"Will, go to hell!"
Uh-oh, Jamie thought as she heard her mother slam the phone down the hall. She looked across the room to her older sister and they exchanged that knowing look, bracing for what was about to happen. Both girls knew their mother's rage was not directed at them, but they knew the were going to get it full frontal nevertheless.
Jamie and Lexi Armstrong had the pleasure of being the daughters of the incredibly driven, incredibly brilliant Sharon Raydor. They also had the pleasure of watching the Irish temper of said Sharon Raydor explode on more than one occasion and knew the fireworks display they were in for. Neither could run since they had previously been baking in the kitchen with their mother when the phone rang and Sharon had told them she'd be right back.
The slippers scuffing on the hardwood floor grew louder as they approached. Jamie squared her shoulders and readied herself to appear nonchalant. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the back door to the kitchen open and hissed "Code Green". Quickly the door closed again just as Sharon rounded the corner.
"The nerve of that man... How dare he!"
Sharon paced back and forth in front of her daughters, fists clenched and shaking in anger.
"I will never understand how men can be anything they want to be and can just be men, but when women show interest... even a little compassion... they are obviously covering up something in their past. Argh! The idiot! Would he talk to me face to face? Oh no, not the great Will Pope. He's got all the answers. No, I need to talk to someone professionally. Damn him to hell! Who does he think he is?
"If this had been a year or two ago, I would have guessed he was being led around by the short-n-curlies by Chief Johnson, but even she's smart enough to separate compassion from personal experience. No, this comes from the fool himself. Just because some forms of crime affect me more than others, doesn't mean they are reminding me of my past. Oh, I'm so mad I could spit! I need to hit someone or throw something!"
Reaching into the basket closest to her, Sharon picked up the first object she could find and threw it agains the far wall. Then she reached for a second object, and a third. She grabbed the forth item and held it high in the air, poised to throw it with equal ferocity as the air went still, and then the inevitable happened.
It started with Lexi first. She just couldn't control herself any longer. Then Jamie started and Sharon had no choice but to join in. Laughter bounced from every corner as the three women laughed at the absurdity of what had just transpired. Sharon lowered the beanbag that she had held high and bent over in two as her entire frame shook in fits of giggles, her long, dark auburn hair creating a veil around her head. Jamie laughed so hard she had to wipe tears from her eyes. The sight of their mother in full violent rage always brought this response as it cooled. As children they had learned to wait for the explosion, then everything could get worked out with a calm hand. The only thing that had changed over the years was that their mother's language became more colourful as they had aged. Jamie often wondered if their mother was relieved to be able to indulge completely in her rants without censoring her verbal choices.
"Oh, why is he so stupid" Sharon laughed as she stood up straight again, put the beanbag in the basket and moved to sit at the table with Lexi.
"Ummm... because he's a man?" Jamie offered.
"He's a fool" Sharon agreed.
"Yay, but he's a sexy, teddy bear of a fool" Lexi pointed out.
Both Sharon and Jamie looked at Lexi who just shrugged. "What? He is a sweetheart and we all know it. Sometimes he's just not smart enough to stay clear of certain things where Mom is concerned. Which begs the question, what did he do this time?"
"Oh, what he always does" Sharon sighed in response. "He tried to out think me rather than asking me something to my face."
"And...?" Lexi encouraged.
Sitting up a little straighter in an attempt to mock her Superior Officer, Sharon lowered the glasses to the tip of her nose and said, "It's come to my attention that you are not dealing well with the cases of spousal abuse we've been seeing recently, suggesting you have not dealt with your own possible history of abuse. Since I respect you both personally and professionally, I would like you to initiate talks with the department Psychologist rather than have my office schedule them."
"What?" the girls said in unison.
Sharon put her hands up in defense. "I know, I know... And the assumptions and suggestions that makes, without even knowing any of my history, not to mention sullying the reputation of a man who would never harm a flea... Well, I don't need to explain my rage do I?"
"Okay, I take back my 'sweetheart' comment, that's just over the line." Lexi replied, feeling a rage of her own develop. "Where did he get the asinine idea that you were an abuse victim? And Daddy? He thinks that Daddy hit you? That makes me angry and want to throw things too."
Just then the back door opened again and two sets of green eyes peered in along with a hand holding a white flag. "Is it safe?" the owner of the older eyes asked, waving the piece of fabric.
"Yes it's safe boys, come on in. What were you doing out there anyway?" Sharon asked, trying not to laugh at their faces.
"Jamie signaled that we might want to wait out back for a while. How bad was it anyway?" Sam inquired, with a hand on his younger brother's shoulder just in case he had to pull the teen back in a hurry.
"Three beanbags and a fourth ready to go" Jamie told them.
Whistling as to pity the target of his mother's outburst, the youngest Armstrong broke free of his brother's grasp and entered the kitchen, grabbing cookies along the way as he went to sit with his sisters and mother.
"Three beanbags..." Sam started wistfully. "That rules out the FID department, they've only manage two. The Deputy Chief gets a total of three, tops. So that means..."
"Enough already" Sharon told him, with laughter threatening to consume her again. "Your scale is not helping."
"Gotta be Poop", Riley finally said, earning him a tuff on the back of the head.
"Poop do something stupid again?" Sam asked. Then as if speaking to thin air he continued "wow, that was redundant."
"Come on guys, his name isn't Poop, it's Pope, and of course he did something stupid" Lexi corrected them.
"When will that guy ever learn," Riley shook his head as he munched his fourth cookie.