Title: Reality Snatched
Author: Staraice
Posted:
Email
Rating: R
Category: angst and sorrow- get those tissues!
Content: C/A
Summary: When the price is too much… sequel to Snatches of Reality
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: The characters in the Angelverse were created by Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt. No infringement is intended, no profit is made.
Distribution:
Notes: You wanted a sequel and I couldn’t sleep so I wrote this at 1am this morning. Hopefully it explains things not confuses them more.
Thanks/Dedication:
Feedback:Very useful tool, I could probably use it , or I may just tuck it in a draw.
He’d known.
Somehow he’d always known that something like this would happen. From the very first time she’d had a vision he’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Now it had, and he wished that he hadn’t been right.
They’d all known the visions were taking their toll on her, had all seen her drained and tired afterwards. Hell he’d even witnessed some of her nightmares. They’d convinced themselves she would be fine. Cordy was a fighter after all- nothing could beat her for long. She’d make it.
Except, she didn’t.
They kept her in one of the rooms at the hotel, which they could barely afford now. He was thankful that they didn’t have to strap her down- she didn’t leave. Neither did she eat. Or talk.
It was the last vision that had done it. She’d screamed until her voice gave out and then she’d screamed silently. On the second day she stopped. They didn’t even know what it was she’d seen.
From the little that they’d been able to gather in the frantic time afterwards, when the Powers had sent her the last vision- the last glimpse into the future- they had simply forgotten to close the gate. When they finally remembered, it was too late.
Too late for her, and too late for them.
None of them could guess at what she was seeing now- what time she was living in. He thought it changed. Last week she had been babbling something about Doyle. Yesterday she’d been talking about Jenny Calender. He was certain of one thing though. She could see him. Only sometimes. Only briefly. It broke his unbeating heart.
The third day after it had happened, she’d looked at him and had actually seen him; all she’d asked was “Why?” That was the closest he had ever come to being creeped out.
Everyone had left, they still visited but without her there was nothing holding them together- or if there was, it reminded them too much of how she used to be. Nothing to make them a family, not even the mission.
He trudged wearily up the stairs and went into her room. She sat there, small, thin and fragile- so unlike the girl she used to be.
The girl he’d fallen in love with. She saw him again today and smiled.
He walked over to the bed and sat, bringing her into his arms to cradle her there, in his lap. She shifted and looked at him, really looked at him as the hand stroking her back came closer to her neck.
She spoke, she looked right into his soul and told him she forgave him. Then he snapped her neck. Her lips remained smiling, it seemed fitting, and she looked peaceful. He eased her back onto the bed, crossed her arms and gently closed her eyes.
Then he opened the curtains to let in the bright mid-day sun.
FINAL End