[Days]
Title:
Author: Kara B [aricadavidson or kara_muse]
Rating: PG
Pairing/Character: Eric Weiss/Arica Davidson
Warnings:
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine.
Theme: Days
Contest: fanfic100/au100
Summary:
Pain was a powerful motivator.
Of course, everyone knew that. But Eric was the one who lay here, bloodied and beaten. Thoughts of Arica were all that kept him sane in this insane situation. But even the hopes of seeing her again were one by one being trashed. And they finally took that away from him too. They’d dragged him to a room where he’d been forced to watch the torture of a woman who looked like Arica and they claimed it was her. He’d fought to help her but they hadn’t allowed him to and dragged him back down the hall, fighting fiercely as the sound of Arica’s screams filled the corridor.
They left him for days, only coming by once to utter the simple sentence. “Your wife is dead.”
He’d lost it then. He’d known it and had readily accepted it… accepted the fact that he wasn’t really talking to his wife… that she wasn’t really in the cell, holding him, comforting him. But still, she stayed with him for several more days, until she had to leave. It occurred to him that they might have laced his food with a chemical to make him hallucinate, trying to rob him of his wife twice.
And he was ready to die. “Please,” he moaned softly. “Please let me die. Ari, don’t leave me.”
“I can’t stay anymore Eric. You know I’m not real anyway.”
“I know. They killed you.”
“You don’t know that. You can’t be sure that was me. Anyway, they haven’t mentioned the kids yet. If they had me, they’d have the kids and they would have used that.”
“Don’t leave me,” he whimpered brokenly. “Don’t leave me alone.”
“You’re never alone, Eric. God is here and whether or not you believe in Him, He believes in you.” He reached out to grab her but his hands flew through air instead.
“Please, come back,” he whispered. “Please.” Completely broken and not knowing where else to turn, he mumbled softly. “God please help me. I don’t know if I believe or not but I know Ari does. I want to but I don’t know how.”
And suddenly it was as if he were wrapped in a warm blanket. Oh, he was still in the cold damp cell, but a warmth surrounded him, a warmth that couldn’t be chilled by surroundings or circumstance and he somehow knew that he’d make it through. And he believed.