Out of the Forest and Into the Woods: Chapter 11

DISCLAIMER: None of these characters are mine, but they are memorable. Thank you Mr. Marlowe.

The Next Day, Sausalito, California, 2:30 p.m. PST on Jan 17, 2012,

Mark Harper stands at the guard house, waiting for the electronic gate to open. He sees Richard Castle walking toward the gate from the large administrative building, where he visited with the staff just yesterday. As much as he wanted to see Gretchen, the staff decided, in the end, to hold off on any direct communication between Mark and his wife, until her drug test results came back. They had promised to rush things as much as possible, however, getting a result in 24 hours.

So, here he is again, now roughly 24 hours later, wanting to see his wife, wanting to get her out of here. He's grateful that they took her in, and kept her safe, but now wants her out.

Castle nods at Jerry, the security guard at the gate, who opens the gate, allowing Mark Harper inside. Castle immediately reaches out to shake his hand in greeting. This is definitely a change from yesterday's greeting, and Mark is hoping this is the first of good things this afternoon. He is not disappointed.

"Gretchen's tests turned out positive for Rohypnol," Castle begins in greeting. "That explains a lot."

"Okay, I'm not a doctor. I'm not a pharmacist, so what you just said tells me nothing," Mark states with a bit of frustration as the two men walk towards the administration building. "What does that mean?"

"It means that Gretchen was drugged with . . . well, basically a form of a date rape drug," Castle says warily. This is both good news and bad news for the husband. Good news in that it moves a step closer to validating his story. Bad news in that – well, is it ever really good news to learn that your wife has been drugged?

"You can't be serious," Mark says, incredulously.

"It explains the memory loss that Gretchen is experiencing. It explains why she doesn't remember, why she isn't sure what happened to her," Castle continues, knowing how difficult this information is for her husband to process. Indeed, he can feel the man tensing next to him, as a range of emotions rush forward. All of those emotions go on hiatus, however, as Castle opens the door to the administration building and Mark Harper finds his wife sitting in the lobby. Their eyes find each other almost immediately, and just as quickly, Gretchen Harper is on her feet, limping toward her husband. Seconds later, they are in an emotion-filled embrace.

The tears . . . no, not the tears. It is the haunting sob that escapes Mark Harper's lips as he embraces his wife that causes a shudder inside Castle, who glances over at Kate Beckett and Dr. Samantha Peraza still sitting in the chairs next to the now empty chair once occupied by Gretchen Harper. It is clear that a myriad of emotions previously held in check are now flooding out for both the husband and wife.

Kate exchanges a wistful look with Castle, as they watch the reunion unfolding in front of them. For Mark and Gretchen, it is a surreal moment in what has been an unbelievable twenty-four plus hours. Castle shakes his head as he realizes this entire affair with the Harpers began just yesterday – at least the portion that includes Gretchen's involvement with the Castles complex. It's becoming more apparent that this is something that has been going on – been planned – for some time – by someone. However, today Mark Harper is dealing with guilt, and not very well at that.

He is crying, inconsolable as he feels that he has let his wife down. The pain he sees in her eyes – and more, the fear he sees in her eyes. A fear – possibly - of him.

"We took vows," he says between sobs. "I swore to protect you. Now look at you. This is my fault."

"It's not your fault, Mark," she tries to tell him, her tears streaming down her face as she holds on tightly to her husband. "It's . . . it's no one's fault. It . . . it just is."

"I let you down," he continues, shaking. "I'm so sorry, Gretch."

His despair walks a tight line between sadness and fury. Yeah, he is angry right now. He is not a violent man. At least not until this moment today. Fortunately, Dr. Samantha Peraza chooses this moment to interrupt the reunion – most likely to head off any further breakdown in the man in front of her.

"Mr. Harper . . . Gretchen, let's go to my office," she tells them. We have much to discuss, as she extends a hand to the husband and wife, guiding them toward the door.

A minute later, the couple is gone, walking down the hallway with Dr. Peraza, leaving Castle and Kate alone with Colin Alexander. Mike Monroe and Dawn Harrison are walking the grounds, on a security run, and will be back shortly. Lindy Matthews is in, even though it is her day off. She is overseeing maintenance on the chopper in the hangar.

"What did you find out Colin?" Castle asks the ex-military man.

"Most of it was Dawn," Alexander admits as he begins. "She verified with the hospital that a 'Gary Martin' – who we now know does not exist – called the San Francisco General Hospital emergency room yesterday morning, claiming to be Gretchen's brother. He asked that Gretchen be moved here to the Castles."

Glancing directly at Kate, Colin continues his report, addressing Beckett directly.

"Consistent with your conversation with the younger sister, he asked that Gretchen not be released to either her husband, or one Mara Blankenship, for fear of her continued safety. We also verified that a call was placed from Mark Harper's cell phone to San Francisco General at this same time, so we can be reasonably certain that, as the younger sister indicated, Mr. Harper did in fact call the hospital impersonating Gretchen's brother . . . who, once again, does not exist."

Castle and Kate nod their heads in agreement simultaneously. So far, so good.

"I traced Mara Blankenship's movements – as best I could – starting yesterday morning," Kate Beckett continues. "There is no building surveillance at the Harper residence, but I was able to use street surveillance videos to pick up Mara Blankenship's car heading south from their home just off California Street. This was at 6:45 in the morning. All we can tell is that she traveled south – so we can insinuate that she might have gone to the Harper residence in the Mission District. She certainly wasn't traveling north or northwest towards her job down at the Wharf."

"And not at that time of the morning," Castle adds.

"True," Kate agrees. "Jennifer was able to get a search warrant for the Harper household, and let's just say the house was in a state of disarray."

"Meaning?" Castle asks.

"Meaning, it looked as though there had been an altercation. A lamp was knocked over, there were some dishes and glasses knocked over. The interesting thing, though, was that Jennifer stated that –"

"Where is Detective Blackard anyway?" Castle interrupts. He is surprised that the detective is not here.

"She's at work, Castle," Kate smiles. "She has her own cases, her own jurisdiction to worry about. She was literally just helping out on her day off yesterday."

Castle and Colin Alexander both nod in understanding, as Kate continues.

"Anyway, she made a point of saying that the entire altercation thing looked staged. Meaning, nothing was consistent with spontaneous actions. It didn't look like the lamp was knocked over, it looked more like the lamp was placed on the floor, staged to look like it was knocked over. Same with the dishes and glasses. This was a mistake on our perpetrator's part. When I say glasses, I mean glass glasses, not plastic ones. The fact that these glasses hit the floor – theoretically – but none broke upon impact, the fact that the lamp shade was barely tussled – all of these point to a staging."

"Here is what we also have found out," Colin tells them. "With her permission, I took a look at Gretchen Harper's phone. There is a call from Gretchen to Mara Blankenship's cell phone yesterday morning at 7:30. Gretchen does not remember making this phone call. Mark has indicated that he left the house yesterday right around 7 a.m. So it appears – by our hypothesis – that Mara may have left her place around 6:45 and just stuck around the Harper home until Mark had gone to work, and she was sure he was not coming back."

"Mark also indicated that Gretchen was supposed to pick up a 9 a.m. shift at the hospital," so that explains why he was picking up Rachel instead of her," Castle adds.

"Jennifer also found two cups of coffee – styrofoam cups," Kate adds, continuing her findings from yesterday. "We are testing right now to see if we can find a match the same drug found in Gretchen's system to one of the cups. We're also dusting for prints as well, although she did say that a preliminary look didn't turn up anything. So we can assume that Mara – or whoever was there – was wearing gloves. Smart on her part."

"All indicating premeditation," Colin adds, and Kate nods in agreement.

"The important thing is that Gretchen does not remember making the call. Now, that can be for one of three reasons. A, she is lying about not remembering – which I think we can all safely rule out," Kate says, and both Colin and Castle agree.

"B, she made the call but does not remember because of the drug," Kate continues, drawing a frown from both men. It is a possibility they have to consider.

"And finally, C, she doesn't remember because she didn't make the call. Her intruder – presumably Mara – made the call on her behalf."

"So in that case," Castle steps in, "Mara would have drugged Gretchen, then placed a call from Gretchen's phone to Mara's phone, and just left the connection open for a minute or so. Long enough to simulate Gretchen making a frantic call for help, because she has just been assaulted by her husband."

So far, everything is playing out as she and Castle and Jennifer had expected. But Kate has one final card left to play, and it's an important one. She really hates doing this, but they have to know. She reaches into her purse, and Castle knows full well what she is getting ready to retrieve. Castle walks out of the room, down to Samantha Peraza's office to momentarily retrieve the husband once more.

Meanwhile, Kate pulls out a thumb drive – the same thumb drive that Jennifer had confiscated from Brinkman Brothers – from Mark's desk. She holds the thumb drive in her hand, in plain sight, as Mark Harper returns with Castle a moment later. She makes a fairly elaborate show to make sure that Mark sees this drive, and then simply says "Not knowing your involvement yesterday, Mr. Harper, we obtained a search warrant to search your work place."

Mark Harper cocks his head slightly, in confusion, and that is enough for both Castle and Kate, who were reluctantly looking for a more guilty or concerned reaction. The fact that the thumb drive has drawn no response other than a confused look is another in a line of good news for them this morning. "There are some . . . interesting things on this drive," Kate adds, inserting it into her laptop and moving her screen so that Mark can see. Seconds later, nude and half nude pictures of Rachel Harper pop up, much to Mark Harper's disgust and horror.

"What the hell is this!?" he thunders, grabbing the laptop from Kate's lap, then quickly half tossing it back to her.

"Who did this?! Who took these?! Christ Almighty, what the hell is going on here!"

Kate quickly shuts the laptop down. She and Castle have their answer – unless he is a giving an Oscar-worthy performance, this is a huge surprise to Mark Harper; one he is not taking very well. Then it hits him. Hard.

"Wait a minute! You found this at my work? In my desk?" Harper explodes. "Dammit, what is going on here!?"

Suddenly he reaches for the laptop, going for the thumb drive.

"Give that to me," he yells angrily. "You cannot go showing that to people. This is my wife's baby sister, for crying out loud."

"This is evidence in an ongoing investigation now –"

"Bullshit! These are naked pictures of Rachel. She would die – absolutely die – if anyone saw these. Hell, Gretchen will . . ."

His voice trails off, as he steps backward, stumbling. Fortunately, Richard Castle has remained close by, purely for observational purposes, and catches him before he falls further.

"Oh God . . . what is going on here?" he says softly, now fully defeated. He looks up from Castle to Kate with saddened eyes.

"A pretty insidious plan, that's what," Kate tells him, and she can feel her own anger rising now. All fingers are pointing at Mara Blankenship right now, and although Kate is 99 percent sure the woman is behind all of this, she also knows that she – and Detective Jennifer Blackard and Richard Castle have all already jumped to the wrong conclusion once in this case. So yeah, she's pretty certain of what happened, but wants one more piece of evidence – circumstantial as it may be – to nail the coffin shut. Evidence that should now be on visible on Gretchen Harper's body.

"Come with me," Kate tells the three men, who dutifully follow her down to Dr. Peraza's office where the doctor is still talking with Gretchen. They enter the office without knocking, and Kate immediately walks to the chair next to Gretchen – in front of Dr. Peraza's desk – and sits across from the woman.

"Can I help you Kate?" Samantha asks, glancing at all four visitors now. She had expected Mark to return, but alone.

"This will only take a minute, Dr. Peraza," Kate tells her, as she reaches down for Gretchen's leg. "Gretchen, let me see your leg, your foot," she tells her.

The confused woman complies, slightly lifting her left leg off the ground so that Kate, sitting across from her, can grab it. As soon as Kate grabs her ankle, intentionally putting a little more pressure than necessary on it, Gretchen winces in pain. Kate smiles, nodding her head. Pulling up the woman's jeans she finds a couple of nasty bruises on the side of her shin to go with the bruise on her ankle. Kate repeats the exercise on the right leg, finding only a bruise of the back of the ankle.

"What is it, Kate?" Castle asks, now fully wondering what his partner has discovered.

Kate stands up, motioning Mark Harper to take the seat she has just abandoned.

"You probably want to sit down, Mr. Harper," she tells him. "I think I have a good idea – a hypothesis, really – of what happened to your wife," she finishes, glancing at an equally confused Gretchen.

"There are bruises on the back of your leg and foot, Gretchen. Those are bruises consistent with someone being dragged down a flight or two of stairs. Had your husband been there, and assaulted you as Mara Blankenship claimed, and as you originally claimed, and had your husband brought you to the hospital, he would have carried you down the stairs. You live in a flat, on the third floor. We all struggled with the logic that Mark assaulted you and then decided to take you to the hospital. I find that hard to believe. However, let's say that's how it went down –"

"That's not –"

She stops Mark Harper's interruption, holding up her hand.

"I know that's not what happened, Mr. Harper. I know that now. But let's just say for the sake of argument that it did happen that way," Kate continues. "Let's say that you assaulted Gretchen, but then had a change of heart and decided to take her to the hospital. You are a big man, Mr. Harper, large enough to carry your wife down two flights of stairs. You wouldn't have just dragged her down the steps. But the bruises on her ankles and shin tell me that is exactly what happened. That's how a smaller, weaker person who couldn't pick Gretchen up would have done it."

"Mara," Castle says, whistling in admiration.

"She couldn't carry Gretchen, not down from the third floor. So she drugged your wife, and then placed more than a few well-aimed shots to her belly, to her chest. But it seems she only hit her once in the face. Castle, you might recall that Mara is somewhat of a small woman," she tells her partner, who nods in recollection. "When we were interviewing her, I noticed a few things about her. Just years of NYPD training and experience, I guess, but I found myself glancing at her hands, at her arms, her build. I didn't suspect anything at the time. It's just my normal way of doing things."

Castle and Colin nod their heads – and Colin, in particular, appreciates the discipline in the former detective that carried over even now.

"Anyway, I noticed a small mark – it didn't mean anything to me until we started suspecting Mara – on her right hand. Even if she wore gloves not to leave finger prints, she underestimated how hard a person's head or cheek is. Many people have found out after slugging someone in the head how hard that bone is," Kate continues, almost chuckling now, as is Colin Alexander.

"I believe that Mara's first punch was to your unconscious head, Gretchen," Kate continues. "And I think she probably hurt her hand a bit, and decided to focus on softer areas thereafter. Hence the heavy bruising on your belly, on your chest and ribs."

Kate looks directly at Mark Harper as she continues.

"It's pretty apparent that she worked your wife over, Mr. Harper. Pulling up Gretchen's blouse – with her permission – she points to the bruises there, much to the horror of the husband.

"Notice the bruises all along here . . . and here," she says, pointing to different spots. "This was a pretty angry woman at work here."

His eyes moist with anger, Mark Harper recounts, softly but out loud, the threat that Mara had shared with him yesterday morning.

"If I can't have you, neither will Gretchen or Rachel."

"Seems that way," Kate agrees, softly, knowing that at any moment either Gretchen or Mark is going to lose it. She needs to finish this, and get into the city to question Mara Blankenship – for all the good it will likely do. The woman was careful, not using her own phone except to receive a call, wearing gloves, not using public transportation, not calling an ambulance. Her hypothesis is solid, but she recognizes the evidence to be highly circumstantial. And Mara doesn't seem to be the type who will break under interrogation.

"So Mara – for reasons that we can only assume involve jealousy and anger that her advances to you, Mark, were unrequited, came up with this plan to hurt you, Gretchen, and hurt your sister, while blaming Mark. She-"

"What did she do to Rachel?" Gretchen barks, suddenly full of fire and energy. "You promised my sister was okay, you said –"

"She is okay, she is fine, Gretchen," Kate tells her.

"She's with your mother, Gretch," Mark says softly. "I put her there myself,"

"Gretchen nods slowly. Kate and Castle had told her that Rachel was indeed in Colorado, but hearing that she actually was in danger also awakened the older sister a bit, snapping her out of her doldrums. Kate decides to continue, knowing the additional pain that is coming for the couple.

"So – continuing – Mara drugs you, assaults you while you are unconscious and then calls herself from your phone, feigning a call for help. She then waits fifteen or twenty minutes, knowing that Mark is picking up Rachel, so you won't be back," she says looking at Mark.

"She knows the drug has kicked in and you won't be awake for a while, so she has time to spare. She stages the family room so that it looks like a fight has occurred. Then she probably tries to pick you up, unsuccessfully. So she drags you, literally hitting your legs along the stone steps down each flight, which caused your bruises. I noticed you limping this morning, Gretchen, and when you went to embrace your husband, you were still limping. That's what set my final thoughts in motion."

Kate turns to Rick with a warm smile, as she continues.

"Castle has taken me to enough homes just to show me architecture, just so I can get some decorating ideas out here, and one of the first things I noticed was that all of the entries to the flats are from the outside. In New York, most are indoors, and the stairs are wood. Here, the stairs are stone. I know that because –"

"You banged the side of your ankle on the house on 19th Avenue that I took you into over the holiday," Castle suddenly remembers. "Wow."

"Yeah, who knew that a banged ankle could help me turn this case," Kate chuckles. Gretchen and Mark, however, fail to see the humor, and Kate quickly changes gears, continuing.

"Anyway, she gets you to the bottom of the stairs and into her car," Kate says. "The only hope we have to prove this, of course, is if any of the neighbors or passersby saw anything," she says dejectedly.

"Still, continuing, she gets you into the car, and drives you to San Francisco General. She parks a block away, and then gets you out of the car, dragging you again to the front entrance, where she tells the staff that Mark had ceremoniously dumped her a block away from the hospital. About that time, you must have started to awaken, Gretchen and –"

"Yes, you're right," a slightly more focused Gretchen Harper agrees. "I remember her dragging me on the street leading up to the emergency room, and I remember her telling me that you had just dropped me off on the curb," she finishes, looking at her husband. "She told me that I had called her, and she had gotten there as Mark was driving me away, so she followed, calling my phone to see if I was okay."

"And your phone indicates a couple of missed calls from Mara Blankenship's phone about that time, to collaborate her story," Colin Alexander adds. "That explains those missed calls. Neither Dawn nor I could figure those out."

Castle and Kate nod, again realizing how long this must have been planned on Mara Blankenship's part.

"So Mara takes you into the emergency room, and gets you admitted, but she keeps your phone, Gretchen. She knows that Mark will probably be calling – if for no other reason than to just let you know that he has Rachel, from what Rachel has told us."

Both Mark and Gretchen nod in agreement, as Kate again continues.

"To the outside world, Mara appears to be the great friend and a solid citizen, coming to the rescue of an abused friend," Kate says, the disgust rising in her voice and framing the normally beautiful features on her face. "None of what we have just speculated can be proven without fingerprints, surveillance, or an eye witness – none of which I expect to see."

"So she gets away with it?" Mark thunders in frustration. "What about her phone call to me? Rachel was there and she can –"

"It's her word against yours, I'm afraid. We have everything except evidence, Mark," Kate tells him, honestly.

"There has to be something – anything," Castle muses aloud.

"No, there isn't. Right now we just have to be satisfied with the fact that Gretchen is safe, Rachel is safe, the Amber Alert has been cancelled and Mark, you will be absolved of any involvement. Right now, for now, that has to be enough," Kate says.

"But we aren't finished digging," Castle says, expectantly.

"No, we aren't," Kate agrees. "Jennifer, in fact, thinks there is far more to this than we are seeing right now. She's a native here and understands the market, the real estate market and neighborhoods," Kate says with a wry smile.

"When I told her where the Blankenship's live, her first thought was to wonder where they are getting the money to live in that area. She mentioned that this area requires more than the salary of a bus driver and a tourist retail agent. And if they had family money, then they probably would have different jobs to begin with."

"Hmmm," Castle says, now smiling himself. "If nothing else, it gives us a reason to continue . . ."

His words drop off, as he realizes that neither he nor Kate can really open a case, or continue investigating this. She's not a cop anymore. Sensing his thoughts, Kate interrupts.

"But Jennifer can, Castle," she smiles. "Jennifer can. It's out of her jurisdiction, but she knows a couple of people at the other precinct there to keep an eye on this. For now, it will have to be enough."

"So what now?" Mark Harper asks, rubbing a hand through his hair.

"Now," Dr. Samantha Peraza states, "now you get to take your wife home."

Epilogue 1: Colorado Springs, Colorado, Jan 24, 2012

Mark and Gretchen Harper sit at a table next to the window at the Applebee's restaurant off Garden of the Gods and I-25 in Colorado Springs. It's been a week since the life-changing events in San Francisco, and the couple had decided to take an unplanned retreat to Gretchen's mother's home. So far, it has been a pleasant experience.

Rachel and her mother have had a reconnection of sorts. Traumatic events have a way of erasing misunderstandings and miscommunications. Rachel has enrolled back in school in Colorado, leaving the Bay Area and those memories behind her.

Mark and Gretchen, for their part, have decided, just this morning, to stay here in Colorado themselves. Gretchen can get a nursing job pretty much anywhere and isn't expecting a problem on the job front. Mark, always good in sales, is considering opening his own business here. All they know is that they aren't returning to San Francisco. The fact that their wounds are still fresh, and the fact that the cause of their wounds is still walking free in California are enough reasons to keep them from returning.

Mark smiles, as he holds his wife's hand, knowing that somehow they have escaped one of life's potential death traps, and have been granted a second chance.

The tall majestic range of mountains has never looked – and smelled – so good.

Epilogue 2: San Francisco, California, 1 a.m. Jan 25, 2012

Jimmy Blankenship drives the large MUNI bus along the midnight route, glancing at his watch. 1:01 in the morning, he smiles as he pulls the bus to the street corner and stops, hitting the button to open the large doors.

A young woman, college age, she looks to be 19 or 20, boards the bus and walks toward the back. Jimmy follows her motion, watching the sway of her hips in the large rear view mirror as she stops at the third row from the back of the bus, and sits by herself. She pulls out a can of coke from her backpack and begins sipping on the drink that she picked up minutes ago at the all-night convenience store at the very corner she has just boarded the bus.

The large beast rumbles forward, picking up steam as it heads down the mostly empty street. The newest passenger continues sipping her drink, paying no attention to the figure in the dark hoodie, face covered by the hood that sits in the very last row up against the rear wall of the bus. She had noticed the man in the hoodie, whose head kept dropping off, with a slight snoring coming from under the hood, as she walked toward the back.

She, however, does not notice the figure slowly rise up and move to the seat right behind her. She does not notice the needle that drives into the spot between her shoulder and her neck until she feels the prick. But now it is too late, as she is out cold in seconds as the hooded figure now slides in next to her, pushing her toward the window on the seat.

A few stops later, the final two passengers still onboard, near the front of the bus both disembark, leaving only Jimmy Blankenship, the unconscious girl and the figure next to her. Jimmy puts the bus back into motion, changing the sign up top to read 'OUT OF SERVICE' and rumbles further ahead for another couple of minutes before stopping again.

This time, two men board and walk directly back to the hooded figure and the unconscious girl. The hooded figure stands up as the men board, and returns to the spot on the back of the bus, while one man sits next to the unconscious girl and the other sits across the aisle. The bus continues for five more streets before stopping again – this time more or less in the middle of an opening between a two large residential buildings. The two men rise and grab hold of the young woman and carry her upright off the bus and to a waiting SUV, away from the surveillance cameras.

The bus doors close as Blankenship puts the large vehicle into motion once again, as he flips the sign once more, now putting the bus back into service mode, ready to pick up more passengers on this late night shift.

Driving away, he smiles at the hooded figure that has left the back of the bus once again, this time to sit directly behind him. The hood drops away, revealing Mara Blankenship, who places her hand along the railing behind Jimmy.

"She's a pretty one, that one," Jimmy says.

"Of course you'd say that," Mara says with disgust. "You always liked them younger. Shit, you could have ruined everything, turning the police on to us with those stupid pictures of Rachel. You just couldn't help yourself, could you?!"

"I know, I know," he agrees. "Not my smartest move, but, hey, you made it work. You always do. Anyway, we wouldn't have had to worry about the police in the first place if you could have kept your eyes off Mark Harper," he says, smiling with a bit of menace to her in the rear view mirror.

"So we both have our little weaknesses," she admits, and then grows quiet for a few seconds before continuing.

"Donovan will like this one, though," she muses aloud.

"Oh yeah, he will like her all right. Blonde, young look, nice ass, long legs . . ."

"You noticed all of that in just the few seconds it took for her to get on the bus," Mara half spits out, but then recomposes herself. Jimmy allows his wife her transgressions, and so she will overlook his tendencies with younger women.

"No matter, Mara. She'll be on the boat to Playas de Rosarito by the weekend," Jimmy tells her.

"And we will have our money transferred to us within the week upon delivery," Mara smiles. "The men down south of the border will enjoy her."

A/N: This concludes this story, and as you can see, we will probably see more of Mara and Jimmy Blankenship in a future story in this AU. And as you can see, Rick and Kate's world is going to intersect with some nefarious characters here on the west coast, and cases are not so easily wrapped up in a tight bow. The next story is already storyboarded, and I will start writing it in a while after I focus on The Long Game for a while. As always, thank you for reading and dropping your comments and ideas.