FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Automatic Lover

To Maverick, the winter landscape looked bleak and dingy without the crisp white snow. The woods of Dawes Arboretum looked scraggly, desolate under a steel gray sky. The forest floor was strewn with leaf litter that took on a purplish-brown color, with flecks of bleached out gray and brown. A chilly breeze whistled through naked branches that swayed. The sights and sounds of the last day of February, were captured through the lens of Maverick's Betacam, which rested on his shoulder.

The burly Russian husky was bundled up against the cold in his fleeced lined jacket and pants. Heavy black boots were caked with mud as he stood on the trail, slowly panning his anachronistic camera to the right to capture the depth of the forest surrounding him. It was part of a job assignment that fell into his lap, to create a video about maple syrup production at the Arboretum. He ended his shot, took the camera off his shoulder and powered it off. Carrying it with him, he began to walk along the muddy trail, to reach his destination. He was alone, surrounded by the quiet ambience of nature as he took all of it in, his mind thinking about the ridiculousness of paying ten dollars to visit when it used to be free of charge. The arboretum had a rich local history, having once been the land owned by the Dawes family, given for wartime service in the American Revolution, but to Maverick it was otherwise an unremarkable plot of woodland, interspersed with little interesting tidbits. It certainly wasn't worth an entry fee or membership.

The winding trail lead him to a log cabin, which sat near a small, shallow creek that wound its way through the woods. The gentle sound of trickling water was evident as Maverick approached. The cabin was made of logs that were grayed by years of exposure to the elements. It served as the "headquarters" to syrup production by the arboretum. It always began at the end of February; trees were tapped, sap collected, and boiled down, to make syrup that was in turn sold to help fund the facility. There were a few park rangers and volunteers scurrying about, helping to set up equipment and clean the area of leaf litter and fallen tree limbs.

Maverick met the park director who was in charge of the operation, who pointed him to his point of contact, Megan Gallagher. He spotted her as she worked to move a large evaporation pan with another colleague. She was a petite looking German Shepherd in her early thirties that Maverick thought was cute. She wore a dark green park ranger uniform that bore the Dawes logo on it. She had dark brown hair that was tied back into a short ponytail, complete with a winter cap atop her head.

"Morning! You must be Megan!" greeted the husky with a friendly grin.

"Hi! Maverick, right?"

"Yeah~"

"So nice of you to join us this morning!" Megan smiled back. She had a lively smile that lit her face up.

"Here for a job assignment." Chuckled Maverick. He towered over her with his six foot, five inch frame.

Separating from the group, Megan lead Maverick down another trail, to where the maple trees were being tapped at. He took the time to get some artful shots of Megan walking on the trail in a variety of angles, so he could have some options to work with back at his editing station. She lead him to a grove of towering maple trees, where volunteers were working to prepare the vacuum lines for the taps. Maverick took a moment to observe and get a feel for what he wanted in his next shots.

He kneeled down and balanced his BVP-3 to change out the cassette. He swapped it for a fresh Betacam cassette, which made Megan chuckle about its similar appearance to a Betamax tape. He took a moment to jot down some information on the tape's label, and stowed it into his backpack, which he rummaged around for a battery.

"So you do any photography?" Megan asked curiously. She watched Maverick pull the spent battery off the bottom of the camera and replace it with the fresh battery.

"I do mostly video, but I do dabble in photography. I like to shoot both digital and film."

"Oh cool! Film you say?"

"Yeah! I got a Canon AE-1." Maverick mentioned. "It's got the automatic winder on it."

"I got a Nikon F3 I shoot with for film. Nothing like that film grain." Megan nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh yeah~"

"What kind of scenery you shoot?"

"Oh, I do a lil' bit of everything. Industrial, our workplace stuff with Barev, and nature."

"Oh my god, nature is totally my thing." Megan exclaimed. "I love photographing wildlife, especially turtles. Turtles are so adorable, my favorite."

"Cool~" smiled Maverick. He switched his camera back on and waited for its Saticons to warm back up and stabilize. He then got back up, placed the camera on his shoulder, ready for the next shoot. From there, he got back to business recording Megan, who demonstrated for the camera, how trees were tapped and the tubing all attached. He did two takes, so he could also get close up shots to edit together. He filled his second tape completely up.

Packing his second tape away, Maverick walked with Megan on the trail, back to the log cabin. His camera bounced alongside in his grip as he carried it with him.

"I appreciate it~" Maverick complimented as he walked alongside. "I think this came out better than I expected."

"Did you like the information?"

"Loved it." Smiled Mav. "It's funny, you never think much about the steps it takes to make something like syrup."

"Takes a lot of trees, and a labor of love!" laughed Megan.

"But it tastes great on my pancakes!" laughed Maverick with a grin.

"I agree." Megan chuckled. "Sooo, Maverick- actually, been wanting to ask, how'd you get such a name, Maverick?"

The big husky chuckled. "Maverick means unorthodox, different, and that's me. I'm the tallest of my family, so I stand out. I'm different. So that's what my parents started calling me. I think it also came from my parents watching Top Gun or something."

"What's your actual name?"

"Douglas." Mav admitted with an unhappy gaze. "I come from a family who defected from the Soviet Union, and I was the only one born in the US, so they gave me an American name... They originally wanted to name me Anatol, after my grandfather."

"That's a cute name."

"Better than Douggy! That's for sure!" the husky laughed.

"Heh, I was wondering if you'd ever be interested in maybe doing some nature photography with me maybe?"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, there's a spot where I like to photograph turtles at the pond." Megan explained. "Maybe we could take our film cameras and go shoot some rolls?"

"That kinda sounds like you wanna take me on a date?" chuckled Maverick with a sly grin.

Megan blushed a bit and laughed as she momentarily looked away from him. "Well, I have to say, you have a cute face."

"I agree!" the husky laughed with her. "Thank you!"

"Heh, I call em when I see em, Maverick. So what do you say?"

"I say we're gonna shoot some turtles~ On film, not with guns, metaphorically speaking, not literally."

Megan closed her eyes and laughed. "I think we could work something out." She handed him a business card. "Keep in touch~"

"Oh I will~" he smirked.

Thanking her and the others, Maverick continued on the trail, to make the long walk back to the parking lot, where his truck awaited him.

---

The humble abode of Maverick, 623 Karen Parkway, was a brand new house, surrounded by a yard completely torn up by its construction. Sitting on the corner of Karen and Leslie Drive was a single story ranch home that Maverick shared with his adopted son, Robby Tokarev. It replaced his previous home that burned down in November. It stood out on the corner by its yellow cedar siding, which also covered the large detached garage behind it.

Maverick sat in his basement, where he worked to edit his video from earlier in the day. He sat at his homemade editing console, which was built around a vintage Quantal Paintbox system. It had a couple rack mounted Betacam recorders, chained together to an A/B switcher, and displayed on an old CRT monitor. The husky looked content as he played back footage and cut it together, shot by shot. It was a tedious process that he enjoyed doing. He watched on the monitor as Megan worked on installing the tap into the towering maple. He always enjoyed watching footage from his BVP-3; it was his workhorse camera since high school. The camera's Saticons gave it a sharp, crisp picture, with the "tube warmth" that he liked over digital cameras.

Listening to Megan talk brought a smile to the husky's face; he wanted to get to know her more. She was an attractive German Shepherd that turned him on. And he longed to get back into the dating game after being divorced for four years. As he finished up cutting together his video, he thought about the dating game some more, and the unmitigated disaster his first new dates were. It made him think about his awkward teenage years dating, before he had met his ex-wife, Amy Golagonoff.

Finishing up, Maverick rewound the edited tape and played it back to check for any "snags". Feeling content with his work, he ejected the square, gray cassette, and labeled it. He packed it away and slapped a "EDIT MASTER" sticker on the plastic case. Reaching over, Maverick powered everything off and got up to stretch his back. He turned to stare at the plethora of studio cameras, that sat in his basement awaiting servicing. With all the old broadcasting equipment he collected with his best friend Rob Barion, his basement was starting to look like the laboratory of a mad scientist. At a quick glance, Maverick counted four RCA TK-47EP's, two TK-48's, three EMI-2001's, a Norelco PC-70, his three Hitachi SK-110A's, and a Sony BVP-360A. Mav walked through his sea of cameras to decide on which one to work on next. The four RCA "Big Blues" were destined for their outside broadcast fleet, and while Rob had done the dirty work of rebuilding, repairing, and replacing the defective logic boards, it was now up to Maverick to install the new 30mm Low Capacity Diode-Gun Plumbicon tubes. The EMI-2001's, his very hot running four-tube British cameras, were due to have their tubes replaced by a regular set of trielectrode 30mm Plumbicons, to correct a weird image effect from their current use of non-standard Diode-Gun tubes. The husky fumbled his brow at the Norelco and Sony; the former had a lot of work still ahead to produce a stable picture, and his efforts were made complicated by the old 1960's way of construction logic boards and capacitors. The latter was effectively dead in the water; the Sony needed a set of two-thirds inch Mixed-Field Saticons, but Maverick no longer had the tubes. His old stock supply he once held onto was destroyed in the fire, and the camera specifically needed mixed-deflection tubes that could be electromagnetically deflected, and electrostatically focused. It would just have to wait until he could get his paws on a batch. Maverick decided to just tinker around with one of his "Big Blues".

Just as he walked over to take the cover panel off the camera, his cellphone went off, vibrating and ringing on the desk. He walked back over to pick it up, finding Rob calling him.

"Hey Rob!"

"Hey Mav-O, what's up on your end."

"Oh, servicing one of the Big Blues here."

"Ah~ Hey you got a moment?"

"Yeah! What's up?"

"You've been following the news about the coronavirus bullshit, right?"

"Yep~"

"I have zero faith in our government doing anything to stem this..."

"Morons are governing America, Rob. MAGA~ Get it?"

"Yeah... Anywho, Mav, I want you to look into company contingency plans on this. I have a feeling this is going to hit Barev pretty hard."

"It's a risk we're just going to have to take, Rob."

"Yeah."

"You keep on resting, I have things under control here."

"Alrighty."

"How are you feeling by the way?"

"Still kinda blah to be honest, Mav. I'm pretty sore in my pelvis area."

"You shouldn't take Joey so rough then. HA, HA, HA! Made a funny!"

"Fuck off, Mav."

"Love you, Rob."

"I know~"

Maverick talked to Rob for a while on the phone, while he poked around inside the camera. He did that for a while, before going back upstairs to get dinner ready for himself and his son, who was out spending the day with friends. He sat a pot roast on his kitchen island and glanced around; he was impressed by his new kitchen. He was impressed by his whole house. He finally had a place built to his exact liking. His kitchen would soon become the set to a new cooking show he was making with his ex-wife, and he really looked forward to it.

"Things are looking up~" he chuckled to himself. Without thinking, Maverick grabbed the pot roast without mittens on; he immediately threw his arms up and yelled in pain. "YEOWWWWW! GOD DAMNIT ME! OWW!"

---

Sunday morning introduced the first day of March. The brilliant sun slowly rose over homes in the Krebs Edition as a gray Impala turned off Euclid Drive for Leslie Drive. Pulling into Maverick's driveway was his ex-wife, Amy, the gray furred, Bulgarian wolfess. She climbed out of her recently repaired car carrying a backpack thrown over a shoulder. Glancing over, Amy spotted a large, glistening silver Globetrotter camper sitting by Maverick's garage; it was Barev's broadcasting operations center, housing the editing and recording gear. A number of cables ran from the camper and through a window to the kitchen.

Amy stepped through the back door to find a beehive of activity in the kitchen. It was brightly lit by a number of floodlights that glowed. Maverick worked with Marcus Barion in setting up his three Hitachi SK-110A's, the beige and gray studio cameras sitting on their pedestals crammed up against the far wall. Robby Tokarev, a scrawny beige and tan husky, held one of the portable cameras, a restored SK-97 "Computacam", which rested on his shoulder.

"Morning!" greeted a happy looking Maverick.

"Beehive of activity here~" Amy smiled. "This is it, our first episode."

"I know right? I'm so excited." The husky exclaimed. "Let's burn it to the ground~!"

"Heh, maybe not that far..." Amy chuckled.

Amy went to go get dressed in her chef outfit. Maverick finished up calibrating and getting his cameras ready. He quickly ran over and grabbed his tacky looking apron and tied it around his body. Amy returned dressed in her chef's outfit, which was white with some black accents on it. She even had the poofy hat that Maverick always adored on her. She stopped and stared at Maverick and his apron.

"God, you're such a dork~"

"Hey! Don't talk shit about my apron, Amy!" Maverick exclaimed. "You know what you look like?"

"A chef?" Amy responded.

"Yeah! Go make me a sandwich bitch!" laughed the husky.

"I'll make you something, alright..." she shook her head. She grabbed a spatula and pointed at Maverick before she laughed at him.

"Alright, let's get this taped and good to go!" Marcus called out. He served as the director of the program. The Nordic husky took his spot beside the center camera, which was run by Felix Barion, a fawn furred Doberman.

Amy took a moment to gather what she needed and placed on the kitchen island. The episode was about breakfast, and Amy neatly placed a bunch of eggs in a basket and sat it off to the side. Maverick leaned against the counter watching her organize everything she needed.

"Okay, ready for taping~" Marcus announced as everyone got into position. "Let's give this a try~ And rolling in five, four, three, two, one, action!"

"Good morning from Newark, Ohio! This is Amy Golagonoff!"

"Maverick Tokarev here! And this is Cooking with Amy N' Mav!"

"What a great way to start a new program, in the morning none the less! Than breakfast!"

"I'm not sure how one can screw that up~" chuckled Maverick.

"Well...I've seen your cooking."

"Hey!" The husky protested.

Amy and Maverick laughed it out as Amy went on to prepare a full breakfast meal for the cameras. For half an hour, the wolfess whipped up a meal of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and homemade hash browns. She sarcastically quipped about "enough calories to keep you going for days". Maverick assisted her in the process, and along the way, injected his own bumbling humor, including his usual quip about "big giant sausage fingers of his". The chemistry between them felt natural; it was their genuine friendship and status as former lovers that helped make the program atmosphere seem realistic, not the fake phoniness that Maverick found in a lot of cooking shows. They finished up and gave a happy conclusion for the cameras, as Marcus called out "cut".

"End VTR roll. We're clear." Marcus concluded.

"Whew." Maverick breathed a sigh of relief.

Amy passed out the food to everyone who helped, and they all stood around eating a second breakfast in the congested kitchen. It was a lively joke filled time, as they all discussed about what they liked and didn't like about the shoot. After everyone was finished, it became time to tear down equipment and put cameras away. Maverick took a moment to rinse plates and pans, and put them in his dishwasher.

Amy walked over and watched as Maverick rinsed a pan, threw it in, and tossed a detergent packet into the unit and shut the door.

"Good work, Mavvy~"

"Hey thanks~ I was just the joke masochist." Chuckled the husky.

"You did fine~" Amy chuckled as well. "So...just curious. How's your dating game?"

"How's yours?"

"Oh well...I think I might be starting a relationship." Amy admitted, with a little bit of blushing and a smile.

"Oh yeah?"

"I met this gal named Sandy...and...well...things might work out."

"Well there ya go! Carpet matches the drapes right?"

"MAV!" Amy exclaimed through clenched teeth.

"Hey that's a prerequisite for me at least~" Maverick shrugged. "Before I put my lips down there and-"

"Oh here you go." Amy rolled her eyes and laughed. "Anyways, her name is Sandy, and I hope I can build something outta it."

"I hope so too~ What did your parents have to say?" Maverick asked.

"They don't need to know." Amy bluntly stated.

"George and Maggie. Like two cheeks of the same ass..." the husky shook his head.

"What about you? Stud service."

"Hey I like that title." Grinned Maverick. "Just too bad nobody's calling!"

"Ha!" Amy snorted.

"I might have a date with this park ranger I met yesterday. We seemed to hit it off at Dawes Arboretum when I went there for a video assignment. She's a cutie. She was all professional about tapping those trees. I wanna tap that pussy and give her some of my syrup~"

"Oh god." Amy shook her head.

"I have a great way with words. I know the best words!" Maverick teased.

"Well I hope things don't degenerate like the last couple gals."

"I know right?" laughed Maverick. "Ya know I heard if you don't use your dick, it shrivels up and falls off."

"Then you really would be Shirley."

"I'm not Shirley!" Maverick glared.

---

On a calm Saturday morning, Maverick arrived at Dawes. It had been quite a foggy morning, and a low fog clung to the trees at the arboretum. The low morning light cast everything with a steel blue hue. The headlights to his one ton Silverado burned through the thick fog as Maverick drove to the Japanese garden, to meet Megan. He turned and backed into a spot in the otherwise empty parking lot. At the other end of the lot, he spotted Megan waiting for him, the German Shepherd leaning against her Honda. She was dressed in all blue, complete with hiking boots on her feet.

Maverick hopped out with his camera gear stowed in his backpack. He was dressed for the elements in a pair of hiking pants, jacket, and boots, in drab shades of gray and blue. He walked over with a confident pose and met with Megan.

"Fancy seeing you here this morning!" Mav grinned. "How's it going?"

"Even better with you here." Megan laughed with a cheerful smile.

The two began a slow trek around the Japanese gardens, which had been a gift to the arboretum by the Japanese government in the early 1960's. It had a winding walking path around a large pond, dotted by two small islands, and a stone path across a narrow section of the pond. The morning light that shone through the naked trees cast unique shadows on the fog, which took on a warm hue in the light, and a steel blue color in the shade. Maverick shot a couple photos with his film camera, a silver and black Canon AE-1. Megan followed with a few snapshots of her own as they continued on their journey around the Japanese gardens.

Maverick and Megan spent a few hours amongst the foggy woods, photographing the scenery and wildlife as the sun burned through the fog. Some waterfall, winter birds, and deer were the subject to Maverick's telephoto lens, as he braced himself against a tree to stabilize himself with his long focal length. Megan led him to a sort of wetland area in the woods, where she pointed out a couple turtles that sat on a log near the water; they were the first ones to emerge from hibernation. The Shepherd excitedly told Maverick all about pond turtles and how cute they were. She casually mentioned about "keeping a few turtles as pets", which Maverick responded with a "neat" quip as he changed out his roll of film.

"These rolls are so hard to exchange...the way they fit in the camera, D'OH! My big FAT SAUSAGE FINGERS ALWAYS GET IN THE WAY! DAMNIT!"

Megan laughed at Maverick's struggle with his camera as he spooled up a roll and slapped the back on. He fired the shutter twice to advance the film. "There we go!"

"You have such a way with words~"

"I know words, the best words, only the best words!" Maverick laughed.

Megan walked over and smirked at him. She rubbed his chest playfully. "Big fingers huh? What else is big?"

"Oh boy, I like how this sounds." Grinned the husky.

"I know." She giggled. She ran a paw down his stomach and felt his crotch playfully.

"Oh my god! What are you doing? You've...you've activated the launch sequence now!"

"Oh did I!" laughed the Shepherd. "Nobody's in this neck of the woods at this time..."

"Ohhh, ohhh, I see what you're saying." Mav chuckled. He slipped a paw down and undid his belt and fly, his pants opening up as he tugged at the elastic to his snug blue briefs. With a tug and a pull, he yanked out his floppy tan member, big and uncut, for Megan to marvel at.

"Oh wow~" she muttered. "Uncut too~"

"Mhmm~" smiled the husky.

Megan didn't say anything as she leaned in and took his soft cock into her muzzle. The wet warmth made the husky start to get hard as she sucked and licked on it.

"Oh wait, before you continue... You know anyone named Travis by chance?"

Megan pulled his cock out of her muzzle. "Hmm, no? Why?"

"Nevermind...it's all good." Laughed Maverick. "Come on! That dick ain't suckin' itself!"

Megan quickly went back to working on his chubby cock; it grew hard with each stroke of her muzzle as he got to his full eight inches. She bobbed her muzzle furiously up and down, sucking away and making some slurping sounds. Mav closed his eyes and let her work on his cock, the pleasure amazing. He thrust his hips slowly, working his cock deeper into her muzzle, which she effortlessly swallowed.

"Damn!" Mav muttered. "You got a muzzle that could suck start a turbojet!"

Megan looked up and slowly pulled her muzzle off. His cock glistened with spit. "I take it you like?" She smiled as her tongue slowly slithered out and licked his cockhead, sending shivers up his spine.

"Oh yes..."

"Maybe we could take it further?"

"I agree~"

---

Throwing his bedroom door open, Maverick ran into his room followed by Megan, as they laughed and giggled together. High on lust, Maverick and Megan made out with each other as they took their clothes off and threw them aside. They put them arms around each other, caressing each other's body, before it went to the bed.

"God, your abs are so fucking hot..." Megan gasped. She caressed his washboard abs and chiseled chest.

"Well that's what beating the shit outta your body at the gym does~" grinned Maverick with a confident laugh.

"I love it." She grinned in return. She caressed his body and kissed him passionately. Maverick put his arms around her and pulled her close as they kissed.

"So tell me...what do you want to do next, stud?"

"That's me, stud service~" chuckled Maverick.

"What turns you on?"

"My dick in your butt!" he laughed jokingly.

"Sure!"

Maverick went serious and blinked. "Really? Like, you'd let me put it in your butt?"

"Sure! Love that shit."

"Oh baby~"

Megan climbed off Maverick and got on all fours. She smiled at him while flipping her tail up. Maverick turned himself around on his bed and grinned as he crawled towards her. He pressed his nose up against her shaved pussy and deeply inhaled, his eyes practically rolling into his head. He buried his muzzle against her and began to lick away. Her moans turned him on more as he ate her pussy, his right paw keeping his cock rock hard.

"Right there! Right there!" Megan exclaimed. "Fuck!"

Maverick let out a deep, playful growl as he ate her pussy out. The vibrations pleasured her more as her body shuddered to his licks. He pulled his muzzle away and gave one last teasing lick. "I wanna warm up here... and then pound this right here." He pressed a finger right on her tight asshole.

"Oooh~ I like that."

"I agree~"

The husky reached over and rummaged around in the drawer on his nightstand. He pulled out his bottle of lube and a gold foil wrapped condom. He casually squirted some lube on her pussy and coated his own cock in a thin coating of silicone that glistened his cock. He fiddled around with the wrapper and pulled out a rolled up condom, which he rolled out onto his cock. He gripped the base of his dick and gave it a push, to adjust his foreskin under the latex. "Chafed foreskin is not fun~"

Adjusting his pose, the husky mounted the Shepherd, and aimed his cock for those tantalizing, moist lips. He rubbed his condom clad cockhead against her vulva, which she tried to back herself onto. He gripped her tail and pushed himself in. He let out a grunt as he was pleasured by her snugness and warmth.

"Nice~"

"You like?"

"Oh yeah~"

Starting off slow, Maverick warmed himself up with slow, deep thrusts. Megan cooed and murred along with each thrust as Maverick teased himself for what he really wanted. His mind fantasized about how tight her rump would be, and how good the release would feel. He kept his thrusts slow for the most part, except towards the end, when he gained some momentum and worked her pussy. Finally, he gripped the base and pulled himself out. He grabbed his lube and squirted some on her hole to slick it up. He took aim and pressed it in, his fingers guiding his shaft into her.

Megan moaned a bit louder; she was tight and her hole was opened up by Mav's girth. The husky moaned himself at how good it felt; his dick was rock hard. He desired anal for years. She eagerly swallowed every inch as he hilted himself in. He took just a moment to savor the sensation before he started to thrust. He started off slow again, but picked up speed more rapidly. He wanted to cum, and badly. He grabbed her hips and really worked himself, making Megan moan in the process.

"Oh Maverick! Oh god! Give it to me!"

"Oh fuck yeah!" the husky huffed. He breathed, fast and shallow, as his abs flexed to each thrust. His big, swaying balls began to tighten, the urge to cum growing with each rapid thrust. His breathing got even more shallow, with a quiver to each inhale as he felt himself get right to the edge. Letting out a deep moan, the husky slammed himself all the way in and let it rip as his cock erupted in cum. Pent up for months, his cock throbbed as it filled the tip up with his sticky, white, hotness. The husky panted and shuddered from the sheer pleasure.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Maverick reached down and gripped the base of his cock as he slowly slid it out. A smug smirk graced his face as he watched the tip slide out, the reservoir tip filled to the brim with cum.

"Oh baby did that feel good?" Megan asked.

Mav smiled at her and flicked the condom away. "I'd give your ass a ten~"

"Thanks~" she smiled.

"We should maybe do this again?"

"I agree."

Maverick opened his arms up and Megan crawled over to lay with him on the bed. They enjoyed the afterglow of sex as they cuddled and enjoyed each other's warmth. Maverick let out a content sigh of relief with a smile.

---

Stepping out the back door, Maverick walked with a happy swagger to his step. Looking like a million bucks, the husky carried a baggie filled with his rolls of exposed film. He was destined to head to his friend's camera shop downtown to get them developed. As he walked to his garage, he heard a honk of a truck horn, which immediately got his attention.

A brand new GMC truck pulled into his driveway, driven by none other than Travis Rocha. A red furred Brazilian Doberman, he parked his truck and jumped out to give Maverick a friendly grin. Maverick's face turned more serious as he stared at his "rival"; the guy who always bragged about fucking the girls he wanted to bang. He was a young twenty-five year old, noted for his tattoo sleeves.

"Broski!" Travis greeted. "What's up?"

"Travis~" Maverick stared. "What are you doing in Newark?"

The Doberman paused for a moment, but a cheeky smirk crept up on his face. "Umm...now do you really want me to tell you the truth?"

"No."

"...okay~" he quietly said with a grin. "But what I am noticing is that your whole yard looks like a warzone!"

"Well yeah, totally not like I had a new house set in place to replace one that burned! Weird~" Maverick quipped.

"I should totally landscape it for you, bro!"

"And what? You listen in on the next broad I wanna bang? So you can swoop in and steal some cooch?"

"No... but now that you mention it, that sounds pretty good!" Travis laughed. "Dude! Let's have a three-way!"

"No way!"

"It's not gay if your balls don't touch~" Travis pointed out teasingly. "Plus if you think you can get a girl to scream with your dick... imagine two!"

"No!" Maverick pointed with a sarcastic grimace.

"You're becoming like Rob, some dried up prude." Travis laughed. "Shit, man, I'm trying to get Rob to be my sugar daddy!"

"Good luck." Mav laughed as he shook his head. "But on the topic of landscaping? I wouldn't mind that."

"Ooh goodie!" Travis grinned. "I can send you some paperwork!"

"Sure~"

"And send me some nudes~ I need jerk off material, bro~"

Travis grinned at Maverick, who just gave him the stink eye.

"NOT SHIRLEY!" Maverick concluded.

Travis went on his way, and Maverick stepped into his garage, to come driving out in his East German Trabant. The light gray combloc automobile pulled onto the road and rumbled through Krebs Edition. Maverick sat with his head hitting the ceiling, a comical sight in the cramped little German car. It sputtered onto Euclid with its two-stroke motor hacking oily smoke. The little Trabant was Maverick's baby, and he always took it out for a spin after storing it for the winter.

The drive to downtown Newark was uneventful. Maverick always made note of the dystopian transition Newark gave the closer one went to the downtown. The nice homes of the north end, gradually grew older, and more decrepit the closer one got to downtown. The city trailer trash wandered about in drug fueled hazes for all to see. Maverick turned off Granville Street, and went to First Street, where he looped around the downtown and its four roundabouts. He pulled into a parking spot in front of the "Newark Camera Store", owned by his buddy, Xan Radabaugh, and cousin, Sergei Tokarev.

Maverick stepped inside his friend's camera store; it had an old time feel to it with the faded, original wood from the 1930's still present. The floor creaked a bit as he walked to the front counter. Emerging from the door that lead to the backroom was Xan, a black furred, Belgian wolf. He was Maverick's age, thirty-six, and sported long black hair that was tied into a ponytail that flowed down his back. He had brilliant green eyes like Maverick as well.

"Maverick! How's it going?" Xan greeted happily.

"Like a million bucks!"

"You look like you just got laid!" laughed Xan.

"I did!" the husky laughed with a shit eating grin.

"Oh you slick horny dog you~"

"Yeah, fucked this park ranger from Dawes Arboretum. Put it in her butt! Fucking hot~"

"Oh-ho-ho." Xan chuckled.

"She's fucking perfect~" chuckled Xan. "Got a pair of titties on her that'll make you get up and beg for buttermilk!"

Xan chuckled. "Sounds like you had quite a nice day so far."

"Yeah!" laughed the husky. "I also need film developed."

"Is this film adult rated?" the wolf teased with a cheeky grin.

"Nah. Just woodland." Chuckled the husky.

"Heh~" Xan shook his head and motioned for Maverick. "Come!"

Going into the back, Maverick met up with his cousin Sergei, who looked just like him, except for being shorter and having blue eyes. Sergei spoke with a Russian drawl. He worked the wet lab film developer as each roll was put through the machine and film processed. Once his couple rolls were completed, he and Xan went through the digital scans to marvel at them.

"Oh wow, look at that perfect grain." Xan muttered as he zoomed in on a picture, marveling at the color gradient of warmth and coolness. It was a long shot of the pond at the Japanese garden, with the fog warmly colored by the sun's warmth, mixed with the blueness of the fog in the shadows around the trees.

"That's a masterpiece. Just like me~!" laughed Maverick. "This is why I shoot Ektar- look at those colors."

"Indeed~" Sergei nodded.

"Best C-41 type film for outdoors." Xan added. "Ohh who's this?"

Maverick chuckled at a photo of Megan taking a photo of him with her Nikon F3. She was in perfect focus, while the forest around her was nicely blurred into the bokeh.

"That's Megan~"

"I see!"

"Xan, I think she might be the one."

"You think so?"

"She's very pleasant, great personality, and dude she's fucking crazy in bed, and I love it!" the husky laughed. "TIGHTEST FUCKING BUTTHOLE AROUND!"

"Heh, heh, I'll see it when I believe it. I know tight assholes when I see em~" grinned Xan with a laugh. "'Cause my dick's so big~"

"Pfft."

"Remember? We tried this contest before...you didn't win..."

"...Don't remind me..."

"There ya go~" laughed the wolf. "Ask CJ, my dick's a weapon of ass destruction."

"Interesting! I call mine the pleasure pole~"

"Ha!" Xan grinned. "I'll pleasure that pole!"

"Maybe if you were a girl... I'd pull your hair."

"Oh baby~ I love a stud talk dirty to me like that." Teased the black wolf.

"But alas, you're a guy and that's not my taste~" Mav shrugged.

"Ass is ass, just saying~" teased his cousin with a chuckle.

"I'll keep that mind for the apocalypse." Maverick pointed at Sergei.

Xan shook his head and laughed with Sergei.

---

Barev Video Systems was housed inside the former school bus depot on the corner of Church Street and Day Avenue. The inconspicuous looking maintenance building, clad in ochre yellow bricks, was the headquarters of the entire Barev empire, "United Barev Industries". It was the ill-suited, temporary home of Barev's broadcasting division, and the just as ill-suited home to Maverick's office.

The cramped office space of the bus depot was nothing more than cubby holes with a hallway that ran from the entrance. It made a ninety degree turn for the former maintenance garage, which had been converted into a VTR room and studio. The building had only recently come back into service again, after the roof had collapsed in the studio. In his cubby hole, Maverick shared the space with Marcus Barion, and Nico Timofeyevich. Marcus, a white and gray husky with yellow blonde hair, was the head director of BVS, while Nico was the aspiring publisher for Barev. Maverick shared the space that Rob usually sat at for his office. The big husky was still the "Interim Head of Barev", after Rob had been incapacitated following an aviation accident in January.

Flying at the seat of one's pants was Maverick's opinion about being the head man of Barev. He oversaw a growing empire of business divisions that employed a total of three thousand employees in three states. There was the Barev Electronics Factory, or "Barev One", which resided in Fairfax Virginia, a Centoh Intermodal hub in Lainsville New York, the Centoh Intermodal headquarters in Columbus, and the BVS division right in Newark. Maverick directly oversaw the eclectic departments through his "head directors" that oversaw the divisions. The husky powered through the seemingly endless e-mails feeding him information about everything from quotas, budget reports, all the way to fuel and oil consumption of the Centoh DC-6BF fleet. His Thinkpad's keyboard took a beating as Maverick typed out responses, and forwarded e-mails to and from the various departments. The telephone going off only added to his headache; he quickly finished typing an e-mail response one handed while he ripped the phone off the receiver.

"Maverick~"

"Hey Mav, it's Ryan, from Fairfax~" came the voice of his head director of Barev One, Ryan Bolton. He replaced Kevin Whirley at the electronics plant.

"Bolton! What's up?" Maverick responded into the phone.

"I got a major problem brewing here in Fairfax...this is a really critical problem."

"What's up." Maverick said in a more serious tone.

"Paul in quality control tested positive with coronavirus. He may have exposed anywhere between twenty to thirty-five people in the QC area, and we're trying to come up with contingency plans here."

Maverick sat up in his chair. "Oh, fuck."

"I don't have a contingency plan for anything pandemic related? The only thing about illness is just advise the person to go home? I don't have a contingency plan for this."

Maverick's jaw went a bit slack as he tried to come up with an answer. His mind rushed with panic; coronavirus seemed like such a distant threat, a disease from a foreign land that posed no threat to Barev. But now he had his "patient zero" within the Barev empire, and it threatened people's health. Maverick was all for a good time, and contingency plans were not his thing; he lacked Rob's ruthless pursuit to resolve problems, and his innovation under fire, "steely-eyed-missile-man" like status.

"This is just a situation nobody foreseen..."

"Yeah..." Maverick responded slowly.

"People are going to start getting sick, and I want something done pretty quickly, or I may lose my entire workforce to illness. I've been keeping tabs on Covid-19." Ryan explained in a cool tone.

Maverick had to think quick. "I want you to send the people who think they were exposed home, and inform the workplace and start disinfecting, immediately."

"Gotcha."

"I'll keep in touch."

"Thanks~"

Maverick had just put the phone down, when his cellphone vibrated from an incoming text. He checked his phone to find a text from Megan.

"Wanna go to a club and get a few drinks Friday?" she asked.

"Sure!" Maverick agreed. A smile crept up on his face, as he sent the text off. No sooner had his paw touched the screen to hit the send button, that he got an incoming call, from Jaska Saari, the head director of Centoh Intermodal.

"Maverick~"

"Jaska, I got a problem." Came a voice with a distinct Finnish drawl to it. "What are our contingency plans and procedures for a brewing pandemic?"

Maverick looked unsure and frozen as he sat. The walls felt as though they were closing around him. He quickly got up and grabbed a thick three inch binder, which read "Barev Emergency Procedures". He opened it up and quickly flipped through the tabs, to find no emergency procedures on disease outbreaks. He couldn't believe that Rob never conjured up such a scenario; he was anal and paranoid about everything, and he overlooked disease pandemics. A terrible oversight.

"Oh boy...Umm..." Maverick muttered. He felt so embarrassed by his demonstrated incompetency.

"A number of pilots are coming up to me concerned about flying into these areas with active infections, and I don't blame them. I need some feedback on what we're gonna do."

"Let me call you back on that, Jaska."

Maverick put his phone away. He looked a bit panicked; he closed the lid to his laptop and quickly unplugged it. It was thrown into his bag and the husky got up and rushed for the exit, which caught Nico and Marcus' attention.

"What's going on?" Marcus asked. Mav did not respond as he ran out the door for his truck.

---

Resting at home alone, Rob sat down for lunch. Dressed in his red and white pajamas, Rob looked sore and tired, the wolf-malamute's face torn up from his past tribulations. He was still recovering from having an aircraft propeller fall on him and break his hip and knees. He took a seat at his empty dinner table, to eat an egg salad sandwich with a Pepsi. He grasped the sandwich and was just about to take a bite, when the front door to his house flung open to Maverick rushing inside.

"Rob! Rob!" Maverick exclaimed. "I got a huge problem!" He was out of breath, exasperated. Rob slowly rose from his seat.

"Mav, what the fuck is going on?" Rob asked, confused.

"We have a major, brewing issue at Barev..." Maverick started off. "Paul in QC tested positive for Covid-Nineteen, exposed at least forty people, and Jaska is asking for contingency procedures to protect the flyers at Centoh."

"Uh oh..." Rob muttered.

"What do I do? What do we do?"

"I didn't think of this exigency to be honest." Rob admitted rather bluntly. "Well...send the people who may have been exposed home, begin disinfection, and I guess for the Centoh guys, maintain some kind of distance, or don't let them get off the plane during refueling and reloading."

"I honestly think this is going to get a lot worse..." Maverick pointed out as he took a seat opposite of Rob.

"Probably. Do you see the people in charge of this country? The rambling press interviews, the constant bullshit and fuckery from Washington? I have zero faith in our leaders pulling us out of his crisis. Corona is here, and all of Trumpsky's efforts to mitigate the damage is a day late, a dollar short. It's like closing the barn doors when all the cows have escaped!"

"Incompetent people in charge." Mav shook his head. "People are going to get sick at Barev if we don't do something..."

"We have to keep running, for budget's sake."

"Our workers lives depend on our actions now. I'm not wanting to play this gambit and have people get really sick or even die if we react too late." Maverick pointed out. "Look I understand budget, profits, all that good stuff. We're in business to make money...but what about them? They help us make the money."

Rob shook his head and rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Jesus Christ...and always at the worst possible time..."

"I want to put Barev One on a three week moratorium, to buy time and protect people."

"No way. That would kill us."

"I think it's the best option with the fewest question marks for safety, Rob." Maverick explained. He could tell in Rob's glare that his thoughts were unwanted.

Maverick leaned forward. "If we keep production going and people start getting sick, we're going to be fucked regardless. A sick workforce is an unproductive workforce. There's not much information about this virus, so far, and how to mitigate it because it's so new. It's more infectious, it has serious complications to those with health problems...that's about as much as I know...it's a risk that-"

"Fine." Rob cut in. "You are the interim head of this company, and I am going to trust you in making the right decision. If you feel that is the right thing to do, then I'm going to let you make the call, Mav."

The husky nodded.

"I'm not going to interfere since I am out of commission... and I need to honestly look at my own health as well..."

"You rest." Mav suggested.

"But let me remind you, Mav-O- leadership means you get all the credit, or all the blame." Rob pointed. It was a loaded comment, very thinly veiled.

Maverick took Rob's advice and rushed back to BVS, where he quickly devised a contingency plan with his team at the bus depot. He called over and got Saari and Bolton in a conference call, and gave them the rundown in what the plan was, and everyone came to an agreement. Barev One would shut down for three weeks, and be disinfected. Then they would reassess the situation. Centoh pilots would not leave the planes, and all aircraft would be properly disinfected at the beginning and end of the day. Any other changes in the situation would result in a reevaluation of contingencies.

Borrowing the studio for a bit, Maverick made a set for an educational program on handwriting, his backdrop for the company speech. Marcus took control of one of the studio's "Big Blue" TK-47A's, which he swiveled about to get into position.

"Let's keep this serious." Marcus suggested.

"If I get corona...I usually get lime with mine." Maverick pointed out with a laugh.

Marcus shook his head. "Serious!"

"Fine! Fine!" the husky exclaimed. "I'll just wing it."

"Good thing we got plenty of videotape."

Mav shook his head and laughed. He took a deep breath and regained his serious composure.

"Roll VTR." Marcus called into his headset. The husky worked the controls to the camera and got his shot lined up, just as the red tally light glowed. "Cameras rolling. Whenever you're ready."

Maverick sat on a chair with a chalkboard making up his backdrop. He looked right into the camera lens. "Hello everyone, this is a special message from the head administration of Barev. It has come to my attention that the novel coronavirus epidemic has hit right at home in the Barev neighborhood. A worker tested positive for the virus, and others may have been exposed. After careful consideration of this new exigency, and the desire for worker safety, I have made the decision with the other department leaders, to close the Barev Electronics Factory for three weeks, in an effort to stave off infections. Disinfection will begin immediately. Workers affected by this will continue to receive their base pay and benefits with no interruptions. Workers who have become ill, will continue to receive base pay, and no depletion of paid sick time will occur- it will be waived."

Maverick continued on the new policies for Centoh pilots, and talked a bit about the virus and its symptoms. Sick workers were to be sent home until better, and other department hours would change to help mitigate exposure risk. He concluded with a heartfelt message of support for all his workers."

"I'm Maverick Tokarev, your interim head of Barev, and be safe, always~"

Maverick had a smile creep onto his face. "God damnit, who the fuck drew a penis on the chalkboard?"

Marcus panned the camera over and focused in on the crudely drawn phallus on the board. "Wow... and that was in the shot too this whole time~"

Maverick burst out laughing. "This masterpiece speech of mine! I'll never be able to pull it off again! And there's a fucking dick! Right there! GOD DAMNIT! FUCK ME!"

The Nordic husky shook his head. "This is gonna be a long day~"

"Oh boy!"

---

Sunday morning in Coshocton was foggy, as the morning sun rose over the hills to the east. Maverick arrived into town in his pickup truck, to go visit Amy, who wasn't feeling well. Their plans to videotape the third episode of her cooking show got scrubbed after Amy had another flare-up of chronic pain from her burn injuries.

Amy lived in a rather boring apartment building, situated in the giant shadow of the abandoned paper plant's smoke stacks. Maverick parked his truck and made his way inside to have breakfast with his ex-wife. Her apartment was a single room unit; it felt cramped, but cozy on the inside. It was rather drab, and reminded him of their very first apartment, when they were just twenty years old.

Amy sat a bowl of oatmeal down for Maverick. It was colored pink by some spices she had put in for him. The wolfess looked exhausted as she finally took a seat for herself. Mav always knew when the pain returned; it haggard her appearance, her face was scrunched with discomfort, and her breathing took on a labored tone. It did not help that the pain medicine she was prescribed, made her sick to her stomach.

"It's not coronavirus~" Amy mustered a joke. "I promise you that."

"If you get corona, hope you get lime with it."

"Shut up."

"Okay~"

Amy slowly exhaled and took a long, slow sip of her mug of coffee. She smacked her lips together and slammed the mug down. "What a morning."

"I can tell."

"I didn't sleep well last night. Maybe just a few hours." Amy admitted with a frown. "Is what it is."

Maverick motioned with his eyes as he took a bite of his breakfast. "That's alright. I noticed the cameras had a serious underperformance issue when I was dicking around with them in my garage a few nights ago... so they need some overhaul done before we tape again."

"Good timing." Amy agreed.

"Heh, I guess." The husky chuckled.

"So I hear you got a girlfriend?" Amy asked curiously. A smile emerged on her tired face.

"Heh, yeah." Maverick admitted with an awkward laugh. "I guess we're boyfriend, girlfriend?"

"What the fuck is this- high school shit again?" laughed Amy. "Not sure or something?"

"Hey, I mean, we're fucking, soooo~" Maverick laughed. Amy laughed and shook her head in response.

"...her name's Megan Gallagher, and she's a park ranger at Dawes Arboretum." Maverick explained. "She's thirty-three, cute as a button German Shepherd, and man she's got the tightest fucking butthole alive!"

"Priorities." Laughed Amy with a roll of her blue eyes.

"I think she might be the one~ I think."

"Oh?" Amy raised a brow as she took another sip of coffee.

"I feel there's something special about her...didn't feel it with the last couple broads I banged~" Maverick nodded sarcastically. "She's really sweet, and has a great, dynamic personality."

"That's good." Amy smiled.

"And man can she fuck like there's no tomorrow! Man! It's like high school level crazy sex all over again!" laughed the husky. Even Amy couldn't help but laugh at Maverick's quip.

"...there's just one thing..."

"What's that?"

"So we went to the zoo yesterday with Robby, and we were there all day, and I am convinced we spent pretty much the entire fucking time in the reptile area looking at turtles. MOTHER. FUCKING. TURTLES. All day."

"That's...odd?" Amy tilted her head.

"She told me the entire evolutionary history of turtles, and pretty much everything I could have ever imagined about turtles. She tells me that they speak to her soul or something."

"Uhh." Amy hesitated.

"Oh well, fuck it. The sex is great." He chuckled. "We're hangin' and bangin' in a few days."

"Oh joy..."

"What about your girlfriend?" Maverick asked her. Amy looked up at Maverick and then looked away awkwardly.

"...well..." Amy started to say.

"Everything okay?"

Amy pursed her lips. "I don't understand why I'm so uncomfortable being with a woman? I am very much comfortable being bi, and you know that. Forget my parents' opinion, all that crap- I am content with my own bisexuality. But I'm just uncomfortable being with another woman, and I don't really understand the feelings I have? I mean, shit, I should know by now? I'm almost thirty-six."

"Eh, it's society's expectations of heteronormality that create these awkward feelings." Maverick explained. "Plus its fucking Coshocton."

"Yep." Amy agreed. "Definitely Coshocton. And Zanesville too, that's where Sandy's from."

"Oh boy~" Maverick chuckled. "Is she bi too?"

"Maverick, you're not getting a threesome with me and her, NO." Amy laughed.

"I wasn't going to say that! But now that you mention it..."

"Now you sound like Travis~"

"TRAVIS." Maverick glared.

Amy grabbed her phone and spun it around to reveal a photo of Sandy. She was a big bodied wolfess with a short crop of brown hair atop her head.

"Holy Moses, Amy, she's a heapin' woman! Does she change her engine blocks with her oil change?"

"HEY!" Amy laughed embarrassingly. "There's more than looks~ She's not bad but..."

"But what?"

Amy rolled her eyes and slowly inhaled and exhaled. "She's just...bossy."

"She looks like a bitch."

"Well...I mean...sometimes we argue over things, and it's just... I don't know how to explain it, Mav."

"...is everything okay?" Maverick said, his tone growing more serious.

"She wants to be the boss of everything, and I'm not going to just be some meek observer to this relationship. I have a life too~"

"Exactly."

"It's complicated."

"Everything's complicated these days." Maverick nodded in sympathy.

---

Maverick had a great evening with Megan. They had dinner at a fancy steak house, and then partied it up at a nightclub near downtown Columbus. Finally, their evening escapades went back to Megan's condo in Heath. It was a luxury condo in one of the new developments on the outskirts of town, closer to Hebron than Newark.

Stepping inside, Megan flipped on the lights and welcomed Maverick inside. The husky found her condo to be decent looking and well furnished. The walls were adorned with nature photography. Megan put her arms around the husky and gave him a deep kiss. They caressed each other as they made out in the living room. Megan pulled away grinning.

"Wow~ Tonight's been so much fun~"

"Gonna be even more fun." Grinned Maverick playfully. He had a smutty expression on his face.

"Ohh yeah..." she giggled. "Well...I gotta go get ready..."

"You take your time~ I'll be a-okay in bed. Waiting~" smirked Maverick. He crossed his arms and took his shirt off. Megan caressed his abs and chest playfully.

"Oh baby." She giggled some more.

"Yeah..." smirked Maverick as he pulled his pants down, revealing a snug, sexy, blue jockstrap. It left little to the imagination with its bulging outline in the fabric.

"Oh you hottie...you just wait."

"I will~"

Maverick watched as Megan slipped into the bathroom and closed the door. He turned to Megan's bedroom and opened it up, finding the room pitch black. He stepped inside and flipped the light on and suddenly stopped. His smug smirk of sexual lust immediately faded to a confused, gobsmacked expression.

Staring at him was a giant turtle photo hung up on the wall above the bed. The bed was adorned with two giant turtle shaped pillows, and even the blankets and sheets had turtles on them. His green eyes slowly tracked to the left to reveal another giant turtle poster hung up, with terrariums covering the dressers and bookshelves. They were filled with various turtle species. His eyes tracked to the right, finding even more bookshelves lined with terrariums. They centered up and looked down at a terrarium at the base of the bed, which had a couple pond turtles casually resting on a piece of wood. The husky's face grimaced in horror. He turned his head to the right again and took notice of a photo sitting on the bookshelf, nestled between two terrariums. He walked over to find it was a photo of a pond turtle, but his own head cut out and taped over its head. A grinning Maverick was now attached to a turtle's body in the photo. The husky's eyes went huge. He didn't even know what to say.

"Hey Mav! It'll be just a few more minutes!" called Megan from the bathroom. The husky gulped.

Quickly closing the bedroom door, Maverick panicked and looked around frantically for an escape. His heart pounded in his chest. His paws fidgeted. Seeing a door, he knew that it lead to a walk-in closet. It connected to another room. He recalled the random fact from doing a promo for the complex when it was built. Rushing to the closet door, Maverick opened it and jumped back in terror; he stared at a walk-in closet filled with even more terrariums! There had to have been hundreds of various turtles in their little tanks. His face twitched in disbelief, his jaw quivered. Just before he closed the door, he heard the bedroom door open.

Spinning around, Maverick suddenly stared at Megan, who grinned at him. He tilted his head in disbelief when he saw her suddenly dressed in a turtle costume. It was a cheap looking Halloween store costume. The husky stared at her with eyes as wide as saucer plates.

"You like? God you're so hot...let's fuck!" she exclaimed. She charged at him; Maverick jumped onto the bed to try and escape, only to slip and fall onto the floor. He got up and tried to make it for the door, only for Megan to laugh and grab him. She threw him onto the bed and tried to jump on him to make out, but the husky shoved her away and bolted for the door. Megan grabbed him again, and Maverick hit his head on the door frame. As she tried to spin him around, Maverick threw a punch and decked her in the face. Megan's head whipped back and she was knocked unconscious by the blow to the head. The German Shepherd went limp and fell to the floor. Maverick ran as fast as he could out the main door, in just his jockstrap.

Across town, back in Newark, Rob was settling down for the night. He sat at the dinner table with his houseguest Tony Alvarez, as they ate a late night snack of dried apricots. Rob sat glancing at a flight manual for the German Focke-Wulf 190 interceptor. He was helping Tony, a fawn furred Doberman, learn how to fly his warbird Fw-190F.

"So the canopy doesn't open in flight? What happens if you shit yourself and it smells really bad? You just wear your oxygen mask? ...asking for a friend."

Rob looked up at Tony and just shook his head at his usual joke filled quip. The Doberman grinned back at him with a shit-eating grin.

"Shit outta luck I guess~"

"Damn." Tony chuckled.

Rob was just about to fire off something sarcastic when he heard the front door just explode open. Rob got up to suddenly see Maverick come rushing inside, wearing only a jockstrap. The husky tripped over his own foot and faceplanted on the living room floor.

"What the fuck!?" Rob shouted.

"Yo Mav, what the fuck!?" Tony exclaimed. Their commotion got Joey, Felix, and Alvin to come running out to the living room.

Maverick quickly scrambled to his feet; he was nearly hyperventilating, his chest rising and falling heavily. His eyes were as wide and filled with just complete shock.

"Maverick? What are you doing in your skibbies?" Felix asked.

"That woman is a fucking psycho!" the husky shouted. "She...she attacked me?"

"Who?" Joey asked.

"MEGAN!" Maverick yelled. "She attacked me in a turtle costume!"

Everyone stared at him with bemused looks on their faces as he tried to frantically explain what happened. He stumbled over his own words. His mind was such a rush that it came out as a rambling mess of words.

"Bro are you drunk?" Tony asked sarcastically.

"NO!" Maverick yelled. "That woman is obsessed with fucking turtles, and she tried to force herself on me in a turtle costume! I'm calling the police! She like put my face on a turtle's body in a photo!"

"Okay, okay, calm down." Rob muttered. "Just calm down."

Joey returned with a robe for the husky to wear.

"Thanks~" he complimented.

"Nice~" smirked Tony. He pointed at Maverick's jockstrap. "I usually wear mine at the bar~"

Mav flipped him off in response. He covered his face in embarrassment.

---

"No, no! I'm not mad at you!" Maverick explained into his phone. "It's just...it made me realize some stuff, Megan."

"Yeah...I thought it would be funny...and well...I kinda got carried away."

"That's...kind of a really big understatement of the year don't you think?"

"Well I mean-"

"You have a serious problem, Megan. You have hundreds of reptiles in your room, caged up like little Mexican kids at the border. I get it you like animals, you like turtles, but that's not fair to them to keep them like some kind of knick-knack~ Plus doing that to me is just wrong. If I did that to you, I'd be arrested for attempted rape, but since the genders are reversed... Either way, it doesn't matter. I don't think it was meant to be- the sex was great, but you and me are not destined to be together, not even as friends. So I wish you the best for your life, your career at Dawes, and I hope you seek some professional mental health. Yeah, may god have mercy on your soul~ Bye!"

Maverick hung up on Megan and quickly blocked her number. The Russian husky breathed a huge sigh of relief. He turned to stare at Joey and Rob, who sat with Joey's parents in their kitchen for breakfast.

"Well that nightmare has come to a close!" Maverick exclaimed with a laugh.

"That's why you don't stick your dick into crazy, Mav!" exclaimed Andrew with a laugh. "Look what happened to me..." Andrew turned to stare at his wife.

"Oh, coming from you? Look what I got stuck with for forty-one years..." Marie glared back. "I wanna just pass out apology cards to everyone who has to deal with you!"

"My cards say wife for sale! Phone's not ringing!"

"Maverick I think you're going way too hot and intense on this dating game." Rob spoke up.

"Oh what do you know about relationships?" the husky teased with a sarcastic brush-off gesture.

"Here's some relationship advice!" Rob exclaimed as he got up.

"Oh boy, here we go~" Joey smiled at him as he worked to mix batter at the countertop.

"See this oatmeal cooking here? That's you~" Rob explained as he turned the heat all the way up.

"Whoa! Rob! That's too much heat!" Marie yelled.

"I know, right? What's gonna happen to it?"

"It's gonna get all burned up!"

"See?" Rob pointed. "You gotta cool it down a bit, to right here."

Rob turned the burner temperature down, which elected a sigh of relief from Marie.

"See, that's me and Joey right here. A nice steady, low flame...man...we could simmer on this for years!" Rob concluded with a chuckle.

Joey shook his head and chuckled. "Wow... Boys, he's all mine~"

"Did she have nice tits at least?" Andrew asked.

"ANDREW!" Marie shouted.

"They weren't bad. They weren't double-D's."

"Damnit!"

"But nice C-cups."

"Okay, that's not too bad."

"Whoa Dad, easy." Grinned Joey.

"You outta be more like me, Mav~" Rob quipped.

"What, homicidal?" Maverick responded with a grin that lit up his face. "ME LOVE YOU LONG TIME, ROB!"

Rob closed his eyes slowly and shook his head sarcastically. "Oh, Mav~"

Maverick sat back down at the table, as Marie handed him a bowl of oatmeal with some toast smeared with marmalade on it. The husky slowly took a bite of toast, followed by a spoonful of spiced up, hot oatmeal.

"I guess I want a girlfriend, so I can move on from what happened. So Robby can have a mom figure once again, so maybe it will stave off the damage from his own past..." Maverick spoke up. "Plus I have needs and wants that could be fulfilled."

"Understandable." Joey nodded. "But you can't rush things. Sometimes things happen when they do. When you least expect it, the right person will reveal themselves. That's what happened to me and Rob."

"One can hope." Maverick nodded.

"You might regret it, if you rush things." Marie added. She turned to just stare at her husband.

"One day at a time right?"

"Yep~" Rob agreed.

Maverick finished breakfast and got up to go grab his jacket. He needed to pick his son up from his brother's house; Robby had stayed the night with his cousin.

"Before you go!" Andrew motioned. He got Maverick's attention.

"I'm gonna tell you about my marriage now...but I'll need a blender..." Andrew quipped. He turned to stare at Marie again. The two aging Dobers stared annoyingly at each other. Maverick chuckled and zipped his jacket up before rushing out the side door.

Driving into the neighboring Jefferson Woods, Maverick picked his son up from his brother's house. Robby eagerly ran with his backpack and jumped into the rumbling truck for him.

"Hi Dad!"

"Hey Robby! How was your sleepover!"

"Fun!" the husky exclaimed. "How was your date with Megan?"

Maverick turned and momentarily looked away with a manic grin. "Well...it didn't go exactly to plan..."

"Oh. That's a bummer." Robby frowned.

"Yeahhhhh..." Maverick grimaced. "But it happens."

"Mhmm~" the tan and beige husky agreed. "I was wondering Dad... do you think I could ever have a pet turtle?"

Maverick looked away with a thousand yard stare. "Let me think about that..."

---

An early morning thunderstorm left Newark soaked. The pavement took on a sheen from the morning sun, which finally rose above the dark slate clouds in the east. Tires sloshed into the parking lot of the former bus depot. Maverick turned and parked his Silverado into his usual spot, which always required a three point turn to accomplish. He hopped out with his laptop bag bouncing to his side. He walked over and dropped the tailgate to his truck's capped long bed and pulled out a large camera suitcase that rolled. It housed his vintage TK-76C and U-Matic recorder gear.

Stepping inside, Maverick already knew there was a problem, by all the commotion going on in one area, and the strewn paperwork on the floor. The husky sat his gear down and ran over to find Charles, Marcus, and Nico, working with Borr, and Tabby over a busted out window. The high winds of the early spring storm had knocked out a window on the west side of their cubby hole; it had fallen and knocked over a workstation and a bunch of files and paperwork.

"Great..." Maverick shook his head. "More shit from this building."

"Yeah..." Marcus shook his head.

"Thankfully the glass didn't break- it looks like just the wind pushed it out of the frame?" Maverick muttered to the others as he picked it up. "I'll grab some caulk sealant and we'll fix it."

Turning around, Maverick hopped back into his truck and took off for Home Depot, on the north end of Newark. Mav stepped inside and the husky noticed an unusual uptick in customers for the morning hour. He took notice of a woman who rushed past, her shopping cart full of disinfectant spray and toilet paper. Mav fumbled his brow in confusion. He noticed other customers were doing the same.

Walking casually through the aisles, he stopped in the glues and adhesives area to go grab a tube of acrylic glue and a caulking gun.

"Morning! Can I help you with something?" came an associate. A gray and brown furred wolfess with a short bob-cut style hairdo of brunette hair. She wore an orange apron that had "Jennifer" written in the name area.

"Oh I think I got it under control." Chuckled Maverick. "But thank you!"

"Heh, you don't seem panic stricken like everyone else here..." Jennifer chuckled.

"Why would I be panic stricken?" Maverick asked with a whimsical smirk.

"People are hoarding all the damn toilet paper and Lysol because of coronavirus. Didn't you hear they're closing the schools down for an extended spring break?"

Maverick blinked a few times with a blank stare. "Uhh, what?"

"Yeah, the governor announced that all students are getting an extended spring break."

"Ohh boy."

"So everyone's freaking out and stockpiling. The past few days have been a virtual nightmare."

"Well there goes my dating ambitions." Maverick said out loud with a cynical laugh.

"Dating ambitions eh?" Jennifer smirked. "You uhh, seeing anyone?"

A smile crept up on Maverick's face. "Not really. Just got out of an...interesting...brief relationship."

"Ah~"

"Yeah, we'll go with that." He chuckled.

"Take it you're divorced too?"

"Yeah! Got divorced at thirty-one. Who'd-a thought?"

"Heh, I'm thirty-four, got divorced like two and a half years ago."

"Sucks don't it."

"Nah. It was overdue." Jennifer laughed. "Start fresh!"

"Get em fresh!" laughed Maverick. Jennifer laughed with him.

"You got a lively sense of humor." Jennifer chuckled.

"I try."

"Just curious...you seem like a hunky cute thing, why don't you get a drink or something with me sometime?"

"Well that sounds kinda fun~" Mav chuckled as he squeezed his tube of glue like a stress ball.

"I could use a little fun too after all the bullshit here."

"Indeed, I could use a drink or so. I kinda like corona... HA! Get it!" grinned the husky.

"You're so funny~" Jennifer laughed. "I bet you're loads of fun."

"Depends on the subject!" laughed Maverick. "I am many things, wrapped into one!"

"Wrapped eh? I kinda like my men unwrapped..." she winked.

Maverick jokingly gasped, just as he accidentally squeezed his glue tube too hard. The cap burst off and a bunch of white paste shot out, all over the aisle. "OH SHIT!"

Maverick and Jennifer laughed awkwardly about it.

"Oh lord! Sorry about that! Swear to god this hasn't happened in a long time!" laughed the husky.

Jennifer laughed as she went to go grab some cleaning supplies. Mav sat the busted tube aside and grabbed another as she returned with a sheet torn out of a notepad. "Gimme a call sometime." It had her number on it.

"Sure~" he smiled.

"And you better get some TP before it's gone."

"Yeah, that sounds important. Well we'll chat later!" smiled Maverick with a wave.

---

Two Weeks Later

Squeezing the spot where his muzzle bridge met between the eyes, Maverick sat with his face covered by a paw, which slowly massaged that spot. The husky grumbled something under his breath in Russian. All around him in his garage sat his three gray and beige Hitachi SK-110A's, completely disassembled, needing their pickup tubes changed out. The bright April sunshine shone in through the open garage door, but if offered no comfort to Mav. The sights and sounds of spring; the emerald green grass, the fresh, mild air, the clear skies, did nothing.

In the past two weeks, Maverick had faced a number of frustrating little incidents that were all accumulating into one giant headache for him. Coronavirus- Covid-19, wrecked havoc on Barev. He now oversaw a company that was nearly completely shutdown, with thousands out of work and still collecting a paycheck as promised. The big revenue generating electronics plant still shutdown; Mav had hoped to open it back up after a thorough disinfection campaign, but the state of Virginia stepped in and forced Barev One completely shut down for the rest of the month. Thirty workers caught the virus, and a dozen were hospitalized. The broadcasting division was basically shut down, and all that kept BVS alive was tape digitization services. Maverick had sent almost everyone home for their protection. Centoh was the only Barev division that was still generating some money, but it was severely constrained in operations by a combination of internal and external contingency procedures, a sluggish market demand for cargo, and the fact that Lainsville's Centoh hub was completely shutdown. Half the fleet sat parked at Columbus and Chicago, with just a skeleton crew left to generate revenue. All the while, the company was hemorrhaging money. He pondered why this all had to happen with him at the helm. "Why couldn't this have happened with Rob in charge?" On top of that, the schools were still shut down, and Maverick had to juggle his work exigencies, with his home exigencies tending to Robby. Maverick took a deep breath and looked up at his cameras. His green eyes were a bit bloodshot. The three torn down Hitachi's were reminder of the other massive malignancy, his new girlfriend, and her thirteen year old son.

Jennifer Webb was a department head at the Home Depot. From their chance meeting, they had gone out for a few drinks and hit it off perfectly. She was just like him; a single parent with a kid in the same age bracket. She got married young to her high school sweetheart, who ended up leaving her for another woman. He was smitten by her looks and similar background, and after a few more dates, and couple good fucks, decided to move it up to a relationship. But now, he could understand why her ex-husband left. Jennifer revealed herself to be a possessive, dominating, vindictive, narcissist. She was overbearing and wanted everything her way. She also revealed to be a rather lousy mom to her son, Josh Webb. He was a thirteen year old wolf with mottled gray fur and a tousled mop of brown hair covered up by a baseball cap. Her lack of parenting skills turned that benign looking teenager into a "tyrannical little shithead". Maverick found Josh to be self-absorbed, inconsiderate, rude. He was responsible for disabling all three of Mav's Hitachi's; during taping of Amy's cooking show, he decided it would be funny to run into the kitchen and shine a laser pointer into all three cameras. The sheer intensity of the laser burned into the camera's set of Saticons. It was an unmitigated, permanent burn. And instead of scolding and punishing Josh, Jennifer just laughed it off and said it was "just an accident". Josh was "just perfect". She was completely oblivious to it all. So now Maverick, on top of everything else going wrong, dealt with the process of changing out three sets of tubes, and recalibrating them again. He let out a slow exhaling sigh.

The sound of footsteps got his attention. Looking up from what he was doing, he saw Robby walk up, holding a busted baseball bat and torn mitt. The scrawny husky looked visibly upset. His own walk and pose had the look of seething rage.

"Robby?" Maverick asked. "What happened?"

"Josh happened!" Robby yelled. He threw the bat onto the pavement along with his mitt. "Josh broke my bat and mitt because he didn't get his way playing softball with everyone!"

Running up was Robby's best friend, Jeffrey O'Sullivan, and their older pals, sixteen year old Alvin Paulo and his friends, Jordan Fernando, and Spencer Eikemo. They all clambered to back up Robby, as Maverick tried to quiet everyone down.

"Alright! Alright!" Maverick called. "So Josh broke the bat?"

"Yeah." Robby nodded. "Dad, I can't take this anymore. Josh is a bully, and he's just making things so difficult for me... I don't know what to do, I'm going to snap or something, Dad. It's either me, or him."

Maverick took a slow, deep inhale, then exhaled slowly. "Robby, let me handle this." Looking past everyone, he saw Josh walking alone, making the turn off Karen Parkway and onto Leslie Drive. Maverick's eyes squinted a bit, his face grew cross. He walked by everyone and marched up to Josh.

"Okay, why did you break Robby's baseball bat?" Maverick asked in a serious tone.

"He wouldn't let me play!" Josh exclaimed. "It was my turn! And Robby wouldn't let me!"

"So you thought it was okay to just break the bat? The bat I bought him for his birthday?"

"Yeah~" Josh smirked.

"How would you like it if someone broke something of yours?"

"I'd be pretty angry~ I might fight over it."

"Don't you think Robby's upset?"

"Pfft. Screw that little shit." Josh laughed.

"HEY!" Maverick yelled. "You don't talk about my son like that!"

"He's not even your son! You just adopted him." Josh laughed. "And screw off, you're not my Dad!"

Maverick blinked and took a step back. His face twitched in rage at the teen's comments. Josh just walked by him and laughed. The other teens just stared and glared at him as he tried to pick a fight. The husky wanted to just smack that smirk off his face, but Josh wasn't his kid. He didn't want to be another Newark boyfriend, arrested for abuse. But it was so tempting. Mav felt his blood pressure rise, his heart pound from the sheer rage he contained.

---

From the kitchen window, Maverick watched as Jennifer pulled up in her bronze Toyota van. His eyes tracked the vehicle like a radar set. It's power steering pump strained in the turn as the van turned and parked in his driveway. Jennifer stepped out, dressed in a blouse and a pair of slacks. Maverick walked over and opened the door, right as she was about ready to knock on it.

Jennifer looked up to the blank gaze on Maverick's face.

"Well don't look so serious~" chuckled Jennifer as she stepped inside. Maverick closed the door behind her. She turned around to see his face grow more stern.

"Boy, you look all pissed off and grumpy." The wolfess teased. A smirk curled up on part of her muzzle.

Maverick didn't say anything as he walked over and picked up the two broken pieces of Robby's baseball bat. "Your son Josh did this today."

Jennifer's smirk faded to a blank stare as Maverick threw the two pieces of the wooden bat on the floor. It made a terrible crash.

"That was my son's birthday present, and your son broke it because he didn't have his way while playing softball." Maverick explained. "I notice a pattern with Josh- a pattern of impulsive poor decision making because he's never been shown limits."

Jennifer blinked a few times. "Uhh, excuse me?"

"You heard me very clear." Mav stared. "I've been up to my eyeballs all day working on the cameras that Josh disabled with a laser pointer!"

Jennifer started to laugh. "You're still going on about that? It was an accident!"

"Jen those are cameras that I use for my business!" Maverick shouted. "You're just treating this like a big ole joke!"

"You're overreacting!" Jennifer exclaimed. "My son is a good boy!"

"Oh yeah? Then why is he bullying my son? Why is he giving me lip when I rightfully confronted him over the busted bat and torn up mitten? Why does he think it's okay to run his mouth and say such terrible comments, like saying Robby isn't my real son because he's adopted?"

"Heh, I mean, it's true. He's not your real son."

"Family is not blood related."

"Okay? So he made a comment like that. It's just words."

"Your son's a piece of shit. A little Hitler."

The wolfess gasped. "How dare you say that!"

"Just words? Remember?"

"My son is a good boy! He's just dealing with some issues from the divorce!"

"Counseling, motherfucker! Ever heard of it!?" Maverick glared. "And that reminds me! Josh has a father, maybe you can dump his ass off there instead of just using me as your free babysitter or something!"

"Maybe I will!" Jennifer yelled back.

"Good! Jesus Christ, I can see why he dumped your ass."

Jennifer stared at Maverick with her muzzle agape. Her face turned red with rage at his blunt statement.

"Did I hit a nerve baby cakes?" Maverick glared. "Because you and your son have hit several of mine. And I think this is about over."

"There's no getting over me..." Jennifer pointed. "I'll let you know...I can fuck you up if I really wanted to."

"I don't hit women." Maverick stared back. "I'll make exceptions for a bitch~"

Jennifer turned, grabbed Josh, and stormed out of the house. Maverick watched her peel out of the driveway and speed away. The husky rubbed the spot between his eyes and took a moment to calm himself down. It was clear that his relationship, or what was left of it, was moribund at this point. He wanted to break up with her right then and now, but he felt it was best to think more clearly on it.

Turning around, Maverick walked to his son's bedroom. He knocked on the door and heard Robby's gentle sounding voice telling him to come inside. He opened the door to find the husky sitting on his bed and looking at his torn baseball mitt. He looked forlorn.

"Hey son~"

"Hey, Dad~"

"You doing okay?" Maverick asked as he walked over to sit down next to him. Maverick put his arm around him, with a gentle rub of his upper back.

"Yeah, I'm okay~" Robby nodded. He mustered a smile for his Dad.

"It's okay to be upset." Maverick assured.

"I don't like being upset." Robby admitted. "But I can't stand Josh. I'm tired of this, Dad."

"I know, Robby. I'm tired of it too."

"Oh?"

Maverick took a deep breath and recollected his thoughts. "I thought I could make this work, but it's clear that me and Jennifer are not meant to be. We're...too different in how we operate. Plus, Josh needs to go. I'm tired of him too."

"He's a nut. Out of control. Just a selfish hog. None of my friends like him either because all he wants to do is just brag about himself and pick fights over stupid stuff." Robby explained.

"After tomorrow, you're not going to have to deal with him again." Maverick promised.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I'm telling her tomorrow that this is going to come to a grinding halt. I'm breaking up with her."

"I'm sorry that it's going to end."

"No, Robby. Don't be sorry. It's inevitable." Maverick assured. "The past two weeks have been a living hell for you and me."

"I thought having no school would be cool. Could I have my classes back?" Robby awkwardly laughed.

"How come this couldn't have happened when I was in school?" Maverick exclaimed. He mustered a laugh. "Man, I was trying any means to bust out and have my own Ferris Bueller~ It would have been perfect! No responsibilities back in the day! Now when a disease pandemic finally happens, I'm in charge of a company that gets sodomized by it! What's the deal? It's crazy~"

Robby laughed with his Dad. Maverick pulled him close and gave him a hug. "Things will be okay Robby."

"Thanks Dad. Love ya~"

"Love ya too~"

---

Tuesday morning was bright and cheerful, with an already mild morning in the low sixties. Waving goodbye to his Dad, Robby hopped onto his bicycle and rode off down Karen Parkway. Jutting from his backpack his new baseball bat. It was his dad's bat that won him a championship game during his days playing baseball at Ohio State. He even had his Dad's former mitt to play softball with his friends. Robby rode by Rob's house a few houses down and watched as he was soon met up with Alvin Paulo and Spencer Eikemo. The black and rust Doberman and gray and white Nordic husky followed him on their bikes.

"Hey! New bat?" Spencer yelled over the wind noise.

"It's Dad's!" Robby called back.

"Oh cool!"

The trio rode to John Clem Elementary School, situated between Krebs Edition and Jefferson Woods. They met up with their friends Jordan Fernando, a sixteen year old brown wolf, and Jeffrey O'Sullivan, a white and beige twelve year old malamute. Everyone parked their bikes on the blacktop, and walked over to the field to play softball together.

"I can't believe Josh broke your baseball bat yesterday." Jeffrey said to Robby as they walked.

"Well...it's not gonna happen again." Robby promised. "I don't want to see Josh ever again."

"Pain in my ass is what he is." Jordan shook his head. "Me, me, me. That's all he does. Me, me, me."

"Make it look like an accident!" laughed Spencer.

"Heh, I might." Robby shook his head. "Dad said he's breaking up with Josh's Mom."

"Oh really?" everyone muttered.

"Oh I can't wait." Robby laughed. "No more Josh to screw me over."

"Just think, he could have been your brother!" Teased Alvin.

Robby turned to stare at the Doberman. "...over my dead body, Alvin!"

The group got into the field and played a few rounds of softball amongst themselves. They mused about the disease outbreak hitting Ohio, their own fears, and how they missed "some parts of school". They took turns hitting the ball and running across the field as they laughed and joked at each other. It was a clumsy game of inexperienced teenagers, as they laughed at their own inexperience.

Spencer threw an underhand shot at Robby, who smacked the ball at the wrong angle. Rather than flying away, it ricocheted off and landed not far away with a thud.

"Ball!" Alvin called.

"I guess I'm not my Dad." Robby awkwardly laughed.

"Oh no...look who's here..." Jordan groaned.

Turning around, Robby grew ashen faced as he saw none other than Josh Webb approaching. His Mom had dropped him off at his Dad's house, which was somewhere within Jefferson Woods. The laughter and jokes immediately stopped at Josh's arrival.

"What do you want?" Spencer glared.

"I'm here to play some ball!" grinned Josh arrogantly. "Come on! Lemme see the bat!"

"No." Robby glared.

"You still mad your precious bat got broken yesterday?" laughed Josh. "What a loser you are, Robby!"

"Shut up and get the hell outta here!" Jordan yelled. "You fucked everything up yesterday."

"Hey fuck off ya beaner!"

"'SCUSE ME!?" Jordan growled. He started to march towards Josh, only to be held back by Alvin and Jeffrey. Spencer quickly grabbed his phone and began to record the confrontation.

"No it's not worth it!" Jeffrey exclaimed. "Don't get in trouble over this turd!"

Josh snarled himself. "Hey fuck off spud nigger!"

"Okay, that's it!" snarled Jeffrey.

"Just go!" Alvin yelled and pointed. "Stop ruining everything for us!"

Robby grew visibly irate. "GO!" the scrawny husky yelled. "JUST GO AWAY!"

Josh turned and suddenly shoved Robby. He threw a punch and hit him across the face. Robby stumbled back from the blow across the face. Just as the others began to respond to the aggression, Robby's face grew twisted from rage he had held back. The husky swung his baseball bat and struck Josh in the side of the head. The impact whipped his head around; his whole body contorted and spun like a top, before he landed on the ground, face down, unconscious with a thud. Everyone suddenly grew quiet. A quick "oh shit" was muttered by Jordan.

"Oh my god Robby you killed him!" Jeffrey yelled.

Robby was without words as he realized what he had done. A moment later, Josh let out a moan and tried to get up, only to just collapse back. He rolled onto his side and sobbed. Robby took a slow, deep breath, and dropped the bat.

---

Screeching up to the curb, Maverick jumped out of his truck. He had rushed over to John Clem after getting the call from his son. Looking a bit frantic, he heard other vehicles arrive. Looking over his shoulder, he spotted Joey in his Shelby Cobra arriving. In the distance, he recognized Jennifer's van screeching up Jefferson Road. The husky rolled his eyes and let out a groan. Rushing over, he found Robby and his friends standing around looking melancholy. On the ground sat a bloodied Josh, who clutched the side of his bleeding head. His gray fur was soaked red in oxidizing blood from where he got whacked at.

"Robby hit me with a fucking baseball bat!" Josh screamed in a whiny voice. Maverick brushed him off and walked over to check on his son. Robby had a swollen up, black eye.

"He hit me first." Robby said. There was no emotion on his face. Maverick took the baseball bat from him.

"I called the police." Alvin spoke up.

"Good." Maverick nodded.

Jennifer came running up in a frenzy. Almost out of breath, she screamed at the sight of her son.

"Who did this!?" she screamed. "YOU. YOU DID IT!" she pointed right at Robby, who defiantly stared back.

"Robby hit me with a baseball bat Mom! It's his fault!" Josh cried out. He stumbled to his feet and clumsily walked over to his Mom, who grabbed and hugged him.

"I'm filing assault charges!" Jennifer screamed. "I'm getting your son!"

"Over my dead body." Maverick spoke up. He put himself in front of his son. "I don't feel sorry for you, or your son. You've been nothing but a pain in the fucking ass for the past two and a half weeks!"

Jennifer looked exasperated as she blinked a few times and tilted her head. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Mav glared. "Your son deserved it. He's been nothing but a tyrannical little Hitler this whole time, and just fucks everything up because you never held him accountable for anything. Just that cute little laugh it off kinda shit- oblivious to his fuckery. So no, I don't feel sorry for him at all. He deserved that hit to the side of the head. Maybe it'll knock some sense into him."

"I'm going to sue you for everything."

"Good luck~" Maverick pursed his lips. "Here's what I want you to do... I want you and your son to get in that van? And drive off and never come back. We're through. Done. I never want to see you again."

Jennifer's face was twisted in rage. She shoved her son away and rushed up to suddenly deck Maverick across the face. The unexpected sucker punch smacked the husky right in the nose, drawing blood. Maverick stumbled back and was caught by his son. Jennifer tried a second punch, but was stopped by Joey, who placed himself in front of his friend. The Brazilian Doberman revealed a 9mm pistol in his grip.

"ENOUGH!" Joey shouted. "Both of you!"

Maverick shook his head and touched his nose to notice blood on his fingers.

A police cruiser pulled up, and two cops showed up to assess the situation. They broke up Maverick and Jennifer, who took her son to the hospital for treatment of his obvious concussion. Maverick decided to file charges against Jennifer for punching him. The officer warned him that "you're probably going to get sued one way or another", to which Maverick brushed it off. He gave his information to the officer, grabbed his son, and went to go back home. The others dispersed and went on their way.

Going back home, Robby retreated to his room for a time, while Maverick worked in his mini office area in the living room, filling out a statement on a Barev letterhead. On his dual monitors, an open chat with his attorney was also ongoing as he alternated between writing a witness statement with a felt pen, and communicating with his attorney, Lisa Scheiddegger. The husky said nothing as he signed his name at the bottom of the letterhead. He capped and sat his pen down and rubbed his nose, which still hurt.

Robby stepped out of his room and slowly walked down the hallway to the living room. He spotted his Dad at work, typing away, with the distinct "clickity-clack" of his mechanical Model M.

"Hey Dad~" Robby spoke up. It got his attention.

"Hey Robby, how are you feeling?" Maverick asked. He sounded calm again.

"I'm okay." The husky mustered a smile. "My face hurts!"

"Small world!" laughed Maverick. He took a pause from his communication with his attorney to pay attention to his son.

"I'm sorry Jennifer punched you..." Robby said in a quiet tone. "I shouldn't have hit Josh."

"I think you had every right to." Maverick admitted. "I'm not upset at you for that. I'm not upset at anything you did today. You protected yourself. He had it coming."

"I probably could have killed him with that baseball bat... scary." Robby cringed.

"Yeah...you could have. I know Rob's shown me how to do it...but we only need one homicidal sociopath named Rob in this world! Ha!" Maverick laughed with a grin emerging. "Don't worry about what's to come. I'll take care of it."

"Are you sure, Dad?"

"Of course~" Maverick nodded. "I don't want you to worry about it. And it's my fault basically... I'm the one who dated his mom."

"But you couldn't have known from the start."

"That's the sad part. When you start dating... don't stick your- I mean, just don't take things too serious too fast. And always be on the lookout for things because people can change the colors. People are like chameleons in the dating game- they change their colors to suit their agenda. It's a shame really."

"Mhmm." Robby nodded.

Maverick got up and hugged his son tightly. "This dating game is kicking my rear end. I have needs and wants, but I just don't know how to go about it."

"One day at a time, Dad~" Roby smiled as he hugged his Dad. "Love ya Dad~"

"Love ya too, son."

---

One Week Later

"Good morning from Barev studios, in Newark Ohio! This is Mav Tokarev, your interim head of United Barev Industries!" greeted Maverick on camera. He stared at the big lens of the TK-47A, in the BVS studio at the bus depot. He brought good news for the weekly company update, the first in over a month and a half. Maverick spoke enthusiastically about Barev being finally able to slowly open up, as the quarantines in the states the company operated in, began to lift slowly. Barev One would slowly reopen with just a skeleton crew, to test the waters, and the maintenance departments at the various Centoh hubs would also open back up slowly. Only Lainsville remained off limits due to New York's extensive virus epidemic. While the company posted losses, the government's stimulus package for the economy would help mitigate some of the damage. He concluded with "good luck and be safe out there" for the employees he oversaw.

"And we're clear." Called Ryan McDowd from behind the "Big Blue" camera.

"Good." Maverick breathed a sigh of relief. He got up from his chair and quickly exited the studio to go back to his office space. He had once again been flying at the seat of his pants to get Barev back up and running. Going back to his desk, he worked on both his workstation and laptop, keeping up with e-mails and all the documents that were coming and going before him. He granted his yeas and nays to the various information flowing in and out of his computers. As he typed, he heard his phone's ring tone bleep for an incoming text. He used it as a perfect opportunity to take a break from his work.

Checking his phone, Maverick found a message from a gal he was chatting to. She was his age, divorced, with no kids. She was asking just to confirm that they were going to meet up at seven in the evening, which he responded with a "yes" to confirm. It was the perfect opportunity to "celebrate" things beginning to open back up after going through a precarious situation. But yet, he didn't look enthusiastic about his plans to go on another date. Mav was going into it with deflated optimism, as he still reeled from his last girlfriend, a term he cringed to think about. True enough to her threat, Maverick was informed earlier in the week that he was being sued by Jennifer Webb for "damages", a vague term. His police report got her charged with battery, a misdemeanor. Unintentionally, Maverick also got child protection services involved, as the police officers sent to her home, suspected child abuse. So now she was suing him for monetary compensation, for her legal woes, and for her son's medical expenses, as Robby had given him a severe concussion. She wanted half a million dollars. Maverick didn't sweat it too much; his attorney foreshadowed that it would be dismissed as frivolous. But it made him start to doubt his own dating game at thirty-six. Tonight felt more like a "munch n' fuck".

He shook the doubt from his mind and went back to work.

---

The skyline of Columbus took on an amber glow, as the evening sun glistened off office windows. On the west side of Columbus, Maverick ate dinner with his date at Dave and Busters, the sports bar and arcade. He sat across from Cindy Sullivan, a malamute who had dark gray and white fur. She had dark brown hair that was combed straight and flowed down the sides of her head like a waterfall. Icy blue eyes looked at Maverick. She was dressed for spring in a short sleeve shirt, which revealed a half sleeve covering part of her left arm. Maverick had met her on a dating website he was part of.

"So what do you do for a living, Cindy?"

"Well I work at Huntington downtown. Well...still at home because of all the crap going on." She chuckled a bit.

"Yeah...it's a very cautious opening..." Maverick admitted. He glanced around at the almost empty Dave and Busters. It was quiet and felt a bit strange. "I guess people are heeding the social distancing pretty well."

"Heh, scary shit."

"Indeed." Maverick nodded. "I'm pretty good at my social distancing... social distancing my dick into that pussay!"

Cindy laughed at his raunchy remark. "That's pretty funny."

"I've been working on my Covid-19 pickup lines." Maverick pointed out jokingly. "Is that toilet paper in your pocket? Or are you just happy to see me!"

Cindy chuckled and grinned a bit as Maverick took a bite of his food.

"So you're in the same boat huh? Thirty-six, divorced, and single?"

"Yep." Maverick nodded. "Divorced at thirty-one. At least I have my kid, trying to get back into the game you know?"

Cindy mustered a smile. "You know, Mav, I want to be upfront with you."

Maverick stopped mid-chew and slowly swallowed. "Upfront about what?"

"I know this is a 'date' because we're doing dinner and chatting...but...I'm not really wanting a relationship. I just want to get off tonight."

Maverick stared blankly. The husky knew what was coming.

"I think you're a stud. I think you're beautiful, and you have a beautiful body... hung like a horse." She explained, the last part taking on a quiet tone. "But I know exactly the type of guy you are... I call you guys, automatic lovers."

"Automatic lovers, huh."

"Yeah."

"Care to explain?"

"I can tell you were the guy who had it good for a long time. Life was smooth as silk, perfect, and living the American dream with your wife, kid, and house with the picket fence in the front. That was me too. I was the good Christian girl who waited to lose her virginity when I got married at twenty-seven. Then the good man I was with decided I wasn't good enough and dumped my ass for some young bimbo. Woke me the fuck up is what it did. I had it good then I didn't. But you guys want to jump back into that- you miss that connection, that bond, that normality you got used to. I don't anymore. I just want to get off."

Maverick nodded slowly. "Why would you be on a dating website if you just wanted to... you know what, it doesn't even matter." He reached into his pocket, grabbed his wallet and threw two fifties on the table. He got up, turned, and left. He walked back a few seconds later and grabbed the milkshake he had left behind. Cindy stared and watched him leave, before casually continuing on with dinner and searching on her phone.

Maverick left, got into his truck and took off for I-70. He drove a bit on the interstate, then took the off ramp to Mound Street, in the middle of the Hilltop, to drive to Dodge Park, on the Scioto. The husky parked his truck and hopped out to walk on the sidewalk that followed the wide river. He took a seat at a bench to see the sparkling buildings of downtown Columbus.

Looking disgruntled, Maverick sat and sipped on his melting milkshake in silence. It was a waste of time, and he knew it. He dwelled on his looming litigation, on top of the horrific feeling of being snubbed like that. "Automatic lover... what a fucking joke." He muttered to himself before taking another sip of his milkshake. The big husky sat alone on the bench watching the sun's reflection fade away as it set behind him. He was gradually cast into shadow as night slowly fell on Columbus. Getting up, he slowly walked back to his truck, feeling his whole evening was a waste. Under the glow of streetlights, he made his way back and checked the time on his phone.

Mav climbed into his truck and sat in the desolate looking lot for a bit. He didn't want to return home just yet. He didn't want to go back to Newark, where all his troubles loomed at. His job headaches as the leader of Barev, his looming legal problems with Jennifer, the embarrassment of telling friends and family that another date became a dud. At least it wasn't as bad as explaining "turtlegate", after his fiasco with Megan Gallagher. He thought about that whole faux pas; his mind remembered the photo of his head stitched onto a turtle's body, and he envisioned himself as a turtle. He caught a glimpse of his own reflection in his tow mirror and he jumped back from being startled at such a graphic thought.

"I think I'm going to go grab a drink..."

The nightclub he went to with that psycho Megan was fun, and he knew it had just reopened after a long hiatus due to coronavirus. He grabbed his phone and texted a few of his friends, just to let him know of his plans. He tossed the phone aside and started his truck up and left through the darkened streets.

---

Everything was a garble to Maverick, everything sounded like it was underwater. The husky faded in and out of consciousness. His vision was blurry as he was blinded by the morning sun, which made zero sense to him. He could hear the sound of machinery, the distinct rumble of a freight train. It would come in clear, then get muddled sounding. He had a terrible headache, that's for sure. It felt like someone driving an ice pick through his forehead. Everything momentarily went back to black to the husky, as he felt someone nudging him.

"Eh buddy, eh buddy, you okay?" he could hear someone say as they nudged him. It had a weird drawl to it, like a Chicago accent.

"He's breathing at least..."

Maverick opened his eyes to see a police officer staring at him, a burly looking Rottweiler. A Dalmatian paramedic also was just within view. The officer wore a blue uniform with a hat that bore a checkerboard design on it.

"Eh, buddy? What the hell were you doing in a coal car?"

Maverick's eyes opened up all the way, and he slowly lifted his head up. He was wearing just a pair of purple underwear, and he was completely covered head to toe in black soot. He turned his head to notice that he was at a rail yard for freight trains. He didn't recognize anything. He had no memory of anything that had happened; the last thing his mind recalled was accepting a drink from a woman at the nightclub who had hair dyed electric blue. The husky glanced at his arms and then up at the officer.

"Oh my god, I'm African-American."

"No sir, you're covered in soot."

"Oh."

"Where the fuck am I at?"

"Chicago."

Maverick jumped to his feet with huge eyes. He glanced around at all the rail cars, the officer, and the three paramedics and their waiting ambulance. There were other rail workers who watched in the distance. He turned his head the other way to see the big skyline of Chicago. He was definitely not in Ohio anymore, and he had no understanding of how and why he got to Illinois. He took it all in and then suddenly fainted. The officer caught him and laid him back onto the concrete ground.

"I didn't leave my house with purple underwear... oh my god...what the fuck happened?"

"I'd like to know too." The officer stated.

"One minute I'm partying it up, and now I'm in another state~"

"How 'bout we get'cha to the hospital. I think you're suffering still from the effects of a date-rape drug."

"Well my butt's not sore, so I guess there's that."

"Let's get you to the hospital." Chuckled the Rottweiler as he helped Maverick get up and get placed on a stretcher. He was loaded up into the ambulance and taken into the city.

---

Five hours later, Maverick found himself at Chicago's Midway airport. At the cafeteria, Maverick sat alone at a table, eating a slice of deep dish pizza. He was dressed in a corny "I <3 Chicago" t-shirt, and a pair of Chicago Cub's gym shorts. A new Chicago Cub's baseball cap adorned the top of his head. He was waiting for the notification from Rob that they had arrived at the airport. He took the time to sit and reflect.

He had come to discover that workers had found him partially buried in a coal car that had come in from Ohio. How and when he got into that coal car, nobody knew. All he remembered was a gal who had dyed blue hair, who gave him a drink at the bar, and everything got murky and went to black. It was another embarrassing fiasco to add to his track record. He had to be treated to his drug exposure, and the hospital folks were nice enough to give him some new clothes and Chicago memorabilia to bring back home to him in Newark.

"Excuse me, Maverick Tokarev?" came an airport employee.

"That's me~"

"Your plane has arrived from Ohio. If you want to follow me." The wolfess motioned.

Maverick got up, threw his trash away and walked with her across the airport terminal. He was waived through security and taken through a door to the tarmac, where he saw "Attica" waiting with all four engines turning. "Attica" was a DC-6B, an old propliner that served Barev's transportation needs. Rob had made it imperative that Barev provide its own transportation services for its workers. The Cloudmaster was properly adorned in Barev's logo, complete with the acronym "We're Here In Newark!"- WHIN on the nose as the golden "WHIN Arrow". Propellers glistened in the sunlight as Maverick was taken to the rear of the plane to board via an airstair from Southwest. He was welcomed inside by Rob, in a rare departure from his home amid the pandemic.

Stepping into the rear of the plane, Maverick glanced around at the rear lounge area. He spotted his parents, Tatiana and Alexei Tokarev, and his three older brothers, Kalash, Vlad, and Dmitry. Rob and his husband Joey stood around near the bulkhead, and his son Robby sat in a reclining chair, playing with his iPad. The young husky glanced up, saw his Dad, and excitedly jumped out of his seat to rush over and give him a tight hug.

"Dad! You're safe!" Robby exclaimed.

Maverick gave him an assuring hug in return. "It was quite a ride."

The hatch was sealed and ground crew backed the airstair away. "Attica" was turned around by her captain, Jordan Hoover, and the old Cloudmaster began taxiing for the runway. Following a hold for a Southwest 737 to lift off Midway's runway, the DC-6 turned and commanded maximum power from her four R-2800's. Propellers roared down the runway as Jordan and his boyfriend Ivo Horvat got the Cloudmaster into the air. Chicago slowly slipped from view as the propliner turned around and headed eastbound for Ohio.

Maverick sat with his parents. His big frame dwarfed his aging parents, who asked him a barrage of questions over what happened. Maverick didn't even have an answer to give them.

"Didn't I tell you this was going to happen..." Rob pointed out with a raised brow.

"You said Pittsburgh."

"DOES IT MATTER IF ITS PITTSBURGH OR CHICAGO!?" Rob scolded him.

"Either way it does kinda suck!" Maverick exclaimed. He threw his arms up in frustration. "How was I supposed to know?"

"Don't you know not to accept a drink that you didn't see get made yourself?" Vlad spoke up.

"I guess it was the heat of the moment! A lapse of judgment?"

"Hey you coulda been one of those trafficking victims! They'd put you in the freak show at a circus!" laughed Kalash.

"Yeah, laugh it all up. They'd take you along and make you my little yard gnome sidekick~" Maverick glared. Kalash stopped laughing.

"Geesh, and I thought I was stupid." Laughed Dmitry. He looked around the cabin and stopped laughing when everyone just blankly stared at him.

"We know, Dmitry." Vlad rolled his eyes.

"You know what? You guys can laugh all you want. Make your silly jokes at Maverick's latest screw up, but that's it. I'm done."

"What do you mean, you're done?" Joey asked curiously.

"I'm done trying to find somebody. I'm done dating, I'm done with trying to get laid, I'm finished. Finito. Nyet, nyet, nyet!" Maverick scoffed. He looked visibly upset over the whole situation.

"I know it's not easy finding someone, Maverick...but you got a lot going in your favor!" Tatiana spoke up with a smile. "You're a very kind, handsome, considerate person, very intelligent and-"

"Just stop it, Mom." Maverick interrupted. "Just please stop it."

"Then what is it then!?" Tatiana exclaimed. "Why can't you find someone like your brothers!? You're thirty-six years old! There's gotta be someone out there for you!"

"You wanna know why, Mom?" Maverick responded. He threw himself up and glanced at everyone in the cabin. "I can't seem to find anyone because everyone sees right through me that I'm a big fucking loser!" He looked around at everyone, who gazed in silence. "Yeah! I said it! I wish I knew I had Autism like twenty years prior, and not at thirty-one. Maybe I wouldn't have fucked everything up with me just being me. I had one gal who loved me, and that was Amy. She was an anomaly. And I fucked that up by taking all of it for granted. One joke too many, and bam, gone. Now I get to relive my teenage years when I screwed up all my dates by just being me. Having endowment, abs and muscles, don't get you very far when people see through it to find me just a big ole' nerd playing with vacuum tubes with my best friend. Only Rob seems to understand me, Mom. I'm just...afloat with everyone else. I just float around, I don't have anyone other than Rob who anchors me down, keeps me in check. And every time I've tried to find someone, it only hurts the person who matters most to me, Robby."

His son sat looking up at his Dad with sympathetic eyes.

Maverick sat back down to have his mom hug him tightly.

"It's time that I just accept that nobody wants a big clumsy, gargantuan like me. There is nobody destined for me like what I had with Amy. And the sooner I accept that, the less its gonna hurt." Maverick concluded. He looked at his mom with sad, green eyes. Tatiana frowned, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

The big husky got up and started to walk for the private quarters in the aft tail section. As he walked past, a rumble of turbulence knocked him to the floor. He crawled on the floor into the room and slammed the door shut to the faux wood bulkhead.

"Oh, no, Maverick come here..." Tatiana pleaded.

"Come on Mav~" Kalash and Vlad muttered.

"Son!" Alexei called.

"Hey man." Rob called out.

"Brother!" Dmitry pleaded, to no avail.

Rob got up from his seat slowly and walked by everyone. "Let me talk to him."

Rob opened the door to find Maverick sitting alone in his personal office in the back of the plane. The engine's "radial song" was much quieter in the isolated rear of the plane. Maverick sat on a small couch by the double window, watching the clouds pass by the DC-6. He looked emotionally wore out with his face pressed to the glass.

"Hey~" Rob greeted in a calm tone. "Can we talk, buddy?" Rob closed the bulkhead door.

"Sure."

Rob walked over and slowly sat down on the couch beside him. Rob mustered a smile and smacked Maverick's knee in a friendly gesture. "You doing okay?"

"Eh, not really, to be honest."

"It's okay to be embarrassed." Rob acknowledged.

"It's not that, Rob. It's the fact that I can't find anyone. What is it that I do that just attracts crazy people? This is teenage me all over again. Girl after girl- I can get them, but they never last. This was me when I was thirteen, all the way through being seventeen. They all say after a while I'm just emotionally wooden, or an asshole. Sometimes both! I'm aloof, I'm a jokester, I'm obsessed with my hobbies. It all comes from having Autism, and you know that oh too well too."

"Yep."

"...I can't keep going through girl after girl and just hurting my son with a revolving door of psychos like Megan the crazy turtle lady, or Jennifer that stupid cunt! I need to accept that I'm just not meant for anyone."

"Maverick, I think you're beating yourself up too much here." Rob reasoned.

"What else can I do? What other reason as to why I can't seem to find a decent girlfriend? Why can't I find someone like Amy? She wasn't anyone who was particularly exotic, one off?"

"People are strange, and you know it."

"I know..." Maverick pursed his lips. "I blew it with her. She was the one. From the first date we ever went on, I knew she was special. She was just...her! There wasn't anything fake, or phony about Amy! She was just herself, and I loved it! Then I blew it because I didn't take our marriage seriously, and didn't realize it was in trouble until everything blew up in my face."

"It wasn't your fault."

"Then why does it sometimes feel like it's my fault?"

"Because you still love Amy." Rob bluntly stated. Maverick grew silent and sat back on his side of the couch, looking at Rob.

"I think that's where your problem all lies in, Mav-O." Rob shrugged. "You were blindsided by everything that happened, and when you wanted to get back into the game, you can't let go of that smoldering ember in your heart. You don't want to replace what you had, and you're going after the easy targets, the people who are the bottom of the barrel. The freaks, the meeks, the psychos. Deep down inside, your heart still loves Amy, and I can clearly see it when I see you two together on that cooking show. It's like you two were still married when I watch those tapes play back. It's genuine, Maverick."

The husky looked away from his friend and had an introspective gaze. He looked at the floor and sighed. "I love Amy, and I couldn't keep going and hating her after our divorce. That's why I became friends with her. But I think the damage has been done between us. That kind of intensity requires trust, and I don't know if we still have it?"

"Talk to her Mav. Tell her how you feel. If this is how you feel buddy, tell her about it. You might be surprised." Rob suggested. "I think deep down, she's still hurting too."

Maverick smacked his paws on his knees and nodded in agreement.

---

Grabbing his steaming mug from the Keurig, Maverick walked through his kitchen and took a slow sip of freshly brewed coffee. He felt relived to be back home. Walking up to the window, he watched as Robby played with his best friend Jeffrey in the side yard. The young husky and malamute piloted a small gyrocopter around, laughing and chasing after it. It brought a reserved smile to the big husky as he slowly sipped his coffee to calm his nerves. It had been a rather bad day for him after his whole fiasco. He glanced up at the clock, which struck four-thirty in the afternoon. The shadows began to be cast long outside.

Just as he was about to turn and walk back to the table, Maverick spotted a silver Impala come pulling into his driveway rather quickly. It was Amy's car, and her unexpected arrival took him by surprise. He sat his mug down on the island and walked to the back door to step outside into the mild afternoon sun.

Amy got out of her car with her face covered up by a baseball cap pulled low over her face.

"Amy?" Maverick asked.

"Come inside." Amy said in a gruff tone. She rushed past him, through the back door. Maverick rushed in behind her.

Amy pushed by him, closed the door and spun around. She lifted her hat to reveal a noticeable scrape on her face, as if someone had hit her. Maverick tilted his head and immediately looked concerned.

"Amy...what happened?"

"Sandy is what happened." Amy pointed. "She fucking hit me in an argument."

"Oh hell no." Maverick shook his head.

"I just got home from work... I'm exhausted, not feeling good, and she just comes barging on in! And I've told her before about how I felt about that. Well it started an argument and she hit me. Tried to apologize... I don't know what to do. I can't keep doing this. I'm not comfortable anymore."

"I'm calling the police." Maverick muttered. He walked over to grab the phone on the counter, only for Amy to just abruptly stop him.

"NO! NO!" Amy shouted. "That's the last thing that I need."

"She hurt you."

"My parents don't need to know about this and-"

"You are thirty-five fucking years old Amy. You're turning thirty-six in like a few weeks...fuck your parents! You're a grown ass adult!"

"It's going to make my life an even bigger living hell." Amy groaned. She smacked her paws on the counter and braced herself to catch her breath. "The more stressed I get, the more chronic pain that flares up."

"Come on, have a seat here." Maverick offered. He helped her to a chair as he pulled up a seat.

"I can't keep doing this." Amy shook her head. "I thought I could make it work, I thought maybe something could happen...but no. It's become one sided."

Maverick nodded. "It's time to cut the cord. Pull the plug."

"I'm terrified." Amy admitted.

"Then it's time to go if your girlfriend makes you feel like that." Maverick nodded.

"Yeah." She agreed.

There was a long period of silence at the table, as Maverick and Amy sat opposite of each other.

"I've had no luck after you." Amy quietly said in a low voice. "After we broke up... it's been just a slippery slope of nothing."

"Tell me about it." Maverick cynically agreed. "I'm giving up, because I can't keep doing this."

"Giving up, Mav?"

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I'm tired of the flippant women who get dragged into my life. Sex is one thing, but that's mechanical. There's much more to a relationship than just sex...and... I don't get it with anyone."

"At least you're getting some..." Amy rolled her eyes. "That's where I've been really unlucky. I get the guys who don't wanna touch a foreigner, and the creepy guys who want it, and I'm not that desperate enough."

"Sucks don't it?"

"Yep. Could I get a cup of what you're having?"

Maverick nodded and got up to grab a mug and a K-cup. "Hope you like Dunkin' Donuts."

"Ooh, I'll take that."

Maverick stood and watched it percolate into the mug, which he grabbed and took back for Amy. He gave her his sugar and creamer, which she mixed in. The wolfess took a long, slow swig of it and smacked her lips at the end. "God, that helps calm ragged nerves."

"My nerves are a bit ragged as well."

"I heard you had a bit of a trip..."

"An understatement!" Maverick exclaimed. He mustered a bewildered smile. "One minute I'm dancing to some acid house, dub step, whatever the fuck it is, and the next minute a cop in Chicago is prodding me awake at a rail marshalling yard. Like, what the fuck?"

"Wow."

"People are so stupid, I'm tired of it."

"Understandable."

"Tanya, Gabby, Megan, Jennifer, this broad named Cindy who I didn't even finish dinner with... a train wreck in the making. Now I'm all sexually frustrated slash disappointed."

"Heh, you're telling me." Amy muttered as she took another drink of her coffee. "Oh fuck it, Mav. I want you to help me get the fuck off."

The husky about spat his drink out. "You want me to fuck you?"

"Yeah. You're a pretty good chap at that, right?"

"Well I have some experience." He sarcastically responded.

"I don't care how awkward it is- former lovers or not. I need to take my mind off that bitch from Zanesville."

"Fine. Under one condition."

"What would that be?"

"You're breaking up with her tomorrow." Maverick pointed. "I'll be there to back you up. No one's gonna hit you."

Amy looked away for a moment to think. "Okay, fine."

Maverick finished his coffee and got up with Amy, to show her to his room.

---

Finding himself slowly pacing his room, Maverick walked in an ovular circle by his bed. Wearing just a tanktop and pair of blue briefs, the husky waited for Amy, who showered in the bathroom attached to his bedroom. He felt unsure of what he was about ready to do. He wanted to take care of his ex's needs, but he felt nervous, hesitant, of the feelings he still had for her. Did she reciprocate the same feelings still? Has too much stuff happened between them over the years? Would there still be any trust left? It made the husky feel uncertain. It certainly didn't put him in the mood.

The doorknob turned and slowly the bathroom door opened to reveal Amy, wrapped up in a blue towel. She looked a bit embarrassed as well looking at Maverick. The husky mustered a smile for her.

"I don't think we need to be shy about this...I mean...we were married."

"Yeah, I suppose so." Amy hesitantly laughed a bit. She let go of the towel, which fell to her feet. It was the first time in five years that Maverick had seen Amy nude, and his eyes spotted all the damage her body sustained. Where her body got burned, her fur grew back in a slightly different shade of gray; it was mottled and uneven looking in color. Parts of her body were scarred and it was obvious through her pelt. Surgical scars lined her abdomen. It made him feel terrible on the inside knowing all this happened to her.

"I'm not as pretty as you last remembered me." Amy admitted with a jaded chuckle.

"Nah~" Maverick brushed it off. He walked over and put his arms around her. "You're beautiful as always."

"Oh come on~" Amy smiled. She grabbed his tanktop and tried to pull it off him. "You're too damn tall!"

"I can't help that!"

Maverick pulled his tanktop off while Amy pulled his briefs down, revealing his big tan member flopping out. "That hasn't changed."

"Nope! Hardware still works too." Maverick chuckled.

"Good." Chuckled Amy. She smiled at him and rubbed his abs and chest playfully. She gripped his shaft and started to feel it chub up as she stroked it slowly. She started to kneel down, in an attempt to suck off Mav, but her knees buckled as she felt a stab of pain through her side. She had to catch herself on the bed.

"My body is falling apart..." Amy grumbled.

Instead, Maverick helped her up onto the bed. He placed a bunch of pillows around her so her body could be cushioned better. It helped her be more comfortable. Maverick straddled between her legs and very gently placed them around his frame. He sat on the bed looking at her while he slowly stroked himself.

"So this is what you want?"

"Yeah~"

"Alrighty then."

Reaching over for his lube, the husky lubed Amy up slowly, and rather teasingly. She closed her eyes and enjoyed it as Maverick teased with his fingers. He slid one, then two, and finally three fingers into her clit and playfully pushed them in and out, electing a pleasurable purr. His other paw tugged on his foreskin and edged his cock rock hard. He juggled his bottle of lube and squirted some on his cock, which he coated all over to slick it up. He tossed the bottle to his side and shimmied himself closer, his cockhead pressing right against her moist entry. He rubbed his cock up and down slowly, himself biting his lower lip at the sensation against his thick cockhead. He gripped the base and slowly began to push his cock in. Amy closed her eyes and felt the sensation of being filled by the husky. Maverick was gentle as he hilted himself in. He adjusted Amy's legs and very slowly began to thrust. It had been a while since he had barebacked. It was a sensation that he had to get used to again, the wetness, the warm folds massaging and teasing his tan shaft.

"Oh that's nice." Amy moaned. "Oh fuck, that's really nice."

"Heh, it's what a big dick gets ya~" laughed Maverick with a grin.

"I miss it~"

"I'm sure~"

Maverick took his time pleasuring Amy and himself. He breathed slow, his chest rising and falling slowly. Amy squired her head a bit and breathed slow and moaned here and there. He picked his pace up a bit, which made Amy moan more. He didn't go hard or fast, but quickened occasionally to short little, rapid thrusts, which made the urge to cum grow. His cock throbbed, his balls tightened with each thrust. Losing the battle, Maverick gripped Amy's legs, tipped his head back and moaned. He slammed his cock all the way in and came, his cock throbbing and twitching as his head exploded in cum. Amy moaned, arching her back as she orgasmed all over the bed. Maverick felt his crotch get all wet.

The big husky chuckled and breathed slowly to regain his bearings. "How was it?"

"Lovely~" Amy muttered with an exhale. She moaned as she felt Maverick pull out slowly, his sloppy cock plopping out and resting against her crotch that she slowly massaged. "I made a big mess didn't I?"

"Nah~" Maverick muttered. He stretched and slowly laid out to be beside Amy. They didn't say anything to each other as they laid in bed, the first time for them in five years. They both took the time to reflect on everything between them in the afterglow of sex.

---

Following behind Amy, Maverick drove along the empty stretch of Route 16, to Coshocton. The morning drive was bright and cheerful as flowering trees passed by the view along the two lane stretch of highway. The grass was lush emerald green and growing thick. Maverick looked serious as he drove; he dropped his kid off at his brother's house, and was now enroute to help Amy break up with her girlfriend. He watched as Amy's Impala rumbled along ahead.

Arriving into Coshocton, Maverick parked on the other side of the apartment complex's lot. He wanted to hide his truck. He went in with Amy and prepared.

"Okay, so I'll hide in the broom closet here and if things go south, I'll come out of the closet and defend you!"

"You're gonna come out of the closet..." Amy stared sarcastically.

"Oh..."

"We're doomed."

"No we're not! We got my pride n' joy baseball bat here! This baby won the state championship...she also put thirteen year olds in their place."

Amy sighed. "Well...this plan is already in action...so here we fucking go."

"You got this." Maverick smiled. "Remember, this is what's best for you."

"Right."

Maverick hid himself in the closet, cloaked in darkness while he listened. He heard the knock, with Amy answering it, and Sandy came inside. She spoke with a gruff sounding voice, like a heavy smoker's voice. "Oh god, what the fuck Amy..." he thought to himself.

"Look we need to talk." Amy stated bluntly.

"Okay~"

"Look...things are not working out at all... and I don't want to be part of this anymore."

"You're...you...you're breaking up with me?"

"Yes."

"You're breaking up with me?"

"Do I need to repeat it?"

Maverick heard a loud slap, and he knew right then what had happened. He threw the broom closet door open and rushed out. Amy had fallen onto the couch, with Sandy, the big, heaping wolfess, standing over her. She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. She turned around to just stare at Maverick.

"Don't hit my ex-wife!" Maverick pointed. "Amy!"

"Who the fuck are you!?" Sandy glared.

"Who the fuck are you?" Maverick reiterated.

Sandy marched towards Maverick. She suddenly pulled a switchblade from her pocket and flicked the blade out at Maverick, cornering him into the kitchen.

"Ah fuck, I left the baseball bat in the closet..."

Sandy marched closer with the knife aimed at Maverick. "I SAID WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?"

Maverick took a step back. He was beside the refrigerator, pinned in with no place to go.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

"I was making a sundae~"

The husky grabbed the freezer door and swung it open as fast as he could. It nailed Sandy square in the face and knocked her back. Maverick lunged for the knife and tackled her into the table.

"Amy! Call the cops!" Maverick shouted as he struggled. He lurched the knife out of her grip and threw it across the apartment, which nearly hit Amy.

"Jesus Christ Mav!" She shouted as she jumped for the phone.

Sandy broke free from Maverick's grip and punched him in the stomach. Momentarily stunning him, Sandy grabbed a glass ball basket display off the table and threw one of them at Amy, striking her in the head and drawing blood. She fell to the floor and dropped the phone. Maverick jumped back into the fray and grabbed the other glass ball from her, before she should hit Amy with it. Maverick smashed it into her face and shoved her into the wall. He lunged at her to pin her, in a furious struggle against each other.

"OH GOD!" Maverick screamed as he saw her face. "DIE YOU HIDEOUS CREATURE! GET OFF MY PLANET!" The husky punched her in her face and sent her landing on the ground with a crash of one of the tables beside the couch. Maverick ran over to assist Amy, when Sandy tripped him. He faceplanted on the ground, just as Sandy tackled him.

"OH GOD SHE'S GONNA CRUSH ME!" Maverick yelled.

Amy was mid-call with 9-1-1 when she dropped the phone and ran to the kitchen to grab a frying pan. Grabbing her cast iron one, she ran over to protect Maverick. Blood soaked her face from a nasty cut to her forehead. It blinded her in one eye as she swung to try and hit Sandy. The wolfess dodged at the last minute, only for Maverick to get hit in the back of the head by a frying pan.

"OWW!" He yelled. "AMY! HIT HER!"

"Oh sorry!" Amy screamed.

"GIMME THAT PAN!" the husky screamed. He ripped it from Amy's paws, and swung, his face twisted in rage. He hit Sandy as hard as he could across the top of her head. It bent the handle and sent her collapsing onto the ground unconscious. It was over.

In just mere minutes, Amy's whole apartment was trashed. The floor was littered in broken glass and furniture. The table was a complete mess. The freezer door had a noticeable dent in it, and ice and other goods from the freezer fell out and were on the floor. Sandy laid sprawled out in the middle of the living room, a bloody mess, lying face down.

Amy staggered back and looked around at the mess. She looked at the blood on her paws. Her blood. She collapsed and caught herself on the couch. Maverick got up and was disoriented by the head blow. He wobbled as he tried to walk, but ended up falling onto the ground. He heard Amy start to cry. He crawled over to grab a rag that was lying on the ground and scooped up a handful of ice to put in it. He wrapped the rag up and made his way over to Amy, to gently place it on the spot where the glass ball had hit her. Maverick tried to wipe some of the blood off her face.

Amidst the chaos, there was just silence between Amy and Maverick. Amy watched as Maverick tried to care for her with what he had available. They looked at each other and silently reflected on their interwoven lives. They had been together through it all, as friends, high school sweethearts, husband and wife turned divorcees, enemies, and friends once again. As they sat on the ground, four deputy sheriff's burst into her apartment, guns drawn. They called for paramedics.

"Amy is this a bad time to tell you that I still love you?" Maverick asked. He even mustered a smile for her. Amy breathed a huge sigh of relief and threw her arms around him. She broke down in tears once more as Maverick hugged and comforted her.

---

One Week Later

Coshocton's Lake Park was lush with greenery. On the last day in April, a warm breeze swayed tree branches that were filled with buds. The grass had grown thick again and was a brilliant emerald. Spring flowers popped up everywhere. The fresh scent of flowering trees carried with the gentle wind.

Amy stood on the levee by one of the ponds, watching the ripples of water sparkle in the mid-morning sun. Dressed in a partially unzipped windbreaker, capris, and a white hat atop her head, the wolfess stood and waited for her boyfriend, Maverick. Wounds that she obtained in the violent breakup of her abusive girlfriend were now healing, and a look of content calm graced her face.

"Looking for someone?"

Amy turned around to see Maverick standing on the sidewalk, at the bottom of the small levee. He grinned at her affectionately, the big husky dressed casually in a pair of blue gym shorts, and a gray t-shirt. He carried a corny looking wicker picnic basket in his grip. Amy smiled and ran down to greet him.

"Hey! Nice to see ya." She hugged him warmly. Maverick sat the basket down and gave her a tight hug in return.

"How are you feeling?"

"So much better." Amy said happily.

"Good~" Maverick smiled.

The two walked slowly along the sidewalk, discussing things as they made their way towards the flowing Tuscarawas river, which cut through Lake Park. Since rekindling their relationship, they had been taking things very slow and discussing out their concerns and hopes.

"I talked to Robby about the situation." Maverick explained. "I wanted to completely be honest with him and wanted his feedback since he got hurt in our divorce."

"What did he have to say?"

"He told me that if I truly love you, then he's okay with us getting back together. He just asks that if anything happens between us to leave him out of it."

"He's such a smart kid." Amy chuckled.

"That's my Robby." Maverick laughed a bit. "But I always consult with him about everything. I think he needs to have a voice and opinion too, it's not one way just because I'm a parent."

"That's clever thinking."

"A dead clock's right twice a day ya' know~" Maverick laughed.

"Oh shut up you." Amy laughed.

"I just say to continue taking things slow. Let's not rush things." Maverick suggested.

"Yep. I agree." Amy nodded. "But let's just forget everything that has happened five years ago...and let's pick up where we left off at."

"I'm just afraid the dynamics of our relationship have changed, permanently."

"Nothing stays the same forever, Mavvy. We've grown older, we've gone through a lot more on our separate journeys, we've matured and come to understand ourselves a bit better." Amy concluded. "And if anything comes up, we can work it out."

"That's right." Maverick nodded in agreement. "Sometimes I think we never truly appreciate something till it's gone, and I think that's what happened to both of us."

"Unfortunately." Amy pursed her lips. "But let's build on what we now know."

"Agreed."

"Maybe get remarried eventually."

"Everything in due time." Maverick chuckled. He put an arm around his girlfriend and pulled Amy close. "Come on, let's have our picnic."

"Sure~" Amy smiled.

"I made a pretty impressive lunch. And! I didn't set it on fire this time!"

"There ya go!"

"These big sausage fingers of mine can work!" laughed Maverick.

Amy grabbed his paw and held it as they walked across the bridge that spanned the Tuscarawas. They laughed and joked as they continued on their way, the two happy to be with each other again.