AN:

This chapter has yet to be looked over by my Betas so I apologize for any mistakes. I just couldn't keep y'all waiting any longer for an update.

Chapter Eight

Dare... To Trust

Severus hadn't thought past the moment of preventing Hermione's hand from reacquainting itself with his face when he snatched his hand out to encircle her too fragile wrist and halt her assault. The added yank on her limb had chased all reason from his mind the moment their arms were trapped between their bodies, acting as a feeble wall that prevented them from coming fully together. With each inhale, his chest and torso grazed against their arms, a soft echo of what it would feel like to touch her as their near connection warmed his skin. Standing so close to her, he received a full appreciation for her small stature as he dwarfed her by comparison, the vast height difference forcing her neck to tilt and her head to fall back to meet his eyes.

Staring down into the warming caramel of her eyes, he felt a tingling heat begin to prickle across his skin and travel the length of his spine, coming to settle low on his back. Her gaze was unwavering as they each challenged the other in a silent battle of wills, her daring him to do something and he willing himself to stop reacting to her. When her breathing turned deeper and her will snapped with a fluttering of her eyes as they drifted close, he knew he was in trouble with her. Regardless of their instant animosity, the hesitant look of contentment that was gracing her face and the way her body was relaxing and melting into his, made his cock begin to twitch and stir. Then she effortlessly brushed her hand along his exposed sternum, her fingers searing the feeling of her touch into his starved skin as her palm rested with familiarity, sending a shot of scalding blood into his groin.

His breath hitched at the chaste yet seductive affection, neither something he had experience with receiving and he desperately wanted more of it. She had offered it up to him so easily that he was nearly gone for her, ready to chase the feeling of acceptance she was radiating. Wanting to push for more, he lifted his other hand to come up to her waist, only to be reminded of the heavy parchment that was still gripped in his hand. It wasn't him she was touching or breathing in, it was who he reminded her of, a man that he would now never be, and that was long gone.

Feeling the fool, Severus retreated into himself and fell back on the most tried and true method of distancing himself from impending disappointment and rejection. If he pretended not to care, not to be affected, and to not feel anything other than disdain or complete indifference, people never got the chance to truly hurt him and make him feel like the worthless shite he'd always been told he was. He wasn't supposed to be an arsehole to her but she was already using him to replace himself and if he didn't shove her away from his already vulnerable and starved heart she would hurt him more than anyone else had ever been capable of.

Leaning back against the desk with his arms crossed, he watched Hermione and Potter converse in half formed sentences through the curtain of hair that had fallen forward to mask his embarrassed blush while his foot throbbed inside his boot. He was thankful for the pain she had once again administered to his person, the insistent pulsing helping to redirect his body's focus away from hardening and lengthening the half formed erection that was straining stubbornly within his jeans. He caught her eye briefly as her quizzical gaze swept over him and to the only occupied portrait in the office awaiting him to answer the question he'd already forgotten Potter asked him. He racked his brain trying to remember exactly what they had been talking about when she began to mumble a trail of words at the still painting. Listening closely he jumped in the moment she asked something he was able to answer.

"He took my place in '78, and after everything I saw in that," he said, gesturing to the pensieve, "I couldn't be happier for the trade. I can't fucking believe that's how my life turned out."

"Say that again," she challenged, a new fire warming and burning through her eyes that was solely directed upon him.

"My future self took my place back in time so that I could come forward and live out a second life here."

"HE DID WHAT?" Hermione shrieked, making his head twitch against the shrill noise while Potter's shoulders began to impersonate a turtle trying to shrink his head and ears into their safe confines. "Why in the name of magic would he do that? Bring him back, now!"

"Hermione, that's not how Limbo works…" Potter tried to soothe, approaching her like he was cornering a stray and injured animal. "You have to die to go there. Do you understand?"

"Yes Harry, I understand, I'm not thick, but if he was able to be healed and take his place in time why not just come back here? Come back to me? Why leave and go back to that life and strap me with him?" She cried out, pointing a sharp finger at him. "No, there has to be a way to fix this. I refuse to accept that I'm stuck with that arrogant, immature, pigheaded arsehole, who still thinks of people like me as mudbloods who are undeserving of our magic, and who is addicted to using the Dark Arts!"

Severus watched with a locked jaw as she pushed her way around Potter and stormed out of the Head Office. She slammed the door behind her with such force it bounced against the jam with a loud crack sending it back into the stone wall with equal force before it could click closed. Her angry steps and muttered curses echoed up the tunnel like stairwell filtering back into the office, where he was able to make out the imaginative ways she was thinking of sending him right back to Limbo and from there to 1978.

"That went well," Potter said sarcastically, lifting his glasses over his eyes as he rubbed the fatigue from them. "Merlin, I've been on the run for a year, fought in a bloody war, died, and came back to life. I just want to eat a very large fry up, have a real shower, and go to sleep in an actual bed for the next week, before dealing with all this shite. No offense," he added, replacing his glasses on his nose.

"After the act you just followed, that's practically a compliment," Severus said, masking the unwelcome laceration to his chest that had landed from her words.

Salazar, I need to get the hell away from that witch as soon as possible.

"Please forgive Hermione, Professor… or Snape… Severus?" Potter asked in confusion before shaking the question away. "Regardless, call me Harry. I would like to at least make an attempt to not have you associate me with my father this time around."

With a feeble gait, James Potter's clone made his way to one of the leather armchairs before the large desk. Pointing to the other, indicating for Severus to sit with him, he dropped into it with a groan, allowing his head to recline against the cool back.

Speaking to the ceiling with a tired voice he said, "You have to understand she's grieving, we're all grieving. We may have won the war but the cost was steep and now that it's over, I think it's finally beginning to settle in for everyone that victory is not as sweet as we thought it would be. All I'm asking is that you don't hold today against her. We've been under a lot of stress for a long time now, with little food and sleep, and she just had to watch the man she loves bleed to death on the floor of the boathouse and hasn't even begun to have a chance to process that, let alone accept that he's really gone.

"She doesn't hate you, Hermione doesn't have it in her to hate anyone. She's a bleeding heart who hasn't met a cause or a stray she couldn't champion for, adopt, or love. She's just angry at the situation, it's easier than allowing the pain in right now. We thought he was still alive… That she would be able to save him and have another chance with him."

Severus made a noncommittal noise, as he laced his fingers over his abdomen and leaned his own head back against the chair, mulling over his own response. He wasn't particularly fond of being compared to a stray in need of adoption and love, but the reality of his situation made it glaringly obvious that he wasn't far off from fitting the description. Still reeling from his own discoveries within the pensieve and not wanting to unpack and examine anymore of his would be history or figure out what to do with his new life, he remained quiet on Potter's explanations and observations.

After a moment of thought in which he was sure Potter had fallen asleep, he murmured, "I don't think she's undeserving of her magic. She seems rather…"

"Brilliant? Exceptional? Formidable? Terrifying to the point of making your bollocks shrivel up and die?"

"Yes," Severus readily agreed, making Potter laugh as he lifted his glasses again to aggressively rub at his tired eyes with a loud groan.

"That's Hermione for you. You never know if she's going to shower you with love and affection or kick your arse all the way to the Hospital Wing."

He was right... She really does sound like everything I always wanted, Severus thought before stomping the idea from his head like it was an ember that had landed amongst the dried brush ready to create an inferno.

Looking for something to occupy his overcrowded mind, he began to gingerly poke and feel out his nose from where Hermione had punched him earlier. Wincing as his fingers made contact with the now offset bridge, he took a deep breath and tugged the bone back into place on his exhale.

"Son of a bitch," he hissed, under his breath as he quickly let go.

Scrunching his eyes closed he braced himself to begin feeling around the injured area, doing a rough check on his work. Satisfied that his nose couldn't be any worse now than it had before she decided to rearrange his face, Severus pulled out his ebony wand and tapped it to his nose muttering a healing charm to knit the bone back together in its new place. Assessing his work once more, he ran his fingers along either side of his nose and down the top of the bridge. The bump he had had before would be slightly more prominent now, but otherwise, his nose felt unchanged.

Dropping his chin down to his chest to rest alongside Potter, Severus took in the tattered remains of his shirt and silently swore. In his own time, he had already struggled to make ends meet and support himself while finishing school. He would obsessively budget his finances down to every last knut and pence, only being able to afford worn, second hand items for his wardrobe after all his other necessities had been seen too, stretching the garments long past their lifespan to avoid having to replace them too frequently. Now he was twenty years in the future without a single note to his name and no possessions but his wand and ruined clothing.

New decade, same problems...

"Professor, trust me, this is of the utmost importance and needs yours and Kingsley's attention immediately."

Hermione's shrill voice carried back up the spiral stairs into the office, jerking Potter awake. Severus let out a short snort of laughter as his tormentor's son shot up from the chair he had been reclining in, knocking it back as he tried to look alert and not as though he was ready to collapse with fatigue.

"Miss Granger, there are many things that need our immediate attention as we try to start this new Post Voldemort World off on the right foot. Surely whatever this is it could wait at least a few hours while yourself and Mister Potter get some rest," Professor McGonagall said, in her usual stern but placating tone.

"Trust me, Professor, you and the Minister will fully understand the urgency once you see this," she replied, her voice louder and her footsteps quieter as they reached the top of the stairs.

Pushing out of the armchair, Severus stood up bracing himself for Hermione's big reveal to the unyielding Gryffindor Matron, who had never really liked him. She would no doubt agree that it was best to find a way to send him back to his old life and take this opportunity from him.

"Hermione, I'm sure whatever it is - Sweet mother of Merlin! Severus is that you?" Exclaimed a deep voice in shock.

The doorway to the Head Office was filled with the tall stature of a man, whose skin was of the richest dark chocolate, and who wore robes of a brilliant blue with gold threaded trim. He looked no worse for the wear despite having been in a war just hours ago. His mouth floundered as he grappled for anything to say, his eyes wide in disbelief.

"Kingsley, what on earth are you blabbering about?" Professor McGonagall scolded, as she pushed him aside to enter the room, Hermione right behind her.

Severus watched as the witch's face, who had been instructing him in class just the day prior, went ashen as she looked at Severus in disbelief before turning to Hermione for confirmation. When the younger, angrier, witch nodded her head, Professor McGonagall looked back at him, a soft gasp falling from her mouth as she appraised him, her keen eyes blinking in rapid fire as though she kept expecting to open them and find that he had disappeared.

Unlike the man who looked more affected by Severus's presence than having just fought in a war, the strict and exacting witch, whom he had never seen with so much as a hair out of place, looked as though she had been to hell and back within the last twenty-four hours. Her normally severe hairstyle was falling from its hold and off center, her long robes singed along the hem, and the black color of the fabric had turned grey from the covering of dust she sported, no doubt from dueling near the areas of the castle that had been blown out in the battle.

"Is it... That is... Are you really..." She didn't finish a single one of her stuttered questions before crossing the room and grabbing Severus by the shoulders to crush him into her in a punishing hug.

He stood rigid within her hold, his eyes widening with shock as he was thrown off by the unexpected show of affection. It would seem that at some point in the last twenty years, the head of Gryffindor had come to care for him and was relieved to see him alive and standing before her. It was yet another visceral reminder that he had ultimately taken the place of someone else and it was him they were transferring their feelings onto and not the Severus that stood before them all. Flexing his fingers at his side, he tried to tamper down the urge to squirm free of her hold, hoping that if he bore her familiarity it would be over soon enough.

Proving his theory true, Professor McGonagall pulled him back from her person to look him in the eyes and quickly asked, "How in the world are you alive? Potter said you died!"

Then in a lightning fast movement, she swatted the back of his head as her stern expression returned.

"And how dare you allow us to believe you had betrayed us all! You should have known you could have at least trusted me with your secrets boy. If that man were still alive, you best believe I would be raising hell with him at this very moment. As it stands he had better stay hidden because if he enters that portrait, I will burn the oil right off that canvas. Making you shoulder this burden alone this last year, I could kill him myself."

With an agitated huff, Hermione broke her silence as she said glaring at him, "Professor, look at him. It's not really Severus, at least not the one we know."

"Hermione, you are being overly familiar with your address of Professor Snape," McGonagall chided, turning her head towards her.

"That's not important right now, Professor. Look at him, really look," she urged.

Severus remained rigid as the scrutinizing eyes of Professor McGonagall turned back to him. He could see the moment his youthful, less jaded, features registered in her mind. The relieved and grateful expression she wore a moment ago was replaced with the stern, mistrusting face she had always pinned him with in 1978.

Her hands dropped from his shoulders as she took a step back and began to examine him even more closely. The near hostile look she gave him was one he was well acquainted with and in its own odd way, it put him at ease. At least there would be one person who wouldn't fall for the lure of using him as a replacement for the man he would have been, had they not made the trade with Death.

"I think you had better explain yourself," Professor McGonagall ordered him.

"In detail," Hermione added with a hiss, as she sidestepped him to claim one of the chairs while McGonagall and the man walked over to the Headmaster's desk.

Severus watched as she hesitated to sit behind the historic desk, that had been the workspace of every Headmaster and Headmistress in Hogwarts's long history. Her fingers lightly traced the high polished wood and grazed over a stack of parchment, before making a small adjustment to one of the many dust collectors that Professor Dumbledore had around the room. She squared her shoulders in a show of Gryffindor courage and completed her circle around the desk to take her seat and place within the school's history for the first time.

Clearing her throat, Professor McGonagall addressed him, "Now then, if you are not Severus, just who are you and how did you end up here?"

The Minister had conjured a chair beside the newly appointed Headmistress and watched him with a curious fascination. Meanwhile, Potter had perched himself on the arm of the chair Hermione occupied, looking for all the world as though he could care less about the details of how Severus had gotten there if it meant he could finally get the sleep and peace he so coveted. With the four sets of eyes trained on him, he elected to ignore the empty seat and remain standing. It wasn't much of an advantage considering he was outnumbered and out skilled but any advantage no matter how slight was an opportunity worth taking in a Slytherin's world.

"Any day now would be great, Severus," Hermione snapped.

"Bite me, you squawking banshee."

"Ugh, you wish," she retorted in disgust.

"No little witch, you wish," Severus smirked, barely catching the blush that stained her dirty cheeks as she snapped her head forward.

The Minister watched their interaction with an even more keen awareness than before, his eyes glancing back and forth between the two.

"What is this?" He asked, gesturing between the two of them.

Potter let out an amused noise as McGonagall agreed with the man confirming that she too wanted to know more about their curious dynamic.

"It's nothing," Hermione replied quickly, making Severus's smirk grow as he cocked an eyebrow at her.

"You act like that and one might think you don't really love me," he goaded.

"I am not in love with you," she scoffed. "You are nothing more than a poor imitation of the man I love. A cheap replacement who has fallen more than a little short of measuring up to everything he was."

"Really? Because you didn't find me so lacking just a bit ago. Or are we ignoring the fact that you all but humped me like a cat in heat earlier?"

"You mangey, piece of shite!" She yelled, before jumping out of the chair to charge at him.

Severus opened his arms, palms up and beckoning, as he welcomed her oncoming attack. She was easy to rile up and he enjoyed seeing her explosions of anger far too much. Hermione was a raging inferno of passion and he could easily see why he had fallen for her despite the age difference and moral abhorrence of sleeping with a student. She effortlessly set fire to everything around her, unaware of the power she wielded with her near tangible energy.

Potter sprung into action encircling his arms around her waist before lifting her off the floor and forcing her to turn around. He spoke softly into her ear as he set her feet back onto the rug, his arms still cuffed around her heavily breathing body. He slowly extinguished the flames of her anger, leaving Severus feeling strangely bereft at having missed one of her electrifying displays of emotion. After a moment longer, James's spawn slowly released his hold on her as he gently stepped back, poised to go after her again should she lash out once more.

Hermione took a deep breath and released it with an audible exhale as she addressed Professor McGonagall and the Minister, "I think it best that I remove myself for the time being. Things are too raw for me to be around... Severus right now," she said, the reluctance in using his name ringing clear in her voice.

Her hand patted at the small purple bag that dangled from her hip. Feeling that it was still there and whatever she carried was safely tucked inside, she turned to Potter and squeezed his arm.

"I'll come see you at Grimmauld Place in a few days and help with whatever damages there may be after last year."

"Take your time, Hermione. We all need a bit of it to deal with everything that has happened. Justcheck in every once and a while so I know you're safe, yeah? And I promise I'll do the same."

"Always," she agreed, knocking their shoulders together before heading off to the fireplace.

She grabbed a pinch of floo powder and tossed it into the flames making them glow bright green.

"Spinner's End," she called out with a triumphant smirk over her shoulder that made Severus scowl as she stepped into the flames and spun away from view.

"That's my house!" He shouted, crossing the office.

He took a four fingered pinch of ash and threw it into the flame yelling out for his home with the intent to follow her, only to find that the infuriating witch had blocked him from his own home.

"What a bitch!" He swore, turning to glare at the unanimated portrait of himself. "This is all your fault! You just couldn't keep it in our pants could you old man?"

"Would anyone care to explain what the hell is going on here?" McGonagall, nearly shouted, drawing Severus's attention back to the rest of the room.

She pinned him and Potter with an expectant look that promised they would both be serving detention till their great-grandchildren graduated Hogwarts if they didn't begin speaking and soon. He crossed his arms over the tatters of his shirt ready to be defiant only for Potter to cave and spill the sordid story.

"I only just found out myself Professor and purely by accident," he hurriedly started. "You see when Professor Snape was dying he gave me several of his memories to view that explained his role as a spy and that he had been loyal to Dumbledore the entire time. He tried his best to explain his motivations but in his weakened state a few things slipped in that I don't think he nor Hermione ever meant for me or anyone to find out about."

"They were involved," the Minister surmised.

"Exactly."

"Good Godric," McGonagall quietly swore. Looking at Severus she asked, "Is this true?"

"More or less," he confirmed. "He didn't tell me too much about her and the memories he left for me more pertained to teaching me a lesson than explaining himself and his relationship with a student, but from what I gathered when meeting with myself and what he did share of her, yes they were involved as you say."

"And how exactly do you play into all of this?" The Minister questioned.

Huffing out a sigh, Severus inelegantly slumped into the armchair, officially joining the conversation. Crossing a boot over his knee and adjusting the shreds of fabric that was his shirt to cover as much of his exposed skin as possible, he bought himself a few moments before having to explain his last several hours.

Looking up to the clock behind the Headmistress's desk he calculated the elapsed time before beginning.

"Approximately six hours ago, I was sitting in my bed in the seventh year Slytherin dormitories debating on whether or not to meet with Black. For some time now I had suspensions that he and Potter, along with the other Marauders, were harboring some sort of secret. At the last minute, I decided to follow through with meeting him at the Whomping Willow despite believing his offering to be a trap.

"I assume you three all know the secret they kept was that of Lupin being a werewolf. I myself got a very intimate introduction to that secret. Black, led me through the secret passageway and into the Shrieking Shack, where he proceeded to lock me in with a transformed Lupin.

"Potter, well the other Potter," he corrected looking at James's son, "ended up having a change of heart about the so-called prank. I guess at the last moment he realized how disastrous things could have ended up for everyone involved, including their unaware friend. Regardless of his motives, he came back for me as Lupin was on the attack and we barely escaped with our lives.

"I'm sure you remember the night I am referring to Professor," he said derisively as he gave her a pointed look.

"Snape I was not informed of the true events of that night until several years after the fact when you yourself disclosed the information to me after you began teaching here. As I am sure you can no doubt put together, there were many things Albus saw me unfit to be made aware of."

Severus begrudgingly conceded her point upon recalling her reaction after first seeing him in the office. It was painfully clear that while she had been at Dumbledore's side for many years, she did not agree with many of his choices. He wondered if anyone besides himself and his now deceased older self really knew the duplicitous depths of the school's beloved Headmaster or if either of them had even truly known how deep the well went within the old man.

Continuing with his recounting of the night, Severus explained further, "Well as it turns out I was much closer to not having survived that night than it had seemed after the fact. According to Lily, or I guess Lily on behalf of Death, I hovered along the boundary of Limbo for far longer than I should have. Being that close to dying at a time when my older self was also crossing the veil led to us both being pulled into Limbo."

"'He then greeted Death as an old friend...'" Potter murmured, amongst the quiet of the room, drawing Severus's attention.

"It's from The Tale of the Three Brothers," he explained. "And I think you and I are the only ones alive who can confirm the truth of that statement."

"Are you referring to the children's story of the Deathly Hallows?" The Minister asked, perplexed.

"Uh, yes... But a story for another time. It ties in with how we defeated Voldemort," Potter answered.

"Only the two of you would find ways to top the shock of winning the war," he chuckled.

Severus paused in his story trying to find the best way to explain what happened next. It was a fantastical tale and despite living through it he still didn't fully believe it himself. A part of him expected to wake up at any moment and be pulled from his new life back into the Hospital Wing, where he would find himself slowly recovering from Lupin's wolf attack, the silvery scars he currently bore still open wounds in need of tending.

"When I arrived in Limbo, I was already there, well he was already there, the Severus you all are familiar with. The first few minutes were hazy, one second I was falling through a trapdoor into the cellar of the Shrieking Shack and the next I was in a pristine replica of the Great Hall no longer bleeding to death.

"Lily explained that for everything he had done and sacrificed for the war and namely her son, Death was making him an offer to provide me with a better life than he lived."

"An alternate take on passing on or continuing to live?" Potter asked, coming more alert as he began to compare Severus's time in Limbo with his own.

"Yes. It was explained that upon dying one usually goes through a series of trials and life review to determine the afterlife they will receive. He was offered to skip those trails and freely walk into Elysian where he would live out his afterlife with all the others that were worthy. I guess that reward had been determined for him for some time due to everything that he suffered as a spy. His relationship with Hermione changed all of that though.

"He was already involved with her when he was tasked with killing Dumbledore," he sneered without much control, preferring to call it what it was instead of using the euphemism they had established. "That night he had been unknowingly faced with a test. He could have chosen to not follow through on the task and forgone maintaining his cover and stayed with her, putting his love for her above all else, much like I would have done if faced with the choice," he admitted softly, his mind passing judgement at his older self for not having chosen her and her free flowing love for him over his damn duty to the Greater Good.

"Following through with the kill and being painted as a betrayer to the Order, he solidified the chance at a new future for me as reparation. He was offered to pass on to his afterlife and I would go back and live my life without memory of Limbo, continuing the time loop that would lead to your ultimate victory, and he would finally know peace. Instead, he decided, and I ultimately agreed, to take what Death was offering behind door number two.

"He couldn't be healed and brought back to the moment he would have died like Potter was. Apparently, you are your own unique case on how that happened. What could be done though was heal me from Lupin and send me forward in time twenty years to the moment the other me crossed the threshold into Limbo. The catch was that he needed to take my place back in time to secure the victory that was imminent for you all.

"So in a sense Severus Snape, as you knew him died. He was deaged and had his memories wiped of everything after falling through the cellar door and seamlessly took my place in 1978. As for myself, I get a second chance at a better life in a world without the looming shadow of the Dark Lord or being a bearer of the Dark Mark. A do-over on his, our life, so to speak.

"I guess the only question now is, are you going to side with that harpy and try to send me back from when I came?"

The Minister and Professor McGonagall stared at each other, silent communication passing between the two of them, as they debated what Severus had just told them.

"If it makes it any easier," Potter started, "he can stay with me. I mean Hermione did bar him from his own home. Not to mention the castle is already beginning to crawl with reporters wanting to sensationalize the war and the tragic life story of Severus Snape."

"You make a fair point Mister Potter," McGonagall acknowledged. "That will work in the short term, at least until we get everything else situated with the reappearance of the supposedly dead Severus Snape."

Severus looked at the three in the room as they all began to speak amongst themselves as though he wasn't even there. Slouching farther into the chair he listened with half an ear, his scowl firmly rooted into place.

At least they aren't on board with sending me back.

"Okay then Severus, you'll live with Harry until such a time as we can get Hermione to release her hold upon your home. In return because the accomplishments and test scores you acquired in your lifetime technically no longer belong to you, you will be required to attend Hogwarts in the Autumn along with any other students who wish to retake their seventh year. Once you complete your NEWTs you will be free to live your life however you see fit, but until such a time you will technically be a ward of the school," Professor McGonagall determined. "Is that a fair enough arrangement?"

Uncrossing his arms and legs, Severus leaned forward in the chair, bringing its back two legs off the ground.

"Are you saying I can stay? Without a fight or anything?" He asked in clarification.

"This was Severus's literal dying wish, who are we to take that from him? So long as you consent to live with Mister Potter until the finer details of your return are ironed out, yes. Otherwise, you will stay here inside the castle with myself and Kingsley as repairs are made and without the freedom to come and go as you might be able to with Harry."

"Deal," he eagerly agreed, quickly standing from the unbalanced chair before they changed their minds. "How about that fry up Potter?"

AN:

I am so sorry for my prolonged absence! Moving is hell and so stressful and a total mood and creativity killer for writing. I'm not 100% settled yet so updates will still be sporadic, but I promise this not SCTT are abandoned.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, especially after having to wait so long for it to post.

Thank you for all your patience and kind words while I was gone. Y'all are the best and I love you all!

XOXO