It was meant as a little bit of a joke, but there was still a level of sincerity in it. She couldn’t imagine being from a family like that, or what she’d do if she was ever faced with a situation that bad, but she didn’t envy Andy for it in the slightest.
“Yeah, something like that. Dude’s got a little sister he abandoned though. Ark was pretty pissed when he found out cuz the girl’s a witch or something. Least that’s what Ari told me.”
Reminder to turn off tumblr’s stupid “best first” feature now that it’s rolled out!
Go to profile>settings (the gear)>global settings>dashboard preferences
So I can only find this on mobile. It goes like this: go to your Profile, tap Settings (the gear), select Global Settings. You want to select Dashboard Preferences (which is new, at least on my Samsung Galaxy S5 version of the app)…
It will look like this when activated, and is auto-defaulted to being on.
Make it look like this to turn it off.
CONGRATULATIONS.
You have successfully deactivated this skeezy ‘feature’ which keeps you from seeing things chronologically. 😀
My followers – if you feel like people don’t like your posts, realize that tumblr might not even be showing your posts to people because it uses some arbitrary filter to only show what it thinks people want to see!
“I already packed a bag,” Az confessed, finally breaking down and looking so ashamed at himself that it had even come to this.
“I’ve just been trying to figure out what the hell I should do and whether this really is it.” he fidgeted, sniffling and wringing his hands in a way that had him absently twisting the wedding ring on his finger like doing so would somehow comfort him.
Her expression was soft, sympathetic even. “Come on, let’s go and get you settled in then. You need some space and time. I’ll manage things on this end and, when you’ve gotten yourself in a better headspace, we’ll go from there, okay?”
She knew Britt was hurting too, but her concern in the moment was Az. He needed support too. “For the record, I have faith in the two of you. Always have. If you didn’t really love her, you wouldn’t be so fucked up over this and if she didn’t really love you, she wouldn’t be so terrified right now.”
Putting some distance between himself and everything that was upsetting him right now might help him at least try to get some sleep. He was exhausted enough that if he did finally manage to do so, he’d probably sleep for several days, and Detroit was closer than the places Az knew Cord had, so he’d at least feel close enough if Sera needed him even if the actual distance was irrelevant with how fast he could travel.
“Detroit’s as good as any, I guess?” he answered, his tone reflecting just how worn out he really was. “I wouldn’t want to worry the kids by going too far away.”
She nodded, not really liking the idea of him leaving at all, but he needed it. A little distance would do them both some good.
“Get some clothes or whatever you need and I can take you, make sure you’re settled,” she offered, not exactly wanting him to be alone either. While he was away, she would try to situate things on this end, make it easier for him to come back if she could.
Azrael closed his eyes, trying to stop the tears that were starting to well up. He was at the lowest point he’d ever been in the entire history of his relationship, even more so than he’d been when Britt had been hovering on the edge of death and Sera had been so broken she couldn’t be left alone for fear she’d hurt herself.
Lack of sleep might have been contributing to his unwillingness to even try to see any light in the situation, but he wasn’t completely ignoring the points Ava made.
“I don’t know,” he mumbled tearfully. “I just need some space and I can’t guarantee how long that’s gonna take.”
She nodded and stepped back just enough to look at him, her hands still on his arms, just below his shoulders.
“If you want, I still have a place in Detroit or I can ask Cord if you can use one of the safe houses she’s got set up. But you also need sleep and a proper meal. I can help with both of those too, if you want, but that’s all up to you.”
It was obvious that Ava’s words weren’t helping him any. He’d lost faith in believing that anything would change or that he wouldn’t just keep losing everything to Chance if he stayed and if he hadn’t given up completely just yet, there wasn’t much time before he did.
“What’s the point?” he repeated from earlier. “It won’t make a damn bit of difference.”
“Kiddo, look at me. I want to help you guys make this work. We’ve all lost too damn much and right now, we’re all trying minimize the risks of more damage. That means we all have to compromise even a little. I can talk to Sera, have her pull that leash a little tighter for the time being, give you some time, but eventually, everything has to be aired out or nothing is going to ever come from it all but heartache. You’re damn sure old enough to know that shutting people out and shutting down only makes it worse for you. You don’t need me to tell you that.”
She paused before smiling sadly and closing the distance to hug him. “No matter what does end up happening, you’re still family to me. And, for as much as that psycho has done to break things, there has been some good to come from it all. This all sucks right now, I get that, but there’s still the fact that he got Sera out of a bad situation and she’s got more freedom now than she’s had since she was a teenager. You’re going to have a new grandbaby coming into this world and I know that kid deserves to know you because you are an amazing parent and grandparent, Az. Star and Sera and Mort and Levi? They’re all proof of that. Manson too. Don’t forget that, okay?”
“You don’t honestly believe Chance won’t try to find some sort of loophole, do you?” the angel scoffed, having hoped Ava had at least a little more sense than Britt did.
“She’s got a funny way of showing it. She doesn’t listen. She just charges headlong into that shit without thinking about what it might do to us and I can’t do that anymore. I’m sorry but if nothing changes, what am I supposed to do?”
“Do I look like an idiot?” she replied, eyes rolling. “I’ve been on to that boy’s shit since before he attacked Boo.”
Ava sighed and shook her head. “She’s impulsive, you’ve always known that. Mothers seldom listen when it comes to their kids either. She’s still young, Azrael. She acts without thinking, much the way a child would. She still has the same faith that the young do. Honestly? I think you all need to sit down and talk everything out, get it out in the open, but with someone there to mediate to keep it from ending in a fight. And I don’t just mean you and Britt needing to talk. Would it help you to have your own deals in place? Like a fail safe?”
“Jericho stopped being my son the moment I knew what he’d done to Sera. Why should Chance be any different when he’d done so much worse?”
The thought of leaving had already crossed his mind a number of times if he was honest, but it was only very recently that it had become a serious consideration for the sake of his own sanity above everything else.
“I can’t even look at Britt right now, and honestly, I don’t know if we can get through it this time around. I can’t be with someone who doesn’t even consider my feelings when it comes to that piece of shit. All I want now is to protect my daughter. I don’t care about anything else.”
“I’ll ask you that same question in a few decades and see if your answer changes.”
She figured it would in the long run. Times heals and people can change. She had done it herself, really. Had been nearly as bad as her grandson once, did worse even, at times.
“Way I hear it, part of his deal with her was that he couldn’t hurt Sera without her giving the go ahead. Don’t get me wrong, my daughter still loves that kid and I don’t think that will ever change. But she didn’t want him out of those chains either. And I know she absolutely doesn’t want to lose you.”
He didn’t want to hear any of this. Yes, he knew Sera seemed to have gotten stronger in his absence, but that didn’t mean Az had to accept any of this.
“If she wasn’t protecting him, he wouldn’t be breathing right now,” he muttered, glowering at the thought of how he felt like he could have put a stop to all of this a lot sooner if he’d just killed the little bastard instead.
It was getting to the point where he didn’t care whether it upset Brittia anymore. The only one standing in the way of taking Chance down himself was Sera and the baby growing inside her, and his daughter had already promised that she wouldn’t try to stop him if Chance broke his oath.
“Darlin’, think about it this way. Would you be able to just step down if that was your baby? Even after they did awful things? Because deep down, at the core of it all, that’s still your baby?
“Now, I know that’s not the sort of thing you want to hear, especially not right now when everything is so damn raw, but I have faith in Sera, if nothing else. And, honestly, so should you. As for Britt, she’s drowning in a lot of guilt right now over that boy. Not saying she’s even remotely in the right, only a few know how this is all going to play out and I ain’t one of them. If I was, I’d tell you how it all ends.
“But, for now, all I can say is you need to get yourself in a better head space and then talk to those kids. Everything happened so damn fast and I know you didn’t get a say in much, if any, of it.”
“That monster has my daughter!” he growled, although the rage wasn’t enough to hide how much more upset he was about that fact.
“And Britt is still protecting him. I just… I can’t do this anymore. I can’t sit back and watch that fucking psycho not only get away with what he did, but get to keep Sera and have Britt running around trying to convince me it’s okay. It’s about as far from fucking okay as it gets!”
“Honey, don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you’re underestimating your daughter. If anyone can play him at his own games, it’s her.”
She couldn’t really argue with him on Britt. But she also understood where her daughter was coming from.
“Your daughter survived him. She survived the hell Jericho put her through too. Your girl’s a survivor. As for everything else…No one is saying it’s okay what he did. He spent decades in chains for a reason, not long enough, that’s for sure. The problem with Brittia is the same problem all mothers face. She can’t bring herself to not love him, but it’s not him she’s trying to protect, kiddo.”
ofviolentdeath 