December's Shadow

[woodyloveslinkin]

~

“Wake up Sarah,”

Sarah raised her head from the cafeteria table to see who had interrupted her long needed sleep. Of course, by now, it was mid afternoon and already Sarah wanted to go home after only working three hours out of her nine and a half hour shift she was scheduled on today. She thought Azem would have the decency to try and cut her shifts back. But no. It didn’t happen. It was the smiling and bubbly face of the over eccentric nurse, Melissa.

“Yes…” muttered Sarah, as she grumbled something about waking her up on her much deserved break from reality then she put her head back onto resting on the table. “Sarah is not available right now; please leave a message after the beep.” Sarah made a really bad attempt at making a beeping sound to try and deter Mel off her over hyperactive activities.

“Andrea just sent me to tell you that Chester is awake and his under the impression that you’re his wife,” Mel put it nicely, as she figured she could’ve put it in a lot meaner words.

Sarah raised her head, with a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me look implanted on her face.

“What?” asked Sarah. “Did I just hear you correctly?”

“Yeah, I don’t confuse things up very often,” answered Mel, smiling and then walking off.

Sarah was like what the **** was wrong with that girl? She thought it might’ve been a trick that Mel has somehow managed to pull perfectly or Sarah was living in a dream. Sarah shook her head to get such thoughts of her being married to Chester out of her head and went back to sleep on the cafeteria table. But as soon as she managed to get at least ten minutes of lovely and much needed shut eye, Sarah was awoken again. But not by a nurse. Just the head of the nurses.

“***, why can’t people leave me alone?” groaned Sarah, as she sat up straight knowing that Jo would want to talk to her. Then, Sarah noticed the look on Jo’s face. She was sad. Which in all truth, Sarah hadn’t seen Jo like this ever since coming to Sacred Heard. “Oh, Jo…are you alright?”

“I don’t know,” answered Jo, bluntly. “Would you be alright if someone just suspended you and then automatically replaced you with someone else?”

“Oh, I guess not, why what has Azem done this time around?” asked Sarah. “I take it something pretty sinister to make you be like this.”

“He, and the board, suspended me over an incident the other day with Chester,” answered Jo. “And he’s got Tarja to permanently replace me. So that means I’m no longer the head of nursing, but I’ve been demoted back to Senior Nurse. I’m starting to hate Azem, he’s cutting everyone’s hours down and blaming it on the board.”

“But he’s certainly increased my hours, I don’t even have time anymore to see Ava,” explained Sarah, as her attention was diverted to a screaming child.

“Mummy!” yelled Ava, as she appeared at the doorway with Andrea by her side. Ava detached herself and ran to her mother. Sarah, still very tired from having a very long night consisting of drinking, worrying about Mike and everything on top of it, wore Sarah down like a flat tyre trying to drive to the nearest station to get a replacement one. Sarah embraced her only child, still too exhausted, but managed to say a couple of things to her daughter and Andrea.

“How’s my baby?” asked Sarah, as Ava had decided to stand on Sarah’s lap. “No.” Sarah forced Ava to sit down by picking her up and turning her around so that she faced Jo. “You hurt Mummy with your weight when you stand on her.” It was more like Ava hurt Sarah’s belly bar and nearly ripped it out last time Ava stood on Sarah’s lap. Ava’s foot had scrapped down Sarah’s belly catching her belly bar and almost ripping it out. However, in this case, it was the weight issue. There was a heap of things Ava could not get away with now that she could do before. Sarah almost kicked herself as she remembered Ava rarely responded to the name ‘baby’ but more to her real name. “How’s Ava today?”

“Good,” answered Ava, wanting to be let done. “Down?”

“No, you’re staying on my lap,” answered Sarah, firmly, as Sarah noticed Andrea’s presence. “Good afternoon.”

“And same to you,” replied Andrea, as she pulled up a seat and sat down next to Sarah and Ava. “I’ve got some good news and bad news. Which one do you think you can handle first?”

“Preferably the good news, unless of course you’re going to say that the good news is that there is no bad news,” answered Sarah, as Ava reached over to Sarah’s empty coffee cup and started to stick her finger in it. “Ah! No.” Ava looked at Sarah’s authoritative expression. Ava backed down from trying to taste the remains of Sarah’s coffee.

“She’s a bit restless today,” explained Andrea. “So. Getting onto the good news. She can be released today. But, on condition that she stays away from certain foods, Joss wrote them down but I must’ve forgotten to bring them down with me. I’ll get the list before she officially gets released later on today.”

“And the bad news…?” asked Sarah, as Ava caught her attention again trying to reach for Sarah’s coffee cup. “You don’t like coffee, remember the time I gave you some iced coffee, you didn’t like it.” Ava gave Sarah a sad look.

“Mike?” asked Ava, looking curious. “Where’s Mike?”

“Mike is hurt, he’s not here,” answered Sarah, blankly. Trying to figure out why she keeps on asking for Mike and not Matt or Chester.

“Oh no,” replied Ava, giving Sarah another sad look.

“Okay. Mummy and Andrea are having a conversation, be quiet or monsters will come after you when you’re asleep,” warned Sarah, as Ava put her small hand over her mouth. “That’s more like it.” Sarah turned to face Andrea. “You were about to tell me some bad news…”

“Yeah, how would you like to play wife to Chester for a couple of days?” asked Andrea, bluntly. “And yeah, how would Ava like to say his name more often then Mike’s?”

“Who’s the ****** that told him such a ridiculous thing?” asked Sarah. Sarah had completely forgotten that Jo was still at the table. Andrea looked to Jo which in the end, Sarah caught her drift and looked to Jo. Jo raised her hand slightly and wrapped it around her latte. “Jo…what the…” Sarah looked to Ava and then realised the last time she swore around her child Sarah got in trouble from her mother. “…****? Why did you tell him that?”

“Because I wasn’t thinking straight, and that’s how I landed myself that suspension I was telling you about before,” answered Jo, feeling guilty as never before in her life. “I got what I deserved.”

“Oh Jesus, how am I going to explain to him that I’m actually his ex girlfriend and I take it, I’ve got to somehow tell him that Ava’s not his daughter, well, by birth?” asked Sarah, distressed.

“We suggest you don’t right now,” answered Andrea. “Just go in there and tell him who you are and who Ava is, and then…we’ll somehow work around that. But it’s standard and compulsory standards if he asks to for you to sign the release papers, don’t, you’ll be defying strict standards. He has to be told the truth and seek therapy first.”

“I’m sorry, if that helps, in which in all truth, I don’t think it does,” apologised Jo.

Ava looked to Sarah’s expression on her face.

“Why sad?” asked Ava. “Mummy, please don’t cry.”

“I’m not, I’m thinking,” answered Sarah. “Does Ava want to see Chester?”

Ava’s eye lit up as she remember the last days of her mother’s relationship with that man named Chester. He had always been good to her in the couple of days that they had known each other. Chester’s disappearance had always confused Ava. But she was sure Mike was going to stick around, for her at least.

“Chester!” yelled Ava, as Sarah hushed her child. “Sorry Mummy.”

“Just, do me a favour, stop yelling,” ordered Sarah, not taking her eyes off Andrea. “So I march in there and pretend to be a happy wife and have a happy child with him.” Andrea nodded and so did Jo. But Sarah could only see Andrea’s reaction. “You’ve got to be joking me.”

“I wish I was,” replied Andrea, smoothly.

“As do I,” muttered Sarah, picking up her child that had finally settled down and got to her feet. Ava looked to Sarah.

“Mike?” asked Ava.

“No, we’re going to see Chester, not Mike,” Sarah answered, with uncertainty in her voice.

“Hey baby, well, two babes we’ve got here,” said Chester, as Sarah, Ava and Jo stood in front of Chester’s bed as the wind fluttered the curtains with a cold and chilly wind. Chester sat up comfortably in the hospital bed.

“Chester,” muttered Ava to herself.

“No it’s Daddy,” corrected Chester, as Sarah let go of Ava on Chester’s bed. Ava got on all fours and crawled to Chester who welcomed Ava with arms wide open. Ava accepted his hug and snuggled into his side. “How’s Daddy girl going?”

“No, you’re Chester,” objected Ava, tiredly as she yawned. “Sleep. Sleep time for Ava.” Ava closed her eyes and attempted to be asleep. Sarah knew within herself that it was rare for Ava to go to sleep without being told a million times to go to sleep by her.

“Night,” whispered Chester, as he kissed Ava on the head and looked back to Sarah. “So how are you going?”

“I’m alright,” answered Sarah, slowly. “How are you going? Is the question worth mentioning rather than asking how I am.”

“A bit tired and a bit confused,” answered Chester. He looked to Jo. “You’re that nurse right? Joanna?” Jo nodded. “I thought I knew you from somewhere. So do you know when I can get released and come back to our comfy home?”

“Not until a couple of more weeks,” Jo answered Chester’s question, when she knew it was originally meant for Sarah to answer it. “We’ve got a couple of more things to do before we release you.”

“Oh,” replied Chester, shortly. He looked to Ava and then looked back to Sarah. “I think she needs to be taken home.”

“More like she needs to be taken back to her ward,” corrected Sarah. “Ava’s sick with a heredity disease.”

“You should put her back then,” said Chester, as he picked up Ava. “*** she’s heavy.”

“Well, what do you expect of a healthy three year old to weight?” asked Sarah, as Chester passed her over. But before Sarah could get away, Chester gave Sarah a small kiss on the cheek.

“I love you babe,” Chester told Sarah, as Sarah put Ava’s head on her shoulder, smiled, and walked out, as Jo trailed behind them shortly after she gave Chester a small smile and told him not to move his ***.

Sarah felt helpless as she walked out and stopped. Her ex thinks they are married and he thinks that Matt’s child is his. She looked to Jo, but Jo shrugged and patted her on the shoulder that Ava wasn’t leaning on.

“****,” muttered Sarah, as she started to cry. “What do I tell Mike when he wakes up?”

“Nothing,” answered Jo.

“****,” repeated Sarah, softly. “Mike’s going to hit the roof.”

~

 

[Ravynlee]

You know I read that and couldn't help but think that in spite of their issues Sarah Chas and Ava actually do make a cute crew. Poor Mike on the other hand IS the better choice of the two. Having said all that Matt is the real father so if he does try and Ava does want a relationship with him, then I guess over all he's probably going to win out, but only biologically. I sympathize with all of them actually - but I still think that hospital procedure is screwy. If I were Chas and someone did that to me mentally by the time I recovered I'd be suing the butts off everyone I could in that place. Seems damned dodgy to me.

But sweet as always. Interested to see how Sarah wrangles her way out of this mess

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

Okay now don't angry at me when I say this, but I'm pretty sure there's going to be no update tonight. I've actually written it but I'm unable to open the **** file.

Um...Mr ******-Thinks-He's-Almighty aka Daniel has officially stuffed my computer up. I restarted my computer for a windows update, and now I can't access my story file.

I'll keep you updated how much blood he loses.

I'm going over to his place now with a sledgehammer and body bag.

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

Okay. Good news. Daniel's fixed my computer. I've now got the whole file open!! Yay

~

It was later on the evening for Ravyn, as she drove around Chicago, aimlessly, as she started to think about a lot of things, including the latest stunt that Rob had pulled her…now he wants to get married. Could she go through with it? She slowly braked as she approached a red light. She looked at the ring on her finger, which Rob had miraculously pulled out of nowhere after discussing what she was going to do with her life without Rob. She admitted it to herself; she was only setting herself up for this…this ring that reflected in the bright red reflection of the traffic light. Originally she had only planned to somehow take Leo from Azem and move to a better life in Washington D.C. where she could at least try to restart her life. She knew in the end, Azem would find her again and there was no real point trying to run from Azem. She had moved from Florida to Jersey, from Atlantic City to Chicago and then, Azem came back. She had fully admitted to Andrea in the past couple of days, she was scared of Azem and that he was one of the main reasons why she wanted to get away from Chicago and try to start a reasonably sane life with her new found son in D.C.

A car beeped, shattering her hopes and her woes, as she realised that the traffic light had been green for several minutes and she hadn’t noticed. She slammed down the accelerator and sped off, probably breaking a couple of hundred speeding laws in the process. She slowed down to avoid an official ticket for speeding.

The ring. It was such a small piece of jewellery but it meant so much to a woman, it meant so much to Ravyn. The silver…it was so shiny and looked expensive as ****, she wasn’t even sure that Rob obtained this without robbing a bank or obtaining it by other means. The engraving of the roses wrapped around the vines on both sides of it, and how the vines slowly made their way into a three dimensional cup for the stone to go in it. The stone itself must’ve cost Rob a fortune; it was a carat of diamond for ***’s sake!

Ravyn concentrated back on the road and turned into the left lane. She pulled up to the car in front of her, as she looked to see how the traffic was flowing. Not that she could really care but it was a form of distraction and it was working fine. She realised that Rob was on the sidewalk, with half his face covered in his blue hoody. Ravyn beeped to signal Rob about her presence.

Rob stopped, turned around, and looked around. He couldn’t see any cars that he could recognise. Ravyn beeped again. And then Rob realised who was beeping at him. He ran over to Ravyn’s car and opened the front door, slamming it also.

“Do you mind not slamming my car door?” asked Ravyn, as the car in front of her just went around the corner and Ravyn followed, trying hard not to tailgate the person in front of her. “I was just thinking about you.”

“Good, so was I,” replied Rob. “I need to talk to you about something.”

“Makes us neutral on two topics in that case,” muttered Ravyn, to herself, trying to keep her eye on the road and how slippery it was tonight. “I don’t think that dropping your life for me is the best thing in the world. I really don’t think you understand what happened between Azem and me and how much it’s screwed me up.”

“I have some concept of it, but of course I won’t understand, I’m not you overall,” Rob replied. “Pull over here. I don’t think you’ll be able to drive and have a serious talk at the same time.” Ravyn was going to argue that point but decided not to. She did all the checks and pulled over. “You can leave the heater on. I don’t care if we get carbon monoxide poisoning.”

“Do you think, personally, yourself, do you think that what you did today was the best move you’ve done?” asked Ravyn. “I mean, moving and marrying me are two different things. You don’t even have a job now, because you suddenly figured out that I was going to say yes and quit your job at the hospital. I’m sorry, but I at least got myself a job before I moved.”

“I’ll find work, I promise, I don’t want to become a ***, I won’t treat you like Azem did and Leo…tell me what to say about him, I’m going to be taking care of a kid that’s not even mine, but a product of an abusive marriage you had some years ago,” explained Rob. There was a solemn silence. She knew Rob would react this way that was one of the reasons why she didn’t tell him. It would be a Sarah and Chester tragedy amplified and then mixed in with the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. “I really want to be with you. That’s why I quit my job at the hospital. I really want to be with you, that’s why I asked you to marry me. I really want to be with you, that’s why I went into financial debt just so I could buy you that ring.”

Ravyn felt bad now. So many sacrifices, fewer acknowledgements, and appreciation of Rob’s actions. She knew it in herself for a moment or two, that Rob was pouring his heart and now his wallet into her. She knew she couldn’t go ahead and give the ring back.

“So how serious are you about coming to D.C. with me?” asked Ravyn, with a small smile on her face that told Rob that she had completely made sure what her mind was going to be set on. “I’ve already got a house, downtown. I’m just in the process of packing everything up.”

“I’m dead serious about me going with you to D.C. and the woman who I want to spend the rest of my life with,” answered Rob. “Just a question, how are you going to get Leo from Azem?”

“I’m considering stopping my efforts with Leo, it’s going to be too hard and try to support every claim I have against Azem and my case is, hate to say it, too weak,” answered Ravyn. “Unless Azem just happens to give Leo over without a fight, I’ll be fine with that, by all means.” There was a silence. Ravyn couldn’t bare these silences in between the conversation, so she turned the engine back on and accidentally spun the wheels. “So where were you off to before I picked you up?”

“I was going to the hospital to pick the rest of my stuff up,” answered Rob.

“Yeah same here got a couple of things to pick up and a couple of things to sign off on before I officially leave the hospital,” lied Ravyn. In fact, in actual truth, Ravyn was enjoying driving around aimlessly. She shrugged at her own thoughts and reignited the engine. She accidentally spun her wheels as she realised she accidentally pressed down on the accelerator rather than the brakes. “****.” Ravyn got back onto the road, after checking the usuals and making sure she wasn’t going run over anything or anyone. She couldn’t help but to think to herself about what would’ve happened if Azem just happen to walk out on the road in front her and what her instant reaction would be, it wouldn’t be braking, it would be slamming down the accelerator. “This place holds a lot of memories that I wish would just remain back in Atlantic City.”

“You’re from Atlantic City?” asked Rob, just wanting to make conversation but he knew in himself that his conversation starters weren’t the greatest in the world. Most of his attempts to make a conversation with someone usually ended up in tears or a fight. There were a lot of things that in himself, he knew he should’ve told her before he decided to make that leap of faith that could take him to unknown destinations, both physically and emotionally.

Ravyn shook her head, as she turned into the hospital car park and starting looking for an empty space reserved for the doctors. If there was one thing Ravyn was going to miss of Sacred Heart, it was her car park she regularly stole off Josh.

“I would’ve either drowned myself in that town with its hypocrisy or I would’ve been killed another way, I hate that place for many reasons, especially with one of the reasons being that it was the last place I tried getting away from my past,” answered Ravyn, touching old memories of a place that felt like Satan’s crib. “I guess its better facing what you really are afraid and in the end, I think everyone needs to stop pretending who they are. In answering to your question before, it’s pretty obvious that I’m not from Atlantic City, try Maine.”

“You don’t have the heavy Maine accent,” commented Rob, as Ravyn saw Josh’s empty car space and pulled up into it. Ravyn turned the car off and sat in her seat, knowing there was going to be more to Rob’s sentence. “Guess where I’m from?”

“California,” Ravyn answered blankly, as Rob nodded. “That accent of yours doesn’t even fool me. In fact, hardly anything fools me nowadays. I’m a lot stronger than what I was like in my previous marriage. Again, I apologise for not telling you about Azem and Leo. I didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do, in that **** you’re being put through right now.”

“I don’t really want to talk about it right now, we have better things to do rather than to linger on things that we shouldn’t and should’ve done,” Rob replied, bluntly, as he knew more dramas would follow if he continued on Ravyn’s back about her past. Rob knew he was a guilty of a couple of things that Ravyn doesn’t know of, and he was going to tell her, but not right now. Rob and Ravyn got out of her car, with nothing more to say to each other on that sensitive topic. Ravyn locked her car, and stood in front of her car with particular eyes about the way she had again, stole Josh’s car space, and looked at the way she parked. Rob noticed and then realised what Ravyn was looking at. “It’s fine. You did a perfect job of stealing Gradon’s car space, once again. You do realise this might be the last time you steal his car space and after all these years, and yes I’ve been noticing your parking habits, he might get his spot back.”

“Yeah, pity,” Ravyn mumbled under breath, sarcastically. Rob walked over to Rav and held her hand. They exchanged small smiles as they turned around and got out of the winter’s harsh cold. “I’ve got to go to Azem to hand some things back, and eventually, Grant.”

“I thought Gallagher left for good?” asked Rob. “Or do you still have it in for that man?”

“Both,” answered Ravyn, bluntly. “Would you mind if you came with? I just don’t think I could restrain myself from beating the **** out of that man, and I don’t care if he’s built like a brick wall. That didn’t make me go back to him in the end.”

“I don’t mind,” answered Rob, shrugging as they approached the lifts. Rob pushed the up button. “It feels so weird being in a place you’ve just left, isn’t it?”

“I guess so, I just want to get out of this place let alone get out of the town,” answered Ravyn, as the lift doors opened and Rob offered Ravyn to go in first. Ravyn smiled at his politeness and accepted his offer, as Rob trailed after her. She was the one who pushed the ICU’s button, where Azem’s new office sat, and the doors closed. “I will be so happy when I get away from everything. And yes, I know what was said before about running away your past, you may as well start running away from all of the oxygen molecules in the atmosphere while you’re at that level of being a complete ******. But there are just some things that I can’t be here and I refuse to stick around to go back to what I was feeling like before.” The elevator stopped, and the couple left the elevator, which in all fact, wasn’t going to be empty for long because there were people waiting for it outside in the corridor.

“Are you sure you’re going to be alright leaving Chicago?” asked Rob. “You know some people say a lot of things they don’t mean.” Ravyn nodded, as they approached Azem’s door which had the door left open, which in Azem’s case, was unusual, he usually liked his privacy, too much.

Ravyn hesitated for a second but Rob gave her a hug and urged to do what she needed to do quietly in her ear. Ravyn detached herself from one of Rob’s giant hugs and walked into the empty doorway. She looked in and saw Azem sitting in the corner, looking sinister, as she realised that something had just happened, because Leo was there and looked really confused and upset. Azem raised his head as he detected a third party’s presence in the room, and the young boy’s attention was on his estranged mother’s presence.

“Azem,” Ravyn managed to say. “What just happened?” She could sense there was something wrong in the atmosphere; it seemed too tense and abnormal for something that she assumed Azem had control over.

“I ******* hate you,” growled Azem at Ravyn. “I should’ve suffocated you in your sleep ages ago or else I wouldn’t be having this problem.”

“Mind your language and how you speak to a lady,” growled Rob, as he stood behind Ravyn. “Let alone how you speak in front of your son.”

“Bourdon, just shut up,” ordered Azem. “It really does not have anything to do with you. It’s between Ravyn and myself, now just leave it at that.”

“What just happened?” Ravyn found herself repeating her previous question.

“Just, leave Chicago now, just get away from my son and I, leave Chicago completely and never come back,” barked Azem, as Leo hid his head in his arms, shocked by his father’s sudden angry outbursts. Their attention was now on another person’s presence. It was Meaghen wanting Azem to attend to something he said he’ll do but in the end he hasn’t done it. Azem turned to Meaghen. “Okay I’m coming. I’m not a miracle maker Greyfoxx.” Azem got to his feet and walked to where Ravyn and Rob were standing. Azem looked at Ravyn. “Have a nice talk to your son and that’ll answer your question.”

Meaghen looked confused and bewildered what she had just overheard. This was one thing that she knew she should keep quiet about, but the urge of gossipping about it was far too strong and too tempting. Azem walked away with Meaghen by his side in a huff, repeating to her that she should just keep her mouth shut about everything in general, over and over again, until Meaghen’s neck got sore of nodding her head.

Ravyn looked to Leo who had removed his face from his arms. She didn’t know what to do. The first time that she had been alone in the same room with her son for almost five years that almost seemed to be a century. She walked in, while Rob stood in the doorway, leaning on the side of it. Ravyn sat where Azem had previously sat and looked at her son. She couldn’t help but to think how much he hadn’t changed. There was still a lot of her in her son, but at the same time, she knew that one day he’ll end up hating her for not being in his life for the first five or so years that he needed his mother the most. The last time she had saw Leo was when he was asleep, tucked in and sleeping like a baby, literally.

“Daddy lied,” Leo said to Ravyn, as Ravyn tried to hold the tears back but she was failing. Rob saw a couple of people go past and they looked in. He stood up straight and closed the door, as he realised that Ravyn would want some privacy away from everybody else, including Rob.

Rob’s attention was shortly diverted to Tarja who was nearby talking to a bunch of other ditzy nurses, which Rob had no intention talking to the dumb ones, but to only Tarja.

Ravyn nodded slowly, agreeing with what her son just said. He was too old to know the truth, but Ravyn had a feeling that Azem just did something that was out of the ordinary for him, in that manner he was being kind, or Azem just wanted to get his own way, as the old Azem always wanted.

“What did he lie about?” asked Ravyn, slowly, trying to find the correct words to structure her sentence. There were many things that Ravyn just wanted to Leo, but she knew he was too young to understand the kind of torture and nightmares he gave her at night time in her dreams.

“He said that my Mummy was in heaven, but he said she isn’t, he knows where she is,” answered Leo. “I don’t lie.”

“That’s good, you don’t lie,” replied Ravyn, slowly, as tears made their way down her face. “I know your Mummy; she’s a very good woman.” Ravyn used her sleeve to get rid of her tears, but it didn’t stop more from coming down her face.

“Was it something I did to make her leave?” asked Leo, as Ravyn shook her head. “Then why did she leave?”

Ravyn was going to start bagging the **** out of her ex husband but decided that Leo was too young and he wouldn’t understand Azem’s motives and reasons. Imagine a five year old trying to understand those reasons when it’s taken Ravyn a couple of years to get this far without Azem. After her marriage she was left with nothing but questions for why Azem did the stuff he did to her, but it’s taken her a couple of years to slowly compile answers to those questions that were dormant in the back of her head.

“Your Daddy was very mean to your mother, he hurt her a lot and made her cry a lot, so one day she left,” answered Ravyn, slowly, as she found there was no way avoiding the question.

“Why didn’t she take me with her?” asked Leo.

“She came back for you, and you were a baby, and when I say your father was very mean to your mother, he took it all the way to her heart, and he took her heart away, he took you away from her, and told her that you were dead,” answered Ravyn, trying not to get too complicated for the kid.

“Would you lie to me?” asked Leo. “I wouldn’t lie to you.” Ravyn shook her head. “Tell me then; are you my Mummy like Daddy said you were?”

Ravyn started to cry heavier, as she nodded.

“Yes…yes I am,” answered Ravyn, as she tried to get rid of her tears once again with her sleeve, but yet again, the sleeve didn’t prove very useful in hiding all the tears that were coming down her face like ice melting into water that’s been left in the hot sun. “I even gave you your name.”

“Mummy, don’t cry,” begged Leo, as Leo wrapped his arms around his now found mother. Ravyn wrapped her arms around her now united son. “Daddy said I could move with you to your new house.”

“You’ve got to be joking, he said that, truly?” asked Ravyn, now as happy as ever. She could now be with her estranged son and watch him grow up.

“I don’t lie,” answered Leo. “I never lie.”

“Yeah, you can come with me and my new partner,” confirmed Ravyn, as she felt delighted now. The tears of sorrow had now turned into tears of happiness. This had just made her day, in fact, it made her the past five years or so that she had been separated from her son. “I promise. I’ll never leave you again.”

~

:'(

​

 

[Ravynlee]

:'''(

Oh lord I actually DID get misty reading that! Oh my poor boy! Am so happy I finally get him back! :yahoo:

But tell me, why did Azem decide to let him go I wonder? Anyway, stoked about a lot in this update, even if your life has gone to chit my life seems to finally be getting on track, awesome. Such heart, such emotion, you write so much better taking out a degree of sarcasm, you have a talent with dialog, but now the characters are more 3 dimensional this way and not just characters from a tv soap or sth... but anyway, just awesome! Very happy indeed! And OMG wondering what Azem's up to now... Rob should have slugged him instead! haha

No matter...

So... am I moving now to live happily ever after with Leo and Rob? And... who's taking my place I wonder?

Looking forward as always to more. Thanks

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

Objective achieved. It made me a bit misty as well, and I'm the one that's supposed to be trying to keep it together. Lol.

Last update for tonight.

~

“Hey baby,” were the first ones that escaped Mike’s mouth, when he opened his eyes and the first person he saw was Sarah standing by the side of the bed, hoping for him to wake up. She was finding it hard trying to pay Ava visits, pay Chester deceitful visits, and pay Mike a visit, all in her half an hour break.

“Hey,” replied Sarah, softly, as she had Mike’s charts in her hands, pressed against a white clipboard that was designed to hang off the end of his bed. “How are you feeling today?”

“A bit hung over and a bit sore,” answered Mike, as he tried to get himself to sit up but Sarah just pushed back down, shaking her head.

“Don’t sit up, after whatever you drunk, you’ll be feeling sick for a while,” advised Sarah. “I can’t actually recall what and how much you drunk. I was pretty out of it. Only sobered up when you got put in here.”

Mike smiled. There was a still silence between the couple. Mike didn’t know what happened. Did he make a fool of himself that night? What actually happened? Was the question he kept asking himself.

“How’s Ava?” asked Mike. This was the thing that Sarah had fallen head over heals for in Mike, he actually cared for Ava and her wellbeing. Not to mention how he acted around her, he actually acted like her age, and he made her laugh. Something that Chester never really did, but Sarah also thought of the fact that Chester didn’t have much time around Ava before she left him.

“She’s good, they kept her back another day, or so, just after I thought they were going to release her, this happens, great,” Sarah answered, muttering half of her sentence towards the end. “They found out why you collapsed on me.”

“I collapsed on you?” asked Mike. “I don’t remember.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to remember,” replied Sarah, softly, as she leant over and gave her partner a soft kiss on the cheek. “You’ve ****** your liver up completely. Stop drinking. Or you won’t have one.” Sarah got to her feet. She stopped and smiled. “I have to go now. Sorry about the inconvenience.” Sarah walked over to the end of Mike’s bed and hung up his chart. She blew Mike a kiss, and Mike smiled as his form of reply. “I’ve got to get back to my shift before Azem catches me off during my on time, if you get what I mean.” Sarah turned around and stopped, to see Brad walking in. “No. I told you specifically Delson, don’t come in.”

“Why not?” asked Brad, with a smirk on his face, as he strolled past Sarah and disobeyed her as he approached Mike’s bed. “We’re missin’ you already man. Bennington’s in as well. *** **** what is this? I’m just waiting for myself to end up in one of these beds soon.”

“You will be soon if you keep disobeying me,” warned Sarah, giving him a nasty but a light-hearted tone. “You have no idea what a sledge hammer and body bag can achieve nowadays.”

“You’ve got a funny one here, Shinoda,” commented Brad, as Sarah rolled her eyes at Brad and walked out of the room. “So how you feeling today?”

“Okay, I guess,” answered Mike, knowing that he’ll be getting asked that question from everyone. “What’s this about Bennington being in as well? That I didn’t hear of, surprisingly.” Brad sat down in Sarah’s old seat, and rest his feet up on Mike’s bed, as he slouched down in the chair. “If that chair breaks, don’t expect me to pick you up and drag you to the nearest doctor. And don’t say that I didn’t give you a good warning.”

“Answering your question about Bennington,” Brad started, not wanting to touch on the topic of the possibilities that the chair could not stand his weight and somehow break. “Didn’t you hear man? Bourdon punched him out in a fit of rage because apparently, this is what I heard from an intern over in radio, that she’s pregnant with Azem’s kid. I was like what-the-****…freaky ****, and I know I don’t want to touch it. And now he’s suffering from short term memory loss, and Jo gave him the idea that he was married to Sarah and that Ava’s his kid.” Brad laughed at the thought of Jo’s suspension. “And Jo got suspended and demoted at the same time. Can you believe it? We actually have a new hot Head of Nurses now! Tarja, man!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mike murmured under his breath. “What the ****?”

“I know we’ve got a hot chick in charge of the nurses, man!” exclaimed Brad, as half the corridor outside of Mike’s ward heard Brad. They shot him weird looks, and Brad looked guilty. “****. Shouldn’t have said it that loud.” However, the people that had heard him exclaim his love for having a new nurse in charge of Jo’s now-old position that had good looks, didn’t care, and carried on with their duties.

“No, that’s not what’s caught my attention, Chester thinks my girlfriend is his wife,” corrected Mike. “What the **** seriously, ten times over?” Mike was more than stunned; there was no emotion and no words to describe his own emotions. He was stunned; he was shocked, he was angry, he was anything but happy about what Brad had just told him. Mike knew Brad quite well, and Mike could read Brad’s expression too well, especially if he was lying or not. “Well. In that case, it’s not going to be one of those cases where Chester barges right into her house and says that he’s home, with a smile and that on his face, while we’re making out on the couch.”

“Don’t go there, seriously dude, you put that image in my head, and I will have to kill you,” warned Brad. “Remember, who was the one that accidentally dislocated a patient’s arm once during a simple ligament fixation surgery? Accidents happen. Oh reminds me, accidents…turn your television to this ******* retarded band I keep seeing be played over and over again whenever I walk past a television set in the hospital. The nurses were checking the rapper guy out this morning when they came on for an interview on MTV.” Brad got to his feet and walked over to the television that was supported from the wall by a number of black brackets. He turned it on after a couple of seconds of fiddling around and trying to find the power button. The television came on and the channel was a news channel. Brad pressed a couple of buttons and turned it over to Channel V. “Look at these retards. Ava loves this film clip because of the whale and the vines.”

Mike looked to the bunch of guys dancing around like hard core wannabes on what seemed to be a rip off of Pride Rock from the Lion King, only to realise that it was a massive stone structure of a woman.

“Hey, it looks like Azem,” commented Mike, pointing to the animated stone woman. “Old, rusty and looks like the opposite ***.” Brad cracked himself laughing. He hadn’t heard such good commentary since the nurses were at their cat fights the other morning. “And this guy here.” He pointed to the singer who was looking over the edge with the lights dimmed down to highlight his face. “Looks and sounds like Bennington, can’t sing for **** all, have you ever heard him sing in the shower?” Brad shook his head. “Good. Just kill a cat while you’re at it, Bennington. As I said before, looks and sounds like Bennington, can’t sing for ****, always looks like he has an erection with or without a female being in the room and looks constipated half the time.” Brad was crying with laughter by this stage, he hadn’t heard this kind of commentary come out of Mike’s mouth for a while. It was Chester or himself the one that would be cracking the jokes. “And this guy there.” He pointed to the drummer, as the film clip had turned to a dark and misty environment where it was beginning to rain in a heavy downpour. “He must be feeling proud. He’s the only one not getting wet. Cheap skate drummer.” Mike knew it himself that he was on a roll. “Look at the guy with the headphones dancing around with that bass, stupid Nancy boy. He’s only wearing them because he can’t stand the sound of his own band let alone the sound of his own guitar.”

“You’ve now officially given this band a better name, than what it’s actually called,” laughed Brad. “Oh **** man, I’m going to **** my pants soon if I don’t stop laughing. What is this band actually called?”

“Stinkin’ Park,” answered Mike, taking the **** out of the original name which was Linkin Park, as it appeared on the lower left corner along with the song name and the album. “Hybrid Theory? More like Lowbrid Theory. And the song is called…” Brad cut him off, it was the third time that day he had seen this band play with the same song.

“In The End,” interrupted Brad.

“More like ‘In My Pants’,” Mike couldn’t help but to mock, because it was better mocking a band he had never known or even heard of, rather than lay in his hospital bed and be depressed about the new situation that has arisen with Chester and his girlfriend. Brad laughed again.

“Mike!” yelled Ava from the door, with Sarah by her side. Ava came running from where she was standing with her mother in her pink PJs the same ones that Brad had picked her up the last moment that he ran into her. She tried to climb into Mike’s bed by herself but she couldn’t, so Brad picked her up and put her on Mike’s bed.

“What is it with you and her?” Sarah asked from the door, crossing her arms in amazement. “The first thing she asked me when I came in to because Andrea wanted to give me a list of things she can and cannot eat, she’s like ‘Where’s Mike?’ I said her that he was awake and the first thing she did was run to the elevator and started to push the buttons to go down. Do you not realise how stubborn my child is let alone how fast she is when she’s determined to do something?”

“What can I say?” asked Mike, as he shrugged with a smile on his face, as Ava dug into his chest with her head. “Females like me, even the younger ones.” Mike looked to Ava who had stopped trying to get Mike to give her a hug, picked her up, and sat her on his lap. “How’s my little lady Ava?”

“Good, Mummy got me a teddy bear and a pony,” answered Ava, as she turned around so that she faced Mike. “Where’s Santa Mike?”

“He’s coming,” answered Mike. “He’s still in the North Pole with Mrs. Santa Claus.”

“I know what you’ll like,” said Brad, talking to Ava, as Ava’s attention was diverted to Brad talking to her. “Do you like dolls?” Ava nodded. “Why don’t we go down to the play room and we play with the dolls down there?”

“No, I want to stay with Mummy and Mike,” answered Ava, stubbornly.

“Please Ava, Mike wants to talk to Mummy,” requested Mike, as Ava looked back to Mike. “Santa won’t come if you aren’t good. You know what they say about good girls and boys and naughty girls and boys. The naughty ones don’t get anything from Santa.” Ava sulked and Brad picked her up and left the room without another word to be heard, well except for the screaming that could be heard down in the corridor. Sarah came in and took her original spot which had been stolen by Brad previously. Mike gave her a weird look. “I heard about the Chester situation and I don’t know what the **** to say, I’m not breaking up with you or anything it’s not your fault.”

“I know,” muttered Sarah, under breath. “I’ll do it somehow. I’ll tell him the truth in a day or two or before anything gets out of control. I promise. It’s the last thing I wanted to happen to us.”

“Nothing’s going to make me go and break up with you, I promise,” promised Mike. “I love you too much already and I don’t want Ava to grow up with several men in her life just because her Mum keeps on getting her heart broken by ********. I swear. I’m not like the other guys.”

~

 

[Ravynlee]

I just wanted to squeeze hug Mike for that! How awesome... happiness abounds! Is someone feeling happy in their general life to pen such... Hallmark moments?? Just sweet... mind you picking at the clip on MTV was weird... but Mike sounds perfect for Sarah and father material. Aww... just sweet.

Good as always

(Sorry for the long delay in replying, watching Black Hawk Down )

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

I have a small update. This is what I've got so far. I'll post some later on tonight. After I get some sleep and I stop blaring Nightwish up at 3 in the morning. Remember it ain't ending, it's faaaarrrr from ending.

~

“Leo, get your stuff, I ain’t leaving you back here with your father!” yelled Ravyn from the front lawn, as she was telling her five year old son for being so slow in getting a number of toys from his room. Andrea, Sarah, and Jo stood on the footpath that was badly cemented down in front of her lawn, so bad, that there were people’s names inscribed in it along with paw prints that belonged to oversized dogs the size of teenagers. “Leo. I am not repeating myself.” One thing she hated, was repeating her words, she always hated talking to a brick wall and repeating herself made her feel like she was talking to such an inanimate object. “Unless you want to have Christmas next to your father probably by a cell that’s five by five, I suggest you come downstairs to the lawn right now.” Ravyn saw Rob come out the doorway carrying the last box full of junk there was to carry in the back of the car. Rob gave Ravyn a small smile, as he disappeared out of sight. Ravyn’s tolerance for Leo’s behaviour hadn’t started and she knew it would take a lot of time for her to start tolerating the times where Leo just refused to do anything she says. She saw this coming, the hate, from day one, she was afraid that this was going happen. She just wanted to go, it was getting too cold for her liking, and there was still a heap of snow on the ground that slowly started to creep into her shoes.

“Leo, your mother and I are waiting for you to come down from your room and move with us, do you not want to come with us?” asked Rob firmly, from the car, as he closed the trunk of the car. Leo appeared at the foot of the stairs suddenly, for Ravyn to see, with a bear in his arms. Ravyn smiled faintly, walked inside from standing out on the grass, got her son by his free hand, and walked outside with him, hand in hand. “Good. So now just have to say goodbye to our friends and that’s it, we’re off to D.C.” Rob turned around, as he met Ravyn and her child in the middle of the lawn.

Leo looked up to Ravyn.

“Are we going to be back soon?” asked Leo.

“We’ll come and visit some friends in a couple of months, I promise, just see what happens,” answered Ravyn, tidying his hair up as any mother would do to her son.

“Looks like we’re at the end of the road here Harris,” said Jo, who stood in the middle of Andrea and Sarah, who held Ava in her arms.

“Why are you even here?” asked Ravyn, blankly. “Oh I get this; I’m your arch enemy, so you have to see me off, so you can go get another arch enemy. Still, it doesn’t make sense.”

“You’ve got to admit we’ve had some fun times,” answered Jo. “Remember all those wars we sieged on each other on a daily basis.”

“No they weren’t wars, that was just me being me who told you off for a number of dumb moves,” corrected Ravyn, feeling proud of herself that she had just made no sense whatsoever even more. “Anyway, moving on now.”

“Jesus, you’re leaving so soon, for some reason I’m not enjoying this,” Sarah said, as she realised that it was her turn to say something, since Jo just got told off. “Because, I thought I would. You’ll be back sometime right?”

“Yeah, sometime I suppose,” answered Ravyn, roughly, as Brad and Mike made an appearance. “Oh ***, you do realise this was a private meeting?” Mike and Brad laughed at Ravyn’s still existent attitude problem, as Mike walked over and hugged Sarah from behind. Ava’s eyes lit up and begged to be Mike’s arms. Sarah rolled her eyes and handed Ava to Mike, and plus, she was getting heavy for her mother’s arms. Rob smiled and walked over to his mates.

“Hey,” greeted Rob, as Ravyn went on to saying her farewells. “Bennington not better after all these weeks in being in therapy about his memory?” No one nodded their head, just everyone shook their head. “Jesus. I really feel sorry for that guy. I take it Sarah broke the news harshly in that case?” Everyone who had previous shook their head nodded their head.

 

[Ravynlee]

That last sentence read like a comedy of errors - made me laugh. Sad, moving on. But great to see Rob stepping up and being patient compared to my... infamously short temper (like my physical stature, we all know THAT at least is not fictional ) and good to see now after their tumultuous work relationship that Sarah and Rav have finally forged a kind of... bond. And that Jo and Rav have made a truce of sorts. Almost expected Azem to rock up at some point and the chaos would ensue, but so far so good. Things look positive. And yay for Mikey and Sarah. dammit woman now I've gone from yelling at Sarah's previous stupidity to awwing at her happiness, who would have thought she could have found happiness with the man-*****-of-the-establishment Mike haha

Sweet.

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

Please don't get teary like I did. I found it extremely hard not to cry for some reason. Well. I ended up taking a walk to try and walk this update off, cos I ended up crying. It's dead emotional. Get the tissues out. I had a ***** of a time trying to edit this without crying.

Continuation

“And on top of that, Bennington’s been found unfit to work for the hospital, so the hospital stripped him of his licence,” added Mike, as Ava bugged Mike to put her down so that she could run around in the snow and in the end, she’ll end up with snow down her clothes. Mike didn’t let Ava down for that purpose. He had learnt the last time Ava was near snow that she loved to make ungodly mischief in the December’s fall of snow. “I don’t know where he is now. It’s like he’s disappeared off the face of the earth. He’s not answering his cell, not returning any of my calls.” Mike’s attention was diverted to Ava still squirming to get out of his grip. “No. Remember the time in the park where your mother and I let you roam loose like a wild buffalo? I ain’t getting colder and nor are you.”

“Please,” begged Ava.

“You can beg as much as you want, you’re not getting down,” replied Mike, showing his authority quite clearly. “Do you want to get sick again?” Ava shook her head. “Exactly.” Mike’s attention was diverted back to his friends that were smiling at Ava’s cuteness and stubbornness. Rob was actually smiling at the fact that Mike could actually set a decent example for a younger person. He had really never seen Mike take authority and responsibility until lately, when Sarah and Ava came into his life. “Sorry about that.”

“No need to apologise,” replied Rob, smoothly, as Ava looked at Rob. She wasn’t sure who he was, but had seen him a number of times. “I’ve never really had anything to do with her, but she’s cute isn’t she?” Mike and Brad nodded simultaneously.

“Even I admit she’s cute,” commented Brad, as Ava looked to Brad and then hid her face in her Mike’s shoulder. Leo let go of Ravyn’s hand, who Ravyn herself, was busy trying to keep herself warm in the harshness of the winter, trying to see if her son was warm enough and deep in conversation with Andrea, Jo and Sarah in what was turning out to be a good session of reminiscing on old memories, the good ones and even the bad ones that occurred within the walls of Sacred Heart.

Leo walked over to Rob and looked up at him, as Leo tugged at his shirt to get his attention. Rob’s attention was diverted to the five year old, who looked like his mother, to him, both in the comparison of height to him and the physical side of the little boy that reminded Rob strongly of Ravyn and her past with Azem.

“Yes, little man?” asked Rob. “Are you wanting to go now so suddenly? Leo shook his head.

“Who’s she?” asked Leo, looking to Ava who had her face still buried in Mike’s shoulder.

“She’s your mother’s friend’s daughter,” answered Rob, as he pointed to Sarah. “I don’t think you’ve met her but her name is Sarah. Your mother and I used to work with her, same with Joanna and Andrea.” Leo turned around and followed Rob’s glare, as he stopped pointing. Leo turned back around to face his mother’s partner. Rob looked over to Ava. “Her name is Ava. She’s three next year.” Ava stopped hiding in Mike’s shoulder as she heard her name being spoken.

“I’m Ava,” she said quietly, as she looked to the boy who stood by Rob’s side. “Who are you?”

“I’m Leo,” answered Leo. “I’m moving houses today.”

“I’m staying with my Mummy and Mike,” replied Ava, as she re-hid her face in Mike’s shoulder. Mike patted Ava softly on the back, as Sarah detached herself from the conversation she was in to walk over to Mike. “Mummy.”

“Hey baby,” replied Sarah, as Ava reached for Sarah, but Sarah didn’t take her daughter from the clutches of her partner. “Mike.”

“Yo,” replied Mike, as his attention was diverted from Ava to her mother standing by his side.

“Say something to Ravyn *** dammit, just because you don’t like her doesn’t mean you can’t engage in an adult conversation with her,” ordered Sarah.

“Do I have to?” groaned Mike, as Sarah sighed as his childish way. “Alright I’ll say something to her.” Sarah finally took Ava from Mike’s grip and unlike Matt, she put Ava down on the ground. All Ava did was walk over and make conversation with Leo. Mike walked over to where Ravyn was, who was in conversation with Joanna telling her the correct version of events of an event that had happened last December.

Andrea just stood there laughing at the fact this was meant to be the last that these two would see each other for a while or so, and here they were having the normal argument. She knew that Ravyn wouldn’t change the next time that they see each other. Ravyn saw Mike’s presence and stopped her argument with Joanna.

“It’s a pity when you think about it, Shinoda, I won’t be able to criticise you anymore,” Ravyn blankly stated.

“Yeah, because you won’t be around to fulfil such a need, which in all honest truth, I am fine with it, a hundred percent,” retorted Mike, smiling, as he turned around for a second to see Sarah’s reaction. Sarah stood there with Ava, now, already asleep in her arms, shaking her head, miming the words ‘be nice for once'. Mike laughed at the glare that Sarah was giving him. “I’m just kidding you know?” Sarah rolled her eyes, as Ava was getting heavy for her arms. Brad offered to take and Sarah accepted with a smile and a thank you. Mike turned back around. He restrained himself from smiling. He was going to do something that if those two kids weren’t around, Ravyn would’ve said some foul words in retaliation to what Mike was going to do. Sarah saw that smile and she was just imagining what Mike was going to do. Mike walked up to Ravyn and threw his arms around the woman.

“Oh Jesus,” Andrea slapped her forehead and restrained herself from laughing.

Ravyn tore Mike off her and raised her hand, but saw Leo and the sleeping Ava in the corner of her eye. She lowered her hand and decided to pretend that everything, was going to be okay and she wouldn’t physically abuse him, just for the kids' sake. Sarah was astounded that Mike had the guts to do that. She knew she wasn’t the only one, Rob found it funny.

“I’m going to miss you,” Mike smiled, as Ravyn was, how could she put it into just one emotion? It was impossible. Ravyn was amazed that Mike had the guts to hug her, despite all the taunts and the mockery she used to give him back in the days. Ravyn was, in a swear words cut short; she was horrified that out of all the people to traumatise her with hugging the ‘heinous *****’ of the hospital, it had to be Shinoda. “Well, what can I say? I am going to miss your heinous ***** attacks at not only me, but at the rest of Sacred Heart’s staff.”

“Just promise this, Shinoda, right here and right now, for everyone else to say that I said this,” started Ravyn, crossing her arms yet trying to remain calm about the situation, or more of her case, trying to remain calm about being violated in such a manner. “Do not ever ******* hug me again.”

“I think I can do just that,” replied Mike, backing away from her and returning to Sarah’s side, smiling at the fact that he’s been the only person that was on her to-kill list to ever hug her and get away with it unscathed.

“And I was getting ready to call emergency, ****,” complained Jo, as she couldn’t help it but her remaining smile didn’t impress Ravyn at all. Rob thought it was a good stunt, but didn’t show the thought in his facial expression for the sake of Ravyn ******** to him about he didn’t do anything while on the way to Washington D.C.

“Well, we see something new everyday now, don’t we?” asked Sarah, as Rob turned to Brad to start his farewells.

“I’m going to miss you Delson, sorry to say it, but it’s the truth,” Rob farewelled, as Brad just thought of a comeback which he just had to say.

“It’s the opposite here man, I ain’t going to miss you even if the heavens fell down on me right now,” Brad remarked, sarcastically, as Rob pouted at such a thought of one of his good mates not missing him. Brad let out a small laugh. “I’m only pulling your leg Bourdon. Of course I’m going to miss you. In fact, I don’t think we, and I speak for the rest of the hospital here, I don’t think we could’ve had a more decent janitor that actually did his job instead of drinking coffee and eating donuts all day.”

“Thanks,” Rob bluntly replied. “All the best luck for the future.”

“Bye,” farewelled Leo, softly, as Rob came up to Sarah and gave her a small hug. “I don’t remember your name but bye anyway, because you’re friends with Robbie.”

“Keep yourself safe woman,” ordered Rob. “I don’t want to come back and find you with another man that doesn’t treat you nicer than Shinoda is doing right now.”

“Aww, now that’s more like the spirit,” commentated Mike. “Now let go of my woman.” Rob let go of Sarah, who for some reason, had her eyes swelled up with tears. “Now look what you’ve done Bourdon. Stay for her sake.”

“That ain’t going to happen, Shinoda, keep on hoping that’s all I can say right now,” Rob replied, as he turned to Shinoda. “But hey, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll see each other soon, someday. And one thing before we go Mike, get yourself that position down at Mark’s Bar with that emcee job. I reckon you’ll make a grand emcee the way you can talk sometimes, man, you’re worse than a woman.”

“Stop it, you’re making me blush,” requested Mike, sarcastically, as Rob said a small and quiet farewell to the sleeping child in Brad’s arms.

“I guess it’s my turn now, I suppose,” said Ravyn, as Andrea walked up to her good friend and threw her arms around her. “Yes I am going to miss you as well. Blubber all you want I’m not going to be staying for very long, so save yourself some time and blubber over someone that actually means anything to you.”

“How come you don’t look like you’re going to fight her when she gives you a hug?” asked Mike, smartly. Ravyn shot him a sharp look. “See, this is the kind of reaction that makes your moods so unpredictable. When you come back, make yourself a less unpredictable person. Now I know why hurricanes are always named after women, they are both unpredictable.”

“Excuse me,” pouted Sarah, as Mike turned to his partner, laughed and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. “That’s more like it.”

“I’m going to miss you, more than you realise,” Andrea managed to say through her raging tears like a rushing river going through rapids. Andrea detached herself from her friend, who she has seen through thick and then. More like, the reason why Andrea was so upset was because Andrea was happy that Ravyn was reunited with her estranged son and that she’s settling down with a decent man. “You have to give me a phone call when you get to your new place. Promise me that you will.”

“Alright if you’re going to be like that, okay, I promise that I’ll give you a call,” replied Ravyn, as she rolled her eyes. Rolling her eyes meant that she wasn’t ignorant of what Andrea had just said and was only trying to get Andrea off her back, but instead, it was a way of trying to keep the tears back, as she thought of all the memories that she’s had with Andrea individually. She turned to Sarah, who had started to walk over to Ravyn, disconnecting herself from Rob, Ava in Brad’s arms, Brad himself, and her partner. “*** dammit woman, your tears are like a disease and now I’ve got it.”

“I have that influence on people,” replied Sarah, smoothly, as she stood in front of her now ex-boss. “Like I said before, I don’t know why I’ll even miss you. You treated me like **** the first couple of days that I had arrived at the hospital and eventually we started to connect, ****, you couldn’t just connect to me automatically? You’re the disease here not me.” Ravyn hated what she was going to do next. She closed her eyes so her eyes wouldn’t be scarred but she knew the rest of her physical body would be. Ravyn walked up to Sarah and gave her a hug. “Holy mother of ***, you’re actually hugging me!”

“I know it’s sad, isn’t it?” whispered Ravyn to herself, but Sarah managed to hear it and rolled her eyes at Ravyn’s attitude. Ravyn detached herself from Sarah and looked to the snow covered ground. She looked back up again, through blinding tears. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Ava opened her eyes to see Sarah crying.

“Oh no, you made my Mummy cry,” complained Ava, as Sarah walked over to her and got her from Brad’s grip. “Don’t cry Mummy.”

“I’ll try not to,” replied Sarah, looking to her daughter’s worried expression on her face.

“No, your Mummy made my Mummy cry,” Leo tried to correct, as he detached himself from Rob and ran to his mother.

“No one made anyone cry,” Ravyn corrected as she looked to her son, who was now leaning on her side. She looked to Joanna, who stood next to where Andrea was now standing. “Oh ***, it’s come down to this hasn’t it?”

“I guess so,” answered Jo, as Ravyn detached herself as she walked over to where Jo was. “It’s these moments where enemies become foes.”

“We’re archenemies get that fact straight for once in your life dammit,” corrected Ravyn, shaking her head. “I’m going to regret this day a lot, if I ever get my old job back at Sacred Heart.” Ravyn embraced Jo in a hug, as more tears made their way down her face. “As much as I don’t want to admit it, once again, I am going to miss you, as an archenemy and as a person that I can continually comment on.” They let go of each other.

“Don’t worry, I bet there will be other people you can push around at your new job in D.C.,” replied Jo, with a smile, as Brad and Sarah walked back over. “I have a lot of faith in you, that you’ll do a good job of pushing your work colleagues around like you did at Sacred Heart. Stop wasting your tears on me Harris, like you told me once, you have better things to cry over, let alone doing your job properly.”

“Alright, if you say so,” agreed Ravyn, as she saw in Sarah’s arm. She walked back up to Sarah, but spoke to Ava. “You take care of yourself little Ava, and take good care of your mother for humanity’s sake.” Ava nodded, not knowing what Ravyn had just told her. “I don’t expect you to understand what I just said, by the way.”

“I’m going to do what Shinoda do, just to annoy you,” said Brad, as he walked up to Ravyn and wrapped his arms around her. She froze, but relaxed after knowing that Brad loved stirring her up on purpose, just for the sake of getting a reaction out of her. Why didn’t she think of this before when Shinoda attempted his leap of faith? “Ah, Harris, Ravyn, heinous *****, whatever you’re called, we all have things we don’t want to admit, but I’m going to admit this anyway just for the sake of being in the moment. I am going to miss your bullying antics. I am going to miss your snide remarks and your strong bullshit work ethics. I am going to miss you full stop.”

“Good, now get off me Delson before you regret being born,” remarked Ravyn, still finding time to cry some more. Brad let go of her and walked back to his original spot, as Rob appeared by her side, in hand with Leo. “I guess it’s time to leave. For good.” Andrea, Jo, Brad, Ava in her mother’s arms, and Mike stood in a straight line, as they departed the scene to walk to the car. Jo was in tears by this stage, Mike was trying to calm Sarah down, and Brad was trying to calm both Andrea and Jo down at the same time. The men were trying to be strong, but the emotions were still there. Ava started to wave goodbye to Leo, and Leo replied back with a wave, as did Rob and Ravyn.

Ravyn didn’t want to be the first person to drive, so she made sure her son was secure in the backseat and got into the front passenger seat. Rob opened the driver’s seat door and sat down, closing the door after him. Ravyn closed her door, as Rob roared the ignition up. He reversed down the driveway, and onto the icy and slippery road. Rob beeped at them, as everyone outside waved goodbye. Ravyn smiled at them, Leo was yelling goodbye to them all, and Rob slammed down the accelerator and disappeared out of sight. And appeared on the highway that was going to take them to their new home, more than five hundred miles away, crossing several state lines, two time zones and through many little counties and cities that they could’ve called home, but they didn’t. They were just rest breaks for all they cared.

“Bye,” whispered Sarah, still standing ten minutes later on Ravyn’s front lawn, still holding her daughter, and still next to Mike, where she had just farewelled her for her to start another life outside of hers. “I’ll miss you.”

~

:'( x100

​

 

[Ravynlee]

Aww that WAS emotional wasn't it?? *snuffle* I have to admit I laughed in a few places but all in all it was good, it was Hallmark, yes, what the **** is going on here man?? But yeah it was sweet. I laughed at Mike, my ***, man has got guts AND great comedic timing too, he's just awww personified. The little ones meeting was cute too. You know way down the track if these main characters survive into old age intact you could always do a spin off with Ava and Leo I suppose... would be different if nothing else.

And that lien about hurricanes or whatever being named after women for their unpredictability cracked me up - but so true! :lol: well said Mikey boy.

Good. Sad. Emotional. But good.

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

OK! We have a new character. ***, this is going to prove more interesting to see what SH is in for, now that Rav has left (but the question is, her departure is it for good? )!

Btw. Last update for tonight.

~

It was the next day at Sacred Heart and the corridors were very quiet, too quiet for Sarah’s liking, as she walked up to the nurses’ front desk and leant forward on it. The day hadn’t even started for her and already she wanted to sign off and leave. People that say hospitals were generally a depressing and lonesome place to work at, let alone being a patient at one. She was more used to the sound of Ravyn’s voice ******** about everything under the sun, even Sarah herself. Nothing seemed right without that cranky old woman, even when she had resigned; it didn’t feel as isolated and lonesome as this. She hadn’t even been assigned a proper doctor to be bossed around by yet, not even when Ravyn assigned. Azem had set up a screwy system that made her run after random doctors for her to teach her. She may as well just go over to Arizona and the desert there because it was exactly same feeling of being deserted in the middle of nowhere in the heart of bustling city. The feeling was made worse by the fact that the hospital was located in the heart of the city.

She sniffled. She knew she had gotten some sort of virus from standing out in the cold yesterday, during Ravyn and Rob’s farewell meeting, and after when they left. She didn’t leave for a good fifteen minutes after they left. She had a tendency to hang onto memories, the psychology department called this separation anxiety, just one thing; she hadn’t felt this way before, about anything. Even after what Matt and Viking put her through, no separation anxiety there, just feeling hurt and alone remained in that situation. She sniffled again, but it wasn’t the virus that was sniffling, it was the feeling of being alone. She had subconsciously grown attach to that woman, and now, she’s gone. But she couldn’t help but to think of how well life had gone so well for that woman, now, she’s settling down and moving on, hopefully Azem wouldn’t return in her life to make it ****. She held back another handful of tears that were on their way, as she looked up to see that not even a single nurse was to be seen or heard. She sighed and walked away, knowing that she’ll end up somewhere in this *** forsaken deserted place.

Jo awoke from her sleep, as she rolled over in her four layers of woollen blankets to look at the time. It was ten in the morning and it was her day off, according to the new timetable Azem had arranged for her now, being Senior Nurse and all. Then she remembered why she felt so down. There were a number of reasons, not including her personal life that was slowly making its way up the hill, instead of it going downhill for once in a while. Ravyn had left.

Jo sat up straight and she rubbed her sore eyes. It had been an emotional farewell for even the victim of Ravyn’s various bullying regimes. She threw the covers off her and placed her feet on the floor. She didn’t get up; she just sat there staring at the floor wondering how the hospital must feel like, physically, without her or Rob’s presence being there. It’s got to be different, she told herself with confused confidence of such a statement to think of. She couldn’t help but to think of Ravyn for some reason. Maybe all the years that had spent with each other, always at each other’s throat about something work related or something Ravyn had personally attacked Joanna on, those memories just stuck to her like glue, and it was really strange as well, more the fact that they stuck so well. She sighed, as the thought of Ravyn ever coming back would probably strike the opposite emotion in her, sometime in the future. Or more the case, if she didn’t leave it would still be the same old flame wars going on throughout the hospital. She yawned, as she realised she better get out of bed, stop lingering on hopes and dreams that will never be or that has already happened and do something about her lack of enthusiasm for everything just in general.

Andrea was on her morning break now, but she didn’t spend it down in the cafeteria listening to Ravyn’s bickering and rants about other staff members or the crummy system that they’ve got in place for certain things, she didn’t even have her here to hear such foul words and snide comments. She spent it in the locker room, by herself, as she hoped for. She sat in the far corner that was well away from any contact from stupid interns or nurses that would have the guts to intrude on her in such a down and lonely mood. She wasn’t very motivated today, she really felt like she wanted to do work, but she couldn’t. She had hardly ate, due to the fact that she felt like she had lost her only best friend that she had seen through thick and thin, in Ravyn’s life and through her own life. The hospital itself hadn’t moved really since yesterday. It was inanimate almost. Andrea got to her feet after concluding that more life was needed in this hospital and hanging on to old memories was not the way to go. She realised that this was the type of attitude that Ravyn used to roll her eyes at. She shook that memory off and started to walk off to her office.

The one time that she had to leave the closeness and the basement of such a feeling she just had to run into a person that closely reminded her of Ravyn.

“Oh ***, Azem,” muttered Andrea to herself, as she saw Azem, Sarah, Mike and another man standing in a tight circle. She stopped once she saw him, but the minute she stopped was the precise time that he turned around and saw her. She couldn’t stand that smile embedded on his face. “Yes, Azem?”

“Ah, Andrea, just the person I wanted to see, perfect timing!” Azem made a situation ten times worse then it actually was. Andrea knew something was up; he always exaggerated a situation which either benefited him to the point of sincere stupidity or exaggerated a situation that made him punch a hole through the nearest wall. He wasn’t punching a hole through the nearest wall in this situation. Azem wrapped his arm around Andrea and dragged her to the circle of people. Sarah didn’t look happy as well, and Mike, he looked more fed up with something rather with sad or depressed, probably fed up with Sarah’s mopes. “This is Andrea, head of paediatrics.”

“Hi,” said the man, who was dressed in a good Italian suit. He offered his hand for her to shake but she didn’t take it. He withdrew his hand, and looked a bit uncomfortable that she didn’t accept his shake. She caught a whiff of what Sarah’s reaction was to that. Sarah rolled her eyes. “The name’s Michael.”

“You already now my name,” replied Andrea, bluntly, looking unimpressed as ever by his attempts to be nice. “So there’s basically no point trying to introduce myself.” She turned to Azem, with a bitter look on her face and even worse, a bitter tone in her voice. “If I get told he’s Ravyn’s replacement, I am going to resign.”

“Why?” asked Azem, shocked at such a comment.

“Don’t act surprise,” commented Sarah, as everyone’s attention was on her, well, not Mike’s. He was staring into blank space and out of touch of what was happening around him. “What do you expect Azem when she’s just left? Some people unlike you, are trying to get over some fresh wounds and trust me, those wounds have memories attached to them, especially for Andrea. If I could, I would resign as well. But I can’t right now.”

“Just give him a chance, look, he’s only said three freakin’ words to you woman,” replied Azem, as he turned his attention back on Andrea. “I have business to attend to which is on an adult level. Now, play nice and don’t do stupid stuff like resigning.” Azem shot Sarah and Andrea a nasty look. But when he looked to the doctor, he smiled and assured the doctor that everything was alright. Azem left the conversation without turning back.

“Mike,” muttered Sarah, hitting her partner in the gut. Mike snapped out of his little reality that he was enjoying being in, despite the fact that he didn’t even pay attention to a word that was being said. Mike looked to Sarah innocently. “You should’ve said something.”

“Like what?” asked Mike, confused. “I had no clue what was going on.” Sarah rolled her eyes, in disgust and anger. “What?”

“Don’t worry about it,” answered Sarah, looking back at Andrea and after realising that she had better things to do other than to stand around like sitting ducks ready to be shot by either Gradon or in a rare case that he came back, Azem.

“You’re the new ICU head right?” asked Andrea, looking to the new bloke. He nodded, replying to her question.

“You don’t have to leave because I’ve come,” answered Michael. “Look, just call me Jeezy, like everyone else does.” Andrea shook her head at the fact that Ravyn could be so easily replaced just like that. “What? Seriously, don’t leave.”

“You have no idea of what I will do to you and your stupid fancy Italian suited ***,” warned Andrea, as she realised that she might be the one that could take over Ravyn’s role of being the heinous ***** to the new person, as she had done with Sarah. “Don’t, and I mean don’t, ever cross me. You’ve already upset me by your position as the person that’s replaced my now-departed best friend, don’t do more damage.” Andrea shot him one last nasty look and then walked off.

“Is she always like this?” asked Jeezy to Sarah and Mike, who were both ready to leave the situation. They didn’t answer. Mainly because Sarah realised that Andrea had a very good point and Sarah was going to stick to Andrea’s thesis. Mike didn’t say anything because he was afraid he was going to get in trouble with his partner and didn’t want to damage the relationship. Sarah stood there and shook her head at him. “What? What have I done?” Sarah held Mike’s hand and they walked off together, despite the fact that she was supposed to stick around and wait for Jeezy, for he was her new supervising doctor. Jeezy just stood there bewildered at such childish behaviour. “Jesus. What the **** is wrong with this hospital?”

~

I don't know.... Wtf is wrong with this hospital?



​

 

[Jeezy]

ah...cool...

I'm in there now

gonna be interesting to read what happens

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

Thankies Jeezy

~

“Babe, I’m home,” shouted Rob, as he pulled off his jacket that was covered in snow. He shook all of the snow off and onto the floor. Oh, he thought, as he realised what he just done, with a guilty look upon his face. He shrugged the feeling off himself as he realised that she would kill him for anything that he had done lately. He closed the door, shutting off the cold air supply from getting into a nice warmed up house. He turned around and hung his coat up on the rack where everyone had nicely put their coats. He stopped and looked at the floor. Eek, he thought to himself once again, about the fact that the snow was melting fast and it was turning into water quicker then what he had expected. Again, he shrugged off the feeling, as he realised that there were a couple of packages on a nearby table in the hallway. He looked around to see if anyone was home. “Hello? Anybody home?” No response. “Ah, okay then.” Having to deal with the aftermath of Christmas time at his new work place was a big thing and he had been working harder than he had in his previous job at Sacred Heart. Maybe because being the owner of a café down on the main street, in the heart of America’s capitol city had something to do with the amount of stress he was under. And he had previously was under the impression that being the only janitor that did something around the hospital was a big responsibility, he didn’t know what he was in for when he had moved with Ravyn and her kid to the other side of the country. He walked over to the table that had a couple of packages on it. A few of them were addressed to him and one was addressed to, both him and Ravyn, and it was written in blue inked handwriting. That took him by surprise, as he picked up the normal letters that were being squashed under the brown masking taped packages that he had seen first. The reason why it took him by surprise is because the things that were normally addressed to him and his partner were household bills and they were in the form of letters. He put the mail down and picked up the packaged that was addressed to him and Ravyn. He shook it to see what was inside, it couldn’t be anything worth not shaking because it would have a clear indication across the front of it saying it was fragile and do not break. The rattling that the package produced a sound that sounded like what a DVD would sound like if shaken in its case. Rob frowned and shook it again, and held it close to his ear this time. “Don’t tell me Ma, you sent me another stupid DVD for Christmas that was ah…how many days ago now?” Rob had a tendency to speak to himself more often now because he had just caught Ravyn’s habit when she was doing some work stuff at home, in which, she had to do that a lot, like speaking to her boss during dinnertime and writing up reports on her laptop until ungodly hours of the morning. Rob rolled his eyes, as he assumed his mother couldn’t have sent him another DVD (he had received a whole bunch of them from his mother for Christmas) because she didn’t really like Ravyn, as her future daughter-in-law and vice versa. He walked past the antique staircase that Leo’s toys were planted on random steps and as the steps twisted their way upstairs and walked over to the living room, where he knelt down in front of the huge LCD TV, turned the LG DVD/VCR player on. He ripped open the box, to see a blank back cover on it. He tossed the box aside so it landed half way across the opposite side of them, well, he didn’t mean to throw it that hard but it ended up that way, and flipped over the DVD cover to the front. It read on the front in blue ink,

Dear Mr R & R Bourdon

R.I.P your amazing contribution to Sacred Heart

And what seemed to be someone wrote in black ink, but someone had scribbled the words out; Rob squinted to see what was originally written. It read,

Mike needs a haircut

Rob knew it, from the first time he glanced at the words Sacred Heart that it was something from their friends, in which they hadn’t seen for a good two and a half weeks. He smiled as he opened the case and inserted the DVD in carefully. The door closed for the DVD to enter a number of complex systems to display it on the LCD TV. Rob turned the TV on, grabbed the remote from on top of it, and sat back on the couch, wondering what was he was going to be in for. The DVD made a couple of weird sounds making Rob ponder of he had just broken his DVD player, again. The first time was when he dropped it on the road, after three minutes of walking out in the car park, after purchasing it from the store.

Suddenly, Rob was expecting someone’s face to pop up suddenly on the screen, but he found himself watching three seconds of what seemed to be the major playoffs in the football. Rob frowned, but that was shortly relieved when Mike’s face popped up on the screen. He was outside and the camera was looking down at it.

“Congratulations Harris or Rob or whoever has managed to get this DVD that I was forced to participate in, you have not won a million dollars,” said Mike, as Rob noticed the colour of his hair had turned to bright red, completely. “The only reason why I am appearing at the start of this video is to complain about how Sarah used a already recorded DVD of mine and placed this over it, as you could tell with the kick offs at the starting. *** **** that woman has something against football.”

“Well, it’s your own fault that you got re-writable DVDs,” retorted Sarah, as the camera moved to where Sarah was sitting. It looked like a party or something out the back of her house, because there were balloons everywhere and Ava was sitting on her lap, eating Christmas pudding. “And another thing Brad.” She looked to the camera.

“Yeah, what’s that?” asked Brad, from behind the camera.

“If I find out that you put brandy or some alcoholic drink in the pudding ‘your Mum’ baked us, I am going to kill you, I just wanted to make that clear to you first before you started spiking the punch,” answered Sarah, pointing to what Ava was eating off a plastic plate that would sell for less than ten cents a piece in a cheap store. “Is that thing on?”

“Yeah, why else would Mike be talking to it like a child affected by Down Syndrome?” asked Brad, as the camera turned to Mike to his reaction. Rob let out a small laugh. He was over by another table with a plate full of cake on it, and with is mouth wide open in disgust at Brad’s comment. In the background, Rob could see some few familiar faces, he was just hoping he wouldn’t see Azem for it or he knew Ravyn would hit the roof.

“Excuse me Delson, I am not the one in high school that thought you could dye red blood cells white,” retorted Mike, as he poked his tongue out to the camera. He closed his mouth. “Now everyone has a whiff of how good looking my tongue is.”

“He hasn’t changed at all, if you haven’t noticed Ravyn and Rob,” said Andrea, at the opposite end of the table where Mike stood, with a plate full of hot food in her hands. The camera turned to her, as she got one hand free and waved to the camera with a smile. She smiled as she waved. Rob couldn’t help it, but he waved back to the figure on the TV. “How are you going with that jackass Ravyn?” Andrea laughed. “Nah I’m only kidding you. If you guys haven’t figured it out by now, it’s Christmas Eve, and we’re at our little work party-”

Mike interrupted her, as the camera turned back onto Mike, who didn’t look at the kingdom, but at Andrea just to see what kind of reaction she would get if he kept interrupting her. “…in our fairy kingdom, also know as Sarah’s backyard. We’re hitting up on all the prescription drugs we could find in the supply room and we’re trying to make biological bombs out of iodine we stole from radiology.”

“Can you not interrupt me?” asked Andrea, as the camera swung back to Andrea, who looked at Mike. Mike laughed off-camera. “Can you please put him back on his leash or something Woodlands?”

“Don’t you ******* call me that,” objected Sarah, as the camera moved back to her, still sitting on her chair, with little Ava in her pink attire still sitting on her lap. She had stopped eating but now had pudding all around her face.

Ava turned around so that she didn’t face the camera but her mother.

“Don’t swear,” reminded Ava.

“Sorry, Mummy won’t do it again, I promise,” replied Sarah, looking to her child. “***, look at you child. You can get food anywhere but in your mouth. Mike?” The camera scattered the crowd for Mike and found him trying to hide behind who seemed to be like Tarja, with short blonde hair. Tarja’s new look really made Rob think of who she was for a second or two.

“I found him,” said Brad, as the camera picked up Mike’s eyes looking just beyond Tarja’s waist. The camera looked to Tarja’s expression, which, looked like she was going to hit him soon. “How’s that feeling Tarja? Having Mike near your ***?”

“Kinda the same feeling as being in the same room as you Delson, nauseating,” answered Tarja, bluntly, as she walked away.

“No don’t go, you’re my human sacrifice,” begged Mike, as he chased after Tarja, and as the camera started to follow Mike running after Tarja, then focused back on ordinary people.

“Hello Bradley,” welcomed Meaghen, as the camera walked up to her and Meg in deep conversation. “Hello Harris and Bourdon. I hope you both feel guilty that you guys left us back in that mental asylum.” She smiled at the camera briefly and went back looking in Meg’s way. Mike came up to the camera and grabbed hold of it. The camera was now engulfed with Mike’s face, but Rob could still hear Meaghen’s last comment. “Must you Shinoda?”

“See, everyone loves me, even her,” said Mike, as he stepped back from the camera and showed the camera who he had in his arms, Ava. “She’s almost three and she loves me to death. Why can’t everyone else love me like Ava does to me?”

“You suck!” was the main reaction from everyone, as the camera panned the various faces. Rob caught a couple of glimpses of Joanna, Melissa, Sygy and Diana. But he couldn’t see Azem in sight.

The camera turned its focus back on Mike who had his back turned to the camera, with Ava still in grip. “Come on! Everyone loves me!” As the camera turned to focus Mike on a side on angle.

“Ask the child,” someone from the crowd suggested.

“Yeah Ava knows all,” replied Mike, with a huge grin on his face. He looked to Ava, who the child looked back. “Do you love Mike?”

“No,” answered Ava, who Rob just noticed that the food around her mouth had gone now. “He’s too loud.”

“Owned by a two year old!” came Sarah’s voice, as the camera revealed her huge smile on her face. “****, I want a copy of this just for the sake of Mike getting rejected by a two year old. Let’s put this on the web or something after we finish recording.” The camera turned back to Mike who had put Ava down and hid his face to make her feel bad. She smiled and skipped away. Mike looked up and shook his head. He smiled to the camera and started to talk to Brad.

“I think I should just sit down shut up altogether,” Mike suggested. “Oh one last thing until my mouth becomes extinct for the rest of this DVD. Ravyn, your hugs suck big time. There’s no grip and no emotion behind your hugs. Rob, seriously, get someone who can give decent hugs. Like Sarah. No wait…don’t go near Sarah.” Mike turned around so that he faced someone outside the camera. “Babe. Would you ever dump me for Rob if he dumped Ravyn because she gives **** hugs?”

“Never,” replied Sarah’s voice outside the camera’s view.

Mike turned back to the camera.

“See, you’re stuck with a hugless mean old–”

“Shinoda, this is not a DVD about you and your opinions, it’s for the couple that we miss,” Andrea interrupted, as Mike looked to see where Andrea was. The camera followed Mike’s gaze as he pouted. “Now shut up. And that’s what you get for interrupting me before.”

“I didn’t do jack all,” complained Mike, with the camera still on him.

“I thought you said you were shutting up for good?” asked Andrea.

And just before another word could be spoken, everything went black. ****. Rob thought to himself. The power had gone out entirely. He hated black outs because it meant he had to wait for the guys to come around and do what they did best with powerlines. And waiting for them was a ***** as well. He got up off the couch that was so inclined to sit there to wait for everyone else to come back and make an appearance, so he resorted to opening the rest of the mail up, that didn’t look like a bunch of bills. He retraced his steps to where he was before, not even considering that he should’ve picked up the packaging that he flung halfway across the room when opening the present from everybody back in Chicago. He stopped in front of the table, and picked up the letter that had scribbly blue inked handwriting addressed to him. He tore it open, not giving a **** that he might rip the letter inside. He separated the letter from the enveloped and dropped the envelope on the ground, not thinking about twice what Ravyn’s reaction would be.

If Leo could get away with his toys being scattered everywhere on the staircase, Rob could get away with leaving bits of paper everywhere. He held the letter in his hand and walked over to the staircase. He threw some of Leo’s toys off a step and onto the floor, to make space for him to sit down on the step. He sighed as he sat down and opened the letter.

It read,

Dear Robert,

You may not know who I am, or recognise my handwriting but it has been ages since we last spoke. A couple of months to be exact, if you want to get all **** and technical about the time that we’ve been apart.

I saw you the other day at the café that I heard you now own. That’s a big step isn’t it? Coming from janitor to big notch café owner who doesn’t have to sweep or even have to mop floors anymore. I’m not mocking you, by the way, I’m just, I am all over the place right now and I didn’t know how I should contact you, so I wrote a letter to you.

It sounds weird right, coming from your ex? I don’t know about you, but I feel a bit weird. I didn’t know that you were married, now, I really didn’t. I only saw you with our wife the other day when I tried to say hi to you and you walked off. Is that your son or a son from another one of her marriages, by the way? He looks cute. What is his name? More like for me to ask, what is your wife’s name? She looks pretty, but she’s a bit…short don’t you think? I have to say, you’re taste in women is weird Rob, and this is coming from your ex girlfriend, that’s even more hilarious than it actually sounds.

So, now I am coming to the point of this letter.

I need help Robbie, I really do. Not financially but…you have no idea what I have worked myself into. Webs of lies and tales of deceit, the crime shows put it that way on TV. If only everything was so simple….I am going to be at Macey’s next week on Tuesday around midday. We need to meet up Robbie, we really do. I wouldn’t be coming to you if I didn’t need you to be there by my side.

Love Always

Vanessa

P.S. please don’t tell anyone about me or our meeting, for a lot of reasons I’ll tell you on the day about.

Rob closed the letter and thought to himself for a moment or two about the repercussions of meeting up with Vanessa. He can’t tell anyone, or else what? Does that mean he can still tell Ravyn about not only the letter but everything that Vanessa mentions to him? Rob closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, frowned, and then re-opened them. He stood up and shoved the letter in the front pocket of his pants. He was going to meet her, with or without Ravyn knowing about anything of that nature.

~

once again.



​

 

[Ravynlee]

Read the first update (yesterday?) and loved it... haha. Jeezy... wow... who'd'a'think it? haha

See what damage he can inflict too 'eh?

*insert evil laughter here*

And... haven't read up this latest update yet... will edit this post when done. Just wanted you to know read it. Loved it as always. Running out of things to say though... but still love it. Gives me sth to look forward to after a crummy night at work so much thanks for that.

Will respond to latest update soon... fingers crossed.

Edit: That son of a *****! **** him! Haha... well, I should have known expect something dramatic from you... well done. SOOO didn't see that one coming... and... without getting too **** myself, Azem being Leo's dad wouldn't it be... sorta noticable... I mean, I'm short and pale and Leo's dad is... well you get the idea (Sorry, I've seen the members pics thread on occasion, I had to do my research so to speak, not bad btw, but I digress) - yeah anyway... yeah... but just wanted to ask you that. We know Ava looks like her dad Matt for the most part, just wondered. AND I have to say that vid was awesome! Go Mike! The more you write about him the more I laugh, I mean, it reminds me of the old HT days when he was like a hyperactive kid on red bull... can see the love there Sarah, see the passion when you write, awww... THAT'S Hallmark Haha

And yeah... all in all... was another jaw-drop moment.

Of course I want more! ANd on a side note, wonder where Azem and Jeezy were in that vid, I think I 'saw' everyone else - what devious plots are those two intellectual-degenerates up to I wonder, hmm...

Grand! More dagnammit!

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

Ok here's the next chapter. It's only part of it, **** uni days. I'll post the rest later on tonight.

~

It was a couple of more hours later on when Ravyn awoke from her deep sleep. She had literally just fallen asleep on top of her new comfy bed that made herself look smaller than she actually was. **** this king size bed and **** Rob for not being able to fit in a queen size bed, she thought to herself, as she realised she had better things to do. She rolled over to see that her digital clock was flashing its time. Blackout, again as she groaned and she rolled onto her back. She looked at the ceiling, still wondering what the time was. She looked to her watch on her wrist. It was only five in the afternoon and she had to do nightshift at headquarters and be there at eight. She groaned again at the thought of getting out of bed and preparing dinner for the two boys. She didn’t want to do it. But she persuaded herself to get up and check if anybody was home and if Rob had actually remembered to pick up Leo from kindergarten. She listened closely for any sound or any disturbance in the house that would indicate that someone was home. There was none. She focused more and listened. Again, there was none. She got to her feet and walked barefoot down the stairs, picking up various toys that Leo had left on the steps for her or Rob to trip over and break their neck on. By the end of her journey downstairs, she had picked up a dozen odd pieces of toys. She noticed that someone had been through the mail, due to the fact that there was a ripped envelope on the ground near where she had previously set down all the mail and the various packages. At least Rob had been home in the time frame that she had been asleep, but where was he now? “Rob?” She was still weary after running around since four in the morning after various cases that made her think about what the **** was wrong with society and why couldn’t everyone just get along without killing each other? She sighed as she walked into the living room, to see a huge piece of packaging thrown in the corner and a blank DVD case left in front of the DVD player. She couldn’t have been bothered to walk upstairs and put Leo’s things away, so she stashed them on the couch and she sat down, after concluding Rob was old enough to pick up after himself. “*** **** men are pigs.”

She was thinking aloud. It was a habit she had developed in the time that she had been working for the FBI and a habit that she knew would get her in trouble one day. Her attention was focused on the empty DVD case, left open in front of the DVD player and on the floor. She got off her **** and walked over to it, since she hadn’t seen any of the DVD’s that her and Leo had unpacked from the previous place in Chicago, that looked like this one. She got to her knees and picked it up. The back cover was empty, so she turned it around so that she could see the front cover of it.

Dear Mr R & R Bourdon

R.I.P your amazing contribution to Sacred Heart

It read in blue ink in the centre of the white space. Her eyes were diverted to a scribbled out word that she couldn’t have been bothered trying to figure out what it said. She looked inside, because someone’s obviously been watching it, it was still wide open, and the disc was missing. She was curious to know what the **** the staff at Sacred Heart sent her. She turned the DVD player on with a simple push of a button, as she did with the TV. It made a couple of noises and a message popped up on the screen, asking her if she wanted to continue where it had left off. She pressed play.

“Shh!” the camera focused on what seemed to be Ava, in Mike’s arm, at some sort of function, due to the way that she was dressed. Ava was looking up at Mike and the person behind the camera had deliberately zoomed in to Ava. Ravyn was very curious to know who was watching this before, let alone what it had contained. She couldn’t have been bothered looking for the remote for the sake of Rob leaving it in the bathroom like he did last time they had a total lockdown of the house to search for the remote to the DVD player. She crawled back to the couch and leant against the couch, with her eyes fixed on the screen. “You’re too loud.”

The camera zoomed out to conclude Ravyn’s assumption. It was some kind of party that was being held.

There was laughter from behind the camera. Brad, Ravyn bluntly thought to herself as she concluded that his distinctive laugh could be heard from the opposite side of the world.

“Take Andrea’s advice man, just shut up, a two year old is making a mockery out of you,” advised Brad, from behind the camera, as the camera turned on Mike on the right angle, as before it was a side angle.

Mike looked directly to Brad, so his eyes looked over the camera.

Mike was about to say something when Andrea interrupted him from off the camera.

“Don’t even speak a word Shinoda boy, you’ve had what you needed to say which wasn’t very nice nor was it useful,” Andrea interrupted from off the camera, as Brad swung the camera around to focus on Melissa and Joanna. “That’s good of you for once Brad. Stop giving Shinoda the attention. I swear you’ve got A.D.D. Shinoda, that’s why you crave attention so much.”

“I swear you have herpes or something Andrea,” retorted Mike from off the camera.

“Mike!” exasperated Sarah, from off the camera as well.

“Excuse me, but it is Jo’s turn to say something, stop trying to seek the fame you’ll never get Shinoda,” Brad said, as Jo walked out of the camera’s sight. “Hey Joanna, don’t be mean say something.” Jo stopped walking and turned around, with an unimpressed look on her face.

“Alright here I go,” Jo started facing the camera. She raised her five fingers and touched one finger with another finger from the opposite hand. “Number one thing since I’ve gained since you’re departure Harris, more nurses.” She touched a second finger. “Number two thing I’ve gained since you’re departure Harris, less complaints from my nurses about your department. By the way the new guy is kinda cute now that I think of it.” She touched the third finger. “The third thing I’ve gained since your departure more sleep time. Well, that’s not because of you it’s because of my new stupid retarded schedule, but I thought I should mention it to you.” She touched the fourth finger. “The fourth thing I’ve lost but haven’t gained, or whatever, is our rivalry between our departments. Admit it Harris, you loved taking the **** out of me on a daily basis. It was me or my nurses.” She touched the fifth finger. “And the fifth thing that I have to agree on with Mike with, quite sad to be honest, that yes, you do give **** hugs.”

“Only to people I don’t like,” Ravyn muttered to herself, as she continued to watch the video play out in front of her, as she realised that she had to rewind the video to understand the whole concept of her giving **** hugs. She shrugged as she decided to keep on going with the video as it was.

 

[Ravynlee]

Nice. Naturally. More?

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

continuation

As soon as she retorted that comment back to the characters on the screen that she had previously worked with at Sacred Heart, her cell went off.

“Maybe we should –”

Ravyn reached to the stop button before Brad could continue his sentence. She got up from the floor and walked into the nearby kitchen where her cell filled the room with its **** ring tone. She walked up to the cell that was vibrating madly on the bench top and picked it up. It was her boss, she rolled her eyes and as she answered it.

“Yeah,”

“We need you down here soon as possible,”

“I’m doing graveyard shift,”

“And you’re doing what you’re told,”

“And I did the early bird shift on top of that, give me a break,”

“Do you want to lose your job?”

“No…sir,”

“Then come down to HQ as soon as possible, and unless you can come up with a better excuse not to, I would really like to hear it,”

“I have two boys to feed let alone myself, how’s that for an excuse?”

“Just do it,”

He hung up the phone on her, leaving her with static and eventually, a blank menu screen, that only showed the date and time, and of course, how much reception she picked up. She put the phone in her pocket and sighed. She walked over to where all the keys hung and took her car keys that had the house keys attached to it. She had to go but at the same time she didn’t. She knew if she gave Jukka ****, she could ultimately lose her job, and that was the last thing she wanted to do. She knew that Jukka was only following orders and that he didn’t mean to be so pushy, but it was his job, as part of the team that worked at the FBI’s coroner’s office downtown. No, she did not work in The Pentagon, that was for the intelligence agencies, she was just hated the fact that Rob kept generalising her job and deliberately assumed that she worked there. She had a couple of connections at The Pentagon but hadn’t been there before, everyone came to her. She diverted her journey to finding her shoes that she had stashed upstairs. She ran back upstairs, put them on, and stopped for a moment, randomly. She shook the feeling off that something was already wrong or was about to go wrong. She wasn’t in the mood or in the right state of mind for everything to go wrong for her just now. She walked downstairs and walked over to the rack that everyone hung their coat up on. She stopped in front of the door, to realise that something didn’t feel right. She looked to the ground and realised that part of it was wet. *** ****, she thought to herself as she frowned but decided she had better things to do rather to contemplate about the reasons why the floor had managed to get wet. She went back to concentrating her thoughts to getting out of here before anything else occupied her mind and made her forget about her work. She put her coat on, with her keys still in her pocket, opened the front door, stepped outside into the coldness of December, to only see Rob and Leo walking towards the front door. She stopped on the front step and smiled, as both of the boys approached her.

“How was today for you?” she asked Rob, who gave her a kiss.

“Hectic,” Rob answered. “Where are you going so soon?”

“I got called in to start my shift early,” Ravyn answered unhappily.

“Mummy,” said Leo, as Ravyn’s attention was diverted so soon. “Are you going to be with us for dinner?”

“No I have to work,” answered Ravyn, as she shook her head, as Rob’s facial expression caught her attention. He looked unimpressed by Ravyn’s motives to be Jukka’s workplace ***** that could come on call. “What?”

“Don’t make this a habit, I have a life of my own and I have a business to run, and the last thing I want to do is to baby-sit Leo every night,” answered Rob, shaking his head. “I know it’s a demanding job, just don’t let it get in between your life outside work. That’s one of the things I was worried about and it’s already turning out to be that way.”

“It’s not going to become a trend, I promise,” Ravyn promised Rob, as she gave a farewell kiss and then turned to her son. “You be good. I don’t want to come home and find out that you’ve set the house alight or tormented Rob.”

“I’ll be good,” replied Leo, with a small smile, as Ravyn picked up her son, hugged him, and gave him a small kiss. “Bye Mummy.” She smiled and put him down next to Rob.

She looked back to Rob. “You also be good.”

“I will,” smiled Rob, as Leo and him walked inside, while Ravyn went the opposite way and into her car.

“Jesus Christ, how insane can a human get with their killings?” was the first thing that came out of Ravyn’s mouth once Jukka handed her a manila folder and when she saw what it contained. Something so small and yet, it contained words that in all, made out to be something gory. Ravyn sat one of the desks in the bright room in the autopsy room, that had various cases scattered across the desk which, in all truth, were cases she was trying to work on but every ten or so minutes the other guy who she worked with kept interrupting her. It happened to her every time she was timetabled for the early bird shift.

“I know,” replied Jukka, who was head of this department, also her one of many bosses she had in the building, as he stood against a nearby wall with black jeans and a black singlet that showed the various patterns of the tattoo ink on inked into his skin. “Sick. But I’ve seen worse. Saw this guy once, they had found his remains in a barrel, he was smothered in petrol and set alight, alive.”

“Done the tox?” asked Ravyn, looking away from the gory discoveries in that one piece of paper that she was previously looking at.

“Yep, free of any drugs, clean as a whistle,” answered Jukka. “You’re a quick one, by the way.”

“Thanks,” replied Ravyn. “When did they find this guy?”

“About an hour or two, so that takes TOD back an hour or two, good luck,” answered Jukka, smiling faintly. “I’m out of here now. Been here since nine and I’m buggered.”

“Start doing the graveyard shift and at the same time the early bird,” complained Ravyn, rolling her eyes at Jukka’s complaints, as one of the investigators came in with a number of brown evidence bags with the word ‘evidence’ written across the front of all of them in red. “Great. What’s this?” The investigator’s name was Marco, the only non-bizarre name Ravyn had come across so far. Marco with his long blonde hair, Italian handmade suit and his long goatee that could be made into about two jumpers judging by the length of it; put the bags on the table in front of her.

“I take it you haven’t taken the sheet off the victim and taken a good look at what’s missing?” asked Marco, stopping to chat to Ravyn. Ravyn shook her head.

“I have only just read the first part to this investigation, like where Mr. Molko was found all, pretty horrific,” answered Ravyn, innocently. “Why? Is it something that is going to make me regretting not having something on my stomach before I came to work?”

“A bit of advice,” started Jukka, who was still leant against the wall. “You need food on your stomach when you come to cases like this.”

“Here, I’ll even do the honour of showing you,” said Marco, as Ravyn got to her feet and Marco started walking, but noticed that Ravyn had gotten up from her seat. He stopped and turned around. “No I didn’t say get up. It’s well advised that you sit down.” Ravyn thought that nothing could make her sick, but she guessed again, thinking about what Jukka and Marco have both gone through, as she retraced her steps back to the seat that she had previously been sitting on. “Just, prepare yourself.” Marco walked over to the body that Ravyn hadn’t pulled the sheet off yet, and ripped the white sheet off the body. Ravyn saw a glimpse of what she just saw, cupped her mouth, closed her mouth and turned around so that she didn’t face the body, that now, she realised, why Jukka had just advised her to have something on her stomach in cases like this. The body, death naturally made the body pale, even the lights made everyone pale, but not as much as death did its job. “Death is natural right? But when you’re Mr Molko who’s just had his body cut open and his organs, in fact, I say about seventy percent of them have been removed, and we’ve only recovered about twenty-five percent of them so far. In this case, death didn’t occur natural, right? Well, duh. And guess where they are?” Ravyn opened her eyes, realising what he was talking about when he said that she needed to take a look at the victim to understand what was in those evidence bags that Marco had just carried in. She didn’t turn around to face Marco, as she looked to Jukka still against the wall, but Jukka was looking to Marco ready to say something to him.

“I can tell you just by looking at that body and those cutting patterns; we have no amateur on our hands,” commented Jukka. “Whoever it is, you’ve got a pro on your hands bro.”

“That is sick,” Ravyn managed to say, removing her cupped hands. “And I thought that working in the ICU was bad.”

“No, trust me, you’ll get used to this, you’re a newbie, I wouldn’t expect anything lesser of your reaction Ravyn,” complimented Marco, as he walked to the door. “Well, I’m out for a couple of hours. Anette wants us out on the field, on our hands and knees looking for those missing organs.”

Ravyn had met Anette on several occasions, when she had come in to discuss some less-horrific cases with Ravyn. She was a tall and slender woman, who, like Ravyn herself, had a problem with maintaining her patience and needed an attitude adjustment. It was like looking into one of those warped mirrors that anyone could find down at whatever carnival or circus that was in town. Marco left the scene, as she could hear him yelling out orders at other people that she hadn’t met about *** knows what. She was still looking at Jukka, as he came over and moved the evidence bags from away from her and placed them on another table that was against the back wall.

“Get to know the feeling of death around here, that’s the advice I’ll give you,” advised Jukka, coming back over to her, as he had grown accustomed to gory cases. This was just the sprinkles on the cake for him. He had managed to see the whole layering of the cake a couple of times. He stood in front of her, who, Ravyn was still a bit shaken up and angry about how low humanity had stooped down to. “You’ll be alright.” Jukka left the room without another word to say; leaving Ravyn in the room, with the organ-less stiff dead body that laid a couple of metres away from her.

~

 

[Ravynlee]

I know I told you if you included Brian I'd throw a hissy fit, but you'll have to admit I almost had a laughing fit when I read that, omg! haha awesome! He's a gutted corpse!! Haha - evil I know... wow... I have to say I'm actually surprised how seamlessly you've managed to blend two different worlds into one story, the scrubs-like humor of earlier and now the almost CSI of now... wonder what the ****'s to come - and more importantly WHO the baddy is (sorry Azem, I can't help but look in your direction now, no offense, bad 'past' history see? :lol: OR Jeezy the new guy... I can't help but think maybe if they didn't fly cross-county to do this, they know someone who did, cause I am just a paranoid and suspicious person - and neither were in that Xmas vid, right??) BUT having said all the rest was great as always. Just thinkin of Leo and Rob makes me all gooey inside, heart's like a marshmallow here, awwness...

Anyhoo, loving it... keen to see where you take this! Oh and kudos on Brian too :spiteful::lol::thumbsup: Thanks!!

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

~

It was knock off time for both Sarah and Mike, as the couple walked out of the hospital’s main entrance automatic doors together, with little Ava in Mike’s spare hand. Matt by this stage, had gotten kicked out of Sarah’s place, in fact, if Sarah correctly recalled, he got kicked out because Matt was chucking the ***** with Sarah because of her new relationship with Mike and then tried pinning everything that went wrong between them on both Sarah and Mike. Sarah realised that Mike was a threat to Matt’s attempts to get Sarah back, well, that had happened several times and every single time Matt got rejected badly by Sarah, not only on a physical level but on an emotional level as well. She didn’t know what Matt had been up to, nor Chester, now that she thought of it, as she looked to Ava and Ava reminded Sarah on a consistent basis about Matt and their history together and that for some odd reason, Matt had stopped doing anything for Ava at all, even when Sarah had requested Matt to do the simplest of things for their daughter, like picking her up at day care. Matt had not only broken Sarah’s heart and trust several times during his stay at her place, but instead of paying for Ava’s day care fees like Sarah had specifically instructed him to do one morning, he went out and bought a stack of grog. So in the end result, Ava got her day care days cut off completely and Sarah had to resort to putting her in the day care opposite the road which costed Sarah ten times more than what she originally expected. What was more disturbing now that Sarah thought about it, no phone calls, no contact, from not only Matt ever since his departure from her place, she hadn’t even seen Chester around, despite the fact that he practically got fired from the hospital, or so the board said that he was psychologically unfit to work for such an institute. Some people blamed Joanna for the event, but Sarah blamed Chester himself. For not only the fact that Sarah thought he was faking it the whole way through, but it was Chester, he just wanted what he couldn’t get and in the end, he paid for it. Now, Chester being knocked out by Rob, now that the real story had come out amongst the staff of the hospital, was funnier to Sarah then the trick Joanna pulled out of the hat.

“Mummy, where are we going?” asked Ava, as they all stopped at Mike’s car. Sarah didn’t know, she was out of it after her day at being bullshitted around by Jeezy and his stupid mind games. She turned to Mike to answer that question, as Mike unlocked the car.

“We’re going downtown,” answered Mike. “I’ve got some things to pick up from some stores and if I don’t pick them up, they are going to cancel my placement of the order and give them to other people that don’t deserve the items that I want.”

Ava looked confused, as she turned to Sarah. “Okay?”

“That’s alright honey, I don’t expect you to understand it,” answered Sarah, walking over to Ava’s door. She opened it and Ava climbed in. Sarah shut Ava’s door and opened hers. She sat down as Mike roared the engine. She saw Mike’s face. “What’s wrong?” Mike shook his head, ignoring Sarah’s question and reversed. “Don’t ignore me, thank you. Answer my question.”

“Nothing, I just thought of something I should’ve done before I signed off, but never mind,” answered Mike.

In a matter of time they had arrived downtown after spending ten or so minutes arguing where the best parking spot was. Mike ignored Sarah’s suggestion to park near the shops so neither of them had to carry Ava who had started to fall asleep in the backseat and parked a good ten minutes walk away from the shops on the main street of Chicago. Sarah didn’t like Mike’s ignorance one bit and was about to snap at him. It had become a habit of his lately and a habit that Sarah hated.

Sarah sighed, as she picked up her child that was completely was dead to the world in the backseat and closed Ava’s door, as Mike stood waiting at the bonnet of the car. Sarah walked up to Mike with the child’s head against her shoulder.

“Why are you starting to ignore my suggestions?” asked Sarah.

“I’m not,” answered Mike, as they started walking to the shops. “Stop bugging me about pointless things.”

“I told you specifically that she was asleep and that I didn’t want to carry her the whole way,” objected Sarah, crossly. “Don’t ignore me Michael.”

“Don’t call me Michael,” argued Mike. “My mother does it enough for me not like other people calling me by my full name.”

“Alright, whatever,” Sarah shook the argument not wanting to go and inflict more damage to a perfect relationship that they had going between themselves.

It took the two a couple of minutes to reach the store that Mike wanted to go to and get the items that he had been waiting for a couple of weeks for. Sarah had told Mike that her and Ava were going to go to another store across the road, while he was getting his stuff. She walked across the road and entered the shop that had various bits and pieces in it. Because of the traffic’s loudness and chaos, Ava woke up and wondered where she was.

“Where are we, Mummy?” asked Ava, as she opened her eyes and looked to her mother.

“The shops,” answered Sarah as she entered the shop, with a little bit difficulty. Trying to manage a child in your arms that weighed more than three kilos and trying to open a door wasn’t exactly the easiest task in the world. “You’re walking, wither you like it or not. I can’t hold your weight for much longer.” Sarah put the child to her feet and opened the front door to the shop. She let Ava walk in first, and Sarah followed. Something caught Ava’s eye and she started walking towards it. Sarah caught her arm and held her back. “No. You’re staying in my sight. I don’t want you to wander away.”

“Please,” Ava looked to her mother with innocent eyes. Sarah shook her head in disagreement.

Sarah started to walk down one of the isles when she spotted Tarja and Mel looking at something together. Tarja was the first person to see Sarah and Ava, as the green eyes of hers looked to Sarah, and she waved. Sarah waved back with the free hand. Mel turned around so that she saw what Tarja was looking at and who had just waved to. Mel smiled as Sarah approached them.

“I thought you were on shift still,” said Sarah, as her daughter and herself stopped to talk to the two women. “I got this impression by the fact that your names were still on the roster board. But I guess my eyes have deceived me once again.”

“We both got sick of Jeezy’s, let alone Azem’s bullshit,” replied Mel, as she saw Ava and smiled. “She hasn’t changed since the last time I saw her. When was that? Oh yeah, that was the work’s Christmas party on Eve at your place.”

“Or as Mike put it, fairy land,” muttered Tarja, as she remembered what Mike had called Sarah’s backyard. “Any who, enough about Shinoda, how are you two doing?”

“Fine, getting sick of Mike ignoring me, but other than that, nothing much,” answered Sarah, as Ava was trying to pull her hand away from her mother’s grip. She looked to the child. “No. You’re not going anywhere, you’re staying with me.”

“No,” objected the child, with a frown on her face.

“She’s getting defiant isn’t she?” asked Tarja.

“Very,” answered Sarah, looking back to her work colleague. “I think this is the start of it all though.” She looked back to Ava. “No. You’re staying with me. Why can’t you just behave child?”

“No,” repeated Ava.

“Don’t say no to me young lady,” reprimanded Sarah, as she looked back to Mel and Tarja. “You know how Ava just loves Mike? The only person that she doesn’t say no to is him. I don’t know why. I mean, I am her mother dammit.”

“Oh well,” sighed Mel. “That’s kids for you.”

Ava tugged some more, as Sarah looked back to her.

“Fine, if you want to go, go, just do me a favour come back and don’t give me a heart attack because I can’t find you,” ordered Sarah, letting go of Ava’s hand. It was like a wild dog set loose from its chain. Ava walked away and Sarah saw Mike walk in. “Mike?”

“Yeah,” answered Mike, as he froze in his spot.

“Can you go and keep an eye on Ava please?” asked Sarah. “She’s gone to the toys.”

“Sure thing,” answered Mike, as Sarah rolled her eyes at him and turned back around.

“I could kill that man some days,” Sarah muttered under breath.

“We were about to leave as you came in,” said Tarja. “But hey, more of the reason why we should stay now.”

“Don’t let me make you stay, come on, I’ll walk you to your car,” offered Sarah, as Tarja and Mel nodded in agreement.

“I caught a lift with her,” Mel quietly stated. “And plus, her car ain’t that far away. It’s just parked out the front of this place.”

The trio walked out of the shop, after Sarah yelled out to Mike that she’ll be gone for a couple of seconds and that he should just stay put so Ava wouldn’t run after Sarah and be crushed by oncoming traffic outside, if Ava decided to chase after her mother. It was cold as ever, even colder than what Sarah had come in with and that was only three or so minutes ago.

“**** Chicago’s got some nasty and weird weather,” Sarah made conversation with the pair, as she realised that no one was on the sidewalk for a change and it was getting darker. “Not like Chicago at this time of the year. It’s like the Arctic almost. No one on the sidewalk and even chillier.” They stopped outside Tarja’s silver car that looked twice more expensive than what it was actually worth. Sarah looked down the alleyway that Tarja’s car faced. She could see down the alleyway, at the opposite end of it, she could see backstreet that didn’t look too trustworthy. They heard something move down in it, despite the fact that no one could see anyone or anything done it except trash cans. “Wow. That’s freaky. Did you just hear that?” There was a scream, which made everyone’s head move and everyone looked down the alleyway, from where it came from. “What the ****?”

Tarja pulled herself away from her car to walk down the alleyway, as none of the women was sure what had just happened. There just a random scream out of nowhere. “Hello? Are you alright?” Tarja couldn’t help but to make sounds with the back of her heels as she moved along the worn down footpath. It was like something out of Resident Evil or something. Dark, lanky, and, just plain stingy looking environment that one alleyway was. Her short blonde hair swayed in the cool breeze which was brushing against her face. “Hello? Anybody there? I just heard a scream…” She was halfway down the hallway, when three dark figures came out from behind her.

“Tarja! Behind you!” yelled Sarah and Mel as they both saw the dark hooded figures creep out from behind the trash cans. Tarja turned around, as she was overpowered by the three figures and brought to the ground without another word to be said from her. Sarah and Mel ran to her rescue as two of the three figures turned around, ran up to both of the women, put their hands over their mouths, and dragged them deeper into the dark alleyway. Mel tried to fight her attacker off, but she was quickly overpowered as her attacker brought her to the ground quickly, and quickly made her unconscious.

Sarah wasn’t as lucky as well. She squirmed, she yelled, but her yells were muffled by her attacker’s hand over her mouth. She brought to her ground, as her hands were tied up and she was brought to the same state as her fellow colleague who tried playing hero to Tarja. By the end of the thirty seconds or so that seemed to go quicker than that, the only person that was left in the state of being awake and being able to comprehend anything that had just happened so suddenly was Tarja. Even Tarja didn’t remain that long awake, as she was quickly knocked unconscious.

“Sarah? What’s wrong? I heard you yelling before…” came Mike’s voice, two or minutes later, with Ava in his arms. He looked around to see what had just happened. He recognised Tarja’s car and walked over to it. He looked down into the alleyway as he saw Sarah’s scarf laying on the sidewalk and three hooded figures at the other side of it, which seemed to be, putting Sarah’s body in a white van.

“Sir, you left this behind,” came a shop assistant’s voice as Mike looked to her. Mike had left something inside, and she had followed him outside to give it back to him.

“Hold her,” Mike ordered, as he gave Ava to her in a rush. “I’ll be back.” The white van started its engine. Mike broke into a run. By the time that he had reached the other end of alleyway the van had left his sight. He sped up, as he got to the other end, to see that the white van was ahead of him. “No. No!” He broke into a run again, but gave up a couple of seconds later realising that he couldn’t catch up with the van. He fell to his knees in the middle of the road, and lowered is head, as he realised that something was not right. What had just happened? Where was Sarah and why was her limp body just put into a white van? Who were they and what did they want with his girlfriend? Where were Tarja and Mel that had just walked out with her?

Mike had failed to save the person that he loved.

Mike felt like complete failure.

“Mike, where’s Mummy?” asked Ava, from at the other side of the alleyway, as Mike raised his head and turned his face so that he faced Ava. “Mike, please don’t cry.”

~

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