Countdown to the Premiere Postathon - Day 13
Title: Assorted Drabbles
Author: kgaleway
Rating: PG - PG-13
Word Count: Enough
Summary: Prompts: Bang, Justify your actions, Clean up
Characters: Kate Freelander
Disclaimer: I do not own Sanctuary. If I did, there'd be no talk of combining neon plaid with leather. Ever. Again.
Bang.
The sound is a definition of an era. How it all began, with sound and heat and ash in a child's face. A culmination of circumstances catalyzing in a moment that shakes and shatters lives forever. It doesn't stop there, she jumps every time a car backfires for year, flinches at the sound of breaking glass.
But that changes, at some point she become the one breaking the glass, squeezing the trigger, flipping the detonator. And it takes herself even longer to realize that she hates herself with it.
It ends the same way, with the telltale sound, both given and received in turn. It ends with one shot, it ends with a bang, the echo of which reverberates through her ears like an endless chant until the moment she collapses on the Sanctuary doorstep.
The edges of the sound are inscribed with dangled promise and necessary pain. A price to pay for change, and the first in a long road to something more like redemption.
Bang.
This is her last chance.
***
It's not the money, it never was. Well that's a lie, when she was a seventeen year old runaway playing tough in some Montreal backalley, it was ALL about the money. It would be a long time before she'd admit to herself that she got off on running right to the edge of everything, close enough to teeter with a breeze. The potential to fall, and the ability to pull back, and do it again. And again.
After a while it seemed to become one suicidal gamble after another. Daring her luck to run out ,silently screaming at the heavens to send a stronger wind, to knock her down, for once, for good.
After all, she couldn't stop herself.
***
It doesn't feel as good as she thought it would. By the time she was done chasing his goon out at gunpoint and swiftly stuffing Tad into the closest bus stop she could find, the time for that expected rush had passed. It should have felt good. She'd played him at his own game, she'd won, once and for all, he'd never screw with her again and that should have felt goddamn magnificent.
But it didn't, maybe because she didn't do it herself, maybe she would have if he hadn't had his muscle locked and loaded at her back. (It's not like she'd never thought about killing him before.)
Constantine had always been a pretentious bastard, even back when he was nothing, a two-bit smuggler leeching off her skills and dangling the promise of connections to big deals in front of her. She still couldn't believe she'd wasted three years of her life on him. What doesn't kill you....yeah, all that bullshit. Well she'd learned.
They'd learned from each other. She'd learned that he had a quick right swing and he learned that she could draw her gun a lot faster than he. He'd learned that he'd only get the chance to hit her once, and she learned to keep that same gun under her pillow in case he wanted to try again.
Maybe it just needed time to sink in, to stop worrying if Thad had gotten out of town okay, stop thinking about what she'd have to do to cover her tracks.
Kate leans back heavily against the wall between two enclosures and took a took a deep breath. That's right, sigh, relax, enjoy your victory for a second before you start thinking about scrubbing security feed and deleting footage.
She jumps when there' s a slight knock on the glass to her right...from the inside. The mermaid inside is drifting serenely at the glass, one hand held up against it like she expected Kate to match it. There's something in her alien yet completely familiar look of concern that makes something twist in Kate's stomach. Like Kate'd just cracked herself open and she'd seen everything twisting and squirming black on the inside.
Kate can't meet her gaze, "What are you looking at?!" She snaps at the glass, before turning away, lots of work to do.
Author: kgaleway
Rating: PG - PG-13
Word Count: Enough
Summary: Prompts: Bang, Justify your actions, Clean up
Characters: Kate Freelander
Disclaimer: I do not own Sanctuary. If I did, there'd be no talk of combining neon plaid with leather. Ever. Again.
Bang.
The sound is a definition of an era. How it all began, with sound and heat and ash in a child's face. A culmination of circumstances catalyzing in a moment that shakes and shatters lives forever. It doesn't stop there, she jumps every time a car backfires for year, flinches at the sound of breaking glass.
But that changes, at some point she become the one breaking the glass, squeezing the trigger, flipping the detonator. And it takes herself even longer to realize that she hates herself with it.
It ends the same way, with the telltale sound, both given and received in turn. It ends with one shot, it ends with a bang, the echo of which reverberates through her ears like an endless chant until the moment she collapses on the Sanctuary doorstep.
The edges of the sound are inscribed with dangled promise and necessary pain. A price to pay for change, and the first in a long road to something more like redemption.
Bang.
This is her last chance.
***
It's not the money, it never was. Well that's a lie, when she was a seventeen year old runaway playing tough in some Montreal backalley, it was ALL about the money. It would be a long time before she'd admit to herself that she got off on running right to the edge of everything, close enough to teeter with a breeze. The potential to fall, and the ability to pull back, and do it again. And again.
After a while it seemed to become one suicidal gamble after another. Daring her luck to run out ,silently screaming at the heavens to send a stronger wind, to knock her down, for once, for good.
After all, she couldn't stop herself.
***
It doesn't feel as good as she thought it would. By the time she was done chasing his goon out at gunpoint and swiftly stuffing Tad into the closest bus stop she could find, the time for that expected rush had passed. It should have felt good. She'd played him at his own game, she'd won, once and for all, he'd never screw with her again and that should have felt goddamn magnificent.
But it didn't, maybe because she didn't do it herself, maybe she would have if he hadn't had his muscle locked and loaded at her back. (It's not like she'd never thought about killing him before.)
Constantine had always been a pretentious bastard, even back when he was nothing, a two-bit smuggler leeching off her skills and dangling the promise of connections to big deals in front of her. She still couldn't believe she'd wasted three years of her life on him. What doesn't kill you....yeah, all that bullshit. Well she'd learned.
They'd learned from each other. She'd learned that he had a quick right swing and he learned that she could draw her gun a lot faster than he. He'd learned that he'd only get the chance to hit her once, and she learned to keep that same gun under her pillow in case he wanted to try again.
Maybe it just needed time to sink in, to stop worrying if Thad had gotten out of town okay, stop thinking about what she'd have to do to cover her tracks.
Kate leans back heavily against the wall between two enclosures and took a took a deep breath. That's right, sigh, relax, enjoy your victory for a second before you start thinking about scrubbing security feed and deleting footage.
She jumps when there' s a slight knock on the glass to her right...from the inside. The mermaid inside is drifting serenely at the glass, one hand held up against it like she expected Kate to match it. There's something in her alien yet completely familiar look of concern that makes something twist in Kate's stomach. Like Kate'd just cracked herself open and she'd seen everything twisting and squirming black on the inside.
Kate can't meet her gaze, "What are you looking at?!" She snaps at the glass, before turning away, lots of work to do.