Disclaimer: I own LTM, yes. Well, only in my head, but still. My head, my show, ok?

A/N: This piece started as a collaboration inspired, enabled and even polished (very polished) by my dear kiwi friend Pjstillnoon, but then it flew solo, it claimed its own space, which I wasn't really planning on giving, even when she insisted for a whole solid minute… But then I thought again and since I love to share, here it is, knock yourselves out guys.

So, without further ado I give you my latest shameless invention and probably the longest one shot ever. Laugh if you want to, I certainly did while I was writing it.

Nostalgia and glasses

My inspiration

"Move in with me," Cal's gentle voice caressed over her lips.

Pjstillnoon -"Requiem and Sarrow: Secui Duos."

My version

Quiero por los dos mi copa alzar

That one was easy. I want. Something… Cal paused and thought. 'I want to... raise my cup? No glass, for both... of us.' That was it!

Para borrar mi obstinación...

To... erase... No! No, it was to wipe out, yeah that was it. My… My… what?... ob... nope. Cal rubbed his eyes. "Stubbornness!" He said aloud as it came to him.

¡Y más la vuelvo a recordar!
'And so I remember her...' now he was getting it! It sort of was coming back to him. He stared into space for a moment… God yeah, he remembered her. His stomach flipped. 'All right focus!'

Nostalgias. De escuchar su risa loca

Of listening to her... crazy laugh. 'Drives me bloody crazy.'

Y sentir junto a mi boca,

And feeling... He could close his eyes and almost feel her... almost.

Como un fuego, su respiración.

"Fire? Hmmmm... yep, fire and her breath" No, no that wasn't right. Cal checked again. Yes, it was her breath. And yeah, he could feel that too if he closed his eyes. His burning eyes. He was making progress but bloody hell it was slow going. Cal opened his eyes again and looked over that he had so far.

I want to raise my glass for both of us

To wipe out my stubbornness

And so I remember her even more

Nostalgias, of listening to her crazy laugh

And feeling by my mouth, like fire, her breath

"Works for me," Cal spoke aloud again but he got up from the desk in frustration. It probably wouldn't work too well for a native Spanish speaker but it was good enough for him to make his point. It had been longer than he cared to remember since he took a crash course in Spanish while at the Pentagon. It was a language he had never mastered to speak but could handle decently enough when it came to listening. It musically pleased him quite a bit and intrigued him even more. His ability to understand the language spoken wasn't enough to make a decent translator out of him though, and he would be damned if he was going to ring up Torres and ask for her help.

Cal lifted the messy stacks of paper on his desk. He opened every drawer, looked under and around and behind every little thing that decorated his desk, every frame, every book, every journal. He even moved the large African styled lamp, which he had never dusted in a million years, but even taking his desk apart and putting it back together, he didn't find his lost glasses. Nothing.

"Where the bloody hell are they?" He mused to himself. He couldn't continue to work without them. He was getting a headache from squinting at the screen of his laptop. He had been working on translating the song for the last hour. He had to squint at the thesaurus too for way too long for his taste and it was resulting in a pounding at his temples.

But he was determined for two reasons: it was a distraction, hopefully…and the lyrics really meant something to him because of their intensity, and how much they reminded him of Gillian, or to be precise, the effect Gillian had on him.

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Cal stormed the quiet house. He went to the kitchen first because he knew that he had been in there fixing himself some breakfast. He would never admit that that was when his nostalgia for her began again. It kicked him harder than the insomniac the night before. It had killed him a little to notice that it wasn't pleasant at all to make breakfast for one when the still vivid memory of yesterday morning was all about the breakfast he made for them and that he served in bed in the most lovely and sexy of manners, for her. Who looked sleepy, which was cute as hell, but also radiant.

Nor was he going to ponder over the fact that when that memory hit him, an acid bad mood started to creep on him. Cranky Cal had showed his face today and was determined to ruin his – forced upon him – and so very, very lonely Sunday morning.

This morning felt dull, grey, empty without her, with just the memory of her, of them, here, in his kitchen, in his couch, in his bedroom, his bathroom, all over the house. The only room that seemed to smell slightly less of her was his study, so he decided to confine himself in there until he could stop thinking about her for five straight minutes. That was his new self assigned mission impossible. Besides, he knew that Emily was going to be around for dinner later, and probably a little before that to spend some quality time with her old man and he definitely didn't want to spoil her visit by parading around his 'fuck off!' mood of the day. He needed a time killer. And translating the song was meant to sooth. Not aggravate him further.

Although, after spending the first ten minutes in his study he realised that his little plan was bound to fail. So he changed his approach to a more 'shock therapy' kind of deal. He planned to exorcise his Gillian centric musings by translating that song for her. The last time he had sung for her the results had been pretty damn amazing and... arousing... 'Don't go there Cal.' He considered that if he thought of her profusely while he translated the song 'Why fight the inevitable?', he was going to just think her out of his system.

Seriously, who did he think he was kidding?

His thoughts had wandered to surprising her with a bouquet of pink tulips to convince her of spending the rest of the weekend together, maybe the three of them going out, if she wanted to, instead of what she all ready had planned... He had severely braced himself for how totally corny and desperately needy that looked, especially on him but... Yep, Gill was the death of him, there was no doubt about it. And damn! He was a happy casualty whenever she was around!

He even thought about bribing her sweet tooth with some kind of yummy dessert. Baking it even. Yeah baking it. Cal Lightman was thinking of baking his way back into Gillian's tight schedule which so far did not include him! Anything but having her fly out of town to visit her pathetic college friend Casey,who just happened to be back in the States for only this weekend. Wasn't that just fucking awesome? The same weekend he had envisioned something completely different for them. He had all ready made room in his closet for all her stuff and had bought her an engraved keychain with the words: "LOVE, TRUTH, HAPPINESS AND ALL THAT."

'Great, just great! Must be my lousy karma…' Cal sighed. 'I mean really, how on earth did you end up so... all right... no more on that train of thought, Cal. Just focus on the bloody song, that will do... for now...'

This meant finding his damned glasses. He took the kitchen apart looking. 'Shit! I can't believe it!' He was sure they had been in the kitchen. He went to the living room. 'Where are those bloody pieces of shit! I might as well close my fucking eyes for all I can see...'

He didn't really plan on only partially succeeding at translating the song.

Nor did he plan on failing miserably at escaping from the claws of his obsession about Gillian after doing so. Said obsession went beyond the lyrics and the memories, it was all about not having her.

It had occurred to him –in not his brightest moment- that thinking too much of her during the intensive translation session would help him, because after that he was gonna be over it. Right?

Nope, it backfired. He was even more infatuated with her then before the translation, because it only served to remind him that she wasn't there, that he loved everything about her being there and that it hurt him and infuriated him that she, not only wasn't but,had in fact chosen not to be.

He was battling between blaming it on Gillian or on 'Katy, Carrie…whatever, that … thief.'

He was also trying very hard to ignore that little voice in the back of his mind nagging him about how immature and even ridiculous he was being towards the whole situation. The annoying voice kept ranting on how he was sort of taking a step backwards, after spending a long time getting to a certain point where he could really open up to her and have a healthy relationship with her in the aftermath of her ill-fated encounter with Sophie and her consequent emotional breakdown.

After his insane jealousy took the better of him and almost broke them apart for good. Fortunately it had actually brought them even closer, but he knew that it wasn't his own doing, it was hers.

He didn't quite anticipate either that an hour of uninterrupted laptop time after a sleepless night was going to cost him a now splitting headache, which was exacerbated by the fact that his glasses where nowhere to be found when he needed them the most. He crossed the living room and caught his toe on the edge of the coffee table.

'You've got to be fucking kidding me!' Cal tripped hard, fell harder and cursed louder.

After about fifteen seconds of uninterrupted British/American/unintelligible cussing, he got up and limped his way to the couch. He rubbed is toe, trying to help dispel the aching, and then his elbow where it had struck the floor. Then he got up again and roamed around the living room with a few extra cusses while he kept looking for his glasses. After that he took a couple of deep breaths and got his act together to bring himself to dial her number without smashing the phone into the wall,-smashing tiems? maybe later- and also sound collected enough for Gillian to not notice, at least easily, his current manic-aggressive mood. All the while his big toe was starting to swell fast and his entire right arm was pounding even more than his temples.

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"Hey luv," Cal responded after she had picked up. 'Breathe, just breathe.'

"Hey Cal!" She sounded excited. "I was thinking about you. Sleep well?"

"Like a baby." 'A bloody insomniac baby.'

"Great!" She was over enthusiastic and Cal knew he had been had. "I'm glad. I actually didn't sleep so well myself, you know? I had a hard time finding the right way to curl up and my pillow smells like you so... I kept thinking about you, which kept me awake for at least a couple of hours past my bedtime." She kept her tone light, conversational, like she was quite possibly reading out the TV guide listings.

Cal gave a mild groan into the phone, picturing her in bed. Gillian smiled, knowing that would be his exact response to her words. Cal took a seat on the couch again and composed himself. "Gill, luv, I slept all night long, didn't even dream about you, and I'm glad your second attempt at a 'night apart' blew up in your face and in your bed."

"Well that was mean and a complete lie. Are you grumpy? Did you miss me?" She asked sweetly.

"No," Cal grumped.

"Is that why you called me Cal?" Her tone was a mix between purposefully light, tense, teasing and annoyed. "To lecture me about my decision to spend just one night away from you so I could get some sleep and be refreshed to see my friend who flew all the way from Germany to attend that lame social event nobody cares about, and that you know for a fact would bore you to tears, just to be in the same country as me for a couple of days? She went on and on. "How could I possibly say no to her request of flying up to Philadelphia after that? Not to mention we haven't seen each other in ages. Cal, really…This shouldn't be such a big deal! C'mon!"

His thoughts rambled about how it was almost worth hearing her get agitated, just so he could listen to her voice.

She tried to reason with him, once again, this time sounding more collected: "Besides, my place is much closer to the airport and you know very well that if you had stayed last night like you wanted to, we wouldn't have slept at all, I mean…Wasn't Friday night proof enough?"

Cal smirked. "Actually, no darlin'."

"No? What do you mean no? I still have the carpet burn to prove it. And I'm pretty sure you would still have the scratches from my fingernails on your back."

Cal smirked even harder and felt his groin twitch while he remembered that particular evening. Yeah he did still have the scratches. "Maybe you could come ova and show me your evidence? Where was it again? Your arse?"

"The back of my hip," Gillian corrected tersely.

"Actually that wasn't why I called."

"Oh."

Awkward silence.

Cal chuckled lightly to himself. Now who was grumpy?

"Why… why did you call me then, Cal?"

"Missed you."

"Aw… that's sweet," her tone was back to light.

"And I was wonderin' if I left my glasses at your place yesterday. I remember hangin' there for awhile before you started packin' like you meant it and …"

"Oh, you mean while you were slouched across my bed, not wearing your glasses and still bitching about me going to Philly without you? As if bitching all through the drive back to my place wasn't enough torture for my sore ears?

"Wow! That was just unneces…"

"No, Cal, your glasses aren't here," she cut in. She sighed, loudly and made sure her now quite pissed mood wouldn't be missed by him.

And yes, he was going to push her even further, just for the heck of it. "Are you positive 'cos..."

"Yes I'm positive. You must have them somewhere else, Cal." She emphasized the last word and rolled her eyes, wich he was sure she did even when he wasn't looking at her.

"You didn't even look, Gillian" He complained, also emphasizing her name and hating that she was cutting him off and also that she was the one all annoyed when in his mind he was the one that was supposed to feel that way, he was the one left behind when he had planned a romantic ultimatum for her to move in an spend every single day with him, after denying him such pleasure for so long. All those years of pent-up attraction and covered up unspoken love were about to be declared officially OVER when she moved in. He hated that she kept procrastinating about it, he had waited more than a long time for her and he was done waiting. His selfish side that he didn't let come out and play that often lately because of Gillian, couldn't care less about Casey.

His rational side, which was also quite numb when it came to her recently, was at that moment lucid enough to still be capable of noticing how the light of her voice was shifting rapidly from green to yellow, where it remained for most of the conversation, to now…kind of red…not lipstick red but danger red and we all know how Cal Lightman thrives on danger.

"I didn't even see you wearing them at all yesterday, Cal, and we were together practically all day long."

"Well they're not here Gillian. I looked all ova. Trust me."

"Then they must be at the office. Seeing as you hardly wear them you might not have noticed where you put them down."

"Nope," Cal retorted. "Why would I..."

"Wear them at the office?" Gillian was quick. "Why would you wear them there if you never use them for the paperwork you're supposed to do, or the work you're meant to do on your computer? Especially when you hang out in my office a lot more recently. Is that what you mean Cal?"

Nope, he couldn't help himself, so he sarcastically said: "You know where I happen to hang out a lot more lately too Gillian? Your place. Every otha night, actually. So have you seen them durin' your wanderin's this mornin' maybe? At the very least could you look please? Notice I said please?" At this point in the conversation Cal spotted a little lump under the edge of the rug near the coffee table. He reached out his good foot and gave it a poke with his big toe. It was hard, weird... and... He reached down to lift back the rug. 'Damn it. She's right...'

"Well Cal I would be more than glad to look for your glasses that are not here, but I'm in a bit of a hurry because I have a flight to catch in an hour. So I don't really have time to pretend to look for your glasses that are not here and that you haven't even used in the last two days. So no, sorry."

Right about now, Cal just wanted to wind her up a little longer. He didn't give a toss about his glasses hiding under the rug in his living room that must have fallen off his head when they were having sex on the floor, for the second time that evening. He just wanted to delay her long enough to possibly miss said flight so she would have to stay in DC for the rest of the weekend. Hopefully with him, or not, whatever. It didn't even matter to him anymore, he just didn't want her to go away. He knew he was acting like a baby, but he didn't care about that much either. Although, then he just thought of taking the easy way out once more and he shot: "Splendid darlin'! Thank you very much. Have a lot of fun in Philly with Carrie and send my regards would you?" He was just about to hang up on her, which again, was very immature, when she spoke up…

"Cal, c'mon. Don't," she pleaded. And Cal actually felt bad. Her voice softened when she said: "Don't pick a fight. Not when I'm leaving. Please? I don't want to leave holding a grudge like this. It's just silly. Don't do this now. I really don't have the slightest idea where your glasses are Cal, believe me."

Another awkward silence.

Cal kicked himself and sighed. "I'm sorry Gill. I didn't mean to..."

Yes he did.

"I just. I..." He was sooo regretting this phone call.

"You're mad at me for leaving today, I know. It's stupid really... immature even."

Cal blanched at that. But then he knew it was true. She had a damn good point…

"But I get it. I'm sorry I wouldn't let you tag along," her tone was loaded with something... not sarcasm but... condescension. Cal felt a little spark of anger in his stomach. "If you must know, Cal, it's complicated ok? She's in the middle of a divorce and needs to talk and you won't know anyone else there so …"

"Gillian, it's ok, you don't have to do this. I'm a big boy."

"You're a big bad boy." Her tone went back to green, even playful. He liked that. He was slowly but surely coming back to his senses. He smiled, she did too.

Cal finished his thought. A big boy who still needed her to call him on his shit though. He really needed to work harder on that. Otherwise she would never move in. And even though she had agreed to, he was pretty sure she was still biding her time to see how he was going to behave. "And you don't need my approval to go out of town luv, I just wanted to go with you because I wanna be with you, not because I can't be without you." Although he wasn't entirely sure about that. "I can manage quite well on my own. Really, I may not want to, but..."

"Well… Sometimes you do want to manage by yourself, like when you accuse me of smoth..."

"I know, I know!" Cal cut in. He really didn't want to hear it all over again. "I'm sorry about that. That's not how it is. Thought you knew betta by now luv."

"I know," Gillian responded gently and Cal somehow realised this had been an exercise in humility for him.

"Ok then, so…" Cal didn't know what else to say, he felt like a fool.

"I'll call you when I get there, ok? Now I gotta run. But…"

"But what?" He sensed so much hope in that "but"!

"I can be back by eleven-ish- so… late dinner and ice cream in bed?"

He gushed! He grinned, he attempted to count to three before answering her alluring question but he only made it to two when he said:

"Oh, sorry, love I have plans for dinner… Emily, you know… she wanted to…"

"Oh, well, no problem, that's ok, I will just…"

"You're fired, luv." The most evil and adorable smirk on his face was on full display by now.

"What?" A split second later, she could sense the smile and the smirk in his voice over the phone and she knew she had fallen for it and he … he had fired her...

They both laughed. It was lovely and light. After all the previous tension it was a breath of fresh air.

"You couldn't sense that I was bluffin' luv? What good can you do for 'The Group' if you can't spot deception when you…"

"You wanna know what good can I do for 'The Group' Doctor Lightman? Ok, well, why don't you stop by my office tomorrow and find out?"

"Promise?"

"What? You mean you can't tell that I'm NOT bluffing, Doctor Lightman? What good can you…"

"I will stop by you office tomorrow Docta' Fosta' and show you what I can…"

"Deal. Now, seriously, I really, really have to go now Cal. See you tonight."

"Oi, that was for real! …All right , bye luv, be safe. Love you."

"I love you too Cal. Don't miss me too much ok?"

He could almost see her smiling. "Ok, I'll do my best." He waited until she disconnected the call and then smiled to the phone as if it was an old friend of his. Who would have thought?

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As a matter of fact he felt better after that call, he missed her even more, but for some reason he actually felt better, relieved, content. She was going to come back to him, stay the night and then, the next morning at work she was gonna show him what good could she do for the Lightman Group, actually for the Lightman man, in her office.

Now, that sounded like a plan, a brilliant plan. Her plans were a whole lot better than his as far as he was concerned. All he needed now was to get some ice for his bruises and of course he was going to have to limp all the way to the fridge in order to get it, so there he went, with a smirky smile on his face.

He went about his business as per usual, tidied up his study, which looked like a war zone, limped around the house for an hour looking for something to do, called Em. Then drove to his favest Chinese takeout place and got himself some Bang Bang Ji and some Chow Fun with extra fun, meaning he spread the rice with Dry Garlic Spareribs before digging in. This was an early lunch, it wasn't even noon but his renewed good mood was making him particularly hungry, so he indulged himself.

At twelve forty five pm he took a much needed power nap and when he woke up an almost an hour later he realised that he was no longer limping, he was actually pain free and ready to laze about the rest of the day until Gillian came back.

Cal replayed the whole conversation they had over and over in his head while he considered his next move holding an Irish coffee (of course) in one hand, the paper in the other, which he wasn't really reading (of course) and holding onto the last part of their impromptu exchange as well, focusing mostly on the sound of her sweet smile on the phone. He couldn't help but grin at the thought.

He wanted to read a book or something less fucked up than the news, to kill some of his spare time away from his girls, but then decided against it seeing as he had given hell to his tired eyes earlier and... That's when it hit him.

"Dinna!" 'I gotta show off in that late dinna'. He quickly decided to go and get provisions for a fancy home made dish.

"Wine, I gotta get some of that red wine too." 'Off I go then.'

He made his way to his car again, this time the walk was smooth and purposeful.

When he got there he noticed that he had forgotten his wallet on the table and went back in to get it, at the moment his cellphone went off in his rear pocket. As he opened the door and cruised through the living room he answered the call without even checking the caller ID because he had just spotted the wallet and that little object caught his attention more than the now lit up screen of his iPhone.

"Yellow"

"Hey, someone is in a good mood..."

"Hey luv, someone sure is now that he can hear your voice. You in Philly all ready? Is it true that is always sunny in Philadelphia?"

"No."

"I figured, that sounds more like LA, Philly doesn't really fit the sunny profile."

"No, I'm not in Philly and I agree with your weather profile theory but I'm still in DC, don't laugh too hard please."

"Me?" He actually did try not to laugh too hard at her words. "What do you mean you are still in DC, is your flight delayed or something?" He was hoping with every fibre of his being that her flight was downright canceled, so he waited for her response feeling how excitement was waiting, hiding on the corner of his dinning room (right between the shelves where he kept books and pictures and small one of a kind art pieces and that ridiculously large plant he didn't remember the name of and that he was totally against buying in the first place) to jump him. It just needed her words confirming his wishes and that was it, he could considered himself jumped by the hiding excitement.

"Actually, my flight and all the other flights to Philadelphia were canceled. Philadelphia's airport is closed because of a storm or something, so yes, I suppose, it isn't always sunny in Philadelphia."

"Oh." It was all he managed to voice,hiding the excitement that finally did jump him and was making him kind of glow in the middle of his kitchen.

"Yeah, so I called Casey and told her that I had done my very best but that it was just not going to happen. She was really looking forward to seeing me and I was … you know…" She sighed with a mix of frustration and disappointment. He wanted to say something comforting, but words failed him. Where were the freaking white lies when he needed them?

Awkward silence, once again, which was barely covering his enthusiasm on his side of the line.

"I see." He made a pretty good job at sounding neutral and not happy. If only she didn't know him better than that. If only she didn't know him well enough to bet her soul… one thing Cal Lightman wasn't and was never going to be, it was neutral.

"Anyway, works for you. I'm on my way to my apartment to drop off my suitcase and then I will make a quick stop by the mall to do some shopping. I was thinking about getting Casey a few things that I will send her later by mail seeing as didn't get to see her. We were supposed to go shopping together, but obviously the weather had other plans, so… Then I'm going to …"

"Then you are gonna get some ice cream and bring your marked and sexy arse ova here to share it with me?"

"Well, if you put it like that…"

"Oh, darlin', you think you know, but you have no idea…" His sexy tone made her quiver a bit, she made a little sound, like a little moan but not quite so and she felt slightly self conscious about it because she thought the cab driver was going to pick up on the fact that she was having this type of conversation in the back seat, just by checking on her in the mirror. All the while Cal was still glowing and getting a bit aroused on his end of the line as well. He could hardly wait for her to show up. Pun intended.

"Cal…"

"Gillian…"

"I got to go, we will finish this conversation tonight.I'll be there around seven, ok?"

Things were getting rather out of hand for her in the cab. She was blushing profusely now and noticed that the driver had looked at her twice in the last few seconds, surely after over hearing part, if not all,of the conversation, plus her little moan. He was having a field day. First "blue eyes and legs" gets in his cab and then she smiles and moans. He would have ridden her free of charge anytime.

Cal could tell she was trying to collect herself and was positive about her blushed cheeks which made him smirk even more and gloat over the effect his voice had on her. But then he decided to humour her and let her off the hook only to continue making her blush and more later, after dinner. Maybe even before dinner too…

"Ok luv, get some extra ice cream, would ya? Em is coming."

"Will do, no problem, see you later. Love you."

"Love too, hurry home Gill."

"Seven is not early enough?"

"Yes, I suppose it is. I just … hurry home, would ya? I got a surprise for you."

"Mmm… that sounds wonderful!"

"I hope so."

"Ok so, I'll try not to smash my credit card for too long at the mall then, bye Cal." She smiled and even giggled a little.

He kept glowing and his smirk had turned into a genuine smile that would have made her grow weak at the knees. "Bye love, see you later."

With that he took the wallet and almost hopped all the way back to the car.

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My ending in her words:

PJPJPJPJ

Gillian tapped on the glass of his backdoor and then turned the handle and let herself in. Cal stood waiting for her in the kitchen. His glasses were on his face and he had his frilly apron on and was leaning over the bench, peering at the door. When he saw her, he smiled. When Gillian saw him, she grinned. "So you found your glasses then." …

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A/N: For the record, this little lovely, borrowed ending, in no way means that this one shot continues in PJ's story. It only means that "Nostalgia" was triggered by her lines BUT it very much still is a totally separate fic from hers. She just did me a huge favour by letting me add these lines at the end, because to me, they happened to fit perfectly. I can only thank PJ for her inspiration and her invaluable help. If you would have seen the first draft of this ridiculously long one shot, you would understand. Lol!

I wanted to go funny, but using some touches of angst to get there, not just crack and fluff for the heck of it, because it would have been too OOC, since I already had taken enough liberties with their voices for the sake of fun as it was.

I think I actually got it right but maybe you think otherwise. If you care for letting me know about your valuable opinions, I'm all eyes and I can also be found hanging out every day at PJ's forum: "Ut Sermo" , which has lately become like my little playground since I'm way too lazy to administrate one for real. So, I can get feedback via Sermo, as well if you feel like it or you can creep all you want, I'm ok with that too. It's all up to you guys. Then again, bare in mind that, unlike other writers, I AM open to negative criticism. If that's what my lines inspire, I take full responsibility, because I'm strong enough. Thanks for enduring this so far. Read you around :)

A/N (just for PJ): Thanks so very much for your "inspirational prompts" and your praise. I literally couldn't have done it without you. So...ultimately, it's all your fault ;)