Soulmates hold certain legal rights that differ from other people in the workplace. They are given six months of grieving time, paid leave, and reduced price or free post-separation therapy. It was implemented by the government to try to reduce the "broken-heart suicides" that spiked to an all time high in 1998. It helped some more than others, but it worked well enough to become a federal law. John would know because he was in Washington DC when the law passed and stood guard when a vigil was held in honor of the people lost because of broken-heart syndrome.
John went back to work two weeks after the death of his wife. He was the sheriff and it was what was expected of him, after all he didn't lose a soulmate—just a wife. It didn't matter that sometimes if the light hit his wrist just right, he could see the faded cursive ink spelling out Claudia. It didn't matter that he knew she was his other half and deep down he knew that he might have willed it true, all that mattered was that they were born without a soul-brand. They married without a soul-brand, and Claudia died without a soul-brand.
John and Claudia were not soulmates and thank God for that, because if they were that meant John Stilinski has been unstable for years now and with a son too. Maybe that's why people turn a blind eye to his drinking, a blind eye to his forgetfulness of his son, a blind eye to the fact that he gets harsher at the station every year on Claudia's death.
Before soulmates held certain legal rights that differ from other people, the lucky people, in the workplace. Before they were given six months of grieving time, paid leave, and low cost or free therapy. Before the government took notice of the spike of suicides in relation to soulmate deaths. Before 1998, a lot of soulmate pairs died, one following the other quickly. A lot died, but some did not. Some stayed alive, never living, but breathing and working and struggling. And if the world was being honest, the people who stayed alive long after their soulmate had died and their soul-brand had turned grey—those people were the dealt the worst hand of all.
But as it was established before, and as the people of Beacon Hills know very well, Claudia and John Stilinski were not soulmates. And thank God for that.
YOU ARE READING
I Was Meant To Die In Your Arms (Steter)
FanfictionHis mother wept when she saw his wrist. Covered in silver lines that spelled the name of his other half; who would bring death to their family one day. Across town, a sister screamed as her brother's wrist bore the name of the man who would bring pa...
