Title: Ex Libris – Book Funerals (1/?)
Author: the_lucky_ducky
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Pairing: Literati (Rory/Jess)
Rating: K?
Warnings: book's death
Disclaimer: "Gilmore Girls" isn't mine. Jess, on the other hand, is.
Summary: 2nd part of my Ex Libris Series. How "The French Lieutenant's Woman" died.
A/N: So this is the second part of my Ex Libries Series. My first series, btw, that's why it means a lot to me. "Book Funerals" can be seen as a follow up to "Book Marriages" but you can read them both on their own.
A/N2: "The French Lieutenant's Woman" by John Fowles is one of the greatest books of all times. You should definitely check it out!
A/N3: Thanks to my awesome beta schribaere who always encourages me to write and doesn't even criticise my stuff all that much.
Ex Libris - Book Funerals
A horrified scream pierced the afternoon air in the quiet apartment. Jess, who had till then been comfortably settled on the sofa reading, dropped his book and rushed to the bedroom from where the sound had originated.
There he found his wife, standing in the middle of the room, a book in hand and dozens of scattered pages around her on the floor.
"Rory, oh my god, what happened?"
She turned to face him, tears in her eyes and slightly sobbing. "It's… *sob*… it's dead."
"What? How…?"
"I… *sob*… I just opened it and… *sob* and then *sob* suddenly all the pages fell out." She sniveled and held the almost empty book cover towards her husband. The French Lieutenant's Woman. "You gave it to me for my seventeenth birthday, remember?"
How could he ever forget? He had spent hours at the book store, figuring out which book to give to her until he finally decided on the John Fowles novel. Jess nodded and took the paperback from her hands for further examination. "Well, maybe we can tape it."
She looked up, her wet eyes filling with new hope. "Really?"
He shrugged. "I can try."
She threw her arms around his neck happily. "You're the best!"
"Hey, don't be too excited. It doesn't look good for the patient."
"But you're gonna save him, aren't you?"
She looked at him with big blue eyes, so that he just couldn't destroy her hope any further. "Hey, I'm not gonna let Charles and Sarah die just like that. – And now come on, let's gather those pages and start with the resuscitation." He motioned towards the floor where most of the content of "The French Lieutenant's Woman" lay scattered.
Rory, having gained back her hopes, obliged at once, fell to her knees and started collecting sheet after sheet, already beginning to sort them. Jess did likewise, although he was quite skeptical about the outcome. In all these years as a passionate reader, writer and co-owner of "Truncheon Books" he had learned that a torn paperback was pretty much unfixable. Or, as his wife had put it so nicely just minutes before: it was dead.
Just… how are you supposed to tell that to a woman who even named her toaster?
About an hour later the couple was seated at their kitchen table, small piles of paper in front of them.
"Are you sure they're all sorted correctly now?"
"Ror, we must have checked each chapter at least three times."
"What if we missed something? As soon as they're put back together we can't fix it anymore. Can't we at least check chapter 13 again?"
Jess sighed. "Sure. Go ahead, then. Although I doubt it'll make much sense anyway." He only recognized what he had just said when he saw his wife, the pages of chapter 13 of "The French Lieutenant's Woman" on her hands, staring at him in terror.
"What?!" Her voice was so high-pitched that it almost sounded like a scream.
"Rory", he tried to make his voice sound as calm and soothing as possible. "It really doesn't look like the book was fixable."
"But…" She was at the verge of tears again. "But you said you wouldn't let John Fowles die… You promised!"
"I told you I'd try. But the way it looks like now, even if I managed to put the book back together the pages would fall out again the first time you touched it."
"But… but…", Rory really was sobbing now, her voice becoming so quiet that Jess had to strain his hears to understand what she was saying. "… You gave it to me for my birthday."
At this moment Jess couldn't tell if Rory was crying for the book or only because he had given it to her. She looked terribly small and sad as she sat there, holding onto the chapter she still had in her hands, like a little child holding onto its favorite teddy bear that had just lost an arm or leg or something. It was a pitiful sight.
Jess got up from his spot at the table and went over to where she sat. He put his arms around her and pulled her into a tight embrace. Rory buried her face in his chest, crying bitter tears of loss that gradually soaked his sweater.
"I'm sorry", he whispered, placing a kiss on the top of her head and stroking her hair and back soothingly. "I'm so sorry."
End Part 1
To be continued...
Reviews are love.