Joel Waters-Baker

He's not really sure what possessed him.

Maybe it's that things have been relatively quiet recently, maybe it's that he and Spencer have lived in relative peace for nearly two years now. Maybe it's simply a celebration of their children both growing up, each of them exhibiting new and interesting traits as time goes on. It had been a bit of a surprise to discover Dane was half-siren -- I thought you knew! Erin had exclaimed when asked -- and Joel is just waiting for the day when Rose's powers reveal themselves, but even that hasn't really changed anything.

They have friends who are sirens, after all, friends who will be able to teach both their children how to control their powers. For now, Joel and Spencer just have to make sure they're very firm with Dane when he starts to demand something.

So maybe it's just that he's happy and wants to take up some kind of new hobby, but after the pool table is moved into a room near the back of the house, Joel realizes he doesn't actually know how to play pool. That's not a big deal, really, he knows everyone has to learn at some point, but he imagines most people don't buy themselves a pool table before learning.

It had been second hard, refinished, not as expensive as some of the others he's seen and he's glad of that, but as he looks at it, at the brightly coloured balls sitting in the square triangle -- the rack? -- he realizes he doesn't know a damn thing about this and Spencer is going to realize it, too, the first time he sees Joel play.

This is going to be embarrassing, he thinks, especially if Spencer turns out to be some sort of billiards master.

With Dane officially nine weeks old now, they've begun to bring him to work.

Charlotte is intensely relieved they're back to working full time, Joel can tell, because the moment they open the store this morning, she all but flies out the door and shouts that she won't be back until after they close, stopping only long enough to drop a quick kiss to Dane's forehead where he's sleeping in Joel's arms. Then she's gone, flapping a wave in Spencer's direction before she disappears, the door swinging shut behind her. It's a beautiful morning, though there's the faint hint of fall in the air, and Joel leaves the door closed for now instead of propping it open. As the day grows warmer he'll probably change his mind, but for now his most pressing concern is always making sure Dane is comfortable.

Looking down at their baby, he passes his hand gently over his dark, curly hair with a small smile. The pressure is enough to wake Dane, but he only looks around the store and waves his clenched fists a few times instead of bursting into tears. The colic has abated somewhat in the past few weeks, which has Joel quite relieved. Ever since he'd been born Joel has been looking forward to bringing him into the store while they work, one of the many benefits of being self-employed, but for a time he had worried it wouldn't be possible with Dane crying like he was.

It's better now. There are still little outbursts, but that's to be expected of any baby and he suspects any customer of theirs won't be too bothered by it, especially not when there's the apartment upstairs for them to retreat to if they need it. Charlotte had promised to leave the door unlocked and Joel always has an extra key somewhere if he needs it.

For now, though he heads toward Spencer and holds Dane out toward him. "Want me to wrap you up?" he asks. It's better for Spencer to have the baby today, as Joel has been feeling a little strange and lightheaded. It's the sort of feeling he's gotten before premonitions, but he hasn't actually seen anything yet. Chances are good that something is coming, though, and if nothing else, at least he can take heart in the fact that he's learned to identify the premonitions hours before they arrive rather than being completely caught off guard by their sudden and painful appearance.

Either way, he doesn't want to be the one holding Dane if it should surprise him anyway. The last time he'd had a premonition, he'd ended up on his knees from the pain and his primary concern now will always be their baby.

It's been over a year since their ruined attempt at a first date and Joel has been making plans for months now to celebrate. For a few weeks he had considered celebrating it on the same day, but he doesn't want to draw attention to the fact that it's been a year since Mark Fuller had kidnapped Spencer and dragged him up to the lighthouse to get revenge on Joel. He's in prison now, he'll be in prison for years to come, and his influence on their life together isn't something Joel wants to remember.

So instead of celebrating on the day, he makes plans for a week later. It's a Friday and he sends Spencer to work at the store with a kiss and a promise to call him later. He's made up an emergency repair in the bathroom and even made it look realistic by dumping a cup of water on the floor. (Something is leaking, he had insisted. I need to fix this because once the baby is here I won't have time to tear up the floor if I need to.)

Nothing is leaking. The bathroom is fine.

A year ago they had planned to meet on the boardwalk and watch a movie together and Mark had ruined that. So now Joel is bringing the boardwalk and the movie to their backyard. He's been very careful about his rentals, making sure to use the money he has in his own account so Spencer doesn't find out about any of it. There's a popcorn machine, a large, comfortable loveseat for the two of them to watch the movie, a projector and a giant screen all set up in the back yard. There's a cooler beside the loveseat with ice and beer -- because you can't get whiskey on the boardwalk -- and when Joel calls Spencer at the end of the day to make sure he's home on time, he's pretty satisfied with what he's put together.

"I took care of the leak," he promises. "But there's a bit of a clean up to do. You were planning on coming straight home, right? I could really use the help." And when Spencer promises he's on his way, Joel smiles before he ends the call.

A little over a year ago, someone ruined what was to be their first date. No one is going to interrupt this night. Joel isn't going to let them.

They're actually having a baby shower.

Joel is fairly certain his mother wouldn't have let them get away without something, even if he had insisted it be small and consist only of family, but for some reason he and Spencer have allowed themselves to be talked into a real shower. With invitations and food and little baby themed games to play. It's sort of strange, looking at it from his position, given that Erin is the one who's going to be giving birth and therefore is the one in the glowing pregnant woman position at this entire gathering.

She'd sweetly agreed to attend and had even whispered to Joel that she would take the brunt of the attention if she could manage it. He had whispered back that he knew they had picked her for a good reason.

But here they are. Several weeks have passed, the invitations have gone out and the decorations have been put up all over Joel and Spencer's living room. He had agreed to lift the enchantments on the house for the extent of the party, which means that anyone can open the door to their guests, they don't all have to be invited in by either Joel or Spencer, and it makes him a little nervous, but he understands the usefulness of others being able to answer the door. At least for today.

It's the decorations that keep getting to him. Sweet little ducks and zebras and monkeys, little jungle animals all over the walls. The bottle and rattle shaped cookies are pretty cute, but those aren't going to be left when the baby gets here. The animal theme, though, is fairly close to the nearly finished nursery Joel has been working on upstairs and he can't help but grin at the decorations.

Spencer, on the other hand, can't stop coming back round to the center of the living room to stare at the enormous sign that's been strung up above a table already stacked with gifts when a majority of their guests haven't even arrived yet. He'd been worried this morning that the day would overwhelm him, that knowing so many people would be coming into their home would be daunting when just a year ago, he'd never even once invited company over before meeting Joel; but so far, he feels calm, in spite of having had to watch Joel remove the enchantments that act as their security on the house. If someone wishes to crash a baby shower--which he doesn't imagine will happen anyway--then they'll have to face not only the wrath of a room that will be filled with witches and sirens, but the wrath of his mother- and sister-in-law, as well. That's not a sight Spencer thinks would be very pretty to witness.

Still, he feels light, perhaps a lingering effect of the having the chance to fall in love with Joel a second time during the spell that had taken over the town. Certainly, a great deal of his contentment has to do with the fact that he won't have to worry about losing his husband in a crowd but even beyond that, he's excited.

So much has changed in the course of the past year and weeks from now, they'll be holding their newborn in their arms for the very first time without another care in the world but for who they've been looking forward to meeting since they'd decided to take this journey together. There's something a bit strange about realizing that it's all coming to a head, that the waiting will soon be over and they'll be fathers at last, but when the first knock on the door comes, Spencer can't help but smile.

[Baby shower for Joel and Spencer's wee one. Erin, their surrogate, is present and is currently 31 weeks pregnant. If you're even a little friendly with either of them, Joel's mother sent an invitation, but the enchantments have been taken off the house for the event and so it's not an impossible party to crash. If anyone wants to crash a baby shower...]

Despite his mother's warnings, Joel has found himself on the beach once again, not far from where he sailed straight into a storm not three days earlier. She would be furious if she found him here, but this is where he feels most calm, where he's always felt most able to think clearly and lately it seems he's in desperate need of thinking clearly.

So much has happened over the past several days and while Joel is completely certain what he feels for Spencer is real and genuine, he's also truly conflicted for the first time in his life. He has duties. There are expectations that have been placed upon him and in less than two weeks time, he is expected to have picked a bride.

That's something Joel knows he simply cannot do.

Walking along the sand, he looks out into the water for a moment, then begins to shed his clothes. He doesn't care how it might look, if there's anyone nearby to see. His fingers fly over the buttons of his shirt and he drops it to the sand. A moment later his pants follow and he wades into the water in only his breeches, pushing through the waves and then diving under, cutting through with strong strokes. The cold water clears his head and he turns over, floating on his back for what feels like forever before he finally makes his way back to shore.

It's as he's dressing again, his pants once more fastened and his shirt half done up that his vision suddenly goes dark. It's like he's under water, he realizes. Shafts of sun cut through the gently rolling waves, but the deeper he sinks, the darker it gets. There's a flash of a shimmering tail, too big to be a fish, too small to be a shark. Dark laughter. A brief glimpse of a beautiful woman with long, black hair. She's smiling, but Joel doesn't much like what he sees in that smile.

She's saying something, her lips moving, but the voice that comes out isn't hers. It's Spencer's. It's the voice he remembers from that day on the beach and Joel stumbles in the sand, only realizing then that he's still standing on the beach. All of this, everything he's seeing, it isn't really happening.

He directs his attention back to the woman with the tail just in time to hear Spencer's voice whisper two words. A promise.

He doesn't know what any of it means, but as soon as it's begun, it's gone. Joel is left standing on the beach, his hands still on the buttons of his shirt, staring off into the waves as if they can give him some kind of answer.

[Joel's an adopted prince who doesn't know he's also a witch and has no idea he's just had a premonition while on the beach anywhere you want to find him. Enjoy? :D]

Joel knows this isn't a good day for Spencer. He knows it's not just his husband's birthday, he knows the other, much darker memories this day holds for Spencer and he's spent the better part of a month trying to figure out a way to both give his husband a special day and not disrespect the memory of what has happened to him.

He truly has no idea if he's done a good job or if he's really just made a mess of things.

But Spencer had told him that if he decided he didn't want anything, he would say something. If he decided it was too much for him in any way, he would only have to tell Joel and everything would be returned to exactly how it has been before. Any plans Joel made could be cancelled and he would never want to do anything that would make Spencer even a little bit uncomfortable or unhappy.

But Spencer hasn't said anything. And so Joel not only has gifts, he has a cake he baked waiting -- complete with little books drawn in icing, the other edges of the cake a delicate red that makes him think of the red thread -- and a bouncy castle.

The latter had been difficult to get into the yard without Spencer noticing, but Joel knows he hadn't slept well the night before, so ten minutes before the delivery men were set to arrive, he put Spencer to bed, insisting he close his eyes and rest for just a few minutes.

That has been half an hour ago and now there is a fully inflated bouncy castle -- designed for adults to bounce in -- set up in the back yard.

Joel is standing several feet from it, staring at it with a bemused expression. He can't remember the context in which this has come up, although he's sure Spencer does, and it looks funny and a little out of place in their yard.

But he's glad he's done it all the same. Spencer deserves something good for his birthday. He deserves to make new, happy memories.

Late, late Christmas fic~

If Joel had noticed Spencer all those years ago.

( Cut )

All Joel wants is to go home and sleep in his own bed, but so far the doctor has forbidden it. Even with Spencer's promises to take care of him and make sure he doesn't exert himself, Joel is still stuck in the hospital for at least one more day, but probably two. Besides Spencer, he hasn't been allowed visitors either and Joel knows it's only been a day, but he feels like he's slowly starting to go crazy with boredom.

He understands why he has to stay. Sort of. He's still in a fair bit of pain despite the medication they've been giving him, so he understands why his doctor wants him to stay, but Joel knows he can do better. Especially now that the demon is gone. If they would just let him go home, he'd be able to brew something that would almost entirely do away with the pain in his hand and his chest, but he can't tell them that.

Or maybe he could, but he's fairly certain they wouldn't care.

Spencer has brought him several books, but even so, Joel is bored. He's currently lying in his bed with his head tipped back to look at the ceiling, counting the holes in the tile directly above him. He's gotten as high as six hundred before losing count and having to start over again, but it isn't as if he has anything else to do.

"Good news," one of the nurses says as he pops his head into Joel's room. "You're officially allowed visitors."

He has his phone out and is texting someone to come visit him before the nurse has even finished his sentence. As his vitals are checked, as his evening dose of medication is given, Joel sets his phone aside, picks up one of his books, and he waits.

[Joel is in the hospital post-demon battle. If your character is close to Joel or Spencer, feel free to assume they got a text letting them know what happened and that everyone is alive. Come visit a demon-free Joel for the first time EVER!]

Right now, lying in this hospital bed, Joel has no idea how he feels.

He suspects, in a disconnected way, that's at least partly due to the painkillers and sedation the doctors had been forced to give him when he'd desperately fought them. Everything had still felt so wrong. Everything. He had been hurt and Spencer had been hurt. Even Coop had been hurt. He doesn't know what state Les and Nerium are in, he can't remember. They had put him on the stretcher and he'd seen Spencer on another bed and everything inside him had screamed against letting himself be separated from Spencer again.

They'd sedated him. Strapped him down. The restraints are gone now, but he can still feel the sedation moving through him, all his thoughts and movements sluggish as a result. He's knocked over his water cup twice now and he's staring down at the floor where the water is pooling and he's thinking about calling a nurse, but before he can lift his good hand to the buzzer, she's there.

"Joel, you can call me if you need anything," she reminds him and he nods.

"I need to see Spencer," he says and it sounds like his words are coming from far away. He thinks maybe he should panic because if his words aren't coming from him maybe the demon is still here. Maybe they didn't win, maybe they only postponed the inevitable.

But there's no panic. And he knows that isn't true. For the first time since he was seventeen-years-old, he's alone in here. He's sure that once he's no longer drugged, it will feel fantastic.

"I know," she says when she's on her feet again and Joel can't remember her name, but he knows she's been very kind to him since he woke up. She's a witch, he knows that somehow and he doesn't know if she told him or if he saw her do something or if everyone knows, but he knows. She understands what he's been through. "Soon, I promise. The doctor just wants to make sure he's okay. He's taken far too many knocks to the head lately."

"I know," he whispers, dropping his head. He knows. It's his fault.

When he looks up again the nurse is gone and Joel wonders if he fell asleep. Spencer still isn't here, so he starts to take stock of his injuries. His left hand is in a cast, the burned portion of his fingers covered in a salve. Luckily the burn hadn't been too bad. He remembers a doctor saying that.

One of his ribs is broken and it hurts when he breathes, but he's not wrapped or bound in any way. He thinks he remembers one of the doctors saying that it was dangerous, it can lead to complications with his lungs, but everything is a bit of a blur.

There are stitches in his forehead just below his hairline and there's a small bandage on his cheek where he'd been cut by glass. Somehow he feels like there should be more. Everything hurts, but there should be more than this. He deserves more than this.

The first few tears splatter on his cast before Joel even realizes he's crying.

They're in the bookstore late that evening, the sign flipped over to indicate they're closed, but all the lights still burning. There's no new inventory, but Spencer had taken down a full shelf of books earlier in the day and had built himself into an unintentional fort, stacks of books piled up around him and he had insisted that they not leave until they're all sorted. Joel doesn't mind, really, it gives them both something to take their minds off everything else that's been going on, the growing force he can feel trying to take over bigger and bigger pieces of him every day.

He's not as frightened as he was, not with Nerium and Coop both willing to help him. It gets bigger with every passing day, it gets stronger, but whenever he's with Spencer, it's like he's calmed. Like the raging monster trying to take over is placated and so Joel has taken to spending as much of his free time with Spencer as possible. It's not really that different from how things were before, but he just goes out of his way to find Spencer in moments when they might otherwise be apart.

One day it isn't going to work anymore, one day not even Spencer will be able to calm the thing inside him, but on the day that happens, Joel has to believe they can fight it.

For now, though, for tonight, he's ignoring it. He makes jokes as Spencer passes him books from inside his fortress of words, placing them where he's directed, and he has to admit, the store looks more like a store and less like a cave with each passing day.

He's in the middle of trying to wiggle in between two piles of books around Spencer just so he can kiss his husband, in the middle of jokingly accusing him of making the piles just close enough together that he can't get through when the lights go off. Joel freezes, not wanting to knock over the piles of books, but then Huxley goes darting through the store and careens straight into a pile of books that narrowly miss falling on him as he huddles against Spencer's ankles and whimpers.

"Shit," Joel whispers just as he turns and knocks over another pile of books. The store is completely black, which means it's dark outside, which means it's not just the breaker. He doesn't want to move, but carefully he manages to creep toward the window and, sure enough, all the streetlights are out and all the windows in the businesses across the street are dark, too.

"It's looks like it's the whole town," he says, his voice holding the faintest bit of wonder.