Authors Notes and Disclaimer
This is a completed, 7 chapter story. I am publishing the chapters once-a-week during August and September of 2011. Special thanks to "My Beautiful Ending" who kindly beta read the story for me.
This story takes place between The Firefly and Reciprocity (episodes 310 and 311). I developed the bones of the plot ages and ages ago and wrote the story rather quickly – so I apologize if there are redundancies between what I wrote and what eventually happened in the show. The setting was inspired by Olivia's mention on her days at a boarding school in Safe (episode 110) and Peter's description of Nina and Tina in Amber 31422 (episode 305) - though, of course, that wasn't really Peter, it was Olivia's subconscious.
The title is from the first canton of In Memoriam A.A.H. by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The plot borrows liberally from Dorothy Sayers's Gaudy Night. Fox owns the characters and, basically, I take no creative credit.
Prologue
For what it was worth, She had not wrecked Olivia's life while Olivia was trapped on the other side. Her credit score was still good - no extravagant purchases had been made. The bills had been paid, food had been bought, and a $20 gift card to Justice had been sent to Ella for her birthday, but no more than that. She had even kept the thank-you card from Ella; Olivia found it in a pile of mostly junk mail. That thank you card, however, hurt Olivia far more than paying off a huge credit-card bill would have. Olivia had wanted to give Ella a copy of The Journey of Natty Gahn - a movie Olivia had loved at Ella's age - and a big stuffed husky to go with it. The gift had been planned for months, the movie and the toy were in a bag on the top shelf of Olivia's hall closet, and Olivia had even played with the idea of getting a flight to Chicago so she could deliver it in person. Instead, Ella had received a birthday card that sang, "I tell you want I want" and a $20 gift card that got her a hot pink graphic-tee and a pair of mismatched socks. Ella clearly loved the chance to shop at a trendy tween store, and Rachel probably hadn't thought twice about the gift; the family relationships remained intact. But Olivia knew it wasn't what it should have been. Ella's seventh birthday was just one more thing She had taken away.
In the junk mail pile that contained Ella's thank-you, Olivia found another piece of important mail. It was an invitation to school reunion at St. Agnes's School for Girls, the boarding school she'd attended from seventh to tenth grade. Two months ago, before Olivia's life had been stolen, she too would have thrown it into the trash. But now it looked like a beautiful opportunity. She had never been to St. Agnes's - on this side, certainly, but even on the other side. She had never met those people. She had never seen the woods that surrounded it. She had never laughed or cried in those halls. St. Agnes's was Olivia's, and only Olivia's. Suddenly, the institution that Olivia couldn't wait to leave when she was 16 was the only place she wanted to be.