Disclaimer: Don't own anything!
Author's Note: Recently been obsessed with this movie and had to write something for it. Calling Jim's dad Nicholas since it seems to fit to me.
Saw the new Karate Kid. A good movie and an excellent remake. Not nearly as good as the original, of course, but still good.
-/-
Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad. ~Author Unknown
-/-
It shouldn't have been easy to want to hate the man who had been his best friend once upon a time, but as he stood in front of the man, it was. Dark brown hair hung lank around his face and the. There were dark shadows beneath his hazel eyes, eyes that had once been so bright that had now lost their spark.
Nicholas blinked at the person standing before him. "Silver?"
As much as Silver wanted to hate Nicholas, he couldn't help the smirk that twisted his lips at the sight of him. "Know any other cyborgs, Nick?"
Nicholas laughed and Silver could see the man he'd known before him once gain rather than the shadow of a man that he had been when he answered the door. "Come on in, Silver. Want a drink?"
It doesn't surprise Silver in the least that Nicholas has liquor in his small apartment above a port-side bar and he follows his friend inside. It seems even smaller on the inside and might have felt cramped if it wasn't for that wide window that looks out over the port. There is a thin blanket thrown over the couch that had certainly seen better days. The small coffee table was littered with newspapers and a few books, mugs and bottles staining some of the surfaces.
Nicholas is behind the counter of the tiny kitchen, pulling two bottles of beer out of the fridge. There's a single picture partially obscured by one of those souvenir magnets and when Silver focuses on it with his robotic eye, he can see Sara as she had looked roughly ten years ago—no gray in that light brown hair and no gentle lines on her face. She had her arms around a little boy who was chubby-faced with sparkling gray-blue eyes.
Nicholas followed Silver's eyes as he handed him the beer. "Do you have any news?" He asked quietly.
The cyborg leaned back against the counter. "Y're gonna want me ter start at the beginning of this."
Nicholas mimicked his position opposite him and listened intently to the tale that Silver told—one of pirates under a feline captain, of a treasure that had, for so long, been little more than a tale for children.
"So you found the treasure then?" Nicholas asks.
"I had some help by the way." Silver nods towards the photo. "Your son."
Silver watches with interest as Nicholas pales and he quickly gulps down the rest of his beer. "H-He was there? Through all of this?"
"Aye."
They're both silent for a long moment, either remembering or imagining what the boy had been through, when Silver finally says, "He's a good lad. Smart, too. 'Pparently, he built his first solar surfer when he was eight. And he's got a natural knack for shipwork."
Nicholas didn't need to hear all these things about his son—how could he not have known Jim was intelligent when he'd looked into bright eyes, when he'd heard the boy speak of the things he wanted to make, of the places he imagined?—but he appreciated it just the same. His son had been seven when he'd last seen the boy.
"Oh really?" Nicholas murmured.
"Mm. An' I hear tha' he's been accepted into the Interstellar Academy."
Nicholas had been accepted into the Interstellar Academy before, but he'd never gone. Too confining, he'd said. And he'd worked on the wrong side of the law enough times that it wouldn't have been a very smart move, even all those years back.
"That so?"
"An' Sara's doin' just fine. Saw to that meself." When Nicholas looks up, confused and surprised, Silver explains about their escape from Treasure Planet, about how Jim had let him go when he could've easily been arrested, which Silver would be the first to say he fully deserved for betraying the boy. No, not boy. He had become a man over the months that he'd worked along side Silver.
"That's good news." Nicholas says a little distractedly and Silver knows that look on his face.
"Nicholas," Silver begins quietly. The human looks up at him. It was serious if Silver was using his real name. "I need ter know why you abandoned those two 'fore I tell you anything else."
Nicholas ran a frustrated hand through his hair. How could he explain it? How could anyone explain the seductive scent of the wind, the lure of the flighty temptress known as adventure? "I-I loved travel too much. I had to make a choice between it and my family and I made my choice."
"Couldn't ya have done both?"
Nicholas shook his head. "Sara deserved a husband that would have been at her side no matter what and Jim, he deserved, and needed, a father. A real father. One that would've been there to see him build that solar surfer, to see him go through school. I didn't want to half-ass it."
Silver sighed. He had figured that he'd get an answer like that. It wasn't one that he had been hoping for, but at least it was honest. Then again, Nicholas had never been a dishonest man, despite his work as a smuggler. "…Jimbo's set ter graduate near a month from now from the Academy. Supposed to be this big high-to-do at the Benbow."
"Are you trying to make a point, Silver?"
"Actually, yes. I think you should go."
Nicholas immediately shook his head violently before pushing his hair back out of his face. "No. No one there wants me. I don't even have a right to be there! I mean, I failed as his father, he probably hates me-"
"True as that all is, it's still a good idea for you ter go."
"Oh really?" The challenging fire was back in the hazel eyes. Not entirely, perhaps, but there was a spark, an ember of the man Silver had once been proud to call his best friend. "And why is that?"
"Fer yer own peace of mind!"
Nicholas' face hardened. It should have disturbed him how well Silver knew him, even after not seeing each other for at least five years. "I've lived with it for over ten years."
"Living with it isn't the same thing as accepting it."
"You want me to go to the graduation of the son that hates me?"
"Simply, yes!"
Nicholas read the look on Silver's face. He knew that the cyborg had a stubbornness that rivaled, and on occasion surpassed, his own. This was clearly going to be one of those times.
"…Fine. I'll go."
-/-/-/
The party is clearly in full swing when Nicholas reaches the top of the hill atop which rests the Benbow Inn. Music is floating out of the windows, laughter and voices accompanying it.
Nicholas slips in through the kitchen door and leans on the back wall in a corner. It had changed a great deal from the last time he'd seen it. It was larger and brighter, the wood polished. Then again, from Silver's tale, the old Inn had been burnt down.
He watches as a robot serves cake and everyone dances. His eyes seek out the woman he'd loved enough to try to stay in one place and that he'd left for her good. He finds her, clapping and laughing with the rest of them.
There is gray in her curly hair now, and lines that hadn't been there before. But she still smiles the same and her laughter rings out over the rest, clear as a bell. She's dressed in that dress that was in that odd place between purple and blue.
The doors slam open and everyone turns with a gasp towards the door as they see the two officers. The officers step aside and Nicholas' breath leaves his body in a rush. His son…
Jim has his mother's lighter shade of hair, kept long and tied back, though shaved shorter on the sides. He's always had his mother's eyes, but they're not as wide as they used to be and are tempered with experience. The white uniform, red at the collar and trimmed with gold, falls right on his broad shoulders. A little pink blob—could that be the Morph that Silver had told him he'd found off Proteus 1?—changes itself into a medal and pins itself to his chest.
He stays at his place leaning on the wall as Jim and his mother bow to each other before dancing down in between the lines of people. It's only when he loses track of Sara that she finds him.
"Nicholas?" Her voice is little more than a loud whisper, a tray of plates to be washed shaking in her trembling hands.
He quickly takes the tray from her and ducks back into the kitchen. "Yes, it's me."
"What are you doing here?" She asks, hands on her hips. It doesn't surprise him in the least that she'd followed him.
Nicholas knows that look in her eyes, recognizes it well. She was clearly still the same fiery, opinionated, sassy woman he'd fallen in love with. "Because Silver thought it was a good idea."
Her lips thin into a dark line. "Not a word for ten years and suddenly you just decide to show up because Silver thought it was a good idea?"
His eyes flashed. "He's my son too, Sara."
"How strange. You certainly haven't acted like you cared."
Nicholas has to work not to wince. Sara clearly hadn't lost that sharp tongue of hers. "I've only just gotten word of what's been happening. How could you have let him go on that adventure? Alone?"
"He was not alone, Nicholas. Delbert was with him and, clearly, so was Silver."
Nicholas had met Delbert Doppler a few times. A town friend of Sara's. He was a good enough guy, but certainly not someone who Nicholas would have chosen to go with Jim to go searching for a planet that wasn't supposed to exist.
'Who would you have chosen?' A voice in the back of his mind whispered. 'Yourself? But you weren't there, were you?'
Nicholas took a deep breath. He'd never liked arguing with Sara and he didn't want to spoil this day for her. "I just wanted to see my family. Even…even if I might not deserve them."
Sara chewed her lip and finally said, "Alright. You can stay. Just for tonight." Because she doesn't think she can ever truly hate Nicholas Hawkins and Jim is his son, after all.
Oh yes, Jim was Nicholas' son. Jim had that same insatiable curiosity, that same love for adventure and that same intelligence. Not that Sara was unintelligent, but she was the normal kind of smart. The kind that came from studies and observations. Her ex-husband and son were some other kind of natural genius that, sometimes, she isn't sure how to deal with.
So Nicholas sits at a table towards the very back, sipping at a mug of ale—just one mug—and continuing to watch. He almost wants to go up to Sara and ask her to dance, but he resisted the urge. He was here as an observer, nothing more. He hadn't earned anything else.
"Hey, can I get you some more?"
He hadn't realized his mug was empty. Nicholas glances up and struggles to control his expression. Because it was Jim. He'd unbuttoned the jacket and there was a plain white T-shirt underneath. Nicholas shook his head. He'd drunk enough tonight, even if it was just the one mug.
"Alright. But hey, if you need anything, just holler." The kid—no, Jim wasn't a kid anymore—the man, then. The man had the rough politeness that Nicholas had long connected with Silver.
The party finishes long after midnight and Nicholas trickles out with the last of the party-goers, reluctant to leave. It had been refreshing, being around these people again. The familiar chaos and noise, the laughter and joking—it was an exhilarating and bittersweet feeling to be around it all again.
Nicholas glances into the window before he leaves and there is Sara wrapping an arm around Jim's shoulders and they're staring around at the mess of the common room. They both open their mouths and say something at the same time—he's not sure what. Nicholas was never very good at reading lips—and they both smile (Jim has his mother's smile, Nicholas notes absently) and head up the stairs and out of sight.
Silver is waiting comfortably on the ship that they'd taken passage on. He's leaning on the rail, a lit pipe between his lips. "Was I right?" He asks as Nicholas joins him.
"…Yeah. You were." It had been good for him. It had always been something at the back of his mind, nagging at him. Was Sara doing alright? How was the kid? Was he doing alright?
"You still angry at me?" Silver asks. Because Nicholas had been angry, had had that spark back if only for a moment, but the human had a way, much like his son, of letting that anger stew and bubble beneath the surface.
"No. No I'm not." I just wish that I could've felt the strength of his grip, had a real conversation with him. That he could judge me honestly. But that wasn't possible because he had no place in the Benbow Inn. Not anymore.
-/-/
Silver only has to punch his shoulder once (not with the robotic arm, thank God) for Nicholas to wake up, eyes bleary. "Wazz happenin'?"
"He asked to see you." There can only be one person that has that look on Silver's face. "Or rather, kinda demanded, now that I think on it."
"How did...?" Nicholas isn't sure what the rest of the question is as he pulls on a shirt and tugs on his boots. "Did he see you?"
Silver shook his head. "Cabin boy came an' got me. Very scared about an officer bein' on the ship. 'E's in the galley."
Fury was overflowing from the doorway as Nicholas approached. Jim was prowling the galley, hands in the pocket of his jacket. It wasn't his uniform jacket, but a worn, faded black one. When he glanced at the doorway and noticed Nicholas, he didn't alter or change his stride, just spun and came straight towards him.
Nicholas swallowed hard. He wasn't afraid of his son, but perhaps was a bit wary because he hadn't known that the young man could look so darkly dangerous. "Jim."
"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" Jim hisses through clenched teeth. He hadn't recognized his father the night before, but now that he saw Nicholas standing in front of him, he's wondering how he couldn't have seen it before.
"What are you talking about?"
"You come back, don't even say anything, and you leave Mom like that?"
Nicholas' heart stuttered for a moment at the mention of Sara. "Leave Sara like what?"
Jim doesn't miss a beat. "Hurt."
It should sound childish, it was so simple. But Nicholas knows that he'd have to have hurt Sara real bad if Jim had seen it.
He's silent for so long that Jim continues. "She always gets this one look when she's thinkin' 'bout you." Jim is both trying and not trying to look at him. The young man settles for a place a little to the right of Nicholas' left shoulder. "Haven't seen it in a while, but saw it this morning when she was cleanin' and making her coffee."
Sara had always liked to have a cup of coffee or three to start the day. "I don't know what to say to any of this, Jim."
Jim waved his hand dismissively. "Mom'll be fine. Always is." Nicholas doesn't need to hear him add the part about Jim picking up the pieces. Jim fixes him with a steely look. "What I want to know is what made you think it was okay to come back."
Nicholas knows that he can't tell Jim about Silver's coming to see him. He's not sure how his son would respond. "I was passing through and overheard a conversation saying that you were graduating and they were throwing some big party. Congratulations, by the way, on getting through the Academy." It's taking everything he has to keep his voice casual.
"Don't try and change the subject." Jim warns. "Why were you passing through?"
"A job." Nicholas replies easily. It's the first easy thing that's come out of his mouth since the beginning of this conversation and it's only because they're two simple words that have nothing to do with the life he'd had on Montressor.
"So you actually have one now?"
Jim had inherited his mother's sharp tongue after all. "Yes, thank you."
A hint of a smirk twisted the corner of Jim's mouth. "No need to get tetchy."
Now that the anger had been leashed—it hadn't gone away, might never go away—and Nicholas was allowed to see the person beneath it all, he decided he liked the man he saw.
Nicholas tried to frown while trying to fight a smile. "You're the one that deserves a good kick in the ass."
Jim blinks, as though he's not sure whether he should be angry or ashamed. "Me?"
"You, boy. You don't think it didn't worry her out of her mind when you went off on that hare-brained Treasure Planet adventure?" He wanted to call it nonsense, but if his son is anything like him, it would only make Jim angrier.
"Don't think I'm blind! I-" Jim's eyes narrow. "How did you know about Treasure Planet?"
Nicholas tried to backtrack. "I never said nothing about a Treasure Planet."
Jim chuckles a little and it's a bitter sound. "Should've known better than to expect the truth from you." He strides past him and words float over his shoulder. "Stay away from Mom."
Nicholas sighs and feels the powerful need for a drink. He wants to embrace his son, but he'd seen the tense lines in Jim's shoulders. He wants to ask his son to stay for awhile, wants to catch up and hear the little details of Jim's life, but he hasn't earned that right. As much as Nicholas wants to know his son, he knows that it isn't going to happen.
-/-/
For the first time in his life, or at least, the first time since he'd left Sara and Jim, he feels no need to travel. He sits on his counter and stares at the picture on his fridge for a long time before the restlessness that is never really gone urges him to move, do something.
So he stands and changes into his nightclothes before slipping beneath the covers. That night, and many nights afterwards, he dreams of a laughing woman with gray strands in her hair and a man where there had once been a boy.