Just Try It

Chapter 73- Welcome

Saturday, February 18th, 7:00PM

Seymour Dojo and Fitness Center

Moe stared around the dojo as he absently did his normal workout on his normal treadmill. The tension thick in the air, but everything looked almost normal. That was all due to Jamie's Uncle Sean though. He had immediately called Korbin's father and arranged for some uniformed police officers to drive by the spot he had seen Malcolm. With-in minutes, Sean was heading back out the door to meet up with Lieutenant Kastigo. What took him the longest was convincing Terrance to stay back. Terrance was in good shape, but his willingness to go head to head with Malcolm had taken Moe by surprise. Even Sean insisting that police involvement was the only way to truly protect Susie hadn't convinced the normally cool-headed captain to stay back. Finally, Sean had put him in charge of guarding Susie in case Malcolm slipped past. It would give him ammo to tease Terrance, but it was hard to think of that when they were all still so worried.

When Sean and Lieutenant Kastigo walked in the front door, Moe felt relieved that they were safe, and that they might now get some answers. Unfortunately, instead of sharing any good news, they hustled Susie into the office with serious faces. Before entering, Susie had scanned the room anxiously. Danica rallied at Susie's hesitation, and offered for the girls to go with. Susie's surprise and relief were painfully obvious as Sean led all the girls, including Jamie, into the office.

While Moe was proud of his cousin and understood, waiting was harder than he had thought. It was almost a relief when Samuel gave Finn a nudge and Finn headed over to the treadmill next to Moe's. Finn would be the one to continue trying to tease him about Sondra. He wouldn't really mind. After all, he was just so happy that Sondra was his girlfriend. Fielding his friend's teasing might even be a nice distraction from the tension.

Before long, the other guys joined in on teasing Moe. To his surprise, Ivan and Terrance even added a couple of comments about it taking him long enough to make a move. It was hard to argue when they were right. They kept up the banter, but he wasn't the only one pausing to glance at the closed office door. Korbin was the first to stop teasing. That happened when he left to help customer who walked in, he just didn't come back. It wasn't long before the others wandered back to their workouts too. In a way, Moe was almost disappointed when Finn gave up too. Now he had nothing left to distract him.

When the door finally opened, Danica and Hillary hustled a smiling Susie upstairs. While he was glad that Susie wasn't trying to leave already, he couldn't help worrying that they would have to wait longer for answers. To his relief, Jamie joined Korbin and the other guys while Sondra came over to the treadmill next to him. He immediately slowed down to a walk so he could talk too.

"How did it go?" Moe asked anxiously.

Sondra gave a small shrug and concerned frown as she answered, "Well, Korbin's dad made Malcolm leave. He went over the steps of how to get a restraining order and started the process with her. He really wanted to do more, but none of us think it can go much further, and we might be pushing our luck to even get the restraining order."

"So Malcolm is going to get away with hurting Susie?" Moe asked in outrage.

Sondra gave a small shrug and explained, "The bruises are all gone and other than Susie and Malcolm the only possible witness would be Nancy. None of us believe Nancy would tell the truth. In fact, we are pretty sure that Nancy would paint Susie as the vindictive ex making up stories. So, we will try to leave her out of it as we go for a restraining order. Susie thought she might be able to get help from Ms. Miller."

"Our school counselor?" asked Moe in surprise.

Sondra nodded and explained, "She seemed to suspect something off. I guess she had worked with the police several times in the past to help kids in bad situations."