Title: After
Word Count: 1652
Rating: PG?
Summary: What is the connection between The Giver and The Chief Elder? How is it the Chief Elder has the ability to remember?
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from The Giver. Just using the characters for fun.
The Elders and the Giver sat in the sealed room watching Fiona being prepared for her reassignment, being 'released to elsewhere'.
The air was still, dark, and heavy.
Fiona's face was a blank canvas. She could play the game as well as any of the Elders, and she was not going to give them any satisfaction that they had won. She believed in Jonas, and knew he would save her, save them all.
She wanted to feel once again. All of it, the warmth, happiness, and yes even the pain.
The Giver attempted one last time to save Fiona, save them all from making another enormous mistake.
As the Chief Elder hung her head he said her name, Rosemary. Would it jar some memory in the Chief Elder's mind? Would instinct descend into her being? Parental feelings of love, warmth, and protection. She had to have a glimmer, something to remind her of her past.
The Chief Elder showed a slight frown. That name. Yes she knew about the child. She remembered that day as she sat and observed as the child's wish to be 'released to elsewhere' was carried out. She had no emotions about it. It was a part of their life. The way to keep the Communities in check. Just like the medicine. It was better this way, or was it?
The Giver continued on. Love. He had loved her until the sadness overtook her, drained her of her will to live. He still loved her but he did not like what she had started.
If only she had let him help her, had let him love her, but she did not feel she deserved it, his love. In her mind she had failed him and their infant daughter.
The Ruins, the development of the Communities, and the barrier played right into her insecurities, and she found solitude there.
The Chief Elder could not look at him. It was there, way back in the recesses of her mind. A twinge, coldness, and then it was gone. Why did he continue to negate her? What is it he wanted to prove or demonstrate for her?
Dance? Did she remember 'dance'?
She knew about crying. That had never left her, but what she had cried about she had not a clue.
'Love', there it was again. Love meant hurt, she remembered that.
What had she loved? Too much sadness came with love.
Wars were fought in the name of love. Families crumbled in the name of love.
Had she chosen? Had he chosen? Who was right? Had they chosen wrong?
Music, he hoped that would spring a recondition in her.
She had taught Rosemary to play the piano.
She had sang to the girls every night before their birth. Sweet, enduring lullabies. That was when their love had been the strongest.
Her love for them was all consuming.
Love, life, joy, it all left her the minute Rosemary's twin was born.
He wanted her to understand that everyone had the right to feel what she had felt before that day. What she should have continued to feel for Rosemary.
She was right, the Giver thought, she had chosen wrong, but given the chance could she have renewed her love for a partner, a child?
Could he have brought happiness out of the shadows for her to live once again?
Time had not given her the chance to do that.
In the short time between the twin's birth and the start of the Ruins the Chief Elder had mourned. Mourned the still birth of the second child. Mourned to the point of wanting to take her own life. She did not feel the surviving infant would be safe with her. If she could not keep the dead infant safe within her own womb how would she be able to keep Rosemary safe in the middle of a war? The infant would be better off with her Father. A strong man, he would keep her safe.
The Chief Elder was feeling ill. She could not take his rantings any longer.
"That's enough."
Her body was shaking, her heart beating out of control.
The Giver watched as the Chief Elder's hands curled into fists, her knuckles white as her fingernails bit into her palms. Her lips which once were full and luscious turned into a thin pursed line. Her breathing labored and deep.
She was trying to keep it under control, but emotions, feelings were cracking through the walls that had been built so many years before. Visions of dark clothed beings passed behind her eye lids. They were making the room spin, and she broke out in a cold sweat.
Jonas' Father's voiced broke the spell the Giver had captured the Chief Elder in, and with her last bit of strength announced, "We must continue."
The Giver felt it first.
The wave came in slowly as it passed over the citizens in attendance.
As it moved over them the colors came out. Skin colors changed, hair color was transformed. Eyes turned blue, brown, green, and every color in between.
As it hit the Chief Elder her skin became pale, porcelain in color, and her eyes a dark crystal blue. Her eyes turned upward, she could feel what was happening, but she did not realize the whole of it. Her breathing once again became labored, and she felt as if her heart would explode out of her chest. Even though she had stopped taking the medication her mind had been permanently effected by the long term use, but now it would all come back to her. All at once she would remember the bad and why she had helped to instigate the new Communities.
The Chief Elder's eyes grew darker as she saw small snippets, and memories of the past. A younger version of her smiling, happy, and in love. Her eyes sparkled as she gazed into the eyes of her lover.
The present day Chief Elder absentmindedly drew her hand over her abdomen and her lip quivered. First a slight smile, but then a grimace and the lines on her face grew deeper.
The Giver was watching her and caught the movement. He cringed as he realized her memories were returning. God if only he could shielded her from the pain, the loss.
Pictures resembling a movie past through her mind.
One tiny dark headed infant, crying, laid in her arms.
Tears appeared in the present day Chief Elder's eyes, and her body trembled. She knew she could no longer keep the memories away. A black cloud found its way into the room and enveloped her. She shivered, and the tears fell from her eyes.
A small dark haired infant laid inside a tiny white box. Her eyes closed, her skin ashen.
A second infant crying, begging to be nursed by a Mother so lost in grief she just passed her off to the Father.
The infant growing into a beautiful child full of smiles, love, and happiness, asking her Mother to play. The Mother pushing her aside unable to find the love the child so needed.
A tiny dark haired girl walking away from her in fields of flowers hand in hand with a tall handsome man with long dark hair.
Then came the smoke from the destruction of the Ruins. She saw despair and hopelessness all around her, and she found a way out.
The Giver stood, found his way over to the Chief Elder and kneeled in front of her.
She did not see him as the pictures continued to flash in her mind. The tears stung her eyes, as the explosions during The Ruin burst behind them.
The Giver placed a hand over the clutched fingers in The Chief Elder's Lap. He knew if he talked she would not hear him. He knew she had to go through it, experience it in order for her to start healing. His rough thumb stroked the soft long slender fingers of his wife. With his lips close to her ears he hummed and cooed to her. Her smell was just as intoxicating now as it had been years ago.
Tears continued to fall as she watched herself take the honor as Chief Elder, and he became the Keeper of Memories.
She watched as a younger her pushed the button, and the barrier surrounded the Communities.
She watched as everyone was give their loading dose of medication.
She watched as they all fell into line and their assignments were given.
She then watched as her younger self took her injection and watched The Keeper of Memories walk off with their only surviving child.
The Chief Elder sobbed, gut retching sobs, as she saw her only child during her reassignment 'her release to elsewhere' ceremony.
She had authorized the killing of Rosemary, her only surviving child.
She caught her breath and gasped. Her eyes went wild, but not a sound was emitted from her mouth.
She slumped forward as The Giver raised up and took The Chief Elder into his arms. As he pulled her close she realized what had just happened, what she had been involved with and what she had just done.
"No!" She screamed as her hands came up between them landing on his chest and pushed him away.
She ran to the window and seeing that Fiona was still alive she sank to the floor as silent tears fell from her dark eyes.
He went to her and gathered her into his arms. The love returned, now even deeper. He would get her through this. They would be together again. He put his lips to her ear and kissed her lightly on her warm soft skin. "I love you Rose. I loved you before, I love you now, and I will continue to love you for the rest of our days."
Rose sunk into Dan's arms it was finally over.