{"id":4049,"date":"2019-08-07T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T04:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4049"},"modified":"2019-08-06T18:18:02","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T22:18:02","slug":"twenty-04-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4049","title":{"rendered":"Twenty – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

In truth, despite his smile, the idea of actually doing it made him sick to his stomach, filled him with more dread than he\u2019d felt since that first day when the sky fell in on them\u2014since everything had come to a crashing, screeching end.<\/p>\n

We were the lucky ones that day.\u00a0 At some point, though, our luck <\/em>will run out and we have to make sure we\u2019re ready with contingencies.\u00a0 Sometimes those contingencies are going to involve doing things that we don\u2019t like, that we don\u2019t <\/em>want to do.<\/em><\/p>\n

But sometimes, you just don\u2019t have a choice.<\/em><\/p>\n

That knowledge came in equal parts from this life and the one he\u2019d lived as Finn\u2014that much he knew for certain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know about you, Matt, but I want my son to grow up,\u201d Thom said quietly. \u201cAnd I\u2019m pretty sure you and Hecate want to meet your baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt winced.\u00a0 Anselm\u2019s brows went up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d Anselm said, his voice soft.\u00a0 \u201cThat does add another dimension to this mess, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just means I have more to fight for, that\u2019s all.\u201d\u00a0 Matt stared at the fire, at the kettle, his jaw tightening.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I have to keep her out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe may not let you,\u201d Anselm said.\u00a0 \u201cWhat will you do then?\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt\u2019s head snapped up and he stared at Anslem hard, his eyes narrowing slightly.\u00a0 \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust what I said,\u201d he said softly, evenly.\u00a0 \u201cHecate might not let you protect her from this\u2014she may insist on fighting.\u00a0 I\u2019m not certain why that would surprise you, considering her record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt looked at Thom, his eyes growing wide.\u00a0 \u201cDo you think she would?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me put it this way,\u201d Thom said.\u00a0 \u201cThere are some things I can\u2019t ask your sister to do no matter how much I might want to.\u00a0 Asking her not to fight to protect what and who she cares about is one of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.] In truth, despite his smile, the idea of actually doing it made him sick to his stomach, filled him with more dread than he\u2019d felt since that first day when the sky … 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":[299,325,14],"tags":[178,150,171,170,181,149,148,168,147,165,158,146],"class_list":["post-4049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-20-book-7","category-story","tag-anselm","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-13j","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049","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=4049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4050,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049\/revisions\/4050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}