Girl Time
Nome, Alaska, 7:15 am;
Jenna and Tina set in an alley, just talking. "So I just jumped on the bear, if Balto died, so would Rosy and the other children and I was in love with Balto, to me my life really wasn't important at the time." said Jenna, she was glad Tina really wanted to hear her side of the story, her friends and Balto were the only ones who ever asked. She was also happy because she hadn't had another female to talk to since Dixie and Silvie moved.
"Cool, I wish I was that brave." said Tina, she was excited, she'd heard parts of what Jenna had done that night but there really wasn't much she knew about her.
"I'm sure if it was someone you loved pinned under its claw, you could."
"That's just it, there really isn't anyone that matters to me in the future."
"No one?"
"No one, the only ones I ever cared about were my mother and siblings, haven't talked to any of them since I was a pup. I used to love my dad until I found out what he did. Most of my brothers and sisters got loving owners, I got a heartless man who only saw me as a tool, what he did still gives me nightmares."
Jenna felt bad she brought it up. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"Its fine, jerk got what was coming to him."
"What happened to him?"
"He's dead, he liked to make very dangerous weapons, one finally did him in." Tina didn't want to tell Jenna about the Outsider yet, telling her it was a monster would need an explanation so she called it what it was, a weapon.
"Oh…" Jenna understood Tina probably was better off that her owner was dead but talking about it made her feel uncomfortable, she thought she better change subjects. "Do you know how Rosy is doing in the future?"
Tina thinks for a moment. "Last time I checked, she is living happily in New York City with at least one granddaughter."
Jenna smiled, knowing that made her happy and feel even more grateful for Balto saving Rosy's life. "Thanks for telling me that."
"You're very welcome, I know Rosy is very important to you, I wish I had ended up with someone like her. A nice human child, children have so much more energy and are a lot more playful than most adults, my old owner, in addition to the other reasons I didn't like him, would never let me have time to play."
Jenna agreed, her and Rosy always had a lot of fun together, Rosy also liked to play with Balto which was just fine with Jenna. "They are a joy to be around, though you have to keep an eye on them sometimes." Jenna chuckled, Rosy wasn't that hard to keep safe, she didn't stray far from Jenna or Balto when they were with her but there were times she would of got herself in trouble if it weren't for them.
"I wouldn't mind, as long as they don't do what my last owner did to me, I'm fine." Tina didn't want to think about a lot of the stuff Damien had done to her.
Jenna wondered just what Tina's owner had put her through but she knew it would probably upset both of them to talk about it. "…You know if you can't get back to the future, I don't think Rosy's parents would mind another dog."
"I'd like that, I'm trying to figure out if I can get back, its really complicated." That was an understatement, Tina was doing her best but the calculations were so hard it made her head hurt and the human ideas of time travel could be false, that was the problem with being the first at anything, theories about it could be completely wrong.
"Well I hope we'll get to know you better before you leave."
"I hope so too…Can I ask you something important?" Tina felt more comfortable talking to Jenna than Balto, maybe because she was a female like her.
"Sure."
" Do you think I'm a bad dog for hating my old owner?" The question bothered Tina because despite the enhanced intelligence, she was still a dog, dogs were called man's best friend, did that apply when the man wasn't friendly?
Jenna had hoped not to be asked that question. Of course she didn't think Tina was bad, Jenna could tell Tina needed a better answer than a simple no. She had been with Rosy's family almost her entire life, the only reason she'd dislike a human was if they did something to hurt Balto. Tina on the other hand was adopted by a terrible man, something Jenna had never met. She thought over the question. "I don't think you are, you are a good dog who met a bad human. To be honest you'd be better off asking Balto, he has more experience with being mistreated by humans." said Jenna.
"Yeah, guess its kind of my fault I ended up with the jerk." said Tina.
"What do you mean?"
"Well you see I was a stray in New York, it wasn't easy and my mom wanted a better life for me and my siblings. She made it look like a human was giving us away so we would get adopted. One of my brothers had died earlier in the week and I was pretty torn up inside, didn't stray far from mom…"
Flashback start
At the entrance to an alley in New York, a red and white, adult female husky set over a cardboard box beside which she'd set an old sign with the word 'free' on it, she had dug it out of the trash. Inside were four puppies, two were black and gray males and the other two were red and white females. Tina's younger self was laying sadly near her mother on her bandana which was bigger than she was. She looked over at her siblings, they were close to the side nearest to the sidewalk, barking happy at the passing humans. She wanted to join them, their mother had worked very hard to set this up and was hoping it would work but Tina was too sad. One of the males saw this and walked over to her. "Tina? What's wrong?" he asked confused and concerned.
Tina lifted her head to her brother. "Hey Tucker, its just…there should be five of us here." said Tina, visibly upset, she was the only of them that had seen their brother die, she wished she hadn't.
Tucker lowered his head and whimpered, that made him sad too. "I know. It wasn't your fault, it wasn't anyone's fault. I'll be over with the others if you need me. I'll say goodbye first if someone wants me."
An hour later, Tucker and Tina were the only two left. A man picked up her brother to take him. "Bye Tina, I hope we see each other again." called Tucker as his new owner took him away.
"Me too." said Tina, she hadn't moved from her mother's side.
The mother watched till Tucker was out of sight before looking down at Tina. "Well you're the only one left, you know this is really hard for me to do but its for the best, you don't have to live out here, you can have a home and that makes this worth it." said Tina's mother, Tina couldn't tell if she was happy or sad.
Tina got ready to say something when a voice interrupted her. She peeked over the corner of the box to see a tall, rough faced man talking on a cell phone. "Yes, I've been looking…Unfortunately the age we need seems hard to find, the pet stores are completely out of pups this week…Why can't we just order one, we have government funding…I see, Damien out." said Damien, hanging up. "Cheapskates at the Pentagon, they'll fund a project but won't pay for the small stuff." He looks over at Tina. "That's convenient." He kneels down and picks Tina up. He peels back her lips with his fingers, inspecting her teeth and gums, he looks over the rest of her, this made Tina a little nervous but she knew how much it meant to her mom for her to be off the streets. "Looks healthy, a little undernourished but that shouldn't be a problem. Huh?" Tina's mother handed the old bandana to him in her mouth. He takes it and the larger dog points to her daughter. "Oh, got it, this belongs to the little one. Well I guess I'd better keep it." He turns and drops some money into the box, ignoring the sign. Tina was happy someone wanted her but she was sad to leave her mother, she waves goodbye with her paw, her mother replied in kind. Damien carries Tina down the street in one hand and dials the cell phone. "Its Damien, I found a dog."
Flashback end
"So if I hadn't stayed so close to my mom, I probably would have been adopted earlier, not picked up by Damien." said Tina, it had upset Tina a little to talk about it but it felt good to get it off her mind.
"But wouldn't one of your siblings of been taken instead?" asks Jenna.
"Maybe, maybe not. I only know my siblings got good homes and Tucker became a police dog, he's doing a good job, saw him on the news once or twice with his teeth in some crook's arm. I guess my mom is probably still there too, she's tough. If I do get back, Tuck is the only one I could probably find, hey what do you know? I do have something to get back to!" Tina smiled, she couldn't believe she'd forgotten about her brother.
"Glad to hear it." Jenna had some questions about this Damien guy but she didn't feel good asking, she didn't want to upset Tina, she was also confused as to what a cell phone was but guessed it served the same purpose as a telegraph.
"Aw, isn't that sweet?" asks Steele mockingly as he walks up to Jenna and puts himself between her and Tina, receiving a growl from the latter, he replied by kicking snow in Tina's face. He'd only heard part of the conversation but he really didn't care. "So Jenna, why don't you leave that mutt and come with-"
"Not another word!" yelled Tina, interrupting Steele. She was furious, she didn't care who he had called a mutt, her or Balto, it reminded her of her nightmare, of the horrible thing her father had done to her and she couldn't stand that. "I think Jenna would rather hang out with a 'mutt' than a selfish, insensitive jerk like you."
"Big mouth, can you back up it up?" Steele bared his teeth, he did think Tina had the same beauty as Jenna but he really didn't like her and would love an excuse to get his paws on her.
Tina snarls. She goes around him to go back to Jenna. As she walks behind Steele she stops for a second. "You're not worth my ti-" Steele kicks her in the stomach with his hind leg hard enough to take her feet off the ground for a moment and knock the wind out of her. Tina hits the ground with whimper.
Jenna ran to check on Tina while Steele laughed before leaving. Tina was still coughing and gasping for air. "Tina, are you hurt?" asked Jenna, concerned.
"What do you think?! Of course I'm hurt!" yelled Tina, angrily. Tina manages to catch her breath and realized what she'd done. "Jenna, I…I didn't mean it. You were trying to help but I was angry and I just…I'm sorry." Tina put her head down in shame.
"After what you've been through today, no one can blame you for losing your temper, what Steele did was just uncalled for." said Jenna, she couldn't blame Tina, Steele had really upset her. "What about you?"
"I think I'll live." Tina sits up and covers her aching stomach with her front leg. "Steele is a jerk, what did I ever do to him? Well I slapped him but he deserved it."
"Yeah, he didn't hit Dixie when she slapped him a few months ago, then again he wasn't going crazy."
"You know what? I think we should get him back, I can't hurt him without endangering the timeline but I can pull a prank on him." Tina gets a mischievous smirk.
"Count me in."
Looks at Jenna, slightly confused. "This isn't too immature for you?"
"What? I don't like Steele and I could use a good laugh."
Fifteen minutes later, Jenna and Tina watch an alley in front of them, safely in the shadows, Jenna didn't have her bandana. Steele walked down the alley, he didn't suspect a thing, he was following Jenna's scent, that was part of the plan. He stopped were the scent was strongest and sniffed around. Tina cuts a rope near her with her teeth. A rope came up out of the snow under Steele's hind leg and pulled him upwards before coming loose and dropping him near a wall. Jenna pulls another rope with her mouth, causing cans of pink paint on a shelf above Steele to overturn and pour on him. "What the heck just happened?!" he yelled before seeing his reflection in a broken piece of glass leaned against the wall, almost his entire body was bright pink. He looked himself over to make sure he wasn't mistaken, he tried to hide his humiliation and took off to find somewhere to wash the paint off and avoid further embarrassment.
Once he was out of sight, Tina and Jenna started laughing so hard they couldn't breathe. "That was priceless, did you see the look on his face?" asked Tina, trying to stop laughing.
"I know, that was fun, he had that coming a long time." said Jenna, having just as hard of a time stopping herself. She walked out and dug her bandana out of the snow were Steele was sniffing and slips it back on, she hadn't wanted to use it at first but they needed something with her scent on it, it had worked quite well.
"We're lucky he's so obsessed with you or that never would of worked."
"What's so funny?" asked Balto walking up to them. He was dripping wet and shivering.
At first Jenna was worried because he looked sad but then she realized it wasn't his feelings that were hurt but his pride, he must of felt embarrassed to come up to them looking like he did but he probably wasn't as embarrassed as they just made Steele. She tried not to laugh, Tina didn't, she laughed rather loudly. "What happened to you?" asks Jenna, giggling some.
"I meant to get back earlier but this fisherman was drowning so I jumped in to save him, he's fine but man that water was cold!"
"Good job. Sorry for laughing but its kind of funny to see you like this." said Tina.
Balto shakes himself off, purposely drenching both Jenna and Tina. He starts laughing himself, they join him. "Very funny, come on, lets go dried off and get warmed up." said Jenna.
A couple seconds later in the boiler room, Balto was laughed hysterically at what they had done to Steele. "I wish I had been there." he said.
"Yeah, it will wash off but in the meantime he's going to be pretty embarrassed. That should teach him a lesson." said Tina, chuckling.
"So I'm guessing you had a good time."
"Yeah we did, we learned a good bit about each other." said Jenna, she'd enjoyed herself quite a bit, she didn't think she'd ever laughed that hard in her life.
"You bet I did." said Tina, her mischievous side was loving this.
They all turned to leave the room when a deep, menacing voice echoed inside Tina's head. "I'm coming back." it said.
Tina looked around, not sure where it came from. "Did one of you say something?" Jenna and Balto shook their heads no. Tina tried to detect the Outsider, no such luck. "Must just be hearing things." she hoped she was.
What was Steele's lession? Don't get on Tina's bad side. As you can guess, the Outsider returns next chapter, see you then!