Title: Happy Pills
Author:![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
chaletian
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: PG
Spoilers: For 1x10.
Summary: Episode coda for The 12-Step Job. Parker tries to cope with her experience.
A week after they spring her from rehab, Parker steals a bottle of anti-depressants. They sit on the bathroom sink. She stares at them in the morning. Once, she reaches out, touches just the tip of her finger to the cap.
“Glad to see you’re back to normal,” says Nate, after the second day. She narrows her eyes and nods, and doesn’t say, ‘you’re still drinking’ or, ‘I’m not sure what normal is any more.’
The pills are her secret. She doesn’t take them. She knows they do something to her. And it felt good at the time, but it meant she didn’t do her job properly. And she’s a very good thief, she knows she is, and it’s what she does. It’s why they have her. It’s why they keep her. So she doesn’t take the pills, even though it felt good.
Later, on another scam Eliot is awkwardly patting the bawling little boy, and glaring at Parker. “Jeez, Parker, can’t you even pretend to be like normal people?” She shrugs. He turns back to the kids, all tight-mouthed and indignant hair.
The pills are still there, in the bathroom. She leans against the bathroom door, and looks at them, unassuming in their little orange bottle. She’s not given to introspection. But she knows there’s something wrong with her. And she doesn’t know if the thing that’s wrong is just normal for her, and it’s how she’s meant to be, or if something’s actually wrong, and the pills fix it. It’s confusing. She’s confused. But she thinks, maybe it would be nice. To be normal. To feel things the same way other people seemed to. She moves in, touches the bottle, picks it up. She takes the pills.
“I tell you what this is, man,” says Hardison, not as quietly as he thinks, because Parker can hear him. “She’s like Data when they got him that humanity chip. That’s all kinds of weird. Sorta nice, though.” “Weird,” says Eliot, definitively.
The pills are confusing, and Parker doesn’t know what to do. She sits in her office, with the door closed, and stares at the limp-leafed plant. She cries, and it feels strange, because she can’t remember doing it before.
Sophie slides her arm around Parker’s shoulders, and soothes her. “It’s OK,” she says, and Parker leans towards her, hoping that she’s telling the truth. “I don’t know how to be normal,” she says, and she can feel Sophie laugh, even as she hugs her. “None of us do,” says Sophie, and Parker feels better.
Author:
chaletianFandom: Leverage
Rating: PG
Spoilers: For 1x10.
Summary: Episode coda for The 12-Step Job. Parker tries to cope with her experience.
A week after they spring her from rehab, Parker steals a bottle of anti-depressants. They sit on the bathroom sink. She stares at them in the morning. Once, she reaches out, touches just the tip of her finger to the cap.
“Glad to see you’re back to normal,” says Nate, after the second day. She narrows her eyes and nods, and doesn’t say, ‘you’re still drinking’ or, ‘I’m not sure what normal is any more.’
The pills are her secret. She doesn’t take them. She knows they do something to her. And it felt good at the time, but it meant she didn’t do her job properly. And she’s a very good thief, she knows she is, and it’s what she does. It’s why they have her. It’s why they keep her. So she doesn’t take the pills, even though it felt good.
Later, on another scam Eliot is awkwardly patting the bawling little boy, and glaring at Parker. “Jeez, Parker, can’t you even pretend to be like normal people?” She shrugs. He turns back to the kids, all tight-mouthed and indignant hair.
The pills are still there, in the bathroom. She leans against the bathroom door, and looks at them, unassuming in their little orange bottle. She’s not given to introspection. But she knows there’s something wrong with her. And she doesn’t know if the thing that’s wrong is just normal for her, and it’s how she’s meant to be, or if something’s actually wrong, and the pills fix it. It’s confusing. She’s confused. But she thinks, maybe it would be nice. To be normal. To feel things the same way other people seemed to. She moves in, touches the bottle, picks it up. She takes the pills.
“I tell you what this is, man,” says Hardison, not as quietly as he thinks, because Parker can hear him. “She’s like Data when they got him that humanity chip. That’s all kinds of weird. Sorta nice, though.” “Weird,” says Eliot, definitively.
The pills are confusing, and Parker doesn’t know what to do. She sits in her office, with the door closed, and stares at the limp-leafed plant. She cries, and it feels strange, because she can’t remember doing it before.
Sophie slides her arm around Parker’s shoulders, and soothes her. “It’s OK,” she says, and Parker leans towards her, hoping that she’s telling the truth. “I don’t know how to be normal,” she says, and she can feel Sophie laugh, even as she hugs her. “None of us do,” says Sophie, and Parker feels better.
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