Catherine
sat down at the kitchen table as Matthew finished his breakfast. "Hey,
have you got any plans for today?"
Matthew shook his head.
"I
was wondering, would you like to go shopping with me? We could pick out
some
things for your room and for school."
Matthew's eyes widened. "Just you and me?"
"If that's okay. I thought Lizzy could stay here with Gil."
"I'd
like that," Matthew smiled.
Catherine smiled. "Great."
************************************************************************
Catherine locked the car and was surprised as Matthew clasped her hand.
"Is this okay?" he asked.
She squeezed his hand. "Of course it is. You don't need to ask."
"Where are we going first?" Matthew asked.
"Well, what colour would you like your room to be?"
Matthew's
eyes widened. "I can pick?"
"It's your room," Catherine grinned
at him. "You can have it any
colour you want."
"Can I have a blue ceiling, with clouds? Then I could hang airplanes! I always wanted an airplane, but Mommy said no."
"Well, let's go see what we can find."
************************************************************************
Catherine had asked the hardware store to deliver the paint and now she and Matthew were in the clothes store.
"What
do you like to wear?"
Matthew shrugged. "Mom usually just
ordered stuff from out of
catalogues."
"Well, let's try a novelty. Let's pick out some clothes for you here."
Catherine was enjoying her time with him. He was like a kid in a candy store, pointing at different shirts with airplane motifs on them, or a cap with a train on it.
Her heart swelled as Matthew insisted on carrying his own bags, because as he said "you have to take it easy".
"Would you like some lunch?" Catherine asked him.
Matthew nodded. "Could I have McDonalds? I've never had it before."
Catherine looked surprised. "You've never had McDonald's before?"
Matthew shook his head.
"Well, let me initiate you to the club," Catherine smiled.
************************************************************************
Matthew watched Catherine pick out two flavoured lip glosses, one for each of her girls. She turned around and smiled at him. "Now, we've got you clothes and things for your room. Anything else?"
"What about you?" he asked.
"What about me?"
"Isn't there anything you want to get?"
"Today
is all about you," she smiled.
Matthew dug around in his pocket and played with the toy airplane he got from his Happy Meal. "This is the best day ever."
"I'm glad," Catherine told him. "Very glad."
************************************************************************
"Did you have a good day?" Gil asked, as he watched Matthew show Lizzy his toy plane.
Catherine
nodded. "It was a very good day." She sat up and looked at him
intently. "I think, maybe we should take him to see a therapist."
Gil raised an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't believe in them."
Catherine
shrugged. "All I said was that they didn't save me and Eddie." She
smirked at him. "Which considering my life now, is a good thing."
Becoming serious again she took his hand. "Gil, he's been through a
lot.
Sara was all he ever knew for five years. To suddenly have her leave
him must
be hard on him." She sighed. "All I'm saying is, it's a
possibility."
Gil nodded. "You might have a
point." He pulled her back into his
arms and she rested her back against his chest, letting out a breath.
"You
smell good."
"Watermelon lip gloss," Catherine
answered. "Lizzy tried to
paint some on me. Lindsey is now regulating her usage."
"Hmm. Maybe we should let Lizzy paint you in lip gloss more often." He kissed her neck.
"Behave yourself," she said, swatting him.
"Never," he replied, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
************************************************************************
After pulling a few strings, Catherine and Gil were able to get Matthew in to see a friend of theirs, Dr Laura Shephard.
"She's not going to give me a shot is she?" Matthew asked, as they sat in the waiting room.
"No," Gil assured him. "She just wants to talk to you."
"About Mommy?"
Gil
nodded. "Is that okay?"
Matthew shrugged. "I guess so."
"Matthew Grissom?" the receptionist called.
Matthew glanced at Gil and Catherine for reassurance. After receiving nods from both of them, he walked with the receptionist to the room.
The first thing he noticed was the airplane hanging from the ceiling.
"Cool!"
The office chair behind the desk swung around. "Like the airplane?"
Matthew nodded. "Yeah!"
Dr Shephard smiled. "I'm Dr Shephard. But you can call me Laura. You're Matthew?"
Matthew
nodded and sat down on the beanbag. "That's me."
Laura got up and sat on the other beanbag. "Great. You know why you're here?"
"Yep. It's cause my mommy left me with my dad and Catherine.""You're a clever guy. Yeah, that's why. That must have hurt."
"Mommy said she was going to be back later and gave me some money for pizza. I waited for two days and then I didn't have enough money to pay for the second pizza so I had to call Catherine. She came and then I went to live with her and my dad." Matthew sighed. "Dad says that my mom is at our house in San Francisco. Catherine says that Mommy just wanted me to stay in Las Vegas for a while."
"That must have been hard."
"I'm a big boy. Mommy used to say that bad things happen all the time, and we just got to live with it. She said that I was a big boy, and life was hard and to deal with it."
"You certainly are a big boy.
You're very mature for your age."
Matthew shrugged. "I had to look after Mommy. There was no one else to do it."
"Your mom didn't have any boyfriends?"
Matthew shook his head. "I heard her say that guys were bad and never cared about anyone else than themselves. She said that I was gonna be different though. I was gonna be like her."
Laura felt her heart break. "What about your dad and Catherine? What's life like there?"
"It's cool! I got two sisters, Lindsey and Lizzy. Lindsey is thirteen and she's really cool. She talks on the phone a lot, but she still watches movies with me an' stuff. And Lizzy is two and she doesn't talk much at all, but she likes to play outside. And yesterday, we all went to the airport and watched the planes come in and fly out. And me and Dad are going to build model airplanes and then hang 'em up in my room so that it looks like they're flying. And next time he and Catherine have a day off, we're gonna go ride a train!"
"You like planes and trains?"
Matthew nodded eagerly. "Mommy didn't have a lot of time at home, so we didn't get to do that. And Catherine took me to McDonald's the other day when we were getting stuff to decorate my room!"
"Wow, sounds like heaps of fun!"
************************************************************************
Catherine squirmed in her seat. Gil glanced at her.
"Are you okay?"
She nodded. "Mhm. Just a little backache." She stood up. "I might just go for a little walk, okay?"
Gil nodded. "You want me to come with you?"
Catherine shook her head. "I'm fine. You wait for Matthew. I won't go far."
Half an hour later, Matthew exited the room, bouncing up and down. "Dr Laura wants to talk to you and Catherine now," he told his father.
"Good timing," Gil said, as Catherine walked back into the room. "How are you feeling?"
Catherine
smiled. "Better. Just sitting in the same position for too long. Hey
Matthew, how'd it go?"
"Great," Matthew smiled. "She wants to talk to you and dad now."
************************************************************************
"This was just a preliminary look at Matthew, and I still need to review my notes." Dr Shephard looked at Gil and Catherine. "However, he obviously has some scars from his life with his mother, and that's not including being abandoned in Las Vegas. Is there any way that she can return, perhaps talk to him?"
"It's unlikely."
Dr Shephard nodded. "Matthew seems happy with you, but I think he's just confused about what's going on in his life. He needs stability and he hasn't had much of that lately. I would like to see him again, in a few weeks, and perhaps in the meantime, he should talk to you both about his mother."
************************************************************************
Catherine rubbed her back as she sat on the sofa, watching "Rugrats" with Matthew and Lizzy. Lindsey had gone to a friend's house and Gil had gone to work.
The two kids sucked on Popsicles, their after dinner treat.
She stood up, rubbing her back and heard Lizzy's quick intake of breath.
"Mama hurt!"
Catherine raised an eyebrow and looked at where she had been sitting. She saw the blood and cursed.
"Matthew, I need you to call 911. Okay?"
Matthew's eyes were wide with fear as he slid off the couch and ran into the kitchen, dropping his treat in the sink and dialing the number.
"Please hurry!" he told the woman at the other end of the line. "My mom is hurt!"
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Part 9