I know you all want more of the story. So short author's note up here this time. I've edited up to Chapter Fifteen now. Again, minor edits and things like that. I did take the chance to make a few clarifying changes. Both to clear up some confusion, and add a little to the plot I have set up for later.

Also, I'd like to congratulate everyone for having this story pass 80,000 views. Again, you're the best readers ever. Thank you for your love and loyalty. I hope you enjoy the chapter!


Sorry, I had replies to reviews written out, but then my laptop shut off on me. It's pretty late too. So sadly, I'm going to skip Mailbox Time for this chapter. I'll make certain to reply to everyone next chapter if we break 500 reviews!


Since last time: 13 more favorites, 10 more follows (Total: 243 Favorites, 277 Followers)


Updated: March 12, 2019 11:30 P.M.


Disclaimer: Look at this huge pile of words I'll never own. Maybe one day if I manage to get this all jumbled into a conclusive story.


Chapter Thirty-Two: Moving On


Dining Room

The scene looked more laidback now.

Garfield and Rachel sat on opposite sides of a circular table. An array of food was spread out on a tablecloth in front of them. From homemade mashed potatoes, to buttered corn on the cob. There was venison, ribs, and even a ham. Plus, at Rachel's request, there was a plate of bacon that she was eating from. (poor pigs)

Both Rachel and Garfield had no evidence of the mud fight they had been in just an hour and a half ago. Though they both smelled heavily of soap... And disinfectant.

Marie sat at the front of the circular table (I'll leave you readers to debate where the front is at on a circular table). She sliced a piece off her ham, and looked up at Garfield's plate. A slight frown came onto her face.

"My dear. You really should consider having more meat on your plate. It'd help with you maintaining your muscles." She said to him after seeing the mashed potatoes, the green beans, the corn, and a few other things that weren't 'meat' on his plate.

Garfiled shrugged it off. "Sorry dude. Like I said before, I'm vegan. I don't do dead animals." He said almost offhandedly. "Besides, I have plenty of muscles to spare." He said as he made a show of flexing his somewhat muscled arm.

Rachel rolled her eyes and tried her best not to stare at his direction. "You do realize that my food poops on your food, right?" She quipped before she took a bite of venison.

Garfield glared at Rachel over his mashed potatoes. "Not cool dude." He said in a grumbly tone.

Rachel almost chuckled, and Marie chuckled a little. The three had a few minutes of peace as they ate dinner together.

Finally, the plates were all cleared of their contents. Garfield leaned back in his seat, and held his gut in front of him. "Dude, I'm like, so full right now." He groaned out. "It's like I'm the thanksgiving turkey, and they stuffed me until the stuffing came out the other end."

Rachel finished munching on the last strip of bacon. She also leaned back in her seat to rub her full belly. "It was good." She stated simply.

Marie smiled happily at seeing the two of them full and in good spirits. I'd say happy, but Rachel still looked a little dull even after a good meal. "Thanks again for all the help you two have given me these past couple weeks." Marie said to them.

Garfield gave a laidback thumbs up. "It's no problem dude. We're glad we've been able to help out here a little bit, and that we've been able to enjoy some great food in the process." He said happily.

"Yes, Gar really isn't the best cook in the world." Rachel said dryly.

Garfield pouted at that. "Hey! I cook far better than you do!" He said indignantly.

"You're right." Rachel said.

Garfield looked caught off guard. "I am?" He asked.

"Of course. When someone doesn't know how to cook, the ability to make toast should automatically make even someone such as yourself a better cook than me." She said with a smirk.

It took Garfield a few seconds to catch the meaning behind her words. "Hey!" He said indignantly.

Rachel finally chuckled. Even Marie laughed a little at that. "My, you two sound like me and my husband before we got married." She said as she got up and started to clear the dishes off the table.

Garfield and Rachel went silent at that. It was almost as if an awkward cloud descended on them. 'Married...' Both of them thought in shock at the same time.

Then the two rolled their eyes without the other seeing. 'Ha! When hell freezes over.' They again thought in unison.

...

"Are you two going to be staying for another week? I know that I'll be getting a new horse by then." Marie suddenly asked them. She didn't seem to realize the awkward silence she had created.

Garfield and Rachel finally looked to each other. A slight frown was on Rachel's face, and Garfield looked back up at Marie with a frown of his own. "I'm sorry, but I think we planned on leaving tomorrow. So we won't be able to see that new horse of yours dude." Garfield said. He got up and started to clear the table too.

"Are you sure? You dears are welcome to stay as long as you need." Marie added.

"We know." Rachel said. She kind of felt sad. Marie really was one of the nicest people she had met out here while on the run.

"We just have to resume our travels tomorrow dude." Garfield said as he picked up his and Rachel's plates. The two exchanged a look that meant 'we'll talk on it later.'

Marie went over to the sink with her plates. She had a gentle sad look on her face as she set them down gently inside the sink. "That's too bad then. I normally don't have many visitors, and these last couple weeks have been wonderful with you two around to help me out. My hands have appreciated not having to milk the cows every day." Marie said.

Garfield set the plates down next to the sink. "Isn't there anyone else who normally comes to visit you dude?" He asked quizzically.

Marie rolled her eyes as she turned on the water. "No, my husband passed away years ago. And I only ever had one son in my life." She said as she started scrubbing away at a dish. "He doesn't visit very often since he's too busy saving the world." Marie added almost offhandedly.

The two didn't really think much on what she had said. "He must be a good man then." Rachel said.

Marie nodded. "He'd be even better if he married that girl of his and made me a grandma. Then I'd have a good enough reason to go and try and visit him in that fortress of his." She said as she started to focus on the dishes.

Garfield and Rachel finished cleaning up the table. "Well we'll see you tomorrow morning before we go dude." Garfield said as he walked away.

Marie waved from the sink. "Good night." She said. She was already in her own little world as she worked on the dishes and the kitchen.

Garfield and Rachel walked into the hallway. It was a dark, starry night outside the window as they approached an intersection. Even at night, it felt warmer than normal despite the A/C being on. It was a sign that Spring would soon be ending, and that Summer was well on the way. Thankfully for Garfield, he was past the worst of his "in heat" Spring problems. Had he and Rachel done what they did earlier that day a month to a month and a half ago, it could have turned very downhill very quickly. He just felt grateful that he and her didn't have to worry so much about it anymore...

"Do you know where we're going next Gar?" Rachel asked.

Garfield's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her voice. "You know, I don't really know dude." He said.

That was the truth. For the past few months he had been trying his best to find somewhere where they could avoid the League. Even though Robin, Nightwing, whatever his name was now had been compromised he had been doing his best to fulfill the order he had received. If they could only find somewhere where the Justice League couldn't find them... which was pretty difficult since they were stuck to North America.

Rachel and him stopped at the intersection to face each other. "You know Gar, it would be a lot easier to know where to go if you hadn't crashed our jet into the Rockies." She said dully.

Garfield shrugged indifferently. "Hey, it's not my fault that I'm apparently not good at handling turbulence when I'm about to go into heat." Garfield said.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "If screaming mommy after tearing out the joystick in fear is what you call not handling it well, then I wonder what handling it catastrophically would have been like." Rachel said sarcastically. "Not to mention, I'm surprised you would feel horny enough to have a heat episode right after crashing a jet."

Garfield frowned at that. "Hey, a lot of animals will mate with each other when they think they're going to die." He defended himself. "Besides, it put the hero world far behind us. They haven't been able to trace us since they found our wreckage." He quipped back.

Rachel looked flatly at him. Garfield looked slightly nervous after a few seconds. "Okay, we've had a few close calls. But nothing major dude." He added quickly.

Rachel finally rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever." She drawled.

Garfield was still frowning a little, and then he sighed. 'You know, we might be getting along better. But I'm still kind of getting sick of these petty arguments.' He thought as he rubbed at his forehead. It always seemed to happen when they were changing their location. "Look, it's late dude. How about we sleep now and decide tomorrow where we'll go. Agreed?" He suggested.

Rachel looked like she wanted to disagree.

Yawn!

She let out a yawn, closing her eyes as she did so. When she opened them again, she saw that Garfield was smirking at her. "See, I told you you were tired dude." He said.

Rachel almost groaned at him. "Fine, we can decide what to do tomorrow morning." She said flatly.

Garfield started to chuckle, and he turned down the intersection to walk away. "Whatever Rae. I'll see you in the morning." He said in a mimic of her tone.

"Wait." Rachel suddenly said behind him.

Garfield turned around to ask what... and then Rachel had her arms wrapped around him in an embrace. His eyes almost widened when her head rested against the crook of his neck.

"Thanks for today Gar. It was... fun." Rachel said almost shyly. Even though she had been doing this for the last couple weeks without fail; hugging him and thanking him each night.

After a moment, Garfield remembered to hug her back. He closed his eyes and embraced Rachel. His head rested comfortably against her lavendar smelling brunette hair. "Thank you for helping to make today fun dude." He whispered to her.

...

It was like all the negative feelings about the day were being drained away in that small moment between them.

'So this is why the petty arguments are all worth it.' Garfield thought a little sluggishly.

...

Finally, the two separated, and Garfield smiled toothily at her. Rachel almost could have pictured the fang sticking out of his mouth in that moment. "Good night Raven." He said.

"Good night Gar." She responded quietly.

He turned around, and started to walk down the hall way to his room. Rachel still stood in the intersection, feeling a warm feeling going through her chest.

'What in hell's carnation are you doing girl?! Just invite him into our room tonight and get it over with!' Rage yelled angrily inside her mind. It seemed that her whole attitude about what happened in the mud earlier had changed with the hug of just a few seconds ago.

'Yeah Rae, it's not like we're not used to having him in there when we're in our pocket home!' Happy yelled happily in her mind.

Rachel opened up her mouth unsurely. She almost wanted to invite his fading figure in the darkness of the hallway...

It was as if Timid took over. She shook her head, and turned back around. Her hand made the unconscious grab for the hood of her cloak that wasn't there. 'It's fine. We'll be sharing the same pocket home again after we leave here tomorrow.' Rachel thought to herself as she started to walk to her room.

...

"Boooooo!" "Boooooo!"

A chorus of boos filled her mind. 'Aw come on! I thought we were going to have fun tonight!' Rude bellowed.

'Yeah! I was betting money on this!' Brave yelled angrily. Wisdom took the lucky penny necklace from Brave and put it on, while Rude grumpily handed some cash to Sloth. (It's Rachel's mind. Don't ask me what money is used for in there. Your guess is as good as mine)

'I wanted to show Garfield some moves!' Lust yelled. Knowing Lust, you could probably guess what her moves were.

Rachel frowned as she opened her door. She walked past an empty dresser to the foot of her bed. 'Okay, seriously we're just friends. Good friends in fact. I know I'm crushing on him too. But I'm not going to jump that next hurdle in a single night. I'd rather wait a long long time for when I feel like I'm ready... if I ever feel ready to try a relationship that is.' Rachel thought.

'But Raven!' Knowledge surprisingly yelled in complaint.

'I said a long, long time.' Rachel thought with finality.

Lust glared up at the screen. 'We'll see about that.' Lust said lowly, before she looked to Love and Rage. 'You ready for Plan D girls?' She asked.

Both of them smiled. Rage was smiling an evil smile.

'You bet we are!' They said together.

Rachel, by this time, had already gotten under her covers. She closed her eyes to go to sleep. "Sigh..." She sighed in comfort as she relaxed into the mattress.

...

...

Her eyes widened drastically. 'WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS!'

Kckckck...

The dresser to her right was covered in black, and the ground started to shake slightly. Rachel quickly had to rein in her surprise and confusion as laughter sounded in her mind.

'Enjoy having that image trapped in your mind for the rest of the night Rae!' Brave yelled.

'Yeah! Have fun with BB!' Rage yelled, before going away.

'Not too much fun though! After all you're just "friends."' Lust added at the end before she and the others quickly disappeared. Rachel tried to focus her mind again to try and rid herself of the image her emoticlones had glued to the screen of her mind. She discovered she was way too tired though, and she couldn't get the mental focus she needed to banish something as enticing as that.

Rachel groaned to herself. 'I seriously hate them when they do this.' She thought bitterly to herself.

It almost made her want to chain them all again... almost...

...

She still couldn't believe that they used the image (and memory) of Garfield skinny dipping in a mountain lake as revenge on her.

...

'I knew I shouldn't have kept on looking when I realized what he was doing.'

...


YAAAWWNNN!

Garfield yawned loudly to himself and leaned back in his chair. 'Aw dude, what a day.' He thought to himself.

He stretched his arms out above him for a moment more, then he leaned forward in his chair again. He picked up his pencil and looked down at the drawing from his notebook down below.

It was his latest one, and he was rather proud of it. It was a realistic pencil drawing of the countryside. He had shaded the long grass perfectly, and made a nice post line leading up to a realistic looking farmhouse. Garfield studied it for a moment...

'I feel like it's missing something still...' He thought to himself.

...

Scribble Scribble Scribble...

Garfield quietly started to draw in one last detail...

...

...

Finally, Garfield lifted his pencil off the notebook paper. He had drawn a figure sitting on one of the posts. The figure was dressed in a farmer's dress, resting her chin on her hand, as she watched the sunset in the distance.

Garfield stared at the picture for a moment longer...

'Sigh...'

He sighed mentally, and closed his drawing notebook.

He kneaded his forehead. 'Why can't I stop thinking about her?' He thought to himself.

'I think you know why by now master.' The Beast said in his mind.

Garfield groaned to himself, and stood up. He walked over to his bed and settled onto his mattress. He was tempted to just turn into a cat, and sleep as one in a pile of blankets to ignore the Beast. However, ever since he had gotten there, Rachel had told them not to use their powers under any circumstance... which she had broken the rule on as he discovered earlier that day. So it probably wouldn't matter...

'Go to bed dude. I'm not in the mood to talk about Rae right now.' Garfield thought drowsily.

'You're not in the mood to talk. That explains why you drew our mate on your man paper then.' The Beast replied almost sarcastically.

Garfield groaned again, and stopped fluffing his pillow in annoyance. 'Oh great. Please don't tell me you're going to start a conversation on this again when I'm this tired.' He thought to the Beast inside him.

Rrrrrrrrrrr!

The ground might have been shaking a little bit. But it was as if a sound like a drawn out wolf howl filled his mind. It wasn't ferocious though, and it sounded equally as tired as him. 'Not tonight master. I'd rather hit the cave then try to talk in the man tongue to you.' The Beast said tiredly.

...

Garfield was slightly surprised. Then thoughts of hallelujah started going through his mind. He smiled to himself as he felt the Beast retreat start to retreat from his mind.

'Thanks dude. I could use the break tonight.' Garfield said gratefully.

...

'Oh wait, there was one thing Master.' The Beast said to him.

Before Garfield could ask what it was, a mental image was glued to Garfield's mind. His eyes widened when he realized what the Beast had done.

'Beast!' He thought angrily.

The Beast laughed evilly to himself as he retreated away into Garfield's mind like a mischevious evil little elf goblin. Garfield's mind was now occupied with the image of a drawing of Rachel. It was a very familiar one, in fact it was the one the Beast loved to use on him at times like this. Either that, or it was because it was one of the only pictures he had drawn that could make him uncomfortable...

Either way, it had done the job. 'Oh noooo... I just wanted to go to sleep.' Garfield thought to himself.

He tried to do anything to rid himself of the image. But it seemed, like Rachel's emoticlones, the Beast had also improved in keeping an image glued in place. It would not budge in his mind no matter how hard he tried... plus the fantasies... Garfield groaned. "I don't think Bruce Banner had to deal with a problem like this with his little green monster." He muttered to himself sarcastically as he rolled on his side.

Him and Rachel slowly went off to sleep in their separate rooms. The dreams they would have would most likely be very weird because of their aspects. And they had essentially guaranteed that though they were in separate rooms, they would most certainly be in each other's dreams. No matter how much they didn't desire for that tonight.

Outside of that, the house was now silent.

...


Scrub. Scrub. Scrub.

The gentle scrubbing of the dishes under the running water of the kitchen sink sounded quietly in the kitchen. Marie was almost finished with her dish duties. She continued on at a comfortable rate as she pondered on something in her mind. Most likely a memory of doing this years ago when she had her son and husband with her.

Finally, she set the last plate to the side on a rack to dry. She then took a look around her kitchen. All the dishes she had used were either drying, or put away in their respective cabinets. All the leftovers were sitting in the fridge. And the sink and counter in front of her were finally empty.

Marie breathed a sigh of relief, and she rested her hands on both sides of the sink. "I guess I won't be cooking like this again for a while." She said to herself.

...

A moment passed with her in the same pose.

...

Her face went from relieved to a look of sadness. "I guess I won't have to cook like this again for a long while." She said again to herself, though this time her voice held a note of loneliness.

She stood there a moment more...

... "Sigh."

Finally, she sighed defeatedly to herself. She set the dish rag she had been using next to the sink. She looked up at a picture that was hung up near the sink.

"Why'd you have to leave me when you did John?" She spoke to the picture of her deceased husband...

...

Marie, no, Martha sighed again. She'd been going by the other name the past couple weeks around the two teenagers. It was only a slight altercation, but she'd been adopting the fake name Marie lately. Ever since her son had sent her a message months ago to be careful of some villains, most likely led by Lex Luthor, who might try to locate her to use her against him. Plus, it was an old trick she'd learned long ago from John. The people who didn't want to be found often hid in plain sight. Changing her name and appearance slightly while living in the same place seemed like the best trick.

Still, she felt bad to not be entirely truthful to two such nice people. In part, this made her glad they'd finally be leaving. She wouldn't have to act like she was living as part of a lie anymore. Though she honestly didn't know when it'd be safe for her to live under her real name anymore.

...

"I guess it's time for me to rest." She said sadly to herself.

...

After a moment, she started to walk through her living room to go to her room for the night.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

Martha stopped, and looked at the front door in confusion. 'Who could that be at this time of night?'

As she walked over to the door, she grabbed something from by the fireplace. It looked like a poker for the logs. 'Just in case.' She thought.

Her disguise was a good one. Still, Lex Luthor could very well have known that trick too.

...

Kckckck.

The door creaked open, and Martha looked up at the figure that filled her doorway. She gasped in surprise when she recognized who it was.

"Hey mom. Sorry it's been a while since I last saw you. Are you doing well?" The figure asked.

...

Martha smiled widely. It might not have been John, but it was the other best thing that had happened in her life. "I'm doing great now Clark! Come in! Come in! There's so much I have to tell you." She said happily as she opened the door fully for her son.


Author's Notes:

So what do you all think? Is it good? Do you think there's room for improvement? I ask because it has been a long time so I don't know if I'm getting slobby on any writing skills or plotlines or anything. Please let me know by review or PM if you can. Outside of that, same rule applies. Review what you thought, and always give it that favorite and follow. Thanks again everyone.

Also as a side note, I've decided after some debate to publish the Season Six I wrote while on my mission. It's under my fic "I Am A Teen Titan". I'd suggest while you all wait on updates on this story to give that one a look over. Trust me, it'll be worth your time.

Till Next Time

Allen