FIC: Rewards of a Faithful Heart (Include a Great Deal of Laundry)

[soubie]

 Posting without final clearance from my beta and I DON'T CARE, haha!

Though with thanks toedoraslass for editing all the same.

Title: Rewards of a Faithful Heart
Author: soubie
Characters: The Turner family- to whit, 3 Williams (with various diminutives) and an Elizabeth
Disclaimer: No, not mine
Warnings: Home nursing, and thus some moderate squicks. Also, some

Comments

[just_ann_now]

Oh! Oh! Oh!

I really like the tenderness between the three of them here; how none of them (and of course most particularly Young William) seem to know exactly what to do about each other, but rather than tiptoeing and pussyfooting they, all three of them, do what comes naturally and instinctively, and it's all exactly what it needs to be. *happy sigh*

I loved Young William reading from The Odyssey to his Da.

And I particularly, particularly loved this bit of sentence: he cold green English Channel hissed and crashed just beyond the dry-whipping salt-scummed grass which flagged and complained in the sometimes-whilstling, sometimes waving, never-dying wind

[soubie]

Yay!

'Tender' was the word that I was probably thinking of here- tender in the sense of affectionate, but also in the sense that a bruise is tender and you try to touch it lightly.

rather than tiptoeing and pussyfooting they, all three of them, do what comes naturally and instinctively, and it's all exactly what it needs to be.

If there's one thing all 3 have in common, it's that pussyfooting is not an option (though one won't, one probably wouldn't know how, and one never seems to have known it was an option...) And they do know what needs to be done, and are fully prepared, nay, happy to do it-they're just not very good at accessorising it with sentiment.

Aha- EL told me in beta to put some sense of the location in, as it was mostly introspection and dialogue when she saw it. I thought you'd like that.

[edoraslass]

then had become so happy and horrible that she didn’t know what she was supposed to feel

I don't think I told you how much I like that line. Because it's very true-to-life, isn't it, being so overwhelmed by so many emotions that you can't quite sort out which one is "supposed" to be the predominant one.

[soubie]

Thanks!
It's very difficult to know what she 'should' feel, isn't it? On the one hand- Will's back! It's the most wonderful thing that could ever happened!... and she's considered him dead for ten years. Which was miserable. And young William... isn't used to having a permanent father, and he's being bloody awkward. And Will's really, really ill, which is obviously bad. Very bad. And gross. And has created about 3 hours of cold-water laundry!

[edoraslass]

I also assume that Elizabeth has probably got some weird conflicting "I am SO HAPPY he's back but what does this mean FOR ME what will change about the the fiercely independent life I have going how on earth will he expect me to change is this really a good thing do I even KNOW him what about HIM has changed will he really be a good father & etc etc etc" drama going on, cause honestly. He's been a supernatural being for ten years. How can you possibly know how that will affect your relationship? Will stands an extremely good chance of being nothing like the man she fell in love with, and Elizabeth, having been through a whole bunch of shit in ten years, stands an equally good chance of being nothing like her girlish early-twenties self.

[soubie]

Yee-eeess, although Will and Elizabeth's much-halted relationship always had an aspect of 'How is this actually supposed to work?' anyway... seeing as all they really had in common was a half-mad passion for each other and a warped worldview, and mostly not even the same warped worldview. One just has to make an acceptable suspension of disbelief.

[soubie]

I wonder how much of this is me writing it that way by instinct and how much was me feeling the situation to see what to write.
Mind you, Small William has a lot of me in him, I think...
Thanks CG!