#dad nate bringing the kids back in line

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

“So... all those times I pushed Hardison off a building and he was all “aah!”... he wasn’t just being funny?”

Leverage S05E05 The Gimme a K Street Job.

[abubblingcandle]

Do you have anything more for 16 year old Jamie you’d be willing to share? It’s only Monday but that snippet has already made my week!

Aww thank you love! I'm glad! I hadn't thought about this fic in a while with so much else to write so thanks to everyone for liking it and bringing it back into my conciousness.

It was inspired by listening to interviews with the Leeds child superstar Archie Gray this year. He was 17 for most of the season and was talking about how much he was looking forward to turning 18 because then he could share the same changing rooms as the others and go out drinking with the team.

And like it got me thinking about a kid Jamie coming into that Cartrick managed team with a completely checked out captain. Archie said the team had been so great about making sure he felt included but I can't see S1 Richmond doing that. They're not going to stop going to the club because this kid can't go with them. They're not going to stop talking tactics and developing inside jokes in the changing room because one of the team isn't there. And he's not a real member of the team anyway, he's just a loan kid coming for experience.

It must be so lonely! And all he's got to go home to is his dad in the big loan house.

Another little snippet for your kindess!

Ted would be the first to admit that he didn’t really know what he was signing up for when he started as head coach at AFC Richmond. He just needed out of Kansas and how much more out of Kansas could you get. It was only when he was stood on the sideline with his ever faithful companion on one side and his hopefully new friend Nate the kit man on the other side that Ted truly realised what he was in for. See he had read the scouting sheets on the plane and before they even set off but seeing these young men running around clearly doing something with purpose and him not knowing what that purpose was, it made it clear he was in for a steep learning curve. “Is the junior team out here training too?” Ted asked, watching on of the players over by the goal facing up against one of the team goalkeepers, Zoreaux if he was recalling correctly. “No, this is the team,” Nate frowned. But he then turned following Ted’s eyeline to where the kid was lining up. He was short, far shorter than the goalkeeper and had all the gangly lankiness that Ted knew came with youth. With legs too long for his body he stood, scuffing at the turf. “Oh, that’s Jamie,” Nate said with a sigh almost in sync with Jamie swinging his foot through the ball and sending it thumping into the bottom right corner. “He’s on the team.”

[extremelyblackandwhite]

the price of power - 01

pairing: mob boss!sebastian stan x wife!reader

warnings: swearing, mentions of organised crime and violence

masterlist

Y/N had convinced herself as a young girl not to believe in happy endings, or to believe in them in normal circumstances. At least, not the whole story of the prince coming in saving the damsel in distress and galloping into the sunset. Yet, despite all odds, she found herself happily in love, living in the city of love with who she swore was the best baby someone could have. Life pretty much had developed into a fairytale for her, things were good and even if she thought for a long time, she couldn’t figure out anything she wanted. However, no one told her on her wedding night how to actually be what she had signed up to be. 

     - Hey, you gonna serve or you afraid to lose? - her half-brother called out to her, his racket in hand. 

     - You talk too much, Dan! - she rolled her eyes, throwing up the ball in the air before hitting it with the racket. 

She’d taken up tennis as a suggestion from her husband, well, kind-of. Things over the past year had been complicated, going back to normal and adjusting to a life she’d spent her whole life witnessing from the side-lines wasn’t something easy. Gwen had the training, Gwen knew how a wife of a mob boss should behave, knew how an heiress should behave, what to wear, where to go, how to seek and how to protect herself. Y/N did not. Sure, she’d watched it happen, she’d heard about it and god knows she’d heard Gwen complain about it but now it was her life. All of the danger and the moral and ethical code was now something she suddenly had to master while Gwen jet set around the globe. On top of all that, she had her son and learning to become a mum was something new to her as all. Sebastian did what he could, he guided her through all he could but even he had to admit that some things were just, well, some things were just instilled in you. He’d always tell her that he was raised for the job, it comes naturally to him. Funny how she used to consider that a disadvantage. 

Tennis had just been a way for her to find a normal hobby to do, away from the house. She’d usually bring Nate in his baby carrier and play against one of the ladies in the country club or one of the trainers, but today her brother had decided to visit. He’d told her it was to see his nephew and his sister, but Y/N knew better to believe those were the sole reasons. She did know one thing and that was Dan. She knew he was here because he cared but she knew he was also here at the hand of their father. 

      - So, how’s your husband? - and there it was, her suspicions confirmed. It always started like this, like a carefully crafted dance where he attempted to bring up Sebastian as smoothly as possible. 

      - Good. - she replied with a shrug, hitting the ball with the racket once more.

      - How so?

      - If you want to ask about the job, ask about the job, Dan. Although, you’d be better off asking him than me. 

      - You know how cagey your husband can get. He’d soon tell me his blood type than anything about the business. 

      - Maybe dad should ask him. - she smiled sarcastically. - After all, it is dad who wants to know, isn’t it?

      - Can you blame him for worrying about his kid? - he shot back. - The man finally gets to tell you you’re his kid and you get married, knocked up and move to Paris? At least let him worry. 

      - He’s not worried, he just doesn’t like him. 

      - He is worried and it’s not like Sebastian makes it any easier. You’d think he’d be more open to actually sharing considering you’re his wife and one day you’re gonna fill his shoes.

     - One very distant day. 

     - All I’m saying is, it wouldn’t hurt for him to share with dad what he’s doing every once in a while. Or share it with you.

     - You know ... - she put her racket down. - Next time you say you wanna see your nephew, you might wanna talk about him a lot more before moving onto Sebastian. 

She looked over to the corner of the caged tennis court where she had laid the baby comforter. Nate liked being in the sun, he enjoyed the sounds of the balls hitting the rackets and the grass and would usually doze off after one or two matches. These days he was the one who brought her some sense of normalcy, the sense of having a family which matched the one in 80s sitcoms and parenting books. 

      - You do have an adorable kid. - he sighed. - Can hardly believe half of it came from your husband. 

      - Maybe our family just has really strong adorable genes. 

      - I think that’s just you, sis. You know I’ll go bald just like dad in a few years. That if your husband doesn’t speed up the process. 

      - Sometimes I think you two just like bickering. 

      - Well, sometimes, I think you just like watching us bicker. 

      - It ... - the words died in her throat as she noticed a series of black cars pull up. Odd.

Dan had the same thought, crossing over to her side of the court and following her to the corner where Nate was. She recognised those cars, they belonged to Sebastian and as that thought dawned on her, her heart seemed to stop beating and that buzz which accompanied her frequent anxiety attacks settled in her ears. Men who she equally recognised moved down and towards the court with neutral faces and she hadn’t noticed she had started moving away from them until her back hit her brother’s chest. 

     - Mrs Stan we need to go. - the first one on the court spoke but it didn’t register on her. All her brain could compute about was Sebastian. Was he okay? Why were all these men here? - We need to go. 

     - What’s going on? - Dan spoke up, his arm wrapped protectively around her sister. 

     - We need to go, it’s not safe. 

She wasn’t sure when or how she’d gotten in the car and hadn’t completely come to her senses until it sped up down the road. She looked inside the baby carrier, unbuckling her son from the little chair and bringing him instinctively against her chest before turning to Dan. He didn’t know what to do or how to react, instead he just smiled at her, attempting to calm down his sister but that didn’t appear to work. Her hold tightened against her son, her fingers twiddling with the fabric of his onesie as they brought her back to her house. She didn’t want the door to open, she didn’t want to see what awaited her, she couldn’t ... she didn’t want to see it if it was bad and like a bad joke, her mind could only replay him shot on the ground. She couldn’t ... no, he couldn’t. They would’ve told her, right? They would’ve told her. 

One of the men opened the door for her and she struggled to step in, only doing so when her brother held her hand. Inside, the home looked exactly like she’d left it and as she turned her head towards the living room, she spotted her husband on the phone, walking in circles. Her breathe returned to her in a wave, her heart rate decreasing as she attempted not to cry out of relief that he was ok. He turned his head to meet her, dropping his phone to the ground and rushing to his wife. 

     - Are you alright? - he cupped her face, inspecting it for anything different than the one he’d woken up to this morning. - You’re okay. You’re okay. Nate ok? 

She wasn’t sure if he was speaking to her or if he was reassuring himself. 

     - What’s going on? - Dan crossed his arms. - Just sent your whole army of gorillas to get us and they don’t even say a fucking word?

     - None of your fuckin’ business, Daniel.

     - Seb. - she whispered, holding his hand. - It’s fine, we’re fine. What’s wrong?

    - It’s your dad, angel. 

She should’ve known good thing don’t last for very long. 

////////////////////////

taglist: @buckysteveloki-me​

[jamiesfootball]

WAIT i just had another idea. jamie STARTS as a hitting apprentice to roy, but slowly comes to realize - and roy comes to realize - it's more upsetting to him than it is satisfying to do that job, and then they SWITCH him to hacking. which maybe they did or didn't have a dedicated hacker before and they were just making do, or maybe it was nate and he (temporarily) switched sides, or whatever. but maybe like jamie's injured for a minute and has to sit out hitting, and roy's doing that for a job, and then some kind of hackery shit needs to happen that whoever's doing that at the moment - beard? ted even trying it would be an unprecedented disaster, we know - doesn't know how to do or isn't doing the Best Way, and jamie just steps in (vaguely loopy on pain killers) and just. Does it. Perfectly. mumbling some jargony bullshit in fucking mancunian that no one can understand only half because of the mumbling and the accent. and they're all like okay jamie. congratulations on your new position. and he resists it at first because he doesn't think he fits the Archetype or whatever for a hacker, but like. he likes it and he's good at it, and it brings the team together so well to have him as The Guy In The Chair TM. and that's their "go through me" total football moment.

Homie I am sitting across from you and leaning in very closely and taking your face gently in my hands-

Because this implies, somewhere along the lines, that Jamie’s two-bit crime fixer dad pushed his kid into becoming a hitter.

He probably knew a guy who needed extra muscle in a pinch and offered up his son. His son who was athletic, who was on the football team and doing well at it, so he had a bit of muscle on him. It was just supposed to be to fill a gap, look intimidating a for a few hours and earn your dad a couple hundred pounds, what’s the problem, not like you can’t take a hit, can’t you?

And it didn’t matter that Jamie didn’t want to do it, cause his dad never listened to him anyways. Not when he was warning him ‘you know those messages ain’t just your phones anymore, the companies back em up so the police can search em’. Not when he tried to explain ‘no you ain’t got stick somebody up in an alley anymore, see I’ve got the skimmer you can just hit the ATM’. And definitely not when he said ‘they got CCTV everywhere now, you gotta be more careful’

And then James got arrested. And he took the fall for a crime boss that promised to do right by him but didn’t. And then, well, wasn’t anyone looking out for Jamie, and he had a book full of contacts his dad left behind, and a fucking reputation for all the goon work he’d done, and he’d only ever been good for one thing anyways, and that was the only thing he’d ever gotten paid to do so-

He became a hitter. And a fucking good one too. Simple as that.

[slocumjoe]

Hiiii this is my first time asking, but I love your writing! ♥

I was recently editing my FF where Hancock had to talk to Shaun about him and Sole being together (like when a step-parent has to get the green light from the kiddos, and I thought it was cute). It made me wonder...

How would you see the Companions handling this situation? Or being a "step-parent?"

Companions as step-parents

(Big distinction from having their own kid)

Cait; It takes multiple months to really figure things out with Shaun. She starts by mentioning one day, "By the way, yer ma/da and I are datin'. What do you want for dinner?" This is never brought up again. Shaun is fine, he's a smart lad. If ever asked to discipline, she's out the window and down the street. Not her kid, not her say. Cait has too many nerves to be Mean Mom. She's Fun Mom. She's Eat All This Candy Mom. She's kind of a disaster and Shaun finds her entertaining. Cait, for her part, is glad they don't have to go all sappy about it. Internally, always fretting and fussing about how she's doing as a parent. If anyone notices she quit the bottle, they can mind their own.

Curie; Long-winded discussion that bores Shaun half-to-death. She wants to talk mental health, healthy family dynamics, responsibilities...how its okay to feel what he feels, who to talk to about what, where do they go from here...Shaun nods along even if he's already adjusted to this being a reality. Curie wants to be the Model Mother with no shortcomings. Shaun just wants Curie, and Curie is already there. That's enough for him. Not many people can brag about their mom being an actual doctor with papers to prove it. (They're her Ms. Nanny 'adoption' papers.)

Danse; Similar to Curie, except Danse is freaking out, where Curie is cool as a cucumber. Danse is not a cucumber. He wants to win Shaun over so badly, but understands that kids are their own people, with opinions and shit. So, his speech is more along the lines of 'here's what to expect, and here's what is up to you.' Meanwhile Shaun is already thinking about Father's day...because Danse has been his dad from, like, minute one. You can't teach him science and garage stuff and not be Dad. That's like...first step to Being Shaun's Dad.

Deacon; would need his ass glued to a chair to keep him from trying to wrap it up prematurely. Can't stop making jokes but desperately wishes he could. Meanwhile, Shaun is Not Entirely Impressed. Deacon is a liar. He runs off. He changes his identity. Shaun isn't convinced he's not going to go get cigarettes one day and vanish. And having kids is a sore spot for Deacon. This is territory he paved over long ago. But he forces himself to take a pickaxe and start peeling back those layers, self-actualize. Shaun sees this and accepts Deacon as Dad. They go on What Trouble Can We Get Into Without Mom/Dad Finding Out adventures.

Gage; i really hope Gage can keep his temper in check here, because Shaun is not having this. Raider. Manipulative, probably also a liar, violent tendencies, lacks morals, etc etc etc. Will 100% bring up Nate/Nora. "Mom's/Dad's last partner was a war hero/civil rights lawyer. What do you do for work?" Gage might be more skittish than Deacon here. He was expected a geek kid. Not someone staring through his soul and tsking. Brings back little gadgets for Shaun as peace offerings, cleans up his act somewhat. Maybe starts cleaning himself more if Shaun comments on his hygiene. Look, he ain't running from Sole because of their, in all fairness, honest, objectively correct child. But he can't just butt heads with him all his damn life either. With enough time, Gage takes Shaun and tries to actually parent. Shows him survival tricks. How to skin an animal, fire-starting, whittling. Stuff his own family taught him. Shaun needs only a few good looks at Gage's soft side before he's on board.

Hancock; Shaun is. So torn. One hand, Hancock is fun and nice and really cares for his parent. On the other, Hancock is a chemhead from The Place Where Everyone Is High And Having Sex Constantly. He likes Hancock as a weird uncle. As a dad...hmm...he's suspicious. Is Hancock husband material? Hancock himself doesn't think so and will fully admit to Shaun "Hey, I've got shit to work on, and I'm working on it, because your mom/dad is everything to me, and we're not going to just leave you out to dry." Hancock wants Shaun to be better than him, to not feel too comfortable in places Hancock himself would call homely. Teaches him to value the freaks in the world, and his community, but understand that a fun hole six feet down is still a hole six feet down. If he ever realized he was the Rules Dad, would go on an Irresponsible Parent bender to correct. No one learns that Shaun got a flamethrower out of this until Its Too Late.

MacCready; Takes ten minutes and most of it is talking about having a brother. Raises Shaun like his own, Shaun calls him Dad the quickest. What? He's already a dad. MacCready needs no intro to parenthood. This just makes sense to everyone involved and there only hiccup is Shaun worrying about sharing a room. Not because jealousy or anything, but he has potentially flammable/electric gadgets he's working on, and Duncan is a curious boy.

Nick; Also needs no introduction beyond "Hey I know the synth thing is weird but you want mac and cheese for dinner?" This just. Makes. Sense. Honeslty, even if not romanced, Nick is still Dad. Come on. He just is. Nick himself will grapple with the horror of potentially outlining both Sole and their child, but Shaun is just excited to spend more time with his cool robot detective dad. Hey, how does your hand work? Can I see the joints? How do you smoke, can I see your lungs? Nick is the one who needs an adjustment period. Teaches Shaun snark and now no adult dare sass him.

Piper; Also no introduction. The only hiccup here is that Nat, previously Shaun's bestie, is now his aunt. And both of them are really weirded out by this. Nat isn't helping by insisting she has to start drinking wine. No, Natalie, that was just a quirk of Aunt Darcy, not a universal rule. Piper herself is Shaun's confidant, the one he goes to whenever he needs to talk. Why not Sole? Well, its just...Sole only ever responds 1 of 4 ways, and Shaun has developed a sixth sense to intuit those responses, so...when he needs someone normal, he goes to Piper. Piper is a wildcard and also, gives him candy.

Preston; I HC he's a middling child of a big, big family, with lots of relatives nearby, if not in the same house. So, Preston has this child raising shit on lock. Sits Shaun down, gives him a quick rundown of the basics, asks if he has any questions, and boom. Done. Preston would rather be a parent/guardian/trusted adult than he's going to be. Actions, not words. He's probably the most likely to sway Shaun from his science interests. Not intentionally, but its hard to look at Preston and Sole, hear their stories, and not want to follow your parents in their Minuteman ways. And if Sole leads the Institute? Shaun is set up to really change the wasteland.

X6-88; 400+ PowerPoint slide. The doors are locked. He provided refreshments. Shaun allows this because he understands that X6-88 needs this more than him. Sole might have some objections. X6-88 raises Shaun with education in mind. Shaun just keeps asking questions about what its like to be a courser. Excellent, questions like that are preludes to a brilliant mind. No one challenges Shaun to "my dad could beat your dad in a fight." Shaun, for his part, likes this killing machine fumble around domestic life. He's worse than Cait at it.

[praecurokat]

Ted Lasso S3E11 Thoughts- Mom City

Why do i feel like the players wanting Nate back unanimously is a dream sequence… it seems too ‘perfect’ to be true- never mind, I guess

The blue moon in this episode (like in the beard episode w Man City) ties in to its ‘dream-like’ atmosphere, rare events, and Man City (the blue moon chant).

“And the key symbol there, that makes the whole thing beep until Beard comes over and fixes it for me.”- Ted. Aww i love references to Ted and Beard’s relationship!

“That goal is a lie. It should be retracted from the records. I apologize to everyone, especially the kids.”- Jamie

"You can keep those well manicured mitts of yours wherever you’d like!”- Ted’s Mom. Haha the realization dawning on Rebecca’s face as she said that!

“Did Teddy ever tell you about the time he ate a candy bar made of poop?” Reference to a throwaway line from another episode.. Ted Lasso never misses with the details!!

Trent trying to score a sneaky little interview with Ted’s mom.. I respect the hustle

“Trent, your hair is fabulous. It really is. It’s just stylin’.” - Ted’s Mom, also EVERYONE EVER

Poor Van Damme living in abject fear of Dani Rojas to the point that he now wears a mask…

“I think it’s more important to be safe than to look cool.”- Jamie. Roy heard that and was like… thats strange.. that’s suspicious…

“Are you fucking dying or some shit?”- Roy to Jamie after he started crying

"No, no no. I’m just tired. But I can’t.. sleep and I can’t eat. And i wash me hair, but I don’t use any conditioner anymore cause I- Like, what’s the fucking point?” Wow so this episode is trying to emotionally wreck me..

I am crying please this is so sad someone help himmmmm

“If you bring that Judas back, I will burn this place to the fucking ground!” Straight to arson, Beard being reasonable as always.

“Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself.”- Mae, poetically

THE CONTRAST BETWEEN EVERYONE AT THE MOVIE CRYING AND JAMIE SITTING THERE STONE FACED AFTER KNOWING WHAT HE IS FEELING…

Roy speechless staring at Jamie and his mom is sending meee

“This guy on twitter, he kept saying that it was blonde, but it’s fucking walnut mist mate.”- Jamie. “Yeah obviously. He's done a lovely job, it’s dead natural.”- Jamie's Mom.

I will be analyzing Jamie’s room for ages… the Roy Kent poster..Roy’s HAIR

Not Jamie having posters of BOTH Roy and Keeley… this revelation will send many people into a frenzy!!

“Van damn he’s been good today!” Surprised it took this long to use that pun- unless it was in an earlier episode?

“Personally, I’m fine with him playing hurt, I played hurt all the time.”- Roy, about Jamie. “You can’t walk up stairs.”- Beard

What Happened to Jamie’s dad?? Did i forget a major plot point from a previous episode?

Damn didn’t expect Beard’s backstory but makes sense for his character and the story

The scene between Ted and his mom was really good but all I could focus on was Ted leaving his apartment door open that whole time..

Not the abrupt cliffhanger ending.. i mean we all know what Ted was gonna say.. but still….

I mean the next episode is titled ‘So Long, Farewell’, so I guess it’s not really a cliffhanger…

[deepinifhell]

OC in 15 - Lauren Jenkins Rules: share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

You're getting some snippets because some of them are more fun that way.

Warnings: pregnancy mention, implied past sexual assault, suicide attempt, drug use mention 1. “Bobby,” Lauren begins slowly, “if you don’t turn around and get out of my sight I will fuck your dad and become your stepmother.”

Bobby’s mouth falls open, and then shuts again. When he next opens his mouth to speak she cuts him off first. 

“I’ve met your dad, Bobby. You know I could.” 2. “I’m gonna save you a lot of time Nate.  As a rule of thumb: you don’t want to know about anything I did in college.” 3. “Yeah, well, I was on a lot more drugs at the time."

4. Lauren leans away from Morgan’s hands before they are even within a foot of her, bringing her hands up to further enforce the boundary. 

“Your ankle might be broken. How else you are you planning on getting back?”

“None of your business!” Lauren snaps, reflexively.

5. “She’s so hot it pisses me off,” Lauren complains, running her fingers through her hair. “How am I supposed to get any work done when she’s just…there?” 

“Usually, you just don’t,” Farah points out with a waggle of her eyebrows.

6- 10. “I’ve spoken to Rebecca more in the past few months than I have in the last decade, if that’ll shut you up,” Lauren tells Nate. 

“I— really?” Nate asks in obvious surprise. 

“There’s a reason you didn’t know she had a kid for so long, dumbass. The last time I called her I was in jail.” 

“That’s right! You got your job at the station because it was that or jail, right?” Farah asks, eyes gleaming. Lauren nods. “So…what did you do?”

“Stabbed a guy,” Lauren says simply. “But I have it on good authority that he deserved it."

“And just whose authority is that?” Adam asks incredulously. 

“Captain Sung. You think he’d let me within 5 feet of his precious station if he thought I was a serious problem?”  

“He cares about the station?” Farah asks. 

“Yeah, it’s like when you have a kid that you say you love but you never see or interact with them.” 11. “I’m pregnant!”  “Shit,” Lauren swears surprisingly quietly, “do you need a ride to the clinic?” 

“Lauren,” Nate gasps, glaring at Lauren’s back before turning to face a townsperson, whose name he doesn’t even know,  with irritating familiarity. “Congratulations.” 

“She offered to help,” Morgan says with a shrug.

12. “Do you just go around letting people touch you when you don’t want them to?” Morgan asks.

“I wouldn’t call it unwanted when I let them do it,” Lauren says dismissively. Morgan’s hands loosen on her shoulder, hesitating. 

13. "Why exactly would I do that?" Adam asks, eyes narrowed and shoulders hunched by his ears.

Lauren gets up from her chair in favor of straddling Morgan's hips. She glances back at Adam to make sure he's watching before dragging her tongue in a long stripe up Morgan's neck. Morgan shivers underneath her. "Because I licked it so it's mine."

14. "Ugh...do you have any idea how much paper work I'm gonna have to do if you kill yourself?" Lauren asks as she slides into the passenger seat of the sedan. She pulls a candy bar out of her pocket and pushes it toward the snotty red-faced teen. They take it with some garbled sound that is either an attempt at communication or just a weird sob. It doesn't really matter, they're so worked up its going to be a few minutes before they're coherent either way.

"Eat that," Lauren orders as she reaches over to turn off the running car, pocketing the keys and putting her feet up on the dash. "It's expensive as hell to die these days, y'know? Even just getting cremated and put in a cardboard box is a few hundred dollars. Plus, when you die you shit yourself, so the car is definitely going to need detailed."

15. "You wanna say that again?" Lauren demands, pushing up out of her seat, her hands balled into fists and nostrils flaring.

tagged by @aztarion

tagging: @nat-seal-well @grapecaseschoices @crownleys @wayhavenots @sustainably-du-mortain and anyone else who wants to do this!

[devilsgatewayhq]

Name: Nathaniel Donovan Age: 39 Occupation: Owner of The Raven Time living in Tonopah: Native Neighborhood: Downtown Gang Affiliation: VP of the Sons of Silence Face Claim: Sebastian Stan

Biography: (tw: drug abuse, physical abuse)

Being the second child to welcome Mr and Mrs Donovan didn’t bring as much joy as their first. Nathaniel was the baby, the toddler, the child that rebelled enough to always find himself being held in comparison to his older sister; Lydia. She had been the textbook baby, easy to follow and Nate strayed so far away from the pages that from a young age, once he was old enough to understand the emotional abuse being thrown not just his way, but to each of his siblings, he found himself wanting to please Harold. Receiving praise rather than taunts fuelled him to do well in school, if only hoping that if he returned home with a report card deemed worthy, he wouldn’t be subjected to Harold’s alcoholic rage. Nate had to be the “ideal son”, the boy that would follow in his father’s footsteps, pursue a career alongside his dad in the police force and once that happened, in his little mind, Harold would be proud. Despite having his educational path already pinned out for him, Nathaniel held a fascination with space, rockets and the engineering behind it. If he had been the chooser to his own path in life, he would have left Tonopah behind and put himself on NASA’s payroll for he had the intelligence and will to make it far and yet that wasn’t where he ended up. The fear instilled by his father had been his normal, he didn’t know any different until his teenage years when he realised other kids parents didn’t go through two bottles of whiskey a night.

A pivoting moment in which his views on the man who tried to put the fear of god into their family life started changing, the only light in his life had been his mother, Meredith, the glue that held them altogether. The woman that also put up with her husband’s emotional abuse, trapped in a life that had also given her a blessing; her four children. Nate had always shown kindness to his mother, tried to intervene when he’d witness Harold’s fearful dictatorship as well as put himself in the firing line when his father started to show aggressive tendencies. The changing perspective didn’t matter, however, not in terms of the life already planned out for him. He was studying for his degree, enrolling within the police academy with no real clue who he was. He found himself depressed, unable to even recognise the person staring back at him in the mirror. It wasn’t until he unfortunately, or more fortunately, gained an injury during training that had him stuck and incapable of performing his usual daily tasks that he fell more into his identity crisis, dropping out of the career path he was building himself towards, something that only added increasing disapproval from his Harold for not being “good” enough. OxyContin had been prescribed to help with his injuries and also became medication he couldn’t function to the point he became reliant.

It had been during this time that his friend, Cole Monroe, gave Nate the push he needed to join the Sons as a prospect, something Nate had always stepped away from due to that deep imprinted scar Harold had created and yet with his father wanting barely anything to do with him, he joined the MC and learned the true meaning of family. His loyalty to the Sons knew no bounds and yet he was still only pushing through each day due to the soft drugs he was taking. It had become a habit, a morning routine to pop a pill when he woke up. It was Nathaniel’s normal, addicted and oblivious. When he was twenty-six he tried harder drugs and became hooked on the high they provided, his downward spiral showed the wear and tear signs and yet it wasn’t until the day his sister walked into his home and found him passed out, resulting in him waking up in hospital showed just how unwell he was. Logan had called 911 because she thought he was dead, Nate, however, had been soaked up in the release heroin gave and in rage his addiction spoke for him, pushing his sister away, hurting her with words he didn’t mean. Leaving hospital didn’t mean freedom for Nate, it meant being forced into Cole’s own version of rehab, forcing Nate to get clean after his spiral. It wasn’t until he was free from the influence the drugs he had been taking that he apologised to Logan, mending their relationship he had put a wedge inbetween.

Finding his footing had been nerve racking and after two years clean, Meredith Donovan passed away after being involved in a car crash. Days before her passing they had a disagreement, his mother had wanted to try and get everyone together for his birthday, Harold included and Nate expressed he wasn’t on board. His last words to her had been “No, Mom” a regret that has him now (present day and for years previous) putting up with Harold Donovan’s abuse whenever he sees him, the Chief of Police never not being shy in voicing how disgusted in his only son he is. Despite never being able to escape his drunken father, or his own personal struggles, Nate’s life appears well put together — Owner of The Raven (an establishment he originally took by sheer brute force from an overly handsy male), Vice President to his long life friend, devoted to the Sons of Silence, and consciously looking out for his sisters. Wanting to hold them altogether despite the emotional damaged they all carried, knowing Meredith would have wanted her children united.

Headcanons:

Will protect his sisters like his life depended on it— even if it’s not welcome.

Has a one eyed silver Maine coon called Chip.

Smokes enough cigarettes to have his doctor concerned yet doesn’t stop as it eases his nerves

Is not able to hold down a relationship; fear of not being good enough still prominent.

Avid boxer, takes part in illegal fights.

Can be a sarcastic little shit but his hearts as good as gold.

[slushyextrachaos]

_Is it REALLY a deal with a devil if the monsters actually want to help?_

((Implied violence, child abuse/neglect, etc, the dog featured is not a good boy, read at own risk))

The Darkness feels a pull, something was calling for it… it felt a desperate cry for help with nothing to offer in return. And despite the agony of being pulled to an unknown (somewhat incorrect/outdated) carved summoning sigil, it answers the call. From it Janus emerged with a pained hiss, clutching his arm to his chest as where the symbol burned itself onto his person stung terribly. The darkness slowly starts to clear up, leading to a dark bedroom and an empty bed.

He spots an angry snarling beast just in time for it to latch onto his already in pain arm, that he foolishly tried to use to guard himself with. With a snarl of his own he goes for the door with the beast in tow only to find it locked. A strange coldness goes through him at the realization that whoever called out was LOCKED IN with this thing. With the door not an option he goes to the window, which DOES open its just a bit high up. The… he hesitates to call it a dog… made no move of letting him go, in fact it was clamping down tighter, so he made his choice and pries the creature's jaws open and promptly tosses the beast out. He shuts the window quickly, not daring to look, just as his heartbeat starts to slow his ears twitch. There it was. Quiet sobbing. Almost so faint his echo location nearly doesn't pick it up even with his eye closed.

"Hello?" He breathes quietly, slowly creeping over to the closet. "Are you the shadow monster that steals kids?" A young voice whispers back. Janus cringes slightly at that. "Uh… that position is under new management. I got rid of the dog by the way… kinda. Do you want to come out?" The child is quiet for a moment before replying with an "uh-uh." So that's a no.

"Can I come in?" He asks instead. "… you shouldn't give things permission to come into your home…" the child answers, sounding like he's more or less memorized and practiced that line. Janus chuckles quietly, removing his mask and shaking his head. "Smart, but counterproductive because summoning is basically permission. Especially when you don't put anything around the symbol. Not that salt or sugar would work on me." He rambles, slowly pulling the door open. His eyes scanning over the mess of items that likely didn't even belong to the kid before spotting the boy. Well hidden. Nate slowly crouches to the boy's eye level. "Are you going to take me away? Dad's only gonna bring more animals…." the boy's voice is trembling, looking up with red puffy eyes… only for said eyes to widen at seeing his scars. "D-did the dog do that?" Janus traces the edge of the scar holding half his face in a permanent jagged smile and shakes his head. "Nah, I lost a fight with a tree…. a very mean tree." Unfortunately just as the mood lightened Janus ends up popping the kid's bubble. Best to rip the bandaid off now right?

"We don't steal children, not anymore. We can't take care of them." The group of teenagers and adults were barley keeping themselves afloat as is, they still had contact with the children who HAD been in their care but they were placed with normal families that could actually provide for them. But seeing this child hiding in his closet after summoning for a monster in desperation… it brings back… unpleasant memories, to say the least. Before the child could start crying again he concludes bending the rules a little would be alright. "but, we can borrow you." He pulls out a marker, drawing his symbol on the inside of the door. "What do I call you?" The boy hesitates for a moment, watching him work. Honestly the symbol isn't as impressive as the last guy's.

"Simon."

Nate smiles and hold his hand out to shake, the boy- Simon takes it. Hand small and cold in his own, the handshake was barely a movement but it counted. The Darkness purrs in approval, a deal has been made.

[spidernerdsblog]

okay so can you add a blurb to the MMIH series ? I dont have anything specific i would like to add but just some domestic fluff and maybe a lil suggestive? idrk but i love your work and the seriess is whbxbxbx ok thank you luv ya

Thank you so much <333 Bringing back our possessive mob boss and my first attempt on milf! reader lol. Hope you like this. Let me know what you think.

Match made in Hell (series)

POSSESIVE

Pairing : Mob! Tom Holland x Reader

Summary : Tom gets all possessive when he sees other dads flirting with you at a school event of your kids.

Warnings : fluff, suggestive

“Should I notch it down a little? This dress seems way too flattery” you ask Tom glancing at your reflection in the mirror, smoothening the sides of your ruffle hem A-line floral dress.

“That dress looks great on you love” Tom reassures you slipping on his grey jacket over his white button up. It was Nate and Leah's first sports day at school and you both were excited to go and cheer them on the field.

“I don't know Tom” you frowned, still uncertain about the dress “after having Nate and Leah, my boobs seem to have grown bigger” you observed bringing your hands up to your chest and cupping your breasts.

“You don't see me complaining do you?” Tom chuckles with a playful smirk on his face. You were already beautiful but the glow up you had during your pregnancy didn't miss his eye. Your body was curvier, breasts fuller and voluptuous than before which only made it hard for him to keep his hands off you.

“Shut up you horndog. It's not funny” you grimace totally unamused.

“What? I’m serious” he laughs, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

“You don’t know how the other moms at school look at me as if I’m going to steal their husbands”

“Ain’t their fault my kids have the hottest mom” Tom wraps his hands around your waist resting his chin on your shoulder “by the way what’s the word for hot moms?" he ponders for while smiling mischievously "oh yeah mil-”

“You finish the word and it will be your last day Thomas” you raise an eyebrow glowering at him.

“Ok, ok I was just kidding” he lets go of you raising his hands in surrender as you look at him with a narrowed gaze when your twins come running into your room dressed in their school house uniforms.

“Wow mommy you look so pretty!!” Leah exclaimed looking at you with admiration in her eyes.

“See? Even Leah approves it” Tom points out.

"Ok fine I'll wear this only" you finally let go of your worries and settled with the dress you were wearing.

By the time you reached the school ground it was already buzzing with kids and their parents. You went and said hello to the other moms before sitting beside Tom in the area designated for parents. The events for the day began as the kids lined up for various activities while you and Tom cheered from the sidelines along with the other parents. After sometime you felt your throat run dry and excused yourself to go to the refreshments counter to have a glass of water.

“Hello Mrs Holland, how are you doing?” one of the single dads approached you.

“Oh hi Mr Gilbert! I’m doing just fine" you greeted him with a warm smile.

“That’s good to know”

“It’s always lovely to watch the kids play and have fun together” you remark looking over the field as you spot Nathan getting ready for his race.

“It is indeed but I gotta admit sometimes it’s really hard to believe that a gorgeous lady like you is the mother of two kids” he says with a little suave in his voice.

“Well all mothers are gorgeous in their own way” you were quick to respond.

“That’s true, that’s true” he agreed nodding his head. Your eyes look around searching for Tom as you start to feel awkward knowing very well where this conversation was heading.

Tom had assumed he was way past his petty hysteria of seeing other men around you but he was wrong. His blood boiled whenever he saw the single dads at the school flirt with you. They were a real menace he thought hovering around you like flies when you clearly have a wedding ring on your hand and two kids. Tom was being watchful as he looked through the corner of his eyes from time to time to make sure you were okay.

“Tyson is quite athletic I see” you remark trying to change the subject.

“Yeah he gets it from his dad. Two times open water swimming champion of Falmouth you see” he puffs his chest boastfully.

“Oh that's great!” you gave an awkward smile.

“We also own a beach house in Cornwall. If you ever visit there you’re always welcome" you notice his gaze linger down to your chest. You feel disgusted wishing to slap him right on his face as you clear your throat loudly to get his attention "with Nathan and Nailah of course” he adds, lifting his gaze back to your face.

“Thank you Mr Gilbert but I will give it a pass. I have a business to run with my husband so no time for recreation” with a tight lipped smile you decided to go back to where Tom was standing.

“You are indeed a smart and brilliant woman” he steps forward blocking your path “your husband is one damn lucky bloke”

Tom’s patience was already thinning out and when he sensed your discomfort as the guy tried to get closer to you he lost it then and there. Anger took over his features as he strides his way to where you were standing and pulls the man back by his collar and stands in front of you.

“Hey mate everything alright?”

“Umm yea-yeah Mr Holland everything is fine” he fumbles stumbling back a little.

“Well soon it might not if you don’t stop bothering my wife” Tom snarls, giving him a death glare.

“I-I don’t understand”

“Flirting with married women, are you that desperate?” he spat as you tried to hide your smile seeing him so protective about you.

“Look man I just came here to talk -” he tries to explain but Tom wasn't going to buy any of his crap.

“Really? You do know who I am right?” he cuts him off looking at him with malice in his eyes.

“Tom let it be. It’s fine-” you whisper, trying to avoid any unnecessary attention from the other people around by grabbing his arm to hold him back from punching that guy.

“No it’s not! How dare he talk to you like that!” he snaps shooting daggers at the man “listen to me you bloody moron if you ever dare to come anywhere near my wife I’m gonna make sure you’re never able to swim again in your entire fucking life! Do you understand?!”

The man nods his head vigorously and without wasting any more time scurried away in fear of his life.

You haven’t seen Tom this furious in a long time not since your twins were born but fuck he is hot when angry you thought “Tom look at me, see he’s gone now” you held his face as he reluctantly turned to you, his brows still knitted in a deep frown.

“I swear I’m gonna pluck his eyes out if he looks at you with those dirty eyes again” he promises you with determination in his eyes.

“I know you will but you need to calm down. We are at Nate and Leah’s school can’t cause a scene yeah?” you speak softly as he nods in understanding. You then press your lips to his gently and he softens instantly feeling all the anger dissipate.

“You’re only mine” he murmurs against your lips

“Only yours” you assure him pressing your foreheads together smiling.

“Mommy look I came first in the race!” Nate came running to you with a shining gold trophy in his hand.

“Good job bud, I’m so proud of you!” you ruffled his hair in adoration of his achievement.

“That’s my boy!” Tom exclaims patting Nate’s shoulder proudly.

“What about you Leah?” you ask who was standing beside her brother looking at you timidly.

“I came second,” she mumbles, handing you a smaller trophy in disappointment.

“That’s great, sweetie! We’re so proud of you guys” you said, giving them a hug.

“You are not angry?” Leah asks innocently.

“For what baby?”

“Because I did not come first” she pouts, jutting her lower lip out.

“What? No honey" you chuckle lightly, exchanging glances with Tom.

“Come here my princess” Tom scoops her up in his arms “we don’t care if you come first or last. We just want you to be happy”

“Your daddy is right. You are our babies and we will always be proud of you no matter what” you gently pinch her chubby cheeks.

“Now where is that pretty smile of my princess?” Tom tickles her as she bursts out giggling “there it is!”

“Daddy no!” she squeals, wiggling in his hold going into fits of laughter.

“I think it’s time for us to go home and celebrate eh?” Tom suggests looking at you with a wide smile, the guy who was bothering you a while ago long forgotten.

“Yeah, who wants ice cream and pizzas?!” you exclaimed.

“Me! Me!” Nate and Leah shouted in excitement. Your heart melts watching the smiling faces of your husband and children. This is the life you cherished which no other man can give you.

Reblogs are appreciated ❤️

[chainofclovers]

Ted Lasso 2x10 thoughts

GOOD GOD.

“No Weddings and a Funeral” is like being hungover but also coming out of a hangover. Having a terrible cold but also feeling better and appreciating every breath that comes through your nose. Embarking on an organizational project and accidentally falling into a photo album and crying about the pictures and organizing almost nothing tangible but making a few things more clear in your brain.

So much of this episode is about the AWFUL POINTLESSNESS OF DECORUM. How loud is too loud when you’re drinking stolen wine and shrieking about sex in a church right before your father’s funeral? How should you feel--thirty years later, as an accommodating, anger-averse person--about having been too angry to attend the funeral for your father who killed himself? What expression should you make when you show up really late to a different funeral? Why must you wear uncomfortable shoes just because someone died? What happens in your mind between standing up to give a eulogy for a man you’re still angry with and choosing to Rick Roll your mom and everyone else as an act of complicated love, humiliatingly incomplete until someone else starts to sing? Should you worry about your therapist seeing your normally tidy flat in a full-on state of depression mess? Is it okay to be offended that your boyfriend is so uncomfortable about death that he can’t stop making morbid jokes? Should you care about other people caring that you’re crunching an apple in church or squealing with joy to be reunited with a friend you’ve not seen in awhile? Are you obligated to explain your behavior if your kid doesn’t understand how you could stay with someone unfaithful? How far behind the counter should you sink when your [undefined relationship person]’s mother has just let you know she can see your dick through your underwear? Is a funeral reception an okay place to find a hookup? Is a funeral reception a decent spot for a break-up? Is a funeral reception a good time for a love confession when you know the person you’re confessing to is happy with someone else? And who do you make eye contact with when you can’t look directly at the person asking you if you’re okay when there’s so, so much about you she doesn’t know yet? Even if--for this tiny little moment within a vast swath of many okay and not-okay moments--you’re honest when you tell her that you are?

I fucking adored this episode because it answers all these questions very simply: Show up. Show up for yourself. Show up for your friends. Try not to harm yourself. Try not to harm your friends.

I love that this episode is about the messiness of adulthood and the things we bring with us from childhood and that it takes place partially in Rebecca’s childhood bedroom, and in Ted’s childhood memories. Dwelling in those places (whether physically or mentally) isn’t an automatic recipe for regression, but it does get everyone closer to the things that made them who they are, to the unresolved and half-buried parts of them that still make them tick today.

Forever obsessed with every single detail about Rebecca’s childhood bedroom.

Forever obsessed with Deborah’s decision to Rick Roll herself every single morning of her life.

Forever obsessed with Rebecca’s decision to Rick Roll her father’s funeral as a way to not have to make up a single word about her father and to do something very vulnerable and kind for herself and her mother and everyone.

Forever obsessed with Ted’s decision to Rick Roll Rebecca Rick Rolling her father’s funeral.

Forever obsessed with an entire found family backing it up.

I love that it is Isaac’s leadership that ensures every single member of the team attends the service for Paul.

I am very, very interested in Jamie’s love confession to Keeley because I do think it will spark some reflection in Keeley but I do not think it’ll go the cliched love triangle route.

Each scene with Rebecca and Sam struck (for me, a human being sharing a subjective perspective on the internet) the tender-awkward-beautiful-stressful chord I was hoping it would. I think it’s wonderful that Sam is honest with Rebecca about how difficult it is to keep their relationship a secret, and I love that Rebecca has a million mostly-unarticulated reasons for why she’d much prefer the secret to continue. I like that Sassy, Keeley, and Nora respond to the revelation as friends; they might be tempering their judgments in part because they’ve all gathered to bury Rebecca’s dad, but I don’t think their reactions would’ve been that different even on a happier occasion.

While there are a million and one different reasons why a continued relationship between Rebecca and Sam could cause serious ethical problems, I really love that when people share big news on this show, the people who care about them generally react by trying to see why the person is doing what they’re doing. Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t also hold each other accountable, but in my book it’s OK that Keeley’s first reaction was to feel happy that her friend is having some fun.

Also everyone has been making weird judgment calls this season, and this episode felt like a moment of real breakthroughs in terms of people telling the truth about things that happened to them and leaving themselves open to honest responses from others.

September 13, 1991. It’s so tenderly, beautifully, overwhelmingly meaningful that there’s still so much Ted and Rebecca don’t know about the things they have in common in these parallel lives they’re leading. The scene between Sarah Niles and Jason Sudeikis is so beautifully acted, and so is the scene between Hannah Waddingham and Harriet Walter. The way they intertwine to communicate that Ted and Rebecca basically lost the ability to trust their fathers simultaneously, from an ocean away? In the hands of lesser storytellers, it would feel too perfect a mirroring, but here it feels heartbreakingly imperfect. All the things they still don’t know. All the questions they try to ask each other. All the things they don’t dare ask yet. And then the storytellers are holding a candle up to all of it and letting the audience bask in the glow of this connection even if Ted and Rebecca can’t fully understand it yet.

I am so proud that Rebecca and Deborah were able to embark on the beginnings of a conversation about the ways Deborah and Paul’s relationship might have resembled or not resembled Rebecca and Rupert’s. It feels possible that they could get to a point where Rebecca truly internalizes her mother’s pride that she broke a cycle by leaving Rupert, and could maybe even understand why her mother made the choices she made. I love that in the final scene, they’re still relying on their old mother-daughter conversational patterns—the frustrations, the snippy shorthand, the passive-aggression. Mothers and daughters!

I am also proud that Ted—albeit via a joke about Sharon charging him for the house call—indicates that he understands the value of Sharon’s work. He’s changed a lot, all in realistic ways for someone who loves learning and really does want to meet people where they are and appreciate them. I’m very moved that instead of putting himself in a real harmful situation by showing up to the funeral on time at any cost, he did what he needed to do to take care of himself and accept care from someone else. And then Sharon’s suggestion that he think about things he loved about his father? And the way he’s able to share a positive memory of Rebecca’s own father at a time when she really needed it? Gosh.

Awkward, undecorous transition from 1991 to present-day incoming...but SASSY! She’s just, like, a whirling dervish of loyal friendship and not giving a fuck and penis size discussions and being casually, delightfully cruel to Rupert, who so deserves it. Rebecca was going on a real face journey when Sassy goes off with Ted at the end, and I’m sort of *eyes emoji* about all of that, but I continue to feel like Sassy is the most imperfectly wonderful friend-from-the-past kind of person and I love everything she and Nora get to do in this episode.

Keeley saying “That baby is whack” might be my favorite line in the episode? Maybe the whole show? Not really but really.

FUCK YOU, RUPERT. Bex and Diane, y’all are fine. And I truly feel for Nate...whatever scheme he’s getting suckered into. Whatever insecurity Rupert is preying on. I want Nate to go to therapy, too.

I feel like it was an unpopular opinion at the time, but I loved Rebecca’s 2x1 revelation about vulnerability and fear of getting hurt and needing to let someone love her. Sassy doesn’t always word things in the most nuanced way, but I think there’s a real possibility that she did ask Rebecca to really consider what it means to feel either safe or unsafe with a person but to know that in either circumstance, that person could end up causing her pain. Standing in that closet with Sam, managing to make it clear that she’s not asking for a break because she knows he will hurt her but because she has to figure out how to be with a wonderful person who could cause her pain...the growth, man. Makes me emotional.

I emerged from this episode feeling, of course, stunned by all the amazing parallels and revelations and beautiful acting and Rick Rolls and just, everything. I also emerged feeling sad/raw/tender because messiness and decorum and growth and coping mechanisms and death and dramatic irony and not knowing things about people and not knowing what you don’t know...it’s a sad, raw, tender place to be.

To quote a guy who got a whole sitcom (lol) named after him, life is real hard.

[tsrookie]

Always In My Heart

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Dr. Alyssa Brooks)

A/N: On today’s episode of ‘I have no idea wtf I’m doing’, we have something that I cooked up because I had terrible WiFi and no other app but Google docs would open up.

Trope: Fluff, but a tiny bit of angst?

Rating: General

Word Count: 2.3K

Warning(s): Mentions of character death

Summary: Their son has a very important question to ask.

——————————

The delicious aroma of chicken and rice wafted through the Brooks-Ramsey household. The couple worked side by side in the kitchen as they had all those years ago, the only difference being that it was now a dinner for five and not just two.

Allison Dolores Brooks-Ramsey came into their lives nine years ago, and while it was earlier than they would have wanted, they didn’t regret a second of their lives ever since they first heard her voice.

The twins on the other hand, were planned, but nothing had prepared them for the chaos that Nathan and Natalie would bring. A new broken object every week, a dozen fights for the TV every day, and yet were nothing short of tiny tornadoes when they joined forces.

It couldn’t be more perfect.

“What time did Jackie and Emilia say that they would bring the girls back?”

“6:30, I think.”

“Ah. So we have time till 7:00.” They shared a knowing smile. Two aunts taking their nine and six year old nieces to the mall meant a complete raid of the toy store, and a new guitar.

“You need to stop letting everyone spoil the girls just because you have a soft spot for them, Ethan. Ally’s grown old enough to understand that she has her daddy wrapped around her finger, and we don’t need Nat coming to that realisation as well.”

“I don’t- I can’t believe you would accuse me of not loving all my children equally!”, he exclaimed in mock offense.

“Mhmm. So why did I have to come up with an explanation to tell Nathan why his dad wasn’t on board with ordering dessert when he asked for it, but relented once his sisters kept bugging him for another five minutes?”

He opened his mouth in protest, but decided against saying anything for his own good. “Well what can I say? They’ve inherited their mother’s persuasiveness. And I can’t really say no to you, can I?”

Alyssa’s lips curved upwards at that. The playful look in her husband’s eyes caused her to finally break into a grin. “At least you’re self-aware.” Stuffing the rice into the bird she added, “But I can’t exactly tell our son that his dad is too in-love with his mom that he sees her in his daughters and hence can’t say no to them. He’d gag in disgust.”

He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, resting his head in the crook of her neck. “That he would. Alright I’ll try a little harder to resist their charms. Wouldn’t want my only son to end up hating me.” He said it without a hint of worry over it becoming true someday. Over the years, he’d learned to put aside his fears of not being a good father, and with the help of some therapy, and Alyssa’s unwavering love and support, he’d locked up his insecurities in a box and let it sink to the bottom of the ocean.

They took the stuffed chicken and put it in the oven, washed their hands and plopped down on the couch for some rare downtime.

“Crap.”

“Everything okay?”

“Fred’s mom got called in, so she’s dropping Nate off on her way to work.”

Ethan sighed. “There goes the hour I planned to spend with my wife, who I barely get to spend enough time with these days.”

“I swear, you were never this busy when you were chief. I have no idea why my workload’s ten times bigger.”

“I do.” Ethan smiled with pride. “One usually does have a lot of work when they’re at the front lines of the battle for making free healthcare accessible for every single person in the country. My brilliant wife, though she could choose to leave most of the work to her very competent team, opts to take it all upon herself. So that’s probably the cause behind all the extra workload she complains about.”

She smirked and perched herself onto his lap. “Well your very brilliant wife also knows that you called my team very competent just to avoid hurting my feelings, and that you and I both know that they’ll be running around like headless chickens without me taking care of things.”

“I know, love. But you can still make them do a little more instead of working yourself to the bone while still making sure that you have at least one meal with the kids every day.”

She sighed. “Yeah, to make sure that they don’t forget what I look like.” She leaned in closer. “Besides, are we really going to spend our last few minutes of peace talking about work?”

Just as she uttered the words, the door burst open, and Nathan kicked off his shoes and jumped onto the couch as Alyssa slid down from Ethan’s lap. She shot him a look that very clearly meant What did I just say?

Ethan gave her an apologetic look and ruffled his son’s hair. “Hey buddy. How was your day at Fred’s? I know you wanted to spend more time with him.”

“I did, and we were just about to open his new LEGO set when Mrs. Watson told us that she had to run up to her office for some emergency meeting.”, he pouted. “But it was a nice day. We watched Thor: Ragnarok and Luca, and we would’ve watched another movie if his dad didn’t tell us that two movies were enough for a day.”

Alyssa shot him a mildly stern look. “Well he was right. You’re too young to have movie marathons just yet. Two are more than enough, unless you want to have a headache.”

“But mom, I’m not too young! I’m a big boy! I can swing along the monkey bars at the park faster than Natalie, and soon I’ll swing across buildings just like Spider-Man!”

“Well Spider-Man got bitten by a yucky spider before he swung across buildings. Do you want to be bitten by a gross and poisonous spider?”

“Mommy, not all spiders are gross and poisonous. Dad told me that when I was four and got scared of them at the zoo.”

She rolled her eyes. Leave it to her husband to convince her kids that insects were anything short of creepy and disgusting. In reality, they were, but as someone who ran a mile away at the sight of a butterfly, she wasn’t going to accept that.

“That’s right, Nate. Some of them are certainly very poisonous and dangerous, but that doesn’t mean that you should be scared of them. If you maintain your distance and admire them from afar, there should be no problem at all.”, he said with a pointed look at Alyssa, who just huffed in annoyance.

Nathan giggled, his brown eyes lighting up with amusement. He loved watching his parents playfully bicker. It was way better than seeing them- ugh, kiss.

“We were pretending to be superheroes and Fred used his full name for his pretend name cause it sounded cool, and it is. Fredrick Anthony Watson sounds like something from that show you and mom watch with the guys in the stuffy suits.”

“When did you see us watching the show with the guys in the stuffy suits?”, asked Ethan with a slight hint of concern. Whatever he and Alyssa watched on their free nights was definitely not kid-friendly.

“I don’t remember. Maybe a few months ago.”

Their year old puppy, Ivy, woke up from her nap and bounced into the living room to jump onto her favourite person. Nathan squealed with joy as the fluffy hair of the dog tickled his nose.

Ethan and Alyssa smiled at each other. Getting another dog after Jenner was a decision that took a lot of convincing, but their kids were responsible enough and it was impossible to say no after two years of constant pestering.

“Fred told me that he was named after his great-grandfather William, and that he was this really cool guy who saved a bunch of guys from getting mugged in a dark, dark alley.” He turned to look at his parents as Ivy snuggled into his lap. “Who was I named after mom?”

The question caught her off guard, and she glanced at Ethan for backup.

When they knew that they were having a boy, they immediately knew what to name him. They hadn't, however, anticipated Nathan Daniel Brooks-Ramsey to ask such a question this soon.

Seeing his wife at a loss for words, Ethan spoke up. “C’mere Nate.” He pulled him closer and pressed a kiss atop his head. “We once had a friend named Daniel. He worked at the hospital as a nurse, and he was close to your mom and Aunt Sienna when they were interns.”

Having found her voice, Alyssa joined in. “He was an amazing friend. He was the only nurse in the hospital who helped me out when things got messy, and cheered up Aunt Sienna when no one else could. He’d join us for picnics and movie nights, and you could always count on him if you needed something at the hospital.” She took a deep breath, and Ethan nodded. “Things were going well, but then in my second year, something really bad happened.”

“Oh no.”

“There was this bad guy, who wanted his revenge on another bad guy, and he was ready to risk his own life, and the lives of everyone around him to do so.”

“That’s horrible! Who would want to do something like that?”

Ethan smiled wistfully. “A lot of people in this world actually do. You’re a good person, so you know that it’s wrong. But some people aren’t, and they don’t care about other people getting hurt because of their actions. That night at the hospital, Danny tried to tell the bad guy that it was wrong, and to think things through. But he didn’t listen, and did something that hurt both himself, Danny, Uncle Raf, another friend of ours, and your mom.”

His little eyebrows creased with worry, Nathan asked, “What happened then?”

“He… he died. Along with our other friend, Bobby. Do you remember what we once told you about an autopsy?” Nathan nodded his head. “Well Danny asked for his body to be autopsied, and thanks to him, we were able to find out what was wrong with mom and Uncle Raf.”

He fell silent for a moment, remembering the horrors of the day, and how eternally grateful he was to Danny for being the reason he didn’t lose everything. He couldn’t imagine a life without the love of his life and his children, and he wouldn’t have either if not for the sacrifices that were made.

He looked up at Alyssa, and she squeezed his hand in support. “We’ll tell you more when you’re older, but to make it short, you’re named after a hero too. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have you, your sisters, or mom here with me.”

Nathan wriggled out of his dad’s arms, and set Ivy down so he could hug his mom as tightly as he could.

“Well… if you can hear me Mr. Daniel, I just wanna thank you. Thanks for saving my mom. I love her so much and I’m so thankful that I got to meet her because of what you did. I wish I could’ve met you, you sound like a really cool person, and I’m sure you were. So yeah, thanks. A lot.”

Alyssa’s eyes glimmered with unshed tears, and she held her son as she expressed her silent thanks along with Ethan.

What they had was precious.

Fifteen years had passed since they first met, and yet each day they fell in love a little more like they did when they held hands for the first time in the dim light of the NICU watching over little Ethan, or when she finally got to see the real him the first time she visited his place; the first time in years he let someone know a little of the worries residing deep in his heart.

With all the odds against them, it was a miracle that they survived, even more so that they managed to raise three perfect children who had more love to share than they could ever comprehend.

And they’d never forget all the reasons that made it possible for them to survive.

Ding!

The timer on the oven went off, and they got to their feet to get the chicken.

“Was he a good cook dad?”

“I… don’t really know, Nate. Your mom knew him better than I did.”

“Well there was this one time where he helped Aunt Sienna bake an amazing cake, so I guess he knew his way around the kitchen.”, Alyssa recollected fondly. It was for Jackie’s birthday, one of the few nights where the competition was completely forgotten about.

Nathan’s face melted into a glowing smile. “I love cake. So I guess I really would’ve loved him.”

She mirrored his radiant expression. “You definitely would’ve.”

“Why don’t you go play with Ivy while mom and I get the food ready? You can help us with the dessert later.”

“We’re having dessert?!”

Ethan grinned at his son’s excitement. “You bet we are.”

“Yay!” They watched as Nathan ran off to go play fetch with Ivy in their enormous backyard.

Ethan pulled Alyssa in for a sweet, lingering kiss as soon as he was out of sight.

“You’ve been wanting to do that for a while now hmm?”

“Something like that.”, he murmured as they broke apart.

She could see the ever-increasing strands of silver in his brown hair, and the faint wrinkles along the sides of his forehead, but his clear blue eyes were just as loving and devoted as she remembered from over a decade ago.

“We have a pretty good life, don’t we?”

Ethan kissed her again. “No, we have the perfect life.”

——————————

A/N 2: Aaaand I’m going MIA again. Honestly though, to everyone who’s read so far, thank you so much for sticking around. Means the world💙

P.S: I finally chose Chyler Leigh as my face claim!

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[dibs4ever]

What I never knew I wanted

Barbara Gordon wasn’t like other girls

Many people would agree to that without question

Barbara Gordon never thought about being a mom or wife. She never dreamed or urned for that like most females do.

Instead of carrying around baby dolls and playing house as a young child she was carrying around a plastic badge and wearing a costumed police uniform pretending to be a cop everywhere she went.

Her dad would say “Sweetie don’t you want Santa to bring you a baby doll?” To which she would respond with “No daddy, I want a police scanner.”

He had sighed but Santa did indeed bring her desired gift

Then she became Batgirl. The vigilant life was definitely not one that favored family life

Dinah had informed her that due to injures and excessive stress on her body over the years getting pregnant could be impossible

Most women would be devastated

She just shrugged and said “Oh well.” It wasn’t that she hated children she just wasn’t particularly fond of them.

Dick though he loved kids, when Dinah told him the same thing he didn’t say anything....but she knew he was a little sad. As teenagers whenever they saved kids he was the one who’d cheer them up by doing tricks or telling them a joke or something along those lines. But he just like her accepted his likely fate

That’s why it was so odd for her to be where she was now

Laying on the couch of the house she lived in with Dick.

He bought it soon after he came back. Saying his son deserved to grow up in a home.

So here she was lying back on the couch, her knees bent up, her 8-month-old son rested between them.

She never imagined she could love someone so much but she did. She loved her son more than words could describe

When she thought Dick was dead, he was the one who got her through it

When everything in the world seemed evil after her patrol as Batgirl she’d come home to his beautiful smiling face. Nathan Wayne Grayson was the light of her world.....along with another Grayson male that she was particularly fond of. Barbara was surprised how quickly she adapted to motherhood

She wasn’t even going to keep him. Being a single mom when you weren’t even sure if you wanted to be a mom, to begin with. It didn’t seem logical to keep the baby. But one look at those baby blues and dark locks of hair and there was no way she was giving up her little piece of Dick Grayson. It was in that moment as she lay in the medical bed after a 9 hour delivery- nonmedicated by the way. That she realized the only person she’d ever want a child by was Dick Grayson.

When Dick came back “from the dead” he insisted that they raise their son in a home together even if they weren’t together. She figured he was right. They owed it to both their son and themselves not to miss out on his life.

The whole friends living together and raising the baby they made, platonically lasted a whole 6 months before they jumped from being just friends to being engaged...which didn’t surprise anyone.

She glanced down at the engagement ring Dick had placed on her hand 2 months ago and smiled. It was simple. Sure he could’ve gotten her something much larger and extravagant but he knew her. He knew she didn’t like flashy. It was his mother’s ring. Barbara thought there wasn’t a more beautiful ring he could have given her. She was pulled out of her thoughts by a high-pitched squeal followed by little feet kicking her quickly against her abdomen.

She smiled at him, “I know you’re still here Nate. Mommy was just thinking about everything that lead up to you. Yeah, do you know how special you are? Do you know how loved you are” she cooed

Nathan let out a squeal his little feet kicking faster in excitement, his blue eyes shinning

The door dinged indicating someone was entering the house “Who could that be?”

Nathan tilted his head

“Could it be...Daddy?” She said poking his belly, earning a gummy grin

The said person entered the living room “There are my two favorite people” Dick chimed. He shrugged off his BCPD coat as he entered the room

Barbara shifted sitting up and the couch and Dick took a seat in the space beside her

Nathan started kicking his feet excitedly letting out all sorts of noises to implement his joy in seeing his dad.

Dick kissed Barbara’s temple before she passed him the baby.

A wide smile decorated Dick’s face, Barbara sat back and admired the two together “Hey there Chavo, did you and mommy have a good day?” He asked

Barbara nodded “Yes, say when mommy had a break from work we went and had lunch with Grandpa Gordon at the police station.”

“Is that so?” Dick moved the baby to his lap

Barbara nodded a smile on her lips “Remember that one front desk lady who’s been there forever?”

Dick nodded “The one who always scolded us for being too loud as kids?”

Barbara smiled nodding her head “Anyways, she was holding Nate, who was getting fussy cause he was hungry. She kept insisting to feed him even after I explained he doesn’t take a bottle from very many people. So I eventually gave in and ....Nate spit up all over her.”

Dick chuckled

“I told her he only will take a bottle from three people otherwise he’s exclusive.” Barbara shrugged

Dick lifted his son up so he was facing him “That's right, say ‘In this house, we love mommy’s boobs Huh?” Dick cooed causing a giggle from the baby. “Oh those cute nose freckles I need to kiss them all” he pulled the baby to him and started kissing all along Nathan’s nose. The baby to let out a big belly laugh.

Barbara couldn’t help but giggle too

Dick set Nathan down on the ground. The two parents watched their 8 months old slowly walk further away towards some toys on the ground

“Can’t believe our 8-month-old has been walking independently for 2 weeks now.” Dick smiled “I mean 7 and a half months is kinda advanced isn’t it?” He questioned

Barbara nodded” According to what I read it is” she shrugged “Then again he does have the balance and agility of Grayson blood”

Dick leaned over kissing Barbara’s shoulder “And the smarts of a Gordon.” He tilted his head placing a soft kiss on her neck, giving it a slight suck before moving his head to whisper in her ear “Maybe later Daddy can kiss all of mommy’s freckles?” He buried his head in her neck

Barbara hummed reaching up and threading her fingers through his hair “Are you trying to seduce me, Mr.Grayson?”

He smirked, picking his head up “Only if it’s working Mrs.Grayson.” He winked

Barbara let out a laugh “Not for another 2 months” she reminded

A wide smile grew across his face “I can’t wait”

She brought her other hand to the back of his head so she could pull him into a long kiss. “Me neither”

[pabst-belikov]

So, Jules and Cassie. I wanna focus on them because I identify with both :v

But, I wanted to say that maybe euphoria would be better if endend in just one season with more episodes. Season 1, perfect, coherent storylines, complete storylines, good dialogs. Season:two.

I'm kidding, I liked some things from second season. The colors, the way that they look different, in the first season, all the glitter, all the neon, decorotion and songs, all the aesthetic look more childishly. The second, I liked so, sooo much moooore.

But, the fucking >character development and dialogue<, TF WAS THAT???¿???

I thing the worst line that I heard from this second season was from Cassie, Sidney Sweeney deserve a fucking emy, because somehow she save this just because of her acting. The line is when she's in Nate's house, saying "you are toxic, you and maddy aren't made for each other" like, why? Just don't even fit yk, idk sounds weird and not real in the show universe. We had Fez background, we had lexi background, good, the most complete storyline is obviously from Rue.

Oh now she's sober... She almost was trafficated and no one's ever talk about that again. Leslie take the pills and floish them in the toilet. No one's brings that up again.

If i belived that this tv show have villains, the only two fucking people who act like true villains are Nate and Cal.

But, SOMEHOW, some of you guys just decide that Cassie and Jules are the worst people, who did the worst things. Jules it's not responsible for rue addiction, Cassie find a way to deal with her daddy issues, not a good way, but she found it.

Ok, so let's make everyone a villain:

Maddy didn't care about her friends too much. She is lil a bitch, lil bit selfish and stuff, she do it probably to fell in control about her life and keep with confidence strong. But one time, Kat do the same with her, she's a cunt.

Kat was not empowered, she sexualized herself to fell in control and feel aprovation. The first chance that she had when Etham, who was not her boyfriend yet, talk, JUST TALK with another girl, she decide fuck some guy and treat him like shit.

Elliot, I don't know HOW someone like this fucking guy. Manipulative, he's not bad as nate, but, manipulative in the same way. Just say something to rue or jules for his own benefit.

Lexi, the play was revenge. Pure, revenge. The only people who scape in her play was rue.

People just forget fast. Jules special episode is just soooo good. Her mom is an addict, who sent her to a mental hospital being a little kid for being trans. Her only one good and healthy and beautiful relationship is with her dad. She love rue "jules is selfish and cheat on her". Selfish like ALL THE OTHER CHARACTERS. I still don't know if I can consider if she cheat on rue, because they never said the relationship wasn't open.

Cassie, she did an abortion with what, 16? 17yo? Just her alcoholic (and iconic) mom, and her sister who she don't have the best relationship. She want love someone and be loved back. She was so desperate for that, that she think was an a good option fuck Nate... NATE. The same nate that abused her best friend. Cassie don't love nate. She just desperate for some comfort place.

And I don't need to say nothing about the brutal nudity right?

[andrei-svech]

today, tomorrow and all of our lives | n. mackinnon

Word Count: 7.3k Warnings: Some smut in the middle, swearing, minor character death. Summary: Leah reflects on her relationship with Nate through a series of memories they’ve shared in the minutes before they say I do.  a/n: Full disclosure this is the first piece I’ve written in almost 10 years. It turned out way longer than expected and I am so terrified to post it but I hope you all love it as much as I do. Any and all feedback is appreciated, happy reading! 

As she looked into the mirror, running her fingers over the white silk lining her frame, all she felt was calm. Peace. She’d surprised herself in that regard. She’d expected nerves, expected anxiousness, but she didn’t feel either. She simply felt calm. Her fingers moved up toward the tulle settled neatly in her hair, then ran down the fabric of what had once been her grandmother’s veil. Her something borrowed. She thought of her grandmother then, of the relationship between her and her grandfather, one that had lasted almost sixty years before they’d left this life together, just months apart and still madly in love. The kind of love she’d hoped for as she watched them as a child, then as a teen, then as an adult. The same kind of love she felt she’d found when she met him. Her eyes closed, thinking back to the day she’d first laid eyes on him.

The excited little voices of the children filing back into her classroom brought a small smile to Leah’s face in an instant. Kindergarten had just finished art, and as she watched them come in and sit back at their tables, she silently thanked Mrs. Claskey for the lack of paint on their clothes and hands. There’d been a small (according to Mrs. Claskey, not so much to Leah) incident last week at the very end of art class that had somehow ended in Jack Ledger’s entire right arm and half of his shirt covered in brown paint. Of course the 5th graders had already been lined up at the door waiting to come in, so Mrs. Claskey hadn’t had time to clean him up. That’d been a fun afternoon at the sink for Jack and Leah. Once all of the children were seated, Leah stood from her rocking chair at the front of the room and raised her hand. Her students followed suit, having been conditioned to quiet down and raise their own hands when she did so. Their hands lowered as she began to speak.

“Alright, my friends. I know we’re excited, today’s a special day for us. We have new friends coming to spend time with us this week! Do we remember who they are?” As soon as she finished, little hands all over the room shot back up. Leah looked around, pointing to the tiny blonde in the far too large and, Leah suspected second hand, Avalanche jersey dead center. “Emory, who are they?” “The Colorado Avalanche, Ms. Brewer! They play hockey here, at the Pepsi Center! My dad says some day they’ll win the… the um…” “The Stanley Cup?” Leah supplied. That and what information Emory had spoken aloud was about all she knew of them as well, not really following the sport herself. “Yes!” Emory continued, “The Stanley Cup!” Leah nodded and clasped her hands together. “Good job Emory that’s right! Some of the players from the Avalanche are coming to meet us this afternoon. They’re just as excited to meet you as you are to meet them. But before we can do that, we need to talk about the rules for when we have guests in our classroom.” A small groan sounded throughout the room and Leah giggled under her breath. “Okay, okay. I know talking about our rules isn’t always fun, but we want to show them how kind and polite we can be, right?” Twenty-two heads nodded, so she continued. “Good! Okay, who can tell me our rules then? Thomas?” Her gaze fixed on the quiet boy in the back corner, smiling slightly at him as he straightened up in his chair. Leah had been subtly attempting to bring Thomas out of his shell throughout his time in her class. As she remembered his silence and lack of eye contact at the beginning of the year, she felt nothing but pride for how far he’d come. “We don’t leave our spot at the carpet unless you or our guest says that we can. We sit criss cross applesauce and don’t touch our friends while we’re listening. When we want to talk or as a question, we raise our hands until someone calls on us. And we always show kindness to our friends, our visitors and our teachers.” Leah felt a swell of pride at the last bit. She had a great group of kids this year, and though she knew she shouldn’t play favorites, if she’d had a list this class would be up at the top for years to come. Teaching at a school in a low income area of Denver wasn’t what she’d expected herself to do after graduation, but she adored it all the same, and the children she’d taught were all incredibly special to her.

“Good, Thomas! But there’s one more rule we forgot, the most important rule. I know we remember, so how about let’s all say it together?” “Have fun!” “Yes! Have fun! I don’t think it’ll be hard with these new friends.” She glanced up at the clock then that read one o’clock on the dot. “Okay friends, time to make our way to the carpet! Please find your spot in our circle.” As her students got up and made their way to their seats in front of the rocking chair, she heard multiple people enter her room and all twenty-three heads, including her own, turned toward the intruders. Leah studied them for a moment as they made their way through the desks toward the group. There were two of them, both in blue and burgundy jerseys graced with the numbers 29 and 92 and an A and a C, respectively. Excited gasps and whispers filled the front of the room. The first to reach them was 92, and probably the most conventionally attractive man Leah had ever seen in person. His perfectly straight, shining white teeth were on full display, a wide grin stretch prominently across his face. His attention was focused solely on the children, so Leah looked past him and settled her eyes on the other, 29. She was surprised to find his attention fixed on her. She was also surprised at the butterflies that filled her stomach when her eyes met his. The bright blue staring back at her was like a shock to her system. She felt herself blush and quickly averted her gaze down to the jeans, white tank top and baggy yellow cardigan she’d pulled from her closet that morning. ‘Probably would have been a good day to dress it up a bit, Leah.’ She quickly shook herself from her thoughts and smiled at 92, still unable to meet the eyes of 29. “Hi there! I’m Ms. Brewer. We’ve all really been looking forward to this, I know they have especially.” Leah gestured to her excited students, some of the visibly trying to stop themselves from squirming in their places. He smiled at her and took her outstretched hand, shaking it and then setting his sights back to the children. “Hi everybody, we’ve been really excited to meet you! I’m Gabe, and this is Nate.” He gestured behind him to number 29. Nate. The name bounced around her head like a stray pinball. Nathan Mackinnon. She remembered seeing his face plastered over billboards downtown, along with that of who she now remembered 92 to be, captain Gabriel Landeskog. The two large hockey players sat in the admittedly too small chairs in front of the group, and Leah quietly made her way to the corner of the room, plopping in her desk chair to watch the interaction between Gabe, Nate and her students. As they excitedly asked and answered questions and talked about school, hockey and life in general (as much as five and six year old children could), Leah found herself unable to look away from Nate. He wasn’t handsome in the way that Gabe was. His nose and teeth were slightly crooked, and his jaw a bit more squared, but she found him incredibly attractive all the same. He smiled brightly at the group of children in front of him and enthusiastically spoke with them, his laugh speeding up the butterflies she still felt. She again found herself shaking her from her own thoughts, looking down at the papers on her desk. Leah hadn’t dated anyone seriously since her disastrous relationship with Scott had ended just before her college graduation. They had met in high school and began dating junior year, when they were both far too young and impulsive to have actually found the kind of love that was meant to last. They were two different people from the start, Scott preferring to get plastered at a large house party, Leah preferring to spend her Friday night on the couch under a blanket watching bad television. They had somehow lasted through their first three and a half years of college together, though they spent large chunks of it arguing or in silence, before Leah had discovered that the last seven months of their relationship he’d spent in bed with a blonde he’d met in one of his classes. She’d been devastated, but deep down she’d known he wasn’t the man she was meant to marry. Following graduation, she’d packed her things, picked up and moved to Denver for a fresh start, and hadn’t looked back since. She blamed her lack of dating for her current thoughts about Nate. She’d been so lost in her thoughts that she was surprised when she heard one of her students saying her name, immediately turning her attention back to the carpet ready to answer, though she found Millie still speaking to Gabe and Nate. “-she’s the best! She’s so much fun, even when she’s making us do our counting worksheets. Ooh, she lets us sing our weather song every morning, that’s my favorite part of the day.” Millie turned towards Leah and spoke directly to her, “Ms. Brewer, can you sing the song for them! It’s so much fun, they’ll love it.” Leah blushed slightly but chuckled as all twenty-two excited smiles and two curious pairs of eyes turned towards her. “Why don’t we all sing it together? Show them how great we are at it.” Leah led the excited group through their morning weather song about the rain, the snow, the wind and the sunshine and as they finished (loudly) she once again looked at the two blonde men and found Gabe smiling widely at the class while Nate looked at her with a small smile of his own. Her face warmed yet again as they all began clapping and laughing at her as she grinned and took a small bow in her chair. Conversation between Gabe and her students continued, but for a long moment Nate’s gaze remained fixed on her. She looked down at the papers on her desk again, trying not to read too much into his glances that were frequently aimed at her. All too quickly the two men stood from the chairs and bid goodbye to the students and after a collective “aww” and a round of high fives, left the room to meet the fifth graders waiting for them in the gym. As Leah focused on getting her students back to their seats at their tables, she didn’t notice Nate casting one last look through the door as they left, his eyes only set on her. By three o’clock all of her students were gone and Leah made her way around the room, cleaning up leftover trash and wiping the crumbs from their end of day snack from the tables. She jumped as she heard the deep voice coming from just outside her door. “Hi, did you need some help?” Her head snapped towards the voice and her eyes again met the bright blue that hadn’t left her mind for the rest of the afternoon. The small smile she’d gotten before was present on Nate’s face as he watched her drop the wad of colored paper in her hands into the trash. “Oh no thank you, I’ll be okay here.” She silently willed the butterflies dancing around her stomach and the blush painting her cheeks to go away as he stepped further into the classroom and waved her off, starting to push the chairs into the tables as he spoke again. “It’s no problem, it’ll go faster if we work together. Besides, Gabe’s somewhere shooting extra footage with our media team and this’ll get me out of that.” They both chuckled at that and she nodded, keeping her eyes averted as she helped push in the chairs. “I’m Nathan. Mackinnon. Nathan Mackinnon. But, um, everybody just sort of calls me Nate.” “Nice to meet you, Nate. I’m Leah, Leah Brewer.” She knew there were nerves in her voice, but she didn’t know if she’d imagined the hint of them in his. They worked in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. “So, Leah, are you from Denver?” She shook her head. “No, I grew up in Murraysville. It’s in Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh.” He lit up a bit, turning towards her fully. “One of my best friends lives there, plays for the Penguins. Sidney’s his name, Sidney Crosby.” She shot him a playfully unimpressed glance as she stopped pushing in the chair. “Now Nate. I may not know much about hockey, but I can assure you, even I know who Sidney Crosby is.” She laughed quietly at the blush that tinted his cheeks and he chuckled along with her, shaking his head. “Yeah that was stupid, sorry.” They kept on cleaning up the last of the classroom until he plopped into the last chair. “So, what brought you to Denver all the way from the East Coast?”
 Leah figured that since he’d sat down, he wasn’t planning on leaving right away, so she made her way to her rocking chair. She thought for a moment before she answered. It wasn’t like she could come right out and tell him Scott had emotionally destroyed her, so she settled for the cliche, generic answer she gave most people when they asked her. “I graduated from college and just… needed a fresh start.” He nodded slightly, but by the look he gave her, she knew he was curious for more. He didn’t press her, and the small talk moved onto other things, her job, then his job and then their families and friends. The conversation flowed so easily between them. By the time she realized almost forty-five minutes had passed, they were laughing and sharing stories as if they’d known each other for years, not hours. “Oh, it’s almost four o’clock, you should probably get back to Gabe and the rest of your team.” He sighed as they both looked at the clock, like he knew she was right but also like he didn’t want to leave. “You’re right. It was really nice meeting you though.” He stood from the chair as she returned the sentiment and turned to leave the room. He’d made it almost fully out the door before he stopped and turned around asking her one last question. “Listen, I don’t… this might be a little forward, I- would you maybe want to go out to dinner sometime? With me? Like, as a date?” She stared at him in surprise for a moment and then thought about her answer. Sure, she hadn’t really dated much since Scott, but it had been three years and thousands of miles since then. And there was something about Nate that intrigued her, something that had caused the butterflies to erupt the minute they’d made eye contact. Something that made her answer fairly easy. “Sure, Nate, I’d really like that.” The memory flooded away as she opened her eyes and looked back into the mirror. One dinner date had led to another, which had led to a few more, then spending the night at her place and then his. She’d met Cox then, which she was glad had gone well because, as Nate had told her later, he couldn’t date somebody Cox didn’t like. That had led to her meeting his teammates and their significant others, and him meeting her friends. That summer when his season and her semester had ended, they traveled to Murraysville where he met her family, and Nova Scotia where she met his. Before they knew it a little over a year had flown by and they’d bought their first house together. She chuckled at that memory, instantly thinking back to the mess of hockey players that had filled their home the day they moved in. “Josty come on, man! The box says fragile!” Leah giggled from her place in the kitchen at the sound of JT’s voice echoing down the hallway, and then at Nate’s voice, floating in from his spot in their living room. “Don’t break any more of my shit, Josty, you know I still haven’t forgiven you and Z for the broken lamp from the Christmas party.” Mel snorted across the counter, Jackie shaking her head as Leah placed the last of the bowls in the cabinet. “They’re a fucking mess, the whole group of them.” Jackie and Mel laughed and nodded in agreement before moving to start on loading the cutlery into the drawers. Leah made her way from the kitchen into the living room, passing by Gabe, EJ and Naz walking to the front door to pull more of the heavier pieces of furniture from the truck. “Thank you guys again for helping us with all of this. No way Nate could have done all the heavy lifting himself the softie.” She smirked at the indignant ‘hey!’ that came from their sofa and the boys chuckled before assuring her again it was no problem and heading for the door, EJ jostling her on his way. She rolled her eyes but smiled at the toothless grin she got in return, passing them to plop down next to her boyfriend, leaning heavily into his side and closing her eyes with a yawn as he lightly kissed her forehead. “Tired, baby?” “Mhm.” As she opened her eyes again, she finally took the chance to look around their living room, the large bay windows bathing the room in sunlight. Boxes were scattered around, the television still waiting to be mounted above the fireplace and the shelves empty, save for one photo. Her eyes landed on it and she smiled fondly, one of her favorites of the two of them. It was taken in Cole Harbour on one of their last trips. They sat together on the boat, her leaning against his side with his arms wrapped around her, much like they were now. They’d gone for a sunset cruise with Sid and Kathy and Tyson and Emma who had also come back up north, just chatting and enjoying the company when Kathy told them to pose, that the sunset created the perfect backdrop behind them. As they leaned into each other and smiled at the camera, Tyson said something from just beside Kathy that had drawn her attention as Kathy snapped the photo. She’s laughing in his direction in the photo, still leaning against Nate who’s smile is directed only at her. The love between the two of them is obvious, which is exactly why it’s one of her favorites. Leah is drawn from the memory captured in the photo when she feels Nate’s lips on the top of her head again and the smile on her face grows even wider. She listens to the sounds of a pot clattering to the floor in the kitchen followed by Jackie’s voice scolding EJ and Gabe and Mel laughing, Josty, JT and Burky pushing each other around in the hallway and Nate’s slow, even breathing right beside her on the couch. As her eyes closed once more, she couldn’t remember if she’d ever in her life felt as happy as she did in that moment. Nate’s fingers ran through her hair and she pulled slightly out of his embrace, taking a moment to silently study the man she’d so quickly found herself falling madly in love with. “What’s on your mind?” he asks her, and she finds herself overwhelmed with emotion as she tries to put her thoughts into words. “I love our friends. I love our new house, but I love even more that we get to make it a home. I love this life that I get to build with you. I love you Nate.” The silent exchange that directly followed was just as meaningful, if not more so, than the words she’d just spoken. She could feel it. He’d felt it too. “I love you, too.” He hadn’t said much, but what he had said had told her everything she needed to know. She’s yanked quickly from that memory as the door to the bridal suite opens. Linnea flounced into the room in her white tulle dress, looking every bit the little princess they all considered her to be. Mel shuffled in behind her before the door is closed again. The soft pink of her dress perfectly complimented her blonde hair and pale skin, amplifying her beauty even further. Mel and Gabe were two of the best things to come from her relationship with Nate, quickly becoming some of her very best friends. Through every hardship or struggle she’d faced during her relationship with Nate he’d been right there beside her, but the Landeskogs had been right there on her other side. She still feels a jolt of happiness when she remembers finding out about Linnea for the first time, and the first time she got to hold her. She couldn’t keep the smile off her face as they entered the room, fiddling with the small diamond bracelet Mel had given to her as a gift the night before from both her and Gabe, her something new. Mel snorted, joking “What, already thinking about the honeymoon?” Of course she hadn’t been before, but she started to now, and she quickly tried to ignore the tingle she felt between her legs at the next memory, one from just a few weeks ago.     “Oh fuck, yes.” Leah’s eyes were shut tightly, mouth wide open, one of Nate’s arms thrown across her lower stomach to keep her from squirming as his tongue slowly circled her clit. She was panting, hard, one of her hands wound tightly in his blonde hair while the other held onto their headboard. She’d already come once on his fingers, but he hadn’t shown any signs of slowing down. He groaned as he pulled away slightly, his mouth and chin covered in her wetness and let his eyes roam back up her body, flushed, until they met hers. “Fucking love your pussy, baby.” He dove back into her cunt then like it was a five-course meal as she tightened her grip on him and moaned loudly, her body thrashing and hurtling toward her second climax. She’d found out early on in their relationship that in contrast to how soft he was with her normally, in bed Nate was filthy. And she fucking loved it. They both shared a high sex drive, and when they first started dating, they’d gone at it like rabbits. In the morning in the shower before she left for work, on their couch when he’d gotten home from a game, one particularly exciting afternoon when he’d come home after practice and laid her out on his kitchen table. They constantly got each other off over FaceTime or Skype when he was on the road, and on their first bye week together they spent almost the entire five days of their trip fucking on every surface of the villa they’d rented. She’d been sore for almost a week. And after almost four years of dating, it hadn’t really slowed down at all. When Nate moved his tongue from inside her back to her clit, flattening it and shaking his head from side to side, she felt her orgasm crash over her. “Fuuuuck yes!” Her back arched sharply off the bed as she rode out the waves of her high, Nate continuing to lick and suck at her through it. As she worked to catch her breath, he kissed his way back up her body, biting down softly on her neck when he reached her sweet spot. “So sexy when you cum. Think you can give me one more, baby?” Though she was exhausted from the first two orgasms he’d given her, she still nodded enthusiastically and let her hand snake down his body, taking him in her hand and guiding him toward her center. She let out a sigh which turned into a quiet moan as he entered her. Of all the men she’d been with, which though admittedly wasn’t many, Nate was the biggest. His length was average, but he was thick, spreading her open and filling her better than any man ever had before. Their mouths met as he started to move inside of her, swallowing the noises she made. She knew it wouldn’t take much for either of them, her already sensitive from her first two highs and him keyed up from the reactions he’d gotten while giving them to her. As his thrusts picked up in both pace and in power, their kisses turned more into breathing and moaning into each other’s mouths before he moved back down to her neck then down further, taking one of her nipples into his mouth and biting before rolling it between his teeth. “Ah, daddy please, I need to come, I need to come.” She whined, rolling her hips up to meet his the best she could. He kept his pace and shook his head slightly. “Wait baby, wait for daddy. I’ll give you what you need, be patient.” He stopped for a moment and took her ankles into his hands, placing them up over his shoulders and she cried out as he began thrusting against her harder and faster, hitting a spot deeper in her than before. Her breathing went ragged and she struggled to get out anything but whines, which quickly turned into yells, then sobs. “Please daddy! Please, I’m gonna, I can’t- I need to cum!” she clawed at his back, her head lolling back against the pillows as she felt his hips begin to move more frantically and uncontrolled. “Yeah baby, fucking cum for me. Show daddy who makes you feel like this, who’s pussy this is.” She shrieked and seconds later felt her fluids gush around him, pulling a loud groan from him as he followed her over the edge. “Fuuuuuck yeah baby, your pussy feels so good when you cum around me. Fucking angel.” He grunted, filling her with his seed. They’d stopped using condoms six months in and he maintains it was one of the best decisions they’d made. She couldn’t help but agree with him as she felt his warmth pulsing inside of her.   When they’d both given each other everything they had, he dropped down gently over her and wrapped his arms around her, holding her as she trembled through the aftershocks of her third high of the night. Soft kisses were planted across her neck and jaw and she lightly combed her fingers through the sweaty mess of blonde on the nape of his neck. These were some of her favorite moments with Nate. Just after a round of great sex when they just laid catching their breaths in the silence, still connected and just basking in the warmth of being together. All she was capable of thinking about in those moments was the man laying over her and how much she loved him. “I love you baby.” He whispered quietly to her as he pulled away from his place at her shoulder, leaving her with a languid, toe curling kiss on her lips and feelings of love for him swirling around her body. It was Mel snorting again that brought her back to reality and she turned toward the other blonde, realizing she’d been biting her lip as she got caught up in the memory. “Jesus, I was kidding. My child is in the room.” Mel smirked and Linnea answered perfectly with a giggle from her spot in the corner, making both women laugh. She turned back toward the mirror to readjust her veil for what felt like the twentieth time since it’d been put in her hair. Mel continued. “Anyways, we just came by to tell you we’ve got about 15 minutes to go time. Maid of honor duties and all.” She winked making both of them laugh again before she swept Linnea into her arms, heading for the door “We’ll leave you alone now, see you in a bit.” As she exited the room, another woman entered. “My baby. Look at you, you look beautiful.” Her mother moved to stand by her side in the mirror, placing a hand gently on her shoulder, eyes filling with tears as they met hers in the mirror. “Your dad would be so proud, sweetheart.” Her own eyes filled with tears this time and as she closed them, she could hear the beeping of the heart monitor and smell the sterile scent of the hospital as clear as day. She couldn’t breathe. The only word to describe her in that moment was numb. Her eyes traced the wires to the white linen blanket, up to the machine that measured the slow heartbeat of the first man she’d ever loved. A face eerily similar to her own, her father had never looked thinner and paler than he did laying there in his hospital gown. ‘Brain aneurysm. Ruptured. Hemorrhagic stroke.’ The words the doctor had spoken to them rested like a weight in her head and in her chest as she stared down at their hands, hers clutching tightly and his limp and unmoving. She couldn’t cry. Not yet. She’d been holding onto hope for days now that he would wake up, that they could talk about how terribly their Steelers were doing and laugh about the clumsiness of her mother. That they could drive home together in his car, singing terribly along to the old Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin tunes he’d brought her up on. That one day he could walk her down the aisle (‘Not until you’re 30!’) and hold his first grandchild. No matter how many times she’d heard the words braindead and pull the plug, she held onto that hope, the same hope she was starting to feel slip between her fingers. The beeping was the only sound in the room aside from her mother’s sniffling and Nate’s steady breathing. Her parents had divorced just before her fourth birthday, but they’d remained great friends and worked together to raise her, something she didn’t realize how grateful she was for until she reached adulthood. It was only fitting that she, Leah and Nate were the three present at his bedside as two of them were what he always called ‘the loves of his life’ and the third one of his ‘favorite people out there’ as he’d called Nate just a few months before. The doctor entered the room again and when Leah met his gaze it was somber. She looked away almost immediately, knowing what was coming as he started speaking to them again. “I’m sorry, we’ve done all that we can, but we believe at this point it’s about a five percent chance he’ll wake, and if he does, we can almost guarantee significant brain damage. It’s in my medical opinion that you may want to consider pulling him off of the life support.” She felt it then, the first tear slip down her cheek where she sat in the chair by her father’s side. She locked eyes with her mother and they both knew what they had to do. This isn’t the way he would have wanted to live, and that’s if he did, and she wasn’t going to put him through any pain and suffering simply because it would make her happy. An hour later, after the three of them had all spoken their goodbyes and spent their last minutes with him, the machines were turned off. The beeping stopped, her father’s hand, still clutched in her own smaller, softer one went cold. Leah wept. She laid down on the bed beside her father’s body and held him, weeping as the last signs of life left his body. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t get through this. She didn’t want to live a life without her dad’s obnoxiously loud laughter and world famous bear hugs. She didn’t know how she was going to pull herself from the grief crashing over her in waves. Then a warm hand circled her ankle from its place at the foot of the bed, thumb softly smoothing over the skin there. Nate. Her rock, her stability, the calm to help her weather the storm. He’d be right by her side through it, just as he had been in everything else since the day they’d met three years ago. She knew when she felt the letters he was tracing onto her skin. I love you. It was strange but through all of her grief then, she felt the slightest bit of joy, because she also knew that her father had gotten to know and love the man she was going to marry, the love of her life. Her mother quickly pulled a handkerchief from her clutch, chastising both herself and her daughter for ‘ruining her makeup.’ She giggled as she clutched her mother’s hand and then directed a small smile at the pair of sapphire earrings she wore, a gift from her father on her eighteenth birthday and now her something blue. He was there with her, she knew that he was. Quickly wiping at her eyes, she handed the handkerchief back to her mother and went to gather her bouquet from the small table but stopped when her eyes landed on her engagement ring. One that had belonged to Nate’s grandmother, her something old. She floated away into yet another memory, and by far one of the best of her life. The air was crisp and smelled of the first signs of winter as Leah and Nate walked hand in hand down the lakeside pathway through Confluence Park. This was her favorite time of year, filled with memories of pulling out the Christmas decorations far too early with her mother as her father just smirked and shook his head at them. Memories of home games spent with her girls in the family box cheering on the men they loved. Memories of cold mornings spent curled up on the couch with Nate under the blankets, Cox at their feet as they fell in and out of sleep, watching the snowfall through the bay windows. She smiled as Nate gently tugged at Cox’s leash, willing him to slow down as they strolled lazily behind him. “This is my favorite time of year. I know I always complain about how cold it gets, but nothing beats a winter day like this.” Nate brought their joint hands up to his lips to place a kiss and replied, “I know baby. It’s one of my favorite times of year too, just because you love it.” She laughed at the cheesiness of his statement but leaned into his side, looking up at him as they slowed even more. “I love you, you know.” He didn’t reply immediately so she continued walking, only stopping when he did, turning to gaze at him curiously. It was only then that she felt the trembling of his hand still clasped in hers. “Nate? Why are we stopping, are you okay?” Cox whined behind her, probably wondering the same thing. “Yeah baby I’m fine, I just needed to say something and I wanted your full attention when I did.” This intrigued her even further but she didn’t answer, waiting for him to say whatever it is she could see was stewing in there. He stared at her for a moment longer before he started to speak again. “There’s something that I haven’t told you. I spoke to your dad on the phone a few weeks before he died. Spoke to him for quite a while, actually?” Leah was now incredibly confused, so she waited for him to continue. “You know how much I loved and respected him. I don’t know how but in three years he became another father figure to me and I wanted his opinion on something important so I called him to ask.” “What did you ask him?” her interest was thoroughly peaked as Nate’s hand dropped to his pocket, until he pulled out a small velvet box and both hands came to cover her mouth when she realized what was happening. She went completely still, tears already coming to the surface as he took a step closer to her, one of his hands still holding Cox’s leash and the other the box. “I asked him for his blessing.” He looped the leash around his wrist, but Cox was still then, sitting on the pavement at her feet, tail wagging furiously though she knew he had no idea what was occurring. How much her life was about to change. Then Nate took one of her hands from her mouth, her left hand, and held it tightly in his own. “When I was growing up, I watched my parents all the time when they were together, and you could see it in their faces when they looked at each other. It was this pure, real, genuine kind of love that doesn’t scream at you. The kind of love that’s just there, the kind that looks like making each other breakfast or bringing each other the morning paper, the kind that’s sitting on the couch together doing two completely separate things but somehow still being connected, the kind that looks like smiling through raising two children together. I saw other people find it, Mel and Gabe, Erik and Jackie, Sid and Kath. I always wanted that kind of love, but I never believed that I would have it, that I would somehow be lucky enough to find someone that loved me like that or that I could love like that. I think I realized on our third date that even if it wasn’t there yet, I could see that kind of love with you, and then it happened. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not thanking whoever’s up there in the sky or wherever they are,” she giggled slightly through her tears at that bit, “that I got lucky enough to fall in love with you. You are everything. You’re kind, you’re witty, you’re intelligent, you’re incredibly beautiful and you’re so loving to everyone around you. But especially me. You’ve loved me through every bad game, through every hotheaded tantrum, through every argument, through every loss and every heartache. It didn’t matter what I was facing, what we were facing, you’ve loved me through all of it and I can only hope to spend the rest of my life giving that love right back to you.” At this point she was ugly crying, clutching his hand so tightly her knuckles were turning white, but he pressed on. “This kind of love, the love we feel for each other is special, once in a lifetime. It doesn’t come around often and my grandma always told me when you find something like it you have to hold on as tightly as you can and never let go. This was hers, actually.” He opened the velvet box then and Leah gasped as she saw the simple round diamond set on a silver band. “After I called your dad to ask for his blessing and he not only told me yes but that he couldn’t be happier not only that his daughter had found someone she loved so much but someone who loved her the way she deserved,” she wept harder at that “I called grandma and told her I had found it, the kind of love she told me to never let go of, and the next time we were in town visiting her she gave me the ring. This ring is from a marriage full of that love and I thought it might be a good luck charm for us, not that we need it.” She laughed loudly at that and he grinned at her, but his smile softened and she found tears to match hers in his eyes as he dropped to one knee. “You’re it for me, baby. My best friend, my soulmate, the love of my life. I’ll never need to wonder again if I’ll ever find this kind of love because hopefully I’ll get to have it with you and the family we’ll build forever. If you say yes, I promise to fall asleep a little more in love with you today, tomorrow and all of our lives. I love you so much. Leah, will you marry me?” She didn’t even need to think, she knew. She’d known for years, just as she was it for him, he was it for her. “Yes. Yes, Nate. I love you. I love you.” He slid the elegant diamond onto her finger and his lips were immediately on hers, kissing her through their laughter and through their tears, over and over again. If you’d ask her, there weren’t words she could put together to describe the love she felt for him in that moment. Everything, every moment and memory that lead them to this place was worth it for the reward of getting to call him her husband for the rest of her life. They spent what felt like hours but could only have been minutes kissing and laughing in that park, elated at the idea of spending their lives together. As they finally pulled away from each other Nate excitedly pulled her left hand forward, flashing it at their dog proudly, making her laugh once again. “Cox, she said yes! Mom and I are getting married.” The knock on the door shook her from her happiest memory, Gabe standing proudly in it’s frame offering her his arm. When she’d thought about who would walk her down the aisle that day, though they’d never fill the void left in her father’s absence, Gabe was the only choice. The older brother she’d never had but had found in him. “Ready to be Mrs. Mackinnon, kid?” The nerves still didn’t come, the calm and the peace remaining. She grabbed the bouquet and crossed the room to take his arm. “Never been more ready in my life.” (+ bonus:) Their bedroom was still save for her husband’s soft snores and the hum of the ceiling fan. The clock on the bedside table next to her that was illuminated by the soft glow coming from her reading lamp read 3:53 am, but she didn’t feel the sleep gripping her like she probably should. She took the quiet moment to glance at the man sleeping soundly beside her, the man she’d called her husband for the last two years but her best friend for far longer. He was the man of her dreams and though they’d faced challenges, she wouldn’t have wanted to face them with anyone else. She scanned quickly back through all the memories she had of their relationship and smiled when they brought back the feelings of intense love between them. And as she looked down at the tiny baby nestled softly in her arms, his eyes an identical blue to his father’s, she remembered the words he’d said the day he proposed. “I promise to fall asleep a little more in love with you today, tomorrow and all of our lives.”

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 2, Episode 10, The Runway Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

[Silence]

John: Marc?

Marc: Hi, I'm Marc Roskin, Producer and Director of this episode.

John: I'm John Rogers, Executive Producer, and the one with the Guinness, so you have no excuse for missing that cue.

Albert: And I'm Albert Kim, I'm the writer of the Runway Job.

John: Here we go. And this is a great opening sequence, what- is this a set Marc Roskin? How did you create this incredible look?

Marc: This is the largest girls school uniform factory on the west coast, and they-

John: So this is some sort of internet connection where you order school uniforms or-?

Marc: It was very hot. No, this was-

Albert: Strangely Marc knows a lot about girls’ school uniforms. I don’t know why, but-

Marc: Yes, this was an actual working factory. A lot of the background workers are some of the factory employees who knew how to operate the machines. It was right across the river, really close, and they opened their doors to us just like everybody did in Portland.

John: I love the fact that we wanted to do a fake sweatshop, so when we shot in there, when they saw the hours they shot the workers in the fake sweatshop, we're like, ‘These hours are horrible. How can you people work under these conditions?’ And Albert, since we’ve just seen someone collapse with these- this great shop, which, actually, I believe was the pitch. How did you come up with the idea for the episode?

Albert: Well as you know, I'm quite the fashion icon in the office, so it was quite natural for me.

[Laughter]

John: Yes.

Albert: No, I knew that I wanted to set an episode in the fashion world because it seemed like a fun environment to get into, and lots of great visuals and scenes with models and fashion designers and runway shows. So I knew the area was there, and then so the trick was coming up with a sympathetic victim, and then, as always, a credible villain and threat. So I did a little research and finding the victim wasn't too tough, because the real- in the real world, the fashion industry has sort of been dogged by allegations of sweatshop abuse for a while, so having the sweatshop victim came fairly easy. Finding the threat required a little more research, but as I dug into it, I found that it was actually a real world connection between sweatshops and global clothing counterfeiting, which is controlled by the Chinese Triads.

John: It's interesting because a lot of people talk about intellectual rights and stuff in new international treaties and people immediately think of movies, television, digital rights. A lot of it also involved intellectual rights on clothing.

Albert: Yes. Clothing counterfeiting actually counts for more of the income of these Triads than illegal narcotics trade. So it’s a huge billion dollar business for them and right then, sort of, the pieces fell into place for the elements of the episode.

John: And now these actresses are, Marc?

Marc: That is- um-

Albert: Jen.

Marc: Cathy Vu.

Albert: Cathy Vu and Jen Hong.

Marc: On our left and Jen Hong, and they were great though local Portland actresses. And they knew how to speak some Mandariarin and it worked out great. This was actually, in the shooting order, Jeri Ryan's first episode working with us.

John: Yeah, it's really interesting because, you know, the crew- the cast was genuinely kind of freaked out by Gina not being on set, and so a lot of the weird vibe you get on this episode is from ‘there's a new person’ and of course Jeri became great friends with everyone and really fit in, but it was a really interesting vibe the first couple days on set. It really felt like, yes, Jeri’s a new person here; we don't quite know how to handle it.

Marc: But we had to play it like she was already part of the team because we shot these out of order.

John: It does help that really you don't make her part of the team until the end of the previous episode. 

Marc: Right.

John: This is almost a cold relaunch.

Albert: And we played that in the episode, too, so you sort of everyone's tentativeness around her worked well for the dynamics within- the character dynamics within the story as well.

John: And this is, again, this wass also a scene we added just to- It was interesting, we really wanted to make sure that everyone understood that Sophie- Because originally there was going to be a giant gap between episodes, we wanted to make sure everyone understood Sophie signs off on this. You know, audiences were very attached to Gina Bellman - rightfully so - and we did not want them to think we were shuffling her off and bringing in a new actor. We listen to you. Not a lot, not really.

[Laughter]

John: But we do listen to the bigger screams. Also love the callback there that Hardison screwed up in the Ice Man and that's what motivated this entire- this entire replacement.

Marc: We always like to bring up Hardison's screw ups; blowing up offices and whatnot.

John: Blowing up offices. But it's interesting that this is one of those trios where you just kind of park the camera and, you know, they have the dialogue, just let them run; let them do 4 or 5 versions, get the hell out of their way.

Albert: And this scene is really our version of: the kids are wondering where mommy went. You know, so it's like they are a little uncomfortable, it's a new family dynamic, so they're on the phone with her.

John: Yeah.

Marc: Right. But of course, they don't want dad to know that they are speaking to mom.

Albert: Yeah.

John: Yeah, and that's a- that actually started in Ice Man, where they are calling and not telling Nate. And we continued it all the way through where they just don't feel comfortable letting Nate know. And that was a nice little moment with Beth, you know, just ‘I miss you’. It's not often we crack the shell on Parker, that's part of the advancement of the character, to show that she's comfortable in the family, even if she’s not comfortable with other humans. And these two actors the- not those actors, that's stock photography- but the two actors playing the bad guys are?

Marc: Grace and what's her last name?

Albert: Grace Hsu and Tom Choi.

Marc: Grace was a Portland local, she was fabulous; and Tom came from Los Angeles. They did a really great job. 

John: The con here is kind of convoluted. It's interesting, just watching this, is the idea that we really had to come into the fashion show from- the fashion industry is one of those industries where if you're inside it, you know everything. We had to constantly figure out, what does the audience need to know in order to understand what we're doing without overexplaining it?

Albert: Right. Again, this is a case where research helped. I mean, to actually looking into what happens during fashions shows. It's based on a real life event, Fashion Week, which normally takes place in New York though there are regional ones all around the country where there are big showcases for new designers as well as opportunities for the stylish designers to bring out their new lines and things like that. So we knew we had an event that was tied to a specific time which helped; it gave us a very limited time frame. And then, again, researching into how the Triads operate and what their connection is to the clothing industry. All of that just helped flesh out the con.

John: I love the Parker giving her instructions on how to be photographed, you know Sophie gave her instructions three weeks ago for some other con. And this was kind of fun, creating the idea for how do you create- in modern media, how do you create the illusion of an actual human existing for some period of time, object permanence to a great degree?

Albert: Right.

John: So you figured out how to- you know, my wife watches a lot of fashion TV and it was kind of backing up: how do I actually know who the hell any of these people are? And it was because of the fashion shows and magazines. Cover both of those and you're done. And DVRs have certainly been a boon. And also this, printing off one magazine it's actually easier than we made it look. 

Albert: Yeah.

Marc: Oh yeah.

John: There's actually a service that prints off short runs of magazines that you can use if you're say doing a trade show or running a con.

Albert: This was all done on location. Beautiful house. This beautiful house in- was it in Clackamas?

Marc: Yeah, just outside of Clackamas.

Albert: It was great. It was a huge mansion that worked perfectly, and we ended up recreating the mansion later when we blow it up.

John: Also that what they're doing there, where they are looping, that's exactly what it looks like at Electric Entertainment - it’s basically just a laptop and a mic in the kitchen and that's how we finish up these episodes. No, but it was fun to be able to say, ‘Oh well, put the words on her mouth when we’re on her back, just like we do with actors.’ 

Marc: Right.

John: Presently, Tim Hutton delivers no more than 50% of the dialogue you hear per episode. We put the rest in his mouth later with a cunning Tim Hutton imitator. Yeah, this is to close off the sale that she's locked in.

Marc: Yeah, just to continue the sale.

John: Now Marc, you directed a bunch of episodes by this point, coming into this, right?

Marc: Yes.

John: And what was it like having a new human on the staff?

Marc: It was interesting. We- it brought a new life to it, and was interesting to see how everybody worked together. And she was just trying to get a feel for everybody and, you know, she was really easy going and said, ‘Listen, if you want a different performance, please, I'm here to help you guys.’

John: ‘Who likes to do this style? Who likes to do that style? Is that head writer really drinking that much in the middle of the day?’ Basic questions.

Marc: What is that smell coming from his trailer?

John: It's shame. It's the smell of shame. This scene was actually not in the original shoot, right? We wound up- this is one of the scenes that was: how much do we explain to the audience? Do they explain what Fashion Week is or isn't? And when we kinda looked at the first cut, it was like, you know what? I know because I watch it on Saturday morning on fashion TV, but we gotta make sure we establish the rules.

Albert: Right. Just a little more explanation as to how the fashion world works and where the con is going; just another step in the process.

John: And an excuse to get Aldis in orange.

Marc: Exactly and have Aldis in orange and Eliot in mascara.

John: That's eye makeup, that's not mascara.

Marc: Sorry.

John: Don’t. Please. Please, I don't want that phone call again, don't make that mistake.

[Laughter]

Albert: What's great about that factory, even this part of this set was also in that factory. 

Marc: This was just another portion of it.

John: Wait, so all the dresses and stuff, did we bring those in or those were-?

Marc: Yeah, we just put up the bolts of fabric and some employees.

Albert: We spent a lot of time in that sweatshop.

John: Yeah. As one does.

Marc: As one does. 

John: I love, by the way, in this episode, just watching what Kane is doing behind her during this scene. I'm- he's making a lot of interesting choices for Eliot there. Especially with the card snap coming up. And this was a lot of fun, too; this was a lot of the fun of the show is learning all the rules and idiosyncrasies of each industry.

Albert: Sure, that's part of the formula is figuring out what's the interesting world you can look into and then diving into and explaining to the audience how these worlds work.

Marc: Well it's funny, cause she needs to explain it to her teammates on the show.

John: And the card! I love the card delivery.

Marc: And the card the bam, yeah, you get to explain it to the teammates and explain it to the audience as well.

John: We’re really replicating what we’re doing in the room. Which is, one person knows the field pretty well and they explain- I remember when we did Iceman and we were talking about getting the serial numbers off the diamonds and Chris Downey was like, ‘I'm not following’ and I went, ‘It's like getting VIN numbers off a car’. ‘Oh, ok perfect!’ And that wound up in the script. Also this was fun having somebody who didn't know how the earbuds worked; it kinda reset the rules for the audience. And some beautiful- how did we get all this beautiful Boston stock footage?

Marc: Some we bought, some we shot. 

John: You actually went out and shot a lot.

Marc: I did. Myself and Dave Connell spent a couple days running around the great city of Boston.

John: Now this is your directing debut, isn’t it Albert?

Albert: It wasn’t my debut, but it was probably the longest sequence I've done.

John: And it's just naked backs.

Albert: It was just tedious, grueling labor to just have to order these models around to take off their clothes and take off their shoes. No, it was great, it was. We already had the set, we finished the big scenes in the set, so Marc let me take a few people out and just get as much fun behind the scenes stuff you can, so that’s kind of where we ended up.

Marc: You and Norbert, right?

Albert: Yeah, Norbert. That was one of his first days there.

John: I love the hair. Whose idea was the Swiss Miss hair?

Albert: Well the other thing about this episode was hair, makeup, wardrobe, obviously had a field day with it. They were really excited about being able to put their best foot forward on a lot of this stuff, so they were able to-

Marc: Yeah, they really had a good time.

John: I also love the fact that Hardison is basically using CIA technique of human intel signals  and analysis on the PA’s on a fashion show to figure out who’s in charge without actually figuring it out. It's a lot of fun, and our friend Apollo Robbins helped us out with the envelope slip, and it helps that Beth is very good-

Marc: This girl is great; she was a lot of fun, this girl, Caitlyn, Caitlyn Larimore. We- she read for us a few times on other things; we just knew there was gonna be something for her eventually.

John: So really, if you're looking to act, you should get out of whatever little LA or New York, whatever little hick town you're in and move to Portland because that's where you're gonna get some work.

Marc: Move to Portland; that's where it's gonna happen.

John: This actually hacking into the printer is something we've done before. A favorite trick of Apollo is to print stuff out in your office when you don't realize something is about to happen. And then the slide- 

Marc: That wonderful calligraphy on those envelopes was my mother in-law’s.

John: Really? That's great.

Marc: Yes, Louise.

John: We didn’t pay her did we?

Marc: Oh god no.

John: Alright, just making sure. We are a cable show.

Albert: But she ends up featured as a featured extra in the episode, too. She's in the fashion show; you'll see her later staring down Parker.

John: Mother-in-law? You got your mother-in-law on tv?

Marc: That's right.

John: Wow, you're the best son-in-law ever. This actress- actually nice shot. We wound up repeating that character later. I remember we were kinda restructuring; we were like, ‘Oh, we can just use her again, that’s fine.’

Albert: I remember watching her read, and she was great at it, so we decided to, rather than use a separate character for a scene later on, just, you know, bring her back. And she wound up doing that scene later when they approach the security people.

John: Just some love for the extra, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ A little something from Eliot just for you.

Marc: Just a little.

Albert: Well he had to know that if you're gonna do a fashion episode, one with lots of models, that Eliot was gonna be right in the thick of things there.

John: Yeah. And the overheard- How did you stage this? The overheard conversation is a staple of the show and the bane of all directors everywhere.

Marc: Yeah, we didn't have a lot of time on this day, but we figured out a way; just keep her in the background, eventually a couple close ups of her ears perk, and soon they'll drag her in deeper. 

John: Now each one of them is doing a specific person. I can't remember, he's doing-

Marc: Lagerfeld.

John: He's doing Lagerfeld. She’s doing Donatella Versace. I can't remember the British guy that Hardison is locked in on, cause I remember Aldis actually had pictures of him. I’m trying to remember...

Albert: André Leon Talley from Vogue, who is the legendary creative director of Vogue. And he's sort of channeling him. But yeah, again, during the course of research-

Marc: I got my ladder shot in there, by the way. I'm just two for two on-

John: On having ladders in your-

Marc: Yeah.

John: That's good; that's excellent.

Albert: This whole set was built; this was the whole fashion show.

John: We actually built this in the museum that we shot the finale for 207 in, right?

Marc: No, this was just an empty warehouse. 

John: Did we have permission?

Marc: Yes we did.

John: Good. Cause sometimes we don't; sometimes we just build stuff and then get the hell out before the cops show.

Marc: Yes, we used a lot of fabric to hide things.

Albert: But the beauty of it is, if you go to real fashion shows, it's kind of what it is. The highlight of fashions shows are supposed to be the clothes, so they keep the surroundings very minimal, and that's- that's always the idea of a fashion show. So luckily for us, it's fairly easy to recreate realistically as a set.

Marc: A lot of times it's just a wedding tent and a runway and chairs.

Albert: Well anyone who's watched Project Runway can see what it's like. It’s just a runway and some folding chairs.

John: I thought we built- that's interesting. Where did we go back to the museum for? I can't remember; it's gonna drive me crazy. Whose idea was the buckles?

Albert: Buckles was something I came up with in the script when I was trying to figure out how to explain what a poor designer Gloria is.

John: What's the one thing nobody likes a lot of?

Marc: Buckles.

Albert: So it became a little joke that someone that- someone, I think it was Chris actually pitched the joke about ‘pilgrim chic’ which we put in there, and found out later that that's actually kind of a real thing. If you make up any kind of joke in the fashion world you'll find out eventually that it's a real thing somewhere.

John: Yes.

Marc: This was actually the workers rec room, which was pretty much an open area room and- 

John: You're kind of ruining the whole sweatshop vibe with, like, ‘They had a rec room.’

Marc: Yeah, they had a rec room and basically we've pretty much four walled it. 

John: Yup.

Marc: And, you know, put in-

John: Which means?

Marc: To put up a wall to close it off. 

John: So this is a bigger space behind him.

Marc: Yeah, it's actually pretty much the same size, but it's just a platform where they had their lunch table set up. But we liked the ability to have shots like that where we can look down onto the floor, it was always-

John: And then shoot back up.

Marc: It was always something that I know that you guys mention, that we wanna have more connection with our victims. So we placed that shot-

John: It is tricky, particularly when we’re doing complicated ones, you can lose track of that vic that's in the opening, and we really tried this year to tie it back a little bit more.

Albert: Yeah, it was interesting. I had a conversation with another writer just the other day about - who works on a crime procedural - and they have the same issue about how to connect with their victims. It's much harder for them because usually their victims are dead. So they show up in the beginning dead, and they can wrap things up with the relative of the victim at the end. If you notice, what a lot of crime shows do is they have flashbacks, so then you get to learn the personality of the victims through the flashbacks.

John: Oh, interesting.

Albert: So we don't do that, but our victims are alive so there are opportunities, like in this scene, to reconnect with the people who we’re working for and establish what our emotional stakes are.

John: And this is also one of the places where we sort of set up- and if you watch what we did with Jeri’s character, and sort of the difference between Sophie and Tara Cole. Tara Cole is a short grifter. Sophie is never gonna push it, she's never gonna try to get the big payout. And Tara’s job is to get in and get out with as much money as possible, so this is one of the times where we really sort of set up how she needs to adjust. Though when you look at the back half, we don't really change it that much. The team doesn't really change, it's- she kind of adjusts herself to fit in the team a bit more. They wind up using her short term push just as a different sort of batter.

Albert: Whereas personality-wise, there's something you told me I remember which helped make everything click which was - Tara is really kind of a guy’s girl. You know, she's the kind of girl who sits around and watches football with the guys on Sundays. Sophie is very much a girl's girl; she's out there doing the shopping and fashion and all that stuff. So that kind of distinguishes the two characters. Although they fulfill the same role within the team, they're very distinctive in terms of their personality. 

John: But that's also from when we originally created the show. A lot of these characters have slightly different personalities, and the actors brought other personalities, and we realized as long as that job was fulfilled in the team, you can range pretty widely within there. How did you shoot- where the hell is she?

Albert: She's supposed to be-

Marc: Tashkent, right?

Albert: Tashkent. So- 

John: Uzbekistan?

Albert: Yes.

John: Oh right there you go. Of course. ‘Cause Tashkent is in Uzbekistan. Who doesn't know that?

Albert: Right.

Marc: And yes, so we shot Gina on a much later date, during a later episode, and just one green screen and some stock footage behind a little wind machine and there you are.

Albert: And camels.

Marc: And some camels, yes.

John: As one has in Tashkent. 

Marc: In Portland.

John: Oh no, we went to the Portland zoo see, I was hoping you'd give them the whole speech about sand, and yeah. That's a little bit of jealousy, a little bit of- and that was another thing, too, to make sure that Sophie wasn't just a character that you checked in with once a week. She had to have her own little arc that whenever you went to her she had a distinct attitude about the team. Yes and the reindeer gag, which I really foolishly insisted on keeping in the script because it was my favorite bit.

Albert: It was brilliant; it was great; it was all John.

John: That's mine. Whenever you see a joke that doesn't quite work and seems kind of doomed but we keep, that's usually me diggin in at the table, particularly if it's absurdist. Now did we put banners up or is that digital?

Marc: Digital. Those were digital banners on the building. Do our little whip pans to Eliot and whip back. 

John: Just to establish, yes, he's with a model. Where do you think he was gonna be? And he’s out.

Marc: And he's angry he has to leave the model.

John: The- and again, it was interesting to, sort of, know that we had to plot out these arcs on the back six, and figuring out exactly, like, how do we show trust and acceptance? And, you know, you can do it in dialogue, but you don't want people talking about their intentions. And the ear bud became kind of an interesting metaphor; it goes in and out of use over the back six and even with Eliot we wound up using it.

Marc: Yeah, it's like the chief asking for your gun and badge.

John: Yeah, exactly. And it also solved the problem later when you know it’s- she shouldn't have heard X. 

Albert: Right.

John: And that's a big problem on the show is in theory, if they can all hear each other’s conversations... Whereas a lot of cop shows, a big chunk of the time is, ‘What did you find out from witness x, Billy?’ What did you find out about witness y? Alright now let's put it together.’ They know. Now how did we do this blow?

Marc: Now that wass digital smoke, and that is a model.

Albert: Green screen model.

Marc: Yeah, we modeled the windows and actually shot it in our parking lot right here in Highland, in Santa Monica Boulevard.

John: Now we built- we do builds on the- building’s blowing up is better with models. The cars we've found we can do just digitally, but the buildings really look great with the model.

Marc: But we still use the model for the car as well. We just don't have the time or the money to do full explosions, you know, we do just a little aftermath with some debris and smoke.

Albert: Especially when it's someone's real house.

Marc: Yes.

Albert: Don't want to-

John: Generally they kind of frown on that, of just blow out the windows.

Albert: Because last year we did, Marc and I worked on another episode where we blow up a warehouse. And it was an abandoned warehouse, so you blow out the windows and break the glass, so it's not such a big deal.

Marc: Yeah, we did a little damage to the Prison Break set on that. What they shot was-

John: I remember, because I pulled up the day you were shooting that, I was like ‘I hope I haven't missed the blow.’ I was a quarter mile away and my windshield shook and I'm like OK, that was a little bigger than we anticipated’.

Albert: But this was a house with six kids was it?

Marc: Six kids, yeah.

Albert: So it was-

John: So blowing it up wouldn't have changed it all that much.

Albert: Probably not. Actually that family was incredibly neat.

John: And this is a lot of fun. And again, this is where, if you pay attention, we never tell you Tara’s backstory; if you pay attention all six episodes, you can figure out exactly what Tara used to do before she became a con woman. The information she knows, the way she puts stuff together, you’ll figure it out. Also the yelling. This was a lot of fun, because Eliot would be annoyed in this situation, and Chris Kane is never funnier than when Eliot is incredibly annoyed.

Marc: That’s right, and it's usually with Hardison.

John: Yeah. Thank you, I don't know how you make this show without phone cameras I really- we couldn't have made this show in 1978 this would've been a lot harder.

Albert: Or earbuds.

John: Or earbuds. Well earbuds we could've got around, but- no earbuds might have made our life easier, actually.

Albert: This was another thing that came up in research, actually, when I wrote a book about the Chinese Triads, and it is actually true that they're signature weapon is a meat cleaver. We looked at a few pictures of them, they're pretty impressive; they are really big and they have engravings on them, stuff like that. I've also looked at way too many pictures of victims of the Triads.

Marc: Yeah, missing fingers, and hands, and arms.

Albert: But that, again, it just added another fun element, knowing that there was, in reality there was a signature weapon that they use, and gave Eliot another fight scene.

John: Of course they'd be fancy meat cleavers, you're not gonna just pick a meat cleaver at Tesco or the kitchen section of Best Buy; you're gonna get one specially made. This was a lot of fun, too, something we haven't done in a while, which was watching Eliot figure out his fight space. You know, control access doing the math in this head. You know, it's always a little easier if no ones around him, just so he can tear people around a little easier. Fun stunt. Jerri did this, right?

Marc: Yeah, she was really nervous about doing her first fight with us, but she was a trooper; she did a great job.

John: She actually killed that guy. I feel a little bad about that, that's the first time we've admitted that, but you know. This was one of my favorite fights, cause we don't do a lot of weapon fights.

Marc: Yeah.

John: And it really reads well; the cleavers read real. Also we do a nice fight style with Chris here.

Albert: We did use cleavers back in the first season with the Wedding Job.

John: Oh that's right, we had the kitchen thing.

Albert: A kitchen thing. But it was a different kind of fight; it was a one on one in an enclosed space. This was an open space with multiple attackers ,and again, different props to use. So like, you saw the mannequin dummy there, and the rolling carts, and things like that, and so it ended up being a really fun scene.

John: And again, thank god for the surveillance culture - the fact that there are so many traffic cameras. Although you may bitch about privacy, it really helps us.

Marc: It really, really helps us.

John: This was interesting. This- I forget how this came up, I think the fact he had two IDs, but they had only checked one. I had a friend who was a Mountie- and remember, we were talking about my buddy who had done undercover up in Canada, and gh said the problem was, the guys got the fake, ran up records on fake Canadian IDs and you never knew the original crimes. Yeah. ‘Hey, how does Tara Cole know how to handle a meat cleaver?’ You’ll find-

Marc: Yup.

John: There you go, and that's a nice hit. And the head butt. I love the head butt, I'm sorry, man, that's a great way to end a fight.

Marc: She gets to take part.

John: Also, there's a lot of really nice hair flipping around in that fight scene, I gotta say.

Marc: I love-

John: I don't know whose looks better.

Marc: It's like a [Unintelligible. Sounds like ‘Germat’?] commercial.

[Laughter]

John: And that's, again, one of the problems with having a really uber competent team is, ‘OK they would have run this guy's background. What is the one loophole we could find that Hardison could screw up?’ You know, it's not screw up, it's nobody’s perfect.

Albert: It's just overlooked.

John: That's the trick, it has to always be some sort of fair play thing. Not a mistake, not just a ‘I didn't look in that drawer.’ This is a legitimate loophole.

Albert: Look how great this location is, though. It's everywhere; there's stuff everywhere. We really would not have been able to duplicate this on a set. 

Marc: No.

John: What? No?

Marc: Never. 

John: I love that he keeps the voice up here. That killed me here the first time I saw the dalies I was like, ‘Is he still doing Lagerfeld’?

Marc: Jack Bouvier. 

John: Yeah the fingerless gloves are really the pièce de résistance there. There's a lot of stuff there that could be on anybody, but the fingerless gloves really digs in.

Albert: Again, that's straight out of the Lagerfeld book.

Marc: Tim went for it.

John: Are those glasses actually rose tinted?

Albert: Yes.

John: Yes they are, that's magnificent. And the evil speech of evil: ‘Listen, I'm just a businessman. I have obligations.’ You know, in his head he's keeping many people employed back in China. You know, and he's a copy fighter, he's like those electronic freedom foundation guys who doesn't believe in copyright.

Albert: He's a hero, really.

John: He is a hero.

Albert: Of his own story, but- 

John: Exactly, he just happens to interact with our story. 

Albert: Exactly.

John: And this is actually a cue, this is a hint to where Nate’s- This winds up being the first episode of the second half of the season. This is kind of a hint of where Nate’s arc is going for the season, where he's getting so addicted to control and not losing and beating the bad guy, he's starting to make poor decisions. And he makes a series of remarkably poor decisions through the back six that really just the competence of the team protects him from.

Albert: He's kind of like those football teams that keep pulling it out in the 4th quarter and just decide that's just what they have to do. So they don’t mind coasting through the rest of the game or even, you know, getting down and behind before then.

John: Yeah it's- it's the mental discipline, and something that Parker says later on in the season which is, ‘Be the Nate Ford that we came back for.’ The mental discipline that made him legendary and which they count on is starting to slip. And it's not because of the booze, it's because of what he's substituting the booze with.

Marc: Right.

John: This is me drinking my Guinness, by the way.

[Laughter]

Albert: It's not your Guinness, it's what you’re substituting for the Guinness.

John: No, no, this is my Guinness; I'm actually drinking.

Albert: Oh ok. It's actually another Guiness that is substituting for his Guinness.

[Laughter]

John: It's, again, a Guinness that's somewhere else that I would like to be drinking. Some bargaining, trying to get them to take Eliot instead of Jeri.

Marc: That wasn't something he planned for. 

John: No, no, and it's interesting, and again, this is all trust issues. She kind of volunteered herself for this position, she’s, you know- 

Albert: The trick is, part of the whole episode was really the character dynamics. Because it was a new character, because it was a new team member, even though she'd been introduced in the episode beforehand, this is really the first full con they run together as a team. So it was a very tricky thing, and so I had the outlines of what the broad strokes would be, but this is the point when you go to the show runner and you say, ‘John how does this work, exactly?’ And then John takes over.

John: We stare at the ceiling and- that's what the writers room is for. And this is great, we actually wound up paralleling this shot. You created this shot for this episode, Marc; we wound up paralleling this argument in, like, two other episodes. There's actually a similar version of this shot in the first half in the season finale, where it's like, we are now sitting judgment of Nate Ford, and we’re a little distrubed that we’re not feeling very comfortable here. Yeah, and this cutting pattern replicates, and it’s interesting, and it's because we have editors working over certain episodes that make certain choices. And those are I think the names of-

Albert: They were real Electric Entertainment employees.

John: ‘Maybe I want to meet...’ Yes. Hardison is the most hard done by character; he never gets what he wants. And that, again, is one of those things where this episode was shot in 6 ½ days.

Marc: Yes, there's my mother-in-law.

John: There you go; she's a lovely woman.

Marc: A lovely woman.

John: Are you checking the list of actors to pick her name up? That's not good.

Marc: No, gosh no.

John: You know, we had four different ways this scam works. All depending on exactly how this shooting schedule worked out. And I remember I had to sit down with my wife and I was like, ‘Alright’, cause she's big into this, I was like, ‘Exactly what is the timing and choreography on a fashion show?’ And there, the thing with the dresses and they're all transported across town. So it was a good lesson for writers is, the great thing about TV is you're shooting every week; the really great thing about TV that will also drive you crazy is, you learn how to have a bunch of choices. Because sometimes the world decides not cooperate with you, and you can't shut down production for two days and just go- You've worked on big films, you've seen this. Like, ‘You know what? We're just gonna take a day off and find the right location.’

Marc: Yes.

John: No. Not so much.

Albert: The scene coming up with Parker in the gown. This is really, if you think about it and you say that you're gonna do an episode with the Leverage team involved in the fashion world, kind of the promise of the premise is you're gonna get Parker in a fashion show. In a gown, in a fashion show.

John: Right, because she's the one person who would despise it.

Albert: Right, and you kind of have to deliver this scene.

John: This was also shot later, and it was interesting because we don't usually get Parker and Eliot- you know, Parker and Eliot in a two-hander. And if you go back, you can see in the back half of the season when we- especially when we saw how it worked out in The Lost Heir Job, it became kind of a little more standard that we go to this partnership. You also see it pop up in the bottle show, the bar show, what the hell did we call it?

Marc: Bottle Job.

John: We called it The Bottle Job, that's right.

Marc: The problem with doing these two-handers is he can get her to laugh and break.

John: Yeah, Chris can crack Beth up. Him doing the dirty dresses on the floor line, Beth I think broke character maybe ten times because we are in the basement shooting that day. 

Marc: And this is the dress that Nadine our costume designer built.

Albert: Yeah.

John: It's a pretty amazing dress.

Marc: A beautiful dress.

John: The thumb drive of intent. Thank you thumb drive, for giving us a short hand so audiences know what we're doing. 

Marc: Yes, so she basically- you'll see that all of the Andre V, that's the Andre V character, has a touch of yellow in it.

John: That's right. Nadine created a unified theme for the fashion line - the fake fashion line that we were doing. 

Albert: She created an actual line.

Marc: Yeah, so she created a whole line and there's a touch of yellow in everything and as you’ll see when we get to the runway-

John: Where's this dress? We should auction this dress off.

Albert: Nadine probably has it.

Marc: It's actually in my car.

John: Oh no. I wish I didn't know that.

Marc: And then Dave Connell carried it with the lighting design as well.

John: Oh that's great, that is great. It's like we do this for a living.

Marc: Almost.

John: I love that Parker does the most- the little slide across the spot; that's a lot of fun. And now, did you shoot this at night? You had how many days on this set?

Marc: I think we did this-

John: You had the day, which was the warm up and then-

Marc: I think we had this location for two days.

John: That's not bad.

Marc: That's Jeffery Gilbert who played Andre V; he was just great. And I love Parker with the moves.

John: With the big head turn.

Marc: Just for a moment she thinks she got it under control, of course.

John: No, not so much. Walking is hard; walking in those heels is hard.

Albert: Walking in heels is hard.

John: I also love the little improv- it wasn’t in the script, but I remember seeing it in the dalies - she cracks her neck.

Marc: Yes that was definite Parker move. And I know this had to be- the scene coming up had to be a John Rogers line, where it's written that Andre V is banging his head repeatedly against the wall.

[Laughter]

John: Well, yeah, because I do that in the writers room.

Marc: And they said, ‘We gotta move on.’ I said, ‘No, I need to get the guy banging his head.’

John: Trust me, have some sympathy. And this is where we pay off the idea that Tara has heard about this team, and now believes she's given Nate one clue as to what she’s gonna do and she's desperately hoping they're as good as they think they are, and she’s doing the set up to this, she's setting up this beat. It was tricky, because we did actually play- she does actually look like she's selling the team out here, and if you're watching the DVD, you are watching all the way through the seasons. aAnd we did go back and forth on how loyal would she be to the team. And it really is the fact that one of the reasons you watch the show, or at least I think one of the reasons you watch the show, is the family vibe.

Albert: Absolutely.

John: And just having somebody who wasn’t into the family vibe in the middle of it, it might've been interesting from a writing standpoint, and we’re all fans of the show who write the show, it wasn’t interesting from an audience standpoint; it felt a little overly clever, a little constructed. But we do it just enough that we can get she's part of the team, but she doesn't buy into Nate’s bullshit, and as a result her actions in the finale make some sort of organic sense. And the van, oh, the van.

Marc: Gotta have the van.

John: Not anymore.

[Laughter]

Marc: Well-

John: No the- and this, again, we had like four variations how this particular con worked. Who did those designs? Who did-? We have a lot of actual fashion designs floating around in this.

Marc: I think Nadine.

Albert: Nadine and her team did pretty much everything.

John: They sketched them up and sent them off to Derek to do the computer graphics.

Albert: They did the sketches, they did the buckles sketches, they designed the clothes. Like I said, this was a real- this was a field day for the wardrobe and makeup and hair.

Marc: For the glam department.

John: That was nice, too. Cause the thing we originally missed, that having him hand him the badge, it’s a nice touch. Again, the trick when you’re doing- Some of the endings we stop and explain a lot, some just kind of unroll, and you have to make sure you set up all the pieces. And a lot of times when you're running and gunning and shooting, that stuff goes away.

Marc: It does. And so much of it is like, you get to a certain scene like, oh my god, in the flashback you're supposed to see that happens later.

John: Do you break those off separately when you shoot these or-? I mean, I know you, kind of, barely read the script.

Marc: A lot of times they are within the scenes and god bless Suzanne, our script supervisor, she just, she-

John: She's the best. She's actually the best I've  ever worked with.

Marc: She's the gatekeeper, yeah, she’s amazing. 

John: A Script Supervisor’s job, in case you don't know, if you're watching, is to sit next to the Director with a copy of the script, with special notations that they go to school to learn, to track what is in every shot, what the angles are, what the sizes are, who’s crossing, who’s walking in from what direction.

Marc: She's basically- she's keeping score and she’s the directors best friend, or worst enemy.

John: You will hear a lot of directors, even really experienced directors say-

Marc: As well as an editor, because, you know, an editor just gets a hard drive of footage, and if he can't decipher her notes, then he's gonna struggle as well.

John: I've seen really experienced directors, guys who are famous, they will finish and will turn to their script supervisor and go ‘What do I need?’ Cause they're watching the coverage while the directors watching the-

Marc: And we do a lot of different things and as a director, you're watching performances, and you're making sure you're hitting all the right emotional beats, and you know, when we do certain scenes where we have multiple characters, or you’re doing a 360-

John: We have a five-hander here.

Marc: Yeah, or doing a 360 and the camera’s going around and around, you need someone to be keeping score for you.

John: I like the physicality, by the way, watching this again, of watching Tim does with his face when he’s with the character and when he's just dropped it, and all of a sudden that kind of fake character, the wardrobe doesn't matter if he's just pissed, and you know he's dug in.

Marc: As soon as he's pulled off the glasses-

John: It's Nate.

Marc: It's Nate. 

John: Great job.

Marc: And we haven't even had him say that, when Tom, later on, you know, points that out, you're not even who you say you are, he, like, looks at him in a certain way.

John: Yeah. No, nice call. The- oh yes, this was, again, interesting, is one of the things that really depends on the speed with which these guys can rip this stuff off. You know, in one of the original versions we were talking about where the dresses are actually transported- right after the fashion show, the dresses actually are driven across town and are put in a private closed viewing for the buyers. They won’t let anybody else close to those dresses because even with photographs, they can be knocked off within a matter of 48-72 hours. Which is stunning, which is what you're trying to fight when you're trying to fight piracy. And hung by his own sin, which is one of the rules.

Albert: There's always a rule. Yup. Going back to the wardrobe and hair and makeup departments, the other thing you don't end up seeing is that they went through a lot of their own iterations of what- before what you see on the screen. They did a lot of tests, they did a lot of different looks. If we had time, we could probably show all these other test photos they took, and different hair configurations, and make up, and at one point they did this whole sort of Kabuki look, but we decided that might've been a little too fashion forward for this show. They really went all out.

Marc: They went all out.

John: Did you say fashion forward?

Albert: Sure.

Marc: And some of them were just based on the element of time, you know, we wouldn't have time to change actors over to a certain style, and-

John: Yeah, cause I mean, that's the thing, is when the difference between shooting Parker as Parker, and shooting Parker as Parker as fashion model, is two hours to change that character's look.

Albert: At least.

John: At least. And the walk of victory.

Marc: Dun dun dunnn.

John: This is nice, this is- I, you know, I always love the 60s, 70s call back; it's a nice style choice. Also, you've got that great street to shoot down. Where was that? Was that outside of-?

Marc: That was right outside of the actual warehouse location.

Albert: Across the river.

Marc: Just across the river from downtown Portland, so it was really close; you know, had a nice overpass.

John: Looked like that section of T that’s elevated.

Marc: This, again, is supposed to be in Asia, which was actually just another area of the warehouse again.

John: And then that's a kind of an iconic shot for this show now. That's nice, the Jeri Ryan era, as the fans call it. If you go on the boards and see the fans arguing over which six episodes are the best in the giant ouvre of Leverage ouvre. And she pays a horrible horrible price for her treachery.

Albert: Those are real working steam presses, and I can tell you from having been there, they were ridiculously hot. 

[Laughter]

Albert: I didn't want to be anywhere near it. I was like, ‘Wow, Gloria is really a trooper going through this.’ She had to learn how to operate it; it had, like, foot petals and things.

John: This is why it's good to be a writer, is, we write horrible things and then the directors and actors go live there, while we occasionally- Sometimes we venture from the hotel room to go visit the set.

Marc: At times.

John: But it's for the best if the writer isn't there; just causes trouble.

Albert: We can go pose and take pictures with the models; that's when we show up on set.

John: Yes. And then this is actually based on, there's a bunch of factories now that are owned by the employees that were taken over. Some car factories, some- there was a big thing in South America for a while of the workers seizing foreclosed factories and opening them up as co-ops.

Marc: I did not know that.

John: Yes, there you go. Anything we can do to undermine the infrastructure of capitalism of America in Leverage we try to, we try to.

Marc: Now this is a happier factory, it's brighter.

John: Brighter colors.

Marc: Yeah, it's brighter colors, there's sound.

[Laughter]

John: I love that. I love you sitting in the director’s chair like, ‘Alright, now make it the happy sweatshop.’

Marc: How else can we make them happy?

John: Lunch breaks.

Marc: Lunch breaks! Sandwiches. Sandwiches make everyone happy. Everybody’s happy with a sandwich.

John: There you go, and milk, that's delicious. Look, and we saw that particular extra was unhappy earlier.

Albert: That's right.

Marc: She was.

John: There you go; really sold it. And again, it's interesting because, you know, you shot two years of this now, and you understand the vics aren't a big part of actual screen time, they are on in the opening, they're on in the closing. Those actors are insanely important, because it means you have to like them really fast, and if you don't like them really fast, you know, it won’t pay off.

Marc: Yeah, and they have to keep up because, you know, it's not like we get a lot of time to do rehearsals, and so some of the crux of the episode can be in their hands.

Albert: Oh yeah, the emotional core of the story always hinges on the victims and their choices.

John: And sometimes those scenes with Tim Hutton in the bar, that's the entire reason you're gonna care about this episode. And this is a lot of fun with- this is when we- again, we really track, if you watch the back six episodes where Tara Cole feels in how she's getting the money. Happy about getting the money, ambivalent about getting the money, not caring so much, you know. She never doesn't care, cause that's just wrong. And now, it's interesting, Tim and I had a nice conversation about this particular phone call, cause he called me about this and he's like, ‘I'm not sure where we're going with this.’ I'm like, ‘You know that moment when you've had an argument with the wife and you've realized you've said the wrong thing and you can never take it back?’ And he's like, ‘Oh yeah.’ and I'm like, ‘That one right there.’ And it's one of my favorite little Nate/Sophie scenes and they're not even in the same room. Because it's, you know, it's- banter is fun, relationships are hard.

Marc: Right.

Albert: Oh I like that. Banter is fun, relationships are hard. 

John: And, you know, end of day, unless you show a couple of these scenes every now and then, you don't buy these relationships as real. And that's why I think one of the reasons the Eliot/Nate relationship feels very grounded is, we give opportunity for Chris Kane and Tim to kind of dig in on the fact that they don't always agree, those characters.

Albert: And you gotta give somewhere for the characters to go. That's the thing about a scene like this, at the end it gives them somewhere to go after here.

John: That was great. Thank you so much, guys, that was a lot of fun. The episode was fantastic.

Albert: That was The Runway Job.

Marc: Thank you.

John: Anything you wanna say to the nice folks before we move onto the next one?

Marc: Stay tuned.

[Laughter]

John: It's a DVD, I don't think they’re gonna wander off-

Marc: For the season.

John: Oh for another season, that's right. Season 3. Albert anything you wanna say?

Albert: No this was great, this was, I think, my third episode working with Marc. Third, that I'd written. Kind of fourth.

John: Kind of codependent.

Marc: Yes, yes.

Albert: We are, but I've learned that one thing: banter is fun, but relationships are hard, so we gotta keep working on it.

Marc: That’s right.