Mark Arbour

I didn't think that you were, I merely used my response to your review to more fully explain my own thoughts on Alex.

Mary Ellen wouldn't be on birth control if she were trying to get pregnant. But you're right, she's smart enough to know better, so that must have been her plan. Will is definitely being a hypocrite, but I think it's more accurate to say he's letting his emotions totally take over his mind. After the losses of 9-11, he would be more sensitive than others about those who were important to him placing themselves at risk. Darius is one of the cornerstones of Will's world. It's understandable that he would freak out, especially since Darius clearly orchestrated that to make a scene.

I honestly haven't decided what Will's career path will take, which makes sense, since at 16, he probably wouldn't know either. I can see him being an activist, but he seems to have a relatively short attention span at this point. To be a true anti-war crusader, he'd have to have a major, long-term commitment to the cause. I'm not sure if that's the case, but then again, if something happens to Darius, that could certainly motivate him.

That's an interesting point, and it is a pretty tasteless bombshell to drop on the family during Thanksgiving dinner. One wouldn't do that unless one wanted to create drama and chaos, so that must be her plan.

I'll walk you into Matt's mind on this. The reason he's freaking out is, as you and Centex noted, he slept with her in June. That she didn't sleep with anyone else probably makes him realize that she was planning to get pregnant, and that he was a likely candidate. She seduced him at Escorial, and it was entirely possible that he could have ended up as the father of her baby had this played out six months earlier. In essence, he's freaked out, and at the same time, he's emitting a big sigh for having dodged that bullet.

As I envisioned it, Mary Ellen went to her mother to help her solve the problem she'd gotten herself into, even though she'd plotted it out. It's really not that much different that what Wade did, when he elicited her support in dealing with Hammer. Elizabeth doesn't hold family as a sacred entity like Wade does, and she doesn't consider the Crampton/Schluter clan to be part of her family anyway.

You know, everyone can rant at Alex, but once again, he hasn't done anything wrong. He slept with Mary Ellen when he and JJ didn't have a formal commitment, but he told JJ about it to the degree that JJ let him. The problem with Alex is that he follows the letter of the law, but not the spirit of it.

JJ wasn't suicidal before when he cut himself. Not to go into lecture mode, but cutting isn't an attempt to end one's life, it's an attempt to cloud the emotional pain by replacing it with physical pain (among many other issues). I'll talk about Matt in a different response (I try not to repeat myself when I do these things).

Yeah, but he's kind of bitchy, so the karma balances out.

I'm sure there will be a paternity test, but I doubt that will stop anyone from making plans going forward. The cost for a non-Granger baby will be very high, at least in cash. I think the thing that will keep Will, Darius, Matt, and even Brad calm at this point is JJ's look when he was leaving, and the way he handled them when Brad tried to interfere in his relationship with Alex in the first place. JJ set down some very clear boundaries. His family crosses them at their own risk.

JJ doesn't die...in this book (winks at Sharon). As I recall, there's a bus out there somewhere with his name on it. I should post the next chapter on schedule, four days from now.

Know that I'm laughing that you're banking on Will to be the white knight in this deal. ;-) Darius joining the military actually makes a lot of sense. First of all, his taciturn manner would probably thrive in that environment, but more important than that, Darius has always been a very traditional guy. We've seen that (for example, he bought a Jeep..a Chrysler product like a good Schluter boy should). That he had planned on going to Annapolis also showed he had interest in a naval career. Darius is representing the masculine bravado, the need for revenge and action. The same emotions that Bush et. al tapped to get us into the damn war in the first place. He needs to do something, to get back at these people who hurt him and his family so badly.

Thanks! I'm so glad that's how it came through. I was worried because the "narrator hops" could either work, or be jarring.

I think the way it worked out was that Mary Ellen plotted to get pregnant, but after she was, she pulled her mother in for some expert consultation on how to pin him down. I'll address the issue with Darius in another response.

It has to be deliberate, especially since she said she hasn't had sex with anyone since June. She's evidently been saving herself for the right person. Lucky Alex. :-)

Right. He's 17. He's only got 9 people to hook up with for the rest of his life. Right.

November 28, 2002 Thanksgiving Day Goodwell, VA Wade It was cold, really cold, but that was only outside. Inside, everything was nice and warm. There were several fireplaces in the house, and all of them had blazing fires going, and while the furnaces were what really generated the heat, the radiant fires made it seem warmer. I was sitting in the great room, looking out at the paddock, even as I went over my checklist. This would be quite the gathering, as my entire f

Thanks! I'm sure there's some evil lurking out there. :-)

Despite the fact that Tony didn't have universal appeal, there was no need for him to have some sort of student-teacher link to spark a relationship with Will. The family history and link was better, and more logical for that point in the story. Besides, who says Will can't still bang a teacher?

Only if it's a mid-story HEA, it's not really a HEA, it's a HEUTNC (Happy Ending Until The Next Chapter).

I have to point out that you've been hearing the roller coaster clanking as it lifted the cars up to the top of that first hill...then suddenly..now..there is no more clanking. You know what that means.

Yeah. The promised land. We get there, look around, and it's Israel, with missiles landing all around us, terrorist attacks, and fundamentalist religious zealots clamoring to exterminate their opposite numbers. So yeah, I'd say we got to the promised land. ;-)

Wait a minute...Hallmark has a fucking channel?

Well, let me relax you a bit by noting that there's no death planned for the remainder of this story. ;-)

LMAO. The shipwreck starts with the next chapter. :-)