Coming Clean (for CaptainL)

[Pegasus]

The horses saw Molly coming as they stomped their toes and one reached out their face for Molly to pet their soft nose. Jonathan caught up with her as he had to pant for breath and waved his hand at his surrogate daughter. He patted one of the horses as they turned their attention to him as he sighed happily.

“Honestly reminds me of Shelby back home. After you guys left, she grew up quite a bit and we had to start keeping her outside in a homemade stable Sara and Kennedy helped build for us. She’s a full doe now,” Jonathan explained to the bunny girl. “I can’t imagine what it will be like when she has kids eventually.”

Jonathan saw the empty troughs and went to get some bags of pellets from the storage closet of tools. He started ripping open the top of the bag and started depositing in some chews for the horses to chow down on. Molly would be charged with distracting the horses so they couldn’t cause a ruckus. He looked over at Molly and cleared his throat.

“Hey kid, uh….you know back when you sparred Lyra and we acted all freaky….you know that wasn’t us, right? I know it’s weird to talk about and I vaguely remember it myself. I don’t know what’s going on. I keep hanging around these….characters. Lyra nearly injured another wrestler at another show and Marzia….she’s gotten a lot more confident, but very aggressive, but she’s sorta back on our side. I’m not sure what sense to make of it,” Jonathan started chatting with the younger blonde.

William nodded towards Brianna with an encouraging smile as they threw the fresh corn cobs into a basket and Will picked it up heading for the barn in order to store them for pick up later. He then looked over at the chicken coop for the next task.

“Time to fetch the eggs. These chickens can lay some fresh good yolks,” William stated.

[CaptainL]

Molly giggled as she felt the horse's warm breath warm the palm of her hand, her fingers tickling across its muzzle. She leaned in a little closer, whispering softly to the creature. While Molly had grown up in the city, she did have family who lived in the countryside, and she was always drawn to the animals whenever she visited. Now, here with Jonathan, she couldn't help but feel warm memories come bubbling up to the surface of all the times she had spent in the barn, hanging around the horses.

Lost in thought, Molly had lost track of time - and when Jonathan caught up to her, she at first let out a yelp as she jumped up, taken by surprise. Still, she turned back around to face Jonathan with a giggle. "Ah...sorry about that, Jonathan! I got distracted..." She bit her lip at the thought - if she had gotten side-tracked as soon as she was given a task to do, she probably wasn't off to the best start. Fortunately, Jonathan didn't seem offended.

In fact, as he started talking about his pet deer, Molly smiled a little wider. This, too, brought up memories - memories of visiting Jonathan, Brianna, and their family in the past. And now that they had made the jump to LAW, once again she could feel like a part of it all. "I'm so glad she's doing well! Man, the last time I saw her she was just a baby...but I guess she won't fit in the house any more." Molly leaned closer to Jonathan as he went on, and she took in a gasp at the news. "She's gonna be a mom-!? You're gonna get baby deer? Oh my god, you HAVE to send pictures!" she chirped excitedly.

Soon, she went about to work, following Jonathan's directions and listening closely to whatever he had to say. When she was told to distract the horses, she giggled, patting another one. "I can't complain about that," she said. But when Jonathan went on to describe what had come over Lyra in their spar, and how more and more of their friends seemed to be growing more distant, darker, and unfamiliar, it cast a shadow over Molly's mood. "Oh..." The color drained from her face, and she bit her lip nervously. As she thought about it more, her fingers dropped away from the horse she was patting.

Molly had been around Jonathan long enough to become quite familiar with him, his family, and his friends. But she also knew what he struggled with - the darker urges that had always plagued him, that he had confided in her about. It had been a while since they'd last spoken of such things, and she had thought that they'd gotten better. But perhaps things weren't as simple as they had hoped - and if this had to do with what Molly thought it had to do with, that was even more worrisome. "Um...you don't think it's..?" She didn't even want to speak the possibility - but no doubt Jonathan already knew exactly what she meant.

Things were going more peacefully over with William and Brianna - but even then, the bespectacled girl was finding it hard to keep up with a pace she was unused to, especially having to work out in the sun. She yawned and stretched, wiping some sweat off her brow as they finally set the last few cobs in the basket. "Whew...that's harder work than I was thinking it would be," she muttered, before stopping to wipe her glasses off on her shirt. Fortunately, the next chore on the agenda seemed easy enough, and when she set her glasses back on, she stepped toward William with a smile.

"All right, I can handle that," she said, walking into the chicken coop. "Afterward, maybe we can cook some up for lunch."

[Pegasus]

Jonathan shook his head at Molly and shrugged his shoulders. His darker half was definitely inside him influencing affairs left and right. However, he would rather wait to deal with these problems when he gets back to Japan or even WFPW. Right now, they were expected to work and he didn’t want to worry Molly all of their stay. He wanted the blonde bunny to enjoy herself before she got back to Japan and have fun stories to tell Harmonia back at the Eagle’s Nest. He just went about feeding the horses as normal and invited Molly to try her hand at filling up the horses’ troughs hoping to bring things back to a normal conversation.

As for Will and Bri, they collected the eggs in metal buckets before Will went over seeing Sheila slip in mud occasionally trying to shovel manure out of the pen and she looked like she was gonna throw up. For all the extreme matches she has been in, it was a sight to see her so vulnerable. William jumped in the pen and helped Sheila back up as he grabbed her shovel.

“I think you’ve proven you can be a big help. I got something a little more easier and less disgusting for you. How about you help Brianna stock the eggs up in the fridge?” William asked his little buddy.

[CaptainL]

Even when Jonathan wanted to go back to business as usual, like nothing had happened, Molly couldn't help but worry. She knew there was something else going on, something deeper and darker than what Jonathan was letting on about. It made her bite her lip nervously, her fingers coiling tighter around the bag of feed she carried, and a chill ran along her spine. She couldn't go back to pretending nothing was wrong, when she knew all too well that something was amiss. No matter how much she tried to follow along with Jonathan in feeding the horses, she couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was going to happen. And even when she smiled at the sounds of the horses settling to their meal, that happiness soon passed. Molly couldn't stay happy - when she'd seen the first signs of danger, she wasn't going to forget it so soon.

At last, the burden grew too much to bear - Molly had to get this off her chest. Looking down, she let out a sigh, her shoulders slumping. The concerns here were too great to ignore. "Jonathan...I'm really sorry. I know you don't want to think about it, but...I'm worried. What's going to happen to Sarabeth? What if she's around when...when..." Molly gulped and shivered, afraid even to speak what was on her mind. "...when he shows up?"

Meanwhile, as the others set to gathering eggs, William glanced over to watch as Sheila, Meiyun, and Astrid shoveled out the pig pen - and for as much as she was used to playing rough and getting dirty, there were some tasks that Sheila found too daunting for her. As her foot slipped against a pile of manure, she dropped her shovel, wavering back and forth as her arms flapped in the air. "Whoah, whoah-!!" she cried, already biting her lip and going tense at the thought of falling face-first into the mess of the pigsty. Luckily for her, William was around just in time to grab her.

Breathing a sigh of relief, the Australian girl wiped some sweat off her brow. "Whew...now that was a close call," she said, looking back up at William. As soon as she met eyes with him, her smile grew wider. "Thanks a bunch for that, Will!" And when he gave her the opportunity to switch out and help in the kitchen, she nodded her head eagerly. "Oh, man, you're a life-saver! I felt about ready to pass out back there!"

Meiyun turned around just in time to see this, and she shot a disapproving glare. "HEY! That's cheating! This kind of work is great exercise, you know! And we're almost done, anyway!"

But Astrid chuckled, patting Meiyun on the shoulder as she scraped the last of her load of manure out of the way. "Don't worry. I think the two of us have this covered. You do have faith you can handle the task, right?"

As soon as she heard Astrid say that, Meiyun spun back around to face the Norsewoman. In an instant, her attitude did an about-face, as she grinned to Astrid, puffing her chest out and flexing a bicep. "Oh, yeah, I can! I'll rise to any challenge you put in front of me, just watch!"

Astrid smirked, nodding to Meiyun as she threw herself back into her work with more vigor than ever. "I had a feeling..." Working with Meiyun as much as she had, it didn't take long for her to pick up on what motivated her. She would do anything as long as she felt like she would be able to prove herself through it, if it would help train her, or both.

[Pegasus]

Jonathan really didn't want to do this now, but Molly was justified in having her own concerns especially when they were going to reunite William with his biological daughter once they got back in the groove. The Anomaly was definitely making waves in LAW and after Lyra's last match against Yukino Fuyumi where the winter idol was hopelessly outmatched and terrified of possibly having her career ended in that match, the crowd started growing more weary of Jonathan and what his true intentions were. His lighter side wanted to help train the next generation and his darker half wanted to corrupt them making them bend at his will. Definitely the old rivalry of light versus dark and he would have to deal with it eventually. Jonathan pondered Molly's question as he tapped his chin in thought and just smiled.

"I'll deal with it. Don't worry, Molly. I've supressed him before and I can make sure he is dealt with once and for all. Just don't let Harmonia and George try to shove you girls away from me. I understand it's dangerous, but I'll need you guys with me," Jonathan replied to the smaller and younger blonde.

Meanwhile, William had to chuckle as Astrid tried calming Meiyun down from her scolding of her roommate in order to just handle the work themselves and the Norwegian believed they were capable enough to finish the job. It seems upon realizing she was going to be a young mother, Astrid had settled into a motherly role quite fittingly. She always had good morals from what Will could figure out of her and always played by the rules when it came to matches even risking getting cheated out of a victory by a few nasty wrestlers back in LAW. Astrid would definitely be what Sarabeth needs in her life and someone to teach her the ropes better when it comes to wrestling. She even has a grandfather that can teach her a few things before he fully retires from his "past-his-prime" run on the independent circuit. William helped Sheila out of the pen and sent her off to Brianna so they could stock up the eggs in plastic cartons.

"Meiyun, listen to your mother and get those chores done,"William teasingly scolded as it was a joke aimed at both Meiyun's temper and Astrid's new motherly role.

[CaptainL]

Molly let out a sigh, turning her gaze down toward the ground. She didn't want to have to bring it up. She knew that they were here to enjoy themselves, to all get together and be friends again, just like old times. The last thing she wanted to do was to cast a dark cloud over it all, especially when Jonathan was so adamant about not wanting to go there. But from all Jonathan had confided in Molly about the true dark power of the Anomaly, the Englishwoman knew something like this was too dangerous to ignore. She couldn't let down her guard so easily when the Selection was out for blood.

Fortunately enough, Jonathan seemed to have hope that he could keep whatever darker urges lurked within him in check. Hearing his words, Molly looked up at him, a smile crossing her face, and she nodded her head. "Don't worry, Jon. You're one of the oldest friends I have here. I'd never leave you behind." She reached to take his hand, giving it a squeeze to remind him of her presence. If Jonathan thought the best way to defend himself against the Anomaly's influence was to take safety in numbers, she would be by his side the whole time, and she would stay there to remind him of who he was. At the same time, there was one thing he said that didn't quite sit right with her - why would Harmonia and George try to keep them away from him? Considering that the Anomaly didn't work alone, and that everyone he influenced seemed...different, it made her wonder how wise staying that close to him really was...

Nevertheless, Molly quickly shook herself back to reality, clearing her throat and standing back up straight. She'd come here to work, after all! "O-Oh, right-! We still need to work with the horses, don't we?"

Meanwhile, Meiyun heard William's teasing as she swept up the pen, and that was enough to make her take a pause, a blush coming to her cheeks. "She's not my-! Hey..!!" But she was quick to shake herself out, standing a little taller. She had to remind herself she had come here to prove she could overcome any challenge, and she couldn't let anything slow her down! Not even awkward thoughts! "I mean...that's right! I can't waste any time!!"

Meiyun threw herself back into her work with gusto, shoveling up everything she could and throwing it toward the gutters. As she did, Astrid stopped to think about what William had said, and she nodded her head to him. "I suppose I kind of am, huh?" She had always watched out for Meiyun and her fellow Young Lionesses. She wanted to help them achieve success, and she had encouraged them through whatever it took to prove it. She wanted to be there to lend a hand where she could and to answer any questions, but she wasn't afraid to be stern when she needed to get the point across and snap them back into discipline. And she had always been the first to stand up for her trainees when someone threatened them. She had all the traits one would have wanted from a mother - and the more she thought about it, the wider her smile grew. Maybe, if that was the case, she could be just the sort of person Sarabeth needed...

But for now, Astrid had grown lost in her thoughts - which meant she wasn't paying any attention to how, in all the furor Meiyun had whipped herself into, she was starting to tire herself out, panting and groaning with each rise and fall of her shovel; yet she kept working just as fast, no matter how much her brow sweat or her muscles trembled. She didn't even notice that she was starting to teeter as she worked herself harder, or that she was walking right toward a wet spot on the ground...

It was just then that Astrid's eyes went wide, and she called out to Meiyun. "Mei, wait, that's-!" But it was too late. Meiyun's foot slipped, and she let out a yelp as she fell back off her footing!

[Pegasus]

Winston was sleeping on the porch enjoying the cool breeze sweeping over the farm and awoke when Brianna and Sheila entered the ranch in order to stock up the eggs in the fridge. The Siberian Husky/German Shepard mix yawned and looked over the farm as Jewel was chewing on a tennis ball Jonathan gave her to keep her busy. His ears perked up hearing Astrid's voice and his attention was at the pig pen seeing Meiyun slip just moments away from crashing into the mud. Winston sprang into action running as fast as he could hopping the fence of the pig pen just in time for Meiyun to fall on his back. Winston dug his claws into the mud to get a good grip even as the lightweight's weight may have hunkered down on him and he would keep that position as Will help the Japanese girl get back to her feet. The dog sniffed around the pen and looked up at his owners with his cute eyes as William ruffled his fur.

"Such a good boy! Thank you for saving her!" William praised his dog as Winston gave him a lick just under the cheek and then he went over to Meiyun making sure she was fine.

Jewel saw Brianna in the kitchen and she licked her lips grabbing the slobbery tennis ball in her mouth to head inside the ranch seeking answers to what her mother and Sheila were up to.

[CaptainL]

As soon as Sheila entered the house, she watched Winston take off out the door, smiling and giving him a pat on the way by. Little did she know, he had more important things to attend to. As soon as he heard Astrid cry out, he was ready to spring into action, heading straight for the pig pen - he knew where there was trouble, and even if he didn't quite know what was going on, he had to be there regardless! Sure enough, he ran into the pen just as Meiyun lost her footing - and when she fell back, she wouldn't have far to go before she landed on Winston instead!

It took Meiyun a moment to realize what had happened; she blinked a few times as she caught her breath and looked around to get her bearings. But then, as William helped her up, she looked back at Winston, and a smile crossed her face. She kneeled down to his level, giving him a pat. "Atta boy, Winston! I owe it to you..." Then, after a pause, she looked back at William. "Oh, you too, William!" She nodded her head as he looked her over, before springing to her feet and flashing a confident grin and a thumbs-up. "Yeah, I'm good, thanks!"

Astrid chuckled, walking up behind the two of them. "He knows when to be in the right place at the right time, doesn't he?" she noted, before taking a glance around the pen. "Well, then, it looks like we're just about caught up here. Shall we check in on what Jon and Molly are up to?"

Meanwhile, Sheila sat by the fridge, sorting eggs into the cartons that Brianna passed her every time she got one of them filled up and put away. "These eggs look pretty good," she noted. "You think we'll be able to have some later?"

"Maybe with lunch," Brianna replied. "Depends on what William and Astrid have in mind there." It was then that she heard footsteps and the jingling of dog tags as Jewel entered the room, and she turned around to face the dog with a smile. "Hey, Jewel! Come here, girl!" Too caught up by the sight of her dog so eager to greet her, she pat her leg to beckon Jewel closer - not realizing that Sheila was right in the middle of her path, which left the Australian girl scrambling to clear the egg cartons out of the way for her, and sending a few skidding across the floor in the process. "OOPS-!!"

"...Okay, that was on me," Brianna groaned, letting out a sigh when she looked back to see what had happened. She supposed it could have been worse...

[Pegasus]

After a good morning of finishing some chores around the ranch, nothing of excitement happened besides Will and Astrid heading into town getting some extra groceries and one of the eggs hatching an actual baby chick that William decided to adopt into his family naming him Zack. Though, everyone had a bit of a chuckle when Zack preferred cuddling with Astrid than him. Speaking of the little chick, it fluttered it’s wings a little bit curling up in Astrid’s lap on the couch after being given a small bath in the sink to clean him up a bit.

“When he grows up, we’ll put him with the other chickens and they won’t know the difference,” William stated as he brought out a tray of hot chocolate for his guests setting it on the coffee table.

The living room was a warm scene as the sun began setting over the horizon. Molly, Meiyun, and Sheila all shared a blanket on the floor while Jonathan and Brianna cuddled up on the other couch. Jewel sat there near them chewing on her ruined tennis ball while Winston slept on his bed receiving a head pat from William as he snorted in his sleep. Will sat down near Astrid and put his arm around her shoulders snuggling her close.

“What’s it like knowing you have a daughter out there?” Jonathan asked.

“I will say that I never expected her to take the wrestling path. I’m glad there’s one thing in common between us,” William replied.

[CaptainL]

Now that everyone had returned from the fields after a day of hard work, it was time for a much-deserved rest. As the orange light of the setting sun filtered through the windows, the room was bathed in its glow, casting everyone seated around on the couches and the floor in warm tones. It was peaceful - Astrid let out a long sigh, letting herself sink lower into the cushions of the couch. Of course, with Zack hopping around her, she had plenty to command her attention. She sat up straighter with a chuckle, reaching to stroke the chick's head with a few fingers. "Yes, yes, I see you there..."

As William brought the hot chocolate into the room, everyone took a mug and began to sip from its contents. "Thanks again for putting this on for us, Will," Brianna said. "Gotta say, you're good at it."

"Hey, I gave him some pointers," Astrid noted with a wink. "He picked up on it after a while."

Molly let out a yawn, stretching as she leaned back against the couch. "Man, though...living on a farm is hard work."

"Pssht...that's just 'cuz you aren't used to it!" Sheila cut back, elbowing the Englishwoman in the ribs - and causing her to need to steady her cup, with some help from Meiyun. "Careful!" she warned, just before she too took a moment to stretch. "Yeah, working the restaurant has nothing on this. At least it's making me strong and ready for anything!" she added with a bright and hopeful grin.

As her husband took his place on the couch at her side, Astrid let herself drift a little closer - with an exhale, she let her weight sink in against him, and a smile crossed her face as her head leaned over to rest on his shoulder. "You'd make a great father, I'm sure," she continued. "I know you're concerned. But that just means you care, and you want to do right by her. That's the most important part. Besides..." She giggled a little as Winston let out another snore. "You've got plenty of practice, yeah?"

Sitting a little straighter, Astrid then let her hand rest gently on his thigh. "But really...never forget that we're in this together. Anything you don't think you can handle alone...I'll be there."