No. 95

Prompt: author's choice, author's choice, it's [character's] alias' birthday; they've forgotten their 'real' one
http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/695111.html?thread=91529031#t91529031

It wasn't until he was studying photos of the kidnapping and saw the date on the newspaper the kidnap victim was holding that he realized: today was his birthday.

John Bateman's birthday.

He'd been Lucas North for so long that he'd forgotten his real birthday. As a spook birthdays were an expendable thing anyway. Whenever he went undercover with a new legend, he had to internalize that legend's birthday, which was never his own for security purposes.

Except his own birthday wasn't his, was it?

Except he was Lucas North. He'd bled and almost died for his country as Lucas North, spent eight years in a Russian prison as Lucas North, been beaten and tortured and taken apart and badly put together again. The "real" Lucas North had barely done anything worthwhile with his life.

He was Lucas North, always had been at heart.

He hoped he always would be.