InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I was speaking French!"

Lyle Bennet (notlarry) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2012-03-15 23:04:00

Entry tags:

lyle bennet, noah bennet

WHO: Lyle Bennet & Noah Bennet
WHAT: Lyle stops by to check on how his Dad is dealing with Claire being gone.
WHEN: March 15th; Afternoon
WHERE: Noah's apartment
RATING: PG
STATUS: In Progress

Lyle Bennet could have easily been described by the people around him as the guy who didn't care about anything. Having lived the last few years of his life in what felt like a rather sadistically constructed comic book mockery only to be kidnapped to a different planet in a different galaxy in a different dimension of time and space, his tolerance for bullshit had been pushed to the maximum and then filled in right past that. But this was a situation that broke even that tolerance, which heaped onto him more unnecessary bullshit and blended it with a torrent of emotion that he just couldn't completely grasp and deal with. The first few days had been shock and denial, but now, he'd well progressed from that into holding onto the hope that one way or another, his sister would return.

Claire had always been the strong one, and he wasn't quite sure that he'd be able to get on in the world, this world, any world, without her there.

But even as hard a time as Lyle was having dealing with the fallout from Asaph's latest bit of fun, he couldn't help but imagine that his father had it even worse. Noah Bennet had always been the fixer, the man with a solution in any and all circumstances and obstacles that were thrown in his way, and to be completely powerless in the face of something that he'd desire to fix more than anything else in the world, Lyle could only hope that he hadn't completely broken yet in the face of defeat. Having seen his father immediately after it happened, neither of them completely sure what to say in the face of it, the comfort that had been offered had been the simple and supportive presence of another. But now, now, Lyle couldn't help but wonder if that had been enough.

And as he headed back to the apartments from his shift at the video store, he figured that it wouldn't hurt to check and see if his father was still holding himself together or not.

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morallygrey
2012-03-16 04:00 am UTC (link)

Ever since Nathan had informed him of Claire's death, Noah had been going practically non stop; either going to check on Lyle or Dean and the kids and he'd even resumed his classes, but the one thing he hadn't done since the day that Claire had been killed was sleep. Because if Noah tried to sleep then he'd have time to think and he couldn't do that, because all the thinking in the world couldn't fix this and that wasn't something he was used to. He was the one who was supposed to have a plan for everything, but he couldn't even protect his own daughter. He couldn't even count how many times Claire had died or almost died back home, but the difference was that each of those times he had known that she would heal or come back. Now however, he couldn't be sure that Asaph would bring her back this time.

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notlarry
2012-03-16 04:28 am UTC (link)

Raising his hand and knocking on the door to his Dad's apartment, Lyle didn't wait for an answer before reaching down and opening the door, poking his head inside, "I hope you don't mind, but I figured I'd pop in and see how you were doing," Lyle said as he slipped into the apartment and closed the door behind him. He wasn't really sure what he was going to find, but his father looking like death warmed over wasn't really what he'd expected. Nor was it at all encouraging to his hopes that his Dad was actually managing this in any constructive way.

"So?" Lyle started, suddenly feeling a little awkward. He really was so bad at stuff like this. "How are you?"

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morallygrey
2012-03-16 04:47 am UTC (link)

Noah had no been expecting anyone to come check on him, so when he heard the knock at the door, he'd jumped slightly, not that he was going to admit that to anyone else, and had been quite surprised to see Lyle poke his head in before his son entered the apartment completely. "Lyle." Noah gathered his papers together neatly as he watched his son, "I'm...how're you?" Standing up, Noah set the folder of papers aside, "Did you need something? I could have come over if you needed something." The only person Noah had admitted how he'd really felt since Claire had died was Ellen; to everyone else, he felt that he had to keep up a strong front with.

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notlarry
2012-03-16 05:37 am UTC (link)

Lyle probably should have been expecting that, for this to get turned back on him and for it to completely become about how he was while his father continued to ignore the situation beyond what he could do to help. There was part of Lyle that almost wanted to go with it, to let his father fuss and worry in order to block out any concerns about himself, but he knew that in the end, that wouldn't help either of them. Lyle was holding out hope that Claire would come back, that she would either be restored by Asaph or wake up on the slab in the clinic's morgue once powers kicked back in, but he also knew that there was always the possibility that she wouldn't return.

And having his Dad go on like this indefinitely if that turned out to be the case would kill him eventually. Claire wouldn't want that.

"Dad," Lyle finally chides, the statement a mix of a sigh and scolding, "I came here to talk about you, not me."

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morallygrey
2012-03-17 02:34 am UTC (link)

Noah wasn't used to anyone but Claire or Sandra worrying about him so Lyle being worried about him was something he wasn't used to. "Lyle, it's not your job to worry about me. And besides, I'm fine." He picked up his mug and brought it to his lips, but didn't drink as he watched his son; there was a part of him that wanted to admit how helpless he felt, but he had already lost one child and he had to do whatever he could to take care of Lyle and prevent something from happening to him and in order to do that he had to be the one in control. He couldn't allow himself the luxury of letting his true feelings out.

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notlarry
2012-03-23 11:17 pm UTC (link)

Fine. Lyle was old enough to know all too well that fine was not what you said when you were actually all right. However it was presented, people who had nothing wrong with them never actually used that word, preferring ones with less ambiguous context, and it was always people who were trying to cover over their own insecurities and issues who claimed to be fine. So Lyle's reaction to his father's assurances was to just stare, casting a long gaze over the parent that he was so used to having it all together, and sigh.

"I'm not thirteen anymore, Dad," Lyle said. "You don't have to protect me from things like you used to."

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