Title: Vignettes
Author: aolurker
Fandom: The Price of Salt / Carol (movie)
Pairing: Carol/Therese (I hope that kind of goes without saying… ;) )
Rating: T (generally Tame... generally)

Notes: I have gotten lost in the beauty of this story and the telling of it in the movie and the book. These are, as the title indicates, short little vignettes. They aren't necessarily told in order or out of order; they just are. I do not know if they are the first four of more that I'll write, or if these are it. The muse will dictate that, I suppose. I tried hard to keep these in the spirit and universe and tone of both the movie and the book, but I do not presume to be quite as brilliant or beautiful. I just had so many thoughts and scenes in my head, though, that I needed to write them down and figured I'd share them. I do hope you enjoy them. ~a

Big Enough for Two

It hadn't been without awkwardness, or without hesitation. There was still history to overcome and a kaleidoscope of uncertainties that lay ahead. But, they were here now.

Almost.

Maybe.

They got off the elevator at Carol's floor, the older woman uncharacteristically fumbling through her purse for her keys, eventually finding them and unlocking her door, opening it for Therese to enter first.

Therese silently looked around. There was the same elegance, the same class, that she had seen at the New Jersey estate, but there was also something less restrained about the décor, more free. After closing the door behind them, Carol quickly and a little self-consciously showed Therese around, not that there was much to see in the kitchen and living room, before moving to the hall. They stopped at the first door.

"I was thinking this would be your room…" Carol's voice trailed off as she nervously waved her hand into the empty space of the first bedroom.

But Therese didn't look into the room. Not even for a second. She frowned and looked at Carol. Then she looked down the hall. Then back at Carol. "My room?" she asked, confused, very confused, as her eyes again moved not to the room they were standing in front of but instead down the hall.

Carol followed Therese gaze to the last door, to the door of her own bedroom, her heart clenching, her body reacting, longing, in all the ways it had before with Therese but in ways she had tried to temper for this meeting. Carol's eyes flicked back towards Therese's but didn't quite meet or hold them. "I…" Carol's voice caught ever so slightly, fighting her body, keenly aware of everything she'd put Therese through, everything she'd put them through; keenly aware of the devastation and heartbreak she had caused. She started again, "I didn't want to presume…" her voice again trailed off and she looked down.

The silence stretched long enough to finally bring Carol's head and eyes back up. The expression on Therese face, a mixture of unbearable tenderness and mild amusement, so mature, so assured, with all the confidence Carol herself was lacking nearly brought Carol to her knees. Nearly made her heart explode.

"I mean," Carol's low voice rumbled from her chest, "I wanted to presume but…"

Therese stepped forward and saved Carol as she had so many times before. She kissed her. She kissed her slowly. But with purpose. With intent. "Presume," she whispered into Carol's ear.

Carol's eyes fluttered shut as her body flooded with all the emotion she'd been trying so hard to contain as she pulled Therese to her, elated, scared, hopeful. She then gathered herself together enough to pull back. She cradled Therese's face in her hands, now not hesitating to look deeply into the young woman's eyes, though her own were swimming with unshed tears. She then dropped her hands down, took one of Therese's and led her to the end of the hall, finishing the tour of the modest but comfortable apartment, motioning into the room beyond the last door and amending her previous statement. "I was thinking this would be our room."

Abby

"I'll be home a little late tomorrow. I'm meeting Abby for a drink after work."

Therese had tried to keep her reaction to herself but was entirely unsuccessful. There was a moment of silence before Carol spoke again, "What is it Therese?"

Therese looked up from her plate, "I didn't say anything."

A wry smile tugged the corner of Carol's lips, "Your face did."

Therese continued to look back at Carol but didn't speak.

"I wish you'd like Abby," was Carol's eventual response to Therese's silence.

"I do like her."

"But you don't like me seeing her." There was no reprimand, no recriminations, not even resentment in Carol's voice.

Yet still, Carol's statement was once again only greeted with silent calm.

"She is my best friend, I've known her my entire life," Carol explained what Therese was already aware of. So it wasn't a surprise when Therese' only response was to blink.

Carol inhaled deeply then before speaking again, looking directly into eyes that were trying to hide so much and yet were so expressive instead. "Therese, can't change what happened between me and Abby. I can't change that I've done things with her that you've only done with me." Carol then reached out and took one of Therese' hands in both of hers, looking at and studying their joined hands for several long seconds before once again looking into Therese's gaze and finishing her thought, her promise, "But I can assure you of this – I've never felt things with her the way I've felt them with you. What she and I had and what you and I have - it's not the same, my darling. It's not."

Therese's shoulders relaxed, the tightness fled.

Piano

After dinner, Carol stated she needed to write out some order forms she said she wasn't able to complete at work that day. She said she wouldn't be long and that Therese was welcome to stay at the table with her, but Therese could tell Carol would prefer to be alone to finish her work. So Therese wandered into the living room and sat down at the piano.

As Carol had promised it wasn't too long, 30 minutes perhaps, when Therese felt more than heard Carol approach her from behind. So she wasn't startled when elegant hands touched her shoulder. And she wasn't surprised when long fingers ran down her head and played lightly with the ends of her hair.

Her own fingers stumbled over the keys.

She tried again.

This time the tips of Carol's fingers brushed along her neck as it gathered the strands of brown locks.

Another wrong note.

Therese stopped. "You know I can't concentrate on playing when you do that," she said barely above a whisper.

Therese couldn't see the taller woman, but she knew her well enough. She knew the smile that pulled at Carol lips as she heard her quiet, low response, "I know."

I Want To See You

Like their first night Carol had reached to turn the light off and Therese had stopped her. Unlike their first night it was Carol lying on her back with Therese poised above her.

Therese's eyes wide, her mouth hanging open slightly, as her gaze roamed. She could feel Carol watching her as she took in Carol and it thrilled her. She had been told before and since by people no longer in her life that she would eventually be embarrassed. That she'd eventually be ashamed. But she wasn't.

She was enthralled.

She leaned down, bringing skin into her mouth, tasting expanses she hadn't dreamed possible, barely knew even existed not that long ago, recognizing with each touch, with each graze, how she and Carol were the same but appreciating how they were so different in so many small but exciting ways, and she was determined to explore every single one of those ways.

"Beautiful." Therese wasn't even sure if it was she who had said the word or Carol.

But it didn't matter who said it. For it was true. It was beautiful.