#the ‘my wife’ to ‘I’d love to hear you scream’ SEDATE ME

[darlingjmiller]

Cardan ‘that’s my wife’ Greenbriar

[justcallmenikki7]

BTS Reaction To: A Rival Wanting You (Mafia!Au)

Summary: a rival wants you to be there’s.

Request: Anon said ‘i love your mafia au writings so much!!! so i wonder if u can write bts reaction when one of his gang rival likes their girlfriend and trying to make her theirs.’

Warnings: hurt/comfort, angst, Namjoon is an ass, tae has a slight daddy kink, brief mention of smut, Mafia Au, I kind of made the boys kind of crazier minded (like kook is slightly crazy).

Notes: tada, idk what to say haha.

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Jin:

You were sitting on Jin’s lap in office while he does his paper work, wanting to try and spend some time with him before he left for his meeting with a rival gang who wants to make amends. It was quiet between you both, partially because he was working on some work; and the other being because you both enjoy each other’s presence. You two did not have to talk all of the time while you bother were with each other, something you both love.

You sadly had to face the fact that this peacefulness was not going to last as long as you thought it was.

Hearing the news that the rival gang leader wanted you as a way to make amends between your boyfriends gang and his was astonishing. You could not believe some pig thought that making a person an object in their scheme was right. To make matters worse, they wanted you.

Why would they want me? You thought. But only to have your thoughts go away once you felt your boyfriend move abruptly. His grip on your hips tighten as he stood up, dragging you along with him. Jin did not say a word to Taehyung, the one who delivered the news to the both of you, as you both left. You did not say a word to your boyfriend, knowing that he needed to think before he acted on his instincts to kill.

Once you both made it to your guys shared bedroom, Jin opened the bedroom door, allowing you to go in first before slamming it shut right behind him.

“This fucking piece of shit is going to die.” Him growled out, now allowing his anger to show. “Well, think again, pal, she’s mine. You’re mine.” Jin stated, turning you around so you could face him. His eyes were showing madness, something that rarely happens. You know that it is going to take him a while to release his emotions, only you knowing that it is going to be the rivals funeral.

Knowing the few things that could only sedate him for just a while until he makes it to the conference was your words and your actions. Wrapping your arms around his waist, pulling him in close to you and pressing a kiss to his lips, “I’m yours, Jin. I’m not going anywhere, I promise. Now, make it back home safe with Namjoon and the others. I don’t want you going anywhere either.”

Yoongi:

Min Yoongi has always been a jealous man over the things he loves and adores - especially you. The smallest things could set him off, whether that being a guy staring at you too long, or you laughing at a joke that Jin said, he could not help himself. It was one of his biggest downfalls because it always led you two into an argument, only for Yoongi to apologize and bringing home the biggest bouquet that he could find in South Korea.

But, once he found out about one of the biggest rivals of his gang wanted you, his Queen, he flipped. The sound of breaking glass, yelling, and anger was heard throughout the whole mansion. The jealousy that he felt, because he knew (or he thought But was wrong) that Yuta was better than him in a lot of aspects. He had always been jealous of Yuta, something that you never understood why because you hated Yuta.

Not knowing why your boyfriend was breaking glass in his office and screaming at the top of his lungs, you stormed into the room. You saw Jin and Jimin standing and watching your boyfriend release his anger violently. Jimin let out a sigh once he saw you, motioning you to go over to your boyfriend, only stopping you for a second to tell you why your boyfriend was acting out, leaving after with Jin.

Realization dawn on you, knowing that this topic was very sensitive to your boyfriend. Carefully walking over to Yoongi, you quietly called out his name. “Yoongi.” The sound of your voice visibly relaxed the said man, turning around to look at you. “Love, you need to calm down or else you’re going to hurt yourself and we don’t need that.” You cooed, knowing the tricks to calm down your ticking time bomb boyfriend.

His muscles in his body relaxed but the cold, pissed off look on his face did not. Walking over to you, you opened your arms in an invitation, to which he responded too. His face nuzzled into your neck and his arms wrapped tightly around you, scared that any chance that you would leave him or be taken from him. “I’m assuming you heard the news.”

“I did, but you have nothing to worry about because I’m with you. I love you, no one, no thing could ever take me from you or even try to change my mind. You own my heart, Min Yoongi.” You told him, running your fingers through his black hair, something he loved.

Lifting his head from your neck, he looked down at you, love and adoration in his eyes shone bright. “I love you so much, Y/N. I’d do anything for you.” With that, he kissed you, pouring his emotions into it to prove his love, even though you already knew how much he loved you.

Hoseok:

The sound of the bathroom door opening was what woke you up from your deep sleep. Turning around, only to stop midway from the ache in your lower body from the previous actions from a few hours before. Once you were fully turned around, you came to face to face with your boyfriends bare back that had water droplets rolling down his back, along with the red marks that covered his back that were from you. A blush took over your face for a few minutes, the little flashbacks of last night playing in your mind. Shaking your head, trying to get rid of them, you focused on what was happening.

You knew that your boyfriend was going to go and kill someone soon - something you did not agree with because of Hoseoks reason: a rival wanting you as theirs. You did not want your boyfriend to get himself killed by jealousy, even though you knew your boyfriend was good at what he does as a living, but you were scared that he will get himself severely injured and you do not know what you would do if he did.

Getting up from your bed quietly, you made your way towards your boyfriend who was getting his knuckle brass from the dresser, along with a few other things. Wrapping your tiny arms around his stomach, you leaned against his damp body, holding him close to you. He hummed at your actions, body relaxing in your hold, his right hand grabbing your right hand before interlacing his fingers with yours.

“Jagi, what are you doing up?” Your caring boyfriend asked, turning around in your arms so he could face you.

“I don’t want you to go.” You stated, knowing that you did not have to say anymore.

His demeanor changed instantly, face going emotionless, eyes growing darker. “I know you don’t, but I am. He threatened to take you from me and I’m not going to let that by.” His voice cold and clipped, not allowing any room for protests. A sad look came over your face, knowing that you could not win this argument. Hoseoks cold demeanor quickly vanished at the look and changed into a soft and loving one. “I’m sorry Jagi. I know you don’t like this and are worried that something will happen. But I promise you that I will be okay and will be back by sunrise.” And he kept his promise to you.

Namjoon:

“Just because someone wants me as theirs does not mean you have the right to lock me up in this house!” You screamed at your equally as angry fiancé.

“Yes I can and I will! You’re my fiancé, soon too be wife, and I can decide whether or not you are allowed out of this house!” He yelled back, face red from anger. “Now stop being a whiny and ungrateful bitch.”

His last statement was a slap to your face, stunning you. Namjoon has never spoken to you like that in all of the five years that you have been together, or has ever been this angry with you before.

But today was the last straw with his attitude towards you, telling you that you could not leave the house because he said so. Of course, you fought back and stood your ground. That was until he said those words.

“Fuck you.” Your voice trembled, but the words still powerful, your sight become blurry from the tears. “Just because some man wants me does not mean you can tell me what I can and cannot do. And just because I’m your soon to be wife does not mean you own me and control me. I am my own person and I can do whatever the fuck I want. Now, I’m going to go and stay at my parents house for a while until I feel like seeing you again, or if I ever decide I want to because I seem to be a ‘whiny and ungrateful bitch’ when all I have ever done in this relationship was love you.”

And with that, you grabbed your purse, phone, keys, and jacket before leaving your shared house with the man that hurt you, but yet you still loved.

Jimin:

When Jimin came home he was unusually quiet. By this, you could tell that something was instantly wrong and somehow needs to be fixed in the next hour or else he will not tell you and he will keep bottling up inside of him and he will explode. Putting down your spatula, you turned off the stove and followed him towards your bathroom.

When you step inside the bathroom with him, he barely looked at you. Stripping out of his clothes, he turned on the shower and stepped underneath the shower head that was pouring hot water out. Following his actions, you stripped out of your clothes and got inside with him, but to only wrap your arms around him and lean against his back.

It was quiet for a while, no words being spoken, only the sound of water running and the sounds of your guys breathing being the only source of sound in the room. Your fingers caress Jimins stomach and you press kisses against the bare skin of his back, the affection helping with his mood.

“Am I good enough for you?” He asked quietly, voice sounding defeated. “Like, am I what you picture as someone you want to spend the rest of your life? Someone who has a short temper, insecurities, mild depression, and a pass with an eating disorder? Would you rather be with someone who has none of those things? Someone’s who is better an-“

“Jimin you better shut up right there or else I will punch you in the throat.” You cut him off, “Don’t you dare belittle yourself because you have things that you use to struggle with or do struggle with. But those are the things that make you, you. I love everything about you and find new things to love about you everyday. Everyday you amaze me because you get up every morning even though you’re struggling with something internal or external. You’re so strong that you don’t even realize it, Jiminie. I love you so much.” You explained, trying to keep yourself from crying out loud.

Turning around, Jimin’s teary face met yours and before you could say something else, he broke down in your arms. You both stayed like that, holding one another in your arms, until the water ran cold. Later on though, you found out about the rival who stated that he wanted you and had digged at Jimins insecurities just to get to him, and you then reassured Jimin by showing him how much you loved him.

Taehyung:

“He fucking wishes.” Taehyung laughed darkly at the news that Jungkook shared with him. You, on the other hand, were shocked to find out that a rival gang leader wanted you as theirs, and also very disgusted. But you were also not surprised at Taehyungs cockiness by this information, even though knew it also bugged the living hell out of him. “Anything else, Jungkook?” Taehyung asked lazily, looking his second in command in the eye. Saying that he did not, Jungkook bowed before leaving your boyfriends office, leaving you and Taehyung alone. Turning in his chair so that he could face you, a dark smirk made its way onto his face. “Princess, come sit on daddy’s lap.”

“You know, you acting like this is only fueling his fire.” You commented, glaring at your smirking boyfriend.

“I know, that’s why I’m doing it. Plus, I know that you secretly love it too. Knowing that you’re showing every guy and girl in this mall that you’re mine and I’m yours.” Taehyung chuckled, giving you a smile. “Plus, the press is loving it. And I want that fucker to know who you belong too. If he thinks that he can easily get you, he’s wrong.”

Rolling your eyes at his jealousy, you also could not help the smile that made its way onto your face whenever your boyfriend said that he is yours. It made the butterflies appear in your stomach when he said things like that. Even though he shows you every day in many forms that he loves you, it still makes you feel like a teenage girl.

Stopping in your steps, you tugged on his hand to pull him closer to you. He gave you a confused look, that was until he felt your lips on his, giving him a passionate, love filled kiss. Smiling, he kissed you back with just as much passion and love, not caring who was watching.

When you both pulled away for air, he looked at you with shock. “What was that for? You usually hate kissing in public.”

“I just wanted to show you how much I love you and that I will always love you.” You smiled shyly, taking his hand in yours before walking towards the food court in the mall.

Jungkook:

The banging of the door slamming open in your house caused you to fall off of the couch from alertness. Ignoring the searing pain in your butt, you got up off of the floor to go and see who was making all of this ruckus. The sound of angry cursing and threats being mumbled under their breath told you that it was your boyfriend, Jungkook.

“Thinking he can really take my girl? Ha, funny. Think again. No one, no one can threaten to take the love of my life from me and think they can get away with it. I’ll make sure to-“

“Kookie?” You asked confused, slowly walking up to him. “Why are you so angry? What happened?” You pressed, cupping his face in your hands.

The male sighed contently when he felt the familiar touch, finding comfort in your tiny hands. He did not say anything for a few moments, wanting to be as calm and slightly clear minded when he spoke to you. He hated having you see him in such a state- all crazy minded, angry, and cold.

“Someone threatened to make you theirs and take you away from me.” Jungkook stated, already starting to feel the anger bubble inside of him. “And he made comments about you in an unpleasant way in front of me. So, I shot him in the leg and had him be taken to the dungeons back at the headquarters so I could show him that I’m not someone to mess with.” He continued, but a pout covered his beautiful face. “But I could not kill him because he has information that we need and we need him alive to obviously get that information. So, I’m still not quite sedated but I wanted to be home and see my beautiful girlfriend. I just need to take a shower and we can have our movie night like we planned.” He finished before kissing you on the lips then giving you his bunny smile.

[officialcherubcampus]

Three Futures - The Family Man

So what happens to James, Lauren, Kerry and all the gang after Shadow Wave?

Robert Muchamore has written three stories, depicting alternative futures for James and Kerry set in the year 2031.

PREGNANT DOCTOR IN MOTORBIKE SMASH

A pregnant doctor and her husband were involved in a motorcycle accident on a roundabout while travelling on the A456 last Sunday night. James Choke, 29 and pregnant wife Dr Kerry Chang 28 were rushed to hospital by air ambulance.

Police say the accident was caused when rider James swerved to avoid a truck, which veered into oncoming traffic after its front tyre burst. Choke’s powerful Yamaha bike skidded, then careered more than thirty meters down the side of a steep valley.

The young couple were both taken to Birmingham Royal Infirmary by air ambulance, where Mrs Chang went into an early labour and gave birth to a healthy daughter, two months premature.

Mrs Choke and newly born daughter Gwendoline are doing fine. However a hospital spokesman commented that James Choke has suffered a serious back injury and remained in serious but stable condition.

The truck driver is believed to have emerged from the accident unscathed.

Kidderminster News article, June 16th 2020

Muswell Hill, North London - October 2031

James Choke reversed his electric wheelchair back towards the stair lift, buckled a red safety belt around his waist and pressed the button to travel down.

As James whirred sedately downstairs, the slim eleven-year-old body of his daughter Gwen whipped out of her bedroom and squeezed past him, dressed in school uniform.

“Mum,” thirteen-year-old middle-daughter Sarah screamed from the top landing. “I’m sick of telling Gwen to stop using my stuff. You’ve got to bloody tell her.”

Dr Kerry Chang emerged from the kitchen, dressed in a white doctor’s coat and looking rather harassed. She stopped youngest daughter Gwen as she reached the bottom of the stairs and scowled at the state of her school blouse.

“You’ve only been at that school for a month,” Kerry yelled. “How have you got your uniform in that state already?”

As James reached the half way point of his motorised cruise downstairs, Sarah stood dressed in bra and knickers on the top landing with hands on her hips and shouted.

“Mum, are you listening to me? That little bitch is using my deodorant again. You’ve got to tell her.“

Kerry looked wearily up the stairs. “It’s not even roll on, Sarah,” she yelled back. “Put deodorant on the shopping list and I’ll buy you a can each. If it shuts you up, you can have two cans each.”

“Well where’s the shopping list?” Sarah asked sulkily.

“On the fridge door,” Kerry answered. “As you well know.”

At the same moment, James and Kerry’s oldest daughter, fifteen-year-old Ellen emerged from another bedroom. She cut behind Sarah into the upstairs bathroom and bolted the door.

“Hey, I was just in there,” Sarah shouted, as she kicked the door. “Bitch.”

Ellen shouted happily from the other side of the door. “Well you’re not in here now, bitch.”

“Pack it in you two,” Kerry shouted. “And I’m sick of hearing the word bitch banded about my house. It’s not nice. The next one who says it loses a weeks pocket money.”

“Does that include me?” James asked cheekily, but his wife didn’t see the funny side.

Gwen had gone into the kitchen to grab breakfast by the time James reached the bottom of the stairs. His wife glowered at him as he unclipped his safety belt.

“What?” James asked innocently. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Exactly,” Kerry screamed, as the bathroom row upstairs broke out again. “Why do I always have to do the shouting? Why do I have to be the bad cop, while you let your three princesses wrap you round their little fingers?”

“Time of the month come early did it?” James asked.

Kerry made a big grunting noise. “If you weren’t already in a wheelchair I’d bloody well put you in one.”

Gwen sprinted out of the kitchen with her school backpack, gave James a kiss and opened the front door.

“Bye-bye, Daddy,” Gwen said brightly, and then in a much grumpier tone, “and the rest of my oh so beloved family,”

“You see what I mean?” Kerry said, as the front door slammed behind Gwen. “You get bye-bye Daddy and I get evil eyes.”

“She didn’t scowl at you,” James said.

“Well she sure as hell didn’t kiss me on the cheek,” Kerry snarled. “And Gwen can’t have eaten breakfast. She was only in the kitchen for two minutes.”

“She’s a big girl, she won’t starve herself.”

“No, but she’ll scroff sweets on the way to school instead of eating the decent breakfast that I got up and made for her.”

“You worry too much,” James said, half smiling. “It’s gone half eight. You’ll be late for your shift. I’ll sort the girls out. What would you like for dinner tonight?”

“Surprise me,” Kerry said.

Kerry grabbed her coat and keys as James wheeled himself into the kitchen and scraped Gwen’s half-eaten boiled egg and toast into the bin, before loading the dirty plate into the dishwasher.

“I’ll be home around seven,” Kerry said. “Barring medical emergencies.”

James knew he was more likely not to see his wife until nearer nine, but didn’t comment.

“Love you,” James said, as Kerry pecked him on the cheek.

“Love you too,” Kerry said, giving a smile that warmed James’ heart.

Kerry gave a final blast up the stairs before heading out. “You two girls have got fifteen minutes. If I get a text message from the school saying that either of you are late there’s gonna be big trouble when I get home tonight.”

“Yeah, bye mum,” Sarah said, as she raised one eyebrow. “Take a chill pill, why don’t you?”

With three girls in a small house mornings would always be stressful, but James found it easier after Kerry left for the hospital because her style of charging around the house biting people’s heads off just seemed to stress everyone out.

James knew his daughters weren’t perfect: There was the odd letter home from school, an occasional missed curfew and Ellen had had a couple of boyfriends who he’d happily horsewhipped, but compared to some of the stunts James had pulled when he was a teenager his daughters were angels and it seemed unnecessary for Kerry to make a fuss over every tiny thing.

“I wish you’d stop stressing your mum out,” James said, looking up the stairs at Sarah as he wheeled past.

As James looked up at the thirteen-year-old, still waiting for her turn in the bathroom, she reminded him of the way his sister Lauren had looked at that age.

“You know your mum’s got a very demanding job,” James said. “Do you have to set her off every morning?”

“Face facts, dad: we need an extra bathroom,” Sarah said, as she punched the door again. “Or a bigger house.”

James felt guilty as he wheeled himself into the dining room which served as his office. Kerry earned a decent wage as a doctor, but James only scraped a living doing online tuition for university maths students.

The main reason why they’d never moved to a bigger house was that it would cost tens of thousands fitting it out with stair lifts and special bathrooms, widening doors and making all the other adaptations that would be needed to accommodate a person who was paralysed from the waist down.

James worked from the first floor dining room. It was a nice old victorian semi, and the room had bay windows overlooking a lawn which was expertly tended by their robot mower.

The office was a bit of a geek fest, with retro games consoles and a two-metre-wide megascreen. James’ computer woke up when it heard him rolling into the room and it’s synthesised voice asked for a password.

“LordSexyPants55,” James said.

The computer accepted the password and James’ virtual life opened up on the 3D screen. He had a Facebook message from Lauren saying that she was heading to Canada on a CHERUB mission and might be out of touch for a couple of weeks. There was a swanky 3D animation which was an invite to the opening of Kyle Blueman’s new legal practice in Clerkenwell, along with a bunch of written messages and video clips from confused and sometimes anxious maths undergraduates that would have to be dealt with before lunchtime.

But James had recently subscribed to the newest Playstation VI module for his megascreen and decided that he needed to chill out by playing Blast Buggy - XXX Psycho Edition before settling down to some serious work.

As soon as James pointed to the game icon, the vast screen became a 3D tunnel filled with jets of flame, steam vents and bubbling pools of oil. When he pressed the resume icon, James was driving a hovercraft at breakneck speed, while using his virtual legs to control speed and a bright blue plastic machine gun to fire mortars at the other racers.

He was in the zone and headed for a record lap a couple of minutes later, when a tap on the shoulder made him shoot up with fright. Ellen and Sarah were both dressed in school uniform and howled with laughter as their father paused the game.

“So this is what you spend all day doing,” Ellen said, shaking her head theatrically and tutting.

“While we’re slaving at school,” Sarah added.

“No, no, no,” James said defensively. “I don’t play games all day. I just wanted to work off some stress before I knuckle down.”

“Sure dad, whatever,” Sarah said, before giving James a kiss on the cheek.

“Have a good day at school,” James told them, as Ellen kissed him.

“And don’t work too hard, daddy,” Sarah said, giggling with her sister as they stepped into the hall.

“And I won’t be in until 3am at the earliest,” Ellen added. “If mum asks, tell her I’m at a big drunken party having unprotected sex with just about everyone.”

James knew Ellen was joking and played along. “No problem,” he said. “My wallet’s upstairs on my bedside table. Help yourself to a hundred pounds each so that you can buy copious amounts of hard drugs.”

“Thanks,” Ellen shouted. “Gee, you’re the best daddy in the world.”

James smiled to himself as he heard his daughters head out of the house, followed by the familir clang of his front gate. He wasn’t rich, his life wasn’t packed with excitement and being in a wheelchair was a constant irritation. But James had lots of good friends, three fantastic daughters and a crazy stressed-out wife whom he loved with all his heart.

James decided to play Blast Buggy - XXX Psycho Edition for ten more minutes before getting down to some serious work. Or maybe he’d make that twenty minutes...

[tessisawriter]

Not Losing Me (Adrian Kempe)

Request (anonymous): Adrian Kempe #16 💜

A/N: I have no idea what the Kings’ social media people are like: I just made them that way to highlight the problem of sexism in the workplace. If you have ever experienced sexism or harassment, please know that it is not your fault and you have every right to report whoever did that to you. Lightly inspired by Gabrielle Aplin’s “Losing Me” (link here). 

Warnings: Two swear words, angst, sexism, mention of catcalling & harassment

Word Count: 1.8k

Another night, another loss.

You sighed as you turned off the post-game coverage, knowing that Adrian would be home any minute now. The Kings had not been doing well recently, and your boyfriend was in a perpetually sullen mood. You didn’t want to make him feel worse than he already did.

As soon as you put down the clicker, you heard the telltale signs of keys jingling outside the door, a string of curses, and finally, the lock turning. The door burst open, and Adrian came stomping inside. There was a wild look in his eyes that you had never seen in the seven years you knew him.

“I’m so fucking sick of losing!” Adrian exclaimed, throwing his hockey bag down on the ground.

Your heart hurt for him. You stood up, walked over to him, and wrapped your arms around him in a bone-crushing hug. You whispered in his ear, “I know, babe.”

Adrian’s body tensed and he pulled away from your embrace, but you still kept your arms around him. “No, you don’t, Y/N—all you do is study, and work, and study some more! You have no idea what I’m going through!”

“I’d beg to differ,” you responded, keeping your voice calm. “We do completely different things, sure, but frustration is central to both of our jobs. When I hand in a paper that I know is subpar, I feel like a loser.”

Adrian’s eyes darkened. “Are you actually trying to compare grad school to being a professional athlete?” The venom in his voice cut through you like a knife. “Come on, Y/N, get real! I not only have to play games five times a week, but I also have to stay in perfect physical shape and put the puck in the net! Grad school is child’s play.”

The last comment made you snap. The floodgates opened, and tears started streaming down your face. “Don’t you dare tell me that what I do is child’s play!” you screamed. “I know you’ve been down lately, so I’ve tried to be as understanding as possible, but you just crossed the line!”

“Really? You’re going to throw a temper tantrum now?” Adrian’s voice was dripping with snark.

You were overwhelmed by your emotions, but “That’s it, I’m done,” was all you said as you turned away and walked into the bedroom.

You went into the closet and grabbed a blanket. It was too late at night to fight like this, and you needed time to think. You plucked Adrian’s pillow off the bed before returning to the living room, putting them on the couch, and informing him: “I think it’s best if you sleep out here tonight.”

The possessed look in Adrian’s eyes vanished immediately, and remorse replaced it. “Y/N, baby, I shouldn’t have said that, I’m so…”

“No.” A suppressed sob made your voice sound choked. “You hurt me. You really hurt me, and I need some distance from you now, so please, just stay on the couch.” Your voice was reduced to a squeak by the time you finished.

Adrian’s green eyes looked suspiciously watery, but he just nodded and grabbed the blanket, unfolded it, and laid it out on the couch while you walked back into the bedroom and closed the door, locking it before you climbed into bed and shut off the light.

***************

You drifted in and out of sleep, never able to relax enough to rest. You hated nothing more than restless nights, so you eventually gave up on sleeping and sat up in your bed.

The clock read 4:15AM, and you groaned, running a hand over your face. Your heart ached when you looked at Adrian’s empty side of the bed. How could your loving boyfriend who had done nothing but support and lift you up throughout your five-year relationship belittle you like that? His statement stung, and it kept replaying in your head, confusing you the more you thought about it.

You didn’t feel any better physically. Your eyes hurt from crying yourself to sleep, your nose was all stuffed, and your throat was scratchy. More than anything, you wanted water, so you reached over to the bedside table for where you normally kept your water bottle, but your hand only made contact with air. “Shit,” you cursed quietly. You left your water bottle in the living room.

The last thing you wanted to do was go outside, especially because you didn’t want to wake Adrian if he had managed to fall asleep, but your throat screamed for water. You compromised on leaving your water bottle in the living room and getting another one from the kitchen.

You crept over to the bedroom door and tried to make as little noise as possible while you unlocked the door. You were successful, so you slowly turned the knob and opened the door halfway. You looked through the door and saw Adrian lying on his side on the couch, facing away from the bedroom. He appeared to be asleep. Sighing, you stepped through the doorframe and tiptoed to the kitchen, where you took out a new water bottle and filled it without making too much noise. When you walked back into the living room, though, Adrian was sitting up on the couch and facing the kitchen, clearly waiting for you to come out.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Adrian asked, his voice sedate but scratchy.

You shook your head.

“Me neither,” he said.

You just stood there, staring at him. Everyone said there were two responses to potential conflict, fight or flight, but you knew there was a third option: freeze.

“Y/N? Do you want to come and sit?” Adrian asked you for the second time. You snapped out of whatever trance you were in and gingerly walked over to the couch, sitting on the opposite end from Adrian.

The silence was killing you, so you brought the water bottle to your lips and took a sip. The cool water felt like heaven, so you drank the rest of the bottle before setting it down on the coffee table.

“Feel any better?” Adrian said.

“Yeah.” You tested your voice, and it sounded clearer.

“Good.”

The silence took over the room again, but you turned to Adrian and broke it: “Why did you say what you did? I mean…” You searched for the words. “You’ve never belittled me before, and while it hurt, what really bothers me is I don’t understand where it came from.”

“I didn’t mean it, Y/N. I was frustrated with myself, so I took it out on you, but I shouldn’t have.”

“I believe you,” you replied, “But that wasn’t the question. Where would you pick up such a notion? It was sexist, and you’ve never behaved that way before: quite the contrary, actually. You always treat girls as equal, and that was why I liked you in the first place.”

“I don’t know, it’s just…” Adrian ran his hands through his hair, which told you he was lying. He knew where it came from.

“Adrian,” you said, moving a little closer to him on the couch so that you weren’t so far away but also had enough distance between you, “It’s okay: you can tell me. I won’t judge or anything.”

Adrian sighed. “You know the new guys in social media?”

You nodded, your blood already boiling. The Kings had hired a new social media team this year, and there was only one female member. The rest were boys in their early to mid 20s who were known to hit on fans and occasionally, a player’s SO. Fortunately, they didn’t try that with you, but it happened to Tyler’s wife, Cat. They were pigs.

“They’re always talking shit about girls, and they were on me today, or I guess yesterday now, about you.”

“What about me?” You asked, despite dreading his answer.

“That they forget I have a girlfriend half the time because you don’t go to a ton of games,” he admitted.

You stiffened. “You know I want to go to your games, but I can’t control the fact that my classes are all at night.”

“I understand, Y/N, I really do, and I’m so proud of everything you’re doing at your PhD program. I don’t know what came over me.”

“I do,” you said. “Those assholes knew you’ve been upset over losing a lot lately, so they took advantage of it and spread their poison.” You closed the distance between you and Adrian on the couch and put your fingers under his chin so he would be forced to look you in the eye. “But you can’t let them do that anymore, okay?”

“I won’t, I promise,” Adrian said, and you knew from the earnestness in his eyes that he was telling the truth.

“Okay, then. I forgive you.”

Adrian’s eyes widened. “You do?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t really you talking earlier. But promise me one thing.”

“Anything.”

“Tell management to fire those jerks,” you said. “Did you know that a bunch of them hit on Cat last week and were catcalling her?”

Adrian’s jaw clenched. “No, I did not know that. No wonder she’s been acting strange whenever she comes to the facility. Tyler’s been really worried about it; I have to tell him…”

“No,” you said. “I’ll call Cat in the morning and convince her to tell Tyler herself. He needs to hear it from her, Adrian.”

“You’re right. God, I’m so sorry about all this,” Adrian said as he wrapped his arms around you and hugged you tight. You returned the gesture and rested your head in the crook of his neck.

“Don’t be sorry: we’re going to handle this together tomorrow,” you replied.

Adrian released you and stood up. “That’s right: we’re a team, and I won’t forget that again. Let’s go to bed, shall we?” He extended his hand, and you took it, letting him pull you up from the couch and into bed.

After you were settled in the bed with Adrian as the big spoon, he whispered into your hair, “I was so worried I was going to lose you.”

“Because of those jackasses?” You chuckled and turned around to face him. “You’re not losing me because of them.”

Adrian smiled and kissed you on the lips. You leaned into the kiss before pulling away.

“Let’s not lose any more sleep over them, okay?”

“Amen to that,” Adrian agreed, and you turned back over so that you could resume your original position. Both of you fell asleep within five minutes, happy that your fight was over.

[chuffyfan87]

Hiding. Part 77b

"As well as she can be given her waters just broke in the main entrance."

The colour drained from Charlie’s face and he stumbled slightly.

Megan moved to steady him. "Take a deep breath Charlie."

“Where..? Where is she?”

"I left her in the corridor with some of the other staff so I could go find you."

“Shit. I don’t believe this is happening.”

"From what I understand she wasn't exactly honest with you before you came here earlier." Megan sighed.

“She’s been having contractions?”

Megan nodded. It gave her no pleasure telling Charlie but she felt he needed to know.

He sat down in the chair and put his head in his hands. “This wasn’t supposed to happen...”

"I know but you need to pull yourself together and be there for her."

He swallowed, nodded and stood up. “Will you come with me?”

"Of course." Megan replied, placing her hand on his arm.

“Thank you.” Together they went to see Duffy. The entire time Charlie felt sick to his stomach. This feeling wasn't elevated when they reached resus and found that there were no staff from obstetrics in the room, only A+E colleagues. “Baby, it’s going to be ok.” Charlie whispered reassuringly to Duffy although he didn’t feel reassured by his own words.

"Really. Hurts." Duffy gasped as she reached out to grasp his hand.

"The only thing I'd be happy to give her is an epidural but I don't think we have time for that to take effect." Maggie interjected as she finished examining Duffy.

Charlie nodded. “Sweetheart, you’re going to have to do this without pain relief.”

"Not again." Duffy cried softly, her voice laced with terror.

“I’m afraid so. But we can do this. We’ll be ok. Remember what you told me?” He kissed her forehead.

"I only said that to try and make you feel better." She grimaced.

“I love you.” He told her.

"Love you t... Oh shit!" She moaned.

Megan hated seeing her younger friend struggling and in such pain. The words were out her mouth before she could stop them. "Stop messing around, she needs a section!"

“The surgeons are already in theatre. A delivery of twins.” Maggie explained. “The best we can do at the minute is monitor the situation.”

Megan wanted to shout back about how precarious the situation was but she knew doing that wouldn't make any difference and would only serve to make things harder for Charlie and Duffy so she reluctantly held her tongue.

Charlie glanced at Megan and then Maggie before turning his attention back to Duffy. “You’re going to be ok.” He whispered, “You both are.”

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

“Ssh, that doesn’t matter now.”

"I thought it would be OK... Ow!"

“I know.” He squeezed her hand.

"Was stupid." She gasped.

“Not the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.” He reassured.

"Really?" She groaned, trying to stay focused on their conversation and encourage him to keep talking to help her try to not focus so much on the pain.

“Hmm. I think the most stupidest thing you ever did was falling in love with me.” He smiled.

"No." She shook her head lightly. "It was not telling you I had when I did." She paused briefly, running the words back over in her mind, checking if they made sense.

“That would make two of us.” He answered back before kissing her forehead. “Did you give Megan the guided tour of the house?”

"Yeh. We live in a mansion." Duffy giggled.

“Thats one way of describing the house. You didn’t tell her about my plans for the ‘spare’ bedroom, did you?” He whispered in her ear with a small chuckle.

She shook her head. She then gripped his hand tight, the pain was getting much worse very quickly.

Feeling her grip his hand tighter, Charlie knew the pain was getting worse. “You’re doing really well.” He told her.

"Can't do this." She managed to grind out.

Maggie caught Charlie's eye. They didn't have long til this baby was gunna arrive, one way or another...

“Yes you can.” He caught Maggie’s eye. This wasn’t how any of this was supposed to go...

Maggie sighed. "We're fast running out of options." She admitted. "If we're doing a section we need to do it now or it'll be too late." She briefly closed her eyes. "I know what to do but I've never done one before."

He looked at Maggie and nodded, hearing her words. “I trust you.” It was a lot for Charlie to say that but he was fast running out of opinions. Plus Maggie was an excellent doctor, he trusted her.

"OK." Maggie nodded. She took a deep breath before beginning to reel off instructions. Finally she turned back to Charlie and Duffy. "I'm going to need your help, if you're insistent on being conscious then I need to put a spinal block in."

Charlie nodded, “I’ll do whatever you need me to do.” He smiled.

It took some creative manoeuvring but they managed to get the spinal block in. Whilst it took effect Maggie gathered the required equipment and ensured that only the most essential people stayed in the room and were properly attired. She wasn't prepared to take any chances.

Charlie felt sick. Things were going too well. Far too well and he knew something bad was going to happen, it always did. It was just a case of when. He kissed Duffy’s forehead. “Won’t be long now.” He whispered.

"Don't let them take the baby away." She mumbled.

“Baby’s not going anywhere ok?”

"They took him away..." She was becoming increasingly agitated and a little incoherent.

“Sweetheart, relax. Please.” He whispered.

"If they take him they won't bring him back!"

“Of course they will.” He stroked her cheek, hoping to calm her down.

"Charlie..." Maggie warned.

“Yes?” He turned to Maggie.

"I'll have to sedate her if she doesn't calm down."

“I know.” He smiled sadly, “Sweetie, please calm down. Otherwise you’ll have to be sedated and I don’t want that. I want you to hold the baby.”

"Don't let her touch my baby! She'll kill him!"

“Darling, nobody is going to hurt our baby! They have to get through me first.”

One of the monitors started to alarm. Her heart rate and blood pressure were skyrocketing.

He closed his eyes. This was it, wasn’t it? “Sweetheart, please. Please calm down.” He begged her.

The door crashed open. "Is it common practise down here to be able to hear patients screaming half way down the corridor?" The senior obstetrics consultant asked as he approached.

“You took your time getting down here, didn’t you?” Charlie asked before sighing, “I’ve been trying to keep her calm but to no avail.”

"Sedate her then." The consultant replied, not realising that the "patient" was one of their own.

“You’re aware of who the patient is right?”

"Only the bare minimum that was phoned up by one of your colleagues." The consultant retorted.

"Gents we don't have time for you two to have a pissing contest!" Maggie interjected with frustration.

“You’ll find the patient is my wife! And I won’t be sedating her or having anyone else sedate her either!!” Charlie replied with a hint of attitude. Both men then turned to look at Maggie.

"In that case you need to be outside. Now." The consultant replied.

Maggie turned her attention back to Duffy who was beginning to struggle to breathe.

“I’m not going anywhere!” Charlie replied before realising that Duffy was struggling to breathe.

"Am I doing this or are you?" Maggie asked the consultant, growing tired with the fighting and fearful of where it could lead.

“Do you want to take the lead on this one?” The consultant asked as he put Duffy on oxygen to help her breathe.

"Really?" Maggie gasped nervously.

“Yes.”

"Um, OK." Maggie replied, glancing anxiously at Charlie.

Charlie smiled reassuringly.

Maggie tried not to let her hands shake as she followed the consultant's instructions.

Charlie watched as Maggie performed the cesarean on Duffy.

In stark contrast to the usual cacophony of noise in the room you could now hear a pin drop as everyone seemed to be holding their breath.

Charlie really was holding his breath!

Suddenly the silence was broken by a small cry.

Charlie stared at the baby as it was born.

"Do you want to cut the cord?" Maggie offered.

Charlie smiled and nodded. He cut the cord, “It’s a boy?” He asked and then glanced down to check.

"Good size too for a 35 weeker." The consultant remarked.

“Takes after his dad.” Charlie replied. “Can I hold him? Or does he have to go to be checked over?”

"I think we can hold fire on that for a few moments." The consultant replied nodded to a nurse to hand Charlie the blanket she was holding to wrap the infant in.

“Is Duffy ok?” Charlie asked as he wrapped his son in the blanket and held the baby to his chest.

"We just need to deliver the placenta and make sure the blood loss is minimal."

Charlie nodded. He looked down at his son and smiled brightly, tears in his eyes.

Duffy groaned, her eyes heavily lidded but focused on him.

Charlie stroked his son’s cheek. “Hello son.” A tear rolled down his cheek.

Duffy pulled the oxygen mask from her face. "I see him?" She gasped.

He brought the baby over to Duffy. “Look? He’s perfect.” He kissed her forehead.

She tried to reach out her arms towards the baby but she was stuck in an awkward position due to the spinal block.

“Relax.” Charlie reassured, “As soon as you’ve passed the placenta and you’re in a cubicle, you can hold him.”

She sighed in frustration but relented.

He kissed her forehead again. “I love you. I’m so proud of you.”

"So tired."

“I know baby.”

"Don't let me sleep."

“I won’t.”

Several minutes later the consultant removed his gloves and moved to talk to them.

“Do you want to take her to theatre?” Charlie asked.

"I don't think we need to currently but I want her under half hourly monitoring for the next twenty four hours just to be on the safe side."

Charlie nodded, “So far things look ok?”

"Yes. The blood loss was more than average but significantly less than she's suffered on previous occasions."

"I just want to hold my baby." Duffy muttered.

“Is she ok to hold the baby?”

"The anesthesia won't wear off for a while yet but I don't see it being a problem as long as she's assisted."

"Its my legs I can't move. My arms are fine!" Duffy grumbled.

Charlie rolled his eyes playfully and nodded. He moved towards the bed and held the baby to Duffy’s chest. “You’re still so argumentative.” He whispered.

She smiled as she stroked the baby's back, her eyes never leaving him. "I don't like being talked down to or about like I'm not here."

“I know.” Charlie smiled, “You were so agitated about the baby... Why?”

"What?"

“You kept saying someone would kill the baby. Is that what you believed?” He asked quietly, “That something bad was going to happen?”

"Did I? Must have been the drugs." She shrugged nervously.

“Babe, talk to me?”

She stroked the baby's cheek. "He's so perfect."

He smiled, “Just like his mummy.”

"You're sure he's OK?"

“Yes I’m certain.”

[theblueskyphoenix]

Grid Ghost Chapter 10: Crash Course

Obake was out on the patio. Work on the robot was complete and their set up was all ready to go. Now it was just a matter of execution. They wanted to wait until later in the evening before going through with their mission, which gave Obake time to meditate and prepare himself mentally for it. 

To think… I originally used Tadashi as a means of trying to manipulate someone into trusting me and coming to my side as a student… and now, I’ll be doing it again as a means of trying to stop someone from committing crime. 

Obake gripped at the arm of his chair as he thought back to that night. He knew for the most part that tricking Hiro had been his idea but… he couldn’t deny the memory that itched at the back of his mind.

“It’s the perfect ploy. He clearly loved his older brother. Be convincing enough and he’ll play right into your hands, Obake. Work that silver tongue of yours.”

She encouraged it. It would’ve benefited us both if I had convinced him. He would’ve been my student and he would be out of her way. But alas, Hiro was too clever…

Obake smiled a bit.

And I’m glad he is. It’ll serve him well.

“Obake?”

Obake looked behind him, seeing Tadashi present.

“Yes?”

“Just… checking on you.” Tadashi walked over, pulling up a chair next to him. “Wife just wanted to be sure you weren’t having a massive headache.”

“I’m not, I promise.” Obake chuckled. “Long as I don’t push my limits with the robot I’ll be fine.”

“Got ya.”

Silence fell between the two for a moment or so. Both were glancing around the yard before Tadashi spoke up.

“Hey… Obake?”

“Hm?”

“... How is Hiro doing these days?”

Obake was taken aback by this.

“What?”

“Sorry just… from what I understand you’ve seen him in recent time with your whole crime lord thing and well… I just wanted to know if you knew anything about his current situation or what’s been happening since I’ve been gone. It’s okay if you don’t I just… I dunno…”

Obake looked down, gripping the arm of his chair tightly again.

“He’s extremely clever. One of the brightest students in his class from what I had observed. Always trying to follow in your footsteps.” Obake looked to Tadashi. “He still looks up to you and while he wants to be his own person - and made it very clear he didn’t want you both to be lumped in together because you had your own strengths… He wants to be as selfless and determined as you are, Tadashi.”

Tadashi’s eyes were wide, a small smile coming to his face.

“He… He does?”

“He does.”

“I swear, I’m gonna make you proud of me! I’ll do whatever it takes. And you’ll be there, right?”

Guh, I hate myself for what I did that night…

“Don’t go there.”

“Huh?”

Obake gave a stern look.

“I know you’re thinking back to that night you “died”. Regrets are part of life… I know that better than anyone.” Obake looked away. “But dwelling on them will do you no good. You learn from them and move on and better yourself.”

Tadashi nodded.

“R-Right. Like what we’re doing tonight?”

“Exactly.” Obake looked back to Tadashi. “Tadashi, I want to make a promise to you right now and I want you to remember this till it is fulfilled.”

“Okay. What is it?”

Obake’s features turned gentle.

“No matter what it takes, I’ll get you home to your brother. That’s my promise to you.”

Tadashi’s eyes grew wide before he gave him a grateful look. 

“Thank you.” He took a deep breath. “I trust you… I promise, I’ll do whatever it takes. I just… I want to see my brother again.”

“And you will.” He squeezed his arm. “We just have to do some work first.”

Tadashi nodded, looking to him.

“Well… what are we waiting for then?”

Obake smiled, his implant glowing for a moment.

“My thoughts exactly.”

oooooo 

The structure was abandoned. 

No surprise, with the place having gone up in flames a few months back. 

And I was the one who caused it. 

Erin chuckled, remembering back to that day.

Truly amazing how fast Bird Boy worked to save all those people.

She never thought she’d find herself back at this place for any reason but yet here she was. 

Erin narrowed her eyes as she looked at the readings showing on her visor. 

That’s Bird Boy’s heat signature I’m picking up in there but what is he doing in this building? And… he’s just standing still. Why isn’t he moving?

Erin felt at the mini flamethrowers she had hidden under her sleeves of fire proof jacket, her hands twitching at the triggers.

I’m armed. If something goes wrong I can fight back.

She rolled up one of her sleeves before heading inside. She kept her flamethrower ready as she made her way down a few halls. As she approached the area where Phoenix was, her steps became slower, wanting to be prepared for anything. Though, as she drew closer, she could hear voices.

“You’ll never get away with this!”

“Oh, but I already am, Phoenix.”

Huh?

Erin looked into the room, eyes widening at what she saw.

Phoenix was strapped to a table with what she could only assume were heat proof restraints. He was hooked up to machines that were trackings vitals and many other things. Standing not too far from him was a tall slender man with slicked back dark hair with a red streak in it. He was dressed in a black suit with a lab coat on over it. He wore a broad grin on his face as he watched Phoenix struggle at his restraints.

Phoenix snarled up at his captor, rage filling the young man’s eyes.

“I swear, no one will let you! They’ll notice that I’m gone!”

The man laughed, throwing his head back.

“Oh, please. You’re nothing but a child.” He glanced up at the monitors. “Keeping riled up like this isn’t good for a consistent result you know. I’d hate to sedate you.”

… Okay, no kidding when he said crime lord. Phoenix thought, narrowing his eyes. 

“You sonofa-”

“Tsk, tsk.” The man grabbed him by his chin, forcing him to keep eye contact. “That’s no way to act. Just behave. Everything will be just fine.”

Phoenix wrenched his head free.

“Besides… we have a guest.” The man turned to Erin, amusement in his eyes. “Fiesty one isn’t he?”

Erin was taken aback by this before composing herself.

“He is…” She narrowed her eyes. “Though I thought I’d be the only one after this boy. Who are you and what do you want with him?”

The man extended a hand to her, a cool smile on his face.

“Obake is what I’m known by. I’m quite intrigued by his DNA as you are. We’re all working for the same person, are we not?” He grinned. “I thought we could study him together. Better to have a full research team but two minds can work just as well, no?”

“I suppose…” Erin raised an eyebrow at this. “I don’t recall Liv mentioning you at all in our exchanges.”

“I’m new and she hasn’t been able to inform you of me coming due to her being busy with events in San Fransokyo. She’s trying to work around the nuisances known as Big Hero 6. She just said to come and help you capture Phoenix and then introduce myself. Simple as that.”

Erin hesitated for a moment before taking his hand, giving it a firm shake.

“Well… pleasure to meet you, Obake.” She looked at her scanner again, noting she couldn’t pick up a heat signature from him.

“Pleasure to meet you too.” He let go of her hand quickly, going back to the table. “I was just debating how to go about today’s procedures. How had you planned to handle him once you captured him?” He smirked. “I just want to respect your wishes as well.”

Just keep her talking. I don’t want Shaylin to kill me just yet.

Erin crossed her arms.

“Well, I was planning to take him back to my private lab. I have specialized equipment that would be able to scan him without being too invasive. I would also have blood samples drawn, skin samples and whatever else might be of interest in understanding how he functions. Basically, I would get as much as I can before I hand him over to Liv for her own research.”

“We can easily obtain skin and blood here. If you wanted to examine him further, I have plenty of equipment for that. No expense spared.” 

Obake caught Phoenix giving him a warning look out of the corner of his eye.

Just deal with it Tadashi, I’ll get you off of the table as soon as I can.

“What do you say?”

“How about NO!?” Phoenix snapped. “You both are crazy! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“He really seems to think that screaming act will work.” Obake shrugged.

Erin chuckled, looking to Phoenix.

“Well, scream all you want. No one can hear you.” Erin looked back to Obake. “I appreciate the offer but I must insist on using my lab. Better to have a sterile environment. Plus, I do not want to leave evidence behind.”

He gave a nod.

“Very well. At the least we can prep him for the procedures here, make it less of a hassle… I assume he’ll be sedated heavily for majority of it? After all… while a dead specimen can reveal quite a bit, nothing quite like getting answers from the living.”

He walked around to stand beside Phoenix, grabbing a syringe and leaning over him. 

He lowered his voice.

“Just hold on a bit longer. Act like I’ve just done what I said I would.” He whispered. “On my signal, you can burn through these. Got it?”

Phoenix nodded.

Obake inserted the needle into Phoenix’s arm the man falling “unconscious” within moments. He looked back to Erin, giving a grin.

“He is now ready for transport.”

Erin smiled, making her way over.

“Let’s not waste any time then. My lab isn’t too far from here.”

Obake nodded, adjusting the table so it could be mobile, unhooking Phoenix from the machines. 

“By the way…” Erin started. “Why can’t I pick up a heat signature on you? My scan picks up nothing when I look at you.”

“Disrupter.” Obake showed a band he had on his wrist. “I needed one back in San Fransokyo as a safety precaution due to Big Hero 6 having a way of tracking criminals by biological information. I still keep it on just in case.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” Erin grabbed a hold of the table. “Well, right this way.”

Erin took the lead, heading out of the building. Thanks to the cloak of darkness the night provided, no one could see the two walking about with Phoenix on the table. 

It wasn’t long before they came to an abandoned electrical plant, entering from the back doors. 

While run down and battered on the outside, the inside was something much different. 

The area was pristine, the floor somewhat reflective. The walls were lined with all kinds of high tech equipment and scattered about were machines, all intended for examining and testing specimens. The centerpiece of it all, a large set of monitors, serving as the control center.

“Welcome to my humble abode.” Erin chuckled, moving ahead, giving a bow. “I haven’t really had the chance to show it off to anyone yet so this is quite an honor for me.”

“It’s impressive.”

And that’s not even a lie. Everything here is advanced and well set up. Liv never gave me anything like this while I was working under her.

“Thank you. Liv was kind enough to help me renovate the place into the beautiful lab it is now.” Erin moved in further, leading Obake inside, dancing a bit across the smooth surface of the floor. “I look forward to the day I can show it to my cohorts.”

“Cohorts?”

“Surely you know about Naoki, Coilin and Drake?”

“Those names don’t really ring any bells.”

“I guess Liv didn’t tell you about them.” Erin smiled as she started to set up some of the machinery. “They’re fellow researchers just like us, employed by Liv to look into other strange biological anomalies, all for something in return. Just wait till you hear what they found, they’re just as interesting as Bird Boy there.”

Obake raised an eyebrow, stopping the table in the middle of the room. 

“That so? I wasn’t aware Saga had more mutants.” He remarked, connecting him to the monitors. 

“More than simply mutants. All kinds of strange ones.”  Erin grinned. “I’m only after Bird Boy there, but if this goes well, you might be deployed to work with them as well. Quite the research opportunity.”

I’d rather put that tumor surgically back in my own brain, thank you. He thought, biting his lip to keep quiet. 

“I’d like to know more. So I can best assist them when the time comes. Prey tell how… strange are they?”

“With Naoki, he’s looking into a group of people who have advanced prosthetics. Not just run of the mill fancy ones, but prosthetics that might as well be living flesh with how well they function with a touch of superhuman capabilities. He’s hoping to understand how they work as a means of helping someone dear to him. For Drake and Coilin, they’re after something that I’m not sure I entirely understand myself. From what they told me, it’s a being that can create, as they put it, “healing water” that can restore anything to perfect condition. They hope to capture it and utilize it for their own means. Of course, with both and ourselves included, we’ll be sharing our research and specimens with Liv. All of our subjects have something that would be of use to her for a project she is working on. What that project is, is unknown to us. Regardless, we get to do what we want and she gets what she needs, everyone wins.”

So Liv basically has a team of freaks doing her dirty work while she sits back in her lab and looks all perfect and innocent. All for some project that no one knows about. And I used to be one of those freaks.

Obake looked down at Phoenix before looking around the room, noting a large and smaller figure sneaking around the area. 

We’re ending this now.

“Now, since you’re all filled in, we better get to testing. Though, before we do.” Erin made her way over to Phoenix, her fingers brushing gently against his helmet’s straps. “We better see who our special little boy is so I can get a picture for Liv to put on file.”

“I suppose it’d be best to see… NOW!” 

Phoenix’s head came up, headbutting Erin as hard as he could, igniting his flames as the restraints burnt away in seconds.

“GET OFF OF ME!!!”

“ACK!”

Erin didn’t have a chance to react as Obake grabbed her from behind, suplexing her with her ease. 

Erin groaned as she lied on the floor. She attempted to get up, only to be knocked down by a bo staff hitting her in the back.

“Don’t even try.”

Erin glanced behind her, seeing Kame was present.

“You…”

“Yep. Surprise, sucker.” Kame pressed her bo staff into her back. “This is for popping my stitches.”

Erin growled, her eyes looking to Obake.

“Liv WILL hear about this.”

Obake laughed, throwing his head back.

“A likely story.” He crossed his arms. “Liv hates disappointments who can’t fend for themselves.” He tsk’d, walking around her. “You may rat me out to her, but she won’t believe it’s not entirely your fault. I’m sure she offered you many things to use for subduing him. Maybe even offered you the chance to straight up euthanize him, yes?” 

“You… You were nothing but a hired hand! How would you know?”

Obake knelt down, tilting her head up so they made eye contact. He made the side of his face glow.

“Because… she had a hand in making me the man I am today.” He sneered.

Erin’s eyes widened. 

“B. Aken… You were her favorite subject to talk about. Her psychological experiment in numbing the human mind as a means of making one more susceptible to obey orders without question.”

“Correct.” Obake grinned. “And she succeeded.”

Erin growled.

“Liv will have your head.”

“Nope.” Kame prodded her bo staff into her again. “Cause she won’t even get to hear about it. Neither will your cohorts.”

Kame looked over to the computer set up, noting a small jackal robot downloading all the information from it. Erin followed her gaze, eyes widening.

“What are you-!?”

“Encrypting and downloading all your information.” Obake smirked. “You won’t have anything to present… and we weren’t even going to give you the chance to report anyway.” Obake narrowed his eyes. “A police report has already been sent. They’ll be here soon.”

Erin snarled, trying to get up, only to be knocked down again by Kame.

“You… You may take me out… but Liv and my cohorts will be there to fill in for me. You can’t stop what’s already been started. Liv will do whatever it takes to get what she wants.”

Obake scowled.

“And I will do whatever it takes to get what I want. Unfortunately, Liv taught me that lesson quite well.” He stood to his full height, moving to the monitor setup, laying his hand on the console, closing his eyes. “You won’t be needing these where you're going. Don’t worry.” he looked back at her with a smirk. “I’ll take good care of them.”

Erin sneered. She didn’t dare move. She knew it was over. She looked over to Phoenix, the man still having his flames ready. 

She smiled a bit, closing her eyes.

“Least I got to see you in action one last time, Bird Boy. Shame I didn’t get the chance to know you better.”

Phoenix growled but kept quiet. 

I have nothing to say to her. It’d just make it worse.

The noise of sirens came through from the outside as the door started to be kicked in.

“We should make ourselves scarce.” Obake looked over to Kame and Phoenix. “We’re done here.” 

“You’re coming back for this gear later huh?”

“Only if it’s not taken by the cops.”

Obake picked up the jackal robot, placing it on his shoulder.

“Got everything you need, Anubis?”

Anubis nodded, making himself comfortable.

“Alright, we’re done here.”

After cuffing Erin to one of the machines, the four dispersed from the building, letting the cops finish up the job. They all watched as they stormed the area, soon bringing Erin out. 

“Well done, guys.” Eboni said into their communication devices. “Dragoness is detained and Tadashi’s secret is safe.”

“And we have more information than we bargained for.” Obake smiled. “I’m going to ask for your assistance deciphering what we obtained.” 

“You can count on me. Just get my baby home.”

Obake petted Anubis’ head. 

“Of course.”

“Good. Seriously, you guys did amazing.”

“We make a pretty good team, huh?” Kame chuckled.

“I think so.” Phoenix crossed his arms. “Not bad for a ragtag team of vigilantes.”

Obake chuckled, bringing an arm around Kame.

“I couldn’t be prouder of my Little Star.”

“Aww Daaaad.” 

“I mean it.” He gave her a gentle look, before looking up at Phoenix. “Though, with what we learned… we can’t simply stop here. I hope you realize that.”

“I do. Others are going to get hurt if we don’t do something. So… I’m willing to go further.” Phoenix gave a serious look. “Some one has to help.”

Obake nodded, smiling.

“Just what I wanted to hear.”

[actuallyspencerreid]

Labor Pains

Requested by @mantlereid -- Once again, I am not going to put the request here as she is very specific with her requests and I do not want to spoil part 2 :) (PS. I love her requests so much and I want them to never stop.) 

Tags: @the-unfortunate-fangirl @cynbx @princesswagger14 @jason-gideon-is-my-dad @obsessivereader36 @hearts-to-the-sky @mantlereid @dreamxcollide @qu3n-elizab3th @hiya-imthatgirl @literallyprentissstwin @bauboywonder @everyday-imfangirling @spencerreidreads @spencerreidobsessed @alixcharmedworld

Word Count: 1k

------

You tossed and turned in bed, sleep evading you. You’d been having this problem for a few weeks now, back pain driving you insane. Looking over at your husband, you quietly slipped out of bed and padded your way into the kitchen.

“Couldn’t sleep Mommy?”

You were startled by your four year old son sitting in the dining room, the evidence of his late night snacking all over his face. You grabbed a spoon and sat next to him, taking a spoonful of ice cream for yourself.

“What are you doing up buddy? You know what Daddy would say about you staying up late.”

“Studies show that sleep-deprived children can become hyper or irritable, and may have a hard time paying attention in school.” You laughed quietly, leaning down to press your lips to Wade’s forehead. He was the spitting image of Spencer, down to his hunger for knowledge and eidetic memory.

“Few more bites and then it’s back to bed.” He looked up at you with his little angel eyes full of curiosity and wonder.

“You never answered my question Mommy. Is the baby making it hard for you to sleep?”

You nodded, smiling sadly as you ran your hand over your eight month pregnant belly. “Your little sister is proving to be quite the little trouble maker already.”

“Maybe you’re just stressed out.” He shoved more ice cream in his mouth, nose turning up as he experienced a quick brain freeze. “Daddy said that babies can sense things like stress.”

“Alrighty, little doctor.” You pushed the ice cream away and stood, taking his hand in yours. Ignoring the shooting pain, you walked your son to his room. “If anyone asks, I was a wonderful mother who immediately put you back in bed and didn’t sit eating ice cream with you at two o’ clock in the morning.”

“Got it.” He pressed a kiss to your cheek, leaving a sticky chocolate ring on your face, before climbing in bed. “Goodnight Mommy.”

“Goodnight baby.” You finished tucking him in and pressed another kiss to his forehead.

As you headed back to your room, you peaked your head into your seven year old daughter’s room. Michelle’s floor was covered in books, a trait she shared with her father. Stepping over her, you swiped the chocolate brown curls from her face and silently swore that this third child inherited something, anything from you.

Climbing back into your own bed, Spencer began to stir. “Everything okay, my love?”

“Everything’s fine.” You laid down, fitting into Spencer’s open arms like a puzzle. “Just needed some water. Go back to sleep.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” he chuckled, pressing his lips to the side of your neck and gently rubbing your belly. Your eyes fluttered closed as he hummed, softly drifting out of conciousness.

------

“You should really be at home, (Y/N).”

You smiled up at Hotch who looked down at you with a disappointed scowl. “I worked until delivery with my first two kids. I’m going to fill out paperwork until delivery with this one as well.”

Spencer looked up at you from his desk, shaking his head with a smirk. “You should have stopped working at least month ago, but of course three PhD’s isn’t enough for you to listen to me.”

“No it is not.” You stood, heading to the break room.

You were greeted by Derek and Penelope as you grabbed yourself a cold water bottle. “Hey momma. How’s the little one doing?”

“She’s a fighter.” You looked down at your belly. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say --”

You were cut off by the sharp pain shooting through your sides. Steadying yourself on the counter, you tried to breath through it as Penelope rushed to your side.

“(Y/N), are you okay? Derek, get Spencer!”

“No.” You tried to force out, but your brain wasn’t sending the word to your lips. The pain wouldn’t go away, increasing when you heard the sound of your husbands voice.

“Sweetheart what’s wrong?” Spencer asked as he replaced Penelope, arm around your waist to keep you steady. You tried to form words, but couldn’t as another wave of pain washed over you.

“Someone call an ambulance!”

The ringing in your ears was making it hard for you to hear. All you could focus on was your child. Please let her be okay. Please, for the love of everything that is good in this world, let my daughter be okay.

You kept repeating that in your mind, praying that everything was going to be okay even as you completely blacked out.

------

Everything was happening so fast. Your mind swam with so many images that you couldn’t make sense of anything at all. One second you were seeing Spencer, all you could see were your children. You tried to speak, to call out for them but your mind didn’t seem to want to work with your mouth. You could feel yourself being moved, but you couldn’t tell where or by who. All you could see was your family.

“We’re losing her.” Those words were clear to you. No! Save her! Please!

You struggled against the arms you felt holding you. “We’re going to have to sedate her.”

“Is that going to affect the baby?” Spencer! Finally a voice you recognized.

“Sir, we’re doing everything we can to save your wife and child. We might have to perform an emergency C-section.”

“Risks of a cesarean include blood clots, hemorrhaging, and reaction to anesthesia.” You wanted to laugh at Spencer. Of course he would be spouting facts that the doctors already knew. Unfortunately for you, the only sound you could make was that of a pained scream.

Suddenly, you were cold. Freezing cold. Prying your eyes open, all you could see was cloudy grey skys and Spencer’s worried face. Glancing down, he offered you a sad smile.

“You’re going to be okay.” His eyes told you that he was lying. “Eveything is going to be okay.”

You nodded, eyes closing again as you felt the pain in your abdomen. Spencer’s voice was distant, urging you to stay with him, but you couldn’t resist letting your eyes close and your mind shut off.

To be continued...

[ohmytheon]

There’s Something About Bakugou (2/4)

title: There’s Something About Bakugou

summary: After Bakugou is hit by a villain’s unknown quirk that produces some strange side effects, both Uraraka and Kirishima have a very interesting day trying to help him.

notes: Sorry I’m not sorry about this dumb story. I love Kirishima with all my heart. He’s a good boy. He deserves everything. And this is what he gets. Ignore my sad attempts at a plot and just run with this mess.

Kirishima arrived forty minutes later and not a second too soon. Bakugou had gone oddly silent in the past ten minutes, although she knew that he was awake. It made her anxious. He was probably plotting something or trying to figure out a way around her quirk. With his hands cuffed behind his back and his quirk inhibited, it left him with as few options as she had. When Uraraka ushered Kirishma inside like they were in some sort of secret club, he gave her a weird look, but he didn’t say anything.

“So, uh, what’s up?” Kirishima asked. Although he was wearing a loose t-shirt, he was still wearing the pants of his hero costume, having come straight from work without even changing completely. Bless him. “Where’s Bakugou?”

Uraraka rubbed her arms and let out the most nervous, awkward chuckle of her entire life, which only made Kirishima look at her even more oddly. “Well, um, about that… He’s kind of...tied up at the moment.” He gave her a look that told her he was both confused and needed her to continue. “So he got hit with that quirk and he seemed fine at first, but then, um, well, he started acting really weird and, uh…”

Suddenly, Kirishima locked in on something, his eyes going wide, and he pointed at her. “Is that a hickey?”

One of Uraraka’s hands flew up her neck to cover what was most definitely a hickey that she hadn’t even been aware that she’d had ( Damnit, Bakugou, you can’t just go marking people ) and she flushed deeply. “N-no!” He gave her a flat look with pursed lips and put his hands on his hips. He definitely wasn’t believing her. “Maybe?” She hid her face in her hands, leaving the hickey out in the open to be seen, but it was better than her face right now. “I can’t deal with him right now. He...he pretty much mauled me and tried to, um, have sex with me in the kitchen.”

Kirishima choked on whatever words he was going to say and managed a single, “What?”

Uraraka pulled her hands away from her face. “I think the villain has some sort of lust quirk. I’ve been combing through the hospital reports of his victims, but they kind of vary--”

“I need you to slow down.”

“--Like they seemed okay at first, maybe a little out of it, but that was it,” Uraraka continued, having built too much momentum and panic while waiting for Kirishima to arrive. “It was only until their significant others showed up that extreme changes in their behavior popped up. One nurse walked in on the third victim and her boyfriend. It was, uh, pretty graphic. Apparently they’d been trying to wait until marriage, but the woman was very….insistent.”

Letting out a tired sigh, a bemused expression on his face, Kirishima sat down on the couch. “So Bakugou has been hit by this quirk and he -- what? -- really wants to get laid?” Uraraka shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “It sounds like it’s picky though. He didn’t try dry humping anyone else at the office?”

“As far as I know, no….” Uraraka didn’t want to admit that she didn’t like the idea of Bakugou being all over another girl, especially at work, but she would’ve no doubt heard something if he had. She didn’t think it likely though. He had sounded as if he’d been caught off guard by the sudden, overwhelming need for her. “From what he said, he felt mostly normal until we made contact.”

Kirishima rubbed his head. “And the other victims reacted that way with their significant others only?”

“Well, there were only two exceptions: one man, who was fine around his wife, but went ballistic when his brother-in-law showed up.”

“Oh, awkward.”

“And the other man was single. He was arrested three days after being discharged.” Uraraka scrolled through the report that she’d downloaded onto her phone. “He tried breaking into his neighbor’s apartment and kept shouting very descriptive actions. He had to be restrained and sedated.”

There was a long pause in which both of them considered their options. Uraraka wasn’t too sure what to make of the reports, but she had an idea. The only issue was that she was the problem. Bakugou hadn’t reacted this way towards anyone else at the office or the people he’d talked to at the scene of the villain attack. He had admitted to only feeling this way after seeing and touching her. But it sounded so silly to think that it was because of her.

“Maybe…” Uraraka bit her lip. “Maybe the quirk centers around the people the affected person is attracted to.” That nervous laughter bubbled to the surface though and she waved a hand frantically. “But that’s silly! Bakugou isn’t attracted to me.”

“You just said he tried to screw you in the kitchen.” Kirishima snorted, looking half-amused by Uraraka’s flustered reaction and half-flabbergasted himself. “You’re wrong though. He’s most definitely attracted to you. He rants about you all the damn time.”

Uraraka blinked. “He...does?” She couldn’t believe it. Kirishima said it like it was nothing, but meant quite a bit to her. Not that anything would come about it.

“Yeah, so I think your theory makes sense.” Kirishima stood up and wiped his hands on his pants. “I guess you need me to deal with him, right?”

“He’s, uh, really strong,” Uraraka said thickly, not sounding her smartest after an hour of detective work.

Kirishma interlocked his fingers together, flipped his hands to pop his fingers, and then raised them over his head to stretch, like he was about to go do a work out. Dealing with Bakugou in this state might be just that. “So where is that explosive bastard?”

“He’s, er... handcuffed on the ceiling of his bedroom.”

The silence that stretched between them was definitely uncomfortable as Kirishima stared at her. “You know, I know what you were going for, Uraraka,” he told her, “but that’s really fucking kinky.”

“I didn’t know what else to do!” Uraraka exclaimed. “You don’t know what he was like!”

Kirishima gave her a smirk. “I’m starting to realize why he’s so crazy about you, damn.” She reached out to smack him on the arm and he didn’t even bother trying to pull away from her, merely laughing in response. “I’ve never thought of having sex while floating in the air, but now…”

“Would you just go deal with him after I deactivate my quirk?” Uraraka snapped, itching to put her fingers together again. She had been holding onto her quirk for so long. She’d built up a tolerance and also strength and it helped that she wasn’t using it on herself, but almost an hour straight was putting a strain on her. “I can’t go in there. You didn’t hear him screaming. I’m surprised his neighbors haven’t called the police. Thank gods he lives on the top floor.”

“They’re probably used to it,” Kirishima said distractedly as he swaggered towards the bedroom door. She followed after him much more timidly. She wasn’t the type of girl that shied away from a fight, but this was something else entirely. He grabbed the doorknob. “Okay, one, two, three - go.”

As Kirishima slipped inside the room and hastily shut the door, Uraraka pressed her fingers all together and said, “Release.” She heard Bakugou shout and then there was the loud thump of him landing on the bed. She had been worried that he might’ve scooted somewhere around the room in an attempt to get down, therefore causing him to land elsewhere, but he hadn’t.

Uraraka breathed a sigh of relief and sagged against the door. Kirishima might be able to talk some sense into him, maybe get him to cool it until the quirk wore off or convince him to go to the hospital. She wasn’t sure what else they could do besides wait. According the the reports, the only person to recover quickly had been the one that had had sex with her fiance at the hospital. She didn’t know what she would’ve done without Kirishima here.

Of course, Uraraka about jumped out of her skin when Kirishima began practically shrieking, “Uraraka! Uraraka, get in here no-- oomph! Damnit, Bakugou, sto--”

Kirishima’s shouts for help were so unexpected that Uraraka burst into the room without thinking. What she saw had her coming to a complete halt. Kirishima must have been halfway through taking the handcuffs off when Bakugou had turned on him, except instead of fighting him, Bakugou had Kirishima pinned on the bed and was straddling him, his knees digging into the bed around Kirishima’s hips. The redhead’s eyes were wide with shock as she struggled to shove Bakugou off of him, but Bakugou seemed viciously determined to give Kirishima a hickey that matched Uraraka’s.

“Uraraka!”

“I--” She leaped into action, jumping on the bed so that she had a better angle. Grabbing Bakugou’s wrist that didn’t have a handcuff on it, she pulled on it hard and around his back again. Despite being distracted, he was ready for her this time. He rolled with her as she pulled. Since she was standing on a wobbly mattress, she lacked any balance and went toppling over him and Kirishima, flopping on the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of her.

Before she could get up though, Bakugou’s attention switched to her and he knocked her back onto her stomach as she was pushing herself up. “Told you I’d fuck you up,” he hissed hotly in her ear with such a heated promise that she couldn’t help but squeak. His body was as solid as a rock on top of her. He must have been biding his time in here, waiting for her to mess up.

But then Kirishima was pulling Bakugou off of her. He set out a few kicks and explosions, but Kirishima took the brunt of them with his hardening quirk and managed to handcuff him again. “Now, Uraraka!” She threw a hand back and snatched him around the ankle, activating her quirk once more, and then threw him to the ceiling. He hit it much harder the second time around and was four times as furious, kicking and bucking uselessly, while Kirishima helped Uraraka back to her feet and they staggered into the living room.

As if barely able to stand on his feet, Kirishima all but collapsed back on the couch, a shell-shocked expression on his face. “Holy shit.” He ran his fingers through his red hair, making it stand on end even more. It looked more of a mess than usual from Bakugou yanking on it. “Holy shit .”

“Did he--?” Uraraka managed to gasp out, bent over with her hands on her knees.

Blush flooded Kirishima’s cheeks almost as red as his hair. “Yeah, um, I-I think you were understating when you said ‘insistent’. I’m thinking more like crazed.” He leaned back against the couch and sucked in a gulp of air. “You let him down and he complained about how ridiculous you are, but then the second I uncuffed him, it was like he just snapped and he rounded on me.”

“Right when you touched him,” Uraraka said, standing up straight.

“Maybe it activates on touch?”

Uraraka twisted her lips into a frown. “He bumped shoulders with a man on our way inside and didn’t try to maul him or anything. And none of the victims reacted to any of the doctors, nurses, or paramedics.”

“So...there has to be some level of attraction or desire already.”

“I guess so…”

That left Uraraka and Kirishima staring at each other awkwardly, a million and one things settling in between them as this theory and the knowledge it brought sat in the forefront of their minds. There was a matching hickey on Kirishima’s neck, although his looked angrier, probably as a result of Bakugou’s frustration at being stuck on the ceiling for so long. He was manic with desire at this point.

“How long does this last?” Kirishima finally asked, tearing his eyes away from her.

Pulling up information again on her phone, Uraraka read through a bit of it quickly. “Looks like it varies. Two days seems to be the maximum, twelve hours the minimum, but there’s no way to determine how long it will be.”

Kirishima groaned. “Two days? We have to get him to a hospital. You can’t keep your quirk on him for that long and short of tying him up or sedating him somehow, I don’t know what else we could do.” He shook his head. “ We can’t even do anything about it. I swear it gave him super strength somehow. I couldn’t get up no matter what.”

Uraraka bit her lip. “Did you hesitate to?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, did you hesitate to push him away? You know, because you kind of…”

Kirishima’s nostrils flared as he breathed through his nose, but then he looked away from her, guilt seeping onto his face. Kirishima had never been known for being able to hide how he felt. A part of her had always thought that he had a thing for Bakugou, but he’d never acted on it when they had been in school. Maybe he hadn’t known what to do with those feelings. Uraraka certainly didn’t know now even after graduating. She’d never even acted fully on her feelings for Deku, leaving them to fade away until one day she’d realized they weren’t there.

“Gods, this is embarrassing,” Kirishima huffed.

“Feels kind of surreal, doesn’t it?” Uraraka admitted, sitting down on the other end of the couch.

“It’s been…” Kirishima gazed down at his feet. “I mean, it’s been for a while, but he never seemed interested in me that way. I thought maybe and then you two started working together, so I just…”

“Told yourself that it was never going to happen and to give it up?”

Kirishima laughed awkwardly. “When you put it that way, it sounds kind of sad.”

“If you makes you feel any better, I never acted on how I felt because I thought he might be into you,” Uraraka offered. He shot her an incredulous yet hopeful look. She’d never been good at hiding how she felt either, although she had eventually learned to do it somewhat. Still, she recognized that expression on his face because she felt it as well. “If this is any indicator, I think he’s more attracted to you. You’re much more attractive and you’re stronger; you’re funny and kind.” She flopped back on the couch and squeezed her eyes shut as her face screwed up in frustration. “I’m sorry. That sounded so...petty.”

“Stop it, Uraraka, it really doesn’t, not when I was thinking the same thing before about you,” Kirishima confessed.

They heard a thump in the bedroom where Bakugou must have tried getting down from the ceiling, only to float back up and hit it again. Her quirk tugged at her gut just a twinge, but she ignored it. She did feel a bit sick, but it had nothing to do with her quirk right now. She kind of felt like she’d fallen into an alternate dimension or maybe she was dreaming.

“This must be really weird for you,” Kirishima said, sounding uncomfortable, like he didn’t want to say anything. Uraraka looked away from the bedroom door back to him. He rubbed the back of his neck. “You like a guy only to find out that he likes his best friend...again?”

Uraraka had not admitted to thinking about just that, but honestly, it was impossible to miss. First Deku, who had turned out to have feelings for Todoroki, and now this? That had been an awkward enough situation as it was. In the end, she’d ignored it until finally the crush was just gone and any lingering feelings of jealousy or resentment had transformed into a close bond with Todoroki. It had been neither his nor Deku’s fault that her feelings could not be returned and honestly she was so happy for them both now.

However, to have something similar happen to her for a second time, except this time knowing that at least some feelings were returned, even if it was just attraction, was absolutely absurd and stupid. Was the universe conspiring against her? Did it want her to be alone? Because there was no way she was going to fight this. She didn’t have the energy or desire to do that to Kirishima, who had been nothing but a kind and good friend to her. Now that it was out in the open, she could see how much he liked Bakugou, which made things all the more awkward for her to recognize those same feelings in herself.

It put both of them in a terrible position where neither one would try to compete with the other and she had a bad feeling that it would end up with both of them ignoring how they felt.

Ugh, of course, this had to happen right when she had begun to tell herself to fucking do something about how she felt instead of hiding.

“It’s okay,” Uraraka told him, already feeling herself accept defeat, whatever that might entail. To be honest, she cared about Kirishima too much to do anything that might hurt him. Still didn’t mean that this didn’t sting.  “I mean, at this point, I should expect it -- that I’m always going to be a second choice.”

“Hey now!” Kirishima turned on her sharply. “You are not a second choice. You’re not a back up. You are nothing like that.” She gave him a sour look that told him he didn’t have to say these things, but she appreciated them nonetheless. It only seemed to rile Kirishima up more and he twisted in his seat so that his entire body was facing her. “I’m serious. You’re Ochako Uraraka, Uravity, the Zero Gravity Hero. You’re kickass. You’re empathetic. You’re cute as hell. You’re like…” He waved a hand in the air. “You’re like lightning in a bottle.”

Uraraka snorted. “What?”

“I don’t know,” Kirishima said, shaking his head. “You know, you’re like… You’re really pretty to look at, but you can be dangerous as all get out when you’re in a fight.”

Uncontrollable giggles began to tumble out of Uraraka. “I think you’re spending too much time around Kaminari.” Even though they could still hear Bakugou struggling in the other room, she felt a little lighter. Kirishima had always had that effect on people though. He brought everyone together. Back in school, he had very often been the bridge between Bakugou’s group and Deku’s. “Thank you though.”

“I’m just saying,” Kirishima pressed on, folding his arms across his chest, “if I got hit with that lust quirk, we would not be talking on this couch right now.”

“Kirishima!” Uraraka wrung her hands anxiously on top of her knees. “You don’t have to say that. It’s okay.”

The boy didn’t even have the decency to look ashamed or embarrassed, looking her directly in the eyes without a hint of blinking. He definitely spent too much time around Bakugou. “I’m not lying.”

This time, when they stared at each other, there was something very different in the air, a kind of charge that almost propelled her forward, but Uraraka did not have the willpower to dissect it. She felt like she’d run a ten k and came home to find out that all of her furniture had been moved and she wasn’t even aware of how she’d come up with that analogy but it worked. Kirishima was not the lying type -- he had too good of a heart -- but it was still strange to hear it. Uraraka had gotten a lot better about her confidence in herself, not needing it from other people as much anymore, but everyone had their insecurities, even heroes. She knew that Bakugou and Kirishima did as well, although it came out in different ways.

“Thanks, Kirishima,” Uraraka told him, reaching out to squeeze his hand.

Kirishima winked at her. “I mean, any time you’re down for an intimate encounter on the ceiling…” She smacked him on the leg with her free hand again and he laughed once more.

“You all having fun out there without me, you bastards!” Bakugou screamed from the bedroom, his voice only slightly muffled. Uraraka pulled her hand away as she and Kirishima cringed, no longer able to avoid why they were here in the first place. “You’re literally driving me up a wall! Let me down, Uraraka, or I swear to everything, you’re going to regret it!”

Sighing, Uraraka unfolded her legs and set her feet back down on the ground. “I already do.”

“So what are we going to do about this?” Kirishima asked her. “Do we just wait or call an ambulance? Did no one figure out a cure for this quirk once a person is affected?”

“Well, the woman who was caught being intimate with her boyfriend at the hospital…” Uraraka really did not want to bring this up, but it had to be said. She’d originally thought that maybe the quirk had just worn off, but judging from the nature of this quirk and Bakugou’s erratic behavior, she knew that she was wrong. “Afterwards, she was fine, back to normal. Plenty confused and exhausted, but she was completely coherent.”

“Oh.” Kirishima swallowed a lump in his throat. “That is...one hell of a cure.”

Uraraka didn’t think her cheeks could handle blushing much longer. Her whole body felt hot now. “We don’t even know if...one time would work. Apparently, they went at it for a while before the occupant next door complained that someone was watching, uh, porn in the other room.”

“So if we want Bakugou to go back to normal right away…”

They connected eyes and burst out into hysterical, panicked laughter at the same time, pressing their hands to their mouth to try to stop themselves.

Once she’d managed to contain herself, Uraraka slid her hands from her mouth to cover her eyes. This could not be real. When she’d pictured doing something with Bakugou, it had not been under any of these circumstances and she had not been talking about it so upfront with Kirishima, who was also into him. She was going to have weird dreams about this until she was on her deathbed. It brought up way too many uncomfortable feelings that she did not want to figure out.

“We can’t do that,” Kirishima said, dropping his hands. “It’s not right with him under the influence of that quirk.”

“I know.”

“Even if he did want to do it before getting hit with the quirk, even if it’s just taken out his control, it feels wrong. He’s not in his right mind.”

“Agreed.”

Kirishima fixed her with a look. “Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to us either.”

She hadn’t thought of it that way -- that it would be a sacrifice on their part -- but now that he’d said it, she couldn’t help but agree. As usual, she had only been considering how he might feel about the whole thing and not what it would mean for her. Uraraka knew that she was sometimes too sentimental, but she could admit that she wanted a little romance.

“Let me see your phone real quick,” Kirishima said. “I want to look something up in the documents real quick.” She handed it over to him. As he searched through it, she tugged at her uniform again. She’d still not changed out of her hero costume, only getting rid of the excess gear, and she was getting really uncomfortable, especially after that whole fiasco on the kitchen table, but she had nothing to change into. “I’ve got an idea.”

That distracted Uraraka from her costume situation. “Yeah?”

“Goddamnit, you assholes!” Bakugou shouted, a loud bang against the bedroom door that startled Uraraka. He must’ve managed to scoot towards it on the ceiling.

Kirishima gave her a grim look. “Bakugou is not going to like it one bit.” She didn’t think he would like anything if it didn’t involve him mauling one of them, maybe both. Oh boy, now there was a thought. She was going to give herself a headache or a heart attack at this rate. She had to get her mind out of the gutter, but it was hard. “So, with the second victim, his girlfriend came to visit with her best friend. The guy started acting crazy with her, so she had to leave the room. The doctors didn’t know what was going on at the time -- they thought it was a domestic spat -- so the best friend went in there to confront him for scaring his girlfriend and he just stopped.”

Uraraka furrowed her brow. “She was able to cancel it out?”

“That’s what it reads like to me,” Kirishima said with a shrug of his shoulders. “He went right back to it when the girlfriend came back in though.”

“I wonder why.”

“Well, he kept shouting for the friend to get out of the room, called her some pretty nasty names.” Kirishima handed her phone back to her so that she could look through what he’d been reading. “It sounded like he really didn’t like her at all.”

Uraraka hummed thoughtfully. “So his feelings for her were like the opposite of attraction.” He nodded his head. She looked up at him. “Okay, so if someone who Bakugou doesn’t like comes over, then maybe the quirk will be inhibited around them until it completely wears off, as long as we stay away.”

A weak smile crossed Kirishima’s face. “I’ve got the perfect person in mind.”

It hit Uraraka like one of Bakugou’s explosions to the face. “Oh no. He is really not going to like that.”

But it was either that or the hospital and she had a feeling that Bakugou would rather ride this quirk out without being subjected to doctors. He hated getting checked up by their medic at work, preferring to tend to his wounds on his own. He didn’t like anyone to know when he was injured or it made him think people were looking at him like he was weak.

“If this doesn’t work, he goes to the hospital,” Uraraka sighed. “Either way, there’s going to be some serious consequences.”

Whatever. They would get passed them. She had to make sure he was okay. If not for Bakugou pushing her out of the way, it would’ve been her affected with this weird lust quirk and she did not want to think about what might’ve happened then. She probably would’ve tried climbing Bakugou like a tree at work. Now that would’ve been humiliating. She would’ve had to change her name and flee the country. She wasn’t quite sure if she wouldn’t have to do that now once the quirk wore off Bakugou.

“Well, this has been an enlightening day,” Kirishima quipped as Uraraka made the phone call.

Uraraka blew a tired raspberry. Seriously. It was exhausting.

[iamsarsa]

unfinished drabbles

there’s three here? none of them finished so excuse the roughness. They’re all mostly centered on All Might & Sayu. Two of the three are angst-y so you know.

:3

First one takes place during the Sports Festival, Second one takes places during Stain’s apprehending. Third takes place in the hospital after Sayu’s fight with Stain.

-----

"This is... so, damn dull,” Sayuri sighed, letting herself fall back against the roof, putting her hands behind her head as she stared up at the clear sky. Her assigned security detail was stiflingly boring - she almost wished that she was back on the field performing again despite her embarrassment at having to relive her idol days for the sake of fans. 

"And to top it all off, I’m... so freakin’ hungry!" Her stomach had been growling for the past thirty minutes, and she knew she wouldn't have the time to go and grab any sort of snack or food. She hadn't had the time to make a lunch for either her or Toshinori, and they both had just assumed they'd be able to grab food at the festival. Of course for him, he was just there to support the first years and to make appearances as All Might, so grabbing food for him wasn’t an issue. Sayu however had found herself unable to get away from her duties to go and grab even a single stick of yakitori. As soon as she had finished her performance on the field and after a few quick autographs signed - she made her way to her assigned security detail without hesitation. No rest for a Hero, after all. 

She let out a dejected sigh now, glancing down at the food stalls longingly. The smells had somehow become stronger, the hungrier she got and she let out a groan of frustration as her stomach grumbled and her mouth watered.

"What am I gonna do... I can't be expected to fight on any empty stomach, right? Maybe I can sneak down for just a quick bite, the other heroes here will be fine and besides what can happen in like 5 minutes?" She had begun to mutter to herself, and hadn't noticed the looming shadow that had suddenly cast itself over her.

"I'll tell you what you're going to do... you're going to stop worrying! For I am-AUGH!"

She took no time in twisting her body to aim a kick at whoever had opted to sneak up behind her. It connected easily, nearly sending the large man across the roof and she turned to look at her would-be attacker, letting out a sudden shriek of realization and tripping over herself to kneel beside him.

"Shit! Tosh- All Might! Dammit, honey! Why the hell would you sneak up on me?! What are you even doing up here?" She knelt beside the larger Hero, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders and peppering his face with kisses, "You idiot! You scared me, you're lucky I didn't use my full strength!" 

"A-ah... it's, alright! I'm... I'm oka-urk!" All Might's words cut off as steam released from his body and he shrunk down to his normal state, blood leaking from his mouth. He glanced up at Sayuri, wincing at the worried expression now on her face. His plan of surprising his sweetie had somehow backfired, and now he had her worried again. Not exactly what he had envisioned in any sense.

"You were saying?" His wife replied, glowering over him with worry written on her face and annoyance dripping from her words, "You really need to be more careful. How in the hell did you not dodge that anyway? You had the clear advantage, I had no idea you had snuck up on me."

He sat up, rubbing the back of his head and wiping the blood from his chin and offering up his best dazzling smile, "Because it was you of course, Sayu. My guard is always down around you...! How could I ever retaliate against my angel of a wife?”

"Cute... endearing even, but I'd rather not injure my already grievously injured husband. So next time, please dodge." She sighed, shaking her head before helping him to sit up and allowing him to envelop her in his arms for a hug where he placed a soft kiss on her forehead when she moved her head to look up at him, "But really, why are you here? You should be with the other teachers, shouldn't you? Not getting knocked out by your own wife, and what if someone sees us, I mean I know people are busy with the festival but still...”

He cut her worried words with a soft pat on her head before replying, "There's currently a break so the students can regroup themselves, so I thought it'd be okay if I snuck off to see how you were doing. I doubt anyone of note will see us up on the roof darling, and anyway, I knew you'd be hungry by now, so I thought I'd bring you something to eat!”

"You brought me food!?" She turned her body to face him, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him, her anger suddenly dissipating at the mention of food, "This is why you're the best husband ever, sweetie!"

"Yeah, I brought you one of everything... extras of your favorite too. They didn't seem to think it was all that weird that All Might bought nearly an entire stalls worth of yakitori. Heh, if only they knew how insatiable your appetite is. Anyway... it's all in those baskets, hopefully it didn't get all mixed up when I got knocked down." He pointed out the baskets he had brought with him that were sitting on their sides, but thankfully seemed to be in one piece.

She closed her eyes, and he watched as the two baskets drifted over to where the two sat, settling down in front of them. He wasn't particularly hungry himself, and instead decided to wrap his arms around his wife, propping his chin ontop of her head to watch her eat. Despite their very obvious size difference, him being 7'2" no matter what form he was in and her being a comparatively diminutive even 5', she seemed to always fit perfectly in his arms. "Here," She had offered up a stick of yakitori, her arm reaching back towards him so the meat was right in front of his mouth, "Do not tell me you're not hungry, you need to eat, Toshinori." He winced at the sound of his real name, and leaned forward to take a bit of the offered yakitori, and he felt her head shift as she nodded in approval. "You haven't been worried about me, have you? There's really no need to be I'm fin-urk..." He stopped as he felt her elbow dig into him and instead leaned over to kiss her on the cheek rather than finish his sentence.

------

It was that feeling, all over again... that intense bloodlust... the murderous rage that made her blood run cold. She could hear herself screaming, she could see Toshi's body in front of her again, that moment playing itself out in front of her yet again. Looming over his crumpled and broken body, the man of her nightmares getting ready to strike over and over again against the battered love of her life. This wasn’t happening again, it couldn’t be.. could it? And yet, she could see it right in front her eyes once more.  "Power Angel? Power Ange e...el..." People were calling her name but they sounded so distant, so far away... their words seemed to melt into oblivion as she felt herself push her body up, running towards the scene unfolding in front of her. She couldn’t this happen again, she couldn’t let him get hurt again due to her own failings, her own existence becoming the very distraction that led to his blood being spilled.  "I won't... won't let you... I WON'T LET YOU HURT HIM!" She let out a scream, hurling herself towards the man, feeling her fist connect with his face, grabbing the scarf around his neck to gain a grip to pummel him further. She could only see red, her ears buzzing unpleasantly as she screamed, feeling blood and bile beginning their ascent up her throat. Her strength was waning, she knew that... but she had to stop, had too, otherwise... otherwise... "Sayuri! Sayu! You've got to stop! Listen to me, dammit!" Stop? How could she stop when this monster was killing Toshi in front of her all over again? She felt her body shudder and shake with the sobs wracking her body as someone pulled her away from the target of her hatred and she collapsed against the ground, still screaming and struggling.

"Endeavor,  keep her down until medics arrive to sedate her! You two, stop gawking and grab her legs, she's stronger than she looks!"

"LET ME GO... PLEASE... HE'S KILLING HIM, YOU HAVE TO LET ME GO. TOSHI... TOSHINORI!" Pain wracked her body as she felt her body slam into concrete and she finally felt the sick taste of blood and vomit pass her lips. Strong arms kept her down, and she felt flames lick at her back and she cursed at herself for allowing weakness to take over her. Blackness threatened to overcome her vision and she struggled to keep her eyes open. "P-Please... you have to stop-stop him...All...All For One..." She let out one last sob as she felt her body become numb as the darkness finally overtook her sight and she felt herself slip away at last... one last thought rising up...

Please don’t leave me.

-----

When she woke up, she felt a familiar comforting presence resting on top of her and her eyes fluttered open - seeing the familiar frizzy blonde head nestled onto her lap. "T...Toshi..." She managed to croak out his name, lifting an arm littered with IVs to place on top of his head. Tears spilled out in relief at seeing him in front of her, still alive, that skinny body breathing steadily on her lap, his hair the same mess it always was. She could barely remember what had happened, but she did remember the fear... the sudden flashback of that night - how she felt uncontrollable in the face of the memory that had unfurled before her eyes. In front of her Toshinori stirred at her words, the grip he had on her other hand tightening as he sat up. Realizing she was awake and staring at him (with tears running down her face no less), he leaned forward instantly, embracing her tightly as she began to sob, his hands moving to cradle her head against his chest. "Oh Sayu, honey...  I rushed here as soon as Gran Torino called me. I should've been there. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." His voice cracked as he placed reassuring kisses on her face, and she turned herself so he'd catch her lips. He willingly obliged her as she brought her hands up to tangle in his hair, pressing his lips firmly against her - and he could feel the streaks of tears running down her face. When she pulled away, he could feel she was trembling - shivering as though she were cold and unable to ever become warm again and it made his heart sink that she had still had the fear running through her veins.  So he wrapped his arms around her body (had she always felt so frail?) and pulled her up to be embraced by his arms. "Sshh... sshh... it's alright. I'm here, honey." He felt her body slowly still, and finally he heard her simply sniffling rather than outright sobbing, “I’m alive, I’m alive... okay? Nobody hurt me, I was all the way in Tokyo, I wasn’t there that night. You’re safe too.” Slowly, he felt her body begin to still, and her sobs turned to tiny sniffles as her hands relaxed their hold on his shirt. "I'm sorry..." She finally whispered, her voice dull and lifeless, “I’m sorry, I-” "For what?" He leaned back, bringing a hand up to cup her face, "You saved the students, and for what it matters, you dealt the finishing blow to the Hero Killer to allow him to be apprehended. You did well, my angel...” "But I-" She shook her head, "I lost control... when he, when he got up - that bloodlust it. I don’t know who stopped me but if they hadn’t... Toshi I-” She choked on his name and tears threatened to spill out once more. All Might leaned down to kiss her again, lifting her chin up so she could look into his eyes properly, "Don't. Don't think about it Sayu. Please, you'll just upset yourself again, I can't..." He rested his head against hers, using his thumb to wipe away a stray tear as he took his own deep breaths to calm himself, "I can't bear to think you're hurting... It-I... I hate it when you're the one person I can't save. Seems to be happening a lot more lately. I can't seem to keep up...”

[hotchnerfuckmeup]

Gone Pt. 7

Previous parts

Aaron Hotchner x Reader

So I’ve been MIA for about a week now?  Idk how long it’s been, but I’m ready to get back into the groove of writing, I really need to.  Also side note: there are over 1,000 of you (!!!)  Thanks so much for following and continuing to enjoy my stories.  I feel so blessed to have every single on of you!

Thank you guys for your continuous love and support for this story.  Things are about to get angsty all over again (as if it wasn’t that way already), so get ready.  No warnings on this one.

Recap so I don’t have to put a previously on:  Scratch has revealed he’s been staking the Bureau and Hotch’s family.  After Aaron decided to spend time with the team, Y/N and JJ get kidnapped by Scratch.  He leaves them a taunting message after fleeing on the jet.

Tags (if you’d like to be added/removed, let me know): @sapphire1727 @zugzwangcm-comment-account @louisespecter @innocent-reid @fandomsunitedtogetherforever @dramaticlove @sodonutnut

Masterlist

“Tell me you can track it,” he asked Penelope desperately, watching her type away at the keyboard.

“I- I’m trying sir but it’s not coming up.  He must have cut off the signal,” she replied.  ‘Access Denied’ floated across the screen in white letters.  For the first time in a long time, the computer genius didn’t know what to do.  “Everything’s blocked, I can’t do anything.”  She sounded completely helpless.

“How is that possible?” Emily asked.  She looked across all the monitors in confusion.

“I’m gonna kill that son of a bitch,” Will said, pacing out the room.  Aaron followed.

“Will, we need to keep our heads on straight and think rationally about this.”

“My children need their mother-”

“So do mine,” Aaron interrupted him, but Will kept on.

“I need my wife.  I’m not gonna let that piece of shit get away with this and I can’t sit here not doing anything.”  He was almost to the front door of the bullpen when Aaron called out to him again.

“Where are you going to go?”

Will stopped in his tracks, his hand halting as it reached the door.  It wasn’t a bad question.  He didn’t know where they were, and Penelope would take a really long time figuring it out from the looks of it.

“I know this isn’t what you want to hear right now, but all we can do is wait.  Whether we wait for him to call us again, or until Garcia can find them.  But that’s what it’s going to take, and I can’t let you go out there because if you don’t make it back alive, there’s a chance that JJ might not either.  I know you don’t want that,” Aaron finished, saying everything not only for Will but himself too.  Will’s hand fell limply to sides, signifying his defeat.  “You can’t leave your kids, Will.  They will always need their mother, but right now, they need their father more than anything.”

Will looked over to Michael and Henry, a single tear falling from his eye.

“If you want to think keeping anyone safe, then think about them.  Don’t do anything you’ll come to regret.”

“Daddy?” Henry said quietly, looking up at his father.  Tara gently pushed him towards Will while holding Michael on her hip.

“It’s okay buddy,” Will said, kneeling down while Henry ran up into his arms.  “Everything’s gonna be okay.”

Aaron took the chance too look over at his own children.  AJ was in Spencer’s grasp, clinging to the genius as he looked at his father.  Jack was holding onto his little brother’s tiny hand while looking sadly at his father.

Seeing his family two down was enough to make him break, a silent tear rolling down his cheek.  It just felt like the world was slowly crumbling beneath him and the worst part was that there wasn’t anything he could do about it.  He just had to wait for Scratch to make a move.  

And that was the worst part about it: the waiting.

Her head hung limply towards the ground, but she was regaining her consciousness. 

Rolling her head, she felt an ache in her neck and winced at the pain.  Finally opening her eyes, Y/N found herself tied to a chair.  There were bandages covering her torso, dried blood all over from the gunshot wound from earlier.

Wait.

How much earlier?

She looked around, unsure of how long she’d been out.  The band aid on her arm was a sign he’d sedated her.  She was in some kind of basement, a staircase at the back of the cold room.  What day was it?  Where was she?

Then she saw JJ across the room, her body drooping in the chair she was attached to.  Y/N attempted to move her arms, but she was so tightly bound that it was no use. 

“JJ,” she whisper-shouted.  The blond remained still, showing no signs of life.  Y/N wiggled in her seat, trying to move the chair completely but ultimately failing when she looked down to see it was nailed to the floor.  There was no escaping.

“Y/N?” a distant voice said.  She recognized it.

“Aaron?” she said loudly.  The sound of her boyfriend’s voice was enough to make her want to scream.

“Y/N?” he said again.

“Aaron!  We’re down here!!” she shouted, her hoarse voice carrying throughout the room.

“There you are,” Aaron’s voice said.  The door at the top of the stairs opened, but whoever was waiting at the top step didn’t move.

“I knew I’d find you in here.  You love to bake.”  Aaron’s voice was unusually happy.  It showed no signs of worry of anger.  But then, she recognized the conversation.

“Jack, tell your father what we made.”

Tears began to fall from her eyes as she sat in the chair, listening to her own voice.

“Cookies!” the child replied enthusiastically.  

She remembered the day Aaron came home to her and Jack in the kitchen, baking cookies for his birthday.

Slowly, the man at the top of the stairs began to walk down, his steps heavy on each level.

“For me?” Aaron asked happily.  She remembered the way he looked at them with such adoration, like everything was right with the world.

“Happy birthday babe,” Y/N replied, giving him a kiss on the lips.  She remembered the hug the three of them shared, how happy and content they were.

And how they were together in that moment, thinking nothing would ever come in between them.

“Seem familiar?” he asked as he closed the laptop, stopping the playback of a recording.  

Y/N’s lips trembled.  He’d not only been stalking Jack.  He’d been stalking all of them.   He’d been watching them, recording their conversations and listening in on their private and intimate moments.

“I recall that being Hotchner’s birthday, correct?” he asked, a hellish grin spreading onto his face.  Sitting the laptop down, he slid a spare chair to face her.  He sat down calmly, smiling as he looked at her broken features.  “You know, I was always fascinated by you.  You managed to fall in love with a sap who is still in love with his ex wife.  That’s true love if I ever saw it.”

Y/N didn’t dare to speak, just sat looking at the man who managed to ruin the seemingly perfect life she had before.

“And you know what gets me the most?  It’s that little Aaron Jack Hotchner was so drawn to his father when he returned.  Man, that was the icing on top of the perfect cake.  Beautiful.  Just...  You’re family’s beautiful, Y/N.”

She resisted answering his taunts, managing desperately to not let it get to her.

“It’s a shame, though.  Seeing such a perfect thing fall apart.”

Her eyes continued to leak.  Instinctively, she looked behind him at JJ.  His eyes followed her line of vision, turning his head to look at the unconscious, restrained agent.

“Oh yeah, her.  Don’t worry, she’s not dead or anything.  She’ll be out for a little longer.  I wanted to have a one on one with you before she woke up.  I know how loud she can be.  She’s deceiving like that.  She’s so tiny and innocent looking, you’d never know she could put your lights out in the matter of seconds.  That’s why I decided why not take her, too, you know?  Eliminate the strongest before we get to the weaker ones.”

“If you hurt her I swear-”

“She speaks!” he shouted with a large grin.  “Man, it’s nice to hear your voice right in front of me for a change rather than through an earpiece.”

Y/N continued to tremble, a mixture of scared and angry and creeped out.

“I guess I better get going before tiny but deadly over there wakes up.  She’s not someone I want yelling at me.”

With that he stood up and walked up the stairs, his laptop in his hand.

“Be good now, maybe I’ll consider letting Aaron seeing you one last time before I kill him.”

He shut the door behind him with a slam.

It had been eleven hours since his conversation with Scratch, and he didn’t know where he felt safe anymore.

The only place he could think to go was David’s.  The whole team decided it was best to stay together, so they took turns watching out the windows, hovering by the phone and keeping tabs on the computers in case anything useful came up.

But all they could do was wait.

Aaron watched carefully out the window, scanning every car that went by with harsh eyes.

“Why don’t you go tuck your boys into bed, Aaron?” David said, walking up behind him.  Aaron turned to look at the agent, his scared expression still engraved onto his face.  “Like you told Will, they need their father right now.  Go.”

Aaron nodded once, a silent thank you escaping his lips.  He walked away from the window he’d been standing at for the last three hours and made his way towards the stairs, only glancing for a second at Penelope and Kevin typing away at the laptops they’d sat up.  Emily was at the front door, watching out the window.  Spencer was on the couch, taking a nap while Luke was watching out the kitchen window in his place.  Tara was by the phone, pacing slowly in front of it.

He walked up the stairs towards the room that AJ and Jack were in with Stephen, walking right past Will’s room where he and his boys were.

“I admire your determination, Jack,” Stephen said quietly.  “I think you would make a great FBI agent when you frow up.”

The child smiled widely.  “I want to be just like Dad,” he said, his voice quiet while his brother slept.

Aaron’s heart swelled at the sound of his son’s voice and the statement.

“You really look up to your father, don’t you?” Stephen asked with a smile.  Jack nodded.

“He’s my hero.”

Aaron walked into the room, causing Stephen to look back at him.  “I can watch them now.”

Stephen stood up with a nod.  “See you in the morning, kiddo,” he told Jack before turning to walk them out the door.

“Thank you,” Aaron told him quietly.

“You have a wonderful family, Agent Hotchner,” he replied with a sad smile.  Patting him on the shoulder, he walked towards the staircase.

“Hey, buddy,” Aaron said softly as he walked further into the room.  He kneeled by the bed his son was laying in, stroking his hair.

“Are you okay, Dad?” he asked, looking up at his father.  Aaron’d eyes leaked a few more tears as he nodded his head.

“I’m fine, I promise.”

“Is AJ gonna be okay?” Jack asked, looking over at his sleeping baby brother.

“Nothing is going to happen to him.  We can make sure of that, can’t we?” he asked.  Jack nodded, watching his brother breathe.

Aaron pressed a kiss to Jack’s forehead watching him as he finally dozed off. 

He was going to keep them safe.  He just had to.

[bike42]

Adventures in Quarantine March-May 2020

Corona Virus Upends Life as We Knew It              

Chapter One: Denial

Just after the New Year, we started hearing about Corona Virus, and the resulting disease of COVID-19 as something happening in China.  Without giving much thought to the global nature of life these days, we continued life as normal.  

On January 21st the first US case of COVID was confirmed in the US (Seattle area).

February 5-14: We flew to Florida for the IFA conference in Orlando, then spent a few days on the Gulf Coast in Sarasota.  We had uncharacteristically warm weather and thoroughly enjoyed our get away.  

Feb 25-27:  Jeff travelled to Atlanta for his BrightStar Performance Group meeting.  Compared to the flights just two weeks before, he said his flights were pretty empty, already people were cancelling their travel plans.

March 6 – I went to the UW Hospital for an ADRC Ambition Study Visit.  Seemed like business as usual.

March 6-8  We met Sandra and Matt in Minneapolis for the week-end.  With beautiful weather, we walked a lot and went to the Farmer’s Market at the Mill Museum, The Walker Art Museum, and on Sunday Jeff and I attended the Minnesota Auto Show at the Convention Center.  We didn’t know it at the time, but it was the last time we were in large crowds and were able eat in restaurants until who knows when we’ll be back to that?!

March 10  Jeff and I drove to Chicago to attend the BrightStar Midwest Owner’s Meeting.  Just before the meeting, BrightStar set up an option to attend the session virtually via something called “Zoom” meeting (had never heard of it before, but now we are Zooming nearly every day!).  About 40 people attended the session, and Shelly, the originally hugger, mandated that no one touch, shake hands or hug. Honestly, I thought that was a bit extreme, but now in the era of “social distancing,” it’s our new normal.  This was the last face-to-face business meeting we’ll attend in who knows how long.  The BrightStar Leadership Team also decided to cancel the BrightStar Leadership Conference scheduled in Dallas in mid-April.

Madison had the first Wisconsin confirmed COVD-19 case on March 11, at the UW hospital.

March 12 – Governor Evers declared a “public health emergency” for the State of WI.  We weren’t exactly sure what that meant at the time.  Also, that day, Jeff had scheduled a visit with his primary MD Trent Thompson to discuss heartburn / exercise induced chest pain that he’d had over the last several months (note title of this chapter = denial).  Dr Thompson scheduled an Upper GI exam and due the fact that Jeff used the words “chest pain” and he also had a slightly abnormal EKG, he also ordered a Stress Test.  After the MD visit, we headed to Costco where there was quite a buzz with people stocking up on cleaning supplies – we thought it was hysterical, but this was the beginning of the great “Toilet Paper Shortage” of 2020.  Crazy

March 13:  CMS mandated that all Nursing Home facilities across the country stop in-person visits and limit entrance to employees only. Although not required of Assisted Livings, we thought this was a good idea and implemented it for our BrightStar Senior Living communities.  We also instituted temperature and symptom monitoring for all staff as they entered the building, and daily temperature and wellness checks for our residents.

We also started having Home Care and Staffing employees that had traveled “out of state” start performing daily temperature checks.  Since we’d recently been to MN and IL, we also started our daily checks.

Around this time, many schools were on spring break, some extended the break a bit, throwing parents into a panic.

The government started talking about plans to help the country – promised of $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits (on top of state benefits), payment breaks on SBA loans, and several other loan and grant programs for businesses.  It really added to the confusion going on as schools were talking about closing, the threat of businesses closing, and then the uncertainty around if our business could be defined as “healthcare” and therefore an “essential business.”  We were just in the process of switching over to Waunakee Community Bank, for personal and business, so it was a great time to see how much of a partner they’d be for us.

Chapter Two:  This Just Got Real

Sunday March 15:  We attended church as usual, not knowing that this would be the last church service we’d attend in person in some time.  As it was, there was a bit of uncomfortableness during the time when we get up and move about and greet one another.  No hugs or handshakes – some people bumped elbows, some practiced “distance” high fives.  For the first time ever, I was uncomfortable with the thought of someone ripping off a hunk of bread for me as we participated in communion.

That evening we were notified that 2 BSL-M residents were sent to the ER with respiratory symptoms. We were relieved a few hours later to hear both had testing positive for influenza, and they were returned to the community where they were quarantined to their rooms and recovered without issue. We felt like we dodged a bullet.

Monday March 16: Jeff had his Upper GI procedure at St Mary’s outpatient surgery unit this AM.  All the nurses were decked out in full PPE with facemasks, and only a small percentage of the normally scheduled cases were performed.  With Jeff, they found a tiny hiatal hernia (too small to worry about), and Schottky’s ring (which they stretched).  We were sent on our way, feeling somewhat like we didn’t get the answers we are searching for.  

Sad afternoon, we got home from St Mary’s and decided we should take Tiger cat into the Vet’s Urgent Care as he’d been pretty listless for about a week.  The vet was on “lockdown” and you called them from the parking lot and they came out and took your pet in – you had to stay in the car.  I was not happy about that, but stopped myself from pitching a fit.  Soon they called and told us they found that he was in early stages of heart failure, so we made the decision to put him down.  We called Bailey to come out, and we were able to spend some final precious moments with a sedated Tiger, telling him how much we loved him and what a great cat he’d been.  So hard, but a good end to a wonderful 16 years.

Tuesday March 17: normal day at work.  We recorded several videos to be sent out to our staff with a “we got this” theme.  So odd to look back at that now, didn’t even realize what was in store.

Wednesday March 18: Up as usual, and I headed downstairs to our home gym.  Several minutes later, Jeff sent me a text saying “come up.”  I found him lying on the floor in our bathroom – with horrible chest pain.  I called 911 but it wasn’t until the EMTs were here with him hooked up to the EKG that I actually understood that he was having a heart attack.  Now we know there were warning signs, but something like this was never on our radar!

Amazing work from the Waunakee EMTs and we found ourselves back at St Mary’s in the Cardiac Cath lab. Ryan joined me there, and after about 90 minutes we met up with Jeff in Cardiac Care Unit.  Jeff had blockage of his cardiac arteries – repaired with 5 stents and now a life changing array of medications (blood pressure, cholesterol lowering and blood thinning).  He was always fit, ate well, exercised, had low BP and cholesterol … but heart disease runs in his family and you can’t beat genetics.

He was in the hospital until Friday March 20th, and our world completely changed during those days.  The cardiac event alone rocked our world, but during this time the governor signed a “Safer at Home” order which closed all businesses except those deemed essential. We emerged from the hospital on Friday to a different world.

Saturday March 21st was my dad’s 80th birthday.  My parents were driving back to WI from Florida (also in denial), and it felt so wrong to not have them stop in to visit, or be able to visit them, but we knew we had to stay isolated at home at this point in our lives.

It took some time to get used to our new normal and get settled into our home.  New routine for Sox our remaining cat as well.  Much of that first week was a blur.

Tuesday March 24th - BSL-W resident Bob, had respiratory symptoms as was sent to the hospital early this morning tested positive for COVID-19.  The news was devastating to me.  My heart was breaking for all the families that trusted us to care for their loved ones.  Even with restricting visitors and screening staff, the darned virus got in.  While we already knew we weren’t alone – I can’t describe what a devastating feeling this was.  Our management staff were amazing, however the majority of our caregiving staff (and our brother and sister cooks) all freaked out and left. Later that week, Doris, another resident that was already on hospice also died – presumably of COVID-19 since she had respiratory symptoms.   On Saturday April 4th, another resident (Ray) suddenly developed symptoms and was admitted to the hospital, not expected to live.  I took that news especially hard – I’d had a conversation with Ray during my last visit into the community (March 4th).  He’d been watching the news about how hard the nursing home in Seattle was hit with the virus and felt like they were “sitting ducks.”  What we learned was all attempts to screen or use available PPE wasn’t enough, when apparently, some carry the virus asymptomatically.  Also, on Saturday, Ray’s wife Lynne went to the hospital and also tested positive for the virus, but didn’t have severe symptoms.  On the morning of Thursday, April 9th, I was out for a run in the morning and as I was on my way home, I saw an ambulance outside BSL-W and I lost it. I’m sure I was quite a sight – yelling at God, screaming and crying on the sidewalk.  Probably the most helpless feeling I’ve ever had.  We finally got the health department to cooperate and provide tests for our staff and residents.  8 residents were presumed positive (3 deaths, 3 hospitalized and recovered, two showed no symptoms).  4 staff members tested positive and were quite ill, some out 4 weeks before they felt well enough to return.  True heroes – everyone involved:  residents and their families, managers, and staff.

Chapter Three:  Our New Normal

Government – I’m not even going to get into what terrible leadership our president demonstrated during this crisis.  Both the house and senate went to work in unprecedented fashion and in short time they introduced an array of bills – some good for us, some not, some that we’re still trying to figure out 6+ weeks later.  Payroll Protection Act – gave us loans that could turn into grants if we keep people working – Families First Corona Leave Act was an FMLA that gave non-essential workers unlimited time off to care for their families – Federal UI Act promising $600 a week in UI on top of what someone can get from the state (more than most of our workers are paid to work!!).  Crazy times, and a roller-coaster of uncertainty as we tried to figure out what applies to us, what works for us, what could hurt us, etc.

Zoom Meetings and “work” from home / gardening class.  Zoom church. Zoom Yoga.  Zoom meetings with friends.  Zoom meetings with WI DHS twice a week regarding COVID matters.  Zoom meetings with Littler twice a week, scaring the crap out of us with all the ways people can be suing us over COVID and myriad of other employment related issues!

School – though this didn’t affect us, school was cancelled for the rest of the year. Can’t imagine what that was like – the stress it put on working families, especially lower income who were less likely to have internet access and even access to food the way some kids did through school.  

Workouts – we loved getting up every day without the alarm clock, having our home gym.  On nice days I’d bring my yoga mat up to the porch.  We gradually got out walking, measuring heart rates and before long we were up to walking 7 miles with weighted packs.

Cooking – Jeff always loved to cook and it was great to have the extra time to make soups and clean out the pantry and see what kind of mixes were in there.  He also baked a Key Lime Pie, which was awesome.  

Wine – initially we were home with Ryan bringing us supplies and groceries.  My stash of “everyday” wine dwindled and I started tapping into the good stuff – I mean, what was I saving it for anyway?  By May, we were venturing back to Costco with masks on, so I was able to restock the “everyday” wine.  I also started making margaritas again – I mean, we had 5 bottles of tequila in our bar for some reason!!  As the weather warmed up, our condo ladies (Judy, Joan and me) started having wine parties on our patio - practicing social distancing of course.  Sure, was good to socialize with actual people again!

Puzzles – early into quarantine one night after Jeff had gone to bed, I got out a jigsaw puzzle that I’d had for awhile but had never put together (a series of VW beetles). We worked on it over the next few days and found it was calming, and something we could work on together. After we completed that, I found a few more in the basement, and then ordered a few more online.  Like a lot of things, they were becoming hard to find – took 3 weeks for Amazon delivery!!  The last one we are still working on – 1000-piece Macho Pichu with tiny little pieces!!

House Cleaning – after the heart attack, we realized we needed to quarantine alone, so we put our cleaning service on hold.  At first, we’d forget that the toilets needed to be cleaned and we’d realize the floor was disgusting.  It didn’t take long for us to get back into the routine of cleaning, and we think part of our new normal will be doing the cleaning ourselves again.  We’re not working the excessive hours that we were 10 years ago when we first broke down and hired cleaners.   Except wow – does the dust ever pile up!

Newspaper: “The Wide World of No Sports” The sports section is hysterical.  They’re working so hard to find things to publish.  Same with sports on TV.  Really – who wants to watch old games and old golf tournaments. One cool thing though was they published the AP Writers Top 25 Sports Movies, so were working on watching all of those (some old favorites, some good, at least one so far has been terrible). Here’s the list:

1.       Hoosiers

2.       Bull Durham

3.       Rocky

4.       Caddyshack

5.       Slap Shot

6.       Field of Dreams

7.       Raging Bull

8.       Major League

9.       The Natural

10.   A League of Their Own

11.   Moneyball

12.   The Bad News Bears

13.   Miracle

14.   Hoop Dreams

15.   Eight Men Out

16.   Chariots of Fire

17.   White Men Can’t Jump

18.   Remember the Titans

19.   Rudy

20.   Seabiscuit

21.   Breaking Away

22.   The Pride of the Yankees

23.   When We Were Kings

24.   Brian’s Song

25.   Friday Night Lights

26.   The Sandlot

Chapter Four:  Getting Old

Easter came and went. While I’m getting used to participating in church via video, Easter without family just felt like another day.

The week after Easter, we should have been at a conference in Vegas.  Its been rescheduled to September, on top of everything else.  If we can do things in September, we’re going to have to prioritize!!

Everything has been cancelled for the summer – IFA Summer Board meeting, Waunafest, Shake the Lakes Festival, State Fair, Farmer’s Market, everthing!!  No idea how or when Baseball and Football will start, and if they’ll play games in empty stadiums or what.  

The Wisconsin Supreme Court decided that the “Safer at Home” order was illegal, which threw the state into a state of confusion.  There is a real divide between people that want everything back open, and people that are still freaked out.  No one knows. As of May 26, 2020 – places are allowed to slowly open.  Salons by appointment; restaurants at 25% capacity.  We are still wearing masks in public, and since we’re working in healthcare, we’re enforcing even wearing masks in our office – not a popular decision, but they’ll be thankful if this spikes up again!

I’m feeling more used to it, and spending more time working on some of the work projects that I thought I’d be knocking out during this time.  It was just so hard to focus for the first 8 weeks – everything was about the darn virus!!

Jeff is knocking off house projects like crazy.  We’ve bought a new dinning room rug and moved some others around; he’s washing and waxing the cars that don’t go anywhere.  I’ve got him on a chipmunk reduction program now.  

I’m still working on my Master Gardner certification via Zoom and I’ve been able to spend a lot of time outside in the garden here and at our Waunakee BSL (and at church).  

We’ve also taken a few social distance hikes with our hiking group, and just this week decided to postpone September’s trip to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro/Safari until September 2021. Its just too hard to believe that international travel will resume within the next few months.  I was terribly frustrated with that – I’m such a planner and it was making me crazy with nothing on our horizon.  Our hiking friend Gary came up with the idea to start knocking off segments of the Ice Age Trail – a 1000-mile trail that winds around Wisconsin.  Brilliant!! That’s exactly what I need – get away from the media, away from the crowds, and into nature.  By the time we’re done, things will be back to normal – whatever that is!  Stay tuned!!

We broke the news to our Leadership team that we’re about to hit the road again.  Most of them are used to it, and honestly, they brought us through this crisis with little support needed from us.  I’m so glad to have a plan.

[meduelesluegoexisto]

Orchid - Totality lyrics

01. New Ideas In Mathematics I know it's all wrong, But that's the only way. Breathe in the dust.. Im leaving... I hold hands with failure because we are quite a pair. I've never met someone so loyal, But i'm leaving you behind. I know it's all wrong, but that's the only way.

02. Beautification Committee Maybe we should blow this town up. You, me, and some dynamite. We'll hold hands and watch it burn. Breaking windows and chalking words... My heart is beating so fast. i can hardly breathe. Maybe we should blow this whole town up. We'll hold hands and watch it burn to the ground.

03. Ding Dong Dead Your wife hates you. We're doing donuts on your lawn. It's hard to look good all the time, isn't it? Drag the bones out. "This wine tastes so sweet". Well, it tastes like turpentine to me. Drag the bones out one by one. It's do or die.

04. Mono vs. Stereo Don't froget me When you're at the thrift shop I'll stare at my shiny shoes And look back and laugh "I haven't heard that in a while" Feel the need to roll with the punches An interest in psuedo-progression "I haven't heard that in a while"

05. Lucky 13 Open your mouth a little bit wider Wider, wider, wider You dance better than anyone i know I know, i know, i know The only song that exist are theones I hear when we touch. You're the reason music is played.

06. Intelligable Audio Seems like it's been forever, doesn't it? It all seems so different now, But we haven't changed as much as we'd like to think. No we haven't change as Much as we'd like to think. You still smile the same, and You know just what to do. We know the scabs and we pick them all the time I'll rip off yours and you can rip off mine. Just like old times. I'll rip off yours and you can rip off mine. Just like old times. I miss it, Oh I miss it. No one does it quite like you.

07. She Has A Cold, Cold Heart . . .

08. Eye Gouger You better watch the xxxx out, this is destruction. Change the sheets for company, we may never leave. Rainbows and spit that last forever. Rainbows and spit that last forever.

09. Panopticism Is the first wander, the gauze gaze. Sometimes the best secrets are the worst kept. You're the only one? Prove it. Prove it. I see it twisting my feet waiting for the first. We should laugh so its not obvious. You held my hand too tight for too long

10. Mean S.O.B. With eyes closed, you close your fist. They tell you what to see. Long arm fell short, you're property until you earn enough to own. Work hard ethic is a lie.

11. 36 Day Syndrome I miss you arms around me, If I only knew this would be our last kiss. My best was never good enough But, you were my favorite mistake. And I wonder do you still think of me?

12. O.S.K. For the love of hate, For the pretty ones. Tear off this face, and I'll still be singled out. Eat the candy (shit) you deserve I'll be sure to step on your toes. I'll piss on your sunshine parade. I'll piss on your sunshine parade. Sinserity trips me up. Laugh as I stumble. One day... One day I promise.

13. Stagnant Deny the existence of... Your philosophical orgasm. Come down off your soapbox It's been stood on before. So much pride in you stagnant idea Preaching the sermon to the converted. Tunnel vision. Rejection. I'm still looking for answers, But your answers leave me with more questions. It fits into your comfortable life Not everybody has it so easy. Deny. Deny the outside world and atrophy.

14. Hit The Ground Scream your name To the deafest of the dumb. The darker the better, I still shake when I see you, That's not alright. I want to rip you to pieces Kiss you until you remember what I meant to you. I will try my hand at forever. How can I walk away when I can barely stand?

15. Consumed Mouth wide shut try not to breath Pakaged idocy what they want you to be "I'll eat that shit up with a spoon" Make it easy. managable. Unseen overseer. Makes it easier to swallow Spoonful of sugar bowlfull of shit They want you weak and stupid Congradulations The motherfucked you all

16. A Written Apology I can't go home Tail between my legs Face to the wind Face to the wind Sick of disspointing Sick of dissapointments Nothings good enough When nothings good I can only say I'm sorry It all seems so hopeless No help for the help less Tired forever Tired forever

17. Pledge By the people, for the people Without and despite us This money run, partirachial lie Should be shattered One nation under rich white men I will never put my hand over my heart And pledge my allegiance to this I'd fight against you, sooner than for you Policing the world When we can't trust our own police Shirked responsibility at any cost As long as its at no cost to you You owe us We pay your debts everyday

18. The Easy One Plastic box culture crash keeps you in the line Sedated consciousness Dry eyes dry mind Face first to the ground you bury your head Electronic sickness Dry eyes dry times

19. Angel Kiss my hand I'm gone, you're my angel Forgot my name Isn't it funny how things happen? Since when was I the lucky one? Judged by letters Judged by your eyes Stolen breath Stolen glances Sick with this I'll savor the pain It replaces itself

20. Notes From A Smooth Talker Set up shot down. One time too many I'm the pretentious asshole you know, the one who hates you. Everything. I can only say i don't care so many time before it's true If the shoe fits, cut off your toes We always fall for that one

21. T-120 . . .

22. Halving The Bones Too late for never I've kissed my last goodbye You won't kill me, I'm dead How far it's gone to save the face I've lost long ago I was lost without you Now i'm just lost

23. September 18, 1998 . . .

24. Weekend At The Fire Academy How quaint you can spit farther than me. Your life straight from a movie scene. Now on a movie screen. Sliver skies and black eyes. I want a peice of cake. Get your hands off my presents. Kiss on the face. Slap on the cheek. I'll be the one who takes my chances. Sort of sad, isn't it? It's hard to forget the friend who makes the scene on T.V. My baby makes the scene on T.V. She makes the scene on T.V. Who's like that anyway?