A/N: So this chapter's fun, see a new side to the normally hardassed Mindy, might be a little out of character but if it is just blame my writing XD
Hallway B - 5th lesson
"Hey Harrison, what do ya say we skip next lesson?"
Harrison looks at her with mock suspicion.
"Why? You a narc?" He raises his eyebrow to accompany the question and she breaks into a peal of laughter.
"You're such an idiot Harrison... But you also didn't answer my question; Want to skip?"
"Sure thing, math blows."
"My thoughts exactly."
"So what do you have in mind to pass the time?"
"Well, today's an early day so I thought we could just go home..."
"Oh... I thought you wanted to hang out or something..." She giggles again.
"I guess we could if you want, but could we go to your place rather then mine, if Marcus found out I had more than one friend he'd lose it.."
"Sure, but doesn't he like you having friends?"
"No no that's not it at all, he almost likes it too much.. Since dad and I travelled a lot before he... well died, Marcus wants me to live a "normal" life. Like mine wasn't normal..."
"Fair enough, I can see where he's coming from I mean being an adoptive parent can be difficult, I remember how different mum and dad were with Suzy in the beginning then they were with me.."
As they were talking they started walking towards Harrison's house and by the time they finished their conversation they were standing at his front door.
"Given the fact that class is still in session, we should probably go round the back.. How flexible are you?"
"What?!" Mindy looks at Harrison like he's a pervert. He scoffs at her.
"Get your mind out of the gutter Mindy. No I want to know if you can get in through my bedroom window, I leave it unlocked in case I feel like coming home early, but it's on the second floor."
"Oh." Mindy sighs in relief before blushing at how silly she must have looked before. "Well I can get in Dave's window fairly easy, and that one looks easier."
"Right then, lets get to it." Harrison walks over to the building, below his window and climbs up the drainpipe beside it, reaching out to open the window before climbing into it.
When he's at the window he turns and waves Mindy up, he laughs when he sees her run to the tree across from the window and climb up it, then jump into the window.
"Nicely done, but wouldn't the pipe had been easier?"
"Maybe, but that was more fun." She replies with a grin.
"Come on, let's go watch a movie." He leads the way out of his bedroom into the room his father has set up as a DVD room.
"Dad likes movies, don't know if you could tell." He says this with that same grin he had in chemistry.
Mindy lightly punches his arm before replying. "So what do you recommend we watch?"
"Well, I thought we could watch that new Abigail Breslin movie The Call, I haven't seen it yet but dad says it's awesome."
"Sounds good." She smiles at him and he indicates her to take a seat.
"Make yourself comfortable, I'll set it all up." He goes about looking for the DVD, putting it in the machine and turning the TV to the right channel.
He then sits beside Mindy on the couch, and is highly surprised when she curls up beside him and leans her head on his shoulder.
He chuckles softly as the movie starts. "What are you laughing at?"
"You, acting like such a hardass all day then, get you alone and you curl up to me like a cat." He chuckles again as she slaps him on the arm.
"Sorry, you said make yourself comfortable." She says this in a slightly disgruntled tone as she goes to sit up straighter, and not lean on him.
She's surprised when Harrison stops her from pulling away and puts an arm around her shoulders.
"If you're going to get comfortable, then you might as well do it properly." He smiles at her as she curls her head into the crook of his arm.
"Well... if you insist.." She smiles coyly at him and gets settled to watch the movie.
End of school day
"Well that was a total snore..."
"It was an english class, what did you expect?"
"Good point. Say, want to come back to my place to finish of that homework, if we do it together we might avoid falling asleep halfway through." Suzana suggests this with a smile.
"Sure, I'll just message my dad and let him know I won't be home 'til later."
Dave sent a text to his father and they were off.
"Welcome to Casa Ford."
"I thought your last name was Marshal?"
"It is, but only because dad let me keep my biological last name, it's all I've got left of my mother... I don't look anything like her so all I've got is a name."
"Wow, that's rough.. So what exactly happened to your dad?" As they talk Suzy leads the way up to her room, she hears sound coming from the DVD room and assumes Harrison's in there watching a movie.
"He's in the kitchen."
Dave smiles. "No I mean your biological dad..."
"I-I'd rather not talk about... him."
"Oh, ok.. that's fine, no problem at all, forget I asked." Dave looks a little downcast and Suzy sees it, suddenly feeling the need to explain a little she decides to avoid too much detail.
"It's just that.. when I was a kid, Mark used to abuse me. Mum died when I was five, and the next week he started hitting me.. then it got worse as I got older."
"That's terrible.."
"We lived next door to Harrison and his parents and he was my only friend, the only one I could trust. Then one day, when I was about fifteen my father didn't care who saw anymore and he hit me in front of Harrison.."
At this point in her story Suzy and Dave were seated on her bed and she had tears in her eyes.
"If there's one thing Harrison can't abide it's when someone picks on someone smaller.. He hates bullies with a vengance. So when he saw my father hit me his first thought was to beat the hell out of him, but he was always smarter than me... He used his head and went to his dad about it.."
"What did Mr. Ford do?"
"Well, he's a police officer. The first thing he did was check me to see if Harrison was telling the truth, y'know what cops are like; take nothing at face value.. Anyway when he saw the cut on my lip, his face... It changed... I'd never seen him look at anyone like that.. Before or since. He looked like a volcano, about to erupt... he pinned Mark to the wall and cuffed him, calling the precinct with his cell."
At this point, Suzy's face had dried, and she was staring off with recollection.
"Ten minutes later, Mark was arrested. Got twenty years with all the evidence they got against him.. Child abuse, among other things.."
She looks away from Dave with shame on her face. Dave puts a hand on her shoulder. She looks at him and he smiles.
"Suzana, what he did to you was wrong.. But he can't hurt you anymore. You can't keep living in the past, the longer you're afraid of a memory, the longer he goes on winning."
"You're right, but there's more to the story... I just.. I can't tell it, just yet... If anyone found out... they'd never look at me the same again..."
Dave starts rubbing her back gently as she starts to sob quietly again.
"I understand Suzy, but know that no matter what he did to you.. I'll never think of you any differently. No matter what."
Dave looks meaningfully at her, his eyes telling her that he's deduced more than she told.
"Thank you Dave.. you have no idea how long it's been since I talked to anyone about my father."
"I can guess, but let's change the subject for now. We still have that homework to do after all."
Suzy smiles at him, leans over and kisses him on the cheek. "Thanks Dave."
"Right, so.. the homework?"
Suzy gives a watery chuckle. "Sure, you get set up in here, I'm just going to go wash my face.."
"No worries."
On her way back from the bathroom, Suzy pokes her head in on her brother.
"Hey bro', what ya watchin'?" She finishes asking her question, then starts giggling profusely at the situation Harrison's found himself in.
Harrison looks over at her and places a finger to his lips in a shushing motion.
"What have you gotten yourself into.." Suzy whispers at him.
"We skipped math class, came back here to watch a movie and she sort of.. fell asleep..."
Suzy falls into another fit of silent giggles. For there, leaning against Harrison with her head on his shoulder, was Mindy.. fast asleep and oblivious to all around her.
"Shut up, you'll wake her up. What are you up to anyway, did I hear Dave earlier?"
"Yeah, we've got some homework from english class so I suggested we get it out of the way together to avoid.. well... that."
She points to Mindy.
"Alright I get the point, I suppose I should wake her soon... After all we've got.." He lowers his voice even more. "Patrol later."
"Right, where do you want to go tonight?"
"I was thinking we could patrol west 42nd street, heard there's a lot of crime going on over there."
"Can if you want..."
"Righto, it's settled then."
"Later, sidekick."
"Bitch please, everyone knows you're my sidekick." Harrison says that with a cheeky grin on his face.
"Whatever, I better get back.. Before Dave gets too bored and falls asleep too."
"Mindy was not bored, she was just tired.."
"Yeah, keep tellin' yourself that bro." Suzy leaves with a wave and a chuckle.
Harrison looks down at Mindy and brushes the hair out of her eyes. I only let her sleep for so long because of how cute she is... does that make me a creep?
He gets worried about himself and decides to wake her, gently shaking her shoulder.
"Mindy... time to wake up."
She groans in her sleep, fidgeting slightly before opening her eyes.
Seeing how and where she's fallen asleep her face turns a bright shade of pink.
"Harrison! How could you let me fall asleep on you like that? Dick, you should've woken me up!"
"Well, I figured if you were tired enough to fall asleep on someone you only met today, you must have been pretty tired."
She smiles to herself then lightly slaps his arm. "You still should've woken me..."
"I did... just not right away.." Harrison gives her his trademark lopsided grin.
"Smartass."
"Better than being a dumbass. Want to stay for dinner? You might as well it's already like six pm."
"What?! ohmygod Marcus is going to kill me.."
"No he won't, he sent you a text saying he's working late."
"You read my texts?"
"Glanced at it, I didn't even try unlocking the phone."
"Then how do you know what it says?"
"It comes up along the top of the screen, if you look for it." He smiles teasingly at her.
"Oh, that's ok then... Does your dad mind me staying for dinner?"
"I can go ask now that I don't have to worry about waking you by moving.."
Mindy's face deepens in shade. "Like I said, you should have woken me..."
"Nah, drawing on your face was much more fun..." He says this with a serious face, waiting for her response to see if she believes him.
"What?" She sits bolt upright and dashes to the bathroom to check for marks on her face. Harrison chuckles to himself as he walks to the kitchen.
"Hey dad, do you mind if Mindy stays for dinner?"
"No son that's fine, as long as it's ok with her parents."
"Marcus is fine with it."