Hope

"Well... I agree with you. That's one at least." Justin pursed his lips as the wheels kept turning in his mind. "My schedule is clear today. You've been here all night, so if you need to leave to go get some rest, I can stick around. Just let me know." 

His eyes drifted back to Chance's still form. "I know what you mean about not being upset. Thing is... there's more than one side to this. First you've got the law - according to that, Chance is a brutal murderer, deserving of prison, if not death himself. Then you've got the perspective that these were deadly criminals themselves who may very well have deserved the bullets to their heads. And thirdly... we don't even know yet why Chance did it. I'd heard he could handle himself, but I'm not sure anyone knew he was good enough to be a sniper. I gotta wonder what made him cross that line. Looking at him now... I'm not convinced killing those men was something he enjoyed or really wanted to do." 

Realizing he was just thinking out loud now, he turned to Misty again. "But we're not gonna find out anything until he's in a better state. Right now all he wants to do is die, so he doesn't care about anything else." His voice grew quieter as he still thought. "If he's lost Destiny...he has to find hope elsewhere. But I don't know him well enough to know where."


Hunter was taken aback by what Ryan said, and turned back around, his eyebrows raised. "What? Really? He did that?" It might not seem like a big deal to some, but to Hunter... that really showed what kind of a man Eli was. Not everyone would give up what they enjoyed - alcohol or otherwise - just to remove someone else's temptation. "I... really thought he'd read you the riot act for keeping someone like me around." Maybe he'd misjudged her big brother. 

Still thinking about it, he resumed his route to go find his shoes. "But I guess as long as he won't kill either of us... then we can enjoy the donuts." He tossed a grin over his shoulder. "And maybe get some other munchies for later too?"


Jason chuckled and wriggled his fingers around Katie's ribs. "I think popcorn sounds like a fantastic idea. Let's go find a movie to watch." Standing up, he pulled her up with him, and gave her a hug and a kiss to the lips before letting her walk inside before him. 

Curling up on the couch with her not much later, it was the perfect ending to a good day, and Jason would tuck it in the back of his mind for whenever things got rough again. No matter what happened... they'd had some very good times... 

...It was the middle of the night. Jason had fallen asleep with Katie on the couch as predicted, and had been sleeping peacefully... until his nightmare had started. At first it had been mild, but it had escalated as it took him back to his childhood abduction, throwing him into a partial dream and partial flashback. 

Mumbling and shifting restlessly on the couch, sweat broke out on his forehead and his heart began to race. "No...no..." Gasping for air, he sat bolt upright, clumsily untangling himself from the blanket and Katie's legs as he tried to clear the fog in his brain. His stomach was churning, and he was starting to ache all over again. "Katie?" he mumbled. He blinked in the dark. "Katie, I..." A wave of dizziness hit, forcing him to lean back into the couch. 
Are you awake?" 
The effort to silently communicate hurt, and it made him cringe. 
"Rick..." He put a hand to his head. "I don't feel so hot..."