Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

‘Aaieeeeee!’

The feminine scream came from somewhere near the ranch, causing Shane to freeze with dread. His body moved of its own accord before his brain could catch up. It didn’t… it didn’t particularly sound like Marnie, but then, he hadn’t exactly had cause to hear Marnie scream before. And while Jas would have occasion to scream over whatever dumb stuff children scream over regardless of whether they’re actually upset or just having an exceptionally good time, all that meant was he was familiar enough with his goddaughter’s screams to know that it wasn’t her.

Jas lingered nervously by the front door while a concerned looking Marnie warily held a pitchfork in his direction until she recognised him.

‘Oh thank Yoba, it’s just you,’ she sounded a little breathless. ‘I reckon it came from up the path towards the old farm. I didn’t think we were expecting that new farmer until next week, so there isn’t supposed to be anyone up there.

Shane roughly grabbed the pitchfork, and nodded grimly to his aunt. ‘Whatever happens, keep Jas inside.’

Marnie returned his nod with the same grim look, and backed towards the door, pushing Jas inside with her. The sound of the deadbolt clicking into place echoed with a finality that sat uncomfortably with Shane. His grip around the pitchfork tightened, and with careful footsteps he picked his way up the overgrown path towards the abandoned farm.

In a sliver of moonlight between two trees he caught a splash of light blue colliding with light blue, a swirl of purple as a woman was knocked back into a crouching position with a winded grunt, and several flashes of brown as she forced herself back onto her feet and into attack. Abigail.

He recognised her from Friday nights in the pub with her friends. If it weren’t for the fact that she was under attack by a literal monster, then he might have considered, rather uncharitably, that she was just as obnoxiously loud outside as she was in the arcade room of the Stardrop Saloon with Sam and Sebastian. But as it stood, she was under attack by a literal monster, and all Shane could do was stand by, grip tightening even further on his pitchfork, eyes trained on the fight in front of him looking for any opportunity to stab the little blue beast.

No opportunity to assist came. How many hits had Abigail gotten in on the beast? He had lost count. How many hits had Abigail taken before he had even arrived? She looked injured, but determined, even as the fight dragged on.

Eventually, she had managed to land one too many blows with whatever sharp wooden instrument she was carrying, and the… blob… stopped moving. Abigail dropped her weapon, and leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees, gasping for breath. On close inspection, it looked like she had been carrying a planchette, from one of those hokey old Ouija boards. Shane didn’t put much stock in the supernatural, but he could at least respect finding a more practical real-world use for an instrument of the “arcane”.

‘Hey… Shane, right? You work with Sam? Thanks for the backup.’

‘Uhhh, you’re welcome? I didn’t exactly do anything.’

‘Yeah, but at least I knew if I took another hit there was someone around to take over while I recovered. Little bastard things, they pack a punch as hard as an angry boxer.’

‘I’ll take your word for it, since I don’t intend to get hit by one.’

‘Don’t I see you drinking beers by the pond by yourself from time to time, and you’ve never seen one?’

There were a few thoughts Shane immediately had in reaction to that question. Such as what the hell was this woman doing out on her own at night so often if there were monsters about? And was she possibly stalking him? (Probably not.) But the highest priority question was whether or not that bloody bear that occasionally sniffed about had gotten into the beers he had left on the dock.

‘Shit!’

He took off at a run. Abigail had a weapon on her, and either she was capable of defending herself, or she would have stopped going for walks by herself at night a long time ago.

❅❅❅❅❅ ❅

‘Yeah… nah. I’m out.’

Shane had been sitting on the bridge between the mountain lake islands, quietly minding his own business, drinking his beers somewhere that stupid bear was unlikely to steal them, and with the warmer weather was more comfortably able to walk further from the ranch, when he heard Sam’s voice behind him, standing at the mine entrance with Abigail and Sebastian.

‘Come on, it will be an adventure!’ Abigail had tried to persuade him.

‘We can go on adventures from the safety of my room, Abi,’ Sebastian retorted.

‘Solarian Chronicles is not a real adventure!’ Abigail insisted.

‘Well, now I’m just offended,’ Sebastian replied, passing the wooden sword he was carrying over to Abigail. ‘Come on Sam, if you quit too maybe Abi will realise that risking her life down a precarious hole in the ground is folly, even for her.’

‘What are you talking about? I was out before you.’ Sam similarly pushed his wooden sword into Abigail’s hands. You coming or what, Abi?’

The boys stood staring at her for a few more seconds before walking away muttering to themselves. Abigail dropped the weapons in a huff, and adjusted her grip on her planchette before taking a deep breath, and stepping into the dark.

Shit.

That woman was crazy. Who knew what was down there? Shane didn’t know, but he’d heard stories. The kind of stories he would have dismissed as mere fantasy had he not, barely a fortnight ago, witnessed Abigail kill a monster referred to as a “slime”.

He was already three beers down, but all that meant was it had barely touched the sides, so as much as he tried not to care about anyone other than Jas and Marnie, he could hardly blame his decision on alcohol-fuelled bravado. Once again on autopilot his body was moving before his brain realised.

‘How could you let her go in there alone?’ he asked angrily as he passed by Sam and Sebastian.

‘Don’t follow her, man,’ Sam called out. ‘She’ll just take more stupid risks, rather than sensibly turning around.’

But Shane wasn’t listening, and clearly neither of the boys cared enough to try and stop him. He hefted a wooden sword, and taking a deep breath, followed Abigail into the dark. The cave was surprisingly spacious, and the visibility was better than he expected due to the handful of lanterns that hung lit from the walls. Certainly not as bright as outside in the full sunshine, but he could still clearly see the features of the room, including a rickety and dusty elevator embedded into the rock at the far end. The blowing wind from the cave entrance sounded eerily loud.

‘Abigail!’ he yelled above the wind.

‘Down here.’ Her voice echoed up to him from a hole in the floor through which a ladder descended.

It was even darker down there, but if anything, that was more of a reason not to leave her on her own.

‘Oh, Shane? You’ve decided to come and explore the mines now that it’s accessible again too?’

‘No. But I saw you come in here on your own, and I didn’t want to leave you without backup if you came across any of the monsters that are said to live down here.’

‘Awww, thanks. If only my friends were half as caring as you.’

Shane only grunted in response. It wasn’t her specifically he cared about, but he would challenge anyone to see another person in danger and not do what they could to help… which was admittedly what Sam had tried to warn him about, “helping” Abigail by not helping her. But Shane didn’t exactly know her well enough to try something like that, and he wouldn’t exactly describe himself as a nuanced man. He was going to help by actually helping.

Abigail produced a handful of miniature bombs – bombs – from her pockets. They looked like little cherries, but as she showed him how to set each one up by a cluster of rocks, looking to uncover new paths to deeper and deeper into the cave system, he got a solid appreciation for just how explosive they were.

The first two cave floors had been otherwise unremarkable, but on the third floor they quickly came to the attention of a pair of slimes. Abigail fearlessly walked right up to one and started slashing with her planchette, leaving the other one for Shane to swing his wooden sword at.

He missed. Abigail had been right. Those things do pack a punch like an angry boxer. But having gotten a better feel for the weight and swing of his sword, he struck true the second time, knocking the slime back a little before it shot at him again. Another strike, and another, and another, and another, and another, it still wasn’t dead. Abigail by now was standing back, having dispatched of her own slime much faster, and was watching him fight. A seventh blow stopped the squishy green ball from moving.

‘Yeah, the green ones are so much weaker than the blue ones, but fortunately also so much more common.’

What. The. Heck.

He had watched her struggle fighting that blue slime, but it appeared as if she dispatched the green one with ease, and it had taken him seven hits.

‘Still,’ she continued, ‘great work for your first slime. We should tell Marlon about it, maybe we’ll make a half-decent adventurer out of you yet!’

Shane grunted in response again. ‘What makes you think I have any interest in wading into this monster-infested hell-pit ever again?’

Abigail shrugged, and smiled coyly. ‘Because apparently you’re a much nicer guy than the front you put on suggests, and if you know that a certain someone from town was coming here all on their own, that maybe you’ll feel guilty enough to lend them your sword-arm. For safety. And beer. I’ll shout you plenty of beers in exchange for your help.’

‘You already owe me for the half a pack that bloody bear stole.’

❁❁❁❁❁ ❁

The knocking on the door was incessant, but since Marnie was out in the barn milking the cows with Jas, that just left Shane to roll, bleary-eyed and hungover, out of bed to answer it. That old man with the eyepatch… Marlon, that’s right, that was his name, was standing on the other side.

‘I hear from young Abigail that you’ve taken up adventuring.’

Shane grumbled. Seven a.m. on a Saturday was not an ideal time to be out of bed. And no time on a Saturday was ideal to be a quote-unquote “adventurer”.

‘Hmmm,’ Marlon continued. ‘If you’re this beat after just a few floors, then you need some training, not just for your own safety, but I can’t trust you to be watching Abigail’s back if you’re only going to get in more of your own trouble. Come and see me tomorrow morning at the adventurer’s guild, the earlier the better.’

Marlon didn’t even wait for Shane’s objection before spinning on the spot, striding with purpose up the freshly cleared path towards the until-recently-abandoned farm, cloak fluttering dramatically off his right shoulder as he left.

‘Was someone just at the door, Shane?’ Marnie called through the back door.

‘Nope,’ he hollered back, before shuffling off to bed again.

｡ ° ｡ ° ｡ °

Technically eleven fifty a.m. was still the morning. Shane mostly didn’t even know why he bothered. But a teeny tiny part of him, that he was trying not to acknowledge – because he wasn’t a good man. He was a failure – needed to do this. For Abigail because she was right, he was nicer guy than he really wanted to be anymore. For Marnie and especially Jas because if he was going to be a big dumb idiot he might as well be slightly more likely to come home alive afterwards. And for himself, because this town was boring as bat shit anyway, so why not do something different for once, something that might take his mind off of… he didn’t want to think about it.

That was precisely why he worked such long hours as a Joja-drone, because he was good at focussing on what was right in front of him, whether it was the box in his hands, or the beer on the bar counter, because if he wasn’t occupied he was thinking about… No. He couldn’t think about it.

‘I distinctly remember telling you “the earlier the better”.’ Marlon always looked severe, and since Shane had never had occasion to talk to him before, as far as he knew the man always sounded severe also.

He shrugged. ‘I distinctly remember you telling me to come by “tomorrow morning”, which it still is.’

‘Hmph.’

Marlon hefted a steel smallsword from behind the counter over to him. Shane wasn’t actually as stupid as he often told himself he was, and stepped away from the flying weapon, rather than attempting to snatch it out of mid-air. Marlon’s disappointed look persisted.

‘A standard metal blade is ideal for your first foray into swordsmanship. Under my instruction, with time you’ll even be able to grab a thrown weapon out of the air by its handle, so as not to waste crucial seconds in battle that could get you or others killed. Come, we practice outside so as not to disturb Gil.’

It was heavy, sweaty work, swinging a sword around. Despite being early spring, the middle of the day, as it turns out, is not the ideal time to be exercising outside, and Shane developed an intense appreciation for why he had been advised to attend earlier in the day.

‘I’m impressed, at least,’ Abigail commented from under a tree after watching them for who knew how long. ‘You’re an excellent teacher, Marlon.’

‘Having an excellent student does help.’

Shane realised that Marlon was capable of smiling, as he greeted his other student.

‘Do you want to watch my lesson, see how it’s really done?’ she offered, but Shane was already shaking his head, handing his sword off to Marlon.

‘I think I pulled something, I gotta go see Doc,’ he muttered as an excuse.

‘Keep the sword,’ Marlon advised, ‘for your next trip down the mines.’

✧✧✧✧✧ ✧

Shane slumped in the chair next to Doctor Harvey’s desk, grateful to be out of the direct sunshine and into the cool air conditioning. Harvey eyed him and the sword warily.

‘It’s not like you to make an appointment of your own volition, Shane. How are you feeling?’

‘Worn out, Doc. Like, mentally, not worse than usual, but physically.’ He explained what had happened with the blue slime, the trip into the cave, and the training with Marlon while the doctor’s facial expression remained unchanged. He could feel the scrutiny of the man’s stare, watching for any hint that something might be amiss.

‘So, Marlon got to you too, hey? What are you planning on doing with the sword?’

‘Keep it, of course.’

‘Shane, with your condition, you know I can’t recommend that you keep any weapons about.’

‘Doc, I live on a ranch, and next to a river. If I really wanted to off myself at any time, I would have more than enough opportunity, even without a sword.’

‘It’s not just intentional self-harm I’m worried about Shane. What if something you didn’t intend happened while you were intoxicated?’

‘See previous point, Doc. But that’s actually why I’m here. I’m beat, and I haven’t had a drop of alcohol at all today. I’m ready to take that drug you were talking about before. I want to quit, cold-turkey, as of right now.’

Harvey took a deep breath, clearly considering his response.

‘Shane, alcohol is probably the most dangerous out of all the substances you could quit suddenly. Based on your levels of drinking, I’m going to recommend you stay here under observation for at least four days-’

‘Four days? Doc, I’ll go crazy stuck here for that long. I need to go to work, or I’ll-’

‘That’s the other thing, Shane the side effects of quitting cold-turkey can include labile mood, depression, anxiety, insomnia, hallucinations, and nightmares, and that’s even before all the other physical manifestations that can harm you. Ideally we’d give this a go after starting on an antidepressant for a few weeks while you try to cut down rather than suddenly quit.’

Shane crossed his arms in a huff. ‘Well if I have insomnia, Doc, how am I supposed to get nightmares?’

Harvey did not look impressed. ‘You can have both, trust me.’

‘But…’ Shane sighed heavily. He had to do this now. He had to stay alive for Marnie and Jas, and he had to help keep Abigail safe for his own sake. Not because she was special to him, but because if anyone else died when he could have saved them… then he really would no longer be able to live with himself. ‘Doc, if we don’t do this now when I’m actually motivated, then what if I don’t feel like doing it in a few weeks. Can’t we just get this over with?’

It was the doctor’s turn to sigh.

‘I’ll ring your aunt, have her pack a bag of your things and bring them over. And she’s taking that sword home with her, I’m not having you bust up my clinic in the middle of the night when the hallucinations take you.’

‘Can’t you just sedate me, Doc?’

‘Trust me, I am going to.’

๑๑๑๑๑ ๑

‘What’s this?’ Shane asked in response to the bunch of books he’d never seen before when Marnie arrived with his belongings later that evening, and not a moment too soon, since Shane was already stir-crazy, and apparently the night time was going to be even worse.

Marnie furtively looked around to check that Harvey wasn’t in ear-shot.

‘I went up to that adventurer’s guild to give this “Marlon” a piece of my mind, since I can’t help but zone out whenever Doc starts talking, but I got the gist that you’d been to see him earlier in the day, and because of that Doc was admitting you for several days. So I was about to yell at him for you, when he politely invited me in for a cup of tea, explained the whole situation, and asked me to bring you these manuals to study so you don’t get bored, dear.’

She opened the front cover of the first book and winked. A short note from Marlon read:

If Doc has taken away your sword, practice with an IV pole.
-M

‘Of course, I think it’s wonderful that you’ve finally picked up a hobby, and even if caving is a little dangerous, that you’re taking all of these precautions, including proper training and getting a safety-buddy in young miss Cartier. Marlon assured me she has a reasonable head on her shoulders and won’t let you get into too much trouble. You get well soon now, you hear? Jas already misses you.’

‘Of course, Marn. I’ll be home before you know it.’

♥♥♥♥♥ ♥

On the first evening, despite trying his hardest to be quiet, Harvey bolted downstairs within a second of hearing the resultant crash from Shane’s attempt to swing an IV pole about. After that, Doc insisted on sleeping in one of the other cots “in case you get into distress in the night and need more sedation”. He also quietly wheeled all of the IV poles into the consultation room instead.

❉❉❉❉❉ ❉

‘Now, what did we practice, Jas? One… two… three!’

‘Congwatoolashons Uncle Shane!’

‘Good girl! Now, since Uncle Shane will be up the front with Daddy, Mummy will share the back with you this time. Isn’t that exciting?’

‘Yaaayyy, Mummy!’

‘Anyway, as I was saying, the new car even has a “snow mode”, see this button right here? Automatically selects a higher gear so everything’s nice and smooth, I don’t even have to think about it, you know, except to watch out for other drivers…’

Chapter Text

Summer and Autumn had proceeded as much of Spring had, once Shane had been discharged from Doctor Harvey’s clinic. Take his Antabuse in the morning. Go to work. Depending on the evening he would play with Jas, or see Marlon for training, or head into the mines with Abigail. On Fridays he would sit quietly in the bar with a non-alcoholic beer, or a Joja Cola, or even just some soda water, listening to the sound of the townsfolk going about their regular business, content that he was doing his part to keep not just Abigail – loud Abigail with her loud friends in the adjoining arcade – safe, but the rest of the town as well.

Admittedly, watching her fight, he had come to truly understand that Abigail was already an experienced fighter by the time he had joined her. Fast, with her small frame, and able to get multiple hits in with her planchette that she used like a knuckle duster for each one of the hits he got in with his sword. His hits got stronger, though, and he was able to deal more damage per swing. Not only that, but the further they ventured, the more valuable minerals and gems they came across, all too readily purchased by Clint in town who had an agent in the city to sell them on to, which allowed him to purchase more deadly swords each time Marlon was satisfied that the risk of him accidentally slicing himself open with it was sufficiently low enough.

They hadn’t seem to have descended below the reach of the elevator shaft, yet, and every few floors they would stop to shore-up the shaft and ensure that the elevator would work properly to collect them when they were ready to leave.

The caves got colder. The slimes got tougher. More kinds of monsters appeared, but Shane was taking it all in his stride. His focus on his surroundings and keeping himself and Abigail alive took up all of his attention, leaving no space for-

‘Oh cool, firewalker boots!’ Abigail exclaimed.

Fire.

‘Here, it’s pretty warm here anyway, kick off those tundra boots and strap these on.’

Shane stood numbly while Abigail obliviously manhandled his legs and feet, exchanging his footwear. She hadn’t even hesitated.

Between them over the weeks they had been staring death in the face together to emerge victorious multiple times, they had inevitably grown to trust the other implicitly. Shane could say with confidence that he knew Abigail better than he knew anyone else in town, but physically, with regards to how she fought and moved, so as to make them a more effective pair in battle.

Conversationally, however, they had steered away from anything personal. They discussed monsters and weaponry, Marlon and Gil, other townsfolk, seasons and festivals. But Shane felt like it would be prying to ask about her family, or the nature of her relationship with Sam and Sebastian. And he supposed that his own family was perceived by the rest of the town as just odd enough that whatever circumstances led to Shane and his goddaughter moving in with his aunt were salacious enough to explain why none of them ever discussed it.

‘Pretty snazzy! Come on!’

Abigail’s voice snapped him back to the present. She was already descending the ladder to the cave beneath. Shane had to urge himself to snap out of it. There was someone right here, right now, who needed him to save them from the fire.

Abigail was already in a fierce battle. Running around managing a red slime, a red rock crab, and a shadowy figure. He took his master slingshot out, focussing his attention on sniping the red-skinned bat that was about to buzz her also. By the time the bat was down, there was just the mysterious shadow-man to go.

‘Please! Stop!’ Abigail had been trying to reason with it the entire time, asking it not to attack, offering not to attack it in return, but either it didn’t understand her, or it did and chose to ignore her. It hadn’t been an easy fight, but with the two of them working together, it was doable. Neither of them were injured, but they were certainly exhausted afterwards.

Abigail sighed, and flopped to the ground, pulling two strange buns out of her pockets. Shane grimaced. Abigail hated the things as much as he did, even Marlon could admit that the inexplicably neon purple centre was a disgusting mix of fishy and sulphuric, but he still insisted that they were his recommended way of maintaining energy down in the caves. Abigail at least seemed to not just recover energy, but recover physically after eating them. There were multiple occasions on which he could have sworn that she’d received cuts and scrapes that simply disappeared, or if she had been walking with a limp prior to stopping was miraculously able to run after eating them.

‘Hey, how do these things always keep their shape in your pocket anyway?’ Shane asked, gently squishing the soft bun between his fingers.

‘Magic,’ she laughed, before stuffing her face.

Magic had been her answer to so many of his questions, it was a little infuriating. They had seen some strange things in the mines this year, sure, but nothing yet that Shane would say definitively pointed to the existence of the divine or supernatural. And yet Abigail would readily put anything without an obvious explanation down to magic. It was almost lazy. But he’d never call her that, because now that he actually knew anything about her, he knew that she was anything but.

The sound of rustling leaves caught their attentions. A pair of shadowy figures were making their way towards them, a swirl of foliage tightened around the creature with the mask, before igniting in a fireball that was hurled towards them.

In a panic, Shane grabbed Abigail and jumped back, the fire bursting on the ground where her feet had been moments prior.

‘Shit!’

He continued to drag her towards the ladder. There was a lot more that Shane felt capable of dealing with these days compared to any day last year, or the year before that, or the year before that, but fire was not one of them. He sped up the ladder so quickly he might as well have flown, and raced to the elevator to call it as soon as physically possible.

Clunk… clunk… clunk went the heavy footfalls on the ladder as they were followed by the mysterious and hostile beings. The gentle scrape of the moving elevator car through the shaft got gradually louder. DING. The doors slid open. Abigail shoved him towards the back, he twisted as he fell, in time to see her slam the doors to block another fireball. Taptaptaptaptaptaptap Abigail pressed the button for the entrance cave rapidly, and the car mercifully began its slow ascent.

Shane didn’t move from his position on the floor. By now in his mind’s eye all he could see was the fire, and he would do anything to block it out. Anything. Even something he would regret later.

✪✪✪✪✪ ✪

‘Now, what did we practice, Jas? One… two… three!’

‘Congwatoolashons Uncle Shane!’

Shane remembered the small family standing by their front door as he arrived. His best friend Will, Will’s wife Allie, their young daughter Jas were all dusted in light snowfall. Jas hadn’t been talking for long, but she was already talking a lot. Ever since they met in primary school, people had joked about how alike Shane and Will were, both in looks and demeanour, that they could pass for brothers, so it always only ever made sense for Jas to consider Shane her uncle.

‘Good girl! Now, since Uncle Shane will be up the front with Daddy, Mummy will share the back with you this time. Isn’t that exciting?’ Will asked as he locked the front door behind them, and ushered them quickly out of the cold to the car he’d recently purchased to replace the dodgy old thing with manual transmission he’d been driving since they were teenagers.

‘Yaaayyy, Mummy!’ Jas replied, as Will clipped her into the booster chair behind the front passenger seat.

‘Anyway, as I was saying, the new car even has a “snow mode”,’ Will said as he slowly backed out of the driveway, ‘see this button right here? Automatically selects a higher gear so everything’s nice and smooth, I don’t even have to think about it, you know, except to watch out for other drivers…’

The conversation lulled as he focussed on the road until they were up to speed with the traffic. While Shane would have purchased a better car simply because he could, he was able to respect that Will’s priority was on the safety of his young family. They meant everything to him, and he felt honoured that as Jas’ godfather, he was as close as anyone else could be to being part of it.

Will gradually picked up speed as he merged onto the motorway. Allie and Jas chatted away in the back seat about the fancy restaurant they were going to for dinner to celebrate Uncle Shane’s promotion at work to store manager at Joja Mart. That’s why they weren’t “there yet”, because they had to travel further than usual to get to a nicer restaurant than usual because they wanted to do something nice for Uncle Shane in “congwatoolashons”.

The car lost traction for a second as they went over a patch of black ice, swinging slightly to the left and right as Will’s grip on the steering wheel tightened. Shane watched him keep the car as straight as possible and ease up on the accelerator for a few seconds until he relaxed his grip slightly. Only slightly.

‘Impossible to keep an eye out for that stuff,’ Will commented with forced levity so as not to frighten Jas.

Shane nodded knowingly. ‘Hopefully the other drivers out tonight can handle it as well as you did.’

Logically, Shane knew there was no power in a jinx, that saying a thing did not make it so. The next patch of black ice they hit Will was able to handle the car better because he had already slowed down. The same could not be said for the oncoming car.

The next few seconds of Shane’s life were a barely remembered blur. The world was spinning too fast for him to take in all of the new sensory stimuli anyway. A few more seconds passed before his brain caught up to the fact that everything was dark, everything felt painful, everything tasted of blood, everything sounded like a ringing in his ears, and everything smelled of gasoline.

He forced his eyes open. The car was in one piece on the side of the road, with the other car alongside them. Will was… Will was not… Jas was crying in her booster chair. In that moment, Shane would have described the feeling in his body as if everything were on fire, but still he forced his limbs to move, scrambling out of his seatbelt and seat to Jas’ door, hastily unclipping her and dragging her from the car, before pushing her up the hill and away from the crash so she couldn’t see too closely.

If he had the cognition to spare at the time, he would have deduced Allie’s fate already from the fact that she herself hadn’t unclipped Jas from her seat.

‘Stay here Jas, you hear me?’

Shane turned around to slowly trundle back to the car, when suddenly the night lit up with a fire that sprang from the other car. At that point deep in his gut he was forced to accept the reality that there was nothing he could do… nothing he could do…

‘…nothing I could do.’

Shane was back in Doc Harvey’s clinic, laying in the infirmary with his eyes screwed tight and both hands on his forehead. Doc had only given him simple analgesia, keen to avoid “replacing one addiction with another”, but was at least running a bag of saline to rehydrate him.

The elevator car in the mine shaft had seemed to crawl even slower than usual to the surface, or perhaps it was time itself which had slowed, or merely Shane’s perception of it which had been altered, but he was stuck with that image of the fireball for an interminably long time.

When the doors finally opened he sprang to his feet and raced out of there before Abigail could say anything. Or rather, could say anything else. She might have been speaking to him during the ride up, but he couldn’t hear. His mind was stuck in the past as his body dragged itself home, straight to Marnie’s wine cupboard.

He had drunk enough to cause a hangover even at the level he had previously drank. Only, he hadn’t had anything to drink for weeks and weeks and weeks by this stage. Physically, it was the second worst he had felt in his entire life, only eclipsed by the aftermath of the car accident.

‘I’m sorry,’ Harvey said, sounding genuinely sympathetic, but Harvey’s apology didn’t bring Jas’ parent’s back from the dead. ‘You did everything you could.’

‘I know that, Doc. Will wasn’t… I really don’t think Will was still breathing by the time I woke up. And Allie loved Jas to death, there was no way she wouldn’t have tried to get her daughter out of that situation if she had any life left in her to do so. But… do I feel better about that because there was nothing else I could have done? Or worse because it meant I had no chance to save them?’

‘I wish I could just give you the easy answer, but I know it doesn’t make it better.’

‘What does make it better, Doc?’

‘You tell me. Since the last time you found yourself in my clinic, how have you been feeling?’

‘…Better. I know you don’t like the idea of me having access to weaponry, but I’ve been using it to keep Abigail and I safe when she goes exploring the mine caves. Which is why I’ve been taking the Antabuse, because I can’t afford to be impaired when we’re fighting for our lives down there. But ignoring the danger, maybe because I haven’t been wasting time paralysed by hangovers that’s been helping me also. Not to mention, I swear I’ve lost weight, Doc. Tell me the scales were lighter.’

Harvey looked concerned, he waved his hand dismissively as he offered ‘The scales haven’t changed because you’ve put on muscle, and that’s more dense than fat. But tell me more about this “fighting for your lives” business.’

‘I used to complain that Marlon’s training for us to go into the mines was more dangerous than the real thing, and I know that magic doesn’t exist, but Doc… if I didn’t know any better, I would have no other way of explaining what we saw last night.’

‘So how would you explain what you saw?’

‘… I can’t. I just… we were attacked by shadow creatures that seemingly had access to magic. Abigail is smart about these things, maybe she can tell you what happened.’

The doctor’s look of concerned deepened.

‘Shane, have you replaced the use of alcohol with the use of any other substances?’

‘Just that Antabuse stuff to help me avoid drinking. I don’t know if that stuff works anyway, Doc, I don’t think it improved my motivation any more than what was already happening in my life.’

Harvey smiled just a little. ‘It doesn’t change anything other than your ability to process alcohol, Shane, that’s the point. That’s how I know you haven’t had a single drink since I last saw you, because even one glass will give you a terrible hangover. You’re supposed to develop a Pavlovian aversion to drinking.’

‘…Shit. No wonder I feel so crap now. I just thought I had lost my tolerance.’

‘Knowing what you know now, will you still continue to take it? Even if you have to reframe it as taking it for Abigail’s sake?’

Shane grimaced. ‘I’ve never taken it for Abigail’s sake, Doc. I’m staying alive for Marnie and Jas’ sake. Every morning I take my tablet looking at a photo of her, Will, and Allie. That’s not going to stop just because of this one hiccup.’

‘Great, thank you. Now, is there any way I can convince you not to do something so dangerous as wade into the mine caves that are apparently full of monsters?’

‘Don’t you worry, Doc. There’s no way I’m going back to face monsters that throw fireballs any time soon.’

The sound of the front door of the clinic opening reached them.

‘Doc, you here? Have you seen Shane?’

Harvey looked to Shane in askance, and he nodded his consent.

‘He’s in the infirmary with me,’ he called back.

Abigail rushed into the room, hesitating only briefly as her brain processed where everyone was, and ran over to give Shane a hug where he lay in the infirmary bed. The doctor could interpret her actions any way he pleased, but Shane knew exactly where he platonically stood with Abigail, and he was just fine with the lack of complication. There were already two women he loved more than anyone else in his life, three might get a little crowded he told himself, because it made it easier to accept that he was only ever going to be friends with this amazing woman.

‘What happened?’ she asked, and Shane winced from the noise level. Abigail’s particular level of noisy was the only thing he regretted about her friendship, and really, only in his current worst-hangover-of-his-life state.

It was a good question though. The only people who knew what happened were Jas, the first responders, Marnie, and now Doc Harvey. Abigail was his best friend, she knew more about him than even Gus and Emily at this point, and while they had purposefully been avoiding personal topics, if it was going to become immediately relevant to their joint caving expeditions, perhaps she deserved to know. Except that he had already forced himself to re-live it today for Doc, and he didn’t think he would be able to tolerate re-living it a second time in the state he was in.

‘…I’ll tell you later.’

‘Are you hungover?’ She sounded a little offended.

Harvey cleared his throat. ‘He ingested something that interacts with a medication he is on, that’s all.’

‘Was it the strange bun? Can we tell Marlon you’re medically excused from eating them and ask him to give us something better to take into the mines?’

Harvey cleared his throat again. ‘I can’t medically clear Shane to return to the mines just yet, Abigail. Be patient with him.’

Abigail frowned. ‘…Alright. Doc, will he be well enough to come to the Spirit’s Eve festival tonight?’

Harvey once again looked in askance towards Shane, who gave a subtle nod.

‘I’ll do my best to clear him for it.’

‘Great, I’ll come back to pick him up at ten p.m. sharp.’

The doctor had the audacity to look smug as he escorted Abigail from the room.

✿✿✿✿✿ ✿

‘So Doc is really banning you from the mines? For how long?’

Shane shrugged. Despite Harvey’s expression betraying that the doctor was questioning if anything romantic was going on between the pair of them, clearly there was not as the first thing Abigail did when she collected him was steer him to where Marlon was waiting by the caged skeletal monsters.

‘A couple of weeks maybe, hard to say. It’s a condition that we have to take as it comes.’

‘So what you’re telling me, is that you have a medical condition of relevance to your ability to safely traverse the mining caves, and yet you chose not to disclose this to Abigail or I.’ Marlon once again had his severe face on.

‘I didn’t know it was relevant until yesterday!’

Marlon’s expression didn’t abate. ‘Well? What is it?’

‘It’s personal,’ Shane mumbled.

Marlon sighed and shook his head. Abigail defensively grabbed Shane’s arm.

‘Hey, cut him some slack. He said he didn’t know, so he didn’t know. He’ll tell us when he’s ready, alright. Come on, maybe a bit of light practice in the Wizard’s maze will do you some good.’

‘Abigail…’

But she wasn’t prepared to hear his objection.

‘Much better,’ she declared once they had climbed the stairs. ‘You know, the reason I hadn’t ever finished this maze before is that Rasmodius enchants the whole thing to cloud your reasoning. That’s why I’ve never been able to get past the spiders. But I’m confident with you here this year we can be the first to finally beat this thing!’

Abigail held her left hand out to touch the leaves of the hedges that formed the maze walls, and closing her eyes took a deep breath, before setting off at a brisk pace. The reason for the pace became evident once they’d found themselves back at the entrance. She was being methodical, excluding all possible pathways, but being methodical was slow. All they’d found so far were two dead-ends occupied by a jack-o-lantern, and Doc Harvey. The fact that a logical man of science was facing a hedge wall and refusing to move, even to re-trace his footsteps to the entrance and just leave seemed to add weight to Abigail’s claim that “the wizard”, Rasmodius, was somehow altering people’s judgement.

‘Abigail, how does Rasmodius alter people’s reasoning?’

‘Magic,’ she said, as if by rote. And Shane had no idea if that’s what she really did mean to say, or if whatever was impacting people had caused her to change her answer to her usual joke. But then, if even Maru, one of the smartest people in town, was getting lost by the entrance, would he even be able to tell if and to what extent he himself was being impaired?

‘No, Abigail, I mean, is he using drugs on us or something?’

Abigail jumped, briefly screaming as a hand emerged from below the ground to grab her ankle.

‘I always forget about those things, every year. And no, silly. It’s not psychedelics. It really is just magic.’

They passed Alex muttering to himself something about secret passages.

‘The fountain!’ Abigail exclaimed as she grabbed onto Shane’s arm. ‘The spiders are just ahead.’

Perhaps to delay her confrontation with the spiders, or perhaps still with her supposedly clouded judgement she was locked into her strategy of keeping left, she circled clockwise around the fountain before heading down a dark passage. There were indeed spiders at the end just as Abigail had said. Her grip on his arm with her right hand tightened to drag him along as she rushed past a particularly large one.

The playground equipment that Shane was very familiar with from visits to this part of town with Jas had somehow been replaced with tombstones. Sam, just as familiar with the area from taking Vincent to the playground also, looked around confused, and scratched his head.

‘That’s odd… It’s just a dead end up ahead. I could’ve sworn there was someone ahead of me when I went through the maze, though. Where’d they go?’

Abigail’s grip tightened again, but she pressed on. The next section of the maze was a dead end, just as Sam had described, but Abigail stuck to her technique of feeling around the left wall.

Suddenly, just in front of them the farmer, Ash, appeared as if to materialise through the hedge, carrying a golden pumpkin.

‘Damn it,’ Abigail yelled loudly before taking her left hand off the hedge to jam a finger into Ash’s sternum. ‘Rasmodius was playing favourites, wasn’t he?’

Ash laughed at the accusation. ‘There’s no favouritism here, Abi. I saw the two of you talking to Marlon, and I knew that was my chance to get a head start on the maze. The hedge illusion was a little trickier than I was expecting, but other than that it was a piece of cake. Or should I say, a piece of pumpkin pie.’

‘Seriously? Does nothing scare you?’

Ash’s face turned grim.

‘Abi, my parents are dead. My beloved grandma and grandpa are dead. But since I know that they exist in a life beyond this one, why would I fear the possibility of going to join them? Death is a possibility, but it’s far worse to persist in a state of living-death, like I allowed myself to for years.’

‘Depression,’ Shane interrupted. ‘What you described sounded like… Sorry, forget I mentioned anything. Uh… congratulations on being the first to complete the maze.’

Ash smiled. ‘Congratulations on being the second and third to complete it, you might as well go on ahead anyway. And Shane? Could I see you tomorrow for some help around the farm?’

‘You got it.’

Ash waltzed off, and Abigail lightly backhanded Shane in the chest.

‘What are you being friendly with Ash for? They just beat us to the end of the maze!’

‘So? I’m friends with Ash. You’re friends with Ash. Everyone in town is friends with Ash from what I hear. Besides, they’re Marnie’s best customer, so I can’t afford to do anything to piss them off. Come on, you’ve never finished the maze, don’t let the fact that someone else did it before you stop you from actually achieving it. And then next year you’ll know how to run through the whole thing so you can beat Ash.’

Seemingly satisfied with Shane’s reasoning, Abigail smiled, and this time slipped her right hand down his arm to lace her fingers through his, while her left hand once more found the hedge to guide her on her methodical search. She led them through a cave, and back out into a new part of the hedge maze where the ground seemingly absorbed all light.

‘Elementals,’ Abigail whispered, her laced fingers tightened around Shane’s, but she didn’t elaborate, she simply dragged him along as she back-tracked through the maze to the entrance. All of a sudden, she pulled her hand away from Shane’s looking embarrassed. ‘Oh, uh… clouded judgement. Right.’ Once again, there was no elaboration, she simply walked off to join Sebastian near the caged skeletal monsters.

✯✯✯✯✯ ✯

‘Hey Ash, can I ask you a favour?’

Shane had finished his deliveries of the heaters to the barn and the coop, the hay to the silo, and settled a duck in amongst the rest of Ash’s chickens.

‘Can you, uh, can you take care of Abigail for me, when she goes into the mines?’

Ash laughed. ‘You know Abi’s a big girl, and can take care of herself, right? I know the two of you often venture into the mines together, but she has told you that she and I go together sometimes, right? No? Oh man, I wish she’d told you, but I’d like to give you my strongest reassurance that there’s nothing going on between Abi and I, so there’s nothing to be jealous about.’

Shane’s face had become increasingly confused over the course of Ash’s declaration.

‘What would I have to be jealous over?’

‘Oh, you know… because the two of you are such good friends… and she does talk about her friends a lot… that you don’t have to be worried about me stealing her away from you… as a friend. Forget I said anything. Look, is this about the “medical condition” you won’t tell Marlon? Is it… is it mental health related? Because I get it, man, I know you know I get it.’

Shane stared at his feet as he awkwardly kicked the dirt about. So his guess about Ash recovering from depression was correct. But depression wasn’t even the half of Shane’s mental health problems, not when he included the PTSD that kicked it all off and the maladaptive substance abuse that saw him spiral ever further away from happiness.

But at least some of that was behind him now. Despite falling off the bandwagon two nights earlier, he felt more in control of his drinking than he ever had, and that had allowed a few brief rays of happiness to shine through. He had better and more quality time with Jas, especially in the mornings before work. He was faster and more capable helping Marnie with the chores around the ranch. He was getting stronger and faster week-on-week from all the exercise…

And sure, it would be a while before he could face off against a fireball-hurling monster again, if ever, but that didn’t mean he had to give up on exercise entirely. Maybe Marlon would consent to continue training him, if he asked politely enough?

Apparently he’d spent too much time in his own thoughts, because Ash saw fit to continue.

‘Anyway, with Winter upon us, it’s too cold for me to be growing crops, so I’ll probably need to spend more time in the mines obtaining ore for tool upgrades, sprinklers, and fences. So yes, since you asked me to take care of Abigail in the mines for you, I can definitely do that.’

Chapter Text

‘Has Doc cleared you for it?’ Marlon shot Shane a scrutinising look.

Technically, Doctor Harvey’s main concern had moved from the possession of deadly weapons, to keeping Shane out of a mine full of deadly monsters. And since as far as Shane knew, Marlon couldn’t throw a fireball, then training at least wasn’t going to trigger his PTSD.

‘Yep. He even encourages it, since training is the thing that’s been keeping me safe.’

‘Hmmm…’ Marlon tapped his fingers on the counter. ‘You did ask Ash to cover for you, and it is better if you’re not rusty when you return to escorting her through the caves… Understand that Abigail is my best student, so if you don’t think you can be there for her consistently to provide support, then I would rather you step aside so she can find someone else. Don’t get me wrong, I also don’t want to see you hurt either, but you never took one step in those mines out of a sense of adventure, only out of a sense of duty. You could give up this life in a heartbeat and never feel the call of excitement ache down to your very bones, urging you to go out and quest again. But Abigail, she knows it. She lives it every day, and because of that, she’s precious to me, she’s the daughter I never had.’

…Shit. That was a huge amount of pressure. Shane didn’t know if he could live up to it. All he knew for now was that he needed the exercise, and there would be zero chance of living up to the expectation if he didn’t at least do that.

⚔︎⚔︎⚔︎⚔︎⚔︎ ⚔︎

Case of sparkling water in hand, Shane set out to his previous favourite drinking spot. It had been almost a year since the last time he sat there… and left half a case of beer for that bloody bear to steal after he was drawn away by Abigail’s escapades. And after that his life had changed dramatically, generally for the better except for that one time he took an exceptional tumble from the bandwagon, the repercussions of which made more severe by Doc Harvey’s drug treatment.

He had since been back to ask about management of the PTSD specifically, and finally relented to starting an antidepressant in addition to video calls with a counsellor from Zuzu City. Frankly, with the exception of the fact that he realised he had been missing Abigail, it was the best he had ever felt. Except for the fact that he just noticed that same bloody bear was back, sitting at the end of the pond dock. Why?

‘Hey.’

Shane nearly jumped out of his skin, for a second his brain had irrationally believed the bear had spoken to him, but the voice had been unmistakably Abigail’s. She was… sitting with the bear somehow, completely at ease.

‘I finally bought you that case of drinks I owe you, but since you don’t drink anymore, I hope you don’t mind that I got you Joja Cola. Also, Sir Snuggles has already drunk half of them.’

‘Sir…?’

‘Yeah, Sir Snuggles is my familiar. Most sorcerers don’t go for familiars this big, but I’ve been talking to Marlon and Rasmodius about it, and it seemed like a good idea while I wait for my knight.’

‘Sorcerers? Abigail, what?’

‘Oh yeah! Remember that Shadow Shaman we saw in the mines that cast the fireball?’

‘I’ve been trying not to think about it, but yes.’

‘Yeah, well I’ve been researching it with Rasmodius since, and have come up with a way to replicate it. It’s a two-step process in which they cast a wind spell to collect anything flammable like foliage in the area, and then they concentrate it into one spot loose enough to allow the oxygen in, but dense enough to act as one cohesive fireball that doesn’t burn out too quickly. It took a lot of practice to get right, but watch this!’

Suddenly, and inexplicably except by “magic” the wind picked up, and Shane watched a swirling mass of leaves surround Abigail until she condensed it into a ball as described. With a wave of her hand it ignited as it sped away from her towards the middle of the pond, extinguishing only as it hit the surface of the water.

Shane clutched a hand to his chest, and gently lowered himself onto the wooden slats.

‘Shane? Shane are you alright?’

Exposure therapy was one of the treatment options his counsellor had mentioned, and now he had practice explaining the events of that night to yet another health professional. Abigail was his best friend, and it had been almost an entire season since he found himself back in Doc Harvey’s infirmary. He could tell her. She was his friend. He wanted her to know.

The bear, Sir Snuggles, almost as if he understood the situation, gradually ushered Shane off the dock, and sat on the ground holding him in a literal bear-hug. Abigail forced him to scooch over just enough to snuggle in next to him.

‘Is this about what happened at Doc Harvey’s? Shane… you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.’

‘Abigail… it’s not that I don’t want to… it’s just… personal.’

‘I get it.’

‘You don’t. But I can’t expect you to get it unless I tell you. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that I have a diagnosis of PTSD. I got it after Jas and I survived the car accident that killed her parents…’

Shane re-lived the experience for Abigail’s sake. But also for his sake, since he felt secure that as his good friend, she wasn’t going to judge him for how weak he was afterwards, which meant it might qualify as graduated exposure in a safe environment.

‘So that’s why you came to my rescue a year ago, and then followed me into the mines,’ Abigail correctly surmised. ‘I could tell from the beginning that you weren’t actually interested in me, you were just interested in my safety.’

‘That’s not all, Abigail. I value your friendship, and I trust you more than anyone else in town.’

‘…Thank you, Shane. I think I already knew that, but it was nice to hear you say it, regardless. Will you… will you be okay on your own tonight after I just made you spill your guts for me?’

‘I think I will be, so long as I know that you’re safe.’

‘In that case, why don’t you escort me to the edge of town, and we’ll both sleep better for it.’

♡♡♡♡♡ ♡

Meet me by the mines after work.
Bring your swimmers.
-A

Shane stood by the mountain lake, kicking small rocks into the water. Surely Abigail meant to go for a swim here now that Spring had warmed the water enough, and not down in the underground lake? His distant memories of that place included that the water wasn’t particularly bad, but not exactly dazzling either. He supposed that it might fall under the umbrella of graduated exposure in a safe situation. After all, the alternative meant that either of Marlon and Gil, or Sebastian and possibly Sam could potentially observe them from a distance. So while neither option was perfect, still, he felt he owed Abigail that much at least, for having neglected her friendship over the previous weeks.

‘You came!’ Abigail waved eagerly as he approached.

‘Of course I did, you asked me to.’

A little smirk appeared on her face. ‘Will you follow me anywhere?’

‘Are you taking me back to that underground lake we saw?’

Abigail looked somehow both pleased and a little sadened by his response. ‘I’ll take that as a yes, but we’re not going underground today. Follow me.’

Further around the mountain to the west was a staircase that Shane couldn’t remember having seen previously, currently guarded by Sir Snuggles.

‘The pathway back here opened up again last year. Lewis and Ash spent a lot of time working to make it stable so he can start advertising for people to visit us by rail, but there’s a lot of other work that would need to go into the town first before he could lure in a steady stream of tourists. Sending Haley to beautician school for starters, and you’re about to see why.’

The bear followed them up the hewn stone steps. At the top, Shane could see a wooden bathhouse, rustic in appearance, and could use a bit of work, but there were definitely people around in town with the skills to make it happen.

‘Why is Lewis only starting on these things now?’

‘It’s Ash, you see. His best friend’s grandchild comes home to Pelican Town, and all of a sudden he realises nothing here has changed in decades, that’s why he’s on a relative rampage of late. Anyway, Sir Snuggles is going to wait out here to make sure we’re uninterrupted on our swim.’

Abigail pushed the door open to a tiled antechamber, a door indicating it was for women on the left, and one for men on the right. Abigail wasted no time in heading to her door, so Shane pushed through his own into a locker room, one of the lockers already had his name on it, possibly Abigail’s doing, since she was unlikely to let a sign stop her from going anywhere she shouldn’t.

He crept down an unfamiliar staircase to emerge in a large steam-filled space, most of the floor was taken up by swimming pool. A splash from the far end got his attention.

‘Get in already!’

The water was the perfect temperature. He felt like his body was being restored even just half-submerged. When he reached Abigail, she raised a hand to touch his chest, but he took a step back before she could make contact, and she hesitated.

‘You know, I don’t think I’ve seen you shirtless before. I can tell you kept fit over Winter, you look good.’

Shane felt confused. ‘Should you… be saying stuff like that?’

Abigail matched his confusion. ‘Why shouldn’t I be?’

‘You know, because you’re… not single?’

Abigail suddenly stood up, a furious look on her face told him he’d touched a nerve that had been rubbed raw by multiple people having irritated her in the same way previously.

‘And who, excactly, am I supposed to be dating? Sam or Sebastian? That’s the most common rumour that people whisper around behind our backs. Or is it someone else? Ash? Occasionally I even hear wildly salacious ones like Marlon or Rasmodius, is that who you think I’m dating?’

Shane looked contrite. ‘Sorry, I had always just assumed that you and either Sam or-’

‘You and half this town! And truly the worst gossip is my own mother, no doubt spreading this bullshit through her stupid aerobics class. But you’re wrong! You’re all wrong! And the most insulting thing of all, is that they whisper about you too. Every time your name is brought up, it’s dismissed immediately, “oh no, Abi wouldn’t fall for a man like that surely”, “she has more sense than that”. Not a single person who spouts this garbage knows you half as well as I do!’

‘Hang on, what are you saying here?’ Shane asked, hands raised in placating surrender.

Abigail dropped back into the water with a huff.

‘…You know Rasmodius used to be married? You’ve heard tales of the witch who flies around this part of the countryside some nights and casts curses on happy people? Ash has been hit by her multiple times, but isn’t able to defend themselves properly against her yet. They have no choice but to just bolt themselves inside and wait it out. That’s because the trope has always been that a sorcerer is most happy when they’re with their knight. Rasmodius will admit that when he was young and reckless, he and she believed their love could overcome all of the hurdles that were thrown at them. But the trope exists for a reason. Sorcerers and sorceresses are at risk from their own power. Without someone strong of conviction they can become twisted gradually over time and they don’t even realise.

‘That’s what happened to the witch – Rasmodius won’t tell us her name because she can hear it when you say it – when they realised how much they and their relationship had changed, including to the point of infidelity. She volunteered to take all of their corruption on herself, restoring Rasmodius to who he was before, if tempered by his experience. Rasmodius’ knight is now Linus, because he swore he would never love another after what he did to his wife. Even disregarding the fact that we shouldn’t because of the magic, Ash and I aren’t interested in each other anyway. And neither Sam nor Sebastian have ever shown an inkling of the sense of duty the role requires. And anyone who suggests that I might be involved with a much older man is just indulging in their own sick fantasies… I…’

Shane reached out a hand to grab one of Abigail’s.

‘I’m sorry that people talk about you like that. And I’m sorry that I repeated the same thoughtless garbage at you. Who you want to be with is your business, I just guess… are you sure you want me? I’m weak, and you need someone strong.’

Abigail laughed mirthlessly, and with her other hand reached again for Shane’s chest. This time he didn’t retreat. She flexed her fingers slightly, appreciating the firm muscle she could feel beneath them.

‘Physically, I can assure you that you aren’t weak. Mentally, you’ve been through some shit. Frankly, the fact that you forced your own self back on the path of recovery says a lot about your strength. I can’t promise that we won’t come across situations that won’t trigger you. In fact, I can pretty much promise that we will. But I need someone to care for, as much as I need someone who cares for me. And out of everyone I’ve met in my entire life, I can think of no one better than you.’

Shane pulled her closer into a hug. For a minute it felt more restorative than even the spa water, until Abigail continued.

‘Do you think that… you could have feelings… for me?’

Abigail, the strongest and most vivacious woman he knew, and apparently a freaking sorceress to boot, was asking if he, a warm-blooded man, could possibly have feelings for her? As her knight, surely it was his duty to dispel doubt for her. He carded his fingers through her hair, gently guiding her lips to his.

He licked at her lower lip until it parted from the top one, and their tongues could be introduced. One hand of his played with her hair while the other placed steady pressure through her back bringing their bodies as close together as possible. She ran her hands appreciatively over his biceps, the sides of his chest, down his back under the waistband of his board shorts to his buttocks. And since she had escalated things, he slowly pulled her hair back to give him access to kiss his way along her jaw, down her neck to the clavicle, and lower…

‘Shane!’ Abigail sounded breathless, with a hint of anxiety that Shane was so attuned to.

‘I’m sorry, did I take things too far?’

‘You’re fine, really, but maybe we should have a proper date first. You know, go out to dinner…’ Abigail’s ability to recover from anything quickly was on full display as she flashed a wicked grin and added ‘sloppily make out in front of half the town in the Stardrop Saloon, give them all something to really talk about.’

‘It’s a Friday night, Abigail, you know your dad will be there.’

‘Even more of a reason to go now, before he leaves! He’s going to be so mad when I don’t come home tonight. Come on!’

Abigail quickly waded through the pool towards the stairs to leave. Shane took a second to collect his thoughts. Earlier in the evening she asked if he would follow her anywhere. She was always bursting at the seems with mischief, rage, joy, wonder, curiosity and so many more things besides. Ash knew at least some of what Shane had been through, not properly living day after day until years pass and you felt as if you were simply a dead person inhabiting a living body. But Abigail, she was so full of life that she had it to spare, and she gave him a new purpose when he was most in need of one. His life was objectively better off since she screamed her way into it, and he truly believed that with her, it was only going to get better.