Two boys, six years of silence, and one morning with toast that changes everything. Marshall-Lee has spent forever pretending not to see Aiden across the street. But Aiden's been watching—collecting leaves, drawing portraits, waiting. When he finally crosses the road with breakfast and no agenda, Marshall-Lee's carefully constructed walls start crumbling. This is a story about being seen. About the patience it takes to love someone who isn't ready yet. About first kisses on cheeks and hands that finally touch. Sweet, slow, and achingly tender—for anyone who remembers what it felt like to fall.
Chapter 1
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In the soft morning light of his bedroom, Marshall-Lee Fraser looked exactly like what he was: a fourteen-year-old boy on the edge of becoming something more. His features had begun to settle into themselves, the awkwardness of early adolescence smoothing into something that would, in a few years, make people do double-takes. He couldn't see any of this, of course. What he saw was a pimple on his chin, hair that refused to obey, and a face that never quite matched the one
I'm not built like that. I don't really do days off, this is what I do to pass the time and I enjoy it... so it's not really work for me, totally pleasure based fun.
:: blinks :: My person, who has just gotten up ( I write really early ) has just reminded me it's my Birthday today, I sort of forgot...
:: blows party thingy :: 48 is not old, it's just... mature.
Dense as a brick.
Like wow, he just doesn't see it. It's not that he's stupid, he just doesn't think that way. He's content to click along in his little comfortable life, caring for people unaware that the people he is caring for have hidden lives. Peter, Jason, Jared, and Andrew all have
Peter however...
It's harder to prove. There are land registries etc, but if you show up with a deed and go "but John sold me the land for a nickle"
"No I didn't" "You did, your honour he and his friends are just having seller's remorse"
It creates ENOUGH of a legal problem that the Railway can build, move on, while the court is trying to sort it all out. And by then it's too late.
And no promises
Let's give Bobby credit, he killed one of the four, seriously wounded the leader. He was, sort of, the only one fighting back.
Brave little Deputy, standing alone. (I am not discounting Timmy's contribution, just effectiveness of his shots)
The Red River War was a military campaign launched by the United States Army in 1874 to displace the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes from the Southern Plains, and forcibly relocate the tribes to reservations in Indian Territory.
It is widely regarded as a tragedy, the fact that Jean Levesque was a battlefield surgeon in the aftermath of this battle shows how a man get's shaped by what he has seen, and what he has done.
Chapter 6: The Ledger & The Lead
**Merrickville, Ontario. Late February, 1885.**
The air inside Grady's Gunworks & Smithy was a distinct climate, separate from the biting Canadian winter outside. It was a warm, dry world that smelled of coal dust, hot iron, mineral oil, and the sharp, acidic tang of flux—a masculine perfume, heavy and industrial, a scent of creation and repair. Here, violence was not a sudden burst in the street but a slow, deliberate craft, forged in fi
A lot of these groups in Uni for me, at that time, were... less than ideal spaces. I hear things have changed now, which is good. I just never got on with the Pride association at mine.
Dad Will, at his Daddiest, Dadding his two Sprogs.
It's good practice for when he has Jacob, Tommy and Weston on his hands. We're a good 14 years from Carter's Breach, and 18 from Carter's Order. Which means Jacob is born 7 years from this point. Two years after Will and Andrew get married in 2005
Thanks by the way, you gave me a nudge to correct a couple of inconsistencies in this book so it fits.
For example Andrew's firm is GS&P not Drake. He's a partner, not an Associate. Small stuff.
Elias and Theo cleared the path.
Timmy and bobby are sort of going through something with Timmy's father.
But Cam and Henry, after the above, who's going to object, by the time they do it the town's used to it. At least for a generation.
It was surprisingly common in this pattern in remote towns I have read. Most ignored it on the frontier because they all had larger problems to deal with.
I am actually writing this into the story.
Peter has that similar slowed aging that Thomas Brody Sangster has... that perpetual agelessness that is a curse.
Imagine being forty and still getting carded... or asked "are you lost, do you need your folks?"
No wonder Peter is perpetually annoyed.
I... I am not sure if I am allowed to put this here. But I think this is the right place for it:
https://www.matthewshepard.org/
If you want to show real support, that matters. Please just read what they do.
It's the first steps into a world of secrets and lies.
It's four years until Will learns Andrew works for CSIS, and Four years till they eventually get it back the way it is supposed to be.
Both have a journey to go through until they get there.
Will will continue to be Will, steadfast and kind.
Andrew will grow into the bastion he becomes.
Peter and Jason are on their own journey of discovery.
There's darkness a head, men like Merrick don't like to be defeated.