FAIRY TALES

Disclaimer: Fox, Cameron and Eglee made them. I just like to play with them.
Summary: This is my response to a challenge from the Cape Haven Writers Group to write a M/L ghost story of no more than 1,500 words. It's not exactly M/L, but oh well :)
Spoilers/Timeframe: Set some time between the first and second seasons.
Rating: G
Comments/Reviews: Please! Review, or email me at jude_mustard@yahoo.com

Sometimes, he wasn't sure that he'd really seen her at all that night.

He'd just finished getting settled for the night, after washing up and putting his son to bed, having told the same bedtime story that he told every night. It was always the same story, always the one about the princess and the evil king. No other story would satisfy the boy.

It had been difficult for him since he'd received the call telling him that she'd died. He hadn't asked for the details--somehow, a part of him didn't want to know, didn't want to visualise the horror that he knew she must have gone through. It was enough knowing that she was gone for good--his partner, his companion, the mother of his child.

She'd gone missing for months once before, but he'd found her. He'd searched for her that time, putting her name and face on milk cartons across the country. He'd often wondered, later, if it had been that act of his that had got her killed in the end. If he hadn't searched publicly for her, the old man might never have found out about their son, might never have been able to work that devil's bargain to get her back to the place that she'd spent her whole life running from.

But it was too late for what-ifs, and he'd promised a friend once that he'd never regret anything about his time with her. He'd been more sorry than he could say, when that very friend had called just days later to give him the news--of both their losses. He'd grieved for the other man, in the midst of his own mourning, knowing that while he had his son to remind him of the woman he loved, his friend had no such comfort.

He remembered that this night, as the boy finally drifted off to sleep. He walked across the room and was standing near the door, looking at the chubby face half-hidden by the pillows, tousled dark hair falling over it, when he saw the slender hand reach out to brush the hair back from the child's brow.

He blinked at first, and gave his head a shake, and looked again. The hand was still there--translucent and ephemeral, but it was there. It was her hand, he'd know it anywhere. He let his gaze move up along where her arm should be, and it became visible as he traced it with his eyes. Her shoulders...her neck...yes. Her face.

He looked into her dark eyes, seeing her, seeing the room behind her, all at the same time.

She looked so sad.

"Penny?" he whispered, then, "Tinga."

She smiled. "Charlie. I'm sorry."

"No. I'm sorry. It was--"

"It was my fault. I screwed myself up by going back there. I messed up." She lowered her gaze, and a teardrop glinted on her cheek, fell, and didn't wet the boy's hair.

He took a cautious step toward her, afraid that if he moved too fast, she would disappear.

"No. Please...it'll do no good for you to blame yourself. If I hadn't put that search out for you, he would never have found us."

"If I hadn't left in the first place without telling you, hadn't left you worrying about what had happened to me...Now I don't get to be with Case while he's growing up." Her hair fell across her face as she bowed her head, and her hand caressed the small head on the pillow again.

"You're here now."

"It's not the same. I want more."

"I know."

"I'm sorry I've left you to do this on your own. It's going to be hard."

"I haven't regretted a moment of it. Not one moment."

He looked at the cot, and back at her. "He looks like you."

She smiled sadly. "And you."

"I love him so much that it hurts, sometimes."

Her eyes filled again as she looked up at him. They held each other's gaze for a long moment.

"At least I have him to remind me of you. Logan hasn't even got that."

She looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Logan...he hasn't got someone like I have Case, to remind him of Max."

"But why...? But Max isn't dead."

"What?"

"She's not dead, Charlie! She came pretty close a while ago, but she was pulled back. She didn't die."

"Oh my god...Logan! I have to tell him."

"Yes..."

She reached out to him then, and he stepped towards her. His hand passed through the image of hers, and he felt only a slight chill as it happened.

"I wish I could touch you."

"I'm sor--"

"No." He brushed his fingers over her lips, and let his hand fall again to his side. "Never be sorry."

She looked up into his eyes. "Thank you."

He looked down at the sleeping boy next to them. "Thank you."

She followed his gaze. "Don't let him--"

"He won't forget."

She bent to kiss the small head. The boy stirred in his sleep, turned over onto his other side and burrowed his face into his bolster. His parents both smiled.

"I have to go," she said, her voice beginning to fade.

"It's okay."

"I can't come back again."

"I know."

"Take care of him." This last was a whisper on the wind, and when he blinked, she was gone.

He looked around at the room again, at walls that suddenly seemed more solid, colours that looked harsher, and realised that it was warmer than he'd thought.

He wondered if he had imagined what had happened that night, primed for it by the bedtime story that he told his son every night. But he picked up the phone anyway, and called Logan.

And then he went to bed, and slept properly for the first time in months, and dreamt about kings, and castles, and princesses.

-end-

Please also check out the other challenge fics by the Cape Haven writers. You won't be disappointed!

This is the Cape Haven writers' group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cape_haven/
Some of us are also writing the virtual third season: http://darkangelvirtuality.com/
And this is my personal website: http://www.judemustard.com