{"id":3800,"date":"2018-12-07T00:00:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T05:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3800"},"modified":"2018-12-06T18:33:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T23:33:00","slug":"seven-03-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3800","title":{"rendered":"Seven – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Thom held her tightly. She could hear the steady thumb of his heart as she rested her head against his chest, her lips drawn tight into a thin line. The cotton of his shirt was soft against her cheek and their son was quiet in her arms, his tiny thumb tucked into his mouth.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still here and we\u2019re still together. That\u2019s all that matters anymore.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAre you all right?\u201d Thom finally whispered. His arm didn\u2019t loosen, though his nose stayed buried in her hair. They leaned against each other, holding each other up. A breeze teased her hair and Thom shivered slightly. Marin held him a little tighter.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want to go inside?\u201d she asked, not answering his question.<\/p>\n

There was a slight hesitation before he said, \u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n

She squeezed him again, then her arms slowly loosened as his did. She straightened, steadying him as he got his second crutch back underneath himself. \u201cYou were up at the forge,\u201d she said softly, watching him as he steadied himself and got ready to move.<\/p>\n

Thom nodded. \u201cAll morning. I was up there with Matt. We were both getting some work done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marin nodded silently, starting to walk toward their room, moving slowly enough for Thom to keep pace with her. She glanced down toward Lin and found he was quietly asleep, which had been her aim in walking him in the first place. Thom followed her gaze and smiled faintly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re lucky,\u201d Thom murmured.<\/p>\n

She glanced up at him, smiling faintly. \u201cYeah. Yeah, we are. Things could have been a lot different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so sorry,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry for everything I put you through. I was terrified by what I\u2019d seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay,\u201d she whispered. \u201cI forgave you a long time ago for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He nodded slowly, then sighed. \u201cNow if I could forgive myself, that would be the real trick, wouldn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

She paused, standing on tip-toe to kiss him gently. \u201cSomeday you will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeday,\u201d he echoed.<\/p>\n

They kept walking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] Thom held her tightly. She could hear the steady thumb of his heart as she rested her head against his chest, her lips drawn tight into a thin line. The cotton of … 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":[299,309,14],"tags":[150,171,170,152,149,148,168,147,165,158,200,146],"class_list":["post-3800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-07-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","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-Zi","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800","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=3800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3801,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800\/revisions\/3801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}