Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 00:31:06 -0700 From: "Shana N." Subject: Perfect (01/01) To: FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU Meets and greets all! Tonight (well, okay, its 1am here, but we won't get technical ) I bring you another request-a-song-from-the-Nightcrawler challenge... Disclaimers: neither FK nor Alanis Morissette's "Perfect" belong to me and neither do I wish to infringe. Archiving is granted to Mel's and the DPs, all others must ask. A quick warning on a few cuss words, but that's it, nuthin' much. Comments may go to dpangel@thegrid.net. "Perfect" by Shana Nolan ***************** "Hi, we're not on the air, right?" Lucien Lacroix paused and glanced at the clock. 60 seconds until he was back. "Correct. What do you need?" The voice was hesitant, almost as if she couldn't believe she was doing this. "I'd like to make a song request if I could." "Our call in night is Friday, what did you want to hear?" "'Perfect,' by Alanis Morissette." His voice was sleek and manipulative. "I'm not usually one to indulge in special requests, you realise... " "It's for a good reason, really. Do it for me? Please?" A smirk touched his face; the manipulation was being turned on him. "I suppose, Miss Vetter, but only this once... and you owe me. Any dedication this time?" There was a pause as Tracy considered her words. "'To dad, love Button.'" "Cryptic as always, my dear." Tracy smiled and hung up, promptly dialing another number. A number she knew all too well. "Hi Tammy, is my dad in the office still?... he is? Oh, hey, could you tune the radio to 490?... really... speakers in his office now... you will? Thanks!" Waiting for a few moments, knowing that Richard Vetter was suddenly hearing the strains of a program he had no clue about, Tracy adjusted the volume on her stereo and sat back to enjoy the song. "Welcome back, children of the night. I've just received a request from a rather persistent caller asking that I play her father a song. Touching, don't you think? Well, I suppose I should indulge her... this is from 'Button.'" Looping the song to the airwaves, Lacroix turned off the mike and listened, observing with his peripheral vision the swaying patrons of the Raven. "Sometimes is never quite enough If you're flawless, them you'll win my love Don't forget to win first place Don't forget to keep that smile on your face" "Tammy, what is this? Why is this station on?!" "Be a good boy Try a little harder You've got to measure up And make me prouder" Doing her best "who? me?" impression, Tammy wandered into the police commissioner's office. "Oh, my, uh, hand must of hit the radio by accident." "How long before you screw it up How many times do I have to tell you hurry up With everything I do for you The least you can do is keep quiet" Tracy Vetter held the Morissette CD case in her hand idly, considering the song's words as they blared from her speakers. After that fiasco with forensic accounting, she was hurt, angry at him for meddling *once* more in the name of her well-being. "Well being my perky ass, dad." And he expected her to accept it! To take all the railroading and harassment from people she had no interest in even acknowledging their existence and still find the ability to smile. As if love between generations was expected, happy and unflawed. Hah. "Be a good girl You've got to try a little harder That simply wasn't good enough To make us proud" First it was mom and her alcohol. Then dad and his affairs. And then they had the gaul to push her through major after major in college, trying to get her formed in their image. As if anything she could do as an individual could please them totally. Sipping the coffee, she could feel her father's blood pressure going up. He was going to be furious. And as soon as his face turned from beet red to an acceptable fushia he'd be dialing her number. "I'll live through you I'll make you what I never was If you're the best, maybe so am I Compared to him, compared to her" As much as she liked her job, as much as she liked bonafied hero Nick and his zone outs, it was way too much. She was a cop like her father, but it didn't mean she was like him, nor had to live up to his vicarious standards. "I'm doing this for your own damn good You'll make up for what I blew What's the problem... why are you crying" With a sigh she realised the only way she could make her father proud would be to obey every single mother loving word he ever said to her... she'd rather crawl over ground glass before she did that. "Be a good boy Push a little farther now That wasn't fast enough To make up happy We'll love you just the way you are if you're perfect" Lacroix's voice cut over the tail end of the song, sliding into her mind like a silken whisper while grating on the elder Vetter like some great angry chainsaw. "An interesting message, I think, listeners. Can we ever, as children, be expected to measure up against the tarnished dreams of our parents? Is it worse on us as children to fail in their eyes or harder as the parent to watch that child find their own individuality away from the dream life you set for them?" Tracy smiled finally, closing her eyes, setting the CD case on the coffee table. Even if her father didn't get the point, it didn't matter. It made her feel better. A few moments her phone rang. "Hello?... yes, dad...you actually bothered to listen?... no... for once *you* are not going to talk, I'm going to talk... " ************************* {finis} Comments and 10 ways to repay the favour to LC to dpangel@thegrid.net Shana, the Darth Perk Angel, dpangel@thegrid.net Coming soon! http://www.thegrid.net/darkangelmanor/ "Then the days turned into years / And the memories to black and white / He grew cold like an old winter wind / Blowing across my life." -R. McEntire