Start anew
New fandom alert! I'm into Merlin and the Last Trump now!
Title: Start anew.
Fandom: Merlin and the Last Trump.
Genre: Friendship
Rating/Warnings: Suitable for all - one blues reference implies something adult.
Summary: After the book Rose Falworthy goes to see how Dimmot is getting along in the (sort of) aftermath.
Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing the characters for this little story.
She'd been to other concerts, later ones when everything was more polished - with eternity as her playground Rose saw no reason not to indulge herself - she had helped save Mankind after all. Today she'd even donned a spectral slinky cocktail dress in honour of the event. It was in a small pub off one of the sidestreets branching off've Drury Lane. She'd liked it when she'd been alive - it did decent pub food and was always surprisingly quiet even after a show.
A laugh huffed its way from her mouth and she smiled. Little Jamie had made an effort for tonight - he'd even shaved for the first gig the pub landlord was letting him play one of his own original compositions in addition to his usual round of classic blues. Untroubled by the thick pall of cigarette smoke, Jamie sat down at the piano and broke out the opening chords of 'Backdoor Blues' and the penny abruptly dropped for Rose, she laughed embarassedly as she realised just what the song was about.
Having made 'the woman who did' for his family as a child blush, James Dimmot then launched an all-out attempt to make her cry with a take on 'See that my grave is kept clean', followed by several that he hadn't had in his record collection when she'd been alive and working for the Dimmot family. He was better than he'd been as a boy, much better than he'd been in the snippets she'd heard, listening on the astral after his divorces - but then he was very nearly sober today.
A few people looked up from their pints and pork scratchings at the unfamiliar intro and he dropped the gravelly American accent he'd adopted for the other pieces and reverted to his normal voice to half-sing and half-speak the opening lines. 'As above, so below; we all know how it goes. From ivory tower to filthy gutters.... there's no untouched bower, you can't close them shutters.' He flashed a cynical half-smile as his weary public-school tones rose in a homage to the sense of desecration and despair lurking in them all. It wasn't a tune Rose would sing while mopping the kitchen floor, but a warm, melancholy pride tipped up her chin. It was a song that told you Mankind was here to stay, chock full of notes and chords that made her want to cry, punch someone and hug them all at once.
As the room seemed to slowly wake, as if from a dream, Jamie looked up, letting that enormous final chord fade. His experiences with Merlin must have awoken something of the psychic in him, because their eyes met and he tipped an imaginary hat to her and Rose laughed. She gently drifted back towards the door and blew him a find kiss as the stepped back through the oak.
Jamie was going to be fine.