Fic: Coda [Brick, PG-13]
Title: Coda
Fandom: Brick
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Brendan, Laura, Tug
Spoilers: for the movie
Disclaimer: Brick and its characters are the creations of Rian Johnson. No copyright infringement intended.
Summary: A coda to the movie (future-fic, I suppose). Brendan and Laura and Tug, going their separate ways and dealing with the consequences - but they can't quite get away from each other.
~~
Emily Kostich dies. A dealer called the Pin disappears from the streets.
Not everyone gets to walk away.
~
In the end, all that the bull could really pin on Laura was possession. Her parents had a good lawyer, an expensive one. She got off light. Her parents packed her off to boarding school.
She went on to college at Columbia. Her parents insisted that she try to get her life back on track, after what they started to call that awful business. She isolated herself from her old life. They got her a therapist.
~
Tug went down for what happened to Emily and Dode. He entered a guilty plea, and showed remorse
(remorse for Emily, because he'd loved her)
and the jury looked at him in the dock in his second-hand suit, and they felt sorry for him.
They returned a guilty verdict, on both counts. He got twelve years.
Laura found out what jail he was in, and wrote to him once.
All she said was I'm sorry.
~
Laura apologised a lot after what happened. To Tug, her parents, her friends, the school, the police... she realised one day that it wasn't helping anyone, and she wasn't making herself feel better, so she stopped.
~
Brendan laid low after what happened. Stayed off everyone's radar. Went to class, ate lunch alone behind the school, didn't talk to anyone (except when the Brain found him, occasionally, to ask if he was OK).
He wasn't.
Brendan went to college. He needed to get out of town, he knew that. Test scores weren't an issue. He ended up going to NYU.
~
Brendan liked NYU. He could be different there, with people who didn't know him or his past. He even started to make friends. He did well in his classes, and stayed out of trouble.
If Laura's parents had hoped that Columbia might help her, they were disappointed. She ditched her therapist, dropped out of college, went completely off the rails.
Brendan saw her in a bar, and paled as if he'd seen a ghost. He blinked and turned back to the friends he'd come out with.
~
Brendan graduated from college. Laura didn't.
Laura worked a series of jobs - waitressing and tending bar, mostly - and she survived. Brendan drifted into a job at a newspaper, and worked his way up to becoming a reporter. Laura read his articles in the paper.
That job was how Brendan met Tug again.
~
Tug had, to everyone's surprise, been a model prisoner. The newspaper was doing a feature on the successful rehabilitation program at the prison, and Brendan was sent to interview him for the feature.
They sat on either side of the glass. For a long time they looked at each other. Brendan asked a few questions, Tug answered them.
Then Tug said, ,I'm sorry.
Brendan looked at him. Don't, he said.
~
Tug was released from prison when he was twenty-eight years old.
He went to a bar, and bought himself a beer. He felt someone staring at him, and looked up. The bartender, the one who'd served him his beer, was Laura.
He stared back. Neither of them said anything. He left his beer and walked out.
Laura followed him.
Please stay, she begged him.
I've got nothing to say to you, he said.
He heard her crying, quietly, behind him, and added, Leave me alone.
She swallowed, wiped her eyes with her sleeve, and said, All right.
Before he left, she pushed a piece of paper into his hand. He looked at it as he walked away - it was a story torn carefully from a newspaper. The byline read Brendan Frye.
~
Tug found Brendan easily, through the newspaper.
They went to a diner together. Brendan bought the food. They talked a little.
Brendan had a spare room in his apartment; he offered it to Tug, saying, Just until you find somewhere.
~
Later that night, Brendan said, I'm sorry.
Tug shook his head. You've got nothing to be sorry for.
(A nice sentiment, Brendan thought, even though they both knew it wasn't true.)
Fandom: Brick
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Brendan, Laura, Tug
Spoilers: for the movie
Disclaimer: Brick and its characters are the creations of Rian Johnson. No copyright infringement intended.
Summary: A coda to the movie (future-fic, I suppose). Brendan and Laura and Tug, going their separate ways and dealing with the consequences - but they can't quite get away from each other.
~~
Emily Kostich dies. A dealer called the Pin disappears from the streets.
Not everyone gets to walk away.
~
In the end, all that the bull could really pin on Laura was possession. Her parents had a good lawyer, an expensive one. She got off light. Her parents packed her off to boarding school.
She went on to college at Columbia. Her parents insisted that she try to get her life back on track, after what they started to call that awful business. She isolated herself from her old life. They got her a therapist.
~
Tug went down for what happened to Emily and Dode. He entered a guilty plea, and showed remorse
(remorse for Emily, because he'd loved her)
and the jury looked at him in the dock in his second-hand suit, and they felt sorry for him.
They returned a guilty verdict, on both counts. He got twelve years.
Laura found out what jail he was in, and wrote to him once.
All she said was I'm sorry.
~
Laura apologised a lot after what happened. To Tug, her parents, her friends, the school, the police... she realised one day that it wasn't helping anyone, and she wasn't making herself feel better, so she stopped.
~
Brendan laid low after what happened. Stayed off everyone's radar. Went to class, ate lunch alone behind the school, didn't talk to anyone (except when the Brain found him, occasionally, to ask if he was OK).
He wasn't.
Brendan went to college. He needed to get out of town, he knew that. Test scores weren't an issue. He ended up going to NYU.
~
Brendan liked NYU. He could be different there, with people who didn't know him or his past. He even started to make friends. He did well in his classes, and stayed out of trouble.
If Laura's parents had hoped that Columbia might help her, they were disappointed. She ditched her therapist, dropped out of college, went completely off the rails.
Brendan saw her in a bar, and paled as if he'd seen a ghost. He blinked and turned back to the friends he'd come out with.
~
Brendan graduated from college. Laura didn't.
Laura worked a series of jobs - waitressing and tending bar, mostly - and she survived. Brendan drifted into a job at a newspaper, and worked his way up to becoming a reporter. Laura read his articles in the paper.
That job was how Brendan met Tug again.
~
Tug had, to everyone's surprise, been a model prisoner. The newspaper was doing a feature on the successful rehabilitation program at the prison, and Brendan was sent to interview him for the feature.
They sat on either side of the glass. For a long time they looked at each other. Brendan asked a few questions, Tug answered them.
Then Tug said, ,I'm sorry.
Brendan looked at him. Don't, he said.
~
Tug was released from prison when he was twenty-eight years old.
He went to a bar, and bought himself a beer. He felt someone staring at him, and looked up. The bartender, the one who'd served him his beer, was Laura.
He stared back. Neither of them said anything. He left his beer and walked out.
Laura followed him.
Please stay, she begged him.
I've got nothing to say to you, he said.
He heard her crying, quietly, behind him, and added, Leave me alone.
She swallowed, wiped her eyes with her sleeve, and said, All right.
Before he left, she pushed a piece of paper into his hand. He looked at it as he walked away - it was a story torn carefully from a newspaper. The byline read Brendan Frye.
~
Tug found Brendan easily, through the newspaper.
They went to a diner together. Brendan bought the food. They talked a little.
Brendan had a spare room in his apartment; he offered it to Tug, saying, Just until you find somewhere.
~
Later that night, Brendan said, I'm sorry.
Tug shook his head. You've got nothing to be sorry for.
(A nice sentiment, Brendan thought, even though they both knew it wasn't true.)