The Next Chapter

[Bradley Young]

"I think this is the last one."  Brad said once he'd finally gotten the heavy cardboard box up the stairs and into the new apartment.  It was smaller than the suburban home they had just sold to help pay for the move.  The couple was forced to cut corners while they got back on their feet, much to Brad's chagrin.  He wasn't happy, hadn't been in months.  The vivid images of the accident that had forever changed their lives still lingered in his mind.  He'd been unable to shake them off even with mandated therapy sessions and the support of his loving wife.

With a low exhale of breath, Brad stood straight, hands on his hips, and looked over their new living room.  He was never a fan of Montana, having always felt more at home in the bright lights of the big city where he'd grown up.  Kalispell was too small, too quiet.  Still, there was something refreshing about it.  It was as if selling the home filled with so many memories and starting anew was exactly what they needed even if they didn't have much of a choice in the matter.  His state pension didn't pay nearly as well as his career with the NYPD making a change necessary in more ways than just emotional.

"Please tell me we're doing the right thing."  He said, his eyes settling upon his wife, Beth Young.  Their relationship had been strained in recent months.  This, he felt, could very well signal the last ditch effort to salvage their marriage in the wake of the accident.  "Not just because of money.  But... for us."

[Beth Young]

The tiny brunette dipped her head back so she could properly look up at her husband without having to take a step away. Offering him a curt nod, she pursed her lips. "This is the right thing," she said confidently. It wasn't that Beth was foolish enough to believe that simply moving was all it took for everything to turn out alright, but she had slowly but surely started to notices the effects of the changed environment; surely, it couldn't hurt more. "Besides, it's not like there's plenty to spend money on in Montana," she added cheekily.

Her head fell back down again as she turned to look over the apartment. Her nose wrinkled slightly. There was still plenty of work to do, and she could already feel her fingers twitch. Stepping forward, she moved from box to box, silently noting which went were, even if they were all marked. You could never be too sure, and it was nice to remember which box was where, instead of later going "oh, I wish I had that box right now!".

The tiny brunette's hands wrapped around one of the boxes and she lifted it with a silent huff. She moved towards the kitchenette and placed it on top of the counter. She then pulled out a chair, stepped up onto it and opened the cabinets. She lifted one of the cups from the box, removed the paper covering it and placed it into the cabinet.

[Bradley Young]

Offering his wife an uncertain smile, Brad nodded. She seemed more confident in the move than he'd been. Of course, Beth had always been the brains behind their lives. She was the driving force that kept their family up and running until everything had changed. "That's because there's nothing here at all." Brad pointed out with much more discontent finding its way into his voice than he had intended. "Except for serial killers in hockey masks." He recovered quickly, adding a snarky reply while turning to look through one of the nearby boxes. "I'm sure they have plenty of those running around."

Rummaging through one of the boxes it quickly became apparent who had packed it. There were a couple thin blankets, a few random articles of clothing, a single speaker from their entertainment system as well as a few bottles of shampoo, conditioner and soap that belonged in the bathroom. "My God, Beth." Brad said from his position kneeling in the center of the living room. He was holding the speaker in one hand and a bottle of shampoo in the other. "How could you leave me to pack unsupervised?"

[Beth Young]

Swatting her hand in the air, Beth's head shook. "Don't be so salty, dear. Just because the streets aren't filled with rude people, doesn't mean there's nothing here," she pointed out. As much as she appreciated the recovery, it had the brunette huffing. "Why, you planning on joining them?" No, she didn't think there was nothing here. Sure, it was a small town, but it had all the necessities. "You're already growing old. You should consider taking up fishing." There was plenty of lakes around for that, after all. Sadly, no ocean, but Washington wasn't too far away, after all.

She leaned to the side and looked over the corner. Her green eyes zoomed in on the older man for a moment before she shrugged. "Because you never listen anyways," she quipped matter-of-factly. If it had been up to her, she would have packed everything all alone, but that had been out of the question. She was sure she would come across one of those boxes and it would undoubtedly make her cringe.

Ah well, she'd just have to make up for it with cookies.

[Bradley Young]

"Yes, that's right." Brad smirked, his eyes gleaming mischevously as his wife responded to his sarcasm in kind. "I would take up fishing but then I'd have to find someone to babysit." He said, looking to her accusingly. "Otherwise you'd stay up all night watching videos of Justin Bieber... or whoever you kids are into these days." After all, if he was too old than she was certainly too young.

The playful banter felt good. It felt normal, for a change. A small window into what things had been like before. With a light smile touching his lips, Brad turned his attention back to the meticulously packed box in front of him and sighed. Why couldn't things go back to the way they were? Of course, he knew why. "I listened when you suggested we come out here." He tossed back idly. They had needed to do something, though, Brad knew that. They were here for a reason, mostly because their old life had been shattered by a speeding car running a red light nearly a year ago.

In an instant, all mirth and amusement drained from his face along with the color. He swallowed hard as he caught sight something dark blue poking out from amidst the chaos inside the box. Carefully he pushed the other objects aside and withdrew a small, weathered plush bunny with one button eye missing. All these things were supposed to be packed away and clearly marked to prevent this sort of thing from happening. "Uh..." He managed to only get out the low utterance before attempting to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. He fell silent, holding the stuffed animal in both hands.

[Beth Young]

Rolling her eyes, Beth scoffed. "Please. You know Justin Bieber is so last year. One Direction is the thing now." See, sometimes working with kids actually did help. She knew a thing or two about what kids listened to. At least what some of them did. But then again, she had already known that when she'd started college. She loved her job, even if that meant talking about famous people she knew next to nothing about.

Again, the brunette tossed her husband a stare. "That's because I gave you no choice," she quipped again. Besides, it was that or nothing. At least Montana was familiar and somewhat far away from everything. It was just what they needed. She was sure of it. She was hell bent on moving forward and making sure that they both gave it their best shot.

Finishing putting the cups into the cabinet, Beth closed the door and stepped down from the chair as she heard the word falling from Brad's lips. Picking up the now empty cardboard box, she stepped out of the kitchen only to be brought to a halt at the sight of the plush bunny. The surge of emotions crashed through her body and her expression grew stale and flat. Walking over, she reached her hand out. "Here, I'll take it," she spoke silently.

[Bradley Young]

Brad's hands resisted for just a moment when Beth looked to relieve him of the plush bunny. Reluctanlty, he released his hold upon it and lifted his eyes to look at his wife. The helpless hurt that she had seen the day it happened was there in his gaze, clear as day and just as strong as it'd been all those months ago. He swallowed again before dropping his head, hands coming to rest on his knees. They never talked about it anymore. It's like they were trying to run from what happened, run from the loss. Is that what they were doing? Hoping that by moving across the country they could just forget their previous life?

With a sniff and a clear of his throat, Brad snapped back to the present. "So, uh, what're we doing for dinner?" He asked, slowly pushing off the floor to get to his feet, a short wince briefly flashing across his features. It'd been a long day, his still recovering body was beginning to protest. "I'll cook since you did all the driving." Because it was better than sitting and stewing in his own misery, Brad decided the distraction of an early dinner would suit them. It didn't even matter that there was precious little food in the house. They'd arrived a couple days before their belongings and had spent the day running around Kalispell running errands and generally trying to get a feel for their new, old hometown. "We could do like the locals and run to the market and get some pickled pigs feet." He said, adding in a terrible Southern accent for emphasis.

[Beth Young]

The second the plush toy was handed over, Beth put it into the box and quickly closed the lid. For a moment, she simply stood there, staring at him, wondering if she should have done something else, but somehow, coddling him didn't seem like the right thing to do. Instead, she moved towards the door, opened it and quickly placed the box on the outside. She then closed the door and leaned against it with a slight huff. No, this surely wasn't going to be easy. Though, she'd already known that.

Her green eyes moved back towards her husband and she offered him a soft smile. "You're going to cook?" she asked, her eyebrow quirking. Well, she wasn't one to argue, although it did amuse her somewhat. She spent so much time baking and cooking, it was easy to forget that her husband was more than capable of doing so himself. Moving forward, Beth passed him. Her hand brushed over his back as she did. "Very sexy," she mused. She moved to grab the box with the kitchen appliances then.

[Bradley Young]

The quip had come at a cost. Every time Brad felt the same old emotions that had threatened to destroy more than just him, he responded with sarcastic and sometimes caustic humor. Always known for often never taking things seriously, Brad had taken this trait to an entirely different level in the wake of his accident. It was how he coped. How he managed to get by. He smiled a little as he felt the slender hand brush across him. The one thing that hadn't changed was the young woman who still shared his life, for better or worse.

"I know." He paused on his way to the kitchen to lean down and dig around in another box. "It's a frightening to even consider such a harrowing and dangerous experience." Finding what he was looking for as he spoke, Brad pulled the band of a pair of work goggles over his head and straightened them on his face before standing to face his wife. A power drill in one hand, a hacksaw in the other. "I'm thinking something Italian."

[Beth Young]

Immediately, Beth frowned at the sight. Her green eyes moved over the goggles to the power drill, to the hacksaw and finally, back to his eyes. She shouldn't have been surprised. And really, as comical as the sight was, the brunette couldn't help but to roll her eyes. "Go sit your ass down in the couch," she ordered before swatting him out of the kitchen.

Reaching for her phone, Beth quickly found the number to one of the take away places she'd noted down. "I'm ordering in." And no, that wasn't a question. Before he could even complain, Beth already lifted the phone to her ear and started strolling about the kitchen while she waited for someone to pick up on the other end. Pizza sounded fine, right? Not all that messy and overly simple. Perfect.

[Bradley Young]

Brad stood for a moment even after he was scolded and looked to Beth with an expression of mock hurt and disappointment. "Aww." He said, taking a few steps toward the kitchen before the look on his wife's face was more than enough to cause his broad shoulders to slump. "You know, sometimes I wonder why I married such a frigid ice queen." He commented with a fake reluctant sigh as the drill and hacksaw found their way back into the box. The goggles, however, remained on his face.

Slowly Brad crept into the kitchen where Beth was calling in the pizza order. Being careful to remain just out of view, Brad stepped up behind the young woman and reached a hand out. "Mama said these are my magic shoes. She said they'd take me anywhere." He said with a bad impression of Forrest Gump. As the words tumbled playfully from his lips, Brad lightly touched Beth's ear with his extended index finger and began toying lightly with it. "'Course mama used to yell at me and beat me with a rubber hose."

[Beth Young]

Once again, the words were met with a roll of the brunette's eyes. But even she couldn't quite keep the smile from her face as she shook her head. "No, you don't," she replied simply. At least that was something the brunette had a lot of confidence in. "Besides, who else would want to put up with you?" She offered that with something of a playful smirk tugging at the corners of her lips.

However, when she felt him step up behind her, she tried swatting him away, even now incapable of keep the laughter from bubbling up. Pressing the flat of her palm against his chest, she attempted to keep him away as the voice on the other end of the line finally picked up. "Hello!" she chirped. "I would like to--" stopping herself as the second line was offered from her husband, Beth tried quelling the snorting laughter before ducking under his arm. "Sorry about that."

[Bradley Young]

The smirk that came from his hand being batted away was nothing less than one of pure satisfaction. One of his favorite things to do was mess with her while she was on the phone, especially when she was talking to someone in a professional capacity. She slipped beneath his arm and went to put distance between the two of them, but he remained undeterred. He turned as she moved by, his hand catching the back of her hair where his fingers curled faintly, running through the brunette locks as she stepped away.

"You know my friend Jenny?" He continued as he, yes, went to trail along behind Beth even as she spoke into her phone. "She was real pretty. She liked to touch me on my special parts and it made me feel tingly." The bad impression didn't last, though, once he'd finally caught up to the much smaller, young woman. His hands went to find her waist and he pulled her back to him, head dipping so he could lightly kiss the back of her neck.

[Beth Young]

She tried her best to both ignore the impressions and keep the laughter from erupting from between her lips. For someone who had such a hard time keeping their real feelings away from her face, she must have looked absolutely comical where she strode, trying to keep her expression as straight as she possible could. "Ah yes, I'm here," she replied into the phone, her hand once again swatting at the taller form lingering behind her. "I would like to order one of your pizzas. Yes. Yes. Young. Hm? One second."

She didn't even have the time to turn around to ask which pizza Brad wanted before she felt his hands around her waist and the kiss on the back of her neck, which caused a slight shiver to run down her spine. Covering the phone with her hand, she turned her head to look at him. Her eyes narrowed slightly, but it was obvious she was far from annoyed or angered. She very rarely was. "Do you want to starve?" she asked, her voice nothing more than a hushed whisper.

[Bradley Young]

For a brief moment it felt as if not everything had changed. The two of them were still very much in love which shone through in times like these. Her petite, slender body seemed to melt into his as it always had. He wasn't so concerned about the pizza at this point as he'd found himself lost in the intoxicating presence of his wife. She had been his rock throughout everything, standing by him even when he'd made mistake after mistake.

"Fine." He huffed with mock disappointment as he smiled against the skin of her neck. His arms wrapped fully around her, holding her close as he fell silent for the moment to let her finish the business she had on the phone. At least for all of seven or eight seconds. Without missing a beat, Brad buried his face in the crook of her neck and nipped lightly at the sensitive skin. Yes, he knew exactly what he was doing and he had absolutely no regrets.