DISCLAIMER: Don´t own ´em, don´t sue pretty please! I have nothing...
A/N: So update! I know, it´s been a while but as you can see, I did not die
in the end of the semester! (or rather, because of it...) in any case I
promise to update more quickly now that I have all the free time in the
world (almost...). I appreciate the patience and the comments, as always,
so keep them coming! (both patience and the comments)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------
A few days after our last meeting, I stopped feeling like a genius. I had figured out part the language, but I still couldn´t read the message. To tell the truth, a couple of days later, I felt like an idiot. I had called Goren a few times to ask if they´d made any progress, the answer was always the same. They hadn´t. I couldn´t help but feel they wouldn´t. I finally gave up, put my old notebook away and tried to forget the entire case. It was a little impossible, seeing as how it was on the news every single day. All the facts had not been released to the public, but it was enough to remind me. It seemed life didn´t want me to forget.
It had been almost one whole day since I´d last spoken to Goren (or rather Eames, when I called, he wasn´t there). I had gone to the store, gotten some unhealthy foods and tried to concentrate on work, my idiot boss had called me, saying he wasn´t feeling well and had then proceeded to come over to my place and drop off nearly twenty essays which needed grading. I looked at the due date on the paper I was reading again, it had been handed in over two months ago! I cursed loudly at my boss, he should´ve graded them at least six weeks before. After a couple of minutes I couldn´t blame him for avoiding the papers though, they were so bad I was about to hit my head against the wall. It was embarassing really, if one can´t handle something, why go up against it? Not only was the grammar bad, but in the case of -Sara Evans-, there wasn´t one single sentence that made sense! I had been at it for about an hour, and had gotten through about three papers when the doorbell rang. I went over to the door, hoping it was someone,..anyone. I needed to take a break, before I started thinking about committing suicide rather than read another paper on "Eristotl´s -Cool Philosophy-"; I spoke too soon.
What greeted me when I opened the door made me wish I had a hundred papers by Sara Evans. There stood my deadbeat dad, drunk as always, leaning against the door frame. The stink of booze was almost too much to bear. He looked like he hadn´t changed or shaved or even showered in days. He smiled at me and held his arms open, I didn´t move. The last time I´d heard from him was almost four months ago. He called and he was sober and he said he and my little brother (half brother really) were taking a vacation. I´d tried to stop him, but he said he was fine. The only thing that stopped me from slamming the door in his face was the six year old holding his arm (probably more to support him than out of security). I looked at my father, it hadn´t been a good week, and this did it.
"What the hell are you doing with him?!" I took the boy´s arm and pulled him in. My father followed, stumbling all the way to the couch. He simply shrugged and laughed. I took my brother to the kitchen. He, at least, looked clean, but I doubted he´d had much to eat in a couple of days. I kicked myself mentally for only bringing back twinkies and pop- tarts from the store. I sat him up on the counter, he didn´t let go of me and soon he was crying. I didn´t know what to do. He calmed down in a few minutes and looked at his feet.
"I´m sorry..." he said. I looked at him, confused, he continued, "I told him to bring me here. Everything was fine until last week, he...met a girl who looked like mom, but she didn´t like me."
I didn´t need to hear the rest of the story. His mom, my stepmother, had been a step up from a stripper and also an alcoholic. She´d married my dad after knowing him for two months, nine moths later, Tyler was born. There were about two good years in which my dad worked and Ty´s mother stayed at home, but as soon as the kid was in school, they both went off the deep end. They ended up getting divorced, it was messy, and by then Ty´s mother was so messed up that my father actually got custody. That had been about a year ago. I had last seen Ty about eight months ago. I knew I should´ve fought to keep him with me, but I was just getting all my life together and was finally living on my own and working and I figured maybe my dad would sober up. I now knew it had been a mistake. I stayed with Ty in the kitchen for about half an hour and then went to face my father.
I told him to leave. I gave him a change of clothes from the last time he´d shown up at my door, told him I would be keeping Ty until he got his life together, led him to the door and shut it. I doubt he ever knew what happened. He allowed himself to be led out, cried a drunken goodbye to his son and left. As if this wasn´t enough, as soon as the door was shut the phone rang. It was my idiot boss, he was apparently healthy enough to show up at my door with papers to grade, but sick enough to not show up at his classes for the next "three or so" days. I hung up and cursed, I raised my eyes and saw Ty standing in front of me. This was going to be a long, long, long week.
The rest of the afternoon was spent on tracking down my little brother´s bag with all his clothes, we found it at the basement door, where our dear father had probably left it after I kicked him out; then, we went to the store to get some more decent food and a couple of other things for Ty (mostly books, he was more partial to those nice and violent video games, but I couldn´t afford that and besides, no way in hell was he going to rot his brain out with those things); when we finally got home, I found six messages waiting for me, all from the secretary at school, reminding me I had classes all the next day until six o´clock. I decided to deal with that the following morning. Ty fell asleep no later than eight o´clock (travelling with your drunk dad is tireing, I knew from personal experience). I couldn´t sleep, now that my life was getting more and more complicated I couldn´t put the case down. I knew I was only doing it to avoid thinking about everything else, but I didn´t much care. The next morning I decided to take Ty in with me, I could leave him in my boss´s office, hopefully he´d tear it all down and then my day would be a little bit better.
I made it to the school just in time. I was perfectly on time and sighning in when the secretary found me, the first class had been canceled. I almost threw the desk across the room. I decided to use that time for something, I went to talk to all of -my- teachers, I had to explain to them why I was going to miss class for the next week. I got rotten looks from most of them and one even threatened to fail me. After that I shut myself up in my boss´s office, and tried to grade some more papers. Amazingly enough, I got through all of them (they probably weren´t marvelously graded, but, again, I didn´t care much). Ty was very patient, very quiet and very still. I decided to take him along to the next class, he´d probably bore himself stiff but I at least would know where he was, in any case, I´d thought it over and having Ty destroy my boss´s office wouldn´t look to good.
The class was...torture, it was like trying to get three year olds to understand quantum mechanics, or get turtles to grow wings and fly into outer space! It was a slow going two hours, but when it was finally over, I felt a little better. I gave back all the papers, all stared at me with dumb looks on their faces, Sara Evans even asked why I´d marked "Eristotl´s" wrong. I told them to call their professor, I was just a substitute. That felt good, nothing like a little meaness to lighten a shitty day. I was just leaving (running away really), when the -almost- last person I wanted to run into came up to me. His name is Steve, and even though he´s kinda cute, he´s an asshole who can´t tell his left hand from his right foot and who is under the mistaken impression I have fallen head over heels for him. He came up to me from behind and snaked his arm around me, I pushed him away but that wasn´t enough of a hint because he followed me all the way to the office.
Steve, being the charming man he is, barely acknowledged Ty and bent his whole self on invading my personal space. After about two words came out of his mouth he asked me out, I refused, he asked me out again, I refused again, he asked again, I refused, he asked, I slammed some books on the desk and pushed him off it. I don´t even know why, but at that moment I just started running my mouth, I told him, or rather, screamed, everything at him. The best part was when I told him about Ty, for a second something seemed to have of gone through his head and into his tiny, testosterone filled brain...it was only wishfull thinking though.
"...I am no motherly figure! I can barely take care of myself Steve, so just leave me alone go bother someone else." I took a deep breath. Ty was shocked and he stood in a corner, almost smiling ironically enough. I, in turn, felt better, much better. This great feeling didn´t last for long, Steve went and opened his mouth.
"Hey, I think you´ll make a great mom some day you know...I got an idea, maybe we could start trying out in -that department- tonite, let me take you out."
I was about to throw a book at him when it hit me, I looked at him with what I imagine was a stupid expression on my face, "What?"
He smiled, mistakenly believing he´d won, he came close, sat back on the desk and put his hand on my shoulder, he lowered his voice almost to a whisper, "About you being able to be a good mother? Or about me taking you out?"
"The mother part..."
He looked at me with a strange look but continued anyway, "Well, you know, you could be a good mother, I think you haven´t had the right chance to develop it though..."
I didn´t even wait for his next sleezy comment. I took off, came back a second later to get Ty. Steve looked utterly confused, I took a second to thank him. I ran to the secretary, told her to cancel the rest of the classes. I could not believe it, my life, my crisis, everything had actually done something. It just so happened, that the rest of the pieces on the case started falling into place. I didn´t even call Eames or Goren, I simply showed up at the station. Ty was elated he was going to see a police station from the inside, that was good, it made it very easy for him to promise to behave himself in there. The doors opened up and I walked into the big maze of small desks, a cop stopped me, said I couldn´t be there without an escort. I didn´t have to argue with him for long, out of the corner came the two people I was looking for, they let me in and I told them everything.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------
A few days after our last meeting, I stopped feeling like a genius. I had figured out part the language, but I still couldn´t read the message. To tell the truth, a couple of days later, I felt like an idiot. I had called Goren a few times to ask if they´d made any progress, the answer was always the same. They hadn´t. I couldn´t help but feel they wouldn´t. I finally gave up, put my old notebook away and tried to forget the entire case. It was a little impossible, seeing as how it was on the news every single day. All the facts had not been released to the public, but it was enough to remind me. It seemed life didn´t want me to forget.
It had been almost one whole day since I´d last spoken to Goren (or rather Eames, when I called, he wasn´t there). I had gone to the store, gotten some unhealthy foods and tried to concentrate on work, my idiot boss had called me, saying he wasn´t feeling well and had then proceeded to come over to my place and drop off nearly twenty essays which needed grading. I looked at the due date on the paper I was reading again, it had been handed in over two months ago! I cursed loudly at my boss, he should´ve graded them at least six weeks before. After a couple of minutes I couldn´t blame him for avoiding the papers though, they were so bad I was about to hit my head against the wall. It was embarassing really, if one can´t handle something, why go up against it? Not only was the grammar bad, but in the case of -Sara Evans-, there wasn´t one single sentence that made sense! I had been at it for about an hour, and had gotten through about three papers when the doorbell rang. I went over to the door, hoping it was someone,..anyone. I needed to take a break, before I started thinking about committing suicide rather than read another paper on "Eristotl´s -Cool Philosophy-"; I spoke too soon.
What greeted me when I opened the door made me wish I had a hundred papers by Sara Evans. There stood my deadbeat dad, drunk as always, leaning against the door frame. The stink of booze was almost too much to bear. He looked like he hadn´t changed or shaved or even showered in days. He smiled at me and held his arms open, I didn´t move. The last time I´d heard from him was almost four months ago. He called and he was sober and he said he and my little brother (half brother really) were taking a vacation. I´d tried to stop him, but he said he was fine. The only thing that stopped me from slamming the door in his face was the six year old holding his arm (probably more to support him than out of security). I looked at my father, it hadn´t been a good week, and this did it.
"What the hell are you doing with him?!" I took the boy´s arm and pulled him in. My father followed, stumbling all the way to the couch. He simply shrugged and laughed. I took my brother to the kitchen. He, at least, looked clean, but I doubted he´d had much to eat in a couple of days. I kicked myself mentally for only bringing back twinkies and pop- tarts from the store. I sat him up on the counter, he didn´t let go of me and soon he was crying. I didn´t know what to do. He calmed down in a few minutes and looked at his feet.
"I´m sorry..." he said. I looked at him, confused, he continued, "I told him to bring me here. Everything was fine until last week, he...met a girl who looked like mom, but she didn´t like me."
I didn´t need to hear the rest of the story. His mom, my stepmother, had been a step up from a stripper and also an alcoholic. She´d married my dad after knowing him for two months, nine moths later, Tyler was born. There were about two good years in which my dad worked and Ty´s mother stayed at home, but as soon as the kid was in school, they both went off the deep end. They ended up getting divorced, it was messy, and by then Ty´s mother was so messed up that my father actually got custody. That had been about a year ago. I had last seen Ty about eight months ago. I knew I should´ve fought to keep him with me, but I was just getting all my life together and was finally living on my own and working and I figured maybe my dad would sober up. I now knew it had been a mistake. I stayed with Ty in the kitchen for about half an hour and then went to face my father.
I told him to leave. I gave him a change of clothes from the last time he´d shown up at my door, told him I would be keeping Ty until he got his life together, led him to the door and shut it. I doubt he ever knew what happened. He allowed himself to be led out, cried a drunken goodbye to his son and left. As if this wasn´t enough, as soon as the door was shut the phone rang. It was my idiot boss, he was apparently healthy enough to show up at my door with papers to grade, but sick enough to not show up at his classes for the next "three or so" days. I hung up and cursed, I raised my eyes and saw Ty standing in front of me. This was going to be a long, long, long week.
The rest of the afternoon was spent on tracking down my little brother´s bag with all his clothes, we found it at the basement door, where our dear father had probably left it after I kicked him out; then, we went to the store to get some more decent food and a couple of other things for Ty (mostly books, he was more partial to those nice and violent video games, but I couldn´t afford that and besides, no way in hell was he going to rot his brain out with those things); when we finally got home, I found six messages waiting for me, all from the secretary at school, reminding me I had classes all the next day until six o´clock. I decided to deal with that the following morning. Ty fell asleep no later than eight o´clock (travelling with your drunk dad is tireing, I knew from personal experience). I couldn´t sleep, now that my life was getting more and more complicated I couldn´t put the case down. I knew I was only doing it to avoid thinking about everything else, but I didn´t much care. The next morning I decided to take Ty in with me, I could leave him in my boss´s office, hopefully he´d tear it all down and then my day would be a little bit better.
I made it to the school just in time. I was perfectly on time and sighning in when the secretary found me, the first class had been canceled. I almost threw the desk across the room. I decided to use that time for something, I went to talk to all of -my- teachers, I had to explain to them why I was going to miss class for the next week. I got rotten looks from most of them and one even threatened to fail me. After that I shut myself up in my boss´s office, and tried to grade some more papers. Amazingly enough, I got through all of them (they probably weren´t marvelously graded, but, again, I didn´t care much). Ty was very patient, very quiet and very still. I decided to take him along to the next class, he´d probably bore himself stiff but I at least would know where he was, in any case, I´d thought it over and having Ty destroy my boss´s office wouldn´t look to good.
The class was...torture, it was like trying to get three year olds to understand quantum mechanics, or get turtles to grow wings and fly into outer space! It was a slow going two hours, but when it was finally over, I felt a little better. I gave back all the papers, all stared at me with dumb looks on their faces, Sara Evans even asked why I´d marked "Eristotl´s" wrong. I told them to call their professor, I was just a substitute. That felt good, nothing like a little meaness to lighten a shitty day. I was just leaving (running away really), when the -almost- last person I wanted to run into came up to me. His name is Steve, and even though he´s kinda cute, he´s an asshole who can´t tell his left hand from his right foot and who is under the mistaken impression I have fallen head over heels for him. He came up to me from behind and snaked his arm around me, I pushed him away but that wasn´t enough of a hint because he followed me all the way to the office.
Steve, being the charming man he is, barely acknowledged Ty and bent his whole self on invading my personal space. After about two words came out of his mouth he asked me out, I refused, he asked me out again, I refused again, he asked again, I refused, he asked, I slammed some books on the desk and pushed him off it. I don´t even know why, but at that moment I just started running my mouth, I told him, or rather, screamed, everything at him. The best part was when I told him about Ty, for a second something seemed to have of gone through his head and into his tiny, testosterone filled brain...it was only wishfull thinking though.
"...I am no motherly figure! I can barely take care of myself Steve, so just leave me alone go bother someone else." I took a deep breath. Ty was shocked and he stood in a corner, almost smiling ironically enough. I, in turn, felt better, much better. This great feeling didn´t last for long, Steve went and opened his mouth.
"Hey, I think you´ll make a great mom some day you know...I got an idea, maybe we could start trying out in -that department- tonite, let me take you out."
I was about to throw a book at him when it hit me, I looked at him with what I imagine was a stupid expression on my face, "What?"
He smiled, mistakenly believing he´d won, he came close, sat back on the desk and put his hand on my shoulder, he lowered his voice almost to a whisper, "About you being able to be a good mother? Or about me taking you out?"
"The mother part..."
He looked at me with a strange look but continued anyway, "Well, you know, you could be a good mother, I think you haven´t had the right chance to develop it though..."
I didn´t even wait for his next sleezy comment. I took off, came back a second later to get Ty. Steve looked utterly confused, I took a second to thank him. I ran to the secretary, told her to cancel the rest of the classes. I could not believe it, my life, my crisis, everything had actually done something. It just so happened, that the rest of the pieces on the case started falling into place. I didn´t even call Eames or Goren, I simply showed up at the station. Ty was elated he was going to see a police station from the inside, that was good, it made it very easy for him to promise to behave himself in there. The doors opened up and I walked into the big maze of small desks, a cop stopped me, said I couldn´t be there without an escort. I didn´t have to argue with him for long, out of the corner came the two people I was looking for, they let me in and I told them everything.