Author's note: Cold and Dark is not that well known a movie. It's a British flick, and I think independent. I only know about it because it features my favorite actor, Luke Goss (Nomak, the main antagonist in Blade 2). It's kind of a confusing movie, it has plot holes that you can get lost in, but I enjoyed it. I wish it could have been fleshed out more, but I think it's a decent movie, and I love the main characters, John Dark (Luke Goss) and Mortimer Shade (Kevin Howarth). So now I've got a short ficlet, set after the movie. Reviews are greatly appreciated, though I'm not expecting many. Maybe I'll get surprised? hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge
Disclaimer: I do not own Cold and Dark, or its characters. I'm just a big Luke Goss fan with an overactive imagination and restless muse. Please, don't sue me.
FACT AND FICTION
The hospital room wasn't filled to the brim with flowers, balloons, cards, or stuffed animals, but there were a few in there to keep the patient from feeling abandoned when she woke up. All the 'Get well' cards had been read to her, all the stuffed animals - only two, which was two too many in his opinion - laid on the bed to keep her from feeling lonely when he wasn't there.
It was good that the room wasn't overflowing with all that bright, cheery affection. Albany wasn't somebody who deserved that. She didn't like that, and she wouldn't want it. There was just enough to keep the room from appearing like a cell, and that was good enough. She would like that, he thought.
Dark had blatantly ignored any that came in there looking for him, and whenever they tried to take him away, they regretted it. He didn't even touch them. But there was something wrong with his eyes, as if he were blind yet saw through them and saw every sin and put it on display. That pale, almost milky blue, and those that earned his glares could swear his eyes weren't that color the whole time.
Eventually they stopped coming. Those from his department wouldn't come. Because they turned a blind eye when their own was going over the edge. Because they knew Dark had lost his mentor and much more, and he might possibly lose his lover now too. They sent most of the cards.
Albany wasn't popular there, but his fellow coppers knew she was special to Dark. Or maybe they were for Dark himself.
The doctor said she could wake up any moment. That she would live, and she should be awake and fine. But sometimes these things happened. It was a mystery of nature. Doctors couldn't always predict this things, or their outcome.
Nature had nothing to do with it. Hell did. The Grail did. Shade did.
Dark did.
He hadn't let himself think about that day, that night. Not since it happened. All that was important was Albany waking up. He knew why she was hurt. The Grail had not shown him what happened, but part of him just knew. Maybe that was because he was the Grail - no. He couldn't think that way. He was Dark, and Albany was shot because she got involved with Dark.
Because she got involved with Dark and Shade.
Every so often there would be a note with the cards. One of the coppers would say how Scooby was doing. They were taking care of him for Dark. It was a thoughtful gesture. He appreciated it as best he could, but right now couldn't really focus on much else but the woman lying motionless in the bed. He would make it up to Scooby when she was finally awake.
She had to wake up.
And what would he tell her when she did? Would things be okay between them? Would things be ruined beyond their capacity to patch up or ignore? What would he tell her when she saw him alive, whole? How would he explain he wasn't still dead on the floor, Shade's corpse next to him, and her still lying near them dying?
He wouldn't explain things. Because he couldn't. There was fact, and when she woke up, she would know fact. He would leave her once she woke up, and friends and family could keep her company then. But until she woke up, she was his still. He didn't have to worry about fact, he wouldn't have to worry about giving her some bullshit fiction to make things seem better than they really were.
If she ever woke up.
The Grail wanted to leave. That was how, when he allowed himself that deadly activity of thinking, he comforted himself that he wasn't all the Grail. That he could control whether or not he ended up like Shade, a slave to it. He didn't want to leave; the Grail was sick of sitting and staring. The Grail was not wholly who he was.
That was what he told himself, when he thought about it. But that offered little comfort, and thinking took him down so many trails his comfort was often lost. So he didn't let himself think about it that much. He just kept his head clear. He just watched Albany, waiting for her to wake up.
Dark had lost track of time, of day and night. He wasn't really aware of much while he waited. He was vaguely aware that it was day, but what part of the day, he had no clue. He didn't let himself think enough to know. Then he would know how long he had been this, how long he had been sitting there, waiting for a woman who might never wake up. Then he might realize how strong the ache was to feed. He might feed on her.
He couldn't let himself lose his control. He had control, he had it. Or he liked to believe so. He doubted he would ever really know anything for certain anymore.
Nothing with Shade was certain now, except the fact that he was dead. And that Dark had loved him. Shade had been more than a partner, in Dark's eyes. Shade had been a mentor, a savoir, a father figure, and older brother. He had been the experienced copper to guide Dark, and now, maybe the greatest pain was that Dark would never know what was façade for the benefit of not ruining their partnership and pissing the captain off, and what was truth.
The Grail had fucked that all up.
And Albany had gotten dragged into the middle of it. Because she had been involved with Dark, and because Shade wanted her. Albany had never known, Dark had never known. Shade was never obvious. That was Dark. Albany wasn't the best judge of person. And the Grail had been intent on giving its host what he wanted, so he wouldn't think he'd lost control.
Maybe that was what was happening now.
Maybe he should go ahead and leave.
But John Dark couldn't leave. Because he was the Grail now. And once Albany woke up, she would no longer be his. Once Albany woke up, all Dark would have would be the Grail and his dog and all the fact and fiction, blurred so he couldn't tell which was which.