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Sam Chisolm knows firsthand what it feels like to be judged for something you can’t control. What it feels like when someone lets their prejudices get in the way of seeing you for who and what you are as an individual. It’s why he tries not to judge a man until he’s gotten the chance to know him.
So he understands, in a way, just what Faraday has had to put up with for most of his life, and he’s not happy about it. He’s spent more than enough time with Faraday to know the younger man is one of the best people he’s met, and to see him so broken over something he should be proud of was harder for Sam than he’d care to admit.
He knows he can’t change the minds of every single person out there who believes firebenders are practically the Devil incarnate - that’s something he knows Faraday will probably have to face for the rest of his life - but one thing he can do is try to ensure Faraday doesn’t have to put up with any of that shit within their own ranks.
The saloon is quiet when he enters, but not silent; Horne and Billy are huddled at one of the tables, deep in talk with Emma and Teddy. Red is still watching everything with an air of indifference, and Vasquez is hunched over the bar, apparently trying to crawl inside a bottle of whiskey.
Sam coughs once, and their heads all snap up to look at him.
“We need to talk,” he says simply.
“Is it true?” Emma asks, standing and wringing her hands. “Mr. Faraday, is he really…?”
“A firebender? Yes.” Sam folds his arms. “I’ve spoken to him, now I want to speak to the rest of you, because this is something that needs to be addressed.”
“Did you ask him to leave?”
“I saw no reason to.”
“No reason?” Vasquez’s voice is rough, and Sam wonders how much he’s had to drink. “He’s a firebender, how do we even know we can trust him?”
“Because he’s never given us a reason not to.”
“He lied to us, Sam,” Billy says. “He lied to you .”
“Can any of you blame him?” He casts a stony gaze at the rest of the room. “Did any one of us give him any cause to feel safe sharing that with us? That night in the canyon, Vasquez, you said the only good firebender was a dead one, and not one of us disagreed with you. What would you have done in his place, if you knew the men around you felt that way?”
He notices the way Vasquez shifts uncomfortably on his feet and casts his eyes down, the way the others are exchanging meaningful looks, and presses on. “That man has never said or done a single thing against us. He’s fought with us, for us. Laughed, shared drinks with us. Before tonight all of you would have called him your friend. And he has done all of that knowing, the entire time, that the only reason none of us hated him was because he kept that part of himself a secret.”
They’re all avoiding his eyes now, even Billy. “Now I don’t know about any of you, but I can’t imagine being able to do that. To get to the point where pretending my bending didn’t exist seemed like the best option, to get to the point where I was so ashamed of it I couldn’t even admit it to the men I had trusted enough to keep me alive in a firefight. Could you do that with your bending, Billy? Horne? Vasquez, could you do that?”
“That’s not the same,” Vasquez says, but even he doesn’t sound convinced by his own words.
“Like hell it ain’t! Yeah, firebenders are the ones with the reputation for being awful, but that reputation could just as easily have gone to earthbenders, or water, or air. Would any of you want people to judge you just based on your element like that? Just assume you were a monster because of something you couldn’t even help?”
“Maybe firebenders have that reputation for a reason!”
“And Faraday? Has he done anything to earn it?” Sam fixes Vasquez with the iciest glare he can. “Our first day here, he hadn’t known you a week and he still covered you. He already knew you hated his kind and he still did everything he could to keep you alive. He’s helped this town get ready for war, he stayed even when Goody didn’t. And he’s still willing to fight alongside us knowing how we all feel, and we’re still debating whether or not we can trust him?”
Sam pauses, takes a slow breath. “There might be monsters here tonight, but Faraday isn’t one of them.”
Vasquez, to his credit, doesn’t say anything more. Sam would go so far as to say the waterbender almost looks guilty. They all do, really - he’s pretty sure there are actual tears in Emma’s eyes, and Teddy looks all the world like a kicked puppy.
Sam knows how they feel. The second he realized how long he’d let Faraday go on thinking the way he had, he’d felt worse than he ever had in his life, and that hasn’t gone away. But he deserves to feel awful - they all do.
Faraday had deserved better from them.
“I know I can’t change your opinions for you, no matter how much I talk,” Sam says, voice a touch softer than it had been a moment ago. “But I will say this: keep them to yourselves. I told Faraday this and now I’m telling you, if any of you have a problem with him? Then you’ve got a problem with me.”
He honestly doesn’t feel like he’s said enough in Faraday’s defense, but it’s late, he’s tired, they’re all tired, and tomorrow is going to be hell as it is. So he turns to leave, stopping in the doorway to say one final piece.
“If we all live through this, we are going to owe that man a very, very big apology.”
And then he’s gone.
And he hopes the others will lie awake tonight racked with the same shame he’s feeling right now.