New Sanctuary Fic: "By the Light of Day"
A little post-ep for "Hero II: Broken Arrow"...
DISCLAIMER: All belongs to Damien Kindler and Stage 3 Media and Ms. Tapping and all the usual suspects who aren't me. Just borrowing these beautiful people. Thanks for the favor.:)
TITLE: By the Light of Day
RATING: Teen
CATEGORIES: Angst, Kate/Helen friendship, implied Helen/FemaleOther in the past
TIMELINE: Immediately following "Hero II: Broken Arrow"
Major short notice beta thanks to helenhighwater7 and verita_truth. I'd be far less presentable without them.
BY THE LIGHT OF DAY
by
Rowan Darkstar
Copyright (c) 2010
The view from the window is breathtaking. A city far removed from the one she has learned from the rough pavement up. Part of Kate Freelander always expected a view like this in her future. Part of her believed she would never be worthy; forever the street kid. Some days she feels she is in this castle on borrowed time, hijacking someone else's life. Most days.
She broke too fast this time, too easily. Knows it's not her fault, but thinks maybe it is, just the same. The others are watching her. As much as this new home feels like a warm blanket on an icy night, she's starting to doubt her place again when the familiar tall shadow appears above her. She's considered lately that perhaps the enigmatic Dr. Magnus possesses gifts she has yet to share with the class. A sixth sense, an ability to appear on the scene when most needed...the consistency has started to get to Kate. She has started to need it. Need scares her more than anything.
"Just...happy to be home," she says, and it's real and honest and again she wonders if Dr. Magnus's pores exude some sort of truth serum.
Magnus is strikingly beautiful today, soft and floral and elegant. Nothing like the leather clad gunslinger. She's gazing out the window, carried off by thoughts Kate doubts she herself will ever be able to reach, when Kate defaults to blunt confrontation and says, "So...I gather you saw me buck naked in the street."
Magnus glances her way with a sweet smile, not thrown in the least by the crude quip. "I am a doctor, Kate," she says. Then she wrinkles her nose, ridiculously adorable for a 158 year old woman, "Kinda used to it."
Kate takes that with a slip of a grin, looks out at the view for a beat, then draws a breath to voice the thought that's been dancing in and out of her mind for weeks.
The words fall flat before she can give them sound.
Magnus catches on. Of course.
"What?" she says.
Kate shakes her head and tucks her legs tighter beneath her. "Nothing. Forget it."
"Ask me." And somehow there's nowhere else to go.
Kate bites her lip and eyes the length of the woman before her, the myth before her, and tries to remember there's a woman in there who still can't seem to pop open soda cans without splattering her blouse and remembers every birthday gift her father ever gave her. "Well, I just wondered..." She tries to hold eye contact against piercing blue. "I mean, all these years, you've been alive and...," she gestures toward Magnus's slender curves as she reclines in the window seat, "...still in your prime...there must have been...some women..." She lets the meaning drift in the sunbeams.
Kate can tell Magnus didn't see the question coming. But she rises to the occasion and Kate's not surprised. She can't remember everything from the past few days, but something burns in her chest about Magnus and truth.
Magnus lifts her eyebrows and lets her gaze fall to Kate's knee, draws a breath that speaks both of decision and nostalgia, then says, "Yes," with an almost painful honesty. "There have been a couple of women. It's not something I often discuss, but on the other hand it's not something of which I'm the least bit ashamed. By and large, I am...biologically wired toward a preference for the male gender. But you're quite right, there have been a lot of years, and as a result some...well, really, two particular women. You can't entirely...," but she pauses, clears her throat and corrects herself, "You can't choose with whom you fall in love."
Kate lets go a soft breath, feels the silence prevailing on the upper floors. "Do you still do that?" she asks. "Even now?"
"Do what?"
Kate shrugs, offers gently, "Fall in love."
"Of course. I am still a person, if not entirely clinically 'human' by blood type. As such, love sort of comes with the package."
Kate watches her for a long moment, the sun highlighting the older woman's freckles, blouse draping elegantly as she leans. "You must have had hundreds of people in love with you," she says before thought.
Magnus closes her eyes, and when she speaks again, there's a tenderness and a vulnerability Kate isn't sure she's ever heard before. "Mmm. More often in love with who I appear to be. My position, my status, my influence...the inherent intrigue of my biological state. Far fewer in love with simply...Helen."
The ripple in Magnus's words makes Kate want to hold her breath. Or take her friend's hand. "You lost them, didn't you," she says. "Those women."
"I lose everyone, Kate." The eye contact has returned and the harsh clarity is unnerving. Kate will never understand this woman. She wants to try.
"What's home to you?"
Magnus lifts her chin for a moment, perhaps impressed by the question, perhaps just carefully considering a reply. "Sanctuaries are home, in the physical sense, the nostalgic sense. But if those were taken away...I suppose it's the people...," she gazes out over the city below, "...who bother to ask."
The sun dances through the beveled glass.
The two women sit together. Until Magnus stands, brushes a motherly hand down Kate's arm, and walks away.
***
DISCLAIMER: All belongs to Damien Kindler and Stage 3 Media and Ms. Tapping and all the usual suspects who aren't me. Just borrowing these beautiful people. Thanks for the favor.:)
TITLE: By the Light of Day
RATING: Teen
CATEGORIES: Angst, Kate/Helen friendship, implied Helen/FemaleOther in the past
TIMELINE: Immediately following "Hero II: Broken Arrow"
Major short notice beta thanks to helenhighwater7 and verita_truth. I'd be far less presentable without them.
BY THE LIGHT OF DAY
by
Rowan Darkstar
Copyright (c) 2010
The view from the window is breathtaking. A city far removed from the one she has learned from the rough pavement up. Part of Kate Freelander always expected a view like this in her future. Part of her believed she would never be worthy; forever the street kid. Some days she feels she is in this castle on borrowed time, hijacking someone else's life. Most days.
She broke too fast this time, too easily. Knows it's not her fault, but thinks maybe it is, just the same. The others are watching her. As much as this new home feels like a warm blanket on an icy night, she's starting to doubt her place again when the familiar tall shadow appears above her. She's considered lately that perhaps the enigmatic Dr. Magnus possesses gifts she has yet to share with the class. A sixth sense, an ability to appear on the scene when most needed...the consistency has started to get to Kate. She has started to need it. Need scares her more than anything.
"Just...happy to be home," she says, and it's real and honest and again she wonders if Dr. Magnus's pores exude some sort of truth serum.
Magnus is strikingly beautiful today, soft and floral and elegant. Nothing like the leather clad gunslinger. She's gazing out the window, carried off by thoughts Kate doubts she herself will ever be able to reach, when Kate defaults to blunt confrontation and says, "So...I gather you saw me buck naked in the street."
Magnus glances her way with a sweet smile, not thrown in the least by the crude quip. "I am a doctor, Kate," she says. Then she wrinkles her nose, ridiculously adorable for a 158 year old woman, "Kinda used to it."
Kate takes that with a slip of a grin, looks out at the view for a beat, then draws a breath to voice the thought that's been dancing in and out of her mind for weeks.
The words fall flat before she can give them sound.
Magnus catches on. Of course.
"What?" she says.
Kate shakes her head and tucks her legs tighter beneath her. "Nothing. Forget it."
"Ask me." And somehow there's nowhere else to go.
Kate bites her lip and eyes the length of the woman before her, the myth before her, and tries to remember there's a woman in there who still can't seem to pop open soda cans without splattering her blouse and remembers every birthday gift her father ever gave her. "Well, I just wondered..." She tries to hold eye contact against piercing blue. "I mean, all these years, you've been alive and...," she gestures toward Magnus's slender curves as she reclines in the window seat, "...still in your prime...there must have been...some women..." She lets the meaning drift in the sunbeams.
Kate can tell Magnus didn't see the question coming. But she rises to the occasion and Kate's not surprised. She can't remember everything from the past few days, but something burns in her chest about Magnus and truth.
Magnus lifts her eyebrows and lets her gaze fall to Kate's knee, draws a breath that speaks both of decision and nostalgia, then says, "Yes," with an almost painful honesty. "There have been a couple of women. It's not something I often discuss, but on the other hand it's not something of which I'm the least bit ashamed. By and large, I am...biologically wired toward a preference for the male gender. But you're quite right, there have been a lot of years, and as a result some...well, really, two particular women. You can't entirely...," but she pauses, clears her throat and corrects herself, "You can't choose with whom you fall in love."
Kate lets go a soft breath, feels the silence prevailing on the upper floors. "Do you still do that?" she asks. "Even now?"
"Do what?"
Kate shrugs, offers gently, "Fall in love."
"Of course. I am still a person, if not entirely clinically 'human' by blood type. As such, love sort of comes with the package."
Kate watches her for a long moment, the sun highlighting the older woman's freckles, blouse draping elegantly as she leans. "You must have had hundreds of people in love with you," she says before thought.
Magnus closes her eyes, and when she speaks again, there's a tenderness and a vulnerability Kate isn't sure she's ever heard before. "Mmm. More often in love with who I appear to be. My position, my status, my influence...the inherent intrigue of my biological state. Far fewer in love with simply...Helen."
The ripple in Magnus's words makes Kate want to hold her breath. Or take her friend's hand. "You lost them, didn't you," she says. "Those women."
"I lose everyone, Kate." The eye contact has returned and the harsh clarity is unnerving. Kate will never understand this woman. She wants to try.
"What's home to you?"
Magnus lifts her chin for a moment, perhaps impressed by the question, perhaps just carefully considering a reply. "Sanctuaries are home, in the physical sense, the nostalgic sense. But if those were taken away...I suppose it's the people...," she gazes out over the city below, "...who bother to ask."
The sun dances through the beveled glass.
The two women sit together. Until Magnus stands, brushes a motherly hand down Kate's arm, and walks away.
***