The Dove And The Grenade.

Chapter 2: Mother Matty.

-2008-

Matty rushed down the hallway of the paediatric ward with a teddy bear in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other. He just got in from a six month tour with the band he's in, he didn't even go home to drop his bags off. His luggage was in the trunk of his car. But he stopped by the gift shop before he even thought about going to see what happened. Matty has never been this worried in all his life, he didn't want to think of the damage done.

Matty shook his head in denial of all these horrific thoughts as he turned the corner into the private room he's gladly paying for. Sitting on the bed was a brown eyed brunette in her jeans and a graphic tee shirt with a bubble gum pink cast moulded around her thin arm. Eliese sat in the beige chair next to the bed, riffling through her purse. Matty sighed a heavy breath of relief as his heart was lifted from the pits of his stomach.

"Thank God you're okay, Emily." Matty praised gruffly, striding into the room with arms wide open. He engulfed the ten year old girl in his arms, tying her into his chest reassuringly. Eliese giggled at his mother hen like attitude and shook her head as she scrolled through her phone, seeing messages from friends and family asking how Emily is. Eliese had to tell everyone that Emily is fine and she only fell off the monkey bars at School and landed funny thus breaking her arm.

Emily laughed and pulled herself out of Matty's arms. She was a bit embarrassed by the fact that she did something as stupid as to doing a back flip on the monkey bars. If only she knew her mom did much stupider things than that. Matty set the bouquet and teddy bear down on the table with a weary smile.

"Matty, she fell off the jungle gym at School and broke her arm. It's not like she defeated the dark lord himself." Eliese commented on the fact that she thought Matty was overreacting to this. Matty pursed his lips and sighed heavily before looking down at the ten year old girl. Emily was looking up at her Uncle through the dark eyelashes she inherited from her mother. Emily's brown eyes glowed in the Californian sun as she smiled at Matty.

“Did you at least learn a lesson?” Matty questioned his goddaughter honestly, but his tone was more fatherly than friendly. Looking at this group of people from the outside, one would be led to believe they were a family. Yes, in a way they are but not in the way that it looks. People would assume Emily is Matty’s daughter and Matty and Eliese were the mother and father that didn’t quite get along but stayed together for the kids.

Emily laughed amusedly and nodded her head at her Uncle; Matty brushed the soft brown locks of hair from her face and tied them behind her pierced ear. Eliese watched the interactions between the two of them.

“Yeah, I did.” Emily replied lively. Matty smiled at her enthusiasm and patted her cheek gingerly.

“And what did you learn?” Eliese asked knowing that Emily is too much like her and that ‘yeah, I learned something’ was pure sass. Emily tilted her head and grinned up at Matty cheekily. 

“I learned not to tell Uncle Matty about my accidents because he’ll end up dying of a heart attack before he’s thirty.” Emily admitted with sheer sass that made her mother choke on a roaring laughter and Matty couldn’t fight the smile that crossed his face as he shook his head at the mini look-a-like girl sitting on the bed in front of him. He couldn’t believe it’s already been ten years since she was born, where did the time go? Where did these responsibilities come from? Adulthood was nothing like childhood and both Eliese and Matty missed that.

Matty looked up at Eliese, she seemed distant again. Little did Matty know, Eliese is struggling with bills and money. Her boss refuses to give her more than forty hours a week because then she’s eligible for welfare. Emily’s father isn’t paying child support anymore, after only a year or two of actually paying less than a hundred bucks a month. Eliese hasn’t told Matty any of this, but he knows she’s always had trouble with money but he doesn’t know that she’s being evicted from their one bedroom apartment. Matty knows that she’s had her car repossessed and she has no water, Emily has been practically living with him, not that he minds, he’d do anything for that little girl.