Fic: Friends and Foe, Part One (GH, Lucky)
Title: Friends and Foe
Author: empressearwig
Rating: G
Spoilers: Set Fall 2007. Events don’t correspond exactly.
Author's Notes: This was not my idea. I blame lapiccolina entirely. Thanks to sugarpromises for the encouragement, and to normative_jean for the technical assistance. This story was a bit of an experiment, to see if I could understand and write characters that I’m not particularly fond of. I think it turned out fairly well.
Summary: A circle of friends bound together through adversity; four souls who desperately need things their own families can’t give them.
And the little love I had
For all my friends and foe
And the little lines we've drawn between us all have
Taken hold
~ The Frames, Friends and Foe
Lucky, Part 1: The Sound of Silence
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I’ve come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.
~ Simon & Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence
The night Elizabeth leaves is the night that you finally understand just how big your family home truly is. Where before there had been the noise of an active toddler and newborn to fill up the rooms, nothing but empty silence now rings. For the first time you understand why your father couldn’t stay in this house without your mother, why he had to leave. Staying in this house alone could drive a man to drink, and with your past that’s a risk you just can’t take.
* * * * *
Working double shifts becomes normal in the weeks following your family’s removal from the house. Anything to escape the oppressive silence found within the walls of the house that’s really much too big for a single man. You beg Lulu to reconsider moving in, hoping that the noise of a teenage girl will help alleviate the quiet, but again, your request is denied. For the hours you can’t escape the house itself, you take to leaving the television on at all times, or the radio, or your computer, blaring sound into a void, that really does nothing to fill the hole in your heart.
You never realized that silence could be so loud.
* * * * *
One night Emily shows up on your doorstep holding a fistful of DVDs and a pineapple and Canadian bacon pizza. She forces her way into the house, proclaiming that a night with your best friend is just what you need, and that you’ll thank her for this invasion later.
As she bustles around, making herself at home in the kitchen and on your sofa, you think she might be right. With the noise and life Emily brings, the house seems just a little bit smaller.
* * * * *
Movies and take out become a weekly ritual. When you watch comedies, you order Chinese. Action flicks (that you know Emily is only tolerating for your sake), Mexican. It’s her favorite, and it seems the fairest trade off. Horror movies are viewed with pizza, and with a critical eye. Both of you are no strangers to blood and guts, after all, and critiquing the damage of a serial killer is par for the course.
The only movies you don’t watch are romantic comedies. You never tell Emily she can’t choose one, but she knows you’re not ready anyway.
* * * * *
Emily’s decided what you really need to fill up your life is routine, and that she’s going to get you hooked on her favorite television show. She brings her copies of all three seasons of DVDs, proclaiming it the funniest show on television right now, and that it’s something you’ll love.
What she fails to mention is that underneath all the humor is an epic love story.
The two of you settle into a routine of binging on episodes, all to get you caught up. You sometimes wonder why she’s spending so many nights on your couch, when she’s supposedly so happy with Nikolas and Spencer at Wyndemere. Maybe her home is just as quiet as yours, even with the people that you thought were to blame for the silence.
You find yourselves arguing about whether Jim or Pam is more to blame for the suffering in silence routine they spend so much time doing. Emily believes that it’s all been too obvious for Pam to really have been in denial for so long, and feels sorry for Jim, who has been wearing his heart on his sleeve for so long. But you see it from Pam’s perspective. When you’ve been with someone that long, it’s hard to let go of that stability. Hard to take a risk on what’s been underneath your nose all along.
That night, when you’ve finished watching Jim and Pam’s song and dance for the evening, and you exchange your normal good-bye hug, you brush your lips across Emily’s cheek, just a fraction too close to her lips. When she jumps back in surprise, you act as though nothing has happened.
Taking risks isn’t always as easy as it seems.
* * * * *
After what happened, you’re not sure when she’ll be back to continue watching. You wonder if it was smart to possibly alienate the one person who has really concerned themselves with how you’re coping with the end of an on-again, off-again ten-year relationship, but then she appears at the normal time, saying that you are absolutely going to finish the second season tonight, no matter how long it takes.
You both settle into the couch, Emily wrapped in her normal blanket to ward off the fall chill. You find yourself sitting just a hair closer together than normal, and you wonder if she’s as desperate for the warmth of another human being as you are. When her head falls onto your shoulder, and her hand reaches for yours, you think you have your answer.
And when Jim tells Pam “I just needed you to know. Once,” you wonder if your entire friendship hasn’t been building to this all along, and if either of you ever realized it. When they kiss, you squeeze Emily’s hand, and wonder if you have the courage to take that kind of chance.
When the noise of the DVD shuts off and the screen turns to black, you realize while the room is silent, the house no longer seems so quiet.
Author: empressearwig
Rating: G
Spoilers: Set Fall 2007. Events don’t correspond exactly.
Author's Notes: This was not my idea. I blame lapiccolina entirely. Thanks to sugarpromises for the encouragement, and to normative_jean for the technical assistance. This story was a bit of an experiment, to see if I could understand and write characters that I’m not particularly fond of. I think it turned out fairly well.
Summary: A circle of friends bound together through adversity; four souls who desperately need things their own families can’t give them.
And the little love I had
For all my friends and foe
And the little lines we've drawn between us all have
Taken hold
~ The Frames, Friends and Foe
Lucky, Part 1: The Sound of Silence
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I’ve come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.
~ Simon & Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence
The night Elizabeth leaves is the night that you finally understand just how big your family home truly is. Where before there had been the noise of an active toddler and newborn to fill up the rooms, nothing but empty silence now rings. For the first time you understand why your father couldn’t stay in this house without your mother, why he had to leave. Staying in this house alone could drive a man to drink, and with your past that’s a risk you just can’t take.
* * * * *
Working double shifts becomes normal in the weeks following your family’s removal from the house. Anything to escape the oppressive silence found within the walls of the house that’s really much too big for a single man. You beg Lulu to reconsider moving in, hoping that the noise of a teenage girl will help alleviate the quiet, but again, your request is denied. For the hours you can’t escape the house itself, you take to leaving the television on at all times, or the radio, or your computer, blaring sound into a void, that really does nothing to fill the hole in your heart.
You never realized that silence could be so loud.
* * * * *
One night Emily shows up on your doorstep holding a fistful of DVDs and a pineapple and Canadian bacon pizza. She forces her way into the house, proclaiming that a night with your best friend is just what you need, and that you’ll thank her for this invasion later.
As she bustles around, making herself at home in the kitchen and on your sofa, you think she might be right. With the noise and life Emily brings, the house seems just a little bit smaller.
* * * * *
Movies and take out become a weekly ritual. When you watch comedies, you order Chinese. Action flicks (that you know Emily is only tolerating for your sake), Mexican. It’s her favorite, and it seems the fairest trade off. Horror movies are viewed with pizza, and with a critical eye. Both of you are no strangers to blood and guts, after all, and critiquing the damage of a serial killer is par for the course.
The only movies you don’t watch are romantic comedies. You never tell Emily she can’t choose one, but she knows you’re not ready anyway.
* * * * *
Emily’s decided what you really need to fill up your life is routine, and that she’s going to get you hooked on her favorite television show. She brings her copies of all three seasons of DVDs, proclaiming it the funniest show on television right now, and that it’s something you’ll love.
What she fails to mention is that underneath all the humor is an epic love story.
The two of you settle into a routine of binging on episodes, all to get you caught up. You sometimes wonder why she’s spending so many nights on your couch, when she’s supposedly so happy with Nikolas and Spencer at Wyndemere. Maybe her home is just as quiet as yours, even with the people that you thought were to blame for the silence.
You find yourselves arguing about whether Jim or Pam is more to blame for the suffering in silence routine they spend so much time doing. Emily believes that it’s all been too obvious for Pam to really have been in denial for so long, and feels sorry for Jim, who has been wearing his heart on his sleeve for so long. But you see it from Pam’s perspective. When you’ve been with someone that long, it’s hard to let go of that stability. Hard to take a risk on what’s been underneath your nose all along.
That night, when you’ve finished watching Jim and Pam’s song and dance for the evening, and you exchange your normal good-bye hug, you brush your lips across Emily’s cheek, just a fraction too close to her lips. When she jumps back in surprise, you act as though nothing has happened.
Taking risks isn’t always as easy as it seems.
* * * * *
After what happened, you’re not sure when she’ll be back to continue watching. You wonder if it was smart to possibly alienate the one person who has really concerned themselves with how you’re coping with the end of an on-again, off-again ten-year relationship, but then she appears at the normal time, saying that you are absolutely going to finish the second season tonight, no matter how long it takes.
You both settle into the couch, Emily wrapped in her normal blanket to ward off the fall chill. You find yourself sitting just a hair closer together than normal, and you wonder if she’s as desperate for the warmth of another human being as you are. When her head falls onto your shoulder, and her hand reaches for yours, you think you have your answer.
And when Jim tells Pam “I just needed you to know. Once,” you wonder if your entire friendship hasn’t been building to this all along, and if either of you ever realized it. When they kiss, you squeeze Emily’s hand, and wonder if you have the courage to take that kind of chance.
When the noise of the DVD shuts off and the screen turns to black, you realize while the room is silent, the house no longer seems so quiet.