Penny Dreadful fanfictionVictor and Elizabeth

Memory lane

The Sun tries to streak into the flat through the unkempt windows which are lined with dirt but the flimsy curtains get in it's way. Some light finds a way to creep through the cotton material, attempting to block out the light but only in vain. Elizabeth awoke early in the morning when the sunlight first reached her eyes. Once Elizabeth is awake, she cannot fall back asleep. So of course by the time Victor wakes up it is almost midday. But to be perfectly honest, Elizabeth let him sleep. And she will let him sleep until he is cured. You see, Elizabeth's soul may have been taken by Hecate for her selfish purposes but Elizabeth still does God's work. Elizabeth had halved Victor's morphine dosage to the extent that one day, he might not need to rely on it.

A very simple knock on the door sounded and it startled Victor awake. Elizabeth just looked at the door, slightly petrified at who may be there and slightly petrified that they will request the doctor's help to which, she would have to help them. After all, Victor always told her the basics of being a normal doctor. Reluctantly, Elizabeth took off her apron and hung it over the broken wood chair's back. With a composed face and body composure, she opened to door to find Vanessa Ives' bewildered face. It was Vanessa's first time seeing the extent of the poor where her dear friend lived. "I'm sorry, I must have the wrong place." Vanessa said in a slightly husky voice. Elizabeth noticed that she too had a very pale face and had streaks of red running from the rings around her eyes all the way to her chin.

"Are you here for the doctor?" Elizabeth asked the grown women who looked more like a victim of a horrific assault. This caused Vanessa to stop her turning around and face the girl again.

"Yes. He is my friend." Elizabeth could have turned her away but there was pity upon Elizabeth when hearing that this lady had found a friend in the ill doctor.

"Come in miss," Elizabeth started. Of course she knew exactly who Vanessa was, Hecate made clear who she was and roughly her purpose in needed to give Elizabeth an element of immortal power but, as always, Elizabeth couldn't let her get suspicious.

"Ives. Vanessa." And with that, she swept past the girl, brushing her shoulder. That was the first time the pair felt a bond. A rush of colours swept around them, flying out where they were touching. The colours started to mould together in a whirl of magic around them. The sparks of life seemed to be forming in the welded colours. An image was about to form and show a future. But Victor walked into the room, dripping in his unclean, sweaty night garments. His pallor was increased, his strength weakened to the extent that he leaned upon the wood chair and even then, he was shaking.

"Victor!" Elizabeth cried out as she ran with a worried expression on her face. She held his back and his arm strongly then wrapped him around her, begging him to retreat back to his bed. Vanessa stood, looking at her friend. She could see now that her darkness had dragged him down, the world she pushed him further into was eating away at every aspect of a happy life he had. Cautiously, Vanessa approaches her doctor and helps the girl to drag the grown man back to bed.

"NOOOO!" He shrieks out. Vanessa had never seen him so deeply troubled.

"Victor listen to me. You will get better, that is why I am here. If you don't do as I say, you will get worse. You will die and all the work you have ever done will be forgotten. Doctor Frankenstein," Elizabeth tries to encourage him. Never has she been great at motivational speeches. But somehow, he reluctantly goes with them to his room where he swiftly falls asleep. Elizabeth takes a cold damp towel and wipes his head and upper body.

"We need to change his clothes. He can't sleep in damp clothes, it isn't good for him." Vanessa just looks curiously at the girl and silently agrees to stay and help. Vanessa herself seems in a bad condition based on what Elizabeth can tell from her first sight of the women. Together, the pair work silently to take off the majority of the young doctor's clothes. Vanessa felt it necessary to leave whilst Elizabeth remembered a time when she had done this before to help him get over a cold that was threatening to become the flu.

"Victor, I'm right here okay. There's nothing wrong with this. All I'm doing is making you better, you understand that don't you?" Elizabeth was only 11 and was looking over Victor as is she were the doctor in training. Victor was ill with a cold after a midnight walk in the snow and seemed to be getting worse. Worse to the point of a possible flu.
"But Lily, you're a girl! Get my father or the town doctor. Please!" Elizabeth was really upset that he didn't value her qualities as a girl. She had spent the most part of her life around the servants, learning to be a household mother one day. She would never learn anything else.

"No. I have been taught, by yourself, to treat simple things like this so I will do it. Besides, I'm supposed to be able to do these medical treatments to a husband one day so." Elizabeth wasn't often stubborn. But when she put her mind to doing something, no one could talk her out of it. Victor lay quietly, watching his cousin take off his shirt as she rubbed a wet towel across his sweating body.

"That tickles." Victor whispers. Elizabeth's touch was really light and soft and soothing. He wanted to fall asleep but the fact that her gentleness when dabbing the towel was tickling meant he was writhing with a sort of delightful pain.

"Sorry." She replies and thinks perhaps she should do it lighter.

"NO! That's making it worse!" Victor says between huffs of laughter. Elizabeth seemed slightly shocked at first. When she was younger, her good nature would have told her to stop immediately however, now, she wanted a slice of the fun that the boys had several years ago from exploring the garden's trees. This is considered as her only hope of joy.

"Oh my," Victor exclaims as she giggles whilst watching him suffer from her tickling towel. "I am going to get you back!" Cries out Victor, almost forgetting that he is supposed to be ill. A little shriek escapes Elizabeth's mouth when he flings her onto the mattress, pushes the cover down and whips the towel away from her. He kneels by her side looking down at her bright blue eyes looking up at him. Her beautiful shimmering hair had recently been cut shorter than her shoulder but this hairstyle suited her, as did her long sheet of silkiness just weeks before. Silence overcame the pair. Then, suddenly, Victor dropped the towel and tickled his young cousin until she fell off the bed, screaming in sheer happiness.

Down the corridor, Alphonse was listening to the laughs and cries of happiness coming from his ill son's room. Cautiously, he crept along the landing to peer in at the pair, rolling on the floor. At any other time, Alphonse would have demanded the pair to behave but it has been a while since any one has seen Elizabeth laugh like she was. The compassion for one another was evident in the way they were around each other. And Alphonse could identify this in them.