A/N: I'm starting to think I have a strange way of portraying my love for characters and their relationships to each other. This will now be the second story of mine that I decided to write because of how much I love the relationship between Mick and Len...and then it turns out being much more about Mick and Lisa's relationship. Yes, that makes perfect sense. What makes even less sense is that this story isn't even going to be from Mick's point of view, even though he's probably my favorite Arrowverse character ever (I love you Lenny, really I do, but season two of Legends of Tomorrow really boosted up Mick's points). No, I'm writing this story from Lisa's point of view...makes sense.
(Then again, I guess technically she's my favorite female character in this universe. I mean, that's gotta count for something, right?...Right?
Disclaimer: I don't own The Flash or any of the characters from D.C. comics. If I did, I promise you I would make it so that the women in the Arrowverse are actually likable.
Sometimes Lisa really didn't understand the other kids at school. She had learned fairly quickly after starting school that her home life was different from almost everybody else's. She knew that not all daddies were like hers...but, she still got scared whenever she was playing with a friend and their dad came up to talk to them. Lisa just couldn't get the thought out of her head that all daddies were mean. She couldn't help it.
There were some things about the other kid's lives at home that Lisa just couldn't understand. Like how they got to eat food whenever they wanted (Lisa always needed permission from her dad when he was home, and half the time when he wasn't home there wasn't even food in the house for her to eat). How they slept in their parent's bed after they had a bad nightmare (that was what big brothers were for). Probably most confusing of all for Lisa was that a lot of the other kids seemed to be afraid to sleep because they thought there was a monster in their closet or under their bed.
Now, that was just ridiculous. Under the beds was not where the monsters were, it was where you were supposed to hide to get away from the monsters.
Lisa had long since lost track of how many nights and weekends she had spent curled up under her bed. She couldn't remember how often her hands would lose feeling in them after hours of her holding them tightly against her ears to try to block out the crashes, shouts, and even occasional screams from downstairs.
Lisa couldn't do much to block out the noises, and hearing them just made her sob uncontrollably. Lisa had spent so many nights curling in on herself, clutching her one and only stuffed toy, Pennyguin, to her chest. She would try to stop crying, she really did try, but the efforts made her feel like she couldn't breath and she would just start sobbing even louder than before. She would always end up crying herself into exhaustion until she fell into an uneasy sleep filled with nightmares about stomping, loud, drunk monsters, otherwise known as her daddy, coming in to hurt her.
She hadn't actually been hurt by her daddy though (yet), her older brother made sure of that. Somehow he always ended up protecting her, and Lisa was terrified of the day that they both knew was coming when he wouldn't be able to protect her in time.
Just thinking of that happening was enough to make Lisa start panicking and crying again.
Underneath her bed, or any bed really, she wasn't picky, had become Lisa's safe place. At first it had just been where her big brother told her to hide when their dad started getting really mad. After awhile though it had become Lisa's go-to safe spot. It was where she 'hid' when Leonard tried to talk to her about hitting boys at school (even though that Andrew kid totally deserved it). It was where she hid when there was a tornado watch (but when there was a tornado warning Lisa and Leonard both camped out in his closet).
And it was also where Lisa hid from her brother's not best friend (no matter how many times Lenny had told her that they were friends, Lisa absolutely refused to believe it) whenever she was forced to stay with him.
"You really planning on staying in there forever, Girlie?" Lisa frowned at the sound of the gruff and annoyed voice outside the bedroom door. She pulled herself further under the bed, even though if she was any more under the bed she would be underneath the floorboards. "You know, you gotta come out at some point.
"Make me." Lisa cried out stubbornly. There was an irritated gruff from outside. Lisa winced when she heard the door open and loud footsteps walk across the room, approaching her. Lisa shut her eyes tight and tried to make herself seem smaller when he was standing right next to the bed and began bending down. After a moment the slight *clink* like sound of a plate being pushed on the ground was heard followed by footsteps walking away.
Lisa opened her eyes just in time to see Len's friend that he called Mick and she called Meanie leave the room, slamming the door loudly behind them. Lisa waited for another few minutes before she uncurled herself just enough to relax her muscles. She didn't crawl out from under the bed though. Not until Lenny came back to bring her home. Until then though Lisa was perfectly content with staying here where it was safe. Thank you very much.
She wasn't exactly afraid of Leonard's friend, she just didn't like him and was being stubborn...alright, and maybe she was a little afraid of him. Could you blame her though? Len's friend was huge...or, at least he was in the eyes of a seven year old. He wasn't just big though, he was also mean, scary, scruffy and, somehow, too quiet and too loud at the same time.
Basically, Lisa thought that Mick Rory was just like her daddy, and she hated him.
Unfortunately, Lenny didn't hate him at all, which Lisa found weird because it seemed like her brother hated everybody. But no, Lenny actually seemed to like Mick a lot, so he stayed...yay.
Lisa really didn't understand it though. To her knowledge Lenny didn't really have friends, and then after half a year in Juvie he comes out with a new best friend. She was still trying to figure out what Mick had done to trick her brother into being his friend...yes, that is what Lisa was sure had happened. It didn't matter how smart Lenny was, or how dumb Mick was, Lisa was positive that Mick had tricked and/or blackmailed her brother into being friends.
It was the only thing that made sense. The way that Lisa saw it, Mick was just way too similar to their father for Lenny to even be comfortable around him. And yet, he was. Lisa had asked Lenny about it multiple times, and every time he just said the same thing.
"You can have your own opinion of Mick, but let me have mine."...and that was it.
Well, fine, Lisa would let Len have his opinion about Mick, but hers wasn't going to change. She didn't like the teenager, and she never would. No matter how many times she had to sleep over at Mick's place because Lenny was busy on a job with their dad and he let her sleep on his bed while he took the couch. No matter how many peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwiches he made for her (Lenny never let her have raspberry jam because it was his favorite so he wanted to keep it all for himself. He thought that Lisa couldn't tell the difference between raspberry and strawberry. Ha!) No matter how much happier Lenny seemed to be when he was around Mick...even though it was nice to see Lenny actually be relaxed for once…
No! Lisa would never like or trust Mick, and his attempts at trying to win her affection really weren't working, she wouldn't let them.
Lisa stayed under the bed for awhile and tried to think about something that would pass the time, but everything her thoughts turned to were things that she didn't want to think about. What was taking Lenny so long? He had been gone with their dad for the past three days, and he normally wasn't gone for longer than a night. If Lenny was gone for much longer would Lisa just stop going to school? Because she had already missed three days and she knew that her grades would start to slip, and if they got too low than her dad would punish her.
Unable to deal with the boredom and thoughts that just got her freaked out Lisa drawled ever so slightly out from under the bed. Just far enough for her to reach the sandwich that Mick had left behind for her. She may be stubborn and refused to like Mick even a little bit, but she was still hungry and eating would give her something else to think about.
(And Mick actually made really good sandwiches.)
Lisa nibbled at her food from the safety of under Mick's bed. No longer feeling hungry Lisa suddenly became aware of just how tired she was. She had slept very little these past few days, she never slept much when she stayed with Mick. It usually wasn't a problem, Lisa could easily handle a day or two without sleep, but three was really pushing it for her. She wasn't like Lenny, who stayed awake for days on end all the time.
Lisa didn't feel entirely safe at Mick's place, and most definitely not enough to fall asleep there, but she couldn't fight off how tired she was. Lisa tried to stay awake, really she did, but she soon found herself dozing off and soon after fell into a fitful sleep.
Lisa had never been much of a sound sleeper. A small disturbance or change in her surroundings would wake her up in seconds. She just couldn't sleep when she felt like she was in immediate danger, and any kind of change was an immediate threat to her until proven to be otherwise...which was actually why Lisa didn't like Mick very much. Not that she would ever admit that to him, or Lenny, or even herself.
Lisa slept fairly soundly for a bit, but was woken up suddenly when there was a weak but insistent pounding on the front door to Mick's apartment. Lisa snapped awake at the sound and listened carefully. She heard Mick opening the door and then flinched when he shouted a bit (it wasn't quite shouting, but his voice was definitely louder than it usually was, and he definitely sounded angry about something).
"What the hell happened to you?" Mick not quite shouted.
"Calm down, Mick." The voice that Lisa had been waiting to hear for the past three days said, though Lenny sounded worse than she would have liked. "I'm fine." Of course, just the fact that he was saying that he was fine told Lisa that he really wasn't.
Lisa quickly crawled out from under the bed, clutched Pennyguin tightly to her chest, and cautiously walked out of the room. She needed to see if Lenny was okay. As she was about to creep into the small hallway she heard a hiss of pain and an angry growl from the living room. Len and Mick. Lisa froze in her tracks.
"What the hell did that bastard do to you?" Lisa took a step back and flinched when she heard Mick say that. She hated it when Mick got angry like this. It scared her.
"Mick, it's nothing." Len said in a tone that was warning Mick to drop the subject.
"Nothing my ass." Mick growled. He stomped past the living room and entered the hallway. He only faltered in his step slightly when he saw Lisa with her back against the wall. Mick raised an eyebrow at her, a clear warning that she was to stay there and not let Len know that she was there. He then went into the bathroom and came out a few moments later carrying what Lisa immediately recognized as a first-aid kit.
...Well, that wasn't good.
Lisa crept forward a little bit so that she could see Lenny without being seen by him. Her older brother had taught her a lot about how to see/listen without being seen/heard. Unfortunately his lessons had yet to cover what to do when there was a couch in the way and the person you were wanting to see was lying on it.
Lisa couldn't see her brother, but she could see Mick kneeling next to the couch. "Come on, you idiot, you can sleep later." Mick made a movement that might have been him shaking Len's shoulders. "I need you to take your shirt off so I can see what's wrong." Lisa had never heard that tone from Mick before. He never really spoke forcefully like this. He usually left the being in charge to Len.
There was the sound of some rustling clothes, with the occasional grunts of pain from Len that really made Lisa concerned. They were just small noises, but Len usually hid his pain from everybody. He had to be really hurt for him to show even the slightest sign that he was.
"Oh my god." Lisa frowned and felt her breath quicken at Mick's tone. He actually sounded worried. "What the hell happened?"
"Where-where's Lisa." Len asked.
"Asleep." Mick answered.
"It's the middle of the afternoon." Len pointed out.
"Guess she got tired from hiding under my bed for the past three days." Mick said. There was a pause. "I don't think your sister likes me very much."
"You don't think anybody likes you very much." Len said. "She'll get used to you." Lisa doubted it, and she was pretty sure that Mick did too.
"Yeah, whatever you say, Boss." Mick grunted. "Stop distracting me by talking about your kid sister. Just tell me why you look like you jumped out of a moving vehicle."
There was a tense silence for a minute, and both Lisa and Mick knew exactly what that silence meant. "You didn't." Mick said with a warning tone in his voice.
"I had to!" Len said too loudly and too suddenly. Lisa was surprised at how desperate he sounded, like he needed Mick to understand. She had never heard her brother sound like this before. "I couldn't stay...I had to get away from him."
"And you seriously thought that jumping out of a moving car would have a better outcome than staying in it with your bastard father?" Mick asked, and it actually sounded like a real question, not a judgemental one.
"Anything would have been better than being with him for another second." Len said in a tired voice.
"You won't find me arguing with you about that." Mick said as he did something that made Len cry out in pain. "Next time maybe you can think of something that won't end with you getting gravel in your skin." Lisa cringed at the thought. She was actually grateful that Mick made her stand over here, because that wasn't something that she needed to see. "When did you do it?"
Len was quiet for a moment before answering. "...Just outside of Keystone City."
"What?!" Mick shouted, which scared Lisa a bit. "And, what, you walked the whole way back?"
"It's not that far." Len tried to say, but Mick wasn't hearing it.
"Maybe it's not if you're driving." Mick growled. "How the hell did you make it back here in your state?"
"...I have no idea." Len said honestly, which scared Lisa. Len was supposed to know everything, and if he didn't know it than he either learned it or didn't bother with it. Why would her careful, calculating brother do something that he wasn't sure about?
There wasn't a lot of talking for a few minutes. Mostly the only sounds heard was Len's occasional grunts of pain and Mick's grunts of anger. Still, even though Lisa could tell that Mick was angry and Len was in pain she somehow knew that Mick was at least trying to be gentle with her brother. He wasn't very good at it, but at least he was trying.
After a few minutes Mick broke the silence. "I can hear you thinking, you know." Mick said. "You shouldn't worry about where to go. You can just stay here for a few days until things calm down."
"I can't do that." Len said. "Your apartments too small for one person, let alone three...and things with my dad'll just be worse if I put it off until later." Len's tone sounded like he was trying to sound like normal, but it wasn't working that well. Even Lisa could hear the strain and worry in his voice.
"You could just never go back there." Mick suggested.
"I...I can't." Len said, and Lisa frowned when she heard his voice crack at the last word. He sounded upset. "I can't. I can't…" Len let out a stifled noise that, if Lisa didn't know any better, she would think that it was a sob, but that couldn't be it. Lenny never cried. "I can't do this anymore!" Lisa frowned, because now it definitely sounded like Len was crying, but that was impossible...wasn't it?
Mick, who hated emotions and always came up with some excuse to shuffle away whenever Lisa so much as sniffled, didn't seem at all bothered by the sudden show of emotion from Len. Actually, he didn't even seem surprised by it at all.
"Come on, Boss, we've been over this." Mick sighed. "Look, things suck, I get it, but you can handle it. You always have." Lisa shrank back against the wall. Mick said that they had talked about this before...so did that mean that Lenny had gotten like this, all upset and crying, before? This wasn't the first time? And Mick, of all people, had seen him like this before? Probably multiple times?
Why?
Len let out a weak chuckle. "You should become a motivational speaker, Mick." Lenny said sarcastically. Mick scowled and grunted in reply.
"Hey, we both know you wouldn't want an 'everything's sunshine and rainbows' speech." Mick said.
"Well, you're right about that." Len admitted. He sighed. "I just...I'm so tired of everything."
"So sleep it off." Mick said. Len let out a real laugh this time, though it still sounded kinda strained. "I'm serious. You look like you're gonna fall over and die any second now."
"Like I said, you'd be a great motivational speaker." Lenny still sounded more vulnerable than he usually did, but Lisa believed that if his sarcasm was working as well as ever than he was going to be just fine.
Things went silent once again, but it didn't feel as tense or awkward as it did before. Lisa could only assume that Lenny really was following Mick's advice of getting some sleep, which was a relief because Len normally didn't sleep more than a handful of hours.
A few minutes later Mick got to his feet and stretched. He looked directly at Lisa. "You can come over now, Girlie, just don't be too loud. Trust me, we don't wanna wake your brother."
Lisa nodded and cautiously made her way towards the couch. Mick stepped out of her way so she could see Lenny. She had to bite her tongue to keep herself from crying out when she saw the state that he was in.
Len was lying on his stomach, with his shirt pulled up and draping over his shoulders. His back was completely covered in bruises, scratches, and mean looking scrapes that looked half red and half black. His injuries definitely showed that he had jumped out of a car. It also looked like he had a twisted and swollen ankle from a bad landing that had gotten a million times worse because he had walked home on it.
Lisa sniffled and leaned back against Mick. She could feel him become tense at the contact, but he didn't move away. Mick stayed frozen for a bit before he moved his hand and placed it on Lisa's shoulder. It felt much different from Len's shoulder touches, which were always feather-light and gentle, almost like he was afraid of hurting her. But it was also different from the heavy, painful and grounding hold to the shoulder that her dad did sometimes.
Mick's shoulder touch was it's own thing. It was strong, and there was a slight squeeze in there, but in a reassuring non painful way. It was firm, but not forceful. In a way, it was kinda like daddy's, and kinda like Len's, but also completely different.
"Your brother's gonna be fine." Mick said. "Believe it or not, he's handled worse than this before." And Lisa was actually willing to believe it, even though this was honestly the worst she had ever seen Len at. He always tried to be strong for her, tried to avoid showing any weakness. Apparently when he was around Mick Len didn't feel the need to hide just how much he was hurting.
In some ways, Len was even closer to Mick than he was to Lisa, and she was surprisingly fine with that. Len always felt like he had to be the one in charge when he thought she was looking, but when it was just hi and Mick he allowed himself to be more vulnerable, more human, and more his age.
Seeing her brother like this Lisa realized just how young he really was. Normally, in her eyes, a child was anybody under the age of ten. Any older than that and she considered them old. She had never looked at Len as a kid, he always acted too old for her to even consider the possibility.
Seeing him fast asleep though just minutes after hearing him genuinely scared and upset, Lisa had to admit that sixteen years old was a lot younger than she ever thought it was. Len really was still just a kid, and when he was around Mick he actually allowed himself to be that way.
"Never leave him." Lisa asked in a quiet tone as she looked up at Mick, who frowned in confusion. "My brother needs you." As much as Lisa hated to admit it, that was the truth...that didn't mean that she had to like him though, because she still didn't.
Mick's eyes widened. "That was kinda the last thing I ever thought I'd hear from you." Mick may be an idiot, but he wasn't that much of one. He had recognized that Lisa held a strong dislike for him, and she still did...kinda. "And trust me, your brother doesn't need me. Nobody does." Mick actually sounded like he believed it, which made Lisa roll her eyes.
"Of course he does, you idiot." She insisted, leaving no room for argument.
"Whatever you say, Girlie...er, Lisa." Mick called her by her actual name when he saw the small glare she gave him at the nickname. He finally pulled away from her and wandered off towards his bedroom, muttering something about 'emotional Snarts' under his breath.
Now that she was alone with her brother Lisa knelled down next to the couch and took Len's hand. "You might be right about Micky." Lisa admitted quietly, because she really would rather nobody hear her. "He's still a meanie, and rude, and angry, but he is your friend." Maybe someday Lisa would like Mick for real, but for now she was just going to be more tolerant of Len liking him, because for the first time Lisa could see why he did.
Mick was still big, kinda scary, too loud, too quiet, and violent, but he was also protective, surprisingly understanding and gentle when he wanted to be. In some ways he still reminded Lisa of her dad, and she believed that he always would. But in other ways he was nothing like their dad at all, and that was what was most important here.
A/N: It was only when I was in the middle of writing this did I remember just how much I love the relationship between Lisa and Mick. They don't get all that much interaction in the show, but even the little bit we get to see is enough to show that they're close. I mean, Lisa is able to calm down a violent Mick when even Len can't. That says a lot about their relationship. I'll probably end up writing about these two some more in the future...most likely about somebody actually telling Lisa about her brother's death and dealing with the depression that Mick so obviously has (I swear, I will forever be pissed off by how little The Legends of Tomorrow care about Mick. It couldn't be more obvious that he was suffering from depression in the show if it was literally spelled out for us, but none of his teammates bother to notice or care. He seriously deserves better than them.