{"id":3740,"date":"2018-10-05T00:00:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T04:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3740"},"modified":"2018-10-04T18:29:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T22:29:38","slug":"two-03-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3740","title":{"rendered":"Two – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Jacqueline hugged him tightly, though only for a few seconds. She stepped back as her arms loosened, looking up at him. \u201cYou know, I did come looking for you for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

His brow quirked. \u201cReally? You mean it wasn\u2019t just to tell me to get up off the ground?\u201d<\/p>\n

She shot him a dirty look but didn\u2019t manage to hold it beyond the first ten seconds. It transformed into a rueful smile as she let go of him, shaking her head. \u201cDon\u2019t be awful. Yes, it wasn\u2019t just to tell you to get up off the ground\u2014that was just the distraction when I saw you laying there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething wrong?\u201d He took her hand again, squeezing her fingers, stomach lurching slightly. A dozen thoughts\u2014most of them not good\u2014flashed through his head before he quelled them, all things that might have driven her to come looking for him on a rainy morning. A common thread was wondering what could have gone wrong now, or with whom.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, not wrong,\u201d she said, studying him. He felt more than a flicker of relief and exhaled a breath he didn\u2019t realize he was holding, earning a faintly amused smile from her. \u201cYou were worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s become a normal reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue,\u201d she admitted. \u201cNot necessarily a wrong one in most scenarios, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. So what\u2019s up?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just thinking about things.\u201d<\/p>\n

His stomach twisted again and he watched her face, searching for clues to where this was going. \u201cWhat kind of things?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacqueline tugged on his hand to get him walking and he fell into step with her, wrapping his arm around her waist as they wended their way back through the maze of spare furniture and bins of supplies toward the cookfires that were a usual haunt for most of them when they weren\u2019t working on something else. \u201cIdeas,\u201d she admitted. \u201cPlans. Us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there something about us that I\u2019m not aware of?\u201d His stomach refused to settle, churning hard now, bile rising. He swallowed, trying to smother the nerves that were probably rising without any reason for their existence.<\/p>\n

Her brow quirked. \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the way you\u2019re talking makes me think there\u2019s something going on that I\u2019m not privy to?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure I would go that far,\u201d she said with a smile. \u201cJust figuring out timelines and other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOther things?\u201d The timeline part he could understand\u2014he\u2019d asked her, she\u2019d said yes, now it was figuring out when would be best to do it\u2014to actually get married, something he\u2019d never dreamed would ever happen for him, not after as many centuries as he\u2019d spent alone. \u201cWhat kind of other things?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you need coffee first,\u201d she said with a sly smile. \u201cThen we can have this discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan raised a brow himself but didn\u2019t argue with her. Sometimes, it was just better not to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Phelan’s point of view.] Jacqueline hugged him tightly, though only for a few seconds. She stepped back as her arms loosened, looking up at him. \u201cYou know, I did come looking for you for a reason.\u201d … 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":[299,304,14],"tags":[150,171,170,174,149,173,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-02-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-jacqueline-bell","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Yk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740","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=3740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3741,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740\/revisions\/3741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}