Triple H: The Place That Made Me
Mar. 17th, 2010 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caramelsilverTitle: The Place That Made Me
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caramelsilver
Fandom: Triple H - Original Fiction
Word count: 2766
Characters: Paige Dawson
Summary: A story about some of Paige Dawson's back story. "The director, George McAdams, Bree's grandfather, had taken her in and let her grow up at the school. All through her childhood years she roamed the school, often without most of the student-body knowing she was there. It was known through the staff, though, that everything from Paige's eyesight and down belonged to her."
The Place that Made Me:
Paige Dawson belonged to Triple H. It had been her world since before she could remember and she had never known any other home. Her life had admittedly been anything but a normal one. She had been left at Triple H when she was three and what happened before that was a mystery to her. She didn't know who her parents were; she didn't know their names, or where they came from. Everything about her family was unknown to her. Who had left her on the front steps of the school? She didn't know, and it wasn't until she became a teenager that the fact that she didn't know the answer started to bother her.
The director, George McAdams, Bree's grandfather, had taken her in and let her grow up at the school. All through her childhood years she roamed the school, often without most of the student-body knowing she was there. It was known through the staff, though, that everything from Paige's eyesight and down belonged to her. When she reached the age of ten she expected that the director would soon let her start at the school. The youngest student ever to study at Triple H had been twelve and Paige naturally assumed that she would take over that title soon. But her birthdays came and went, and the years rolled by and the director still never mentioned anything.
When the time came for her to start high school, a summons arrived for her to go see the director. Finally, Paige thought. The time had finally come, and not a moment too soon. But the meeting did not go as she had expected.
Instead of telling her that she would finally become a student at Triple H, George McAdams told her she would be going away to go to high school. In Alabama. Stunned, she was unable to even put up a protest. He was sending her away to live among normal people. To a place so far away from here, so far away from what she perceived as normal; a place where she could tell no one where she came from. Even her name was changed: Paige McAdams. It all happened so fast, and before she knew it, Paige was in the sleek limousine with George McAdams sitting next to her.
"Just you wait and see. This is a good thing. You'll thank me later, Poppet." He patted her hand.
Paige nodded. The director was the closest she had to anything, father-figure, grandfather, family. He was all of those things to her. And if he thought it was a good idea to send her away, then she guessed it must be.
Paige's first impression of the place where she was going to live for the next four years was a warm bosom belonging to a small woman. "Darling! There you are!" she exclaimed as Paige stepped out of the limo. The unfamiliar woman quickly engulfed her into a hug, before she could even take a look around.
"My name is Mrs. Rosen, but you can call me Aunt Becky!" the woman said as she let her go. Aunt Becky had a warm, lively face, with a big red mouth and sparkling blue eyes that looked slightly odd compared to her hair that was dyed a fiery red. Paige pressed out a smile.
"It's nice to meet you, Ma'am."
The woman clucked her tongue. "I'll have none of that ma'am business, young lady. As long as you live with me, you'll call me either Aunt Becky or just Becky, if that's what you prefer."
Nodding, Paige said unsurely, "Okay... Aunt Becky."
Aunt Becky beamed. "Now then. Let's get you moved in, shall we?" Not waiting for an answer, she turned to the limousine driver and barked, "You there! Carry Paige's bags inside. Her room is the one in the attic."
While Aunt Becky was busy bossing the driver around, Paige turned to say goodbye to the director. She bit her lip in a valiant attempt to not cry. Tears were a sign of weakness; that's what Daniel always barked at his students, anyway.
"Oh, Paige," George said. "It's alright, Poppet. I'll see you soon. I just want you to experience a normal life." He hugged her. "So if you decide to come back and study with us, it's your choice, and not just because you feel that you have no other options." He let her go and searched her face. His face was wrinkled and his clear blue eyes shone with affection for her. "Do you understand?"
A few tears escaped and rolled down her face. She quickly dried them away using her sleeve, and nodded.
He nodded as well. Squeezing her shoulders one last time, he quickly checked his wrist-watch. "I need to go. We'll keep in touch." And just like that he was not her loved one anymore, but the director of an important organization that had little time to waste. With one last nod towards her, he got back into in the limousine. The driver had just finished with her bags and jumped in on cue. Paige could just stand and watch as he left her there all alone.
"So, dear. I imagine you must be hungry," Aunt Becky said, clapping her hands after the limousine was out of sight.
Paige took a deep breath and turned towards the woman. "I am, thank you."
Paige was surprised at how easily she settled in. Aunt Becky was a lovely woman that was easy to care for. Paige had never felt such warmth and attention before. Becky was married to John, a generally silent man who worked in the fields most of the day. They were childless and embraced Paige quickly into their family. Because they loved her, she loved them too.
Time went by and Paige acquired friends that didn't know that she knew how to handle a gun and throw a knife with deadly precision. Friends who didn't know that she had learned how to walk between a gun-rack and a knife-stand at the sides of trained assassins. Friends who didn't know and wouldn't believe her if she told them now. Instead they taught her how to jump rope and cycle without any hands. When the time came they learned how to drive a car together and get drunk together. Paige finally had what every normal girl had: people around her who cared about her as the teenage girl she was, and not the assassin she might become one day. And it was wonderful and heartbreaking all at the same time. Because Paige knew, in her heart of hearts, that when high school was over... well, she would go back to Triple H and she would never see her friends again.
Of course there was times when she hated everything that had helped shape her. She hated the bloody school and all the teachers. She hated them for telling her so early about what went on and she hated them for all they taught her to do. What normal five-year-old was allowed to handle a knife? What normal child learned how to best silence an attacker?Between the ages of sixteen and seventeen she barely talked to the director, even though he called her once a week all year.
The last year of high school was nothing but torture. She had made her decision and she just wanted the time to go faster! Her body was filled with longing. That Christmas she didn't go back to New York like she usually did, but spent it in Alabama with Aunt Becky and Uncle John. She would be leaving them soon and that was the worst part of her chosen career-path in life. She knew that this was what she wanted to do, but it also meant that there wouldn’t be much time left for the people she loved. There couldn't be, lest she put them in danger. Things had been so much easier when she was younger. She had once sneaked into one of Mr. R's lectures. That day he had talked about the importance of not compromising the lives of loved ones. She remembered how smug she had felt as she sat in the corner and thought, "I don't have any loved ones. I'll be better than anyone!" She had been ten at the time. Thinking back she almost laughed at herself. So naive.
As soon as graduation was over, Paige packed her bags and went back to New York. It was best to make a clean break. To her friends, she made up a lie about going to college in Europe. To Becky and John she promised to come back for Christmas, a promise she intended to keep. She never found out just how much Aunt Becky knew. Did she know about the things Paige would be learning in the next four years? And how had she ended up with Aunt Becky in the first place? In back of her mind, Paige had always assumed that Aunt Becky knew more than she ever told her. She didn't think the director would place her anywhere that would be unsafe.
When she finally stood in front of the grand mansion that was Triple H it felt like a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders. Finally. Finally! As she slowly stepped inside, she did so as a student, not as someone who just lived there. So with a huge smile she went to the office and signed in as a normal student would.
Roseanne, the secretary, didn't even look up from her magazine as she entered the room. "Your errand?" she droned in a dull voice.
"I’m enlisting as a student!" Paige chirped.
Roseanne quickly looked up from her magazine. "Paige?" she asked. "Little Paige Dawson! Are you finally back?"
Nodding, Paige returned her big smile. "See, I’ve finished all my paperwork and everything," she said while handing Roseanne the papers.
Only giving the papers a cursory glance, Roseanne beamed and turned to her computer. "You are to be rooming with a girl named..." she squinted at the monitor. "Oooh! You are rooming with the director's granddaughter, Bree McAdams!" She turned to look at Paige, "I expect the two of you have already met?"
Paige nodded, her mood slightly less joyous. She had hoped she would be rooming alone, being so old and all. But Bree was alright, she supposed. They had met, of course, Bree being George's granddaughter and Paige being his ward. When they were young they had gotten along splendidly, but as they grew older they became a little too different. Bree had had the luxury of being a normal girl, a teenager, something Paige had never been. But Paige supposed there were worse people she could have been put with. After all, she did like Bree, it was just hard to remember sometimes.
"Which room?" Paige asked. At Triple H every room had a name. The school itself was not a big school; at all times there were no more than twenty-five students.
Tapping a few keys on the keyboard, Roseanne squinted and said, "You have the Dragonfly room on third floor, in the west wing." Swivelling around in her chair, she reached into a drawer and pulled out a key. "Here you are, dear. And Paige? Welcome home."
Paige accepted the key and beamed at the woman. "Thank you."
The room was bigger than she had expected. The room she had grown up in had maybe been half the size of this one, but that room was situated in the other side of the mansion in the wing were the teachers lived. They had gotten a corner room, which meant that they had two windows instead of one, and Paige thought the extra light would come in handy. Two big beds were situated on opposite sides of the room and they each had a wardrobe of their own. Good, she thought, she was afraid they might have to share. If they had, Paige was pretty sure that there wouldn't be much space for her clothes after Bree had put in all of hers. Since this was, after all, a school, there were two desks placed by the two windows. And on each desk was a laptop. Now that was a pleasant surprise.
Exhausted from her long trip, Paige dropped all her bags and went to take a nap on the nearest bed. If Bree decided she wanted that bed later, well, she couldn't now, could she? Lick it, and it's yours, remember?
It didn't take long before she fell asleep.
She awoke at the sound of a bang as the door barged open. "I can't believe we're not allowed to even have two weeks of summer-vacation! What kind of school starts up right after high school ends?" Bree said, as she breezed into the room.
"And what kind of person brutally wakes up their room-mate like that?" Paige mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"Paige!" Bree squealed. "You're here!" She ran over and hugged the still prone Paige.
"Oh, you've become a hugger," Paige remarked dryly to the younger girl.
Either Bree didn't hear, or she ignored her. "It's been ages since I saw you last!"
"About a year, yeah," Paige said, looking at the girl. "You've grown a lot!"
Bree did a little twirl. "I finally gained some height," she said.
Paige smirked. "Yes, you've become very tall, Bree," she said with a mock serious nod. Paige was still almost a head taller than Bree.
Bree scrunched up her nose and stuck out her tongue and said with indignant anger, "Don't mock me!" But Bree being Bree, she couldn't hold the mad face for long. Her face split into a grin and the two girls laughed.
The younger girl started putting away her things, and Paige looked guiltily at her bags that still stood untouched in the middle of the room. She probably should start unpacking too. Heaving a big sigh she went and opened her suitcase. Once again thanking the powers that be for giving them separate wardrobes, she started hanging up her clothes.
"Ugh," Bree said, after an hour had passed. "Are you bored?" she asked. "’Cause this is very boring!"
Paige was almost finished putting away her clothes. "Yeah, this isn't the most fun thing in the world, that's for sure." She sat heavily down on her bed.
"You wanna go exploring?" Bree exclaimed.
Rolling her eyes, Paige gave her a deadpan look. "Did you really just ask me if I wanted to go explore the house I grew up in?"
"Mmm... Yeah?" Bree answered with a shrug. "So what? You haven't been here in years. Maybe something has changed? And there must be some teachers you'd want to see again?"
"Yeah," Paige said wistful. "But I'm not sure if I should."
"What do you mean?" Bree asked, sitting down next to Paige on her bed.
"Well, they are going to be my teachers now. Maybe I shouldn't strive to be familiar with them?"
"I don't know," Bree said after a moment of thought. "But... let's go see if we can get something to eat. I'm starving!"
Paige gave problems one last thought, before shrugging it off and concentrating on more pleasant things, like finding something to eat with her new room-mate. "Yes, let's go eat!" she said with a brilliant smile.
The two girls exited the room and ran through the halls. There were paintings hanging on the walls, and thanks to the carpet on the floor, they didn't make much sound as they walked past the dark panelled walls. Paige looked around and smiled. She remembered being five and bored, and one day while walking through this hall she had decided to give each painting a name. It took her years to understand that the paintings were of real people who had names of their own. Important names like Patrick Grosgrave (he was the one who founded Triple H) and not names like Mrs. Babdicock, the name Paige had given him at age five.
As she walked through the halls, Paige let the smell and familiar warmth of home wash over her. This was her home, the place that had irrevocably made her who she was. And it was so good to be back.
finis.
Author:
caramelsilverFandom: Triple H - Original Fiction
Word count: 2766
Characters: Paige Dawson
Summary: A story about some of Paige Dawson's back story. "The director, George McAdams, Bree's grandfather, had taken her in and let her grow up at the school. All through her childhood years she roamed the school, often without most of the student-body knowing she was there. It was known through the staff, though, that everything from Paige's eyesight and down belonged to her."
Paige Dawson belonged to Triple H. It had been her world since before she could remember and she had never known any other home. Her life had admittedly been anything but a normal one. She had been left at Triple H when she was three and what happened before that was a mystery to her. She didn't know who her parents were; she didn't know their names, or where they came from. Everything about her family was unknown to her. Who had left her on the front steps of the school? She didn't know, and it wasn't until she became a teenager that the fact that she didn't know the answer started to bother her.
The director, George McAdams, Bree's grandfather, had taken her in and let her grow up at the school. All through her childhood years she roamed the school, often without most of the student-body knowing she was there. It was known through the staff, though, that everything from Paige's eyesight and down belonged to her. When she reached the age of ten she expected that the director would soon let her start at the school. The youngest student ever to study at Triple H had been twelve and Paige naturally assumed that she would take over that title soon. But her birthdays came and went, and the years rolled by and the director still never mentioned anything.
When the time came for her to start high school, a summons arrived for her to go see the director. Finally, Paige thought. The time had finally come, and not a moment too soon. But the meeting did not go as she had expected.
Instead of telling her that she would finally become a student at Triple H, George McAdams told her she would be going away to go to high school. In Alabama. Stunned, she was unable to even put up a protest. He was sending her away to live among normal people. To a place so far away from here, so far away from what she perceived as normal; a place where she could tell no one where she came from. Even her name was changed: Paige McAdams. It all happened so fast, and before she knew it, Paige was in the sleek limousine with George McAdams sitting next to her.
"Just you wait and see. This is a good thing. You'll thank me later, Poppet." He patted her hand.
Paige nodded. The director was the closest she had to anything, father-figure, grandfather, family. He was all of those things to her. And if he thought it was a good idea to send her away, then she guessed it must be.
Paige's first impression of the place where she was going to live for the next four years was a warm bosom belonging to a small woman. "Darling! There you are!" she exclaimed as Paige stepped out of the limo. The unfamiliar woman quickly engulfed her into a hug, before she could even take a look around.
"My name is Mrs. Rosen, but you can call me Aunt Becky!" the woman said as she let her go. Aunt Becky had a warm, lively face, with a big red mouth and sparkling blue eyes that looked slightly odd compared to her hair that was dyed a fiery red. Paige pressed out a smile.
"It's nice to meet you, Ma'am."
The woman clucked her tongue. "I'll have none of that ma'am business, young lady. As long as you live with me, you'll call me either Aunt Becky or just Becky, if that's what you prefer."
Nodding, Paige said unsurely, "Okay... Aunt Becky."
Aunt Becky beamed. "Now then. Let's get you moved in, shall we?" Not waiting for an answer, she turned to the limousine driver and barked, "You there! Carry Paige's bags inside. Her room is the one in the attic."
While Aunt Becky was busy bossing the driver around, Paige turned to say goodbye to the director. She bit her lip in a valiant attempt to not cry. Tears were a sign of weakness; that's what Daniel always barked at his students, anyway.
"Oh, Paige," George said. "It's alright, Poppet. I'll see you soon. I just want you to experience a normal life." He hugged her. "So if you decide to come back and study with us, it's your choice, and not just because you feel that you have no other options." He let her go and searched her face. His face was wrinkled and his clear blue eyes shone with affection for her. "Do you understand?"
A few tears escaped and rolled down her face. She quickly dried them away using her sleeve, and nodded.
He nodded as well. Squeezing her shoulders one last time, he quickly checked his wrist-watch. "I need to go. We'll keep in touch." And just like that he was not her loved one anymore, but the director of an important organization that had little time to waste. With one last nod towards her, he got back into in the limousine. The driver had just finished with her bags and jumped in on cue. Paige could just stand and watch as he left her there all alone.
"So, dear. I imagine you must be hungry," Aunt Becky said, clapping her hands after the limousine was out of sight.
Paige took a deep breath and turned towards the woman. "I am, thank you."
Paige was surprised at how easily she settled in. Aunt Becky was a lovely woman that was easy to care for. Paige had never felt such warmth and attention before. Becky was married to John, a generally silent man who worked in the fields most of the day. They were childless and embraced Paige quickly into their family. Because they loved her, she loved them too.
Time went by and Paige acquired friends that didn't know that she knew how to handle a gun and throw a knife with deadly precision. Friends who didn't know that she had learned how to walk between a gun-rack and a knife-stand at the sides of trained assassins. Friends who didn't know and wouldn't believe her if she told them now. Instead they taught her how to jump rope and cycle without any hands. When the time came they learned how to drive a car together and get drunk together. Paige finally had what every normal girl had: people around her who cared about her as the teenage girl she was, and not the assassin she might become one day. And it was wonderful and heartbreaking all at the same time. Because Paige knew, in her heart of hearts, that when high school was over... well, she would go back to Triple H and she would never see her friends again.
Of course there was times when she hated everything that had helped shape her. She hated the bloody school and all the teachers. She hated them for telling her so early about what went on and she hated them for all they taught her to do. What normal five-year-old was allowed to handle a knife? What normal child learned how to best silence an attacker?Between the ages of sixteen and seventeen she barely talked to the director, even though he called her once a week all year.
The last year of high school was nothing but torture. She had made her decision and she just wanted the time to go faster! Her body was filled with longing. That Christmas she didn't go back to New York like she usually did, but spent it in Alabama with Aunt Becky and Uncle John. She would be leaving them soon and that was the worst part of her chosen career-path in life. She knew that this was what she wanted to do, but it also meant that there wouldn’t be much time left for the people she loved. There couldn't be, lest she put them in danger. Things had been so much easier when she was younger. She had once sneaked into one of Mr. R's lectures. That day he had talked about the importance of not compromising the lives of loved ones. She remembered how smug she had felt as she sat in the corner and thought, "I don't have any loved ones. I'll be better than anyone!" She had been ten at the time. Thinking back she almost laughed at herself. So naive.
As soon as graduation was over, Paige packed her bags and went back to New York. It was best to make a clean break. To her friends, she made up a lie about going to college in Europe. To Becky and John she promised to come back for Christmas, a promise she intended to keep. She never found out just how much Aunt Becky knew. Did she know about the things Paige would be learning in the next four years? And how had she ended up with Aunt Becky in the first place? In back of her mind, Paige had always assumed that Aunt Becky knew more than she ever told her. She didn't think the director would place her anywhere that would be unsafe.
When she finally stood in front of the grand mansion that was Triple H it felt like a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders. Finally. Finally! As she slowly stepped inside, she did so as a student, not as someone who just lived there. So with a huge smile she went to the office and signed in as a normal student would.
Roseanne, the secretary, didn't even look up from her magazine as she entered the room. "Your errand?" she droned in a dull voice.
"I’m enlisting as a student!" Paige chirped.
Roseanne quickly looked up from her magazine. "Paige?" she asked. "Little Paige Dawson! Are you finally back?"
Nodding, Paige returned her big smile. "See, I’ve finished all my paperwork and everything," she said while handing Roseanne the papers.
Only giving the papers a cursory glance, Roseanne beamed and turned to her computer. "You are to be rooming with a girl named..." she squinted at the monitor. "Oooh! You are rooming with the director's granddaughter, Bree McAdams!" She turned to look at Paige, "I expect the two of you have already met?"
Paige nodded, her mood slightly less joyous. She had hoped she would be rooming alone, being so old and all. But Bree was alright, she supposed. They had met, of course, Bree being George's granddaughter and Paige being his ward. When they were young they had gotten along splendidly, but as they grew older they became a little too different. Bree had had the luxury of being a normal girl, a teenager, something Paige had never been. But Paige supposed there were worse people she could have been put with. After all, she did like Bree, it was just hard to remember sometimes.
"Which room?" Paige asked. At Triple H every room had a name. The school itself was not a big school; at all times there were no more than twenty-five students.
Tapping a few keys on the keyboard, Roseanne squinted and said, "You have the Dragonfly room on third floor, in the west wing." Swivelling around in her chair, she reached into a drawer and pulled out a key. "Here you are, dear. And Paige? Welcome home."
Paige accepted the key and beamed at the woman. "Thank you."
The room was bigger than she had expected. The room she had grown up in had maybe been half the size of this one, but that room was situated in the other side of the mansion in the wing were the teachers lived. They had gotten a corner room, which meant that they had two windows instead of one, and Paige thought the extra light would come in handy. Two big beds were situated on opposite sides of the room and they each had a wardrobe of their own. Good, she thought, she was afraid they might have to share. If they had, Paige was pretty sure that there wouldn't be much space for her clothes after Bree had put in all of hers. Since this was, after all, a school, there were two desks placed by the two windows. And on each desk was a laptop. Now that was a pleasant surprise.
Exhausted from her long trip, Paige dropped all her bags and went to take a nap on the nearest bed. If Bree decided she wanted that bed later, well, she couldn't now, could she? Lick it, and it's yours, remember?
It didn't take long before she fell asleep.
She awoke at the sound of a bang as the door barged open. "I can't believe we're not allowed to even have two weeks of summer-vacation! What kind of school starts up right after high school ends?" Bree said, as she breezed into the room.
"And what kind of person brutally wakes up their room-mate like that?" Paige mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"Paige!" Bree squealed. "You're here!" She ran over and hugged the still prone Paige.
"Oh, you've become a hugger," Paige remarked dryly to the younger girl.
Either Bree didn't hear, or she ignored her. "It's been ages since I saw you last!"
"About a year, yeah," Paige said, looking at the girl. "You've grown a lot!"
Bree did a little twirl. "I finally gained some height," she said.
Paige smirked. "Yes, you've become very tall, Bree," she said with a mock serious nod. Paige was still almost a head taller than Bree.
Bree scrunched up her nose and stuck out her tongue and said with indignant anger, "Don't mock me!" But Bree being Bree, she couldn't hold the mad face for long. Her face split into a grin and the two girls laughed.
The younger girl started putting away her things, and Paige looked guiltily at her bags that still stood untouched in the middle of the room. She probably should start unpacking too. Heaving a big sigh she went and opened her suitcase. Once again thanking the powers that be for giving them separate wardrobes, she started hanging up her clothes.
"Ugh," Bree said, after an hour had passed. "Are you bored?" she asked. "’Cause this is very boring!"
Paige was almost finished putting away her clothes. "Yeah, this isn't the most fun thing in the world, that's for sure." She sat heavily down on her bed.
"You wanna go exploring?" Bree exclaimed.
Rolling her eyes, Paige gave her a deadpan look. "Did you really just ask me if I wanted to go explore the house I grew up in?"
"Mmm... Yeah?" Bree answered with a shrug. "So what? You haven't been here in years. Maybe something has changed? And there must be some teachers you'd want to see again?"
"Yeah," Paige said wistful. "But I'm not sure if I should."
"What do you mean?" Bree asked, sitting down next to Paige on her bed.
"Well, they are going to be my teachers now. Maybe I shouldn't strive to be familiar with them?"
"I don't know," Bree said after a moment of thought. "But... let's go see if we can get something to eat. I'm starving!"
Paige gave problems one last thought, before shrugging it off and concentrating on more pleasant things, like finding something to eat with her new room-mate. "Yes, let's go eat!" she said with a brilliant smile.
The two girls exited the room and ran through the halls. There were paintings hanging on the walls, and thanks to the carpet on the floor, they didn't make much sound as they walked past the dark panelled walls. Paige looked around and smiled. She remembered being five and bored, and one day while walking through this hall she had decided to give each painting a name. It took her years to understand that the paintings were of real people who had names of their own. Important names like Patrick Grosgrave (he was the one who founded Triple H) and not names like Mrs. Babdicock, the name Paige had given him at age five.
As she walked through the halls, Paige let the smell and familiar warmth of home wash over her. This was her home, the place that had irrevocably made her who she was. And it was so good to be back.
finis.