Grief Shared
Aug. 3rd, 2010 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorksidefikerTitle: Grief Shared
Author:fullmetal_cute
Fandom: New X-Men
Table/Prompt: Table 3/7. Sad
Character/Pairing: Lucinda Guthrie, Emma Frost
Rating: PG
Word Count: 800
Summary: They’re two women who have fought hard to protect their children, and failed.
Authors Notes/Disclaimer: I own nothing. Written forragingpie and ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
heroines_fest.
Lucinda Guthrie sat alone in her room, staring out the window at the Xavier school’s well tended lawn without actually seeing anything in front of her. Tomorrow, she would be leaving this place, going back to Kentucky, back to her home and her children… all of them except Joshua, who lay cold and still in a steel box several floors below. They’d had a funeral for her son here, but tomorrow she was taking Joshua home to be buried next to his father. Someone clad from head to toe in black flitted across the lawn like a bed sheet torn from the drying line and caught in the wind. Sooraya. Lucinda liked the girl. She’d been a great comfort, and a shoulder to cry on.
Lucinda suspected that she didn’t have any tears left in her, after today.
A quiet tapping on the door frame drew Lucinda’s attention away from the girl and the shadows moving across the lawn as the sun dipped slowly below the horizon.
Emma Frost stood framed in the doorway, cutting an elegant figure in her sharp white suit. At some point since the funeral, the younger woman had taken her hair down, and it fell about her shoulders in artfully tousled golden waves. Her pale blue eyes met Lucinda’s, and for a moment, she thought she caught a flash of hesitation there. The older woman felt a tension grow between them like kudzu. She’d entrusted her children to this woman, and now she was taking one home in a box. And Lucinda knew she wasn’t the only one taking a child home that way.
“Ms. Frost,” Lucinda said, her hands clenching in her lap. She could feel her nails digging into the flesh of her palms.
“Mrs. Guthrie.”
Years of history welled up between them, filling the silence and only adding to the tension. Emma Frost had been the one to take Sam away after the mine had collapsed and he had blasted free, only to reveal herself to be a villain afterwards. Paige had been sent into the care of Ms. Frost years later, after she had reformed, followed later still by Joshua and Melody. Jeb was supposed to start this fall, but he’d lost his powers, just like Melody had, in that strange flash of white light.
Again, there was almost a hint of hesitation, then Emma stepped into the room. “Scott said you wanted to speak with me.”
Lucinda nodded, and Emma crossed the room, coming to a stop in front of her. Glancing down, Lucinda noticed that Emma had taken off the heels she had been wearing at the funeral, switching them out for a pair of much more sensible, flats. Like the rest of her clothes, they were blindingly white. Now that she had the woman there, Lucinda was finding it hard to put into words the question she was burning to ask. Her mouth felt dry, her tongue thick and clumsy. She looked her down at her hands, then back up at Emma, mustering everything she had. “I need to know how Joshua died,” Lucinda said, forcing the words to come out slowly. “Mr. Summers —Scott – wouldn’t tell me much, but you…”
The silence welled up between the two women again as Emma sat heavily on the bed, as if her legs couldn’t bear the weight of everything she was laboring under anymore. Her head hung low, blond locks obscuring her perfectly sculpted face for a long moment. Finally, Emma raised her head, pushing her hair back and meeting Lucinda’s gaze squarely. She opened her mouth and uttered a single word, a word that she managed to fill with all the pain, all the rage, all the self-recrimination that filled her eyes in that moment.
“Stupidly.”
Author:
fullmetal_cuteFandom: New X-Men
Table/Prompt: Table 3/7. Sad
Character/Pairing: Lucinda Guthrie, Emma Frost
Rating: PG
Word Count: 800
Summary: They’re two women who have fought hard to protect their children, and failed.
Authors Notes/Disclaimer: I own nothing. Written for
ragingpie and heroines_fest.Lucinda Guthrie sat alone in her room, staring out the window at the Xavier school’s well tended lawn without actually seeing anything in front of her. Tomorrow, she would be leaving this place, going back to Kentucky, back to her home and her children… all of them except Joshua, who lay cold and still in a steel box several floors below. They’d had a funeral for her son here, but tomorrow she was taking Joshua home to be buried next to his father. Someone clad from head to toe in black flitted across the lawn like a bed sheet torn from the drying line and caught in the wind. Sooraya. Lucinda liked the girl. She’d been a great comfort, and a shoulder to cry on.
Lucinda suspected that she didn’t have any tears left in her, after today.
A quiet tapping on the door frame drew Lucinda’s attention away from the girl and the shadows moving across the lawn as the sun dipped slowly below the horizon.
Emma Frost stood framed in the doorway, cutting an elegant figure in her sharp white suit. At some point since the funeral, the younger woman had taken her hair down, and it fell about her shoulders in artfully tousled golden waves. Her pale blue eyes met Lucinda’s, and for a moment, she thought she caught a flash of hesitation there. The older woman felt a tension grow between them like kudzu. She’d entrusted her children to this woman, and now she was taking one home in a box. And Lucinda knew she wasn’t the only one taking a child home that way.
“Ms. Frost,” Lucinda said, her hands clenching in her lap. She could feel her nails digging into the flesh of her palms.
“Mrs. Guthrie.”
Years of history welled up between them, filling the silence and only adding to the tension. Emma Frost had been the one to take Sam away after the mine had collapsed and he had blasted free, only to reveal herself to be a villain afterwards. Paige had been sent into the care of Ms. Frost years later, after she had reformed, followed later still by Joshua and Melody. Jeb was supposed to start this fall, but he’d lost his powers, just like Melody had, in that strange flash of white light.
Again, there was almost a hint of hesitation, then Emma stepped into the room. “Scott said you wanted to speak with me.”
Lucinda nodded, and Emma crossed the room, coming to a stop in front of her. Glancing down, Lucinda noticed that Emma had taken off the heels she had been wearing at the funeral, switching them out for a pair of much more sensible, flats. Like the rest of her clothes, they were blindingly white. Now that she had the woman there, Lucinda was finding it hard to put into words the question she was burning to ask. Her mouth felt dry, her tongue thick and clumsy. She looked her down at her hands, then back up at Emma, mustering everything she had. “I need to know how Joshua died,” Lucinda said, forcing the words to come out slowly. “Mr. Summers —Scott – wouldn’t tell me much, but you…”
The silence welled up between the two women again as Emma sat heavily on the bed, as if her legs couldn’t bear the weight of everything she was laboring under anymore. Her head hung low, blond locks obscuring her perfectly sculpted face for a long moment. Finally, Emma raised her head, pushing her hair back and meeting Lucinda’s gaze squarely. She opened her mouth and uttered a single word, a word that she managed to fill with all the pain, all the rage, all the self-recrimination that filled her eyes in that moment.
“Stupidly.”