Prompt 76 - Mt. Everest - Memories - ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dreamerjules - original
Jan. 5th, 2008 10:19 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
dreamerjules.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tamingthemuseTitle: Memories
Author: Julie
Fandom: none – original character
Prompt: #76 – Mt. Everest
Warnings: None
Rating: Everyone
Summary: Some memories just won't stay buried.
A/N: Darien's been living in my head for a while now and this seemed like a good time to let her out to play. Unbetaed.
Darien snapped of the television as quickly as she could. There was some news story about another climbing accident on Mt. Everest and she didn't want to hear it. She looked at the paperwork covering her desk, in a pool of brilliant light from her desk lamp, and willed her thoughts away from Etienne.
She knew it wouldn't do any good. Etienne would go for years without invading her thoughts, but when something triggered his return, he would not be denied.
It had been at a party the first time she'd heard the Mt. Everest story. Grad school and every one thinking they were so cool and so smart. Sitting around discussing everything under the sun like they actually know something about anything.
Etienne had been feeling left out, possibly even paranoid about being different than her friends, though it would have been hard for her to say then. She only realized much later that Etienne had a unique world view with himself at the center. Not even college educated, much less graduate school and Darien had her doubts about how well he'd done in the French equivalent of high school. It hadn't been a private school, though that was about all she could say about it.
A couple of drinks later though, he had the entire room under his spell with his story of the ascent, following quite literally in Edmund Hilary's footsteps.
It was the details that made it so captivating. The names of the guides, the sherpas, the stories they would tell about prior ascents, the cold that became part of you, hell, that became you after a while. The wind that cut like knives even through all the layers they were wearing. The wonder of standing on the top of the world. The descent where it was so difficult for him to concentrate on getting down because all he could think of was telling his friends what he'd done. The close call that got his attention on track again and the dressing down from his father that stung like the strong Everest wind.
She hadn't bothered to wonder at the time if he was telling the truth or not and later truth was irrelevant. Wondering was not what she did about Etienne. With him she felt. Felt as though she had no emotions before meeting him. Felt as though emotions would leave if he ever did.
But she didn't think about that. It wasn't going to happen. It couldn't.
Yet it had and she'd survived. Hadn't wanted to for the longest time, but in the end that had little to do with Etienne and everything to do with her family.
What she had for a life now was as far from her old one as the east from the west, yet she wasn't sure she'd go back even if she could. If she could go back to before she ever met him, stay the hell away from him this time, then yes, most definitely she would. It was losing Papa and Damien that tore at her, kept her awake nights even now. If she could change that, she would.
In the end, the only bright spot was that Etienne was burning in hell now.
Author: Julie
Fandom: none – original character
Prompt: #76 – Mt. Everest
Warnings: None
Rating: Everyone
Summary: Some memories just won't stay buried.
A/N: Darien's been living in my head for a while now and this seemed like a good time to let her out to play. Unbetaed.
Darien snapped of the television as quickly as she could. There was some news story about another climbing accident on Mt. Everest and she didn't want to hear it. She looked at the paperwork covering her desk, in a pool of brilliant light from her desk lamp, and willed her thoughts away from Etienne.
She knew it wouldn't do any good. Etienne would go for years without invading her thoughts, but when something triggered his return, he would not be denied.
It had been at a party the first time she'd heard the Mt. Everest story. Grad school and every one thinking they were so cool and so smart. Sitting around discussing everything under the sun like they actually know something about anything.
Etienne had been feeling left out, possibly even paranoid about being different than her friends, though it would have been hard for her to say then. She only realized much later that Etienne had a unique world view with himself at the center. Not even college educated, much less graduate school and Darien had her doubts about how well he'd done in the French equivalent of high school. It hadn't been a private school, though that was about all she could say about it.
A couple of drinks later though, he had the entire room under his spell with his story of the ascent, following quite literally in Edmund Hilary's footsteps.
It was the details that made it so captivating. The names of the guides, the sherpas, the stories they would tell about prior ascents, the cold that became part of you, hell, that became you after a while. The wind that cut like knives even through all the layers they were wearing. The wonder of standing on the top of the world. The descent where it was so difficult for him to concentrate on getting down because all he could think of was telling his friends what he'd done. The close call that got his attention on track again and the dressing down from his father that stung like the strong Everest wind.
She hadn't bothered to wonder at the time if he was telling the truth or not and later truth was irrelevant. Wondering was not what she did about Etienne. With him she felt. Felt as though she had no emotions before meeting him. Felt as though emotions would leave if he ever did.
But she didn't think about that. It wasn't going to happen. It couldn't.
Yet it had and she'd survived. Hadn't wanted to for the longest time, but in the end that had little to do with Etienne and everything to do with her family.
What she had for a life now was as far from her old one as the east from the west, yet she wasn't sure she'd go back even if she could. If she could go back to before she ever met him, stay the hell away from him this time, then yes, most definitely she would. It was losing Papa and Damien that tore at her, kept her awake nights even now. If she could change that, she would.
In the end, the only bright spot was that Etienne was burning in hell now.
