Reflections: Follow The Leader
by
Chris AndersonDisclaimer: Alias is the property of other people, including J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot productions.
Written for the Theatrical Muse 'lead or follow' challenge.
---
Laura Bristow:
Laura doesn't think of it in these terms, but in a way she is both leader and follower. She leads because she is the one at the front of the room in lecture halls and classrooms, the one who imparts the knowledge she has to her students.
But she expects in time to be left behind by them, to be surpassed by them. She expects them to go beyond what she has taught them.
Then, the roles switch, and perhaps she will learn from them.
Irina Derevko:
Irina leads. She says when, and where, and how. She knows why, of course- she has reasons for everything, but rarely speaks of them. Those who follow her have learned not to waste time in asking.
She has not followed anyone since her mother's death. When she lived, Illeyna was the leader without question, as Irina is now. Even her sisters do not question that, though Katya will always play her games.
Irina allows her a certain freedom, but when she draws the line and meets Katya's eyes, her own like steel, her sister realizes she has approached the point of going too far, and she hastens to assure Irina she is loyal.
Irina never makes the mistake of trusting too much in this loyalty.
It is different with Arvin, but most things are. He is a man who cannot conceive of things beyond his control. It amuses her sometimes to allow him the illusion of pulling strings. He believed, of course, in their partnership, and she has held him rather in contempt since then.
Arvin fancies himself a better man, one more complex and vigilant, harder to fool, than Jack Bristow.
He forgets that in the end, Jack figured her out. Arvin still hasn't yet, and she prefers it that way.
It is different with Jack, too, but again, most things are. More than any other, their relationship is the one she finds it most difficult to quantify. Their long, complex history, their bittersweet past, their tangled web of the present... If she has a partner on this earth, if ever she has, it is, will be, has always been Jack Bristow. Between them are many things, secrets and history, lies and powerful truths, but there has never been a leader or a follower. How could there ever have been, when it has seemed so obvious to her for so long that there is only really one of them?
This used to trouble her more. She has always been a woman who dominates where and when and who she could- and she had thought for a time that she had done so with him, only to find that it had not been so- that he was, in fact, strong enough to fight her, strong enough to hold his own ground, but not strong enough to gain any more. Strong enough to stand against her, but not strong enough to best her any more than she was strong enough to best him.
They were, are, always will be, evenly matched, perfectly balanced. And she likes it best this way.
Feedback?