"Daddy! Wait!"
Angie broke into a run after Scott across the school yard, away from her Uncle Trent. For his part, Uncle Trent wasn't ruffled and just followed casually, keeping an eye out for cars and other things the child might not have looked for.
Angie remembered something very important she needed to say before her dad went in to meet Ms. Finch. It was doubling in importance now, given how his mouth was set in a permanent grimace. The only time it shifted into a smile was when he greeted her briefly before leaving her in Uncle Trent's care.
They'd just arrived when she was coming out the doors and they were both still in uniform. Daddy mentioned something about 'training running late' and not having time to change.
He pivoted, frowning down at her when she came to stand in front of him.
"Yeah?"
"Just…" Angie danced from foot to foot, staring up at him, working to find the right words and failing, so they came out a mess. "Ms. Finch is really nice…and I really really like her! So…um…could you just…maybe don't act like you're grumpy when you talk to her…cause she's wonderful, and…well…"
The deep furrow between Scott's brow lifted as she spoke and when she trailed off, her father let out a small, disbelieving huff and said, "Angie, are you asking me to try not to scare your teacher?"
Dropping her head and studying the grass between her feet, Angie mumbled, "Yeah."
There was a soft snort amusement, followed by her dad cupping the back of her head and pulling her into a brief hug, saying ruefully, "I'll try to behave myself. Now get back to Uncle Trent and be good for him, you hear?"
"I will!" Angie promised earnestly as she pulled away with big eyes. She didn't want Daddy to think she would be bad for anyone!
"I know you will be, little bear. I'm teasing you. Now get going."
"Oh. Ok! Bye Daddy!"
Angie trotted back to Uncle Trent, who had followed half way and was waiting for her now.
"How was your day, Angie?" Uncle Trent asked as he and Angie headed for the truck, obviously fighting a smile. He hadn't even had a chance to really say hi before she went running after her dad.
Angie watched over her shoulder as Daddy strolled briskly into the school.
"It was ok," she said, dropping her head to her shoes. She hadn't seen Uncle Trent in what felt like forever, not since Jameelah's birthday party, and she couldn't help feeling shy, especially after she just took off on him. Remembering her manners, Angie added carefully, "How was yours?"
The smile that reappeared when Angie looked up at him puzzled her. She couldn't figure out what grown ups found so amusing about her asking them the same questions they asked her. She was just being courteous.
"It was alright! A little boring though. We had to sit a lot, and listen to someone talk about stuff that we already knew." Said Uncle Trent as he unlocked Scott's truck. Daddy was going to take Uncle Trent's motorcycle home after his meeting with Ms. Finch and Uncle Trent was driving their truck to take Angie home. She would have liked to go on the motorcycle, but Daddy said she was too little still.
"That does sound boring." Angie agreed. "Sounds like school."
"Nahh, I bet you learned way more cool things than we did today."
"Well," Angie had to think about that. "We did learn about animals in the rainforest today and about the things you find in the Amazon River! Did you know there are pink dolphins?"
"I had heard that! That's pretty amazing!"
"Yeah! And there are also these really really big spiders the size of dinner plates that eat birds instead of bugs!" Angie shivered, scaring herself in the process of being delighted to tell such a terrifying fact.
"Don't tell your Uncle Sonny. He's scared of spiders."
Angie frowned, feeling bad for the big, loud, silly 'cowboy'.
"Poor Uncle Sonny seems to be afraid of a lot of things," She said seriously. "I hope no one teases him too much about it. It's no fun being scared of stuff."
Uncle Trent visibly bit the inside of his cheek and nodded seriously in return as he drove them home.
"Yeah, he does have a rough go of it sometimes, but you know what? He's really brave because he faces fears everyday and still works hard as a good teammate. We're pretty happy to have him around."
"Oh, good," Angie looked out the window for a little while, eyeing the darkening sky and shoving aside the clenching in her gut at the sight of the storm that was brewing over the ocean. Being in the truck made her forget she wasn't with her dad and she admitted without thinking, "I like Uncle Sonny now. I thought he was a bully before, but I was wrong."
"He's a good teaser, but no, he's not a bully." Uncle Trent made one of the last turns onto her street and asked, "How much homework do you have?"
"None," Angie answered. Then she added quickly, because she wasn't sure if Daddy would have told people she lied before about her homework, "Really. I got it all done in class and I worked ahead on stuff for tomorrow so I wouldn't have any over the weekend."
"That's awesome! Sounds like you worked really hard today!"
Nodding and going pink with pride, Angie said, "Yes. I did."
When they got home, Uncle Trent let them into the house and, while Uncle Trent went into the bathroom to change out of his uniform, Angie put her stuff away even though Daddy wasn't there to remind her. She wasn't sure if there was going to be any bad stuff that Ms. Finch had to tell her dad, so she wanted to make sure she was being the perfect child tonight, just in case.
"So, your dad said if you had all your homework done, we can do whatever you'd like until he gets home," Uncle Trent told her as he came back into the kitchen.
"Oh!" Angie paused in the middle of the hall. It was getting darker by the minute as the storm clouds closed in overhead.
"Got any thoughts on what you'd like to do?" Uncle Trent asked, finding the snack Daddy mentioned was waiting for her in the fridge. Auntie Naima made muffins and cookies and left them at the house. She was allowed to have one of each and some fruit.
"Well…" Looking outside, Angie shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. She was having trouble thinking. "I don't know."
"I think it's going to rain, so outdoor activities are probably going to have to be tabled for tonight. What about something inside? Lego? A movie? Both?"
When lightning flashed in the distance, Angie started moving into the kitchen so she was closer to Uncle Trent.
"Maybe…" She tried so hard to think, but her attention kept getting taken by the world outside. "Maybe…let's do that."
The thunder rumbled, causing a soft tremble of the house.
"Ok. Movie and Lego's it is. What movie would you like to watch?"
Tucking in next to him at the counter, putting Uncle Trent between her and the large window that gave the best view of the impending storm, Angie shrugged and mumbled, "Can you pick one?"
"Yeah, we can work together and find one!" Uncle Trent handed her a plate of snacks and a cup of chocolate milk.
She was so absorbed with worrying about the approaching storm she didn't notice the chocolate milk. Huge raindrops were striking into the window now and more thunder rumbled in the distance. When Uncle Trent led her into the living room she sat in 'her' spot on the couch, suddenly wishing Daddy was home.
"Have you ever seen Star Wars?" Uncle Trent asked as he sat at a respectful distance from her and picked up the remote.
That one question drew her eyes darting to the windows.
"Sort of!" Angie said, perking up a little and momentarily losing the tight worried edge to her voice. "I saw some of one of the movies at a friends once, but then it was time to go home before it finished and mom said I had to wait till I was older to finish it because she wasn't sure if I should be watching it yet, but that was when I was eight and I'm not eight anymore so we could watch that! Please? I really want to watch it and it wasn't Mommy's thing, but she was going to watch it with me anyway…but, then she wasn't feeling well enough when we planned to and, well, we couldn't."
Uncle Trent's quiet smile steadily grew the longer she talked until she got to the part about her mom not feeling well and he nodded with acceptance when she finished.
"Maybe we better ask your dad first what he thinks before we watch it," Uncle Trent said after a minute of thinking. "I gotta remember it's his call, not mine and he's got a better idea of what you should or shouldn't be watching right now than I do."
Trying not to show how disappointed she was, Angie said, "Oh, ok."
"Sorry kid. I should have thought of that before I suggested it, but I promise the second I get the green light, I'll watch every single one with you, ok?"
"Really?"
"You bet!"
"Ok!"
"What about a different one? Maybe something animated? Yeah?" Uncle Trent started flipping through the different movies he decided were safer to let her watch. "Have you seen Inside Out yet?"
"I don't think so."
"Awww, it's great! I love this movie a lot!"
"What's it about?"
"Here, let's watch the trailer."
Eager for a distraction from the storm, Angie nodded while taking a drink from the glass in her hand. It was then that she noticed Uncle Trent gave her Chocolate milk instead of water.
"Oh!" She blinked the cup, debating saying something or not. "Um…Uncle Trent, Daddy doesn't let me have this before dinner."
"He doesn't?"
"No." Angie felt guilty. Both that she had to give back something she really liked, and didn't notice before she drank it thus disobeying the rules, and also that she hadn't told her Uncle Trent sooner. "I have to drink a glass of water first…sorry."
"No, that's ok. Thank you for telling me." Uncle Trent took the cup from her and set it on the coffee table. "I'll get you some water to start with then."
"Thank you!" Angie started in on her snack. She was hungry today. Very hungry.
When Uncle Trent returned, he gave her the new cup and sat down again.
There was a loud gust of wind, shifting the house and Angie's attention flipped back to the storm.
A great flash of lightning split the sky and Angie scooted closer to her uncle.
"Can I sit with you?" She asked softly, still staring out the window with big eyes.
"Of course!" Uncle Trent lifted an arm half way, studying her carefully. "Do you want under here? Or just right beside?"
Another crash of thunder had Angie ducking under his arm with a small whimper of, "Right here."
"Ok!" Uncle Trent dropped the arm she'd climbed under around her, applying gentle pressure. "Not a fan of storms, huh?"
"No. They're scary. I don't like how loud they are!" Angie told him as she huddled against him. "And…and they're just…just scary."
"That's ok. I know it sounds big and scary out there, but right now everything is ok, promise. Wanna watch the movie to keep your mind off it?"
"Yes!" Angie nodded, clutching her snack plate to her chest and trying not to spill her water on them both.
"Ok. Ready?"
Angie nodded, anticipating. It wasn't Star Wars, but she thought it looked interesting and Uncle Trent liked it so it must be good. If she was lucky Daddy would give the 'ok' and then they could watch Star Wars another time.
When Metal got inside the school for the meeting, he was early so he paced the hall, peering at the bulletin boards of kids projects and artwork while generally ignoring any other parents or teachers that considered trying to make conversation with him. Apparently he wasn't the only one who needed to request an early parent-teacher meeting that day and the school was still buzzing with activity as kids went home for the day.
He could afford some of them a stiff acknowledgment, but he really didn't have it in him to converse more than that. It had already been one hell of a day. The only exception to his rule of non engagement was that he did offer a slight smirk of encouragement to a ruffled looking mom of three girls who was painstakingly trying to get all her kids out the door.
The mom was trying to coax the middle daughter who was laying on the floor sobbing something about bunnies. Meanwhile the older girl, who looked to be about Angie's age, excitedly yammered non stop at her mother's elbow. She talked over top of her sister's howling about unicorns and something she read that day about bones and how they decay. He appreciated the morbid fascination that the child had in her second topic of choice but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what the connection between decaying bones and unicorns was.
The youngest girl couldn't have been older than three and she was quick to sneak away to start climbing up the trophy case about three feet from him while her mom was distracted . The adorable little shit had zero fear of him and grinned when she looked up at him with bright blue eyes, just daring him to stop her and promising to make his life hell if he did. Of course he was just about to stop her anyway when the mom finally noticed and sent the still yapping eldest after the giggling youngest while she peeled the sobbing third off the floor like a limp noodle, hissing something about 'no more screen time for the week if you don't put your feet under you right now!'.
The hall was pleasantly quiet once the tired mother firmly ushered her children outside.
His gaze slid with mild interest back over the drawings as he paced, lingering on the ones that stood out. One caught his eye, a surprisingly good drawing of a tree with a swing under it and a house of decent proportions and detail in the distance. Around the border were an extremely familiar style of twisting vines with flowers and leaves. All in all the shading work was pretty good too.
Curious, he checked the name on the drawing and he stilled.
Angie Thatcher-Carter.
Two things rendered him speechless. One; the fact it was his kid who drew it. He knew she liked to doodle on her page, and he'd joined her in making vines the other night, but he hadn't realized to what extent she drew. Two; the fact she was hyphenating her name and he had no idea. That warmed him to the core.
The door of the class room behind him opened then and he turned around.
The teacher was just as Anige described her to him. Beautiful.
She wasn't overly tall, and he noticed her soft curves right away even though the dark dress pants and loose, flowing blue top she wore didn't particularly accentuate them. The dark brown eyes were striking, shining brightly when she smiled. Her glossy black hair was pulled into a neat bun, framing the deeper toned face with the pieces that fell out.
"Mr. Carter? I'm Angie's teacher, Aveline Finch," The woman crossed the hall to greet him, hand outstretched.
The moment she spoke he understood why Angie said that she loved her voice. It was warmly accented, but just lightly enough that he had to really listen to figure out just what sort of accent it was. His first guess was Scottish, or something similar.
"Good to meet you, Ms. Finch," He said gruffly, bullying his own momentarily stunned brain into behaving. He was here to get shit done, not agree with his daughter that her teacher was pretty. "I appreciate you taking the time."
"Oh, of course!" Finch released his hand, not visibly unnerved by the fact he'd accidently used his usual handshake; the strong, unyielding one meant to crush bone just a little. Instead she led the way into her classroom, saying, "I'm glad we're getting the chance to sit down and chat. Please, have a seat!"
He took the chair in front of her desk and settled, taking in the room while she opened the small file on her desk. The space was warm and inviting, even with the darkening of the sky outside.
"So, Angie tells me you're already aware of the issues with her homework not getting done for a spell there?"
"Yes." Metal confirmed, bringing his attention back to the woman across from him. "We had a conversation about it. Shouldn't happen again."
There was the softest hint of something on Finch's face when he said that, but she seemed to decide against saying whatever it was, instead stating, "I'm sure Angie will do her best, as she always does. She's a very bright young lady, and her reading levels are well above what they're expected to be at her age. I have no concerns about her ability to do any of the work assigned in class, and when she puts the effort in she can achieve good marks in any subject, however she has been through a lot in recent months, and…that takes a toll on a kid."
"Meaning?" Metal tried hard not to growl, but he didn't love it when people reminded him what kind of small hell his kid had been through.
Finch picked up on the warning note instantly and she countered with disarming neutrality, "Well, I see it with Angie's inattention in class, for starters. While she still manages to complete what she needs to, her mind wanders frequently and she has a tendency to read during class instead of participating."
"How often." Metal asked before Finch could continue, wanting the facts and figuring he would decide what to do with them later.
"Several times a day."
Drawing a slow breath, Metal swore inside. He knew the kid was daydreaming and reading, but he hadn't realized it was this bad.
"Ok, well that's a problem then," he stated firmly.
"Not necessarily," Finch countered quickly, holding up a finger. "I wanted you to be aware of it in case it ever became a problem, however at this time I don't view it as one."
"Oh? And why is that," Metal leaned back in the chair, folding his arms and forgetting Angie asked him not to scare her teacher.
To her credit, Finch wasn't bothered. Instead she stuck to her own guns and explained carefully, "At this time, Angie's settling into her new normal. That's exhausting, mentally, emotionally and even physically. Reading and daydreaming is a recharge for that little girl. I see the difference in her after she's been allowed to read for twenty minutes when she's having a bad day. She's a new kid afterward and I get twice as much work out of her. I don't think taking that from her will aid in her academic success. Now, should it start interfering with her learning, I think we would need to come up with a different solution."
"How often does she have a bad day?" Metal asked, latching on to that one instantly.
"Ah, they've been fewer in the past couple of weeks, but at the beginning of her time here they were frequent."
"Any idea why she's having the bad days?" Metal shifted, lifting his chin as he gave the woman his full attention now. "You spend more time with her than I do at this point, and I'm still trying to puzzle her out, so any insight and information you can give me would be helpful."
"Well," Finch's flawless professionalism slipped a little and he detected a flash of genuine compassion behind those large brown eyes. "It's hard to describe and pinpoint exactly what causes her ups and downs, but as a rule in any given day she can go from happy to sad, to almost overly frustrated by small things in a matter of hours. She hides it well from her peers, but I notice it. That's not uncommon to see in children who have had as much happen to them as Angie."
"Yeah? And do these bad days happen to correlate with when she's being bullied by two of her classmates?" Metal asked, purposely being slightly combative just to see how Finch would react.
"That was the other issue I wanted to discuss with you." Finch stated, her accent thickening ever so slightly. "I want to assure you that I do not tolerate bullying in my class, and I have spoken to the individuals on more than one occasion, however…"
"Sometimes that makes it worse."
"Exactly," Finch relaxed a little and fiddled with the pen in her hand.
"So what's the plan of attack?"
"Plan of attack?" Finch stared at him, uncertain. "What do you mean?"
"How do we keep the little shits from bothering my kid," Metal stated plainly. "Because it's causing problems and they're gettin in her head with all the anti-military BS that nine-year-olds should not be discussing as well as who knows what else. I'm convinced the kid hasn't told me everything yet!"
He was aware his uniform, posture and hardened attitude as he spoke likely wasn't doing him any favors and that he was a walking stereotype of a military dad right now, but he wasn't about to let this one go without a fight.
"I completely agree that things have been said by some of her classmates that are not appropriate and I assure you I have had extensive conversations with both of their parents concerning it. Since that is not leading to the results I hoped for, I have arranged a meeting with them, their parents and our principal. The problem is that I have only personally witnessed and heard what's been said on two occasions. I can step in if I witness what's happening, and I can tell the other teachers to keep a lookout, however I cannot do much more if Angie doesn't say anything to me about what's happening, when it happens."
"I'd like to know what you've witnessed them saying, since it pertains to my kid. If they've brought something up that she hasn't told me yet, I'd like to know so I can clear things up and make sure there are no misunderstandings."
Finch paused, considering him.
"I've had enough children through my class with working military parents to be able to make a fairly educated guess about what your job likely is, Mr. Carter, and why you are so frequently gone," Finch folded her hands delicately and said, "Children can be cruel, especially ones with other things going on in their own lives. The individuals made remarks about your work, specifically about taking lives and how they could be taken."
"Shooting?"
"That, and stabbing, as well as hand to hand," Finch's demeanor didn't waver as she spearheaded this conversation dead on. "I had a long talk with them and tried to influence a…more respectful attitude, however, I am not sure I was successful. I can tell you that Angie was visibly upset by it."
"No kidding. We had a long conversation of our own about it. As much as she can be, Angie's ok now."
"I'm glad to hear that!" Finch's mask slipped and relief showed for a second before she reigned herself in again.
"What happens if these girls don't leave Angie alone?" Metal asked in a quieter tone, not as hard and edged as before.
"If we catch them, they can get suspended, however at this age…as I said before, there are more factors at play than just little girls being mean, Mr. Carter, and speaking to the bully or punishing them isn't always that straightforward."
"Seems straightforward to me."
"I will continue to monitor the situation as best I am able. For now, that is all I can do, whether I like it or not." A glimmer of frustration glowed, but it never broke through her walls as Finch started flicking her fingers through the file in front of her. "In addition to Angie's exceptional literacy, she also has impressive talents when it comes to artwork and music. I thought you might like to see some of her work."
Grudgingly distracted and redirected from his fixation on the bullies, Metal accepted the pages Finch passed across to him, undeniably interested to see what his kid came up with.
Looking at the sheets of incredible drawings and paintings, he immediately spotted the way Angie wrote her last name and the smallest of smiles threatened to break his face.
"When did she start writing her last name like that?" He asked quietly.
Finch squinted into the distance, thinking. "I think she started that a few weeks after she began school here."
"Hm. Anything else I should know about?"
"Nothing comes to mind, exactly." Finch glanced out the window as the rain started pouring down and lightning split the air. "As I said before, Angie is a bright young lady, polite, neat, at times rather emotionally controlled, but quite funny and outgoing when she comes out of her shell. It can be hard to get her to engage in class, but I am sure that will come with time. She's a pleasure to teach and I'm always amazed by her imagination and the way she thinks out of the box. She is quieter than most of the other kids, but she still gets along well with her peers, with the exception of the individuals we discussed of course. She's managed to form a strong friend group already, which is often difficult for most children starting a new school. That has been good to see."
"Jameelah helped with that, I'll wager."
"Yes," Finch smiled suddenly at the mention of Angie's 'cousin'. "Jameelah has been a very good friend for Angie! Other than than that, I was only going to mention that if you ever feel that Angie may benefit from some extra help coping with the many challenges she has faced, there are services available onsite."
"Yup, got that covered already."
Nodding, Finch didn't seem too rattled by his quick, breezy dismissal.
"I'm sure you do, Mr. Carter." She answered with acceptance. "You strike me as the sort of person who would."
"Is that everything then?" Metal asked, leaning back in the chair and folding his arms after setting the precious artwork of his child back on the desk. Part of him wanted to stuff it in his shirt and take it home, but it would get wet during the drive. By now it was pouring and lightning cracked the sky. He was glad Angie was home with Trent and not alone. He knew he could trust that his best friend and teachmate would handle her fears perfectly, of that he had no doubt.
"Yes! That covers it! I really appreciate you coming in. I understand you're very busy." Ms. Finch stayed within the tight confines of propriety as she started to close the little file she had for Angie.
"Do you have a number?" Metal figured if he wanted to keep better tabs on his kid's school work and the bullying situation he better have a way to contact her teacher.
"A number?" Ms. Finch's head came up, wide eyed all the sudden.
Not sure what was so confusing about the initial question, Metal nodded once and clarified, "To call you."
"Oh, ah…" The young woman's careful mask shattered as she grew more flustered. "See, I actually have very strict a policy of not to giving my number to my student's parents because it's just really confusing for the kids and can make things too complicated with- well, just, everything really, not to mention it's highly unprofessional and could bias my judgements and-"
Oh. That was the issue. She thought he was picking up on her.
Metal tilted his head slightly to the side, well aware his mouth was pulling into a small frown, and he watched as Ms. Finch fell silent, staring at him with a growing expression of ill concealed panic.
"You-you meant a number…here…at the school," The woman was going a beautiful shade of red now as she realized her mistake. "To call about Angie. Didn't you."
Metal had to say red looked good on her and he got no end of amusement from that cute, terribly awkward attempt to salvage the situation.
Taking pity on her, he nodded again and said, "Yes."
"I am so sorry." Ms. Finch hurried to open her desk drawer, yanking it into her knee with a sound thunk and flurried motion that sent two pens flying off her desk.
Internally, Metal winced sympathetically because that sounded like it hurt.
Finch hardly blinked as she grabbed a business card and held it across the desk to him. Her voice leveled back into her 'professional' tone with an impressive recovery, although it still held an underlying panic to it. "This is the number you can reach me at, or by email works too. Please reach out if you have any questions about Angie's progress."
Her face was still flaming when he took it carefully from her fingers so he allowed his typically serious expression to crack just a touch with a smile. After all, Angie asked him to be nice.
The mildly shell shocked gaze of Finch fell from his face suddenly and landed on the card. Her eyes went the size of saucers again.
"Oh my god, that is not the right card!" She gasped, reaching out as if to snatch it back from him.
Unable to help himself, he flicked it out of her reach and turned it over to find a business card from a dance studio advertising for learning how to pole dance.
"Looking into a side career?" He asked, utterly deadpan.
"Dear heavens, NO! I-thats- A colleague of mine thinks it's hilarious to replace our stuff with things like that as a joke, I swear that's not mine!" She yanked open the draw again into her other knee this time and rummaged around frantically. Her professionalism slipped almost completely, thickening her accent deeply now.
"Where the devil are they!? You know what, nevermind, I'll just-"
Metal watched with a grin starting to work around the corner of his mouth as she grabbed a post it note, scribbled a number, blinked at said number and then mouthed a swear word under her breath while shaking her head. She ripped the top note off and scribbled a second number on a fresh sheet along with an email.
"This is the right number and email, I am so sorry for the complete lack of professionalism on my part-" Her wide, earnest eyes landed on the card till sitting between his fingers. "I'll just trade you for that and it can go right in the shredder!"
Accepting the bright pink paper note she held up to him, Metal pocketed it along with the business card.
Finch's face fell and he guessed that she was convinced he intended to complain or report her so he said, "I'll just hang on to it, if you don't mind. If being a Seal doesn't work out for me I'll need a second career to support Angie."
The way she stared at him, deer in the headlights made him almost feel bad. He thought he might have broken her when all she could manage was a tight, "Uh huh." as her face went a deeper shade than before.
Taking pity on her a second time, because he was having way too much fun with this now and had to remind himself that the poor woman taught his kid and would undoubtedly have to interact with him again, he took the business card back out and set it on the desk saying utterly monotone, "I'm kidding."
She pounced the second it was on her desk and ripped it into pieces before tossing it right in the garbage can.
Turning back to him Finch opened and closed her mouth twice before folding her hands, saying, "Right. I have no idea how to salvage this, so I'm just going to say that Angie is wonderful and it was nice meeting you! Thanks for coming in!"
That smile twitched around his mouth again and he nodded. "Nice to meet you too, Ms. Finch."
Just before he closed the classroom door, he caught a long exhale and spotted Ms. Aveline Finch drop her forehead on her desk with a hard thunk.
Damn it. She was really cute. Seemed a pity to leave her like that, mortified and embarrassed.
Without thinking and running off a rare impulse, Metal swung the door back open and leaned in the classroom.
"So, I'll call you in September then?"
Finch's head flew off the desk with a startled gasp and she stared at him blankly.
"September?"
"Yeah." Metal tilted his head a hair to the left, letting the hard lines from his face soften with a small, but genuine smile. "I think so."
"Why September?" Finch asked, struggling to put the pieces together.
She wouldn't be Angie's teacher anymore in September and she hadn't made a complete ass of herself like she undoubtedly believed, not if he was taking the final hit by actually meaning to pick up on her this time, just a little.
Metal allowed for a wider smile then and he said with more warmth than he had the whole conversation, "I'll let you figure that one out. Have a good night, Ms. Finch."
The last glimpse he had of her was the dawn of realization and he wasn't disappointed by the comical, open mouthed combination of disbelief and surprise on her face.
The roads were wet, it was still raining a bit. While Metal was comfortable enough with driving a motorcycle, he hadn't in a while, so he took his time going home.
When he finally got home he was soaked and annoyed that Trent had brought the damn thing today instead of his car when they all knew it was going to rain later.
All the lights were off on the street, so he had to guess the power went out again. It had a tendency to flicker more ever since that last big storm.
The moment he came in, opening and closing the door quietly, Angie's excited voice reached his ears as she talked to Trent.
"And then…over here we should put another one! Like…like a sunroom because it's by the window!"
"Ohhhh, that would be cool, hang on. I gotta make sure this part isn't going to fall down when we crawl through it."
Crawl through it?
Metal slowly eased off his boots, staying quiet and wondering just what was going on.
"Here, take the end off this broom." Trent ordered Angie just as Metal came creeping round the corner of the small front hall and into the living space.
Neither saw him right away and he got a good long look at what they'd been up to.
The entire living room and even part of the kitchen was one big blanket fort. Angie and Trent were inside it, raising different parts and tucking edges of sheets and blankets into the couch. Metal was pretty sure every sheet he owned and most of the blankets were being used.
"Can we have dinner here?" Angie asked excitedly. "Like, a picnic?!"
"Sure! That sounds like fun!"
"We could pretend we're camping!" Angie decided happily. "I've always wanted to go camping, but Mommy and I would just go to the cabin instead and she said that was as much adventure as she needed while on vacation."
"Camping is pretty great." Trent told her, his own demeanor light and carefree as he played with Angie, either unaware or uncaring that Metal was home. "Your dad knows lots about camping! You should ask him to take you sometime!"
Metal started towards his room to change, still walking quietly and reasoning it wasn't eavesdropping. It was intel gathering.
"Do…do you think he'd have time?" Angie said, the previous excitement dining somewhat.
He could almost hear the way Angie's little face grew serious, undoubtedly pulling into her 'thinking face and unsure'.
Deciding to announce his presence he paused in his step and said, "I'll find time, Angie. I always do."
There was an audible little gasp from Angie and then a giggle. A moment later Angie poked her head out the 'door' of the blanket fort and chirped with bubbling mirth, "You scared us, Daddy! You even made Uncle Trent jump!"
"Hey! Don't rat me out!" Trent gripped playfully as his head appeared next to Angie's. "Hey, Metal. How was the bike?"
Letting himself glare at the other man, he growled, "How do you think it was?"
"I'm going to go with, refreshing?" Trent answered cheekily, knowing he wouldn't swear at him with Angie right there.
"Something like that," He replied, heading into his room. When he came back out Angie was dragging her pillows and about six of her stuffed animals into the blanket fort, humming away to herself. Trent standing on the back of the couch, attaching a string that was holding up the center to the ceiling fan.
"You did make sure that fan was off before you started doing that, right?" Metal asked, surveying the mess and grudgingly admitting it was a pretty neat fort.
Trent pretended to be insulted. "What do I look like, an armature?"
"Daddy! Come in and see!" Angie called.
Trent's face broke into a shit eating grin and Metal gave him the finger when he was sure Angie couldn't see it. Then he lowered himself into a half crouch so he could see in the door. Thankfully it was bigger on the inside and he wasn't going to have to crawl the whole time.
"Wow! You and Uncle Trent were really busy making this!" He said. The tone warmed even though he knew Trent could still hear him. He couldn't help it. Angie had that effect on him.
"Yeah! We were watching a movie, but then the power went out and I was…I was kinda scared about the storm and then Uncle Trent said we should build a blanket fort and," Angie scrambled through the 'fortress' pointing to different corners. "That's the kitchen, and this is the living room, see look! Uncle Trent made sure you could still see the TV and sit on the couch so maybe I don't have to take it all down as soon! And then this is my room, and this is yours, and this is going to be a sunroom!"
"That is quite the design!" Metal said as he slowly lowered into a seated position, mentally giving Trent the finger as second time for giving his kid a fighting chance at leaving this monstrosity up for longer than just tonight.
"Can we eat in here!?" Angie asked, coming back and sitting next to him, wrapping her arms around one of his and hugging it as she looked around the blanket fort happily.
"Yeah, I think we can probably do that," He agreed, resting his palm on her knee and taking in the brightness around her. He could almost believe this is how it had always been and she wasn't still hurting inside. "Let me go see what we have that doesn't need to be heated up."
"Ok!" Angie hopped up, not needing to duck nearly as much as he did and followed him out. "Can I sleep out here?"
"Let's start with dinner and go from there," Metal answered, deliberately not making any promises. He'd just gotten her sleeping well in her room and with the storms rolling through she was likely going to wake in the night. There was no way he wanted to have her disoriented and frightened when she woke up, then have the whole fort come down on her if she bumped or pulled the wrong thing. He'd have to go in after her.
"Are you staying for supper, Uncle Trent?" Angie asked, already on to the next thing and bouncing over to Trent like an exuberant puppy. That was good to see since she's been painfully shy of him for the past few weeks and he hadn't managed to figure out why. He'd been meaning to ask her.
"Yeah, Uncle Trent. Are you staying for supper in the blanket fortress?" Metal asked pleasantly, knowing his teammate would read the note of annoyance underneath. Well, pretend annoyance at least.
Visibly pleased with himself, Trent said, "That sounds great! I'd love to!"
"Yay!" Angie cheered, hanging off Trent's arm when he held it out and using it like a chin up bar. "Look, Daddy! I can do five!"
Shaking his head, Metal fought back a grin as he half watched at the same time as dragging out left overs.
"Keep that up and you'll be able to challenge any one of your uncles to a contest." He commented, enjoying the fact she was actually behaving like a child right. There were more days he got to see it now, but still too often she was quiet, proper and reserved, thinking way more than a child her age should and coming out with things way beyond her years when he could get her to talk. "Come over here and make a plate, both of you. I ain't making them for ya."
"Ok!" Angie came over, ducking under his arm to stand right in front of him, leaning back with what could only have been described as an armless hug while she started filling a plate for herself.
"Am I in your way?" He asked her with dry amusement.
"Nope!" She told him, not catching on right away. Then when she did her sunny little mood slipped a little and those big, worried eyes lifted to meet his. "Am I in yours?"
Smirking then, he shook his head, "No, you're fine. I'm just teasing you. Did you have water when you got home?"
"Uh huh! Uncle Trent made me drink two! And then I had chocolate milk. Can I have more since I drank an extra glass of water?"
Beside them Trent snorted and had a mysterious coughing fit that Angie didn't pay any attention to as she gazed hopefully up at Metal.
Her and those damn eyes. She was just like an adorable little baby deer, or a puppy when she did that and it was like this secret weapon that he had to make sure she didn't find out about.
"I like the effort," Metal told her, steeling himself because he really wanted to just say yes. "And your reasoning isn't too bad, you need more practice on the haggling though."
"I thought it was a pretty fair exchange," Trent commented, his smile innocent when Metal glared at him.
"You stay out of this," Metal warned, settling a free hand around Angie's shoulders and propelling her towards the blanket fort.
Angie stayed quiet for a while after than and he couldn't decide if she was upset, hungry and eating or just thinking. In the end he found out which it was when she said, "If I drink a third glass of water…can I have more chocolate milk then?"
"Eat all your dinner and we'll talk about it." Metal told her, ignoring the quiet grin that appeared on Trent's face.
One small glass of chocolate milk later, Angie said her goodbyes to her uncle and went to get ready for bed while Metal saw Trent out.
"How did she do with the storm?" He asked quietly.
"Not bad," Trent told him, growing serious and ditching the game of 'poke the bear'. "She got pretty nervous a few times and needed some reassurance. You weren't kidding when you said she's cuddly when she's scared, not that I minded. Was actually a nice change from her being so skittish for a while there. I don't know what I did, but apparently she's forgiven me."
"Yeah, that is good to see. Not sure what that was all about and not sure if I should bring it up."
"Nah, leave it. She's over it now, whatever it was and I'm not offended." Trent shoulders his small pack. "It's good to see you two finding your footing. She's doing a lot better, and it shows."
"Yeah, still a long way to go."
"We should find a way to get you out, let off some steam. You seem like you could use it some days. Maybe we can do an exchange with Naima. She takes Angie for an extra night and we take all the kids off her hands for a night or two."
"Trent, I'm away from that kid enough as it is and I rely on Naima for too much already…and I can't just go drink myself into oblivion anymore and get into fights."
"I'm not suggesting that and for the record I never supported when that happened. Not even close to that. All I'm saying is maybe the party can come to you sometimes, you know, the way we go to Jason, and Ray's too."
Metal shook his head. "Angie's already spooked about drinking because of the shit her little classmates said. I don't want her to worry that someone's gonna go off the rails or something."
"Then we don't drink! Or we leave it off till she's sleeping and keep it really mild. Just consider it, alright? I know you pretend you don't even really like going out, but I also know you go out more for the people than the drinking, so let's bring the people to you!"
"I'll think about it."
"Angie might like having some of her uncles over and all to herself."
"I said I'll think about it," Metal shifted his tone with a clear warning and Trent knew he'd come to the end of his luck there.
Unbothered, the man asked, "How was 'meet the teacher' night?"
"Good," Metal answered, careful to stay utterly neutral. "Ms. Finch seems competent, is observant of her students and is willing to do what she can to deal with the bullying situation. For now I'm happy."
"And?" Trent said expectantly.
"And what?"
"Well, I know you're not telling me something because that was way too rehearsed and you were purposefully vague, so I'm going to take a wild guess that she was attractive and you flirted with her."
Shaking his head and closing the front door all the way so he could be sure Angie wouldn't hear a word, Metal growled, "You are such a dick."
"So she was hot and you flirted with her!"
"Knock it off. I didn't flirt with her. I'm not Sonny or Brock!"
"Oh. Damn. And you liked her."
"She's Angie's teacher. It was a conversation about Angie . That's it. That's all it will ever be. Now get it out of your head that I liked her and if you breathe a hint of the idea to anyone else I'll crush your skull."
Grinning, Trent started to wisely move out of swinging range.
"Must have been something special for you to act like this."
"Not fuckin acting like anything!" Metal said as loudly as he dared. "Now get lost. I gotta go convince my kid that she doesn't need to sleep in that damn blanket fort tonight!"
"You are so going to be sleeping in there with her." Trent laughed as he headed for his bike.
Stopping and staring at the other man, Metal swore again and ran both hands over his face, rubbing his eyes, "Fuck…you're right. I didn't even think of that!"
"Have fun!"
"No! You get back here, this is your fault!" Metal said, getting drowned out by the roar of the motorcycle as it came to life. "Damn it."
Giving Trent the finger one last time in response to him waving cheerily, Metal went back inside.
Angie, predictably enough, was already parked inside the fort with the book they were reading, waiting for him.
Once they were both settled in the one spot on the couch that had a tall enough 'ceiling' to sit upright, the first thing she asked was, "Can I sleep in here tonight?"
"Not on a school night," He answered.
"Tomorrow?"
"Maybe."
Angie accepted that answer, knowing by now it was the best she would get out of him. He thought he'd dodged the bullet of having to join her, but the second he'd finished the chapter of The Horse and His Boy, Angie cuddled in closer and hid her face against him the way he was learning she did when she wanted to ask something and was too shy to ask.
"What's goin on, little bear." He asked, letting the curly ends of her braids slip through his fingers as he fiddled with them.
"Daddy…could…could you sleep in my fort with me…if you decide I'm allowed to?"
A long breath got released as he looked around the fort. Heaven help him, she was turning him softer by the day.
"I'll think about it."
"Ok…cause…cause then it's kind of like camping, and I want to go camping with you," Angie told him, more shyness pouring off of her than she'd had in the last two days.
Groaning inside, Metal dropped his head down and rested his forehead on top of her head.
"Alright. You got me." He said finally, tightening his arm around her. "We'll sleep in the fort tomorrow night, but reserve the right to send us both to bed if you're not sleeping well."
"Ok!" Angie's eagerness burst to life and she flung her arms around his middle, hugging him. "Thank you, Daddy!"
Giving a gruff, noncommittal growl, he glanced at his watch. "You've got time for one more chapter, unless you have more things on your mind."
"Um," Angie yawned and resettled herself under his arm so she could see the book and rest her head at the same time. "What did Ms. Finch say?"
"She said you're a good kid and she showed me your artwork and said you do well with music too. You've been holding out on me there, kid. Then we talked a little about the kids bothering you and how to help. Pretty straight forward."
"You saw my drawings?" Angie asked, lifting her head.
"Yeah! They were really good, Angie! You should keep that up, and the music too if you like doing it."
The child blushed and ducked her head again.
"I was learning to play the violin from a friend of Mommy's for a while," She admitted softly. "That's why music class is so easy. I already know how to read the notes."
"Is the violin somewhere in that storage locker? I remember seeing you mom's cello, but not that."
"Yes. It's supposed to be there."
"Should we be going and bringing it home for you?" Metal asked.
Angie stayed still for a moment before shaking her head 'no'.
"I…I don't think I can play it yet. I haven't wanted to since.." Angie trailed off.
"That's ok." He softened his tone and palmed her hair back from her forehead. "You let me know if and when you're ready to bring it home, ok?"
Nodding, Angie snuggled back in and listened as he started to read again.