{"id":3727,"date":"2018-09-21T00:00:56","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T04:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3727"},"modified":"2018-09-20T23:18:58","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T03:18:58","slug":"forty-six-04-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3727","title":{"rendered":"Forty-six – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

From the corner of his eye, Thom caught sight of J.T. watching and shook himself, taking a breath and forcing himself to relax. He scrubbed a hand over his face to hide the tears that had threatened, tears that had come not quite out of nowhere, but at least unexpectedly. J.T. quirked a brow and Thom gave a slight shake of his head.<\/p>\n

Not now. Maybe later.<\/em><\/p>\n

J.T. rolled his eyes and turned his attention to cracking eggs for a scramble. Thom leaned his head back and stared up, up at the roof of the tent above them, now stained dark with soot around the edges of the small gap they\u2019d opened to let the smoke out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to come up with something better than this,\u201d he murmured to himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter than what?\u201d Marin asked softly. Thom closed his eyes and sighed.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust thinking again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t surprise me,\u201d she said, a trace of wry humor threading through the affection in her voice. He listened to the faint clink of ceramic as she got out mugs for their coffee. \u201cBut what was it you were thinking about?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another sigh escaped him and he shook his head, reaching a hand out toward her as his head lolled in her direction. Her brow furrowed slightly, but she stopped fixing coffee and came to him, her fingers sliding into his as she settled beside him, knees tucked against her chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d she asked quietly, resting her forehead against his temple. \u201cTalk to me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just so much work to do,\u201d he said quietly. \u201cHow the hell do we figure out what\u2019s most important? Yeah, these tents and what we\u2019ve already built got us through one winter, but there\u2019s going to be another coming soon. We\u2019ve wasted most of the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot wasted,\u201d J.T. said from his spot next to the fire, eggs starting to sizzle in his skillet. \u201cIt\u2019s not like we haven\u2019t done anything and it\u2019s not like anything out there\u2019s made it easy on us. We\u2019ll be all right, Thom. Stop trying to run before you figure out walking. We\u2019ll get through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom closed his eyes again. Marin squeezed his hand, then let go, sliding her arms around his waist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will,\u201d she said, her voice gentle but firm. \u201cWe\u2019ll get through, Thom. All of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d he whispered back, though he didn\u2019t quite believe it himself. \u201cYeah, we will.\u201d<\/p>\n

After all, it had been nearly a year. They\u2019d make it through another\u2014and everything else that would come beyond it.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d have to. There was a future out there waiting for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.] From the corner of his eye, Thom caught sight of J.T. watching and shook himself, taking a breath and forcing himself to relax. He scrubbed a hand over his face to hide … 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":[240,298,14],"tags":[150,171,170,160,152,149,148,168,147,165,158,200,146],"class_list":["post-3727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-46-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-thom-ambrose","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Y7","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727","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=3727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3728,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727\/revisions\/3728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}