eyes on him, but it had only gotten worse. If Raven didn’t know any better, she’d say that he was suffering from a low dosage of dreamshade poison. The slight limp he had with every step, his heavier breathing, the ever-present sweat on his forehead...it all added up. But surely he’d have told his family, right? Said his goodbyes? Why was he trying so hard to act like everything was fine?

Raven didn’t pay attention to anything else Hook said, until David spoke up. “Hook’s right.”

“You wanna split up?” Snow asked, clearly shocked that David was willing to go along with any plan that involved him and Hook together.

“It’s the last thing I wanna do, but if there’s a chance it can get us home….”

“I’ll come with you two.” Raven announced standing up from her seat on a tree stump and gathering her own supplies. Hook and David glanced at each other briefly, confirming Raven’s guess that there was something more to this trip. “Trust me, if you’re going to be capturing a lost boy, you don’t want me anywhere near. You want him focused on Henry, not his old friend that’s suddenly no-so-dead anymore.” Raven reasoned. The rest of the team seemed to accept the answer, although Hook still looked unconvinced. “Unless there’s some reason I should stay. Hook?” Raven asked, with a smirk on her face. She wanted him to know she was onto him.

“Course not. More the merrier.” Hook said, with a sarcastic smile. He turned and began walking away, and Raven followed, leaving David behind to say goodbyes to his family. Once they were a good distance away, Raven spoke.

“It’s dreamshade, isn’t it?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.” Hook said, looking away from her.

“Please. You and I both know the effects of dreamshade far too well. So what are we gonna do about it?” Hook looked at Raven this time, with an unreadable look on his face.

“What?”

“I’m surprised you want to do anything to help him.”

She scoffed, “Says the pirate.” Hook gave her a soft chuckle in return, before turning fully to face her.

“I told him the sextant is atop dead man’s peak.” He explained, allowing her to connect the dots.

“Oh. Oh. There’s not actually a-”

“You two done gossiping, or can we get a move on?” David’s voice interrupted your hushed conversation, but the message Hook was trying to make had gotten across. This was a rescue mission for David, whether he knew it or not.

~~~

#ouat fic #ouat fanfiction #ouat canon divergence #peter pan x original character #ouat season 3 #peter pan ouat #original character fic #henry mills x reader #killian jones #emma swan #once upon a time fanfiction #once upon a time #peter pan/original character #peter pan fic #Peter Pan Fanfiction

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noelgarcias · 5 years

Text

[ tommy martinez, cismale & he/him ] did you know that NOEL GARCIA was on full disclosure? yeah, apparently the TWENTY FIVE year old CHEF was hiding HE’S LIVING UNDER A FALSE IDENTITY TO AVOID HIS PAST. i never would’ve expected it from our resident ARTISAN. i wonder how they’ll deal with this, considering how PASSIONATE & STUBBORN they are. // written by pepper: twenty three, est, she/her.

it is i, pepperoni mcpony back once again to bring you yet another messy ass muse. i am once again on that new muse juice, but also kind of on the recycled muse juice like i’ve used this fc and this name before but it didn’t work out, so i’ve changed a lot about him and revamped him and so now he’s better than every babeeyyy. down bellow will be a bit about noel, or rather dante if we’re being technical. you can just call him noel though. full disclosure (badum tss sdkjsdkj) this is gonna be messy as hell, because noel’s inspo is more scattered than percy’s but we’re gonna push through folks.

BIO ;

okay so noel’s family is kind of inspired by the quinns (from ‘you’ on netflix), the castillos (from how to get away with murder) and like henry gouldings family in crazy rich asians.

dante isaac campana was brought into the world in madrid spain with a silver spoon dangling out of his mouth. you’d never guess from looking at him, what with his hobo chic style and generally unkept appearance but it’s the truth. he came in this world out of a well paid surrogate as the second child of the infamous sofia and gabriel campana. and he wanted for nothing because of it, his parents made sure of that.

gabriel was a ceo and sofia was a wildly successful author, and from the moment noel could breathe his parents had his whole life set up for him. after all they wanted their son to be successful and they planned to make sure of it. a hefty trust fund in his name, to be accessible at the age of eighteen. a place in the family business that he would fill the moment he finished university. they even had an arrangement for who noel would marry eventually, before he was even old enough to understand what the concept of marriage was. it was all planned out for noel without the slightest bit of input from noel himself, and dante was just supposed for accept that. the funny thing is at first he did.

after all he was young and he had no reason not to. he loved his parents deeply at first, and they probably loved him in return, even if they had a bit of an odd way of showing it. dante’s parents were the type to shower their children in superficial affection. buying them things. kissing and hugging them when there was someone around to see. encouraging them only when it came to pursuits that they approved of. sure noel could draw, and learn guitar, and learn piano, as long as those things were just hobbies. as long as he didn’t forget the plan because The Plan was law.

dante only became aware of how conditional his parents love for them was when his elder sister started to slip under the pressure they put on her shoulders. anya campana was about fifteen at the time, and dante, six years her younger, had to watch as his sister crumbled. anya had always cared too much about what their parents thought of her, about impressing them and making them proud. it didn’t help that her parents made it clear that they would not accept anything less than excellence. the pressure drove anya to substance abuse, just to take the edge off, just to make things easier. it wasn’t long the weight of their parents expectations had drove anya to a full on addiction, all in the pursuit of success. but of course when dante’s parents found out they had no sympathy for her. only disappointment. their father had every plan to make anya, his eldest, the head of the company when she came of age, but that ‘slip up’ cost her the role. instead the position would be given to dante, and anya would be sent quietly to rehab. it was an eye opening experience for dante, honestly. to see just how replaceable their parents saw them.

the truth is the campanas were fake. plastic. sure they smiled in the public eye and the relationship between the siblings at least was genuine, but the truth was gabriel was cheating on sofia when he thought no one was looking, and sofia had openly slapped each of her children across the face at least once, usually when she got a bit too much wine in her. the older dante got the more and more he felt his love for his parents becoming more of an obligation than anything tangible.

when dante was thirteen, around the time anya’s second stint in rehab, all hell broke loose in the campana household. initially dante thought that his mother had uncovered one of his fathers many affairs again, but instead it was much worse. his mother had discovered his father had an illegitimate child with dante’s favourite childhood nanny of all people. considering sofia couldn’t have children herself (hence the surrogate for both of the campana children) and even gabriel was struggling with impotence, this was a shock and a slap in the face. only emphasized by the fact that dante’s ex nanny had passed away, leaving dante’s father as the kids legal guardian.

and so suddenly dante had a younger sibling. it was a situation that took getting used to but it wasn’t long until dante adored them, and the feeling was quickly mutual. while dante’s father could barely interact with the child without inciting his wife, and dante’s mother treated them with coldness, dante and his sibling became painfully close due to circumstance.

for years it went on like that. the three campana siblings all attempting to impress their parents for different reasons. his youngest sibling to feel less like an outsider, dante just because he knew no other way, anya because she desperately wanted to get back into their parents good graces. but anya never could do anything quite right, always somehow ended up messing up spectacularly and publicly. until one day, anya disappeared.

dante and his younger sibling were the first to notice. his parents just assumed that anya was on another bender, and when the siblings brought this to their attention that’s exactly what they said in reply. but they were wrong. in 2012 anya campana was kidnapped and held for a ransom of one billion dollars. dante can still remember getting the ransom call. he can still remember the sheer panic, the cold fear. and he can still remember his father refusing to pay the money. trying to negotiate with the kidnappers, as if anya’s life was just another deal. he can remember begging his father just to pay the money, because it wasn’t like they didn’t have it. but his father was convinced he could get the kidnappers to lower the price, or that the police would find anya before he had to pay it. they didn’t. anya campana died in the winter of 2012 at the hands of a couple of common criminals, all because their father apparently had his own idea about the worth of each of his children.

dante was furious and disgusted and grieving. his sister, his confidante and likely one of the two people in his life to love him unconditionally, was gone. dante officially snapped when his mother had the audacity to write a book about the experience. by the time the book was picked up by a publisher, dante had packed his bags, liquidated his trust fund, taken his younger sibling and fled spain with two new identities for them both. his sibling was under the age of eighteen at the time, so the campanas really could have called the police and reported dante for kidnapping, but dante knew that his parents wouldn’t risk making a scene so soon after the spectacle that anya’s death was. he and his sibling would be safe for a while as long as they laid low. and they did. dante -- now known as noel garcia-- and his sibling moved to san francisco and have been keeping a low profile ever since.

honestly, noel adapted to the american dream like a fish to water. having a new name, having no one in this continent knowing who he was, finally being out from under his parents thumb -- it was all so freeing, and noel really dove head first into that feeling. ever since he’s just been living the life he always dreamed of having. doing exactly what he wants and nothing less one hundred percent of the time (which is exactly how and why he got married, and is still married honestly). he lives his life on pure free spirited impulse one hundred percent of the time, with exception of rare show of responsibility he puts into helping raise his younger sibling. he tries to live his life in a way he hopes would make his sister proud. he’s determined to live enough for the both of them.

somehow, despite the multiple private investigators his parents have undoubtedly sent to find them, they’ve remained undetected. that is until full disclosure decided to expose him. now noel is just waiting for the day one of his parents shows up at his door demanding he come back to take over the family business. he isn’t looking forward to it, but he is kinda looking forward to finally telling them to fuck off, which is really the only silver lining.

PERSONALITY ;

god who knows folks like i said dkjsdjksd noel is a mess in my brain

PASSIONATE THOUGH! god he’s so passionate, like noel just feels everything on 10 one hundred percent of the time. The type to get teary eyed over a dead bird, but also the type to like stay up five days straight working on a project because he can’t get it out of his mind

despite this thinks romantic love is a straight up myth lmao because of his parents relationship, so we love a contradictory king. a bleeding heart but also a philiophobe.

nurturing honestly? but only with people he actually cares about like his sibling and wife. a dad friend i suppose.

but also impulsive. like the type to suggest going to vegas on a whim and get WILDLY FUCKED UP DRUNK, but also that really coherent drunk who can be doing body shots one minute and be trying to gently coax someone else to drink water the next.

thinks he’s funny! sometimes he is tbh. very sarcastic honestly.

a big ol’ flirt just naturally. also bi, so equal opportunity for everybody.

very touchy feely tbh because he’s a tactile person.

a live and let live kinda guy like actually,,, so close to a hippie that percy is triggered.

a bit promiscuous but he’s okay with it. he’s a hoe but he knows it you know.

the most generous person when it comes to money and kindness. the type to sit down with a homeless person and end up giving them his jacket, five hundred dollars, and a new outlook on life.

the type to hold a grudge until the day he dies, but also the type of person who can’t NOT help someone who needs help you know. like he hates his parents but if his mother called him tomorrow like i want to see you one last time before i die, he would fly out to spain to see her smh he might not talk to her the whole time because he’s petty and like ‘there, you’ve seen me’ efjkdsfj but he’d do it.

very liberal. literally can’t talk to conservatives without wanting to physically fight them. has definitely gone to a protest and gotten arrested for punching a nazi. luckily was released before the whole living with a fake identity thing could be found out.

HEADCANNONS ;

alright now onto the fun stuff.

deaf in his left ear and has been all his life. it’s kind of difficult for him to hear a specific person talking in a crowd of too many people, especially if you’re standing on his left so he might straight up text your instead. also if you’re standing on his left side in general, he might turn to face you better to hear you.

noel’s occupation is a chef at a restaurant but in truth at heart he’s an artist. like his art is his heart, and it’s actually very popular and he gets a lot of offers from people wanting to buy it but he can never part with anything he’s made so he always refuses the offers, no matter how much money the customer is bidding. he has refused offers on grounds such as ‘i didn’t like the vibes he was giving off’ or ‘that asshole was wearing a jack johnson shirt’ or even, once ‘pretty sure i saw that guy in a dream once. he fucking sucked.’ so most of his art decorates his and evie’s apartment instead, and he’ll even give some to friends for free. noel actually wants to become a full time artist but considering how picky he is about who actually buys his art, it’s unlikely because he’ll literally make no money. hence, being a chef. no matter what noel enjoys seeing people enjoy his food, so it works out.

actually learned to cook from his family chef, and hasn’t really had time to get any professional training but he really wants to. he has absolutely snuck into culinary school very briefly before just to sit in on a few classes. just pretended he went there and made a bunch of friends and learned a lot of stuff, and even taught some culinary students a few things. but he was eventually discovered and kicked out rip, but it was a great time while it lasted.

honestly pretty good at anything having to do with his hands, hence the artisan label. noel is the type of person who knows nothing about like mechanics but can like fix something if you put it in front of him. likes to make furniture as a hobby so hit your boy up if you want a sexy chair. also makes sculptures and does a bit of pottery, like your boy has his fingers in more than a few pots

intelligent in the way that he just has a lot of pretty well informed opinions like if you want a fun fact don’t go to noel but if you want a good insightful conversation he’s your man.

a big defender of the environment.

has a bunch of tattoos. i imagine him with at least one sleeve and he’s probably starting another. is seriously considering a neck tat. his parents would hate it and that just makes him love it more.

honestly got married a bit because it was a choice he got to make for himself that his parents had no control over. the thought of his parents still believing he will be playing into the arranged marriage they had laid out for him only for him to tell them he already married his bandmate was super satisfying.

doesn't do drugs at all, the most hell do is smoke weed. used to see his sister at her worst (aka withdrawal symptoms, two overdoses) and so he doesn’t even want to be close to anyone who does drugs, cause he can’t do that again.

if you watch jenna marbles i want you to know that noel is julian in the kitchen and julian in the kitchen only

surprisingly has a green thumb? can revive almost any plant with relative ease

never learnt how to ride a bike tbh

surprising the type to get into physical fights when he’s drunk, which he hates, because it reminds him of his mother.

WANTED CONNECTIONS ;

younger sibling ; if you’ve guessed that i’m going to put a wc into the main for noel’s younger sibling than you’ve guessed right but if anyone here wants it before i put the message into the main let me know!

claire to his brad ; ... please. i’m begging here. noel is a chef but i haven’t decided where and i really want him to have a chef friend or baker friend who he just messes around with in the kitchen. maybe they even make amateur funnily little gourmet-makes-esque youtube videos where noel doesn’t show his face because he doesn’t want his parents to see but sdkjsdkj he’s like julian behind the camera, making comments and having a good time. give me this.

a virgo ; speaking of julian, noel does have julian energy and so he therefore probably needs a jenna. please give him someone to help with his impulse control. someone to say, hey, maybe you shouldn’t deep fry that turkey in a huge vat right outside your apartment in the middle of may. maybe you should just take a nap. you know?

a love hate relationship ; honestly i just want someone who noel actively despises but still helps out anyways. like he doesn’t like who they are a person, but he can’t leave them alone, because they’re usually in some sort of trouble and unfortunately noel just can’t watch people implode.

one night stands / hookups / previous dates ; noel’s marriage is open but since he was keeping his whole marriage a secret in the first place these people probably wouldn’t have known that at the time sdkjsdkj but noel is perfectly willing to explain that now that full disclosure has exposed them and he’s got no more secrets to keep.

a best friend ; or two! i’d love a bromance for him and another close friendship that doesn’t have to be a bromance, just someone who he’s really close to.

okay this has gotten hella long so i’m gonna stop now but like this if you want to plot and i’ll come running! and to anyone who got all the way to the end of this... you’re the real mvp. <3

#fdintro #n.g. | bio.#i... think this is longer than percy's #how did that happen #drugs tw #death tw #kidnapping tw #i think that's it!

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clotpolesonly · 5 years

Note

Ohhh, the "♤: Taking a bath together" for Stackson, please and thank you! ♥️

Side B (Smile ‘Cause You Want To)

for @stacksonweek’s day 5 prompt: Established Relationship, and also technically a sequel to my previous fic, Side A (Smile For The Camera) but it can easily be read as a standalone

(also on AO3)

Jackson sank down into the bathtub until nearly every bit of him was submerged in perfectly hot, steamy water. The stress of the day melted out of him bit by bit and he had never been more grateful to have a house with two full bathrooms, tubs included. Otherwise he would’ve had to wait until after Stiles had gotten Henry washed up from his adventures through the muddy backyard, in which case he might have just gone right to bed and missed out on this luxurious indulgence.

The distant sound of Henry’s squeals of laughter reached him, Stiles cursing at the mess they were making, Stiles cursing at himself for cursing in front of the baby, some very loud splashing, more baby giggles. Jackson smiled to himself and slid under the water.

It was quieter when he came up. He must’ve dozed for a while because it seemed like just a second later when the bathroom door opened and Stiles came clomping in. He looked a hot mess. His hair was even more of a disaster than it usually was, his clothes disheveled and thoroughly damp. There were still streaks of bubbles on his shirt and his face.

“You survived bathtime,” Jackson observed.

Stiles snorted. “Just barely.” He pulled his shirt off over his head, tossing it in the vague direction of the laundry hamper as he kicked his shoes aside. “The next time I propose letting Henry run wild and get messy because it’s a natural part of growing up and I did it plenty as a kid, remind me to apologize to my father.” His dirt-streaked jeans joined his shirt.

“What are you doing?” Jackson asked.

“Well, I’m already wet,” Stiles said. “Figured I might as well join you.”

Jackson’s indignant noise was ignored as Stiles stepped right into the already occupied bathtub. It was a chaotic moment of splashing and slipping and tangled limbs until Stiles had managed to successfully insert himself between Jackson’s legs and settle back against his chest. It left the water level dangerous high, but once it stopped sloshing like the inside of a washing machine, it was actually pretty alright. And they somehow managed not to turn the entire bathroom into a swamp in the process.

“Oh yeah, that’s nice,” Stiles sighed, wiggling himself into a more comfortable position.

Jackson refused to agree with him out loud, just on principle, so instead he said, “I assume you got Henry put to bed? Do I need to go tuck him in, say goodnight?”

Stiles groaned. “Don’t you dare. He was out like a light and I swear, if you wake him up again, I will—”

“Okay, okay! No bedtime story for me, then.”

Some nights Jackson would be upset at the prospect, but they’d had a good few minutes when Jackson had gotten home for Henry to babble at him about his exciting day while Stiles had gotten Henry’s bath running, so he would let the kid sleep now. Tomorrow was Saturday anyway; they’d have all day to spend together. If he remembered correctly, the three of them were going to the park to meet up with Scott and Kira and baby Mel.

Mollified, Stiles turned to nuzzle his cheek against Jackson’s chest, sinking just that much lower into the warm water. Then—

“Are you blowing bubbles?” Jackson demanded. “Stiles, are you actually blowing bubbles right now?”

Stiles stopped, leaning his head back instead to pout at Jackson upside down. “What, so Henry’s allowed to blow bubbles in the bath and I’m not?”

“Henry is three years old.”

“Age is but a number, my love,” Stiles intoned with an air of great wisdom and significance. “I’m three at heart.”

“That explains so much about you.”

Stiles snorted and tried to slap at Jackson’s leg, but there were four inches of water in the way so it wasn’t very effective. He didn’t seem to care much, just settling back into the cradle of Jackson’s arms without further complaint.

Jackson leaned down to press a kiss to Stiles’ wet shoulder. “You must be really worn out to just let that go.”

“Toddlers, man,” Stiles said. “They’re a lot.”

“A lot of what?”

“Just…a lot.”

Sometimes Jackson felt guilty for having an office job that kept him away so much. Not that Stiles didn’t work too, but his job was the flexible one, and that meant he was the one home with the baby most of the day. That Jackson had fought with his boss to get a modified four day week had helped, but Stiles was still left with the lion’s share of the daily child-watching responsibilities and it was a rare day that didn’t leave him exhausted.

Jackson tightened his grip. “You gonna fall asleep on me?”

“Maybe.”

“Will you be grumpy if I let you fall asleep and then wake you up in a few minutes?”

There was a moment of silence, long enough for Jackson to wonder if Stiles actually had fallen asleep in the last few seconds, before Stiles made a plaintive noise. “Probably,” he admitted.

Jackson hid his smile in Stiles’ hair, then dropped a kiss there. “Then come on,” he said. “Up we get. Now, before you lose all will to move and I have to carry you to bed.”

“You know, that’s not as much of a disincentive as you seem to think it is.”

“If you can still use the word ‘disincentive’, then you’re awake enough to get there on your own.”

Stiles grumbled but was relatively cooperative when Jackson pushed him upright. They toweled off in turn, passing the towel between them since Stiles hadn’t thought to get one for himself out of the hall closet before crashing Jackson’s bath. He was swaying on his feet by the time Jackson had herded him into their bedroom and began manhandling them both into pajama pants, eyes drooping, mumbling out something only moderately coherent about their plans for tomorrow.

Jackson shushed him and pushed him down on the bed. “You just go to sleep,” he said. “I’m gonna go check on Henry.”

“Don’ wake ’m,” Stiles slurred into the pillow.

Pulling the comforter up to tuck his husband in, Jackson smiled. “I won’t. Promise.”

That was enough of a reassurance, apparently, because Stiles burrowed deeper into his nest with an appreciative noise. Before Jackson could leave, though, Stiles reached out to catch his hand on some sort of sleepy reflex. Whatever he tried to say was too muddled by tiredness and pillow to be decipherable, but Jackson didn’t need to hear the question to understand it.

“I’ll be right back,” he said. “I promise that too.”

Stiles let him go and was fast asleep by the time he even got to the door. Jackson leaned there for a long minute, just watching him. Then, in a fit of sentimentality that was much more Stiles’ wont than his own, he retrieved his phone from the dresser and snapped a picture. It had taken over a year to finally broke Stiles of the nervous habit of filming every moment of every day, but that didn’t mean some moments didn’t still deserve to be memorialized.

And this moment, as Jackson left his husband content in their bed to go check on their sleeping son, was about as perfect a moment as he could think of.

#stacksonweek2019 #Stackson #Jackson Whittemore #Stiles Stilinski #Teen Wolf #daddy!Stiles #daddy!Jackson #fics by me #rieraclaelin #and the answer is

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raywritesthings · 5 years

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Mended Hearts 2/3

My Writing Fandom: Arrow Characters: Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, Thea Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Quentin Lance, Barry Allen, Cisco Ramon, Iris West, Harry Wells, Henry Allen, Hunter Zolomon Pairing: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen Summary: When Felicity refuses to take part in the plan to capture Cupid, Oliver must find something else to lure the love-obsessed archer in… or someone else. The trouble with the best laid plans is that they often have unintended consequences. Notes: I originally said this was going to be two chapters, but it got long so chapter 2 has been split into two parts. The next part should be out soon! *Can be read on my AO3 or FFN, links are in my bio*

Laurel should have never agreed to this. What had she done to him?

“I’m aware the situation is unusual, but given that it is, couldn’t an exception for an annulment be made? I realize that’s asking a lot of the office.”

“It is. I appreciate your consideration on that,” the county clerk told her. “But that’s the thing: we have no legal precedent for this sort of arrangement, and I’m not sure I want our office to set it. It opens up the laws to a lot of loopholes.”

“Yeah, it does,” she couldn’t help but agree. Laurel wished she hadn’t bothered to put her shoes back on; all of this nervous pacing she was doing was starting to hurt her feet. But it was better than having to stand there and look at the others, especially Oliver.

He was counting on her to fix this, and it seemed increasingly likely she wasn’t going to be able to.

“You could challenge it in court,” the clerk offered. “Have a judge set the precedent.”

She could, but that would take time and money, two things Oliver didn’t have a lot of. She’d shoulder the cost if she had to, but her own schedule was stretched pretty tight as it was what with her day job and nighttime activities.

There was also the press to consider. Did they really want to make an even bigger deal out of this than it already was going to be? Just thinking of all the headlines she would come across was exhausting.

“I’ll go over our options with- with Oliver,” she told the woman. It wasn’t her place to call him her husband even if it was legally true. For the moment, anyway. “Thank you.”

When she hung up and turned around, she watched four hopeful faces sink. “The clerk’s hands are tied. Her recommendation is to bring our case before a judge.”

Oliver frowned, almost to himself. “That’s going to take a lot of time.”

“Even just to hear it, yeah.” She hates seeing the disappointment in his eyes on multiple levels, but for now she did her best to cast around for some other way. “Talk to Jean. Family law is her specialization. She might know something I’m missing.”

Oliver nodded, seeming to rally. “Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.”

“And I’ll go with you,” Thea said. “This is gonna take some explaining.” She left the room with her brother after shooting Laurel a quick, reassuring smile. Laurel couldn’t help noticing Thea had to practically guide Oliver. He looked to still be in something of a daze.

John left his spot standing against the wall. “Are you okay?” He asked her. When Laurel nodded, he continued, “We’ll get this figured out. For now, the important thing is that you're both safe and we stopped Cupid.”

“Right,” Laurel agreed. “You should get home, John. Get some rest.”

“You too.”

“I’ll make sure she does,” her father said. He and John exchanged nods before the latter of the two left. Her dad then turned to regard her with a look. “Are you? Okay?”

Laurel let out a sigh. She still wasn’t a huge fan of the people in her life doubting her ability for self-assessment. “Yes, I am.”

He shook his head. “Laurel, I may have just lost my badge, but I’m not stupid. You’re still in love with him, and now you’re stuck in this, this—”

“Loveless marriage?” She supplied. “Yeah, I know. And I know I have to be okay, because if I’m not… if I let myself fall apart the way I might want to, or cry or say the things I’m really thinking, it’s just going to prove everyone who said I was too emotional or too much of a burden to do this job right. I have worked so hard to get to where I am, and I cannot lose that, dad. It’s all I really have.”

Despite herself, tears were pricking at her eyes, and she knew he could see them because he gathered her into his arms.

“Not to me,” he muttered into her ear. “You can cry all you want in front of me. I know how strong you really are. And I couldn’t be prouder of you.”

Laurel closed her eyes and smiled despite everything. A few tears leaked out, but she was stronger than she’d been. It was enough to ease some of the pounding pressure that had been building up behind her eyes.

“Let’s get you home.”

Her dad dropped her off at the back of the building, and she insisted he continue on to his own apartment to get some rest. Laurel took all three flights of stairs up to her floor, knowing it would be the surest way of avoiding anyone. She was sure she looked a mess by now in a dirty wedding dress with tangled hair and smudged makeup. What a wedding.

Laurel walked through her apartment, sighing as she noticed the taped-up window and the missing couch — probably taken for evidence. Nothing she wasn’t used to. She kicked her heels off one by one and stepped into the bathroom, unzipping her dress and letting it crumple to the floor. She’d pick it up at some point, get it ready for Thea to send to the cleaners and then shove it into the very back of her closet when they returned it to gain dust and be forgotten about.

She got in the shower and stood under the spray for far too long, but water was included in her rent so what did it matter? It felt better to just not have to think for a while. Eventually she stepped back out and dried off, grabbing her comfiest pajamas and throwing her bathrobe on top because she could. It was her home, and she was alone for the moment.

When she finally checked her messages, she found two from Thea.

Jean says it looks like no dice

She’s also mad Ollie didn’t come to her about drawing up a prenup. For you or for Felicity

Laurel let out a snort through her nose at that. Trust Jean to still be looking out for the Queen family interests — what little of them still existed.

She was just deciding whether to settle in an armchair or take an extremely early bedtime when there was a knock at her door. Laurel checked at the peephole and nearly dropped her head against the wood when she saw who it was. But she needed to answer, so she pulled open the door. “Felicity, I’m so sorry.”

Felicity held up a hand. “Don’t. I’m not here because I’m angry.”

“You’re not?” Laurel wanted to slap herself a minute later. It wasn’t kind to assume her friend would be angry. So she let her into the apartment instead.

“Nope. Well, not at you. I just wanted to get some facts straight. Oliver talked you into his crazy get-married-so-Cupid-will-try-to-kill-us scheme?”

“Well, she needed to be drawn out.”

“And somehow it turned into a real marriage?”

“Legally speaking. Cutter had us knocked out for a long time, and by the time we got back to the station, the officiant had taken the papers to be filed,” she explained.

“And you can’t just get it annulled?”

Laurel shook her head. “There’s no legal precedent for a couple who knowingly enters a marriage to catch a criminal. If one of us had lied to the other about that purpose, then maybe. But we both knew what we were doing. Oliver’s trying to see if his family lawyer can find a loophole, but...”

“We all know how much good Oliver trying does,” Felicity said with a nod.

“He really didn’t want to do this without you,” Laurel told her. She felt like she needed to say something to try and salvage this, at any rate. Especially since Felicity wasn’t coming at her with accusations she would’ve had every right to.

But her friend shook her head. “If I’d known he was going to do something like this, I would’ve stepped in. Well, not literally. I’m still glad I didn’t put myself in a position to get shot — frankly, I don’t think I ever want to be in that position ever again.” Felicity stepped forward and took her hands. “But I’m so sorry he dragged you into this. He — wow, is this the ring?”

“Oh, um, yeah.” She’d forgotten she was still wearing it.

Felicity tsked. “He made it from one of his arrows. He’s certainly good at penny-pinching for being a former billionaire.”

“He made it?” She echoed. She’d thought the metal looked familiar, but he’d left the signature green color off of it. Laurel had to fight down a little flutter in her chest, knowing it was foolish and sentimental for no reason.

“So, we can’t get you out of this, but I am going to do my part to make sure Oliver doesn’t totally ruin your life. I’m having a press conference tonight to clear the air. The board tried to veto it — they try to veto everything. But you don’t have to do a thing,” Felicity told her.

“Felicity, thank you so much,” Laurel said. She felt so relieved the other woman didn’t hate her, that they could still be friends even with this new, strange arrangement.

“You are so welcome. Just try and take a me-day. Pajamas are good. If I were you I’d have something strong — but I totally understand why you wouldn’t. That was not meant as a suggestion, please don’t do that.”

“There is no alcohol in the apartment so that would be pretty hard,” Laurel informed her, her smile just a little tighter than before.

“Okay, good. I should get going, don’t want to be late. Actually,” she paused in the doorway. “How long does it take to divorce if you can’t get an annulment?”

“We’d have to wait a year to actually file the paperwork,” Laurel told her truthfully.

“A year.” Felicity hummed to herself. “Well, all I can say is good luck with that.” With that, she left.

Well, that was one less cause for worry in her life. With Felicity giving a statement expressing her understanding of the situation, maybe it would all just blow over. She dropped into her armchair, resting her head on the back for a few peaceful moments.

Laurel’s phone buzzed again. She sat up and checked it.

Just left Jean’s. Not really sure what to do with Ollie. Leaving him in the base rn seems...bad

Laurel sighed. Bring him over

It wasn’t like people would be surprised to see him here. She could make up a bed on the floor in the living room since her couch had been taken.

She’d just finished bringing out the extra blankets in the linen closet and one of the pillows from her bed when the front door opened and Thea and her brother walked through. “Hey.”

“Hey. Where’s the couch?”

“Impounded.”

“Ugh.” Thea threw herself into the unoccupied armchair instead. “That was the longest day of my life. I totally forgot what listening to all that legal jargon does to my brain.”

Laurel privately thought Thea was hamming it up on purpose, and the knowing smile she exchanged with Oliver seemed to indicate he was aware himself. Then they both quickly glanced away.

“Uh, thanks for this,” he said after a beat too long of silence, walking over to his makeshift bed.

“No problem. I don’t know when you wanted to turn in, but, well, I was planning to watch something before bed.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. It’s… Felicity’s giving a press conference. About, well, this,” she told them both, twisting the handmade ring on her finger. It was a perfect fit. How had he managed that?

Oliver didn’t look like he knew what to say.

“You talked to her?” Asked Thea.

“She came over to tell me she wasn’t mad about it happening. I guess she wants to get out in front of the tabloids.”

“Good,” said Oliver after a beat. Some hope seemed to spark in his eyes. “That’s good.”

Felicity had gotten herself a spot at the top of the evening news and looked to be speaking just outside of Palmer Tech’s headquarters when they all gathered to watch. Thea had remained in the chair, so she and Oliver stood against opposite ends of the kitchen archway.

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I’ll admit, I was just as surprised when I woke up this morning to the news, but I’ve done some fact checking. So this is my statement on the record.” On screen, Felicity took in what looked like a nervous breath. “Okay, first of all, I’m not angry about the situation. My relationship with Oliver officially ended last month, and I am not interested in going back down that road. At all.”

Laurel glanced to her right to see Oliver wince. She looked down, unsure what if any comfort she could provide to hearing that.

“I’m especially not angry at Laurel Lance, who is my friends as well as a dedicated public servant. I understand she agreed to helping the police catch a killer and that she was not expecting to wind up officially married. I hope the situation can be resolved soon and that she will be allowed out of this arrangement.” Felicity looked up from whatever she’d been reading off of and added, “So that’s basically it.”

“Ms. Smoak, could you answer some follow up questions?” A reporter in the crowd asked.

“Um, I suppose so?”

“Oh boy,” Thea said softly. Laurel could admit to her own worry; Felicity did not do the best at spontaneous question-and-answer.

“What was the reason for your separation from Oliver Queen?”

Laurel tensed. There was no way Felicity would think about mentioning William. But then, how was she going to explain it?

On screen, Felicity sighed. “Look, I’ll be the first person to say that Oliver is a good man. But relationships… are not his area. He tries, really. But it’s hard for him, you know, with his past. The stuff from the island — when he was shipwrecked, remember? — it kind of makes him not great marriage material. I mean, Laurel would know that better than anyone and she’s stuck with him for a year now.” Felicity laughed briefly, then stopped when no one joined in. “Um, but that’s — I should probably leave it at that.”

She left the podium to calls of her name while Laurel watched in silent horror. Yes, William was still a secret, but what had Felicity just done to Oliver’s reputation? And unthinkingly at that? She couldn’t even bring herself to look at him.

The feed cut to Bryan Green, their local news anchor, looking about as bemusedly shocked as Laurel had ever seen him. “Not so much a hostile takeover as a hostile takedown by CEO Felicity Smoak of Palmer Tech, the former Queen Consolidated.”

“Smoak served as Oliver Queen’s secretary before moving to the top job,” his female cohost added. “I think we may have only witnessed the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Mr. Queen’s dirty laundry—”

The television shut off.

“What the hell was that.”

“Thea?” Her brother asked quietly.

For Thea was sitting coiled tight in the chair, her knuckles clenched white and shaking as she tossed the remote onto the side table. If Laurel didn’t know Thea had been cured of the bloodlust over a month ago, she might have started to worry.

“She just dragged your name through the mud on live television!”

“It- it wasn’t dragging—”

“Oliver, Thea’s right. What happened just now was basically slander, if not defamation.” Laurel still couldn’t quite believe what she’d witnessed. Sure, sometimes Felicity said things without thinking, but this had been far beyond an innocent slip of the tongue!

“She’s also putting words in my mouth that I would never say about you.” Laurel wanted to be certain he understood that at the very least.

When she did look at him, he seemed lost more than anything. His eyes kept straying to the television as if hoping it would blink back on with a just kidding! flashing across the screen.

“I don’t think she meant to do that.”

“Ollie, does it matter?” Asked Thea. “I mean, people are gonna think you’re some kind of basket case, and you’re not. What’d she even have to bring up the island for?”

“I think I’m gonna turn in,” Oliver said, walking forward and pulling back the blankets Laurel had lain on the floor.

“You’re sure?”

He just nodded, and there wasn’t much she or Thea could do in response. They all were exhausted and unhappy. She shut the lights off for him and retreated to her room.

Laurel returned to a very awkward atmosphere at work. Her coworkers and assistants all seemed wary of mentioning the elephant in the room, and Laurel wasn’t particularly interested in discussing it with them either. There was at least enough to do in the office that it left little time for small talk.

The base seemed to have that same oppressive air, unfortunately. None of them knew how to address what had happened, with the case against Cupid or with the press conference and their missing team member. Oliver was largely spending all his time indoors now, not wanting to face the scrutiny of the public, and Laurel was growing more worried for him by the day. He’d moved back into the base, however, so she could really only see to him during training or out in the field. If there was some way to give him a more permanent home with her and Thea without making it seem she was overreaching their established friendship.

“I’m gonna go see her,” Thea decided one morning while Laurel was still trying to puzzle out how to offer Oliver a drawer without making it sound romantic.

She blinked and looked up. “Her?”

“Felicity. She’s gotta put out a new statement. A written one or something where she’s not just saying the first thing that comes to her mind.” Her friend scowled.

Laurel didn’t totally disagree with that plan of action, but she did caution, “Try to approach it as a friend, Thea. Felicity feels hurt by what happened, and I’m not sure criticism is going to go over well.”

“She could stand to grow up about that,” Thea muttered under her breath, but sighed when Laurel held her gaze. “Fine. But only because I don’t want her blurting something about William.”

“Exactly.”

Unfortunately, the day Thea picked to talk to their old teammate happened to be the day a criminal named Brie Larvan chose to attack Palmer Tech, trapping both Thea and Felicity inside. She, John and Oliver were left to try and figure out a way to take on Larvan and her tech, which went badly when her swarm of robotic bees — because that was just life now — headed straight towards them.

Laurel’s view was obscured when Oliver suddenly lunged across in front of her. He took the hit for her.

They rushed him back to the base and Curtis Holt, who had accidentally found their base and learned their secret identities when trying to get help for his boss. Laurel hovered over Oliver writhing in pain on the medical table as Curtis tried to figure out what they might need to halt the damage being done to him.

“We can save him, right?” Her dad asked. He glanced at her. “Cause this is gonna look pretty suspicious if your husband ends up dead less than a month after your wedding.”

She scowled. “Not much Queen gold left for me to dig for, dad.”

He winced. “Right. Sorry.”

Curtis interrupted with a description of the needed cure, which just so happened to match the capabilities of her Cry device. Laurel handed it off to Curtis to make the necessary adjustments, gripping Oliver’s hand while she waited.

The feel of metal against her skin caused her to look closer at his hand; the ring was still on his finger. He must have pulled his gloves on over it when they suited up. Laurel’s own was sitting in a pouch on her belt beside the old photo, and her heart beat a funny rhythm as she stared at the little piece of jewelry he wore.

“We’re ready for you, Mrs. Queen.”

Laurel blanched. “I didn’t change my name.”

“Oh, sorry. Wasn’t trying to assume patriarchal standards. I mean, you go!” Curtis babbled with an awkward fist pump.

“It’s not that,” Laurel said shaking her head. “Mrs. Queen was Oliver and Thea’s mother. I would never dream of stepping into those shoes.” She took the device and fastened it back around her neck. “Now how is this going to save Oliver?”

She was directed to stand several paces away and signaled to use the device. For a long moment, Oliver’s face scrunched up in pain and only the knowledge that this was to save him allowed her to continue. Then he relaxed, and Curtis indicated to her to stop.

They strategized while Oliver slowly woke up and regained his bearings. “The good news is we now know a way to neutralize Larvan’s tech,” Curtis said.

“Alright, Laurel and I will head to Palmer Tech’s headquarters,” Oliver decided.

Laurel frowned. “Oliver, you nearly died on that table, and there’s no telling what would happen if Larvan gets another attack in. You need to rest.”

“I need to be there,” he insisted. His hands were twitching at his sides and every muscle she could still see since he’d yet to put on a shirt was tense.

“Actually, think you need to listen to your wife on this one, Oliver,” John said in total deadpan. She threw a look at him over her shoulder, sure that Oliver was likely doing the same.

“Can we have a minute?”

Their teammate, her father and Curtis moved into the side room. Laurel faced Oliver again.

“What’s this really about? You know John and I can handle it. With Thea already there, even more so. You would be telling any one of us to rest if it were us in your place.” It should’ve been her, she thought privately. If he hadn’t jumped in front it would’ve been.

“It’s not about who’s capable, it’s just…” he trailed off.

“I’m listening,” she told him. By the way his eyes briefly widened, she knew he caught the reference to his vows. She’d been unable to get them out of her head.

Oliver’s shoulders slumped. “If I’m not the one that goes, then it looks like I don’t care.”

Her eyes dropped to the ground. “About Felicity.”

“I know Thea thinks I’m crazy to still want to try — but Felicity, she’s just angry. She has a right to be. I can’t blame her for her words any more than I’d blame you or me for half the things we’ve said to each other.”

“No,” Laurel said, then forced herself not to sound so quiet, “I suppose not.”

“I can’t just give up. I need to be better than that, better than I have been,” he said, eyes pleading with her. “You understand.”

“I do.” God, she was going to grow to hate those words someday.

Oliver smiled for her, just a brief, grateful flash of teeth. Then he walked back to the table and picked up the top half of his suit.

“Ollie.”

He stopped and turned.

“You might want to leave the ring,” she told him, watching his eyes widen as he looked down at his hand. He must have just forgotten it was there at all. Laurel looked away as his footsteps faded back to the changing area.

She turned and went to find the others. “John, he’s going to need a ride.”

John sighed and left. Curtis watched with a puzzled frown.

“You’re not going with him?”

“This is something he needs to do.” She left the room again before he, or more likely her father, could say anything more to that.

It was stupid, she knew. It wasn’t like Oliver’s feelings for Felicity had changed, no matter what unfortunate things came out of Felicity’s mouth in the wake of their breakup. He was supposed to keep trying with her; that’s what Laurel wanted for him.

There were just things she wanted too, that were never meant to be.

---

When Oliver reached Felicity’s office, Thea was already knocked out on the floor. He distracted Larvan and tried to talk her down, though instead of running Felicity used a lamp to short out Larvan’s robotic helper and the feedback knocked the woman out of commission as well.

“Lay down, bee-yotch!” Felicity crowed in triumph as Oliver came up to her side.

“Felicity.” Now that he was here, he didn’t know what he’d meant to say. It had been so clear in his head when he explained himself to Laurel; stop Larvan’s attack on Felicity, then reconnect with the woman he’d meant to marry.

She grimaced while turning towards him. “So… thank you. But in the future, I think it’d be best if John or Laurel handled my rescues.”

“Why?” Surely she didn’t doubt his ability in the field at the least.

“Aside from me not wanting to see you? Well, your sister made things perfectly clear.”

Oliver looked to Thea who had yet to stir. He took a step towards her and looked back. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, how I wasn’t allowed to say this or that about you? Even if it was all true?” She told him in rhetorical. “We can’t all look the other way like Laurel does and forgive you every terrible thing you do, Oliver.”

He blinked. She couldn’t mean that literally, could she? “William is not terrible, or a thing, Felicity.”

“Considering what family he’s part of, I wouldn’t be too sure,” she muttered.

Oliver had started to crouch down to check on Thea, but froze. “Excuse me?”

Felicity spun back around. “Oh, come on. You can’t pretend the Queens don’t have a track record!” A disbelieving laugh left her. “I mean, your father, your mother—”

“I gave you her ring,” he reminded her, his voice sounding cold to his own ears.

“Jury’s still out on whether Thea gets it from your side or Malcolm’s—”

“Don’t.”

Felicity paused mid-sentence and looked at him. “I’m sorry?”

He stood there, physically shaking. “I don’t care what you say about me. You have every right to criticize how I handled our relationship.” His hand twitched at his side, and he couldn’t remember being so angry and yet so terrified in one moment. “But my family is not a part of that. They are not for you to mock.”

Felicity gaped at him, like he’d spoken in one of the other two languages he knew instead of plain English. But on the floor, Thea groaned.

“Ugh, my head.”

“Hey, careful,” he cautioned, helping her sit up slowly. She’d come here to defend him, he realized, when he wouldn’t defend himself. His voice sounded suspiciously thick when he asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Eh, could be worse.”

“Clear!” A voice shouted in the hallway outside the office. The SCPD had to nearly be done with their sweep of the building. He needed to leave.

“Get checked out by a medic if they brought one, then come and meet me and John in the van,” he instructed his sister. His eyes lifted to Felicity. “I’ll pass on your request about future incidents.”

She took a step towards him as he moved to the window. “Oliver—”

The wind frowned out whatever else she might have said as he jumped and used a grapple arrow to swing out of sight of the building. He located John parked two blocks away and climbed into the passenger seat.

“We’re waiting for one more,” he said.

“So, how did it go?” It was obvious John wasn’t asking about the rescue mission.

Oliver stayed silent. His friend seemed to realize what that meant and wisely stayed silent as well.

After a few minutes, a phone buzzed. “The missus is checking in,” John remarked, probably hoping to lighten the mood. He showed Oliver his phone screen with Laurel’s message pulled up: are you guys ok

“Tell her we’re just waiting for Thea,” Oliver replied, then sighed. “And you all need to stop doing that.”

“Sorry,” said John, and he at least sounded it. “Look, hopefully someday we’ll all be able to laugh about this. Maybe at your real wedding.”

“You’re going to be holding your breath if you’re waiting for that,” he mumbled.

“Oliver, Felicity just needs time, like you said—”

Oliver sat up straighter in his seat and turned to his friend. “Has she ever said anything to you about my family?”

“Like what?”

“Like something you wouldn’t want said about your family.”

John shifted in his seat. “Come on, man…”

“John, I need to know.” If Felicity has said those things in the heat of the moment, maybe that was one thing. It was a thing he wasn’t happy about, but maybe he’d not made it clear enough that his family was off-limits.

“She never talked much about Thea before she joined the team, and you know, they were fine before this whole breakup thing.”

Oliver thought ‘fine’ was maybe oversimplifying things — with dread, he remembered a night in Nanda Parbat shortly before their relationship was consummated when Felicity asked him what Thea’s life was worth — but he set that aside.

“What about my mother?”

By the way John hunched in, he knew his friend had an answer he didn’t want to say. Or perhaps, didn’t want Oliver to hear.

“John.”

“Look, Oliver, you gotta admit that things with your mom were—”

“Trust me that you don’t want to finish that sentence.”

“She and Felicity never got along,” John told him.

Oliver nodded to himself, processing that. Even if that were the case, it didn’t have to mean what he was truly fearing. “So what did she say about her? If you don’t tell me, I’m just gonna assume the worst.”

“Is ‘diabolical’ the worst?”

Oliver winced. His mother had been no saint, Lord knew, but that? “And what prompted that?”

“What’s the point, Oliver—”

He spoke half over his friend. “When did she say that to you?”

John eyed him for a long moment. “It was at the memorial.”

His breath left him in one great rush, like he’d been punched in the gut. “How could she?”

“It was years ago, man. I mean, what has you asking about it now?”

“Because I’m realizing I didn’t think some things through,” he admitted, miserable at the truth of it. He’d given Felicity his mother’s ring while knowing at least a fraction of the tension that had existed between the two, simply because he had always thought of proposing with his mother's ring. And he’d proposed, and been planning to propose, so soon because he’d thought they were happy and understood each other after working on the team together. Had that really not been the case?

There was a tap on the side door and Thea slid it open a moment later. “Thanks for the lift. They don’t want me driving anything cause of my head. Hey, uh, did I miss anything while I was out?”

Oliver stared out the window but caught John’s reflection shaking his head as if warning her not to ask.

“Ollie, if I messed up, I’m sorry.”

He looked back around at her then. “You didn’t mess up, Speedy. You — mom would be proud of you.”

A tentative, if confused, smile graced her lips.

“Let’s get back,” he directed to John. The further he was from Palmer Tech right now, the better.

Oliver made sure to stick close to his sister as they entered the base. “Thea has a possible concussion,” he stated for the room’s benefit.

“I’m not showing any symptoms yet,” Thea said with a roll of her eyes.

“Still, we need to make sure you’re resting and taking it easy the next few days.”

“He’s right,” Laurel agreed. “The worst thing you can do right now is push yourself, Speedy. Was everyone else at Palmer Tech okay?”

“Yeah, except Larvan,” John replied with an awkward cough. “Felicity, uh, knocked her out. Hospital’s working on it.”

Oliver tried not to react to the mention of Felicity, but he noticed Laurel’s concerned gaze on him anyway.

He touched his sister’s shoulder. “Let me get changed, and then we can get you home.”

“Okay.”

Oliver accompanied them back to the apartment by some unspoken agreement. Laurel was gentle with his sister as ever the whole way back and while making sure she ate and got ready for sleep. He thought again about the possibility of her one day moving on — in a year from now, maybe, thanks to his screw-up — and building a family of her own. It was not unpleasant the way it had been when he’d contemplated it the first time; it was agonizing.

They sent Thea to bed early and he stood in her doorway for a while watching her.

“You could just stay.”

Laurel’s lips were pressed tight together when he turned around to find her watching him as well.

“Here?”

“Yeah. Not as — we can figure out some kind of arrangement. Something that works for the three of us.”

He looked past her for a long moment into her sitting room, his eyes landing on that desk with that letter inside. Then he glanced at her bare left hand where she’d removed his ring. “Is that something you’d want?”

She shrugged, her head ducked and not letting him get a good look at her face. “It just seems to make the most sense. At least until you want to find your own place.”

Oliver nodded, his throat bobbing against his will. “Right.”

She’d gotten a new couch since the last time he’d stayed over, so she made up a bed for him there with the blankets and one of her pillows. Just as she headed back towards the hallway, he called out to stop her.

“Laurel. Thank you for letting me go to stop Larvan. I… I needed to do that.”

She stood there, one hand on her wall and looked back. “Do you think things are going to work out?”

He held her gaze. “Not the way I was expecting, but, I hope so.”

“Then I’m happy for you.” She watched him shift a slight step forward, but said, “Goodnight, Ollie.” Then retreated to her room.

He sank onto the couch, his face landing in her pillow. Like the first night she’d lent it to him, it smelled faintly of her shampoo. Laurel had never used perfume, he remembered it was something she used to fight about with Sara because of their shared bathroom in their parents’ house. The faint lavender scent was a familiar memory, too. Guilt washed over him the same way it had the last couple weeks since this marriage began. Then anger and sadness at what he’d learned Felicity truly thought rose up as well. They warred within him, his face screwed up to try and hold it all in.

Why did he have to be so conflicted? He felt bereft now that the rush of being in love with Felicity had blown out as if it were nothing more than one of the candles sitting in Laurel’s fireplace. Surrounded by the comforts of Laurel’s home, he still felt the outsider, if only because he had refused them and run from them time and time again.

His sleep was fitful and filled with vague images of loneliness and his mother’s sad look. Oliver didn’t realize how late it was until he heard two people moving around the kitchen.

“...said Ollie kind of freaked out about it.”

“Well, you’re all very important to him. If I found out my fiancé had said something like that about my dad, I don’t know what I’d have done.”

“Your husband might have said an unflattering thing or two in the past, just putting that out there.”

Laurel snorted.

Oliver opened his eyes but remained lying still, listening.

“He’s entitled to it after all the things my father’s said in return. And they’ve made up for the most part.”

There was the clink of metal against ceramic. A bowl? A plate? Some kind of utensil.

Thea’s voice sounded wistful. “Makes you wonder…”

“Don’t start with that,” Laurel scolded. Oliver frowned to himself.

“Well, why not?” What he thought was Thea’s chair gave a little scrape. She must have sat up with this new burst of energy. “I mean, yeah the proposal was lackluster and the rings were kinda homey—”

“I liked the rings. They were fine, I mean,” Laurel said. Her voice grew closer and he thought she must have been trying to move away from Thea’s scrutiny. “I still don’t know how he made it a perfect fit.”

Oliver thought of that afternoon, opening her case and borrowing one of the fingerless gloves she wore out in the field for measurements. He couldn’t help smirking to himself, amused that this had provided a sort of air of intrigue to the whole thing.

“I almost want to let him keep sleeping,” Laurel mused aloud. She had to be watching the back of the couch from the kitchen archway. He let his eyelids flutter closed just in case. “He must feel terrible. It’s hard, being in love and then suddenly it just goes…”

The faint amusement he still felt dimmed at those words. Laurel’s footsteps padded away.

Was that how it had been for her? Shock and anger that gave way to this sort of ache mixed in with bitter embarrassment over believing in a kind of lie? He never wanted to cause her that kind of pain. Was this why he couldn’t get a read on her true feelings about the situation they’d landed themselves in?

Yet Laurel had forgiven him, just as Felicity had said yesterday. He didn’t see how he could find it in himself to do the same. Maybe the wound was too fresh or maybe he just wasn’t as good of a person. Laurel was the better of them, after all.

She was kind and caring and warm. Steady instead of bubbly and giddy like a new relationship always was. He was reaching a point in his life where steady felt less like a dead-end and more like home. They knew each other, and there were few surprises left; even the times they surprised each other made sense after a moment’s thought as to what they knew.

He’d been horrified as to what he’d accidentally done when the county clerk had confirmed their marriage; yet the longer he thought about it, the more relieved he was that it was Laurel to whom he was married. It was temporary and platonic, but he thought it was exactly what he needed at the moment.

He’d lost himself in Felicity and their whirlwind courtship, and he needed to find himself again.

Over the next week, Oliver found himself spending a lot of his free time with Laurel. When she wasn’t at work, anyway. Those times were often when he kept Thea company and ignored her searching looks. His sister was a shrewd observer indeed.

And then work decided to throw Laurel a curveball. Ruve Darhk, newly appointed mayor with no one running against her anymore, approached her about taking the DA spot. Laurel, it turned out, didn’t know what to do.

She spoke to Oliver about it. The irony he was sure wasn’t lost on either of them about married couples making life decisions together. But that she wanted his advice touched him more deeply than he thought she was aware. Oliver told her earnestly that he felt the city needed her. What better way to make change on a structural level than having one of their own shaping policies? It had been part of his drive to campaign, after all.

“Well, it’s not the mayor job, but you would get to accompany me to the swearing-in ceremony if you wanted,” she told him with a smile that was only half-teasing. “Spouses are welcome.”

He ducked his head, a huff of a laugh leaving him and, when he looked back up, Laurel’s eyes were shining bright at his amusement. “I’d be honored.”

But Darhk had other plans for their time. Some of Malcolm’s separatists stole the idol they were guarding in the base and a prison riot began in Iron Heights. When Oliver asked, Laurel didn’t hesitate to suit up with them all again. Truthfully, he didn’t know what they’d do without her in the field as well as Felicity missing from the computers. But he wanted her to move forward with her life and her career. He didn’t want her stuck the way he was.

They fought their way through the prison riot until coming across Darhk, who captured Andy. With his brother’s life being threatened, it was John’s call to lower their weapons.

It was the wrong call.

Andy turned out to be a double agent, working for Darhk still this whole time. The bitter realization he had been right after all was only allowed a moment, as Darhk regained the last piece of his idol from Andy and his powers along with it. All four of them launched into action, but none of them were able to land a hit on Darhk before he had them either thrown back like Thea or frozen like he, Laurel and John found themselves.

Like always, he allowed himself to brag. This time about now knowing their identities. “It was really just a hop, skip, and a jump from the whole Diggle connection to you to your little sister to your wife,” he told Oliver with a slight chuckle. “But when you came to rescue that boy William, that look on your face, that was a father's look. I should have recognized it there and then.” If he could, Oliver would have clenched his fist. That man didn’t get to mention his son so casually.

And then Darhk approached Laurel. Malcolm claimed something about needing to leave, but it was distant to Oliver’s ears as he was powerless to do anything but watch. Darhk ignored him. “Ms. Lance, nine months ago, I made your daddy a promise. I told him what I would do if he betrayed me.”

Oliver’s eyes narrowed, and it was instinct to grab an arrow and fire before he even realized he truly was moving. How was he moving?

Darhk only barely caught the arrow that shot towards his head with a grunt.

“Impressive,” he noted with a look towards him, and Oliver felt the breath stutter in his chest as he was frozen again. “Now where was I? Oh, yeah. I want you to give your father a message from me. I want you to tell him—”

His arm moved back, the arrow in his grasp—

No, Oliver thought desperately. Please, whatever that was before. I can’t lose her, not her. I made a vow!

He was no longer in two minds; the doubt was gone. And as he drew breath, Oliver knew what was truly in his heart.

---

Laurel wanted so badly to move away from the vile man crowding her space. But she physically couldn’t thanks to the magic at his disposal, and a part of her knew it was about to kill her.

Darhk pulled back the arm holding Ollie’s arrow. She’d seen the damage it could do, knew about the bodies they’d once collected in the morgue and how much restraint he used now to not add to that number. Darhk, with that malicious glint in his eyes, would never show that kind of restraint—

A fist collided with his face. Oliver’s. He’d broken out of the freeze hold somehow a second time, and Darhk staggered across the room with the force of the blow, Oliver following him. His teeth were bared in a snarl and his eyes blazing, the same look that had paralyzed her in this very prison four years ago.

This time, Laurel gasped as her breath was returned to her and she staggered back. With Darhk’s concentration broken, she was free.

John was, too, and he’d wasted no time in charging Andy, the brothers falling to the floor in a tangle of limbs. Across the room, her eyes met Malcolm’s. Then she turned and looked at the idol.

She was closer.

“Don’t—”

Laurel raced to it, heaving it off the table and onto the ground. It lay there perfectly intact. With a growl she took out her nightstick and hit it with a similar lack of result. God, she was so sick of magic.

She heard Oliver make a strangled sound and froze for a moment as she watched Darhk suck the air from him.

In sheer desperation, Laurel switched her Cry device on and screamed louder than she’d ever tried before.

Everyone flinched away from it. But more important to her was the crack in the idol that developed along the line where the last piece had connected with the rest of it. With vicious pleasure, she took her nightstick and slammed it down on that piece.

The idol cracked.

There was a gasping sound from Oliver, then a grunt as Darhk struck him again. Her father’s tormentor spun towards her with murder in his eyes—

A choking sound escaped him as the green-tipped arrow pierced through him from behind. Darhk fell to a knee and then onto his face as the arrow was pulled out. Behind him, Oliver watched Darhk draw his last breath with a grim expression.

Then his eyes raised to hers, shame evident. “I couldn’t let him…”

She was across the room in seconds and threw her arms around him. “Thank you.” She could only imagine the turmoil he had to be in right now. “I know you wanted things to be different, but thank you.”

There was a clatter as a black-tipped arrow landed on the ground.

“Switch them,” Malcolm said when they both turned to look at him. “An unknown assailant with a grudge against Mr. Darhk. The public will readily believe it. No need to sully the Green Arrow’s positive reputation.”

She shook her head. He really thought he could keep playing both sides? “You think that makes up for helping him do all of this?”

“Try and stop me if you think it doesn’t.” He turned and walked from the room.

Laurel started after him, but Oliver took her hand, pulling her to a stop. “We need to regroup.”

As much as she hated it, he was right. Thea was still unconscious and John hardly looked present as he stood there with a bloody fist staring down at his barely breathing brother.

The cops got the remnants of the riot mostly under control. There were likely a number of escapees who would need to be rounded up, especially if they returned to their old ways. But the worst had been avoided.

They gathered Thea up and led John back to the base, where her father was already waiting. When he learned what had almost happened, he hugged her so tight she nearly couldn’t breathe. Then he turned and did the same to Oliver, who looked almost comically surprised.

“Thank you. Not sure I’ve ever thanked you to your face all these times — but you.” Her father pulled back and kept his hands on Oliver’s shoulders. “I’m glad, you know? After all these years, it feels good to say that. Who would’ve thought, right?”

Oliver himself looked to be struggling to hold in his emotions. “Certainly not me.”

Her dad clapped his shoulder, then reached for the watch on his wrist, undoing the clasp. “I want you to have this.”

“Quentin—”

“Don’t. It’s a tradition for a young man to get one, and, well, I know you can’t have your own father’s. I don’t think either of my girls would mind.” Her father looked to her as if to check, and Laurel nodded, smiling and forcing back the tears that wanted to threaten. It had been an emotional night, that was for certain, but she was happy to see it end this way.

“I, I don’t know what to say,” Oliver responded after a moment.

“Then just take it. You’ve made yourself part of this family by hook or by crook anyway.”

Laurel couldn’t quite stop a short laugh, and the two of them followed. Oliver accepted the watch and gave her father a hug in return. That feeling she was dreaming was back, especially as Oliver hugged her next, then left his arm wound loosely around her as he said, “Thank you both for letting me be.”

It was decided they were all taking a couple nights off for the time being. Thea had been knocked around for the second time in as many weeks, and John was still processing the fact that his brother now sat in an ARGUS cell. Laurel was just glad she was alive.

Yet at the same time, the riot had shown her exactly why she couldn’t give the life of a vigilante up. She needed to be out there with her loved ones, making sure she had their backs the same way they had hers. If she hadn’t been the one Darhk had attacked, but someone else. If she’d heard it on the news later — Oliver Queen dies in prison riot… she couldn’t bear the thought. She couldn’t just sit behind a desk trying to do good while the real good was being done out in the streets.

With that thought in mind, she headed down to the base after work for some training. Only she noticed right away as she entered the space that the leather jacket of her suit was missing from her case.

“What—” Unease rising, Laurel turned to spot Oliver sitting at one of the tables, her jacket in his hands. His shoulders were hunched and she tensed in response.

“Oliver? What are you doing with that?”

He looked up at her. “We’re getting you a new suit.”

Laurel blinked. “What?”

“I tested it,” he said, gesturing behind him at a mannequin with several holes ripped into where the lower abdomen would be. Then he raised her jacket to show off the tears in it. That he’d purposely made in it.

Laurel’s fists clenched and she marched forward to rip it out of his hands. “That jacket was given to me by my sister, Oliver. You had no right—”

“I have the right to make sure you’re safe,” he insisted, standing to his full height. “As your friend, as your—” for a long moment he struggled for a word. “—partner, it’s my responsibility.”

“I never asked you to be responsible for me!”

“And you shouldn’t have to!”

Laurel froze.

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut, drawing in and letting out a breath. Then he repeated, softer, “You shouldn’t have to. You were right, what you said about me not respecting you joining the team at first. And part of that was that I didn’t think about you having to put this together all by yourself without the materials I or the others use. But I should have. I… haven’t been the kind of support you deserve.”

“Oliver,” she said. For some reason, she felt that there was more to this than the suit. That there were things he was holding back from saying.

“Please let me be that support now. Let me try. I’m ready to be.” His gaze was so intense on her she nearly forgot what they were even talking about.

“Okay,” she managed, a little shaky. “What happens now?”

“Now, we take a trip.”

When they informed their other two team members of their intent to go to Central City, John calmly assured them Star would be kept under close watch. Thea had a far cheekier response: “Yeah, go have fun. It’ll be like a little honeymoon!”

Laurel had rolled her eyes at that. “What are we telling the Flash team about, um.” She wiggled her left hand, regardless of the lack of ring there, in demonstration. “Would they even know?”

“From what I understand, Barry and the others have been very busy,” Oliver told her. “But they probably heard the news.”

Sure enough, the first thing that happened when they entered the cortex of STAR Laboratories fresh off a high-speed train to Central was Cisco looking up with a big grin. “Newlyweds are here!” The next instant his smile dropped when Oliver leveled his best unimpressed stare. “Sorry, had to. Had to.”

Barry and a woman she was unfamiliar with entered the cortex. “Oliver, Laurel, hey!” Barry looked back to the woman Laurel didn’t know. “Iris, you’ve met Oliver. And this is Laurel. The Green Arrow and the Black Canary.”

“So the vigilantes are also Star City’s most surprising item,” Iris remarked. “You should have heard Bear complaining he wasn’t invited.”

“I wasn’t — that wasn’t what I said. I just thought, you know, you might want to talk,” Barry said, mostly to Oliver. “But that’s gonna need to wait for a minute. Cisco, Harry says everything’s ready.”

Cisco nodded and picked up what looked like a lightning rod. “Okay, yeah.”

“Ready?” Laurel asked.

“We’re running sort of an experiment. It’s to get back Barry’s speed.”

“What do you mean, get back his speed?” Oliver asked with narrowed eyes.

“I guess we both haven’t had time to talk about things,” Barry admitted with chagrin. “Once we get this done, Cisco can look at your suit, Laurel.”

“Okay.” She and Oliver exchanged a look as Barry and Iris left the cortex, silently deciding to follow. Whatever experiment this was, they wanted their eyes on it.

Down in the basement levels of the building, Barry was strapped into what nearly looked like some kind of torture device. Three older men waited downstairs as well with two at different sets of controls. Oliver exchanged a nod with the man she thought might be Iris’ father.

Barry gave the signal he was ready, and the machines were started up. A set of grille doors closed in front of him. Then one of the men announced they were injecting him with chemicals.

Barry gave a sudden jerk and grunt, and Laurel reached for Oliver’s hand on instinct. He squeezed it back.

Iris was protesting, and truthfully Laurel felt she agreed with her even with the calm arguments the man in charge of this experiment was supplying.

“I’m okay, Iris,” Barry called out, though his breathing was labored.

“We have to trust he knows what he’s doing,” Oliver murmured. But it was clear to her he was trying just as much to convince himself.

Barry continued to jerk around violently, and when the second man at the controls warned them all he was going into some kind of shock, Oliver’s restraint broke.

“Get him out of there.”

“I’ve initiated the collision, it’s too late,” the man in charge said. “You’d have to break this entire machine.”

“Then break it!”

Barry’s whole body seized up with electricity, his eyes bulging and mouth gaping, and Laurel reached into the bag at her side for her cry device.

“Consider it done,” she told Oliver, switching it on immediately after. If Cisco’s tech was strong enough to fracture Darhk’s idol—

But her Cry hit some kind of field that pushed back, knocking her off her feet.

“Laurel!” Oliver rushed to her side, cursing as he tried to undo the device now sparking at her neck.

At the same time, Iris gave a horrified scream: “Barry!”

Laurel struggled to sit up with Oliver’s help as Cisco ran in. “It worked! Is everyone okay?” He looked around in dawning horror at all their shocked faces. “What happened?”

The metal grilles opened to show what they already knew. Barry was gone. Only some smoking remains of the red Flash suit showed where he had once been.

“What have you done to my son?” The second of the scientists demanded of the man who’d run the experiment. He gave no reply, staring in stunned silence at his own defeat.

A streak of blue lightning turned into a man in a full bodysuit and mask. He picked up the remnants of Barry’s charred suit.

“You thought you could give the Flash his speed back? Well done.”

He looked up at all of them, and paused, his head tilting as he locked eyes with her for some reason.

Then there was a flash of lightning and Laurel slammed against the wall, a clawed hand around her throat. She tried prying it off with both of her own.

“Laurel!” Oliver was standing with the others, watching in horror.

The masked figure seemed to be scrutinizing her. “Doppelganger,” he growled low in his throat. His other hand raised, vibrating with speed.

Laurel’s breath hitched.

Sound exploded from her, with such force that her head knocked back into the wall. The speedster in dark blue disappeared; she didn’t know where to because her eyes rolled up into the back of her head. She slid down to the floor, her body jerking as the device sparked and shocked her like a malfunctioning taser.

Arms came around her, propping her up so that her cheek rested against a broad chest. A calloused hand cupped her other cheek.

“Laurel? Laurel!”

But she couldn’t find her voice to tell him not to worry.

#lauriver #laurel x oliver #laurel lance #oliver queen #arrow #green arrow #black canary #my writing

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killian-whump · 6 years

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Killian Jones deserves more friendships... Just sayin

YES.

Although, to be fair, he does have friendships and relationships in the show. Plenty of them, in fact! The problem is that they’re TOLD to us rather than SHOWN to us most of the time, and the few glimpses we GET of these relationships are so short and infrequent that it makes them easy to forget or underestimate, and WAY too easy for people to shrug off or sweep under the rug in order to focus on whatever relationships THEY want to paint as being the “one and only” important relationship in Killian’s storyline.

For fun, let’s have an impromptu retrospective of his canon relationships:

Hook and His Mother: From Wish Hook’s naming of Alice, and his comment that his mother “tried to stay with [him] as long as she could” we know that they had a good relationship, he remembers her fondly, and she left him all too soon. Unfortunately, that’s literally all we know - and we never got to SEE her.

Hook and His Father: Before he sold his sons into slavery for a rowboat, Brennan Jones seemed to be a good father. We’re told this by the show in the way he comforts Killian, and how Killian idolizes him and wants to be just like him. Granted, this could be due more so to Killian’s own tendency to pick a person in his life and put them on a pedestal, but we know from the others he’s put on such pedestals that he tends to choose people he feels are good people. Even Killian’s “He wouldn’t do that!” outburst when he learns what his father has done points to the fact that his relationship with Brennan before this point was positive enough that the boy genuinely doesn’t believe his father would do this to him. And it is this good relationship they had that left Killian feeling as abandoned and betrayed as he did. Had the relationship been bad from the start, he may not have been as scarred by the abandonment, itself.

Hook and Liam: The show makes a HUGE deal about how important Liam is to Hook, and we can see that in how Hook talks about him and the few flashbacks we were allowed to see… but he only actually appears in three episodes. It’s just the first of many examples where we’re told “this is an important relationship of Hook’s” without being shown enough evidence in the show to really illustrate how or WHY it’s so important. We only get glimpses and are forced to fill in the blanks on our own.

Hook and Milah: Like with Liam, we are told in a myriad of ways just HOW important this relationship is to Hook, but shown very little of it. Fandom has done a wonderful job of filling in the blanks, of course, but there’s so little canon information to go on, aside from the fact that we’re TOLD that his love for her never waned for literally hundreds of years. It’s why some fans can so easily shrug off the importance of this relationship, as well - which is the problem when it comes to almost ALL of Hook’s relationships. He has them; we’re told he has them, but without SEEING them, it’s easy for people to discredit them.

Hook and Smee: Yes, we know they’re “best mates” and Smee is always around and he’s Hook’s first mate and always loyal to him… but you can count the number of truly meaningful scenes they share on, well, one hand. The show relies more on the viewer knowing that Hook and Smee are a classic duo than they use the actual storytelling to show us that it’s true.

Hook and Baelfire: Hook didn’t sell Baelfire off of his ship the day after he arrived. It was some time later. You can tell by how close they are in the Port/Starboard scene, when Hook reveals his own abandonment to him. Hook also confirms it when he tells Emma that Neal was with him “long enough to know I miss him, too”. That wasn’t a day or two. It was awhile. Long enough to profoundly affect Hook. Long enough for Hook to harbor (and maintain) almost fatherly feelings towards the boy. And we were cheated out of seeing it.

Hook and Cora: We saw more of this than a lot of other relationships, but nowhere near enough. How did they go from literally trying to and/or almost killing each other to being partners who tease each other with comments like, “Why do you still doubt me?” and are obviously banging in kinky ways. I want to know more about how that relationship developed. I want to know more about how sincere it was (or wasn’t), because it feels deeper than the usual superficial villain pair-up that we usually see, and this holds true when they’re reunited in S5 in the Underworld. There is a warmth between them in that scene that points to a sincere friendship that I wish we’d seen more of.

Hook and Emma: This one we get to see in its entirety, and it’s beautiful.

Hook and Tinkerbell: Again, we’re TOLD they had a history, but mostly through off-handed comments, implications, their consistently friendly/flirty demeanor towards each other, and behind-the-scenes confessions that the actors were told they’d had a fling.

Hook and David: Another one we get to see pretty thoroughly. Bless.

Hook and Belle: Okay, so he knocked her out and almost killed her on their first meeting. Aaaaaaand he tried to kill her on their second meeting. And he shot her and erased her memories on their third. But… it got better! This is one of the few relationships the show stuck with and actually gave us glimpses of throughout the seasons, making it feel like a genuine friendship that was growing deeper and more meaningful as time went by.

Hook and Ariel: This one goes without saying. Yes, they had some ups and downs and some bludgeonings and slaps, but ultimately, these two are friends. And Wish Hook and Wish Ariel’s friendship just proves this all the more. However, as usual, the kind of “blink and you’ll miss it” acknowledgement of this friendship makes it all too easy for people to dismiss it as “fanon”.

Hook and Henry: Another pairing that we got to see develop in canon, thank goodness. Hook went from the “cool pirate guy” to the guy his mom was dating to a true member of his family and his step-father. And it’s great. And S7 gave us Henry meeting another version of his step-father, this time as a grown man, and forging a genuine friendship with him, as well.

Hook and Ursula: Granted, they definitely weren’t friends when Ursula came back to Storybrooke, but she sailed on Hook’s ship with him and his crew for some time before Hook was forced to betray her. And when he made right on this betrayal years later and got her voice back for her and reunited her with her father (who admitted his guilt in Hook’s betrayal as well as apologizing for his role in it), Ursula was clearly willing to forgive Hook and help him in return. I think, given the positive foundation of their relationship and their eventual reconciliation, a friendship could’ve (and should’ve) blossomed here.

Hook and Nemo: Aw, geez. The show sets Nemo up as a fatherly figure to the men he “rescues” aboard his ship. He’s clearly a father figure to Hook’s half-brother, Liam. He openly states that he wants to help Killian similarly, literally telling Hook he wants him to join their family. And while events in the past led to Killian leaving, it’s obvious in the present-day scenes between these two that Nemo still sees Killian as a part of his “family” - and that Killian feels the same. That the show cast him off entirely to shores unseen is a damn crime.

Hook and Liam: Another brother. Another Liam. Another family member that Killian begins to bond with… and then gets literally shipped off the show.

Hook and Snow White: Out of nowhere, they have a close moment on the docks where she kisses his cheek and says she’s glad he’s the one Emma’s found to share her life with. Sweet. He also calls her “Mummy” in a later scene, during the finale. Hilarious. BUT WHERE’S THE REST OF IT?! And by “it” I mean the rest of their damn relationship?!

Hook and Jasmine: These two form an entirely unlikely (but delightful) friendship in S6. However, we’re kind of just expected to assume there’s a friendship there by the closeness they share (their frank conversation on the Nautilus) and the smiles and warmth they consistently address each other with.

Hook and Black Beard: Now THIS is how you do a “frenemies” ship right here. They’re like the Itchy and Scratchy of Once. They try to kill each other. They play cards. They try to kill each other again. They take over the other one’s ship. They talk about their lady troubles. They try to kill each other. They offer unsolicited advice. They go portal hopping together. They randomly have a swordfight. They abandon each other to child natives. They try to kill each other again. They hunt for treasure. They plot out elaborate schemes to give friends a good adventure. This one’s gold.

Wish Hook and Regina: Oh, goodness. S7 gives us so many subtle touches, smiles, and intimate moments between these two that those watching for such things are convinced something more than friendship was brewing there - but it was done SO subtly that those who weren’t watching for it literally missed it all entirely. Whether they were building up something for an eventual romance or just presenting them as extremely close friends, there was definitely something purposely put there in canon. Hopefully, we would’ve found out more about it in S8, had we been lucky enough to get one.

Wish Hook and Alice: Finally, another relationship we’re SHOWN and allowed to enjoy as it progresses - both in flashbacks and in the present day. BLESS.

Wish Hook and Jack/Nick: Here’s the thing. Nick is introduced to the show in S7 before the ten year jump to when the curse is cast. And he’s shown still with the group at Lucy’s tenth birthday party - and is obviously caught up in the curse itself. So that’s over ten years that Hook knew Jack in the New Enchanted Forest. Regina, fully awake in Hyperion Heights, tells Lucy that her father (Henry), Rogers (Hook) and Nick (Jack/Hansel) were like the three Musketeers back in the fairytale world and convinces her to set up a “guys night out” for them. The focus of this is, of course, on Henry’s relationships with Hook and Nick, but from Regina’s comments and the fact that all three men are set up to hang out together as a trio, we can assume Hook and Jack were good friends. As usual, we’re subtly TOLD the man has a friend… and left to fill in the blanks for ourselves :P

Wish Hook and Zelena: This is another subtle one. When Zelena shows up in the New Enchanted Forest looking for her daughter, she’s not that friendly to the Hook she finds there. In fact, she dismisses him outright and tells him to piss off. But he stands up to her, sticks with her, manages to even impress her a little… and ultimately helps save Robin’s life (and Zelena’s). By the end of the episode they share, Zelena is obviously warming up to the pirate - and when Kelly encounters him in Hyperion Heights, her fondness for him is visible in spite of the danger she’s in and his own obliviousness (”It’s Detective, actually…”).

Wish Hook and Robin: Obviously, they’re going to have a familial relationship once Robin and Alice get married, but it’s obvious from the show that they both have deep feelings and great respect for each other already. Hook, thinking he’s on his last legs and going to die soon, takes it upon himself to ask Robin to look after Alice when he’s gone. That denotes a great trust and affection for her. And, similarly, Robin respectfully asks for his blessing (what was once customary is, in Robin’s more modern generation, considered old fashioned and unnecessary) and insists that she will do whatever it takes to keep him alive to see their wedding. This exchange shows us a lot of warm feelings between them.

Rogers and Tiana: These two are even sweeter than her beignets. And unlike some of the subtle friendships he’s had, this one’s a little more obvious.

Wish/Hook and Rumplestiltskin: Just when you thought it was safe to get trapped in a snowglobe with your arch nemesis… This one was just bizarre, really. After literally years in real time and centuries of show time being SHOWN how much these two hate each other… the show decided to TELL us in S7 that, actually, they were the closest thing the other one had to a friend that whole time. Sure, Jan. I try to murder all of my friends multiple times, as well as trying to make them (and their loved ones) suffer as much as possible. Some people love the twist, some people hate it… but in either case, it’s just WEIRD.

Ships I Left Off: I’m gonna be honest here. As much as I enjoyed Robin Hood and Hook’s scenes together, I never really bought them as being the best of friends. They seemed more like acquaintances to me, and I think the fandom colored them as besties based more on the friendship of the actors than on the actual canon content of the show. And even though Elsa and Arthur both spent episodes “adventuring” with Hook and he obviously grew to (or just did) like both of them, I don’t really feel like either of those led to lasting friendships that persisted beyond the “buddy adventure” episode they shared. I also left off crack ships and any ships that are entirely fanon creations.

So! In closing, I’d like to contend that it isn’t so much that Killian Jones needs more friendships… THE SHOW JUST NEEDED TO LET US SEE THE ONES HE’S FREAKING GOT.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

#killian jones #ouat meta #ships #not whxmp #retrospective #kw writes a thing #oc #anonymous #kw ask box

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justanoutlawfic · 6 years

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A Beautiful Disaster: A Swanfire Ficlet

Summary: Years after they decided against having another child, Emma and Neal get a little surprise.

Based on a headcanon that @queen-of-the-merry-men has, about Emma not wanting to have more kids and her second pregnancy being a very big surprise that she wasn’t happy about in the beginning.

Also on AO3

Emma sat on a stump, twirling with the fringe on her tunic. Despite a few trips to the Enchanted realms over the years, she had never really adjusted to the wardrobe. Regina had helped her find pieces that fit her, so she wasn’t wearing corsets or dresses most of the time. That would come in handy considering her stomach would be expanding soon enough.

God, how had that happened?

For the first few years after their wedding, she and Neal had focused on just settling down in Storybrooke. Neal started up social services for the town, as that had been his field in New York. Emma was busy as sheriff, growing the station after her dad decided to start farming. Sure, they’d babysit their younger siblings as needed, but they didn’t think about babies.

Then Henry left for his trip and Neal suggested they start trying for one of their own. Emma admitted she wasn’t sure if she wanted more kids. Kids had never really been in her plans. She hadn’t raised Henry and that had been the very best thing for him. She loved Gideon and Neal, but they hadn’t exactly given her baby fever.

She just wasn’t sure if she had what it took to raise a kid from the start. Parenting a teenager wasn’t easy, but she had to admit that Regina had done most of the work. She wished more than anything she had the will to do it, especially as it was something Neal wanted. Yet, she just couldn’t make herself.

It had caused a fight between the two for a long time. Neal hadn’t tried to convince her otherwise, but he clearly wished she had brought it up sooner. Emma hadn’t thought he’d want more and that was on her, it was something they should’ve discussed before they said “I do”. It was the first time in a long time that Emma truly feared that she was going to lose him.

In the end, Neal admitted that a lot of it was guilt for not being there for Henry. More than anything, he wanted to prove he could be a good father. At the same time, he knew that wasn’t the fair way to do that. They agreed that each other was all they needed. For the next few years they were happy, the subject of babies not coming up again unless a citizen asked about it.

After they arrived to help Henry and Ella, Emma had started to feel sick. She assumed it was adjusting to the environment and the food, so she ignored it at first. Then her period was late and her boobs were getting tender. One magicked test and it was confirmed, she was pregnant.

Neal had been cautious when she told him, clearly not wanting to sway her one way or the other. She knew that was the best possible reaction, but it somehow made her upset. Emma had told him she needed some air and left the cabin they shared with Regina and the alternate reality Hook, taking a walk.

“I knew I’d find you here.” Emma looked up to find Neal standing there. God, he looked handsome in his own tunic and leather pants. “A bit cold, isn’t it?” “I just needed to think,” she muttered.

Neal dropped down next to her on the ground, putting a hand on her thigh. “There are ways here, potions…”

“I know.”

“We don’t have to have this baby.”

“I know, Neal.”

“That looks like it upsets you.”

“We were careful for a reason, I didn’t want to be in this position,” she said, meeting his eyes. “We made our choice.”

“This doesn’t have to change that.”

“It changes everything.” Emma sighed. “A woman has a right to choose, of course she does. But it’s not a choice that I want to make.”

Neal tilted his head. “Are you saying…”

“I want to have this baby.”

He took her hand and squeezed it. “You don’t sound happy about that.”

“Do I even know how to be a mother?” Emma shook her head. “We didn’t raise Henry. We like to say we parented him, but let’s be real, Neal. Regina did most of the work. Even when we showed up, we gave him advice and he hung out at our place…but how much parenting did we do?”

Neal nodded. “I know. I think about that every day.”

“The thing is…I don’t feel bad about it. Sure, I wish I had witnessed those milestones, but I don’t regret my choice. Henry had a good life with Regina. He was happy, healthy…he didn’t need us.”

Neal frowned and for a moment, Emma worried she hit a rough spot. “I think about that too, and I know you’re right.”

“I’m not the most open, loving and feeling type of person. I don’t want to ever make a kid feel like I did growing up. And I love my parents, you know I do. I love the relationship we have and wouldn’t change it, but it’s not the typical parent/child relationship we would’ve had if they had raised me. I don’t even know what normal is. Kids need more than just a safe home and food. They need love. I know I’ll love the baby, I already do…but I’m scared I’m not going to be enough.”

“I’m scared I won’t be able to do that either.”

Emma’s eyes widened and she tilted her head, taking in her husband. Neal was one of the most loving people she knew. He always wanted to take care of people. When they were homeless runaways, he had gone hungry so she could eat many nights. He often went cold so she wouldn’t. If he was that great to her, there was no doubt in Emma’s mind that he wouldn’t be like that with a baby.

“My papa was amazing when I was younger, but my teen years, well…” Neal sighed, running his fingers through his curls. “Even now, I don’t have a normal relationship with my dad, at least not what we could’ve had if everything hadn’t gone wrong. My mom and I were never close, now she’s dead. I was so scared when I met Henry, that I could hurt. If my papa could screw up that badly…maybe I will too.”

“You’d never do that.” Emma rubbed her thumb over his knuckles. “Even if you did screw up a little, I think all of our parents have proven that redemption is possible. You care about others, Neal. This baby isn’t going to lack it with you.”

“It won’t with you either. Emma, you’re going to screw up, but like you said…all parents do. If you really want to have this baby, you could do it. And I’m going to be by your side every step of the way.”

Tears gathered in Emma’s eyes and she put her free hand over her flat stomach. “I love it so much. If I let it down…I could never forgive myself.”

“Okay, that’s worst case. What else?”

Emma sniffled, allowing herself to let her mind go there.

“The baby will grow up to resent us, possibly become the next big villain.”

Neal bit his lip to suppress a smile. “Really?”

“You never know.”

“And the best case? We’re good parents that make mistakes and we figure it out one day at a time.”

Emma sighed. “You really think we can do this?”

“I really do.” Neal kissed her cheek. “And I know one talk won’t fix all of our fears…”

“It’s still a good place to start.” Emma squeezed his hand. “So…we’re having another baby.”

“We’re having another baby.”

#swanfire #swanfire au #swan thief #swan thief au #swanthief #swanthief au #emma swan #neal cassidy #baelfire

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theonceoverthinker · 6 years

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OUAT Rewatch 4X13 - Unforgiven

Will this be the QUEEN-tesentail episode of the series or not?

Shut up! That was funny!

In any event, you can find my thoughts below the cut!

Main Takeaways

Past

I feel like this episode should’ve had more featured about bad things that the Queens of Darkness, namely Ursula and Cruella have done in the past. Snow and David are about as untrusting of them as they ever were to Regina (Snow literally says “they’re almost worse than Regina”), but the audience, even upon seeing this episode for the second time, don’t have a ton of context because so few of their misdeeds are depicted. While one can assume that more was known about Maleficent from her conflicts with Briar Rose and Aurora, Cruella (Whose misdeeds were done mostly in another realm) and Ursula don’t have that benefit. Even within the confines of this episode, it’s Maleficent who kills the guards and while our other queens agree with the decision, they play no direct part in it. It’s just “ooh badness -- how evil!” I feel like even a reference to past deeds would’ve done so much (Ex. “You destroyed the docks.” or “You had a set of beavers tear apart their dam and flood a town.”). This by no means destroys the flashback in my eyes, but it does fail when later episodes don’t provide a ton of villainy (Or any in Ursula’s case) to either woman.

“No.” Never has a singular word pissed me off so much. This singular word said to Maleficent as she begs to work together as mothers is DISGUSTING. Snow places her piety above her child as well as Mal’s and it is ABHORRENT. Jeez, even before the reveal of what happened, Snow was already coming off as so vile from this moment.

Present

It’s very interesting rewatching this episode with the full knowledge of what Snow and David did to Maleficent. It’s frustrating because Snow tries to stop Mal’s first reaction to seeing them, but because of the need for a twist in this episode, she’s not able to give her an actual apology like I’m pretty sure Snow would have under other circumstances.

”They remind of a time in my life I’d rather forget, time when I was a true villain.” I LOVE this line. I think a line like this is one of Regina’s best in regards to a reflection on her own past. She’s not falsely playing a victim, but shows that she wants to forget this time in her life because it was a time period where she did horrible things. This is a self aware Regina, not pitying herself but still trying to move on. It’s sympathetic enough as a line while not ignoring how bad Regina was. It doesn’t blame anyone for remembering these things -- Regina’s angry at being embarrassed in front of Henry.

I liked Emma and Killian’s conflict in this episode. Like with the Regina line that I mentioned earlier, it’s a good reflection on Killian’s shame over his past villainy and shows a large amount of self awareness. Killian is definitely framed as in the wrong for lying -- as he should -- and the conversations throughout this episode effectively show facets of his and Emma’s characters. Killian is someone who despite his quips and praise over his appearance and abilities does experience self loathing and Emma understands this and wants to help, provided he be honest with her. She doesn’t need the whole truth per-se, accepting his desire for the matter to stay private, but wants him to at least be truthful about that desire and not hide behind denial. And once he apologizes and tells her basically that, she’s supportive of him and assures him. I will say that I wish that at least some suggestion from Emma that Killian confront how he wronged Ursula with her was thrown out in the conversation (Ex. “And you can come back from it”), but it does make Killian’s decision to do it on his own a few episodes later much stronger for his character.

I find it interesting how Snow and David’s lie about their change in morality ends up having a positive effect for Emma. I don’t think it undercuts the truth of the moral, as it does accurately fit Emma and Killian’s dynamic at its conclusion in this episode (And that theme resonates especially well with Emma), but it is weird how it originates from a lie. That having been said, within the confines of the lie, to give no consequences at all to people who stole from a store is kind of...well, dumb, but given that it’s Storybrooke and there are bigger matters to worry about, it’s fine.

“Because they’re villains and we’re heroes.” While I HATED the interpretation of Snow’s possession in “Bleeding Through,” I did like how it was clear about how this black-and-white morality between heroes and villains was utter BS. Because of that, I find it really annoying to see this line. While I know that it’s a lie, the fact that it goes straight-up believed and unchallenged by Emma and Killian (Especially Killian, the more I think about it) makes it feel like no one learned that. And I know it’s a theme of the series, but by now, the lessons been learned a few times over so a line like that going unchallenged is really out of place.

Stream of Consciousness

-Wow! Neal sleeps in the kitchen! These guys REALLY need more space!

-Awww! I love how David is sitting on the steps right by Neal so he can simultaneously protect Emma!

-”Hello, mum.” This is Will Scarlet’s best line. Granny is everyone’s mum!

-Day-um, son! Regina’s getting one hell of a brag up (Because for them, it’s not a takedown) from Cruella and Ursula! XD

-”Chocolate frosted donuts.” I feel like if Regina wasn’t about to deal with the two Queens, she’d be lecturing Henry about not eating like crap. XD

-”I’ve been dying for a grilled cheese all day.” I appreciate that Emma has a legit appetite, especially for someone who runs around town all day!

-I love how word travels so fucking quickly in Storybrooke. What must their text chains look like?! XD

-So, you have to wonder where Mal went while she was “dead.” Thoughts? If she was in the Underworld, i bet Hades pitched a fit so big that Liam was roasting marshmallows from his bar when it happened.

-”You’re getting crumbs all over the book.” Not to be a nitpicker, but a donut with that consistency would not have crumbs! XD

-”If only your wits matched your looks.” Looks like James/Cruella had a bit of foreshadowing! XD

-Cruella’s remarks still crack me up!

-Wait, the station has security footage from Gold’s? Like, I like that that exists because it’s GOLD, but it’s just surprising is all! When was this installed?

-You guys really think two villains will just leave town with your secret after being screwed over and not reveal that secret out of pure spite?! I would PAY to see an alternate cut of this scene with Regina there to point that out with a sassy one-liner.

-I have to wonder what would’ve happened had Snow and David admitted their lie to Emma earlier. Thoughts?

-Can you imagine the Queens of Darkness sleeping in those crazy costumes?! XD

-I really like the set of the Tree of Knowledge and wish we saw it again! It’s really cool!

-Ummmm, Snow, David, shouldn’t you be concerned with why Mal’s ashes are in a convenient little pile?

-Damn, Marco’s got jokes! XD

-”I’d say she’s moved on.” I LOVE how the villains, despite working together, are still underhanded in shit like this! XD

-”You’re positively radiant, my dear.” Was I the only one thinking that Snow was wondering if Mal was hitting on her? XD

-Damn, even finding out about her pregnancy sucked for Snow! I feel really bad for her!

-Mal, if you want to torture Snow and David, why wouldn’t you reveal their secret before they have the chance to? That way, their family and the town at large would trust them less, isolating them and making your further revenge easier.

-Snow and David are so freakin’ awkward! XD

-Robert Carlyle’s acting as he sees Belle and Will Scarlet kiss was fantastic! Look at how he looks like he’s about to cry and how he basically crawls into the darkness because of how torn up he is. That is AMAZING!

-Mal rattling her little rattle breaks my fucking heart!

Favorite Dynamic

Regina and Marco. This really comes down to a singular, effective line: “After ruining everyone else’s happy ending, what makes you think you deserve one of your own?” I am so happy this line and the ensuing conversation was put in. One aspect of Regina’s redemption that I take issue with is that Regina’s smaller victims are often denied a chance to voice their oppositions to said redemption. While Snow and David do get chances to voice their frustrations, smaller victims like Leroy, Granny, Ruby, and Marco don’t get that chance beyond the occasional quip. Because of that, a moment like this really means something. And I like that while the camera pans to show Regina’s reaction to this, it doesn’t linger on her, showing that this isn’t a sympathetic moment for Regina. I also found Regina’s apology to be pretty decent. While I wish it had less excuses within it and Marco was a little too easy to forgive, it did feel authentic to Regina’s character as well as genuine.

Writer

Andrew Chambliss and Kalinda Vazquez are large and in charge today! I don’t have a ton to say. Apart from a few issues that I mentioned above, I feel like they did a decent job here. The story just needed a… ONCE OVER (AND OMG I’M THE ONCE OVER THINKER! I THINK ON WHAT THEY SHOULD’VE DONE A ONCE OVER ON! XD )! The stories are appropriately framed, tell themselves well enough, and setup the future conflicts decently.

Rating

8/10.

-----

Sorry for how late this one came out, but thank you for reading!!!

Shoutouts also to @watchingfairytales and @daensarah! See you all next time!

Season 4 Total (113/230)

Writer Scores: Adam and Eddy: (34/60) Jane Espenson: (20/40) David Goodman and Jerome Schwartz: (30/50) Andrew Chambliss: (22/50) Dana Horgan: (6/30) Kalinda Vazquez: (22/40) Scott Nimerfro: (14/30) Tze Chun (8/20)

Operation Rewatch Archives

#ouat #once upon a time #watching fairytales #ouat 4x13 #jenna watches ouat

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accio-ambition · 7 years

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I remember having a really tough time trying to connect this chapter to the sentiment I wanted to give off, but it came out great. Some of my favorite (and oldest) parts of writing are in this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it. As always, thanks to @sotheylived, @shipsxahoy, @queen-icicle-fandom, and the crew over at @captainswanbigbang, who I will never be able to thank enough. But, most importantly, thanks to YOU. My mother would be appalled: you guys are all leaving wonderful comments and kudos and reblogging and whatever else and it's taken me eight chapters to thank you. My deepest apologies, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Summary: Bouncing around with her son for the majority of her life, Emma Swan has told herself she’s happy in the city. It’s where the most camera operating jobs are, and that’s how she makes her money. But when an old friend calls her and asks for her help on a new project in small town Maine, Emma finds herself in a place she’s never been with people she doesn’t know filming a profession she knows nothing about. But when the captain of the ship she’s filming begins taking a keen interest in her and her life, she finds herself wondering whether she might just catch something other than fish. Deadliest Catch AU Rating: M Content warning: Character death, some violent situations

FFnet/Ao3/Cover/Snapshots/Gifset

Chapter Eight

It’s way past her bedtime, especially knowing that Jones told her the Roger is leaving tomorrow at 5 a.m., which means she needs to be up by no later than four. But Emma’s let the laundry sit for too long as it is and now that it’s on her mind, she’s not going to sleep until it’s at least folded.

As she’s setting the last of Henry’s shirts on top of the dryer, all of the clean clothes ready to be put away, she hears hurried footsteps above her. Henry has been asleep for hours, so that either means that someone’s broken in - doubtful, but one can never be too sure - or something’s wrong with Henry.

Trying her best not to panic, Emma jogs upstairs to find the light beneath the bathroom door illuminated. She knocks cautiously. “Henry?” she murmurs. “Are you okay in there?”

Though there’s no verbal response, the knob does turn and click open a crack. Emma pushes in, unsure of what she’ll find.

Settling back into his position curled against the toilet, far too pale for her 10-year-old son in the middle of summer, Henry moans. Sweat beads on his brow and his eyes look hazy.

Without a second thought, Emma kneels down beside him, brushing matted hair away from his face. He’s burning up. Emma reaches beneath the sink and wets a washcloth, patting it to the cheek that doesn’t rest against the toilet seat.

“Mom,” Henry mumbles. “I don’t feel good.”

“I figured, kid.” She busies herself with running the cloth over his hair and down his arms. “Do you still feel like you’re going to throw up?”

Henry nods weakly before alarm widens his eyes. The simple movement must set off something, and he’s leaning over and into the toilet in the next blink. All Emma can do is run her hand up and down his back and wipe away the tears that follow in an effort to calm him down.

“It’s okay, kid, it’s gonna be alright.”

Sniffing, Henry swipes at his mouth. “I hate being sick,” he grumbles.

Emma chuckles and presses a kiss to the top of his head. “I know.” She shifts her body so she can hold him a bit easier, comb her fingers through his hair.

Luckily for them both, Henry doesn’t get sick that often, but when he does, it’s an ordeal. One time, when he was about six, Henry contracted pneumonia and it nearly killed her. She had to take two weeks off to take care of him, and while she loved every minute she spent with her son and not with the random annoying crew she was with that month, the bills did not.

Eventually, Emma manages to maneuver Henry back into his room, a bucket at his bedside and a cup of ice on his table. He sleeps in fits and starts, his fever not yet broken.

She knows he’ll be okay - the doctors tell her he’s healthy at every check up - but it still worries her. Nobody was around when she was his age or younger to comfort her, offer her advice to settle her stomach, or spend the night making sure her fever wasn’t getting any worse. The only person she had as company was herself.

So Emma spends the night in his bed, Henry sinking into her side comfortably when he does manage to sleep. If she gets more than an hour of sleep tonight, she’ll consider it a win.

When her alarm goes off at four, Emma gets up silently and prepares for the day like a zombie. She almost takes her phone into the shower, the heat of the water shocking her system with one foot in and her fingers tapping away at a text asking Ruby to come over and watch Henry. She responds quickly, already up to help Granny make breakfast.

I’ll have to help Granny in a min. H might have to hang here during my shift.

That’s fine , Emma replies. As long as he’s quarantined. Don’t think Granny wants to infect her customers.

By the time she somehow stumbles down to the dock, Emma’s awake enough to pass as slightly hungover. Thank god the water is calm or else today would’ve been a total waste in filming.

(She feels like a total waste. How she managed to return to the harbor unscathed and without falling overboard is a miracle.)

After a far-too-late night and an early morning of filming, Emma goes to Granny’s for a quick pick-me-up. The coffee there isn’t anything close to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts or whatever big name chain she relied on in the city, but there’s a hint of something more pleasureable in the old woman’s drink that makes Emma think it tastes better. It’s, like, love or something silly like that.

“Hey there, sunshine,” Ruby greets her from behind the register.

“You know what I like,” Emma says on a sigh.

“I do indeed.” Requesting the required funds with an open hand, Ruby rings her up and shouts her order back to the kitchen. After they both hear Granny’s grumbled response, Ruby look back to Emma. “I’m assuming you’ll want to see your son as well.”

“That would be appreciated.”

With a crinkle of her nose, Ruby moves from behind the counter and heads through the door that connects to Granny’s inn. Emma knows that, on the days where Ruby’s in charge, Henry likes to spend his time in a bay window on the second floor of the bed and breakfast. It’s secluded, as she suggested, and it looks right over the harbor, something that she’s sure he finds comforting.

(Her son’s watching over her, or that’s what he’d try to tell her.)

Emma busies herself by looking over today’s specials - meatloaf and lasagna, hopefully not on the same plate - when the diner door opens and the bell above it rings merrily.

“Of all the gin joints.”

She’d know that voice anywhere. It makes her roll her eyes abnormally hard, actually spinning her vision around. She’s spent enough time with him in close quarters today as it is.

His voice must be boisterous enough to make it through the kitchen door to Granny, who yells back, “We don’t have gin here, boy.”

Despite her best efforts, Emma chuckles along with Jones. “Yes, Granny, I’m aware, it’s merely a saying, ” he amends.

After stifling the rest of her laughter, Emma faces him and gives him the stink-eye. “You say that like there’s another place I could grab coffee at this hour of the day.”

“There is.” Of course there is, she thinks. And of course he’s not there while she’s here. Of course. “The Busy Bee isn’t too far from here.”

Emma sighs dramatically, turning her attention back to the wall behind the counter she leans on. “Well, then I know where I’m going for all my coffee runs now.”

“Now, don’t be a spoilsport, Swan,” Jones tsks. “ Look, if you want to be alone, I’ll let you be.”

Thankfully, Ruby returns at this point with her to-go cup in hand and a styrofoam box in the other. “Here’s your coffee to go and your waffles,” Ruby says.

“I didn’t order waffles,” Emma corrects her.

“Henry did,” Ruby clarifies. “He’s just finishing up his chapter, so he’ll be down in a jiff.” She hands the coffee and container to Emma before twirling around and heading back to the kitchen.

Jones clicks his tongue behind her, causing Emma to roll her eyes again. “Ah, so it’s not just the coffee you’re here for,” he says. And then, sort of out of left field, he asks, “When will I get to meet the lad?”

Her internal monologue says never, but her mouth forms the words, “Not before he’s healthy enough to go back to camp.” At his perturbed look, she explains, “He’s sick. He had a fever and was throwing up last night.”

That seems to catch him off-guard. Jones’ eyes go wide and his eyebrows shoot up his forehead. “Why did you come today?” he inquires.

“Because it’s my job?” It’s obvious, isn’t it? She’s the breadwinner - the only one - in her house, which she still has to pay off, along with groceries and bills and rollback deals from Henry’s birthday presents. Money doesn’t come from trees.

He opens and closes his mouth a few times before he shakes his head. “We could’ve held out and gone tomorrow or promised not to do anything interesting today,” he tells her.

“No, that goes against the whole concept of reality TV.”

Jones scoffs and rolls his eyes, making Emma’s brow raise. “Come now, Swan, you and I both know you guys are going to edit the shit out of whatever you film. We’ve already got a pool on who’s going to be the prick of the show. My money’s on Victor.”

They’ve come to a lull in the conversation, Emma unsure of how to continue. He’s got a point: when all is said in done, not much reality goes into the reality show.

(And Jefferson was leaning toward making Whale the douchebag. He just lent himself to it so well.)

The moment comes to a close when Jones starts scrambling, his hands patting at all his pockets. He leans over the counter to grab one of the pens and pieces of paper by the register. Swiftly, he scribbles something across the paper and slips it into her hand.

Emma glances down at it, a line of numbers across the page. “What’s this?”

“The next time you need to be mother,” Jones says, pointing emphatically at the paper, “call me and we’ll figure out a plan of action for the day that works for both of us.” His expression softens to something Emma’s never seen before. “Your lad needs you, love. He was in your life before me and my crew came along and he’ll be in it long after we’ve parted ways. Never feel the need to put this job above your son.”

She can’t help the grin that crosses her lips at his words. “Thank you, Jones. Truly.” Folding the paper in half, Emma slips it into her pocket. She picks up her coffee and Henry’s waffles and takes a step toward the door. “And I’m just going to gloss over your move.”

“Move? What move?” Jones asks, one brow cocking up sharply.

“Using the opportunity to let me stay at home with my kid to give me your number.” Emma grins wider, her teeth peeking out to bite at her bottom lip. “Don’t think I’ll forget it.”

Mimicking her smile, she catches Jones’ tongue skim across his teeth. “Trust me, Swan. I don’t want you to.”

She rolls her eyes as her back runs into the diner door. “Goodbye, Jones.”

Just as she knew he would, Henry’s patiently waiting for her on the sidewalk outside the inn. He’s leaning against the fence, still entranced by whatever book he’s reading this time.

(She really is lucky that her son has taken to books and not technology when boredom hits. Sure, he loves his video games, but that’s something she can control. If Henry had a smartphone, Emma isn’t sure she would ever talk to him in person again.)

As she approaches, Henry shuts his book and smiles up at her. Silently, she hands her son his box of food. He opens it to make sure it’s what he wants, then takes a delighted whiff.

“Sorry, I got caught up talking to someone,” she explains.

“Who were you talking to?” Henry asks, turning toward home.

“A guy from work,” Emma says. At his raised brow, she rolls her eyes and wets her lips. “It’s the captain of the ship I work on.”

“Really?” His voice goes up an octave, he’s so thrilled. “Can I meet him?”

Emma shakes her head and ruffles his hair. “Maybe.”

“I’ll behave, I promise,” he pleads.

She chuckles. “It’s not you I’m worried about misbehaving.” Taking a sip of her coffee, Emma thinks on the idea. “Besides, you kind of met him. We were on his brother’s boat on the Fourth of July.”

“But I didn’t talk to him.” Of course he didn’t. Because she didn’t introduce her son to either of the Jones brothers and Henry knows better than to talk to strangers. “C’mon, Mom.”

“We’ll see,” Emma sighs. And then, as mothers do when they tire of trying to explain adult dynamics to their children, she changes the subject. “How are you feeling? Better?”

“Mom.” He holds up the takeaway box. “Waffles cure anything.”

She laughs outright, and pulls Henry’s shoulders into her chest. “How could I be so silly?” She kisses the top of his head and pushes open the gate to their house.

#csbb #captain swan big bang #captain swan #ouat #cs ff #my words #storytime #ditlot #in case you cant tell #i had some issues with timing #because originally #they still wouldnt have started filming yet #so it would make more sense for Killian and Henry to have not met #but i kinda messed it up #BUT ITS STILL REALLY SWEET OF KILLIAN TO CARE #ALSO THAT DAMN NUMBER THING #I AM NOT THAT SMOOTH IN REAL LIFE #DO NOT BE FOOLED

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panswaywardmuses · 7 years

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Chatzy Summary: Both families ban together to rescue Amelia and Ashlyn from their kidnappers, setting a trap for them. But it does not go down without causalities, and consequences that changes the course of both families.

Bryan pulled into the abandoned warehouse on the docks that the O'Sheas owned, the location decided on for the exchange. There was nothing else around, no people to overhear what was about to happen. He felt calm, though his mind was whirling with the possibilities. Everything had to go perfectly, not just for the girls' lives, but for all of them. Both families were coming in with everything they had, both Bosses and Underbosses would be there. It was dangerous, and if things went wrong there was a lot to risk. But it was the only way, and Bryan was confident that Lucia would keep her side of the truce. He parked outside in the lot, then turned to look at Liam, their eyes meeting. "Are we ready?" he asked, his voice even and calm, his head cool for once.

Liam had trusted Bryan in making this whole thing happen, well him and Lucia, and although he'd never fully trust the Winters he knew they had just as much as stake here as the O'Shea's did. All he was concerned with was getting both the girls back unharmed. Bonus if all the rest of them got away from this unharmed as well. Every other worry Liam currently had was out of his head, completely focused on this one moment. Looking over at Bryan once the question was asked he nodded his head. "We don't have much of a choice." He said reaching to open up the door, his eyes wandering around as he stepped out of the car shutting the door.

Aidan got out of the car. His nerves were radiating through his body. He trusted Bryan not to make the wrong decision about teaming up with the Winters but at this rate he was willing to do everything and anything he could to get Ash back even if she wanted nothing to do with him. He glanced down at his feet once they touched the ground, his eyes moving around after that to check their surroundings. He glanced over at Liam and Bryan, inhaling at the words between them. He turned his head to see the Winters car pulling up. "Here comes the Winters."

Lucia pulled up to the warehouse, her hand moved the car into park as she exhaled. Her head turned to her Mikey, moving her hand out to his shoulder. "Look at me." She said softly, waiting for his head to turn. She wasn't surprised her mother didn't want to ride with the three of them, she knew the whole way here her mother would try to control the situation. "You need to keep your calm. The second you let your anger get in the middle of this it could ruin everything. Don't make me leave you in the car." She turned her head back towards Frankie, giving him a simple look. These two men were her most trusted, these men were her men. She called the each of them for the biggest things and there was no one else she wanted by her side. She got out of the car, looking over the hood of her car at Bryan and Liam, nodding her head once. She shut the door and walked around her car to make her way over to the other three men.

Mikey sat in the passenger seat, his good leg bouncing up and down, a nervous tic. The impending notion of meeting the people who had done this, who had taken his girl and put all this in motion, was filling him with hate and anger. He wanted nothing more than to tear them all apart, and it was a feeling he'd never experienced before. His only other kill had been Amelia's stalker, and that had been kill or be killed. This time, he was more than ready. He looked over to Lucia when she demanded his attention and he took a breath to steady himself. He knew that she would have preferred to leave him behind, he was injured and he was a liability. She meant it when she said she'd make him stay in the car. "I'm okay. I'm with you," he assured her. He had to be there, he had to see Amelia with his own eyes, he had to protect her. He got out, leaning on the car door and his good leg before turning to Frankie. His crutch was in the back seat. "Gimme that fucking thing," he said, frustrated by it.

Frankie could only imagine how wrong this whole thing was going to go, not that he was going to say that. His mind automatically went to the worst case scenario since that was usually how it played out for him. His eyes looked around the warehouse from backseat, sitting directly in the middle of the two passenger seats. When Lucia spoke to Mikey telling him to keep his cool, he didn't entirely believe Mikey would be able to. Only because if it was his girl, well, some people had already seen how he handled that. "Are you sure you're going to be alright with just one good leg right now?" He questioned, stepping out of the car pulling out the crutch afterwards to hand it to Mikey looking over when another car approached, so obvious on whose it was.

Mikey looked over at Frankie, taking the crutch and leaning on it. "I don't have a choice, man," he grumbled. There was no way he was sitting this one out, he would push through the pain. "You got my back, right?"

Frankie nodded his head glancing back at Mikey. "Always." He responded, now waiting for Estelle to step out.

When Estelle received the phone call from her daughter, she was livid. Teaming up with the O'Sheas. What the hell was she thinking? Not to mention, her other children. Mariana galavanting around with some joke of a man and then Amelia getting herself captured. Thank god for the other two. Henry was trying to calm her down, telling her that Lucia did have this under control, but the older woman refused to believe it. Why would her daughter make a deal with these idiots? Why would she truce with their mortal enemy? When the car finally arrived to some hell hole the Irish decided to meet at, she told Henry to remain in the car. He was rather nice eye candy. Such a shame he preferred her daughter over her. Getting out, she made her way over, looking at the others. "Well? Do we know when they are arriving? I'd like to get this over with, quickly." Looking at Mikey, she let out a sigh before looking at her daughter. "He's the best you can do? Send him back. My daughter's life will not be risked because of a cripple."

Lucia turned her head seeing a car pull up. She glanced over at Liam and Bryan. "I apologize now." She muttered as her attention turned towards the car. She watched her mother get out of the car, seeing Henry in the back. She shouldn't have been surprised that she brought Henry with her but once she saw the car door shut she pressed her lips together. She parted her lips to say something but she turned to Mikey and started to talk. She put her hand up to stop her. "How about you do the world a favor and shut the fuck up?" She forced a smile on her face. "Mikey is here because he loves your daughter. You don't like it. You don't need to be here." She turned to see another car rolling up. "Alright, ready people?"

Liam's eyes wandered over the other faces, noticing Mikey and the state he was in. He wanted to say something but decided against it, he wasn't one of his men after all. Watching as the other car came up Liam slid his hands into his pockets. He glanced over at Lucia when she apologized, arching a brow in curiosity. He looked over when Estelle stepped out, watching her criticize within five seconds of being there which only reminded him of someone, causing a bitter taste in his mouth. Glancing over when another car came up he took a deep breath. "You two can have a family squabble at home, we have business to attend to now." He stepped ahead when Lucia asked if they were ready, answering the question without a word.

Estelle pressed her lips together as Lucia spoke. If there weren't people around, she would've gotten slapped for her comments. "I'm here because I want to get Amelia back. I do not care who she has affairs with. I want competent people," she hissed at her before smiling fakely at everyone else. When Liam spoke, however, she immediately lowered her gaze. "Ugh. Another one. Fine. We'll stick to business. Do any of you have a plan?"

Ashlyn sat in the back of a van, a cloth bag over her head and her wrists tied together with a zip tie. She couldn't see where they were going, and she assumed the reason was so she couldn't later find a way to escape from where ever they were holding her. Jonah had told them that their families had chosen to release Amelia for the cash, and Ashlyn understood why. But she knew how hard it was going to be to see them so close, just to be pulled away again until the rest of the money was wired. In the back seat, her hands held onto Amelia's, who was in the same position next to her. When the van pulled to a stop, he heart started pounding in fear. The sliding door was opened and she was dragged out. Jonah growled at them both, "Be smart, and both of you will make it out of this." Her bare feet stepped onto the gravel, having left her heels behind in the house, since still being in a dress was bad enough. Someone grabbed her by the elbow and made her walk forward, in front of the car but not far, so her family could see her but there was still distance between them. Then the bag was yanked off her head and she blinked in the sudden light, before her eyes adjusted and she took in the sight of her brothers and Aidan, with the Winters entourage right next to them.

Amelia was petrified. Yes, she was the one being released, according to Jonah, but it didn't feel right. Her heart was racing a mile a minute and it didn't help that they were bound again and had a bag over her head. Seriously? A bag? Along with the adrenaline rushing through her body, she could feel herself becoming dizzy and tired again. She squeezed Ashlyn's hands, not wanting her to be left behind. She shouldn't be left behind. When they arrived, she growled a little at Jonah's words, but ultimately complied. She felt someone grab her by the arm, leading her over to wherever they wanted her to be. When the bag was off her head, the paleness and sweat was now evident for the others to see. Her eyes immediately noticed Mikey on a crutch, making her want to lecture him. Then, she saw her sister and Frankie. Of course, what surprised her the most was her mother.

Aidan saw the van pull up, his hands were at his side curled into fists. He took a step forward once he heard the van door opening. He had ignored everything else going around him, his mind was on seeing Ashlyn and Ashlyn only. He had been furious to think they were going to let Amelia be the first one released but he understood. He did. Even though he was on edge about it. He saw her, her head was covered with a bag which made him take a few steps closer. "You son of a bitch," He said as his eyes moved to Ashlyn. He wanted to make a run to her but he knew he would get in trouble. "Untie her."

Bryan, for once, wasn't the one to lose his temper. At the sight of Ashlyn, he was immediately relieved that she seemed okay. Tired and weak, but okay. When Aidan stepped forward, Bryan could feel the anger in him. He put a hand on the kid's shoulder to keep him in check. Across the lot, Jonah chuckled at Aidan's command. "Do you forget that she's the one we're taking back with us? She's just here to show you that she is alive and well. We won't be untying her." Laughing, he shoved Ashlyn into the hands of one of his goons.

Mikey's heart nearly leapt out of his chest when he first saw Amelia. The hand on his crutch tightened until his knuckles were white, but he stayed where he was next to Lucia and Frankie. When the bag was taken off her head, he could tell that something was wrong. She looked sick, and he would have given anything to go to her. But this was a balancing act, and he knew everything had to go as planned or it could go horribly wrong. "Mel, it's okay," he called across to her, meeting her eyes. His other hand went to his hip, where his gun was holstered, and he waited.

Lucia held her half of the money in a bag, her feet took a couple steps as she turned her head towards Bryan. "We got your money." She tossed her bag out towards Jonah as her eyes lifted up towards him. "Give me my sister." She said in a stern tone, waiting for the right time to distract him so they could grab Ashlyn too.

Jonah looked back at the two girls by the van, making sure they weren't trying anything. He turned when Lucia threw her bag of money in the middle, then he looked at the Irish. "I still need your half," he said, walking forward to get the first bag. "And we're counting it all before you get your little ballerina back." He reached down to pick up the first bag.

Ashlyn watched, holding her breath as Liam stepped forward with the bag. This might be the last she saw of him, of any of them, for a while since she knew her captors were just going to take her back with them. The man who had been holding her elbow let go of her, his hand hovering over his gun as Jonah went forward. Ashlyn's eyes flicked over to him, then back to Liam as he heard his words. The second he used their code, with her childhood nickname, her eyes went wide. She grabbed Amelia's hands even though they were both still tied up, and she tugged her towards the ground with her, knowing bullets were about to start flying but careful not to let Amelia hit the ground on her stomach, going onto their knees first. Not giving her a chance to protest, Ashlyn covered Amelia's back with her own body, draping herself over her and then covering her own head with her arms as the sound of gunshots went off.

Lucia was expecting Bryan to be the one to pull the trigger but when Liam stepped up and did it, it should have shocked her but it didn't. Her hand went for her gun to start shooting. Aidan brought up his gun and started to fire as well, trying to make his way towards Ashlyn.

A few of the remaining men on Jonah's side moved to the other side of the van, ducking behind the open door for cover while the ones up front got hit and went down. Amelia felt herself start to swoon before Ashlyn tackled her. By time they both hit the ground, she had passed out. Estelle grabbed her own gun, hiding under her blazer as soon as the first shot was fired. This was their plan? She began to shoot, noticing someone heading right for Lucia. In a moment of intense motherly love, she pushed her daughter out of the way, taking the bullet in the heart herself.

Mikey's gun was out the second the first shot went off. He would have made a run for Amelia, through the criss cross of fire, if he hadn't been on one leg. Instead he aimed carefully and took out one of the guys who had been running towards the girls to grab them and get them back into the van to take off. His shot hit home and the guy went down to the sounds of one of the girls screaming nearby.

Lucia was focusing on one of the guys closet to the girls she didn't see the man coming up from behind her. She turned to look at Mikey, seeing how he was doing when all of a sudden she was pushed aside. She tried to keep herself on her feet but the person who had pushed her had enough strength to take her down. She fell down, hearing a gun fire near her. Her head turned over to the guy who shot the gun, bringing her gun up to shoot him, seeing how it him right in the chest. Her head turned to see who had pushed her. Her mother. She parted her lips to say something but she noticed the pool of blood coming out of her. "No," she muttered, moving herself into a crawling position to crawl towards her. "No no no." She said, moving her mother's upper half towards her. "Estelle." She said, giving her a bit of a shake. "Come on, don't do this."

When all hell broke loose, Bryan's response was instant. He got a few shots off, taking out some of them while the rest dived behind the car door. The return fire from behind the door came fast, and Bryan knew they were vulnerable. Liam, meanwhile, was still standing there stunned in the face of his first kill. Bryan grabbed his brother's wrist and dragged him back into the doorway of the warehouse, the distance enough to keep them out of the range of the bullets. Bryan reached up for a second to touch Liam, hand curling behind the back of his head. "Stay with me, man."

Her head turned back to find Frankie. Lucia couldn't handle something like this right now as horrible as it sounded to leave your mother's dead body to someone else. "Frankie!" She called out to him. She waited for him to acknowledge her before she got up and ran towards Amelia.

Liam's entire body went numb after the shot had been fired and the body dropped. He stared at it, not in shock from a dead body in his sight but that it was that way because of him, for the first time. As the place erupted around him with bullets flying everywhere he almost zoned it all out until Bryan came up and pulled him back. His eyes focused on Bryan when he was forced to look at him, nodding his head. "I'm good." He said, motioning for Bryan to go and do what he did best.

Frankie's gun was out the second all the shots started going flying around, dropping a body himself but when Lucia called out to him his eyes went to her first, then they found Estelle. "Shit." He muttered to himself, running over. "I got her!" He told Lucia, motioning for her to go as he got down to the ground.

Seeing Lucia make a run for the girls, Bryan pulled Liam back and stepped in front of him, raising his gun again. He gave Lucia cover, making sure no one got to her while she ran for Ashlyn and Amelia. The one left behind the car door was still firing at them and Bryan got one last shot off, shattering the glass over him but he had ducked and didn't get hit. He was out, and stepped back again to reload his gun.

Aidan turned his head over towards Bryan to see him handling the mess with Liam. He knew he had to run for it. He lifted up his gun and started to fire as he made his way across the distance between the two cars. He slid himself next to Ashlyn, moving his arm around her and tucking one underneath Amelia. "Hey hey, I got you." He whispered into Ashlyn's ear. Lucia in that moment hadn't cared about protecting herself to get to Amelia but when her head looked back she noticed that Bryan was covering her. She turned back and slid in the dirt, crawling her way over to Amelia. "Melly," she whispered, looking at Ashlyn. "I don't know how to thank you."

Mikey gritted his teeth when Frankie moved towards Estelle and Lucia and Aidan took off for the girls. There was one guy left, behind the door, and Bryan was out of bullets. Mikey dropped his crutch and moved, grimacing through the pain and running anyway, until he was in eyeline. The guy was focused on Bryan, he didn't see it coming when Mikey put a bullet in his head from the side.

Ashlyn looked up when Aidan appeared next to her, but she refused to leave Amelia unprotected until Lucia came over to her. She just nodded at Lucia's words, too scared to talk until the shooting finally came to an end. All of a sudden, it was over. She turned to Aidan, tears running down her face as she moved into his arms and clung to him.

Amelia came to a little when she felt a little more weight on her. "Luce," she whispered, eyes blurry as she tried to focus. The world was spinning again as she tried to reach out for her sister, instead, turning onto her side to throw up the sandwich she had ate earlier. She then collapsed again, the world went black again.

Mikey limped as fast as he could around the car and over to them, his stitches pulled open and the wound in his leg bleeding through his jeans, but he didn't care. He skidded to a halt and fell to his knees next to Lucia, his hands moving to Amelia's face. "Mellie, hey, stay with me babe..."

Aidan slid his arms around Ashlyn, inhaling her scent. He pulled her closer to him, slowly helping her get up off the ground, knowing all the guys were down around them. He pulled back a little, not realizing how tight he had been holding onto her. "Go get your brothers." He whispered, moving his hands to her face and pressing his lips against her forehead. Lucia looked at Amelia, taking a hold of her hair, knowing she was going to vomit. "It's okay, babygirl. I'm here." She whispered, turning her attention towards Frankie who was holding her dead mother... their dead mother. She turned her head quickly towards Mikey when he came over. "Get her to doctor." She said softly. "I gotta get Estelle."

Mikey looked up at Lucia when she told him to get her to the hospital, his heart pounding in fear. His hands moved from Amelia's face to gently lift her up and stand with her, the weight making his leg a searing pain. "Come on, baby, we're getting out of here," he murmured as he started towards Estelle's car, not caring that she couldn't hear him. "Henry!" he yelled for him to get the back door open. "Hospital, now!"

Ashlyn's gripped Aidan's shirt in her fists, tears streaking her face when his lips touched her forehead. She looked up into his eyes and nodded, still speechless but so glad to see him. She nodded and took in a shaky breath, letting him help her to her feet. Then she ran, barefoot, across the gravel and threw herself into Liam's arms, crying harder.

Henry hated having to sit back and watch this entire thing go down. He had begged Estelle to let him go out there and protect her. He had years of experience with guns and protecting others, but the eldest Winters had told him no. She didn't need her confidant to be in any sort of fire, so here he sat. Watched her get killed protecting Lucia. Lucia... he was snapped out of his daze when he saw Mikey hobbling towards him with a lifeless Amelia, immediately getting out of the car to grab her from him and place her into the back seat. "I got you two," he told Mikey before getting back into the driver's seat and driving off as fast as he could.

Once the bullets stopped flying around, Liam didn't notice anything else, just looking to find Ashlyn. Seeing her with Aidan he let out a breath of relief. Then when she made her way over to him he threw the gun aside, wrapping his arms around her instantly, one hand moving to the back of her head. "You're okay. You're safe now." He mumbled holding onto her, looking over at Bryan.

Ashlyn was up on her toes, her arms wrapped tightly around Liam's neck, her sobs starting to calm down at the sound of his voice. She buried her face in his shoulder. Bryan caught Liam's eye and went over to them, wrapping one arm around Liam and one around Ashlyn, holding onto both of them as relief flooded through him. He leaned down to press a kiss to Ashlyn's head, and she murmured, "I love you guys so much."

Lucia sat there, watching Mikey pick up Amelia and take her way. She couldn't bring herself to move her legs after that, her head turning to look over at Frankie once again. She pushed herself up after a couple minutes, ignoring the O'Shea's family reunion that was happening. She sat down across from Frankie, looking down at Estelle. Her fingers moved over to her eyes, closing them slowly. She moved her arms out to take her mother into her arms, looking down at her. She risked her life to save Lucia. Even her own father didn't do that when she was shot all those years ago. She swallowed, looking up at Frankie. "Find something to wrap her in." She kept her eyes on him. "Go." She knew Frankie probably didn't want to leave to go do something so small but Lucia knew she needed a moment. Just one little moment.

Bryan pulled away from the two of them, leaving Ashlyn in Liam's arms. He watched Lucia with her mother, the reality hitting him. Everything was going to change, and despite how Lucia may have felt about her, she just lost her mother. Bryan let her have a few moments of peace to herself, waiting until Lucia stood up before he went over to her. "I'm so sorry," he said, meaning it. "What can I do?" Bryan didn't know what Lucia might need from him at this point, but he wanted to at least offer to make this was easy for her as he could, on his end. As far as he was concerned, the truce still held.

Lucia inhaled, looking down at her mother. "Fuck," she said softly. "What am I gonna tell Matty?" She glided her tongue along her lower lip. In that moment, that was her one concern, her little brother and his already rocky path. One thing after another this year and this could push him over the edge. Her head lifted up once she heard Bryan's voice. She wanted to stand but she still couldn't feel her legs. "I don't know if there is anything but keep the deal we had. Truce." She whispered. "No more blood shed. No more fighting. A truce." She said as her eyes lifted up towards him. "If you are still okay with that."

Bryan looked down at Lucia, knowing partly what it felt like, but this was different. Desmond had died by Bryan's own hand, while Estelle had jumped in front of a bullet to save Lucia. Still, the grief would hit her hard, when she let it. But there was still work to be done first, and Bryan understood that more than anyone. "Lucia," he said, calling her by her first name and not Winters or some joking nickname for the first time in all their dealings together. He reached a hand down to her, helping her to her feet gently, then set his hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes. "Yes," he said, not consulting Liam, just agreeing. After all this, how could any of them want to go to war and lose even more? "The truce stands." He gave her shoulder a little squeeze. "Listen to me. You're in charge now." He knew that she had to hear it, let it sink in. "You got this. We'll figure the rest out between us, create territories or whatever we have to do to make a peace work. But we WILL make it work. I've still got your back. Alright?"

Lucia looked at him in a slight awe when he called her by her first name. She reached up and took his hand, standing up. She glanced down at feet, rubbing her hands against the jeans she was wearing. Her head lifting up towards him when he said the word yes. She nodded her head a little, wanting to find the right words to thank him to say something other than stand there like a complete fool. She ran her eyes over his face once he started to tell her how she was in charge which made her stand a little more. "Yeah," she said, moving her hands to his shoulders as well. "I am honestly speechless, um, thank you." She said softly, glancing behind him to see Frankie coming towards her with a blanket. "Take your family home, Bryan. I'll call you when things settle down on my end." She took a step closer, wrapping her arms around him to give him a quick hug. She moved back, pressing her lips together awkwardly as she walked past him to talk to Frankie.

For the first time in his life, Bryan was looking forward to peace, instead of chaos. He had always thrived in chaos, in war, because that was how his father raised him. But they had lost too much, on both sides, to still be at each other's necks all the time. It wasn't worth it. Bryan smiled softly at her, seeing Lucia as a partner in what was to come, instead of an enemy. "We're in this together," he said again. He was shocked when she moved to hug him, as brief as it was, and he squeezed her back for a moment before they parted. He nodded at her, in respect and understanding, then turned to get his family and take them home.

#{ verse: above the law }#{ chatzy }#//TOO MANY CHARACTERS TO TAG #//I LOVE YOU ALL THIS WAS AMAZING #//GO TEAM

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