We Are Bulletproof

Sitting behind the wheel of his old '95 Chevy with the peeling pale blue paint, Wade fidgeted with the keys. More like he tossed them and caught them. Tossed. Caught. Looked out the rolled down window. He didn't like any of this. But he already crossed the line, he already said he would share it with Declan.

Was it the right thing to do? There was nothing either of them could do about what was in the vision but... It wasn't as if the vision itself meant... meant... what it looked like it meant. Wade sighed and tossed the keys one more time, this time not catching them, let them slide down his leg. They crashed onto the floorboards at his feet but he didn't immediately retrieve them.

The vision didn't make much sense at first. But then other visions followed. Snippets of a story that he was trying to piece together.

When he first met Declan--back then, he was just a dog and a pup out in the rain, on the highway. They were looking for shelter, that much he could see. But it looked like they were being pushed out of the forests by an aggressive pack of wolves. Knowing what he knew about Declan now, Wade was surprised that he even got into the truck. But that evening, it just made sense. Wade liked dogs. Used to travel with one in his twenties. Waving a sandwich at it and whistling, the big dog didn't budge but the little one came for him. The big dog didn't have much choice after that.

Wade thought it was a mom dog at first. But he learned pretty quickly, no. Strange, he thought, for a male dog to travel with a puppy. But it didn't really mean anything until he woke up after a vivid dream featuring shifters. Didn't happen until maybe a month or so into traveling with them. At first, Wade didn't say anything about knowing the truth. Kinda embarrassing; he kept thinking back to the things he had done or said during that time. Why would they stay with him? All that time? Must be going the same way, he said to the dog once. And the dog looked at him like he understood his words. Uncanny. Kinda weird.

By now, he was used to it, though. Declan didn't have much to say either way. Lily was the talker but she had no reason not to be.

Movement up ahead caught his eye and Wade peered out the window, then let out an exasperated sigh. What was with this guy and always showing himself in dog form? Wade knew. There was no point to the charade anymore! Shaking his head, he leaned over and opened the passenger's side with a familiar old creak. Lily was with him. Wade knew that she would be but he didn't want her to see it.

"You know there's nobody out this way, right?" he said to the dog unabashedly.

Declan Finnigan

Luckily they weren't too far out when Wade called—though unluckily, Lily had the phone with her, playing some games while they waited to be seen at the local clinic. They'd stopped in at a diner after the errands were done, where he wolfed (haha) down a sandwich and Lily pecked her way through a kid's meal of chicken tenders and apple slices. Her appetite hadn't been too good lately—hence the clinic. Doctor didn't know what was wrong with her, but Dec thought he knew. The check-up was mostly to rule out disease or illness.

It was like this after her ma died, too. Her words dried up and she wouldn't eat, refused to go out and play. But back then he was a foreign presence in her life, having left shortly after she was born. It wasn't until maybe a year in that her chatterbox ways resumed, probably when she realized that he was here to stay and wouldn't leave her. Now, they had to uproot themselves again and Lily wasn't taking that well.

He'd just finished shifting when Wade called, and Lily outed him before he could tell her to quiet down. Well, Wade already knew, but Dec was plain stubborn and unless he was caught in the act, he wouldn't back down. That wasn't even the dog in him—just the ornery human. But as it turned out, talking to Wade maybe wasn't such a waste of time after all. Wade had useful—if alarming—information for him and after finding out about the vision, Dec was quick to make his return with his girl in tow.

The old familiar blue car loomed up ahead and Dec bounded towards it, while Lily trotted behind. He barked unnecessarily because Wade already said he'd be waiting for him and leapt onto the passenger's side. Lily climbed into the back and immediately began to rummage through the little plastic bag she'd brought in from town with some snack and treats inside.

"Hi Mister Wade!" She waved a lollipop at him and then stuck it in her mouth.

Dec barked in what he hoped was an unmistakably unamused way, staring at Wade expectantly. He refused to break cover out here in public.

"Hey, little Lily!" Immediately, he lit up as he reached out and gently gave Lily's head a little ruffle. Girl or dog, it was the way he always greeted her. He looked over her bag with interest. "And what do you have there, honey? More candy?"

It looked to be just a bagful of various snacks. It hadn't escaped Wade's notice that her appetite wasn't all that great lately, either, but he didn't have any suspicions as to why. Probably just coming down with something. Kids were liable to pick up every little thing. Wade didn't have to be a parent to know that much; he'd been around the block a number of times and kids were an unavoidable part of life. Kinda strange he never had any himself by this point but the truth was, Wade didn't think he would make much of a father. He couldn't even make himself much of a boyfriend and the one time he married, it didn't last long. There was something squirrely in his brain that couldn't set itself in one place long. And so far, nobody seemed to have that same squirrely part in their brain.

Hazleton was a weird little town. Dusty and old but there were parts of it that were clearly trying to appeal to the hipsters from Oregon, to the tourists that came and went. Having come from a small hick town himself, Wade expected to feel like he was coming "home" when he arrived but he didn't. There was something strange in the air around Hazleton that made him hesitant to call it home or anything like it. But he was also reluctant to leave it... for some reason.

Yet... he knew it was here that his vision took place because he saw it. He saw it plenty of times now, especially after coming in contact with Declan and Lily. And the closer they got to Hazleton, the more he dreamed it. The same spluttering scenes, the same dropping feeling in his stomach.

After a moment, he leaned down to grab the keys off the floorboards. Although he slid the key into the ignition, he didn't go anywhere. Declan didn't necessarily have to be human in order to share the vision. At least... he didn't think so. The only person he ever shared visions with in the past was his ex-wife and she wasn't a shifter. So he didn't really know. He just didn't think it much mattered one way or the other. He could drive away from this area on the outskirts of town, get into the forest proper, maybe. But something stopped him. He didn't want to go further into town and the forest and hills, those were also part of Hazleton.

"Okay... well."

Wade glanced at Lily. Maybe this wasn't the best place for it. But honestly, there was no better place that he could think of. It wasn't like he could tell Lily to go play outside. Even telling her to get into the truck bed seemed like a bad idea; he wasn't blind, he saw those missing posters around town with kids' faces plastered on them.

"Just a warning here," he said as he turned toward Declan. "Not sure how good it's gonna come across. Only done this with one other person and we had a strong connection, so might be what made it possible."

But there was also something about Hazleton, too. Something that made them stronger. The visions. Without any more excuses, he put a hand on top of Declan's head. Nothing at first. Then he closed his eyes and lowered his head, pulling at the visions that occupied his mind as if they were bits of yarn. There. That one. And he pulled at it, unraveling it.

The sky was ashen grey, icy cold rain falling in fat drops. The figure of a man stood about a hundred feet away. Jacket. Boots. Hood. Wade couldn't see his face, didn't know who he was, but he held a gun in his hand and at his feet was the bleeding form of a man with tangled dark hair. Declan, Wade knew. Lying in a pool of diluted blood as the rain fell harder.

He could hear Lily crying. His arms were around her. He pressed her face to his chest so she didn't look.

Beyond the hood, Wade could make out a flickering open sign in a small cafe window. It was some place in downtown Hazleton. Couldn't make out the actual name of the place, everything was so grey and blurry. Somebody came upon them, down the street. The man in the coat started to turn toward them--and Wade, no matter how hard he tried to get a look at him, at his face, to identify the danger, always ended up back in the present.

Taking in a deep breath as if he had been drowning, Wade let go of Declan's head. And he was back in the present, with no more information than he'd been able to gather over the past month. His heart still clamored in his chest as if the scene was happening in the moment, but Lily was safely singing to herself and they were inside his old beat up truck, the sound of the wind rustling through the trees. Daylight. No rain. And Declan, as a dog in front of him. Wade turned away, setting his hands on the steering wheel in front of him to steady himself.

"I got some lollipops! And gummies!" Lily flapped the colorful packets around as she showed off her haul enthusiastically, seemingly unaware of the implications of them being outed. While Dec was careful when shifting in and out, he knew that once or twice Lily had been caught outright but to Wade's credit, he didn't go after her to get to Dec, to oust him as a shifter. It was kind of a pointless game anyway, because they both knew what Dec was but only Dec knew why he couldn't reveal his secret, even to someone who had taken them in and made them part of his little traveling family.

Lily really took to Wade, though, and it was easy to see that Wade took naturally to her. Funny, because Dec was wary of him even long after they'd been picked up just in the nick of time after escaping from some wolves. Dec really had Wade to thank; he would have fought to the death to protect his girl and he might have taken out one or two of them, but it was a dire situation that Wade pulled them out of. Still. That didn't make him Jesus.

It was quite a long time before Dec let down his guard but he imagined that Wade understood. Dec had a daughter to protect.

While Lily hummed to herself, kicking her short legs idly, Dec looked to Wade. He didn't know how visions worked; his kind didn't deal in that sort of magic. Shifting was about the only thing he knew how to do and he was no expert in any other kind of supernatural out there. Hell, he couldn't name half of them either. Nobody ever accused Declan Finnigan of being an intellectual.

Bark!

He impatiently tried to urge Wade to hurry it along, as he was given a disclaimer. Dec didn't need any warning, he wanted to get to the vision, get to the point of this whole exercise. Why Wade couldn't tell him over the phone, he didn't know. The dark brown eyes of his collie form glinted dangerously—if Wade didn't hustle, Dec had no problems biting him. Or at least giving him an encouraging 'nip' to let him know that this wasn't the time to be dallying around, not if he or Lily were in danger.

So Wade got on with it, putting a warm hand on top of his head. Dec's tail betrayed him with a wag. Just one singular wag. He put an end to that nonsense real quick, though, stilling himself as he watched Wade keenly. If ever a dog could put on a stern face...

The scene changed so suddenly that he jolted, only to find he wasn't... anywhere. He was looking at a scene as though he was sitting in a theater, watching a giant screen. But he could smell the rain, hear it pattering down around him, feel the chill breeze as it wafted through, stirring the hood of the man with the gun. Dec took in his own body laying by the man's feet, and then he turned to see Lily clinging to Wade, crying, with the rain beating down on them both.

The diner? It looked like the one they ate at earlier while they were in town. Dec tried to glean more clues but a noise distracted him and then the man turned towards it, just as the movie ended and he came back to his own dog body sitting in Wade's battered pickup truck. For a long moment, Dec did nothing. His brain was trying to land back in his body; his thoughts were racing, remembering the vision, seeing everything in his mind's eye.

What happened after, he wanted to ask. What happened to Wade and most importantly, to Lily? Did the man turn the gun on them next? Or did they get away?

Wade turned away, knuckles white on the steering wheel. Lily was humming a different song and making up silly little words, the way kids did. Then, slowly, Dec slipped out of the truck and went to sit outside, with his back turned. He closed his eyes; the wind blew through, ruffling his silky dark ears and bring in dark, dense storm clouds from the North.

Looked like a storm was setting in.

The closer he got to Hazleton, the stronger the images had become. At first, they were vague. There was the sound of a little girl crying. A gunshot. There was rain, always the rain. A telltale sign that they were close to the vision now. They were in the right place and the time was drawing closer. It sat in the pit of Wade's stomach like a stone.

He didn't know what happened or why, but this place was dangerous for Declan. If he just told him, over the phone, or even in person... he wasn't sure the weight of it would be expressed. Showing it to him... that was the only way to share with him why it was something to worry about. Telling him he had a dream or a vision where he'd been likely shot, maybe killed... that was... it could be brushed off as a nightmare. Seeing it for himself...

Wade wished he hadn't shown it to him, though. Afterward. When Declan left the truck. When he sat outside, back turned to them. It was impossible not to read the emotion from him, even as a dog. Seeing oneself dead... dying? Wade set his jaw for a moment, lowered his head to the steering wheel.

"I'm sorry," he said. "For... whatever it's worth."

He didn't even know if Declan could hear him. Probably as a dog, yeah. Didn't much matter, though. It was a lot to take in. Wade never saw a vision of himself in such a state. Was it possible that Declan had died? Or was he just wounded? When Wade first saw that vision, he assumed he was dead and he thought the worst. But now... He couldn't help hoping...

The wind around them picked up outside and to Wade's horror, the sky slowly began to darken. He swallowed hard. A storm rolling in. And here they were, in Hazleton.

"How 'bout this," Wade said. "We stay away from cafes. Stay away from downtown. We'll head out. Away. Yeah?"

He had never been able to thwart a vision before but... he didn't want this one to happen with such fervor... maybe sharing it would make it more possible to avoid.

All his life, Dec had been selfish. All his life the only person he thought about first and foremost was himself—not his mom or his pop, not the people who called themselves his friends, not his wife or his kid, not nobody. Declan Finnigan was the only person that Declan Finnigan looked out for. That led him to do a lot of things that he wasn't proud of; it made people wince when they heard his name, in his little home town. Declan Finnigan was synonymous with trouble.

When Morgan died, she didn't even call for him—that was how little faith she had that he would be able to take care of their daughter. Or maybe she didn't think he wanted to, after he walked out. Lily was two, maybe two and a half when that happened; Dec didn't know what sort of father figures she had in her life, if any. Morgan wasn't exactly the marrying kind herself but when she got knocked up, it seemed like the only thing to do. She always said that she had no need for a useless man in her life but Dec wondered if that was true, or if she only said it because Dec, he...

He wasn't the settling down type. He wasn't the kind of man to put down roots—even now, he only wanted it for his little girl, but not for himself. Dec was much happier roaming. He liked going places and seeing different things, meeting new people, laying his head down onto a different pillow each night. It wasn't the kind of life most people wanted to live, and it was no sort of life for a little girl, but it did him just fine.

But he couldn't be selfish anymore. He had Lily to think about—he had to consider what was best for her, not what was better for him. And he didn't even know when that switch flipped, whether it was the first time she looked at him with those big brown eyes of hers, in that little pale face, and asked him—"Who are you?" Morgan had thrown away every picture of him in the house, erased him completely from her life—from their lives. If his pop hadn't told him what happened to her, Dec might still be out there, still be selfish.

Wade's voice behind him finally drew him out of his thoughts. He didn't turn or acknowledge the words but he heard them, heard the strangeness in Wade's tone. Regret? Pity? Sorrow? Wade was fond of them, after all—probably more so Lily than Dec, who was obstinate and stubborn. He should've been born a bull shifter, really, rather than a dog. Dec wasn't even a 'good boy.'

Slowly, after a moment, he turned. He turned and he shifted out of his collie form, hardly caring that he would end up naked. Dec had decided. Gently he shook his head, like a dog might try to shake out water, as the world around him blurred briefly. Sounds, sights, lights, colors. Everything adjusted to his human body, to his human eyes and ears and brain. He reached up and pushed back the long black hair that fell into his eyes and then turned those eyes onto Wade.

There was nothing more humbling than the notion of mortality to a man. When he was a wild young buck, Dec didn't know the word—he had no concept of his own fragility as a human. Death was a foreign concept to someone so absorbed in himself but now... Now he couldn't afford to be selfish any longer. So he turned to Wade, put a hand against the side of the door to keep it open as Lily kept humming to herself, low and soft, one of those country songs that Wade loved to put on the radio as they drove through the hills.

Dec teased him about it but he liked it. He liked it when Wade sang to them, liked the sound of his voice above the wind whipping past his face as they drove down endless country roads.

"Take her to the Carter ranch," he said, voice soft and rough, unused to making the kinds of noises a human made after staying as a dog for so long. "Tell him Sean Finnigan sent you. That's my dad. Carter will take you in. Keep you two safe."

The Carter ranch. The one they were heading out to. Wade was going there for work; he thought Declan was doing the same but it sounded like there was some family back story there. The Carters and the... Finnigans, was it? They hadn't gone to the ranch yet but Wade was still under the impression they were going together. The vision he saw wasn't on a farm, after all. Not on a ranch but somewhere in downtown Hazleton.

"Now hold a minute," Wade said, putting up a hand. "No way I'm just leavin' you out here. You're comin' with us, you hear?"

Just because it was starting to rain right now didn't mean that the vision was going to happen right now. Besides--the vision clearly showed that Wade and Lily would be present for whatever happened to Declan. Maybe that was Declan's reason for separating them. Maybe he thought if they weren't all together, it wouldn't happen. Or if it did, it wouldn't happen in front of his daughter.

Wade reached out and grabbed onto Declan's arm.

"Hey," he said. "Just because things looked grim doesn't mean..." He wished he could say they could change it somehow but thus far, he never had been able to change it. In fact, there seemed to be a loophole that when he showed somebody, it still happened. And not showing him meant he was less prepared. It seemed fair to show Declan, whether he could change it or not.

"You're comin' with us," he said, not finishing that pointless comment. "You'll probably be safer at the ranch with us."

The vision showed them together, the three of them and the hooded man with the gun. If they weren't together... Maybe that could stave off the inevitable until Dec could find some way of learning more about this. He saw the rain clouds and smelled the storm on the wind; he couldn't risk being with Lily and Wade until it passed.

The Carter ranch was the only place he could think of at the moment that was a ways from the diner in town. It was the place he intended to head out to, to find work; his pops said something about ranch hands being needed there and Lily could go to the school in town and have a stable home. Dec told his pops to put in a good word for him before he left for Hazleton, and his dad pulled through.

But now, everything had changed. The vision changed everything. Dec knew enough about the supernatural world to know that true visions were rare, but almost always needed to be taken seriously. If Wade had simply told him about it, he wouldn't have brushed it off but he might not have the same sense of urgency that he did now, as he looked into the back of the truck at Lily. She seemed to sense that something was wrong now; the humming stopped and her eyes were wide as they met Dec's.

"No." He tried to pull his arm away, out of Wade's grasp. It took a lot for Dec to trust anybody, especially with Lily, but he thought that Wade was okay--one of the good ones, as his ma might have said. Heart was in the right place, too. "You two go on ahead. I'll join you later."

"What if you don't?"

What if... What if Declan didn't join them later and Wade went looking for him? What if Lily insisted on following him? What if the recipe for disaster was already forming in front of them without their knowledge? Wade wasn't ignorant to the value of his visions; they did give him some warning. But he'd never been able to sideswipe one before. He didn't really know if he could do it now. Maybe by sharing it... things could be different. If there were two of them looking out for all the signs.

But Wade didn't really believe that. If he did, he wouldn't have felt nearly as apprehensive as he did. The idea of leaving the man while it was raining out, in similar conditions as the vision--well, that just didn't set well with him.

"You're coming with us," Wade repeated. "We won't drive through downtown. You're not in any danger right now, at least."

"Then there's no reason for you to worry, if I'm not in danger," Dec said dryly, with another brief shake of the head. That stubborn streak? Yeah--miles wide. From the back seat, Lily let out a confused sound. Dec saw her anxious little hands crinkling the bag of snacks around as she tried to process what was being said. He eased away from the front of the truck and stepped towards the back, reaching out to pat the top of her dark head.

"Daddy?" Lily looked up at him with a frown. There was a tremulous shake in her voice. "What's going on?"

"Nothing Lily." Dec's voice might've been a touch rougher than usual as his hand slid over and down the back of her head, gently stroking her soft hair. "Dad's gotta do something in town, so you gotta go with Wade for a while. I don't want you to give him no trouble, you hear? You listen to what he says, and you do what he tells you. Understood?"

"But daddy--" Lily clung to his forearm. "I don't--"

"Be a good girl. I'll be back soon. Promise."

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

Wade could be stubborn too but he had never met the likes of Declan. Why was he so bent on leaving them behind? Especially his daughter? Lily obviously didn't like what was going on and she could sense her father's agitation. The man might be one of few words but that didn't mean he didn't exude certain emotions.

"What?" Wade shot Declan a look. What was he going to go do in town? Why the hell was he walking back into the bowels of it, anyway? Wasn't it safer to just stay in the goddamn truck and go with them to the Carter ranch? Honestly, Wade didn't know what the hell the man was thinking.

It was the damned vision. Whatever Wade thought it was going to do, it seemed to do the opposite. Wade had it in his head that he could use it as a foreshadowing, a warning, a caution sign as he moved forward around the cafe in the vision. In the rain, in the evening. It wasn't evening; at least Wade was confident enough about that. But he still didn't like it. He felt like what he had done was push Declan closer to that gruesome destiny and it was the last thing he wanted for him. Ever since seeing it, the vision disturbed Wade, even if he wasn't like to say as much.

"Declan, c'mon. Just come along with us to the ranch. We'll go straight there, through that path up there." Wade pointed it out--the opposite direction of the damned little town and the downtown area. "Just get back in the truck."

Thing about fate was that there was no getting around it.

So Dec, he was going to meet it head on. Whatever plans Wade had to keep him safe by taking him away from the scene of the vision might have been well and good in his mind, but Dec wasn't going to take chances. The vision had them all together—that seemed like the important thing. The location, maybe not so much. Did it much matter where it happened? Or was the real warning the fact that Dec would get shot in front of his daughter and Wade?

He was never much of a big picture guy but sometimes when faced with death, a man's mind had a funny way of putting all the pieces together. If he was all the way on the other side of town, maybe it wouldn't happen. Or if it did, that it only happened to him and not to Lily. He didn't want her to see it. She was safer with Wade than she was with him, at least in this very moment.

"Daddy?" Lily was scared now, picking up on the tense tones of their voices and in the way Wade was talking to Dec. He leaned down and gently kissed her forehead, his long dark hair tickling the sides of his neck.

"It's gonna be okay baby. I'll come back."

Then he eased back and away, ignoring the way Lily was looking at him, ignoring the desperate way Wade was trying to get him to go with them. That bullet was meant for Dec. Didn't have nothing to do with Lily and Wade. Having that warning was already more than he deserved. But he knew Wade meant well, that he was trying to protect everybody. His little traveling family—that was how Dec started seeing them, funny enough. Never been much of a sentimental guy but...

"Take care of her." He leaned in to curl a hand around Wade's forearm. A strange calm had come over him, as though having seen his own fate settled him somehow. His biggest fear was always leaving Lily with nobody to look after her but now there was Wade, and there was his pops. As long as she was taken care of, didn't much matter what happened to Dec. He wasn't looking to die but he wasn't afraid of it, either.

It was never something that he tried hard to avoid; if it was his time, it was his time.

The world shrank again and soon there was only Dec the collie, nose to the wind to sniff out the scent of the storm rapidly rolling in. Thunder boomed overhead as a forked gleam of lightning flashed in the distance and the wind picked up, howling all around them. Dec let out a sharp bark that trailed off into a frightened whimper. He sank down onto his belly as the wind roared suddenly, with unnatural ferocity.

Somebody was coming up the way, walking against the wind with hardly any effort.

Strange.

The weather went from fairly sunny to grey skies. Was there a weather witch within the vicinity? Jem checked his theurgimeter; it was off the charts. Somebody was interfering with the weather using magic. That much was painfully obvious. Frowning, Jem stepped outside, eyes on the sky. He might not have been magic or a magic user himself but even he could feel it in the air, almost palpable, like a thunderstorm on the horizon.

His attention skirted over to what looked to be a lone dog, slinking down the street. Not the dog. A dog couldn't command this kind of magic, not even a shifted dog. Shifters didn't have the capacity to touch the weather. That was up to the worst of the worst when it came to the supernaturals: the magic users. Those "gifted" with the touch of magic. Jem had been hot on the tail of a witch specializing in curses. This wouldn't be in that witch's wheelhouse. This was somebody else.

Probably somebody even worse. More powerful. Jem's crooked smile was grim. Well, he was in the right damn place to set the world straight, wasn't he?

The storm was really going at it now. The dog was on its belly and no matter what it was, dog or shifter, it looked pitiful. Jem's theurgimeter was still buzzing off the charts, useless. He stuffed it into his coat pocket and that was when he noticed the other form down the street. So unexpected was the presence that Jem actually felt his heart leap and jolt--and he wasn't one easily startled. Jem came out into the street.

"Showing off, are we?"

All dogs knew their masters.

Especially as a shifter, with his senses heightened, Dec knew that the man coming up the way was nobody he could even raise an eyelid to. He laid on his belly, completely cowed as the animal part of him briefly took over. It was like meeting God. Dec had never been superstitious much but... when one met their maker, it was hard not to be overwhelmed. No wonder his human mind shut down, letting the dog take over.

Another man came out, though--not the one approaching the truck. Someone new, stomping out into the rain and talking to the stranger as though he wasn't afraid of him. But he should have been. Ohh, that was a bad idea; even Dec knew that. Slowly he slunk back into the truck, into the back with Lily, whimpering softly as thunder and lightning and rain lashed down on the beat up old truck.

The powerful stranger had come up to the truck; despite the rain, he wasn't even wet. Not a hair on his head was drenched. He smiled, in a slightly disarming manner, and handed Wade what looked like a keychain with a charm on it. Dec chanced a peek; he thought he saw the picture of a fox on it. "Take care of that for me, will you? I'll need it later. You should get out of the rain. There's a ranch up that way." He pointed towards the Carter ranch, then turned from them.

At first it looked like he was just leaving, headed towards the second stranger who had come up to speak to him. But Dec's keen ears heard only two words, spoken by the powerful being.

'Kneel, hunter."

"What the hell's that?"

Not who. Whom? Whatever. It wasn't a person, it didn't feel like a person. Felt more like a part of the storm itself and that worried Wade. Before he even had a chance to whistle and call him to him, Declan made for the truck and leapt inside, safe and sound. As safe as one could be from something like that.

Wade squinted out of his window but it was hard to see past the washed out blur that the torrential rain made on the slick glass. He looked out the passenger door, then reached over and pulled the door shut with a loud creak. It made the man who came out look over but he barely spared them more than a glance. He seemed more interested in the... thing walking through the wind and the rain like it wasn't there. It didn't even seem to wet his clothing. Meanwhile, the other man's hair was soaked to his head, his coat quickly clinging to his body.

After a moment, Wade rolled down the window of the passenger's side.

"Hey--!" Wade called out to the man, to tell him to get into the car and come with them. But... instead, the powerful man approached and smiled. Why... was he smiling? Wade blinked, then looked down at the keychain that was handed over to him. Turning it over in his hand, he looked back up at the man. How... did he know they were heading out that way? Somehow, the knowledge of it made something in the pit of his stomach grow cold.

"Right..." Wade turned the key in the ignition. They were getting the hell out of here. As they drove off, he saw through the rearview mirror that the other man, the soaked one, was on his knees. Strange. Everything about this was weird as hell.

This was nothing they wanted to bear witness to.

Hunter. That other man was a hunter, but only a human—nothing compared to the immense power of the man directing them to head on off to the Carter ranch. What was that keychain, though? Dec wondered about it, and about the little fox on the dangling charm, as the pickup lumbered up the hill. He chanced one last glance back through the rain-soaked window at the two figures rapidly disappearing out of sight.

Lily let out a whimper too, and Dec realized her arms were tight around him. Dec gently barked and licked her cheek, then took a chance on shifting back. If there were other hunters around, they would surely be taken care of. Surely, humans weren't capable of taking down somebody like the creator. He didn't know the creature's name but he knew what he saw was a god, an ancient being walking amongst men.

It was just strange to think that of all the places a god might visit, Hazleton was one of them.

His limbs elongated again and stretched back out. As soon as he returned to his human form Lily was on him, burying her face into his chest. He gathered her close, up in his arms, and stroked the back of her dark head gently as the car wound its way toward the Carter ranch. Like hell Dec was disobeying a direct order from somebody like that.

"...we should look at your vision again later," he said softly to Wade, who... Really, what the hell did Wade even make of all this? Dec barely processed it himself.

Wade had no idea what the key chain thing meant but he kept it, regardless. It seemed unwise to throw away something given to an entity as powerful as the one they had just encountered. Best to pocket the keychain and hold onto it... Maybe he would need it for something later. Or maybe it was just some weird gift from a weird entity. Whatever the case, he could still feel the power of the man--not man... God? Whatever he was, Wade could feel it down to his bones. Not nobody to fuck with, that much was for sure.

"What's that mean?" Wade asked. What did he not see proper? Or was that a remark on his driving? Because it wasn't his fault the wind was so strong that it buffeted the truck from side to side.

Either way, he was relieved when he saw the sign for the Carter ranch up ahead. It existed! Eureka! That and it meant they could get inside and out of this strange storm that came from outta nowhere. As the truck rumbled its way up the path to the enclosed ranch fence, a young man came out, decked out in mucking boots and a rain slicker. He opened up the gates for them and ushered them inside, then carefully closed them after the truck was safely inside the ranch.

"Freak storm, huh?" The young man greeted them with as he lifted a hand to his hood and got a look at them through the window Wade rolled down. "Are you guys the new ranch hands? Anybody else coming up this way right now's gotta be nuts."

"Yup, that'd be us. Wade and Dec Calhoun, at your service." He slanted a look over at Declan, whose last name he didn't know. He doubted Declan wanted people to know his full name, anyway. He didn't even want Wade to know it. Might as well use his own last name instead.

"What you--we saw earlier," Dec said with a slight tilt of the brows at Wade's offended tone. He meant the vision--the one of him getting shot. Things might have changed now that they'd had a brush with somebody powerful enough to change fate.

He attributed the testy response to the freakish storm and the run-in with something far beyond their comprehension. Dec looked back again but there was nothing to be seen except the rain and trees getting tossed around. As they bumped along, he grabbed some clothes from his bag and hastily slid them on so that when they reached the ranch, he wouldn't be caught stark naked. Not the kinda first impression Dec wanted to make.

At the gates, he thought he'd have to get out and push them open himself but a kid came up. Kid wearing... boots and a hooded slicker... Dec's thoughts went to the vision again, of him laying at the boots of a hooded figure, bleeding out in the rain, and his grasp on Lily tensed. But the kid was just that--a kid. Hardly seemed older than twenty or so, and he wasn't holding a gun. Although Dec didn't relax, he tried to tell himself that he was being paranoid.

Not everybody with a hood and boots was out to get him.

Wade and Dec Calhoun, however, gave him pause. He didn't contradict Wade but he did make a disapproving noise at him, though doubtlessly it was lost above the roar of the wind. That made it sound like they were. Well. Dec thought of them as a family but he wasn't angling to take another man's last name. Hopefully people thought they were cousins or something.

The truck trundled on through and up the path to the ranch, where another kid with similar boots and slicker and sopping mop of curly brown hair waved them towards a small cluster of cabins. "Mister Carter'll talk to you guys in the morning!" he shouted above the howling wind which blew his hood off--looked like it was gonna blow his hair right off his head too. The kid clutched his hood frantically.

"You can take the second one on the right, that one's empty!"

"What?" he said, somewhat distracted. By now, he wasn't thinking of visions or danger. His mind was more on the ranch itself and the boys that met them, looking like they had probably been ushered out in their raincoats and boots. But then the boots and coat combination reminded him of the nightmares, the visions that had been haunting him for weeks now.

"Oh."

He spared Declan a glance. Now he got it. Yeah. Revisit the visions. That made sense. With both of them looking at it, they might be able to pinpoint a time, exact location, all that. And maybe... see who it was that was going to apparently shoot Declan. It would be a lot safer to do in the privacy of a room than sitting on the side of an old road in a beat up pickup truck. Goddamn it, he was every country song's cliche, wasn't he? Pickup truck, dogs... They were even border collies.

"Yeah."

And he heard that gruff little sound coming out of Declan but all he did was give him the briefest wink--blink and you'd miss it--before continuing to talk to the boys. They were directing them to a set of cabins up ahead.

"Yeah, second one's ready for you!" the other boy shouted above the wind as he was pelted with rain. "It's not EMPTY, dude." He seemed to be saying that to his friend. Brother? No, they couldn't look any more different. Definitely not brothers. Were any of them the Carter boys? Now didn't seem the best time for introductions so Wade nodded, waved, rolled up the window, and drove the truck up to the indicated cabin.

"Fancy, ain't they?" Wade said as he regarded the cabins. There weren't a lot of them and they were pretty small but they looked expertly built. "No keys? That's country livin' for you."

Wade cut the engine, then turned to look at Declan and then at Lily. The back at Declan. He was going to say something about the Calhoun business. Even lifted a hand as if to speak but thought better of it. Instead, he slid the keys out of the ignition and tucked them into the same pocket as the odd little fox keychain. He opened up the car door with its usual old groan.

"Home sweet home!"

Dec blinked.

That was his story, he was sticking to it, and wild horses couldn't drag the truth out of him. Hopefully the kid by the truck didn't see that wink. Because Dec didn't. No sir.

"Looks fine," was his generous appraisal of the cabins, which he took to be reserved for ranch hands or visitors. "Guess the place is too far out even for thieves."

Looked mighty cozy; lots of windows were curtained but he saw the warm glow behind them, saw the spirals of smoke from the chimneys whisked away by that violent wind battering the side of the truck. If not for the storm, he bet he could've smelled supper cooking too, and the scent of wood burning in the hearth.

"C'mon honey." Dec got Lily out first, putting a worn leather jacket over her to keep her dry(ish) as they made a mad dash for the cabin. Things could be unloaded later off the truck; they'd better get the heat going inside, and warm some food for empty bellies. Lily couldn't subsist off snacks forever, and Dec didn't want her to, either. He grabbed the door handle and flung it open--helped by a vicious gust of wind.

"Daddy it's spooky in here!" Lily's disembodied voice in the darkness was shaky. Dec laughed dryly as he sought out a switch and flipped it on, bathing the interior in a warm golden glow.

"Not bad," he said of the comfortable furniture and the real fireplace that met his eyes. "I'll get some wood, saw a wood pile out back as we drove up. You get yourself and Lily dried off, Wade."

The Carter ranch was pretty far out from the rest of the town, which was just fine with Wade after seeing those visions and realizing they were in downtown Hazleton. Made a man want to keep away from it, just to make damn sure they didn't happen. Even if he did know fighting the visions would be futile... couldn't stop him from at least trying to mitigate whatever damage came of them.

The interior of the cabin was cozy even without the fire going yet. It was nice; nicer than a good number of places Wade had stayed at in his travels over the years. While the furniture didn't look spanking new, everything looked clean and tidy. There were even pictures on the walls to make it homier. They looked to be paintings, various landscapes and animals. Wade smiled. Who painted them? And who was in charge of the cabins? Somebody had a touch for interior decorating.

"Sure, will do!" Wade saluted Declan in response. He gently took Lily's hand. "Come on, Lils. I'm sure one of these doors is the bathroom."

There weren't a lot of doors within the cabin. As they trailed around the cabin and opened each door, Wade found that there was a single bedroom with a queen-sized bed... That would probably be left to Dec and Lily to share. Wade was used to sleeping in a truck so it didn't bother him in the least to have a soft couch to sleep on. There was a covered porch--that was nice. There were even a couple of rocking chairs on the deck. Weirdly, the bathroom was attached to the bedroom. That might make things weird.

Better than not having a bathroom, though.

Inside the bathroom, he found that there was both a nice spa tub and a shower. Interesting. The cupboards were already filled with clean towels and Wade pulled a few out.

"Here you go, sweetheart," he said as he took Dec's leather jacket off Lily and replaced it with a big fluffy towel. "It's not that spooky here now, is it?"

"I like that picture!"

"It's a closet!"

"Yup! It's not spooky anymore!"

Dec heard Lily's cheerful voice as he went in and out, first with an armload of chopped up logs, then with food from the truck, and a final time with some of their personal effects—toothbrushes and changes of clothes and things. Even in three short trips, he was already soaked through and by the time Lily and Wade emerged, he was standing at the door dripping water all over the welcome mat.

"Think that's everything," he said, slightly out of breath. The wind had knocked all the air out of his lungs. It was really howling out there now, and torrential rain lashed down on everything as though God had finally opened up the heavens to drown all living things. If this was the second coming of Noah's Arc, well... they were pretty well screwed.

"You get all dried off, honey?" He asked Lily, who had run over to the couch and clambered onto it. "Hey come down from there. You'll get that couch all wet." Dec gestured to the damp bags sitting a little ways off. "Got some of our clothes, Wade. Figured you'd want to change." Dec could take Lily into one room to change, leaving the bathroom free for Wade.

Lily was the cutest lil thing. Everything she saw blew her away. What was behind that door? A closet! She really enjoyed the pictures on the walls, especially the ones featuring animals. They seemed to be local wildlife; raccoons, foxes, birds.

After viewing the whole place and seeing there was nothing mysterious about it--and that it was pretty small, so there weren't a lot of scary hiding places for any monsters, Lily seemed satisfied with the cabin's contents. It was nice to see her chirping happily about everything after that fear she was starting to show earlier. That was partly their fault; they shouldn't have talked about the visions in front of her. Wade should have known better.

Wade only laughed as Lily jumped onto the couch. The state of the couch should have mattered to him but it wasn't like he couldn't borrow a sheet or something, as long as there were extra ones somewhere in that closet. He forgot to check.

"Thanks," Wade said, going over to the damp bags Declan indicated. "That storm came straight outta nowhere."

Almost like... magic or something. Wade tried not to give it too much thought. Just because it was raining didn't mean that tonight was the night. They would be safely tucked away in this cabin all night. That meant Dec was safe for now.

Grabbing the most comfortable clothes he could find, Wade nodded, before entering the bathroom to change. Made more sense for him to take the bathroom, since he didn't have to change himself and a little girl. From behind the closed bathroom door, he said, "Checked the kitchen, looks like there's some groceries in there. We should eat here. Stay out of the storm."

Lily was a real artistic kinda kid; she loved music and colorful things and was always making up fanciful stories. Where she got those ideas Dec didn't know, but he knew for a fact that it wasn't from him. Probably from her mom. Dec was more of a practical guy, dealing in the here and now. That was his job as a dad, though; Lily's job was to be a kid. As long as she didn't grow up too fast, he was doing his job just fine he reckoned.

"Ain't fit for man or beast out there," Dec remarked as he sorted through the bags to find his and Lily's clothing too. They met Wade as dogs but Dec managed to sneak their bags—of which there weren't many—into the back of the truck while he wasn't looking. Of course, even after Wade discovered their secret and undoubtedly found their personal effects, Dec continued playing dumb.

How did that bag get there? Whose little blue princess dress did that belong to?

Dec didn't know. He put on his innocent dog face and just stared Wade down, refusing to budge even one little bit.

After Wade went into the bathroom, Dec took Lily into the bedroom with their clothes. He stripped off her wet dress and helped her put on a hoodie and some pants. "You're all drippy daddy!" She giggled as she pointed to the little pool of water at his feet.

Dec smiled and ruffled her damp hair, then gave her a little pat on the butt to get her out of his way, so that he could peel off his soaked clothes and slip into something warm and dry. "You wanna help me with dinner?" He asked Lily, to which she nodded vigorously. Then, louder to Wade, "I'll go see what's in there. You take your time."

He grabbed their discarded clothes—using his own to mop up the pool of water on the floor—and went to hang them up in front of the homey hearth. Dec knelt to pile on some logs and started up a fire by carefully setting light to some dried up twisted newspapers in a container by the fireplace. After they caught, he poked them into a crevice between the logs and soon there was a cozy, crackling fire sending warmth throughout the small log cabin.

"All right, let's see what's for eatin'," he said to Lily as he took her hand and drew her into a small kitchenette. The fridge was small but stocked, just like Wade said. Dec rifled through the groceries and pulled out some vegetables—to which Lily let out a hearty "YUCK! VEGGIES!"

"Hm." Was there meat? He could fry some up, maybe make a salad... "Ey. Put that back." Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Lily trying to make off with a bunch of leafy greens, which he suspected she was going to throw into the fireplace.

"Mister Wade! Tell daddy veggies are gross!"

Yeah, yeah, take his time. Wade eyed the shower, then the tub. A hot bath sounded so good with the rain pattering outside but the idea of the power getting knocked out while he was in there, not so appealing. Although... Was this cabin set up with a generator? It was pretty far from the grid, so...  possible? He should have checked but now wasn't the time for baths, anyway. Even if Declan said to take his time, he imagined he didn't mean to sit and soak in a bath for an hour.

So he opted for the shower, turning it on and taking off his clothes while he waited for the water to get warmer. He set his keys down on the sink counter, along with the weird keychain. Putting his hand under the spray of the shower, it seemed like it was taking its time getting warmer. He made a face and wandered around the bathroom, coming back to his keys and the keychain. He picked it up, turning it over in his hand.

Why? Why did that strange man hand this thing over to him? And there was power rolling off that guy. Declan felt it; he felt it so acutely that he froze in his presence. But they didn't talk about it. It was like they were stepping around whatever happened back there. Trying to pretend it didn't happen.

Setting the keychain down, Wade tried the water again. Warm enough. He hopped in, took a quick shower--probably three to five minutes, tops. After he dried off, he slipped on a loose t-shirt and his only pair of sweats, which he usually wore to sleep in. Opening the bathroom door to let out the steamy air, he heard his name being called by Lily. He stuck his head out and called out, "Sorry, Lily! I like some veggies! Don't you like sweet potatoes? And I bet you'd like broccoli if you added some cheese to it!"

Having lost Wade as an ally, Lily trudged back with the stolen veggies and put them back on the narrow countertop. She did like sweet potatoes, Dec knew this for a fact, but only if they were steamed and soft and easily scooped up with a spoon. It was the harder vegetables that gave her trouble—like broccoli. After making a horrible face, she ran out of the kitchen and Dec could hear her saying to Wade, "Broccoli is yucky!" There was a pause, a light tinkle of something metallic, and then she piped up again, "Is that a fox, Mister Wade? It's pretty! Look, if you do this, it looks like it's moving!"

Dec shook his head as he pushed some of the vegetables back into the fridge—not all of them could go into a salad. He was just seeing what was available for them to eat that night. Salad greens were left, alongside a red bell pepper and a small container of cherry tomatoes. He found ham too—not the thin slices used for sandwiches but proper ham, honey-glazed and still in its foil wrapping. It would be tasty fried up in a little bit of oil, so he got to hunting for pans and found one and got to work. Someone really took the time to put food in their fridge. He'd have to find out who, and thank them when the storm let up. Maybe Mrs. Carter, if there was such a person.

It was a little known fact that Dec didn't mind cooking. He got pretty used to it, being a bachelor for most of his life, and after he had to take care of Lily he learned to expand his menu to more kid-friendly items. It was harder to cook for a baby but as Lily grew up and was able to eat more, finding something to appease both of them became easier too. The only problem was getting her to eat her vegetables, but Dec had one sure trick up his sleeve.

He'd tell her to eat it and sit there waiting until she did, watching to make sure she didn't hide any in her pockets.

As Lily chatted to Wade about foxes, he sliced ham and set it into the pan, where the thick-cut slices sizzled appealingly. Then he washed the greens and as he did so, he kept an ear open to the conversation being had. That keychain bothered him a great deal but he didn't want to scare Lily again so he said nothing about it, nor about the man who gave it to Wade. It wasn't a subject that was proper for a kid to listen to anyway so he kept his mouth shut about it and got on with the cooking.

Since Declan seemed to have the food situation handled--who knew the guy could cook?--Wade entertained Lily by answering her questions about foxes. Wade knew enough about foxes, growing up with the kind of family that chased them away with shotguns. (Not that he told her that part.)

He sat with her on the couch as Declan made dinner, the keychain in her hands. She seemed intrigued by it, and she was right. It did sorta look like it moved when they turned it just so. If it was just a trinket he bought himself, he would have told Lily to keep it. Since it came from a stranger with a dangerous aura, he decided it was best to keep it for himself. When she handed it back, he tucked it into his pocket again.

"You know what, though?" he said. "I bet we'll see real foxes out here."

Not right at the moment, of course. Right now, any fox with any self preservation was hiding in their dens, away from the rain. But the Carter ranch was situated way out from the town proper and it was surrounded by forest and wedged by mountains. It had to be an ideal place for foxes.

"And you know what else? They have horses here. And pigs and goats and sheep and chicken. When it stops raining, we should go check them out!"

"REAL foxes?"

Dec glanced over his shoulder and saw Lily staring wide-eyed at Wade, as though she couldn't believe her ears. Not only foxes but other animals--anything one would expect to reasonably find on a farm. Dec shook his head; Wade didn't know what he was getting himself into. Now that he'd promised all those animals, he'd be expected to produce them all once the weather let up.

When he turned back to tend to the food, though, Dec was smiling a little bit. They made a pretty picture--Wade and Lily sitting on the couch in front of the fire, chatting and keeping each other company. Dec wasn't a terrible father but he was sparse with his words and he didn't know how to encourage a child with a vivid imagination like Lily's. He was better with the practical aspects of raising a child--getting her clothed, fed, looked after.

The ham didn't take long to fry up and salad was easy to make. He poked his head out of the kitchen after the food was ready. "Dinner's on the table. Come eat."

"Yep. Real foxes."

And he could track them, too. He knew how; it wasn't something he forgot over the years. Lily would probably alert any foxes in the area to their presence, though, so he wasn't sure how he was going to show her any wildlife while they were here. He could teach her, though. How to be quiet so that nature came closer. He thought she would like that. Plus, all those farm animals.

"Let's eat!" He took Lily's hand to lead her to the table. Whoops. Seemed kinda bad on his part to tell her about pigs on the farm right before they ate ham. Hopefully, she didn't make the connection. Wade made a little face at Declan as he sat down, although he wasn't sure if Declan was on the same page as he was regarding that fiasco.

"Didn't know you could cook," Wade said as he picked up a fork. He wasn't a terrible cook himself, living mostly on his own for the majority of his life. But mostly he ate like a bachelor; out of fast food drive-thrus and fire pits.

Dec was of the opinion that children shouldn't be sheltered. He wasn't going around telling other people's kids that Santa Claus wasn't real or that all dogs didn't go to heaven--unless Heaven was the bald patch of dirt out back--but with Lily he wanted to strike up a more realistic approach to child-rearing. Protecting her too much now meant that she had a longer ways to go when she grew up. Dec didn't want to set her up for that long fall later on.

But he wasn't no bastard either, and sometimes even his heart softened. Like when she came in hand-in-hand with Wade with that big ole happy grin on her face, telling him that "Mister Wade's gonna show me baby piggies!" Dec looked up in time to see Wade's expression and the corner of his mouth tilted slightly in amusement. "Don't take much to fry up some ham."

That amusement faded a bit once they sat down and Lily asked, without missing a beat, "What's ham made of daddy?"

"Pi--" Dec started to say, then cut himself off. He looked at Wade and then back down at Lily, who had pushed the salad on her plate as far away from the meat as humanly possible. "Never mind. Eat your dinner."

"Aww!" She pouted but resumed eating.

Next bit of ham sorta stuck a little in Dec's throat. He looked at Wade again and felt an odd desire to laugh. He didn't, but he wanted to.

Yep, shit. Wade realized quickly the error of his ways, promising baby pigs to a little girl about to consume... a pig. It was messed up in an amusing sort of way and he could see by that slight change in expression on Dec's face that he was thinking along the same lines. Wade tried--he really did--not to smile. But he ended up cracking one all the same, before clearing his throat and digging into the meal.

It was actually better than he expected. Not that he expected Dec to be a shit cook, just that he... didn't honestly expect he'd be a cook at all. Living as a dog, Wade thought he must have hunted food down like a wild dog might. But then, he had a little girl to feed and it was hard to imagine little Lily eating raw animals.

"Bell pepper's really good for you," Wade told Lily, as he watched her pushing her greens aside. "Have you tried it? My favorite's the red, like this one."

Surreptitiously, he winked in Dec's direction before he picked out a piece of bell pepper and ate it. "Do you like fruit, Lils?"

"I don't like peppers," Lily insisted as she cut into the ham, portioning them into little slices so that it was easier to chew. Dec watched her, then his gaze slid up to Wade for no apparent reason. Weird how easily Lily took to him. Weird how easily Dec took to him.

Even when his ex-wife was alive, Dec never felt that things were right. When they were together, he didn't feel like a family unit but he knew inside that a mom, a pop and a kid, that was supposed to be... family. That was what they taught in school, on the TV, in magazines and on billboards but...

This...

He focused on his meal again because Wade winked at him and he felt the odd urge to smile back. Lily was nodding now and listing all the fruits she liked, still avoiding the vegetables--not to be distracted, of course. After the ham was gone and there was only veggies, she stopped eating but Dec shook his head down at her.

"Eat your salad," he said dryly. She pouted. He stopped eating and sat there waiting and with an exaggerated SIGH Lily picked her fork up again. But it was Wade she turned to, pleadingly. "Mister Wade... can I just eat the peppers?"

"Lettuce too," Dec said, reaching over and putting a hand over her head, turning it back to her plate. What? Was Wade her new dad now? Did she already adopt him, in the hopes that he'd be more lenient? "Eat."

"...fine." Lily ate some salad and then screwed up her face into a horrible grimace. "YUCK!"

Kids really seemed to have it out for vegetables, or maybe it was a dog shifter thing. Or maybe not. Dec seemed to enjoy them just fine. Lily, though, she was insistent and stubborn about how much she liked fruit but not vegetables, even the less vegetabley vegetables out there, like say bell peppers!

He smiled at Lily and he was about to tell her it was fine if she ate the bell peppers--as long as she ate all the bell peppers on her plate but Dec stood firm. Lettuce, too. Wade let out a soft laugh and he shrugged as if helpless.

"Well, if your daddy says so, I think you're gonna have to eat it all. But lettuce isn't so bad, either. Just don't eat it all alone."

Wade wasn't a fan of just chomping on leaves, either. He got up and peered into the fridge to see if there was anything to add to the salad, some kind of dressing or something to add to it that might make it easier to eat. There was no dressing that he could see, nor anything to make dressing with. So he checked the cupboards and said, "Aha!" when he found something of interest.

There were pumpkin seeds--probably from a pumpkin harvest. Not what he was hoping for--something like croutons. Kids seemed to love those. But pumpkin seeds might help. He eyed Lily for a moment. She was only enough for seeds, right? She was older than toddler age.

"We'll eat it with pumpkin seeds. Do you like pumpkin?" he asked. "Next time, I'll make some killer poppyseed dressing. You'll like it. It's sweet."

A no frills kind of fella, Dec ate his lettuce and bell pepper salad without complaint.  He didn't find salad dressing or he would've put some in for Lily's sake, but he was still grateful that somebody put food in their fridge. Dec wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

But that was Dec. He put up with a lot of things without a grumble. A kid like Lily needed a bit more persuasion and that was where Wade came in, apparently. Lily perked up at the mention of pumpkin seeds, but then glanced at Dec as though asking permission. Dec nodded once and got on with his food, while Lily ran over to look at the pumpkin seeds that Wade had found.

"Ooo... they're crunchy!" She had one in her hand and was nibbling on it. "What are pumpkins made of, Mister Wade?"

"Pumpkins are made of pumpkins, silly."

What else would pumpkins be made of? But he could tell Lily wasn't entirely convinced, so he added, "When you put the seeds into the ground, they grow out on a vine, so the top part of a pumpkin? That's vine. And the outside is a hard shell-skin. And inside, there are a bunch of these."

He didn't use the V word, knowing how against vegetables Lily was and he certainly stayed away from the term squash, in case she knew that squashes were vegetables. Or fruits? Wait a second... Watermelon grew on a vine. Fruit? He nodded to himself.

"They're fruits!" Not vegetables after all. He grinned over at Declan as if he'd gotten away with something but... truth was, he didn't know all about this shit. He was talking out his ass. He patted Lily on the head.

"Now, add that to your salad and finish it so we can get you tucked into bed."

"Oh... these grow inside the pumpkin?" Dec was willing to bet none of that got through to Lily, who was now looking at the half-eaten seed in her hand with wonder. "They're FRUITS?"

Now, Dec was willing to suspend disbelief but that might've been going too far. He cleared his throat. "Come finish your supper," he said to Lily before the inevitable tidal wave of questions started. She was an inquisitive, curious kid. Sometimes that was good. Right now, that wasn't because Dec didn't want her getting worked up before bedtime.

"But daddy, Mister Wade said--"

"I heard what he said. Come on back."

She let out another SIGH and gave Wade a little old grown up Look of exasperation, before trudging back with a handful of pumpkin seeds which she sprinkled with a flourish into her salad. Dec smiled at her and gave her a light pat on the head. "Go on." He made sure she ate all of it before taking her plate away and letting her run off in evident relief to brush her teeth and get ready for bed.

Dec took the plates into the kitchen and plopped them into the sink. They could be dealt with in the morning; right now, he was plumb tuckered out and he was willing to bet Wade and Lily were too. "You all right on the couch?" He eyed it; it didn't look lumpy but it was a bit short. They'd need to get another bed, unless Wade wanted to sleep with them in the same bed. Probably not a good idea, though, lest people got the wrong idea...

"Yep."

He didn't say he figured he'd be on the couch and that he would have insisted on taking it even if Declan wanted it (for... whatever reason). It wasn't going to be comfortable, especially for a tall man like Wade, but he'd live. Sleeping in the same bed seemed a little like crossing a line, even though they slept together in the truck. It was different when they were dogs, though. Slightly, since Wade knew the whole time they were just any dogs.

Letting out a yawn, he plopped onto the couch and stretched out. Oh yeah, it was definitely too short for him. He laughed aloud, looking up at Dec. Then he waved a hand at him, for him to go join his daughter.

"Go on. Git. Before I change my mind!"

Not that he was going to but it felt like a threat; him taking over the bed and waking up with a leg slung over the poor man. Adjusting the pillow behind his head, he closed his eyes, as if to shut out any arguments Declan might have.

"G'night, Dec."