Title - Light Of The Full Moon
Chapter title - Moving Forward
Author - OblivionsGarden
Genre - Romance/Adventure/Friendship/Drama
Disclaimer - I do not own the Uncharted Series in anyway shape or form. I only own the plot points surrounding my oc's, not recognized from the games. For this chapter I own, Lucy Oakley.
Chapter Word Count - 2727 words.
A/n - Please leave a review, I'd greatly appreciate it. Hope you enjoy, xx (:
Two months passed by with no word from the boys. Lucy finished her job with Sully and returned home to plan for something else. It was driving her insane that she couldn't even call for a check up. She contemplated calling the prison on several occasions, pretending to be some sort of authority to get information about the inmates but she didn't want to arouse suspicion and put unwanted attention on the boys.
It was exactly 72 days since Lucy stood on the helipad and watched them take off when there was a knock at her door. She was in the midst of dressing from the shower and so called for whoever it was to come in. If it was a stranger they'd wait, if it was someone who knew her, they'd know where the spare key was hidden.
She heard the door open and close and heavy booted footsteps make their way into the living room. Her heart jumped, wondering if Sam was finally home. Hurriedly pulling on her clothes she practically flew out of her room and down the stairs to head to the living room. She stopped short when she saw Nathan in the hall, altering his weight from foot to foot.
She stalled, watching his face for a moment. He was paler than usual, his eyes were dull and tired with dark circles beneath them. Too much stubble on his jaw, sunken cheeks, unkempt clothing. He caught her gaze and she frowned, not hearing any one else in the house.
"Where's Sam?"
He opened his mouth and closed it again, bringing a hand up to run over his face. He tried again, just to say the words but he couldn't. He hadn't said it out loud yet, to anyone and it was almost as if saying it would make it more real.
"No." Lucy shook her head as she stared at him. "No, no no, don't you dare! Nate, no!" She backed away as he approached her, strangled sobs getting caught in the back of her throat.
"He's gone, Lucy."
"No!" Her legs buckled but Nate caught her, holding her against his chest as she struggled against him. "You're lying! You're fucking lying!" She got an arm free, hitting Nathan across the cheek and shoving him away from her. "Where is he? He has to be here... He promised." Nate approached her again, catching each of her wrists as she tried to hit his chest. "He's not gone, he can't be."
Lucy collapsed in Nathan's arms and he sank to the floor, holding her close to him. They cried together, clinging onto each other for support for hours. Nate quietened first, he'd had more time to cry already, he sometimes felt like he couldn't cry anymore but then he'd remember the look on Sam's face as he tried to smile one last time and he'd begin again.
When Lucy finally stopped, wide bloodshot eyes staring into space as she clung to his jacket, Nate made a mental note that it was the first time he'd really seen her cry. Through the window he saw that it was already getting dark and he gently placed his hand over Lucy's.
"I'll make some tea."
She stood, prying herself from him and offering a nod, mind distant. Nathan lingered for a moment, half expecting her to collapse to the floor again. When it seemed she was stable enough to just stand he moved off into the kitchen. He made two cups of tea, hot and sweet just how Lucy used to have it back in the orphanage. When he returned to the hall she had dissapeared but oddly, Nathan knew exactly where to find her.
He toed off his boots before carrying the steaming mugs up to hers and Sam's bedroom. He almost broke again when he saw one of Sam's favorite denim shirts lay across the bed. Lucy had probably been wearing it whilst he was away. Taking a breath he set the mugs down on the side table and sunk to his knees. As he expected, Lucy was lay face down on the floor beneath the bed. She wasn't crying anymore although her breathing was still stuttered.
Rather than try and coax her out as he had when her parents left her behind, he rolled onto his back and slipped beneath the bed beside her. She turned her head to look at him, opening her mouth to say something but deciding not to.
"I think I get it." Nathan murmured, looking up at the wooden bed frame just a inch or so from his nose. "It's a tight space but it feels... I dunno, safe?"
"Safe." Lucy nodded.
"Nothing bad can get under here."
"Too late for hiding."
Nathan nodded and let Lucy move to lay pressed against his side. He wrapped his arms around her once more, returning to silence. He woke up in the same spot the following morning, Lucy still beside him. He knew he couldn't stay under there with her forever, but he also didn't feel the desire to move any time soon.
He eventually slid out in the mid afternoon, ordering some food and persuading Lucy to come out, to eat if for nothing else. It continued like that for some time, hiding for most of the day, only coming out to eat and then hiding again. It wasn't until both Rafe and Sully began their relentless phone calls that they knew they'd have to return to life. Carry on living without him, somehow.
Rafe was actually sympathetic for the most part and Lucy had been grateful for that. He offered both her and Nate the rooms they had stayed in previously for as long as they needed. Nate refused at first but Lucy took the offer, opting for a different room, one with no memories of Sam in. Nate eventually returned to, excusing it as being there for Lucy but she knew he needed her just as much as she needed him.
The first few months nearly killed her. She couldn't focus on anything, she couldn't sleep, she barely left her room, not even to eat. Nathan would take her food cooked by Rafe's staff and when she refused that he ordered greasy take out. She'd nibble of a fry or two but otherwise remained stoic.
Her face was void of all emotion as she tried to work, going through the motions as opposed to actually continuing with her life. She used to find it corny and cliched when she read books or saw movies where someone would describe the loss of a loved one as taking a part of them too but she felt it now. She felt that empty feeling deep in the core of her and she couldn't figure out how to fill it. She didn't know what she could stuff in there to fill herself again.
She was grateful of Nathan although some days she couldn't bare to look at him. He and Sam were never identical of course but it seemed that now, she could see every tiny resemblance in the two. Every tiny detail in Nate's face suddenly held a striking match to Sam's. Whether she just hadn't noticed before or she was just looking for a sign of him wherever she could, she wasn't sure.
Everything seemed to make her cry for a long time. She couldn't even use her guilty pleasure film as a distraction. Cry Baby, a film she'd forced Sam to watch once. A film where Alison, the main character, heads to a prison to sing her lover out.
'He don't belong in prison, though he's guilty as can be, but the only crime he's guilty of is simply loving me. Please Mr. Jailer, won't you let my man go free?'
She'd cried for hours once she finally managed to shut the film off. She cursed herself, she cursed Sam for ruining one of her favorite movies. She tried to tell herself that she had done this before. She had lost Sam once and been fine, she could do it again. But he wasn't dead then. She took one of Rafe's cars and drove for miles, stopping to sleep in the back seat and then carrying on. She knew Rafe would be tearing his hair out but she also knew that Nathan would understand and cover for her.
It didn't help. She knew that running would never help but it proved a distraction for a little while. She found herself in a small cafe one afternoon, drawn by the promise of live music. She and Sam loved going to see local unknown musicians and although she was running from the memories of him, she couldn't resist that one. She shouldn't have gone.
There was a girl on the stage, timid and avoiding eye contact, hiding behind a veil of her hair. She'd already sung a cover of a Cher song and Lucy was captured immediatly. Her voice was other worldly and she felt like she could listen to her forever. It made her feel warm, especially with the coffee in her hands. She announced her own song, an original. Beautifully Unfinished. Lucy gulped.
"Sunday raindrops, clock goes tick-tock. I hate myself for staring at the phone." Lucy looked down at her coffee, around at the crowded room. The girl had brought in more customers than any of the other performers. It'd be too hard to leave through that crowd.
"Kept all your texts, can t erase them, I d call you up but I know you re not alone." It's just a song about an ended relationship, it doesn't correlate. This will be fine, you'll be fine. Lucy never believed her inner voice, it was a liar and she knew it. It told her Sam would come back.
"I know that I should not hold on, so why can t I let go? Cause every time I m with you somehow I forget to breathe. You got me like a rag doll now I m dancing on your string. And I keep trying to figure out who you are to me but maybe all that we were meant to be... Is beautifully unfinished. Beautifully unfinished."
Lucy tried to distract herself with her phone, looking at the ignored texts from Rafe, Nate and Sully. A woman tutted at her and muttered something about being ignorant. She shoved her phone back in her pocket.
"You left your kiss like a bruise on my lips your fingerprints are tattooed on my skin. And hush now don t cry, build your walls high and don t you dare come creeping in. Cause you re the one that I can t lose, you re the one that I can t win."
Fuck. She was crying. In public, people could see her. Why didn't she pick up a napkin when she was at the counter? That woman was staring at her again. She wanted to tell her to fuck off and leave her alone but she didn't want to cause a scene. The girl was singing the chorus again. Thoughts of Sam were swimming in her head as the woman dug in her bag and pulled out a packet of tissues. She held them out to Lucy who took one, ignoring the pitying smile she was given.
"And I hate you and I love you and I wish you d go away. And I hate you and I love you and I wish that you would stay."
God she was such a mess. How true were those words? Of course she wished she could have Sam back but she knew she couldn't. She needed his memories to go, leave her so she could carry on with her life. She finished her coffee, applauded politely for the girl and left as quickly as she could. She drove home, to her home that she shared with Sam after picking up some boxes. She needed to live but she couldn't if she was surrounded by his memory.
She started in the kitchen, taking down the little notes in his handwriting, shopping lists, reminders etc. She threw out old ones and rewrote some that she still needed. Food that only he ate went in the trash and the blue mug that said Captain Drake in red letters was wrapped up and placed in a box. It had been a gag gift for his 26th birthday. He used that mug for large coffees when he was working late into the evening and needed to be awake.
All of his toiletries from the bathroom went into another box, all of his aftershaves and his razor. A proper barbers razor that Nate had gifted to him one year along with a set of shaving equipment. Lucy had attempted to give him a shave but accidentally nicked his jaw. He'd insisted she kiss it better every time he walked past her, even after it had healed.
His favorite movies they'd collected and his little trinkets that sat on the mantle, all wrapped and packed. All of his clothes, his records even the records they had brought together or he had bought for her. Songs that they danced to in the middle of the kitchen in the dead of night. Gifts that held too much sentimental value for her to be around.
It took her a long few days, but eventually all of Sam's belongings were in boxes and piled in what had been the spare room. They'd intended to turn it into a guest room eventually but never really got round to it. Unless you knew otherwise, you'd never have know anyone but Lucy had ever lived there.
The only room that gave it away, the one she couldn't bare to touch, was his office. Sam was always touchy about his office, he had his own chaotic order to everything that just looked like mess to Lucy. It took her months before she'd even step foot in there. This wasn't a shared room, this one was all Sam and as soon as she crossed the threshold she was overwhelmed by him.
Papers were on his desk, pinned to a board and in little stack on the floor. Shelves lined with books and collected trinkets. A handful of photo's from his childhood stuck to cupboard door. More from his teen and adult years of him and friends. One photo on his desk sat in a frame, of him and Lucy kissing at midnight at a New Years Eve Party. Chloe Frazer was holding bunny ears above her head whilst Nate did the same to Sam. He had loved that photo.
The room still smelt like him, even after all that time being empty. Nathan arrived eventually having a tiny bit more knowledge about how Sam ordered things in there. He helped her try and keep things organized as she packed it up. Nathan said he wouldn't touch the desk, Sam would kill him even from beyond the grave.
They were getting there, slowly managing to crack painful jokes between them. It helped. Sam would've made jokes if he were still there. They could practically hear his chuckle as they spoke. Lucy told Nate how she'd had Sam's bike put into a storage locker downtown and asked if he'd make sure it didn't go rusty. She was more of a car girl after all. When she said it she waited for Sam's reply of 'bikes are always the better choice, babe. They're sexy.' It never came and turned away from Nathan to take a breath, remind herself that he wasn't here anymore.
Again Nathan said he'd have to keep the bike in working condition otherwise Sam would climb out of his grave and kick his ass. His laughter was forced but it usually helped that Lucy forced hers too. But she didn't that time, she was preoccupied. She'd managed to open the locked draw on Sam's desk and whatever she'd found in there had brought her to a halt.
Nathan crossed the room, knowing she wouldn't answer if he asked. The drawer was empty save for a few important personal documents. In Lucy's hand there was a small box, opened and holding a ring. A dainty silver band with a circular diamond sat in the middle. In her other hand was a slip of paper. A receipt from a vintage jewelers. A receipt for a 1940's engagement ring.