thepicketfencecliche | spamalot } of teenage drivers and eye colors

Liam: Can I drive the car then?

Nik: How old are you?

Liam: Fifteen and three fourths. I need to learn before I turn sixteen.

Nik: Do you have a permit?

Liam: Not yet. Dad is taking me on my birthday.

Nik: Then nope.

Marissa: [snickering in the other room]

Liam: But there is all that open road between here and home that's just sand and barely any other cars. I can't hurt anything!

Nik: Just because you think its open road doesn't mean that something can't go wrong. If you don't have a permit, you're not driving. Sorry, kid.

Marissa: [comes out, drying her hands] How about this, Liam? Get your permit, and you come back out here and I'll take you down to the races and really teach you how to drive.

Liam: Really? [eyebrows up, unsure if this is a joke]

Marissa: Sure. If nothing else, I enjoy listening to your father freak out when I tell him things like that.

Nik: [SIGH] You realize he blames me, right?

Marissa: Oh, I know he does. But that's what happened when you decided to move in with the bartender from his post wedding party. [smirky grin]

Nik: [shakes his head as he looks at his daughter on his lap] Don't learn from your mother. Constantly trying to get your father in trouble with his brother-in-law is mean, got it? [to which she gives a very decisive nod] Good.

Gabe: [leans over Nik's shoulders and grins] Eh, pass the blame to me. I've already been teaching Liam how to drive anyway. I'll take it for you this time.

Nik: Yeah, somehow I don't see that going over any better.

Gabe: Well, at least you know you can beat him up.

Liam: Hey, my dad can hold his own.

Nik: Who do you think taught your dad to hold his own?

Liam: .... Uncle Peter?

Nik: [shakes his head] Maybe a little, but most of it was me.

Liam: Oh.

Nik: Yep.

Gabe: [smirking] See, told ya.

Liam: Shut up.

Nik: You're dad's a pretty tough guy, though.

Liam: Yeah, he's just going through a rough time right now.

Nik: And he'll pull out of it. He's been through bad before, and he always makes it through.

Liam: Mom said something similar, but no one wants to tell me what happened before. I mean, they told me how he was possessed by an evil spirit and everything that happened wasn't his fault, so why won't they tell me about the last time.

Marissa: [bites her lip, looking at Nik. She knew the story a bit, but didn't know all of the details either]

Nik: [he pauses for a minute before glancing back to him] Probably because it's not really our story to tell.

Liam: [huffs] Fine, whatever. [and he's going to just go... walk off frustrated. Guess who he picked that up from?]

Nik: [he sighs a bit at that, before handing his daughter off to Marissa and getting up to follow him]

Marissa: [takes her gently, putting a hand on his shoulder a moment before he goes, and pulls Gabe into the kitchen with her so they can talk]

Nik: [follows him through the house before just sitting down next to him, wherever he is] What your dad went through, with the nemeton ... it goes back a long time. And it's something he has to tell you when he's ready. [there's a beat] Do you know what the color of a wolf's eyes means?

Liam: [just sitting on the steps of the back porch, head in his hands. He looks over at Nik] Yeah, yellow is for a beta, red is for an alpha, and blue means that you killed someone who was innocent. My real mom told me about it when I was little. Before everything.

Nik: Do you know what color Derek's eyes are?

Liam: [nods] He has blue eyes. He told me that he made a stupid mistake when he was my age, and his girlfriend got hurt because of it, and she was dying and in a lot of pain and he did it to not let her suffer.

Nik: [he nods a bit] A lot of what happened to him was because of his eyes. Which means he has to be the one to tell you. Not me.

Liam: Oh. [he looks back out over the yard] He doesn't like to talk about the past. Not about the bad things.

Nik: I know. [he places his hand on his shoulder gently] No one does. But if it's that important to you, maybe you should ask him.

Liam: I don't want to upset him though.

Nik: Just because he doesn't want to talk about them doesn't mean he shouldn't.

Liam: Is it that bad?

Nik: Some of it is, yeah.

Liam: [he crosses his arms and leans over them] He's a good dad, you know? Even after we got Lucy, he always makes sure I know he loves me like the son he can't have.

Nik: I know he is. And asking about this isn't going change that.

Liam: You sure?

Nik: Positive.

Liam: Okay. I'll ask him then.

Nik: [nods a bit] Have your mom there too. Just so she can fill in some of the blanks.

Liam: [nods] Okay.

Nik: [rubs his shoulders a bit]

Liam: [leans into Nik and just sighs] Thank you, Uncle Nik.

Nik: [gives him a half hug] It's what I'm here for.