we can get away with this

[Jefferson Soul]

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Unsurprisingly, Jefferson had... well, he'd panicked when he'd discovered Addison gone that morning. Half the ranch house had been thrown apart, books and other small items and trinkets strewn this way in the mass chaos that resulted from the flustered Patriarch's brief insanity and panic; that is, until he made his way outside and continued the hysteria there. Looking this way and that, the big softie had forced even his right arm into motion, as painful as it was to continually move it around and apply such pressure to it. He could hardly lift anything with it, but what could be done with it was, and after some time the brute was doing more cussing and swearing out of sheer pain than he was searching anymore. Damn, he now knew for sure that children would not be the hell worth the trouble.

And then, when it got to be a bit too much, he went inside and retrieved the stray fabric he'd recently found with the intention of forming into a new sling. Jefferson had gone a few weeks without one; no, there was no particular need for the sling, as his arm was not healing anymore, but keeping the arm cooped up and out of the way meant less strain on the muscles that ached so badly within, and that was plenty enough for him. Sling in hand, he started working the fabric this way and that one-handed while his eye searched as he circled the ranch house--only to actually spot the little girl, almost sunbathing in the dead of winter. He stared at her from a distance a long while before releasing the worst of frustrated sighs. It was then that he realized that nothing had gotten him so worked up before he'd believed to have lost her one way or another--he hadn't reacted in such a way when he'd found out his identity, nor when Deuce had left him in charge of the pack without any expectations, nor when Iskata had been hurt or eventually killed one way or another. The innocent little pup was something he'd only known a few weeks, and yet she already possessed a great deal of his life and emotions. What would Geneva had said? Certainly she would have analyzed it. ...Why was he thinking of Geneva? Damn that girl and her... ways. "Addison, you almost gave me a goddamn heart attack," he groaned as he stumbled closer to her, only to plop down on the ground beside her laying body. She looked perfectly happy there. "What are you doing out here, anyway?"

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