Chapter 7

“Hey rugrat, come on. You’re gonna make us late,” Cody yelled over her shoulder as slid her finger into her key ring and picked her keys out of the bowl by the door. The poor kid was about as easy to wake up and get moving on a Friday as she herself was; which was not at all.

“Coming!” came the irritated call from down the hall and she could picture her niece’s usually angelic face screwed up into a frown as she listened to her drag her feet down the hall. Shaking her head but with a smile on her face, Cody reached for handle on the front door, pulling it back, letting in a blast of frigid air. 

“Put your heavy coat on, it’s cold,” she called back and heard a grumble in response. Chuckling to herself, Cody reached for her own scarf, hanging by a peg by the door and was just reaching for Becky’s when something she barely saw out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. A clearly dead bird lay stiff on their doorstep, it’s feet curled in an obvious sign of rigamortis, its eye blank and lifeless. “Awww poor thing. Did some nasty kitty do this?” she said to it quietly as she reached for the newspaper to scoop it up with before Becky came around the corner. The last thing she needed now was an inconsolably crying child; they were running late enough as it was. As she slid the paper beneath the tiny, fragile form she noticed something around its beak, something shiny that glinted in the early morning winter sunshine. “Shit.” Cody dropped the paper and the bird skidded down the stairs. 

Standing, she scanned the street. There was no car, no one standing anywhere she could see. The street was silent and empty, no one walking their dog, no birds in the trees. She felt goose bumps rise on her arms and it wasn’t the winter temperature doing it. 

Digging her cell out of her pocket and keeping an eye out for any movement on the street, she walked slowly down the steps and then knelt next to the tiny inert form. Her hand shook as she reached forward to turn the bird’s head towards her. Its tiny neck was obviously broken and its head flopped back towards her at an odd angle, almost making her scream as it’s black, beady eyes seemed to stare accusingly at her. 

‘Shit girl. It’s dead. Get a hold of yourself’, she told herself sternly as she forced her hand back towards the little black bird. “Fuck...oh Bri.” Her sister’s class ring was wedged onto the beak of the sparrow, effectively holding it closed. The message wasn’t lost on her but on the other hand, all Cody could think of was how her older sibling had saved like Scrooge from her dead end job working at the Dairy Queen drive-thru to earn the money for that ring. It had been her pride and joy. Well, apart from Becks, Cody reminded herself as she hit the speed dial for Agent Roth’s number. Finishing high school at eight months pregnant had been a feat that Bri had been proud of. Cody hadn’t been impressed at the time, but now....

“Katie?” She almost didn’t react to the name, she was so far into the past but Cody shook herself and brought her focus back to the present. 

“There’s a....” She paused. If she said there was a dead bird on the front step he’d think the same thing she had when she’d first spotted it. “Someone’s left my sister’s class ring on the doorstep.” 

“You sure it’s hers’?” he asked, making her grind her teeth together. Cody used the end of one of her keys to pull the bird closer so she could examine the markings on either side of the stone.

“Well, unless you can suggest another way that an Argyle class of 2008 ring got to Pittsburgh and why it was specifically left for me to find...,” she snarled back, sitting back on her heels. “Look, I was about to take B...Reba to day care but that’s not happening now.” Cody stood up and scanned the street again. “Send someone...whatever CSI team thing you want but I’m not leaving the house and neither is she. Find us somewhere else, some place safe. Now,” She snapped her phone shut and then got up to go back into the house. Becky was standing in the doorway, her Dora the Explorer back pack in her hands, her bottom lip jutting out. Cody took a deep breath and then plastered a happy grin on her face. “Come on kiddo. We’re calling in sick today. Do you want to watch Veggie Tales or Elmo?”

“Max and Ruby!” Becky squealed, her big blue eyes lit up and she dropped her backpack to clap her hands together. 

“You got it squirt,” Cody beamed down at her, picking her up and pulling the door shut behind her. “Popcorn or ice cream?” 

“I don’t know mom, I think flying might not be a good idea,” Sidney mumbled into his phone, keeping his head down as he walked past groups of milling students.

“Well Mario said...,” she began and Sid shut his eyes just for a moment as he shook his head and breathed a sigh. Mario...he meant well but sometimes he pushed too hard. 

“I know mom, and I know what the doctors say too but...I don’t know. I had a good day yesterday and I think I’m just gonna stick around here for now.” He’d almost said ‘stick around her’ which made him smile. If he told his mom that he was sticking around the Burgh for a girl, his mother would think he’d bumped his head again. 

“Well I guess you know best.” Now she sounded hurt and now he felt like a bad son. She’d probably been looking forward to getting some unexpected alone time with her son and Sid knew damn well he didn’t spend enough time with his parents as it was, even though both of them were welcome anytime they wanted to come. 

“You know how important it is to me to be with the guys,” he began and then winced at the whining tone that had leaked into his voice. What was that power that his mother had to turn him into a homesick eight year old at the drop of a hat?  “Mom, I’m just going into the...uh gym,” he lied as he winced again. He wasn’t usually the kind of guy that lied to his mother but then again he wasn’t the kind of guy that normally went swimming in anything other than a backyard pool so, he told himself, he was just avoiding opening up a whole can of worms. “I’ll call you later, promise,” he added, trying to regain some good son points. 

“Alright Sidney. Take care. Love you.” 

“Yeah, love you too mom,” he replied, trying to sound bright and happy. It would make her worry less. Not that he wasn’t feeling either of those things. In fact the closer he got to the pool, the bigger the smile on his face got. 

After all, he was her knight in shining armour. She had to agree to go out with him now. He’d been thinking about her all day. No, that wasn’t right either. He’d been thinking about her ever since...well really since the day they’d met. 

And of course she was late, he thought as he glanced at his watch and then looked around at the students going in and out of the dressing room. There was no one in the pool and he’d thought arriving late on purpose would make them arrive at the same time. 

He wished he had her number, call her. Maybe she was having car trouble, was stranded somewhere and he could pick her up. Do the whole knight in shining armour thing again. 

“Jesus, believe your own hype much Crosby,” he laughed at himself as he started to head towards the Mens dressing room. ‘Not to mention invested much’ he accused himself as he shook his head at the direction his thoughts always seemed to take when he thought of her, of protecting her. “From what though?” he thought out loud. Some shadows she was always jumping at? Or some ex boyfriend who couldn’t quite let go? “She wouldn’t date that creep,” he continued to talk to himself as he put his bag down on the bench and began to spin the lock on the locker in front of him. 

“You here for Katie?” a voice said from behind him; a deep, baritone voice that made the small hairs on the back of his neck stand up. 

“And if I am?” he asked without turning around, wishing like hell he had a stick or something else to use as a weapon. 

“She called in, sick or that kid was sick, I don’t know. Anyway, you can still have the pool if you want.” Sid glanced over his shoulder at the spotty faced kid with the square jaw and the overbite who was grinning at him. “Hey, you’re....” Sid nodded. “Can I have an autograph man?” 

“Yeah, sure, no problem.” He couldn’t keep the disappointment out of his voice but that was nothing compared to the way his heart felt in his chest. 

“I don’t know what I thought,” Cody began and then sighed. “Yeah, actually I do. SWAT and guys in hazmat suits brushing everything for prints,” she snapped as she paced back and forth in the living room. “Not you two and a fucking shoe box,” she added, aiming a withering look at the two agents currently taking up space on the sofa, the dead bird in what looked exactly like a shoe box and her sister’s class ring in a sandwich bag. 

“And you’d want us to attract that kind of attention here becauuuusssee?” Agent Keith, Cathy opened her eyes wide and stared up at Cody as if she was trying to prompt a first grader in a spelling bee. 

“Like it matters if you had the whole god damn fucking army sweeping the front yard for land mines,” Cody spat back. “They obviously know that I’m...that we’re here. I mean that ring, around the bird’s beak...pretty 'speak no evil' don’t you think?” she added, looking from one agent to the other while they both stared, blankly back at her. “What? You don’t think that’s the message?” 

“That might be just where it fit,” Agent Roth offered, unhelpfully. Shaking her head and continuing to pace, Cody strung together a number of choice curse words under her breath. 

“Look,” Cathy put the lid on the box as if she was being put off her coffee by the small, feathered package, “even if it was, and we don’t know that for sure, it was sort of a...suggestion more than a threat. I mean, it wasn’t a horse’s head in your bed am I right?” Cody stopped pacing and shut her eyes, begging silently for patience. 

“You’re fucking kidding me right? I don’t know about you, but I don’t really need any more of a hint than that.” Cody pointed at the box and then looked at both Agents. “Either you get me and my niece the fuck out of here, or I do, in which case, whenever Becky decides to talk about it, if she ever does, you won’t know and it won’t help you. Do I make myself understood?” The agents looked at each other and then back at her. 

“We’ll have to get authorization,” Agent Roth began and Cody just growled in response. 

“We’ll uh...take this back to the office and we’ll be back in touch, soon,” Agent Keith promised, gathering the box and the evidence bag with her sister’s ring in it and stood. Agent Roth picked up his cup and started to drink and Cody growled again. “Come on Al...let’s go. Sooner we leave, sooner we come back.” 

“This isn’t pathetic, right?” Sid asked no one as he turned onto her street, a bag holding a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and a box of microwave popcorn on the passenger seat, two dvds in the console beside him and a thermos full of Nathalie’s chicken soup in one of the drink holders. “Friends do this,” he reminded himself encouragingly as he slowed to a stop in front of the house. The address had still been in his GPS. That wasn’t stalking or anything, he didn’t think. Sid stared at the front door. His palms were sweaty on the steering wheel and his mouth felt dry. “Shit, this isn’t a first date ,” he admonished himself quietly, ignoring the voice in his head that sounded a lot like Max telling him to go ahead and pussy out, back out of the driveway and go home. “Grow a sack Crosby,” he said firmly as he put the transmission in park and turned off the ignition. Before he really did pussy out, he grabbed the dvds and put them under his arm, took the bag in one hand and the thermos in the other and slid out of the SUV. 

He was almost up to the door when a cute little face plastered itself up against the picture window at the front of the house and a pair of big blue eyes stared back at him. He grinned back at her. He couldn’t help it. Reba was a cute kid. 

“Sidddwheeee!” she called clearly through the glass, slamming her hands against it before turning and disappearing. He could hear her footfalls on the wood floor as she ran around to let him in. 

So much for the element of surprise he thought as she wrenched open the door and threw herself at him, wrapping herself around his legs. 

“I uh...heard you were under the weather. I brought soup,” he explained to Katie as she appeared at the front door, leaning there with her arms crossed, looking down at him with a bemused expression on her face. 

“We’re not sick,” Reba explained in a hushed tone as she grinned up at him. “We’re playing hockey!”

“Hookey, honey. We’re playing hookey,” Kate explained with a laugh and then stepped aside. “But I like soup, so you can join us...if you want,” she offered and something in her eyes made Sid’s heart leap against his chest wall. 

“I brought ice cream too,” he told her as she held her hand out for the bag as he struggled to pull his leg along with Reba still clinging to it like a monkey. 

“And we loooove ice cream, don’t we squirt?” she grinned down at Reba who nodded enthusiastically but continued to cling to his leg as he mounted the steps. “Oh and movies, we like those too don’t we baby girl?” Reba let go of his leg and reached for the dvds, snatching them from his hand and running into the living room with them. 

“I ummm, I brought Monsters Inc...for her. I mean I like it too but I uh...I brought the Notebook, thought maybe we could watch it later?” he offered and watched as Kate’s eyebrows went up. “I mean, if you want,” he shrugged and glanced away, sure that he looked as pathetic as he sounded to his own ears. 

“Sounds like you thought of everything.” Her hand slid into his and he stared down at their entwined fingers and wondered if his hands felt as sweaty to her as they did to him.