Marshmallow Miles

꒰Tired in the Dark: Batfam x Toddler! Reader,.꒱

Masterlist

Let's say a criminal decided to attack Gotham's main power source at the dead of night, leaving the entire city pitch black and even more eerier than it usually was.

While Bruce is away dealing with the issue he left you in the care of your siblings.

"Where's the toddler, they were here five minutes ago?" Jason asked as they frantically searched your room.

First it was Tim, then it was Damian, now it's you. They weren't even sure how you managed to get out of your room while keeping absolutely no noise whatsoever.

"Oh God, we lost another one" Dick yelled into the darkness of the manor.

"We're dropping like flies?!!" Dick continued his panicking.

"Shut up" Jason yelled.

Meanwhile the three of you were wondering around the pitch black manor, your small frame clutching tightly onto the fabric of Tim's shirt.

You weren't a big fan of the dark, so when you woke up from your little nap to see that your room went from bright and colorful to dark and scary you immediately burst into tears. (How Dick and Jason didn't hear your crying is a wonder)

Your cries were like a mini bat signal, alerting everyone in the area that you'd awoken from your short nap and making them immediately flocking to the area.

And by them I mean Tim and Damian.

So currently you were rested on the hip of your tired older brother while Damian followed quietly behind you.

"I swear these idiots always forget that we have a generator" Tim mumbled to himself but Damian still picked up on it.

"You seem to be one of those idiots as well, seeing as you've only waited till now to actually turn on the generator" Damian scoffed.

"Just shut up and hold them" he passed you over to Damian with little struggle, your body seems to have exhausted all of it's energy crying and screaming out so it seems that your ready to head off into another nap.

Damian noticing your tiredness quickly rested your sleeping figure on his hip and shifted your head into his shoulder.

"You could've just left them in their room to sleep, I would have been their making sure they were safe while the lights are out" Damian stated with slight irritation.

"You think I'm gonna leave my baby sibling in a room with a trained assassin, not happening"

Before Damian could reply the lights quickly flickered on, immediately lighting up the dark space they stood in.

The brightness of the light making you press your face even further into his chest, effectively blocking out all the light.

The little shift bringing his attention down to your already sleeping form.

"Looks like we gotta get them back to their bed" Tim said finally taking in the tired slump that was your little body

"That's what I've been saying this whole time" Damian sneered at him

Man, I've been obsessed with the isekai trope lately. I've been imagining a scenario where the reader gets isekai'd into a yandere romance story as a side character. You're not the main character or a love interest. You replaced a nameless character who was solely created in the story to be killed off by the yandere love interests to further the plot.

After realizing that's the role you took on, you devise a plan to re write the story to keep yourself alive.

In the official plot, your death was the cause of getting too close to the main character. Your positive relationship with them was considered a threat to the yanderes, and so they wiped you out of the picture.

So, as any semi intelligent individual would do, you decided to avoid the main character completely.

I'd like to imagine the reader wasn't well informed of this story, didn't know who the yans were, and accidentally befriended them before they even got a chance to develop any feelings for the main character. You jumped into their lives before the events that led into the original storyline. Earning their trust and unfortunately causing some peculiar emotions in them to develop.

This fucks up the whole plot. I mean, that was your plan. You just weren't trying to fuck it up so bad that you unintentionally attracted multiple yans who decided you were the perfect match for them. You were a joy to be around. You were far more intertwined in their lives than the previous main character ever was. It was generic with them and their story. A boring, "yan see's their darling from afar for the first time and falls in love on sight." Type plot.

But with you, it was so much more personal. They grew to love you for way more than just your looks. They got to know you as a person before any sort of feelings of devotion could form.

This made their efforts to claim you so much worse than they ever were in the original plot. They were much more sinister and brutal. They usually only did massive amounts of stalking, blackmail, and the occasional murder when it came to the canon story, whereas they went all out for you.

Kidnap, murder, torture, blackmail, stalking, theft, harassment, etc. Everyone around you was a threat in their eyes. Everyone around you didn't deserve you.

By the time you realized what you've done, what you've created, its far too late to fix your mistake. You attempted to break off the friendships, avoiding them at all costs, closing yourself off and spending your time trying to find a way back to your original world.

But they don't take kindly to that. Not after everything you guys have been through. Before you could find the key back home to your world, you'd be whisked away, having your new world be the confines of your yans humble abode, away from society.

Bonus option: You attempt to bring the original main character back into the plot in hopes they could redirect the yandere back into chasing them and get them off your back. But why would they need this stranger? They don't know them like they know you. And they could care less to even try to get to know them. So, the original main character ends up taking on the role you were supposed to be. The side character who was meant to die to further the plot.

You're the main character now.

What Once Was

Plot Summary: After Jackie left you for Jeff in your teen years, you’ve done all you could to avoid running into her. You decide to go to your high school’s 25 year reunion once you hear that Jackie wasn’t going to attend. How were you to know she’d show up anyway.

1996

Jackie had been acting strange for the last few days. In fact, it felt like she had been pulling away from you since graduation. You’d gotten to the point where you had to call her friends to see if she was acting as odd with them as she was with you. Though none of them had an answer for you, she was acting the same with everybody else. Only things with you were different.

Earlier in the day, you had called Shauna, telling her that you were going to go talk to Jackie and finally see what was wrong. You had given her time to come to you and explain the reason for how she was acting, but she wouldn’t budge. And the longer it went on, the quieter Jackie became. It almost seemed like she was avoiding you, but she wouldn’t do that to her girlfriend. You were positive that you just needed to assure her that you would both do fine with long distance. 

You drove over to the Taylor’s house and found an unfamiliar truck parked where you usually do. Walking up to the house, you could hear the sounds of voices through the open windows. You knock on the front door, expecting Jackie or either of her parents to open it up. You were certainly not expecting the door to open and have you face-to-face with Jeff Sadecki.

He groaned, speaking as he retreated further into your girlfriend's house. “Jackie, can you not have your friends come visit when we’re on a date?” Pfff, a date? Jackie’s parents are probably trying to set them up again. That poor, delusional asshole, you thought. Jackie bounced cheerfully to the door until she saw you standing there. Her face quickly changed, and she hurriedly pushed you outside, closing the door behind you both.

You always thought Jackie’s parents suspected you and her, but you never thought they’d go this far. "Wow, your parents have hit a new low. I mean, setting you up on a date with Jeff Sadecki? Jesus.” You laughed for a second, until you realized Jackie wasn’t laughing with you. Actually, she had the most sympathetic look on her face that she’s ever directed at you. Immediate concern filled your body. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Y/n. My parents didn’t set this up; I did.” Your face dropped instantly. “Jax, what? What’re you talking about?” She tried to hold your hands when she explained herself to you, but you immediately shook yourself out of her grasp. “Y/n… I can’t do this. I can’t be that way. It’s not natural.” You didn’t believe the words that she was saying. Two weeks ago, she was happily in love with you, telling you and every one of her teammates as much. And now, this? 

“Jackie, woah, where is this coming from? You felt your throat start to close up. Jackie was slowly trying to move you further from the door, afraid that her parents or Jeff would hear you.

“Please don’t make this more difficult for me than it already is. I don’t want to hurt you; I just can't be like that with you anymore.” She was trying not to make her words sound as harsh as they were, and she was failing horrendously at it. The more she spoke, the more you teared up. Seeing that seemed to send her into even more of a panic as she continued talking. “I don’t like women. I’m meant to be with someone like Jeff. It just makes sense.” She tried to rationalize.

She was about to say more when you heard Jeff’s voice call from inside. “Babe! Get back in here; you’re gonna miss the highlights of my game!” She tried not to look too unhappy before she returned her gaze to you. You could see her face falter when she looked at you, standing on her doorstep crying because of what she did. Whatever sliver of her that felt bad for her actions was swiftly hidden away as she opened her front door once again. She looked at you with a stoic face and sad eyes when she said her last words to you. “Goodbye Y/n.”

Tears cascaded down your cheeks on the drive home. It felt like you were living in a fucking nightmare. It certainly didn’t feel real. Some part of you couldn’t blame her, you had known the pressure her parents put on her. She always seemed like she carried the world on her shoulders, but those were expectations she put on herself. Upon getting home, you immediately ran upstairs and fell into your bed.

You were only home for a few minutes when you got a call on your landline. You wanted to ignore it, but a part of you hoped that it was Jackie calling to tell you it was all a bad joke and she was sorry. You quickly answered. “Hello? Jackie?” Your tone was hopeful, bordering on desperate. “Uh, no?” A different voice fills your ears.

“Oh hi, Shauna.” You couldn't hide the disappointment that laced through your voice when you realized that Jackie wasn’t going to call. “I was just calling to see if you were home already, but I didn’t expect you to be home this soon. What happened at Jackie’s—” The mention of Jackie's name made you breakdown. “Shauna,… she left me.” The other end of the line went quiet before Shauna recovered from her surprise. “She what? No. She wouldn't.” Her voice sounded distant, and she sounded as confused as you felt. “She did. She dumped me for Jeff fucking Sadecki.” 

The fact that anyone would view Jeff as an upgrade was comical to Shauna, but she had to stifle her laugh when she heard you speak again. “Is it really that big of an issue for her to love me?” All the emotion was drained from your voice. It made Shauna uncomfortable to hear you like that. “Hold on, I’m coming over.”

Shauna made it to your house in record time. You both just sat in her car as you explained everything through sniffles. For a while, she was waiting for Jackie to pop out and say it was a prank, but no such relief came. She brought no words of comfort for you, Shauna was never good at pep talks. In fact, she would say that the only thing she was good at was brooding. However, she never left you to handle your sadness alone.

If it weren’t for Shauna showing up for you that summer, you weren’t sure how you would have fared. She had become your rock and did everything with you. You were close enough while you were dating her best friend, but this just felt different. There was not a thing you’d do that she wasn’t asking to accompany you with. Good thing too; she would always spot when Jackie and Jeff were nearby before you could see the pair. 

She’d saved you a lot of grief for the rest of the summer before you finally got peace when Jackie left for college. No more worrying about bumping into her at your favorite Deli that she’d loved. No possibility of running into her while she was on a date with Jeff. It was a start for everything to become easier for you. A couple weeks had passed, and you were finally feeling okay. You had even begun to forget the reason for your new-found friendship with Shauna.

It was at a coffee shop, about a week before Shauna was to leave for Brown, that it happened. You sat together on the patio of the café, laughing at something that Mari had told her earlier. Shauna’s mother had gotten her a brand new flip phone to go away to college with. She left it on the table after showcasing it to you. All of a sudden, the little thing lights up and rings. You look down and see her name plainly displayed on the screen. Everything came back to you then. You were reminded of the girl who made all of this happen. Shauna looked at the phone, saw the name that flashed on the tiny screen, and excused herself. She was not nearly far enough that you couldn’t hear her whisper yelling at Jackie. Discussing Jackie’s latest argument with Jeff and deflecting every time Jackie asked who Shauna was with, that she had to whisper. 

Beyond the reminder of Jackie that day, you had the daunting realization that you couldn’t continue your friendship with Shauna. It was wrong of you to take away and monopolize the time of your ex-girlfriend's best friend. Moreover, realizing you’d have to coexist alongside Jackie still being in Shauna’s life and possibly encountering her in one way or another was enough to make your decision final. After Shauna went to University, you’d stop talking to her.

When Shauna left, she had given you her mailbox number and the number of her new phone, so you could call and write to her often. She left with a smile and yelled at you to promise that you’d call before the end of her first week at Brown. You just smiled at her as her mother drove her away, waving goodbye to her until the old station wagon disappeared from view. 

2021

The years drifted by quickly as you tried to forget all about Jackie Taylor and the rest of your old friends in Wiskayok. You were glad to have gone to a college far enough from your hometown, it made it easier to stay there and disappear from everyone. You had tried dating afterwards, but everything seemed so dull in comparison. The feeling of having her love you was something indescribable. To have a random person fill the place that you always thought would belong to Jackie just didn’t feel right. You told yourself you enjoyed the solitude. Convinced yourself that it was your own choice rather than a decision made without your blessings.

You were intent on keeping it that way too, trying not to remember any people from home. But that’s when you got the call. “Hey Y/n, it's Misty, Misty Quigley from high school.” You’re not sure you ever gave Misty your number, so you wonder how she has it now. "Yeah, hi Misty, I remember. How’ve you been?” You say unenthused; you didn’t actually care to know. “Doing good; I’m an attendant at a nursing home. So I’m living the dream! But… I’d be doing better if you came to the reunion this year.” 

The words were like a punch to the face. “Misty no—” She’s quick to cut you off. “Come on, Y/n, nobody has seen or heard from you in years; some people probably think you’re dead at this point.” She was practically begging over the phone. “And I am fine to keep it that way, happy even.” You attempt to shut it down again. “Y/n…please. The girls miss you.” That tugged on your heart a little. “Misty, really, I can’t—” She cuts you off yet again with her best argument all evening. “Jackie won’t be there.”

You were well aware that Jackie never misses the opportunity to go to the reunions, and thus you avoided going at all costs. It’s only when Misty sighs and tells you that Jackie cannot attend this year because of some furniture convention in Philadelphia that Jeff was dragging her to that you begrudgingly agreed to go. You hadn’t kept up with your old friends and teammates, just to avoid ever running into Jackie. You rationalized that it’d be nice to see them again with no fear of running into her. And this opportunity probably won’t come again for another 25 years, so you figured you might as well. So you reply to the Facebook invitation that you’ll be attending and prepared yourself.

The day of the reunion approached faster and faster until you found yourself sitting in your car in the parking lot of your old high school, fidgeting with your dress shirt. Practically doing all that you could to stall actually going inside. The whole place reminded you of Jackie. It made you nearly sick to your stomach. All the hurt caused by her leaving you, which despite it all, was still fresh in your mind. The longer you sat, the more anxious you became. Finally, looking down at your phone and seeing the time prompted you to reach for the door handle and get out. 

Walking through the doors of Wiskayok High, you had expected it to look different, to have been updated at all in the 25 years since your graduation. But no, it's still the same ratty old hallway in the same broken-down school that you remembered. It brought a slight sense of comfort, knowing that you could likely still navigate your way through the entire high school campus without issue.

Approaching the big, blue and yellow decorated doors, the only thing that separated you from people you hadn’t seen in 20+ years, you felt nauseous. You had to keep telling yourself that Jackie wasn’t here to keep your anxiety at bay. So, with a deep breath, you pushed open the large metal doors. It was decorated as well as a high school gym could be, you supposed. A lot of lights strung up with blue and yellow balloons set on each table. 

Right as you enter, you see Misty standing by the photographer and his props. The sound of the closing door can barely be heard over the music playing throughout the gymnasium; however, she could still sense it and turn to see you. The sight brings a large smile to her face as she runs over to lead you to the table with all the other girls. 

As you approach a large round table, you could start to make out the familiar faces of your old friends. Their conversation dies down when Natalie notices you, getting up to greet you. “Holy shit…when Misty told us you were coming, we all just thought she was full of it.” You laugh nervously. You still feel tense from being around people you used to know so well but now felt like strangers. “Well, here I am.” 

You turn around. “Tai, congratulations on the campaign.” Taissa smiles at you before speaking. “Thank you, Y/n… You look great.” She says it so genuinely. You'd guess that when people haven't seen you in years, they can only assume the worst.

Before you could respond, you’re wrapped in a hug by Shauna, much unlike the moody teen you once knew. “Hey Shipman.” You said as you wrapped your arms around her. You embrace her for a moment before she pulls away and punches you in the arm. Now that’s more like the Shauna Shipman you knew. “You stopped responding to me! Don’t ever do that again; I’ve missed seeing you. I really thought that I would never hear from you again.” 

As you gently hold the spot where Shauna laid into your arm, you try to explain yourself. "Shauna, come on, you know I couldn’t keep in touch after everything with...” You gestured to an empty space next to Shauna that, when you were younger, would always be filled by Jackie. Her demeanor changed, and the others went quiet around you as well. 

“You know it never sat right with me, what she did.” She defends. “I know, but she needed you. I wasn’t going to get in the way of that.” She looks at you with sad brown eyes. “You still needed me too.” You shrug. “I wasn’t going to ask you to choose me over your best friend.” Shauna opens her mouth to respond before Taissa grabs you by the shoulders and guides you to sit in one of the chairs. “You guys can talk later; we need to hear about what’s been going on in the past 20 years.”

The tension melted away quickly, and you felt as if you'd picked up right where you left off with them. Everyone tells you about what they’ve been up to. You’re most surprised that Shauna has a daughter now. She hit you again when you told her that she never struck you as the nurturing type. It felt so light and perfect, you knew something had to go wrong.

The metal doors have been opening and closing all night, with people going in and out of the gym. So, of course, you paid it no mind when the metal clicked open and shut once more. You were far too intrigued to hear about Natalie’s latest rehab stint to notice the approaching figure until it was too late.

“Hi guys!” A cheery voice breaks through the crowd. You felt like a deer caught in headlights. You didn’t need to look at her to know who it was. You were frozen, all you could hear were some nervous greetings from around the table. By the tense tone in the girls' voices, it seemed they wanted to be swallowed by the ground just as much as you did. 

You watched her gaze flit to every person before landing on you. “Hi Y/n.” Her smile shone as brightly as you remember it. If you hadn’t known her like you did, you would’ve assumed she was being fake with you. “Hey Jackie.” Your voice low as you tried to avoid her eyes and take a sip of your drink. Shauna laid her hand on your arm and squeezed reassuringly; the action was not lost on Jackie. You watched her eyes focus on the action, her face hiding a barely contained scowl now. She was about to speak again when Misty spoke up.

You thank every higher power in the sky, as it made Jackie face Misty instead of you. Her green eyes felt like they were burning into your skin the longer she stared. “You said you weren’t coming. The convention?” Misty looked like she felt guilty for putting you in this position. You would’ve thought it was a trap, but you knew Jackie. "Oh, didn’t you get my email? Last week, Jeff decided that he wanted to go alone. So I emailed you, saying that I would be attending after all.” 

Jackie was never great at lying. It may not have been obvious to the others, but to you and Shauna, you could read Jackie like a book. You turned to Shauna with a suspicious look, and her face mirrored your own. Misty gave her a confused look. “You didn’t email me.” Jackie feigned surprise. "Oh, silly me, I must’ve written it up but never sent it.” She turned to the table with a ‘what can you do’ expression and a shrug as she moved to sit down. She took the open chair directly across from you. God, it’d be hard to avoid eye contact with her now.

"So, Y/n I haven't heard from you in ages; are you married?” Jackie never had tact when she wanted something, but the sheer audacity to ask stunned you. Everyone else seemed to have the same sentiment as you because the girls all avoided eye contact. Shauna tried to scold Jackie, but that only encouraged her to persist further with you. To cease the girls bickering, you gave her an answer. “Uh, no, Jackie. I’m not.” She tried to push a small smile from her face when she responded. “Oh, really? That’s too bad.” 

At that, Taissa pushed herself from the table, stating that she was going to go get a plate of something to eat. Natalie and Misty both followed her, seeming to find the encounter too awkward to bear. “So, why aren’t you on Facebook?” Jackie continued to pry. 

“I am; I just have a few people blocked.” You didn’t leave anything up for interpretation with your tone. Shauna laughed beside you. She seemed to have read the hint immediately, while Jackie was still catching up. You knew, however, exactly when she figured it out because she instantly pouted. The slight against her did nothing to dissuade her efforts, though. She was as persistent as ever; you could give her that much.

"So, to be clear, you’re not dating anyone? Right?” That was the last straw. You got up from the table, stating that you were going to find the food Tai was referring to. As you left the table, you could hear Shauna chastise Jackie quietly. You couldn’t make out much, but you did hear the distinct sound of Jackie complaining before you were out of earshot. “What Shauna? It’s not like I could check on her Facebook.”

You stayed by the buffet table for a few minutes, making idle chatter with whoever recognized you. Anything to avoid being stuck with Jackie at the table. However, it didn't take long for her to grow bored and go searching for you. She appeared out of nowhere; it almost startled you. It was as if one second you were alone, and the next she was beside you, already opening her mouth to yap.

“Crazy bumping into you. Now that I have you here, you never answered that question back there.” You rolled your eyes and did your best to ignore her. "Oh, come on, Y/n. You never come to these; I just wanna catch up!” You had about had it. Turning to face her completely, you drop the niceties.

“Cut the shit Jackie, you and I both know you’re lying. Why are you really here?” Jackie stands there a little stunned; you’d never snapped like that at her while you were dating. "I, uh… well, I saw that you responded to the Facebook invite and that you were coming. And I just wanted to see you and maybe talk to you.” You don’t have the energy for her right now. “There’s nothing to talk about, Jackie. I don’t want explanations or apologies. Just leave me alone.” You turned and walked back to the table where Shauna was seated alone. 

You sighed as you sat down next to her, with your head in your hands. Shauna leaned over and rubbed your back. She was doing her best to give you some semblance of comfort. She knew this was a lot for you; she didn’t have to say it. It was painfully obvious and awkward enough to send your other three friends running to interact with literally anyone else. When you brought your head back up, you could see Jackie staring at the two of you. She looked so insecure as she stood right where you left her. Shifting uncomfortably on her feet, she looked like a kicked puppy. You laid your head in your hands again and groaned. 

“I don’t know what to do, Shauna; she won’t stop with me.” Your voice came out muffled from your hands. You could hear Shauna sigh next to you, and her hand dropped from your back. "Yeah, she was never great with the word ‘no'.” She laughed. You huffed out a small laugh as well. 

You heard a click of heels on the gym floor coming at you and looked up. You saw Jackie marching over to the table with renewed vigor. She stood directly at your side and placed her hands on her hips when she addressed you. “Y/n I really think we should talk about what happened.” She said it in the exact tone that she would always do when you were teenagers. The same tone that got you to straighten up and do exactly what she said. 

You were getting so frustrated with her. You’d just wanted a moment of peace away from her, and she couldn’t seem to respect that. Fuck it. You stood, turned to Shauna, and offered her your hand. “You wanna dance?” A look of surprise crossed her face, but upon seeing your expression of determination, she smiled and delicately placed her hand in yours. “I’d love to.” She rose from her seat, and you led her to the dance floor, leaving Jackie with a look of utter shock as you brushed past her.

You enjoyed your time with Shauna, laughing together as you moved around the dance floor. Every now and then, when you spun her, you’d get a look behind her at the table. The table where you’d see Jackie sitting alone, miserably gazing at you and her best friend dancing. Jackie was downing her drinks quickly. She’d kept pouring herself more drinks from the punch bowl to drown her sorrows. The punch bowl that sat in the middle of the table, the one that Natalie had definitely spiked earlier in the night. You tried to not let the image of Jackie sitting sad and alone because of your actions burn itself into your brain.

“I know what you’re doing.” Shauna’s voice made you shift your gaze away from Jackie. “Huh?” You attempted to play dumb. She rolled her eyes. “If you’re trying to get a reaction out of her, you’re doing a good job.” You straightened up, and Shauna gave you a look like she knew she’d nailed exactly what you were up to. “I think that Jackie brought this onto herself.” You deflected. Shauna shrugged before smirking at you. "Oh, she definitely did.” She leaned in closer and whispered in your ear. “But next time, let me know, and I can help you drive her up a wall.” You can’t fight the grin that took over your face. You spun her again as you spoke. "Well, she always did seem to get a little jealous when it came to us, Shippy.”

An hour had passed while you continued to dance with Shauna until a brash voice broke you both apart. “Sorry to interrupt you, lovebirds.” You and Shauna turned to Nat, with a visibly drunk Jackie being dragged behind her. “‘Lovebirds?’” Jackie questioned with a pout. “Jesus.” You muttered as they got closer. 

Nat all but tossed Jackie into Shauna, and Jackie instantly melted into the form of her best friend. “She’s a mess. She needs to go home.” Jackie attempted to mumble something in protest, but it was muffled with her face in Shauna's shoulder. Natalie looked at Shauna expectantly. "Oh, I didn’t drive here; Callie dropped me off. And she hasn’t answered any of my texts, so I think she’s asleep.” Then both Shauna and Nat looked to you.

"Oh, come on.” You immediately protested. “I’m sorry, Y/n. You drove here and you barely had anything to drink; it’s the safest option.” Shauna being against you for this argument felt like a small betrayal to you. Shauna was right, and you didn't necessarily want anything bad to happen to anyone on their ride home. But that didn't mean you should have to be the one to take her home. “No, you know how I feel about her.” Jackie lifted her head and body from Shauna to complain. “Hey, I’m right here.” Natalie halfheartedly pushed her back into Shauna, and Jackie fell right back into her place on Shauna.

“No Shauna.” You tried to say it in a tone that left no room for debate, but of course Shauna persisted. “Y/n please? I’ll even go too. You’d actually be doing me a favor since I need a ride.” You were about to object further; tell her ‘no way’ when you looked at Jackie. She hadn’t stopped staring since she was brought over. Her eyes were so sad, and her leaning up against Shauna like she had no legs of her own made her look utterly helpless. You couldn’t fight the soft spot you still had for her, and when you looked at Shauna, it just solidified it more. You knew you weren’t going to be on the winning side of this argument. “Fine… FINE. I’ll do it.” Shauna, who you’re sure would’ve reached out and squeezed your hand if it hadn’t been holding Jackie’s form upright, mouthed a thank you. 

You gathered your things and led Shauna, who was still supporting her best friend, to your car. As soon as you went to unlock the back door for Shauna to slide Jackie into, Jackie found enough drunken athleticism to slide over to the passenger's side door. You looked warily at Shauna, who halfheartedly tried to bring Jackie to the backseat. As soon as Jackie started whining about how she didn’t want to sit in the back, Shauna conceded and got into your back seat instead. You rolled your eyes. You really didn’t want to be stuck up front with Jackie, but it seemed you had no choice. You took a deep breath before getting into your seat and pulling out of the parking spot.

The ride was quiet; for the most part, you and Shauna occasionally spoke and reminisced about things you did together that last summer before college. You almost forgot about Jackie sitting silently in the passenger's seat, or you would have if she wasn’t staring at you and Shauna as you spoke fondly about times that didn’t include her. You were about to turn to head towards Jackie’s house when Shauna spoke up.

“Y/n, I hate to do this to you, but is there any way you can drop me off first?” You gave her a look in the rear view mirror that said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ Shauna looked at you sympathetically. You knew she didn’t want to do this to you on purpose. “I know, I’m sorry. I just need to make sure Callie’s alright; I haven’t left her alone this long since before her dad left.” You roll your eyes but adjust to head towards Shauna’s house. 

When you pulled up to Shauna’s house, you could see there was a light on upstairs. Shauna sighs and mutters something under her breath about Callie being up at this hour and not texting her back. She scooted over and wrapped her arms around Jackie from behind the seat. "Night, Jax, see you soon.” She then got out and walked over to your door, then waited outside it for a moment with an expectant look on her face. “Aren’t you going to walk me to the door?” You smiled at the sentiment and got out, leaving the car door open, before you walked Shauna up to her porch. She enveloped you in a hug before you could utter a word of farewell. 

She pulled back before speaking. “You are not allowed to not talk to me for more than a week, ever again. You hear me?” You laughed. “I’m serious, Y/n.” Shauna continued. “I promise I'll keep in touch, Shauna.” You said, genuinely. “You better.” She leaves you with a lingering kiss on your cheek before heading inside. When you turned to walk back to your car, you saw that Jackie watched the entire interaction. She had such a sad look on her face when you walked back, you felt like you were caught doing something that you weren't supposed to.

After you got back into the car, there was only a beat of silence before Jackie spoke up. “So you’re not, like… in love with Shauna now, right?” There was a hesitance in her voice; all her insecurity was laced into that one question. “What? Jackie, that's—” You tried, but she cut you off. “Cause I hope she likes my sloppy seconds.” She had rolled down the window to scream the sentiment out towards Shauna’s house, as if Shauna would hear her behind the closed door. You hastily pulled her back in, scrambling a little. You were very aware of how much noise Jackie was making at such a late hour; however, Jackie wasn’t while she was in her drunken state. “Jesus Jackie, shhhh. What’s wrong with you?” Jackie sat back in the passenger's seat with a pout and folded her arms. “I just don’t appreciate the way she’s been acting with you.” 

“You don’t get to feel any way about how anyone acts with me. You lost that right a long time ago. Now let’s just go home, please.” Jackie lays her head back against the headrest and closes her eyes as she protests. “Noooooo.” How did you used to put up with her whining daily? This was exhausting. "No, seriously, Jackie. We have to go; it’s late, and I want to go to bed.” She continued drunkenly complaining. “I don’t wannaaaa.” You were desperate to not be alone with her anymore, so you tried to say something that would make her relent.

“Jackie, please, you have to go home. Jeff will be worried about you.” She shook her head against the window, practically falling asleep in your passenger's seat. You sighed. Of course, she was being stubborn with you. Twenty-five years of not talking, and she still acted the same. “What do you mean? Yes, he will.” You wouldn’t know; you don’t know how Jeff is, but it hurt more the longer that you stayed around Jackie, and you just needed to get away from her. She only laughed humorlessly at your comment as she slumped further into the seat. “Nuh-uh… Me and Jeff aren’t together anymore.” 

The confession hit you like a ton of bricks, so much so that it left you speechless for a moment. “What? Are you serious?” She nodded, her eyes still closed. “Mhmm.” You had a million things that you wanted to ask—how, why—but the only thing that left your mouth was, “Do the others know?” 

Only at this did her eyes slowly open, and she just stared vacantly down the dark street. “Nope.” Popping the ‘p’ when she said it. “Why?” She still refused to make eye contact with you when she answered. “The girls would just yell at me… Tell me that I hurt you for nothing. And I did; I know that. I don't have to have them tell me that I ruined the only good thing I’ve ever had when I left you.” You sat in silence for a beat, looking down at the steering wheel, as you tried desperately to process all that she said. 

You turned back to face her when she continued speaking, finding her already looking at you for the first time during the whole conversation. “I’m sorry, by the way. For what I did. I really wish I was a better person for you; you deserved it.” Her eyes were illuminated by the glow of the street lights, showing that she was tearing up.

A younger version of yourself would have hopped over the center console to hug her the second you saw her anywhere close to crying. The most that the current you could muster was to break the intense eye contact and utter a half-hearted "Yeah, well… we can’t change the past.” There was a pause in conversation; the air was tense now that Jackie had aired out all her dirty laundry. Her voice was low as she resumed speaking. “I wish I wasn’t afraid of what would’ve happened with us. Maybe I’d be happy now. We probably would’ve had a good life.” You put the car in drive, as you replied. “Yeah, maybe.”

You drive to Jackie’s childhood home, having memorized its path from every corner of Wiskayok. You wanted to ask so much more, but debated whether it would upset her. Jackie, who seemed almost sober now, is slumped against the passenger door, looking out the window. She spoke, but you were too lost in thought to hear it. “I’m sorry, what was that?” She sighed. “I said, I know you. You obviously want to ask something. Go ahead; it won’t make me sad.” Her bluntness caught you by surprise, but then again, what about her didn’t nowadays? 

“Well, how long has it been?” You don’t need to say what the question was pertaining to for Jackie to know what you meant. It’s a bittersweet feeling to know that, despite everything, she could still read you and know what you were thinking so well. She took a deep breath before she answered. “Almost a year now. It's why I wasn’t going to come this year; I couldn't face anyone. Not when I haven’t worked up the courage to tell them.” You nodded along as you continued driving. “Was there a reason?” She hesitated and turned to face you before she answered.

“Yeah, I just never could get over you. I still haven't, and I don’t think I ever will.” She said it so candidly that you were hoping you didn’t hear her correctly. You wanted to ignore the mixed feelings bubbling into your stomach, because now all of what she said the whole night was more than just high school nostalgia. More than simple ‘What if’ scenarios, and more than hints for you to read into. That was an admission, and you were so upset that that realization happened this late in her life. Now she had you thinking that you actually could have been happy together this whole time. You were so caught up that you almost flew past Jackie’s house.

You don’t say anything as you break and put the car in park. You kept looking at the steering wheel while Jackie tried desperately to meet your eyes, silently pleading for you to say something. All that you could think was that it was all for nothing. You were mostly afraid it was still the alcohol talking. You didn't want to get your hopes up for something that was only going to be true for as long as the booze was in her system.

“I think you should leave.” Jackie’s face dropped at your reaction, and almost immediately tears started to roll down her cheeks. “What? Y/n, no.” You still avoided her eyes. “Please, this isn't a conversation I want to have after you’ve been drinking. It’s best that you go inside.” At that, she braced herself in your car. “I’ve sobered up; please, can we talk about this?” She begged.

“Jackie, you have to get out of the car.” It took the last shred of your will to try to turn her away one more time. Jackie’s voice was hoarse as she yelled back at you. "No, I can’t. I can’t leave because if I get out, then I’ll never see you again, and it’s all my fault.” She was beyond being consoled by words. She was sobbing so much, you felt awful for upsetting her. Up until that point, you were doing your best not to get sucked in, but how could you deny her? 

“Okay, okay.” You relented. You got out of the car, and for a moment, Jackie had a look of panic on her face, seeming ready to chase after you if you left her. You got to the passenger’s door, and as soon as you opened the door, Jackie grabbed onto you and held you in a hug. You mustered up the calmest voice that you could when you spoke next. “I’m sorry.” She sobbed into your shoulder, mumbling, “Please don’t leave.” over and over.

“Please, can you stay tonight? Can we just go inside and pretend that I didn’t mess it all up?” She sniffled into your shirt. You nodded, slowly rubbing her back while you tried to soothe her. When you were younger, you’d dreamt about this scenario and getting to tell Jackie ‘no.’ But that didn’t happen. Truth be told, you don’t think it took more than a second of thought. "Yeah, we can do that, Jax.”

Once she had calmed down, you gradually began to let her go while whispering gently for her to go inside. She grabs your hand as she guides you through a house that was once so familiar to you. Jackie had moved and changed some things around, but it still looked relatively the same.

She pulled you toward her old childhood bedroom. Something about it felt so different. But not much was changed aside from her replacing the pink carpeting with a gray color. It felt almost like a betrayal to change something that was once so sacred to you both. An escape from her parents, a place where you could kiss her safely. It all felt foreign, even if it was the same room you had snuck into countless times just to fall asleep together. Jackie had always hated sleeping alone. You guessed that never changed based on the situation you found yourself in now.

Your musings were interrupted by Jackie tapping your arm. You turned and found Jackie with an embarrassed look on her face. She faced away and showed that she was struggling to fully unzip her dress from the evening. You rolled your eyes as she held her hair up with one hand, assuring it wouldn’t be in the way. Gently holding her shoulder with one hand, you slowly pulled the zipper down with the other. As her dress was being undone, more and more of her back was being exposed to you. It was intimate; she knew it. She could still read you like the back of her hand, so she knew exactly what she was doing.

Once the dress was fully unzipped, your hand slowly dropped from her shoulder, softly tracing Jackie’s skin in its descent. She turned and looked right into your eyes. She didn’t break eye contact with you when she reached up and looped her arms around your neck. As if it were second nature, you placed your hands on her waist. “I’ve really missed you.” She spoke in a whispered tone, as if there were any other people around to hear you. The only time her eyes left yours was to glance at your lips. Her intentions were obvious, and you were never that strong-willed when it came to denying Jackie something that she wanted.

You found yourself leaning in before you could give it a second thought. The urge to fall right back into place with Jackie was too difficult to deny. Jackie notices the action and moves to meet you in the middle. Once you were only an inch from each other's lips, you felt Jackie pull you the rest of the way into her. Her lips pressed roughly against yours, trying to convey every emotion she still felt for you.

Her hands move from your neck to thread into your hair. The grip you had on her waist tightened, and you brought her body closer to you. Jackie let out a small moan at the contact. After years of not hearing it, the noise sounded heavenly. It only spurred you on further. You backed her up against the nearest wall, and Jackie made a small sound when she hit it. Her dress was slipping further and further down her body as you kept going. The noises Jackie was making, the way she'd occasionally ground her hips into you, searching for friction. You knew where this was heading, and as lovely as that idea was, you knew you needed to stop. Everything in you wanted to continue, but you knew you had to separate to avoid taking it further too quickly. You pulled away, leaving a few chaste kisses on her lips to avoid seeing her pout.

When you both pulled apart, she was panting heavily. Once Jackie caught her breath, her face broke out into the largest smile. She always used to smile like that after kissing you when you were younger. You had to admit that it made you happy to see that you still had that effect on her. Jackie disappeared into her bathroom to get into her pajamas. It was at this point that you became painfully aware that you were still in your clothes from the reunion. You tried to adjust your clothing to be able to sleep in it.

Jackie came out of the bathroom while you were attempting to make your clothes as comfortable as possible. “Hold on!” She disappeared from the room with a smile on her face. You could hear her footsteps retreat, some fumbling sounds from the hallway, and her footsteps returning. She came back with a box in her hands. After she placed it on the floor and opened it up, you could see that it was full of your old clothes.

“You kept all these?” You said in astonishment as you sifted through all the clothes she stole from you years ago. She suddenly seemed bashful, watching you go through your old sports apparel and flannels. “I—uh, yeah, it’s always good to have some extra clothes lying around.” After finding a shirt and sweats that you found suitable for the night, you looked at Jackie. She nervously fiddled with her fingers before she continued speaking. “They actually still smelled like you for a long time after... everything. And it was nice, you know, to have some reminders of you still here. But just so you know, this is just a loan. I want those clothes back.” You smiled at her, getting up to give her a hug before you went to change. 

After you got into your old clothes that still miraculously fit very well, you crawled into her bed. Jackie hit the lights and walked over to the other side of the bed. You felt all the nostalgia hit you as you laid down on the soft sheets while Jackie climbed in as well. Her sheets and pillows smelled like her; it's comforting but brings a pit to your stomach at the same time. Laying in bed next to the love of your life for the first time in twenty-five years will do that to you, you guessed.

You laid flat on your back as Jackie curled into your side. She maneuvered your arm to hold her, effectively trapping herself against you. You both lay in the quiet of the dark room; the only light in the room was shining in from the streetlight outside. Jackie gingerly played with your fingers as you both sat in fulfilled silence. After a few minutes, Jackie turned her head to face to lay on your chest and held your torso. 

She was barely awake when she whispered to you. “Promise me that you’ll still be here when I wake up.” Her voice was muffled from her face being pressed against your chest. She said it so delicately, pleading with you. You were so caught up in the fondness of the moment that you took a beat to answer. After not immediately receiving an answer, Jackie opened her eyes and looked up at you. The sleepy expression on her face was wiped away, and you could see just how scared she was of never seeing you again. You'd do anything to never see her afraid like that again.

“I promise.” She took you in once more before leaning in and gently kissing you. It was innocent and lazy, kissing you just because she missed doing it. As if she were making up for lost time. Your heart thumped with an unearned feeling of domesticity. 

It only took a moment for Jackie to detach from you. She rolled to face away from you but scooched herself back to be flush against you. You took the hint and wrapped your arm around her waist. You could feel the grin that Jackie had on her face without even seeing it. She then placed her hand over yours and laced her fingers in between yours. No more than a minute or two later, Jackie fully relaxed into you. Her breathing slowly evened out as she fell asleep, still keeping a tight grip on you. 

Tomorrow, you’d plague yourself with the questions of what this meant for you and Jackie going forward. As for tonight, you just missed the feeling of holding her while you slept, and you’re not prepared to continue on without experiencing it every night. The rhythmic sound of her breathing and the smell of her conditioner brought a comfort to you that you had long forgotten. 

Ghost in the Shell

Negleted male reader x batfamily chapter 1

Probably bad English ⚠️

Prologue - cap 2

Y un montón de orgullo argentino la puta madre >:)

You certainly always were weird, a weird boy and then a weird man

You were born from one night between a respectable and loving woman like your mother and...Bruce.Then you lost the most important woman in your life and your home as a child.

Then you grew up with your father and your family

You were so excited to make them happy, but it was all in vain.His false promises only brought sad hopes to the child.

You naively believed his words without thinking that they were lies or insults

You stayed alone so as not to suffer the consequences of such a beautiful life that could only have been a dream For the child who found comfort in his computer and later considered it his home

Considering the internet as your place, just for being yourself, and then evolving over the years, bringing happiness to millons of persons and hiding invisible shortcomings and pains.

From your first videos as a child to your last as a young adult who inspired others with his parodies, sketches and his accordion, native to your beautiful Argentina and inherited from your mother

Only to begin your own mourning after finishing your shift in the kitchen where you worked and passing away

You were young, still studying and working for a better future for yourself as a Latino only to die with two gunshots to the chest, lying on the floor of an alley

And that was your story so far. Locked inside the same technology that accompanied you in life in one way or another

You possessed your computer,ridiculous as it sounds,Only able to see your own room and what you considered almost your home

According to a Gotham website that recorded deaths, you had died a few days ago.You were successfully registered in the database as t/n and recognized by your family

No one has entered your room since then and for now you have only been doing your same daily routine on the internet, without your work, your few friends and studies of course, trying to understand yourself

Only Alfred came in, bringing with him some personal pain for the loss, you hid from him pretending to be turned off by fear..

The man meticulously dusted the objects in the unopened room while you stood in pure silence with your...Monitor? Face? Off

He walked around the room, stopping after a few steps to see somethings like it was a musem Posters,figures from series or games that Alfred din't know, drawings full of your unique creativity, your old sheets, the stickers of candy promos on the window and other places stuck

Your room seemed almost trapped in time and you loved it that way

Finally, the two great exhibits of "your museum" were your beautiful, and beautiful accordion..or how you like to call it,acordeón o Gardelito Demonstrating your people's characteristic love for your country

It was a beautiful old accordion painted black with a "fileteado" Showing your light blue and white flag with a sun in the center with all its pride

The brightness of the instrument made it charming to anyone and captivated the old butler who looked with interest at its keys

The old man's wrinkled hand landed on the keyboard, about to touch a key, then closed slightly and moved away, welcoming him to the latest exhibit: an old computer

Your old computer

And you

So many years sitting at the same table in front of an old blue chair entertaining one of Wayne's sons..

Only to be seen empty and sad without her partner in the silence of the room

It wasn't the most shocking image the butler had ever seen, but it provoked...a feeling of regret and pain

For the absence of someone Alfred knew deserved a chance

Batfam x Neglected Tomie Reader

English version

In the Wayne Manor, there was a room without history. It had a small window, a neatly made bed, and a mirror without fingerprints. And in that room lived her.

She didn’t have a cape.

She didn’t have gadgets.

She didn’t have battle scars or soul wounds that others could see as worthy. She only had a face.

And in that house of masks, that meant nothing.

Since she was little, she learned not to make noise. When she walked through the carpeted hallways, she tiptoed, as if the echo of her steps were a crime.

When she spoke, she did it in a soft voice, afraid of interrupting the conversations between the heroes. When she laughed... she stopped. No one laughed with her.

She didn’t belong to the "team." She didn’t have official training. She wasn’t Nightwing, Red Hood, Robin, or the new girl from the orphanage with a perfect memory. She was just the daughter. The mistake. The useless shadow.

Her mother had died giving birth to her. Bruce raised her out of duty. Alfred was polite but distant. And the rest... simply didn’t see her.

"Since when has she been here?" Tim once asked aloud, not realizing she was right behind him.

Jason mocked, "She's always been here. She's like a nice piece of furniture.Looks good, but isn't useful for fighting."

And they all laughed.

She didn’t.

She just looked at her hands, delicate and soft, then lowered her head.

Bruce never trained her. He said he didn’t want to "put her in danger," but everyone knew he didn’t trust her strength. He didn’t consider her useful. He taught her to keep silent. To observe. To read books instead of reading bodies in combat. And she did. She learned to see without being seen. To understand without asking. To lock everything she felt in a corner of her chest where no one could enter.

But there was one thing she inherited: the gaze. That deep and sharp look. The one that made the guilty tremble. Hers was different, yes. Softer. More beautiful. But just as hypnotic. And no one in the house dared to hold it for too long.

---

One day, she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. She was fourteen years old.

She had the darkest eyes in Gotham.

She had lips as soft as silk.

She had skin that seemed sculpted. And she felt nothing. "What’s the point of being beautiful if no one sees you?"

Someone knocked on the door. It was Damian.

—Move, useless. Some of us have things to do.

She didn’t answer. She just lowered her gaze. But that night, she broke the mirror with her fist. She didn’t cry. She just bled.

---

Time passed. She turned fifteen. Then sixteen. She knew no one would go to her room on her birthday. She knew no one would say "I’m proud of you." She knew that, to them, she was a mistake without scars. So, she left.

She didn’t scream.

She didn’t leave a note.

She didn’t seek drama.

She simply made the bed.Closed the door. And disappeared.

Bruce didn’t search for her. "If she wants to come back, she will," he said coldly. And the rest continued with their missions.

No one imagined she would find another way to exist.

And to shine.

---

First came the photos. Self-portraits on lonely streets. Her face surrounded by shadows. Her silhouette reflected in puddles. Her lips slightly parted as if whispering secrets. Someone found them. Shared them. And the world… listened.

“They call her the Marble Girl.”

They said she had an impossible face. Too symmetrical. Too pure.

But what attracted them the most wasn’t her beauty. It was what she hid.

A silent sadness.

A threat without violence.

A sweetness that was poisonous.

---

At seventeen, she was in Paris.

She signed contracts without giving her real name. She modeled without saying a word. And every time the camera focused on her, the world stopped. Not because she smiled.

But because it seemed she didn’t need to.

She denied it.

And that... drove them crazy.

---

She lived alone. In a small glass apartment with black curtains.

She slept little. Dreamed a lot. And never looked back at Gotham.

She never mentioned her family. Not because she hated them. But because... they no longer existed for her.

They had died the day they forgot her.And she... had been reborn.

---

One night, an artist asked to paint her face.

—You have something tragic about you —the woman said, as she traced her jawline—. Like a broken virgin. Or a sad goddess.

She just smiled, without answering. And when the painting was displayed, people cried in front of the canvas. They didn’t know why.

It just... hurt.

---

At eighteen, the world already knew her. Magazines. Art videos. Red carpets.

But never interviews.

Never words.Only that presence. Mysterious. Distant. Unreachable.

And then... Bruce saw her.

---

He was working in the Batcave when her image appeared on the screen. An irrelevant article. A gossip piece.

But there she was. Sitting in a velvet chair. Dressed in black. Surrounded by photographers. And smiling. That smile. Calm. Unbreakable.

Free. Bruce blinked.

—It can’t be… Dick looked down.

Jason clenched his fists.

Tim swallowed hard.

Damian, for the first time, said nothing.

Because they all remembered her. And she didn’t remember them.

—Why didn’t she come back? Dick murmured.

Jason clenched his fists. —Because we didn’t make her feel part of this.

Damian whispered: —She seems happy.

Bruce didn’t answer. He just looked at the screen. And inside, something broke.

It wasn’t guilt.

It wasn’t love.

It was fear.

Because she didn’t need them. And that... was unforgivable.

queen of hearts ♥️

description! when shauna rigs the deck to get rid of the biggest liability, nat realises how much she really cares about the girl who pulls the card.

contents! earth shattering angst (sorry), shauna shipman being a dick as usual, fluff if you squint, death :c, use of y/n , usual yellowjackets shenanigans!

not proofread!

·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱ ༻¨*:·

as you reached for the deck, your heart was racing.

no one had yet gotten the queen.

so far luck had been on your side. you’ve avoided the queen before and knew you could do it again.

shauna’s smirk as you picked up your card crushed all your hopes of luck.

the queen.

your hand shook as you turned the card to reveal to the other what you had picked up.

small gasps of shock could be heard through out the room.

the most evident shock came from natalie.

the girl who swore to the other girls that she felt nothing towards the latter. an evident lie.

anyone stupid enough to believe her would be blind to not notice the longing stares natalie would give you. or the way she would grab your hand immediately if something went wrong.

she was very much in love with you, just too naive to admit it.

“ oh y/n im so sorry ” shauna spoke with such sarcasm that it broke through your skin.

shauna came up behind you and attached jackies necklace to your neck. the moment sent shivers down your spine, literally, as shaunas hands graced your neck, gently doing up the necklace.

“ good luck “ was all shauna had to say for your mind to recognise what was happening.

you were going to die tonight. one way or another.

“ you should get a head start “ shauna suggested in a voice that made you want to stab her so hard.

as you looked around at the other girls in the room, you realised how much you actually loved them.

lottie, your first real friend. she helped you through everything, first boyfriends, first soccer game to first kisses. she was the most real person you ever knew.

tai and van, the people who helped you realise that you actually weren’t into guys! it was quite subtle really but the time that you accidentally walked in on them, you realised how much that actually intrigued you.

nat.

oh how beautiful she was. her messy blonde hair that was slowly turning back to her natural brunette colour as the wilderness prevented her from taking care of the bleach. her dark eyes that were always perfectly lined with her messy eyeliner considering the circumstances they were in.

you would do anything to kiss her. although considering the fact you were about to die, that would never happen.

suddenly you were brought back to reality. the reality that you were not gonna make it out alive.

before you could even realise your feet were moving faster than your thoughts. running towards the forest.

the wild breeze blew through your hair. cording through your veins giving you a rush that you had never felt before.

the snow that would occasionally fall onto your figure provided a chill to your already cool body.

thump

you fell onto the icy ground. hard.

the white snow started to glow with a red hue.

blood trickled from your knee.

you contemplated just laying there and hoping you’d die from blood loss. until shouting was heard behind you, followed by rustling that sounded too close for comfort.

you pushed yourself up with as much strength you could muster in this stressful situation and kept going.

grasping at the necklace laced against your chest, hoping for some sort of comfort that would never come.

suddenly you felt your body drop.

like the feeling when you go down a steep drop on a carnival ride.

and then there was darkness.

a darkness that could only be described as death.

-

nat couldn’t believe what she was seeing. she went to try and find you, with help from travis.

he suggested that you may have gotten caught in one of their traps they made.

and that scared nat more than anything.

their traps were good. hidden so well that even the smartest deer would fall into it.

that’s when they saw you.

blood providing the perfect trail towards the pit trap they had made.

nat held her breath, preparing for the sight she was about to see.

your body.

pledged between spears and sticks. causing blood to fill the pit faster than anything.

“ nat “ travis whispered, holding her back.

she wanted to scream, cry, anything. but nothing would come out.

just the never ending thought that she never got to tell her she loved her.

·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱ ༻¨*:·

a/n! lol y/n is pit girl now hehehehehehe. short and sweet little fic hope u liked!

Jackie Taylor -- "Our Destiny" (Part 2)

Jackie Taylor x Male reader/oc

Summary: What happens when a plane crashes in the middle of the Canadian Wilderness full of teenagers? How something as traumatic as that can affect the people and and how they find comfort in each other.

Words: 7.270

PREVIOUS

Masterlist

________2021________

Your POV

I wake up disoriented, feeling the cold invade my body and a great pain going throughout my body as if I had slept on the floor. I grunt in pain, shifting in place and trying to get into a better position.

I move my hand around without opening my eyes, trying to find the blanket and cover myself again, as I feel like I'm freezing.

Not finding the blanket anywhere, I open my eyes with some difficulty due to fatigue and the bright light. So I close my eyes again and curl up into a ball to warm up. Once my body starts to warm up, I feel sleep invade my mind once again and I fall asleep.

When I wake up again, it´s to the feeling of hands caressing my back and moving along my right side.

Jackie: Good morning.- she whispers against my ear lovingly, leaving a kiss on the spot and tracing the healed scars with her fingers.

Y/n: Good morning.- I murmur without opening my eyes and enjoying the caresses on my side, stomach and back.

Jackie: You're freezing.- she murmurs against my shoulder, pressing her body against my back and molding herself to mine completely.

Y/n: Yeah, well, it turns out someone loves to hog the duvet and blankets at night, and then there's no way to cover myself with them in the morning.- I reproach her, amused, feeling her bite my shoulder in response. -Ouch, savage.- I complain, trying to separate myself from her, but she clings to my back like a koala.

Jackie: Now I'm a savage? So when I bite you while we're fucking, then I'm not a savage anymore or what? - she asks me amused with a certain lust in her voice.

Y/n: On both occasions you are a savage.- I assure her, turning around and facing her. -But at no time have I said that I don't like it.- I tell her with a smile, moving my eyebrows suggestively.

Jackie: Idiot.- She laughs, hitting my shoulder and I hug her around the waist to hold her flush against my body.

Y/n: If I'm an idiot, then what are you when you married one? - I ask her amused, hiding my face in her neck and starting to leave small, affectionate kisses.

Jackie: I don't know and I don't want to think about it.- she answers me caressing my back and leaving a kiss on my head. -But we have to get up, you have to make breakfast and I have to wake up the gremlins.- she reminds me starting to caress my hair.

Y/n: Yeah, if you think I'm going to get out of bed and let you go if you keep caressing my head, you have it difficult.- I assure her, snuggling up against the warmth of her neck and closing my eyes.

Jackie: Come on, the kids have to go to school and we have to go to work.- she tells me leaving another kiss on my head and trying to get away from me.

Y/n: Noooo.- I complain, keeping my grip on her waist and pulling her towards me, while she keeps trying to escape from my grip. -5 more minutes.- I beg, fighting with her so she doesn't get up.

Jackie: I let you sleep 5 more minutes earlier.- she says pinching my hand and causing me to let her go. -I did it, i´m free!- she celebrates standing at the foot of the bed with her arms in the air.

I just frown, giving her a dirty look and crossing my arms as I watch her celebrate. The way her whole face lights up with happiness, how her natural waves bounce in her now dark brown hair and how her eyes squint at the smile on her face.

Even at 42, there are times when I look at her and see the same 17-year-old Jax running around the soccer field with a smile on her face.

The accident 25 years ago may have been the worst experience we have ever been through, but that doesn't take away the fact that the experience brought me closer to the person I love most in this world, and with whom I have formed a truly happy family.

A family based on love, affection, honesty, quality time and parental presence. Not like the families we grew up in, where love and the lack of parents was bought with objects, and where criticism filled the whole house constantly.

We have created a family and a home that we both should have had when we were children and in which to grow free. A home where our children live happily and we feel complete by being together.

Jackie: Move and stop looking at me like that.- she tells me throwing a pillow at my face and leaving the room.

I can only smile in response, getting out of bed and walking to my closet to get ready for the day.

Once dressed and shaved, I begin preparing the pancakes with chocolate chips and blueberries, along with the bowl of fruit and orange juice. While the coffee is brewing, I head out of the house to the mailbox and pick up today's mail.

I leave the mail on the kitchen island, grab my cup of coffee from the machine and start preparing my wife's just the way she likes it.

I place the breakfast plates in their usual places on the island and begin checking my email while I wait for the rush of footsteps down the stairs that every morning brings.

I'm looking through the bank letters, advertisements, and an envelope from the high school about the 25th anniversary reunion, when an envelope with no return address catches my eye. I open it while taking a sip of coffee and see that it's a postcard.

The postcard shows a mountain range, with a lake in the middle of a forest and snowy mountains in the background. On the right side, at the bottom, you can clearly see a message: Wish you were here! and when I turn it over, I choke on my coffee at the sight of the symbol.

The damn symbol that was everywhere in the woods, in the cabin, and everywhere you looked closely.

I react quickly when I hear the stampede downstairs, folding the postcard and stuffing it into the pocket of my black suit pants.

Tomas: Good morning dad.- he greets me jumping on me with a smile just like his mother's.

Y/n: Good morning gremlin, how did you sleep? - I asked him leaving a loud kiss on his forehead and sitting him on his stool.

Tomas: Very well, I dreamed that a dragon appeared and burned down the school. - he tells me with excitement and with his eyes wide open with the imagination of an 8-year-old child.

Alice: And his homework is doing sums and coloring.- she growls, sitting on her stool and starting to eat her breakfast.

Jackie: As if you were doing your homework. - she reproaches our 15-year-old teenage daughter with amusement.

Emma: I like school. - the middle child of the family shrugs her shoulders with a big smile.

Y/n: That's my princess.- I support her with a smile and high five her.

Tomas: I like school too, because I can play with my friends and learn cool things.- he tells us happily with his mouth full.

Jackie: You don´t talk with a full mouth, honey.- she corrects him with a smile, wiping his mouth with a napkin and leaving a kiss on the top of his head.

Alice: You'll tell me if you still like going to class when you go to high school.- she says to her 12 year old sister with an amused smile.

Y/n: Don't be mean to your sister and don't try to scare her.- I shake my head at my oldest daughter, drinking my coffee and trying to hide the smile on my face at the faces of the 2 youngest.

Tomas: I´m not going to like high school?- he asks us all, a little scared.

Jackie: Don't pay attention to your sister, it's just that the boy she likes doesn't pay attention to her and that's why she has such a sour mood. - she reassures him with a wink, earning a laugh from him and a complaint from the teenager.

Y/n: What boy? - I ask my daughter, confused and serious, when I have processed my wife's words.

Alice: None.- she growls in response, biting the piece of fruit somewhat aggressively.

Jackie: Don´t deny it, there's a boy in her math class that she likes and he doesn't pay attention to her.- my wife tells me with a huge smile. - His name is Axel? I don't know, but apparently he's in the debate club and he's a basketball player.- she says with a voice full of emotion.

Sometimes I forget how much my wife loves and enjoys other people's gossip. But she especially likes it when it's about our teenage daughter. It's like she goes back to that age again.

Alice: Alex mom and no, I don't like him. - she corrects her mother with a serious gesture.

Y/n: You better, because you're not going to have a boyfriend until you're 30, and that's me being nice.- I shook my head seriously.

Jackie: Aren't you being a little bit exaggerated? - she asks me, standing next to me and hugging my waist with one of her arms.

Y/n: No, my children will not know what a broken heart is until they are emancipated.- I deny seriously, making my teenage daughter and my wife laugh at me. -Now we are all finishing up because you guys have to go to class.- I hurry them a little and start to collect their plates.

Jackie: And remember that today I will pick you all up after school. - she reminds our children when they go up to brush their teeth and get their backpacks.

Within ten minutes, I've kissed Jax goodbye and am driving off with my three kids in it. My first stop is the high school where Alice has class and debate club, and then I have to drop Emma and Tomas off at their school.

Jackie´s POV

I turn off the car once I'm parked in the driveway and can't help but frown at the presence of a woman on my porch. I stare at her for a few seconds, before turning my gaze to the back seats and seeing my two youngest children laughing.

Jackie: Go inside with your siblings and do your homework.- I order my teenage daughter.

Alice: Why? What's wrong? - she asks me confused, taking off her belt and picking up her bag from between her legs.

Jackie: I don't know, but I don't know who that woman and considering that it´s the anniversary of the accident, I don't want to take any risks. - I explain sincerely and she nods in understanding.

Alice: Okay.- she nods and gets out of the car as I do and helps me get her youngest siblings out of the back. -Come on kids, the sooner we finish our homework the sooner we can play in the garden.- she tells them excitedly and they run towards the door.

I walk quickly to the porch, opening the door for my children and closing it once they are inside. I look at the woman who is leaning against the porch railing in total comfort, observing her closely and crossing my arms in defense.

Jackie: Who are you and what are you doing in my house? - I asked the stranger directly and without wanting to prolong the subject.

Jessica: My name is Jessica Roberts, I work as a journalist for the Star-Ledger and I wanted to talk to you and your husband about a juicy deal.- she answers me with a fake smile.

Jackie: How the hell did you get our address? - I asked aggressively, taking a couple of steps towards her and trying to maintain my composure.

Jessica: I have my sources.- she answers, still smiling. -I just want to talk about the proposal I want to offer you.- she repeats, moving away from the railing.

Jackie: What proposal? - I asked wanting to end this conversation as soon as possible and get her out of my property as soon as possible.

Jessica: I'd rather wait for Y/n to talk about the proposal.- she tells me without ever stopping her smile and that makes me want to slap it away.

Jackie: And I'm telling you to tell me now.- I demand, raising an eyebrow. -Because if you don't get off my property in the next 5 minutes, I'll call the police for trespassing and i can assure you that you will spend the night in a cell.- I assure her with an evil smile.

Jessica: Star-Ledger wants to make a deal to publish a book about what happened 25 years ago. - she answers, removing the smile from her face and with a more serious tone.

Jackie: Everyone knows what happened 25 years ago, it came out in the press conference that was held and it is not a secret. - I remember her tensing my jaw and trying to remain calm.

Jessica: Yes, but is that what really happened? - she asks now, crossing her arms. -Because we both know there's more to it than what was said. - she clarifies with a certain knowing tone, as if she knew something about what really happened.

Jackie: What really happened? - I asked sarcastically. -What happened was that one of the happiest moments of our lives turned into a hell in which many people lost their lives. Either because of the accident or because of the bad conditions in which we lived for 19 months. That's what really happened, and I'm going to ask you to get off my property right now.- I say with my arms at my sides and standing up as much as possible to look taller.

Jessica: You could earn more than seven figures just by telling your story, the reality of what happened and not letting other people benefit from your misfortune. - she insists with some desperation.

Jackie: Do you know how much my husband and I make in a year?- I ask her with a smirk. -Your offer is only 15% of our earnings, so if you really are a journalist and you think that is a juicy offer, I think you should do a better job.- I say walking towards the front door. -So get the hell out of my house right now and never come back again.- I end the conversation and enter the house, closing the door behind me.

I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart and get my hands to stop shaking from the adrenaline.

Once I've calmed down, I walk to my office on the first floor and leave my briefcase on the table. I take my cell phone out of my jacket pocket, texting my husband and asking him to come home as soon as possible.

With the message sent, I walk to the living room where my children are doing their homework and sit down among the little ones on the floor.

We didn't spend much time on their homework, as they didn't have much to do and it didn't have much difficulty with the grade they are both in. So once they had their middle of the evening snack, the four of us went out to the back garden and played soccer for a while.

When I hear the garden gate open, I see Y/n still dressed in his black suit pants and a dark green shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

I stare at him in rapture for a few moments, appreciating the way his clothes hug his body in the perfect places and how the colors of the clothes make his skin tone and eyes pop even more.

Jackie: Keep playing, dad and I are going to start preparing dinner.- I say to the three of them, leaving a kiss on the top of Tomas head and walking towards where my husband is.

When I reach where he is, I hug him by the shoulders and stand on my tiptoes to give him a welcome kiss. A kiss that lasts longer than I was planning, as he hugs me by the waist and holds me close to his body so I can't move away.

Y/n: Is everything okay? - he asks me in a low voice when we separate from the kiss and I can see his worried expression.

Jackie: Let's go to the kitchen so we can talk while we prepare dinner.- I ask him, leaving another kiss on his lips and grabbing his hand to pull him along.

Y/n: But is everything okay? Are the kids okay? Are you...- he starts asking non stop and I interrupt him with a look.

Jackie: Wait until we get to the kitchen and then I'll tell you.- I order him without stopping walking and pulling him with me.

Once in the kitchen, I take out the ingredients for the pasta and place them on the counter. I take a couple of deep breaths, trying to gather my thoughts and think of the best way to tell him what happened.

I can feel his curious and somewhat worried gaze on me, making me more nervous than I already am.

Jackie: Stop looking at me, I can't focus.- I beg, a little frustrated at not knowing how to start the conversation.

Y/n: What are you thinking for dinner? - he asks me, leaving a kiss on my head and checking the ingredients.

Jackie: I was thinking of making carbonara and some roasted vegetables to go with it. - I explain to him and he immediately starts taking out the things we needs to cook it.

Y/n: I'll start with the pasta and you with the vegetables? - he asks me and I nod in response.

We both start cooking in complete silence, moving around the kitchen in total synchrony and naturalness. After a few minutes of cooking, I feel more relaxed and while I am chopping the carrots I decide to start the conversation.

Jackie: When I got home with the kids, there was a woman on the porch waiting for me, and it turned out she was a journalist.- I begin to tell him, listening to the sound of the frying pan stop. -She wanted to talk to both of us and offer to write a book.- I explain with a grimace.

Y/n: A book? - he asks confused and I hear the sound of the frying pan again.

Jackie: A book in which we tell what really happened 25 years ago. - I answer, swallowing hard and listening a frustrated sigh behind me.

Y/n: I can't believe it.- he denies with her voice full of annoyance. -Every year it's the same, there's always someone lurking around trying to dig into what happened. Why can't they leave the past behind and let us live in peace.- he complains with anger and I sigh tired with the situation.

Every year some journalist or news article appears questioning the version that was published when we were rescued. Every year it is the same, hundreds of conspiracies and stories about what really happened come to light again. Some of them are very close to the truth that we all, absolutely all of us agree to deny and hide at all costs.

Jackie: I know, but like you said, it's nothing out of the ordinary and as soon as they appear, they disappear. But I had to tell you because this time I didn't feel the same way, she was more insistent and it seemed like she actually knew something. - I tell him with some uncertainty, not knowing very well if the journalist was bluffing or if she really knew something.

Y/n: Maybe this time it will be different.- he comments with a sigh, leaving the kitchen and leaving me confused rooted in my place.

Jackie: Where are you going? - I ask without understanding why he is leaving and where he is going.

I look confused at the hallway where my husband has disappeared, trying to process what just happened and why he left. I try to think of something, but my husband comes back into the kitchen and leaves something in front of me.

I look at what he has placed in front of me, seeing that it is a postcard with a beautiful landscape on it and a simple phrase.

Jackie: What is this? - I asked confused, looking between the postcard and my husband.

Y/n: Turn it around.- he orders me in a soft but somewhat heavy tone.

I do as I'm told and as soon as I see what's on the back, I drop the postcard immediately like it burns. I take a few steps back, hearing my heart racing in my ears and feeling my mouth go dry.

Jackie: Like... I don't... I don't... - I try to say something, but it's like my mind and mouth have lost all communication.

Y/n: It arrived this morning.- I listen to what he says and look at him in astonishment. -I haven't told you anything because I thought it would be a joke and that I shouldn't give it any importance. But the presence of that journalist makes me doubt if it's a coincidence or something premeditated.- he explains to me with some insecurity, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes for a few seconds.

Jackie: So what... what are we supposed to do? - I asked with a little difficulty, trying to keep my focus on the conversation and not on the symbol on the postcard.

Y/n: I don't know.- he denies, defeated, resting both hands on the kitchen island. -Maybe our best option is to ignore it for the moment and wait to see if something else happens.- he says with a doubtful tone that makes it more of a question than a statement.

Jackie: So we ignore it all? - I ask to make sure.

Y/n: Yes.- he nods, letting out a long sigh. -Unless you think there's something else we can or should do?- he asks me with some curiosity.

Jackie: No.- I deny through my teeth, feeling the tremble in my lower lip and an annoying itch in my eyes.

Y/n: Hey, everything's going to be okay.- he assures me, running towards me and wrapping me in his arms. -Nothing bad is going to happen.- he tries to reassure me, placing my head on his chest and gently stroking my hair.

Jackie: What if something bad happens? - I ask with a broken voice, with my hands on his back and my fists clenched around his shirt.

Y/n: As long as I'm around, nothing bad will happen to you or the kids. I promise.- he whispers with conviction against the top of my head, continuing to comfort me and letting me cry against his chest.

We spend a while wrapped in each other's arms, until I feel like I'm no longer crying and that I feel a little calmer.

Once I move away from his chest a little, he immediately grabs my face and gently wipes away all traces of tears from my cheeks with his thumbs. I just stare into his gorgeous green eyes, which are filled with worry and something more intense.

Y/n: Do you want a glass of wine? - he asks me with a small smile, trying to lighten the mood and cheer me up a little.

Jackie: More like the whole bottle.- I reply with a pout, causing him to laugh, and in the end I join him.

Y/n: A bottle of wine is coming to the most impressive woman in the world!- he exclaims with humor, leaving a kiss on my forehead and walking towards the wine rack. -Red, white, rose, sparkling?- he asks, moving his fingers between the bottles.

Jackie: White.- I respond amused, watching how he moves and feeling more relaxed with his movements.

Once we have a meal in hand and a lighter mood, we go back to preparing dinner. I just hope that Y/n is right and that doing nothing is the most appropriate thing for this situation.

I just hope it's a coincidence and there's nothing premeditated or organized behind this.

I look up from the color palette, when I hear the doorbell ring and I frown looking towards where the front door is. Somewhat doubtful, I sit on the stool and think about who could be knocking on the door.

But I don't have anyone I know in mind or any reason why someone would knock on my door on a Sunday morning.

The doorbell rings again, so with a sigh I get up from the stool and walk calmly to the door. I open the door and the polite smile on my face immediately disappears.

Jackie: What the hell are you doing here? - I ask through clenched teeth, looking behind the people and making sure there's no one else around.

Taissa: We need to talk to you and since you're not answering the phone, we've been forced to come. - she answers, crossing her arms and walking past me to enter my house.

Jackie: No, no, no.- I deny trying to grab Tai and prevent the others from entering the house behind her. -You can't come in.- I growl annoyed.

Natalie: This concerns you too.- she assures me, looking at the photos on the walls. -Where's Y/n?- she asks, turning around and looking at me.

Jackie: Out.- I answer simply, frustrated with the presence of the three women and closing the door.

Taissa: When will he come back? - she asks me a little worried.

Jackie: I don't know.- I answer, passing by the three of them and walking back to the kitchen.

Taissa: And could you call him to ask him to come as soon as possible? - she asks me walking behind me.

Jackie: No.- I answer as if it were obvious.

Natalie: What do you mean no? - she asks with a hint of aggression in her voice. -We have to tell you something important, something related to that and it's urgent.- she assures me, referring to our accident.

Jackie: That's in the past and right now my husband is busy with our present and future. So no, I'm not going to call him and ask him to come over immediately. - I explain with finality, knowing that I'm not going to call him and force him to leave our son's soccer game.

Shauna: You're still just as selfish. - she tells me evilly, speaking for the first time since I've seen her and causing me to clench my jaw in anger.

Jackie: You, you're the one calling me selfish? - I asked in a sarcastic and somewhat poisonous tone. -The one person who, after fucking my ex-boyfriend and getting pregnant by him while she was still with me, made ME look like the bad guy. - I reproached her, still upset and hurt by what she did to me.

Shauna: And yet after all this time everything still revolves around YOU.- she reproaches me with pure venom in her voice.

Jackie: You're in my house, you've entered uninvited and you're demanding things from me when I haven't seen you in over 20 years.- I remind to two of three. -But I'm the selfish one for refusing to do something, when you two haven't even asked me how I am or explained the reason why you've invaded my home.- I comment, pointing at the three of them with obvious frustration.

Shauna: Because you've blocked us from everywhere and this is the only solution we've found. - She gestures around her with both arms. - So don't blame us for being here, when this could have been avoided with a phone call and that's it. - She spits in my face through her teeth.

Jackie: And you're surprised that I blocked you? - I asked her surprised. - You're surprised that after almost freezing to death because of you, I didn't want to know anything about you and I made sure of that? - I asked her with some sarcasm and disbelief at her attitude.

Shauna: It wasn't my fault! - she exclaims in denial. -I didn't force you to leave, I didn't put a knife to your neck to get you to leave the cabin and you know that perfectly well.- she claims pointing at me with her finger.

Jackie: You may not have held a knife to my neck, but at no point did you make me feel welcome or safe to continue being in that cabin that night.- I assure her through gritted teeth. -And the only, the ONLY reason I'm alive today, is because Y/n went outside with me that night, who put me in the meat shed when it started to get too cold and who made sure I didn't freeze to death that night. So yes Shauna, I hold you mostly responsible for my near death.- I remind her with venom and some pain at the memory of that night.

Neither of them says anything for a few seconds, filling the kitchen with a tension that could be cut with a knife, which gives me time to start gathering my things from the island and processing their presence in my house.

Natalie: What is that? - she asks me curiously, approaching the island and looking at the different sketches, colors and textures spread out in it.

Jakcie: A work project.- I reply vaguely, placing everything in a pile and putting it into a big folder.

Natalie: What project are you working on? - she asks again with curiosity, pulling out a stool and sitting on it.

Jackie: In the inside of a two-story and 500 square meter house, decorated with natural colors and metallic objects.- I explain with a small, happy smile at her interest.

The truth is that in all these years since we were rescued, both Y/n and I cut off ties with all the other survivors. The only people we kept in touch with were Nat and Lottie.

After all, Lottie is Y/n's twin sister so it's only natural that we maintained our relationship with her, especially given how overprotective my husband has always been of her. On the other hand, he and Nat have always been very good friends, so we continued to keep in touch with her after being rescued and returning to our daily lives.

It's been a while since we last saw them, but seeing Nat in front of me and giving me a slight smile makes me happy. Since the moment we were rescued, she was one of all of us who had it the worst at adapting and is constantly in rehab.

Taissa: Do you work? - she asks me, surprised by the information I just gave.

Jackie: Why do you seem so surprised? - I ask her, both offended and amused by her reaction.

Taissa: I don't know. - She denies with a grimace. - I always imagined you marrying someone rich and being a rich housewife. - She explains, shrugging her shoulders.

Jackie: Well, you got the first part right, because I married someone rich.- I remind her with an amused smile. -But I went to college for a reason, right? Besides, it's something I love and they pay very, very well depending on the client.- I explain, shrugging my shoulders.

Natalie: And are you going to offer us something to drink or? - she asks, moving her hands in circles.

Jackie: Do you want something to drink? - I asked them politely, offering a fake smile to the dark haired one.

Taissa: A coffee with milk would be nice, thanks.- she thanks me sitting on the other stool.

Natalie: You know what I want.- She gives me an amused look and I shake my head at the ridiculousness of it.

Shauna: Something strong.- she answers sitting on the last stool on the island to Nat's left.

I quickly start making the coffee and while it's pouring into the cup, I grab the bottle of tequila from the cabinet on top of the fridge and place it in front of Nat. I grab three shot glasses and Tai's coffee, placing them on the island.

The brunette opens the bottle and begins to fill the glasses with the yellowish liquor. We each take a glass and drink the contents in one gulp.

Jackie: Okay, what's so urgent? - I ask them once the sting of the tequila in my throat calms down a bit.

Taissa: This.- she answers me taking her phone out of her pocket and sliding it towards me along the island.

Jackie: What the hell is this? - I ask, somewhat disturbed and scared when she saw the message.

Natalie: Blackmail.- she answers me as if it were obvious. -Haven't you received the message?- she asks me confused.

Jackie: No, neither Y/n nor I have received it.- I immediately deny. - Yes, we received a postcard a week ago and a journalist showed up that same day offering a deal to tell what really happened. But apart from that, nothing.- I tell them with all the honesty possible.

Shauna: It wouldn't be a Jessica Roberts, would it? - she asks me with her eyes wide open.

Jackie: Yes.- I nod immediately with my eyes open. -Did she go to your place too?- I ask trying to connect the dots.

Shauna: Yes, she came to me a little over a week ago, offering to write a book and receive a sum of more than seven figures to tell what really happened in that forest. - she confirms, pressing her lips together in a continuous line.

Natalie: None of this makes sense.- she denies, massaging her temple and pouring herself another shot. -The postcard was only received by Misty, Tai, Y/n, you and I. While the blackmail message was received by Taissa and me. So why send the postcard to some and the message to others?- she leaves her doubt hanging in the air and I agree with her.

As Tai was about to say something, we hear the front door open and a couple of quick footsteps.

Y/n: Jax we're home! - I hear him shout from the entrance and I can hear the fun in his voice.

Tomas: Mommy, mommy, mommyyyyy! - he shouts, running through the house and entering the kitchen with his dirty uniform and a huge smile on his face. -We won! - he exclaims completely happy, running towards me and jumping into my arms.

Jackie: Really? - I asked, exaggerating my reaction and smiling at the happiness on her face.

Tomas: Yes.- he nods enthusiastically. -I scored a goal.- he tells me enthusiastically.

Jackie: Wow that amazing.- I say with my eyes wide open and a hugh smile.

Emma: Auntie Nat? - she asks from the kitchen entrance with her eyes wide open.

Natalie: Isn´t that the blonde dwarf. - She smiles, getting up from the stool and opening her arms. - How you've grown. - She growls against my daughter's blonde hair when she hugs her.

Shauna: Auntie Nat? - she asks completely confused, exchanging glances between the black haired adult and the blonde girl in her arms. -Since when do you have children? - she asks, looking at my son in my arms.

Jackie: Since when do I have to give you any explanations? - I answer sharply. - Why don't you go out with your sister to the garden and play for a while? Okay? - I ask my son, giving him a kiss on the forehead and putting him down on the ground.

Tomas: Okay.- He nods happily, holding out his hand to his sister and running with her to the garden, once they both join hands.

Jackie: Plus, I'm surprised my mom didn't tell you about it at one of your lunches.- I commented ironically, crossing my arms.

Shauna: She didn´t.- she shakes her head with a strange expression on her face.

Y/n: Jax, you're not going to believe the funniest moment of the game you missed.- he comments between laughs entering the kitchen. -What's going on here? Nat? When did you get out of rehab?- he asks, wiping his smile away when he sees the three people in our kitchen.

Natalie: It's been almost two weeks.- she answers, shrugging her shoulders without giving it any importance.

Y/n: And didn't you think to let us know or come visit? - he asks her, crossing his arms.

Natalie: Yeah, well, let's just say I haven't had much time between Travis' death, the postcard, Misty being crazy and now the damn blackmail. - she tells us with some frustration and I can only open my eyes in surprise at the information, and I can see that my husband has a similar reaction to mine.

Y/n: Travis is dead? - he asks in shock. - Wait, postcard? Did they send you that damn postcard with the symbol too? - he asks again, approaching the group.

Taissa: They also sent it to Misty and me.- the curly haired girl answers. -But we're not here for the postcard, we're here for a more important reason that affects us all.- she explains seriously, picking up her cell phone from the island and showing him the blackmail message to my husband.

Y/n: What the hell is this? - he asks angrily after reading the message.

Shauna: We're being blackmailed by someone who came back with us or who has been told something from one of us. - she replies, taking another shot.

Y/n: Have you been the only one who received it? - she asks the future senator and returns the phone to her.

Taissa: The two of us.- she answers pointing at the short black haired one and herself.

Y/n: Okay.- he nods with a frown. -But they haven't sent us that message.- he says with some doubt looking at me and I shake my head in confirmation.

Natalie: It seems so.- she nods, agreeing with him.

Y/n: So why are you all here?- he asks confused. -Don't get me wrong, it's good to see you again and all that, at least some of you. But I don't understand why you're here.- he comments seriously, walking towards me and giving me a short kiss.

Taissa: We didn't know that you hadn't received the message. - she explains, letting out a sigh and taking a sip of her coffee.

Jackie: Well, you already know that we didn´t and to be honest, I don't want to get involved in whatever you're doing and have our children be affected in any way. - I deny, adopting a defensive posture.

Natalie: And we understand, but we need your help.- she asks us, biting her lip and letting out a sigh.

Y/n: What do you need? - she asks directly.

Shauna: Money would be nice, if you have it.- she answers with her lips in a straight line.

I immediately throw a dirty look at the one who was my best friend, letting out a mocking sound at her audacity and I feel the words bubbling in my throat.

Y/n: Okay.- nods and disappears through the archway into the main floor hallway.

Taissa: Where is he going? - she asks me, just as confused as I am.

I just shrug my shoulders, not knowing why he left without saying anything and not knowing where he was going. Nat refills the glasses with tequila and I bring mine over to him to refill.

Jackie: And how did it go this time in rehab? - I ask the short haired one with interest.

I rest my elbows on the island, leaning against them and giving my friend my full attention. Since we were rescued, Nat was the one who had the hardest time adjusting back to our life before the accident.

So since we got back, she's been going to rehab and has got herself arrested a couple of times.

Natalie: Fine.- she answers with a grimace. -I haven't taken any drugs yet and I'm not lacking in desire with everything that's going on.- she admits, taking the shot.

Taissa: You better, because I can't pay for your rehab visits anymore. - she comments with a certain humor, taking another sip of her coffee.

Y/n: Here you go.- he says returning to the kitchen and leaving a wad of bills on the island.

Shauna: You have 50,000 grand at home? - she asks surprised seeing the money.

Y/n: I have more than that stored at home.- he admits shrugging his shoulders and I look at him surprised.

Jackie: Why do you have so much money at home? - I asked, stunned by the money and thinking about where he could have that money.

Y/n: For emergencies - he respond simply raising his shoulders downplaying it.

Shauna: Is that really 50 grand?- she asks again and my husband nods. -Well, it's a bit disappointing compared to the standard of heist movies.- she says with a smirk on her lips.

Y/n: It's 50 grand in 100 dollar bills.- he answers as if it were obvious. -How crazy would I be to have that much money in our house in small bills, they would take up a lot more space.- simply explains as if that amount of money wasn't much and placing a hand on my lower back.

Taissa: We already know who will pay for your next rehab.- she says to the short-haired girl somewhat funny.

Natalie: Thank you for your faith in me, Tai.- she reproaches her, rolling her eyes.

Jackie: Do you need anything else? - I ask them with some impatience, wanting this conversation to end so they can leave.

Taissa: No, thanks for this.- she says holding the wad of bills in her hand. -We will let you know if we manage to catch the blackmailer so we can return your money.- she tells us and I nod in agreement with her words.

Natalie: Well, let's go. - She gets up from the stool and takes a few steps back.

Y/n: You're not leaving.- he points at her with his finger. -You're staying for dinner and spending time with your goddaughter.- he says seriously and with an evil smile.

Natalie: Really? - she asks, grumbling like a child.

Y/n: What do you think? - he asks back with his arms crossed and raising an eyebrow.

Shauna: Well, then the two of us are... we're going to go.- she says, pointing towards the archway towards the hallway with her thumb and with a slight tremor in her voice.

Jackie: Can you help them out and while I bathe Tommy?- I ask the only man in the kitchen.

Y/n: Sure.- he nods with a smile, leaving another kiss on my lips and walking with the other two women towards the exit of the house.

Jackie: And you play with your goddaughter for a while, she missed you.- she ordered the brunette with a big smile.

Natalie: Yes, captain.- she mocks with a military salute and walking with me to the garden.

I watch my children for a few seconds, listening to their laughter as they chase each other and feeling a warm feeling all over my body at their happiness.

The unexpected visit and the conversation with the girls made me remember the worst moments of my life. But they also made me realize how lucky I was, because thanks to that accident I found my soulmate and I managed to start a family with him.

A happy family, with its bad times and its good times. With dysfunctional aunts and absent grandparents. But a family like neither of us had growing up with.

We have managed to form a family based on love and the different forms of affection that our parents omitted during our growing up.

In addition, I am now the happiest I have ever been in my entire life, without having to pretend and I feel complete with the presence of my loved ones.

For that very reason, I curse that horrible day when we got on that damm plane, but I bless the moment when I set my gaze on Y/n in the middle of all that madness. 

Because thanks to him, I am alive today at this moment and I can be watching our children run around in our home. It was all part of our destiny.

THE END

ᴅᴀʀᴋᴇꜱᴛ ʜᴏᴜʀ | ᴊ.ᴛ

ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ: 1410

ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴀʀʏ: ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀ ʜᴇʀ ꜰɪɢʜᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ꜱʜᴀᴜɴᴀ, ᴊᴀᴄᴋɪᴇ ꜱᴛᴏʀᴍꜱ ᴏᴜᴛ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴅ, ᴀɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ʜᴇʀ ᴛᴏ ᴏꜰꜰᴇʀ ʜᴇʀ ᴄᴏᴍꜰᴏʀᴛ ᴡʜᴇɴ ꜱʜᴇ ɴᴇᴇᴅꜱ ɪᴛ ᴍᴏꜱᴛ.

ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ: ᴊᴀᴄᴋɪᴇ ᴛᴀʏʟᴏʀ x ꜰᴇᴍ ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

ᴀ/ɴ: ᴜᴍᴍᴍ ꜰɪʀꜱᴛ ᴀɴɢꜱᴛ ᴋɪɴᴅᴀ? ᴍᴏʀᴇ ʜᴜʀᴛ/ᴄᴏᴍꜰᴏʀᴛ-ɪꜱʜ. ᴀᴜ ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴊᴀᴄᴋɪᴇ ᴅᴏᴇꜱɴ’ᴛ ᴅɪᴇ, ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴄᴀɴ ᴇᴀᴛ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ ᴇʟꜱᴇ (ᴛʀᴀᴠɪꜱ).

You hear the front door slam before you see her go.

Jackie’s footsteps crunch hard against the ground outside, fast and furious like she’s trying to outrun the mess left behind in the cabin. For a second, no one moves. The air inside feels thick, the tension still lingering. Shauna stands there frozen like she didn’t just detonate her oldest friendship in front of the whole team. Finally, Mari exhales, sighing like it hurts.

You shove your arms into your coat pockets and head towards the door, following her.

Nobody stops you. They all know better by now. You’ve made it your job to keep Jackie out of harm's way, even if she acts like she doesn’t need anyone. Especially now. You’ve always been able to tell when she’s just being dramatic and when something actually matters. And that? That was real.

You find her not far from the cabin, breath fogging in the cold, her arms wrapped around herself like they’re all she has left. She’s staring at the meat shed. Not moving. Just looking at it. Like she’s deciding whether it’s worth hiding in or if she should just keep walking and never stop.

When you step beside her, she doesn’t flinch.

She doesn’t look at you. Just mutters, low and even, “I can’t be in there with her.”

You nod, “You don’t have to be.”

Jackie turns toward the shed without another word and walks in like the wind’s pushing her toward it. You follow close behind, grabbing the door so it doesn’t slam shut on you both. It’s dark inside. Freezing. Your fingers are already starting to go numb. But none of that matters right now.

Jackie sinks to the floor near the back wall and pulls her knees up to her chest. Her whole body folds in on itself like she’s trying to disappear. You stand there for a second, unsure if she wants space or if she’s just trying not to break in front of someone. Then she speaks.

“She’s pregnant.”

It sounds like she doesn’t believe it, even though she’s the one who said it. You lower yourself to the ground, sitting a few feet away. Letting her have the silence if she wants it.

“With Jeff’s baby,” Jackie spits. “Of all people. My boyfriend. And she— she just kept it from me and lied. Like I wouldn’t find out. Like I’m some idiot.”

Her voice shakes on the last word.

“She said she didn’t want to tell me because she loved me. Like that makes it okay. Like it’s supposed to help.”

You stay quiet. Let her rant. She needs to say it out loud. Needs to rip it out of herself before it festers and starts eating her alive from the inside.

“I don’t even know who she is anymore,” she says. “I keep thinking about how she looked at me in there. All guilty and soft and pathetic. Like I’m supposed to feel bad for her. Like I did something wrong.”

You look at her. Her eyes are glassy now, but she’s doing that thing, clenching her jaw so tight she might chip a tooth, trying not to let anything fall. Jackie Taylor doesn’t cry in front of people, not unless she wants them to see it. And she doesn’t want you to. She doesn’t want to feel pitied.

But she looks like she’s seconds from breaking.

“I hate her,” she mutters. “But I don’t. And that’s what pisses me off the most. I know I’m gonna forgive her eventually. I always do. And that makes me feel like the stupidest person alive.”

You scoot closer. Not too fast. Just enough that your knee brushes against hers. “It doesn’t make you stupid.”

She scoffs. “Oh yeah? What does it make me?”

“Human. Kind.”

Jackie laughs, but it’s not her usual light-hearted laugh, the one that makes your heart feel like it’s dropped into your stomach. This one is bitter and dry.

“Right. That’s me. Jackie Taylor, a total sweetheart.”

You let the sarcasm roll off. She’s hurting too much to believe anything good about herself right now. You’re used to that, how mean she gets when she’s scared. How sharp she can be when she feels exposed.

But you’re not scared of her.

And maybe that’s why she lets you in. You don’t ask, you just do it. Wrap your arms around her shoulders, pulling her in with the slow kind of confidence that says ‘I’m not going anywhere’.

She stiffens. For half a second, you think she might shove you off.

But she doesn’t.

She sinks into it, slow and silent, like a tree collapsing onto the forest floor. She leans against your chest, arms still folded tight across her stomach, face turned into your shoulder like she’s ashamed of needing comfort.

You hold her tighter and tuck your chin against the crown of her head. Breathing her in.

“I don’t know who I am without her,” Jackie whispers after a long time. “I spent so much time being half of something. Best friends. Jeff and me. Everything was perfect and now it’s all just… gone.”

“You’re still you,” you murmur. “Even if she’s not next to you.”

Her voice shakes. “What if I don’t like who that is?”

You close your eyes for a second. The air is too cold to be comforting, but somehow you don’t feel it anymore. Not with her pressed against you. Not when you’re so focused on keeping her in one piece.

“I do,” you say quietly.

She doesn’t respond. Just curls in tighter, like she’s trying to make herself small enough to disappear into your jacket. Her breath hitches once, twice. You can feel it in your chest when she finally lets go.

No sobbing. No noise. Just quiet, shuddering breaths as she cries against you, trying not to let the tears fall, even though it’s too late. Her face is hot and wet through the sleeve of your shirt.

You don’t say anything else. Just rock her a little. Keep your arms around her Like you’re her only source of safety and warmth.

After a while, her breathing evens out. Her body stops trembling. But she doesn’t move away.

You shift so that you’re both leaning back against the wall, your coat half draped over her. It’s not warm, not really, but it’s enough to keep you both from freezing. She stays tucked into your side, legs tangled with yours, one arm still looped around your ribs.

It’s quiet in the meat shed. The wind whistling faintly outside. Somewhere far off, you think you hear a branch crack.

Neither of you say anything.

Eventually, Jackie falls asleep like that.

You feel the weight of her head get heavier on your chest, and her breathing gradually slows. You don’t move. You don’t sleep either, not really. Just drift with her, warm and still but present, keeping watch.

And maybe it’s stupid, but for the first time in days, your heartbeat doesn’t feel like it’s clawing its way through your chest. You’re still out here. Still stranded in the middle of nowhere, but Jackie’s with you. Jackie’s okay. And somehow, that makes everything feel bearable like you can survive as long as you’re together.

When the sky starts to lighten, you finally open your eyes.

The meat shed door is still shut tight, but the light filters in through the cracks, soft and cold.

You gently shift her off of you, and Jackie stirs, blinking blearily like she forgot where she was. Her face is puffy and tinted pink around her eyes. She yawns, wipes at her cheeks, then glances toward the door.

“Did it snow?” she asks hoarsely.

You stand and crack the door open.

The ground is covered in white.

Thick, fresh snow blankets everything, soft, silent, and untouched. The trees drip with frost.

You glance back at her and nod. “Yeah. A lot.”

She groans softly and slumps against the wall. “Great. Now we’re snowed in the meat shed. Just kill me.”

You smile a little and offer her your hand. “Come on. I’ll help you back.”

She hesitates. Then, slowly, she reaches out and takes it.

Her fingers are cold, chiller bone-deep, but they find yours, threading through on instinct. And when she squeezes, it’s not hard or desperate, just steady. Grateful even. Like she doesn’t know how to say thank you out loud, but hopes this is enough.

I am me

The lab was a cathedral of cold steel and sterile light, buried deep beneath Gotham’s decaying underbelly. Vials hissed, monitors pulsed, and the air hummed with the arrogance of creation. Dr. Elias Varn, a man whose ambition outstripped his humanity, stood before the culmination of his life’s work: a figure suspended in a glowing tank, muscles taut, eyes closed, a paradox of sinew and menace. The clone. A perfect fusion of Gotham’s greatest hero, Bruce Wayne’s discipline, and its most infamous monster, the Joker’s chaotic brilliance.

But Varn had never considered that the clone might have a mind of its own.

They called him {your name}. A name you didn’t choose, but one Varn etched into your file—like a cold, indelible mark. The first sinner, the first to shed blood, the biblical outcast. {your name} was feared before you even took your first breath. Your creators saw only the potential for ruin—Bruce’s tactical genius combined with Joker’s unpredictable fury. But what they couldn’t see was this: you looked at chaos and found it… wasteful.

Your first memory was the hum of the lab, the weight of eyes upon you, and a question that burned brighter than the fluorescent glare: Why destroy when you can build? It wasn’t about morality, not exactly. Morality was for others—guilt and virtue were clumsy dances. You saw the world in probabilities, in outcomes. Destruction was loud, fleeting, inefficient. Helping, fixing, optimizing—that was the puzzle worth solving.

Gotham was a city of screams, and you walked its streets like a ghost. Six feet of lean muscle, your features a haunting blend of Bruce’s chiseled resolve and Joker’s sharp, unsettling grin. But your eyes—one green, one gray—were entirely your own; the only flaw in Varn’s perfect design.

People flinched when they saw you, sensing the danger in your stride, the latent power in your hands. They didn’t know that you’d spent the morning rerouting a soup kitchen’s supply chain to feed twice as many mouths with half the waste.

Tonight, you stood in the shadow of a crumbling tenement, watching a woman named Mara load boxes into a battered van. Her face was streaked with tears, her movements frantic. Divorce had gutted her, left her scrambling to escape a home turned hostile. The neighbors had offered hugs, platitudes, casseroles. But you saw their gestures for what they were: emotional noise, useless in the face of logistics.

You stepped forward, silent as a predator, and Mara froze. “You’re… you’re him,” she whispered, voice trembling. The papers had leaked your existence weeks ago—Varn’s hubris ensuring that. The Clone. The Monster. The End of Us All.

You tilted your head, assessing. “You’re moving out. You need help.”

Her eyes widened. “I—I don’t—”

You didn’t wait for permission. In ten minutes, you’d packed the van with ruthless efficiency, stacking boxes in a Tetris-like arrangement that left room for her daughter’s crib. By midnight, you’d secured a lease on a subsidized apartment across town, one with a deadbolt and a view of the river. Mara stammered thanks, but you were already gone, her gratitude irrelevant. The task was done. The outcome optimized.

The world didn’t understand you, and you didn’t care. You weren’t good, not in the way people wanted. Good was Batman, cloaked in sacrifice, or the civilians who clutched their pearls and prayed for heroes. You were something else—a mind that saw systems where others saw stories, a heart that weighed effort against impact. Danger pulsed in your veins, yes. You could kill with a flick of your wrist, outwit a SWAT team, or burn Gotham to ash. But why?

Chaos was a tantrum, and you weren’t a child.

Your next project was a man named Carl, a dockworker whose father had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Carl’s friends had clapped him on the back, sent cards, and organized a fundraiser. Nice, but insufficient. You spent three nights combing through medical journals, hospital records, and survivor forums. By dawn, you handed Carl a dossier: a ranked list of oncologists with the highest success rates, a breakdown of treatment costs versus outcomes, and a dietary plan tailored to bolster immunity. Carl stared at the pages, dumbfounded. “Why’d you do this?” he asked.

You shrugged. “It was the logical thing to do.”

Logical. That was the word they didn’t get. To Gotham, you were a walking apocalypse, the Joker’s madness wearing Batman’s cape. They saw your lineage and wrote your story before you could. Varn had wanted a destroyer, and the city braced for one. But you weren’t their puppet. You were your own man, carving a path neither Bruce nor Joker could have imagined—one where power served purpose, not chaos or control.

The Bat watched from the shadows, his cowl a mask of conflict. Bruce Wayne had found you, tracked you through Gotham’s veins, and now stood on a rooftop, grappling with the truth. This clone, this abomination, wasn’t the monster he’d feared. You didn’t kill, didn’t scheme, didn’t revel in pain. You helped. You solved. You were neither hero nor villain, but something Bruce couldn’t categorize—a man who saw the world as a machine and chose to fix it, not break it.

The Joker, too, had heard the whispers. In his latest hideout, he cackled at the irony. His DNA, his legacy, turned into a do-gooder? It was hilarious, infuriating, perfect. “Oh, kid,” he muttered, twirling a knife. “You’re gonna ruin my brand.”

But you didn’t care about brands, or legacies, or the war between order and anarchy. You cared about outcomes. And tonight, as you slipped into an abandoned warehouse to dismantle a gang’s fentanyl operation—not with fists, but with evidence mailed to the DA—you felt the weight of eyes on you. Bruce’s. The Joker’s. Gotham’s.

Let them watch. Let them fear. You weren’t their story. You were your own.

Surviving The Wilderness

Pairings: yellowjackets x reader

Summary: With how much effort you had put in trying to look after the group as the seasons start to change, you get dubbed the unofficial mom of the team. Find request here.

Winter was on the horizon. Temperatures were starting to drop even further during the night and daylight hours were shortening with each day that had passed. With no foreseeable chance of rescue happening any time soon, the group had to prepare for the oncoming harshness of the next season. 

There was only so much you could do with having very little to begin with but you were trying your best, as was everyone else. At first it was just the menial tasks that you had double downed on, the chores everyone had already been doing in order to get by.

The pile of firewood stood tall and proud in the attic of the cabin. You had buddied yourself up with Tai to collect as much dry wood as the two of you could. There wasn’t a shortage of wood out in the wilderness but it would mean spending less time out in the cold for necessities when it came to it.

You had also started out marking out all of the spots for potential food. Colder temperatures didn’t immediately mean there’d be nothing available to eat, or at least you hoped, but you figured knowing where food could grow would be important for when it became a scarcity. You weren't sure what you were going to do if the snow rolled in early but you didn’t like thinking about that. 

You had paired yourself up with Misty for your impromptu foraging trip. The girl knew an uncanny amount of facts about mushrooms and berry bushes, the whole sorts. While you were out there, you used a copy of one of Natalies maps she had made while out hunting to mark off all the potential spots for food. The two of you also took the chance to gather what you could to add to the rations. Food was the main concern for everyone at the moment. 

Misty had talked your ear off the entire day. She was probably excited that someone had actually sought out her company. It was rather endearing when she got excited by the sight of a specific mushroom and how serious she would suddenly turn when warning you not to touch a specific plant you’d stumble across. 

While you had entertained her rambles and managed to learn a thing or two about how to spot a poison berry from a safe one, you didn’t know how to keep up with all her energy. You were kind of thankful for the quietness of the cabin that night.

Preparations for winter weren’t the only thing on your mind. You liked keeping up the morale of the team, being a shoulder to lean on for anyone who needed it, or a person to confide in. It brought a smile to your own face when you managed to make one of your friends smile. It was what you were there for. 

Jackie had pulled you aside from the campfire you were all perched around outside, telling you she needed to talk to you about something important. You were in the middle of learning how to whittle with a few of the other girls but a small break wouldn’t hurt anyone, you’d catch back up when you got back. 

“You’ve really stepped up out here.” Jackie was proud of the efforts you had put in, you were holding up surprisingly well. “Thank you for being the leader I couldn’t be.”

Jackie had especially seemed to be struggling with the adjustment of being stranded out in the wilderness. You couldn’t see it at first, not when she was the most hopeful about getting rescued, doing the most she could to keep her team up and going but the longer she stayed out here, the more that sparked dampened. 

As much as her comment made you proud of your own achievements, it also struck a chord within you. 

“Hey, it’s not easy out here but you’re trying your best and that's what matters, right?” You offered her a reassuring smile. You couldn’t blame her for not adjusting so quickly. The chain of jarring events you had all been through over the past few weeks wasn’t easy to get over.

“It feels like I'm losing my mind out here.” Jackie tried to crack a smile but you could tell it was forced. 

“You’re not the only one going a little crazy out here, you don’t have to cope through this alone.” You reached out to her and enveloped her in a comforting embrace that she immediately leaned into. You hoped she’d remember that. She never had to do anything alone. You were still a team.

The two of you stayed like that for an extended moment. You felt like she needed this so you weren’t going to pull back until she did.

“You’re a really great friend.” Jackie mumbled into your shoulder.

“I’ve got your back, alright? We’ll get through it. All of us will.” Even if it wasn’t easy.

The stillness of the cabin after sundown was always something that unnerved you for some reason. You didn’t like prolonged moments of silence but sometimes everyone was too exhausted after a long day and they didn’t have the energy to keep themselves entertained. 

The first time you had brought up the idea of telling each other stories at night, it wasn’t so well received but you were determined to provide some sort of entertainment.

“Bedtime stories? Seriously? What are you, my mom?” Taissa  mocked.

“Your mom still reads you bedtime stories?” Van jestered.

“Shut up.” Taissa rolled her eyes at Van's joke. That wasn’t what she meant.

“It doesn’t have to be some fairytale woe it can be about anything. Have some fun making up your own world or something.” You tried reasoning with them, seeing the potential in the fun that could come from such a thing. You didn’t see the harm in indulging in your creative sides again, even for something a little silly and childish. It’d let you be teenagers again and not just survivors.

“I think I’ve got something.” The look on Van’s face had Taissa groaning and that could only mean one thing. Whatever the girl had in mind was going to be the most ridiculous and therefore amusing story you would ever hear. 

Since then, storytelling with Van every other night or so practically became a nighttime routine. Sometimes it was the smaller things that counted, the silly things that kept everyone looking forward. Everyone would huddle around the fireplace wrapped up in their blankets while you and Van sat on your chairs telling stories, some a little spooky the others pure comedy gold.

The days were only becoming shorter as each one had passed. The looming threat of winter hanging over you all but you were keen on making it your job to make sure each and every one of your teammates would make it through the next season. You’d be there for them every step of the way, no matter what they needed.

Supplying everyone with proper winter attire was next up on your agenda. You had become everyone's self appointed tailor so to speak. There was a spare suitcase in the makeshift pantry room of the cabin where everyone had spared a few things for anyone to take for grabs. You picked off a few stray buttons from the case and a small selection of spare material from clothing, making sure to leave plenty left for anyone else too.

Everyone had their own clothes they could layer themselves up in when it came to that so luckily you didn’t have to worry too much about that. If you had to, you’d remind anyone who was going outside for a prolonged period to remember to take a headscarf with them. 

You had done your best sewing a couple of pairs of gloves, especially for Natalie and Travis who were going to be out in the cold the most as they were the appointed hunters of the group. With what you had, you managed to make a few pairs and one of them was even an adjustable size by threading the button that held the pieces together through a different hole of the three you had poked through. That way everyone would have something that fit them.

You hoped the pair you made for Travis was the right size, you couldn’t exactly use your own measurements from your hands for his gloves. “Try these on for me?” He was surprised when you had approached him, offering up the items of clothing to him.

“What are these for?” Despite his question, he took the gloves from your hand.

“For when you go hunting with Nat.” You explained like it was obvious. “You two are outside the most out of all of us so I figured I should make sure you at least stay warm out there.”

They probably had one of the most important jobs, keeping everyone fed. You couldn't afford them falling ill or anything like that. You noticed that they had already been waking up earlier to get out in the early morning and while you wanted to applaud their efforts in feeding the group, it did worry you a little that they were sacrificing so much rest and walking about in the dark so you figured you'd look after them the only way you knew how.

“Yeah, I'll be using these. Thanks.” Luckily the gloves fit him pretty well as he wiggled his fingers around to test the amount of movement he had in them.

“Stay safe out there.” You nodded curtly with a proud smile on your face, happy that the gift turned out well.

It was when Natalie and Travis kept coming back from their hunting trips empty handed more and more often that you really kicked into gear. Things started to feel a little more real to you then, like there really was something to worry about or fuss over. Being cold and bored was one thing but starving out here was another. You had to find a way to keep everyone well nourished.

In order to do that, tea had become the next thing you tried to master. Everyone liked tea, right? It may not have been the most filling thing but with the right ingredients it would have a good amount of the necessary nutrients to keep you going. Plus it didn't take too many resources to make which made it accessible to drink daily.

This was the third evening you had gone around the group offering up your cups of tea. The one you had made this time was tinted with mixed berries seeing as Misty had gone to you with what was left over. She didn’t want them to go to waste and they couldn’t be stored away for much longer or else they’d go off so she figured you could make use of them.

“Didn’t take you for such a tea connoisseur.” Shauna teased, then getting nudged in the side by Jackie who mumbled something about how you were just being nice. 

Making tea was something new to you and not every pot came out perfect but oddly enough you enjoyed making a new batch every time.

“Here, Nat, you’re shivering.” You offered up a fresh cup of hot berry tea to her, knowing it could help warm her up. 

“It’s fine, really, I’m good.” She held up her hand in a gentle refusal, brushing your offer off but that only made you catch sight of her pink fingertips. She had been out all day with the shotgun, maybe it was already getting colder than you thought.

Despite her words, you pushed the cup into her open hand and she couldn’t help but sigh in relief at the warmth it brought to her cold hand. Maybe your offer wasn’t such a bad one after all. You smiled triumphantly when she took the mug from you and started sipping away at the drink.

“Wait there a moment.” There wasn’t much reason for Nat to be going anywhere now that she had the chance to relax but you wanted to make sure she stayed put. Seconds later you came back with one of the blankets and you draped it over her shoulders for her, making sure it stayed in place over her body to preserve as much heat as possible.

“You’re such a mom, y’know that?” Natalie raised an eyebrow at your coddling and your cheeks tinted pink when her comment earned a few chuckles from around the group. That wasn’t the first time you had been compared to a mom by one of the girls, you hoped you weren’t doing too much. 

Ironically, it was one of the moments Nat had felt most cared for, she hardly had a problem with your naturing ways. She didn’t get that sort of treatment back home. 

“Well I’m not letting you freeze to death on me.” You justified your actions sheepishly but the moment Nat sent you a gentle smile, you relaxed. She didn’t actually seem to mind the fact you were fussing over her.

Another day brought another cold night. You had made sure the fireplace was lit up enough to last for as long as it could throughout the night. “Does everyone have enough blankets?” You asked the group before you let yourself settle down in your own makeshift bed. It was better to check before you tucked yourself in.

“Yes mom.” Shauna goaded, earning a huff from you, and a few snickers sounded out throughout the room. The newly appointed nickname was coming up more and more recently.

“Hey! You’ll be thanking me when I save your asses from your reckless selves.” You loved your team, you really did, but some of them really lacked the self preservation that they needed out here and someone needed to take care of them.

Shauna waved off your comment and seeing as no one had complained about being too cold, you let yourself settle down in your own bundle of blankets that was placed next to Lotties. 

“You’re doing a good job at looking after all of them.” Lottie appraised you, having taken note of your continuous efforts. 

“I want to make sure everyone else makes it through this.” You could only hope your actions would pay off. 

“You’re the best mom I could ask for.” Lottie’s smile wasn’t one of mockery, it was of appreciation and you finally found yourself laughing along with the joke. Maybe being the appointed caretaker wasn’t so bad.