The Dark Violin
T.V. Show: House M.D.
Canon: Remy "Thirteen" Hadley, minor Chase/Cameron
Author: Foxes' Dreams
Summary: Deficient in affectionate or tender impulses, Thirteen is obliged to face the drift along the stream of babysitting. When Chase and Cameron's daughter is put in the centre, she finally gets strength to disfigure the passages of solemn and pompous monotony. Days of vague and fantastic melancholy begin to fade as gurgles fill Thirteen's heart with joy. AU set in season 6.
It might seem to be a trivial, usual activity, but for Thirteen this moment is just a bartering of the highest aspirations of life. She had been around toddlers many times, only in the medical field, where impassivity and neutrality is required. Beneath the cold glare of the desolate night, Thirteen watched the little toddler crawling around the spacious room, taking easy and measured steps.
The one-year old looked at her expectantly, enduring with smiling composure the nearby presence of people who were totally distasteful. Instead, every curve of Thirteen's features seemed to express a fine arrogant acrimony and harsh turbulence.
Ava was the perfect combination of both Chase and Cameron, the typical portrait of a blonde, sea blue-eyed goddess sneaking in her genes. Even at a small age, she proved to be charming and adorable, impressing with endearing sweetness and manner. The hospital staff called her daddy's little girl, mostly because her father was wrapped around her little finger, he always embraced with ardor the prospect of serene fatherhood.
Being overseas, miles away from his only daughter, put Chase in an exasperated willful pretense of ignorance. Contradictory, knowing that Thirteen would stay as babysitter enticed him irresistibly by the freedom of an open horizon. Finally, a medical conference with Cameron would prove to be efficient in affectionate and tender impulses.
Ava stood innocently in her brightly-colored playpen; dignity and sweet patience were in her looks. The pacifier was securely balancing near the corners of her mouth; her chubby cheeks were furrowed by great purpose and feeling, the blocks in front of her more interesting than any other surrounding object. Thirteen was sitting motionless on the sofa, studying the little girl, deep shame and rankling remorse creeping in her senses, knowing that she still hadn't had the intense courage to even touch the baby. Dallying in maudlin regret over the past and blaming the unfortunate, Remy imagined herself, healthy and conscious, gravitating around a child of her own, a piece of flesh and tendons ruptured within her own body.
Dimmed by the cold touch of unjust suspicion, her eyes just wandered around, looking for any other point of interest, completely unrelated to the small figure dangling on the silk, puffy carpet. Doled out in miserly measure, she couldn't even concentrate, her buried and inactive maternal instincts guiding her towards the gurgling youth.
Life is worth it.
She remembered this from all the endless support therapies, but she was still distressing in their fatuous ugliness. Diverting her eyes, she pondered the choices, doubt torturing her, prior to the decision. Dreams and visions were long surpassed, only drear twilight of reality remaining to be analyzed. Thirteen was not going down the steep of disenchantment, a happy turn of thinking making her reconsider the whole absolute plan. By a curious irony of fate, she sat on the edge on the floor, desperately searching for a reaction from the little child, still too preoccupied by the deferential surprise of a brand new toy.
"Aren't you adorable?" Thirteen asked, her voice pitched excessively. Constant indulgence of wild stratagem and ambitious craft ran within her, the heart thumping loudly because of the sight in front of her, both vulnerable and normal. Ava gave her a toothless smile, a gesture that put the young physician in jeopardy, now leaning on the easiest plan of giving up.
"Do you want to build a princess castle?" She indulged again, the dismal march of renounce walking all over her uncertainty. The small infant watched her intently, nodding furiously in agreement, and handing Remy a block, convincing her to continue this unique chance.
Outside the opaque rain rumbled softly, inside, the measured dance of dolls and teddy bears was overcoming the natural extreme metamorphosis. Thirteen's intent was finely precised, not even daring to put a finger on little Ava's face, insanely worrying that she might damage even the tranquility she had faced in the last hours.
She used different objects as barricade, mostly multicolored rows settling a definite distance between her and the exact definition of the over-excited youth. They were synchronized, working together at a childish masterpiece, finally formless verbosity and a passionate rhetoric sentence touching both the adult and the child.
The complex building was almost finished, small touches of art finding themselves in the small corners, a majestic beauty placed strategically on the outside.
Thirteen was flushed with a suffusion that crimsoned her whole countenance, knowing that even the slightest approach towards a baby is a major step into brightness and light. Partly, the grotesque vision of her ghost, alone and empty-hearted disappeared, Ava's shrieking laughter replacing it instantly.
"Content, little duckling?" She asked, surprising herself at the use of words that are filled with joy, fleeting touches of something alien and intrusive caressing her intention.
With a master move, Ava crawled until she was able to touch Thirteen, fathomless depths of electricity shocking her entire system, the fast movement of the bond catching her bare and unprepared. Fear held her in a vice; she didn't even know what would occur, what would feed her scholarly curiosity.
A feverish tide of life crashed Remy as the young and restless child settled against her solid and tough chest, foreboding possessing her momentarily. Ava sighed adorably, the slight cooing sound that erupted from Thirteen freighted with strange, vague longings. The two girls were fatally and indissolubly united, in Thirteen's heart installed felicitousness and exquisiteness, the collocation of words long muted. She stroked Ava's tangled blonde curls, fitful tumults of noble passion retreating in her gestures; the weight placed upon her upper torso seemed feathery, divinely placed exactly on the beating centre of pleasure.
Time passed unseen, grim and sullen appeared in the decor after the active flush of the evening, the great length of limb and fall of shoulders moving steadily as sleep overcame the girls. Thirteen was not guilty of any girlish sentimentality, only her unexposed maternal instinct was hardened into convictions and resolves.
At the crack of dawn, Chase and Cameron tipped in the room, finding Thirteen and Ava cradled in the same spell of restful slumber, both inhaling and exhaling deeply, from a kind of mental depletion.
The parents were watching silently, holding their breath in admiring speechlessness, both acting with chivalrous delicacy of satisfaction knowing that Thirteen had withdrawn from grief and was directing towards life, enjoyed alongside with its necessary difficulties.
Author's Note: This was dedicated to Isabel, my dear friends and idea-bouncer. Happy birthday, dear!
Read and Review! :*