Dorothy

Your supervisor tells you to come into his/her office and close the door. Your instinctive (not necessarily reasonable) first thought is:

Legislators vote to defeat same-sex marriage ban

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff

A proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was defeated today by a joint session of the Legislature by a vote of 45 to 151, eliminating any chance of getting it on the ballot in November 2008. The measure needed at least 50 votes to advance.

The vote came after House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, Senate President Therese Murray, and Governor Deval Patrick conferred this morning and concluded that they have the votes to kill the proposal. Cheers echoed in the State House when the vote was tallied.

More here.

One of the high points of the entire series occurred in the pilot: the reunion of Kwai Chang Caine and Peter Caine. This story looks at the events of the pilot in a little more detail. The first part is narrated by Peter, the second by Caine, and the voices are perfect.

When I'm undercover, I focus all my thoughts on the job, even when I'm "off duty" as I am now. But tonight I can't seem to do that...which isn't a big surprise, considering that I found my father yesterday.

It's nearly two in the morning, and I'm still wide awake, lying here atop a scratchy nylon bedspread in a downtown hotel where I'm registered as Peter McCabe. I get off the bed for the dozenth time tonight and go to the window. I draw open the curtains about a foot, then settle again in the uncomfortable chair that faces outward.

From the nineteenth floor, I can see a lot of lights, but the only ones that concern me are the ones I can't see, the ones in Chinatown. I know my dad must be there -- where else would he go? I was scared shitless tonight when I drove with Chan to the hospital. My mind was racing: did my father get the flowers, did he read the note, did he understand, was he still there, did he leave, how could I shoot him? -- I couldn't shoot him, I'd turn the gun on Chan instead-- Yeah, I had it all planned out. It would have blown my cover with Tan, but that didn't matter. Nothing is more important than my father.

cesario

1880-1918

In Europe again, Albus meets the Knights of Walpurgis and their leader, an Austrian wizard whose friendly, unpretentious charm, and utter lack of blood prejudice, disarms him at first. Grindelwald is Muggleborn himself, and treats pureblood snobbery with the same merry contempt Albus had once attempted to cultivate in himself, and that is how he recognizes it for what it is—a mask for a deep and powerful rage. Grindelwald's attempts to introduce Albus to the Dark Arts are no less a disappointment to the younger man than to the elder: there is nothing new there, no wisdom at all, nothing but the oldest lie, the worship of power, the strong abusing the weak for their own pleasure. In the end Albus leaves quietly, in the dead of night, because there is no point in open battle. Such contests are fought, not with magic, but in the hearts and minds of men and women.

Killing the Cat by Maygra (maygra)
http://wordsmiths.net/Maygra/killing.html

The Good Doctor by Rachael Sabotini (wickedwords)
http://mediafans.org/rachael/highlander/doctor.htm

Light in Your Eyes by Arachne (stealingpennies)
http://www.angelfire.com/home/pandoemonium/arachne/richie.htm

AD 1997 (Coda to Waters of Life and Death) by Basingstoke (basingstoke)
http://www.ravenswing.com/~bas/slash/1997AD.html

Plat du Jour by Arachne (stealingpennies)
http://www.angelfire.com/home/pandoemonium/arachne/platdujour.htm

Hadrian's Wall by Sandra McDonald
http://homepage.mac.com/samcdonald/fanfic/hadrian.htm