It Will Come Back [Frank Castle].

Sit

"I'm sorry I panicked earlier," Michelle whispered the following night as she gently massaged shampoo into the panting dog's fur. He stared at her with a content doggy grin, no judgement whatsoever coming from him.

Of course he wasn't judging. It wasn't like he understood what happened when she went to the pet store for all his stuff, and a nosey but very helpful employee asked his name. And poor Max didn't know that because Michelle didn't read get name off the note from his owner, she renamed him Lucky, after an old neighbor's dog who had a weird diet of pizza.

"But, like, it was smooth, huh?" Michelle carefully rinsed the suds away, impressed by the stillness and composure this dog possessed. "You're the best luck I've ever had in my life. Like, they only way things could've been better, is if you rolled up in a Porsche with a large pizza and buffalo wings, baby."

She scratched behind his ear as she glanced behind herself to double check that the towel was close by. It was, but she still pulled it from the sink counter and draped it over her lap.

"It'd also be good if you could stay, but your owner loves you, so I'm not gonna even hope like that."

Max/Lucky licked her forearm as once she finished up and started to drying him off. He may not have understood Frank dropping him off on this strange lady's doorstep, but he surely liked her. Plus, there was so much space to play with all his new toys!

When Lucky was fully dry, Michelle let him have at the knotted rope toy he seemed to favor before going to her room and checking on Fuzzy.

The poor cat had been taken out of her room last night so Michelle could let Lucky stay with her. Fuzzy hadn't left position by the door until Michelle woke up that morning and placed her in the cage until they left for the store. Now, the cat was spread out in the middle of Michelle's bed, sleeping.

Michelle quietly backed out of her bedroom, making a mental note to research ways to safely and quickly acquaint cats and dogs.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Frank looked outside the window of his apartment, waiting. He lived right across from Michelle, but her place was significantly nicer than his. Some rich asshole got his hands on the property over there and fixed things up on that side, but the apartments on Frank's side still looked like shit.

It annoyed Frank a bit because he knew that one of these days, he'd find out that there was either going to be a rent increase and all tenants on his side would be in trouble, or they'd be forced out so their places could be converted like the others. It wasn't fair. Improvements being made at the expense of fucking up the lives of people who were just trying to live weren't really improvements at all.

Even so, Max and the teacher were over there. They were living fine and dandy, and that was what mattered right now.

Frank groaned as he was forced to kneel by the window, wishing last night hadn't gone the way it did. There was a healing stab wound in his side that hurt like a bitch to lay on at night, but his recently sprained ankle wasn't something he wanted to stand on as he watched Michelle come outside with Max in tow.

He'd left Max with her last night after realizing that it would be then or never. With the back to back jobs, Frank hadn't even managed to any any sleep within the past 48 hours. He was so tired and worried about his boy that he had to do a rushed job of letting Max go. Couldn't even slowly ease away. He had to tell Max to stay, knock on the door and take off before someone picked up on him having been there at all.

Frank could still remember Max's cries as he realized he was being left.

He felt horrible about it, and probably always would, but seeing Michelle get ready for her quick nightly walk with Max in tow made him smile.