LOST: Sentiments For the Remaining Flowers
Title: Sentiments for the Remaining Flowers
Fandom: LOST
Author: kawaiispinel
Feedback: ...Is loverly.
Word Count: 825
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for Through the Looking Glass. Mentions of character death.
Characters: Penny, Claire
Summary: Claire delivers some tragic news to Penny.
Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine. I'd demand more Penny if it was.
Author's Note: So what is this... The third or fourth time I've killed Desmond? I should... Probably stop that. Also this fic gave me so much grief. There was a lot of poking and staring and whatnot... All for 800 words? Aye carumba...
She could remember Desmond’s hands shaking when he told her the news. That was what she noticed most of all when she met him on the beach after it happened- every little tremor, both in voice and hands. He had pulled a waterlogged piece of paper from his pocket which had miraculously survived a trip underwater and handed it to her before walking away, unable to take a second more of this tragic tableau. The words upon the paper were barely legible, but with enough still left to get the point across- Charlie was dead and this was his legacy, left only to her. If she closed her eyes, she almost thought she was back there again, and that nothing that had happened between then and now had occurred.
But there was no sea air stinging her nose at this moment, just the scent of oak furniture and clean living in a house that she never thought she’d be fancy enough to ever set foot in. The island had been left behind her, gone but not forgotten... Just like the man she had lost here. Just like the man who had given her the news of his death, as she would present the news of his death to the woman he had loved and left behind who would never lay eyes upon him again.
Her hands were shaking too. This must have been what he had felt. She never would have thought at the time how hard it must have been to tell someone that their loved one had died. All she had felt then was a mixture of sorrow and rage, giving no care to how Desmond might have felt about the situation.
If only she knew then what she knew now.
She placed her hands in her lap, trying to calm their shaking to no avail, her eyes gazing up into the beautiful woman sitting across from her. She couldn’t help but think that Penelope Widmore seemed very sad, although not in the sense that she was upset about something (the news hadn’t even been presented to her yet), but in the sense that sadness had just become so much a part of her being that she simply could not exist without it. Perhaps, in some dark, horrible corner of her heart, she always expected the day would come when someone would tell her what she probably never wanted to hear.
The words fell from her lips without restraint and she mentally cursed herself for being so blunt about why she was here, but Penelope- Penny- seemed not to care about her lack of tact. After waiting so long, perhaps beating around the bush was something she didn’t want.
"How did it happen?" Penny asked after a long silence.
Claire bit her lip, wondering how much to tell her. It had all started with Charlie’s death. After losing him, Desmond had dedicated himself to protecting her, because he wasn’t about to see what happened to Charlie happen to her and Aaron. He was foolish, but it might have been easy to protect her had the war- that was the only word she could think to call it- not occurred. It was remarkable that he’d managed to stay alive as long as he did as often as he threw himself in front of her. She had actually demanded that he stop and think of Penny, but he had told her that Charlie would have done the same for Penny that he was doing for her, had their roles been reversed. It was obvious from his tone of voice that he didn’t think very many were going to be leaving this island alive. She hadn’t known if it was a vision or just common sense, but he had been right. She was just one of the lucky few, all because he had died to make sure she got away.
But how could she tell all that to this woman before her? How could you say, as a stranger, that the man she had waited for all this time had died for you. How could you explain the circumstances behind that? And would she even begin to understand if you could?
Penny seemed to notice her hesitation. Sighing deeply, she leaned back against her chair. "Tell me this if you can’t tell me that.... Did he get his honor back?"
She wasn’t sure what she meant by that. Desmond had been nothing but honorable when she had known him, but obviously there was some story here she didn’t know and would probably never know. A whole other world that Desmond had barely spoken of with Penny at the center of it.
"Yes," she finally replied. "He died a hero."
A few stray tears flowed down Penny’s cheeks, a tiny, sad smile playing at the corners of her lips. "That’s enough then."
Fandom: LOST
Author: kawaiispinel
Feedback: ...Is loverly.
Word Count: 825
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for Through the Looking Glass. Mentions of character death.
Characters: Penny, Claire
Summary: Claire delivers some tragic news to Penny.
Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine. I'd demand more Penny if it was.
Author's Note: So what is this... The third or fourth time I've killed Desmond? I should... Probably stop that. Also this fic gave me so much grief. There was a lot of poking and staring and whatnot... All for 800 words? Aye carumba...
She could remember Desmond’s hands shaking when he told her the news. That was what she noticed most of all when she met him on the beach after it happened- every little tremor, both in voice and hands. He had pulled a waterlogged piece of paper from his pocket which had miraculously survived a trip underwater and handed it to her before walking away, unable to take a second more of this tragic tableau. The words upon the paper were barely legible, but with enough still left to get the point across- Charlie was dead and this was his legacy, left only to her. If she closed her eyes, she almost thought she was back there again, and that nothing that had happened between then and now had occurred.
But there was no sea air stinging her nose at this moment, just the scent of oak furniture and clean living in a house that she never thought she’d be fancy enough to ever set foot in. The island had been left behind her, gone but not forgotten... Just like the man she had lost here. Just like the man who had given her the news of his death, as she would present the news of his death to the woman he had loved and left behind who would never lay eyes upon him again.
Her hands were shaking too. This must have been what he had felt. She never would have thought at the time how hard it must have been to tell someone that their loved one had died. All she had felt then was a mixture of sorrow and rage, giving no care to how Desmond might have felt about the situation.
If only she knew then what she knew now.
She placed her hands in her lap, trying to calm their shaking to no avail, her eyes gazing up into the beautiful woman sitting across from her. She couldn’t help but think that Penelope Widmore seemed very sad, although not in the sense that she was upset about something (the news hadn’t even been presented to her yet), but in the sense that sadness had just become so much a part of her being that she simply could not exist without it. Perhaps, in some dark, horrible corner of her heart, she always expected the day would come when someone would tell her what she probably never wanted to hear.
The words fell from her lips without restraint and she mentally cursed herself for being so blunt about why she was here, but Penelope- Penny- seemed not to care about her lack of tact. After waiting so long, perhaps beating around the bush was something she didn’t want.
"How did it happen?" Penny asked after a long silence.
Claire bit her lip, wondering how much to tell her. It had all started with Charlie’s death. After losing him, Desmond had dedicated himself to protecting her, because he wasn’t about to see what happened to Charlie happen to her and Aaron. He was foolish, but it might have been easy to protect her had the war- that was the only word she could think to call it- not occurred. It was remarkable that he’d managed to stay alive as long as he did as often as he threw himself in front of her. She had actually demanded that he stop and think of Penny, but he had told her that Charlie would have done the same for Penny that he was doing for her, had their roles been reversed. It was obvious from his tone of voice that he didn’t think very many were going to be leaving this island alive. She hadn’t known if it was a vision or just common sense, but he had been right. She was just one of the lucky few, all because he had died to make sure she got away.
But how could she tell all that to this woman before her? How could you say, as a stranger, that the man she had waited for all this time had died for you. How could you explain the circumstances behind that? And would she even begin to understand if you could?
Penny seemed to notice her hesitation. Sighing deeply, she leaned back against her chair. "Tell me this if you can’t tell me that.... Did he get his honor back?"
She wasn’t sure what she meant by that. Desmond had been nothing but honorable when she had known him, but obviously there was some story here she didn’t know and would probably never know. A whole other world that Desmond had barely spoken of with Penny at the center of it.
"Yes," she finally replied. "He died a hero."
A few stray tears flowed down Penny’s cheeks, a tiny, sad smile playing at the corners of her lips. "That’s enough then."