By Shikasta
Spoilers: Anything's fair game in my view although this is an AU
Disclaimer: The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. In laymen's terms: Don't own them but by god I wish I did.
A/N Well I don't know about you but I almost fell off my seat when I realised where this chapter was heading. Anyway I have to work fulltime for the next three days so don't abuse me if updates are a little slow. I'm lucky enough not to have to work 40 hour weeks but occasionally do have to go out there and do the boring stuff, trust me I would rather be attached to my computer typing the next update.
Italics = flashback
Chapter Six – Walking in Faith's ShoesOnce upon a time there lived a little girl in a house with a white picket fence. She was strong for her age her hair now chocolate brown from the dye, her eyes still mesmerizing all that looked upon her. This little girl was very special for both George and Mary had told her so but she already knew that.
She sat curled up in the bay window looking out on the street waiting for the fairy godmother that would take her away from this place. It wasn't a bad place but her heart knew she didn't belong. She lived inside her head where 452 was the one who gave her a hug, tucked her into bed and told her she loved her. Everyday she would watch the street before bed and then Mary would tuck her in and as the light went out one solitary little tear would trickle down her cheek for the mother who didn't come.
The sun would rise and Faith no longer had to wait for the noises to dictate her life. She had a new set of routines to follow, breakfast, school, play dates and bed. She arose from the soft bed that she didn't stop to make, no longer demanding perfection from the objects around her, no longer demanding perfection from herself. Her logic told her that perfection had been the cause of her misfortune and without it 452 would return. She only kept her doll, fondly named Hope in a pristine state for she was her only friend and new her deepest darkest secrets.
Faith looked at herself in the mirror before brushing her teeth, she didn't look like herself anymore and thought that that may be the reason 452 hadn't come. Sometimes she thought she may have been forgotten, and other times she questioned 452's existence. This little girl could no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality because she had intermingled the two. Her mother had said she was strong, and her fantasies had helped her survive.
She walked downstairs to breakfast, and as always would silently eat while George read the newspaper and Mary packed her school lunch. She rarely talked to them anymore but she observed them continuously for assimilation into enemy territory meant you had to understand your enemy. She would do little things to annoy them like slurp the milk off her spoon, she had thought if she annoyed them enough they would give her back to 452.
"Stop slurping" George reprimanded.
"George don't shout at her," Mary pleaded.
"I'm not shouting, every morning she slurps her milk and every morning I tell her to stop and one day she will" then to Faith "won't you."
Faith's eyes swayed back and forth between George and Mary as the mini conversation occurred then she rose from her chair a little too mechanically picking up her bowl and placing it in the sink in the kitchen.
"I have to go to school," she announced.
"Faith, sweetheart, " Mary said picking up the little girl and seating her on the kitchen bench "your hair's a little untidy let me fix it for you."
"That's okay, I can do it myself" she responded shying from Mary's touch then sliding back onto the floor. She patted her hair down then grabbed the lunch that Mary had prepared and headed out the door to the school bus.
"She's very odd"
"George, please don't start this again"
"She's 5½ going on 20, she's not normal."
"We knew she was a special needs child when we agreed to take her."
"Special needs means mental deficiencies, she has an IQ off the chart which I might add she doesn't use at school. She certainly doesn't need us to take care of her, and don't forget the few black eyes she gave me when we first got her." George folded his paper.
"They said it would take time, it wasn't going to be happy families straight away." Mary began washing the dishes.
"Don't you ever wonder though?"
"Wonder what?"
"If what they told us was the truth."
"You and your conspiracy theories" she huffed.
"We didn't ask any questions Mary when that Colonel guy approached us."
"He was offering us the child we had longed for."
"We should have asked questions."
"Why, so our hopes would be shattered again." She screamed waving her soapy rubber gloves around.
"What if she has a mother out there looking for her?"
"She was an orphan."
"We don't know that." George insisted.
"She ours George."
"Why was it crucial that we move, have you ever even stopped to think about that."
"Drop it George," she whispered as she removed the gloves and made her way over to him "if someone was looking for her they would have found her by now."
"We've moved six times in the past three years Mary, I doubt anyone could find her, you've dyed her hair, you're thinking exactly what I'm thinking."
"And what's that George."
"She was stolen."
"She was an orphan that was abandoned at an orphanage whom the kind Colonel took under his protection and found her a loving family, us."
"And what happened to this kind Colonel, the one who was suppose to be checking in from time to time to see how she was adjusting."
"I really don't care" Mary looked at her watch "you'll be late for work."
George stood up to leave "you'd better start caring Mary because one day we may find ourselves in a situation that we could have avoided if we had simply not chosen to ignore the facts."
Mary kissed George's cheek and smiled "love you, and I even love your hair brained theories even if they are over the top."
"Maybe we should take her to a specialist."
"What type of specialist?"
"A shrink at least we could try and get her communicating more with us. Find out what keeps her so tight lipped." He muttered.
"She'll talk when she's good and ready, all we can do is love her."
"She doesn't make it easy."
"Nobody said raising a 5 year old was going to be easy George."
"I know, its just I'm raising her as my daughter yet I don't feel at all connected to her, she's a complete stranger to me."
"It'll get better" Mary reassured.
"I don't think it will" George remarked before finally leaving the house for the day.
Mary watched him go then sat down at the breakfast table resting her face in her hands, her guilt had been weighing heavily on her conscious this past year. At first she thought she could live with the deception, it was just a child, they were deserving and would make good parents. Now she knew what desperate lengths a mother would go to just to get her child back, because she genuinely loved Faith and would go to those lengths herself.
Faith caught the bus to school and sat behind the driver the way she always did. The other children didn't like her they would stare and point, stick their tongue out and call her names. At first she had lashed out but they didn't believe in disabling your enemy here and that first school didn't want her back. She remained below the radar allowing her intelligence to seep through just enough so it wouldn't arouse suspicion, so instead of graduating high school she had held herself back to grade three.
School was a routine for her, no new information was gained other than how to act in this place still so foreign to her. She would nod and answer enough questions to ensure the teacher did not take an interest in her. Faith's main motivation for coming to this learning facility was so she could use the computers at 5½ she was well on her way to becoming a hacking God. She would steal away to the library and for an hour everyday searched for reference of 452. She had been at this school for six months and for six months had come a little closer to finding her mother. This little girl had become inpatient and would no longer wait to be found.
At the end of the school day Faith would catch the bus home and apart from the play dates Mary would arrange was left to entertain herself. She would read as much as she could and whenever she could get the books. So today she walked to her bedroom, shut the door and curled up on her bed where she pulled out from under her pillow Pride and Prejudice and read it slowly preferring to savour the words, some books weren't meant to be speed-read. She would imagine that that was how her parents had met, 452 her mother and the father she knew only as charming and a great man. She understood where she came from but still preferred to call the dark haired lady 452, she wouldn't call her mummy until she was safely in her arms again.
The book was tucked back safely under her pillow and she took up vigil at the bay window, looking out into the fading light hoping to see the eyes of her mother sparkling back. She whispered to her doll "everything's going to be all right now Hope" and hugged her only friend close. Mary entered the room to tuck her in and give her a kiss and as the light went out Faith didn't shed a solitary tear tonight for she didn't need to.
Soon Faith would be escaping, her survival pack almost complete her research almost done. Faith had discovered what she was and now knew where to find her kind, now Faith's computer lessons were spent trying to hack into Seattle's computer network, she was going to send a message to 452.
TBC
