Inevitable outtake -- Falling From Grace (Jason POV)

[mhalachai]

Falling From Grace
An Inevitable missing scene

Disclaimer: Laurell K. Hamilton owns all things Anita Blake. JK Rowling owns all things Harry Potter. Inevitable is mine, however.
Rating: PG
Note: A missing scene for my awesome readers. Takes place during chapter 64, just after Anita took off from Jason's room, and before Nathaniel goes to see her. As per the winner in the poll, this one is in Jason's POV
Spoilers: Spoilers for Inevitable up to chapter 64. Is that really a spoiler? Maybe.

~~~~~

Nathaniel's shoulders stiffened, then slowly he turned around, arms crossed over his chest. "No, nothing's wrong," he said flippantly, tossing his head to get his hair out of his eyes. The stare he was giving me was cold, unlike anything I'd ever seen from him before. "Nothing at all."

Anita, Chapter 64 of Inevitable

~~~~~

Jason pushed his door shut and whirled on Nathaniel. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "She was just--"

Nathaniel shook his head, then, to Jason's surprise, dropped to a crouch and curled his arms around his legs. Distress radiated from the young wereleopard.

Swearing under his breath, Jason went down to his knees beside his friend. "What's going on?" he asked, putting one hand on Nathaniel's back. "Anita wanted to see how you were, if she could help. You know she's like that. She's really worried."

Nathaniel shook his head against his knees.

Jason restrained the urge to start shouting. The only thing shouting at Nathaniel ever got him was accusing looks from the other pard members and a smack-down from Anita. "Why do you keep pushing her away?"

Slowly, Nathaniel uncurled and crawled over to the bed. Jason watched as he sat on the bed and put his elbows on his knees, an oddly graceless move. Nathaniel's shortened hair swung in front of his eyes. Stephen had trimmed the ends of his hair, to make it look less horrible, but it was still so strange to see Nathaniel without his cape of auburn hair, almost like he was unfinished.

Jason sat beside Nathaniel, wrapping his arm around Nathaniel's shoulders. "Do you want any help reworking your sets at the club?" Jason offered.

Nathaniel turned his head. "What?"

"Most of your sets used your hair as a prop," Jason said, voice faltering as Nathaniel stared at him. "If you want some help, you know..."

"You don't have to do that," Nathaniel muttered, dropping his head.

Helpless, Jason sat there, wishing he knew what do to. He hated seeing his friend in such distress. And why was he pushing Anita away? Anyone could see that Anita was incredibly worried about Nathaniel. Not for the first time, Jason wondered what it would be like to have a woman love him like Anita loved Nathaniel. He'd give almost anything to find a woman like that.

A prickling power trickled into the room, like a million tiny ants walking over Jason's skin. He shot to his feet and tried to shake the sensation off, but the power only grew.

Moments later, the door crashed open and Jean-Claude stalked into the room. Powerful anger oozed off him. Jean-Claude stopped in front of Nathaniel, glaring down at the young wereleopard. Nathaniel curled over, trying to make himself as small as possible in the face of such anger.

"For years, I chased ma petite," Jean-Claude said, his voice harsh as a freezing lash. "For years, I sought her love, sought to be anything she needed me to be, if only she would love me in return. Now she does."

The vampire grabbed a handful of Nathaniel's hair, pulling the wereleopard's head back, exposing his neck. Nathaniel seemed frozen.

"When I see her in pain, I seek to end that pain." Jean-Claude roughly let go of Nathaniel. "You spent years worming your way into her life, making her love you, making her desire to protect you. You succeed perfectly. She now loves you with more emotion than reason. And you reject that!"

"You don't..." Nathaniel tried to say, but his voice failed him.

"She lies alone, in my bed," Jean-Claude went on. "Every time you have rejected her this week is not different than if you were to raise your hand to her in violence." The vampire went to the door, but stopped before leaving. "I do know her, and I know this: If you keep pushing her away, one day she will stop coming to you. You will have destroyed the love she has for you, and it will be no one's fault but your own."

"No, it won't!" Nathaniel exclaimed, his eyes wild. "She won't!"

Jean-Claude gripped the edge of the door so hard that the wood creaked. "I love her more than anything else in this world. If you drive her away, the guilt and the pain will kill a small part of her, and I will not allow that to happen." He glanced over his shoulder at Nathaniel. "She is in my room."

The vampire vanished.

Nathaniel gripped the side of the bed, shaking. Jason edged over. "She wouldn't... hate me, would she?" Nathaniel whispered.

In a tiny, private portion of his mind, Jason cursed Jean-Claude for his intervention. Yes, Nathaniel and Anita needed to work things out, but terrifying Nathaniel like this wasn't helping anyone. "I think that Anita loves you and wants to help," Jason said carefully.

"But you don't understand!" Nathaniel exclaimed. "Once she starts thinking about what happened, she's going to make me leave and I can't--" His voice broke. "I can't live without her. I can't sit there and have her tell me to get out of her life."

"She's not going to make you leave!" Jason said quickly. "What are you talking about?"

Nathaniel shook his head.

Jason wanted to scream. "Go talk to Anita, she'll tell you that you're crazy!"

"If I talk to her, she's going to realize that I'm right." Nathaniel rubbed his thumb over the back of his hand, the one that Jason heard had been cut off by that psychopath.

"No, if you talk to her, she'll set you straight!" Jason put his arm around Nathaniel and bodily hauled him up into a standing position. "Anita's not like any woman I've ever met. Once she loves someone, that's for always. She'll do anything to make it work. Just go talk to her!"

Nathaniel didn't move. "If she kicks me out, I'll have nowhere to go."

"You can come back here," Jason said quickly. "But she's not going to kick you out. I promise."

Still, Nathaniel stayed frozen. Jason knew better than to push. He stayed with Nathaniel for several very long minutes, his arm around the wereleopard, feeling his vibrating hesitation.

Finally, Nathaniel took a step toward the door, then another. He stopped, and looked over his shoulder at Jason. Jason tried to smile encouragingly. "Have faith in Anita," he said. "She loves you ."

Nathaniel squared his shoulders. "She should be smarter than that," he muttered before he walked out the door.

Jason was left alone in his room, wondering what the hell Nathaniel meant.

--fin

Comments

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Interesting how it's the power equal as opposed to the place in Anita's life that's the threat to Jean-Claude.

the part I like about Laurell's writing that without saying what JC is donog off-screen, we can kind of get an idea, or at least hints. Same with all of them. Is it June yet?

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

Interesting how it's the power equal as opposed to the place in Anita's life that's the threat to Jean-Claude.

This hints at the idea that Jean-Claude is older than he's letting on, more likely High Medieval than Renaissance. In the medieval mindset, there was the Great Chain of Being, in which everyone and everything had his/her/its place, both in this world and the other worlds, the homes of demons, angels and other spirits. People on the higher spots of the chain weren't jealous of those lower down, and everyone on the chain owed fealty to whoever was above them on it, all the way up to God Himself.

Nathaniel's position is akin to that of the traditional role of a wife, the supportive, receptive, subordinate helpmeet. (Richard himself has commented on how Nathaniel acts like he's Anita's wife.) As such, JC probably sees him not so much as an independent being, but as an accesory of Anita's, subordinate to her. (And this pisses off Richard to no end, because, with his more modern mindset, he sees this as Nathaniel being a cunning little sneaky snot, stooping to conquer.)

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

This hints at the idea that Jean-Claude is older than he's letting on, more likely High Medieval than Renaissance.

I think he said that he's over 400, which puts him being born around 1600. Which is that? I'm pants at history.

In the medieval mindset, there was the Great Chain of Being, in which everyone and everything had his/her/its place, both in this world and the other worlds, the homes of demons, angels and other spirits. People on the higher spots of the chain weren't jealous of those lower down, and everyone on the chain owed fealty to whoever was above them on it, all the way up to God Himself.

K, this is totally it. That makes a lot of sense. It echos what the Council seems to think of itself, casting itself in the role of God, of course.

As such, JC probably sees him not so much as an independent being, but as an accesory of Anita's, subordinate to her. (And this pisses off Richard to no end, because, with his more modern mindset, he sees this as Nathaniel being a cunning little sneaky snot, stooping to conquer.)

Yup. Hell, even Nathaniel probably sees himself as part of Anita. He wants to belong to someone, need someone to tell him what to do, how to be. Richard can't fathom that, and he keeps trying to put Nathaniel into a position that he understands.

One day, if I'm up for a challenge, I'll write a Nathaniel and Richard fic. That will be a challenge.

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

I think he said that he's over 400, which puts him being born around 1600. Which is that? I'm pants at history.

Well, the Renaissance had technically been going on for about 150 years or so, but it took a while to reach all of Europe, and not everyone accepted the breaking of the feudal order. Jean-Claude, being of peasant stock, probably had the old ways literally beaten into him; in addition, the vampire world is run along feudal lines, where subordinate vamps must usually take whatever the higher-ups dish out. JC no doubt wanted to rebel from it, but it's a part of his being and affects how he considers things.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Being the whipping boy to a lord's son probably didn't make that distinction any easier.

Now I want to go and read more about the Renaissance. If only they had a place in town with books, free books, catologued according to subject...

(don't mind me, just being a ditz)