Excellent, then, deb. I was unsure of the exact time frame.

Connie is the font of evil, and we are pleased.

Deb, I'm breathless. I'm going to abuse the husband until he buys your books for me (or the library and then brings them home to me, I don't care) because this piecemeal stuff is going to kill me. I very much like your style.

I have a couple of questions. When was spiderman introduced? The spidey-sense felt anachronistic, but that's probably just me.

also:

it was very like Richard to send me out on a killing errand and not bother to leave a light on for me.

Is she saying me because she wouldn't expect Richard to leave a light on for Rupert? He was part of the errand, after all.

Wow, that feeling of foreboding at the end is just amazing.

Plei, you're killing me. Just excellent. Really damn hot. And perfectly in character. Fred needs to be drunk and/or baked more.

Plei, you could get me to like Faith. I'm holding out hope that sometime in the future I'll be able to change my opinion of her.

Deena, I doubt he ever even thinks of Rupert. That "stupid weak boy" is pretty much of a giveaway. It's weird; I hadn't realised until I was writing that bit that Richard actively resents his son. It does explain why he stayed unaware of the affair, though, doesn't it? He avoids the Boy Who Will Be Watcher as much as possible.

BTW, I wasn't even aware that "spider-sense" had anything to do with Sipderman; not being a comics-chick, I've never read them. I was using it purely in the biological sense, that a spider knows when their space is being invaded, and the approximate size of said invader, by the tremble of the web under their legs.

Plei! THERE HAD BETTER DAMNED WELL BE A NEXT TIME!

Plei, LOVE the last line!

I was reminded of systems theory and tightly coupled systems being more prone to wind up, get all unstable, and explode, which is pretty much what I did, knocking the bottle off the bed in the process.

So VERY Fred!

Also, hotter than the SUN.

Let's see if Plei can get me to change my opinion of Fred.

BTW, I wasn't even aware that "spider-sense" had anything to do with Sipderman;

Huh. But all of us read it that way...

Thing is, deb, everyone else will automatically equate 'spider-sense' with Spiderman. And it might throw people out of the story.

Yeah, it caught at the corner of my conscious brain, and I couldn't help wondering about it.