Mutants and Gayboys and Bears, oh my.
Who: Mac and Edie Where: Simon's place What: Massive closeted denial and mutant bear attacks When: August 18th
Edie Williams studied herself in front the mirror, her fingers gingerly testing out the reddish-purple area of skin on her neck.
Damnit, Stark!
She had tried applying concealer and foundation to the hickey, but it only managed to cake up splotches of peach that brought out the redness of the skin even more. It had felt good - real good - during the act but now it was a nasty reminder for the girl, a reminder of her failure against self-control. She could feel her past peeking out from the irritated patch of skin, flashbacks to Louisville and her out-of-control behavior. Even her boyfriend of four years couldn't stop her habits. If he had known of her infidelities he never said, and she would have never told him.
Edie sighed to herself and left the mirror behind, giving up on the impossible task. She couldn't feel guilty about what happened. She had great sex with a semi-stranger, what was the big deal? She didn't have a boyfriend, she wasn't seeing anyone; Quinn hardly looked her way ever, what did she have to feel guilty about? It wasn't like she was a virgin or had ever let her, now wavering, religious beliefs dictate her sexuality.
She tried shaking off the thoughts as she slipped on her boots, snatched her jean jacket (it was strangely cool), and hurried out of the house she now called home. Thankfully she had a distraction today to keep her mind from lingering on the - amazing - mistake she made with Tony Stark. Mac and her had plans; it was nothing special, just grabbing some lunch and hitting a baseball around.
She made the walk briskly, arriving in front of the house Mac shared with Simon within the half-hour. She knocked her knuckles against the door, anxious to see her friend.
Mac opened the door at the knock, sporting a few hickeys of his own. They had made for ridiculous dinner conversation when Clara spotted them and immediately began asking questions and teasing him. Even Simon had seemed amused. Mac made no attempt to hide them, however, taking it in stride, considering both of them assumed the marks were given to him by a female.
Mac's eyes fell on Edie's neck and he immediately started laughing.
The girl quickly smacked a hand across her neck, embarrassed. Obviously the cover-up did not work...
Before even defending herself, Edie's eyes fell on Mac's own hickies. "What is THAT?" she burst out, the hand covering her own mark flying outward to make an accusatory point towards his neck. Just as Mac thought Simon would assume it was given by a girl, so did Edie. And it not only angered her, it embarrassed her even further.
Mac shook his head, still laughing. "Same thing as that?" he replied, nodding in the direction of her own neck.
Edie's hand went to cover up her neck again. "I hardly think it's the same thing, honey," she grumbled, trying to think of who the woman was who gave him the marks. "Who..." she cut herself short, wondering if it was okay to ask.
But Mac had no intention of telling her or anyone just who it was that had left the marks on his neck. So he did what any person who didn't want to talk about something would do and changed the subject.
"I could ask you the same thing," he said. "Are we going or what?"
Edie peered at him through squinched eyelids. "But you aren't," she pointed out, her hand falling so she could fold her arms over her chest in defense. "Aren't going to ask who did this," she clarified twisting her neck towards her friend. If Mac was going to change the subject she was going to change it right back.
Mac smirked. "If you want to tell me go ahead," he said.
"You wouldn't know him," she replied automatically. Or at least he probably wouldn't... probably. "Do I know her?" The girl tried to keep her voice neutral but she was unsure if she was doing the job. It wasn't that she still wanted to sleep with Mac herself, she loved his friendship more than anything else, but there was still a part of her that felt rejected. There was also the part of the girl that was protective of her new friend and Edie knew firsthand, girls were trouble.
"No," Mac lied smoothly. Because there was no her to know. He, fortunately, despite being gay, was still very much a man, and completely missed the fact that she was upset.
"Try me," she spat.
"What's your problem?" Mac asked, finally noticing her mood as she snapped at him.
Edie's mouth dropped at her friend's accusation. "What's my problem, sugar?" she gushed. "You are!" The girl turned on the heel of her boots and was ready to head off back to the house and the mirror. It was a melodramatic action, that much Edie would admit, but it was done after an emotionally exhausting morning that was filled with her hating herself for sleeping with Tony Stark.
"Are you on your period?" Mac said, shaking his head. "Jesus." He followed after her none-the-less, closing the door behind him as he left. "What does it matter who it was?"
If Edie was completely not in control of her motions she would have smacked him for the period comment. Instead, she scoffed loudly. "It matters!" she said, trying to keep her voice even. "Don't you ever... do you use your brain?" she asked angrily.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he asked. She had him totally confused, which was no surprise, as he tended to be sort of dense when it came to any form of social interaction.
"Meaning," she responded, spinning back around to face him and stopping. "That for some reason you - " Edie launched a finger against Mac's chest. " - did not want to have sex with me. But you'll let some, some, slut do..." She took her finger off his chest and waved it in front of him to indicate 'have her way with you.'
"Oh come on," he said. "Are you seriously still pissed about that?" He gestured at her neck. "Looks like you got over it pretty easy."
Edie clenched her jaw, silently fuming at Mac's remarks. It was a few long seconds before she answered.
"You are such a dick, you know that?"
The girl hardly ever cussed or used vehement name-calling unless she was very upset.
Mac crossed his arms. "Jesus," he said, rolling his eyes. "It wasn't you all right?"
Edie had only one straight-forward question left for her friend, and though she doubted he would acknowledge it the girl needed to say it outloud.
"Why not?" she asked. What was so wrong with her that Mac would have chose to sleep with another woman.
"We'd both had like, fifteen shots," Mac pointed out. "I don't want to get a woman drunk and fuck her." Even with guys, that wasn't really his style.
Mac's answer, at first, sounded truthful to the girl. In Kentucky, Edie herself rarely had any interactions with the type of man that wouldn't take advantage of a drunken girl but she had known Mac long enough to see that he wasn't one of them. She was about to let the conversation drop and apologize for her rowdiness except there was something still bothering her about the whole thing. Hadn't they been together - completely sober - several times after that night? What had stopped him from making a move then?
The thought reignited the girl's anger. If he didn't find her attractive or good enough to have sex with, she wish he would just tell her so!
"Fine," Edie replied, mouth firm. "Let's fuck. Right now." She purposely used Mac's term, the word crisp and clear off her tongue.
"What?" Mac said in surprise. This girl had some serious issues. "No."
There was something wrong with Edie, a problem planted deep in her psyche, she needed people to like her. She needed people's approval, men and women both although the type of approval varied. Men tended to land in the sexual type of approval.
And there was the question again, this time said with more confidence, defiance even.
"Why not?"
"Because you only want to to prove a point," Mac replied. It wasn't the whole truth, but it was some of the truth. Mac wasn't totally stupid.
"Oh come on, Mac!" Edie barked, exasperated at the charade. "It's not to prove a point. Ever since that night in the bar I've wanted to have sex with you - " Mostly true, except for last night when not even Mac's bar could take her mind off Tony Stark. "You're a man!" she stressed, "You should want to have sex with me. Lots and lots of it. What the hell is going on?"
The girl was truly oblivious to the truth. She hadn't even know any gay men until she met Coby in the hospital.
Damnit she was persitant. And he was starting to feel his temper rise as she continued to push. "You just ain't my type, all right?" he snapped.
Edie scoffed, her arms folding defensively against her chest. "I'm not your type?" she repeated in disbelief, her self-confidence building and pushing past the doubts. Tony was genuinely surprised at her comment about men not wanting her, and even Coby mentioned something along the same lines. "Not your type? What, you don't like pussy?"
It was said as sarcasm, a way for Edie to stress that if you're a man you don't just refuse offered sex. But once it was out of her mouth, something in the girl's mind stumbled to a halt. She tried focusing on the word, tried to bring it to her lips...
"Are you...?" she couldn't say it.
Mac crossed his arms over his chest, feeling the workings of panic beginning. He didn't want to talk about this at all, but he definitely didn't want to talk about it right by Simon's house.
"What?" he replied, pulling up his cocky Boston attitude to try and cover it. "Not attracted to pushy southerners? You got me."
"Boy," Edie warned, forgetting the subject being argued for the moment to pull up some of her own southern attitude, "You watch that mouth of yours." It was definitely a piece of Edie's momma poking through. Whenever her momma got that same look on her face as Edie did at the moment and whenever she pulled that dreaded line from her arsenal, all the Williams children knew what was coming next if they didn't quit the cussin', sassin', or complainin'.
Mac hadn't ever met Edie's mother, and even if he had, he wasn't likely to be intimidated by her. "Are we done here?" he asked.
"Yes," Edie replied cooly, eerily calm all of a sudden. "Maybe when you stop acting like a pussy, start treating me like a friend, and become a bigger person than all that personal drama you're trying to hide under that bulky dumb exterior, we can play some baseball."
She turned on her heel and stalked off.
From the tree line next to Simon's drive, there was a low growling and a large bear slowly made it's way out of the woods. It was huge, black fur matted and dirty with blood - none of which appeared to be it's own.
The girl stopped her stride as soon as she heard the growl. Turning towards the growl, she took a sharp intake of breath and unconcsiously held it in. "Mac?" she asked, uncertainly, not daring to take her eyes off the bear to turn towards the man she had just been arguing with
Holy fuck, that bear was a beast.
"Back up slowly," Mac said to her, standing very still, knowing that any sudden movements would only entice it. "Toward the house." He kept his voice low and calm.
The bear rose up onto it's hind legs, pushing itself to it's full height, nearly seven feet. It bared it's teeth, letting out something akin to a roar, teeth dripping with blood from whatever it was it must have just eaten.
Edie did not need to be told twice. Not taking her eyes from the bloody bear, she started to back up, one delicate step at a time. After a few steps, she dared a glance at Mac to see what he was doing.
As Edie backed up, Mac slowly moved forward toward her.
The bear dropped back down to all fours. Edie got close enough for Mac to take a hold of her wrist when the bear let out a roar and charged them. Mac pulled her back and shoved her behind him, toward Simon's house. "Get inside!"
The shove combined with Edie's nervousness caused the girl to stumbled and land roughly on her ass behind Mac and the charging bear. She started scuttling backwards on her hands and feet as she watched Mac, willing him to move in her mind towards the same door she was heading for.
Mac may have spent a decade in the army, but he wasn't stupid enough to try to fight a seriously fucked up looking bear. He turned to bolt for the door as well, stopping at the sight of Edie on the ground, reaching for her and hoisting her to her feet. "Go now, time to go."
Edie was grateful for the assistant that brought her back to her feet. "Got it," she said, pulling her eyes from the bear and running right for the door.
Mac, fortunately hadn't locked the door. And it was only by a few feet that they managed to shove the door open and stumble through. Mac turned immediately, slamming the door, which shook as the bear collided with it. Mac locked the door, knowing it wasn't going to provide much resistance if the beast kept trying to get in.
"What...?" Edie was having trouble forming appropriate words for the situation. She looked over to Mac for help and said again, "What...?"
Mac threw his weight against the door, which shook again as the bear charged at it for a second time. "Bear," was his terse reply. Although there was something very not right about it. It looked bigger than a normal bear, and it was acting almost rabid. "A very pissed off bear."
"A very pissed off bear," Edie repeated, letting it sink in. She had watched a show on the Discovery Channel about bear attacks and she was not sure if they had a scenero that resembled this. But even as she was running through the things in her head that show told her to do in case of a bear attack, there was only one thing that seemed important right now. "Does Simon have a gun in the house?" she asked as Mac braced himself against the shaking door.
"In his sock drawer," Mac said through gritted teeth, giving her directions to Simon's room. "Go, quick!" There was another thump against the door, the sound of splintering wood by the lock was almost drowned out by the roar of the animal.
Edie was headed up the stairs even before Mac finished giving the directions to Simon's room. The girl could still hear the heavy thump thump thump of the bear against the door as she yanked the top drawer open of the small wooden dresser. Even in her frantic search Edie told herself if she got out of this alive (and the girl's optimism was slowly fading with each rattle of the door) she needed to tell Simon that the sock drawer was not the best nor the safest place for a gun.
Impressed to find a Smith & Wesson automatic pistol - but shouldn't she have expected that from ex-military? - Edie snatched it from its spot and flew back through the second floor of the house and down the stairs. "Got it," she breathed, unlatching the safety and cocking the gun.
"Here," Mac said, holding his hand out for the weapon, though mentally impressed that she seemed to know what to do with it. There was a nasty snapping noise as the bear's latest hit on the door almost snapped the deadbolt from the door jamb. Simon was not going to be too happy about his door.
Edie debated silently whether or not she should give the gun to Mac. She had a better shot from her position, straight-forward and clear. But learning to shoot by your father and brothers, despite their military experience, was not the same as an ex-soldier handling a gun.
She passed it to Mac and stepped further back from the door.
Mac had an ease and fluidity when weapons that he didn't possess when doing anything else. He wasn't good at much, but he'd been killing since he was eighteen. He took the pistol and turned, backing up from the door, which was just barely holding. The next hit would snap it right open, especially without Mac's weight bracing it.
Making sure Edie was behind him he angled his body to the side, raising the gun and waiting for the bear to make another attempt on the door.
The bear slammed it's weight into it once more, and it finally snapped, the door swinging open and revealing the snarling bear, which attempted to charge through the doorway at the sight of the two of them. He was a little big, but with his momentum he might have made it. Mac didn't give the thing the opportunity, though, unloading the gun at it's head, hitting the animal between the eyes.
There was a piteous half roar half whine from the bear, which teetered and dropped face first onto the foyer floor.
"Simon's going to be pissed," Mac said, watching as blood started seeping onto his friend's rug.
The blonde let out a nervous laugh at Mac's comment before taking a deep breath and exhaling through the small circle of her pursed lips. "That was," Edie looked at the dead, bloody bear, "... out of the ordinary."
"Yeah," Mac replied, walking over to the animal to make sure it was dead. He still bullets left, if he needed them. The bear didn't move, even when he nudged it with his foot. Clicking the safety back onto the gun and shoving it in the back of his jeans, he said, "I'm no expert on bears but that wasn't normal." He squatted down next to it, examining it without actually touching it. It was missing big clumps of fur, and it's skin looked raw and almost burnt.
"Could this be from radiation?" he asked the nurse.
The girl ran through the abbreviated index of all the books she had read on radiation in her mind. "The burns, yeah," Edie said, bending down next to Mac to get a closer look. "All of the physical damage looks like effects of radiation. I'm surprised it lived that long in this condition and then to have that kind of energy...?" Edie shook her head, confused, "You remember when you came back into town? Could barely lift your head up let alone walk. Radiation on that level should have crippled the bear."
Mac shrugged and stood. "Fucked up."
He stepped over the bear and out the door, reaching for the animal's hind legs and tugging it out of the doorway.
Watching Mac pull the creature outside, Edie wondered if there was something she had missed in her research. Could it effect behavior on such a level? Why would the bear be able to move with such ease if it was loaded with radiation?
The girl, still crouched, studied the blood still seeping into the carpet. She wouldn't know exactly what to do or look for, but it wouldn't hurt to grab a sample of its blood. She felt a little silly as she went into the kitchen to look for a small cup or tupperware. It was like she was acting out CSI or those forensic shows on Discovery.
Mac pulled the bear over to the edge of the woods, putting it out of the way, but not too far in, figuring it wouldn't hurt to have Simon take a look at it when he got home. He reentered the house, stepping over the blood so he didn't track it any further in, and finding Edie in the kitchen, going through Simon's cabinets. "What are you looking for?"
"Just something to put some of the bear's blood in," she answered, trying to sound confident about her decision to play forensic detective. "Do y'all have some tupperware here?"
Mac pulled open the cabinet nearest him, pulling out a small plastic container and a lid. "This work?"
Relieved, Edie took the container from Mac with a voice of thanks. She hurried back over to front foyer and carefully scrapped as much blood as she could from what remained unabsorbed by the carpet. When she was done, she snapped the lid down on it and turned to look for Mac.
"What are you gonna to do with it?" Mac asked from where he was standing behind her.
"Really?" Edie said, cocking her head, "I'm not too sure, but we've got a good amount of equipment at the hospital. Nothing too high tech, I suppose, but I just want to see if the bear was sick."
Mac nodded. "Can't hurt to find out," he agreed. He looked back at the bloody floor. "Do you know how to get blood out of shit?" He figured if anyone would, it would be a nurse.
Edie couldn't help but laugh. It wasn't just her friends concern for the carpet (or his concern for his friend's concern) that she found amusing but his bluntness.
"Yeah, I think I can," she smiled. "Can you get me some paper towels, cold water, and hydrogen peroxide?"
Mac nodded and disappeared, returning a few minutes later with the requested items. He tossed a roll of paper towels to her, then set the water and peroxide next to her.
Edie set to work, first soaking up as much of the blood she could with dry papertowels. She then moved on to scrubbing the area with papertowel dosed in the cold water. Even with that little bit, the stain was getting dimmer. The peroxide was last and did its job though the area of the carpet looked slightly off in color and texture.
"That's the best I can do," she said with a sigh.
"Better than nothing," Mac said, crouching down to examine it. "Thanks."
She looked at Mac silently, thoughtfully, and nodded her head in reply. Throwing the bloodied paper towels into the bucket of water, she sighed and got up from the floor. "Thanks for taking care of the bear," she said and then added quickly, "I should get going now."
"I'll drive you," Mac said, not planning to take the chance that there were other bears out there.
"You know, Mac, it's okay I can walk..." Edie started, but then looked down at the faded remnants of the blood stain. Would she rather let Mac drive her home no matter how much their previous argument kept sneaking back into her mind or brave another crazy bear attack? She opted for the former. "Actually, yeah, that would be great, thank you."
Mac tugged his keys out of his back pocket and nodded for her to follow him. He pulled the door closed, but there was no way to actually shut it. He was quiet as they got into the car.
he girl was equally as quiet, not really knowing what to say. The bear attack had briefly mended the friends, but Edie could feel the stitching start to part again, the words he said popping into her head. She decided to keep her eyes focused out the window.
Mac, never one for chatting or small talk, said nothing for the ride. He eventually pulled up in front of the bed and breakfast.
"Thanks," Edie said when the truck stopped. She hurried to open the door and jump out, but turned back to face Mac looking as if she had something important to say to him. Then the moment passed and the girl changed her mind. "Bye," she said and climbed out, slamming the door behind her.