indeedsir_backup | FIC:) WIP - Absence of Madeline (Reply)

(ETA - no longer a WIP, the complete story is here: Part One, Part Two.)

I hate posting things that aren't done, but at the same time I need some feedback - is this a completely crazy idea? Would it be horribly out of character for Madeline to be taken with a romantic stranger and leave Gussie? On the other hand, did the Gussie - Madeline relationship get anywhere, ever, in canon, or am I completely in left field? Besides, a little bit of snuggling often cheers up one's day, even if it's not finished. ;)

Title: Absence of Madeline
Author: Derien
Fandom: Jeeves and Wooster
Pairing: Jeeves/Bertie/Gussie
Summary: Gussie Fink-Nottle's engagement to Madeline Bassett is broken when she runs off with a suave stranger. Jeeves has to share Bertie with the broken-hearted Gussie as they attempt to comfort him and repair his ego. This is a situation up with which Jeeves cannot long put.
Notes: Not work safe - starts right out with snugglies.

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It was an urgent telegram from Gussie Fink-Nottle which dragged Jeeves and myself from London - "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COME BEG YOU FOR YOUR HELP MADELINE GONE STOP." That along with the fact that I had, inexplicably, lost the annual Drones darts tournament, meaning several people had lost bets they'd placed on yours truly, made the timing feel perfect for a small vacation in the country.

As we were shown into Gussie's study he rose from his seat to take my hand, thanking me for coming, but as soon as the parlormaid who had answered the door had withdrawn he fell upon my neck sobbing.

"Oh, Bertie! I don't know what to do!"

"Don't worry old bean," I said, smoothing his back soothingly, "Jeeves will get it all sorted out, I'm sure."

Jeeves materialized a handkerchief, which he offered the whimpering Gussie, who stood back from me for a moment, gulping, to blow his nose, then erupted again.

"Oh, you're too good to me, to come all the way up here! You're my only true friends!" he wailed, throwing himself on Jeeves.

Jeeves looked at me over Gussie's shoulder, quirking his mouth ruefully and patting Gussie's back tentatively, as you might burp a baby. A brilliant man is Jeeves, and very up on the psychology of the individual, but not exactly comfortable with dealing with people in the throws of the more violent emotions. He keeps most of his own v.e. well clamped down under the phiz professional, barely readable by anyone who doesn't know him as intimately do I. Gussie stands as Jeeves polar opposite - everything he feels is immediately visible, and you can depend on him being the same through and through, even if most of it is pathetic. It had surely taken him everything he had to withhold his tears long enough for the parlormaid to leave.

We spent some time comforting Gussie before we were able to get the entire story of Madeline's disappearance, and it mostly came out in bits and pieces. Poor bird suffers from a case of low self-esteem, so Jeeves says, and needs to be shown rather materially and repeatedly that people do find him attractive and loveable with a good deal of cuddling and cossetting, and it became quickly evident that he was going to require some of that today, when he moved from simply crying on Jeeves's neck to nuzzling, while still crying, as though he wanted to climb inside Jeeves suit with him. For a moment I didn't realize exactly what he was doing, but I saw Jeeves's eyes widen and it dawned on me. Raising an eyebrow just a fraction, Jeeves stroked Gussie's hair, then inclined to kiss the top of his head, and suggested it may be best to retire to Gussie's bedroom where we could lock the door against the staff.

Once there he set Gussie down on the bed and removed his shoes and socks for him whilst I sat next to Gussie and continued to pat his back and hair soothingly and kiss his temple and cheek.

He quieted, and by the time I'd begun nibbling and licking on his neck his breathing had changed from gasping in crying to gasping in a slightly different way. The ear nibble rewarded me with a gasp and a small, almost happy sounding whimper. Every time we do something like this he seems just as surprised and gratified as the first time, as though he truly expected it would never happen again, could never happen again, maybe I had made some mistake the first time. Perhaps it had been a mistake the first time, when we were kids in school, because it taught him to look to me for that sort of comforting whenever he was feeling really low, but I'm a soft-hearted sort of chappie and can never turn down a friend in need. Besides, once he gets started Gussie showes all the focused intensity of someone who continually believes they are going to die on the morrow, and that can be a sweetly addictive thing to experience.

Jeeves stripped my socks off and ran his fingers down the side of my foot, tickling a bit.

Tracing my finger around his ear I fished for more Madeline information. "You are surpassing delicious, Gussie. What a fool she is."

"Madeline says I'm a bit of a cold fish."

"You've never been a cold fish with me. Quite the opposite."

"It's different with you, Bertie. Madeline makes me nervous. I can be myself with you. And Jeeves is so kind." The corner-of-the-eye glance he gave Jeeves as he said this led me to believe it was a lot more than kindness that Gussie appreciated in Jeeves, but that Jeeves made him just a tiny bit nervous, too, and he couldn't believe he'd been so bold as to nuzzle into such a dignified person's suit-collar.

Much later, when all was said and done, Jeeves would point out to me that Gussie was not entirely without self-confidence and did, contrary to popular belief, have some social skills. "He believed he had a good chance of being accepted when he applied for succor, and that his chances were slightly less good with me than with you - therefore he chose to place his application with me." Said application being the collor-nuzzling bit, if I understand all that correctly.