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Title: The Course of True Love
Author: ML
distribution: yes if you have before; if not, please drop me
a line. Thanks.
spoilers: that would be telling
disclaimer: Not mine. Not now, not ever. Sigh.
=====
The Course of True Love
by ML
The room was dark, but the moonlight streaming through the
windows was bright enough to help him find his way. He
glanced outside. Nothing stirred.
He sat down beside her. With no one to see him, he dropped
his usually impassive expression. He gazed at her with a look
approaching tenderness. He almost reached out to touch her,
but caught himself just in time. His hands, usually otherwise
occupied, rested uneasily on his knees.
He spoke softly, intimately, as though telling a bedtime story.
"When I spoke to you of love, I could see in your eyes that you
believe I know nothing of the subject. Yet in your heart you
know what I said to you is the truth."
There was no response from the woman on the bed. He didn't
expect one.
"I know people view me as heartless," he continued, "but I
have feelings, as I've tried to show you. Compassion is not
as foreign to me as you think. I have made sacrifices. I have
set aside my own wishes for a greater cause. I know you aren't
a stranger to this impulse. You've spent the past several years
doing the same thing, whether you recognize it or not.
"We are kindred spirits, you and I. You see, I too have loved
very deeply in my life. It was my misfortune that I loved
unwisely.
"I could have compartmentalized my feelings, and to a certain
extent, I did. I could see that my personal desires were counter
to the cause I espoused, and so I sacrificed my personal interest
to the greater good. You're no stranger to this impulse
yourself."
He paused, thinking backward to a time when perhaps another path
had still been open to him. He'd always been a pragmatist, though
he had dreams and wishes like any other man. But unlike most
other men, he'd always seen the big picture. And he'd never let
petty details get in his way.
"When I realized I couldn't have the woman of my dreams, I settled.
I found myself a suitable helpmeet, and I convinced myself that it
was for the best."
There had been no comparison, of course. There was a vast
difference between the well-educated, gently reared patrician
he'd aspired to and the woman he'd ended up with -- raucous,
gullible, and, in the end, not suitable at all.
"Sadly, my second choice was all too aware of her place in my
life and my affections. Even though I assured her she was
essential to me, to my work, it wasn't enough for her. She
was in a position to harm me and I couldn't take that risk.
I saw to it that her credibility suffered. It was not a difficult
task. To the world at large, I was the wronged party, the
long-suffering one. When she became too much of a liability,
I took care of that too. I sent her someplace where she couldn't
interfere.
"But my one true love, the one I sacrificed my family for,
betrayed me. She betrayed me with her own husband. I rewarded
her betrayal, of course -- took the one thing she valued above
all others -- though my satisfaction in this was secondary to the
good of the project. Her pain was merely a side-benefit to an
action that was for the greater good."
Yes, he'd made her suffer, taking her child and thereby ending
the marriage he'd envied from the start. And her husband --
the drunken fool -- took the blame on himself. If he'd ever
suspected differently, he'd never told a soul -- not until the
day he died.
She'd kept her own counsel, too. He never attempted to contact
her again after that one disastrous encounter.
"Yet I've been kinder to her that she was to me over the years.
And now she too is gone."
He was practically the last of his kind. But it didn't pay to
be sentimental. If he was the last, then it was all up to him
to make sure that the Project continued. And he would, by
whatever means necessary.
He sighed. "The course of true love never did run smooth, so
it's said. I may have told you that I chose you for this because
I'd given him up as a lost cause. That's not strictly true. I
knew if I could convince you, I'd have him as well. I'd say I've
certainly gotten his attention. I did it once before, but the
stakes are higher now."
His hands twitched on his thighs. He couldn't wait for this
charade to be over so he could have a cigarette. Of all the
sacrifices he'd made over the years, that was one he would not
make.
"It's hard for me to sit by and watch someone squander love as
you both have done. This action of yours will either be viewed
by him as the ultimate act of betrayal, or will be the catalyst
you evidently both need to take that final step. While I'm
prepared for the consequences of the former, I don't think either
of you will choose it.
"You have proven yourself worthy of my son, over and over again.
Your loyalty will have its reward. Provided, of course, that you
have the courage to act."
He took the syringe from his pocket. Very gently he brushed the
hair away from the unconscious woman's neck and slowly injected
the syringe's contents.
"If you knew what I was doing for you, you'd thank me," he said.
"But I'm not doing this for your thanks."
He withdrew the needle and put the syringe back in his pocket.
She hadn't even moved, courtesy of the drug he'd administered
some hours earlier when they'd stopped for coffee.
She'd awaken in a few hours and they'd play this out to its
conclusion. He felt a moment of regret for times past and brushed
his fingers through her hair.
"Sweet dreams, Dana," he whispered.
end.
Notes: I'm sure you guessed it's a missing scene from "En Ami."
Written for the Haven's "Heartbreak in 1,000 words or less"
challenge. Not counting headers and blathering, the actual
story is 999, I think...