Title; Slender Fingers
Warnings; Language, dark themes, OOC, OCs, suicide attempts, abuse, death,
in parts a wet, topless Brennan... Yummy.....
Disclaimer; Sadly, I own nothing. I just like to play with Mutant X, and
promise to return them in good condition when I'm done...
Key; "Blah"-talking, 'Blah'-thinking, ~ ~-change of scene, * *-shift
between Brennan's present and his past.
* * * * * * * *
A/N : I would like to point out right here and now. Any and all romance anyone might see between Brennan and ANY of my OCs WHATSOEVER is all in your mind. It is Bren/Shal ALL THE WAY BABY!!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
* * * * * * * *
Shalimar had finally relented and allowed him to get out of bed. He was still forbidden to leave Sanctuary under pain of death, or at least under pain of a patented Shalimar ass-kicking, which was almost the same thing. And everyone was still fussing over him! It was incredibly frustrating, but he was out of bed at least! And that seemed a huge achievement with the row the girls put up about it.
He had insisted that he felt fine, and Adam had relented. Shalimar was probably still sulking. However, no one was letting him DO anything! His fever hadn't been THAT high! Sure the first couple of days he had been miserable, flat on his back, only getting up to drag himself to the bathroom to empty the contents of his stomach. But he. Was. BETTER. Now. He wanted to go out! He wanted to play basketball! He wanted to take a run, go for a swim, do SOMETHING, dammit!
This was just not going to happen with Shal hovering over him and watching his every move. The girl was just way too overprotective for her own good. SHE would rather his activities include taking a nap, resting and relaxing.
Bor~ing!
He glared darkly at his cards. Playing cards wasn't the most exciting thing in the world, especially solitaire, but he had already tried shooting hoops, only to have Emma freak at him and give him a huge lecture. It was mildly amusing, if not slightly annoying. It wasn't like he hadn't heard the same exact speech from all of his team members in the last few days.
He flipped another card. Solitaire. How well it fit his life. He guessed he was destined to go through life alone. It wasn't like he wasn't used to it. He sighed and set down the deck. He was tired, and really was still not up to par, but to admit that and go back to bed would be to admit defeat. Shal would never stop fussing then.
He sighed again with frustration and considered frying the cards just to vent a little. He leaned back in his chair. No one was around... He could SEE the door to the garage from here. It would be so simple to just walk over...grab a car. He cast a glance around the room once again, as if checking for spies or an invisible person. A slow, mischievous smirk started across his face.
With a sly look still on his face, he got up and started off to the door. It didn't make a single sound as he slipped through it, and as he started his favorite black Mercedes, he thought that he was incredibly lucky to have gotten away with this.
He pulled out of the garage still glancing back at the room and into the backseat as if expecting to see his teammates hiding there, ready to pop out and scold him right back into bed. They weren't, and he grinned, giddy with his success.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Hey," he greeted the young painter once again. She turned from her painting and smiled at him.
"Hey! I'd all but given up on you coming back," she said, laughing a little. Despite her words, she grinned in a way that seemed to say that she had known he would be back. "Where have you been for the last couple of days?"
He rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair in an aggravated gesture. "I guess the whole 'dancing in the rain' was a little too much for my system. I'm not as young and vibrant as you are, don't you know."
He winked at her, and she giggled girlishly. "I got sick and my...roommates practically took me hostage."
Once again he rolled his eyes to punctuate his point. The girl giggled again. Then she looked a little guilty.
"Sorry I got you sick," she said, regret shining in her eyes.
"I got myself sick. It wasn't your fault. Besides...it was...well, it was fun. And fun is something that I haven't had in...well, not in a long time. I don't regret it, not for a second. You shouldn't regret making me do it. It was good for me."
"Good for you? You said that it made you sick."
"It did. But, well, when I was dancing, I LAUGHED. I laughed out loud." Brennan gazed off into nothing. He remembered it. Laughing, long and loud, not a snort of contempt. It was not a fake laugh to fool the people around him, as almost every other laugh he had uttered in his life had been. He had never laughed as he had those few days ago. Never, not once. He looked at his young companion, her head cocked to one side, eyes troubled with confusion.
"People laugh everyday. Is it worth getting sick over just to laugh?"
Brennan's eyes drifted skyward. "Correction. MOST people laugh everyday. Those people take it for granted. Laughing is defiantly worth the price it came with. At least to me." Brennan snapped out of it and looked back at her.
"But that's not the point. The point IS, that I don't regret that day, and neither should you." She still looked a little perplexed, but did not allow it to deter her. She shrugged and accepted his words.
'Good God!' thought Brennan. 'I am so sappy!'
His behavior was totally un-Brennan like, and had been since...well, since he had first come to the park with the intent of avoiding Shalimar, and had ended up meeting this girl. That had been only a little more than a week ago. This new attitude was just so uncharacteristic of him. While it was nice to be able to relax and drop his façade, he noticed that he, for the most part, sounded like a simpering fool. More like his poet and song- writing half than his cocky ex-con one. It wasn't a HORRIBLE change. It was a big one, of course, and certainly one that was hard to swallow in such a short amount of time, but not a HORRIBLE one.
'What will Shalimar think?' The thought jumped, unbidden, into his brain. It caused a fleeting, intense panic. Well, not so much the original thought itself. But what if Shalimar DIDN'T like the change?
What if she HATED it?
Hated HIM?
THAT made panic seize his heart momentarily. The fact that it did cause him panic was just as terrifying. Since when did he become so dependant on what Shalimar thought of him? He didn't know. At the moment he didn't even really care. The fact that he WAS dependant, the fact that he DID value his teammate's opinion so highly...well, it was enough for now.
He focused his thoughts once again on the girl. She was painting. He blinked as he saw that it was no longer the park scene. As a matter of fact he couldn't yet tell what it would be, as she was just starting it. "What happened to your park painting?" he asked, brow creasing with confusion.
"I finished it while you were sick." She flashed a grin at him. "I'll bring it by some time and show it to you." She turned back to her painting that Brennan now recognized as the beginnings of a portrait. He cocked his head and examined it.
"Self-portrait?" he questioned, glancing at her.
"No." She flashed him another smile. "Actually, it's a painting of you." She chuckled at the surprised look that flitted across his handsome features. He seemed puzzled.
"Me? Why me?" He looked back to the painting.
"You have perfect lines. Ever since I first saw you...that first day in the park I've known you would make a GREAT painting." He still looked doubtful. She sighed and set down the brush. "Walk with me," she said, gesturing for him to follow.
He did, and they made quite the odd couple. Him, with his dark hair and eyes, with his long black duster. His clothes had very little color, mostly black. His hair was in impeccable order.
She, on the other hand, was wearing a bright, cheery yellow T-shirt under faded overalls. Painting clothes. Her reddish hair was piled up atop her head in a messy attempt to keep it out of her paint and face. Paint smudged her face and clothes.
Brennan, taking note of the paint splatters, teasingly asked why she used her fingers when she had a perfectly serviceable brush. This set off teasing banter between the two.
The bickering continued for awhile, and then quickly escalated into a who- can-be-the-most-immature contest. And while neither of them held a candle to Jesse, who, despite claims that he had grown up, was still the king of immature pranks and teasing, they did come close.
She stuck out her tongue at him. He crossed his eyes at her. She made a fish face that caused him to snort with suppressed laughter. He rolled his eyes and stuck a finger down his throat. She thumbed her nose at him. He turned his eyelids inside out causing her to shriek. [1]
On and on the two continued, punctuating their little contest with exclamations of, "Oh, THAT'S mature!" and "Well, THAT'S attractive!" and the like. While it was quite amusing to anyone wandering by who happened to bear witness to the little display, it was quite possible that the two could not have been more childish in their antics.
She broke into a run, and he ran after her. She was giggling up a storm, and a mischief that Brennan had never gotten to experience as a child, or ever, for that matter, shining brightly on her teenage features. She ran, until she reached a small, stone bridge, built over a small stream, where she leaned, panting and flushed, against the railing. Brennan laughed as he did the same. He looked down at the cool stone, tracing it lightly with his fingertips. He knew this bridge; it marked the center of the park.
He looked around him, surprised they had come this far. "We're in the middle of the park."
She also looked around. "Uh, yeah, I guess we are. So?" She gave him an odd look.
"How'd we get here?" he blinked, a little disoriented.
"Um...we walked?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you ok?"
He looked down at the stream running underneath the bridge. He traced the lines of the bricks. "Fine..." he said distractedly. He KNEW this place... He hadn't been here in years...but he knew it. "I'm fine," he repeated, as if reassuring himself more than the girl.
* * * * * * * *
Brennan waited not-so-patiently for the weird girl to wake up. He would just retrieve his blasted keys and go HOME. The girl was on the couch, snoring away. He looked at her and sighed. She was going to have one Hell of a hangover when she woke up. Sighing once again in extreme frustration, he got up and headed for the kitchen. One of the things he had learned from his alcoholic father, and even from Jay, who once in awhile had gotten totally plastered, was how to make the best hangover cures. He raided her fridge and got out the ingredients for his own personal cure, dubbed simply a 'scrub'. [2] Just as he was finishing he heard a groan coming from the general direction of the couch.
Remembering last night and the way she had stolen his keys, he gritted his teeth and told himself over and over that she had been trashed and hadn't been herself. He made his way over to the couch where she was curled, eyes tight shut.
He shoved the drink in her hand. She looked up in surprise. "Drink," he ordered gruffly. He plopped in an overstuffed armchair across from her. "If it tastes like raw eggs and salad dressing, you're drinking it too slowly."
She was still staring at him, her mouth a little 'o'. Then she looked disgusted. "There's raw eggs and salad dressing in this?!" She looked at her still-full glass. Her voice rose as she said, "I am SO not drinking ANYTHING...owww..." She stopped and put a hand to her temple as she decided shouting wasn't a good idea at the moment.
"It doesn't have raw eggs or salad dressing," he said steelily. "And I don't feel like watching you puke all morning, so drink it."
"But you said..."
"I said if it TASTES like it. Now drink."
With a sigh, she pinched her nose and downed the stuff. She gagged and coughed. "Nasty!"
"Most hang-over cures are."
She looked at him. "Look...um...This is so embarrassing... Um, did we do, you know, ANYTHING last night?"
Brennan felt his face get hot. "NO!" he denied vehemently, blushing to his roots. [3]
She grinned at his flustered-ness. "Um...then who are you?"
Brennan managed to get his blush under control. "Look, just give me my keys back and I'll be outa your hair."
"Keys?" He got a blank look.
Brennan felt like ganging his head against the wall. "Yes. Keys. People use them to unlock things. Like the one on my key ring. Which you took from me." All this he said slowly and deliberately, as if she was stupid.
Maybe that was because he thought that she was a complete moron. [4]
She shot him a dirty look. "Why would I take your stupid keys?" she snapped irritably at him.
"You said that I was too drunk to drive home."
"Sensible of me," she muttered.
"Of course, I TRIED to tell you that I'd only had one glass of rum and coke."
"Oh..."
"And that I had WALKED to the bar..."
"Ah..."
"And that the key on my ring was my HOUSE key, not my car key..."
"Whoops?"
"Yeah. Whoops. Now give 'em over," he demanded.
She blinked at him. "I don't remember what I did with them."
Oh, yes. He would bang his head against that well, that one right there.
Hard.
Really hard.
Until he lost consciousness. That would be good...
"Down your shirt," he gritted out. He was very proud of his self control.
"Oh!" And with that she started digging down the front of her shirt. She blinked and pulled the shirt away from her body and looked down it.
Brennan was on the verge of a nosebleed. Suddenly the floor became fascinating. Oh, look! A piece of lint!
The girl cleared her throat slightly, causing him to look up. She looked a little sheepish. "It would appear that I have lost your keys."
Blink.
Blink, blink.
Lost.
She had LOST his keys.
He would slam his head over and over. He hoped he made a dent in her stupid wall. See, this would teach him to not keep a spare key. Right now he COULD be home being a threat to his OWN walls, but nooooo...
He let out a slow breath and rubbed his temples. "Do you like chicken? I do. I like it EXTRA crispy," he informed her, looking at his fingers calmly. He could just fry her right here and now.
No jury in the WORLD would convict him.
She had no clue what he was talking about of course, but Karlie was not as stupid as she seemed. She saw the look in Brennan's eye. "Ah...right... Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot here. I don't remember if I told you or not, but I'm Karlie. And you?"
Brennan was still eyeing his hands. "Brennan..." He dropped his hands and glared at her. "Now, since you've LOST my keys, I have to go try break into my apartment, if you DON'T mind."
"Look, Brennan, I'm sorry about that. But if you need to get into your apartment, I can help you with that. It's something I'm good at. It's the least I can do, ok?" She looked at him pleadingly.
Brennan thought this over. His alarm, dammit, was not one he could disarm with his power. It was a good one, a bitch to get around, which was why Jay had told him to get that kind. Thieves tend to know the alarms to deter the more amateurish thieves. And his breaking and entering skills were less than perfect...
Once again, she took his indecision as consent. "Great!" she chirped.
"Wait..." he protested weakly as she latched onto him and dragged him off. She, of course, ignored him.
Karlie turned out to be a veritable whirlwind of blonde-haired, blue-eyed energy. She somehow seemed to think she and Brennan were friends. So after helping him to break into his apartment, she stopped by regularly. She took his life by storm, and turned out to be a natural mother hen. When she found out that the young man was virtually living off coffee and the occasional take-out, she often came bearing vegetables. Her visits always left Brennan a little dazed.
As time passed, he adjusted himself to Karlie's...unique friendship. So, on a Sunday, when he was lounging languidly on the couch, when Karlie came busting through the door with a brown paper bag undoubtedly filled with things guaranteed to be green, he wasn't too surprised.
"Brenny!" [5] she chirped happily. She swept down and, though he tried to avoid it, hugged him and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Oh, sorry there, love, got some lipstick on you." She smeared the lipstick with her thumb.
He squirmed and scowled at her. "Quit it!"
"Make me," she smirked, ignoring his glare.
"Go AWAY!" he snapped. "The extent that I am not in the mood for your games today isn't even funny Karlie."
"Why, yes, I'm having a lovely day, thank you for asking!" she said cheerfully, ignoring him.
As usual.
"Karlie..." he said warningly.
"WHAT is up your butt today, Brenny?"
"Don't call me that!" he snapped irritably. "You KNOW I hate it!"
"Of course I do! Which is half of the fun of doing it, Brenny!" She patted his cheek affectionately. She laughed at his infuriated expression.
"I hate you right now," he sulked.
"I know you do, love," she said distractedly, heading for the kitchen to put the veggies in the crisper. "Did you eat yesterday?"
"Uh, does coffee count?"
"Brennan!"
"Karlie..."
"Don't you 'Karlie' ME, buster! You are gunna get sick if you keep this up! How do you expect to work? We have a JOB tonight, or have you forgotten?" She glared at him. "I did NOT get you into this business and train you to be one of the best there is so YOU could run yourself into the ground!" She jabbed her finger in his face. She shoved an apple at him. "Now EAT!" And with that she stalked back into the kitchen.
"Yes, MOTHER!" he called back to her. He bit into his apple as he heard Karlie slamming things around in the kitchen, a sure sign she was pissed with him.
Again.
That happened a lot actually...
By the determined way she was moving around his kitchen, he could tell she was making something. Probably for him. "Don't bother Karlie. I'm not hungry."
"I, young man, did not ASK whether you were hungry or not. You are already skin and bones and you WILL eat something. Or I will hurt you."
"Shut up."
"This is MY apartment. I can kick you out you know."
"Shut your mouth. Before I commence with the pain."
"I really don't like you."
"Really? Just awhile ago you said you hated me. Dislike is an improvement." She presented him with a large sandwich and carrot sticks. "Eat."
"Are you deaf? Is that the problem? Or do you just not listen? I. Am. Not. Hungry."
She glared at him. In a scolding tone, she admonished, "And I remember informing you that you did not have a choice. I may only be six years older than you, but that makes me six years more experienced than you and I happen to know for a fact that starving yourself to death is not healthy." She sniffed indignantly.
"Yes. Usually anything including the word 'death' isn't healthy," he snorted, rolling his eyes. "Look, I'm sorry I don't follow the food pyramid to perfection, ok?" When she just kept glaring at him he sighed and took a bite of his sandwich. "Happy now?"
Karlie beamed. "Ecstatic!" She patted his head and plopped down next to him and grabbed the remote off the arm of the couch and flipped on the TV. Brennan looked at the screen lazily and popped a carrot stick in his mouth.
"What're you watching?"
"Shhhh!" Her eyes were locked on the screen as she waved her hand at him irritably. "That's where we're hitting tonight. If you don't collapse of hunger first," she added, shooting him a stern look. Brennan quickly busied himself with his sandwich to avoid her glare. Then he focused on the TV. It was on Proxy Blue, who was talking about an auction. Normally, Proxy wouldn't even bother with something so trivial, but this was special circumstances. For one, all the items were worth upwards of a million bucks each. Two, almost all the bidders were all pretty heavy into illegal doings. Connections with the mob, and the way their enemies just 'disappeared', or they funded illegal operations.
As Brennan and Karlie watched the news report, Brennan's face became grave. "It's going to be a bitch to get in. Tell me why we took this job again?"
"Duh. It pays a shit load of money. Look, all we gotta get is the one item. Shouldn't be too hard, right?" She smirked a little at him.
"Yeah, right! It'll be a piece of cherry cheesecake!" he snapped.
"Cherry cheesecake?"
He shrugged. "I like cherry cheesecake. And anyway, YOU say rememberize and wonderfulicious. I can say, 'a piece of cherry cheesecake' if I want."
She rolled her eyes. "You are just a bundle of sunshine today! You ALWAYS get like this before a job. I didn't FORCE you to get into this business you know. It was YOUR decision. So stop sulking already!"
"Oh, like you coming here EVERYDAY and annoying me until I gave in had NOTHING to do with it, right? I'm SO sure." He scowled, glowering at the floor.
"Oh, stop your bitching. Thanks to me you are now one of the best in the business. But I still don't get why you insist on working alone. In most organizations that would cause a lot of trouble. There is no honor among thieves and all that bull. OTHER partners might not be so understanding." She raised an eyebrow at him, letting him digest that for a moment. "Normally, I would have something to say about that little superstition, peculiarity, idiosyncrasy, whatever the Hell it is, but for the fact that you are a GENIUS with electronics. If we had a few more that could disarm electrical stuff like you can I would be one HAPPY woman." She smirked. "But then again, if I had someone else with your talent, you could bet I'd dump you and your mood swings. Worse than a PMSing teenage girl, I swear to God..."
"Gee, thanks!" he drawled, his voice dripping in sarcasm. "I am SO glad that you think so VERY highly of me and my abilities. And as for why I work alone, that's my little secret, isn't it?" She just snorted and rolled her eyes and continued watching the news.
Little secret. His LITTLE secret. Like the fact that he could throw lightning from his hands was no big deal. He admitted that it did come in handy with electronics. It was easy to short-circuit them. Bypassing even delicate alarms proved to be absolutely no problem at all. Much to Karlie's delight. She didn't know of course. No one did, really. THAT was his not-so- little secret.
And if he had his way, a secret it would stay.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
[1] Want to know the sad thing? This is based on a contest I actually had with one of my friends... Only ours went on A LOT longer and was A LOT more immature.
[2] A scrub. A real hang-over cure. My brother's own personal one...and yes, it does really taste like raw eggs and salad dressing. Nasty stuff, that...
[3] Who here would PAY to see Brennan blush like a school girl? ::raises hand:: OOH! OOH! I WOULD!
[4] But who knows? It might have been for a totally DIFFERENT reason. ^__^
[5] Oh, come on! You know it's cute! And you KNOW it would annoy the HELL out of Brennan. Hehehehe.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Rockergurl: Ok, so, what did you all think? I like Karlie a lot... one of the first original characters that I DO like actually... hehehe.
Kitta Cat: That wouldn't be because she's mainly based on YOU would it?
Rockergurl: ::whistles innocently::
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REVIEW RESPONSES:
QUEST: Ah... unfortunately there isn't a WHOLE lot of Bren/Shal, although there is more towards the end.
SARGE: Oh, well, if you COMAND it....
PETITECAT: Funny? Uh.... It's not really supposed to be... O__o
CHARMING KITTY CAT: Well, at least SOMEONE out there likes a mushy Brennan.
EMMA0211: Ehehehehe... there IS some in there, you just have to look REAL hard. Hehehe.
ACE: Surprise is the best part of any fic. If I told you what was going to happen, what would be the fun in that?
NOBLEBLUE: Karlie's a trip, ain't she? Hehehehe.
SUSAN: Again, this is mostly a Brennan story, not a romance. But there IS Bren/Shal!!
SCIFI CRITIC: Uh... What? No, you're not really making sense.... But this is a BRENNAN'S PAST FIC!! There will probably be more about BRENNAN'S PAST then his present.
ITALIANCHIKE: The guy in this story IS Brennan's stepfather.
SOMEBODY: Ok.
* * * * * * * *
A/N : I would like to point out right here and now. Any and all romance anyone might see between Brennan and ANY of my OCs WHATSOEVER is all in your mind. It is Bren/Shal ALL THE WAY BABY!!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
* * * * * * * *
Shalimar had finally relented and allowed him to get out of bed. He was still forbidden to leave Sanctuary under pain of death, or at least under pain of a patented Shalimar ass-kicking, which was almost the same thing. And everyone was still fussing over him! It was incredibly frustrating, but he was out of bed at least! And that seemed a huge achievement with the row the girls put up about it.
He had insisted that he felt fine, and Adam had relented. Shalimar was probably still sulking. However, no one was letting him DO anything! His fever hadn't been THAT high! Sure the first couple of days he had been miserable, flat on his back, only getting up to drag himself to the bathroom to empty the contents of his stomach. But he. Was. BETTER. Now. He wanted to go out! He wanted to play basketball! He wanted to take a run, go for a swim, do SOMETHING, dammit!
This was just not going to happen with Shal hovering over him and watching his every move. The girl was just way too overprotective for her own good. SHE would rather his activities include taking a nap, resting and relaxing.
Bor~ing!
He glared darkly at his cards. Playing cards wasn't the most exciting thing in the world, especially solitaire, but he had already tried shooting hoops, only to have Emma freak at him and give him a huge lecture. It was mildly amusing, if not slightly annoying. It wasn't like he hadn't heard the same exact speech from all of his team members in the last few days.
He flipped another card. Solitaire. How well it fit his life. He guessed he was destined to go through life alone. It wasn't like he wasn't used to it. He sighed and set down the deck. He was tired, and really was still not up to par, but to admit that and go back to bed would be to admit defeat. Shal would never stop fussing then.
He sighed again with frustration and considered frying the cards just to vent a little. He leaned back in his chair. No one was around... He could SEE the door to the garage from here. It would be so simple to just walk over...grab a car. He cast a glance around the room once again, as if checking for spies or an invisible person. A slow, mischievous smirk started across his face.
With a sly look still on his face, he got up and started off to the door. It didn't make a single sound as he slipped through it, and as he started his favorite black Mercedes, he thought that he was incredibly lucky to have gotten away with this.
He pulled out of the garage still glancing back at the room and into the backseat as if expecting to see his teammates hiding there, ready to pop out and scold him right back into bed. They weren't, and he grinned, giddy with his success.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Hey," he greeted the young painter once again. She turned from her painting and smiled at him.
"Hey! I'd all but given up on you coming back," she said, laughing a little. Despite her words, she grinned in a way that seemed to say that she had known he would be back. "Where have you been for the last couple of days?"
He rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair in an aggravated gesture. "I guess the whole 'dancing in the rain' was a little too much for my system. I'm not as young and vibrant as you are, don't you know."
He winked at her, and she giggled girlishly. "I got sick and my...roommates practically took me hostage."
Once again he rolled his eyes to punctuate his point. The girl giggled again. Then she looked a little guilty.
"Sorry I got you sick," she said, regret shining in her eyes.
"I got myself sick. It wasn't your fault. Besides...it was...well, it was fun. And fun is something that I haven't had in...well, not in a long time. I don't regret it, not for a second. You shouldn't regret making me do it. It was good for me."
"Good for you? You said that it made you sick."
"It did. But, well, when I was dancing, I LAUGHED. I laughed out loud." Brennan gazed off into nothing. He remembered it. Laughing, long and loud, not a snort of contempt. It was not a fake laugh to fool the people around him, as almost every other laugh he had uttered in his life had been. He had never laughed as he had those few days ago. Never, not once. He looked at his young companion, her head cocked to one side, eyes troubled with confusion.
"People laugh everyday. Is it worth getting sick over just to laugh?"
Brennan's eyes drifted skyward. "Correction. MOST people laugh everyday. Those people take it for granted. Laughing is defiantly worth the price it came with. At least to me." Brennan snapped out of it and looked back at her.
"But that's not the point. The point IS, that I don't regret that day, and neither should you." She still looked a little perplexed, but did not allow it to deter her. She shrugged and accepted his words.
'Good God!' thought Brennan. 'I am so sappy!'
His behavior was totally un-Brennan like, and had been since...well, since he had first come to the park with the intent of avoiding Shalimar, and had ended up meeting this girl. That had been only a little more than a week ago. This new attitude was just so uncharacteristic of him. While it was nice to be able to relax and drop his façade, he noticed that he, for the most part, sounded like a simpering fool. More like his poet and song- writing half than his cocky ex-con one. It wasn't a HORRIBLE change. It was a big one, of course, and certainly one that was hard to swallow in such a short amount of time, but not a HORRIBLE one.
'What will Shalimar think?' The thought jumped, unbidden, into his brain. It caused a fleeting, intense panic. Well, not so much the original thought itself. But what if Shalimar DIDN'T like the change?
What if she HATED it?
Hated HIM?
THAT made panic seize his heart momentarily. The fact that it did cause him panic was just as terrifying. Since when did he become so dependant on what Shalimar thought of him? He didn't know. At the moment he didn't even really care. The fact that he WAS dependant, the fact that he DID value his teammate's opinion so highly...well, it was enough for now.
He focused his thoughts once again on the girl. She was painting. He blinked as he saw that it was no longer the park scene. As a matter of fact he couldn't yet tell what it would be, as she was just starting it. "What happened to your park painting?" he asked, brow creasing with confusion.
"I finished it while you were sick." She flashed a grin at him. "I'll bring it by some time and show it to you." She turned back to her painting that Brennan now recognized as the beginnings of a portrait. He cocked his head and examined it.
"Self-portrait?" he questioned, glancing at her.
"No." She flashed him another smile. "Actually, it's a painting of you." She chuckled at the surprised look that flitted across his handsome features. He seemed puzzled.
"Me? Why me?" He looked back to the painting.
"You have perfect lines. Ever since I first saw you...that first day in the park I've known you would make a GREAT painting." He still looked doubtful. She sighed and set down the brush. "Walk with me," she said, gesturing for him to follow.
He did, and they made quite the odd couple. Him, with his dark hair and eyes, with his long black duster. His clothes had very little color, mostly black. His hair was in impeccable order.
She, on the other hand, was wearing a bright, cheery yellow T-shirt under faded overalls. Painting clothes. Her reddish hair was piled up atop her head in a messy attempt to keep it out of her paint and face. Paint smudged her face and clothes.
Brennan, taking note of the paint splatters, teasingly asked why she used her fingers when she had a perfectly serviceable brush. This set off teasing banter between the two.
The bickering continued for awhile, and then quickly escalated into a who- can-be-the-most-immature contest. And while neither of them held a candle to Jesse, who, despite claims that he had grown up, was still the king of immature pranks and teasing, they did come close.
She stuck out her tongue at him. He crossed his eyes at her. She made a fish face that caused him to snort with suppressed laughter. He rolled his eyes and stuck a finger down his throat. She thumbed her nose at him. He turned his eyelids inside out causing her to shriek. [1]
On and on the two continued, punctuating their little contest with exclamations of, "Oh, THAT'S mature!" and "Well, THAT'S attractive!" and the like. While it was quite amusing to anyone wandering by who happened to bear witness to the little display, it was quite possible that the two could not have been more childish in their antics.
She broke into a run, and he ran after her. She was giggling up a storm, and a mischief that Brennan had never gotten to experience as a child, or ever, for that matter, shining brightly on her teenage features. She ran, until she reached a small, stone bridge, built over a small stream, where she leaned, panting and flushed, against the railing. Brennan laughed as he did the same. He looked down at the cool stone, tracing it lightly with his fingertips. He knew this bridge; it marked the center of the park.
He looked around him, surprised they had come this far. "We're in the middle of the park."
She also looked around. "Uh, yeah, I guess we are. So?" She gave him an odd look.
"How'd we get here?" he blinked, a little disoriented.
"Um...we walked?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you ok?"
He looked down at the stream running underneath the bridge. He traced the lines of the bricks. "Fine..." he said distractedly. He KNEW this place... He hadn't been here in years...but he knew it. "I'm fine," he repeated, as if reassuring himself more than the girl.
* * * * * * * *
Brennan waited not-so-patiently for the weird girl to wake up. He would just retrieve his blasted keys and go HOME. The girl was on the couch, snoring away. He looked at her and sighed. She was going to have one Hell of a hangover when she woke up. Sighing once again in extreme frustration, he got up and headed for the kitchen. One of the things he had learned from his alcoholic father, and even from Jay, who once in awhile had gotten totally plastered, was how to make the best hangover cures. He raided her fridge and got out the ingredients for his own personal cure, dubbed simply a 'scrub'. [2] Just as he was finishing he heard a groan coming from the general direction of the couch.
Remembering last night and the way she had stolen his keys, he gritted his teeth and told himself over and over that she had been trashed and hadn't been herself. He made his way over to the couch where she was curled, eyes tight shut.
He shoved the drink in her hand. She looked up in surprise. "Drink," he ordered gruffly. He plopped in an overstuffed armchair across from her. "If it tastes like raw eggs and salad dressing, you're drinking it too slowly."
She was still staring at him, her mouth a little 'o'. Then she looked disgusted. "There's raw eggs and salad dressing in this?!" She looked at her still-full glass. Her voice rose as she said, "I am SO not drinking ANYTHING...owww..." She stopped and put a hand to her temple as she decided shouting wasn't a good idea at the moment.
"It doesn't have raw eggs or salad dressing," he said steelily. "And I don't feel like watching you puke all morning, so drink it."
"But you said..."
"I said if it TASTES like it. Now drink."
With a sigh, she pinched her nose and downed the stuff. She gagged and coughed. "Nasty!"
"Most hang-over cures are."
She looked at him. "Look...um...This is so embarrassing... Um, did we do, you know, ANYTHING last night?"
Brennan felt his face get hot. "NO!" he denied vehemently, blushing to his roots. [3]
She grinned at his flustered-ness. "Um...then who are you?"
Brennan managed to get his blush under control. "Look, just give me my keys back and I'll be outa your hair."
"Keys?" He got a blank look.
Brennan felt like ganging his head against the wall. "Yes. Keys. People use them to unlock things. Like the one on my key ring. Which you took from me." All this he said slowly and deliberately, as if she was stupid.
Maybe that was because he thought that she was a complete moron. [4]
She shot him a dirty look. "Why would I take your stupid keys?" she snapped irritably at him.
"You said that I was too drunk to drive home."
"Sensible of me," she muttered.
"Of course, I TRIED to tell you that I'd only had one glass of rum and coke."
"Oh..."
"And that I had WALKED to the bar..."
"Ah..."
"And that the key on my ring was my HOUSE key, not my car key..."
"Whoops?"
"Yeah. Whoops. Now give 'em over," he demanded.
She blinked at him. "I don't remember what I did with them."
Oh, yes. He would bang his head against that well, that one right there.
Hard.
Really hard.
Until he lost consciousness. That would be good...
"Down your shirt," he gritted out. He was very proud of his self control.
"Oh!" And with that she started digging down the front of her shirt. She blinked and pulled the shirt away from her body and looked down it.
Brennan was on the verge of a nosebleed. Suddenly the floor became fascinating. Oh, look! A piece of lint!
The girl cleared her throat slightly, causing him to look up. She looked a little sheepish. "It would appear that I have lost your keys."
Blink.
Blink, blink.
Lost.
She had LOST his keys.
He would slam his head over and over. He hoped he made a dent in her stupid wall. See, this would teach him to not keep a spare key. Right now he COULD be home being a threat to his OWN walls, but nooooo...
He let out a slow breath and rubbed his temples. "Do you like chicken? I do. I like it EXTRA crispy," he informed her, looking at his fingers calmly. He could just fry her right here and now.
No jury in the WORLD would convict him.
She had no clue what he was talking about of course, but Karlie was not as stupid as she seemed. She saw the look in Brennan's eye. "Ah...right... Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot here. I don't remember if I told you or not, but I'm Karlie. And you?"
Brennan was still eyeing his hands. "Brennan..." He dropped his hands and glared at her. "Now, since you've LOST my keys, I have to go try break into my apartment, if you DON'T mind."
"Look, Brennan, I'm sorry about that. But if you need to get into your apartment, I can help you with that. It's something I'm good at. It's the least I can do, ok?" She looked at him pleadingly.
Brennan thought this over. His alarm, dammit, was not one he could disarm with his power. It was a good one, a bitch to get around, which was why Jay had told him to get that kind. Thieves tend to know the alarms to deter the more amateurish thieves. And his breaking and entering skills were less than perfect...
Once again, she took his indecision as consent. "Great!" she chirped.
"Wait..." he protested weakly as she latched onto him and dragged him off. She, of course, ignored him.
Karlie turned out to be a veritable whirlwind of blonde-haired, blue-eyed energy. She somehow seemed to think she and Brennan were friends. So after helping him to break into his apartment, she stopped by regularly. She took his life by storm, and turned out to be a natural mother hen. When she found out that the young man was virtually living off coffee and the occasional take-out, she often came bearing vegetables. Her visits always left Brennan a little dazed.
As time passed, he adjusted himself to Karlie's...unique friendship. So, on a Sunday, when he was lounging languidly on the couch, when Karlie came busting through the door with a brown paper bag undoubtedly filled with things guaranteed to be green, he wasn't too surprised.
"Brenny!" [5] she chirped happily. She swept down and, though he tried to avoid it, hugged him and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Oh, sorry there, love, got some lipstick on you." She smeared the lipstick with her thumb.
He squirmed and scowled at her. "Quit it!"
"Make me," she smirked, ignoring his glare.
"Go AWAY!" he snapped. "The extent that I am not in the mood for your games today isn't even funny Karlie."
"Why, yes, I'm having a lovely day, thank you for asking!" she said cheerfully, ignoring him.
As usual.
"Karlie..." he said warningly.
"WHAT is up your butt today, Brenny?"
"Don't call me that!" he snapped irritably. "You KNOW I hate it!"
"Of course I do! Which is half of the fun of doing it, Brenny!" She patted his cheek affectionately. She laughed at his infuriated expression.
"I hate you right now," he sulked.
"I know you do, love," she said distractedly, heading for the kitchen to put the veggies in the crisper. "Did you eat yesterday?"
"Uh, does coffee count?"
"Brennan!"
"Karlie..."
"Don't you 'Karlie' ME, buster! You are gunna get sick if you keep this up! How do you expect to work? We have a JOB tonight, or have you forgotten?" She glared at him. "I did NOT get you into this business and train you to be one of the best there is so YOU could run yourself into the ground!" She jabbed her finger in his face. She shoved an apple at him. "Now EAT!" And with that she stalked back into the kitchen.
"Yes, MOTHER!" he called back to her. He bit into his apple as he heard Karlie slamming things around in the kitchen, a sure sign she was pissed with him.
Again.
That happened a lot actually...
By the determined way she was moving around his kitchen, he could tell she was making something. Probably for him. "Don't bother Karlie. I'm not hungry."
"I, young man, did not ASK whether you were hungry or not. You are already skin and bones and you WILL eat something. Or I will hurt you."
"Shut up."
"This is MY apartment. I can kick you out you know."
"Shut your mouth. Before I commence with the pain."
"I really don't like you."
"Really? Just awhile ago you said you hated me. Dislike is an improvement." She presented him with a large sandwich and carrot sticks. "Eat."
"Are you deaf? Is that the problem? Or do you just not listen? I. Am. Not. Hungry."
She glared at him. In a scolding tone, she admonished, "And I remember informing you that you did not have a choice. I may only be six years older than you, but that makes me six years more experienced than you and I happen to know for a fact that starving yourself to death is not healthy." She sniffed indignantly.
"Yes. Usually anything including the word 'death' isn't healthy," he snorted, rolling his eyes. "Look, I'm sorry I don't follow the food pyramid to perfection, ok?" When she just kept glaring at him he sighed and took a bite of his sandwich. "Happy now?"
Karlie beamed. "Ecstatic!" She patted his head and plopped down next to him and grabbed the remote off the arm of the couch and flipped on the TV. Brennan looked at the screen lazily and popped a carrot stick in his mouth.
"What're you watching?"
"Shhhh!" Her eyes were locked on the screen as she waved her hand at him irritably. "That's where we're hitting tonight. If you don't collapse of hunger first," she added, shooting him a stern look. Brennan quickly busied himself with his sandwich to avoid her glare. Then he focused on the TV. It was on Proxy Blue, who was talking about an auction. Normally, Proxy wouldn't even bother with something so trivial, but this was special circumstances. For one, all the items were worth upwards of a million bucks each. Two, almost all the bidders were all pretty heavy into illegal doings. Connections with the mob, and the way their enemies just 'disappeared', or they funded illegal operations.
As Brennan and Karlie watched the news report, Brennan's face became grave. "It's going to be a bitch to get in. Tell me why we took this job again?"
"Duh. It pays a shit load of money. Look, all we gotta get is the one item. Shouldn't be too hard, right?" She smirked a little at him.
"Yeah, right! It'll be a piece of cherry cheesecake!" he snapped.
"Cherry cheesecake?"
He shrugged. "I like cherry cheesecake. And anyway, YOU say rememberize and wonderfulicious. I can say, 'a piece of cherry cheesecake' if I want."
She rolled her eyes. "You are just a bundle of sunshine today! You ALWAYS get like this before a job. I didn't FORCE you to get into this business you know. It was YOUR decision. So stop sulking already!"
"Oh, like you coming here EVERYDAY and annoying me until I gave in had NOTHING to do with it, right? I'm SO sure." He scowled, glowering at the floor.
"Oh, stop your bitching. Thanks to me you are now one of the best in the business. But I still don't get why you insist on working alone. In most organizations that would cause a lot of trouble. There is no honor among thieves and all that bull. OTHER partners might not be so understanding." She raised an eyebrow at him, letting him digest that for a moment. "Normally, I would have something to say about that little superstition, peculiarity, idiosyncrasy, whatever the Hell it is, but for the fact that you are a GENIUS with electronics. If we had a few more that could disarm electrical stuff like you can I would be one HAPPY woman." She smirked. "But then again, if I had someone else with your talent, you could bet I'd dump you and your mood swings. Worse than a PMSing teenage girl, I swear to God..."
"Gee, thanks!" he drawled, his voice dripping in sarcasm. "I am SO glad that you think so VERY highly of me and my abilities. And as for why I work alone, that's my little secret, isn't it?" She just snorted and rolled her eyes and continued watching the news.
Little secret. His LITTLE secret. Like the fact that he could throw lightning from his hands was no big deal. He admitted that it did come in handy with electronics. It was easy to short-circuit them. Bypassing even delicate alarms proved to be absolutely no problem at all. Much to Karlie's delight. She didn't know of course. No one did, really. THAT was his not-so- little secret.
And if he had his way, a secret it would stay.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
[1] Want to know the sad thing? This is based on a contest I actually had with one of my friends... Only ours went on A LOT longer and was A LOT more immature.
[2] A scrub. A real hang-over cure. My brother's own personal one...and yes, it does really taste like raw eggs and salad dressing. Nasty stuff, that...
[3] Who here would PAY to see Brennan blush like a school girl? ::raises hand:: OOH! OOH! I WOULD!
[4] But who knows? It might have been for a totally DIFFERENT reason. ^__^
[5] Oh, come on! You know it's cute! And you KNOW it would annoy the HELL out of Brennan. Hehehehe.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Rockergurl: Ok, so, what did you all think? I like Karlie a lot... one of the first original characters that I DO like actually... hehehe.
Kitta Cat: That wouldn't be because she's mainly based on YOU would it?
Rockergurl: ::whistles innocently::
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
REVIEW RESPONSES:
QUEST: Ah... unfortunately there isn't a WHOLE lot of Bren/Shal, although there is more towards the end.
SARGE: Oh, well, if you COMAND it....
PETITECAT: Funny? Uh.... It's not really supposed to be... O__o
CHARMING KITTY CAT: Well, at least SOMEONE out there likes a mushy Brennan.
EMMA0211: Ehehehehe... there IS some in there, you just have to look REAL hard. Hehehe.
ACE: Surprise is the best part of any fic. If I told you what was going to happen, what would be the fun in that?
NOBLEBLUE: Karlie's a trip, ain't she? Hehehehe.
SUSAN: Again, this is mostly a Brennan story, not a romance. But there IS Bren/Shal!!
SCIFI CRITIC: Uh... What? No, you're not really making sense.... But this is a BRENNAN'S PAST FIC!! There will probably be more about BRENNAN'S PAST then his present.
ITALIANCHIKE: The guy in this story IS Brennan's stepfather.
SOMEBODY: Ok.