Return to Peregrine Island
Title: Return to Peregrine Island
Fandom: The A List
Characters: Amber, Jenna, Mags, Harry, Iris.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers all through S2
Summary: For the "Hecate" prompt at sunshine_challenge. Amber prepares to live her life without her powers; Jenna fears she is beginning to display those previously shown by Midge.
With Dr Shaw’s arrest, Mags was now the person assigned as Amber’s point of contact once she was allowed to leave Peregrine Island; it had been Mags who had created the paperwork allowing Amber to legally exist, to be able to have those opportunities at education and work, at friendships with people who were unaware of her history, who had never been hurt by her, all the opportunities Mia, Kayleigh, Alex and the others had always had but were only now becoming real to Amber. She helped Amber immerse herself in the British culture, allowing Amber to be able to hold her own on the outside world, to understand cultural references now that she could no longer mind control people not to notice when she didn’t understand something. From being part of Midge, to being a person not supposed to exist, Amber now had to find a way to become part of the world.
She was still in touch with Mia and the others, although she knew that they met up with each other more often than they did with her. Jenna was probably the person she saw most of; since Dr Shaw had managed to inject Jenna with the animosine, Jenna still needed more regular monitoring than any of the others in an attempt to ascertain what the side effects may be. If Jenna mentioned meetups that any of them had had without her, Amber would smile and nod, enjoy hearing about them, trying not to think about the fact that she wasn’t there. She understood the reasons why the others sometimes found it easier to meet without her, the memories of everything that had happened on Peregrine Island still too strong for anyone to really relax around her.
It was easier being with Iris, someone who didn’t know her history (she and Mags had talked about that, agreed that it was best at first not to get into it, and then review it at a later date), someone who wasn’t going to judge Amber on anything that had gone before. She thought about that day when they first met, when Amber had offered to take away Iris’s pain over Sam, and had been shocked when Iris had refused, but had then come to respect that, to realise that Iris was possibly the strongest person she had ever met. Sometimes Iris shared her stories of Sam, and a part of Amber wished she could tell her that Sam had moved on, that he had been a support to Midge while they were trapped on Peregrine Island, but she also knew it wasn’t the time. Maybe one day, but not yet. Right now Amber had this chance to be a regular person, to live life without the powers she once had, and she was finding that actually she was happier in this relationship of equals with Iris where she had no power over her than she had been when she was controlling everyone on Peregrine Island over grudges that had, in fact, been Midge’s. She’d spent most of her life tied to Midge, to Dr Shaw’s visions; now was her opportunity to discover who Amber really was.
For the first few weeks off island, nothing was out of the ordinary for Jenna. She would go about her daily life, try to get back into her course, attend the catch ups with the Peregrine Island group when she could. She had her bad days when the nightmares would plague her sleep, but Harry was always there to call to calm her down, even if it was 3am.
Harry had sent her a bunch of flowers when her birthday came around; they’d lasted about a week and then Jenna had noticed a few deadheads in the vase, but hadn’t got round to removing them. That night she’d had the nightmare of being chased through the Lockwell Institute by Dr Shaw again; it wasn’t one of her worse ones, she’d even managed to go back to sleep again without needing to call Harry, but the next morning she’d woken up and realised with horror that the deadheads she4 hadn’t got round to getting rid of now seemed to have come back to life.
She had to be imagining it, Jenna told herself. She must have been mistaken; those flowers mustn’t have been as dead as she’d originally thought. There was no way she was developing those same powers as Midge, who had managed to make flowers grow around her as she floated in the swimming pool. The animosine had been destroyed by Alex before they had left Peregrine Island; Midge was dead. The whole nightmare was over; Jenna was not becoming Midge.
She was so convinced of this that by the next time she saw Harry, Jenna was convinced he would laugh it off, agree that it had just been one of her dreams. Instead, Harry was horrified, told Jenna she had to tell Mags about it when she next went to be monitored. It could mean something had gone wrong on the island, that they hadn’t destroyed all the animosine after all. Jenna knew he could be right; he, after all, was the one who did all the research and probably knew more what he was talking about than even Mags. Yet another part of her wanted to run from the idea of ever setting foot on Peregrine Island again, of having to face the Institute, what was left of their camp, the caves. She had to try one thing, to make sure in her own mind.
“Nothing happened just now,” she said. “I never mentioned anything to you about flowers, or animosine. We never had that conversation. We were talking about…TV shows.”
She hoped that Harry would challenge her about what she had said, think it was a weird kind of joke and laugh, anything but what he did. Instead, his eyes glazed over and he started talking about how he knew she and Kayleigh enjoyed Love Island, but shows like that weren’t his thing and he preferred something with an actual storyline to it.
That shouldn’t have worked. But it had. The animosine was active in her body, maybe even active on the island again. But Jenna didn’t feel she could trust Mags with it, not when she had been part of the experiment. They might have to do the one thing they had all vowed they would never do again: return to Peregrine Island.
Fandom: The A List
Characters: Amber, Jenna, Mags, Harry, Iris.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers all through S2
Summary: For the "Hecate" prompt at sunshine_challenge. Amber prepares to live her life without her powers; Jenna fears she is beginning to display those previously shown by Midge.
With Dr Shaw’s arrest, Mags was now the person assigned as Amber’s point of contact once she was allowed to leave Peregrine Island; it had been Mags who had created the paperwork allowing Amber to legally exist, to be able to have those opportunities at education and work, at friendships with people who were unaware of her history, who had never been hurt by her, all the opportunities Mia, Kayleigh, Alex and the others had always had but were only now becoming real to Amber. She helped Amber immerse herself in the British culture, allowing Amber to be able to hold her own on the outside world, to understand cultural references now that she could no longer mind control people not to notice when she didn’t understand something. From being part of Midge, to being a person not supposed to exist, Amber now had to find a way to become part of the world.
She was still in touch with Mia and the others, although she knew that they met up with each other more often than they did with her. Jenna was probably the person she saw most of; since Dr Shaw had managed to inject Jenna with the animosine, Jenna still needed more regular monitoring than any of the others in an attempt to ascertain what the side effects may be. If Jenna mentioned meetups that any of them had had without her, Amber would smile and nod, enjoy hearing about them, trying not to think about the fact that she wasn’t there. She understood the reasons why the others sometimes found it easier to meet without her, the memories of everything that had happened on Peregrine Island still too strong for anyone to really relax around her.
It was easier being with Iris, someone who didn’t know her history (she and Mags had talked about that, agreed that it was best at first not to get into it, and then review it at a later date), someone who wasn’t going to judge Amber on anything that had gone before. She thought about that day when they first met, when Amber had offered to take away Iris’s pain over Sam, and had been shocked when Iris had refused, but had then come to respect that, to realise that Iris was possibly the strongest person she had ever met. Sometimes Iris shared her stories of Sam, and a part of Amber wished she could tell her that Sam had moved on, that he had been a support to Midge while they were trapped on Peregrine Island, but she also knew it wasn’t the time. Maybe one day, but not yet. Right now Amber had this chance to be a regular person, to live life without the powers she once had, and she was finding that actually she was happier in this relationship of equals with Iris where she had no power over her than she had been when she was controlling everyone on Peregrine Island over grudges that had, in fact, been Midge’s. She’d spent most of her life tied to Midge, to Dr Shaw’s visions; now was her opportunity to discover who Amber really was.
For the first few weeks off island, nothing was out of the ordinary for Jenna. She would go about her daily life, try to get back into her course, attend the catch ups with the Peregrine Island group when she could. She had her bad days when the nightmares would plague her sleep, but Harry was always there to call to calm her down, even if it was 3am.
Harry had sent her a bunch of flowers when her birthday came around; they’d lasted about a week and then Jenna had noticed a few deadheads in the vase, but hadn’t got round to removing them. That night she’d had the nightmare of being chased through the Lockwell Institute by Dr Shaw again; it wasn’t one of her worse ones, she’d even managed to go back to sleep again without needing to call Harry, but the next morning she’d woken up and realised with horror that the deadheads she4 hadn’t got round to getting rid of now seemed to have come back to life.
She had to be imagining it, Jenna told herself. She must have been mistaken; those flowers mustn’t have been as dead as she’d originally thought. There was no way she was developing those same powers as Midge, who had managed to make flowers grow around her as she floated in the swimming pool. The animosine had been destroyed by Alex before they had left Peregrine Island; Midge was dead. The whole nightmare was over; Jenna was not becoming Midge.
She was so convinced of this that by the next time she saw Harry, Jenna was convinced he would laugh it off, agree that it had just been one of her dreams. Instead, Harry was horrified, told Jenna she had to tell Mags about it when she next went to be monitored. It could mean something had gone wrong on the island, that they hadn’t destroyed all the animosine after all. Jenna knew he could be right; he, after all, was the one who did all the research and probably knew more what he was talking about than even Mags. Yet another part of her wanted to run from the idea of ever setting foot on Peregrine Island again, of having to face the Institute, what was left of their camp, the caves. She had to try one thing, to make sure in her own mind.
“Nothing happened just now,” she said. “I never mentioned anything to you about flowers, or animosine. We never had that conversation. We were talking about…TV shows.”
She hoped that Harry would challenge her about what she had said, think it was a weird kind of joke and laugh, anything but what he did. Instead, his eyes glazed over and he started talking about how he knew she and Kayleigh enjoyed Love Island, but shows like that weren’t his thing and he preferred something with an actual storyline to it.
That shouldn’t have worked. But it had. The animosine was active in her body, maybe even active on the island again. But Jenna didn’t feel she could trust Mags with it, not when she had been part of the experiment. They might have to do the one thing they had all vowed they would never do again: return to Peregrine Island.