Title: Chicago, Illinois 1952
Author: Elizabeth Bennet-Darcy
Disclaimer: They are not mine for keeps. I'll just borrow them, play very carefully and put them back unharmed (relatively).
Summary: The senior staff, plus two, on the day before their tenth birthdays. Mainly focuses on their relationships, or lack thereof, with their fathers.
Spoilers: Various episodes, but nothing too telling.
Rating: PG13 for language and some mild child abuse (is there such a thing?)
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 1952
"WHERE THE GODDAMN HELL IS THAT BOY?!" Leo McGarry clung to the tree he was hiding in while watching his drunken father stumble around the backyard looking for him. Tom McGarry attempted to kick the trash can but missed and fell into a pile of leaves. "JESUS GODDAMN CHRIST!"
Leo said a silent prayer that the neighbors had their windows up. He craned his neck to see the driveway. Why hadn't his mother left yet? She was supposed to have her hair done at four-thirty. He said another, more anxious, silent prayer that she would leave before his father went back into the house. He hoped she wasn't looking for him. She knew better than that. She knew that Leo was good at running and hiding and not coming back until his father had passed out. He was glad that Josie and Lizzy had dance class at the same time their father came home. It was harder to hide with the two little girls.
The slamming car door caught Leo's attention and he watched as his mother backed out of the driveway. Leo breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, the sound had also attracted his father's attention. Leo looked down to see Tom looking up at him with wide, manic, drunken eyes. "Get down here," Tom McGarry demanded in a deadly quiet voice.
Leo shook his head and gripped the tree trunk tighter. "Get the hell outta that tree, you look like a Goddamned monkey," his father slurred.
"I gotta get my merit badge for Scouts. I gotta spend the night in a tree," Leo lied. He gripped the trunk tighter as his father shook the tree.
"Get down here before I have to come up and get you!"
"I gotta do it myself! Scout Leader said I gotta be up here by myself; can't let parents help."
"Stupidest Goddamn thing," Tom muttered as he stumbled toward the tool shed. Leo took his chance, scrambled down the tree and jumped to the ground. He ran through the backyard and hopped the fence into Mrs. Owen's garden where he hid, huddled against her woodshed. When he timidly peeked over the fence into his own back yard, a few minutes later, he saw Thomas McGarry using an ax to drunkenly chop at the tree he had been in.
Leo blew a breath through his nose. He was tired of running and hiding. Tomorrow he would stop. Tomorrow he'd stand up to his father and not let him scare his mother and his sisters anymore, because tomorrow Leo would turn ten.