|
|
Catherine Le Beau
Max's new partner,
now that Rachel's been promoted. I believe my first thought upon meeting
her was "God made two of 'em?" She's almost frighteningly similar to Max,
and they seem to waver between friendly rivalry and driving each other
up the wall. I think I pity Berto for having to put up with them.
She's not exactly
like Max, of course, beyond being female. No split personality here; with
Cat, what you see is what you get. She's incredibly direct, sometimes to
the point of ignoring tact. In a way, it's a sort of compliment-- she thinks
you're strong enough that she doesn't have to sugarcoat things.
Cat is an intensely
private person, and I probably know more about her and her history than
anyone else at N-Tek, including Jeff. Everybody needs at least one escape
valve, and since I'm bound not to discuss this with anybody unless it directly
affects their performance, she knows her secrets are safe with me.
Born in a small,
very conservative town in southern Tennessee, Cat never knew her father.
In fact, she doesn't even know her father's NAME, because her mother would
never talk about it. You can imagine, in a small, conservative, Southern
town, just what kind of childhood an illegitimate little girl would have.
By the time she was ten, Cat had beaten nearly every boy in town in a fistfight
at one point or another. She excelled at sports, and found some measure
of popularity that way, but her early childhood left her with a deep-seated
need for acceptance. That, plus her reluctance to truly trust anyone with
her actual self, resulted in the very flirtatious, almost overly sexual
aura she exudes.
She's also fiercely
independent, no doubt because her youth gave her no one to depend on. From
what she's told me, her mother was a shy, somewhat weak woman, ruled entirely
by the dictates of her own parents. It was they who decided that Cat should
know nothing of her biological father. With grandparents who considered
her an embarrassment and a mother unwilling to defy them, Cat spent most
of her childhood trusting no one but herself.
Her lack of
knowledge about her father has rendered Cat's self-image and identity a
bit shaky, something she hides behind a mask of bravado. Like Max, she
has abandonment issues, though she chooses to deal with them by complete
independence, rather than an overwhelming protective drive. Also, she wonders
whether perhaps she is flawed in some way, so that people don't want to
be around her. Placing her with Team Steel was a stroke of genius on Jeff's
part-- if anyone can break through that wall around her, Max and Berto
can.