If asked, most of the employees at the LA Dollhouse would admit that they rarely, if ever, saw Mr. Dominic, Ms. DeWitt's stoic and intimidating head of security, smile. If you asked Topher, he'd theorize that Dominic simply didn't smile unless he had recently(or there was a chance he was about to do) done something violent and painful to another person. Dr. Saunders and Mr. Langston would agree that the head of security did not seem like a happy man.
No one would ever dare ask her, but Ms. DeWitt would probably disagree with the general consensus, asserting that Mr. Dominic smiled. As did she.
Though no one knew what went on behind the closed doors of her office, if she was referring to the shark like baring of teeth that each of them occasionally displayed, then they could pretty much take her assessment with a grain of salt.
Most everyone just accepted that Laurence Dominic was born with a perpetual scowl etched on his little face.
They couldn't have been more wrong.
Laurence had grown up a bright, happy, well adjusted little boy. In a small Maryland suburb, he'd spent his tow haired, gap toothed youth playing baseball and soccer, surrounded by a pack of friends and a doting family. As Laurence, a family name, seemed such a mouthful, he'd gone by Rory for most of his earl years.
He sailed through high school and college didn't pose too much of a challenge either, so he'd been able to spend plenty of time pursuing things that made him happy. His dream was to finish school and join the FBI, to make a difference and keep people safe. He was quite content with that goal. It wasn't until a recruiter from the NSA approached him on campus during his senior year that Laurence Dominic's charmed life suddenly veered into very serious territory.
He soon learned that the NSA was not a workplace environment that fostered smiles and happy go lucky attitudes. Ever the chameleon, he adapted himself to fit the ideals of the agency. Excelling in his field, he was given the task to infiltrate the Dollhouse, a place whose practices he abhorred. He had to pretend to be the Dollhouse's man, something that irked him to no end and he found his increasingly rare smile fading into near non-existence.
In fact, the only times he recalled smiling a true smile in recent times (not counting that time with the drug and the suit fondling that no one wanted to talk about) were when he was sitting with Adelle DeWitt, going over some random security issue. There were times he could almost forget who she was, who he was, where they were…times when he allowed himself to enjoy her presence and pretend that he really did work for her.
He knew, had they met under different circumstances, he would have let himself fall in love with her. Sometimes, when he was being truly honest with himself, he admitted that his heart really wasn't paying attention to the circumstances and knew he did in fact love her.
But the Dollhouse was not a place for one to let their guard down, so Laurence Dominic wore his mask every day, scowl firmly in place. Everyone assumed he had always been the Mr. Dominic they knew.
Everyone was wrong.
Comments, pretty please?