The Path to… is a series of short stories. Some of which get to move on to a full length story, Discovering Who You Become and Slippery Slope both started out here. Others get a few chapters here. Most are a series of one shots, just a quick scene that I'd like to see. Most are Brazen, but there is some AJ, Sonny and Robin in here as well. So below is a chapter list for the stories and one of the few super short ficlets because otherwise this would be an Author's Note (aka FFN no no :-P). I put complete if I'm pretty sure nothing else based that chapter will be posted.
The Path to… Chapter List
Chapter Two:
Reanimation: Brenda's not the only one making a reappearance. Brazen. (Complete)
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Chapter Three:
Return: Shortly after Emily's death, Sam is at the cemetery when she sees AJ crumpled over Emily's grave. (Complete)
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Chapter Four:
Revelations: Brenda returns after Emily's death and her first stop is to tell off Sonny. (Brazen. If you like it, it's continued on as Slippery Slope).
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Chapter Five:
Making Amends: His mother justly blamed him for Emily and he had to try to give her back her family. Jason with a little Robin. (Complete)
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Chapter Six:
Recovery: After Georgie's death Jason goes to check up on Robin. (Complete)
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Chapter Seven:
An Unbelievable Life: Short Brazen scene that reintroduces Brenda back into the storyline. (Complete)
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Chapter Eight:
Discovering Who You Become: He wake up in a hospital room with another brunette by his side and finds out how quickly and drastically life can change. Brazen. Continued with the same title as a full story.
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Chapter Nine:
Salvation: Logan Hayes is dead and Jason is of course the prime suspect. Brazen.
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Chapters Ten and Eleven:
The End: It all ended the exact same way it began, in a bed looking into the eyes of an angel. (Complete)
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Chapter Twelve:
The Brazen Shuffle: Songfic challenge. A paragraph worth of their stories. (Complete)
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Chapter Thirteen:
Laying Blame: Brazen arrive at the hospital because they couldn't just have a quiet weekend away, could they? (Complete)
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Chapter Fourteen:
Redemption: Helena looks upon her creation with pride, Paulo, he was confident, charming and successful, the Quartermaines overlooked the gem they had in AJ, she made no such mistake. (Complete)
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Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen:
Moments in Life: Brenda returns and life carries on, until circumstances change and Brazen are forced to say what they've always avoided. (Complete)
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Chapters Seventeen, Eighteen and Nineteen:
In the Blink of the Eye: In the seven seconds the car skidded, AJ could see it all, he could see a life without Jason. He had no life without Jason. There was no choice to be made. Brazen.
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Chapter Twenty:
Domestic Bliss: She walks out wearing his shirt and carrying a glass of a much needed alcoholic Brenda. Brazen, post Spinelli and Maxie's non-wedding. (Complete)
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Chapters Twenty One and Two
Too Late: She's in his arms, sitting in a jungle waiting to die. Brazen (21). Sonny (22). (Complete)
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Chapter Twenty Three:
Discovery Outtake: Two scenes that don't fit into the style of DQYB, but people wanted anyway. Brenda and Jason trying to be friends after sleeping together and Carly telling Sonny that Brenda was moving in with Jason and Sonny realizing his Brenda was now Jason's. (Complete)
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Chapter Twenty Four:
Vignettes: More VMG returns. (Complete)
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Chapter Twenty Five:
A Picture's Worth: Based on the start of Brenda's return. In still photographs Spinelli could see all they denied. Brazen.
Chapter Twenty Six (can be paired with 25 or read alone):
Drama Queen: Jason was behaving like an ass, so Brenda decided to do exactly what he always told her to do: she was quiet, didn't get in his way and wore clothing. It was driving him mad.
Chapter Twenty-Seven, Eight, Nine (goes with 25&26):
Actions Speak Louder than Words: People were always around to notice that how they behaved didn't match how they spoke of/to each other.
The End in the Beginning: Whether the ends caused the beginning or if their beginning caused the ends. The journey has begun.
Surprises: A wedding results in surprises for everyone.
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Chapter Thirty:
Who Cares: Based on the song, "Marry You" by Bruno Mars. Brazen because honestly Brazen need a happy, carefree moment with a little Carly and Jax trying to bring them down. (Complete)
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Chapter Thirty-One:
Two Sides of the Same Coin: Jason Quartermaine couldn't leave, he wasn't actually dead, just not fully attached. As Jason Morgan's life hangs in the balance he meets the person he had once been. (Complete)
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Chapters Thirty-Two and Three:
Family Man: Eventually there won't be a tomorrow, so ask yourself if it's your last day, how do you want to spend it?
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Chapters Thirty-Four, Five and Six:
Hindsight: "I wasn't much before Sonny. But if I hadn't met him, if he hadn't flashed those stupid dimples…I could have figured out how to be happy Jason." When she woke up and saw him, she knew it instantly, the guy that was always there for better or worse was the true love she longed for.
Based on VMG's quote of "Jason annoys her in a way that someone you love madly annoys you….She adores Jason."
Love Madly
Life is a series of regrets.
Coulda, woulda, shouldas.
Some people take the safe paths, some people take giant risky leaps.
She always thought she had been the girl who leapt.
Is it a leap though when you know how it's going to end? Going after the bad boy…You know the outcome of that 99% of the time.
No matter how much it hurts, you aren't really that surprised when it ends.
The boy that's good. The boy that's safe. The boy she could pin all of your hopes and dreams on…
He's the risk.
He's the one that would leave her shattered, especially if she shattered him.
She ignores safe because safe is scary. She ignores how happy she is sitting next to him. She ignores how he would do anything for her. How he forgives her time and time again. How he tries to convince her to forgive herself.
She ignores safe and the risk passes, he finds someone worthy, someone better and she can feel good about herself for letting that happen. She's happy to see them, she's happy to see him happy.
She's safe if he's with another, he won't leave her, she can't destroy what she has.
Then he leaves, he's lost to her, but torments her by still existing. HE left her after everything she did to stay safe, and then he won't let her heal in peace. His presence is an open wound and she hates him for leaving her and reminding her of it constantly.
She hates him and then she leaves him. He floats into her mind with every high school and college boy she sees, their laughter, easy manner, their seriousness when studying a piece of art. He continues to torment her with the memories of what could have been. He torments her with memories of who he had been.
The regrets happen. She begins to wonder the what ifs. She sees the ways she could have saved him. She sees him clearly for the first time. She recognizes that feeling, but he is gone and she realizes she hates him for it.
She actively hates him for not being HIM when she returns. She wants to and sometimes does pound her fists into his chest in unbridled anger and despair. How could HE leave?
She hates him, she keep telling herself that. She ignores the rest. The anger is anger. She hates him because he isn't HIM. She hates him for existing while HE is gone.
She can love the one most like him, he is nowhere near as good, but she won't make that mistake again.
She tries to burn him out of her mind. She tries to find the feelings she once had elsewhere.
Then the panic sets in over leaving him. The realization that those feelings had been more that what ifs, they had been love.
Underneath it all and ignored had been love.
The realization makes her want to vomit.
The realization gets stuck in her head and it replays over and over. She's determined to burn it out of her mind.
Then one day, she realizes he's still him. Everything he was, everything he could be, everything he deserved. He is him.
She tells herself that's a lie, that he is gone, but it's too late. She loves him madly with the same desperation that had been hiding underneath a decade prior.
She leaves him with someone good. She stays away. She ignores that love as she ignores him. He is gone, she tells herself. He is a memory.
She is safe.
Then one day she is in his arms again. She wrenches herself free as soon as she can. He thinks he's protecting her, he doesn't realize she needs protection from him.
She hates him for a lot of reasons, but mostly because she loves him.