badly_knitted (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
badly_knitted) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomweekly2025-01-23 02:50 pm
badly_knitted) wrote in fandomweekly2025-01-23 02:50 pm
Entry tags:
[#247] Saying Goodbye (Torchwood)
Theme Prompt: #247 – Lost For Words
Title: Saying Goodbye
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG / Very sad fic. Sorry!
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Meriel was their first child, and saying goodbye to her is even more difficult than Jack and Ianto had expected it to be.
Meriel was gone, their firstborn child, their little girl, just slipped away peacefully in her sleep as they’d known she was going to. It was why they were here, sitting beside her bed, because where else could they be during their daughter’s final hours of life? But now that it was over, there was nothing they could say, no final tribute the could offer for someone who had been such a huge part of their lives; it was fair to say they were lost for words.
Both Jack and Ianto knew they shouldn’t be sad for her, Meriel had enjoyed a wonderful life, a long and happy marriage, three beautiful and much loved children, seven grandchildren… there was even a great grandchild on the way, and now she’d never meet the baby, never get to fuss over it, spoil it rotten the way she had her grandkids. But that was sadder for the child than for Meriel herself.
Sean, Meriel’s husband, had passed away four years earlier, at the age of eighty-nine, and Jack, Ianto, and Nosy had returned from their work as earth’s ambassadors out among the stars to be there for her and console her as best they could. That had been difficult, seeing their daughter’s grief at losing the man she’d loved for almost seventy years, but this… this was so much harder.
Nosy, and Meriel’s Fluff Snuffles, hummed sadly, knowing that the life of their friend was now over, then turned their attention to comforting the two living humans who sat, staring numbly at nothing, arms wrapped around each other.
Even knowing for Meriel’s entire life that this day would inevitably come along at some point did nothing to cushion the blow. They still remembered their oldest daughter as a baby, a toddler, a schoolgirl, a teenager, a bride, a mother, but the last thing they wanted was to remember her like this, so still, her soul gone somewhere neither of them could follow.
Perhaps she was with Sean again now, watching over their children from some invisible, undetectable realm, so no, they couldn’t be sad for their princess now, but they could be sad for themselves, because for all that they had in their lives, their children had always been more precious than any of their material possessions, or even their Fluff, and that was how it should be. They still had the twins and Rosie, but they were all in their eighties, and like Meriel, they wouldn’t live forever. In a few more years they would all be gone, leaving only their descendants behind, and that knowledge weighed heavily on the shoulders of the two immortals, all the more real to them now.
Nosy rested its fluffy head on Ianto’s lap, and Snuffles did the same with Jack. Instinctively, the two men stroked the Fluffs’ thick green fur, soothing some of their pain with the familiar gesture. Merial had told them not to cry when she was gone, but that was asking the impossible, so it was a good thing they hadn’t made any promises they couldn’t keep.
They held tightly to each other, stroking the two Fluffs, tears rolling down their faces, still not having spoken a single word since their daughter had breathed her last; there simply weren’t any words to express what they were feeling. Jack couldn’t think of anything that would make his husband feel even slightly better, and Ianto had never been much of a talker anyway. They both sighed heavily, tightening their arms around each other a little more.
The rest of the household would have to be told soon, the entire family had gathered to say their goodbyes, but there was no point waking them so early, not when they’d probably be getting up in an hour or two anyway. Let them sleep a little longer, if they could; the day would be filled with enough sadness, finalising funeral arrangements, and informing friends, and surely that could wait a while longer.
Softly the two Fluffs began to hum the tune to an old, old song, one of Meri’s favourites from when she was a child, making music in a way that only Fluffs could, so that even though they couldn’t sing the words, they created perfect harmony, reaching even the highest notes with ease. It was a song their daughter had often sung, even before she learned all the words, one that Jack had sung to her as a lullaby when she was a baby, and her parents turned to each other, smiling through their tears.
“Meri would’ve loved to hear this,” Jack murmured.
Ianto simply nodded agreement, his throat too tight to allow for speech.
Nothing would ever be the same again, but that was life; everything changed from day to day, and there was never any going back to how it had been. Even time travel couldn’t recapture what was gone. They’d get through this, and so would the rest of their family, moving forward with their lives for as long as they were granted by fate and circumstance. In time the pain would ease, and they’d be able to remember the good times with a smile, but not just yet.
Only Jack and Ianto were forever, but that made it possible for everyone they ever loved to live on in their memories. Their little girl may have gone to whatever came after this earthbound, physical existence, but maybe, sometime very far into the future, when the universe they knew finally ended and time itself ran out, they would find her again in the next life, along with all their other departed family and friends. Perhaps this wasn’t really goodbye at all, but just farewell for now.
Straightening his back, Jack picked up the words to the song in a shaky voice that gradually gained in strength.
“Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high…” and after a moment, Ianto joined in, his voice a little hoarse but surprisingly steady, singing their daughter to her rest.
The End
Both Jack and Ianto knew they shouldn’t be sad for her, Meriel had enjoyed a wonderful life, a long and happy marriage, three beautiful and much loved children, seven grandchildren… there was even a great grandchild on the way, and now she’d never meet the baby, never get to fuss over it, spoil it rotten the way she had her grandkids. But that was sadder for the child than for Meriel herself.
Sean, Meriel’s husband, had passed away four years earlier, at the age of eighty-nine, and Jack, Ianto, and Nosy had returned from their work as earth’s ambassadors out among the stars to be there for her and console her as best they could. That had been difficult, seeing their daughter’s grief at losing the man she’d loved for almost seventy years, but this… this was so much harder.
Nosy, and Meriel’s Fluff Snuffles, hummed sadly, knowing that the life of their friend was now over, then turned their attention to comforting the two living humans who sat, staring numbly at nothing, arms wrapped around each other.
Even knowing for Meriel’s entire life that this day would inevitably come along at some point did nothing to cushion the blow. They still remembered their oldest daughter as a baby, a toddler, a schoolgirl, a teenager, a bride, a mother, but the last thing they wanted was to remember her like this, so still, her soul gone somewhere neither of them could follow.
Perhaps she was with Sean again now, watching over their children from some invisible, undetectable realm, so no, they couldn’t be sad for their princess now, but they could be sad for themselves, because for all that they had in their lives, their children had always been more precious than any of their material possessions, or even their Fluff, and that was how it should be. They still had the twins and Rosie, but they were all in their eighties, and like Meriel, they wouldn’t live forever. In a few more years they would all be gone, leaving only their descendants behind, and that knowledge weighed heavily on the shoulders of the two immortals, all the more real to them now.
Nosy rested its fluffy head on Ianto’s lap, and Snuffles did the same with Jack. Instinctively, the two men stroked the Fluffs’ thick green fur, soothing some of their pain with the familiar gesture. Merial had told them not to cry when she was gone, but that was asking the impossible, so it was a good thing they hadn’t made any promises they couldn’t keep.
They held tightly to each other, stroking the two Fluffs, tears rolling down their faces, still not having spoken a single word since their daughter had breathed her last; there simply weren’t any words to express what they were feeling. Jack couldn’t think of anything that would make his husband feel even slightly better, and Ianto had never been much of a talker anyway. They both sighed heavily, tightening their arms around each other a little more.
The rest of the household would have to be told soon, the entire family had gathered to say their goodbyes, but there was no point waking them so early, not when they’d probably be getting up in an hour or two anyway. Let them sleep a little longer, if they could; the day would be filled with enough sadness, finalising funeral arrangements, and informing friends, and surely that could wait a while longer.
Softly the two Fluffs began to hum the tune to an old, old song, one of Meri’s favourites from when she was a child, making music in a way that only Fluffs could, so that even though they couldn’t sing the words, they created perfect harmony, reaching even the highest notes with ease. It was a song their daughter had often sung, even before she learned all the words, one that Jack had sung to her as a lullaby when she was a baby, and her parents turned to each other, smiling through their tears.
“Meri would’ve loved to hear this,” Jack murmured.
Ianto simply nodded agreement, his throat too tight to allow for speech.
Nothing would ever be the same again, but that was life; everything changed from day to day, and there was never any going back to how it had been. Even time travel couldn’t recapture what was gone. They’d get through this, and so would the rest of their family, moving forward with their lives for as long as they were granted by fate and circumstance. In time the pain would ease, and they’d be able to remember the good times with a smile, but not just yet.
Only Jack and Ianto were forever, but that made it possible for everyone they ever loved to live on in their memories. Their little girl may have gone to whatever came after this earthbound, physical existence, but maybe, sometime very far into the future, when the universe they knew finally ended and time itself ran out, they would find her again in the next life, along with all their other departed family and friends. Perhaps this wasn’t really goodbye at all, but just farewell for now.
Straightening his back, Jack picked up the words to the song in a shaky voice that gradually gained in strength.
“Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high…” and after a moment, Ianto joined in, his voice a little hoarse but surprisingly steady, singing their daughter to her rest.
The End
no subject
no subject
Thank you!