Midnight in the Jeddak's Garden

[dejah_thoris]

 [cont'd from here]

She holds him through the worst of it.  Holds him and rocks him gently, her mind racing to come up with some kind of solution, any solution.  There isn't one, she knows.  She can feel his agony as if it were her own, and in a way, it is now, isn't it?  She feels the tears on her cheeks and lets them fall.  Grief is the strongest enemy she's ever vanquished.

But she's done it before, and she knows she can do it again.

She doesn't know how long they've been sitting there when she notices a telltale ripple in the air.  It's just inches above the wood of her door.  It takes a moment to resolve, and before it does, she recognizes the portal and knows where it opens to.  She can smell the pimalias and the blessed cool of the moss trees beyond.  The night sky above Helium is crystal clear.

Gingerly she urges his gaze up.  Her voice is gentle and warm.  "Hey.  Can you smell that?"

Comments

[2goodarms]

He hears, and god, it makes his heart ache, dull and heavy.

"I don't..." His voice hits a snag. Curtis swallows to try and clear it away. "I don't know if he's gonna listen. To either of us."

Dejah was out there, too, when Edgar heard everything. And she was the one Curtis chose to tell instead of Edgar.

[dejah_thoris]

She hesitates, feeling the weight and the darkness engulf him again. She squeezes his hands between hers.

"Then I'll find a way to make him listen. With -- your permission."

[2goodarms]

A beat passes. Slowly, Curtis nods.

"Just don't be too hard on him?"

He manages to get out the entire sentence without his voice cracking, though it feels like it's going to wobble loose at a couple points. He can still feel the echo of that awful, trapped sensation Edgar radiated, strong enough that it turned a barely audible go away into a deafening shout.

[dejah_thoris]

She takes a breath and nods. "I won't be. But I won't lie to him either. If he wants the truth, then he should have the whole truth. Not just the big parts. He deserves no less."

The words radiate with her determination. She wants to do her best. For both of them.

[2goodarms]

Curtis' throat bobs. "He said he already heard everything."

As far as he's concerned, that is the whole truth.

[dejah_thoris]

She lowers her head and shakes her head a gentle 'no'. Dejah pulls him close again, urging him back to the slow pace towards the portal.

"He might have heard, but I can't begin to believe he understood. What happened to you. What happened to all of you in those first weeks. He knows only that you knew the truth, and you didn't trust him enough to share it with him."

[2goodarms]

Curtis stays silent, ostensibly focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.

There's nothing to understand. No deeper meaning to unravel. What happened is exactly what Curtis said happened.



"Dunno if he's going to listen." Barely audible, and more defeated than not. "But if you wanna try, sure."

[dejah_thoris]

She tucks his hand under her arm and continues the slow trek back to the portal.

"I will try. I might fail, but I must try."

[2goodarms]

Part of him wonders, with that same distant, defeated exhaustion, how Edgar will take it whenever Dejah finds him. Somebody Front lecturing a Tail-sectioner about how they just don't understand, even if Dejah's the only decent Front-sectioner they've ever met? Yeah. That same part cringes.

But she wants to help -- needs to help, somehow -- and Curtis can't deny her that. She can take anything Edgar tries to throw at her.

They reach the portal, at last. Curtis pokes one foot through and breathes a sigh of relief as he feels the gravity shift back to normal.

[dejah_thoris]

Due to whatever quantum fields the bar applies, she feels him shift but she feels no shift herself. Still, she breathes easy when he regains his balance.

She tugs on his shirt gently, and steps in close, stealing a soft, chaste kiss.

And when it breaks, she leads him to the bed and lies down with him, resting her head on his shoulder.

Tomorrow is another day.