Short scene between David and Nolan, as part of the deleted scenes of Revenge.
The gag inducing scent of body-odor and antiseptic greets him as he walks across the white tile linoleum floor of the visiting area. He flashes his visitor badge to the security guards, ignores their stares when they look at the visitors form, than walks towards the numbered counters.
He's made visiting Riker's a part of his daily routine. Each day he'd come in and flash his visitor's pass. He wondered why he needed it anymore; he's been visiting Riker's Island almost every day for the past year. He slides into the uncomfortable, orange, plastic booth, then takes the phone off the hook, and places the receiver to his ear.
"Nolan." An unfamiliar rough and slow voice says.
Nolan stares at David through the thick glass wall. He looks thin and pale and his features sharper in the harsh incandescent lights shining upon them. His cheeks and jaw are sunken in from the nights he spends awake, worried for his life in bed. His skin is uncharacteristically rough and leathery. There's no trace of his warm, healthy, Hampton tan. Nolan takes a closer look, past the thick, dark stubble around his jaw, to see faint, purple bruises around his jaw and a cut on his nose.
"David, you look…well." He said.
"You don't need to flatter me, Nolan." He says. "I know I look like a hobo…I sort a look like my old man, actually. I'm trying to grow a beard, "He touches his bruised jaw, and laughs, "some nice guys made a point telling me I don't look tough enough for prison."
Nolan's mind goes blank. Is he supposed to laugh? He didn't think it was funny. He stays quiet. David stops laughing after a moment and wipes a tear from his eye. He needed some humor to keep him alive in this hell.
"I thought you'd laugh at that."
"Oh." Nolan says awkwardly.
"'Think I'd look good with a beard?" He asks him.
Nolan can image David in many situations with a beard, none of them include prison; He can imagine him with a beard in his beach house in the Hampton, with Amanda the two playing on the beach. He can imagine his mentor, his friend, looking like Obi Wan Kenobi, as they talk for hours over his company. He would have loved to see him in a beard at the barbecue David invited him over to meet Amanda, just because he was family. He pictures David and Amanda, sitting on the porch swing watching the sun set into the ocean.
"Well, it's…going to take some getting used to."
"How is she, since you last saw her?" David asks Nolan, almost like he could read his thoughts.
Nolan rubs the back of his neck with a hand. Ever since David was shut in at Riker's, and out from the world, Nolan makes sure to keep tabs on little Amanda Clarke. She's a little girl, fighting to survive in a world that betrayed her and her father.
"She got into a fight at her school," he tells him. "Second time this month."
David lets out a shaky breath, "The guards won't allow me to make calls out. If I could just talk to her, let her know she's not alone, that her dad's right here waiting to see her smiling face."
Nolan's stomach turns in knots. He hates feeling powerless to help his friend. He swears silently to himself that once his company goes big, he'll do everything in his power to help David and his daughter.
"Each day I'm here," David says, and Nolan swears that David lights up as he talks about his daughter, "I keep thinking that I'll wake up and I'll be in our beach house on the couch reading a story book to Amanda by the fireplace, like we did every night."
"I tried to get my lawyers on your case," Nolan says. "They're saying it's going to take a while to find anything "substantial" to use in court."
"Those lawyers are smart to stay away. These people have control over every level of government; it'll be a wild goose chase to find evidence to prove my innocence. Look what they did to me, do you think anyone can bring them to justice?"
Nolan's knuckles turn white around the receiver. His blood boils with anger. "What, are you saying that we give up?" he yells.
"For the time being, "yes."
"But…I mean… I can… "Nolan stammers in frustration. This isn't the time for sage Yoda advice.
"Listen to me Nolan," David says, and shoots him a hard gaze that silences him. "I don't want Amanda to grow up in these lies. When she's older, she's going to need someone who can tell her, that her I wasn't who they're making me out to be."
Despite the pain radiating in his jaw, David smiles at him.
"You're like a son to me Nolan," He says happily. "Now, I'm trusting you to take care of my only daughter. Can you swear to me, now, that I can trust you?"
Nolan tightens his grip on the phone, staring the man in the eyes. If he can't fix David's past, he can protect Amanda's future.
"You can trust me. I'll take care of her. I promise."
A/N: I re watched the deleted scene between David and Nolan and couldn't help myself, I love their relationship, Nolan really sees him as a friend/father figure/mentor (and am super worried for what will happen in S4)