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Only So Much A Man Can Take[Closed]

Started by Zero, April 03, 2014, 02:49:32 PM

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Zero

This post for the time being is really just to sum up what is going on with Gabriel Coleridge through some troubling events with his rocky marriage.


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Ever since the ball Gabriel hadn't been eating or sleeping properly. For months he seemed to wallow in his abject misery. The woman he loved, his wife, had scorned his attempts to even speak with her, she'd actually seemed tense when he tried to display any affection towards her. Valia's cold withdrawal from him had begun even before their son had been born. They had been so passionate at first, he had foolishly been optimistic that things would be wonderful between them.

It was a hard truth to swallow – he was a fool. Gabriel realized that Valia never had loved him, and probably never would. Valia only loved herself. Why then could he not convince his heart to withdraw as she had? Ansgar helped him, but he loved that woman and couldn't understand why. Even his logical process of thought agreed that Valia was no good for him. The woman had done nothing but bring him trouble and misery from the day they met.

No. That isn't true at all. His heart protested viciously. There in his room, slumped into a plush chair in the sitting area before the fireplace, Gabriel Coleridge smiled for the first time in months. It was a small, anguished smile, but a smile nonetheless, as thoughts of her smiles, her blushes, and the sweet sounds of her appreciation as he lovingly worshipped her body flittered across his mind. Those all too short months of amorous bliss were something he wouldn't ever want to forget or regret – no matter how pained things had become.

A knock at his door wiped that tiny flicker of a smile from his lips, face turning cold and hard again as green eyes glared at the door in annoyance – almost trying to will whoever it was to just go away. He didn't need any servants bothering him right now. Damn idiots had been pressing for weeks to get into his room and look after things, but he always sent them away without even trying to disguise his contempt of their intrusion on his misery.

It certainly wasn't a servant, there wasn't one bold enough to throw open his door, sweep through and slam it behind them. Especially not right now. Since the 'disagreement' with Valia at the ball the help around here had been jumping if he so much as glanced in their direction. Before the trouble with Valia nobody had even realized that Gabriel Coleridge even had a temper, let alone such a vicious one. Everyone was talking about it, about Valia, about his son(some still debated this), and about his marriage. It was enough to drive him insane.

So there he sat, green eyes flashing dangerously as he stared straight into eyes that were equally as green as his own – and that were equally as dangerous.


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Cyrus swept his eyes over his half-brother with a scowl of displeasure. It was common for him to appear disheveled, but Gabriel never was. Not until the ball, that was. His eyes raked scathingly over the unkempt hair, unshaved jaw, and haunted look in his brother's deep green eyes. Gabriel looked like hell, the haggard appearance was causing distressing talk throughout Orchy, though it was being carefully controlled as best as possible. As few people knew just how bad of shape the heir to Orchy was in right now, the better. Even Cyrus had to agree with that.

Sighing and letting his eyes fall off his brother, he swept a hand through his unruly dark curls, knowing that Gabriel would be very unhappy to see him, of all people. They didn't get along in the best of times, and now was far from good times, but things were getting out of hand and someone had to say something. Lillian would have been the best one to deal with Gabriel, but she was in Reajh and couldn't just drop her duties there to come home to comfort her brother because he was fighting with his wife.

Since Evelyn didn't seem to care about her brother's misery – she actually seemed kind of delighted by it, cruel bitch that she was – it only left him, because their father sure as hell wasn't going to do it. Sighing again he earned a hard glare for walking over uninvited to a liquor cart, pouring two generous portions of bourbon into two glasses. As he took the seat next to Gabriel and offered the drink, silence filled the room. The tension was palpable.

A small tinge of relief plucked at him as Gabriel accepted the drink and both men sipped in silence at the liquor, savoring the familiar burn. The tension mounted as the silence dragged on until it was wound so tight it snapped completely. Instead of a violent outburst – almost expected given their general dislike for each other – Cyrus began laughing uncontrollably, almost manically, as what he thought was a hilarious thought crossed his mind.

Gabriel's initial expression was rage, then annoyance, to utter confusion as he watched Cyrus laugh. "What's so fucking funny?" The blonde man groused. That only made the dark haired man laugh harder.

Cyrus managed to still his laugher after another few minutes of deadly glares from his brother, but he flashed his world-famous winning grin – which really only worked on the ladies – and smirked with a twinkle of mischief in his green eyes. Indicating their drinks he chuckled again. "You've been moping for months, doing little other than sitting here in the dark drinking, and I came to snap you out of this terrifying funk of yours that has the help cowering in the corners, but here I am, encouraging you to drink more."

For the longest time Gabriel could only stare at his brother incredulously. They were so different, in appearance and in attitude, but for the briefest of moments, he could admit to himself that this man was definitely his brother. After what seemed forever that hard façade cracked, Gabriel's lips quirking slightly in a grin, and for the first time in a long time, he threw his head back and laughed. His brother joined him a moment later and they laughed until they were both bent over double, tears leaking from the corners of their eyes.

When they finally regained control of themselves, Gabriel roughly wiped the tears from his face, and he actually felt lighter than he had in a long, long, long time. He cracked another grin at his brother before getting up and putting his glass back on the cart. Gabriel didn't even look at the decanter that still held plenty of the amber bourbon. Scrubbing his face with his hands wearily before running his fingers through his mess of blonde hair he shook his head, realizing just how rough he must look. It wasn't like him and it was no wonder he was sending his servants into fits by his erratic and atypical behavior.

Cyrus grinned as he got up, put his glass aside, clapped his brother on the shoulder good-naturedly and nodded his head as he headed for the door. "I'll leave you to it, then, brother. Get straightened up and come down to see father, there's a lot going on lately!"

Gabriel shook his head, wondering how the hell Cyrus had done it. They'd barely spoken at all and he felt better than he thought possible given the situation. A new resolve to get Valia to come home from the palace and to figure out what the hell was wrong between them – and to fix it! – came over him. What he'd been doing obviously wasn't working, nobody else was going to save his marriage for him, and he'd been brooding darkly for far too long.

An hour later he was bathed, shaved, and dressed – properly. It was the first time in weeks he'd managed to actually completely make himself presentable. The first thing he did was seek out his son, he'd been far too cold and distant with his young child because of his distress over Valia, and fixing that was the top priority.


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A few weeks later Gabriel's mood had hit an all-time low. His temper was set off with the tiniest spark of annoyance – real or imagined. When the report that his wife had vanished reached him his screams could be heard through the entire estate. There was the initial implication that maybe she was headed home, and his father had been able to reason with him to send an escort party to pick her up and bring her back to him. When they had failed to find any trace of his wife – well it was lucky that Micah Coleridge was present when the news and the soldiers came back empty-handed, because Gabriel had been prepared to order their deaths for their failure.

Each day that passed with no news and no trace of his wife only pushed Gabriel closer to completely breaking down. The thought of her being cold, hurt, and needing him out there somewhere was killing him. By now they had been able to agree that she'd been kidnapped or taken hostage – obviously she was being held against her will. If Valia had been alive, well, and free to do as she pleased he knew that she would be in a palace somewhere – she wasn't.

In a moment of frustration Gabriel swept the maps off the table with a snarl. The various tables of his father's "war room" were covered in maps of Connlaoth and heavily marked indicating places that had been searched and places left to comb over. When the news that Lady Valia was being held somewhere there had been soldiers lined up to beg to be allowed to help find her and bring her safely home. The people of Orchy held no love for Valia, they thought she was selfish and haughty, and most unforgivably, they thought she hurt Gabriel on purpose. Despite their lack of love for her, their complete idolization of the heir to their duchy had them falling over themselves to help bring her home – for his sake.

Micah had done everything he could for as long as he could to keep Gabriel from storming off himself to go hunt for her. As he watched his son pace back and forth between the tables, a look of wild desperation on his face, he knew that he couldn't stop him much longer. He wasn't overly fond of his daughter-in-law, but seeing his son like this was difficult on him. More difficult than anyone imagined from his carefully controlled behavior and restraint.

Quietly he left and began issuing orders. Gabriel would go look for Valia, but not alone. His son's judgment was seriously impaired right now, so he decided to send Cyrus with him to command the twenty soldiers he would provide as a guard and escort to keep both his sons as safe as he could on this wild goose chase. Every available soldier in Connlaoth was already looking for the woman, throwing his sons out there seemed stupid to him, but he knew Gabriel wouldn't be stopped, and Cyrus was the best protection he could really offer his heir.


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The home of Sir Elgar Douro was modest, but cozy. The knight had eagerly offered Gabriel and Cyrus rooms and the use of his property for their small group of soldiers to camp outside. The three men were all in a large study, Cyrus and Elgar quietly discussing the surrounding area and anyplace someone might hide with a captive, while Gabriel paced anxiously back and forth in front of a bookcase. The Lord Coleridge had been almost useless the entire trip.

Cyrus could sympathize with his brother, he really could. It couldn't be easy to know that his wife was out there somewhere, possibly hurt, possibly dead. As a brother he could sympathize. As a commander he was beyond frustration. When he finally couldn't stand the constant pacing anymore he stepped around the desk and threw an arm around his brother's shoulders to still him.

"Gabriel, you need to calm down. We're going to find her – I swear it to you. We're working as fast as we can, but you're driving everyone nuts. I get it. I do. You're frantic with worry, but you're not helping Valia by being panicked. Just get your senses back together, this is a manhunt and you need a clear, cool head if you want to see it through. You're scaring the piss out of every one – and that includes me. So get it together."

At first Cyrus was worried that his brother was going to turn on him the way Gabriel's entire body stiffened at the contact, but the more he'd talked the more his brother's shoulders had slumped in a defeated kind of way. Sir Elgar was pointedly not looking at them, making a great show of going over his maps. He was so thankful for that. This was really a moment for privacy between two brothers in an emotional crisis.

The cold anger that had kept Gabriel tense for days melted into exhausted anguish, his expression falling, eyes dull and bloodshot, as he took a few ragged breaths, bordering on choked sobs. Cyrus sighed and pulled his brother into a hug, from the moment he'd heard about Valia's disappearance he'd been as supportive of his brother as Gabriel would allow him to. With a little quiet coaxing he managed to convince Gabriel to go get some sleep, and he watched as his brother left the room before scrubbing tiredly at his own eyes. No one had been getting much sleep lately. Squaring his shoulders, he turned back to his task with an added edge of determination to his blazing green eyes.

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