Regina Mills (
st_oriedqueen) wrote in
strangetrip2017-10-06 01:18 pm
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[GP] All we can do is learn to swim
Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim. - Vicki Harrison
"You're sure?" Regina already knew the answer but demanding that Sam tell her what she already knew satisfied something petty in her. Or maybe just something hurt that hoped he'd have a different answer than her locator spell had already provided.
"Yeah." Sam half-rolled his eyes at her as he leaned across the pink bar counter to grab bottles of beer from the Silver Bar ice bin -- probably the results of Rebekah's last work-effort at the Inn -- for himself and his newly arrived companion.
Briefly, Regina considered burning a hole in the seat of his jeans, but it wouldn't bring Rebekah or any of the absent ones back. Instead, she took refuge in straightening her A-line and walking around the stylish counter Sam lay across like he was surfing the waves of grief. She took down a bottle of pointlessly pricey champagne, and then found the precise cut-crystal glasses Rebekah and Miss Fisher had preferred for their afternoon indulgences. She poured herself a glass and one for the person who dared her openly bitter expression.
"So who all are we missing?" they both said at once, glared at each other and sighed. They both knew the answers, in their own way and for their own reasons. And neither of them wanted to say.
Rebekah Mikaelson. Henry Winchester. Jack Robinson. Phryne Fisher. Dorothy Williams. Angua von Uberwald. Jaime Vegas. Harry Dresden. Lydia Martin. Raleigh Becket. Yasmeen. Joanna Beauchamp. Constance Bonacieux D'Artagnan. Lindsey McDonald.
"Grief is like the ocean," Sam clearly quoted from some fucking where, and Regina tuned him out until he added, "All we can do is learn to swim. Rebekah told me that."
Now Regina rolled her eyes; they weren't friends. "Shut up, Sam."
"You're sure?" Regina already knew the answer but demanding that Sam tell her what she already knew satisfied something petty in her. Or maybe just something hurt that hoped he'd have a different answer than her locator spell had already provided.
"Yeah." Sam half-rolled his eyes at her as he leaned across the pink bar counter to grab bottles of beer from the Silver Bar ice bin -- probably the results of Rebekah's last work-effort at the Inn -- for himself and his newly arrived companion.
Briefly, Regina considered burning a hole in the seat of his jeans, but it wouldn't bring Rebekah or any of the absent ones back. Instead, she took refuge in straightening her A-line and walking around the stylish counter Sam lay across like he was surfing the waves of grief. She took down a bottle of pointlessly pricey champagne, and then found the precise cut-crystal glasses Rebekah and Miss Fisher had preferred for their afternoon indulgences. She poured herself a glass and one for the person who dared her openly bitter expression.
"So who all are we missing?" they both said at once, glared at each other and sighed. They both knew the answers, in their own way and for their own reasons. And neither of them wanted to say.
Rebekah Mikaelson. Henry Winchester. Jack Robinson. Phryne Fisher. Dorothy Williams. Angua von Uberwald. Jaime Vegas. Harry Dresden. Lydia Martin. Raleigh Becket. Yasmeen. Joanna Beauchamp. Constance Bonacieux D'Artagnan. Lindsey McDonald.
"Grief is like the ocean," Sam clearly quoted from some fucking where, and Regina tuned him out until he added, "All we can do is learn to swim. Rebekah told me that."
Now Regina rolled her eyes; they weren't friends. "Shut up, Sam."
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She didn't bother with a glass, just picked up a bottle of whiskey, the same brand the Salvatore brothers preferred in the boarding house, twisted off the top and drank deeply.
Rebekah was gone. It was fucked up to miss someone you hated.
Lindsey was gone. Caroline didn't even know how to classify the feelings she was having around that.
She grabbed another bottle for good measure and dropped into one of the pink wing-backed chairs.
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She was very British sometimes. She would miss Henry. But of course missing people was somewhat normal for her, so she knew it would pass soon enough and he would be a pleasant memory.
"Scone?" She offered the plate to the blonde.
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Caroline considered the damage that carbs would do to her not yet sufficient inebriation and decided it was minimal. "Sure." She took the scone, then gave River a small nod. "Thank you."
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So she had plenty to share, obviously this meant thanks were unnecessary as sharing one was hardly a hardship.
"Trade for a bit of that," she nodded at the bottle. "In my tea."
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Caroline shrugged and tipped some of her bottle into River's cup. "That was smart. We're going to be short on pastries unless someone else wants to take up the role. I don't know if anyone else bakes. Ignis and Carlos cook, but they left the baking to Dot."
Her brain wanted to start planning, but she knew that if she let it, it would begin to wonder about bartending schedules and how to keep the horses. And then things would hurt. She drank more instead.
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"I think the novelty of a real 'American refrigerating machine'," that last bit was a direct quote from Dot but there was no sarcasm in River's voice. "May have pushed her over the edge. Modern marvels freezers and she made use of ours."
River wasn't much of a planner, more of a figure out where you needed to go and leap for it sort. She sipped her alcohol laced tea.
"Should I ask who you lost?"
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Lies, but Caroline wasn't in a sharing mood. She was in a drinking to forget mood. "How about you? Anyone you've lost?"
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"And there was a man, blushed a lovely shade when teased. I'll miss him." Not what could have been, because that way lay madness.
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"They're good at the towels. It's the other stuff." Caroline had a list, and had seen how when a guest took on a task, the staff would cease doing it. She didn't know if they'd pick it back up with the guests gone. Something told her it wouldn't. "I'm sorry. A lot of good people went home this time."
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"Do we assume they went home?" River isn't entirely sure where home would be at the moment, but she knows it is an important idea for many people.
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She was. Dead, that is. But she'd been dead for years and weirdly better off for it.
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"I hadn't considered that this might be some sort of holding place for souls in flux, I've mostly been leaning toward it being some sort of experiment with us as the mice."
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He caught Caroline drinking deep from a bottle of whiskey and envied her that choice. Maybe he should take a bottle and hide out in Rebekah's room. Rebekah's old room. He sighed and half-muttered, "I should know better by now," to himself.
Meeting himself halfway on the desire, he grabbed a bottle of whiskey for himself and sat near Caroline. "She never told me how you knew each other," he said, with two intentions. One, hopefully to learn more about Rebekah, another piece of her to keep close to him. Two, to see if he could satisfy his own suspicions about how they knew each other. The Inn didn't seem to do casual acquaintances.
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"I think she felt safe with me. Like she could stop worrying about being an Original and just be Rebekah." There. If Caroline knew the world, she'd know he knew and know what he knew. If she didn't, then she probably wasn't a vampire and it was just an odd turn of phrase.
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Like compelling her way onto Caroline's cheerleading squad and dance committees. Like hooking up with the most normal guys in the world - Stefan first, a hundred years ago. Matt, two years ago. Trying to get the cure.
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"Kinda hard on her diet. But having someone to lean on helped." This was the stupidest code conversation, seriously. But it'd be dumb as hell to ask Caroline outright if she had a foodsource. She must. She'd been here for months.
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"She had a way of making people see things her way." And no one here kept themselves topped up on vervain. She set down her bottle on a side table and leaned forward. "Sam, why are you talking to me?"
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Which didn't precisely answer the question Caroline had put to him. Why was he talking to her? "I guess, because you look upset. And I didn't think you and Bex were that close. So I wondered if it was the person you were...leaning on, because then you might be scared, too."
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She could brazen this out. "I'm upset about Rebekah. She was the only person here from home, even if we didn't really get along." But as much as she was wary of Sam, he was hardly the most dangerous thing in this conversation. "But she's not the only one I'm upset is gone. And...yeah, things will be harder without hi--them."
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Caroline, however, was her responsibility a little more directly, and she'd been concerned that her blood donor might be among the fourteen. So when she saw Sam approach her, she took note but gave them the courtesy of not casting a listening spell. Her gaze was still on them when Caroline glanced up and over at her, and Regina smiled small and nodded as minutely. It's okay, along with a touch of an invitation to come talk to her if she needed.
Sam caught the direction of Caroline's gaze but didn't turn to see who she'd looked at. What she was saying mattered more than who was behind him, as long as they weren't close enough to hear.
"It doesn't have to be," he said low and quietly reassuring. "I'll help."
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She shut the door behind them, then with a toss of her hair and a stubborn lift of her chin, leaned against the desk and folded her arms. "Do you really know what you're saying?" she asked bluntly.
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