[GP] All we can do is learn to swim

[st_oriedqueen]

Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim. - Vicki Harrison

"You're sure?" Regina already knew the answer but demanding that Sam tell her what she already knew satisfied something petty in her. Or maybe just something hurt that hoped he'd have a different answer than her locator spell had already provided.

"Yeah." Sam half-rolled his eyes at her as he leaned across the pink bar counter to grab bottles of beer from the Silver Bar ice bin -- probably the results of Rebekah's last work-effort at the Inn -- for himself and his newly arrived companion.

Briefly, Regina considered burning a hole in the seat of his jeans, but it wouldn't bring Rebekah or any of the absent ones back. Instead, she took refuge in straightening her A-line and walking around the stylish counter Sam lay across like he was surfing the waves of grief. She took down a bottle of pointlessly pricey champagne, and then found the precise cut-crystal glasses Rebekah and Miss Fisher had preferred for their afternoon indulgences. She poured herself a glass and one for the person who dared her openly bitter expression.

"So who all are we missing?" they both said at once, glared at each other and sighed. They both knew the answers, in their own way and for their own reasons. And neither of them wanted to say.

Rebekah Mikaelson. Henry Winchester. Jack Robinson. Phryne Fisher. Dorothy Williams. Angua von Uberwald. Jaime Vegas. Harry Dresden. Lydia Martin. Raleigh Becket. Yasmeen. Joanna Beauchamp. Constance Bonacieux D'Artagnan. Lindsey McDonald.

"Grief is like the ocean," Sam clearly quoted from some fucking where, and Regina tuned him out until he added, "All we can do is learn to swim. Rebekah told me that."

Now Regina rolled her eyes; they weren't friends. "Shut up, Sam."

Comments

[st_arkunderitall]

"I heard her name mentioned." Sansa's voice held a note of sympathy before she sighed. "I'm sorry, Snow. I wish there was a way I could bring her back for you."

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow's shrug was just as stiff and jerky and awkward as her nod, as though she didn't quite know how to move her own body. "Thank you." She wrapped her arms around herself, not sure what to do with them. She had not cried; her anger had burned the tears out of her.

[st_arkunderitall]

Sansa was fidgeting with her hands together while watching Snow with a continuing look of concern. "Is there anything I can do? To help you?"

[st_arkcrowblack]

People in the hotel knew better that Snow White didn't like being touched than they knew the sound of her voice. What was less obvious was that she was somehow even worse at asking for touch when she actually did want it.

She swallowed and her eyes darted away. "Um. I... well." Her voice lowered almost to the point of unintelligible. "Hug?"

[st_arkunderitall]

"Of course." There was no hesitation on Sansa's part when she heard the soft question. With most anyone else she might have hesitated and then done it out of a sense of duty or not wanting to upset them but not with Snow. She wanted to offer her friend comfort and the idea of hugging her really didn't seem so bad.

So she moved forward a few steps to close the distance between them before she was opening her arms to Snow. She would let the other young woman actually initiate the hug but she offered.

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow began to tremble, and she didn't understand. It was not fear. At least, not one that she could explain. It was nerves. Shyness.

Anticipation.

Slowly, carefully, she stepped closer and into Sansa's arms, wrapping her own around the other girl's waist. At first she was stiff, tense, not sure if this was something she really wanted to go through with. But Sansa was soft, and her hair smelled nice and before Snow could look too hard at what she was thinking and why, she hid her face against Sansa's shoulder.

[st_arkunderitall]

Sansa hid her concern when she noticed that the other girl was trembling, attributing it to being upset rather than anything else it could have been. Still, she stood there with her arms open until Snow was stepping into them and finally hugging her. Only then did she wrap her arms around Snow's shoulders, holding her gently as she pressed forehead to shoulder.

"It's okay." She whispered. "I will stay with you for as long as you want me to."

[st_arkcrowblack]

"Thank you," Snow mumbled, because it was easy, and it was polite and made her something less of an animal to say. She went quiet for a few moments, her body stilling as this seemed less and less impossible with each breath.

"People just keep going away," she whispered.