GLH

I'm sad that J.J. could be facing a rocky road in his relationship with Alex. I can't shake the feeling that Alex is a bit of a cad regardless of how he carries himself. Then again, I tend to think they're just using each other to their own ends, so... Can't help but say J.J. asked for it and though painful, it will an invaluable learning experience. I have to say that I'm really liking where Wade and Matt are, too, more for Matt's sake than anything. Although I don't condone the actions of Hammer, I find Wade's response at the very least disturbing. It shows a complete detachment from his indiscriminate tampering with the life of some poor working stiff and what it might incur, especially from a inveterate sociopath such as Elizabeth. The poor guy likely has few resources to counter such an attack that will likely have all the subtlety of using a sledge hammer for a fly swatter. I can think of any number of situations where "...nothing fatal, just some unlucky events” could be permanently life altering, and not in a good way. Therefore I stand on my previous assertion that, in spite of his similarities to J.P., Wade is still an asshat. So when do we find out who the father is?

At this moment it's only five days, 22 hours and one minute. But who's counting...

No doubt! It's common knowledge that drop bears are far more apt to attack tourists than natural born Aussies speaking their native tongue.

Moral of the story: Frozen margaritas and extreme heat lead to over imbibing and the resultant drunk texting/posting.

OMG... I'm so hammered... WTF?

I'm not going to get impatient, besides, I have a trip to St. Louis to distract me in the interim...

Na, that's getting a bit 'out there', even for me...

What can I say, I have a spreadsheet fetish.

Can't help but think that "Streak" will be about Will and Zach and Zach's trials and tribulations of his heavily closeted existence in the world of college/professional football. Then again, maybe not.

Once again we've come to the end of another book in the "Chronicles" saga and it never ceases to amaze me at what a talented and prolific writer Mark is and the dedication of his editing/beta team as well, even if they couldn't keep their 'priories' straight. Thanks again Mark and team for another fine read and as a reward I shall once again torture you with the numbers my spreadsheet produced over the course of publication. Sincerely, Gerry Shortest posting interval: Chapters 38-39 - Two days, two minutes. (2d, 00:02) Average posting interval: Three days, thirteen hours, six minutes, 45 seconds (3 d, 13:06:45) Longest posting interval: Chapters 5-6 - Four days, fifteen hours, thirty minutes (4 d,15:30). Length of Publication: 149 days, nine hours, 25 minutes; or five months, three days, nine hours, 25 minutes (149 d, 09:25) Number of chapter posting intervals that fell within one hour of the average posting time: one (Chapters 26-27) Individually, the average posting interval of each story breaks down to (from Chapter 52 of Millennium): Millennium ------------ 2 days, 21 hours, 7 minutes, 23 seconds (2 d 21:07:23) Poor Man's Son ----- 5 days, 11 hours, 7 minutes, 15 seconds (5 d, 11:07:15) Paternity -------------- 4 days, 19 hours, 50 minutes, 6 seconds (4 d, 19:50:06) 9.11 -------------------- 4 days, 1 hour, 35 minutes, 42 seconds (4 d,01:35:42) Flux -------------------- 3 days, thirteen hours, six minutes, 45 seconds (3 d, 13:06:45) Thanks again Mark and crew!

As far as Wade/Matt/Alex troika I suppose I can still hope for a untimely demise for the high-rent fifth wheel. I really think that Will is going to be more hurt by Zach's failure to be forthcoming about what's going on. Once he realizes what is really happening he'll understand why, but he'll still be hurt. I see the hand of Robbie's Mommie Dearest involved here somehow.

I believe that I'll amend my previous judgement of Wade, but only to say that it appears that he's in good company.

Having worked almost 30 years in an environment where exposure was possible, our HIV/AIDS education was generally current and pretty extensive. If there were even the possibility of exposure, we were immediately tested and put on the cocktail, then retested at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Only after the final test at 12 months and five negative test results were we considered clear. Unless something has changed since 2010, I'm thinking that that is still the policy.

I've kept my council and said nothing to this point, but Wade's a bastard.

Ha! Happy Birthday JP! You're five weeks older than my Mother.

Reply from Mark Arbour (author) I'm glad you're enjoying the drama. It's worth pointing out that I've been posting a chapter every 4 days. That's pretty fucking rapid. :-) As a matter of fact your overall average is at three days, 20 hours, 52 minutes. Drop the shortest and longest posting intervals and your average posting interval becomes thee days, 22 hours, 39 minutes and 38 seconds. Just sayin'...

Dude! WTF are you smokin'? I know they say that every witness has a different story, but you're not even in the same book. I can't recall exactly which story it was in and I won't say that it was explicitly stated, but I still have the distinct impression it was very strongly implied both Matt and Wade agreed that Wade wouldn't go there. Given the strain it put on the relationship the first time around, as well as the amount of time it took for Matt and Wade to get past it, I can't see them not having set that boundary.

<passes out trying to politely stifle a gutbusting laugh.>

D'OH!!!

Okay, so after I made that statement I kinda thought I may have overstated things a bit. In light of that fact, I decided that a little further investigation was in order, so I researched all the stories that have been posted here on GA since the 'change' in January 2011, from the posting of Chapter 52 in "Millennium". The "about 4 days" would have been accurate in a '3 to 5 days' sense, but the actual average posting interval from the January 2011 posting of Chapter 52 of "Millennium" until the conclusion of "9.11" came to four days, twelve hours, nineteen minutes and 52 seconds. Individually, the average posting interval of each story broke down to: Millennium ------------ 2 days, 21 hours, 7 minutes, 23 seconds Poor Man's Son ----- 5 days, 11 hours, 7 minutes, 15 seconds Paternity -------------- 4 days, 19 hours, 50 minutes, 6 seconds 9.11 -------------------- 4 days, 1 hour, 35 minutes, 42 seconds

Most indubitably so. I've been a bit remiss in posting the final statistics for 9.11, but I've been a bit distracted of late (leaving your smartphone on the back of the pickup before taking a 25 mile road trip tends to do that). That being said, I have built a highly functional spreadsheet that provides me with all kinds of arcane factoids to PIQUE one's curiosity (or show the utter depths of my OCD). So without further ado: Shortest posting interval: Six hours, 28 minutes. (Chapters 37-38) Average posting interval: Four days, one hour, 35 minutes, 42 seconds. Longest posting interval: Eleven days, thirty-three minutes. (Chapters 52-53) Length of Publication: 317 days, four hours, 25 minutes; or 10 months, one week, four days, four hours, 25 minutes. Number of chapter posting intervals that fell within one hour of the average posting time: two (4-5 and 15-16) So now you know that when Mark says he's going to slow posting down to once a week, start looking for the next chapter in about 4 days. It's just the way he rolls. Thanks again Mark for the wonderful and enthralling entertainment you and your team provide through nothing less than Herculean effort, I'm sure. Sincerely, Gerry

On of my best friends was diagnosed full-blown AIDS around April 1994. Having been infected by a nasty coke habit, he was in pretty bad shape before he was diagnosed, but he's still kickin' last I heard. He's had a lot of rough spots, but he's been clean and sober for too many years to remember, still living on his own and terrorizing the South Shore neighborhood in Chicago. And by terrorizing I mean he's graduated into cantankerous old farthood.

Great chapter! I was a little surprised at the early posting, but the story had been on my mind this morning after an article had posted to my facebook time line that made me think of JJ: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/02/figure-skating-hopelessly-corrupt He's got a tough way to go ahead of him, but I don't doubt he'll triumph in the end. Kinda sad that 9.11 coming to a close, but looking forward to see what the next book brings.

Wow. That's freaky. That is the same number of chapters I have in the spreadsheet I built for calculating stats on this book.

And that's different how?