Greet + Writing: Prompt Challenge // Trinity (pt. 1)

    Hey, hey, look who's keeping with a monthly goal of at least one blog post. I'm really proud of myself right now, to be honest. Sort of. The "part one" is the reason for the sort of.

    You know, when you cram in a lot of television, a horde of people visiting, and a transcontinental move into a couple of months, brain power really starts taking a nose-dive on you. 

    But. Two new followers to my blog in the last couple of weeks. I have no idea where you two came from, but welcome aboard and be prepared for an erratic schedule. ^_^

    To catch people up, last month (at least, I think it was last month...) I posted a prompt challenge here on my blog for my followers to get a little bit of dream world alternate 'verse reward and as a challenge to myself and lovely follower Trinity sent me the following prompt.

    "Okay, so Jandy and Dech play bodyguard to Sean and Lindsey, because Jaydn and Jasen are trying to kill them. Then use, "Where did it go?" she mumbled over and over again, sitting on the floor, back against the door, half empty bottle of wine in one hand and a handgun in the other." And I want to know who snores."

    I have been slowly (slowly) working on this prompt since then and am just now hitting four pages/2,912 words. Since I anticipate a continued slow productivity rate, I'm going to post what I've got every three pages. So today is the first three pages, then the next post will be pages four through six, and so on and so forth.

     Hopefully that makes sense, and if anyone has questions, leave a comment on any of my posts. I don't bite, will get an email heads-up, and get back to you as soon a I can. Which could either be hours or days, depending on when you catch me. Cough.

    Also, all characters within the following writing excerpt have been featured in previous posts. You can check the tags somewhere off to the right of your browser for the name of the character in question and read up on them. The world(s) this prompt is situated in has not been before featured. Brand new 'verse for alternate 'verse characters. But, just for a quick run down, J&J are Jasen and Jaydn. They're complicated. D&J are Dechlan and Jandy. They're mentally linked. S&L are Sean and Lindsey. Her parents are recently dead and he's a childhood friend. Check previous posts for further explanations. 

    With that said, forward ho!


// J&J //

    A face. A news report. A government file. A single word.
    Eliminate.
    Too young. Too relatable. Too close.
    She switched off the tablet and picked up her comm. to send a message with a meeting point. They had work to do. And the sooner it was done, the better.
    
// D&J //

    The rap was added into her odd mixture of a dream, featuring a mind-numbing club track playing through her old apartment but there was a wheat field growing in the middle of it that wasn’t in any portion of her own memories. There was another sharp knock and this one roused Jandy a bit, but she elected to ignore it in favor of a few extra seconds of sleep. 
    They’d been in high demand as of late and thus their work schedule was hectic, equating to less sleep than she preferred getting. And judging by the clarity and insistence coming across her link to Dechlan, they were in even more demand than they had been ten minutes ago. Perfect time to bury her head under her pillow.
    “Hey, no, we got a call,” her partner’s voice came from somewhere overhead. Another soundless approach. Gold star to him.
    There was amusement with her train of thought that she poked at and then ignored.
    “G’way, Dech. Sleeping.” She managed, bleary and disoriented as she tried to roll over and away from awareness.
    The bed dipped behind her and the air felt very close all of a sudden. Wrapping her arms tighter around her pillow and burying her face in it, Jandy squeezed her eyes shut tighter. “No. No charm. No cajoling. I’m tired.”
    “And we have work to do.” There was a firm, albeit gentle, tug on her pillow.
    Relinquishing it without much fight, Jandy flopped onto her back again, reaching up to push her hair out of her eyes and blink at Dechlan.
    He was dressed and ready to walk out the door, no doubt having shaved and maybe even cut his hair while she slept, on top of eating and the rest of his morning routine. His brows raised under her scrutiny and a hint of a smile formed on his features. “Morning.”
    “I look like crap, don’t I?” she croaked, blinking sleep from her gaze before going after it with one trimmed nail.
    “No comment,” Dechlan shrugged, retaining his place on the edge of her mattress, leaning back on one hand. 
    Jandy felt him searching their link and reached back out of habit, trying to ascertain what he was after, staring at a spot on the wall as her attention drifted inwards. A memory of long hours lying awake, not hers, watching dreams of her life with her sister back in Kaido was open to her perusal. A rueful smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
    Sorry, she offered, turning her head to look at her partner again, realizing his initial investigation had been an attempt to find out if he’d overlooked anything that would’ve caused the vivid imaginings of her subconscious. It happens when I’m tired. Like I sleep too deeply to keep up some barrier against them.
    It’s fine. I don’t mind. Tells me where your head’s at. One of Dechlan’s shoulders lifted in a half shrug. 
    She didn’t have to voice her mild amusement and acceptance with this, letting Dechlan feel them for himself over their link. Scoot over so I can sit up and tell me about this job.
    Her partner obliged, shifting further down the mattress without protest, mind already turning to the phone call he’d gotten earlier. Jandy followed his thoughts with her own, picking up details as they went, while she pushed herself upright. Pushing her fingers through her hair again, except in an attempt to tame it this time, Jandy pulled her knees up to her chest to get past Dechlan, resisting the urge to poke him, then let her legs drop over the edge to the rug on the floor.
    The cool air that inhabited the foot of space above the ground of her room caused gooseflesh to rise up along her arms and legs. Blowing out a long breath and trying to rub it away, she glanced over to find Dechlan already watching her.
    You’ve got that look again.
    Sorry.
    Jandy smiled, shaking her head a little. There was that grey area again, with that line they danced around, and that usual uncertainty about it. But she let it roll off her shoulders, straightening a bit and moving on. “Come on, you moved too fast through the call. What did Canton have for us?”
    “A couple in witness protection.” His focus was slower to follow hers, which was growing less unusual. She woke up sometimes with his residual thoughts from the prior night echoing through both their minds. It’d taken some getting used to but now, for the moment, she’d learned to just push past it. They couldn’t go there. Not yet. Even if it was on both of their minds and they both knew it. 
    “Doesn’t that make them the government’s responsibility?” She needed to move and so did, getting up to go rifle through her set of drawers, making sure the hem of her shirt was falling where it was supposed to. It was a curious case, though, and that made it easy to focus on.
    “Technically.” There was a muffled whoof and Jandy didn’t have to turn around to know that Dechlan had fallen backwards across her bed while they talked. “But they’ve already had two near misses and they want some extra hands on deck, so they reached out to Canton and he saw we had two free weeks.”
    “Two free weeks that were supposed to be just that—free.” Clothes, clothes. She needed clothes so they could go. Easier said than done. Being busy meant little time to do laundry. Or to get laundry done, more often. A lot of her stuff had to be dry-cleaned.  Company dress code policies be darned.
     Despite her train of thought, which tended to coax some amusement from her counterpart, Dechlan felt tired, though not with her. Pausing, she investigated. It was… their job, their schedule, their life.
     You know we’re almost done. Our contract is almost up and then we should be set financially to get out of here. Jandy dropped the button-up shirt and pinstripe pants—both of which she often entertained thoughts of burning--in her hands in a heap on the ground, going to crawl up the bed beside her partner again.
     He watched her progress, arms crossed behind his head, then leaned into her when she stretched out at his side, folding out one arm. Jandy settled into the dip between his forearm and bicep, cheek pressed against his skin as she sought eye contact. Those hazel green eyes that helped make up the person who embodied home for her now.
    What they shared allowed her to feel the gratitude in response to her thoughts, the reciprocation of the sentiment, the heavy weight of weariness they both carried, both their thoughts and emotions tangling and swirling together in an intangible and unexplainable mix. It was harder than ever to distinguish where her mind ended and his began with this proximity. Their connection worked over a distance, but the closer they were, the better the clarity. And here, inches from each other’s sides, with a large portion of their thoughts already in alignment, that clarity was crystal. Almost painful in its clearness, except not. 
    Jandy could feel his heartbeat echoing her own, beating near in sync with her own, and she drew in a quiet breath, unconsciously doing so in the same moment as Dechlan.
    Almost five years, they’d had this bridge between their minds. Five years, learning the inner workings of each other’s hearts and minds to the point of not being able to imagine anything else. Not being able to imagine anyone else. 
    She searched Dechlan’s face and he studied her in return, the arm that she’d rested her head on coming up so his fingertips could brush her hair. They were both so far past the human difficulty to hold eye contact by this point; those early days were fading memories now. No, it wasn’t perfect. They weren’t perfect. Sometimes their connection made her – both of them – feel as if their souls had been laid bare to each other. Which they had, but sometimes it hurt more than others.
    Her dark eyes stung with tears as she studied the thin, white scar leading down from his hairline to be just visible on his forehead. A mark that meant he could’ve been lost to her long before they’d ever crossed paths in Warren’s program. Jandy’s breath caught in her chest.
    The piercing ring of Dechlan’s communicator from the other room caused the pair to jerk, his head lifting in an instant to ascertain the situation and hers burying into his shoulder with a muffled grumble. 
    “That’s probably Canton telling us to get over there.” Dechlan commented, sounding far more at ease than he was actually feeling at that moment.
    Jandy stifled the urge to groan again, resigning herself to a sigh, and tilting her chin up so she could see his profile again, contemplating an attempt to plead for a day off. One brow rose as he glanced back in his peripherals.
    “No. We have to go.” He voiced his reply aloud instead of keeping it enclosed in their link, hoping to clear the weight in the air around them and get her moving.
    She didn’t want for it to work, but it was. Plus his comm. was still going off in the other room, which was doing nothing to keep the moment from slipping away, so Jandy resigned herself to another day of professional babysitting and sat up. Dechlan aided her effort with a hand on the small of her back as he got moving as well. 
    Following his silent request to clear off of the mattress, Jandy went to grab her dumped clothes—no doubt sporting a few wrinkles now that she could’ve cared less about—letting her partner shake out her comforter and leave it looking a bit more orderly before going to tend to his device.
    Jandy glanced a warning to Dechlan before going about getting ready for the day ahead, finding herself to be in the same place he’d been in just ten minutes earlier. Tired of this life and tired of having to put off shedding some light on their grey area. Very tired of it.
    As she sat down on her bed to zip into her short boots, they were both in silent agreement on that point.

// S&L //

    “We’ve been talking with Miss Angelo and we’re going to set up an apartment a couple of districts over for the two of you under an alias we’re building. ” Maximoff Canton explained to Sean, who sat with his hands clasped together as he took in the security firm’s director’s words. “Before then, we have you two  booked at a hotel downtown.”
    As he always was nowadays, Sean remained aware of where Lindsey was at as best he could. She stood by the window a handful of paces away, watching the outside through the cracks in the shades. It’d been a better morning for her. And he hated to have to think in those terms, but Lindsey tended to ricochet from catatonic to temperamental to just plain broken depending on the day. Today she’d just been quiet. Responsive, but only when asked pointed questions.
    “Wasn’t Miss Angelo supposed to be here?” Sean asked, resisting the urge to scratch the back of his head, tamping down his mild frustration. No need to give an even greater dead giveaway that he had no idea what he was doing in this situation. Television and a year of university life didn’t do much in the way of preparing one for witness protection. And wasn’t the lawyer supposed to be in touch with him about all this?
    “She said she had something to attend and would be running late,” Canton wasn’t put out, though he did glance at the clock on his desk. “My people are behind schedule as well, so it should be fine.”
    “You said they weren’t your standard fare team. How did you mean?” If they had to sit here until everyone decided to show up, he might as well get as much information he could.
    “First, most of my teams of two or three are all male, for effectiveness and professionalism’s sake. If I need a female and the few on my payroll are otherwise engaged, I usually contract with another firm. Scott and Sparks are one of my more successful teams, despite her lack of professional military training.”
    Sean was pretty sure he heard an unspoken “which I still don’t understand” hanging off the man’s sentence, but didn’t say anything about it. He leveled his stare at the older man instead and said, “We appreciate whatever help you can lend, sir. She—“ Sean glanced at Lindsey, who had turned to listen to the conversation and was staring off into space. “She’s been through a lot and I’m really hoping to get through the hearing without any more incidents. Having a team on board whose purpose is to stick close will be welcome.”
    Canton took in his statements and then nodded once. “We don’t hire people who don’t know how to do this job, Mr. Becket. You both will be in good hands.”
    A sharp knock interrupted the conversation and Sean rose when the sudden noise startled Lindsey out of her reverie with a quiet gasp. 
    “Come,” the CEO called, standing and allowing the young pair a moment while the door opened .
    Lindsey was quick to nod that she was okay when Sean reached her, managing an unsteady smile. He caught her elbow to keep her close, seeing the glassy shine of tears in her eyes, and shifted to see who had come. 
    “Nice of you two show up,” Canton remarked with a disapproving downturn to his mouth that was noticed by all present.
    They had to be Scott and Sparks, as Canton had called them, Sean surmised after a few moments. Which was which, he didn’t know, but the man had a definite military aura to him and stood almost a full head taller than the woman at his side. Her dark eyes and darker complexion suggested different origins than her partner, and although she bore none of the trained professionalism of her counterpart, they both had an ease at each other’s side that bespoke a strong bond. 
    “Sorry, sir, we got back in late from our last engagement. It was a bit slow going this morning.” The male said by way of greeting, casting a glance towards Sean and Lindsey’s direction but then refocusing on his boss.
    “Just be on time next time.” Canton took his seat again. “Scott, Sparks, I’d like you two to meet Sean Becket and Lindsey Donovan, your next clients. Mr. Becket, Miss Donovan, this is Dechlan Scott and Jandelyn Sparks.”
    Sean towed Lindsey over and shook the hands of the bodyguards. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
    “Call me Jandy.” The woman said with a slight smile and a calculating gaze that rested on both him and Lindsey for a few beats before she exchanged a quick look with her partner. 
    “Shall we get down to business?” Canton addressed the four of them and Sean let his attention turn to the man behind the desk once more.


    Alright. So. I think that's all I have at the moment. I need to go help my mom find her brain, attempt to remember how to do a Spock-style mind meld, and act as a translator in general. Woot woot.

    As always, thank you for the patience, and all comments, thoughts, and critiques are welcome in the comments below.

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

Back Online

   It's a bit early (Friday evening) but I'm expecting a busy weekend, so I decided to get on now as opposed to tomorrow in a bid to Skype with Penny, if she's not busy.

   So, yes, I'm back online, and hast got news. Exciting news.

   First of all, we have received our assignment from the military and sometime before the end of August, my family and I shall be moving to the Pentagon, which is balanced somewhere between Maryland and Virginia. This came as only a complete surprise to us, as we never expected to be placed anywhere near there. We were expecting Germany or Japan before D.C. But, on the bright side, we'll be near our cousins and only a day of hard driving from Penny and her family. So. Much fun.

   Second of all, I am registered for the OYAN Summer Workshops hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Schwabauer in Olathe, Kansas. I have a pretty good chance of making it, but, at this point, it's looking like I will be flying across the Atlantic Ocean solo to get there. Which Mom is very much not thrilled with. I don't think she'll crush my dreams and refuse to let me go, though. But we'll see what happens.

   And otherwise, we have my mom's grandparents and aunt coming next Thursday, and we're going to be crazy hectic busy the two and a half weeks they're here, with trips planned all over the peninsula. I'm.... not completely thrilled, as we've already done a good deal of what we're going to take them to see, but there's not a lot to be done, so.

   I'm not sure what my posting schedule is going to look like between grandparents, travelling, schoolwork, starting the whole move, prayerful Workshops, and so on and so forth, but I will attempt to get something up every now and again.

   I've had a lot of inquiries as to whether or not I intend to continue with my Sean and Lindsey scrawl and I've always said I didn't think there'd be anything more for them, but they've had other ideas. I haven't gotten anything written down yet, but there's been movement in my head, so I shall attempt to see about sitting and getting it down one of these days.

   And.... I believe that's about it for the moment. I got a fair deal done with my two weeks offline; not as much as I would've liked, but it went pretty well, so. Hopefully I'll figure out how to balance schoolwork and computer from here on out, especially with only three weeks left to our school year.

   As always, thanks for reading. You all are awesome.

   Ad astra per aspera.
   To the stars, through difficulties.

Writing: Lindsey and Sean

    Lindsey and Sean are fresh off the press, this likely one-shot bit for them having been completed not ten minutes ago. I haven't written something of this length in one sitting in a bit now.

    The inspiration for this one is a bit humorous, actually. Last night, I watched the latest NCIS episode, titled Shabbat Shalom, and I'm not going to give away any spoilers, but suffice it to say there were some rather devastating losses. Those devastating losses provided for one aspect of this idea, but the spark was struck this afternoon when my mother accidently knocked one of my favorite mugs onto the floor, breaking it.

    I ended up going dumpster diving in our trash can for the pieces because I wanted to put it together again (yes, only after she'd already thrown it away) and in the process, Lindsey and Sean slowly manifested.


    Sitting at the island in the kitchen, Sean listened as his mother talked to Miss Angelo, able to piece together most of the conversation despite only having one half of it.
    “Of course, Margaret, I’ll send Sean over,” she was just saying, and he lifted his head from the laptop before him in anticipation of a task, despite the hour.
    It was nearing one in the morning and they’d gotten word via Miss Angelo that their neighbors, the Donovan’s, had both been shot and killed in a deliberate attack on their lives. Their daughter, Lindsey, hadn’t been home at the time, as she’d been at the library, and had been the one to call 911 upon returning home.
    The call from Margaret Angelo, Mr. Donovan’s secretary, had come an hour ago while she’d been at the hospital with Lindsey. Sean’s father had since gone to bed, exhausted from his long day, and none of his brothers had yet returned home for summer vacation from college, so it was he and his mother still awake, unable to sleep with the weight of the news they’d received.
    While he had never been particularly close with the Donovans – they’d had one female child and he had his brothers to play with instead – his mother had often asked Mrs. Donovan over for coffee and to talk, so their families could be said to be good friends.
    “I’ll call you as soon as he gets back,” his mother assured once again, her voice soft and tired, and then she set the phone back in its cradle.
    Sean closed the computer’s lid, putting it to sleep, and waited for her to speak her request.
    Lily Bracken’s face was lined with her grief over the loss of her friend, but she was beyond the point of tears for the moment. Her son knew that it wouldn’t remain that way for long in the coming days as they readjusted.
    “Margaret said that Lindsey left the hospital half an hour ago and she’s not answering her cell phone. She probably went home, but Margaret is unable to get away from the hospital right now. She would like for us to run over and check if Lindsey made her way back to the house or not.”
    Sean frowned, thinking. “Aren’t the police still there?”
    “Likely, yes, but it’s doubtful that they’d try to stop her from going inside if she shows up and Margaret wasn’t sure who to call to check with about Lindsey.”
    “Alright, I’ll run over real fast.” He got to his feet and went to kiss his mother’s brow before going to find his coat.
    The woman followed him to see him safely out the door. Sean knew she would’ve gone herself, but she wasn’t about to go out in her bathrobe and slippers in the dead of night to face the police.
    “It’ll be okay, Mom.” The young man assured with a partial smile before he opened the front door and stepped out into the cool night air.
    Cicadas were out in full force, their familiar cadence from his childhood creating a chorus he’d learned to ignore. He walked down the front walk to the connecting sidewalk and turned left toward the Donovan house. Even from here, five houses down, one could see the flashing of the lights atop the police cars illuminating the trees and surrounding homes.
    Sean wondered for a brief moment if they were even going to allow him inside, but knew that he would at least have to try. If Lindsey got in, then it would mean they’d ascertained that the shooter or shooters had long since fled.

    While he’d seen his share of crime shows, none of them had really prepared Sean for the site that awaited him when he stepped into the Donovan home through the remains of their front door.
    Bullets had chewed up the walls and décor until it hardly looked like the home he remembered from accompanying his mother on her last visit just a week prior.
    “Lindsey?” He called cautiously, forcing himself to walk through the shattered glass from a table in the entryway that crunched as he stepped on it.
    The policeman he’d spoken to had informed him that she’d arrived twenty minutes ago and they’d given her access to the house, aside from the part where the shooting had taken place, in the living room.
    He stopped at the entrance to the living room, which was cordoned off with yellow-and-black police tape, and listened for any sounds of Lindsey’s presence. There had been no lights on upstairs when he’d looked while outside, so he assumed she was still downstairs.
    The sound of a drawer being opened drew Sean to the kitchen with slow footsteps. It seemed wrong to make too much noise right now, both because of the deaths that had occurred mere hours earlier and because he didn’t want to startle Lindsey.
    Miss Angelo had given no comment as to her emotional stability right now, but Sean figured it was going to be something near what he would be feeling if it were his parents lying dead in a hospital right now. The thought alone made his skin crawl and he focused on making his way through the destroyed home to the surviving Donovan.
    The only lights on in the kitchen were the ones over the sink and stove, but they were enough.
    Lindsey was rummaging through her mother’s desk that sat between the kitchen and dining room, but her movements were sluggish, almost unfocused.
    “…Lindsey? It’s me, Sean Bracken? Mom sent me over. Miss Angelo called and she’s worried about you.” He approached slowly, trying not to liken this to an encounter with a spooked animal.
    She didn’t seem to see him and her high, curly ponytail fell forward as she bent to check a lower drawer. Sean had always wondered how long her hair would be if it didn’t curl so tightly.
    “Lindsey?” He tried again, coming closer but keeping his movements slow.
    The young woman, barely eighteen if he remembered correctly, murmured something that he didn’t catch even as she seemed to find what she was searching for.
    The super-glue in her hand didn’t make sense to him, but it probably held some significance to her grief-addled mind. He was standing directly in her way when she straightened and turned to continue with whatever mission she seemed determined to carry out.
    Sean hadn’t recalled how pretty Lindsey had gotten in the past few years, but he was remembering it very quickly when face to face with her.
    “I have to fix the mug,” she whispered, but her gaze wasn’t on Sean’s, instead staring straight ahead, through him.
    “What mug, Lindsey?”
    “Mom’s mug. She must’ve dropped it. It’s her favorite.” The young woman replied and Sean was quickly coming to see how unfocused she was.
     Her eyes, usually very bright and annoyed when directed his way, were dull, and her face was almost entirely blank. Sean tried to think how to handle this situation.
     “How about this, Lindsey. I’ve got some good glue at home, so we’ll collect up the pieces and go to my house so we can fix it there.” The words would’ve been patronizing in any other situation, but they were needed in order to get his message through.
    “Mom and Dad will be worried if I’m not here,” Lindsey said with little inflection, but she made no move to sidestep him to continue to her goal.
    Sean found himself tongue-tied again and he ran an agitated hand through his hair. He didn’t want to lie to her about her parents, even if she didn’t remember any of this conversation, but he didn’t want to have to remind her of the truth.
    Why couldn’t Mom have come? He asked himself, watching Lindsey helplessly.
    “I’m sure everything will be fine,” he said at last. “Let’s just go see my mom, okay? Leave the glue on the counter and show me where the mug is.”
    Lindsey responded to the command with listless movements, placing the object in her hand on the stone countertop before leading him around the island in the center of the kitchen to where the remains of a white mug lay. It’s ivory shards were decorated with colorful outlines of flowers that Sean could see appealing to a woman.
    “Can you get me a plastic Tupperware, Lindsey? I want to make sure I get everything.” He asked, crouching down beside the shattered glass to begin gathering the pieces up.
    Thankfully, the Donovan’s had the hard plastic flooring instead of tiles, so it was in several large pieces with a few smaller chips that meant it shouldn’t be too difficult to put back together.
    He wasn’t sure it would ever hold liquid again, but he would make sure it at least looked like it had in its ‘glory days’.
    A clear Tupperware was placing next to the mess on the floor and Lindsey knelt to begin placing the mug’s remains into it. She was being careful, but with the proximity, Sean noticed how her hands were shaking and goose bumps covered her skin.
    He just needed to get her back home before everything came crashing down and she snapped. Mom would be more suited to deal with the fall out than he would.
    It didn’t take long before the destroyed mug was collected. Sean spotted a familiar jean jacket laying on the dining room table that he picked up for Lindsey.
    “Where’s your purse, Lindsey?” He said, drawing her gaze to him.
    She regarded him blankly for a long minute, arms crossed over her stomach. “In my car. Sean, I’m cold. Why is it cold in here? Mom hates it when it’s cold.”
    He didn’t say it was because the front door and living room windows had all been shattered by gunfire, merely offering her jacket to ward off the chill.
    When he started for the front exit and Lindsey didn’t follow, even at prompting, Sean returned to put an arm around her shoulders and guide her forward.
    Outside, the police didn’t question their departure. The chief that Sean had talked to on the way in wanted to know where she’d be at, and after giving the man their address, Sean asked that an eye be kept on Lindsey Donovan’s car. It was parked not too far down the road and the officer agreed to do so.
    Lindsey didn’t seem to notice the exchange, but Sean could feel her beginning to tremble beneath his touch and hurried them on home.
    The tears were just beginning to pool in her eyes as he directed her up the front steps.
    With much more coherency than she’d been showing in the last ten minutes, Lindsey looked at him and croaked, “My parents are dead, Sean.”
    Any words he might’ve tried to muster got stuck in his throat and he merely nodded.
    Lindsey began to cry as he eased the front door open and led her inside by the hand, the sound of her sobs drawing his mother in moments.
    “Lindsey—“ she said, her own voice breaking as she held out her arms for the girl.
    It was the only prompting she needed and Sean watched as Lindsey buried her face against his mother’s shoulder and was finally overcome by the night’s happenings.
    Turning, he closed and locked the front door, then went silently to the kitchen with the container of leftover mug. He wasn’t going to do anything with it at present. Lindsey might want to rebuild it herself sometime in the future, otherwise he would’ve started right then and there.


    And that's that.

   As for other news, those who have enjoyed the Kelsey/Marks bits I've written in the past might be excited to hear that I am considering a continuation scribble for them, though I can't promise how many more of such blurbs I've got left for them. One or two more, for certain.

   I hope you enjoyed this particular scrawl of mine. Please feel free to leave feedback and if you are an OYANer on the forum, you can always drop a comment on PenWielder62's profile page thing with your thoughts. Thank you so much for reading.

   Ad astra per aspera.
   To the stars, through difficulties.