Fic: Exceptions to the Rule (Lie to Me)
Title: Exceptions to the Rule
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: None (gen)
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Summary: Five lies Eli Loker has told
Notes: Inspired by some logical extrapolation from the events of Undercover, and a discussion with edana_ni_emer. I do have an actual fic - with plot - on the subject planned; but in the meantime, I quite like the 'five things' format.
~*~
1.
To his mother, about what happened to her favourite necklace. The incident predates his policy of absolute honesty by quite a while but he still feels guilty enough to count it.
2.
At his interview when he applied for the job at the Lightman Group. It was more to make a point than anything else.
He'd already worked out that in order to have anything like a chance at the job he needed to stand out. His grades were good, but there were plenty of other applicants with the same or better, and competition for the position was cutthroat. At the time he wasn't a hundred percent confident that the tactic he eventually came up with was a good idea...if nothing else, it would certainly be memorable.
On the day he strolled into the office and cheerfully lied his way right through the interview. All the while he carefully and deliberately conveyed his real responses purely through body language. It was an interesting exercise in creativity. Lightman looked highly amused, which he chose to interpret as a good sign.
The next morning there was an email sitting in his inbox. It said simply "see you on Monday".
3.
To his mother again - his whole family, in fact. He'd been with the Group for nearly a year when his oldest sister called in tears to tell him that their father was in hospital - a car crash. "I don't believe it," he'd responded, and that was only the beginning of a week of near-constant lying.
When the attending doctor called time of death, it had taken everything he had to summon the pretense of sadness. The necessity of it infuriated him. He'd hated his father, and the feeling had been more than mutual - it was probably the worst-kept secret in a family full of very badly-kept secrets, but it was a secret his mother had somehow managed to remain oblivious to. He'd never had it in him to shatter her illusion of a happy family.
It wasn't a lie in words so much as in action. He played the dutiful son: comforted his mother, helped his sisters organise the funeral, did the rounds talking solemnly to various distant relatives. The constant act was wearing beyond belief - the facade was everything he wasn't.
It's probably the biggest and most fundamental lie he's ever perpetuated, and completely contrary to everything he believes in. But he couldn't have lived with himself if he'd told his mother the truth - he couldn't have hurt her like that.
4.
About the investment fraud case. Even as he was doing it he knew it was a bad idea, and he's not sure what it says about him as a person that he went ahead with it anyway.
He's not sure what it says about him as a person that he'd do it again.
5.
Every damn day since they got "sued", whenever anyone blithely asks how are you? And he smiles and says fine even though everything in him, trained to Pavlovian proportions, is screaming at him to tell them the truth. To say I'm working two other jobs beside this one and I'm still getting evicted. To say last week I had to choose between paying my electricity bill and buying food.
But he doesn't. He doesn't lie, but he doesn't tell the truth either. He just smiles and shrugs and lets people believe what they want.
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: None (gen)
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Summary: Five lies Eli Loker has told
Notes: Inspired by some logical extrapolation from the events of Undercover, and a discussion with edana_ni_emer. I do have an actual fic - with plot - on the subject planned; but in the meantime, I quite like the 'five things' format.
~*~
1.
To his mother, about what happened to her favourite necklace. The incident predates his policy of absolute honesty by quite a while but he still feels guilty enough to count it.
2.
At his interview when he applied for the job at the Lightman Group. It was more to make a point than anything else.
He'd already worked out that in order to have anything like a chance at the job he needed to stand out. His grades were good, but there were plenty of other applicants with the same or better, and competition for the position was cutthroat. At the time he wasn't a hundred percent confident that the tactic he eventually came up with was a good idea...if nothing else, it would certainly be memorable.
On the day he strolled into the office and cheerfully lied his way right through the interview. All the while he carefully and deliberately conveyed his real responses purely through body language. It was an interesting exercise in creativity. Lightman looked highly amused, which he chose to interpret as a good sign.
The next morning there was an email sitting in his inbox. It said simply "see you on Monday".
3.
To his mother again - his whole family, in fact. He'd been with the Group for nearly a year when his oldest sister called in tears to tell him that their father was in hospital - a car crash. "I don't believe it," he'd responded, and that was only the beginning of a week of near-constant lying.
When the attending doctor called time of death, it had taken everything he had to summon the pretense of sadness. The necessity of it infuriated him. He'd hated his father, and the feeling had been more than mutual - it was probably the worst-kept secret in a family full of very badly-kept secrets, but it was a secret his mother had somehow managed to remain oblivious to. He'd never had it in him to shatter her illusion of a happy family.
It wasn't a lie in words so much as in action. He played the dutiful son: comforted his mother, helped his sisters organise the funeral, did the rounds talking solemnly to various distant relatives. The constant act was wearing beyond belief - the facade was everything he wasn't.
It's probably the biggest and most fundamental lie he's ever perpetuated, and completely contrary to everything he believes in. But he couldn't have lived with himself if he'd told his mother the truth - he couldn't have hurt her like that.
4.
About the investment fraud case. Even as he was doing it he knew it was a bad idea, and he's not sure what it says about him as a person that he went ahead with it anyway.
He's not sure what it says about him as a person that he'd do it again.
5.
Every damn day since they got "sued", whenever anyone blithely asks how are you? And he smiles and says fine even though everything in him, trained to Pavlovian proportions, is screaming at him to tell them the truth. To say I'm working two other jobs beside this one and I'm still getting evicted. To say last week I had to choose between paying my electricity bill and buying food.
But he doesn't. He doesn't lie, but he doesn't tell the truth either. He just smiles and shrugs and lets people believe what they want.