Mama Who Bore Me, V, Erica Evans, gen, G
Title: Mama Who Bore Me
Rating: G
Fandom: V (a departure for Lola!)
Characters: Erica Evans, Tyler Evans
Spoilers: up to and including the season 1 finale.
Summary: Written for the prompt 'Not the best mom but certainly not the worst' for soaked_in_stars .
Erica Evans doesn't cry, as a general rule.
Sure, she wells up with emotion at times, because despite the occasional jibe from Hobbes or 'compliment' from Anna, she is one hundred percent human. Perhaps an occasional tear slips out in the heat of the moment, but all the tears in the world couldn't make a man believe her when she most needed him to, and couldn't stop her partner from being the worst kind of traitor. Tears are generally pretty useless, and Erica can't remember when she ever had time for useless.
But her rule breaks just as quickly and cleanly as her heart when Tyler grabs his battered backpack and leaves their home for what might well be the last time. Live Aboard had become Erica's nightmare, the spectre on the horizon that she was dragging herself and Tyler away from, the threat she tried to keep back with nothing more than a whip and a chair. But nightmares aren't lions and Erica is no tamer, so it keeps encroaching while she fights her battles on a dozen different fronts, and Tyler is taken from her while she's not even allowed to kick and scream.
He thinks it's a holiday, some chance to play house with his girlfriend. He doesn't know that his girlfriend is a different kind of traitor, one who just might endanger him further as they live in the belly of the beast. There's so much that Tyler doesn't know, because height and rangy muscles be damned, Ty is still her little boy. He looks in the mirror and sees a man, but in his mother's eyes he is a squalling newborn, clumsy toddler and awkward teen all in a blink of an eye.
Erica remembers being told, by one of the mothers at Ty's first kindergarten class, that 'you can't protect them forever'. Maybe Erica, twitchy after a stakeout and reflexes tingling from a rough takedown, had been a little too forceful in breaking up the playground spat, but damned if she would ever have stood by and watched someone hurt her son. She'd told the woman to go to hell, and Tyler had changed to a different kindergarten the next week.
Now though, she's running out of ways to protect him. Most mothers are not so well-equipped as Erica, with her badge and gun and the ability to floor a man twice her size. She knows two martial arts and how to make a hardened criminal beg for mercy, but her weapons seem inconsequential against the superiority of the Visitors that her son loves so foolishly. Don't take candy from strangers, she'd been warning him for at least twelve years. How was she to know that don't be taken in by an evil race of aliens was where she should have been focusing her energies?
Because she loves him, because she needs to protect the Fifth Column who are laying down their lives for the rest of humanity, Erica lets him go thinking that she is at peace (always) with his decision. With every ounce of restraint, she chokes back the tears until his bike is roaring down the street. Tomorrow, when she feels strong again, she'll start thinking of a new way to protect him. She'll use her gun or her fists or a nuclear goddamn missile if she has to, but she's not saving the world without saving her boy first.
Maybe, when he understands that, he'll forgive the loss of his father and the crappy TV dinners on all the nights she worked late. Ty will tell her that the slate is wiped clean, and he no longer resents her for not helping with his math homework after junior high. He'll pick up his socks without complaining and won't drink juice straight from the carton.
If this is what she has to do, Erica will do it. Maybe she'll finally deserve the wilting flowers next Mothers' Day if she does.
Rating: G
Fandom: V (a departure for Lola!)
Characters: Erica Evans, Tyler Evans
Spoilers: up to and including the season 1 finale.
Summary: Written for the prompt 'Not the best mom but certainly not the worst' for soaked_in_stars .
Erica Evans doesn't cry, as a general rule.
Sure, she wells up with emotion at times, because despite the occasional jibe from Hobbes or 'compliment' from Anna, she is one hundred percent human. Perhaps an occasional tear slips out in the heat of the moment, but all the tears in the world couldn't make a man believe her when she most needed him to, and couldn't stop her partner from being the worst kind of traitor. Tears are generally pretty useless, and Erica can't remember when she ever had time for useless.
But her rule breaks just as quickly and cleanly as her heart when Tyler grabs his battered backpack and leaves their home for what might well be the last time. Live Aboard had become Erica's nightmare, the spectre on the horizon that she was dragging herself and Tyler away from, the threat she tried to keep back with nothing more than a whip and a chair. But nightmares aren't lions and Erica is no tamer, so it keeps encroaching while she fights her battles on a dozen different fronts, and Tyler is taken from her while she's not even allowed to kick and scream.
He thinks it's a holiday, some chance to play house with his girlfriend. He doesn't know that his girlfriend is a different kind of traitor, one who just might endanger him further as they live in the belly of the beast. There's so much that Tyler doesn't know, because height and rangy muscles be damned, Ty is still her little boy. He looks in the mirror and sees a man, but in his mother's eyes he is a squalling newborn, clumsy toddler and awkward teen all in a blink of an eye.
Erica remembers being told, by one of the mothers at Ty's first kindergarten class, that 'you can't protect them forever'. Maybe Erica, twitchy after a stakeout and reflexes tingling from a rough takedown, had been a little too forceful in breaking up the playground spat, but damned if she would ever have stood by and watched someone hurt her son. She'd told the woman to go to hell, and Tyler had changed to a different kindergarten the next week.
Now though, she's running out of ways to protect him. Most mothers are not so well-equipped as Erica, with her badge and gun and the ability to floor a man twice her size. She knows two martial arts and how to make a hardened criminal beg for mercy, but her weapons seem inconsequential against the superiority of the Visitors that her son loves so foolishly. Don't take candy from strangers, she'd been warning him for at least twelve years. How was she to know that don't be taken in by an evil race of aliens was where she should have been focusing her energies?
Because she loves him, because she needs to protect the Fifth Column who are laying down their lives for the rest of humanity, Erica lets him go thinking that she is at peace (always) with his decision. With every ounce of restraint, she chokes back the tears until his bike is roaring down the street. Tomorrow, when she feels strong again, she'll start thinking of a new way to protect him. She'll use her gun or her fists or a nuclear goddamn missile if she has to, but she's not saving the world without saving her boy first.
Maybe, when he understands that, he'll forgive the loss of his father and the crappy TV dinners on all the nights she worked late. Ty will tell her that the slate is wiped clean, and he no longer resents her for not helping with his math homework after junior high. He'll pick up his socks without complaining and won't drink juice straight from the carton.
If this is what she has to do, Erica will do it. Maybe she'll finally deserve the wilting flowers next Mothers' Day if she does.