(no subject)
With as often as she'd seen it coming, expected to get this news, Carla Jean didn't think anything could have prepared her for the sight of Sheriff Ed Tom Bell at her motel room door, hat off and leaning against the doorjamb. It was startling enough that she had to turn away, teeth clenched tightly, mouth pressed into a thin line.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," he said.
All it took was that. "Oh, God," she choked out, and staggered back into the room before slumping to the floor, face buried in her forearms with her hands over her head. Bell was still standing before her, holding his hat, unsure of what to do until he saw two Spanish maids in the parking lot, watching and whispering to each other. He then stepped into the room and closed the door.
"Carla Jean," he said.
She let out a quiet sob, and said again, "Oh, God." There was nothing else she could say, not then.
"I'm just as sorry as can be."
"Oh, God."
He simply stood there, his hat in hand. "I'm sorry."
In that moment, nothing hurt more than those two words, not even the news -- the notion, really; Bell hadn't yet told her, but she still knew -- that Llewelyn was dead. "Damn you," she said, the words muffled by both the arms covering her mouth and her crying. "You stand there and tell me you're sorry? My husband is dead. Do you understand that?" She paused, her body shaking as much as her voice in her balled-up position on the floor. "You say you're sorry one more time, and by God if I won't get my gun and shoot you." It was an idle threat, really, though not intended to sound as such, but Sheriff Bell never answered.
Sheriff Bell never answered because Sheriff Bell wasn't there.
Carla Jean waited a few moments, but when there was still no response, she lifted her head slightly, looking first through her fingers and then lowering her arms completely to reveal her red, tear-stained face. The motel room was, apparently, gone, replaced by a cold cement hallway that would likely have been disarming no matter what the circumstances were. She pressed one quivering hand to her lips, pulling her knees closer to her chest as she glanced around, and, finally, swallowed. "Sheriff?" she called out hesitantly, fighting off a fresh burst of tears. "Sheriff Bell? Where'd you go?"
[First tag or two gets to find her in the hallway and explain (threads will probably contain spoilers), everyone else can find her around the Compound. ST/LT more than welcome. Dialogue and some language from Cormac McCarthy's novel, as opposed to the movie.]