Fractured

Chapter 30

Authors Note: Alright, I have left you all waiting for ages and for that, I suck. The truth is, I have written the next two chapters after this one, and have 2-3 more to write to finish the story, but I am stuck. Every time I sit down to start writing it, it sucks, the words don't flow and I am having a hard time with inspiration. I am hoping that if you are still with me, you can share something you love about the story, or a favourite quote or scene with me to give me a boost to get this finished. It would be very much appreciated. 

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After my date with Marc, things picked up a little bit. The guys started taking on some smaller missions that they were offered, much to Phil's pleasure, Marc was back at his cafe most days, rather than hanging around the house, Corey finished the first round of edits on his new video game. He was in the process of playing through it to make sure everything ran smoothly and work out which areas could use some bolstering. He was hoping to have it ready to present to one of the major game producers in the next few months.

Brandon had renovated his warehouse. There was now a staging area for the bikes, his office had been updated and the workshop space was much cleaner and more organised. Axel Had been back at the aquarium, working with the new security team and some of the newer animals, to ensure they were in the peak of their health. Raven was back to working with the new recruits to improve their hand to hand and weapons based combat skills. Phil had also added working with teams to drive their team combat skills.

I I was glad to see them all working again, both individually and as a team. It had been far too long since the team had worked together as one cohesive unit. Phil eased them back into it with some low level surveillance and security. While they were not particularly thrilled with their entry level tasks, they understood the need to prove their worth again, after such a long break.

I had began working for the Academy again. Phil had me working on recruits and team placements again. They trusted how thoroughly I vetted our recruits more than most of the staff that did the same task as I did. Even more so after I was a able to weed out Blake, and Kayli's subsequent actions when he was ultimately refused. He even had me go back over the recruits that had come in over the last few months, while everything had been crazy, to ensure that nothing could potentially come back to haunt the organisation in the long run.

It felt like things were finally getting back to the way they should be. One of our top teams was reunited, my past wasn't an immediate threat and we were all working in harmony. The guys tried to be home for dinner most nights, but we made sure to have at least one family dinner a week and we all took turns cooking, sharing all of our favourite meals with the family.

I had been waiting for my last two surprise dates to come up, but so far they hadn't. I knew that they hadn't forgotten about them and Brandon seemed to get more and more excited with each passing day, but he still wouldn't give in and tell me why, or when it would be. Axel gave nothing away at all. I caught enough snippets of conversations that I knew he was planning something, but had no clue as to what he was planning at all.

When I wasn't working from home going over Academy information, I spent my days working between Marc's cafe, helping Corey with the multiplayer aspect of his game, finishing installing new ordering software and an invoicing system for Marc and playing with the new baby otters, Ollie and Olivia that arrived to the aquarium last week. Okay, so I wasn't so much playing with the new otters as I was watching them. They were a lot like babies, and puppies, absolute time wasters, but in the best possible way! I still couldn't get over the fact that they actually held hands while sleeping! it was adorable.

A few days later, I met up with Aunt Rose and Uncle Phil for coffee. Phil had forewarned us that he wouldn't be able to stay long and we had quickly decided on Marc's cafe as a meeting place, since he had both coffee and pastries that appeal to each of us. I had decided on a chocolate croissant and a hazelnut mocha. Rose had a cappuccino choc chip muffin and an actual cappuccino and Phil went with a latte and a bagel.