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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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Rey Gives No F*cks About the Grandfather Paradox

Okay so since nobody’s suggested a fic under these terms, I ended up expanding on this post on discord and things snowballed. We kept to the basics of the entire plot revolving around Rey really hating her grandad and leveraging her blood relation to not be unalived about it.

With contributions by @atagotiak, @dracothulhu, @thepallaspalace, and several others. The title comes from @gelpenss.

The basic thing I absolutely need is this: Rey gets thrown back to the middle of the clone wars, and the subsequent plot leans in really heavily on her being, genetically-via-clone-dad, the daughter of the guy running the entire galaxy.

Nobody knows what to do with her.

The timing is mid-TCW for the past (because I want Ahsoka there) and vaguely between Episodes 8 and 9 because I... never watched E9 and don’t want to worry about the timeline. The only things that matter is that Luke is dead (he can die as he did in canon) and that Rey knows she’s Palp’s granddaughter (not the way she does in canon).

We'll say Luke found out from Anakin's panicked force-ghost and just went "well, fuck, okay, I should tell her this before she ends up in a situation like mine and finds out mid-battle or something."

Luke, prior to time-travel: Okay, so, now that I'm dead I know some things I didn't before. Like who your parents were. In the interest of full disclosure because I was in a very similar situation and I don't want you learning the way I did, I'm just going to come right out and say that your father was a clone was Sheev Palpatine. Rey: ... Luke: Are you okay? Rey: I don't know who that is.

(She grew up on Jakku, the history education was a little subpar.)

Setting The Scene

Imagine Rey showing up during or immediately before the clone wars. There’s this phenomenally powerful feral teenager from a desert backwater who tells you that if you ran a paternity test, it would probably pop up the Chancellor. She may or may not bring up cloning. She accuses said Chancellor of being a Sith Lord.

Your other phenomenally powerful feral teenager from a desert backwater, who may not be a teenager anymore but only barely, is very offended by this because Palpatine’s a Very Nice Old Grandfather Figure, but also he’s a little full of side-eye because if the blood test comes back as proof, then Palpatine had a kid and didn’t even know about them, or lied to Anakin, and that’s! Bad! Family’s important!!!

Palpatine hears about this daughter he apparently? Has? And is very confused because the timing doesn’t match up with ANYTHING he was doing, so the kid isn’t natural, and he says as much. (There is an explanation! It’s not a correct explanation, but he does come up with one.)

Finn and Poe and BB-8 all get dragged along because why not have the gang there? Nobody that’s already born, because [handwave] conservation of souls or something, IDK, point is the only person dragged along that’s even remotely close to already existing is Luke’s Force Ghost, who mostly hangs around begging Rey to be less impulsive. Finn is good because he is a nice polite boy, but for actual useful information they need Poe. The unfortunate situation is that the three do not land together. They land at the same time, in completely different corners of the galaxy. This means that nobody is there to curb Rey being her most impulsive self.

Time travel Rey knows two things. Luke’s dad ends up evil. Palpatine has always been evil.

She can solve one of these problems by killing the other, yes?

Rey: Ready to Rumble

See, the initial idea was this: Rey tried to break into the senate to kill Palpatine, got arrested, and then used the "he's biologically my father" card to get out of jail free. (Force Ghost Luke follows her like “please take five seconds to think this through.”)

But.

It would be very, very, very funny if The Force just dumps her in a flash of light in the senate building and she just attacks Gramps on sight. Just a shouted "YOU!" and no-hesitation attempted murder.

Palpatine has no idea what's going on.

Rey took maybe two seconds to get identity confirmation and then started swinging.

[Image Description: An individual in a green metal helmet with an eye slit, holding a pistol. In the upper left, upper right, and lower middle are the phrases “I do not know who I am...” “I don’t know why I’m here” and “All I know is that I must kill.” End description.]

Of course, she gets arrested. There are Master Jedi in the Senate. There are Clone Troopers. Palpatine isn’t the weak old man he pretends to be. Of course she’s stopped.

But she isn’t executed in time for Palpatine to stop her from ruining his entire reputation.

Immediately after Rey fails to kill her Shitty Granddad, Luke's ghost shows up and begs her to not talk about the Sith thing because it will completely undermine everything she's trying to do. Pass off the attempted murder as something else!

Rey, panicking: "that fucker left me on a desert planet for 10 years!" "You owe me 19 years of child support you son of a Hutt!"

The Jedi have to do the investigation, because the girl showed up with a laser sword, and the conversation is, uh... interesting. (“Where did you get that lightsaber?” “I got it from a mysterious old pirate lady I never met before. I don't know, I was being shown around by a smuggler and a Wookie.”)

Interviewer: Why did you try to assassinate the Chancellor? Luke: Say it wasn't assassination. Rey: It wasn't assassination. Int: You weren't trying to kill him? Luke: Assassination has to be politically motivated. Rey: This was, um... not political. Assassination is political, right? Int: You mean this was personally motivated? Rey: Yes. Int: I see. What personal motivation? Luke: Jakku! Rey: He's my grandfather. Int: ... Rey: Possibly father. Nobody was very clear on that. Int: ... Luke: Tell them to run a paternity test. Rey: Oh hey, a blood test would tell us which, right? Int: ............ Rey: I spent ten years as an orphaned scrapdealer on Jakku. He's my father. I'm kind of a little angry. Int: ........... Luke: Good job, kid. You bought yourself some time. Int: I'm going to get a medic to see about that parternity test.

Obviously, it comes back positive. Congratulations, Sheev, you’re the father.

Rey comes with a ready-made built-in excuse for hating Palpatine that nobody can question or fault her for!

Rey, pouring Truth into the Force: I didn't even know I was related to the Chancellor until a few months ago, but it's his fault I grew up the way I did, and he should take some responsibility!

The entire thing is mostly kept hush hush but someone leaks it to the press and Palpatine's ratings tank.

"Chancellor, I think we'll need to waive family visitation until she wants you a little less dead." "I would like to find out why she wants me dead, and indeed, where she came from." "...sir, for your own safety--"

Who would win? A master plan years in the making spanning decades of manipulating and work? or One (1) paternity test

"Okay, so, Rey Palpat--" "Ew, no, I don't want his name." "You--okay. Sure, we can understand that. Is there a name you would prefer to put on the paperwork?" Rey, who would have gone by Skywalker in honor of Luke but can't do that when Anakin is right there and all: "Can I think about it?"

Rey: I don't know what I want my last name to be but I know I don't want his, and most of the people I’d want a name from have famous families like you... Luke's ghost, pointing out the Literal Nobody that she cares about a lot: How about Solo? Rey: ...Solo, then.

(A few months later she runs into Poe again and he offers for Finn and Rey to both take his name because honestly they need SOMETHING but at that point she’s already decided on Smuggler Dad.)

Backtrack a bit. We’ve got a bigger cast.

They all arrive separately. Poe, for one, does better than Rey, who is aiming for a murder, but not quite as well as Finn, who is currently being adopted and hidden like a secret cat by a bunch of Alpha Clones on Kamino. He vibes with the names-or-numbers thing. He doesn’t necessarily tell them where and when he’s from, but he’s very sweet and a great liar and they adopt him wholesale anyway.

The Finn situation is just... "Buir Ti, we need you to hide this man, we've decided he's our little brother but if Nala Se finds out she'll make him leave."

Of course, this leads into Shaak Ti teaching Finn how to Jedi.

Maybe consider Finn needing to almost be tricked into learning Jedi things because he willfully forgets it could apply to him. Finn does not like to think of himself as special, which is super valid, but frustrating for Shaak Ti when it comes to, you know, getting him to acquire knowledge. Finn's training at some point is "here, levitate objects with the Force to entertain the tubies." It’s a lot easier to convince him to practice when it involves the babies.

(Everyone on Kamino looked at Finn and went “oh I love him I’m keeping him and teaching him things.”)

(He’s just very lovable.)

Poe, meanwhile, buys the trust of Anakin Skywalker via R2D2 declaring BB-8 the absolute most baby of droids. R2D2 met BB-8 three hours ago but.

"Hey Obi-Wan this is Poe I met him like five days ago but R2D2 says he checks out because his droid is a baby." "That's nice, Anakin, did you know the Chancellor has a daughter who tried to assassinate him in broad daylight yesterday? Because guess who had to stop the Chancellor from getting assassinated by his daughter in broad daylight yesterday."

A summary so far:

Finn, on Kamino: Hey, um, I don't know where this is, but it's not where I was a few minutes ago. Do you think you could get me a comm? What's your name? Poe, on [dice roll] Denon: Oh, hey, you're General Skywalker? Nice to meet you, I'm so sorry about my droid, she's a little excitable and thought your R2 unit looked like a friend of hers-- Rey, on Coruscant: DIE, GRANDFATHER

Finn: [Peacefully vibing on Kamino, unaware of the chaos and bonding with the clones] Poe: [Trying to explain how he knows someone who tried to kill the chancellor and defend Rey] Rey: [Arrested for trying to kill the chancellor]

Just... just...

Anakin: Some guy ended up lost on base yesterday with his droid, how’s your day going? Obi-Wan: I had to stop someone who claims to be the chancellors daughter from murdering the chancellor after she seemingly blinked into existence in the Senate building. Poe: 😐

(Poe: Oh, so that's where Chaos^2 went.)

Poe: In her defense, she is his... well we don't know if she's his daughter or granddaughter, but she's definitely related to him, and she definitely grew up in a shitty situation that was his fault, so...

(Poe is trying very hard to explain this and not get arrested on the military base.)

As you’ve probably guessed, what's especially funny about all of this for me is the fact that Palpatine is fully aware that this girl shouldn't exist, but can't find a single piece of evidence about where she came from. He didn't start any experiments that could result in a female child, and he didn't have sex in that period of time, so where the hell--

Rey spends so much time in jail... BUT they do eventually assign her a Jedi Master. Possibly before she actually proves her evil grandfather is in fact evil. Most votes went to either Plo Koon or Obi-Wan. Plo, because he’s dad-shaped, and Obi...

"Obi-Wan, you already raised one feral desert child with implausible amounts of power, you handle this." Rey in return is very "Sweet, you vaguely remind me of Master Luke," and nobody knows who the hell she's talking about. Obi-Wan is NOT on board with this plan, she'd really be better off with Plo or like........ Mace.

Reunion Tour

What I need out of this is the eventual Finn and Rey reunion scene that is just excited screaming while someone in the background explains to Shaak Ti that yes this is apparently Palpatine's terrifyingly force-sensitive daughter who hates him.

(Finn senses Rey’s approach and just. Gathers the everyone to wait. He’s just :D REY MY FRIEND REY GUYS MY FRIEND REY IS COMING.)

Anakin shows up with Poe--just a guy who signed on to the military, no big deal--and then Poe and Rey are EXCITED and everyone's just like "Cool, how do you know this literal terrorist child?" And Poe has to scramble and "Uhhhhhhhhhhhh she saved my droid from a scrapheap once and BB-8 is basically my child so I owe her one."

Rey knows that Anakin ends up evil so she’s maybe not actively hostile but definitely very “I’m watching you.” That said, she vibes with him on a lot of things that he maybe doesn’t actively notice.

Rey picks up a snake, snaps off the head for venom avoidance, and starts biting off chunks. Obi-Wan's reaction: [undisguised horror] Anakin and Ahsoka: Ooh, where'd you find that? (Obi-Wan: And now I’m up to three feral children.)

What Does Palpatine Even Do?

OBVIOUSLY at a certain point, Palpatine is just phoning up every ally he has to figure out who broke protocol to synthesize a daughter for him.

So of course, Palpatine blame Plagueis.

She'd have been born five or so years before Naboo, just a few years younger than Anakin. It's such an EASY theory to build a conspiracy around. It is ENTIRELY WRONG, but it’s plausible! And anyone who might have been involved to say otherwise is probably dead!

A random bio-kid shows up you can’t possibly have contributed genes to? Maybe it’s the evil bio spark that did it.

Palpatine tries to placate her with the ‘my genes were stolen for an experiment and I didn’t know’ thing. It doesn’t work because her actual main complaint is he’s evil in her future but he tries.

It'd be a struggle to even get access to her, because of the aforementioned “maybe don’t try to talk to the daughter(?) that hates you” thing, but you know who Palpatine does have access to? The Chosen One.

Rey kind of decides on her favorites early on (she gravitates to Dad Energy and Sad Old Men so Plo and Obi-Wan are on her list, and that means decent time around Anakin and Ahsoka). It's really easy to talk Anakin into helping to some degree because "he'd like to connect to a daughter he never knew" and "a child of her power on a planet like that, you'd know her struggle, my dear boy" and so on. Anakin tries to connect! He tries to play up Sheev’s kind political work and how it can’t have really been his fault! It doesn’t work. Rey does not believe a word of it. Mostly she doesn’t even seem to hear him.

Rey's just like "...oh right, you're the melted mask that Kylo Ren was always ranting about," which means absolutely NOTHING to Anakin, but he mentions it to Palps, who loses his goddamn mind trying to figure out what she's talking about, because it also means absolutely nothing to him.

Here’s the thing: Rey’s already decided that Obi-Wan is cool, because Luke said so, and Plo Koon is dad-shaped, and she also gravitates towards earnest kindness in general, like she made friends with Finn real quick, so Ahsoka? Already getting along great.

She doesn’t dislike Anakin, really, he isn’t evil yet, he’s just... meh. She’s a little suspicious and she likes him less than the others but... Anakin.

Rey, to Anakin: You are my least favorite. Anakin, to Palpatine: YOUR DAUGHTER HATES ME???

And he goes from “she’s a lil standoffish” to “she doesn’t like me” to “she hates me” as is normal for Anakin.

It’s just an escalation of this one time Palpatine wants Anakin to not have rifts and trust issues with a person, at least not until later, because he needs information.

Meanwhile, that very moment, Rey is just like "huh, nobody here is listening to me about how make a sixth-hand carburetor work, where's Luke's dad?"

Anakin is venting to Palpatine about how hard it is to talk to Rey, and she's over in the Temple just like "Hey, that guy was useful last time, I should ask him," but also she only ever thinks of him as Luke's Dad.

(At one point, Obi-Wan is having a bit of a break down, and then Anakin starts having a breakdown about that, meanwhile the clones are (badly) trying to hide Finn behind their backs, Rey is watching Ahsoka practice and being like "I want two lightsabers," and Poe is trying to keep R2 from stealing BB-8 and Force Ghost Luke is just face palming in the background.)

(Rey deserved a saber staff, maybe one that can detach and turn into a jar’kai set. Possibly a pike. Mostly I just wish she got more chances to whack things with a big stick.)

#Rey #Finn #Poe Dameron #Sheev Palpatine #Luke Skywalker #Anakin Skywalker #Obi Wan Kenobi #Darth Sidious #Plo Koon #Shaak Ti #Ahsoka Tano #r2d2 #bb 8 #star wars #time travel #Rey and the Grandfather Paradox #Phoenix Posts

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wesninski-hatford · 3 years

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Abby’s POV of Neil’s Physical/Her Reaction to His Scars

Abby knew that this new year meant the Foxes all have to do their physicals. David had told her about their new recruit to replace Janie after her attempt. Abby remembered seeing her and a pang of grief went through her heart. She redirected her thoughts to Neil Josten. Nineteen years old, from Millport, Arizona, seemingly abused by parents who no one had seen, and has a reluctance to change out with others.

“His coach told me that his behaviour was off, no sightings of his parents, he slept in the locker room, and the fact that he didn’t want to change out in front of his teammates is the reason he gave me his file. Thought Josten might meet our standards.” David had said.

Abby caught on to what he was implying.

“Are you saying that he might have scars or a tattoo?” She got a similar talk when David recruited Renee.

“Tattoo? No. Scars? Maybe. You might want to do his physical in private, I’m bringing him over to the stadium soon, do it then.” David suggested.

***

She walked in to a restless looking Neil as he got up. “Hey, Neil," Abby said. "You're a little early for the meeting." She didn’t like pretending that she had just run into him, but she didn’t think he’d appreciate her cornering him.

"Coach won't let me into Fox Tower until Matt gets here." She mentally chided David.

"He'll be here before you know it. Since you've got time to spare, we might as well get your physical over with."

"Physical?" The suspicion colouring his tone made her feel the need to explain.

"Just a general check-up: weight, height, all that good stuff. We have to do it today instead of tomorrow because there's blood work involved. I can't let you on the court until you've slept it off. When's the last time you saw a doctor?"

"A long time ago.”

“Don't like doctors?"

"Doctors don't like me. Is it necessary?"

"You're not playing until I sign off on you, so yes. Sometime today, preferably. I've got a lot of you to get through." Her Foxes were a small bunch and she sometimes wondered how the medics of bigger teams handled it.

She decided to change up the order of her tests and put off the track mark check. Soon, though, she was finished and gestured at Neil. "Shirt off."

"Why?"

"I can't check track marks through cotton, Neil." David had told her he was stubborn so the resistance was expected.

"I don't do drugs."

"Good on you," Abby said. "Keep it that way. Now take it off." He just looked away and stayed silent. Abby held back any reactions and was content to wait him out. She didn’t account for Neil being just this reluctant, though and ended up giving in. “I want to make this as painless as possible, but I can't help you if you can't help me. Tell me why you won't take off your shirt.” She and David had their suspicions, but they didn’t actually know and was becoming curious as to why exactly he was being so difficult. He seemed to contemplate his words.

“I'm not okay." Her heart fell. So it was scars.

"Neil, I work for the Foxes. None of you are okay.” She remembered the tattoo that Renee had on her back. “Chances are I've seen a lot worse than whatever it is you're trying to hide from me."

Neil smiled in a small, bitter way and her heart broke further. "I hope not."

"Trust me. I'm not going to judge you. I'm here to help, remember? I'm your nurse now. That door is closed, and it comes with a lock. What happens in here stays in here."

"You won't tell Coach?"

"This isn't his business.” Sort of the truth, but she wasn’t going to tell them that and opted for the same doctor-patient confidentiality talk she gave to Renee. “I only report to him if I think it'll affect your performance on the court or if you're breaking the law and I need an intervention.” He stared at her for a little longer.

“You can't ask me about them. I won't talk to you about it. Okay?"

"Okay, but know that when you want to, I'm here, and so is Betsy.” She prepared herself for whatever scars she might see on Neil’s body thinking that he was just self-conscious. She was wrong. He pulled off his shirt and... and there was no way to describe it. She tried her hardest to hide her reaction to the marks of violence all over this poor boy’s torso. Judging from the flicker of resignation on his face, she failed. These were not the scars that came with the typical abusive household, these told a very different, very harrowing tale. She could do nothing but stare for a while as she took in everything. What else could she do with the scar in the perfect shape of a hot iron, with what seemed like a bullet scar, with the thick lines tracing his abdomen, very clearly from more than a few knives. What else could she do with this boy whose past was filled with trauma and abuse?

Neil’s voice shattered her thoughts. “Do I have track marks?”

“Neil.” She was ready to cry for what had been done to him but he just seemed ready to leave.

“Do I or don’t I?” He stared at her, silently willing her to please just move on. She examined his arms and saw no track marks.

“You can put your shirt back on.” He yanked it on with an enthusiasm she now understood. Even though the scars were covered, she felt like she could still see them behind the cotton of his shirt. She ended up finishing her forms, letting the uneasy silence between them stretch. “We’re done,” she felt she needed to talk to him about the scars covering him “Neil—“

“No.” He practically ran out, leaving her in the Fox’s lounge to properly digest what she had seen. If it had so much of an affect just seeing it... she couldn’t imagine the amount of pain it must have been to actually bear those, to have been injured like that so many times.

***

“Can I discuss Neil’s physical with you in your office?” Abby asked, figuring the others would be fine without David. His eyebrows narrowed, but he agreed and motioned for her to go first.

Once she closed the doors behind her, she sank into one of the chairs, took a deep breath and tried to figure out what she could say about Neil’s scars. “You were right.”

“About?”

“The scars. I don’t know what I can say about it without breaking doctor-patient confidentiality, but... it’s bad. Neil has been through a lot and feel free to let loose on the boys if they ask why he’s so private.”

“Got it.” He seemed to hesitate before asking “Are you okay?”

She saw no point in lying. “No, I don’t think so... do you ever wish you could just hug our Foxes close and keep them safe? Do you ever wish that you could erase what happened to them? I just... the world is so cruel to them. Nothing they’ve ever been through is okay and it’s—God, it’s just so unfair. And I know, I’ve been with them for this long and I should know that ‘fair’ doesn’t exist... but... I wish it did.”

David looked at her for a moment before replying. “No. We’re here to let them build themselves back up, to help our kids who’ve been wronged by getting them back on their feet. The pricks out there have hurt them and tried their damned hardest to break them. We’re giving them a chance to show that they’ve come out of it alive, ready to fight, and stronger than ever.”

She nodded and let his words soak into her heart as she thought about it. She checked the time before letting out a small noise. “It’s almost time for the meeting. We should get going.”

#aftg #all for the game #neil josten #abby winfield #david wymack #matt boyd #fanfic #aftg fanfic #nora sakavic

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study-coffee-chicago · 3 years

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Contract Killer (A Halstead brothers + Halstead! sister + Hailey Upton imagine)

Very, very loosely based off of season 2 ep 3 of PD titled "The Weigh Station".

What if Hailey's story meeting Jay is a little different? And it's all because of one big bad decision and seeing Y/N.

Hailey looked through her binoculars at the man who, if she could help it, would be dead within 48 hours. She could make it 24 if she really wanted to, but she needed to make sure she was alone and that she had time to get it to whoever needed to see him dead. Even though she was the one tasked with killing him, she had no idea who actually put the bounty out on his head. Someone she had put in prison (ironically, the reason they were in prison was for being a contract killer) when she worked in robbery-homicide had called her once they were out and told her about this opportunity. And, since Hailey had been fired from her job for a rumor that went around that she was sleeping with a superior officer and didn't actually pass the detective's exam (both were lies), she needed money, so she agreed to the hit.

A girl walked out of the house, surprising her. She looked too young to be one of Halstead's flings. She looked between 15 and 20 from where she was looking. Maybe she just had a babyface, though. Yeah, definitely just a babyface.

The girl walked outside and to her car with a backpack. She was starting her car when Jay Halstead ran out of the house and handed her what Hailey assumed was a textbook.

Shit, she thought, this girl's in high school or college, so it definitely wasn't a fling or a one night stand. If this was a younger sibling or relative that he was taking care of, then there was no way she was going through with this. When people were helping out their younger family members, well, that's where Hailey drew the line. She knew that Jay had an older brother, Will, but he was a doctor and could take care of himself. If Halstead had a younger sister that was still dependent on him financially or otherwise, well then there was no way she could do this.

Hailey pulled out her burner phone and called the burner number that was given to her in case she needed more information or she encountered any problems.

"JP," she started, "does Halstead have any siblings besides Will? There's a girl at his house and she looks too young to be sleeping with him."

She heard keys clacking on the other end. It took longer than she had expected. "Shit," JP said. "He's got a younger sister, Y/N Halstead. She's twenty and according to this, she lives with him since their parents are dead and she's in college. Need me to hand this off to someone else?"

"Yeah, you know I only did this for the money and my one drawback is people who are dependent on the people you want me to kill."

"What do you know about this guy?" JP asked. He assumed she didn't know much about him.

"They just told me that he was an ex-army ranger who killed innocent civilians in Afghanistan."

"God, they lied to you so hard, Upton," JP told her. "He's a detective with the Intelligence Unit of the CPD. And, he saved people overseas, he didn't kill them."

"Shit. I'm out. I'm definitely out."

Then, she hung up. But, she promised herself that he'd try her best to protect him. After all, she had taken this job, so maybe she could fix it by trying to protect him. She wasn't doing it for him, though. She was only doing it for his little sister. If it were just him, he'd be dead in less than two days.

***

You poured syrup on your waffles at the small diner you and your brothers had gone out to. It was a rare night where you didn't have any major studying to do, Will wasn't working or on call, and Jay wasn't working on a case or undercover, so you were all out for dinner together.

"How's school?" Will asked.

"You know, the usual. Homework, tests, papers," you answered.

"That's code for she constantly complains about how much homework she has, but does it anyway," Jay joked.

"At least I have less school than him," you said, pointing at Will. "And, I'll still get the doctor title."

You wanted to be a sports psychologist, which required a doctorate degree. So, instead of there just being one doctor in your family, there'd be two.

"And you're crazy to think that I'll address as Dr. Halstead."

"Hey, at least it's not a medical doctor," you pointed out, knowing Jay's hatred for needles and hospitals in general.

"But a shrink might be even worse, Jay. She'll be able to see through your shitty I'm fine excuses for how you're feeling mentally after you take yet another bullet."

"You've used up how many of your nine lives now? Four? Five?" you laughed.

"One day he'll realize he isn't invincible," Will said, agreeing with you.

Hailey was watching from afar when she saw a man in a black hoodie enter the diner. She didn't think anything of it, but in hindsight, she wishes she would have been able to look a little closer.

You heard a Pop! and then you were roughly pushed off your stool by Jay and onto the ground, all while hearing him yell.

"Get down! Get down!"

The shots continued and you screamed from underneath your brother.

"You're okay, you're covered," Jay told you.

And then, silence. The shots had stopped.

Slowly, Jay looked up, making sure the shooter was in fact gone.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he got up.

Before you could even answer him, Will was next to you, looking you over in a way that only a trained medical professional would.

"Did we- did we just get shot at?"

"We did," Jay answered. "But, we're gonna get out of here. I'm gonna call Voight and we're gonna figure this out. Did I hurt you at all when I pushed you off that stool?"

"No."

"Stay with Will."

And you did just that while Jay went off to call his unit.

Meanwhile, Hailey watched as squad cars pulled up a few minutes later. From the side of their cars, Hailey saw that Jay's unit was in the 21st district. Now whoever got hired to do the hit wasn't just going after Jay, he was going after his family. And, that's where Hailey drew the line. She knew where she'd be going tomorrow morning.

***

"Sergeant Platt," Hailey said as she walked into the 21st district of Chicago at promptly 8 o'clock the next morning.

"Goldilocks! What can I do for you?" Platt always had a soft spot for the young detective (hence the nickname) since she had responded to a call at her father's restaurant when Hailey was a kid and she was working the beat. And, they had kept in contact ever since. Platt may or may not have been the reason that Hailey got into the academy on her first try.

"I need to talk to you." Hailey looked around, and seeing a bunch of patrol officers, she decided this might not be the best place. "Alone. Somewhere preferably without cameras."

Platt gave Hailey a confused look but led her downstairs anyway. "What's going on?"

"So, I may or may not have taken a job to kill Jay Halstead, but--"

"Wait, wait, wait. I think my hearing is going. Did you just say you took a job to kill detective Halstead?"

"I said I may or may not have, but it's closer to may have."

"Jesus Christ, Hailey, I know you got fired, but why?" Platt asked, stunned.

"Before you tell anyone, once I learned he had a sister, I backed out. But, I needed money and I got terrible information because whoever wanted this hit said that he killed innocent civilians when he was overseas. So, excuse me for trying to rid the world of someone who I thought was the scum of the earth."

"So, you didn't even take one shot at him?" she asked, trying to figure out how she could keep Hailey out of trouble.

"Not even one."

"Please tell me you have useful information because I have to hand this over to Voight...and he will not hesitate to put you away if you have nothing useful."

"I have a name, but he won't get it unless my name isn't even mentioned with this case. And, I want to help. After all, it is kind of my fault this started in the first place."

"You are so lucky Voight owes me a favor, Goldilocks."

***

Hailey was currently sitting in Voight's office with Platt next to her. Platt had explained the whole thing to him, but Voight still wanted to talk to her. He had one more proposition.

"Since there's no evidence tying you to the shooting, I can't press charges anyway. Do you know who happened to have shot at Halstead and his family last night?" Voight asked, all of his anger was gone by now because he had used it up when Trudy Platt first came to him.

"I was there watching, just to make sure nothing happened. But, I didn't get a good look at his face. And, he reached into his pocket so fast and I was so far away that I didn't realize it was a gun. If I had known, I wouldn't have hesitated to try and stop him." Voight nodded. "All I saw was that the shooter was wearing a black hoodie. Sorry I don't have more."

"Okay, Upton, here's the deal," Voight started, "I need a name and I need someone to watch over Halstead and his sister during this, make sure his sister doesn't go out anywhere alone, and that Halstead doesn't do anything stupid. You can do those two things, and I'll leave your name out of this and you can work the case. You have my word."

"So, you want me to be their bodyguard?" Hailey asked, cocking one eyebrow.

"If you want to put it that way, yeah. Only certain times when we're short patrolman or it's nighttime because I know a lot of them sleep when they're supposed to be paying attention."

"Okay, I'm in. The name's JP."

"Any phone number? Other important personal information?" Voight asked.

"I called a burner last time I talked to him, but I doubt he's still using it. I can still give it to you if you want it though." Voight handed her a sticky note and a pen from his desk and Hailey quickly scribbled down the number and handed it back to him. "As for personal information, I know he has a son. I don't know his exact age, but I know he's at least 18."

"Good to know," Voight nodded. "Thanks, Trudy," she turned to leave, but Voight stopped her. "Can you send Halstead in? Need him to meet his new protection detail."

"Platt said you needed me, Sarge?" Jay asked as he entered Voight's office, closing the door behind him.

"Yes, Halstead, take a seat. Upton, you too," he added, seeing as Hailey was still standing.

Jay furrowed an eyebrow as he saw the new blond detective. She was short, had wavy blond hair, and was wearing jeans and a blue flannel, which she wore with the sleeves buttoned up to just below her elbows.

"Am I getting a new partner?" Jay asked.

"Something like that. Meet your new protection detail, Jay. This is detective Hailey Upton."

"Sarge, no offense, but I don't need protecting. If this is about the person who shot at me last night, I can handle it." He wouldn't admit it, but he didn't want a girl as his personal bodyguard. He'd dealt with partner problems in the past with Erin, and now that she was gone, he didn't want another workplace romance. And, he was more than capable of defending himself. Also, he wouldn't say this out loud, but if someone tried to come after him, he had doubts that she'd be able to protect them both, just because of her small stature.

"It's not you that I'm worried about. It's Y/N," Voight stated.

"Oh, yeah, of course." He wasn't going to lie, after last night he didn't want his sister going out alone either. Despite you being in college, he still worried about you.

"She'll only be there at night, just in case you get called on a case. That way, Y/N won't be alone."

"Is that really necessary? Every night until this gets figured out? Will can stay with her, he's got a permit to carry. So, the only time she really needs to be over there is when he's on a night shift at Med."

"Your- Will," Hailey quickly stopped herself, before she let Jay know that she knew that Will was his older brother, "Will's not a cop, is he?"

"No. My brother's a doctor. Why does that matter anyway?" Jay asked, annoyance in his voice.

"Because I'm pretty sure that I'm a better shot than he is."

"Another reason is that, if someone is really watching you, they won't think twice about Hailey being there," Voight said.

"What?"

"Think about it, Halstead. If a random guy is at your house all the time, whoever's watching will know someone's protecting you. But, if it's a girl, they won't think that."

Jay turned his head, digesting what his sergeant had just told him. "Wait, wait, wait, you want her to pretend to be my girlfriend? You want us off pretending to play house while my life, Will's life, and Y/N's life are in danger?" Jay was raising his voice at this point, and it kind of scared Hailey, but she remained calm on the outside.

At this, Voight slammed his hands on his desk. And, Jay didn't miss how Hailey jumped at the sudden action but quickly regained her composure. "Dammit, Halstead! She's staying with you and that's final! There will be a patrol car parked outside your and Will's houses at all times. But, I can't risk patrol falling asleep at your house at night, so Upton's staying with you. End of discussion." He looked at both detectives. "You're dismissed."

"I'm gonna go pack a bag," Hailey broke the uncomfortable silence between the two. "Be at your house tonight at 6?"

"Yeah. Here's my address." He wrote his address down and handed it to her. God, he had some explaining to do.

***

Hailey quickly scribbled a note to her boyfriend, thanking God that he wasn't home from work yet before she had to leave.

Going undercover. Don't try to call my phone. Don't want a repeat from last time. Idk how long this job will be.

~Hailey.

One time when she was undercover, she didn't have time to go home and grab her things; they just threw her right in with a robbery crew in hopes that they could bust them. They did, but not before her boyfriend, Zach, came looking for her and almost blew her cover. When they talked about it afterward, he said that he thought she was cheating on him, so he went to find her.

That should have been her first red flag.

Hailey shook her head at the memories and left their barely furnished apartment. After putting the address into her phone, she started the drive to the Halsteads.

***

When she got there, she knocked and was met with the one and only Y/N Halstead.

"Can I help you?" you asked, seeing a girl you didn't know with a duffle bag slung over her shoulder.

"I'm a friend of Jay's. Can I come in?"

"Uh, sure." You stepped out of the doorway to allow this mystery girl to come in. "Jay!" you yelled to your brother who was currently in the kitchen with Will. "Your friend's here!"

Jay walked into the living room, followed by Will, to see both you and Hailey. "I wouldn't necessarily call her a friend," Jay stated.

"Well, then your fuck buddy's here."

Will smacked you upside the head before Jay could even scold you for doing that. "Y/N, just go upstairs to your room for a bit to cool down," Will told you.

"I don't need to cool down," you argued.

"You sure as hell do," Jay told you. "Go upstairs. Now."

And that was the voice that scared you the most: Jay's stern, do what I say or else voice, which had you turning on your heels and almost jogging upstairs to your room.

Jay, Hailey, and Will made their way to the kitchen where Jay had been making pasta before Hailey arrived.

"Is she always like this?" Hailey asked, just now realizing what she had gotten herself into.

"Not typically," Will answered. "It's just that, after last night..." he trailed off, not wanting to say what actually happened in case Hailey didn't know or couldn't know.

"She knows," Jay said. "She's actually here to make sure Y/N's never alone through all of this so nothing like last night happens again."

"Oh, wow. Okay. Does she know that?"

"I was gonna tell her before she went off the rails like that," Jay answered his older brother. He turned back to Hailey. "I'm sorry about her, really. After last night, she's kinda pissed at me for putting her in danger like that."

Hailey furrowed her eyebrows, wondering if that was actually the truth. "You mind if I go talk to her?" She knew she might have been overstepping, after all, she had just met you, but she knew it was better than either one of your brothers talking to you.

"I guess it couldn't hurt," Jay agreed. "I'll show you your room too since it's right next to hers."

Hailey nodded and the three of them walked upstairs. They showed Hailey to the guest room, where she set her bag on the bed. It was a normal-sized bedroom, with a bed, a dresser, and a tv atop the dresser.

They walked next door to your room, and Hailey knocked on your door. "Hey, Y/N? It's Hailey. Can I come in please?"

"Are my brothers with you?" you asked as you slumped against your bed, tears of embarrassment rolling down your face.

Hailey tilted her head towards the stairs, silently telling the two boys to go back downstairs. To her surprise, they both actually listened.

"No, it's just me," Hailey confirmed.

"It's open." Hailey walked over to you, but not before you started apologizing. "I'm really sorry. It's just, a lot of things happened last night and I don't know how to feel and I just took all my emotions out on you. I'm really sorry," you told her, barely pausing for breath during your explanation.

"Hey, it's okay. Lots of emotions come out when you get shot at...especially when loved ones are in the picture," Hailey reassured you.

"How did you know about that?" It's not like you had seen her around here before, so she wasn't enough in the loop that Jay or Will would tell her. She wasn't in Intelligence. She wasn't one of the responding officers from the scene last night. And, she wasn't a customer at the diner at the time of the shooting.

"That's actually why I'm here. I'm essentially your bodyguard."

"Wow, didn't know I was special enough to have a bodyguard. Are you a cop?" Hailey nodded. "Can I see your badge?" That was one thing Jay had drilled into you: always ask a cop to see their badge.

Hailey handed you her badge and you quickly studied it, seeing it wasn't just a regular badge, but rather a detective's badge. "You're a detective?"

"Yeah, just like your brother," Hailey answered.

"So, do you know how long you're gonna be here for?" you asked, wondering how long another girl would be in the house. And, you didn't mind it, you liked her already, despite how rude you had been to her just fifteen minutes ago.

"As long as the case takes," she answered. "Now, are you good to go downstairs, or do you need some more time alone?"

"I'll be down there in a minute," you answered. "I just need to wash my face really quick."

A few minutes later, you walked downstairs to be met with Jay, Will, and Hailey all sitting at the table, plates full of pasta.

"Is that fettuccine alfredo?" you asked, looking at Jay. It had been your favorite dinner since the first time you went to Olive Garden when you were eight. And, after your mom died and your dad just kinda gave up as a parent, Jay took it upon himself to make sure that he made it for your birthday or any other special occasions you were involved in, such as your high school graduation.

"Figured you could use a pick me up after everything that happened last night," Jay answered.

"Thanks. And, I'm really sorry about earlier."

"I thought I raised you better than that," Will joked.

"You raised her?" Jay asked rhetorically. "I'm sorry, who is she living with right now? Who stepped up when someone was off partying in New York and feeling up girls?"

You almost choked on your pasta at Jay's description of plastic surgery. "First of all, they're called breast implants," Will pointed out. "Second of all, I cleaned up my act...eventually."

"Okay, let me answer this," you butted in. "Mom and Dad basically raised me, but you both helped me out when I was still a minor. There, problem solved."

"Fair enough, " Jay conceded. "But one last question: who taught you how to drive?"

"You."

"Which explains why she went into a ditch the first time she drove by herself in the snow and why she's always adding at least five miles to the speed limit," Will argued.

"Oh, shut up, Will. You drive like an old grandpa. I'm surprised you make it to work on time."

"Enough about us," Will started, turning to Hailey. "Tell us about yourself."

"Not much to tell. Born and raised in Chicago, used to be a detective for robbery-homicide until something, uh, popped off. And, now here I am," Hailey answered, easily avoiding saying that she was fired.

"Did you always wanna be a cop?" you asked.

"I guess I did. Someone broke into my dad's restaurant when I was a kid and I met the most badass female cop and from then on, I wanted to be like her. My dad wanted me to be a lawyer, but I thought that was boring, so here I am."

You nodded, thinking that it wouldn't be as fun to be a lawyer.

"Oh, before I forget," Jay began, "Y/N, as of tomorrow, all of your classes are switched to online."

"Okay."

"You're not mad about that?" Will asked.

"Oh hell no. Half the time I don't even get anything out of my lectures anyway. It just feels like time that could be spent doing homework for that class."

The four of you went back to your food, eating in comfortable silence. But, after a few minutes, you realized that you still had one more question.

"So, where am I going tomorrow? Am I staying here with Hailey or...?" you trailed off, secretly hoping you'd get to spend your days with the new detective. It was just nice to have someone with estrogen around the house instead of the amount of testosterone that was your brothers.

"Since Hailey's helping us work the case, you'll come to the district with me so that Hailey has time to sleep." That wasn't the real reason. There was a patrol car most of the time, but if they were short patrolman, Jay wanted to make sure that you'd be safe. And, the best way to do that would be for you to be in a building full of cops.

"Why can't I go to Med with Will?" you whined. Jay gave you a look that read you know why. "What? All I'm saying is the hospital has better vending machines than the district. But, I mean the district has better wifi, so there's that plus I guess."

"And you don't have to see Will's ugly mug all day," Jay joked.

"Hey! I'll have you know some women think I'm handsome."

"What women? Blind ones?"

And that's how the rest of the evening went, you all getting to know Hailey better and Hailey getting to know you all better.

***

You laid awake in bed, replaying the events of the day. You could see from the crack at the bottom of the door that there was a dim light coming from the hallway, so you assumed Hailey was still awake. Since Jay typically woke up at 5 due to his training in the military, they had agreed that Hailey would go to sleep at the time that he woke up and then would meet them at the district to work the case early in the afternoon. That way, she could still get some sleep and you'd still be safe during the hours that most criminal activity occurs. Despite this, you still couldn't sleep. It wasn't that you were scared, it was just that you felt terrible and knew that Jay deserved a better explanation as to why you lashed out earlier.

You got out of bed and quietly walked across the hallway, trying to be as quiet as possible so Hailey didn't run out of her room, gun drawn, thinking that you were an intruder. You opened Jay's bedroom door just a crack when you heard the tv playing in the background. Seeing that he was still awake, you walked in.

"Hey."

"Hey, what's up?" Jay asked, reaching for the remote and pausing the movie that was currently playing.

"I'm sorry about earlier, with the fuck buddy comment."

"You already apologized. Is there something you're not telling me?"

You moved to sit on the edge of his bed so that you were facing him. "It's just, yesterday when we were shot at, it made me realize how you could be gone so fast. I guess the reason I lashed out is that I was sad and scared."

Even in the dim light from the tv, you could see how much your words had affected Jay. "It's okay to be scared, Y/N. But just know that I have the best unit in the whole city that's got my back okay?"

"But they didn't yesterday and that's the scary part." You felt tears prick your eyes and knew that there was no point in holding them back, so you just let them roll down your cheeks. "If someone you put away gets out of prison and then wants revenge, they can come up to you and get you anytime, Jay. I- Me and Will thought we lost you when you got shot the last time. We can't go through that again. Because next time, you might- you might not make it. And, I need my big brother."

Jay sighed, trying to convince himself not to cry. You had never really talked about the night that he got shot trying to help Angela, and he'd be lying if it didn't worry both him and Will about how much you were bottling up those feelings. He thought you had gotten over it, hell he thought he had gotten over it, but last night had brought up those old fears for you.

Gently, Jay placed a comforting hand on your shoulder. "Hey, I need my little sister, too. I don't think Will can be as intimidating as me when it comes to boys either, so you need me." Despite your tears, your lips turned up into a slight smile at Jay trying to make light of the situation at hand. "And, I will always try my best to come home to you and Will. Always. And, you don't need to worry about me, because you'll be stuck with me at the district until we figure this out."

"Voight put you on desk duty?"

"I'm not thrilled, but he made the right call."

"Yeah, he did. And, you should talk to Hailey. She seems like your type."

***

When Hailey woke up the next day, she was surprised to look in the fridge to find a Tupperware container and a mug, stuck to both was a sticky note with her name on it.

Hailey, made extra for breakfast. There's eggs and bacon in here.

~Jay

And on the mug, he wrote:

Didn't know how you like your coffee, and I had some leftover in the pot this morning before I washed it, so it's yours. There's milk and creamer in the fridge and sugar in the cabinet to the left of the stove.

~Also Jay

Hailey smiled at his little notes and then put the food in the microwave. "Not bad," she said to herself after she took the first few bites. Then, she heated up the coffee and drank it as is...she liked black coffee, so she didn't bother with creamer or milk.

She started to get ready and then pulled out her phone. Y/N was probably bored at the district, so she figured she could grab her some good coffee on her way in. If the coffee at Intelligence was the same as the kind at robbery-homicide, she was sure that a twenty-year-old wouldn't like it.

You were sitting at the table in the breakroom when your phone buzzed, alerting you that you had a text message. Hailey had said it was her and asked what coffee you liked and mentioned Starbucks. So, you told her a vanilla sweet cream cold brew would be great and thanked her and also offered to give her five bucks when she got to the district. But, she told you she'd get it.

You went to rummage around in your backpack for a different notebook when Jay walked in. "How's it goin'?" he asked as he walked over to the coffee pot and poured himself more coffee.

"I don't know how you drink that stuff. The kind here is gross."

Jay shrugged, "Eh, you get used to it after a while."

"I guess," you agreed, grabbing your notebook but not zipping up your backpack.

"What are you working on now?"

"I have to watch some boring ass sociology lectures," you answered, opening your laptop.

"Ew," he took a seat next to you and started drinking his coffee, but not without knocking over your backpack. "No way," he said as he repositioned your bag and reached into it.

"What?" When you saw his hand in your backpack, you tried to grab it back, but he already had his hand wrapped around the object that you wanted to stay hidden. "Give her back!" you shouted as Jay ran out of the room with your stuffed cat in his hand.

You had brought your stuffed animal with you in case you had gotten stuck at the district overnight. Who knows, Hailey and Jay could be out working a case and you wouldn't have been able to go home. So, as a way of making yourself feel secure, you had put your stuffed animal, whom you affectionately named Kitty as you were three years old when it was gifted to you, in the bottom of your backpack. That way, if you had to sleep on the couch in the breakroom, you could tuck it away between the back of the couch and you, so that no one could see that you still slept with a stuffed animal.

"Jay!" you yelled, chasing after him, "Give it back!"

"Never!" he yelled back, running into an interrogation room. You followed him, hoping that he forgot to lock the door.

But, you were both lucky and unlucky as Jay was currently standing with his back to the door, keeping it closed despite how hard you pushed. You heard footsteps walking up the stairs into the bullpen, and he still wasn't budging. "Jay, someone's coming! Please!" you begged, not wanting the entire unit to know that you still slept with a stuffed animal.

You heard laughing from him on the other side of the door. "Give it back!" you tried again, fists pounding on the door.

"Give what back?"

"You know what!"

"No, I don't. What do I have that you want, Y/N?"

"Kitty. Now C'mon Jay!" You heard footsteps coming down the hall where the interrogation rooms were. God, you hoped it wasn't Ruzek; he'd never let you live this one down.

"You'll have to be more specific than that." Even though you could only hear him, you knew he was smirking on the other side of that door.

"Give me Kitty, my stuffed animal, Jay!"

"There it is." He opened the door just as you saw Hailey approaching the both of you. He quickly handed you back your stuffed animal and you hid it behind your back.

"Was that a toy?" Hailey asked, holding your coffee.

"Y/N sleeps with a--" you elbowed your brother in the stomach, and he groaned, which shut him up.

Then, you heard more voices. This wasn't good. You didn't have a jacket on, so had no way of hiding it on your way back to the breakroom. "Jay, I think they need you," Hailey said.

"And you got coffee for who?" he asked her.

"Y/N. Now go. They have to get you up to speed."

"They'll have to get you up to speed, too," he argued. "You just got here."

"Just tell them I'll be there in a minute."

Jay walked away, a smirk still plastered on his face because of how embarrassed he made you. When he was for sure out of earshot, Hailey held out her hand. "Give it to me."

"I don't know what you're talking about," you denied.

"The stuffed animal, Y/N. I'll hide it in my jacket on our way back to the breakroom and then you can hide it from there. I grew up with three older brothers, so I know how it is."

You handed it over to her and she placed it in her jacket, then you walked to the breakroom, but not without glaring at your brother on your way there. Once it was securely stashed in your backpack and you tried to give Hailey money for the coffee, but she refused as she had told you she'd do, only then did Hailey leave you alone in the breakroom to be with the rest of the unit.

"That was mean," Hailey whispered to Jay when she was in the bullpen.

"Something wrong?" Voight asked, looking at the two detectives.

"No, what do we got so far?" Jay asked, turning his attention to Voight.

Voight stuck a picture on the board, causing Hailey to swallow. It was JP.

"This scumbag is JP." Hailey wanted to say he wasn't as much of a scumbag as they probably thought, but since he associated with her boyfriend, Zach, and knew what happened in that apartment and didn't say anything, he was still sort of a scumbag. But, then again, Hailey hadn't talked about what happened in that apartment either, so maybe she was a scumbag for keeping Zach safe. But, he swore he had cut ties with Zach, so who knows what he'd do to keep himself out of jail. "CI said that he might know some information about who wanted the hit. Swears it wasn't JP, that he was just the person hiring."

Great, so she was a CI now, Hailey thought to herself.

"So we just get him to give up the guy who wants the hit done?" Ruzek suggested. "Simple enough."

"Not when he's not talking," Voight said. "He hasn't given us a single thing. But, we can hold him for 48 hours on conspiracy, so hopefully, he'll give something up or whoever wanted the hit will get sloppy within that time."

Hailey knew that JP wouldn't crack, so her only hope was that whoever wanted the hit would get sloppy.

***

"We have five more hours or this son of a bitch gets cut loose. So, do whatever you gotta do," Voight told his unit almost two days later. It had been 43 hours since they had arrested JP and so far all they had learned was that his real name was Joe Price. He wasn't talking and they were running out of time. "Upton, a quick word?"

Hailey followed Voight to his office and she closed the door behind them. "You mentioned JP's got a son who's at least 18. Anything you think we could use as leverage? Because at the moment, he ain't talkin'."

Hailey thought for a moment. "He mentioned once that his son was going to apply for the TSA, but couldn't get in because of a misdemeanor I think."

Voight nodded, thinking. "Maybe he'll flip if I get the charges sealed." Then, they left his office and he made his way to the interrogation room.

"We know about your son, JP," Voight said as he entered the room where Jay and Kevin were currently trying to get him to spill information, even though trying was useless at this point.

At this, JP lifted his eyes to meet the sergeant's. "What's there to know?" he asked bitterly.

"We know that he applied for TSA but can't get in."

"Yeah, because of this pissant obstruction charge from when he was eighteen. But, you don't really care about that unless there's something in it for you, do you?"

"You could say that," Voight started, walking around the table."Tell us who's behind this and I can get those charges sealed. It'd take time, but I can get it done."

JP pondered this for a moment. "You're not just blowing smoke up my ass?"

"You have my word," Voight answered.

JP nodded. "Patrick Shostack. New breed of contract killer. He'll kill the kids if he can't get to the parents. Take out an entire city block just for one target. What I did before I went in, there was honor in it. I've got the stomach for a lot of things, but not for this. This new breed, I ain't got the stomach for that."

"Can we get in contact with this Shostack guy?" Jay asked.

"He's got a messaging service. Whether he calls back, I don't know."

Voight slid a phone over to him and JP dialed the number. "Tell him you have Halstead," Voight told him. "You wanna make a deal. We'll take a photo of him dead. We'll rig it."

"And if he doesn't go for it?"

"Improvise."

JP left a message and then the three left the room.

"Think this will work?" Hailey asked Jay since she had been watching the interview from the next room.

"We'll see."

It had been ten minutes and Voight and Halstead were sitting in the interview room with JP, waiting for the phone to ring. Ruzek had rigged up a line so that they could all hear what Shostack was saying.

The phone rang, and Hailey held her breath.

"Hello?"

"JP." Shostack said on the other end. "Didn't expect a call from you."

"Well, I have something you may want, Shostack."

"And that is? I'm a man who desires many things."

"Halstead," JP answered.

"Thought you backed out."

Please God, do not say my name, Hailey thought to herself.

"I did. But then, I heard they were paying you more and I want in."

"What do you want?"

"Half," JP answered. "And you better make a decision quick because the drugs I pumped into him are gonna wear off soon."

"One third and we have a deal," Shostack told him.

"Deal. I'll take care of it and bring you a photo for proof."

"No, no, no. Just because I trust you, doesn't mean I don't want to see him alive. Well, I couldn't care either way to be frank with you. But, there's someone else who needs to see him alive."

Before he could even think about how what he was going to do could affect other people, Jay pointed to the phone and gave a thumbs up. "Deal," JP told Shostack.

They decided on a meeting place and then walked out. Hailey quickly grabbed Jay's arm and dragged him into the other interrogation room.

"What the hell was that?" she shouted. "Y/N was so worried about you when you guys were shot at the other day and now you're putting yourself in danger not even three days later!"

"Last I checked, your title was detective and not sergeant Upton. I can make my own choices!" Jay argued.

"Did you even think? Your choices affect other people besides you, Halstead!"

"I can handle myself out there! Have a little faith would you?"

"Someone wants your head on a silver platter and all you can think about is making this case! Do you even have regard for your own safety?"

Jay pointed an accusing finger at Hailey, inches away from her face. "You are just here to babysit Y/N. So get back to her and do the job you're here to do and I'll do mine...without you fucking interfering with it."

Hailey scoffed and left the room, leaving him alone. And, Jay went downstairs to get ready for the meet.

***

"Is he always a dick?" Hailey asked, walking into the breakroom after taking some time to cool off.

"Who? Ruzek? He never means for his jokes to go that far. If you tell him they're upsetting you, then he'll stop," you answered.

"No, not Ruzek. Your brother."

You turned to face Hailey dead on. "You questioned his abilities to do his job, didn't you?"

"Now that you put it that way, I guess I did," Hailey answered, trying to figure out why that would make Jay so mad.

Luckily, she didn't have to ask as you decided to explain. "That's one of the only times he gets really mad--unless I do something stupid like that comment the other day. Our dad was always telling him to go into the workforce instead of the military and then becoming a cop. He didn't have respect for what Jay did. He didn't have respect for what Will did either, which is why he had to put himself through undergrad and med school."

Hailey nodded. Stuff from your past coming into the present and making emotions run high was something that she was all too familiar with.

"Wanna watch a movie?" Hailey suggested, hoping that would keep you occupied until Jay and the rest of the team got back.

You opened Netflix and then started the movie, thinking nothing of it. Hailey on the other hand, was silently worried about Jay, even if he had just yelled at her. She was only worrying about what would happen to you though if something happened to him...at least, that's what she told herself anyway.

***

You and Hailey looked up from the movie when you heard movement in the bullpen. Seeing that everyone was back, you both left to see what was up.

The first thing you noticed was how red Jay's wrists were. "Jay, what happened?" you asked, walking closer to him.

"I learned that I could choke out a suspect when my hands are zip-tied in front of me." You put your hands on your hips, not appreciating his sass. "I'm fine, Y/N, really. Now, let the big kids do their jobs and go back and do whatever you were doing. I gotta go do an interrogation."

"Can I watch?" you asked.

"I'm sorry," Ruzek stepped in. "Did you just ask if you could watch Halstead do an interrogation?"

"Adam," you whined, "I'm bored."

"Then go for a walk or get food or something," he suggested.

"Dude!" Jay yelled. "She can't be alone right now!"

"Oh yeah, right. Go get something from the vending machines or something."

"Halstead, Atwater," Voight said, breaking up the little quarrel, "Go interrogate Shostack."

"Voight, can I talk to you for a second?" Hailey asked as you walked back into the breakroom.

You were scrolling through social media, trying to find something interesting that kept your attention, when you started to hear Voight and Hailey's conversation. His office was right next to the breakroom, and it's not like the walls were soundproof. You put in your headphones so that if anyone peeked in, it wouldn't look like you were eavesdropping.

"Just let me interview Shostack," you heard Hailey say.

"Hailey, I know you feel bad about starting this mess, but I can't let you in there. If word gets out that you were a snitch, then that would spell bad news."

What did Voight mean by that? you thought to yourself. How was Hailey in on the hit on Jay's life?

"Could be an asset. I might be able to say I know JP and then he'll tell me more."

"I gave you an out so that you could work this case and not get taken down for stalking Halstead and wanting to kill him. You go in there now, and the deal's off the table. I will bury you." Voight paused and you held your breath. "You said you took the murder for hire because you needed money. Why?"

"It's my boyfriend." Hailey was so quiet when she said that, that you had to strain your ears to even hear it.

"Is he hurting you?" Silence. "I can help you, Hailey. Just tell me what's going on."

"I'm gonna go. I promise you I won't interview him." Then, Hailey left Voight's office.

But, you knew one thing: there was no way you'd be staying at your house tonight with Hailey.

***

Hailey said that she had to take a shower, and Jay was still at the district doing paperwork, so you figured now was as good a time as any.

You knew there was a party going on a few blocks from here, so you decided you'd go. You grabbed your wallet and phone and slowly slipped down the stairs and out the back door. Now you just had to make sure that Jay didn't find out. You couldn't give a damn if Hailey lost her mind over your disappearance. She deserved it after all.

Jay was sitting at his desk, trying not to fall asleep when his phone rang. "Hailey? What's going--"

"I need you to ping Y/N's phone now! I got out of the shower and she was gone and I don't know where she is and she didn't leave a note or anything!"

"Slow down," he told her, even though he wanted to freak out as much as she was. "How long were you in the shower?"

"Fifteen minutes."

Jay cradled the phone with his shoulder as he typed away at his computer. "Is her car there?"

There was a pause as Hailey looked out the window. "Yeah, it's here."

"Okay, she couldn't have gone far." He moved his mouse to zoom in. "I got a location."

When you got close to the party, you decided you didn't really want to go there. If by some miracle Jay's unit found you, you didn't want to wreck their fun. So, you kept walking. That was until you heard your name being called from behind you.

"Shit," you muttered, breaking into a run.

"Y/N, stop!"

Dammit, that one was definitely worse. You looked ahead and then turned around. There was nowhere to go; you were cornered between two detectives.

You tried to dodge Jay, but he was too fast and quickly grabbed onto you and held you tight against him until you calmed down. "Stop fighting! Stop fighting, Y/N! We're going home! What the hell were you thinking?"

You calmed down enough to stop squirming, but you were still furious. "What was I thinking?" you yelled. "I was thinking that she--" You pointed an accusing finger at Hailey. "wanted to kill you. She got hired to do that hit, Jay! She was going to fucking kill you and you want me to be alone with her?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I heard her! I heard her talking to Voight earlier about interviewing that one guy and he said she couldn't because no one could know that she was hired to kill you! I don't give a flying fuck if you need the money, Hailey! Yow wanted my big brother dead!"

Still holding onto you, Jay looked directly at Hailey. "Please tell me it's not true. That she tripped and hit her head or something."

Hailey looked at the ground. "It's true but--"

"Unbelievable!"

"Just let me explain, okay?" Hailey argued.

"What's there to explain?"

"Just listen to the reason I needed the money!"

"So you needing money takes priority over my life!" Jay spat.

"God, I got bad information! They said you killed innocent people overseas and I didn't know you had a little sister, so I stopped when I saw that--"

"So you were stalking me?"

"Dammit, Jay! I needed the money to get away from my boyfriend! But like you fucking care! I was just starting to care about your life and now it's just become a big inconvenience!"

"Go home, Hailey! I never wanna see you again." He looked down at you. "We never wanna see you again!"

"Fine! Get a new protection detail because the person who wants you dead is still out there until Shostack gives Intelligence something!"

Then, Hailey got in her car and drove away and Jay finally let go of you. "Get in the car," he told you sternly.

"Jay, I'm sorry--"

"Just get in the damn car, Y/N!"

You walked over to the car and pulled on the handle. "Jay."

"What?" It took all his strength not to blow up on you when you were both still outside.

"It's locked."

He unlocked the car and got into the driver's seat, you in the passenger seat. "I'm sorry," was all you said as Jay started driving.

"You could've gotten yourself killed! Whoever this new breed of contract killer is, apparently they won't stop until they get me and they'll do it by whatever means necessary! So, excuse me for being worried!"

"It's not like I could stay home with Hailey when I knew she wanted to kill you!"

"But you could've told someone! You could've told me!" The next part, he said quieter, which almost made it worse than if he would've yelled it. "How fucking stupid can you get?"

It's not like he had never called you stupid, he had, but it was always jokingly and when you were kids. But, this time, it felt different, like he meant every single word he said. You put your hand over your mouth, to try and stop yourself from sobbing, but one came out anyway.

Jay didn't even seem to notice, just kept his eyes focused on the road and his jaw clenched.

When you got home, you jumped out of the car, not even waiting for Jay to completely put it in park. Then, you ran into the house, only to crash into Will.

"Whoa! Slow down!" he said, grabbing ahold of you to stop you from falling.

You yanked your arm out of his hand. "Let go of me!" you yelled and then ran straight to your room and slammed the door shut for good measure.

"What happened?" Will asked as Jay walked inside.

At this, Jay finally grasped the gravity of the moment and what he had done. "I fucked up, Will. I fucked up so bad."

"So, you let Y/N sneak out. That's happened to everyone. If I remember correctly, me and you did it all the time," Will said, trying to lighten the mood.

"This isn't like that and you know it." Jay paused and took a deep breath. "God, I should've never left her alone with Hailey."

"Why? What's wrong with Hailey?" Will asked. And so, Jay told him. And Will was as shocked as Jay was.

"What did you say to Y/N?"

Jay sat on the couch and put his head in his hands. He hated what he had done only because their dad had said the same thing to Jay when he was younger and you were in the room and defended your big brother, telling your dad that Jay wasn't in fact stupid, but smart. "I called her fucking stupid, Will." He rubbed his hands on his face, pissed at himself. "God, I did what Dad did that one day and she stood up for me. I'm a terrible brother."

Will sat down next to his younger brother and put a comforting arm around him. "Jay, look at me." Jay lifted his head. "You are not a terrible brother, you are far from that. She'll come around and realize that. Now, do you know why Hailey needed the money?"

"Said she needed it to get away from her boyfriend or something like that," Jay shrugged.

"Do you know where she is right now?"

"No, and I really couldn't care less."

"Jay, listen to me. She said she needed it to get away from her boyfriend."

At this, Jay's head snapped up. "Oh, God. Oh, God. I gotta find her. Stay with Y/N!"

***

"How was the undercover assignment?" Zach asked Hailey as she let himself into their little apartment.

"Was good. You know I can't talk about an open investigation, Zach."

"Hmmm, so you weren't working with other cops?"

Hailey looked at him like he was crazy. How did he know that she was working with Halstead? "No, it was just me."

Then, he pulled a gun from his waistband. Hailey put her hands above her head in surrender. "Zach, let's just take a moment to think this through. How about you tell me what you think happened undercover?"

"And you'll answer my questions honestly?" he asked, but with a gun now pointed at her, it was more like a command.

"Why didn't you kill him?"

"Kill who?" she yelled.

"Jay Halstead! Why didn't you kill him?"

I don't know what you're talking about!" She lied, but then instantly regretted it as Zach took the gun and hit her in the stomach. She reached for her gun in her holster, but then Zach took his arm that wasn't holding the gun and twisted it behind her back. Hailey screamed out in pain and she screamed loud.

***

"Shostack," Voight began as he was pacing back in front of Patrick Shostack who was handcuffed in the cage, "you tell me everything you know about who wanted Halstead murdered and how and why a Chicago PD detective got brought in to kill him. Only then, when you tell me everything, will I even consider making a deal."

Shostack was already beginning to bruise from where Voight had hit him, so he decided it was in his best interest if he talked. He had heard rumors about this dirty cop and he knew that Voight wouldn't think twice about killing him to get answers. "The person who wants Halstead dead is Zach Grey."

Voight pulled out his phone and texted the name to Ruzek, telling him that they now had a suspect and to start going through everything about this guy. "What can you tell me about this Grey? How'd he know Halstead?"

"They were in the army together. Apparently, Grey wasn't good at following orders and made really stupid decisions out in the field. So, Halstead told their supervisor about it, and after a few more mess-ups that almost cost the unit their lives, Grey was dishonorably discharged."

"Why wait this long?" Voight asked.

"Dunno. I know Grey just moved to Chicago two years ago from California. He got a girlfriend and then he hatched this elaborate plan to get her to kill him."

"What's the girlfriend's name?"

"I don't know her name, man. I just know she was short and she was blond. Pretty little thing. Apparently, she was a cop, too. He figured that if anyone could get away with killing Halstead, she could."

"Did she know Grey was behind it?" Voight asked, thanking God that Hailey was with Jay because that description Shostack just gave him sounded a hell of a lot like Detective Hailey Upton.

"Not a chance. He called me and I got her to agree to the hit."

"I thought JP got her to agree to the hit?"

"That's where things get tricky. I used a voice modulator to disguise my voice. I told her, that if she needed money, she could kill this guy. I told her that Halstead killed innocents overseas and that he had no family other than his older brother, Will. Once she agreed to it, I gave her a number to call."

"And that number was JP?"

"Yeah. I think he knows Grey but doesn't know that he's the one behind all this. Told Upton that JP'd know what to do since he'd done it before. And, then it was all up to them after that. Didn't know she'd flip and try to help you, though. Now that was a shock."

"Did you know that Halstead has a little sister and that he's also a cop?"

"Yeah, but Grey told me what to say and promised me some of the money if the hit went through."

"Boss!" Adam yelled as he ran downstairs. "You gotta come see this!"

"We're done here," Voight said, turning back to Shostack and then going back upstairs into the bullpen.

Kevin turned the screen of his computer towards Voight. "If we got the right Zach Grey, then Hailey's got some explaining to do." In front of him was a picture from Instagram of Hailey and Zach, Zach kissing her on the cheek and it was posted only a few weeks ago.

"Please tell me you got an address for this prick."

Ruzek flipped through some papers and pulled one out. "Here's his LKA."

Voight nodded. "Let's roll out. I'll loop in Halstead."

Before Voight could even get a word in edgewise to the young detective on the other end of the phone, Jay butted in. "Did you know that Hailey was gonna kill me?"

"I know, but she backed out because she had gotten bad information--"

"You sound just like her! Why are you defending her?"

"She was trying to get out of a bad situation! Shostack told us everything, just trust me on this one. Please tell me that she's with you."

"She's not. I'm driving around looking for her right now. She said she needed to get away from her boyfriend before she left."

"Shit. Try this address."

Voight gave him the address, but Jay was wondering how they had gotten it. "How do you know where she is?"

"Does the name Zach Grey ring a bell?"

"We served together. I got him dishonorably discharged because he was being reckless and me and other guys almost died because of him. But, why is this important?"

"He's the one who wants you dead, Jay. He found out you were in Chicago and since he's Hailey's boyfriend, he figured she'd be able to get away with killing you."

"But he told her that I was the scum of the earth and didn't know I was a cop or had a little sister, so then she backed out," Jay said, piecing it together.

"Exactly."

"I'm on my way to Grey's place. Hopefully, he has no idea Hailey's been with me because Grey's got a temper."

Jay turned on his lights and sirens and sped through Chicago and into a more rundown place on the southside. He knew that Grey wasn't the best with money just based on how much he gambled overseas, so it made sense to him why he was living in this dump of an apartment complex.

Jay flashed his badge at the person who worked "security" and then made his way to the third floor, gun already drawn. He redialed Voight's number and held the phone between his shoulder and his ear. "What's your ETA?" he asked, creeping closer and closer to the apartment.

"Two minutes out."

Then, Jay heard an ear-piercing scream coming from the apartment where Grey was supposed to be. It sounded like a woman. It sounded like Hailey. "Sarge, I'm going in."

"Halstead, do you have protective gear?"

"Yeah, I grabbed it when I went looking for Y/N. Don't worry, it's on." Then, he ended the call.

"Chicago PD!" Jay yelled and then kicked in the door.

"Jay! Get out of here! He's gonna--"

"Shut it, bitch!" Zach twisted Hailey's arm even more, causing her to scream out in pain.

"Listen, Grey, I know you're pissed at me for what I did all those years ago, but Hailey didn't do any of that. You gotta let her go, man," Jay pleaded, gun trained on Zach.

"She was supposed to kill you!" He moved the gun so that it was now against Hailey's temple.

She whimpered, terrified. He had thrown her gun across the room, so she had no way of defending herself, not that she'd try with a gun against her head. She knew what to do in these situations, which was, wait until a moment of weakness and then get him. Or, wait for backup.

"You want me, right?" Jay asked, putting his hands above his head, gun still in hand. "Take the gun off her and point it at me."

"No!" But all Hailey got in response was Grey digging the gun further into her temple.

"Drop your gun," Grey ordered.

"Okay." Jay dropped the magazine out of his gun and then set it down on the floor.

"Now kick it away."

"Kicking it away," Jay narrated as he kicked his gun across the room.

Only then did Grey take the gun away from Hailey and point it at Jay. "Any last words Halstead?"

Now was Hailey's chance. He was distracted so Hailey swung around and knocked the gun from his hand. The minute the gun was on the ground, Jay jumped into action, tackling Grey as Hailey run at the guns, making sure that Grey couldn't get them. Jay flipped Grey around and pulled out his cuffs. "Get up," he told him after he was finished handcuffing him.

"Chicago-- Oh," Ruzek said as he and Voight entered the apartment to see Grey already handcuffed.

"Let's go get him booked," Voight said. Then, he looked at Hailey. "You should probably get to the hospital just to get checked out."

"I'm fine, really," she protested. "And I don't really want to spend the night in the hospital. It's the least I can do to help Jay with paperwork anyway."

"I'll call Will," Jay said as he handed Zach Grey off to Voight.

***

"Where's Jay?" you asked Will as you walked into the kitchen. You had cried enough and now needed to rehydrate.

"He went to go find Hailey."

That's when it hit you. I needed the money to get away from my boyfriend. Shit, he was hurting her.

"It's all my fault! If he hurts her, it's all my fault, Will!" you yelled.

"Hey, hey, no it's not," he said, taking the water glass from your hand. "We don't even know if he's physically abusing her. It could be emotional abuse. We could be wrong altogether. Don't worry about it."

You sighed and took the glass back to get some water. "Thaks, but that doesn't make me feel any better."

"I think there's hockey on," Will said, changing the subject. "Let's go watch that."

"Yeah, I guess. I'll be right back." You finished your water and put the glass in the dishwasher. Then, you went to your room to grab a blanket.

When you looked on your bed, you saw it was missing something. Kitty. Quickly, you grabbed your backpack and dumped out its contents. "Shit," you muttered as you realized you had left it on the couch of the breakroom at the district.

You ran downstairs, blanket forgotten. "Will! We gotta go to the--" He held up a hand, effectively silencing you. It was only then you saw that he was on the phone.

"Yeah, it's in my car. Yeah, I'll bring Y/N. We're on our way," Will said to whoever was on the other end and then hung up.

"What was that about?" you asked. You had a right to know because, from what you had heard, you had to go somewhere with Will.

"We gotta go to the district. Jay wants me to have a look at Hailey's shoulder, says she doesn't want to go to the hospital this late at night."

"Oh, okay. Can't be that bad because if it was broken or something Voight would make her go to the ED right?" you asked, partially blaming yourself.

"I'd hope so. Let's go."

You were walking up the stairs into the bullpen fifteen minutes later when one of your worst nightmares came true.

"Hey, did some kid leave their stuffed animal here?" Ruzek asked, holding up Kitty as he exited the breakroom.

You and Will shared a look that you hoped nobody else saw as you made your way over to Jay and Hailey. You were about to open your mouth and admit it was yours because you figured, if you didn't do it in the next few seconds, Jay would do it for you. But were surprisingly saved by Hailey.

"It's mine," Hailey lied. "My mom gave it to me and I wanted to get it out of the apartment before it became a crime scene."

"Oh," Ruzek said, furrowing his eyebrows and handing it to her. "Here you go I guess."

"Thanks."

When he turned around, Hailey handed it to you and you quickly shoved Kitty into one of Jay's desk drawers.

"Y/N, I just wanna apologize--"

"No, you were in trouble and trying your best to get out of it." Then, you stooped down and whispered in her ear, since she was sitting down, waiting for Will to examine her. "And you told Adam that that was yours, so it's the least I can do."

"So, we're all good?" she asked.

"We're all good," you confirmed.

"Now, let's take a look at that shoulder," Will said, unzipping his doctor's bag.

After a few minutes, he declared that it was just a light sprain, so it should be fine, even though it might hurt like hell.

"Good, because I need her to be okay," Voight said, exiting his office.

"What do you mean?" Hailey asked. It's not like she was one of his detectives.

"You helped us solve this case and led us to Grey. This wouldn't have been possible without you, Hailey," Voight told her.

"Thank you, Sergeant."

"Since Kim's on furlough right now and Erin left to go to New York, this unit is short...especially on female cops. What you did earlier, disarming Grey, you proved you can handle it here. So, what do you say? You wanna stay?"

"I'd be honored," Hailey answered, breaking out into a smile.

"Welcome to Intelligence, Detective Upton."

A/N: That was long! Sorry, it's taken me so long to update! I got a few ideas and never stuck with them until this one! Please vote and comment and tell me what you thought! Do you like more upstead centric stories or do you like the ones that mainly focus on Y/N and the Halstead bros? Also on my wattpad @ malewk172

#jay halstead #will halstead #chicago pd #chicago med #hailey upton #fanfiction #imagine #chicago pd imagine #halstead! sister #halstead sister imagine #reader insert

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rosetheravaged · 2 years

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[[OOC: Update! I'll be putting details and such below a cut. TL;DR version: I've run into a bunch of medical things at once and need some time to get back on my feet. Love you all! Details below cut.]]

Edit: apparently I can't do a read more on mobile. I'll try to fix this later when I have therapy on my computer.

[[MORE]]

These last 2 and a half months have just clocked me up side the head real good. In early December I ended up in the ER for severe abdominal pain. While there, they didn't find anything on imaging, but took a bunch of blood work. This blood work showed that I'm diabetic. Surprise! No warning! That's a lot to throw on anyone's plate. The blood work also showed that my liver is slowly getting worse. I have fatty liver disease and my enzyme levels were not good.

So for the rest of December I was dealing with follow ups for the stomach issues and diabetes appointments. One of the medications they prescribed to get my glucose under control exacerbated my stomach issues, so that had to be switched for the extended release which doesn't have as many side effects. But my insurance will only cover one specific type of the generic of this medication and I ran into that wall. That's been sorted now and now my stomach is back to how it was before the medication and unresolved.

January comes around and I get sick. Headache, mild fever, coughing... I get tested for the big C twice. That's not it. Doc determines it was a sinus infection that turned into a chest cold. Takes them 3 weeks to prescribe me some antibiotics. Finally manage to kick that like a week ago.

Then last Friday, I woke up and my knee was extremely painful. I hadn't injured it. I ice and elevate and it gets a little better Saturday and Sunday. Monday I go see my doctor. She gives me some leg exercises to do and seems to think my pain is muscular even though I'm telling her that the pain and limited range of motion are in my joint itself. I follow her advice, get some topical cream and ice and elevate the rest of the day.

Tuesday, I go help my grandma, get home and my leg is now swollen and bruising from mid thigh to my calf. I have a history of blood clots. So I call my doctor's office and the triage nurse says I should go to the ER. So, I do. They check my blood and do an xray and ultrasound to check my veins and arteries in my leg. Nothing abnormal on either imaging. Blood work shows my hemoglobin to be a bit low and my uric acid to be a bit high.

ER doc explains it could be a bleed into my joint because of the blood thinners I'm on, but there was no evidence of that on the xray, or gout or pseudogout. Give me a prescription for a steroid and sends me on my way since it's non-emergent. Yesterday I follow up with my doctor's office. They're able to get me in to see a Physician's Assistant that I haven't seen before.

This appointment was a roller coaster. First I see the PA student, and she's wonderful and compassionate as I explain that the swelling is slightly less than Tuesday, but my pain is higher. I ask if there's anything we can do for pain relief that isn't a narcotic. She asks what's worked in the past for me, I reply with a name of a narcotic, but stress I don't want that or any other narcotic. She says she will go discuss with the PA what the options are. The PA comes back, the student does not. This PA was so dismissive of my pain and jumps right to, "I'm just gonna refer you to physical therapy." I ask about pain relief. She tells me to double the amount of tylenol I'm taking. Remember when I said my liver wasn't doing great? I'm taking slightly less than the dose several doctors have said is safe for me to take. Doubling what I'm taking would put me far over that limit. I explain to her that I have a compromised liver and she says it doesn't matter and refuses to give me anything else for the pain.

That's where I sit now. Still having stomach issues and pain. My back is getting worse (but that's a chronic thing for over a decade now). My leg is still swollen and bruised. And y'all I'm tired. I just don't have the capacity to do much more than the necessities for myself right now. I hope to be back sooner than later, but I need to take a medical hiatus right now. Love you all!

#ooc #update #tw health issues

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itakecareofsickpeople · 3 years

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Why Do I Hate Ivermectin?

I was asked to do an article on ivermectin and I feel that it is important to understand the science behind ivermectin (and HCQ). I think if you know the science, you will be as skeptical as I am.

I was once being quizzed by an Attending Physician when I was a resident. I stuttered as I was answering and said, “I think…” He stopped me mid-sentence and said, “Son, you are a second year internal medicine resident, I don’t give a shit what you think. What do you know?”

You see, it really isn’t relevant to all of you what I think. You aren’t interested in my opinion. You are reading this post because you are interested in what I know. I don’t take anything at face value and I always read all of the studies that people are using as a reference to prove a point. The thing is, most “studies” aren’t worth the paper they are printed on and don’t actually “study” anything. Worst thing is, sometimes it’s a fake.

We all know about the faked anti-vaccine trial by Andrew Wakefield, the completely discredited, former doctor, who started the anti-vaccine movement by faking data on autism and vaccines. In case you didn’t, he faked the original anti-vaccine study and In 2010, the British General medical council found that Wakefield “had been dishonest in his research, had acted against his patients' best interests and mistreated developmentally delayed children.” That’s right anti-vaxxers. That’s your start, one giant lie.

I have read all of the studies that I will make reference to in this post and regrettably, every study I can find on ivermectin. As of now, I do not see any evidence that supports the use of ivermectin for Covid in humans outside of a clinical trial. Hey! That’s what the cdc says too….odd.

In general, American doctors are snobby. We want studies from Europe, Israel, Australia, Canada and the good ole USA. We don’t want studies from countries with dictatorships or totalitarian regimes. These countries have a long track record of producing fake studies and bad studies. Countries such as China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Brazil, Venezuela, etc. You know, the same governments that hack us and steel info from us, those ones. It is in their governments interest to make all of their people think they have a treatment for covid, otherwise there would be revolts. American doctors generally would never consider a study from Egypt as high quality, unless it was published in a very well respected journal. There just isn’t any quality control.

The science behind HCQ is basically the same, except with ivermectin, a large clinical trial showing it helped, was all fake. HCQ just didn’t work. Lots of us used HCQ at the beginning of covid until real studies were done showing it didn’t work and may actually worsen outcomes.

Remember, most drugs are safe in normal doses, but toxic in doses outside of the “therapeutic window” that is the dose that both will have the desired effect, but also is safe and well tolerated. Too little drug, it doesn’t work, too much drug, it causes toxicity.

First, It is very important to test all drugs that are easily available for activity in covid. This starts in a test tube. Ivermectin was approved in 1996 for the treatment of strongyloides and hookworms. In animal studies, it is lethal in overdose and causes toxicity at 10x the approved dose. It also was found to be a teratogen (birth defects) and is not approved for use in pregnant women. Otherwise, it is quite safe and effective in comparison to approved treatments of the time and was approved after being studied in about 1700 patients (half given ivermectin, half given old treatments). It is widely available and is pretty safe (Except in pregnancy).

Ivermectin was found to have in vitro (test tube) activity against the SARS COV2 virus. I know that sounds great, but remember what we said about the therapeutic window. It was shown, in the test tube, to inhibit activity of covid by 50% at a concentration of 2 μM (1,750 ng/mL), which is > 35× higher than the maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) of 0.05 µM (46.6 ng/mL) after oral administration of the approved dose (~ 200 μg/kg) and ivermectin showed little to no activity at 1 μM in vitro.

Wait, so that means you would need 35 times the approved dose to inhibit covid and ivermectin is toxic at 10x the dose. It also causes birth defects? Count me out.

As you might imagine, based on this knowledge it is very hard for me to believe that you can safely dosed ivermectin could have any benefit for covid. Now, on to the bad studies.

Remember what I said about studies from certain countries?

In November, an article from Egypt was published without review in an online site called Research Square. Never heard of it? Me either? It showed a 99% reduction in mortality. Holy crap, that’s amazing, right? Of course. Despite it having such a completely unrealistic outcome, many doctors picked this up and ran with it. In America, a group of doctors that named themselves the FLCCC, led by two guys named Paul Marik and Pierre Kory, latched on to this and started spouting its effects. I personally have a lot knowledge and not a lot of respect for Marik’s work predating covid. His FLCCC “treatment guidelines” have never been evidence based and in general he has never been able to publish studies that prove his claims.

So after this first study from Egypt comes out, a bunch of studies follow and are picked up by Marik’s group. They did a “review” of them and included the Egyptian study. Most of the studies aren’t even reviewed and are published online as “preprint.” They are from Egypt, India, Iraq, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Peru, Nigeria, Mexico, and Argentina. None of these places are exactly known for being in the 1st world and none of the other studies showed the massive effect as the Egyptian study.

Then, a medical student in the UK is assigned the Egyptian study for a report. He actually reads the study. It doesn’t make sense. He then requests more information from the authors and they sent him the “patient data.” It was clearly faked and he got some journalists involved. After they involved an expert on faked studies, the study was then taken down from Research Square over “ethical concerns.” Too bad Marik didn’t bother to do what the med student did.

Unfortunately, this has led to a massive amount of confusion. If you think that there is a treatment for covid, you might not take the vaccine. Even If it worked, we would be taking about a minimal effect. Heck, it could even be toxic if you give it to that many people. The other big problem is we have to do a bunch of American studies to see if it does work. Studies that could have been done with another treatment. What a waste of time and lives.

So why do I hate ivermectin? Well, I don’t. I hate the waste of time I have spent writing this article to discuss a drug that could only be effective for covid if you took enough to kill you. I hate the people that faked the study, they have cost lives. I don’t hate Marik, but I definitely think he is crazy and I’m not interested in what he thinks and that isn’t new. Unfortunately he has a big microphone and I just have this little one.

My biggest recommendation is ask your doctor if you should have the vaccine. If you trust YOUR doctor, listen to HIM or HER. Not some YAHOO online like ME. Remember, you trust your doctors to take care of your babies, born and unborn, cut you open, give us anesthesia and put cameras in all our holes. You trust them to help you make major medical decisions about your life. Keep doing that, they care about you. We care about you.

Please, don’t post any articles in support of ivermectin. I read them and found them lacking. Also, don’t post another doctors opinion of ivermectin. I don’t care what they think, just what they know.

PS: I am a Critical Care Pulmonologist, I take care of sick people. Hopefully that won’t be you.

Oh yeah. Feel free to share. I should really charge for these.

#itakecareofsickpeople #covidsucks #covid

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btschooseafic · 3 years

Text

Hey you, what’s your dream?

Pairing: platonic!oc x ot7

Details: manager!oc, predebut/idolverse, partial BTS World!verse

Summary: Jungkook feels the pressure of being the main vocal in their debut song.

Warnings: This is a fictional story based on real events. The characters presented here are not the same as their real life counterparts. (TW: non-explicit talk of anxiety/ mental health treatment) [Masterlist]

Track 12: Golden Maknae

Talk To Me- Cavetown

“You don't have to be a prodigy to be unique

You don't have to know what to say or what to think”

“You want me to be the main vocal?” Jungkook stared wide eyed at Aviva. “But this is so sudden… I’m not ready…”

“That’s okay. It’s your debut song, so if you felt totally ready, I’d say you were being overconfident,” Aviva said, reaching over and hugging him.

“Our maknae!” Jimin clapped his hands and then jumped over, wrapping his arms around both of them as far as they would go. “Don’t worry about it too much! I’ll make sure to be a good lead!”

“But—but still…” Jungkook squirmed out of their arms. “Why am I the main vocal? There are other singers.”

“I asked everyone their opinion, and it was a nearly unanimous decision,” Aviva told him. Yoongi frowned.

“Nearly? Who didn’t vote for the maknae?”

Jungkook sighed. “I didn’t.”

“Oh.” Yoongi nodded. “I see.”

“I think it was the right choice,” Jin put in. “Jungkook-ah, your voice is the most stable, anyway.”

“Nice face, great body, and sings well too! Wow!” Taehyung shot him a thumb’s up. “You’re not our Golden Maknae for nothing!”

Jungkook swallowed, rubbing his throat.

“Oh, if your throat feels sore, I’ve got you covered,” Aviva said, pointing to a bag she placed on the couch.

“What’s in here?” Jin wondered, poking around. “Ah… I see… Certainly a lot of variety, manager-nim.” Everyone gathered around.

“I put my trust in modern medicine! I choose the ice-cold cooling spray!” Namjoon grabbed it.

“Lozenges should be plenty,” Yoongi thought, comparing two different packages.

“They’re different flavors,” Aviva told him.

“Yeah, but which one works better?” Yoongi wondered.

“And which one tastes better?” Jin wondered. Aviva frowned.

“Wait a minute, my Jungkookie senses are tingling.”

“Your what are what?” Jin asked, blinking at her.

“Spiderman reference,” Hoseok told him, doing the pose.

“Ah! Spiderman!” Jin nodded, also doing the pose.

“This happened a couple of times in LA,” Aviva said. “If I’m right—”

“Whoosh!”

“Whoosh!” Jin and Hoseok were pretending to spray each other with web.

Aviva shushed them. “Listen for a minute.” The sounds of music and Jungkook’s verse came floating towards them.

“Ah…” Jimin grimaced. “He’s practicing already.”

“This happened in LA?” Namjoon asked Aviva, his brow furrowing. “You didn’t mention it before.” Aviva shrugged.

“It was only a couple of times, when he got really stressed out about having trouble with a routine, he would sneak off and practice it himself until he got it down.”

“Ah, yeah, I’ve seen that.” Hoseok shook his head. “I’ve tried telling him not to stress so much, but…” Aviva frowned.

“Think about a time when you were really angry, or really sad, would telling you to ‘calm down’ or ‘cheer up’ help at all?”

Hoseok blinked. “I guess not.”

“I’d probably just get angrier out of spite,” Jimin thought.

“Yeah…” Aviva breathed out. “I know this isn’t talked about a lot around here, but it’s normal for you guys to face a lot of stressful, and emotional situations in this industry. It would be good to have some copping mechanisms prepared.”

Namjoon nodded slowly. “Have you talked to Jungkookie about that?”

“Yeah. I think that was the closest he’s ever come to yelling at me,” Aviva thought.

Namjoon blinked.

“Jungkookie, yell, at you? Wow, yeah, he must’ve been very stressed out.”

“He respects you a lot, Avi-noona,” Taehyung thought. “But maybe that just makes it harder for him sometimes, cause he wants to look good in front of you.”

“Hmmm…” Aviva ran her hand through her hair. “I wish I knew what to do.” She turned to Jin. “He’s been eating, right?”

“Seokjin’s Chicken House is open 24/7. We also provide delivery…” He winked at her. Aviva laughed.

“I might take you up on that sometime, when I don’t feel like cooking.”

Namjoon rested his hands on his hips. “Back to Jungkook-ah... I guess all we can do is be there for him. He says he’s not, but he’s capable of doing well, and then some.”

On the morning of the first day of recording, Jin invited Aviva over for breakfast.

“Wow, Jin-oppa…” She looked over the large spread. “This looks great!”

“Wait!” Namjoon said, as everyone moved to dig in. “Our Golden Maknae first!”

“What? Me?” Jungkook stared at him. Aviva frowned.

“Yeah.” Yoongi nodded. “Being main vocal is hard, so you need to eat more. I agree.”

“Did you sleep okay?” Aviva asked him as he picked up his chopsticks. His hands were shaking slightly. She pushed his hair back from his face. He was pale.

“I’m fine, noona,” Jungkook muttered.

“Soy-braised beef.” Hoseok held the platter out to him. “Let me fill your plate!” Everyone started piling things onto Jungkook’s plate.

“Thanks…everyone, but I sing better on an empty stomach,” Jungkook said, his pale face looking slightly green now. “I’m gonna go nap in the car…”

“At least have some water,” Aviva said, moving to pour some for him.

“I said I’m fine!” Jungkook snapped. “You don’t have to always baby me!” Everyone stared at him. He froze for a moment, and then ran out the door. Namjoon reached over and squeezed Aviva’s shoulder.

“You okay?”

She just grimaced.

“Huh? Jungkookie doesn’t want the meat?” Jimin stared at it hungrily.

“I guess he just wanted time al—Hey, Jimin-ah, you couldn’t even be a little patient?” Namjoon said, slapping his chopsticks down. Meat splattered over the table.

“Kim Namjoon-ssi!” Jin said, standing up. “Don’t waste food!”

“Ah, sorry, hyung! I’m clean it up.” Namjoon reached for a napkin and knocked over someone’s water, spilling it over Jin’s plate. Jin started cursing as Namjoon kept apologizing.

“Save the meat!” Taehyung said, grabbing the plate and munching on it steadily.

“Tae!” Jimin shouted. “Leave some for me!”

“If Jungkookie can pass on something this delicious, he must be ready!” Tae thought. “It means he’s completely focused on the song, and nothing else.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Aviva said quietly. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned. “Yoongi-oppa?” She hoped he had something encouraging to say.

“You distract Tae while I grab the meat,” he told her.

Aviva left the boys to fight over the meat, checking the car to find Jungkook stretched out in the back.

“Time to go yet?” He said, his eyes still closed.

“Not yet,” she said. “They might be a while.” He let out a breath.

“Noona?”

“Hmm?”

“Sorry for shouting at you.”

“It’s fine,” she said. Jungkook made an uncertain noise.

While recording his section, Jungkook became fidgety, and his voice cracked. He coughed, and spluttered, looking pleadingly through the glass at Namjoon.

“Hyung,” he said, raspy. “I’m losing my voice…”

Aviva took Jungkook to a doctor, worried about his throat, while Jin drove the rest of the boys back to the dorm.

“Jeon Jungkook-ssi, I’m very concerned,” the doctor said.

Aviva’s jaw worked. She let out a breath.

“What are you concerned about, doctor?”

“Well, let’s just get this out of the way… I don’t see any physical issues with the vocal chords at all. His throat is exceptionally healthy. “

“Then…?” Aviva wondered.

“The patient is a 16-year-old boy, right? What’s going on that he’s so stressed out? Looking at these test results, I’d expect him to be a soldier in an active combat zone.” The doctor handed over a pile of papers. Aviva skimmed them, but there were a lot of words she didn’t understand.

She and Jungkook took the train and a bus back together. With Jungkook’s permission, Aviva took out a dictionary and began translating a bunch of the medical terms. “Cortisol, adrenaline… ah, I see why she was so worried.”

“Explain it to me,” Jungkook said. “Please.”

“Cortisol and adrenaline are hormones that the body releases during stressful situations. They can help you preform at a higher level than usual, but too much exposure can have a negative impact on your mind and body,” Aviva told him. Jungkook frowned, looking from the dictionary to her.

“It doesn’t say all that in here. Did you just happen to know it? Are you secretly a genius like Namjoon hyung?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t do particularly well in Chemistry. I mean, I never got to learn it properly, so I just studied it on my own for the test I took… it’s, um, like the equivalent of a high school diploma in the U.S, so if it makes me a little less under qualified there, you know? But, um, I know about these hormones in particular, cause I’ve had them on my blood tests before too, in high levels.”

Jungkook squeezed his hands into fists in his lap. “Jen-ah said… she said both of you have suffered from a lot of anxiety, just like me.”

“Yeah.” Aviva nodded. “We have.”

“She also said you read a lot of books on how to deal with that kind of stuff, and taught yourself coping techniques. I know you offered to teach me before, but… do you think you could try again? I mean, if you still want to.”

“Jungkook-ah, at the time, I probably should’ve seen a doctor, instead of taking it on myself,” Aviva admitted. “I’m not a professional.”

“I can’t,” Jungkook muttered. “If I’m going to be an idol, and that gets out… Anyway, I’m still a minor. My parents would have to pay for it, and I don’t want to worry them.” Aviva sighed. “Will you help me?”

“I’ll do my best, Jungkook-ah.” Over the rest of the bus ride, Aviva taught Jungkook a few breathing and grounding techniques.

Back at the dorm, Taehyung and Jimin immediately grabbed Jungkook, dragging him into one of the rooms. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you!” Tae said.

“Aviva-yah,” Namjoon said. “How is he?”

“Well, Jungkook-ah said it was okay for me to share this with you, but don’t go spreading it around, okay?” After they nodded, she told them about his test results.

“Fuck,” Yoongi said.

“We fucked up,” Hoseok agreed. “I guess the things we thought were supportive were just putting even more pressure on him.”

“We have to remember, he’s only sixteen,” Aviva said.

Namjoon rubbed his neck. “This is my fault. He’s talented and he works hard, so I kept pushing him…”

“We all played a hand,” Yoongi said. “We’re a team.”

Namjoon smiled tensely at him. “Yeah, hyung, but I’m supposed to be the leader. So I should take responsibility.”

“Should we go rescue him from Jimin-ah and Taehyungie?” Aviva wondered. “Ah, but maybe he’ll think I’m babying him again…”

Jin patted her on the back. “We’re all worried. We just want to help.”

“Yeah, but…” Yoongi shook his head, looking at Aviva. “You told us there was no physical injury, and I still saw Jimin-ah grab the first aid kit.”

“At least they’re sure to shower him with lots of attention!” Hoseok said cheerfully. Then he wilted. “Wait, maybe that would just stress him out more…”

“He needs to build some confidence,” Yoongi thought. “But how?”

“If we could just get him singing, but not thinking so much about it,” Jin thought. “Ah, wait!” He snapped his fingers. “I’m a genius! I have the perfect idea.” He tilted his head. “Well, maybe.” He shrugged. “Eh, it’s worth a try.”

Namjoon stared at him. “…You’re gonna give me whiplash, hyung.”

“Avi-yah.” Jin put his hands on her shoulders. “I will draw Jimin-ah and Taehyung-ah out, so you go talk to Jungkookie and work your manager-magic until I give you the signal.” He started pushing her down the hall.

“Manager-magic?” Namjoon wondered.

“What’s the signal?” Aviva wanted to know.

“You’ll know it when you see it!” Jin said excitedly.

Aviva waited until Jimin and Taehyung ran out of the room, shooting her thumbs up and grins, before running off again towards the kitchen. Aviva knocked on the door uncertainly. “Jungkook-ah? Are you sleeping? Can I come in?”

“Ah, noona… okay. It’s a little embarrassing, but I think I could use a hand with these.”

“What’s embarrass—” Aviva dissolved into giggles when she saw the bandages wrapped around his head and his arm.

“Ah, I’m not sure if they were actually trying to help, or just mess with me, but…” He struggled with one of the bandages. Aviva sat next to him on the bed.

“May I…?” She reached towards him. He nodded. He watched her as she worked out the knot, her lip pinched between her front teeth as she concentrated.

“Noona, can I ask you… those things you were nervous about in the past, the things that gave you test results like mine, and made you want to learn those techniques… were you able to get passed it?”

“Hmm, well, there were a couple of different situations,” she said, unwrapping the bandage from his head and moving to the one on his arm. “One situation that used to give me a lot of anxiety was the idea of moving to South Korea. In general, I think I handled that pretty well.” Jungkook nodded.

“You’re one of the strongest people I know,” he said. She smiled.

“Thank you. I know you mean it when you say it, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way myself. Some days I struggle to do even the bare minimum.” She finished taking the bandage off of his arm and twisted it into a ball. “Another situation I was anxious about was that High School test I mentioned earlier. I passed, but… I didn’t do very well. Chances are, if I ever want to take any classes in the U.S. again, I would need to retake that test first. Some days, you don’t win.”

Jungkook flopped down onto his back, staring at the ceiling.

“So you’re saying either I give up, or I just keep trying until I get it right?”

She lay down next to him. “I didn’t say that. I mean, you could do that, but it sounds very tiring, Jungkookie.”

He turned on his side, looking at her. “It is. Is there a third option?”

“I don’t know. But there’s usually an alternative route, you just have to find it. If it’s a goal you want to reach badly enough, you should keep trying until you get it, but maybe try a few different ways?” She sighed. “I don’t know, JK, I’m still figuring this out.” He smiled.

“That’s one thing I like about you, noona, you’re not afraid to admit when you don’t have the answers. Right now, I don’t know what to do. I really want to be the main vocalist, I really want to do well, but… I don’t know how. How do I find the alternative route?” Suddenly there was a knock on the window. They both jumped, Jungkook moving slightly in front of Aviva. “Burglars?”

“Um, I don’t think so. I think it might be…” She walked over to the window and pulled open the curtain, rolling her eyes when she saw Jin striking a pose on the other side. Jungkook snickered.

“What’s he doing?”

“I’ve got no clue. Let’s find out.” Aviva pulled open the window. “Oppa, I am very interested to see where you’re going with this.”

“Prepare to be amazed, manager-nim, and Jeon Jungkook-ah!” Jin said, striking another pose.

Aviva sniffed. “Something smells good.”

“Why, thank you, Namjoon-ah’s minding it for me, though, so we’d better hurry before he lets it burn. Come join us in the backyard, okay?” Jin rushed off.

Jungkook and Aviva exchanged a bemused look before rushing for the door.

The boys had used a plank of wood and some crates to fashion together a low table, placing a grill on top of it, where they were cheerfully cooking meat and vegetable skewers. Someone had strung Christmas lights up overhead, giving the backyard a cozy and warm atmosphere.

“You have to add onions!” Hoseok was saying. “Onions are the best when grilled.”

“It’s a miracle cure!” Taehyung singsonged. “When you’re feeling down, you go go full speed ahead to where the meat is!”

“The guest of honor is late!” Namjoon said, grinning at Jungkook.

“Come on, come on!” Jimin said, running over to them, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him over to sit. Aviva hovered awkwardly in the background for a moment before Jin caught her eye and waved her over. She sat in an empty spot between him and Yoongi.

“What do you think?” Jin asked, turning to Jungkook and motioning at everything.

“…Looks good,” Jungkook admitted, a small smile slipping onto his face. The other boys cheered. Hoseok started pouring everyone a cup of beer while Jin started making up a plate for Aviva.

“So eat and cheer up!” Taehyung said, nudging Jungkook’s arm with his.

“Yeah, eat and hang in there so we can practice even harder!” Hoseok said. Aviva frowned at him.

“Hobi…” She said warningly.

“I’m fine,” Jungkook told her, actually looking like he meant it for once.

“Let’s eat until we die!” Yoongi said, grabbing another piece of meat.

“Eat until we die?” Jin repeated. “Don’t you mean eat until we debut?”

Yoongi snorted. “Wait, before we eat,” Taehyung said, ignoring Yoongi’s pointed chewing. “Shouldn’t we say something?”

“Oh yeah, a toast,” Hoseok agreed. “We can’t skip that.”

“I always do it… so today should be the maknae’s turn,” Namjoon suggested. Everyone cheered again. Jungkook waved his hand dismissively.

“You should say something, since it’s your party,” Jimin agreed.

“If you don’t have anything prepared, you can say Seokjin-hyung thanks for the delicious meat!” Jin offered.

“Or something like Taehyung-hyung, I love you!” Tae suggested. Jin laughed.

“Ah…” Jungkook stared down at his drink. “I’m sorry, for being the worst one in the studio—” Everyone interrupted him with noises of protest.

“What do you mean? Don’t say that!” Jimin whined.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jin agreed.

Namjoon insisted Jungkook had done so well that his ears had melted and fused together. Hoseok played along, asking him if he needed to go to the hospital.

“Or maybe Aviva-yah can kiss it better?” He cooed. Even in the dark they could see Namjoon’s face flush.

“You kiss it better yourself,” Aviva said, tired of his antics. Hoseok looked at Namjoon thoughtfully as everyone laughed.

“Jungkookie, you’re the main vocal. If you keep saying you didn’t do well, what does that make us?” Taehyung wondered.

Jungkook looked thoughtful.

“If Jungkook-ah can’t think of anything to say, maybe he should just serenade us, melt our ears,” Namjoon put in.

Jungkook started to sing, with the others gradually joining in. By the second chorus, even Aviva had joined, so quietly that only Yoongi and Jin heard and glanced at her, grinning.

“You’ve got a nice voice,” Yoongi said in her ear, making her shiver slightly. “Are you sure you’re not the one who should be debuting?”

“Shut up!” She whispered, elbowing him. He winced.

“Watch the shoulder,” he muttered.

“Sorry!”

Aviva stayed over early into the morning, helping clean the yard so the landlady wouldn’t yell at them.

“Well, these two are useless,” Namjoon thought, his voice muffled as Taehyung squished his cheeks, serenading him. Jimin was hanging off of Joon’s back like a monkey.

“Send them to bed,” Aviva told him.

“Yeah.” Namjoon gave Jimin a piggy-back ride. Taehyung trailed after them, still singing.

“Ah, I think Hobi-hyung is done for as well,” Jungkook (only slightly drunk himself), spoke up.

“I can tuck him in,” Aviva offered.

“Yay!” Hoseok hugged her tightly, pressing her face against his chest, tucking his chin over the top of her head.

“Ugh, Hobi, can’t breath!” Aviva squeaked.

“Avi’s comin’ to bed with me!” Hoseok gloated to Yoongi, sticking his tongue out. “Take that, hyung!” Yoongi glared at him.

“Jungkook-ah,” he said firmly.

“Got it.” Jungkook grabbed Hoseok’s arm and peeled him off of her with surprising strength. “Come on, hyung, don’t do anything you’ll regret in the morning.”

“No regrets!” Hoseok cried, slinging his arm around the younger boy’s shoulders.

“You okay?” Yoongi asked Aviva, a little concern leaking through his usual blank expression. Aviva smiled.

“It’s fine, Hobi’s always clingy, even when he’s not drunk.”

“Yeah, I guess…” Yoongi was still frowning.

“Chingu!” Jin called. “Where are those garbage bags?”

“Eh, you used all of them already?” Yoongi groaned. “Seriously?” He took a full bag and dragged it over to the door. “I’ll get more.” He leaned close to Aviva. “Keep an eye on hyung, he’s drunker than he looks.”

“Okay,” Aviva said. “Yoongi…”

“Hmm?”

“Are you okay carrying all that? Your shoulder—”

“It’s fine,” he said tensely, sighing when she stared at him. “No, for real. Physical therapy helped a lot.”

“That’s great.” Aviva gave him a quick hug before going back to Jin.

“So…” Jin hummed as he cleaned, his neck flushed from the alcohol. “You and Yoongi-yah…?”

“What about Yoongi-oppa?” Aviva asked innocently.

“Well, isn’t that the stereotypical plot, the group members all fighting over the same girl?” Jin thought. Aviva frowned.

“You watch too many dramas.”

“Maybe.” Jin shrugged. “I’m just saying I wouldn’t want that to happen, especially before we’ve even debuted.”

“Jin-oppa, they just like to joke around, they’re not seriously interested in me.”

“Aish, Aviva-yah, you aren’t that oblivious, are you?” Jin looked her in the eye, suddenly looking a lot less drunk than he had a moment ago. She ignored the heat rising in her face, holding the eye contact without flinching.

“It wouldn’t happen. I’m a good friend to have, but as far as… I wouldn’t be a good girlfriend.” She’d only had a sip of beer with the cheers earlier, she wondered if it was possible to drunk off of one sip? Or was she overtired? Because these were things she had never spoken about, not even with Soonyoung or Jen. These were things she didn’t even like to think about in the privacy of her own mind. “There are things I don’t… I won’t…” She let out a breath, letting her words fade away.

“… I’m sorry, Viva-yah, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” Jin said, his expression softening. “I think I might’ve been too harsh.”

#bts #jeon jungkook #jungkook x oc #bts x oc #fanfiction #bts world #bts predebut #manager!oc #idolverse #ot7 #bts fanfiction

6 notes · View notes

anotherhamiltonblog · 4 years

Text

Stick Together.

Collin Hoskins x Reader one shot!

Prompt Request from HERE: Situation Comforting the other Sentence “I just want to let you know that I love you. A lot. Never forget that.”

Warnings: Sadness, heartbreak, blood, cursing, miscarriage, happy ending.

Word Count: 1.985

Staring ahead, Collin never thought he would ever feel this… sad. This heartbroken. The one girl he loved more than anything was alive, she survived. Recovering, but how could be bring himself to put a smile back on her face? The news they received had been one that neither one of them was prepared to hear. He wasn’t even sure what to say, he didn’t blame Y/N. It wasn’t her fault, yet Y/N still blamed herself for something that was out of her control.

One Month Earlier:

Y/N’s POV:

“Alright, alright!” Miles yelled out as the group stood around at the fourth of July barbeque Miles was having at his house. With Ashley pregnant, the thought it was better to do something at home. “Get some Collin ma maaan!”

Laughing, Y/N pushed Collin away from the kiss and flipped Miles off. “Go be with your wife! PLEASE AND THANK YOU!” she laughed and wrapped an arm around her boyfriend. “Your friend is very irritating.”

Snorting, Collin looked over to Miles who was tending to his wife’s every need. The women didn’t have to do anything. “Yeah, he’s a good guy though.”

With one more kiss, he went back to manning the grill and Y/N went to get the other food ready. Seeing they needed more ice, Y/N went inside the house and looked in the freezer.

“shit…”

Walking to the door that led to the backyard, she grinned at her friends. “Hey! I’m gonna rush over to the store real quick! We’re out of ice.” She called to them and waved her hand when Miles asked if she wanted him to go.

“Be careful! OK?” Collin yelled out and Y/N laughed nodding.

“I will… love you!” she blew him a kiss and moved to grab her purse from the counter.

Walking out of the house, she pulled her hair up and used a hair clip to hold it up. The July sun coming down strong and the last thing Y/N wanted was her hair at her neck.

Arriving at the store, Y/N entered and waved to the man sitting behind the desk. “Not gonna celebrate?” she asked him with a grin, moving to the back where the freezer of Ice was.

“No… taking care of the store today!” was his reply and Y/N just laughed.

“Well, I’ll bring you a plate of food. How does that sound Mr. Jones?”

“You are too sweet Y/N. Thank you.” Was his reply.

The sound of the store bell chimed, and Y/N didn’t mind it, she kept looking for those stupid candies that Ashley liked so much. ‘Pregnant women…’ Y/N thought with a soft giggle and shook her head.

By the time she had two bags of ice and a bunch of Laffy Taffy, she moved to the front of the store. “Mr. Brown, do you still-“

BANG

“NO!”

“DUDE WHAT DID YOU DO!”

“IDIOT! YOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO ACTUALLY USE THE GUN!”

“SHE APPEARED OUT OF NO WHERE!”

“SHIT! RUN!”

Y/N fell back too the ground, everything she had been holding now forgotten on the floor alongside her.

The voices around her becoming muffled as she felt an unbearable pain in her stomach. It was a hot, glowing pain. She could barley keep her eyes opened as she laid there. Mr. Jones calling out to her, Y/N catching glimpse and pieces of his words.

“Y/N…. ok…. You’ll…. Hospital…”

Not remembering much after that.

Collin’s POV:

We heard the gunshot and looked at each other. “Yo.. Ashley!” Collin yelled out to the women who was inside the house. “Is Y/N back yet?” he asked nearing the house.

“No... not yet…” Ashley too looked nervous.

Dashing out the house, hearing Ashley yell to Miles to go with him. The two men rushed to the store. Seeing three guys rush out, each with a gun and a mask covering their face.

“no…” Collin whispered and ran faster.

Bursting through the door of the store, the first thing Collin saw was Mr. Jones talking rapidly on the phone asking for an ambulance, explaining that there was a girl shot.

That’s when Collin saw her, on the floor soaked in her own blood with the ice and candy sprawled around her.

“Y/N… stay awake ok? You’ll be fine! The ambulance is coming to take you to the hospital!” Mr. Jones called to the girl and Collin rushed over to her.

Miles entering a little bit after him, Collin barely noticed as all he saw was Y/N laying there. “Wake up baby… come on.” he whispered and put pressure on the bullet wound, grabbing the cloth that Miles handed him to cover it.

By the time the ambulance arrived, Collin was allowed into the back with Y/N as long as he wasn’t in the way.

“Ten minutes to the hospital!” the driver called back to the EMTs and all they could do was keep an eye on her vitals and keep her alive.

“You can talk to her…” one of them told Collin who nodded and got closer to his girl.

“Hey baby girl… please stay alive for me. I can’t lose you…” he whispered to her and looked down at her with eyes filled with tears. “I love you… OK? I just want to let you know that I love you. A lot. Never forget that.” He added.

“I… I love yo-“ but she couldn’t continue and Collin moved out of the way when Y/N flatlined, the EMTs had to take over.

Thankfully they arrived at the hospital as they brought her back and had a heartbeat. Collin was a mess as he tried to follow them into the emergency room.

“Sir! Please! You have to wait in the waiting room!” A nurse told him and had to push him back. “SIR! Let the doctors do their job!” she tried to reason with him but Collin couldn’t hear he wanted to see his girl. Make sure she was ok.

“Collin!” Miles voice broke him from his inner thoughts, turning to see his best friend. The two met in a hug and Miles brought the man over to the waiting room.

Seconds turned to minutes that turned to hours. He just wanted to know how Y/N was. Where was she? Why hasn’t anyone come to get him yet?

“Yo, is someone gonna give us any fucking information on our girl?” Miles stood up yelling, only calming when Ashley placed a hand on his arm.

Collin got up and went to the nursed station. “Excuse me… I would like to know how Y/N L/N is doing? She came in with the ambulance with a gunshot wound.” He asked the nurse, voice of pure exhaustion.

As she typed away on the computer, she glanced up at the man. “What are you of hers?” she asked.

“Her fiancé.” He simply said, and the nurse nodded.

Being told to wait, she got up to go grab the doctor.

“Her surgery just ended.” He told his friends and paced around.

By the time the doctor came and told them Y/N was going to be ok, that she was just sleeping and under a lot of medication for the pain. He looked at Collin.

“Were you aware that, Ms. L/N was with child?” the doctor asked, a sad look in his eyes. When Collin shook his head, the doctor sighed. “I’m sorry… but the fetus… there was nothing we could do.” With that he left and Collin looked at his friends.

“Oh… Collin..” Ashley stepped forward.

Shaking his head, Collin rushed out of the hospital and started punching the wall outside. Miles had to rush over to him and pull him away, but Collin couldn’t hear anything his friend was saying. His mind was on his girl and the baby he didn’t even know about. The baby who never even had a chance to survive.

Being led back inside, Collin was taken to a room to have his hand looked at and wrapped. Knuckles bloody and the skin was broken and bleeding from the assault on the brick wall.

By the time he was allowed to see Y/N, Collin sat beside her bed and held her hand. Trying to keep it together for the two of them.

“Collin…” a shaky voice called out to him, causing the man to sit up quickly and see that he had fallen asleep in the chair and it was morning already.

“Hey sweety… you’ll be ok. Don’t move… do you remember what happened?” he asked her as he pressed the button to call the nurse. Not wanting to leave her side.

“I… I was shot.” She managed to get out and coughed, only to cry out in pain.

A nurse soon entered and went to fix the IV drip, saying she would give a little more for the pain.

The next few days, Collin, Miles and Ashley took turns being with Y/N at the hospital. By the time came they were allowed to go home, Y/N looked at Collin confused as to why the doctor was telling her about the bleeding and spotting and what to expect.

“What… but I wasn’t-“ Collin cut her off by grabbing her hand.

“You… it looks like you were pregnant babygirl… Around three months.” He whispered and placed a hand on her cheek, thumb brushing a tear that made its way from her eye and down her cheek.

“It’s not your fault… OK? The gunshot… it…” but he didn’t know what to say. Only wrap his arms around her body and kissed the top of her head. Allowing her to cry into his chest.

“You can leave whenever you want. The paperwork has been taken care of. Just make sure she takes it easy.” The doctor told Collin who nodded and went back to cradling his girl in his arms.

“How… how can you mourn someone you never even knew existed?” Y/N voice broke his train of thoughts. “I didn’t even… I thought I might be… there was tests at home for me to take… but.” She glanced up at Collin who was frowning.

“Like I said, it’s not your fault. OK?” he tilted his head as he looked down at Y/N. “We still have so much time to have a family. SO many milestones to reach together.” He added and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Present Time:

That’s how the couple became stronger. Though Collin could see her moments of sadness every now and again. Hand placed on her stomach where a small bump should have been.

Taping the box up, Collin got up and wrapped his arms around Y/N. “You ok, princess?” he asked softly. The two in the process of getting ready to move from their town to the city.

Collin had been accepted in UCLA and Y/N had gotten a job at one of the nicest hotels in the city there. The two were moving up in life. Not that Miles was very happy, but after what had happened so close to his home. Both Miles and Ashley were looking into moving out with them soon. In the end they were like family, both Y/N and Collin also had to be around for the birth of their godson.

“I will be ok. I promise.” She assured her boyfriend and turned around to face him. “I love you.” She smiled and giggled when Collin pressed their foreheads together. “Come on… lets finish packing up.” She pushed him away, only to laugh when Y/N was pulled back in and the two shared a kiss.

“We’re gonna be ok, babygirl.” He assured her and she nodded in agreement, the two kissing once again before going to finish packing up the home they had been sharing. Ready for the big move.

“Yeah… we are.” She said softly, looking down to the engagement ring on her left hand and smiled before going back to packing.

#collin hoskins x reader #Collins hoskins x reader #collin hoskins #daveed diggs #daveed #daveed x reader #daveed diggs x reader #daveed diggs x ofc #daveed diggs x yn #blindspotting

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thanksjro · 4 years

Text

Dark Cybertron Chapter 8: Swoop is a Good Ally

Bumblebee doesn’t turn into a convertible, but that won’t stop Megatron from riding around with his legs hair in the wind, as the two of them book it for Iacon from the Crystal City. Bumblebee’s making great time, despite carrying a dude who is significantly larger than he is. As the burning city comes into view, they discuss the fact that the Titan that’s making its way downtown (walking fast, and it’s homebound) is full of Shockwave ores. The life and death ones, to be exact. This is a problem, because that means it’s neither alive or dead, and you can’t kill something that ain’t alive.  Then Megatron goes on about how Cybertron needs him, and has always needed him, to end oppression.

Mighty high opinion of yourself you got there, Megatron. We’ll see how that plays out as the day goes on.

Over with Starscream, our fearless leader’s reflecting on how true the term “rat bastard” fits dear Rattrap. Rattrap’s more concerned about the fact that people are literally dying right now while Starscream has a pity party. Good thing Rattrap brought some party guests.

Starscream double-checks that all these friendly faces aren’t with the Titan, then gets called incompetent by just about everyone. Prowl puts together a strategy for this nightmare scenario, staring directly into the camera and showing off his lovingly rendered nose as he starts giving orders. While everyone else is going to be either rounding up the injured or trying to pick a fight with a dude roughly 50 times their size, Prowl’s going to try to figure out how to stop the Titan.

Back inside Metroplex, things are looking tense, as Nautica and Chromia are about a hair’s breadth away from beating the Rod Pod Squad to death. In an effort to dispel the hostility, Getaway points at his bellybutton, and then sat Nautica’s, quoting Optimus Prime and saying that there’s no reason to fight, because a bunch of little murderous bastards are about to pour in and cause some trouble for everyone.

And then a bunch of little murderous bastards are about to pour in and cause some trouble for everyone.

Everyone starts climbing up the rope Nautica and Chromia dropped last issue, except for Whirl, who would prefer to spend his time kicking ass as opposed to hunting for Metroplex’s brain. As the gang crawls around in the vents- because of COURSE they do- Nautica realizes that she’s talking to none other than Ratchet, and has a bit of a moment. Ratchet’s more concerned with the concept of gender being introduced into his world.

You’re right, Ratchet, it doesn’t matter. Just let people live, dude.

Everyone ends up in the left shoulder blade area of Metroplex, where his brain is, and where we meet Windblade- our fan-created character, and a huge part of why IDW had to jam the concept of sexual dimorphism into their continuity posthaste.   In 2013, the Fan Built Bot polls were held on the Hasbro website, where fans could vote on several traits of a new character. One of these traits was gender. 

Which I’m sure Furman was thrilled about.

The majority rule was for a female Transformer to be created, one hailing from Kaon, who was an Autobot telepath who turned into a jet and had a sword. Not all of this information was kept, simply because it didn’t jive with what had been established about gender previously. Things were still very messy, so Windblade’s place of origin was changed.

But we’ll get to that later on.

Right now, all you need to know is that Windblade is here to keep Metroplex alive.

Over in the Dead Universe, Nightbeat leads Team -Imus to Kup, the lot of them blasting and gunning down zombie robots the whole way. Cyclonus still has the Hollywood Tuberculosis cough. When they reach Kup, Orion Pax calls him old. Cyclonus has a gun now. Rodimus explains why he’s got numbers carved into his palm.

After the nightmare that was Overlord happened, and then the Luna 1 stuff, Rodimus enacted the Crisis Act. Now, the last time we saw the Crisis Act was in Eugenesis. It’s been a minute, so here’s a refresher:

In this case, Rodimus enacted the Act on himself, having the crew of the Lost Light vote on whether he should remain captain. 89 voted for him to get the boot. This weighs heavily on his mind, so much so that he’s decided to carve the vote into his hand, so he can never forget those he failed.

Off in the corner, Cyclonus is dying, but this isn’t about him, this is about Rodimus’ sense of guilt.

Orion isn’t thrilled with how Rodimus handled the situation- he claims that Rodimus would have simply stepped down from his captaincy outright, if he really felt that badly about the situation.

Off in the corner, Cyclonus is still dying, but this isn’t about him.

Not my space dad.

Nightbeat scoops Kup off of his bed and helps the old man stand, not that he needs it. No sir, this crotchety old bastard is so full of piss and vinegar, he’s gotta have the entire Industrial Revolution backdropping his big badass speech.

And then that final claim is tested, as Cyclonus’ limp body is fastball-specialed into Kup’s torso. Nova Prime’s here, and he’s pissed. Orion decides he’s gonna square the fuck up. It’s time for Prime Prime-Time Fight Time.

Back inside Metroplex, violence is taking place, as Whirl, Getaway, and Skids are eviscerating the Ammonites. Over with Metroplex’s brain, Windblade is explaining her whole deal.

Chromia, don’t be fucking rude.

Windblade is a City Speaker, a robot who can interpret the the lights and wave patterns of a Titan’s brain module for the purpose of communication. It’s a pretty sweet trick. Brainstorm doesn’t care about that though- he’s more concerned with getting the hell out of here. Ultra Magnus agrees, though he’s more concerned about the current state of Cybertron and the fact that Shockwave’s still running around. Windblade tells them to do whatever, but she’s gonna stick with Metroplex. It’s at this point that we find out how our new friends got here in the first place.

Turns out Thunderclash’s ship was taking new crew members on, and these three lovely robots were a part of the new blood. The Vis Vitalis ran into Alpha Trion not too long after they joined, freaking the hell out because Metroplex- his best friend in the whole entire world, as established in Spotlight: Orion Pax- just vanished.

Not sure how you lose an entire city that you’re riding around inside, but whatever, Alpha.

Alpha Trion was worried about his friend, but not enough to stop looking for the Holy Grail. So he had Chromia, Windblade, and Nautica come out here to do it. Unfortunately, they haven’t been able to do much. This might be why Metroplex pulled the Lost Light over to this rinky-dink little water planet- so he wouldn’t die.

Do you think Roberts and Barber were aware that they were having a bunch of male characters walk all over the hard work of these female characters, by way of making them better at the thing they were sent here to do? Do you think they thought about that? Because that’s pretty much what’s happening here. They’ve been here all of ten minutes, and Nautica- who is a quantum mechanic and engineer, as will be established- has been outdone by a bunch of doofuses who’ve only got the benefit of being properly established characters helping them out.

With a little set up, Metroplex’s brain is plugged into the Lost Light’s engines remotely, and Ultra Magnus tells our boy to rise and shine.

Back on Cybertron, Fixit and Flatline are about to throw down, which Starscream thinks is hilarious. There’s a whole medical slab that contains only a single shin. People are laying in trailers, but I guess that lone shin has priority for whatever reason. Outside, Scoop is being a good lad and helping get the injured to safety. Rattrap is also there.

The Titan has hit the city limits, and everyone’s shooting at the thing to cope. The Dinobots are upset because they’re being ignored, but at least Swoop is proving to be a good friend, as he’s already acclimated to Slug’s name change. Good on you, Swoop.

The plan of attack here is shooting the Titan in the neck until the signals to the brain are cut off from the rest of the body. It’s not really working out so hot, but smart boy points for trying, Prowl.

A building explodes, because we haven’t had an explosion yet this issue. Prowl, whose little red chevron seems to be shrinking by the panel, asks Soundwave for his opinion on the current situation. Soundwave goes “I dunno” and then Megatron shows up.

Friggin’ drama queen.

Prowl, who’s had about enough of everyone at this point, breaks out a gun and tells Megs to start talking before things get uglier than they already are.

Megatron has a plan. Are you ready to hear it?

He wants everyone to:

Load up on ships

Fuck off into space

Come back later when the DJD show up

Bumblebee does not like this plan. He dislikes it very much, in fact, and throws Megatron’s legs on the ground in protest. Megatron pouts about being called a meanie warlord shit-for-brains.

Bumblebee rattles off a very inspiring speech about the perseverance of the Cybertronian spirit, and how you should never give up, and oh would you look at that Metroplex just showed up with the Lost Light.

Time for some Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. Hell yeah.

#transformers #jro #dark cybertron #issue 8 #mtmte #issue 26 #maccadam #Hannzreads #overthinking about robots #incoming analysis #text post #long post #comic script writing

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addercharmer · 3 years

Text

Shōta didn't believe he was the kind of person to care much about other people, especially arrogant people. In his fifteen years of life he has had one real friend, his parents loved him, and he loved them.

But it was cats that Shōta believed to be worth the most of his time and effort. Part of him wondered what he was doing taking the hero exams at U.A, he's pretty sure that it's one part spite and one part actually wanting to help people like he wishes he should have been helped.

He's standing at the gate to the mock city for the physical test, still thinking over that random girls' words.

The yell from the hero that was standing above and off to the side of the gate Shōta's attention snaps back into focus.

Once the gates had opened enough for a person to fit through he noticed that the same girl who had run into him in the hall took off at a run the same time he did.

She was fast for someone so small, she made it through the gate just a few steps before him, and he abruptly lost sight of her.

With a rough shake of his head Shōta scaled up the side of a building to get a better view of where the robots were.

He noticed that the largest group was right in the center, but there were smaller pockets spread throughout.

Using the skills of free running that he had been forced to develop to get away from bullies, Shōta made his way to a small grouping of robots that was between where he saw something on a perimeter and the main group in the center.

It was a calculated risk to jump onto the back of the closest robot, he had seen a small matte square just under where the head was. Prying it open took longer than he would have liked, but he was rewarded with a bunch of wires.

A sharp grin split his lips as he reached in and yanked any wire he could find out.

With his first robot down Shōta felt a boost in his confidence, maybe just maybe he had a good chance.

Scaling the building he had jumped from Shōta took a quick look around again, to his left was some kid using knives that sprung from his elbows, he wasn't watching what was happening around him.

Between one breath and the next Shōta had dived off the building again, this time he hit the ground in a roll. Getting his feet under him again he sprinted to tackle the girl who was on the wrong side of the knife elbow guys dead bot.

Shōta didn't bother to wait for the girl to say anything before he was off again.

Shōta had developed a pattern, get to a roof, find robot, kill robot, climb again, save some idiot with no awareness, climb yet again, he was getting pretty tired and his fingers hurt from all the prying open the hatches.

Having been lost in his rhythm Shōta was taken off balance when the roof he was on was hit by some kind of red whip, it obliterated the top most corner of the building he was on just as the biggest robot he had ever seen was breaching the center of the city.

The students on the street ran, Shōta had just turned to follow them from the roofs when his ears caught a faint call.

"Help!" The person calling for help sounded pretty close, he knew that leaving them behind could prove fatal given the amount of destruction, he knew logically that the teachers would stop the robot before anyone was seriously harmed.

Coming out of a roll from jumping off the building, Shōta started to jog over to the pinned girl.

"Fucking…Help!" He heard her yell again, and picked up his pace.

The girl couldn't see him from where he had approached her, so when she started to give him directions he had been mildly surprised.

"My leg is pinned...I can feel blood...just... find a bar of some sort...lever the left side a little...find a rock to support it...and..pull me...out." Her words were broken by soft gasps of pain.

Shōta grunted at her idea and took off to find the stop sign he had seen. When he got back the pinned girl he recognized her as the one who had run into him.

With a quiet huff at who he was saving, Shōta slammed the edge of the sign under the concrete and kicked a large chunk of the rubble under the pole to give him leverage.

Grunting he pushed on the free end of the sign. "Fucking run into me, then give criptic suggestions, and now needing rescue. What the fuck problem female?" He growled as he pushed.

"Uh...hurry please?" The girls voice has a tinge of panic to it.

Shōta looks over at the approaching robot and jumps on the end of the sign he had been pushing on. The sound of the rubble grinding on the sign and the road has Shōta clenching his jaw tight.

The girl lets out a soft gasps that he barely hears as he quickly kicks another chunk of rubble under the chunk that had her pinned.

From the corner of his eye Shōta sees the girl move her arms to above her head in a better position for him to pull her out, he's quick to grab hold of her forearms and pulls.

She's surprisingly heavy, but when her own grip on his arms goes slack just as her legs are clearing the concrete that has him looking at the limbs.

"Kami." He whispers, that's a lot of blood, too much blood.

"We need a medic!" Shōta screams as he pulls her feet clear.

"Fuck fuck fuck." Shōta yelps as he scrambles around her body to look at the bone deep gash on the outer side of her thigh.

"Medic!" He yells again, this time with fear in his tone.

Shōta rips off his hoodie and starts to press it on the wound. He misses the hero that had called the start of the exam, call the end, he's far too panicked about the girl bleeding out.

"Okay dearie, what's wrong?" Shōta hears the voice of a woman cut through the fuzzy panic when she touches his shoulder.

"She was pinned, I can see the bone of her thigh." His words are rushed, he's never seen so much blood.

"Let me see." The woman says, Shōta has a moment of hesitation before he moves his blood soaked hoodie.

"Okay dearie, put it back and keep the pressure on it, follow the robots." The instructions are simple.

One of the robots that had followed the woman over slid a steel platform under the girl and lifted it, once the girl was in the air it started moving. Shōta had to jog beside the thing to keep pace.

They reached a room that looked like a surgery theatre when Shōta noticed that the woman who had spoken to him was riding on another robot.

"Keep the pressure up while I scrub in, this is going to be a quick surgery." She tells Shōta as she turns on a tap in the corner.

She's humming some song that Shōta doesn't recognize as the water gushes from the tap. It doesn't take very long but his hands are now covered in blood.

The tap cuts off and he hears the snap of gloves against skin. "Okay, you can wash the blood off now, when you're done have a seat."

When Shōta pulled the balled fabric off of the cut he was surprised that it started to drip blood on the floor as he crossed to the sink.

#rewound #dad nedzu #yamada hizashi #aizawa shouta #shirakumo oboro #female midoriya izuku #bnha #time travel #chapter4

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majorshiraharu · 4 years

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Echoes In My Mind; Chapter 3 - Comfort in Sadness - EchoxReader Fic

Previous Chapter While investigating an abandoned building for the information you needed to steal, you instead came across some scum from your past, a pirate who's base you had destroyed in a raid with some of your Clone troopers during the Clone Wars. His revenge was torturing you and using some strange metallic poison to remove the Midi-chlorians from your body to strip the force from you, a power he believes you don't deserve. Echo and the Bad Batch rescued you, but you wake up 2 standard weeks later after spending that whole time in a coma, waking up you’re confused and scarred, Echo was there to comfort you until you fell asleep -

Note: This is a longer chapter, but since it's a lot of talking I thought I'd leave it all in the same chapter. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Content Rating: Mature+ Warnings: Self Doubt Crying Anxiety Trigger Warnings: Depression PTSD Nightmares Trauma Torture ; only references from the previous chapter

If there are any warning labels I’m missing please inform me --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sometime later - there's a noise that wakes you from your sleep, blinking your eyes into focus as you turn your head you see Echo, slouched against the sleeper with one arm up to hold your hand. It's hard to remember what happened, the last thing you remember was crying into Echos chest as he comforted you, you had felt so tired, the feeling of his warmth must have caused you to fall asleep not soon after. You notice his head resting not too far away from your hand. Slipping your hand out of his - you move it to stroke his head, running your fingers through his short black hair. While stroking his head you feel the small metallic nubs on his head, making you wonder what he himself had been through during the war, he must have been tortured too, you noticed his left arm was cybernetic as well as both his legs, what happened to him? You hate to think of who did this, or why they'd do this. -After a few moments of lost thinking and moving your hand around his head, he starts to move, making sleepy mumbles before yawning. Sitting up, fixing his position before getting up to sit on the bed, and as he looks at you with sleepy eyes. "Hey Y/N, are you feeling better?" he asked sleepily with a concerned look on his face. "Yea... thank you.....and....um...sorry - for crying" you say sitting up in the bed. "No no, it's okay, it's good to let things out and not bottle it up." he says moving his gaze down to look down at the ground with sadness in his eyes. "So what happened, after I contacted you for help?" you asked placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Tech pinpointed your location and we rushed in to get you, there were two Supervisor droids in the room with you that we blasted, our scanners picked up another person near you, but they got away through a hidden door, we thought it was more important to save you than get them though." "Well, I appreciate that, but don't worry he's not very important anyway, just some pirate who's base I destroyed a long time ago, seems he still held a grudge after all this time...what about while I was unconscious, you said I was out for weeks?" "Hopefully he doesn't track you down again to finish the job...but next time he shows up you can be sure I'll put a blaster bolt through that piece of rakeweed for what he did to you" Echo says getting visibly upset and clenching his fists in the sheets of the bed. You reach out and place your hand over his clenched one, rubbing it caringly with your thumb, "Echo, it's okay, this isn't my first encounter with torture, believe it or not..." His hand slowly unclenches before repositioning to capture your hand, you notice how much smaller yours was in comparison to his - he lightly squeezes your hand, moving his gaze to look at you, making a small smile creep across your face. "Sorry..." he says moving his gaze back to stare at the floor by his feet - "Uh, to answer your question, you were unconscious for 2 standard weeks, Tech and I used the limited resources we had to keep you stable, luckily the others were able to find some special medical equipment on a planet and after that, your condition finally started to improve. Tech was able to remove the toxic metal from your body so you shouldn't be feeling the effects of that anymore, sadly even with a limited exposure, it caused a lot of damage to the nerves in your body." While he spoke you noticed tears building in his eyes.

"Thank you, you guys didn't even know me but you saved me and took care of me, I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble." you say placing your other hand on his back hoping to make him feel better. "We couldn't just leave you, I'd never forgive myself, even if I don't know you that well, or at all honestly, I just couldn't... - You know there were a few times we almost lost you, but luckily you're stronger than that kriffing metal." he said holding your hand more tightly before moving his other hand to cup the top of yours, now looking into your eyes. "I'm glad you pulled through, and that you're here... w--" he stops short of finishing his sentence as you move toward him lips parting slightly as your eyes move their focused gaze to his lips - as your lips approach his there's a knock and the door slides open, making both of you jump and quickly turn away from each other as Hunter enters. "Knock knock" he says smirking "You're supposed to knock before you enter Hunter" Echo says bluntly shooting a glare at Hunter. "I did knock" "You knocked as you opened the door that doesn't give one much chance to react" "Why would you need to react?" he says trying not to smirk more "Uhh-" Echo gets flustered trying to find words - you interject to save him " - Because there's a girl staying in here and it's nice to allow her to call you in or not" you say trying to sound as sophisticated as possible, though based on Hunter's baffled expression you could have just spit out a bunch of random words. "Right, sorry." he says scratching his head "How's she doing Echo?" Tech says as he enters the room "Do none of you know how to knock?! ...geez... She's doing better, but we'll have to do a physical to check what she can and can't do right now." "That's finally some good news, there was a lot of poison in your body, but the latest scans I ran were clear, so I think you should be improving soon, but it'll take some work." Tech says as he reached a datapad over to you - you took it from him looking over the information displayed on the screen, trying to understand what you were looking at. "Thank you Tech" you said looking back at him with a sad expression. "If you have any questions just let them know" Hunter said picking up on your anxiety and sadness "And don't worry we'll have you back to normal soon, Echo can vouch for that" he says playfully hitting Echos shoulder

"He's right, the guys helped me through a lot, we'll help you through this... I promise" Echo says looking at you with a soft and caring expression, making you smile lightly now trying to hide your sadness. ---------- You failed most of the physical tests they gave you to gauge how much work you needed to do. You couldn't even use utensils to eat because your dominant hand was still so numb and your whole body was still really weak. All you wanted was for your body to cooperate so you could finally eat something, ever since you woke up you were starving, but they wouldn't let you eat until the physical was finished. ---------- -You couldn't even get your hand to hold the spoon, let alone get it to the bowl to scoop some soup, Echo was sitting next to you watching you struggle and get more upset, feeling bad for you he grabbed the spoon and puts his other hand over yours to comfort you. "Here let me get that" he said taking the spoon from you and scooping up some of the soup, lifting the spoon to your mouth. "Uh Echo, it's ok I need to keep trying till I can do it myself" "No you don't, you're just making yourself upset and that's not going to help you, besides you need to eat something to help get back your strength and the soups getting cold." "Fine" you say looking at him shyly before opening your mouth taking the spoon in - you could have sworn you heard Crosshair’s eyes roll as he walked in on the both of you. "Just here for some Caf, don't mind me" he said walking past Echo who was giving him a death stare, causing you to giggle in amusement before taking the next spoon full of soup into your mouth. Crosshair poured himself some Caf and turned to finally leave, "You kids have fun now and don't make a mess" he said smiling to himself as Echo scoffed - Echo continues to raise spoon full after spoon full of soup to your mouth until it's finally all gone. -"I should take you back to your room, you've had a long day and need some rest" he said putting away the dirty dishes before stepping behind you grabbing the handles of the power chair. "Wait, I want to try and walk back" “Y/N you can't, you just woke up from a coma, and during the physical, you couldn't even stand on your own" "Echo...please" you said with a sad expression on your face "Okay, but I'm doing the heavy lifting got it?" "Got it" you say smiling at him He helps lift you out of the power chair, wrapping an arm around your waist and using his other arm to support you, you wrap an arm around his shoulders and neck trying to balance yourself as you try to walk back to your room. He's strong enough to take all your weight, but still lets you try and walk, you're not able too, you're just able to slightly move your legs, almost pretending you could walk as he does all the work for you. -You get to the new room, it's a nice change from the tiny medbay you were in before, though this room is not very big either, there are two sleepers stacked one above the other in the one corner by the door, and on the other side is the refresher blocked off by some walls and a door. - He sets you down on your sleeper making sure not to hit your head on the one above, he moves to undo some locks and folds the top sleeper against the wall, giving you some actual headroom. "Thank you Echo....you were right I couldn't walk, but I appreciate you letting me pretend" you say smiling at him as he kneels down to start on helping you with some basic leg exercises - after finishing the exercises and massaging your legs some to relax them he gets up and brings over a box with your belongings in it. They must have gone back for your stuff you think as you picked through some of your belongings, picking out a change of clothes. You'd basically been wearing the same thing for the past few weeks because they were too afraid to change your outfit while you were unconscious, man you really wanted to use the refresher, but you were still too weak to use it yourself and there was no way you'd ask any of the guys to help you with that, at least not yet. Echo notices you just staring at the clothes in front of you, unaware that your thoughts have wandered off elsewhere. "Do you need help?" he asks "Um....yeah.... would you mind helping me change into some fresh clothes?" "Oh, uh" he mumbles out, looking more flustered by the second "If you don't feel comfortable I can always wait until I can move my arms more" you said trying to calm him down "No, uh..... it's...I just..don't want to make you uncomfortable" "It's okay with me Echo - I trust you" "I promise I won't look" he said with a kind smile. "Well you kinda have to look to be able to put this stuff on and take off my current clothes," you say jokingly, accidentally causing him to become more flustered. "I'll take it as a challenge - uh - to keep my eyes closed." he says trying not to sound nervous. "Ok" you let out a small laugh, earning a smile from Echo. He steps closer to you and moves the pile of clothes you were looking at, putting each piece neatly to the side next to you so he can easily get to them. Looking at you nervously, he moves your arms pulling the sleeves so that your arms are pulled out of them, falling between your chest and the inside of your shirt. - Closing his eyes as he grabs the bottom of your shirt and rolls it up, pulling it over your head and off of you - he reaches over finding the shirt he had just laid out, grabbing it and pulling it over your head, making sure to keep his eyes close the whole time. Opening his eyes he looks at you smiling at him, trying not to laugh, making him smile back shyly before moving your arms to pull them through each sleeve. Looking down at your pants trying to figure out the best way to change them. - He asks you to lean back, you comply leaning back against the wall, closing his eyes again after moving his hands into the proper positions, he undoes your pants, pulling them down and off, he grabs the other pair and slides each leg in, pulling them up to your waist before buttoning them. "See told ya I could do it" he says smugly opening his eyes to look at you "Thank you" you say noticing the tiredness creeping up on you more.

"You should sleep now, I'll be in the other room with the rest of the boys, if you need anything, just buzz me or anyone on the com and I'll be here in flash" he says as he helps you lay down, covering you up with one of your blankets before placing your comlink next to your hand.

He puts away the old clothes and the box of your stuff before heading towards the door. "Echo?" you say as he starts to walk outside the door "Yes Y/N?" he asks, stepping back inside "Can you....um....can you....uh....stay with me?" you ask in a shaky voice, afraid of being alone.

"If it'll help you sleep, yea" he says walking back to your side before sliding down the edge, sitting on the ground leaning his head and back against the side of the frame. It looked uncomfortable, but somehow he looked comfortable. "Thank you...Echo..." you mumble through your sleepiness, you drop your arm down to his shoulder causing him to turn and look up at you, he smiled softly before taking his hand and placing it over yours holding it as you started to fall asleep finally being swallowed up by your tiredness --------------------------------------------------- Everything's dark, you hear a voice talking to some robots, as you start to open your eyes and try to move you notice the chains on your arms and legs, "NO!" you scream how...how can you be back here, were you dreaming, was your mind only comforting you, or were you dreaming now, having a nightmare of what happened. They start to approach you, they're covered in the shadows of the darkness, "STOP, STAY AWAY" you scream trying to break free as tears flow down your face and sweat dripped from your body. "STOP, PLEASE DON'T, PLEASE......ECHO.....HELP ME...HELP ME...SOMEONE HELP!" you yell as the shadowy figure reaches towards you grabbing you -- you open your eyes jolting awake screaming. You hear a sound next to you and use the little strength you have to punch - hitting something. "Hey careful" you hear Echo say as you feel his fingers wrap around your clenched fist that was pushed into the palm of his hand. "Echo....Echo....I'm.....sorry...I thought youu...weerrre -" you start sobbing and shaking. Echo reaches around his arm to help sit you up, moving onto the bed to support you with his side as he carefully pulls your clenched fist open holding your hand in his. You squeeze his hand leaning into him, resting your head in the crook of his neck, trying to breathe through your sobbing. "It's okay, I'm here, they can't hurt you" he says lightly kissing your head making it hard not to fall back asleep. "Echo..." you sniffle "I don't...I don't want to go back..." "Y/N" "I don't want to be alone" "You're not alone, I'll be right here with you" he said leaning both of you back onto the bed holding you in his arms, - you roll slightly, placing your hand on his chest, snuggling up to him, drifting back to sleep as he pulls the blanket over you. |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Learning how to walk again was one of the more difficult challenges of recovery, besides the almost nightly nightmares, luckily Echo was kind enough to always stay with you and be there when you woke, afraid and shaking, holding you until you fell back asleep. You spent weeks trying to just take more than a single step, Echo was more than happy to provide help again, knowing a little about that strange feeling when you can walk again for the first time in a while, catching you any time you fell, and comforting you as you cried out of frustration. -You've forgotten how many times you've tried to just walk, the boys were kind enough to set up some bars for you to hold as you tried to take some steps, your upper body strength was still weak so you couldn't really hold yourself up for very long. As you try to take more than a few steps your arms and legs both gave out, causing you to crash to the ground, despite Echos' best effort to catch you. "Echo I can't... I just can't....it's not working.... my legs...they aren't working...aannd.... I...I..cann't evvenn use myy...strenggthh to holdd mme upp..." you said sobbing harder and harder, unable to speak properly as your throat shook with pain and frustration. Echo pulled you into his lap almost cradling you, he was trying his best to wipe away your stream tears with his hand "Shhh, it's okay - you'll get there, don't be so hard on yourself Y/N - you're strong I know you can do this" he softly whispers as he pulls your body up to rest against his - you bury your head in his chest, just like you did every time you cried. He hugged you tightly as he lightly rocked you, trying to ease your pain. --You forget how long you both stayed like that, eventually getting up to try again, hoping to just get a little further.

"You got this Y/N and I promise I won't let you fall this time" "Promise?" you teased him, steadying yourself on the bars as you focused on him standing at the other end, preparing to move in case you fell again. "Promise, now just take it slow and focus on me" "That isn't the hard part" you said, giggling at your own joke, making him smirk at you and shake his head. You focus on him, slowly taking more and more steps, you're actually starting to get close to him, you don't notice him backing up until there's suddenly no bars between your fingers, startling yourself, you instinctively reach out for him grabbing around his shoulders as he catches you, holding you by the waist and pulling you closer to him to keep you from falling. You feel your face heat up as you look into is eyes. "Told you you could do this" he says smiling at you. Your legs grow weak and shaky not use to having your weight on them, before they can give out Echo scoops you up in his arms and carries you back over to your sleeper, gently putting you down on it. "Thanks" you said looking at him as he stepped back "No problem, I did promise not to let you fall. I'm going to grab some grub for you and me, we've been at this for a few hours and you need something to get your strength back up" he said before walking out the door. You were exhausted, pulling your legs onto the bed as you laid back letting your head hit the pillow. Before Echo had the chance to even get back to the room you had already fallen asleep, too tired to even think about the food he was bringing. "Y/N the boys wanted me to tell you that --" he stops realizing you're asleep. He walks over to the small side table and sets down the bowls of food before walking over to you, tucking you in, leaning down to you he whispered "--they're proud of you.....I'm proud of you, good night, Y/N, I'll be right here", kissing your forehead and brushing your cheek with his hand. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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thewalkingdead-fan101 · 4 years

Text

In this hell Daryl Dixon X Reader part 2/??

Hey guys! Part one received so much more feedback than I was expecting!! Thank you all so much!! :)

And a big thank you to @samnoel3 for giving me one of the ideas for this chapter! Hopefully you all enjoy this part!

Warnings- Blood tests, medical procedures, swearing?

“(Y/n)... (Y/n), wake up.” I felt a hand on my shoulder, making me jump as I open my eyes. “It’s just me, calm down.” Daryl spoke next to me. Turning my head I look at him. “How long have I been asleep for?” “About 45 minutes.” “Damn, I didn’t mean to doze off, sorry.” He just shrugged in response. Returning my head to rest against the window, I watch the trees.

Greens, yellows and browns all slightly blurring together as we trail behind the others along the deserted road, with the occasional walker along the side, stumbling, looking for its next feast.

Turning back towards Daryl, I brung my legs up and rested my knees to my chest.

“Stop ya staring.” “I’m not-“ “Hey everyone, we’re almost there. We have about 10 minutes left on the road.” Rick spoke through the static of the radio.

A comfortable silence fills the truck. The only sound i can hear is the wind from outside of Daryl’s open window, his arm resting on its frame.

“What do you think we’re going to find?” “I don’t know.” “Maybe the CDC is fine, and the scientists are already working on a cure for whatever this is.” “Nah, Probably just a bunch of pricks in white coats.” “Let’s try to be positive about this. They could have food, water and shelter for us, even medicine.” “Don’t get ya hopes high.” I sighed, putting my hands over my face. “I know. It would be too good to be true.”

It didn’t take much longer for us to reach our destination. Everyone pulled up outside of a giant curved building. Getting out of our vehicles, surrounded by an urban battlefield. Dead soldiers were everywhere, some shot in the head, others were half-eaten corpses, the streets were littered by mass death.

Other bodies lined the steps to the CDC. They obviously went hand to hand with the countless walkers filling the street. A massacre on both sides.

I looked around, Carol was holding Sophia close, Lori next to Carl taking in the horrific sight. Jacqui stood, staring in shock, Dale shaking his head in disbelief. Glenn was looking at Rick and Shane, then he looks at T-dog as if to ask “what now?” Carl was watching his father who was taking everything in. I felt Daryl pull me slightly closer.

A gunshot rang out, making the group jump. I turned to the source, looking at Shane who had fired his gun at a walker. We all started to run to the entrance of the CDC as more walkers made their way toward us. Rick started to press buttons to the doors, but it's all dead. As a last resort, he pounds on the door. "There's nobody here." T-dog sighed. I took in the situation that we are now in, the doors are locked, no one is in there, it's going to be dark soon and were surrounded by the dead.

"You led us here! The hell were ya thinking?" Daryl yelled. "He made a call." Lori defended her husband. "He led us to a dead end." Carol said "What are we going to do now?" Dale asked "Dammit!" T-dog sighed. "We should have gone with Morales." Carol said in frustration. "Carol...." Lori sighed. "There is nothing here." Dale sighed. "You're done man, I ain't listening to you!" Daryl scoffed. Rick stood frozen. "Let's not start turning on each other." Shane tried. "This was a mistake." Jacqui stated. "Since that guy showed up it's been one mistake after another." Daryl snapped at Shane. Rick kept banging on the doors. "Man! There is nobody here!" T-dog yelled at rick. Everyone started yelling at Rick, trying to get him away from the doors. “Guys! This isn't going to work!" I yelled at them getting their attention. "We have to go someplace safe!" I said once they were all looking at me. "I agree." Carol said. We started to walk away.

"Did you see that? The camera moved!” Rick stated. He walked up to the camera and started to talk. "If you can hear me...please, help us. We have women and children, no food and no where to go, if you don't let us in, you're killing us... Please." Shane pulled rick back. "Maybe the cameras are still working, but everyone's dead." Shane said. "No, Shane, the cameras here only work if someone is controlling them. Dad taught me this when he took me to work with him before he died." I piped up, looking at the camera. "But they won't open up, it isn't any use." We gave up and started to leave.

As soon as we reached the stairs, we heard the doors open, as we turned around we were met with a bright light.

We all readied ourselves with a weapon, but walked in with caution. "Daryl, you cover the back." Shane ordered "Hello?" One of us called out. "Watch those doors, watch for walkers." Dale said. I smiled as the blast of the cool air conditioning hit me, breathing out a chuckle.

"Hello?" An unfamiliar voice broke out. I seen tense up and he raised his crossbow. Everyone looked toward where he was now pointing the crossbow, holding their guns up.

A man in his mid 40's entered, aiming a gun at us, He had short strawberry blonde hair and green eyes, he was sporting black pants and a grey tee.

"Anybody infected?" "One of our group was..he didn't make it." Rick replied. "Why are you here? What do you want?" The man asked "Well, I for one just want safety!" I shot now slightly exasperated. Lori chuckled. Rick glanced at me..

"A chance. We all want a chance." "Well that's asking an awful lot these days.." The man said "I know." Rick answered. There was a moment of silence, our group was watching him intensely, him watching back. "You all submit to a blood test, that's the price of admission " He told us. "We can do that." Rick said. I let out a shaky breath. "You got stuff to bring in, do it now. Once that door closes it stays closed." He told us sternly. Daryl, Glenn ,Rick and Shane ran outside and got some stuff. Once they returned the man pressed the button.

"Vi, seal the main entrance, kill the power up here." He ordered. The door had sealed up and the power went down. "Rick grimes" Rick had told him "Dr Edwin Jenner." He got us to follow him into an elevator, a huge one at that. "Do doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asked. "Well there were plenty left lying around, so I familiarised myself. Besides, you all look harmless enough." He said. "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you." He smiled at Carl, making him laugh slightly.

Once the elevator stopped, we walked out, into a white bricked hallway. "Are we underground?" Carol asked. "You claustrophobic?" "A little." She answered "Try not to think about it." It was silent for a few minutes until we reached a dark room. "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." Jenner called out. The room was as he described... big. "Welcome to zone five." "Where is everybody? The other doctors? The staff?" Rick asked. "I'm it. it's just me here." "What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?" Lori asked "Vi, say hello to our guests, tell them.... Welcome" Jenner said looking at us all. "Hello, guests. Welcome." A female AI Boomed through the room. "I am all that's left." Jenner said sadly. We were all silent for a moment. "I'm sorry." He said. I stood forward. "Why are you sorry?” I asked. "I know that you guys were expecting more people, follow me." He replied stalking off. We all followed and entered the room he had led us to.

Everyone has had their blood taken, besides myself and Andrea. "Your up." Jenner said looking at me. I nodded and sat down. "I take it you don't like needles?" "They aren’t my favourite thing." I replied in a whisper. "Just close your eyes and relax." Jenner instructed I felt the sting for a short while and got up, moving to sit next to Lori.

"What's the point? If we were infected we'd all be running a fever." Andrea stated. "I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here, let me just at least be thorough." He smiled. "All done." He stated. Andrea got up and almost fell. "Are you alright?" "She hasn't eaten in days.. None of us have." Jacqui answered Jenner. He smiled softly. "Come with me."

We did as instructed and we followed him to a room with a decently big wooden table in the middle surrounded by chairs. "All of you sit." We did as instructed and after about 10 minutes he served plates with cooked vegetables and small steaks. "Here you go." He said after serving all of us. "Thanks." I smiled. Him nodding in response. I sat in between Shane and Jenner. Daryl standing up with Glenn. I was laughing and smiling among everyone else, when Lori agreed to have some wine. "You know in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner." Dale spoke pouring Lori a glass. "And France." He added "Yeah, well when Carl is in Italy or France he can have some then." She said glancing at me smiling then looking to her husband. "What's it gonna hurt? Come on. Come on." Rick laughed. Lori smiled slowly, lifting her hand off of Carl's glass, letting Dale pour some in. "There you are young lad." Dale smiled handing him his cup. We all looked towards Carl, watching as he took his first and only sip. "Eeew!" He exclaimed pushing the glass away. Making us all laugh. "That's my boy. That's my boy." Lori smiled patting his shoulder. "Good choice" I chuckled. "Yuck, that tastes nasty." He said shaking his head. "Stick to soda pop there, bud." Shane said. "Not you Glenn." Daryl spoke up. "What?" "You're drinking little man, I wanna see how red your face can get." Daryl laughed. Making Glenn look away laughing as we all joined in.

"Why aren't you having any?" Jenner whispered in my ear. "I've never been a big drinker." I smiled. "It's also not good for the baby." I whispered into his ear. He looked stunned for a second. "I wasn't sure." "I am." “I take it Daryl is the father?” "Yeah. He is.. I am lucky to have him." "No, He is lucky to have you." I looked at my plate, a small blush appearing. “I have some old medical equipment in storage, I can bring some out tomorrow if you would want me to. Give you a proper more thorough check up.” “That’s really nice, I don’t expect you to-“ “It’s no hassle.” I heard the tinker of a glass, we looked at rick. "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly." Rick announced. "He is more than just our host." T-dog spoke a bit tipsy. "Hear, hear!" Dale spoke. We all raised our glasses to Jenner. "Booyah!" Daryl said raising the bottle he adopted. Rick whispered a thank you. Jenner nodding in response. "Thank you Jenner. For letting us stay here, and for feeding us." I laughed. "It's no problem." He said sipping his wine.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here doc?" Shane asked. "All the- All the other doctors figuring out what happened, where the hell are they?" Shane added. "We're celebrating Shane, we dont need to do this now." Rick spoke "Woah, hang on a second. That's why we're here, right?" Shane asked. "This was your move, supposed to find all the answers. Instead we found him." Shane scoffed. "We found one man. Why?" He asked again. The room went silent. "Jenner you don-" I tried "Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just.... Left. Went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted." Jenner said. "Every last one?" Shane interrupted. "No, Many couldn't face walking out the door. They... Opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time." Jenna finished "You didn't leave. Why?" Andrea asked. "I just kept working. Hoping... To do some good." "Way to kill a good mood Shane." I said venom in my words. "Dude, you are such a buzz-kill, man." Glenn stated. Everyone sat eating in silence. "Everyone, i'll show you to where you all can sleep." Jenner said standing up.

He led us to a hallway. "Most of the facility is powered down, including housing, so you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you'd like them. And there's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video games of anything that draws power. Same applies if you shower, go easy on the hot water." He finished walking away. Glenn looked over to T-dog. "Hot water?" Glenn asked smiling. "Well, that is what the man said." T-dog answered. "I found you a room." Jenner said leading me into a room that had a futon folded out with blankets and pillows. "I hope you will be comfortable." "Jenner as long as I have pillows i'll be fine. And thank you." He nodded his head and walked away. I look over to see Daryl walk over. "What did he want?" He sniggered. "Nothing, he was being friendly, that's all." "A little too friendly." He mumbled. "What was that?" I asked. "I saw ya flirting at dinner." He snapped. I shook my head and scoffed. "You know what, think what you want to. I am having a shower." I said grabbing a towel and pushing past him.  I entered the bathroom and got into the shower. I felt the warm droplets of water run down my body. I closed my eyes and relaxed. After a minute my body tensed up as I felt someone put their arms around my waist from behind. "He was flirting with ya." "Daryl...” He went to say something but I butted in. "You know, you don't have to be jealous of Jenner, I'm having YOUR baby. Not his. I am YOURS. Not his." I said turning around and giving him a small peck. He kissed back. "Here, let me wash your back." He said turning me around and putting soap on my back then rinsing it off. "I'll do yours." I did the same thing. We got out and dried ourselves getting dressed, then exiting the bathroom. “Goodnight everyone." I called out, getting a chorus of responses back. Daryl and I went to our room and shut the door. I laid back on the futon, watching curiously as Daryl locked the door. “What are you doing?” “Making sure we ain’t gonna get interrupted.” He stalked over. “Ohhh, and what is so important that needs no interruptions?” I played along as he sat down. “You know what.” He smirked as he crawled his way over to me.

I woke up the next morning, looking over at the clock on the wall reading 9:00 am, Daryl still sound asleep. I got up and changed into my jeans, pulling on a black singlet top. I quietly put my boots on making sure not to wake Daryl. I unlocked the door and walked out to where we had dinner last night, to see Lori, Carl, Rick, Glenn, Dale and Jacqui were seated. "Just in time to have some amazing powdered eggs, cooked by T-dog." Lori smiled. "Thanks." I said sitting down as he put some on a plate for me. I looked over to Glenn and saw him hanging over his plate, groaning in disgust. "Take it you won't drink again." I chuckled. "Shut up, you're lucky, you didn’t drink." Glenn looked up with a small smile. "I've never been a big drinker.”

"Hey." Shane said walking into the room. Everyone greeted Shane but me. I ate a little bit of food and got up and left before Shane could even talk to me. "Shane. I'll go." I heard Lori say standing up. I heard footsteps running toward me. "Come with me honey." Lori said guiding me to her room. She sat me on the lounge with her. "What was that about?" She asked. "Shane, his behaviour last night... He made Jenner talk about something that had obviously hurt him. Like cant he learn to not be so self centred?" "Honey, He is your brother, he was asking that stuff to protect you and to protect the group. But the way he said it and the way he made it come out was I’ll admit rude." I nodded my head. "How'd you sleep?" Lori asked me smirking. "Yeah, Fine. Why?" I looked at her face, she was trying to keep a straight face. "Oh god!, were we loud?" "No, I walked past and heard it. But I was the only one awake, I checked for you. Just be happy Shane didn't hear, otherwise the door would be broken." She chuckled. "Come on, let's go back, or the others will think something's up." I nodded and started to walk when I started to bolt for the bathroom. I ran in and hovered over the toilet, throwing up everything I've eaten in the past 24 hours. After a few minutes of torture, I got up, flushed the toilet, went to the basin and rinsed my mouth out, wiping my face. "Let me help you." I heard Lori say, helping me get up. I looked at Lori. "Thanks." She nodded.

We walked out slowly to the dining area. "Sit down." "You okay?” Everyone asked. “Im just Peachy." I smiled softly. "What's for breakfast?" Daryl asked walking out. "Have the rest of mine.” I said handing him my plate. "I can't eat it. T-dog it's not the eggs, thank you so much, but the baby just can't stand it." "It's all good." He smiled. I looked at Daryl to see him already half done with the plate. “Good Morning." Jenner said walking into the room grabbing coffee. "Hey doc." “Good morning." I smiled.

"Doc, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing." Dale piped up "But you will anyway." "We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea stated. "Guys. He just woke -" "It's alright. Come on." He said taking his coffee to go. We followed him to the big room 'zone five' as he called it. "Vi, give me a playback of TS19." "Playback of TS19" Vi responded.

The screen turned on, with an X-ray of a head on it. "Very few people got a chance to see this." It focused more on the brain. "Is that a brain?" Carl asked looking at Jenner. "An extraordinary one, Not that it matters in the end." Jenner replied. "Vi, take us in for EIV." "Enhanced internal view" Vi replied. The video moved so that the person was laying down, Then it went into the brain. "What are those lights?" Shane asked looking at the flashing lights moving from the brain stem. "It's a persons life, experiences, memories, it's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique and human." Jenner explained. "You don't make sense ever?" Daryl asked. "Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death." Jenner explained more. "Death? That's what this is? A vigil?" Rick asked. "Yes, Or rather the, Playback of the vigil." Jenner replied. "This person died? Who?" Andrea asked. "Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected, and volunteered to have us... Record the process… Vi, scan forward to the first event." "Scanning to first event." It took us back to where the test subject was laying down, but the stem of the brain all black. "What is that?" Glenn asked. "It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands haemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs, then death." The subject stopped moving and the whole brain was black. "Everything you ever were or ever will be… Gone." Andrea put her head down, I walked up to her and gave her a side hug. "Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked. "Yes." Carol admitted. I lost tears as well as Andrea did, for all of the people we lost. "She lost somebody two days ago, her sister." Lori spoke up. Jenner walked over to us. "I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is... Scan to the second event." "Scanning to second event." "Resurrection times vary wildly. We have reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours… In the case of this patient, it was two hours one minute and seven-seconds." We looked back to the screen. From the core of the brain little red flickers were spread out across the stems of the brain. "It restarts the brain?" Lori asked. "No, just the brain cell." Jenner responded. "Basically it gets them up and moving." Jenner finished. "But they're not alive." Rick said "You tell me." Jenner said. "It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark." Rick answered "Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobes, the human part, that doesn't come back, the 'you' part. It's just a shell, driven by a lifeless instinct." Jenner finished. I looked back up at the screen to see something tear thought the subjects head. "God! What was that?" Carol asked. "He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea asked. "Vi, power down the main screen. And the work stations." Jenner ordered. "Powering down main screen and work stations." "You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked. "It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." Jenner stated. "Or the wrath of god." Jacqui said, tears brimming in her eyes. "There is that." Jenner agreed "Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere" Andrea answered. "There are others right? Other facilities?" "There may be some... People like me." Jenner stated. "How can you not know?" Rick asked "Everything went down. Communications, directives, all of it, I've been in the dark for almost a month." Jenner said calmly. "So it's not just here? There's nothing left anywhere. Nothing, That is what you're really saying, right?" Andrea asked Jenner stayed silent. Andrea scoffed. "Jesus..." Jacqui sighed. "Man, I'm gonna get shit faced drunk again." Daryl sighed "Dr Jenner, I know taxing for you, and I hate to ask one more question, but... That clock. It's counting down, what happens at zero?" Dale asked. We all exchanged looks and then waited for his answer. "The... Basement generators, they run out of fuel." "And then?."Rick asked. Jenner wouldn't respond. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asked. "When power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." We all exchanged looks. Glenn, rick, Shane and T-dog went to find fuel and to check it all out.

Jenner looked over at me, and motioned his head back to follow him. I grabbed Daryls arm and dragged him along. He led us to what looked like an office, with paper strewn across the desk. “What do ya want?” Daryl asked once we entered. “I’m bringing you guys both in for a more thorough check up on your Foetus.” Daryl raised his brow. “That means baby.” Jenner corrected. “I know what it means.” Daryl growled in response. Causing Jenner to raise both hands in Defense. “Daryl. Please.” I looked at him. “Fine.” He shook his head and pouted. Jenner opened the door to a conjoining room, dragging in a bulky monitor and ultrasound system. “It’s a bit old and outdated, but it will still get the job done.” He chuckled as he shut the door once again. “Just sit on the recliner, and recline back, lift your shirt and I bottom your jeans.” Jenner instructed, I sat in the recliner and did as instructed. “Hold on a second!” Daryl tried to cover me. “Daryl, calm down. I only need access to the abdomen. This is professional. I can not do this if you prevent me from doing so.” Jenner responded. Daryl only huffed in response. “I’m sure you know what comes next?” “The gel. I should brace myself? Probably will be cold.” He nodded. Gently he squirted the gel onto my abdomen, then rubbed the wand over it. On the screen we seen a grey area, with a little black area in the centre. “What’s that? Is that the baby?” Daryl asked. “That‘s the gestational sac, and that tiny little bean is the baby. It looks like you’re 5 weeks along, I’m no gynaecologist but that little flicker there is a heartbeat, it’s to early to hear it but you can see it.” I looked up to see Daryl staring at the screen. He was unreadable, as always, but looking at him in this moment, all I can feel is love and adoration. “Everything seems to be fine. And we’re done.” “Thank you so much for this. It means a lot.” “Your welcome.” He nodded, taking the monitor back. I wiped the gel off of my stomach, feeling happier than I probably should be considering what’s going on in the world. “It feels more real now.” I stared as I did my button back up and moved my shirt back down. “Yeah.” Daryl sighed. “I need to speak with the mother to be.” Jenner stated. “I’ll meet ya back at the room okay?” I asked Daryl, in response nodded and left.

“What’s happening Jenner?” “I spoke to your leader last night, Rick?” I nodded. “No matter how you die, you always come back as one of them.” “What?” “Everyone is infected... This pregnancy is dangerous. We can’t be sure that the baby is or isn’t infected.” “Jenner?” “It’s an air-borne virus. We can’t be sure that the infection hasn’t already or won’t infect the baby.” “Whatever it is that you’re insinuating, please-“ “What happens if it dies in your womb and it is infected? It could tear you apart from the inside. What if you die before it’s born? You’d kill it. I can help you get rid of it.” “Look I appreciate everything Jenner. But I’ve got to go.” I replied. “There’s no way that this ends good.” He called out as I left the room. I found an unused area. Sitting down I let out the breath I didn’t even know I was holding. I gave myself 15 minutes to calm down before meeting Daryl back in our room.

I laid on the bed reading a book, with Daryl sitting up drinking. The air conditioning stopped and the lights all turned off. "Daryl?" "Yeah." "What just happened?" I asked putting the book aside, getting up off the bed and going into the hall. I saw Jenner walk down towards my room. Everyone asking questions and following behind him. "What's going on? Why'd it turn off?" Daryl asked hanging out the door, bottle in his hand, Jenner stealing it from him. "Energy Is being prioritised" Jenner said. "Air isn't a priority? And light?" Dale asked. "It isn't up to me." Jenner started. "Zone five is shutting itself Down." Jenner continued. I looked into Daryl's eyes, I know he could see the worry my eyes held. "What the hell does that mean?" Daryl asked. Jenner ignored him. "Hey, man, I'm talking to you! What do you mean Shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?" Daryl asked "You'd be surprised." Jenner said. We looked over the railing.

"Rick!" Lori called. We all followed Jenner down the stairs to where rick and the others were. "Jenner! What is happening?" Rick asked. "The system is dropping down all non-essential uses of power. It is designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. As soon as we approach the half hour mark, right on schedule." Jenner said. It was all silent then Jenner gave daryl back the bottle. "It was the French." Jenner randomly said. "What?" Andrea and I asked. "They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting up the doors and committing suicide in the halls, they stayed in the labs working until the very end, they thought they were close to a solution…” "What happened?" Asked Jacqui. "The same thing that is happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" "Let me tell you." Shane started getting aggravated. "To hell with it Shane, I don't even care! Lori get our things. Everybody, We're getting out of here now!" Rick ordered. An alarm started sounding. "30 minutes til decontamination." Vi said. "Doc, what's going on here dammit?" Shane asked "Everybody! Get your stuff! Let's go now!" Rick yelled "Let's go!" T-dog said. I was with Lori and Carl when we ran to the exit when it slammed down, Carl pulling me back just as it started to. "Did he just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn started to panic. "Carl!" "Mom!" "You son of a bitch!" Daryl yelled running at Jenner. "Shane! Shane!" Rick yelled. “No! Stop! Don't!" Shane yelled at Daryl. I started slowly walking over to where Jenner was, as I heard screaming and yelling. "Jenner, open that door now!" Rick demanded. "There's no point." Jenner replied. "Everything topside is locked down, the emergency exits are sealed." "Well, open the damn things!" Dale yelled "That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed it wouldn't open again you heard me say that. It's better this way." Jenner stated. "What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick asked. "What happens in 28 minutes?" He yelled loudly to Jenner "Do you know what this place is? We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponised small pox! Ebola to wipe out half of the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" Jenner finished screaming. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure and a terrorist attack. For example, HITs are deployed to prevent any organisms getting out." "HITs?" Rick asked. "Vi-" "It's High-impulse thermobaric Fuel-air explosives." I answered. Everyone looked at me. "It consists of a two stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum pressure ignites the oxygen between 5000 and 6000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage is desired." Vi finished. "It sets the air on fire. No pain, and end to sorrow. Grief, Regret, Everything." My head turned and I looked at Daryl. He threw the bottle at the door. "Open this damn door!" I looked to Jenner, then over to Lori who held Carl protectively in her arms, scared. My hands went to my stomach and rested there for a brief moment. I started to think.

I'll never get to see my baby, never get to hold it. Watch it grow up or anything. After everything he said to me, it’s all put in perspective. When he said he could help get rid of it this is what he meant?

I walked over to Jenner. "Jenner, please open the door. Do it for me! I want my baby to live. Sophia and Carl are too young to die!" He just ignored me. My hands collided with his chest, pushing him back, causing Shane to grab me and move me away. "Jenner don't ignore me! Test subject 19 was your wife!” I yelled from Shane’s arms. Causing everyone to shut up for a moment. “Now you're going to take away mothers as well as fathers! Daughters as well as sons! Sisters as well as brothers and wives as well as husbands! You're taking our choice away! Don't do this! It's not what you want! It's not what she would want!" I continued.

Shane gave me to dale, and he held onto me. He grabbed an axe as did, Daryl and started to hit the door. "You should have left it all alone, it would have been so much easier." Jenner said. "Easier for who?” "All of you, you know what's out there, a short brutal life, and an agonising death. Your sister, What was her name?" "Amy" "Amy, You know what this does, you've seen it. Is that really what you want for your wife and son?" Jenner asked Rick. "I don't want this!" Rick answered. "I can't make a dent." "Those doors were designed to withstand a rocket launcher." "Your head ain't!" Daryl stated going for him. I stood in front as the guys pushed him away. "Daryl!" "Daryl!" "Just back up!" "Daryl, he isn't worth it. " I told him. "You do want this…” Jenner said to rick. “You said you knew it was just a matter of time before everyone you loved was dead." He finished. "You really said that? After your big talk?" Shane asked. "I had to keep hope alive didn't i?" Rick answered. “There is no hope. There never was." "There's always hope, maybe not you but somebody, somewhere." "What part of everything's gone don't you understand?" Andrea asked. "Andrea…” "Listen to your friend she gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event." "Jenner! Listen to me! You don't have to do this." I said "This isn't right! You can't just keep us here!" Carol cried. "One tiny moment, a millisecond, no pain." "My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this!" "Wouldn't it be kinder? More compassionate to hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" I heard a gun click. My attention went to Shane, holding his rifle. "Shane no!" Rick pushed him away. "Out of my way Rick!" Shane yelled "Now you open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off! You hear me?" Shane yelled. "Brother, you do this, we'll never get out of here."Rick said "Shane! You listen to him!" Lori yelled. "If he dies, we all die!" Rick yelled as Shane screamed. Shane moved the gun and shot at the computers. "Shane!." Rick yelled. He wouldn't listen so Rick grabbed the gun and pinned him to the ground. "Are you done now? Are you done?" Rick asked. "Yeah, I guess we all are." Shane replied. It was silent for a few seconds

"I think you're lying..." Rick started. “What? " Jenner asked. "You're lying. About having no hope. If that were true you would have bolted with the rest taking the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?" "It doesn't matter." "It does matter, it always matters. You stayed when the others ran. Why?" "Not because I wanted to. I made a promise." "Yeah, to your wife." "I'm surprised that (Y/n) guessed it. How'd you know?" "The way you looked at the footage. The ring on your finger and the picture in the office and in the room you gave Daryl and I. I'm not stupid, I connected the dots." I replied. "She begged me to keep going as long as I could, how could I say no? She was dying. It should have been me on that table. It wouldn't have mattered. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place, I just worked here. In our ripe old she was an Einstein, Me? I’m just Edwin Jenner. She could have done something about this, Not me." Jenner said “Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's... That's all that we want a choice, a chance." Rick said. "Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori piped in Jenner looked at me. Then where my hands were gently against my abdomen. "Please Jenner." I said for everyone to hear. " I told you topside is locked down. I can't open those." Jenner said staring at us all. Happy tears started to form in my eyes. The door opened. And I walked to Jenner and kissed his cheek. "Thank you, goodbye." I turned and started to walk away. "You're one of the reasons I opened the door you know… You are exactly like my wife was." He smiled gently.

"Babe! Let's go!" Daryl yelled. I ran toward the exit and daryl grabbed my hand. "Come on! Move it! Move it!" Everyone yelled. Rick and Jenner talked for a minutes and them Rick ran toward us. "Come on! Four minutes left!" Glenn yelled. "Let's go Jacqui! " T-dog yelled "I'm staying! I'm staying sweetie." Jacqui said making T-dog to let go. "What? No!" I cried. "But that's insane!" T-dog said. "No! It's completely sane for the first time in a long time! I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy!" She cried. We all looked at her. "There's no time to argue, and no point. Not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out!" She yelled. "Hey dog, come on, man. Come on! Let's go, come on!" Shane said grabbing him. "I'm staying too." I heard Andrea. "Andrea, no!" We looked at dale and he looked at us. "Just go! Go!" "Dale!" "Go!" He yelled again. "Come on!" Rick yelled as we all ran. We ran up the flights of stairs quick. "Get the doors open! Come on!" Shane yelled. "It doesn't work!" Glenn yelled. "Wait a minute! Try it!" T-dog said after pressing some buttons. "Daryl!" Shane yelled grabbing an axe and hitting the windows. Daryl next to him. "Stay close to us sweetie." Carol said to Sophia. "Dog forget it!" Shane yelled at t-dog T-dog screamed hitting the window with a chair. "Dog! Get down! Down!" Shane yelled at everyone pumping shots from the python at the window. "Jesus!" Shane exclaimed. "The glass won't break?" Sophia asked. "Rick I have something that might help!" Carol said going through her bag. "Carol, I don't think a nail file will do it." "Shane! Shut up!” I snapped "Look your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket." She said handing him a grenade. He took it. He pulled the pin and dropped it next to the window. "Oh sh..." Rick yelled running toward us. The grenade went off and the window shattered.

We all ran out, the guys shooting the walkers that were stumbling towards us. We all made it to the vehicles, getting into them. I saw Andrea and dale duck behind a post. "Get down!" Daryl yelled. We both Ducked down in the truck, Daryl protecting my body with his. There was a shake, and I could hear the sound of glass breaking, I could feel the heat. “It’s clear.” Daryl sighed after slowly lifting himself off of my body. Looking up I see what was the CDC, up in flames, Andrea and dale got into the RV. Everyone in-front started to drive once again. Daryl followed carols Cherokee, Shane behind us.

Once we were on the road I felt Daryl's hand on my thigh. "What did that guy say to ya in there after he opened the door?" "All he said to me was I reminded him of his wife." Daryl scoffed, removing his hand. The rest of the drive was quiet. The RV pulled over, at a station just out of town.

"Okay guys we need to ditch some vehicles and siphon gas out of the ones we're abandoning." Rick said. We all nodded and Daryl got Merle’s motorcycle off of the back of the truck, getting the fuel out of the truck that I have grown fond of. T-dog ditched his van, Shane left his jeep. “(Y/n), I don't think that the baby will like the motorcycle... So you're going in the RV with Dale, Glenn, Shane, T-dog and Andrea. Daryl you're covered. Carol, Lori and the kids with me in the Cherokee. Is there a Problem?" Rick asked. "Not at all.” I looked at Daryl, I walked over and kissed him. "Please, be safe." "You know I don't need to be." I rolled my eyes. "Daryl, you take the lead." I got into the RV and laid in one of the beds in the back, picking up the book from before and continued reading, Feeling the RV pull out and back onto the road. That’s when we left Atalanta... This time, for good. Series Masterlist Next Part

#daryl x reader #daryl x you #daryl dixon #daryl fanfiction #the walking dead #twd

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