Prompt #15: To all the fights I've conquered and beheld, the times have changed and I will now move over slowly. But through it all I still feel lost without you. Lost Prophets – "Sway"
It's in the cargo hold of a train in the middle of India that she realizes for the first time just how much she has lost.
-- He tastes of alcohol – cheap but potent moonshine. The same poison is in her bloodstream and she's numb to all else except desire for him. It's been three weeks and she's missed him (and right now she's too drunk to care about what that means).
Something's burning. "Jack, your toast—"
Later, in a hotel room, they look at their sleeping child and decide they're the worst parents ever. –
She's surprised to realize that she still wants him. There's still something between them, even after all these years, and she sees in his eyes that he recognizes it too. (Maybe all is not lost.)
-- "I love you, Laura. Forever and a day." –
She's not blind to the way Sydney watches them; in some ways she hasn't grown up at all. She's still the six-year-old Irina kissed goodbye before she drove her car into a river.
She thinks of all that she's done in the years between. People are afraid of her. She shot her own child; what kind of mother is she?
She thinks of Rambaldi, of all that this pursuit has cost her. And as she looks at her family, she wonders if it is worth the price.
-- A pig-tailed girl flies into her mother's arms. "I love you, Mommy!"
A young man surprises his wife with theatre tickets. "I don't understand ballet, but it's your birthday."
A woman watches her husband sleep and silently apologizes for having to leave. –
There's still some alcohol in the bottle. She takes another sip.