Fic: Night Passage (Vampire Diaries/Heroes; Adam Monroe, Pearl)
maharet83 requested that I write Pearl from The Vampire Diaries. I couldn't resist turning it into a Heroes crossover. Bonus David Anders!
1849. Adam Monroe/Angelica and Pearl. PG. Adam calls in a debt.
Night Passage
The fever has the entire country, the entire world, in its grip; and when you propose joining the fleets of covered wagons, bearing gold-seekers and opportunists, farmers and bankers, to the Californian fields, your darling Angelica agrees.
Her lined cheeks are flushed and healthy. She moves without any pain. Between sips of the hot, strong tea you place in her cupped hands, she watches you through the smoke of the campfire, intent and discerning as always, and you know that she is not fooled.
Has already guessed, your dear love, the reason that you have brought her here. Your one recurring argument, in sixty-two years of marriage.
You, who have seen so many grow old and perish, are not ready to live without her.
*
'I remember what I said before... I lied.' Pearl raises an arm across the closed door, barring Adam from entering her cabin. At the look of naked rage on his face, she nearly freezes.
'She does not want it, don't you understand?' she says, desperately, almost a plea. There is still something of the courtly gentleman left in him, traces beneath the bearded exterior, but should he attack, Pearl doubts her ability to restrain him bodily - gods willing, it will not come to that. 'I will not bring her into this life without her permission.'
'The life you owe to me,' he states bluntly. 'Or do you value it so little?'
'Adam, will you have me go against your wife's wishes?'
She sees the moment when he relents, the widening of his eyes until the whites shone like gravemarkers in the moonlight, a long line of spectres cloistered behind that icy gaze; and now, one more. The agony is familiar, one she has tried to guard herself against, though time and again she's failed. From inside comes the sound of a thin, drawn out, wheezing cough, followed by a loud intake of breath.
Pearl touches his left shoulder, gently but warily. 'Come in. You'll want to see her.'
She leaves them, lying side by side, their arms around each other, when she goes to hunt. There are easy pickings, this close to the camp, prospectors so whiskey-addled that her powers are hardly necessary. She drinks her fill from two men and leave them, none the worse for wear, a little distance from the creek. By the time she returns, in the early hours of the morning, her bed is empty, the fireplace cold, and Adam and Angelica are gone.
THE END
18 May 2010
1849. Adam Monroe/Angelica and Pearl. PG. Adam calls in a debt.
Night Passage
The fever has the entire country, the entire world, in its grip; and when you propose joining the fleets of covered wagons, bearing gold-seekers and opportunists, farmers and bankers, to the Californian fields, your darling Angelica agrees.
Her lined cheeks are flushed and healthy. She moves without any pain. Between sips of the hot, strong tea you place in her cupped hands, she watches you through the smoke of the campfire, intent and discerning as always, and you know that she is not fooled.
Has already guessed, your dear love, the reason that you have brought her here. Your one recurring argument, in sixty-two years of marriage.
You, who have seen so many grow old and perish, are not ready to live without her.
*
'I remember what I said before... I lied.' Pearl raises an arm across the closed door, barring Adam from entering her cabin. At the look of naked rage on his face, she nearly freezes.
'She does not want it, don't you understand?' she says, desperately, almost a plea. There is still something of the courtly gentleman left in him, traces beneath the bearded exterior, but should he attack, Pearl doubts her ability to restrain him bodily - gods willing, it will not come to that. 'I will not bring her into this life without her permission.'
'The life you owe to me,' he states bluntly. 'Or do you value it so little?'
'Adam, will you have me go against your wife's wishes?'
She sees the moment when he relents, the widening of his eyes until the whites shone like gravemarkers in the moonlight, a long line of spectres cloistered behind that icy gaze; and now, one more. The agony is familiar, one she has tried to guard herself against, though time and again she's failed. From inside comes the sound of a thin, drawn out, wheezing cough, followed by a loud intake of breath.
Pearl touches his left shoulder, gently but warily. 'Come in. You'll want to see her.'
She leaves them, lying side by side, their arms around each other, when she goes to hunt. There are easy pickings, this close to the camp, prospectors so whiskey-addled that her powers are hardly necessary. She drinks her fill from two men and leave them, none the worse for wear, a little distance from the creek. By the time she returns, in the early hours of the morning, her bed is empty, the fireplace cold, and Adam and Angelica are gone.
THE END
18 May 2010