Disclaimer: Ha! Yeah, sure I own it.
A/N: For skycloud86. Merry Christmas, mate. =D I know the format's a bit odd, but I quite like it. Hope you do too.
The photograph shocked Kim. The instant she saw it, she stalled, and shakily sat down. It wasn't that she hadn't known… that was, that she hadn't factually understood… but it was just…
She hadn't known it was like that.
The facts were:
Her father had had an affair with Nina Meyers.
Nina Meyers was a mole, an undercover terrorist.
Nina Meyers killed her mother.
Her father had felt guilty for trusting Nina.
Her father had killed Nina.
Her father had hated Nina.
Her father had……… loved Nina?
Because that was all she could read in the photograph. In the photograph being taken. In the photograph being kept.
The picture showed all she couldn't comprehend Jack and Nina having ever been.
It showed a happy moment.
It showed a tender moment.
It showed a loving moment.
It showed a………. treasured moment?
Why had he kept the photo? Why would he do that? She knew better than any other the unfathomable depths of betrayal and rage that Jack had been cast into. The fierce, fervid loathing. She knew. So why?
They were smiling in the photograph. She didn't remember Nina smiling any other smile than one of twisted superiority. She was sure she must have seen it, before, but she couldn't remember it. The only photos she could remember of Nina were headshots, complete with dark terrifying eyes. But here those same eyes were lit in joy. And it scared her more.
Were they happy together? Her father and Nina? Did he make her forget her mission? When they laughed, did she leave behind her secrets? When they kissed, did he lose his scars?
Was this why he had hated her so much? Because he had once been so open with her, once been so happy with her?
Nina laughed as she set the self-timer, pushing Jack into the frame.
"Yes, you have to."
He grudgingly obliged. She pressed down the button, and ran in front of the camera, where he grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head down on her shoulder. "Say cheese," he grinned .
She rolled her eyes and smiled widely at the camera, then burst out laughing as he tickled her stomach, twisting to try and free herself from his grasp.
The camera flashed.
The picture showed lack of inhibition, complete comfort, complete freedom. It showed Nina as just a person, and Jack too.
Kim's hands hovered at the top of the paper, challenging herself to rip it and burn it as she so desperately longed to.
She sighed and put on her coat.
She stood at her father's grave in silence. It was a simple graphite block, with a simple engraving. Such was his name, such was his birth, such was his death.
It said nothing.
There was more meaning in the weather beaten photo that lay pinned down by a rock at the side. A photo of a family. A mother, a father, a daughter. She compared it to the one held in her hand. Slowly, she slid that under the rock also, under the other photo, so others visiting the grave wouldn't find it there.
The facts were:
Her father had loved her.
Her father had loved her mother.
Nina and Jack had been happy with each other.
Nina and Jack had hated each other.
Nina and Jack had loved each other.
Nina and Jack had destroyed each other.
Nina and Jack were dead.
Their story was done, finished, it lay buried with them. At last.
She left the graveyard.
The facts are:
I usually leave a note asking for reviews.
That's not going to affect whether I actually get reviews.
I don't care, because it's Christmas and nothing can bring me down.
I wish all readers, reviewers and non, a very Merry Christmas.
I especially wish that to Stephen, because this is his present, after all.