The first thing Chance did when he came home every night, was to greet Trish with a kiss, followed by Emily if she wasn’t down for sleep. Tonight Trish seemed tired.
“You look tired.”
“Emily’s been a bit cranky.” she admitted.
“Go get some rest. I can take care of her.”
“Are you sure?”
He nodded. “Go get rest. If I need you, I’ll come get you.”
“Alright.” she said with a yawn, stretching as she stood. She gave him a kiss, and then went to bed. Chance followed upstairs a few minutes later to check on Emily. As it happened, Emily was awake and getting ready to cry. Before she could begin, Chance picked her up and checked on her, made sure she was clean and dry and didn’t want to be fed before he sat in the rocking chair with her in his arms, one little fist holding tightly onto his pinky.
It was moments like these that he knew he would do anything to protect her. It was moments like these that made him determined to do better for her than what he’d had as a child. Already she had a better mother than he’d had, and he was determined not to repeat his father’s mistakes. He’d even set some goals for himself where Emily was concerned, goals he wanted to achieve within the next five years. He didn’t want her to struggle like he had, so he was going to help her learn to read and write, and do basic math. he planned to teach her that simple, unassuming things could be beautiful too, like he tried to do with his photography.
The only thing that hurt, though only a little, was knowing that she wasn’t truly his offspring. he would be a father in all the ways that mattered, but he and Trish had talked, and had chosen to tell her that Vince was her real Dad. He didn’t regret that decision, and he knew that wouldn’t change how he felt about her – it was only a little sting, after all. He put negative thoughts away, staring at Emily as she stared back at him, and after a few, he shifted her into his arms so that she was laying on his chest. He rubbed her back, and sang her lullabies, until she fell back asleep, and he was able to put her back to bed.
“Sleep well Princess.” he said quietly, as he turned off the main light and closed the door most of the way, before joining Trish in bed.
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Sergei pinched the bridge of his nose and swore under his breath. He was not cut out to be the head of the Bratva in his former home town. At least he thought so – he’d only taken the jobs so he could weed through the contracts and get appropriate information. It was hefty, deciding who should live and who should die, though it didn’t burden him as it might most other people. Natalya mewled and wound around his leg, purring. He picked her up and scritched between her ears as he looked over the latest batch of contracts.
There were some he itched to take himself, but he was burdened with limited availability now. He sighed, and divided into folders, live or die. Those who were to live, he ran through the recycle bin and shredded the files. For the die pile, he divided into folders which tornado was suitable for which target, then sent them out via encrypted email. Sooner or later, he would get confirmation that the contracts had been received. Once finished, he leaned back in his chair and sighed, closing his eyes against the glare of the monitor, still holding his lovely purring cat.
“Can I keep this up, Natalya?” he asked her, but she only purred. He reopened his eyes and looked at an older email. It was from a member of Clan Giovanni in Boston, who wished to meet with him. As far as he knew, they only knew he was the new head of the Bratva in that area, and wished to re-solidify the truce already in place. He had heard through the grapevine, however, that they also wished to make a truce with Willow Creek. He wondered if he should say something to Vince about the matter, give him some intel ahead of time.
Nyet. He thought. I should get as much information about them as I can before bringing this to Vince’s attention, and for that I may need Claude’s help.
He got up then, heading down the hall to Timur’s room. He wasn’t sure if he was home or not, but there was one way to find out.
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‘Anthony’ was making plans. He had remembered that his grandparents, some time ago, had set up a trust apiece for their grandchildren. Being that those grandchildren were he and Lucas, it had built up considerable interest over the years, and he ought to be able to access it now. He hadn’t thought of doing so until he received an email from the bank. He looked things up online, and as it happened, there was a branch in town.
His plan went as follows – use the funds to legally change his name from Lucius to Anthony (it was a symbolic way of severing ties with his parents, and the idea appealed to him), look into renting an apartment, possibly even see if Billy wanted to be a roommate (they were getting along well enough, so he figured why not), then get the basic necessities before hunting for work and general adulting. he planned to bring it up in therapy that night with Charles, and make sure he was thinking things through clearly.
At some point, maybe…maybe he could see Manday again. Have lunch with her or just spend some time with her. Although…he sighed. He didn’t want to interfere with her happiness in her new relationship, so maybe it was better if he struggled to move on. She would always be important to him, however.
Hmm…
Maybe he should talk with Billy about her. He was pretty chill, and always said philosophy worked better in the dark. For a change…maybe he should take him up on that.