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Aug. 13th, 2006 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_chappyWhen they lived in Virginia they had a tree like this one, large with deep roots and low-slung branches. He had added a tire swing, the kids wanted one and it seemed to fit with the whole package ... two kids, a house in the suburbs with a backyard and a large tree. The kids wanted a treehouse too but the upper branches were too close together to make that possible. Besides, it was too high up and it made him nervous. Not that it ever stopped Chris or Ryan from racing as far up the tree as they could go.
He could hear someone laughing and was brought back to that backyard in Virginia where it was Chris' laugh and she was right near by. Safe at home and he'd never let anything bad happen to her.
His mind veered between the remembered past and the imagined present. Days of teaching her to play baseball, stargazing, soccer games and vacations mingled with memories of reports and his own knowledge of what happens during interrogations. It was no stretch to imagine what was happening to her now, what could happen, the horror bolstered by the truth.
Ryan took one breath, then another and found it hard to breathe deeply without concentrating. Everything he had of her was in the past. Every moment and memory were all relegated to the past tense and soon that would become the new normal. A future he never wanted unfolded before him.
Even then, it was cold comfort to the knowledge that she'd likely never see her family again, that if she were alive she'd spend decades as a hostage until her eventual "suicide". His only hope was that he might see her again here and even that was a slim chance. Beyond that, he had nothing.
He could hear someone laughing and was brought back to that backyard in Virginia where it was Chris' laugh and she was right near by. Safe at home and he'd never let anything bad happen to her.
His mind veered between the remembered past and the imagined present. Days of teaching her to play baseball, stargazing, soccer games and vacations mingled with memories of reports and his own knowledge of what happens during interrogations. It was no stretch to imagine what was happening to her now, what could happen, the horror bolstered by the truth.
Ryan took one breath, then another and found it hard to breathe deeply without concentrating. Everything he had of her was in the past. Every moment and memory were all relegated to the past tense and soon that would become the new normal. A future he never wanted unfolded before him.
Even then, it was cold comfort to the knowledge that she'd likely never see her family again, that if she were alive she'd spend decades as a hostage until her eventual "suicide". His only hope was that he might see her again here and even that was a slim chance. Beyond that, he had nothing.
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Date: 2006-08-14 06:23 am (UTC)Her throat hurts as she tries to swallow. "No -- "
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Date: 2006-08-14 06:31 am (UTC)"I'm sorry."
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Date: 2006-08-14 06:37 am (UTC)"They - they're all gone?"
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Date: 2006-08-14 06:46 am (UTC)He doesn't add that keeping them all alive would be too much of an inconvenience if they can't get information out of the captives. They both knew it, there was no point in saying it out loud.
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Date: 2006-08-14 06:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 06:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 06:53 am (UTC)"Does he know...where they are?"
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Date: 2006-08-14 06:59 am (UTC)"He just mentioned a mine in China."
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Date: 2006-08-14 07:06 am (UTC)And they won't be quick deaths and they'll hurt them.
"Large country."
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Date: 2006-08-14 07:10 am (UTC)Assuming they're being held in China. Assuming we're dealing with the government and not some splinter group. Assuming they're being held in a prison and not shuffled from home to home. Assuming they're even still alive.
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Date: 2006-08-14 07:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 07:22 am (UTC)"Yeah." He couldn't say more beyond that as his throat grew tighter and it was difficult to breathe let alone talk.
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Date: 2006-08-14 07:31 am (UTC)She might never see any of them again and the thought of that is starting to make it difficult to stand.
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Date: 2006-08-14 07:37 am (UTC)Memories of having to tell Caiti her mother had passed on came to mind. He wondered how she and Ryan would find out about Chris - or would they find out? Maybe they'd wait year without answers, always wondering how their family had shrunk down to two people in the span of several years.
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Date: 2006-08-14 07:47 am (UTC)She wraps her arms around herself.
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Date: 2006-08-14 07:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 07:54 am (UTC)"Okay. Thank you Ryan."
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Date: 2006-08-14 08:01 am (UTC)"Take care," Ryan says instead, hating this feeling of helplessness.
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Date: 2006-08-14 08:06 am (UTC)She nods again, resists the urge to hug him, and holding herself tighter, walks back to the bar.