~Snowcrystal of Thunderclan~

I know right?

~doctordonna39~

Your welcome! But it used to be that way XD My updating skechule used to be a total mess XD

~PheonixRune~

Welcome to the family Pheonix! Enjoy the crazy mess that is WHSS

~Ivystorm~

This is Chapter 160! XD

For the books? I actually have completely rewritten some of them, but the writing is so old that it's embarrassing XD

Skylar really is isn't she?

*Gasp* you didn't ship Cinderblaze? Whaaat? O-o XD

Eh, it's a move trailer rewrite :P

You want to see more of the human characters interacting with their cat counterparts? XD Am I 21? Heck no, I'm a decent amount younger than that XD If I was 21 I'd be the legal gaurdian of my younger brother and likely married at this point :P

Thank you, I do have awesome friends, I love them ^_^ Especially for dealing with my secluded sorry pain in the butt XD

Really? Isn't Boring Office Work's Original longer? XD

Chapter I: My Past Still Haunts Me...

Sleep rarely visited Cynthia kindly, especially when it was storming outside and there were multiple crashes of thunder over head. The twenty-one year old woman was asleep though, a pillow mashed over her head to block out the noise of most of the thunder, blankets tangled around her slender frame. Even so, she twitched every few seconds and her forehead was beaded with cold sweat, from the memory turned dream currently haunting her consciousness. Dreams of her life three years ago for six long traumatizing years etched into her memories.

Cynthia's arm stung violently, but she didn't move so much more than her muscles spasming slightly. Her watery blue gaze flickered down toward her injured arm, where the blade of the knife had easily cut open the belly of her arm, leaving her skin to disappear beneath a welling flood of crimson blood. The sleeve of her long sleeve shirt was pinned down via the knife jammed into the table hardly an inch from her wrist.

She gave a sharp whimper as her chin was roughly grasped and she couldn't help trembling as she focused on the person in front of her through her tear glazed vision. "I told you to look at me," his voice was roughly and gravelly, tired and annoyed with her actions. "So look at me! And stop shaking!" He slammed his other hand down on the table and leaned closer to her, "I'm only teaching you a lesson."

Cynthia jumped slightly, the blade of the knife nicking her wrist as she jumped. However she forced the trembling into just jiggling her left leg instead of trembling from head to toe. She kept her eyes on his dark blue ones, not daring to look away despite the shaking fear she no doubt showed in her eyes.

"Now apologize," the man stated slowly, his gaze piercing and to Cynthia, dangerous.

Cynthia managed to open her mouth and speak through a dry mouth and cracked lips, "I… I'm s-sorry," she apologized and quickly shut her eyes, already knowing what was coming.

"Don't stutter, say it like you mean it." He snapped.

Sure enough a moment later her head snapped to one side and pain exploded in her cheek, only for her to yelp when he roughly grasped her other hand, her dominant left hand. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She panicked, wrenching her fingers from his hands, fingers shaking violently. "I need that hand for class, I can't write with…with the other one…" her voice fell to a scared whisper and she looked timidly at him, blue eyes round, shimmering with tears, and scared he was going to hurt her again. "I'm sorry, I'll be more careful tomorrow," she murmured in a frightened tone.

His dark blue eyes softened and he removed the knife from the table and flicked it closed, "go clean up really quick and head the bed, I'll join you in a few minutes."

Cynthia nodded and waited for him to show any signs of standing up before she got up, letting her injured arm dangle at her side despite how she wanted to cradle it against her body and wish the pain would go away.

"Give me a kiss first Cynthia," the man murmured, dark blue eyes focused distantly on his thoughts.

Cynthia said nothing, having not been given permission to speak. However, the now quiet and skittish young adult quietly approached him before she licked her dry lips and leaned over, gently pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Before she scampered away however, he cupped both sides of her face, she bit her lip to hide a flinch at his hands on her skin, and he gently leaned forward, dropping a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I didn't mean to scare you," he murmured quietly, "I just want you to learn quickly. Does that make sense? I don't like hurting you."

Cynthia forced herself to shut her eyes and nod a little, holding back the sobs threatening to escape her throat. Once he released her, Cynthia moved toward the bedroom of the apartment, only to pause partway down the hall. She knew she shouldn't, that it was wrong to want him to comfort her when he was responsible for her injuries all the time and the way she flinched at everything, but… Fighting with the urge to run to the bathroom and vomit from her stomach tying itself in knots, she quietly walked back to the main area, blue eyes timid and scared. "Ashton?" She quietly spoke his name and waited for permission to continue.

Ashton, the man still sitting at the table, idly waved a hand, permission for her to speak.

Cynthia swallowed the lump in her throat, wrestled down her rebellious stomach, and timidly asked her question. "Can I have a hug?" 'I'm scared…' she mindfully kept the second half of the sentence to herself.

Ashton looked back at her, studied her frightened posture and the way she blinked semi-rapidly to not cry in front of him, he hated it when she cried to whatever reason he didn't understand. "Sure," he turned sideways in his chair and the brunette opened his arms for the slender young adult to sit on his lap and he'd hug her, "just for a little bit."

Cynthia bobbed her head and quietly approached him, where the girl, barely nineteen-year-old girl nestled her head under his chin and breathed out a shaky breath.

Ashton's arms circled firmly but also gently around her body and he rubbed her back a little, neither of them minding her injured and very bloody forearm. "I'm sorry I scared you," he murmured one of his hands going to smooth down Cynthia's loose black hair, "I didn't mean to honey."

Cynthia nodded slightly and said nothing, sitting there for a few moments and trying her hardest to draw any kind of comfort from the embrace. She may be afraid of Ashton, but he was virtually all she had left, her family had pretty much forgotten about her after Ashton had proposed to her a month ago, her list of friends had dwindled to almost zero over the years being under Ashton's control, and even her best friend didn't know about her situation.

She was alone in the world, with only the guy who abused her as company. She had nothing left. Her stomach was still tied in knots, making her feel nauseous and a little dizzy.

Cynthia jerked awake with a start and dry heaved before she covered her mouth with one of her hands as she gag reflex kicked in and threatened to make her throw up in the middle of her bedroom. She quickly threw off her blankets with one hand and slid off her bed before sprinting toward the bathroom in her apartment. She managed to make it just before she actually vomited, memories she didn't want to remember being stirred up by the nausea. For a little while she repeatedly threw up everything she had eaten lately and then some, ending up leaning over the toilet with sweat beading her forehead, tears in her blue eyes dry heaving, her body shaking as it tried to get rid of the traumatic events inflicted on her mentally and physically in the past.

Once she was sure she wasn't going to vomit all over the floor if she moved, Cynthia heaved her body into standing up and pulled the small cup from the bathroom sink which she filled with water. She quickly rinsed her mouth out and flushed the toilet. Then she reached up to the cabinet behind the mirror, input the digital lock code, and pulled a small pill bottle from the cabinet before she closed it and stared at herself in the mirror. She was as white as a sheet, her freckles standing out incredibly against her sickly white skin, her face was beaded with sweat, and exhausted bags rested under her currently dull and dazed blue eyes. She was thin, thinner than she'd like to be, but unable to force herself to eat anymore than she had to stay moderately healthy, and still didn't have enough fat to be truly healthy.

Cynthia leaned against the sink, leaning on her arms and breathing a heavy sigh. She was never going to be free from these memories, the echoes of the trauma that followed her around everywhere. Feeling the bile rise up in her throat again, Cynthia quickly unscrewed the lid to the nausea medication she had been given by a doctor and dry swallowed the small pill before leaning back on her arms with her eyes closed, her trembling fading to be manageable.

Uneven rustling came from further down the hallway. Cynthia's head shot up and her eyes popped open, fear glistening in the sapphire depths toward the entrance. A small toddler with dirty blonde hair and two different-colored eyes came crawling over, dragging his favorite blanket behind him. He sat down on the floor with a thump and rubbed at his eyes in a tired fashion "Mama?" He mumbled sleepily and looked at her through his open hazel blue eye while his aquamarine colored eye was closed and being rubbed with a sleepy fist. "Mama okay?"

Cynthia took a sharp inhale and her blue eyes widened with terror, her body tensing like a board. Before after a few moments she relaxed with a few heavy breaths. She could've sworn she had seen the toddler's father walking behind him to check on her too. Idiot! She berated herself harshly, Ashton's been in jail since I was five months pregnant with Flynx! Almost four years ago! Get it together! She took a steadying breath and smiled at the toddler, "yeah, just had a bad dream Flynx." She lifted him up into her arms and held him against her hip while tucking his blanket snuggly around his small body. "Back to bed for you kiddo."

"Mama has lots of 'ad deams," Flynx mumbled into her shirt, snuggling close to his mother and shutting his eyes, his words now hard to understand.

"Yeah I know," Cynthia sighed heavily and flicked off the lights before she cuddled her son to her body, trying to relax and be able to go back to sleep tonight. I need to get over this, not just for my sake, but for Flynx's at well. He needs a father one day, and I have to get over this fear and paranoia. I have to, I can't raise him all on my own like this.

Holly's sentence was lost in the muddled mess that was Cynthia's sleep deprived brain, and the blue eyed woman murmured a noise of agreement, her eyes fixed on the folder in front of her. Narrowing her eyes in an attempt to keep the words from switching spots on the pages. This was why she wasn't an English major and had rarely read much outside of college.

After sustaining a hit to the back of the head with an unknown weapon by Ashton that had her unconscious for a full twenty-four hours when she was eighteen, Cynthia had problems reading anything longer than a few sentences, and even that was sometimes a struggle. The one good thing her captor had done in the six years she was stuck with him was get her checked for brain damage after it had healed. Once there she was told there was damage to the visual part of her brain. She had been diagnosed with Trauma related Dyslexia, not that anyone without access to her medical records knew it was from trauma. Which was why she usually had someone read files to her instead of reading them herself.

For the most part it wasn't too bad, frustrating as she had to reread each sentence twice to make sure something wasn't backwards or wasn't the wrong word, but she could live with it. When she was sleep deprived though she pretty much got nothing done.

Cynthia gave a grunt in irritation and shut her eyes while she pinched her nose and took a few deep breaths. It's just a file, just five pages of various case reports. Pull it together Cynthia...

"Cynthia… Cynthia…" Holly's voice accompanied by a gentle shaking of Cynthia's shoulder managed to pull Cynthia from her muddled and frustrated thoughts, "hey Cindy, you okay?"

Cynthia flinched and one of her hands instinctively twitched as if to jerk away and punch whatever touched her, but it quickly faded. "Holly," Cynthia sighed heavily through her nose, "one of these days your going to scare me so bad I'm going to end up accidentally break your arm."

Holly smiled gently and a little sadly at her best friend and lightly rubbed at the taunt muscles in her friend and co-worker's shoulder near her neck. "Wouldn't be the first time," she said quietly before perking up and giving her friend a composed grin. "I'm not going to completely distance myself from my best friend just because you have a reflex to break away from everything touching you."

Cynthia flinched at the reminder that during one of her flashbacks while she was pregnant with Flynx she had broken her friend's arm without meaning to. However she brushed it off and rolled her eyes, "right…" her blue eyes flicked up toward the white analog and digital clock rested on the wall, "aren't you supposed to be going somewhere at noon Holly?" She mused, getting the feeling that somehow the time being noon was important.

Holly blinked then gave her friend a teeth filled smile and adjusted her glasses, "my younger brother's finally getting here after spending the past month and a half convincing him and my mom that I'll take care of him."

"Ah," Cynthia smiled, "Leonardo, the baby of the family." She leaned back slightly in her chair, all thoughts about her frustrating reading problem gone in favor of reminiscing about when she and Holly were kids. "Admittedly he wasn't the brightest bulb in the shed from what I remember, at least until I turned ten and left to Vandala."

"Where you picked up that fancy accent of yours," Holly lightly teased as she swept the papers from her file together to fit neatly into it's manilla folder. "He's still not as accademic as me or Jay, but he's got his own attributes to the family." She picked up the file and lightly dropped it a few times to further organize the papers inside, "if anything Leon's the one with a sixth sense for danger or something being amiss." She then picked up her satchel and neatly slid her file into the bag as she continued. "He was a reknown cop in Ruxburg since he graduated high school, and if I have my way he'll be part of our investigation team."

Cynthia couldn't help the instant fear and wariness that flashed over her face. Nor could she help closing her almost untouched file a little too hard. "Part… of o-our team?" Her voice wavered half way through the phrase, feeling fear cause her throat to tighten and her hands to start shaking slightly.

Holly looked up from putting the rest of her things away and stopped mid movement, pausing the action of putting her pen away into her bag. Her emerald green eyes instantly dulled a little like the hope of working with her brother had just gone and died. "Not of course if you don't want a guy on the team."

One of Cynthia's hands tugged anxiously at the folder collar of her blouse and she nervously chewed on her lower lip. Studying her friend's body language and inwardly fighting herself on what she wanted. She wanted Holly to be happy really. Their work always finished faster and was done perfectly if Holly was happy and not swamped with a multitude of projects that Cynthia was helpless to help with.

Cynthia may be a brilliant chemical scientist, but her skills ended just after science and a mile before anywhere near "law and order." I'm going to regret this… Cynthia mentally sighed as she gathered her own things, stood up, and cleared her throat before Holly left the inner office. "If… If you really think he's going to be a help and that he won't barge into my office like that intern did," Cynthia hugged her file and pen to her chest, struggling to keep looking Holly in the eye. "I'll be okay with him joining our team."

Holly looked concerned, "are you sure? He's a 'out in the field' kind of guy."

Cynthia swallowed the scared lump growing in her throat and drummed her fingers against the pen in her left hand. "I can handle working with someone you vouch for. I'll make it work."

Holly's face broke out into a bright smile, "great! Come on, I'm going to lock up my office and we can leave! You're going home early too right?"

Cynthia quickly fell into step with her friend and hurried out the door so Holly could lock it before she hummed in agreement. "Uh huh, I've got a doctor's appointment and afterward I'm taking Flynx to meet up with my siblings and Bree at the bowling alley." She smiled faintly at the mentioning of her son, "Flynx's too young to bowl, but he likes running around with Bree pretending to be in a car or a plane. I still don't understand how she always has so much energy," Cynthia mused and lightly shook her head in bewilderment as she and Holly headed toward the elevators at the far end of the open room.

Holly laughed, "Cynthia you're twenty-two, you have plenty of energy to deal with the most well behaved three-year-old I've ever seen. You have the perfect son whose no doubt going to grow up handsome and kind like his mother taught him."

Cynthia's smiled turned wistful, "now if only I can teach him to walk more often. He's three-years-old and still crawls more than he actually walks on his wobbly legs."

Holly lightly touched Cynthia's shoulder in reassurance as they waited for the elevator. "He'll catch up soon, his growth was stunted as an unborn child Cindy. So it's no surprise that there's some muscles in his body that haven't caught up just yet."

Cynthia smiled, "I know," she then pulled a cheeky grin, "now go pick up that brother of yours!" She playfully pushed Holly into the elevator and waved at her as the elevator doors began to close.

"You two have to meet this time! I won't stand for it otherwise!" Holly shot back before the doors completely closed, leaving Cynthia completely by herself.

Cynthia's shoulders instantly sagged and she breathed out a slow breath before turning left and heading toward her office, where her bag laid with her laptop and chemical research.

However, Holly's words rang in Cynthia's ears.

"You two have to meet this time! I won't stand for it otherwise!"

I bet you won't Holly, Cynthia gave a heavy sigh like the weight of the world was on her thin shoulders. I don't really get a choice this time do I?

I hope with everything I have…

Dark blue eyes flashed in her mind's eye and made her visibly flinch Those eyes dark with anger and faintly gleaming with insanity were a part of her past that haunted her even to this day.

That he won't be like Ashton, and that I won't fall for him.

Whatever's out there, please protect me, just this once.

"Leon!" Leon half stumbled by the sheer force of his sister-in-law crashing headlong into him as he escaped the airport terminal. He hadn't even seen her before his name was suddenly called and felt a small shape slam into him at the speed of a small go-kart. "I found him Jay!" The brunette hugging him with a beaming smile said loudly, looking up at him through sparkling amber eyes the color of honey. "It's so good to see you again Leon," she squealed and squeezed him tightly, "it's been literal years!"

"Don't squeeze him to death Bree," a familiar tone reached Leon's ears through the bone crushing squeeze of a hug Bree had him in. "I want my brother alive all in one piece without any broken ribs."

Leon felt spots dancing over his vision, but inhaled a deep breath of air when Bree released him to roll her eyes and wait for the owner of the other voice to approach. "He's a foot taller than me Jay, how can I of all people squeeze him to death?"

A thin man broke through the crowd, a messy mop of black hair on his head and milky blue eyes staring blankly at the world ahead of him. "You were in a wheelchair for two years and you can bench press eighty-five pounds Bree. My brother may be muscled, but he's not literally carved out of stone," he stated tonelessly but cracked a grin at Bree's next words.

"Really? I couldn't tell, he's very muscled and handsome while my husband is as skinny and blind as ever," Bree stated casually, but her tone held an audible note of cheekiness before she trotted back toward Leon's older brother and hugged her husband's arm with a giggle of amusement.

"What am I supposed to do with you?" Jay grunted with a roll of his blind eyes, having been jostled around by Bree's movements. However despite his words he was smirking, and Leon couldn't help but chuckle at the banter.

He had missed his brother's moody temper and Bree's ever bright glowing sunshine effect she seemed to have on the world twenty-four-seven. Bree would always have the innocent glow of a child shining in her bright eyes, while Jay would always have the attitude of a raincloud. Some things never changed, and for those Leon was grateful.

"Leon!" However, another voice was added to the mix and Leon couldn't help but grin brightly. His sister Holly, had finally arrived. He looked toward the origin of the voice and sure enough a black haired woman with shockingly green eyes and black rimmed glasses was running toward them with a grin and enthusiastically waving her right arm. "You finally made it!"

Leon simply grinned and opened his arms for a hug, watching his sister race toward him. He was finally with the rest of his family. After ten and a half years of sparse visits he was finally reunited with his sister.