TITLE: Chapter Two
PAIRING: August/Christine
CHARACTERS: August, Christine Hollis
GENRE: Romance, Dark
RATING: M
SUMMARY: A love that was never meant to be…
CHALLENGES: Wildwood NJ, Roanoke VA, West Palm Beach FL
WORD COUNT: 1008
WARNINGS: None
SPOILERS: Episode 2.08 "August"
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
DISCLAIMER: not mine
It takes two whole days before she finally asks him what his name is. She's lying in the back seat of the new car he's stolen (they switched out from the one at the motel sometime this morning when it was still dark and he knew they wouldn't be seen). They're passing through New Jersey, entering a town called Wildwood and he hears her stirring against he leather seats.
"What's your name?" she asks, her voice as clear as the morning sky.
"August," he says, his eyes glancing up at the rearview mirror to check for anyone following.
"Like Augustus?"
"August," he answers simply.
"August," she echoes and he feels something in his self move and shift.
The Council of Months has said his name on many occasions and yet it's as if he's hearing it being said for the first time.
"I'm Christine," she says, breaking him from his thoughts.
"Christine Hollis," he agrees.
"Why do you know so much about me?"
Thankfully she's headed his words of 'stay hidden' and she stays down. By now, Walter Bishop has convinced the FBI to stop looking for her, but he is confident that the Council of Months is still hunting for them.
"You are special," he finally answers.
"Special?" she repeats.
"Unique," he expounds, turning his head slightly to look at her lying there.
He can feel how curious she is. "Why?"
"It is hard to say yet. But you are. Do not doubt that." He nod, entirely certain in what he saying, and turns his attention back to the road.
New Year's day is the first day he lets her sit in the front seat of their current stolen car. It's refreshing to get to watch the world pass by in the way she's used to—not lying on her back in the backseat and looking up at the sky. It's three days later and she eats up the scenery eagerly.
Very courteously he'd retrieved her luggage and her travelers checks from her friend's house and in Wildwood, NJ he'd taken her to one of her bank's branches and she'd pretended nothing was off, smiling as she explained to the teller that 'something came up and I'm just going to cash these in and take all the money out of my account'.
Two thousand seven hundred from her now empty bank account and fifteen hundred from the traveler's check left her with the grand total of four thousand, one hundred dollars and seven cents (she'd found two pennies and a nickel under the floor mat of the car they'd stolen). She has no idea how far this much money can take them and while she doesn't understand everything about August, she does trust him. No, she really doesn't have any concrete reason why she does, so she chocks it up to women's intuition.
They've just pulled out of Roanoke VA and there's a road side stand that perks her interest and as if he can read her mind, he pulls over, though he doesn't unlock the car doors.
"I really want some of that maple syrup," she says softly, looking at the sign and the man bundled in a parka and stocking cap standing by his wares.
What she really wants is something normal. She finds her wallet and pulls out a twenty, holding it out to August.
"I'll stay in the car," she promises.
He looks at her for a moment and without hint of expression, he takes the money from her and exits the car. She watches with interest as he talks to the man at the stand and trades the money for two small, maple leaf bottles and some change. He returns to the car and hands them over to her. They sit in there silently for a moment, her clutching the icy glass bottles, he with his hands folded neatly in his lap.
"Thank you," she says softly.
"I will get you what you need."
She doesn't notice that he starts the car without keys.
"I meant, thank you for saving my life."
He shows no emotion, but she knows he's telling the truth when he says, "I couldn't let anything happen to you."
Christine had always wanted to visit Florida and now here she is, only she can't leave this small hotel room. She's barricaded herself in the small, musty smelling bathroom, her hair drip-drying, now a bleached brassy yellow that barely reaches her shoulders and she's crying as she looks at herself in the mirror over the sink.
Right now August is sitting on his bed, allowing her privacy as she goes through the drastic process of altering her looks and she can hear the TV playing quietly through the thin bathroom door. She feels so stupid for crying about her hair, but deep down she knows it's really more than her hair. It's about losing everything and then losing it all over again.
Her identity? Gone. The life she knew? Gone. The things she loved? Gone.
She's never going to get to go to school, she's never going to get to visit Italy, she's never going to have a normal life. She wants to throw up, she wants to scream at the top of her lungs…
There is knocking on the bathroom door and she wipes her tears away, quickly pulling her t-shirt back on. She opens the door and there stands the enigmatic man who's saved her, strange and somewhat frightening.
"Yes?" she asks, her voice breaking slightly from the knot in her throat.
"Are you all right?"
Her lashes flutter as she fights tears. "Why me?"
"Because you are important," he replies flatly.
"Why?"
She is crying so hard she can't tell if he even answers.