No Such Thing As a Coincidence: Chapter I

Title: No Such Thing As a Coincidence (I - God is in the Rain)
Author: Papagena (swirl_of_gown)
Pairing: Eric Finch and Evey Hammond
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Implied, consensual sexual activity.
Summary: A little rain never hurt anyone. Eric and Evey take their vows.
Disclaimer: I do not own V for Vendetta, Eric Finch (though I wish I did), Evey Hammond, or Dominic. They are trademarks of Vertigo/DC Comics, the WB, and the creations of Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
Notes: This fic is an odd hybrid of movie-verse as well as novel-verse. As this fic is still in its earliest stages, I can’t say which it will lean more towards and admit it’s entirely possible for me to change direction and make it completely grounded in novel or movie background. But for now, there are elements of both.

Also, this story will alternate between present timeline (in which Finch is older, with children aged 10 and 8) and flashbacks.

Wedding ceremony in this chapter is taken directly from my own parents wedding video, names changed and etc.


I - God is in the Rain

“April showers bring May flowers” it was said, and it was true, Eric Finch was finding.

There had been no flowers under Adam Susan’s regime. It made sense of course, flowers were inspiration, a symbol of hope and freedom and Norsefire could have none of that. But the Springs after that fateful November were like nothing England had ever seen.

Still though, the most beautiful blooms Eric had ever recalled seeing were the ones that Evey had put up in her curls the day of their wedding. He remembered them, little white flowers scattered across her blonde head like stars in the sky. He couldn’t for the life of him tell what they were, but they had somehow suited the bride.

She wanted to be married in rainy April, outside, away from the confines of a cathedral, and the Inspector had no objections. Some part of him was still amazed that the girl had actually accepted his proposal, that he had even managed to ask her. Still though, Evey Hammond had agreed to be his wife after a bit more than a year of seeing one another.

Eric had married once before (though when he looked across the wasted years now he wondered if he had married for love or for stability as so many had back then) but this was all new to Evey, and different even for him. Everything would be perfect.

He tied the bowtie about his neck offhandedly, one eye in the mirror and the other looking towards the window where rain made its steady fall from the sky to the earth below, just as was predicted by the high-tech satellites and the soothing voice on the radio.

There was a knock before Dominic entered the room, dressed up himself for the occasion, as any proper best-man would be. “It doesn’t look like it’s going to let up any, Chief.”

Finch studied his partner without turning, gazing at him in the mirror a moment. “It’s not supposed to.”

“You’ve decided to have the wedding indoors then?” Dominic asked with a glance to the digital clock as he reached for the jacket to his tuxedo, pulling it and shrugging into it.

“No.”

“A man of many, many words.” the detective teased. “I get it; You’re trying to throw the press off. This is a big day for England. V’s most trusted advisor is getting married. You just want it to be private.”

The inspector chortled some, “Christ, if a little rain was enough to stop them…How is Eve, do you know?”

“Complaining that she doesn’t have enough female friends.” Dominic answered. “She’s fine. How are you though, Chief?”

“Let’s put it this way: I was less worried when I was in danger of finding my way into one of Creedy’s black bags.” He answered as he fastened his cufflinks.

The partner laughed and moved to rest a hand on Finch’s shoulder. It was a role-reversal in so many ways. Always before it had been Eric’s hand who had set on Dominic’s shoulder in a silent assurance that a father might give a son. It was his turn to give the assurances and Finch smiled thinly his welcome.

Finch nodded to the window where a pair of sleek black town cars had pulled up outside and pulled his own white tuxedo jacket on. “Tell the girls the cars are here, won’t you, Dominic? It’s time.”

~*~

The Shendish Manor was ideal for the wedding between Chief Inspector Eric Finch and Evey Hammond, and Eric mused with a sort of pride as he moved across the lawns, his dress shoes gathering mud and his umbrella up to keep the rain off, that a better place could not have been selected. Neatly covered seats were lined up in rows, canvas canopies stretched out to keep the guests dry on either side of the aisle that Evey would emerge from, another tent housed a string quartet.

There music would fall on deaf ears. The rain and the thunder was the most magnificent wedding march that could be played. A wedding in the rain. What had once seemed an odd but simple request was beginning to make sense to the man.

It was gray, and it was raining and it was cold. And it was unimaginably beautiful.

Guests were settling into seats, trekking across the muddy, well manicured lawns with their umbrellas and their perplexed gazes. Who married in the rain?

Evey and Eric did.

The Inspector spoke with a few people, shook hands and the photographer who had been hired to record their wedding and immortalize it managed to get a few shots of the groom before he was called to the priest who would perform the ceremony.

Violin music came, quietly against the background music of the rain, Pachebel’s Canon in D, Eric knew it to be, and he was quite certain he had stopped breathing as he straightened himself with dignity and mused how insane it was that he hadn’t seen the woman he was marrying all day. Tradition. And they were defying it in the same breath

How perfectly that described their romance. A spot of normality every so often in an unconventional courtship.

He was pulled from his musings by the wedding party. It was a small procession. They were both orphans, Evey and he, made that way by a meaningless war, by a fascist government. There was no father to walk Evey down the aisle and give her hand to Eric. There was no mother for the inspector to waltz about during the reception. There were no brothers or sisters teasing them good naturedly.

There was Dominic, and there was Evey’s friend from the BTN whose name slipped his mind. He and Evey had been loners, he by choice and she by force.

But they had each other now, and Eric knew very well neither would be alone again.

Dominic moved to his side and offered a smile, which Finch returned with a small smile of his own before his eyes moved forwards again to catch sight of his bride. She walked without an umbrella, and as she advanced Eric closed his own and passed it to Dominic without ever letting his eyes leave her. She was alone, and she was smiling, taking small and practiced steps with bare feet. A bouquet of white lilies was held in her hands and there were white flowers in her hair.

She was alone, but not for long. The rehearsal had not gone like this. He was to wait for her and take her hand, but she wasn’t supposed to make the journey to a new life alone. And so he abandoned his post to move towards her down the aisle. Meeting her halfway.

There was a pause and she stared up at him curiously and he stared down before leaning forwards to kiss her and take her hand.

They didn’t need to say anything in that moment, Eric was quite certain she knew what he would tell her as it was, knew what she would say if she spoke. Their eyes said it all as they paused in the middle of the aisle with the rain drenching them both.

After a moment they continued the journey, together now, their guests rising up in respect as they passed.

And the ceremony began. Eric hung on every word, committing it to memory as he held Evey Hammond’s little hand in his much larger one before God and the world.

“Eric Finch and Evey Hammond; I will ask each of you if you have come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to one another in marriage and with whose support you enter into this union.” the priest spoke and the couple nodded without a word their understanding. “Evey Hammond, have you come here freely and without reservation to be joined with Eric Finch in marriage?”

Eric’s eyes moved to her, as if he half expected the young woman then and there to back out but she smiled to him and her hand tightened in his. “I have.”

“And have you, Eric Finch,” the priest spoke to him and the inspector tore his eyes from Evey to focus on the man as he spoke “come here without reservation to be joined with Evey Hammond in marriage?”

“I have.” He answered with no pause, and he smiled to Evey, drenched now in rain that rejuvenated the pair.

The priest smiled himself. “And with whose support have you come?”

Dominic stepped forwards. “With mine. Dominic’s. Their friend.”

“It is appropriate that you, Dominic, are also here to participate in this wedding. The ideals. The understanding and the mutual respect which these two bring to their marriage have roots in the love, friendship and guidance with which you have provided them. You have been asked, Dominic, by Eric, to present the reading.”

Dominic nodded his agreement and spoke from memory the sonnet he’d memorized on request of his partner. “Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda, translated by Stephen Mitchell.”

I don’t love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you a certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don’t know any other way of loving

but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.

Evey was crying now, or so Eric thought. Perhaps it was just the rain, but he held her hand tightly in his and ran his thumb across the smooth skin.

There was a pause in the ceremony as thunder roared from overhead and the priest spoke again. “Please, join hands.”

But they had joined hands already. Eric smiled a bit to his bride, a small pull at his lips, but his eyes were warmer than they had been in years as they faced one another, ready to begin their vows.

“Do you Eric Finch take Evey Hammond to be your wife – to live together after God’s ordinance – in the holy estate of matrimony? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, to cherish and continually bestow upon her your heart’s deepest devotion, forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live?”

He looked a moment into his fiancée’s eyes and moved a hand away from hers to stroke a wet curl away from her eyes, “I will.”

“And do you Evey Hammond take Eric Finch to be your husband – to live together after God’s ordinance – in the holy estate of matrimony? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, to cherish and continually bestow upon him your heart’s deepest devotion, forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto him as long as you both shall live?”

“I will.”

Rings were exchanged, and then came the words Eric had been waiting for.

“I now pronounce you man and wife, in the name of Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

If there had been any doubt that Evey had been crying it was banished as he knew she had to be now, he smiled weakly to her. They were cold and they were wet and they married. There was applause that was lost beneath the rain and Eric drew his wife up to him.

“You may kiss the bride.”

And he did so without hesitation.

“I love you, Inspector.” She told him quietly, formally and he could have grinned.

“I love you too, Mrs. Finch.”

“May I be the first to introduce you to Mr. And Mrs. Finch?”

~*~

He watched her while she slept that night, taking in the smell of her hair. Like rain, sweat and floral shampoo. Her hair was damp still, and he trailed his fingers through it in a fond manner, brushing it from the place where shoulder met neck to rest his lips there a moment.

How strange it was after so many years to be sharing the place in bed beside him, to know that each morning he’d wake up and she’d be there. He didn’t mind the idea he found as he smiled to himself.

Eric felt her stir some and moved back, giving a smile as she turned in his arms and opened her eyes.

“It’s raining still.” She told him and she kissed him.

“Yeah.”

“God is in the rain….”

“Love you.” He reminded as she closed her eyes again and she smiled.

“Love you too.”

And he slept that night without the aid of a sleeping pill, better than he had in years.