Still Star-Crossed Six-Year Anniversary | Favorite Character - Rosaline Capulet

WELP, IT’S BEEN A YEAR

Are you tired of trying to look on the bright side, and to keep faith?  Cause I sure am.  But also – the alternative is far less helpful in making the changes that we need.  So: to tiny steps in the right direction, to voting and all the million other things we do to bend the long arc of history.

8 previous years’ birthday comics on tumblr and AO3. 

(I guess I also have it in booklet format, too.)

Synopsis: Rick and Michonne spend time with their children.

Words: 2.3k

AO3

"I think about that time and I just wanna go back." - Rick to Michonne

SOME GREAT PARALLELS IN TOWL 1X06

Bringing each other back: Michonne to Carl in twd 4x16 then Rick to Beale in towl 1x06

Mich thinking rick was dead: twd 7x12 then towl 1x06

THE MOST AMAZING ONE - Reuniting with your family: twd 1x01 and towl 1x06

THE ONES WHO LIVE ↳ Season 1 ↳ Episode 6 ↳  The Last Time

Vultures are holy creatures.

Tending the dead.

Bowing low.

Bared head.

Whispers to cold flesh,

“Your old name is not your king.

I rename you ‘Everything.’”

fun fact!

Vultures are also responsible for keeping diseases at bay.

Vulture stomach acid is so powerful that it can kill anthrax and many other deadly diseases.

So when they consume the carcass of a creature that has died of disease, they actually destroy the disease within it too!

So yes vultures are 100% holy creatures because they not only eat the dead, but protect the living from death.

Jesus fuck this makes me so mad. I am just gonna copy paste my story because my hands are shaking too much to type it out.

Tldr vaccinate your fucking kids you assholes, this can and does kill people.

When I was a baby, I was allergic to the pertussis component of the TDaP vaccine. I'm not 100% sure how serious my reaction was - my mother just says I turned bright red and screamed for 3 days straight afterwards. When she told my pediatrician, the pediatrician said it was safe to not vaccinate against pertussis, as herd immunity would protect me. So the rest of my vaccines were tetanus and diphtheria only.

Fast forward to when I'm 8 years old. My family and I are traveling up to a family vacation spot like we did pretty much every weekend when I was a kid. We stop at a McDonald's. I play with the other kids in the little play area. My mom remembers a couple of them being sick, but I don't think I was paying attention. We eat, pile back into the car, and off we go.

Maybe a week later I start feeling sick. It looks like a cold, but I keep getting worse instead of better. My mild cough turns into horrible coughing fits, where I cough until there's no air left in my body ... it feels like I'm suffocating (because I am) until some instinct kicks in and my lungs reinflate with a horrible sucking gasping sound. I start coughing up blood and throwing up from my coughing fits.

My mom is terrified and my doctor (eventually a small team of doctors) is baffled. Remember, this was 1994, when the anti-vaccination movement was still pretty new. No one on my team had ever seen whooping cough before; it was just something you read about in a textbook, not something anyone actually *gets* these days.

They treated me for pneumonia, for bronchitis, for asthma and croup and I don't know how many other things. I just remember lots of pills and syrups and inhalers and a nebulizer that tasted like ghosts.

Finally, my mom saw a segment on the local news about an outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) in the area where we had been travelling. The epicenter of the outbreak was a charter school that had a high population of "persona exemption" unvaccinated kids. She looked up pertussis in one of her family medicine books (which she'd been reading like a fiend since I got sick) and the symptoms fit me perfectly.

The doctors didn't believe her at first. They thought she was being overdramatic and overprotective. It took her ages to convince them to test me. Lo and behold, it's whooping cough! They start giving me the proper treatment, and I s.l.o.w.l.y start to get better.

Most of my memories of that summer are pretty dim. I remember waking up in the mornings covered in blood that I'd coughed up in my sleep; I had to sleep with towels covering the bed because I kept ruining my sheets and blankets. I remember my mom sleeping next to me on the floor so she could wake up and give me medicine when I woke up coughing. That medicine tasted like death (I used to cry and scream when they'd try to give it to me), so she'd mix it with a glass of fruity sparkling water to get me to drink it. I didn't know how to swallow pills, so she would crush them up and mix them with these orange sherbet Flintstone's push-up ice cream pop things. (I still can't eat sherbet without throwing up.) I remember her holding me, rocking me as I cried because I was in so much pain from coughing. Each fit was agonizing, and I would cry because I knew another one would always come and I was helpless to stop it. I remember being rushed to the pharmacy, literally being picked up and carried into the car and then out again to the counter, for an emergency dose of some medication or another, I think it was an injection. It was loud and scary and chaotic and I didn't fully understand what was going on, just that everyone around me was terrified.

Most of all, I remember being really angry that the Lion King came out that summer, and I was too sick to go see it. Clearly I had priorities.

What I don't remember, because no one told me at the time, was just how serious this all really was. My parents and doctors were very reassuring, and I was too young to really understand the severity of the disease. My mom didn't tell me this until years later, but they had wanted to put me in the hospital in case I started to ... well, her exact words were, "They wanted me to put you in the hospital, but I said no because I wanted you to die at home."

I was incredibly sick for months, continuing to throw up and cough up blood for about a year after I first got sick. (I'd start coughing if I laughed too hard, so you can imagine my asshole siblings got a kick out of taking advantage of that.)

The long and short of it is, I lived. If I'd been even a little bit younger, or if my mom hadn't caught that news segment, or if my doctors had waited just a little longer to start proper treatment... who knows.

But I lived, and dammit, I'm angry.

This should not have happened to me. This shouldn't happen to *anyone*. Diseases like whooping cough, measles, rubella, polio... they're all absolutely *terrifying*. They can kill, they can maim, they can leave a person permanently disabled or brain-damaged.

Every time I hear someone say they're not vaccinating due to a risk of autism (or whatever the big scary syndrome is that week), I want to either start screaming or punch somebody. It takes everything in me to remain calm and rational and explain that (1) those are quite simply not things that happen as a result of vaccinating and (2) even if they were, do you really prefer a dead child over an autistic one? Vaccines are some of the most highly tested, carefully monitored substances in the medical world. They go through years or decades of trials and are constantly being reevaluated for safety and efficacy. The current recommended vaccine schedule wasn't just designed on a whim - it's been developed over the course of 50 years by three separate, independent medical organizations (ACIP, AAP, and AAFP, if you're interested) that are NOT in fact paid by Big Pharma or the government to trick you into things you don't need. Vaccines aren't some vast conspiracy to make the pharmaceutical companies millions, since they actually lose money on each vaccine they produce. (If they cared only about the bottom line, they'd let you get sick and sell you the medicine to make you better. There's more profit in disease than prevention.) Your doctor isn't giving your child shots because it's fun; they're doing it to spare your child from needless suffering.

There has not been one single case of a vaccination causing autism. NOT ONE. Every study, every exam, every peer-reviewed paper on the subject comes to the same conclusion: vaccines don't cause autism, they save lives.

The reason medical science even developed these vaccines in the first place was because the diseases can be *devastating*. Polio can cause permanent paralysis and deformities in the hips and legs. Measles can cause nerve damage which may become permanent, as well as permanent brain damage or death from encephalitis and meningitis. Rubella can cause fatal encephalitis and internal bleeding. Mumps can leave you deaf, infertile, and brain damaged.

These aren't colds. They're not even the flu. They're fatal, debilitating, AND UTTERLY PREVENTABLE.

WHY WHY WHY WOULD YOU EVEN RISK THE POSSIBILITY OF YOUR CHILD GETTING THESE DISEASES?! NOTHING IS WORTH THIS RISK. NOTHING.

This brings me to herd immunity. What the doctors told my parents was true - in a vaccinated community, I would have been totally fine. Vaccines work when everyone or nearly everyone has them. Whooping cough can't gain a foothold in a community if 99% of the people there are protected form it. One protected person gets exposed, and it goes nowhere. One unprotected person gets exposed and they get sick, but the protected people around them don't. It's like hitting a brick wall. The disease doesn't infect the community. The problem comes about when too much of the community goes unvaccinated, and "too much" varies by disease. For measles, a whopping 90-95% of people need to be vaccinated in order to protect the entire population. Yet there are schools out there where 80% of the children are NOT vaccinated. And that puts *everyone* at risk.

There will always be a segment of the population that cannot be vaccinated. It consists of people like me, who are allergic to a vaccine; young children, who may be too young to vaccinate or who haven't had all their doses and are still vulnerable; the elderly, whose immune systems are weaker and whose immunity may have worn off; and those with weakened immune systems, who are more susceptible to disease and cannot be vaccinated without risking contracting the disease.

Whenever a parent chooses not to vaccinate, they are not only putting their own child at risk - they are putting at risk everybody around them who is vulnerable. They are saying that the risk of autism (or, again, whatever the current unfounded fear is) is scarier to them than the risk of letting their child and possibly dozens of others get sick and maybe die. They are saying that they don't care if I, or someone like me, lives or dies.

I don't want to die. I don't want my child to die, or for her to watch a friend die of an illness that should have disappeared when my own parents were babies. I don't want that sweet old man down the street, who blows the pine needles out of my driveway every month because he thinks his leafblower is the most awesome invention ever, to die. I don't want someone whose immune system is shot due to cancer or illness or age or medication OR ANYTHING AT ALL to die just because some asshole ignorant fucknugget thinks 3 minutes on google is better than a medical degree.

Fucking vaccinate.

Adding onto this:

If you are An Adult™️ and you were fully vaccinated in childhood as is the thing responsible parents do?

Yeah, parts of your childhood vaccines may have faded in efficacy or even worn off completely. Because biology is weird like that. When I got vaccine titers done before starting my current job (I couldn’t find my old vaccine paperwork), I found out that the mumps portion of my MMR vaccine was no longer effective! Because I work for a large healthcare nonprofit, it was no big deal for one of the immunization people to bring me a mumps booster at work, and the problem was solved.

But yeah, if you have the opportunity to get vaccine titers done, I recommend doing it. Getting a booster is a million times better than getting a preventable disease.

And since the story here is about pertussis: the pertussis vaccine in particular very commonly wears off in adulthood. If you haven’t gotten a pertussis vaccine since you were a kid and you’re older than about 25 you should really look into it (or if you’re older and your adult dose was >20 years ago). Several pertussis outbreaks have been caused a few unvaccinated kids + a bunch of adults who didn’t know theirs had worn off.

I had a child die in my arms of pertussis, one time.

I don't want that ever happening to anybody again if possible.

Check your own vaccination history. And are there children around? Do whatever you can to make them safe.

Do the right thing vaccinate your children and check on your titers.

𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

𝐁𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐱𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐬𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫…

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟐𝟑𝟖𝟖

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: 𝐒𝐦𝐮𝐭! 𝐎𝐫𝐚𝐥 (𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠), 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐱𝐱𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐱. 𝐒𝐨𝐟𝐭!𝐃𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲. 𝟏𝟖+ 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐊 𝐘𝐎𝐔.

𝐀/𝐍: 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐲 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠, 𝐈 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝟏𝟖𝐭𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎.

𝐃𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 @whimsicalrogers

𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 @maysdigitalarts

𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐧 <𝟑

𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠 @musingsinmoonlightlibrary 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬.

Home for the Holidays

Pairing: Librarian! Bucky Barnes x black nerd reader

Rating: Mature, 18+ only. Minors, ageless, blank, & non-updated blogs will be blocked immediately.

Word count: 1,964 words

Plot: Bucky introduces his girlfriend to his entire family for the holidays. Part of the Dream Boy AU.

Warnings: Mostly holiday fluff, brief mention of WWIi and death, kissing, alcohol consumption, smoking, brief discussion of disability, Bucky being sweet.

Notes: I briefly mention Hanukkah traditions, if there’s something missing or incorrect, let me know! Bucky isn’t wearing his metal arm in this story.

Both Bucky and the reader are bisexual. There’s a minor age gap, Bucky is 41 and the reader is in her 30s. Bucky uses a range of nicknames (doll, sweetheart and honey).

“Ready, doll?” Bucky’s voice drifted down the hall.

“Almost!” You were meeting Bucky’s entire family and wanted to make a good impression. You wore a charcoal circle dress with a sparkling silver plaid print. Festive, but not over the top.

You pinned a small silver brooch to your oversized collar and slipped into low heels.  You fluffed your hair before meeting Bucky in the living room.

“How do I look?” you asked with a grin, spinning around.

Bucky looked at you from your small breakfast table. A loving grin spread on his face as he closed the gap between you.

“You look tops, doll. Like a million bucks.” He kissed the top of your head, placing an arm around you.

Love the nostalgia. Reminds me of being a kid at the family holiday gatherings.

𝐇𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝

𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭!𝐁𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: 𝐁𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐲 𝐇𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐚 𝐚 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐠𝐨. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐦, 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐦… 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮…

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟑𝟐𝟕𝟖

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐲 𝐠𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬. 𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚/𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐬𝐞𝐱 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 (𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠), 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐯 𝐬𝐞𝐱. 𝐃𝐮𝐛-𝐜𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲. 𝟏𝟖+ 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐊 𝐘𝐎𝐔!

𝐀/𝐍: 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 (𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭) 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧, 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞! 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭! 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐮𝐲𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐢𝐭, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤!

𝐓𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 @suzs-fic-library 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 @flordeamatista 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐠𝐞!

Has anyone else noticed that as a society, we’re shamed for wanting to sleep? Sleeping in is bad, naps are only okay if they’re 20 minutes, you cant be tired unless you’re a <insert career/lifestyle choice here>, so on and so forth.

I mean, I think we all need to spread our blankets out, cuddle a pillow, and go to sleep. Everyone needs more of it, fuck this “it’s not productive” nonsense. It’s okay to sleep, it’s okay to want to sleep. You’re not lazy because of it.

Sprina fans spring for a Times Square billboard for their favorite TV couple in honor of General Hospital’s 60th anniversary.

Credit: @odyssey_the

BINGO!

I did it! I finished my bingo card from @sarahbuckybingo.

I here present to you for the "Last Kiss" prompt:

September Song

A tight 1,000 words, so I'll put it all here under the cut. You can also read it on A03.

It had been a long time coming. Sea levels were rising, it didn’t take a scientist to see that. Folks had been raising their houses on stilts for decades. The levees got taller. Pumps worked day and night. But somethings can’t be stopped. The ocean is one of those things.

Knowing all this, Sarah had been preparing herself for the inevitable. One day, she’d have to leave her family’s home for good.

Today was that day.

Remember when Paolo said he caught real feelings for Brandy during filming, and he's still looking at her like this and why are they whispering!? Everything is so much! 😍

Thanks @tllgrrl for challenging me to write a drabble for Bucky’s birthday! 

Here it is:

“Dad! Dad! Wake up!”

Bucky groans and tries to bury his head further into the pillow, to snuggle closer to Sarah, but she’s not there beside him. Reluctantly, he pops his head up, and what he sees makes him grin from ear to ear.

If he’s being honest with himself, he didn’t expect anyone to remember. Hell, he only remembered last night before bed, so many years spent not celebrating his birthday that the date seems inconsequential now.

But Sarah and AJ and Cass are standing at the foot of the bed, holding a tray of breakfast with a little cupcake in the corner, smiling brilliantly at him.

“Happy birthday to you-” Sarah starts, and then the boys join in, emphasizing the Da-ad into two syllables to make it fit with the song as Sarah’s beautiful, melodic voice sings Bu-cky, then she holds the tray down just far enough that he can blow out the candle, which earns him a round of cheering from the boys.

“You remembered,” he says quietly.

Sarah smiles at him. “Of course we remembered,” she says. “Eat your breakfast in bed. Wilson family tradition.”

It’s the first time since 1943 that he’s celebrated with family.