Ham

Watching Katie walk away, Rick’s shoulders drop. From the beginning, he’d always wished he could fix this thing, and he still wished it now. He didn’t know what the key was, or what would ever solve it. If two people really weren’t meant to be together, how would they deal with this? Katie’s request for the antidote hits Rick hard. He knew that was an option she loathed. Yet she was willing to take it, if it would do any good. Was it really a good sacrifice for her to make? Who was he to judge?

Sighing, Rick shakes his head and goes to the cabinet to retrieve the bottle of pills he’d taken from Katie the day before. “Misty, how come things like this have to happen?” He didn’t really think he’d get an answer… he didn’t think there was one. He’d been asking the question of God for years and still didn’t know.


Jason has broken out into a cold sweat and is shivering in his still-wet clothes when he feels Katie nearing him. He hated it when she saw him like this. In the beginning, he’d been embarrassed. He was beyond that now… now he just hated it, period. He was supposed to be the strong one… but he was the one that was constantly taken down and beat up by these stupid emotions.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “I just keep… messing things up, don’t I?”


Domino wiggles all over and gives a little woof as Hope gets in the car. She isn’t satisfied with just a scratch on the head, and crawls into Hope’s lap, getting a leg tangled in her purse strap. Tumbling forward, she plows into Hope’s lap head-first, somehow managing to fumble and turn around then sit up. Shaking her head, she lays her ears back and stares up at Hope with a look anyone would swear was sheepish. Giving Hope’s chin a lick, she turns around again to stare out the windshield, quite ready to go.

Scott rolls his eyes at his dog and starts the engine again, pulling away from the curb. “You ham,” he chides teasingly.

Driving down the road, Scott searches for a good place to get their food. He felt a little awkward with Hope all of a sudden, and tried not to let it show. “So, um… you know all about what’s been going on with me… so… what about you? How have you been?”