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| Details |
| Author: | Alli |
| Summary: | This time, Terrineth has a nightmare, and Lena does what she can to banish it. |
| Rating: | M for Mature 17+ |
Terrineth walks into a huge empty ballroom. She’s wearing her nice red dress. She looks around to see who’s there.
“Hey Rose.”
Terri looks over to the voice and it’s Jasper. He’s wearing a very nice suit, like something the boss might wear. Even so, his hair is still as messy as ever.
Terrineth smiles and runs toward him, “Jasper! Where the fuck have you been?” She slugs him in the arm and he brings her in for a tight hug. The two laugh for a moment.
“Oh, you know. Just around.” Jasper winks.
Terrineth shakes her head and steps on his foot, “Dumbass. You had me worried sick.”
“Yeah yeah, I know.” He kisses her on the forehead, “I’m just glad you’re safe.”
Terrineth holds back tears. Suddenly, music starts playing. Jasper takes her hand. He winks at her and cocks his head in invitation.
Terrineth smirks back at him and the two start dancing across the ballroom. There are plenty of laughs and smiles to be had.
“Fuck, I missed you.” Terrineth says.
Jasper smiles, “I missed you too. Took you long enough to find me.”
“Oh, can it. It’s not like I knew where you went.” Terri squeezes his hand.
Jasper squeezes back to keep her from hurting him, “Yeah, but you had ideas.”
“This ain’t what this is fuckin about. I’m just happy you’re ok…” Terri finishes a little bashfully.
Jasper brings her in close and embraces her, “And I’m happy you’re ok.” He lifts up her chin and kisses her, “I love you Rose.”
Terrineth is stunned, “I… I…” Her face is bright red.
“It’s ok Rose. I know you don’t love me back.” Jasper lets go of her.
The room suddenly gets very dark. “Wh-wha…”
“Yeah you found me, but it was a few years too late.” Jasper’s body decays and withers away before her eyes until he’s nothing but bones.
Terrineth tries to reach back out to him, but he always seems just out of her reach, “No… No! I came back for you! I tried!”
Jasper’s skeleton shrugs, “After you’d already run off and made a new life for yourself.” The bones start wobbling and collapsing to the ground without flesh to support them, “I get wantin to get away from Will, but what about the rest of us? No comin back to help get us out too?”
Terrineth’s stomach sinks. She feels sick. She couldn’t respond to him even if she had any idea what to say, which she certainly did not.
“And makin friends with the lot that was tryna kill us all too.” Jasper sighs, “So much for stickin together I guess.”
Terrineth collapses to her knees. She buries her face in her hands, trying to make it all go away. Suddenly she can feel wind whipping through her hair. She takes her hands away from her face and sees that they’re covered in blood. Her eyes go wide.
She’s in Westfall again at a crossroad. The sky is a sickly green, like a tornado is brewing. “So we’re here again, little girl.” says a voice that Terrineth doesn’t recognize anymore, but knows full well who it is.
“Shut up!” Terri tries to wipe the blood off on the dirt, but it doesn’t work. No matter what she does there’s just more and more blood covering her.
The voices clicks her tongue at her, “You’ll never change, will you. A heartless murderer to the end.”
Terrineth tries to look away. To find anything else to throw her attention at to get away from right now. That’s when she sees it in front of her. She sees Lena lying back against a signpost. Her throat is cut and blood staining all down her front.
Terrineth screams. She wails and cries, wanting everything to go away.
“You really thought you could be happy? Why should a monster be happy?”
Terrineth tosses and turns violently in bed. She’s mumbling things under her breath and her whole body is trembling.
An elbow catches Lena in the side and she flinches away even as her eyes flicker open briefly. She makes a small sound of negation before murmuring, "What?"
“No… no no NO!” She starts off quiet but builds up until she’s practically yelling and kicking off the covers.
Lena's eyes snap open and she swings her legs off the bed before she's even fully awake. Then her thoughts seem to catch up and she turns to Terrineth. She reaches over to touch her shoulder with one hand, saying, "Terri, it's a dream. Wake up."
Terri opens her eyes but doesn’t seem to be fully awake quite yet. She’s crying and screaming and staring at her hands. “Stop it! Stop, you’re wrong!”
"Mm-hm," Lena says, keeping a grip on her shoulder. "They're wrong. For sure."
Terrineth finally snaps awake and shoots a look towards Lena. She gets a terrified look in her eyes and scrambles away, falling out of bed with a thud, “S-stay away!”
"It's just me," Lena says, letting go of her. "You're here with me, in Dalaran."
Terri keeps looking at her hands and hyperventilating, but has stopped screaming and looks less scared than before.
"Tell me where you are," Lena says, still in a quiet, calm voice.
“W-Westfa-“ she cuts off and shakes her head, “Dalaran… W-with you…”
"Right. You're not in…" Lena hesitates, frowns, "…Westfall."
Terrineth takes a few deep breaths. With the initial panic finally subsiding she hurries her face in her hands and starts to sob.
Lena sits back down on the bed, putting an arm down to touch Terri's shoulder again.
Terri takes one hand away from her face to take Lena’s and clutch it tightly, “Don’t touch me, gorgeous…” she says, contradicting herself.
"Are you here with me?" Lena asks, holding her hand. "I'm Lena. Not gorgeous."
Terrineth scrunches up, making a number of unintelligible noises, “Fuck… you know what I mean.” She tugs on Lena’s arm a little bit then loosens her grip, as if she’s not quite sure of herself.
"Where were you, a minute ago?" Lena asks, keeping hold of her hand but leaning back against the headboard.
“Fuck…. It’s not fair… I didn’t mean it… I didn’t mean it!” She shakes her head and starts tugging on her hair with her free hand.
"What didn't you mean, Terri?" Lena asks.
“NOTHING!” She yells, “I… it wasn’t my fault…” she whimpers, still tugging at her hair, taking a few strands with her fingers this time.
Lena flinches, pulling away, but her voice is still calm when she says, "Of course it wasn't."
“It wasn’t… it’s wasn’t it wasn’t…” she resumes sobbing. And pulls Lena’s hand closer to her.
Lena nods, shifting closer and letting Terri cry it out.
Terri adjusts herself too to give Lena a sort of lopsided hug. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” she says through sobs, “I don’t deserve this…”
"What's got you all upset?" Lena asks softly, like she's trying not to startle a hurt animal.
“No…” she sniffles and squeezes her tightly, “If I tell you you’ll hate me…”
"Mm," Lena tilts her head, watching Terri. "Maybe not. Try me?"
Terri just sobs in silence for a few more minutes before she finally works up the courage to respond, “H-h-have you e-ever… k-killed somebody?” She lifts her head up to look at Lena, “A-and not for a j-job. Like… like really just k-killed someone?”
Lena considers that one, watching Terri's face. "Depends on what all counts for killing. I have… known somebody is going to die and walked away. Or run. A few times now."
Terrineth gets a worried look in her eyes and starts to cry again. She scoots a bit closer to the bed to cling onto Lena, but remains on the floor.
"Is that what this is about?" Lena asks.
“No! Of course not!” She continues crying for a bit, “I’m a bad friend… I don’t care about anyone but myself…”
"Nothing bad about caring for yourself," Lena says, looking down at Terri. "Can never say for sure if anybody else will."
Terri sniffles and sobs, “But they did… they did and I left them all…”
A flicker of pain passes over Lena's face, and then she says, not unkindly, "Sometimes that's what you got to do to survive."
“But I should have gone back!” She lifts her head up and yells, “I shouldn’t have waited until now just to find out he’s fucking dead!”
Lena flinches, pulling away from the sudden sound. "Sometimes… sometimes you leave, and people die. That's just how the world works."
Terri pulls herself away and crosses her arms, pouting on the floor, "Well that ain't fair… And if somethin ain't fair, you should be fightin till it fuckin is."
"You fight somethin' can crush you, you're like to get crushed," Lena says quietly. "Then I suppose other people can talk about how it wasn't fair you got crushed. But that won't really matter to you anymore, will it?"
"Rather get crushed than be someone's obedient little dog." She snaps.
Something in Lena's expression grows more distant, but she doesn't pull any further away. In that same, calm voice, she says, "Of course not, Terri. You'd never be somebody's little dog."
"And don't you fucking forget it." Terri huffs and roars as she slams her fist into the ground. "Shit…" she gets up and starts pacing across the room.
Lena stays in bed, watching her pace. She smiles up at her placatingly. "Do you want to go for a walk, maybe? Let off some energy? Dalaran's likely safe enough, with the two of us together."
Terrineth sighs and brushes the hair out of her face, "Yeah… that sounds like a good idea."
Lena gets out of bed, and starts to gather up her hair to tie it up. "Just let me get dressed, okay? I'll only be a minute. I guess you ought to, too."
Terri gets the slightest hint of a smirk on her face, "Yeah. I'll throw somethin on real quick."
They prepare for the walk, and head out into Dalaran
Terri walks down the street at a fairly brisk pace taking deep breath after deep breath, trying (with limited success) to calm herself.
Lena keeps her eyes on their surroundings for potential threats, but the Dalaran streets are quiet and orderly at night. She keeps up with Terrineth. "We can make a big circle round. Or more than one, if you need."
"Yeah…" Terri stretches, "Hey… I'm sorry for snapping at you like that."
"It's alright, you were hurting," Lena says, peering down a dark alley between two buildings as they pass. There's nothing there. "You thinkin' about going back to Westfall?"
Terri groans. She pinches the bridge of her nose and throws her head back, “I don’t know…”
"Sounded like you might want to…" Lena says, in a very carefully casual voice.
Terri sighs and brings her head back down, “I don’t know. I might have to look into some shit first.” She stares off at nothing in particular. “If I decide to go will you come with me?”
"'f course," Lena says, shifting her attention back to Terrineth. "Wouldn't let you go back alone. I wouldn't want to, either."
“Yeah, tell me about it…” she keeps walking for a while then stops and snaps her attention at Lena, “Wait, who the fel told you I was from Westfall?” She says as if her accent didn’t already give it away to literally everyone.
"I mean, your accent," Lena says, in her own rural northern accent. "But also you sort of said somethin', when you were waking up?"
“I was?” She sighs and keeps walking, “Damn… haven’t had a fuckin nightmare like that in ages…”
"It's probably just my whole thing, dredging stuff up," Lena sighs. "Sorry 'bout that."
“It’s ok gorgeous.” She glances over and smiles, “Been feelin so good round you I haven’t felt like I’ve had to drink as much.”
"Oh, what? Are you sayin' I rank higher than liquor?" Lena says, a teasing edge to her voice. Her tone grows more serious, though, as she continues, "If you do want to talk about, I'm not real judgmental. But if you don't, that's fine too. We can just let it fade."
“Do my bottles got fingers?” Terri jokes back with a wink, “I’m not sure what to say though… I just… I’ve been really happy with you. I don’t feel like I gotta be someone I ain’t when I’m with you.”
"What kind of people’re you usually around?" Lena asks, looking at Terri with curiosity.
“I guess sweet girls who don’t know when to leave well the fuck alone and smartass guys.” Terri shrugs, “I don’t know. Runnin your mouth a bit kinda turns me on, but it gets old real fuckin fast I’ll tell you that.”
"Got it," Lena says, the smile sliding off of her face as she looks over to check out another dark alley.
Terri follows Lena’s eyes and leans over to glance into the alley as well, “You ok gorgeous? You don’t gotta jump at shadows. I’m here to protect ya right?” She tries to kiss her on the cheek.
"Mm," Lena murmurs, turning back to her. "I think I'll be a little on edge till that woman's in custody. And we find Sandy, but at least that feels personal. Not a thing against warlocks in general."
“Yeah… Are you sure you wanna go off to Westfall with me? Not exactly the nicest place these days.” She rubs Lena’s back
Lena gives a short, bitter laugh. "You should see my hometown."
“Heh, point taken.” She bumps Lena with her hips, “Wanna keep walking?”
"I dunno, you feelin' any better?" Lena asks, bumping her back.
“Hmmm…” Terri grins and tries to grab Lena’s hand, “Maybe let’s walk around a bit more. Enjoy the nice quiet night.”
Lena twines her fingers through Terri's and nods. "It really is the best place in Northrend."
“It is with you.” Terri closes her eyes and kisses Lena on the nose.
Lena smiles, a faint blush coming to her cheeks. She says, "Might not feel the same about the parts with snow and giant spiders. But we can just stick here."
Terri laughs, “Whatever you say, gorgeous.”
Lena pulls Terri in and kisses her lightly on the lips.
Terri places her hands on either side of Lena’s face and presses her hips forward into her. She lets the kids linger as long as Lena wants it to.
Lena curls her arms around Terri's back, holding her closely for a long moment, then pulls back. "Well, if we decide to go back where you're from, I can show you the giant spiders after. Make things a little better by contrast."
Terrineth hums, “Sounds like a plan.”