Primeval drabble: The Walls Of Jericho
Apr. 2nd, 2011 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
knitekatTitle: The Walls Of Jericho
Author: knitekat
Word Count: 4 x 100
Characters: James Lester, Abby Maitland
Rating: 12
Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures. Certainly not me. Writing for fun and will replace.
A/N: For P100 challenge 204 Confession. Part of my Dreams of Yesterday drabble series. Angsty angst. Thanks to Fred for the beta.
Abby sighed as she considered Lester and what to do about him. Should she confront him and get him to admit what was wrong? Could she just stand by as he slowly and - as she was the only one who had noticed - secretly fall apart?
Abby remembered how she had reacted when someone had tried to get her to talk about her feelings and problems in the past. She had not appreciated the busybody poking her nose into Abby's private life. Not back then.
It had gone against Abby's long held need to be strong to confess she needed help.
James sat in his office and looked blankly at the photo in his hands. He sometimes wondered if he kept it here to torment himself. Maybe he should talk to someone about... but to admit he had a problem was to risk losing the ARC. He had already broken one promise, he wouldn't break another.
He looked up sharply at the knock on his door, straight into the sympathetic eyes of one Abby Maitland, the new bane of his life.
“Lester, can I have a word?”
James quickly shuffled his papers. “I'm rather busy, Abby, can it wait?”
Abby was shocked by the pain and sorrow Lester's eyes revealed in the split-second before his barriers rose and shut her out. All her doubts about her course of action vanished.
She approached him and rested a hand on his shoulder. “James...” She gently squeezed. “Please, tell me what's wrong. Let me help.”
Abby could feel the tension in Lester. She knew he was most likely to coldly tell her to leave him alone. But she had to make the offer, to be a friendly ear if he wanted to unburden himself and admit that something was wrong.
James was going to tell her to mind her own business and to get out of his office and back to work.
But one look into her concerned and sympathetic eyes undid him. He felt his failing barriers crumble, leaving him unprotected from the pain that constantly gnawed at his heart and mind.
He blinked back the tears that threatened to fall and saw the compassion in Abby's face. She reminded him so much of Stephanie that he couldn't stop the sob forcing its way out of his throat.
“I... my wife.” His voice cracked alarmingly. “She died.”
Author: knitekat
Word Count: 4 x 100
Characters: James Lester, Abby Maitland
Rating: 12
Disclaimer: Primeval belongs to Impossible Pictures. Certainly not me. Writing for fun and will replace.
A/N: For P100 challenge 204 Confession. Part of my Dreams of Yesterday drabble series. Angsty angst. Thanks to Fred for the beta.
Abby sighed as she considered Lester and what to do about him. Should she confront him and get him to admit what was wrong? Could she just stand by as he slowly and - as she was the only one who had noticed - secretly fall apart?
Abby remembered how she had reacted when someone had tried to get her to talk about her feelings and problems in the past. She had not appreciated the busybody poking her nose into Abby's private life. Not back then.
It had gone against Abby's long held need to be strong to confess she needed help.
James sat in his office and looked blankly at the photo in his hands. He sometimes wondered if he kept it here to torment himself. Maybe he should talk to someone about... but to admit he had a problem was to risk losing the ARC. He had already broken one promise, he wouldn't break another.
He looked up sharply at the knock on his door, straight into the sympathetic eyes of one Abby Maitland, the new bane of his life.
“Lester, can I have a word?”
James quickly shuffled his papers. “I'm rather busy, Abby, can it wait?”
Abby was shocked by the pain and sorrow Lester's eyes revealed in the split-second before his barriers rose and shut her out. All her doubts about her course of action vanished.
She approached him and rested a hand on his shoulder. “James...” She gently squeezed. “Please, tell me what's wrong. Let me help.”
Abby could feel the tension in Lester. She knew he was most likely to coldly tell her to leave him alone. But she had to make the offer, to be a friendly ear if he wanted to unburden himself and admit that something was wrong.
James was going to tell her to mind her own business and to get out of his office and back to work.
But one look into her concerned and sympathetic eyes undid him. He felt his failing barriers crumble, leaving him unprotected from the pain that constantly gnawed at his heart and mind.
He blinked back the tears that threatened to fall and saw the compassion in Abby's face. She reminded him so much of Stephanie that he couldn't stop the sob forcing its way out of his throat.
“I... my wife.” His voice cracked alarmingly. “She died.”
