Finnley Sparks ♕ Felicity Smoak (prattles) wrote in dunhavenic, @ 2019-11-14 18:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | !narrative, * terri, c: finnley sparks |
WHO: Finnley Sparks
WHEN: Thursday, November 14, 2019; Early Evening
WHERE: The Sparks House
SUMMARY: Finnley remembers everything, too. Occurs concurrently with this and just before this.
WARNINGS: TW for spousal loss, abandonment. Spoilers for Arrow S7.
The first sip of wine was sweet. The second turned to ash on her tongue. Just like that, she’d been taken back. The appearance of a stranger had made her heart race, panic coursing through her veins for their family. Their daughter. It was supposed to be a safe space. They were discussing their normal lives. They were going to be a normal family. I have seen your future, Oliver. Inexorable and unavoidable. I have watched you die. I cannot prevent his passing, but he can prevent the deaths of countless more, including you and your daughter. But he needs to come with me tonight. It had been impossible. No choice had an outcome with the survival of all that they cared for. No solution would keep them all together. No matter how she might have begged or pleaded, the Universe was demanding more of them than she was willing to give, and yet she had no choice. Why does it always have to be you? It was always going to be someone. There was always going to be a threat. They’d been separated countless times. She didn’t even know how many times they had run into danger, putting their lives at risk. It had always been calculated. They’d had so many close scrapes, and always come out the other side. She had let herself believe for a moment that nothing could rip them apart now. That they would have a life that was normal. She could have wished for Ivy Town. She could have wished that they’d never returned to Star City those years ago to assist their friends...that they’d just insisted upon their own retirement from the vigilante life. It had been her that had brought them back into the fold. Oliver had wanted out. Perhaps they’d never been able to get away with it. Something or someone always would have pulled them back. They had needed to be set on that course. But she wondered...even if it had prevented them meeting William. Would that have protected him and his mother? Would that have been worth the sacrifice? Or would they have ended up on that same path regardless? Yes, there was always something. In this case, the end of the friggin’ Universe. I need you to make me a promise. No matter what happens to me. No matter what...you need to do everything in your power-- You keep William and Mia safe. She would promise. She would keep their children safe no matter the odds. No matter what it was that she had to do. Lie, hack, steal...she would be the thing that went bump in the night if anyone threatened their children. She would give them true reason for fear. Nothing would come between her and the promise that she made to him. It was the vow that she would carry...the thing that would keep her going on the hardest of days when she wanted to give in. That was the promise that would define the rest of her life. On our wedding day, you told me that I was the best part of you. But the truth is, we are the best parts of each other. And that is so much bigger than the friggen’ Universe. Theirs was a love story that could be felt across space and time. It had defied all expectations. It had defied death and paralysis, deceit and mistrust. No matter what obstacle was put in their way, they always seemed to find a way back to one another. She wished that she had not let fear hold her back for so long. She wished that they had more time. They were always running out of time. My only regret is not telling you that I loved you sooner. No regrets. She would hang onto every happy memory. Every moment of the time that she got to see Oliver with their daughter. Every evening that they’d cooked together with William or helped him with his homework. Every sweet kiss and gentle touch that he imparted after a long day. The way that he called her back to herself every time that she felt lost. That crooked smile he gave her when no one else was looking. Would you tell Mia that I love her every day? She would tell her every morning, and when she tucked her in for bed. She would make sure that Oliver’s love never left their daughter, even though he couldn’t be there to see her grow. It was unfair in the cruelest of ways that he would miss out on not only his son’s childhood, but their daughter’s as well. He deserved to see every stumble and every victory. He deserved the chance to be the father that he wanted to be. I will find you. Again. I promise. Even with the promise on her lips, the kiss felt like an ending. It felt like a goodbye. She tried to savor it even as her heart screamed out a protest. Their hands framed each other’s face, and she could feel the thrum of his pulse beneath her fingertips. He was there and alive with her in that moment, and she would remember him this way for forever. They belonged to one another. She would carry him with her for all of her days, even if it was with this wound in her heart that would never heal. That embrace was one she never wanted to end. She would have held him there, arms locked around his shoulders with her face buried in his neck, for the rest of eternity if he’d have let her. She would have never moved. She didn’t even need to breathe. She couldn’t, in fact. Even when he pulled away, tension in his arms filled with remorse, she took one last, long look at him. Her fingers lingered there at his stubbled cheek, memorizing every last detail. The color of his eyes, even swimming with tears. The set of his brow and the curve of his lips. The warmth of him under her touch. He turned from her, and she clutched his hand tighter as he walked away, though as he reached that moment of tenuous grip, she let go. She had to. For him. He had no other choice, and she would not make this harder on him than it already was. He was walking to his death to save countless others. To save her. To save Mia. She crumbled, her knees giving out beneath her as she sank to the cabin floor. Sweet wine turned acidic on her tongue, and she was alone. Oliver was gone. For more than two decades, she would fulfill her promise to him. She would keep William and Mia safe...one from afar, and the other with a steady hand at her shoulder. She would have Mia trained by Nyssa al Ghul. She would make certain that William’s business ventures were successful, and run her business from afar to give them both the best life she could...the most normal lives. She would even become the next Calculator to try to make the world a safer place for them. She did it all for love, and for the hope that one day they would no longer need her...that she could fulfill her other promise. I will find you. Again. The wine glass slipped from Finnley’s hand, half a lifetime crowding into her mind. The glass shattered across the kitchen floor with a splash of white wine. Her chest ached, an endless wound ripped open in her heart. Tears slipped down her cheeks, and she braced her hands against the counter lest her knees buckle beneath her from the sheer force of this new, decades long sorrow. A sob was all that she managed, “Oliver.” Her phone buzzed. |