[locked against CLF & those in the Society]

[rawly]

Josef Soltini and Elizabeth Jules died earlier today.



I am very sorry for your loss for those of you that knew either or both of them.

Comments

[rawly]

[FOREVER :| :| :| ;_;]

You are. If there is anyone I've ever met who could be unstoppable, it would be you. [HEY, even if it is partly from loopy tiredness, there really is no one else that makes him laugh or smile as much as she does.

So it is a victory, a victory of Lena's.

There's a slight pause at what she says. Yes, there's forever the desire to protect everyone else especially the ones who have a lot of life to live still, a lot of promise for the life in front of them. He wants them to have everything they want family, houses of their own, adventures that don't have so much death and destruction in it.

It's a helpless thing, but he nods knowing it won't be any toher way. They won't let it be any other way, and it wouldn't be right of him to try to make it that way.]

We'll look.

Yeah, I remember.

I can't help... wanting it, okay? You can't blame me for that.

[It's very hard to remain positive, but it's important. It's important to be both realistic but positive, because the negativity could overwhelm them all.

And then they'd have no chance.]

We will.

We have to.

[She's gained more time, and e wants her to have that. He wants John to have that too, more than he can say.

He smirks at the sound of her laughter.]

Thank you. I knew you were the best secret creeper.

[Sonny pauses too.

He glances up at her, tilting his head thoughtfully.

And then he laughs when she says it's not a bad thing since that's the first thing that his mind goes to.]

Whether it was a bad thing or it wasn't, I would keep your secret from everyone else.

Whatever it was.

[Sonny rests his hand against her arm gently, giving her a light squeeze of reassurance.

AND THEY ARE SO CUTE jrkel;areja; wai] You have my word.

[willnotbemine.livejournal.com]

[GIRL :| :| :| :| :| :| :|]

You are just full of flattery today, aren't you? I'd wonder if you were a pod!Sonny if what you were saying wasn't just so damn true.

[She is smirking, as she does not genuinely think so highly of herself.

It's just really, really nice to see that he can smile and he can eat when he's nudged toward it and he's trying, despite the very horrible things she is sure that he saw and felt throughout the entirety of tonight.

Lena can't picture it. If she tries, she feels sick.

So being here with him like this is reassuring, and it keeps the rest away.]

I don't blame you for it. I can't, or I'd be a hypocrite.

In my ideal world, I'd keep you all under lock and key forever in this bar as we made an underground world for ourselves in the basement and there would be no need whatsoever to go outside.

[But that's not living.

She would love to protect them from the bad, but there's also the understanding that by doing so, she would also be protecting them from the good.

And there's still a lot of good in Chicago.

Life doesn't stop.

Even if you sometimes feel as if it should.

It should when something so unspeakable has happened.]

I am!

Sometimes. When it comes to life and death things and this would surely constitute life and death.

[Gates never has to know.]

Okay. I trust that that's true or I wouldn't tell you, but I know we all often jump to the worst conclusion and this is not.

This is the opposite of the worst conclusion.

[THEY ARE THE CUTEST, augh. I can't. ;;

She takes a deep breath and can't stop the small, almost helpless smile that spreads across her face as she grabs at the chain around her neck to lift it up from her shirt.

He'll know before she's even said, as the beautiful ring dangles from the chain, glinting against the soft light of the lamp.]

Lucky asked me to marry him.

[rawly]

[dealwithit.gif. :x]

It is completely true, and hey, I can give flattery. Sometimes. When it's true and I feel like it.

[And he's loopy, but no, he believes everything that he is saying. Even in his flattery.

However, he can. Somehow. It's not always going to be something he can do, no matter how much he's prodded, but he promised John when he'd shut everyone out before and he promised himself when Lena and he-- they started mending their relationship again, something he thought was impossible- He promised himself that he would always try to let his family in.

To not lock his door.

As long as it was within him to try, as he could get the energy to try and even some times when he couldn't.]

That is absolutely the ideal world, bu we don't live in that world.

And if we were all locked up in the basement, you'd miss the sunshine along with everything else that goes on up here.

[But he's smiling a little since he knows that she knows that.

Sonny could be relatively okay locked up like that with all of them, but he basically does that as is. However, he would miss actually running the business and miss reaching contacts and having meetings and having people come to him for help or with help.

Other than that though, he doesn't get out much and would be comfortable with it but he knows her and how she likes to travel, how they all like to get outside, smell the roses.

Take a moment to breathe it in.

It wouldn't work, but there are times when he'd like to do that too. In an ideal world.]

This does constitute life and death here.

And many other things are on the line so it's an important secret to keep.

[The most important. >>]

Okay, I like that for a change. I like that it's the opposite of a worst conclusion because in tis city, it' sthe worst ones that tend to be true.

[SERIOUSLY ;_; rjkel;arj;la CANNOT

Sonny looks up at er as she takes a deep breath followed by that smile. He knows it's big before she's even said it, and he'd half thought she was talking about something that would end up being silly

Or nothing quite so big as whatever it is. And he does know the moment that she takes the ring out from where it's been hidden. Sonny stares, and it hits him.

He is immediately filled with happiness, beyond what should be possible on a night like this after everything that has happened and everything that has been lost and how the stakes have increased.]

That... explains a whole fuckin' lot.

[Sonny had noticed a change in them. Something that went beyond words, he understands now and he tugs her from the arm rest, pushes himself to his feet, and wraps his arms around her hugging her tight.

He's so happy that his eyes are actually burning with tears. He's so fucking happy for her, because he knows she never thought it was a possibility for herself. They talked about this before, about a dream she had where he was walking her down the aisle.

And neither of them thought it would ever become reality, her walking down that aisle.]

Congratulations. [He can't even joke for a moment, because it fills him and it fills him whole.

And what a terrible cost it was to buy her more time, to buy this future, but it was worth it.

It was worth it knowing what waits her, what she always has deserved but never thought she could have. And he's still hugging her tightly.] I'm so happy for you. [He's so happy. Period. This deep kind of happiness that reaches beyond all the rest.

She's his daughter, and she's getting married to someone who will love and protect and cherish her and love her like she deserves.]

[willnotbemine.livejournal.com]

[:x]

I'm still going to be basking in the moment. It's not impossible no, but the probabilities are always so slim.

[Lena knows the difference.

She knows the difference between Sonny locking his door and Sonny trying to leave it open, both literally and figuratively. She is aware of the fact it takes effort and she both appreciates and is grateful to him for it. They all have those moments where it's difficult.

But so much has happened, with all of them but between Lena and Sonny especially, that they aren't really going to let distance create itself at a time like this one.

It'd be the worst thing any of them could do, and she has no intention of shutting anyone out, either.]

No, we live in the opposite of an ideal world. But... I think I like it better. Whenever I think of ideal I think of that black and white movie where everyone's eerily happy and it's all 1950s Stepford Wives and everything is always fine.

Technicolor clusterfucked worlds are better, in the end.

[She would not deprive any of them of that.

There's a lot to fear in a city and a world like this one, but there's also so much that's wonderful. Even the Rift itself can throw out something completely amazing and to miss out on something like that because you wanted to keep yourself and others safe...

Well, it's not really living.

And she does know that, too.]

I know. I'd say we're fatalists since we usually do jump to the worst conclusion, but it's hardly fatalism when it turns out that the worst conclusion is often the right one.

But... no. This is very much the opposite.

[And it's because they had that conversation so long ago, almost a year ago really, when she still thought she'd have such little time, that she would want him to be the first to know, at least with her being the one to say it.

Usually, Lena would've built the suspense to end it with something extremely silly and casual, like having eaten the last slice of Lou's key lime pie.

This is not one of those times.

There is happiness and nerves, the good kind, but there is also a quiet and calm nature to it. Both because the decision has never made more sense to her and because of everything that happened tonight.]

We hadn't really wanted to say anything until the smoke clears and things settle down again, but I'd been wanting to tell you.

It's not going to happen for a while, but it is going to happen.

[The smile brightens and deepens all at once and she goes where he tugs, sliding her arms around his middle and hugging him back tightly.

She laughs a little, dazed and tearful and nods against him, tightening her hug briefly.]

Thank you. It really means a lot to me.

[There are other things she has to say, and she will want him to be the one walking her down the aisle, but those things can wait, they don't have to be spoken of in a night like this one.

Not after what he lost and what it cost him.

But it's her way of saying she has something she is looking forward to, something she will want to live to see through, and she will be extra careful, and she wants him being extra careful, too.

Since she can't imagine him not being there.

Lena smiles into his shoulder and takes a deep breath, thinking back to that very same cost. The guilt and the terribleness of it that will never fully leave her whenever she thinks back to it.

What it took and what it also cost, but despite all of that, she can't regret it, either.

Not when it led her here.

It was a terrible, terrible cost and that's exactly why Lena will make sure it never goes to waste.

Not even for one moment.]