time goes on ,

[anna trent-orsino]

anna marie trent-orsino .
----time, look where we are and what we've been through, baby .

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LIFE COULE REALLY NOT BE BETTER FOR ANNA THESE DAYS. THERE WAS a time not all that long ago when she had felt like the world was falling apart, and that nothing would ever be okay again. She had been wrong, though. After losing her husband, Hunter, nothing had seemed right. Hunter had been her world. He had been everything to her. Without him, she hadn’t known what to do. She still had scars from where she had attempted to commit suicide shortly after his death. Had it not been for Tyler Orsino, Anna would have succeeded in ending her life that day. But living had given her so many opportunities. Shortly after that she had found out she was pregnant with Hunter’s son. At the time when she had found out, it hadn’t felt like the blessing it was meant to be, but a way for God to cause her even more pain. She had been close to impossible to deal with around that time. Her friends and her family had dealt with the unpleasantness, though, and it was because of them that she had made it through. Most importantly, it was because of Tyler. He had always been a good friend, and after Hunter’s death, he had become a prominent part of her life. He had dealt with her when no one else would. In that time she had developed feelings for him, and shortly after had found that he had them as well. They had been married for four years now, and Tyler was the father to her son that Hunter never had the chance to be. Tyler and Michael were her entire world, and she clung to them tighter than she ever thought she’d hold to someone.

SINCE HAVING MICHAEL AND MARRYING TYLER, ANNA HAD MADE A
life for herself as well. She hadn’t had any formal schooling, because really, that just wasn’t an option for her. She was living in a small town with a husband and a son. Going away to college hadn’t been an option. Still, Anna had had a dream of her own, and with the help of the people around her, she had achieved it. She now ran the best diner in all of Grace. Anna hadn’t been able to cook to save her life at the start, and in that regard she had help from her cousin Brittany, whom had been the temporary chef to start out with. Now there was a regular man by the name of Louis, and from the way the town flocked, he was pretty good at what he did. Mykayla Trent and Amy Orsino had helped out a lot, too, at the start, but then they had all went to college and perused their own dreams. Jodi Ames was a full time employee, for the most part, and her daughter Zahara spent a great deal of time in the diner. Anna was quite proud of what she had achieved. She had never figured she could achieve something so great, but she had. She had a pride in herself that she hadn’t felt ever in her life. She was so blissfully happy that it was hard to imagine that she had ever felt any other way. There were still times that she thought about Hunter. It was hard not to when Michael was the spitting imagine of his father. If he grew up to look exactly like his father, Anna wouldn’t be at all surprised. It was a bittersweet sort of thing. She had lost her husband, but she had gotten a son, and then she had gotten Tyler. It was hard to see the bad with all the good, and she couldn’t say that she wouldn’t want her life to turn out this way.

ANNA HAD WORKED AT THE DINER FOR THE MORNING AND AFTERNOON shifts. She left Jodi in charge of the evening shift. The best part of being your own boss was that you could work whenever you felt like it. Michael sat at his little table in the middle of the living room, coloring in a coloring book that Brian had just bought him. That man spoiled her son more than she and Tyler did, but Anna didn’t see that as a completely bad thing. There had been a time when they hadn’t been able to spoil him at all, and so Anna always enjoyed being able to get her son something that he desperately wanted. He had just finished coloring a picture and held it up for Anna to see. “Look Mom!” he exclaimed with a wide grin on his face. Anna gave him one to match, and she praised his work like mothers should. He then told her to come and color with him, and so she sat herself at the table with him and did. It was after that that Tyler finally walked in, just getting off his shift. He walked into the living room and Anna felt his lips brush her cheek. “Hey,” she said softly, then turned her head to give him one in return. Michael grabbed his attention then, showing of his new coloring book and what he had done so far, and then showing some of the other pictures he had drawn with Zahara earlier. “Go ahead and get cleaned up. I’ll start dinner in a minute,” she said when Michael had finished showing off his work and gone back to his picture. She grinned up at Tyler, gave him another kiss, and then watched as he left the room. Yep. Anna was definitely a fortunate girl, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

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tagged for tyler orsino ,

[tyler orsino]

tyler orsino.
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-----There’s that saying, the one that says, “Day to day, nothing seems to change, but look back a year from now and everything is different.” Tyler Orsino was never one for analyzing and deep thought like that, but he knew the saying was true. His life was so much different now from what it had once been. Molded by a couple of big events, and a lot of smaller ones, his life had hit a few lows, but had come out on an all time high. This was exactly what Ty wanted; he couldn’t ask for it to be much better. Granted, about five year ago, he would have given anything to change how things were turning out. Five years ago, the entire town of Grace probably would have been happy to change everything that was going on. Nothing had seemed good then; it had been like a miserable little rain cloud and hovered over them all and had decided to screw with everyone’s life. Kade had found out he had a son that was three years old at the time. Hunter had found out he had cancer. Jared and Mackenzie had gotten married, only for Mac to miscarry their first child. Jocelyn had gotten pregnant. Jared and Kade both had cheated. Tyler had gotten into deal drugs. Hunter had died after he and Anna had an extremely short-lived marriage. Samantha had come back to town, causing some issues for Jacen and Hadley. The mine had collapsed, nearly killing Jacen, Kade, and Jared. Everywhere anyone turned, there was something going wrong. But then, it was like that stupid little cloud had gotten bored and moved on, allowing everyone to pick up the pieces that were left of broken lives. Jared and Mac had gotten back together and now happily lived with their son, Wes. Jocelyn had her and Kade’s daughter, Ava, and Kade had married Shaye and now had another daughter, Kaylan. Jacen had married Brit, and they had their own child. People were just happy now, and it was a good thing to see.

-----It was sometimes easy to forget all the bad stuff that had happened, but Tyler knew that without all of that, he wouldn’t have the life that he had now. Hunter had died, and Anna had almost killed herself and her unborn child because of it. Ty and Hunter had been best friends, and Tyler had felt like it was his duty to help Anna then. Of course, he had always been Anna’s friend as well, and would have been there to help he no matter what. They spent a lot of time together, and eventually that had led to them feeling more than friendly feelings toward each other. Tyler had been hesitant at first, not wanting to just be the second choice, Anna’s replacement for Hunter. He wanted her to want him for him, and that had been a hard obstacle to overcome for a little while. However, it was soon easy to see that they were genuinely crazy about each other, and Tyler loved Hunter Michael like he was his own son. Tyler finally found the nerve to ask Anna to marry him, and they had been married for four years now. They had been the happiest four years of Ty’s life. There were moments when it was hard to look at Michael and not see Hunter there; Ty could remember him and Hunter in elementary school together at that age, and it was difficult to remember their lost friend. But, Ty knew that Hunt would be happy with this. He would have wanted Anna to be happy and to find love again, and he would want a good man around to be there for his son when he couldn’t be. Michael had Ty, but also had three uncles that adored him. The kid would be fine, just like everyone else had turned out to be.

-----The only thing Tyler wasn’t thrilled about in his life was his job. Mining coal wasn’t the greatest thing in the world, but it was what most of the men in Grace ended up doing. That day, Jared, Kade, and Tyler had all been underground on the same shift, and some higher up had come around, chewing them out about some kind of safety issue. The guy did it often, mostly liking to hear himself talk as no one really paid attention anymore. But he got up in Kade’s face about something, and Kade had shoved him back and had a hand pushed firmly to the other man’s throat. No one down here needed to be spoke to on safety, he had said. It was the people in their safe little offices that needed lectured on how to keep their men that actually down below safe. Which was really a fair statement, considering that they were asked to do things under some bad conditions sometimes. Kade and Jared had already lived through one explosion, and they were quick to remind this obnoxious little man why that had happened. It clearly wasn’t the miners’ fault. So, all in all, it had been an interesting day at work. Ty loved a little bit of conflict, and being around the Trent boys almost always generated something of the sort. But, Ty’s favorite part of the day was when he got to leave the mine and go home. He loved walking through the door to see Anna and Michael there, safe and sound and happy. Today as he walked through the door, he could see that they were coloring. A grin came to his lips as he slipped his boots off at the door, and then walked into the living room.

-----Anna looked so cute, sitting at that little table coloring with her son. He squatted down beside of her and kissed her cheek. “Hey,” she said, before turning and kissing him back. Before Ty could say anything else, Michael grabbed his attention. It looked as though he had gotten a new coloring book, and he was really proud of what he had done in it so far. Ty loved coloring; he loved pretty much anything his five-year-old stepson did. They got along perfectly. Ty praised the little boy on his pictures, which were actually really good. Michael had to get that artist ability from Hunter, who had inherited it from Marion. When the child excitedly turned back to the book and started coloring again, Ty watched for a moment before Anna spoke. “Go ahead and get cleaned up. I’ll start diner in a minute.” He grinned, thinking that if Michael weren’t sitting right there, he probably would have made some kind of suggestive comment about him liking to be dirty. Anna grinned, too, before giving him another kiss. Ty stood and walked through the house to their room, grabbing a clean shirt and a pair of jeans before heading to the bathroom to clean up and change. When he came back out, Michael was still coloring, and he could hear Anna in the kitchen. ”Hey, little man. What do you say after supper me and you watch a movie?” Mike turned and looked at him with that excited smile only a child can have. “Can we watch Ice Age?” ”You got it.” Michael grinned, then went back to his picture, seemingly determined to finish it before supper. Ty walked into the kitchen then, where Anna was stirring something on the stove. He came up behind her and let his arms wrap around her middle, his chin resting gently on her shoulder. “Whatever that is, it smells good,” he commented. ”Need help?”

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[anna trent-orsino]

anna marie trent-orsino .
----time, look where we are and what we've been through, baby .

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ANNA HAD OFTEN FANTASIZED ABOUT THE LIFE SHE AND HUNTER
would have together. She had always imagined it just like this, too. Her and him living happily together with their children, being so blissfully happy that it felt like nothing could touch them. A safe, secure home like this was what she had always wanted; it was what she herself had had as a child. But then Hunter had died, and all those dreams had seemed to fade away and all she had seen was this gaping black hole in her future, with no chance at happiness or safety. It had been so hard for her to try and see a bright side to anything back then. At first, it had been difficult for her to even let Tyler in, and most of the time she had simply bullied him and taken all her anger at the world out on him. After that, she had slowly started seeing Tyler in Hunter’s place, and having such a wonderful life with him. It had been so hard for her to accept that. She hadn’t known if she could just move on and be happy with someone else. But eventually Tyler’s charm had gotten to her, and she knew that she was absolutely crazy about him. She had loved Hunter so much, but she had found that she could love Tyler too. And she did. In all honesty, Anna didn’t know what she would have ever done without Tyler. He had helped her through the most difficult part of her life. And he had stepped in as a father to her son. Michael would never know his father. He would never get to hug him or be mad at him or simply have him there. What relieved Anna so much was that he wouldn’t be without a father figure to look up to. Anna was determined that her son would never be without, and her family helped her so much in that. She was a member of what felt like the biggest family on earth, made up of the Morgans, Allans, Trents, and Orsinos. She loved her big extended family, and she was glad that Michael had to chance to know them all.

AS BAD AS THINGS HAD SEEMED AT ONE TIME, THEY WERE ANYTHING but now. Anna was so happy that she couldn’t even remember ever being sad. This was how life should be, and after so many things had gone wrong, it was so nice that they could have such good things. As Tyler left the room, Anna finished coloring in the part of her picture she had been coloring and then set her crayons down. She looked over at her son. “So what do you want for dinner?” He was quiet a minute, still coloring at his picture. He finally looked up with a grin that was so close to Hunter’s that she felt an ache in her heart. “Cheeseburgers!” Anna laughed and ruffled her sons long, dark brown hair. “Cheeseburgers? You sure?” He nodded his head. “Yeah! And French fries!” He was excited about it that Anna couldn’t possibly say no to him. She laughed softly. “Alright. Cheeseburgers it is.” She heard the sound of the shower running, so she stood from the table. She leaned over and kissed Michael on the top of his head, then ruffled his hair again. “Mom!” he complained, which made her laugh again. Anna went into the kitchen and dug around in the freezer for the hamburgers and then stuck them in the microwave to thaw before she fried them. She walked back to the fridge and got out the other stuff that she needed for their meal of cheeseburgers and French fries. She stuck the skillet on the stove and turned it on, letting it warm a little before placing the burgers themselves on it. “Hey Mike! You want some Mac and Cheese too?” She immediately got an excited yes in reply and so she grabbed a pot and started boiling some water as well. Macaroni and Cheese had always been a favorite food in the Allan and Morgan households, and Michael had inherited that from her as well. By the time she heard Tyler coming, Anna already had the hamburgers frying and fries in the deep fryer.

ANNA HEARD THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN TYLER AND MICHAEL, AND she couldn't help but smile to herself. Tyler was such a good father, though she had never had any doubts about that. It was herself that she had doubted. She hadn’t thought that she would be anything close to a good mother; no one else had thought that she would be either. Somehow, though, she had become a fairly great mother, if she didn’t say so herself. At first she had struggled through it, completely unsure what to do. But Brit and Tyler and Jace and her parents and so many others had helped her. And for the first two months of her and Tyler living together, dinner for them had consisted of grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. She had a pretty wide variety of things to cook, now, and she could even stand on her own as a temporary cook in her diner. She had grown a lot over the years, and it was all because of that little boy that was currently sitting in the living room. ”You got it.” She heard Ty’s footsteps coming into the kitchen and in her direction. She felt his arms go around her waist and his chin resting on her shoulder. She loved when he did that. “Whatever that is, it smells good.” She grinned. “Why thank you. It’s cheeseburgers, French fries, and macaroni and cheese.” So maybe it wasn’t the most traditional meal, but for their family, it worked perfectly well. ”Need help?” Anna shook her head. “I think I got it, but you are welcome to stay just where you are.” She glanced at him over her shoulder and grinned. She stirred the macaroni and checked the other stuff. “Okay, I take that back. I need cheese.” She felt Ty move away from her and toward the counter where she had left everything sitting. Then he came back. “Thanks.” She put the cheese on the burgers and then let them sit and melt. “So do I get invited to this movie night of yours, or have I been banished from the living room,” she teased. “And choose your answer wisely, it will determine on whether or not I give you the good French fries or the burnt ones.” She laughed softly, then leaned over and kissed Tyler. She pulled back. “So how was your day? Anything interesting? Oh! And Brit made cookies today, Brian brought some with him when he stopped by today.” Brit was pretty wonderful when it came to making cookies. She had learned from their cousin Briar, who was a hot shot cook in New York. Everyone in the family used her recipes when it came to cooking. “And don’t even think about sneaking any before dinner. Michael’s already tried.” She laughed, then went silent, waiting for Tyler to talk about his day.

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[tyler orsino]

tyler orsino.
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-----As was painfully obvious, there were times in Tyler’s life that had been wicked. His childhood wasn’t picture perfect; his parents were really nothing to brag about most days and his two older brothers were a far cry from the ideal role models. Brandon and Micah Orsino were as close to thugs as you could get in a small town like this. They weren’t nearly as hard core as one might imagine a drug dealer from New York City being, but they were definitely not the boy-next-store types. Ty had always hated how they were and who they had turned out to be, but once upon a time, he had allowed himself to be misguided. It was a good intention gone bad. Micah had finally come back home after years of being away, and Tyler had tried to get closer with his brothers without actually having to be involved in their trade. Tried was the keyword, and he had failed epically. It had started out with small things, like just tagging along when they went to make a deal. It had been a slippery slope, and before Ty had realized, he was in it all the way. His life had been pretty scary then; he hadn’t liked who he was, but it seemed easier to be that way and get the money out of it than to give it up. He had seen how seductive that lifestyle could be, and saw how it had taken his brothers the way it had. But, by some grace of God, Tyler had woke up and realized that wasn’t the life he wanted. His good friend Molly had been the one to shake him, to make him open his eyes and see how destructive he was being. Looking back on it, it was hard to believe that he had almost been that close to never being where he was now.

-----Ty wouldn’t give Anna and Michael up for anything in this world. Sure, he didn’t love his job at the mines and dealing would have been way easier, but it was dangerous. And he had been an ass then. Anna wouldn’t have put up with that shit for long, and his life wouldn’t be the dream that it was. Holding her in his arms, he knew how extremely lucky he was. She had always been his good friend, and she made an amazing wife. Sometimes they bickered, both of them being stubborn and not afraid to put the other in their place when needed, but that’s how it had all really started. Tyler had been with Anna through some dark times, and while he hated being the mean guy, he hadn’t been afraid to tell her like it was when she needed a good dose of reality. That tough love had brought them here, though, and even if they were sometimes frustrated by the other, by the end of the day (most times) they forgave and forgot what it was that they had been bickering about. She was just the kind of girl that an Orsino needed around. His green eyes surveyed the stovetop, seeing just what it was that Anna was preparing for supper as she told him. “Why thank you. It’s cheeseburgers, French fries, and macaroni and cheese.” Yep. He could smell the fries in the fryer, and the hamburger frying in the skillet. This was probably one of his all time favorite meals, and knew that Michael had had a hand in planning it. That boy and Ty could almost pass for a real father and son pair sometimes, and would if Mike didn’t look so much like Hunter. Ty had asked if Anna needed help, but he was fairly sure that she had this all under control. “I think I got it, but you are welcome to stay just where you are.” He grinned just as she looked over her shoulder and flashed him a grin of her own. When she turned back to stir the macaroni noodles, Tyler snuck a quick kiss on her neck. He loved little moments like that; they were so simple, but he still loved them.

-----But, they were just little moments, and they ended. “Okay, I take that back. I need cheese.” Of course she did. He pulled away from her and went to the counter where she already had something like an assembly line set up. Ty picked up the slices of cheese and went back to Anna, handing them to her. “Thanks. So do I get invited to this movie night of yours or have I been banished from the living room? And choose your answer wisely; it will determine whether or not I give you the good French fries or the burnt ones.” He raised a brow, as if to say, “Oh, really?” That crooked Orsino grin played on his lips. ”Hm. Well, I want the good fries, so I guess you’re invited,” he teased back, which she replied to with a laugh and a kiss. Like he would tell her she wasn’t allowed. “So how was your day? Anything interesting? Oh! Brit made cookies today. Brian brought some with him when he stopped by today.” Tyler’s head automatically turned, looking for the container that held these said cookies. If anyone could make a mean cookie, it was Brit. “And don’t even think about sneaking any before dinner. Michael already tried.” Tyler sighed, looking at Anna as he leaned back against the counter. ”Fine,” he said in a fake pouty voice. ”But work was work. Things got a little interesting when Kade nearly choked a guy for getting up in his face about safety procedure bullshit that we follow to a freaking tee, anyway. Classic Trent move, but the guy deserved it. And then Jared seemed a little off, but that’s really nothing new. Other than that, it was the same old, same old.” Ty did read over and grab a fry that was done, popping it into his mouth before Anna could stop him. ”How ‘bout your day? Anything eventful? Any scandalous gossip I should know about?”

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