FIC: Got Your Back
Title: Got Your Back
Author: respectmyright
Summary: Tom's thoughts on what Simon has taught him, set during Nevada Day, Part II
Rating: PG
Characters or Pairing: Tom/Simon (friendship; could be taken as more)
Spoilers: Nevada Day I & II
Notes: I'm not entirely sure where this came from or what it's really about, and I'm fairly certain that my tenses are totally out of whack. It hasn't been edited and I think I meant it to be slash, but it ended up being friendship with maybe a hint of more. Crossposted to studioslash
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Sorkin, not to me, although I really wish Tom Jeter belonged to me. Hee!
Tom knows that Simon will always have his back.
He's done some pretty stupid things since he arrived at Studio 60, the youngest cast member of the lot, but Simon has always forgiven him. Sure, he's been slugged and slapped and cuffed on the ear, and even once had his nose pulled as Simon marveled out loud at his clueless stupidity, but that's just Simon's way. It's good-natured abuse, brotherly tough love, a kind of physical familiarity that Tom wasn't used to, growing up in a repressed Midwestern household where men didn't touch other men aside from some awkward handshakes and half-hugs on momentous occasions, but he's getting used to it fast. He's getting used to Simon fast, and he's loosened up enough to be able to use the words "best friend" and not feel self-conscious about it.
They called him, Simon and Harriet the "Big Three", but he knew that as much as he loved Harriet, as much as he'd do anything for her, she would always be a tiny bit removed, because she wasn't a guy and because, he had to admit, she was Christian and Republican and had the baggage that went being different in Hollywood. Tom and Simon were a pair, and when Simon bragged that he'd taught Tom everything he knew since he'd arrived on set, he didn't realize how true the words were. He'd taught him the ropes of the Studio 60 set and helped him find his place in the family that was the cast and crew, but what he didn't realize was that he'd taught him other things, too, non-Hollywood things, like how to be a good friend and how to be a good brother, which is something Tom had never been, before Simon.
Growing up, Tom and his little brother Mark had never been close. They were four years apart, which was a huge gap in kid-years to begin with, and they'd been different right from the start. Tom had always been too smart, too snarky, too everything he wasn't supposed to be in small-town Ohio, while Mark had done everything right. Mediocre student - good enough to be just slightly above average, but not smart enough to be labeled a nerd - star athlete, enough girlfriends to keep people from getting suspicious. They even looked different, with Mark getting the height and the broad shoulders and Tom looking younger and smaller despite the fact that he was supposed to be the big brother. They'd traveled in different circles and Tom had never thought of his duty towards his little brat of a sibling until Simon had shown him, by subtly stepping in and taking on the duties of his older brother without being asked, what being a big brother was all about.
And so here he is in a police station in Pahrump, Nevada, dressed as Jesus, but with handcuffs binding his wrists, and as the handcuffs come off, Tom knows what everyone in the room is thinking - what a good big brother, what a self-sacrificing big brother, what a loyal and loving and honourable big brother - and he feels awful, because he's pretty sure he's none of those things. He knows, deep down, that despite the bracelet on his wrist and his newfound loyalty to his little brother, that he doesn't support America's involvement in Afghanistan at all, and that if it had been someone else's little brother putting his life on the line, he probably wouldn't have stopped to think twice.
But now the small-town judge is saying something, and it snaps him out of his thoughts.
"Mr. Styles and Mr. Rudolph, they're both friends of yours?"
"Yes, sir," he replies immediately, because while he's not sure about Jack Rudolph, who is slimy and false in the way that big-time corporate executives always seem to artists who are working several rungs underneath them, he is definitely sure about Simon.
"You sure?" the judge presses.
"Yes, sir," he repeats, and looks at Simon out of the corner of his eye, and sees him looking back at him nervously.
The judge is looking at Jack Rudolph with a diabolical grin. "You absolutely sure?"
Tom smiles, possibly for the first time that day, and "Yes, sir," he confirms after a slight pause, a beat timed for comic effect, as if this were a sketch on the show.
He sees Simon breathe a sigh of relief and Jack Rudolph look minutely less irritated, and as Tom walks away from the judge's desk, Simon immediately slaps his arm around him, and as he leads him out of the room, there are two things he knows for sure.
He knows that brotherhood is a kind of friendship, and that friendship is a kind of brotherhood, and that both are kinds of love. He knows this, because this is what Simon has taught him.
And he knows, as he always has, that no matter what happens, Simon will always have his back.
- END -
Author: respectmyright
Summary: Tom's thoughts on what Simon has taught him, set during Nevada Day, Part II
Rating: PG
Characters or Pairing: Tom/Simon (friendship; could be taken as more)
Spoilers: Nevada Day I & II
Notes: I'm not entirely sure where this came from or what it's really about, and I'm fairly certain that my tenses are totally out of whack. It hasn't been edited and I think I meant it to be slash, but it ended up being friendship with maybe a hint of more. Crossposted to studioslash
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Sorkin, not to me, although I really wish Tom Jeter belonged to me. Hee!
Tom knows that Simon will always have his back.
He's done some pretty stupid things since he arrived at Studio 60, the youngest cast member of the lot, but Simon has always forgiven him. Sure, he's been slugged and slapped and cuffed on the ear, and even once had his nose pulled as Simon marveled out loud at his clueless stupidity, but that's just Simon's way. It's good-natured abuse, brotherly tough love, a kind of physical familiarity that Tom wasn't used to, growing up in a repressed Midwestern household where men didn't touch other men aside from some awkward handshakes and half-hugs on momentous occasions, but he's getting used to it fast. He's getting used to Simon fast, and he's loosened up enough to be able to use the words "best friend" and not feel self-conscious about it.
They called him, Simon and Harriet the "Big Three", but he knew that as much as he loved Harriet, as much as he'd do anything for her, she would always be a tiny bit removed, because she wasn't a guy and because, he had to admit, she was Christian and Republican and had the baggage that went being different in Hollywood. Tom and Simon were a pair, and when Simon bragged that he'd taught Tom everything he knew since he'd arrived on set, he didn't realize how true the words were. He'd taught him the ropes of the Studio 60 set and helped him find his place in the family that was the cast and crew, but what he didn't realize was that he'd taught him other things, too, non-Hollywood things, like how to be a good friend and how to be a good brother, which is something Tom had never been, before Simon.
Growing up, Tom and his little brother Mark had never been close. They were four years apart, which was a huge gap in kid-years to begin with, and they'd been different right from the start. Tom had always been too smart, too snarky, too everything he wasn't supposed to be in small-town Ohio, while Mark had done everything right. Mediocre student - good enough to be just slightly above average, but not smart enough to be labeled a nerd - star athlete, enough girlfriends to keep people from getting suspicious. They even looked different, with Mark getting the height and the broad shoulders and Tom looking younger and smaller despite the fact that he was supposed to be the big brother. They'd traveled in different circles and Tom had never thought of his duty towards his little brat of a sibling until Simon had shown him, by subtly stepping in and taking on the duties of his older brother without being asked, what being a big brother was all about.
And so here he is in a police station in Pahrump, Nevada, dressed as Jesus, but with handcuffs binding his wrists, and as the handcuffs come off, Tom knows what everyone in the room is thinking - what a good big brother, what a self-sacrificing big brother, what a loyal and loving and honourable big brother - and he feels awful, because he's pretty sure he's none of those things. He knows, deep down, that despite the bracelet on his wrist and his newfound loyalty to his little brother, that he doesn't support America's involvement in Afghanistan at all, and that if it had been someone else's little brother putting his life on the line, he probably wouldn't have stopped to think twice.
But now the small-town judge is saying something, and it snaps him out of his thoughts.
"Mr. Styles and Mr. Rudolph, they're both friends of yours?"
"Yes, sir," he replies immediately, because while he's not sure about Jack Rudolph, who is slimy and false in the way that big-time corporate executives always seem to artists who are working several rungs underneath them, he is definitely sure about Simon.
"You sure?" the judge presses.
"Yes, sir," he repeats, and looks at Simon out of the corner of his eye, and sees him looking back at him nervously.
The judge is looking at Jack Rudolph with a diabolical grin. "You absolutely sure?"
Tom smiles, possibly for the first time that day, and "Yes, sir," he confirms after a slight pause, a beat timed for comic effect, as if this were a sketch on the show.
He sees Simon breathe a sigh of relief and Jack Rudolph look minutely less irritated, and as Tom walks away from the judge's desk, Simon immediately slaps his arm around him, and as he leads him out of the room, there are two things he knows for sure.
He knows that brotherhood is a kind of friendship, and that friendship is a kind of brotherhood, and that both are kinds of love. He knows this, because this is what Simon has taught him.
And he knows, as he always has, that no matter what happens, Simon will always have his back.
- END -