Argh! Totally meant to come back to this but, yes, RL really did run away with my free time. This is a great story and I'm surprised it received such a small response as well. December is a crazy month for many (myself included), which may be a reason for the lack of participation.

but sometimes I feel lost in the words

I can see this, yes. There are a few fic authors that I love but will run into this issue with their stories every once in a while, which can be distracting, especially when a particular story starts off that way. I may need to reread the beginning several times before it sinks in, as if I entered a conversation that was already in progress and I'm trying catch up.