Fic: Definitely Not the South Side
Title: Definitely Not the South Side
Rating: very kid friendly
Spoilers: Letters From Pegasus
Length: 868 words
Summary: Bates crashes the law school’s party (warning: it gets kinda sappy at the end)
Pairings: John/Elizabeth
A/N: Not beta’d and written in about an hour and a half. All mistakes are mine. This is for control_freak80 because she passed the bar today!!!!! And she wrote me a fic, so this is me returning the favor! Also, I didn’t have time to find Letters From Pegasus on my many videotapes, so I may have facts wrong. But this is an AU, so it’s ok! :-)
ETA a cut. This is what happens when you do something at the last minute.
The closer he walked to the tent, the louder the noise became. Students and professors were literally bouncing off the ground, hugging, screaming, and laughing uncontrollably. Several students stood away from the crowd, yelling into the cell phones that were plastered to their ears. He expected this sort of pandemonium from the frats and sororities, but not from the law school.
Bracing himself and putting on his most intimidating face, Bates shouldered his way through the crowd into the tent. He had almost made it to the center when he heard a familiar voice calling his name, rising above the din.
“Ezekiel!”
Bates turned and found a cup being thrust into his hand. Behind the cup was the beaming Dean of the Law School. It was all Bates could do not to laugh. Elizabeth Weir was bouncing even more than her students were.
“Celebrate with us! We’ve improved our bar passage rates!”
Finally losing the battle not to smile, he took the cup and raised it in salute to the woman in front of him. “So I heard. Congratulations, Dr. Weir.”
He wouldn’t have thought it possible, but her grin became wider. Before she could respond, two men fought their way through the crowd and came up on either side of her. Their reactions when they saw him were typical: Sheppard smirked and Davis barely raised an eyebrow.
“So, Bates, you decided to join the party. Drink that fast. It’s going quickly,” Sheppard said, putting a possessive arm around Elizabeth and pulling her close to his side. She was too giddy to notice his Neanderthal tactics; otherwise Bates figured Sheppard would be getting a dressing-down right now. Davis caught his eye and smirked: They both knew that once Elizabeth came off her high, Sheppard was going to get it. Idly, Bates wondered if selling tickets to the event would be in violation of his oath as a police officer.
Other University bigwigs called Elizabeth’s name, and Bates smiled at her as she waved a quick goodbye. Quickly, she and her two-man entourage disappeared into the mass of people.
In need of fresh air, he pushed his way through the crowd out of the tent, somehow managing not to jostle his drink. Bates took a sip and realized why the stuff was going fast: it was the good stuff. If this was what they served at the law school, he was going to have to crash their parties more often.
Without warning, a force crashed into his side, nearly knocking him over. Police training started to take over but instinct won, reminding him of why he’d come to the law school in the first place. So instead of wrestling his assailant to the ground and pinning him there, Bates put him in a gentle but effective headlock with one arm, while keeping his drink steady with the other.
Predictably, his prisoner struggled, but Bates had done this enough times so he knew exactly how to keep him immobile. Finally, his prisoner stopped struggling and started whining.
“Oh, come on, Bro. I was just playing. Let me go.”
Bates let him go and was shortly looking at the face of his bedraggled kid brother. Nathaniel pouted and Bates rolled his eyes.
“Maybe next time you won’t go running into people, huh?”
Nathaniel continued to pout, so Bates rolled his eyes while using his free arm to pull his brother in for a half-hug. Within three seconds, Nathaniel was grinning up at him.
“So, did you hear? The law school’s bar passage rates improved!”
Bates grinned. His kid brother never failed to amaze him. Only 12 years old, and he was talking about bar passage rates - and he knew exactly what he was talking about. “Yeah, I heard. Why do you think I’m here?”
Nathaniel started bouncing as he began what Bates knew would be an extended discourse on just what improved bar passage rates meant for the law school. Bates nodded in all the right places, trying to contain his wonder. Nathaniel had been dreaming of becoming a lawyer since he was eight years old. When Bates had happened to mention that to Dr. Weir, she started a mentoring program within the law school for middle and high school students. Nathaniel had been the first student to sign up and never missed a session - especially when it was canceled in favor of an impromptu celebration like it was today.
There were times Bates became frustrated with the students at Langford U. There were times he became frustrated with the faculty and administration. And there were times he became frustrated living in a small college town in Nebraska, so far from where he had grown up. But every time he saw Nathaniel’s eyes light up, every time Nathaniel chattered on excitedly about what he had learned or shared his dreams of arguing before the Supreme Court, Bates knew living here was worth enduring every frustration and more.
Bates put his arm around his brother’s shoulder and steered him toward the tent, interrupting Nathaniel’s spiel on how bar passage rates figure into the rankings.
“Let’s go grab some free food and you can tell me all about bar passage rates.”
Rating: very kid friendly
Spoilers: Letters From Pegasus
Length: 868 words
Summary: Bates crashes the law school’s party (warning: it gets kinda sappy at the end)
Pairings: John/Elizabeth
A/N: Not beta’d and written in about an hour and a half. All mistakes are mine. This is for control_freak80 because she passed the bar today!!!!! And she wrote me a fic, so this is me returning the favor! Also, I didn’t have time to find Letters From Pegasus on my many videotapes, so I may have facts wrong. But this is an AU, so it’s ok! :-)
ETA a cut. This is what happens when you do something at the last minute.
The closer he walked to the tent, the louder the noise became. Students and professors were literally bouncing off the ground, hugging, screaming, and laughing uncontrollably. Several students stood away from the crowd, yelling into the cell phones that were plastered to their ears. He expected this sort of pandemonium from the frats and sororities, but not from the law school.
Bracing himself and putting on his most intimidating face, Bates shouldered his way through the crowd into the tent. He had almost made it to the center when he heard a familiar voice calling his name, rising above the din.
“Ezekiel!”
Bates turned and found a cup being thrust into his hand. Behind the cup was the beaming Dean of the Law School. It was all Bates could do not to laugh. Elizabeth Weir was bouncing even more than her students were.
“Celebrate with us! We’ve improved our bar passage rates!”
Finally losing the battle not to smile, he took the cup and raised it in salute to the woman in front of him. “So I heard. Congratulations, Dr. Weir.”
He wouldn’t have thought it possible, but her grin became wider. Before she could respond, two men fought their way through the crowd and came up on either side of her. Their reactions when they saw him were typical: Sheppard smirked and Davis barely raised an eyebrow.
“So, Bates, you decided to join the party. Drink that fast. It’s going quickly,” Sheppard said, putting a possessive arm around Elizabeth and pulling her close to his side. She was too giddy to notice his Neanderthal tactics; otherwise Bates figured Sheppard would be getting a dressing-down right now. Davis caught his eye and smirked: They both knew that once Elizabeth came off her high, Sheppard was going to get it. Idly, Bates wondered if selling tickets to the event would be in violation of his oath as a police officer.
Other University bigwigs called Elizabeth’s name, and Bates smiled at her as she waved a quick goodbye. Quickly, she and her two-man entourage disappeared into the mass of people.
In need of fresh air, he pushed his way through the crowd out of the tent, somehow managing not to jostle his drink. Bates took a sip and realized why the stuff was going fast: it was the good stuff. If this was what they served at the law school, he was going to have to crash their parties more often.
Without warning, a force crashed into his side, nearly knocking him over. Police training started to take over but instinct won, reminding him of why he’d come to the law school in the first place. So instead of wrestling his assailant to the ground and pinning him there, Bates put him in a gentle but effective headlock with one arm, while keeping his drink steady with the other.
Predictably, his prisoner struggled, but Bates had done this enough times so he knew exactly how to keep him immobile. Finally, his prisoner stopped struggling and started whining.
“Oh, come on, Bro. I was just playing. Let me go.”
Bates let him go and was shortly looking at the face of his bedraggled kid brother. Nathaniel pouted and Bates rolled his eyes.
“Maybe next time you won’t go running into people, huh?”
Nathaniel continued to pout, so Bates rolled his eyes while using his free arm to pull his brother in for a half-hug. Within three seconds, Nathaniel was grinning up at him.
“So, did you hear? The law school’s bar passage rates improved!”
Bates grinned. His kid brother never failed to amaze him. Only 12 years old, and he was talking about bar passage rates - and he knew exactly what he was talking about. “Yeah, I heard. Why do you think I’m here?”
Nathaniel started bouncing as he began what Bates knew would be an extended discourse on just what improved bar passage rates meant for the law school. Bates nodded in all the right places, trying to contain his wonder. Nathaniel had been dreaming of becoming a lawyer since he was eight years old. When Bates had happened to mention that to Dr. Weir, she started a mentoring program within the law school for middle and high school students. Nathaniel had been the first student to sign up and never missed a session - especially when it was canceled in favor of an impromptu celebration like it was today.
There were times Bates became frustrated with the students at Langford U. There were times he became frustrated with the faculty and administration. And there were times he became frustrated living in a small college town in Nebraska, so far from where he had grown up. But every time he saw Nathaniel’s eyes light up, every time Nathaniel chattered on excitedly about what he had learned or shared his dreams of arguing before the Supreme Court, Bates knew living here was worth enduring every frustration and more.
Bates put his arm around his brother’s shoulder and steered him toward the tent, interrupting Nathaniel’s spiel on how bar passage rates figure into the rankings.
“Let’s go grab some free food and you can tell me all about bar passage rates.”