Fic, Title: Testing, Fandom: White Collar
Title: Testing
Author: vampire_rey
Summary: A foster home, a stranger, and a strange test.
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairing: Gen, young canon character (different name), Juliet Williams (OC), Jack (OC)
Warnings: AU backstory, OCs, creepy child
Spoilers: None
Author's Note: While Juliet and Jack are OCs, the child Jack is talking to isn’t. He’s a canon character everyone on this comm is familiar with. He’s just changed his name a couple times for his own protection, but I think you’ll be able to guess from the description who it is.
---
“Hello, Taylor.” The man settled into a chair across from the boy, long coat floating down like wings on either side of him. He smiled, dark eyes friendly. “I’m Dr. Jack Wilson. You can call me Jack.”
The boy watched him with empty blue eyes. It was like staring into the ocean, if the ocean suddenly lost all the tides and the sharks. Jack almost wanted to shake the boy just so he knew that there was some life in there.
“Miss Juliet is very worried about you,” he said, opening a file and pretending to scan it. He knew everything Juliet Williams or Billy Romeo had ever said about the boy in front of him-“Forgets to eat. Doesn’t sleep. Doesn’t respond to pain. Never asks for anything. Advanced in all his classes. Quiet.” The list went on. Juliet thought the boy was a prodigy, a saint even. Romeo thought he was a demon if not the devil incarnate.
Jack knew better.
He wasn’t getting a rise out of the boy; the child kept staring at him with empty blue eyes. He shut the file and set it aside. “Let’s play a game, shall we?” He didn’t get a response, but he didn’t expect to. He took out a box of cardboard Memory cards at his side, shuffled through them, and took out four. He turned them face-up for the boy to see. “Watch closely.” He turned the cards upside down and began to move them around, not too fast, watching the boy. The boy’s eyes were on the table, but not on the cards. His lips were moving.
After a while Jack stopped. “Find the star,” he said.
The boy didn’t look up for a while. Then he reached forward and tapped one of the cards before pulling his hand back. Jack turned the card over. A single, five-pointed yellow star gleamed up at him.
Jack smiled. “Faster,” he said, and flipped the card back over. This time he didn’t hold back, moving the cards faster around each other, over each other. When he looked at the boy, Taylor wasn’t even looking at the table anymore. He was watching Jack.
Jack stopped. “Find the night sky,” he said. He was confident the boy had been watching the star. Unless the boy surpassed his expectations, he was out of the game and would spend the rest of his life as a minor in this foster care home with Romeo and Juliet.
Taylor didn’t blink. He reached forward and tapped one of the cards. Jack flipped it over. A moon and three stars smiled from a velvety black background.
“Let’s add some more,” he suggested. “Nine ought to do it.” He pulled five more cards out of his box, glanced at which ones they were, then added them to the group, now arranged in a square. He flipped them all up for Taylor to see, them flipped them all facedown and mixed them up. The boy still watched his face, to all appearances ignoring the cards completely.
When he was finished, Jack put a finger on the card in the middle of the boy’s left-hand column. “What is the picture on this card?”
Taylor watched him for a long moment, as though daring him to make him speak, but Jack didn’t take back the question. The boy would have to get used to talking sometimes.
“A red balloon,” Taylor said in a voice as dead as his eyes. Jack was about to flip the card over when Taylor added, “with a shine mark on the top left-hand side, according to your orientation right now, because it’s gotten turned upside-down for me. The string curls down to the right and makes two loops. It has a blue bow on the end. The sky behind it is light blue and there are three clouds-cirrus, to be specific. Two on your right side of the card, right now, and one on the left. The one on the left is in the top corner. The ones on the right are closer to the bottom.”
Jack turned over the card left-to-right. Sure enough, it was oriented towards him. And now that it was face-up, he could see that everything the kid had said was true, including the orientation-flipped left-to-right now that the card had been.
He didn’t show how impressed he was. “Let’s add more,” he said.
Slowly he added more-sixteen, twenty-five, thirty-six, forty-nine, sixty-four, eighty-one. Taylor never missed a beat.
Finally Jack took the remaining nineteen cards from his box and spread all the one hundred Memory cards on the table. “There are four of those red balloons,” he said. “Find them.”
Taylor reached out. This time he didn’t just tap the cards-he flipped them. All seven of them. And sat back.
Jack scowled. “Well, aren’t you clever?”
“You used two advanced Memory decks to make this,” Taylor said in his dead voice. “But there’s only one star and only one rose. So there are seven red balloons and seven pots of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. That was the first time the boy had said anything without him prompting him. He flipped all the cards face-down again, then gathered them between his hands and shuffled them around in a large pile. After a few minutes, he placed all of them in a stack in front of the boy. “Find the star,” he said.
Taylor didn’t hesitate. He reached out, picked up a seemingly arbitrary number of cards, and dropped the bottom one in front of Jack. Jack flipped it over. That damned star shone from the card.
Jack looked up at the boy, severely disturbed now. “Okay, you were actually meant to fail that one.”
Taylor didn’t blink, didn’t offer a reaction. “I don’t fail.”
“I can see that.”
Just then, Juliet Williams opened the door to the room where they’d been locked up for over an hour. “Are you finished? Would you like something to drink?”
Jack smiled, putting on his social mask again in the space of a heartbeat. “No, I think we’re finished here.”
“So…?” Juliet’s eyes were wide, apparently waiting for bad news.
“I’ll be taking Taylor into the program. He’s a very gifted boy.”
Juliet’s face brightened. “Oh, that’s wonderful! I’ll get the papers!”
She left the room. Jack turned to Taylor. “You’re going to have a home soon, Taylor! Isn’t that great?”
Taylor watched him. His eyes, which had shown sparks of interest if nothing else over the course of the exams, were empty again, doll’s eyes.
Jack rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know. Just go with it until we’re out of here, okay?”
Taylor stood from the chair as Juliet entered the room again, holding out a sheaf of papers for Jack to sign.
“It’s all institutional, which makes it easier for you and harder for the people you work for; but he can go with you today,” she said very quickly, smiling at Taylor with tears in her eyes and running a hand through his hair.
“Great. Taylor, why don’t you go pack your things, and I’ll get all this filled out?”
Taylor stared at Jack. Juliet didn’t seem to notice his lack of interest in that option and ushered him along to his room.
“Oh, uh, could I use your phone?” Jack asked just before they made it out. “I’d like to get this all sorted out permanently, and that would be easier if the people back at the school knew what to get.”
“Of course,” she said, gesturing to the phone in the corner.
Jack picked up the phone and dialed a number from memory. “This is Jack,” he said when he got an answer. “Tell Andros Taylor’s good. I’m bringing him in. He’s going to be a great Student.”
“Thanks,” he said jovially to whatever the answer was, and hung up.
Author: vampire_rey
Summary: A foster home, a stranger, and a strange test.
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairing: Gen, young canon character (different name), Juliet Williams (OC), Jack (OC)
Warnings: AU backstory, OCs, creepy child
Spoilers: None
Author's Note: While Juliet and Jack are OCs, the child Jack is talking to isn’t. He’s a canon character everyone on this comm is familiar with. He’s just changed his name a couple times for his own protection, but I think you’ll be able to guess from the description who it is.
---
“Hello, Taylor.” The man settled into a chair across from the boy, long coat floating down like wings on either side of him. He smiled, dark eyes friendly. “I’m Dr. Jack Wilson. You can call me Jack.”
The boy watched him with empty blue eyes. It was like staring into the ocean, if the ocean suddenly lost all the tides and the sharks. Jack almost wanted to shake the boy just so he knew that there was some life in there.
“Miss Juliet is very worried about you,” he said, opening a file and pretending to scan it. He knew everything Juliet Williams or Billy Romeo had ever said about the boy in front of him-“Forgets to eat. Doesn’t sleep. Doesn’t respond to pain. Never asks for anything. Advanced in all his classes. Quiet.” The list went on. Juliet thought the boy was a prodigy, a saint even. Romeo thought he was a demon if not the devil incarnate.
Jack knew better.
He wasn’t getting a rise out of the boy; the child kept staring at him with empty blue eyes. He shut the file and set it aside. “Let’s play a game, shall we?” He didn’t get a response, but he didn’t expect to. He took out a box of cardboard Memory cards at his side, shuffled through them, and took out four. He turned them face-up for the boy to see. “Watch closely.” He turned the cards upside down and began to move them around, not too fast, watching the boy. The boy’s eyes were on the table, but not on the cards. His lips were moving.
After a while Jack stopped. “Find the star,” he said.
The boy didn’t look up for a while. Then he reached forward and tapped one of the cards before pulling his hand back. Jack turned the card over. A single, five-pointed yellow star gleamed up at him.
Jack smiled. “Faster,” he said, and flipped the card back over. This time he didn’t hold back, moving the cards faster around each other, over each other. When he looked at the boy, Taylor wasn’t even looking at the table anymore. He was watching Jack.
Jack stopped. “Find the night sky,” he said. He was confident the boy had been watching the star. Unless the boy surpassed his expectations, he was out of the game and would spend the rest of his life as a minor in this foster care home with Romeo and Juliet.
Taylor didn’t blink. He reached forward and tapped one of the cards. Jack flipped it over. A moon and three stars smiled from a velvety black background.
“Let’s add some more,” he suggested. “Nine ought to do it.” He pulled five more cards out of his box, glanced at which ones they were, then added them to the group, now arranged in a square. He flipped them all up for Taylor to see, them flipped them all facedown and mixed them up. The boy still watched his face, to all appearances ignoring the cards completely.
When he was finished, Jack put a finger on the card in the middle of the boy’s left-hand column. “What is the picture on this card?”
Taylor watched him for a long moment, as though daring him to make him speak, but Jack didn’t take back the question. The boy would have to get used to talking sometimes.
“A red balloon,” Taylor said in a voice as dead as his eyes. Jack was about to flip the card over when Taylor added, “with a shine mark on the top left-hand side, according to your orientation right now, because it’s gotten turned upside-down for me. The string curls down to the right and makes two loops. It has a blue bow on the end. The sky behind it is light blue and there are three clouds-cirrus, to be specific. Two on your right side of the card, right now, and one on the left. The one on the left is in the top corner. The ones on the right are closer to the bottom.”
Jack turned over the card left-to-right. Sure enough, it was oriented towards him. And now that it was face-up, he could see that everything the kid had said was true, including the orientation-flipped left-to-right now that the card had been.
He didn’t show how impressed he was. “Let’s add more,” he said.
Slowly he added more-sixteen, twenty-five, thirty-six, forty-nine, sixty-four, eighty-one. Taylor never missed a beat.
Finally Jack took the remaining nineteen cards from his box and spread all the one hundred Memory cards on the table. “There are four of those red balloons,” he said. “Find them.”
Taylor reached out. This time he didn’t just tap the cards-he flipped them. All seven of them. And sat back.
Jack scowled. “Well, aren’t you clever?”
“You used two advanced Memory decks to make this,” Taylor said in his dead voice. “But there’s only one star and only one rose. So there are seven red balloons and seven pots of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. That was the first time the boy had said anything without him prompting him. He flipped all the cards face-down again, then gathered them between his hands and shuffled them around in a large pile. After a few minutes, he placed all of them in a stack in front of the boy. “Find the star,” he said.
Taylor didn’t hesitate. He reached out, picked up a seemingly arbitrary number of cards, and dropped the bottom one in front of Jack. Jack flipped it over. That damned star shone from the card.
Jack looked up at the boy, severely disturbed now. “Okay, you were actually meant to fail that one.”
Taylor didn’t blink, didn’t offer a reaction. “I don’t fail.”
“I can see that.”
Just then, Juliet Williams opened the door to the room where they’d been locked up for over an hour. “Are you finished? Would you like something to drink?”
Jack smiled, putting on his social mask again in the space of a heartbeat. “No, I think we’re finished here.”
“So…?” Juliet’s eyes were wide, apparently waiting for bad news.
“I’ll be taking Taylor into the program. He’s a very gifted boy.”
Juliet’s face brightened. “Oh, that’s wonderful! I’ll get the papers!”
She left the room. Jack turned to Taylor. “You’re going to have a home soon, Taylor! Isn’t that great?”
Taylor watched him. His eyes, which had shown sparks of interest if nothing else over the course of the exams, were empty again, doll’s eyes.
Jack rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know. Just go with it until we’re out of here, okay?”
Taylor stood from the chair as Juliet entered the room again, holding out a sheaf of papers for Jack to sign.
“It’s all institutional, which makes it easier for you and harder for the people you work for; but he can go with you today,” she said very quickly, smiling at Taylor with tears in her eyes and running a hand through his hair.
“Great. Taylor, why don’t you go pack your things, and I’ll get all this filled out?”
Taylor stared at Jack. Juliet didn’t seem to notice his lack of interest in that option and ushered him along to his room.
“Oh, uh, could I use your phone?” Jack asked just before they made it out. “I’d like to get this all sorted out permanently, and that would be easier if the people back at the school knew what to get.”
“Of course,” she said, gesturing to the phone in the corner.
Jack picked up the phone and dialed a number from memory. “This is Jack,” he said when he got an answer. “Tell Andros Taylor’s good. I’m bringing him in. He’s going to be a great Student.”
“Thanks,” he said jovially to whatever the answer was, and hung up.