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Chapter 3: Aftermath

Kodi dreaded the mail run today and almost considered ducking out of town until they had left, for the last thing he wanted right now was to face the team, Dusty especially. The childish jabs and jokes that Kirby and Ralph would have in store for him he could live with and would pass in time, but Dusty, his best friend, now hated him to the deepest depths of her soul, and she had every reason to after what he had done. He felt sick to his stomach, almost as though he was about to lose his breakfast, and his face was hot beneath his fur. Sweat trickled through the fur on the top of his head despite the chilly conditions of the morning, his legs were weak and he walked as though wearing cement shoes on his paws.

Slowly out onto the town's main street he plodded, seeing the team standing with their backs to him about a hundred yards away, waiting to be harnessed.

"So do you think horndog will have the guts to show up today?" Ralph asked with a smirk.

Kirby scoffed and turned to Dusty, who simply stared bitterly, but as his eyes fell upon her, they caught sight of something moving behind her. Upon seeing this, he allowed his eyes to drift beyond her and when he recognized who it was he saw, he smiled.

"Well well... speak of the devil and he arrives," Kirby mused, drawing everybody's attention to Kodi, "look out Dusty, better not turn your back on him."

As the two males blurted out laughter, Dusty only glared at them, embittered by their antics.

The guffawing laughter reached Kodi's ears and caused him to hesitate slightly, but he had already been spotted, so turning tail now would only make the matter worse. He had to face what he had done like a man.

He approached them and arrived wordlessly, but as he drew near, Dusty distanced herself from him, causing Kodi to flatten his ears.

"Hope you got it out of your system," Ralph teased, falling in at Kodi's side, "because I wouldn't want anything "knotty" to happen on this run."

Kodi glared and sat down in his place before the sled, waiting for Simpson to come out of the post office, but Ralph and Kirby would not leave well enough alone and moved in to join him.

"Oh come now Kodi," Kirby said, sitting down and draping a paw over the young male's shoulder, "I thought that ejaculations were supposed to help with DSB."

Kodi shrugged Kirby's paw off with an angered growl and turned away, and it was at this point that Simpson stepped out, thankfully before the situation could grow any worse.

All of the dogs, excluding Dusty, fell into their places before the sled and Simpson made his rounds, buckling them up, but when he found Dusty to not be in her place, he scowled.

"We don't have time for this, old girl," he said to her from his crouched position, "come on."

She sat down defiantly, refusing to move.

Simpson sighed, pressed himself up so that he stood vertically, then moved over to where she sat and grasped the nape of her neck firmly.

Dusty growled in protest as he began to drag her along, stiffening her legs and burying her paws into the snow, but this attempt to keep herself in place was in vain, for the might of Simpson was too great to resist.

All eyes were set upon her as she was wrestled into her harness, but such gazes quickly averted themselves to the front when a foul curse, directed at them, shot from her mouth.

Satisfied, Simpson turned, pulled the anchor, and placed his feet on the runners.

"Now if we can move along without any further delays," he mused bitterly to himself then called for the team to begin pulling, which they did immediately, launching forth like a rocket down the street.

Kodi, who normally enjoyed being out on the trail, felt as though he were being punished by having to run today, for not only was he still sore after his little event with his mother the previous day, he could also feel the sting of Dusty's cold and pointed glare as it drilled so afflictively into the back of his skull.

He did not know what good would come out of it, but he felt as though he should try to apologize to her again and hope that if he were sincere enough he could gain her forgiveness, because the guilt that he felt dug at him so deeply that it almost made him sick.

Well, here goes nothing.

"Look Dusty, I'm really sorry about what happened," he said to her pleadingly, turning his head to the side as he ran so that he could gaze upon her without having to turn around completely, "I-"

"I don't want to hear it," Dusty snarled, attempting to slash Kodi's face with her fangs, but she fell short.

"Straighten up back there, you two!" Kirby barked, trying to maintain order.

Simpson saw this disorder and took note, for he did not want a fight to break out between them, but if one did, he knew he had to be ready to act in a flash lest he wanted to be a dog short and be late yet again, something which he would sincerely like to avoid. After all, his job now depended on them to get the mail delivered on time; Mr. Conner made that vividly clear.

Dusty glared at Kodi and uttered a foul word to him which helped to send the message that she was not to be spoken to at the moment, so Kodi, though hurt, decided to let the matter rest for the moment and turned to the front once more, continuing to run along as he normally did.

How he hoped things would simmer down between them, for he dreaded what would come if tensions were to grow any further.

U.D.

Back in Nome, Jenna was laced with guilt, for, though it was fantastic while it lasted, she had cheated on her husband, which was bad enough already, but knowing that she had done so with her own flesh and blood was about enough to make her sick.

How could she even face him after what she had done?

She knew that she had to tell him, but she never would, because nobody deserved to bear the knowledge but those who were guilty of the crime, so the burden was hers to carry, quite possibly to her grave.

She was caught off guard when a paw landed across her eyes and blinded her, which caused her to jump clear out of her fur.

"I didn't do it!" she cried, frightened, but when she heard familiar laughter, she scowled and shoved the paw away.

"I hate it when you do that, Balto," she said dryly, turning to her husband.

He laughed.

"Ah, but you should have seen your face," he replied with a smile.

Jenna rolled her eyes, doing her best to disguise her discomfort by acting as she normally would in a situation such as this.

She slapped his shoulder indignantly with the back of her paw, which caused him to laugh harder.

"What brings you into town today anyway," she asked him, attempting to move the subject along.

"Just came by to say hey," he replied, then cozied up closer to her, "and I thought that maybe you and I could go on a little walk out to the meadow. It's been a while since we've been out together."

"That it has," Jenna agreed, now feeling more horrible than ever.

He loved her so much and she betrayed him. How could she have been so stupid?

"So what do you say?" he asked, "sometime around mid day?"

Jenna forced a smile.

"I'd love to," she replied.

"Great," Balto beamed, "so how is Kodi? I haven't seen a lot of him lately."

Jenna felt her stomach twist into knots, for her guilt and shame drove her to pointless fits of paranoia.

"He's doing pretty well," she replied, trying to play the situation off, "though he seems a bit troubled lately."

"Dammit, now why did you say that?!"

Balto cocked his head.

"Troubled you say?" he asked her, "how?"

Jenna quickly scrambled for an answer, for she knew not how to twist the truth into a lie off the top of her head, but after a moment's thought, the answer became clear.

"I'm not entirely sure," she replied, "he came by my shed night before last, though, and asked me if he could stay."

Balto's brows furrowed.

"Odd," he said, "why wasn't he staying in the boiler room?"

Jenna shrugged, for she was never able to piece that part together either.

"Don't know," she answered, "he wouldn't say."

Balto nodded quizzically.

"Hmm... well when does he get back from his mail run?" he asked her.

"Sometime tomorrow," Jenna responded, "he just left this morning."

Balto nodded again.

"Alright, because I'd like to speak with him," he mused, "maybe he'll tell me."

Jenna nodded in agreement, but felt the knots in her stomach wrench themselves tighter, for she could almost envision what gruesome display would unfold if Kodi turned into a pup and confessed.

"Maybe," she replied, then allowed her eyes to migrate away from him for a moment, "well I'm gonna head back to my place," she informed, "gotta get ready and all that nonsense."

Balto smiled.

"Alright," he said to her, stepping forward and pulling her into a hug, "I'll see ya around mid day."

"See you then," she replied then separated.

As casually as she could, she turned and began to venture back toward her shed, and as she walked away, Balto found himself still unable to describe how lucky he was to have a mate like her, even after all these years.