I swear I NEVER thought I would bring to life a Victor and Nora Fries oneshot, but here it is, and named after as well as includes the lyrics of "Amid the Falling Snow" by Enya. Begins during Nora's illness, sometime before her husband puts her into stasis, and it's heartwrenching. And in time for the holidays. :)
I noted the lack of M-rated fics for this couple in this series of the Batman fandom, so maybe this is the first. :D But I'm ready to be surprised.
Special thanks and inspiration goes to the oneshot "Rescue" by ficmonger archive, the works of Thyme in Her Eyes (specifically "The Glass Coffin" and "The Sweetest Chill"), "So Cold" by Waroth, and "Winter's On the Wing" by Marie Noire. I even had Gotham and a bit of the awful Batman and Robin to thank.
I own absolutely nothing.
It was Christmas, but it was far from being a happy one. A month before, they found out she had only a year from now to live. Earlier this month had also marked the anniversary of their marriage, one year ago.
Only a short time had passed, after a decade of a lifetime together. Love was patient, taking time, and she was his first and only. He wanted to honor that promise by never letting her leave him. The hospital had done everything they could, but MacGregor's Syndrome had no known cure. He refused, refused to believe that; there HAD to be a way to save her.
If Gotham couldn't do what it had to, it was all up to him.
Victor Fries didn't hate the government, the lacking in certain fields of healthcare, but he hated that this malady infecting his beloved wasn't curable. Which was why, after the holidays, he would take her to work and do what was the last, sure resort. In secret, of course. If Boyle found out, he would cut off the funding, or worse: declare his wife property of Goth Corp.
Here they were, at home, when it was snowing. The night was still young, but he could have sworn the time was later. She was in bed, having slept much of the day after the homemade broth and the herbal tea did their wonders on her when the medication did so much. Tomorrow he would take it to the pharmacy for a refill. He sat beside her, admiring her delicate features as she snoozed. The choice of vocabulary made him chuckle. A delicate flower withering in the coming winter...clinging to life as best it could...
Victor looked on the nightstand to see the silver filigree framing himself beside the angel in her white dress which fitted to her body and flared like a calla lily, embellished all over like drifting snow. The sheer lace sleeves were pushed off her shoulders. She was so beautiful, like a divine being, and those delicate pearls shining in her hair like a winter halo.
He found himself now gazing down to her hand which lay atop the warm, meadow-patterned quilt, at the ring that glittered with more fire and beauty than Mother Nature's winter season - or even that starry night which he had proposed to her on the first day of summer.
The perfect, clear night.
Underneath stars.
In the backyard of her parents' house, given he had not spoken to his since he was a teenager. Nora's mother declared that love resided in the power of those stars, but it was not compared to her. And after almost ten years, he didn't want to wait any longer. He knew she was the one, so when he showed her the ring, she said yes in a heartbeat, and then they rushed back in to tell her parents.
Their wedding took place on the first day of December, and it had begun to snow when they were wed in church, joined by family, friends and colleagues. But as far as the new husband had been concerned, his new bride was his best friend and always had been. It had always been her.
Nora stirred as she sensed he was in the room. "Have you slept well?" he asked tenderly, reaching to caress her cheek, which was still warm and rosy despite the parasite eating her away. She yawned as her answer, making him laugh.
She then turned her eyes to the window beside the bed. "It's snowing," she whispered. "Just like it did on our wedding night...remember?"
He knew what she was hinting now that she awoke, fond as that memory was. He was wary of making love to her while she was in this stage, the second, and several times before, she'd be so needy that he had been worn down and gave in. MacGregor's Syndrome tended to have unwitting horniness in some people. It wasn't a sexually transmitted virus, so no harm done there. But you also had to be careful, because extreme fatigue was a yellow zone.
How I remember sleepless nights
When we would read by candlelight,
And on the windowpane outside
A new world made of snow.
"Are you...sure?" He always asked her each time, and he would receive a roll of the eyes. One of these days, he worried intercourse would just add to the strain before he would put her into the stasis chamber of his personal design. She reached up and grabbed him by his flannel shirt, pulling him down towards her in a death grip.
Her eyes flashed like blue fire. "You really have to ask me, Victor?"
Her fingers were unbuttoning his shirt, moving down until his chest was exposed, honed by hours in the gym which was one of their favorite places to be together. He held his breath but groaned a little in his throat when his muscles were caressed; he shrugged off the fabric and leaned over his wife who placed her lips against his, sweetly but sizzling. Even her scent made his lower belly bubble, mixed with fruits and creamy undertones.
Raspberries. Apples. Citrus.
Vanilla. Amber. Woods.
So much energy, just like the snowflakes that began to increase in numbers outside the window.
A million feathers falling down,
A million stars that touch the ground,
So many secrets to be found
Amid the falling snow.
His pajama pants were gone and on the floor. He remembered the first time they did this, which was their wedding night. Nowadays, couples and newlyweds almost never waited until this special night, because freedom and openness was ever increasing. There were a few times he felt that sensation a man would, but common sense reminded him that just because he wanted her did not mean she was ready like him. He despised any man who didn't treat the woman right. He'd seen from afar and heard from coworkers how it ended when force was involved...
Victor slid down to pull the quilt and sheet down, grasping her flannel gown from the end and drawing it up over her body, pulling it over her head and throwing it onto the floor with his fallen clothes. He took in her beauty, the firm breasts and trimmed hips, the dainty pale triangle at the top of her thighs, and the flawless ivory skin. Voluptuous did not do justice, not like the models on magazine cover. He leaned down, his body subconsciously rubbing against hers and creating a soft friction that slowly increased into a flame just as the snowflakes outside made the white rise to new levels.
Maybe I am falling down.
Tell me should I touch the ground?
Maybe I won't make a sound
In the darkness all around.
"Victor," Nora moaned, her thighs pressing against his flanks, muscles spasming. She could have wrapped her arms around his shoulders, but instead, she grasped onto either side of the pillow for support. Her body arched up with each rhythm.
This wasn't lust - or rather, JUST lust. It was love. Love that was worth waiting...only to have life's sadistic hand come in between them. Forces were trying to tear them apart, but he would do whatever it took to make sure it didn't happen. He loathed breaking the law, but if it had to be, then he would resort to it. All for her.
His decision took him back to the previous month when he told her he would put her into cryogenic stasis until he found the cure to the syndrome. The shock and dismay, and her fears which involved him being dead by the time he found the treatment - or worse: him in jail. She couldn't bear to be without him, just as she hated to be confined to bed rest and being treated like a china doll. A heated argument ensued that resulted in her demanding he leave her alone to sleep. He respected her wish, but her words stung. He had thought about it, but he decided it was all or nothing.
She knew this as well as he: he couldn't bear to live without her either.
The climax they reached was sweeter than any of the holiday treats she and her mother would make. Her parents had agreed to his decision to put their daughter on ice until further notice, but they were also as wary as she was, not that they could be held to a fault. With a little moan, he gently withdrew from her molten heat and laid beside her, pulling the covers back over them. For a couple minutes they lay there, coming down from the high, until his mind cleared the fog away and remembered the Christmas gift he got her. Something he wanted her to have while she slept in her glass coffin.
He did not know why he called it a coffin, because she wouldn't die. She would most likely sleep, but would she still hear what was going on around her? Or would she drift off into darkness and dream of the life they deserved?
"What is it?" Nora asked, watching him reach over to pull out the red velvet box from the nightstand, and her eyes lit up when he opened it and showed the necklace. It was a snowflake, geometrically correct with different shapes in diamonds, and brightly twinkling in the dimness. "It's beautiful!" She shifted her head upwards so he could fasten it around her neck. Just as he thought, it was a treasure against an equally treasured woman.
Her face fell. "I wish I gave you something in return." He smiled and rested his face against the soft curves of her chest, listening to her steady heartbeat.
"You already have, darling."
~o~
No longer would he survive outside subzero temperatures. No longer would he feel the sun and hold her hand.
And no longer would he feel the bliss of their bodies joined.
To be encased in a world you could see but never touch was worse than any hell in the afterlife. A true scientist never believed in such things, but he lived it. Because of Boyle, he lost his physical and emotional humanity, just as he lost Nora - only for her to end up in the hands of Grant Walker. The old lunatic thought he could achieve immortality to carry on his work, and pay the price with the lives of the outside world.
Victor Fries - no, Mr. Freeze - would have no say in this, but if it was what it took to have his ice queen back, then what were hundreds, thousands of lives worth for the one he loved? Nothing mattered anymore to him but his Nora who haunted his sleepless nights, her figure dancing in the snow globe that had been lost when he was pronounced dead and his wife's frozen form missing - also believed dead - and the months spent in the Arctic with her and the polar bears he made into his loyal, inhuman partners. He never had a real human friend.
Batman and Robin made him see reason. Nora would have hated him forever if she committed genocide whether he had a direct hand or not.
Every day spent with Nora, watching her float in her sleep, like Sleeping Beauty waiting for the kiss to break the spell. Even if the Arctic had limited resources, it was isolation away from civilization and what he wanted for them. It gave him unlimited freedom to be out of the damned suit. Besides Hotchka and Shaka, he took in Koonak, an orphaned child not yet becoming a teenager, reminding him very much of himself when he was a young boy. A past long forgotten. He was the son Freeze never had. If Nora could meet him when she was restored, she would have loved him like he was their own.
Alas, the day he gave her the lone fiery flower that survived the cold, lifeless environment, he could only think of her as she clung to life in this frozen wasteland...their home was destroyed, and her vessel was shattered. He was going to lose her again if he didn't act, and there was one person he could think to help them: Gregory Belson. The man who went to college with him and studied the aspects of cryogenics with him.
An organ transplant was the ultimate way, but to get her a vital organ to match her rare blood type was far from easy. No available donors were on the list, except one was fitting enough. And a living one, which horrified the cynical Gregory until the bribery of gold that Freeze found in the Arctic. He did not care what the man would do with it afterwards, as long as Nora had her donor. The one who nearly matched her physical description but had AB negative: Barbara Gordon, daughter of Commissioner Jim Gordon in Gotham City. Home was where he would go, and he brought her all the way out to the abandoned oil rig.
Koonak thought he and Belson would never harm her, but to give life, another must be sacrificed. They had come too close - only to once more be interrupted by the Dynamic Duo. In the mass, because of Gregory shooting at the oil tanks when Miss Gordon tried to escape, fires began. The operation had been destroyed. It would not be over until HE said it was over, but there was no time.
Nora and Koonak were saved, but Victor's injured leg prevented him from being taken along. He only proved a burden to the rest.
Perhaps it was irony that he fell to what was supposed to be his death, no matter Batman's determination. Hotchka and Shaka survived as well, and the three made it out to safety in the ocean, but they had to get to someplace cold and frozen. What mattered was that Nora was safely away, but he prayed that she would be given her donation if Miss Gordon could convince Bruce Wayne, the one man he could only think of...
The silence of a winter's night
Brings memories I hold inside;
Remembering a blue moonlight
Upon the fallen snow.
The Arctic was where he returned, where research facilities were conducting, and it was by chance, one stormy night, that he came across one and peered in to watch two scientists watching the latest news - and happened to be broadcasting a report from Gotham City, told by none other than Summer Gleeson. Victor hauled himself on his cane, his broken leg in a frozen cast, and there were no words to describe the joy that thawed and heated his frozen heart when he listened to what he wanted so much to hear.
"Nora Fries, the wife of the late Dr. Victor Fries, has been revived from her frozen state and has undergone a vital organ transplant. Just two weeks prior, her husband was killed when an off-shore drilling platform exploded and collapsed into the ocean. Mrs. Fries was recovered by the mysterious defender, the Batman, and brought to Wayne Corporations where she received the organ donation funded by none other than its CEO Mr. Bruce Wayne. She is reported now to be resting successfully in stable condition, the operation performed by Dr. Lyle Johnston, and her primary caregiver being Dr. Francis D'Anjou. Ironically, the cryogenic project invented by Nora's husband - which tragically transformed him into the criminal Mr. Freeze - was credited as having saved her life. It's a shame Victor Fries will never know..."
How little Miss Gleeson and the rest of the world thought wrong. He'd heard everything he needed to know. She was alive. He'd been so...misguided. He thought he could save her alone, when he thought the world gave up on her - on them - but she was safe. He couldn't go home to her because he was presumed dead. He didn't want her to see the monster he became, but if there was one way he could see her only once, to see she was happy without him.
After everything he'd done, he couldn't bear to see her in the same place because of his crimes. She was free and would go on with her life while he spent his time here in the north to atone. All he would have were his memories of their happy times. If she found someone else, she would make new ones.
Victor highly doubted she would ever forget him if she did give up on him.
I close my window to the night.
I leave the sky her tears of white.
And all is lit by candlelight
Amid the fallen snow.
The bears watched him leave the window without a word. They saw the tears down his cheeks and freeze in place, cracking off to join the rest of the snow that blazed around him. They followed him as he began to wander back into the frozen wilderness.
If his body was frozen forever in time, his heart no longer was.
Reviews appreciated. I swear, this couple is one of the most tragic pairs in DC history - or rather, anytime and anywhere. :'( I love them so much it isn't even funny.