A/N: Still alive! So sorry this took so long guys. Every time I tried to write something, I wanted to scream at the page and make Karina and Johnny go at it. I didn't! Not yet. But it's been tempting. :)
We've also been going through kidding season (we have three new baby goats on the farm) so it's been crazy busy to say the least. This chapter was going to be a lot longer but I think I can break it in two and have it work just fine. Hope you all enjoy and again, I'm really sorry this took as long as it did. Love to all your reviewers, followers and those who added this to your favorites. You guys are amazing and your support keep the drive strong!
Side note - forgive the typos. It's 2am...that's about all I've got for an excuse, lol.
Chapter Seven
Johnny sat at the piano on stage, staring at the ivory keys and not entirely sure what to do with them. Song after song came to mind, but somewhere between thinking the tune, piecing together which piano keys would give it life and actually moving his fingers to create said life, everything seemed to get lost in murky translation.
Because his mind wasn't truly on playing. Or even singing for that matter.
It was on Karina.
He could still hear her sleepy "hello" humming pleasantly in his ears, the low husky quality stirring a sudden, unexpected surge of lust. The idea of waking up beside her and hearing her say it just like that was in his head before he could even stop it and even now, continued to ruthlessly plague him.
Everything about her seemed to stay with him, down to her scent which had clung to his leather jacket after she'd given it back to him. All the way home, he was surrounded by her and his tired mind took every liberty possible with the fact, filling his head with thoughts and questions that he wouldn't dream of asking himself when he wasn't exhausted. Questions he'd be damned if he could find the answers to.
The most quiet and yet most persistent one was could they possibly be something?
Could what he was and what Karina ever work?
And would it be completely abnormal of him to kind of wish that there ever would be something?
Interspecies relationships weren't unheard of. And really, that was the only thing he could think to call it. Acceptance had grown in more recent years and the only type to really turn heads was a relationship between a predator and prey. Those had been, up until more recently, met with complete hostility and refusal to understand until a couple from one of the bigger cities Johnny had never been to, went public with their relationship. And not just any couple - but one that worked on the police force together and had been the driving force in shutting down an operation focused on turning preds savage.
Their professional partnership had been unanimously accepted by the public after that, so much so that when word broke of their romantic involvement, it caused more confusion than backlash.
Johnny could remember his dad saying something about it once - something that had always stuck with him because it was such an unlikely thing for a guy like his dad to say.
"You ain't got much choice over love. It ain't somethin' to understand. It's a livin', breathin' force, - one you're better off not questionin'. Just let it do it what it'll do and be grateful when it sticks what you've been lookin' for your whole life right in your face."
Johnny had a feeling that his dad had been talking about his mom. His gaze had been distant, his voice a quiet, pain filled rumble of agony.
He'd never known his mom and whenever his dad said something that hinted the slightest bit at her, Johnny would immediately want to leave the room. He was comfortable with his dad's gruffness, his anger and demands. However, the vulnerable piece of him that existed, wrapped up in a woman who'd died long before Johnny was old enough to remember what her face looked like, wasn't a piece that Johnny wanted to be around, in all honesty. He never knew what to do for his dad in those moments and it made Johnny feel more alone than ever.
"Hey Johnny!"
Johnny glanced up from the keys, offering Rosita a smile and gratefully shrugging off the shadows of the past as she trotted on stage, her youngest Hannah trailing behind her. When Hannah caught sight of him, she broke away from her mother and dashed across the stage, throwing herself into his arms.
"Johnny!"
"Hey kid. You keepin' your mum company today?" he asked, easily catching her and swinging her up in his arms.
"She had a dentist appointment this afternoon," Rosita set her purse down on a bench just offstage, tossing Hannah's backpack beside it. "By the time we were finished, I didn't really see a point to bringing her to school so we went out for lunch instead and now we're here."
Hannah squirmed in his lap, twisting up to face him and tugging on the collar of his jacket. "Is Karina here?"
He grinned down at her, tweaking her nose. "Somewhere, yeah."
With an excited yelp, Hannah sprang off his lap and took off towards the wings.
"Well, guess she's over you," Rosita said with a laugh. "How are you, hun? We haven't had a chance to talk for a while."
"Good...I'm good," he replied, turning and facing the keys again, staring down at the chipped ivory.
She took a seat beside him. "That didn't sound convincing at all. What's going on, Johnny?"
He couldn't possibly tell her about all of the confusing thoughts centered on Karina. Not only did it feel like it was too soon to say anything, but he wanted to keep those feelings to himself until he could figure them out. Until he didn't feel like he had to safeguard them.
Instead, he went with something Rosita was familiar with.
"I'm gonna visit my dad tomorrow. His trials comin' up and the lawyer wants to meet with us. Go over things an' all that."
Concern flashed over her face. "What do you think is going to happen?"
Johnny shrugged indifferently. "The lawyer thinks he can reduce dad's sentence. I don't know much more than that."
"How's your dad doing?"
"Seems okay." Sighing, he dropped his hands in his lap, giving up on trying anything for the day. "I know he wants to come home. Says he's worried about me takin' care of myself and runnin' the shop. I think he has a hard time believin' I'm able to manage it without him around."
Rosita patted his arm. "I doubt it's that. Parents just want to take care of their kids, even when they know that their kids are old enough to take care of themselves. I'll probably mother my children well into their twenties and drive them insane while doing it."
Johnny angled a grin at her. "You mean you don't drive them insane already?"
"Watch yourself, young man, or I'll start practicing some of those smothering mom skills on you," she teased.
Hannah reappeared, interrupting their conversation and wearing a confused frown. "Mama, I can't find Karina."
"Well, where all did you look?" Rosita asked patiently.
"I looked in the practice rooms, the bathroom and went upstairs but someone is banging on a door up there and it scared me."
"Banging on a...what?"
Hannah clambered up into her mother's lap. "Upstairs in that room Mr. Moon tells us not to play in because of the door always getting stuck. Someone is banging on it real hard. Is the theater haunted?"
"No, honey. The theater's not haunted." She set Hannah down and with a quick, concerned glance in his direction, started for the wings.
Without asking if he should, Johnny went with her, an uneasy feeling settling over him. They were halfway up the stairs when a shout for help tore through the silence.
"Ash-." Rosita gasped, flying the rest of the way up the stairs and towards the sound of Ash's cries, Johnny right behind her.
They rounded the corner and could see Ash at the door to one of the maintenance closets, the one Mr. Moon had advised them all to steer clear of until he could get someone in to fix the door. She was tugging on the handle, a rare look of panic fixed on her face.
"Ash, what-."
"It's Karina!" the young porcupine cried. "She's stuck in there. I kept her talking for a while but then she went quiet and I can't get the damn door open!"
"Johnny-."
"Way ahead of ya," he cut Rosita off, grabbing the handle and trying it once before yanking on it with far more strength than necessary. The wood splintered as the door swung open revealing nothing more than a dark closet full of janitorial equipment. "Karina?"
A tiny whimper caught his attention and he looked down to where she was sitting, curled up against the wall, her arms wrapped tightly round her legs.
"Hey," he said softly, kneeling down beside her and resting a hand on her shoulder. It was trembling. Her whole body was. Her head was tucked into her arms and her breathing was quick and shallow in a way that terrified him. "Karina, you okay?"
She wouldn't answer him. He tightened his hand on her shoulder, giving it a little tug and she jerked away, a low frightened sound escaping her.
Johnny suddenly felt helpless in a way that he hadn't felt since the time he'd pleaded for his dad to listen to his plan to bail him out of jail with the non-existent prize money as his dad had walked away, ignoring every word.
"Johnny, what's wrong?"
He turned to Rosita. "I don't know. She won't talk."
Rosita brushed past him, a determined look on her face, the one generally reserved for when she was in full-on mom mode, as her husband liked to call it.
She knelt down in front of Karina, gently taking her hand. Karina was quick to react, trying to snatch her hand free but Rosita was patient and maintained her hold.. "She's freezing. I think she might be having a panic attack or some kind of flashback. Ash?"
The porcupine came forward, her anxious gaze fixed on the human. "Yeah?"
"Can you run down to my purse and get the bottle of water out of it? Stage left on the couch. Johnny, can I have your coat?"
"Yeah, sure." He shrugged it off as Ash dashed out of the room. Instead of handing it to Rosita, he draped it over Karina's shoulders. Like the night before, the cumbersome leather nearly swallowed her, though the effect was entirely different. Instead of looking cute, she looked tiny and vulnerable.
"Karina, honey," Rosita started softly. "It's Rosita. I need you to listen to my voice. I want to help you but you have to tell me what's going on. Where are you?"
The answer seemed obvious to Johnny. She was in a closet. And he half expected her to say so. What he didn't expect was for her to say she was somewhere else.
"In the ocean," she said softly, her voice strained. The trembling subsided and she seemed to relax a little. Her eyes opened and she stared through Rosita, her gaze haunted. "I think. I can hear the waves on the coffin."
"Coffin?" Johnny choked. "Rosita, maybe you shouldn't-."
She shushed him and continued on, seemingly unphased by the cryptic response. "Are you sure you're in a coffin?" she asked.
Karina managed a small, jerking nod. "Nailed in. She wanted me gone...wanted to get rid of me. Didn't...didn't want me. Too weak...reminded her too much."
Johnny's stomach turned with every word. He felt the need to run but stood right where he was, watching the scene unfold in horrified fascination.
Rosita moved a little closer. "Reminded her too much?"
"The bad things." Karina's brows furrowed. "I...I wasn't good at...at handling them. I held on, I fixated...made everything so much...worse."
"What happened after she put you in the coffin?"
"Drifted...forever. It was dark and quiet all the time. I thought I felt things...heard things. But it was always so dark."
Rosita stroked a hoof over her hair, pushing damp strands away from Karina's face. Color was slowly returning to her cheeks and even though her breathing was still coming out in shallow gasps, she looked much better than she had only seconds ago. "It's not dark here. There's light. Can you see it? There's not much but it's there. And you're not alone."
The last sentence seemed to snap Karina out of whatever nightmare she'd been living in. She gasped and looked up, her gaze focusing on Rosita.
"I'm here," Rosita continued, "Johnny's here."
"Johnny-."
She looked up at him and he gave her a weak smile. "Hey."
She was silent for close to a minute before her eyes glassed over and her face fell. "Oh god-."
"Kariana, honey...it's okay," Rosita assured her.
The words seemed to do little to help. Karian shook her head, pressing her hand to her mouth. And all he could do was watch on in helpless silence as she fell apart, her shoulders heaving and a low, muffled sob escaping her. He could almost feel her panic, sliding off of her in suffocating waves.
Ash returned, bottle of water in hand and Eddie and Buster following her.
"Ash said something happened to Karina?" Buster asked, worry coloring his tone. "Is everything okay?"
"I ah...I don't think so," Johnny muttered, his gaze darting back to where Karina was curling into herself.
Eddie tried to look around the doorway and see past Johnny, which rubbed him entirely the wrong way. Eddie knew next to nothing about Kariana, and next to nothing made his concern seam misplaced.
"Did she get hurt?" he asked. "I should have been more careful when I pushed her in there. I didn't mean to but Mike was coming around the corner and I didn't want him to see her."
Johnny's mild irritation flamed into full, unadulterated fury and he grabbed Eddie's arm, shoving him back into the hallway. "You did what?"
"Woah, Johnny...I...I didn't mean to-."
"What the hell did ya mean to do?" he growled.
"I don't know. I just know Mike's the last guy we want seeing her!" Eddie yelped, putting his hands up as if he were surrendering. "Honest, I didn't mean to hurt her!"
Johnny wanted to hit him. To smack that stupid, clueless look off his face as hard as he possibly could. His hands practically itched to do it. But a literal voice of reason stopped him.
"Johnny," Rosita called, her light touch on his arm calming him. "Take Karina home. I'll handle this."
When he continued to glare down at the cowering sheep, her grip tightened and she gave a stern tug. "Now, Johnny."
It was only because he knew better than to ignore that tone of hers that he stepped back. He turned to Karina, the red haze subsiding as he looked down at her, still curled into herself, quietly sobbing.
"Karina-." He knelt down beside her. He was feeling a little shaky himself from the sudden rush and fall of adrenaline. Suddenly, the thought of getting out of the theater was incredibly appealing. "I'm gonna take you home, okay?"
She nodded and reached for him, keeping her head down as he led her past the small, tense group and maintaining a vice-like grip on his hand until they reached his truck. He was reluctant to let her hand go, feeling as if what tentative connection they shared would be shattered if he did. He could already feel a widening distance between them that wasn't there before.
He walked her around the truck and opened the door for her, finally relinquishing his hold when she was in the passenger seat. He closed her door and jogged around to the other side, sliding behind the wheel and starting the truck up. He could see her out of the corner of his eye, hands clasped tightly in her lap, vacant gaze fixed on the glove box.
What the hell do I do….
Left with little choice, he started out of the alley.
"I don't want to go home."
Her statement was so quiet, he almost missed it. "Karina-."
"I don't want to go home. I don't...I don't want to be alone with all of...this. Could we just go up to your spot or something?"
"Yeah...yeah, course we can," he said, turning the opposite direction and heading out of town.
