White Collar Fic - Hope For the Future
Dec. 1st, 2013 05:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elrhiarhodanTitle: Hope For the Future
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elrhiarhodan
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Mozzie, Diana Berrigan, Theo Berrigan, Reese Hughes
Word Count: ~1600
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Beta Credit:miri_thompson
Summary: Mozzie is delighted to spend the day with his little namesake, Theo Berrigan, and they go for a walk in the park. Mozzie’s brother joins them. A light-hearted addition to my Unusual Relations series that started with Kinship Analysis and continued in Old Haunts.
Author’s Note: Written for the fifth night of Fic-Can-Ukah for my friend,algeiban. Her prompt was "The World Before You Were Born" and she simply let it be ‘writer’s choice.’ The title is from a quotation by Nelson Mandela, Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.
__________________
Moz arrived at the She-Eagle’s nest at the appointed time. Not a minute early, not a minute late.
Diana was very precise in her instructions: “Theo has just gone down for his nap. When he wakes up, you will need to give him a bottle.”
Moz opened his mouth to comment about his lactose intolerance, but the martial look in Diana’s eye stopped him cold. “It’s breast milk, so no diatribes about formula or cow’s milk or the maternal-industrial complex, okay?”
He nodded and tried not to think about the She-Eagle hooked up to a pump. He tried not to look at the area of her body that would be hooked up to that pump. He really tried, but failed miserably.
Dana’s tone softened. “Look, it’s no big deal. Stick the bottle in the microwave for thirty-second intervals until it’s warm, but not hot. Theo will drink as much as he can, but don’t worry if he doesn’t finish all of it. He’s healthy and at the perfect weight for his age.”
“Okay – and afterwards?”
“It’s a nice day, if you want to take Theo out, you can.” Diana sighed. “I guess it’s too much to ask you to avoid some of your regular criminal haunts and associates?”
Moz tried to summon a little bit of outrage, but just sighed instead. “We will go to the park and I will tell this young man all about the world before he was born.”
“Just go light on the conspiracy theories, Moz.”
“Look, you’ve told me to avoid my friends, stay away from my usual places, now you’re trying to control my dialogue with the boy? You are becoming an uber-suit, Suit – repression is the first tool in the dictator’s arsenal.”
“Moz – it’s not too late for me to call Theo’s usual babysitter.”
“Threats will …” From the determined glint in her eye, the She-Eagle wasn’t making idle threats. It had taken him months of pleading and persuading to get her to agree to leave the eaglet with him. “Ensure compliance.”
Diana nodded. “You have my cell phone and here are all of the emergency contact numbers. When you go out, he should be covered with a light blanket and a hat. Make sure …” Diana ran through a litany of instructions and Moz, to his credit, paid attention. It was one of the side effects of an eidetic memory. He couldn’t completely filter out what his brain deemed necessary information.
She stood there, look from him, to a door decorated with little blue zoo animals (a gift from Neal), until Moz was ready to shove her out the door. “Don’t you have an appointment to go to?”
“Ah, yeah.” She looked back, torn between her spawn and the needs of – , well, whatever was taking her away from the eaglet. “Call me if you need anything.”
“Go, go – I’ve taken care of many a small human before, and they’ve all thrived.”
Diana picked up her purse, nodded like she really meant to leave, and Moz gently steered her to the door. “The sooner you leave, the quicker you can come back.”
The She-Eagle finally made it out the door and Moz watched her departure from the front window.
It was a nice day. Too nice to be spent cooped up in an apartment.
As if on cue, the baby monitor crackled with sound and Moz set a bottle of breast milk to warm. Yes, it was all natural and perfectly fine, but he still shuddered and tried not to think on where it came from. He retrieved little Theo from his pale blue nest, made a mental note to chide Neal about inadvertently reinforcing gender stereotypes, and sat with the baby in an all-too comfortable rocking chair, one of his many gifts to his namesake.
Theo sucked with great enthusiasm and Moz found himself smiling. Some of the best memories of his childhood were taking care of the little ones. Mr. Jeffries might have taught him how to live, his experiences on the streets of Detroit might have taught him how to survive, but it was holding a small, helpless child, dependent upon him for everything, that taught him compassion.
Holding his namesake, feeding him, caring for him, knowing that his existence in this world depended on his own living, breathing self, reinforced the truth that compassion was the most important of all those skills he learned as an orphan in that gritty, decaying group home. Theo Berrigan would learn those lessons, but never the hard way, not like he did. Moz (and the She-Eagle, that’s for certain) would make sure of that.
The baby finished his bottle, gave a loud and satisfying burp, and smiled at his papoose.
“You want to go out? You want your Uncle Mozzie to take you out to the park? You want to go for a stroll and say hello to the world?”
Of course Theo didn’t understand a word he was saying despite his brilliance, but he babbled and clapped and flailed his body in excitement at Mozzie’s sing-song nonsense.
Moz bundled him up, per Diana’s instructions, made sure he had the key (which wasn’t necessary since the locks were laughably easy to pick), and took him to the park. It was, after all, almost time for the meeting he’d set up.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Almost ten months after getting the results of his kinship analysis back, Reese was still in shock. Of all the people in this world that he could possibly be related to, Mozzie or whatever his name was, seemed the most unlikely choice for brother.
And yet, somehow, that choice was the most perfect one after all.
Reese checked his watch, it was a quarter to, almost time to meet his brother. He laughed to himself – there was something so satisfying about those words, his brother. Wasn’t there that ancient curse, ‘may you get what you wish for’? He’d wished for the knowledge almost all of his adult life, and even though that wish had been granted, he didn’t consider himself cursed at all.
Moz might be a criminal (and Reese knew a lot more about the man’s past than was probably wise), he might be paranoid and even a bit delusional, but he had a good heart and an almost endless well of compassion. Reese often wondered, if their positions had been reversed – if he’d been the one left on the orphanage steps left to struggle and fight to survive – if he’d have retained any capacity for joy. That moment, in Caffrey’s apartment, when the man embraced him and called him “brother,” still had the ability to make him weep.
Which was why he was willing to indulge Moz in these games. He’d gotten a text this morning - several stanzas of haiku - suggesting a meeting at this park. If today was convenient, then he was to wear a scarlet tie with socks to match. He’d need to sit at the bench nearest the fountain, the one at the three o’clock if you were facing magnetic north, with his right leg crossed over his left, displaying the scarlet socks.
Of course, he didn’t own any such thing, but that was easy enough to fix. Reese didn’t want the meeting cancelled if he showed up without the requisite hosiery. Red socks in his size were surprisingly difficult to find, but he persevered and if they weren’t exactly the same shade as his neckwear, they were - as the old expression went - good enough for government work.
At the appointed time, he arrived at the park and made his way towards the fountain. It would have been easy enough to figure out magnetic north (there were apps for that), but he didn’t have to. Mozzie was already there, and he wasn’t alone.
Reese smiled, as delighted to see his brother’s compatriot as he was to see his brother.
Mozzie was so absorbed with the baby, telling him a story, that he didn’t hear Reese approach.
“And in 1981, the Bilderberg Society, together with the Council on Foreign Affairs and the Freemasons replaced the President with their puppet. These shadow powers had been working on various plans and schemes to get the duplicate into place for generations. It wasn’t until the assassination of John F. Kennedy that they realized that this was the best way to accomplish that goal. The Bilderbergs has been working on a different variation, but the Freemasons put their money on Hinkley and that bet paid off. Just sixty-one days after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, the engineered ‘assassination’ attempt paid off, and the man that the American people elected was replaced with a look-alike who did exactly what those secret societies wanted, when they wanted and how they wanted. The world has never been the same.”
Reese sat down next to Moz after he finished that extraordinary tale. His brother gave him a look. “What? You don’t believe me?”
“Oh, I believe you, except it didn’t happen quite like that. Ronald Reagan was replaced with a duplicate on the day of his inauguration. I should know, I was there.” He took Theo from Mozzie and bounced the little boy on his knee, delighted to have rendered his brother speechless.
FIN
Author:
elrhiarhodanFandom: White Collar
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Mozzie, Diana Berrigan, Theo Berrigan, Reese Hughes
Word Count: ~1600
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Beta Credit:
miri_thompsonSummary: Mozzie is delighted to spend the day with his little namesake, Theo Berrigan, and they go for a walk in the park. Mozzie’s brother joins them. A light-hearted addition to my Unusual Relations series that started with Kinship Analysis and continued in Old Haunts.
Author’s Note: Written for the fifth night of Fic-Can-Ukah for my friend,
algeiban. Her prompt was "The World Before You Were Born" and she simply let it be ‘writer’s choice.’ The title is from a quotation by Nelson Mandela, Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.Moz arrived at the She-Eagle’s nest at the appointed time. Not a minute early, not a minute late.
Diana was very precise in her instructions: “Theo has just gone down for his nap. When he wakes up, you will need to give him a bottle.”
Moz opened his mouth to comment about his lactose intolerance, but the martial look in Diana’s eye stopped him cold. “It’s breast milk, so no diatribes about formula or cow’s milk or the maternal-industrial complex, okay?”
He nodded and tried not to think about the She-Eagle hooked up to a pump. He tried not to look at the area of her body that would be hooked up to that pump. He really tried, but failed miserably.
Dana’s tone softened. “Look, it’s no big deal. Stick the bottle in the microwave for thirty-second intervals until it’s warm, but not hot. Theo will drink as much as he can, but don’t worry if he doesn’t finish all of it. He’s healthy and at the perfect weight for his age.”
“Okay – and afterwards?”
“It’s a nice day, if you want to take Theo out, you can.” Diana sighed. “I guess it’s too much to ask you to avoid some of your regular criminal haunts and associates?”
Moz tried to summon a little bit of outrage, but just sighed instead. “We will go to the park and I will tell this young man all about the world before he was born.”
“Just go light on the conspiracy theories, Moz.”
“Look, you’ve told me to avoid my friends, stay away from my usual places, now you’re trying to control my dialogue with the boy? You are becoming an uber-suit, Suit – repression is the first tool in the dictator’s arsenal.”
“Moz – it’s not too late for me to call Theo’s usual babysitter.”
“Threats will …” From the determined glint in her eye, the She-Eagle wasn’t making idle threats. It had taken him months of pleading and persuading to get her to agree to leave the eaglet with him. “Ensure compliance.”
Diana nodded. “You have my cell phone and here are all of the emergency contact numbers. When you go out, he should be covered with a light blanket and a hat. Make sure …” Diana ran through a litany of instructions and Moz, to his credit, paid attention. It was one of the side effects of an eidetic memory. He couldn’t completely filter out what his brain deemed necessary information.
She stood there, look from him, to a door decorated with little blue zoo animals (a gift from Neal), until Moz was ready to shove her out the door. “Don’t you have an appointment to go to?”
“Ah, yeah.” She looked back, torn between her spawn and the needs of – , well, whatever was taking her away from the eaglet. “Call me if you need anything.”
“Go, go – I’ve taken care of many a small human before, and they’ve all thrived.”
Diana picked up her purse, nodded like she really meant to leave, and Moz gently steered her to the door. “The sooner you leave, the quicker you can come back.”
The She-Eagle finally made it out the door and Moz watched her departure from the front window.
It was a nice day. Too nice to be spent cooped up in an apartment.
As if on cue, the baby monitor crackled with sound and Moz set a bottle of breast milk to warm. Yes, it was all natural and perfectly fine, but he still shuddered and tried not to think on where it came from. He retrieved little Theo from his pale blue nest, made a mental note to chide Neal about inadvertently reinforcing gender stereotypes, and sat with the baby in an all-too comfortable rocking chair, one of his many gifts to his namesake.
Theo sucked with great enthusiasm and Moz found himself smiling. Some of the best memories of his childhood were taking care of the little ones. Mr. Jeffries might have taught him how to live, his experiences on the streets of Detroit might have taught him how to survive, but it was holding a small, helpless child, dependent upon him for everything, that taught him compassion.
Holding his namesake, feeding him, caring for him, knowing that his existence in this world depended on his own living, breathing self, reinforced the truth that compassion was the most important of all those skills he learned as an orphan in that gritty, decaying group home. Theo Berrigan would learn those lessons, but never the hard way, not like he did. Moz (and the She-Eagle, that’s for certain) would make sure of that.
The baby finished his bottle, gave a loud and satisfying burp, and smiled at his papoose.
“You want to go out? You want your Uncle Mozzie to take you out to the park? You want to go for a stroll and say hello to the world?”
Of course Theo didn’t understand a word he was saying despite his brilliance, but he babbled and clapped and flailed his body in excitement at Mozzie’s sing-song nonsense.
Moz bundled him up, per Diana’s instructions, made sure he had the key (which wasn’t necessary since the locks were laughably easy to pick), and took him to the park. It was, after all, almost time for the meeting he’d set up.
Almost ten months after getting the results of his kinship analysis back, Reese was still in shock. Of all the people in this world that he could possibly be related to, Mozzie or whatever his name was, seemed the most unlikely choice for brother.
And yet, somehow, that choice was the most perfect one after all.
Reese checked his watch, it was a quarter to, almost time to meet his brother. He laughed to himself – there was something so satisfying about those words, his brother. Wasn’t there that ancient curse, ‘may you get what you wish for’? He’d wished for the knowledge almost all of his adult life, and even though that wish had been granted, he didn’t consider himself cursed at all.
Moz might be a criminal (and Reese knew a lot more about the man’s past than was probably wise), he might be paranoid and even a bit delusional, but he had a good heart and an almost endless well of compassion. Reese often wondered, if their positions had been reversed – if he’d been the one left on the orphanage steps left to struggle and fight to survive – if he’d have retained any capacity for joy. That moment, in Caffrey’s apartment, when the man embraced him and called him “brother,” still had the ability to make him weep.
Which was why he was willing to indulge Moz in these games. He’d gotten a text this morning - several stanzas of haiku - suggesting a meeting at this park. If today was convenient, then he was to wear a scarlet tie with socks to match. He’d need to sit at the bench nearest the fountain, the one at the three o’clock if you were facing magnetic north, with his right leg crossed over his left, displaying the scarlet socks.
Of course, he didn’t own any such thing, but that was easy enough to fix. Reese didn’t want the meeting cancelled if he showed up without the requisite hosiery. Red socks in his size were surprisingly difficult to find, but he persevered and if they weren’t exactly the same shade as his neckwear, they were - as the old expression went - good enough for government work.
At the appointed time, he arrived at the park and made his way towards the fountain. It would have been easy enough to figure out magnetic north (there were apps for that), but he didn’t have to. Mozzie was already there, and he wasn’t alone.
Reese smiled, as delighted to see his brother’s compatriot as he was to see his brother.
Mozzie was so absorbed with the baby, telling him a story, that he didn’t hear Reese approach.
“And in 1981, the Bilderberg Society, together with the Council on Foreign Affairs and the Freemasons replaced the President with their puppet. These shadow powers had been working on various plans and schemes to get the duplicate into place for generations. It wasn’t until the assassination of John F. Kennedy that they realized that this was the best way to accomplish that goal. The Bilderbergs has been working on a different variation, but the Freemasons put their money on Hinkley and that bet paid off. Just sixty-one days after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, the engineered ‘assassination’ attempt paid off, and the man that the American people elected was replaced with a look-alike who did exactly what those secret societies wanted, when they wanted and how they wanted. The world has never been the same.”
Reese sat down next to Moz after he finished that extraordinary tale. His brother gave him a look. “What? You don’t believe me?”
“Oh, I believe you, except it didn’t happen quite like that. Ronald Reagan was replaced with a duplicate on the day of his inauguration. I should know, I was there.” He took Theo from Mozzie and bounced the little boy on his knee, delighted to have rendered his brother speechless.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-12-01 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-02 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-01 11:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-02 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-01 11:59 pm (UTC)And the touching 'what if' they had lived each other's lives. It's those little switches of emotion throughout your stories that I enjoy so much.
Thank you.
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Date: 2013-12-02 04:33 pm (UTC)And yes, I am definitely convinced that Reese takes special pleasure in playing along with Moz's games. It's such a small thing to do - and having a family at last makes it all worth it.
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Date: 2013-12-02 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-02 04:35 pm (UTC)Don't know if it's just Safari, having a lot of trouble getting any page on LJ to load and usually have to do a page refresh.
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Date: 2013-12-02 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-02 04:37 pm (UTC)I have almost too many story ideas for Moz and Reese, they keep crossing over 'verses. Like Moz taking Reese up to Michael and Margaret's one weekend to watch the alpacas.
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Date: 2013-12-02 01:36 am (UTC)“Threats will …” From the determined glint in her eye, the She-Eagle wasn’t making idle threats. It had taken him months of pleading and persuading to get her to agree to leave the eaglet with him. “Ensure compliance.”
I can absolutely see and hear Mozzie saying that line--perfect. And I love Hughes with the conspiracy theory.
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Date: 2013-12-02 04:39 pm (UTC)Moz and Lady Suit (aka the She-Eagle) have a very good working relationship. Moz does whatever she says, immediately. Because he wants to live.
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Date: 2013-12-02 03:49 am (UTC)It's great to see Mozzie and Hughes as family.
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Date: 2013-12-02 04:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-02 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-02 04:49 pm (UTC)I love the interactions between Moz and Diana in canon, he tries to be so tough and she completely cows him, so it's fun to play with that in fic.
And Reese will probably do anything, short of overt criminal activity, to please his brother.
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Date: 2013-12-02 10:10 am (UTC)Heee, the interactions between Moz and Di are priceless, although I do love the fact that she lets Moz babysit :D
But yay for Reese! Heeeeeeee, of course he would play along, and of course he would be able to render Moz speechless, heeeeeeeee :D
Awww, perfect ♥ Thank you :D
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Date: 2013-12-02 04:52 pm (UTC)I do really adore creating Moz and Diana scenarios. Some of my favorite bits from the epic "We Shall Come Home" are the scenes between those two.
And yes, I do think that Reese, having finally found his brother, will go to the ends of the earth, to make him happy.
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Date: 2013-12-02 10:55 am (UTC)Idea that Hughes would seek the red socks just to please Mozzie sooo funny, and rendering Moz speechless was absolutely perfect ending.
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Date: 2013-12-02 04:54 pm (UTC)I have so very many ideas for the two of them, and yes, Reese doesn't really mind humoring his brother. He's had so much and I think that he feels a bit guilty, so as long as it doesn't require an overt criminal act, he's kind of cool with playing along.
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Date: 2013-12-02 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-26 07:47 pm (UTC)Thank you so very much - I love the combination of Moz + Diana and Moz + Hughes. And speechless Moz is the best, isn't it?
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Date: 2013-12-02 07:10 pm (UTC)Mozzie and Diana, Mozzie with Theo and Moz and Hughes as brothers - three of my favorites in one story. So sweet, with so much lovely humor.
Love it!
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Date: 2013-12-26 07:24 pm (UTC)And my apologies - it's been a busy month and I'm catching up on my feedback (expect many more replies in the coming days).
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Date: 2013-12-02 07:23 pm (UTC)And this? He’d gotten a text this morning - several stanzas of haiku - suggesting a meeting at this park. If today was convenient, then he was to wear a scarlet tie with socks to match. He’d need to sit at the bench nearest the fountain, the one at the three o’clock if you were facing magnetic north, with his right leg crossed over his left, displaying the scarlet socks. Reminds me of poor Peter and his newspaper in S2. Ah, Moz! ♥
(and if I get "no data" one more time, I will stop trying to post feedback... *shakes fist*)
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Date: 2013-12-26 07:23 pm (UTC)Thank you so very much, libeling. So delighted that you liked this. I think (hope) we will see Moz and baby Theo at play in the near-ish future.
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Date: 2013-12-02 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-26 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-03 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-26 07:21 pm (UTC)My apologies for the late reply.
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Date: 2013-12-03 05:25 pm (UTC)This is perfect: Diana's litany of warnings, Mozzie's skill with small children, Reese's toleration of Mozzie's eccentricity.
I love the ending. There are depths in Reese well hidden by that stern exterior. I suspect he enjoys following Mozzie's complicated instructions more than he'll ever admit.
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Date: 2013-12-26 07:19 pm (UTC)Thank you so very much. Reese Hughes is one of my all-time favorite characters. There's so much depth there - warmth hidden behind the gruff exterior. And as someone who was a spy for real, he'd take great delight in fostering Moz's harmless delusions.
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Date: 2013-12-26 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-05 01:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-26 07:16 pm (UTC)Thank you so much. I love combining silliness and pathos. Reese and Moz shouldn't work - but they do.