R/I — Teil der Familie

[failte-aoife.livejournal.com]

Team: Juliet
Challenge: Romantik/Intimität — Teil der Familie (fürs Team)
Fandom: The Thursday Murder Club
Charaktere: Bogdan, Joyce + Elizabeth (mentioned)
Warnings: Major Character Death
Notes: Bogdan wants to give his condolences to Elizabeth

Normal people probably know more about how to express condolences, than about how to kill people, but unfortunately Bogdan is not a normal person in this aspect. And unfortunately, killing someone would not help Elizabeth at all. If it would, she’d already have done it, and would probably have been better at it than Bogdan. Donna says, that he should just get some flowers. She is right of course, and so he’s now standing in front of Elizabeth’s door, with a bouquet, the flower shop salesperson has assured him is appropriately sombre. The door opens, but it’s not Elizabeth.

“Oh, it’s you, do come in.” Joyce gestures him to follow, and so ruins his plan, to just hand over the bouquet with an “I’m sorry”, and disappear again. “Elizabeth wanted to lie down for a bit.”

“Then I should perhaps leave?”, he suggests, but Joyce ignores him.

“Sit down. I’ll make you some tea.” And so, Bogdan sits down. He takes his usual chair. The chessboard is still on the table. The pieces still in the exact position, they were when Stephen had stopped the game. He’s simply said Terribly sorry, my friend, but I need to lie down for a bit. Let’s continue this tomorrow. There had been no tomorrow for Stephen. He tears his gaze away from the chessboard, when Joyce sets down a mug of tea, and takes the flowers out of his hand. Bogdan had completely forgotten, that they were still in his hand.

“I’ll put them in some water. Elizabeth will be so grateful.” Suddenly he doubts that. Even more, when he glances at the sideboard, that is already filled with vases. Will Elizabeth really care? What good can flowers possibly do, when she just lost her husband? Joyce has come back with the vase, and puts it next to the others. Then she moves them all around a bit, so that no side looks too crowded. Once again, he wonders, if that really matters. Will Joyce later lead Elizabeth around the living room and explain This one is from Sally, this one from Bogdan, this from Ron (would Ron send flowers? He might if Paula makes him. Ibrahim would definitely send flowers. And thinking about it, also make Ron send some), and Elizabeth will enjoy how beautifully arranged the vases are?

Joyce sits down, and looks straight at him. Then she says “Elizabeth, will be glad, that you thought of her, you know.”, and her voice is so sincere, that he believes her. And then he remembers, that of course Joyce would know that. That she knows best, how Elizabeth feels right now. Embarrassed, he looks away, and his eyes fall on the chess board again. Stephen had made his move, and went to bed. Bogdan hadn’t bothered to make his after that, since he’d expected to pick up the game on the next day.  He looks at the board. There’s really only one move left for him in the current situation. He wonders, how Stephen would have reacted to that one. He’d have had two – no three – options, but Bogdan thinks he knew Stephen well enough, to know which one he’d have taken. He continues imagining a game, that will never be finished, and eventually comes to a conclusion.

“He’d have won. Stephen would have won that game.” His voice is hoarse.

Joyce just smiles at him. “We had this neighbour. Me and Gerry, I mean. A young man. I mean, I think he was in his thirties. Are people in their thirties considered young these days?” She looks at him questioningly, and Bogdan just shrugs and says nothing. The point of this story is probably not the changing attitude to age. “Well, for me, they’re definitely young. Now anyway, but back then I also found him young. We were already retired, you know, so we were almost twice his each. Each one of us, of course. Put together, we’d have been four time his age, but why would you have wanted to do that?” Bogdan nods, to sign that there’s really no reason to bring more maths into this. He’s sure, Joyce is going somewhere with this story. She always is. “This young man. Paul. He spent so much time with my Gerry. He also loved model railways, and they went to all these stores and conventions together. It’s not that I didn’t like Paul – or that he didn’t like me, but I didn’t care much about model railways, and so we didn’t have much to talk about.” Her eyes turn distant for a moment and she sighs. “I don’t think Paul had many friends. I never asked him, of course. You can’t ask that the man your husband builds model railroads with. But Gerry always said ‘Oh I should ask Paul to come over’, or ‘Oh there’s a big flea market tomorrow, Paul and I should go’, and I always said ‘Gerry, you can’t always ask him at such short notice! What if he already has other plans?’ and then Gerry just said ‘Oh don’t worry, he never has other plans’, and that’s why I suspected, that he didn’t have many other friends. Because if he had, he’d have been busy sometimes, you see?” Bogdan nods again, but this time it takes a while, until Joyce continues. First, she looks away and takes a deep breath. “And then Gerry died.”

Bogdan wants to say something. He didn’t come here, to make Joyce relive her grief. But before he can say anything, she has picked up the story again.

“Paul came, of course. And so many others did. And they brought flowers and food, and asked me and Joanne how we were. Not all of them did. I think most thought, that it was obvious, that we weren’t well. But I was so grateful to those who did. I needed to talk.” Once again, her gaze turns distant. “But I don’t think anybody asked Paul how he was. I didn’t, and I’m not sure if anyone else even knew who he was. And those who knew him probably thought that he was fine. He wasn’t family, after all.” She looks at him, and of course Joyce was going somewhere with all of this.

“How are you, Bogdan?”

“Not very well, I think.”