Glass Waltz: Chapter 88 (025. Escape.)
Title: Glass Waltz (88)
Fandoms: House/24/MI5
Characters/Pairing: Greg House/Brittany House, referenced Brittany House/Michael Colefield and one-sided Brittany House/Jacob Lindsay
Prompt: 025. Escape.
Word Count: 1213
Rating: PG-13 for language, violence, and adult subject matter.
Spoilers: None for this part
Summary: A killer's dying wish brings his last victim to life.
Author's Notes: The eighty-eighth chapter of an ongoing novel. All chapter subtitles are from the song "30 Minutes" by TATU.
Eighty-Eight.
When You Go.
to make plans or mistakes
June 13, 2011
10:00 A.M. BDT
London, England
There really is nothing to say that hasn't been said before.
She and Taylor O'Connell have gone over every inch of the aberration known as her husband's abduction, for all the facts and all the theories. She and her ex-husband Michael have traced each and every single emotional and mental scar they've both suffered over this long road. Not just this case, not just the Lindsay murder, but the entire nine-year road of their entire lives. Everyone has said their piece. Everyone has done their best. All that they can do now, is look at each other across the table and think that the game may be up.
For some of them it's a foregone conclusion. Taylor was never really a part of this and by all rights, he should be dead by now. He has to put his own life back together and decide who he wants to be. He has to do that on his own, and just like she thought when Brittany left him on the bridge the other night, she doesn't think she'll ever know what happens to him, one way or the other.
For others, there are other things which demand their attention. When she gets back from this, she has a job and a whole new life waiting for her. Coaching duties, a young son, middle-aged life at its finest. She will close the door on everything that has come before. It only then occurs to her that it could easily be described as boring, and how important these years have been in who she is today.
Then there's Michael, who doesn't really know what to say. He's certainly not going to talk about how he kissed his ex-wife. But his life is a hundred and eighty degrees from where it was when this whole story started. He's in a foreign country. In a whole new career. Single, then married, then divorced. His entire life has changed in the last nine years, from the bottom to the top to the bottom to liveable ground, and it's about to change again. He knows that for better or for worse, he has to let her go, for good. He's not sure what he feels about that.
Silence lapses at the table and they all just sit there, eyeing one another, wanting to apologize for things that aren't their fault.
They all know they're powerless now. Human.
They all know that it's all over.
It will never be this good for any of them again.
They drive to Cooper-Fozard to pick up their flight package. Serene obviously passed the message along, because when a world-weary Brittany appears in Stephen Bradley's office doorway, her ex-husband waiting by the elevator, she can see the documents already sitting on her lawyer's desk.
"Flight leaves at three," he tells her, pressing the tickets into her hand. Their eyes lock. She's known Stephen for nine years and he's never known her all that well, but that doesn't change that he's been a dependable friend. "I'm sorry things didn't turn out better for you, Brittany."
"Don't apologize, Stephen," she replies, shaking her head. "You did much more than I could've asked of you."
"That doesn't mean I can't feel for you." He wraps an arm around her, kissing her temple lightly. "Until the next time."
Brittany smiles slightly. "Stephen, if it's up to me, there won't be a next time."
Without another word, she turns on her heel and walks through the offices, meeting her ex-husband at the elevator. It's a short ride back to the ground floor and then a shorter walk outside. Taylor O'Connell is waiting there for them. This is where they leave him. Where they go their separate ways, never to see each other again, or at least so they figure. Then again, they said that once before.
"I guess this is goodbye, then," she says softly, brushing her hair back, not really sure what words to use for a man she barely knows.
He shoves his hands into his pockets. "I guess it is," he agrees.
"Take care of yourself."
That makes him chuckle. "Worry about getting home to your family," he advises her, before he turns on his heel and walks back to his car. Neither Brittany nor Michael are watching as the SUV pulls out, and with it, another piece of this puzzle fades away into oblivion.
But she doesn't dwell on it too long. She and Michael have a plane to catch, to get home, finally. After something that's taken far too long and cost them far too much.
Stephen got them first-class seats on the airplane, so they're lounged in massive bucket seats with free beverages and personal TV monitors and lavish food selections (as lavish as things ever get in an airplane, anyway) for the twelve-hour flight. But the amenities really don't do anything for their states of mind. They're both tired, worn-out, turned around. And they've got half a day to think about everything they've done.
"At least it's finally through," Michael says, while poking at his garlic mashed potatoes and pretending like he cares what the in-flight movie is.
Brittany looks over at him and nods, sipping at a Coke. "You can say that," she says, but stops short of actually saying it herself, because her brain is somewhere else.
Considering how much this is like one of the most important moments in her life.
Her husband wasn't on the plane that night in March. She was left alone with Greg for twelve hours, and by the time they'd gotten off, they'd kissed and he was already in love with her. Just a week later, she'd asked Michael for a divorce and moved to New Jersey. And only looked back a few times.
She wants to see Greg and Jackson. She wants a long nap. She wants a warm bed. She wants food. She wants her husband's lips on her skin. But she's not going to be able to ever look at her ex-husband without feeling some sense of guilt. Some sense of deja vu.
"Michael, I..." she starts.
He shakes his head, cutting her off. "Don't you even," he says. "We said all we needed to say."
In saying nothing at all, in that one last goodbye kiss, they said everything they've never been able to say for the last six years. And it will have to be good enough.
She sleeps on the plane until they wake her up with the customs paperwork. By the time it's wheels down at Newark, they're just ready to go home and start all over again. Brittany sits up from where she was leaning against her husband, and smiles awkwardly at the man she's about to leave behind.
There's no easy way to say goodbye to your soulmate.
When she greets her family at the gate, her husband pressing hot kisses to her lips and her son attached to her legs, she's got tears in her eyes. And she doesn't tell them that those tears aren't really for her family, but for the part of her that's walking away from her, one last bittersweet look back into her eyes.
Fandoms: House/24/MI5
Characters/Pairing: Greg House/Brittany House, referenced Brittany House/Michael Colefield and one-sided Brittany House/Jacob Lindsay
Prompt: 025. Escape.
Word Count: 1213
Rating: PG-13 for language, violence, and adult subject matter.
Spoilers: None for this part
Summary: A killer's dying wish brings his last victim to life.
Author's Notes: The eighty-eighth chapter of an ongoing novel. All chapter subtitles are from the song "30 Minutes" by TATU.
Eighty-Eight.
When You Go.
to make plans or mistakes
June 13, 2011
10:00 A.M. BDT
London, England
There really is nothing to say that hasn't been said before.
She and Taylor O'Connell have gone over every inch of the aberration known as her husband's abduction, for all the facts and all the theories. She and her ex-husband Michael have traced each and every single emotional and mental scar they've both suffered over this long road. Not just this case, not just the Lindsay murder, but the entire nine-year road of their entire lives. Everyone has said their piece. Everyone has done their best. All that they can do now, is look at each other across the table and think that the game may be up.
For some of them it's a foregone conclusion. Taylor was never really a part of this and by all rights, he should be dead by now. He has to put his own life back together and decide who he wants to be. He has to do that on his own, and just like she thought when Brittany left him on the bridge the other night, she doesn't think she'll ever know what happens to him, one way or the other.
For others, there are other things which demand their attention. When she gets back from this, she has a job and a whole new life waiting for her. Coaching duties, a young son, middle-aged life at its finest. She will close the door on everything that has come before. It only then occurs to her that it could easily be described as boring, and how important these years have been in who she is today.
Then there's Michael, who doesn't really know what to say. He's certainly not going to talk about how he kissed his ex-wife. But his life is a hundred and eighty degrees from where it was when this whole story started. He's in a foreign country. In a whole new career. Single, then married, then divorced. His entire life has changed in the last nine years, from the bottom to the top to the bottom to liveable ground, and it's about to change again. He knows that for better or for worse, he has to let her go, for good. He's not sure what he feels about that.
Silence lapses at the table and they all just sit there, eyeing one another, wanting to apologize for things that aren't their fault.
They all know they're powerless now. Human.
They all know that it's all over.
It will never be this good for any of them again.
They drive to Cooper-Fozard to pick up their flight package. Serene obviously passed the message along, because when a world-weary Brittany appears in Stephen Bradley's office doorway, her ex-husband waiting by the elevator, she can see the documents already sitting on her lawyer's desk.
"Flight leaves at three," he tells her, pressing the tickets into her hand. Their eyes lock. She's known Stephen for nine years and he's never known her all that well, but that doesn't change that he's been a dependable friend. "I'm sorry things didn't turn out better for you, Brittany."
"Don't apologize, Stephen," she replies, shaking her head. "You did much more than I could've asked of you."
"That doesn't mean I can't feel for you." He wraps an arm around her, kissing her temple lightly. "Until the next time."
Brittany smiles slightly. "Stephen, if it's up to me, there won't be a next time."
Without another word, she turns on her heel and walks through the offices, meeting her ex-husband at the elevator. It's a short ride back to the ground floor and then a shorter walk outside. Taylor O'Connell is waiting there for them. This is where they leave him. Where they go their separate ways, never to see each other again, or at least so they figure. Then again, they said that once before.
"I guess this is goodbye, then," she says softly, brushing her hair back, not really sure what words to use for a man she barely knows.
He shoves his hands into his pockets. "I guess it is," he agrees.
"Take care of yourself."
That makes him chuckle. "Worry about getting home to your family," he advises her, before he turns on his heel and walks back to his car. Neither Brittany nor Michael are watching as the SUV pulls out, and with it, another piece of this puzzle fades away into oblivion.
But she doesn't dwell on it too long. She and Michael have a plane to catch, to get home, finally. After something that's taken far too long and cost them far too much.
Stephen got them first-class seats on the airplane, so they're lounged in massive bucket seats with free beverages and personal TV monitors and lavish food selections (as lavish as things ever get in an airplane, anyway) for the twelve-hour flight. But the amenities really don't do anything for their states of mind. They're both tired, worn-out, turned around. And they've got half a day to think about everything they've done.
"At least it's finally through," Michael says, while poking at his garlic mashed potatoes and pretending like he cares what the in-flight movie is.
Brittany looks over at him and nods, sipping at a Coke. "You can say that," she says, but stops short of actually saying it herself, because her brain is somewhere else.
Considering how much this is like one of the most important moments in her life.
Her husband wasn't on the plane that night in March. She was left alone with Greg for twelve hours, and by the time they'd gotten off, they'd kissed and he was already in love with her. Just a week later, she'd asked Michael for a divorce and moved to New Jersey. And only looked back a few times.
She wants to see Greg and Jackson. She wants a long nap. She wants a warm bed. She wants food. She wants her husband's lips on her skin. But she's not going to be able to ever look at her ex-husband without feeling some sense of guilt. Some sense of deja vu.
"Michael, I..." she starts.
He shakes his head, cutting her off. "Don't you even," he says. "We said all we needed to say."
In saying nothing at all, in that one last goodbye kiss, they said everything they've never been able to say for the last six years. And it will have to be good enough.
She sleeps on the plane until they wake her up with the customs paperwork. By the time it's wheels down at Newark, they're just ready to go home and start all over again. Brittany sits up from where she was leaning against her husband, and smiles awkwardly at the man she's about to leave behind.
There's no easy way to say goodbye to your soulmate.
When she greets her family at the gate, her husband pressing hot kisses to her lips and her son attached to her legs, she's got tears in her eyes. And she doesn't tell them that those tears aren't really for her family, but for the part of her that's walking away from her, one last bittersweet look back into her eyes.