"If you want something, always be ready to fight for it."
That was the first and most important lesson Richard's mother ever taught him.
Not a typical moral to teach one's child, but understandable considering she herself had learned it the hard way.
He had no memories of his father; the man had walked out on him and his mother when Richard was barely a few months old. His mother barely spoke of him, and the rare passing comment about the man was always expressed with disdain and contempt. Any pictures she might have owned of her former husband had long since been destroyed.
Her family's vocal disapproval of her husband hadn't vanished even after he abandoned her; in their eyes, her situation was karmic justice for falling in love with a man like him.
She'd tried exactly once to return home and ask them for help.
That had been the last time she ever spoke to them.
It would have been so very easy for his mother to give in to despair; to take her own life and abandon Richard as well, or otherwise relinquish custody of him and leave him at the mercy of the foster system.
But Annie Miller was a stubborn woman, and the word "surrender" didn't exist in her vocabulary.
Against all odds, she'd raised Richard by herself with virtually no support system.
It hadn't been easy, for a young single mother with an incomplete education (she'd dropped out of college to marry Richard's father), but Annie had been determined to give Richard a better life than the one she now had.
She'd worked several jobs to make ends meet — a secretary in an office, a convenience store cashier, and even a bartender once Richard was old enough to be left alone at night, among other jobs.
The run–down apartment she and Richard lived in was tiny and cramped, with heating that didn't work properly half the time. But she did her best to keep it clean and cosy, dusting meticulously and scrubbing until the place was spotless.
She'd worked out an arrangement with their next–door neighbour Eloise. A kind older woman, she'd been widowed for many years, and her children were all grown–up and too busy with their own lives and families to visit their aged mother.
Eloise was sympathetic towards Annie's situation, and so she agreed to watch Richard during the day while Annie was at work. In exchange, Annie cleaned her apartment every week and helped her with other chores like groceries and laundry.
Truthfully, it wasn't a particularly fair arrangement, at least in Annie's eyes. She'd been prepared to stretch her budget to the limit to arrange for some form of childcare for Richard during the day; a full–time babysitter was out of the question, but surely there had to be a childcare centre with subsidised rates or something?
And yet, her neighbour, a passing acquaintance at best, was freely offering to help ease her burden and look after her son, and asking for so little in return.
At first, she felt somewhat ashamed at taking advantage of her elderly neighbour's generosity, but Eloise had been the one making the offer in the first place, and it was obvious that she was both lonely and grateful for Annie's company.
And so, Annie swallowed her pride, thanked Eloise for her help, and accepted the occasional gifts of chocolate chip cookies and brownies and other baked goods that Eloise made ("Nonsense dearie, it's my pleasure. I haven't had anyone to bake for in years, can you imagine? Now eat up, you look like you haven't eaten all day!").
(Biting into the warm, gooey, homemade cookies and tasting the love and care that had gone into them, Annie involuntarily closed her eyes, overwhelmed by a sudden rush of nostalgia.
Bittersweet memories filtered into her mind as she thought back to a childhood of warmth and laughter… Of skinning her knees as she learned to ride her bike and having them bandaged up with love… Staying indoors on rainy afternoons and curling up with a blanket and a book and a plate of her mother's chocolate chip cookies, fresh out of the oven…
And then she remembered her mother's sneer as she threw Annie and Richard out and threatened to call the police if they returned, slamming the door in their faces, and all her fond childhood memories instantly turned to ash.
The sunny days of her childhood were long gone, and there were endless turbulent storms ahead of her.
But she had Richard to think of, and Eloise's gentle warmth at her side, and so she fiercely blinked back her tears and smiled at Eloise and thanked her, taking another bite of her cookie.
Eloise's cookies tasted better than her mother's ever had, she decided.)
(The first lesson Annie taught Richard was to fight for himself, but the second thing she taught him was to trust in the kindness of those who offered it, and be kind to them in return.)
Regardless of how tight money was for them, Richard's well–being was always Annie's biggest priority. And if that meant going hungry sometimes so that her son had enough to eat, or wearing second–hand clothes from thrift stores and mending them over and over until her fingers bled raw, then so be it.
It pained her to see Richard coming back with bruises and scrapes from fighting with bullies who taunted him about his lack of a father, or his old, well–mended clothing.
She fixed up his wounds each time, telling him that he should just keep his head down and not get into fights with them.
"But Ma, they were saying all sorts of horrible things about you!" He protested. "I couldn't let them keep saying it!"
And Annie found that despite herself, she couldn't scold him as much as she should have.
All the same, she told him that it didn't matter so much what others said about her, or about him.
The most important thing was for him to study hard, get good grades, and make a better life for himself.
Richard listened to her and studied hard, but at the same time, he kept getting into fights to defend Annie's honour.
Despite his young age, he was a fighter through and through, just like his mother, and Annie found herself feeling both proud of him and worried for his well–being.
When Richard was 14, Eloise passed away.
Richard and Annie were the only people to attend her funeral; her children and their families hadn't bothered to show up at all.
The big surprise came when a lawyer showed up at Richard and Annie's doorstep.
Apparently, Eloise had been far wealthier than she'd let on. And with the way her family had essentially abandoned her, she'd ended up leaving all her money to Richard and Annie.
It was a godsend, one which Annie was determined not to take for granted.
They didn't move to a new place (their apartment had long since seemed like home), though they did fix up the broken heating and other repairs that were needed.
They were able to eat better, and Richard had better clothes (though he was still careful not to wear them out too much).
The one thing Annie splurged on was a car for Richard once he turned 16; not a brand–new one, but a pretty nice second–hand red sports car (some rich kid who hadn't liked the car was selling it to buy a new one).
Things seemed to be looking up for them for a while.
And then, when Richard was 17, Annie fell ill.
She thought it was just a cold at first. But when she continued to feel under the weather for weeks thereafter, Richard insisted on taking her to the doctor.
Late–stage breast cancer.
The money Eloise had left them was enough for Annie to be hospitalised and undergo chemotherapy and other treatments at the hospital.
Richard visited her every day. He was now juggling his studies and working a part–time job to ensure they didn't just rely on the money they still had for Annie's treatments.
But when several rounds of treatment failed to help and Annie just grew weaker, the doctors pronounced her cancer incurable.
Not wanting his mother to die in the hospital, Richard ended up dropping out of high school (with only a year to go till he graduated) despite Annie's protests to look after her at home.
On her deathbed, Annie pulled Richard close and told him how proud of him she was, and that she wanted him to live a wonderful life on her behalf.
Richard promised to do his best, and Annie passed on with a smile on her face.
Thereafter, Richard enlisted in the Marines, desiring a change of pace.
His life changed a lot after that, from him becoming a fantastic sniper to being deployed to Iraq.
But the most important part was probably the man (a secret agent, Richard suspected, though he had no proof) who was attached to his unit in Iraq for some top–secret mission.
His name was John Winterson, and he had blonde hair and piercing green eyes.
Richard's unit was ordered to support John on his classified assignment, which basically meant watching his back. As the unit's sniper, Richard ended up becoming far closer to John than everybody else.
Something must have gone wrong with John's mission, because at the end of his unit's tour to Iraq, all of them were reassigned to different units, except for Richard, who had been honourably discharged for vague reasons instead.
He had drifted aimlessly for a while after that, taking part–time jobs to survive.
And then, John had found him again, this time with a job offer, the likes of which Richard had never had before.
Soon, John would be known as the Director of a new organisation known as the VSSE, and Richard its first–ever agent.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Notes:
1. I'm not sure if the car Richard drives in TC1's Special Mission Mode and Project Titan is actually a sports car (I'm very much not a car person). But I'm gonna just refer to it as a sports car since I already called it that in How to Tame a Wolf and Apocalypse. Might as well be consistent about it.
2. The bit about Richard's history with the Director and eventual recruitment to the VSSE is elaborated on slightly (though not by *that* much) in Temporal Fates Chapter 29.
The reason I didn't write more about it here is partly because I wrote Temporal Fates Chapter 29 before writing this and didn't want to repeat myself, and also partly because this story was mostly about Richard's childhood and him growing up. The bit about him being in the Marines is sort of a postscript to everything.