#if it does all complaints can be filed through my wife who is dosing me on medication so i stop being miserable

[piratekane]

oh i loved your response to the #13 prompt so here we go: 5. “Please come get me…” for avatrice :)

She's in the middle of a market in the heart of Santorini, smiling as a young girl with dark hair eagerly shows her a bright blue pendant on a silver chain. Her Greek is underdeveloped but the girl is patient, explaining the way she shaped the stone and fit the sterling silver around it to hang it on the chain. The girl goes on about the way she picked the stone because it matched the ocean and Beatrice is struck how, in every place she goes, she finds little pieces of Ava.

The girl in Glasgow who bumped into her at a coffee shop and cheerfully apologized before pressing a new coffee into her cold hands, refusing to take no for an answer. The young boy in Madrid who asked about her book and listened carefully as she explained the plot of Voyage Au Centre de la Terre, asking thoughtful questions. The bartender in Ravenna who convinced her with a wide smile to try a real cuba libre after hearing her order a soda and lime juice, wearing her down gently.

Ava is everywhere she goes and nowhere Beatrice wants her to be.

Beatrice takes the necklace now and holds it carefully in one hand. "It is lovely." Her Greek is broken, but then again, Ava was the one with an adeptness for languages. The girl smiles anyway and nods enthusiastically. "How much?"

Her phone rings in her pocket and she gives the girl a slight apologetic smile as she pulls it from her linen pants. Camila's name flashes across the screen. She holds up a finger to the girl and accepts the call.

"Camila," she says happily. "I was going to call you tomorrow."

"Bea?"

Beatrice's heart stops in her chest, seizes up in a ghost's vice grip. The hand holding the necklace goes slack, saved only by the young girl's quick and nimble fingers. She tries to inhale but the feeling is too sharp in her chest to get a breath in successful. She nearly chokes on it instead.

"Ava."

There's a soft laugh in her ear. She's dreamed of that laugh, of a broken Ava in her arms still finding something to smile about. She always wakes those mornings with a sad smile and tears running down her face.

"Ava." She presses the phone closer to her ear.

"It's me." Ava is quiet for a moment. "I'm back."

Beatrice laughs, broken. Her eyes start to burn with tears. "H-how?"

She can picture Ava's face, twisting in thought as she considers something. She wonders if her face has changed, if there's new lines she'll need to learn, new lines she'll get to map with her fingers and not just her eyes. Because she loves Ava, she's loved Ava. And she's here, exhaling into Bea's ear. Just at the end of a telephone line.

"Bea, can you..." There's a shuddering sound before Ava's voice comes back stronger. "Can you please come get me?"

She's already walking, already moving back to her hotel, the beauty of the island paling in comparison to the melody of Ava's voice. "I'm coming."

Ava breathes out again. "How far away are you?"

"Too far." More than arm's reach feels like a million kilometers. "But I can be there today. Can you- can you wait for me?"

"You waited for me."

Beatrice breathes out. "Yes." She nearly laughs. "I've been waiting for- Yes."

She can hear Ava smile, closes her eyes and imagines the way it stretches, the way it makes Ava's eyes crinkle and sparkle. She feels the sharpness in her chest subside, replaced by a slow warmth not unlike like the Aegean Sea lapping at her ankles.

"I won't be long," she promises. She'll need to pack, buy a ticket, sit on a plane for 10 hours, all before she can get to Ava. Those feel like an insurmountable tasks right now. But she can do it. For herself. For Ava. For them.

"I'm not going anywhere."

She clutches the phone a little tighter. "Do you promise?"

Ava's voice is soft, the kind of quiet she remembers from their nights in Switzerland as they told each other their secrets. "I promise. Come get me, Bea."

When she promises, "I'm coming," she's never meant anything more in her entire.