This one is M again.
.
.
.
Chapter 21 - Relieved
The smoke was everywhere, wherever he went, and from the smoke emerged Mexican soldiers, with guns which fired in his face, and he escaped them at the last minute, over and over again.
General Kearny appeared before him. No way I'm letting you stay behind, Winger. You are going to die.
Jeff shouted that it was a mistake, it was a bad idea, but Kearny laughed and laughed, grew bigger and became huge, and Jeff's squad walked through the smoke, like ants unaware of the danger, and then Kearny stomped on them, and Jeff screamed.
"Jeff! Jeffrey, wake up!"
Annie shook him, and he opened his eyes with effort in their dark room, sweating and trembling. Annie stroked his face with both hands, trying to get him to look at her, but he was blind to her. He stared ahead, panting, thinking of Rick leading the unsuspecting squad straight into danger. There was blood and missing limbs... and so much blood.
"Jeff, please… talk to me. It was just a bad dream. Jeff…"
He breathed and exhaled, his ribs no longer creaking as they did a month ago, but still sensitive. He closed his eyes. He was in Greendale, in his house, with Annie.
"I'm fine," his voice was raspy. "Annie, I'm fine."
She sighed and hugged his head to her bosom, stroking his hair with her fingers. "Yes, you are. You're here. You're with me."
The dreams started a few weeks after he was injured, but became more noisy over time, until he could no longer hide them from Annie. Almost every night he woke her up, or she woke him, and he hugged her until he composed himself. He closed his eyes against the smooth skin of her cleavage, enjoyed her softness, and hugged her waist. It was no longer so painful to lie on the healing rib. He tried to steady his heart from the dream, breathing her scent.
He heard her breathy giggle when he accidentally tickled her, his bristles rubbing against the bare skin of her breasts over the flimsy fabric, no doubt leaving marks. She loved the marks he left on her, and he would lie if he said it wasn't infinitely sexy, and only made him want even more to strip her and leave marks all over her. He turned his head slightly, tasting the skin with the tip of his tongue.
She made a tiny sound that he recognized, which meant he should continue to pull his teeth against the skin, gently nibbling, and then kissing the faint mark he had left.
"Jeffrey," she sighed, her fingers clenched in his hair. Then she pulled his face away from her breasts. "Jeffrey, are you sure you're okay?"
He made a face. "I was fine a second ago."
"I..." She sighed. "I just want to make sure you don't… do something you will regret. Those dreams won't stop if you ignore them."
"You sound like that nurse," he blurted out. "You two spend too much time together."
"She may speak before thinking, but sometimes she gets it right. And don't change the subject."
He groaned. "I don't want to tell you about the dream. It won't change it."
"But maybe it will help. Please. Maybe we can decipher what's bothering you. You know you are safe, right?"
"I know."
"So what's the problem? What's so scary about that dream?"
He didn't want to tell her. It wasn't her problem. She shouldn't worry about unnecessary things, she had enough worries on her hands.
"Jeff…" She pulled herself up to him, her hands on his cheeks, her thumbs resting on the edges of his lips. "Would it be so bad if you told me?"
"It's enough that I have to think about it. You don't need it. You have to deal with the baby, with me..."
She put her thumb on his mouth, silencing him. "Tell me the dream, Jeff Winger!"
"General Kearney sent everyone to die," Jeff said when she lowered her finger from his mouth. "Everyone. Stephenson, Austin, Amazing, Garrett, Chang, Alex... everyone died."
"Oh," Annie said after a few minutes of silence. "I see."
She lowered her hands from his face and turned her back to him, and he got the hint and pulled her waist to him until her back was flush against his stomach. She stroked his arm around her with slow movements. "You worry about them."
"Yes," he sighed. That, and the guilt that he was here, sleeping in a comfortable bed and fondling his beautiful wife at every opportunity, and they were there, sleeping in tents, crawling in dirt, risking their lives. They had Rick to lead them, but not even the perfect Rick Stephenson could protect them all.
"It's not your fault that you were injured," Annie said. "From what you told me, you did everything in your power." He told her about Chang one evening, reliving his latest operation. It felt good to pass on some of the experiences that only the war could provide. "You have to stop blaming yourself."
"I don't do it on purpose," Jeff said, shifting her hair so he could rub his nose against her neck. "I don't want to feel that way. But I can't help but think that if I were there..."
"You wouldn't be able to go back there even if you wanted to," Annie said, tilting her head, only slightly, to ease access to her skin. He tried not to let it affect his lust, but there was no taming this beast from the moment Annie was in his arms, and her body was waiting to be molded by his hands and mouth. He thought, I could pull her nightshirt off, and she'll be naked and eager. But something stopped him. Something that said: You're half the strength of the man who was able to throw her on the bed before the war... And now is not the right time. She's trying to talk to you. Be a man and answer her. But he didn't know what to say.
Annie sighed as if she had heard his thoughts, and finally said, "Thank you for telling me. It's progress. Maybe... try to sleep."
He tried.
:::
Woody ran away from her, literally ran away when she saw him that morning before entering the classroom. She called for him, but he didn't answer, lifted his legs and disappeared. Throughout the lessons she could feel the groove between her eyebrows deepening. He worried her. So when the school day was over, she decided to go to the Lion's Lair - to the James's house, Nicole's house, and talk to her about it.
She almost knocked on the door when she heard the argument: a faint male voice, and Nicole's voice.
"...I thought you would be glad."
"How will I be glad that you escaped the army with your tail between your legs? Don't I suffer enough with Woody's devilment? That kid, either he's running between my legs, or he's gone right when I need him! And what do you reckon people will say? They all hate me enough as it is... "
"I thought I could help you."
"Well, you were wrong." She sounded tired. "You always do the wrong thing, Kyle. Why did I expect you to change..."
Annie walked away from the door, alarmed. This was none of her business. Steps approached the door and she backed away, turned and fled to the side of the house, hiding behind the wooden wall. Nicole won't appreciate Annie seeing her fighting with her husband, and Annie didn't want to give the woman any more reasons to hate her. She glanced behind the wall to make sure she wasn't seen.
The door opened, and through it went a tall man with coffee-colored skin and smooth black hair. "Nicole," he said. "I'll do whatever it takes, tell me what to do."
"Go back to the army," Nicole followed him, forcing him to retreat outside. "Where you are needed!"
"I can't... Nicole, you don't understand what it's like there... They don't care about you. They send you first in line as a shield..."
"Then go be a shield!"
"Nicole," he approached her, grabbing her hands with a gentle grip. "I love you. I'm not helpful there, but I can be helpful here. The children need me. You need me…" He tried to kiss her, but his wife turned her face, rejecting his kiss.
Annie didn't want to see or hear anything more. She was mortified by the things she wasn't supposed to hear, embarrassed that she had to hide like a thief. But when she looked for the end of the alley she chose to hide in, she found it fenced shut. She was stuck here until the two of them returned inside the house. Annie backed away, trying to reduce herself as much as possible, and their voices were slightly weakened.
"Just let me stay home... I promise, I won't weigh you down. It'll be like we used to be, when we got married."
"Fine," Nicole said, softer. "Stay, it's your house. But don't touch anything, you'll just break things." Some venom penetrated her voice. "Soon your brother will come to town - maybe he can discipline Woody. At least there will be someone else in this town who doesn't hate me..."
Annie moved further, until her back hit the fence. Footsteps moved from the front door - two people coming in - and the door creaked and closed. She was free.
As she walked rapidly away from the James's house, she realized she wouldn't find salvation for Woody through his mother. Nicole had her own problems that Annie didn't fully understand, but it seemed Nicole was passing her resentment onto her son. Maybe she felt the walls closing in on her - the ban of the women was almost complete in a town almost empty of men. She didn't have a single friend. Annie heard the despair in her voice, frustration at a helpless husband, anger at an unruly child.
Something had to be done about it, and maybe it should be generosity, not a cold shoulder.
:::
The first time Jeff left the house after a month back in Greendale, he walked straight to the sheriff's office, where he sat down behind the sheriff's chair and raised his feet on the table.
"I'm resuming the sheriff's duties," he told Troy who ran into the sheriff's room to check who the burglar was. The relieved Troy gave back the hat and pin immediately.
How good it was to be back in his usual, serene spot behind a table in a room he'd spent many hours napping and drinking whiskey. He opened the drawer; there was still the bottle he left there, mostly full. He poured himself a glass of the amber liquid in memory of those good old days, and lifted the glass to the sky. "Cheers," he told the gods deciding his fate. "Thanks, by the way. That you let me come back." The gods were silent, and he sipped the glass, coughing just a bit on the pungency that he wasn't used to, after months of abstinence.
He flipped through the sheriff's book, went over Troy's notes, and was pleased to see that the boy hadn't neglected his duties and provided a description of the events each day. Although he didn't use the wording Jeff gave him, at least he was consistent. There was one note where an ink stain had hidden half a sentence, and Jeff stood up from his desk and went out to ask Troy in the other room what the comment was.
He stopped in front of what he found in the other room.
Miss Brita Perry covered her mouth and giggled, her eyes twinkling at the deputy who was skipping on one leg, waving his hands in a strange performance, before standing and calling, "I swear! Twenty chickens if not more!"
That was when Jeff found out what was more idiotic than Miss Brita Perry: Miss Brita Perry giggling like a schoolgirl while Troy was hopping like a chicken.
"Miss Perry," Jeff said dryly. "How nice... to see you here." Where he thought he was safe from her never-ending badgering.
She glanced at him. "Oh, you're here! I forgot you said you'd come back to the office today."
"Yes."
As he grew stronger, he needed her help less - he was able to train by himself, and so he did. This exempted him from having to have the nurse in their house every day, let him kiss Annie as long as he wanted, and left him to discover that even when they were alone he couldn't bring himself to bed his wife, for increasingly embarrassing reasons. From the moment he returned to walk, he made sure every day to do pushup, crunches, and any exercise to strengthen his biceps, abdomen, and back. He was no longer too weak to make love to her and pleasure her as he wished; now all he had left was fear, guilt, and the sense that he wasn't good enough for her.
Brita was holding a flower in her hand, smelling it occasionally, smiling at Troy over the petals. Troy smiled a dazzling smile, and Jeff was struck by the realization that they liked each other, which might be good for both of them. Troy was a one-woman man, and when he didn't have one, he was like an ax without a handle. And Brita was the most handle-y woman Jeff had ever met.
Jeff was relieved when Annie came into the sheriff's room, slightly flushed from the walk, grabbed his arm and asked in a voice that strained to sound normal, "Are you ready?"
Something was bothering her, but he wouldn't ask in front of the lovebirds making googly eyes at each other. "Yes. Let's leave here."
He let her lead, and was glad he didn't lean on her anymore. Instead, she put her arm through his and relied on his strength as they stepped down the porch of the office. Her belly grew more this past month since he arrived, which made her tie her dresses more loosely to fit her rounding body. She told him that she would probably need new dresses in the coming months, when the current ones would no longer cover her properly.
"What happened?" He lowered his head to her, and she murmured, "It's nothing. It doesn't matter. Nothing you need to know."
"Are you sure?" It wasn't like her, holding things from him. At least she was honest about holding it.
"Yes. No... It's Nicole. I just think..." She was silent as they passed several houses on the way to the town square, "I think I'll ask the women's gathering to take her back. Remove the ban."
"Did she apologize?"
"No, but… I don't need an apology. I think it's been difficult on her, and it's worse when she has no friends..."
"You can't compare yourself to her. You didn't have friends because of malicious rumors. It's her own fault that she has no friends."
"But…" Annie sighed, glancing up at him under her eyelashes. "Woody suffers. She needs friends. We need to think of the children."
He couldn't say anything to that. She knew more than him about raising children.
It wasn't a stroll for pleasure purposes, though he greatly enjoyed stretching his legs around town, now that he was finally able to do it. Annie updated him on the town's state, showed him the walls that needed repair from the incessant rain, the leaking pipelines, and took him to visit the Ramely's house, one of the families which got regular help from the women's organization. She was spectacular at her work. Radiant with the women, engaging the children. They all knew her. He found it fascinating, watching her actualize her powers to be Greendale's good fairy, who solves problems with a brilliant mind and a (surprisingly) heavy stack of papers. He held the bag with the pages for her when she stopped to fix her lists, giving his thanks to the people who stopped to talk to him - everyone was glad to have their sheriff back.
Near the end of their stroll, Pierce called them from the porch of his saloon. "Jeffrey! Miss Winger!"
Jeff pretended not to hear, but Annie pulled him to talk to Pierce nonetheless.
"What is it I hear?" Pierce told Annie after patting Jeff's back - heavy handed, causing Jeff to cough in order to hide the spasm of pain that passed through him. "We have a new nurse in town? An old spinster?"
"She's not an old spinster," Annie frowned. "Who told you that?"
"She's almost thirty, isn't she?" Pierce was unfazed. "And she's unmarried."
"She works for a living," Annie said. "Seems to me she's getting along fine without a husband."
"Hey, I'm just saying what I hear," Pierce raised his hands defensively. "I didn't say she was a modern woman looking for a man. I'm just the bartender."
"Well, she's not!" Annie said, and Jeff knew why she was reacting that way. "She is a respectable woman. Pierce, tell those who repeat these rumors that Miss Perry is a woman for marriage or nothing, so no one gets any ideas. Jeff, tell him!"
"What she said," Jeff dutifully told Pierce. "And seriously, you might want to do something when you hear such destructive talk. Those men go to harass women and then claim that they 'wanted it'."
"Whatever you say," Pierce said, patting Jeff's shoulder again, this time with less force. "Whatever you say."
Jeff remembered why he didn't like Pierce: the man didn't care about anyone but himself.
"Jeff," Annie said, "I told you that Pierce donated to our organization? Thanks to him there are food and blankets for so many kids."
"You did."
"It was nothing, really," Pierce dismissed her words, his false modesty breaking at the seams. "I'm so rich that it has barely taken off my numbers at the bank. I even bought myself a mine."
Jeff recalled Troy's story about a mine discovered outside of Greendale. "What mine? In the area?"
"Across the lake," Pierce nodded. "There was a company back in the day that thought there'd be gold, and abandoned it when nothing was found. But I don't think they dug deep enough... You want to come see it? You might even find gold!"
Jeff hesitated.
Annie said, "Really? Isn't it dangerous?"
"Not at all! I was there myself, the mine is well built. It's fascinating, you have to see it."
Jeff muttered under his breath, "We really don't."
"Jeff?" Annie turned to him. "Do you think you are... strong enough? To visit the mine?"
Pierce looked at him expectantly, and Jeff realized that Annie had given him the perfect excuse. "No, sadly I'm still weak." He grimaced in mock pain. "I haven't recovered yet, you see." He touched the (healing) cracked rib. "I'm afraid I must reject your generous offer."
"Are you sure? It's just walking... I'm telling ya, don't miss it!"
Annie thanked him, looked between them, and said on behalf of the two of them that No, not now.
:::
"He really wants us to come," Annie said that evening. She was sitting on the bed, patting her wet hair from her shower.
"Too bad for him."
"I want us to go."
He let out a long, exasperated groan. Even his own wife was against him.
"Don't be like this... I'd love it if we went. He truly likes you, Jeffrey. Admires, even. He doesn't show it well, but he thinks only good of you."
"So what?"
Annie finished blotting her hair, tied a loose braid and got under the blankets, curling up close to him. "That's why I want us to go. The mine will be interesting no doubt, but I want to make him happy. Do you know that he still contributes to the organization? It's not a one-time thing for him. He wants to help."
Jeff snorted. "You don't understand who you're dealing with. Pierce is selfish like... How did you say? Like a dragon on his gold?"
"But he donates..."
"The dragon doesn't change his scales. Did you see how he reacted when I asked him to stop rumors about unmarried women? He doesn't care about anyone but himself."
"It's not because he's selfish," Annie said. She got into their usual position since he returned, covering half of him, her leg above his and her hand on his chest, her fingers on his collar bones. She put her head against the pillow to look at his face. "He just… doesn't understand. Doesn't know what it's like to be someone else. He's never been a woman, so it's hard for him to feel sympathy for young, defenseless women."
"Let me see if I get it." Jeff embraced her back, his palm resting on her thigh. His arm around her forced her to rest her head on his shoulder. Ever since he began to get back in shape, he felt better as his muscles stretched beneath her face. "He is stupid, thus unable to feel empathy?"
"Jeff! He's not stupid." Of course not. She would never say such a thing, she was too kind. "...But maybe he was never taught."
"I've never been taught about empathy."
"And yet you treat my concerns and problems as if they were your own."
"That's exactly what I'm saying!" Jeff shook his head. "I can feel it even without learning about it. He has no excuse to act the way he does."
Annie sighed. Her hand stroked her rounded belly, stretched skin, under the blanket. She told him that the baby would kick in the future, and he would be able to feel it. In the meantime he felt nothing when he touched her stomach, except for her taut flesh and his own heartbeat.
"He told me he convinced you to have children with me."
Jeff took his eyes from her stomach back to her face, wrinkling his nose. "What? He lied."
"He didn't- He didn't really say it that way. I can't remember the exact words. But he told me what happened the night you got drunk after our argument."
"And you believed him?"
"Jeff," she gave him a scornful look. "Pierce may like fluffing up the truth, but he doesn't lie. He said you told him about our argument, and he told you he regretted having no children. He thought it helped tip the scales."
"That's not why I changed my mind..."
He was pretty sure. His memory of that evening was blurry. He was drunk from two bottles of alcohol. It was before the war, many things have happened since. He strained to remember.
There was Pierce talking on and on about how his kids could have been great. There was the melancholy that descended on him when he imagined himself with Annie, and then the realization that his attempt to be good for her had blatantly ignored what she wanted. That was the real reason he changed his mind, he was sure. He wanted to do the best for her.
But…
"I had a clear vision of you with a baby in your hands," Jeff muttered. "And the baby was mine."
Annie reached and laid her palm on his cheek. "Yes?" She whispered.
Jeff leaned his forehead against hers, and decided to take a leap of faith. "And I wanted it, and I wanted you," he whispered back.
She kissed him.
It felt like the first time, like that kiss in the church in front of a flock of drunken. But completely different. Now he knew her mouth well, lips and tongue and teeth, and her kiss - the slanting that allowed her to cling to him more, the sound she made every time he bit her lip just so. He learned how to kiss her until she couldn't breathe and his mind would be a mass of pleasure and lust, and he was still surprised to find out how different it was each time. Now her hands wrapped around his head, and her breasts were crushed to his chest, and her stomach pressed between them. His hands slid down to her rear, and he squished the full flesh there, before his hand went on a frantic search for the hem of her nightgown, and pulled the cloth until his hands grasped the bare flesh of her legs. Annie moaned, letting him pull her over him, and her knees sank into the mattress on either side of his waist.
He paused, panting, his blood racing through his veins and his whole body screaming Take her! Take her! And his hands slid between her thighs, checking; she was ready.
Jeff knew that pregnant women could sleep with a man with no danger to the baby, but for a moment he was hesitant.
"Don't stop," Annie breathed over him. "please..."
"...I don't want to stop."
In response, Annie rose and sat on his legs, getting rid of her nightshirt and tossing it aside, helping him open the knots in his and remove the garment until they were both, finally, naked.
Jeff paused and looked at her, absorbing her sight in the blinking candle light, and Annie leaned forward, puting her weight against his chest, her braid swinging over him. "Is this alright?" She whispered, her eyes searching for the scar that marked the bullet's entry into his rib. Her hand reached for the scar, gently stroking, and as she leaned to kiss the spot, Jeff exhaled and his hands tightened on her hips. "Ye-yes..."
Her eyes gripped his as she rose again, allowing herself to open to him, and then, slowly, descended until he was fully within her.
"Jeff," she whispered and he opened his eyes to watch her move slowly above him, deliberately, biting her lip, her hand covering his heart. "I missed you so much," she whispered. "I missed this..." She leaned forward, the different angle making them both moan.
He let her dictate the rhythm, the movement, and enjoyed the freedom to let his hands roam freely, groping and fondling and caressing until she was warm and sweaty, almost on the brink. He found the place she desperately needed him, and didn't stop until the pleasure washed over her. Wave after wave he watched her face as she fell apart.
But he didn't want it to end, and tried the new strength that had returned to him in recent weeks. He pinned her to him and turned both of them while she was lost in her peak, and continued what she started, this time he's on top. This position allowed her to wrap her legs around his back and lock her heels together, making her incredibly tight. He moved slowly, re-learning the rhythm, getting used to the movement, and setting a faster pace when she returned to him, her mouth open and her pupils dilated. He increased his speed and whispered in her ear that he wanted her, only her, that she should give in to him, come to him again.
She cried his name, but only when the waves washed over her once more did he let himself join her, and he sank into her until there was nothing but her.
:::
He made love to her, there was no other name for it. And, like last time, from the time the dam was broken, he couldn't have enough of her. He woke her in the morning for another round, and this time savored the morning light that washed her, exposing every part of her to his greedy eyes. Annie didn't object, moving like a feline beneath him and giving herself to him. He made sure to satisfy her every time. It felt good to be able to get her to a perfect falling point, before allowing himself to do the same, and she was radiant afterwards, lazy and content. He wondered how he had been able to wait that long.
But life went on outside their bedroom, and Jeff had to go to the sheriff's office - which he was happy to return to only yesterday, his old refuge. He assumed that reluctance to go to work was too an integral part of work.
Troy met him halfway to the office, as raindrops poured on both of them, and continued with him, chatting about this and that. Jeff listened with one ear. It was hard to leave Annie naked and spectacular in bed, and his thoughts found it difficult to leave her as well.
"Can you believe Pierce?"
Jeff blinked and forced himself to be in the conversation with Troy. "What about Pierce? In any case, I probably do."
"He bought the abandoned mine! And he intends to look for gold there!"
"Oh yeah," Jeff recalled talking to Annie last night before things got heated between them. "He invited Annie and me to tour the mine with him."
"He invited you?!" Troy stopped, and grabbed Jeff's hand. "You have to say yes!"
"I've already refused!" Jeff said, shaking his hand free. "Besides, what is it to you?"
"Miss Perry wanted to see the mine," Troy said with keen eyes. "It's perfect! If you and Annie go, we can join and you both can chaperon us! You can't say it's not perfect."
Sometimes Troy made it too easy.
"It's not," Jeff said dryly.
"Oh, please! Please! For me..."
Jeff continued to walk to the office. Annie also wanted them to go. They didn't carry on the conversation after he admitted to her that he wanted the baby and made her clothes vanish with a single word. But she wanted to make Pierce happy. For some reason she liked the old rapscallion.
"Are you serious about Miss Perry, then?"
"Yes," Troy said. "She's amazing. Beautiful, smart, the whole package." He stopped. "if it doesn't bother you…"
"Why would it bother me?"
"Because she is your nurse... Might be awkward..."
"That's ridiculous. Anyway, she's no longer my nurse. You have my blessing to woo her, if you needed it." Jeff recalled Rick and the broken heart he had witnessed when he woke up in that carriage. She was miserably lonely. "But be careful. She's been through some things, and she doesn't need another fickle man to break her heart."
"I won't, I promise! I don't mean to, at least. Will you ask Pierce to let us join the trip? I'll invite Miss Perry myself."
Jeff sighed when he realized he was actually agreeing to this. Annie would be pleased. "Alright. I'll talk to Pierce."
He noticed from the corner of his eye a man standing further down the street, a few buildings after the sheriff's office, wearing a gray coat with black pinstripes and a gray bowler hat.
"Thanks! You won't regret it, Boss!" Troy was skipping with joy beside him.
Jeff narrowed his eyes at the man whose face was turned away, his hair black and his skin coffee-colored. "Get inside, I'm coming in a second." Troy went happily into the office, leaving Jeff to walk up to the man.
"Stephen Spreck," he said in a low voice, stopping behind the man and folding his hands on his chest. "I thought you joined the army."
Stephen turned sharply, drops splashing from the hat that hid his face. He raised his head, and revealed a smile on his smooth cheeks. "Jeff Winger."
The last time Jeff saw the man, he threatened to betray Jeff's secrets to the commanders. And now he was here, in his town, even though the war wasn't even close to being over.
"The army and me, we had our disagreements," Stephen said with an amiable smile. "The commanders thought I should march behind the cannons, and I thought I shouldn't be a soldier."
"I see," Jeff said, his expression carefully blank.
"And the name is James," Stephen added. "You knew me as Spreck, but it was a temporary name for different times. I'm here on a family visit."
"James?" Jeff asked, skeptical. "Stephen James? Like... Nicole James?"
"Yes, that is my brother's wife," Stephen nodded. "If you can point in the direction of the inn, I'm going to be here some time."
"For what purpose?" Jeff asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Family visit, of course!" Stephen was a deception master, Jeff didn't forget that. And when he wanted to appear innocent, there wasn't one judge who would convict him. "Always so suspicious. My brother joined the army like many of your men, and I just want to help my nephews and sister-in-law."
Jeff won't hear anything that Stephen didn't want to say, it was futile to try. Pointing in the direction of Shirley's inn, he watched as Attorney Stephen (Spreck) James, a known collaborator with raiders and a lawyer whose clients were exploited to their last penny, waved goodbye and walked away, disappearing behind the corner.
This was bad news.
:::
.
.
.
AN: Stephen is here, which marks the beginning of the end.
Thanks for the reviews! Whoever's reading this - I hope you know how awesome you are! It's gonna be alright, I promise!
Every time I update I keep hoping that karma will make the author of the hilarious fic I'm reading (The Bride, at Ao3) update as well. So far, nada. I will keep it up regardless. One day it'll work.
Next up: The Mine Date, Jeff's sneaking around, and Brita takes action.
DFTBA