Eddie Bear (Animal Challenge)

[leesa_perrie]

Title: Eddie Bear
Author: Leesa Perrie
Category: Gen, Angst.
Rating: PG
Pairings: None
Warnings: Can't think of any.
Summary: Rodney and his bear...not fluffy, angsty.  Well, meret wanted a teddy bear...hope this fits!

It was a teddy bear.  Old and well loved.  Bare, the fur long ago worn away, and an eye and an ear both clumsily stitched back into place.  It wasn’t an expensive bear, even when it was new, and time had not treated it well.  Anyone else would have thrown it away; tattered round the edges, bare and stained, poorly patched, dusty and old.

But not him.  It was the one piece of sentimentality he allowed himself.  The one object from his childhood he kept, could not bear, he grimaced at the unintentional pun, to part with.  He even smuggled it into Atlantis, not wanting it known as his one personal item, and not wanting to be restrained by that asinine rule.  What if someone else’s item was bigger than his?  How would that be fair?  Fairer surely to have assigned each of them a box or a bag of a set size and allowed a person to fill it as he or she seemed fit.

So he’d smuggled it in, and hid it carefully.  If he died, no doubt it would be found when they, whoever they were, most likely his team, packed up his room.  He could imagine the surprise and the consternation that would cause, and smiled.  Let them all scratch their heads and wonder why he of all people would bring an old tattered teddy bear to a place like this.  Did he sleep with it still?  He knew some would snidely suggest that.  The answer though was no.  It had been many, many years since he had slept with his bear snuggled up in his arms.

If anyone was to ask him, not that he would still be around to do so, of course, but if anyone was to find out and he was still alive and able to answer, what would he tell them?  That it had belonged to someone he missed, perhaps?  Some long lost friend or family member, and he kept it as a reminder of them? 

Or the truth?

When he was four his Grandma gave him this bear.  He called it Eddie, Teddy being too common a name.  As if Eddie was any better, really.  He would later claim he named it after Thomas Edison, though he’d never heard of the guy when he was four.  He carried Eddie with him everywhere, until he started pre-school and wasn’t able to take his beloved bear with him.  But he carried Eddie everywhere outside of school.

He loved his bear, mostly because his Grandma had given it to him.  His beloved Grandma, who was the only one who truly seemed to love him for who he was and not what his parents wanted him to be.  Someone who died when he was six, and left him heartbroken for many years after.

Eddie became even more precious after that, but he learned not to carry his bear with him everywhere.  It only led to ridicule from his fair-weather friends, and his parents, or to traumas when the local bullies tried to take Eddie from him.  So Eddie stayed in his room, and he spent more and more time there, reading, studying and working out how things worked.

His parents had tried to get him to give Eddie to his sister, but he had hidden his bear away, saying he had lost it.  They brought her a new bear, a better and more expensive one.  He suspected they would have anyway, and were trying to make him ‘grow up’ or something.  To get rid of his much loved bear, which they deemed not to be a suitable toy for a child of eleven years old. 

But Eddie was his comfort when his parents argued.  When his dreams crashed down around him and he had to make new dreams.  When his sister was mean, or his so-called friends turned away from him, or even worse, turned against him.   When he found himself alone, and learned to like it, as alone was safer, easier and not hard to do.  He had a natural talent for alienating people, his mother had said, not realising that others had alienated him first.

This old, worn out teddy bear was stained by tears, his tears; a symbol of his childhood that had too few good times, too many bad.  A symbol of his survival in a world he didn’t fit into.  A symbol of the one person who had shown him unconditional love when he was small and needed it most.

He sighed, and placed Eddie back into the box, hiding his childhood away with his precious bear.

This was a new place, a new life.  And it seemed that there were people here who liked him, unconditionally. 

Eddie had served his purpose and for that he would be forever grateful to his Grandma for.  And he would allow himself this small bit of sentimentality, keep his old tattered bear and move on.

The End

Comments

[crownglass39.livejournal.com]

Oh Eddie!

[leesa_perrie]

Thanks

[hugglewolf.livejournal.com]

Beautiful..and I love that he has the team now, who want him for who he is and aren't going to change like the weather. But I think this is the hurt that got me the most:

He had a natural talent for alienating people, his mother had said, not realising that others had alienated him first.

Poor Rodney.

[leesa_perrie]

Rodney is just such an angst bunny, but at least he has friends now. I think that line was probably my own favourite!

Thanks, glad you liked it.

[elliejane.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was really, really good. I loved the "alienating" line, as well!

[leesa_perrie]

Glad you like it so much, esp. that line!

[sholio]

Oh, nice! I like the idea that he's realized he doesn't really need the bear here, because he has people who love him no matter what. *pets Rodney*

[leesa_perrie]

Glad you liked this. And yeah, he doesn't need the bear anymore - not only do people love him, but it seems certain people want to pet him too *bg*!

PS Love the icon - makes me want to pet him too!

[cryptocat.livejournal.com]

::Sighs:: when you've got a bear like that, you never don't need 'em. 'Course my guy says that my bear stares at him, but I think he just feels threatened.

And hiss at his parents for trying to take Eddie away!

[leesa_perrie]

Well, he is keeping his bear even though he is moving on, which I think says a lot 'cos Rodney doesn't strike me as the most sentimental of people! Though I have a sneaky suspicion he is more sentimental than he wants people to think he is!!

And yeah, nasty parents. Lots of boos and hisses to them!

Glad you liked it.

[miz-tith.livejournal.com]

....alone was safer, easier and not hard to do.
Ohh Rodney. I just want to hug the stuffing out of him!

Loved this, so beautiful!

[leesa_perrie]

I know, I know, poor Rodney. Let's all give him a big group hug (and make him blush)! So glad you loved it.

Love your icon, BTW. LOL!

[miz-tith.livejournal.com]

All the best icons are Rodney. He makes it all so easy!
(although I am partial to Zelenka too!)

[saphanibaal.livejournal.com]

I really like this. (The part where I totally have a doll stuffed into the corner of my bookcase whom I'm never giving up has very little to do with it. Really.) ^_^

"Eddie" makes me think of Edward Bear, to be honest.

[leesa_perrie]

Glad you liked it (and I still have my old teddy bear hanging around too!!).

And Eddie - well, what was a very young boy to do? Both names (Teddy and Eddie) derive from Edward... but at least it was slightly more original than Teddy! Slightly!!! (And it was only later he claimed it was after Edison...!)

[saphanibaal.livejournal.com]

Although I think when it comes to stuffed bears, "Teddy" is far more likely to derive from Theodore.

Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin...

[leesa_perrie]

You're right, of course they were named Teddy after Theodore (Roosevelt, according to a quick web surf I just did!) not someone called Edward. I'd gotten all mixed up!

Poor Edward Bear being bumped down the stairs!

[linziday.livejournal.com]

AWWWWW!!!!!

[leesa_perrie]

Thanks.

[hajimebassaidai.livejournal.com]

I was a mite concerned about how this was going to go but it was pitched beautifully.

Emotional but not slushy with good reasons for why Rodney would still have his teddy. Why a man who in everything else prefers the blunt, hard facts, who isn't a "poster child" for any soft sentiment would keep a childhood stuffed toy.

Great story!

[leesa_perrie]

Thank you, I'm glad that you liked it!