Participants:
| Scene Title | Merry-Go-Round |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Matt catches up with Molly, and the two go through a variety of emotions before finding some commonality again. |
| Date | September 7, 2010 |
It can be generally assumed that, even if Angela Petrelli has an evening out, that around seven in the evening on any given night, Molly Walker will be at 'home.' So it is with confidence that Matt Parkman arrives at the Petrelli Mansion on Wednesday evening. He wanders through the foyer, a large package wrapped in dark pink with a purple bow wrapped around it held behind his back.
His hair has grayed even further since the last time that Molly saw him - it must be months by now, but he no longer has that hollow look of a man stretched far too thin. From the look of his current ensemble, he must have just slipped away from work, though he has taken the time to loosen the dark blue tie and undo the first button of his dress shirt.
The young teen in question is currently padding out of the kitchen with a bowl of ice cream in her hands. Blonde hair down and pulled over her face as she stares down and eats the sweet stuff. Then she notices something out of the corner of her eye.. a visitor? Please not someone that wants her to find someone for them. How the hell is everyone finding her!?
She comes to the door and peeks out the side and just stares. Her mouth pressed into a tight line, her eyes staring without blinking at the man at the door. Molly Walker is surprised but she doesn't let Matt see it.
Oh.. haven't forgotten about me then? Is what she projects out, sure that their bond, their connection is still strong enough that he would catch that thought.
"Whatever happened to hello?"
Matt asks the question before he turns to look at Molly, a grin sliding onto his tired face. As well as he may look, there is no hiding the age in his face and the shadow under his eyes. But those eyes twinkle as he extends one arm to offer a hug.
Sarcasm is a tricky business when it comes to teenagers. Molly could be, and who could blame her if she was, upset with Matt for his long absence. Then again, staying with Angela Petrelli must mean she at least has some idea as to the importance of what's kept him away.
"I forgot how to say hello." She says blankly. Followed by the thought, Just like I forgot I had a dad...
Nevertheless she opens the door and gives her dad a one armed hug. It isn't too soon before she's quickly backing up a safe distance, she doesn't seem to trust her father at the moment. "Have you talked to Mohinder?" she asks.
Obviously trying to make small talk, though her hands are shaking and she puts the bowl of ice cream down on a side table. All the times she needed Matt.
The Nightmare Man had me.. he wouldn't leave me alone.
Everyone is finding me and asking me to use my ability to help them find people.
I needed you.
I just want to go home.
None of these meant to be broadcasted but she can't help it, she hasn't had to hold her thoughts in a long while.
He hugs her as tightly as he can with one arm, his hand rubbing against her back before he lets himself let her go. "I haven't," he says with a shake of his head. "Why, have you?" It's a good thing the doctor has been checking up on Molly, and Matt can only hope it's been for friendly rather than professional reasons.
He brings the package around with a small degree of awkwardness, thumping his hand against it as he grabs it again. "I know you're getting a little old for stuff like this to help." Help what, he doesn't say. He doesn't even let the thought leak into Molly's head. "But I thought you might like it." Matt holds it out to her then - whatever it is, it's large and relatively flat.
"I.." Molly doesn't say anything but takes the gift and goes to sit in the dining room, placing he package on the table. She looks at Matt with raised eyebrows before she tears the paper off and looks to see what her father has gotten her out of guilt.
"It would have been better if you were here for my actual birthday." She says with a soft sigh as she looks down at the present. Tears well up in the young teen's eyes but she quickly wipes them away.
I'm fine.. you're fine Molly. Suck it up.
"Call it character building," Matt mumbles through a frown as he watches Molly with the gift, disappointed with her determination to sully it.
Inside the pink paper is a hardcover edition of the Oxford Atlas of the World. Something Molly might like, sure, but it is also a very narrow-minded gift. Surely the girl has other interests rather than the exploration of her ability. Still, it's meant as a kind gesture.
"I mean," Matt says with a sigh as he moves around the table to pull out a chair and take a seat, clasping his hands in front of him. "You want to be a strong, independent woman some day, right? That's not going to happen if I'm hovering all the time." And he can't think of a better teacher than the President's mother.
"Are you bipolar?" Molly's mouth drops. "I couldn't get you to leave me alone ever. Now you just had a change of heart?" Molly blinks, shocked. Looking back down at the atlas, she smiles faintly. "Thanks." She had been needing a new one of these." Looking around the room.
"You don't want to raise me anymore, you don't want me living there with you. Is because of Kay? Does she not want me around?" Molly asks all these questions really fast and she tries her best to glare at her dad. She's hurt.. she can't help but react this way.
"Hoku.. Hoku is gone.." she holds the atlas close to her chest, gripping it for dear life. "Mohinder never wants to see me. I haven't seen Kaylee in weeks.." she feels.. alone. Simple as that.
"You're fourteen," Matt counters with a stern look. "You're raised, Molly. There's little anyone can do to change you." He stands, scooting the chair back with an angry squeal against the hardwood floor.
"Kaydence left," he all he offers regarding his ex-fiance, but from the disgruntled expression he wears, it can't have happened on good terms. "And back then, you made it pretty clear I was smothering you. So what do you want, Molly? I thought you wanted to be a normal girl? And I know, and you know that's not possible. So I've tried - I've tried - to give you the next best thing."
Their views have completely reversed. Molly stares up at Matt and then she stands as well and slams the atlas on the table. "You know what I mean. We're suppose to be a family. You're suppose to be my dad, of course I'm gonna act like you're smothering me. I know it's because you love me!" she shouts and she looks surprised at her own words.
"I.. I'm sorry about Kaydence.." she says briefly but that angry expression returns and she runs from around the table and runs up to Matt. Poking him in the chest, which soon turns into slapping his chest which then turns into drumming her fist into her chest.
I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.
She thinks as tears stream down her face. She got what she wanted, or at least what she thought she wanted. "Why would you leave me with strangers?" it comes out in bursts of sentences, not having enough air to say it all at once. Her chest rising up and down rapidly as she continues to sob. The last time Matt might remember seeing her like this is when she last had a nightmare about Sylar.
You're my hero, my dad. You saved me from Sylar.
She continues to think aloud, obviously not really able to speak right now.
Matt makes a grab for Molly's wrists to stop her pounding, but he doesn't pull her closer, or even wrap his arms around her to hug her tightly to him. He simply holds her away from him, bending down slightly so that he can look her in the eye, his own misting slightly.
"Do you want to live in D.C., where everyone is a stranger? Do you want to live in the apartment and be by yourself for months at a time? Do you want to call up Mohinder and see if he's got room? Or should I get a place in the Octagon for you?
"Molly, you can't follow me around. It's too dangerous, and it isn't fair to you. It'd be boring." And unlike other cabinet members, he doesn't have a nuclear family waiting for him at the close of each day, tucked safely away in Virgina or another bordering state.
"Take a vacation! Let's go somewhere, just for a week! You need it anyway." She says to Matt and then she's trying to back away. Ashamed of herself, showing that much emotion, acting that childish in front of someone.
Molly looks at Matt but knows it doesn't make sense to argue with Matt. She walks back to her seat and sits, looking down at the atlas. "I'll stay here." She says simply. "Or with Kaylee."
He watches her for a moment, then nods both to himself and to her. "When things calm down," he says in a lower tone, "how about we go to L.A. for a week?" It'll be as good as any to introduce Molly to the idea that she isn't the only one who can legal claim to be a dependent of Matt Parkman. "We'll do the works. Shopping. All the sights. Promise."
"Fine. You know things will never calm down." Molly says and she nods curtly. The blonde teen, just done with the whole situation. "I can't promise that things will go alright with you not around. Things have been happening, Elle Bishop came to visit me.. all sorts of things." She shrugs, "It's whatever." She says and looks out the window.
She wants him to leave, it's the only way she'll start feeling better. Is this what it feels like? To be abandoned by a parent? Guess so. The human tracker wipes her nose and thumbs through the atlas.
"Com'n, Mol," Matt says with a pained sort of grin. "Have some faith." If not in Matt, in something. In a hopeful future, maybe. "Who knows. When the election rolls around, Petrelli might not win, and I may be out of a job. You know better than to think the future's set."
"Living here has made me rather cynical dad." She says flatly it would seem that Angela is rubbing off on her. "She makes me comb my hair before stepping out. Not that I won't do that.. but she makes it her job to walk in and say it! How the heck did Nathan and Peter live like this?? And you know.. she DOESN'T MAKE COOKIES."
Molly's scope of reality has been broken by the non-grandma/old ladyness of Angela. "She's cool though, at least I see her more often than not." She says softly. She looks up at Matt, she's still mad at him. But she'll live. That look, should say it all.
"Tell you what," Matt says as he steps around to place his hands on the back of Molly's chair. "While I'm here in New York, we'll see more of each other. Maybe next week we'll even make cookies, and you can come over to the apartment whenever you want. Angela'll understand."
"More like I'll be making cookies and you'll be sitting on the couch." Molly snorts but nods. "Sure that sounds like a plan, but only if you can get Mohinder." She has conditions, Miss Walker does. "Because.. I said so." She beams at Matt and then gives him a look that basically says, 'Do It.. or I'll Poison Your Cookies.'
And Daddy Matt doesn't want that right?
The thing is, Matt doesn't have the relationship with the scientist that Molly has. He squints at her, then nods. "I'll try. But we may end up having to take them to his lab, and if we do that, you'd better not poison them.
"I don't know if I'd be able to explain that one away."
"Just do some mind voodoo to them duhhhh." Molly says with a roll of her eyes and she looks at Matt with a sincere smile. "I'm sorry for being so pissy and crying. I guess I just missed you a lot. I get worried too, ya know." She says with hmph and a stern look is thrown Matt's way. "And.. Angela takes me shopping sometimes but.. I need some extra cash." She looks at Matt with a large grin, all teeth showing. Ah the joys of fatherhood.
That sort of request is something that Matt can not only handle, but welcome with open arms. He shifts his hands from the back of Molly's chair to her shoulders, giving them a tight squeeze. "You know, I could set up a steady stream for you, but I'm just afraid you'll suck your account dry as soon as the money hits it." The concern in his tone and expression are real enough, but there is a gleam in his clearing eyes and a humorous thread in the words.
"I'm the responsible one, remember?" She looks up at Matt with mock anger. "You're the one that wants to go around saving the world." She snickers softly and nods her head. "It gives me an excuse to talk to you if I need to ask for money dad. Don't make me get all obvious and bare my soul to you."
"You should meet my friend Kaylee, she's special. You might like her special."
"Yeah?" Matt asks, moving to pull out the chair beside Molly and sitting down once again.
"Does she like cookies?"