Work Text:
Prompt: Red
When Josh started at SCH, he was warned that this was the hospital where the really scary shit went down. Drugs and dealers, guns and gangbangers...it all came through SCH. Three years later, Josh thought he'd seen it all.
It turned out that none of it prepared him for watching a five-hour hospital hostage standoff from a bar four blocks away. Five hours spent glued to the television, praying for news that Nora and Aidan were safe. Five hours reliving his memories of the last SCH hostage-taking. Five hours remembering the scene afterward, red blood everywhere.
Not again, he prayed.
Prompt:Autumn
Autumn has always meant new beginnings to Kat. The start of the school year. Fresh pens, blank notebooks...a clean slate.
She's a big believer in clean slates; in second chances and starting over. It's the reason she visits Aidan when he's ill, the reason she goes out with him even after the unprompted talk of junkies and the visit from the goons. Well, that and the fact that he's the only guy she's met recently who can talk intelligently about early American military history.
Kat's needed second chances herself once or twice. And she's pretty sure Aidan's worth the effort.
Prompt: Ice Cubes
Sally was mostly used to being dead. Sometimes she even managed to forget what it was like to be alive, to feel the wind and sun and rain.
Then there were days like today.
One-oh-four and climbing, said the radio. Josh and Nora were both sprawled in front of the living room fan, and even Aidan looked wilted. Sally watched enviously as Josh ran an ice cube along his forehead, water dripping down his face.
She could pick up ice now, if she wanted to. But she couldn't feel it.
It had been a while since she felt this alone.
Prompt: Pop Culture
Aidan probably should have expected something like this--he's met Zoe, after all--but he's still surprised to find himself living out The Sixth Sense with Haley Joel Osment's role being played by an adorable eight-year-old leukemia patient.
She looks absolutely terrified by the ghosts crowding around her bed, and Aidan wonders if it's the first time she's encountered spirits. He chases them off when he parents aren't there to see and sits with her afterward, assuring her that yes, they're real, and no, they can't hurt her. Telling her she's not alone.
It's all he can do. He hopes it's enough.
Prompt: Villain
Bishop's never imagined himself a villain.
Well, no. Of course he knows he's a villain. That's a reasonable name for an unrepentant killer, particularly if you're among his pool of potential victims.
No, what Bishop never imagined is that Aidan would see him as a villain. They're family, after all. Why else should Bishop reach so high, dream so great, if not to leave behind a better world for his son to lead after him?
It's why Aidan's rejection hurts so much. The one person whose good opinion Bishop truly desires, and he can't have it.
Not without sacrificing everything.
Prompt: Turning Point
Nora's experienced a lot of turning points. The day she decided she'd amount to something, whatever her family said. Her first day as a nurse. Her first full moon as a werewolf. The day she married Josh.
She didn't wake expecting another one today, but creeping up behind the nearer gunman while Aidan distracts them both, she knows it is. Two years ago Nora might have played negotiator, but she never would have dared try to wrestle away a gun. Now, though...
It's the day before the full moon. Tomorrow she runs.
Nora catches Aidan's eye and nods. They move.