#andsanctify

andsanctify

No words were necessary between the two sisters as Suzanne slipped her hand into Julia's and squeezed it for reassurance. Why history had chosen to repeat itself in such a cruel way, she had no idea. Not a lot was making sense right now, but one thing was for sure. She was going to be there for her big sister and spare her whatever burdens she could. Suzanne Sugarbaker might have come across as just another shallow, conceited beauty queen to some people, but in times of crisis, she had time and time again proven herself to be a modern day Scarlett O'Hara.

Unfortunately, this time it wasn't going to be as easy as making a deal with God over by the candy machine in a hospital waiting room.

walking around the barracks , it’s impossible for kate to not think about the last time she was here. eyes trail wistfully towards the home she , claire , and aaron shared. if only for a little while. the plastered smile she’s been wearing since arriving in dharmaville waivers a bit , a lump growing in her throat. it’s all so impossibly complicated. but she had chosen to return to the island , and this was the consequence -- and she should know by now there are always consequences. she turns her gaze away , hands in jumpsuit pockets , and continues over to the motor pool. her shift isn’t until a little later , but she’s got something she needs to do first , someone she needs to see.

the woman in question is hard at work , oblivious to kate's arrival. for a moment , she keeps it that way. watching @andsanctify. something like envy rises inside her , but passes quickly. ugly feelings are comfortable , ugly feelings are easy. she can't rely on easy , not when everything is so fucked. taking a deep breath , kate readies herself.

She understands perfectly well: no woman in Roderick's life but Madeline.

Eighteen years ago she'd been rather more naive. She'd thought that, surely, she'd induce Roderick Usher to fall in love with her, make him marry her, and then... But his eyes, so piercing and blue, which had seemed to focus on her and wrap her in their intensity, she shortly realized were not looking at her but through her. Through her to the next gamble, the next project, the next game.

And that gaze only settled on a woman, if it ever did, when he looked at Madeline. No woman in his life, then, but her.

So, for eighteen years' worth of back child support, Margarethe now sits in Madeline's office. The place is like a gilt-edged tomb. The woman behind the desk, though, she is vibrantly alive. Funny, isn't it? How she simply pulses with a contained and powerful vitality. Shouldn't all her organs be in those silly jars on the wall?

"You can run whatever tests you like, of course," Margarethe says, "but Anastasia is Roderick's daughter. Your niece. Don't you think the family resemblance is quite strong?" She sighs, settling more comfortably in her chair, studying her fingernails. "You can't imagine. Single motherhood--what a trial."

@andsanctify asked: “ i feel like i’m one bad day away from becoming everything i’ve fought against. ” (cat)

" It's not always easy, having to be the one in charge, " Alex offered, in quiet earnest; no shortage of understanding there to back her. No lack of sympathy.

It was strange, exchanging any assimilation of words with Cat like this, with no James or or Kara or Winn - shaped buffer in sight. Stranger, even, to see the Cat Grant she'd known, albeit in the most abstracted peripheral of her sister's work - related anecdotes and occasional grousing over mid - week chinese food with her guard so profoundly down.

But she knew what that meant. Knew how it felt to make the hard choices, and live with the consequences after the fact. Knew just how slowly, how unnoticeably the purest of intentions could twist, and motivations could be lost in the murk of ambiguity. ( Her father had proven that much. Even Lena had. )

@andsanctify asked: [ STRUGGLE ] for one muse to resist being hugged but then break down and crumble against the other. (cat)

Swallowing around the lump in her throat, around the tension that pulled everything in her chest bow - string tight, Alex took in the stillness that'd taken hold of her sister's place of work — her desk, much like its accoutrements, untouched since the week before Lex's assault; her chair, suddenly home to a thin layer of dust, striking in its recency and yet unsurprising, given the number of weeks it'd gone unused; even the third phone she'd managed to cycle through during her tenure at CatCo — through a mental rolodex of what ifs. A tangible hopelessness that seemed to manifest in the pooling of a weighty, unconquerable numbness that settled in her extremities. A dearth of strength that Cat's proximity, so alien to her in the unearthly context of Kara's sudden absence, only made worse.

Setting down the faux - silver - gilded photo frame she'd displaced from Kara's desk, the sheen of tears that'd risen in her eyes enough to distort the image of the happy faces ( hers, her sister's, their mom's ) smiling back up at her into a blur, Alex stiffly shrugged free of the consoling hand that fell at rest at her shoulder. Averted her eyes, until she could no longer hold up the futile pretense of dealing with the loss, or stop the dam from crumbling at its foundations, even in Cat Grant's arms.

❝ — it's you. ❞ her eyes turn on the other woman , but the emotion underneath is indistinguishable. fiona feels trapped , stuck between all the things she wants and all the things she needs. which one is this ? but she's like a drug , and fiona can't give it up so easily. ❝ you make me weak. ❞ not weak like the cancer does , weak in a different way. vulnerable , maybe. which certainly felt like a weakness. had it been anyone else standing between fiona and her full power , she could have easily disposed of them. but not her. she adjusts her blonde hair , leaning against the edge of the table. she shakes her head , ❝ i refuse to been seen as weak. i am not weak. ❞ / sc. @andsanctify