titusnowl: (duel)
[personal profile] titusnowl
While he was in hospital - and it was a very long time; sometimes he felt he'd have been better off dead, because being in hospital that long was effectively the same thing anyway but with worse food - he received a regular posting of cards and letters and baskets of fruit they knew he didn't even like to eat, sent from far-flung regions with postmarks in languages he sometimes didn't recognize.  Occasionally he received a newspaper in a language matching one of the postmarks, which didn't do him much good, but sometimes there were pictures - usually rather poor ones - of Simon in them, and even when there weren't he knew that somewhere in those pages was a report of the fun they were having. 

More often, and quite frankly more welcome than those reminders of the life he no longer led and (he thought) could no longer lead again, he received visits from Patricia, who opened all his mail and read all his letters with the sort of innocent presumption Simon had, but with twice as much charm in Norman's opinion.  She couldn't come every day, but at least twice a week the golden head popped around the corner of his door to see if he was awake - he always was - and she took up residence on the edge of his bed until thirty minutes after the end of visitors' hours.

When they decided they had to have the leg off after all, she kept his spirits up to the best of her abilities; he never let on that it bothered him in the least, in her presence.  "Well, you know," she told him, "it's a sort of an ace in the hole, isn't it?  Someone thinks he's got you all disarmed and at his mercy, and then you whip your leg off and beat him about the head and neck with it.  No one would ever see it coming."

When Simon and Roger snuck back into the country, they saw it in much the same light.  Roger immediately took to calling him Peggy and Blackbeard and Hopalong Cassidy.  Norman immediately took to calling Roger You Ass, but as he'd been calling him that for years, no one took any mind of it.

Norman's idea that he was no longer much good as a Halo was met with absolute incredulity on Simon's part.  "They shoot horses, don't they?" received an admonition that he was not, under any circumstances, a horse, and in fact if anyone were a horse it would be Roger, as he ate like one - and there's an idea; we should fit him with a feedbag, it would be more efficient. 

And it came to pass that one day Patricia's suggestion actually occurred.

Life wasn't what it was - but it was good.

Date: 2007-07-22 08:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zabbers.livejournal.com
Now you have to tell the conversation that brought this on.

Date: 2007-07-22 05:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chikkiboo.livejournal.com
I don't remember exactly what started it - Jen and I were talking about something and somehow wandered onto "what if Norman didn't die," and then an hour later I complained about being bored and she told me to write an AU on the subject. Only it turned out she wanted an adventure story, but didn't specify, but oh well. And the trouble with adventure stories is they need plots, so she didn't get one.

Profile

titusnowl: (Default)
titus n. owl

January 2014

S M T W T F S
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728 293031 

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 21st, 2025 02:07 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios