#this talk in the car that they have is probably my second favorite scene after the bday party

[dianawinchester03]

Season 1, Episode 1 - Pilot

Series Masterlist

Y/N’s POV

"Listen to me and listen to me good Y/N L/N. Don't come back if you go out there on your own, don't call, don't text, pretend I'm dead!"

I jolt awake, buckets of sweat pouring down my head. I don't realize I'm crying until I feel my eyes burn. A stinging migraine takes over, pressure building up in my head. I gotta stop dreaming about that over and over. It was probably one of the worst days of my life.

Checking the time I see it's 5 am. I'm only a couple hours away from Jericho now, I took a pit stop at midnight because I was exhausted and still kinda hungover from the night before. Which is weird because I usually don't get hungover.

More or less I'm trying to avoid sleep because of these stupid nightmares, as hunters we don't get much sleep regardless but we're only human...until we're not. Pushing the blanket off of me, I climb out of bed and get ready for the day ahead of me. My heart skips a beat for a second, remembering I'm gonna be seeing Dean....and Sam obviously. I'm more excited to see my best friend of many years.

I think about calling my dad. I initially decide against it but I give in. He's still my old man. Growing up my dad always had high expectations of me when it came to hunting. It's clear he expected me to be psychic like my mom but after I turned 18 and nothing came, his disappointment was clear.

Mom's abilities helped him out a lot when they hunted together, according to dad, she couldn't predict the future as much but she more or less communicated with the dead on ghost cases along with her telekinetic powers. It came it handy whenever they needed to gank a monster.

The look in my fathers eyes when he talks about my mom, breaks my heart everytime. You can see how much he loved her, I could only imagine how much she loved him.

After taking a shower I try to call Dean but it goes to voicemail. So I just shoot him a quick text that I'll be in Jericho before lunch.

I put my phone to my ear after dialing my dads number and hitting call. In seconds I get an answer. "Y/n/n? Is everything okay??" My dads voice is more rugged than usual, clearly he was asleep. Concern seeping through his voice. "I'm fine daddy, I just missed you. I called to see if everything is alright?" Tears sting slightly from my eyes. God I'm such a pussy.

"I'm great baby, I'm surprised to hear from you-not that I don't want to. I'm just happy you called" He breaths out relieved. "Great well Dean called me, told me his dad was missing. I just wanted to let you know I'm gonna be meeting up with them." I say quickly as I check out of the motel room and make way to my beautiful Quinn after checking out, doubling checking to make sure I have everything.

"Understood. Update me along the way? Maybe we can do a case of our own soon?" He asks hopefully. "Yeah maybe, we'll see. I gotta go daddy. Bye, love you" I shock myself saying 'love you' I haven't told dad that in years. I grew up always saying it to my dad and whoever we considered family. The habit just stuck.

Hopping on my bike and starting her, I'm off to whatever adventure awaits.

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Third Person POV

"Goddamnit Dean where are you?" Y/N mutters to herself after calling Dean for the millionth time only to go to voice mail. This feels like karma. She decides to say screw it and go herself, hopefully they show up within the time or Dean calls back. She's still in her casual attire. A grey tank top, layered with a red flannel covered in her favorite leather jacket. Paired with combat boots.

Currently on the Sylvania Bridge, a bunch of cop cars blocking a crime scene. A deputy on the bridge speaking to some divers down in the river asks them. "Did you guys find anything?!"

"No! Nothing!" The diver responds. The deputy turns around to see Y/N. "Woah miss no civilians" He goes to usher her out of the premises. She pulls out her fake federal marshal badge and flashes it to the Deputy Jaffe according to his name tag. He seems to take the bait with a nod.

A fake smile plastered on her face "Federal Marshal, got called in on my day off. So what seems to be the situation brothers in blue?" Y/N asks nicely. "Still trying to piece it together ourselves, pretty lady. No sign of struggle. No footprints. No fingerprints. It's spotless. It's almost too clean" The other deputy investigating the car in question answers her question.

Stooping down next to Jaffe, out of view to look at the car herself. She recognizes the roar of Baby's engine. Smirking to herself as the officers talk about the boy that's missing, Troy Squire. "So this kid Troy, he's dating your daughter isn't he?" Jaffe asks Hein. "Yeah" Hein confirms.

"Hows Amy doing?" Jaffe asks. "She's putting up missing posters downtown" Hein responds. "You fellas had another one like this just last month didn't you?" Dean voice booms, surprising the deputies. "Who are you" Jaffe asks suspiciously. "They're with me deputy" Y/N covers for them, now standing up in view. A shocked yet happy look takes over Sam's face and a smirk rising on Dean's, eyeing her up and down for a split second. They both quickly recover now back to their serious faces.

"You fellas took a pit stop? Was expecting ya earlier" She says to the boys. Crossing her arms over her chest "You lot a little young for federal marshals aren't you?" Jaffe says, still suspicious. "Thanks. That awfully kind of you" Dean chuckles cockily, causing Y/N to roll her eyes. "You did have another one just like this, correct?" Dean presses his question, walking around the side of the car where Hein is.

"Yeah that's right. About a mile up the road. There've been others before that" Jaffe confirms. "So the victim. You knew him?" Sam asks. "Town like this. Everybody knows everybody". Jaffe nods. "Any connections between the victims besides the fact that they're all men?" Y/N asks curiously. "No, not so far as we can tell" Jaffe says.

"So what's the theory?" Sam asks as he moves follows Deans movements to the side of the car in question and Y/N follows Sam. "Honestly? We don't know. Serial murder? Kidnapping ring?" Jaffe says honestly.

"Well that is exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect from you" Dean says sarcastically. Sam stamps on his foot and Y/N elbows him in his ribs the same time. A smile on his face towards the deputy while Jaffe looks at the trio suspiciously.

"Thank you for your time" Y/N says, a sweet smile on her face. "Gentleman" Sam greets the officers before walking past Dean. Y/N and Dean following behind. Y/N sees the seething look on Deans face. "Don't you dare think about it Winchester" She mumbles. Dean huffs, tapping his brother on his head and Y/N rolls her eyes.

"Ow! What was that for?!" Sam mutters angrily to his brother. "Why you gotta step on my foot?" He says back angrily "And you missy, why you gotta elbow my ribs" He points his finger at Y/N, rubbing his right ribs. "Why do you have to talk to police like that?" Y/N retorts back angrily. The argument between the three subsides as Sam turns to Y/N, a smile on his face.

He wraps his arms around her shoulders, pulling her in for a hug. "I missed you too Sammy" Y/N says chuckling at the sudden affection, though she meant it. "I didn't know you were coming" Sam says smiling.

He ruffles her hair as they pull away from the hug. "Dean called me, told me your dad hasn't been home in a couple days. Looks like I'm on the family emergency contact list" Y/N jokes, looking over at Dean, his head to the floor slightly. Indicating he's feeling a bit left out.

"Come here youuu" She says teasingly, wrapping her arms around Deans shoulders. His arms automatically go around her waist, burying his face in her neck, he smiles into the hug. Sam smirks at this and wiggles his eyebrows at his eyebrows at his brother suggestively. Knowing where Sam is getting at Dean flips off his younger brother the bird, meanwhile Y/N is oblivious to this.

"Still a short stack aren't ya princess" Dean teases. Y/N pulls away, tapping Dean on his shoulder while Sam laughs, agreeing with Dean. "Shut it you morons, I can still kick both your asses" Y/N threatens them, pointing her fingers at the brothers while they chuckle.

"Those cops don't know squat. If we're gonna find your dad, we gotta get to the bottom of this thing ourselves" Y/N changes the subject. Sam looks over her shoulder, clearing his throat. An man who looks like the sheriff with two real FBI agents behind him asks the trio. "Can I help you guys?"

"No sir, we were just leaving" Dean says and they begin walking to their respective vehicles. Not before mocking the two agents "Agent Mulder, Agent Scully" Y/N says. Dean biting back a laugh at her humor.

"You still driving that gorgeous 67' I see" Y/N eyes Baby up and down, wolf whistling. "Course I am, Baby's a chick magnet here" Dean smirks proudly, patting the hood of the Impala. Y/N snorts and Sam rolls his eyes. "Still riding that stunning Harley I see" Dean nods over to her bike. "Course I am. She's my pride and joy" Y/N smirks, echoing Deans words.

Picking up her helmet "Race you to town?" She challenges. "You're on, Princess" Dean retorts, jumping in baby and they're off.

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Now walking through town, Dean spots a young lady putting up missing persons posters with Tory Squire on them. Putting two and two together , this must be the deputy's daughter "I'll bet you that's her" He says. "Yeah" Sam agrees.

They walk up to her "You must be Amy" Dean inquires. "Yeah" she confirms. "Troy told us about you, we're his uncles and aunt. I'm Dean, this is Sammy and this is Y/N" Dean introduces everybody. "He never mentioned you to me" Amy says walking away, they follow behind her.

"Yeah, that's Troy. I guess. We're not around much, we're up in Modesto" Dean lies causally. "So we're looking for him too and we're kind of asking around" Sam says and a young lady who seems to know Amy asks her "Hey you okay?"

"Yeah" Amy reassures. "You lovely ladies mind if we ask you a couple questions?" Y/N asks the girls nicely, hoping to make them less weary. They agree.

Y/N's POV

We're all now sitting in a diner booth. The girls across from us. Sam on the inner part of the booth, me in the middle and Dean to the end. His arm rests on the top of the seat, practically around me.

"I was on the phone with Troy, he was driving home. He said he would call me right back. And, uh, he never did" Amy explains the events of the night Troy went missing. "He didn't say anything strange? Or out of the ordinary?" Sam inquires. "No, nothing I can remember" Amy shakes her head.

"Here's the deal ladies" Dean says leaning forward, arms now on the table. "The way Troy disappeared. Somethings not right. So if you've heard anything..." Dean trails off and I notice the girls have a skeptical look in their faces. Looking at each other. They're hiding something.

"What is it girls?" Y/N asks. "Well it's just ....I mean with all these guys going missing. People talk" Amy's friend says. "What do they talk about?" Sam and Dean say in perfect unison, causing me to jump a bit. Jesus. Brothers.

She looks at Amy before continuing "Its kinda this local legend. This one girl, she got murdered out on Centennial, like, decades ago. Well supposedly, she's still out there. She hitchhikes. And whoever picks her up. Well they...disappear forever" She finishes and the tree of us share a look.

We're in the library now. Deans researching the info the girls gave us on the computer and sitting between me and Sam. No hits come on on 'Murder on Centennial'. "Let me try" Sam goes to take the keyboard but Dean slaps his hand away harshly "Got it" he says annoyed.

Sam pushes him away, rolling his chair behind his and I snicker at their childish behavior. "Dude!" He exclaims, tapping Sams shoulder "You're such a control freak" he grumbles, fixing his chair behind the two of us. And Sam types. Then something dawns on me.

"Wait, aren't angry spirits born out of violent death?" I ask. "Yeah" Dean nods confirming. I push Sams chair away "Dude!" He exclaims like Dean did, tapping my shoulder. Dean snickers at the instant karma. I type on the computer "Maybe it's not murder" I say and I type 'Suicide on Cenntenial' and got a hit on an article.

"Sharp thinking princess" Dean smirks, patting me on the small of my back. I smirk "Thanks charming". Sam begins reading the article. "1981. Constance Welch, 24 years old jumps off Sylvania Bridge, drowns in river" Sam reads out loud. "Does it say why she did it?" Dean asks "Yeah" I say. "What?" Dean asks.

"An hour before they found her, she calls 911. Her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minute and when she comes back. They're not breathing. Both die" I briefly summarize the article, skimming through it. "Hmm" Dean hums.

"Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it. Said husband, Joseph Welch" Sam quotes the article and I notice a picture of the bridge we were on earlier. "That bridge look familiar to you fellas?" I ask rhetorically, pointing to the picture on the screen.

Later in the night we were at the bridge where Constance jumped to her death. We walk to the edge, looking down. "So this is where Constance took the swan dive" Dean says. I grimace at the sight of the dirty mucky water. The scent filling my nose and I resist the urge to gag.

"So you think your dad would have been here?" I ask, while we all look down at the river. "Well he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him" Dean says and we all begin to walk down the bridge. "Okay so now what?" Sam asks. "Now we keep digging till we find him. Might take a while" Dean says.

"Dean, I told you I have to get back..." Sam starts and they both finish "...By Monday" they say in unison. Brothers. Scares me everytime.

"Right. The interview. Yeah I forgot" Dean nods. "You're really serious about this aren't you" I ask Sam, crossing my arms over my chest. "You think you're just gonna become some lawyer. Marry your girl?" Dean says. "Maybe. Why not?" Sam shrugs.

"Does Jessica know the truth about you? About what you've done?" Dean presses. "No and she's not ever going to know" Sam says, walking up to Dean and I. I stand in-between them, already knowing somebody's gonna either get pushed or punched. "Well that's healthy." Dean retorts sarcastically . "Come on Dean, don't start" I warn him calmly, putting my hand on his shoulder.

"No y/n/n, he can pretend all he wants. But, sooner or later, you're gonna have to own up to who you really are Sammy" Dean walks back down the bridge towards Baby after saying this. Sam follows behind "And who's that?" Sam queries, agitation in his voice. "One of us" Dean says as if it's obvious, gesturing between me and him.

"No, I'm not like either of you. This is not going to be my life" Sam says kinda disgusted. Ouch, but valid. "You have a responsibility" Dean says. "To Dad? And his crusade?" Sam says, his eyes welling with tears. "If it weren't for pictures. Me and y/n wouldn't even know what our moms look like." Ohhhh boy, here we go. The look on Deans face alone could scare a toddler.

"What difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed them...they're gone. And they're never coming back" Sam finishes and Dean pushes me gently to the side from in between them. He grabs Sam and slams him against the edge of the bridge. "Woah Dean! Easy!" I try pulling Dean off of his brother but his grip is too strong.

"Don't talk about them like that" Deans tone is deadly. He lefts Sam go and turns to me. "Sorry for pushing you Princess" He says sincerely, I nod reassuring him. I look behind him and I see a woman standing at the ledge of the bridge in a white dress. "Uh....fellas...." I point at the woman. They look in the direction I'm pointing at. She turns to look at us for a second before allowing herself to fall off.

We all run towards the area where she threw herself. Looking over the edge, we don't see anything. "Where'd she go?" Dean asks. "I don't know" Sam breathes out. All of a sudden we hear Baby's engine starting. Her headlights flickering. "What the....." Dean says stunned.

Then Quinn starts, her engine roaring. The headlights flicker just like Dean's car. "Who the hell is driving your car and bike?" Sam asks us. Me and Dean hold out the keys to our vehicles, still stunned. Then the Impala and Harley tires start screeching, driving towards us. "Boys! Go! GO!" We all split into action, running away from the vehicles.

They gain on us and the three of us hurl ourselves off the edge of the bridge. Me and Dean end up slipping off the ledge, falling into the river while Sam grabs onto the ledge and pulls himself back up when the coast is clear. Baby and Quinn come to a stop.

Me and Dean fish ourselves out of the mucky water, laying on the shore edge. "Dean! Y/N!" Sam screams before seeing us. "Hey, you guys alright?" He asks worried. "We're super" Dean yells back sarcastically and I give him a weak thumbs up. Sam laughs at our state and we go to make our way back up the bridge.

I pull myself up and give my hand to Dean who's still laying on the floor like he's half dead. "Get up piglet, we gotta get back up" I tease him while groaning in pain, he huffs taking my hand and pulling himself up. "Shut it, you're covered too" He chuckles while groaning in pain from the impact too.

We're back up on the bridge checking on our vehicles. Quinn seems alright and I'm sure so is Baby. "Your car and bike alright?" Sam ask the both of us. "Yeah whatever she did to it, it seems alright now" Dean says. I nod assuring that my bikes ok. "That Constance chick, what a bitch!!" I scream out over the bridge in frustration because she almost hurt my girl.

"Well she doesn't want us digging around that's for sure" Sam says. Dean leans on the hood of the Impala, I follow and so does Sam. "So, where's the trail go from here geniuses" Sam asks the both of us.

Dean throws his hands up in defeat, grimacing at the smelly mud all over our skin and I scoff. Sam smells the air before turning to us "You guys smell like a toilet" Neither of us answer, Dean's head drops while I turn to glare at Sam. He smirks at me snickering.

Now at a motel, Dean plops his credit card on the book in-front of the receptionist. "One room please"

The man picks up the card, looking at it in recognition. "You guys having a reunion or something?" The age-able man queries. My eyes cork up at this. "What do you mean?" Sam asks now curious. "That other guy Burt Aframian, he came and bought out a room for the whole month" The man tells us whilst typing on his computer to book us a room. The boys and I share a knowing look. John was here.

We find out what room John was in. Currently I'm on my knees picking the lock to room 10. Sam and Dean have their backs turnt to me, looking out incase someone sees us. After about a minute, I hear a click and I slide my trusty hairpin out of the knob.

I open the door and walk in but Sam and Dean don't seem to notice, still looking out. I grab them both by their collars and roughly pull them into the room, locking the door behind us. We look around the room for a couple seconds and Dean goes over to the lamp, turning it on.

I notice the walls lining with paper of what seems to be Johns research on the case he was working here. Dean spots a day old sandwich and sniffs it. Gagging at the smell. "Ugh" He plops the sandwich back down. "I don't think he's been here for a couple days at least" He states the obvious.

"Yeah, no kidding Sherlock" I say sarcastically and Dean rolls his eyes at my dry tone. Sam stoops to the ground, dusting it with his fingers to find "Salt. Cats-eye shells. He was worried. Trying to keep something from coming in" Sam says getting back up. Dean notices what I'm staring at, it's the victims.

"What do you got here?" Sam asks, walking over to us. "Centennial Highway victims" I state. "I don't get it." Dean says and I see Sam walking over to the other side of the room. "They're different men, different jobs, ages, ethnicities. There's always a connection right? What do these guys have in common?" Dean ponders.

I walk over to Sam, my eyes scanning for the lord written in the wall. I catch something at the corner of my eye, walking a couple steps I turn on the lamp and I nudge Sam to check it out. I internally laugh, shaking my head. John Winchester, you smart son of a bitch. Of course you figured it out.

Sam chuckles ironically "Dad figured it out" he says. "What do you mean?" Dean asks. "He found the same article we did. Constance Welch. She's our woman in white" I say. Dean turns back to the wall looking at the pictures of Constance's victims. "You sly dogs" he says almost as if he's complimenting the unfaithful presumably deceased men.

"Alright so if we're dealing with a Woman in White. Dad would've found the corpse and destroyed it" Dean states. "She might have another weakness" Sam says. "No. Dad would wanna make sure. He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?" Dean asks walking over to us, looking at the notes on the wall.

"No, not that we can tell" Sam answers. "If I were your dad though, I'd go ask her husband" I say, point to the picture of Joseph Welch on the wall. "If he's still alive" Sam adds. "Alright why don't you see if you can find an address. Me and y/n gotta get cleaned up" Dean says and I clutch my duffel bag with my clothes on my shoulder.

"Hey guys?" Me and Dean turn to Sam. "What I said about Mom and Dad earlier. And your mom, y/n. I'm sorry" Sam says guiltily and sincerely. Dean puts up his hand stopping Sam. "No chick-flick moments" Dean says and Sam chuckles, I shake my head laughing. "Alright, Jerk" Sam says. "Bitch" Dean retorts.

"Oh shut it, you're a sucker for Notting Hill" I quipped teasing him, bumping Deans hip with mine causing Sam to laugh. "Hey! Julia Roberts don't count! That woman is a national treasure!" Dean exclaims defending himself. Sam bends over clutching his stomach in laughter. "Yeah...sure" I laugh ironically before pushing him when he least expects it.

"DIBS ON THE BATHROOM!" I yell, bolting to the bathroom whilst Dean stumbles on himself trying to catch his balance. I lock the door behind me quickly and Dean bangs on it. "Ahhh screw you ya nutcase!" He yells frustrated. "You wish asshat!" I retort back laughing and getting ready for my nice hot long shower.

After my shower, Dean goes in and me and Sam are left outside. Sam tried calling his girlfriend and I'm on the chair, smoking a cigarette by the window. Texting my dad and updating him about the case. Dean walks out of the bathroom, putting on his jacket and takes off the light.

"You used up all the hot water y/n" Dean says. I chuckle, taking the last puff of my cigarette and outing it. "Snooze you lose, Winchester" I smile widely at him, winking. He scoffs and chuckles at this. "I'm starving, I'm gonna grab something to eat at that diner down the street. You two want anything" He asks the both of us.

"No" Sam says. "Aframians buying" Dean says smiling and Sam shakes his head. "I'll take my usual please" I smile. "(Your favorite food/usual order) and (Your favorite soda/milkshake) coming right up, Princess" He smirks at me, winking. My heart flutters at that smile he gave me and the wink he sent my way. The fact that he remember my order. But I cover it up with returning the cocky wink "Thanks charming"

When Dean leaves I turn to Sam. We haven't really been alone for us to talk like we usually do so I take the chance now. "Hey Sammy?" I say softly. "It's Sam" he groans in annoyance at me calling him Sammy. "Whatever you say Sammy" I grin widely at him, getting back to my serious expression. He looks at me curiously. "What's wrong y/n/n?" He asks.

"I just want you to know. I don't blame you for going back to college after this case. Your brother might not be very warm and cuddly about it but you know how he is. He loves you and misses you. You're making the right choice" I say. He sighs sadly and I put my hand on his shoulder.

"You of all people deserved a shot at the Apple pie life. So does Dean. He would never admit it because he's too stubborn but he'd kill for the apple pie life you're hoping to achieve." I reassure Sam, he looks at me smiling sadly.

"You do too Y/N." He says softly. I take my hand off his shoulder shaking my head. "I don't want that. I'm where I need to be" I assure him and Sam chuckles shaking his head. "You're just as stubborn girly" He teases me and I lightly punch his shoulder. "Shut up dipshit" I say laughing.

"Never, crackhead" He laughs punching my shoulder back. God I missed my best friend. "I gotta say though" I say, a smirking taking over my face. "Jess is quite a foxy lady" I compliment his girlfriend and he smiles proudly.

"I'll never get what she sees in you" I added causing his smile to drop and me to laugh. "You're dead to me" he said flatly and I laugh louder. "I love you too Sammy" I pat his shoulder. I go to sit back down but my phone rings.

Metallica blurring from the ringtone of my phone. Sam gives me a "really?" look and I just roll my eyes taking my phone out of my pocket. It's Dean. "That's some speedy delivery. You're in for a great tip." I tease him over the phone but he doesn't respond with his usual banter.

"Guys. Five - 0. Take off." Dean says quickly. Me and Sam stand up now panicking on the low. "What about you?" Sam asks his brother concerned. "Ah, they kind of spotted me. Go find dad" Dean says and abruptly hangs up. Son of a bitch.

Me and Sam tiptoe over to the curtain by the front door. Pulling it open slightly we see a deputy walking towards it and Jaffe, the deputy from the bridge, questioning Dean. We hurry to the window I was smoking by and we open it up, grabbing our stuff we shimmy out fatasses out of the window and make a break for Baby.

We decided to go to Joseph Welch's house, husband of Constance Welch, the Woman in White, and question him. I settled for leaving Quinn at the motel as much as it broke my heart. The cops would've heard her if I started her.

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I knock on Mr. Welch's door. Within a couple seconds he opens it. He takes a second glance at me before looking at Sam. "Hi, are you Joseph Welch?" I ask nicely. "Yeah" he confirms, eyeing me up and down.

We're now walking through his yard and Sam shows him a photo of him, John and Dean from the 80s, asking Mr. Welch if he had come by at anytime. "Yeah. He was older but that's him" Mr. Welch confirms that John was here. "He came by three or four days ago. Said he was a reporter" he said.

"That's right. We're working a story together" Sam lies to keep our cover. "Well I don't know what the hell know of story you're working on. The questions he asked me..." Mr. Welch trailed off and I injected "About your late wife, Constance"

"He asked me where she was buried" He said. "And where was that again?" Sam asks and I mentally facepalm. Real smooth Sammy. Real smooth. "What? I gotta go through this twice" Mr. Welch said slightly agitated. "It's just fact checking sir, if you don't mind." I say calmly, he eyes me up and down again before nodding. Sam notices this too.

"In a plot, behind my old place over on Breckenridge." He tells us where she's buried. "Why did you move?" Sam asks. "I'm not gonna live in the house where my children died" Mr. Welch stated obviously. "Mr. Welch, did you ever marry again?" I ask him.

"No way, Constance. She was the love of my life. Prettiest woman I've ever known" He assures us as if he's trying to convince us and himself. "So you had a happy marriage?" Sam asks and Welch hesitates for a second before saying "Definitely" he says.

Sam and I share a look before he takes a deep breath. "Well that should do it sir. Thank for your time" I say we pretend to walk off. Sam takes out the keys to baby and I look at him with a "I'm gonna do it" look. He nods and I call out for Mr. Welch.

"Mr. Welch, you ever heard of a woman in white?" Welch turns around confused. "A what?" He asks. "A woman in white. Or sometimes a weeping woman" Sam repeats my words, explaining it further. "It's a ghost story. Well..." I start to explain and I chuckle. "It's more of a phenomenon, really" We start walking back towards Mr. Welch.

"They're spirits. They've been sighting for hundreds of years. Dozens of places" I say, looking over to Sam to continue. "In Hawaii, in Mexico. Lately in Arizona, Indiana." As he lists the places I hold up my fingers, counting them. "All these are different women you understand but all share the same story". Sam says

"Kids, I don't care much for nonsense" Mr. Welch says now aggravated, turning to walk off but I stop him. "See when they were alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them. And these women basically suffering from temporary insanity murdered their children. Then once they realized what they had done. They took their own lives" I explain and Sam takes over.

"So now their spirits are cursed. Walking backroads, waterways. And if they find an unfaithful man. They kill him. And that man is never seen again" Sam further digs. "You think.....You think that has something to do with....Constance. You smartasses!" Mr. Welch, now horrified at the possibility, breathes heavily.

"You tell me. You hesitantly claimed you had happy marriage but by the way you were checking out my friend here... I'd beg to differ" Sam says, his gaze soft. Ohhh that's cold. "I mean, maybe, maybe I made some mistakes, but no matter what I did, Constance, she never would've killed her own children. Now you two get the hell outta here! And you don't come back!" Mr. Welch shuns us angrily, shaking trying to hold back tears.

"Jesus Sam, that was a bit cold" I say as we walk back to the car. Sam sighs opening baby and jumping in, opening the passenger side from inside for me. "One man was unfaithful and now people are dying. I'm not saying they're saints but it's messed up" He says putting the car in reverse driving off.

I sigh, "That's the job for ya, hey, gimme your phone" without hesitation he gives me his phone "Sure, what for?" He asks while in dialing. "You'll see" I smirk putting the phone to my ear. I take my gun out from my waist, rolling down the window and aiming it out the window to the sky.

"Y/N what're you doing?" Sam questions now worried. I shush him with a finger to my lips. "911 what's your emergency?" The lady operator says on the line. I let out a fake scream and Sam now realizes what I'm doing, holding back his laughter.

"Help!! Please!! My husband and the neighbor are f- " I pull the trigger before I could finish the sentence. A ear piercing scream leaves my throat "HE HAS A GUN PLEASE!! HELP US!" Sam is biting his fist from laughing. "The blood!! Oh the blood! HONEY!!" I quickly give the operator address on the other side of where we are and hang up handing it back to Sam who is hysterical.

"You..really are ...a crackhead.." He says in-between laughs and I chuckle. "Whatever dipshit" I retort. Within a couple minutes my phone rings. I answer putting it on speaker. "Fake 911 phone call, princess. I don't know. That's pretty illegal. Aren't you a bad girl?" Dean teases me from over the phone.

I scoff rolling my eyes as Sam chuckles, grimacing at the last part of Deans sentence. "You're welcome, charming" I chuckle. "Listens guys we gotta talk" Dean starts to say but Sam interrupts. "Tell me about it. So the husband was unfaithful. We are dealing with a Woman in White. And she's buried behind her old house so that should be our next stop."

Dean cuts Sam off "Sammy would you shut up for a second?" Dean tries to interject but Sam continues "We just can't figure out why he hasn't destroyed the corpse yet" Sam rambles. "Well that's what I'm trying to tell you two. He's gone. Dad left Jericho" Dean says.

"What? How do you know?" I say surprising, my mouth agape. "I've got his journal" Dean says. My jaw falls further, practically on the floorboard of Baby. "He doesn't go anywhere without that thing" Sam says. "Yeah, well, he did this time" Dean says. "What's it say?" I ask. "Same old ex-Marine crap, when he wants to let us know where he's going" Dean explains what's written.

"Coordinates. Where to?" Sam confirms. "Dean, what the hell is going on?" I question now confused and irritated by the vague messages John's leaving. Suddenly Sam hits the brakes of the car and my phone slips out of my hand. I catch a glimpse of the Woman in White infront of the car before he hurls straight through her.

"Sam! Y/N!?" I hear Dean yell for us from the phone that's now on the floorboard. Me and Sam try catching our breath. "Take me home" is all we hear, the woman in white appears in the back of the Impala. Looking at Sam. We don't answer and she says again, more irritated this time.

"Take.Me.Home" I can see her ghost flicker, I reach into my boots to grab to iron knuckle cuffs, gripping it in my hand "No" He says sternly, holding his ground. The doors of the car lock automatically, trapping us in. We try opening our sides but it's stuck. The Impala is now driving itself to Constance's old house where she killed her kids. Me and Sam still trying for the doors.

"GODDAMIT!!" I yell in frustration, punching the window with my iron knuckle cuff but it barely cracks. We pull up to her house, against our will, and baby shuts off. "Don't do this" I plead with her but she doesn't seem interested in me, expected. "I can never go home" She says in a somber voice, her ghost flickering.

"You're scared to go home" Sam says and it clicks. She's scared to face her kids. In a split second, she was in the middle of me and Sam. A force throws me to the backseat, pinning me down and she jumps on top of Sam, straddling him. "Get off of him you bitch!" I scream at her. "Hold me, I'm so cold" she breathes out needy.

I cringe at this and break out of her hold. I reach over and punch her with the iron knuckle cuff ring. She disapparates, but not for long. "You okay Sammy??" I reach over to help him, before he could answer. She appears back on his lap. Backing handing to the back seat. The knuckle cuffs fly out my hand and onto the floor in the back seat.

"You can't kill me, I'm not unfaithful I've never been" Sam argues, groaning in pain as she passes her hand along his skin. "You will be" she says before kissing him. "YOU SICK BITCH!" I try to get out of her hold but the force is too strong.

Sam struggles to turn the keys in the ignition. She disappears for a quick seconds and we both look around. Sam starts screaming in pain "SAM!!!" I yell, feeling powerless that I can't do more, I see the knuckle cuffs at the corner of my eye, I try reaching for it but it's too far.

She appears back on him, her face now decayed. Her fingers digging into Sam's chest. "NO!!" My voice is pained, still attempting to reach the cuffs. I finally get a hold of the cuffs, gunshots ringing through the driver seat window. I see Dean outside of the Impala shooting Constance.

"My hero" I grumble sarcastically to myself at the fact that Dean is shooting a ghost. I throw the iron cuffs at her again, this time seems to work a little better. Sam gets up and starts the car. "Take her home Sammy" I say and Sam nods curtly. Driving Baby head first into Constance's house to face her kids.

"Sam! Y/N!" Dean yells but the impact from the crash, throws me over into the front seat. How? Don't ask me. "Guys!?" Dean yells for us. "Here!" I yell back to catch his attention. "You two okay? Can you move?" He asks, moving a piece of wood from infront the window. "Yeah, help us" Sam says groaning in pain.

I feel a bump starting to form on my head. Dean pulls me out from the passenger side and I lean on the side of his car. Next taking Sam out. "There you go" He says holding Sam up and checking on me, I give him a thumbs up and we see Constance infront of us, holding an old picture of herself.

Her eyes flicker up to us angrily, she tosses the picture aside and a chest of drawers come hurling towards us, pinning us again the wall by our mid regions. We groan trying to push it off but it wouldn't budge. The lights in the house start flickering and we all look around.

The stairs starts leaking water, assuming that's foreshadowing the water she used to drown her kids. The boys and I look up the starts to see the shadow of two kids holding hands. "You've come home to us, Mommy." They say in unison, reminding me of when the boys speak in perfect unison.

Shit gave me the heebie jeebies.

They appear behind a terrified Constance and they start hugging. Constance is a screaming mess, her spirit flickering from decayed to her normal self. She and the kids spirit diminish, melting to the ground where the water from upstairs is leaking. That has got to be where she drowned them.

Once her spirit is gone, the boys and I look at each other. Grunting from the pain, we push the chest of drawer over with an ease compared to earlier. We walk towards the puddle of water. "So this is where she drowned her kids" Dean states the obvious. "Thats why she could never go home" I say and Sam nods. "She was too scared to face them" Sam confirms.

"You guys found her weak spot. Nice work kids" Dean pats Sam on his chest and me on my head and we laugh in pain. "Yeah I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?" Sam mocks his brother and I laugh rubbing my head. "Hey. Saved your asses" Dean defends, pointing at us.

"No smartass, it was my ironcuffs" I snort holding it up to show him, joining in on making fun of Dean. "Whatever" Dean grumbles. He puts his hands to his knees bending down. "I'll tell you another thing. If you guys screwed up my car....I'll kill ya both " He threatens me and Sam and I snicker.

"Yeah, be sure to burn my body. Before you shoot my ghost when I haunt ya" I quipped, Dean glares at me and Sam laughs and we high-five.

________________________________

Third Person POV

Sam and Dean are driving down the empty road. Y/N on her bike side by side to the Impala. Dean glances at her, admiring her physique. He admires her a lot, the way she handles herself on hunts. She did a hell of a job today. Growing up together he watched her go from a timid shy girl to a confident badass woman.

He holds her in high regard, never backing down from a fight. Her smartass mouth keeps him on edge, she always finds a way to keep him in his toes. Sure he dropped his flirty comments here and there and so did she. But Dean would never do anything to mess their friendship up.

He cherishes their friendship too much to allow himself to let his little crush ruin that. Even if he doesn't accept his feelings for her. Growing up together he protected her the way he did for Sam.

Feeling a sense of responsibility for her. He missed her this past year. He doesn't regret calling her to come on the search for their father, he feels bad never called before even though he wanted to.

She wanted her space to grow and he respected that, unlike her father.

Sam is talking Deans ear off about some place their dad should be after analyzing the coordinates he left in the journal for them. He realizes his brother isn't paying attention to him, looking over to see Dean staring at Y/N riding next to the Impala.

He smirks at this, knowing his brother has had a bit of a crush on Y/N for a couple years now. Y/N has liked Dean basically her whole life but would never admit it to Sam. To protect their friendship but he doesn't mind. They're good for each other. Too damn stubborn to admit it though.

"You're still crushing on her" Sam teases his brother, this sentence snaps Dean out of his daydreaming and his head spins to his younger brother. "The hell are you talking about? I do not have a crush on Y/N dude. She's like my little sister" Dean scoffs denying the fact.

Sam chuckles shaking his head. Stubborn ass.

"Yeah, sure" Sam says ironically, changing the subject, he tells Dean that their Dad went to Blackwater Ridge Colorado.

"How far?" Dean asks. "About 600 miles" Sam tells him, flashing the light on the map. "If we shag ass we could make it by morning" Dean says looking at Sam and back to Y/N next to baby.

Sam looks at his brother awkwardly. "Dean, um...." Dean turns away disappointed, staring at the road. "You're not going" He says turning back to Sam. "The interview is in like 10 hours. I gotta be there" Sam tries to reason with his brother.

Dean nods sadly, "Yeah. Yeah whatever. I'll take to home." He says and Sam turns the light off. Dean makes a turn to lead onto the highway.

Outside, Y/N notices this turn and follows them, she assumes they're dropping Sam back to Stanford. It saddens her to know she might not see her greatest friend for a long time but she knows it's for the best. It's what he deserves.

They arrive in front of Sam's apartment. Y/N parks her bike infront on the Impala and turns her engine off. She takes off her helmet and hops off her bike at the same time Sam is getting out of Deans car.

Taking her time to walk towards the brothers she hears Sam say, while he's leaning down to face Dean in the window after he closes the passenger door. "Maybe I can meet up with you later, huh?" Sam half promises. "Yeah all right" Dean nods, not convinced and Sam taps the door twice.

Dean starts his engine while Sam turns to Y/N. "Sam? Y/N?" He calls out for his brother and best friend. They turn to him. "You know we made a hell of a team back there." Y/N nods sadly "Yeah" he responds. Turning back to Y/N, he smiles at his longest friend sadly.

"Don't give me that look boy, you better lawyer it up when I call your ass from jail to bail me out" Y/N attempts to ease the situation by joking. Sam chuckles and pulls her into a hug. Wrapping his arms around her shoulder, she wraps hers around his waist.

Quickly wiping the tear that's been threatening to fall from her eyes so they don't see. He ruffles her hair for what he thinks is the last time and says "Hang in there kid". She scoffs lightly punching his shoulder.

"You're only a couple months older, now go before I kick your ass" she pretends to chase him while he walks to his apartment. Y/N sighs sadly, turning to the Impala and jumping in the passenger seat. She sees Dean isn't facing her, his eyes on the driver side window and that could only mean one thing.

Placing her hand on his shoulder she says, "He'll be okay Dean". He turns to her, his face stained in a couple tears. Her heart breaks seeing this "Come here" she ushers him to hug her, he leans into her chest. Allowing a couple more tears to fall from his eyes to her chest.

She comforts him as he always did her, reassuring him that Sam will be alright. That his little brother loves him. That she will always be there for him. Stroking his hair, she feels butterflies fill her stomach now realizing their position. She tells herself now is not the time or place.

Ignoring it but she can't help but feel something is wrong. Like if something is going to happen. It's been bugging her all day. Dean starts chuckling a little at her words earlier to Sam.

"Don't give me that look boy, you better lawyer it up when I call your ass from jail to bail me out"

Even in a time like this, Y/N is the only person who could put a smile on his face. "What're you laughing at" Y/N asks, chuckling with him, confused how he went from crying to laughing. Before he could tell her, they hear Sam scream "NO!!" Pain in his voice.

They snap out of it, bolting out of Deans car. They kick the door down to Sam's apartment. A blast of heat gushes out through the door "Sam!" Dean yells for his brother. Y/N smells smoke.

'Oh no. This is it. This is the bad thing that was going to happen'. Y/N thinks to herself. "JESS!!" Sam screams in agony, Dean and Y/N rush to Sam's room.

Upon running in they see Jess pinned to the ceiling, engulfed in flames. No fucking way.

"Sam! Sam!" Y/N and Dean yell. "NO!! NO!!" Sam screams still on the bed, blocking himself from the flames.

"We gotta get out of here!" Dean screams, he and y/n pull Sam off the bed. Hauling him out of the room. "JESS!! JESS!! NO!!" Sam screams in shock. They make it out of the apartment in time before the blast takes over the whole building.

________________________________

Hours have passed since Jess' death. Dean is looking at the burning building being sprayed by the firefighters. His mind flashing back to that unfaithful night when his mother was killed. His heart grieves for Sam knowing that pain is now twice as hard on his little brother, who he fought so hard to protect.

Sam spent the first hour crying into Dean and Y/N's arms. Currently at the trunk of the Impala, he's loading his rifle, a grim look on his face while tears still fall from his eyes.

Y/N's heart pains seeing her best friend like this. Leaning against Baby's boot, taking a drag from her cigarette in this stressful time. A habit she picked up from her father. Sam ushers her to pass it. She looks at him surprised. "You sure?" he just nods curtly.

He hands Y/N the rifle, as Dean approaches them, so she can finish loading it. Passing the almost burnt out bud to him, Sam takes a few pulls, letting the smoke out. Before finishing it, flicking it to the ground and crushing it with his boot.

Turning to face his elder brother. Y/N throws the gun into the trunk. "We've got work to do fellas" She says grimly and Sam shuts the trunk.

Authors Note

So this chapter was supposed to be uploaded since last night but right after I finished proofreading and editing. My dumbass accidentally deleted the entire chapter!

The tears that were shed. Holy Fuckk. That's a pain I never wanna go through again. And I've watched all 15 seasons of Supernatural😂

Anyways. I hope whoever is reading that enjoyed the first episode. I'll try my best to finish the next one by Thursday for the latest. I'm planning to do a lot with Y/N's character. I'm trying to avoid leaving plot holes but I'm kinda new to consistent writing so bare with me.

Update

I forgot to add in the fact that Sam and Deans mom grew up with Y/N's parents. I added into the prologue. Please forgive my lack of planning. Xoxo

[devondespresso]

Background details about Tommy and Carol from Season 1, and how they are with conflict

<very much not an all exhaustive list, i just saw this gif with something interesting and pulled up the whole show to look into it>

Now the one i saw was slightly longer, showing carol and tommy's continued reactions, so ofc we had to learn how tf to make gifs so i can show you guys what im talking about (this ones at .75 speed)

Specifically, to include not just their initial reactions, but also the next thoughts.

Lets start with Nicole, the redhead on the far right, who obviously isn't nearly as close to the trio as they are to each other (she's basically only around at school and this scene and doesn't stick around after they run from the cops). She's our control (if this were an experiment), the normal reaction. She's surprised in the entertained way. Steve's girlfriend slapped him, things are getting interesting.

Then Carol, who's probably got my favorite reaction. A similar surprise and "Oh" as Nicole, but her eyebrows don't stay up if they even jump at all. Then she looks at Nancy and she's mad, clearly on Steve's behalf. Steve's girlfriend slapped him, how dare she.

Next we have Tommy, the only person in this scene to noticeably flinch, bringing an arm up in front of him and playing it off with the cigarette to his mouth and marveling at the event. To me, it reads as a kind of empathy: if he were in Steve place in that moment, he'd block/shield himself and he has the reflexes to do it even when he's standing several feet away. I could be reading into it, but i still think its interesting he make more movement than the two people closer to them, and even the guy getting slapped (who doesn't even turn away, the momentum of the hit changes his angle slightly).

Then another (im sorry its pretty hard to follow, again, just learned how to make half decent gifs) showing interesting stuff from the fight i never noticed until looking for it. Most notably, extra lines/ad-lib from Tommy and Carol I've subtitled, like Tommy telling Carol to leave (the implication that she didn't want to as Nicole grabbed her, combined with her line worrying about him), Tommy hauling Steve up and Steve stumbling like we see in season 2 after his concussion (not definitive proof he has a concussion or something close to it since hes able to run and talk fine after, but its interesting)

Then we get the conflict afterwards, showing up differently for Carol and Tommy.

With Carol, its arguing. It's jabs at Nancy and it jabs at Tommy and Carol. What i think is really interesting is that the shit Steve says genuinely surprises her. Before she's goofing off with Tommy, the both of them trying to lighten the mood and Steve snaps. And her response isn't "calm down" or "what's gotten into you" (that's more in Tommy's lines), shes genuinely taken aback.

And then at the end, Steve raises his voice (not loud enough for a yell, but combined with the motion it feels like one) and Carol visibly backs up, out of frame entirely for a second. (followed by Tommy blowing up at Steve for yelling at her, and the following lines expressing again how its out of character for him)

That, combined with her reaction to Steve yelling from a previous scene (where he's going to check on Nancy and they tease him for caring) (also at .75 speed)

She's definitely got something going on with yelling specifically, especially since Tommy doesn't even look upset after, an expression similar to Nicole's "shit got interesting" expression from earlier.

Then there's Tommy's conflict, which is probably most memorable because its physical aggression (and very... tense.)

(yes i cut out over half of that moment the file size was massive im sorry)

We see from the Carol gif before and in this one that he gets aggressive. One shove when Steve yells at Carol, then the second Steve pushes back he escalates and even after Steve stops responding we get Tommy slamming the car door and hitting the outside even as Steve is driving out.

Its much harder to tell with him what the deal is, especially since he doesn't get the same vulnerable looks as Carol does. I think you could headcanon him having a similar thing as Carol, or as just macho-jock bullshit he learned to stay on top, or even it all leading back to having a crush on Steve.

This also doesn't really prove or disprove Tommy's actual ability to fight (i remember seeing people talk about it but I can't remember specifics) since he could either be a solid fighter who knows how to hit and protect from a hit, or he's talking out of his ass and sticks to intimidation and blocking when he needs to. Again, up to you (i certainly don't know which I find more interesting yet)

I personally also like to think the three of them were really good friends for a while, at least since middle school (but im also a sap especially for best-friendships) I wish we could've seen more of how Carol was taking the split up in season 2 and maybe something from Tommy other than how he hangs out with Billy now. Maybe Carol and Tommy split after Steve left, maybe it happened when Tommy tried replacing Steve with Billy in their trio, maybe they never split and Carol avoided Steve afterwards.

(tho i am kinda glad the story let them go after 2 seasons, we get a lot more room to play around with what-ifs and read into their scenes)

[joesheistyy]

Driving in his Benz - Joe Burrow

I've never been a taylor swift girlie but midnights is iconic and I was inspired by vigilante shit sooooo here you go :) more angst? yes please! ending in some fluff? count me in!

2.2k words || cussing || some harsh grabbing

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Of course your evening was spent bickering with Joe. This was the second night in a row you two just couldn’t get on the same page about a handful of things. Once again going to bed angry with each other, backs facing each other.

In your late high school days, the way you’d cool down from heightened emotions was by going for a drive. Could you do this in Cincinnati? Sure, but it wasn’t as soothing as driving back roads in southern Indiana. It was definitely much preferred to do during the day. As you fell asleep, you made a plan to get up and just drive to get your head on straight when you awoke. 

When you woke up, you did not have the energy to deal with Joe. Needing to be caffeinated before any hard thoughts came to mind, you decided to go to Panera to grab a coffee and a charged tea. Of course those drinks would be spaced out throughout the day, you just needed an out for the morning. This would probably be another item Joe would want to bicker about-your caffeine intake. 

You put on your favorite oversized crewneck and Lululemon leggings before you left the bedroom, making as little noise as possible. What you didn’t know was that your stirring before getting out of bed woke Joe up. He wanted to start the day off on a good note, hoping to talk things through over breakfast, but you had already gone down the stairs and grabbed the keys to his new Benz.

The sleek black car was parked in the garage, windows yet to be tinted. You lifted the garage door before turning on the car and picking out your “bad bitch” playlist. Joe was able to hear the garage door open and close, he knew driving was your go to outlet to clear your head, so he let it go. 

After an hour or so, you had picked up your drinks and were driving with the windows down, cool spring air flowing throughout the nice car. You pulled up to a stop light, blasting Vigilante Shit by Taylor Swift and singing along with the song, dancing in a way that made you feel hot. What you didn’t know was that the car stopped next to you knew who you were and snapped a video of you in your own little world. Swiftly posting it to twitter. 

Joe was sitting on the couch at home, almost in a wallowing state. He just wanted to talk things through in a calm manner because he was just as tired of bickering as you were. Little did he know, the video of you was blowing up on twitter. His phone pinged from his pocket with the special text tone for his manager. 

Yo dude, what is your girl up to? There’s a video of her blowing up all over twitter.

Joe had no clue what you were doing, opting to trust you to clear your head without causing a scene. 

I’ll handle this. Was Joe’s response to his manager. 

You continued on the windy back roads, blasting Girls in the Hood by Megan Thee Stallion. A text came through the car’s ApplePlay. 

What the fuck are you doing, y/n? Get your ass home right now. The car read out to you. 

You let out an aggressive sigh, opting for that over tears. “Hey Siri, text Joey Boy back and respond with you don’t own me, don’t tell me what to do.”

That ring states otherwise honey. What made you think you could take my car without asking? Get home now, it’s about time we sat down and talked. 

These words making your heart sink to just about you asshole. Your anxiety had been heightened all week with the constant bickering. The phrase or anything close to we need to talk always seemed to make any situation worse in your opinion. 

“Hey Siri, respond to Joey Boy and say Fine, as you wish.”

You headed home, opting to take the longest route possible. Pulling into the neighborhood of your shared home, you took some deep breaths to try to calm your anxiety. As you opened the garage door to park the car, you saw an angry faced Joe waiting at the door to enter your house. 

“Y/n, what the fuck?” he emphasized in a stern tone, shooting daggers with his eyes. 

“What? I really don’t understand what you’re so upset about,” you huffed out, tossing your hands in the air as you approached the door to enter the house. 

“You don’t understand? How could you not understand?” he led you into the house, anger obvious not only his voice but in his tense back and shoulders. 

“Joe, I just wanted to clear my head. Why can't I do anything without getting bitched at?” You retorted, hanging the keys on the hook by the garage door. 

“Don’t start this with me, y/n. I’m not happy with you,” 

“Yeah, obviously,” You rolled your eyes, setting your drink down on the counter. 

Joe swiftly turned around, once again glaring at you in a way you had never seen before. His blue eyes were dark, eyelashes framing his gorgeous orbs in a scary yet beautiful way. His fist slammed on the counter as he began to take a deep breath. You could only imagine what was coming. 

“Oh my god, y/n,” He began as he rolled his eyes and huffed, “do you have any idea what you’ve done? First, you take my car without asking me, then you get caught and recorded in my car that you didn't ask to use, singing some stupid ass song about driving in a Benz or whatever the fuck it was, dancing and looking like an absolute fucking idiot,” he continued as his cheeks and neck turned a red as bright as a rose. Arms flying around as another outlet for his anger. 

You looked at him with emptiness filling your mind and body. He never had a problem before with you taking his car out. Plus, he always thought your singing and dancing was goofy, who did he think he was to call you all these things?

Looking up at him yet trying to avoid his scary eyes, you could see his breath hitch in his chest. “Babe, I-” you began.

“Don’t babe me, you're in the dog house with me right now,” he said, beginning to walk away. 

“So what? We’re not gonna talk about this? You’re just gonna bitch at me over something that I do on a normal basis? Alright Burrow, have your way for now. I’m done,” you directed yourself to the stairway. Joe swiftly came up behind you and grabbed your wrist with haste. That’s gonna hurt later.

“No no, you’re not done. We're talking about this now,” Joe forced you to follow him, pushing you down to the couch which caused you to swiftly get up. Inches from his chest, you look up at him, finger poking his chest with as much force as you could handle. “Don’t you ever handle me like that again,” you jabbed at his chest. Pushing through his strong stance, you headed toward the stairs determined to get away from him. 

Joe didn’t chase after you this time, he had practice in an hour and decided he didn’t want to get into it with you. His practice bag was in your shared bedroom where you had locked yourself in. As you heard his footsteps approach, you grabbed his bag and tossed it onto the floor outside the door, making sure to close it with a harsh nature. You could hear him sigh as he retrieved his grey bag from the floor. You took a couple deep breaths before sliding down the door, blocking any entrance with your weight. 

You hated to cry in front of Joe, so once you heard the garage door close, you felt safe to come out of your little pity party. Heading downstairs to give yourself a change of scenery, you plopped down on the couch where just a few minutes ago, you were scolding Joe for grabbing you in a way that was uncomfortable and not in a sexual way. Tears beginning to fall uncontrollably. You pulled your legs up to your chest, opting to put your crewneck over them so you could curl into a little ball and cry. 

You soon heard footsteps. What the fuck, Joe is at practice, isn’t he? You thought to yourself as you lifted your head to look around and see if anyone was there. After determining that you were alone, you went back to your little sob fest. All the emotions from the previous bickering fights catching up to you. The way Joe yelled at you really did your emotions in. 

Footsteps approached you and you felt a weight dip down on the couch next to you. You jolted out of your crewneck, craning your neck to your left to view Joe sat down next to you. You blinked a few times to try to clear your cloudy eyes as you pulled your body out of your crewneck ball. He sighed and tried to scoot a bit closer to you, only causing you to scoot further away from him. 

“Can we please not do this right now?” you sobbed. He sighed again. 

“Honey we need to talk,” he began. There were those words again. 

“You have practice and you need to go,” you began. He reached out to grab your hand. Your left hand to be exact. That alone scared you more than anything considering the absolute rock sitting on your ring finger.

“I texted Zac that I’m gonna be late. You’re more important to me right now,” he stated as his features softened. You scooted into him a little more, opting to rest your head onto his shoulder. The lack of physical touch lately didn’t help with all the bickering. Your sobs wracked your ribs. Joe knew you hated to cry in front of him, but it was inevitable after the recent events. 

“Joe I can’t stand this bickering and arguing anymore,” you sobbed again. He took an opportunity to give you a soothing back rub. 

“I know, y/n. I can’t either. Everything has just been eating me up and building up lately and we need to address all this,” he said, slowly turning to look at you.

“Why do you yell at me the way you do, Joe? It’s so hard to want to be kind back when I get talked to the way I do when you’re upset,” you spoke with shaky breaths. “I feel like I have to defend myself to you when you raise your voice with me. That’s why when we bicker, it feels never ending. How am I supposed to stand there and take criticism for every little disagreement or every little thing that makes you upset?”

“I don’t know, babe. I just get so lost in my own emotions that sometimes things just come out that way,” he began. 

“No Joe, they always come out that way. But when you start attacking me for things like singing and dancing, that’s when it goes overboard. You can’t keep criticizing me for things I do when you’re worked up,” you said with a more stern tone. 

“I’m sorry, y/n. I’m going to try to be better,” he said, grabbing at your hand again and fiddling with your ring. “This ring is supposed to represent my undying love for you and I’ve done the opposite. I promise I’m going to work to be a better fiancee so I can be the best husband. I love you y/n and I can’t lose you. I’m so sorry for the way the cards have fallen lately. I deserve to be blamed and torn into,” he said, looking down in embarrassment. 

“Babe I’m not gonna bitch back at you the way you yelled at me earlier. While I don’t appreciate the way I’ve been talked to lately, you don’t deserve to be talked to like that. I just need your help in talking things out before shit hits the fan, got it?” you looked at him, waiting for him to look into your eyes and agree. He nodded, leaning in to kiss your forehead. You both sighed as you leaned into his chest for comfort. He held you so close and tight like it was the thing he knew how to do best. You both needed that tight embrace. 

“No more talking to each other like that, got it?” you pulled away as you spoke.

“Of course, future Mrs. Burrow. We can settle things like adults because we are adults,” he showed a soft smile.

“Now go to practice, Burrow. You shouldn’t keep coach and the team waiting. I’ll be here to hug you later. I’m just glad we talked at least something out. We can talk more out when you get back,” you held out your pinky and wrapped his into yours. 

“I love you, y/n. I’ll be back later,” he got up and rushed out the door. You sighed and leaned back into the couch in hope that more talking to each other would help cure all your anxieties. Maybe even going for a drive, together...

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lmk if y'all want a part two, I've got some ideas up my sleeve!!!!!!

[summersmithlatinxgyatt]

BEEN A LONG TIME COMING. TIME TO TALK ABOUT NIGHT SUMMER

First off, Night Family is 10/10 and among my favorite episodes. I'm inclined to say my favorite, but The Vat of Acid Episode is amazing and 10/10. This is gonna start off with a review of the episode. The score, the premise, the final fight, and the entire dynamic is great. I can't believe that a fake-out incest joke made me laugh so hard, every part of it is great and I'm convinced they got either ghost writers for this episode or they went all-out to make it great. I can't stress enough how amazing it is and I'm glad I have the chance to rewatch this episode for a review/explanation. I usually don't care about this but an 8.5 IMDB score is too low for this

Second off, this episode has already made people wonder why Night Summer was the leader of the family and strongest Smith family member. Site-note, that plate scene still makes me squirm holy shit. And you already know I'm a Summer connoisseur 🤓 Let me explain why Night Summer makes sense

So we already established that Summer keeps the family together. Of course, she also nudged Rick to let them use the Somnambulator. The Night versions are subconscious versions of them, with Night Summer saying she's always been inside of Summer. That means there's always been this version of Summer, which is probably a logical progression of how Summer acts already. Rick mentions that Night Summer CONVINCED Night Rick to deactivate a lot of the machinery

I'm not a Rick hyper-analyst, but luckily there's other people who ARE. Therefore, anyone can correct me about this.

Considering that Rick tends to hide how he feels, especially his sympathy (until later seasons), it means he was very easy to convince. Summer keeps the family together and has a strong relationship with Rick, therefore Night Summer's presence was amplified to the point that everyone was forced to recognize her presence. This let her manipulate everyone to work for her

I've also had a theory that Summer understands the technology so well that she likely made all of the proxy drones herself. Plus, other details include Jerry just saying 'Uh, family?' to convince Summer to jump to the next car

There isn't much new I can say without repeating the entire point about family and whatnot, but it's amazing that they're keeping this character of Summer quite consistent

This also means if she wants to, she could easily take Rick's technology for herself and make the family under her control. It's always been inside Summer and possible, so it's likely that Night Summer seizing her chance means that whenever Summer slowly took more control and kept the family closer together, we saw more of this subsconscious Summer

Night Summer is just the name given to her potential and honest self

And remember, as I pointed out, she no longer follows the norm and rebels after the events of 'Wedding Squanchers'. Of course the ONLY family member who would rebel and free themselves with their family WOULD BE SUMMER

To summarize Night Summer - yup, this is just her potential that she's scratching the surface of

'Night Family' is not only a fucking great episode, but another that shows off Summer with established parts of her character. We see her potential unleashed - a genuine threat that keeps the family under her own control and capable of using Rick's technology and/or making her own, an unshackled threat that only does this to keep them all under her vision

Also here's two edits I did

[liamlawsonlesbian]

f1 tag game!!! thanks eve @bright-and-burning <33

Who is your favorite driver?: Charles, by a fairly large margin. him!!

Do you have other favorite drivers?: I am fond of most of the grid to varying degrees, as is probably obvious from my blog! but top-tier are Alex, Yuki, Max, Oscar, Liam

Who is your least favorite driver?: I would prefer not to name names! (but I have named names before lol)

Do you pull for drivers or do you like teams as well?: I mostly root for drivers. It's probably partially a consequence of coming to the sport through rpf, and also I feel icky about the teams as corporations. And yet (!) I do find the narratives compelling

If you like teams, what team do you pull for?: I am fond of Williams (although a lot less fond of James Vowles for what he's done to Logan recently); Ferrari and I are in a love-hate relationship

How long have you been into F1?: The year anniversary of the inciting incident is in three days!!

What got you into F1?: ro @oscarpiastriwdc had started reading f1 fic on a whim bc a podcast we both like had mentioned it and we'd talked about how we'd both picked up a little bit of knowledge from Being Online; I was having a tough day and they sent me the objects in mirror series by val @drivestraight and I was totally hooked. I started watching/reading everything I could get my hands on about the sport and then it was Monaco the weekend of my birthday and I discovered that I did, indeed love to watch the cars go vroom

Do you enjoy Fanfic/RPF?: alsdfj;akj answered by the "what got you into f1 question" but yes, I both read and write (allegedly, sometimes) f1 rpf

How do you view new fans?: I am a new fan! and I got in via rpf so I have not a single moral superiority leg to stand on. I feel like this question is aimed at "DTS fans"? And while I haven't actually watched it I don't think there's any reason that people who got into F1 that way are any way "lesser" or "fake" in terms of the way they view the sport

If you could take over as team principal for any team, who would it be and why?: oooof. I....do not think I would be good at that job. I am not terribly organized, for one. I'm going to say Alpine, just for a few days, because I don't think I could make Worse and I am a terrible gossip and want to know whether Pierre and Esteban are at each other's throats behind the scenes

Are your friends and family into F1 as well?: Well, ro is my irl* (met them at a rainbow alliance meeting on the second day of freshman orientation — we both introduced ourselves as "allies" lollll). A couple of other friends from college and an old friend from 1D fandom times are also into F1 independently, and my dad has started really following along since I got sucked in (he is very sweet).

*tried to think of a noun to go after irl...friend doesn't really cover it

Are you open to talking to other fans/making friends?: Yes!! I love friends!! I'm a little bit shy about messaging people but I love love to talk <33

no pressure tags: @omigodyall @oscarpiastriwdc @drivestraight @piastrisms @mcl38 @vegasgrandprix @blorbocedes @kazoologist

[thatswhatsushesaid]

get 2 know me meme

tagged by @cryptidafter 🫡

tagging: whoever feels like doing this, but also @watertightvines @ratheralark @needsmoreresearch @chaos0pikachu @skalidris @thepurplewombat @evilhasnever

Do you make your bed?

yep! not like super neatly or whatever but it gets remade every morning to prevent the cats from causing problems.

What’s your favorite number?

seven--just like prev! dunno why exactly, i just vibe with it.

What is your job?

i'm an overworked government bureaucrat, which maybe explains why i think jin guangyao should get to murder whomever he wants.

If you could go back to school, would you?

nooooope. i've got my masters and that is more than enough for me. i've actually told my husband that if i start making any serious noises about going back to school, he has my permission to yell at me.

Can you parallel park?

y... yes. in that once i am parked, i am sure that my car is parallel to something, somewhere.

A job you had that would surprise people?

i'm genuinely not sure any of my day jobs are that exciting lol. uhhh i designed and administered sharepoint online websites for a major canadian university for a while and hated every second of it despite making bank while i did it. god i hate sharepoint so much.

Do you think aliens are real?

i think it's way more unlikely that we're totally alone in the universe.

Can you drive a manual car?

nope, never learned how to drive stick shift unfortunately.

What’s your guilty pleasure?

i'm not sure i feel guilty about it exactly but i do enjoy rewatching gilmore girls while very high.

Tattoos?

just the one, which will be a week old as of tomorrow 👀 it's a stylized rendering of the solar eclipse! my husband and the man of honour at our wedding also got matching tattoos, so it's a very sentimental tattoo for me.

Favorite color?

i'm a jewel tones kind of bitch, so deep forest green, burgundy, etc,

Favorite type of music?

i like a little bit of everything tbh but i mostly listen to grunge and bluegrass.

Do you like puzzles?

no 😤 they stress me out lol

Any phobias?

several, and broadcasting what they are on a public platform like this while knowing i have at least two hatefollowers sounds like a very bad idea.

Favorite childhood sport?

horse-riding! i also took dance and played soccer but riding horses was the most fun. also the cheapest since i just went down to our neighbour's farm and rode her horses lol

Do you talk to yourself?

oh yes.

What movies do you adore?

god, okay, this is hard: the LOTR extended editions, the OG star wars trilogy, OG jurassic park, saved!, batman: the dark knight, captain america: the winter soldier, inception, sunshine, 1408, knives out, parasite, leon the professional, anything directed by hayao miyazaki, anything directed by guillermo del toro (except for the shape of water, which i can't watch because of the scene with the cat)--i'm sure i'm forgetting something.

Coffee or tea?

can't start my day without a cup of tea 👍

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

i wanted to be a veterinarian! but i also wanted to be an astronaut just as badly because i figured even aliens probably have pets, and someone has to look after them.

[rodolfoparras]

Anyways, a second ask in a row because I didn't want to also add my oc talk to the other one

Grumpy, drunk, and tired Price all pissy because Gaz and Everett are helping him brush his teeth and shower up because he smells like the pub

Only for them to rub his muscles and loosen him up in bed so he's not so grumpy going to bed, pulling at least 4 little orgasms from him (two for both of them) before wiping him up and cuddling him to bed, he's out like a light and snoring (they'll clean him up again in the morning, especially if he's hungover)

And OF COURSE, Everett loves sleepy cuddle sex, very willing to let you do what ever you want with him or to do whatever you want him to do to him. May not be a talker normally but will be very vocal and sweet during sleepy sex 🫶 very sweet after too. Tea, some food, helps you to the bathroom and washes you up, loads of kisses as he rubs out any knots in your muscles, whatever you need, he's on it 🗣️‼️ but are you okay pooks? Would you like to talk about it?

Soap gets banned from doing laundry other than his own and Everett also ends up doing his own because he is taking NO chances. Ghost wears the pink shirts and glares at Soap the whole time

The dogs are cool when they're quiet and chill, like any of the boys in the living room, so Soap can creep over and pet them a little bit without reactions from the dogs. Does not like being outside in the field when Ghost and Everett play with them, which they wind up just taking the dogs for a walk around town instead so Soap's not too frightened with the dogs being crazy so close by

Soap is a little goofball, can see him putting little hats on the cats and they just play along with it, strutting some goofy hat

Everett does love when his boys coo at him🤭 yeah he's a traumatized war criminal but he loves being their bunny! (He loves when Gaz and Soap do it especially because of their accents + voices, Soap will coo in Scottish and Gaz just has a way with words) but he doesn't say it aloud, he's embarrassed but they all know because he wears the bunny balaclava anyways

One time I took a half of two different edibles and got soo fucked. My vision felt like those old cartoons where they'd zoom the picture out until the screen went black and it happened every time I blinked. I also harassed the hell out my bf, was yearning soo hard.

But I can see something like that happening to Price so he just drinks a bit instead when the boys wanna get high and monitors them throughout it. Makes sure they're eating and drinking water through giggle fits

Also, Everett and Price frotting while both a little tipsy??? Rubbing their cock(lets) together while all flushed pink and panting??? Get Everett drunk at a bar and you risk indecent exposure before bro is already in Price's lap grinding on him, he is ready to fuck him right there (probably fucks him on the car ride home while someone else drives)

also Everett who's got a little crush on Rudy?? (Projecting 😊 I love you Rudy) So while Price and Alejandro relax together and have a drink during a visit, both their boys are sat at their feet kissing and riding each other while moaning and whining (it's Everett who's whining, would let Rudy dominate tf outta him)

You're so real btw for imagining Price doing that to you ✋ those videos are so hot, so jealous of both of them

Bringing petplay back because it's probably my favorite kink/scene (I've definitely been a little insane to Charlie about petplay with Graves and Jeff 🧍‍♂️)

Soap with a muzzle(he bites hard w/ sharp canines) and a wolfs tail plug (irony 😋) and ears to match, Everett with the bunny theme, mmmaybe Ghost with a bear or maybe cat theme and Price, Roach, and Gaz all talking care of them?

Ugh imagining one of the boys (Price) telling Soap to open wide and pissing in his mouth through the muzzle as it splatters from hitting the bars 🫢

Everett riding or cock warming something the whole time, probably sucking someone off at the same time (probably Gaz whos playing and tugging on his overgrown buzzcut)

Roach who soothes a grumbly Ghost, coaxes him into it slowly and lets him watch everything until he gets needy, letting Roach fuck him even if he bites and growls until his brains all mushy (please forgive my spelling, I'm dyslexic and auto correct isn't helping 😭)

ANYWAYS 🫢🧍‍♂️

Who said all that 🏃‍♂️💨💨

Can't contain oc + poly 141 horny thoughts

I'm like that one screaming cat with it's head in it's paws

-🐧

THEY ARE LIVING MY DREWM LIFE I also want to pamper price and fuck him to sleep and then wake him up with more sex before pampering him all over again🧎🏻‍♂️

Oh I love when someone is talkative during sleepy sex bc you can talk about your day or about anything at all and anything they ask of you sounds so sweet coming out their mouth 🧎🏻‍♂️I’m okay sugar bee! I’m waiting for my docs to prescribe me my calming meds but for now I’m not feeling anxious or anything thankfully 🫶🏻

Soap getting matching outfits with the cats and dogs 😭 he’s more inclined to match with the cats but the more he grows comfortable with the dogs the more he starts matching their clothes with his

Oh Jesus that sounds like a trip but I’m glad your bf was there 😭 even tho the poor man had to put up with harassment/ j

Hello I’m kicking my legs and twirling my hair the thought of subs making out in front of their doms🧎🏻‍♂️🧎🏻‍♂️🧎🏻‍♂️

Wait the muzzle… pissing in their mouth while wearing it I am listening 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 or watching the pathetically trying to get closer to your crotch but can’t bc of the muzzle 🧎🏻‍♂️also leashes hello? Id let price prance me around I mean who said that :/

[lurkinglurkerwholurks]

Shoulder to Shoulder

First posted: April 13, 2019

Focuses on: Tim Drake, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson

Favorite bookmark: None, no one is being clever

Tier: Lower-mid on all metrics except comments and bookmarks, where it's in the bottom 20.

This is my “behind the scenes” series where I indulge myself horribly by annotating my fics. Link to the fic itself above. Thoughts below the cut.

Another one-year ficiversary piece, rewriting Carried from Dick's POV instead of Tim's.

It was the first time in Dick didn’t know how long that his hand itched to throw something and it wasn’t Bruce’s fault.

I was still playing around with the arc of Dick and Bruce's relationship. I still am, really. Some canon and fanon paths have them viciously at odds during Dick's teen years and/or immediately after Jason's death, while others less so. I do think there has to be some friction, because that's part of the uncomfortable stretching of independence, but I haven't settled on a consistent tone or tenor yet. I tend to have to write a fic specifically about a thing to figure out that thing and I haven't done that yet.

Here their relationship could be described as tetchy.

Dick felt like he was being punished. Screw up one brother, shame on you; screw up two... He had failed Jason, miserably and completely, he knew that, but shouldn’t that knowledge be punishment enough?

POV musings seem to confuse people, for whatever reason. They take the character's words or thoughts as the author's. When writing from Dick's POV, Dick in my fics will state that he failed Jason, that he was a bad big brother, that he was too distant, too unavailable, too disconnected. Dick is not an unbiased observer.

Bruce was dressed in the Armani suit that worked like a pressuring lean on a shoulder.

I panic any time I have to describe a rich-person thing. Yes, sure, I can google, but I would imagine the true rich-person things are not available to the average googler!! Whatever, celebrities wear Armani on the red carpet, it's probably fine.

Not ostentatious, not aggressive, just the understated but deliberate expression of I am richer than you that would do more to steamroll anyone he met today than a tight handshake or a punch to the jaw ever could. Alfred stood at the door of today’s car, a stately, almost old-fashioned limousine Dick had seen Bruce use only once or twice before.

Bruce Wayne is clever, and he is subtle, and he knows how to wield wealth and legacy like a weapon as deftly as any blade. And that's that on that.

“You should have called,” Dick muttered once he reached Bruce. Bruce’s chin rose infinitesimally. “You told me—” Dick held up a hand. They wouldn’t get on this ride today, this whirling teacup of you told me not to call and why are you always so pigheadedly literal.

They're both so stupid and I love them so much. (Bruce is Team Say What You Mean and Dick is Team I Know You're Just Making A Point You Jerk.)

“Can I ride with you?” Better to go as a united front, even if they risked picking another quarrel on the ride over. Bruce, to his credit, didn’t hesitate. “Of course.”

To his credit—Dick you proud teenage hothead, that's your dad of course he's going to let you ride with him, short of a BOMB strapped to your chest with five seconds left he'll say yes and even then I'm not sure he would do any differently.

They didn’t talk on the ride over. Dick fidgeted with his cuffs until he caught Bruce looking, then stopped. When they arrived at the cemetery, Bruce held out a hand, blocking Dick’s exit. Dick braced for whatever thought Bruce had been chewing on, but instead, two large, calloused hands reached out and gently straightened his tie.

nananananananananananananana DADMAAAAAAAAN

Dick met Bruce’s eye. On the other side of the car door awaited a funeral with a minister, mourners, and an open grave. They both knew what to expect, both would likely pay for it in their own ways later. A united front. For Tim. Dick nodded, once, and Bruce returned the gesture before letting Alfred open the door.

These are two people who love each other very much and love a third person equally as much and I love it so much.

Tim sat at the front, shoulder to shoulder with his father.

The one thing I can't do in these notes that I could in a printed book is pointedly underline and/or circle things with no other comment.

He could remember being where Tim was now, at the edge of a grave looking down into incomprehensible loss and an uncertain future. He remembered leaning into Bruce, then a virtual stranger, and being grateful that he wasn’t alone, that there was someone whose side he could cry into, whose arm could circle around his shoulders, firm and warm.

They're fighting and Dick still knows Bruce will always be there for him. 🥺 Write me a fam like that or I don't want it.

And then Bruce was there, shrugging on his Brucie persona like an old coat just before stepping into Jack’s path.

Dick had forgotten what a relief it could be to have Bruce take charge. He’d forgotten what a marvel it could be to watch his grunting, reclusive guardian oil the gears of Gotham society to get exactly what he wanted.

A magic trick doesn't become less impressive when you know how it's done. If anything, you get the magic of the illusion and the awe of the sleight of hand skill.

He wanted to throw something. He wanted to break something. “You have to do something.”

parallellllllllllllls. It's not the prettiest but I still enjoy them.

“That’s today,” Dick argued. “And tomorrow, if Jack doesn’t care, which he won’t. What a măgar.” His mother would’ve washed his mouth out for that one, but it felt good, to throw venom at Jack Drake with his words at least.

I've backed off Romani Dick because it's a line of fanon that I don't feel any particular way about (and "ah the traveling circus people are wandering Romani, of course" feels not great from me, someone with zero Romani heritage), but I was still parsing through the heaps of fanfic I'd devoured and trying to figure out what I ascribed to as a writer, so there it is. (I was also still desperately trying not to swear in English in my fics.)

“He can’t go back there. He’s just a kid, and he shouldn’t be alone in an empty house. Who’s going to look after him, the cleaning lady?” Bruce’s reply was little more than a mumble, “Turned out okay for me.” “Because you’re the picture of mental health,” Dick snapped. 

Richard. Apologize to Bruce AND Alfred.

He stopped pacing and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.” “You did,” Bruce countered, his voice placid.

Let me tell you, that response, without malice or heat? A power move.

Dick knelt in front of Bruce’s chair so he could look up into Bruce’s eyes. This was something he knew well, a sensation as ingrained into him as somersaults and backflips. He would always look up to Bruce, one way or another.

THAT'S HIS DAAAAAAAAAAD

“He needs Jack Drake.” Bruce sighed, and Dick, still on his knees, noticed the lines around his eyes, the silvery hair twinkling at his temples. When had they changed? When had they both grown up and apart?

Noticing your own parents age hurts. It's lowkey terrifying. And then add being fresh off a funeral for someone else's parent...

Bruce held out a hand, and Dick let him help him to his feet. “I’ll be better,” Bruce promised quietly, Dick’s hand still in his. “He’s welcome here. He’s been... welcome. I’ll be better about making that clear, from now on.”

Double meaning maybe?? Who's to say????

Dick tightened his hand around Bruce’s, a hug between two people who had fallen out of practice. Wuss. The sneer had an Alley cant to it.

As Dick says in the very next time, they have to be better. Together. Because brothers die and parents die, too.

Dick leaned in and wrapped his arms around his... his Bruce. 

Sometimes I use this kind of language as a character-specific hesitation. Here, I think it was meant to be because I'd only written Mother Bruce the year before and I liked the emotional uncertainty of Bruce as legal guardian but not necessarily parent. However, another, more heartwarming way to read this is that for Dick specifically, Bruce isn't a step less than a parent, he's more. He is legal guardian and big brother figure and mentor and friend and dad. He is not one of those things, he is all of those things, and so he is Dick's Bruce.

[rscroogedraws]

Here are a couple of my favorite (not too spoiler-ific) scenes from a couple of my in-progress fan fics.

I've had an uphill battle with bad writer's block and inconsistency with any kind of creative fiction for the past several years now. It hurt having such a hard time with that since I've wanted to become some kind of fiction author since I was six and I used to actively write analyses for YouTube stuff. So the fact I've eked out a couple chapters for each of these feels like a huge accomplishment to me.

I appreciate all of the feedback or interest I've gotten for pretty much any of my projects over the past year or so. Seriously, even if you're just leaving a like, it's made a difference to me knowing someone enjoyed my work enough to take a second to interact with them in that kind of capacity.

A03 is down for maintenance at the time I'm posting. I'll update these with links once they're back up later today or tomorrow.

Edit: Links have been added!

Not Quite an Elevator Pitch

O.K. K.O. Let's Be Heroes! Fan Fic

Synopsis: Professor Venomous is back in Lakewood Plaza Turbo! He thought returning would be as easy as move back into Boxmore and start attacking the Plaza. Instead, he's not quite sure what to do next and is trying to find himself. Then he gets stuck in an elevator with someone unexpected and they give him a much-needed reality check.

A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56784448/chapters/144365029

Snippet from Ch. 2: Definitely Not Silver Spark

When Venomous awoke the next morning, he was surprised he slept at all. He wandered into the living room and read 9:08 AM on the digital oven clock. That was a personal achievement after the last week or so of staying up until 4:00 AM, hanging in there long enough to pull together a bare bones breakfast and box lunch for Fink, and then crashing until 5 or 6 before Fink returned from school or Boxmore.

He padded into the kitchen as he mentally cataloged notes to send with Fink on why she was late as well as easy but actually nutritious lunches to send with her. So much of him hated that he’d relied on Snackables so much the past few days. He kept imagining an okay-ish tuna sandwich next to flimsy cardboard packaging with crackers, dubious lunch meat, plastic cheese, and radioactive colored candy. Fink loved it. She bragged that her friends were jealous with a big grin on her face. That was now. What kind of look would she give him when she was in her early 30’s and remembered that he knew how to competently cook but opted for shortcuts instead?

That train of thought wasn’t even needed. Today was Saturday. Fink said she’d be gaming. Then Venomous found a note attached to the fridge: Hey Boss! The tournament got rescheduled. So I’m helping Raymond and Shannon raid a cruise liner today! They have lobster. I’ll make sure to bring home leftovers.

A mix of hurt and pride panged through Venomous. Previously, Fink asked to join him on every villainous caper, business trip, or big event. Lately, if she wasn’t gaming with friends, she was hanging out with her step-siblings or new friends somewhere “irl.” She still said hi, let him know where she was going, and kept a generally friendly rapport. After the horror stories Venomous heard from other parents about teenagers, that had to mean something. Fink was just starting to enter her teenage years though. There was still time for heLinkr to develop resentment towards him.

That’s probably how K.O. felt right now. He had every reason to hate PV and never talk to him again. That’d been earned. Very painfully earned. The part of him that still gripped his head on straight with little ribbons of hot glue and sticky tack knew he should leave all of that alone. The part of him that was itching to throw back a full bottle of absinthe before 11:00 in the morning was making a beeline for his phone.

He’d dialed the number before stronger self-control would have stopped him.

“...hello?” Silver Spark’s voice drifted in from the other line. “Carol speaking. Sorry for not recognizing your number. I think it’s been long enough since we exchanged numbers I don’t remember. Who is this?”

“…Lase-Professor Venomous.” He swallowed heavily and felt like he’d been hit by an intense bolt of lightning. “Professor Venomous.”

“Um...oh. Ahm, okay.” She didn’t sound completely upset but her tone wasn’t as pleasant as before either. “Did you need something for paperwork?”https://archiveofourown.org/works/56784448/chapters/144365029

“….no.”

“Okay….” Carol cleared her throat. “We got all of your child support payments. If that’s what you were calling about. Everything on that front has been smooth sailing.”

“Good.” Venomous stared intensely at the nearest kitchen counter. There was a marbling pattern over everything he hadn’t noticed before.

“Yeah….” Impatience was starting to creep into Carol’s tone.

“I’m sorry.” The words just tumbled out. “I’m sorry….about everything.”

It felt like time itself stopped. If the oven clock digital display wasn’t flashing, Venomous would have started entertaining the thought of a time wizard or a highly-advanced lizard creature with space-time warping powers crawling around the apartment. Almost two agonizing minutes passed. Carol’s breathing on the other end of the phone became a little strained.

“Are you okay?” Of course he had to follow up dropping an emotional bomb with an equally stupid foot-in-mouth comment.

“Professor Venomous,” Carol said with a slight stutter. “I-If we’re talking about this, I’d rather do it in person.”

“I...understand.” He felt his heart start fluttering around his rib cage like a hummingbird desperately trying to break free.

****

Our Beloved Docktor Frogg

League of Super Evil Fan Fic with some O.K. K.O.! crossover references

Synopsis: Docktor Frogg is starting to feel stagnant towards his overall life and career as a mad scientist. He wonders if the grass is greener somewhere else working for someone other than Voltar the Saturday morning cartoon flop.

A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56704720/chapters/144145309

Snippet from Part II: Sandwich Artist Gene

“Can I take your order?” The waitress’ voice was familiar but Frogg couldn’t quite place why.

“Lizzy?” Frogg immediately shot up at Voltar’s excited tone of voice. “It’s been awhile! How are you?”

“It’s Elizabeth, Voltar.” Lightning Liz, sans her trademark yellow exo-suit, stood behind the counter in a light blue polo shirt, washed out capris, a black apron, and a nametag with her name written in the same crude scrawl as the sign out front. It’d been a few years since Frogg had seen Liz in person instead of the newspaper or videos on various news sites. So it floored him a bit how much older she was now. Didn’t she just graduate from high school not too long ago?

He remembered Voltar gushing about Liz graduating as class salutatorian as if she was his younger sister.

“I’m doing great!” Liz continued with a small and genuine smile. “You got the invite for Tiff and I’s wedding, right? You better RSVP. Soon.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Voltar flapped his hand. “I saw the many, many links for your wedding registry. I haven’t RSVP’d yet because I’m working on getting that-”

“Don’t tell me what you ordered! It’ll ruin the surprise.” Liz squealed. “I have something fantastic in mind for your birthday later this year too. You better keep that day open if you know what’s good for you.”

“I have it marked on my planner. Whole day is open.”

“Good.”

“So, we have this coupon….” Voltar pointed towards Red and not so subtly shifted his gaze towards the thin strip of paper in Red’s big hand.

“Yeah, yeah.” Liz returned the sass Voltar dished out less than a minute ago. “So, I’m getting the vegan sandwich for him.” She pointed at Red. “An extra meaty sandwich for him with extra provolone cheese.” She pointed at Frogg. “And you want the meatball sub with the works?”

At that, Voltar gasped and his antennae started shaking with his excitement. “You guys have that extra spicy mustard?!”

“Of course!” Liz nodded, but her cheerful disposition immediately turned sour. “I skimmed the 4-page essay you sent me about it.”

When Voltar whooped and started doing a victory dance in the middle of the restaurant, Frogg visibly shuddered and looked around Red to see if any other stools were open.

“You’ll be happy to know you’re not the only one that has a weird fascination with that mustard.” Liz sighed. “There was a weird woman in here the other day raving about it too.”

“From now on, I’m the only one getting that mustard here!” Voltar declared with an anime gesture fist to the air. “I get exclusive rights to it. Exclusive.”

“I still think you’re the only one that actually likes it,” Frogg said. “I don’t-”

“Don’t. Get. Him. Started.” Liz jabbed a finger in Frogg’s face for emphasis on each word and matched the points with a warning glare.

“How did you know what sandwiches we wanted?” Red tilted his head. “Are you psychic?”

“No.” Liz placed her hands on her hips. “Voltar writes about you guys on his blog.”

“You have a blog….” Frogg scratched his scalp. The past 5 minutes had revealed a lot about a side of Voltar that Frogg didn’t know much about, except for the spicy mustard obsession. Metrotown might not know that L.O.S.E. existed but random strangers definitely knew how particular Voltar was about his condiments.

“It’s not a blog! It’s supposed to be a newsletter…” Voltar grumbled.

“I told you that Zitter would get more reach,” Liz said with a self-satisfied smirk.

“I’m hungry. Can we place our orders now?” Voltar deliberately looked anywhere but Liz’s face.

“SANDWICH ARTIST GENE!” Liz yelled. “Order up!”

That’s when a painfully familiar face appeared at the order window in the kitchen. There was a surprisingly jovial Justice Gene with a wrinkled paper hat sitting on his head at an awkward angle. He had a couple of deep shadows under his eyes but otherwise, he had a legitimate smile on his face instead of the haughty, try-hard smirk Frogg was used to.

Liz rattled off food service industry shorthand that Frogg would never be able to translate despite his best efforts. Then Gene looked up a moment later. Recognition flashed across his face and Frogg was tapping his claws in a vain attempt to prepare the laser engraver setting he installed there a few days ago. Maybe it could be used as a laser gun with the right angle and a little imagination.

“Hey guys!” Gene said, emulating the friendly and personable air that came naturally to Red Menace but was really awkward on him. “Didn’t expect to see you at opening week of my new restaurant. I’m happy you’re willing to bury the hatchet to support a budding young entrepreneur!”

“I don’t know about young…” Frogg muttered under his breath while thinking about the gray hairs he’d pulled out of his scraggly tree of hair earlier this morning.

“What’s the catch, Gene?” Voltar snapped. “We haven’t seen you in almost a year and now you’ve lured us out with delicious subs. I demand to know what you’re planning!”

“There’s no catch,” Gene said. “I just got tired of not getting anywhere in the hero biz. Even for the five minutes I was a hero, I was still the guy that cleaned toilets and picked up fancy coffee orders. It was worse with an official costume because even though I’d technically made it, nobody respected me. I think you guys of all people know what that’s like…”

Both Gene’s personal account and the way his face fell struck an unnervingly deep chord with Frogg. The mix of sympathy and existential dread hit his heart hard enough it felt physical. He looked down and saw himself gripping the fabric of his lab coat right over his heart.

“The one thing everybody liked were my sub sandwiches.” A dreamy expression drifted onto Gene’s face. “The only time I got a real compliment from Glory Guy was for my magic touch with the panini press. I got demoted to trash collector one day and just started thinking ‘Is this the rest of my life?’ As I spent the day collecting trash, all I could think about were sandwiches. How sourdough is the king of bread. Flatbread is a perfect base for a classic BLT. I realized then: Instead of a superhero, maybe my calling is...making the perfect hero sandwiches for superheroes!” Gene gave an awkward laugh. “And everybody else, of course! Villains included. Everybody deserves a good, home-made sandwich.”

“I didn’t ask for your life story, Gene,” Voltar scowled.

“I’m so happy for you!” Red gushed and his affirmation drowned out Voltar’s snark. “You deserve to be happy. I hope you’re successful!”

Gene’s face was red and he bashfully ran a hand through his hair. “Thank you.”

****

[sawtastic-sideblog]

Dumbest thought of the day:

Prima ballerina Adam

Douche bag manager Hoffman (mans is secretly a dancer but life happened and now he's a bitter man who dances I secret)

Ballerina bff Amanda

(Only open if you wanna see my incoherent sleep deprived ramblings. I haven't slept in 2 days because insomnia and my anxiety has decided to 🎶 kick it up a notch 🎶 I currently have no filter)

Obsessed audience member that wants Adam...idk probably William or Logan...fuck it it's Ivan

Logan works in props

William (this is emmerson schenk whatever btw) works with the lights

Theater owners John and Jill (they hate hoffman and love Adam)

Buff head stangehand Strahm

Zeke is a principal dancer as well and they whore him out to film and other theater productions (they can spare him but not Adam because Adam puts asses in the seats)

Remember Addy? The middle aged lady that works for William Easton? Yeah she was prima ballerina back in her day but an injury to her out of the game. Now she's the dance teacher/instructor who adores Amanda and Daniel.

Speaking of William Easton he's the number one patron he's at every show and everyone calls him Uncle MoneyBags ™ because he dressed like Mr. Monopoly for Halloween ones fifteen years ago (Adam started it)

Brent Abbott you ask? He's just starting out in the big leagues. Adam has taken him under his wing

Corbett Denlon? Star of her class. Been dancing sine she was 3. She's at every performance she can get her parents to go to. The practice room she uses to rehearse is named after her late brother (who was also a student everyone adored)

And who is this up in the rafters changing the backdrops for scenes? Why it's Bobby Dagen the stage hand who is down bad for children's dance instructor and another principal dancer that gets lent out to other productions Joyce Young (in this universe Amanda and Joyce are cousins just go with it)

Where's our favorite Doctor Lawrence Gordon? (I know our actual favorite doctor is Lynn Denlon but for the sake of this post it's Larry (imagine cary elwes saying Larry from that one scene of men in tights)) well I'll tell you. He is the new front of house manager and he hates Hoffman and he went backstage to confront him but got distracted when he saw Adam dancing. Completely transfixed. He was smitten but has never talked to him in the 3 months he's Been there.

Zep is John's nephew. He's clumsy and spills his mop water on the daily. He's also the janitor/ maintenence man for the theater. He's been electrocuted many times. He's fine. His hair is permanently sticking up tho.

Remember Britt and Addison? Yeah they're the mean girls who constantly undermine everyone they dont like (mainly Amanda. They try to get into Adam's pants) (honestly they could hit me with a car and I'd say thank you)

Perez is Strahms BFF and costume designer

Cecil Adams? Of course he's here. He's the pervy stage hand nobody likes (think Joseph Buquet in Phantom of the Opera meets Ted Spankofski from Starkid's Hatchetfield series)

Art Blanc of course he's the theaters legal aid

Rigg is Amanda's dance partner. They're also like together but not

Kerry is there. She's Gordon's second in command.

Daniel Matthews was forced into dance classes by his mom when he got in trouble in school at 13. He's a natural. He still isn't the best but he takes extra lessons with Addy, Adam, Rigg, Amanda, and Joyce (everyone does one of one with him) and Brett helps him outside of the theater. (They're bffs)

Eric Matthews is head of security who is constantly watching Daniel. He's proud

Dan Erickson is here too. He's the accountant.

Jeff joined Eric's security after his son died so he could spend more time with Corbett

Lynn serves as the unofficial theater nurse. She's patched up many floor burns (trust me it fucking hurts when you fall on a stage/dance studio floor even with something to cover your skin think rug burn but from a wooden floor) and sprain ankles and a few broken toes, one time Daniel was a little over zealous and rammed himself into the mirror and broke his nose. She loves being the only unofficial nurse on the unofficial payroll (they're donations for new pediatrics wing of the hospital. John and Jill are grateful for her services but she won't accept payment so they donate to her new department she runs)

The theater is called "Gideon Theater" of course.

Other characters make up the orchestra but I'm too lazy to look them up rn. Up to your imagination but like Charles from 5 plays bass clarinet. The two from the pound of flesh trap are here too. I don't remember their names but the girl plays clarinet and the guy is percussion (I can see him playing xylophone the hammer bell things and crashing th cymbals) And the last surviving dude from the fatal 5 plays trumpet. I know their names my brain is just fried right now

Oh and Bobby's BFF I think he's named after spinach or some other leafy vegetable I can't remember but he's an investor in the theater too.

(Just because I don't have motivation to write this I'd love for people to write their own interpretation of this and tag me) (bonus points if we cross universes and Specs and Tucker show up) (I don't expect anyone to actually do this)

[hollandorks]

saved

matt murdock x original female character

chapter twelve

Summary: Fleeing from an abusive relationship, Grace St. James goes to the only place she still has a friend: Hell’s Kitchen. She’s forced to live in her car and beg for a job from the law firm Nelson, Murdock, and Page all the while making sure her past doesn’t catch up to her. Enter Matt Murdock: cocky, handsome, and willing to let her live with him for free until she can afford to get a place of her own. Grace is drawn to Matt in a way she’s never been drawn to anyone, causing sparks to fly as they inevitably grow closer and closer.

a/n: Oh look one of my favorite tropes/ kinds of scenes to write....you’ll probably know it when we see it. Things are steadily heating up and the slow burn is becoming a little less slow. I’m pretty excited for what’s coming up in the fic, starting with this chapter! Also, I am 1000000% making lawyer shit up. I’m also leaving out a lot of details on purpose. Can’t get anything wrong if you don’t add details, right? Besides, the legal case isn’t what’s important in this chapter. Grace’s heart eyes are! 

(Bonus: next update is the chapter the teaser is from! If I wasn’t on desktop I’d put the eyes emoji here) 

Series Masterlist 

word count: 4532

It had been a long, long day.

Grace’s dream haunted her for a week. Every time she looked at Matt, she remembered how it felt to have him next to her, kissing her, touching her. She craved it, ached for it, and she hated that she wanted it so much. It hadn’t been real, but it had been so close to real that it was more of a memory than a dream. 

To distract herself, she buried herself in work. It wasn’t too difficult–their big case was about to go to trial and every one of them was twice as busy. Often, Grace went out and got dinner and brought it back to the office for everyone. They usually sent her home after that, even while all three of them continued working well into the night. Sometimes she wasn’t even sure they went home.  

When Grace got back to the apartment each night, she paced and waited until it was late enough to check the roof for any signs of Daredevil. He was her other distraction from all things dream-Matt related. She tried to work on her lists of things to incriminate Dean–usually getting nowhere–and usually had to talk herself out of returning to that warehouse on her own. 

It was about a week after their last meeting that he finally showed up. 

It was Friday night and Grace had gotten home maybe an hour before midnight. Matt had grabbed his gym gear and immediately left again, muttering about needing to think about something other than work for a while. 

Grace had to admit she was both relieved and apprehensive to see the familiar deep red armor emerge from the shadows. 

“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t show up again,” she said. She bit her lip and let her gaze skate over him. “Did you…find anything?” 

The last time she’d been at that warehouse had been an accident. Dean had taken her there with him on the way to a date, which was really a meeting with some CEO or other and his wife. But then thirty minutes had gone by. So she went inside. No one spared her a second glance, which was usual when she was with Dean. They all knew she was his. 

It had been a normal warehouse at first glance. She thought it was for whatever things Dean’s company needed to store. The first floor was covered in equipment she didn’t know the names for and boxes of every size.  

When he found her, Dean had used her to send a message to Harry Spencer. 

She could still smell the blood. 

“It was empty,” Daredevil said, interrupting her thoughts. His deep voice always brought to mind smoke and shadow when she heard it. 

“I–” Grace paused. Empty. Maybe when she’d left Dean he’d gotten cautious. It seemed like him, preparing for every outcome. Another reason why she would have trouble ever tying anything back to him. 

“The only thing I found was evidence of blood. A lot of blood. Everything else had been cleared out.” 

Daredevil started pacing the edge of the roof, dangerously close to going over. He reminded her of a caged animal, prowling the perimeter of its enclosure, waiting for the right moment to pounce. 

“That was…the most solid piece of evidence I had,” she said, a note of despair entering her voice. Her mind spun. She’d really hoped, naively probably, that he would have found some sort of tangible evidence. Evidence that would have been the beginning of the end. “I’m sorry, I–” 

He stopped pacing so abruptly she startled. “Tell me what you know, Grace.” He was still half-in shadow, his voice barely a growl in the cold night air. Something about the way he said her name stirred in the recesses of her mind. 

She wrapped her arms around herself and resisted the urge to try to hide. “I saw him there. Harry Spencer. He’d been…kidnapped. I don’t know. About six months ago.” 

“Who kidnapped him?” She watched his gloved hands clench and unclench before they settled at his sides. 

The panic coated her tongue, cloying and almost metallic. ���I can’t prove anything. That’s the problem. I can’t prove anything, even though I saw him there.” Now it was her turn to pace. She whirled away from him, her words fogging in the air. Her emotions simmered under the surface of her skin and she suddenly understood very clearly why the man on the roof with her took the law into his own hands. 

“You could testify. I know some good lawyers–” 

“Yeah, so do I, and there’s nothing they can do without any evidence. One testimony that can’t be proved is worthless.” She stopped pacing and faced him, hands on her hips. 

He took one solitary, purposeful step towards her. “Then tell me a name.” There was danger in the words. A barely restrained anger. Her basest instincts told her to run from him, though she wasn’t actually scared. 

“I can’t,” she said with a helpless shrug. “I–He’d know it was me.” 

“I can protect you.” He sounded almost desperate. Pleading. 

“Not by yourself.” She thought of the countless people Dean had in his pocket, not including the entire security team he hired, made up of what she was pretty sure was a former military unit. “Just–give me some time to try and prove the building is owned by him. Maybe that–maybe that would be enough of a start.” 

Even with most of his face hidden, she could tell his entire focus was on her. She could feel his stare like a touch on her face. “I can’t help you if you don’t let me.” 

She gave a growl of frustration. “I am letting you! But I need to protect myself too. And my friends. My life. If I don’t have proof and I do anything to try and lay the blame somewhere…It’ll come back to get me. I know it will. And you seem very capable and all in a fight, but even you can be outnumbered.” 

Daredevil was silent for a long moment. Finally, he blew out a breath in a cloud of fog. “Okay. I’ll keep an eye on the warehouse, see if anything else comes up. Just…be careful.” 

He turned to leave. 

“Wait! How do I–how do I get in contact with you if I find something?” She realized she’d reached out a hand as if to grab his arm and quickly lowered it. 

He glanced over his shoulder at her. “I’ll come up here every Friday at twelve-thirty.” 

And then he was gone. 

Grace wondered why he was helping her when all she’d done was send him on a wild goose chase that may or may not find Harry Spencer’s murderer at the end. 

But she was grateful that someone was on her side, someone who could stand up against Dean himself, even if she couldn’t. 

–

Grace spent the weekend trying to figure out tax and property records for the city and feeling like she was running in circles. Her self defense classes were a welcome relief. She’d never wanted to hit something so much. Dean was plaguing her, a disease she couldn’t shake no matter what she did. The nightmares were back in full force, Harry Spencer’s bloodied face gazing up at her pleadingly every time she drifted off. 

Grace wished she’d dream about Matt again, if only for a break. 

Monday morning dawned too early.

She woke before her alarm and stared at the ceiling as the sun rose and lightened the room from the inside out. She heard the telltale noise of the coffee maker in the kitchen and roused herself enough to get up in search of caffeine. 

Matt had his eyes closed as he shuffled around the kitchen to put an empty bowl in the sink and the milk back in the fridge. He was in his regular sweats and a hoodie that was only half-zipped, revealing some of his muscled chest. 

Grace felt a warmth that had nothing to do with the heat kicking on as she watched him. There was something about Matt first thing in the morning, barely awake and rumpled from sleep. 

“Morning,” she said softly as she made a beeline for the coffee.  

Matt grunted and put the cereal back in its place. His eyes were still closed. 

Grace frowned at the coffee maker and debated the merits of grabbing it before it had finished. She decided to wait, mostly so she didn’t look like a greedy caffeine hoarder in front of Matt and potentially spill coffee everywhere in the process. 

“You’re not sleepwalking, are you?” she asked with one eyebrow raised as Matt kept his eyes closed. 

A ghost of a smile and his eyes opened a slit. “No. But I’m not totally awake, either.” His voice was rougher than usual and it made her shiver. 

She reached for the cabinet with the mugs at the same time he did and was rewarded with a rush of his scent on a wave of body heat as his chest brushed her arm. Grace froze, mind going utterly blank and quiet for a moment. 

“Sorry,” Matt said in his gravelly voice, but he made no move to get out of the way. He simply grabbed two mugs, caging her in against the edge of the counter with his arm for a moment. 

Grace looked up at him through her lashes, thinking of how much she wanted to kiss him, when she saw the bruise shadowing one of his eyes. 

“Your eye,” she said. Without thinking, she reached up and traced the edge of the bruise with a fingertip. It was Matt’s turn to go still. “Let me get an ice pack.” 

She darted to the freezer more to escape his tantalizing warmth than anything. Grace remembered how he’d taken care of her when she’d been so sick. How he’d pressed the ice pack to the insides of her wrists, to her throat, her head. How gentle he’d been. It was only fair that she returned the favor, if only marginally. 

She pressed the ice pack gently against Matt’s eye. He still hadn’t moved. 

“How’d that happen?” she asked in a low murmur. His hand came up and covered hers and stayed there. It dwarfed hers, his skin warm especially in contrast to the ice. 

“I was boxing,” he said, so close that his breath brushed against her face. Her heart stuttered a little at their proximity, but neither of them moved. 

She was so distracted by the warmth of him that it took her a full minute to process his words. “Boxing?” she repeated incredulously as she frowned up at him. 

He smiled and her heart flipped over. Dangerous, that smile. “Yeah. The gym I go to, Fogwell’s, they’ve been teaching me some stuff since I was a kid.” 

“You box?” she said again. Her mind chose that moment to picture a sweaty Matt in his gym clothes, and her heart did another flip. She mentally shook away the images. 

“Don’t sound so surprised.” 

“No, no–it’s more that I’m wondering what kind of person wants to hit a blind guy less than I’m wondering how a blind guy boxes.” She realized she was digging a hole for herself and shut her mouth tight. Matt’s hand shifted over hers. Her elbow bumped against him as she moved the ice pack to look at the dark bruise again. Matt made it look good. Too good. “Though the black eye does add a certain level of charm.” She bit her lip and blushed furiously. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud. 

His grin turned into something that turned her blood molten in her veins. “Charm, huh?” he said softly. Was he…flirting with her? 

They were steadily leaning closer and closer to each other, caught in an invisible orbit with each other. 

She really, really wanted to kiss him. 

Matt’s head tilted down, just slightly, and she realized that he might actually kiss her. 

Her pulse thundered in her ears. She watched as his lips parted slightly to make room for the tip of his tongue. She watched, rapt, as he wet his perfect lover’s lips and moved almost imperceptibly closer. His hip bumped her stomach. 

She was still holding the ice pack, but her arm was resting against him instead of pressing it to his face. 

He was going to kiss her. 

Everything slowed. 

Matt groaned and stepped back right as a knock sounded on the front door. It was more of a loud banging, actually. 

“I have muffins!” Foggy’s voice preceded him into the apartment. 

Grace’s entire body blushed from head to toe. 

She and Matt had almost kissed. 

Matt reached out and very lightly touched her arm before he stepped around her towards Foggy. 

“You’re lucky we’re awake,” he said to his friend in what was supposed to be a threatening tone. 

Grace turned to face the cabinets and reached up to touch her lips with a shaking hand. 

She busied herself fixing coffee so Foggy wouldn’t see her blush. 

“Did you know Matt boxes?” she said to Foggy as she stirred sugar into her cup and tasted it. 

When she turned, Foggy was frozen, a paper bag clutched in one hand. “Uh,” he said with a glance towards Matt, who was standing with his arms crossed next to him. “Yes?” 

“Who in their right mind would feel okay about hitting a blind guy, is what I want to know,” she said as she went and gently took the bag of muffins from him. She had a feeling her face was still flushed, so she quickly drank more coffee as she dug out what looked to be a pumpkin muffin. 

“Trust me, Grace, there have been plenty of times I’ve wanted to punch Matt in the face. It wouldn’t be too hard to find someone willing.” Foggy took the muffins back and grabbed one for himself as Matt rolled his eyes. 

Grace laughed as Matt and Foggy started goodnaturedly making fun of each other and talked about punching each other in the face. 

But nothing took her mind off of that almost kiss, even as they all walked to the office later. 

Had she read too much into the moment? Had he really been about to kiss her? Or did she just think he had because she wanted it so badly? 

Grace again felt her own inexperience. Ryan and Dean had been her only two real relationships. She’d been attracted to others before, of course, but she’d always been with Dean and the feelings fizzled out naturally. She’d never liked someone like she liked Matt. Had never enjoyed their company. Had never thought so much about kissing them. 

With Matt, everything was…easy. They got along, worked and lived well together, could talk easily. And, of course, there was the raging attraction she felt towards him every waking moment–and most sleeping moments, too. 

She was certain a man like Matt wouldn’t want someone like her. Someone inexperienced, someone damaged, someone who was running away from things more than she was running towards them. Matt was the kind of man who was confident in everything he did, whereas Grace was…not confident in much of anything most of the time. 

And still she couldn’t shake the feeling that he really had been about to kiss her. 

Maybe it was wishful thinking. Maybe it was what had really been about to happen. 

The thought followed her all day either way. 

Throughout the work day, even as busy as they were, she kept glancing at Matt. She wished they could have a moment alone. Just one moment. She wavered between wanting to ask if they really had almost kissed, kissing him herself the second they were alone, or trying to be casual about the whole thing instead of potentially horribly embarrassing herself. 

But trial prep was ramping up and Grace barely had a minute to think let alone get Matt alone to talk. 

Grace was surprised when, the night before the trial, Karen made a comment about riding to the courthouse together. 

“Uh,” she said, unsure how to phrase the question. “I’m allowed to be there?” 

Foggy and Karen stared at her as Matt frowned. 

“Well, yeah,” Karen said as if Grace were a bit slow. 

“You’re part of the team, Grace,” Foggy said. He said it as if it were obvious. As if she had always been a part of the team, and a welcome one. 

Grace’s throat suddenly felt tight. “But–I don’t know what to do. I’ve never been in court.” 

Karen flashed Grace a kind smile. “That’s okay. You’re mostly there to keep track of our papers and notes. And for moral support.” 

“Definitely moral support,” Foggy said. “Just dress…you know, professional. Like you do here.” 

And that’s how, the next morning, Grace found herself walking arm in arm into the courthouse with Matt. She was way more nervous than he was, and she wasn’t the one about to give an opening statement. 

“How are you so calm?” she asked as she scanned the area for Foggy and Karen after they’d made it through security. She clutched Matt’s arm with one hand and a tray of coffees with the other. They’d picked them up on the way at Grace’s insistence. Matt had paid, surprisingly fast for a blind man, having the cash out before she had even found her wallet in her purse. 

Matt shrugged. “I feel good about the case. We have a really solid defense and a really solid team. And the law is on our side.” 

“That always helps, yeah. Instead of, you know, defending something illegal,” she said with a wry smile. Matt laughed. 

Foggy’s dirty blond head bobbed through the crowd towards them as he waved wildly with one hand. There was an absolutely gorgeous blonde woman next to him looking like a Barbie doll in her smart pantsuit and heels. Her hair was perfectly straight, her skin tan and blemish-free, her legs stretching on for miles. 

“Coffee!” Foggy said excitedly, grabbing for the cup with his name on it. He passed over a bag of pastries he’d brought. “Grace, this is Marci. Marci, Grace.” 

Grace let go of Matt to put one hand out to shake. This was Foggy’s fiance? Marci was every inch the beautiful, intimidating woman the others had made her out to be. 

“Nice to meet you. Foggy Bear’s told me a lot about you.” She flashed a perfectly white smile. “I hear we’re on the moral support team today.” 

“I guess so,” Grace said as she blushed a little. She held up the drink carrier with four drinks and winced. “Sorry we didn’t bring you a coffee, I didn’t know you were coming. You can have mine.” 

“Thankfully, Marci’s on our side for once,” Foggy said as he inhaled his coffee. “When we’re on opposing sides…she’s crazy good.” 

Marci laughed. “He’s right. I’d crush them. But today I’m just watching, taking notes. Trying to recruit them for my own firm. And don’t worry about the coffee, I’ve had enough today already.” 

Foggy watched Marci talk like she’d hung the moon, and something in Grace’s chest gave a painful lurch. Marci, intimidating and perfect as she seemed, looked at Foggy the exact same way. Grace had no idea how they fit together, but fit they did, and something painfully close to jealousy washed through her at the sight of them. 

“I guess we all had the same idea,” Karen said as she stepped into their small circle. She held up a drink carrier with coffees. 

“Karen brought coffee too. And Foggy has breakfast,” Grace said quietly to Matt as everyone laughed and traded cups and bags back and forth. 

Matt smiled down at her, his expression gentle and open. “Great minds,” he said softly, for her ears only. She stared at him for a beat too long before turning back to the others. She remembered their almost kiss a couple of days earlier and a completely different blush settled into her cheeks. 

“Foggy Bear, huh?” she murmured to Matt once they all made their way inside the courtroom. 

He tilted his head back and laughed, long and loud. “He loves it, don’t let him fool you.” 

Seeing Matt–and Foggy and Karen–in action in the courtroom was almost an out of body experience. To put it simply, they crushed it. Matt’s opening statement was clear, heartfelt, and pulled just enough on the heartstrings that even Marci murmured appreciatively when he was done. 

Grace couldn’t take her eyes off of him. He was every inch the confident lawyer she’d come to know, but intensified a hundredfold. She watched his precise hand movements and the way he paced slowly back and forth in front of the jury like a caged animal, every line of him powerful and controlled. He was entirely in his element, and it showed. 

She jolted when he took his seat again as she came out of the trance she’d been in. 

Next, Foggy and Karen teamed up questioning witnesses and presenting evidence. 

As the case went on, Marci whispered explanations about things to Grace, telling her various law interpretations and strategies the trio were employing. She even quietly pumped her fist a few times when a question was particularly spot on or an objection was sustained. Grace liked her immediately. 

They broke for a lunch recess after a few hours, Grace’s head spinning. She hurried to find the notes and files Foggy was asking her for as they all went to eat during the short hour break. There were several food trucks parked outside, which was apparently the norm. 

“So, what do you think?” Matt asked her as they walked together. Marci was emphatically explaining something to Karen, who had a yellow legal pad open and was scribbling furiously as she walked. 

“It’s nothing like what’s on TV,” Grace said truthfully. “But still somehow as awesome. Marci was explaining some stuff to me. I get why you were so confident this morning.” 

Matt grinned at her and she almost stumbled into the others, not noticing that they had stopped at the end of a short line for the food. “I’m glad you think it’s awesome. It feels awesome, most days. We should have a verdict by the end of the day, actually.” 

“Really?” she asked, surprised. “I figured it would take a few days, at least. Jury deliberations and all of that.” 

“No, that’s more for big cases. Or complicated ones. This one is really cut and dry. Like I said, the law is on our side, and the evidence is clear.” 

Grace quietly read the menu to him as they shuffled forward. His hand rested somewhere against the small of her back. She wondered if he could feel her shiver at the touch, if he even realized he was doing it, or if he was simply trying to orient himself in the small crowd. 

Lunch in hand, they huddled together and went over more things for the case before the hour ended. 

The rest of the trial was, as Matt had promised, cut and dry. By four in the afternoon, the trial had concluded with an amazing closing statement by Karen, and Nelson, Murdock, and Page had won their case. 

Grace let out a little cheer at the not guilty verdict before quickly covering her mouth. She hadn’t meant to cheer, but she was too excited not to. She felt better once Marci giggled next to her and Foggy turned to flash them both a huge grin. She caught the edge of Matt’s smile. No one else seemed to have noticed the outburst. 

Outside, the team lost their calm demeanor. Foggy pumped his fist in the air, kissed Marci deeply, and high-fived everyone else in the span of three seconds. 

“You guys were amazing,” Marci said, her cheeks flushed from the kiss. “Seriously. You could be making so much money.” 

“We don’t do it for the money,” Matt said, a familiar refrain to Grace and evidently to Marci too, because she rolled her eyes. 

“We’re going to Josie’s,” Foggy said. His eyes were overbright with excitement. “To celebrate.” 

“You and I are going to dinner first,” Marci said, but something in her tone made Foggy blush. Grace decided to ignore it. She really didn’t want to know if dinner meant dinner or something else. 

“Okay, Josie’s at…nine ish then?” Foggy shrugged. Marci nodded. 

“I’ll see you there. I promised Ellison a quick interview if we won the case,” Karen said. 

“Great idea. Good press.” Foggy snapped his fingers. He pointed at Matt. “Murdock?” 

“Nine at Josie’s,” Matt said. He had a faint smile on his face that Grace couldn’t look away from. 

“St. James?” Foggy asked with another snap of his fingers. 

She laughed at his use of her last name. “Sure, nine at Josie’s, wherever that is.” 

A quiet gasp from all sides. Marci groaned.

“You still haven’t been to Josie’s?” Karen said. Her mouth, along with Foggy’s, had dropped open in shock. 

“Uh. No?” Grace shrugged. She assumed it was some sort of bar or restaurant since they were using it to celebrate. 

“Oh, you’re in for a treat,” Foggy said with what could only be described as a delighted but slightly mischievous laugh. 

“She’s in for a disease, probably,” Marci said with a curl of her lip, but she was still smiling. 

“Both, probably,” Matt said. He grinned at Grace. Stop staring, she told herself. 

“Definitely both,” Karen agreed. She slid her blonde hair over one shoulder. Hers was more sunshine yellow next to Marci’s platinum. “Josie’s is our usual bar.” 

“Favorite bar,” Foggy said. He winked at Grace. “You’ll really be one of us when you drink at Josie’s.” 

Grace’s pulse thrummed. One of us. She liked the idea of that. 

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Marci said. She pointed a stern finger at Grace. “It’s a dive bar. And I mean dive.” 

“Don’t knock the place,” Foggy said. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “You know you love it.” 

Marci rolled her eyes but didn’t deny it. 

“Nine at Josie’s then!” Foggy declared when there were no more objections. He winked again. “See you later, team!” 

“Dinner?” Matt asked as the couple left. He tilted his head back and forth between Grace and Karen. “Karen?” 

“Nah, I’ll get something on the way from the Bulletin. See you later.” She waved and walked off with a little skip in her step. Grace felt that lightness too, even though she hadn’t been the one to win the case. The excitement was catching.

“Don’t let them scare you,” Matt said softly as they started to walk in the general direction of the apartment. They would catch a taxi at some point, she assumed, unless he had a specific place in mind for dinner. “Josie’s is fun. It might give you a disease though.” 

Grace laughed. “Not sure that’s convincing me, but okay. I don’t scare easy.” 

“I’ll take care of you, don’t worry,” Matt said, bumping his shoulder into hers. 

She liked the sound of that.

Next Chapter

taglist:

@zaminoo​​​​​​​ @yanna-banana​​​​​​​ @bellal1 @thetrinitytest​​​​​​​ @harry-bowie-mercury​​​​ @lorosette​​​ @feliciab1990​

[aurorawest]

Reading update:

AHH. So good. I read Timothy Janovsky’s first book in this series, Never Been Kissed, and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it. I loved this one. It’s about a spoiled rich boy (the titular Matthew Prince), who gets sent away to the small town where his mother was raised. There, he meets Hector, who also turns out to be his roommate (Hector is staying with Matthew’s grandparents because he can’t afford housing at the university in town). Obviously, Matthew learns to be less selfish and entitled, and he falls in love with Hector, and everything is adorable and wonderful. 5 stars.

This one was...alright. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. Barista and rock star fall in love, overcome obstacles to be together, the standard. The barista is interesting because he’s at university but has a very young daughter with his best friend, because they got drunk and slept together, despite him being fully aware he’s gay. So he’s laser focused on school and work so he can send money back to them and also finish uni on time, so the friend can take her turn with her education. The MC’s posh family is also homophobic, and I always enjoy a good putting-the-homophobic-family-in-their-place scene. The main problem with this book is that it needed better editing. It just could have been a lot tighter. And some of the jokes fell flat, like...I felt like I was kind of missing something? It was probably funnier in Hayden Stone’s head.

This is the second in the Logan, Minnesota series. This one takes place a year after the first and focused on one of the side characters from the first, Arthur. I was...concerned, because it’s made abundantly clear in Let it Snow (the first book) that Arthur is very into BDSM. Since that can be one of my squicks, I was iffy on this book. Also Arthur was obnoxious in the first book. I ended up liking it a lot. Arthur, unsurprisingly, is less obnoxious in his own book, and I really liked Gabriel, the town library who he falls in love with. There are some BDSM elements but quite mild, so it didn’t squick me.

This was more of a novella, about a guy trying to get home for Christmas. A winter storm shuts down flights all across the country, and by the time it occurs to him to rent a car, all the rental cars are gone too...but then the person who got the very last rental car walks up to the desk and it turns out...the main character knows him! They went to high school together, and they clearly have History. A road trip ensues and of course they get together. Considering how short this book was, there was a lot of sex. Which was fine lol. You know, good for them. Again, fine, but not amazing.

Oh, and honestly, I’m pretty sure it’s the same person kissing himself on the cover?? I’ve spent too long staring at it at this point.

Roan Parrish is really turning into one of my favorite authors. I’m asking you to ignore the incredibly cheesy cover and that tagline on it. This book is about a man, Adam, who adopted his sister’s child, and eventually his partner (it’s unclear if they were married) is like, nah, I’m not interested in this. So Adam and his daughter, Gus, return to the town Adam is from—Garnet Run, WY (this is the third in the Garnet Run series). Their neighbor is this weirdo, Wes, who only comes out at night and never talks to anyone. Gus breaks into his house because she sees something interesting and is extremely taken with all his pets, especially his tarantula (Bettie). Adam is obviously horrified by his daughter’s behavior, but Gus can’t take a hint, and she keeps bugging Wes. Adam and Wes obviously end up falling in love.

The ostensible plot of this book is that because Gus is sad about her other dad abandoning her (and he legit does), Adam asks her what she wants for Christmas, and she says for their house to have the most Christmas lights ever. And it’s fine, it works, it causes the wedge between Adam and Wes before their inevitable HEA—but the characters in this book were just, ahhhh. Lovely. I loved them. We got to see Charlie and Rye from the previous book, which was fun, and River, who is Adam’s sibling, had a pretty decent role. Wes’s background and the reason he’s the way he is is pretty sad, but it worked really well, and I loved how enthusiastic and sensitive Adam was. I even loved Gus! A child character! So yeah, I recommend this one. 5 stars.

The third in the Logan, Minnesota series. This one focuses on the third friend in the trio from the first book, Paul. What we mainly know about Paul going into this book is that he was friends with benefits with Arthur, but really, he wanted a relationship—and when it became clear he wasn’t going to get one with Arthur, he moved out of their shared cabin. Turns out Paul is very shy and desperately loves Hallmark holiday movies, because everything turns out okay in the end, and that’s what he wants. He can’t find a man who wants to settle down and also his family is completely horrible and thinks him being gay is a phase (he’s 38).

His love interest is Kyle, who is 25 and has had a crush on Paul since middle school. I love an age gap romance so right away this one kind of became my favorite in the series. There’s a lot of angsting about the age gap at first (by Paul). What I liked a lot about this one was that these two guys really really want to be with someone, and they’re looking for a partner to settle down with. It was a change from the first two books.

Another Roan Parrish novel. This one has actually been in my TBR pile for months, and I didn’t realize it was a holiday book until recently. It’s very different from what she usually writes, but was absolutely gorgeous. Really lyrical and magical. It’s about Alex, a baker, and Corbin, a very strange man who lives in Alex’s Michigan hometown. Corbin is intensely, heartbreakingly lonely, because he’s been told all his life that his family is cursed, and that anyone they fall in love with will die within a year. So he doesn’t let himself get close to anyone.

Highly highly recommend this one. Definitely a 5 star read.

More Fence. Nothing really to say about it, it’s a bunch of pretty, gay boys fencing.

I’m just going to copy my review from Storygraph here, and it does contain spoilers, so if you want to read this book (please don’t, it was so bad), I guess don’t read my review:

Where to begin with this book. I'm a fan of Simmons' work—Hyperion is possibly my favorite book ever, and I really enjoyed the much-maligned The Terror. First off, I actually liked the mountain-climbing detail. Yes, it was long and technical, but that was the strongest part of the book. I probably would have given it a 3.5 star rating if not for the final section. I guess Simmons wanted to write a WWII book and a Mount Everest book, and for some reason he thought it would be a good idea to make them into the same book. The big twist is that a whole bunch of people died (and climbed Mt Everest) for photographic evidence that Hitler had sex with young boys—and we find out in the epilogue that the threat of this getting out stops Hitler from invading the UK in 1941. Absurd. Absolutely absurd. I was actually laughing. This book was written pre-2016, so I guess it wasn't as painfully obvious that people can do horrible things and still rise to and stay in power, but I couldn't suspend my disbelief. Also, Winston Churchill is in it, because of course he is. And Lawrence of Arabia and Charlie Chaplin show up. Why? Who knows! Why not. Literally the only reason I'm giving this book 1 star instead of like, 0.25 stars is because Yetis may have saved the main character from the Nazis.

And this was not in my Storygraph review but I keep thinking about it—if Hitler didn’t want these photos getting out so badly, couldn’t Churchill have, idk, stopped the whole war? And the Holocaust? As my wife put it, Mr Simmons, I am vexed by the gaping plot hole in your novel.

UGH

Current read/palate cleanser:

This is another one set in Logan, MN, but is part of a new series. I haven’t actually started reading it yet but just looking at it is soothing me after reading the trash fire that was The Abominable.

[aniron48]

🧠 for Bond and also 🙋‍♀️ please!

::waves:: hi! Thanks for the ask!

🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.

So, this may be a controversial head canon, but would love to hear contrasting or supporting views, either way, because I think it's fun to think about: one of my headcanons for Bond is that he doesn't really know how to enjoy things. I think the closest we come to seeing him have actual fun is in the bar scene in QoS (I think) where he's shooting the shit with Felix, right before he gets shot at for real; and the second closest is maybe when he's driving a fast car and appreciating its features. But we so rarely, if ever, see Bond experiencing genuine joy, or fun, or laughing, and it makes me feel like maybe he's forgotten what those things feel like. It's one of the reasons I'm a little bit obsessed with the idea of retired!Bond, and with giving him hobbies, which I've written a little bit about before. I'm exploring this as well in one of my WIPs, where Bond is dealing with trauma in part just by trying to find things he actually likes to do to fill his time, but I do think that when people (fictional or otherwise) spend most of their time in survival mode, so much of what otherwise gives life meaning and joy can get shunted aside as frivolous or trivial. And when I write Bond, I want to try to give some of that lightheartedness back to him, if that makes sense.

🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

Believe it or not, until very recently, the answer would have been "not a single IRL person in my life knows I write fanfic!" But I did actually, finally, tell my wife this week, in part after talking it through a little bit with @mr-iskender. It's hard to explain exactly why I hesitated to tell anyone in the first place. It's not shame-based at all--I think writing fanfic is wonderful and fun and amazing and will defend it on a hill to whomever needs to hear it. But it felt like the one thing in my life that was *just* mine, and I felt (feel) protective of it. I've always been introverted, and as a kid and young adult, my books and my journals and the things that I wrote enabled me to thrive and understand myself in ways that nothing else did, and helped me to recharge my batteries after being in the larger world. And I think the need to have a refuge to do that still exists, even as an adult. Without completely doxxing myself, I'll just say generally that I'm a human rights lawyer, and much of my day is spent constantly responding to atrocities and world events and that takes...a lot of my energy and, honestly, my heart, and all of that is outward-facing. I'm also married, and my wife and I have a small child, and my rule has always been that I try to give my family the best of me, no matter what. This is a conscious choice that I'm happy with, but it basically means that every ounce of my outward-facing energy is...kind of occupied? And writing (especially, lately, fanfic) has been my way of having my own little world again, something that brings me joy but doesn't really ask anything of me that I'm not able or prepared to give.

Sorry, this is getting *massively* long and I'm probably oversharing, but I will just add that, at the end of the day, I am glad I told my wife, just because her reaction was perfect. She told me that she loves my rich inner world, and that she loves that it belongs to me, and that I can share anything I want to at any time, but she also supports me having something that's mine alone. Having that conversation was lovely and I'm glad I did it, so thanks, Alex, for the boost! Sometimes it can feel really good to be seen.

[dsumpsbluey]

Unofficial Bluey Timeline: Part IX

Mums and Dads - Episode 41

Indy and Rusty have some time away from each other.

Debuts and Details:

This is a sequel to the previous episode, "Early Baby," making it this series' first two-parter.

Polly is now in a green cloak

Apparently, "Terrier" is how to call out one singular Terrier from the 3 Terriers.

We spot Gruber among the classmates in Calypso's, being his only appearance there; This is his last appearance overall as of "Cricket".

Speaking of which, Zara, Missy, and Juniper are seen in Calypso's school despite being in Mrs. Retriever's class.

This is the only episode so far where every one of Calypso's students [up to that point] shows up in some capacity.

Favorite Part: When Bluey makes Rusty her child.

Hide and Seek - Episode 42

Bluey forgets her game of hide and seek

Debuts and Details:

Bluey is known for being easily distracted, especially during hide and seek [this episode's conflict].

We are properly introduced to "Chattermax", including its main functions, behavior, and OH MY GOD IS IT ANNOYING. also, who doesn't program an ON/OFF function?

The lizard-thing has a name, "Gerald" (Probably for the game)

Bingo can currently count up to 14

Favorite Part: When Chilli becomes more concerned about cleaning the shower while waiting for Bluey.

Camping - Episode 43

Bluey befriends a tourist.

Debuts and Details:

We have the debut of Jean Luc, a French Canadian Labrador whose family went camping in the area. [Labradors are Canadian breeds]

Stripe is seen with two spots on his head, rather than one. Technically, the same thing occurred during "Bob Bilby", where he had that, and was also colored red.

Bingo has another bush wee.

This episode features the first flash-forward scene, where Bluey and Jean Luc reunite after (as the wiki claims) 10 years.

Favorite Part: I like Chilli's whole talk with Bluey about special people and the memories that come from interactions; and while all that is happening, Bingo is casually doing her bush wee.

Mount Mumandad - Episode 44

Bluey and Bingo climb on their parents

Debuts and Details:

The family went to a theme park called "Crazy World," which could be a thin reference to "Dreamworld" in Brisbane (mostly by name), which the network, ABC Kids, had partnered with.

The game of "London Snap" is introduced.

Favorite Part: I appreciate the bonding between Bluey and Bingo under the tent.

Kids - Episode 45

Bluey learns to not choose favorites.

Debuts and Details:

There is one additional background character that debuts, and it's a character that looks very identical to the "Poffertje man" from "Markets", but is credited simply as "Customer" (could be a twin brother).

For recurring background characters, there's the greenish-white curly dog (from Markets) that shows up walking towards the store when we first arrive; the brown dog w/ brown spots is named "Docket Boy" in the credits, and is the same one from "Markets", and not "Postie" as originally listed in Part IV; There's the basenji produce vendor from "Markets" who picks up toilet paper. Finally, there's the dark purple Poodle (also from Markets), named "Checkout Lady". (I'm noticing a trend here🤔)

We see that there are no stickers in the back of the car, despite previous episodes showing otherwise.

Bingo plays as Snowdrop for the second time; and adding to the 'Snowdrop' lore, Bandit plays as Snowdrop's older brother, Diddums.

Bluey argues that she can run the fastest, and we see that during the episode when she outpaces Diddums during the basket chase.

Rocko is revealed to have a mother, that is doing well.

Favorite Part: When Diddums takes control of the shopping cart, and Bluey has to chase him.

Chickenrat - Episode 46

Bingo recalls the day's events to find Floppy

Debuts and Details:

Bandit is revealed to have difficulty with Sauerkraut. Depending on the version of the episode (darn Disney Corporation), he is either allergic to it and uncontrollably sneezes, or he gets problems and uncontrollably burps.

"Floppy" is a male, according to Chilli in the start of the episode; but Bluey (and Chilli afterwards) later says 'she' when referring to "Floppy". This could mean the first line by Chilli was a script error.

Favorite Part: This episode was kind of a bore to watch, but I guess I liked the Chickenrat lullaby.

[theosb0rnway]

Highlights of my ZeroZeroZero Reactions

So over my break, I got to watch all 8 episodes of 000 quite a lot and it's definitely becoming my new obsession. I thought I could take a minute to go over my highlights that I can remember from watching every episode, including when I got drunk on New Year's Eve/Day and watched most of the series.

Disclaimer: I only watch the scenes that feature Chris Lynwood (because he's hot) or the Lynwood family, so my views of the show are valid, but incomplete.

Regular Watches

Episode 1: So I watched this with my mother once because she likes watching Dane with me and she HATED it. I however, loved it.

Edward gives me a very strange feeling and I felt very wary of him in this episode, I couldn't really pinpoint my opinions about him beyond that.

As someone who has gone to my local casino many times when I was younger and bet like... 5 dollars on horses, it's SUPER cool to see that in a show! I know exactly how Edward and Chris felt, but I usually made my own bets and never bet on the same horse as my parents unless it was the main favorite to win.

I love the use of Chris's hearing aid and his ability to lip read. SO cool.

CHRIS SMOKING WEED IN THE CHAIR WITH HIS BOXERS ON SHOWING OFF HIS LEGS HAD ME DEAD. I actually took SO many pictures of that moment-

Chris and Emma are the sweetest siblings and I know it's an opinion, but I think people who say they have no chemistry are DEAD wrong. I love Emma pranking Chris with his hearing aid, that moment is probably my favorite in the entire series and they deserved more happy moments together.

What Emma says to Edward in the car is exactly how I feel, and it starts the terrible chain of lies Emma gets involved with about Chris being with the shipment. This scene made me solidify my more negative feelings towards Edward. His death caught me completely off guard.

Episode 2:

The 5 seconds that they show ladybugs resting in flowers makes me laugh every time.

Y'all, Emma Lynwood gets VERY comfortable laying with corpses in this show. It's crazy. I love that they both lay there and talk though, it's a very bittersweet moment. Especially Chris putting on the watch, that always makes me tear up.

So does his funeral speech, I cry every time. That speech is so depressing but it really makes me think and tune in to my own emotions as well.

Stefano hitting Emma actually makes me scream. I hate that Italian bitch so much you all have no idea.

Emma turning the tables on him made me clap the first time I watched, I love that scene in Da Mimmo's.

I WANT MORE SCENES OF CHRIS GARDENING

Chris's music taste is... interesting, and his clothing taste is immaculate. I love his outfits.

Episode 3:

I only watched this once, a long time ago, so I'm going to skip this one for now.

Episode 4:

Chris looks so hot in that vest I'm DYING

It's interesting to me to see that angry side of Chris because 4 was actually the last episode I ever watched- it was fascinating to see how he was slowly losing control and how his disease kinda started making decisions for him.

The poolside scene makes me smile every time and I can now fully quote Emma quoting Edward-

But it also makes me cry because of Mother Lynwood and how relatable the experience the kids had was. Knowing it might be the last time you ever see a beloved relative.

....... I actually couldn't speak after Chris slapped Emma, I was angry for the entire day after that argument. I'm okay now, but still mildly angry at both of them, Emma for lying and Chris for slapping her.

Episode 5:

God this episode was LONG.

LIZARD, THERE WAS A LIZARD

Chris definitely uses his hearing aid to his advantage and I know he used to take it out all the time if he got tired of listening to Emma or Edward.

It's so sad hearing Chris talk about not wanting to have kids and it really made me think about how many people have to think the same things to themselves, not wanting their kids to suffer or see them suffer.

Poor Omar, man.

Episode 6: Barely any Lynwood scenes, so I'm skipping again.

Episode 7:

This episode is a fucking roller coaster.

I ship Chris and Amina SO HARD it's not even funny. They're so cute together and they need way more screen time.

Chris's man bun is see-through. That is all.

Emma's party/dinner outfit actually terrifies me for no reason.

I LOVE CHRIS AND AMINA DANCING THEY'RE SO CUTE AHHHHHHHHHHH

Reporter: "Oz, what are your thoughts on the last 10 minutes of Episode 7?"

Me: "..... NO COMMENT- *goes and cries myself to sleep with my Dane DeHaan pillow*

Episode 8:

DING DONG THE BITCH IS DEAD, THANK YOU DON MINU

DEAD STEFANO

But also, Emma Lynwood just not dropping her business facade. That's impressive.

Drunk Watch

Episode 1:

...... I called Edward a pussy-

I also called him a horse boy because there's so many horse things in his room.

I kept staring at Chris in boxers and bad jokes ensued.

I laughed extra hard at my favorite scene between Chris and Emma

I found some symbolism in Emma's outfits because of course I did.

I watched the last scene between Emma and Edward and I had completely forgot about it so it was just me going "Yes, Emma!" for 3 minutes-

Episode 4:

I watched Chris in his vest and ranted about how many freckles he has.

I had to watch Chris asking for weed because of course I did.

I pretended to be Edward when Emma was quoting him and I cried again during the poolside scene

That is all-

Episode 7:

This was my best one because I watched the most scenes from it.

I called Chris a stalker for watching Amina through the window-

I corrected Emma's pronunciation of "Thanksgiving"

THE EMPHASIS IS ON THE "GIVING"

Chris's man bun had all my attention that night

Emma still scares me, but drunk, she terrified me in her dress

"Oh my God IS THAT GUY NEXT TO HER ON THE COUCH STEFANO- oh, nevermind."

I danced in my livingroom as Chris and Amina danced and I had so much fun

I criticized Chris's choice of footwear AGAIN

My little sibling @collector-of-muses-and-others knows how much I hate Chris's sandals

"YOU'RE ON A DATE AND YOU FUCKING WEAR THOSE- OH MY GOD"

I took a 5 minute break to eat 2 spoonfuls of pomegranates because yeah I drank coffee and had pomegranates as a 1 am snack.

Then I watched Chris and Amina kiss and went to bed shortly after-

Oh and let us not forget

MY WIFI CUT OUT AT ONE POINT TOO so I had to fix it drunk.

Fun times!!

[amysterywrappedinanenigma]

Mysterious Benedict Society season 2 episode 5 liveblog!

 I don’t usually liveblog but the energy needed to go somewhere. There were a couple scenes I completely forgot to write things down during, oops. This is vaguely separated by scene. Vaguely. Spoilers below the cut.

- Sticky :( :( :( don’t feel bad it could have happened to anyone :(

- See at least someone knows we don’t trust the cops.

- THE WAY I ABSOLUTELY SCREAMED OUT LOUD. MARTINAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

- I screamed when it went to the court and screamed LOUDER when it showed her.

- Ummm how dare you keep her on the bench, don’t you know who she is 😡

- Her little smile when she picks up the phone and hears Kate 🥺🥺🥺 She looks so hopeful and happy 🥺🥺 Also I love her new hair!!!

- THE SCREAM I SCRUMPT ONCE AGAIN. MY FAVORITE WOMAN IN STEM I LOVE HWR SO MUCH.

- The way seeing both Martina and Garrison for the first time this season knocked me out, it’s like I was hit by 2 trucks in less than 45 seconds of television but in a positive way.

- We paused at the 3:32 timestamp just to freak out about Dr Garrison and Martina. We’ve been paused talking about them for 20 minutes, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

- YEAH THERES MORE THAN ONE ARMCHAIR NEUROSCIENTIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Except this one actually has a degree ❤️❤️❤️

- Milligan recognizing the element!!! We love his chemist background being remembered!!

- “Split the party” awwww Milligan

- [affronted] “I did the research” I adore her she’s an icon she can do no wrong ❤️

- “Optimal size to stuff down your windpipe” Flashback to Constance’s “she will be weak from lack of sunlight, easy to neutralize” from last season. Let’s see how it goes in practice. No sunlight in a weird basement cave.

- Ooh is Garrison gonna end up coming to help with the happiness side effects? She mentioned something about there being dangerous side effects to the happiness thing, so maybe.

- Ma’am what’s in the jars. Are you making your own candles. Have you taken up jam making? Are they organs?

- Oh she’s. So close to a breakdown

- Lgbt stands for Let Garrison Bite Throats

- It makes sense that the tetherball team was staked out in Stonetown in the car that we saw, since Garrison was after Constance specifically and could easily have found out that she was living at the Benedict house. She wouldn’t have even needed to know about the reunion

- Oh she’s SO stressed

- “I eat bears” Constance ily

- She built the brain sweeper better on her own in her little basement with probably limited supplies and very little help!!!! She’s amazing!!!! Good for her!!! I feel like that’s supposed to be threatening but science crimes are okay when she does them ❤️

- She’s pathetic (affectionate)

- His. Shirt. Is. The. Stupidest. Thing. I’ve. Ever. Seen. The buttons and then the zipper????? The weird sleeves??? And patterns? Hatred. Need to bully him.

- “I’ve been expecting you” I hate him. How many hours/days was he forcing the chef to stay in that room waiting for number two to come through the doors 

- Manipulation food AGAIN.

- Ew that bite he took made my skin crawl.

- I have strong feelings on “Nicholas is happy now. Isn’t that all that matters?” and “I’m sorry that bothers you” and “I think my brother is smart enough to decide that for himself” but that’s for another time

- “I’m not hungry” AAAAAAA

- You’re not allowed to say she’s in a great deal of pain, you’re not a therapist, you’re probably not even a real doctor

- OHHHHHHHH NARCOLEPSY MENTION OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

- Garrison and curtain are both just barely hanging on!!!!!!!!! (But when she does it it’s iconic and relatable actually)

- Kate and Martina reunion time!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Martina ily you deserve so much more success than the world has given you. 😞 no college and not enough tetherball I feel bad for her

- Good for you!!!! Worst mistake you ever made!!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely roast curtain bc he deserves it!!!!!!!

- “Subconsciously looking for confrontation” what a queen.

- “If they can’t appreciate what I bring, maybe they don’t get a van” she sounds SO petty and she absolutely knows it

- Oh that’s the pie guy right?? 

- What the fuck uhhhh I don’t like the kid also doing it.

- “Spread the joy of our work from person to person, village to villaige…. no one will be left out of our loving, loving family” That’s giving forced religion in a really really gross way.

- J&J really just ZOOOOOOOMED in and I loved it. Favorite weirdos.

- Mmhmm sure you’re just undercover Mr B. Uh huh.

- Number two’s fake smile at curtain, please let her attack him.

- The fact that Curtain hasn’t noticed that THIS many people have gone missing is very telling

- “An endless chasm of sheer terror” “Or a void, utter nothingness” “Ohhh” how does my love for them just continue to grow each episode. J&J stan blog.

- All the homies hate Marlon

- Oh touching your neck, Marlon?? Hmmm wonder what THAT COULD MEAN? 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

- “Any financial stress- WHICH THERE IS NONE”

- “Being out from under that man’s oppressive thumb is priceless” yeah it is, go queen

- Pay your mercenaries when you get a chance tho

- Martina saying comrade lmaooooo

- “The asset????” “🙄yes🙄the🙄asset🙄”

- “I guess it’s a good point” yes agree with your girlfriend Kate

- Awwww Sticky Kate lil shoulder bump

- “You say fail, I hear try again.” Good job positive thinking, whisperer! I feel like you could give Garrison some therapy maybe. She’s 3 seconds away from a breakdown at any given point (and I love her for it obviously), she’s so stressed

- I’ll say it again, science crimes are okay when she does them actually

- Old fashioned way????? You’re very unhinged but I support it

- Sticky no we don’t go to the cops

- Therapy time!!!!!!!! Rorschach???

- Oh not Rorschach

- Being absolutely ROASTED by Constance

- “FEMALE CHILD” I’m crying

- “My life is fine!!” Yeah say it again maybe you’ll believe yourself next time

- “You have no idea what you’re talking about” hurt my heart, she sounded like she was about to cry

- Dr Garrison I love you so much get some therapy, and some grant funding

- CONSTANCE. SHES ALREADY STRESSED ENOUGH

- Miss Perumal gets a first name!!!!!!!!

- OOP, GREYS

- Not the clothes not the clothes not the clothes.

- “They almost always are” when talking about her plans, why did that hurt me

- Kidnap the kidnapper!!!!!!!

- Number two have you escaped a cult before because it’s really sounding like it.

- Oh nooooooooo. :) I’m so sad that it happened to Marlon…… I definitely didn’t want to cheer……. :) And haven’t been hoping for this for 2 episodes…….. :) That’s terribleeeeee………….. :) :) :)

- It’s what he deserves

- Can the alpaca eat him

- THEM WALKING IN TO DR GARRISON’s SOBBING ECHOING THROUGH THE HALLS

- This is straddling the line between pep talk and psychological warfare, love you Constance, get her to improve her life by any means necessary

- Can one single person please wholeheartedly support Garrison? I think it would do wonders for her mental health and well-being

- Aww the headdesk, she’s having a real bad day

- “I am PERFECTLY FINE” hm, relatable

I’m mad the episode was less than 30 minutes 😡😡😡😡😡 but it’s been my favorite episode so far!