#bringthecain

Send one for my muse’s reaction to yours…✘ = hugging them For @bringthecain

Axel had immersed himself into repairing one of the cities dwindling supply of automobiles, head tucked beneath the propped up hood and leaning way over, hands working deep within the body of the beast. Blindly he grabbed for a tool he knew was positioned on the edge of the desk nearby and finished off tightening the piece when a sound nearby startled him and he jumped, slamming his head against the open hood and whirling on the intruder with the wrench held like a weapon. 

“Shit, Princess, scared me half to death,” he scowled, lowering the wrench while his free hand went to rub the back of his, now aching, skull. She didn’t say anything though, instead just gliding forward and wrapping her arms around his middle. It caught him a bit off guard but it was comforting all the same, which was certainly her angle with this. After a few awkward seconds he wrapped his arms around her as well, heaving a sigh as a simple smile touched his lips. “I’m fine, Charlotte. Really,” he said - though he didn’t make any move to let her go. 

Usually she wouldn't have gone out of her way to find out who it was, but after everything they'd all gone through together, she figured there was no harm in finding out.

Oh how wrong she had been.

She didn’t need help.  Even in the partial safety provided by the shelter, free of infected, and by the numbers surrounding her, some of them even familiar faces from the city, to get help was to reveal weakness.  And although she knew some of those present, she was unfamiliar with far more, and in all honesty, she distrusted them all equally.  Even Eric, with whom she’d been close to all those years ago.  She didn’t know him now, and even if she had, it was far better not to trust anyone but herself, sometimes.  So when someone commented on her limp, or another noticed her dizzy spells, suggesting she go to the infirmary, Alex ignored them.  There was too much to be done, too much else to concern herself with, and if she could survive four months alone with these injuries, she was pretty sure she’d be just fine here.  Especially now that there was some hope.

Hope that if this many from Fall City had survived, and made their way here, then there was still a chance.  A chance that Charlotte had made it.  Of course, Alex had never once been someone for hope.  And though she tried to ignore it, the fact that so many from the city had already arrived and she had yet to see Char was constantly on her mind, putting dark, terrifying thoughts into her head.  She ignored them. There was nothing else to do, because to allow them in, to believe in the possibility that after all of this, she was dead, was unacceptable.  Which meant that she could not, would not, slow down, or stop to think.  If keeping busy was the only way to keep her from thinking the unthinkable, then she would keep busy.  It had always come easy to her anyways, though it was more difficult here, trapped in this hospital as she was with no ammo and nothing really to do that was well-suited to her.  But she had adapted.

That had been easy enough, until it wasn’t.  Eventually she had given up and succumbed to herself, going out on a run with another survivor, armed with only knives.  And it went well enough as far as encounters with infected, but her body chose to make its complaints known just as they were returning, a dizzy spell hitting as the approached the outside of the building; so severe that she had to lean on the wall just to keep upright, squeezing her eyes shut at the pain of it.  

It would have been far worse, if this had happened while they were amongst the infected, leaving her practically defenseless.  So when the other woman reminded her of the infirmary, Alex grit her teeth, and made her way there.  Either they could fix her or they couldn’t, but it was worth a try if it could stop the goddamn dizzy spells, and she would be lying if she said she wouldn’t love for something to be done about the constant ache in her ribs when she took breaths, or the seemingly permanent hunch to her steps from the fractures to her pelvis. So she went.  Through the door to the infirmary, and . . . oh.

“Are you sure?”

It was a quiet moment, and of course, Alex had felt it; the same thing she always felt when she was around Charlotte.  It was the same way she thought about the other woman, even when they weren’t together, but she wasn’t so foolish or idiotic or hopeless to ever actually say anything or actually act on that feeling.  She had ruined their chances long ago and even if she hadn’t, the zombie apocalypse had done a good enough job itself.  And yet . . . she could feel Char’s hand, reaching between her thighs, and touching, ever so lightly.  And the woman wasn’t even drunk.

Alexandra was restless.  Winter was approaching, and with it, Christmas (a holiday that she hadn’t cared to celebrate since leaving New Mexico until Charlotte), and more importantly, the New Year.  Another year, and she was still grounded at work.  It was awful, having to go into the agency day in and day out, with no field work and nothing much but paperwork and analysis and sitting at her desk.  It was a nightmare that was only worth it because of the end goal, and mostly likely, only tolerable because when she went home at the end of the day, there was actually someone waiting there.  Or someone she waited for, to be more accurate.  Charlotte was more of a workaholic than she was, though that would certainly change when Alex was finally cleared for field work again.  Of course, when that happened, she’d also spend much of her time out of the country, which would bring an altogether different question into their relationship, one that she had no intentions of addressing until that day came because the thought was painful.  She might not know much about longterm relationships with actual feelings, but she did know long-distance was difficult, and thought of possibly having to choose between Charlotte and her work was impossible.

So she avoided the thought entirely, throwing herself into their relationship as it was now, full of pain and love and loudness.  Fights and makeups like she had never experienced before.  Everything was uncertainty, but there was one thing she was certain of.  Alex was in love with Charlotte Cain.  She may have never loved another before, but the fluttering of her heart when she was around the other woman, the pain she felt when they fought and the warmth in her skin when they were near, the utter relief whenever they made up; when they got into bed and their touches on each other’s skin made everything else feel unimportant and irrelevant because there was nothing but them.  Those were the moments that made her realize her entire life up the this point had been worth it.  Even everything that had happened in Yalta, the loss of her field position; it was those moments with Charlotte that made even that worth it.

Which was why she already knew which jeweler she was planning to go to.  The second she was cleared for field work again, she would go.  Pick something that Charlotte would love, and offer the ring.  A promise, that even with her work, even if Alex was halfway across the world, it wouldn’t change how she felt about the other woman.  It wouldn’t change that Charlotte was her home.  Before her, marriage had never once been a consideration for Alex.  Even as a child, when her sisters had looked at wedding dresses in a catalogue, she had scoffed at them and gone back to her action novel, stolen from her brother’s bookshelf.  If her siblings saw her now, knew that she was thinking of proposal, they would not believe it.  But it was true.  And even if the time hadn’t come yet, she wanted to do something for Charlotte.  To make sure she knew.  Romantic expression had never been one of her strong points, but tonight she would make an effort.  

She’d planned it for nearly a week now.  An expensive, aged bottle of white Chardonnay had been purchased on her way home from work a few days ago, and the necessary ingredients for the menu she’d planned purchased today, after she’d checked out from work early.  Alex wasn’t the most skilled of chefs (nor did she at all enjoy cooking), but she could follow a recipe decently enough, and she knew Charlotte wouldn’t be home from work until a bit later, giving her enough time to have everything ready.  It would be four courses. Collard greens to start, followed by some hush puppies and then the main course, shrimp and grits with corn bread, and finished off with Georgia Peach Pie.  She’d found the recipes online, and hoped they would do the job of reminding Charlotte about the good parts of home.  

Long Ass List of Daredevil Sentence Starters

“Wow, you’re such a fucking great detective. I can’t believe you’re a scientist and figured that shit out.” Rico remarked in reply, brows arching and his demeanor giving off more of an asshole persona, she had called him out on it so naturally he had to confirm this in the manner of actually being a dick. “Gold star, bella.”

A sigh, low and almost exasperated but stillslightly warm in a sense. There were mixedfeelings the man held for the phrase thatCharlotte had just expressed, he could bean ass like normal or he could play into herlight banter.

                “Uhg, go away Anna.”