Title : Fresh Start
Author : DiBee
Summary : Two friends, Helen Magnus and James Watson, talking about their loss, and what they still could do to make their eternal lives more bearable. For those who wondered how Ashley's embryo came back to life. Friendship
Disclaimer : Not mine, all theirs, not earning anything from it.
Spoiler : None
Rating : K+
Author Note : English isn't my first language, though I love it. If you spot any mistake, feel free to tell me if you want to (that would actually be of great help since I didn't ask for a bêta for this fic;)
Helen was facing him, absentmindedly twirling her spoon in her long chilled tea cup. Deep in thoughts, she barely heard him sighing.
« Helen, have you ever done anything, and I imply anything here, mindlessly? »
James Watson was sick of it, he could see her friend drowning in her problems, and after having seen her getting through so much, he didn't know how to cope with that situation. He had invited her in London for a 'serious conversation', but all he had gotten so far was silence.
Her brow furrowed, she grinned at some memory coming back.
"I suppose, yeah, wasn't it mindless to agree to marry John, to froze that embryo, to outlive every one of my friend, apart from you. Even Nikola's gone, now. I helped him so much with that, ... that damn disappearance of his, that now no one can trace him, not even those state of the art trackers. We are the only one left, now, James."
Her voice was soft, tainted with regret and that tiredness of people who had seen too much. The doctor simply nodded his approval. That he could understand. Then it struck him. The part in her answer that could be reversed. There may have been no way to recover the lost promises or friends, but there was something she could do, they could do, to change what had been.
"Helen, with the new technologies..." He didn't finish his sentence. There was no point, she had understood already. She gasped, suddenly realizing the implications of such possibility.
"James, how..." it was a rhetorical question, yet none of us had any answer to it.
"It is doable, Helen, and if there is need for it, I will assist you. We are both doctors, and know more than any of our pears. Together, we can achieve it, but there is no need to try if you aren't sure of what you truly want, dear."
He chose his words with extreme precaution, and his solemn tone was a reflection of the revolution getting to his mind. In front of her, Helen was standing still, her hand had let the spoon go, and her eyes had begun to sparkle with hope that new idea was drawing from her. It would be a fresh start, a new life she could freely begun, with no traces of her past but that glimmer she sure would end seeing in her child that would remind her of its father. But that was now the least of her troubles to come. She had taken care of various forms of abnormals for all her life. Now she would have to deal with a child. Somewhere deep within her, she knew she would have to face far worse than whatever she had ever encountered before.
"I have already picked up a name," she announced. "Ashley."