#suicide squad seven

[sweetmariabear]

I wonder if Suicide Squad Seven would have been a continuation of Coven of Three. Both are written by Rex Ogle and I wonder what the plan was as it never got green lit for a full series losing to another Bat book. What I mean by a continuation is mostly of Zach’s character progression, whether or not Ogle would carry it over from Coven of Three to Suicide Squad Seven.

(On a side note, I genuinely would read a Coven of Three mini series. Yes, technically it is a miniseries as it was a side story at the end of the Teen Titans issues. But I mean a full solo series.)

[imgibbon]

A "Brief" History of Shade, the Changing Man & Woman

In the beginning, ie 1978, there was Ditko, and he gave us Shade, the Changing Man, and it was good.

Rac Shade was a Bond-type agent of an advanced society on a world called Meta - not an alien planet, but the Earth-analog of another layer of reality, and journeying between them meant crossing "The Zero Zone" and trying not to run afoul of its Area of Madness.

Shade had been framed for treason and the crippling of his fellow agent and fiancé Mellu Loran's parents, high-ranking government officials. Escaping from prison and heading to Earth and making use of a bit of contraband experimental technology that was being held at his hideout for Earth operations prior to his frame-up, the "M-Vest", he tracks down escaped Metan criminals while also seeking to find the one who framed him, who has been hiding out on Earth by integrating into its mafia underworld.

The M-Vest allowed Shade a range of powers. With it he could manipulate gravity, employ enhanced strength, fire off energy blasts, and gave him an odd force-field that mitigated harm, but was also sensitive to the psyche of those around Shade, contorting to look like a weird image of their fears, as well as reflecting Shade's unconscious thoughts. He was a "changing man" as, to others, he was a constantly mutable and unnerving entity.

Across the 8 published issues (we got issue #9 later, and Ditko purportedly had up through issue #15 plotted out), Shade convinces his superiors of his innocence, returns to Meta, makes up with Mellu, and starts to make his way back to earth to deal with the criminal mastermind behind his framing infiltrating and taking over the Earth observation outpost that Shade's organization had been working out of.

And then the series was cancelled on short notice due to DC being in financially dire straits at the time.

A decade later, in 1988, Shade was rescued from the void of the Zero Zone by The Suicide Squad, joining their ranks in return for helping him liberate his org's outpost as if it were the next issue and he hadn't been absent from pages for a decade since we last visited that plotline. The mastermind is killed during the scuffle, and with him any chances of Shade being able to go home and formally clear his name. Waller and co offer to help him out while he figures out another way home in the meantime.

He ran with the Squad for a good twenty issues, taking part in the giant Janus Directive crossover, and even journeying to Apokolips and fighting the New Gods with them. During that arc, he is talked into making a bad call that betrays the team, though he helps them get out of the resulting mess. In the end, when everyone is zapped home by Darkseid's eyebeams, while the rest of the Squad is blipped to Earth, Shade is finally returned to Meta.

Six months later, mid 1990, Peter Milligan's first issue of the new Shade, the Changing Man hit news stands. And it was... different.

Milligan expanded on Shade's backstory, revealing that Shade had been an aspiring poet prior to being recruited into the agency that trained it out of him, and delving more into Metan culture, while also using Shade as a vehicle for exploring the weirdness of being in a familiar yet alien society he felt as a British man newly moved to America.

After returning to Meta and before he'd had time to reunite with Mellu, Shade's superiors had tasked him with going back to Earth to pick up an assignment that another agent had been on but failed at: figuring out where the Madness in America was stemming from, and stop it from leaking out into the Area of Madness and influencing Meta. Shade had to journey deep into the Area of Madness to get a bead on it, and ended up on Earth by possessing the body of a freshly executed serial killer, unknowingly leaving his original body an empty lifeless husk floating in the void.

He started travelling the States with Kathy George, whose parents were the serial killer's final victims, and the two eventually are joined by Lenny Shapiro, and sarcastic and witty woman in her own right. The three end up in what would today be called a polyamorous trouple, and eventually confront the living embodiment madness of America, which had infected the other agent, driven him insane, and transformed him into what manifested to others as the giant twisted skeleton of Uncle Sam known as The American Scream.

Shade's M-Vest has grown in power, and possibly is just a part of him now, vastly increasing his abilities to raw reality-warping levels. He can more or less just do whatever the story needs him to do now, basically.

Once the Scream had been dealt with, Shade died. Not that that really slowed him down at all. He wasn't even really aware that it had happened. His at this point powerful madness-riddled psyche was keeping him around as a ghost of sorts, and Kathy & Lenny found a recent corpse to posses, as someone had just driven their car into the lake near where they were staying.

They only discovered after the fact that it was a woman.

After a brief detour where Shade transitioned back into being a man (transmasc baybeeeee), he went back to Meta, finally reconnecting with Mellu after what was now some years, only to learn that the agency had told her that he was dead, and she'd met and wed someone else. She has a mental breakdown, asking in tears why he hadn't come home sooner. Taking this in, Shade returned to Kathy and Lenny, to let them know that he was dying again, said his goodbyes, and allowed himself to be killed by the same FBI/Meta duel operative who'd done him in before.

This is where the Vertigo imprint spun up. The next issue, under the Vertigo banner, picks up after a bit of a timeskip, where Kathy and Lenny are informed by the ghost of Kathy's dead ex that angels in heaven have plans for Shade, and they're sending him back, having prepared for him a body to use in the form of a adult man who's been basically braindead since birth and kept in a medical institution. But the angels have kept a bit of Shade's soul so they can exert some power over him, and it's made him a bit less hinged than he used to be.

Shade, Kathy, and Lenny, per the angels' direction, set up shop as managers of a hotel, helping the weird visitors who come to stay there. During their time there, Shade manages to get Kathy pregnant, and Lenny reunites with the daughter Lily that she had in her teens before running away from home.

But as Kathy comes to term and approaches the time to give birth, she is brutally assaulted. She dies, though they manage to save the baby. Shade, however, is not in his right mind, and rejects the child, walking out of the hospital to wander, while Lenny leaves with her daughter.

This, purportedly, was where Milligan intended to end the series. But for whatever reason it didn't, so it kept going, and the status quo was obviously massively different than what it used to be.

After another not-too-lengthy timeskip Shade decides to kill himself, not seeing the point in continuing, though the literal devil sends him back to posses yet another body. Shade, in an attempt to find meaning, sets up shop in a dimensionally transcendental crack in the pavement in NYC, spends some time existing as the floor in a dance studio, and finally goes to check up on his son, George. Who, it turns out, is aging extremely rapidly, due to not being fully human.

Reunitings with Lenny are had, George ages to death over the course of six months, his soul merges with Lenny's daughter Lily, Shade picks up a few more strays in the form of Angela and Sinita, the latter of which he starts a new relationship with, before everything goes tits up again and he decides the solution is to build a time machine so he can fix all of his (and his friends') problems. He prevents Kathy's parents from being murdered, prevents his younger self from joining the agency, helps Lenny out in her youth, etc.

The series ends with Shade and his now-daughter Lily visiting this new revised timeline's version of Kathy to see if they can strike up a relationship with her.

Things apparently didn't go well.

The next time we see Shade outside of cameos is a story arc in Milligan's run on John Constantine, Hellblazer, in 2010. Constantine summons Shade to help with some Madness-related issues he and his fiancé Epiphany are experiencing, and Shade, unable to get together with the new Kathy and Lily nowhere in sight, becomes obsessed with turning Constantine's bride-to-be into an idealized version of Kathy. It doesn't work, and Constantine is able to properly wed Epiphany, but Shade is shown to be crazy and depressed and have basically the powers of a god. In the middle of all of that we also met back up with Lenny, who has cleaned herself up and is now a school teacher, go figure.

The very next year, DC would cancel the Vertigo line, and everything else, and reboot their universe with the Flashpoint event. During it, in a miniseries from Milligan, Shade is forcibly taken back to Meta, where they reveal that A) the vest has grown to be a part of him, and can no longer be removed in a way that matters, and, B) because of this he is, to an extent, immune to all these reality rewrites. Or at least less affected by them. Shade is put in charge of a team, the Secret Seven, but the madness overtakes him (with a bit of help from some double agents for an enemy faction) and he winds up back in the Area of Madness

Afterwards, in the New 52, we see him trying to forcibly manifest a new Kathy with his godlike powers, but apparently not godlike enough, as she just melts when he's not around. He's interrupted by Madame Xanadu, putting together a team, the Justice League Dark, largely comprised of many of the members of the Secret Seven, and tasks Shade in a leading role to help her save the world from some threats she has foreseen.

Milligan wrote this series for the first 8 issues, and when he left, so did Shade (as well as Milligan's other OCs he'd brought to the table), but it served as a nice little coda to his era of The Changing Man that had begun some twenty odd years earlier.

It would then be another half-decade or so before we'd see hide or hair of Shade again. In late 2016, DC started up the Young Animal line, a young adult-aimed successor to the Vertigo imprint, with many of the same faces headlining its titles. And among them was Shade.

Sort of.

The new Shade, the Changing Girl, from writer Cecil Castellucci, starred young adult bird alien Loma Shade, who was raised on Meta and had adopted Rac's last name after becoming enamored with his poetry and counter-culture views while he was acting as a guest lecture at her university before disappearing form Metan society again.

Loma steals what is purportedly Rac's vest, which has been sitting in a museum, and uses it to transfer her consciousness to Earth, wanting to follow in Rac's footsteps, taking over the body of a comatose high school girl named Megan. And leaving her now empty bird alien body behind on Meta for her boyfriend to deal with, oops.

Living as "Megan", she learns about our culture, experiences dysphoria being in a body she doesn't identify with, and explores sexuality, hormones, and learns how to be a better person than she used to be (and than Megan used to be as well). Meanwhile back on Meta, we learn that Mellu, now getting up there in years, is the head of the agency that used to employ her and Shade, and becomes obsessed when learning that someone has stolen Rac's vest and managed to use it, thinking she'll finally be able to reunite with Shade again after all these years.

Eventually, Loma runs away from home, learns never to meet her heroes, has to deal with Megan wanting her body back, and Mellu wanting Rac's coat back. Her original body dies without her soul in it, and Megan's body dies in the process of Megan trying to get back in it. Shade ends up possessing the body of her favorite black & white sitcom star, Honey Rich, who happened to look a lot like Megan in her younger years, and returns it to youthfulness to attend Megan's funeral.

Mellu also gets the coat back and uses it to reunite with Shade, who had left behind the vest for Mellu and was waiting for her in the Area of Madness where time has no meaning.

It was at this point that Loma got caught up in a really bizarre crossover event that involved all the titles in the Young Animal line called Milk Wars, which was largely Doom Patrol focused, but saw Loma splitting in five, each color-coded and embodying one of her emotions Inside Out style, and serving as Wonder Woman's personal helpers in a world overtaken by a weird 1920s aesthetic organization called Retcon. It was very weird lol.

The series then returned with under the new branding Shade, the Changing Woman. We are subjected to a five year timeskip, during which Loma has grown and slipped into old habits, sleeping around with men and women, indulging in food, drugs, and other things to fill the void in her heart. Her friends have all graduated, gone on to higher education, and gotten jobs in their fields. And she still doesn't really know what her place in the world is. So she's been couch-surfing with Rac in the Area of Madness while she figures out what to do with her life.

And in the midst of all that, the giant interdimensional crayfish that destroyed her birth planet, causing her to be a refuge child on Meta in the first place, begin to attack the Earth.

By the end of the final issue in late 2018, Loma and Rac had become one person, Kathy, Lenny, and Lily had put in an appearance, Mellu got some closure, Megan had come back in a male body and tried to hijack Loma's again, Loma's old boyfriend had become a green lantern, and Loma ended up possessing the body of her dying black non-binary friend River.

And that's where the series ended.

And we haven't seen Shade, in any iteration, since then.

[figureskatingcostumes]

Katharina Müller and Tim Dieck's Suicide Squad costumes at the 2022 Olympic Games.

(Sources: 1, 2, 3 and 4)

[anonbinaryweirdo]

oh my god is that Harley Quinn in such a big fanskkdhd (I'm gay that's what I am)

[lexapro-princess]

Ultimate Girlblogger Movie List

1. Ballerina

2. To Catch a Thief

3. The Swan

4. Barbie In The Pink Shoes

5. Rhapsody

6. The Seven Year Itch

7. Thirteen

8. Mean Girls

9. Clueless

10. Girl, Interrupted

11. Marie Antoinette

12. Love In The Afternoon

13. Breakfast At Tiffany's

14. Roman Holiday

15. Barbie and hers sisters in a Pony Tale

16. Barbie of Swan Lake

17. Barbie In The Nutcracker

18. Barbie and the Diamond Castle

19. Barbie and the magic of Pegasus

20. Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper

21. Barbie: a Fashion Fairytale

22. Barbie In The 12 Dancing Princesses

23. Pride and Prejudice

24. Barbie as Rapunzel

25. Pearl

26. 13 going on 30

27. Funny Face

28. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

29. Charade

30. Black Swan

31. Niagara

32. The Virgin Suicides

33. Priscilla

34. Sabrina

35. Emma

36. How To Steal a Million

37. Enchanted

38. Some Like It Hot

39. Lolita (1962)

40. Lolita (1997)

41. The Crush

42. American Psycho

43. The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

44. Monte Carlo

45. Legally Blonde

46. Confessions of a Shopaholic

47. The Devil Wears Prada

48. Valley Of The Dolls

49. Jackie

50. Jennifer's Body

51. Barbie: Princess Charm School

52. The Tourist

53. Abzurdah

54. Riding In Cars With Boys

55. I, Tonya

56. Buffalo 66

57. Girl

58. Heathers

59. Scarface (1983)

60. Gone Girl

61. Corpse Bride

62. Sense & Sensibility

63. Persuasion

64. Little Miss Perfect

65. Changeling

66. Gia

67. Uptown Girls

68. Suicide Squad

69. Last Night In Soho

70. Mirror Mirror

71. Birds Of Prey

72. The Beguiled

73. Palo Alto

74. Speak

75. Leon: The Professional

76. Prozac Nation

77. Red Eye

Let me know if I missed one, leave your suggestions by commenting or reblogging

[loveharlow]

SEVEN [SEASON 2] - 003

PAIRING ‧₊˚ JJ Maybank x Fem!Reader

SYNOPSIS‧₊˚[10.4k] A court hearing leaves the pogues scrambling for anything to get John B out of jail. And fast.

WARNING(S)‧₊˚ swearing, mentions of death, corrupt law enforcement, mentions of murder, mentions of suicide, graphic depictions of injuries,

NOW PLAYING‧₊˚

A/N‧₊˚ A lot of questions answered in this chapter and I think TR was such a girlboss here

˗ˏˋ series masterlist ˎˊ˗

THE FIVE OF YOU SAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COURTROOM, hidden perfectly in plain sight. John B was arrested yesterday, Shoupe and his men leaving you all distraught and soaked in the middle of the woods. They had to cuff John B’s unconscious body and basically load him into the back of the squad car. 

You were sat at the end of the row, next to JJ who’d wiggled between you and Pope. You had on a hoodie and shorts, the hood pulled over your head as you slouched in the pew. You kept taking glances across the court room, Rose and Ward sitting on the other side, acting oblivious and innocent.

“This is such bullshit.” You scoffed, playing with the strings of the hoodie. 

Suddenly, a bony hand grasped your shoulder, making you turn around, coming face to face with an old woman. She pointed in your face as she spoke. “You’re in public, young lady. You may want to watch your mouth.”

You made a face at the woman, turning further in your seat to look at her. “You may want to watch yours. Your dentures are segregating themselves from your gums, you old, senile-”

“She’s sorry about that.” JJ cut in, pushing your shoulder forward and shooting the woman tight lipped smile as her jaw dropped and she put a hand to her chest. Once you were facing forward, he leaned down to whisper in your ear. “We’re already down a person for a crime, let’s not add elderly abuse to the list.”

You waved him off, slouching in your seat again. Just then you heard Sarah sigh, the four you looking at her at the other end of the pew.

“When are they bringing him out? His hearing was supposed to start fifteen minutes ago…” She said, seemingly mainly to herself as her foot tapped against the floors.

Right on cue, the doors opened, one brawny officer guiding John B to stand next to his lawyer as a hush fell over the courtroom. The cuffs around his wrists jingled as he shuffled towards the court appointed lawyer he was given, standing next to the woman awkwardly. 

The judge thanked the officer, peering over her glasses as she read the documents in front of her.

“John Booker Routledge, pursuant to the North Carolina statute section fourteen, you are charged with murder in the first degree with aggravated circumstances." The statement made you cringe. "If convicted, the maximum sentence would be…” The judge continued, elevating her gaze to look at John B directly.

“...the death penalty.”

…

What?

The entire courtroom broke out into hushed chatter, your hand curling into a fist in your lap. The death penalty? Was this some kind of joke? That didn’t even make any sense. 

Without thinking, you stood from your seat, hands gripping the back of the pew in front of you. “He’s seventeen, you can’t do that!” You shouted, the courtroom falling into mild chaos as some people got up to leave and others stayed behind, voicing their opinions.

“Hey, c’mon…” Pope tried, a hand on your arm as he tried to escort you out of the courtroom along with the other people who were leaving.

“They’re trying to give him the death penalty, Pope. They’re going to try to kill him.” You said, trying to push the boys hand off of you. “He didn’t kill anybody!” You shouted over his shoulder, the boy using more force to guide you outside.

“John B, we’re gonna figure it out!” JJ pointed at John B who was looking back at the five of you with an expression somewhere in between pity and pure terror.  The judge slammed her gavel down, demanding order in the court just as Sarah seemed to snap, pushing her way through the crowd calling for John B as the bailiff carried him away, Kiara escorting the blonde out of the court with the rest of you.

“Is this a joke? Are we in hell, or…?” Kie said, walking down the steps.

“...I should’ve never come home.” Sarah said, voice muffled from her crying. 

Right then, Ward walked by you all, another couple trailing him and Rose. You made eye contact with the Cameron man for a brief second, sending him the meanest glare you could muster as the couple behind him talked. “I’m sorry that this is what you and your family have to go through. Thank God the system works…”

He couldn't be serious.

“Can you shut the fuck up?” You jumped in, stepping towards the man. “You think a minor being presented death penalty is the system 'working'? Of course you think the system worked because it was made to protect you and people like you. I mean, who shows up to a court hearing they aren’t apart of in a suit, just to kiss the ass of the only actual murderer here?” You spat, pointing directly at the man in question.

He simply adjusted his suit, tilting his chin to the sky. “Your friend will have his day in court. A jury will decide.”

“He doesn’t belong in court!” You objected, eyes drifting towards Ward. “The real people who should be up on that stand are Ward and his psychotic son!” You ranted, Shoupe and his deputies that were on standby rushing in between the five of you and the four of them. 

“I know you’re upset. Okay? I understand.” Ward tried, Rose hanging onto his arm as he played victim in front of half the island. “He’s got you all fooled-”

“You don't understand shit. And the only people being fooled here are your kiss-ass neighbors.” You mocked incredulously, swiping the hood off of your head. “You wanna see upset, Ward?-” Was the last thing you said before swinging on the older man, your nails swiping against the skin of his cheek, but doing no damage, before Shoupe wedged his way fully in between, pushing you and your friends back.

“Show some respect!” Ward pointed, patting his cheek to make sure he was unharmed.

“You're going to hell!”

“Get off of her.” JJ lightly shoved Shoupe back, the officers hands falling away from you. “Why don’t you take down the Kooks for a change?” JJ suggested, almost intimidating the older man. 

“You wanna get arrested?” The man asked, hand on his hip, right on top of his gun holster. “Go home. Now. All of you.”

“...’s is bullshit.” Kiara mumbled, eyeing Ward and Rose as they walked away. 

“No wonder his daughter’s walking with us...” You called out, the statement making Ward pause in his tracks to look back at you with deadliest look in his eyes. You looked the man up and down before turning around and walking away with your four friends.

“...I’M GONNA TESTIFY UNDER OATH.” Sarah announced with conviction, arms crossed as she paced the patio of The Chateau — rain pouring outside. “I was there. I just need to get ahold of my sister…”

The four of you surrounding her sighed, shifting in your seats. “Sister…” JJ muttered under his breath.

“Kie, do you have your phone?” Sarah asked the girl closest to her, taking the device from her hands when it was offered to her before turning to face JJ. “Wheezie is the only other person who knows that Rafe wasn’t home that day.” 

“...Wheezie?” JJ reiterated unbelievably. It was the most serious, flat, annoyed tone you’d ever heard him speak in. 

“I don’t know what else to do!” Sarah threw her hands out. “I got us into this mess. I’m gonna do my best to get us out...” She proclaimed sadly before entering the home and isolating herself from the four of you. The sky was a sad mix of dull grays and icy blues, the sounds of raindrops hitting the ground and thunder filled the silence until JJ spoke again.

“Wheezie…” He scoffed, crouching and leaning against the wall. “Yeah, that’ll work.”

“Well, she’s right about one thing. We gotta do something.” Pope said from his place in a lounge chair.

“John B is being held captive by the enemy right now.” JJ said, using his hands for emphasis, his face turning a dangerous shade of red as he ranted. “Our boy is sitting in a cell, being scheduled for execution. Are we really just gonna sit here?!-”

“Okay, well what’s the plan?!” Kiara stood up from her seat, taking steps closer to the two boys. “What? We kidnap Shoupe?”

“Maybe!” JJ retorted. “That’s not the worst idea-”

“That is actually the worst idea.” Pope piped up, still seated. 

“It’s pretty bad…” Sarah added from inside the house — the window to Big John’s office was wide open, allowing the girl to pitch in on the conversation.

The three of them continued arguing back and forth about shitty ideas and previously failed plans and who was more to blame than the other. You just sat on the loveseat, playing with your fingers and biting the inside of your lip. 

You and JJ’s conversation about the evidence was still fresh on your mind. You’d gone through everything about Big John’s case. The evidence was hard — an entire confession. But you still had yet to go through your father’s files. And knowing how Kildare’s Police Department operated, you’d have to play this smart. You needed more than a confession. More than anything, you needed to persuade Shoupe.

“I still have the tapes.” You interrupted, looking up at your three friends who had turned to you, Sarah peeking out of the window.

“...I’m sorry.” Kiara started. “What?”

“The tapes that I stole from my mom’s law office. I still have them.”

“...And you didn’t think to say anything? This whole time?”

“Of course I did.” You said bluntly. “But let’s not kid ourselves. We brought Shoupe an entire gun. The gun that was used to kill Peterkin and he did nothing.” You retorted matter of factly. “A couple of confessions won’t make a difference. Ward is Shoupe’s friend, he’ll just conjure up some deluded explanation in his head. We have to bring him undeniable proof, connect the dots for him.” You explained, sitting up straighter in your seat. “I went through Big John’s files but I still haven’t opened my father’s. If Ward had anything to do with what happened to my dad, that links him to at least four murders in the last year, right? That plus the tapes? That’s something Shoupe can’t deny-”

“Yeah, well, we don’t really have time for that anymore.” JJ cut you off harshly, snatching the hat off of his head. You stumbled for a response, eyes on the blonde.

“It was literally your idea.”

“That was before they put John B on the chopping block-”

“They aren’t gonna lethally inject him tomorrow, JJ-”

“You don’t fucking know that!” He shouted, the outburst sending a hush over the five of you. They’d never seen JJ yell at you before. Because he never had. You never knew what it felt like to be at the sharp end of his irrational anger. And although you knew this was far from the worst of it, it still formed a pit in your stomach. “You all can sit here and sort through papers ‘n shit. I’m gonna do somethin’, make somethin’ happen.” He said scoffing, standing up fully and walking towards the porch steps, his eyes on you and you only. “Even if I have to do it by myself.” He finished, swinging open the screen door and leaving towards his parked bike. 

You looked out at nothing, semi-shocked at what happened while Kiara sighed. “Look, I’m gonna hit my parents, see if I can get money for a decent lawyer.” She said, grabbing her jacket as the sound of JJ’s bike pulling off echoed through the trees. You couldn’t help but look back, watching the blonde drive away with a sinking feeling in your chest.

“Right.” Pope nodded. “I’ll dig into anything I can find out about this key that Limbrey was talking about in case your plan doesn’t work out.” Pope said in your direction, you nodded in reply. Pope had explained that during his time with Limbrey, she was borderline interrogating him about key she thought he had in exchange for a tape she has that could exonerate John B. 

All of your evidence pointed the finger at Ward, it didn’t necessarily prove John B didn’t do anything. Hopefully, you could change that by the end of the night.

THE OLD BOX STARED YOU BACK IN THE FACE WITH NO REMORSE. You were in the living room of The Chateau, planted on the sofa as your fingers drummed nervously against the skin of your thighs. Everyone else was out on some kind of side quest, aside from Sarah who took a stress walk down to the pier in the backyard, anxiously trying to get a hold of Wheezie, leaving you in the house alone.

Even taking the box down from the top of the fridge had your hands shaking — it was heavier than Big John’s box. Which meant you were in for a much longer ride. 

Taking a shaky, deep breath, you edged closer to the coffee table, your bottom almost hanging off of the sofa. In one swift motion, you took the top off of the box, letting it clatter against the wooden table. Your eyes scanned over the items inside — another cassette tape, one small USB drive, and one manila file folder. Everything was inconspicuously labeled — the tape was labeled WCCT 2/2 and the folder was labeled OG Report, both in your mother's distinctive hand writing. It looked like there was more than just papers in the folder. And you weren’t too eager to open it up.

You didn’t know where to start or what order to go in. But something told you that this wasn’t as hard as you anticipating it to be. You figured it best to start with the tape, having experience with them. Picking up the blue tape player that you’d found all those weeks ago, the same player you used when you found out what happened to Big John, you picked up the tape.

You weren’t quick to let it play, giving yourself a moment of pause. You were seriously debating putting all of this shit back. But then you remembered what you were doing this for. Who you were doing this for. And you pressed play.

...

“...Are you ready?...Okay, then. Please, state your full name and why you’re here.” Your mother’s voice echoed in the living room. It’d been so long since you heard her voice. At all.

“Again?” Ward’s voice rang out. “Is that necessary?...*sigh*. My name is Ward Cameron and I’m here to confess to the murders of Big John Routledge and Owen Carter.”

“Okay. You can continue now. Tell me what happened to Owen, starting from after you disposed of Big John’s body.” You wondered how she could sound so calm collected while sitting across from a murder, asking him to detail how he killed her husband.

“...After I threw Big John overboard, Owen was hysterical. He wanted to call someone and I kept saying no, that we couldn’t. What was done was done. He called me a monster, said that I shouldn’t have done it. He was right and I knew that. I was getting frustrated because Owen wouldn’t stop yelling. I turned around and pinched my eyes shut, I don’t know for how long, I was just trying to drown him out when I heard something hit the water. I didn’t even realize he’d stopped ranting. I turned around and he’d taken the lifeboat and was already feet away, it didn’t help that the damn thing had a motor. I didn’t think before turning the boat around and going to follow him, but he was gaining speed and putting so much distance between us. We were already hours away from the island, I didn’t think there was any way he’d make it all the way there on that small boat…”

Your hands were shaking as you listened, your bottom lip held hostage between your teeth.

“...The sun was going down by the time I got back to Kildare. I’d lost sight of Owen hours ago and when I got back, his truck was already gone from the parking lot. Owen was a family man over everything, so I figured that if he was in danger, the first place he’d go was home to make sure that he could protect his family. I got in my truck and went to his house. By the time I got there, the street lights were on and it was dark and raining. The front door was wide open and I pulled up just in time to see Owen racing out of the house with two duffel bags in his hands, about to put them in the trunk. I couldn’t hesitate, I didn’t have the time. So, I jumped out of my truck with a gun in my hand and hit him in the side of the head from behind. He fell limp to the ground and I wanted to go back in time and fix everything. I didn’t want to hurt him-”

“Stay focused, Ward. I’m not here for your sob story.” Your mother reprimanded.

“…After that, I threw him in the backseat of my truck and drove off as fast as I could. But I didn’t know my way around The Cut and I had no idea where I was going or what the plan was. I ended up on the shore of the Marsh. It was an empty area, surrounded by sand hills and tall grass, a couple palm trees. I didn’t want anyone to see me. Owen must’ve woken up at some point during the drive because when I went to get him out of the backseat, he jumped up and punched me square in the jaw. We got into it for a minute and I knew that Owen was stronger than me so when I could, I grabbed the gun from my waistband and aimed it at him. He just seemed betrayed and hurt. Kept asking why I did it, why I was going to do it again. He even promised to not say anything…if I let him go so he could be with his daughter. I thought about it, even considered it. But Owen was too good. He had morals and beliefs and I knew that eventually he’d say something. So, I lied and said that I would let him walk. I thought maybe I wouldn’t feel as bad if I knew he died thinking he was going home to his child. So, when he turned around…I shot him.”

You couldn’t suppress your sobs. The worst part of it all was that your father didn’t beg for his life, he begged for you. The one thing on his mind in his last moments was going home to you. You thought that was enough to make you hate Ward Cameron for the rest of your life. He didn’t kill his friend. He killed your father.

And he killed a part of you, too.

“...I knew dumping his body so close to the island was risky, so when I realized that it didn’t look like he’d been shot in the head, I slit his wrists to make it look like he’d killed himself, then I pushed his body into the water and left him drift out. Everything from that point on, you already know.” Were the last words Ward’s voice detailed before the cassette stopped rolling, a deadly silence filling the living room as tears rolled down your cheeks and hit the floor, one after the other.

You’d never felt so angry in your entire life. Not when your father went missing, not when his body was found, not when the police told you he’d killed himself. This was real anger. Because if you could figure this out and get some kind of justice for you and John B’s father’s, then the authorities just had to have not cared enough or at all. Two men from the cut go missing and they have one common factor between them but no one bats an eye?

It was bullshit.

Complete and utter bullshit.

Sobs broke through your throat as you swiped glasses and other miscellaneous objects off of the coffee table — everything but the box of evidence. Glass shattered against the floors as you kicked the leg of the furniture and hurled something random at the wall, watching it break into shards as you clenched your jaw, teeth showing like a violent dog. You felt like you could barely breathe, fists curled so tightly that you were sure your nails were cutting into your palms. Falling back down on the couch, slumped against it as you tried to regain your composure.

Once you felt okay enough to resume sleuthing, you sat up straight. You disgustedly pushed the tape player away from you, letting it rest in the corner of the table. Reaching into the box, you clutched the USB drive between your fingers. Luckily, you had your laptop on the coffee table from the night before, researching all the possible outcomes for John B, even though nothing indicated the outcome of today.

Opening the device and plugging in the drive, you let the files appear on the screen — a folder titled KCPD. Clicking on the file, it revealed two MP3 files to be listened to:

KCPD_Dispatcher276_1042pm.mp3

KCPD_Dispatcher276_1143am.mp3

Your brows furrowed in curiosity. Police files? Why would your mother need police calls to protect Ward? And more importantly, how did she get them?

Turning up the volume on the computer, you double clicked the first audio file, letting it play…

“Kildare County Police Department. This is Dispatcher 276, do you need police, fire, or ambulance?”

“What took someone so long to pick up?! My husband, he’s gone missing! I think he’s been taken, I don’t know-”

“Okay, ma’am, calm down for me, please. What’s your address?”

“Its…8702 Oak Valley Street.” If there was any doubt in your mind before, there wasn’t now — this was your mother calling in to the police department the night your father vanished. And that was your old address, on The Cut.

“Okay, I’m sending police out to you now. Can I ask your name?”

“It’s Rebecca. Rebecca Carter. My husband, his name is Owen, Owen Carter.” She sounded panicked, like she actually cared. You guessed this was the point in time when she did.

“Alright, Rebecca. I need you to answer some questions for me that will help police in locating your husband, okay?”

“Okay.”

“You said his name is Owen, right? What was Owen wearing, do you know?”

“Um, dammit…I think he had on a, um, yellow-ish button down? And a pair of, like, jean shorts and these shoes I’d just bought him, they’re just generic white sneakers, I can’t remember the brand.”

“Okay, that’s fine. And how old is Owen?”

“He just turned thirty-five yesterday. Oh, baby don’t cry. Everything’s gonna be fine, the police are gonna find him…” She was talking to you. You remembered that night so vividly, you were crying so hard with no idea as to what was going on.

“Is there someone else there with you Mrs.Carter?”

“Yes, sorry. It’s my sixteen-year old daughter.”

“Did she see anything? Can I ask her a couple of questions?”

“No. No, she didn’t see anything, she was asleep and she’s not okay to answer any questions.” She sounded appalled that the operator would even ask. “You can ask me.”

“Okay, I’m just trying to get as much information as possible.” The woman on the other end assured. “Did anything happen leading up to your husband’s disappearance?”

“No? I...He said he was going fishing with some of his buddies. He was gone from around noon until around ten tonight.”

“And do you know exactly who he went fishing with?”

“Not all of them. I know that Big John Routledge was there. They’re friends and he lives down the street, our kids are friends, too.”

“And have you tried contacting Mr.Routledge?”

“Yes. His phone went to voicemail both times. Oh my- Y/N, call John B, make sure he’s okay.” That was the worst night of your life. Especially having to call one of your best friends and find out that he hasn’t seen his dad either. You took the worst of night of your life and split the pain with John B. 

He called his dad a million times that night.

Every single call went to voicemail and by the end of it, Big John’s voicemail box was full.

“Did your husband say anything before he disappeared? Was he acting strangely?”

“He was just rambling. He just kept saying we had to leave, something about it not being safe. He told me to wake up our daughter while he threw our stuff into bags, when my daughter and I came outside, he was gone and the bags were on the driveway then some truck sped away with it’s tail lights off.”

“Can you describe the truck? Were you able to catch the license plate?”

“No, it was too dark. I just know it was black and it looked almost like a pick-up truck.”

“Okay, we’re gonna do our best to find your husband, Mrs.Carter. I need you to stay on the line with me until the police arrive, alright?”

“Okay…I think I see them now, I can see lights down the streets…Okay, yes, it’s them, I see them. An officer is approaching me, now. Can I hang up?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

Then the line died out. It was odd to hear that side of your mother again, it seemed so foreign to you now. But you were still left wondering why this had anything to do with your mother covering for Ward? It was just the 911 call. Nothing incriminated Ward himself or her. Maybe it conflicted with the suicide theory? Maybe it made your father’s death look like foul play.

It only made you more eager to listen to the next file, mouse already hovering over the audio. Clicking it twice, you let it play, the familiar static of a phone call sounding out once more before voices were heard. 

“Kildare County Police Department. This is Dispatcher 276, do you need police, fire, or ambulance?” It was the same dispatcher from before, same line and everything. Was this the same call or a different one? A quick look at the label had you realizing that it was indeed the second file.

“...I need police.” It was your mother. Again. With the same dispatcher? Maybe the operator on the other end couldn’t say anything or mention the familiarity in her voice, but it was so distinct, there was no way she missed it.

Your father and Big John were the talk of the town for months during everything, I’m sure the operator remembered your mother’s original call.

“What’s your emergency?”

“I found a dead body.” Her voice was so flat. 

“...O-okay…Where are you ma’am?”

“Near the Marsh. Behind Ollie’s, that abandoned surf shop off of Deerfield Drive.” That was where they found your dad.

“And are you sure the person is dead?”

“...I’m positive.”

“I’ll send an ambulance as well, just to be safe. What’s your name, miss?”

“I’d like to remain anonymous.”

“Okay…that is your right…” The operator sounded skeptical, but it wasn’t her job to dig any deeper. “Are you comfortable attempting CPR on the victim, miss?”

“...No.” She said firmly. She almost sounded annoyed. “Look, he’s dead. He’s gray and bloated, he’s barely recognizable. Half of his hair is even missing, he’s dead.”

“...Do you know the person in question?”

“What?” Your mother snapped, her voice biting even in the poorly recorded audio. “No, I don’t.”

“Right…well, I need you to stay on the line with me until the police arrive, ma’am. They’re having trouble finding the location.”

“No. No, I can’t do that. How far are they?” Now, she sounded worried. Why call the police in the first place? If she was covering for Ward, why not just push the body back out? Was this a way of controlling the situation?

“They’re not far. I really need you to stay on the line with me-”

“Look, his body’s on the sand. They’ll know it when they see it but I can’t stay on the phone or here. I’m sorry.”

“Ma’am-”

The dispatcher failed in getting your mother to stay connected, hearing the line go dead.

What did these calls have to do with anything and why did she need them? This second call had your head spinning. Why even call at all? Wouldn’t handling it herself be better for her deal with Ward?

It didn’t make much sense but you doubted you ever get the chance to get it from her directly.

There was really only one thing left in the box — the folder. You were hoping, praying, that this had something you could bring to Shoupe, something to bring your circle of evidence to a full close. 

Picking up the folder, something rolled out in the bottom of the box.

A plastic bag with a bullet in it. You dropped the folder. Letting it slide to the floor, eyes wide as you pinched the top of the plastic bag between your fingers and held it up, letting it swing in front of your face. A small, bronze bullet sitting inside — spotted with dried blood.

You swiftly used your other hand to pick up the forgotten folder, letting the bullet bag fall back into the box, flipping the folder open, revealing just one thing inside — an autopsy report. 

…But this couldn’t be the one the police had on file. This one completely went against what the department said was your father’s cause of death. It documented the gunshot wound to the back of his head, the apparent blunt force injury from when Ward hit him the first time, alongside the slits on his wrist that documented as ‘not consistent with self-inflicted injuries’, as well as noting that they were done post-mortem. 

Everything on the paper in front of you pointed to your dad’s death being a homicide, even ruling out any kind of drowning theory considering it says there was no water found in his lungs. 

But the best part of this was the fact that you had the bullet. You had the bullet and the report. This? This was evidence. A bullet that could be traced back to Ward’s gun, your father’s DNA on the bullet, and the original autopsy report to prove it all.

You could clear John B. And you could take down Ward.

This wasn’t something someone would be happy about. And considering everything you’d just learned, you should be curled up on the floor balling our eyes out. But you win some you lose some, right? 

Knowing how your dad died dampened your heart, of course it did. But nothing could be done now. You could get him some kind of justice and let him rest while getting one of your best friends out of jail. And when it was all said and done, maybe you’d break down crying or throw something else at the wall. But for once, it felt like you were on the winning team.

As soon as you stood from the couch, ready to march down to the Sheriff’s Department, the front door swung open, an angry Kiara throwing her backpack down onto the floor as she paced with her hands atop her head.

“Kie?” You startled the girl. She whipped around with wide eyes, a hand on her chest in shock.

“Jesus…” She breathed, letting her hands fall against her sides. “I didn’t think you’d still be here.”

“I just finished looking through my mom’s things. You won’t believe what I found-”

“Not to be rude or anything, I just really can’t pretend to care right now. My... elitist parents just fucking kicked me out.” She interrupted, drawing her lips into a thin line and turning around as she walked towards the fridge, swinging it open and pulling out a beer. “I mean, they’re acting like I was gone for weeks. It was like two freaking days. Can’t they just be grateful that I’m even alive?” She ranted, taking a long swig of the drink, wincing as it went down.

Your eyes followed her as she walked to place herself on the far end of the couch.

“Like I’m sitting there telling them about John B and how he needs a lawyer and they start talking about how everything I do is for ‘those boys’ as if they aren’t my fucking friends. So, I told them I hate living there and all of sudden I’m homeless. My mom told me if I wanna be a pogue then I can go live like one. And you know what? That’s exactly what I’m gonna. She wants to kick me out so I can live like a pogue? I’ll show her a pogue. Next thing you know she’ll be pleading for me to come back home…” She shrugged, her monologue finally ending as she slumped into the couch.

You were gobsmacked at her words. She’ll show her a pogue?

“Wow…” You reacted, eyes impossibly wide as your jaw went slack. Kiara simply cocked an eyebrow at you, gulping before opening her lips to speak.

“What?” She asked, shaking her head as to say ‘spit it out’.

“Nothing, nothing…” You scoffed. “While you were off claiming your pogue card I actually found something that can clear John B, if you even care-”

“What do you mean claiming my pogue card? Am I not a pogue?-”

“Apparently only when it’s convenient for you to be one.” You cut her off. “You really think I, me, someone with nothing but a couple hundred dollars to my name and no family left but a dog. who by the way, got taken, wants to hear you complain about being kicked out of your single family home because you are choosing to be a pogue?” You told her, tone harsh. “And then you have the nerve to brag about living like a pogue solely to piss off your parents like you don’t have five friends going through hell right now.”

“...Just because I have money doesn’t make me any less of a pogue, I still go through shit just like the rest of you-”

“Why is that all you care about?!” You shouted, hands balling into fists at the sides of your head in frustration. “Pogue this, pogue that — you wanna be real for a minute, Kie? You aren’t a pogue, okay? And your obsession with proving that you are one is really starting to get old. By means of all the laws in the pogue handbook, you’re a kook. And you’re really starting to show it right now.” You explained, looking her up and down. “So, you can sit here and mope. I’m gonna find JJ so we can get our friend out of jail.” You spat, swinging the front door of The Chateau open and walking out, leaving a stunned Kiara behind.

YOU BANGED ON THE PASSENGER SIDE DOOR OF THE AMBULANCE WHEN YOU RAN UP,  A head of blonde hair visible through the window. JJ’s gaze whipped to the side, muttering under his breath as he pushed the door open for you. Hopping into the passenger seat, you shut the door behind you, pushing your hair out of your face.

“Finally decided to hop on the ‘get John B out of jail’ train, then?” He sassed, grimacing at the end of the sentence as he avoided your eyes.

“You must be at the wrong station because that train has already left.” You retorted, you saw his eyebrows pinch in on each other before he turned around — eyes going wide as he saw the plastic bag pinched between your fingers.

“...What is that?” He asked, eyes fleeting between the swinging bullet and the folder in your lap.

“This is the bullet the medical examiner pulled from my father’s head. Shot from Ward’s gun and coated in my father’s blood. And this?” You picked up the folder. “Is what I’m assuming is the original autopsy report that proves that my dad was killed.”

“...Why are you so happy about this?” He asked, face downturned into an expression of pity. 

“Not sure.” You said, letting the items fall into your lap. “I think it’s either that it hasn’t kicked in yet or I just don’t have any real shock left in me after everything that’s happened. Either way, this is our ticket to getting John B out of the dog pound. So, whatever plan you’ve conjured up, abort it.”

Suddenly, JJ was sucking in air through his teeth. “No can do, princess.”

“Don’t call me that. I’m still mad at you.” You told him, deadpan expression on face.

“Which I still don’t get why-”

“Look, we can talk about it later. Don’t hold me to that because I still want to shove my entire foot up your ass-

"Wait, how did you find me?"

"...I have your location, JJ."

"How did you get here? I don't see your car-"

"I walked. Well, ran. My car didn't have gas-"

"You know I hate when you walk around at night by yourself-"

"Aw, boohoo, as if you actually care."

"Uh, as a matter of fact, I do. You know I do."

"Yeah, right." You scoffed.

"If you were planning on acting like this, why did you come find me?"

He had you there. "...To make sure you were okay. But that's not important, okay? You need to drop your plan and we need to get to the police station so I can give this to Shoupe-”

“Again, no can do. I already stole my cousin’s truck, I have to go through with Plan A.”

“Which is…?”

“...We break Bree out of jail, to put it mildly.” He shrugged, avoiding your gaze once again. 

“...Weren’t you the one telling me that we’re already down a Pogue and not to add any more crimes to the list?”

“Well, I was left with no other choice.” He replied, throwing his hands up.

“Maybe if you weren’t such an impatient little shit-” You stopped talking when a police car pulled up next to the ambulance, the road empty aside for the two vehicles. The two of you fell into silence, immediately dropping the conversation and looking ahead of yourselves nonchalantly, or at least attempting to.

“...I hate when it’s slow like this, you know?” The officer in the squad car beside you started conversation. You and JJ both turned your heads in sync.

“Tell me ‘bout it, man.” JJ said cooly, resting his hands atop the steering wheel.

“Hey, what happened to Ricky?” The officer inquired, leaning further in his seat. Ricky was JJ’s cousin, the one he stole the van from. “He bang out?” 

JJ exhaled, sticking his head out of the window to talk to him more clearly. “Somethin’ like that?” 

Fortunately, a female voice broke through the radio inside of the ambulance. “One three Eddie. We got an unknown at KC Detention.”

JJ was quick to pick up the radio and respond. “Uh, yep, ten-four. We’ll be right there. Thank you so much. Over.” Slipping the radio back into its holder, JJ turned back to the officer in the squad car. “Duty calls.” He grimaced, sending the man a light-tipped smile. “I’ll see you later, Officer. You have a good night, though, okay?”

He shifted gears and prepared to drive off while you looked out the passenger side window, fist against your lips. 

“Hold up…” The man demanded, your heart dropping to your ass. “I got nothing to do. I’ll pace you.” He smiled, shifting his own gear and driving off.

JJ whipped his gaze between you and the road, you threw a hand out in the direction of the windshield. “Well, don’t look at me. Follow him.”

ARRIVING AT THE DETENTION CENTER, The guard at the front gate inspected the inside of the ambulance quickly through the driver side window, simply shining a flashlight inside and waving it around before giving you both the green light to proceed into facility.

“I thought this was supposed to be the most advanced security system on the planet.” You muttered under your breath, joking mainly to yourself but you caught JJ smile smally to himself in the corner of your eye.

Reversing the vehicle into the loading dock, a woman approached the driver’s side with a clipboard in her hands, motioning for you and JJ to get out and follow her. You gave each other one last weary look before exiting the vehicle, the woman waiting on the both of you as you came to a stop in front of her.

Her brows pinched together, looking you both up and down. “Where’s Ricky?”

“Ricky?” JJ inquired back, eyebrows raising high as he swung the keys to the van around his fingers. “Food Poisoning.” He shrugged. “Y’know Ming Dynasty off of Highway Twenty-Five? Them egg rolls, dude…They’ll get you good.” He covered as the woman seemed to buy it, nodding her head.

“And where’s your uniform?” She was directing her question towards you.

“I’m…” You dragged out, hands in your back pockets as you searched for the right thing to say. “Training. Yeah, I’m...not certified, just his ride along for the day.” You said cooly, not trying to seem to eager.

The woman seemed to accept your answer as well, sighing and turning around with clipboard in her hand as she walked you further into the loading bay.

“Patient fell out. No LOC but he’s orthostatic.” She explained to the both of you. “Stage four lymphoma. He’s been in and out of chemo for the last three months.” At this, you and JJ exchanged glances. JJ had explained that his idiotic plan of the day was to break John B out of jail. Since when did John B grow a stage four lymphoma?

Your questions were answered when the jail door buzzed and an officer came out, rolling an inmate out in a wheelchair that had too many years under his belt to be John B. JJ’s key swinging stopped as he eyed the patient in the chair, clearly not who he was hoping for as you drew your lips into a thin line and shot the blonde the most disappointed look ever.

“Uhh, is that the only patient here tonight, ma’am?” He asked nervously, peering harshly into the small rectangular window in the door.

She just chuckled as she and the officer wheeled the man closer to the van doors. “Why? You wanna take more than one tonight?”

“I mean, I would if I had to.” He perked up, spinning around to face the woman. “I’m just saying, I was called in because my patient had appendicitis?” He tried to reason, taking the hat off of his head.

It was clear to see that the woman was now skeptical, cocking an eyebrow and crossing her arms. “...This is our only patient.” She said simply, eyeing the two of you back and forth. “Where did you say you work?”

“Kildare County.” You shot out while JJ was too busy stuttering. You shot the woman a lazy, welcoming smile. 

“I worked over there. Never seen you.”

“Like I said, I’m new and not even certified yet. And my superior here, he just transferred from another facility, right? That’s what you told me, isn’t it?” You turned to JJ, trying to play into the whole power dynamic role here.

“Uh, yeah, that’s right.” He said, fitting the hat back onto his head and pulling out the keys. “Look, I would love to sit and chat but we gotta get our patient to the hospital-” He rambled, walking over to the double doors of the vehicle and attempting the first key.

“JJ…” The man in the wheelchair slurred. “Is that you?”

JJ simply looked to you and then the man in the chair before averting his eyes to the woman. “He’s delusional as shit.” No one seemed to see it as a red flag, allowing the blonde to continue trying to open the door to the vehicle. “We just got new rigs up at our facility, so…” He tried to avert any suspicion. 

You don’t know how JJ didn’t know what key opened the door but luckily, you did. When you were younger, his cousin Ricky used to let you, JJ, and John B go for joyrides in the back. The key to open the van was the only silver key on the ring. But you didn’t want to raise suspicion.

“Hey, let me.” You told JJ, holding your palm out. “I broke the key ring the other day, remember? So, the keys are all out of whack, sorry about that.” You directed your apologies to the two people on standby. Isolating the silver key and entering it into the slot, the lock turned easily allowing you to open the doors.

“Alright, let’s get him on up there.” 

JJ assisted the officer in loading the patient into the back of the van just as the phone on the wall began to ring. JJ’s eyes snapped to the phone and to the clock, obviously worried.

“Where’s your partner?” The woman asked JJ. His eyes went to you as he pointed in your direction. “No, she’s not a certified EMT. You need another certified EMT to look after your patient while you’re driving.”

“Can’t she drive?”

“No…” The woman said skeptically. “Again, only certified EMT’s can drive EMT Mandated Vehicles. Do you not know your own policies?”

“No, I do. I do, Uh, what about you officer? Can’t you drive?”

He simply shook his head. “No, he’s an inmate. I gotta be in the back.”

“Okay…Hold on, officer. “JJ started, clearly taking the high moral ground approach. “You’re saying that you’re gonna be responsible for me not taking care of my patient and not giving my ride-along her needed experience to get this oh-so important certification? Is that what you’re tellin’ me?” He continued, actually seeming to do a good job of convincing the two. “Look at him. He’s weak, feeble, and...pale and shit. And I gotta do medical stuff on him, and show my partner how to do medical stuff on him, or else we’re gonna lose him, okay?” He said, hopping into the back of the van as he tossed the officer the keys, holding out a hand to help you up as well.

You took it, using his assistance to get into the vehicle. “You don’t want that on your hands, do you?” He egged on the officer, the man looking back at the woman in charge. 

“...This didn’t happen.” He told her, hesitantly rounding the car to get into the driver’s seat as JJ closed the doors while the woman went to answer the phone. The two of you stared out of the window in the back at her as she talked on the phone, her eyes whipping towards the vehicle you were in just as the officer started to drive off. Her eyes were as wide as golfballs.

As the van exited the loading bay and passed the entrance gates, you and JJ sat down in the van across from one another when a thought crossed your mind. Nudging JJ’s thigh with the tip of your sneakers, he looked at you.

“What?”

“The folder.” You whispered, jutting your head in the direction of the driver and passenger seat. 

“What about it?”

You sighed, smacking your teeth and rolling your eyes. “It’s in the passenger seat, JJ. The folder is sitting in the passenger seat next to the officer.”

Then his own eyes were going wide. “Well, why did you leave it there?” He whispered back harshly.

“Maybe because I didn’t think a police officer would be driving the van while we camped out in the back playing paramedics!” You whisper-shouted back. Just then, a voice broke through the radio up front, it came from the officer’s personal radio.

“10-63 in progress. I repeat, 10-63 in progress. Do you copy?”

“...Copy.” He replied.

“Continue with the patient onto the hospital. We have backup on the way do you copy?” The woman on the radio copied back, you and JJ looked at each other, worry clear in both of your eyes. 

“I read. Ten-four.” He said finally, his eyes peering at the two of you in the back through the rear view mirror.

JJ cleared his throat, leaning forward. “Officer, everything good up there?” The man didn’t respond, simply sliding the plastic cover shut that allowed the people within the different sections of the van to communicate, leaving you and JJ in silence. “...Officer?”

You took initiative and got up, pulling at the handle to see if it would open from the inside.

It wouldn’t.

Just then, blue lights and police sirens gathered your attention, looking up to see at least three police squad cars tailing the ambulance. “Shit…” You cursed, finally starting to let the panic kick in. “JJ.” You turned to the blonde behind you with his hands on his head.

“Get a hold of Pope or Kie or Sarah, tell them where we are, and to find out a way to stop the van. If I lose that folder, we lose everything.”

As JJ texted, you couldn’t take your eyes off of the police cars. It felt like everything was going wrong at once. You finally had what you needed to potentially end this nightmare and it was all going down the drain.

Were you all paying for the sins of the people in your lives that came before you or something? What could a couple of teenagers do to deserve a life like this?

Just then, you and JJ went flying forward as the van came to an abrupt stop. You landed on top of the blonde who landed on his back, your foreheads butting painfully.

“Go! Get out of the way!” The police officer yelled to whoever caused him to stop, you and JJ getting up simultaneously when Kiara’s faint voice filled the air, muffled.

“Sorry! I’m so sorry!” Without hesitation, you and JJ bumrushed the door, basically breaking it open and hopping out. You knew you couldn’t go anywhere without it, so in one swift motion you ran to the front of the vehicle, swung open the passenger seat and took the folder, the officer too busy yelling at Kie to even notice, even you carefully let the door shut on its own. 

You eventually caught up to JJ, the two of you booking it into the woods without a single cop on your trail. Hopefully, Kiara would take the hint and meet the two of you on the other side.

And that she did.

Coming out of the trees, you spotted her SUV parked and waiting on a secluded street, you and JJ practically rolling inside.

“Go! Go!” JJ urged, slamming the door behind him as you both straightened in the back seat.

“Where?!” Kiara asked, pressing her foot on the petal.

“The police station.” You told her, folder in your lap as you made sure everything was still there. “Go to the police station.”

“AND YOU’RE SURE THIS’LL WORK?” Pope piped up from the passenger seat as Kiara pulled to a stop in front of the police station. You sighed, looking out of the window and up at the building. 

“No.” You told them bluntly, looking at the three people in the car. “But what other choice do we have?” Those were the words you left your friends with as you exited the car and walked up the steps to the Kildare County Police Department.

Walking through the double doors, you spotted a female officer behind the desk, her eyes shooting up as you stood in front of the counter. She eyed the folder clutched to your chest, then looked at you once more.

“...Is there something you need?”

You swallowed harshly, holding the folder tighter against your chest. “I need to see Sheriff Shoupe and Pathologist Daniels.”

“LISTEN, KID. THIS BETTER BE IMPORTANT ‘CAUSE I GOT A WHOLE LOTTA OTHER SHIT I OUGHTA BE DOIN’ RIGHT NOW.” Shoupe warned as he settled into the wheelie chair behind his desk. A man, who you assumed was the pathologist you’d requested, stood on the right side of the man in charge. He looked too calm for your liking.

You were sat in the chair across from Shoupe, the man cocking an eyebrow as he settled into his seat and clasped his hands atop the desk. “C’mon, now. I ain’t got all day-”

“You’re the pathologist, right? M. Daniels?” You cut off Shoupe, eyeing the man behind him. You were calmer than you thought you’d be. He failed to respond but the answer was clear when Shoupe looked at the man to his left, who was staring at you.

He shifted his weight, shoving his hands in his pockets. He didn’t have on any kind of uniform or coat. He didn’t even look like he was on the clock. “...That would be me.”

“Okay.” You said, sitting up straighter in the chair. “Do you recall performing an autopsy on Owen Carter? The man who went missing along with Big John Routledge almost a year ago and was found dead?”

He scratched his head, looking to Shoupe for a brief second before looking away and gathering himself. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

“And what were the results of that autopsy?”

“Ah- I…don’t believe I’m allowed to disclose-”

“Just answer her question, Daniels.” Shoupe sighed, almost annoyed. “It’s his daughter.”

The pathologist’s eyes went wide, lips falling apart. He swallowed harshly, shoving his hands in his pockets. “To the best of my knowledge, it was concluded that your father’s injuries were consistent with suicide. There were two sizeable slits made to each wrist which severed several arteries and veins, which he bled out from.”

You nodded suspiciously, sitting up straighter in your seat. “Mhm. And what about the other two injuries?”

“...What?” The man’s faux obliviousness only made you feel better about your next move — flipping open the folder in your lap and placing the original document on the desk for Shoupe and his employee to examine.

Daniels looked like he was wrong move away from shitting bricks, a bead of sweat immediately forming on his hairline.

“The other two injuries.” You reiterated, pointing at the autopsy report on the table as you spoke. “You see, in this report, there are four injuries documented — the two slits on his wrists, which were concluded as not consistent with self-inflicted injuries, alongside the blunt force injury to his right temple and a gunshot wound to the back of his head with no exit point-”

“Now, hold on just a minute-”

“I’ll get to you in a second, Shoupe.” You snapped, piercing eyes gazing into the Sheriff’s before they drifted towards the pathologist once again. “In this report, signed with your signature, it’s concluded that my father’s cause of death was the gunshot wound, not the slits to his wrists that, in your own written words, were ‘made post-mortem’.”

“Alright, alright,” Shoupe cut in, leaning forward on the wooden tabletop. “You can’t just come in here with some unofficial documents claiming that, what exactly, he covered up your father’s death?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. The paper is right in front of you, Shoupe-”

“That paper don’t mean a damn thing. You could’ve printed this out at the local library for all I know.”

You simply scoffed. This man was truly unbelievable. Denial was one thing, blatant disregard was another. “You know what? You’re right. I could’ve have just printed this out and ran down here in hopes to accuse some random pathologist of covering up my father’s murder. But if that were the case…” You dragged out, lifting the plastic bag with the bullet inside up for the two men to see. “Where would I have gotten this, Shoupe?”

“The hell is that?...” Shoupe squinted, eyeing the swinging object as you sat it down the desk and pushed it towards him. The pathologist was visibly shaking at this point. 

“The gunshot wound I mentioned? That’s the bullet that made the injury. The bullet that, Doctor Daniels here, extracted from his skull and basically pawned off. Along with the original autopsy report.”

Shoupe looked up at the man from his seat — Daniels face was a dangerous shade of red, sweat dripping down the sides of his face now. Then, he was turning back to you. “Pawned off to who exactly? Where’d you get all of this?”

“That’s the easiest question you’ve asked me all night.” You quipped. “I got all of this from my mother.”

“...Don’t play games with me, kid.”

“No one is playing games, Sheriff.” You assured. “Haven’t you noticed that she hasn’t been dragging me around Figure Eight for the last couple of weeks?" You pointed out. "I figured out she’d been working with the man who killed my father, taking payments from him periodically ever since my dad died in exchange for her legal services. I got all of this out of a locked drawer in her law office. Haven’t been home since.”

“Working with the man who killed your father? Now, why would she do that?”

“Beats me. My theory is the money. Or maybe because he’s too powerful of a man to take down alone. You actually know him quite well.” You told him. “Ward Cameron?”

Shoupe scoffed, leaning back in his chair. “...You’re trying to tell me that…that Ward, killed your father and then recruited your mother to help him cover it up?” He asked incredulously. “Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”

“I’m aware of how it sounds.” You hissed, squinting your eyes meanly at the man. “But you cannot deny what’s in front of you, Shoupe. I know Ward is your friend and you want to trust him but we’ve been trying to open your eyes for weeks now. Just consider the facts.” You reprimanded, planting your hands on the desk. “The day Peterkin was murdered, Ward’s plane was the one leaving the tarmac. Gavin, the man me and my friends saw him kill? That was his pilot and he had the gun that Rafe used to kill Peterkin, the same gun we turned into you that he was blackmailing Ward with it. Big John and my dad? They were both out on the water with Ward that day and somehow, Ward was the only one who was still alive a day later." You explained, laying out the pieces. "Can’t you see, Shoupe? He’s playing you.”

“No...” He shook his head, standing from his seat as you followed. “This don’t make any sense…”

“It does. Just listen, for once. Even if I’m wrong, which I’m not, this connects Ward to at least four crimes within this year alone. That has to be enough to bring him in for questioning.”

“Questioning?” He laughed, hand on his forehead as he paced. “Question him about what? Some autopsy report you dug up and a…random bullet?"

“It’s not a random bullet.” You snapped, eyes on the pathologist who was frozen in place. “You didn’t immediately change the report, did you?” The man shook his head despondently, probably silently coming to terms with the fact that his career and life was over. “You changed it when my mother came to you, she wanted you to forge the report to say that my father killed himself and to give her the bullet. But you couldn’t, because you’d already sent it off to the officer on the case to be sent to ballistics, so all you could do was alter the autopsy report, right?” You theoreticized frantically. “Right.” You concluded when he nodded silently, eyes back on Shoupe.

“So, what does she do next?” You threw out, eyes following Shoupe’s frame as he walked slow circles around the room. “The only way she can get the bullet is to go to the officer in charge of the case. She pays them off and secures the bullet before it’s placed into evidence. Her only mistake? The ballistics report had already been processed.” This got Shoupe’s attention, his pacing ceasing as he made eye contact with you. “I read your departments policies online. This county’s police department doesn’t allow files to be deleted without authorization from their superior. They can be deleted from an officer’s personal desktop, but the file is ultimately sent to the trash bin within your computer to be deleted completely if you choose to do so. So, there’s a very good chance that, since you are now the superior following Peterkin’s death, the ballistics report that never made it back to her, is sitting on your computer right now.” You said all in one breath, motioning for the closed laptop on his desk.

Shoupe’s eyes went between you and the laptop before he seemed to cave, sighing heavily and basically slamming himself back down into his chair and opening the device. He typed and scrolled and clicked for a few moments before you saw a visible change in his demeanor. You were still standing, looming over the older man as he searched. 

“...There’s a deleted ballistics report from the officer that was on your father’s case.” He sounded defeated. “The bullet examined was extracted from the body of Owen Carter and was concluded to be fired from a… Colt Rail gun, serial number 18J…Dammit, Ward.” He sighed, clearly realizing the truth. At least you knew he’d at least looked up the gun in the system when you all gave it to him. It was about damn time he did his job with integrity. “What the hell I’m supposed to do with all this, kid? Huh? You just made my job a whole lot harder…”

“I want you to drop the charges against John B.” You told him firmly. “If you need to run the bullet again, run it. If you need to analyze the autopsy report, do it. I don’t care. John B didn’t kill anyone and you know it. You have a minor sitting in jail right now with the death penalty hanging above his head. And I am telling you right now, Shoupe. If John B dies," You warned, walking towards the door

"...I will kill Ward Cameron my damn self and take your entire department down with me.”

feedback is appreciated! thanks for reading.

SVN Taglist; @esquivelbianca @fallingwallsh @calmoistorm @i-love-ptv @liability28 @rivaiken @sophiahristov @rafxcameronss @ldrvinyl @purplerose291 @boo22sstuff @heartsforandrewgarfield @coolgirl458 @sabrina-carpenter-stan-account @jujubeaz @ellobruv-blog @yourmumstoy @belle101200 @libertyybellls @c4ttheart @ihe4rttwd @redhead1180 @ditzyzombiesblog @spideysimpossiblegirl @sex-me-stiles @honeyiti @rafedrewandjjs @highformaybank @broidfk609 @wearemadeofstardust0 @maybankskiss @starrsea @avengersgirllorianna @supercxnt

©loveharlow.

[topguncortez]

Who's The New Kid? || Whumptober Day 15 - J. Seresin x Shy!Wifey

whumptober masterlist

synopsis: Jake and Y/N start to look at when their relationship changed and drove them towards the arms of others

word count: 3.6k

@ailesswhumptober prompt: transformation

warnings: mentions of cheating, mentions of a miscarriage, mentions of an unwanted pregnancy, divorce, mentions of pregnancy depression

Neither one was sure when it started. When the divide between them grew so big that it was beyond repair. They had both put up barriers around themselves that were too hard for one another to break down. They both slowly pushed each other away and into the arms of others. No one had seen it coming, but at the same time, they did. 

Phoenix had caught Jake talking to some barracks bunny at the Hard Deck and leaving with her. Bob had caught Y/N sitting in the park talking to another man. They had seen the signs, but they didn’t want to ask, too scared to find out the truth. The whole dagger squad had seen the shift in Hangman’s behavior. His flying became more reckless, his attitude was worse than normal. Rooster had asked Hangman if he was okay, and Jake had just brushed him off. 

“Seriously Bagman, what the fuck is your problem?!” Phoenix asked him, as she took her helmet off of her head, “You’re flying like you’re on a damn suicide mission. What is going on!? Is something going on at home? Is it the kids? Y/N?” 

Phoenix saw his whole body change at the mention of his wife. Jake stopped in his tracks and turned around to face her, his jaw clenched and his green eyes cold. That’s when it seemed to hit the whole dagger squad. The perfect couple that they had all fallen in love with, was not so perfect anymore. Phoenix didn’t say anymore, and neither did Jake, who just walked off into the hangar heading for the locker room. Rooster had hung around that night, seeing if Jake was going to go home, instead, he went to a barracks room across base. 

“I think he’s cheating,” Rooster said over drinks one night, “He didn’t go home the other night. And then when I drove by Y/N’s house, all the lights were off.” 

Rooster had tried reaching out to her for weeks, wanting to see the kids he considered his niece and nephews. But Y/N told him that now was just not a good time. And it was true. The issues between Jake and Y/N had spilled over into the attitudes of their kids. Alex, Ella, and Eli had all been acting out and causing issues. Y/N even had to go pick up Eli from daycare for hitting other kids. The arguments that lasted for hours kept the kids up, no matter how many times Y/N tried to get Jake to lower his voice. 

Jake hadn’t seen her or the kids in two weeks, since the night she asked him to leave. He hadn’t been sleeping, he had been pushing himself to the end of his rope and he was ready to break. The only people who knew the truth of what was going on were Admiral Simpson and Maverick. Admiral Simpson had given Jake advice and resources to help him through everything, while Maverick was pretty much a shoulder to cry on. Neither one liked seeing one of their best pilots going through this, but it was inevitable in their line of work. 

Jake’s knee bounced up and down rapidly as he waited in the waiting room of the lawyer’s office. He knew that she was running behind. It was just her and the kids, and it always took her some time to get them all roundup and in the car. Jake was nervous about how this would go down, but he knew he had to keep things civil with her. His head lifted as the door opened, and Ella ran right to him. 

“Ella Bella,” Jake sighed, and hugged his daughter, standing up from his seat, “Hey,” He said to his wife. 

“Hi,” Y/N said, holding Eli in her arms, “Say hi to daddy, boys.” 

Alex apprehensively walked over to his dad and hugged him, and Y/N handed Eli to her husband. Eli was still too young to really understand everything, but Alex knew. Alex was a smart boy, he had just turned seven and was already way ahead of his peers, something he clearly got from his mother. Alex had noticed there was a problem with his mom and dad, and he had also come to the conclusion that his father had hurt his mother. He was always a momma's boy, and it made Jake’s heart both swell and break at the thought that he would always protect his mother. 

“So I can have them for the weekend?” Jake asked again, even though he knew the answer. 

“Yes,” Y/N said softly, looking down at her shoes, “This uh. . this is for you.” She pulled out a manila envelope that was in Eli’s diaper bag, “I told my lawyer I wanted to give it to you. It didn’t feel right just having some stranger deliver-” 

“Divorce papers,” Jake said, not taking his eyes off of his youngest, “You didn’t want a stranger coming to tell me that my family is falling apart.” 

“You act like this is my fault,” Y/N said, rolling her eyes. 

“You’re not innocent in this either.” 

Y/N sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose, “Please, can we not do this.” She finally looked up at him, her eyes were wet with tears, and Jake felt guilty for everything. She took a deep breath and blinked back tears, standing up a bit straighter, “Alright loves, I’m gonna go now.” 

Ella let go of Jake to run back over to her mother and hugged her tightly. Y/N kissed her cheek and told her to behave and to not be too mean to her brothers. Alex hugged Y/N extra tight and sent a glare to his father which didn’t go unnoticed. The hardest goodbye was for Eli. The little boy had never spent a moment away from his mother, and here he was, going to spend the next three days in the care of his father. Eli cried, and wouldn’t let go of Y/N, which made Jake feel even worse about this whole thing. 

“You’ll be okay, baby, I love you so much,” Y/N said and kissed his tear-stained cheek. 

“Momma!” Eli cried, and Jake tried to soothe him. He could see that his other two children were growing ansty at Eli’s pained cries and so was Y/N. She blew him and her other kids a kiss before leaving the room quickly. As soon as she was out of sight of her children, she let her tears fall as she walked to her car. 

“It’ll be okay, lil man, we’ll all be okay,” Jake said, trying to assure himself more than the children. 

— — — 

The room was tense as they sat on opposite ends of the small couch. The space between them was large both physically and emotionally. Their therapist, Doctor Merritt was looking over her notes as Y/N spun the ring on her finger. She took her engagement ring off weeks ago, but couldn’t bring herself to take off her wedding band. Jake had taken his off, it was one of the first things she had noticed about him when he walked in today. The gray ring that had sat on his ring finger for almost a decade, was missing, leaving behind the almost permanent tan line. 

“So, what brings you two here, today?” Dr. Merritt said. Jake and Y/N glanced at each other quickly and then looked away. 

“I want to try and salvage our marriage,” Jake said and Y/N sucked in a breath. 

“Y/N, what about you?” 

She swallowed and looked at the therapist, “I guess I want the same.” 

“You guess?” Jake said. 

“Jake, not the time,” Dr. Merritt scolded, “Y/N, what do you want? What do you hope to get out of this?” 

“I want things to not be awkward between us. I want to be able to get along for the sake of our children,” She could feel Jake staring at her as she spoke, “And I uh. . . I want to be able to move on, in a healthy manner. If it’s saving our marriage, then it's that. If it's. . . taking the steps towards divorce then so be it.” 

Jake felt like his heart had been smashed to pieces as he listened to her. He had to tear his eyes away from her before he broke out in tears. Doctor Merritt wrote down all that they said, making her own notes. 

“Alright, let’s start from when the fighting first started. Y/N you said it was back during Jake’s last deployment. Can you explain what happened?” 

— — — 

“What do you mean you have to leave?” Y/N asked as she walked down the hallway behind her husband. Jake didn’t say anything as he went right for the kids’ playroom, hearing the shouts of their kids coming to greet him. Ella and Alex hugged him tightly and Jake kissed the tops of their heads. 

“I am being sent on a mission. All of us,” Jake said, and placed Ella on his hip. 

“F-For how long?” 

“I’m not sure,” Jake said and turned to walk out of the room. Jake went to the kitchen so he could start on dinner. Placing Ella on the counter. The past week Jake had been acting weird, his behavior towards Y/N had been short and a bit snippy. Y/N had tried to press and ask him what was going on but every time Jake just shrugged it off and said she wouldn’t get it. 

“Well, we are having a baby in three months,” She said, rubbing her belly. 

“I know.” 

Y/N was taken aback by his words. Jake was usually ecstatic about Y/N being pregnant, but he had been cold this whole time. She thought that maybe there was a part of him that didn’t want another baby. That Y/N had read this whole situation backward. Maybe, he wasn’t ready to have a baby so soon after losing their baby. 

Y/N had been right around twelve weeks along when the doctor told her that she no longer heard a heartbeat or saw a fetus. It had been the hardest thing to digest as she lay there on the exam table, trying to comprehend how she missed this. How did she miss the fact that she had lost a baby? How does she move on from this? Jake had been the strong one, keeping the tears out of Y/N’s eyes and explaining what happened to the kids. 

It was only a year later that Y/N had gotten pregnant again, this time with a little boy. The whole year after the miscarriage was harder than any of them could imagine. Y/N could hear Jake crying at night and vice versa. They had been cold to one another, focusing solely on their two kids. They had hardly even touched each other, but one night everything seemed to shift. They realized that they needed each other, needed to touch each other, to hold one another. Neither one thought of the possibility of having another child, and foregone the condom. It wasn’t until four weeks later, that Y/N was staring at a positive pregnancy test. 

“Okay, so you do know that I’m pregnant,” Y/N sassed and Jake stopped in his tracks, turning to face her. 

“It’s kind of hard to forget,” His eyes pointed down toward the protruding baby bump, and Y/N felt self-conscious. This pregnancy had been a bit rough on her from the extreme morning sickness to the weight she had added on. She hadn’t added on much weight, but it was enough to make her feel self-conscious and want to hide away. Usually, Jake was always telling his wife how beautiful she looked, even when she was seven months pregnant. But now, it seemed like Jake didn’t have the time of day. 

 “It’s not gonna be that long.” 

“O-okay,” Y/N stuttered, “Well, are you going to put in for extended leave?” 

“I’m not sure yet.” 

— — — 

“You acted like a whole new person when you returned from that mission. You seemed to actually be excited about having another baby,” Y/N said, looking down at her hands. 

Jake sighed. He could remember how he acted after finding out about Y/N’s last pregnancy. It wasn’t that he wasn’t excited to have another baby, it was that he was still reeling from the loss of a baby. He didn’t know how to react, he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to be happy and celebrate having another baby. But he had talked to Penny, who had also had a miscarriage before having her daughter Amelia.

“I wasn’t sure if I could be happy about Eli when I didn’t even get a chance to get to know the baby before that,” Jake’s voice cracked as he covered it by clearing his throat, “It didn’t feel right. . . it still kind of doesn’t feel right.” 

“So instead of telling me that. . . you decided to go sleep with another woman,” Y/N shook her head. 

“Y/N," Doctor Merritt scolded her, "Did you guys talk about it? Was there talks about having another baby?"

"Of course there were," Y/N said, "We had talked about it and were trying again before it happened. . . it just wasn't going. . . as easy as it had been."

— — —

Y/N angrily tossed yet another negative pregnancy test in the trash can. Jake sighed as he ran his hands down his face, sitting on the edge of the bathtub. He felt her pain and was somewhat upset by the result. This had been month three of actively trying to conceive and Y/N was about to throw in the towel. She watched her cycle, seeing her peak times of ovulation, which she found wasn’t a very long time and happened at random times during the day. 

“Maybe it’s my diet,” Y/N said, leaning her hands against the counter, “I read that sometimes that can affect fertility.” 

“Or maybe,” Jake said standing up from his spot, “It’s just not our time yet,” He placed his hands on either side of Y/N and kissed her cheek. 

“We have been doing it all the time,” Y/N shook her head, and pushed away from Jake, “Something is wrong. When I got off birth control to have Ella, I got pregnant within my first cycle. It’s been months! And nothing.” 

“We can go see Doctor Miller if you want,” Jake said, mentioning her OB. Y/N looked down at her hands. She wasn’t quite ready to face the music and go see a doctor for this. She knew that secondary infertility was a thing and had read about it in some of her parenting books. But getting pregnant with Ella had been so easy and not a problem at all. 

Y/N sighed, “No. We just gotta keep trying. Do the old-school methods. Keep my hips elevated, change up my diet a bit, keep tracking my fertility windows.” 

Jake nodded and walked to his wife. He gently held her face in his hands and made her look up at him, “It’ll happen. I know it will. We will have another baby.” Y/N smiled and kissed him. 

— — — 

“Oh fuck, Jake, right there,” Y/N moaned out, her nails digging into Jake’s back. Her hips hurt and every thrust felt like sandpaper but they were in the middle of her peak fertility window and they needed to keep going. 

Jake grunted and buried his face into her neck. He was also utterly exhausted from doing nothing but having sex. It didn’t even feel like lovemaking anymore. It was starting to feel like a complete chore to him. He’d come home from work, or even leave work early whenever Y/N said it was her fertility time, and fuck her. It was so cut and dry, with little to no foreplay being done and getting right to business. 

“Fuck,” Jake said and pushed himself up with his hand. He had been trying for a little over thirty minutes but it was just not happening. He couldn’t remember the last time he had this problem, but he just couldn’t get himself to cum, “I’m sorry, baby,” Jake shook his head and Y/N looked at him confused. 

“What are you doing?” She asked as he started to pull out. 

“I can’t cum,” Jake said dejectedly and pulled out of her. She winced and Jake could see the faintest sight of blood leak out of her, “I’m sorry but my balls are empty.” 

Y/N didn’t say anything but nodded and turned on her side away from him. Jake felt a pang in his chest as she clutched her pillow and pulled the blankets up to cover her bare body. Usually after sex, there were soft kisses, cuddles, and checking in on one another. Y/N was the best at pillow talk, and would always run her hands through Jake’s hair, smoothing down the locks she had messed up. But now there was nothing. 

“Hey,” Jake said, coming up behind her to spoon her. Y/N gently shook her shoulder, brushing him off, “Did I do something wrong?” 

“I don’t know,” Y/N mumbled, “We were in peak ovulation. My egg was about to drop. Probably missed the chance now.” 

Jake clenched his jaw and flopped down on his back. She was mad at him and he could tell. Whenever Y/N was mad, she didn’t yell and let her face turn red. No, she got quiet and would shy away from you. Jake took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm himself down, but it wasn’t working. He pushed himself up from bed abruptly, which caused Y/N to look over her shoulder. 

“You’re fucking mad because I couldn’t fucking cum?!” Jake yelled, standing up from bed. Y/N sat up, clutching the blankets to her front, “All I’ve been fucking doing is busting a goddamn nut!” 

“Well, clearly you haven’t!” Y/N yelled back, and then immediately regretted it. Jake could see it in her eyes. He chuckled darkly and shook his head. He grabbed his boxers, slipping them up his legs, and then walked over to his dresser, getting a pair of sweatpants. 

“Where are you doing?” Y/N asked, rubbing her temple with her fingers. 

“Out,” Jake simply answered, walking into the closet and grabbing a sweatshirt. 

“Where?” 

“I don’t know!” Jake yelled, and Y/N cowered. He felt bad but he was too blinded by anger to care at the moment, “I need to get away from you. Jesus, all we have been doing is fucking. I come home from work, and we have sex. I wake up in the morning, and we have sex. Every night before bed, we have sex. I am exhausted! My body hurts! And I know yours does too,” Y/N could feel the ache between her legs. He was right, it had started to hurt even sitting for her. 

“This isn’t the healthy way to have a baby,” Jake said softly, and Y/N felt the tears start to roll down her cheeks. He sat on the bed in front of her and leaned in to brush away a tear with his thumb. 

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Y/N said barely above a whisper, but Jake heard it. He frowned and grabbed her hand. 

“I think it’s time we see someone about this,” Jake said and Y/N shook her head. Seeing a doctor meant confirming every fear that ran through her head. Y/N didn’t like doctors anyway. They always spoke way above her head and whenever she’d ask them questions, they would talk down to her like she was stupid. She wasn’t stupid, she was incredibly smart, but most got that and her shyness confused. 

“Baby, we have-” 

“No, we don’t!” Y/N pushed Jake’s hands away from her, and crossed her arms over her chest, “Everything is fine. We just need to keep trying,” She pushed herself up to her knees, letting the blanket drop and her chest became exposed, “I read about this one-”

Jake gently pushed her away from him and stood up, “No, I can’t do this,” He said and grabbed his wallet and keys from the top of the dresser, “Let me know when I get my wife back.”

— — —

A sob left Y/N's mouth as she sat back on the couch. Jake leaned forward so his elbows were on his knees, running a hand down his face. Those months until they gave up on trying for Eli had been the toughest months of their marriage. They both wanted another baby, they both weren't ready to be done yet. But neither one was truly ready for it yet.

"I thought, I would be okay with it," Jake sighed, "I just. . . When she had Eli, I was happy. I was happy to have a healthy baby."

"But you weren't happy that I was pregnant," Y/N answered, "And instead of telling me that, you went and fucked someone-"

Jake scoffed and turned his head to face his wife, "What about your little crush on Rooster? Hm? You're not the only one here who found comfort in someone else."

Y/N stared at her husband, his green eyes were like a window straight to his broken heart. All she wanted to do was to hold him and tell him that she's sorry. But Jake turned his head and went back to looking forward.

taglist: @els-marvelvsp @sarahsmi13s @topgun-imagines @cassiemitchelll @xoxabs88xox @seitmai @a-reader-and-a-writer @bradleybeachbabe @kmc1989 @senawashere @beautifulandvoid @ohtobeleah @rogersbarnesxx @oatmealisweird @dempy @devil-angel-winchester @gillybear17

[artbyblastweave]

Spoilers for Deadpool and Wolverine

Deadpool and Wolverine leading a suicide squad of characters from all the abortive early-oughts pre-MCU and/or caught-in-development-hell marvel productions who've been exiled from continuity because their movies didn't really go anywhere or can't easily integrate into the MCU was not on my 2024 bingo sheet.

Said squad actually getting a seven-or-eight-minute fight sequence (where I got to see Comics-accurate Gambit obliterate a dozen guys) instead of just getting unceremoniously mowed down, X-Force style, was definitely not on my bingo sheet, and the question of whether they were going to go for a cheap repeat of that gag was the highest point of tension for me in the entire film. You could feel them courting that tension. Fortunately, I think they got the impulse out of their system with Chris Evans

[finkadink]

Abner Krill “Polkadot Man”

I didn’t want to change his design much from The Suicide Squad 2021 version, mostly because this was my first introduction to this character, and I’ve really grown attached to David Dastmalchian’s image…

My take on Abner is basically the same as the movie version, his mother was a scientist of S.T.A.R Labs who was so obsessed with the thought of creating the next Superman, she dedicated her time to experimenting on her own children. Abner Krill was the youngest of his Seven siblings (three of the seven were actually blood related, his other siblings were fostered and soon adopted under his mother’s care after she ‘deemed’ herself worthy of taking care of them fully, which she then used them for her own sick experiments.) Abner was injected with a inter dimensional virus, which is the Polkadots that Abner is able to conjure. These Polkadots are basically like lasers, formed into small colorful spheres that can destroy pretty much anything in its path. This could make Abner a very powerful ally, or even a worse threat. The thing is, Abner loathes these abilities as they cause him nothing but pain. He still has to dispel these pesky dots twice a day or they will literally eat him up from the inside. When the dots begin to form under his skin like a boil or cyst they itch and ache, not only that but they tend to shift, not staying in the same place, which is even more of a nuisance to deal with. Abner lived under constant surveillance in his Mother’s home, which she integrated into her own lab to keep on eye on her remaining kids. After the death of his eldest sister, one he was closest to, he snapped, using his powers to destroy his mother’s lab and her along with it. Due to being sheltered all his life, he had limited social cues and didn’t know how to function fully around others, which got him quickly sent to Belle Reve to fully contain his powers.

Abner is a pretty intelligent man, tinkering with things in his spare time. He would often take apart his toys as a young kid, only to repair it from the ground up. Right before the murder of his mother, he created a pair of gauntlets from spare parts that he used to better project his destructive powers. Abner is very much antisocial, he’s awkward and shy and has a hard time expressing his emotions with others. Sad pitiful man who deserves better.

More information will probably be added later !! Here’s some old attempts of trying to draw this man lmao… love to struggle

[desswright29]

Brick District (Prolouge)

Synopsis: To say life was rough for young Shuri would be an understatement. An only child to a Mother suffering from leukemia she had to figure out a way to survive very young. A job at the vibranium mines led her to you. Her Amanzi (water), from that moment on the two of you were attached at the hip. You did everything, and were even excepted into the most prestigious college in Wakanda together. That is until Shuri lands herself into some serious trouble, causing a series of unfortunate events. Will you be down for the ride?

A/n: Random idea. I hope you guys enjoy and let me know if you guys want more of Shuri and her Amanzi! ☺️

Hand on my heart I swear I made peace with the rain Peace with the rain Now I dance with the pain

Stepping inside the cold concrete room, the clanking of metal followed by a thundering slam followed behind you. Your heart beat rapidly against your sternum, fear weighing heavily on your shoulders. 

“Box 3!” The officer directed you sternly. Your eyes instantly scan the room for the number painted thick upon the concrete walls, until you spotted it approximately twelve steps ahead of you. 

One, two, three. Breathe, just breathe y/n. Six, seven, eight. You’re safe, the officers are here for your protection. Eleven, tweleeeve…thirteen. Damnit just one off. 

Anxiously, you sat in the chair infront of you, staring at the empty seat on the other side of the glass. Putting up a front of calm, your rhythmically bouncing leg, the traitor to your true feelings. Anxiety. A loud buzzing and a click snapped you out of your thoughts, your body literally jolting slightly out of your seat. 

Damnit girl get a grip. 

Two officers walk into the room, one holding the door as the other led out a line of inmates. Instinctively, your eyes trained on your hands, fiddling with your fingers, as the dragging of feet, and rattle of chains continued to pass you by. Until, it came to a stop. Beautifully veined hands with bruised knuckles, placed together by silver bracelets on each delicate wrist, entered your line of sight. Your gaze continue to trail up her body until they settled on her face. 

A soft gasp left your mouth. Contusions littered her beautiful face. But, the long cut right underneath the apple of her left cheek garnered the majority of your attention, her fuzzy braids were second on the list. She was always very well put together. Your heart ached seeing her this way. The officer removed the cuffs from her wrist, as she tried to stifle the look of agony on her face m, while she slowly attempted to sit. A lump formed in your throat as you blinked back tears. Reaching forward, she grabbed the phone and you followed her lead. Leaning forward onto the table in front of her, she placed her cut bottom lip into her mouth. Wetting it before looking up at you through hooded lids. 

“I thought I told you not to come here?” Words escaped you as you continued to stare, trying to find a way to speak without breaking. You had to be strong for her.

“Don’t look at me like that, bhabha.” You nervously avert your gaze, clearing your throat before speaking.

“You knew I was coming to see you regardless. I’ve always been a bit hard headed…..W-wha-“

“It’s prison y/n. Shit happens.” Irritation coated her words as she cleared her throat, slouching back into her chair.  “You shouldn’t be here. You have shit to do.”

“I had to lay eyes on you… make sure you’re alright. My bags are packed, I’m ready!” The corners of your mouth peeked upwards yet your eyes remained sad, as you attempt to bring some sort of light to the conversation. “Can’t find a box big enough to fit all my shoes though.” Chuckling nervously you search Shuri’s eyes. Looking for some of the light that she’d had outside of these walls, you were met simply with a darkness that ran to her core. Your friend was hurting, and there was nothing you could do.

“Hmph.” Her attempt at a laugh fell flat as her gaze lingered on the floor in front of her. “Have to have those shoes.” It looked as though it pained her to speak. Her hand rubbed absentmindedly at her side. Had she unzipped her jumpsuit and lifted her wife beater, you would’ve been met with a large black and purple bruise. “I’ll still take care of that while you’re in university. Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

“Hey, you already know!’ And I’ll be fine. You just worry about being safe in here…please.” The elephant in the room began to stomp on your chest as you prepared to ask your next question, “how long?” 

“That’s how it’s been since we met mama. It won’t change because I’m in this shithole.” Shuri finally makes direct eye contact with you, and your stomach flips. Your gazes linger on eachother before Shuri speaks up again. “I took a plea. Minimum of four years since I don’t have any priors. I could probably cut some time with good behavior. 

“F-four years!” Your thoughts began a vicious attack on your nervous system, gnawing its way through your quivering lips. Four years without Shuri? What did that look like for you? 

“But you’ve never been in any trouble! You’re only eighteen for bast sake. Four!”

“Calm yourself. It’s light for everything they found on me when they got me.” For a moment, the two of you sat in silence. Twiddling your thumbs, not knowing what else to say.

“Bast, I-I’m going to miss you.” You finally broke the thick wall of tention building. “I’ll make sure to visit all the time, and-and I’ll write letters! Lots of them! And when you call…I’ll tell you everythi-“

"Hhayi. Do not come back here y/n. Im serious. You're on your way to the most prestigious University in our country. We worked hard for this. Write me. I'll call. But don't come back." She stared into your eyes intent with getting her point across.

“Fine, Aja.” You accompany your attitude with a swift eye roll. “…We were just… supposed to do this together, you know? I can’t imagine doing this with out you. Shit. I don’t even know if I’m capable.” You instantly regretted admitting what’s been bothering you about going to school. You two talked about this for years only for it to be snatched away just like that. You can’t even remember what life was like without Shuri, and you didn’t want to. 

Shuri’s tongue rolls over her bruised bottom lip, her brows furrowed reading you like a book as always. “Yo, what’s up? What did you really come here to say.” All the beating around the bush finally caught up to you. 

“I mean… I can always just start basics at the community college down the way.” The fiddling with your fingers begins yet again in an attempt to avoid Shuri’s dagger-like glare. “A-at least until you’re out of here, then we can figure out away to do this together.” 

“Fuck no! I’m not trying to hear that. You think Bishops Diocesan is going to ever allow me to step foot onto their campus after this!? We worked too hard for you to give it up? Why!?  So you can sit her and babysit me!?”

“Shuri! WE!! WE worked so hard, I-“ *holds in a sob* “…I can’t go, not without you. I’m not supposed to do this by myself.” 

“Hey!” Shuri spoke up, sitting up straight in her seat. Demanding your undivided attention. “Yiyeke (stop it), I taught you better than that mtwana. I fucked up. I got caught up and ruined my own future. MINE Y/N! Im not allowing you to ruin yours just so you can visit me in prison every other weekend. Life moves on and you need to flow with it. You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for. I’m not giving you a choice. You’ve got to do this. Live out our dream. For me.”

You could no longer control your tears. “This isn’t fair Shuri. Life’s never fair to you! We almost made it. We were almost out of the Mines, out of Brick district, and this bullshit happens! You deserve this more than me. You’re a fucking genius! We were so fucking close.” 

“Stop that! No more tears. Yooou made it baby. That’s enough for me. Don’t wait up for me. Live your life.” 

“Wrap it up! 5 minutes!” The guards yelled signaling that your time with the girl that you loved much more than either of you had ever had the chance to say, was coming to a close for the next four years. Now was the time.

“Shuri- I um…” You started timidly. She shook her head.

“Yea..I know. Not now though. I can’t handle that now. Tell me when we’re face to face again..” You nod tearfully. 

“Times up people!” For the first time during your visit Shuri gave you a half smile.

“Go to school. Send pictures.” She placed the phone back on the hook not giving you time enough to reply. She gave you a wink, and mouthed “My rider,” with a fist to her chest. Before she stood to her feet, once again holding back a grimace as an officer stepped up to place her back into her cuffs.

You sat with the phone still pressed against your ear as they took her away. Back behind the indestructible vibranium doors. 

“Ndiyakuthanda Shuri wam. Forever I’ll ride.”

As Shuri was walked backed to her cell the mixture of compliments and insults sailed her way. “Baby bird” was her least favorite. It spoke to not only her stature, but to her inability to protect herself here. She was in more trouble than she’d let on to you. 

She was caught with copious amounts of a strain of Wakandan Cocain laced with vibranium from the mine she’d worked for. It was of her own making. She’d sold the idea to her boss N’jadaka, but everyone called him Killmonger. The product was swiped when they took her in and the money had been spent for her mothers treatments. She was not only taking heat from the police. But, from Killmongers goons. She had a debt to pay. 

Her cuffs were removed, and she was roughly placed in her cell. She looked around the six by six room, no longer able to hold on to the tears. She laid onto her steal bunk rolling over onto her side. She placed her pillow to her mouth as she got into fetal position and bawled into her pillow. There was not one inch of her body that wasn’t in pain. They’d taken all of her commissary. And someone had even swiped her bedding. 

A pained groan left her lips. As she sighed. Sitting up she stared at the door to her cell. Her new life, her full ride scholarship, and future career as a scientist were flushed down the toilet at the snap of a finger. This was her life now. In order to survive she would have to put you and who she could’ve been in the past. No more weakness. It was time to woman up and make peace with the RAIN!

@udakuwilliams

[couldtheycatchkira]

FAQ

Is this about Kira Yoshikage? This is about the international serial killer "Kira" who kills through an indetectable, contactless, remote method. He might be in Japan, though.

Can you put a "Don't know this character/See Results" option? No. This is an active global serial murder investigation and time is of the essence. If you truly don't know who they are, either: look them up, ot just go by what I'm told are called "vibes". Do not default to "Could Not, Would Die" or "Could Catch, Would Survive" simply because you don't know who the character is.

What is the current wait time? About a year, maybe, and counting.

I thought this was for detectives only? We're desperate. Why do you think this is a suicide squad?

How many submissions can I send in one ask? Six. If you go to seven I am deleting the submission without review. Don't even think about attempting eight.

Do submissions need pictures? Not necessarily, but if you want to, make sure it's at the least an OFFICIAL RENDER. I don't like using fanart! (Nothing against fanartists, I just don't want to search something like "Kermit" and get images of strangely muscular frogs (you can imagine the hell I went trying to avoid AI images for Ramona Flowers)). IF YOU ARE SUBMITTING SOMEONE'S FANART FOR A CANONICALLY-UNSEEN CHARACTER (such as, for example, Adolin Kholin), LINK THEIR TUMBLR BLOG SO THAT I MAY CONTACT THEM FOR EXPLICIT PERMISSION.

If a character was already submitted as a standalone/part of a group, can I submit them as part of a group/a standalone? Yes, however you need to wait the full seven days after their poll goes up. In the event that both are submitted in a short amount of time from one another, I shall personally space them out in the queue so that there are at least seven days between them. This is to prevent a situation where, say, Princess Zelda is submitted in quick succession to "The Triforce Wielders" as a group, and you have two polls with Zelda running at once.

Can I submit a real human? No. Pets aren't allowed because they'd sweep, but do not send me video essayists or the like. I will not put them on the blog unless they, themself, send in their name on an official Tumblr account. I fully doubt this will happen, obviously, so simply do not do this.

Can I submit [ANYONE ELSE]? Baby life is short when you're dealing with a guy who can kill from a distance at any time. You should do whatever you like. Submit a guy who can't separate his darks from his lights. Move to a new city. Find a 200 sqft apartment. Get five roommates. Ghost all of them. Start a company that sells leg warmers for dogs. Declare bankruptcy. Move to a different new city. Enter a torrid romance with a guy who calls himself "The Creature". Cheat on him with a different guy who calls himself "Monsieur Beast", a legally distinct entity unaffiliated with MrBeast. Start an electro-flamenco band with both of your exes. Get trapped in a stupid and gay little maze. Fight your way to the castle beyond the Goblin City and take back what has been stolen from you. Eat a lettuce wrap. Move back to your hometown and tell no one.

[sweetmariabear]

*Cracks knuckles as I type this out*

Alright, so I’m boutta write down what I feel is the character moods and personality of the Suicide Squad Seven cast.

El Gaucho: Completely done with everyone from time to time, but realizes that it’s his job to control the team. He does his best and that’s what matters, as long as they don’t try shit.

Harley: Team therapist, made everyone do a group therapy session to talk everything out, it didn’t end well. She totally knows that El Gaucho is the handler, but sees herself as the real leader of the team (because, let’s be honest she is).

Acero: W(h)ine mom dad, he is just as done. Flirts with El Gaucho constantly, he’s his type after all. It’s not working but as long as Acero has a drink it’s all good, accepts dares.

Dulce: She is chaotic, and loves sugar (possibly has hypoglycemia if she gets low blood sugar). A total Harley fan (even if Dulce thinks that she’s old). Zach and her bicker all the time, she learned how easy it is to push his buttons. Will always have candy on hand no matter what. The only person she is willing to share with is Monstruo, if she feels nice.

Monstruo: Is totally in the mood for a found family. She’s the youngest one on the team and knows it. Gets away with almost everything. She has flashbacks to the traumatic experiences that happened to her from time to time and gets awful nightmares because of it. Really benefits from talking to Harley about them because she feels safe doing so, everyone on the team genuinely cares about her.

El Dorado: Totally the team dad, everyone likes him. He genuinely cares about everyone, but occasionally will get into it with Acero. Doesn’t want to hurt everyone and fight, prefers to talk if possible. Also reflects on the past about his family and what happened.

Silbón: She’s really shy around people and will occasionally cover her face with her hood if she feels embarrassed. Probably a mute and uses sign language rather than talking due to her powers. Got teased as kid and her powers activated when she started to cry.

Zach: Dude insists about being innocent of stuff. Everyone calls him out on his bullshit, being on the team might actually be humbling for him. Argues with Dulce all the time (those two just need to kiss imo) because she gets to him occasionally. Major show off energy and uses his magic all the time to do so. Actually really valuable on missions and fights.

There it is so far, my hcs for the team.

Also: I low key ship Zach and Dulce, it’s complicated. They are my favorite crackship ngl.

[omilkandhoneyteao]

can you tell me things about Klarion please. anything. everything, even. I’m trying to get into his character but I need a starting point and I think you’re the Klarion Guy

Glad to know I’ve cemented my legacy 😘

BUT YOU CAME TO THE RIGHT PLACE STINKABOO CAUSE I WILL BE GIVING YOU AN IN-DEPTH (maybe) GUIDE TO GETTING IN TO KLARION ‼️

If you’re trying to get in to comic Klarion the ones I recommend the MOST MOST MOST is Seven Soldiers of Victory and Suicide Squad Black

In Seven Soldiers of Victory he has his own story but it’s connected with a bigger story with other characters and it’s definitely one of my personal favorite versions of Klarion 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

If you’re looking more for an animated version of Klarion than I recommend Young Justice (obviously) and both Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Action had an episode or two that included Klarion!

(Yes I know he’s kinda fugly but don’t stare at him too long ❤️)

And Last but not least (maybe) is if you’re in to video games there is a Lego game available on PlayStation 4, XBox, Nintendo Switch and PC called Lego DC Super-Villains that has a Lego version of Young Justice Klarion and even has his original voice actor! I personally have not played the game but from what I’ve hear it’s pretty fun!

That is all I can currently think about right now but if I have more things to add I definitely do so 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

I hope you flourish with this knowledge and join my minions

[lizardsfromspace]

There was nothing like the build-up to Suicide Squad (2016). The breathless stories about Jared Leto's Twisted Joker. The reports of all the fucked up things he did on set to play, such a twisted villain. The people mocking him and the people going "no...you don't understand acting...he must get at the Clown Prince of Crime's dark heart". The movie coming out and everyone discovering he was in it for seven minutes total

[isabella-kr]

Cold-Blooded (SERIES)

General Masterlist COD: MWII Masterlist

THIS STORY WILL INCLUDE MATURE THEMES, PLEASE ONLY READ IF YOU ARE 18 YEARS OLD OR OVER.

IF YOU ARE UNDERAGE, YOU CAN READ THE WATTPAD VERSION INSTEAD AS IT WILL CONTAIN NO SMUT!

THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION AND DOES MOT REPRESENT THE REAL ARMY!

Synopsis: John expected many things from his newest mission. But seeing the woman he was ordered to kill over a decade prior, now on his own squad, was not one of them.

Pairing: John Price x Female!Reader (This used to be an Original Character, and whilst I revised the chapters which I have published before changing this detail, I might have missed something; if you see any physical character description anywhere in the prologue & first 2 chapters, please let me know!)

Genre: Kind of Enemies to Lovers / slow burn

WARNINGS!!!: Description of violence, description of injuries, description of past mental & physical abuse, mention of brainwashing, manipulation, kidnapping, child assassins, imprisonment, mentions of a suicide attempt, mentions of self harm, PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, Social Anxiety, PRICE IS A SOFT LOVER IN THIS, eventual smut, mentions of murder and minor character death, reader has a backstory & personality (ofc) but there will be no physical descriptions, reader will also use British slang from time to time.

Disclaimer! I do not own the Call of Duty games, or any of the already existing characters and plots; only my own original characters and plot lines. Please do not repost this anywhere.

Note: Due to previous issues of having my stories stolen, this will also be available to read on Wattpad and AO3 

Note 2: This story starts at the beginning of CoD: Modern Warfare (2019), and will have sub-plot before transitioning to CoD: Modern Warfare II

Prologue

Chapter One: No-Face

Chapter Two: Routines

Chapter Three: Inferno 

Chapter Four: Tea?

Chapter Five: The Scythe

Chapter Six: Soldiers

Chapter Seven: Blues and Oranges

Chapter Eight: Piccadilly

Chapter Nine: Housekeeping

Chapter Ten: The Embassy 

Chapter Eleven: Who Are You?

Chapter Twelve: Killer

Chapter Thirteen: Old Comrades

Chapter Fourteen: Going Dark

Tag List: @jxvipike @smoggyfogbottom @stressyanddepressyfoodservice @boniscute @ohgodthebogisback @konigbabe @tapioca-marzipan @randomchick546 @jaimiespn @no-one-anon @urfavsunkissedleo @kyuupidwrites @the-sky-writes  @urminebutidontwantyou @copiasratscheese @duskwo0d @bowserowser @ilovemoneyandcheese @boxofgasoline @freyjasfenrir  @jimmorrison13 @carlyi @ramadiiiisme @honeyr4ven @gills-lounge @makastaco @chloeforde @ofmenanduhhhwellmen @lora21 @kafeyjen

[celestialvoid-fanfiction]

Everyone’s talking about Ryan Gosling’s Oscar nomination for ‘I’m Just Ken’ while Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, America Ferrera, and Billie Eilish got no nominations or mentions for their contributions, but I lost any and all respect for the Academy in 2017 when they gave the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling to Suicide Squad for a CGI/digitally rendered anthropomorphised crocodile and a girl with fake tattoos and split-dyed pony tails

over the extensive work that went into the makeup design and styling in Star Trek: Beyond. Hair and Makeup for Star Trek: Beyond did an incredible job creating alien looks and bringing them to life. Many of the alien looks had different stages/versions to show a human becoming alien and one was even mechanised to conceal something on the back of a crew member’s head because they wanted to use as little CGI as possible.

Seven years later, the Academy continues to disappoint.