Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or settings from V for Vendetta; they belong to Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

Enjoy


Chapter One

Some Things of Value

Evey Hammond hadn't had such a hard time getting out of bed since the day after her parents were taken from her. But as she lay there, in the pitch darkness well into the morning, she couldn't decide whether she was really awake or not. Her eyes were open, but the black curtain of her heavy eyelids couldn't make things darker.

The thick wooden door didn't let many sounds in from the rest of the vast underground home she had been locked in for too long. She could hear the music, though, just the way her companion liked it – spilling between the cracks and over every surface as if the stones themselves were made of sound. Evey often woke to his music, but she also dreamt of it. In her dreams, it was always louder.

This morning, the music was like a small murmur, as if he were standing beside her bed and tentatively calling her name, raising his tone only slightly each time, waiting until his voice was just clear enough to open her eyes.

Evey turned her head to the side. If the light was on, her gaze would have passed through the empty air beside her bed and met the columns of literature against the wall. Only one morning had he come into her room to wake her, and she had startled so that he hadn't done it since.

Finally deciding it didn't matter whether she was awake or not, Evey slithered out of bed and fumbled for a moment with the lamp on her nightstand before switching it on. She looked around, partly expecting to see a person standing in one of the corners. Ignoring the childish feeling that overtook her as she leaned over, she peeked beneath the bed. Confident she was alone, she walked over to the jeans and shirt she had placed on a small armchair the night before. When Evey had first come to this underground shelter, her new companion had slipped back to her cramped apartment and reclaimed her wardrobe before the government could take it all. He brought back her pictures, too. She had thought it eerily considerate of him at the time, before she realized he was innately thoughtful and solicitous. He was many good things, despite the anger, vengeance and violence that gave him a heavy step when he paced and a silent footfall when he stalked.

It was his familiar heavy step which met her ears as Evey stepped out of her room. She listened to him pacing for a while before dragging her weary feet into the main hall. "Good morning, V," she said.

He turned to face her, his ever-smiling, porcelain mask tilting as he said, "I suppose it was."

Evey smiled sheepishly. "I guess I slept it through."

"You probably needed it."

She sighed and crossed her arms across her breasts, hugging herself.

"Is something wrong?" V asked.

Evey realized her anxiety must have been palpable after a night full of nightmares. "I had some frightening dreams," she said.

V's head cocked to the side as it did when something struck his interest. "If sharing them will help, I am – as they say – all ears."

Evey shook her head. "I don't like waking in the dark."

V nodded slowly. "I am sorry, Evey. I hope you understand why this is the only safe place for you right now."

She didn't reply, but made her way toward the bathroom. "I need a shower," she said.

He watched her silently as she disappeared behind the door. For a while, he stood there motionless, his mask facing the floor. He looked up again at the door to the bathroom as the shower began running. He let out a small sigh.

-----

Evey moved slowly and deliberately under the water, not really paying attention to how many times she washed her hair or ran soap over her skin. Her mind was hopping between her nightmares and V. He was a philosophical man, and maybe he could put some meaning to the images that infested her sleep. If only she could bring herself to talk about the darkness, the fingermen, her parents, her brother, everything that her staggering nightmares tossed dead at her feet.

Before she could frighten herself, Evey pushed the nightmares out of her mind, and in their place, stepped V. Perhaps it was because he was the only other person she had spoken to in weeks, but he was constantly on her mind. There had been a fire, he told her – a long time ago. The first time she met him, she thought the mask was to conceal his true identity, but now she knew it must have been because of the fire. It must have been that bad.

She wondered how much it would hurt to be engulfed in flames. Simply slipping under running water when it was too hot was enough to make her cry out.

The kiss of fire and no way to turn it cold…it must have been agony.

She didn't want to think of it, so she turned the shower knob and let the icy water wash the thoughts away.

-----

When Evey came out of the bathroom sometime later, she was greeted by stillness. She looked around a bit before accepting that V had left. She considered going into his room, something she thought of every time he slipped away for a day. But she never gave in to her curiosity; her respect for him was too strong. Admittedly, she was, to a point, afraid of him. She'd seen what he was capable of, how swift and strong he was.

He was wise, intelligent, witty, and half-insane. It made for an intriguing, yet sometimes disturbing combination. Evey had never come across a person who had more twists and turns than V did.

With nothing else to do except stare at the television and succumb to the sometimes-epileptic impressions, Evey decided to shuffle through the hundreds of books V had strewn along the Shadow Gallery.

It didn't surprise her that he had James Joyce in his collections; V spoke a lot like the way Joyce wrote. Every sentence, no matter how banal, was coated with a silky fluidity and the abysmal undertone of a significant something Evey sometimes couldn't place.

So she picked up The Dubliners and began to read, feeling for some reason that she might find something of V in the words.

-----

Hours later, Evey was no longer alone. V had slipped in without her noticing. Sometimes he made it a point to make noise, and other times he didn't want her to know he was around. He enjoyed watching her. When she was alone, she played with her hair, and sometimes hummed childhood lullabies to herself.

It was well after dusk and though he was weary from a day of picking off fingermen and slipping into dark corners, he wanted to take the time to stare at Evey Hammond. He had only been watching a few minutes before she closed the book she was reading and let out a long sigh. A moment later, she got up from the couch and checked her wristwatch.

She decided to wait for V to decide when he wanted to show himself. She wasn't sure how long he had been there, but she felt him. It scared her sometimes, how little she knew this man and how distinctly she felt his presence when he was around her. It was more than the feeling of being watched, and more than the feeling that she wasn't alone. It was V. He had a particular feel to him, and it was heavy.

"What were you reading?" His voice came from the shadows and she looked over to him as he stepped out and showed himself.

"How long have you been standing there?" she asked.

"Not long," he answered.

"Joyce," she said to his previous question.

He nodded. "'The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you.'"

She laughed. "One of my favorite lines."

"Some things never change," he said, a smile forming behind his mask.

"Like men," she quipped teasingly.

They stared at each other for a moment, both feeling awkward about the flirtatious exchange. V was the one who broke the trance. "I should get to bed," he said, turning away from her.

"V," she said, taking a step toward him.

He turned to face her again and waited for her to say something, anything.

"I may not sleep tonight," she said. "I might watch a film, or read the hours away, I suppose." She shrugged. "If you can't sleep yourself, you're welcome to join me."

He nodded. "I probably will," he said, then turned again and walked away.

"V," she said, making him turn around yet again. She wasn't sure if she hinted some annoyance in the way he swiveled, or whether it was just her imagination. She was desperate for him to stay, after being alone for most of the day. "It gets lonely down here," she said softly.

He didn't say anything for a moment, but lowered his mask slightly. Then, his mood changing suddenly as it did sometimes, he raised his finger as if making an important point. "I have just the thing," he said.

Evey raised a single eyebrow as he walked up to her and grabbed her hand. His fingers were strong and her hand was engulfed by his. "Where are we going?" she asked as he led her.

"You have to be very quiet," he said.

-----

She was as silent as she could be as they made their way through the underground tunnels. She was acutely aware of three things the entire time – How her footsteps were louder and quicker than his, how tightly he held her hand, and how excited her breathing had become. The tunnels were dark, and if she hadn't been following V's lead, she was sure she would have bumped into a few walls and gotten lost. A few turns they took were sharp and she would brush against the stone and nearly trip.

"Where are we going?" she asked, trying to whisper.

"To see something I think you might like," he answered, the timber of his voice low and amused.

A few moments later, V suddenly bumped into something. Evey, not expecting his sudden halt, collided with his back, which made for a harder surface than she would have expected. "V!"

She could vaguely see him in the dark. He chuckled slightly. "I think I took a wrong turn," he said.

"A wrong turn? How could you take a wrong turn? You live down here."

He let go of her hand and turned to face her. She could hear the ruffle of his clothes as he moved. "This is a dead end," he said.

The thought of being lost in the dark started to grip at Evey's heart. She tried not to sound panicked as she said, "Well do you at least know where you took the wrong turn?"

V was silent. Moments passed and Evey was growing more anxious as she listened to his steady breathing. "V!"

He took her hand again. He didn't want to admit that he hadn't been paying as much attention to where he was going as he was to the feel of her hand in his. He was having too much fun running around in the dark with her. "There are only a few dead ends in these tunnels," he said. "And I know which one we're at. It won't be trouble tracing our way back."

She followed him, not so confident as she was before. He was going slower now, pausing every few moments, then moving on. As they moved along in the dark, Evey couldn't help but think of the nightmares she had been experiencing the past few days. Suddenly, a creeping, crippling fear came over her, crawling up her back and trickling along her shoulders. Suddenly, she felt that someone was behind her, reaching for her with spidery fingers.

She gasped and pulled away from V, turning around and falling perfectly still.

"Evey?"

She ignored him, straining to hear another voice, another person breathing, a foreign footstep. Then a gloved hand touched her shoulder and she jumped a bit. "Evey, what's wrong?"

She was breathing raggedly now. Both of his hands were on her shoulders and he pulled her back toward him slightly. "Evey."

There was only darkness. They were swimming in the darkness and emptiness, just the two of them. No one else. They were alone.

She reached up and took his fingers in her hand. He released her and stepped away as she turned to face him, though she could only see a vague silhouette. "I got scared," she said. "I felt like someone was following us."

"There's no one else down here," he replied.

"It's just, I've been having these nightmares."

He took her hand again and led her further down the tunnel. "You mentioned nightmares this morning," he said.

"I don't want to bother you with them."

He didn't reply for a moment, then said, "You could never bother me, Evey."

She stayed silent for a long time. Her grip on his hand was tighter now for fear she might be yanked away by some unseen fiend.

V decided not to pressure her. He knew how personal nightmares were, how true the fears, how crippling the terror. Dark tunnels were not the ideal place to unearth dark impressions.

Shortly, Evey saw a light, and steps leading up to the outside. She would have ran to it if she weren't so afraid to step away from V.

As they stepped out into the moonlight, she realized that they were at an abandoned street. "I don't recognize this," she said.

V pulled her along across the street and into a copse of trees. The moon was bright and Evey could see a path, some benches, and a pond. "This is a park," she realized.

"It was," V replied, keeping his voice at a near-whisper, "Once upon a time."

He suddenly stopped and Evey's body tensed. She looked up at him as he released her hand and brought his gloved finger to the cold lips of his Guy Fawkes mask, which in the moonlight seemed to give him an entirely different expression.

"Just in time," he said, pointing toward the pond. "Look."

Evey stood perfectly still and watched in wonderment as a family of deer walked along the edge of the pond. She gasped a small gasp and grabbed V's long coat. "I never thought…" she began to say, but then her whisper died away and she couldn't say anything at all. She had never seen a deer in all her life, and thought they had all died away. And though she never thought much about wildlife at all, seeing the deer suddenly gave the idea of V a new meaning. This was what he lived for. This was what he strove to instill in the hearts of Britain's people: trust in beauty, and hope in survival.

They stood there in silence, just a fascinated woman and a masked man, appreciating something rare and calming. The deer didn't seem to care that there were people in the park. They walked languidly by the pond, a few sniffing at the water, then disappeared behind the leaves, which in the moonlight looked black and uninviting.

After the deer were gone a while, Evey spoke. "How did you know they were going to be here?" she asked.

"I didn't," V answered. "But I was hoping."

She shook her head in awe. "How are they still alive?"

"They live in the dark," he said. "Because they have to."

And Evey understood. Like desperate survivors, she and V lived in the dark. In the dank, dark underground, hidden from wicked eyes. It was the way it was because it had to be; because survival necessitated sacrifice.

Evey finally let go of V's coat and walked over to the pond. V followed her a few moments later. The water in the dark was a glossy obsidian, the moonlight painting sapphire ribbons across the surface. "I could fall in there," Evey said, more to herself.

"It's deep," V replied, coming up beside her. "I've thought of falling in there, too."

"It's frightening, yet inviting in a way." She looked up at him and he turned his head to meet her gaze. "Thank you," she said.

He nodded and looked away. "We shouldn't linger," he said. His voice was quiet, pensive. It was as if he were talking to the water and not to her.

Evey stood another moment by the pond before turning around and going the way they had come. V hesitated before following her. And in that moment of hesitation, he very well could have let himself fall into the cavernous shadows and sink into the wet night.


Thank you beforehand for reviews and constructive criticisms. A writer appreciates both with equal weight.

The quote "The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you" is from "The Dead," a beautiful short story in The Dubliners by James Joyce.