Lost Echoesby Pouncer |
| He’s lost his sense of humour in this strange new ‘verse. In school and in residency, he found silliness all around him every day. The ways people found to injure themselves made him whoop with laughter when he told the other doctors the tales. A child playing with his schoolmates in the park would make him smile in reminiscence as he walked home from a long night at the hospital.
Then River started writing senseless letters from the Academy and he stopped seeing the absurdity of life and began seeing the horror. His final desperate irrevocable action to rescue her sundered his ties with his parents and his former life. It snapped him away from any emotion but fear. Being on Serenity is like riding one of the roller coasters at the amusementplex. Dizzying highs and lows, but like a grey cloudbank sparking lightning overhead is fear of the Alliance. He will not allow them to take River again. He won’t. Nothing more will harm her while he draws breath. Sometimes for brief moments he can ignore the sensation of thunder rumbling just out of hearing. Kaylee drowns it out with her bright eyes and smiling mouth. Inara soothes tension away with her studied manner. River makes mischief as eagerly as her younger self, forcing the laughter unwilling from his aching heart. Too soon his mirth dies away to echoes. Then the fear returns. |
Notes: I saw the new challenge on ff_friday ("100 to 1000 words about laughter") and this leapt into my head Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Joss Whedon, not me. Return to The Carousel |