the_lawless (the_lawless) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-10-07 09:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 21, gregory blair, leo parker, | greg and leo |
Week 21 - Monday
Characters:Greg and Leo
Location: Greg’s Camp near Grant’s Pass
Summary: After everyone falls asleep, Leo and Greg have a little talk. Surprisingly, Leo tells Greg everything he wants to know.
Rating: PG
It was obvious by how quickly Walker fell asleep just how tired the boy had been. With his stomach really full for the first time in days, maybe longer, he’d curled up and drifted off alongside the fire within a blanket that the woman had draped over his shoulders. Leo, also appreciate of the meal he’d been offered, kept a watchful eye on the boy, sitting quietly with his shotgun leaned up against the tree behind him.
The others had settled in a long while ago, finally giving he and Walker the privacy they’d gotten so used to in their travels. The fact that Leo didn’t sleep so easily was no secret, but being among strangers and being incapable at fighting off the cold -no matter how close to the flames the man leaned- made it impossible to relax. Then again, he had never been the relaxed sort to begin with.
Left alone with only this thoughts, Leo scanned the tents across from the fire, ran his fingers through his dirty hair, and frowned slightly. What he wouldn’t give for a long, painfully hot shower.
“Feeling better Mr. Parker?” Greg came up from behind the other man and sat next to him, putting his hands out toward the fire. “Did young Jamie get enough to eat?”
“Yeah, thank you.” Leo gave Greg a sideways glance and propped his elbows up on his knees. His expression was one of genuine gratitude, but it dwindled quickly enough. “You can just call me Leo, ya know.” He’d only been called ‘Mr. Parker’ a handful of times in his life, and that was usually in a courtroom or in high school detention. It was bizarre hearing Jamie called by his actual name, as well.
“Leo then.” Greg acquiesced to the other man’s wishes in the matter, though privately he’d be ‘Mr. Parker’ for some time yet in the chevalier’s mind. He rubbed his hands together and held them out again. Winter had arrived in earnest now, which gave his task of finding a permanent settlement for his charges that much more urgency.
“I thought perhaps now might be a good time to discuss this group of yours.”
Leo nodded and narrowed his eyes in thought, though he never moved his gaze from the fire. “I haven’t spoken to any of them in months,” he said. “I don’t know what’s changed, but I know the people that matter... the leaders, I guess, are good people. They grouped up for the right reasons, nothin’ crazy or anything like that.”
“If they are such good people, then why aren’t you with them?” Greg asked, cutting straight to the heart of the matter, and what he and his two companions needed to know straightaway.
Turning his head to study Greg for a moment, Leo felt all of his defensiveness piling around him like walls of stone. He reached up and scratched at the back of his neck, his expression souring as he returned his eyes to the fire. This sort of conversation always went a little more easily with a bottle of scotch in hand. “I left,” he said with a shrug. “It was a mistake -leavin’, I mean- and now I don’t think they’ll take kindly to me strolling on back since I didn’t ever warn anyone I was leaving in the first place. Just kinda... “ he made a vague gesture with his hands in the darkness and quieted briefly. “Disappeared.”
Greg nodded silently and chewed on that information for a few moments, going over the possibilities. “So what would cause you to take yourself and your ward from a place where you had guaranteed food and shelter, without telling anyone and without a plan for what you would do next?” There was more to the story and he was going to get the complete picture before he did anything.
“I was running from them,” Leo confessed. He clenched his jaw and stared silently ahead for a moment. With another subtle glance in Greg’s direction he saw the dissatisfaction on the other man’s face and knew he wouldn’t get by with leaving it at that. Not this time. Most people tended to tip-toe around these topics with Leo, but Greg intended on barreling right through and Leo was well aware. There was long, audible sigh and he rubbed again at the back of his neck.
“I never hurt anybody,” he continued to explain with much reservation. “Not any of them.” Leo shifted uncomfortable in front of the fire and glanced over where Walker slept. His voice lowered considerably as he proceeded to tell Greg these things he had never dared speak of before; things he knew Alice would eventually learn, if she hadn’t already, even though he’d have given anything to keep her from knowing his past. “See... I used to be a part of somethin’. Somethin’ big. Bigger than them. Bigger probly even than the group you mentioned was up North, and just as bad.” He paused. His eyes had left the fire and he now focus on the ground between he and the flames, waiting to gauge the other man’s reaction before he would continue.
Greg nodded. He didn’t consider himself an expert in human nature, but remorse was clear enough in the other man’s voice and body language. “You speak in the past tense. I’m assuming that means you decided that being a part of this was something you decided you didn’t want to do?”
The other man had asked for help, even if it had just been a hot meal for the boy, and Greg had provided it. He would defend Leo Parker if necessary, as long as the man was telling him the truth. If he wasn’t, well...Greg would cross that bridge when he came to it, but he wasn’t going to leave a potential threat at his back and those of Nate and Abigail.
Leo shook his head and reached his hands out toward the fire. “These men... the ‘Sevens’... they were like wild animals.” He rested his hands in his lap and shrugged again. “I ran from them, too. If they ever see me again, they’ll shoot me on sight. Or worse.” There was another pause and for a moment Leo stared blankly into the flames.
“Anyways, we were pretty settled in Vegas. Even had a thing with a woman there,” he offered Greg a small, bittersweet smile. “But then this girl came along and saw this--” Leo pulled up his sleeve and leaned in the other man’s direction to show him the tattoo on his wrist. “She knows now who... what... I am. Everyone does.”
“And you don’t believe they would have given you a fair hearing, but simply condemned you to exile on the spot?” Greg already knew the answer, considering that the other man had left this group. “What do you think would happen if you tried to approach them and ask to be given another chance? Would they take you in?”
“I don’t know.” Leo said it only once, though it was an honest answer to both questions. In his whole life, he’d never had a fair hearing. “I don’t think so.” Now they know they can’t trust me, he thought. Wiping the palms of his hands on the knees of his damp, dirty jeans, he looked to Greg. “I kept telling myself to wait for the right time to show my face again, but then I realized there was no right time. Probably never will be.”
“You never know until you try.” The chevalier’s response was simple and direct. “If you contributed to the group, did your share and hurt no one, surely they’ll be willing to give you another chance. I’d be surprised if there weren’t conditions attached, but if they’re as good a people as you say then they will hear you out. If not for your sake, then the boy’s.”
Leo’s attention shifted to Walker at the mentioning of him, and the man nodded slightly. Everything he did was mostly done in Walker’s interest. He knew the group from Vegas couldn’t turn the boy away, but a part of him --the dark, mistrusting part that never failed to lead him astray-- feared that they would tear Walker away from him.
“Thanks,” he said, “for the food and for the fire.”
“It was no trouble. You are welcome here, Leo Parker, you and young Jamie.” Greg nodded. “Never give up hope. If that dies then we are all lost.”