Title: Five Stages
Fandom: Honor Harrington Series - David Weber
Rating: PG-13
Length: ~700 words
Content notes: Might be mildly AU, but I think I kept everyone in character! Takes places during Echoes of Honor; for anyone who doesn't know the canon, the enemy faked the lead character's execution and broadcast it the rest of the universe. Abigail first appears in Ashes of Victory as anything other than a name, but she had some footwork to do to get to where she is then, so I appropriated her for this.
Summary: Apparently there are five stages to grief; not everyone experiences all of them. Five snapshots ...

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Denial - Hamish Alexander

If he closed his eyes, he could still see her, her elegant form just disappearing out of sight; once he had seen her with the Harrington sword in hand, battling shadows in her practise Salle. He'd seen two 'cats curled around their 'kittens and he'd blink and there was only one. In some ways it only got worse when he moved his flag to Benjamin the Great - he could understand seeing echoes of her in her Steading and in her House, but to walk onto his flag bridge and see her comfortably ensconced in his command chair was disconcerting.

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Anger - Hamish Alexander, on Grayson's reaction


Swords echoed in the depths of too many voices and if one looked the lethal edge too many Graysons danced on was clearly visible, but after taking Eighth fleet into action in Basilisk, Hamish Alexander now understood how Benjamin's family had ruled and saved Grayson for a millenia now ... he'd watched the man direct and channel a planet's fury. Despite the edge Benjamin Mayhew balanced on himself, he had coaxed that fury into something that could be wielded rather than allowing it to overwhelm him. 

If Honor Harrington was dead, then too many Graysons owed her life debt, for she'd saved their world, and in The Tester's name they'd have their vengeance and insure her duty was done.

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Bargaining - Abigail Hearns (the first Grayson midshipwoman)

A teenager opened her eyes and smiled, a crooked smile more at home on another's face; that of a woman wielding the sword forged for the hand of Benjamin the Great, draped in the colours of her house. She had been a child when she watched from the balcony of the nursery of Owen House as the champion won Her Star. She'd barely reached her menarche when that Champion had wielded the sword in truth and then returned to her ship and won the Star again. 

And now this. The woman she had chosen as her role model was dead. Executed on trumped up charges, and perhaps now was her best chance ... her father couldn't deny her this when Grayson's very soul cried out for vengeance. He'd drive a hard bargain and she would never be her replacement, not really, but for Honor, for the love of her family and in the service of the sword, she'd try, damn it.

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Depression - Samantha, Nimitz's mate.

She had their 'kittens. They were her anchor, the force that held her to life. Her human was dead; her mate's human had been killed, and she knew her mate. Knew Laughs Brightly like she knew herself for he truly was another part of her soul ... and for Dances on Clouds to die that way they'd have had to kill him first. She could never ... no, would never regret bonding to Hunter of Stars for she'd craved the human mind-glow and had seen the empty place in those who hadn't sought the bond, or mating with Laughs Brightly but she hurt. And keeping the pain and the grief tamped down to something she could expose the 'kittens to was hard.

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Acceptance - Michelle Henke

Beth had lain the Harrington Sword across her open palms and Michelle Henke had looked at her cousin and seen only acceptance in her eyes. And she couldn't refuse the duty she'd been offered.

The sword was heavy and a small part of her wondered how Honor had wielded the Sword of State so effortlessly on the floor of the Conclave against Lord Burdette ... and another wondered how Honor had worn this sword every time she put on her mess dress, but that thought was easily dismissed - after all Honor had raised her flag on an ex-Peep prize, hadn't she?

It surprised her a little that she could accept that Honor was dead, because it felt like no one else could ... but then she'd been Honor's exec at Hancock and seen her after Paul's death. Honor had long ago accepted that her death might be the price demanded by duty and she'd bought the convoy and the rest of her squadron time to escape ...