inlimis: Characters: Gaultier & Sabine LestrangeL

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lestrange, gaultier. (

gaultier) wrote in

inlimis,
@ 2008-06-17 03:12:00

Entry tags:

1975, character: gaultier, character: sabine, type: 1:1

Characters: Gaultier & Sabine Lestrange
Location: Lestrange home, French countryside.
Description: Gaultier makes a startling discovery about his wife's rapidly deteriorating health and Rabastan's absolute need to replace him.
Rating: PG-13, or something to that effect. It's woe, there will be..woeful things. *cough*

The absolute exhaustion accompanying a long week of business was wearing away at Gaultier much more than it had in the previous weeks, but the nagging feeling was one he had become accustomed -- for now, the need for sleep could wait; his wife could..would not. With a sweeping gesture Gaultier rested his coat on the back of the nearest chair, tossing the piles of paperwork on top of the other clutter arranged messily across his desk. Had he been in the right frame of mind the mess might have upset him so, however, Gaultier found himself to be entirely preoccupied in his thoughts.

To drown out the lingering silence (a feeling which Gaultier disliked with a passion), he a gave a sudden sharp and almost frantic cry, startling himself from the brief and unwanted reverie: "Sabine?" The echo of his voice carried throughout the seemingly empty house, reaching his ears again once he climbed to the top of the stairs. "Chéri, êtes-vous à la maison?" Another echo, and Gaultier couldn't help but worry. "Sabine?"

Knowing his wife was always one to answer, Gaultier began a quick search of each room, expecting the worst. It wasn't until he reached her own that a single piece of parchment found lying in wait beside her bed caught his interest. The addressed, his wife of course, was nothing more than glanced over -- it was a small detail that would later be dealt with. For now, upon spying the name of a doctor, Gaultier felt the need to know more:

Madame Lestrange,
It is with regret that I must inform you of the results of your latest clinic appointment. Sadly, they show that your sickness is of a wasting kind, and as yet we can give you neither the possibility of any cure nor a timeframe of the disease (due to the rareness of your condition). Please contact us at your convenience, but as soon as possible, so that we may schedule another appointment investigate the situation further.
Yours sincerely,

Nathanial Kansje
Head Medic, Taures Clinic

Perhaps it was the shock of it all, the idea of his wife being ill with some rare disease..or perhaps it was the idea that the entire situation had not yet been brought to his attention -- would it ever have been? Regardless, Gaultier couldn't help the sudden weakness felt in his knees, and rested himself with a hand to his mouth on the floor. There would have been a sob muffled there could he bother finding the tears, however, the tears never came. And neither did the words.

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sabine
2008-06-17 06:10 pm UTC (link)

Riding was something that Sabine had always enjoyed greatly, and pushed herself to continue despite the onset of her sickness. Thus, it seemed natural to her that a ride would make her feel better after the arrival of the clinic’s owl, two weeks after her latest appointment.

When she finally returned to the house, her cheeks were flushed from the exertion. Whilst in earlier years this would have made her look at the peak of health, now it highlighted the frailty that seemed to have arrived overnight with her sickness and sapped a great deal of her vitality in doing so.

Preoccupied in her own thoughts, she did not notice that Gaultier had already passed through the house as she made her way to her bedroom to fix hair that had been tousled in the wind. She almost did not notice her husband as she entered the room, doing a double take at the man on the floor with his head in his hands.

"Gaultier?" Sabine bent down to see what was the matter with her husband, although upon seeing the note on the floor beside him she did not really need to ask to know the answer.
"What is it? Shall I fetch some water?"

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gaultier
2008-06-17 07:03 pm UTC (link)

"Sabine, why didn't you--" Tell me? Make me see you were ill? Let me be there? It was a flurry of thought: one after another, each more damaging than the previous. For a moment, Gaultier could not find the energy to summon himself to his feet -- or rather, he didn't want to. Kneeled there on the floor with his head in his hands, the tears that he had fought to keep at bay now began to lightly flow. This was all too much, too soon.

The note that had lingered at Gaultier's side was suddenly clutched tightly in his fist, and only as he rose to his feet was it thrust toward Sabine with more anger than he intended. "You wouldn't have said a word." It was more a statement than a question, but somehow Gaultier hoped Sabine could see behind his words and insist how entirely wrong they were; hope that quickly faded with each passing moment of silence between them.

"Why?"

Why now? Why wouldn't you have told me? Why you?

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sabine
2008-06-17 07:27 pm UTC (link)

Sabine was not cowed by her husband, illness or no, but she flinched as he started forward. She took the letter from him, fingers fumbling as she held the crumpled paper. Hearing such words in someone else's mouth made the whole situation suddenly more real than she had ever wanted it to be, but she still clung blindly to the path that she had persuaded herself it was best to follow.

"It's not important. Honestly, Gaultier. You had other things to be worrying about." As if realising that this would not be enough for her husband, she added, "I'm really not that ill. They exaggerate."

Everything seemed to be falling down around Sabine as she stood in her bedroom - a home and relationship that had once been warm now felt empty and cold, the product of habit. The health that she had for so long taken as granted was slipping out of her fingers, and she seemed unable to take hold of her life in any way except the tiny details of day to day life.
She closed her eyes, as if it would hold off the response that she knew was coming.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

gaultier
2008-06-17 08:15 pm UTC (link)

"It's not important?! Sabine, you are my wife, of course it's important! Do you--" And suddenly, the realisation dawned on Gaultier that his wife knew very little of how much she truly meant to him. "You can't think for an instant that I hold my work in higher priority. I work for you, for us, for this family.." Raising a hand in a vague attempt to calm himself, Gaultier gave a disgruntled noise and came to rest on the edge of the bed. The same bed that now felt as a barrier, keeping Sabine from him all hours of the night.

"How long have you known?" It was a question Gaultier himself knew he wouldn't like the answer of, but needed to be asked regardless. How long had Sabine kept this hidden, lied, how little did he mean to her and for how long?

With a single hand resting on the top of his thigh, Gaultier leaned forward and captured Sabine's wrist gently in his grasp with the other. It was the need to touch her for the first time in weeks that over powered his current flow of emotion; one need Gaultier would no longer ignore. The smooth feel of her skin beneath his finger tips brought back a flood of memories, both good and bad. Gaultier couldn't help but sigh at the thought: this would be the last memory he had of his darling Sabine before she was taken away from him.

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sabine
2008-06-17 08:41 pm UTC (link)

"Not long." Sabine answered quietly, her eyes shifting from her husband to the carved headboard of the bed. He would not accept that as an answer though, she knew that well enough.
"Easter, or thereabouts."
Whether four months was considered a long time or not was a case of personal opinion, of course.

She thought over the months, and indeed the past few years where moments together had become increasingly fleeting and everything seemed to have...drifted.
"There was never a good time. And honestly, it was never that important Gaultier. Never that bad. It would only have..." Sabine stopped, unsure of how to continue.

Her next words weren't going to help the situation, she knew that, but it was better to let them go now than to have it dragged out later in a fresh confrontation. The involvement of her son caused that more often than not with Gaultier. Sabine's fingers brushed his own as she said, "Rabastan is aware. That is hard enough. Should I inflict it on my husband and my other son also?"

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gaultier
2008-06-17 09:25 pm UTC (link)

Rabastan was aware. Rabastan. Sabine saw fit to inform the youngest son of her demise but her husband? Left in the dark. Unimportant to him, she insisted. How could the woman he had come to love over the years, come to cherish, desire feel the need to hurt him as she had? Gaultier found it all to be one sick joke, too sick for words. "I wasn't aware.." And with the pause came a look of pure hatred. Rabastan-fucking-Lestrange, his own son, quite obviously meant more to Sabine now than Gaultier ever had.

"I wasn't aware he meant more to you than I do, Sabine. I wasn't aware he could support you and care for you better than I have -- when all I've done is work to support you, give you everything you've desired."

The brief feel of Sabine's fingers against his own would have been welcomed.. had she not just wounded him vitally with her words -- like a searing knife they were, now penetrating the muscle just above his heart. That is hard enough. With one abrupt movement, Gaultier pushed past her as he settled to his feet, guiding himself silently toward the door. There was no need for him here, not any longer.

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sabine
2008-06-17 09:48 pm UTC (link)

Sabine winced silently as he pushed past her, torn between the fact that nothing she said would change Gaultier's anger at this moment in time (in fact, the slightest thing would probably increase it) and that the fact that the whole of the situation had not been heard.

"I did not simply tell him, Gaultier. He saw it and would not accept my answers." Head in her hands, Sabine sank onto the bed that Gaultier had just vacated, not knowing what to say or do to stop the emotional downpour she had unleashed.

"A son is not a husband, Gaultier." Her voice was quiet but did not falter - there was not enough energy in it for that. "But I could not tell you when you were hardly here to tell." A pause. "Do you know how silent these rooms are most of the time? No noise to speak of and a ghost or a memory in every shadow."

Tears started to trail silently down her cheeks. "What has happened?" If anything, the whispered question was directed at herself rather than the man making for the door.

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