What We Carry
Series Metadata
Listing Series
-
Tags
Summary
Charles Smith considered himself many things. Quiet. Intelligent. Dependable to a fault. Occasionally, unintentionally rude. One thing he had never considered himself — physically or otherwise — was weak. Life had trained him too well for that. It had taught him the practiced motions of endurance, the reflexive bracing of the spine before impact, the careful distance one learned to keep from people, places, and hope itself. Complacency was a luxury. Attachment was a liability. When you lived a life as dangerous and unsettled as his, grief was not a question of if, but when — and it was easier not to invite it in at all.
All in all, Charles knew he was strong.
What he did not know — what sat heavy and unanswered in his chest — was whether that strength would be enough to carry the body of a man he cared for deeply down from a mountain.
(Post-Canon fix-it of what could have been if Arthur actually didn’t die on the mountain)
Series
- Part 1 of What We Carry
-
Tags
Summary
Charles looked down briefly at the water between them.
Then back up again, perfectly calm.
“Yes.”
Arthur stared at him.
“You’re a menace tonight.”
Charles leaned his head back against the rim, steam curling around his shoulders.
“I’ve been out in a snowstorm all evening.”
“That ain’t an excuse.”
“It’s a reason.”
Arthur eyed him for another long second.
Then a crooked grin slowly spread across his face.
“Well,” he said, settling deeper into the tub again, “if you’re plannin’ on causin’ trouble, Mr. Smith…”
Charles glanced back at him.
Arthur tipped his head toward him lazily.
“…you’re gonna have to come a little closer than that.”
Series
- Part 2 of What We Carry
-
Tags
Summary
In the spring of 1903, Arthur Morgan believes he has finally outrun the life that made him. On a ranch in Alberta, beside Charles Smith, he has found something rarer than freedom. Home.
Then a letter from Blackwater calls them south, and the ghosts they buried begin stirring.
(Set three years after What We Carry.)
Series
- Part 3 of What We Carry