Giving Up the One You Love Part 1 of 3
Wake the Muse fic-a-thon prompt: Adoption - prompted by Damelola - I’ve taken this in a somewhat different direction than you might be expecting…I know, it surprised me too. ;-)
A/N I ask that you keep an open mind for this fic. It is informed and coloured by own experience as part of the Adoption Triangle. I fully understand that it may not reflect the experiences or desires of others within the Triangle or out of it for that matter. It is merely my take on the prompt subject.
Part 1
The plane climbed into the rapidly darkening sky before banking to the right beginning its westward race with the sun. As the fasten seatbelt light blinked off, Andy looked out her tiny window watching the City of Blinding Lights below her and wondered what she was going to do now.
She felt a debilitating sense of anti-climax engulf her; as if her entire existence had been leading to this trip, to that singular moment in the car, and now that the moment was gone she was stuck unable to look back or to truly move forward. She was in limbo, her life directionless, with no purpose and no plan for what to do next.
She sighed once more as a single tear escaped and rolled slowly down her cheek, her newest thoughts causing her chest to tighten. Had Miranda found the letter she’d left in the older woman’s hotel suite, and if she had found it, had she read it. What would she do with the information the letter revealed?
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, more tears quietly falling as she thought about those words again, the words she’d waited her whole life to hear.
‘I see a great deal of myself in you.’
Why? Why had they had to be said then? Why about something so awful as betraying a friend? It just… it just wasn’t fair! Intelligence, beauty, exactingness, determination, of all the attributes possessed by Miranda Priestly that Andy might like to believe she shared, ruthlessness was definitely not the one she wanted to claim. So she’d made a choice, this time she walked away. Walked away but with an ember of hope still smouldering in her heart of hearts.
Hope, she had always lived on it.
***
The hotel suite door shut behind her and Miranda leant wearily against its solidity. It was past midnight and she was tired to the bone. The last seven hours had been a complete circus with Jocelyn and Francesca madly scrambling to keep up with her as she cut her usual majestic swathe through the last show of the day, a post-show cocktail reception and Valentino’s dinner and after party. Not once had her outward appearance given away any of her inner turmoil over Andy’s unexpected departure, continued absence and unanswered messages. Nigel, angry and hurt, had missed the shows but re-appeared at the cocktail party where he had accepted Miranda’s quiet apology and promise to discuss things in private later that evening. He had been the only one to question Andy’s whereabouts and had received only the single word, ‘Gone’, in response.
Sighing she pushed off from the door and made her way through the suite to her bedroom. She glanced at her watch, giving a second sigh as she realised she wouldn’t have time for a shower before Nigel arrived for their talk. She was genuinely sorry for what she’d had to do to her long-time friend, but not that she’d done what was necessary to maintain both Runway and her own integrity. She would make it up to him, and couldn’t stop the small feral grin as she thought of how Irv Ravitz was going to be the one to foot the bill for that penance.
She returned to the sitting room a few minutes later having divested herself of her evening wear and made herself reasonably comfortable in her favourite grey robe. Tying the belt firmly she recalled the evening before when Andy had seen her in the robe, and detoured to her laptop on the desk hoping that perhaps the younger woman had sent an e-mail to explain her actions, and hopefully to say she was safe. Miranda had checked the desk when she arrived, only to be told that the girl had checked out about two hours after she’d walked away from Miranda.
As she approached the desk, Miranda noticed a plain envelope with just her name written in a clear and instantly recognised script. She picked the envelope up and reached for the letter opener in the ornate desk-set, slicing easily through the hotel issued stationary. She pulled out two sheets of paper and began to read Andy’s note.
Dear Miranda
First I want to apologise. Not for leaving, which I really had to do, but for the way I did it. All I can say is that in the moment I felt it was the only thing I could do. I left all your details and itinerary with Jocelyn as well as all the contacts she might need to make sure everything will go as smoothly as possible for the remaining day of your stay. Once again I’m sorry.
Miranda, I have so much I need to say to you, need to explain and I just don’t know how or where to begin, except , well except maybe I just need to start at what was the beginning for me, if not for you. So here goes.
Akron, Ohio, March 16th 1980, 11:32 pm.
Miranda gave a small sob as recognition pierced her heart just before the world went black and she collapsed in a dead faint, the letter still clutched in her hand.