Angst Bingo - Orphans/Runaways
Jul. 23rd, 2011 02:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theroadhouseTitle: Days Lost
Author:telaryn
Word Count: 1827
Fandom: Leverage/BTVS
Characters: Nate, Faith
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: No ownership implied, no profit obtained.
Summary: During his seminary days, Nate does an internship at The Belmont Center, a hospital/institution for troubled teenagers. He runs into a girl who reminds him of somebody he lost years ago.
Author's Note: Written forangst_bingo, for the prompt "orphans/runaways". This story is fanon for the "Ties That Bind Job" 'verse.
She tried not to care. The new guy was cute – sure – but student counselors wouldn’t ever be assigned to work with the likes of her.
“And Sara said he’s a priest!” Callie murmured excitedly. “Same as the other one, that Father Paul. They’re supposed to be friends.”
Nikki immediately stood on tiptoe, looking over the heads of the other girls in the group. “He’s too cute to be a priest!”
“Sara said he’s a Southie,” Callie went on. She glanced at Faith nervously. “Just like you! Maybe he grew up near where you did, Faith.” It was a feeble attempt at “interpersonal connection”, one of the things Dr. Harry kept saying she was supposed to want, but like all the other attempts it just pissed Faith off.
“Yeah,” she sneered, rolling her eyes, “maybe he was one of my Mom’s johns.” Several of the girls looked scandalized at Faith even suggesting a priest would use the services of a hooker – which was pretty much the reaction she’d been going for. Before any of the other girls could find the courage to challenge her outright, Faith walked away from the group.
“Where you goin’, Faith?” her favorite orderly asked. Father Hottie looked up from his conversation with one of the nurses; watching her with too much interest for someone she’d never exchanged a single word with. Just like all the others, she thought, disgusted. The others could cling to their ideas that a priest was somehow better than ordinary guys – if Faith was any judge, Father Hottie wanted the same thing out of her every guy wanted.
“Nowhere good, Billy, haven’t you heard?” Angry again, for reasons she couldn’t even begin to parse, Faith leaned against the wall next to the orderly. “Gimme,” she muttered, nudging him lightly with the point of her elbow.
“I ain’t givin’ you shit, girl,” Billy muttered. “Not with Dr. Harry, Father Nate, and half the floor lookin’ at us.” He snorted. “I like you Faith, but I ain’t gettin’ fired for your ass.”
******************
Nate watched the exchange with some interest. The man he’d been talking to – Dr. Harold Cleeves – sighed heavily. “He shouldn’t be encouraging that kind of behavior. Especially with her.”
There was something about the way he said ‘her’ that piqued Nate’s curiosity even further. Even though he’d only seen her at a distance so far, it had been a challenge to keep his focus on his work. “He called her Faith?” Nate asked Dr. Cleeves, who was signaling his displeasure to the orderly. “I didn’t see her file in the stack.”
Dr. Cleeves wasn’t fooled by his attempts at acting casual. “And you won’t, Father.” He glared at Nate. “Your superiors at the university have warned me about your love of tilting at windmills. Faith is one windmill that tilts back, and you will not be allowed anywhere near her.”
Nate was startled by the rebuke, but recovered smoothly. Dr. Cleeves was a no-nonsense sort that had achieved a lot of success at Belmont; Nate had a lot to learn from the man, even if he couldn’t entirely sign on to his methods.
After he finished talking with the doctor, Nate hovered around the nurse’s station watching how Faith interacted with the other girls. She was an interesting blend of lone wolf and Alpha female; every time she interacted with the group there was no question who was in charge, but she seemed to prefer spending most of her time on her own, or talking with the orderlies. Prefers male company to female, he realized, watching her teasing, flirtatious exchanges with Billy or Pete, the other orderly on the floor.
“She’s watching you, you know.” Georgia, one of the younger charge nurses, had come down to the end of the counter. “She watches everybody and everything, that one – even though she tries to pretend she doesn’t.”
Sensing a need to gossip in the air, Nate leaned on the desk and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “What’s her story?”
**********
There was a broken fire door in one of the unused activity rooms. Faith suspected that staff members had forgotten about it over the years, or that the damage was never reported. The girls all knew about it, but prevailing sentiment on the floor tended to be “where the hell would we go”? For most of them – Faith included – life was much easier at Belmont than whatever might be waiting for them on the outside.
Even though she only rarely entertained ideas of escaping the hospital, Faith liked to sneak into the stairwell after lights out. The solitude was steadying, and the security of being able to tell what direction people were coming from and when soothed her spirit. She felt safe there; something she had almost nowhere else in her life.
So when she found Father Nate waiting for her two steps below the landing the next time she slipped through the door, Faith was almost tempted to shove the priest down the stairs.
“Padre,” she said, folding her arms across her chest and staring down at him. He had to know she was breaking the rules by being out here, but Faith hadn’t made it this far in her life by folding when things got sticky.
Father Nate’s expression was disturbingly neutral. “You need to watch trusting Billy as much as you do,” he said. “He wasn’t kidding when he said he’s not going to risk losing his job; he’s got three kids and a sick wife to worry about.”
“You busting me?” Faith asked.
Father Nate raised an eyebrow, and for a split second Faith thought she saw a glint of mischief in his slate-blue eyes. “I’m a man of God, Faith – God wants us all to follow the rules.”
Faith barely suppressed a grin. “Wow,” she said once she could trust her voice again, “you said that with a straight face and everything.” She didn’t want to like the man – she didn’t want to like anybody at Belmont, let alone a student priest – but Father Nate was obviously determined to make it difficult for her.
“Have a seat,” he invited. Bending down, he picked up a thermos from the step he was on. “Coffee?”
Suspicious again, Faith nevertheless did what he asked – she sat down on the edge of the landing and held her hand out for the thermos. Unscrewing the top, she sniffed the contents; which made him smile again. “It really is coffee.”
“Mama always warned me about taking stuff from strange priests,” Faith said, taking a cautious sip of the coffee. It was hot, strong and black – not her first preference when it came to caffeine, but for some reason she felt like being sociable. “So…anything else besides trying to get me on the straight and narrow?”
Watching him out of the corner of her eye as she warmed her hands on the thermos, Faith caught an unguarded flash of something in the priest’s expression before the blandly friendly mask was slipped back in place. “Well,” he said, lowering himself to sit on a step with a groan, “I can’t shake this feeling that you wanted to talk to me.”
Faith raised both eyebrows. “I’m not your type, Padre.” She snorted. “In so many ways.”
Father Nate studied his fingernails. “We do have a lot in common, though.” He glanced up at her. “I grew up in the same neighborhood you did. My dad’s the local fixer.”
She blinked, startled not only by the revelation that Callie had inadvertently been right about him, but that he was Old Man Ford’s son. Everybody in the neighborhood knew Jimmy Ford. Grown-ups feared and respected him, and kids knew that you didn’t mess with anything under Ford’s protection. “Did you know my Mom?” The question slipped out before she could stop herself.
There was suddenly something wistful and strange in the older man’s eyes. “I did,” he said softly. “Your dad too. George and I…” He paused, and Faith knew he was reconsidering what he had started to say. “We ran in a lot of the same circles when we were kids.”
**********
It was a hedge and they both knew it, but Nate was grateful Faith didn’t call him on his shading of the truth. Ellie’s daughter. It was almost too impossible to believe. Even if he hadn’t snuck a look at Faith’s file, however, sitting this close to her it made perfect sense. She was her mother reincarnated – the very image of the girl he’d known.
Fortunately for both of them, however, Nate had gleaned enough information from Faith’s file to understand that the girl of his childhood was not the mother Faith knew. So he kept tight control of the conversation that followed – encouraging Faith to open up, and giving her just enough of his own past to keep her talking. From Faith he learned that Ellie had fallen on hard times. Not only was George in jail, probably for the rest of his life, but she was hopelessly addicted to drugs and alcohol. Faith had been the adult in her family for longer than she could remember until she finally ran away.
Nate tried to tell himself that talking about her family was good for Faith, but the more she opened up to him, the more conflicted he felt. Finally around two in the morning he suggested that they call it a night.
“You’re all right, Padre,” Faith said – smiling at him with a grudging respect in her voice.
“So are you,” he said. “Remember – this is our little secret, okay?”
Nodding, she slipped back through the fire door. Nate waited for several moments, before sighing heavily and burying his face in his hands.
Dr. Cleeves had been more right than he knew to ban him from having anything to do with Faith. Not only because of their shared history, but because Ellie Maguire – Faith’s mother – had been Nate’s first real love. He’d defied his father for love of Ellie; losing that battle had scarred him more deeply than he’d ever allowed himself to acknowledge to anyone.
Knowing now that she’d had a child so soon after Nate had been forced to break up with her was overwhelming. And the fact that child was Faith – with so much potential and so much against her – left him wondering what God intended him to do with this information?
By the time the sun came up, he was still in the same place in the stairwell, and no closer to an answer.
Author:
telarynWord Count: 1827
Fandom: Leverage/BTVS
Characters: Nate, Faith
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: No ownership implied, no profit obtained.
Summary: During his seminary days, Nate does an internship at The Belmont Center, a hospital/institution for troubled teenagers. He runs into a girl who reminds him of somebody he lost years ago.
Author's Note: Written for
angst_bingo, for the prompt "orphans/runaways". This story is fanon for the "Ties That Bind Job" 'verse.She tried not to care. The new guy was cute – sure – but student counselors wouldn’t ever be assigned to work with the likes of her.
“And Sara said he’s a priest!” Callie murmured excitedly. “Same as the other one, that Father Paul. They’re supposed to be friends.”
Nikki immediately stood on tiptoe, looking over the heads of the other girls in the group. “He’s too cute to be a priest!”
“Sara said he’s a Southie,” Callie went on. She glanced at Faith nervously. “Just like you! Maybe he grew up near where you did, Faith.” It was a feeble attempt at “interpersonal connection”, one of the things Dr. Harry kept saying she was supposed to want, but like all the other attempts it just pissed Faith off.
“Yeah,” she sneered, rolling her eyes, “maybe he was one of my Mom’s johns.” Several of the girls looked scandalized at Faith even suggesting a priest would use the services of a hooker – which was pretty much the reaction she’d been going for. Before any of the other girls could find the courage to challenge her outright, Faith walked away from the group.
“Where you goin’, Faith?” her favorite orderly asked. Father Hottie looked up from his conversation with one of the nurses; watching her with too much interest for someone she’d never exchanged a single word with. Just like all the others, she thought, disgusted. The others could cling to their ideas that a priest was somehow better than ordinary guys – if Faith was any judge, Father Hottie wanted the same thing out of her every guy wanted.
“Nowhere good, Billy, haven’t you heard?” Angry again, for reasons she couldn’t even begin to parse, Faith leaned against the wall next to the orderly. “Gimme,” she muttered, nudging him lightly with the point of her elbow.
“I ain’t givin’ you shit, girl,” Billy muttered. “Not with Dr. Harry, Father Nate, and half the floor lookin’ at us.” He snorted. “I like you Faith, but I ain’t gettin’ fired for your ass.”
******************
Nate watched the exchange with some interest. The man he’d been talking to – Dr. Harold Cleeves – sighed heavily. “He shouldn’t be encouraging that kind of behavior. Especially with her.”
There was something about the way he said ‘her’ that piqued Nate’s curiosity even further. Even though he’d only seen her at a distance so far, it had been a challenge to keep his focus on his work. “He called her Faith?” Nate asked Dr. Cleeves, who was signaling his displeasure to the orderly. “I didn’t see her file in the stack.”
Dr. Cleeves wasn’t fooled by his attempts at acting casual. “And you won’t, Father.” He glared at Nate. “Your superiors at the university have warned me about your love of tilting at windmills. Faith is one windmill that tilts back, and you will not be allowed anywhere near her.”
Nate was startled by the rebuke, but recovered smoothly. Dr. Cleeves was a no-nonsense sort that had achieved a lot of success at Belmont; Nate had a lot to learn from the man, even if he couldn’t entirely sign on to his methods.
After he finished talking with the doctor, Nate hovered around the nurse’s station watching how Faith interacted with the other girls. She was an interesting blend of lone wolf and Alpha female; every time she interacted with the group there was no question who was in charge, but she seemed to prefer spending most of her time on her own, or talking with the orderlies. Prefers male company to female, he realized, watching her teasing, flirtatious exchanges with Billy or Pete, the other orderly on the floor.
“She’s watching you, you know.” Georgia, one of the younger charge nurses, had come down to the end of the counter. “She watches everybody and everything, that one – even though she tries to pretend she doesn’t.”
Sensing a need to gossip in the air, Nate leaned on the desk and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “What’s her story?”
**********
There was a broken fire door in one of the unused activity rooms. Faith suspected that staff members had forgotten about it over the years, or that the damage was never reported. The girls all knew about it, but prevailing sentiment on the floor tended to be “where the hell would we go”? For most of them – Faith included – life was much easier at Belmont than whatever might be waiting for them on the outside.
Even though she only rarely entertained ideas of escaping the hospital, Faith liked to sneak into the stairwell after lights out. The solitude was steadying, and the security of being able to tell what direction people were coming from and when soothed her spirit. She felt safe there; something she had almost nowhere else in her life.
So when she found Father Nate waiting for her two steps below the landing the next time she slipped through the door, Faith was almost tempted to shove the priest down the stairs.
“Padre,” she said, folding her arms across her chest and staring down at him. He had to know she was breaking the rules by being out here, but Faith hadn’t made it this far in her life by folding when things got sticky.
Father Nate’s expression was disturbingly neutral. “You need to watch trusting Billy as much as you do,” he said. “He wasn’t kidding when he said he’s not going to risk losing his job; he’s got three kids and a sick wife to worry about.”
“You busting me?” Faith asked.
Father Nate raised an eyebrow, and for a split second Faith thought she saw a glint of mischief in his slate-blue eyes. “I’m a man of God, Faith – God wants us all to follow the rules.”
Faith barely suppressed a grin. “Wow,” she said once she could trust her voice again, “you said that with a straight face and everything.” She didn’t want to like the man – she didn’t want to like anybody at Belmont, let alone a student priest – but Father Nate was obviously determined to make it difficult for her.
“Have a seat,” he invited. Bending down, he picked up a thermos from the step he was on. “Coffee?”
Suspicious again, Faith nevertheless did what he asked – she sat down on the edge of the landing and held her hand out for the thermos. Unscrewing the top, she sniffed the contents; which made him smile again. “It really is coffee.”
“Mama always warned me about taking stuff from strange priests,” Faith said, taking a cautious sip of the coffee. It was hot, strong and black – not her first preference when it came to caffeine, but for some reason she felt like being sociable. “So…anything else besides trying to get me on the straight and narrow?”
Watching him out of the corner of her eye as she warmed her hands on the thermos, Faith caught an unguarded flash of something in the priest’s expression before the blandly friendly mask was slipped back in place. “Well,” he said, lowering himself to sit on a step with a groan, “I can’t shake this feeling that you wanted to talk to me.”
Faith raised both eyebrows. “I’m not your type, Padre.” She snorted. “In so many ways.”
Father Nate studied his fingernails. “We do have a lot in common, though.” He glanced up at her. “I grew up in the same neighborhood you did. My dad’s the local fixer.”
She blinked, startled not only by the revelation that Callie had inadvertently been right about him, but that he was Old Man Ford’s son. Everybody in the neighborhood knew Jimmy Ford. Grown-ups feared and respected him, and kids knew that you didn’t mess with anything under Ford’s protection. “Did you know my Mom?” The question slipped out before she could stop herself.
There was suddenly something wistful and strange in the older man’s eyes. “I did,” he said softly. “Your dad too. George and I…” He paused, and Faith knew he was reconsidering what he had started to say. “We ran in a lot of the same circles when we were kids.”
**********
It was a hedge and they both knew it, but Nate was grateful Faith didn’t call him on his shading of the truth. Ellie’s daughter. It was almost too impossible to believe. Even if he hadn’t snuck a look at Faith’s file, however, sitting this close to her it made perfect sense. She was her mother reincarnated – the very image of the girl he’d known.
Fortunately for both of them, however, Nate had gleaned enough information from Faith’s file to understand that the girl of his childhood was not the mother Faith knew. So he kept tight control of the conversation that followed – encouraging Faith to open up, and giving her just enough of his own past to keep her talking. From Faith he learned that Ellie had fallen on hard times. Not only was George in jail, probably for the rest of his life, but she was hopelessly addicted to drugs and alcohol. Faith had been the adult in her family for longer than she could remember until she finally ran away.
Nate tried to tell himself that talking about her family was good for Faith, but the more she opened up to him, the more conflicted he felt. Finally around two in the morning he suggested that they call it a night.
“You’re all right, Padre,” Faith said – smiling at him with a grudging respect in her voice.
“So are you,” he said. “Remember – this is our little secret, okay?”
Nodding, she slipped back through the fire door. Nate waited for several moments, before sighing heavily and burying his face in his hands.
Dr. Cleeves had been more right than he knew to ban him from having anything to do with Faith. Not only because of their shared history, but because Ellie Maguire – Faith’s mother – had been Nate’s first real love. He’d defied his father for love of Ellie; losing that battle had scarred him more deeply than he’d ever allowed himself to acknowledge to anyone.
Knowing now that she’d had a child so soon after Nate had been forced to break up with her was overwhelming. And the fact that child was Faith – with so much potential and so much against her – left him wondering what God intended him to do with this information?
By the time the sun came up, he was still in the same place in the stairwell, and no closer to an answer.
