[Fanfiction] Fragile, by callieach

[callieach]

Title: Fragile
Author: callieach
Fandom: Bones
Prompt: 011. Odds and Ends
Character/Pairing: Angela (some Angela/Kirk and Angela/Jack)
Rating: PG-13 (nothing you wouldn't see on the show)
Word Count: 520
Summary: Five instances of Angela dealing with fragility.
Authors Notes/Disclaimer: For 100_prompts. Nothing you recognize is mine

Comments

[willowwood]

omg! *adores* this is just so simple and beautiful and just....*is floored*.

The description is just so perfect throughout this entire piece. I love how young Angela finds it beautiful to be classed as something so simple as "fragile", it's such an Angela type thing to think, even though when she wants to be she can be bold, confident and strong.

Then the shift to her moving to DC and becoming a Forensic Artist works perfectly, how you follow on from the theme of being an artist 'A decade later, she likes to consider herself an artist. She paints, she sketches, she finds beauty in ridiculous places. Starting Monday, though, she’ll be a forensic artist; she’s not too sure she’ll find the beauty there.' and then twists perfectly to show the change in time and location.

'The teenaged boy from the moving company blushes and apologizes, calling her “ma’am.”' - Adore this line! I can't put my finger on exactly why but I think it portrays so many things all at once, and is somehow a wonderful contrast to Angela's nervousness that is shown by the way bites at her thumbnail later on. Brilliant characterisations, as always!

Adore the entire scene with Kirk. The interactions between the two of them are just wonderful and actually don't make the Hodgela shipper within scream blue murder lol, simply cause it just works so perfectly. Love the image of the two of them being bathed in moonlight, and then you described the kiss wonderfully, the playfulness of it and how Angela's the one to kiss him back proving that she really isn't as fragile as she thinks she is. Then of course this is topped perfectly by the completely contrasting image of her packing a box with a few of his things, and how suddenly fragile she can actually be. The sudden shift in emotions is truly heart wrenching.

The one thing I loved the most about this fic, was the anonymity of what was in the box. How despite all these scenes and references, you never actually learn what is so fragile that she feels the need to keep it locked away, and this scene specifically represents that perfectly. Also I adore Jacks curiosity.

The distance between them is greater than the box she’s holding, even though, when she turned, she felt her knuckles bump his arm. - I adore this description so much! It's just so poignant and simple and beautiful. It says so much so easily, and works brilliantly.

I also love the limited amount of dialogue you've used. It could have been so easily over done, and yet you've captured there awkwardness perfectly, and it's so clear that this is some kind of ending, how all of the heartbreak and fighting has already been long passed and they're just here at this point of no return.

He looks like he wants to say something, but she knows he won’t. Everything that could’ve been said has been said. Every insult, every plea, every last don’t-you-understand-that-I-need-you?! - Beautiful. I especially love the familiarity between the two of them, how Angela feels she knows what he feels, what he's thinking, how he ticks. It makes the fact that this is their break up so much more heartbreaking than you've already written it.

When she goes to back up, she hears a crunch under her rear tire. She throws the car into park and hops out. Crushed under the tire is a perpetually-sealed cardboard box marked Fragile: Handle with Care.

Driving away, she let herself cry for everything she’s broken, and not just within the destroyed box on her passenger seat. - And then you just go and kill me dead with these closing paragraphs. The symbolism of the fragility, and how it's all shattered in a moment. How the crushing of that box shows the ending of so many things, and is yet a reminder of so many things at the same time. Her mother, Kirk, her relationship with Jack, all the things that by the end of this fic she doesn't have anymore.

AMAZING!