Christmas Special

Part 6

It was something naive to think, but Lady Violet Crawley was immortal according to many people. Years could pass, wars and tragedies could happen, joys and sorrows could alternate, but in the common opinion, she would have remained standing there watching everything with her usual detached irony. Yes, everyone thought that – or actually, took it for granted – and Isobel was among them. Absurd as it seemed, she had never thought that one day her best friend would have died and actually she had not even ever thought that Violet was her best friend at all; now she was realizing the two things togeteher – the intensity of her affection and the ugly truth of her human fate – and their mix was almost breaking her.

Almost, because in spite of her own suffering, she didn't hesitate to swallow her pain once again and be pragmatic. Three days and two nights she had been the perfect nurse by her side, ignoring the many invitations to go away and be replaced for a while; she wanted to be useful, she wanted to be there, she needed to do instead of think.

"You should go Isobel, you need to sleep – and most of all I need to sleep" Violet sighed at some point, with a weak voice but yet somehow the same lively tone.

But Mrs Crawley didn't seem to get the trace of annoyance and just shrugged slightly, looking up from the medical journal she was reading, or actually just pretending to. "Don't worry. Sleep, I'll watch over you!"

"And that is exactly the point, I can't sleep if you are constantly watching me" came the tired reply, along with an exhasperated glare. "But if you care so much, I won't sleep. After all, I will have plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead…"

"Don't speak that way!"

It was Isobel's time to glare now and usually Violet would have taken no time to object, but there was something so heartbreaking in that glare that for a moment she regretted her own words. For a moment she was the one to feel sorry and not the one to feel sorry about. Therefore, she just looked away and stayed silent for some moments, just looking for something new to say though.

"They are going to move me to Downton tomorrow"

The other woman seemed genuinely confused, as expected. "Why? It's safer here, we can take care of you better and intervene quicker and…"

"And what? There's nothing that can be done anyway…" Violet interjected, almost gently this time.

Isobel widened her eyes for a moment and then blinked, trying to fight back the years that in a moment had suddenly filled her eyes. Ironically and now seriously, the older woman had just tried to say the same thing: she was dying, and maybe only then, hearing the surrender from her mouth, the realization was becoming concrete.

"But I am at peace, I am leaving behind a very wonderful family which made me proud – and that includes you too" Violet continued then, slowly moving one of her hands to place it upon her cousin's one. "I have seen so many young people die before me, I have survived my youngest granddaughter, I have survived your Matthew… I had a very long and full life instead, it's only right for me to go"

After a first moment of surprise, Isobel held her hand and squeezed a bit harder at the mention of her own son, as tears started to freely fall from her eyes then. "Things- Things will never be the same without you, you know?" she said then, forcing a sad smile and choking back a sob.

"Things are not already the same since the war, Isobel. And at this thought I am actually happy to die: I had to face all the consequences of one great war, I don't think I'd be able to survive a second one!"

They looked at each other then, in a new meaningful silence, a silence that had the sound of sadness, abandon and goodbye. Until Violet gave one last quick squeeze to her best friend's hand and then let it go, while her unusually soft look turned suddenly into a more usual stern one.

"And now go to rest, please. Or else it would be difficult to understand which one of us is the sick one… And you don't want your doctor to get worried over you, do you?" she said then a bit teasing, but when she noticed Isobel tensing a bit at the mention of the man, her voice became more serious. "Don't tell me that you are still not talking to him! Doctor Clarkson only did his job by not telling you, you can't blame him. And besides… That man loves you and you love him, so you have to hurry up because it might be one of you two being in my place dying in a bed the next time, and then it will be too late…"

If Isobel was touched by the tragic scene Violet had just depicted, she did not let it show. Instead she shook her head slowly and pursed her lips. "It is complicated…" she just said then, stubbornly, letting the other woman sigh in annoyance.

"Everything is complicated when it comes to you! But actually, in the end love is not" the countess replied, sounding distant for a moment. She paused for a moment with her look lost and a sort of uncertain expression on her face, until she suddenly regained control of herself and just tried to reach out for an open envelope placed on the little bedside table. "About that, can you send this letter for me while you go?"

Isobel raised her eyebrows in surprise, as she picked up the paper, not helping but turning it in search of any clue. The day before, her cousin had spent at least two hours writing a letter, trying to take advantage of the moments she felt a bit better and refusing any kind of help. Now that she had the answer in her hands, she was undeniably curious to know. With all her family around, who could be the person she felt the need to write to in her last hour? Who could be the person she would have liked to have close? Who was the person she was thinking about and needed to say a last goodbye to?

It was Violet to whisper the solution of the riddle and, once she did, Isobel didn't know if actually be surprised or call herself stupid instead for not having figured it out sooner. Prince Igor Kuragin.

Ten minutes later, Isobel was finally out of the room, with her back against the now closed door and her eyes facing a long unusually empty hallway. She was overwhelmed – by the upcoming death of her friend, by the meaning of the letter she had in hands and by her own tiredness too. She was overwhelmed and so she cried, finally with no reservations and no limits, letting her uncontrollable sobs be the only sound to break the uncomfortable silence. She remained like that for some moments, or maybe minutes, until she looked up and noticed surprisingly the well-known figure of doctor Clarkson looking at her from the end of the hallway.

That sight made her want to cry harder, and yet it gave her hope to have a reason not to cry anymore.

Not caring about recomposing herself, she just looked back at him for a while. Staring into those piercing and loving eyes, everything became suddenly less complicated and that was enough for forgiveness. What she knew was that she didn't want to suffer alone, she didn't want to ruin things again and she didn't want to just write to him at her deathbed. Therefore, she started to walk at some point, slowly at first and then quicker and quicker, until she literally fell into his arms.

And after all, love really was easy like that.

THE END

I have managed to end this story before the actual CS and, even though I'm not entirely satisfied of the chapter, I am proud of my timing at least. I should have probably added the funeral and the wedding and at first my aim was that, but then I preferred this sort of open ending. Penelope said that the last scene she filmed was with just another actor in an empty hallway of the hospital and so this is how I decided to bring the thing into this story. As for Violet and Isobel's part, I tried to represent a sort of goodbye and I hope you don't mind the hint to Violet/Igor nor Violet's unwilling prediction of World War II. lol

Anyway, now that this story is finished, I am preparing a new story already, a bit different than the usual since it is a sort of AU set in S1. I will start to publish it hopefully after the holidays, so for now I wish a merry Christmas to everyone and, most of all, a good Christmas Special! Stay Richobel - no matter what;)