Fic: Frozen Charlotte (Pearl/Jimmy; Richard)
Title: Frozen Charlotte
Rating: PG
Word Count: 345
Characters: Pearl, Jimmy, Richard
Warning: Spoilers for 1.07 "Home"
Summary: "Hmm. Maybe I could do something for. You too."
Just a quick one, originally written for bluerosefairy over at the Boardwalk Comment Ficathon (which you should all go to) that I'm posting here because the comment version had some typos in it which I cannot abide. Enjoy!
Frozen Charlotte (Pearl/Jimmy, Richard PG13)
It wasn’t a bribe, the thing with Odette. The idea didn’t really occur to Jimmy until after, while he’d sat at the bar and watched the bag he knew was weighed down with guns. After it was over, and they’d argued a little about letting Jimmy be the one to pay, Richard had croaked out quietly:
“Hmm. Maybe I could do something for. You too.”
And it came together with all a soldier’s speed in Jimmy’s mind.
“Take a ride with me,” he said, putting out his cigarette.
They drove to the morgue and Jimmy gave five bucks to the fellow on call. As Jimmy had expected, Richard showed no sign of emotion. Then the examiner pulled out the drawer and Richard turned his face away, as if he had walked in on her changing her clothes.
“This is Pearl,” Jimmy murmured. “She’s a friend of mine.”
He did not say was. He tried to keep numb as he related the story of long nights and oranges and wanting to be in the pictures, but his hand still strayed to rest on top of the dark curls. All Jimmy could think about was that girl on the slab in the funeral parlor he’d gone to with Nucky, where that piss ant Mickey what’s-his-name had run his warehouse full of swill.
Fellas, meet the missus.
The girl couldn’t have been more than twenty. Jimmy had wanted to punch him right then and there for the joke. And now, here was Pearl, his sweet friend who had loved him. Same dark hair, same smooth, white, cold skin, same jagged scars bisecting her chest and sharp collarbones, same look of perfect, perfect calm.
Death was the only thing that really washed a person clean. Jimmy knew that now.
When he finished, he looked up and Richard was staring at Pearl’s face with an expression Jimmy wouldn’t have known how to read even if he could have seen it from both sides. His voice was so low Jimmy had to strain to hear it.
“Hngh. She’s very beautiful.”
He looked up sharply and met Jimmy’s eyes.
“Whaddaya say? You up for it?”
Richard nodded. His face went hard.
“Let’s go to work.”
Jimmy bent down low next to the girl’s ear.
“Don’t worry, kid,” he whispered, “we’ll get ‘im. My pal here’s a real good shot. Cocksucker won’t even see it coming.”
Rating: PG
Word Count: 345
Characters: Pearl, Jimmy, Richard
Warning: Spoilers for 1.07 "Home"
Summary: "Hmm. Maybe I could do something for. You too."
Just a quick one, originally written for bluerosefairy over at the Boardwalk Comment Ficathon (which you should all go to) that I'm posting here because the comment version had some typos in it which I cannot abide. Enjoy!
Frozen Charlotte (Pearl/Jimmy, Richard PG13)
It wasn’t a bribe, the thing with Odette. The idea didn’t really occur to Jimmy until after, while he’d sat at the bar and watched the bag he knew was weighed down with guns. After it was over, and they’d argued a little about letting Jimmy be the one to pay, Richard had croaked out quietly:
“Hmm. Maybe I could do something for. You too.”
And it came together with all a soldier’s speed in Jimmy’s mind.
“Take a ride with me,” he said, putting out his cigarette.
They drove to the morgue and Jimmy gave five bucks to the fellow on call. As Jimmy had expected, Richard showed no sign of emotion. Then the examiner pulled out the drawer and Richard turned his face away, as if he had walked in on her changing her clothes.
“This is Pearl,” Jimmy murmured. “She’s a friend of mine.”
He did not say was. He tried to keep numb as he related the story of long nights and oranges and wanting to be in the pictures, but his hand still strayed to rest on top of the dark curls. All Jimmy could think about was that girl on the slab in the funeral parlor he’d gone to with Nucky, where that piss ant Mickey what’s-his-name had run his warehouse full of swill.
Fellas, meet the missus.
The girl couldn’t have been more than twenty. Jimmy had wanted to punch him right then and there for the joke. And now, here was Pearl, his sweet friend who had loved him. Same dark hair, same smooth, white, cold skin, same jagged scars bisecting her chest and sharp collarbones, same look of perfect, perfect calm.
Death was the only thing that really washed a person clean. Jimmy knew that now.
When he finished, he looked up and Richard was staring at Pearl’s face with an expression Jimmy wouldn’t have known how to read even if he could have seen it from both sides. His voice was so low Jimmy had to strain to hear it.
“Hngh. She’s very beautiful.”
He looked up sharply and met Jimmy’s eyes.
“Whaddaya say? You up for it?”
Richard nodded. His face went hard.
“Let’s go to work.”
Jimmy bent down low next to the girl’s ear.
“Don’t worry, kid,” he whispered, “we’ll get ‘im. My pal here’s a real good shot. Cocksucker won’t even see it coming.”