joss100 7/100 Prompt #74 Truth

[alwaysjbj]

Title: And the truth shall set you free.
Author: Always_jbj
Rating: PG
Character(s): Giles/Ethan
Prompt: #74 Truth
Word Count: 477

Prompts

Another recycled Giles/Ethan scene... slightly reworked to suit. 



And the truth shall set you free.

“What I see is someone who sold out to the very thing he professed to hate. Someone I trusted, who I was stupid enough to think would never betray me; someone who up and left in the middle of the night without so much as a Dear bloody John letter. I trusted you.”

“I’m s…”

“No! I told you I don’t want to hear ‘I’m sorry” The muscle in Ethan’s cheek twitched as his jaw clenched in barely restrained fury.

Frustration, exhaustion, and the strain of continued pain and years of regrets and what-if’s finally caused him to snap. “Well, what do you want to hear? What else am I supposed to say? I am sorry. You think I’m not? You think it was easy for me to walk away? Well, it wasn’t. I left because of what we—what I did. Don’t you see I had to?” He sought his captor’s eyes, holding them steadily. “I couldn’t risk destroying you, too. I was trying to protect you.” The last was spoken in a heartbroken whisper, his eyes drifting closed as his head hung in misery. There were many regrets in his life, some recent, some not so—but the man before him represented the greatest of all his regrets rolled neatly into one lean and still, to his eyes, beautifully handsome package.

Long moments passed as he waited silently for the next round of beatings to begin. He deserved them; he knew that, and in some dark recess of his brain he welcomed them as just payment for the foolish, arrogant, ignorant deeds of his youth. He had tried over the years to make up, in some small way at least, for the suffering he had caused, but no matter what he did he could never fully atone—not for releasing unspeakable evil into this world, not for the death of friends, and never for the betrayal of one whom he loved. It occurred to him that all he ever did was bring pain and suffering to those he loved. Ethan. Jenny.  A shudder racked his body and a sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh sounded in his ears, it was a few moments before he realised that he was responsible for the strange, demented sound.

Gentle fingers traced his cheek, cupping his chin and forcing him to lift his head. His eyes fluttered open as soft lips brushed gently against his in the barest whisper of a caress. Giles watched in wonder as Ethan carefully undid the manacles, taking care not to disturb the broken, bruised skin any more than was necessary. A strong arm wrapped around his waist, supporting him as he made his way slowly and painfully across the room to the door.  There, the last his strength deserted him, and he sagged gratefully into one of the hard wooden chairs.

Comments

[bloody-bint.livejournal.com]

WOW.... i've never read that pairing before and it was great! I think that had way more to do with your writing talent then the pairing though :) I love you fics... joined good__evil recently and friended you... boy i've been busy :D... just thought i'd drop you a line. I'm glad I friened... your LJ writing is de-licious!

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *blushes* I am really glad you enjoyed it... I have 100 of them to write! *sigh*

LOL If you want to read the prompts list and the other fics/drabbles you will find them here Prompts (http://www.bringonthebloodshed.com/axisoflove/Joss_100/joss100prompts.html) They can be read in any order but I would reccomend starting with 'regret' as they are all set in that 'world'.

Thanks for joining good__evil it should be a lot of fun!! I can't wait to read all the fics.

Off to friend you back and thanks for letting me know.. I am hopeless at keeping track... so unless people let me know they have friended me it can take me months to work it out! lol.

[talesofspike.livejournal.com]

Gah! I planned all these nice things to say, but then my keyboard decided it didn't want to play, and now that I've crawled on the floor and rebooted twice just to have it stop working again in midsentence and then start again, I'm just going to say I loved it.

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

Nice reworking of this slice of the reunion.

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

Thanks Patti! I feel a little like I am cheating using bits I have written for something else... but this bit just told something that I REALLY wanted in there...

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

Aww *snuggles you* would you like me to kick your keyboard? Or is it behaving now? Oh and GOOD news about your laptop... fingers crossed for Monday!!!

I'm sp glad you enjoyed this piece.

[talesofspike.livejournal.com]

It's behaved since then, thank goodness. The cable got caught up in the computer chair's wheels and I'm not sure if some of the wires have been damaged inside so that it's an intermittent fault, or whether it was just coincidence, but as long as it behaves until my baby is back home...

You do realise at the rate you're going you're going to finish 100 Gethan ones and have to go back and start with Ganya?

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

Oh no no no no NO!!!!!! LOL.. it will be back to our previously scheduled (or more to the point random) updates! lol

And I do appologise... I have SUCH rude muse! lol

[rayne-y-daze.livejournal.com]

Very nice! Now that I've pulled my head out and the weekend's here, I'll have to catch up - thanks for putting the link to your table here! :-)

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

Hey, all's fair....

[talesofspike.livejournal.com]

Well, I had to try! Much as I enjoy your Gethan I positively adore your Ganya.

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

I am playing the catch up game too... lol... fun isn't it! No probs about the table... I MEAN to put it in all the posts... and then forget. *sigh* I have a memory like a bucket with a hole in it.

I'm so glad you enjoyed this.

[kayleyangel.livejournal.com]

Written awesomely! I do like the pairing, and the way you've written Giles is great.

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I am really pleased you enjoyed this.

[semby.livejournal.com]

Very, very nice. Lots of raw emotion in this. What was this originally from? Linky? I might be optimistic, thinking I'll have any time soon to read something longer, but I'd like to!

[alwaysjbj.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it... ok link shall be supplied.. but first warnings.. a)wip b) Spuffy. Duty Bound (http://www.bringonthebloodshed.com/axisoflove/Duty/dutyboundindex.html)