Ryland Grace is having a normal day. A normal day is good; he likes a normal day. He likes predictability.
Sure, he's having a mid-year student join his class, and aside from the medical complications he'd need to be abreast of— kids move districts every year. Every now and then, you'll get a kid halfway through, who comes in with no warning, so he's not surprised.
So aside from that small and insignificant detail, he's having a normal, everyday Thursday. Then he gets the student's name, and his whole world tilts a little to the left.
This is... okay. This is fine. He can deal with this. He's an adult. Ryland Grace, who used to be Riley Gentry, does, in fact, know that people can have the same last names. He'd once had five Johnsons in the same class with him. That had been an interesting year. So, okay. The new kid's got part of his old deadname. No big deal. He can separate his childhood baggage from his duty as a teacher.
So Grace is having a normal day. Aside from that small shock of seeing his new student's name, he can comport himself and get a wriggle on, as it were.
Besides, he needs to get in contact with Claire's parent to talk about this medical issue anyway. That should take his mind off everything.
Okay. Okay. Let's look and see where her parent's contact info is, right; he looks, and he sees, and—
It sits there like a stain, like the piece of his father's brain embedding itself into the wall, into his line of sight. Looking at it is like drowning all over again, like breathing all over again, like being eight years old and almost dying all over again.
With that same stupid swirl he’d do at the end of his y’s.
Ryland Grace is no longer having a normal day. He may have been having a normal day five seconds ago, currently he’s having a panic attack and possibly definitely needs to call Colt. Just a normal Thursday— and excuses language— his fucking ass.
Six is currently having a normal thursday, which is weird because usually his thursdays involve, you know, killing people and not dying. Which is currently extremely disconcerting. Who knew getting shot at 24/7 for eighteen years of your life would have dramatic effects on your brain chemistry and ideas of normality?
Crippling PTSD aside, the reason he's having a normal Thursday is one of the reasons he's trying to no longer have to run and fight for his life. Despite what Claire may think about the glamorous life of being a spy, the best way to disappear into a crowd is to appear normal. It worked mostly the same with laying low.
Get yourself an all-American dream life: a picket fence— or, in their case, a single father in a one-bedroom apartment, with Six taking the couch— an out-of-the-way menial job that pays the bills— thats currently working on film sets as a grunt— change your look and make sure your kid goes to school on time.
Courtland Gentry had, once upon a time, been dead, but it's surprisingly easier to resurrect someone than it is to kill them.
It's a little dicey, putting Claire in public school, but if Six is good at anything, he's good at his job. Good enough that he's currently doing background checks on every single one of the teachers. Good enough that he's already scoped the place out. He already knows the inside gossip. He knows that the principal is cheating on his wife with the cafeteria lady.
But not good enough evidently, to figure out one Dr. Ryland Grace.
Oh, he had everything up until the doctor part, but his childhood and teenage years? A big fat blank, like someone had gone through and scrubbed everything aside from the essentials.
It's a little mystery. Definitely stinks of government meddling of some kind. So where the hell had this guy come from? Witness protection isn't much of his business. What is his business is making sure Claire is okay. And this little mystery is currently making him rethink settling in this district. But Claire has a San Francisco accent, knows the area, and can better absorb into the culture here. And there are only so many places for two white Americans to hide, one without training to boot. So Six will keep an eye on this Ryland Grace, and if anything goes pear-shaped, well, at least he'll have an idea of the first weak point.
What Six has failed to remember; or is currently not even considering, because he would never consider his own siblings in a situation like this— is that, once upon a time, Courtland Gentry made a deal with a man. Not just for himself, but for his siblings: his sister and his brother. That nothing could be connected back to him in any way. That there would be no failsafes and no weak lines leading into his past. That Courtland Gentry, even if someone found out who he was, would never, ever lead them to his siblings.
So Fitzroy made some deals with people who are now dead or retired, and Colton Gentry and then Riley (but soon to change) Gentry were adopted by a sweet couple and subsequently disappeared from Courtland's past. It didn't matter much because Courtland died soon after. And Six considered it his penance. For his siblings' safety, he would never find out who they became or where they were. Just a nod from Fitz every once in a while to let him know they were okay. He didn't know that Colton went by Colt exclusively and had changed his last name to his stage name Seavers. That Riley had transitioned to Ryland and gone by their adoptive parents' last name, Grace.
This is currently about to bite all of them in the ass.
