Warning: A long history of this fic at the end: may include sad memories.

He was a wealthy man now. A VERY wealthy man.

While there was not a lot of things in this life he wanted (or needed) to buy, there was one major thing Greg had always wanted to do for his only son.

Everyone said it was a "staple of childhood", but he never had the money nor the means to make the trip.

But NOW...now that he had money to spare...he wanted to give his son the ENTIRE awesome experience that Steven had always deserved!

He was a great kid- the GREATEST kid after all! He had been through so much strife throughout his life...he certainly deserved the best!

Greg was going to take Steven on a vacation to Dalt Wisney World! The question was: when to break the news?

OK...sooo...there's a bit of history with this fic. Bare with me.

I live in the Orlando area, and actually worked for Walt Disney World for about three years (Main Street East, and one of the hotels in merchandise respectively).

When I was working there, my fellow Cast Members and I were incredibly close. It really is a job where you have to rely on trust and teamwork in order to accomplish tasks.

Unfortunately, (as some of you may also know) I have a super-dooper-low immune system.

I was exposed to so many people on a daily basis, that I would get sick quite frequently. I ended up getting so sick, in fact, I had to (sadly) resign from my job about two weeks before June 12, 2016.

The experience was heartbreaking, and I still exchange Christmas cards with my old team to this day.

By the time the morning of June 12, 2016 came around, I had been unemployed for about two weeks. At this point, I was quite unsure where my now non-existent career was heading.

That morning, I remember waking up and checking my feed on Facebook.

It said there had been a shooting...a shooting in Orlando...20 people had died. A few hours later, the death toll rose to 50. When they re-announced the number over the television, there was an audible gasp from the crowd.

Now, I had never heard of the Pulse night club before. I'm not a part of the LGBTQ community, and am also not exactly a social butterfly to begin with. I had, however, definitely heard of the hospital the victims were taken to. Being a regularly sickly person, I had gone to the same medical facility on numerous occasions in order to receive infusions and other procedures.

The incident had happened less than 30 minutes from my house.

I don't know how much you guys know about Disney- but we are very supportive of the LGBTQ community (we even have a sort of "unofficial" Gay Days where all the guests come to visit, and dress in red in support of the community).

While I am not a part of the LGBTQ community, A WHOLE bunch of my friends (and even a few of my family members) ARE.

That entire day, I was glued to the television screen- hoping...PRAYING that none of my fellow Cast Members were on the list of the deceased.

One of my all time favorite leads was gay- and of several of my favorite fellow merch crew, there was one who was gay, and another who was bisexual. (Not to mention two bisexual and one gay friend I had in high school as well).

While I was lucky, one of my good friends was not. She worked at Universal Studios at the Harry Potter ride, and one of her Crew Members was among the 49 victims (you probably heard of him too...he was the one that got a Funko pop made of him, and had a special shout out from Rowling herself).

The next few months were awful. Our city was in grieving. We were being bombarded by news, paparazzi, and those super-jerks from the Westboro Church (you know...the "church" that protested at all those soldier's funerals...and Comic Con that one year).

Everyone was in shock and mourning. It was super surreal...like a horrendous nightmare we had to live on a daily basis. During one of my medical procedures downtown, my family accidentally drove me by the club on the way home...causing me to hyperventilate a bit.

I wanted to do something to show my sympathies, and (spontaneously) make everyone laugh and (perhaps) feel a bit better about themselves.

That's when I got the idea for this fic.

While this was the first fic I wanted to write, the time didn't seem right. Everyone (my self included) was incredibly upset and sensitive. Plus, I hadn't written a fanfiction since 2004! Would I even still have what it took to get back in the game after all these years? Would anyone even want to read such a silly thing?

It took me several months to build up the courage to write anything publicly, but I decided to write my second fic idea: "Live and Let Lion" first...leaving this one on the back burner in case I ran out of ideas in the future.

While "Live and Let Lion" did it's job wonderfully (and made my ultimate goal come true of making people laugh and a bit more cheerful in the whirling chaos that was our city at the time), I still wanted to eventually tackle this story...even if no one got ANY of the Disney jokes.

Out of the tragedy, came something...rather odd. I had the urge to write again. I had the urge to write FANFICTION again, if (for no other reason) to put a smile on my friend's faces. If I could cheer up just one person who was struck by the same tragedy that had caused us all so much hardship, than maybe...just maybe...I could smile again too.

Thus, I have finally decided to write this fic. I will be updating it as frequently as I can.

This story is dedicated to all the victims, friends, family, and people in the awesome LGBTQ community who suffered because of the tragedy that hit the place I've called home for so many years.

I welcome you all to:

"The Gems Visit Dalt Wisney World"!