Chapter 6

As the years pass us by, will I still make the grade
Can I really offer anything, and will my soul be saved
Can you cleanse me of...drive out the swine
Am I only falling farther, can you keep me safe from harm
The memories you build in the house on a hill
Would you really change a thing?
Corrected mistakes in a world full of hate
Never changes anything

"World Full of Hate", Dropkick Murphys

"Where are we going?" Calleigh asked as they pulled out of the parking lot.

He licked his lips, which were already chapping. They'd have to stop off at a drug store and get some Blistex, he'd forgotten about that. "I think the university. There's someone I want to see if I can find there."

"Ah," she said. "What else is there to see around here?"

He shrugged. "There's an art museum. And the mall. Speaking of which, now that you're here and you know how cold it is, are you warm enough? Do you want to see if we can find warmer stuff for you?"

"I think I'm ok," she said. "I'm glad you made me get those sweaters now, though."

"I knew you would be," he said. "Well, if you do get too cold, let me know, because we can either go buy something heavier, or if not, I'm sure someone will have something you can borrow. And tomorrow you'll probably feel right at home in the natatorium. If I remember right, it tends to be nice and hot and humid at swim meets."

"I can imagine," she said. "No, I think I'm warm enough for now. If I get too cold, I'll tell you."

"Good," he said.

"What about you? How are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm ok," he said.

"Not too cold?" she asked.

"Nope," he said, not entirely truthfully.

"Ok," she said.

They pulled into a parking lot at the university and parked. "I think this is still the closest lot."

"Ok," Calleigh said. They stopped and paid the parking before trudging off towards a cluster of buildings.

"Careful, watch the ice," he said, warning her. "They've salted, but it's still slick."

"Got it," she said, holding her hands out for balance as they crossed over an uncleared area of pavement. "I see what you mean about North Carolina not being very bad, now."

He laughed a bit, and reached out to grab her arm to guide her around the worst of the ice. "We're almost there."

"Ok," she said, her breath steaming in the cold. She laughed, suddenly. "That's so cool," she said. "Literally. Is it supposed to burn, though?"

He nodded. "Pull your scarf up over your mouth. It'll help."

She nodded as she did so. "That is a bit better."

"Good," he said. "It's not usually quite this cold still, but it's not been a normal winter, from what I hear."

"I'd wondered if all this snow was normal," she said as they went into a building.

"The snow is, mostly, yes. It does usually start to get a bit thawed out around now, though. Not warm, exactly, although it feels like it after January and February," he said as he scanned a building directory in the lobby. "Good, I was right." He led her to the elevator and hit the button for the third floor.

The elevator deposited them onto a floor that was already quiet in preparation for the upcoming weekend. They walked down a hallway and he stopped outside of what appeared to be a departmental office and ran his finger down a list of offices and office hours. He nodded. "He should be there, then," he muttered as he reoriented himself to the layout of the offices. "Down that way," he said to Calleigh, who just nodded silently.

They walked down a dim hallway towards an open door at the end. Tim paused before they reached the doorway, hearing voices inside. Calleigh stopped next to him.

"Ok, Laurie, will that do you for now?" a patient sounding male voice asked.

"I think so, Dr. Mackey. Thanks so much," a younger woman's voice answered.

"Good. Oh, and if those boys start harassing you again, you come tell me, you hear? It's not tattling to report that sort of thing. It's fighting back using all your resources, and it doesn't make you any less of a woman or an engineer, ok?" the man replied.

"All right," the woman replied. "I will, promise."

"Good. Go enjoy your weekend. Don't work too hard," the man admonished as the young woman slipped out the door and down the hallway past Tim and Calleigh. Tim approached the door and heard the man mumbling to himself as he looked past the door. "Damn undergraduate boys, no sense of propriety…" The man trailed off as he looked up and saw Tim in the doorway. "In their heads at all," he finished in a shocked voice as he stared at Tim.

"Hi, George," Tim said, shakily, clenching his hands in his pockets.

George didn't say anything for a long moment. "Well," he said, finally. "I see you haven't grown out of the habit of giving the adults around you heart attacks."

Tim laughed. "I guess not."

George seemed to shake off the shock. "Come in, come in, no, wait, Lisa will absolutely kill me if she finds out I didn't bring you to her immediately," he said, as he stood up. "Let me get my coat, she ought to be home by now."

Tim stepped back into the hallway next to Calleigh as George grabbed his coat and bag from the back of the door. "Sure."

"Ah, you've brought someone with you," George said, as he locked up his office and stuck a post-it note directing people to contact him by email if they needed him.

"I did," Tim replied. "This is my friend Calleigh Duquesne. Calleigh, this is George Mackey. Jason's father."

"Oh!" Calleigh said, suddenly understanding why they were there. "Hello."

"It's nice to meet you, Calleigh," George said, shaking her hand. "Ok, let me just tell Rachelle that I'm out of here, and we can get going," he said, leading them back down the hall to the departmental office. He opened the door and poked his head in. "Rachelle, I'm gone, ok? If anyone's looking for me, tell them to email me, I'll be checking tonight, all right?"

They couldn't hear Rachelle's reply, but it must have been in the affirmative, because George turned towards the elevator. "So, Tim, what brings you home?"

"I came to see Matt swim," he replied.

"Ah! Of course, that's right. That's tomorrow, isn't it?" George asked as they got in the elevator.

"Yeah, we're taking the late train to Albany tonight," Tim replied.

"Good, good," George said. "Did you drive over here?"

"Yeah, we did," Tim nodded.

"I walked today, so if you wouldn't mind?" George said, waving towards the parking lot.

"No, of course not," Tim said.

"You must live close," Calleigh said, eyes widening at the fact that anyone would walk to work in this weather.

"Oh, it's only about five blocks. Not really worth clearing the car off for," George shrugged.

Calleigh shook her head as they approached the car. "I don't know if I can imagine being so used to the cold."

"Ah, yes, but I imagine you're a lot more used to heat and humidity," George replied, climbing into the car. "It doesn't really get that hot here."

"So I've been told by Tim," she replied. "Who hates air conditioning."

"It's cold," he said, vaguely. "I don't like being cold."

"Yes, I know," she sighed.

George laughed. "Well, can you blame the boy? He's always been so skinny, the wind just blows right through him."

"There is that," Calleigh allowed as they made their way down a snowy street near the university.

"It looks just the same," Tim said softly, as he pulled into a driveway a few blocks from campus.

"No, we haven't changed much," George said. "Got cable, finally, though."

Tim grinned. "Caved, did she?"

"Eh, when all the good stuff started being non-network, she finally relented," George said, getting out of the car. "Plus, the university said they'd subsidize the cable modem so I can be connected at home, so it just made sense to get the TV discount too."

George led them up the steps to the side door. "Lisa?" he called as he opened the door.

"I'm upstairs," she called back.

"Come on down here," he yelled, stripping off his snow boots before stepping fully into the kitchen.

"I've got my hands full, George. Come up here and quit yelling," Lisa yelled.

"No, Leese, you're really going to want to come down here," George said, winking at them as he disappeared into the rest of the house to coax his wife downstairs.

Tim and Calleigh had just divested themselves of their coats and shoes when a small blonde woman came flying into the kitchen. "Oh, my word," she said, stopping short when she saw them. "Look at you, you're all grown up," she said, her voice catching.

"Hi, Lisa," Tim said, blinking back tears of his own.

"Oh, my, how grown you are," she said, launching herself forward to hug him tightly. "Not the baby anymore," she whispered. He let her hold him at arms length, and look him over. "Oh, sweetie," she whispered, wiping her eyes. "It's so very good to see you."

"It's good to see you too," he said, taking a deep breath.

"Where are my manners?" she exclaimed, looking past him to see Calleigh still standing in the entryway. She let go of Tim and walked towards Calleigh with a hand outstretched. "I'm so sorry, I'm Lisa Mackey," she said, with a bit of a laugh as she shook Calleigh's hand.

"This is my friend Calleigh Duquesne," Tim said, stepping out of the way to let Calleigh fully into the kitchen.

"It's nice to meet you," Calleigh said.

"Oh, likewise, dear. It's nice to meet one of Tim's friends," she said. "I'm pretty much his third Mom, and you know how moms like to know their kids' friends."

Calleigh laughed. "I know. Somehow I'm not surprised that he has three moms."

Tim rolled his eyes as Lisa laughed. "We used to joke that God put so many parents in Tim's life because He knew that there was no way that just two people could possibly handle the job. It certainly took a village to raise him and Jason, that's for sure," she said. "I imagine he's accumulated more than three by now."

"Oh yes," Calleigh said. "Our friend Alexx definitely claims him as hers."

"Good," Lisa said. "I'm glad. Come in, come in, let me get some hot chocolate on the stove," she said waving them towards the kitchen table. "Your parents didn't say a word to me!"

"Yeah, I know. I asked them not to make a big deal, since it wouldn't be fair to Matt. I think they wanted to see how I'd feel, so they didn't tell you, in case I wasn't…up to things," he said, embarrassedly.

"Ah," George said, understandingly. "I'm glad you were."

"Me too," Lisa said.

"I figured," he said, running his hand over his head, nervously. "Anyway, so that's why they didn't say anything."

"Matt must be thrilled," Lisa said, sitting down across from them.

"I hope so," Tim said. "He's in Albany already."

"Did he know you were coming?" Lisa asked.

"Yeah, he invited me," Tim nodded.

"He's a good kid," George said.

"I know," Tim replied. "I'm happy he's done so well."

"We are, too. That reminds me, I've got something for him that you can take. I was just going to drop it off at the restaurant this afternoon, but now that you're here, you can save me the trip," Lisa said.

"No problem," Tim said. "How's Katie?"

"Katie's great," George replied. "She got married about two years ago, and they're expecting their first baby here in a couple of months. They live up in Rochester, but we get to see them once a month or so."

"Good," he said. "I'm glad she's well."

"She'll be happy to hear you were in Syracuse, although she'll be sad she missed you," Lisa said, setting mugs of hot chocolate in front of everyone. "So, Calleigh, tell me about yourself," she asked, sitting back down at the table.

Calleigh laughed a bit. "Well, I'm from Louisiana, but I moved to Miami about five years ago. I'm a CSI, like Tim, and I do ballistics."

"Do you like that?" George asked.

"I love it," she said, grinning. "It's fun, although it can be really hard, too."

"I can imagine," Lisa said. "That's exciting, though. So you two met at work?"

"Uh, yeah," Tim said, realizing suddenly that Lisa thought he and Calleigh were together. He had no idea how to correct this notion without it being awfully awkward.

"Yeah, we've been working together for about five years now. Tim does some really great stuff in the Trace lab," Calleigh said, smoothly, giving no indication that she'd either caught Lisa's drift or that she minded if she had.

"I thought your mom told me you were still off work, now?" George asked.

"I was. I am," Tim said, shaking his head. "I go back middle of next week."

"Oh, fabulous," Lisa said. "You must be doing much better, then."

He nodded. "Yeah, mostly."

"Wonderful," Lisa said. "We were really very worried about you. It was a bit scary when we heard. But your parents said you were doing better at Christmas, so that was a relief."

"Yeah," he nodded, unsure of what else to say.

Everyone looked at each other slightly awkwardly. Tim finished his hot chocolate, and saw that Calleigh had done likewise. He shot her a helpless glance that he hoped wasn't completely obvious. Small talk was not his specialty.

"Tim, what time did you say you were going to meet your mom?" she asked, giving him an out.

He glanced at his watch. It was 2:15. "Um, around 2:30," he answered.

"Oh, I didn't mean to keep you," Lisa said.

"No, no, it was good to see you," Tim said, shaking his head. I'm just ready to go now, he thought.

"Well, you tell your mom that she's provisionally forgiven for not telling us you'd be in town," Lisa said. "Let me go get the thing I have for Matt."

George smiled. "It was great to see you, Tim. Don't take so long, next time, huh?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I won't."

"Good," George said, pushing away from the table. "It was lovely to meet you, Calleigh. Keep him in line, would you?"

"Always," Calleigh said, with a smile. "It was great to meet you, too."

"See you both later, then," George said. "I should really get some grading done."

"Bye," Tim said, standing up as Lisa came into the room with a small bag.

"Just a treat for all the waiting," she said, handing him the bag. "It was so good to see you, sweetie."

"It was good to see you too," he repeated, as she hugged him. "Thanks for the hot chocolate."

"Oh, anytime, anytime," she said, leading them back to the door and waiting for them to get their winter gear back on. "You be careful, now."

"We will," Tim said.

"Nice to have met you," Calleigh added.

"Likewise, dear. See you soon, I hope," Lisa said as they walked down the steps to the car.

"I suppose I'd better call Mom and tell her she's meeting me at 2:30 for some reason," he said, quietly, as they got in the car.

"You looked ready to leave," Calleigh shrugged. "Best I could do on short notice."

"No, really, thanks," he said. "I didn't know what to say."

"Understandable," Calleigh nodded as they pulled away. "I didn't want you getting worked up, though."

"No…" he said. "I'm ok, I think."

"Good," she said. "I'm proud of you," she added.

"What?" he asked. "Why?"

"You made the effort," she said, with a smile. "And that's the thing that's the most important to them, I think. It's what's most important to everyone here, I think, from what I can tell."

"Oh," he said, blushing slightly. "Ok."

She laughed a bit. "Call your mom. And you know, if you wanted to just go to your parents' house and take a nap, I'd be plenty fine with that."

"That does sound good," he said, feeling a bit relieved that she'd suggested it. "Let's just do that."

"It's a plan," Calleigh said, as he dug his cell phone out of his pocket to call his mother.