Jaime Davies (monologuinghero) wrote in expresslogs, @ 2012-09-20 21:04:00 |
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Entry tags: | jaime dorny, raymond leon |
Effing Train
Characters: Jaime, Ray
When: September 20, post-departure
Location: their room. On the train.
Warnings/Rating: Typical Jaime-warnings apply
Summary: Jaime is back on the train, and somewhat less than impressed.
Status: Complete/Gdocs’d
She’d thought they were clear. The clock had struck 9:00, then 9:01, and they were still settled in their borrowed cabin. The train had surely departed the reality, without them. She’d felt a sense of elation, and an overall lightening of her spirit: they were free. They were finally free. And then, in a flash, a heartbeat, a blink … they weren’t. It wasn’t enough to be back on the train, oh no. It wasn’t enough that they were trapped again, that the roulette wheel of Ray’s life was once again spinning, no. Jaime felt the most horrific pain she’d ever felt blanketing the left side of her head. A throbbing in her temple that seemed to worsen with every beat of her heart. She felt the tears slipping from her eyes, and she closed them tightly. She felt a wave of helpless frustration, of rage with no outlet sweeping over her. She reached out for Ray, her palm skating across his bare chest before she pressed herself closer to him. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. They’d been free of the fucking train. They’d escaped, they were making plans to start a new life. It hadn’t jerked people back from New York, so why the fuck were they back on it now? Despite the pain in her head, she couldn’t hold back the soft sobs that shook her body. At least he was here, now, but for how long? How long was the train going to let them stay together? If they tried to get off at another stop, would the same thing happen? Would they keep being pulled back on until they were rescued on the train quit forever? She felt the familiar weight of the worries that only came from the train settling back on her, and she tried to pull herself together. That, though, was an exercise in futility, and after a moment she stopped fighting it and gave in. ____ It had almost seemed too good to be true, and then it turned out to be exactly that. He barely had time to process that they were back on the train before an intense pain flashed through his head. He covered his face for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut as he collected himself and tried to focus through the throbbing of his head. Jaime’s hand against his chest centered him some and he pulled his hands away from his face, reaching out for her instead as she moved closer. He wrapped his arms around her, the pain and Jaime’s tears distracting him from his own disappointment at being pulled back onto the train. Later he would wonder why it happened. People had stayed off the train before. Had it just been a coincidence? The train was ready to get rid of them anyway so it had allowed it? Had the train somehow compelled them to stay off at that stop? For now he just held her. They were back on the train, they’d deal with it, and they still had each other. And really bad headaches. ____ Opening her eyes, she squinted at him to be sure it really was him. She had a moment or two to wonder if her wand had come along with her, and she gave some serious debate to whether or not it was worth it to roll over and find out. Drawing away from Ray slowly while trying not to move her head, she fumbled around on the nightstand until her fingers curled against the familiar length of wood. Well, at least there was that. “It’s not fair,” she whispered as she wiggled closer to Ray. She wondered if a potion would help the headache, or even regular drugs, but she was willing to bet it wouldn’t. Not this kind of headache. People who’d tried to stay behind at the resort had reported the same thing. So that meant whatever the train was going to do for its trick of the week, she’d be incapacitated for the first day of it. She realized she didn’t even want to network to bitch about this. She’d said goodbye to people. She’d cried, and thought about how much she’d miss them, and … now, here she was. Right back on the train. Later, when the pain had passed, she’d curse the train out with every word she knew. “You want anything?” She mumbled. “Potion. Drugs? Don’t think they’ll help, but …” she was sure Lily would bring them something anyway; she could at least manage that much of a network post. ___ Ray loosened his grip on her when she eased away and he squinted his eyes open to see what she was doing. “It’s not,” he agreed once she was close to him again, draping his arm around her once more. The headache was like salt in the wound and he didn’t doubt for a second that the train could have brought them back on board without inflicting this pain on them. “We can try again next decent stop,” he murmured, closing his eyes once more. He wasn’t sure that actually helped anything, but keeping them open seemed like a great deal of work. If people had been able to stay in New York, maybe there was just something about China that made the train pull people back on. Or maybe it was just random … or it didn’t want to lose them. Sometimes he wondered the train specifically kept some people on board over others or got rid of people it was no longer interested in, but mostly he thought it was random. The way some people disappeared and came back again poked holes in most of the theories he tried to come up with. “I’ll take anything,” he replied with a smirk. “Want me to get the drugs?” He imagined her head hurt just as much as his did, after all. ___ Jaime made a faint, non-committal noise to his suggestion they try at the next decent stop. At the rate the train went, they’d be another six months before they found a stop that was decent. And in the meantime … She tightened her arms around him, because she didn’t want to think about the meantime and what it meant. It meant it was back to waking up with a crushing fear he was gone, if only for that split second between awake and asleep before she felt him in bed with her. She’d thought they were done with that. “Trying to decide if the odds of something actually working are worth getting up to find out,” Jaime muttered. “Could ask Lily to bring us things. She stayed, and unless raging headaches are the train’s flavor of the week, she should be okay.” It seemed like a ridiculous amount of words to just say ‘tell Lily’, but there it was. Her brow furrowed before she buried her head against Ray’s chest. Fuck, this was miserable. Beyond miserable. “Wonder who else it dragged back on,” Jaime muttered. Whenever this headache passed, she guessed she’d wander the train and go see. ____ If there could be any silver lining at all, he supposed it was that the headache was keeping his focus off the fact that they were back on the train instead of starting their new life together in England. He realized that they only had the headache because they were back on the train, but it was difficult to focus on that misfortune when his head was pounding like it was. “Maybe even a sleeping potion,” he murmured. If nothing else, maybe they could sleep it off. Maybe the train would make it last an extra day if they did something like that, though. “I wonder if anyone got to stay,” he countered as he tightened his arms around her in a hug before disentangling himself. He’d walked through the ghetto with a gunshot wound; he could find his device and send Lily a message even with a train induced migraine. When he found his device, he filtered a message to Lily to tell her in as few words as possible that the train had brought them back and given them a headache; please bring drugs and potions. With that done, he returned to bed, bringing the device with him just in case. ___ If someone else had gotten to stay behind … her protests of unfairness would only escalate. “I’m just going to assume everyone not here got sent home,” she muttered. When Ray left the bed, Jaime curled into a little ball around herself, her eyes closed against what scant light was eking in through the curtains. No matter how unfair she found it though, in the end, she knew there was no point in protesting it. They’d been taken again. Taken back. Whatever. Maybe she’d try again at the next stop, because what else was the train going to do? Pull them on with migraines and stomach aches? But then again … She snorted. Why not? When Ray came back to the bed, she reached out for him. There was nothing to do, she realized, but ride it out. At least he was here, and she tried not to add on ‘for now’ even mentally. When Lily came, Jaime was vaguely aware of the sympathy in the younger witch’s eyes, but mostly she was interested in the potions -- which would probably do nothing against the train, but she’d at least try. Once Lily had left, Jaime wrapped herself around Ray, intending to give sleep a chance to claim her; the less time she was awake for this, the better. |