roruna (roruna) wrote in roads_diverged, @ 2009-01-21 21:19:00 |
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Entry tags: | discworld, roruna:vimes/sybil, theme 03: canon what-if |
Flukes and Lilacs [Discworld, Vimes/Sybil]
Title: Flukes and Lilacs Part 3 of 6
Author: roruna
Fandom: Discworld
Pairings/Characters: Vimes/Sybil
Rating/Warnings: PG-13
A/N: Part 3 is here at last. Enjoy it people and don't be shy about commenting. I live for comments.
Theme: Meta, #3 Cannon What-If
Sam and Sybil walked hand in hand into the watch house. The feel of the area outside of the watch house changed once the door closed. Everyone looked at each other with knowing grins on their faces. Suddenly Vimes’ voice carried over the small crowd. “Ye gods, what’s wrong with all of you? Don’t you have anything better to think about than whether two teenagers get together?” Vimes climbed off the top of the barricade and the crowd broke up.
Vimes groaned as he sat down near the fire again. He pulled out his cigar case, paused a moment to make sure the inscription was still there, took a cigar and put the little case away. As he lit his cigar, Rosie sat down next to him. They didn’t say anything and Vimes did all he could to not look at the door to the watch house. He reminded himself that Sam and Sybil were perfectly safe in there. Those two men were locked in their cells and Rust was passed out in his office.
But despite his efforts, he did look at the door a few times. He really hadn’t been able to keep himself from watching those two. He was pretty sure that Sam noticed him watching them. Well, they weren’t in his line of sight anymore. There was a wooden door and stone walls between Vimes and Sybil so he really could look at the door all he wanted and Sam would never know now.
He blew out a puff of smoke as he watched the door. Rosie cleared her throat but didn’t look at him as she spoke. “I’m disappointed in you, Keel. I thought you were above all that love crap.” Vimes didn’t look at Rosie. “What?” Rosie turned to face Vimes. “You love her.” That wasn’t a question, it was a statement of fact like the sky is blue, ok brownish gray in Ankh-Morpork, or fire is hot. Vimes took another drag from his cigar before responding. “She’s just a kid.” Rosie shrugged. “That’s not denying it.” She paused before continuing. “Vimesy’s no good for her. But then neither are you. And what would your wife say if she knew you were lusting after some spoiled rich girl?”
There is probably a universe were Vimes punched Rosie Palm in the nose, but in this one, he stayed perfectly still and seemed to freeze the air around him. After an uncomfortable pause, he spoke in a cool and calm voice, “Go to hell, Rosemary.” He flicked some ash off the tip of his cigar and put it back in his mouth. Rosie stood up and walked away in a huff. Vimes finally unclenched his fist. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was angrier about, that Rosie had the nerve to say that or that it was true. But she is not in possession of all the facts.
Vimes really needed to get Sybil home. Her father was probably frothing at the mouth with worry by now and the longer he put it off the worse it would ultimately be for Sam. He got up and walked into the watch house. He stopped just inside the door and looked around. There didn’t seem to be anyone around. So Sam and Sybil were either in the back yard or upstairs. He walked past one of the desks that was on the way to the back door, stopped suddenly, turned away from the desk and took a few steps. “What are you kids doing?” (1)
Sam and Sybil poked their heads up from under the desk. Sam’s helmet, chain mail and breastplate were off him and shoved somewhere under the desk Vimes thanked all the gods that the boy was still wearing his breeches and shirt. Sybil was facing away from Vimes and fiddling with the top of her dress. Vimes was trying very hard to not yell, he knew that if he didn’t handle the situation delicately he’d probably scar the kids for life and that would ultimately ruin his sex life. (2)
He counted to ten. “Miss, I suggest you wait out by the fire while I have a word with my lance-constable.” Sybil looked at Sam uncertainly for a moment until he gave her a reassuring smile. She kissed him very quickly on the cheek and rushed out of the watch house closing the door behind her. Vimes counted to ten again after he heard the door shut and then turned to Sam quickly. Sam took a step back when he saw the look on Vimes’ face. “What the hell do you think you were doing?”
“Uh…”
“Don’t you take that tone with me!” (3)
“Ok.”
“Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you’re in?”
“… A lot?”
It was going to take Vimes a moment to process exactly what Sam was in trouble for, mostly so he could calm down enough to deal with it. So first of all, he had caught one of his constables fooling around while on duty, Sam was definitely in trouble for that, probably more than anything else. Second of all, he was fooling around with the daughter of the richest man in town and that was probably hazardous to his health. So now that Vimes had a pretty good idea what he was supposed to be angry about, he could deal with it.
“Lance-constable, I want to make one thing perfectly clear to you.”
“Yes, Sarge?”
“You do not have sex while on duty. Do you understand?!”
“Yes, Sarge.”
“Good.” Vimes took a deep breath to further calm himself. “Now for the other matter. Do you have any idea who that girl is?”
“Sybil, Sarge?”
“Yes. Sybil Ramkin. The daughter of Lord Ramkin who happens to own a tenth of Ankh, extensive property in Morpork, unreal estate at the Unseen University and quite a bit of farmland.” He paused again to let this sink in. “Who is worth… millions of dollars a year, lad. Millions! Do you really think it’s a good idea to incur the wrath of a man with access to millions? He could probably get a private contract with the Unmentionables just to deal with you, never mind assassins.”
Sam’s eyes widened considerably. I probably didn’t need to say that, Vimes thought. Vimes’ patted Sam’s shoulder. “I’m not going to ask how this happened, I remembering being your age.” A lot better than I’d like, Vimes told himself. “I’m pretty sure that this was one of those ‘one thing led to another’ situations. Just, keep what I said in mind before you let your hormones get the better of you again.” Sam nodded quickly. Vimes took his hand off Sam’s shoulder and started walking to the door.
Sam watched him anxiously. He seemed to have something on his mind. “Sarge…” Vimes turned around. He found that he wasn’t angry at the boy anymore which was definitely a good thing since poor Sam looked really uneasy and confused. Sam smiled weakly for a second. “She… let me kiss ‘er, Sarge. And touch her… bosom. No girl’s ever let me do that before…” Vimes bit hard on the inside of his mouth to keep from laughing. He looked up at the ceiling.
All Vimes could think was, Ye gods, I am not going to have to give myself The Talk, am I? This is… lunacy and really something Sam should talk to his dad about. But no, ol’ Dad had to go and ‘get run over by a cart’ and there are really some things a boy can’t talk to his mother about. Vimes motioned to a chair and when Sam sat down, Vimes sat across from him. Vimes sighed and rubbed his temple, he was pretty sure he could feel a headache coming on. “All right… you obviously want to talk, so talk.”
Sam smiled; it was a nervous but happy smile. It was the smile of someone in love. Vimes noticed this and stifled a groan. “I love ‘er, Sarge.” Vimes couldn’t stop himself. “You think you’re in love with a girl because she’s the first one that let you touch her breast.” Vimes wasn’t asking, he was correcting. Sam noticed this too and got a little offended. “No really. I know we just met… and I know you think I’m just some dumb kid but I know a lot more than you give me credit. Don’t think I didn’t notice that she was posh. I noticed and she damn well noticed that I’m just some poor guard and she still let me kiss her. That’s gotta mean something.”
Vimes shrugged and suddenly it was as if most of the facts disappeared. Suddenly, Vimes wasn’t Sam Vimes and Sam wasn’t Sam Vimes. Suddenly, Sam was just a naïve kid and Vimes was his jaded sergeant. Even Sybil Ramkin wasn’t Sybil Ramkin, she was just some posh girl that Sam was fool enough to fall for. “It could mean that she’s entered her rebellious phase. Girls don’t usually pick boys Daddy will like. Look, there’s been a lot of stuff going on and people get confused. They start creating feelings that they don’t actually have and when things get back to normal they won’t be there anymore.”
Sam glared at Vimes but didn’t say anything. Vimes continued. “But fine, let’s say for argument’s sake, you two really do love each other. What are you going to do? Stroll up to
“So that’s how it is? Two people’s chance at love get thrown out just because of social rank?” Vimes rolled his eyes, please, he thought, people have enough trouble making it work when there aren’t any big obstacles. It really had been a fluke that he and Sybil got married at all. Of course by the time they did, her parents were dead and she was ‘the crazy dragon lady’ so no one in her social circle seemed to object. They kept saying Sybil only married Vimes out of desperation and fear of dying alone.
Vimes sighed, what could he say to Sam anyway? Not ‘love conquers all’ because it didn’t. He hadn’t really been in love with Sybil when they got married, he cared about her of course and over time, his feelings grew into love but he couldn’t be sure that things would work out now. Everything was probably ruined. He reminded himself to beat the crap out of Lu-Tze later. “Gods, lad. Don’t you have any sense? Yes, that is exactly how it is. If you pursue her, you’ll ruin her life and her reputation and eventually, she’ll grow to resent and hate you. Love doesn’t last long in those conditions. Best to just let her go.”
Sam stood up suddenly. Vimes should have known better, he would never be any good at listening to people’s orders. “You’re wrong, Sarge.” Sam’s voice cracked a little. “Yes, it’s going to be hard. I know that and I don’t expect that her dad will welcome me with open arms. If we have to run away together, we will and I don’t care what you say, Sybil would never hate me as long as I treat her proper.” Vimes wanted to object but then again, he wasn’t sure that Sam was wrong about Sybil. Gods knew that Sybil had endless amounts of patience when it came to Vimes but had she always had it in her or did she develop it?
Patience seems like something one has to learn and he never actually did ruin her life. She didn’t lose much when she married him but this Sybil definitely would lose a lot if she ran away with Sam. She’d lose her family, her reputation, her friends, her money, her lifestyle. How could Sam be so selfish? Sam Vimes was always selfish when it came to Sybil. “If you really want to treat her proper, let her go. Don’t tell her love her and don’t ask her to marry you and don’t follow her back to
Sam could see that Vimes was serious, and very, very concerned. He did have a point and he really hated that. He sat back down. He was shaking but not quite crying though Vimes could tell that he really wanted to. “I know, Sarge. Gods, I’m so stupid. I shoulda known. I’m not good enough for her. I’ll never be good enough for her.” He wiped his nose with the back of his hand. Vimes stood up and patted Sam’s shoulder. “Pull yourself together. We got a job to do.”
(1) Coppers always say this, despite the age of the kids involved and knowing perfectly well what they’re doing.
(2) This was the only reason he didn’t yell. If it had been anyone else, he would have gone completely and utterly spare.
(3) Vimes is so ready to be a father.