SPOILERS for Season 2 of Fargo
I do not own any of the characters in this story or the dialogue in the first part
This is a story that contains spanking! Please turn back now if you feel you might be offended!
"But no mistake - we'll fight to keep what's ours to the last man." Floyd said with the kind of finality a bullet to the temple might give a snarling dog. There aint no question if it's getting back up off that floor.
The room was silent. The buzzing of anticipation was felt only in their bones, jarring the marrow and quickening the blood. She stared him down like no woman could or would ever do again. Her courage went deep and had the kind of roots you could never rip out, not with a strong arm and definitely not with a quiet threat. As much as she was level headed and as composed as she looked with her hands folded nicely in front of her, full control in her straight back, she was just as crazy as the rest of her family. Floyd would have never married and stayed beside a man like Otto without that kind of faulty wiring. Joe wondered how much pain that woman had endured in the crime family she protected so fiercely. It probably surpassed anything he had ever felt.
He took a deep breath, "You're a good woman. I wish I'd known your husband."
Floyd's response was almost immediate, "No. My husband would've killed you where you stood the first time you met." She didn't smirk, there was no satisfaction or arrogance. She was simply stating the facts. "So be glad you're talking to his wife."
"And that's what I'm glad for." He meant it with all his heart, "And if it were up to me, I would take your counter offer up except I got to admit, I-I just wonder, if we make this deal, split the territory, we move in, can you guarantee your boys will abide?" He raised his eyebrows with a mask of doubt clearly displayed before all. But he didn't break eye contact to finger the guilty party, he knew better than to make that move.
"My sons listen to their mother." She had felt it. Somewhere deep in her heart, it tore at her and it was a blow to her illusion. A beginning to an end.
"Good. Okay. Except here are two of my men assaulted just this morning in the appropriation of doughnuts by your oldest", a pointed look now, "attacked in peacetime, during a period of deliberation, without provocation." The last two words, a death sentence. He cut his eyes at Dodd.
"Oh, I was provoked." Dodd had his arms folded in a chair behind his mother, the fuse had been lit.
"Hush." A sharp invisible slap across the face. It worked for the moment. Her eyes flickered "My sons will abide."
"Ah, s-s-see, that- that- that's the problem with a family business. Now, if one of my men defies me, puts a deal in jeopardy, I take his arm. If he talks out of turn, I take his tongue. But you- your children, your grandchildren- what are you willing to do to show us you're committed?"
And that was the question that would topple an empire. She knew she was beat and her weakness was just as dangerous as any loaded gun held directly between her eyes. "I'll deal with my son. This partnership will hold." Sweat was starting at the top of her brow, her knuckles were white, she felt as if her heart was going to erupt from her chest. If she could just keep it together for a few more moments, maybe she could win by the skin of her teeth.
Dodd stood up and stalked to the table, making his point with his finger jamming into the hard wood after every other word, "Oh, come on, you're gonna let this guy come here - and disrespect us, disrespect pop?"
"Quiet!" Floyd used all of the authority she could possibly make look civilized.
"Bunch of fruits in ties and pocket protectors." Bear grabbed Dodd, trying to manhandle him out of the room. But it was over, Dodd was pushed past his limits.
"Take him out now!" Floyd could barely breathe.
"I'll pick my teeth with you." He spat at the men across the table with their smug looks and crossed arms.
"Take him out!" She screamed it, the illusion shattering into pieces.
"I'll pick my freakin' teeth with you! Get off me!" Dodd said it again, meaning every venomous word, his brother shoving him from the room.
The door slammed shut. She spread her arms out and placed her hands on the table, her head down, trying to compose herself. Seconds later, she smiled at Joe, her hands folded perfectly once again, "I apologize." A faker. She was done.
Joe smiled back, albeit sadly. Sympathy dancing in his eyes, not for what he next spoke, but for what she had birthed and now had to love. "He's a proud man. His father built an empire, and he just wants what's his."
"He'll fall into line." Her doubt was palpable.
"No. I don't think he will."
The family was headed back in the car. The sky was dark and it moved in on all sides, suffocating any hope from the day's events. She couldn't even look at him, the son who had ruined so many things all at once. Her control, her power, her options. It was war, and Floyd knew it. Since the beginning she was the one thing that held the swarm of angry familial men together. She could cool any temper but it took decades to get to that point. The fight for survival and rank was a constant calculated endeavor ever since her sons could open their mouths and cry. Floyd had made herself into a source of authority, and recently a monarch, and it was nothing short of devastating to have Dodd turn against her. She could feel his plotting and scheming since before he knew what the words meant. He was a very proud boy, a man, and his father had instilled a kind of rabid fight for pure dominance in his every breath. He wouldn't stop. But he had to be curbed, at least until they were on top again.
She felt his head on her shoulder and it brought instant tears to her eyes. She was so angry, so disgusted with him, but he wanted his mother. She could feel the apology in his desperate innocent nuzzle. Because of her influence, they all could fall to instant unforgiving vulnerability: Otto when she touched his hand, Bear when she mentioned his son, and Dodd when he felt her seething disappointment. He had always been that way and it was something she could and would use to her advantage this very night. She told Joe she would deal with him and she meant it.
Dodd's face was a picture of pure surrender. His puppy dog eyes and that deeply embedded frown, he used it in two ways, for malice and for pity. Tonight, all he wanted was his mother's forgiveness. He knew it wouldn't come easy. But he melted when she finally brought her hand to his cheek and caressed him. He felt all but five years old, comforted by her warmth just as much as he was cowed by his father's wrath. Dodd was a chimera made from warring parental influence, more dangerous than either influence projected independently. He was a monster but he was her son.
The car came to a halt and the family exited simultaneously. All were silent and entered their looming estate like a funeral procession. The outcome of the meeting rested heavily on every shoulder, every mind was preoccupied with potential plans and desperate ideas. Plunged into the deep void of possible extinction and the ways one might go about protecting a legacy.
They all stopped inside the front door as if on cue and looked to their mother, she was sliding off her coat which Hanzee took and placed on a hook by the door. Her purse shed and absentmindedly set on the table beside it. She tiredly looked up at Bear and the others.
"You boys go get something to eat, dinner has already been prepared. Rest," she pointedly gazed into her newly youngest's eyes, "you'll need it in the coming days."
Dodd turned to follow the rest of the crew out and was immediately halted by his mother's voice.
"Dodd, you are to go straight to your room. You won't be having supper tonight." Floyd was composed again, her back straight, a maternal figure ready to strike down any protest.
The pout was enormous and he threw his arms out in outrage, "Ma I'm hungry! I haven't had a thing to eat all day, we can do this later-"
"I said go to your room. We have things to discuss. A full stomach is not something you've earned today." Bear had obviously stayed behind to be the muscle if his mother needed it. His eyes widened almost imperceptibly at the way she easily demanded her eldest's compliance. He swallowed the lump that had grown in his throat and readied himself for a fight.
Dodd scoffed in disbelief, closing his mouth quickly to form the famous frown he was always adorned with. His eyes were on fire, dangerous was a petty word that could hardly describe him. His fingers formed fists at his sides and his breathing was growing heavy. Just before Bear could move in to subdue him Dodd turned and stormed off down the dark hallway, slamming his door behind him with so much force it rattled the chandelier.
After what seemed like hours Floyd calmly approached Bear and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I don't need any help, join the others. He is mine, remember that. I will handle him."
He didn't want to let her be alone with Dodd but what else could he do? He had trusted her word and believed in her power, she was his father's wife after all. There was no one fiercer than his Pop and she was his partner. Bear nodded solemnly and trudged towards the opposite end of the house.
When Floyd turned the handle and entered, Dodd was at the window, his arms crossed, his patented frown observing the darkness beyond. He didn't greet her but she saw him bristle at her entrance. Good. He should be on edge.
"Come here."
Like a statue he stayed frozen, as if she didn't even exist.
"You will face me when I speak to you." Sharp. Like a jab to the gut. His head turned, he looked back, then his whole body turned. His every fiber screamed rebellion, his eyes still daring her to push him too far.
"So much damage, you sacrificed everything today. I know that you don't want to make a deal, I know that they are the enemy, but you forgot one thing, son. You forgot that I am your mother, I am your leader, and until I'm dead and buried you entrust the decisions to me and me alone." He started to shake his head, ready to spit venom about his birthright and him being a man, the throne was meant for a man, MADE for a man. But Floyd saw it coming, saw him turning, and she reversed it. "One word outta you and you'll be staring me down with a mouth full of soap. I swear on the Gerhardt name you will NOT disrespect me."
Dodd moved his mouth like a fish, at a loss with how to approach such a woman. He then ground his teeth, on edge with the promise in her voice. Never in his life had he had to deal with a female quite like his mother. Every woman was a whore to him, why not? All they did was fuck and fuck and fuck every god damned thing and then produce more whores that went on to fuck and spread disease again. A cycle. And they talked. It was like nails on a chalkboard when they droned on and on with nonsense and bullshit pouring from their whore mouths. That was the perplexing part, she didn't exude any of it. She was like a man that had gone awry. And Dodd couldn't stop himself from feeling that thing again. Hollow, guilty, and desperate for her approval. He drew his gaze to the floor, his hands clasped in front of him.
"I raised you better, your father and I both did. I never wanted what I have now but it's not up for debate. This is how it has to be. If I could reverse what happened to Otto I would. In a heartbeat, I would." Dodd looked up at his mother, her eyes red again with unshed tears, and he felt a stab. His eyebrows creased and he turned into that boy again, symbolically holding his little arms out to be gathered up. To be told he didn't ruin anything and to be hushed as he wailed and wept. He fell to his knees.
"Ma please don't be upset, I couldn't stop myself. They are damn parasites is what they are, I swear it. Even if it worked out it wouldn't in the end. We have to stomp em out, it's the only way we can keep the business. Pops would have-"
"Don't you dare." It was all she had to say, Dodd knew what she meant. He had better not act as if he knew his father more than she did, and he didn't. As much as he thought he did, his mother had been at his side before Dodd was even a thought. He had no right, no right to question her.
"I just…I just want to make him proud, Ma! I don't wanna be weak or let em run us to the ground. I believe in ya Ma, I do." He was still kneeling, he crawled up to her and cupped her hand in his own. "You gotta see that my way is the only way. It's war, Ma."
She grabbed his chin, viciously jerking his face up to look at her. She applied as much pressure as possible, causing Dodd to pry at her fingers with his own, a wince on his face.
"You listen to me, son, I am seeing just as clearly as I outta see. I have been through times like this more than I can count and more than I want to remember. I will see this through with my family, with my boys, and no one will come in the way of that. Whatever happens, happens, but it will be done under my command. And it will be done with full compliance. Am I understood?" She held him steady despite his attempts at freedom, pressing her thumb into his soft flesh and forcing small gasps.
"Ah, Ma, ahh I hear you! Ok ok, I get it, I know it! Pops would tear me apart for going against you and I never wanted to, I never did." Dodd finally got enough leverage to push her hand away and he rubbed warily at his jaw as he looked up at her from the floor. He was overwhelmed with the need to have her love him again, it was eating him up. His face was pitiful, just a mess of sorrow. Dodd made a decision, one that had him rushing to take his belt off. He knew what could win her back and he was more than willing to take a thrashing for it.
"Ma, take the belt to me. Pops would have done it, use the buckle, make me bleed." He held the belt up to her and spread his knees, further flattening himself into the submissive pose he would give his father when he was set on beating him, his eyes absolutely wild. And Otto would, until Dodd was bloody and hoarse from screaming. It would make her stomach turn and it took everything in her to allow it. It was one of those things she had no say in, one of those things that made boys men in Otto's opinion. That made boys monsters, in hers.
She took his belt and watched him place his palms on the floor, waiting. Instead of raising the belt, she threw it to the side. The buckle echoed as is hit the wooden floor. Dodd looked up at her in confusion.
"I will never, do you hear me, never thrash you with that weapon. You are my boy; I am not going to abuse you like an animal." Disgust radiated from her and she left him prostrate with his forehead pressed to the wood, distraught with not being able to suffer for her. Floyd took a seat on his bed and patted her knee, waiting for Dodd to look at her before she did it again. "And I will treat you like a boy, a smacking is what you need, not a beating. Over my knee, Dodd, now."
He craned his neck to look at her and then there it was again, the switch flipped. "Are you kidding me? Ma, yer not doin that to me no matter what you think. I aint no fuckin child and you aint no fuckin saint." He had sat up onto his knees and was about to get up when she launched herself at him, grabbing him by the ear and dragging him to the bed. She set about putting him in place, catching him so much by surprise Dodd didn't have time to know how to react. He couldn't hurt her, Otto would kill him. At least if he ever came out of the stroke, he would. And that even being a possibility was enough. And god the grip on his ear! That was something painful, and in a way he just couldn't get used to. He was over her lap with his face in the blanket and his legs trapped between hers. She wasn't taking any chances, she had one of his arms pulled behind his back as well, just until she could calm him down.
Dodd strained against her once, using all of his awkward leverage, and wasn't successful. He wasn't going to flail around like a child and so he lay still, breathing hard and growling into the bed.
"Do I have your attention?" Floyd was barely winded, her resolve so dead set on getting her son back that the adrenaline was pumping freely.
"Oh fuck you!" He said it with a sneer and a roll of his eyes, lost in the cruel side of his character, the one perfected by his father.
Floyd slapped her hand down on his left cheek, as hard as she could, knowing she would get a reaction from her son. He could cut a person's ears off and lecture them as they bled out, but when he was being punished over her knee, he was the most sensitive of her bunch. There was no way to keep your pride or your masculinity when in that position.
"AH! MA!" He bucked up, gasping at the strike, and haphazardly trying to jerk his imprisoned arm back.
"I will hear no more of this cursing, this poison you have brewing in your gullet, get rid of it or I will keep you here until morning." She continued to smack his ass with full force, eliciting more yelping and plenty more wriggling.
"AHHHH! Ok ok ok ok ok! Jesus, stop already!" He was pounding the mattress with his other fist, trying to release his rage in the only way he could at the moment. She mercifully stopped, placing her palm on the small of his back. His mother waited until he was only heavy breathing.
"You were an embarrassment to me today." He visibly cringed, his eyebrows causing his forehead to crease even more, the shame enveloping him, "I looked like an inferior woman out there, to the second most powerful corporate crime syndicate in the area. To the people I needed to outshine, out maneuver, and out smart. They can see right through us now, thanks to you." He was mewling with every pronouncement, not even from a smack, but from the sheer tone of her voice, the disgrace he had put them all in. He wanted to deny it but it was true, his temper ruled him.
Dodd whispered, "I'm sorry, Ma!" And she barely noticed. The next thing he felt was a blossom of pain and she was tearing him up again.
Floyd was nothing if not thorough. She knew Dodd needed to feel so many things, the least of which being her hand. But that was helpful, it sped along the process of getting him to see reason and overcoming his dark side. Pain was an interesting process; it threw the mind and body into a sort of chaos that made certain things more malleable. And that's exactly how she needed her son to be.
"Ma! Please can you, ahhhh, can you lighten up? I love ya Ma! I won't talk outta line to ya again, you are making sure of that. AHH!" She just kept on. He was fussing over her lap more than she would have liked but it had been a long time since she tanned his hide. It was hard to seize a moment when Otto was around, he never approved of her soft heart. Bear was much easier to punish, when he needed it. He was always keen to find her and ask for a smacking. Floyd knew that Bear had the advantage, though, Dodd had her husband's focus because he was the oldest. The responsibility to lead the family fell on his shoulders, or would in time. Bear was home with Floyd more often than not and she put more of her energy into his upbringing.
Floyd stopped in her rampage long enough to give Dodd his arm back and watch him swiftly tuck it underneath his stomach with the other. He looked back at her pitifully, he had the most put upon expression when he was feeling very sorry for himself. That face just killed her. She almost smiled, thinking back on him as a little boy. She remembered one specific time where she found him with his Father's gun, only seven years old and pointing and aiming like a cowboy, almost ready to pull the trigger. She grabbed him up by the arm, swung him clean off of his feet, and snatched that gun from his hand. Then she dropped down to her knees, grabbed him by the shoulders, and shook him. Floyd just laid into him like no other, terrified that her boy could have hurt himself or someone else, too innocent for that kind of a thing to happen to him. Tears instantly sprung to Dodd's eyes and he just furrowed those tiny brows and gave her the most pathetic face. She could have hugged that baby to death but instead she tucked him under her arm and gave him a smacking until he just about wailed the back woods down. And that very same look was plastered upon his face at this very moment, and she was essentially doing exactly what she had done all those years ago.
Floyd decided it was good for him.
Dodd unconsciously pushed himself up and turned his body away from his mother's unforgiving hand. She moved her swats down to his thighs and he really lost his mind.
"MA! STOP! NO NO NO NO, MAAAAAAAA LET ME UP!" His knuckles were white and his face was starting to turn red. He let one of his arms swing down to her leg and he latched on, squeezing as tight as he could, digging his nails into her calf.
Floyd stopped and hissed in pain. Her instincts told her to let him up, he was using intimidation and it was a sound method when one was able to back it up. And Dodd was definitely one. But instead, locking her jaw through the sharp pain, she slid her hand underneath him and started to unfasten his pants. This rebellion was over.
He immediately knew what was coming and released his hold. He couldn't let her, he just couldn't. He craned his neck back to look at her. "Ma, no please Ma, I'm calm. I'm calm now, see?" He showed her his hands. "I won't raise my voice atcha again, I won't Ma." Her stare was so cold and he could tell it was a losing battle.
Floyd didn't wait any longer, she jerked his jeans to his knees and grabbed the waistband of his underwear next. Before she could also rip those down, she felt a vice like grip on her wrist.
"Ma, please. Come on, you don't hafta. It's like, not dignified, ya know?" Dodd was desperate, his eyes were screaming for her to relent. But Floyd had had enough.
"If you don't keep your hands out of my way I'm going to call your brother in here and have him hold you down." Cold. Sharp. Factual.
Dodd let go of her wrist so fast it was like magic. The finality in her tone was enough to make him reevaluate his position and how helpless he really was. It was sobering and he groaned loudly realizing how everyone was sure to hear them now. His mother read his mind.
"You deserve it. You know you deserve it. And they are all relieved that I am taking care of you, because if I didn't, who would? You are my son, Dodd, and no matter what you do I will never stop calling you mine." Floyd made sure his garments were pushed far enough down and then she resumed tanning his hide.
Dodd broke. He heard the fondness in her voice and he knew she meant every word. He couldn't believe he was over his mother's knee and bare at that! It was mortifying and it put him in that vulnerable spot that would ease his mind later and give him clarity. It was a rare moment, and a moment only his mother ever witnessed, but Dodd openly sobbed into his blanket, gripping his hair with his hands, weakly kicking out at the onslaught, and submitting fully to her treatment.
Hanzee heard it first. It was the subtlest shift in his composure that alerted Bear, but he caught the movement. He turned his head toward the window, his ear to the hallway, and he heard it too. No one else acknowledged the fact, they wouldn't dare. Family was a thing you stayed out of unless you were blood.
"Mmm." Bear grunted, and went back to eating. Hanzee glanced up at him and narrowed his eyes, but soon understood that the sound wasn't contempt, but approval. It was the right sound.
"AHH!...ahhhhhhhh n-n-nnnooooooooo! Agh, Maaaaa!" Dodd had noticed his tone, even through his tears, and quieted his cries, remembering how much it angered his mother earlier. He was like putty in her hands and she had only a few more things to say.
"Son, are you hearing me?" She didn't slow her barrage.
"Yeeeeeeessssssss!" He wailed pitifully.
"I will have your loyalty?" Dodd's ass was a dark shade of crimson, white handprints lighting it up like fireworks in the night sky.
"YES! I MEAN, agggghhh y-y-yes Ma!" He sobbed brokenly into his hands, he had let go of his hair after he almost pulled some of it out and Floyd had swatted his thighs for hurting himself.
"Your silence when it is needed?" She pulled him in tight, wrapping an arm around his waist and continuing.
"Oh g-g-god yes, pleaseeeee I'll be quiet!" His legs lay limp, having given up a while ago, a part of his surrender.
"That's my obedient boy." Floyd immediately stopped smacking him, straightening herself up and smoothing circles across the bruises she knew would soon form. She had to catch her breath, it had been exhausting for both of them.
Dodd immediately noticed his reprieve and whimpered muddled apologies as his tears fell even more freely, not only repentant but also relieved. He urgently flipped over and to his side and wrapped himself around her, hugging her waist and bringing his knees up close. His chest heaved with sobs and she found herself grasping him just as tightly and sweetly hushing him. His shirt was stuck to his back, his hair a mess, and his face and neck red with the blush of defeat. Floyd stroked his head and wrapped stray wisps behind his ears. This was a moment she knew she would never have with Dodd again. His vulnerability would be untouchable from here on out. It was the way of the Gerhardts. But she cherished it all the same.
"You are going to bed, I will bring you some water in a few minutes." She eased him off of her lap, idly pulling his pants from his legs and righting his underwear, putting a hand on his cheek and watching him sloppily wipe the snot from his nose. He just nodded and turned over, pulling the blanket over himself. He had had enough for tonight.
Floyd stood by his bedside for several minutes, watching her chastised son. His breathing finally evened out and he seemed to be in a trance like state, if not already asleep. She frowned. Her family was so very precious to her and she would do anything to keep them together. Her thin frown deepened as she thought about the ones she had lost. But at least they would stand together now, the boys she had left, and at least she wouldn't have to fight for every show of respect. In the end, it had worked out. Despite what was to come, it had been a good night.