A/N: Hey! Thank you to everyone who is reading YSMD. I just wanted to let you all know that this story isn't just about the BDSM of it all. Matt is a multifaceted character and I want to explore a little bit of that with a side of ratchet. So I hope you enjoy this chapter and stick with me.
Enjoy!
Happy Reading!
And as always, REVIEWWS = LOVE!
Disclaimer: I do NOT own: The Vampire Diaries, any characters, places, words or phrases from either the books or television show. The plot and OCs belong solely to me.
THIS FANFICTION IS UNBETA'D BUT PROOFREAD BY HUMANS. ANY REMAINING MISTAKES ARE UNINTENTIONAL. APOLOGIES FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.
"You're finishing up for the day right, Miss Patty?" Matt asked as he exited it office Friday afternoon. The rest of Matt's week had sped by. It was Friday and he had a half day due to the fact that Vicki's birthday party started at 4:00 and turned into a sleepover.
"Of course I am, Mr. Donovan," she said with a smile. "We wouldn't miss Genny's birthday for anything."
"She'll be happy to hear that," he smiled back.
"Here is this," the woman said handing him a square box wrapped pristine in hot pink paper.
"Oh, Miss Patty I was going to..." he began.
"Going to drop it in a gift bag?" she interrupted. "You really need to stop doing that. It's impersonal."
"I'll take that under advisement," he said as he started down the hall toward the elevator.
"I know what that means," Miss Patty called back. Matt chuckled as the elevator doors slide closed.
After shedding his jacket, briefcase and shoes, Matt headed toward the kitchen. He chuckled in silence at the sight before him. Adler, in her black apron with the words, Get Frosted in blue crystals emblazoned on the front was running around the kitchen from here to there, preparing things for the party.
"Need some help?" he finally asked.
"No!" Adler said her index finger pointed at him. "You stay out of this kitchen Matt Donovan. All you ever do is make a mess and I know exactly where everything is at this point in time and I'd like it to stay that way."
"Ok, ok," Matt laughed, his hands up defensively. "What can I do?"
"Go check on Genny. She's been in her room for the past hour trying to pick out an outfit," Adler told him as she patted out veggie burgers. "Oh and Matt, when you're done with that, change your clothes then head out back and start up the grill."
"Can do," Matt smiled. He grabbed his jacket and shoes on his way up the stairs. He knocked on his daughter's door and waited for her to answer.
"Yes?" she asked pulling the door open.
"Happy Birthday, baby girl," Matt said, kissing her on the top of the head.
"Thank Daddy," Genevieve said. "Did you need something?'
"Your mama wanted me to check on you," he told her.
"Oh. I'm having a problem," she said turning and going back to her closet.
"Can I help?"
"Maybe."
"Ok, lay it on me," Matt smiled, sitting on her bed.
"I can't choose between this one," she said holding up a dark pink tank dress and black leggings that had sequin around the bottom of the leg," or this one," she said holding up a black tank dress that ruffled at the bottom and black leggings that had hot pink sequin around the bottom of the leg." Either way, I'm wearing these," Genny said holding up a pair of black and pink sparkly Cons.
"Hmm," Matt said looking at the similar outfits. "Why'd you pick those?"
"Because I want to look cute," she said, "and because Thomas Bishop is coming."
"Who's that?"
"Only the cutest, most popular boy in school."
"You don't care about being popular," Matt said.
"Daddy, don't be silly. Everyone cares about being popular. I just don't live for it," Genny explained. "Being popular is just about being well liked. Who doesn't want that?"
"I see your point," Matt chuckled. "So you want me to help you pick out an outfit that will impress this Thomas kid?"
"No," Genevieve said plainly. "I want you to help me pick out an outfit that will make me confident..." she paused. "so that I can impress Thomas," she muttered.
"Right," Matt laughed. "I say go with the black dress. It'll make you feel girly and but not secondary."
"Ok. I don't want to feel like I'm less than Thomas, I just want to look pretty while he discovers how awesome I am," Genny said beaming.
"Well darling, you don't need a dress for that," Matt said getting to his feet and kissing her on the head again before he left her room. He went to his room and changed his clothes before heading downstairs to start the grill.
While Matt was outside starting the grill up his cell phone rang.
"Hello?" he answered.
"Hey Matt, it's Caroline," the voice said.
"Hey Care, what's up?" Matt said trying to hide the minuet panic that had seeped into his voice.
"Don't you 'what's up' me, Matt Donovan," Caroline snapped.
"What?"
"You don't call, text, email...what's wrong with you?"
"Nothing, Caroline. I've been busy living my life," Matt informed her.
"Living your life? Really? Is that the best you can?" she spat. "You're not the only one with a life, Matt. Don't be so self-important."
"Care, did you call to lecture me because if so, I'm hanging up. I've got shit to do," Matt said annoyed. "And when have I ever been self-important?" Caroline was silent. Matt sighed, "What'd you want, Caroline?"
"To tell you that you need you be in Mystic Falls next Saturday for a week long affair," she told him, contrition marring her voice.
"A week?"
"I'm not leaving New Orleans for just a weekend. So yes, a week."
"Fine. Morning, afternoon, what?" he asked.
"Morning," she said. "Bye Matt."
"Bye," he said ending the call.
"Who was that?" Adler asked as she placed a platter of veggie burgers on the table beside the grill.
"Caroline," Matt answered as he lay the patties on the hot racks.
"Oh, so I'm assuming it was about the reunion or whatever."
"Yeah."
"And?"
"And nothing," Matt said.
"When are we supposed to be there?" Adler questioned.
"We're not going," he said.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because if the visit is anything like Caroline's call I don't want to deal with that shit," he told her.
"Well, I don't know what happened. I didn't talk to her," Adler said.
"It's not important," Matt said.
"It is to me, tell me."
"Apparently, I need to stop being self-important."
"What?"
"That's what she said."
"While I completely disagree with that assessment, that doesn't mean that everyone else is going to be that way, Matty," Adler said, taking his free hand. She kissed his upper arm and he sighed.
"Next Saturday," he murmured.
"Thank you," she whispered. Matt leaned down and kissed his wife before she went back inside the house.
"How ya doing Matt?" a man's voice said from behind Matt. He turned to find a tall man with dirty blonde hair and green eyes, holding a beer and a gift.
"Ted," Matt said holding his hand out the man. "I'm doing alright. Where's Bailey and the wife?"
"Bails is with Genny and Charlotte stopped by the kitchen," he said. "Where's this go?
"Over there. On that table by the fence," Matt said flipping a few burgers over.
"Anything worth eating on there?" Ted Gibbs asked when he rejoined Matt by the grill.
"Yeah. Regular hot dogs and hamburgers," Matt told him. "We didn't want to end up with an entire vegetarian feast again," he laughed.
"Yeah, I hear that," Ted laughed.
"Donovan, Gibbs," a voice called. They turned to see Peter Walters approaching them.
"How's it going, Pete?" Ted asked shaking the man's hand.
"Pretty good," Peter answered.
"Out now, girls," Adler's voice said as Genny, Bailey, a small for her age girl with curly blonde hair and green eyes; she had a cute little round face and was a little bit chubby, and Ted's daughter, Karen, a tall nine, with a dark brown bob, brown eyes and slender frame, came running out to the backyard.
"Vick?" Matt called.
"Yeah Dad?" she called back.
"What were you doing in the kitchen?" he asked.
"I may...or may not...have been trying to sneak a peek at my cake," she told him as she approaching the grill, her friends behind her.
"Are you trying to get your friends in trouble on your birthday?"
"No. It was Karen's idea anyway," Genevieve laughed as she took off toward the back of the yard, Karen on her tail. Matt laughed as he watched his daughter play with two of her best friends since birth.
"Petey?" a voice called from behind them. Pete sighed.
"Yeah Janet?" he asked turning to face his wife.
"Come and get these bowls and put them on the food table," she said holding out two giant bowls full of chips.
"Yeah ok," he said handing his beer to a laughing Ted.
A little while later Phil Masters, his wife Anne and their daughter Amanda arrived. They were followed by Carl and Mary Jones and their daughter Sarah. After them was Tammy Clark, her wife Kate Graham-Clark and their son, another of Vicki's best friends since birth, Brandon Graham-Clark.
"Hey Mr. D,"Brandon, a stalkly boy with black hair and brilliant blue eyes, said as he strolled past him to put his gift on the table.
"What's up Bran?" Matt said. The boy just shrugged before he ran off to join his friends.
A little while later, Tony and Cheryl Palmatto, their son Vinnie, a squat, chubby boy with slicked back black hair and dark brown eyes, arrived followed by a little boy that Matt didn't recognize. He was tall and lean. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. He seemed quiet.
"Hey there, Matt," Tony said as he approached the group of men standing at the grill.
"Hey Tony," Matt said shaking his hand.
"Mr. Donovan," Vinnie said his hand outstretched.
"Vinnie," Matt grinned as he shook the boy's hand.
"This is my best friend Thomas Bishop; everyone called him Tommy," he said pulling the boy in front of him.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Donovan," Thomas said holding his hand out. "It's nice to meet you, sir."
"It's nice to me you, Tommy," Matt said shaking the boy's hand. Something was...oddly familiar about this kid.
"Um, I brought this for Mrs. Donovan," Tommy said holding out a small square glass vase with six red roses and six white roses in it.
"Oh. Hold on," Matt said, his eyes still on the child before him. "Adi, come out here for a sec," he called.
"Yeah, Matty? What's up?" she asked wiping her hands on her apron as she came over to him.
"This is Tommy Bishop," he introduced.
"Oh! It's nice to meet you, Tommy," Adler beamed.
"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Donovan," he smiled back.
"Call me Adi," she said.
"Ok, Miss Adi," he said, "these are for you," Tommy said handing her the vase.
"Oh!" Adler cooed. "These are beautiful."
"You like them?" he questioned, a flash of nervousness flickering across his face. Matt was sure he was the only one who saw it.
"Yes, hun, very much. Thank you," she smiled.
"I've been learning how to garden from Mrs. Palmatto," he informed her. "These are some of my first flowers."
"Well, thank you so much for sharing with me," she smiled.
"You're welcome, Miss Adi," Tommy beamed. Adler kissed Matt and carried her flowers back inside.
"You boys go play," Tony said. Vinnie didn't wait, he just took off toward the kids in the yard as fast as his little legs could carry him.
"Do you need help with anything, Mr. Donovan?" Tommy asked, as he picked up the tray of already grilled food and held it out so that Matt could put the next couple of hot dogs on it.
"Nah, Tommy. I'm good," Matt said taking the tray from the kid and handing it to Phil. "You go play."
"Ok," Tommy said before he ran off to join his friends. Matt watching him the entire time.
"Ok, what's the deal with Tommy?" he asked his friends.
"What do you mean?" Tony asked.
"Where are his parents? Why is he so..." Matt began but trailed off. He didn't want to finish the sentence with what he was thinking.
"Why is he so polite?" Peter finished for him.
"Yeah, something like that," Matt muttered.
"His father Stan is a deadbeat that hasn't been around since before Tommy was born," Carl told him.
"Yeah and his mother, Susan hasn't been around for, what's this now, five years," Peter said.
"Why?" Matt asked thickly, as he absently flipped burgers on the grill.
"Not sure," Tony said, "Cheryl said Susan kept the flake side of her personality at bay for as long as she could but then she just couldn't fight that bitch anymore and off she went, leaving her two boys behind."
"Two?" Matt inquired. "Where's the other one?"
"In the wind too," Tammy Clark said joining the men at the grill.
"What?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, after their mom left when David, that's the older brother, was thirteen and he had to start caring for his four year old brother, I don't know. He started doing drugs at fifteen and when he turned eighteen he took off," she told him.
Matt scanned the backyard for Tommy. When he found him he was holding out a chair for Vicki to sit down in at some of tea party tables she had picked out for the party. Matt watched as he ran over to the cool and grabbed her a grape juice, her favorite and himself a soda. He brought them back to the table, opened her bottle then took a seat across from her.
"If his brother is gone, where does he stay?" Matt asked concerned.
"David's not always gone," Phil said. "He'll come back every couple of months, get some money, leave Tommy with what, Tony?"
"Maybe $100, then he's gone," Tony added. "That's why that kid is always at my house."
"When you know he's alone anyway," Tammy commented.
"What's that mean?" Matt asked.
"She means that we know when David comes home because Tommy wants to go home and try and spend time with him, even though he say he just want to go home and see his brother we all know what he means," Tony informed him, "but we never know when David leaves."
"Why not? Don't you check on him?" Matt asked, anger trying to seep into his voice. He couldn't deny it anymore. He knew why Tommy was familiar to him now. He was him.
"Of course we do, Matt but David always pulls into the garage and when you go to the door and Tommy answers and tells you that David's sleeping, you believe him because he's a druggie and that's what they do," Tony said, a little annoyed, "sleep, shirk responsibility, not give a damn about their family, get high and move on."
"How many "druggies" do you know, Tony, huh?" Matt asked, his temper flaring.
"What's wrong with you?" Phil asked, shocked at Matt's reaction.
"You've lived here almost this whole time and you didn't even know Tommy existed. He lives four houses down," Peter said in a matter-of-fact voice.
"Well, unlike the rest of you Matt doesn't have his nose pressed the glass trying to see what his neighbors are doing," Matt's best friend Ted said.
"Thank you, Ted," Matt said rolling his eyes at the rest of them. "And you don't know my life. I did have one before I moved to his neighborhood."
The group was silent. Matt didn't care. Fuck them. Not one of them had ever even had an experience with a "druggie" as Tony had so eloquently put it. They didn't know what it was like. Matt also wasn't sure how he felt about Tommy staying with the Palmattoes. It seemed to him that they only kept him because "it seemed like the right thing to do". Gross. You should want to help the kid, not just do it because you want people to say, 'oh look how generous the Palmattoes are...taking in that charity case.'.
Matt was taking the last of the food off the grill when Mark Matthews, his husband, George Walker-Matthews, their twin gingers, Lois, Vick's best friend and Louis arrived followed by single mom, Pam Stevens and her son Jack. As Matt set the last tray of regular hot dogs on the table he felt a hand on his back.
"Miss Patty," he said embracing her tightly.
"You alright, Matty?" she asked, hugging him and rubbing his back. He just shook his head. "Well, Ed is here," she said in his ear. He nodded, squeezed her again and headed inside the house.
"Hey there, Matt," Edward Lawson said as Matt just crashed into the elderly man. "What's wrong?" he asked when he felt Matt's tears on his shoulder. "Come on, in the living room," he said leading Matt. "Now, what's going on?"
"Oh, Mr. Lawson, a lot of things," Matt said sitting down on the couch and wiping his eyes.
"Like?"
"I've just been thinking about Vicky, my sister, and that kid Thomas Bishop."
"Ahh, you met him, did ya?"
"Yeah."
"He brought up the memories of your sister?" Ed asked, sitting beside Matt. He nodded. "It's understand able. You wanna talk about it?" Matt shook his head no. "Alright, we'll just sit here for a few minutes," the man said, patting Matt's knee.
Matt sighed heavily. When he had first moved to this neighborhood, Mr. and Mrs. Lawson were the first people at his door. They were friends of the Salvatore brothers so Matt felt comfortable telling them his life story; plus they were like the grandparents he never had. Ed had become like a mentor to Matt. He looked up to him. He followed his lead on how to be a good husband, father and friend; even though Ed had told him on numerous occasions he didn't need to look up to him, he was pretty good at all of those things all by himself.
"I'm ready," Matt said after he shed a few more silent tears for Vicky. He had made a decision. Tommy Bishop wasn't going to be alone anymore. Not as long as he drew breath.
As Matt was helping Ed off the couch, he heard the front door open.
"Hey Matt," a brown skin woman with midnight blue eyes, curves and black, curly said with a bright smile.
"Hey Irene," Matt said hugging the woman.
"Where's my sister?" she asked releasing him.
"Kitchen."
"And my niece?"
"Backyard," he told her.
"Thank you," she smiled. "Hey, Mr. Lawson," she waved as she headed toward the kitchen. When Matt and Ed entered the kitchen Irene and Adler were hugging.
"Hey sis," Adler said. "I didn't think you were coming."
"I wouldn't miss Gen's birthday," Irene said. "You only turn nine once."
"Right, well make yourself useful and help us get the last of this stuff outside," Adi said handing her plates and napkins. Irene whispered something in her sister's ear and Adler laughed out loud. "Maybe on a day when we want the whole world to know," Adler teased as Matt slid the back door open for all of the women to procession out.
Once everything was set and Genevieve had greeted her Aunt Irene the party began.
