Saturday Night Plans Who: Tanya and Scott When: Early evening Where: Ze phone!
True to her promise earlier, Tanya took Tommy to the park as soon as she got home from visiting Dante. She played with him on the jungle gym and swing sets for a few hours before he managed to talk her into taking him for ice cream. Before dinner. But Tanya was in a good mood, from meeting Dorian, and getting her piercing, and making plans with Dante. It had been a damn good day so far. And since she was in a good mood, Tommy was getting Dairy Queen before dinner. They were sitting in a booth now and Tommy's face was covered in hot fudge. He was already bouncing about on the seat, the red plastic spoon his hand and a bright smile on his face. It was contagious, his happiness, and after she finished her banana split, she pulled out her cell and brought up Scott's number. She had been hesitant to call him, but she had no other choice but for calling Niko. And no way was Tanya letting the cat cunt around her son. So Niko was not an option.
Sighing, Tanya lifted the phone to her ear, hoping to get voicemail.
Unfortunately, Tanya was not so lucky. Oh no. Scott had pretty much spent the day nursing his hangover, bouncing between trying to eat something, fighting off the headache and hiding under his kitchen table as a wolf just because the fur made him feel better. But now, he was pretty much over it so he was human again and watching television... Which was when his phone rang. Muting the TV, he sighed when he saw the caller ID. Sliding the phone open, he answered as politely as he could, "Hello Tanya."
"Hey." Her tone was just as polite, only hers was more genuine. She wasn't going to let talking to Scott ruin her day, and she certainly didn't plan on making this any longer than it had to be. So she cut right to the chase, since Tanya doubted Scott was interested in small talk. "Would you be interested in keeping Tommy overnight tomorrow?"
Scott rubbed his face with his hand, trying to make himself wake up a little more. An evil thought occurred to him though he wasn't sure he could make it work and the corners of his mouth curled up into an evil smile. He was so glad she couldn't see it. "Sure, I could do that. No problem. I'll make up a bed for him," those spare rooms were suddenly coming in handy.
She smiled, and for some reason felt relieved. She didn't think he would say no, but still. "Great. I know Tommy will be excited. I can drop him off around seven, if that's okay?" She doubted she would be going out until much later, but at least that gave Scott time to spend with Tommy before bed.
"Seven's fine," he said softly. Scott wondered if she would actually walk him to the door and wait or if she'd just send him barreling forward with his knapsack. And why the fuck was there a country song floating through his head now? He hated country music. Damn it. "I'll feed him so you don't have to worry about that."
Tanya watched Tommy shoving another spoonful of ice cream and hot fudge into his mouth, his eyes wandering around the Dairy Queen. He kept swaying back and forth, as if dancing to a tune in his head. Tanya's smile widened. "Sounds great. I'll let him know." Tanya paused before adding, "Thanks, Scott."
He stared at his television for a moment, totally silent. "Like I was going to say no?" he asked softly with a faint smile. Yeah right, there had been no possibility of saying no. Now he just needed to find someone to babysit with him. He'd thought about inviting Erin which had been the reason for the evil smile before but now it just seemed cruel.
"No, I know you wouldn't say no," Tanya said quietly, leaning back against her seat while she watched Tommy. It still amazed her how much he looked like Scott. "I just know it'll make him really happy. He's been asking about you all day. I don't think he understands the concept of a job. You're Superman apparently and Superman doesn't have a day job, in the mind of Tommy Ackerman." And now she was rambling, but at least there was no yelling, right?
Scott chuckled softly, feeling kind of odd. This seemed like a conversation they'd have any other day back when they were married. Maybe he would have been at work and she would've been taking care of Tommy... He fell back against the seat cushions of his couch, pushing a hand through his hair, "Nah, I'm not Superman... I'm the anti-hero Werewolf by Night. Ridiculous codename but there it is." Yeah, he could still geek with the best of them. "One day, he'll figure out that Clark Kent is just Supes with glasses on." Ah, the disillusionment of children.
"Anti-hero?" Tanya arched an eyebrow and grabbed a napkin from the dispenser to lean over the table and attempt to wipe Tommy's chin, which he promptly pulled away from her with a shake of his head and an annoyed look. "So you're like Wolverine. Only without the shiny metal claws. Or the incredibly hot Hugh Jackman hair," Tanya said with a small chuckle. "Yeah, I suppose that's more believable than Superman. Or you could be a mixture of both. You could slick your hair back and put on a pair of glasses. What would your alias name be? Scott Ackerman doesn't quite have the same ring to it as Clark Kent."
"Hugh Jackman is way too tall to be Wolverine. And not nearly hairy enough. Wolverine is not supposed to be attractive to anyone except misguided psychic redheads who need to dump emo whiners in visors," rant much? Alright, enough of that then. Sheesh. "I could be Kent Clark? I'm not so great at the alias things."
"Man," Tanya said with another laugh, "you're such a nerd." Though admittedly Tanya had once been as much of a geek as Scott was. She just wasn't so obvious about it. "Don't you know that emo whiners are the in thing now? Everyone wants to be one, or have one... or listen to them on the radio." She gave up trying to clean up her son with one hand and leaned back against her seat again. "Kent Clark. No, you need something that fits with your anti-heroness. Harry Wolf. Spelled like the name, not the body hair."
"You're just glad I'm not going into my rant about how an adamantium pelvis would destroy any girl who fucked him," he smirked a little giving her the gist of it anyway. Think about it. "All those emo whiney bastards with the hair and the cutting... They need to be dragged out into the street and shot." He was not very nice at all, was he? Maybe it was a generational thing. "Oh fuck no. You used to be good at this. What happened?"
"It's no about reality," Tanya countered. "It's about fantasy! A girl isn't going to worry about a crushed pelvis when she's got a man named Wolverine in front of her. You just know he's going to be a brutish lover, which is what women want, at their core, isn't it?" Good god, she was glad Tommy couldn't hear at that moment. He was too busy stuffing his face and watching two little kids running around while their mom tried to order their ice cream. "Damn, I thought you liked emo," Tanya said with a sigh, despite her grin. "I'll have to toss that emo punk mix cd I made you then. I spent two whole days downloading music for that. And fuc... er, bite me. It's hard thinking up an awesome alias name for a landscaper by day, werewolf by night anti-hero."
He was laughing. God help him he was laughing and in a good way. He wanted to make an innuendo about how he'd probably gotten rather brutish now that he was a wolf but hadn't had the opportunity to find out. Really, it was just unnecessary and wrong. Scott could guess that Tommy was either not in the room or not paying attention because she was generally rather careful. "You better burn it then stab it with silver just to be sure," his eyebrows shot up at the almost slip up then went up higher at the 'bite' part. "If you ask real nice, I will bite you but I don't think you'd like being a wolf." Alias forgotten.
Tanya grabbed several more napkins, handing them to Tommy once he finally put his spoon down. His ice cream was completely gone. Big shock. "Burning and stabbing? Wow, see, now that's emo." Tanya paused for a second, realizing that they were... getting along? Maybe. Apparently they were okay talking on the phone. For the moment. "Do you like being a wolf?" Tanya asked, her tone still light despite the question. If she remembered correctly, she didn't mind the occasional nip and bite. Not that she was going to remind him of that now. This was an entirely different kind of bite. "Other than the obvious no... er, you know what rule."
"No, that's precautionary against the minions of Satan," he grinned broadly - it even sounded in his voice. But it faded into a soft smile and he breathed deeply for a moment, "Yeah... I do. Except for the obvious no you-know-what. And the full moon beasting. I love it. I love putting on the fur and going for a run, catching something for dinner - here I will note that no, I will not feed Tommy wild rabbit or something like that." Yes, he was admitting he had eaten wild animals although he was not telling her how he'd eaten some of them raw. "I love being able to hear a person's heart beat from across the room and it's really handy to be able to smell a lie."
The full moon beasting. That's what scared her. She didn't say that though, since she was sure he knew, and now wasn't the time to get into that. Rather than being appalled at the idea of Tommy being fed wild rabbit, Tanya grinned and shook her head. "He might like wild rabbit... make it into a stew. No wait, don't. If he found out it was a rabbit, he'd be traumatized for life." The kid loved animals. Probably because he knew his dad was one. It did make her uneasy that he could smell lies, since she seemed to be telling a lot of them lately. Or rather, she was just withholding information. That sounded better. Tommy was asking if he could get a gumball from the machine by the door, and Tanya dug into her purse for a quarter. "I'm glad you're not feeling burdened by it," Tanya said after handing the quarter to Tommy. "I know some people probably do."
It scared him too but he kept himself locked up nice and tight... If only she knew. "He probably shouldn't go into the back room then... I do skinning in there and some preserving. Even do home made rabbit feet key chains," one of which he was planning on giving to Isis as a personal joke. "I could always tell him it's wild haggis," he snickered a little, shaking his head. Another heavy, deep breath. "After you left, I went to the Canadian wilderness. Spent some time with a pack up there. They helped me learn to accept my animal and live with it. For awhile, I was even the alpha's enforcer." That had put him in a position of extreme trust... Almost like being the second in command.
"Word of advice, don't call it wild haggis. Give it a manly or funny name, and he'll love it," Tanya said. "I could make something delicious and if he thinks the name sounds yucky, he won't eat it." She listened to him explain about what he'd done, and she found she was mildly surprised that he'd gone to Canada to live with a pack. She supposed it was a natural thing to do. Wolves were pack animals. She just assumed his pack consisted on his friends from high school. "Alpha enforcer. That's pretty impressive," she said with a small smile. "You learned how to control everything? Even with your temper?"
"I'll tell him its bear," he grinned, "A big ass bear that tried to attack me but I managed to beat down as a wolf." He added a very convincing growl and bark combination at the end of his practiced claim. "Mostly... I mean, I don't wolf out at every little thing like I could," except for when Niko told him that Tanya had come back and that he'd gone to get her without telling Scott. He'd had some issues then. No reason to tell her that. "Around the full moon, it's a little more difficult," he was being honest with her, "But that's just me I think."
"Oh, wonderful," Tanya said with a roll of her eyes. "Give Tommy outlandish stories to tell everyone he meets... his werewolf dad who took down a bear." She was amused, to say the least. Although she knew Tommy would relay something like that to everyone. "So... do you just try to be alone around the full moon? Before and after?" She knew she wouldn't be allowing Tommy to visit during those days, but she was sure Scott understood that.
"...I better make sure the bears around here aren't endangered or some shit so I don't get protesters on my doorstep," well that kind of made that plan suck. He didn't want to have to deal with some idiot from PETA telling him that it was murder and blah blah fucking blah. "The day of, I try to stay alone but around it... I'm just like a big puppy. Only with claws. It's mostly just eyes and teeth that start showing though. How anyone didn't fucking realize it before now without being told..." He showed and he was one of those few with tells that were so damned obvious. "I have a cage," Scott said softly, "In my basement. Behind the steel fire door. I lock myself up so no one can get hurt except me."
Tanya rubbed her eyebrow with her thumb, feeling like she shouldn't be having this conversation with him over the phone. In a Dairy Queen. But she was afraid if they had been having it face to face, it would have been worse. She would have been agitated, and she was sure he would have been too. At least she assumed so. "Niko told me you did... had a cage, I mean." Despite herself, she chuckled softly, watching Tommy as he returned to the booth. "A big puppy with claws. Okay... I'll be sure to bring some puppy chow for you the next time I see you. Let's see if we can get you on a Kibbles and Bits diet rather than wild rabbit... or bear," she said dryly.
"Of course he did. Because he'll tell you everything about me but nothing about you, just like you won't tell me crap," and there was that anger and bitterness seeping through. Shit. He had been hoping to avoid this. He muttered something that sounded like an apology but he hardly meant it. "I'll show it to you if you want..." Scott laughed softly, hardly meaning to sound at all cheerful now, "I've tried dog food actually. Before even being a wolf. Nasty shit. Let's avoid it."
Sighing softly, Tanya found she was able to resist that immediate urge to snap at him. Things were going well enough, she didn't need to start a fight over the phone, especially not while she as in public, and with Tommy. Tommy, who was standing next to her now and poking her in the leg because clearly he was ready to go. Tanya scooted out of the booth and grabbed her purse to slide over her shoulder before taking Tommy's hand. "I don't exactly know what you're looking for," Tanya said, forcing calm into her tone. "I don't know what you want to know, Scott. If... look, over the phone isn't really the best place to even be having this conversation. I'll tell you whatever you want to know... but it'll have to wait until I see you again." She still didn't know how much she would be able to reveal, but maybe she was feeling more optimistic about her chances that she was willing to try.
An annoyed sigh. His ears actually twitched a little as he heard movement on her side of the telephone. "I think you know exactly what I want to know and I hate that you're playing this fucking game with me. I feel like shit because of it like why the fuck can't you trust me when I've never given you a reason not to trust me." He scrubbed his face with his hand, holding back the growl he wanted to give. "We continue on Saturday." He didn't give her a chance to answer back, just snapping his phone shut and thus hanging up on her.
"Scott," Tanya began, fully intending on protesting the fact that she was playing games, but then there was nothing on the other end. Fuck. She shut her phone and stuck it in her purse before leading Tommy to the car. Swallowing, she shook off the bad feelings and smiled down at Tommy. "Do you want to spend the night at your dad's tomorrow?" Tanya asked, signing as she spoke. He lit up immediately, just like she knew he would, and he nodded, signing back. "Okay! Can we have pizza?"
"You'll have to ask him," Tanya replied with a small smile before she opened the back door of her car to let Tommy climb in. It had been a nice day. At least while it lasted.