Disclaimer: I own Lie To Me; not.
Rated T for safety.
A/N: My second Lie To Me oneshot! Been waiting two days to be able to upload to Document Manager, so don't expect rapidfire oneshots all the time; I have officially used up my entire reserve for the moment (;.
Upon my entrance to the world of fanfiction for this fandom, I was a little sad to find so few fics more Eli, Ria and Emily as individuals, as well as Eli and Ria as a couple. I will slowly, and perhaps not-so-steadily, be trying to change that, because I love them as a couple. But I'm also a Callian fan, so don't think I won't be getting around to that when my muse is cooperating.
Anyways, sorry, I seem to get rambly when I'm posting ... and reviewing ... and talking to people ... and always.
This is set early on in season one, with a very general look towards Ria's feeling at the time. Short again, I know.
Hope you enjoy!
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She's a natural.
That's what everybody's saying she is, anyway. Someone who can pick up on cues in body language, and the so-called micro-expressions she's only just learned about the existence of, without any previous in-depth training or study of the subject.
They make it sound like she had it handed to her on a silver platter that she didn't deserve … But it's not like she asked for it. She didn't want to look every flirting guy in the eye and automatically be distrustful; she didn't have any control over it. It's not her fault that her father was a class-A bastard who liked smacking her around. What was she supposed to do except adapt learn to pick up his cues, so she'd know when it was safe and when to hide in the closet to avoid his wrath. (But they don't know any of that; and she doesn't want them to. She doesn't want the pity she knows that she'd see in their eyes after the initial concern wore off, doesn't want them to treat her differently than they would anyone else.)
She's not trying to shove it in Lightman's face; the fact that she has an ability to do what he spent over a decade studying and perfecting into an art form.
And it's not as if she's got it made. Everyone's made it perfectly clear to her that her uncanny ability still needs work; that she's basically still incompetent for as long as she doesn't know the science behind the craft. She can see emotions on people's faces, she knows when somebody's bullshitting her … but she can't put all the clues together and figure out why. She doesn't have any past scenarios to rely on, no professional experience in deception. She new at this; she's the rookie who just might have what it takes to go all the way.
She's the untrained natural.
She doesn't like the way they (he, mainly) look down on her, as if she's a burden. (As though he didn't happen across her path and basically tell her that she worked for him now; as if she begged him for the job and he only grudgingly accepted.)
If they think that she isn't going to work her butt off here, they're sorely mistaken. Because Ria Torres does not half-ass anything, and the only reaction their behavior is prompting is to strengthen her determination to show them (him) that she does have what it takes. That not only can she do this, but that she's going to; even if it kills her, which it just might.
Because she may be a natural, but she knows that none of what's ahead of her is going to come easy.
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Reviews are love!