Adventures of Matt Parkman, Chapter 6: A yellow dog
A/N: Gun safety - one of my pet peeves. The reason why actors are all the time sticking guns in their belts is because their guns are props. They aren't loaded and there's no chance they'll snag something on their belt or the zipper or a button or whatever and shoot themselves. It annoys me to see such dangerous items used that way on TV because so many people are guided in their ideas about normal gun handling by seeing it done that way.
Matt threaded his way out of a crowded utility room to the back door, following Kassidy closely. He tried to stick the gun in his pocket, but it wasn't deep enough. He grabbed a shirt off the top of the washing machine as he went by and wrapped it up so it wasn't so obvious. He wasn't about to do something as asinine as to stick the gun in his belt. He pushed the door shut with his shoulder and hoped like hell the cops didn't find his prints on anything. His mind was cataloging all the places he hadn't wiped clean: the wood floor where he'd struggled with the man, the gate out front, the screen door, maybe the front rail, did he get the entire phone? What about the coffee table?
They walked around the side of the house. His thoughts were distracted when the dog rushed up to the girl, licking her face enthusiastically. She hugged the animal and the pair walked to the front gate while Matt used a loose part of the shirt the gun was wrapped in to rub down the screen door handle and the front rail. He went to the gate.
"Um, hey, I'm not taking the dog."
Kassidy looked alarmed, afraid. "You said! You said I could take Mazy."
He looked at the dog, which gazed back at him serenely, calm now that a member of her family was there. "That's Mazy?"
The girl nodded. "Because she's a-Mazing!" The girl smiled again and hugged the dog, who was still watching Matt.
I painted the dog. The dog's important. I wish I'd paid attention to what else was in the picture with the freaking dog. Seems nice enough. "Okay, sure. We'll take the dog to Grana's." He opened the gate and let them out, then wiped it down too.
He looked up and down the street, surprised that no one else had reacted to the gunfire. He knew the city had detection systems that listened for shots, but without an accompanying call, response times were slow. They couldn't target an exact house anyway. He wasn't even sure they'd pick up shots fired inside a home. He didn't stick around to find out.
Kassidy got in the car. Matt opened the back door and Mazy climbed in without a problem, laying down and taking up the entire seat. I'm going to have dog hair all over that now. He shut the door and drove off, heading towards the part of town where he knew thirty-second street was. It took some driving around, because it turned out to be 23rd street instead of 32nd, but Kassidy pointed out the house when they came to it.
He got out, telling the girl, "Stay here," and walked up to the house. He rang the doorbell and waited. An older woman came to the door after a few minutes.
Kassidy got out of the car and ran up the sidewalk when she saw her grandmother. Matt gritted his teeth, thinking if he had his ability, he could have made her stay put. The girl ran past him, hugging her grandmother. "Grana! Grana!"
"Hi, baby sissy. What are you doing here?" the woman asked. She looked at Matt suspiciously.
"Can I come in? There's been a problem. I need to talk to you."
She looked her granddaughter over again and nodded shortly to him, opening the door and stepping back. They sat in the living room. Matt looked around the place. It was stuffy, but pleasant and neat, smelling faintly of cooking. The woman looked at him expectantly. Kassidy sat on an overstuffed chair, swinging her legs.
Matt said, "Um… privately." He looked at the little girl.
Pursing her lips, Grana said to her, "Baby, go upstairs and see if everything's set up in the room for you to stay a while, in case you need to." The girl nodded and took off.
Parkman said, "There was… a shooting… her parents are dead. I got there in time to stop the shooter from getting her too. He's… he got away. She said I should bring her here. That's all. I just wanted you to know… before you… before you got a call."
The woman blinked several times. Matt added, "Kassidy didn't see the bodies. I don't think she knows they were… uh, they were killed."
"Thank you," she said faintly, swallowing. "Thank you for bringing my little girl here. They's… They're dead? My son?" She slipped a little, her original accent showing through a bit as her emotions threatened her.
"There was a man and a woman dead. I…" Matt shook his head. "I don't know them. I didn't… When I got there, they were dead."
"He was in… Oh no!" She sniffed and suddenly became angry. "Get you out of here! Get out! You've done your part. Get you out!" She stood and glared at him, unaccented English degrading entirely to the manner of speaking she'd grown up with.
Matt rose and exited, his duty done. On the front step, he turned back and said, "Wait! I have their dog."
The old woman wasn't having any of it though. "I can't keep no dog! Not their big dog neither. They get that dog from that strange school of they's. You have that dog; you keep that dog. My son was an idiot! Brought this down on himself! You can keep his stupid dog!" She slammed the door in his face.
Matt stared at it for a moment, thinking there was no figuring out how people would react in grief. He considered knocking. Kassidy really liked the dog. She'd just lost her parents. She needed the animal. He walked back to the car and looked at Mazy, who was sitting up in the back seat and watching him. I can't just let it out. Or tie it to her front door. Maybe… maybe I can call back tomorrow or something when things are calmer.
He got in the car, which smelled heavily like dog breath. He looked back at Mazy. "So. Are we good?" The dog looked at him for a moment, then at the house and whined slightly. Matt nodded. "Yeah, I know. I'll… figure something out." He drove back to his apartment and parked outside, looking up at it. There was no way he could keep a dog there, especially one of this size. Janice had a fenced back yard. She should even be off work by now.
He drove there, unsure of whether this was a good idea, but the dog was important. He had to keep it somewhere, maybe just for a few days until the grandmother could work out whatever she needed to work out to take it back. He reached back and gave the dog a scratch, then explored its neck. She had a collar, but no tags. She was happy to be touched and very friendly, leaning forward to give him a lick on the face for his trouble. "Thanks," he muttered.
He wiped dog slobber off himself and got out of the car. He opened the back door and reached in for Mazy, who climbed out with the oddly awkward grace of really big dogs. She gazed up at him expectantly. He looked back and on impulse, said, "Heel!" He walked forward and glanced down. Mazy fell in step with him. His brows rose. She really is amazing. Good dog.
He knocked at the glass door and waited. Janice came out of the kitchen and stopped when she saw him. Her expression was calculating, betrayed, and maybe even trapped.
"Janice," he swallowed. "Janice… I'm not coming back. I just… I have a favor to ask of you."
Matty came out of the kitchen behind her and ran past, yelling "Daddy!" Yesterday was forgotten. Matt felt a lump form in his throat.
"Matty!" Janice jumped at him but missed. He picked up speed and threw himself against the glass door, a common activity for him regardless of how much Matt and Janice both had tried to discourage it. He stared out at the dog, whose head was as high as his own. Janice stood behind him, but let Matty be where he was.
The boy nearly bounced up and down in excitement, saying, "Doggie! Woov! Woov! Woovf! Wooovf!"
Matt smiled. "He's barking at the dog."
Janice eyed the animal in question. "I didn't know you had a dog."
"Yeah… um… yeah. About that." It didn't matter anymore. Nothing did. There was no point in lying. "I've been using my abilities and a little girl's family got shot this morning and there's no one to take the dog right now. So. I need you to take the dog for a few days until I can find someone to take her."
Janice stared at him. Matty continued to bark enthusiastically. Mazy licked the glass. Matty squealed with joy and put his hand on the glass between him and the animal. Mazy licked it again and Matty giggled.
Matt added, "She's a really nice dog. Her name's Mazy. She's a-Mazing." He smiled a little, then it drained away at Janice's continuing blank expression. "Just for a few days, Janice. If she gets away, something happens to her, I don't think it's a big deal, but I can't keep her where… where I'm staying."
"You…" she said softly, "You already have a place?"
He sighed. "Yeah, I've had a place for months now. On the side. I've been lying to you. It's over now. Take the dog, Janice. I've got to go." He was feeling tense and uncomfortable, not sure what he'd do with himself without his ability. If I had it, I could just tell her to take the damn dog.
She opened the door. Matty darted around it and ran forward. Matt barely had time to grab Mazy's collar and pull her around so she couldn't bite him. He had no idea how the dog would react to being slammed into by a small child a third her weight. As it turned out, he needn't have feared. Mazy stood calmly while Matty threw his arms around her and bunched up handfuls of her fur.
He knelt down next to the dog's head and looked over her back at his son. He wondered how much he'd get to see of him. He had a feeling it was going to be very little. His eyes watered, but he blinked it away. He ran his hand under the dog's neck over towards Matty. Janice saw his motion and stepped forward protectively. "Matt!"
His son continued to cling to the dog, petting her and babbling. One hand came free and flailed for a moment, striking Matt's. His ability came back. He inhaled sharply and rocked back. That was not what he was expecting. He'd only wanted to touch his son one last time, sure Janice wouldn't let him hold him or kiss him or anything like that. He was right too. She swept down and snatched Matty away from him, lifting the child to her hip and turning him away from Matt, putting her body between him and his boy.
Her rage at her husband boiled near the surface, closely chased by fear and a feeling of helplessness and frustration. Matt looked up from where he crouched next to the dog and studied Janice intently. There was no reason why he shouldn't read her like a book, so he did. She was afraid of him. She hated that he'd destroyed what she'd been trying to work on, trying to make them work.
She knew she wasn't safe from him. She'd do whatever he asked, for fear that if she didn't, he'd make her do it and she wouldn't realize it until later… if even then. She didn't know how to talk to him, what to say. She expected he was reading her mind even now, probably every minute, and it paralyzed her thoughts, made her unable to think. She had no idea of how to protect herself, or Matty, from him or his super-powered friends or their bizarre enemies.
Matt hugged the dog, because he wanted some kind of contact. His eyes filled with tears again. He sniffled and shook his head, pressing his face into Mazy's neck. I've got to get out of here - for their sake, if not my own. He remembered Noah playing on his fear for his family and realized abruptly that Matt himself was the danger now. If Noah had never talked me into using my powers again, none of this would have happened.
He stood and walked away. Mazy started to follow him. He turned and yelled angrily at the animal. "No! Get away from me! Go! Git!" He kicked at her and she shied back, uncertainly walking closer to Janice and sitting on the step next to her. Matt shook his head in anger, displacing his grief. He went quickly to his car and drove away, barely able to breathe.