Viggo was sitting at the window again. He didn't know why he had to keep sitting here. There was nothing to see, nothing to wait for. Outside, there was equally nothing. No traffic, no noise, just emptiness, always the emptiness.
There had been nothing since... since, when? How many years now? He'd served his sentence; fifteen long, bleak-awful years of clattering bars, raucous voices, stale dirty air, and the night noises. Oh, the night noises... retchings, spittings, groans, the whines, even for four years, the prayers. And always the suppressed groans as men relieved themselves of their dreams.
There had been just the one man, only one. Young, tall, fair and open-faced, with an Irish sounding name, Sean. Sean Bean, and he was training to be a Prison Guard, with especial duties for the ones who wished to end it all, the 'Suicide Watch' he was aiming for. Once he'd asked the young pretty boy why he'd chosen to watch for the self-killers,
"Why not let them take their own lives, and save the world a load of grief?"
Sean had replied "Because there must be some light there for them! Life can't be so very bad that you want to end the only one you'll ever have? There IS only one life, and you don't get no practice runs at this game..."
Viggo thought back. On a head so young, to have such a wisdom ? He'd always thought in his young days, that there WAS no death, no ending. There was always plenty of time to go back and start all over.... Now, yes, he could see now. There was no time to go back, no chance of any 're-doing' to stop the wrongs... the utterance of bitter words, throwing hate and spite, until it all led to the inevitable with the blows, then the beatings, and then... then the idiotic grab at the hammer from the bench, and that unintentional, but oh so accurate full-arm-swing. No practice runs for that.
Sean had stopped by on his night-duty rounds, many times for whispered chats, as Sean knew sleep evaded Viggo. Not for any nightmares, or conscience reasons; his just wasn't a 'sleep' sort of body. It had been pleasant to listen to him, he had a melodious voice, slightly accented from the mid-west somewhere, although he said he had been born in Boston. His parents were still alive and his three brothers and a sister were all well-grown and settled with their own families.
Sean himself didn't feel the need for a family of his own. He regarded the whole world as his family, and he didn't want any member of that family to feel excluded, lost or hopeless. It was his duty, his 'meaning' to help those that needed help, to offer an ear to the gripes and moans, and if he could, to give helpful meaningful adivce. "No 'pull yourself together' stuff, just commonsense words they could reach for and hold on to... and no preachings - ever!"
He wondered, as he shivered in that cold damp room, where Sean was now? He could do with a chat, someone to listen to his gripes,his whines and for the wise head of young Sean Bean to give him some advice on where he could go now?
He'd given up then, it was hopeless, and he had gone to bed, as he did so often these days, cold, lonely, and just waiting...
---oOo--
Four months later, at the godforsaken hour of 7.35 a m. The doors of the Unemployment Office were unlocked at 7.30 prompt, but the stations weren't manned until an hour later. Then it was wait and wait until your number was called, as if you were a string of sausages waiting to be processed and packeted.
Sitting in the room, grey, echoing, although it was filled with the sort of people he had left behind in prison, the coughers, the whiners, the moaners, the spitters... they didn't change, any of them.
His name was called. "No 256 - window 14!" Tripping over the plastic bag left by a now collapsed drunk, he went to the plain metal chair in front of the grilled window, another grill! Always there are BARS !! A paper slid in front of him,
"Fill this in please - your full name, and if you have an address?"
Viggo looked up. There he was - older, much older, even a touch of grey at his temples, but it was him. It was Sean - the Prison Guard... the hopeful, wise, young man who wanted to help the world! He blurted
"Hey Sean - its me! No 342789, Block 3414. Hey, boy - how are you? Why - what are are you doing here? What's with? Where’s the the prison guarding - why?" The questions poured out of him. Realising he couldn't expect Sean to answer such a flurry of demands, he hesitated, and then just wrote on the paper 'My address! Come and see me, tonight. I'll do the food - and NO BOOZE' and shoved it under the reinforced glass.
Sean took the paper, folded it, and placed it carefully into his inner pocket. Then he pushed another form across, to be completed for the weekly payment. He also looked at No 342789, smiled, winked and nodded quietly but firmly "yes".
That evening, No 342789 - NO! No more. He was Viggo, the person, the human being. He washed thoroughly, even in that cold water; he had changed into the only really decent tee-shirt he possessed, and begged Iris next door to press his pants. He had polished the meager chair and dressing-table, the bedhead, and the cracked leaky washbasin. There were flowers in a toothmug on the pattern-shredded paper acting as a 'doily', the flowers 'acquired' from passing the window boxes of the richer houses back along into the Town. He was for once, active, forward-looking. He had a "Friend, an old Friend from long ago, who he'd never forgotten..."
Viggo again by the window. The sun was shining on the street that had always before seemed so dark, so empty, dirty, so unloveable, but today children ran, women in gaily coloured headscarves shopped and chattered. His world had changed, all because of a young man, now a middle-aged man, who had been so sanguine about his ability to help, and to change lives. A man of hope who had " 'willed the darkness out of me'... who was that poet?" He'd look him up in the public library tomorrow. It was... oh, he'd remember in just a while..."
There was even a canary singing full-heartedly, somewhere...
Summary: I Will take your darkness from you...
Rated: G
Categories: Actor RPS Pairing: Sean/Viggo
Warnings: NoneChallenges:
Series: NoneChapters: 1 Completed: Yes
Word count: 1109 Read: 1287
Published: 03 Sep 2011 Updated: 03 Sep 2011