Russell George Bailey

Russ

Late 70s, like 79

He/Him

Retired Accountant

Human

Sam Waterston

Russell is on the quiet side. He appears soft-spoken and mild-mannered, level and calm where his wife is headstrong, more of a loner than his wife's socialite tendencies, prefers to stay home and read over going out, and speaks more with his eyes and his body language than his mouth.

This is all an act - well trained and balanced and ingrained into submission. But it's why Russell still has a quiet authority despite his meek attitude, why people listen when he speaks, and why what he says is still the rule of law in the house. The Bailey blood he is so ashamed of still burns deep in his veins, too deep to ever be rid of... few have ever seen the fury that can so easily burn under the calm, the way the fire of power and authority blazes in his eyes. Especially when it comes to protecting his family.

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Russell is an early bird, usually rising about 4:30, spends his mornings at the breakfast table reading the newspaper while wife and children fluttered about getting ready for the day, and now as a retired man, mostly putters around the house and his garden doing odd jobs and hobby projects. He is in charge of a lot of the record keeping for his wife's many social circles and hobby groups. But he doesn't go out much at all; if he ventures from their home, it's only as far as the corner shop where several of the old men of the neighborhood spend their days gossiping.

Ellen is his precious daughter, the apple of her father's eye... and he has never wanted the blood and death that taints him to touch his beloved child. While he may feel some bitterness towards James for the boy's misplaced hostility towards him, the fact that James smoothed over the relations between the Bailey clan and Russell has been an immense boon. His son being his sister's protector has also been a blessing.

Russell has orchestrated much of the movement behind keeping Ellen in the dark. He would prefer to go to his grave with her never knowing any of the truths: the crime family in their blood, the supernatural world that lies underground, the fact that her brother is not his son. James may be the executioner, but it is only at the will of his parents that he has done any of these things.

It was also Russell that sent Ellen out of New York to train to be a cop, fearing for her safety should she train with the NYPD, he was the one who ultimately influenced the decision for her to leave the NYPD and go to Helena, and later on to Bear River; and if he had his way, she never would have taken the detective's exam the final time that led her to Snow Haven.

Russell was the youngest child of the reigning mob boss of the Bailey clan in the Irish Mob in NYC. As the youngest of his siblings, he was also the favorite and the beloved of his parents' eyes. He got into accounting to help cook the books and launder money for his family, but he couldn't stomach the crime life he had been born and raised in, nor the little he had seen, and so he ran.

It should have been a death sentence, but as the beloved youngest child, they let him off with his life.

He met Vivian shortly after settling in Addison - a beautiful young graduate student getting her master's in Library Sciences... and also 3 months pregnant and soon-to-be single mother in an era where that was severely looked down on. She wooed him, he fell head over heels for her, pragmatic about the fact that the child she was carrying was not his - but he didn't care. Here was a chance at a family he never had. They were married after only 6 months of dating a week before James was born.

Russell and Vivian were, and still are, as fiercely in love as they were back then. Ellen came along two years after her brother and she was the apple of her father's eye, much like he had been to his own parents.

Russell is an Aware Human.

The only reason Russell was aware of the supernatural underground prior to James being born and manifesting his powers around the age of 6, was because it was a side effect growing up in the Irish Mob clan. He knew it existed, but it is a "don't ask, don't tell" kind of situation, where you only knew enough to protect yourself, but otherwise could claim plausible deniability should it ever be brought up.

That being said, he now knows just as much as his wife and son... which is to say, nearly everything there is. Because Vivian made it her sole mission in life for several years to learn anything and everything that could help their son.

Thanks to James' connections, the family home is warded and protected from attackers, both mundane (casual robbers going after the old folks and the like) and sinister (such as people who have discovered the clan connection somehow or are after James).

His wedding ring is also imbued with protection magic, because it is the only piece of jewelry he will never take off so it was the only thing they could think to ward. This defensive ward activates whenever there is something that is considered a danger to Russell's health or life and will stop any incoming attack and buy time for Russell to get to safety. The ward has a 30-second active window, and can activate 5 times in total before the ring goes on a cooldown.