*waves into the void* I hope someone sees this update on here either not long after I post it or in the coming days and ffnet fixes its current woes. (I will put this on AO3 straightaway too but feel free to wait for FFnet to work properly instead).

Anyway, onwards A long chapter coming up.. I hope as always this chapter is okay. Thank you for sticking with this story, I'm so grateful.

Update: 4th November. Though the issues continue, if you see this, then try the app which is available via Android or iPhone. You can leave reviews on this and other fics that way too. Not ideal but a solution for now. (ps. hope you're all okay) xx

"We have any idea what they want to meet for?" Hailey asks as she holds a glass of water and looks at the board that's now filled with names, information and faces. Jay's on there now too, though relief fills every part of Hailey that he's not on the same row of faces as those who died.

"Something or someone we've not thought of I guess."

Hailey's points to the face of Anthony Hunt. "Or someone we gave up on?"

"Could be," Voight agrees.

Hailey turns back to the board and her eyes settle on Marcie and she shakes her head as she turns to face Al and Voight. "Marcie really played us, right? The sweet grieving mom turned addict, and she's been part of it all the way through?"

"She had enough practice over the years by the sounds of it. Don't beat yourself up over it," Al instructs, his words warm.

Hailey gives him an unconvinced look. "I'm thinking about how Jay'll react to all this particularly Marcie too. He really believed her. Hell, I did and no one at the bar. Not even that guy Terry indicated that she was anything other than the person she portrayed herself as. Hey, I could talk to Terry, find out more?"

"Is the bar even open?" Al points out.

"Good point," Hailey acknowledges.

"There's a bunch of guys who'll be lost without that bar," Voight muses.

"Ah man, if I know vets, they're resourceful and they'll find somewhere else and forget all about that place soon enough as long as the spirits and the beer taste the same." Al says.

"That's true," Hailey agrees before returning to the earlier subject, "So do we still have eyes on Marcie, Sarge?"

"We do. Burgess and Dawson are there now."

"Okay, so what time's the meet?"

"2.30am. They'll let us know a location at 2am."

"You trust them?" Al questions.

Voight shrugs. "Do we have any choice? Maybe someone really useful will be there, someone like Hunt. or it's a bluff and everyone's in on it and we'll have to go the long way round. Get warrants for every single bar on the route and hope we get the coke and put pressure on every single bar owner until one of them flips. If this works, we just get there faster."

Hailey glances one more time at the board, walks to her desk, pulling the chair out, ready to make calls, perhaps prepare warrants, but Voight approaches her desk and she follows his hand which points toward the stairs.

"Go home. Tomorrow could be another long day. Atwater and Ruzek are doing the same. After that it'll be Kim and Antonio's time for rest. We're a man down so we need to conserve our energy and if something happens, we'll react fast, but right now the smarter thing is to rest while we can."

"Sarge?" Hailey protests, "There's so much I can get on with."

"Nothing that won't wait, Hank's right," Al says from behind his own desk.

"And what about you two?"

"Don't worry about us, just go."

It had been easy to comply when Hailey thought of Jay and that she could see him again.

She pulls off the beanie as she steps into his room. It's dark out now and dark in Jay's room with the lights turned off and the blind pulled down. Only the light of the nurses' station and lights in other patients' rooms provide any light in the room.

There's a tray of untouched food on the trolley over Jay's bed. He's sitting up, his fingers playing with the material of the blanket. He's wide awake but doesn't acknowledge Hailey's arrival.

Even in the earliest days of them being partners, it wasn't this awkward. She didn't get the sense she was intruding this much. She reasons that it's not even a full day since he woke up.

She still tries, though.

"Not hungry?" She points toward the plate and regrets it almost immediately when Jay flashes her a look that could be best described as withering.

He looks away and Hailey observes him as best as she can in the small amount of light. The dark circles under his eyes and the bruising and redness around his eyes. There's bruising around his neck too, which looks painful and tender to the touch.

At least there's no sign of marks around his wrists. That speaks for something else though, how pliant he must have been. The drugs, no doubt.

Everything on the surface looks bad enough, and that doesn't even account for most of the injuries or the psychological damage inflicted on him.

"We, um, we may be getting somewhere. There's a meeting in the early hours. It could be good news, Jay."

He glances at her then, his mouth opening for a fraction of a second, a flicker of hope in his eyes before he lowers them, turning his head and his entire body away from her.

"Thanks for coming."

Hailey thinks she should be grateful he said anything, and that it wasn't just him snapping at her.

"I could stay in case you need to talk? Or so you're not alone?"

'So I'm not alone too' goes unsaid and Jay doesn't pick up on it as he speaks one more time.

"Please, would you close the door on your way out?"

Hailey's place is cold when she sets foot inside. First time in what feels like a century ago since she was last here. She turns the heating on, keeping her coat on til it gets warmer.

She lays the keys on the kitchen counter, eyes looking toward the bottle of whisky. But that would be a big mistake given she's got to be out of here again and meeting up with the others in the early hours.

She could sleep except she likely wouldn't be able to, not without the aforementioned whisky. Instead, she peers down at the bags in her hand, tells herself not to look. It'll do tomorrow or in several days when all this is all over, perhaps?

She's walking into the living room and turning on a single lamp, sitting down on the couch and opening the clothes bag before she can stop herself. Opening and then reaching into the plastic bag, shutting her eyes as she feels for the item she's looking for.

She places it on top of the coffee table and stares at it. Her hands shake slightly as she turns over the tag again and rereads the words.

It's wrong doing this right now. She should wait until Jay's here or just give it back to him when he's better, the day she'll leave or the last day they'll be partners in case that becomes the better option. Walking away before the worst happens.

We were just undercover

Those memories come back. Whatever the gift is, it's merely a token of that time. Even if Jay recovers fully, it won't be the same or can't be. Hailey's lost too much already once before to relive it and run the risk again of lightning striking another time and Jay not being as lucky next time around.

She drags her hand across her face, tells herself she won't open it even as she picks it up and snatches at the ribbon and tears off the paper.

Unfurls the gift that she realizes is a map. A map that's undamaged though old. It falls to the floor when her hands fly to her mouth.

We were just undercover

Sounds a little hollow when she stares down at it moments later, sees the lettering and Ikaria in an old typeface across the top of the map.

"You can stay on my island, Jay."

The words and every part of that night comes back to her all at once alongside the reality of tonight and the past couple of days.

Just undercover maybe, but what if it's more? Correction. Was more.

She's tired suddenly, that's all the tears are about. Even as they grow louder in the quietness of her home. Tiredness and the reality she's facing up to quickly, more quickly than she could ever have imagined, losing grip of something she never even thought she had a hold of, even slightly, in the first place.

Just undercover, that's all it was.

At least the snow isn't falling anymore when they arrive at the meeting place. They'd shared a look of surprise when the location was sent to them.

The same place Hailey, Jay, Al and Voight had met before while Hailey and Jay were under. There's a strong feeling in Hailey that it's a deliberate choice on Flynn's part, and she's not sure what to make of it.

Somehow Hailey had gotten some sleep. A superhuman effort to push the last couple of days and Jay, or at least her feelings about Jay behind her. Her only focus on the coming minutes and whatever follows with the whole case.

She and Al are in her car. Voight in his truck. Atwater and Ruzek are outside Marcie's place now, while Burgess and Dawson sleep.

At 2.32am, the headlights of a vehicle lighten the darkness for a moment and a dark colored Nissan Rogue parks behind them.

Hailey lifts up her radio as the doors open, her other hand reaching for the door as Al reaches for his door too.

A single figure, followed by another, and one more.

"I got three people, sarge."

"Let's go," comes the reply.

Flynn and Kacey flank the other figure that's dressed all in black with a dark beanie covering their head.

As Voight, Hailey and Al stand together, Flynn nods at them as Kacey squeezes the hand of the third person.

"Good to see you again," Flynn greets them, "Thanks for agreeing to meet. I think and hope you'll find it worthwhile."

Kacey's softly spoken, "It's okay," immediately precedes the figure in the middle, nodding in her direction, squeezing her hand and looking up this time, pushing the hood back and taking off the beanie right as Hailey realizes who it is and only a moment before Voight does too.

"Anthony Hunt?" Voight asks.

The man steps forward, looking behind him toward Kacey, then facing forward again, nodding, his hands clenching and unclenching as he does.

"Yes sir, that's me."

Hunt may be nervous, but he looks well for someone they'd presumed was dead. Less haunted than in the photo they have of him back at the 21st. Less destroyed by everything he'd endured than Jay had described, too.

He's more confident despite the nerves than Hailey expected.

"How's Ryan? I mean-Halstead? I was certain at one point that we'd be able to help him before it got to the stage it did. Each time something went wrong, it felt like we were 2 steps behind."

"It was you as well who would let us know where he was?" Hailey asks.

Hunt shakes his head. "Not every time. Mostly it was Steven. I was still dealing with the aftermath of everything, so all i did was drive the car. Except the last time. We'd tailed Halstead the day he disappeared. Christmas Eve and I tried to speak to him. He saw me though it was too close to one of the bars and instinct got me outta there quick. We got word later that your guy was missing and so we put 2+2 together and for hours, we kept making the wrong answer till we didn't and we found him. Thought he was dead, and we panicked, skipped the burner."

He looks behind him again toward Kacey who mouths, "It's okay." It's enough apparently as he continues.

"You know, for so long I was caught up in the mess and I was convinced there was only one way this was going to end up. Me in a morgue. You know, it took weeks for the red marks around my wrists to fade. Took till this last week, till I could sleep for more than an hour. You know I wasn't sure we could trust Halstead even though Steve said he was solid, so I kept the game going. Acted like Steve was a big of a question mark as Price and Barnet, but Steve and Kacey, they saved my life. You know Steve could've gotten out of the city, followed Helen after they murdered David. Instead, he stuck around for me, got me right. Paid for doctors to come to where I was holed up."

He sounds close to tears. Stuttering between moments of trying to stop himself from losing control.

"I did stuff I'm not proud of during those times. Stood by while other people got the same treatment I ended up getting. I realize I may end up in prison too, or worse, and I've made my peace with that now too. I didn't wanna disappear when I did and I know Steve didn't either but they were getting suspicious, paranoid, spiraling and we figured Halstead could have a better chance if I was out of the picture as well. Hardest thing I've done is to leave a man alone in the middle of something like that. You know, it's the code 'never leave a man behind' but we had to do it."

He breathes deeply, visibly regaining the control he'd been so close to losing.

"Any idea how they made Halstead?" Voight questions.

"A lucky guess?" Flynn suggests, "maybe, but when I was in with them after Halstead went in, they were suspicious, add you too Detective Upton, another newcomer? Let's just say they have a legion of bar owners and bars involved in this shit. It wouldn't take much luck for one of those owners that owes them to recognize one of your people as a cop. Even from the news and that news travels fast."

Hunt nods in agreement.

"So what are we doing here? Why didn't you come to make a statement?" Hailey inquires.

"I'm prepared to do that, but I have a more direct way I think could work. I call Price, tell him I'm going to the police unless he gives me a million bucks and a bag of bricks. Tell him I have people on my side and I show up with Steve and Kacey and get a confession outta them. Add that and my statement and I remember everything, Kacey's statement and all you have from your people and maybe you take a few years off my sentence in return."

"You do this and your life could be in danger from Price's business associates, out on the streets or if you were in County," Al points out, then looking at Kacey and Flynn he adds, "All your lives."

"I almost died a bunch of times already in my life to not be scared by that thought and away from this idea that easy," Hunt argues, "The biggest fear I had was dying, the other fear that damaged vet after damaged vet would follow in my footsteps ending up the same way. This way at least, I do it and take them down with me."

"Are you two both on board with this?" Voight looks between Flynn and Kacey, who nod emphatically.

"You think it's as simple as you say? Price hasn't made the money he has by being dumb, and what happens to Marcie Townsend too?" Hailey asks this time.

Kacey steps forward, so she's next to Hunt again. "I think everything carries a risk, but if there's one thing we've learned about Price, it's that money is king for him, and control too, and if anyone jeopardizes that, he'd want to resolve it and quickly. Marcie's dangerous with him precisely because she knows what he's capable of but without him, she's nothing so isn't it worth a try at least?"

"You go in with a wire. We arrange the meet for some place where they can't block the signal. Me saying that doesn't mean we do this," Voight starts, "We need to talk about this back at the district, but if we go ahead, when do we do it?"

"Make the call around lunchtime today when they're back from the first round of deliveries," Hunt suggests, "This would be the first day back of doing them. There's no way Barnet'll do it alone for long. They'll be feeling it and getting calls about delays. I call them and we meet tonight or this time tomorrow at the latest before they have time to change their minds or skip town."

"Alright, and if we go ahead, how do we contact you?"

A message alert sounds on Voight, Al and Hailey's phones.

"I suggest you look at the message you all received," Flynn urges, "Call us when you decide."

Hailey pulls the phone from her coat pocket and reads the message, "Burner phone?"

Flynn, Hunt and Kacey are already opening the doors of the Nissan when Flynn pauses and shrugs, "Old habits die hard. Hope to hear from you later."

Hailey, Al and Voight watch as the car pulls away, and it's just them.

"What are you thinking, Al?" Voight asks.

Al blows out a breath, "There's a lot I'm not comfortable with but I think if we try the other route, it'll take too long and they'll be in the wind."

"Huh, yeah. Hailey?"

"I think it could work. I didn't like the way Hunt was talking, though. Like this was one last thing to do. Could make him unpredictable. What about you, Sarge?"

Voight's silent for a few moments, slaps his oldest friend's arm and starts walking toward his truck, "I'm gonna make some calls. Head to the ivory tower first thing. We keep our heads on a swivel with Marcie Townsend too. We'll make the call and we do this tonight. You two head back and when Trudy comes in make sure she knows we'll need some units to monitor Marcie's place while it happens?"

"Got it," Al and Hailey agree, walking back to the car as Voight pulls away.

Hailey and Al don't go back to the 21st immediately. It's still early and Platt won't be in for a little while.

Instead, they stop near a 24 hr food truck in a parking lot where Al gets them both a drink and they sit quietly in the car, watching the time pass by.

"How are you holding up?" Al inquires quietly.

Hailey pulls the coffee cup away from her mouth, "I'm okay. Are you?"

"I asked first. Kinda holding out for an honest answer." Al smiles kindly, it's disarming and maybe Hailey just needed the excuse.

"It was difficult being the new girl. Working with Jay and all of you after someone like Lindsay left. And it wasn't only that, it was what happened with the little girl, Morgan, and I could see how badly that affected Jay. Another thing that disconnected him from everyone, never mind the brand new partner he resented. Then David Flynn was killed and I could see he grabbed hold of that life preserver and all it could mean for him. I was wary though till I figured out what it meant to him and I think when I got it and he could see that I understood, it got easier."

"You got closer?"

"That happens when you're the main one that your partner who's undercover liaises with." Hailey points out.

"Hmm."

Hailey raises an eyebrow. "What's the hmm, mean?"

"How about when you went under too?"

"We had to get to know each other better, at least on the surface. We were undercover, Al."

"The message on the gift? That because you were undercover?"

Hailey pulls a face, but Al's already holding his hand up.

"I shouldn't have brought that up. I apologize. I won't tell anyone else, but you know it's okay to admit you got closer. You face danger together as part of the same op and it happens."

"Actually, it happened before." Hailey swallows around the sudden lump in her throat. "Me and this guy worked so closely together and then he disappeared. Garrett, he disappeared, and they never found a body. I vowed to myself that it'd never happen again. Despite that, it just happened, we got close then Jay disappeared, and I was so scared and I keep telling myself those feelings were because we were undercover and even if they weren't, Jay's traumatized now anyway and I don't know what he thought before but now, he-."

"He's traumatized," Al repeats on her behalf, "Traumatized and doesn't know who's on his side. Probably can't sleep and if he does sleep, it's filled with memories which will be dominated by the worst things. I don't need to tell you that though, do I Hailey? Maybe you haven't been through exactly the same thing as him, but those times when sleep won't come till it does and you end up doing everything you can do to stay awake."

Hailey eyes Al.

"Do you ever dream about your daughter and it's a nice dream? Good memories?"

Al stares into the drink he's holding. "Usually they start off good. Buying her first bike and teaching her how to ride it, it always ends badly. I shouldn't complain, at least they feature her."

"I'm sorry, Al."

After a beat, Al shakes his head, a small smile on his face. "You know why you fit in so well in this unit? You deflect like a pro."

Hailey laughs. It feels too loud, but it also feels good, like a release of tension. "Thanks for asking, Al."

"Back at cha. Hey, you mind dropping me off at med on the way back to the 21st?"

"If you're sure?"

"I'm considering starting a scoresheet and ranking who deflects the best. May as well try to get some deflection from Halstead too, right?"

Hailey grins as she starts the engine, handing her coffee cup to Al as she pulls away and nodding in agreement. "Right."

"That kid you killed? The kids you watched die in Afghanistan? Your brothers. They hate you. Fucking cop, arrogant bastard. You thought we wouldn't know how to search the internet or the guys we deal with wouldn't?"

Jay's hearing's been coming and going for hours, but he can hear that every time they say it. He's lost count of how many times they repeat it.

In between the punches. Caught between a high that's followed by a low. Every time they threaten him with something else but it never comes.

Morgan Williams and the press reports. That's what gets him killed in the end? Crazy to think it would end any differently.

There's an explosion of pain and he can hear mortar fire followed by gunshots and the quick boom of an explosion like a bomb. And screaming.

Only when it stops and he realizes his throat is burning does he figure out, it's his own screams.

And a hand shakes his shoulder insistently, so he half turns, looking up and he sees Tabssum, pale and crying, mouthing something he can't make out but he's sure they're right. Price and Barnet, that is, and that the only words from someone even as young as Tabssum could be words of hate. How can it be any different?

He shrugs off the hand but it won't let him go until eventually it does and Jay relaxes into slumber again until an undefined amount of time later when his eyes open and he looks around him, remembering he's in hospital and through the blinds he sees daylight and then he turns his head toward the door and nearly jumps out of his skin.

"Jesus, Al, you're like a cat. How long you been sitting there?"

The older man favors Jay with a grin, then shrugs. "Lost count after ten minutes, how are you doing, kid?"

Ten minutes. Three months. It feels like a lifetime, though the conversation they had before comes spinning back to Jay like it was yesterday.

"I'm okay."

"Let me guess, you're also not a kid? Are we really doing this again?"

Jay opens his mouth to argue, but any thought of it dies on his lips. "Where Hailey, Will and Charles failed, they sent you in as last resort, huh?"

"Dr Charles?" Al's eyebrows raise. "But no, I came because like you I remember that conversation before all this and I get what's happening with you. It's too scary to admit that this was too close for comfort."

"I had it worse in Afghanistan."

"I'm sure you did, but you ever talked to anyone professionally about what happened in Afghanistan, you ever allowed the letters PTSD pass from your own lips? Ever trusted anyone enough to let them in?"

Jay doesn't reply.

"The way I see it if you let it out play out like this? You get discharged tomorrow, maybe. You start talking, but on your terms only. Enough to convince most people, including the shrink who's never met you before, that you're good. Still, you can't sleep. You occasionally relive everything, including the screams, but coffee helps with fighting off the exhaustion. Am i getting warm yet?"

Al pauses and Jay shrinks from his stare.

"Disassociating helps with pushing it down for a while. People who see through that get driven away because you lash out and you end up doing an undercover again, or worse, you walk away. I said it before Jay, no case is worth giving up your sanity for. Being afraid of admitting you need help isn't worth walking away from those who care about you either."

Realization hits Jay like a ton of bricks. "That was your hand before, wasn't it? I kept trying to shrug it off. It wasn't you when I looked over though."

"You just gotta ask for help. I'm here. Your partner, she'd be here in a second if you just asked."

"She okay?" Jay asks.

"She's worried about you. Makes two of us. Three of us if you count your brother, four if you count Charles, a whole damn army if you count everyone who's ready to help."

Jay turns his head toward the window, shuts his eyes, blinking away sudden tears, then he looks back toward Al.

"How's the case?"

Al doesn't comment on the change of subject. It's positive of its own that Jay's showing interest in anything after all.

"We have progress. Anthony Hunt's alive."

Jay's eyes widen, "Okay, and that means?"

"That means there could be news later today or tomorrow so you need to rest so you can get out of here, knowing that you're safe," quietly Al adds, "And Hailey too."

Jay frowns at Al, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do I know? I'm just an old guy?"

Jay smiles, and for Al it may just make the past few days worthwhile.

"Not just an old guy, Olinsky. The best old guy. Anyway, I know I'm late, but you okay? Meredith, okay?"

Al returns Jay's smile. "I had a conversation like this less than a couple of hours ago. You're well suited. As partners, of course."

Jay shakes his head. "Avoidance noted."

"Well, two can play that game, right?" Al's smile disappears slowly. "In answer to your question though, Jay, I don't know. I called her, left a message and just got a text back with a single X. I think she's doing her thing to cope while I do mine."

"Yeah."

The chair scrapes along the floor as Al stands up. "I should go. I only came in to check on you and here I am almost 2 hours later."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me, just try to get what I said into your head. That's all the thanks I need. You need anything before I go? Walk you to the bathroom?"

Jay makes an indignant sound, "I'm not your age, man."

"Didn't say you were, kid."

They grin at each other.

"Would you mind lifting up the blind? Perhaps living like Dracula wasn't the best for my mood."

Al does as Jay asked without comment, pours some water from the jug into a plastic cup and hands it to Jay who stares into the water before shyly looking at his friend.

"Whatever you're doing later, stay safe. Make sure she stays safe too. Get her excellent coffee as well. Black."

Al smiles knowingly and salutes leaving the room and Jay returns his gaze to the water, breathing shakily then nodding to himself and looking out the window, willing the time away so he can know everything tonight has gone well.

The call takes place just after 1pm in a van a couple of miles from the 21st. Just Hunt, Hailey, Voight and Dawson in the van while the rest of the unit keeps eyes outside to make sure no one's watching them.

Hunt seems calmer than before. Lazer focused on the task ahead.

"You stick to the plan. If Price won't meet at that location, it's off. We go with the other solution."

Hunt frowns but agrees and Antonio nods at him the moment he presses play on the record button and Hunt presses dial.

Price picks up within 3 rings. "Who's this?"

"Mr Price, sir, it's me."

"Who's me?"

"Anthony Hunt, sir."

Price laughs. It's an unpleasant noise. "Wondered what it'd take to drag you back. Why now? Run out of coke? Money? Need a fix, do ya, kid?"

"No sir, I got a business proposition. One I'm prepared to take elsewhere if you don't agree."

"What the fuck? Who are you to tell me you'll take your business elsewhere, you piece of shit?"

"With respect, sir, I think you should listen."

"To you and who's army."

"Meet me tonight and you'll see, sir."

Hailey watches the way Hunt breathes slowly through his mouth, his free hand gripping the bench in the van, all a way of keeping his control. It's working so far.

"Meet him tonight,'' he says? Jeez, kid, you got some nerve.. You should come to me begging for your old job back, not telling me what I should and shouldn't do and what if I don't, anyway? What can you do?"

"Word on the street says you need me more than I need you right now, boss, and as for what I can do. You don't give me a million dollars and a bag of bricks, I tell the cops."

Where they expected rage, instead silence follows. For long enough that Voight, Hailey, and Antonio peer at the screen that shows the length of the call and then to Hunt to make sure the line's still connected.

After nearly thirty seconds, Price speaks.

"Where? When?"

Hunt closes his eyes, "The Silos. You know the place."

"Smart, Hunt, smart. Private, too. Okay, so when?"

"11pm."

"Just you or some friends?" Price tries again.

Hailey shakes her head, changing the head shake to a nod of approval and a smile of relief when Hunt presses the end call button, then drops the phone onto the bench next to him.

She looks down towards his hands that are on his lap now.

"You can uncross those fingers now, Anthony."

He reddens, muttering a quiet "thank you," then looking from Hailey to the two men, he asks, "So what do we have to do now to prepare for tonight?"

The answer for Anthony at least is very little. There's more for Hailey and the rest of the unit to prepare though even then there's a limit to that until the meet happens

Patrol continue to monitor Marcie's place.

Everyone and everything they need for tonight is ready to go. The ivory tower on board with the information Voight had provided.

None of intelligence prepared to let this go wrong or risk a failure in getting justice against the people who had attempted to kill Jay and murdered all the other men.

Hunt, Flynn, and Kacey are fitted with wires. Given what's about to happen, they seem calm. The right amount of nerves thrumming under the surface. Perhaps it's the fact that for each of them in their own way at least, it's what they've wanted all along.

The chance to nail the people responsible for destroying their lives, the people they loved's lives, and even if it goes wrong, at least they tried.

It won't go wrong.

Well, lots of information there too and some little heartfelt moments too. I love writing Al and Jay almost as much as Hailey and Jay. I think there are 2 more chapters to come but it's possible, it could flow into a third but likely that would be an epilogue. I'll see what happens with ffnet and its troubles but all being well, it'll all be up and complete over the coming days. (and on AO3 too)

Let me know what you thought and thank you for everything so far. Thinking of everyone who's struggling with world events right now, there's so much to face and hear about, and wishing safe times tomorrow and into the coming days pre and post-election day xx