And I'm back in the game! Thanks for the reviews gang. It feels so good to be writing again. Thank god I got over my writers block! I hate when that happens.
Matt – Davis likes Mattie, I never said anything about her feelings towards him. But yeah, she would be pretty upset with herself if anything happened between her and Davis. But will it?
Vicious Assassin – I really like the way that Bekki and Davis chat to each other. When ever I write siblings they always come out like that. Kinda teasing each other but loving each other really. Kinda how I am with my brother and sister I guess. (Shhh don't tell them I said that!) I'm glad you liked the fight scene, it was so hard to write, but I think I managed to describe it the way I wanted in the end. Davis and Mattie in a relationship? We'll have to see.
Redangels – I know. And don't you just love that film? So good! I'm trying hard not to make this too much like that. But I kinda felt, credit where credit's due.
Finding Out
Bobby sat throwing a tennis ball at the wall in the Rec room. Why hasn't she called?
Ray looked over from where he sat with Paige on the sofa. He exchanged looks with Sam. The two of them had been taking it in turns to rescue Bobby from his fits of gloom and doom.
Sam raised a hand. "I got it." Got up and headed over the Bobby.
"You okay, Man?"
Bobby looked up at Sam, gave him a look that said it all, and went back to throwing and catching the tennis ball.
Sam just waited.
"Why hasn't she called?" Bobby asked at last.
Sam sighed, here we go again.
"I don't want to be all needy." Bobby continued. "But really, would one phone call really be that much to ask?"
"She'll call you." Sam told him.
"When?" Bobby asked.
Sam shrugged. "At least you know she's having a good time, right?"
X
"I don't like this."
Mattie stood with her arms cross glaring at Bekki.
"Mattie you are going out." Bekki told her, glaring back at her. "Forcing isolation on yourself is not the way to handle this."
Mattie had spent three days in the house. Scared to leave in case she attacked someone. Maybe she was a hired assassin. Maybe she had a history of violence. Maybe she was an army sleeper agent. One wrong word and she would go on a major killing spree.
Bekki wasn't taking no for an answer. "We are going out." She told Mattie firmly. "We are going to AD and we are going to have a good time."
"AD?" Mattie asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
"Angels and Demons." Bekki filled her in. "It's a club, they play good music. The name is kind of on the lame side. So mostly we just call it AD."
"A club?"
Bekki grinned at her. "Yes, a club, music, dancing, fun."
Mattie opened her mouth to protest.
"And don't tell me that you don't dance, because I saw you throwing yourself round the room to my No Doubt CD the other day."
Mattie shut her mouth.
Bekki grinned again as she headed out the door. "You've got two hours to get ready."
Mattie stood sulking for a while. She really did want to go out. She was climbing the walls in the house. But what if she hurt someone? How could she live with herself? She hadn't mentioned to the twins that she did fifty press-ups every morning. She didn't know why, she just did it. After the fight with Ben and the other boys she had started adding kick boxing to her daily ritual. Her brain might not know who she was, but her body knew what it needed to stay in shape.
But she did want out of this house. It was driving her crazy. She got the feeling that she was not someone who could just sit around doing nothing for days on end. She wanted to be up and doing things. What things? She asked herself, immediately starting to worry again. What was it that she normally did? Kill people? Collect loan money? Handle mobsters? Help people? That didn't sound very likely. She was too young to be in the FBI or the CIA or the police. So it looked like she was juvenile delinquent material. Great. Can't wait for that memory to come back.
"Mattie!" Bekki yelled up the stairs at her. "Get moving!"
In the meantime. It looked like she was going dancing.
X
"How can she do it?" Bekki asked, flopping into the seat next to Davis.
Davis shrugged, watching Mattie.
The three of them had met up with some of Bekki and Davis' mates at AD. Bekki had introduced Mattie as one of her friends down to visit. Mattie had thrown herself into the dancing, and hadn't left the dance floor.
"I'm tired just watching her." Sally added, grinning at Bekki.
Bekki nodded in agreement. Mattie looked like she could dance all night, she danced well, and she wasn't short of admirers. Which went a long way to explaining Davis' scowl and dark looks.
"You could go and dance too." She suggested quietly.
Davis shook his head. Not even bothering to turn to her.
Bekki sighed, her brothers crushes were his own problem. She grinned at Sally. "Dance?"
Sally grinned back. "You know it!"
Davis watched them go. He wished he could get up and dance. He did normally. But having Mattie around made him self-conscience. He worried about what she would think about his dancing. In the end he had just decided to sit it out.
He scowled at himself. This was ridiculous. Mattie was great. She made him laugh, she was great fun to be around, when she wasn't worrying. She was really scared about who she was. He had tried to explain to her that she might just have taken kickboxing lessons. But she wouldn't have any of it. She seemed convinced that she was some hired gun or something equally terrible. This might explain her lack of memories in that last few days. Before the fight she had been remembering things almost daily. Now, nothing for days. She wasn't trying to remember.
Davis shook his head. He was sure that Mattie hadn't been a killer or anything of the sort. She just couldn't have been.
X
They arrived home late. Giggling and laughing. Bill gave them a grin as he headed up the stairs. Not that he had been waiting up for them or anything. The twins teased him.
Mattie smiled. It was nice to know that Mel and Bill were looking out for them.
Still to hyper to sleep they decided to chill out by watching some Buffy. In honour of Mattie they chose Tubular Rasa.
"I wish my amnesia was down to magic." Mattie sighed from where they sat on the floor, surrounded by all the junk food that they could find.
"Yeah, but at least you didn't name yourself Joan." Davis pointed out, through a mouthful of Doritos.
"Man's got a point." Bekki said.
"Good point, very good point." Mattie agreed giving him a high five.
X
None of them surfaced until after twelve the next day. Davis was up first. He arrived back home as Bekki and Mattie were eating their breakfast like it was going out of fashion.
"Wow!" Bekki held up her hand as if to ward off the glare of Davis' hair. He had re-dyed it. So it was an even brighter blonde that before. "I'm going to need sunglasses around you."
Davis gave her a dry look. "Funny."
"Thank you." Bekki replied straightening under his praise.
"Plans for the day?" Mattie asked.
"Oh?" Bekki asked. "Has little miss stay home decided to venture out?"
Mattie glared at her over her cereal.
"I'm not going to the Mall." Davis said falling into a chair.
Bekki screwed up her face in concentration.
"I love when she does that." Davis muttered to Mattie. "You can almost hear the cogs if you listen hard enough."
A pop tart hit him square in the chest.
"Score!" Davis bit into it happily.
X
In the end they decided on a game of Baseball. With bat, ball and catchers mitt, they headed down the road to the field.
The main pitch was being used by the local school little league, but the rest of the field was free.
Davis set himself up as pitcher, while Mattie took the bat. Bekki groaned about being the catcher, complaining that she'd be the one doing all the running.
They took it in turn to play each position, playing long after the little league had headed home.
"Couple more swings and I'm ready to head home." Davis said squinting into the setting sun, as Bekki shifted her position and let the ball fly.
He cracked the bat against the ball and saw it go soaring off into the distance. Mattie rolled her eyes and took off after the ball. "I got it!"
Keeping her focus on the ball she raced down the field. She was going to catch it. If it rolled too far it would end up in the ditch, just before the fence at the bottom of the field. A ditch complete with brambles. She had already scratched her legs five times; she was not going for six.
Chasing after the ball she leapt up and snatched it out of the air. She turned and waved it triumphantly at the twins.
Bekki stepped closer to Davis. "Did you just see what I just saw?" She asked nervously.
"You mean did I just see Mattie run faster than humanly possible?" Davis asked back. "Yeah. I saw."
"Oh." Bekki said. "Good."
Mattie jogged up to them. "Caught it. No more bramble scratches for me."
Bekki forced a grin onto her face.
Mattie frowned at her. "Beks? What's up?"
"Hu?" Bekki managed a better smile. "Nothing."
"Mattie, do me a favour." Davis said, taking the ball from her. "Fetch this for me." And with that he hoisted the ball into the air, swung the bat and sent it flying across the field.
Mattie gave him a puzzled look then took off after the ball. What that hell was that about anyway? Making her run for no reason? Shaking her head she increased her speed, straining to catch up with the ball. Watching it arch across the sky she realised she was level with it. Way to go her, pretty fast! She kept going and came to the sudden realisation that she was now in front of the ball. Out in front of it. Out distancing it. Faster than it.
"What the?" She stopped. Watched the ball come flying towards her, reached out and snapped it out of the air.
Turning she looked back at the twins. They were staring back at her. Carefully and slowly she walked back to them.
"You guys saw that?"
They nodded.
"I was ahead of the ball."
Again they nodded.
"That's not possible."
Again a nod.
"That's not humanly possible."
This time the twins just watched her.
Mattie paused, taking deep calming breaths. "So that would make me… not human?"
"Mattie" Bekki started, but Mattie cut her off.
"And if I'm not human, that would make me a mutant right?"
"Mattie" Davis tried.
"No!" Mattie held up a hand to silence him. "I'm right. No one human can run like that." She looked at the end of the field, to the fence that surrounded it. "I bet no human could do this."
In a blur she was gone. A coloured streak heading to the far end of the field. The blur turned into Mattie at the far end of the field. They saw her hit the fence with the flat of her hand. She was halfway back across the field before they heard the slap of her hand on the fence.
She came to a stop back in front of them again.
"So." Mattie carried on in a steady voice that was belied by the tears forming in her eyes. "I think we've established something here." She clenched her fists, forcing herself to continue. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I'm a…" Taking another deep breath she forced herself to say it. "I'm a mutant." She gave the twins a wild smile. "Like my life wasn't fucked up enough already!"
"Mattie." Bekki stepped up to her.
"Don't touch me!" Mattie stepped back. "Just don't…"
Bekki gave her a look and then suddenly lunged. Mattie found herself wrapped in a protective hug. Bekki gave her a tight squeeze. "It's going to be okay." She whispered in Mattie's ear.
"How?" Mattie mumbled back, the tears that he been threatening, finally starting to spill.
"Because it will." Bekki told her. "Let's go home. Okay?"
Mattie nodded, wiping her eyes and allowing Bekki to lead her back to the house. Davis stepped up to walk along side her; he put an arm around Mattie, who was shaking.
X
Back at the house Bekki pushed Mattie into a chair and told her to stay there. The twins had an urgent meeting in the kitchen.
"So?" Davis hissed.
"So what?" Bekki shot back. "First she shows up with no memory, then the fighting, now this." She shook her head. "I'd be going crazy if I were her."
Davis nodded in agreement. "You okay with this?"
"The mutant thing?" Bekki shrugged. "I guess I have to be. She's our friend. I know we've known her less than two weeks but she's still our friend. And she needs our help."
In the living room, Mattie had pulled herself into a ball, she couldn't think, couldn't process thoughts. She just sat, shaking.
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AN. Okay, so I'm hoping that I got all the Baseball stuff right. I'm English and really have no idea what I'm talking about. So if there is anything totally totally wrong then please let me know so that I can change it. I'm hoping that I got it right, it's just like cricket right! ;o)