InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Stop eating the neighbors!""

Leon Vance (leon_vance) wrote in omega_reality,
@ 2012-10-02 08:28:00

Entry tags:

*complete, 2012 10, character: alexis castle, character: april kepner, character: brian kinney, character: bud hammond, character: claudia donovan, character: derek morgan, character: derek reese, character: dominic vail, character: douglas hammond, character: elaine barrish hammond, character: eliot spencer, character: emily prentiss, character: g callen, character: john connor, character: margaret barrish, character: marty deeks, character: nell jones, character: robert callen, character: sam hanna, character: savannah monroe, character: sean hanna, character: thomas hammond, character: tim riggins, character: travis marks, character: troy bolton, dead: eric beale, dead: jenna hanna, dead: leon vance, dead: mike renko, dead: nathan ford, dead: nick green, dead: sheldon cooper

RP: Decision time
Who: Everyone
Where: Dining Room
When: 0800, October 2, 2012
Summary: Leon shares some news

Leon waited for people to have breakfast. He wanted everyone's attention before finally starting the meeting that would change their lives once again, because this time it wasn't just moving to a different location, but changing the way they did things. Their covers would not about names, but about pretending to fit in a world that wasn't theirs while working their own agenda and hoping to succeed before a new attack.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if I might have your attetion. I'm sure you all understand why actions must be taken. While our job is to survive and find a way home, we can't let others with our powers destroy the people here. Only we have the knowledge and powers needed to stop them, or at least keep them in check. Last night, I had a meeting with President Allen, and she wants to reinstate ICIS." It was so much easier to hide behind names, titles, federal structures. Both sides were using them for their own purposes, Leon knew that, but at this point it was the best they could do to protect all involved.

"I agreed with her. We will be stationed at the base again. However, it won't be a full brigade. We will have instead a special troops battalion and support battalion. Each battallion will have its own Colonel and they will report to me. For those who don't know about military structure, the special troops battalion includes the MPs, a support platoon, a CBRN Reconnaissance Platoon, a Military Intelligence Company, Network Signal Company and Combat Engineer Company. While the support battallion includes a Distribution Company, Maintenance Company, Medical Company, two Infantry Platoons, one Cavarly RSTA and Fires Platoon, al Forward Support Companies. The MPs will run security through the base. Medical will still run the hospital. We will need the forward support company and the CBRN platoon to help out with the cleaning up at the WTC. However, that means that we have four platoons with capabilities of taking us out." He didn't want anyone to forget that little part.

"This move will mean that our lives will change radically. As some of you know, ICIS is a federal agency and as such we must work within an established framework of rules and titles. You will have official positions that might not reflect your real job. It also means that suddenly we have military answering to us and we need to deal with that." He turned to the two people who helped the most in the office. "Ms. Jones, Mr. Kinney, you will have planty of work, but they aren't going to be the only ones. Mr. Callen, Mr. Morgan, the President wants a more regulated agency, which means titles, dress codes. On the other hand, I have obtained some leeway on how to deal with arrivals. Not everyone will have to be a field agent, however that's something to be used very rarely and for good reason: disability, age. Again the fact that everyone will have to qualify doesn't mean that we need everyone in the field.

"For those you were here before, you will have backpay into your account. That's close to $90,000 for the year, minus all deductions. We'll need someone to make taxes, file it retroactively. Once we figure out what's left, I'd ask 10% from each of you to give to the new people. Also, you will need to decide what to do about marriage status. We'll need to create marriage licenses and birth certificates for the children for taxation purposes." He stopped for a moment, giving them time to assimilate everything. "These perks come with lots of strings attached, like the fact that we can never be safe. It's only an apparent safety that we have, and everyone should remember that. The reason I'm saying all of this is because while I told the President that ICIS will return, I am gving you the option to leave. Now, remember that our primary mission is to find every dimensional traveler. If you don't join us, you will have to stay off the grid. We'll provide new documents and even some money, but after that, you are on your own. If you pop up in any records, we will have to find you and bring you in for your own safety. If you chose to go, you can also find us at the base at a later time. The cover story will be very simple. While on the run, people were given the option of going off on their own. You heard ICIS was back, you returned. However, this is a one time deal. If you choose to stay, that's it. If you choose to go, you do it now. If you choose to come back, it's a one time thing. Unfortunately you don't have time to think, we need to close down this facility and try to be at the base by the end of the week, which gives us only a few days. I need to know now so that arrangements can be made. Also after we're done with this, I need to see all four leads. Training is done for the rest of the week. Ladies and gentlemen start pack things up, decide what you want to bring with you and what you'd like to have stored in case we have to run again.

"So does anyone want to leave?"

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hammond_tj
2012-09-29 08:44 pm UTC (link)

TJ had stood in the back, listening. He remembered the year that followed when this happened in their world, still at school at GW. The demonstrations had started on campus shortly after he gave up and left. But, he was too high at the time to really care much about what was happening. He'd watched on that day with the rest of the world, then gone to get high because it was all too much. Once the smoke cleared on the horizon, when most of his life at the moment had been on campus, it was easy to forget and try to get lost in the parties and drugs and sex, all the things they'd excused as life-affirming, but were really an escape from everything.

And he knew he couldn't help these people. Even if he had wanted to, he wasn't that guy. He wasn't the guy who helped or thought of others. He wasn't the guy who did anything unless it was to garner his parents' approval or to piss them off. Travis hadn't been wrong, even if TJ wouldn't admit it. The idea of being someone on his own, not having to answer to those expectations was a dream. But, not one he had ever been able to try for.

Only, now, he might have that chance.

If he was strong enough to take it.

He didn't really give a damn what these people thought of him. He didn't owe them anything and he hadn't volunteered to join up with them in the first place. The only ones he felt enough remorse at leaving behind that it might change his mind, were Doug and Nana. No matter what he did, his parents would find fault. But, he'd never not had contact with his brother. Even when he was avoiding his parents, he'd never ignored Doug's calls. And Nana wouldn't understand, period. She still believed he could get better with his family easier than without.

For Doug, he might stay. Nana might guilt him into it.

But, TJ's natural impulsiveness and tendency toward rash actions in his personal life and he was speaking up before he had a chance to stop himself.

"I'd like to go. I'll take the out and leave now."

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elaine_hammond
2012-09-29 08:50 pm UTC (link)

Elaine never even considered the possibility of not going. They needed the knowledge and money that these people had, but more than that, this was a nation crashed by recent events and it was their duty to help. This was why they ran, to make sure that terrorists were stopped, people were helped and they had the advantage of having gone through this.

With that in mind, she wasn't prepared for TJ's request. "Nonsense, sweetie. I know you're upset, but you can't just leave and forget about this. We have to go and we have to help. We all do." She didn't mention that TJ had no chance in hell to survive on his own. He'd never done it and to do it under the circumstances was unreasonable. "We'll go to New York, and we'll do our part."

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hammond_tj
2012-09-29 09:18 pm UTC (link)

"No, Mom, we don't." He should have known there would be an immediate argument. When had his family ever just accepted that he'd made a decision for himself? When had his mother ever accepted that he could think and reason and have opinions that didn't match theirs? "You have to go because you are the great Elaine Barrish, out to save us all. And Dad wouldn't be able to stay away from a political emergency if his life depended on it." He left Doug and Nana out of the argument, even though he knew Nana would never leave her daughter and Doug couldn't say no to their mother in his life. He never had been.

"There is no reason for me to go. None. I'm not a politician or a cop or a soldier, agent, whatever else people are that do these things. I'm no good to anyone out there and you know it. God, you and Dad have told me often enough. So, you go. You do what you always do and go. But, I'm not going. I didn't sign on for this insane asylum and if he's offering a way out, I'm going to take it."

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doug_hammond
2012-09-29 09:27 pm UTC (link)

Doug had stayed quiet, hoping that TJ would come to his senses when their mother spoke up, but he could tell that this was shaping up to be another family drama, but this time, it would be in front of all of these people. Their lives sucked.

"This isn't about Mom or Dad. We have to go, because we'd one this before. We know the problems that came up, we know how people did searches with no masks and got sick, we know how the psychiatrists used incorrect techniques causing more people to be depressed. We know and we can help," he said.

"There's a very good reason for you to go. Even if you don't want to help, you still need to come, because what's the alternative. You've never worked in your life, you don't have money, you don't know how to be undercover." He shook his head. "You can't even stay clear. Come on, TJ, are you high? Because this is really not the time to make decision while flying high. We're going, we're all going, let's stop this."

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hammond_tj
2012-09-29 09:53 pm UTC (link)

TJ huffed irritably as soon as Doug started speaking. He should have known his brother would side with their mother. Some days, Doug seemed to get it, treated TJ like a brother. But, more and more often lately, he started to sound just like them and TJ couldn't take it.

"No." He spoke quietly and shook his head. "None of you will believe it, I know. You never do. But, I'm not high and I'm not going. There is nothing I can do to help those people, to help these people. I can't even help myself, isn't that what you're really saying?" He put his hands on his brother's shoulders and squeezed. "I can't do it, Dougie. I can't...do this anymore. For you, I would have stayed. For you. But, not for them. Not if all you can do is parrot what she says. I'd stay for my brother, my twin brother. But, not for the Chief of Staff at State. If I can't help myself, how can you expect me to help anyone else? I'm not you. I'm not like any of you. I'm tired of living up to the expectations of a life I didn't ask for and never had any choice in. I have a choice now and I'm going to take it.

"Besides, I'll probably fail anyway, right? I don't know anything. And then I'll have to come back and you can all tell me how you were right and I was a fool to go because I've always been too weak to do anything. Isn't that really what this is all about? Poor TJ. He doesn't have the heart for this life and isn't strong enough to survive without us? Maybe it's time we test that theory. I'm thirty-one years old and I have no life or identity outside this family. How fucked up is that?"

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doug_hammond
2012-09-29 10:01 pm UTC (link)

"I believe you," Doug answered just as softly, "but that's not a good enough reason, TJ. You need to stay here, with your family, and I don't care what you can and can't do, but I need you safe, and the truth is that you are more like us than you are like them," he said waving toward the rest of the group.

"We're not robocops and super soldiers. We're a political family, we know how to do that, we can do that, and we'll help that way, and in the meantime, you are safe." He cupped his brother's cheek. "If you fail, you can end up dead and if you succeed, I might still not see you again. I can't survive without you. You make this family as much as any one of us. Please, TJ, this isn't the time to want to be on your own."

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hammond_tj
2012-09-29 11:13 pm UTC (link)

"Dougie..." His brother had almost had him. If his brother needed him, TJ would stay. But, he didn't. He was arguing for the family again. And TJ couldn't play that game anymore. This couldn't be about the family because he knew once he gave in to the family this time, he'd never escape this cycle. He'd be crushed under the family machine.

"You've never needed me to survive, little brother. You're the strong one, the smart one who always knows what to do. You'll probably be better off without me. This family certainly doesn't need me to survive. I'm the one that always needs help, always needs to be told what to do because when I'm let out on my own all I do is screw up and then all of you have to clean up after me to protect the family reputation. I'm the one that hurts this family more than anyone because I'm the one who's not a politician. I'm not a cop or a soldier, no. Spoiled little rich boy, maybe, but I'm not a politician and I never will be."

Pulling his brother close, TJ hugged him and his voice dropped to a true whisper. "If you were me, what would you do? If you were me? Someday that life will kill me, too. I'm not strong like you. I don't want to leave you, Doug. But, I don't want to die never knowing who I am, if I'm anyone at all."

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doug_hammond
2012-09-29 11:34 pm UTC (link)

Doug held his brother tight. No matter how much he complained that 'little brother' always got to him, because no matter the names and birth order, Doug had always felt like the older brother, the one that needed to take care of TJ, and then TJ remembered who was supposed to be the older one.

"It's not fair, TJ. I don't want to lose you like this." He pulled back, and God, only his brother could make him feel so much. "You're going to find what you need to and then you'll find us, because if you don't, I will find you and kick your ass, do you understand? You come back to me, okay? Because I can't-" He looked away, trying to rein in his emotions, before looking back at his twin. "I need you, too. I'm not as strong as you think."

Elaine looked at the two like they had both lost their minds. "Doug, don't indulge him. He can't go."

"Mom-" He turned to his mother. "I love you, Mom, but you need to let him choose. He's not a kid anymore, and you can't make the decisions for him."

"He's going to die, Dougie. Is that what you want?" Elaine asked. "TJ, how are you going to stay undercover? How long before they found you? How long before you need to get a job?"

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hammond_tj
2012-09-30 12:44 am UTC (link)

"You're not getting rid of me that easily. I'm like the black cat that never goes away, right?" Trying to smile reassuringly at Doug, TJ pressed their foreheads together. "Love you."

He loved his brother even more for the unexpected show of support in front of their mother. That Doug not only let him go, but stood for him in front of their mother instead of staying quiet meant more than TJ would be able to say. Possibly for a long time. Fuck. Was he sure he wanted to do-

Oh, yes. He was sure. The moment she turned her attention on him again, TJ knew he had to do this. "I don't know, Mom. But, I'll figure it out. Maybe I'll find a rich married man to screw until he leaves me for his wife. That's what you're really afraid of, isn't it? Poor little TJ never knows what's good for him? You've never given me credit for anything, never taken a chance on me. And you can't protect me here, Mom. The Hammond name, the Barrish name? They don't mean shit here and I can't hide behind them forever."

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elaine_hammond
2012-09-30 12:50 am UTC (link)

"Oh Jesus Christ, TJ, grow up." They were making such a scene in front of these people, and TJ couldn't seem to keep any of their- his dirty laundry from the rest. "I don't care about Sean or any politician you want to fuck. This isn't about that. You've grown up with Secret Service protecting you. The Sigs pointed at possible dangers weren't held by you or any of us. Just because I'm not the next president doesn't mean that we stop thinking."

She looked at her husband and mother. "Say something. Maybe he'll listen to you since both of them have lost their minds."

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