- Chapter Forty-Two And A half -

The Lives Of Others

Logan + Chelsea - Say The "F" Word One More Time

Airline hospitality was the absolute worst. The TSA guys pulled him aside for no other reason than that they were bored, one of his bags got lost (the one with the souvenirs for Chelsea and the baby), and naturally there were the usual delays. As if that hadn't been miserable enough on its own, about twenty minutes into the flight one of the stewards had recognized him and had begun to flirt shamelessly. While he had originally admired the balls it must've took to approach a stranger, the attendant gave one last try when the surfer said he was spoken for. Jilted and using some BS about being able to refuse service to anyone, for the rest of the flight the blonde couldn't so much as get a bag of peanuts.

But as he raced up to the front door of his home and threw the door open to the smell of vanilla and cinnamon, that ordeal began to matter less and less. Chelsea was just inside, her and their precious little bump, and from the smells of things she was eating her favorite kind of sweet glazed cinnamon bun. Admittedly he hadn't been the biggest fan at first, but if he wiped away enough of the frosting he could totally see what she was talking about.

Hm, buns for his honey and their bunny. Or would be better to say buns for his bunny and their honey, considering that whole thing about how reproductive rabbits were? Regardless, there was still time to work out a fitting nickname for the third member of the Savage clan. And actually a first name as well...

They hadn't quite gotten married to any one name for the baby just yet, although there were some really great options being shopped. Personally he liked Malakai for a boy and June or Piper for a girl, but whatever they went with, he was just stoked that they would be a family.

Family.

Stuck on how selfish he had been to leave his own brood when they were at their most vulnerable, his hand dropped off the knob as he closed the door behind him. The sun kept the worst of the cold away where they lived, and Chelsea herself was like a mini mobile version, but that hadn't kept the father-to-be from fretting over his wife. Speaking of his better half, she poked her head around the wall separating the kitchen from the front and beamed when she saw who was standing there.

"Babe!" Scarfing the last bite of her desert, the ebony goddess carelessly toss the plastic plate over her shoulder and puttered along to greet her spouse. Bigger than he remembered her being before, the baby joined the embrace as well.

How on earth was he ever going to tell her what had happened while he was gone? Intrigue, danger, it was a gnarly ride and he could hardly believe it himself, and that was the sane parts of the adventure. Eeh, whatever, he'd figure something out later. For now all that mattered was being back home, safe and loved with people that actually cared about him. "Guess it's a good thing for all those delays, or I might have caught ya in the act."

Laughing together, she wiped away some of the crumbs that had transfered over to his face with her thumb, "Oh yes," sharing more than just a bit of spit, the woman sucked the remains away, "it's been nothing but orgies in these parts."

"Oh good Lord!" Shaking her head as she came out of the kitchen, Crystal said a hail Mary before kissing her son on the cheek. "You kids have some of the most messed up humor I've ever heard! Just like..." Catching herself mid-sentence, the woman trailed off when she noticed her son look at the floor. "I wanted to be here for you when I heard about what you were doing. Did... did you find him?"

Some people considered the word family to be dirty, but not Logan. Usually the word conjured up images of his mother at various different stages of her life, the man he'd called father, and his two grandfathers. As he'd gotten older and obtained friends that picture grew in size, doubling when he met Chels and married into her life. Happy as they all had made him, there was a hole in his heart not knowing who his father had been, but now that he'd met the man, he had to wonder if it was better not knowing...

Feeling the love of the two women, he pulled them both into a hug. "My family is right here."

Alberto Paredes - The Note

'If you expect me to say dear brother, you've officially watched Nicholas Sparks too many times.

Sorry about the crunch I put the clinic into, but trust me, those drugs actually saved a life.

See you when I see you, Rafael'

Clutching the letter in his fist, Alberto paced restlessly around the apartment, agonizing about the contents. Should he alert the authorities? With no signs of foul play and as a minority, the vet saw the odds as being slim-to-none that they would do their job like they were supposed to. The family had a right to know what was happening as well, but what was happening? Was his little brother in danger? Was someone else?

Rafael had never been easy to read, not even as a child, but this...

If this was drugs, and it was his own undoing, the family would never forgive him! Well, most of them wouldn't, and with as old and traditional as aubela was, he would almost certainly be written out of the will. It would only be a humble amount anyways, but anything was helpful when it came to student debts.

Dammit little brother, why won't you ever let anyone help you?!

Bai + Sully - The Devil Really Does Wear Prada

"So let me get this straight, your plan is to break into your old man's compound - which by your own admission makes Queen Elizabeth's security look like a bunch of amateurs - just to have a word with him?!" Sully could have sworn he'd had this exact same conversation with Nate, and it hadn't sounded any less crazy then. "Am I the only one that remembers you aren't exactly the most welcome of people?" Seriously, even getting the woman on dry land was going to be one helluva maneuver, let alone anything else she might have been cooking up behind those bangs of hers.

Rolling her eyes impatiently behind red frames, she was as insufferable as her ex had been, "All I'm asking you to do is get me as close as you can. I can manage the rest."

That's what she kept saying, but he wasn't so sure she was really thinking this thing through. It was true that he had almost no knowledge of the layout of the map, and even less of a clue about her full capabilities, but Victor did know that Bai had a daughter back home that still needed her. "Fine, say for argument's sake you're right, and you do get in. What's your extraction plan?"

Bai shrugged, "I won't need one if I succeed."

He didn't need to ask her what would happen if she failed.

"You at least have someone on the inside that you can trust?" Victor wasn't one to pry deeper into someone's personal life than he had to, however there was clearly some sort of history between the woman and the man they were spying on, so maybe there was something useful buried in the past. "That Yahui fellow seems like he still has a thing for ya."

"I..." Displaying the first signs of hesitance that he had ever seen out of her, the businesswoman bit her lip and frowned, "I'd rather not have to depend on him for this one. Not if I don't have to."

Could it be? Someone that Bai actually held in high esteem that wasn't Rafe?

Tabletop littered with maps, receivers, and a couple of radios for recon, the seaplane was feeling less like freedom and more like a prison cell. Couped up together for too long without any type of reprieve, it was a small miracle that it hadn't become a grave site as well. Fingers thrumming against the edge of the table, he surveyed the woman opposite him, her own gaze transfixed on the schematics. She was really adamant about this.

"Tell ya what, Darling," as a father of sorts, he couldn't help but to think of the one thing that might dissuade the woman from what he considered to be suicide, "I have something back home I have to see to. Shouldn't take longer than a few days. Why don't you come with me, so we can regroup and see if we can't come up with a better plan."

For a minute he honestly thought she was going to put the kibosh on his suggestion, but eventually she nodded. "A break could work. But then it's straight back, you understand?"

It was Sully's turn to roll his eyes, "I got the message loud and clear."

Wyatt Ross - Holsters And Brushes

Hanging up the last of his gear as he entered the studio he shared with some ceramicist, the young man exchanged his tactical vest for an apron. His fellow artist would refuse to enter the building without at least a half-dozen scowls towards the weaponry, but other than that the pair got on well enough. In addition to crafting sculptures and playing at the potters wheel in the back for extra cash, the redhead was also teaching him to up his own painting game. Wyatt could craft well enough, but most of the beauty in his work was lost to the streaked atrocities he finished.

Only today it would just be the soldier, as the other was off at work. No matter, he wasn't in much of a mood for learning - still upset by the Adler girl slipping through his fingers like that, he just wanted to pummel something. A punching bag might have sufficed, but he didn't want to get worked up like that. Anyways, with clay there were a ton of things he could do with a softened subject.

Make a mask, or an umbrella stand if he decided to make his art something practical. Normally it was just a hobby for him, something to vent his anger into and then deal with accordingly. By that standard, the fate of his artwork was to more or less end up smashed on the floor or against a wall, but there were one or two things that had survived the purge to be place in his apartment.

Perhaps even one day he could make something for his mother.

Nadine was a rather blunt person, however he had the feeling that she would treasure just about anything he gave her, especially if he mentioned he'd made it himself. Maybe that was normal for a parent, but as they were still forming that sort of bond, it wasn't that conveyor belt of projects and flat thanks. With the woman, it would have been sincere.

Someday.

Pan Yahui - Sugar Pop

Not a wholly virtuous man, he still believed that there was a higher power above even Zhihao. Zhihao was only a man - a man that he and several others had all elected to follow - but he was a man nonetheless. Men were weak, prone to their fates and fallible. And he would know, not because he had some secret knowledge of his leader that might tip the scales if he was so inclined, but because he had given in to temptation.

Mama had long-since been returned to the ancestors by way of malnutrition and a weak heart. It was not so long ago that he lost his Baba to heart disease, so his diet had changed to promote better health, but honestly it was not a seamless transition. It should have been, but the red meats and sweets were against him! Everywhere he went, there seemed to be a promotion for a new flavor of lollipop or an offering of delicacies. Bloody, raw, fatty delicacies.

Had he children of his own, he would have seen to it that they would have been better than him, but alas that ship had sailed long ago to America.

On his knees at the shrine, Yahui prayed a simple prayer, "Let me be a stronger man. Save me from myself."

Chloe Frazer - I Love You, And You Love Meenu Too

Desktop absolutely strewn with photographs and little else, Chloe's workspace somehow or other always managed to surprise people when they saw it.

Clearly they were mistaking her space for Nate's, because when they'd dated it was cluttered by various items ranging from bottles of aspirin to old day planners and a million post-it notes - quite possibly there were actually one million slips littered about. Everything was chaos. Pens littered every few inches, there was a little container of floss at one end and a box of tissue at the other. Total bedlam.

When she asked how he could possibly find anything in that heap, he had gone on the defensive and told her there was just no way that she could understand that within the state of anarchy, he more or less knew where everything was. Hopefully he wasn't such a slob now that he was a button-down family man.

Feet resting across the crushed velvet ottoman tucked partially below the shelf that held her printer, she thought she may as well check up on anything she might have missed in the past few weeks. Primarily checking for any new jobs that might have come along while she'd been otherwise engaged, the woman sat back at the computer and scanned the contents of her inbox.

Ad, spam, spam, another rubbish ad, a virus waiting to snare an unsuspecting fool, advert.

Nada. Absolutely nothing. Not even a quick 'hi, made it to my brother's, we're fine' or 'remember, next week is the party'.

Speaking of kids, when was the last time she'd spoken to Meenu? E-mails and texts not the same, Chloe could feel the guilt creeping in that it had been longer than it should have been; deciding to skip the digital, the thief gave the young woman a call.

"Hey, kiddo."

Ruan Jian - Game Over?

No matter how old he got or what his elders said, playing video games was one of the few tasks that could completely hold his attention, just as easily as it could take him away from the pressures of leadership. If the fictional worlds didn't, one of his absurdly beautiful companions certainly could. But not tonight. Even in conjunction with one another, there was just no forgetting what had happened.

His bride-to-be had gone ghost, however she would not leave him be. Escape technically occurring on his watch, his superiors definitely weren't going to let him forget about this any time soon, and just the sight of any of his subordinates served to only remind him of his failure. Yet it was more than that, there had been something she had said that refused to leave his head. At the time he'd thought it was just a stupid comment from a frightened little girl, but now he wasn't so sure...

Obviously she had meant to play with his head for what Angel and Ashley had done, but did it have to torture him so!? Was it not merely enough that she humiliated him?! That just one more mistake could very well mean his life?! Had she no compassion at all?

Vilifying the girl so that he might sleep better at night, he hadn't thought about what his men did in his name before, so why should that change that now? Fearsome and respected, the operation had been a smooth one, so what need was there to dwell on how it got that way? History itself was a bloody affair, and what the text books said was only the prettier half of it.

Yet no matter how much he tried to justify his position, to forget the girl, Jian could not. In his game room she haunted him, when he tried to touch his pretty playmates she was a spectral spectator, and even when he tried to take a shower before bed. She was there.

He wanted to scream at the heavens, what was he supposed to do? He'd grown too comfortable in his role, and Angel and Ashley were terrible monsters that had no real incentive to remain loyal if they didn't want to, so what could be done? The facade he put on was a cold bastard, but it had to be that way to continue with the charade, because if he were to show the harmless slacker that resided within, he would lose everything.

Nadine Ross - Yoga Is Not Calming, Not Matter What Anyone Else Tells you

Forgetting how lonely it could be in the city, the woman wondered if the move had been the right choice after all. Nadine could handle anything, even a little solitude, but the noises in her mind were harder to quiet when they were still buzzing about all that trouble with the Adler girl. Obviously it was far from done, but this breather might be good for everyone, a chance at a fresh perspective.

Hang on a minute, a breather! That just might be the remedy she needed!

Recalling what Chloe had taught her (or rather tried to teach her) about meditation and yoga, the woman frowned at the bare walls when little came to mind. To be fair the lessons had been ages ago, so forgetting wasn't necessarily a sign that she was getting old. Stubbornly set on the decision, she sat on the floor in her bedroom, drew a deep breath, and held it there as her mind instructed her on what she thought was supposed to come next.

Body still as it was going to get, Nadine laid flat on her stomach and brought her legs up, one at a time. Okay, it wasn't so bad, she thought to herself. Not sure how it was supposed to be helpful, but stretching did help runners limber up before a race, so there was something to it.

Glad that she was in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, the woman took one stance and then another. Unaware of what was going to be too difficult for a beginner and what some of the actual poses even were, it wasn't long before she was out of her depth and stuck in a pretzel-shape. Unsure of how to get out of it without giving up, she fell on her side only to miss the mark and land rather painfully on her shoulder.

Screw yoga!

Angel + Ashley - Everyone Loves Ice Cream

Hopelessly in love with the contents of the drilling section, Angel could practically feel the saliva spilling down the chin as shaded eyes ogled the display. So many different varieties and features to pick from, they could have spent all day there in the hardware store! Although they really didn't need to, because the right one came to the millenial, just as it had before - steel-platted, rechargeable, heavy duty with three speeds and a plethora of different heads, it was as if the heavens themselves wanted the mangler to buy this particular drill.

The money was there in the bank for one, and considering that the last one still needed to be replaced, it would have been a good investment. But if they purchased something that wasn't on the list then they'd have to get something for Ash too.

Petulant child that Ashley was, fair was fair. "Ash," turning just enough to keep from being a complete asshole, Angel decided to play nice, "how about I get you that new bolt-action crossbow you've been eying?"

Still moody and pouting about the girl eluding their net, Ashley was almost inconsolable, and that meant that only one thing would work to return the smile Angel so dearly cherished. Damn it all, even like this, there was no bounds to the sway the social media royal held. The problem was that Angel knew exactly what it was the other one needed to be happy, but it was so juvenile and pathetic that the mere thought burned.

All a matter of pride and personal preference, Ashley knew that Angel knew what had to be done. Until then, there was only the world in the phone. "Pass."

Pass. So very mature. Sometimes Angel had to wonder how Ashley was the love to end all loves. Sighing in defeat, and because the drill was almost glowing for how hard it was beckoning, the hipster finally nodded, "Fine, we can stop by the ice cream place on the way back."

Grinning like a kid in a candy shop just from the promise alone, Ashley pocketed the phone and kissed Angel passionately right there in the middle of the aisle, not caring who saw. Granted they usually didn't. "I fucking love you, babe."

AN:

Wow, I did not expect to finish TWO chapters in one day! So yeah, if you're just skipping ahead to the newest chapter as it comes, this might just throw you through a loop, so just in case :)