Scout shoved her right hip into the Bel Air's door, closing it. She shivered against the cold Pittsburgh morning air, the wind howling between the buildings and over the hills, whistling as it whisked cold air down her neck. Mathúin stood patiently waiting, wagging away with his tail, staring expectantly at his human. Scout secured her bag on her arm, and the binder she was carrying against her chest, and the hot chocolate she was drinking, and Mathúin's leash. With a sigh she hustled down the hill towards the corner where she'd turn to go into Colt's. Across the street she saw Tommy Riordan's trainer closing the door to his car, a '75 Oldsmobile by the looks of it. He looked up at her and offered a friendly smile, which she returned.

She shuffled into the gym, brushing her feet on the mat inside, following after someone else who was coming in before her, holding the door for Paddy thereafter.

He muttered a bashful "thanks", she a "You're welcome."

Mathúin decided that he had found a friend. Though his judgments of humans generally centered around how they smelled and how they treated Scout, his instincts were nevertheless usually spot on. He lagged behind Scout, who still had his leash on him, his focus on Paddy as he walked across the gym to where he found Tommy sparring with another fighter on a mat beside the ring. Paddy greeted Tommy with a curt nod.

The two took a quick water break, Tommy going for his water bottle while watching Scout. She dumped her bag on the floor with very little ceremony, and sat her cocoa down near it, dropping the binder beside the rest. She unclipped Mathúin's leash and he greeted Kondo and Jamie. Then she was chattering away with the boys while she took off her wool letterman Jacket. Her hair was up a ponytail, in curls at the ends, and as she peeled off the jacket he could see she was wearing a tight black t-shirt with saloon-style lettering wrapped around a photo of Heavyweight Champion of the World Jack Johnson, the words reading "The Galveston Giant." She had on the same kind of jeans and the same boots she'd had the day before. Then he noticed something. Her huge dog was now over by his father, and his father was petting his big, furry head, talking to him affectionately. Tommy rolled his eyes.

Great. A fuckin' dog gets treated better than me n' ma. Oh shit, here she comes.

Tommy turned away, back to his sparring.

Scout jogged over to Paddy.

"Sorry!" she called "I'm sorry!"


(Play) The Civil Wars - Poison & Wine


She hurried up to the dog, patting his back gently, but to get his attention. Tommy was glad to have the distraction of a sparring partner. It was one thing to watch her over there, going about her business, but with the animosity he held for his father, all he felt was jealousy that Paddy was speaking to her, and he had the sickening feeling that whatever came out of his father's mouth was somehow a lie that he had the strange urge to protect her from.

"Bubba!" She said quietly, crouching to talk to the big fluffy dog. "Not everyone is waiting with baited breath for you to come visit.."

She stood up and put her right hand out to Paddy "I'm Scout. And this is Mathúin. He's very rude, and I apologize." She grumbled the last sentence, glaring at the dog, half kidding.

Paddy shook her hand, smiling at her to put her at ease. She looked at him carefully, and then glanced over at his fighter. Father and son? She wondered.

"Paddy Conlon. It's just fine. He's a very nice dog. Big boy."

Scout laughed. "Well, he's within the weight range for his breed, but it's a miracle he's not 300 pounds. He's as bad a scavenger for food as he is for attention!" She laughed.

"Oh! Uh, this is my s-I mean, this is, I'm his trainer. Tommy, c'mere!" Paddy seemed flustered.

Father and son. Definitely.

Paddy raised his voice at the end of his sentence, to be sure he was heard. He couldn't resist introducing them, considering Tommy had clearly shown interest, however nonverbal it may have been. Tommy scowled at Paddy as he stopped sparring and crossed over to them, and kept the ugly look on his face until he turned to look at her, pulling off his glove and shaking her bare hand with his taped one.

"Tommy Riordan." He panted.

His voice had changed from the growling, irascible tone he'd used during the interactions he'd had with his father since he'd come back. It was soft, and gentle, suggesting he meant her no harm, his lips slightly parted as he waited for her to tell him her name, even though he already knew it. He was reminded again of the stars he'd seen in the endless old Hollywood movies his mother had watched when she was sick, while he was out, going to school or to his job thereafter. So we could eat. So I could try to get the heat turned back on by October. Tommy shook those thoughts off. He studied her. Laura. That was the movie. That's who she looked like. Scout's skin was as soft and unblemished as a doll's, with a healthy peachy pink flush behind her lily-white cheeks. Her hair was even prettier up close, a light russet color with hints of strawberry blonde. Her enormous brown eyes looked at him curiously, and she blinked. She couldn't figure out which of his features she wanted to stare at first. She had been intimidated by fighters before, but she had always stood her ground. This was completely different...he...unnerved her, disarmed her. Though in a surprisingly pleasant way.

"Hi," she said, softly. "Scout. McKinley"

She put out her hand and shook his, moving awkwardly around the tape with her fingers. "and this is Mathúin."

She gestured towards the big dog, who looked up at Tommy expectantly. Tommy reached out and ruffled the fur on Mathúin's head. Risking awkwardness, she turned back to Paddy to address them both.

"Well, it was very nice meeting you both. Sorry again, about this one,"

She gestured to Mathúin, clapping her hands twice as she started to gradually back up, encouraging him to follow her. She was terribly, terribly embarrassed.

Paddy smiled and gave a dismissive gesture with his hand. "He can come see me anytime."

Scout leaned down to look at Mathúin and he looked up at her, bumping her nose gently with his. "Well, all right. Careful, though." She said. "He's like a barnacle."

She turned to leave and then whirled around one more time, smiling at Paddy and jerking her head towards the huge windows out front as she backed up.

"Your girlfriend's a real looker."

Paddy looked puzzled for a moment, until he realized he'd parked his car out front.

Then he grinned. "Thank you," he said. "If that Bel Air outside is the car you drove here in, you've got a pretty fine machine there yourself."

Scout laughed . "Oh thank you! That's Miss Pegeen! The ol' ball and chain." She giggled and walked back to her team, Tommy's eyes trained on her big, shapely behind as she walked. When Tommy turned back to him, his father was smiling and shaking his head, and Tommy scowled at him.


Given that Mad Dog reserved the ring for the afternoons, Scout and the boys had use of the ring that morning. While Jamie and Konane stood on one side of the ring, Scout and Gus stood ringside and called out instructions to Kondo and Jack, his sparring partner, as they moved around each other. For now, his hearing aids were taped in. At Sparta, he'd go without them. Tommy watched Scout as she stood against the ropes, her back to him the entire time. He admired the curve of her waist as it dipped in from her ribcage and lead to her ample behind. Then he scolded himself for being so unfocused. Tommy went through the rest of his workout, and started on his lifting. As he was in the middle of his lateral raises, he noticed something that completely shocked him. Scout was climbing into the ring with Kondo. He tuned his ears to their conversation to try to see what she was saying.

"Okay," Scout said to Kondo, who outweighed her by about fourty-five pounds, and towered over her by about seven inches. She grinned, fitting her hands into focus mitts. "I've seen you fight plenty of times, but I want to experience what your timing and distance are like for myself, you know?" Kondo nodded at her.

"So…let's do… jab cross, left hook, right cross, strong right finish?"

Tommy watched with fascination as they ran the combinations over and over again. She certainly wasn't a professional trainer, but she was holding the mitts right, and standing correctly.

"Okay, now, double jab, right upper, left hook, right cross."

Then they ran that one, Scout moving towards Kondo now as they worked, so she could see his footwork. Then she changed the combination again.

"Okay, now, jab cross, left uppercut, right hand, left hook, strong right."

The faster, more complicated set of punches was run as many times as Scout could take before she shouted "Tap!" quite breathlessly. Then she smiled at Kondo and said "Awesome. Good work." Tommy watched what he estimated was her DD chest heaving up and down as she slowly drew in air.

Scout laughed and huffed up a breath into the air, knocking her stray bangs out of the way. "Okay, I think I got it," she said, laughing. She was still panting a bit, and he noticed the flush in her cheeks. Tommy licked his thick, full lips when she snuck out between two of the ropes. The fluid, unconsciously sensuous way she moved as she bent and swung her left leg and upper body through the ropes and then followed with the rest of her hourglass figure caught his attention and sent his imagination running wild. He'd never thought he would have found the idea of a girl going into the ring like that attractive, but he realized she was an enthusiast for the sport just trying to understand it even better, and he admired that. Besides, she'd maintained her grace and elegance throughout the entire exchange, moving as though it had been a dance instead of UFC training. He thought she really must be a child of boxing, because there was the old school philosophy coming through.

Scout exhaled and picked up her binder from down on the floor, carrying it with her to a bench beside the ring under which Mathúin was sleeping. She wrote furiously for a few minutes. Then she picked up the book and held it to her chest by the edges, the pages pressed against her as she watched the training session continue. Tommy noticed that the plastic sleeves on the binder cover had collages in both of them. There were photos upon photos of old time boxers inside, all black and white and sepia toned.

Scout had dug her fight notebook out of her desk at home when she knew was going back to a training gym. It held all her notes and musings and things to be remembered, and details on fights and venues and times and dates, and training drills, and observations, and the occasional doodle. Tommy watched her rest her chin on the tops of her hands and gently suck her bottom lip for just a moment, and suddenly he had enough of the gym for the day. A girl like that was out of the question for him, for more reasons than one, and looking at her for another minute would have been torture. He'd have to find a way to ignore her when he got back to the gym, but he could do that tomorrow. For now, he'd run home, in the steady, unseasobaly warm rain that fell on the Pittsburgh streets.