A/N: I am a huge Prison Break fan, so it was somewhat inevitable that I would end up writing a fic. You won't find spoilers for the current season 4 but as this is an exploration of T-Bag's past there will be spoilers for season 1 and 2, at least. Please don't read if you're new to Prison Break because I really don't want to be responsible for giving anything away!

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Chapter One – Creation

His mother was born a retard. Just one of those genetic mistakes, the doctor said when it became clear Audrey would never develop like a normal child. A miscopied gene sequence, a combination error, or maybe it had something to do with the Jack Daniels that Audrey's mother drank throughout her pregnancy to blank out the empty hours of her lonely life. Whatever the cause, Audrey's brain was permanently effected. She might have been loved, her gentle nature appreciated, her round, soft face adored, but instead she was shunned and ignored, bullied and belittled by her disappointed parents. Attention was deflected from her once a healthy son was born, the child they deserved, a child they could be proud of. In truth, their son was no healthier than their little girl but because he could speak and run and build towers of coloured blocks they poured their affection into him and Audrey was ignored. She became more creature than human, cowering in the corner, scurrying from room to room to avoid confrontation, barely speaking, hardly even there, but not everyone overlooked her.

Travis Bagwell was the kind of boy who liked to hit others. The problem was he was a skinny little thing and would invariably pick on someone twice his size. His propensity to stupidity and violence prevented any long-term friendships forming so he could never rely on any form of backup. As a result, it wasn't unusual for Travis to come home with a bloody nose or a black eye. His mother would roll her eyes and go back to her JD. His father would pretend not to notice, ever since Travis had started school and failed to live up to even the most modest of parental hopes Bagwell senior had been spending a lot more time out of the house and a lot less time with his family. It was left to Audrey to dab at the cuts with iodine and cotton wool. Sometimes Travis would lash out at her when the iodine stung but most of the time he was grateful. When he was in a good mood he would take her out to the lake, really just an oversized muddy puddle the kids used as a playground, and they would take it in turns to swing over the water on the rope that hung from one of the old trees. Audrey almost always fell in but she didn't mind because she liked Travis's gap toothed laugh and the way he would put his arm around her as they walked home. Of course they couldn't play together when any other kids were around, when his friends came over Travis would kick out at her and though he would never actually hit her Audrey's eyes would fill up with tears.

"She's a right moron your sister."

"Yeah," Travis would say and they would run upstairs laughing. Despite this, Audrey loved her brother and would often spend long periods of time tidying his room for no other reason than it made her feel closer to him. And her mother liked her to be helpful, it gave her more time to drink.

It was around the time of his sixteenth birthday that Travis's small scale violence began to increase in frequency. The reason was simple – he was frustrated. Every other boy he knew, or so it seemed, had had a girlfriend, even if it was just for one night. Jokes about sex were thrown around and anyone who hadn't done it became an outcast. Travis, in desperation, told everyone he had given it to Marleen which was a lie that could be seen through at once. Marleen's father owned the general store, he had a waxed black moustache and arms the size of Travis' whole body. Marleen, a pretty girl made prettier by the lack of competition, walked with her ponytailed head held high, confident in the knowledge that her father was somebody in this white trash town. She would never so much have wiped her nose on Travis let alone sleep with him. The other boys laughed at him and called him a fag. Travis, not knowing what else to do, ran home and locked himself in his room. After half an hour of furious masturbation he had an idea. His mother was out getting her hair done. After that she would go and buy groceries. She wouldn't be back for at least an hour. Travis didn't know where his father was but he'd been gone three weeks now and no one seemed to want to go looking for him. Only Audrey was in the house. When he called her name she came at once, her face shining with pleasure. He had been snapping at her lately, he had even slapped her face a couple of nights ago when she nearly walked in on him with his newly acquired porn magazine, but all of that had been forgotten. She entered the room slowly, her simple smile spreading wider with each step she took. She saw her brother, someone that she loved. He saw the only female creature he had access to.

How much Audrey understood of what happened to her is disputable. She knew enough to know that it was wrong and that she didn't like it but, on the other hand, it made Travis smile at her again. He even offered to take her to the lake but the hot summer sun had dried it up so that all that remained was a bowl of cracked brown earth. Later that year Travis left school with no qualifications to speak of. After trying unsuccessfully to find work in his home town, he decided to travel further afield. His mother wasn't sorry to see the back of him, his father had never returned, only Audrey cried to see him go.

Travis returned three years of alternating odd jobs and living rough later to find his mother dying in hospital. Audrey remained in the house, her clothes filthy, her hair matted. When she saw him she tried to say his name but the sounds were muffled and distorted from lack of use. She was so embarrassed that she ran upstairs and hid refusing to come down even when Travis heated a can of beans over the stove for dinner. Their mother died of liver failure leaving Travis the house and her very modest savings. Travis had already decided what he wanted to do with the money. After failing to make anything of his own life and being just smart enough to realise how brainless he really was, Travis had decided that he would let someone else do the living for him and for that he needed a son.

Sometimes Audrey tried to get him to stop but most of the time she lay perfectly still while he bumped and thrusted and tried to get her pregnant. He told her his grand plan, spelt it all out for her, told her it was their chance for a glorious future, but she didn't really understand her part in all of it. She couldn't put the grunting, ugly act that he performed on her and his talk of a baby in the same equation. She didn't understand that it would have to grow inside her before it could be born. Nor did she understand why it had to be her. Perhaps it was the similarity of the sperm and the egg that made the process take so long but after two years of enduring her brother's single minded rape, Audrey became pregnant.

Pregnancy was terrifying. Audrey couldn't read, she had never been taught, and she didn't have any friends to tell her what to expect. She had been very young when Travis had been born so she didn't remember her own mother swelling with life. Travis said there was no money to see a doctor so they had to do this alone. Audrey didn't like doctors anyway since they were the ones who told her she was ill and made her parents stop loving her. Fortunately two months before the baby made its violent way into the world Travis got himself a job loading trucks so there was enough money to have Audrey in hospital for the birth. She screamed almost continuously for five hours while Travis waited outside misspelling names on a scrap of paper. When a nurse asked him what he was doing he told her he was trying to think of a name that was special enough for his firstborn son.

"Is that right?" the nurse replied, an amused smile dimpling one cheek, "Let's have a think then. How about George?"

Travis shook his head. He would know when it was the right name, the perfect name.

"Ronald?"

"John?"

"Abraham?"

"Theodore?"

Travis' head shot up. Theodore. Theodore Bagwell.

"That's it."

And so the boy was christened Theodore thanks to the nurse's ability to recall the names of president's passed. Travis took him home wrapped in a hospital issue blanket and laid him down in the crib he had bought off one of the neighbours. For over an hour he stood there looking down at his beautiful baby boy hardly able to believe that his dream had come true. When Theodore started to cry Travis carried him over to where Audrey lay dazed and bruised.

"He's got to grow up big and strong," said Travis as he pressed the tiny baby to Audrey's swollen breast, "He's gonna be president someday."

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A/N: I'm not entirely sure how far I'm going to take this but I do know that it's not a one shot :). I would really appreciate your feedback so please leave a review if you feel like it. Thank you!