[Sept. 5] [James Bond] "The Same"

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Title: The Same
Day/Theme: Sept. 5 - A winter morning just like any other
Series: James Bond
Character/Pairing: Bond
Rating: PG

Note: It helps if you are familiar with the events in Ian Fleming's novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service, or the film based upon it. Quote about love from Iris Murdoch.

It was a winter morning just like any other.

January, Bond decided, was in no way the cruelest month. December was. Unlike January, it was concerned with kicking those who were already down.

A year ago it had been different. A year ago, he had, for the first time, felt as if Christmas might actually mean something. Christmas, and in turn, life. Funny how life matters when you're suddenly sharing it with someone.

Until Tracy, people had been like paper dolls, sliding in and out of Bond's life. He saw them as barely human, and he liked it that way. It wasn't that they were subhuman, exactly, they just weren't living breathing soul-filled creatures like himself.

And then -

The Contessa.

Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.

When he saw her standing out in the ocean, ready to throw herself headlong into the mercy of the waves, he saw himself. His own despair. She was no drama queen. She made no threats, no promises, and no demands. It was just that life...

It was so damn hard.

He didn't mind, so much, except for now. Because life had been easy with her. He's almost got used to it, and that was dangerous, because one should never get used to something that depends on another person.

Now, everything was the same as it had been. It was just that it hurt, because he knew what he was missing.

That was all.

It was a winter day like any other. Everything was the same. And Tracy was dead.

Bond decided to do the only thing he could: to live as if she'd never been born.

I'm sorry, darling. But...everything's got to be the same.

Or I don't think I can go on.