FIC: "Growing Up Ecklie", Conrad Ecklie
Title: Growing Up Ecklie
Author: hawkeyecat
Fandom and Pairings: CSI; Ecklie/OC (three times); Nick/Bobby. Overall, though, it’s Ecklie gen.
Rating: PG
Claim and Prompt: Pain; 011. Humor; table here
Warnings: None
Word Count: 1,588
Notes: Written for sarcasticsra, who is absolutely incredible (and had no clue I was writing this for her until I had to ask her to beta). An Ecklie fic for you, my dear. This seems to have sprung fully formed from some deep recess of my mind, since it didn't take long at all, and I must say, I rather like it. It is not a crack!fic. The claimed word is used in the very loosest sense here.
Summary: Conrad Ecklie has had some strange things happen in his life, despite the mostly normal home environment. And somewhere, very well-hidden from the world, he had a heart, too.
Despite what everyone thinks, Conrad Ecklie grew up in a fairly normal home environment.
Granted, he doesn’t have a father and a mother, but plenty of people grew up without a male and female parent. The only part that might have been a little weird, at least for the time, is that he has two female parents, and he couldn’t let anyone know about that while he was growing up. For a state that had legalized both prostitution and gambling, Nevada was narrow-minded when it came to same-sex parents. But his mom did a great job as the doting, protective maternal figure, and his mother took care of everything else admirably. They split responsibilities fairly normally, based on what Conrad observed about his classmates’ families when he was growing up. Mom ran the household, made dinner, and kept track of finances; Mother worked-she was an attorney for a civil rights lobbying organization-paid the bills, and took care of most practical things. Such as sex education.
One day when he was fifteen, while Mom was out buying groceries, Mother sat Conrad down in the living room. (Later, he realizes she picked the living room so she could cut it short if Mom came home before they were done talking.)
“Con,” she said-Mother had stopped calling him Connie when he turned ten, “schools still don’t teach anything about sex that’s realistic.”
Conrad hadn’t quite been able to believe what he was hearing. His mother was talking to him about sex? Most guys talked to their fa-okay, it made sense for Mother to be talking to him. But still. This was his mother. He was a guy. It was just weird.
It got weirder.
“Do you like girls, Con?” she asked, gentle but direct. “As more than friends. You’ve never mentioned a crush on a girl.”
Obviously, she wasn’t going to judge him; after all, he had two mothers. He just didn’t expect her to ask if he was straight or not.
“This is between us,” she added. “I won’t tell your mom anything unless you want me to.”
He fidgeted in his seat on the couch, looking anywhere but at Mother. “What if…what if I like both? Guys and girls.”
She smiled at him. “Then you’re bisexual, Con, and that’s just as natural as anything else.”
The rest of his sex education was probably different than most kids in the same time period, given that Mother covered both homosexual and heterosexual sex and discussed protection in detail, but it meant he was more prepared, four years later, when he was first with another young man, a quiet and serious guy named Seth, whom Conrad had first met in a freshman-level criminal law course the year before and showed up again in a biology class during their sophomore year. Mom beamed at him over Thanksgiving dinner when he mentioned he’d met a guy, and Mother smiled quietly. Apparently, she’d made good on the promise not to tell Mom.
That was never more evident than when Conrad brought Rebecca home for the first time, over spring break their junior year. Mother wasn’t surprised in the least, but Mom started to say, “Connie, I thought-” before she caught herself and welcomed Rebecca warmly. Later, when Rebecca had volunteered to help Mother wash the dishes, Mom cornered him and said, “Connie, dear, I thought you were gay!” Which was possibly one of the oddest things to happen to Conrad at home until that point, including Mother’s sex education session.
When he and Rebecca married, a year and a few months later, Conrad couldn’t help but think Mom looked slightly disappointed, even though she congratulated them profusely and gave Rebecca a warm hug, complete with a kiss on the cheek. And when they divorced, nearly six years later, Mom’s, “I’m sorry, Connie,” didn’t quite ring true.
His mom had had him very young, Conrad always knew that. She’d married at sixteen and had him almost exactly nine months later. He never knew his father; the man had been a long-distance trucker and his rig jackknifed before Conrad turned two. He’d had to put together how his mothers came to be together, based on bits and pieces of what he’d been told. He knew his mom had moved with him into a small apartment, and his mother-even younger than his mom, barely sixteen to her nearly twenty-had shared the place with them. But he never had it fully explained when they came to be Mom and Mother, both with the last name Ecklie. He did know he hadn’t been born Conrad Ecklie, and that neither Mother nor Mom had the last name “Ecklie” before a certain date. He just never figured out exactly when it all happened. All he knew was that, at some point, they became a family, and somehow-between Mom working as a secretary and Mother doing whatever she could-they’d gotten Mother through college and law school before he finished elementary school.
Still, despite how young they were, it came as a complete and total shock when, during what he thought was a casual visit home about a year after his divorce, Mother took a deep breath and, over Mom’s excellent apple pie, said, “Con, we have something to tell you.”
Mom stopped eating immediately and looked at him seriously. Conrad, quite understandably, began to worry. Was something wrong with one of them? Were they sick?
“What, Mother?” he managed, fairly calmly. He expected almost anything but what came next.
“We’re having a baby, Con.”
Well then. There went his world view. How was he supposed to take that? His parents weren’t supposed to be having a baby. For God’s sake, he was twenty-nine. That was far too old to suddenly stop being an only child!
But then again, Mother was only forty-two. He knew something about fertility treatment at the time, thanks to his propensity for reading anything and everything that related in any possible way to either science or his job at the crime lab as an investigator. She wasn’t too old, given the techniques he’d read about. At least, he assumed it was her, since she made the announcement. It could be Mom.
Oh God, it could be both.
“Connie?” his mom asked, sounding almost timid. “Dear, are you all right?”
“It must be a shock, Katie,” Mother pointed out, but she was still watching him like she was afraid he was going to either pass out or explode.
“Of course it’s a shock, Carly! He wanted a sibling when he was little, not now.” Mom didn’t get snappish unless she was worried about something. Apparently, he was the something.
“Mom, Mother,” he cut in before it could get any farther, “which one of you is…”
Mother held up her hand. “Almost six months now.”
Six months? He had only three months to get used to being an older brother? Sure, she’d looked a little heavier, but pregnant? That explained why her clothes seemed so bulky, he supposed.
…no wonder Mom had thought he was gay.
“Connie, we should have told you sooner, we know, but we wanted to be sure she was going to keep the baby, and then it was never the right time, and…”
Mother reached over and set a hand on Mom’s arm. “Katie, let him process it.”
“Congratulations,” he finally said. It must be what they wanted, after all. “Who’s the father?”
“An anonymous donor.” Mother shrugged. “That was less awkward than asking anyone we know.”
That was the weirdest thing to ever happen to Conrad when he was at home, and he wasn’t even a child at the time.
So really, Conrad had a normal childhood. Sure, his mom was a little overprotective, and his mother was almost disconcertingly direct. Between them, he grew up healthy and well-adjusted, with a mind for politics-he figured Mother was responsible for that one, though Mom could be incredibly manipulative when she wanted to be.
But it’s remembering his mothers, and their announcement that they were having a baby-his little sister, Samantha-that comes to mind when Bobby Dawson and Nick Stokes come to his office and lay out the situation for him. Dawson’s sister is being their surrogate, and they need paternity leave at the same time. Before Stokes can turn on what Conrad has privately deemed “the should-be-illegal puppy eyes”-something he once mentioned to Andrew (who, incidentally, got an absolutely overjoyed reception from Mom when Conrad finally got the nerve up to bring him home to meet the family) and has been teased about since-Conrad cuts them off.
“You’ve got the time. You might want to stagger it so you’ve got longer with the baby.”
They’re staring at him, probably in absolute shock that the incredibly evil Ecklie would ever give in on something like that, until Dawson blinks. “Y’know, that’d probably be best,” he says.
“Yeah, thanks,” Stokes adds, looking completely confused.
“Guys,” Ecklie says before they leave; they’re already turned toward the door. “Don’t let it slip that I have a heart. I have a reputation.”
They agree so fast Ecklie is certain they think he’s going to take back permission if they let it slip, and then they leave.
He’ll never tell Mom about this. She’ll start on him and Andrew about adopting again, and Conrad doesn’t want to rehash that. But maybe he’ll tell Mother. She’ll appreciate it, he’s sure, and she’ll never let it slip. Not even to Mom.
Author: hawkeyecat
Fandom and Pairings: CSI; Ecklie/OC (three times); Nick/Bobby. Overall, though, it’s Ecklie gen.
Rating: PG
Claim and Prompt: Pain; 011. Humor; table here
Warnings: None
Word Count: 1,588
Notes: Written for sarcasticsra, who is absolutely incredible (and had no clue I was writing this for her until I had to ask her to beta). An Ecklie fic for you, my dear. This seems to have sprung fully formed from some deep recess of my mind, since it didn't take long at all, and I must say, I rather like it. It is not a crack!fic. The claimed word is used in the very loosest sense here.
Summary: Conrad Ecklie has had some strange things happen in his life, despite the mostly normal home environment. And somewhere, very well-hidden from the world, he had a heart, too.
Despite what everyone thinks, Conrad Ecklie grew up in a fairly normal home environment.
Granted, he doesn’t have a father and a mother, but plenty of people grew up without a male and female parent. The only part that might have been a little weird, at least for the time, is that he has two female parents, and he couldn’t let anyone know about that while he was growing up. For a state that had legalized both prostitution and gambling, Nevada was narrow-minded when it came to same-sex parents. But his mom did a great job as the doting, protective maternal figure, and his mother took care of everything else admirably. They split responsibilities fairly normally, based on what Conrad observed about his classmates’ families when he was growing up. Mom ran the household, made dinner, and kept track of finances; Mother worked-she was an attorney for a civil rights lobbying organization-paid the bills, and took care of most practical things. Such as sex education.
One day when he was fifteen, while Mom was out buying groceries, Mother sat Conrad down in the living room. (Later, he realizes she picked the living room so she could cut it short if Mom came home before they were done talking.)
“Con,” she said-Mother had stopped calling him Connie when he turned ten, “schools still don’t teach anything about sex that’s realistic.”
Conrad hadn’t quite been able to believe what he was hearing. His mother was talking to him about sex? Most guys talked to their fa-okay, it made sense for Mother to be talking to him. But still. This was his mother. He was a guy. It was just weird.
It got weirder.
“Do you like girls, Con?” she asked, gentle but direct. “As more than friends. You’ve never mentioned a crush on a girl.”
Obviously, she wasn’t going to judge him; after all, he had two mothers. He just didn’t expect her to ask if he was straight or not.
“This is between us,” she added. “I won’t tell your mom anything unless you want me to.”
He fidgeted in his seat on the couch, looking anywhere but at Mother. “What if…what if I like both? Guys and girls.”
She smiled at him. “Then you’re bisexual, Con, and that’s just as natural as anything else.”
The rest of his sex education was probably different than most kids in the same time period, given that Mother covered both homosexual and heterosexual sex and discussed protection in detail, but it meant he was more prepared, four years later, when he was first with another young man, a quiet and serious guy named Seth, whom Conrad had first met in a freshman-level criminal law course the year before and showed up again in a biology class during their sophomore year. Mom beamed at him over Thanksgiving dinner when he mentioned he’d met a guy, and Mother smiled quietly. Apparently, she’d made good on the promise not to tell Mom.
That was never more evident than when Conrad brought Rebecca home for the first time, over spring break their junior year. Mother wasn’t surprised in the least, but Mom started to say, “Connie, I thought-” before she caught herself and welcomed Rebecca warmly. Later, when Rebecca had volunteered to help Mother wash the dishes, Mom cornered him and said, “Connie, dear, I thought you were gay!” Which was possibly one of the oddest things to happen to Conrad at home until that point, including Mother’s sex education session.
When he and Rebecca married, a year and a few months later, Conrad couldn’t help but think Mom looked slightly disappointed, even though she congratulated them profusely and gave Rebecca a warm hug, complete with a kiss on the cheek. And when they divorced, nearly six years later, Mom’s, “I’m sorry, Connie,” didn’t quite ring true.
His mom had had him very young, Conrad always knew that. She’d married at sixteen and had him almost exactly nine months later. He never knew his father; the man had been a long-distance trucker and his rig jackknifed before Conrad turned two. He’d had to put together how his mothers came to be together, based on bits and pieces of what he’d been told. He knew his mom had moved with him into a small apartment, and his mother-even younger than his mom, barely sixteen to her nearly twenty-had shared the place with them. But he never had it fully explained when they came to be Mom and Mother, both with the last name Ecklie. He did know he hadn’t been born Conrad Ecklie, and that neither Mother nor Mom had the last name “Ecklie” before a certain date. He just never figured out exactly when it all happened. All he knew was that, at some point, they became a family, and somehow-between Mom working as a secretary and Mother doing whatever she could-they’d gotten Mother through college and law school before he finished elementary school.
Still, despite how young they were, it came as a complete and total shock when, during what he thought was a casual visit home about a year after his divorce, Mother took a deep breath and, over Mom’s excellent apple pie, said, “Con, we have something to tell you.”
Mom stopped eating immediately and looked at him seriously. Conrad, quite understandably, began to worry. Was something wrong with one of them? Were they sick?
“What, Mother?” he managed, fairly calmly. He expected almost anything but what came next.
“We’re having a baby, Con.”
Well then. There went his world view. How was he supposed to take that? His parents weren’t supposed to be having a baby. For God’s sake, he was twenty-nine. That was far too old to suddenly stop being an only child!
But then again, Mother was only forty-two. He knew something about fertility treatment at the time, thanks to his propensity for reading anything and everything that related in any possible way to either science or his job at the crime lab as an investigator. She wasn’t too old, given the techniques he’d read about. At least, he assumed it was her, since she made the announcement. It could be Mom.
Oh God, it could be both.
“Connie?” his mom asked, sounding almost timid. “Dear, are you all right?”
“It must be a shock, Katie,” Mother pointed out, but she was still watching him like she was afraid he was going to either pass out or explode.
“Of course it’s a shock, Carly! He wanted a sibling when he was little, not now.” Mom didn’t get snappish unless she was worried about something. Apparently, he was the something.
“Mom, Mother,” he cut in before it could get any farther, “which one of you is…”
Mother held up her hand. “Almost six months now.”
Six months? He had only three months to get used to being an older brother? Sure, she’d looked a little heavier, but pregnant? That explained why her clothes seemed so bulky, he supposed.
…no wonder Mom had thought he was gay.
“Connie, we should have told you sooner, we know, but we wanted to be sure she was going to keep the baby, and then it was never the right time, and…”
Mother reached over and set a hand on Mom’s arm. “Katie, let him process it.”
“Congratulations,” he finally said. It must be what they wanted, after all. “Who’s the father?”
“An anonymous donor.” Mother shrugged. “That was less awkward than asking anyone we know.”
That was the weirdest thing to ever happen to Conrad when he was at home, and he wasn’t even a child at the time.
So really, Conrad had a normal childhood. Sure, his mom was a little overprotective, and his mother was almost disconcertingly direct. Between them, he grew up healthy and well-adjusted, with a mind for politics-he figured Mother was responsible for that one, though Mom could be incredibly manipulative when she wanted to be.
But it’s remembering his mothers, and their announcement that they were having a baby-his little sister, Samantha-that comes to mind when Bobby Dawson and Nick Stokes come to his office and lay out the situation for him. Dawson’s sister is being their surrogate, and they need paternity leave at the same time. Before Stokes can turn on what Conrad has privately deemed “the should-be-illegal puppy eyes”-something he once mentioned to Andrew (who, incidentally, got an absolutely overjoyed reception from Mom when Conrad finally got the nerve up to bring him home to meet the family) and has been teased about since-Conrad cuts them off.
“You’ve got the time. You might want to stagger it so you’ve got longer with the baby.”
They’re staring at him, probably in absolute shock that the incredibly evil Ecklie would ever give in on something like that, until Dawson blinks. “Y’know, that’d probably be best,” he says.
“Yeah, thanks,” Stokes adds, looking completely confused.
“Guys,” Ecklie says before they leave; they’re already turned toward the door. “Don’t let it slip that I have a heart. I have a reputation.”
They agree so fast Ecklie is certain they think he’s going to take back permission if they let it slip, and then they leave.
He’ll never tell Mom about this. She’ll start on him and Andrew about adopting again, and Conrad doesn’t want to rehash that. But maybe he’ll tell Mother. She’ll appreciate it, he’s sure, and she’ll never let it slip. Not even to Mom.