a flower that blooms in adversity

“I have a feeling you’ll stay on your feet longer, but I think that sounds like a deal I’d happily take,” he said, feeling better at the prospect of them learning – or relearning – how to be comfortable skating on the rink together. He wanted them to come here to have fun, after all, and if that meant falling on their ass, then he could live with that. With a smile, Nate went to the counter and paid for both their skates, telling the man his skate size and taking a seat on a nearby bench once he had them. “So if skating isn’t any more your thing than mine, is there something you’re looking forward to doing this year? The town always has a lot going on for the holidays.”

“I think you overestimate my ability to stand upright.” Gemma snorted, an unladylike noise escaping her lips as she sat on the bench next to him, attempting to lace up her skates tight enough to keep from rolling an ankle. “I really like looking at Christmas lights? My mom and I used to drive around and look at the houses decorated in whatever town at the time. I like seeing how everyone chooses to decorate.”

“What happened to that pack?” Alex asked, although at her very core she felt like she already knew the truth because she knew Morgan. “I never knew he had any other children. I just thought it was me and Aurora. Morgan was married to my mother. I grew up under his iron fist. My mother and grandfather, who was also an alpha of a powerful pack, passed away when I was very young. He always told me that they’d died of natural causes. I would learn later on that he’d murdered them both. That’s when I ran, he’s been hunting me for the last thirty years.” Alex explained as she nodded her head. “I wish I could say any of this was surprising but when it comes Morgan I learned to not expect anything from him.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about my mom’s past and she’s dead, so it’s not like I can ask her.” Gemma took a steadying breath and stilled the foot that had started tapping, “I knew we were running from something, but I never felt the need to ask. Had I known how things would end up, I probably would have asked a question or two. Hindsight, right?” At the mention of Aurora, Gemma couldn’t help but feel a pang for the woman in front of her... her sister. Something she was going to have to get used to. “What a great man Morgan seems to be. Truly sad I missed growing up with him.” She couldn’t help the sarcasm that seeped into her voice, the twang in her heart noticeable as she tried to remember that none of this was Alex’s fault. That Gemma might not even be alive if it hadn’t been for Alex’s rescue being extended to her as well.

“Oh shit, Gem..” she murmured quietly, the news taking even Pippa off guard, so she couldn’t imagine how Gemma felt about the situation. “God, how the hell has no one taken him out yet? Point me in his direction, I’ll use my voodoo and stab him.” she replied, knowing she wouldn’t hesitate to use her power on the man. “Have you considered, maybe looking into him? Try and get ahead of it, so you know what’s out there?”

“From the way it sounds, if anyone could actually get their hands on him, he’d be dead. He’s some big bad werewolf guy. For two years I had to see him regularly, held captive because he wanted me to join his pack. Like, no, that’s not going to be a thing, asshole.” She huffed and sunk lower into the seat, nose scrunching. “At this point, I don’t even know if I want to know more about him. My mother is dead because of him and I know if I saw him again, I don’t think I could stop myself from actually killing him.”

“I can definitely arrange that.” Elena smiled as she linked her arm with Gemma’s and practically skipped up to the bar, dragging her along with her. Ordering two shots, she smiled as she handed one to the other woman. “We’ll start with this and then we can order something else. Drinks are on me tonight.” she beamed.

Gemma let herself be pulled, trailing behind Elena as she laughed, a deeper laugh than she’d had in ages. Shot in hand, she held it up to the Original with a grin. “I’ll drink to that.”

Being back in Hollow Grove, even after being gone for a couple of months, was always a great feeling for Elena. As much as she loved her independence and her freedom, this town was home, and not just because of her siblings who resided here, there were many more people in town that she had grown to love over the years and being near them always made her happy too.  Being in the Hair of the Dog also made her happy and as she moved around the bar the blonde hummed the chorus to Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody, just as she saw someone walking her way. “Hey you! Dance with me?” 

Gemma found herself walking into Hair of the Dog with a desire for a beer and people watching, but what she hadn’t anticipated was the newly returned Elena requesting a dance. Swerving her path slightly, she chuckled as she came to a halt in front of the Original. “I think I may need alcohol before I dance.”

“I can’t remember the last time I went skating.” The ice skating rink was a wonderful idea, but he realized now as he watched everyone skating on the ice that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to rent a pair of skates or not and go out there himself. He turned to the person next to him. “What do you think? If I try and end up falling, how hard would you laugh?”

Gemma had never actually been on a rink, her Christmas holidays generally spent working without much time for play. When Nate had mentioned it, she’d jumped at the opportunity, even just to hang out because she wasn’t convinced she could actually get on the ice. At his words, she chuckled, “I would laugh mildly, but what if I make you a deal? We go together? I will probably bust my ass and then we can laugh at each other.”

“People overlook it and then it gets them.” Finding something to joke about when it came to electing the next mayor of Hollow Grove was easier than allowing himself to start thinking about all the ways the election could go wrong. There was a slim chance they could end up with someone worse than Cresswell. “It wouldn’t be Hollow Grove if there weren’t some strange candidates thrown into the mix. If this town hadn’t gone through all the crap it has since 2016 I might actually think it would be funny to have one of them win. Other than Mrs. Henderson.”

At the mention of Mrs. Henderson, Gemma scrunched her nose. “That woman is terrifying. I’ve only ever seen her and never actually spoken to her and she’s just scary.” Gemma knew who she was voting for, happy to help vote in someone who she thought would be good for the town, though she knew a handful seemed like they’d be just fine. “Has anyone ever considered this town may actually be cursed? I got caught up on all the things that happened over the last few years and it seems like so much for one town to go through.”

“True. Yeah, cookies sound like the perfect place to start.” A bunch of those could easily fill maybe half of the counter space, and they could make them as festive or as ordinary as they wanted. Thumbing through ingredients and recipes, Luna tried to look and see what all they could make. “Let’s see…we can do chocolate chip, sugar, gingerbread…oh! Definitely some chocolate crinkle cookies.” She laid out the different recipes for them to peruse when they wanted. “Is there anything you’ve been looking forward to making? I’m good with all of it, so I don’t really have a preference.”

Gemma snagged a bag of the chocolate chips and opened it, sprinkling a handful before popping them straight into her mouth with a grin. “I do love a good sugar cookie, and we can ice them! Make them absolutely adorable!” She set the bag down onto the counter and reached to pull a few recipes towards her. “Definitely crinkle cookies, those sound delicious!”

“Solid advice.” she replied with a grin, though the news that Gemma shared next had her choking on her drink, “Wait, what? Repeat, what?”

Gemma scrunched her nose and felt her eyebrows knit together as she gripped the cup in front of her, sighing noisily. “Yeah, took me by surprise to. Turns out my dear old psychotic father had another child. Wouldn’t surprise me if there were more after learning what type of man he is. Never expected to find out about a sibling though, especially one who lives in Hollow Grove. Small world right?”

“This is actually my first time in here so I’m going to have to work on trying everything they have.” As he took down the note in his journal, he smiled back at her as he looked up from the notebook. “I may have actually tried the lemon poppy seed muffins over at Java the Cup. I can’t say I recognize you from any of my visits there since I’ve been to town but have you been? It’s got a rather nice atmosphere and except for a run-in I wasn’t expecting, it was, by far, my favorite place in this town.” Given the chance to run his mouth, Ivan could be found to ramble about his favorite things. It wasn’t often anymore that he’d bother random people with his words, much preferring to just observe and talk when spoke to but given that she offered him not one, but two recommendations, he felt compelled to overshare what he knew of this little town already.

“That doesn’t sound like the worst idea in the world, especially when everything is really quite tasty.” She watched him writing for a moment, catching his eyes as he looked back up at her, happy to give him any recommendations. “Oh I love Java the Cup! Wyatt was one of the first people I really got to interact with when I got to town.” She chuckled softly and shook her head, “I haven’t been in ages. I’m always at work so I don’t have much time to go and just sit and enjoy the atmosphere.”

Alex simply stood there, in the doorway, her ears peeled as Briar slept soundly in her room. She needed to ensure that if things went south she could protect the sleeping child but ten feet from them right now. “He’s done a lot worse to people who couldn’t be more loyal to him,” Alex said quietly as she stared at Gemma. Gemma didn’t know that though because she didn’t know Morgan which was a solid indication that she wasn’t a double agent. “So it’s a fair question, given he kept you in the house and not the cells. It meant you were important to him.” Alex asked with a shrug of her shoulders, Alex knew because she and Alex T had been locked away in the dark dirty cells slowly rotting away. “Did you know him? Before that time in that house?” She asked trying to understand where this story went and what this all meant. 

Gemma crossed her arms over her chest to keep from fiddling with her clothing as she listened to Alex speak, truly flabbergasted at the thought that she could have known Morgan. She didn’t know the other woman’s story, but she would never understand how someone could have willingly stood beside Morgan. “I’d never even heard of him until he was standing in my mother’s kitchen. I can only imagine he’s the reason I spent my entire life running from my mom’s past.” Gemma found herself retreating into her memories for a moment, wondering if her mother had been running from herself or from Morgan and their past. “She never talked about my father, but she told me stories of my uncle Joaquin and their pack he was Alpha of, but we never talked about why we always bounced around. It was just how I grew up.”

The days since running into Holly had sort of passed in a haze. One in which Ivan found himself avoiding the new coffee shop he had found himself spending so much time in. She had asked him to leave but there wasn’t another place calling to him, Hollow Grove was feeling like a good enough fit. She had talked about having a new job and friends here and he had no plans to derail any of that for her, hell that hadn’t been his plan the first time around. But in giving up the coffee shop for a while, he needed somewhere new to sit full of amazing smells, possible chance for coffee and plenty of people to watch. He found himself occupying a table in the bakery, slightly near the counter so he could stare at all the sweets just waiting for somebody to claim them.

“Excuse me. What would you say is good here? Or, more to the point, what would you say is your favorite thing? I’ve been trying to decide on what I want for the last ten minutes and it all just looks so good.”  

Gemma glanced up from her phone, looking to see if she was the one being spoken to. Finding herself staring at the man, she gave him a slight smile, “I’d eat them out of bread if I could, but they also have absolutely wonderful lemon poppyseed muffins.” She’d not seen him around as she took in his features, but she hadn’t seen many people around considering how she never truly went many places besides work and the Greyson’s. He could have been new in town, or he could have been here forever, but Gemma was always happy to give someone food recommendations, it was the one thing in life she’d really stuck with. 

Since Monster Bash she’d been having a hard time once more leaving the house. Even more so with taking on Briar full time since Scout had turned off his humanity. She knew that she couldn’t live like this, in constant fear, that at some point she’d need to overcome it. Hearing the knock at the door it jostled her from her thoughts and with great hesitation, she moved to the door and opened it slowly to find Gemma on the other side. Their last encounter had left her in shock and she wasn’t quite ready to face the music on what she’d learned but she knew it wasn’t the other girl’s fault. “You’re not working with him, right? I mean the whole prisoner thing wasn’t a ruse so we’d bring you back here and you could get inside?” Alex asked calmly, she knew if that was the case the other woman wasn’t going, to be honest, but she needed to ask at the very least. Given that her own flesh and blood Sister had been hunting her all this time.

Gemma reeled at the other werewolf’s words, taken aback as she felt her face contort into what could only be described at pure disgust. “Excuse me? You think I’d willingly work with a man who killed the only two people in my life who actually cared about me?” She understood where Alex was coming from, at least on a level she wasn’t currently operating on she could understand, but at the moment, the blonde could only feel a hazy anger at the thought of someone thinking she was working with Morgan. A man she’d actively spent two years learning to loathe. “I don’t know you, hell, I don’t know if I want to know you, but there has never been a point in the time I was stuck with that man, that I ever wanted something more than to be rid of him. My mother is dead because of him, my step father, who was a human who just happened to fall in love with a werewolf with a past was sucked into all of this because of the woman he loved. I want to rip the heart from his chest with my bare hands and then dance on his grave.” 

“Yeah, I think I’ll look her up…probably not now though.” she reasoned, things getting a little too intense over the other side of her restaurant. “Anyway, enough about me how are you ?”

“I mean, the more I think about it, the more I think now might really actually be a terrible idea. BUT, if you see her around town again, that means it was meant to happen.” Gemma shrugged slightly, tilting her head as she closed one eye in thought, “Life is absolutely the same, though, I did just find out I have a sister, so I guess that’s something new.”

“Tinder is that dating app thing, right? I heard someone mention it in passing the other day. I don’t even know what I would put… what do other people have on their Tinder’s?”

“What makes you think I can’t handle him on my own? If presented with the chance again, I’d rip the heart from his chest without a second thought.”

“What is D&D? Doesn’t that mean death and destruction?”