Even Roses Have Thorns, Chapter Twenty-One
Sunday, January 7, 2007
A glimpse at Simon in captivity. Short piece (just over 700 words). Angst is afoot. This chapter is rated NC17, for adult themes. Positive comments perfered.
CATEGORY: FICTION TIMES READ: 3210 RATING: 9.0 (NC17) SERIES: FIREFLY
Even Roses Have Thorns
Chapter Twenty-One: Vixere fortes ante agamemnona (literally, brave men lived before Agamemnon; which is to say heroism exists even if it's not recorded) Part I
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, *** *** *** Simon Tam had an excellent sense of the amount of time that was passing. This was not usually the case; he often lost track of time under the pressure of surgery, due to his level of absorption with his work. Here, it was different: here, there was nothing on which to focus his mind but the pain he was in, and how long it had been going on for. He could track the time, despite the interrogators lies, and attempts to confuse him; he knew roughly how long it would take to inflict a certain level of damage, and he could track reasonably precisely how long it had been since he’d last had food or water thanks to the symptoms he was presenting, adjusted, of course, for blood loss and ambient temperature. It was somewhere around the end of the second day, or start of the third day since he’d been arrested. Around forty-eight hours without food or water, without sleep (though he had passed out, finally, once today). His mind debated the benefits of waiting longer. Part of his brain suggested waiting another several hours, just because forty-eight was significant number of hours. It might look noticeable. Another part reminded him that his clock wasn’t that precise. It was at least forty-eight hours; it could as much as fifty-four hours already. He sighed. ‘Okay,’ he decided. ‘Next beating, we try out our plausible lies.’ For a man in his situation, Simon’s spirits were reasonably high. He was certain that they hadn’t caught Kaylee, because he knew they wouldn’t have hesitated to use her as leverage. He was reasonably certain that his lies would work. ‘Fingers crossed, nice arraignment cell here we come.’ He’d
Thank you to all who have read, especially those who continue to read, enjoy and comment. I would never have guessed how wonderful supportive comments were until I realised how much it means to have a new notification in my inbox.
:)
"He wished that he’d had to <b>try</b> to make his voice sound pathetic" has been changed to read “He wished that he hadn't had to <b>try</b> to make his voice sound pathetic."
Clearly there is something wrong with me. I'm going away now.
(Yes, it's ok to laugh).
I would have thought that Simon would need to give them more to get out of the interrogation - methinks the holding cell won't necessarily be the lap of luxury.
Still dying to see where you take this and where you take Kaylee and Simon. My heart hopes you are a Silee shipper at heart.
I am. As far as I know, anyway.
Why, you worried that I'm going to hurt him? :)
Oh, no. We *know* you're going to hurt him...which is totally awesome. More, I think, that you're going to mess him (and given her current behavior, Kaylee as well) up so bad they can't ever recover mentally. This whole deal started as as a relatively realistic problem in their relationship - pity to leave it hanging because they're both basket cases.
So our two interrogators want River, but the brass would rather know how he got her out than where she is right now (I mean, sure, bait is good and all, but certainly not the proactive stance you'd expect)? I smell something fishy here - for the same guys who sent in an Operative to suddenly not care about finding River at all costs smacks of somebody pulling some pretty powerful strings. Maybe Daddy Tam playing is off puppeteer somewhere?
Tamsibling, not so much. You might have to scroll really quickly past the owwie parts.
They're young, their hearts can take it.
If, of course, Simon lives...
I'm not at all surprised that tptb are just as interested in him as his sister - to a paranoid MI-5 type, his behaviour is screaming trained agent.
The man broke into/out of their best security, then, from their perspective, successfully revealed the biggest of Parliment's secrets.
And if Reynold's manages to successfully rescue him, they'll be all over the Skyplex and Belleraphon for any hint of Simon's assignment, *grin*, a trip to see Cinderella with Kaylee.
Well, Simon's not a man to shirk duty.
Thank you very much. <Modestly> I do try.</Modestly>
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