By Surprise • •

[Joey Macey Rayne Carter]

For Joey, the transition from army life to civilian hadn’t come easy. Even now she still caught herself sometimes barking orders as though she was still Captain Carter. Luckily, the heat in New York City wasn’t as stifling as it had been in her last post, and her superiors within the fire department understood that she wasn’t trying to undermine their authority. She could go far if she wanted to, but Joey was more concerned with protecting and helping others than she was with ranks and climbing some ladder for power. When the day finally came that she was too injured or unfit for duty, she didn’t know what she’d do with herself, but she did hope she’d have more in her life by that point. The dedicated brunette was still laying down roots in the city and building something that she could call a home. Joey knew that she would be staying in New York rather than returning back to Colorado. Her family worried enough that she could imagine them wrapping her in cotton wool and trying to lock her away if she lived only a reasonable distance from them. She loved each of them, but they had rightly worried about most of the choices Joey had made since becoming an adult; they might have been proud of her, but she was the cause of most of their stress and she had barely been in Grand Junction since turning eighteen!

Today was one of the days she had to herself. Joey’s only problem was that even when she didn’t have to be at the station, she had to be doing something. She only ever vegged out on the couch if she was sick, injured or had trouble sleeping. After her usual daily workout at the gym, Joey showered, changed and headed out to tackle the grocery shop she put off until there was only some out of date yoghurt and near empty jar of mayonnaise left in her refrigerator. Give her a hose to handle or some heavy lifting to do and Joey wouldn’t complain, but shopping carts left her more frustrated and worked up than they ought to! Finally, forcing herself through the tedious chore with the help of her iPod, Joey returned to her apartment and put everything away. Her eyes then fell on the calendar and the red ring circled around a date just a little over a week from then. Joey’s youngest brother would be turning twenty-two on that date, and he was a hassle to buy for most of the time. She expected this year to be no different and quickly made a call to her dad while walking back down the stairs of her building and falling into sync with the other hurried pedestrians. After asking several times if she was okay, he finally gave her some options from a list Scott had been forced to write out to make the lives of his family a little easier this year. After promising to call him back later and let him know what to scratch off, Joey dropped the phone back into the pocket of her jeans and quickly navigated her way through the permanently crowded streets.

Borders was the first store she came across that might home one of Scott’s possible presents. Slipping inside, Joey glanced around at the section titles before crossing over to the one she suspected the book might be in. It was there and she found it easy enough, but Joey didn’t see the harm in browsing for herself while she was there. Too often she passed by most stores and only realised once she was back in her apartment that there was something she had meant to pop in for. Taking her time, Joey looked at a couple of books and then slipped them back to their places on the shelf before she came across one by one of her favourite authors. The only problem was that it was a little out of reach for her, even when she pushed herself up onto her toes as though she was back in that dance studio again. It had been over ten years, but Joey still remembered each ballet step. Finally, growing frustrated and feeling too stubborn to ask anyone for help, she rested Scott’s present on the display behind her, focused on the book she wanted and jumped. Her fingers just caught the spine and tugged it free and luckily nothing else came crashing down with it! Smiling proudly to herself, Joey didn’t think to check if anyone had seen her and instead began to read the blurb and the reviews on the back cover.

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• • •

TAGGED! Open! <3
WORDS! 776!
OUTFIT! Tough Tyke!
LYRICS! Broken Doll - - - Paloma Faith
NOTES! <3