{"id":3829,"date":"2019-01-04T00:00:02","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T05:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3829"},"modified":"2019-01-03T15:03:05","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T20:03:05","slug":"nine-02-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3829","title":{"rendered":"Nine – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Phelan had to laugh, shaking his head as he reached for the plate she offered him. \u201cYou\u2019re not even going to argue with me about it, are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tala shook her head. \u201cNo. I know when a cause is lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

His brow quirked. \u201cReally.\u201d<\/p>\n

She nodded, smirking at him. \u201cWell, yeah. Since you hopped off the self-loathing train, you\u2019ve mostly been right about when you deserve some sort of punishment for something<\/em>.\u201d She turned back to her pans, glancing back toward him only as he settled down a few feet away against one of the log benches. \u201cI don\u2019t think I knew he punched you back then, though. What the hell happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan shook his head, taking a quick sip of coffee before he answered. \u201cWhen I first showed up, J.T. was one of the first to see me. He recognized me from something long ago and decked me\u2014laid me flat, really, and like I said, I wholly deserved it. There were things that happened in the past that I stood by and allowed to happen rather than stopping them, in part because I thought<\/em> it was better to leave things lie rather than try to change them. It\u2019s\u2014it\u2019s a complicated story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine,\u201d Tala said, focusing on the cast iron pans and pots over the fire. Phelan watched her as he started to eat. Her movements were practiced, certain, as if she\u2019d been doing this forever, not just for the last dozen months.<\/p>\n

It was so strange, how quickly they\u2019d all adapted\u2014himself included.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s bothering you?\u201d she asked after a few moments of silence dragged on. Around them, the camp was still waking, but no one else had come to the fire for breakfast. \u201cIs it the date on the proverbial calendar?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say that\u2019s necessarily bothering<\/em> me,\u201d Phelan said, balancing his plate on his knee. \u201cThough I would be a fool to deny that it\u2019s making some sort of difference in the atmosphere around here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tala inclined her head with a slight shrug, glancing back over her shoulder at him again. \u201cProbably right, but unless some new<\/em> calamity is about to hit today, I\u2019m not sure what the point in worrying is. It\u2019s just another day as far as I\u2019m concerned. It just happens to mark another trip around the sun since everything changed. Right?\u201d<\/p>\n

He offered her a faint, weak smile even as his stomach gave an uncomfortable shudder. \u201cRight,\u201d he said softly. \u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n

She straightened, her eyes narrowing. \u201cPhelan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat tone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He blinked. \u201cHuh?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got that tone,\u201d she said, crossing her arms. The narrow-eyed gaze became almost a glower. \u201cWhat\u2019s going through your head that you\u2019re not sharing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do,\u201d she said. \u201cYou absolutely do. You\u2019ve got that tone that says something is<\/em> going to happen but you don\u2019t want to share with the class and damn it all, I\u2019m here to tell you that if you\u2019ve got something to say, if there\u2019s something you\u2019re keeping from us, you\u2019d damned well better reconsider doing that because now, today, is not<\/em> the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The force in her words set him back and he just stared at her for a few seconds, feeling like the wind had been knocked from his lungs. He licked his lips, shaking his head slowly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just it, Tala,\u201d he said quietly. \u201cI don\u2019t <\/em>have anything. There\u2019s nothing that I know, just a twist in my gut when you said what you said.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did I say?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout another trip around the sun and new calamities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now it was her turn to blink, the glower gone, replaced by a frown. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan shook his head slowly. \u201cNothing\u2019s certain,\u201d he finally said. \u201cBut I hope you\u2019re right about nothing new rearing its head. We don\u2019t need any new calamities, certainly not today of all days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her lips thinned. \u201cIt would set an ugly precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d he agreed quietly. \u201cYes, it would.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Phelan’s point of view.] Phelan had to laugh, shaking his head as he reached for the plate she offered him. \u201cYou\u2019re not even going to argue with me about it, are you?\u201d Tala shook her head. … 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":[299,311,14],"tags":[150,171,170,149,173,148,168,147,165,215,146],"class_list":["post-3829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-09-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-tala-johanson","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-ZL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829","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=3829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3830,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions\/3830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}