Fic: Middle Child Rebellion, Ellie Bartlet, PG
Title: Middle Child Rebellion
Rating: PG
Fandom: West Wing
Character: Ellie Bartlet
Spoilers: set pre-admin, up to Bartlet's first Inauguration.
Summary: A little privacy isn't so much to ask for.
Thanks to jillkins for checking my limited DC knowledge. Otherwise unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own.
Eleanor Bartlet can't stand the cliché about being a middle child.
It's not that she doesn't belong in her family, or her life, although she could do without the politics in the blink of an eye. For all the awkwardness around her father and his room-dominating personality, Ellie has always been happy in a quiet corner, secure in the love of both her parents and her sisters. Liz might have taken more attention, getting pregnant too young and marrying an idiot, but how can Ellie begrudge Zoey her privileged status as the baby of the family, when they're usually the best of friends.
But for a while there, when Dad only wanted her around for Congressional photo ops, and Mom found juggling the trips to Washington a lot harder than flitting between Boston and Manchester, Ellie did start feeling alone. Having a big and busy family made it hard to keep friends, and it only got worse when Dad ran for Governor and suddenly there were State Troopers hovering even for a trip to the store.
Evading law enforcement was too big a thrill to pass up, since slipping past Mom and Dad had lost its challenge years before. Fifteen year old Ellie decided that sneaking out to the big barn with one of her Dad's cigarettes and a lighter was worth it. She'd steal another couple for school, hiding them in the outside pocket of her backpack and smoking them at lunch with Melissa. As acts of rebellion went, it was pretty quiet, much like Ellie herself had always been. Empirical to a fault, she tried the forbidden act of ingesting nicotine for an entire three weeks before the rational voice in her head finally won out with the gruesome facts of lung cancer that she already knew, in preparation for her eventual stint at medical school.
It would have horrified her health-conscious mother and easily-guilted father (who kept trying, and failing, to quit the damn things), but it bought Ellie three weeks of privacy that she had never known. In the goldfish bowl existence of the Bartlets, a secret like that was worth its weight in gold.
So it was worth the acrid taste, the painful coughs and frantic grabbing for mints and hairspray to cover her transgressions. Years later, standing outside the Capitol Building and gazing out over the Mall, Ellie watches everyone's breath condensing in the frosty January air, and she's reminded of her last taste of freedom. She watches her father place his hand on the Bible, and hugging herself against the cold, she thinks it might just have been worth it.
Rating: PG
Fandom: West Wing
Character: Ellie Bartlet
Spoilers: set pre-admin, up to Bartlet's first Inauguration.
Summary: A little privacy isn't so much to ask for.
Thanks to jillkins for checking my limited DC knowledge. Otherwise unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own.
Eleanor Bartlet can't stand the cliché about being a middle child.
It's not that she doesn't belong in her family, or her life, although she could do without the politics in the blink of an eye. For all the awkwardness around her father and his room-dominating personality, Ellie has always been happy in a quiet corner, secure in the love of both her parents and her sisters. Liz might have taken more attention, getting pregnant too young and marrying an idiot, but how can Ellie begrudge Zoey her privileged status as the baby of the family, when they're usually the best of friends.
But for a while there, when Dad only wanted her around for Congressional photo ops, and Mom found juggling the trips to Washington a lot harder than flitting between Boston and Manchester, Ellie did start feeling alone. Having a big and busy family made it hard to keep friends, and it only got worse when Dad ran for Governor and suddenly there were State Troopers hovering even for a trip to the store.
Evading law enforcement was too big a thrill to pass up, since slipping past Mom and Dad had lost its challenge years before. Fifteen year old Ellie decided that sneaking out to the big barn with one of her Dad's cigarettes and a lighter was worth it. She'd steal another couple for school, hiding them in the outside pocket of her backpack and smoking them at lunch with Melissa. As acts of rebellion went, it was pretty quiet, much like Ellie herself had always been. Empirical to a fault, she tried the forbidden act of ingesting nicotine for an entire three weeks before the rational voice in her head finally won out with the gruesome facts of lung cancer that she already knew, in preparation for her eventual stint at medical school.
It would have horrified her health-conscious mother and easily-guilted father (who kept trying, and failing, to quit the damn things), but it bought Ellie three weeks of privacy that she had never known. In the goldfish bowl existence of the Bartlets, a secret like that was worth its weight in gold.
So it was worth the acrid taste, the painful coughs and frantic grabbing for mints and hairspray to cover her transgressions. Years later, standing outside the Capitol Building and gazing out over the Mall, Ellie watches everyone's breath condensing in the frosty January air, and she's reminded of her last taste of freedom. She watches her father place his hand on the Bible, and hugging herself against the cold, she thinks it might just have been worth it.