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((What oh no!!!))

'Cause sometimes you just feel tired,
Feel weak, and when you feel weak,
you feel like you wanna just give up

~Cadence Jaycey Sinclaire-Caine~

Cadence was already at her Aunt's diner when she received Jasper's text. She did not immediately answer since her Aunt was crying and hugging her. It took her Aunt Celeste a little over a half hour to calm down. Cadie hesitated on her decision to reveal that she was expecting.

She kept her jacket on, not ready to reveal that news to her Aunt. She felt like too many questions would follow, and she was not in a place that she could answer too many questions about her whereabouts. She needed more time to heal before she could really start talking about the things that had happened to her. She needed to emotionally distance herself from what had happened.

She volunteered to help out at the diner. She liked the hustle, and the work made her feel normal. She slipped her jacket off and pulled an apron on. She got to work and worked till closing. She loved how work seemed to make the time fly.

It was late when her Aunt and her finally left the diner. The pair walked to her car. Loaded the few bags in the backseat. They dropped off the Cafe's money from the day at the bank after hours drop box. Then they continued on to the house.

They tried to stay up but after an hour the pair went to their separate rooms and each got ready for beds. Quick showers, brush their teeth, put on their jammies and said goodnight.

Cadence forgot about Jasper text. She read the message the next morning and held off on texting him until after 8am. She felt like by then he was probably up and getting ready for work.
'See you in a bit! Have a wonderful day!' She hit send, turned up the music a bit and started the coffee in the kitchen. The rule was first person up made the coffee.

She took her mug and sat out back on the deck. She had her phone playing music. Today felt like a day that called for some 'battle music' as she thought of it. She selected a playlist that had a mix of Eminem, Korn, Slipknot, Five Finger Death Punch, Metallica and Crazytown. She needed something with a bit of a bite to give her a bit of that fire that she seemed to be missing today.

After a cup of coffee and a cinnamon raisin bagel with strawberry cream cheese she felt a bit more energized. Her Aunt joined her on the deck as well as the Cat Sir Fluffy, or as Cadie liked to call him Sir Fluffy F*cker. Her Aunt always scolded her for it.

Cadie was showered dressed and went to work with her Aunt. She helped out for a couple of hours and then headed over to see Jasper. She showed up at his shop with a slice of peach pie, her personal favorite. A large hot coffee and a grilled ham and cheese on a Kaiser roll.
"I come bearing lunch!" She called as she entered Jasper's shop.

~Candie~

Wren finished cleaning up the shop and turned the open light off. Five potential artists sat in various spots on the two love seats and waiting bench in the lobby for their interviews. It had been a very full day, so she had scheduled the appointments for closing time.
One by one, she called them back into her tattoo room, looked through their portfolios, asked about their lives and experience, hours needed, etc. trying to get an idea of who they were as people and find which, if any, would be suitable for her shop, with her family.
This shop was her life, and her family was deeply involved, it was their life as well. It was important that she picked someone who would be a good match. It quickly became clear that all of them had the horrible "rock star" attitude that was trademark for tattoo artists.
She didn't want cliche, mediocre artists. Maybe she was expecting too much. Maybe she was trying to find herself, her skill and dedication in these people, and it was too high a standard. Beginning to feel deflated, she called in the last person back, a small, thin young man named Brenen.
He seemed very shy, but not cripplingly shy, well mannered, and nervous. His portfolio was fantastic. In his short year of experience after his two year apprenticeship, he had rapidly improved his skills. He was an artist before starting tattooing, but she could tell by the few before and after pictures(the after being the healed results), he had become very good at gaging the correct speed for his machine for specific skin textures, as well as the needle depth. Needle depth in skin was important.
Too deep, and you'd cause too much bleeding, which caused scabbing and in turn scarring, and fading.
Too shallow and the color wouldn't stay, it would fade out as the dead skin fell off and bleed out with hot water.
He lived in town, and had open hours perfect for the shop schedule. He was laid back once he got comfortable, which expressed less dedication than she had, but she was willing to get off her high horse for that. He was otherwise perfect.
"Well, Brenen, I think you will be a perfect fit for the Ashes to Ashes Tattoo Parlor and would love for you to join the family." Wren said once her questions had been answered and she'd studied his portfolio.
His relieved smile was contagious and she already felt like he was her newest little brother. "Would tomorrow be good for you to get all your machines and supplies moved in? Do you have all the needles you need?"
"Yes, I've still got plenty from my apprenticeship still. And plenty of ink." He answered politely.
"We send in orders for more supplies every Friday, we have an in house sterilizer for the machines, I will supply the carbon paper for stencils, and we have the press-carbon machine by Ivan's desk. Sound good?"
They proceeded to discuss renting price for the room, when it's due, and other general expectations at the shop, such as walk ins when she and Declan's schedules were full.
Once he left, Wren felt relieved and weightless. So much less stress to deal with on walk ins and extra art hands to help out.
She left the shop with her brothers for the night already ready for tomorrow. Things were falling into place.

.
Jasper had fallen asleep late in front of the tv after a few more beers. Luckily for him his internal clock that his grandmother had installed had him waking the next morning by 7 am. To get rid of some of the grogginess, he took a quick cool shower, then started a cup of coffee.

Stealing down into the shop, coffee in had, Jasp moved through the area with ease and unlocked the front door, flipping the sign around to read "Open".With no customers currently in the store, he went back into the back of the shop to finish the wings detail on the crib. Then he began to get the side rail configured to be fixed on. And before he could go much farther the door to the shop opened. With a smile he moved to the counter as the customer moved around. He waited until they found their way to the counter, and listened as they began to talk about what they had come to find. Most of his store was trinkets - clocks, engraved plates and cups, pendants, signs, toys, carved statues of all sizes. Only towards the back was there a small amount of furniture - just a hutch, table, and rocking chair really. But one thing took up more space then the other, and most wanted them more custom in size and such.

He was in mid thought, trying to decipher just what the man wanted. His hand cupped his chin as he stroked it in thought. His blue eyes looked up at the next chime of the bell from the door. He smiled as he saw Cadence walk in, and here she came with goodies. He eyes drifted to the clock, barely believing it was 11 already. (And yes he kept all the clocks on the wall on time. Made no sense to have them on their own times.) He excused himself from the customer for a few moments, as he moved to Cadie. Handing her a set of keys that were on a leather keyring that held her name, he said"That smells wonderful. Thank-you for bringing lunch. Why don't you go set it up upstairs. I'll be there shortly."

With a smile, he moved back to the costumer and began to finish up the discussion. His mind wandered. What would she think of the upstairs apartment? It was plain for the most part. Sure there were some decorative railing around the kitchen counter that opened to the living room, and the kitchen table had been hand made. But everything else was nothing out of the ordinary. Even most of the walls were just a plain white, besides the two bedrooms. The master he had painted a light steely blue, and the extra, to which he kept the door closed, was a creamy light cafe brown with one wall a light, creamy orange with white molding. That room was barely finished, really just hosting a large, creamy, comfy arm chair in one corner across from a small bookshelf and open topped toy bin that had been stained a weathered white.

Orion yawned. "No. She is spoiled. I make her watch Nascar when she refuses to sleep. That crap is enough to make anyone sleepy." He put his hands on her hips.
"So what do you want for your birthday? Don't say surprise me....that is how you end up with new riding boots and a custom helmet." He stretched his legs out a bit. His hair was slightly messy from him dozing on and off.

"I am ready for bed." He announced and lifted her up, and set her on the couch. Once he stood and stretched her leaned down and picked her up. He placed her over his shoulder and carried her off to his room. He dropped her on the bed and jumped in after her.

I have the answer
I can take the pressure
I will turn it all around
~Five Finger Death Punch

'Cause sometimes you just feel tired,
Feel weak, and when you feel weak,
you feel like you wanna just give up

~Cadence Jaycey Sinclaire-Caine~

Cadence did as Jasper instructed her to do. She took his lunch on up to his apartment. She went to the kitchen to to put his sand on and actual plate. The slice of pie she left in the counter on the counter. She set the napkins beside his plate.

She moved into the living room to wait. She took a seat and pulled out her phone. She did not want to go wandering about his new place. She did not want to seem like she was snooping or being a creeper. Besides, that was just plain rude.

So she entertained herself with her phone. She was texting her friend Tommy from her old town. He always made her laugh. They had been room mates briefly, but Tommy had hated Alex who Cadie was dating at the time. Alex was jealous of Tommy and Cadie's friendship along with insecure in their relationship.

He had been texting her nonstop all morning. He was disappointed she had moved and was trying to convince her to move back. He was telling her about all his latest adventures that she had not been apart of. He always jokingly called her his side kick. Normally it was him, their friend Tessa and Cadence. The three would go clubbing together or bar hop together.

They had all sorts of crazy adventures and road trips together over the years. Cadence had tons of stories about the 'Drunken Three' as they had nicknamed themselves. Tessa and Cadence had known each other years. They had been room mates at their Catholic boarding school. Initially the two had not really gotten along and then one day they just clicked.

After that they were inseparable, and they had tons of stories about them breaking rules and partying as teens. The school had tried to stomp the rebellion and free spirit from the girls but it had never succeeded. The two still found ways to sneak out or have fun. They often found their selves in Confession, praying for forgiveness or even on occasion receiving some sort of punishment from the Nuns.

Cadence slipped her phone in her pocket. Ignoring Tommy's texts. He was texting her over and over again. He just would not accept that she was gone. Tessa was currently giving Cadie the silent treatment.
"Oh my god! Tommy your killing me!" She cried as she finally shut her phone off. Today she was wearing her hair down and had on her dark blue jeggings, knee high leather boots, and a plum colored V neck shirt. She had her long black sweater/jacket on. She loved the huge pockets on it, and always played with the belt on it. She would tie it and untie it, simply because she was antsy.

~Candie~

Most of the day, Wren had spend getting Brenen settled in to his room next to Declan's room. She done one 3 hour line work on a large thigh price. They had rescheduled to do the shading and some color for next month, once it was all healed up. It would take a third session to finish all the color up.
Declan had been snappy and difficult, sulking about the new hire. He didn't handle newness or change well, and had clearly decided Brenen was the enemy, or a disease, and would have nothing to do with him at all. Which left all the training up to Wren. Just the concept of doing training by herself zapped her energy. Sometimes, she wished she'd flushed her sibling when she'd had the change.
Then she'd had a cancelation, which was frustrating and had her in a crass mood. She spent most of that free time drawing doodles for her walk-in available art board. And of course, her next appointment was running late, and had never sent her anything for her to have art drawn up to choose from.
She was beginning to think it would be a no show.
The bell rang from someone entering.
Ivan watched the stranger wonder around before he leaned over his counter to get a better view, as the wall blocking his little receptionist space off from the rest of the lobby made it hard to see at the angle the stranger had stopped at to look at art. He didn't remember meeting him for a walk-in appointment, but maybe he was one of the called-in appointments? Wren did have an appointment 30 minutes ago that hadn't shown up yet, maybe this was him and he was just running late. Or a walk-in, which she had a free hour or so for.
"Are you Wren's 3 o'clock? I don't think I got an art reference for her to design, but if you tell her what you'd like, she can whip a few designs up real quick." Ivan called to him. He didn't think the stranger had noticed he was there behind the counter.
At that exact moment, before the stranger could answer, and Ivan had barely finished what he was saying, Wren came around the corner from the hallway.
"This my 3 o'clock?" She asked, motioning towards the stranger. When Ivan shrugged dumbly, she turned on the stranger, "You didn't send me a design and you're late. I need to get started on it if I'm going to have time before me next appointment."
Both siblings stared at the new comer expectantly for a reply.