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softbobamilktae · 2 years

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A Birthday Wish

Pairing: Idol!Taehyung x Model!OC

Genre: angst, fluff

Word Count: 3.1k

Warnings: none

Summary: Tae takes Zelda to her hometown for her birthday, but angst ensues when an old friend of Zelda's stirs the water.

Someone was knocking on the door. Who was knocking on the door? It was eight am. Zelda set down her mug, crossing the living room to open the door. She gasped at the sight of Tae holding a bouquet of flowers out to her.

“I hope I’m not too early,” he muttered, smiling as he glanced down at her pajamas.

She laughed, inviting him inside. “No, I was just on the couch. What are you doing here?”

“Well, I heard a certain someone was going down to her hometown today.”

“Oh? You want to come with me?”

“Maybe,” he grinned.

“You sure you’re ready to meet my grandparents?” she asked as she dug through her cabinets for a vase. She'd climbed up on the counter so she could reach the cabinets.

“Well, I’ll have to meet them at some point, won’t I?”

“That's true,” she replied with a laugh. “Mom talks about you all the time, so I'm sure they know who you are pretty well now.”

“Your mom has met me...what? Twice? She doesn't know me that well.”

Zelda stopped what she was doing and glanced down at him. “My mom owns your album and frequently watches Run BTS and every other video you're in. She knows exactly who you are.”

Tae flushed. “She does?”

“Of course. She needs to know who her daughter is dating,” she giggled. “Oh, she adores you.” She pulled a vase out of the cabinet. “Here we are!” She set it down and swung herself off the counter before filling it with water and putting the bouquet in it. “Let me go get dressed, then we can leave.”

◇◆◇◆◇

The two of them were seated in Tae’s rental car not ten minutes later on their way out of town.

“So, anything I need to know about your family before we get there?” Tae asked.

Zelda hummed as she considered his question. “Not anything I can think of. My family is pretty chill.”

“Who all is going to be there today?”

Zelda counted on her fingers as she listed them off. “My grandparents, my aunt, my baby cousin, and my oldest cousin. One of my uncles may be over today, and Sophie might be in town? We’ll just have to see when we get there.”

“And this is your dad’s family?”

She nodded. “My mom’s parents live up in Michigan.”

Tae smiled. “You excited to see them?”

“Yeah. I haven’t been back since the Christmas before last. My parents wanted to stay at home last year. I’m very excited! I haven’t really seen my baby cousin at all since she was born, either.”

“Well, I’m sure everyone is excited to see you, too. Is there anything you’ve planned to do today?”

“Not really. Grandma is making dinner, and I think that’s about it. We’ll probably play some games together. They’re really big into board games.”

“That sounds like fun.”

◇◆◇◆◇

It wasn’t until nearly noon that they were finally in town. Bloomington was over two hours from Chicago, and traffic had not been kind to them this morning.

“We should stop at Culver’s. Grandma said they already ate lunch.” Zelda glanced out the window. “We need to get off at the next exit here.”

“Are we getting off here just because you don’t trust me to be able to find the house?” Tae teased as he got off the highway.

“What! No…”

“You hesitated!”

“Did not!”

“You did.”

“Nope.”

The two of them were entering the restaurant a few minutes later, hand in hand. They’d decided that the town was small enough and Tae was disguised enough that them being seen together wouldn’t be an issue. He was wearing a beanie and glasses today, along with his jacket. Not how he usually dressed in public.

A policeman approaching them caught Tae’s attention before Zelda saw him. He wasn’t sure what to expect, so he squeezed her hand a bit.

“Zelda? Is that you?”

She glanced up at the policeman and grinned. “Oh my gosh! Jason?”

He nodded. “You remember me?”

“Of course!” She exclaimed before letting go of Tae’s hand to pull Jason into a hug. “You’re a lot taller than you were at thirteen, though,” she laughed.

“Yeah, well, I was still shorter than you then. I’ve been meaning to come see you when you were in town, but I didn’t realize how infrequently you come!”

“Do you still eat dinner with my grandparents on Fridays?”

“Not all the time, but yes. Will you be here this Friday?”

She shook her head. “I’m just here for my birthday. Tae’s gotta head back this evening, anyways,” she grinned as she tugged on Tae’s sleeve.

Jason looked up at Tae then and offered him a smile. “Are you the boyfriend?”

“You could say that, I suppose,” Tae returned his smile as they shook hands. This was going to be awkward.

◇◆◇◆◇

Zelda ended up chatting with Jason for an awfully long time, and Tae couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. It appeared that they had been friends in middle school, but Tae couldn’t help but be a bit nervous. The two of them had never discussed exes, and Zelda and Jason looked…close. She wouldn’t leave him for some guy she hadn’t seen in twelve years, would she?

Tae had ruined his newly manicured nails by the time they were back in the car. He really needed to stop chewing on his thumbnails when he got nervous.

“You wanna drive through town? Or should we take the highway?” Zelda asked as she settled herself in the passenger seat.

“How about we drive through town on our way back,” Tae suggested, trying to keep his voice from sounded pained or irritated.

“That’s probably a good idea. I told Grandma I’d be there an hour ago,” she said with a laugh. “I’m so excited that you get to meet everyone. I’ve never brought a boyfriend from Chicago before.”

“Have you had other boyfriends in Chicago?” he asked, trying a teasing tone with it.

“Not really. I’ve been on a few dates, but nobody serious. Hence why you’re the first.”

“What about in California? Or here?”

She glanced over at him. “Taeee. It doesn’t matter, does it? You’re the only one for me.” She grabbed ahold of his hand, which he’d been resting on the center console.

“Just…wondering.”

She smiled. “Well, for your information, you are my first boyfriend. I wasn’t really a guy magnet much at all until I got into the modeling industry, and even now, I think guys are more interested in the brands I’m wearing than me.”

He squeezed her hand. “Fame and money come with more good than bad sometimes.”

“I think in my case, it came with more good.”

“Why?”

“I got you out of it.”

◇◆◇◆◇

The entire afternoon was spent playing board games at Zelda’s grandparents’ house. Her oldest cousin, Aaron, was there along with her aunt Stephanie and 3-year-old cousin Ivy. It was a little strange to be playing board games with a toddler, but she seemed to be playing a couple of the games even better than the adults were.

Tae felt less and less insecure as the afternoon went on. Zelda didn’t mention Jason at all, and her family treated him as if he’d been a part of the family all along. Even Ivy did, and Zelda’s aunt informed him that she didn’t even tend to like people she knew, let alone strangers. That made Tae feel extra special as the toddler sat in his lap and attempted to take all of his turns for him.

The feeling returned again when Jason showed up for dinner, though. Ivy was squealing and running around Jason when he walked through the door, clearly very glad to see him. Zelda was equally thrilled, giving him another hug.

“You like Grandma’s pot pie, right?” Zelda asked, nudging Jason in the ribs.

“Of course!” He lowered his voice. “Your mom’s is better, though.”

“Don’t say that in this house!” Zelda muttered through her teeth.

Tae decided he’d seen enough. He headed out to the kitchen instead of forcing himself to watch the two of them interact. He’d never seen Zelda close with any other guy before.

Dinner was served about ten minutes later, and Jason sat himself on Zelda’s other side. Tae grabbed ahold of her hand just for good measure. He didn’t like how close the two of them were. But of course, he wasn’t going to tell Zelda this. It seemed unfair to her to ruin her birthday with such a thing, and she’d made it clear that she only thought of Jason as an old friend. He didn’t even know why it was bothering him, really. He talked to girls all the time. Hell, he had exes. If anything, Zelda should’ve been the one who was jealous. And yet here he was.

The rest of the evening wasn’t as enjoyable as it should’ve been for him. Dinner was good. The cupcakes were good. Zelda was thrilled. But Tae was getting restless. He was trying to not let any of it get to him, but it wasn’t really working. He’d admit, Jason was a great guy, but that was part of the reason he was so nervous. If he’d been a jerk, Zelda would have no reason to be attracted to him. But Jason was nice. Very nice. And somehow that made Tae even more uncomfortable.

Zelda was ready to go by the time seven rolled around. She wanted to have time to wander around town before they had to take the long drive back to Chicago. Tae was very glad for this, because he wanted some alone time with her. That was the whole reason he’d taken the day off, after all.

“Hey, what’s on your mind?” Zelda asked as the two of them walked through a little thrift store in the middle of town. It had always been one of her favorite places to go when she was young, apparently.

“Nothing,” Tae responded dismissively, forgetting how that always seemed to sound like a lie.

She tugged on the hem of his shirt. “Tae.”

He glanced down at her.

“You’ve been chewing on your nails. You only do that when you’re nervous.”

How had she noticed? They hadn’t spent that much time together. He shook his head.

“I told you. It’s nothing,” he pinched her nose. “Today is about you.”

She huffed. “Tae, come on. I know something is bothering you. Don’t keep it from me just because it’s my birthday.”

“Zel…”

“Come on. I’m not going to enjoy this evening if I spend it worrying about what you’re thinking.”

He sighed and went back to browsing the shelves. Zelda clearly wasn’t letting this go, though, because she trailed Tae and didn’t bother to glance at the shelves. She grabbed ahold of his hand, and while she didn’t say anything, he knew that this was her way of begging him to tell her.

“Are you close with Jason?” he asked quietly after a few minutes of her following him around.

“Jason? Eh. I suppose I once was. We were best friends in middle school.” She laughed. “I really liked him back then, honestly. I cried a lot when I found out we were moving.” She glanced up at him then, and it dawned on her how Tae had been feeling all afternoon. “Is that what’s bothering you? Tae…” she reached up and squeezed his cheeks between her hands. “Listen, I’m not twelve anymore, and I have an awesome boyfriend now who is everything I could ever ask for. Jason would never replace you, Tae. I don’t think anyone could.”

He hummed quietly in response as tears flooded his eyes. “It’s just…”

“Uncomfortable?”

Tae nodded.

“I know. I understand. You should’ve told me how you were feeling earlier, Tae. I totally understand. Sometimes I see you with girls on the internet, and my chest squeezes. I get nervous. I wonder if any of those girls are better than me, and if you’ll see something in them that you don’t see in me. I can imagine it was even worse to see it right in front of your face.”

He sighed. She offered him a small smile before standing on her tiptoes to kiss him.

“You’re the only one I’ve ever kissed, you know.”

He grinned then. “I am?”

“Yes. I haven’t told you? My first boyfriend, my first kiss.”

“I get to be all your firsts?”

“Of course. Do you feel better now?”

He nodded and grasped her wrists. “I’m sorry. This was not how your birthday was supposed to go.”

“Hey, it’s ok! I’m glad we got this out of the way now. I think it’s easier to get issues like this out of the way in the beginning of a relationship.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah. I think it’s better to be secure in how your significant other feels about you. And, Tae…I love you. I wouldn’t leave you for the world, even if things got hard with your fame.”

“Don’t say that. You can’t be sure. You don’t know how people would react to us, and I don’t want you to feel like you have to stay with me if it becomes too much for you.”

She glanced back and forth between his eyes. “Tae, I’ve never done well with fame. That sounds stupid coming from someone in the modeling industry, but it’s terrifying to be recognized on the street. I’m not…a household name like you are, but it’s already too much for me. I’d be willing to bear it for you, though. No matter how hard it would be, I think you’re worth it.”

“Zel, you don’t know.”

She pressed a kiss to his lips before he could say anything else. “I do know. I’ve never been so sure about anything in my life. Someday, no matter how long we have to wait, I’d like to marry you and have a life together. I want to wake up next to you in the morning, I want to cuddle you as I fall asleep. I want to have kids together. I’ve had all sorts of dreams since I was old enough to understand what romance is, but you’re the only person I’ve wanted to share those dreams with.”

Tae giggled. “Are you proposing to me?”

She shrugged. “I could be. Would you say yes if I were?”

“I would,” he nodded.

She grinned. “Good.”

◇◆◇◆◇

The hour they’d had to walk around town was gone in the blink of an eye. Despite already having eaten cake (cupcakes, that is) Tae decided the day wouldn’t be complete without buying Zelda a cake. The only bad thing about this decision was that the only bakeries still open were inside grocery stores, so their cakes weren’t likely to be amazing, but it was still a cake. Tae bought candles too, because a birthday cake wasn’t complete without candles.

“You are the only person I would trust enough to light candles in a rental car,” Zelda laughed as Tae lit the two candles they’d picked out. Together they read ‘24’, and they were two different colors.

Once the candles were lit, he turned to her. “Ok, birthday girl. Make a wish.”

She stared at the cake for a few seconds. Then she glanced at him. She blew out the candles a few seconds later.

“Wanna know what I wished for?”

“Nope!” Tae pulled the candles out of the cake and licked them off. He cringed. “Whew, that’s some sweet frosting!”

Zelda pried open the box of plastic forks they’d bought and pulled one out. “I’ll see for myself.” She took a bite of the cake and chewed it for a few seconds before considering it. “Yeah. It’s a bit sweet. It’s good, though.” She glanced over at him. “I think this is my best birthday yet.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve never had so much fun. Usually I work on my birthday, and that’s never fun. When I was younger, it was school that I was busy with. Today was just free and fun. And I got to spend it with you.” She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the cake. “I’ll remember this forever.”

◇◆◇◆◇

It was after ten when they arrived in Chicago that night. They’d turned the radio on to help keep them awake, and a loud rap song was booming through the car as they reached the edge of town.

“I can’t believe there’s so much construction here,” Zelda sighed as she stared out the window. “As if the traffic isn’t already bad enough.”

They were slowly rolling along, barely going half the speed limit now. Then, the person in front of them hit the brakes. Tae realized just in time, and he slammed on his breaks to keep the car from hitting the one in front of them. The only problem was…the cake was all over the windshield now.

“Oh…my gosh. Do we have napkins?” Zelda asked as she peeled the cake off the dashboard and windshield.

“I don’t think so,” Tae grimaced.

Zelda pulled a wad of tissues out of her purse and used them to wipe the windshield off as best as she could. The dashboard wasn’t as big of a deal, but Tae needed to be able to see out of the windshield.

They pulled into her apartment’s parking garage twenty minutes later, cake mostly cleaned up.

“See? My birthday is even more memorable now,” Zelda laughed.

“We’re gonna have to clean off the rest of that. Do you have something we can use?”

She waved her hand. “That can wait a few minutes. I got most of it off. Let’s eat this cake.”

The two of them dug into the remaining cake. They’d eaten about a third of it already, considering it was small, and quite a bit of the frosting had been lost to the windshield, but there was still plenty of cake to be eaten.

“Promise you won’t tell anyone this happened,” Tae said with a chuckle as they reached the end of the cake. “It would ruin my reputation.”

“Tae, you could go to jail and your reputation wouldn’t be ruined, I’m sure.”

“Promise it!”

She smiled. “I won’t tell anyone…maybe.”

“Zelllll.”

This is part of the Dad!BTS series that can be found here

A/N: I'M BACK!!! My broken computer finally returned (fixed, this time, instead of still half broken) so I could get the beginning of this fic and put the whole thing together finally!!!! This will (hopefully) be the beginning of longer, more in-depth, and angstier fics with the couples (don't count on that but it's what I'm hoping) so stay tuned!

It would be greatly appreciated if you reblogged the story if you liked it!

Taglist: @jiminie-and-his-pinky-finger @jinnie-forthe-winnie @fly-you-dam-fools @aianloveseven @thornedswan @kookstempo @lvoekook

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writingcold · 2 years

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Sweet Rayne, Pt. 1

Okay, this is my first fanfic. I write stories for my own pleasure, but this hit my brain and took over EVERYTHING. I thought, after all the lovely, lovely, smutty stories that I've been reading about GVF, this needed to be shared. So, this is a sweet little story featuring a soft, romantic Jake and original female character. That said, I have no idea what this man is actually like, nor any of the men from GVF. Rayne is my creation - perhaps what I wish I could be, I don't know. This is set forward a bit - so an older Jake. There will be eventual smut, I can't get away from that piece of this story. It will be mostly in the second part of the story. Otherwise, it's mostly just fluff, a fairy sprinkle of angst thrown in. Oh! And I need to preface this with the fact that there is no Chicago Breaker's Fest (although, I think it would make for a fabulous summer music festival), and later on, band names and singer names are not real, but the song titles are. :)

Content warnings for pt. 1: language, smoking, drinking... if you needed the heads up on that stuff.

Jake had agreed to the music education initiative that had been proposed to him in the year prior. He had loved visiting the different schools around Michigan. He enjoyed talking to the kids as they seem to nearly combust with questions and excitement to be doing something other than their typical day. The tiny rural schools were probably his favorite as he had more hands-on time with the kids, showing them different pieces of his equipment, and getting some playing time with them directly. The larger schools were fine, it was more example and video, as the audiences were triple, if not quadruple of the small schools.

The day’s school found him in a town with not quite four hundred students in grades K-1: the Winslow School in Winslow, Michigan, population 1294. When he was driving in, he noticed that there were three bars, one gas station, small grocery, a diner, and a service station that made up the downtown. The B&B that had been booked for him was on the west side of the village, nestled in the woods, right on the water, or at least that was what was promised. When he had driven past, he had no idea what water they were talking about as none was in sight.

The school was at the one end of the village, anchoring the few businesses that existed. Aside from the diner that only served breakfast and lunch, the bars offered only bar food, and of course, the establishment he was rooming in for the night only offered breakfast, there was no other restaurant for ten miles in the neighboring town. Sighing that bar food could be worse, he decided to race out of the village at first light in hopes of making it back to Frankenmuth well before lunch the next day.

Winslow School looked just like many of the schools in the area - large rectangles covered in dark red brick, with scallops and old touches that crowned the top of the buildings so as not to look too institutional. Parking his rental car, he saw that the van with all the equipment was already parked in what seemed to be the auditorium, the back doors open. Mark and Will were unloading his amps and the other musicians’ equipment. Aside from himself, Toni, the cellist, and Paul, the symphony director, were from Grand Rapids. A few of the students from the U M marching band were still tucked in the back of the van, seemingly asleep. He saw Luna Lu, a folk singer that was over from Detroit, standing outside of the main doors. If Danny were with him, he would be able to talk with Luna for days on end. The thought of his friend made him smile. The hiatus was wearing thin on Jake. Sam had started a family. Danny was honeymooning somewhere. Josh was working on his film. They had promised two years. They were sitting at the eighteen months mark and they had yet to really talk about how to bring the band back.

“Hey, rock god,” Luna poked as he walked up, guitar cases in hand.

“Hi, Luna. Lovely day in another lovely town,” he said, moving to her side.

“I didn’t think you could get smaller than Maron,” she snorted.

“Yeah, welcome to Winslow,” he said, smiling as the college kids were finally roused from Will slamming the van door. “Why don’t they let those kids come in a separate van?”

“I’m thinking the higher ups feel we’d be a bad influence. I bet they could teach us a thing or two,” the singer jested, bumping his shoulder with hers. “You staying in town tonight?”

Jake nodded, though he was debating that choice as the thought of bar food touched his brain once more. “You?”

“Nah,” she answered. “I booked a charter from their little airport a couple of towns over. Gotta gig tomorrow night.”

“I plan on driving out to see my folks tomorrow, so,” he nodded, hearing the familiar knocks and mics as the two men were setting up inside. “I’m hoping to check out the wild nightlife. Maybe do a little bar hopping, so if you change your mind…”

They laughed. He tapped her arm before turning to enter the small auditorium to see what their next gig would bring. Will and Mark were not just drivers, they were a few of the top audio engineers in the state, who had their own piece of the puzzle that was their show for the students. Some kids thought that they were the actual stars, garnering more questions than the classically trained musicians in the smaller schools. The two men had pieced together something akin to a clean comedy show whenever they were on the stage.

Through the main doors, he noticed the typical long hall that went beyond the auditorium and pushed into what seemed the backside of the school building. A small sign that read “Shared School/Public Library” with an arrow pointing down the cavernous hall was mounted next to the auditorium doors. Below it was a handwritten sign saying that the library was closed for the day due to a massively cool assembly in the auditorium with a huge smiley face. Jake found himself smiling at the little sign as he walked in behind Luna.

“Oooo, we’re ‘massively cool’,” she cooed as she pressed on down the aisle.

“Maybe it means only me, since you know,” he teased.

She cackled at the slight. The auditorium was not unlike other schools, but this one seemed a bit more careworn and neglected. The school bell chimed for the start of their day. He knew that they had not quite an hour before the room would start filling up with students. Will was already finished with his amps that were stage left. Mark was working on the soundboards. He waved Jake up to the stage to start his sound check. It was not what it was like in L.A., Nashville, or Mexico City, but it was something to hear his sound filling the room all on its own, reverberating through his chest and back out to the space beyond. It made him smile every time.

The others ran through their paces as he sat quietly with Luna, practicing their snippet together while they waited. There were no rooms behind the stage to hide in, so all of the musicians would have to stand on the side of the room while the kids filed in, dutifully taking their seats. There were a few of the older high school students who called out to him who must’ve known the band. He waved with a smile, trying not to show how dorky he felt, like he was sporting the dad wave thing. The school principal introduced herself as she stood with them, shaking their hands in turn, before taking to the stage to quiet the room down. She skillfully negotiated the rules and expectations, not unlike other schools. Jake smiled as he knew he would have been one of those obnoxious kids who could not and would not, remain in a room as long as they were expected to, and do it quietly and respectfully. The principal then waved the entire group on stage, and he followed, being last in the long line. He stood under the hot lights, hands behind his back, eyes cast down as the woman introduced each one of them. Luna seemed to turn on her high beams at him when the whole back of the room erupted when he was introduced. He waved with both hands, laughing as they cheered. She snarked her “rock god” bit as he continued to wave.

The room finally grew quiet, and Jake led the troop off stage to take reserved seats in the front row as the ‘sound guys’ were left to start their bit. Jake did not take his seat, opting to sneak out the back for a break. He knew he would have about fifty seven minutes before he would be needed again. Nothing wrong with sneaking back outside for a respite. He made a stop in the men’s room before planning to hide in his car for a bit and have smoke. He could hear his mother scolding him for smoking in the school parking lot. Perhaps he would put on the classic song while he did so just to spite her. Respectfully, of course.

When Jake walked back into the hall, the sound of a blues guitar intrigued his ears. It was coming from further down the hallway, towards the closed library. He glanced at his phone. He had forty minutes. It was only a minute’s debate before his feet carried him further into the school. Sure enough, the music was blaring out the door of what was marked “Winslow Shared School & Public Library”. He looked through the windows, finding no sign of life. He tried the door, pushing it open quietly, allowing a sweep of the music to wash over him. The sound of a power drill squealed over the slide of the guitar, breaking the spell. Just as he was about to turn and find his way back to the auditorium, there was a sharp crack followed by a crash that made him freeze with his hand on the door.

“Are you kidding me!”

The voice made him turn as if he were caught in the closed library and needed to explain himself. Instead, he still did not see anyone. He took a deep breath and decided to just make sure whoever it was in the room was not in trouble. He wound his way back through bookcases and displays. Another crash made him move faster as he finally found the back of the room and the source of the situation.

“Are you okay?” he asked, taking in a bookcase that had looked more blown apart than fallen apart.

A set of the greenest eyes he had ever seen met his own in a shocked surprise. The woman was on her knees, remnants of a bookcase around her, dust in her light brown hair, looking a cross between surprised and furious. She blinked a few times as he reached down to move a few of the larger pieces out of the way so that she could stand up.

She took his offered hand, and he was quick to notice this was not a soft, manicured hand, but a hand that was strong and no stranger to work. Helping her to her feet, he found that she was nearly level with his height, the better to look into those eyes, he supposed.

“I’m sorry,” she said, brushing at the front of her long, multicolored sundress. “I didn’t hear anyone come in. Oh…”

He smiled as she brushed past him, turning down the music as she moved. He peeked at his own phone to see that he had exactly thirty three minutes before he would be needed back in the auditorium.

“They’ve already started next door,” she said, as she moved around the counter of the main desk. She was turning off the computer, cutting off the sound completely. She stopped in her tracks, looking at him in a flustered state. “You’re that guitarist.”

Jake nodded, flashing his best smile. “I am.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in the auditorium?” she asked, rifling through books and papers that cluttered the desk until she found a set of keys.

“Yes,” he answered, moving closer to the desk. “I have thirty minutes before my piece.”

“Oh,” she said, turning and nearly running into what appeared to be a very small office on the back of the main desk. “I was supposed to be there for the start of this thing. I just got busy and …”

She kept talking, but her voice got lost in the distance. She was a ball of energy in whatever it was that she was doing, while he stood taking in the library. It was a classic school library with a learning space, and tons of older, worn looking bookcases that were neatly kept. He noticed that there was a mural in progress that lined the coffered ceiling that once finished would make the space fantastic. A display on the far wall was made up of paper flowers that looked like book covers were used to create the petals. Every inch of kid space seemed to feature loved books and authors and characters. The older kid side had a much cooler vibe, featuring more stark lines and contemporary displays that would catch the eye. Unlike a school library, there was an adult section that spanned the far back that was full of contemporary displays with a wall of computers that separated the school and public spaces.

“You’re still here?” she asked as she froze behind the big desk again.

“Yup,” he said with a smile. “I thought it would be rude to just walk out while you were talking.”

“Oh,” she said again, rattling the keys in her hand. “Let’s get you back next door.”

He followed her out of the library and into the hall. She started walking briskly before stopping dead in her tracks again. She held up a finger as she rushed back to lock the door. Jake watched as she walked towards him, noticing that her hair fell well below the middle of her back, swinging softly against her classic hourglass frame in a thick braid. She was pretty in a way that was not forced or amplified with makeup. He was amused by how she just flitted around, much like a hummingbird, but with twice the energy.

They slipped inside and Jake noted that the two band kids were playing their butts off in their full regalia, much to the delight of the younger students. There were several loud whispers from the back that caught his attention.

“Ms. Thomas!” followed by “Whoa - Ms. Thomas came in with Jake!” She waved at students to shut it with a mock hard look that looked about as scary as a baby kitten. He followed her to the side of the room before she turned towards him to usher him back to the front of the house to his seat like he was one of those kids. He pressed his lips together as he tried not to laugh, returning to his seat next to Luna.

“Oooo, the rock god found the hottie teacher,” Luna whispered, craning her neck to look behind her. “You know, there are tons of songs about that.”

He rolled his eyes as he slouched down to peek once more at his phone. Twenty two minutes before he was to do his piece of the performance. There were also no texts from any of the brothers. He rolled his bottom lip between his teeth before pocketing the phone and settling in. His mind rolled back to the music that was blaring in the library. He smiled. His thoughts were definitely with the lady who was standing behind him.

***

Rayne was so totally flustered that her brain felt like it was traveling at warp speed while her hands would only move at a snail’s pace. She was shoving the drill against the platting on the bookcase, muttering under her breath that this had better work. She could hear cracking, but Mike had said to expect that while securing the brackets. When the cracking turned into all out popping and crashing, she panicked just as the whole end of the bookcase split apart falling around her mostly.

“Are you kidding?” she ground out, wanting to throw the expensive drill at the mess.

If Mike had just done this when he promised to, the entire case would not need to be replaced. Knocking the board that was leaning against her side a bit harder than she meant to, it fell back into the case, smashing the rest to the ground. She glared at the chaos feeling like the only way she was going to feel better was to punch the maintenance man right in the face.

“Are you okay?”

The voice that came from above was a mixture of smooth and rasp that scratched her brain in a very kind manner. Looking up into a pair of warm brown eyes, she imagined that her jaw dropped, though it most certainly had not. It was then she realized that the music she had been playing was certainly way too loud, and the man in front of her was probably the most handsome she had ever seen.

Her warp speed brain kicked back in and she felt herself totally rambling to the very handsome man, who she remembered was a guitar player and his band was from north of Detroit and they were really, really good. But she could not stop her body from lurching forward like a maniac, trying to find her keys and then disappearing into her office to find whatever it was that she needed from the office before finally deciding that she was just hiding anyways and needed to get to the auditorium for the show that she had a hand in bringing to the school. When she returned from her office, she expected to find that the very handsome man had indeed returned to the stage where he belonged, not still standing in her very chaotic library, that was a complete mess, just like her brain was at that moment in time.

“You’re still here?” She could have kicked herself for sounding so stupid.

“Yup,” he said, smiling that ridiculously high wattage smile that just made it even harder to think. “I thought it would be rude to just walk out while you were talking.”

“Oh.”

Rayne decided that she was going to go down in this man’s journal as a complete dumbass. She shifted into school mode, brought out her best Mrs. Poole, and shooed him out of the hall as if he were one of her high schoolers. Sneaking into the auditorium, she felt as if every eye of the back row was on her.

“Whoa - Ms. Thomas came in with Jake!”

The sharp whisper made her whip her head around to whomever it was that dared. Jake. Yeah - that was his name. The guitarist. The very handsome guitarist. Putting on her hard face, she heard the snickers, but moved on when they quieted down. She could see Marcy’s pinched face turn to her as Rayne allowed Jake to move ahead of her. She was going to have to explain her tardiness - not one of her best traits. Time seemed to stop whenever she was working in her space. She had even set three alarms to keep her on track that morning. Somehow, all three had been silenced. Taking her place next to the principal, she tried to play it cool, not letting the stink eye that her boss was giving her affect her. Instead, she let her eye trace from the stage to the front row where he was sitting with… A little flutter passed over her as she realized that indeed Luna Lu was sitting next to the handsome guitar guy. She had seen the singer at different festivals over the years and loved her work. The gleam in the woman’s eyes made her smile all the wider as Jake glanced back at her before slouching down in his seat.

Rayne watched the stage, unable to truly hide her excitement for the kids in the auditorium. This initiative was so huge. They were receiving money to expand, and more importantly, keep their music program that had suffered cutbacks and in the last two years, had debate over cutting all together. The house lights came up and the musicians on the stage waved, announcing a break so the little ones could move and visit the restrooms. The middle and high school teachers moved into action to keep the older students in place, only allowing them to stand and stretch.

“I can’t believe you were late to your own event,” Marcy remarked, her smile locked into place, but a trace of irritation in her eyes. “What was it this time?”

“I was trying to fix the bookcase that was broken,” Rayne said, waving at the littles as they marched by, even allowing for a few hugs that were tossed in for good measure.

“I thought Mike had that taken care of,” the principal said, high-fiving one of the first graders.

“He’s been a little busy, so I thought I would give it a try,” she said, amping up her excitement as the lines moved into second graders. “I made it worse.”

“Your impatience is showing,” her boss said tightly.

“That may be, but there’s only two weeks until summer’s here, and just because your school mostly shuts down, I don’t. It needed to be fixed. Your only maintenance guy has a laundry list of things to do that just gets longer, and at that pace, it’d be Christmas before he got the time to actually fix it.”

Her boss glared at her. “And now it probably needs to be replaced.”

Marcy moved away from the wall to make herself more visible to the older students who were starting to whine over how long the littles were taking in the bathrooms. Closing her eyes, she breathed in, attempting to slow her brain back down. Marcy was a good principal and a good boss. She knew that budgets were tight. This time of year was always harder. Banking on summer school numbers to bring in money to supplement where their state budget was light. It was a huge headache. Rayne knew that Marcy’s stress was not due to her antics alone.

“Hey,” the smooth/rasp of the guitarist's voice pierced her ears again.

Opening her eyes, she felt like she was thrust against the wall by those warm brown eyes. “Hey,” she responded, again feeling stupid for her lack of verbage.

“I didn’t get to introduce myself,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’m Jake.”

“Oh,” she said, sliding her hand into his. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Rayne.”

His brows knitted slightly. “Rayne, it’s very nice to meet you, too. Are you a teacher here?”

“Teacher? No,” she answered, as he was forced to step closer to her as the littles were being marched back to their seats. “I’m the librarian. Oh, and curriculum director. Failed amateur carpenter, too.”

She nearly smacked her forehead at her own dumbness. The million watt smile was back though and she somehow forgot to scold herself. He was pushed closer still as a kindergartener rushed at her to hug her, knocking into him. The surprise in his face was precious.

“Hey, Marni,” she said, excitedly, rubbing the little girl on the back. “You’ve got to get back with your group, honey. Show’s about to get started again.”

“Bye, Ms. Thomas!” the girl said excitedly, practically running over Jake to get back to her seat.

“Sorry about that,” she said, suddenly shy from his closeness.

“No, no, that’s great. They really love you, don’t they,” he said looking down at all the hands that were waving at her.

Rayne smiled and waved at the parade of little kids. Jake turned and stood against the wall, their shoulders bumping every time she moved. He smelled like mahogany and traces of tobacco and vanilla all rolled into one package. Her smile grew wider when he leaned closer to her.

“I’m looking for someplace other than a bar to eat,” he said, his breath close to her ear. “You wouldn’t know someplace?”

Rayne debated for a moment. “So you’re staying tonight?”

“Yeah, I’ll leave for home in the morning,” he said, looking back at Luna who was waving at him.

“Oh, I figured that you’d sprint out of here with the rest of them back to civilization,” she teased, nodding at the rest of the musicians. “There’s a place out on Backline Road that has good fish fry.”

“Sounds all right. Since I don’t know where this Backline Road is, would you like to go with me for dinner?” he asked, beaming that smile at her again.

Her eyebrows flew up to somewhere near her hairline. Her eyes darted back and forth thinking the scenario through. “I…” Her shoulders slumped a bit. “I’m not closing the library until 7:00 tonight. Is that too late?”

He shook his head as Luna called out to him. “No, not at all.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “You’re at the B&B?”

“Yeah, I can come-”

“I’ll pick you up there at 7:30 then,” she blurted out, as he started walking backwards, eyes still on her as he drew himself back to the stage.

He waved in acknowledgement, making her heart pound like it was going to jump into her throat and out her mouth. Marcy returned to the spot where Jake had been standing. All Rayne could see was that very handsome man that had just asked her to dinner.

***

Jake took to the stage, sitting at Luna’s side. He turned as Will handed him the acoustic. Settling in, he smiled as the singer beamed at him.

“Rock god and hottie teacher going to dinner?” she asked, as Mark was handing her the mic.

He licked at his lips and nodded as he plucked out a few chords to warm up a bit. “Librarian, actually.”

“Leave it to you to find the smartest one in the room,” the singer beamed at him.

He was quick to work with Will to make adjustments while Luna talked with the students. She was explaining that she was a folk singer, and what folk music was to her, as well as the instruments that could be expected to be heard while listening to folk music. He continued to pick at the strings, tuning and adjusting.

“I hope that it’s okay with all of you that my friend here plays with me, yeah?” she asked the crowd who clapped and a few fans of his band whooped.

Luna hummed as he started to play one of her songs that they performed well together. There was a loud call out to the side, and he looked to see that it was the librarian who had her hands up in the air.

Luna had tucked the mic down low with a demon smile plastered on her face. “Ooo, hottie librarian is a fan of mine. Maybe I will stay.”

He playfully glared as she started to sing. He softly sang along, allowing her to take her time in the spotlight. When they shifted into children’s music that the youngest students would know, she encouraged them to sing along. It was always their part of the show that they enjoyed being involved. Typically, the music teacher, if there was one, would have practiced these songs with the students ahead of time. It was obvious that it was the case in this school, as every kid was able to sing and play along.

When it was Jake’s turn, he continued to hold onto the acoustic, strumming along as he spoke into the standing mic. He explained that he started learning guitar at age three. Without fail, there was always that one kindergarten student who had to yell out “you were smaller than me?”, much to his chagrin. He talked about having passion to learn each mystery of what the guitar had for him as he grew up. He switched out the acoustic to the Les Paul, and the whole back of the auditorium exploded in cheers. He strummed and did a final tune before grinning at Rayne. He began to pluck out the bluesy riff that was playing when he entered the library. Her eyes lit up, making her pretty face all the brighter. The principal leaned in her direction and had said something that made Rayne dim down a bit.

He talked about listening to blues, and how that took him to a path of discovery of rock n’ roll. He played a few riffs of different songs from the four albums, each one bringing cheers. The last one, he was joined, in rather dramatic fashion, by all of the other musicians who added their own flair to his work. He always appreciated the rounded out sound that they had together.

“All of us up here on this stage,” he started, then jerked his thumb behind him, “including Mark and Will, all got our start through our own curiosity, creativity, and some really good music teachers along the way. I know for me, music is a universal language of shared celebration that doesn’t require us to have shared words, culture, or even politics. It’s just a shared joy that brings me to any stage, including this one.”

They continued to play the song out, all of them smiling and just taking a moment to enjoy playing the music. The others dropped off, allowing him to play the final few chords, to which he did with flair and a smile. He missed the stage. He missed his band.

***

“Oh baby girl, you are in trouble,” Mae called out from behind the desk.

“I know!” Rayne exclaimed as she was trying to pick up the shattered pieces of the bookcase. “Marcy has let me know I’m in trouble. I don’t need to hear it from you.”

“Uh, not what I meant,” she said over the noise. “Come look at this.”

“If you are looking at the circs for the month, don’t bother,” Rayne remarked, dusting herself off before dragging the large garbage can towards the desk. “You know May always sucks.”

“Wrong again there, sunshine,” the assistant said with a sardonic smile.

Rayne huffed as she set the huge can out in the hall before turning to see what Mae was looking at behind the desk. Rounding the long end of the counter, she stopped as her eyes landed on both screens of the circulation computer. There, in HD, two pictures of Jake while on stage.

“Whoa,” she blurted. “What the hell are you looking at?”

“Research, for you my girl,” she said, barking out a smile. “These are from eight years ago. Bottlerock, ‘22. I’d say the man is aging quite well.”

“Mae! I can’t believe-”

“Oh no, these aren’t the last ones. Look! He’s so pretty!”

She watched in stunned silence as her assistant moved through different pictures from when the band was younger to current, each picture was the very handsome guitar player in varying states of concert wear, interviews, and candids. A few were close to the t-shirt and jeans man she had met earlier, but most were just… whoa.

“I don’t know what you got yourself into, girlie, but wow,” Mae laughed with a shake of her head. “Twenty seven years of library services and never once has a man like that entered my collection.”

“To be fair, you’ve only been here, so, there’s that,” Rayne jabbed back, leaning against the desk.

“But he walked in here! Oh to be so lucky,” she said, narrowing her eyes at her boss. “You’re not wearing that are you?”

“Well, yeah,” she said, standing up straight. “I mean, I was going to pick him up right after I closed down here.”

“Uh, no,” Mae said, practically jumping from her chair and going into her office. When she returned, she was carrying Rayne’s purse and keys. “Get out of here. I’ll take care of this dead zone of activity.”

“No, Mae,” Rayne protested as the woman practically shoved her things into her hands. “I can’t do that to you. Billy’s expecting you home.”

“Eh, the old man can wait a bit for his supper. I want you to have a good time with that guy,” she said, pointing at the screen.

“But that’s not the guy I’m having dinner with. That’s his stage persona.”

“Yeah, whatever it is, just go have fun, girl. I think it’s been a year since I’ve been able to do this for you. Just go!”

Reluctantly, she glanced at the clock. It was 5:45. Mae usually left at six. If she really didn’t want Rayne to leave, she would have said so. Nodding, she calculated that she could be home by 6, feed her fur babies, shower (because she was sure there were wood chips in her hair), and be back to town by that 7:30 mark she said she would pick him up.

***

He could hear laughter downstairs as he walked out of his room. Jake locked the door, turned and made his way towards the fun. The owner was behind the desk at the bottom of the stairs. Her warm laugh filled the space and it was hard not to smile. However, he discovered that Rayne, with her back to him, was the source of that laughter. He paused, checking his phone and seeing that he wasn’t late, rather she was early. And she was wearing a different sundress - this one a dark purple that landed just above her knee. And her hair was no longer in a braid, but pulled back, so that it fell loosely against her back.

“Oh, here he is,” Mrs. Gentry said, her face glowing. “I guess you found yourself a nice tour guide for the evening.”

Rayne turned to look at him, and he found himself sucking in a breath at the sight of her ultra light touches of makeup that brought out her eyes even more, but her mouth… Her smile made his mind explode with a joy that he had not felt in some time. He was glad he landed on the last step instead of tripping at the sight of her.

“Hi there,” she said, light all in her face. “You ready?”

“Sure,” he answered, unsure of what to do, so, with hands in pockets, he rocked back on his heels. “Is there a curfew I should know about, Mrs. Gentry?”

“Nope, I’ll leave the door open for you, sir,” she said with a nod.

“Goodnight Gertie,” Rayne said, reaching across the desk and touching the woman’s hand.

“Night Rayne. Have fun you two,” she said as they walked out.

Jake walked a few steps behind her, keys in hand, but noticed that she walked straight towards a small SUV that was parked next to his rental. He stopped when she did as she must’ve realized that he was confused.

“I’ll drive since you don’t know where Backline Road is,” she said with a grin, before she ducked into the vehicle.

He rounded to the passenger side and got in. She squeaked as she started the engine and some power ballad blared his ear off. She slammed her hand against the stereo button to cut the sound.

“Sorry, sorry!” she squealed, her cheeks flashing a soft pink. “I was at risk for being late and I just put on whatever awful radio station I could to make me drive faster. Sorry.”

He laughed, knowing that he had done the same thing at times. She played with her phone for a moment and the power ballad was replaced with some instrumental jazz that he vaguely knew, something that Sam would debate endlessly about. She pulled out of the small parking lot and moved out onto the main drag that was already packed with cars of visitors to the bars.

“How far out is this place? I didn’t find it in my search,” Jake asked, watching as they moved past houses, and into the country.

“Oh, it’s back in the woods, between Winslow and Karpe,” she answered. “It’s only about fifteen minutes. And, yeah, it’s a bar, but at least they have a full kitchen. Janie offers a good menu.”

“Friend?” he asked, eyes trained on the thick woods that flew past his window.

“Yup. She’s the best. She was my first friend when I got into town,” Rayne explained, as she took a turn onto a road that was one of those ones that photographers love for their treeline and winding curves.

“You’re not from here?” he asked, looking at her.

“No. Don’t hold it against me, I’m from Superior,” she admitted with a grin.

“Wisconsin?”

“Yup.”

He groaned dramatically. “City girl, then. How did you wind up here?”

“Small city, really. That’s a long story I’m sure you don’t want to hear.”

“Try me,” he said, nudging her elbow across the console.

“I transferred to U M Ann Arbor my junior year after my mom died,” she started with a nod. Jake grimaced and sucked in a breath “Yeah,” she said, looking out her window before continuing on. “I got my degree in history and creative writing and wound up getting my teaching certificate for secondary school.”

“So, you did teach high school for a while?” he asked, seeing the bar ahead, and hoping for a beer to smooth over the edge he just caused.

“Yup. It sucked. Bad. I was an awful teacher,” she laughed. “It was my way to pay for my masters. Got my MLIS from UW and took the first library job I could. Been here ever since.”

“Well that explains it,” he said as they pulled into the dirt parking lot.

“Explains what?”

“I thought you were here because you were in witness protection or maybe on the run for bank robbery, international spy…”

She laughed as she turned off the engine and pushed open her door. “I like the sound of being an international spy! Makes me sound so much more interesting.”

The parking lot was full and the music pouring out of the bar was loud. He followed her to the door and held it open for her. The smell of food and liquor and beer smashed him in the face as he followed her inside.

“Oh hell, there she is!” a booming voice called from the back of the bar.

Rayne let out a sharp laugh as an extremely petite woman clamored around the bar and rushed her full force. Jake backed out of the way as the woman threw her arms around Rayne and spun her around. She caught his eye across her shoulder, mouthing a “sorry”, before she was dragged off to the bar. He followed, looking around the wood and stone clad bar. People were crowded around the l-shaped bar, and most of the many tables were packed. Along the long end of the building, there were floor to ceiling windows that framed a huge deck beyond that overlooked a swath of woods and water.

Rayne appeared once again with two beers and menus and a wave of her hand to follow. He hoped she would turn towards the deck door, but instead she headed what seemed to be an inside table. She continued to walk past table after table, waving to those by the windows that greeted her, whispering as they realized that he was with her. She pushed through a side door that revealed a set of stairs up to an upper deck. There were five tables that crowded the small space, but there was one in the corner that had a reserved note taped to it. She claimed it as theirs.

“This is nice,” he said, taking one of the offered beers. “I take it that was Janie.”

“She’s a mess, but she’s mine,” Rayne laughed.

“She’s seems mighty,” he said, before taking another drink.

The waiter came up to the table, beaming a smile at Rayne. “Been forever since you’ve been out here! It’s good to see you.”

Rayne nodded politely, leaving no explanation. They ordered and asked for another round of beers before settling in. Jake closed his eyes as a cool breeze swept up over the side of the deck bringing in a tinge of deep forest and swift moving water smell across his face. It reminded him of home, and childhood and easier times.

“I can’t get this in Nashville,” he said more to himself than to his companion. The new green of the leaves and the sound of the river below relaxed him.

“Is that home?” she asked, eyes trained on the woods over his shoulder.

“Mostly, yeah. I do try to get back here when I can, which has been a lot lately.”

“Oh, with the initiative. How much longer do you work on that program?”

“Yeah. I have one more appearance in Grand Rapids next week, then it’s actually done for my part.”

“You seemed to enjoy today. How long have you been a part of it?”

“I signed up for four months. It’s not been bad. I’ve visited one or two schools a week, holidays off, snow days off. Not a bad schedule. I’ve seen a lot of the state.”

“Do you usually stay in each town? Even us little guys?”

He nodded as the waiter returned with their beers. “Let’s just say my schedule isn’t too strict right now.”

“Hiatus, right.”

He watched as she took her last drink of her first beer, and mirrored her. “What about you? How come you’ve not been out here to see friends?”

“Well,” she smiled as she made eye contact, “you mean aside from being the school librarian, I’m also the regional librarian.”

His brow pinched a bit as he waited for an obvious answer to pop up or she continued on. He shrugged to prod her on when he couldn’t think of anything.

“I oversee two other library branches in the county. One’s over in Hampton, and the other is in Miller. They’re small, but they are the only public library services available in the county.”

“So you take care of three libraries?”

“Yeah, but I have a few assistants and tons of volunteers that do most of the heavy lifting.”

“Do not let that woman sell herself short!” Janie’s voice carried out across the small deck as she carried plates towards them. “She would work a hundred and fifty hours a week if she could.”

“This from the entrepreneur that would out work me by five minutes any day just to say she beat me somehow,” Rayne laughed.

They settled into their meals, talking about travel, family or lack thereof on her part, more travel, music, literature, and where they haven’t been yet but would like to see before they die. Janie had popped in a few times, checking on them, checking on other diners who seemed to float around them as if they were the only constant at that time. Conversation was easy with her, something that Jake appreciated. Before he knew it, the plates were gone, the beers were fresh and the sky was dark.

“Hiatus,” she said, sipping on her beer.

“My elephant time, huh?” She nodded as he felt his fingers tapping on the arm of the chair. “Aside from 2020, we had been touring and recording for fourteen years. Josh had this opportunity to work on a script, which of course turned into a film thing. Dan got married last Fall and last I heard, they’re still honeymooning. I’ve been busy with this initiative thing and working on new material here and there. Josh wants me to work the score if the film gets over a few bumps that it's having right now. And, this all started when my niece was about to be born and Sam needed to be there.”

“That’s a lot of life stuff.”

“Yeah, so much so that Sammy’s even about to have another one - a boy this time.” The thought of his younger brother and his nerdy dad routine made him smile. “We said we’d break for two years, so there we are.”

There was a silence that followed that did not bother him. However, it was enough for him to realize that they were the last ones on the small upper deck.

“What time do they close?”

Rayne looked at her phone. “Uh, kitchen at nine, bar is at bar close.”

“If you stay, it’ll be dawn!” Janie boomed from below.

She popped up, beer in hand and started leaning over the rail. Jake followed, taking in the familiar smell of cigarette smoke. The bar owner waved them down with a grin. He followed, tapping the pocket of his denim button down for the pack that was there. Rounding the side corner that led to the main deck, he found that the cooler night air had chased most inside, leaving a much quieter crowd. Janie was wiping tables with a smoke hanging from her mouth. The antsy craving prickled at his thoughts.

“Hey, do you mind?” he asked her as she stopped at the table Janie had pointed to.

“No. I was going to bum one from her, but yours are better. May I?” she asked politely.

He fished his lighter out and held a flame up for her. He could not keep his eyes from her mouth and the way it was wrapped around the smoke. He quickly lit his own to steady himself. Sitting down next to her again, the view from the lower deck took in more of the narrow river. Watching the water speed by relaxed him as he stretched out, just taking in the noise from the bar and the dull thrum of the other people.

The first notes of a familiar song reverberated off the windows. Instinctively, his fingers moved with the riff on the underside of his chair.

“That’s gotta be a bit weird,” Janie said as she slid up to their table.

He shrugged with a sheepish smile. “You sorta get used to it after a while.”

Jake forced himself to get out of his head as he felt the loneliness tug at him. Taking a sip of his beer, he noticed that Rayne watched him closely.

“What’s it’s like to be in front of that many people, playing your ass off?” Janie asked, swirling her cubes around in her lowball glass.

Jake grinned and cleared his throat in a flirty manner. “Hot as hell and twice as fun.”

“Smooth,” the bar owner barked, her laugh loud and untethered.

“It’s something,” he continued. “I’ve gotten to see so many people and places, but they are there just to have a great time. I like to think that I can give that to them - at least for a little while.”

“Joy,” Rayne said quietly, holding his gaze. “Earlier, you said it was a shared joy.”

He could not look away from those green eyes. Her friend said something but Jake could not put together words to answer her. He found himself smiling stupidly and nodding. Rayne leaned forward, finally breaking the connection. Jake realized once again, Janie had drifted away, wooing customers inside at the bar.

“What made you decide to be a librarian?” he asked as he crushed out his cigarette.

“I needed to be where the books were. I get to provide access to information and books and resources that I love. I get to talk about authors and stories and…” She stopped as if she lost her train of thought. “In all honesty, I love to write and be a storyteller. This allows me to do that.”

“Sounds great,” Jake responded, capturing her attention again, seeing that she was beginning to be flustered like she had been in her library. “A little like my line of work.”

“I suppose so,” she smiled as she turned her phone over. “But mine is way more nerdy.”

The look that traced across her face disappointed him. He could feel her shifting back to her real life. He had learned the look well over the course of the past eighteen months.

“Time to go?” he asked quietly.

She scrunched up her face and sat back in a huff. “I’m so sorry. It’s already one and I’ve got storytime with the kids at ten and because of today, I totally have - shit, I didn’t get it set up.”

He glanced at his own phone, not realizing it was so late. There was still no text from anyone either. He felt himself frowning at the lack of anything, especially from his twin.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you,” Rayne said, touching his arm.

“What?” he asked, confused. He replayed what she said and smiled. “No, no, no. You didn’t upset me. I’m sorry I kept you out so late. I didn’t realize how long we’ve been here.”

He grabbed their empties and followed her inside, where she was already at the bar. The bartender was searching for their tab, much to her displeasure.

“Janie, where are you?” Rayne called out, looking for the scrap of woman. When she poked her head out of the kitchen door, Rayne pointed at her menacingly. “What did you do?”

Jake watched as she stalked over to her friend, but stayed at the bar. “Hey, can I get a couple of waters and two more of these please, to go? And the tab too, please.”

The bartender nodded as he passed a conspiring look towards the two women. “Janie, you can’t do that!” he heard Rayne exclaim. Jake smiled. The loud friend was keeping to her word and covering for him. He did not need that awkward moment of her trying to pay for anything. He slipped the bartender his card, quickly signing the screen and adding a tip that matched the total of the tab. By the time his transaction was done, Janie was practically running at him.

“Hey - picture?” she asked with a toothy smile. “You’d sure look good on my wall, handsome.”

“Janie,” Rayne groaned.

“It’s okay. Where do you want me, doll?” he flirted.

“You are smooth,” she cooed.

He allowed her to pose before moving in beside her, his biggest smile plastered on his face. Rayne waited for him at the door as he was dragged in for a warm hug. As he was drawn into conversation from a few people the bar, the door flew open, admitting three obnoxiously loud guys. Jake noticed the cross look that breezed across Rayne’s face as one leaned in close to her.

“Back it off, Toby,” he heard her say in a hard tone.

“If you’re here alone, you must be lookin’ for me,” the guy said, his words slightly slurred.

Rayne squared her shoulders, her expression turning blank. “I’ve told you to back it off. I mean now.”

“You don’t have to be a bitch about it,” he said.

“And you don’t have to be the reason for ninety percent of the county’s STD problem,” she said as he started to move away.

Jake moved towards Rayne, when the mostly inebriated Toby bumped into him on purpose.

“Janie, why you lettin’ in the long hair she-men?” he asked with an edge.

“If you were more of a gentleman, perhaps you would have a chance with the lady,” Jake remarked.

“Who’s this dick?”

“I’m the guy she’s taking home,” Jake said with a smile.

He curled the tip of his tongue between his teeth as he approached her. The fire that was in her eyes was something to behold. He pushed open the door and held it for her before following closely behind. She was silent all the way to the car as he glanced over his shoulder to make sure the guy didn’t follow them out. He heard the click of the door unlocking and he slid into the passenger side.

Rayne took a deep breath before starting the car. “Sorry about that.”

“Did you ask for a run in with that asshole?” he asked, stowing his bag behind his seat.

She laughed without humor. “Fuck no. ”

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked as she cued up the blues guitarist that he caught her listening to earlier.

“Yeah, just sucks,” she said, sliding the gear into reverse.

“Oh, this is Jesse Larsen,” he said, grimacing at his sudden lack of timing. “Sorry. My brain ran ahead of my mouth.”

“Squirrel moment, huh?” she teased, her smile returning as she pulled out of the parking lot. “And yes, this is Jesse Larsen.”

“He’s a really cool guy. I met him at Chicago Breakers Fest a few years back.”

“Gah! I love Breakers. I went once with my mom, then again with Janie about four years ago. Yeah, we did a lot of stupid adult stuff that weekend. It was great.”

He smiled at her in the soft glow of the dash light. It had been quite a while since he had an evening that he had not wanted his time to end with the company he kept. Rayne was a beacon in this town. She seemed to draw everyone from small child to town elder to her with a grace and happiness that was unexpected. He felt warmed by her in a manner that few were able to make him feel. Glancing at his phone, he noticed that there was a single word text from Josh saying “night”. He felt irritated, knowing that his twin was just busy, but the lack of communication was a sore point. As they pulled into the B & B parking lot, she parked next to his rental and cut the engine.

“Thank you for sharing Janie with me tonight,” he said with a smile. “It was fun.”

“It was fun,” she repeated with a nod.

“Please tell me you live here in town,” he said, his eyes drifting back to the building for a moment before looking directly into her eyes.

“No, actually, I’m about ten minutes south of here,” she said with a shrug.

“Shit,” he ground out, not liking the sound of it. “That’s not very gentlemanly of me.”

“It’s fine.”

“Let me see your phone please.” She handed him the phone with a raised eyebrow. “I will wait out here until you text me that you are home.”

“It’s not a big deal,” she said as he typed his number into her phone.

He looked up at her, feeling deviousness play across his face. “I could just follow you home to be sure you get there.”

“Is that a threat?” she asked, her tone challenging.

“Maybe,” he answered, rolling his eyes up at her, slowly taking her in, tracing the shape of her mouth before intently looking into her eyes.

She sucked in a breath as the tops of her cheeks flushed. “Oh my. You are smooth.”

“Just be safe, please,” he said, handing her back the phone and grabbing his bag from behind the seat before sliding out of the car.

Jake leaned up against his rental. She sat for a long moment, just watching him. He lit a smoke to show her that he was serious. He would wait for her text just to know that she was safe. When she did not move, he dug in his other pocket and took out his keys pushing off the car and moving towards the driver’s side. The prospect of following her home was intriguing - he had to admit. She started the engine and with a wave, Rayne was gone.

Two smokes and a finished beer later, his phone finally pinged.

R ~ Home

J ~ Prove it

He smiled, picturing her being flustered. It was a few minutes before his phone pinged again, this time with a picture of her smiling while sitting on a blanket covered couch, dog across her lap and cat nearly sitting on her head.

J ~ Thank you again for tonight.

R ~ Good night

Jake tapped his phone to his forehead a few times. His plans of leaving early were certainly scrapped. He felt the length of the day, but the time with Rayne had felt like it had literally flown by in a blink. Heading inside, it was not a riff that played in his thoughts, it was an image. He wondered if she would like it as much as he did.

#jake kiszka #jake kiszka fanfic #jake kiszka x oc

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smolwritingchick · 2 days

Text

Forced To Believe Chapter 62- Wrestling's Fun

Chapter Summary: Melanie continues to live tweet when watching The Shield defend her honor. Melanie comes across Jon's DVD

Words: 6,000+

--------

"Surprise!" Danielle (Summer Rae) grinned, standing in the doorway with Saraya.

"Hey! What are you guys doing here?" Melanie smiled and embraced them before letting them in.

"We were just in the neighborhood and wanted to check up on you before we go to the WWE Live event."

"Aw, thanks, guys. You do not know how badly I want to get back in the ring." she sighed.

"You'll be back soon enough! So, we heard you got a tattoo. Wanna show us?" Saraya asked.

"Oh yeah, I went with Phil, in Chicago." Melanie lifted her sleeve and showed them her wrist tattoo and then her back.

"Nice!"

"On the wrist and back? I like it!" Danielle grinned.

"Hey, you remember that Shield promo we did back in NXT?" Saraya wondered out of the blue.

"I remember," Danielle replied.

"Why don't we remake it and have Melanie join in, for fun?"

"Now that sounds cool."

"Count me in!" Melanie grinned.

This wasn't the first time she did some funny videos

------

Morgan was backstage with Emma, taking an Instagram video. Emma was wearing a black wig and began mocking Paige's roar.

"And she's always like think again." Emma went on while grabbing her Diva's Championship.

"Hey." Paige walked over and greeted them while Emma swiftly put her title down. "What are you doing?"

"Morgan did it!" Emma pointed.

"Hey! I didn't do anything!" Morgan put her hands up in defense.

"Why you touching that?" Paige asked.

"Hey, Paige." Emma greeted nervously.

She took off her wig and walked away before throwing it in her face.

"Ooh!" Morgan laughed while Paige ran after her. "I'll keep your title warm!" She took it and put it around her shoulder.

"Oh no you don't!" Paige started running after her instead, making Morgan sprint away.

------

She also remembered when she was in a rental car with Saraya and Danielle. When she was around them, she could really let loose and headbang a lot when she listened to rock music. Just like when they listened to Where The Sun Never Sleeps and sang along.

The three divas got into character while Leah waited to shoot the video. They stood in front of a black background and went over what they wanted to say while Leah put on The Shield's theme song.

Summer had her hands behind her back, wearing a shredded crop top and pants that were shredded in the front. Paige wore a black dress with her leather jacket, while Melanie wore her Shield attire and hoodie.

"The Shield..." Summer began the promo in character.

"What injustice are you saving us from, exactly? I mean, the jobs only half done." Paige spoke with annoyance in her voice.

"What about the women? Please, the divas division needs the most saving, out of all of it."

"And here we have Rosa disrespecting us and calling herself a top diva. Injustice." Morgan called out. "We need to because it looks like all that hard work is going down the drain. Why? Because I'm starting to see the same crap over and over again. We need more excitement during diva matches. We need better finishes than roll up pins during diva matches."

"And I guess...that's where we step in..." Paige darkly said, glancing at them.

"Once I get healed up, we're taking over Rosa's little fantasy land and proving that we are not here for one minute matches," Morgan announced.

"I mean; someone needs to shut her up." Summer flipped her hair.

"And what better way to do it with the three of us, taking her down together," Paige added.

"So don't send a man..."

"To do a women's job..." she bluntly said as she cocked her head to the side with attitude.

Morgan smirked. "Believe that. And believe in—"

"Believe in PMS!" Summer grinned and put her fist out, making Morgan and Paige glance at each other.

"What?" Paige mouthed while the Outspoken Diva shrugged.

"Right...PMS."

She put her fist out with Paige.

After the video, they start laughing. "PMS?" Leah asked, amused.

"That sounded so wrong." Saraya giggled.

"What? P is for Paige. M is for Morgan. S is for Summer." Danielle explained but then realization hit her. "Oh~! PMS! Oh wow, that does sound wrong."

The video goes straight to the WWE's YouTube page and even on Twitter and Instagram, causing a lot of discussion on the video and a lot was positive reactions.

Rosa tweets 'Sorry but no one is going to leave Rosa Land. You three are a joke!'

Colby tweets 'Uh oh, looks like The Shield and the divas need to watch out. Wow, that's how you feel WWEMorgan101? Haha.'

Melanie replies in a playful manner, 'WWERollins oh yeah, forgot to mention I quit The Shield. This team is better. #NothingPersonal'

Colby replies 'WWEMorgan101 aw man! We were doing so good together! WWERomanReigns we lost our girl!'

Melanie replies back 'WWERollins I know right! Don't worry, you'll always have a special place in my heart. Don't tell Dean!'

Joe replies to Melanie 'WWEMorgan101 WWERollins Oh I see how it is. And what about me? Don't forget the good times we had!'

Melanie replies to Joe 'WWERomanReigns Aw, I could never forget. Don't worry, you'll always be my teddy bear.'

Joe replies back 'That makes me feel a little better. WWEMorgan101. But thanks for kicking us to the curb with your little girl group'

Melanie replies back again 'Haha! No problem! WWERomanReigns #BelieveInPMS'

Saraya replies to Joe 'Little girls huh? WWERomanReigns.'

Joe replies 'Forget I said that. I don't want any trouble RealPaigeWWE'

Saraya replies back to him 'That's what I thought. WWERomanReigns'

---------

RAW opened up and revealed The Shield in the ring.

"We are live everybody, with Monday night Raw. And the Hounds of Justice in the ring." Cole said. "And Evolution's beat down of The Shield continued into Smackdown on Friday Night. The Shield incredibly upset with what happened last week."

Dean started breathing heavily on the mic, obviously still irate at the Evolution situation. "Last week you saw something you don't see very often and you're not likely to see it again very often in the future. You saw the members of The Shield, laid out. Flat on our backs. Yeah, we got the crap kicked out of us." he said with a grin. "But it's cool. It's all right, we might go down but we don't stay down. And if you're keeping score at home, you'll find that we're up much more than we're down. Tonight, we're standin' tall in this ring, and make no mistake about it...let make myself, very clear right now, we want Evolution!"

The crowd cheers while Dean gives Seth the mic.

"Let me make one thing perfectly clear, we are not running from Evolution, we are running to Evolution!" Seth declared. "And if they've got any guts, if they're half the men, they think they are, they'll accept our challenge for a rematch and we will run through Evolution!"

The crowd starts chanting for Morgan, making The Shield pause.

Melanie tweets 'I didn't think you guys missed me that much! I feel loved. #IWillBeBack'

"Unfortunately Morgan isn't here tonight...but tonight we're going to keep our promise and take down Evolution and Rosa," Seth growled, still having flashbacks of the incident. "Morgan...never again will we let that happen to you. Never again will we let them put their hands on you, like that! They are going to pay, I guarantee it."

Melanie tweets 'Thank you. I believe you WWERollins.'

"And let this be a message for everyone else in the back..." Dean added on the mic. "If you ever even think about putting your hands on her, I promise you we are going to pulverize you. And you are going to regret the day you stepped foot into this company. You know what I hate? When people think they can get away with putting their hands on my woman. Do they think that's funny? Does Evolution and Rosa think that's funny!?" He shouted and started pacing around again before Seth calmed him down.

Melanie tweets 'I'm a passionate subject tonight, huh? Thanks for having my back guys.'

Meanwhile, Roman began pacing around, trying to keep his emotions together.

"When Evolution and Rosa show up here tonight...we're gonna hunt em down...not just for us, but for Morgan's sake. You know what? They're good. Rosa has improved. She's good. And Evolution is good. Let's not take that away from Evolution. These are former world champions, these are men, who main evented WrestleMania. Evolution is good, yeah we get it, you're good. You were really good." Rollins remarked. "Because you're not the Evolution that you once were because you can't evolve into what it takes to beat The Shield."

Roman put his hands on the back of his head and continued pacing.

"Is Roman okay?" Jane asked as she watched the show. "I hope he's not too upset about you not being here."

"This makes me so sad." Leah sniffed and wiped her tears.

"Whoa, are you crying!?" Melanie looked at her in surprise.

"No..." She mumbled. "I got something in my eye."

"Jeez. Everything will be okay."

Watching wrestling on TV showed how much Melanie missed being in the ring. The date she was set to return needed to hurry up and be here already.

Seth turns his attention to Roman.

"You all right big man?" He asked while Roman stepped up to him, shaking his head. "I see you pacing back there, you got something to say?"

Roman nods and receives the mic. The crowd cheers loudly while Roman looks at the camera, with a stern look.

"We can go, you victimized my brothers...Or we can go, you ambushed me, you bloodied me, you RKOed me, you pedigreed me, and Triple Powerbombed me...But most of all, you victimized my sister..." Roman growled and gripped the mic tighter. "You beat a helpless, defenseless woman. Her neck was already bothering her but you decided to give her a piledriver, putting her out of action...I never want to see her cry like that again. I never want to see her in that pain, ever again. I never want her to yell and scream out in agony like that, ever again. The only scream and yell I want to hear is when she's in Harley mode and gets ready to beat all your asses."

His statement received loud cheers from the crowd and smirks from Ambrose and Rollins.

"But after all you did, all of that made me realize...is that all you got? Morgan doesn't stay down, she gets back up and fights back. You're going to have to do a lot more than a piledriver to keep her down. If that is all you got, you got a serious problem. And we're gonna teach you that our brand of justice, we can serve it cold. We can serve it...so slow. We're gonna teach you to believe in the concept of Payback. We're gonna teach you to believe in The Shield. And me personally, I'm gonna have you believe...in me!" Roman dropped the mic.

The titantron shows a limo arriving in the parking lot. The door opens to reveal Evolution and Rosa getting out of the limo. Dean points to them and The Shield run backstage.

"Uh oh. Uh oh!" Cole said with anticipation.

Melanie tweets 'Kick...their...asses.'

Triple H looks at a contract while Orton and Batista stand beside him. Rosa was in a black and white dress, matching Batista's suit. The four of them start walking but then hear Seth yell. He jumps on Triple H while Roman goes after Orton, and Dean goes after Batista.

"Oh!" King and Cole shouted as Rosa screamed and managed to run away from the scene.

"It is on!" Cole shouted while The Shield continued to beat down Evolution.

Refs and security had to restrain them.

"Get off of me!" Seth shouted. "Come on, huh?! Come on, huh!?"

"Keep them back!" A ref shouted while the camera showed Triple H beaten down, earning cheers from the crowd.

Melanie tweets 'So close! #RosaCanRunButSheCantHide'

-----------

Rosa struts out in her wrestling attire as the crowd boos.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Rosa Mendes!" Justin announced.

"Would you look at Rosa? She looks stunning tonight!" King said as she got in the ring.

"Welcome to Rosa land!" She announced on the mic, earning more boos. "I am going to stay in this ring while you worship me! I deserve a little more respect from you people and I'm not leaving until I get my respect!"

Melanie tweets 'If you want respect #EarnTheRespect LaRosaMendes'

All of a sudden, Paige comes out to a big pop. She gets in the ring and faces off with her.

"Aw, look who it is. It's Paige. What are you doing out here? Oh, are you mad because your little girlfriend is out of action? Aw, poor darling. If you're not giving me a title shot, get the hell out of my ring before I throw you out." She shoved her, earning 'Oohs' from the crowd.

Melanie tweets 'The audacity of some people...'

"I'm out here, actually to shut you up," Paige replied. "So, if you want me to leave this ring, why don't you make me?"

"With pleasure." Rosa hits her with the mic and starts beating her down.

"Oh come on!" Cole shouted until Morgan's theme came on, earning loud cheers from the crowd. "Is she back!?"

Rosa gets away from Paige and looks at the stage with shock. But then Layla walks out wearing a black wig and Morgan's attire, earning loud boos. Rosa laughs and continues to beat down Paige.

"Is that is that Layla?" Cole asked.

"It is!" JBL said.

Melanie tweets 'Hardy har har...'

Rosa roughly grabs Paige by the hair.

"You wanna give me a title shot now!? Huh!?" She pushed her back down. "Ring the bell and make it a title match, now!" she ordered the ref as he obeyed.

"What? A title match right this second?" King exclaimed while Paige held the back of her head and started to get angry.

"Ring the bell!" The ref announced as the Diva's championship match began.

"Rosa has gotten very powerful ever since aligning herself with The Authority," Cole informed.

Rosa taunts the crowd before continuing to take control of Paige. Paige screams and starts to fight back by giving her knee lifts on the apron and tossing her across the ring by her hair.

"Paige is livid!" King looked on as she continued to take control. Rosa manages to fight back again and hits her with the gory bomb. "This may be it!"

"1!"

"2!"

"Oh!" The crowd shouted at the near fall.

Melanie tweets 'Thank goodness!! It will be hell on earth if Rosa won the title.'

"No! No! That was supposed to be three!" Rosa shouts at the ref.

As soon as she turns around, Paige beats her down with a couple of headbutts and throws her into a corner, making her slide down. She starts screaming again while she strikes Rosa with multiple stomps to the chest.

Meanwhile, Layla was at ringside, cheering Rosa on. She was also wearing a fat suit while wearing Morgan's attire. She manages to get on the apron after a few attempts and tries to distract Paige.

Melanie tweets 'Why is Layla wearing a fat suit? I'm not fat! Weirdo...'

Layla starts yelling at her until Paige kicks her down. As soon as she turns around, Rosa strikes her with a round house kick to the face.

"1!"

"2!"

"Oh!" The crowd shouted while Rosa started repeatedly banging on the mat in frustration.

She waits for Paige to get up to hit her with a swinging neckbreaker. Luckily Paige evades it and hits her with the Paige Turner, earning loud cheers. She turns her around and puts her in the Scorpion Crosslock, making Rosa tap instantly.

Melanie tweets 'Snooze you lose! Congrats RealPaigeWWE'

All of sudden, Layla gets in the ring and beats Paige down from behind.

"And Layla from behind!" Cole says before Paige fights back and kicks her out the ring.

Rosa takes advantage and strikes her with the Gory bomb, making the crowd boo. She kicks Paige out the ring and throws her title out the ring too. A 'You Tapped Out!' chant occurs, making Rosa scowl at the crowd.

"You people need to stop disrespecting me!" She screamed on the mic but that only made the crowd chant louder. "I did not tap out! I should be Divas champion! I am the best diva here!"

"I need some earplugs." Cole said.

"You and me both." JBL replied.

Melanie tweets 'Uh do we need to show the video of you tapping out almost instantly? It's a funny sight to see. #ItsAYouTubeHit!'

Rosa chuckled and started to smirk. "Morgan, I know you're at home, sitting on your pathetic butt and asking yourself, how does Rosa do it? You ran away from me. You got some tattoos to try to cover up the scars I gave you. You ran away just like Punk did. And you know what I think of you? You are pathetic! Paige is pathetic! All the Total Divas are pathetic! This is a new generation of divas and I am proving that I own...this diva's division!"

Melanie tweets 'Don't even talk about him like that ever again. You're about to go into some dangerous territory. Do not awaken that side of me.'

'Sierra'

'Hotel'

'India'

'Echo'

'Lima'

'Delta'

'Shield'

"Oh my!" Cole shouts while Rosa's eyes widen and starts to look scared.

The Shield rush down the steps but Rosa quickly escapes as soon as they slide into the ring.

Leah looked at the TV in awe.

"Milena is friggin amazing on the mic! Her promo skills have gotten so much better. It almost looks real; like she really has anger issues with you." She praised. "But you two are like great friends."

"That's the power of acting. The crowd hates her but they always tune in to watch her." Melanie smiled.

---------

Evolution and Rosa are in the ring. Triple H leans on the ropes before Orton gets a mic.

"All right listen, Hunter, I don't know if you had enough but I've had enough. Dave, Rosa, I know you had enough. It's time to take the gloves off. It's time to start...treating The Shield like we need to treat them." Orton said. "We need to kick their ass Hunter, and I know they were your boys way back, but I truly believe with all my heart, with all my soul, that it is time...to put the Hounds of Justice to sleep."

Orton gave Triple H the mic.

"I've had enough!" Batista shouted at him while Rosa put a hand on his shoulder. "I had enough! Enough! They callin' us out? I'm done with this!"

"All right. Maybe it is time. Maybe it's time to take the gloves off. Maybe it's time to finish things with The Shield." Triple H replied. "At Extreme Rules they proved how good they are but I already knew that and that's why I brought them here, Randy. It's why I protected them, it's why I fed the roster to them. To make them into something and I did. They got a little too big from themselves and I thought I could salvage something out of that. And maybe I was wrong. You know, I'm a little disappointed in them. Since Extreme Rules, tonight that little so called attempt of an ambush, pretty much was the last straw. The Shield has no idea, they're on discipline, they're like a bunch of little kids with a stick, waving it around at whatever is in front of them."

"The reason they are like this is because The Shield are retaliating. They are retaliating because their precious bitch is gone." Triple H went on, earning 'Ohs' from the crowd while Rosa smirked at his comment. "So it's gonna end. The Shield...you want a rematch at Payback? You want a rematch that you've already won? Then so be it. You will get your rematch, but this one will be different. Because this one, the gloves are off, and Evolution will do what we do. We will take you apart one by one. We will start with Dean Ambrose,"

"Dean Ambrose, you remember the guy that said, do we look humbled to you? You don't yet. But you will. And when we're done humbling you Ambrose...we're gonna move on top the Architect of The Shield, Seth Rollins. I'm gonna pull that little hummingbird's wings off myself. And we're done with him...we're gonna move on to the big dog. To Roman Reigns. You want us to believe in you, do you Roman? Well when we get to you, we're gonna take our time...with you. And we are gonna make an example out of Roman Reigns. You see the example that we make out of Roman Reigns, is that Roman Reigns will be the member of The Shield does not come back from Payback. Roman Reigns, you will fail to adapt. And at Payback...you will per—"

"Oh!" Cole shouted as Seth tripped him down and started unloading on him. "Seth Rollins! They're here!"

Dean and Roman beat up Orton and Batista.

"Oh my gosh!" King exclaimed as Evolution was thrown out of the ring while Rosa escaped again and looked on in shock.

Triple H gets pissed and jumps on the apron, only to be hit back down.

"We ain't gotta wait till Payback!" Seth shouted while the four of them regrouped.

Batista grabbed a mic. "I've had enough. I've had enough! I've had enough of you! I've had enough of you and I've had enough of you, Reigns." He pointed them. "Reigns, you're the big dog. I've had enough. You and me tonight. We're gonna see how tough you are!"

---------

Later, in the ring, Roman takes on Batista. They have a back and forth match until Triple H and Orton face off against Roman while he is about to hit Batista with a dropkick off the apron. Dean and Seth hit them with a suicide dive and things get broken down.

Triple H throws Seth over the announce table while Roman tries to go for the Superman punch in the ring. Triple H drags Roman out of the ring and puts him in the pedigree position until Seth jumps on him and starts beating him up. The ref calls for the bell while Evolution and The Shield start beating each other up. Rosa keeps her distance and looks worried while the men are all in the ring.

All of a sudden, Stephanie makes the whole locker room run down the ring to beat up The Shield.

"Don't cross the boss," JBL said while Dean and Seth got thrown out of the ring.

Roman gets beat up by the roster while Triple H gets a chair.

"And a spear!" Cole shouted once Triple H went down but then Roman got jumped again. That was until Ambrose and Rollins took over and hit everyone with the chair. "The Shield unloading! The Shield clearing the ring!"

Everyone gets beaten down while the crowd cheers loudly. Dean grabs Fandango and points.

"This is for you!" He hits him with the Dirty Deeds on the chair.

Then Seth hits Axel with the curb stomp. Heath gets hit with a superman punch by Roman and gets thrown out the ring and then Ryback gets hit with the spear.

Ambrose snaps his head towards Rosa who stands at ringside and gets out of the ring.

"Hey! Hey! What are you doing!?" She backed up as he started stalking her up the ramp.

Roman slides out of the ring and goes through the crowd.

"Rosa, you better run for your life!" JBL shouted.

She gets on the stage and points to Ambrose who stands in the middle of the ramp.

"You stay away from me!" she shouted.

But as soon as she turns around, she shrieks before Roman hits her with the spear, earning loud cheers.

"SPEAR!" JBL and Cole shout.

"Oh my gosh!" King yelled. "He just speared Rosa!"

"Roman Reigns with the spear on Rosa! That was long over due!" Cole shouted as Roman roared with the crowd.

"That's what I'm talkin' about!" Seth shouted. "Never mess with our girl! Never mess with her!"

"Morgan's gotta be lovin' that right now."

Melanie tweets 'Thank you! WWERomanReigns WWERollins. You guys made my night! #FourthTimesACharm'

The Shield get back in the ring and hits Ryback with the triple powerbomb while their theme comes on.

"Triple H and company thought they had the perfect plan, to ambush The Shield but it backfired," Cole said while The Shield put their fists out and taunted Evolution who finally got up and was on the ramp.

------------

During backstage pass, Evolution stands on the stage while Batista carries Rosa, who was knocked out cold, bridal style. Later The Shield stand by with Renee Young backstage.

"I'm here with The Shield, guys you have been going head to head with Evolution and Rosa for the past several weeks. But tonight you were very much so preying on Evolution. Is this the new plan to be the aggressors in this situation?" Renee asked.

"They don't call us the Hounds for nothing. We do a lot better when we are the hunters and not the prey. We turned the tables on Evolution. They've been playing our game for the past few weeks. Tonight we were the prey and we ran the yard just like we do," Seth chuckled.

"When are we not the aggressors?" Dean asked. "The whole thing about the whole Evolution thing, at the end of the day, I just don't like them. I don't like the Wyatts, I don't like Sheamus man but Evolution, something about them...it just puts me in a place where I don't like to be, all right? Sometimes I do like to be there. I'm gonna like being there at Payback. I don't like that they make me feel this way! Oh, they are gonna pay for that. I just hate those guys. Walk around in their suits..."

"Take it easy, take it easy." Seth tried to calm him down.

"Their limos...their stupid ties! Their stupid expensive cars!"

"We got em, we got em!"

"It's no longer about business. It's personal. Believe that." Roman said.

The three of them look at the camera.

"I know you're watching Morgan. We told you we had your back. And don't worry. We're just getting started." Seth grinned.

------------

It was getting closer to the date of her return and Melanie couldn't have been happier. Soon she will be going to London and heading back into the WWE ring. She was on her Twitter until Leah arrived at her place.

"Hey, did you know that Jon has a DVD out?" Leah asked, showing her his DVD called 'Stories From The Streets, The Jon Moxley Story'

"No way, really?" she checked out the DVD with interest. "I didn't know that. Wow, that's cool."

"Seriously? This has been out for years. I just kept forgetting to bring this to you, so we can watch it together."

"I wonder why he didn't tell me about this." She said with a chuckle. "Pop it in, let's watch it."

While they watched the DVD, Jon started talking about Nick Gage almost dying during the tournament of Death in the finals.

"That sight still makes me cringe. He was losing so much blood. It was crazy." Melanie reminisced. "He could have died."

"Wow, I'm sure. I'm glad he's still okay." Leah smiled.

"Speaking of Nick, I also remember when Jon and I found out he got arrested after robbing a bank."

"A bank? The heck is going on there?"

------------

Melanie was in the living room, downloading music off the web while Jane was in the kitchen, making dinner. The house phone rang and Jane answered it.

"Hello? Hi Jon, how are you? I'm great! Of course, you can come over, I'll tell Melanie." She hung up. "Melanie, Jon is coming over! He says he has some news for you."

"All righty." She replied with a smile, excited to see him.

Ten minutes later, he arrived and asked if he could use their computer to check something.

"Knock yourself out. Did something happen?" Melanie asked.

"Nick Gage," he answered.

"What about him?"

"He got arrested after robbing a bank."

"Whoa! Nick got arrested!?" she shouted while he nodded. They checked out the photo that Jon pulled up and they started laughing. "Holy fucking shit!"

"Language!" Jane shouted from the kitchen.

"Sorry mom!" she said before laughing with Jon again. "This is insane!"

"Why the fuck would he rob a bank?" He chuckled.

They stop laughing and let the news sink in.

"Aw, man...just wow..."

"Yeah..."

----------

After continuing to watch the DVD, they watched as Jon started to describe some wrestlers that the interviewer asked.

"What about Melanie Laurer?" The interviewer asked, making Jon grin.

"Ah ha! Now, I know why he possibly didn't want to tell you!" Leah giggled while Melanie nudged her.

"She's one of the only chicks I can trust. She's like the girl I can't actually have but you still rather be friends with her than to not be friends at all. She's just the best. Very supportive. Huge grape lover, by the way. I think it's fuckin' cute." Jon replied.

"A girl you can't have? You have a crush?"

"Ah, we're really close." he brushed off.

"Maybe he didn't want me to watch that specific part because I was still dating my deadbeat boyfriend at the time," Melanie explained. "I'll definitely be talking to him about this. Wow, look how far we've come. The indies, TNA, FCW, NXT, and now the WWE. All that hard work paid off."

After more catching up with Leah, she leaves while Melanie goes upstairs to her room. Living at her parent's place was nice but she started to ponder about moving out and getting her own place with Jon. But would it be too soon? And where? In Philly? Maybe the Nastynati, as Jon calls it? While continuing to ponder, Jane and Diego walk in her room.

"Melanie, your father, and I will be going out, later on to this dance party in an hour," she informed.

"Oh wow, you're going dancing with dad? Nice. Let someone take a video so I can see you two dancing." she grinned and got off her bed.

"The thing is, you might not be here when we come back since Jon is coming to pick you up soon," Diego said and went to give her a big hug.

"We wanted to give you our love just in case." Jane smiled and embraced her, before kissing her on the forehead. "I am so proud of you and what you've accomplished during your wrestling career. I cannot wait to see you back on TV, sweetheart. I love you."

"I love you too." Melanie held her tighter.

Being on the road, you don't really see family that often, so Melanie tries to cherish each moment she has with her family. After saying her goodbyes, she made sure that all her stuff was packed up before taking a nap and waiting for Jon.

Since her door wasn't shut, Ellie strolled in and jumped on the bed, curing up in a ball, beside her.

----------

After 20 minutes, Jane and Diego were all dressed up and ready to go. That's when Jon arrived in sunglasses and casual wear as Jane happily gave him a big hug.

"It's good to see you too Jane." He let himself in.

"Jonathan, how are you?" Diego greeted.

"I'm doin' all right." He replied as he took his sunglasses off.

"We were just on our way to a dance party," Jane informed.

"I hope you two have a fun time. Where's the grapehead?" He asked, making her giggle at the nickname for Melanie.

"Upstairs in her room." Diego smiled, earning a nod from him.

"We'll be on our way. Can't wait to see you two back on TV." she hugged him goodbye and left with her husband.

Jon went upstairs to Melanie's room and began to smile at how cute she looked sleeping next to Ellie. Ellie jumped off the bed, happily barking at him.

"What's up, Ellie?" he played with the dog while Melanie began waking up.

"You're here, hi," she smiled, sitting up while Ellie left the room to go eat.

"Hi, I missed you," he pulled her in for a kiss. "It felt kind of weird not sleeping next to you,"

"Same, I'm happy you're here. Oh so, I heard you got a DVD."

He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, about that..."

"Haha, I saw it. Everything. Including what you said about me. I thought it was cute. How come you didn't tell me, about it?"

"I guess it was because you were still dating that asshole and I didn't want to ruin our friendship, just in case you took it the wrong way,"

"Ah, I see. It was cute seeing you so nervous for a second there,"

"You caught me off guard," he replied while she giggled. "I heard you and Phil went to a tattoo shop. What did you get?"

She went to show him her back tattoo and he looked impressed.

"No way, you went along with what Colby said? Oh man, I can't wait to see the look on his face!"

"I know right? And I also got this." She showed him her wrist. "Couldn't resist. You like it?"

"I love it. Looks pretty hot," He checked out her wrist before kissing it. "I never knew you were actually serious. I thought you were just kidding."

"Nice little change,"

"We should get a couple's tattoo together, one day,"

"We should. So, I heard the fans have been calling you the titty master at live events,"

"Uh..." He chuckled. "On the spot again, huh?"

"Yep." They shifted over to the middle of the bed, facing each other.

"Well?" she raised a brow.

"Well, what?"

"Have you mastered any yet?"

Jon shot her a mischievous smile, gently pushing her down on the bed, and hovering over her. "Actually...I'd love to master yours."

She began laughing softly. "No way."

"I know I can, dollface. Been doing it for a year, now."

"You're not mastering these, so easily, today," she teased, taking his jacket off.

"I wouldn't be so sure, about that," he smirked.

--------------

Later, Melanie and Jon went to a local park, walking hand in hand while walking Ellie.

"So, I'm thinking of doing another prank war with Colby." Melanie grinned.

"Oh boy. I can't wait to see this. What are you going to do?" he asked.

"The Smack Cam. And WWE wants to make it into Youtube mini episodes."

"Yeah, that is going to be interesting. I still can't wait to see his reaction to your tattoo."

"I can't wait either."

They started playing catch with Ellie. After 20 minutes of playing catch, Melanie decided to throw the ball, directly at Jon's head. As soon as it hit his head, she started laughing out loud, breaking her cover.

"What the—" He held the back of his head and turned around to see her laughing. "You're gonna get it now." He started running after her.

"Hahaha! It was a joke!" She tried running away while Ellie playfully chased after them both.

After a surprising effort of evading him for five minutes, he finally caught her by wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. He twirled her around, making her laugh, again.

"Okay! Okay!" She giggled but got put over his shoulder. "Jon!"

"Quiet."

"Put me down!"

"Nope."

But then escaped and managed to trip him down, before going for a roll up pin.

"1! 2! 3! I win! Ha! In your face!" She rolled over, laying down next to him on the grass.

"You got lucky." he rolled over before giving her another kiss.

Suddenly, Ellie ran over to them and jumped on them, happily barking and licking them.

"Aw crap!" Jon laughed.

"Ellie!" Melanie giggled and managed to escape her kisses, leaving Jon to her wrath.

"Aren't you gonna help me out?!"

"In a sec." She took a photo before helping him get her off. "I think she really loves you."

"Heh heh, I guess so. Is she always this hyper?"

"I think she loves you more than me. Plus, she missed you."

"You really missed me, Ellie?" Jon asked the dog while she happily barked in response.

"Adorable."

------

Once in London, Melanie managed to make it to the O2 Arena unseen to keep her return a surprise. After greeting a few friends, she found Colby in catering with most of the roster. Everyone remained quiet while she had shaving cream on her hand, sneaking up on him.

"Smack cam!" She smacked the side of his face, making everyone 'Oh!' and laugh.

"She got you good, Colby!" Brie giggled.

Colby quickly got up from his seat and turned around, grinning. "Really Mel!? Really!?" He started running after her.

#the shield #the shield fanfiction #the shield 4th member #dean ambrose x oc

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hauntedsharkpeanut · 23 days

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The Top IPTV Providers That Outshine Cable in the USA

Gone are the days when cable TV was the only option for home entertainment. Nowadays, innovative IPTV (Internet Protocol television) services are disrupting the market and providing a superior alternative to traditional cable and satellite. With IPTV, you get access to thousands of live and on-demand shows, movies, sports, and more streamed over the internet. No contracts, equipment rentals, or hidden fees. Just endless content and freedom.

If you’re looking to cut the cord for good, checkout these top-rated IPTV providers that truly outshine cable.

IPTVGREAT

Based in the USA, IPTVGREAT offers one of the most robust and reliable IPTV services available. They provide instant access to over 8000+ live HD channels from around the world including premium US channels like HBO, ESPN, Fox, ABC, NBC, and more. An impressive on-demand library with over 40,000 movies and shows provides endless binge-watching.

IPTVGREAT has a well-designed interface for finding content quickly and allows 5 simultaneous streams so the whole household can watch. With diverse international programming and unlimited cloud DVR storage, it’s a cable-cutter’s dream package.

IPTVRESALE

IPTVRESALE utilizes ultra-fast servers to deliver blazing IPTV streams in full HD and 4K when available. From live sports to new movie releases, you’ll enjoy their crystal clear picture quality with no buffering or lags. IPTVRESALE also stands out with its 24/7 multilingual customer support via phone, email or live chat.

Some highlights of IPTVRESALE’s offerings are 45k+ live sports channels, 150k+VOD. IPTVRESALE offers complete TV freedom across devices like smart TVs, streaming players, laptops, and mobile.

IPTVGANG

If you’re looking for blazing fast IPTV, IPTVGANG can’t be beat. They deliver silky smooth streams in true HD quality for the best viewing experience. Choose from over 45,000 live international channels and endless on-demand movies, shows, kids entertainment, and more.

IPTVGANG brings you premium US networks like HBO, ESPN, FOX, and NBC along with UK, Canadian, Latino, European, Arabic, Indian and Asian programming all in one place. With free 24-hour trials and affordable pricing, it’s easy to upgrade to IPTVGANG App. Ditch cable for good and enjoy TV on your terms!

IPTVUNLOCK

Based in Chicago, IPTVUNLOCK provides robust IPTV service to customers all around the US. They offer over 45000 American HD channels including premium movie networks, 24/7 live sports, news, entertainment and more. Calipso also has a global channel lineup of over 150,000+ SD and HD streams from Europe, Canada, Latino, Arabic, Asian and other international markets.

IPTVUNLOCK enables customers to personalize their TV experience with flexible subscription options and unique features like “Jump Back” which lets you go back in time on live TV to replay missed action. You also get unlimited cloud DVR recordings to never miss a show again.

IPTVFOLLOW

IPTVFOLLOW is another rapidly growing IPTV provider that stands out with its massive VOD library and multi-screen support. Get anytime access to thousands of movies, shows, kids content, documentaries and more video on demand. IPTVFOLLOW also supports simultaneous streaming so you can watch on multiple devices in and out of the home.

Some other notable features include a user-friendly EPG guide, 45000+ HD US channels, global sports coverage, and free 24-hour trial available. With excellent video quality and reliable streams, IPTVFOLLOW makes cutting cable an easy decision.

IPTVTOPS

IPTVTOPS may be newer compared to other services but it has quickly become a favorite for cord-cutters thanks to its competitive channel packages and responsive customer support. Kemo offers different base packages as well as premium add-ons like an Arabic package with over 45k channels and a sports package with hard-to-find international soccer, cricket and more.

IPTVTOPS delivers over 45000 live TV channels in HD quality from countries like the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Middle East and more.Compatible apps for iOS, Android, Smart TVs, MAG devices and more make accessing content on any screen a breeze. If you want an affordable IPTV option that doesn’t sacrifice quality or support, choose Kemo.

IPTVGEARFor those wanting a more customized IPTV experience, IPTVGEAR is a top choice. Their diverse channel list spans over 198 countries worldwide so you can easily build a lineup that matches your interests. IPTVGEAR also has advanced features like “Restart TV” which lets you rewind and replay live programming from the beginning.

IPTVGEAR sets itself apart with their superior video quality including crystal clear 1080p HD streams and minimal latency. Expect hundreds of US channels, 24/7 news, tons of on-demand movies/shows, and dedicated sports channels for NBA, NFL, NHL plus soccer leagues worldwide. IPTVGEAR works great with M3U playlist links making setup seamless.

Cut the Cord For GoodThese leading IPTV providers truly give you unlimited content and total viewing freedom for a fraction of the price of cable. Their reliable HD streams, versatile apps, cloud DVRs, and responsive customer support make the switch from traditional TV easy and painless. Join the cord-cutting revolution and take back control of your home entertainment with these top IPTV services made to outshine cable.

Here are some of the most searched FaQs based on IPTV.

What is IPTV?

IPTV stands for Internet Protocol Television. It is a method of delivering television content over the Internet instead of through traditional cable, satellite, or over-the-air broadcast channels. With IPTV, you can stream live TV, on-demand movies/shows, and more directly through an internet connection.

How does IPTV work?

IPTV works by sending TV signals over a dedicated high-speed internet connection. Rather than coming through a cable box or satellite dish, the video streams are delivered through IPTV apps or devices connected to your network. IPTV uses streaming technology so you can access content on many different devices.

What are the benefits of switching to IPTV?

Some key benefits of switching to IPTV include: lower monthly costs, no contracts or hidden fees, unlimited access to thousands of channels and on-demand titles, ability to stream on multiple devices simultaneously, interactive viewing features, access content worldwide, and freedom to cancel anytime.

Do I need any special equipment for IPTV?

Most IPTV services do not require any special equipment. You can enjoy IPTV on smart TVs, media streamers like Roku/Firestick, smartphones, tablets, computers and more. Many IPTV providers offer plug-and-play devices or HDMI sticks that make setup easy if needed.

How much does IPTV cost compared to cable?

IPTV services are much more affordable compared to traditional cable. Average costs range from $10-$50 per month depending on the package. With cable, fees can quickly add up to $100+ per month especially once you add equipment rentals, DVR service fees, hidden charges etc.

What kind of technical support do IPTV providers offer?

Most IPTV providers have exceptional customer support including 24/7 technical assistance via live chat, phone, email, and tutorials. This ensures a smooth setup process and helps troubleshoot any issues that arise during your service.

Is it difficult to cancel IPTV service?

One perk of IPTV is that there are no contracts so you can cancel anytime without early termination fees. Most services allow you to cancel directly through your account dashboard with just a click of a button. The cancellation process is quick and easy.

How many devices can stream IPTV simultaneously?

Most IPTV providers allow 2–5 concurrent streams depending on the plan. This means different family members can watch on multiple devices in or away from home at the same time. Streaming is unlimited so you never have to worry about going over a “cap”.

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newworldproductions · 23 days

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Recently wrapped up an on location shoot just outside Chicago capturing green screen video for use in a presentational video for a clients up and coming conference.

Producing out of state video production shoots often involves determining what you pack up and bring along with on your flight, and where you can locate a near by video rental house for acquiring the gear that's just too heavy and or large to travel with.

In the end, everything went as planned!

#minneapolis video production #minnesota video production #promotional video production #video production services #promotional video services #video production minneapolis #video marketing #video services #video production #video production minnesota

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findinginga · 3 months

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“If the ending is this painful…

...I don’t know if this was worth it all.” Dustin Thao (You've Reached Sam)

"Goin' to Chicago. Sorry I can't take you..." (Count Basie and Jimmy Rushing)

I was approaching Chicago in the early evening of 4 December. Driving the last stretch of I-65 north through Northwest Indiana, a light snow began to fall. Passing the many interchanges in the area, I arrived at the exit to I-90 and, shortly after, the toll booth at the Chicago Skyway. The silhouettes of downtown Chicago buildings could be clearly seen despite through the periodic snow flurries. I made my way to the short-term apartment for which I had negotiated a rental agreement weeks before. I selected accommodations within a half city block of the emergency department doors. At least I would have a short walk.

Over the following days I easily fell into a work routine after meeting staff and getting familiar with the hospital geography. When last I worked in the area, the very old and antiquated county facility was still in operation. The new hospital complex was an environment with which I had no experience; however, I was able to "get up to speed" without much difficulty.

The days passed quickly with the exception of one brutally cold week which made even my short walk a little painful. The wind which blows through the city at this time of the year is known as "The Hawk" for good reason. Christmas 2022 was quickly upon me and then passed without anything to note. Inga and I continued to exchange messages; although, the occasional video calls that Inga would initiate, as she was walking to school to retrieve Eva, had to be stopped as I was generally in the area of the hospital and had to be sensitive to confidentiality issues. Over this entire time I had not broached the topic of Inga's early November trip to St. Petersburg. I was avoiding confrontation with her so as not to lose focus on the work before me. As it was now nearly impossible to send parcels to Russia via the usual carriers, I had to rely upon Inga to secure a gift for Eva in preparation for the arrival of Father Christmas

The new year, 2023, arrived with Inga and I exchanging New Year's Eve greetings at about 6:00 pm (midnight in Pskov). An hour later, I began covering a shift in the emergency department. Between my temporary assignment in Chicago and ongoing research-related work in which I was engaged, time seemed to accelerate. However, I still allowed ample time to communicate with Inga even though our exchanges were light and breezy. There was no discussion of securing visas even though I would occasionally forward available real estate listings for different regions of Cyprus to solicit Inga's opinion and, perhaps, action, despite my ever growing doubts of her sincerity. Her responses had the character as though she were "shining me on" so; there was little reason to constantly revisit the topic.

Throughout this time I continued to provide financial support to Inga in the only legal way that was available. This required my purchase of Bitcoin and then the electronic transfer to Inga who would redeem the Bitcoin for rubles. It was a mystery to me as to just how Inga was making these transactions. One of the facts uncovered by PI Lab investigators was that Inga did not have a TIN which is supposedly required to create financial accounts within the Russian Federation. This was highlighted to me in a previous report where it was noted that Denis traveled to Aktau, Kazakhstan on 16 September 2022. He remained for one day, apparently to create a bank account through a Non-Resident Mutual Assistance agreement. It would be inappropriate of me to suggest some sort of conspiracy between Inga and Denis on this matter but it does imply an odd coincidence.

With the arrival of February, things got strange...once again!

As I approached my last few weeks in Chicago I began to perceive a shift in the tenor of Inga's messages. Over the previous weeks she had been mostly upbeat but she was progressively becoming more distracted by personal issues. Of course, Inga would not speak of the details even though she would mention that she was experiencing some form of conflict. What little she did share gave the impression that it was a problem with the apartment in which she and Eva were living. She suggested that she may be forced to move, expressing her frustration that the owner was suddenly becoming difficult. When I asked her to elaborate on this, she quickly parried my questions and minimized the issue. I could have, maybe should have, pursued this with more vigor. After all, I knew that the flat in which Inga, Eva and Denis had been living was owned by the father of Denis. I did not keep it a secret that I learned of these property ownerships through the work of the investigators. It may have been Inga was being purposefully provocative in speaking about her apartment issues. It seemed she wanted me aware of a problem and a potential move without revealing much else.

Related to the concerns Inga was expressing regarding her living situation was the unsolved mystery of asset distribution secondary to the divorce decree. As I have previously written, according to Russian Federation law, marital assets are to be equally divided in the event of divorce in the absence of a superseding agreement. This raised the question as to why Inga would be fretting over such matters when she should have assets with which to work. This is assuming the divorce was more than just a legal contrivance, which the PI Lab investigators were speculating was the case. Mikhail Levko remarked, on more than one occasion, that the divorce was legal but seemed "odd" by not dealing with asset distribution.

Another trip to Saint Petersburg

On 17 February 2023, Inga informed me that she and Eva were traveling to St. Petersburg over the weekend. Inga stated they were traveling with the express purpose of visiting the Cypriot Consulate. This seemed rather odd as the consulate offices are not open over the weekend. It would be necessary for her to remain through Monday 20 February. Given the way Inga framed her plans, I contacted PI Labs as her reasoning seemed just an attempt to placate any suspicions I may have had regarding her motives.

Mikhail produced a summary report of Inga's trip almost immediately after her return to Pskov:

We received information from the surveillance cameras of the St. Petersburg city monitoring centre. The monitoring centre checked for the presence of either the Skoda and Volvo vehicles registered to Denis. According to the centre, the Skoda with number E 244 KU 60 was fixed by surveillance cameras in the period from 18.02.2023 to 20.02.2023. On 18.02 2023, at 15:00, the Skoda arrived in the city of St. Petersburg. On 19.02.2023, at 09:40, the car began driving from Repischeva Street, 11/9. The car proceeded to the city center, then at 13:00 arrived at MEGA DYBENKO shopping mall, located on Murmonsky highway. There was an exhibition of pictures and photos in the shopping mall and this may have been the reason for their travel.

20.02.2023 at 13:00 the Skoda and occupants left the city of St. Petersburg, in the direction of the city of Pskov.

Given the limited amount of time spent in St. Petersburg, the trip seemed purposeful, but not to apply for visas. Once again we see Inga and Denis traveling together and, while in St. Petersburg, staying at the home of Inga's brother, Nikita. Whatever issues to which Inga alluded the previous days related to Denis or his father, it appears not to have influenced this trip as a family.

A further report by PI Labs confirmed that no visa application was received for Inga and Eva by the Cypriot consulate.

Suddenly, a trip to Sochi...

Shortly before my planned departure from Chicago, Inga announced that she and Eva would be traveling to Sochi for a few days. When I initially asked her the purpose of the hastily planned trip, Inga replied by stating that she made the travel arrangements almost a year prior and she she needed to make the trip to avoid losing the money previously spent. It is important to note that a few weeks later, Inga would emphatically deny having made this claim. As I distinctly remembered the discussion I searched archived messages only to find these comments by Inga written 24 February 2022:

Ingeborga: Each day wake up and get shocked more and more Ingeborga: They closed Sochi airport! I have to go there in a few days

Indeed, she had planned a trip to Sochi the year before but because air travel was halted, she was unable to make the trip. It was unclear to me as to why Inga would attempt to gaslight me with her denial. Inga eventually described the purpose of the trip as an attempt to look for a job and how she had been disappointed by friends. How much of it all was true, will remain an unknown.

Okay, I am done...there is no point!

At about 7:00 am on 26 February 2023, I had loaded up the car and was headed toward the entrance of the Dan Ryan Expressway. I would have about 14 hours to drive and think. I concluded that my first step would be to cease all financial support. The last Bitcoin purchase and transfer made was the day before and I vowed it would be the last. I could not be sure how it was being used or even who who was using it There appeared to be no serious effort being made by Inga to change her living situation. I had given her options and was willing to support her in making the change. But she demonstrated no initiative on the matter betraying her true intentions. It was the trip to Cancun all over again - say anything but do nothing. For the time being, I would remain silent about my decisions and assess Inga's reactions for change.

A few days after my return from Chicago I was able to settle back into a routine at home. Inga and I continued to exchange messages but Inga was reporting more stress and announced an imminent move to an apartment she described as "dirty". Within the same time frame, Inga communicated that she had lost her phone - an iPhone that I previously purchased and shipped to her. Following that announcement, Inga purged the entire communication thread between us on Telegram. When I asked the reason for her actions she claimed that she wanted to be sure that if her phone was found, it would not contain any sensitive financial information. Okay, sure!!!

My understanding of Inga, which evolved through a long period of observation and personal pain, told me that these were not a random series of events. The inevitable confrontation occurred. It was necessary for me to withdraw from regular contact with Inga. It was necessary for me to stop assisting her. I had been feeding her narcissistic supply with a steady stream of high availability along with emotional and financial support.

I was guilty of being Inga's enabler!

#relationship #pskov #dating scam #narcissistic sociopath #ingeborga #scam #npd #reshetnikov #jewellerysiren #lopatyuk #covert npd #sochi

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