schmerica: (canon het)
Pearl-o ([personal profile] schmerica) wrote2005-07-14 04:09 pm
Entry tags:

number one, rayv/stella for blg

I read with every broken heart we should become
More adventurous
And if you banish me from your prophets
And if I get banished from the kingdom up above
I'd sacrifice money and heaven all for love
Let me be loved, let me be loved


Stella had dated Ray Kowalski for nearly ten years before they married, a big elaborate church wedding that Stella's mother spent a year organizing and perfecting in every detail. There was a lacy veil and a long train to her dress and thousands of dollars of her father's money wasted on the reception and hundreds of her parents' friends Stella hardly knew. They'd had a couple good years in the marriage, and a few more bearable ones, another ten years of her life spent revolving around him.

Ray Vecchio proposed to her after a month and a half after they started dating. They went together to get the license the next day, and a week later they were married in front of a judge.

"Why would we have to wait?" Ray had said, smiling at her across the table and holding her hands in his, and Stella had thought, Why, indeed?

Stella's life had revolved around Ray Kowalski for over twenty years, and she'd been fighting that for a long time, but she didn't have to anymore. Even Ray had apparently finally moved on; he wasn't even living in the country now. She was free.

Stella was in love, and this time it was the kind of love she thought would last. "There's no reason to wait," Stella said.

They were married for two months when Ray brought up moving. He had crawled into their bed in his green pajamas and said her name, and she had placed her finger in her book to hold her place and looked up at him.

"Some place warm, sunny, where we can lay on the beach all day, what do you think?" he said. He had relatives in Florida, he added.

Stella thought about it.

When she was younger she had looked at jobs in California, New England, the Pacific Northwest -- great jobs, amazing jobs, but Ray had refused to even consider moving, insisting that Chicago had everything they could ever need, was the greatest city in the world, was where all their history was, and Stella had let it go, another one of the little sacrifices of her marriage. She hadn't even thought about it after the divorce, the possibility of leaving.

Her career was in Chicago; Ray's family was Chicago; both of their own private histories were in Chicago. Everything was in Chicago.

"It'd be a clean slate," Stella said musingly.

"Yeah," Ray said, kissing her neck. "Be our adventure, you and me."

"I've always wanted to have an adventure before I died," said Stella.

"I love you, baby," said Ray, "and if you want an adventure, I'm your man," and Stella laughed out loud and set down her book to put her arms around him.

[identity profile] ficbyzee.livejournal.com 2005-07-14 11:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooooh. I love your Stella voice. Lovely.

[identity profile] pearl-o.livejournal.com 2005-07-15 01:03 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, thank you! I find Stella hard to write just because we don't see very much of her, and what we do is so incredibly filtered through Ray's perceptions, so it's nice to hear her voice worked for you here!

[identity profile] brooklinegirl.livejournal.com 2005-07-15 12:10 am (UTC)(link)
OMG. such total love I have for Vecchio/Stella and the way you write them. I love the balance of the time she spent with RayK and the quickness of Ray Vecchio. I think that has something to do - in my head, at least - with what you said before, about the stella/vecchio relationship being a *mature* relationship. Just - not that they *couldn't* rush into something stupid, just b/c they're older, but - that they're not going to not do something, just for the sake of being careful.

They're pretty sure they've got something, so they go for it.

I like that. I like the rapid changes that seem kinda weirdly peaceful. Stella/Vecchio isn't *fraught* like Stella/RayK, so this thing with the marriage and the moving and all that - I like that Stella does stop, think, muse, and then go for it. It makes sense to me, that this is who she is at this point in her life.

And Pearl:


"I love you, baby," said Ray, "and if you want an adventure, I'm your man," and Stella laughed out loud and set down her book to put her arms around him.


I adore that so very much. That is THEM to me.

*loves*

[identity profile] pearl-o.livejournal.com 2005-07-15 01:08 am (UTC)(link)
*glomps you enormously* Your feedback feeds my SOUL.

You know, part of it here, I think, is the idea that the marriage was just as hard for her as it was for RayK, that it wasn't just this one-sided thing; it's twenty years of her life, too, that's all about him. And God knows RayV has enough baggage and history there to weight him down forever, too, so -- God, why wouldn't they want to run away together to Florida, you know? That's perfect.

I adore that so very much. That is THEM to me.

*giggles* I like that line just because man, RayV is such a faker. Suave!

[identity profile] kijikun.livejournal.com 2005-07-15 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
AWwww *dies of sweet*

[identity profile] pearl-o.livejournal.com 2005-07-15 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
Heh, thanks.
lorem_ipsum: Chiana in profile, head back, eyes closed (Default)

[personal profile] lorem_ipsum 2005-07-15 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
*dittoes to the "Ooooh" and the "Aaawww"*

[identity profile] pearl-o.livejournal.com 2005-07-15 03:28 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you!

[identity profile] bonspiel.livejournal.com 2005-07-15 05:29 am (UTC)(link)
Yay, Stella fic! I really like where you've taken Stella/RayV in this. A nice change from the "she's a bitch and then jumps RayV" approach. I agree, the way she and they make decisions in this is very IC and also illuminating of their relationship.

"I've always wanted to have an adventure before I died," said Stella
- echoing Ray K here is also nice, and shows how we get tangled up in people even after they're not around anymore

[identity profile] pearl-o.livejournal.com 2005-07-15 05:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! I'm glad it worked for you.
china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)

[personal profile] china_shop 2005-07-15 08:00 am (UTC)(link)
"It'd be a clean slate," Stella said musingly.

"Yeah," Ray said, kissing her neck. "Be our adventure, you and me."

"I've always wanted to have an adventure before I died," said Stella.

"I love you, baby," said Ray, "and if you want an adventure, I'm your man," and Stella laughed out loud and set down her book to put her arms around him.


This is genius.

[identity profile] pearl-o.livejournal.com 2005-07-15 05:52 pm (UTC)(link)
*beams*

[identity profile] serialkarma.livejournal.com 2005-07-15 01:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, dude, fabulous. I really, really like this Stella.

"I've always wanted to have an adventure before I died," said Stella.

and this i just *heart*

[identity profile] pearl-o.livejournal.com 2005-07-15 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Ha, I am sneaky with my likeable characters! *wins*
celli: a woman and a man holding hands, captioned "i treasure" (Default)

[personal profile] celli 2005-07-17 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
*beams at them* so cool!

[identity profile] pearl-o.livejournal.com 2005-07-17 10:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay!

[identity profile] c-regalis.livejournal.com 2005-07-17 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, everyone gets his own adventure! I like that very much. Thank you.

[identity profile] pearl-o.livejournal.com 2005-07-17 10:40 pm (UTC)(link)
*grins* I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[identity profile] carta.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
You know what's fun? Coming into a fandom YEARS after everyone else discovered it, and reading fun little snippets like this that exist in their own bubble, separate from whatever fandom was doing at the time. This is a Stella I could really get to like. (Well, I like the Stella we see on the show, too.) Great little ficlet, and I especially like that you present the move to Florida as something they discussed, and not just a whim spur-of-the-moment thing.