Ficlet/Drabble Series: Unsung
Title: Unsung
Author: eviltwin
Fandoms: Flashpoint
Characters: The Team
Rating: Gen
Wordcount: 6 X 250
Summary: Prompt: Boss. Greg has had an influence on everyone in the team, whether he knows it or not.
Spoilers: Up to end of season 1. Or into season 2. I can't remember the airing order of my DVDs and TV.
Disclaimer: None of the following is true in any way, and no profit is made from this work of fiction.
Sam
When Sam first arrived on team one it became obvious that he was too hot-headed. Even to him, even while he was trying to make judgement calls before learning the whole game. He got called up on it more than once and, okay, sometimes he wishes they'd have listened to him because maybe things would have turned out differently for Jackson that way, but largely they were right to do what they did. He spent his first few days wondering if Greg had ever pulled the trigger on someone and came to the conclusion that he can't have done. He was too keen on talking, on solving issues with words where words really shouldn't be effective at all. To Sam, that was the coward's way out. To Sam, a gun was the best way to get things done.
It had taken Greg only a week or two to get Sam out of that frame of mind, even if he didn't know he'd done it. Sam had learned, slowly, how to negotiate properly. How to work as part of a team, thinking of everyone on it and not just narrowing it down to himself and the individual making threats. He learned to understand them and not just call them suspects or perps. Greg taught him that they were people put in bad situations who were simply trying to get themselves out.
Greg showed Sam just what the job meant. And Greg did it all by just doing as he usually did.
Jules
Greg's known Jules for a couple of years, since she moved onto the team after a tough selection process. She'd been nervous when she'd come in to interview for the position on the team. She'd said as much afterwards - that she knew her answers weren't good enough, that she didn't think she'd been impressive enough, and that there were plenty of better-qualified, stronger, more self-assured men who would be a lot better. She'd not said this to Greg, of course, but to Ed. And Ed had passed it all on, because Jules had said that if there was one person they should be using as a role model in the training, it should be Sgt. Parker. He'd asked her why and she had simply replied,
"Because he's everything that we should work to be."
Greg hadn't let Ed's words sway his decision. It was already made, anyway. He told her, when he called her to tell her he wanted her on the team, that her answers hadn't been textbook answers, but they'd been the answers he wanted to hear. He told her that she had impressed him simply by being there. By having the confidence to want it, to go for it, and to prove herself worthy of getting so far into the process without giving up.
He told her that he didn't want his decision to turn out to be a mistake and it was those words that made Jules prove herself again and again, every single day.
Lewis
Lewis had felt like the new kid in school when he'd started on team one, simply because it was such a different work-day to anything he'd done before. Greg had told him once that he could do a lot worse than being part of this team and he tended to believe it. He'd also been the one to first invite Lewis out as part of the team, a celebration of getting through his first week without making a single mistake. He'd bought Lewis a drink, smiled, and told him that he would go far. Those few words were high praise as far as Lewis was concerned, and Spike seemed to think so too. He'd dragged his chair over and sat beside Lewis and told him that he was impressed by what he'd seen so far.
Lewis had joked with him. Said, "You ain't seen nothin' yet," and they'd talked until sleep became a necessity and the bar closed. Now Lewis has a best friend off the team and six people that he knows he can trust with his life on the team. Now Lewis has the honour of being known as the team's all-rounder - able to take on any challenge thrown his way. He's learnt enough from each and every one of them that he can do their jobs in a pinch.
He would say that he's learnt the most from Greg. How to do the job, how to do it well, and how to cope with the aftermath.
Spike
Greg once told Spike that he couldn't afford to do without him. He managed anyway, of course he did, but when Spike returned it was nice that it was to jokes that he was never being allowed vacation time again. Nobody was quite as quick at Spike at gathering info, at setting the team up with what they needed, and nobody was quite as good. Greg made him feel like a necessary part of the SRU machine so that even if he was getting older all the time and wondering where his life was going, he still knew that he was appreciated. And he could talk to Greg, too. Anyone could. Greg's job of listening was not just confined to the people they dealt with day in and day out; it extended to his team, to their problems - personal or otherwise - and to their hopes and dreams.
Greg was the one who encouraged Spike to specialise and he's beyond glad now that he listened. He has a skill, an expertise that he can be proud of. It's a skill that means that, now and again, when the situation calls for it, Spike can come into his own. It's something he needed after years of self-doubt, after wondering if he was doing the right thing by pursuing this dangerous career rather than a family. He knows he can have that too. Greg just made him realise that there are other kinds of family, and that they count just as much.
Wordy
Wordy says all the time that he has two families. He wouldn't want it any other way, though. He loves them both in different ways, but in equal measure. It's clearly evident every day he is at work and every night he returns home. At home there's no doubt that he is the protector and the provider - the one who will defend his family to the death if needs be. At work he gets to depend more on other people, on Greg. Greg is the one who pulls them all together and who makes them want to do what they can. He's the one who inspired Wordy to have his own personal philosophy about the job that they do and about the mistakes they're sometimes forced to make.
When Wordy doubts himself, Greg will reassure him that he can't be right all the time. When Wordy is about to go home thinking he's failed someone, somehow, Greg will take him aside for just a few moments and remind him that, no matter what, his family still loves him. That he can't take that guilt away with him, to share the burden of it with the people he loves. Wordy knows, through Greg, that nothing good comes of acting that way. He knows because he's seen what it did to Greg. He won't tell him that it's that reason that makes him clear his conscience every night whether he gets the pep talk or not. But he knows that it is.
Ed
Anybody looking in, whether they've known Ed and Greg for five years or five minutes, can see the bond that is between them. They know each other's secrets. They know each other's fears. Sometimes they know more than enough, more than they want to. The team they have now say they are lucky to have Ed and Greg. They think it's the other way around because that's just the kind of men that they are. Greg sees no good in being a failed father who remembers his bad calls of judgement more than he remembers getting it right. But Ed is the only one he confides such a thought to and it's because of this that Ed sees even more good in the man. Because Ed feels like he is a mirror of Greg sometimes - feels like he is always letting Sophie and Clark down and wondering why they stay. Knowing that it's because Greg sticks by him.
On the nights when Ed can't even bring himself to go home - when he shot that boy's father in the head, when Jules ended up paying for it - Greg's always there. Ed realises it's because Greg hates to go home alone, but he doesn't say as much. Words are Greg's thing, after all. He almost always has the right ones for the right job. Words to heal, words to calm, words to convince and words to prevent. Then private words, just for Ed's ear.
It's these words that save him.
end
Author: eviltwin
Fandoms: Flashpoint
Characters: The Team
Rating: Gen
Wordcount: 6 X 250
Summary: Prompt: Boss. Greg has had an influence on everyone in the team, whether he knows it or not.
Spoilers: Up to end of season 1. Or into season 2. I can't remember the airing order of my DVDs and TV.
Disclaimer: None of the following is true in any way, and no profit is made from this work of fiction.
Sam
When Sam first arrived on team one it became obvious that he was too hot-headed. Even to him, even while he was trying to make judgement calls before learning the whole game. He got called up on it more than once and, okay, sometimes he wishes they'd have listened to him because maybe things would have turned out differently for Jackson that way, but largely they were right to do what they did. He spent his first few days wondering if Greg had ever pulled the trigger on someone and came to the conclusion that he can't have done. He was too keen on talking, on solving issues with words where words really shouldn't be effective at all. To Sam, that was the coward's way out. To Sam, a gun was the best way to get things done.
It had taken Greg only a week or two to get Sam out of that frame of mind, even if he didn't know he'd done it. Sam had learned, slowly, how to negotiate properly. How to work as part of a team, thinking of everyone on it and not just narrowing it down to himself and the individual making threats. He learned to understand them and not just call them suspects or perps. Greg taught him that they were people put in bad situations who were simply trying to get themselves out.
Greg showed Sam just what the job meant. And Greg did it all by just doing as he usually did.
Jules
Greg's known Jules for a couple of years, since she moved onto the team after a tough selection process. She'd been nervous when she'd come in to interview for the position on the team. She'd said as much afterwards - that she knew her answers weren't good enough, that she didn't think she'd been impressive enough, and that there were plenty of better-qualified, stronger, more self-assured men who would be a lot better. She'd not said this to Greg, of course, but to Ed. And Ed had passed it all on, because Jules had said that if there was one person they should be using as a role model in the training, it should be Sgt. Parker. He'd asked her why and she had simply replied,
"Because he's everything that we should work to be."
Greg hadn't let Ed's words sway his decision. It was already made, anyway. He told her, when he called her to tell her he wanted her on the team, that her answers hadn't been textbook answers, but they'd been the answers he wanted to hear. He told her that she had impressed him simply by being there. By having the confidence to want it, to go for it, and to prove herself worthy of getting so far into the process without giving up.
He told her that he didn't want his decision to turn out to be a mistake and it was those words that made Jules prove herself again and again, every single day.
Lewis
Lewis had felt like the new kid in school when he'd started on team one, simply because it was such a different work-day to anything he'd done before. Greg had told him once that he could do a lot worse than being part of this team and he tended to believe it. He'd also been the one to first invite Lewis out as part of the team, a celebration of getting through his first week without making a single mistake. He'd bought Lewis a drink, smiled, and told him that he would go far. Those few words were high praise as far as Lewis was concerned, and Spike seemed to think so too. He'd dragged his chair over and sat beside Lewis and told him that he was impressed by what he'd seen so far.
Lewis had joked with him. Said, "You ain't seen nothin' yet," and they'd talked until sleep became a necessity and the bar closed. Now Lewis has a best friend off the team and six people that he knows he can trust with his life on the team. Now Lewis has the honour of being known as the team's all-rounder - able to take on any challenge thrown his way. He's learnt enough from each and every one of them that he can do their jobs in a pinch.
He would say that he's learnt the most from Greg. How to do the job, how to do it well, and how to cope with the aftermath.
Spike
Greg once told Spike that he couldn't afford to do without him. He managed anyway, of course he did, but when Spike returned it was nice that it was to jokes that he was never being allowed vacation time again. Nobody was quite as quick at Spike at gathering info, at setting the team up with what they needed, and nobody was quite as good. Greg made him feel like a necessary part of the SRU machine so that even if he was getting older all the time and wondering where his life was going, he still knew that he was appreciated. And he could talk to Greg, too. Anyone could. Greg's job of listening was not just confined to the people they dealt with day in and day out; it extended to his team, to their problems - personal or otherwise - and to their hopes and dreams.
Greg was the one who encouraged Spike to specialise and he's beyond glad now that he listened. He has a skill, an expertise that he can be proud of. It's a skill that means that, now and again, when the situation calls for it, Spike can come into his own. It's something he needed after years of self-doubt, after wondering if he was doing the right thing by pursuing this dangerous career rather than a family. He knows he can have that too. Greg just made him realise that there are other kinds of family, and that they count just as much.
Wordy
Wordy says all the time that he has two families. He wouldn't want it any other way, though. He loves them both in different ways, but in equal measure. It's clearly evident every day he is at work and every night he returns home. At home there's no doubt that he is the protector and the provider - the one who will defend his family to the death if needs be. At work he gets to depend more on other people, on Greg. Greg is the one who pulls them all together and who makes them want to do what they can. He's the one who inspired Wordy to have his own personal philosophy about the job that they do and about the mistakes they're sometimes forced to make.
When Wordy doubts himself, Greg will reassure him that he can't be right all the time. When Wordy is about to go home thinking he's failed someone, somehow, Greg will take him aside for just a few moments and remind him that, no matter what, his family still loves him. That he can't take that guilt away with him, to share the burden of it with the people he loves. Wordy knows, through Greg, that nothing good comes of acting that way. He knows because he's seen what it did to Greg. He won't tell him that it's that reason that makes him clear his conscience every night whether he gets the pep talk or not. But he knows that it is.
Ed
Anybody looking in, whether they've known Ed and Greg for five years or five minutes, can see the bond that is between them. They know each other's secrets. They know each other's fears. Sometimes they know more than enough, more than they want to. The team they have now say they are lucky to have Ed and Greg. They think it's the other way around because that's just the kind of men that they are. Greg sees no good in being a failed father who remembers his bad calls of judgement more than he remembers getting it right. But Ed is the only one he confides such a thought to and it's because of this that Ed sees even more good in the man. Because Ed feels like he is a mirror of Greg sometimes - feels like he is always letting Sophie and Clark down and wondering why they stay. Knowing that it's because Greg sticks by him.
On the nights when Ed can't even bring himself to go home - when he shot that boy's father in the head, when Jules ended up paying for it - Greg's always there. Ed realises it's because Greg hates to go home alone, but he doesn't say as much. Words are Greg's thing, after all. He almost always has the right ones for the right job. Words to heal, words to calm, words to convince and words to prevent. Then private words, just for Ed's ear.
It's these words that save him.
end