abrightboy | The Adventure Continues

For

thatsfascinating.

The villa Malcolm rented was in the Languedoc, not far from Marseilles, south of Avignon. It was a very historic region, though Malcolm was particularly not interested in visiting Marseilles again. There was a charming village nearby the villa and if they were going to go to an historic city for a day, he'd rather make the trip over to Montpellier, where he'd never been at all, much less with Dr Whitly.

The villa had six bedrooms. As the driver brought their luggage inside the bright and spacious main room, Malcolm handed him some folded Euros and thanked him and shut the door behind him.

"First choice of a room is yours," he told Edrisa with a smile. "But you might want to explore first."

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From:

abrightboy

He smiled.

"Are we excited about that or are we scared?" he asked. He knew how he felt and it was a bit of both, but she knew better than he did how her parents might react to him. Better, he hoped, than most people did.

From:

thatsfascinating

She thought about it, tilting her head from side to side. "Maybe a little scared. But much, much more excited." She smiled warmly at him, her love and pride plain on her face. "You are amazing, and I can't wait to introduce you to my parents. I think they'll warm to you, but even if they don't, that's their problem."

From:

abrightboy

His smile broadened and then he kissed her.

"It's like the opposite of meeting my parents, where you're still amazing but if they don't approve, that's probably good. Though I think my mother has warmed significantly towards you," he conceded. "I don't have any intention of entertaining a conversation with my father about you. Nothing good can come from that."

From:

thatsfascinating

"Oh yeah, your mom and I are good," she said with a wave of her hand. "We both care about you and your welfare, and she actually seems to trust me at least a little. It doesn't hurt that she knows I will call her when I'm in over my head." She tilted her head. "As for your father...he's going to ask you about me, now that he knows I exist." She grimaced. "Sorry about that..."

From:

abrightboy

He shook his head.

"No. Don't be sorry for that. I mean, at some point it was inevitable for him to find out and... just because he asks me about something doesn't mean that's what I have to talk about. He's a manipulator. He'll steer the conversation wherever he thinks there's some fun to be had for him, but we don't have to indulge him."

From:

thatsfascinating

"True. It...might be hard to steer the conversation away when I'm your wife. If I'm your wife," she corrected quickly. She couldn't really say when. Not yet. Not until he was ready to propose.

"Even before then, though...how much of your personal life do you share with your father?"

From:

abrightboy

"When," he said softly.

Not if. When.

"I don't share much with him, but he has his ways of... wheedling. He's a master manipulator."

From:

thatsfascinating

She smiled, her heart warming, and kissed him gently.

"When," she murmured in agreement.

She nodded. "Yeah, he's definitely that. I guess I wonder if keeping such a big thing unspoken might give him more power."

From:

abrightboy

"The only power he has over us from in his cell is as much power as we let him have," Malcolm said reasonably. Though the complex emotional nature of his relationship with Martin Whitly made that hard to live by sometimes.

From:

thatsfascinating

"Have you ever heard the expression, 'your family knows how to push your buttons because they installed them?'" She brushed a wet lock of hair from his face. "This is like that times a hundred. Because most parents are amateurs at installing buttons. Your dad is a pro."

From:

abrightboy

"Yeah, he is," Malcolm acknowledged. He considered her a moment. "How did being in the room with him make you feel? I mean, you've studied his crimes. What was meeting him... like for you?" he asked curiously.

From:

thatsfascinating

She frowned, considering that. "It was weird. I think it might have been different if I was there to ask his opinion on a case or question him about new evidence or something. But I was there because of you. It's not that I didn't think of him as the Surgeon...I did...I just also saw him as your father. And that part of him was more important to me."

From:

abrightboy

"I can't do that," he admitted sadly. "I can't not see him as the Surgeon above everything else. I can't just see my father when I look at him. Not since I found out what he really was and the whole fantasy ruptured."

From:

thatsfascinating

She nodded sadly. "I know. His crimes are more personal to you. I know a lot about them, but...they're still academic in a sense. There's the stories and there's the man, and I haven't had enough contact with him to really integrate the two. You don't have that luxury."

She brushed her thumb over his cheek. "Does it bother you? That I can see him as anything more than a serial killer?"

From:

abrightboy

He shook his head.

"No. I just wish......" His voice trailed off. "I don't know what I wish," he allowed quietly. "I don't want him to be let off the hook for what he did and I guess I feel like if I let my dad be a separate thing from the famous remorseless killer, that's letting him off the hook." His brow creased slightly. "I saw that girl. What he did to her. He's... it was revolting."

From:

thatsfascinating

She nodded. "I've seen the crime scene photos. And the autopsy photos. It was horrific. He's horrific. I'm not saying he gets a pass for that. Just that...I don't know. People are complicated."

From:

abrightboy

He huffed a self-deprecating laugh.

"Something you'd think I'd understand better than anyone, right?" he noted. He pressed his lips together. "He's a blind spot for me with that stuff. I try to stay 'Malcolm Bright, highly trained expert on human behaviour' when I walk into that room, but he turns me so quickly into 'Malcolm Whitly, resentful eleven year old'."

From:

thatsfascinating

Her forehead creased in concern and she shook her head. "Oh no, Bright...of course your view of your father is always going to be different. I don't expect anything else. Nobody should."

From:

abrightboy

"I don't really know what people think about that. I mean, I know what they think of him. I know they feel uncomfortable around me when they find out I'm his son. I don't think too many people apply any thought to how I feel about him."

From:

thatsfascinating

She shrugged and shook her head. "I don't know. I imagine they probably make a lot of assumptions. I mean, they hear you were the one who turned your father in, they might think that you hate him. Or fear him. Or the people who are suspicious of you because of your father might think that you admire him. But no one really knows, because they're not you." She frowned. "I'm not explaining that clearly..."

From:

abrightboy

"Yes you are," he told her. "And that's exactly what it is: assumptions. When I meet people who know who I am, they assume a lot about me and interpret everything I say and do through that lens."

From:

thatsfascinating

"They don't even get to know you," she agreed. "They think they don't have to because they think they already know enough."

She knew what that was like. Not in quite the same way, of course, but enough to commiserate.

From:

abrightboy

"That's how people treat you," he pointed out. "Except that there's not even a reason for that."

From:

thatsfascinating

"Sure there is. I work with dead bodies." She was cheerful, which was of course its own issue. "It's not fair that they treat me that way, but...I chose what I do. You didn't choose your father."