Chapter Text
She remembers the day as if it was yesterday.
The confidence was radiating off of her. The extravagantly tailored dress outlining her curves. Everyone was gawking at how flattering her outfit was, how flattering she was. This was what she wanted.
Looking upon her guests, she toasted to a new year, smiling as John tapped her hand reassuringly.
All eyes were on her. Admiring, gossiping, waiting.
She tapped on her wine glass, and prepared to a toast.
“Here’s to a new year, but, most importantly, here’s to me.”
The cascading mumbling of agreements and acknowledgement radiated throughout the crowd, the vast majority of the guests going back to their conversations.
Sipping her champagne, she sighed and watched the slowly diminishing crowd as people began to head home.
“Cruella has been spotted outside, there are guards following closely behind her just in case.” John muttered in her ear.
The Baroness smiled softly. “It seems as though my plan is working, as a vast majority of the guests have already retreated to their homes. Not a big worry, then.” She waved him off and grabbed a new glass of champagne (the fourth or fifth, she couldn’t remember).
She’d never been a good drinker-two glasses already had her rather tipsy-added to her lack of proper nutrition, made her quite the lightweight.
She dared not to look down at the stars decorating her cerulean gown, vomiting simply had no place in her schedule.
She snapped her head to the left towards the sudden upsurge of noise radiating through the few guests left in the ballroom.
There she was, as arrogant as ever. She wore a pantsuit in hot pink, accessorized with different types of sunny pendants and lights. Typical, to go deliberately against the theme to draw attention away from her victim.
Cruella seemed slightly shocked on the lack of guests, a stunned look crossed her features before she regained her composure and approaching the Baroness.
She had a vicious gleam in her eyes, scanning her figure before smiling haughtily.
“Be careful, might drink yourself even more out of a reputation.”
A puzzled look came across her face. “Whatever do you mean ‘even more’?”
”Oh please. We both know that you aren’t drinking meticulously.”
Clearing her throat, she glared at John.
Motioning his hand, a group of guards seized Cruella and began to remove her from the scene.
“Coward.” She spat.
“Hm, how arrogant of you.” Baroness replied, plastering a superficial smile on her face whilst waving her off.
After Cruella was removed, she finally relaxed, wiping a tear from her waterline and blinking rapidly.
She mentally cursed herself for letting it catch up to her, everything. Cruella’s petty insults, and her expensive taste in alcohol and occasional meals.
Shaking her head, she finished the last sip of her drink and downed another in mere seconds.
The alcohol was really starting to hit her hard.
“God.” She whispered, bringing a hand to her temple.
She hated to admit it, but the memory got a bit hazy here.
She remembered standing in the middle of the attention, letting men leer over her, (some wives attempting to draw their attention away from her, the others just accepting the defeat) when she started to feel faint.
She stiffened. It would be bad enough for the press to write another disgusting part on Cruella, let alone a story they deemed more interesting of her fainting splashed across Tattletale’s front page.
Struggling to keep her balance, she looked around for John, hoping he would catch on before she got a grade two concussion from falling down her own damn staircase.
After staring into the top of his head for about 5 seconds, he looked up from where he was talking to a guard just in time to see the blood drain from her face.
Walking briskly over to her, he grabbed her forearm to brace her in case her balance did give out, and as an alert that it was time to send the guests home.
John knew she was a lightweight. She always had been. You’d think after years of expensive wine whenever she deemed necessary, she would’ve built a tolerance to it, but no. She stayed a lightweight through all of the 21 years he’d been working for her so far, even more so as she grew steadily thinner to keep up with the increasingly popular beauty standards of the mid 70’s.
He was taken from his thoughts when the Baroness fell against him, her eyes unfocused and hazy.
“Time to go.” John mumbled at her, gesturing to the guards to lead the remaining guests out. “Why? They just got here..” she pouted, her head going limp on his bicep.
John had started to lead her out, walking cautiously as to not disarrange her already disordered stride.
But, to no prevail, her feet went out from under her and she stumbled down the stairs, landing hard on her back.
Wincing, John pulled her back to her feet. She would feel that for a week.
He internally cursed her for the havoc she would bestow upon him the next day, took a deep breath, and picked her up. She was surprisingly light, considering her rather tall stature. He couldn’t dwell on it longer; his thoughts interrupted by a high voice. “What are you doing?!” She yelped, trying to get back on the solid ground below her.
“You are in no position to walk, Baroness, let alone down a staircase.” “For heavens sake, how incompetent do you think I am?!” She snapped, her futile attempts of getting out of his grasp diluting.
Rolling his eyes, John brought her outside and placed her not so cautiously in the seat of her car, closing the door swiftly before moving to the other side and getting in next to her.
Her anger wasn’t enforced for much longer, as she continued to deteriorate into an almost subconscious state.
By the time they arrived, she was sleeping rather peacefully. Getting out, John moved to get the Baroness out of the car and into her bedroom.
He opted not to remove any articles of clothing she was currently wearing, as he was already in a less than ideal situation hence humiliating her in front of the dwindled crowd.
He set her limp body down in her unnervingly embellished bed, turned around, and left as fast as he physically could, assuming it was best to enjoy her not being mad at him for as long as possible.
It really irked the Baroness to show that much vulnerability to someone that merely worked for her, but John done had what he was hired for, and she annoyedly couldn’t complain about that, so she chose to just ignore it.