Tonight we are young
Summary: After an incident Hal has some important insights to share with his dad, in turn Tom realizes something about his son.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of it and I'm not making any money from this, although if anybody wants to pay me to do this it would be greatly appreciated. Payments in chocolates is especially encouraged, and yes I know people don't read the disclaimer, but still it's worth a shot right?
Author's note: I wrote Hal's speech as a song drabble for Fun's song We Are Young, I saved it and thought I could go to sleep. Next thing I knew it was two in the morning and I had a full fledged one-shot (don't you hate/love it when that happens?).
"What on earth is that racket?" Maggie asked curiously as she, Hal and Ben approached the mess hall.
"Sounds like laughter, so it can't be anything bad." Ben remarked.
Hal shrugged. "Only one way to find out." And pushed open the door.
On the other side of the door Matt and most of the younger survivors were holding a full on food fight. Maggie laughed. "I know we should stop them, but it just looks like so much fun."
Hal and Ben nodded in agreement. "I haven't heard laughter like that in quite some time." Ben admitted.
An unidentifieable glob of foodstuff sailed through the air and hit Hal right in the chest. "That's it, I'm not gonna stand for this." Hal smirked and picked up the closest item of food and started hurling.
"Well, he is my partner, I promissed I'd have his back." Maggie laughed before throwing herself in the fray as well.
Ben shrugged. "I really don't need an excuse!" And followed suit.
Food flew, water was spilled copiuosly and laughter echoed through the hall. Then the doors flew open. "What on earth is going on here!" Tom bellowed through the room and the laughter stopped abruptly. "What the hell are you all thinking waisting valuable food like this!" The room stared at him in fear, of course they knew it had been wrong, but God it was so much fun. "I can't believe you all did this, frankly I expected better from you." Tom told them.
Finally Hal stepped out from the frightened crowd. He was soaking wet, and most of him was covered in a goo that had probably been edible once. He walked calmly up to his father laying a rather sticky hand on his shoulder. "Can I talk to you, for just a minute?"
Tom gaped at him, then at Ben, Maggie and Matt who also emerged from the crowd looking soggy and sticky. "You were a part of this?" Tom asked in shock.
Hal grabbed his father's elbow and started to steer him out of the hall. "I just want to talk with you, it won't take long promise."
"This is not over, I will punish every last one of you!" Tom promissed as Hal all but dragged him through the doors. "What were you thinking Hal?" Tom asked once outside.
An emotion Tom couldn't identify flitted across Hal's face before he returned to the calm mask he was wearing before. "Hey, we're just kids." Hal looked his father straight in the eye, trying to see if the message landed.
"You certainly acted like kids in there." Tom huffed.
Hal shook his head. "We carry whole arsenals of guns. Our hands spilled alien blood and we rejoiced in it."
"I know." Tom told him.
Hal shook his head again. "No you don't. We fear for our lives every day and look death straight in the eye regularly." Tom opened his mouth again to tell Hal that this was not news to him, but Hal silenced him with another shake of his head. "We don't sleep at night. We don't give up and cry. No matter how many people we've lost, no matter how many people we'll lose. We will carry on, and if someone can't, then we will carry them. Most of us grew up because we had to, not because we could."
Tom sighed "I know Hal."
Hal held up a finger. "However, don't let all this fool you, make no mistake, we're still kids. And some nights we have to be young, because that's what lets us carry on."
Tom stared at his son, letting his words sink in. He tried to find the right thing to say, finally he settled on: "You've inherited your mothers wisdom."
Hal smiled softly. "Maybe, but I think I learned the speeching from you."
"I guess I overreacted a little." Tom admitted.
Hal nodded. "We all know a food fight is a stupid thing to do, food is scarce, we know, but laughter is maybe even more scarce these days."
Tom smiled. "Alright, I'm not mad anymore, but you're all going to have to pitch in with the cleaning."
"That's fair." Hal admitted.
Tom cast a glance at Hal's hand which still rested on his arm. "Now can you please remove your hand because something is soaking through my shirt and frankly I don't even want to know what it is."
A couple of weeks later there was a rather rowdy game of soccer and an unfortunate ball shattered one of the trucks windshields. Weaver rushed outside yelling and cursing, Tom followed more slowly. When he finally caught up with him, he could just see Hal leading Weaver away from the group of slightly panicky looking kids, and he just caught the beginning of the conversation: "Hey, we're just kids."
Tom smiled. "His mother's wisdom alright."
THE END
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