Sunday Snippet: Finding Calm

The first week of June is in the books and I got a big chunk of my garage cleaned out, which makes me very happy.

Work projects are moving along and I'm hoping to line up another project or two in the near future. I love a full calendar!

I had a decent week of television even with the great garage cleanout. I'm not up to my regular schedule yet and I'm actually okay with that.

I finished up the second half of Silent Witness and actually liked the kind of twisty ending it had. Lots of red herrings in this episode.

Started a watch of Death in Paradise. I've never seen this series from the actual beginning and I'm excited to dive in.

Caught another episode of Only Murders in the Building and I loved having some Mabel backstory. The fact she loved The X-Files as a kid makes me so happy.

Continued my rewatch of Battlestar Galactica. "Resistance" is such a great episode … with the exception of introducing a character I absolutely disliked with intense passion.

Watched an episode of Classic Rugrats. The two segments were ones I had forgotten and I'm always happy to watch those.

That's pretty much it for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Finding Calm, a novella that brings a couple together after a rough journey apart.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Hank and Sunny have danced around finding happiness together so many times. Sunny botches it and learns a hard lesson at the hands of a crazed kidnapper. She finally wants to meet Hank on equal footing but the timing never seems right. Surely her cosmic bad luck has to take an upswing sooner or later.

And a sneaky peek…

Sunny flipped down through the pages, skimming the information and got very angry. "Apparently I have almost perfect genes and they want to splice them with different matches to see if a superior human can be made." The sinister reason made bile rise in her throat and she covered her mouth to keep it from escaping.

No way would she allow the insane enemy to get their hands on anything that could help them turn the tide in their favor. Sickened, she slowly and quietly made her way out of the room and edged along the corridor wall toward the doors marked Laboratory. The journey took longer than she wanted, but it hurt to move. More than she'd ever admit to anyone.

She eased the lab door open and found the area empty and eerily silent. A small row of ambient lights cast just enough brightness for her to find her way around. She discovered cloning notes, harvesting charts, and finally, ovaries, lots of samples. One with her name on the label. She destroyed hers with a test tube clamp and, for good measure, took out all the others also. The noise set off an alarm and she had to get out, crunching over broken glass in her bare feet to make her exit. Once outside the lab, she grabbed an extinguisher, the only thing close to a weapon she could find and fought her way out of the building.

Stumbling halfway to the empty field behind the makeshift hospital, she crawled, skinning up her knees and ravaging her hands. She made it to the edge and found cover in the tall brush but snagged her arms in the process. Bruised and bleeding, she stopped to rest, and pray the stitch in her side didn't mean her wound had opened up again. A hand grabbed her from behind and she bit down hard and spun around, ready to take on her attacker.

"Sunny, calm down. It's Josh. I can get you out of here. Come on."

She didn't hesitate. She looped her arm around his neck and let him pick her up. He melted back into the shadows and managed to avoid the flood lights streaming in intervals all over the back field. Once they made it to the far edge, he sat her down and caught his breath.

Sunny fought the wave of nausea the pain from her injuries brought. "Thanks, Josh. Now what?" If they didn't move soon, they'd be caught.

And she would not go back to that creeptastic hospital—at least not alive.

Josh's gaze scanned the surrounding area. "I found a ship that can get us off the planet … but I can't fly." He blew out a frustrated breath. "And the crew doesn't have a captain, which means they're arguing with each other to figure out what to do next."

Sunny closed her eyes, relief filling her. "No worries. I'm a pilot. I can fly pretty much anything." As long as she stayed conscious anyway.

Josh crouched down. "Come on then." He turned and put his back to her. "Up you go."

Sunny draped her arms over his shoulders and wrapped her thighs around his waist. Her body ached and throbbed with pain but with escape imminent she'd endure for as long as she had to.

Sunny has some issues that need to be worked through and Josh ends up being part of those issues because he's not Hank.

 

That's it for this week. Catch everyone on the flipside.

ML Skye