A/N: Sorry so long on the up-date and thanks to all who reviewed and made their happy opinions of Maddy known. I needed time to figure out where this story was going and how the Flack parents were going to handle her. Stay tuned 'cause next chapter, Maddy's past starts catching up with her. Also, anyone has any ideas for future Maddy/Don stories, let me know. I could really use some ideas and all ideas will be taken into consideration, with credit given.
Chapter 8
"That's it, that's right," Madigan coaxed the woman, who was a good couple of meters up the wall. "You're doing real good there."
"This is kinda fun," the woman, a new student to wall climbing called down, a grin on her face as she reached up and grabbed the rock protruding from the wall so she could move up a few more inches.
"That's always a good thing," Madigan said, taking in more of the support rope. "One thing I've always done is looked at it like a puzzle. Where am I going to put my hand, my foot, to make my next move? How should I move to reach that particular rock? It's like trying to solve a puzzle, only you need to decide what the edges are going to look like in order to fit the next piece in."
"Like Tetris," the woman said, pulling herself up a few more inches.
"That's one way of looking at it."
"Think I'm gonna dump my boyfriend," the woman said.
"Why's that?"
"'Cause he said he I couldn't do this, that women can't climb."
"Goes to show what he knows, huh? I'm an avid climber like you wouldn't believe. If it can be, it will be is my motto," Madigan said, grinning.
"I like that," the woman said, moving again. She was almost to the top.
Madigan sensed someone watching her but chose to ignore the feeling. She had to as all her attention had to be on the woman she was supporting. Besides, people watched her all the time. If the person really wanted her attention, as far as she was concerned, he or she would come up to her and talk to her. Other than that, she didn't really give a damn.
Rachel Flack watched the brunette woman in the climbing harness support the woman on the wall with the rope. The woman on the wall wore a climbing harness as well as a safety helmet. She hadn't known what to expect when she went to the address her son had given her. It had been several days since he'd given her the address and, after checking it out and finding out it was a local gym, she decided to find out what was going on. Now she didn't know what to think. She'd gone up to the main desk and, just out of curiosity, asked if there was anyone with the last name of Flack there. The receptionist had nodded, said there was a Maddy Flack, an assistant climbing instructor, and pointed Rachel towards the climbing gym, where a climbing lesson was in session.
Yes, six years had passed but Rachel would know her daughter anywhere.
Madigan had grown into an attractive young woman of twenty-four. She kept her brown hair short but her clothes and body said she was in good, healthy shape. Se was also, obviously, still involved in her favorite past-time of climbing. Only now, she was getting paid for it.
"Can I help you, ma'am?" a male voice asked politely.
Standing beside her was a man with the nametag of "Vince" and it identified him as a climbing instructor.
"Oh, I was just admiring the way the woman was climbing. She must have a pretty good instructor there," Rachel said, not wanting to draw attention to herself but hoping to find out a bit about Madigan.
"Yeah, Maddy's a pretty good teacher, especially with the women and first-timers and kids. I swear, she's like a human spider, which is why the staff gave her the moniker "Spider-Girl". She's that good and that agile," Vince explained.
"What's she like as a person?" Rachel asked.
"Easy-going, good-natured, friendly. She's got an energy and a bubbly personality that you can't help but like but she can get a bit sassy sometimes but it's all in good humor. However, when it comes to her climbing, she's a stickler for safety. I once saw her go after a SWAT cop for failing to properly check his harness before rappelling down the wall. He later apologized and admitted he was wrong for not doing what he knew better to do. He later said that after her 'explosion', such as it was, he made damn sure to never forget to check his equipment completely. Didn't want to risk getting his balls ripped off by her again," Vince concluded, laughing.
Rachel smiled politely. "How long has she been here?"
"About a month. We hired her right after we watched her help a lady through a climbing session. Seems she was here on her older brother's blessing and with his membership card. Hadn't been in town very long and was just getting some practice in," Vince said. "My boss was so impressed with her behavior, professionalism, and knowledge that he hired her after a short interview that day."
"Wow."
"Oh yeah. I guess word got around with the women and now I get more requests for them to work with her than anything one I've known."
"Sounds like it was a good move on your boss's part to hire her," Rachel said.
"Full agreement there," Vince said. "Looks like she's just about done with her student. Would you like to meet her?"
Rachel thought about that and decided to hold off on that for a moment. She needed to talk to her son first. "Another time, perhaps, but I assure you, I will be back to talk to her," Rachel said politely. She quickly walked away before Madigan could see her.
"Donald Bryan Flack Junior," Rachel said, glaring at her son. She was at the NYPD and, knowing where Flack's desk was, had gone straight to it, to find him talking to a man she recognized as Danny Messer, Flack's best friend.
"Mrs. Flack, good to see you again," Danny said politely. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get some coffee." He quickly vanished, leaving Flack to glare at him.
"Mom, have a seat," he said, gesturing to an empty chair next to his desk. She took the offered seat. "I take it you went to the address I gave you."
"Why the hell didn't you tell me Madigan was back in town?" she hissed at him. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to be angry at being deceived, relieved that Madigan was alive and well, or conflicted about how she felt towards her daughter.
"Because neither Maddy nor I were sure about how you and Dad would react. Maddy wanted to approach you guys on her own time on her own turf. As you may recall, she was told that if she left with Davey, she would not be welcome back," Flack said calmly. He had mentally rehearsed this conversation repeatedly with himself after giving Rachel the address to the gym.
"That was six years ago," she shot back. "Things have changed."
"And how was I supposed to know that? You and Dad never spoke about Maddy after she left and the few times I tried, I was told to drop the subject, so I gave up." Flack studied her calmly. "I asked Dad about Maddy when I was over for dinner and he made it very clear that Maddy was not a topic he wished to discuss. You, on the other hand, seemed a bit more receptive, which is why I gave you that address. I was giving you a chance to see Maddy for yourself and decide for yourself whether or not you wanted anything to do with her."
Rachel was quiet. She had to admit her son was good with the logics, but then again, he was a cop and a damn good one. He continued.
"Maddy's changed over the last six years, Mom. She's grown up considerably and she's become a survivor who's not afraid of a little hard work to make ends meet. Danny, Lindsey, and Mac, they love her because she's a wonderful victim during their experiments," he said. "Stella treats her like a kid sister, as does Mac, and Sheldon loves bouncing trivia off of her. Lindsey loves hanging with her because she picks on Danny just as much as he picks on her." Rachel smiled at that. "She made me swear not to get involved between you and her. Her attitude is if you have a problem with her, you deal with her. She doesn't want me getting involved but I don't want her getting hurt."
"Does she want to deal with us?" Rachel asked.
"She has admitted to wanting to talk to you but not sure about what kind of reception she'd get," Flack said. "From what I understand, the last time you two spoke, it cumulated into a rather nasty argument that resulted in her leaving town that night."
She nodded. "Yes, it was a particularly… nasty argument. She didn't want to be a cop and both your father and I were pushing pretty hard for her to join the academy. We thought it would instill some measure of order and discipline in her, which we felt she was lacking in. I have often wondered what would have happened if we had just left her alone and let her do her own thing," she admitted.
"Why don't you find out? Maddy's grown up in the last six years, Mom. She's gone her own way and done her own thing and I like the person she's become," he coaxed.
"How? How do I go about doing that?" she asked.
"Maddy's been staying with me since she came back," he said. "These days she's got a pretty regular schedule and she's used to me showing up at odd times because she knows I work crazy hours. I usually call her when I'm on my way home because she sleeps on the couch. Right now we're looking at renting a two-bedroom apartment."
"So she's planning on sticking around for a while?"
"Yeah. She spent six years bouncing around the States and said she was tired of doing that. She came home because she'd heard about my accident in regards to the bomb. Took her a while to save up for the ticket and it was a three day trip by Greyhound, but she came home and everything about her, including her job at the gym, says she's planning on hanging around for a while," he said.
"What do I say to her?"
"I find 'hello' is usually a good place to start," Flack said, smiling.
