for ambitious_woman A morning in Versailles

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Jack had slept. Much to his own surprise.

He hadn't expected to sleep. He'd expected to lie and to stare at the ornate ceiling, watching the flecks in the paint and the gold until they moulded to nothing in his mind. He had done, for a while, but then his eyes had grown heavy, and quite against his own will he was pulled into sleep. Perhaps due to just how long it had been since he'd had the chance to rest like that. To lie and to know he could. To know he had a night there, with nothing to call him away.

He did dream, of course. Unpleasant dreams of his faults and his losses. But they were standard, and even though they were painful, he was used to them.

The morning came and he was awake by the time the light was filtering through the window. He had, also, somehow, acquired his own clothes, though were he asked how, he'd never explain. He preferred to keep certain things a mystery.

He stood now, in that bedroom, staring out of the window at the landscape outside. A new landscape, a new time.