-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- She was on a shore leave when it happened. 27-year-old Fiona Widdershins, and her brother Fernald, had been running low on supplies for the large octopus submarine that they called home, and so earlier this morning, they had arrived at Briny Beach, and while Fernald had gone off to find ingredients to make pasta puttanesca, laundry detergent, and mouse traps, Fiona had taken a taxi to a local cafe her mother had been quite fond of when she was younger, and was currently sitting out on the patio and sipping on her coffee as she waited for her blue cheese omelette to arrive, when he she saw him.
Klaus Baudelaire.
During the brief time he and his sisters had spent on board her family's original submarine, the Queequeg, she had fallen for the charming and intelligent researcher hook, line, and sinker(if you'll excuse my use of a pun that most fishermen and submarine captains find to be offensive to their ocean-faring lifestyle).
But after she had learned that Fernald had joined up with Count Olaf, she made the choice to betray the Baudelaires to be reunited with her brother, which came at the price of breaking Klaus' heart, which was a choice she had seriously come to regret following her and Fernald's second betrayal of Count Olaf, and their long-awaited reunion with their missing stepfather. She desperately wanted nothing more than for Klaus to forgive her too, even though she knew that was most likely not going to happen, no matter how much she might have wanted it too.
Suddenly, before she could stop to think about what she was doing, Fiona found herself getting up and walking over to where Klaus was sitting, and saw him sitting with a brunette-haired woman who was writing something in a black commonplace notebook that made him smile, but when he saw her walking towards him, his smile slowly disappeared as his face fell.
"Klaus, who is this?" asked the girl in confusion as she held his hand to comfort him.
He sighed deeply as he attempted to fight back against an onslaught of tears that were threatening to fall down his face. "Isadora, this is Fiona Widdershins. Fiona, this is my wife, Isadora."
Fiona felt her heart slightly break as she looked at the woman who was his wife, and mentally noted this piece of information as proof that he had moved on from her as she shook the woman's hand. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Widdershins."
She nodded curtly. "Likewise, Mrs. Baudelaire. If it's alright with you, may I have a moment to speak with your husband alone? There's a few things I've been meaning to get off my chest and tell him for quite some time now," she said as she folded her hands behind her back.
Isadora looked a little worried as considered her question, but after seeing Klaus subtly nod his head to indicate to her that he would be okay by himself, she eased up just a little bit and shrugged. "Alright, I guess. I need to go to the bathroom, anyways. Little Oliver has been somewhat jumpy lately," she said with a soft chuckle as she stood up and Fiona could see that Isadora's belly had a slight but definite curve, as happens when woman are expecting children, and she walked off towards the cafe, leaving her alone with Klaus.
"Well, I'm here now. What do you want?" he asked bitterly, and struggled to keep it together. Despite what Kit had told him and some help from Violet, Sunny, and Isadora, he just hadn't been able to forgive her for breaking his heart all those years ago, although getting back together with Isadora and marrying her almost three years earlier did help him move on just a little bit and not let his heartbreak get the better of him.
Fiona sighed deeply as she nervously fiddled with the hem of her skirt. "I just wanted to properly apologize. That's all," she said slowly as she watched his reaction, and saw him raise one of his eyebrows in surprise.
"Really?"
She nodded. "Yes, really."
"I'm so glad you made time to see me
How's life? Tell me, how's your family?
I haven't seen them in a while
You've been good, busier than ever
We small talk, work and the weather
Your guard is up and I know why "
"Because the last time you saw me
Is still burned in the back of your mind
You gave me roses and I left them there to die "
As she continued to speak, Fiona saw that while he wasn't saying anything, Klaus was actually listening to her with his lips pressed into a calm, thoughtful smile.
"So this is me swallowing my pride
Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night
And I go back to December all the time
It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you
Wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine
I'd go back to December, turn around and make it alright
I go back to December all the time "
As he listened to her speak, Klaus felt like a weight was being lifted off of his shoulders. Even though he knew that the pain of his heartbreak might never fully go away, he could tell that Fiona's words were full of sincerity and that she was struggling to speak without letting tears fall down her face, and nodded silently to indicate that he was listening to what she had to say.
"These days, I haven't been sleeping
Staying up playing back myself leaving
When your birthday passed and I didn't call
Then I think about summer, all the beautiful times
I watched you laughing from the passenger's side
And realized I loved you in the fall "
"And then the cold came, the dark days
When fear crept into my mind
You gave me all your love and I all gave you was goodbye "
As she said that, Klaus thought about how Fiona kissed him before she had left him to rejoin Fernald, and knew right away that there was a whole lot more truth to that statement than what he'd ever like to admit.
" So this is me swallowing my pride
Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night
And I go back to December all the time
It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you
Wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine
I'd go back to December, turn around and change my own mind
I go back to December all the time "
"I miss your tan skin, your sweet smile
So good to me, so right
And how you held me in your arms that September night
The first time you ever saw me cry
Maybe this is wishful thinking
Probably mindless dreaming
But if we loved again, I swear I'd love you right "
Upon hearing that, Klaus and Fiona both realized that if they did try to love each other again, it would only end the same way as it did the first time: with one or both of them getting their heart broke as they thought about the brief time they had spent with one another on the Queequeg.
"I'd go back in time and change it, but I can't
So if the chain is on your door, I understand "
"But this is me swallowing my pride
Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night
And I go back to December
It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you
Wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine
I'd go back to December, turn around and make it alright
I'd go back to December, turn around and change my own mind
I go back to December all the time
All the time "
After she finished speaking, she and Klaus stood on the patio silently without saying anything as Isadora came back out of the cafe with her hand rubbing her pregnant belly affectionately as she watched them look at each other and wondered what they were thinking about, as she was very briefly aware of how Fiona had broken his heart, and hated her for it.
"Look, Klaus, even if you never forgive me, I still wanted to say I'm sorry. If I could ever get the chance to go back and do it all over again, I never would've done any of the things I did. No one deserves to live with a broken heart," she said quietly as she wiped away a few tears that were pooling in her eyes.
Klaus scoffed. "Yeah, well that still doesn't excuse what you did. No matter how much we might want to, we can never change the past. What's done is done. And even with all of Violet's adroit technical faculties, I find it highly improbable to think that she could invent a time machine that I could use so I could go back in time and warn myself about you breaking my heart," he said bitterly as he tightly held Isadora's hand for comfort.
As Fiona listened to his words, she thought about what he said and ultimately realized that he was right. She had made the choice to break his heart just to be reunited with Fernald, and while she knew that he could understood not wanting to abandon family members, she would now have to live with the guilt of that choice for the rest of her life. Although Klaus was a noble person and an intelligent researcher, she now had concrete proof and knew that he would never forgive her.
As she continued to stand quietly, Isadora stepped forward with a scowl on her face as she folded her arms over her pregnant belly as she sighed angrily.
"Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream. "
she recited as she stared down Fiona, who looked at her and Klaus with a blank, unfathomable expression on her face. "W.B. Yeats said that. He wrote that poem as both a piece of advice and a warning to men that urging them not to devote themselves to one singular woman, as he believed that they will grow bored and move on to other men, leaving the man heartbroken. And that's exactly what you did. Even though Klaus might've been your first love, you still left him heartbroken in the end," she said with a frown on her face as she put her hands back in her coat pockets and started to walk to the edge of the sidewalk, leaving Klaus alone with Fiona again.
For a few minutes, neither of them said anything as they looked at each other, memories of the time they had spent together flooding both of their minds, before Klaus shrugged and turned on his heel to join Isadora when Fiona suddenly called out to him. "Wait!"
"Yes?"
"You know, your wife isn't the only one who can recite the works of some of the world's greatest poets. My mother had a collection of poetry books on board the Queequeg, and I had read most of the books by the time I was eleven years old, and unless I'm mistaken, I believe Phillip Larkin said it best," she said quietly before she cleared her throat.
"Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself. "
she recited with a bitter smile on her face as she scoffed. "Goodbye, Klaus. I hope you know just how much I loved you. And I have no doubt in my mind that you'll make an excellent father," she said as she let a few more soft tears freely fall down her face.
Klaus chuckled wryly. "Thank you, Fiona. I appreciate the kind words. Goodbye," he said quietly as they stood still, making them the only people in the world, before she watched him slowly walk away and pressed a gentle kiss to Isadora's lips, leaving her alone in a world full of smoke and mirrors with tears rolling down her face, filled with regret about breaking his heart and not loving him the right way. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, I started writing this one-shot after I got a request from @dogsandcats009 to write another songfic set to a Taylor Swift song. And after I had heard "Back To December" by pure accident on the radio, I realized that it fit Klaus and Fiona's imperfect love with one another rather well and the rest of this one-shot practically wrote itself. Anyways, I hoped you guys enjoyed and I'll see you in the next one.
The world is quiet here, volunteers. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------