Would Someone Please Get That Girl A Pet

Morning Little Raptor

    "A week?" he exclaimed clutching the paperwork tightly.

     "And it starts today," replied his landlord.

     He dropped the paper to his side. "Couldn't you give me a couple days just to-"

     The landlord raised his hand to quiet the soldier. "Look, Captain Becker, I have nothing against you or the Royal Army-" He exhaled loudly through his nose. "And honestly you'll be getting an upgrade."

     Becker sighed as he massaged his neck. "I have to go to work and my niece-" He looked back into his flat where the little girl with pigtails sat coloring in a Deinonychus.

     His landlord shifted his weight to his right foot and breathed in deeply. "It's just a week Becker, can't you find anywhere else to stay?"

     The soldier pursed his lips. "Yes, I have a friend I can stay with, but my niece, I haven't made other arrangements for her. Can you possibly postpone the renovations for one day, so that I can find someone to watch her?"

     The landlord shook his head. "I'm sorry, Becker. The crew is already on their way. I'm sorry."

     Becker crossed his arms over his chest. "I understand."

     With that, the landlord walked away, leaving Becker to mull over his options. He looked back through the door, she hadn't even bothered coming outside to greet him. She probably thought it was one of his work friends and she would have been told to come back inside anyway.

     He smiled as she hummed to herself and doodled hearts on her coloring page. It was her favorite thing to do, color dinosaurs. It was her one joy, well, besides watching documentaries about them.

     He breathed in a deep sigh before walking back into the flat and closing the door. "Maisie..." he began.

     She looked up and smiled. "Morning, Beck. I made your tea."

     His lips split into a grin as he saw a piping hot mug of tea on the table next to her. He bent down and slipped into one of the pink kiddy chairs that surrounded the magenta Hello Kitty table. Though he quickly regretted it as his legs were at all times hanging half-way off the seat.

     Maisie smiled up at him. "You never sit at this table with me." Becker opened his mouth to say something when she spoke aburptly, "Do you want to help me color the T-Rex, or one of the raptors?"

     He chuckled a bit. "Frankly I'm a bit to large for these-" he grunted a bit as he pulled his leg back up on the chair for the third time, "chairs," he finished.

     She giggled before pushing her colored Deinonychus in front of him. "Isn't he lovely?"

     Becker pulled his tea in front of him and looked over the colored dino. "He is handsome. What are you going to call him?"

     She pursed her lips and hummed slightly to herself. "I think I will call him, Beck, after you. Is that okay?"

     He smirked and took a crayon from her box. "I would be honored."

     Becker quickly wrote the dino's name in the top right corner, like he always did. "You could start doing this yourself, you know?"

     She pursed her lips and shook her head. "No, no, you're handwriting looks a lot better."

     He slid the crayon back over to her and lifted his brow, looking her in the eye. "So does yours."

     She stood up so she could inspect the coloring page before he set it back down.  “Nah, your handwriting is much better.”

     He rolled his eyes and slipped the page back over to her side of the table.  “Which dinosaur did you want me to help you color again?”

    Her face lit up and she quickly, and she quickly shuffled to move her chair closer to him.  After sitting down she pulled her crayons and coloring book between them, and turned the pages until she found the page with the T-Rex line art.

     “I already found a name for her, it's Fiona Diamond,” Maisie said proudly.

     He picked up a blue crayon, but she gasped.  “No, no, no, Fiona isn't blue.  That's her least favorite color.”

     Becker lifted his brows slightly.  “Oh,” -he put the crayon down again- “what color does she like then?”

     Maisie carefully lifted a lavender crayon from the box and laid it in front of him.  “Purple.  Her favorite color is purple.”

     His lips turned up, in the corner, slightly.  “Just like yours.”

     She smiled, a wide toothy grin, almost guiltily, but with a certain sense of pride as well.  He only shook his head and chuckled.

     She directed him to what areas she wanted colored lavender and she marked in all the other areas with violet.  A whole cup of tea, and a crazy conversation about possible dinosaur sleeping habits later, Fiona was colored in and Becker was late for work.

     “There!” Maisie exclaimed after they had finished the coloring page.  “Isn't she beautiful?”

     She lifted the page into Becker's field of vision, but he was more concerned with the clock.  Late!  How?  I'm never late.

     He shifted quickly to get out of the chair, but instead of turning the chair he flipped it over.  Maisie gasped as their was a loud snap and Becker was on his side, broken chair pieces underneath him.

     He let out a deep sigh, before pulling himself off the floor.  “I'm late.”

     She looked rather solemnly at the broken chair pieces.  “And you broke my chair.”

     Becker looked at the pieces with a rather sympathetic expression.  “I'll see what I can do about that later.” He jerked his head toward her room.  “Grab your coat.”

     She looked up him quizzically.  “Where are we going?”

     He looked over toward the clock and exhaled deeply through his nose.  There is nothing I can do about it now.  It's much too late.

    “To my work,” he quickly replied.

    She clapped her hands in excitement.  She had been wanting to visit his work ever since she had overheard a work mate of his saying something about a dinosaur, and now she was thoroughly curious about his vocation.

    She cried out in giddy pleasure before running off toward her bedroom, leaving Becker to wonder how likely he was to be fired when he showed up at the ARC with a ten-year-old girl.