14 - the days I live without you

[lolitics_meme]

I'm so very sorry for the lateness of the new post. But this is the first time LJ is working for me again.  I wrote a sonnet for you but is now forever lost in the glitches :( 
So no funny business here, I know you want to get back to the usual game ASAP.

There is a substitute on dreamwidth in case LJ is having trouble again.

The usual things:

1) All

Comments

Power (8/?) (Cameron, Brown, Blair, Major, Thatcher)

[anonymous]

A couple of hours later, David retreats to that room also. She's still curled up on the mattress, cat-like, drumming her fingers. Gingerly he sits beside her.

"So," he says. "How are you?"

"Fine."

He waits for any further response. Receives none. He coughs. "Don't worry about Tony. He just..."

"Tony is an arrogant, self-obsessed, self-righteous fool," she snaps. A pause. Well, I might not have put it quite like that. "God knows how he wound up here. Men like that usually do quite well for themselves."

David sighs. "Look, Margaret -- you must realise, it is a risk trying to steal your way through life, right? Not just for you, for all of us."

"If I'm such a risk, kick me out."

He rolls his eyes. "Don't be like that, Margaret."

"Like what?" She pushes herself up and looks him in the eye. "It would make things easier, wouldn't it? One less mouth to feed?"

"...You'd die," he says dumbly.

She shrugs. "And you wouldn't have to worry about me telling the police out of spite."

"Margaret!" He can't believe he's hearing all this. "Do you really think we'd do that to you."

"No, no I do not." She shakes her head and smoothes her skirt out over her knees. She looks so thin. "You should do, for your own sakes. But you won't. I have to take things into my own hands."

David is aghast. "You can't -- What are you even talking about?"

"If I can't take care of myself, I have no right to demand you sustain me," she says. "And if the situations were reversed, I wouldn't put myself through hell trying to take care of you either. We can only look after ourselves. You can't ask anyone for something you can't provide."

She sounds mad. David doesn't know what to do. "Margaret," he says quietly. "I'm not going to let you die for... some principle--"

"Why ever not?"

He blinks, taken aback.

"I mean it. Why ever not? What else do I have?" She straightens her back, looking as strong and regal as ever. "Who am I, David? One more sad, homeless old woman, stuck living with four people who at best have mixed feelings toward me. Heading toward her inevitable grave unloved and unremembered. Why shouldn't I die for principle? Principle may be abstract, but it is something."

David is struck dumb. There has to be something he can say to that -- but he finds himself utterly bamboozled. He tries reaching out a hand to lay it on her shoulder, but she snaps away from him and it's like he's been struck by lightning.

He sighs. "Get some sleep Margaret. You'll feel better in the morning." It's a weak cop-out, he knows it, but he doesn't know what else to do and besides, she can't possibly do too much damage to herself while she's sleeping.

She huffs and lays back down. "Very well," she says, folding her arms over her chest. "Could you give me some peace please?"

He walks out.