I do not own any American Gothic characters, this is a work of fan fiction. This story is a continuation of my previous stories Emotion, Old Friends, Family, Difficult Decisions, Reflection, Spirit, Acceptance, Whole Again, Homecoming, Oh Father, Birthday Surprises, Misguided Feelings, New Year, Picture Perfect, Kinship, Big River, Sunday Morning Coming Down, To Beat The Devil, Best Of All Possible Worlds, Little Girl Lost, Wicked Games, Monster Bash, It Takes Two To Tango, Nobody Wins, Down the rabbit hole, Come Together, Make a Memory and Something Bad.

It was a dull Friday afternoon in Trinity South Carolina. Dark clouds had covered the sky all day, causing several outbreaks of torrential rain and a strong wind blew through the town. Selena Coombs sat behind her desk trying to ignore the loud crash of rain against the classroom windows, while her students were busy completing an exam.

Selena had been on her best behaviour since the incident a few weeks earlier, where she had let slip one of Lucas' secrets to Gail. Lucas had not bothered with her after their intimate exchange in his office, orchestrated by Gail. It had been a surprise that the lovely Miss Emory had allowed her to perform that particular act on him in front of her and although it was obvious the show had not been for her, she could not help feeling connected to them and wanted to find a way to get back into the fold.

The past few weeks had been hard, she had been left to her usual mundane routine; however, the incident in Lucas' office had stirred something deep inside of her and she could not get them both out of her head. After considering her options, she had figured out that the best way into their lives was sitting right in front of her every day and she would ensure that she took full advantage of her access to the young Buck.

Selena glanced around the class and saw most of her students had finished the exam, now they were just awaiting to end of school bell. When it rang loud throughout the school, her class rushed out the door; however, she halted Caleb Temple and Boone Mckenzie before they had a chance to escape.

'Where do you think you two are going?' she asked, with an air of authority in her tone.

Boone looked from Caleb to Miss Coombs and regarded his Teacher with a look of confusion. 'It's home time Miss Coombs, we gotta go ridin''

Selena let out a small laugh and glanced at their exam papers. 'This scribble is scarcely legible, do you two think this is acceptable for an exam? How do you expect me to mark what I can't read?'

Caleb looked at Boone, who was staring down at his hands nervously, then stood tall and turned towards his Teacher. 'You ain't stopped anyone else, it ain't that bad' he said defiantly.

Selena had counted on Caleb's insubordination and stood up from behind her desk. 'The other children have no problem with their handwriting Caleb and quite frankly, I don't appreciate your tone...You two will sit down and complete this exam to an acceptable standard' she ordered and handed them both a blank exam sheet.

Caleb inhaled deeply and tried to push down his anger. 'And if we don't?' he challenged.

Selena perched on the edge of her desk and smiled venomously. 'Well then your busy cousin will be forced to come down here with her new born child and explain your defiant behaviour...I doubt your parents will be impressed that you allowed yourself to get in trouble, due to Caleb's lack of respect for authority Boone'

Boone took hold of Caleb's arm and shook his head in a warning gesture. His father was not happy that he chose Caleb Temple as his best friend and would look for any excuse to ban him from spending time with him. 'Alright Miss Coombs, we're sorry and we'll re-do it'

Caleb sighed at Boone's quickness to back down and sat down next to his friend reluctantly.

Selena smiled to herself at how easy it was to push that child's buttons and would take pleasure in keeping them here as long as she could.

Heavy rain crashed against the large windows of the Buck Mansion. The curtains of the open bedroom window blew wildly in the wind and large drops of rain landed on the dark grey shirt, which had been discarded on the floor by a pair of black pants and boxer shorts.

Lucas Buck ran his hands up his love's body, as he lay on his side thrusting in and out of her. He had only came home to check she had not abandoned her motherly duties and ensure she was not out digging up dirt on him; however, when he saw her laying on her side in the bed napping, he could not resist taking her right there and then.

Gail reached back and pulled his head to her neck, then let out a low moan as he began biting her teasingly. She had known he would be checking up on her, god knows he had been doing it since their honest conversation a few weeks earlier; therefore, she welcomed this bit of action, to get her out of her boring routine of late.

Lucas gripped her hips tight and slowed his movements, allowing him to thrust deep inside of her. He had been making a conscious effort to be more tender in their intimate exchanges, he knew part of her craved his dark side; however, taking her this way infuriated her and allowed him to soften her resolve.

He continued his slow thrusts as their climax started to build, she was digging her nails into his hands hard and he knew she wanted to him to stop this tender behaviour. The sound of Luke crying forced his hand and he took her hard for the final moments, then called out her name as his orgasm hit and pulled her too him tight.

Gail pulled the pillow to her mouth to stifle her call, then pulled free of his grasp and rushed up to see to their baby. She cleaned herself up as she headed to the cot situated close to the heater and tried to overcome the urge to sit down when her legs began to buckle. Her little man had started to cry more often when he could not see her and she smiled lovingly at him, as he stared back up at her with tired eyes.

'It's good to know one Buck has your heart' Lucas mocked, as he propped himself up on his elbow to watch her with his boy.

'I could be fond of more than one Buck...who knows at this point?' Gail joked and carefully picked up Luke.

Lucas smiled appreciatively as she rocked his son in her arms and sat down next to him on the bed. He stroked her bare back with his finger and wanted nothing more to pull her naked body back into the bed with him.

'Now, now Sheriff...I shouldn't be abandoning my motherly duties and you have a town to run, if I'm not mistaken' she said sarcastically, reading his mind.

Lucas cursed himself for dropping the guard on his thoughts. He really did need to be more careful around her, considering she had made her intentions clear about investigating Selena's statement a few weeks ago. 'We wouldn't want you doing that...' he sighed and started to get out of bed. '...I suppose I should head back to the office, to ensure my Deputies haven't caused some random tragedy'

'As if your Deputies are the problem...' she laughed, then glanced at the clock with a look of concern.

'What is it?' Lucas asked, sensing her unease and started to get dressed.

'I should check on the newest member of the Trinity Guardian, I've kind of thrown her into the deep end' Gail shrugged, then placed the baby carefully on the bed and went to the walk in closet.

Lucas glanced at the clock and saw it was after 4:30pm, then watched as Gail pull on a long black skirt and maroon sweater. He approached her slowly, turned her around and placed a soft kiss on her lips. 'You behave while you're out and about, or there'll be hell to pay later' he warned.

Gail nipped at his lip playfully, then pulled away from his grasp. 'Would I ever defy you?' she mocked sweetly, then laughed as he shook his head in exasperation and left her alone with the baby.

Merlyn sat in the large bright office, staring at her computer screen. She had been tasked with gathering evidence on how residents in Trinity felt about the decline in Goat Town; however, she was struggling to determine which view points were important and which were just mindless residents pretending to have an opinion on a subject they knew nothing about.

She had never previously considered how hard the role of a Reporter could be. It was bad enough trying to get people to talk to you and not slam their doors in your face, then you had to add in sifting through all the information gathered just to establish what was relevant. Merlyn had decided a few weeks ago that she was up for the challenge, she would face this trial head on and prove that her cousin had made the right choice in trusting her as an assistant; however, part of her was scared that she would fail and prove useless to the one person who had displayed faith in her.

Merlyn sighed to herself and stared at the blank screen in front of her, then got up and walked over to the large window which overlooked the business district of Trinity. She watched as some office workers exited the building across the street, seemingly heading home for the day and ran her hand through her straightened hair.

She had spotted the office workers on her first day and took note of their appearance, since then she had ensured her hair was tidy and her clothes were suitable for an office environment. Merlyn had been very appreciative when Gail had took her shopping and given her some cash to buy the appropriate attire, it helped her feel confident dressing the part and Gail had called the cash a incentive to work well for her.

Merlyn wanted so much to impress her cousin and was trying hard to ensure the work she did met Gail's high standards; however, she had hit a wall and was inundated with information she had no idea what to do with, this was causing her to doubt her capabilities in this role and she was not used to this type of responsibility. 'How does she do it?' she asked out loud and took a deep breath to calm herself.

'By not letting herself feel under pressure and focusing on what she cares about in a story' Gail answered and walked into the office holding Luke tight to her chest, to shield him from her gossiping coworkers.

Merlyn had not expected to see her cousin here and suddenly felt nervous in her presence. 'I was just talkin' to myself' she shrugged.

'Oh good...' Gail laughed and placed Luke carefully on the large couch in her office, '...I'd hate to think you were conversing with voices in your head. We had enough of that behaviour when Matt was in Juniper'

Merlyn glanced at her hands and tried to avoid her cousins suspicious stare. She had not meant to make Matt appear crazy when she used to visit him in her ghostly state, she had only been trying to help him get through it all. In hindsight, she realised that allowing him to believe he was visited by a dead person did not help his situation at the time.

Gail sensed Merlyn's discomfort and walked around her desk to the computer. 'I see you've made yourself at home on my side' she acknowledged.

'I just didn't wanna be sat with my back facin' the door, it seemed rude to the other people in the office' Merlyn explained.

Gail smiled at the girls purity and sat down on her chair. She could not remember ever being so pure and innocent herself, she supposed that was due to the foster homes she had been forced to live through as a young girl. There was nothing wrong with how Merlyn was, in fact it was refreshing to see someone so genuine; however, that quality would not get her through in the real world. 'Don't mind your work colleagues, just focus on you and what you want to accomplish...What's causing your block?' she asked and signaled towards the blank computer screen in front of her.

Merlyn sighed and shook her head in exasperation. 'There's just so much!...' she snapped, '...I don't even know where to start'

Gail clicked on the file at the bottom of the screen and scrolled down. Merlyn had done well with the amount of residents she had gotten to comment on this issue; however, there was no other research, or an order to her information and she started to understand the cause of the girls frustration.

It was second nature to Gail to categorize her interviews, she would instinctively grade the information she had obtained and discard anything that was not relevant, or appeared fabricated. She had been doing this for years and had all the background training for the role, in addition to the hands on experience. Gail knew the way she was going about this with her cousin was not fair, it was cruel and her high expectations with the lack of training could push the girl to close in on herself; however, Gail was confident with Merlyn's abilities and she had previously allowed the girl to tread along quietly in the background for too long.

Gail had initially wanted Merlyn helping her here, to enable her to fool Lucas into believing she was considering dropping her hours to part time. This would cause his trust to grow, as she would appear to be taking their family life more seriously and that would in turn allow her to find out what she needed to know, while his guard was down.

Gail was all set to try to uncover the secret that Lucas was hiding about Merlyn, until it had hit her that she had been selfish and she had not liked that revelation. It had caused her to re-evaluate how she was going to approach the subject of the girls death and she came to the conclusion that it was not fair to confront the source, as this would uproot her new life that she had been trying to build. Although Gail had trusted Merlyn with the strangeness that surrounded her and secrets about her past self, by doing so she had forced her to remain in the past and had not given her the opportunity to realise her full potential.

Gail had to fight for her chance to get into this line of work, it took a lot of studying and creativity to earn a scholarship to allow her to follow her true path and it had occurred to her that Merlyn did not have these options available to her, due to how her life was unfairly taken. She could vouch for the sweet girl M that she had taken into her family; however, the girl did not have the same options or records as everybody else and this prevented her from being able to find her own path without assistance.

Gail had always known that this had been her calling and with how much time Merlyn liked to spend in the library in her spare time, she suspected her passion would be in writing or some form of literature. She could not create a new identity for her outside of Trinity; however, she could do all she could to help her thrive here. Her Editor Mark had trusted her decision to allow Merlyn to work here on a seconded basis and it was up to Merlyn to prove herself now.

'Right, let's see...You've done all the interview ground work and that's great, you just need to figure out what we want to write about' Gail said, giving the opportunity for Merlyn to solve the problem.

Merlyn thought for a moment, then shook her head and placed her hands on her hips. 'I got all the information and you wanna write about the decline in Goat Town...I don't know what else you want me to do'

Gail sighed, then stood up from behind the desk and approached Merlyn by the window. 'The decline in Goat Town, is that really all I want to write about?' she asked curiously.

Merlyn stared at her cousin for a moment, she sensed she wanted her to see something; however, she was so frustrated that she could not think. Suddenly her mind became clear and she thought back to the previous two articles Gail had written on the subject. 'You've reported on this before...twice actually' she pondered.

Gail smiled and nodded. 'Good, now let's talk it out'

Merlyn began to pace the office slowly, as her mind started to work. 'You spotted the decline in Goat Town last year, it was your first proper article after you left the Charleston Post...The second article was about the lack of development when it was brought to peoples attention, you wouldn't want to report on that again'

Gail's smile grew wider and she laughed. 'No I wouldn't...Go on' she beckoned.

'Why interview all the residents? They can't control what's happenin' in Goat Town, although if enough cared I suppose that could get other peoples attention...You wanna know why no one cares!' she exclaimed when the penny dropped and smiled when Gail nodded in agreement.

'Goat Town is a part of Trinity, but it's like that old Grandfather nobody can spare the time to visit. They may tell themselves he'll be alright on his own and then turn a blind eye when his health begins to deteriorate, but when the inevitable happens they'll regret not doing something sooner...Goat Town has been neglected by Trinity's officials and the residents of this town turn a blind eye. The same happen's with Juniper House and I want to know why...Why is such an interesting part of the town is left to crumble and fall? Two articles have done nothing to stir up the resident's of this town, but I won't be beaten'

Merlyn nodded and perched herself on the edge of the desk. 'What can we possibly do to change things there?' she sighed.

Gail leaned over the couch to check Luke was OK, then turned her attention back to her cousin. 'Well, I do believe there's a certain property in your name gathering dust in Goat Town' she smiled.

Merlyn thought for a moment and cursed herself for being so stupid. She had forgotten all about her mothers old place of work, with everything that had gone on over the past few months.

Gail nodded, reading her mind and picked up Luke. 'That's one place to start and I can think of another place I'm very interested in...All we need to do is stir up enough interest to get the ball rolling'

Merlyn now understood what she was looking for and started to head back to the computer, until Gail signaled for her to stop.

'This isn't going to be a quick project and Goat Town isn't going anywhere...You've done enough work for today and it's about time for you to relax. Besides, I need you fresh for tomorrow' Gail advised, as she picked up her bag and headed for the door to her office.

'What's tomorrow? Merlyn asked curiously.

'You'll see' Gail smiled and signaled for Merlyn to follow her out once she had packed up her things.

-To be continued-