A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

Ana smiled smugly and said, "Oh, Vendar thinks he's hot stuff, but if I did need to kill him, it wouldn't be hard and there wouldn't be a mess. But no, we didn't fight it out. He was all worried about something silly. Typical of him, but he's stuffy like that."

Vendar blinked in surprise at the fist flying at his face. He rocked back on his heels as the fist smashed into the Force field he created effortlessly.

"Oh, dear. Did that hurt?" Vendar asked dryly.

-----

"It's simple. We'll go where I saw Malcolm die. Jack is bound to be around there somewhere," Moira said brightly and hurried out of the bakery.

"That's a fantastic plan," Pandora grumbled. "Can't see how that could possibly go wrong. And I'll just sit here and hope the homicidal death god can't break through time locks. Have fun."

-----

"Naughty boy!" Miss Lucinda exclaimed and tapped a charm on her bracelet. A silver crucifix materialized in midair in front of Simon's face.

"There's no need for theatrics and machismo, dearie. I have blood for you right here in my purse. Would you like it warmed? I can do that for you if you like it all steamy and warm like it was just gushing out of a ruptured common carotid artery. And do try not to startle the Tibetan thunder goddess. There are several small mountain villages that now resemble smoking crunchy ruins because someone tapped her on the shoulder when she was thinking hard."

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

Matthew's punch, argumented with force powers smashed against the Force field, with the strength ten men. His fist exploaded in a splattering of blood, he groaned before saying "No duh" before drawing his lightsaber "Oh I'm sorry! I mistook you for a dwarf!" he said some what dementedly.

The Return of the Fountain Fellowship

Stretch walked into the Cup & Platter and waved at Cale, who nodded at Stretch, before asking the Werewolf "What can I get you" with a smile.

((Ugg, so short... Need insperatation...))

((Bah! Lack of inspiration is just an excuse not to write. ))

Return of the Fountain Fellowship

Kay waited for orders to come in. And waited. And waited. And waited....

Let's just say she was waiting for awhile.

Return of the Fountain Fellowship

Raven smiled back at the fellow who asked her what she would like. "A menu, if you have one," she said. "Is it usually this quiet here, or will this place fill up fast?"

Return of the Fountain Fellowship

Cale nodded and handed her a menu "Well about this time the factory workers pour in" as if on que a group of men trudged through the door. He grinned and then added "And here come's Charles, our waiter... He's always late" the man ran through the door as he spoke "Sorry, my speeder broke down and I had to run!" Cale began passing order notes to Kay.

((I'll let you decide what they are sweet ))

Return of the Fountain Fellowship

Kay spied Stretchy from her place in the kitchen and waved at him before beginning to dish up the orders.

Luckily, she'd guessed almost exactly correct on what kind of orders everyone would want. Just characteristic type things. She only had to make one strange dish: stewed blue kale. That was quick, though, so it was alright.

"Order up!" Kay called out, sliding the plates onto the finished order counter.

Restart

When Tyler stood suddenly, Dotty's eyes darted towards him to watch him. The hostility in his eyes made her wary of what he would do now that he knew. She did not answer his question for a long while; she had to make sure that he wouldn't spring out of the room in a split second before she broke the silence that she hoped cooled him off.

"Are you going to make me regret telling you this?" she asked him tensely. Every action Dotty had ever done had always been acted out through careful planning. In planning things, she always knew what to expect, and even in the event it didn't go according to plan, she still held no regrets because she was not taken completely off guard. Now everything was in limbo, and regret was never more real for Dotty than the look on Tyler's face.

~~~~~~

Mary Jane was never more speechless as she was when Chase said he needed her. No one had ever told her that she was needed. It had always been a given; a given she would have liked to have heard at times, and hearing it now almost made her wonder why she was leaving at all.

"You. . . need me?" It was like she didn't hear anything else that he said, which was true, and she had to repeat it so she knew that she wasn't imagining it. Her lips trembled faintly as she shook her head. "I don't understand," she whispered. "We hardly know each other. . ."

~~~~~~

Shrugging his surfboard closer underneath his arm, Shane grinned in spite of himself. "I always know what I am doing," he said purposefully, glancing down at Layla. "Have no fear."

Inside the elevator, John Luke hopped around the box as Shane lugged his stuff in. "First floor, please bellhopper," he requested, and John Luke, eager to please, smacked the first button. Grinning, he grabbed Layla's hands as he continued to bounce bunny-like.

"Swimming! Swimming! I go swimming!" he cried gleefully.

Restart

Ty sighed heavily and ran both hands over his face, feeling about a hundred years old. Forcing himself to calm down, he sat back down and fingered the hospital sheet, frowning slightly as he looked into Dotty's face.

"I-I don't know what to do, Dotty," he admitted. "But all I know is that you can't stay there. Look, you may hate me or whatever, but please come stay with me for a little while. Just a little while. And let me help you find a way out of this. You don't have to stay with the Withers. They don't deserve you anyway." He paused, wondering if that was a compliment or an insult. He hoped she would take it as a compliment.

----

Chase blushed. "Yeah, well, I've kinda been, like, in love with you since the moment I first saw you?" He hadn't meant for it to come out like a question, but it did. He sagged against the wall, unable to hold himself up anymore. He tightened his grip around his side, wincing at the pain in his ribs.

"And it was like, really awesome when we became lab partners and then you agreed to go bowling with me and I'm sorry it got all messed up and then you found out about my brain thingy and now you're all freaked out, but I didn't mean you to be so I won't really mind if you leave now and never want to see me again, but I wish you wouldn't because I'd be really sad and who knows what affect that could have on my brain? Not that I'm trying to guilt you into staying or anything, I'm just saying . . . but now I'm rambling aren't I? You probably want me to shut up now, and I feel like I'm going to pass out anyway so . . ."

He slumped to the floor, all the breath gone from his lungs. He took a deep, shaky breath and shook his head, trying to clear the dark spots that were swimming around in his vision.

----

Layla couldn't help but smile at John Luke's enthusiasm.

"Yes, I'm sure Shane has a great time in store for us," she said, but she watched Shane warily.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Restart

Dotty's uneasiness relaxed somewhat when Tyler finally sat down, but only as much as the feeling of a fish out of water felt like to a fish who did not know what to do with air and was about to surrender to the inevitable.

"You think this is all going to go away if I leave them?" Despite herself, she snorted. "Gee, why haven't I thought of that before? I've only run away like a few hundred times. Sure, why not," she shrugged her shoulders, sarcasm dripping in her voice. "The Withers will probably get the picture now if I try to run."

So tired of looking for solutions, she closed her eyes and sighed. Her tired body begged for reprieve. "Tyler, look at me," she commanded him softly, not even looking to see if he was doing it. "I can hardly move, let alone try to walk. The doctor said that for the beating alone I'll be stuck in the hospital for a week, and that's if I can get a transplant in time before an infection sets in.

"Whether Bradley wanted me in this bed or not doesn't matter," she finished at a pause. "He has me where he wants me. And there's nothing I can do about it." The resignation in her voice surprised herself, but the truth held a finality that even she couldn't ignore.

~~~~~~

If she was a cursing sort of person like her brother Shane, Mary Jane would be cursing herself out when Chase fell to the floor. With the shock of his announcement of having a crush on her, she hardly noticed that he was on the verge of passing out, and she quickly tried to grab him to stop his fall.

"Jenna!" she called out as she touched Chase's forehead. She didn't like the way his eyes looked like they were swimming. "It's Chase, come quickly!"

~~~~~~

"You bet," Shane concurred with a confident nod. "Only the best for the MacShanes."

Restart

"We could do like, witness protection or something," Ty said desperately. "Tell the police and they'll put Bradley away and Shelby into a good home . . . maybe she can even come with you. And you can get good care. With, like, really good doctors." He reached over and touched the back of her hand lightly.

"You're the most stubborn person I know. Don't give up now."

----

"I'm . . . okay," Chase said, taking a deep breath between the words.

Jenna rushed out of the kitchen and knelt beside her brother, frowning as she pressed her hand against his cheek. "You're burning up," she told him flatly. "What are you doing off the couch anyway?"

Chase pointed at MJ. "She was leaving," he said petulantly. "I had to stop her."

Jenna sighed in exasperation. "Well, you stopped her. Now let's get you back to the couch. In fact, it'd be better if you were in bed." She looked over at MJ. "Help me get him into his room, will you?"

Chase groaned in protest but he was in no shape to argue or fight back so he allowed Jenna to pull him to his feet, leaning on her small frame heavily.

----

"How nice of you to flaunt your money in front of the less fortunate," Layla muttered underneath her breath. Then she started, wondering where that I had come from. She blushed deeply, turning her face away and thinking she should have kept her mouth shut. The MacShanes had been good to her and her family. It was wrong to say such things about them.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Restart

At Tyler's suggestion of the witness protection program, Dotty had to laugh. Even though she smiled for the first time that evening, her expression of humor came out weak. "You watch too much TV," she informed him, barely looking at him from under her eyelashes.

The sandman was suddenly working overtime on her. She could faintly hear the sand-truck backing up for a better angle at her heavy eyelids.

~~~~~~

"Of course," Mary Jane murmured, mostly for herself to hear as she mentally began berating herself for being a complete airhead. Slipping one arm over her shoulders, she helped Jenna cart Chase to his room. Between the two of them, they shouldn't have had as much trouble as they did, but they were lugging a dead weight Chase rather than his usual bubbly self and that was hard on Mary Jane, who normally didn't carry anything heavier than John Luke.

Once they got Chase into his room, though, it was easier because they could immediately deposit him on his bed since it was a small room. Quickly after they situated him, Mary Jane without a word hurried to the kitchen to make a cool-pack for him. The many situations with John Luke getting sick practically prepared her for a moment like this, but other than cooling a fever down what else could she do? She didn't know what to do about a brain tumor...

Shaking her head, she chastised herself for thinking about that. She had done enough damage with freaking out to make Chase more sick than he already was. It should be criminal to cause that kind of damage.

"Here," Mary Jane offered to Jenna when she returned, cool-pack extended with a towel wrapped around it. "We need to get that temperature down."

~~~~~~

"Ouch," Shane exclaimed hurtfully, his hand covering his heart. "Did that feel good? I hope it did because you obviously wanted to say that for a while."

Restart

Ty silently berated himself for keeping Dotty awake when she obviously needed rest. Hesitantly, he smoothed down her sheets, awkward in the art of tucking someone in. He hadn't tucked her into bed since they were kids back at the orphanage. It felt rather nostalgic.

"Get some sleep," he said gruffly, as tenderness got stuck in his throat on the way up. "You'll probably feel better afterwards. Physically at least."

----

Jenna took the cold-pack gratefully. "Thanks," she said. "You're handy in a pinch." She put the pack on Chase's forehead, stroking away the brown hair gently. "There you go, Chasy," she said softly. "Does that feel better?"

Chase frowned slightly. "You don't have to sound so . . . patronizing," he complained weakly. "I'm not . . . a baby."

Jenna rolled her eyes. "You're always a baby when you're sick or hurt. Now go to sleep. You need rest." She waited until Chase had obeyed her before turning to look at MJ with an unreadable expression.

"I heard what he said to you," she said after a moment. "And I guess now I'm wondering what you're going to do about it." She sat back, but kept a hand on the bed, close to Chase's hand, as if ready to take it and protect him against anything MJ might say wrong.

----

Layla flushed even darker, her face almost matching her red hair. "I-I . . . I shouldn't have said that," she amended quickly. "It was rude and uncalled for."

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Restart

Sleep began to cover Dotty like a blanket, heavy and restrained. She did not realize as she stired slightly for a better position that it was Tyler tucking her in. It would be just like the Sandman to tie her down before she tried anything funny.

Not comfortable where she was, she started to roll over to lay on her stomach like she was used to do but settled on her side since her ribs objected. Her hand brushed against Tyler's as his hand passed by hers, almost grabbing it as she pulled the sheets out of his hands and closer to her face. His hand was warmer than she thought a fictitious person would be however. . .

"What about you?" she mumbled.

~~~~~~

Under Jenna's interrogative gaze, Mary Jane hardly knew where to look, let alone knew how to answer that question. Looking around the room, she bought some time as she found a place to sit, a bed across from Chase's was the only thing available and the only place she felt a suitable distance between herself and Chase's protective sister.

"I-I don't know," she replied honestly after a while. She wrung her hands uneasily. "I don't know what I should do. I've never been in a situation like this. . ."

~~~~~~

"But brutally honest," Shane pointed out, his joshing smirk not disappearing despite the serious issue at hand. "And that's a lot to be said for a nanny."

Return of the Fountain Fellowship

Raven set into her breakfast. It took a little getting used to, the idea of eating in a public building with strangers all around, but on the plus side she didn't need someone to test her food first.

She studied the cook intently for a minute. As far as Raven could tell, she didn't look the part of an assassin. All the same, she kept an eye on those nearby while she ate.

Return of the Fountain Fellowship

The main morning rush was mostly over, and Kay set the remaining breakfast food to warm and came out to talk to the customers.

Talking to people was something that Kay did well--at least, that she enjoyed. She found it fascinating how every person had a complex backstory to their life, even if they seemed quite boring on the surface. And somehow, Kay had to ability to dig deeper into them.

"Hey!" Kay greeted Raven as she cleaned off the counters with a wet sponge. "You're new around here, right?"