#~fic

A barely audible whimper escaped her quivering mouth as she stomped her heeled foot like a stubborn child that didn’t get what it wanted. On second thought, a child would have been easier to handle than an agitated and slightly panicked Miss Fisher who refused to cooperate even when it was for her own benefit.

Interrupting his musings, she unexpectedly turned around in a flash, fidgeting and flailing with her arms, the expression on her face transforming into one of disgust. “Urgh, I felt it moving! I can feel it crawling on my back, Jack, do something!”

The man in question couldn’t suppress a slightly exasperated eye roll, the one he had reserved specifically for Phryne-is-giving-me-grief situations. “Hold still, woman. I can’t see where it is if you keep moving around like a toddler.” To make a point and to stop her from moving, he did something risqué and stepped on the hem of her dress that, conveniently, reached all the way to the floor. He inwardly prayed she wouldn’t be miffed about it as long as he managed to get the spider off of her. What he didn’t anticipate, though, was that the jumping spider suddenly decided to switch location in one giant leap, only to end up on the side of her neck.

What happened next was akin to something out of his admittedly inappropriate night dreams that featured the lady detective quite frequently as of late. As soon as Phryne felt the ticklish little eight legs against her skin she let out a high pitched scream and leaped, practically imitating her arachnid nemesis, forward, as though hopping about like a bouncy ball would solve the problem. No, it caused another, entirely different one. The stretch between the hem of the dress trapped underneath his shoe and Phryne’s hasty movements caused the elasticity of the dress to yield. The fabric began to tear all the way from the bottom to the top seem where it connected with the strapless bodice hugging the curves of her torso. The dress lost its hold and layers of shiny, presumably expensive fabric fell off her body like the skin of a peeled onion. 

Phryne must have either not registered what had happened or simply did not care. Her fearful eyes flicking to and fro in desperate search for the sneaky creature. It must have escaped for good as it was no longer resting on the smooth expanse of her neck, Jack concluded almost enviously, after he had finally managed to tear his eyes away from her barely clad form.

“I-is it gone?” she whispered. “I think so.” A heavy sigh of relief escaped her ruby lips and her bare shoulders slumped in a relaxed manner. It was only then that she noticed her state of undress, her eyes widening in shock this time. “My dress! Oh no!” “I will get you a new one," he offered remorsefully, "I apologize.” “Ah don’t be silly! There is no need. Madame Fleuri, however, shall never hear of this or she’ll rip my head off. Oh well, nothing the lovely Dot couldn’t fix. It’s vintage and basically irreplaceable...," she paused. "And so is the lingerie. At least that one’s still intact. Perhaps... you could check... just to make sure?” She lowered her eyelashes coquettishly and dropped the remaining fabric that had clung to her frame only a second prior, revealing a rather sheer forest green set of a silk cami set that was covering only the most necessary bits of pale rosy flesh. It left little to Jack’s imagination. To be fair, he had seen her in less, the pink feathers of her dance interlude branded into his memory most likely forever. But the lingerie currently facing him looked outright lethal on her. He closed his eyes, forcing his brain to revert back to professional Robbo mode.  “You’re killing me, Miss Fisher,” is all he could mutter under the circumstances, unsure if it wasn’t just one of his fervent dreams after all. Either way, undaunted by his previous faux pas, Jack decided to take yet another risk. He slipped out of his coat and draped it around her bare shoulders, purposely avoiding her fiery, curious gaze as he pulled, with slightly shaky hands, the first two buttons through the holes. And if his fingers happened to skim her flushed skin underneath in the process, it was entirely accidental of course.

~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~ Trigger for this idea was this picture of Essie. Someone please reassure us that this is in fact badly photoshopped and not an actual chair standing on her dress. Who on earth would let something like that slide? 😂

Raffy gets cleared for all the tests they’ve done— but obviously Doctor’s Advice was given about his condition. 

DKA definitely takes time to recover physically so it was agreed among the doctors and the family that Raffy should take time off. 

So it was decided on that same day that Syl would take over the regency briefly until Raffy is okay which doctors advised should be at least a month. 

The press release was out the next day with the new decree on Dec. 31.

Spoilers 

Bellamy and Sylvan wait the year they promised, but a year became two and three until they decided they were going to stick together because time made them realized how much they loved each other and to make time for their relationship in the middle of all their work.

It was easy to remain unnoticed with her attention captured by the scenes of smoking remains of a city, and him sitting quietly in the doorway. His English wasn’t great, but he understood enough of what the grim news anchor said about Umbrella to be concerned.

<“Mama? Isn’t that the name of where my daddy works? Both the company and the city.”> 

She jumped and quickly shut off the television, cutting off reports of cannibalism as she turned to her boy. Her precious, darling little boy, with those big blue eyes and hair that was becoming more red like her own rather than blonde like his every year. Considering how quickly Jake was picking up English, she wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up as smart as him also.

How could she tell Jake the truth? Well, that was easy. She couldn’t tell him what she wasn’t sure of herself.

Jake lifted his arms as she bent to scoop him up in her arms, waiting for her answer expectantly.

<”That’s right, that’s where your daddy works. He doesn’t work there anymore, they’ve closed the company. Something happened, and lots of people got sick. But don’t you worry your little head about that, okay sweetie? Remember what I told you Jake?”>

The boy nodded dutifully. This was something very important.

<”He works on very important things he can’t talk about, so I can’t talk about it either. I don’t know who my daddy works for, or where.”>

A kiss is planted on Jake’s forehead that makes him close his eyes and smile. It’s a shame that he can’t meet his daddy, but if that means he can live happy with his mom, Jake’s okay with that. He loves her, and he loves the tiger that daddy picked out for him while he was still in mom’s belly.

<”Good boy. Now, why don’t we go play? I don’t have anymore work today. Oh! Let’s read that book from the library, the one on sharks!”>

Jake’s cheer soothed his mother’s heart as she left the kitchen, pushing Raccoon City from her mind. Surely Albert had nothing to do with that; he was probably one of the people who had exposed that it was Umbrella’s virus that had caused the tragedy.

“Your turn.”

“Didn’t I get up last time?”

“No.”

“But, I’m the one that put her to sleep.”

“If you don’t hurry up, he’ll get up, too.”

“Why don’t you--”

“You have learn to fend for yourself around them.”

A second, even louder, wail started up.

Both men groaned.

“Look what you did. Why couldn’t you have just gone, prat?” Merlin grumbled.

Arthur rolled his eyes. “Prat, Merlin? Really? I thought we had moved past that.”

“Try waiting for centuries, then you can call me any ridiculous thing you want,” Merlin replied haughtily.

“You know, the more you use that, the less of an effect it will have. And you just admitted that your ‘insults’ are ridiculous,” Arthur gave Merlin a smug grin.

Merlin stopped walking. Arthur heard him curse quietly. “Shh, what they hear in infancy will affect them as they grow up.”

Merlin rolled his eyes and reached past him to open the door to the nursery. They walked into the room, each going to different sides of the green and purple room.

Arthur picked up Leon and tried rocking him back to sleep. Merlin, on the other side of the room, picked up Gwen. He sat on a couch he and Arthur had put in the room when they’d barely gotten the babies and were too anxious to leave them during the night. Arthur sat beside him, as they lulled the babies back to sleep. Before long, there wasn’t any evidence of crying babies in the house.

Merlin looked over at Arthur and smiled, glad he’d waited. Arthur looked up and caught him staring.

“What?” Arthur whispered, not wanting to wake Leon and Gwen again.

Merlin shook his head, still grinning. Arthur raised an eyebrow and moved closer.

“Come now, you know you can tell me anything,” Arthur prodded.

“I know,” Merlin replied. “I just don’t know how to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” Arthur tilted his head slightly.

Merlin leaned in and kissed him very softly. “How much I love you, and how much I missed you.”

“You don’t have to. I know how much. I love you as well, and I missed you even more than you missed me.,” Arthur whispered.

Merlin raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to bet?”

“Merlin, you waited all by yourself for centuries. I know you tried to move on. You tried to travel. Went all the way to the airport, past security, but you went back to the lake before you boarded the plane. You wrote letters to me, and Lancelot, and Gaius, and your mother. To everyone almost. But you didn’t preserve them, so one day, when you tried to read them, tehy all crumbled to dust. You spent hours crying. You once tried to swim all the way to the Isle, but almost drowned. You didn’t try to swim back, or save yourself, in any way. You remember that you somehow made it back. You thought it was your magic. It was me. I begged until she let me save you. I dragged you back,” Arthur looked at Merlin, unblinking letting that sink in. When he saw the realization on Merlin’s face, he went on. “I could see you, Merlin. Everything you did. Now, I know, that must sound great. Being able to see you at least. But I could never interfere. No matter what you did. Imagine seeing the person you love dying slowly, day by day, being miserable, and not being able to do anything about it. How would you feel?”

Merlin opened his mouth, then closed. He looked down at Gwen, and stood up. After putting her in his crib, he walked back to Arthur and took Leon from him, also putting him in his crib.

“Come on,” Merlin extended his hand.

Arthur took it and Merlin pulled him up. “What are you doing?”

“I’m better now, Arthur. I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same, but if I ever get sad, you can help. You’re here now, Arthur. Now let’s try to get some sleep before these two decide to wake us up again.”