A Fool Such As I (Garcy FF)

A Fool Such As I

Its the early 1960s and Flynn had made it his personal mission to make Lucy Preston smile again. He had brought her here to the mellowed, moonlight soaked drive-in under no false pretence. He heard echoes of her former accusations, back in the hotel room in 1936:

"What do you want from me, Flynn?" It had been so sharp he has winced, "You don't know me."

Even now as she sat next to him inside the sleek black Continental Mark II he 'borrowed', he could feel that same spark of challenge, indignation even, sparring between them.

"Lucy," he was facing her now, his eyes looking into hers gently but not without conviction.
Her eyes stayed fixed on the hazy screen in front of them as the opening credits rolled: in top billing was Elvis Presley.
Wild in the Country.
Flynn did not fail to notice the small grin that brought the edges of her mouth into a small, suppressed smile. One she fought hard to maintain.

Whatever Flynn was going to say in that moment was forgotten and he just found himself content with watching her watching Elvis serenade a woman with words of future goodbyes.

The lyrics flowed through the parking lot like graceful filigree, weaving between the partners in their cars, binding them together with their unshed tears, unspoken prayers.

I may not be here tomorrow

But I'm close beside you today

So lie to me a little, say you love me a lot

And I'll be true to you in my way

Love never goes on forever

At least that's what wise men all say

So smile when you kiss me, tomorrow you may cry

But I'll be true to you in my way

Yes, I'll be true to you in my way

Lucy glanced sideways at Flynn, whom she knew had been watching her for a good half an hour without so much as chuckling at young Elvis' romantic misfortune. Her gaze narrowed and she leaned closer to him, their shoulders almost touching.

"You're really not going to ask, are you?"

He chuckled lightly and with a wriggle of his eyebrows, he shook his head. "No. I don't need to."

She let out an exasperated sigh. "The journal really told you everything you need to know about me, huh?" She knew it was unfair to him, her anger just kept swelling inside her, waiting to burst.

Flynn kept his head down and said gruffly, "It's not me you're angry at, Lucy. And I don't need the journal to tell me that." It was his turn to sigh now as he angled himself toward her and leaned in as if about to pass on some slither of ancient wisdom. "Wyatt, for all his faults, is... just trying to do the right thing."

Lucy scoffed bitterly and threw her head back. The seat trembled beneath her fury. "How could anything like what happened between us be right, Flynn?"

He knew immediately that her question was not of the rhetorical variety. His answer was simple and sure.

"Because love isn't easy, Lucy. Not always."

Her mouth curved in an unsettling angle and despair crept into her face, smeared her features with a hopelessness that made Flynn's heart ache.

"I wish I could believe that, Flynn." In a final gesture of defeat, she let her head sink into the crook of Flynn's shoulder. He rested his chin atop her head and she felt his warm breath upon her forehead, tickling the hairline.

"Someday soon, Lucy, all of this will make sense. You and Wyatt...you'll work things out."

She smiled faintly and squeezed his arm lightly before adding groggily, "Is this why you asked me, Flynn? To convince me to forgive Wyatt?"

He smiled too, but not for long. "No," he said softly into her hair, "I asked you here because you need to know that our futures can always change and, sometimes, our pasts can't. Not really."

She sat up and looked at him squarely, "Flynn, what're you saying?"

He closed his eyes briefly, silently scolding himself. Just come out with it, fool!

He shook his head and took his hand in hers. She looked down at their fingers, oddly and yet pleasantly entangled between their laps, and blinked.

"You'll forgive him, Lucy. You heart is too generous for you not to."

She was still staring at their hands, at what all of it possibly meant. What did it mean?

"But...what about you?" she met his stare with shiny eyes. Her stomach was in knots. Her hands trembled in his. All of this-he did it for her. He reached over to glide his thumb across her cheek, vanishing her tears

Blinking away his own tears that threatened to fall, he said at last: "Now and then, there's a fool such as I." And he took her hands to his lips and kissed them as the rustling of the film continued in the background. They sat like that for a long time and eventually, Flynn's arm found its way around Lucy's small shoulder.