(The Sinners Are Much More Fun)
Title: (The Sinners Are Much More Fun)
Date posted: 06-26-08
Fandom: Alias
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Spoilers: No real spoilers.
Notes: For alias500's challenge "minor characters"
Title's from Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young."
Her father is a quiet man, used to leaving the decisions to his wife by his own choice. The day of her wedding, however, Emily's father takes her by the elbow and says, (quietly,) "Don't marry him, Emily."
There are sprigs of baby breath crowning her face. "Come on, Dad," she says, but his urgency is strange. He had never shown a dislike towards Arvin before. "Everyone's waiting."
"Emily," he tries again, and his accent is thick, "Arvin will only make you cry."
(Emily reflects upon this statement many years later.)
-
Emily grew up in the shadows of her older sister, Tamara, who died at age six in Auschwitz with her mother. Otto Hirsch changed his name to Oscar Hart once in America and never spoke German again, marrying a young American named Hannah, who is as different from his first wife as night is from day.
(Her parents have a relationship more of convenience than of romance; Emily cannot understand why her vibrant mother would have chosen to marry a man twenty years her senior whose eyes are filled with sadness. They are friends, she knows, but she has no memories of ever seeing them kiss.)
-
Tamara had been perfect. Nimble and brave and daring and so clever it made Oscar's eyes tear up to speak of her. There are no photographs of her that Emily knows of, but she has an image in her mind from what's she's heard- dark curls and hazel eyes, light and quick and always getting into trouble.
(Which Emily thought was what her father would have preferred to her, who has been attentive and dutiful and very rarely rambunctious. Sometimes, as she had sat reading, dresses still pleated and unstained, she would look up and see the comparison in his eyes.)
Tamara would have been twenty years older than Emily, but there was never a doubt that had Tamara lived, there would be no Emily.
-
Arvin is fifteen years older than her and, she realized, had been alive at the same time as Tamara, albeit on different continents. She tells Arvin about the half-sister she half adores, half despises, perfect Tamara who cannot be touched because she only exists in Oscar's memory and Emily only reminds him of German ideals.
(There is no comparison when Arvin looks at her, just affection.)
He reassures her that her father does love her, and must be proud of everything that she's achieved. Though the words tap against her teeth, she doesn't tell him that he's wrong.
-
Arvin is not a perfect man, but he loves her above all else, and Emily believes in that. She trusts him on his business trips, when his meetings last hours past dinnertime. She trusts him around the young, pretty secretaries at his work and the wives of his colleagues.
"We have to trust them," the wife of one Arvin's colleagues replies, "or else we'd go crazy." Laura and Emily have meals together sometimes when their husbands are away. Emily doesn't really think that Laura could possibly need to worry- she's beautiful in the way she always imagined Tamara would be, dark and confident and brilliant and witty.
(Emily only worries a little. After all, men can't help it. But Arvin's different. He is a man of faith, and she has faith in him.)
-
"Daddy," Emily says quietly, her fingers pressing into the crook of his elbow, "I love him. Everything's going to be fine." Her father's eyes search hers, and for a sharp moment Emily wonders what her father could possibly be thinking of. It passes as quickly as it has come, and Emily smiles.
(His smile is reluctant, but it comes.)
Date posted: 06-26-08
Fandom: Alias
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Spoilers: No real spoilers.
Notes: For alias500's challenge "minor characters"
Title's from Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young."
Her father is a quiet man, used to leaving the decisions to his wife by his own choice. The day of her wedding, however, Emily's father takes her by the elbow and says, (quietly,) "Don't marry him, Emily."
There are sprigs of baby breath crowning her face. "Come on, Dad," she says, but his urgency is strange. He had never shown a dislike towards Arvin before. "Everyone's waiting."
"Emily," he tries again, and his accent is thick, "Arvin will only make you cry."
(Emily reflects upon this statement many years later.)
-
Emily grew up in the shadows of her older sister, Tamara, who died at age six in Auschwitz with her mother. Otto Hirsch changed his name to Oscar Hart once in America and never spoke German again, marrying a young American named Hannah, who is as different from his first wife as night is from day.
(Her parents have a relationship more of convenience than of romance; Emily cannot understand why her vibrant mother would have chosen to marry a man twenty years her senior whose eyes are filled with sadness. They are friends, she knows, but she has no memories of ever seeing them kiss.)
-
Tamara had been perfect. Nimble and brave and daring and so clever it made Oscar's eyes tear up to speak of her. There are no photographs of her that Emily knows of, but she has an image in her mind from what's she's heard- dark curls and hazel eyes, light and quick and always getting into trouble.
(Which Emily thought was what her father would have preferred to her, who has been attentive and dutiful and very rarely rambunctious. Sometimes, as she had sat reading, dresses still pleated and unstained, she would look up and see the comparison in his eyes.)
Tamara would have been twenty years older than Emily, but there was never a doubt that had Tamara lived, there would be no Emily.
-
Arvin is fifteen years older than her and, she realized, had been alive at the same time as Tamara, albeit on different continents. She tells Arvin about the half-sister she half adores, half despises, perfect Tamara who cannot be touched because she only exists in Oscar's memory and Emily only reminds him of German ideals.
(There is no comparison when Arvin looks at her, just affection.)
He reassures her that her father does love her, and must be proud of everything that she's achieved. Though the words tap against her teeth, she doesn't tell him that he's wrong.
-
Arvin is not a perfect man, but he loves her above all else, and Emily believes in that. She trusts him on his business trips, when his meetings last hours past dinnertime. She trusts him around the young, pretty secretaries at his work and the wives of his colleagues.
"We have to trust them," the wife of one Arvin's colleagues replies, "or else we'd go crazy." Laura and Emily have meals together sometimes when their husbands are away. Emily doesn't really think that Laura could possibly need to worry- she's beautiful in the way she always imagined Tamara would be, dark and confident and brilliant and witty.
(Emily only worries a little. After all, men can't help it. But Arvin's different. He is a man of faith, and she has faith in him.)
-
"Daddy," Emily says quietly, her fingers pressing into the crook of his elbow, "I love him. Everything's going to be fine." Her father's eyes search hers, and for a sharp moment Emily wonders what her father could possibly be thinking of. It passes as quickly as it has come, and Emily smiles.
(His smile is reluctant, but it comes.)