Benjamin Henry Harrision (cbenharrison) wrote in themoderngods, @ 2012-05-22 16:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, !thread, ♥ ben harrison, ♥ brooke dewitt, ♦ cronus, ♦ rhea |
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Who: Cronus/Ben and Rhea/Brooke
When: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | early afternoon
Where: her apartment
What: a visit
Cronus was in agony being away from Rhea for so long. They’d kept in touch since that first moment together, with both of them aware, at the hospital, but they both had a lot to deal with.
Cronus really was in a state of grieving as he planned Kate’s funeral and did what he could to comfort his daughters. They were beside themselves with sorrow. Neither wanted to leave the penthouse, and he made no effort to change their minds. They only stepped outside when it came time to wear black dresses and shed tears at a service for their mother, then it was back to the penthouse where they insisted upon remaining.
Being a man of power, Ben was given a great deal of time off to handle his personal affairs. But it was Cronus’ personal life that needed attention today. After giving the girls his love and promising to be home in time for dinner, he had the driver take him to Brooklyn. It was time to visit Rhea.
---
The building Brooke lived in wasn’t the best. It wasn’t the worst, either. It was a large brick apartment complex that had seen many years, and not always the best of those years. She lived several stories up in a shoebox apartment and she’d been piecing together her life since she’d been released.
Not only was there recovery of a physical sort to attend to, but there was recovery of a mental sort. She, or rather Brooke, had been diagnosed with amnesia. As it turned out, Brooke had a son by the name of Rocco, three and a half years old, the father long gone out of the picture. Right now, her son was being taken care of by her mother. Brooke wasn’t in any shape to be handling her son. Her friends barely believed she could care for herself. She was still away from her work, still learning what she could about her hostess.
She felt as though she was in over her head. The tattoos covering her body that she didn’t understand. The hair color. The disorganized mess of her apartment. It was chaotic and not at all like her. Pushing her hands through her hair, she leaned back against the kitchen counter until she heard the knock at the door and felt that familiar presence.
Her feet couldn’t carry her fast enough to the door. Unfastening the four locks with a soft swear beneath her breath, she threw the door open. “Cronus.”
___
Cronus was still able to look through the strange new physical shape of his wife and see her soul inside. He didn’t hesitate in wrapping his arms around her when the door opened. “I wanted to come sooner,” he said softly as he pressed his cheek to hers. He looked a little shabby, at least compared to how Ben usually looked. He was an impeccably groomed man. Though, to be fair, it was often in an effort to be perfect for his beloved, and she’d been missing from his life recently.
He pulled back to look at her, playing with a lock of pink hair and smiling at it. “Your vessel is.. different,” he added with a chuckle. The neighborhood, the apartment, her hair, the tattoos. It was all a vast departure from the life she’d had before.
---
Rhea had attempted to find the clothing that covered her as much as she could be covered. The tattoos were strange to her, not entirely welcome. She was used to seeing a natural body, this? This would take a while to get used to. Kate had been classically beautiful. This body was beautiful, but different.
“I know.” She breathed, wrapping her arms back around him, holding him tightly to her body. She drank in his scent, the warmth of his frame, and she refused to let go of him. It had been too long. “Yes, she is. She has a lot of friends who are a lot like her.”
___
“Are they kind to you?” he asked out of concern that was expressed in his tone and expression. He’d been so worried about her since leaving the hospital. Settling her bills didn’t feel like enough. He had to find more ways of helping. He wanted her to move in with him, but that would not go over well with his twins, who he had yet to explain everything to.
---
“Yes. They are worried and confused. The doctors...claim that Brooke has amnesia. It works well enough, as know barely anything about her. I do not recognize her friends. The only person I could recognize was...” She paused, looking up at Cronus, suddenly feeling a bit guilty, though she did not know why. She had nothing to feel guilty about. Perhaps she was simply worried about how he would take the news.
“Brooke has a son. A small one, very young. He’s living with her mother at the moment, while Brooke recovers. What am I to do? The child...he needs to be with his mother, but his mother is not here!”
___
“Shhh,” Cronus soothed, pulling her into his arms again. “We’re going to figure this out. I promise. We have each other.” And that was what was most important. The rest could be managed so long as they were together.
Cronus took hold of her hand and led her over to a sofa, pulling her down to sit with him, but always maintaining close physical contact. “What is her son’s name?”
---
Rhea took a deep breath, exhaling it as he soothed her. It was funny, normally she was the one doing the soothing. She stepped with him to the sofa, curling down against him as he sat, and she leaned her head into his shoulder. “Rocco.” She answered, chuckling a little. It was a strange name, to be certain, but then, so was Brooke. Or Ben.
“People look at me, they expect me to be her, but I’m not. It’s easier, since they expect her to be different because of her accident, but...I cannot help but see them mourn the friend they once had.”
___
Cronus did not laugh. Humans of this era had a great many names, and most of them sounded strange to Cronus’ ears, but he tried not to judge. “I’ll love him as though he is my own,” he vowed. Brooke’s son would want for nothing.
“Do you feel her soul? Or has she been accepted by our son?” Cronus could ask Hades about Brooke’s soul.
---
“Thank you.” She said it, but she knew that she didn’t have to. He would know her thanks. She leaned in, brushing her lips across his cheek, before she sighed softly and rested her temple to his shoulder.
“She’s still here. Sleeping, much as I was inside of Kate.” she murmured. “Perhaps she will awaken some day. I cannot say. She may very well be asleep forever.” She did not know what she preferred. It was more peaceful this way.
___
Brooke’s presence complicated things. It meant this body belonged to her. Cronus frowned and wrapped his arm around the small shoulders and kissed the top of all that pink hair. “Do you think she would care for me?” The possibility worried him. What if she woke up one day and was furious with Rhea and Cronus for their treatment of her body? Or if she didn’t like how they’d cared for her son?
---
“I don’t know, Cronus. I don’t know her. She seems...different. She does this thing? Derby? I don’t understand it. The women are all very tight knit, though. It’s how she was hurt. She fell, hit her head. She’d slept for a while. And she still hasn’t woken. Perhaps she never will.” It was a possibility. The doctor had said that he was surprised she’d come out of her coma.
Smoothing her fingers up Cronus’ shirt, she looked up at him, her eyes bright with worry. “How can I live her life if I don’t know what it was?”
___
“Roller derby?” he asked, extremely surprised by this news. It was so far removed from the sort of life he lived. He’d never been on roller skates, not even as a child. But Cronus’ childhood in this body was not a happy one.
He shook his head. “I don’t know.” Cronus put his hand over hers, clutching it to his chest. “I think we should speak with Hades. If her soul came close to death, perhaps he can reach it.”
---
“Yes! That’s it. It’s a strange sport. I tried to read about it, but could not make heads or tails of it.” She sounded disappointed. Though she did not know the people around her, she did care for them. She felt for them, knowing what it was like to lose a loved one.
“We shall. It may be that she is gone, but her spirit is trapped. I only rarely get any inkling of life from her...I do not know if she still lives.” Her palm slid down, resting over Cronus’ heartbeat, even as she calmed and relaxed. “My love. My everything. I have come back to you...and you have come back to me. You’ve given up your quest, then? For power?” she sounded hopeful, her voice soft, eyes half-begging as she gazed up to him.
___
“Given the injury she suffered, I doubt anyone expects her to participate soon. They’ll encourage her to rest and heal from the accident, and they’d probably be understanding if she decided to give up the sport.” That would be easy to explain away. Cronus, or rather, Ben, would not be so easy. No one outside of the other awakened gods would understand his presence in her life, nor hers in his.
He warmed with her hand upon his chest like that. Cronus nodded. “I have. I’m so sorry for how I hurt you, for what I did to our children. The madness..” he started, but closed his eyes, deeply ashamed of how he’d behaved. “I’m undeserving of you.”
---
“That is a good explanation.” She nodded. It was sage advice, something she hadn’t thought of. She was afraid that she would be expected to plunge into Brooke’s life, and it wouldn’t be possible. She was, in all ways, a changed woman. Even Rocco...as a mother, she couldn’t imagine giving up a child, but what of the boy did she know? Would he be safer with his grandmother? It troubled her greatly.
She gazed into Cronus’ eyes, weighing what he said, beyond relieved to see the honesty in his eyes, hear it in his voice. She lifted a hand, pressing it to his cheek, shushing him.
“No. You are not unworthy. Love is given and all who accept it are worthy. Please, Cronus. I love you still as I have always loved you.”
___
Cronus couldn’t bring himself to look at her just yet. Even with her hand on his face and her kind words. He shook his head. “How can you? I caused so much pain. And Hera...” she would never forgive him. He didn’t blame her for it. It was frustrating though, and he wasn’t free of guilt currently either. He took some small pleasure in ruffling her feathers. They were always at odds.
---
“None of us are without sin, Cronus.” She answered. Zeus had splashed about with his own mad grabs for power at times, as had each of their children. Gods were not above the petty emotions of men. She sighed and placed her lips to his, giving him a soft kiss. He had to know that, despite the pain, she had forgiven him. She wanted him back, above all else.
___
Cronus’ eyes opened when she kissed him, but they soon closed again as he wrapped his arms around her and deepened the kiss. Everything about her body was different, and in a way, it felt like kissing a stranger, but her soul was there, and it was her soul he desired. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered against her lips.
---
It didn’t matter to her what his body felt like. He was hers and she was his. Her soul called to his as it always had and she melted against him with a relaxation that she hadn’t felt in ages. She wanted to steal the moment, to stretch it as far as she could. Her lips pressed into his and she shook her head. “It is done, my love. What is past is past. I will judge you as the man you are now, not the god you were then.”
___
Cronus rested his forehead to hers and sighed. A heavy burden was finally starting to fall from his shoulders. He’d been carrying around so much guilt since finding her. It was a long time to think about how Rhea would react when she was finally awake. He didn’t know for sure that she’d forgive him.
Now, here she was, fully aware of his past and present, and Rhea was still willing to share her future with him. He didn’t deserve her. She could argue with him all she wanted on that point, but he was right. “When the girls are ready, will you marry me again?” he asked.
---
Rhea rested for that moment as he struggled, but his question caught her slightly off guard. “Of course I will. But...you must let me settle things with Brooke’s life. Her family, her friends, they won’t understand this. They’ll see it as odd, and I am being generous there. There has not been a man who has come to see her, not yet, so I do not think she had a lover, but...there is still work that needs be done.”
___
And the question of Brooke nagged at him again. “What if she awakens and is displeased with us?” He didn’t want to ruin the woman’s life or make it unrecognizable. Unlike Ben and Kate, who had been born with the souls of gods, Brooke was being occupied for lack of a better word. Invasion might even be more appropriate.
---
“I do not know the answer to that, my love. Her body is dormant. She is asleep. I sense no awakening in her. If my presence here, all of a sudden, now, did not awaken her? Perhaps she will never rise from her slumber.” Rhea murmured, her voice soft. She was getting used to this body, this form. It wasn’t displeasing, just strange. She hoped that Ben, rather Cronus, approved of it. Though she knew as like no one else would.
___
Cronus didn’t care how she looked. He cared only about her soul. That remained the same, and that was what he loved. But he couldn’t ignore the other soul. Brooke was there, somewhere, and she had rights. He’d need her blessing before marrying Rhea again. When he and Kate exchanged their vows, it was out of love. She loved Cronus, even though she’d only ever known him as Ben.
“What do we do?” Rhea was wise, and Cronus trusted her in all things.
---
Gazing into Cronus’ eyes, she let out a gentle sigh. “We will talk to Hades. Perhaps he will be able to tell us if she is to move on or no. She does not feel...aware. Perhaps she holds on, or perhaps something is keeping her here. I know that she is a fighter, but I cannot say if she will ever awaken.” She leaned her head against his shoulder, idly pressing her lips to his neck before she closed her eyes again. “I only wish that I knew.”
___
Cronus leaned into her touches and kisses, comforted by them. His bed was empty now. It hadn’t been in a very long time. Kate and Rhea had been with him for so long, and now to have a distance between the gods, it pained him.
“The garden suffers in your absence,” he said in an effort to change the subject. “And I think my outburst over Kate’s death caused damage that cannot be repaired.” It had been all over the news, the murders and the violent weather that followed.
---
Rhea was lonely as well. She couldn’t stand to be away from her children, her love. It was something she hated. Her worst fear, to be alone. Thinking of her garden brought another pang of sadness to her heart and she felt her fingers tighten in Cronus’ shirt, a reflex of the pain she felt.
“You cannot blame yourself.” she said, her voice hoarse from unshed tears. “It’s not your fault, the pain you felt. This is all...terrible.”
___
“I miss her,” he whispered. Was that really so wrong? Kate was an extension of Rhea in some ways. She wasn’t a substitute. Much of her personality and essence was identical to Rhea’s, because Rhea had been inside her. He’d wondered for some time if perhaps she and Rhea had simply merged with all of Rhea’s memories vanishing. “I miss you,” he said with an ache clear in his voice. “I want you home with me. And the girls..” he sighed and rubbed his face. Could they be comforted in knowing that the woman who was essentially half of their mother was alive?
---
Rhea stopped and she froze for a moment. Of course. Of course he would miss Kate. Still, she didn’t feel whole. Not in this new form. She drew in another breath, exhaling slowly. “I know. I do too.” Reaching up again, she stroked through his hair, straightening beside him. She was still curled into him, but now she sat up.
“I miss you. I would ask you to stay with me the night. If you would.” When he mentioned the girls, she closed her eyes for a moment. “We may...we may need to tell them. About this. Explain everything. But not now. They are grieving. We should let them.”
___
Cronus looked down, his hands falling to his lap. “I promised them I’d be home for dinner.” Glancing up at Rhea, he examined her foreign eyes. “They’re afraid to leave the penthouse. I barely convinced them to attend the funeral.” The girls were a broken mess over their mother’s murder.
Grabbing hold of her hands, he squeezed them. “Tomorrow? I’ll make an excuse and stay with you tomorrow night.”
---
Rhea knew he would say no, simply by the way his eyes were cast down, the way he moved. She nodded, her heart squeezing at the description of how the girls had been behaving. She wanted to comfort them, to soothe their fears away, but...their mother had been murdered.
She looked down at his hands, then back up to his eyes, giving a nod. “Alright. I can wait one more night. I have waited this long to be with you again.”
___
Cronus put his hand to her cheek. “I’m here now,” he reminded her. It was mid afternoon. They had hours to spend together before he would have to return to the penthouse and make dinner for their daughters.
Scooting, Cronus wrapped his arms around Rhea, pulling her to him. “There’s so much you don’t know. You’d be so proud of the man Hades has become,” he started with that, because it was what gave him the greatest joy. “He freed Persephone. He’s matured and become one of the finest souls I’ve ever encountered.”
---
She smiled softly. “I know. I long to fall asleep in your arms.” She couldn’t help the tiny laugh that slipped her lips. It was such a small thing, but so treasured.
As he pulled her close, she shifted until her body was pressed to his, side to side. She leaned her head against his shoulder again and she found another smile crossing her lips. “He has? He did? Oh.” The pride that filled her was immeasurable. She had not approved of Hades’ snatching of Persephone, but to hear that he’d made amends? It was heartening. She felt tears prick her eyes and she put her hand to her lips. “I cannot wait to speak to him.”
___
Cronus missed that as well. He took for granted the fact that she was the last thing he saw each night and the first thing to greet his eyes when he woke. Now he was alone, and the bed was large and cold without her presence.
“Letting her go was painful for him. They are.. strained.. but I have hope that their relationship will be strengthened. I promised him I would tell you. Before. But I am not as brave as Hades. I was too afraid of losing you.”
---
Rhea listened, thinking about her son. Thinking about what it must have taken for him to let Persephone go. It took real strength. What Cronus said about bravery, it made her heart ache.
“Do not ever fear for losing me. I will never leave you. I would not let death take me, nor will I give up until the last breath has left me, heart and soul. Please believe in that, Cronus.” She only prayed that, when things settled, he would not return to his old ways. She did not think he would, but only time would tell.
___
“But I did lose you,” he stressed. For a very long time. He’d been stuck in Tartarus for.. he didn’t know how long. He’d lost track of time. Hades kept him company, as did Persephone, but they could not replace the comfort of Rhea. “I can’t again. It will destroy me.”
---
“You never lost me.” She murmured, a promise. “I was always waiting, always there. My heart was with you.” It might have sounded overly sentimental to anyone else listening, but Rhea meant every word. She was faithful in all ways. It had killed her to go against her husband. She hadn’t wanted to fight him, hadn’t wanted to trick him, but she hadn’t any idea of what else to do. “I will never leave your side again. We will get through this.”
___
In no way did Cronus blame Rhea for her actions. He’d forced her hand. Power had driven him mad, and he had to be stopped. She did what was necessary to spare their family. She’d saved him too, in a way, because falling from grace like that had been the wake up call he needed. He never would have changed. He likely would have destroyed himself. “Hera harbors great hatred. Poseidon is.. indifferent, well, perhaps bitter, but willing to ignore me. Zeus seems willing to let go of the past. He sees me as a potential ally, or maybe he’s only keeping me close to keep an eye on me.” He didn’t know how Demeter felt, and they had yet to find Hestia. Chiron was missing as well, though he was not Rhea’s child.
---
Rhea listened to him, hoping that she could sway Hera back to caring for her father. She knew, though, that the wounds would not heal so quickly, nor would they be assuaged so easily by the words of their mother. It would take time to regain their trust, she knew.
Hopefully, it was time they all had. “I hope that they will come to trust you again, Cronus. You deserve it, but it will take them a while to see it. I hope that they will trust me, despite my new form.”
___
“I’m afraid I have not done much to earn their trust, for I have been reluctant to trust them. Their lingering fears could trigger a repeat of history, and I am not eager to be ripped from you again.” He had changed, yet Rhea appeared to be the only one capable of seeing it. How long before Hera plotted to destroy him? She assured him, swore an oath, that she would not punish him for past sins, but could her word be trusted? He did not know.
“Let us not speak of this further. It is a waste of breath, and I did not come here to worry you.” He pressed a kiss to her shoulder before resting his cheek there. “I wish only to be in your presence always. The body you inhabit matters not, so long as I may embrace it.”
---
“I understand. Trust damaged in not trust easily won again, my love.” She murmured, stroking her fingers down his cheek before she let them rest in his hair. She closed her eyes as he kissed her shoulder, her fingers not standing idle for long, shifting through his short dark hair as she sighed.
“It has been far too long since I have been held.” Her voice was soft still as she listened to his breathing, felt his heartbeat against her skin. She longed to kiss him, to take him into her arms, but would she betray this body to use it so? She was torn.