{"id":3716,"date":"2018-09-10T00:00:16","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T04:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3716"},"modified":"2018-09-09T17:37:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T21:37:21","slug":"forty-five-05-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3716","title":{"rendered":"Forty-five – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t say anything\u2014I didn\u2019t have to. J.T. was right, or at the very least I needed him to be. Thom would be fine, somehow. J.T. would see to that, no matter what it took. They were as close as brothers could be and he\u2019d never give up on Thom, not while there was even the barest shred of hope\u2014and for J.T., there would always<\/em> be a bare shred of hope.<\/p>\n

I exhaled a sigh and leaned into his embrace, forcing myself to relax. He squeezed me again, gently, rubbing my arm lightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cC\u2019mon,\u201d he said quietly. \u201cLet\u2019s go start breakfast, huh? I could use some coffee. What about you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say no to it,\u201d I said quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t think so,\u201d J.T. said with a faint smile. He started to steer me toward the cookfires, keeping his stride short enough to match mine. I leaned against him, maybe more than I should have, but the contact helped\u2014it was somehow reassuring. Somehow, it felt safe.<\/p>\n

He was quiet for a few minutes as we walked, but as we got closer to our destination, he glanced down at me. \u201cThis really has you more messed up than usual, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been a lot of stuff lately,\u201d I said. \u201cThat\u2019s all. A lot all at once.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, but you\u2019ve handled a lot all at once before. This feels different.\u201d<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t find the words to tell him he was wrong\u2014maybe because it wasn\u2019t. He was right. There was<\/em> something different about all of it this time, but even I couldn\u2019t put my finger on it.<\/p>\n

Instead, I just shrugged and shifted Lin slightly in my arms. He startled a little, yawned, then closed his eyes. I watched him for a few seconds, then sighed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what it is,\u201d I said. \u201cJust that it\u2019s something and I can\u2019t seem to shake it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWill you let me try to help?\u201d<\/p>\n

I choked on a quiet laugh. \u201cAs soon as I figure out how you can do that, Jay, you\u2019ll be the first to know. I promise.\u201d<\/p>\n

He shot me a crooked smile. \u201cWell, that\u2019s something. Hash browns and eggs?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSounds great,\u201d I said as we got nearer to the cookfires. \u201cI\u2019ll make the coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] I didn\u2019t say anything\u2014I didn\u2019t have to. J.T. was right, or at the very least I needed him to be. Thom would be fine, somehow. J.T. would see to that, no matter … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[240,297,14],"tags":[150,171,170,160,152,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-3716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-45-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-j-t-mackenzie","tag-marin-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-XW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3717,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716\/revisions\/3717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}