"Mom, what's a Demon?" - Fic for Bump in the Night 'Verse

[open_flame]

Characters: Liz Sherman - Harkness,Hellboy,Trevor Harkness
Fandom: Hellboy/Torchwood ( Bump in the Night!Verse)
Rating: PG ( a minor swear word or two)
Word Count: 1800
Prompt: scifi_muses vol2.week27
I never had schoolin' but he taught me well
Gypsies,Tramps and Thieves
Setting: Bump in the Night!Verse. After this thread.
AN: Young Trevor Harkness wants some answers about demons and other things from his “Uncle” HB.



I ate way too much ice cream. It didn’t help my nerves that the boys asked virtually no questions about the two things I was worried they would. The first being what exactly happened to Jack to make him the way he is and the second being Hellboy.

There were no alarms or missions to address when we got back, nothing other than the routine pick up and a few investigations, so Thomas followed his dad to his office. I wonder how many questions he’ll get to ask before Jack pulls out something cool that’s not technically of this earth to shut the kid up. It makes me nervous, Thomas’ obsession with space and time and all that stuff we really don’t want him knowing about just yet. Stuff like… The Doctor. God, if I never see that two-hearted bastard again it’ll be too soon.

I watch them head into Jack’s office. My husband turns to give me that reassuring smile from afar, that silent way he has of letting me know we did good. Trouble is, I don’t think this conversation is over. Not yet.

“Mom?” Trevor is pulling on my coat sleeve to get my attention. See, I knew it.

“Yeah, baby?” He pulls a face when I call him that. He hates that pet name but… he is my baby. They both are. I just happen to relate to Trevor a little more than I do Tom and I want him to be a kid, a real kid. His brother too, but Thomas is far too obsessed with the paranormal and things from another world to even hope for normal out of him.

“What’s a demon?” Trevor looks worried as he asks. He’s always listening, that one. Always digging for answers and looking for more than what is on the surface. He’s so much like Broom sometimes I wonder if we didn’t know more than we knew we did when we named him after Hellboy’s father.

“A demon is…” I pause and exhale sharply. What IS a demon? That’s such a hard question around here.

“A demon is…bad. Usually.” Oh hell, Jack. Why’d you leave me here with the kid that asks all the hard questions? You are so not getting any tonight because I am gonna be too damn stressed out to do anything but curl up into a ball and whine while I hide under the covers.

“But dad said that Uncle HB was a demon. Is he bad?” I watch my son’s eyes look at the door to Hellboy’s room. It’s not a thick steel door with multiple locks anymore, like it was for so many years. Red’s grown up, finally. Something changed in him when the boys were born; when Jack and I told everyone we were not going out in the field unless we had no other option. He took up the helm of protector and leader of the agents and to everyone’s shock; he’s good at it. Damn good. I wish his father were alive to see it.

“He’s not. He’s one of the best men I know.” I smile and kneel down to put my hand on Trevor’s shoulder so he knows I’m not just saying things. He can always tell when I’m stretching the truth. He must get it from his dad; I can never lie to Jack either. I always got caught. “Why don’t we go ask him?” I’m not trying to pass the buck, really. I just feel like Red might want to tell his own story. And leave out what he wants to.

I tap on the doorframe of Red’s room and smile. “Put a shirt on, you've got company.” I call out before we walk in. I still expect to be tripping over dirty laundry and rubbish when I walk in here, even though Red cleaned up his act years ago.

“What fun is that?” Red is digging though an old text that’s bigger than his head, and that’s saying something. He is wearing a shirt though thank God. “Hey, little brainiac!” He’s got Trevor scooped up in his big stone arm as my son laughs a second later.

“No candy. We just had ice cream.” I flash Red that look that Clay used to say was the scariest thing on the planet. That’s not even my worst look now. I can be so much meaner if I need to. And I have needed to.

“You bring me any?” Red smiles at Trevor and sets him down so he’s standing on top of the desk, so they can see eye to eye.

“Mom said it would melt.” Red looks at me with a scowl at the excuse I gave the boys. “What? It would have.” I huff as I sit down in one of the big chairs Red moved out of Broom’s study. I always liked this one. “You got a minute to talk to Trevor about some stuff, Red?” I sigh and look at him seriously.


“I can watch the kid. Got tons of good stories to tell.” Sometimes I feel like those two are plotting something for the second my back it turned, I really do. History does not favor them on that one.

“You don’t have to watch him. I’ll be right here.” Red’s still got a thing for cats, and I pick up a little black one with shining green eyes and snuggle it just to show him I have no intentions of moving.

“You afraid I’m gonna tell your kid embarrassing stories about you and the Captain?” Red snickers as he turns to me. He thinks I don’t notice as he slides my son a candy bar behind his back.

“I don’t wanna hear anything gross about mom and dad. I wanna know about what happened in Scotland when you were...brought here.” Trevor is quietly excited as he hides the candy in his pocket. At least he knows to save it for later.

“I was just a kid, Kid. Don’t really remember it much.” I can tell Red’s dodging the question, but I also know that Trevor has got too much of my inquisitiveness in him to let this drop.

“What about the man that they got my name from?” Trevor sits down on Red’s desk, his little legs swinging as he asks.

“They named you after my father.” Red winces as Trevor’s eyes go wide as can be.

“YOU NAMED ME AFTER A DEMON!?” He looks at me like I’m some sort of freak. Damn it. “What’s wrong with you?” He looks like he’s going to cry as he looks at me with those big blue eyes. I should have explained this before we got here but…

“Trevor John Harkness! You’d best NOT ever let me or your father hear you speak to your mother like that again, you got me boy?” Red’s voice is so authoritative it almost shocks me. I’m still not used to that.

“Yes, sir.” Trevor drops his head, ashamed.

“Don’t yell at my kid, you big ape.” I grumble as I stand up. I shove Red to the side and tilt my son’s head up to make him look at me.

“Red’s father was not a demon, sweetheart. His name was Professor Trevor Bruttenholm; we called him Broom. He is the man who built everything you see here today. The BPRD. He was the reason I’m here, the reason your father is here. The reason lots of us are here. Even Hellboy. He was a great man. Some say the greatest man.”

“Better than dad?” Trevor smiles a little, that little smile that looks so much like his dad it makes my heart melt.

“Of course.” Red interrupts with a scoff. “Nobody is better than my father was. Your dad’s not even close.”

That’s your boss and my husband you’re talking about Red, you better watch it. The look on my face is enough to get Red to bite his tongue and say “Your dad’s as good though, just different. I’m still getting used to him. ”

“Why don’t you like dad?” I snort a little when Trevor looks Red right in the eyes. Red draws in a breath, he’s actually thinking before he speaks. “I like your dad fine, kid. I do. Thing is, your dad and I were trying to win the same thing and…he won. Which means I lost. I don’t like losing.”

“You were mad at him because you lost a game?” Trevor doesn’t understand the scope of this and frankly, I don’t want him to. He’s too young. Hell, if the boys never find out that’ll be fine with me.

“It was more than just a game, Trev.” Red scoops him up and smiles before looking at me sadly. “But the best man won and that’s all that counts. Your pop didn’t cheat or nothing.” He turns his head back to the little boy who’s watching us trying to figure out what we’re silently conveying to each other.

“Did you cheat?” Trevor looks back at Hellboy with a tone of disappointment.

“I tried to, but it didn’t work. Goes to show; cheaters never win. So don’t let me catch you cheatin’, ever.” Red is sounding more like himself and less like a guy in charge of the field with every sentence.

“So what is a demon?” Trevor asks Red after a long silence.

“A demon’s just a guy who got a bad start to life, kid. Sometimes, it’s a man who makes the wrong choices and becomes a demon without bein’ born like that.”

“How does that work?” Trevor has an arm wrapped around Red’s neck as he pulls the candy out of his pocket and starts to snack on it. I don’t say anything. Red’s got this covered rather nicely if you ask me.

“You see, what makes a man a man ain’t how he’s born, or what he was destined to do. What makes a man…isn’t how things start.” Red sighs and hugs Trevor close almost like he’s trying to draw strength from the little guy.

“It’s the choices you make, the things you do and the people love that makes you who you are. Demon, human, alien…it don’t really matter what you are physically when you get down to it long as you’re a good person. And all the folks around here, they’re good. They’re the best on the planet. Your dad would toss ‘em out on their ass if they weren’t, just like he did that old bastard Manning.”

I’m almost in tears from that speech, despite not one but two swear words at the end. I smile slightly as Red hands my son back over to me. He’s almost too big from me to hold but I manage for a few moments, just enough to hold him tight to stop us both from crying like babies. Every time I cry, he cries. I hope to hell he gets over that. I still cry way too much, usually about all the trouble his brother gets into. I worry myself sick about that kid, I swear.

“Hey, Red?” I laugh when he calls Hellboy the name his father and I use for him.

“What’s up, kid?” Hellboy doesn’t look up. He’s back to leafing though the big book.

“Who did you mean when you said ‘alien’? ” Trevor’s question has Red in near hysterical laughter after a moment of thought. I haven’t seen him laugh like this in ages.

Red walks over to us as I finally lose the struggle to hold my son up off the ground. Red bends over, his yellow eyes almost sparkling with devious happiness as he reaches out his left hand and ruffles Trevor’s hair. All he does is smile and laugh some more. Trevor has the most confused look on his face, with good reason.

Hellboy chuckles as he walks back to his desk. “Ask your father.”