Be Thou My Vision

by St.Stephen's

Elise was seventeen when three good men on TV changed her way of thinking. She was twenty when three very bad men changed her life.

1. Naught Be All Else

Title: Be Thou My Vision
Author: St.Stephen's
Series: The Copycat Series (1)
Disclaimer: I wish! If I owned Conner and Murphy McManus, they would never leave my dorm room.
Summary: Series: How the Saints affect two lives. Story: Elise was seventeen when three good men on TV changed her way of thinking. She was twenty when three very bad men changed her life.
AN 1: This story will be part of a series and is meant to be read first. The sequel will be called Day of Wrath. There may be further stories, but that depends on what y'all think! (lol, see AN 2 at the bottom of the page.) Also, YAY for my first BDS fic! And my first posted at EVER! Lol, I've been reading here since I was thirteen, you'd think I would have posted something by now.

Chapter 1: Naught Be All Else

She'd grown up with them. When most people say that, they mean they've known someone from infancy, or at least potty-training. But Elise had never met them, and she hadn't heard of them until she was barely out of high school. But she knew that the most important part of growing up doesn't come with Power Rangers and candy necklaces, but with cars and college. And for the whole seemingly endless limbo between childhood and adulthood, she'd known them. And she didn't even know their names.

She had been eighteen (well, almost), and enjoying her last summer at home before college, when the grainy pencil sketches appeared on Nightline, and her father growled his approval.

"Thank god someone's doing it," he'd muttered, lying back in his recliner, "Wish I had the goddamned guts."

"Damn right," she'd whispered, pushing long, flat brown hair out of her eyes. Her mother had peeked into the living room to chide them both for their language, but Dad just laughed. "She hears worse every damn day at that school, Colleen!"

"No shit," she'd muttered later that night as she crawled into her bed, a skinny twin that barely fit her lengthening legs. She'd whined and begged to move her older sisters' beds out of the room they'd all shared after the older girls had gone, one to college and one to the Air Force, but her mother insisted that Claire and Marie would always have a place in their home. Although, why that place couldn't be in Josh's room, Elise didn't know. He never came home anyway.

She began her prayers that night, still a little childish and all the sweeter for it, with him, her beloved big brother the Marine. But she ended it with those men she'd seen on the TV.

"Oh, and Lord?" she'd whispered, "I know most people won't think those Saints are heroes. But I know they're doing your work, Father. I would ask that you bless them and keep them safe, so that they can keep going. Be thou my vision," she whispered softly to end her prayer, as she had since she was big enough to say her own, "oh, Lord of my heart, naught be all else to me, save that thou art. Amen."

By the time she was actually eighteen, with her own car (a beat-up Coupe De Ville the same age as herself, which she'd paid for) and a computer (which she hadn't) she had eyewitness reports of the Yakavetta trial tacked up on her wall, next to those same sketches. Her mother worried about her, with her black nail polish, wife beater tee shirts and heavy eye makeup, but Dad said it was a phase, and besides, she hadn't quit going to church, so that was all right, then.

"Besides, I'd rather have her walls covered with good men, doing good work than some prissy singers."

"Good men doing good work." It was how Dad referred to everyone from missionaries (whom he prayed for every night over dinner) to the local mechanic. Anyone he deemed worthy of his highest praise: hardworking, God-fearing men. As she headed off to college, the old Coupe De Ville stuffed full, her newspaper clippings and printouts carefully folded in an envelope in her purse, she made a promise to herself. It became her highest goal in life for her father to say of her "A good girl, doing good work."

"Oh Father," she breathed as she started the engine and pulled out of the driveway. "Help me to do what's best and to stay on the path you have laid before me. And Lord? Bless the Saints and keep them safe." She ended the prayer as she had for nearly two months: with a request for the Saint's well-being and a line from a song. "Be Thou my wisdom, be Thou my true word. I ever with Thee and Thou with me Lord. Amen."

AN 2: Chapter and story titles come from the hymn "Be Thou My Vision", translated from the Irish by Mary Byrne. This is the hymn Elise quotes in her prayers as well. Check it out (especially the version by Van Morrison or Ginny Owens) 'cause it's beautiful. Chapters should be longer once I get into the action more. Also, reviews are always appreciated, and I'm in the market for a beta. If you want the job, PLEASE let me know, lol.

Also: not entirely sure yet if I want my heroes here to meet up with the MacManus brothers. What do y'all think? I just KNOW that if it happens, there'll be a Murphy romance in the offing, lol. One way or the other. Possibly Conner might even get some, lol. Although I'm SUCH the Murphy fangirl.

PS: Super-big MAJOR thanx to Sarah for hashing out plot points with me. I know how YOU vote on the MacManus' meeting up with my heroes question!