brandi. (zombiephile) wrote in daiquiri, @ 2011-04-17 01:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | 50 prompts, char: teddy orsini, game: dark mark rising |
50 Prompts: #36, Joy & #5, Sorrow (Theodore Orsini)
Title: Joy
Characters: Theodore Orsini and Annie Eastman
Setting: Christmas morning 1962, Milan
Word Count: 769
Summary: When you take your childhood sweetheart on a romantic vacation away, it's kind of required that certain things happen.
Rating: G for Gooey
Author's Note: For the 50 prompts #36: Joy
Teddy would be the first to admit that he was a sappy fool around his girlfriend. He didn't care who knew it: he loved Annie, and she brought out the big fluffy teddy bear that was hidden inside the hulking mountain of muscle. Careful not to move too much, he turned just his head to look out the window. Snow fell softly outside, and he just couldn't suppress a smile at that. A white Christmas, Annie would love that. He turned his gaze back to the angel sleeping beside him, her dark hair touseled by sleep, her head pillowed on his shoulder, one of her delicate arms draped possessively across his chest. He had one arm trapped beneath her and locked around her waist, and with his free hand, he traced his fingers lightly up her arm to her shoulder, then reached up to brush her hair away from her face, leaning down to kiss her softly on the temple. Annie's eyes fluttered open, and she smiled, tilting her head up slightly to look at him, her brown eyes still cloudy with sleep. "Is it Christmas?" she asked, her voice slightly rusty. "Not only Christmas, but a white one at that," Teddy answered with a smile, gesturing toward the window. Annie turned her gaze to the window, but Teddy kept his eyes on her, loving the look of joy that blossomed on her face. He knew that she loved snow. "It's beautiful," Annie breathed, her eyes still locked on the window. Teddy smiled, softly tracing little circles and spirals on her shoulder with his fingertips. "Absolutely beautiful," he agreed, though he wasn't talking about the snow. Annie looked back to Teddy with a smile and kissed him. "I was talking about the snow," she said, teasingly. "So was I?" Teddy grinned, then laughed as Annie whacked his shoulder with the back of her hand. "Can we go for a walk in the snow before breakfast?" Annie asked, her eyes shining. "Of course we can. But first, I wanted to give you your present." In the middle of the night, while Annie slept, Teddy had slipped out of bed to put a small, wrapped box on the small bedside table on Annie's side of the bed. "I thought this trip was my Christmas present," Annie said, resting her chin on Teddy's chest as she looked up at him. "You didn't have to get me anything else, Teddy Bear." Teddy smiled at her nickname for him, kissing her lightly on the tip of her nose. "But I wanted to." He gestured to the box behind her. "Open it?" Annie turned to see where he gestured, and she sat up and tucked the sheet up around herself before reaching over to pick up the box. Glancing sideways at Teddy, she carefully unwrapped the box. It was a small, black velvet box that opened on a hinge. The kind that jewellery came in. Specifically rings. Teddy had sat up, himself, while Annie had been unwrapping the box. Seeing her hands start to shake, Teddy reached over and gently took the box from her hands and flipped it open. Nestled inside was a diamond ring. It wasn't much, just a simple gold band with a small, princess-cut diamond sparkling at the center. He kept his eyes on Annie's face as she looked first down into the box, then up at Teddy's face, then back down at the box. She brought her hands up to cover her mouth, not saying anything. Teddy carefully removed the ring from the box and gingerly took Annie's left hand, sliding the ring onto her fourth finger. It was a perfect fit. "Annie Margaret Eastman, I've loved you for longer than I can remember. I can't remember a time without you in my life in the past, and I can't imagine any time in the future without you in my life with me. I want to raise a family with you, grow old with you. I want you to be the last person I see before I fall asleep at night and the first person I see when I wake up in the morning. Will you please do me the honour of marrying me?" Annie couldn't say a word, her voice was caught in her throat along with her breath. Her eyes brimmed with tears of joy, though, and she brought her hands up to cup the sides of Teddy's face. Leaning in, she kissed him. That was all the answer Teddy needed. |
Teddy was just useless today. Every few minutes, he was glancing at the clock, and he was just plain incapable of giving his patients his full attention, and that wasn't fair to them. Finally, after his 2 o'clock appointment left, he asked the receptionist to call the rest of his appointments for the day to reschedule. He sat in his office for a while afterwards, attempting to get some paperwork done, at least, but still his attention strayed. His thoughts were concentrated across town, where Annie was seeing her doctor, to confirm what they both already suspected: that she was once again pregnant, that Mia might soon have a little brother or sister. He had insisted that she take the car, that he could take the tube to work today, because the nearest tube station to her doctor's office was four blocks away. Every time the phone rang out in the reception area, Teddy looked up, waited for the receptionist to call in that it was for him. Her appointment was at 2:15. Glancing at the clock on his wall, Teddy saw that it was already nearly 4:30. Annie's appointment should have been long over. She should be home by now. Maybe she was waiting until he got home, to tell him in person. Teddy stood from his desk and was just snagging his coat off the rack by his door when he heard the phone ring in the reception area again. He was walking through on his way to the door, pulling his coat on, when the receptionist called out his name. "Doctor Orsini! Wait!" Teddy abruptly changed direction and crossed over to the desk. "Is it my wife?" he asked. The receptionist's face turned a bit white, and she shook her head almost imperceptively. She held the phone out to him. "It's … it's the hospital, Doctor Orsini." The bottom fell out of Teddy's stomach. Why would the hospital be calling him? He snatched the phone up. "Hello, this is Doctor Orsini. Is- my wife, Annie Orsini, is she okay?" The voice on the other end of the line was kind, gentle. The girl must have been hired specifically because her voice managed to have a calming effect even as she was delivering bad news. She was saying something about a car accident. That Teddy needed to come down to the morgue and identify the body. After that, Teddy could hear that she was still talking, but nothing she was saying registered with him. The phone fell from his numb fingers, clattering to the desk. The receptionist picked it up quickly, babbling reassurances to the girl on the other end before hanging up. All Teddy could do was stand there, still as a statue, and look down at the plain gold band on the fourth finger of his left hand. It hadn't left his finger since the moment Annie had slid it into place, not even eight years ago. As he stared down at it, a wave of sorrow crashed over him, and it took a moment for him to realise that the heart-rending scream of anguish that rang in his ears came from him. |