Adventures of Matt Parkman, Chapter 19: Meet the parent night
After a long silence as they drove, Maury said, "You know, that painting on the wall… It's the precognition that's eating you up. You've had telepathy for years and you haven't had this problem - going batshit crazy and killing yourself by inches. You had the precog too for a while, but it wasn't until you started triggering it intentionally, over and over, that you got into this mess."
Matt grunted. He didn't want to talk about it, didn't want to think about it. Most days, by now, he'd shot up. He was missing it, craving it. He couldn't help but think with every twinge from his back that he wouldn't care about that pain if he had something else to feel.
His father changed the subject, making Matt oddly grateful he'd let him read his mind. He could have simply told the man to change the subject, but it was somehow nicer to have someone know and just do it without having to be asked. "So," he asked his son, "Tell me about Patricia."
Matt ran through her life story as he knew it, replaying it slowly in his mind. It was far faster and more accurate than telling it. He could sense his father's awareness paying attention. They'd arrived back at the apartment before Matt was completely done. He'd told it chronologically, so Maury was still missing the last month as they carried groceries to the apartment.
She'd come back while they were out and stood up in surprise at seeing them. She'd been watching television. She turned it off and waited to be introduced. It was a long wait, as Matt couldn't figure out what to say to her and his father was no help. Maury put up food and left his son to sigh and shift his weight. He knew what she wanted to know - he just wasn't telling her.
Finally she asked, "Who is that?"
"That's… ah, that's my father."
She looked in at the other man speculatively, then back to Matt. She could see that things had changed, big time. Matt was acting deferential to the other man and guilty to her. Quite often they went whole conversations without speaking, with him living in her mind. She was unsure as to why he had withdrawn from her and was making her speak aloud the things she would rather ask him privately. It frightened her. Her mind jumped to the worst thing that could happen. "You're leaving me, aren't you?"
"Yes, eventually. I think so." He looked back at Maury, who was putting away the last of their purchases. His father gave him nothing - possibly, Matt thought, because he was telling the truth about it being Matt's choice and not his.
He sensed something from her, a threat, and turned back in time for her to struggle with hitting him, failing because he'd prevented her from hurting him early in their time together. He still jerked his head back at her abortive motion. She shook her head violently and said, "No! Noo! NOOO!" She hit herself across the face and Matt flinched, feeling a shadow of the blow from her mind, as she knew he would. She bared her teeth at him and then just as suddenly, calmed.
Matt glanced back at Maury, who was quietly folding one of the paper sacks the groceries had come in. He was watching, but Matt wasn't getting any sense from him that he was affecting her. He also wasn't preventing Matt from reading her, assuming he could. Matt wasn't sure - all Maury seemed to have done was make it impossible for Matt to act against him and make it possible for him to monitor him.
Matt walked over to her and put his hands on her face because he could, because his father wasn't stopping him. She didn't stop him either, but her eyes were angry. If he left, her whole life was going to fall apart - everything they'd built together would disappear without his ability to keep it going. He could feel her rage and sense of betrayal boiling dangerously in her head. He put his forehead to hers. She showed him, vividly, what she wanted to do to him for leaving her. He kissed her because he was sorry, sorry he'd come into her life in the first place and changed everything. He wasn't sure she'd survive his absence. She pulled her lips from his, daring him to force her. He let her go and stepped away. Matt had done a lot of things to her, but he'd never done that. It wasn't what he was.
She looked past him at his father. She smiled politely at him and asked with false cheer, "What's your name? I'm Patricia."
He nodded. "I'm Maury."
"Maury. That's an odd name." She thought it sounded like Mary or Maureen, both girls' names. He got that a lot. It didn't faze him, but it had a lot to do with naming his son Matthew. She looked back at Matt. "Where's Ryan?"
"He's gone," he said quietly.
"He's dead," his father supplied bluntly. "We got rid of him."
Both of them wheeled to him, Matt angry, Patty beginning to be afraid - not of Matt leaving, but of what might happen to her before he left.
"You…" Matt didn't know what to say.
Maury shrugged. "You've already told her so much, why dissemble now?"
She whipped around to face Matt, saying, "He's like you! Just like you!" She meant his ability. Matt sighed and rolled his eyes. It was enough of an answer. She looked at his father with the hint of a smile. "There are others," she said softly, wondering if there was a way for her to get this ability or at least be a more permanent part of the family who had it. It wasn't just Matt anymore.
Maury walked out of the kitchen and skirted the dining room table on the far side. He looked at the first aid kit, which had been opened and left that way. The contents were in disarray - she'd pawed through them. All of the hard drugs had been removed from it. He glanced at the list of contents posted on the inside of the lid to make sure, then touched her mind for the information he wanted.
She threw back her head, trying to block him. Not only was she sensitive to it, but she'd figured out a few things about resisting. His contact with her earlier had been so brief, he hadn't noticed. Now he tilted his head at her, but he didn't push. Matt was looking at him through slightly narrowed eyes, trying to work out what he could do to stop his father without setting off the feedback loop. Maury found it amusing the man hadn't considered hitting him yet. Well, there's no reason to point that out.
He addressed the woman, saying, "I want all the drugs back in here tonight. We might need this stuff later. Take a look at Matt's back for me, if he'll let you. I need to go back out and get an air mattress, a few other things." He looked at his son for a moment, then left.
The mental link faded over distance until Maury couldn't feel it at all. The only thing he'd sense through it at this distance was death or an extreme emotional spike. Matt was very strong, but his father didn't know if that would enhance or suppress the link. He bought his supplies and stopped by the local Company offices, making sure the paintings and Ryan's corpse had been taken care of appropriately.
Back at the apartment, Matt sat on the couch and said nothing. He was thinking about getting high. Patty paced. "When?"
He looked up at her blankly. He hadn't been listening to her. "What?"
"I said when are you leaving? I want to know. It's kind of important to me, you know?"
He sighed. "I don't know. Go get all those drugs you took out of that box and put them back."
"Why? Because some old man told you to?"
"Yeah." He didn't say anything else. He was wishing that old man was here to keep him from using. He wanted to shoot up almost desperately.
"You… Do you have to do what he says?"
Matt frowned, still looking at the floor. "Sort of."
"He… can do to you… what you can do to everyone else?"
Matt frowned at her, looking up at her. The younger Parkman was suddenly less interesting to her if he was someone else's pawn. Matt's shoulders slumped. He put his hands over his face. He hadn't ever thought she loved him. It had always been about his ability and what he could do for her. He wasn't that deluded, but he'd thought she might love him for himself, eventually. He hadn't thought she'd dump him to chase after his father, for Christ's sake. The man was old enough to be her grandfather.
Matt chuckled, remembering the painting and snatches of waking future-sight where she tried to seduce Maury and ended up in bed with Matt. Served her right and his father too. He'd just let that little scene play itself out. She'd be rebuffed and then she'd come crawling back to him and something about it would restore his feelings for her. He still couldn't work out the details, but that was normal enough.
"What's so funny?" she demanded.
He shook his head. "All of this. I'm sorry. Could you look at my back though? It really hurts." He unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged out of it with as little movement as possible. Nearly all his clothes were far too big for him, so it wasn't much of a problem.
"Oh my… What… what happened to you?" She was genuinely concerned, but given what he'd read off her only a few moments before, he was disgruntled to hear her sympathy. He'd learned that her emotions shifted back and forth rapidly. She was passionate about things and felt nearly everything more strongly than he'd like. Her feelings were also disturbingly transient and what she felt one moment might fade and shift to something else entirely more quickly than he could follow. She surprised him more often than he thought a telepath should be caught off guard, but it wasn't calculated on her part.
"Dad wasn't happy with me. Just don't ask any more questions, would you? Go get whatever out of that first aid kit and make it hurt less."
The cure didn't hurt nearly as bad as the affliction, but it still hurt like hell.