#tyler rake fiction
Text
Lost and Found - Chapter 30
Fandom: Extraction
Pairing: Tyler Rake and Esme Drummond (OFC. You do not have to read the original series to understand this fic)
Warnings: slight profanity
It's a lot of dialogue. Sorry :(
Tagging: @tragiclyhip @themaradwrites @secretaryunpaid @youflickedtooharddamnit @munstysmind @karimac @ninjasawakenedmystar @thebejeweledwatercat @alisbackalleybbq @asirensrage @residentdormouse @fanficanatic-tw @kmc1989 @arrthurpendragon @ocappreciationtag @occommunity
Link to Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43179357/chapters/139296199
My tag list is OPEN. Just let me know if you’d lke to be added :D
****
“I figure in a couple of days we’ll go into town. Get you and Millie all the things you still need.”
His voice is raw and husky; laced with both sleep and contentment as it rumbles deep within his chest. Scarred and misshapen knuckles repeatedly skim the length of her spine; their naked bodies pressed tightly together, caught in a mess of rumpled sheets and tangled limbs. Spent and sated; droplets of perspiration littering their skin and gathering at their temples and the napes of their necks. Their lovemaking had been uncharacteristically slow and tender; a combination of reconnecting and worshipping one another’s bodies and his desire to not cause any more discomfort as she continues her recovery.
“It’s a pretty lengthy list.” Her head rests on his chest; eyes closed as the fingers of one hand lazily trace the tattoo that graces his ribs. “We didn’t exactly come with much. Lots of things were left behind. At Alessio’s.”
“Doesn’t matter how much there is. I don’t care how many lists there are. Whatever you guys need…fuck, whatever you guys WANT…we get. Simple as that.”
“You’re going to create a hell of a predicament for yourself,” she chides and repeatedly brushes the tip of her nose along his collarbone. “People are going to think you hooked up with a gold digger.”
“Yeah, right,” Tyler chuckles, palm briefly lingering at the small of her back, calloused fingertips drifting over the curve of each buttock. “Because there’s just so much gold to dig for.”
“You know what people are like. They talk. It’s what they do.”
“I don’t give a shit. You should know that by now. Besides, you stuck around when I didn’t even have anything to offer you. Just tons of baggage and a shack in the outback. I think it’s safe to say you’re not with me for money.”
“Of course, I’m not with you for money.” She presses a series of kisses along his jaw. “I’m with you for your body.”
“As ancient and crumbling as it is?”
“It’s beautiful.” Lightly scraping the fingernails on one hand down his chest, she speaks between kisses and gentle nibbles on the side of his neck. “So…so…so beautiful.”
“And fat.”
She laughs against his Adam’s apple. “I did not call you fat. I called you thick. And I said it with love and admiration. And insane amounts of animalistic lust.”
His fingertips glide across her shoulders, then down the backs of her arms.“My favourite kind.”
“Mine too.” She rests her head in the nook between neck and shoulder, nose pressed against the long-healed bullet wound in the side of his throat. Her eyes closed as she reaches up to comb a hand through his longer strands of hair; allowing them to slip between her fingers before repeatedly curling and twisting sections around her index and middle fingers.
“Whatever you and Millie need, we’ll get it taken care of. Doesn’t matter how long the list is. Gotta take care of my girls, ya?”
“I like how that sounds. ‘Your girls’. There’s something so sweet about it. So…romantic. In a Tyler sort of way.”
“I can’t believe you’d call me romantic and sweet in the same sentence. What did I ever do to deserve that?”
“Listen, I know you have a reputation to uphold, but you DO have your moments. Where you’re just the softest, loveliest, cutest man on earth. You bring your own brand of romance to the table. And it’s perfect. For me, anyway.”
“Ever thought maybe you’re the one that brings all that out? That I’m not like that with everyone?”
“I already know you’re not. In the same way that I know how lucky I am. I get ALL of you. The REAL you. You’ve never hidden that from me. Not even in Dhaka.”
“I’ve never felt a reason to hide anything. Even back then. Something told me you were good people. That I could trust you. And believe me, I hadn’t felt that way about anyone in a long time. If I ever even did.”
“You trust Nik. And Yaz.”
“That’s different. That’s pretty much all business. Related to the job. I know that they always have my back. That they’ll step up if things go bad.”
“You trust them with me, don’t you? And Millie?”
“Not in the way I trust myself with the two of you.”
“That’s because you know what you’re capable of. You don’t second guess your skills or the things you can do. And you’ve always been protective of me. EXTREMELY protective. OVERLY, at times. Now add Millie to the mix…”
“I know that no one can take care of things the way I can; that the two of you are safest with me. Because I won’t fuck up. I won’t let that happen. Someone even thinks of coming near you and Millie, it’ll be the last thing they do, believe me.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. That everything just stays calm and peaceful. That we can just let Nik and her people handle things in New York while we do our own thing here. I just want to concentrate on us. And Millie. On being a family.”
“We’ll just take it one day at a time. Concentrate on getting past what happened.”
“Do you mean in New York City? Or me taking off and never telling you about Millie?”
“Look at me…” Pushing a hand into her hair, he gently tugs on the dark tresses; encouraging her to lift her head from his chest. “...I forgive you. I know you’re having a hard time accepting that, but I do. Yeah, sometimes I’m still pissed and sometimes it hurts like hell. But I DO forgive you.”
“Just like that? Just so easily?”
“I love you. I never STOPPED loving you. And you had your reasons; for making the decisions that you did. I don’t pretend to completely understand them. Not right now, anyway. But one day I will, I’m sure.”
“I really did do it to protect you. I didn’t want anything happening to you., Tyler. And I never would have forgiven myself; if I permanently lost you because of a mistake I made. It just sucks that in the end, all I did was hurt you.”
“That’s not entirely true though, is it? I mean, I AM alive. Nothing happened to me. And things would have gone really bad if the High Table had shown up while I was there. So you DID do the right thing. If you hadn’t left, we wouldn’t be here right now. And Millie wouldn’t even exist. They wouldn’t have cared. If you were pregnant. It wouldn’t have stopped them from killing you.”
“I don’t even like thinking about that. Her NOT being here. She’s everything I ever wanted. And everything I don’t deserve.”
“There you go selling yourself short again. You deserve so much, Esme. You’re not the monster you think you are. Far from it.”
“Boy, deja vu. I seem to remember saying those EXACT same words. More than once.”
“And I learned, didn’t I? It finally got through to me.”
“You’re a lot better, that’s for sure. You’re not filled with as much self-hatred as you used to be. You know what that means, don’t you?”
“What?”
“You really can teach an old dog new tricks.”
Tyler smirks. “You are such a bitch.”
Esme laughs when he aggressively slaps and pinches her ass, then gives a content sigh when he kisses her; long and languid and deep, naked limbs sliding along one another and against the cool, wrinkled sheets. Her breath soft against his skin when she once more rests her head on the centre of his chest; her fingers drawing continuous circles around his navel while his repeatedly comb through her hair.
*****
He finds himself teetering on the edge of sleep when he feels her move against him; placing a forearm across his torso, her chin resting upon it as she peers up at him.
Pressing a kiss to her nose, his hand slides to the nape of her neck. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“How have things been? With you?”
“You mean in general, or…?”
“In the last two, three years. That’s when you started scaling back on things, right? Trying your hand at a more normal life.”
“Nothing’s been normal about my life. Not for a long time. And especially not since you left.”
“I mean stuff like firefighting. And starting your business. How HAVE things been?”
“Guess I overestimated your spying abilities,” he teases and skims his knuckles across her cheek. “I thought you knew everything there was to know.”
“My spying stopped at your personal life. I knew the basics; the firefighting and how you started your own business. To be honest, I think I was scared to venture past those things.”
Cradling her cheek in his palm, he brushes the pad of his thumb over her lips. “Scared? Of what?”
“Finding out you were with someone. I know that sounds pretty stupid, considering I’m the one who fucked everything up. You had every right to go on with your life; to meet someone and fall in love and everything else that comes after that.”
“I was already in love. With YOU. And that wasn’t going to change.”
“Were you with other people? Other than Delaney.”
“Maybe in the biblical sense.”
“THAT I expected. For you to go back to sowing your wild oats all over the place.”
“Wasn’t all over the place. Just the vast majority of the northern territory. Well, the western part of it, anyway.”
“Oh, lovely. Does this mean I’m going to go to the grocery store and meet up with all kinds of women you’ve bumped uglies with?”
“I never pissed in my own front yard. It would have been too fucking awkward; running into a bunch of one-night stands.”
“I am marrying a whore,” she laughs, and presses a chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth. Briefly capturing his bottom lip between teeth when she pulls away.
“I promise you won’t run into any of my conquests while picking Millie up at school or grabbing something at Maccas.”
“Good. Because the last thing I want is to be sharing stories about your dick and its abilities while I’m in line at the store, waiting to buy shit tickets. “
He arches a quizzical brow. “Shit tickets?”
“Toilet paper.”
“And you say us Aussies have weird slang.”
“You know how long it took me to get used to the words you’d use in conversation? Or even your accent for that matter? It wasn’t that easy; trying to decipher exactly WHAT you were saying half the time. I remember how strong it got; when we were living in The Kimberley. I guess it was from being home so much.”
“Think it was easy getting used to you? You’ve got a pretty wicked accent yourself.”
“I most certainly do not.”
“You do.”
“I’m from Colorado. People from Colorado do NOT have accents.”
Raising his head from his pillow, he presses a kiss to her brow. “Trust me, babe. You do.”
“So other than Delaney…” A fingertip drifts over the scar that runs over the bridge of his nose. “...it was just one-night stands? No relationships?”
“No relationships.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want to be in one.”
“Didn’t want to be in one or couldn’t find anyone worthy enough to be in one with?”
“A mix of both, maybe. I didn’t want anyone else, Esme. Not in that way. A serious way. I wanted YOU. And if it meant I waited forever or you never found your back…”
“You would have found someone eventually. Someone that you’d fall madly in love with. Marry, have a family…”
“No. I wouldn’t have. Because that is everything I wanted with YOU. Not anyone else.”
“You don’t think you could have learned to love her? Delaney? That you could have moved on and…”
“How could I move on when I was still in love with you? When I always would be in love with you. And why are we even having this conversation? This is supposed to be the start. Of everything. Of US. And talking about this…”
“I’m just curious. Trying to fill in the gaps, I guess. Because I love you and I want to know what I missed. Even if it makes me uncomfortable.”
“You didn’t miss much, believe me.”
“Do you like it? Firefighting?”
“It’s a job. The pay’s decent. Got a little bit of edge. Keeps me busy, at least.”
“You’ve never been one to sit still for very long. Not that surprising you’d thrive at something that keeps you on your toes all the time.”
“I don’t know how much it keeps me on my toes. Not the busiest area. We don’t get a lot of action. I do get a lot of cats out of trees, though.” He gives a playful wink. “And ladies love a guy in uniform, so…”
“I’ve yet to see you in uniform, but I bet you’re hot as fuck. Especially in your turn-out gear.”
“I didn’t think you’d be into that kind of thing. Seeing as your brother is a firefighter.”
“Believe me, Tae. Nothing about you could ever remind me of my brother.”
His eyes close as her fingertips explore the scar on the left side of his forehead and the second one lower on his cheekbone. It’s a form of intimacy as its purest and most innocent of roots; the soft and tender touch of a lover who adores and worships you. Who knows every inch of your body; every blemish, every imperfection. And it’s a closeness…a level of trust and vulnerability…that he’s never experienced with anyone but her.
“What about the business? I assume that’s doing pretty good.”
“Better than I ever thought it would. Got a lot of regular clients, and more and more are coming aboard all the time.”
“Do you have people that work for you?”
“I have a few full-time guys. That deal with the heavy-duty stuff; concentrate on the real manual labour. And a handful of students who help out on weekends and during school breaks. They do small repairs, landscaping stuff, things like that.”
“Who’s in charge while you’re on your little sabbatical?”
“Koen’s my right-hand man. The guy that I trust with everything. Things are being taken care of. I’m not worried about it.”
“I knew you’d find something you’d be amazing at. You always liked working with your hands; doing your own repairs on your truck, putting up the walls and installing the new windows in that little shack of yours.”
“Of OURS.”
“Millie’s really going to get on you, you know. About that treehouse. And she’s definitely going to want to be your little helper. She loves to create. Build things. She’s got a real talent for things like that.”
“I’ll have to get her own stuff. Some tools and a toolbelt, little hardhat, some steel-toed boots.”
“She’ll love that. And probably drive us completely nuts trying to fix everything around here.”
“I’ll start her out slow. Small projects. Birdhouses, flower boxes, some planters for the garden. I promise I’ll keep her away from the power tools.”
“You’re going to have to really watch out for her. Because that child? YOUR child? Isn’t just headstrong, she is completely fearless. I wonder where she gets THAT from?”
“Her mother.”
“Hardly.”
“Well, it’s not from me, that’s for sure. ‘Cause there’s plenty of things I’m afraid of. And they all seem to involve you.”
Sighing, she presses a series of soft kisses along the scar that mars his left shoulder. “I know it did a real number on you. The accident. Seeing me like that. It’s definitely bothering you way more than you’re letting on.”
“I’m not shy. I admit it fucked me right up. All the things I’ve been through? All the people I’ve gone up against? I’ve never…EVER…been that scared. Seeing you like that? Not knowing if you were alive or dead? And if you were alive, was someone going to show up to finish things off? That was…rough.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m really proud of you. For how you handled things. Not just with getting me out of there and making sure I survived, but everything AFTER that. How you just took control. Stepped up. You were banged up and exhausted and hurting and you did what you wanted to do. For Millie. Just focused on her. Took care of her.”
“Why wouldn’t I have done all that? She’s my baby, too. My little girl.”
“It was all still so fresh. So new. You’d barely had a chance to catch your breath. Coming face to face with me, finding out you were a dad again. You had your entire world turned upside down. You…”
“No. I didn’t. I got my entire world BACK.”
His honesty is raw. Real. Powerful. Succeeding in both taking her breath away and bringing tears to her eyes.
*****
“So is this where I get to ask questions now?” His fingers move in slow, methodical circles on the small of her back. “When it comes to what you’ve been doing the last five years?”
“What more is there to know? Didn’t we cover all the bases?”
“Not quite.”
“There’s not much more to tell. Not anything of interest, anyway.”
“You didn’t work or anything? What did you do with your spare time?”
“I picked up jobs here and there. For Nik. Things I could just do from home. Background checks, basic research and tracking people down. Nothing that would draw a lot of attention. So I could stay under the radar. Or try to, at least.”
“Well, you did a pretty good job hiding from me, that’s for sure.”
“We’ve talked about this. I wasn’t hiding from you. Not intentionally, anyway. It was all so complicated. I had to protect Millie. Both of her parents were still in the life. In some way. And we’d both burned a lot of bridges and made a lot of enemies. I couldn’t take the chance that someone would come after her. I just couldn’t.”
“There were other reasons, too. You know there were.”
“Selfish ones. Staying away had nothing to do with you and EVERYTHING to do with me. You know that. We’ve been through it how many times now? It was never about you, Tyler. Not in the way you think it was. At first, it was about protecting you. Then Millie. And finally, it became about myself. Because…to make a long story short… I was a stupid, insecure little girl.”
“You’re not any of those things. It was just a messy situation. All around.” Tangling his fingers in her hair, he pulls her towards him, lips meeting the bridge of her nose. “What else did you do? Other than helping out Nik?”
“Just took care of Millie, mostly. Devoted myself to being a mom. I joined a couple of those mom and baby groups; just to get out of the house and socialize and try and make friends. When she was a few months old, I even signed us up for yoga classes and water aerobics. Millie always loved the water. She was always so comfortable in it. Confident, even.”
“She’s gonna love it here, then. Trips to the beach, being able to swim in the ocean.”
“Except for the fact the thought of an encounter with a shark will be exciting to her. She’ll probably pray for it to happen. I am telling you, that girl is fearless. She’s so much like you, Tyler. More than just the physical. There’s so much of you in her. And it was kinda bittersweet, you know? Seeing you every time I looked at her but knowing I couldn’t actually be with you.”
“I mean, you could have been. But…”
“But I was a stupid little bitch. Like I said. That’s something that will eat at me for the rest of my life, believe me.”
“I don’t want it to. And I’m sorry I bring it up so much. Make you talk about it. Explain yourself. That’s not fair.”
“If anyone has the right to bring it up, it’s you.”
“I don’t want to be that kind of person. I want to be better than that. For you. And Millie.”
“I remember the first time you told me that. How I made you want to be a better man.”
“It’s true. You do.”
“I never considered you a bad man in the first place. A good man who made bad decisions, yes. But bad to your very core? Not even close.”
“You always have been full of shit,” He teases, and curls an arm around her neck, drawing her into a long, deep kiss. His lips against her temple when she settles her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed as his fingertips repeatedly graze up and down her bicep. “Tell me about the guy.”
Her hand slips lazily across his collarbone, down his chest, briefly settling on his stomach before travelling back up again. Finally coming to rest on the side of his neck, nails lightly and repeatedly scratching against the skin. “What guy?”
“The one you dated. In New York. The cop. Or detective. Or whatever the hell he was.”
Esme raises her head from his shoulder, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. “How did you know about him?”
“A little birdie told me.”
“A little birdie, huh? What did you bribe her with? Two scoops of mint chocolate chip instead of one? Unlimited Bluey viewing on your cell phone?”
“I promised her a Porsche when she turned sixteen.”
“I wouldn’t put anything past you. You’re going to spoil her rotten.”
“I didn’t have to promise her anything. She just offered the information.”
“Out of nowhere? She just suddenly started talking about my personal life?”
“I MAY have asked her about it.”
“Mmmhmmm.”
“Okay, so I did. I DID ask her. If you’d ever had a boyfriend. I was curious. I wanted to know.”
“Curious, huh?”
“And a bit jealous.”
“Just a bit?”
“A lot.”
“Why are you like this? When it comes to me and other men?”
“Like what? What am I like?”
“Self-conscious. You’ve always been. Even at the very beginning of things. And believe me…” Slipping out of bed, she stretches languorously before padding towards the dresser; a pair of plaid pyjama bottoms and tank top folded neatly on top. “...you do not come across as someone who would be self-conscious.”
“Did I say you could get out of bed? That you could put clothes on? There’s a strict ‘no clothes allowed’ rule in this room. Once that door closes…”
“I know what Millie’s like; if she wakes up in the middle of the night. She’ll come looking for me. And the last thing we need is her seeing both of us in all our naked glory.” Climbing into her pyjamas, she tosses his discarded sweats in his direction. “And don’t do that. Deflect. Answer my question.”
“I’m old.” He grimaces as he swings his legs over the side of the bed, moving slowly as he puts one leg into the pants, followed by the other. Knees cracking when he stands to pull them up. “ My brain is mush. I already forgot what the question was.”
“I asked why you are the way you are. When it comes to me and other men. Why do you always get so bent out of shape about it?”
“I don’t get bent out of shape.”
“You do.” Removing her hair out of the back of her tank top, she moves back to bed; fluffing and moulding her pillows and arranging them to her specification. “And I don’t get it. There’s nothing for you to get prickly about.”
“Like you don’t get prickly about my ex-wife. Or Delaney.”
“Being curious is not the same as being prickly. What is your hang-up? When it comes to me and other people?” She gives a content sigh when she slips back into bed, settling her head on a pillow before rolling onto her side to face him. “It’s not like any of them are still in the picture. And even if they were, they still wouldn’t be a threat to you.”
“I don’t see them as a threat. I know what I bring to the table. It’s not about feeling threatened.”
“What’s it about then?”
“I just don’t like it. You being with other guys.”
“I mean, I was married, remember? I’ve had boyfriends. And girlfriends, for that matter.”
“Since you left?”
“I’m talking about throughout my entire life. And did you honestly think I wouldn’t date? Or at least try to? That I would have just spent the last five years completely alone?”
“You know how you said you were okay with me going on with my life? Meeting someone else? Falling in love, getting married, all that shit?”
Esme nods.
“I’m not that gracious. Not by a long shot. I didn’t want you with anyone else.”
“For the rest of my life?”
“Well...yeah.”
“You’re being ridiculous.” She reaches for him. “Come to bed.”
“So was this guy the real deal? Someone you could have moved on with? Gotten your ‘always and forever, happily ever after’ with? Totally forget about me and…”
“Tyler, I was never going to forget about you. I carried your child inside of me. Gave birth to her. She looks just like you. Kinda hard to forget you when I’m looking at your clone every damn day. Add the fact that I was still in love with you and always would be into the mix…”
“Would you have moved on with him? Gotten married, had more kids? All of that?”
“All of that was what I wanted with you. ONLY you. So no, none of that would have ever happened. I didn’t want that life with anyone else. Just you. And if that meant I never got any of that, oh well. Now…” She pats the empty spot beside her. “...come to bed. Please? I’ll answer whatever questions you have., but just come to bed. Because you standing there like that? It’s making me incredibly anxious.”
He relents. Laying on his side with her back pressed against his front and forearm draped across her collarbone. And he presses a kiss to the back of her head before resting his cheek against hers. “What was his name?”
“Don. His name was Don. And he was a detective. Homicide.”
“How the hell did you ever meet him?”
“I worked a small job for Nik. Nothing serious. I had to find my way into the main evidence locker at One Police Plaza and steal some papers related to an old case.”
“What the fuck….?”
“Someone hired Nik because an old money laundering and embezzlement case they were involved in was going to be reopened. And if that happened, it was going to cause a big old shitstorm; he had some big-name contacts and clients of his own that would be exposed. Some really well-known people, too. Politicians, lawyers, judges. And if all that got out…”
“Heads would roll. Most likely literally.”
“Exactly. So Nik and Yaz created an entire persona for me. I had the credentials; photo identification, passport, fake driver’s licence.”
“Who were you supposed to be?”
“An agent with Homeland Security.”
“Jesus Christ. And you don’t consider THAT serious?”
“You know, for such a huge police department with apparently the best security in the country, they were sure easy to fool. It was like taking candy from a baby. I was in and out of there in ten minutes. Not even.”
“I don’t know whether to be impressed or pissed off. That you even put yourself in a situation like that. Especially with Millie in the picture. If you’d gotten caught…”
“But I didn’t. Well, not until about six months later. But that comes further in the story.”
“So the cop…”
“We met in the elevator. I was running to catch it and he held the door open for me.”
Tyler scoffs. “What a gentleman.”
She scowls over her shoulder. “I thought you promised you wouldn’t get prickly.”
“I’m not getting prickly. I just…”
“YOU asked,” she reminds him. “You wanted to know these things, right? You have questions. I’m just answering them. Do you REALLY want to hear this stuff? Or do you just want to be angry about something?”
“I’m not prickly. Or angry. I’m jealous.”
“Of what?”
“Of anyone that even looks at you the wrong way.”
“Oh for God’s sake…”
“I was never like this before. I never used to give a shit about this kind of thing. I didn’t care how many people my ex dated or fucked before me. Because I was always so far up my own ass that I knew I was better than anyone that came before me. Sometimes I miss that guy.”
“The guy you were before me.”
“I was a drunk and a drug addict before you. So, no.”
“You weren’t ALWAYS that way. You didn’t always have those issues.”
“But I was a prick in other ways.”
“I liked the guy you were when we met. Yeah, you were messy and you had your issues, but so did I. I wasn’t a picnic, either. We were both fucked up. But it didn’t stop me from falling in love with you. And staying that way.”
“And now?”
“Now I like you even more. I’m glad you’re not totally up your own ass, as you put it. I like that you’re not afraid to talk about the hard things. That you’re able to admit you’re self-conscious or…”
“I never admitted to that.”
“Or you’re feeling spiteful or hateful or jealous. I mean, as weird as it sounds, everyone should want their man to be that way. Just completely honest. Because it doesn’t do anyone a lick of good if they keep that all bottled up.”
“So what you’re saying is that it’s okay to be a prickly asshole.”
“Don’t push your luck, Tyler.”
Grinning, he =presses a kiss to her temple. “So, this guy…”
“What more is there to know? You asked how I met him. I told you. What more do you need?”
“You just chatted in an elevator and hooked up with him, or…?”
“He asked me out for an Irish coffee. I said yes. It was as simple as that.”
“Irish coffee, huh? So that’s what the kids are calling it these days.”
“We went out. One date turned into two, two turned into three. Three turned into a relationship.”
“A serious one, or…”
“I mean, we were exclusive. We didn’t date other people. We just…I don’t know…we just did our thing.”
“Did you do HIM?”
“Tyler…”
“I want to know, okay? I NEED to know.”
“Why?”
“Because I do.”
Sighing, she presses a kiss to his forearm, then rolls over to face him. “That’s not an acceptable answer for anyone over seven.”
“Did you? I mean, I think I already know the answer, but…”
“I didn’t sleep with him. And believe me, it wasn’t for lack of opportunity. I won’t lie to you; we did other things and I enjoyed them. I enjoyed them a lot, actually. It was nice; to feel beautiful and wanted and to have someone completely and utterly devoted to you.”
“I would have given you all that. I DID give you all that.”
“And I WANTED it to be you. More than I ever wanted anything in my entire life. But it wasn’t a good time. To just show up on your doorstep. It was all so complicated. Confusing. And I needed to protect Millie. We’ve both burned a lot of bridges, Tyler. Crossed a lot of really bad people. I couldn’t put her at risk. I just couldn’t.”
“But you can now?”
“So much has changed. We’re both walking away. From this life. And I know all of this probably doesn’t make much sense to you. But it makes sense to me.”
“And you couldn’t seal the deal with this guy because…”
“Because it wasn’t fair. To him. To let things get THAT serious. He was a good man and he was great to me and Millie. But I couldn’t give him THAT. That part of me. I just couldn’t. And he didn’t realize it and I never told him about you, but It was always a competition. Between you and him. Everything he did, everything he said. All I would think about is how YOU would handle things. The things YOU would say. And I tried; I really did. But he deserved better than that; a woman who thought of someone else every time he touched or kissed her. That wasn’t fair to him. He wasn’t a bad person. Far from it.”
“I kind of feel bad now. For handling the five years like I did. Me and my wandering dick.”
“Why would you feel bad? Those were my issues. Not yours. You had every right to go on; to deal with things however way you wanted to. You were the one that got hurt.”
“Sometimes I wonder if you hurt yourself more than you hurt me.”
“It wasn’t easy. I didn’t want to leave. And I didn’t want all that time to go by; flying under the radar and keeping Millie a secret. But it was so complicated. The lives we were both living. It was never to punish you or hurt you. It was to protect you. And her.”
He nods slowly, considering her words. “So is that why things went bad? Between you and the cop? ‘Cause you wouldn’t pull the trigger?”
“He was very understanding. Very patient. He just assumed I’d come out of a bad situation and I just wasn’t ready for that kind of thing. And I didn’t bother telling him any differently.”
“So what happened? What made him walk?”
“You mean there’s something the little birdie DIDN’T tell you?”
“She did. But I’d rather hear it from you. How’d he find out? About who you REALLY were?”
“I told him.”
“That was risky.”
“Once I realized he was getting more serious and deeper into things than I expected him to, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I’d spent six months with him; half a year pretending to be someone I wasn’t.”
“Were you getting more serious about things? About HIM?”
“I mean, I liked him. I was attracted to him. And he was very good to me and Millie. He spoiled the hell out of her and she liked having him around; he took her to baseball and hockey games, they went to the zoo and the movies, he braved the Macy’s toy department more than once.”
“And I want to be happy about all that, but…”
“You weren’t there, Tyler. Through no fault of your own. Millie needed someone. A father figure. She wanted someone like that in her life.”
“She had someone like that. She had a DAD. That would have been there had he known she even existed.”
“And THIS is why I didn’t want to talk about this stuff. No matter what I say or do, it’s only going to upset you. You say you want to know everything, but deep down…”
“I have a right to know all of this stuff. I haven’t hid anything from you. About what I was up to in the last five years. I was totally honest about Delaney. It should go both ways, don’t you think?”
“I don’t want to fight. I get it; you’re hurt and you’re angry and you need to take it out on someone. I get it, Tyler. And I don’t blame you for feeling the way you do. You have every right to be pissed. But do you REALLY want to keep doing this? Bringing it up over and over again? Finding fault in everything I say? You tell me you want to hear these things and then…”
“I’m not trying to fight.” He uses his fingertips to clear hair away from the side of her face and loop it behind her ears, then presses a soft, reassuring kiss to her lips. “And I’m sorry. For acting like a prick sometimes.”
“I never said THAT.”
“Not in so many words.”
“I’m not trying to take away how you feel. You have every right to be pissed off. And hurt. You even have the right to take it out on me. But…”
“I don’t have that right. At all. And I don’t mean to do it. I know it hurts you. And you’re the last person I ever want to hurt, believe me.”
“We need help, Tyler. PROFESSIONAL help. Or we’re GOING to need it. To get past all of this. To deal with how we’re both feeling. You and your anger and your hurt and me and my regret and my guilt. I don’t think we can do it alone. Or that it’s healthy for either of us to even try.”
“You want me to see a shrink.”
“Not a shrink. A counsellor. And not just you. US. Someone who can sit with us and help us unpack all of this and work through it. I think deep down, you realize we need it. That kind of help.”
“If you think that’s the way to go…”
“I think it’s something we need to at least try. And then just go from there.”
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. Including THAT.”
“Now that’s true love,” she teases, and presses a chaste to the corner of his mouth. “And I think it might do Millie some good, too. To talk to someone. She’s been through a lot; seen and heard things no kid should ever have to. I know she’s a tough little thing, but I also know she’s a lot like you; when it comes to shoving things down and pretending they don’t exist. I don’t want her growing up like that. And I know you don’t either.”
“I don’t. I don’t want that at all. Whatever she needs…whatever WE need…we’ll make it happen.”
Smiling, she kisses him; long and soft and sweet. And when she pulls away, his palm still cradles the side of her face; thumb repeatedly brushing against her cheek. “I didn’t love him.”
“I never…”
“You were going to ask. I knew it was coming.”
“Not even a little bit?”
“I was attracted to him. I cared for him. Deeply. But I didn’t love him. And I don’t think I ever would have.”
“He must have loved you. He just let you walk. After he found out the truth.”
“Maybe? I don’t know. He never said he did. Sometimes I felt, you know? And I wasn’t ready for that. I probably never would have been. None of it was fair to him; lying about who I was, allowing him to get so close, letting him think that maybe there was some kind of future…a happy ever after…in the cards. He deserved a lot better than that. A lot better than ME.”
“You’re not a horrible person, Esme. You’re…”
“I hurt people. Even the ones I love the most. It’s who I am. It’s what I do.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. You didn’t do things because you wanted to. You did them because you HAD to. It was just part of the job. If you didn’t lie about who you were, the ending would have been a lot worse than fucking up some guy’s ego.”
“I should have never gotten involved with him. I should have done everything possible to just keep my distance. But I was lonely. I wanted someone in my life. Maybe not to have a serious thing with; I didn’t want to live with someone or get married or grow old and gray with them. He made me feel beautiful. He made me feel wanted. I hadn’t felt that in so long. And if I couldn’t get it from the person I wanted it from, I had to settle. SETTLE. How horrible does that make me sound? Talking about another human being like that?”
“It doesn’t sound horrible. It sounds…”
“Needy? Desperate?”
“No. It just sounds…sad.”
“Sad as in pathetic or…?”
“YOU sound sad. When you talk about it. And you must have been sad when it was happening.”
“I missed you. Every second of every day. And it got worse when Millie came along. I had wanted to be a mom for so long. And I finally had this beautiful little girl. Everything I ever longed for. But I couldn’t share her with you. And that wasn’t fair. To either of us. Or you.”
“See? You did hurt yourself more than you hurt me.”
“You have no idea what I went through. I just tried to shut myself off. I was in love with someone I couldn’t be with. Through no fault of his. He’d done nothing wrong. So I told myself I’d never let that happen again. Get close to someone. That it was better if I just concentrated on being a mom. And that’s what I tried to do. I DID. But…”
“Then you met this guy…”
“All of a sudden, I wasn’t as lonely anymore. There was this man that wanted me. And no, it wasn’t nearly to the depths you did. But it was…something. And I desperately needed it. More than I wanted to admit. All I wanted was to feel something…anything…again. But the more I felt for him, the more I missed you. And that’s when the competition began. He was never going to be YOU. Not even close. No matter how good of a person he was.”
“Did he just walk away or…?”
“He was hurt. Rightfully so. It’s kind of a kick in the nuts when you hear something like that; that the person you’ve spent six months with was nothing but a fake. And he felt stupid; that he didn’t sense that there was something wrong or that there was something I was hiding from him. I told him not to take it personally. It wasn’t any fault or weakness on his part. I was just that good at my job.”
“You must have horseshoes up your ass. ‘Cause for him to just walk away instead of not locking you up…”
“Maybe he felt bad for Millie. Putting me away meant she’d have no one. And I don’t think he’s the type to do that to a little kid.”
“You know what I think? I think he was in love with you. That’s why he was so forgiving.”
“And I think you’re reading too much into things.”
“I can’t say I blame him, though. I know from personal experience how easy it is. And how fast it can happen.”
“Now I think you’re overestimating my appeal.”
“Not in the fucking slightest.”
A smile curves her lips, and she reaches up to sweep hair off his forehead. A hand on his cheek as she leans in to kiss him.
“Thank you.” The fingertips of both hands slide across her shoulders and down either side of her spine, gently squeezing her ass when his lips meet her brow. For telling me. About him.”
“Thank you for not totally losing your shit. I was worried there for a minute.”
“Oh believe me, inside I was throwing tables and punching holes in walls.”
“Because that’s healthy,” she chides, cradling his face in her palms as she presses a kiss to each corner of his mouth, his cheek, chin, and finally his lips. And when she pulls away, she finds herself rendered breathless by the way he regards her; the pure adoration and devotion that softens his face and sparkles in his eyes.
It’s overwhelming at times. To be worshipped and loved in such a manner. Realizing that you’ve become such an enormous and integral part of someone’s existence. Yet it’s a love that many fear will never find them; so beautiful and all-consuming and life-altering.
Running the pad of her thumb over his lips, she sweeps her knuckles along his jaw and then wraps both arms around him. Her body pressed tightly against his as she tucks her face into that favourite spot of hers; that secure, safe place between neck and shoulder.
“It’s always been you, Tyler.” Her breath is warm and sweet against his skin. “It will always be you.”
#Tyler and Esme series#Tyler Rake#Tyler Rake fanfic#Tyler Rake fan fiction#Extraction#Extraction 2#Extraction fan fic#Extraction fan fiction#Tyler Rake x OFC#Esme Drummond#Esme Rake#Chris Hemsworth#Chris Hemsworth Extraction
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Drabble Request - Tyler Rake - Prompt 16 - Preferred Mood: mostly passionate and intimate with just a touch of fluff and male savagery 💗 Thank you so much! 🤗
Hello! Why yes, I think I can manage that for you :)
Smut below the cut, minors DNI!
"Fuck me," he breathes, eyes fluttering shut for a brief moment before opening again, watching his cock vanishing into your throat as he holds your hair back. "God, you give the best head."
Your eyes find his, winking up at him, releasing his cock with a soft pop, your tongue whirling over the head of his erection. "Hmm, I do, don't I?"
He snickers quietly, shaking his head. "There's that modesty I fell in love with." His hand tightens the grip upon your hair, his hips beginning to sway forward, looking down at you with a devilish grin. "Always look so pretty when I fuck that gorgeous mouth, always take it so fuckin' well."
You feel him begin to twitch against your tongue before long, hands grasping his hips and pushing him back, Tyler grunting with partial annoyance as he frowns at you. "I was enjoying that."
"Yeah," you breathe, kissing the vein that runs over his hip. "A little too much. Not ready for you to come yet. You gotta hold me down and fuck me for a while first."
"Nah," he sniffs, moving to the bed, lying down on his back. “I need you to ride me, babe. Right now.”
"Well," you shrug, moving astride him, sinking down on the most perfect cock you've ever seen. "As long as I get this splitting my pussy, I don't mind."
He pulls you down to his level, kissing you softly, nuzzling your nose with his. "Good."
#tyler rake#tyler rake fanfiction#tyler rake smut#tyler rake x female reader#tyler rake x you#extraction#extraction fanfiction#extraction fan fiction#chris hemsworth#chris hemsworth smut#chris hemsworth fanfiction#chris hemsworth x female reader#chris hemsworth x you
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Imagine
You shower with them. Which one do you choose? 🥵😖
#fictional characters#imagines#fictional boyfriend#jensen ackles#chris evans#dean winchester#pedro pascal#sam winchester#jaredpadelcki#ryan gosling#andy barber#beau arlen#ari levinson#sierra six#tyler rake#thor odinson#pero tovar#javi gutierrez#marcus moreno#marcus pike#dave york#tom hanniger
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Kinktober 2022 Masterlist
We’re back with some more smutty, kinky, and dark fun for the month of October. These one shots are not from any existing AU. These will get very dark so read ALL warnings before hand. My blog is an 18+ ONLY space. All minors and hate will be blocked. This is fiction, have fun. This year I’m introducing a few more characters instead of just Chris and Sebastian characters...
Ablutophilia with Chris Beck
Breath Play with Ari Levinson
Candaulism with Nick Vaughan
Dacryphilia with Mike Weiss
Ejaculating Toy with Chase Collins
Forced Voyeurism with Nick Fowler
Grooming with Napoleon Solo
Hate Sex with Ransom Drysdale
Innocence Kink with Frank Adler
Jealousy with William ‘Ironhead’ Miller
Key Party with Andy Barber
Lactation Kink with Jake Jensen
Mutual Masturbation with Mickey Henry
Non-Con with Jax Teller
Objectification with Lance Tucker
Possessive Behavior with Angel Reyes
Quirt with Steve Kemp
Ravishment Fantasy with Jefferson
Somnophilia with Steve Rogers & Bucky Barnes
Tea Bagging with Dean Winchester & Soldier Boy
Uteromania with Justin Capshaw
Vampire Gloves with Sam Winchester
Water Play with Captain Syverson
Xenophilia with Tyler Rake
Yandere with August Walker
Zipper Dinner with Lloyd Hansen
Electrostimulation with Mr. Freezy
Harpaxophilia with Curtis Everett
Housewife Kink with Clark Kent
Kidnapping with Walter Marshall
Coercion with Carter Baizen & Bryce Langley
#kinktober 2022#kinktober#dark!fic#smutty fanfiction#chris beck#mike weiss#nick vaughan#ari levinson#chase collins#nick fowler#napoleon solo#ransom drysdale#frank adler#william miller#andy barber#jake jensen#mickey henry#jax teller#lance tucker#angel reyes#steve kemp#jefferson#steve rogers#bucky barnes#dean winchester#soldier boy#justin capshaw#sam winchester#captain syverson#tyler rake
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Tyler Rake
@m1ghtythor @karioke13 🧡
Give me a fictional character and I will say:
Favorite thing about them: his bravery
Least favorite thing about them: that he thinks so low of himself
Three things I have in common with them:
I try to do the right thing,
I enjoy solitude,
I put my loved ones above everything.
Three things I don’t have in common with them:
I absolutely don't think low of myself I'm my favorite,
I will try to clear things w people when possible,
I don't drown myself in drugs.
Favorite line: "I'm not coming to negotiate."
brOTP: Yaz Khan
OTP: Nik Khan (but I'm okay if canon doesn't go there)
nOTP: Ovi !!!! (it's inc/st AND p/dophillia what the)
Random Headcanon: he actually doesn't like alcohol, he just drinks because it numbs everything.
Unpopular Opinion: he doesn't need to be pitted against Jon Wick and Ethan Hunt. He stands fine on his own.
Song I associate with them: Dil Peparvah and Kun Faaya Kun.
Favorite picture of them:
-
Tagging @dvrthkenobi to do this for Tyler if they'd like.
#eng translation included#tyler rake#extraction#extraction netflix#extraction 2#text#tag meme#character meme
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Why are you defending somebody that sexualizes Tyler Rake
Ummmm Anon, I hate to break it to you but Tyler Rake isn’t real, he’s a fictional character!! Plus have you seen him?! He can do whatever he wants to me.
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That Thor plotline sounds rad as hell. I was kinda disappointed in infinity war when he got his axe; I figured from the comics that it would happen sometime, but I wanted him to shoot lightning from his hands a lot longer, and I’m STILL irritated that he took off his eyepatch at all. Stealing the name but not the fiction of the chessmen is probably wise lmao
Me too. There's a reason he doesn't get Stormbreaker or a new eye in Yonder, after all. (And I went back and forth a lot on whether he ought to get Mjolnir back in Morning, but it's an alternate universe's Mjolnir and it was for plot and worldbuilding reasons, not fighting reasons since there aren't any fight scenes coming up.)
By the present day of this story -- probably actually roughly when Avengers takes place, to give Steve time to come out of the ice and get the full failed Hydra brainwashing special -- Thor's been stuck on Earth for like a year and a half (I usually have Thor set in fall 2010), depowered and pretty much resigned to now being "mortal." He's still got all the fighting skills (which we see in Thor), but doesn't think that he has his powers or his Asgardian strength/healing/etc., though has been having flashes of them starting to come back that he won't admit to anyone. Older and a little grimmer, living with his exile -- one thing that's always struck me about MCU Mjolnir (unless TLAT retconned this, I still haven't seen this) is that prior to Thor it never had a worthiness clause, and there's every chance that throughout the film Thor had no idea that it now has one. (The triskele appears briefly after he fails to lift it at the crash site, and we see Thor start to react to it, so he may be reading the enchantment there, but it's not explicitly stated anywhere in the film.) Thor may not know that he's on an intended character arc and not that he's permanently exiled.
I kind of read Chris Hemsworth's character Tyler Rake in Extraction as a Thor who never got Mjolnir back and was never able to return to Asgard, and had to learn how to live in this world as a result with the only skill he has (incredible violence), so that's more what this AU's Thor would probably be like, except perhaps a little less grim because it hasn't been as long. Plus he has Jane, Darcy, Selvig, and the rest of realSHIELD.
...I just realized that this is essentially the version of Avengers when they're all in various forms of exile. Thor literally and by name, Steve because he's out of his time, Tony because his death was faked and he's in hiding, Clint and Natasha because they're in hiding after leaving HydraSHIELD, and Bruce because, well, Bruce. (Hydra made a try for the Hulk and realSHIELD was able to whisk him off, so he's there too.)
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🤡 that's you and all your pretend friends. You think y'all so cute on here with your toxic crushes but it's not cute. It's really sad. You'll answer for your sins in this world or the next. We just sit back and enjoy y'all humiliating yourselves trying to justify writing for toxic men like the Darkling, Billy Russo, Demon Targaryen, Tyler Rake, Murdoch Flash and these type of idiots. Clowns for clowns 🤡 down with Reylo 🤡 in this house we do not stan dirty white boys 🤡 get a life ridea
wait, who's Murdoch Flash?
Sucks to be you, babes, but we're having a blast with our toxic fictional men.
The only clown around here is you, wasting both of our times with this same boring bullshit as usual. If you don't like something, don't read it. Who cares.
When have I ever needed to justify my adoration for my murder husbands? I haven't. I like what I like and no one has to explain their preferences. Especially not to someone hiding on anon trying to make themselves look like the better person.
You're in my house, babes, in my blog. You walked into this sin palace and made yourself known. Don't get upset because we're not reacting the way you want. Just go. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
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Hi!
I'm Sammie, and I write for the OC community. I originally started writing fan fiction MANY years ago over on another site. It was for the CSI:NY fandom and I absolutely loved it. Currently, I write for the Extraction/Tyler Rake fandom and have a series I've been working on for two and a half years now. I also have fairly rough drafts (handwritten in notebooks) for a Thor/OC fic and a Spiderhead/Steve Abnesti/OC fic.
#oc creator spotlight#fd: extraction#fd: marvel#fd: spiderhead#ocapp#oc community#oc fanfiction#oc fanfic#oc fic#oc fanfiction blogs#oc writers#chickensarentcheap tag
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Kinktober 2022
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/y6zAb1W
by georgiapeach30513
October is a time for some smutty, kinky, and dark fun. These one shots are not from any existing AU, however, this is one giant AU. Each reader is a different person. These could get dark so read ALL warnings before hand. This is fiction, have fun.
Words: 1231, Chapters: 1/31, Language: English
Fandoms: The Martian (2015), The Red Sea Diving Resort (2019), Puncture (2011), The Covenant (2006), The 355 (2022), Mission: Impossible (Movies), Knives Out (2019), Gifted (Movie 2017), Triple Frontier (2019), Defending Jacob (TV 2020), The Losers (2010), Monday (2020), Sons of Anarchy, The Bronze (2015), Fresh (2022), Once Upon a Time (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural (TV 2005), The Boys (TV 2019), Extraction (2020), The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015), The Gray Man (2022), The Iceman (2012), Snowpiercer (2013), Man of Steel (2013), Gossip Girl (TV 2007), Fierce People (2005)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: F/M, Multi
Characters: Chris Beck, Ari Levinson, Mike Weiss, Chase Collins, Nick Fowler, Napoleon Solo, Ransom Drysdale, William "Ironhead" Miller, Andy Barber, Jake Jensen, Mickey Henry, Jax Teller, Lance Tucker, Angel Reyes - Character, Steve Kemp, Mad Hatter | Jefferson, James "Bucky" Barnes, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Soldier Boy - Character, Justin Capshaw, Walter Marshall, Carter Baizen, Bryce Langley
Relationships: Ari Levinson (Red Sea Diving Resort)/Reader, Nick Vaughan/You, Mike Weiss (Puncture 2011)/Reader, Chase Collins (The Covenant)/You, Nick Fowler (The 355)/You, Napoleon Solo/You, August Walker/You, William "Ironhead" Miller/Reader, Andy Barber/You, Mickey Henry/You, Jax Teller/Reader, Angel Reyes/Reader, Mad Hatter | Jefferson/You, Sam Winchester/Reader, Dean Winchester/Soldier Boy/Reader, Justin Capshaw/Reader, Captain Syverson (Sand Castle)/You, Tyler Rake/You, Lloyd Hansen/You, mr. freezy/reader, Curtis Everett/Reader, Walter Marshall (Night Hunter)/You, Carter Baizen/Bryce Langley/Reader
Additional Tags: Kinktober 2022
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/y6zAb1W
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Lost and Found- Chapter 29
Fandom: Extraction
Pairing: Tyler Rake and Esme Drummond (OFC. You do not have to read the original series to understand this fic)
Warnings: slight profanity
Tagging: @tragiclyhip @munstysmind @themaradwrites @thebejeweledwatercat @youflickedtooharddamnit @asirensrage @residentdormouse @secretaryunpaid @alisbackalleybbq @kmc1989 @karimac @ninjasawakenedmystar @ocappreciationtag @arrthurpendragon @occommunity @theesirenteller @fanficanatic-tw
Link to Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43179357/chapters/138016519
My tag list is OPEN. Just let me know if you'd lke to be added :D
****
It’s exactly how she remembers it. A quaint, three-bedroom home perfect for a young, growing family; antique blue board and batten with a vibrant, mustard yellow front door and a deep, wide porch that wraps around one side of the structure and connects with the deck in back. A fenced-in rear yard ideal for pets and children; enough open land for gardens and play structures and even a pool. Mere blocks from the small downtown core and open-air market; located close to schools and parks and only a ten-minute drive to the beach. The latter had been the ultimate selling point; as close to the ocean as they could get within their price range. Things had been different then; both financially struggling after never receiving full payment from Mahajan, but still having to worry about a stack of hospital bills and various debts.
There’d been no reason to live above their means; content with something small that they could personalize and make all of their own. Add onto if a bigger family was in the cards; firmly settling on having at least one baby, but not fully sold on anything more than that. Being a father again scared him; the guilt and the regret surrounding the death of his son and the decision he’d made in the final weeks still weighed heavily on his mind and soul. And she’d known not to push the subject no matter how much she desired something more; needing to give him the space to not only wrestle with and defeat his demons but build up his confidence when it came to raising another child.
Wick had picked them up at the airport. Twelve days following their desperate escape from New York, and ten since he’d flown to Broome to keep his eyes open and an ear to the ground. After assisting Alcott in identifying -and quickly eliminating- any possible threat, he’s confident that things are secure and no dangers lie in wait; free to return to the States and his commitment to helping Nik destroy any remaining threat on the front line. He looks healthier and more well-rested than Esme can previously remember; casually dressed in a pair of olive green cargo shorts and a simple white t-shirt. His eyes are more vibrant, the bridge of his nose and his cheeks sunkissed. And it's a welcome departure from the usual; the sullenness replaced by a genuine smile and unmistakable glow.
She glances at Millie; fastened in her car seat in the back of the SUV, safe and secure between her mom and dad. Father and daughter both asleep and in the same positions; heads tilted back and to the right, their arms folded across their chests, mouths slightly open as they quietly snore. Their cheeks flushed; sweat glistening at their temples and napes of their necks, wayward strands stuck to their brows. The last two weeks finally catching up to them; the hours spent travelling, the stress, fear, and worry that had weighed heavily upon them, the shared shock and surprise of finding out about one another’s identities and roles in the other’s life. And the dangerous and unpredictable flight from New York City and the two weeks spent at Nik’s while longing for home.
As Wick kills the engine, she tends to Millie, gently cradling her face in her palms and peppering her brow and cheeks with feathery kisses. Repeatedly brushing the tip of her nose against Millie’s until the four-year-old gives a sleepy giggle and a breathy, ‘Momma’; eyes flickering open as she plants a noisy kiss on Esme’s lips.
“Time to get up, little bug. We’re finally here.”
“Home?”
Esme nods.
“Our forever home?”
“Our forever home. Well, unless we one day need a bigger one. Come on…” Unbuckling the car seat’s harness, she lifts Millie onto her lap. “You’re getting big, lovey. Soon I won’t be able to pick you up at all.”
“I’m big like daddy!”
“You definitely are. I always knew you would be; even when you were in my belly and I used to get sneak peeks of you at the doctor. You were long and lanky even then. Now…” She clears sweaty hair away from Millie’s cheeks and out of her eyes.. “...wake daddy up. Tell him we’re here.”
She scrambles off her mother’s lap and onto Tyler’s; her stomach pressed against his chest, a knee beside either hip. And taking his face in both hands, gently shakes his head from side to side. “Daddy! It’s time to get up! We’re here now! No more sleep!” Upon receiving no response, she aggressively taps her palms against his cheeks, then scowls at her mother. “I think he’s dead.”
“He’s not dead. You can see that he’s breathing. Sometimes, he’s a really heavy sleeper. Or maybe he’s ignoring you.”
“You might ignore you, but not me. Never me.”
“Excuse you?”
“Daddy!” Millie bellows into his ear, then tugs at his beard, followed by his ears. “You have to get up! No more sleep! It’s time to wake up and…” She shrieks when his fingers lightly dig into her sides and he begins gently tickling her, dissolving into giggles when he tips her sideways across his lap and repeatedly brushes his beard against her cheeks. And she’s breathless and hiccuping when he once more settles her upright on his thighs, her tiny hands cradling his cheeks in their palms. “It’s time to get up!”
“Says who?”
“Me! And momma!”
You guys aren’t the boss of me.”
“Yeah, right!”
“Why do I need to get up? Can’t a guy get his beauty sleep?””
“You can go back to sleep later! We’re finally here, daddy! We’re home! It’s time to wakey-wakey, shakey-shakey!”
“What if I don’t want to wakey-wakey, shaky-shakey?”
“Too bad! When momma says it’s time to get up, it’s time to get up! Remember, she’s the boss, applesauce!”
“Sure she is.” Placing a kiss on Millie’s temple, he settles her sideways on his lap; palm smoothing over her messy hair as she presses her face against the window and studies her surroundings. “What do you think of it so far?”
“I love it! I love the colour! Especially the front door! I LOVE yellow. It’s a great use of colour, dad. You know what they say? That EVERY house deserves a pop of colour.”
Tyler arches a quizzical brow at Esme. “Whose they?”
She gives a sheepish grin. “People on television. We watch a lot of Home and Garden Network.”
“Especially in the winter,” Millie adds. “When it’s too cold to go outside. Or there’s a snowstorm and we’re stuck in the house.”
“So you think it’s an alright place? That you’ll be happy here?”
“Of course, I’m going to be happy! It’s home. It’s where mommy and daddy are. It can’t get any better than that. But…”
“Uh oh…”
“You know what it needs? More colour. It needs flowers. To up the curb appeal.”
“Are you going to be a real estate agent when you grow up?”
“Nope.”
“Interior decorator?”
“Hell no! I’m going to be the person who builds the house. With my own hands!”
“That’s my girl.”
Esme winces in discomfort as she reaches across her body to unbuckle her seat belt. “Funny thing is, that’s what your daddy does. That’s one of his REAL jobs. He even owns his own business. He might not build houses from the ground up, but he helps make people's places bigger and better.”
“But I thought your job was kicking ass.”
“It is. Just not all the time. Only when Auntie Nik really needs my help.”
“So you have two lives. Two ‘yous’.”
“Yeah. I guess you could put it that way. The ‘me’ that was in New York City? Taking care of business? That’s the me that I don’t have to be very often anymore. The ‘all the time’ me? I help people in a different way. I make their houses bigger and nicer, I put up fences and decks, I build garages and sheds and even furniture sometimes.”
“Can you build a treehouse? I always wanted a treehouse.”
“Millie, I can build you whatever you want. Or at least I can try.”
“You know what his other job is? He’s a fireman.”
Her eyes widen. “Shut the front door!”
“It is. That’s the job I do the most. I won’t be going back for a while though; I’ve got a lot of time off to spend with you and your mom. That’s all that’s important right now. That you guys are safe and taken care of. And that the three of us get to be together. Get used to being a family.”
“Being a firefighter is crazy dangerous! And scary!”
“It can be.”
“Momma’s right! You ARE super brave!”
“I like to think I am. Sometimes, anyways.”
“She told me you’re the bravest person she’s ever known. And the strongest.”
Reaching behind Millie, he gently and lovingly tugs on Esme’s hair. “Yeah, well your mum is biassed.”
“Her mum tells the truth.”
“You’re our hero, Daddy. You’re brave and you’re strong and you keep us safe from the bad guys. We don’t have to worry about them when you’re around. ‘Cause you’ll do anything to stop them from even coming near us, never mind hurting us.”
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you or your mumma. You’re my girls. All that matters to me is the two of you.”
“And Lucy.”
“DEFINITELY Lucy. She’s one of my girls, too. Actually, she’s the ORIGINAL girl; I had her before I even met your mumma.”
“Mumma says she’s a really good doggo. A super smart one. I can’t wait to meet her. I hope she’ll like the toys and treats I picked out for her. And I hope she LOVES me.”
“I know she will. And she’s going like having a little sister; someone to play with and chase around and sneak her food under the table. She’ll be like a puppy again, just you watch.”
“I just hope she loves me. ‘Cause I already know I love her. So if she doesn’t feel the same about me, I’m going to be crazy sad. I’m going to…”
Her voice trails off as begins bouncing up and down on his lap; banging her palm against the window when Alcott steps out onto the front porch; flashing that dazzling and waving enthusiastically at her. And she squeals “Uncle Duey!” before Tyler pops open the door; not waiting for it to fully open before she’s slipping out of the vehicle and scurrying up the front walk.
Alcott is on the middle step when she launches herself towards him; his deep, rich chuckle and her piercing, musical giggle floating on the air as he effortlessly catches her and tosses her above his head. Once, twice. Before tucking her into his chest and showering her temples, forehead and cheek with kisses.
Esme pauses with her hand on the door handle. “I know it’s hard for you; seeing how close she is to everyone. The fact they got to be part of her life long before you did. And I’m sorry that it hurts you so much. I’m sorry for so MANY things.”
“I don’t need you to be sorry. We’ve moved past that. I don’t need constant apologies.”
“But…”
“I don’t need them,” he forcibly repeats, then lays a hand on the back of her head and pulls her into him; lips meeting her brow. “And it’s not as bad now. It doesn’t hurt as much. I’m starting to look at it differently. How I’m actually very lucky. You and Millie had these people around; watching out for you, loving on you and keeping you safe. Until I finally got the chance to do it.”
“I just wish I’d given you that chance sooner. I’m sorry I…”
“No more of that word, okay? There’s no need for it.” He’s mindful of the still tender line of stitches embedded in her scalp as he pushes his finger through her hair; hand cupping the back of her head when he kisses her. pushes his fingers through her hair, mindful of the still tender line of stitches embedded in her scalp. “Not anymore.”
“Why are you like this?”
“Like what?”
“So good to me? After everything I’ve done. After hurting you like I did…”
“I love you.” The answer is short and sweet. Honest. “I always have. I always will.”
Her lower lip and chin tremble as she struggles to hold back her emotions.
“None of that, okay? No crying. There’s no reason to cry. There’s been enough of that. And I don’t want this; you holding onto all of this…stuff. I forgive you. Now it’s time for you to forgive yourself. Or at least work on it.”
“How the tables have turned, huh? I remember saying almost those same words to you. About Austin. About how he forgave you. For what you did. And that it was your turn. To forgive yourself.”
“And I got there. Eventually. You will too. You’re not alone in this. You’ve got me. Millie. We’ll help you through it. Now…” Turning and reaching for the door handle, he’s stopped when she snags him by the back of his t-shirt and pulls him towards her. A hand on his cheek as she kisses him; long and soft and slow. A grin tugging at the corners of his mouth when he pulls away. “What was that for?”
“I need a reason to kiss you?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Have you ever considered that I enjoy kissing you?”
“Have you ever considered you have crappy taste in men?”
“My taste in men is impeccable, thank you very much. Or at least it became impeccable when I met you.”
Smirking, he presses a kiss on her brow. “Sweet talker. Flattery will get you everywhere.”
“Yeah, you’re always up for a good, old-fashioned, ego-stroking.”
“And a good stroking of something else,” he teases, giving her a playful wink and then opening the car door and stepping out. Offering Alcott a nod in greeting before heading to the opposite side of the vehicle and assisting Esme; a protective hand on the small of her back as he leads her up the front walk. “You gonna be alright the rest of the way? While I give Wick a hand with all the stuff?”
“I’ll be fine,” she assures him, standing on her tips with a hand upon his chest as he leans down to kiss her.
“I worry.”
“I know you do. And in a strange little way, it makes you a million times sexier. Which is hard to grasp considering you’re already the sexiest man alive.”
“You and your shit taste in guys.”
“I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, my taste has become impeccable.” Smoothing her palms down the front of his t-shirt, her hand settling on his hips; eyes closing as she rests her forehead upon his chest. “I love you, you know.”
Smiling, he cups the back of her head in his palm and leans down to kiss her temple. “I know.”
****
Alcott greets her with a smile as he holds a squealing and giggling Millie upside down by her ankles. “Well there’s a sight for sore eyes.”
“Emphasis on the word ‘sore’.”
“You’re going to be feeling it for a while. To be honest, I’m surprised you’re doing as well as you are. That you’re even up and at ‘em.”
“It was now or never, I guess. Nik was getting tired of me; I was only a couple of days away from being evicted.”
“Look at mommy’s toe nails!” Millie calls out, as her fingertips swipe at her mother’s feet. “I did those! Watermelon pink! Mine match!”
“You’re going to make her throw up,” Esme warns. “Or pee her pants. She had a huge drink in the car before falling asleep.”
“I might do both!” The four-year-old announces. “I had a cherry and vanilla Coke slurpee! Daddy and I shared it, but I drank the most! Now I got the burps!”
“Guess your mum will be cleaning a hell of a mess off the steps, won’t she.”
“More like her father would have to clean it up. So let’s spare him the horror, okay? Blood and guts he can handle. THAT? He’ll likely toss his cookies too.”
(Millie hiccups as Alcott returns her to an upright position and settles her on his hip. “Daddy doesn’t like barf. I almost hurled on the plane and he nearly had a panic attack.”
Standing on her tiptoes, Esme straightens and tightens her daughter’s pigtails. “We don’t need to give away all of his secrets. Why don’t you run over and help daddy and Uncle John with some stuff? Grab your backpack and Lucy’s toys and treats. I’ll take you to meet her in a few minutes.”
“You just want to talk to Uncle Duey in private. I know your tricks, mom.”
“Well, there’s some things we need to discuss that little ears don’t need to hear.”
“What kind of things?”
“Adult things. That you…young miss…don’t need to be part of.”
“Are you going to hang out for a bit, Uncle Duey? Are you going to stay for supper? We haven’t eaten yet and I’m getting really hungry and I really want you to stay. Will you?”
“If your mum and dad don’t mind having an extra mouth to feed.”
“Are you going to sleep over? Visit for a bit? ‘Cause that would be really cool! Maybe we could even make a tent in my new room!”
“Tell you what, I’ll stay for a few days. So we can hang out. BUT, I’m going to stay at a hotel; so you and your folks can have privacy. You’re a family now; you need to concentrate on THAT.”
“I finally have a daddy. And not just ANY daddy, but my REAL daddy! The daddy that helped make me. Who put me in mom’s tum! How cool is that?! That I’d get my actual daddy in the end?!
Alcott presses a noisy kiss on Millie’s cheek before setting her on the ground, a hand resting on the top of her head. “You know, I think you’re a very lucky little girl. That you have the dad AND mum that you do. Because no one…in this world…could love you more than they do. You’re going to have a long and happy life, my little Amelia. With BOTH of them.”
“Daddy said that when something is meant to be, it always finds a way. He said that’s why mummy needed his help; because they were meant to be together. Do you think that’s true?”
“I think when two people love each other…REALLY love each other…they’ll find their way back to one another. Doesn’t matter how long it takes or how many obstacles are in the way, if they’re meant to be together, they will be. That’s what happened with your mum and dad. Although I do question her standards and her taste in men. Because if you ask me…”
“You know, you can be super duper cute, Uncle Duey. And really romantic.”
“You know, I have my moments. But let’s keep that between us. Our little secret. I have a reputation to keep.”
“Of being a big-time ass kicker!”
“Exactly.” Offering a closed fist, Millie bumps it with her own. “Now, you go.” Laying a hand on the top of her head, he gently steers her towards the stairs. “Listen to your mumma. Go and grab your things. I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“What kind of surprise?”
“A very nice one.”
“What is it?”
“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise. And you can’t have it until you do what you're told; go and lend a hand and grab your stuff. Then you can meet Lucy and…”
“And then I get my surprise!”
“Exactly!”
“This is the best day ever!” Giving his leg a tight squeeze, she hurries for the stairs and then jumps from the landing; landing effortlessly on her feet and rushing off towards the car. Calling out for her dad and her uncle John; giggling when she’s teased and Wick playfully pulls on one of her pigtails; her high-pitched, exuberant voice floating on the breeze as she busies herself with helping pull bags from the trunk.
Grinning, Alcott shakes his head. “She’s…”
“A handful? Believe me, I know.”
“She seems to be adjusting alright. To this new life of hers. Seems excited to be here, that’s for sure.”
“The last forty-eight hours, she’s done nothing but go on and on about Australia. About how she can’t wait to live here. About taking beach trips and going fishing; learning how to ride a bike, going to school and making friends. It’s ALL she’s talked about.”
“She’s been through a lot. It hasn’t been the easiest of three weeks, that’s for sure. Bad enough on all of us, never mind a wee one. How have things been? Since she found out? About her dad?”
“Everything’s been great. Better than I thought it would be; I thought it would take her a lot longer to adjust to the whole thing and to forgive me for keeping him a secret. But it’s like he’s been part of her life forever. Like she’s never known anything different. She adores him. Wants to be around him constantly.”
“The best part of that is that she loved him before she even knew that he WAS her dad. How’s he been? With her?”
“Amazing. He really had to step it up after New York City; I sort of just threw him to the wolves. But he did it; despite all the pain he was in and constantly worrying about me and trying to take care of me. He just did what he had to do. Spent nearly every waking moment with her.”
“As much as what happened sucks for you, it was probably what was best for them. It gave them that time; to be completely alone and invested with one another. Gave them a chance to learn about one another. Without anyone else interfering.”
“As much as my body wishes it could get on board with that, it’s just not having it. How have things been here?”
“Quiet. For the most part.”
“For the most part, huh? I don’t think I like the sound of that.”
“Just a couple of people snooping. Coming around where they had no reason to be. Wick and I took care of them.”
“Took care of them as in…”
“As in they won’t bother you…or anyone else…ever again.”
Sighing heavily, Esme crosses her arms over her chest, hands rubbing at her biceps.
“Hey…” Hooking a finger under her chin, Alcott tilts her face up towards him. “...everything is fine. You’re safe here. Wick and I took care of things on our end, now all Nik has to do is handle things on hers. It’ll be over soon. For good.”
“God, I hope so.”
She glances over her shoulder as Millie and Tyler make their way towards the house. The latter gently suggesting that their offspring make multiple trips to and from the car, while Millie insists -despite the knapsack on her shoulders, gift bag over her wrist, and the top of a pile of small boxes cradled in her arms reaching her eyebrows- that she’s stronger than she looks and can see ‘just fine’.
“You know….” Esme turns back to Alcott, body leaning into his when he drapes an arm across her shoulders. “...I’ve waited five years for this. To be with him again. I have missed him; every second of every day. I spent four wondering what it would be like; to have him in her life and see them together and hear her call him ‘daddy’. Now it’s happening; it’s all RIGHT HERE. And I am so overwhelmed. With everything I’m feeling.”
“In a good way, I hope.”
“In a very good way. This is all I ever wanted. HE’S all I ever wanted. Everything we talked about…everything we planned together…it’s all finally happening. In this place. That we bought together. And that I never spent a single night inside. It’s a lot, you know? To unpack. And I’m so scared that something…someone…is going to take this all away from me.”
“That’s why you…BOTH OF YOU…need to get out of this life. And stay out of it. Once this is all over, you need to walk away for good. Or something bad WILL happen.”
“I’m ready for that. More than ready. I finally have everything I want. WHO I want. I want to be a wife and a mother. I want to share my bed with the same man every night for the rest of my life. Kiss the same man good morning EVERY morning. I want to make cookies for school bake sales and cheer Millie on while she plays soccer and watch her learn to surf. I want to have another baby. Or two. Or three. I am so ready. For ALL of that.”
“But?”
“I’m worried that he won’t be able to walk away. Or stay away. Not for good. I’m worried he’s always going to be tied to that life somehow. That it will somehow find a way back into our lives. Take him away from us.”
“Have you mentioned all this? Talked to him about it?”
“I haven’t exactly had the chance. I spent a week in and out of consciousness, and another five days trying to build up enough strength just to do shit like feed myself and get myself to the bathroom. There was never a good time to bring up something like THAT.”
“You need to. Just get it all out in the open. Let him know what you’re worried about, what you’re afraid of, all of that. Because it won’t do any good keeping that in. You need to say it. And he needs to hear it.”
“You know what my fear is? My worst nightmare? That he’ll take a job and go somewhere thousands of miles away and something horrible will happen to him. That I’ll lose him. Permanently. And he’ll be stuck there; I won’t have any way of getting him out there and bringing him home.”
“Esme…”
“I couldn’t deal with that. I just couldn’t. I’d never survive it.”
*****
Esme slowly approaches the couch; a sprawled-out Lucy regarding her with wide eyes and her head tilted to the side. While Millie trails a few steps behind, she crouches down in front of the sofa and offers a soft, calm smile.
“Hey girl…hey Lucy…” She holds out the back of her hand to sniff, the dog’s nose wet against her skin. And as recollection of a long lost and missed scent begins to creep in, Lucy’s tail begins to thumb energetically against the cushions. “...do you remember me? It’s been a long time, huh? I missed you. So much.”
The thumping of the tail continues, now accompanied by a butt wiggle and a soft yet happy whimper as Lucy wriggles closer. “Yeah…you remember. We were besties. We did so much together. I’m so sorry…” Ruffling the fur at the nape of Lucy’s neck, Esme then strokes the dog’s ears and scratches under her chin “...that I just up and left like that. I never meant to abandon you.” She leans in to press a kiss to Lucy’s nose. “Thank you, sweet girl. For keeping him company. And keeping an eye on him. Until I could get back to doing it.”
Swiping at loose tears with the back of her hand, she reaches for Millie.“I have someone I want you to meet. Someone I love very much. I had a baby while I was gone. And this is her…” Drawing her daughter to her side, she lays a hand on the top of the little one’s head and presses a kiss to her temple. “...isn’t she beautiful?”
“Hi Lucy…” Millie offers her hand for a sniff. “...I’m Millie. Well, my name is really Amelia, but I like Millie better. Everyone calls me that. I’m going to live here now; with you and my momma and my daddy. That makes us sisters. ‘Cause we have the same mom and dad. Just they adopted you and I was in momma’s tummy.” She giggles when Lucy licks her hand, then slides forward and swipes at her chin with her tongue. “I think she likes me!”
“Why don’t you show her what you got for her? I’m sure she’d love to see.”
“I got you some goodies.” Millie holds aloft a neon pink gift bag, filled with white tissue paper. “Some toys and some treaties. See…” Dumping the contents out onto the couch, she arranges them neatly in their respective groups; food in one pile, play objects in the other). “...I got you all different kinds of stuff. Squeaky balls, rope toys, ones you can chew on, a cool tug of war one that we can play with together! I’ll let you pick which one you want to play with first.”
“I think she’s more interested in learning about you right now.”
“Can I give her some treats? Do you think that’s okay? That daddy won’t mind?”
“He won’t mind at all, believe me. Here…” Selecting one of the bag of treats -duck flavoured- she tears it open; dumping a handful of the small ‘cookies’ into Millie’s palm. “...these are her favourites. Hold your hand out and let her take a sniff. She’ll decide if she wants them or not.”
“She won’t eat my hand, will she?”
“Lucy’s the last dog on earth that would do something like that. She might kiss you to death or you might pass out from her stinky doggy breath, but she’s a lover, not a fighter. The goodest good girl. Aren’t you, Luce?” She smoothes a hand over each of Lucy’s ears and the scruff of her neck, kneading lightly at the fur as Millie offers the treats in her palm. The dog briefly sniffing before hurriedly -and exuberantly- gobbling them up. Causing the four-year-old to dissolve into giggles when the nibbling at her palm turns into enthusiastic lapping at her chin and cheeks. “I knew she’d like you. What’s not to like?”
“We’re going to be besties!” Millie declares, and tosses both arms around Lucy’s wriggling body. “Aren’t we Lucy?!
Tyler’s hand falls on Esme’s shoulder as he joins them. “How’s things down here?”
“Good,” she smiles up at him. “Very good. I think it’s safe to say that Lucy and Millie like each other.”
“We don’t just like each other!” Millie declares, as she lies on her back on the couch; Lucy between her splayed legs, the dog’s stomach pressed against hers. Lucy panting and her tongue lolling out of her mouth as her new friend enthusiastically scratches at the ‘sweet spots’ behind her ears. “We LOVE each other!”
“That’s ‘cause Lucy has great taste. Don’tcha girl.” Tyler reaches down to knead the back of the dog’s neck. “Now I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re going to have to share me now. We’ve got extra people in the house. Extra b…”
Esme scowls up at him.
“Ladies. I was going to say LADIES.”
“The hell you were.”
“You know I’m just joking. Trying to get a rise out of ya. Although after the past ten days, I wouldn’t mind if YOU were trying to get a rise out of ME.”
She gives a derisive snort and a roll of the eyes. “You are too much.”
His fingers curl around her bicep when she starts to stand; helping her to her feet before his palm moving to the small of her back as she leans into him. Her body leaning into his as his lips meet the top of her head.
“You guys finished? Get everything inside?”
“Just put everything upstairs for now. We can tackle it later. Or tomorrow. Or whenever. There’s no rush.”
“So…” Alcott takes the stairs two at a time. Enthusiastically clapping and rubbing his hands together as he addresses Millie from the bottom landing. “...who’s ready for their surprise!”
“I am! I’ve been ready since you told me! But…” She nuzzles the top of Lucy’s head with her nose. “...can Lucy come and see it too?”
“The more the merrier. This is definitely a family thing.”
Sliding out from under the dog’s body, Millie jumps to her feet; patting the side of her leg and calling for the dog to follow as Alcott leads the way out of the living room and down the hall. Pausing at the door that belongs to the small three-piece bath just off the kitchen.
“Right in here,” he says, and nods towards the door. “It’s waiting for ya.”
“In here?”
“In there. Go on.”
She reaches for the handle, then pauses. “What is it? What’s in there?”
“It’s a bathroom.”
“But what’s IN the bathroom?”
“Your surprise.”
“But what IS my surprise?”
“If I told you, then it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it? Go on. Go see what’s in there.”
Esme’s brows arch quizzically as she glances between Tyler and Alcott. “What are you two up?”
The latter grins. “Just a little something. That we thought would cheer her up, especially after the last couple of weeks she’s had. And we thought it’d help make this new life of hers even better.”
“And just what would make it better? What…?”
“Bea!” Millie’s scream is ear-piercing; bouncing off the ceiling and walls and echoing through the lower level of the house. “Oh…my Bea!” She drops onto her butt in the middle of the floor and scoops the cat into her arms, cuddling her tight to her chest as she sobs into the glistening black fur. A concerned Lucy hurriedly padding into the room; settling herself in a sobbing Millie’s lap as she licks at the tears that stream down the little one’s face. “...I missed you!”
“How?” Esme struggles to hold back her own tears. “How did you…?”
“I had someone bring her to me. Someone I could trust. To get her safely. And here she is. I couldn’t keep a little girl and her best friend apart, could I? It’d already been long enough.”
“This was all you wasn’t it?” Esme glances up at Tyler. “You made this happen.”
“It was my idea. But I had help. Getting it done.”
“I thought you weren’t a cat guy.”
“I’m not.” Smiling, he wraps around her and gatherers into his side. Leaning down to press his lips against her temple. “But I have a feeling this one will grow on me.”
****
It’s before eleven when Esme steps out onto the front porch with Wick, the wood smooth and cool under her bare feet; the light in the front room and a small battery-powered lantern on a small nearby table providing the only illumination. Alcott departed an hour before; needing to get back to his hotel to handle some ‘important business’ before retiring for the night, but not before promising Millie he’d be back to see her in the latter part of the morning. With exhaustion and calm quickly settling in, Tyler tends to tucking Millie into -at her insistence- the confines of her brand new, four-poster bed. A simple piece of furniture that signifies the start of the second bedroom’s transformation; pink and grey camo bedding, the rest of the space a blank canvas for her -with some guidance and help- to turn into her own little sanctuary.
As Wick lingers on the bottom landing, Esme remains at the top of the steps; gathering the sides of the oversized hoodie she sports and wrapping them around her petite frame. “You gonna stick around for a bit? Couple of days at least? Millie would love to spend some time with you. Now that we’re away from all that craziness. And who knows when she’ll see you again.”
“I already said my goodbyes. Or should I say my ‘see you laters’. She knows it won’t be long. Until we see each other.”
“Still, a couple of days would have been nice. Just to sit back and relax. Chat.”
“As much as I wish I could just take it easy, I really need to get back. To New York City. I told Nik I’d help tie up all the loose ends. And I need to meet Charon. We have some…business…to tend to.”
“Business as in Winston.”
He smiles coyly. “The less you know, the better.”
“Do you think the High Table will do anything? That they’ll handle him anyway? For what he did to Tyler? To Millie?”
“They’d be hypocrites if they didn’t.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“He broke their most important rule. The biggest one. They’ll forgive some things. Some missteps. But THAT?”
“He deserves to pay for what he did. He could have killed both of them. Taken everything away from me. Everything I had just gotten back. That I spent five years missing and longing for. Winston tried to take that from me. HIM from me. And for what? Some weird, sick ass obsession?”
“He had it in his mind that you were his to have. And to lose. Winston isn’t used to losing.”
“I was never his. I was never going to be. And I certainly never let him think it was a possibility.”
“I think he felt as if he could guilt into it. Being with him. Hold everything he’s done for you over your head. Manipulate you. Until you not only gave in, but gave him what he wanted. EVERYTHING he wanted.”
“Never would have happened. I’d already lived through one asshole gaslighting me for years. I wasn’t falling for it again. And if he had managed to take Tyler and Millie from me, I would have killed myself before it happened. Before EVER being with him.”
“How about we concentrate on the fact he DIDN’T manage to do it. That Millie and Tyler are safe.”
“I think about it every day, believe me. But I also think about how he can’t get away with this. As if it isn’t bad enough that he was so ready, willing, and able to kill Tyler, he was more than okay with taking Millie out in the process. A little girl girl. MY little girl. My baby. And I’m sorry, but he can’t get away with it. He just can’t.”
“And he won’t. I promise you. Winston will be taken care of. You don’t need to know how or at whose hand, but he will be. You just need to trust me.”
“I do. I DO trust you. You know I do. I trust you with my life. With Millie’s life.”
“Your part in all of this is over now. This life? The job? It’s time, Esme. For you to let it go. To just walk away. Not many people in this world get that chance. So you need to take it when you can. Because if you keep even on toe in this pound, you are going to get sucked back in. And this life will swallow you whole. You know it will.”
“It’s hard to walk away when there’s still unfinished business. When it’s so personal.”
“That business will be taken care of. You need to let other people handle it now. What you need to do is go inside and start over again. Start a new life. The one you always wanted. You’ve been given a second chance with Tyler. To be with him. Have a life with him. Make a family together. Do you know how many people wish they could get that? Who's lost someone and will never get them back? Who would love to be in your shoes right now?”
“I know it’s hard for you. To see it. Everything just playing out right in front of you. You can’t get Helen back. And believe me, if there was a way I could change that, I would.”
“I know you would. But you can’t. You can’t do that for me. But what you CAN do? You can make a life for yourself. A REAL life. You can make that man your husband and you can make more babies together and your little girl can have both her mother AND her father. You never wanted all of this. To be in this world. You were never planning on sticking with it for the long haul. Dying some god awful, bloody death like the rest of us.”
“You’re right,” she admits, leaning against the bannister with her arms crossed over her chest. “I didn’t want that. I didn’t plan on doing this forever. And I tried to get out. I DID get out. And then that adjudicator showed up and turned my entire world upside down. Ruined EVERYTHING. I didn’t want to get sucked back in. I was done. I had met someone. I was going to get married. I bought a house. We were planning on always and forever. But it didn’t work out that way, did it.”
“No. It didn’t. You had to wait longer for it. But at least it’s happening. At least you’re getting it.”
Sighing, she reaches up to tuck wayward strands of hair behind her ears.
Climbing the stairs, Wick takes her by the shoulders and turns her towards him. “You can’t bring Helen back. I wish you could. But you know what you can do? For me? You can get the fuck out of this life. And STAY out of it.”
“I’m trying. But knowing that Winston is still out there after what he did…”
“Winston will be handled. Whether it’s by me or Nik or someone else. It’s not your fight anymore. It’s time to let someone else do the heavy carrying. You’ve done enough.”
“It’s my family. That he tried to hurt. It’s my little girl and the love of my life and…”
“And both of them need you. Not the you that’s connected to the job. The you that’s connected to them. You have to let that Esme go. It’s time. You need to be the Esme that they want you to be. That they NEED you to be. They don’t need ‘job Esme’. They need wife Esme. Mom Esme. And you can’t tell me you don’t need that, too.”
“Of course I need it. I WANT it. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“It’s done. Your old life. Whatever battles are left, it’s up to other people to finish. And it’s up to you to trust them to do it.”
“That’s a little easier said than done.”
“You’ve trusted me before. Many times. Trust me now.”
“I’ll try. And me saying that is no slight on you. It’s just that this is close to home. So personal. To just hand it over, you know?”
“I know it is. But you have to do it. If not for yourself, for Tyler and Millie.” (lightly squeezes her shoulders and pulls her closer to him, lips meeting and lingering on her brow) “You’re going to be alright, kiddo. You’re safe. And we’re all going to keep it that way.”
“You’ll let me know how things go? In New York?”
“Once things are taken care of, I’ll call you. Like I said, the less you know, the better.”
“And call me when you get there? So I know you arrived safe and sound?”
Wick grins “Yes, mom.”
“Well, I AM a mom. Which technically makes me your ‘mom friend’, so…”
“Speaking of being a mom, you should go and do just that. Tuck your little one in. Give her a hug and a kiss. And a squeeze. From me.”
Smiling, she reaches up to sweep long strands of hair off his forehead and away from his eyes.
“Take care of each other. LOVE each other. And be happy. If anyone deserves that, it’s you.”
Swallowing around a lump of emotion, she stands on her tiptoes and wraps her arms around his neck) “Thank you. For everything. Millie’s alive because of you. If you hadn’t helped that night…”
“I owed you one. Had you not helped me, this whole mess never would have happened. Starting with that adjudicator.”
“One had nothing to do with the other. The adjudicator, Alessio and his family. It’s not connected.”
“One led to the other. Had you not helped me that night…gone against the High Table…the adjudicator would have never had a reason to track you down.”
“How about we just call it even? Because I can tell this isn’t an argument I’m going to get the high ground on.”
“You can’t win them all, kiddo. But you’ve won plenty, that’s for sure.”
“You will be back, right? Some day?”
“Some day.”
“Because you know you’re welcome here. That our door is always open. So don’t be a stranger, alright?”
“Alright.” He gives her a final squeeze, then a kiss on the cheek. “You be good, Esme Drummond.”
“I will,” she promises, and then pulls away, using her fingertips to clear away the tears that manage to escape. Once more leaning against the bannister with her arms crossed over her chest, she watches him descend the steps and limp down the walk, heading for his car.“Hey!” She calls to him after he opens the door, causing him to pause before sliding behind the wheel. “I’ll see you soon, John Wick!”
He grins over the roof of the car. “Not unless I see you first.”
*****
She finds him in the master bedroom, standing at the side of the bed in nothing more than a pair of sweats that sit low on his hips. A duffle bag, one of Esme’s suitcases, and Millie’s wheeled Transformer case open in front of him; rummaging through them and throwing any dirty laundry into a pile near the closet. Clean clothing stacked on the bedside chair)
“Millie asleep?”
“Out like a light. Both Bea and Lucy are in there with her. All three are snoring.”
Sidling up beside him, she reaches into Millie’s suitcase. Closely inspecting a t-shirt to determine if it's clean or dirty. “She gets it from you, you know.”
“Her amazing good looks?”
“Her snoring.”
“So you’re saying she’s ugly? Which she also gets from me?”
“You damn well know that isn’t what I’m saying. She gets both her amazing good looks and her snoring from you. There. Are you happy?”
“I don’t snore.”
“Like hell you don’t.”
“I’m not taking criticism from someone who talks in their sleep. Who I can have full conversations with.”
“I haven’t done that in a long time.”
“You just did it last night.”
“What was I talking about?”
“I don’t know some guy. Tall, handsome, built like a brick house, had a huge dick. Apparently gave you the best orgasms you’ve ever had in your entire life.”
“Mmm.” She throws a sweater of Millie’s onto the dirty pile. “Must have been some random hook up in college.”
Tyler scowls.
“Baby, IF I was saying all that, it was obviously you I was talking about. Haven’t we had this conversation before? While I’ve been awake? About how you’re the first guy to achieve the previously impossible? It’s nice not having to rely on myself to get to the finish line.”
“You have dated some real losers, you know that?”
“Not that the list is lengthy by any stretch of the imagination, but yes, yes I have. And I married the biggest one of them all.”
“Maybe your second husband will be a step up.”
“I have a feeling he will be,” she chides and playfully smacks him in the stomach with a dirty sweater. “With some room left over for a little improvement.”
“A little? That’s an understatement.”
“I don’t know. I think he’s pretty perfect already. As is.”
Smiling, he leans down to drop a gentle kiss on the top of their head. “And you have the nerve to call me biassed.”
They work quietly and companionably side by side, and when Millie’s suitcase is finally empty, she moves it from the bed and sets it on the floor. Then takes a seat on the edge of the mattress; watching Tyler, as he continues to work.
“Wick get away alright?”
Esme nods. “Do you think he’s going to be okay? When he gets back to New York?”
“I don’t know. He’s gonna have a lot of big guns after him. Bigger and heavier than the ones that are going to be after me, that’s for sure. But, he’s been in that world a long time. Gone up against a lot of horrible people. And he’s still around to tell about it.”
“I’m worried. About him and Charon. When it comes to the whole dealing with Winston thing.”
“One thing they have on their side is that the High Table is after his ass, too. He broke their number one golden rule, yeah? Drew blood on Continental grounds. If they came after you for a lot less, I like to think they’d fuck him right up.”
“But he sits on the High Table. How willing are they going to be to punish one of their own?”
“You know more about them than I do. I was never caught up on that side of things. Not that I didn’t have a chance to be. It was offered to me. Working under them. More than once.”
“Not many people say ‘no’ to the High Table and get away with it. You’re one of the lucky ones.”
“Didn’t really save me, though. did it? They still found a way to ruin my fucking life.”
“Why didn’t you want to work under them? You could have taken jobs anywhere in the world. You didn’t have to focus on North America. You didn’t even need to step foot inside it at all. Why…?”
“Wasn’t my thing. All the rules, the politics, the bullshit. Less drama working for Nik. Only have one person telling me what to do and when to do it. Not a whole shit load.”
“You are kind of a lone wolf. You do prefer working alone.”
“I don’t know…” He over her, palms flat against the mattress for balance. “... I seem to remember a time I didn’t mind sharing the workload with a hot little brunette.”
“Just the one, huh? No others?”
“Just the one.” His lips briefly brush against hers. “The rest were blondes and redheads..”
Scowling, she places her hands on his chest and attempts to push him away.. “Oh fuck you, Tyler!”
Chuckling, he presses a kiss to her cheek and the side of her neck before returning to the task in front of him. She watches his hands as he works; strong enough to break bones and take a life, but capable of breathtaking tenderness. Long fingers and misshapen knuckles; various scars and imperfections that mar his skin. And his forearms; one of the features she’d immediately noticed when they first met. And she’s about to offer a cheeky comment when she notices the expression on his face; the darkened eyes and the furrowed brow.
“Part of you wishes you were there, doesn’t it.”
“Where?”
“New York City. Taking care of Winston yourself. Or at least helping.”
“I won’t lie, revenge is at the top of my list of wants.”
“Mine too. He can’t get away with it; trying to kill you, putting Millie in danger. It doesn’t seem fair that he could just walk away from it at all.”
“He won’t. There’s enough people out there making sure that won’t happen.”
“You’re not going to be one of them, are you? I’m not going to wake up in the morning and find out you took off in the middle of the night? Went back to the states to handle things yourself?”
“You’re not honestly asking me that are you? You can’t be serious.”
“I know how powerful revenge can be. And I know the lines that Winston crossed. Putting Millie in danger, the things he said about me in that basement, the…”
“I’m exactly where I need to be. Where I WANT to be. All that matters to me is keeping you and Millie safe. And if someone DOES decide to try something stupid and I’m not here…”
“You don’t think that’ll happen, do you? That Alessio will send someone? Or that Winston will track us down? You don’t…”
“I think you’re safe with me. You BOTH are.”
“I don’t doubt that. I know what you’re capable of. And I know you’d stop at nothing to protect us. But…”
“You and Millie are safe here. And I’m going to keep it that way. Do I know for sure they’ll send people? No. Would I put it past them? Also no. But I’m not worried. They can send all the people they want. They can send a goddamn army. I will destroy each and every one of them.”
She blinks at the brutal honesty and the anger in his voice; watching as he gathers up the empty suitcases and stashes them in the far corner of the room. Once more joining her, he drops heavily onto his back in the middle of the bed; a forearm over his eyes, his free hand reaching out to slip under both the hoodie and the tank she wears underneath. Calloused fingertips repeatedly skimming across the small of her back, travelling slowly from hip to hip.
Esme stretches out alongside him. On her side with a leg draped over one of his; her mouth placing a series of kisses along the line of his jaw and at the corner of his mouth before resting her head on his chest. Her eyes closed as her fingertips trace the various scars and tattoos that inhabit the right side of his torso. Unsure of how much time passes as they lay there; breathing in each other’s familiar scents, enjoying the warmth that radiates from one another’s bodies, relaxed by the sounds of their soft, rhythmic breathing.
He stirs against her; removing the forearm over his eyes and his palm moving to cup the back of her head. Thumb and fingers pushing through her hair to gently knead her skin, his lips meeting her brow.
“I thought we could just stay in the guest room. For now anyway.”
Esme frowns. “What’s wrong with in here?.”
“Delaney was in here. Right before I left for New York City.”
Reaching up, her hand briefly rests on the top of his head before her fingers push through the longer strands of hair.. “For what it’s worth, it doesn’t bother me.”
“Yeah, well it bothers me.”
Opening her eyes, she raises her head and places her chin on his chest, smiling up at him.
“In a couple of days we can head into town. Buy new stuff. Just start right from scratch. Make the room ours. No one else. Just you and me.”
“You know, oddly enough, I think that’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Come on, give me some credit. I’ve had better moments than THAT.”
“I know it doesn’t seem like much to you, but for THAT to bother you? To not want to share what goes on in here with someone else? Just keep it between us? That’s pretty intense, babe. No one would expect that from a guy like you.”
“A guy like me? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know, the strong, silent type that’s capable of killing a man a thousand ways with his bare hands.”
“For your information, my hands can do a lot more than that.”
“Oh believe me…” She nuzzles the long-healed bullet wound on his neck with her nose, then runs the tip of her tongue along the lines of his tattoo. “...I know what those hands are capable of.”
“Are you trying to seduce me?”
“Maybe. Is it working?”
“You should know by now that you don’t have to put that much effort into it. If any.”
She giggles against his cheek, her hands shoving their way into his hair when he kisses her; the long, languid, and delicious movements of closed mouth upon closed mouth. A rough, calloused palm begins a slow exploration of her clothed body; travelling over dips and curves, lightly squeezing, softly cupping. And he both hears and feels her sigh into his mouth when he intensifies the moment; pulling away briefly to glide the tip of his tongue over her top lip before aggressively pushing its way way inside of her mouth. Eyes closing and a shiver passing through her when his mouth abandons hers in favour of finding her neck; gently suckling and nibbling at the skin as his free hand pulls open her hoodie and exposes his collarbone.
Her entire body arches off the bed when teeth, lips, and tongue slowly make their way from one shoulder to the other; violently shuddering when the scruff of his beard brushes against the skin just above the neckline of her tank top. Keeping one hand buried in his hair, the other explores the bulging and rippling muscles in his neck and shoulders; tracing scars and tattoos by memories until he moves further down the bed and she loses all contact. Body tension in anticipation when a lone finger slides up the hem of her shirt; the calloused tip gliding across her stomach and drawing a perfect circle around her navel. Toes curling and goosebumps invading her flesh when he aggressively pushes the fabric of her shirt up to the hollow of her throat; his mouth placing a trail of warm, moist kisses from the top of her belly button to the valley between her breasts. And he groans in annoyance and disappointment when she suddenly yanks at his hair, forcing him to look up at her.
“I need to tell you something.”
“Right now? Can’t it wait? I’m kinda in the middle of something here.”
“Right now,” she confirms, and he gives a sigh and rolls onto his side, hand pulling down her tank top, then settling on her stomach.
“We gotta do this fully clothed. Or I won’t hear a damn word you’re saying.”
“You’re half naked,” she points out. “How’s that fair?”
“I’m not as distracting as you are.” Pressing a chaste kiss to her lips, he uses a fingertip to clear strands of hair away from the sides of her face. “You okay? Is this something I need to worry about?”
“No. I mean, yes. I mean…” She chews on her bottom lip. “No. You don’t need to worry. And yes, I’m alright.”
“What do you want to tell me?”
Rolling onto her stomach, Esme places her chin on his chest. “You have to promise you won’t laugh at me.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because it’s kind of weird. Silly. Well, at least to me, it is.”
“I would never laugh at you. Or make fun of you. Unless it was about your height.”
Giving a small chuckle, she uses the pad of her thumb to trace the scars on his left shoulder. One a military injury he’d suffered years before he’d met her, the other left from the surgery he’d endured after the nightmare in Dhaka. “It IS kind of embarrassing.”
“How short you are?”
“No.” She playfully tugs at the hair on the underside of his chin. “What I’m going to tell you.”
“I thought we got over that a long time ago; being worried about telling each other things. I’m the last person you should feel embarrassed around. I mean, you’ve seen me with a tube up my dick so I could take a piss. You used to help me to the bathroom when I was in the hospital. It doesn’t get much more embarrassing than that.”
“You might change your mind after you hear this.”
“It can’t be that bad.” Combing his fingers through her hair, his hand briefly settles on the nape of her neck, gently squeezing before sliding under the hem of her shirt and resting in the space between her shoulders. Fingertips tracing slow, repetitive circles over bare, smooth skin. Just tell me.”
Sighing, she scrapes a nail along his beard. “I’m nervous.”
“About what?”
“That’s just it. I don’t know. And it makes no sense. I have no reason to be. But I feel shy and awkward; like we’re some couple just fresh into a relationship. We spent a year together. We shared a life. A bed. We were planning to get married. We wanted to have babies. We bought a house.”
“Five years was a long time. To spend apart.”
“But it came so easily to us. When we were back together. We still had that vibe, you know? We still fit together. Like we were never even apart. At least that’s how it felt to me. There was no hesitation. Not anxiety. We just went back to the way we were. Or close to it, anyway. That’s how it was for me. It wasn’t for you?”
“It was. Which is kind of scary in its own way. It should have been awkward. Considering how things ended.”
“But it wasn’t. And DID things end? For either of us? I may have walked away and a lot of time may have passed, but was it ever REALLY over?”
“No,” he admits. “It wasn’t.”
“Look how easy it came back to us. In New York City. Yeah, there was a lot of hurt and anger and I dropped a whole load of shit into your lap, but..”
“There was nothing shit about it. You showing back, finding out about Millie…”
“...things were still there. Between us. We still loved each other. And it was like we went back to how we were. We were always comfortable with each other; we always talked about anything and everything and nothing ever felt complicated or strange. Not even those first days in Dhaka. Am I making any sense at all?”
Tyler nods.
“So why am I nervous now? Why do I feel like this awkward little schoolgirl who’s getting ready for her first hook-up? It’s silly, right? For me to feel this way?”
“I don’t know. I feel a little nervous, too.”
“Really?”
“It was different in New York City. A lot was going on; between us and with the job and Winston and his bullshit. We didn’t really have time to sit down and think about things. We barely had time to catch our breath, some days.”
“I don’t want you to think it’s a bad thing. How I’m feeling. Because it’s not. There could never be anything bad with us. It’s just overwhelming. Being here…in this place…with you.”
“Do you want to maybe get something else?” Looping hair behind her ears, he skims his knuckles over her cheek. The cuts and bruises nearly fully healed. “Put this place up for sale and…?”
“No. That’s the last thing I want. It’s not about you or this place. Not in a negative way, anyway. It’s just so surreal. That we’re actually here. I spent five years wanting this; missing you and wishing things could be different. And now they are. Somehow we found our way back here. To each other.”
“You’re not the only one that spent five years wanting that.”
“You feel it too, don’t you? How overwhelming it is? In this chaotic, beautiful way? I KNOW you feel it. Because I KNOW you. I know your heart, Tyler. I know how deeply you feel things. How POWERFULLY you feel them. So I know I’m not alone in this.”
“It is a little…” He chooses his words wisely. “...scary.”
“I don’t want to screw this up. I did that once. I don’t want it to happen again.”
“It won’t.” Fingertips glide up her back and over the nape of her neck, hand cupping the back of her head and pulling her towards him; lips meeting hers in a long, soft kiss. His eyes riveted on hers as he brushes the knuckles off his free hand over the swell of her cheek; following the line of her jaw before cupping her chin in his palm, his thumb grazing over her lips.
“I can’t lose you. Not when I just got you back. I can’t lose THIS. We’re finally getting what we wanted. What we planned. We get to raise Millie together. Make an amazing life. Have more babies. Grow old and gray together. And if something takes you out of the equation…”
“I’m not going anywhere. Nothing’s going to happen to me. This is it. Once the mess in New York has been cleaned up and things are finished for good, we don’t have to worry about that life ever again.”
“Promise? Promise me you won’t go back to that.”
“I won’t go back,” he vows and pulls her into another kiss. Longer and deeper, tinged with urgency and desperation. Hunger.
Instead of pursuing it, he wraps her in his arms and rolls onto his back. Lips meeting her forehead before she tucks her face into that safe, warm place between his neck and shoulder.
“You’re home now, Esme.” His hand once more slips up the back of her sweater and tank top, fingertips ghosting along the length of her spine. “Where you belong. Where you’ve ALWAYS belonged.”
#Tyler and Esme series#Tyler Rake#Tyler Rake fanfic#Tyler Rake fan fiction#Extraction#Extraction 2#Extraction fanfic#Extraction fan fiction#Chris Hemsworth#Tyler Rake x OFC#Esme Drummond#Esme Rake
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I love it when you open up requests!!! Can I please have number 3 with Tyler Rake please and thankyou!!😍🥰🤩😘
Of course, you can! :D
Smut below the cut, minors DNI!
Tyler Rake as a lover. The words thorough, energetic, and dirty as hell always come to mind when you think of your guy. He leaves little room for anything else.
Pulling out of the dripping mess of your sex, he gives you the kind of look that could make water catch fire, slapping your thigh, his grin widening. “Bend over, sweetheart. Let me spank that pretty little arse while I fuck you rough.”
You grin, scrambling off the bed and moving to the chest of drawers, leaning across the smooth surface of the wood, Tyler's knee hitting your inner thighs, pushing your legs further apart before he sinks back into you with a gravelled grunt, his hand pounding off your butt cheek in a hard slap.
"Happy to be home, big man?" you purr, as he about rails you into the drawers.
"Always, darlin'."
#tyler rake#tyler rake fanfiction#tyler rake x female reader#tyler rake x you#tyler rake smut#extraction fan fiction#chris hemsworth fanfiction#chris hemsworth smut#chris hemsworth x female reader#chris hemsworth x you#ddd drabble requests
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Tower-ing Fiction #20: DC Tower 1, Extraction 2 (2023)
by Shawn Gilmore
Vienna, Austria’s DC (Donau City) Tower 1, the first of a planned pair of similar skyscrapers, was designed by French architect Dominique Perrault and completed in 2013. DC Tower 1 is 60 stories tall (220m/720’ with an antenna bringing the height to 250m) and is the tallest skyscraper in Austria, which will be joined by DC Tower 2 at 44 stories (168m/551’), both with a mix of residential and commercial space. The pair of towers, which will sit across a plaza from one another, will be situated in Vienna’s District Donaustadt, as part of Donau City, a commercial district begun in the mid-1990s.
DC Tower 1 has been well-covered by the architecture press and marks a departure from the more traditional buildings which can be found across the Danube to the west in the city’s center. As such, it stands out from other more recognizable Vienna landmarks used in recent action films and shows, like the Vienna State Opera in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (dir. Christopher McQuarrie, 2015), “Bank Graf Vienna” off Michaelerplatz in Red Sparrow (dir. Francis Lawrence, 2018), the State Opera and Philharmoniker Strasse in the third season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (Amazon, 2022), and the Hotel Royal, State Opera, and Donaukanal river channel in the first season of The Recruit (Netflix, 2022). [Though The Gray Man (dir. Russo Brothers, 2022) has a sequence in Vienna, that portion was filmed in Prague.] Notably, DC Tower 1 is the setting of an extended second-act action set piece in Extraction 2 (dir. Sam Hargrave, 2023), making extensive use of the tower’s façade and roof, with some digital modifications and filming in apartment and rooftop sets.
Giving a sense of the distinctiveness of the towers, promotional materials from Perrault describe the pair:
The design was conceived as two pieces of a giant monolith that split into unequal halves and open to create undulating, shimmering surfaces where the rupture occurred. While the façade of the completed building features a straightforward design on three sides, one of the larger faces is marked by folded glass planes that appear to weave in and out along the length of the tower. “The idea was to create a very specific urban space with a piazza between the two buildings,” explains Perrault. “While one face of the tower refers to the broken monolith, it is also meant to be a liquid façade evoking the surface of the river. With the second tower, they will act as waterfalls on two sides of the public space, and will be an amazing entrance gate for the district farther inland.”
The resulting monolith, set among comparatively lower-slung commercial and residential buildings, thus has a distinctive profile, especially as presented in Extraction 2.
The second act of the film opens with an establishing shot following vehicles over the Reichsbrücke (with St. Francis of Assisi Church in the foreground), as characters speed into Donau City.
A series of ground-level establishing shots give a sense of the various roadways leading to entrances and parking structures (to be used later as the action progresses).
While above, the film’s main characters move around an apartment (on the 25th floor) with a balcony to the south and walls of windows on the south and west, giving views of the Danube and surrounding geography.
These perspectives stitch together sets and argumentation of the actual DC Tower 1, which does not have southern balconies, allowing the film’s protagonist, Tyler Rake, to survey the streets below and airspace to the south—the locations of the upcoming assault.
Compare, for example, the building’s real south façade with the film’s version during the helicopter attack that initiates the action.
The attack begins with a helicopter approaching from the south, giving a view west into the central districts of Vienna.
The helicopter fires on the 25th-floor apartment, forcing the team to exit, with some members moving through the tower toward the roof.
Others begin trying to get street level, where attackers prepare a ground-level assault, assembling in the various plazas and streets around the base of DC Tower 1
Compare these with the towers’ site plan, with streets that branch off the Reichsbrücke (on the right/north side of the plan), leaving wide plazas for pedestrians and vehicles. In the film, attackers cover the entrance/exit to the DC Tower 1 parking garage and take up positions on the small northern extension that contains shops, covering the northern area with RPGs.
These shots establish the locations of the attacking force, while also giving a sense of the difficulties Rake and his team will encounter as they try to escape on the ground.
Meanwhile, a portion of the team attempts to secure the roof of DC Tower 1, potentially commandeering the attacker’s helicopter.
The rooftop scenes, while mostly congruent with the real building’s upper floors, were shot against blue screen, due to the difficulty of filming in high wind.
As the ground attempts to find a path away from DC Tower 1, they encounter the various assailants who had taken up positions near loading areas in the building’s parking garage.
The RPG teams attack police as they arrive, fending them off on both sides of the building.
As the battle spills out to the surrounding areas, the attacking teams suppress multiple forces, including Rake’s team and more militarized police, with the RPG team stationed at the base of DC Tower 1 (bottom right) and various teams on the ground.
Rake is driven back inside, moving past one of the building’s most distinctive interior features—a polished spiral staircase—part of the multi-story Meliá Vienna hotel, that winds its way up past the Level 57 lounge and restaurant.
Back near the roof, attempting to reconvene with his team, Rake fights through a gymnasium, allowing him to see a fight on the building’s awning that he will soon join.
The last stage of the assault continues out onto a glass awning, seemingly entirely constructed for the film.
The actual rooftop of DC Tower 1 is mostly surrounded by open spaces and glass walls, continuing the vertical surfaces of the floors below.
The awning fight allows for sweeping shoots of the streets below and south from Donau City.
Also filmed against blue screen, this portion of the sequence demonstrates the precarity of Rake’s position, as the glass awning shatters, leaving him and his partner, Nik Khan dangling precariously.
For some behind-the-scenes production footage of this fight, see around 7:25 here:
Rake flings Khan back into the gym, pulling himself into the final segment of the setpiece, a hand-to-hand fight seemingly suspended over the cityscape south of the tower.
Rake and Kahn rejoin the remainder of his team and leave via helicopter, closing the scene, leaving the film’s villain high above the chaos of the destruction caused by his attack, recalling Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818).
Weaving together the real geography and elements of DC Tower 1 with some practical and digital trickery, this act of Extraction 2 masterfully explores one of the more interesting newer architectural spaces in Vienna. Throughout, the chaotic violence is juxtaposed against the hard lines and refined spaces of DC Tower 1, creating interesting collisions.
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“I Can’t Lose You” Tyler Rake Fan Fiction - Chapter 2
A/N: Alright so here is chapter two everyone! Lot’s of tension and bickering and banter in this one - but also some pretty raw and tender moments towards the end as Tyler and Kate start to realise their feelingsssssss.... i hope you enjoy! :)))))))))))
I stop in my tracks immediately, the sharp pain jolting all through my rib cage like being stabbed over and over again with every step that I take. I curl over at the waist, my hands clutching at my side as if that’s going to do anything at all.
We’ve been jogging through a heavily wooded forest area, where I’ve been desperately trying to keep up with him. But he is a giant man, and as I watch him running I realise he has to be over 6ft, at least. Whatever his height is, all I know is that one of his strides equals about 3 of mine. It also really doesn’t help that each time my feet hit the ground, a sharp pain shoots up through my ribs.
I hear foot steps coming back my way, followed by Tyler’s irritated voice.
“You need to keep up”
“I would if you didn’t break one of my goddamn ribs”
“I didn’t break your ribs, trust me. But I can if you wan’t, then at least you’ll actually have something to complain about”
I glare up at him through the disheveled hair that has fallen in my face. I don’t even bother fighting back, as that would take energy I really do not have right now. The pain is clouding my wits, I can barely think.
Maybe it was the fact that I didn’t have anything to say back, or the fact that I cannot stand up straight without gasping in pain, but something alerts him that maybe I’m not over exaggerating about this. Because suddenly he’s kneeling down in front of me, telling me he needs to take a look.
“Let me have a look then” he nods, his face bored as though he’s just trying to get this over and done with to appease me. His hand reaches for my torso but I swat him away immediately.
“Don’t touch it” I hiss
He sighs “Look we need to hurry, just sit down so I can check it”
I reach out for the tree trunk beside me, grimacing as I lower myself to the floor in defeat.
“I’m just gonna look okay, I’m not gonna touch it” he reassures me as slowly takes the hem of my shirt in his hands and glides it upwards.
I watch his face change as my torso becomes exposed, his eyes falling over my ribs. He looks slightly taken aback at the sight, hanging his head.
“Ah fuck” he breathes, and I begin to panic.
“Is it broken or not?” I demand.
“No,” he shakes his head as he takes one last look at my ribs before carefully pulling down my top “But it’s starting to bruise… bad”
I watch his face closely. His once underwhelmed expression is now riddled with concern and guilt. On top of that, he looks angry, but not with me this time. No. this time he looks angry with himself. The air feels heavy around us now, and I feel like I’m looking at a whole different person. For the past hour that I’ve known this man he has been nothing but unforgivingly brutal. He has had no time for sympathy, and the only look I’ve seen on his face majority of the time is rage. My brain ticks at one hundred miles an hour as I try to comprehend how the man who killed a room full of people is now kneeling in front of me so sheepish and small.
“Sorry, I didn’t realise how hard I-“ he begins to apologise, his voice and face coated and dripping with shame. I almost can’t believe that the word sorry is coming out of his mouth. But suddenly a voice from his ear piece cuts in.
“Tyler somethings wrong, hold your position”
His eyes dart back to mine nervously.
“There’s someone else in those woods. About 100 meters out. They’re closing in on your position”
I can physically see Tyler’s stomach drop as the reality of the words set in. He immediately springs into action, holding out his hands to try help me up of the ground. As I stand up, the pain tears down my side. The only thing stopping me from crying out in pain is the fear of whoever is closing in on us. I might be in severe pain, pain that I don’t think I’ve ever felt before, but I’m not stupid. If we stay here now, we will die. Tyler will die. I don’t know this man. But I am not costing him his life. I can’t.
“Can you walk-“
“I’m fine” I lie, through clenched teeth. He hesitates, knowing that I’m blatantly lying as he stares down at me.
“Tyler, run” I growl. Taking my hand in his, we both take of in a sprint, back tracking the way we came in. We’re going back to the car. Abandoning all efforts to stay quiet, we crash through the bushes and leaves. This isn’t about stealth, this is about survival. The threat of someone who wants us dead biting at our heels, I have no choice but to keep up with him or we both die. I momentarily forget about the pain in my side that I’m sure is only being made worse by the countless tree branches that I’m crashing into as we run. But Tyler is the one taking the brunt of the tree branches and leaves that whip at us as he leads ahead, clearing the way. But everything almost seems to move out of his way as the brute strength and force of his body demolishes any obstacles in our path.
All noise seems to have droned out as my only focus is running with everything I have in me. That is, until the sound of a sharp, whizzing bullet flies directly above us. It misses us, but lodges directly into a the tree trunk that is only a couple of centimetres above our heads.
A heavy weight pulls me down to the ground, and I realise Tyler has dragged me down behind a large boulder for coverage. Both of us pant heavily, trying to retrieve what little breath we can. I stay crouched down behind the rock as Tyler fires a few rounds in the direction of our pursuer faster than the blink of an eye. Then, he turns back to me, desperately fumbling with his vest until he pulls of a grenades.
“When I throw this, run” he tells me firmly, as he rips the pin from the bomb. It feels like slow motion as his long arms peg the detonating bomb over the boulder and away from us.
I can barely hear him screaming at me to run as the sound of the explosive fills the air around us. We both scramble, fighting to get up of the ground and hit the ground running in an immediate sprint.
I’m not even sure if I’m running in the right direction, all I know is that I’m moving with every last fibre of my being. I keep my head low, my arms raise overhead in some kind of bid to protect myself from the bullets that are speeding through the air past us. My only indication to whether Tyler is still even with me is the sound of his crashing foot steps as he runs behind me. Suddenly there is a break in the wooded area we’ve been charging through, and we enter the clearing where the car is sitting.
“GO, GO! GET IN THE CAR” Tyler’s voice booms from behind me as I speed towards the passengers side. As I rip the door open and thrust myself into the car, I look back to see Tyler guarding me. Once I’m in he fires a few final bullets and suddenly he’s bursting into the drivers side.
Before I can even gather myself, Tyler’s foot hits the acceleration and the car lurches forward so ferociously it almost leaps of the ground. The back end of the car drifts, swerving left and right as the wheels spin out beneath it, before it suddenly kicks into gear and we take of flying straight ahead.
Without warning, we burst into streets that are filled and bustling with civilians. I can hear their screams they all fly out of our way. People are everywhere, and I can hear Tyler shouting for the countless people on motorbikes to move as we narrowly miss every single one of them. Boxes of fruits and products fall victim to us on our path of destruction as the car ploughs straight through them.
I’m so busy desperately trying not to smack my head on the roof of the car it swerves and bounces that I have no time to prepare myself when Tyler suddenly begins shouting countless profanities. I look up ahead to see the end of the road being blocked of by three police vehicles. Tyler slams on the breaks, the car halting so abruptly that only a miracle that my hands on the dashboard stop me from flying through the front windscreen. Without even a second of hesitation, Tyler shoves the gear stick into reverse with such haste that I half expect it to rip clean off.
“They’re police!” I exclaim as we speed backwards, away from them “Tyler stop they’re police!”
“No they’re not” he shouts over the now wailing sirens of the police vehicles that are surging after us. I furrow my brows at him as he spins the car around until we’re out of reverse, before taking off again.
I turn in my seat, looking back at the police in panic. I thought I could trust Tyler. Why the hell is he driving us away from them. I narrow my eyes, and suddenly see that those men aren’t officers at all. They’re dressed in black clothing; and it doesn’t take me long to realise that they’re have hijacked those police cars.
Chaos ensues as two of the cars spin out of control, colliding with food stalls and innocent by standers. The same voice from before bursts over Tyler’s radio speaker. The woman’s voice shouts directions to Tyler, telling him to turn right at the bridge. When I turn back in my seat, I’m met with a giant metal gate that we are only getting closer and closer to. With no sign of Tyler slowing down, I brace myself for impact, unable to stop myself from letting out a scream as we smash through it. I stare ahead in shock, mouth wide open as I realise we just smashed right through those metal gates, and are still alive. I look over at Tyler in shock to see that he looks completely unbothered by the fact that we could have just died. This guy is a goddamn maniac.
Suddenly one of the hijacked police vehicles rams straight into the back of our car, sending both Tyler and I lurching forward. We both look back in panic over our shoulders to see the man who was pursuing is in the woods, is now manically driving behind the wheel of that car.
“FUCK!” Tyler shouts, making a sharp turn to try and throw him off, but it doesn’t work. This only helps him gain in on us, as he begins to creep up towards the passenger side.
The sound of smashing glass bursts into the air and I look over to see that Tyler’s window has been shot and broken. Shards of glass cover us both, as the man fires of a few more rounds in our direction.
I see Tyler desperately fumble for the gun on his vest, but the second he takes his hands of the wheel we almost spin out. This man is going to fucking kill us if we don’t do something.
“Give me your gun” I feel myself shout suddenly, as I reach for his vest.
He shoves my hand away, before turning the car down into another street.
“I SAID GIVE ME YOUR FUCKING GUN” Using all my might I reach over and snatch the pistol from his belt. All in one movement I turn in my seat and angle myself out of the window slightly.
“GET BACK IN THE FUCKING CAR!” I hear Tyler scream at me, but I’m not listening. My eyes are locked on the driver behind us. The second he see’s me, he aims his gun at me, but I beat him to it.
Squeezing the pistol, I send a bullet flying straight for his head. As it smashes through the front wind screen it narrowly misses him, but the shock still distracts him and his wheels screech as he loses control of the car. This gives us a small advantage and a small window of time to get away from him. I feel a hand on my vest as Tyler tugs me, yanking me back into the car. He speeds up, putting his foot to the floor. I watch as the man behind us struggles to regain control of his car, fighting with the steering wheel until it finally spins out and he collides with the side of a building.
Tyler suddenly makes a sharp right turn, pulling us into a virtually empty back street.
“Out!” he shouts as we both scramble with great urgency and anxiety. He grabs my arm and we take off running up the stairs of the apartment buildings next to us. We rush up the stairs in leaps and bounds, constantly checking over our shoulders but there is no sign of anyone following us.
Just when I begin letting the smallest inch of my guard down, and attempt to catch my breath, it is quickly whisked away again by Tyler shoving me up against the wall.
“What the fuck do you think you were doing back there huh?” He growls in my face, pinning my shoulders back against the wall. This is a vast change from the worried Tyler back in the woods. The Tyler who looked guilty for causing that giant bruise on my ribs. Right now, with the look on his face, he looks like he couldn’t care less if he did it again.
I grab at his chest, trying to push him away, but of course I can’t. He doesn’t even budge.
“That little stunt you pulled back there could have gotten us both killed”
“But it didn’t! We’re here aren’t we!” I challenge him, my eyebrows raised. He shakes his head at me in bewilderment.
“Don’t EVER do that again? Do you hear me? If I fucking lose you I-” He catches himself before he finishes his words. I stare up at him, heart racing for what he was about to say. For what he stopped himself from saying.
“If you lose me what huh?” I stare up at him “Why the fuck do you care what happens to me?”
His chest rising and falling heavily as he looks down at me, our faces only inches apart. Our eyes locked on each other, I watch his internal battle. For a moment I see the smallest, fleeting hint of weakness. Of softness. Why is he looking at me like that? But it doesn’t last long.
“I need my fucking pay out. Try anything like that again and I’ll kill you myself”
But his voice sounds unsure. Like he doesn’t believe his own words. With that he gives me one final shove before stalking away from me to the other side of the room. I’m unable to take my eyes of him as I try to swallow and comprehend whatever just happened between us.
Just when I thought he showed me a moment of tenderness, of care, back in the woods. His normal disgust and hatred for me is back again. My supposed ‘rescuer’, who couldn’t hate me more.
He turns away from my slightly, busying himself with reloading his gun. As he does, my eyes fall over his arm - more specifically the blood that is covering one of them.
“Tyler you’re bleeding” I blurt out. It’s not a lot, but enough to show through his sleeve. Enough to do damage if left unattended.
He follows my gaze, looking down at his arm where blood is soaking through.
“Yeah a bullet will do that to you” I replies nonchalantly.
Thinking that he has been hit with a bullet I rush over to him, but he waves his hands, dismissing me.
“Relax, it just grazed me”
“You still need to cover it” I urge, completely baffled at how little he cares about this.
“Why the hell do you care?”
“Well I wouldn’t want you to miss your fucking pay out now would I” I scoff, watching as he rips the bottom of his shirt with ease until he has a long strip of fabric in his hands.
I expect him to fire back an insult, but to my surprise, he smirks. The tension easing a little, I also find the corner of my mouth curling up into a smile.
“Since you’re so worried, tie this around my arm” he raises his brows, holding out the fabric for me to create a tourniquet.
I snatch it from him, as he holds his wounded arm out to me. I try to ignore his eyes staring at me, trying to intimidate me as I wrap the shred of t-shirt around his arm. I also try to ignore the realisation that’s dawning on me at just how huge his arms are. They’re practically bulging out of his shirt. Making a knot, I pull tight. Tighter than I probably had to, but he deserves it for being such an asshole.
He clenches his jaw, grimacing in pain when I do so.
“Watch it” he warns me, but I shrug at his comment acting clueless.
“Come on, it’s just a graze, right?”
He stares down at me, his lips slightly parted to speak but no words following their lead. I know he see’s me as just a money grab. Some rich guys daughter who he needs to return home for a big case of cash in exchange. But that doesn’t mean he gets to treat me like an idiot.
I stare back up at him defiantly, not wavering under the firm grip that his eyes have on me. Then, if I’m not mistaken, his eyes flicker down to my lips. He quickly pulls them away from my mouth and back up ti my eyes, so fast that if I had of blinked I would have missed in entirely. But I didn’t miss it. I saw it.
I don’t have more than a few milliseconds to begin trying to understand what the hell that means when gun fire sprays the building we’re in. Immediately Tyler springs into action. The Tyler that was bantering with me just moments ago is gone, as the switch flips in him and he jumps straight into his stone cold soldier mode.
We both crouch down below the windows of the room as he grabs my hand and leads me out of the room. Once we are away from the windows we both stand, he lets go of my hand, replacing it with his gun. Standing protectively in front of me, we stalk through the abandoned apartment building, snaking through each room until he finds one with no windows.
He turns back to me, hand on the small of my back as he guides me into the room. Once we’re inside, he stands me against the wall - gently this time - and raises a finger to his mouth, signalling to stay quiet. I feel my ears prick as footsteps begin to approach from outside the room.
Tyler hides right out of sight in the door way, and I hold my breath, praying that he doesn’t get hurt. If something happens to him, not only am I a goner, but I will never be able to live with the fact that he died saving me. I can’t. The footsteps get louder and louder and I feel the anxiety in my stomach clawing its way up into my chest.
Suddenly, Tyler strikes forward, and the man hunting us down is flung against the wall. In a series of movements that happen entirely to fast for me to even comprehend, Tyler knocks the gun out of his hand and pins him against the wall so ferociously I can hear the mans bones cracking against the concrete. A knife appears in Tyler’s hands seemingly out of no where, and before my eyes I watch him plunge the blade into the man’s neck. He delivers three more fatal blows, slicing the bloody knife across the mans jugular vein over and over again.
And then, it’s over seemingly before it even began. The man falls to the ground, landing at my feet, with blood gushing from the wounds in his neck. Dead.
I pull my eyes away from the dead body at my feet to look at Tyler, but there’s nothing much to see. He’s already moved on, completely dismissing the life that he just took like it was nothing. He signals for me to follow behind him in the hall way, and when I take to long he grabs my vest and forces me behind him. Staying so close to his back I may as well be attached to him, we take a few slow, quiet steps forward. But that’s only as far as we get before two more men come flying towards us from around the corner.
I stumble backwards as Tyler attacks the first man, taking only seconds to kill him with a fatal shot through the chest. When the second assailant approaches, Tyler combats him with his fists. It only takes one punch to disorientates the man, who stumbles backwards giving Tyler enough to aim his gun. I watch with my mouth open so wide in shock it my jaw may as well have touched the floor as Tyler fires a bullet straight through the man’s head.
Two bullets. He has killed two men with only two bullets in what feels like a matter of moments. Now that I’m learning how lethal Tyler really is, witnessing it with my own eyes, my mind flashes back to the room full of dead men that Tyler had mowed through to rescue me earlier today. Now that I’m seeing what he’s truly capable off, that doesn’t seem that far fetched. In fact, it seems like it would have been a breeze to him.
The sound of Tyler shouting my name rips me abruptly from my shock induced flashback. He lunges forward, scooping me up with one arm and planting me firmly behind him. It’s only once I’m being shielded by his giant stature that I see what he was yelling about. Another attacker had been coming up behind me with a gun, and I was second away from being just as dead as the men around us. But Tyler had stopped that. He had thrown himself in front of me, literally putting himself in the line of fire to protect me like it was nothing. Like it was a reflex. Muscle memory.
As Tyler wrestles with the man who almost killed me, movement to our left catches my attention. Realising another man is running towards me at full speed, I spin on my heels and begin sprinting. As I burst through apartment after apartment, I can hear the man hot on my heels. I have no plan. No where to hide. Just every atom in my body screaming at me to run. Until, I meet a dead end. As I burst into the room and head for the door that will take me out to the balcony that wraps around the entire apartment complex, I shake at the handle desperately, just to discover that it is locked.
Back pedalling as I fast as I can, I turn to run out of the room, but instead I smash straight into the body of the man chasing me.
“No, no, no” I begin to beg, each cry for mercy louder than the other as I try to back away from him. But I have no where to escape. With one blow he punches me, delivering a blow to my cheek so hard I can feel it swell almost immediately. As I stumble, clutching at my face, he wastes no time wrapping his arms around me, wrangling me to stay still and comply as he begins to drag me away.
All I can do is scream. When I do, the first and only thing that comes out of my mouth is Tyler’s name. It’s all I can say. Its the only thing that comes to my mind. Over and over again I scream, calling out his name. Begging, praying that he can hear me. That he will find me.
My arms and legs lash out maniacally, desperate to cling on to anything that will stop this man from taking me. Stop him from taking me back to my kidnappers. Stop him from taking me to my death. But something else stops him. One single gun shot bursts into air. Not only do I hear it, but I feel it. I feel it fly so close to my face that I can feel it’s hotness on my cheek. But it doesn’t hit me. Instead, my attacker suddenly goes limp. His once suffocating grip on me going completely loose. As he falls, he takes me to the ground with me. We hit the floor with a thud, and the only reason I know I’m not the one whose dead is the fact that I can feel my goddamn ribs pounding even worse than before.
I look up to find Tyler standing in the doorway, his gun pointed at us. As soon as he knows the man is dead he drops his gun to the floor immediately, running over to me. I don’t know what it is, desperation maybe. Complete and utter fear. The fact that he had thought I was about to die. But for some reason when Tyler runs over to me, he scoops me up in his arms and holds me so tightly for a few moments that I can’t breathe. But I don’t care. As I’m enveloped in his arms, I’ve never felt more safe in my life. The sensation is overwhelming I feel like my heavy panting is about to turn into even heavier sobs.
“You’re okay, you’re okay I’ve got you” He chant’s over and over again in my ear, breathing heavily. For the next few moments we forget everything, clinging onto one another desperately. To scared to let go.
He lets go momentarily, but only to move his hands to my face, holding it firmly.
“Are you hurt?” He panics as he scans me up and down, desperation on his face. When his eyes fall over the mark on my face from where I was punched he curses under his breath.
“I’m okay, I’m okay” I nod and he exhales harshly in giant sigh of relief.
“You scared the shit out of me, yeah. Don’t ever scare me like that again” He tells me firmly as he can, but I can hear the poorly hidden shakiness in his voice.
As we stare at each other intensely, I see something I haven’t seen on Tyler’s face yet. Fear. He looks completely terrified. But not just terrified of anything… terrified of losing me… Everything he was saying before, about how he just need’s me for the pay check has gone out the window. No. In this moment, he couldn’t care less about his pay check, and there’s no hiding it. Right now, all he cares about is that I’m alive and safe, and in his arms.
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Title: Rumor Has It {21}*
Chris Evans x Famous Reader Uriah “Riah” Tyler
Warning: Cursing, ANGST, Plot, Fluff, Mildly NSFW, Violence, Blood, Death, Verbal mention of Rape, Potentially Triggering Discussion
Words: 6.2k
Summary: You and Chris have been married for four years after a whirlwind romance. You are both happy and trying to navigate marriage in the public eye while balancing your successful careers. In the entertainment industry, not everything is as it seems, the flash of a camera lens impairs vision. As scandal and flashing lights put a strain on your once fairytale marriage is it possible your Hollywood marriage can stand the test of the rumor mill?
**Inspired by a video seen of Chris and his co-star Ana De Armas on their press tour for Knives Out at TIFF where she kept touching his chest and face standing about five inches apart.
NOTE: DO NOT COME FOR ME. THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION.
**Loosely Edited/Proofread**
Thank you guys for reading!!!! If you enjoyed this please LIKE, COMMENT, REBLOG. 😊❤️❤️
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Uriah-
You pushed off of him to an upright position, not sure you’d heard him right. “Say what!?”
Chris sat up as well and leaned on the headboard.
“Yeah. Abel, the detective, found that the video was doctored. It was spliced together using so many different audio clips dating back to when Knives Out was announced. She had someone doctor it to make it seem like it was me, or recent and current me.”
You were ready to claw her eyes out. “That bitch!”
Chris sighed. “That’s not it,” he began. He reached for your hand and brought you closer. You swung your leg over his lap and sat on his thighs, giving him your undivided attention.
“Remember the picture of her in the sweater?”
Clenching your jaw, you nodded. “The one from your room?”
He nodded. “You’re right—it was from my room.”
You gaped at him, ready to lunge at him, but you stopped yourself.
“She snuck in, stripped down, and posted it. Abel was able to get security footage from the hotel. She bribed one of the housekeeping staff. They let her in, and it was at the same time I was on call for press. The timestamp shows it. I’m thinking she knew it would set you off and create problems between us.”
You couldn’t believe what he was saying. This was insane. Why would someone go to these lengths?
“Wow.” You rubbed your forehead, trying to wrap your head around everything. Not only were you still grappling with everything that happened since the accident, including things with Christiano, but the babies and Chris’s downward spiral, but now this. “Oh my god.”
“The investigator uncovered a video from the hotel—and so much more.” Chris released a heavy breath then took your hand. “It all points to her, Riah.”
His fingers traced imaginary patterns on my hand and along the length of my fingers.
“And the text messages?” You couldn’t help yourself. Chris looked up from your hand and to your waiting eyes. The look on his face was an inquisitive one. “The ones between you and her about us,” you finished.
There was no look of shock; he just looked resolved, as if he somehow knew that you knew.
“How do you know about that?”
“I did something crazy,” you began before pausing to find the right way to explain.
It only took a few moments to forego any strategic plan and lay it out. So that is what you did. You explained your mission impossible operation with Kizzy and Zora a few weeks ago at Chris’s press junket. You explained being in the elevator to witness Ana’s blatant flirting. You explained, taking her purse and going through her phone to find out how devious she was. By the time you finished, the silence in the room was deafening. Chris hadn’t moved or spoken since you began. The look on his face was so masked and neutral that you couldn’t tell if he was on the brink of an angry outburst or a disappointed one.
Suddenly Chris snorted loudly then laughed obnoxiously, clapping his free hand across his chest. The laugh went on so long to the same caliber that you couldn’t help but join in. So the two of you sat there laughing together for several long minutes. Once both of you were laughed out, you just stared at each other.
“I can’t say that I’m surprised,” Chris started first, continuing to rub your hand. “I knew who I married.”
He sighed and shook his head. That was when you saw the remorse in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I should have told you about it all, but I didn’t want to hurt you or have you doubt me.”
Chris clenched his jaw then crinkled his brow. “In hindsight, I know it looked really suspicious. There are so many things I see now that I didn’t then. I shouldn’t have even had those text exchanges. It’s not her place to know anything small or not about our marriage. Jesus.” Chris took his hand away then raked it through his hair before locking his hands behind his neck—one of his frustrated ticks. His eyes were dropped to your thighs, and that’s where they remained.
“I’m sorry, Riah.”
His voice sounded clouded, and that was the only indication you needed to know his emotions were getting the better of him.
“I’ve been so stupid. So stupid,” he choked out.
“Baby.” You slid closer to him, grabbing his elbows to pull them down to rest on top of your thighs. “Look at me.”
You raised his chin so he was looking into your eyes. His tears stained his cheeks and welled his eyes. You’d wanted him to see the error of his ways so many times. You’d wished he could see it your way and understand, and now that he did, you should have felt vindicated, but you didn’t. There really were no winners when the family feuds.
Dropping your face into the crook of his neck, you inhaled his scent.
“I’m sorry, dragonfly,” Chris whispered, wrapping his arms around you holding you close. “So sorry.”
“Baby—look at me.”
He pulled back enough for you to peer into his eyes. As you caressed his cheek, you spoke.
“It’s okay. I—you--,” you sighed, then traced your thumb across his bottom lip. “I understand. There has been so much—pain, so much sorries and--.” Again you stopped for a few seconds.
“No more,” you finished.
Chris slowly nodded his head, grasping your meaning. He then kissed your thumb and nuzzled his bearded jaw into your palm. Though you wanted to move on, there was one more burning question, one more thing you had to know. Nibbling your bottom lip, you found your courage.
“Were—were you tempted?”
You couldn't look at him, so you kept your head down.
“What? Tempted? To do what?”
Meeting his eyes, you swallowed, then continued.
“Cheat,” you whispered.
Chris sat up straight, and he cupped your face within his large hands. His eyebrows were crooked with the intense, take me serious look he always got when he was about to say something important.
“Look at me. Never.”
You tried to look away, but he wouldn’t let you.
“Listen and hear me, Uriah, never, ever. I would never. I told you I married you for a reason. I had a plan. Forever and a day, Uriah. You promised me forever and a day, and I won’t stand for anything less. I’m collecting all of it. Forever and a day.”
Fighting the tears, you scoffed. “You were a jackass. When I tell you a woman wants you, don’t doubt me.”
Chris smiled and nodded. “I was. Never again. We don’t be here again. I’m going to be Pence from now on. You must be present at all times, or I’m not alone with any women.”
You busted out laughing, and for the first time, you didn’t feel the heaviness of the last few weeks. It felt almost normal, like the two of you were on your way. Chris kissed you once, then twice before resting his forehead to yours.
“We have to nail her ass to the wall,” you declared, staring into his eyes.
“Oh, definitely. What did you have in mind, Mrs. Evans?”
“You didn’t file the papers?”
Chris scoffed, then rolled his eyes.
“I don’t know who you think I am, but you’re gonna have to try harder than divorce papers to get rid of me, Dragonfly.”
Again you smiled. “So whatever I want, you won’t be the voice of sympathy?”
“Whatever you want, kitten,” Chris replied, kissing the tip of your nose, making your belly flutter in the process.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m so happy that you’re okay, sweetheart,” your mother said as she pulled you into a group hug with your father.
“I’ll be okay, mom.”
Your father cupped your cheek, taking the time to inspect your face. You knew he wasn’t looking for physical harm. He was realizing how close he’d come to losing you, how he’d failed you. You could tell. When Chris had called them to update them, they instantly wanted to hear your voice. When they did, they broke, and that breaking turned to shattered when everything came out.
You’d spent two hours on the phone with them, listening to them apologize and blame themselves for putting so much trust in Christiano. They felt horrible for never suspecting that he would stoop so low. They begged you not to hate them, begged you to forgive them. It was easy to promise them you weren't angry because you understood. You didn’t blame them or hold a grudge for them not doing more. They had no idea who Christiano really was—you didn’t either. The only one who ever saw him for who he was, was Chris.
“I’m so sorry, Uriah. As your father, I should have done more to keep you away from him.”
“Daddy, don’t. There is nothing you could have done. You did the best with what the information you had—you all did,” you assured, looking around at the faces of everyone you loved, both your family and Chris’s.
Lisa approached and pulled you into another hug. You could feel her tears.
“I’m okay, I promise.”
“I am so happy that you are.” Her hand dropped to your bump, and she smiled. “That you all are.”
Just like that, the waterworks started again, and everyone huddled around you, everyone but Chris, who was standing back most likely watching with a cheesy smile on his face. When they released you, your guess was correct. Chris smiled, then winked at you.
“So how are we getting those sons of bitches?”
All eyes snapped to Zora, who looked as if she was ready to rip out a heart and eat it.
“Down girl—Chris has already laid the groundwork,” you said.
“And it was easy, just play into that colossal ego of his,” Chris finished, kissing my temple.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Chris-
MSG Love Of My Life: Remember, don’t let him goad you. He’s going to try.
He scoffed; it was an understatement.
MSG: I’m good. He can’t get me to because I have what he doesn’t, and I know something he doesn’t.
MSG Love Of My Life: You do have me. Forever and a day, my love. <Kiss emoji, heart emoji>
MSG: You should have let me go with you. I don’t like you’re alone.
MSG Love Of My Life: I’m not alone. I have my parents, Kizzy, Zora, your sisters, your mom, our lawyers. I am far from alone.
MSG: You know what I mean.
MSG Love Of My Life: I don’t think I could relive it all with you next to me anyway. It’s better this way. I’ll see you soon. Remember what I said. <Kiss>
He sighed and tried to push aside the guilt he felt. He wanted to be with you, holding your hand. You’d gone through too much alone, and all he wanted to do now was protect you.
MSG Scott: Need me to come up?
MSG: Nah, I can handle this.
MSG Scott: Okay.
He slipped his phone back into his pocket and stared out over the canyons and LA down below. It was a beautiful sight, one he liked a lot but not better than the changing leaves of Autumn in Massachusetts. He would never choose LA over them. It was, however, a good change of pace, but it staled quickly. Standing here, it was easy to forget the chaos of the last few months. Easy to forget that merely days ago, he’d thought his life was over, and it would never be the same.
“I can’t believe you suggested this. What, you’re a glutton for punishment? That’s cool; I don’t mind helping you with that.”
The sound of his voice was enough to make him want to turn around swinging, then drag him to the edge and kick him off Sparta style. He didn’t deserve to live, not after what he’d done to you. He clenched his jaw and tightened his fist, and slowly released a breath. Once he was sure he had some sort of control over his reflexes, he turned. Christiano looked as smug as ever. He’d never wanted to take a life, but right now, right here, he thought of at least ten ways in under one minute. They all involved pain.
“So, what air is there to clear?”
He clenched his jaw before he spoke.
“She’s still my wife.”
“Ah, ah, ah, according to those divorce papers she sent over, even that is limited time. Face it man; you’ve lost. I’ve won. I always win. I always get what I want, no matter what. It’s hilarious to me that you thought swooping into her life like that and marrying her on a whim would have changed things. Uriah has always been mine. She was always meant to be mine.”
His hatred for the man in front of him was already at toxic levels. He had no idea how it was possible for it to increase. Staring at him and hearing the venom he just spewed did the trick.
“So, this is just a game to you? This is her life—this is our life. All of this is for what?”
“To win what’s rightfully mine. I’m Christiano White. I get what I want when I want it, and that includes women. No one takes what’s mine. No one, and she’s mine!”
The smugness on his face was the most upsetting thing. He didn’t care hearing him profess fake ownership. He didn’t even care that Christiano thought he had so much privilege that he would get away with his insane plane. Even the thought that him being Christiano White meant jack shit. What really got to him was the fact he’d done this to prove some stupid, sick point. He’d played with his life, your life, and the life of his children for the sake of winning. He stepped to Christiano, ready to push his ass off the cliff, but before he touched him, the thought of you and those innocent babies flashed into his mind. There was no way he’d do this to you guys, he thought.
Gathering some calm, he stepped back. Christiano chuckled.
“Thay’s right. Recognize when you’ve lost, and oh, have you lost. Let me tell you how bad you’ve lost. She was in my bed, letting me touch her, kiss her, please her. She shouted my name, over and over. Not yours.”
He scoffed. “You sure? My name’s Chris. Did she say, Christiano?”
The smirk on Christiano’s face slipped, and rage replaced it. It was a small piece of satisfaction, but it was worth it, especially since he knew for a fact you’d called his name—Chris and not the latter. Though your brain didn’t remember him, your subconscious did, your heart did, your soul did. There was no room for anyone else. He nearly laughed in Christiano’s face because it had taken him this long to grasp that fully. There had only ever been you and him.
“You only have yourself to blame. Who would dare cheat on Uriah? Who would think to replace a diamond with a pebble? You’re an idiot,” Christiano jabbed before he laughed out. “Don’t worry, once we’re married, things will be better for her.”
“How do you plan on getting married if we’re still legally married?”
For the second time, the smile Christiano wore slipped. He looked around as if he expected someone to come out.
“For now,” Christiano scoffed, rolling his eyes.
He couldn’t help but smile when he saw you walking up behind Christiano. Catching on, he spun around.
“Babe, what’re—what’re you doing here? I thought we were meeting tonight.”
Christiano approached you with his arms out, but you walked past him to his waiting arms instead. Once he wrapped his arm around your waist, you kissed his lips, then turned to Christiano, who looked confused, angry, and a few other emotions he most likely hadn’t put together yet.
“For always,” you said.
“What the fuck!”
“Surprise,” he said, slipping his hand down to your hip. Christiano’s eyes dropped to his hand before he clenched his jaw. The annoyance from minutes ago was worth it.
“What was the plan, Christiano? It’s bigamy to be married to two people at once. Our marriage would have been null in void. What was the goal!?”
Christiano took a step to you, making him grip your hip tighter, ready to get in between you.
“I’m better than him. I’m richer, I look better, and I’m better in bed. Admit it, Riah. I don’t lose to men like him. I wasn’t done with you,” Christiano confessed with bitterness in his voice.
You pulled from him, taking a step to Christiano. “So you decided to turn me into a pawn! You decided to lie to me, manipulate me and—rape me?!”
“Shut up, I didn’t--,” he began before you cut him off.
“Yes, you did! I was not of sound mind. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t even know who I was. You knew. You fucking knew, and you used that and stole from me. Admit it!”
Sensing things were about to go south, he stepped between the two of you, pulling back to a safe distance.
“That’s right, fuck it! Yes, I did all of that. I’ll admit it. Yes, I manipulated you to get what I wanted. I couldn’t lose to this dick. I couldn’t let you go. I wouldn’t. I did what was necessary. I took what was mine, and I don’t regret it. I’d do it again.”
That was all he could stomach before he turned and decked him with all the force he possessed. Christiano dropped to the dirt and writhed for a few moments before he slowly stood laughing like a lunatic with the blood dripping from his nose.
“You’re insane. You tried to kill my children because I ended things and found better?”
“There is no better than me!”
He spread his arms out, not caring where the blood that spewed from him went. “Uriah, you know you love me. You loved the feel of a real man between your legs. Just tell him.”
Glancing at you, he realized you were crying now.
“I can’t believe you’d do this to me. I can’t believe you’d hurt me this way.”
He wrapped his arms around you, hoping to comfort you in some way. Looking back at Christiano, he was in time to see him charging toward him. He quickly moved you out of the way and threw a punch that connected with Christiano’s jaw. Instead of going down, Christiano lunged at him, gripping him around his waist, trying to bring him down to the ground. He almost laughed. Sending his knee into his gut, he spun and put Christiano in a chokehold keeping him there.
It was then a group of police officers came running toward them.
“Look at that. You lost, not just once, but twice and now—a third.”
He wanted to snap his neck, and thinking of everything he’d put them through, he almost did. Two officers ran up to him, both of them taking Christiano by his arms.
“We’ve got it from here.”
Reluctantly he let Christiano go and allowed the law to take the wheel. Going to you, he cupped your cheeks and wiped your tears.
“I’m here.”
You hugged him, and he just held you. There was no need for words.
-That Night-
“I love you.”
Those words were like music to his ears. There was a time he didn’t think he’d ever hear them again. Gently pulling your head back, he peered into your eyes while caressing your cheek. He loved seeing you like this with your hair free, hovered over him, with the moon as your backdrop.
“I love you more,” he whispered.
“Forever and a day?”
He smiled, remembering your promises, and pressed his forehead to yours. “Forever and a day, dragonfly.”
You kissed him softly, taking the time to tease his lips, nibbling his bottom one before burying your face in the crook of his neck as you rocked against him, sending him higher and higher until he felt as if his soul left his body.
“Uriah!”
It felt like he was no longer in his body but instead hovering overhead like a fly watching your bodies entangled together. There was no other sight he loved as much. You rolled off of him and found your place beside him, resting your head on his chest, right over his heart. You both sighed.
“After this is done, let’s go back to Massachusetts full time,” you quietly said after a few minutes.
“What?” he turned to look at you, needing to see if you meant it.
“Do you mean that?”
“Yeah. I never wanted to raise kids in LA, and you know I love Massachusetts. Let’s have these babies in the house you built for us,” you added.
He couldn’t believe his ears. It wasn’t that you’d ever expressed not wanting to live in Massachusetts full time; it was that he knew how much of your career was still in LA. With him, he was spending less and less time here, but you, it seemed it was more and more.
“How is that going to work with your career?”
You rolled slightly onto your side, then trailed your hand across his chest down his stomach to rest nonchalantly atop his manhood. Groaning, he wrapped one of his arms under his head.
“I’m taking a few years off.”
The shock had his junk jumping in your hand, making a wide smile spread across your face. “Wow, talk about talent,” you teased.
He rolled you onto your back and climbed on top of you, nestling himself between your spread thighs.
“Don’t play with me, Mrs. Evans.”
You smiled widely as you fondled him with one hand. Not being strong enough to have this conversation while you did that, he grabbed your hand and pressed it over your head, gripping you at your wrist.
“No fair,” you pouted.
“Say that again.”
You smiled, clearly loving that fact he was hanging by a flimsy piece of thread.
“I said I’m taking a few years off.”
He couldn’t stop his grin. “Really?”
“Yeah. What do you think? Would you want that?”
“You’re kidding. Of course, yes! It would be just the two of us day in, day out. No movie sets, no studio time, no photoshoots.”
“Eh-em, excuse you. You mean just the five of us,” you corrected.
It didn’t take him long to get it. You, him, babies, and Dodger.
“I love you, Mrs. Evans.”
“I love you, Mr. Evans.”
You kissed him once, then twice before your hands roamed down his back to grip his ass, making him moan and chuckle at the same time. He’d missed this and you.
“Hang on, baby; I gotta--,” he began.
“Ah, that after nut pee calls, huh. Fine. Go ahead. I'll just be here, pregnant and horny.”
He snorted and rolled off of you before hurrying to the bathroom.
“Oh, I’m coming back, cause—that sounds like a very pressing situation that needs my undivided attention.”
You giggled as he dipped into the bathroom. He hurried to the toilet and tried his best to aim properly but an erection and peeing straight made for a tricky situation. Once he’d gotten the hang of it and the common sense to curve his body a little, he was good and groaned long and loud as he relieved himself. The silence in the bathroom gave him the time to fully react to the prospect of moving back to Massachusetts full time for the next few years. He couldn’t wait. Life was about to change for the better.
Once finished, he flushed and washed his hands before stepping back into the room. He expected you to be lying on the bed, waiting for him, but the bed was empty. Thinking you might have found your way to the kitchen for a snack, he pulled his pajama pants off the floor and pulled them on before he walked out of the bedroom. He’d recently discovered that after sex, you craved something from the fridge. He walked down the hall leading to the staircase, but before he got there, a chill ran down his spine. It was this chill and almost like a psychic feeling that had him stop.
When he turned, there you stood in your pale pink kimono robe with Christiano behind you. His hand was around your neck, clasping it.
“What the--.” He made a move toward them, but Christiano pulled out a gun and pointed it to your stomach.
“I wouldn’t,” he began before he cocked the weapon. “Or I will pull this trigger, and there goes Evan Jr.”
Terror as he’d never felt before gripped his heart. “You wouldn’t risk her life.”
Christiano shoved the barrel of the gun more forcefully into your stomach, making you whimper loudly.
“Wouldn’t I? what’s the point of keeping her safe now? For her to end up with you? I think the fuck not!” Again he shoved the gun into you.
“Okay, hey, hey, stop. Don’t do this. Please.”
“Please?” Christiano snorted and pulled you more firmly against him. “Are you begging me finally? You’ve always been underneath me. I couldn’t understand why she would choose you over me. I’m better in every category.”
He nodded, with his hands raised.
“You’re right. You’re the better man, the better choice,” he agreed, deciding to play along and say whatever he wanted if it meant Uriah had a chance of getting away from him. He quickly tried to formulate a plan while he used his words to buy himself as much time as possible.
“I know! So why him, Uriah!?”
You remained quiet, tears streaming down your cheeks.
“Answer me! You better answer me with the truth, or I swear I’ll pull this trigger.”
“Answer hi, Dragonfly. It’s okay. Forever and a day.”
You scrunched your face and watched fresh heartbreak wash over you. “I—I fell in love with him, Tino. My soul recognized his as my home. It could only ever be him,” you replied. He signaled to you using his eyes and slight movements of his head, and he hoped you understood them.
He watched Christiano squeeze your neck tighter and press the gun more persistently into you, and he said a silent prayer.
“Fine,” Christiano began. He saw the moment when it all changed for him, and his threats no longer were empty words. “If I can’t have you. No one can.”
“Now, Riah!”
You threw your head back, colliding yours with his in a vicious headbutt that sent Christiano staggering backward a few steps and you stumbling before falling to the floor. In the chaos, Christiano dropped the gun allowing him to leap forward for the gun. In seconds Christiano was on him, fighting him for it. He tried to pull it from his clutches while turning it away from him or Uriah, but there was no fury like a man who’d lost everything.
Christiano managed to wrangle the gun from his grasp and pointed it to Uriah. In the blink of an eye, he knew what had to be done—the only thing he could do. Locking eyes with you, he said the only thing that mattered.
“I love you.”
He then dove for Christiano tracking him into the banister railing with enough force that broke it, sending both of them over the edge and down two and a half stories to the hard marble floor beneath. He could hear your piercing scream right before they collided with the floor, but once they made impact, the gun went off, and again Uriah screamed.
“Chris!”
~~~~~~~~~
-Uriah-
It all had happened in such a way that it was in slow motion but sped up. You couldn’t register anything until it was all said and done. You scurried to the banister and looked down. Neither of them moved, and your heart stopped. Gasping, you tried to remind your brain to send the signal for you to breathe. After a few seconds, you coughed while trying to hurry down the stairs. The tears in your eyes made it difficult to see what was in front of you, so you stumbled down the stairs. If it weren’t for your gripping the railing as you descended, you were sure you would have tumbled.
Once down to them, you dropped to your knees beside them and pulled at Chris’s body. He wasn’t moving.
“Oh god, Chris!”
He didn’t respond, and his body felt like dead weight. Your tears flowed more freely as you managed to roll him off. Once you had, you were able to see that it was Christiano who was shot and not Chris. Relief filled you, and you shook him more forcefully.
“Chris! Wake up, please. Please don’t leave me. Chris!”
Suddenly he erupted into a fit of choughs before they died down.
“Why are you always shouting at me, woman!?”
You gasped again. “Oh my god! You scared the shit out of me.”
“I’m okay. I think,” he informed while trying to sit up. He then began examining you.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
He then gripped his head as he groaned out, but it wasn’t long before he was moving toward you to pull you into his arms, not caring that he was covered in blood.
“Is he—is he dead?”
Chris leaned back to check Christiano’s pulse, then lowered his head. “Very dead.”
You clasped your hands over your mouth. “Oh my god. He—he tried--.”
Chris pulled you into him and hugged you tightly. “Come here. It’s okay.”
Somehow he managed to slide both of you from the body on the floor toward the wall. He held you tightly, then spoke.
“I don’t think I’ll call you crazy again after this.”
It was probably inappropriate, but you snorted then laughed, a laugh he joined in on. As suddenly as the laughter began, it ended.
“They’re crazy.”
“Bat shit,” Chris replied.
Any humor to be found in the situation was gone, and it turned into you crying in his shoulder, going through all the emotions from the entire night. There had been so much pain, so much destruction. You’d come close to losing everything more than once, and the culprit was lying dead on the floor before you. It was overwhelming, but somehow, you felt steeled to the fact that you’d just watched someone die.
You glanced over to Chris at the same moment he looked at you. He wiped the tears from your cheeks then spoke.
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” He then lowered his lips to your forehead and held you close.
Ten minutes later, the sirens of the police, ambulance, and fire trucks could be heard as they surrounded your property. The officers instantly took yours and Chris’s statements and any evidence lying around to prove what the two of you were professing, including the security footage. The EMS workers quickly covered Christiano’s body with a sheet as they rolled him into a body bag then pushed the gurney out of the house. You barely registered anything. Chris did most of the talking, not leaving one thing out. When they asked you about the events of the night, you stuttered and quickly became frazzled as everything finally caught up to you. That was when the detective Chris hired suggested meeting at the police station to continue, which would allow him to reveal his findings in his investigation.
After a quick change, you were sitting in the passenger side of Chris’s car as he drove you to the precinct. Your mind raced a mile a minute, but your lips remained zipped. The feel of Chris’s hand on your thigh was your tangible evidence that this was reality and not some soap opera plot. When you arrived at the precinct, the detective in charge of the case questioned you from the very beginning to the night's events. You did your best to remain calm and emotionless and were surprised that you didn’t feel the shame you’d felt about the entire situation prior to this night.
When the detective revealed new information divulged to him, from the detective Chris hired, about Christiano and what he’d truly been up to and how deep his plans really went, you could hardly stomach it. He’d secured another property in Russia and planned to bring you there. The way the information was revealed, it seemed like he planned on keeping you captive there. Hearing that, you almost passed out. Chris, on the other hand, looked like he was ready to kill Christiano again.
The questioning took a full hour, and at the end of it, you were exhausted and ready to put this entire thing behind you after dealing with Ana. With Chris’s arm around your waist, you walked out of the detective’s office onto the precinct's open floor. A loud scream brought your attention to several officers pulling Ana through with her hands cuffed behind her back.
“I demand you let me go. Do you know who I am!? I swear to god, I will have your badge, and you’ll never be a fucking cop again!”
“Wow, the mouth on her,” one of the officers teased.
“To think we found her hot in that Bond movie,” another piped up.
“Fuck you!”
You and Chris approached, curious as to what was going on. You hadn’t expected to see her until tomorrow when you and Chris executed the second part of your plan of confronting her while recording it to release it to the world, showing everyone who and what she really was. It would have been a one-two hit that she wouldn’t recover from. Her career would have been over.
“It’s been a big night,” the detective who’d just interviewed you said, standing beside you.
“I don’t understand. What’s going on? Why’s she here?”
“Your detective gave us plenty of information. By the way, impressive man, you should think about keeping him on your payroll. Anyway, we followed his leads, and it led right to her and her assistant, specifically her assistant’s car. This one took her assistant’s car and was the one behind the wheel when she ran into you. The traffic cams show it was an intentional hit.”
You saw red.
“What!”
“She tried to kill you,” Abel, the private detective, added, coming up beside Chris.
“What’s more, there were messages between her and Christiano White.”
Both yours and Chris’s heads spun to him to the police detective this time to find him nodding with a look on his face that said even he hadn’t encountered anything this bizarre before.
“They concocted this whole scheme together, beginning with the pictures of her in that eat shit sweater. This was set up with them. there is even evidence Christiano was poisoning you, Mrs. Evans.”
“Jesus,” Chris hissed.
You remained utterly silent and still letting Abel’s words fully process. It was a lot of information, but it was also vindication that you were in no shape or form crazy.
“Wh—what does all this mean?”
“It means she’s going to face a judge on a slew of charges that are quite serious. I can assure you both; there is no easy way of her getting out of any of this. No amount of money or connections will fix it. Her career is over,” the detective finished.
You both were speechless, and looking at Chris, he was too. You and Chris were led to somewhere you could sit for a few minutes to receive the paperwork for the night’s incident and the new information. While sitting, you used the time to catch your breath and wrap your head around everything. Neither of you could believe all you’d gone through. The more you thought about it, the more your confusion increased. One burning questioned remained. Why?
About ten minutes later, you and Chris were led toward the exit, but you caught sight of Ana to your right. You would have walked on, but the way she glared at you had you changing your mind in seconds. You let go of Chris’s hand and walked over to her.
“I have to know. Why? What was the point!?”
Ana bolted to her feet as if she planned to do something, but the officer behind her grabbed her arm, holding her to ensure she didn’t try anything. You weren’t worried.
“You don’t deserve anything you have. The fame, the popularity, and opportunities you don’t deserve any of it, especially Chris. He was supposed to be mine. That baby was supposed to be mine!”
You could hear the poison in her voice and see the sheer hatred for you shining brightly in her eyes. She truly meant this though she didn’t know one thing about you.
“You’re crazy as fuck. I hope it was worth it.” You reached back for Chris’s hand, knowing he was behind you. Lacing your fingers with his, you showed her all that her efforts had produced, then turned and began walking away.
“You low-grade black bitch!
In your head, you heard blaring sirens. The sound became so loud in a matter of seconds it had somewhat of a mind-altering effect. Chris released your hand as if he knew what was going to happen. You turned back to her and saw red.
“Oh I’ll show you how low grade this black bitch is!”
You ran to her, then tackled her to the floor. Once on top of her, you swung punch after punch, each slamming into her face. You didn’t care where they landed, didn’t care how hard you were hitting her either. There was a lesson she needed to learn, and the only way to learn it was getting her ass beat the right way—the black way. You felt hands trying to pull you off of her, but you were not having it. You held on to her hair, so when they tried to move you, they really helped you bald the bitch.
“See, I never learned to share when I was young! I’m—an—only—child!” With each enunciated word, you emphasized it with a punch. Ana’s screams were loud, but they weren’t louder than those alarms still sounding off in your head. Though she tried to fight back, it was futile, though.
“Learn this bitch! Don’t,” you dropped a punch to her nose. “Touch,” you slapped her with your open hand. “What,” you slapped her again, this time with the back of your hand. “is mine!”
From then, no one else tried to pull you off of her. You suspected it was Chris warning them. You managed to get off a few more punches when you were finally pulled off.
“Let me go!”
“Okay, calm down, Adonis Creed, that’s enough,” Chris shouted, trying to break through to you. You still struggled trying to get back to her, but Chris refused to let you go until you calmed down. You looked at Ana on the floor. She was barely moving, and her face was a bloody mess with several patches of her dark hair sprinkled around her. Satisfaction filled you. Raising your hand, you assured Chris you were good. Slowly he let you go, and you stooped down to her.
“Look at me.”
You waited for her writhing to stop and for her bloody, swollen eyes to land on you.
“Remember my name for the rest of your pathetic life. Remember that I’m that bitch!”
You grabbed her hair and held her head. “Try this shit again; you gonna lose your life.”
With that, you punched her one more time, knocking her clear out. Everyone around the precinct shouted out a collective “ooh.” You stood and walked away as they all cleared your path, most likely thinking you were crazy. Chris came beside you, took your hand, and walked back to the car with you. Once inside, you both sat there, silently processing everything. Five minutes passed in silence until you spoke.
“She did all this over dick, Chris. Dick,” you said in disbelief as you shook your head.
“I mean—my dick is A1.”
Your head spun to him. “Christopher!”
He laughed out loud while holding his hands up in defeat.
“Hey, don’t beat my ass too, I don’t want none,” Chris joked, making you laugh a little.
“Wow, remind me not to piss you off again. I don’t want any of what she got.”
You fake lunged at him with your still bloodied fists. “Don’t start none, won’t be none.”
Both of you erupted with laughter before you embraced, relishing in the feeling of togetherness and your love. It was finally over; you thought as Chris pressed a soft kiss to your neck.
“Let’s get the fuck out of this town,” Chris suggested. You snorted and nodded.
“Let’s go home.”
Knowing where you meant, Chris smiled and kissed you once, then twice.
“Let’s,” he whispered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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#rumor has it fic#Chris Evans#chris evans fanfiction#chris evans x reader#chris evans x you#chris evans x black reader#chris evans x black ofc#chris evans x ofc uriah#black fanfiction#angst fanfic
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𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍
The acting was excellently done by Chris Hemsworth and most of the children used in this film. It well depicts the action scenes with graphic injuries that not only look real, but Chris Hemsworth also acted really well acting like he was genuinely hurt throughout the movie. The entire idea and concept of this movie to try and save this boy, even after being told not to, just shows even further that when a man has nothing to lose, pain means nothing. The would-be hero is obviously a seasoned veteran of a violent business and foreign military service. ‘Tyler Rake’ discusses having served multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan, but the character’s handling of weapons and hand-to-hand combat style strongly suggests special operations training and experience. To his credit, Chris Hemsworth does a phenomenal job of portraying a veteran expert of close-quarters battle techniques with long guns, handguns, knives, and weapons of opportunity.
This film represents a different approach to the classic story of rivaling criminals and the people caught in the middle. Instead of focusing on the crime lords, however, the film centers on an abducted son and the grief-stricken mercenary determined to obtain personal absolution through the protection and deliverance of the boy.
When it comes to the setting which is the nations of the eastern Indian Ocean region, the scenery and cities provide new and exciting settings for most Western viewers. The idea of a mercenary for hire is not unfamiliar, but the provided glimpses into the corporate and operational sides of that industry is a welcomed change.
All in all, the film is a full-throttle action flick from the get-go but paced with just enough dramatic pauses to keep the viewer from becoming exhausted by the tempo. Certain realities must be suspended, as they do for all fictional Hollywood tales, and once that’s accepted the viewer is guaranteed to enjoy the feature. My only complaints are the extreme amounts of abuse the human body is demonstrated to be able to endure and yet still function at impressive levels, and the unbelievable reliability of the communications equipment utilized.
written by: HANNAH AGIR
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