Red Alert Squad - Midnight Black (081. Lacking.)
Title: Midnight Black
Fandom: House/24
Claim: Red Alert Squad
Prompt: 081. Lacking.
Characters: Adam Carter, Brittany House
Pairing: Adam Carter/Fiona Carter
Word Count: 562
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Future episodes of Spooks Series Four.
Summary: Small gestures being passed between two friends become strangers.
Author's Notes: First of our new table for 100_situations, focusing on the Red Alert Squad. I haven't actually seen the episodes which contain the events in question, and I'm not too thrilled at them, but the idea of this fic got stuck in my head after the first part of "The Special" and I couldn't get it out. Adam Carter was never a member of the team, but he's worked with them on occasion. And I love the way this piece turned out.
He remembers the roses.
She sent a dozen roses, black ones, for Danny Hunter's funeral. Asking him to take them to the church. A note, unsigned but he could tell her small, elegant handwriting. She could never ignore any loss, no matter how small. If the man who'd gotten her coffee one day had died, she'd probably send a telegram. She'd sent roses for Danny. Roses that Adam had forgotten to take, because he'd been too busy trying to cajole Fiona to go to the funeral, and later with the bomb from Shining Dawn.
He'd taken them a few days later and wondered, absently, if Danny would even remember who they were from, but he didn't suppose it mattered.
A few months later, there are another dozen roses sitting on his desk. Red ones, for Fiona. No note, this time, an acknowledgement that there is little that can be said for the loss of a lover, a wife, a mother. Adam closes his eyes and wants to pretend they're not there.
That Fiona isn't dead.
Shot by her ex-husband, dying in Adam's own arms.
The sum total of Adam's life is a wedding band that won't be used, a son with too many questions about his mum, and a dozen blood-red flowers on a cold white desk in the middle of the world in which they lived and died. He lived, she died. Together.
He has to find her number in the computer, buried somewhere in the bottom of a file. Why or how or when he calls, Adam won't remember. He shouldn't be calling at all. Just like she shouldn't have sent flowers that will die on his desk.
Just like Fiona shouldn't be dead.
But his wife is dead and she's not coming back and he has to learn to live with that.
He swallows hard. "I told you not to come back," he says when she answers. "I told you...to stay out of it."
There's a silence on the end of the line, then, "She was a friend, Adam, I can't not acknowledge her loss."
Adam wants to say that she hardly knew her. That they worked together a grand total of twice, and that Fiona didn't keep many friends. That they're still strangers. But he bites his tongue and shakes his head, because Fiona didn't keep many friends, and he could use a friend right now. "You can't come out here," he says instead, "it's not worth it."
Not your place, he means to say.
"I'm not coming out there, Adam. I can't, not anymore." He can almost see her pursing her lips, looking for something to say that'd make it all okay. He knows that much about her. "But she helped me. And you helped me. And I just wanted to say, that I'm sorry."
"Yeah," he says, with an even longer pause. "So am I."
"If you need to come out for awhile, you can come here," she offers. "If you need to get away..."
"Brittany." He cuts her off before she can say any more. "I am away."
There's silence that falls on either end of the phone, and as he sets it back on its cradle, Adam Carter is staring at the roses on his desk, and wondering if it really matters if he ever comes back.
He sees red and thinks of Fiona.
Fandom: House/24
Claim: Red Alert Squad
Prompt: 081. Lacking.
Characters: Adam Carter, Brittany House
Pairing: Adam Carter/Fiona Carter
Word Count: 562
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Future episodes of Spooks Series Four.
Summary: Small gestures being passed between two friends become strangers.
Author's Notes: First of our new table for 100_situations, focusing on the Red Alert Squad. I haven't actually seen the episodes which contain the events in question, and I'm not too thrilled at them, but the idea of this fic got stuck in my head after the first part of "The Special" and I couldn't get it out. Adam Carter was never a member of the team, but he's worked with them on occasion. And I love the way this piece turned out.
He remembers the roses.
She sent a dozen roses, black ones, for Danny Hunter's funeral. Asking him to take them to the church. A note, unsigned but he could tell her small, elegant handwriting. She could never ignore any loss, no matter how small. If the man who'd gotten her coffee one day had died, she'd probably send a telegram. She'd sent roses for Danny. Roses that Adam had forgotten to take, because he'd been too busy trying to cajole Fiona to go to the funeral, and later with the bomb from Shining Dawn.
He'd taken them a few days later and wondered, absently, if Danny would even remember who they were from, but he didn't suppose it mattered.
A few months later, there are another dozen roses sitting on his desk. Red ones, for Fiona. No note, this time, an acknowledgement that there is little that can be said for the loss of a lover, a wife, a mother. Adam closes his eyes and wants to pretend they're not there.
That Fiona isn't dead.
Shot by her ex-husband, dying in Adam's own arms.
The sum total of Adam's life is a wedding band that won't be used, a son with too many questions about his mum, and a dozen blood-red flowers on a cold white desk in the middle of the world in which they lived and died. He lived, she died. Together.
He has to find her number in the computer, buried somewhere in the bottom of a file. Why or how or when he calls, Adam won't remember. He shouldn't be calling at all. Just like she shouldn't have sent flowers that will die on his desk.
Just like Fiona shouldn't be dead.
But his wife is dead and she's not coming back and he has to learn to live with that.
He swallows hard. "I told you not to come back," he says when she answers. "I told you...to stay out of it."
There's a silence on the end of the line, then, "She was a friend, Adam, I can't not acknowledge her loss."
Adam wants to say that she hardly knew her. That they worked together a grand total of twice, and that Fiona didn't keep many friends. That they're still strangers. But he bites his tongue and shakes his head, because Fiona didn't keep many friends, and he could use a friend right now. "You can't come out here," he says instead, "it's not worth it."
Not your place, he means to say.
"I'm not coming out there, Adam. I can't, not anymore." He can almost see her pursing her lips, looking for something to say that'd make it all okay. He knows that much about her. "But she helped me. And you helped me. And I just wanted to say, that I'm sorry."
"Yeah," he says, with an even longer pause. "So am I."
"If you need to come out for awhile, you can come here," she offers. "If you need to get away..."
"Brittany." He cuts her off before she can say any more. "I am away."
There's silence that falls on either end of the phone, and as he sets it back on its cradle, Adam Carter is staring at the roses on his desk, and wondering if it really matters if he ever comes back.
He sees red and thinks of Fiona.