Disclaimer: Author still does not own anything that belongs to a person whether real or imagined beyond the ongoing story of Luc Zephyr and her own world from my very own imagination..twisted as it may be. lol. Author would like to thank those who reviewed/favorited/or just plain read her ramblings. There will be more since there is a lot of backstory I created for this character and got attached to. ~k~
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Need to Know...or How Luc Met Tony
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Blue eyes widened when the sudden cold feeling of being watched washed through the copper haired collegiate. She shuddered at both the feeling and the horror the images had instilled in her. A quick glance around quickly assuaged that paranoia and yet, that prickly 'I'm being watched' feeling remained as her unwilling gaze was pulled back to those awfully gruesome, yet even more horrifyingly familiar images on the lecture hall's screen. It took her everything within her to refrain from running for the exit; quietly reminding herself that the familiarity was only due to content and subject matter. The parents and children laid open for all to see on the screen had been someone else's family that, unfortunately like her own, had been ripped apart quite brutally. The stinging tears that fell against her will did nothing to wash away the cold that still weighed on her heart. Her hand flew up to her mouth to stifle the scream that wanted so badly to leave when an unexpected hand settled upon her shoulder. However, the grounding squeeze caused her stiff shoulders to relax until the young freshman was able to turn her head.
Concerned green eyes smiled at her and the warm timbre that questioned her was instantly set her at ease. "Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost. I'm Tony, by the way."
A reluctant, shaky smile pulled at the corner of her pale lips. "Naw I'm okay, Tony, thanks. Just wonder about what drives certain people to such acts is all. Call me Luc."
"Hmm short for Lucienne I bet." Tony replied with an engaging smile.
Sadness filled her eyes even further, if that was at all possible. "No, Lucianna... Lucianna Zephyr. My mother didn't believe in shortening names saying that parents go through a lot of trouble to name their children and we should be grateful-I think she got that from her mentor tho."
"What, grateful that they didn't make them any longer than Anthony Michael Dinozzo the Second?"
Incredibility produced the desired affect of chasing away that awful expression from her eyes. "Ouch and I thought I had it bad with the name wars my birth had created that saddled me with two very long first names. Then of course my mother had preferred to hyphenate her name when she got married, giving me two last names as well."
"Not bad...just ten-times worse. So what's the other one-first I mean." Tony gave into his curiosity but instantly regretted it as those shadows were back into the darkened blue eyes.
Luc drew in a sharp breath then returned her eyes to their Criminal Psychology instructor, who had begun to give them the evil eye. "Some things are best forgotten...left in the past along with the other specters that insist on lingering in my closet."
"Hmm that bad huh..." Tony gulped at the icy glare that promised very bad things if he continued with this line of questioning then acquiesced. "Alrighty then shutting up now."
Despite herself, that small smile returned but this time it was just a bit larger and maybe...just maybe another piece of her fractured heart was returned to her just then. Perhaps this was the start of a beautiful friendship. "I do believe it is."
"No way! You're Beni's sister?!" Tony exclaimed in such a way that Luc found herself laughing as she tossed the veggies in the hot pan.
"Is it all that hard to believe that Beniamino Zephyr-Mezzani is my older brother?"
"Well for one, the two of you don't really look all that much alike since your hair, while still brown, has that coppery shade to it while his is even darker than mine. His eyes are most definitely not blue and neither is your firefighter brother's."
"That's because they took after the Italiano part of their father's family while I, or at least I suppose, took after my mother's family although there wasn't a blue eye in the bunch there. Their mother may not have actually been my own as I had once believed, but they were still sisters or really close cousins. Not that I will ever know since she was estranged from the family when she was still alive and those I do know refuse to talk about the past-which doesn't really surprise me considering..."
"Your father's family? What about them?" She stiffened at the mention then returned her focus back on the task of cooking, which was supposed to be calming.
Tony shifted his stance when the stony silence stretched on, cursing his knack at finding hidden landmines with people until he almost retracted his words. But then she answered quietly, "I don't even know his name as he was a minor at the time and whatever there was about it would have been sealed-perhaps it is for the best."
"And what about you? Don't you deserve the right to know your father and not some man that maintained his distance from you in life?" Asked the boy that had been standing quietly against the wall.
Fire flashed in deep blue eyes for a moment then fizzled out. "Figures that Beni would talk of such things to you guys."
"Well we are Beni's frat brothers and it matters little that he dropped out of school."
Luc frowned then as she added the last ingredients to her stir-fry. "And I suppose the true reason why was the one thing he kept from you guys."
"Other than it being time to move on, no-tho I still say he was disappointed how things had gone with his academy app." The other boy admitted then flinched when his fingers were struck from their attempt to snitch a taste. "Ow!"
"Shoulda known better by now, Walt, it's among the first of Zephyr's Rules." Tony laughed then shivered when he encountered the ice in her now glacial blue eyes. "Of course I am certainly not complaining-I think I'm gonna set the table,."
She snorted then tilted her head toward the cupboard. "Good idea, Tony. Walt, call the boys if they want to eat."
Tony snorted himself as he thought of the pigs he called brothers. "Yeah like any of them would give up the chance at good food since the lot of them manage to burn water. They all agree that you're the best thing to happen to us and I expect the decision makers to announce your honorary brotherhood status any time now."
"Cooking's the least I can do after all you've done for me whether it was in the name of my half-ish brother or not."
"Not that you needed our help all that much to test out all the usual Freshman, and some Soph, subjects. In fact you've helped us more I daresay." One of the 'decision-makers' stated as he took his place at the head of the table.
"Some guidance in chemical studies so that you can stay on the football team is hardly..."
"To which we'll always be as grateful as our poor, deprived stomachs. Sides, not everyone can do what you did to get into the Ohio State University and still manage to get a spot on the girls' basketball team."
Luc snorted. "The basketball team was one of the reasons I was allowed in a few months after the term start. In fact, it is one of the sources paying for my stay here considering it's not a full ride."
"But I did hear that old man Gibbs had already planned to pay for wherever you chose to go."
"If I didn't leave him early. As it was, I traded in my racing career to come here two- years-and-change early considering I'm not even seventeen yet with being born so late in the year ."
"Two days after Christmas huh."
"Ever gonna tell us why you would so soon after the start of a new school year...high school no less-what were you, Junior?"
"Senior. I was always ahead in school and had already skipped a grade or two."
"She says in that no-nonsense manner we are all growing to love." Tony quipped before shoveling in some of the best cooking he had had in quite some time. Lucky for him, her good nature had returned as that small half smile was once more playing on the corners of her lips.
"Might change your mind next time I whoop ya on the court." Luc shot back with that light in her eyes that showed more amusement than her face itself generally did when he voiced his protests of "One time! It was just that one time!"
That one time turned into many other times as the young Buckeye Freshman was quite talented on the court as she was in her studies and the kitchen...not to mention her research. Because no matter what Luc had told her honorary brothers, the need to know had driven her into old periodicals and long hours in the library only to find nothing but dead ends. Until the day he paid her a visit.
"Whacha think your up to, girlie?"
Blue eyes that reminded him of his new probie which held the same amount of ice as Luc glared at the grizzled older-than-she-remembered man. "Comes a time in everyone's life in which they need to know the truth of who they truly are."
"Why now? You told me you didn't believe the story your crazy relative spun."
''I was a traumatized child then, Mike, a child who, after finding the bodies of over half her family plus witnessing the death of the man I called father, was subjected to an unequal killing team I wanted no part in! What part of that wouldn't leave anyone unwilling to know any more 'truths' after getting a hint how horrible they are. And then if THAT wasn't enough, just when I was starting to heal and move on no less, my friend decided to go batshit crazy and kill almost all my Senior class! My cousin couldn't even stand to go back to that school cause she felt so guilty-still does in fact to the point she hasn't spoken to me since!"
Finally Luc broke off, fairly gasping for breath before realizing in horror that her voice had risen so much upon standing that the student body in the library at that time had heard-everything. She threw her hands up in frustration then lowered them to shove her papers and research materials haphazardly into her bag. Then stalked out of the building, studiously ignoring their stares on the way out.
"Great now everyone will know that I'm a jinx by the end of the day. Is it really so much to ask just why Old Man Gibbs of Gibbs racing was ever interested in me in the first place?! I know you said that they were distantly distantly related to me, but come on! How long did you expect me to buy that such a lesser common name was from my mother's side? And which one was that-the one I had believed to be my mother for the first fifteen years and change or the one that supposedly born me after-"
"That is why." Luc said as she emphasized each word with a poke to the NIS agent's chest once they had gotten out into the late winter sunlight. "You know who my birth father is and you're protecting him!"
"Something I'd do for some poor kid who had the misfortune to go through such a traumatizing event of his own. Just remember, Luc, it's not just about you and the kid has enough in his life than having to relive the most humiliating moment in his life."
"You're NIS and this is a non-military case."
"You're mother was reserves whether it was nurse services of the Corp or not-your birth mother, that is...don't even ask me how she became a teacher. The mother that raised you, however, was FBI ME and married to my friend's kid. Was my job to look after him and I failed so I'm looking after you instead no matter how the dumb pup treated you after losing the woman he loved more than life. Another thing you need to understand, missy, is that grief of losing someone you love that much changes people and such a grief never goes away! Ever thought that I'm trying to protect you from more traumatic events?"
At the darkness in his eyes, Luc felt herself deflate then sighed as her shoulders fell. "Need to know I'm worth it is all, Mike, if I'm worth finding a way past all that trauma to...never mind."
The tobacco scented arms that surrounded her then surprised the young woman almost as much as the safe feeling she found there. "You're worth it, Lucia Zephyr, and one day I'll prove it to ya just as I know that one day you'll understand why I do what I do. Just askin' ya to trust me for now and know that one day you'll know all you wish to know...for good or bad an I'll be there for you on that day."
Her laugh was dry with more than a touch of sarcasm in it. "Iffn ya don't wait til your deathbed that is, ya old coward."
Mike Franks grimaced then pushed her away to look into blue blue eyes that were near level to his...huh the kid's kid had had a growth spurt-several in fact from that first time he had saw her when she was covered in blood and gore. He shook his head. "You either know me too much or they're teaching you things in this school that are gonna be mad skills once you get out there. What are you gonna be out there if I might ask-not an ME I suppose."
She shuddered as she tried not to remember that Halloween when her brother, Abner, had kept her in the autopsy room of the Mezzani family's haunted house or that other time... "No most definitely not as I'm not certain I can even set foot in autopsy again...least not willingly. No, I'm thinking I'm a bit more interested in psychology and the whys and psyches of serial killers as I have had some experience with em."
"Yeah some." He said dryly with a roll of his eyes then reached out to ruffle her coppery brown hair. "If ya wanna come over to NIS, I'm sure I can find some place to start ya."
Luc wrinkled her nose a bit. "I'm also not certain I wish to revisit those old memories just yet but if I ever change my mind..."
Mike merely nodded then reached out to ruffle her hair. "Gotta go but take care of yourself, kid, and no more pokin' your nose in hornets' nests."
Before she could question his word usage, the old agent was gone. Luc sighed as she reached up to fix the coppery locks she had cut so that they lightly brushed her shoulders. Then suddenly she grinned as she thought of another way to go about her objective. "Besides, there are different several ways to skin cats...just gotta find the right one."
-End of another oneshot-
