Father’s Footsteps
Rating: PG
Pairing:
Danny/Natalie (OFC)
Spoilers:
Legacy
Word Count:
392
Notes:
For Azar’s first line drabble meme.
She has never needed
to count the scars that lace his body, like unwanted tattoos, marking
everything he's suffered since before their paths first crossed.
In part, it’s because
he doesn’t like to talk about them, doesn’t like to think about the knife fight
that resulted in the scar on his stomach, the other fights and scrapes and
near-miss escapes from the authorities that resulted in the others. The only
one he never minded discussing was the one on his wrist, the one that he always
said was from putting his hand through a window when he was five, except that
he’s found out the truth about that one now, doesn’t like to think about that
either, about his father cutting him with a beer bottle. He might not remember
it, but he knows that it’s possible, and she knows that in his darkest
thoughts, he wonders if he carries that particular gene, if he’ll follow in his
father’s footsteps as more than just a drunk.
Which, of course, is
the other reason Natalie doesn’t need to count the scars that lace Danny’s body
– she knows that the real scars, the ones that cause lasting damage, the ones
that tore them apart once, and could again, are on the inside, where no-one can
see them.
Those are the scars
that pull at him when he finds a missing person too late to help them, when he
wants a drink so badly that he can almost feel the glass in his hand, the
whiskey searing its way down his throat. It’s what makes him cling to her just
that bit more tightly, make love to her just that bit more passionately, and
even though the scars are his, they hurt her too, affect her in just the same
way.
She wishes she could
do more than just hold him, wishes she could do something to erase the scars on
his heart, and she tells him that late at night when they can’t sleep, when her
fingers trace his chest and his wander through her hair.
She wishes she could
do more, but he holds her and he tells her that this, being here with her, is
enough to chase all his demons away.
She looks at him, and
she knows that he believes it.
And the thing is,
she’s starting to as well.
Back to Without a Trace Fanfic