Chapter 33: The Norm
A/N: Sorry for the wait, real life has been keeping me busy lately. A slow and ironic chapter that sets up for greater things to come. BTW I figured out how I'm doing the end of this, my dearest ScroogeMcDuck suggested it and I quite like the idea. Everybody cool if I just cut off right before Oliver shows up and then use Nancy's death scene as the epilogue? I think that'll work, again lemme know what you think. Please R&R!
Warning: contains violence and swearing. Oh and some fluff, just a bit.
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Two weeks passed and life at Bill's became the norm for Nancy. Although he could sometimes be grouchy and irritable, she excused it as his being overly tired from the job. The job in itself was another hard thing for Nancy to deal with. Bill would be gone late into the night and so she would sleep with only Bulls-Eye's drooling form at the foot of her bed as company. When he returned home, his exhaustion would prevent him from doing little much but sleeping during the day.
And still, despite it all, Nancy loved him. She loved him for the affectionate boy she had known as a child, for the heart stopping man he had become, and for the promise of the future he laid before her. Bill had not spoken a lie in saying she didn't have to work at the Cripples anymore, he brought home plenty of income all on his own. Still, she couldn't say she liked the idea of the fact that just because he had more and more pay, didn't mean he had earned it fairly. Bill had a nasty habit of beating the money out of Fagin now-a-days. She ignored it, pretended she didn't see the bruises on Fagin's scraggly old form when she went to visit. Nancy knew if she had bruises like that she'd want them ignored. Pity sickened her, it really did.
She had been to visit the gang at least twice since she had left. The first time had been during that first week of transition from gang life to playing house with the brutal robber. She had come purely because she missed her boys, and because she missed her old life. Dodger couldn't have been happier to see her, and Charley's ear to ear smile got only bigger if possible. She had graciously sat about and lost a few rounds of cards to the Artful before telling the boys she had to be back to fix dinner for Bill.
That was the sort of thing Nancy did around the house all day, out of pure boredom. She cleaned and cooked and mended little odds and ends in Bill's clothes. She looked after the dog and did so as quiet as a mouse. It seemed Bill was most irritable if you woke him up from a sound sleep. She could remember one time, it had only been her fifth day there, when just such a coincidence occurred.
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"Blast!" Nancy growled as she snatched up the pot that had gone clambering to the floor. She had been in the middle of cleaning up the breakfast dishes when Bill gave a loud start.
"Damnit woman!" he roared. "I am trying to sleep!" Nancy tucked a lose piece of hair behind her ear and replaced the pot in the soapy dishwater.
"Sorry Bill," she said gently. Bill was out of bed now, standing dangerously close to her and glaring at her with a stare fit to make the staunchest man alive go weak in the knees.
"I work long, long hours to provide for you my girl," he said wrapping his hand around her skull and knotting his hand in her hair. "I don't appreciate the ingratitude of bein' woke up when I'm tryin' to sleep!" Nancy yelped as Bill grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled harshly, sending pain erupting through her skull.
"Bill," she cried whimpering. "Bill, you're hurting me!" Instantly he let go and his fist recoiled to his side.
"Don't wake me when I'm sleeping Nance," he grumbled violently. With that the housebreaker returned to his bed.
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Of course, Nancy had shaken the whole thing off as Bill being his usual overly irritable self. Besides, she had reasoned, what he said was true. He did work long and hard at night and it was rude of her to wake him up from his sleep so suddenly. Had she been Bill, she probably would've been just as upset. With Bill, it seemed, the good outweighed the bad by far. A bit of lonely, a bit of anger, but in exchange, she had him. In exchange, she had her pride and her love and her home. So it wasn't all bad.
And Bill could have his tender moments when he wanted to. Like...well now for instance. Currently the stunning red head was sitting in Bill's lap, her head resting on his chest. He had one arm around her waist, the hand attached to it holding one of her's. His head was resting on top of hers, and he was smiling ever so slightly at the fact that her hair was tickling him. Nancy was sighing contentedly as he held her close and every once in a while laid a kiss atop her head.
Bill on the other hand, wasn't quite sure how to process what he was feeling. He knew he had longed to be close to her, and in feeling such longing had bade her to sit with him. But there was something about that girl, with her lips the color of roses and those stunning blue eyes. The brave but funny young woman made feelings explode inside Bill he didn't often experience. She made him tongue tied, and his heart fluttered helplessly about like a butterfly in a two sizes too small cage. There were no other words for it, everything about her could knock him to his knees if he thought on it long. She made him weak.
And Bill wasn't sure if he liked that, he wasn't sure if he liked that at all.
Nancy, however, was oblivious to the wars Bill was raging on himself as she sat in his lap and curled in his arms. It was little moments like this that so desperately and heavily outweighed the bad ones for her. To her Bill was sweet, a little rough around the edges sure, but sweet. The same sweet boy she had known in Fagin's gang. That was because Nancy was looking at him through rose colored lenses that shaded her sight so completely she missed that Bill was not a boy at all. He had grown into a man, a very violent man.
A violent man, who's only weakness was the girl sitting in his lap. And something had to be done about that, the greatest man of all time could have no weaknesses, of this much Bill was sure. He would do something very soon to destroy all it was of Nancy that made him weak....
But Nancy couldn't foresee that. It's hard to look far into the future when you're in the lap of the man you love and gazing at a slowly dying fire. Especially when you're gazing at said fire through rose colored lenses.
Yes, in that two weeks life at Bill's became the norm for Nancy. Thanks to rose colored lenses put on by the sweet gestures Bill sometimes extended...she couldn't foresee just what a living hell that norm was about to become.