Luck Will Leave You 'Cos It Is A Faithless Friend
I'm finally waking up from my Spartacus haze and seeing that there *is* more to life. I'm going to have some real THOUGHTS/FEELINGS on Gossip Girl, New Girl, The Vampire Diaries (yes), and Grey's Anatomy later, probably tomorrow. Oh, and also STUFF on Game of Thrones. =|
And because I'm an IDIOT, I'm seriously thinking about het-bigbang. I was talking out options all day today with duchessofavalon. And because I'm a SUPER IDIOT, Ethan/Kristina(/Johnny?) is back on the table. Which reminded me, so I'm going to post a little bit more of Into The Mystic. I'm reaching the part where I started frantically writing, not knowing where I was going. I still don't. In any case...
Title: Into The Mystic
Rating: pg-13
Word Count: 1,513 (5/?)
Summary: There is a moment, a split-second, an exact pinpoint in time that splits the child with the person he will be forever...
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Author's Note: This veers from GH canon last May. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. ^_^
Previous
“Wyoming?”
It’s the third time Kristina has repeated the word since they loaded back into the car, and she still can’t even begin to understand the secret code that Ethan cracked into with Johnny’s message. “How did your dad know that you would understand all of that?”
But Ethan is all smiles. “He knew.” He grins at her sideways. He looks a good five years younger now that he’s slept and heard from his father. “And besides, I know about this place from Lucky. I guess they lived there for a while when he was a kid.”
Kristina bites her lip, looking out the window at the flat center of the country passing her by. She doesn’t even know what state they’re in. “Did he...did he say anything about my mom? Is she okay?” It's a fairly moot question, she knows. That's the very worst part about all of this. Kristina knows that this must be killing her mother.
“She knows you’re with me,” Ethan offers timidly.
“How did you-” Kristina begins, but stops herself. It’s not even worth asking.
“I mean...probably wasn’t hard to figure out, once anyone caught on I was gone...” Ethan continues, his smile turning slightly bittersweet. “Of course, maybe they just thought I’d up and skipped town.”
Kristina turns in her seat to face him. “I don’t think your sister and brother would think that at all.”
Ethan shrugs and she sees his lower lip stiffen just a bit- if she didn’t know his face so well, she probably never would have noticed. “It’s not like I’m really their brother. I’ve just dropped into their lives for a couple of years. It was never supposed to be...permanent.” Kristina is very still as she listens to him. “I mean, it’s probably the biggest surprise that I’ve stuck around this long.”
“Surprise to who?” Kristina asks softly.
“To me,” he answers the question, but his eyes are very far away. “But there was Lucky and his little boys and Lulu...And Luke was so much like myself...felt like that anyway. I mean, I know they’re not really my family - or I’m not theirs - but it was still nice to be...around.”
“Ethan,” she says softly. Too softly, at first. She repeats his name and slides closer on the bench. She touches his shoulder and he turns to her quickly but then looks back at the road, his lip in a straight line. She leans close to his ear. “I’m your family, Ethan.” He smiles very quickly then, th esmile she used to love so well. The smile he gives her when he’s humoring her, when he’s giving in, and letting her have the fantasy that they’ll get married someday. “Ethan, what you’ve done for me, what you’ve given up...It doesn’t matter what you were before. I’m your family, and you’re mine.”
He’s not smiling any more, but Kristina can’t let him retreat into that quiet, dark place in his soul any more- he’s hers, he just is. She lays her head on his shoulder, and after a time, he wraps his arm around her, and pulls her in tight.
***
It took almost a full forty-eight hours for Ethan to feel vaguely human after his Maya-Dominican Republic-black out hangover. He climbed the stairs at Kelley’s to his little room, closed the blinds and slept a miserable, dreamless sleep for a day and a half. When he finally made his way downstairs for coffee and the fattest, greasiest reuben he could get his hands on, the diner was in its full lunch rush. Wonderful.
Before he could slump onto the counter, a strong little ball of energy crashed into his knee. Ethan groaned, looking down at the offendor. It was his nephew, Cameron, staring sullenly up at him. Lucky was close behind him, looking absolutely exhausted.
“Cam, apologize,” Lucky prodded him gently, nudging the back of his head. But Cameron just continued to stare. Wow, the chip on ths kid’s shoulder, Ethan had to stop himself from whistling. It was such a far cry from the smiling little jokester he’d first met. Cam ran back to the table and his half-finished grilled cheese. Lucky kept his eyes on him, but leaned against the counter with Ethan. “Sorry, he’s been acting out a lot lately.”
“It’s fine,” Ethan answered, even though his leg was throbbing. They both turned to the angry seven-year-old boy systematically dropping French fries on the floor.
Lucky sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know what else I can do for him.”
“Everything is changed for him,” Ethan grumbled. Poor kid. Ethan knew his own life wasn’t exactly a fairytale, but he couldn’t imagine so great a loss at that age. He turned back to Lucky. “Has anyone heard from...from Luke?”
Lucky shook his head, not a glimmer of regret or concern in his eyes. Ethan wondered if it all wasn’t just dead behind Lucky’s motions. Not that he could blame him.
***
With any luck, they should be reaching Luke’s safe haven by tomorrow night. Ethan fidgets the car keys, flipping them around his fingers while he waits for Kristina outside another rest stop in...where the hell are they now, anyway? Texas? Oklahoma? Arkansas? It’s been a while since he’s stopped keeping track.
It’s been two weeks of this shit, bathing in truck stop bathrooms and just driving aimlessly around the country. It’s a small comfort, but still it’s good to be heading in one particular direction. As for what happens when they finally get there...Well, God knows what they’ll find.
“Ready to go?”
Ethan looks up and there she is, wearing that stolen red dress again. It’s probably been rolled at the bottom of her bag and it’s rumpled now, but still bright and pretty on her. Well...it’s amazing how pretty she looks now, to him, actually. She hasn’t complained once. He hasn’t seen her cry once.
“There’s a roadhouse, a little ways up the road,” he says, stretching his neck from side to side, and not relishing the thought of getting behind the wheel for another ten hours. “It’s nothing fancy, I’m sure, but...we can sit at a table. Eat with a fork. Sound good to you?”
Kristina bits her lip, and he finds his gaze drawn to that one spot, the bright pink mark behind the white teeth. “You think we’ll be okay? I mean...what if someone recognizes me...”
Ethan’s been to a million and one places just like this - it’s not the kind of joint where anyone wants to call any attention to themselves. “Would I let anything happen to you, Krissy?” He cocks a half grin at her, and she smiles back, her face lit with a soft glow that warms him from the inside out.
He needs an off-button to stop making idiot promises.
***
Kristina flipped through another depressing love song on her iPod. She was hiding on the docks. Her mom thought she was still baby-sitting for the Drakes. Robin didn’t want her anywhere near Emma.
And so Kristina had nowhere to go.
She couldn’t believe that a little over a week ago, her biggest problem was that she hadn’t heard from Yale. There were ten thousand other things on her mind now, most of all picking at her nails or twisitng the chord on her sweatshirt, or anything at all to keep her mind off those ‘herbal supplements’ that had made her life so easy for a little while. Kristina hated that most of all. She opened up her contact list on her phone and scrolled back and forth over Ethan Lovett.
She wanted nothing more than to call him, and lay all of her troubles in his lap and plead with him to make it better. He was the only person who could do that for her, but that wasn’t fair to him. He came running for her every time she called, but she couldn’t live her whole life waiting to be rescued by some boy. Not after everything her mother had taught her.
Kristina jumped a mile in the air when her phone buzzed in her hand. She ran a finger over the keypad and felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. 1 Text Message from Lisa Niles. She froze for an eternity before hitting View.
Need to see you- it’s important. Come alone, back entrance of Warehouse 19. Don’t know if you want anyone to hear what I have to say.
That was one of her father’s export houses. Kristina stared at the message for a short while, and then rose, determined.
Not Lisa Niles- nor anyone else- was going to control her with fear any more. She was Alexis Davis and Sonny Corinthos’s daughter, and that had to count for something.
<<<333
And because I'm an IDIOT, I'm seriously thinking about het-bigbang. I was talking out options all day today with duchessofavalon. And because I'm a SUPER IDIOT, Ethan/Kristina(/Johnny?) is back on the table. Which reminded me, so I'm going to post a little bit more of Into The Mystic. I'm reaching the part where I started frantically writing, not knowing where I was going. I still don't. In any case...
Title: Into The Mystic
Rating: pg-13
Word Count: 1,513 (5/?)
Summary: There is a moment, a split-second, an exact pinpoint in time that splits the child with the person he will be forever...
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Author's Note: This veers from GH canon last May. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. ^_^
Previous
“Wyoming?”
It’s the third time Kristina has repeated the word since they loaded back into the car, and she still can’t even begin to understand the secret code that Ethan cracked into with Johnny’s message. “How did your dad know that you would understand all of that?”
But Ethan is all smiles. “He knew.” He grins at her sideways. He looks a good five years younger now that he’s slept and heard from his father. “And besides, I know about this place from Lucky. I guess they lived there for a while when he was a kid.”
Kristina bites her lip, looking out the window at the flat center of the country passing her by. She doesn’t even know what state they’re in. “Did he...did he say anything about my mom? Is she okay?” It's a fairly moot question, she knows. That's the very worst part about all of this. Kristina knows that this must be killing her mother.
“She knows you’re with me,” Ethan offers timidly.
“How did you-” Kristina begins, but stops herself. It’s not even worth asking.
“I mean...probably wasn’t hard to figure out, once anyone caught on I was gone...” Ethan continues, his smile turning slightly bittersweet. “Of course, maybe they just thought I’d up and skipped town.”
Kristina turns in her seat to face him. “I don’t think your sister and brother would think that at all.”
Ethan shrugs and she sees his lower lip stiffen just a bit- if she didn’t know his face so well, she probably never would have noticed. “It’s not like I’m really their brother. I’ve just dropped into their lives for a couple of years. It was never supposed to be...permanent.” Kristina is very still as she listens to him. “I mean, it’s probably the biggest surprise that I’ve stuck around this long.”
“Surprise to who?” Kristina asks softly.
“To me,” he answers the question, but his eyes are very far away. “But there was Lucky and his little boys and Lulu...And Luke was so much like myself...felt like that anyway. I mean, I know they’re not really my family - or I’m not theirs - but it was still nice to be...around.”
“Ethan,” she says softly. Too softly, at first. She repeats his name and slides closer on the bench. She touches his shoulder and he turns to her quickly but then looks back at the road, his lip in a straight line. She leans close to his ear. “I’m your family, Ethan.” He smiles very quickly then, th esmile she used to love so well. The smile he gives her when he’s humoring her, when he’s giving in, and letting her have the fantasy that they’ll get married someday. “Ethan, what you’ve done for me, what you’ve given up...It doesn’t matter what you were before. I’m your family, and you’re mine.”
He’s not smiling any more, but Kristina can’t let him retreat into that quiet, dark place in his soul any more- he’s hers, he just is. She lays her head on his shoulder, and after a time, he wraps his arm around her, and pulls her in tight.
***
It took almost a full forty-eight hours for Ethan to feel vaguely human after his Maya-Dominican Republic-black out hangover. He climbed the stairs at Kelley’s to his little room, closed the blinds and slept a miserable, dreamless sleep for a day and a half. When he finally made his way downstairs for coffee and the fattest, greasiest reuben he could get his hands on, the diner was in its full lunch rush. Wonderful.
Before he could slump onto the counter, a strong little ball of energy crashed into his knee. Ethan groaned, looking down at the offendor. It was his nephew, Cameron, staring sullenly up at him. Lucky was close behind him, looking absolutely exhausted.
“Cam, apologize,” Lucky prodded him gently, nudging the back of his head. But Cameron just continued to stare. Wow, the chip on ths kid’s shoulder, Ethan had to stop himself from whistling. It was such a far cry from the smiling little jokester he’d first met. Cam ran back to the table and his half-finished grilled cheese. Lucky kept his eyes on him, but leaned against the counter with Ethan. “Sorry, he’s been acting out a lot lately.”
“It’s fine,” Ethan answered, even though his leg was throbbing. They both turned to the angry seven-year-old boy systematically dropping French fries on the floor.
Lucky sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know what else I can do for him.”
“Everything is changed for him,” Ethan grumbled. Poor kid. Ethan knew his own life wasn’t exactly a fairytale, but he couldn’t imagine so great a loss at that age. He turned back to Lucky. “Has anyone heard from...from Luke?”
Lucky shook his head, not a glimmer of regret or concern in his eyes. Ethan wondered if it all wasn’t just dead behind Lucky’s motions. Not that he could blame him.
***
With any luck, they should be reaching Luke’s safe haven by tomorrow night. Ethan fidgets the car keys, flipping them around his fingers while he waits for Kristina outside another rest stop in...where the hell are they now, anyway? Texas? Oklahoma? Arkansas? It’s been a while since he’s stopped keeping track.
It’s been two weeks of this shit, bathing in truck stop bathrooms and just driving aimlessly around the country. It’s a small comfort, but still it’s good to be heading in one particular direction. As for what happens when they finally get there...Well, God knows what they’ll find.
“Ready to go?”
Ethan looks up and there she is, wearing that stolen red dress again. It’s probably been rolled at the bottom of her bag and it’s rumpled now, but still bright and pretty on her. Well...it’s amazing how pretty she looks now, to him, actually. She hasn’t complained once. He hasn’t seen her cry once.
“There’s a roadhouse, a little ways up the road,” he says, stretching his neck from side to side, and not relishing the thought of getting behind the wheel for another ten hours. “It’s nothing fancy, I’m sure, but...we can sit at a table. Eat with a fork. Sound good to you?”
Kristina bits her lip, and he finds his gaze drawn to that one spot, the bright pink mark behind the white teeth. “You think we’ll be okay? I mean...what if someone recognizes me...”
Ethan’s been to a million and one places just like this - it’s not the kind of joint where anyone wants to call any attention to themselves. “Would I let anything happen to you, Krissy?” He cocks a half grin at her, and she smiles back, her face lit with a soft glow that warms him from the inside out.
He needs an off-button to stop making idiot promises.
***
Kristina flipped through another depressing love song on her iPod. She was hiding on the docks. Her mom thought she was still baby-sitting for the Drakes. Robin didn’t want her anywhere near Emma.
And so Kristina had nowhere to go.
She couldn’t believe that a little over a week ago, her biggest problem was that she hadn’t heard from Yale. There were ten thousand other things on her mind now, most of all picking at her nails or twisitng the chord on her sweatshirt, or anything at all to keep her mind off those ‘herbal supplements’ that had made her life so easy for a little while. Kristina hated that most of all. She opened up her contact list on her phone and scrolled back and forth over Ethan Lovett.
She wanted nothing more than to call him, and lay all of her troubles in his lap and plead with him to make it better. He was the only person who could do that for her, but that wasn’t fair to him. He came running for her every time she called, but she couldn’t live her whole life waiting to be rescued by some boy. Not after everything her mother had taught her.
Kristina jumped a mile in the air when her phone buzzed in her hand. She ran a finger over the keypad and felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. 1 Text Message from Lisa Niles. She froze for an eternity before hitting View.
Need to see you- it’s important. Come alone, back entrance of Warehouse 19. Don’t know if you want anyone to hear what I have to say.
That was one of her father’s export houses. Kristina stared at the message for a short while, and then rose, determined.
Not Lisa Niles- nor anyone else- was going to control her with fear any more. She was Alexis Davis and Sonny Corinthos’s daughter, and that had to count for something.
<<<333