delayedpoet (delayedpoet) wrote in ourfunaus, @ 2008-11-14 16:40:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, au: endurance, date: 2004 04, kay, natalie, natalie/kay |
Title: Life and Death
Characters/Pairing: Natalie/Kay
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Death
Summary: Natalie loses someone she loves and finds comfort in familiarity.
A/N: Set in Endurance.
Natalie pressed her hand over her nose and mouth against the overpowering stench. She couldn't decide what was worse, the harsh scent of chemicals, or the lingering smell of death. It was almost worse than the sight before her. Her best friend, the father of her three-year-old son, laying on a dark gray, metal slab with a thin white sheet covering his sickly gray, nude body up to his neck. His eyes were closed, his mouth slack.
Her free hand reached out toward the series of gashes along the left side of his face. She didn't want to see him like this, didn't want him to be gone. She didn't want her son to grow up without his father. She tried to be angry with him—for leaving her, for dying, for choosing to keep that thrice-damned motorcycle that would kill him. She couldn't hold on to the anger, though. The pain was overwhelming, suffocating.
“Brian,” she whimpered as the tears fell from her eyes.
She felt a hand rest lightly on her shoulder. “I know this is difficult for you,” a deep voice said in calming tones. “But can you identify him?”
Natalie nodded. “Brian. Brian O'Leary.”
The hand on her shoulder urged her away from the cold, unforgiving slab, out of the small room that seemed surrounded in white and gray. It was a cold room, a room that felt as dead as the bodies it stored.
Natalie slumped against the wall outside the room, her head pressed back against the cool plaster and paint, her eyes closed, trying to black out the image of Brian as she'd seen him moments before. The officer gave her the space she needed, and after he interviewed her, she hailed a cab, not trusting herself to Apparate.
She paid the driver, and then slid out of the cab, walking slowly, as though in a daze, through the open gates, down the stone walkway lined with grass and flowers. She pushed the front door open, hearing the faint click as it shut behind her. The sound of laughter made her pause, and she detoured into the sitting room. She stopped short, though, at the sight that greeted her.
She smiled sadly at seeing her sometime-lover sitting with her son in her lap. There were blocks and other toys laid out before them. Caleb was bouncing as he reached for the toys. Her heart felt as though it would burst from the love she felt and the pain she felt at knowing she wouldn't be able to share this love with Brian.
Kay glanced over her shoulder and spotted Natalie. Some of the pain must have shown in her face because Kay frowned at her.
“Everything all right?” she asked in a calm voice, mindful of the young boy who was likely to pick up on the upset around him.
Natalie smiled weakly. “No. It's not. Brian is... He was killed. His motorcycle crashed.”
Caleb turned toward the sound of her voice. A large smile stretched across his cheeks. “Momma!” Caleb climbed out of Kay's lap and hurried over to Natalie, wrapping his little arms around her legs.
“Hey little man,” Natalie said as she scooped him up and held him on her hip. “Have you been having fun, playing with Kay?”
Caleb nodded, his little fingers playing with her earrings. Natalie looked back at Kay, who'd stood up and moved closer. Seeing the sympathy in her lover's expression, Nat shook her head.
“I can't talk about it right now. Let me just get him to bed. You'll stay?” There was a vulnerability in her voice that she couldn't bring herself to stop.
Kay nodded. “Of course.”
When Natalie went back downstairs into the sitting room, she found Kay curled up on the sofa, a steaming set of tea on the coffee table. She beckoned Natalie over. Curling up on the couch, burrowing into Kay's soft embrace, Natalie finally let the emotions past that wall she'd built around them.
She cried, and Kay's long, thin fingers moved soothingly over her hair, down her back. Her voice murmured soft, comforting words against her ear.