Wayward Son

by Da'har N'irr

Taking refuge in a diner, the fate of mankind hangs in the balance, the Archangel Michael stands against his brother who decides humanity is the cause of God's absence. Wounded by his past the archangel Gabriel decided that humanity must be destroyed to bring his father back. But Michael won't allow his brother to destroy God's favorite creation. (Reupload PrequelForMyDominionFic)

1. Part 1

div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"The diner hums with activity as a handful of weary travellers and /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"truckers/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" bustle about coming and going as they please, some are talking amongst themselves while others absentmindedly watch the TVs, drinking their coffee and eating their meals. The radio can be heard coming from the kitchen mixed with /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"the sizzle of the grill adding to the din./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Alistair, a well-dressed, man with an air of refinement, sits across from Grace, a heavily pregnant woman with blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, her attire more fitting to the diner /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"they're/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" in, casual and comfortable. Sebastian, an older gentleman with a weathered countenance and a no-nonsense demeanour, is leaning on the counter next to their table, a stoic man in his sixties sporting a scruffy grey beard but brushed back grey hair, wearing simple clothing and an apron/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Sebastian fixes Alistair with a steady gaze and speaks in a gruff but measured tone. "It's an admirable thing to be willing to look after a child which /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"ain't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" your own." Sebastian says with a hint of resentment in his voice, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"he's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" never liked Alistair much, but it could be because of their vastly different personalities and social backgrounds. Grace turns her attention away from her father as he mentioned the child and looks at Alistair./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Alistair meets Sebastian's gaze with a nod, his posture exuding confidence despite the subtle tension in the air. He knows that Grace's father has always been distrusting of him, a sentiment rooted in the protective instincts of a former soldier. Grace reaches for Alistair's hand, offering a reassuring squeeze as she interjects. "Dad, Alistair's been nothing but supportive. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"He's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" been there for me every step of the way." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Sebastian grunts lightly, his weathered features soften momentarily as he regards his daughter, a hint of begrudging acceptance in his eyes. "I know, Grace. I just worry, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"that's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" all. The world's a tough place, I just /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"don't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" want to see you get hurt again, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"you're/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" my little girl." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Alistair leans forward, his voice steady and earnest. "Sebastian, I may not have all the answers, but I promise to take care of Grace and the child as if it were my own." His gaze a mixture of respect and determination to earn the old soldier's acceptance/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Sebastian studies Alistair for a moment, the lines on his face reflecting a lifetime of hard-earned wisdom. "You'd best make sure you uphold that commitment, boy. Grace and the little one /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"deserve/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" nothing less." Alistair nods respectfully, acknowledging Sebastian's unspoken warning. Grace smiles, grateful for the fragile truce between the two of them, but behind her smile is a hint of bitterness knowing the only reason /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"they're/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" even getting along is because of the baby./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"The bell on the door rings and a man covered in car grease walks into the diner, his worn overalls and hands bearing the unmistakable marks of a long day's work in the garage and the smell of oil follows him. "How's it looking Jeep?" Sebastian calls over as Jeep walks towards them, his hands marked with oil stains, and a smudge of grease on his cheek and chin. "I'm almost done with Mrs. Johnson's car." He replies, his voice roughened by the day's labour. He turns his gaze to the older lady in the corner booth by the door as he explains, mostly to her. "Just need to give the battery a little juice, and she'll be good to go." She smiles and sips her tea. "Thank you dear. I /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"don't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" know what I would have done if you /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"weren't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" here."/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"He nods and turns around before coming over and leaning against the counter with a tired but satisfied grin. "That lady gives me the creeps/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"." He says quietly to his dad./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Look who's here." Sebastian says happily and motions with his head to the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"high backed/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" booth that Grace and Alistair are sitting in, Jeep's eyes light up as he spots his sister, her warm smile reflecting his own. "Well, well, look what the cat dragged in." He remarks, his eyes sparkling with affection as he takes in the sight of his little sister. "Funnily enough I/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" had a dream about you coming visiting"/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Jeep chuckles, the sound a mix of weariness and genuine amusement, as he runs a greasy hand through his hair, leaving a streak of black on his forehead. "You're looking as radiant as ever, Grace. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"It's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" been too long," he says, his voice carrying a hint of the rugged charm that defines him. "I'd hug you, but..."/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" He holds his arms out slightly as he looks at the state of him./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""You're a mess, as usual." She teases, a playful glint in her eyes. "Come here." She begins to stand, cursing under her breath at the bump making it hard, Sebastian reaches out to help /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"her/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" but she manages to move over to Jeep without /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"assistance/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;", reaching out to brush a smudge of grease from his cheek with a napkin./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Jeep starts to protest but begrudgingly allows himself to be taken care of by his sister. In that simple gesture, their unspoken bond as /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"siblings/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" shines through. She scrubs his face gently, removing some of the muck but smudging the stubborn oil. "/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Alright, that's enough, it won't come off with just a dry napkin." He laughs but appreciating the gesture all the same./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""You've already got that maternal instinct, huh?" He chuckles as she moves back. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company? And what trouble did you bring with you this time?" His tone held a hint of playful teasing as/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" he looked at the bump./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""I brought Alistair?" She says playfully, instead of acknowledging the bump. He looks behind her to Alistair who was sitting quietly at the table, sipping his coffee. "Alistair? /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"He's/span span class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlAdvancedProofingIssueV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"the complete opposite of/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" trouble."/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" He laughs./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Alright, fine. I thought /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I'd/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" come by and make sure you and Danny /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"hadn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" burned the place down in my absence. It's good to see this old place is still standing." Grace teases. "No thanks to Jeep." Daniel says as he pops up behind her. Grace jumps slightly as she turns around before seeing the youngest brother, his shaggy brown hair tied back into a man bun and net since he is usually in the kitchen. Grace happily goes straight for a hug, her belly making it difficult. "Jesus Grace, you're about to pop, sit yourself down." He says as they pull away from the hug. He /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"gently moves her back to her seat. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Grace and Alistair wanted to see us since it's Christmas Eve." Sebastian says smiling as Daniel sits next to Grace and wraps his arm around her shoulders comfortingly. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"He's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" always been the more affectionate of her two older brothers. She leans her head on him, happy to be around her family again. "Good to have /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"you/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" back, Grace. Things just haven't been the same without you around." Daniel says /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"softly./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"The bell jingles again as the door swings open. /spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""I'll be right back" Jeep says and quickly heads to the door, a smile spreading across Jeeps face at the sight of Charlie, her arms cradling her one-day-old son, and a tired but content expression on her face./spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Hey, Charlie," Jeep calls out and he quickly makes his way over to her. "/spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"you/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" should be resting" /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"he says in a concerned tone, but he knows how stubborn she is at times./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Charlie looks up. "Hey, Jeep, you know /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"i/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" can't sit still in that trailer for long" she says with a warm smile. "You look like you've been wrestling with an engine all morning" she adds as she notices the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"mess/span span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"he's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" covered /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"in./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""I have" he laughs lightly "Come on, there's someone here you should see/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"." He says excitedly as he walks back over to the table Grace is sitting at./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"As Charlie approaches with her son cradled in her arms, Grace's eyes widen in surprise as she takes in the sight. She had never expected to see Charlie with a baby in her arms, and her gaze flicks/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" to Jeep, a look of shock and confusion on her face./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Charlie! I /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"didn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" know..." Grace says shocked, her surprise /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"evident/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" in her voice. Her eyes dart from Charlie to Jeep and back, her mind racing to make sense of the situation. Jeep /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"hadn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" mentioned anything to her about this. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""Oh, no, he isn't mine" Jeep added as he notices Grace's expression as she looks at him. /spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""But he's going to be a perfect dad for Alex" Charlie says smiling at Jeep, they kiss /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"sweetly/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and he /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"moves her to sit down in the booth, Alistair moving over to make space./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""I didn't know you were coming," Charlie says honestly. Then, her eyes rest on Grace's noticeably pregnant belly, and her own surprise deepens. "And I didn't know you were pregnant! You look ready to burst, Grace!"/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""Grace wanted to come up and see everyone before Christmas." Alistair says before introducing himself to Charlie, they two of them have never met before today./spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""So, Grace, you can't keep us waiting, you have to tell me whether I'll be getting a little grandson or granddaughter." Sebastian looks at her with joy in his weary old eyes as he moves behind the counter and pours himself a coffee. "You better name it after me if it's a boy." Daniel chimes in as he looks at Grace. She sits up straight and looks at the table before glancing at Alistair, feeling a little uncomfortable/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;". /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Doesn't matter what you name it, your baby is /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"gonna/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"' burn. All those little babies are /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"gonna/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"' burn" Comes a sickening sweet voice from the corner by the door. Daniel stands up, his face a picture of rage as he looks at Mrs Johnson. The diner goes quiet as even the truckers stop their chatter and turn in surprise, the only sound is the static from the TVs and radio, adding to the tension that now blankets the diner./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""What did you say?" Daniel asks, his voice restrained. She giggles between pained expressions. He starts to walk towards her. "Daniel..." Grace calls after him as she reaches for him. "I think you had better apologise to my sister." He says as he stops at her table. She giggles and tilts her head at him, her expression constantly switching between pained and grinning. "Daniel, just leave it." Grace says as she stands up/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""There's no way I'm going to let that slide." He says looking at Grace before leaning on the table towards the old lady. "I'll ask you one-" He /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"doesn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" get chance to finish his sentence as her head twitches to the side and her teeth sharpen suddenly, she bites his throat tearing away a chunk of flesh and getting splattered/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" in blood. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"As Daniel falls to the floor, clutching his throat desperately trying to breathe, Grace screams. Mrs Johnson's face is now covered with black veins and her eyes have turned black. "You're all /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"gonna/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"' die!" She shouts and tosses the table aside effortlessly, ripping the bolts from the floor as everyone recoils in surprise, Jeep draws his pistol in response and aims at her as she starts to rush towards them. She covers half the distance with inhuman speed before her chest explodes, splattering blood as she is forced backwards, sliding across the floor./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Jeep turns to see his father, shotgun smoking as he moves from behind the counter, keeping his weapon aimed on her as she lies on the ground. Grace moves as fast as she can over to Daniel /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"who's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" gasping for air. She kneels next to him and holds his face with a trembling hand, he looks at her, his eyes full of fear and confusion before he goes limp. Sebastian and Jeep rush over behind her as Grace begins to cry at the loss of her brother./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"A handful of patrons in the diner rush over. "To hell with this." One says as he looks at the old woman /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"who's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" teeth are now sharp points and eyes are as black as a void. He quickly returns to his wife, who stayed at their table and ushers her out of the door. The bell tolling their exit,/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Call 911 get '/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"em/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" over here." One of the truckers with a black eye urges one of his two friends. An oversized man quickly rushes over to the phone hanging on the wall. "Phones are out!" he calls back after trying to dial, but only getting static in response. Frustration and panic crept into his voice. "Who the fuck is this old lady?!" He yells, casting a bewildered look around the room. "What in hell happened to her/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"?!" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"The trucker with a black eye shoots a look at his friend who instantly quiets, despite still looking panicked. He puts the phone back on the hook and sits on a nearby chair, holding his head in his hands./spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"While this is happening Jeep crouches down beside Grace, his breath catching in his throat as he gazes at his brother's lifeless body, blood staining his clothes and hands, eyes darkening. He closes his brother's eyes before gently pulling/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" his sister away. "Grace, come on" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"As Jeep leads Grace away, she stumbles slightly, her usually bright eyes dulled by shock and sorrow. Her hands tremble uncontrollably so she clings to Jeep, seeking solace in his steadying presence as they move through the sombre surroundings, passing Alistair who was still stood by the table they were previously sitting at, his face pale with fear/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"As Jeep takes Grace into the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"kitchen/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" they hear one of the truckers /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"responding to his panicking friend./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""I don't care, but I /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"ain't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" staying in here with her." The man with a black eye says simply, motioning to the dead older lady on the floor. Given the circumstances /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"he's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" holding together better than his friends, the other who is silent throughout all of this/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Grab her legs," Sebastian instructed the man who had just spoken, setting down his shotgun before moving to lift the old lady by her arms. "Oh, hell /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"na/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"',/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"" He muttered. Sebastian straightened up, giving the trucker a stern look. "What's your name?" He asks gruffly./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Isaac."/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" came the reply, accompanied by a hint of attitude as he crossed his arms and shrugged./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Well, Isaac, if you weren't offering to help, you should have kept your damn mouth shut. Now, grab her legs." Sebastian asserted firmly, waiting for the trucker to move. Isaac looks at his quiet friend and motions with his head. "Gary will lift her." The quiet one hesitates, but Isaac turns and gives him a look of 'you'll do it, or else/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"'./span span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"So/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" Gary moves over to lift her before Sebastian picks her up by the arms again. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"The bell above the door chimed as the door opened and a figure walked into the dimly lit diner. His heavy black boots made almost no sound against the worn linoleum floor. His black trench coat billowed behind him as he moved, and his piercing green eyes sweep over the scene before him, taking in every detail with an otherworldly intensity./spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Sebastian and Gary look up from where they are hovering over the body of Mrs Johnson, her once kind features now twisted into a grotesque, unnatural sight. Her blackened eyes and veins snaked across her pallid skin, a stark contrast against the blood that stained her clothing. Everyone is on edge after /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"witnessing/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" the horrifying event that had just unfolded and Sebastian's eyes flicked to his shotgun briefly. Their expressions a mix of wariness and shock/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;". Sebastian, a worn apron tied around his waist, shot Michael a guarded look, his grief etched deeply into his features. Gary with wide, frightened eyes, straightened as he registered the newcomer's presence, his hands shaking slightly./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""Who are you?" Sebastian asks, his voice rough, strained with grief and caution. The stranger's expression remained unreadable as he took in the grim scene before him. Without a word, he moved further into the diner, his eyes never leaving the tragic scene before him. The weight of his presence seemed to hang in the air, the unspoken question of who he was and what his intentions might be casting a palpable tension over the room. /spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""My name is Michael." He finally speaks, his eyes darting between everyone in the diner as if looking for someone. Sebastian looked at Michael suspiciously, an unspoken question lingering between them. For a moment, the tension in the room was suffocating, as if time itself had frozen in anticipation of Michael's next move. "You better not be looking for trouble, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"'cause/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" we've seen enough of that for one day."/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"As Michael's gaze swept over the scene once more, a grim determination settled in his eyes. "Trouble has a way of finding its own path." He says, his gaze turning back to Sebastian. "But I'm not here to cause trouble."/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Meanwhile, Jeep is gently washing the blood off Grace's hands with warm water as she sobs/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""I couldn't pull the trigger," he admits his voice heavy with guilt and sorrow over the loss of their brother "I knew what was happening, but /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I froze."/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Grace turns her attention from the blood washing off her hands, to him, tears streaking her face. "No, you don't do that, you don't blame yourself." she says, her voice trembling with emotion. As she speaks, she /spanspan class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlAdvancedProofingIssueV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"begins to notice/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" the toll the events have taken on Jeep. His shoulders are slumped, and his normally steady hands tremble. Grace realizes that /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"he's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" trying to be strong for her, but the loss will be weighing on him just as much as it is for her. She steels herself; she /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"needs to be strong for him now./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""But she would have killed you," He murmured quietly. "She was heading straight for you, and I couldn't do it. She would have killed all of us." He pauses as he looks directly at her his eyes look haunted. Grace takes a deep breath, pulling herself together to help him through this moment. "Listen to me." She says firmly, locking eyes with him. "No, Grace, listen." He cuts her off quickly. "I... I know this is going to sound crazy, but..." He pauses, trying to find the words. "I saw this... All of what just happened... /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Almost as/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" if it were déjà vu, but it /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"wasn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" just a feeling of déjà vu. It was like I was there, before it happened. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"That's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" why I froze. It happened exactly as it did /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"In/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" my dream" he says honestly./spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"Grace looks at him concerned. "Don't look at me like that" he says shaking his head as he looks back to her./spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""There's more like her..." He adds as he looks off towards the direction of the front door as if something unseen and unheard caught his attention before he makes his way back to the door where they came in and makes a beeline back into the main room, followed by Grace who stands in the doorway of the kitchen. When they stand behind the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"counter/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" they see the man in black, a man who Jeep recognises, he pauses behind the counter and stares at him wondering if he is going mad./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""What happened here is just the beginning, more are coming." He says as his gaze fell upon Grace and the bump, lingering on the bloodstains marring her clothes./spanspan class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""More like the demon lady?" Isaac's panicky friend asks drawing Michael's attention. /spanspan class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""Not a demon." He replies calmly./spanspan class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Ain't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" no way any normal person is going to grow sharp teeth and rip a man's throat out." Sebastian points out./span/spanspan class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""You /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"don't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" know /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"what's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" coming, I do, and believe me, you are not ready. But with my help, you might just survive the night."/span/spanspan class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Survive?" Alistair finally speaks after everything /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"that's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" happened./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I'm/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" running out of time. We can discuss what happened, or we can prepare for the others," Michael's voice carried urgency along with a hint of irritation./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""Now hold on just a minute, Michael," Sebastian said firmly. "You come into my diner, being all cryptic—"/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""Dad," Jeep interrupted, causing his father to look at him. "You have to trust him."/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"Sebastian gave his son a confused look before reluctantly turning back to Michael. "Very well," the old soldier conceded, reluctantly deferring to Michael's authority./spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Michael nodded thoughtfully and began to scan the dimly lit diner once more, his eyes lingering on the worn, dusty windows. "We'll need to barricade all the windows and doors," he /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"stated/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" with a sense of urgency, his gaze still fixed on the vulnerable entry points. He then turned his attention to the shotgun resting on the scarred tabletop beside Sebastian./spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" "What weapons do you have?"/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""Jeep has his pistol, I've got my shotgun," Sebastian said, looking around at the people in the diner. "Alistair has never touched a gun in his life," he added with a hint of resentment in the voice of the old soldier. He then turned to the truckers, silently questioning them. Isaac simply opened his vest to reveal his firearm. "Out on those long delivery /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"runs,/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" you never know when some desperate folks might try to ambush you. It's a dangerous world out there, and I /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"ain't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" taking any chances."/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"As he spoke, a subtle edge crept into his tone, hinting at a deeper, more guarded nature. "You see, it's not just me," he continued. "Gary and Dimitri, they both carry too. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"We've/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" all had our share of close calls, and we /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"ain't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" about to be sitting ducks out on the road. Dimitri isn't a coward despite his panicky nature/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"."/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Sebastian looks back to Michael. "That's all we've got/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"."/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""I thought as much" Michael said, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"indicating/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" that he had /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"anticipated/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" this. He then headed /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"outside,/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" Sebastian looks at his son confused before motioning back to Gary to help him drag Mrs Johnson out. As they drag her outside,/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" they notice Michael retrieving a couple of duffle bags from a police car./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""L.A.P.D? /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"You're/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" a blue?" Jeep asks as Michael hands him a rifle. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""No." Michael replies simply, giving Jeep a knowing look before quickly handing out a couple more weapons as Sebastian and Gary come over after dumping Mrs Johnson's body in a storage shed./spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""If you're not an officer, where'd you get the weapons, and the car?" Sebastian asks suspiciously. /spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""We should get back inside" Michael /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"doesn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" wait for them, he enters the diner and walks over to Grace, she steps back slightly wondering about his intentions, he holds out a handgun, she reaches to take it from /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"him/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and he gently places it into her hand./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""Whatever happens, don't do anything brave," Michael's voice softened as he addressed her./spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"She shot him a defiant look before deftly checking the weapon he had just handed to her. "I can handle myself," she replied curtly./spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"A faint smile touched Michael's lips. "I don't doubt /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"that,/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"" he said, his tone gentle. "But your safety is paramount." He continued distributing weapons to those who were unarmed. Bu/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"t once he gets to Alistair, he refuses to take the rifle. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""Oh, no, I don't know how to use it," Alistair stammered, reluctant to touch the weapon./spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB"span class="TextRun SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="none""Then you will have to learn. Fast," Michael insisted, glaring at Alistair until he took hold of the weapon./spanspan class="EOP SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
/div
div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW127483144 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW127483144 BCX0" lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.6667px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;" xml:lang="EN-GB" /p
/div