Leverage Ficlet!
Feb. 28th, 2010 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theroadhouseThis would be the missing follow-up scene to "The Ties That Bind Job". After recently rewatching the David Job eps, I found I wanted to see Nate trying to break it to Maggie that he had a grown daughter. It's a bit of a brain noodle, but at least it's now a noodle in cyber space instead of a noodle in *my* brain.
Title: I Can Explain
Characters: Nate & Maggie
Rating: G
Word Count: 1471
Summary: Nate realizes that certain people deserve to hear the truth about a turn his life has taken. References events in "The Ties That Bind Job"
“What was I supposed to do, Nate? She swore me to secrecy when she found out. You were gone, and Jimmy had made it very clear you weren’t coming back.”
Nathan Ford studied the surface of his coffee and tried not to wish it was something stronger. In the end he had come back, but “Father Paul” had an answer for that too.
“The damage was done by that point. Besides, you had the evidence right in front of you, and you chose to look the other way. What was I going to accomplish by forcing you to take on something like that?”
Harsh, but true. Hearing it from his old friend didn’t help matters, however, since the “something” was his daughter, Faith – fathered when he was barely sixteen years old. You had your suspicions, he thought, taking a drink from his cup. No point blaming Paul that you were too scared to act on them.
“Nate?”
Startled, he lowered his cup and looked up. Dr. Maggie Collins – formerly Maggie Ford, his wife – stood next to the table. “Maggie…hi.” He started to get to his feet, indicating the chair opposite his. She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before sitting down. As soon as she was settled, Nate resumed his own seat.
“You sounded awful on the phone,” she said. Reaching across the table, she grabbed his cup. Before he could say anything, she sniffed the contents.
“I’m not drinking,” he said, but he couldn’t be too upset with her for checking. In the years since their divorce, Maggie had seen him drunk more often than sober. “I promise.”
Putting the cup down, she slid it back to him. “Don’t promise, Nate. Please.” A waiter appeared at their table at that moment, distracting them. “Decaf double-foam latte’,” Maggie said. Nodding, the man disappeared just as smoothly as he’d appeared.
“All right,” Maggie said, turning her attention back to Nate. “What’s going on?”
Where do I start? Faced with her brisk, no-nonsense attitude, Nate found himself suddenly at a loss for words. He took another drink of his coffee to buy himself a few moments.
“We had a job,” he said finally. “It…started off okay, but things took a turn for the strange.” If you call vampires, strange, he thought, remembering how stunned he’d been upon learning the truth. “Eliot ended up in the hospital. He nearly…we nearly lost him.” Sitting in the waiting room…on the ragged edge…waiting for word that somebody else he cared about had died…
Maggie slid her hand across the table, her fingers wrapping around his clenched fist. “Nate…”
Daring to look up at her, Nate saw nothing but compassion and understanding in her eyes. He was her son too, he thought. Maggie was the only person on the planet who really understood what it meant to him that he’d almost lost somebody else he cared about. “He’s going to be okay,” he said, relaxing his fist and taking her hand in his – grateful for the contact. “There’s been a lot of physical therapy, and the doctors had to go into his chest a second time…” That hadn’t been a pretty experience for any of them.
“…but he’s going to be okay.” That was the important thing. That was his anchor to sanity.
And it wasn’t the reason he’d called Maggie for this meeting. “Something happened during the case. I met somebody.” He felt Maggie tense, start to pull away…he tightened his grip on her hand. “Not like that.” He shook his head, realizing he was bungling the telling.
Nate exhaled sharply, trying to steady himself. “You know a lot about my childhood,” he said, forcing himself to meet her gaze. “You know I was in a gang, and that my father didn’t approve.”
Maggie nodded. “You said he sent you to that boarding school in New York to get you away from them.”
Memory of the fight that had led to that life changing move washed over him. Nate shivered. “Yeah. And I still believe he was right. It took me down a very different road.” He squeezed her hand gently, smiling. “It took me to you.”
She smiled in return. Nate realized he was more grateful than he knew how to say that Maggie didn’t hate him for any of the things he’d done since their divorce. “As much as the gang,” he said, forcing himself to go on, “Jimmy wanted me away from my girlfriend. He thought Ellie was trash – and I think he was afraid she would trap me somehow.”
“You mean with a child,” Maggie said carefully. She knows, Nate realized. She knows what you're going to say.
He nodded. “And…ah…he was right.” He swallowed hard. Here we go. “Maggie, I have a daughter. Her name is Faith.”
He felt Maggie’s hand jerk free of his, but this time Nate didn’t try to hold her back. Her shocked expression was nothing he hadn’t expected. “I didn’t want you to hear it from somebody else before you heard it from me.”
The waiter returning with Maggie’s order bought him a few precious seconds of silence. Maggie nodded at the man, but Nate could tell the gesture was automatic. “A daughter?” she asked, once they were alone again.
“Yes. Best I can figure, she was conceived just before Jimmy broke us up.” He paused, remembering. “I only saw Ellie once after that, and I didn’t know she was pregnant. She…she never told me.”
Maggie exhaled softly. “How…when did you find out?”
Now there’s a complicated question, Nate thought, taking another sip of his coffee. “I found out Ellie had a daughter when I was helping out at the Belmont Center. The timing was close, but she had the last name of the guy Ellie was with after I left.”
“So you assumed…” Maggie said, her voice trailing off.
He nodded. “I assumed. It was easier than facing the fact that I might have fathered a child and never known.” He sighed. “And Faith…well, you know the type of kids that end up at Belmont.” Drug users, alcoholics – Faith hadn’t been either of those. She’d fallen squarely into the third category of patients – the habitual violent offenders. She’d tried to kill her mother’s pimp, another former acquaintance of Nate’s from his street gang days.
“So…how did you end up finding out the truth?”
Nate smiled. This was going to be a heavily edited version of the truth, otherwise Maggie was going to think he was drinking again. “Our paths crossed on that same job I told you about. Mag, she’s really turned her life around.” He could feel the pride creeping into his voice. “She’s…a social worker of sorts.” Off Maggie’s look of confusion, he elaborated, “Works for a private foundation – not government.” The social worker part at least was true – Faith had told him that within the Slayer organization, she acted as counselor and example to girls who couldn’t handle the powers they’d been given, or the responsibility that went with them.
Maggie was quiet for a moment, digesting everything he’d said. A complicated series of emotions were playing across her face – Nate didn’t even dare begin parsing them out.
“Is she local?” Maggie asked at last.
“She’s based in Cleveland, actually,” Nate said. “Travels a lot. I haven’t seen her since…” Since the day after the DNA test results had come in. They’d gone for dinner to celebrate, and spent most of the night together – eating and talking, trying to figure out how they wanted to go forward.
“I want to meet her.” There was no confusion or hesitation in Maggie’s expression now.
Nate’s first instinct was to refuse. Faith was…wild. Different. Even if he discounted her non-traditional employment…how did you note “vampire slayer” on a resume anyway? Even if he ignored that, the idea of bringing her and the comfortable, well-bred Maggie Collins together in the same room was enough to give anyone pause.
You’re underestimating her. Funny how the voice in his head that time sounded almost exactly like Sophie. “Maggie, are you sure?” he asked finally. “You don’t have to, you know.”
Smiling gently, she reached across the table and took his hand again. “If she’s going to be a part of your life, Nate, I want to know something about her.” She paused. “If you’re okay with it?”
Returning her smile, Nate squeezed her hand. “I’d like that. I want you to know her, Maggie. I don’t know how often she’s going to be around, or how comfortable she is with this situation.”
“But I like having her in my life. It sounds crazy, but just knowing we have that connection…things make more sense.”
Maggie studied him for a long moment, and he knew she was thinking of Sam – the child they’d shared and lost. “I don’t think it sounds crazy at all.”
no subject
Date: 2010-03-01 08:31 pm (UTC)The voice really rings authentic when Maggie says:
"Don't promise, Nate. Please."
The hope, the past disappointments, the fact that she's his ex-wife and not his mother - all of those complicated layers are created beautifully by that one piece of dialog.
Now I'd love to see how Faith and Maggie get along.
Everyone loves Maggie and I wonder if Faith will side with Parker on the whole "Maggie's the most upright person we know, but other than that she's ok."
Or will Faith be kind of wigged by how straight-laced Maggie is without crossing over the line into prudish or judgemental.
Thank you for posting this. I really love your Leverage stuff.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-05 12:50 pm (UTC)I'm so glad the layers came through...I was worried the "don't promise" would come off as too snappish.
I'm actually working on a post S2 fic now that weaves into my Faith/Dean stuff. Dean realizing Nate is his father-in-law...*g*
no subject
Date: 2010-03-09 10:52 pm (UTC)Nate = A heavy drinking authority figure who is used to giving orders.
Yeah, Dean won't have any baggage there.
LOL. Just thinking about all the things you might do is making me happy.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 03:37 pm (UTC)