Thursdays child has far to go

by Ferryman

Just found this in my emails from two years ago, ficlet based on the childs poem. Was writing one a day but never posted. Thursdays was Lewis based so...Hathaway's father always threw that same phrase at him, always in that disappointing tone and Hathaway heard it so often that he believed it...until Lewis

Just found this in my email from two years ago, while looking for something else. I was writing a fic a day for a friend – anyway, just realised I never posted it so here is it….

Thursdays child has far to go...

He always remembers his dad saying that to him whenever he failed at anything, even when he had done good, his dad still implied he could have done better. Disappointment flooding every syllable and feeling like a slap to the face. His own heart sinking in shame that he'd failed once again. Shame layered on shame, made to acknowledge that he'd never be good at anything until eventually he didn't even try anymore.

He'd aimed for the priest hood, thinking all you had to be good at was listening and reading out loud. He could do that. So, he chose theology at Cambridge, his teachers telling him he was a gifted student but James figured they told everyone that because he still wasn't good enough for his Dad, and his Dad knew him better than anyone.

But then he'd had to leave. The hypocrisy and restrictions on love, when James didn't believe that God would make any restrictions on something so precious, was enough to convince him that he could not continue in the church. He'd fallen into the police force and even he wasn't quite sure how. He was sergeant to Detective Inspector Lewis, the bravest, most honourable man James had ever known. This man had loved, loved so deeply that he'd given part of himself to her and when she was torn from him, had been left not quite whole, such was the depth of his sacrifice.

James watched now as the man he respected shouted down his father, not with loud words, but with quite hissed conviction. Detective Inspector Robbie Lewis said that Thursdays child was bloody amazing, that Thursdays child could go to the damn moon if he wanted to, was capable of anything he chose to do and that if his dad couldn't see that, he must be blind and for the first time James saw the lies in his father's eyes, saw the truth in Robbies.

All this time trying to achieve something that would never be his – his own fathers respect. All this time and he had something better – Robbie Lewis' respect, something he now held higher than any reward on earth. The heavy burden of shame drifted from his shoulders like feathers, brushed aside and forgotten. The bending spine straightened, head held tall and proud as he faced his father down. Thursdays child had far to go, because they were capable of reaching so much further than those around them, not because they'd struggle along the way.

Lewis turned to him, worry in his face that he'd overstepped the mark. James smiled at him, tears in his eyes. "Thank you," he whispered. Finally he knew his own worth, thanks to Lewis.