|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2015 9:39 pm
Harvard had not responded to Caroline's rough whisper. Instead, sure that everyone else was doing fine and that no one would miss either of them, he picked her up and began walking. Despite his lack of upper body strength (it was all in the legs - the most important part), he carried her lightly, tucking her in against his chest. To him, she was some kind of fragile package hat might fly apart under his hands. He entered the hospital, turned left once, then right, then right. A room opened up, several white bed lining the walls. He glanced around, picked the least dirty and say her down on it, carefully scooping up her legs onto the bed as well. Then, he sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for her. "Why are you sorry, Caroline?" He paused, opened his mouth as if t say something more, but closed it. The urge to hiss out 'I found you I found you I found you' in innumerable ways was strong. But he held his tongue and was gentle and he waited.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 2:48 am
As he walked with her, Caroline counted. She did it properly this time, landing on the nines as they were required, counting every step and corner and door, filling her thoughts with numbers that didn't help nearly as much as she needed. When he had settled her down and provided a silent patience for her to answer, she laughed, looked briefly on the verge of tears, and rubbed at her face in an unsteady way that seemed to imply she was nervous. For her, hardly-there and always cautious to stay on her toes, this wasn't a state that most anyone saw her in. "I--" She stopped to halt another bitter laugh at herself. "I want to ask if you're going to make me say it. For the chance that you might say 'no'." Admitting this proved just how good she felt about those chances working out for her. That hand was discarded without another thought. "But I don't know where to begin, Harvard. I thought I'd done everything right - all the right nines -but I was wrong. Everything happened all over again. Worse." Defeated, she covered her face with one hand and barely kept herself upright. She drew in a deep breath and held it until her chest hurt, letting it out in a short sigh all at once. "And I don't want to go."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:45 am
She wanted to ask, but Harvard said nothing for a moment. It was there in the way Caroline's voice dipped - she already knew how he'd answer. He needed to hear her say it, to tell him all the things she'd hidden. Harvard wanted to know them all, and his wanting was more than just his desire to control and possess. A part of him was angry that she'd kept things from him, that she'd become infected in some strange way that made her run. But Harvard had found her, and he was not about to let her go. "Tell me," he said. "Tell me everything you should have said before. Start in the middle, or yesterday, or 3 months ago. Start with the first nine or the fourth. Caroline." He tried to pull Caroline's hand from her face, prying each finger away. And when he face was exposed, he cupped it in both of his hands, twisting so he could look her in the eyes. His pinky fingers stroked the edges of the collar, something make-shift, an afterthought, but it meant more. "I won't make you go, Caroline. I won't let you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 3:03 am
If he was willing to make the effort to pull her hand away for the sake of seeing her face, then Caroline felt he deserved that. She made no attempts to cover herself up again, nor any protests when his hands directed her to look at him. There was no evidence now of the feral thing she had been; the green eyes that stared into his were closer in temper to a housecat's, eating up the pleasant things that she was being fed. The only time this changed was for a flickering instant, doubt quickly replaced by intrigue in the space between 'I won't make you' and 'I won't let you'. "My name is Caroline Kercher. By the records, I died in Colorado." She maintained her stare, consistent and truthful, and reached to rest her hand over one of his. "It's not a dramatic story. Not even a good one. I just had to. I couldn't stay there any more." That part was easy. She curled her hand, fingers sliding into the spaces between his. "I was never employed by this university. I stole someone else's life. He was not among the survivors, and I needed it more. I needed it to..." In her pause, she looked thoughtful, as though she were searching for a missing word somewhere. "I wanted to be here. So I lied. I lied and tried to make sure that I was too important to get rid of. I lied and I didn't stop. Not until now. Not until you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 6:50 am
Harvard took some time thinking, searching the clear green of her eyes. But there was no real debate for him. If he could find her within the monster, then he had found her within her lies. Regardless of who she said she was, or why, she was still Caroline. The heart of her did not change with a difference in name. The warmth of her hand was the same. Her nines were the same. He was mad, a little, that she had lied to him, but Harvard's anger was a fleeting thing. He smiled faintly and rubbed his thumb across her cheekbone. "Well," Harvard said, something like amusement glinting in his eyes. "I guess Kendall didn't need his name, anyway. It's not as though anyone noticed him missing." He found it just on this side of hilarious that she'd pulled it off so well. She had used the chaos and pulled a pattern out of it. "Well done," he said softly. "But, no more lies, Caroline," he said, and from his voice it was clear that while he needed to hear her out, a second round of lies, later on, would not be tolerated. These were lies and a sort of false identity that she'd woven before she even met Harvard, so he could not fault her. "Why did you die in Colorado?" He didn't tell her he was glad she was here, it was implicit in the things he did, in the promises he would still keep.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 6:52 pm
There was relief in her eyes and the pressure of her fingertips against him when she learned that he still understood, comfort in the knowledge that he still understood it so well. His brief praise was accepted with a small smile, because the fact alone that she'd made it this far truly had not given her a feeling of success. Especially not now. She shook her head, silently agreeing no more, no more of the dishonesty that led to this. No more of what made her become the sum of her fears. "You already know part of it. That part of the pattern." Her brows were knit with concern, apologetic. "I wanted power. I married a man who didn't keep his promises. I had a child who died at birth and came back wrong. He chose her. It. Again, and again, and again. And I couldn't go." Craving more contact, she tried to move closer to him, testing what was and was not allowed. "When I was--whatever I just was. And tried to prove you'd do the same. I don't really believe that you won't keep your promises. I don't think that you would choose that creature." This was true, albeit barely, scarcely leaning over the line towards what she believed rather than what she could simply hope.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 8:28 pm
His hand slipped off of her face and over her shoulder. Harvard urged her closer, pressing against the small of her back while his other hand moved down to trace lazy circles on her thigh. He wanted to breathe her in, to feel her heart beat with their chests pressed so closely together it felt as though her heart lived in his chest and his in hers. Caroline was alive. Harvard was unsure of the events in Colorado and, he decided, it was in the past and the details did not matter as much. What mattered was how it affected her, how she felt cast out, ostracized, replaced. "You couldn't go, but you went. And you came here so that I could find you." He exhaled into her hair. "That wasn't a very fair test, Caroline. You made the monster look human and you look the monster. If it wasn't for you, I might have made the wrong choice. But you, I know you, Caroline." He had dogged her footsteps, added in her missing nines, chased after her every time she ran. Harvard would do it all again if he had to. But he didn't want Caroline to run from him again, he wanted to bind her to him in all ways. To keep her. But he did not voice these things. "Were you Kercher in Colorado?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 9:24 pm
There was absolutely no reason for her to have been here aside from the fact that she was, and in the absence of her own answer, Caroline took his. "Yes," she agreed, delighting in the thought of it. "I suppose that's exactly what I did." It fit together perfectly, made everything make sense. All the right nines had been wrong, preventing her from feeling safe again; if they had felt so devastatingly incorrect, what she felt now implied that the right answer really was this. She savored the satisfaction that she found in it, following where his hands led her, responding to each touch. Her fingers brushed fondly against his neck until they caught the fabric of his shirt, and began to idly toy with it, eyes still locked in the promise that she could be good. "I know. It wasn't fair, and I'm sorry. It wasn't fair to test you at all." The brush of her lips against his was a request, a hopeful question of if he could accept her apology. "You don't need to be tested. You know me very well. Even if I don't know how." With some hesitance, she broke away and was very careful to remind herself not to look away from him. "That was Victor's name. Yes." She smiled, and it was crooked, but she was trying. "Are you sure you want to talk about him?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 9:48 pm
His shirt collar being toyed with was met with a smile, one that darkened his eyes a bit in a promise for later. While he wanted to press his body against hers until their heat synchronized, he waited, only giving her lips the barest of brushes back. Caroline had been very, very bad ,but right now, she was so good. Harvard liked it when she was good. To him, the logic could be nothing else - she was here because she needed to meet him, to be with him. Harvard did not know how they sometimes clicked together like pieces in some strange puzzle, but it worked. Caroline broke away and he almost frowned, watching her carefully. Her words almost did make him frown, but she was trying. The crooked smile an attempt he could not refute. A muscle along his jaw twitched once before he relaxed it deliberately. "No," he said, and it almost sounded like a growl, deep with displeasure. Victor had had her before, but not now. "His name doesn't suit you, my Caroline. I don't like it." And abruptly, his hands were in her hair, tugging through it as he kissed her deeply. Kissed her as if he could erase the past by making the present somehow better.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 3:38 am
This time 'no' was just what she wanted to hear, and her breath caught at the sound of it, eyes flashing bright and excited and eager. If kissing her this way couldn't change anything that came before this moment, it did at least succeed in righting everything right now. It disrupted an endless loop, pulled her from a broken pattern, reminded her that things could feel like everything was as it should be. She got lost in the labyrinths of fixation too easily, and if she was going to be lost in something, she wanted it to be this. "Not very good with names," she sighed out, losing every bit of the tone she intended as apologetic in a low laugh and another kiss shared between them. "Not--like numbers. But you can name me something you do like." She led one of his hands back to the collar, and let a grin sneak its way across her lips. "You should like what's yours, Harvard."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 5:25 am
"I like your numbers," he murmured and fell silent at her suggestion of names. But she moved on, shortly, speaking a phrase he could never disagree with. He made a pleased noise. "I do, Caroline. I do like what's mine." His grin matched hers, in it all the relief he felt at having her back. Harvard leaned forward and kissed the midpoint between her collarbones, right below the collar. Collarbones, collar, he wondered if the words together would amuse her. Smiling still, he lifted his head up to lean it against hers, foreheads touching, close enough that their breath mingled. "Do you know what else I like?" Here, he almost hesitated. This was something he'd never offered anyone before, something he always felt he would reserve jealously, hold it close to him and only when he... But the world was ending and there were no chances he could waste. "I like the name 'Falls'." Then, before she could answer his unspoken question (perhaps because he was afraid of the answer, or perhaps more afraid that she would not find the question), he kissed her, pulling her body flush against his.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 5:02 pm
It was nothing short of redundant to agree with his sentiment about her numbers, and this was the time for learning what was new. Had it been another time, the two words and their matching pattern they'd begun most likely would have amused her - there was more to pay attention to, more important than any of her patterns were.
And though she was paying very close attention, she still caught the question that he hid between them, and held carefully onto it so it wouldn't get lost. Finding it again wouldn't be impossible. Finding all the hidden things and their unraveling their secrets was what she was best at, but she didn't want this one to run off before she ever had time to truly look at it. So she took her time enjoying the moment, kissed him without distractions, felt their warmth together without any worries to detract from it. She held the question for as long as she could, until it had almost slipped away from her.
"So you do like what is yours." Her words were breathless but intrigued, twisting the intent of what she'd first said, making it into something that meant more. "That's a simple solution. Good exchange. I let you have my numbers. So you will let me have your name."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
