Fic: Gossamer (14/18)
Mar. 14th, 2012 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sara_wolfTitle: Gossamer
Rating: PG
Warnings: allusions to spousal abuse
Summary: "Paige, you're pregnant." Three weeks after her parents' death, Paige receives some surprising news. What she decides next will change the course of history, not only her own, but that of the family she doesn't even know exists...
*****
Eight Months Later
"Welcome to our new home."
Paige stared up at the mansion, her mouth falling open in shock. The house, while not quite as palatial as Nick's childhood home, was far bigger than she ever would have expected. Three stories, surrounded by an enormous wrought-iron fence – Paige whirled around to gape at Nick.
"What is this?" she demanded, stabbing a finger back at the mansion.
"Our new home," Nick repeated, slowly, his brows knitting together in confusion.
"I heard that," Paige said, struggling for patience. "What I want to know is why."
"Mother gifted it to us as an anniversary present," Nick explained, and Paige felt her eyebrows fly up into her hairline.
"Gifted it?" she echoed, skeptically. "How, exactly, do you gift someone a house?"
Nick shrugged, nonchalantly. "My father inherited the house from some distant relative, before he died, and it's been standing empty all these years. Mother signed the deed over to us as a gift."
"You just had a house lying around?" Paige asked, in disbelief, and Nick shook his head.
"Why are you so upset about this?" he demanded. "I thought you hated our apartment."
"I did," Paige muttered. "But, it was ours. Not your mother's."
"This isn't my mother's house, either," Nick argued. "Not anymore."
"We built our lives, together," Paige protested, trying to get Nick to see exactly why she was so upset. "Yeah, there were some bumps in the road, but for better or worse it was ours. I don't want to give that up."
"We're not giving anything up," Nick said, firmly. "If anything, we're getting ahead in the world. I – we deserve this."
Paige hadn't missed Nick's little slip, but she was going to let it pass. For now, at least. They'd been fighting almost constantly for the last few weeks, and she was tired of it. Tired of Nick making decisions without consulting her, tired of feeling like she had no input in their marriage, tired of shouting without Nick listening to her.
Instead, she turned her attention back to the house, staring in silent contemplation up at the mansion. Wordlessly, she bent down and grabbed her purse from where it had fallen to the ground when she'd first seen Nick's little surprise, and then she headed toward the enormous iron gate.
When Nick caught up with her, she shot him an impassive look. She knew that he was expecting a fight, but she didn't have the energy. It was just easier to give in and let Nick have his way.
"If we're going to be living here," she said, blandly, "you might as well give me the grand tour. We only have about an hour before we have to pick Pax up from my aunt's house."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Good night, my darling," Paige murmured, brushing a kiss across Pax's forehead.
"Love you, Mama," Pax said, sleepily, her eyes drooping closed.
"Love you, too," Paige replied, clicking off the light as she closed the door gently behind her. "Sleep tight, sweetheart."
She headed back down the hallway and down the stairs, slowing down when she heard the low, angry murmur of voices coming from the living room. One was Nick, and the other-
Paige paused at the doorway, listening intently. She winced when she recognized Cheryl's distinctive, strident tones. She was about to backpedal down the hallway, go back to her bedroom to avoid running into her mother-in-law, when she heard her name mentioned. Curiosity overwhelmed her sense of self-preservation, and she hovered at the edge of the doorway, listening intently.
"-will never have a place in our world," Cheryl said, her voice dripping with disdain.
"She is my wife," Nick said, coldly, and Paige peeked around the door frame to see him standing ramrod straight in front of his mother, his arms crossed stiffly over his chest.
"She is inferior," Cheryl stated, flatly, and the words hit Paige like a punch to the gut. "Why you insist on keeping the girl around-"
"She is my wife," Nick repeated, flatly, "and the mother of my child."
"And I told you, over a year ago," Cheryl argued, "you should have just gotten rid of the girl after the baby was born. You don't need her. Just the child."
"That child is your only granddaughter," Nick pointed out, without bothering to address Cheryl's other comment. "You could spend some time with her. Call her by her name. You know, like a grandmother."
"My interest begins when the child is old enough to prove useful to us," Cheryl said, and Paige had heard enough.
She stormed into the living room, startling both Nick and Cheryl with her sudden arrival. She ignored Nick in favor of glaring furiously at Cheryl, her arms crossed tightly over her chest to keep from reaching out and strangling the older woman.
"I think it's time for you to leave," she said, jerking her head in the direction of the front door.
"Excuse me?" Cheryl demanded, her eyes flashing with anger as she looked past Paige, at Nick.
"It is late," Paige said, calmly, "and Pax is trying to sleep. You need to go home, Cheryl. Anything you have to say to Nick can wait until the morning."
"Are you going to let her speak to me like this?" Cheryl demanded, ignoring Paige and speaking directly to her son.
"She is my wife," Nick returned, with a shrug and a smirk. Paige was hard-fought to keep a grin off her face.
She turned her attention back to Cheryl in time to see the woman's eyes flash coal-black. It was like staring into an abyss, and Paige felt like she was falling head over heels into nothingness.
Then, the sensation disappeared as quickly as it had come on, and Paige shook her head to clear the cobwebs from her mind. When she looked back at Cheryl, the other woman's eyes were back to normal, and Paige was half-convinced that she'd just made it all up.
'Probably just some trick of the light,' she thought, minutely shaking off the disorientation.
"I'll talk to you, tomorrow, Mother," Nick was saying, as he escorted Cheryl to the front door. "Go home, get some rest. I'll take care of this."
Cheryl said something under her breath, too low for Paige to hear her, and then Nick shut the front door softly behind her. He turned back around to find Paige glaring at him, a furious expression on her face.
"You'll take care of this?" she echoed, flatly. "Exactly what are you going to take care of, Nick?"
"Oh, come on," Nick protested. "I was just saying that to get my mother out of the house."
"That's not what it sounded like, to me," Paige snapped, angrily. "I thought that I was your wife, Nick."
"You are," Nick insisted, but Paige wasn't done.
"Then, why do I feel less like a partner and more like a possession?" she demanded. "Everywhere we go, I’m always introduced as your wife. To all of your friends and family, I'm just Nick's wife, no name of my own. You apologize for me-"
"That was a delicate situation at work," Nick broke in, hotly. "I couldn't let your opinions jeopardize my job."
"Your job," Paige repeated, quietly. "You had a good job at Child Services, Nick."
"I had a dead-end job," Nick snorted. "What, did you really expect me to spend the rest of my life helping widows and orphans?"
"I certainly plan on it," Paige gritted out, earning a cold laugh from Nick.
"You mean your little career?" he asked, derisively. "What kind of a future is social work, anyway? Do you really want to spend fifty-some years killing yourself for people who will never appreciate what you do?"
"As a social worker, I can help people get a better future," Paige told him.
"And I'm getting one for our family," Nick shot back. "Duncan found me a position at his law firm, and I took it. I'm going to be big one day, Paige. Bigger than you can ever imagine." He shook his head in disgust. "My mother was right," he muttered, under his breath, clearly not intending for her to hear him. "You really can't understand."
"I understand that I married an asshole," Paige fired off, without thinking about it.
A second later, the whole side of her face was on fire. She staggered back a few steps from the force of the blow, her ears ringing. She looked up just as Nick let his hand fall limply to his side, a horrified look crossing his face.
Paige stared at Nick in shock, one hand drifting up to brush against the spot where he'd struck her. Her mouth fell open, but nothing came out.
"Paige," Nick said, sounding as shocked as she felt. "I – I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."
Paige could feel tears forming in the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them back, fiercely, refusing to let herself break down. Not in front of Nick. Instead, she stalked across the room and down the hallway, to where Pax was sleeping in her new room. She scooped her daughter up into her arms, careful not to wake her, and then she headed straight for the front door.
"I'm sorry," Nick repeated, helplessly, as she stormed past him. "Paige, I swear, it will never happen, again."
"You're damn right it won't," she gritted out, whirling around to glare at him. "I'll be back for the rest of my stuff in the morning."
"You can't leave me," Nick protested, as she put her hand on the doorknob.
"You should have thought about that before you hit me," Paige snarled at him, furiously.
"You can't leave me," Nick repeated, emphatically, and this time there was a hint of anger in his voice.
"Watch me," Paige snapped, and then she pulled open the door.
Nick wrapped his hand painfully around her arm before she could step outside, wrenching her around as he yanked her back into the entryway. Paige stumbled, Nick's grip on her arm the only thing keeping her on her feet, and her arms tightened protectively around Pax to keep the little girl from falling to the floor.
"Let go of me!" she hissed, glaring up at Nick.
Nick simply tightened his grip on her forearm, his fingers digging painfully into her skin.
"You're mine," he growled, in a low voice. "You don't get to leave me."
Then, he stared into her eyes, and Paige felt like she was falling backward off a cliff. Black spots danced in front of her eyes, and then everything went soft and gray –
Paige blinked in confusion, staring at the open door. She looked back at Nick, silently asking for an explanation.
"Honey, are you all right?" Nick asked, concern heavy in his voice.
"I – I don't know," Paige said, looking around the house as she tried to capture the wisps of memory that teased at the edges of her mind. "What were we just doing?"
"We just got home from dinner, remember?" Nick prompted, gently, and after a moment, she did remember. They'd gone out for a romantic dinner to celebrate their first anniversary, albeit a few days late, getting a babysitter to stay with Pax. The girl had just left. "Maybe you should go lay down," Nick went on. "You don't look very good."
"I don't feel very good," Paige admitted, slowly. "I think I will go lie down. Can you put Pax to bed?" she added, glancing over to where the babysitter had left their daughter sleeping on the couch.
"Of course," Nick reassured her, with a smile. "Get some rest, sweetheart. Happy anniversary; I love you."
"I love you, too," Paige told him.
Continued here
Rating: PG
Warnings: allusions to spousal abuse
Summary: "Paige, you're pregnant." Three weeks after her parents' death, Paige receives some surprising news. What she decides next will change the course of history, not only her own, but that of the family she doesn't even know exists...
*****
Eight Months Later
"Welcome to our new home."
Paige stared up at the mansion, her mouth falling open in shock. The house, while not quite as palatial as Nick's childhood home, was far bigger than she ever would have expected. Three stories, surrounded by an enormous wrought-iron fence – Paige whirled around to gape at Nick.
"What is this?" she demanded, stabbing a finger back at the mansion.
"Our new home," Nick repeated, slowly, his brows knitting together in confusion.
"I heard that," Paige said, struggling for patience. "What I want to know is why."
"Mother gifted it to us as an anniversary present," Nick explained, and Paige felt her eyebrows fly up into her hairline.
"Gifted it?" she echoed, skeptically. "How, exactly, do you gift someone a house?"
Nick shrugged, nonchalantly. "My father inherited the house from some distant relative, before he died, and it's been standing empty all these years. Mother signed the deed over to us as a gift."
"You just had a house lying around?" Paige asked, in disbelief, and Nick shook his head.
"Why are you so upset about this?" he demanded. "I thought you hated our apartment."
"I did," Paige muttered. "But, it was ours. Not your mother's."
"This isn't my mother's house, either," Nick argued. "Not anymore."
"We built our lives, together," Paige protested, trying to get Nick to see exactly why she was so upset. "Yeah, there were some bumps in the road, but for better or worse it was ours. I don't want to give that up."
"We're not giving anything up," Nick said, firmly. "If anything, we're getting ahead in the world. I – we deserve this."
Paige hadn't missed Nick's little slip, but she was going to let it pass. For now, at least. They'd been fighting almost constantly for the last few weeks, and she was tired of it. Tired of Nick making decisions without consulting her, tired of feeling like she had no input in their marriage, tired of shouting without Nick listening to her.
Instead, she turned her attention back to the house, staring in silent contemplation up at the mansion. Wordlessly, she bent down and grabbed her purse from where it had fallen to the ground when she'd first seen Nick's little surprise, and then she headed toward the enormous iron gate.
When Nick caught up with her, she shot him an impassive look. She knew that he was expecting a fight, but she didn't have the energy. It was just easier to give in and let Nick have his way.
"If we're going to be living here," she said, blandly, "you might as well give me the grand tour. We only have about an hour before we have to pick Pax up from my aunt's house."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Good night, my darling," Paige murmured, brushing a kiss across Pax's forehead.
"Love you, Mama," Pax said, sleepily, her eyes drooping closed.
"Love you, too," Paige replied, clicking off the light as she closed the door gently behind her. "Sleep tight, sweetheart."
She headed back down the hallway and down the stairs, slowing down when she heard the low, angry murmur of voices coming from the living room. One was Nick, and the other-
Paige paused at the doorway, listening intently. She winced when she recognized Cheryl's distinctive, strident tones. She was about to backpedal down the hallway, go back to her bedroom to avoid running into her mother-in-law, when she heard her name mentioned. Curiosity overwhelmed her sense of self-preservation, and she hovered at the edge of the doorway, listening intently.
"-will never have a place in our world," Cheryl said, her voice dripping with disdain.
"She is my wife," Nick said, coldly, and Paige peeked around the door frame to see him standing ramrod straight in front of his mother, his arms crossed stiffly over his chest.
"She is inferior," Cheryl stated, flatly, and the words hit Paige like a punch to the gut. "Why you insist on keeping the girl around-"
"She is my wife," Nick repeated, flatly, "and the mother of my child."
"And I told you, over a year ago," Cheryl argued, "you should have just gotten rid of the girl after the baby was born. You don't need her. Just the child."
"That child is your only granddaughter," Nick pointed out, without bothering to address Cheryl's other comment. "You could spend some time with her. Call her by her name. You know, like a grandmother."
"My interest begins when the child is old enough to prove useful to us," Cheryl said, and Paige had heard enough.
She stormed into the living room, startling both Nick and Cheryl with her sudden arrival. She ignored Nick in favor of glaring furiously at Cheryl, her arms crossed tightly over her chest to keep from reaching out and strangling the older woman.
"I think it's time for you to leave," she said, jerking her head in the direction of the front door.
"Excuse me?" Cheryl demanded, her eyes flashing with anger as she looked past Paige, at Nick.
"It is late," Paige said, calmly, "and Pax is trying to sleep. You need to go home, Cheryl. Anything you have to say to Nick can wait until the morning."
"Are you going to let her speak to me like this?" Cheryl demanded, ignoring Paige and speaking directly to her son.
"She is my wife," Nick returned, with a shrug and a smirk. Paige was hard-fought to keep a grin off her face.
She turned her attention back to Cheryl in time to see the woman's eyes flash coal-black. It was like staring into an abyss, and Paige felt like she was falling head over heels into nothingness.
Then, the sensation disappeared as quickly as it had come on, and Paige shook her head to clear the cobwebs from her mind. When she looked back at Cheryl, the other woman's eyes were back to normal, and Paige was half-convinced that she'd just made it all up.
'Probably just some trick of the light,' she thought, minutely shaking off the disorientation.
"I'll talk to you, tomorrow, Mother," Nick was saying, as he escorted Cheryl to the front door. "Go home, get some rest. I'll take care of this."
Cheryl said something under her breath, too low for Paige to hear her, and then Nick shut the front door softly behind her. He turned back around to find Paige glaring at him, a furious expression on her face.
"You'll take care of this?" she echoed, flatly. "Exactly what are you going to take care of, Nick?"
"Oh, come on," Nick protested. "I was just saying that to get my mother out of the house."
"That's not what it sounded like, to me," Paige snapped, angrily. "I thought that I was your wife, Nick."
"You are," Nick insisted, but Paige wasn't done.
"Then, why do I feel less like a partner and more like a possession?" she demanded. "Everywhere we go, I’m always introduced as your wife. To all of your friends and family, I'm just Nick's wife, no name of my own. You apologize for me-"
"That was a delicate situation at work," Nick broke in, hotly. "I couldn't let your opinions jeopardize my job."
"Your job," Paige repeated, quietly. "You had a good job at Child Services, Nick."
"I had a dead-end job," Nick snorted. "What, did you really expect me to spend the rest of my life helping widows and orphans?"
"I certainly plan on it," Paige gritted out, earning a cold laugh from Nick.
"You mean your little career?" he asked, derisively. "What kind of a future is social work, anyway? Do you really want to spend fifty-some years killing yourself for people who will never appreciate what you do?"
"As a social worker, I can help people get a better future," Paige told him.
"And I'm getting one for our family," Nick shot back. "Duncan found me a position at his law firm, and I took it. I'm going to be big one day, Paige. Bigger than you can ever imagine." He shook his head in disgust. "My mother was right," he muttered, under his breath, clearly not intending for her to hear him. "You really can't understand."
"I understand that I married an asshole," Paige fired off, without thinking about it.
A second later, the whole side of her face was on fire. She staggered back a few steps from the force of the blow, her ears ringing. She looked up just as Nick let his hand fall limply to his side, a horrified look crossing his face.
Paige stared at Nick in shock, one hand drifting up to brush against the spot where he'd struck her. Her mouth fell open, but nothing came out.
"Paige," Nick said, sounding as shocked as she felt. "I – I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."
Paige could feel tears forming in the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them back, fiercely, refusing to let herself break down. Not in front of Nick. Instead, she stalked across the room and down the hallway, to where Pax was sleeping in her new room. She scooped her daughter up into her arms, careful not to wake her, and then she headed straight for the front door.
"I'm sorry," Nick repeated, helplessly, as she stormed past him. "Paige, I swear, it will never happen, again."
"You're damn right it won't," she gritted out, whirling around to glare at him. "I'll be back for the rest of my stuff in the morning."
"You can't leave me," Nick protested, as she put her hand on the doorknob.
"You should have thought about that before you hit me," Paige snarled at him, furiously.
"You can't leave me," Nick repeated, emphatically, and this time there was a hint of anger in his voice.
"Watch me," Paige snapped, and then she pulled open the door.
Nick wrapped his hand painfully around her arm before she could step outside, wrenching her around as he yanked her back into the entryway. Paige stumbled, Nick's grip on her arm the only thing keeping her on her feet, and her arms tightened protectively around Pax to keep the little girl from falling to the floor.
"Let go of me!" she hissed, glaring up at Nick.
Nick simply tightened his grip on her forearm, his fingers digging painfully into her skin.
"You're mine," he growled, in a low voice. "You don't get to leave me."
Then, he stared into her eyes, and Paige felt like she was falling backward off a cliff. Black spots danced in front of her eyes, and then everything went soft and gray –
Paige blinked in confusion, staring at the open door. She looked back at Nick, silently asking for an explanation.
"Honey, are you all right?" Nick asked, concern heavy in his voice.
"I – I don't know," Paige said, looking around the house as she tried to capture the wisps of memory that teased at the edges of her mind. "What were we just doing?"
"We just got home from dinner, remember?" Nick prompted, gently, and after a moment, she did remember. They'd gone out for a romantic dinner to celebrate their first anniversary, albeit a few days late, getting a babysitter to stay with Pax. The girl had just left. "Maybe you should go lay down," Nick went on. "You don't look very good."
"I don't feel very good," Paige admitted, slowly. "I think I will go lie down. Can you put Pax to bed?" she added, glancing over to where the babysitter had left their daughter sleeping on the couch.
"Of course," Nick reassured her, with a smile. "Get some rest, sweetheart. Happy anniversary; I love you."
"I love you, too," Paige told him.
Continued here
