Company policies are no longer a deterrent for Dean. With his new dynamics to the Williams bunch, they're more like suggestions or hopeful requests. Nothing you actually have to adhere to...
Dean tends bar. Meg washes dishes. Cas busses tables. Benny cooks. Jo goes to college. Ellen rules them all.
No one really knows what is going on in other people's lives. What is normal for one is hell for another.
Castiel Novak and Dean Winchester are friends, the best that there is and one day it all changes with a kiss. Pretty soon, the two are dating and they become that couple. However, a year goes by and after a car accident Castiel loses his memory..he doesn't remember Dean, or their friends. He barely remembers himself.
Gabriel is a sixteen year old omega who is on the run from his heavy handed politician parents. He's also five months pregnant. Will he ever find a place for him and his pup to call home? All he knows is that it sure isn't in Texas.
Dean runs an inn up in Maine. It's his pride and joy, the Ravenflight Inn, passed down from his retired parents. He likes the solitude and meeting new people. He likes that it's just far enough away from his estranged brother. However, despite whatever his dear family friend, Missouri, thinks: he runs a business, not a charity.
I started thinking about how Sam was the only other Avenger aside from Tony to show affection for bots and tech and I wondered about his first days with Redwing.
Of course, after Ultron, it was a little worrying; he’d written a code for a personality and he didn’t even remember doing it. Somewhere between chugging that last cup of coffee and falling asleep at the workstation, he’d turned Sam’s surveillance drone into a bot with emotions.
It nudged his hand insistently, shaking him out of his light doze. He sat up, blinking blearily around his lab for the disturbance. The bot came into view and nudged his cheek, hovering above the table as it gazed at him. Chirping, it flew in a loop and nudged Tony again, impatient. Tony smiled at it helplessly, holding his palm out flat where it hovered above his skin.
It chirped, as if insulted and then settled, it’s warm body resting on Tony’s palm just enough so as not to weigh him down. “What am I doing?” he asked quietly.
He shuffles nervously around his lab waiting for Sam to come down. He tries not to look too eager when Sam jogs down the steps, wiping his mouth as he enters the lab. He’s in track pants and a tight t-shirt, sparing a quick smile as he comes over to the table. He rubs his hands together excitedly, “What have you got for me, smart guy?”
Tony grins, confused at the way the nickname made him feel, “Just what you asked for.” He gestures to the drone resting on the table. He swallowed nervously and prays he hadn’t messed up completely. He hadn’t had the heart to dig into the code and remove the personality. It felt too much like killing it.
Sam moved around the table, gazing at it from all sides. He looked to Tony expectantly, “How do I control it?” He returns to the drone, reaching out to poke the top. He tapped it a little insistently, earning a disgruntled chirp. Tony winced, covering his face as Sam frowned at it, tapping it again and watching as the drone rose. It stopped level with Sam’s eye line and beeped, clearly annoyed.
Sam frowned at it, eyes widening at it circled Sam, examining him from all angles. “What’s it doing?” he asked Tony and he shrugged helplessly in response, muffling a laugh when the drone nudged Sam’s back. “Hey! You’re rude, you know that?”
The drone let out a disgruntled chirp and bumped into Sam harder, pushing him forward against the table and Tony rushed forward.
“Sam, I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention and it’s a little temperamental and-“ he cut himself off, watching Sam’s shoulders shake as he stood up straight. He was laughing, his brown eyes bright with amusement as he looked over at the drone.
“I love him,” he said, crossing his arms. He examined the drone, cocking his head to the side as the bot gazed at Sam. “You need a name.”
Sam and Redwing bonded instantly. Steve insisted on a few practice runs before he allowed the drone in the field but they were near inseparable. Redwing followed Sam around the facility, to dinner, to his room, to the gym. He talked to it constantly, confusing some of the others but it reminded Tony a lot of how he talked to JARVIS. How he used to talk to JARVIS.
Sometimes it was a little hard for Tony to watch but then he reminded himself that Sam had been through a lot and while he had Steve, he was so wrapped up in worrying about Bucky that Sam could use someone to talk to. He focused on that whenever he felt that familiar grief returning.
He’s hard at work on some upgrades for Natasha’s pistols when Sam rushed into the lab, a worried look on his face. He had a bundle of broken pieces in his arms, his voice wavering. “I wasn’t paying attention and - it happened so fast. Can you fix him?” Sam asked, setting the mess of twisted metal on the workstation. Tony winced, looking at the wreckage; the original shape was near unrecognizable. He reached out, drawing his fingers over the nearest piece.
“I don’t know, Sam. He’s pretty wrecked.” Sam cursed, stalking away from the table and covering his face. Tony watched him, his chest aching before returning to the destroyed bot. He knew he could start from scratch and rebuild but he also knew that it wasn’t the same. Replacements were just that: replacements. Even if they looked identical, you knew they weren’t the same being you’d shared all your secrets with, survived traumas with, it wouldn’t be the same being that watched over you while you slept. If he started from scratch, Sam would know.
“I’ll do my best, okay?” he offered, getting the breath knocked out of him when Sam yanked him into a hug. He huffed out a laugh, breathing in Sam’s cologne. “Okay, okay, buddy. You’re welcome. Now let me work.”
Tony worked tirelessly for the next week. Sam brought him coffee and sandwiches under the guise of making sure Tony was eating but Tony knew he was worried. He got this strained look on his face whenever Tony spoke to him like he feared he was going to hear that there was nothing more to be done. Tony also wondered if Sam found his way down here because the others didn’t really get it. They didn’t really understand getting so attached to a piece of technology.
Sam took to watching Tony work a lot and, to Tony’s surprise, it wasn’t unpleasant. It was only mildly distracting when he’d look up, after hours of working, to feel Sam’s eyes on him. “What?” Tony asked one night, a little self conscious.
Sam hid a smile in his hand, the sleeve of his sweater bundled in his fist as he explained, “You talk to yourself. A lot.”
He starts to say no, he must’ve been talking to FRIDAY but- “I thought maybe you were talking to FRIDAY but you don’t speak as though you expect an answer back or for her to do anything. It’s like you just want to... talk.” Sam explains, his hands outstretched.
“It’s not,” Sam replies instantly. He gets up and stretches his arms above his head, his shirt riding up to reveal the thin trail of hair above his waistband. Sam wore his track pants low on his hips, so much so that Tony nearly burned a hole through his table one night when Sam reached up to help Dummy get flecks of smoothie off his support strut and his pants revealed a long stretch of belly and the v line of his hips.
Sometimes Sam talked; he sat down next to Tony one night with a cup of coffee. “I never really asked you how you felt about losing JARVIS. Granted, I didn’t know you all that well. Still don’t, to be honest. But… thinking about how hard this is for me… it must have been rough. And he could talk back!” he added.
Tony hesitated, his throat raw. “It was... hard, I mean. He’s - He’d been there for me since before I was Iron Man. And now… I could have rebuilt. I could have pulled an older backup but it wouldn’t be the same knowing what happened. And now we have Vision. I’m moving on.”
Sam was quiet before he reached out and covered Tony’s hand. When Tony met his gaze, his eyes were soft. “Hey, I’m sorry.” Tony choked, feeling his eyes warm as he forced himself to take a deep breath. Sam nods in understanding and lets go after some time.
Sam’s around when he finishes and, as anxious as Sam’s undivided attention was at times, it was worth it to see Redwing rise again, Sam’s smile was instantaneous. Tony leans against the table and watches Sam beam up at the drone, laughing at his excitable chirps and beeps. Redwing leans in, his own version of nuzzling as it butts up against Sam’s chest. Sam grins, sliding his hand over the upper casing. Although, “You can still see the seams where I welded it together. I’m sorry, let me-“
Sam’s hand lay down on his shoulder, strong as he squeezed lightly, his eyes warm. “He’s perfect. Thank you.” He surprised Tony by pulling him into a tight hug, a few moments passed before Tony awkwardly reached up and pat his shoulder. He could hear Redwing chirping away at Dummy in the corner but all he could think about was the way Sam held him tight, his arms locked like he was never letting go.
After that, Sam was around more. Seemingly with questions about Redwing but Tony knew there was no way Sam had this many questions about maintenance. But he humored Sam, answered them all and begrudgingly took the offered food, coffee and sweater on one interesting night.
“Cornered him outside of a store and he knocked me into a guy holding one before he booked it.” He stretched out, rubbing his shoulder.
“I’m fine. Nothing to worry about.” He poked at the ball of his shoulder for a bit and Tony sighed, standing. Sam looked at him curiously. “What? What - no, no, I’m fine.”
“I’m fine,” Sam whined and Tony rolled his eyes at the fond feeling coming over him. He’d begrudgingly come to enjoy Sam coming to hang out in his lab and Sam knew that, to Tony’s dismay.
“I’m fine,” Tony mimicked in a poor imitation. He made grabby hands again until Sam rolled his eyes and pulled his shirt over his head.
Tony blinked, his breath caught as he held Sam’s gaze pointedly before answering, “Sometimes.” He turned Sam gently and got a look at the ball of his shoulder. “It’s definitely bruised,” he remarked. The skin was darkened, bruised and painful looking. Tony would wonder aloud why Sam hadn’t said something but he knew. They were just normal guys compared to the others. They began this job with a chip on their shoulders.
Still, “You’re usually much smarter than this, bird boy,” Tony remarks. He drops down and grabs the first aid kit from beneath the table. He grabs a compression bandage and starts wrapping it around Sam’s shoulder, securing it under his arm. Sam sighs, his breathing unusually loud in Tony’s ears. He could see the steady rise and fall of Sam’s chest out of the corner of his eye and his mouth watered. He forced himself to focus, biting his lip.
When he finished, he closes the kit and looks up to see Sam staring at him. He starts to smile nervously, wincing internally when he realized his lip was caught between his teeth. Sam reached out and thumbed his lip, freeing it. He swiped his finger pad over the bruised skin and leaned in, meeting Tony’s eyes briefly before their lips touched. Tony sighed, his eyes falling shut as he opened for Sam and set his hands on the table. He was boxing Sam in but he felt snared, lost in the way Sam tilted his head back and sucked on his tongue.
He feels a warm palm slide up his hip and beneath his shirt, a thumb rubbing circles into his hip and it was like everything else they did. Unexpected, curious but pleasant. Easy and he lets Sam slide his palm up his stomach.
A throat clears and Sam huffs through his nose, placing another soft kiss on Tony’s lips, his nose, before pulling back to rest his forehead against Tony’s. “How long have you been there?” he asks, pulling back to look over at the doorway.
Natasha leans against a nearby table, clearly amused. “Long enough. Cute,” she adds with a teasing grin. Tony flushes, turning away and covering his mouth. “Cap needs us,” she explains.
Sam pats his shoulder and Tony meets his gaze, the heat he found there making him shiver. “No more biting my lip, okay?” It sends a flash of heat through Tony’s body and he blushes. Sam steals another kiss, smiling softly as he pulls away. Tony stares at him, trying to will away his own stupid grin as Sam waves and starts towards the doorway.
Here we go again. The numerous projects presently being built or planned for construction in San Francisco have prompted that narrow-minded "not in my back yard" refrain to arise like a mummy rising from the grave. That mummy should stay buried. We should embrace the housing, arts and entertainment facilities, hotels and office space on the drawing board or being built, as they offer increased opportunities to live, play, eat, stay and work in San Francisco. Such projects add to our city's vibrancy and diversity, bring new jobs and more tax revenue for city services.
The new development envisioned or underway will provide further stimulus to San Francisco's economic growth, opening up The City to better accommodate more artists, designers, creative thinkers and entrepreneurs. Why not create enough housing for the middle-class so that parents don't have to flee to the suburbs to afford enough space to raise a family? How long will it be before there are almost no children left in San Francisco, just an aging population of hard-core naysayers? Why not share our great natural and cultural bounty with those who simply want to work and live here without having to commute two-plus hours a day, adding to our Bay Area's air quality problems? We have plenty of space available without compromising our ecology.
Radical NIMBYism will lead to economic and social stagnation. It is a slippery slope that restricts revenues vital for public services, like transit, public safety, libraries and the welfare safety net. It will cause the continued escalation of prices for everything from restaurants to taxi rides to entertainment. Companies are already wary of locating in San Francisco, since they cannot assure their employees of affordable anything.
Small business is the lifeblood of our economy, and yet small tenants are discouraged from locating in a city that restricts supply. Small companies provide essential services and products that fuel the prosperity of larger companies. We must keep The City open for new business formation of all sizes, and especially for small businesses. We can't do this if we're constantly fighting new development.
Instead of fostering policies that discourage job formation, real estate development and economic growth, policymakers should be encouraging greater densities, and greater heights for new housing, especially along BART and Muni lines. If we are to get more people to live and work in San Francisco, then we must reject NIMBYism as a selfish luxury we cannot afford. The City badly needs an expanding tax base to fund financial promises it has made to public employees and to pay for its essential municipal services. New developments add mightily to the public's well-being through contributions to The City's funds for affordable housing, parks, transportation and the like. All of this comes from economic growth and a sensible balance between what we are now and what we need to be moving forward.
The commercial real estate sector contributes significantly to San Francisco's public revenue base, with secured commercial parcels representing 30.4 percent of The City's asset valuation. Office buildings alone represent an assessed value of $45 billion. More than 27,000 people go to work every day to operate and service commercial buildings, an economic enterprise that adds nearly $4 billion in value to the San Francisco metro area.
San Francisco is truly blessed with the amount of new investment currently being made in our city. All of us should embrace these changes and new developments as opportunities to keep our city affordable and welcoming for all.
Steven Ring is president and Marc Intermaggio is executive vice president of the Building Owners and Managers Association of San Francisco.
Dyffryn Rhondda Colliery. - Original paintings by A. Leslie Evans - Papers of David Rees of Port Talbot - Archives Hub