[otc] 26.2 - albert camus quote
Dec. 10th, 2008 11:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magic_fratboyNobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
“Mr. Karras…”
“I know, just…a few more minutes. Please?”
It made him cringe a little just to think about it, but Zee was always telling him how his smile could stop traffic, so he was milking it for all it was worth. It seemed to be working, too, as the nurse let him linger with a stern look, a grin and a tap of her watch to indicate his time was short.
He just couldn’t help it…he couldn’t pull himself away from his little girl.
Turning back to the incubator, he watched as her tiny little mouth opened in a mighty yawn that made his chest tight. Everything in him ached to hold her, to feel that tiny fragile weight in his hands but it was still too soon. She still had so much growing to do…
“Tommy?”
Glancing back at the unexpected voice, Tommy was startled to see Mays Ryder standing just behind him, awkward and sure at the same time with his hands in his pockets. Dressed in jeans and a wifebeater under an open workshirt, it looked as if he’d just rolled out of bed and driven into town on a whim.
“Ryder? Hey…everything all right? Zee’s not…”
Moving further into the room, he waved off the sudden fear that swelled in Tommy’s chest. “It’s cool. ‘Sup, brother?”
Reaching out and accepting the fraternal embrace Ryder offered, Tommy drew back and flashed him a confused smile. “Great, now, but…dude, what’re you doin’ here?”
He didn’t answer for a moment, glancing past Tommy instead to stare at the tiny bundle of flesh in the incubator a few feet away. He wondered for a moment if that was what he looked like when he was staring at his daughter…was that softness and awe in his features? Did his eyes glow with that same light?
When Ryder moved towards the incubator, Tommy fell in step beside him, feeling the pull and push of power as he did. He was needed here, but he also felt the well open inside of him, a fresh rush of energy he hadn’t been expecting. It filled the silence that expanded between them until Tommy found himself absently plucking playing cards from nothing, just to burn off some of the excess and make the atmosphere tolerable.
“I was a really sick kid.”
Something was starting, something important…instead of answering, Tommy stopped producing cards and just listened. He let the energy build…he didn’t know where this was meant to go or what exactly was happening, but he offered up a silent prayer and hoped that Dog was listening.
“I basically spent the first sixteen years of my life in and outta hospitals, doctor’s offices, pharmacies…I was barely alive half the time. Took me that long to figure out it was all in my head, but I did, and I got loose of it. Since my seventeenth birthday, ya know, I ain’t been sick once? Not even a sniffle.”
He paused then, reaching out to rest his hand on the incubator. “I killed three…no, four men to keep Zee and my brothers safe. One of ‘em was my biological brother. Did ya know that?”
“No…I didn’t.”
“No one does…and no one ever will. I should probably feel guilty, but I don’t, and that ain’t right. So I wanna make it right…I wanna balance the scales a little. A life for the ones I took.”
Tommy knew what was happening then, felt the energy crest and break, washing gently over and into the incubator, through the delicate body inside.
“I know what it is to be in here, to be like this…and I know it ain’t the same for her, but I hope it’s different. I hope you and Zee get to hold her soon, and I hope she doesn’t turn out to be everything you expect her to be. I hope she grows up strong, healthy…and exactly who the world needs her to be to make it a better place. And if all this shit ‘bout how you guys work is true? Then that’s why I’m here: to give you guys yer daughter.”
The words were punctuated right then by a baby’s cry…a mighty wail the likes of which Tommy hadn’t even heard come out of her in the delivery room. It was a true scream of birth, indignant and angry and heartfelt.
It was the sound of a strong, healthy little girl railing out of lungs too small and too underdeveloped to make it.
Ryder stood there for a few moments, grinning there at Tommy’s side while both men just listened to the symphony of life nestled there in front of them.
Two minutes later, the nurse came and ejected them both from the nursery. The next morning, Ziyah and Tommy were allowed to hold their daughter for the very first time.
Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 814
“Mr. Karras…”
“I know, just…a few more minutes. Please?”
It made him cringe a little just to think about it, but Zee was always telling him how his smile could stop traffic, so he was milking it for all it was worth. It seemed to be working, too, as the nurse let him linger with a stern look, a grin and a tap of her watch to indicate his time was short.
He just couldn’t help it…he couldn’t pull himself away from his little girl.
Turning back to the incubator, he watched as her tiny little mouth opened in a mighty yawn that made his chest tight. Everything in him ached to hold her, to feel that tiny fragile weight in his hands but it was still too soon. She still had so much growing to do…
“Tommy?”
Glancing back at the unexpected voice, Tommy was startled to see Mays Ryder standing just behind him, awkward and sure at the same time with his hands in his pockets. Dressed in jeans and a wifebeater under an open workshirt, it looked as if he’d just rolled out of bed and driven into town on a whim.
“Ryder? Hey…everything all right? Zee’s not…”
Moving further into the room, he waved off the sudden fear that swelled in Tommy’s chest. “It’s cool. ‘Sup, brother?”
Reaching out and accepting the fraternal embrace Ryder offered, Tommy drew back and flashed him a confused smile. “Great, now, but…dude, what’re you doin’ here?”
He didn’t answer for a moment, glancing past Tommy instead to stare at the tiny bundle of flesh in the incubator a few feet away. He wondered for a moment if that was what he looked like when he was staring at his daughter…was that softness and awe in his features? Did his eyes glow with that same light?
When Ryder moved towards the incubator, Tommy fell in step beside him, feeling the pull and push of power as he did. He was needed here, but he also felt the well open inside of him, a fresh rush of energy he hadn’t been expecting. It filled the silence that expanded between them until Tommy found himself absently plucking playing cards from nothing, just to burn off some of the excess and make the atmosphere tolerable.
“I was a really sick kid.”
Something was starting, something important…instead of answering, Tommy stopped producing cards and just listened. He let the energy build…he didn’t know where this was meant to go or what exactly was happening, but he offered up a silent prayer and hoped that Dog was listening.
“I basically spent the first sixteen years of my life in and outta hospitals, doctor’s offices, pharmacies…I was barely alive half the time. Took me that long to figure out it was all in my head, but I did, and I got loose of it. Since my seventeenth birthday, ya know, I ain’t been sick once? Not even a sniffle.”
He paused then, reaching out to rest his hand on the incubator. “I killed three…no, four men to keep Zee and my brothers safe. One of ‘em was my biological brother. Did ya know that?”
“No…I didn’t.”
“No one does…and no one ever will. I should probably feel guilty, but I don’t, and that ain’t right. So I wanna make it right…I wanna balance the scales a little. A life for the ones I took.”
Tommy knew what was happening then, felt the energy crest and break, washing gently over and into the incubator, through the delicate body inside.
“I know what it is to be in here, to be like this…and I know it ain’t the same for her, but I hope it’s different. I hope you and Zee get to hold her soon, and I hope she doesn’t turn out to be everything you expect her to be. I hope she grows up strong, healthy…and exactly who the world needs her to be to make it a better place. And if all this shit ‘bout how you guys work is true? Then that’s why I’m here: to give you guys yer daughter.”
The words were punctuated right then by a baby’s cry…a mighty wail the likes of which Tommy hadn’t even heard come out of her in the delivery room. It was a true scream of birth, indignant and angry and heartfelt.
It was the sound of a strong, healthy little girl railing out of lungs too small and too underdeveloped to make it.
Ryder stood there for a few moments, grinning there at Tommy’s side while both men just listened to the symphony of life nestled there in front of them.
Two minutes later, the nurse came and ejected them both from the nursery. The next morning, Ziyah and Tommy were allowed to hold their daughter for the very first time.
Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 814
