I DO NOT OWN BIOSHOCK, NOR ITS CHARACTERS.
Thanks to my beta: DefinateStorm.
Feel free to leave a comment =D
Robert Lutece felt terrible, and he knew Rosalind would be feeling as bad as him, which made it even worse. He had not intended to outburst like he had, yelling and leaving their home, slamming the door after him. He knew that ire he had was a terrible defect he had to fix. The lonely years in his lab back in New York, alone with nothing more than a machine that couldn't work because there wasn't enough money to finish it, had led him to release his anger without control by means of destruction. And destruction led to explosives, explosives that now held Columbia into the air.
Of course, Rosalind had invented them too in her universe, but she had learnt to control herself, a control so tight she couldn't even feel anymore. Somehow, he envied that. After all, Rosalind was the proof of what would have happened if he had learnt too. He would have succeeded as she did.
Was that all the point? To demonstrate that she was better than him? No, she – they wouldn't do that to themselves. It was cruel.
But he did feel like a failure looking at Columbia. He did feel like a laboratory rat. He had done nothing worthy like Rosalind had. That was one of the reasons he wanted to leave for; he felt he was nothing but a load for her work.
He didn't want to hurt his sister, he wanted to apologize and explain why he needed to leave her side. Knowing Rosalind, she had only one way to deal with break and it was not healthy. Robert could picture her in the lab, working and not dealing with the feelings he was sure she had, trying to block all in the back of her brain as if nothing really mattered.
When he reached home, to his surprise, she wasn't in the laboratory. She was nowhere in the house.
She may have gone to deal with something about work, Robert sighed, looking at his suitcase.
There was nothing left to pack.
He climbed the stairs and looked at the small corridor. Four wooden doors greeted him. The one in front of the stairs led to Rosalind's bedroom. The one to the right led to his bedroom. Further in the left there was the bathroom, and to the bottom, one could found a closed door which, to be sincere, he didn't know what hided. Rosalind never told him, she had said: 'There is nothing inside that room. So, it is closed.' But he doubted that was the real reason.
If I'm going to leave soon... he thought caressing thoughtfully his chin. At least I'll know something more about my female counterpart... it can't be that wrong.
The more she walked, the more lost she became. It was almost three in the afternoon already and her feet felt like being torn apart by a million little sharp pieces of glass. Those were not the correct shoes for such a trip, but there was nothing to be done either.
Rosalind stopped in front of the Lutece Laboratories and sighed, gasping for air. She had seen half of Columbia before getting back where she had started, but no statue was found in her way. In fact, she had lost the hour were the platform aligned with the Main Street's one, being force to take one of the airships to get there, but the driver had misunderstand her directions and ended up in the Hall of Heroes. She had not enough money to get a trip back, so walk became the more suitable option.
At the thought of 'I must reach Emporia', her nose had started bleeding again much to the subsequent horror of the people around her. But, thanks to an entity she had not decided yet to believe in, there was no faint sensation after that and so she was glad.
The house was silent, small dots of dust fulfilling the air que that revealed a presence upstairs. She was not one to bother about the dust. It tended to happened after large work sessions at the black board. They had a maid for that who would take care, a maid that that day had seemed to decide not appear at her work.
I have a maid, she remembered, for soon she would be alone.
The steps, the ones she had recognized as her Brother's were lost at the top of the stairs. She followed them. A chill ran through her as she saw the door to her room of secrets opened. How Robert had been able to enter was a mystery.
Rosalind approached the door quietly, trying not to startle him. He was sitting in the chair in the middle of the room, reading a journal she used to carry with her before they met. Diary, perhaps was the more suitable name for the album. There were no big secrets in there, just the ones people shouldn't know about. Maybe the proper act would have been to burn them along with the photos and letters, but their sentimental value was too high for even considering such a thing.
"I loved him." she said quietly, reaching his side. "But I was not corresponded."
Robert jumped and looked back at her with a worried look.
"I-I'm sorry" he stood, trying to apologize for something that she didn't care for any longer. "I didn't mean to intrude... "
"Don't." she simply replied. "You are leaving." she nodded, her voice almost breaking at the thought. "The point of the experiment was to know each other. I have not been fair to that. Sit."
He complied. With an awkward move, she flipped all the remaining sheets to show him the last one. There was no photo or note there, but a single paper held together by paper clips. It was a letter. The words were neat, written in an emerald ink that conserved part of its king's sheen even after so many years.
Robert recognized the sign at the first look.
"Read it." was the quiet request of his Sister when he turned doubtfully to look at her.
It was harsh. Mr. Comstock begged for forgiveness from Rosalind. He said that he felt honored by her feelings, but they were not returned. Hewas engaged to a young lady who also loved him, as if to say that Rosalind Lutece was no lady. He apologized for maybe sending the wrong signs and remembered her in the inscrutable ways of the Lord.
"Comstock used you." Robert finally said closing the album. "You... loved him and he..."
"Quiet" Robert was raging, his voice rising to a dangerous tone. If he didn't like the Prophet already, the revelation was not making it better. A hand on his shoulder was enough to bring him to the reality of the precarious social situation. "There is no point in upsetting yourself, Robert. The past the is past and it must remain closed in here. I shall make some tea."
He sat there, barely breathing, peering at the album with fury harvesting in his soul. Oh, Rosalind did feel indeed. She felt so much that the fall had been catastrophic the last time. As her past she was trapped in her fears. He didn't reproach her. Loving a powerful person who gives you all of your needs, shows interest in your passions, spends all their time with you... She was so young back then, so naïve too. Love had been a riddle so far, she had written in the notes scattered between the photos, and then she found him. Comstock had played with her, made her believe she was corresponded. Small gifts here and there. Flowers, chocolate... Did Lady Comstock know about this?
No doubt Rosalind only shared her thoughts regarding 'work'.
Robert found her in the kitchen, waiting for the water to boil with an empty look.
"I now understand," he gently took her hand, caressing its frame with sadness in every word. "that they stole away your smile and that is why you can not anymore. But, I will bring it back for you, dear Rosalind so you can smile again and enjoy the life you deserve."
She looked at him with a small blush on her cheeks, and looked down at their united hands with a small embarrassed smile. Robert was so kind, so different from Comstock. She had feared them to be the same kind of man. Her mother used to say that one falls in love with their similar, so it was logical to think that her male counterpart would be something like the Prophet was. The empirical proves, in the other hand, showed the contrary by themselves.
"What happened to your wrist?" he asked suddenly with a frown, having not noticed the bandage before.
"Oh, that..." she sighed. Robert was a man, after all. Men needed to have everything explained to them. She loved that; having someone to talk to and explain the ridiculous little details they both felt passionate about, but sometimes it was just tiresome. "I was searching for you... out there..." she pointed with her other hand to the ceiling. "Fink ran into me for a disgusting encounter."
"What did he want?" he scowled even deeper.
"A tear." she sighed sitting at the table. The concerned look her Brother carried was making her uncomfortable. She needed no knight to protect her.
"A tear? What for?"
She shrank.
It was late at night when a cry woke him. The instinct led him to Rosalind's bedroom, fear boiling through his veins like a beast ready to attack the invader. The door flew open as he stepped in the dark of her chambers.
"Rosalind?"
"Don't, please..." she was sobbing in her dreams, the sheets of the bed wrapping around her fragile body. "DeWitt, don't!" she yelled. "It shan't – it shall not wipe away the debt!"
Robert laughed. Even in her dreams she was still the domineering know-it-all.
"Rosalind" he sat at her side in the bed and whispered gently. She punched him and tried to escape, but his firm hold was too strong for her.
"ROSALIND." shaking her she opened her crying eyes.
"Don't touch me! Leave him alone!" she fought.
"It's me." he tried again, pushing Rosalind into an embrace knowing that was the only thing besides time that could bring her back to reality.
"R-Robert?" her voice was so weak, so full of tears, so frightened... like a lost child in the middle of the forest.
"It's me." he repeated hugging her. "It was a nightmare."
"It wasn't." she denied. "It wasn't, Robert" she cried into his shoulder.
"You were dreaming. You are allowed to do that, you know?" he balanced her in his arm tenderly, with the care of someone who sees the other like an equal.
She shook her head again.
"My nose is bleeding. I have been thinking, Robert" she said leaving his embrace. "During the walk I bled again – but I did not faint." she quickly answered the question on his eyes. "Our empirical knowledge about this matter refers only to the Contraption. I had Dr. Jerrell look at my nose. The blood vessel's are not damaged."
"Are you a Rosalind from another dimension?" he asked without believing his own statement.
"I have not traveled through a tear, dear Brother, if that is your question. You do know that currently that is impossible without someone opening one to us there. The possibilities are..."
"Who is DeWitt?" he interrupted. Rosalind was starting to calculate said possibilities. In her altered state it would do no good to her health. DeWitt didn't either.
But her face still went blank when she heard the name.
"Booker... DeWitt?" she asked staring at the void. "I – I..." her eyes widened at sudden realization. The dream came to her mind instantly, filling her mind with horrible, vivid images of things that had not happened.
Yet, yelled something in her mind.
"We have to leave. Right now."
She jumped out of the bed and ran to her dresser as Robert lit a candle. She was pulling dresses out at a frenetic speed.
"But... what about the Contraption?" he asked confused. "I don't understand what..."
"There is no time for explanations, Robert." she turned to him and cupped his face into her hands, managing to her his full attention. "You are in severe danger here, we both are. Do you understand that?" Tears were rolling down her cheek and they started to break his heart. "As long as I am alive, no harm will ever happen to you, as I know you would not let it happen to me. We are together in this. I know I have been not fair to you. I am sorry I did not tell you about my... affairs concerning Comstock, but your – our – security is far more important than those nonsense about feelings." She stood. "Now, start the generators so we can..."
"Calm down." he said with worry, standing now too. "There is no danger, Rosalind. And you are bleeding again. I think you are hallucinating... You need rest." he tried to pull her back to bed.
"No! You don't understand, Comstock, he will...!" Just as she said the words, a sleepy fog clouded her mind and she knew she would faint this time. A last sudden fear escaped her lips before parting to Morfeo's hands. "Don't leave me alone... please... don't leave me here..."