❤Vill💜

He's minding his own business, the Pope's business, merely skirting at the edge of the lobby of the Casa Santa Marta for the Holy Father,like the man before him insists on staying at the Casa. The Cardinals are leaving and normality of a New Papacy begins

A weight drives into his throat, and he's propelled back until he slams into the wall

“You!”The word is a snarl,almost unrecognisable. Cardinal, ex-Cardinal Tremblay stares down at at him from his greater height, eyes wild and burning. It is his arm pressing on Janusz' throat, barring air any access as his lungs try to refill.

Someone, a nun, screams. Feet dash away.

“All you had to do was keep your damn mouth shut.” Tremblay hisses,pressing in, they are almost nose to nose “One simple little thing, too much for a drunken peasant parish priest. Is it? You go running to the Dean, and you're not even sorry about it- disobeying the order of your superior.”

He stares straight back,meeting and holding the crazed gaze,even as his body starts to fight for air.

Never let it be said that a Pole bowed his head for tyranny, no matter what.

And, point of Order; You were not my superior, you had been dismissed. Furthermore you were cheating.

“Enough!!” Someone roars in Italian far too close, and Tremblay is wrenched away. He almost chokes at the release of pressure,drawing in the air, again and again. Instinctively his hand rises to his throat, massaging it

His eyes adjust to distance he sees it's Tedesco, now flanked by Gambino, who had pulled Tremblay off him, Trembley who is now staggering backwards under the momentum of the movement, away from Tedesco who is shouting at hi,

“What is going on!?” Dean Lawrence's voice cuts through the general tumult at a commanding shout

Tedesco turns his head towards the Dean, who's coming from the main corridor, Sister Agnes and Ray O'Malley at his heels, and gets his words in first, “He attacked the Prefect, He was choking him.”

Dean Lawrence glances over at him tucked in the corner, rubbing his throat, then swings to focus on Tremblay. If fury can be transmuted into stillness,he radiated it.

“Archbishop O'Malley,” Dean Lawrence says, in a tone which embodies every inch of his office “call the Gendarmarie and tell them to come here immediately.”

And oh, if looks could kill, Tremblay would be lucky and drop dead before their arrival, by the knife of a glare directed at him from Agnes,even as she comes towards him,in his corner.

“Let me see, Janusz.”she says, dropping the formality of their roles for a moment

He lowers his hand from his sore neck,she focuses on it

“What did he use, not his hands?”

“His arm” He places his own up, in a reverse of what Tremblay had done.