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Mav

Streetlights glowed orange in the dim light of dawn. In the quiet Krebs Edition of Newark, the snow that blanketed the ground took on the soft glow in the dim light of dawn. A harsh, freezing wind howled down Karen Parkway, kicking the powder into a whirlwind, and carving eddies into the thick snow. It was the continuation of an overnight storm, which hit central Ohio hard.

Under the blankets snoozed Maverick Tokarev. The big, gray furred, Russian husky slept on his side in his large bed. The room was dim and quiet, the curtains drawn over the windows above his bed. On his nightstand glowed his hand built Nixie clock, which read 6:25AM on the red glowing tubes. His cellphone sat beside it, hooked up to its charger. Its screen abruptly lit up, signaling an incoming call from Newark City Schools. Its obnoxious ringtone stirred Maverick from his slumber as he threw an arm out to unplug the phone and answer it.

"Hello." He groggily said, which played back an automated message from the superintendent, announcing the closure of all schools due to inclement weather. The husky slowly sat up in bed listening to it.

"A snow day...COOL!" he thought excitedly. "Wait a second...I'm thirty-six years old today! I don't go to school anymore! Fuck! ...But I'm vice-president to a company where I can make my own schedule! CLOSE ENOUGH!"

A big grin lit up his face as he tossed his phone over his shoulder. Throwing the blankets off of him, he jumped out of bed and stretched. He wore a blue pair of briefs and a blank tanktop that clung to his muscular body. His arms bulged with muscle, he had a chiseled chest, and six-pack abs. Mav towered over everything at six foot, five inches. He quickly threw on a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants that sat draped over his desk chair. Stepping out of his room, he glanced down the hallway to hear the usual back and forth arguing from his friend's Brazilian parents, Andrew and Marie Paulo. The husky and his son continued to live with the Paulos, after their home had burned down in November. They were waiting for their new home to be built.

Stepping across the hall, Maverick tapped on his son's door and opened it, finding Robby Tokarev stirring awake in his bed. He was a scrawny twelve year old husky, with tan and beige fur.

"Morning Robby!" Maverick greeted. "Snow day today! Class got cancelled.

"Yes!" the young husky cheered. "First of the year!"

Robby jumped out of bed wearing his pajamas. "Happy birthday, Dad!"

"Thank you!" Maverick complimented. "It's my big day! Thirty-six!"

"Old!"

"Hey! I'm not old!" Protested the big husky with a laugh.

"You're old!" laughed Robby with a grin.

"Yeah and you're young~ Wait till you're my age!" teased Maverick as he ruffled the top of Robby's head, which sported a crew cut of brown hair.

The two huskies made their way to the kitchen, where Andrew and Marie stood arguing while they made breakfast. It was another stupid argument the two aging Dobermans put themselves through. Today's argument was over the range hood and its burned out light bulb.

"You know what Andrew!? Get out! Get out of here!" shouted Marie as she shooed her husband away from the kitchen.

"Fine! Don't come to my funeral!" Andrew yelled back.

"Oh I'm coming! I'm coming Andrew! So I can tell everyone how stupid you were!"

"I bet you will~" Andrew scoffed before practically running into Maverick at the kitchen entry. The tall husky looked puzzled at the two as they just stared at him.

"This about me?" Maverick asked.

"Don't come to my funeral, Mav!"

The husky momentarily looked away and fumbled his brow. "...but there's such few pleasures I was looking forward to..."

"Oh don't mind Andrew, he's just all bent out of shape over the range hood."

"Oh I'm bent out of shape?" Andrew retorted. "I never hear the end about the stupid range hood!"

"Oh my god, you two are arguing over a damn range hood!?" Maverick exclaimed. "How long this time?"

"Ninety minutes." Marie shook her head.

"Wow." Maverick rolled his eyes.

"Oh by the way!" Andrew spoke up.

"Happy birthday!" the two Dobers announced with happy smiles on their faces.

"Wow, if that's not an abrupt mood swing I don't know what is!" grinned the husky. "Thank you Andrew and Marie!"

"I'm gonna bake you a birthday cake today and it's gonna be great!" Marie smiled.

"Oh come on, you don't have to." Smiled Maverick.

"I insist."

"No Marie, I insist we go to DQ and get an ice cream cake!"

"This is not your birthday, Andrew!" Marie shouted.

"Hey I was making a suggestion!" Andrew protested.

"I'm thirty-six years old, I don't think we need to celebrate it like I was six!"

"Nonsense." Marie brushed his concerns off. "Everyone's birthday is their special day~"

"WHELP CAN'T ARGUE WITH THAT!" Mav sarcastically quipped with an obnoxious voice.

"Come on! Sit down you two~!" Andrew happily stated. "It's breakfast time!"

Sitting together, Mav and Robby ate breakfast together, a meal of oatmeal and toast with homemade marmalade. They mused about their plans together for "their snow day".

Through the kitchen entry revealed Joey Paulo. The black and tan Doberman was bundled up against the cold as he stepped into the kitchen, holding an envelope in his paw. He quickly shed himself of his thick beanie and unzipped his jacket somewhat. "Morning Mom and Dad~"

"Morning Joey!" they both greeted happily. "How's it going?"

"Oh it's going~" chuckled the Dober as he took his jacket completely off. "Went to go see Rob for a little bit at the hospital."

"How's Rob doing?" Marie asked as she went to fetch a jug of freshly squeezed orange juice from the fridge.

"Yeah, how's Rob?" Mav asked. His best friend and business partner, Rob Barion, was recovering in the hospital after a serious accident at the airport a few days prior. While working to mount a propeller on his Constellation airliner, the straps holding the assembled unit snapped, which consequently fell on Rob. He suffered blunt force trauma to his pelvis, which broke his left hip and both his artificial knees. He was rushed to the hospital and was now recovering from his third hip replacement, and second knee replacement. With Rob's absence, Maverick now became the interim "Head of Barev", overseeing the entire operations of their growing conglomerate, "United Barev Industries", which encompassed, broadcasting, electronics, and aviation services. It was a daunting challenge the husky accepted, though he felt he was "flying at the seat of his pants".

"Rob needs to get better because I have literally no idea what I'm doing." Laughed Maverick to Joey. "I am literally signing off on stuff I have zero clue on! Like Centoh introducing the DC-7- I have no idea what the hell that is!"

"Now you sound like the President." Teased Joey with a grin on his face.

"Hell if he can make shit up as he goes, so can I! Duh!" the husky laughed.

"Oh Mav~" chuckled the Doberman. "Happy birthday by the way~"

"Thank you!"

"This is your gift from me and Rob." Smiled Joey as he handed the envelope to Maverick, who quickly accepted it and opened it up to reveal a birthday card from his best friend. He opened it up to reveal a personal check addressed to him totaling $4,500, and a small note, written in black cursive.

"To Mav,

Wishing you a happy 36 from my hospital

bed, courtesy of a Hamilton Standard

propeller. Please accept this check as my

gift for you- use it to help buy furniture

for your new house. Wishing you all the best

on your big day.

Kindly,

Rob & Joey".

"Wow! Thank you!" the husky happily accepted. "I love free money! Heh, heh, SILLY POOR PEOPLE! MONEY'S FOR RICH PEOPLE!"

"I wasn't going to take it that far..." Joey shook his head with a chuckle.

"Shit, I like free money!" laughed Andrew. "Joey! When are you gonna cough up some dough for my birthday!"

"I guess when hell freezes over you cheapskate." Grinned Joey with a laugh. "How much money do you have in the bank?"

"Plenty." Marie spoke up as she glared at him. "Your father is a pathetic miser!"

"Oh shut up! You think I'm made of money or something?" Andrew scoffed.

"Okay crazies." Joey teased.

"So when can I see Rob?"

"Probably in the afternoon, Mav. He's got a bunch of tests they want to do all morning."

"Sure~" nodded Maverick as he took a bite of his toast. "Gotta bug my best friend!"

"Oh, we know." Joey chuckled with a roll of his hazel eyes.

Before Maverick could fire off another quip, his phone went off. He quickly grabbed it to find his ex-wife Amy calling him. He glanced at the time as he answered it.

"Stud service, Maverick speaking~" he quipped sarcastically to his ex.

"Stud service my ass, I got a problem, Mav." Came Amy's voice. She sounded frustrated, distraught. There was a lot of noise on her end, the sound of cars passing by, the wind noise clipping in the phone.

"You okay, Amy?"

"No, I'm not. I wrecked my car into the ditch! I had to swerve to avoid a head-on collision when someone hit ice! And apparently nobody in my family wants to answer the phone! Could you please come and get me?"

"Where are you at?"

"Route sixty, near Frazeysburg. I'm standing at a Marathon station. Please come and get me~"

"Okay, stay there! I'll be out!" Maverick promised. He frantically looked around and got up.

"What's going on?" Robby asked his Dad.

"Amy got into a car accident. I'm going to get her!"

"Be safe! It's snowing like crazy out there!" Marie exclaimed as she got up to look out the window.

"I know." Mav muttered as he quickly exited the kitchen to get dressed.

---

Brushing the last of the snow off his idling truck, Maverick worked in a frenzy to get it ready to drive. His blue Chevy one ton rumbled with its diesel chug, its headlights glowing into the whiteout. The frantic wind blew snow everywhere, which smacked and clung to the fur on his face. Tossing his scraper inside the backseat of the crew cab, Maverick jumped aboard and buckled himself in for the long, slow ride, to Muskingum county. He popped the shifter into drive and reached down to engage the floor shifter for four wheel drive. He tapped the gas and slowly crawled out of the driveway and into the thick powder that covered Karen Parkway. The snow crunched under his tires as he slowly traveled down the road.

As he came to the stop sign, he stopped to glance at the spot where his home had once stood. He still could not believe that an electrical fire claimed his house and just about everything inside of it. All that remained was the garage, which was in the process of having its siding repaired after the heat of the fire melted the front. The charred rubble that once marked his home was cleared out and a new foundation and basement awaited the rest of the house. His entire yard looked like a cratered mess from all the construction equipment. Maverick turned his attention back to the road, and he made a slow turn onto Leslie Drive, to begin the long, arduous journey to Frazeysburg.

Hopping on Route 16 from 11th Street, Maverick painfully crawled his way up the onramp and merged onto the desolate highway. He found he could not go above forty miles per hour without the truck wanting to buck and slide from the torque. There were a few other cars that battled the slick roads as headlights burned through the snowy haze. As he slowly watched Newark pass by and then disappear from view, his mind wandered to thoughts about his ex-wife, and their "evolved relationship".

Amy Golagonoff was his once high school sweetheart. Her actual name was Xenia Nadezhda Golagonoff. A gray furred wolf, she hailed from Bulgaria, the daughter of a Bulgarian Macedonian family who had immigrated at the end of the Cold War. "Amy" was the friendly "Americanized name" she adopted. They had met during their senior year in high school, at the end of 2001. Amy was the cheerful cheerleader, and Maverick the star jock to the baseball team. They got together just before they graduated the following year, and eventually got married six years later in 2008. Their relationship was once marked with playful affection and lots of laughter together. They had bought a nice home together, adopted their son, Robert Gold Tokarev, and had the perfect American dream all made. At least, on the surface.

Five years before, their marriage fell apart unexpectedly, and it tore them apart for some time. Amy had grown unhappy and complacency had settled into their marriage. Their relationship was not helped by the cold treatment that Maverick had received from her family, who was largely opposed to Amy marrying Maverick. Adding further was Amy's accidental outing as bisexual; Maverick had discovered on accident that his wife was bi, and accidentally blurted it out, much to her chagrin. Her parents were not very approving of the news. Finally everything came crashing down in 2015, when Maverick was diagnosed with Autism. There was a bitter fight over him "never taking anything seriously", and it led him to seek a diagnosis once and for all. Finally, the death knell came with Amy admitted she had an affair, and it got her pregnant; she suddenly left and took their son, leaving Maverick devastated. He filed for divorce in September. It was a very bitter, angry divorce, that took a destructive toll on himself, Amy, and Robby. In the turmoil, Robby got molested by Amy's boyfriend, and they were almost beat to death by him. Maverick killed Oliver Robinson after catching him in the act of molesting his son. Maverick ultimately won his divorce, and got his son back, but it was a pyrrhic victory.

After their divorce, Maverick and Amy went their separate ways for a time. Mav continued to live in Newark, but he ultimately sold their home and moved to Karen Parkway after suffering such trauma from that house. He had given up on himself and gained weight and stopped caring; his abs turned to flab, and he got overweight, which led to a heart attack at the age of thirty-two. It was a very serious health setback. Amy retreated to a small apartment in Coshocton, an hour away from Newark. She worked in a kitchen in Coshocton, where a workplace robbery severely injured her when a pot of boiling water was splashed on her, causing third degree burns to part of her face and entire left side. It left her partially disabled. Their hostile relationship softened when they sat down and reconciled; they resumed their "new relationship" as distant acquaintances, which gradually grew much closer as time went on. Now they were "best friend status"- they talked to each other on the phone regularly, and visited each other on the weekends. Life largely had returned to equilibrium. They could move on from their marriage.

Crawling along Route 60, Maverick saw in the far distance, the flashing lights of a Sheriff's vehicle. He put his blinker on and pulled off into the parking lot of the Marathon station. His 3500HD slid to a stop and he jumped out into the blustering cold and snow. Maverick was bundled against the cold in a thick jacket and fleece lined sweatpants; a dark gray papakha was wedged atop his head. He found Amy standing with a Sheriff's Deputy as he took notes on a notepad. The salt and pepper furred wolfess looked shook up as she stood clutching a pink purse in her grip.

"Amy!" Maverick called.

"Oh thank god you made it." Amy responded. She shuffled over and gave Maverick a tight hug, which he accepted and returned.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." The wolfess nodded. "My poor car."

Amy pointed to her silvery gray Impala, which sat practically on its side in a ditch beside the road. Amy recalled frantically about having to make a last second swerve because somebody lost control and went left of center. They spun out, but recovered and left the scene. Amy had lost control and hit the ditch hard. There was visible buckling of the vehicle's fenders.

"Rather the car be damaged than you." Maverick quipped with a rather clichéd quote. He motioned for Amy to warm up in his truck.

Finishing up with the Deputy, Amy had no choice but to leave her Impala behind. She was running late for work; she had agreed to help out at the sister restaurant in Zanesville, which required the precarious drive from Coshocton to Zanesville. She climbed aboard Maverick's truck, and he took off for Zanesville on Route 60.

"What a start to a day..." Amy grumbled. She tried to manually fix her messy hat hair that matted down her locks of light brown hair. "I burn myself with the straightner, and now this shit."

"It's really bad weather." Maverick admitted. "Typical Ohio. You go from sixty one day, to zero, back to forty, and then twenty-nine with half a foot of snow. I think Mother Nature needs some Lithium or something- she's bipolar!"

"Always stupid this time of year..." Amy shook her head. "Oh, by the way, happy birthday~"

"Thank you!" Maverick exclaimed happily. "I appreciate it coming from you!"

"I'll have to bake you a cake~" the wolf smiled.

"Oh man, I'm gonna get diabetes at the rate this is going. Marie's making me a cake and throwing me a birthday party this evening, and now this. I'll be Wilford Brimley! DIABEETUS."

"Heh, is she gonna argue with Andrew over that stupid cake for like three hours?" Amy rolled her eyes.

"Every day!" Mav laughed. "Every fucking day I wake up to them arguing over something. Today's was over the range hood. Probably tomorrow it'll be over Andrew's socks or something, or me buying condoms and lube because I take responsibility for my vices."

Amy blurted out laughing. "Excuse me?"

"I got critiqued because I went to Target and got an eclectic purchase of shells and cheese, plus a box of condoms and lube. Oh gee! Lemme be like their son Roberto, and just raw fuck dozens of underage girls because I'm a borderline pedophile."

"I saw him one day in Coshocton. He was going to some apartment near mine. Just a short, ugly little fella. Nowhere like Joey."

"Yeah. I can't really stand him. He sucks at cars too. I kinda want to beat the shit out of him with Joey- maybe even eat him- turn him into soup or something. Is that kinda bad?"

Amy simply shook her head at her ex. "You're an idiot."

"Yeah and you still married me once upon a time~"

"Oh here we go~" Amy rolled her eyes at him with a snort. "So you still seeing that Tanya chick?"

"Oh hell no. Not when she showed me her true colors. Amy, she's a fucking nut." Maverick responded.

"Oh really?"

"So we fucked on New Years, and after we're done, she openly tells me she had five abortions!" Maverick exclaimed. Amy looked at him with a disgusted look on her face.

"Uhh, what?"

"Yeah, she just mentions about how she took better responsibility after five abortions. WELL NO SHIT WOMAN! MAYBE YOU COULDA THOUGHT ABOUT THAT AFTER THE FIRST! D'OH! It was the way she said it- all giggly and flippant, like, oh, ripping the potential for life out of me was no big deal~ I get it, women should have the right to choose-"

"Yeah."

"-but just to treat something like that, like, it's just a minor inconvenience, when that was the potential for life, a potential for someone to become a being? It's just...well...disgusting. So I told her how I felt, and said that we need to see other men..."

"Uhh..."

"YEAH I KNOW." Maverick loudly stated. "I looked like an idiot when I said that."

"Heh, that's all the time." Amy teased with a laugh.

"Fuck you toots!"

"Ha!"

"And you know what's even worse, Amy? TRAVIS. That motherfucker slept with her, and all the other girls I wanted to bang and-or date!"

"Oh my god." Laughed Amy. "Travis? The cute landscaper guy with the tattoo sleeves?"

"CUTE!? He's the embodiment of evil! He's got that perfect smirk and gets all these chicks in bed with him! And he's got a boyfriend! Those chicks need to be in my bed! I'm the stud service!"

"Only in your dreams, Mavvy." Amy burst out laughing. "Travis is alright. When he tends to our apartment's landscaping, he comes and talks to me and he's fun to chat with!"

"HE DIDN'T FUCK YOU, RIGHT?" Maverick jokingly glared. "I'll rape him if he had sex with you!"

"You just need to come the fuck out of the closet." Amy mocked with a grin. Maverick jokingly flipped her off.

"...and the worst thing? ...He calls me Shirley... Shirley... SHIRLEY!" The husky shouted.

"Shirley?" Amy responded. She looked at her ex like he was an idiot.

"Shirley!" Maverick reacted loudly. "He's like 'Oh, Shirley, you can't be serious?"

Amy scrunched her brow and stared at him. "Are you sure he's calling you Shirley? Or is he just saying 'surely'- like are you certain? What the hell is this, Airplane?"

"No, it's definitely Shirley... I know him oh too well..."

"I feel sorry for the next girlfriend you have." Amy teased.

"Think that all you want sister girl, because I got me a hot date Friday evening! Heh, heh, Gabby Sandberg."

"Is that the dimwitted cashier at the Target in Heath?"

"Yep!" grinned Maverick. "I impressed her with my self-checkout skills... I'm pretty handy if you ask me."

"You are so dumb."

"I know~" he laughed. "We're going to the movies, go bowling, and then probably fucking! Maybe in opposite order, I don't know."

"Heh, well have fun."

"You?"

"Me?" Amy pointed at herself. "Like in dating?"

"Yeah!" Maverick nodded. "You get some hot broad who's carpet matches the drapes yet?"

"Oh my god, no. Do you not realize where I live at?"

"Mountain mama's."

"Eww!" Amy exclaimed. "And that applies to the guys as well. I tried to date this dude named Jack...but the John Deere tattoo on his stomach, and the spitting dip everywhere...ugh, no thank you."

"Yeah, that's pretty disgusting."

"People don't know how to handle my 'ethnic' ways I guess." Amy shrugged.

"Well look at Coshocton. It's like white trash mania."

"Yeah. And I'm the Bulgarian living there."

"Someone's gotta do it." Chuckled the husky. They continued on their conversation as Maverick battled the ice and snow on their long, slow drive to Zanesville.

---

By the afternoon, the snow had largely stopped. A low, slate colored sky hung low over Newark as the city began the slow and tedious process of digging itself out. Maverick had returned from his slow odyssey to Zanesville and spent the rest of the morning playing in the snow with Robby and his friends, having a neighborhood snowball fight to pass the time on their snow day. By two o'clock, Maverick and Robby went to see his best friend, neighbor, and business partner, Rob Barion.

On the fifth floor of Licking Memorial, the brown elevator doors opened to reveal a crowded elevator, filled with a couple doctors, a patient in a wheelchair, and a whole bunch of balloons. Colorful balloons that read "Get Well Soon!" exploded out as Maverick stumbled, his view blocked by them. The big husky tripped and fell into the hallway, as doctors and nurses scrunched their brows in confusion at him. His son stepped over him, holding a vase full of freshly cut flowers.

"Oh my god, you idiot." Came Karen Barion. Emerging from the elevator, the black, gray, and white furred husky-wolf marched over and grabbed Maverick. She was a trauma nurse from the emergency department, dressed in her blue scrubs with name badge attached. She was sent by security to escort Maverick to the fifth floor, after he had gotten lost by mistake and accidentally walked into an operating room as a surgery was underway.

"Maybe I got too many balloons..." Maverick admitted jokingly. "I might float away like the movie Up!"

"You are dumb." Karen shook her head as she escorted him along. "I have other words, but I'm on the clock."

"Oh I bet you do, B-cups!"

"Make another comment!" Karen pointed with a laugh. She grabbed Maverick and hooked her arm around his and pulled him along.

"You know I would have found my way to Rob's room myself..." Maverick said rather sarcastically as he walked and rounded the bend by the nurse's station.

"Just be glad they didn't throw you out on the spot..." Karen added. "I'm running on fumes, and a thousand milligrams of Tylenol for a bad ass headache, and then they stick me with you!"

"What, is your PMS flaring up again?" grinned Maverick, only to be slapped across the back of his head. "OWW!"

"You oaf, how the hell did you walk into an OR!?"

"I was distracted by all the balloons and walked off the wrong floor! Next time I know I walked through a door and all these people except the patient were pissed off at me!"

"Well I would hope the patient wasn't pissed off!" Karen exclaimed. "He was in surgery!"

"What he don't know won't hurt him or me!" laughed the husky.

"Oh my god, you are so stupid." Karen shook her head.

"You're really abusive~ I can't imagine what Jake deals with."

"Try it, Mav." Karen pointed. She stopped before room 522, and knocked on the door. It was opened by Joey, who welcomed them in.

"Karen what are you doing here?" Joey asked.

"Dumbass here walked into an OR..."

"...on accident, Karen!"

"Don't care!"

Joey chuckled and held the door open as Maverick and Robby stepped into Rob's private room. It was just like any other bleak and sterile hospital room; it had light gray walls and a laminate floor, and it reeked of iodine and disinfectant. Rob laid in bed by the window, looking rather forlorn in his hospital gown. He was recovering well at least from his hip and knee replacements.

"Hey buddy!" Maverick smiled as he presented Rob his balloons.

Rob looked up at Maverick with his usually dour, serious face. He mustered a smile at the sight of the balloons. "Got enough of them, Mav?"

"I know right?" the husky laughed as he released them, the fifteen balloons all hitting the ceiling with a thump. "Cleaned that gift shop out!"

"Here you go!" Robby smiled as he presented Rob a vase of flowers."

"Thank you!" Rob complimented. "You can set that by the window~"

"How've you been?" Mav asked.

"Well...I'm here." Rob cynically laughed. "At least this steady drip of morphine has numbed the pain..."

"Now you're like Jim Morrison!"

"Well, not that far..."

"Hey, think of it this way Rob, you don't have any more hips to break!" Maverick exclaimed with a smile.

"I guess you could say that..."

"Plus that baby's got like a hundred thousand mile powertrain warranty!"

"Shut the fuck up, Maverick~"

"Okay~"

Rob took a slow deep breath. "It sucks. It's all I can say~ It was an accident and nobody could have predicted it."

"That's some Final Destination shit right there~" chuckled the husky.

"No, Final Destination would be me getting cut in half by that propeller like I was made of porcelain or something." Rob rolled his eyes.

"You're probably going to be off your feet for a while..." Karen nodded.

"At least I still have them..." Rob admitted. "But the show must go on."

"All you can do~" Joey smiled.

Rob turned his attention back to Maverick. "How's business?"

A cheeky grin crept up on Maverick's face. "Well...."

"Oh god."

"Let's just say...I have no idea what I'm doing half the time!" laughed the husky. "I get the broadcasting stuff, but aviation? Well... I'm kinda flying at the seat of my pants- no pun intended Rob!"

Rob rolled his eyes in response.

Maverick got more serious as he went through his notes on his phone. He gave Rob a rundown of the business realm; In Fairfax, Barev One was continuing work on reintroducing a "classic Plumbicon" to compliment production of their 30mm Diode-Gun type. It was a "coaxial design", a 30mm tube with a standard trielectrode gun, variable bias light, and separate lead mesh. It had internal modifications to allow it to be a drop-in replacement for older cameras that used integral lead-mesh targets. It was a promising project for Maverick, who wanted to fully restore his vintage fleet of British EMI-2001's. He also announced the promising results of research into improving the Saticon tube, which Barev called the "Saticon V". Improvements in the manufacturing of the amorphous glass target yielded significant improvements in reducing noise levels, lag, and significantly reduced burn-in risk from highlights, along with improved burn mitigation with the "white card trick". It was hoped it would replace their "Saticon IV" tubes in production. On the aviation side, he signed off on introducing the Douglas DC-7 to Centoh Intermodal's fleet. They were several DC-7BF's that were owned by Great Lakes Airlines, now a subsidiary of Centopax. The cargo division now served as a direct subsidiary of Centoh Intermodal. Maverick admitted jokingly and seriously that he didn't quite understand the aviation logistics like Rob. But he was content that things were running smoothly under his tenure.

"So let your best friend do his best damage control!" Maverick concluded with a laugh.

"That's terrifying." Rob smiled with a laugh in return.

"So you spend your time here relaxing and recovering!"

"Yeah, I'm just livin' it up in my hospital room~"

"Hey you got all kinds of neat shit in here!" Maverick teased as he pointed things out. "You got that shitty television on the wall! This weird telephone, TV remote, call button thingy! IV bags with medicine to numb the pain! Shit! I'd love some of that to ease my pain!"

"Oh here we go..." Karen rolled her eyes.

"And this oxygen mask thingy! Heh! Next thing you know you're Dennis Hopper from Blue Velvet!"

Maverick placed the mask on his muzzle and took a deep breath. His eyes immediately rolled into the back of his head and he suddenly just dropped. His whole body went limp and he faceplanted onto Rob's bed, the rest of his body landing on his knees as he kneeled upright, head down. The whole room was quiet, unsure of what just happened.

"Dad...DAD!?" Robby yelled.

Karen raised a brow and slowly tilted her head. She slowly leaned over to notice a large cylinder that was marked "Anesthetic Gas" sitting by Rob's bed. The oxygen mask was hooked up to it.

"Oh boy..."

Karen walked over and smacked the help button on the wall. She grabbed the crash cart and pulled out a yellow Ambu bag which had an oxygen mask on it. She grabbed Maverick and dropped him to the floor; the husky made a gurgling sound as she sealed the mask around his muzzle and began to breathe for him. The door burst open with three nurses and a doctor who came rushing in.

"Oh my god what happened?"

"Dumbass here knocked himself out with anesthesia..." Karen shook her head.

"Way to go, Mav." Joey chuckled.

---

Leveling off at nine thousand feet, "Explorer" departed New York. The vintage Convairliner cruised with its twin Pratt and Whitney's droning along, the radials driving the glistening propellers that etched golden circles in the frigid, clear sky. The all silver propliner was appropriately marked "United Barev Industries" on the upper fuselage, which sported the company logo on the tail. The nose of the CV-440 sported a large yellow arrow that was outlined in black, which spelled "WHIN" on it, the call sign for Barev's BVS division, "We're Here In Newark!". It carried Maverick back from spending the morning at Barev One in Fairfax, Virginia, and the Centoh hub in Lainsville, New York.

"Dude, one minute I was making a Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet joke, and the next thing I knew I was waking up in the ER on a ventilator!" Maverick explained.

"Does it ever hurt to be so stupid?" grinned Felix Barion. The fawn furred Doberman flew in the captain's seat of the Convair, with his best friend Ivo Horvat in the co-pilot's seat. The Doberman flew with a sleeved arm resting on the control yoke, the autopilot engaged.

"You know sometimes I think and- Hey fuck you Felix!" Maverick exclaimed. "I am not Dmitry!"

"You're like slim Dmitry." Laughed Felix.

"I am not Dmitry!" Maverick protested. "I don't act like a bottom feeding ass living at my brother's house eating pepperoni and bologna sandwiches and smacking lips to a beached whale!"

"Or not taking a bath for like a week on end."

"That too~"

"Not gonna lie, that's pretty fucking hilarious." Chuckled Ivo, a twenty-five year old Croatian gray wolf with reddish-brown hair and goatee. Like Felix, he was tattooed up with both his arms sleeved in black and gray artwork.

"Yeah, I had a chuckle too when they took me off the ventilator. But man, that fucking sucks- when they pull the tube out of your throat. It's like oral sex, but in reverse."

"Practice more, it'll fix the gag reflex." Grinned Ivo.

"Heh, you two got that down pat then~" Maverick teased.

"Love ya, Mav~"

"Thanks~" chuckled the husky as he got up to leave the cockpit.

Entering the cabin, Maverick had the entire Convairliner to himself. Rob had made the Convairliner a comfy executive plane. The forward half of the plane was more like a traditional airliner, with airline seats and long couches on the sides. Bathrooms and a galley separated the forward lounge with the private quarters in the rear, which held an office and a bed.

Stepping into the office, Maverick shut the bulkhead door and turned to have his back rest against it. He breathed a sigh of relief that he was heading back home. The husky loosened his dark blue necktie and collar; he felt strangled wearing a necktie. Taking a seat at Rob's walnut colored desk, he resumed work on his laptop, transferring photos off his big Canon to edit and examine. He liked to take photos of his visits, and his pictures captured Maverick having a good time as always. He liked to laugh at himself, and was amused by his own antics captured on his camera. He examined a photo of himself laughing with a lot of the floor workers; it was in contrast to the muted responses that they had when Rob came to visit. Maverick was the inverse of Rob's totalitarianism. Another photo showed him at Lainsville, goofing around with one of the company's DC-6BF transports. It showed him sitting in the captain's seat with a goofy expression on his face as he pretended to fly the Cloudmaster. Another picture showed him pretending to be decapitated by a propeller blade, complete with mock grimace. He chuckled at them as he scanned through. He picked his favorites and dropped into his Telegram chat with Rob, for him to see.

[Thunderbolt82] "Hey, these are nice photos. Why does everyone seem happy when you visit? But when I visit, everyone seems hesitant to talk to me?"

[GreasyBacon84] "..."

[GreasyBacon84] "Uhh, idk? Weird~"

[Thunderbolt82] "Yeah, I don't get it either."

[GreasyBacon84] "Mhmm."

Maverick had a snort at Rob's naïve response. He momentarily turned his attention to messing around with a box of tubes that sat on his desk. He yanked out one of the big 30mm Plumbicons from its Styrofoam packaging and examined it in his grip. It was a big vacuum tube compared to the smaller two-thirds inch tubes he was used to messing around with. The big 30mm's were modeled after English Electric Valve's "Leddicons", and the evacuated glass envelope had a black shroud inside, covering the electron gun components. At one end it had multiple pins protruding out of the glass envelope, and the other end held the lead-oxide target, which had a light tan color, and an anti-halation hood to cancel out reflections. It was prominently marked "ENGINEERING SAMPLE", above its "P-5080RX" title at the base of the tube.

Setting it back into its foam case, Maverick grabbed a felt pen and moved his laptop aside. He opened his sketchbook back up and skimmed through some of his previous drawings. To pass the time, Maverick liked to draw, and his sketches ranged from detailed, to silly little doodles of himself and his friends. He flipped through the pages and smiled at his handiwork; On one page had numerous sketches of his brothers and friends, exaggerated caricatures of Kalash, Vlad, and Dmitry. He drew his best friend Rob as a disgruntled Nixon, and in the upper right, a caricature of Travis Rocha. The Doberman had a over the top "shit eating grin" with squinted eyes. Around his face was scribbled "Shirley" over and over, and beneath it, "I'M NOT SHIRLEY." He flipped the page to see a doodle of his ex-wife Amy, complete with "poofy chef hat".

Another page began his storyboards for a program he wanted to do with his ex-wife, a resumption of a cooking show he once made for her in their old home. It was the program that got Amy discovered, and began her path to actually becoming more than just a kitchen worker at a since closed buffet in Heath. He drew what he envisioned would be the camera angles and placement in his future kitchen, once his house got completed. For the rest of the flight back to Ohio, Maverick kept to himself in the tail of "Explorer", lost in his drawing world as he sketched out his visions.

---

Friday evening was date night for Maverick.

In Columbus, under an overcast sky, the city lights made the gray clouds glow a bit as a light snow flurry fluttered around Easton Town Centre. Maverick and his date, Gabby Sandberg, had spent the evening eating dinner at an Easton pub, and watching a movie at the mall's AMC theatre. Now they ventured to go bowling.

At the bowling center, the AMF sign flickered from a dying lamp, the whole building looking old from the exterior. Maverick stood reading a text from his son on his phone as he waited for Gabby.

"Gabby? Gabby! Where the fuck are you?"

"Ohhh my, sorry about that..." came Gabby from around some bushes. "Oh boy, couldn't hold it anymore! That was a long ride!" She was a sable furred husky, aged thirty-two, dressed in a puffy pink jacket and skinny jeans. Her auburn hair was thick and curly from a perm. "I didn't dribble on the sidewalk, did I?"

"Oh my god..." Maverick rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's go bowling."

"I'm like so excited." She grinned. "I've never gone bowling before!"

"I can't say I'm a champ...but sometimes I get an urge to put my fingers in some balls!" the husky exclaimed with a laugh.

"It's gonna be so fun." Gabby exclaimed.

Going in and paying the entry fee, they found an empty lane to go play a few rounds. The alley was busy, with music and the crashing of bowling pins filling the ambience.

"So I have to like, get my own ball here?"

"Mhmm."

"Let's try this one." Gabby muttered as she grabbed a bright red ball. It immediately took her to the floor with its weight. "Ohhh my~ That's not gonna work...that's too heavy."

Maverick had a laugh as he picked a large blue ball that had a wave pattern to it. He examined it and nodded in approval. Gabby found a bright pink bowling ball, which she examined with a smile. She swung it around with a laugh. "This'll work!"

Going up to the lane, Maverick showed Gabby the basics to bowling, including the right pose and release. On his first attempt, he showed off as he artfully threw the ball down the lane, only for it to fly in the gutter and completely miss. Gabby followed next as she got into position, only to slip and fall as she tried to release the ball. Maverick burst out in laughter; he couldn't help but notice that Gabby was an absolute scatterbrained, klutz. It was hysterical to him.

The big Russian husky artfully released his ball and watched it fly true down the lane. Putting the right backspin on it, it smashed into the pins for a perfect strike. He pumped a fist with a smug look at Gabby, who was fiddling around with her ball.

"Mav...I can't seem to get my fingers out of the holes!" Gabby exclaimed. She tried to pry her fingers out to no avail.

"That sounds like a personal problem!" snorted Maverick with a grin.

"No, I'm serious! My fingers are stuck! Ohhh my...this ball is stuck to my paw!"

"Don't cram your fingers that deep into the hole!" laughed Maverick.

Gabby smacked the ball onto a table, and swung it around to free her fingers. Maverick sat back in his chair and laughed away as she tried to grip it between her legs to force her fingers out; it turned into a very sexualized display as others watched her bounce up and down it. "You son of a bitch!" she shouted. "God damn ball!"

"Oh my god, Gabby." Maverick clutched his sides as he laughed hysterically. It was priceless to him. He closed his eyes and laughed, hard.

"Damn ball!" Gabby yelled. Without looking she swung the ball around in a large arc, only to suddenly strike Maverick across the top of his head. With a mighty smack, Maverick was flung out of his seat; his head recoiled from the blow and he fell against the table and landed on the floor. A shocked and dazed look graced his face.

"Ohhh myyyyy.... Mav! I'm sorry!" Gabby exclaimed. She rushed over, only for the ball to suddenly drop from her fingers and smash right onto Maverick's crotch. The big husky let out a moan as he suppressed the urge to yell. His eyes were as big as saucer plates.

Calling it a night, they left the AMF to return back to Newark. Suffering from a terrible headache, Maverick made the mistake of letting Gabby drive his 3500HD on the highway. It was a terrifying ride back as Gabby recklessly drove his Silverado too fast, and barely paying attention to the great length of his long wheelbase pickup truck. Multiple vehicles got cut off, and many angry horns got blown. Gabby even got a citation after cutting off a state highway patrol officer. After a half hour, adrenaline surging ride, they returned to Gabby's apartment on the south end of Newark, right near the border to Heath. She lived on the second floor of the gray stucco apartment building.

Flipping on the light, Gabby held the door open to Maverick, who staggered in. He looked exhausted as he clutched his head. "I have a terrible headache..."

"Let me get you some Excedrin!" Gabby exclaimed.

"You got an ice pack by chance?" Maverick asked. He winced as he felt the swollen bulge on his head.

"In the freezer Mav!"

The husky staggered over as Gabby was rummaging through her cupboard. She grabbed her bottle of Excedrin and walked over, just as Maverick threw the freezer door open. Gabby's head whipped back as the door struck her square in the face. It practically flung her off her feet as Maverick grabbed an ice pack and placed it on his head. A smile emerged on his face. He turned to notice the sable furred husky on the floor. "Gabby, what the fuck are you doing lying on the ground?"

"Oww, that kinda hurt~" Gabby muttered as she got up. She handed Maverick the bottle. He quickly took two and washed it down with a bottle of water. "Soooo Mav..." she asked with a smutty smirk curling up. "Wanna have some fun in the bedroom?"

"Nah." Mav shook his head. "I don't think I'm in the mood for anything sexy... I also doubt by manly bits work after I got hit with a bowling ball down there..."

"Oh." Gabby frowned.

"I think I'm honestly just gonna figure out how to get home..." Maverick muttered. "Maybe even visit my friend Karen in the ER..."

"Why would your friend be at the ER?"

"...nevermind." Maverick shook his head.

"Before you go, maybe you want some ice cream?" Gabby asked. She quickly turned to rush back to the cupboard to grab a couple bowls, when she suddenly tripped and went down. Her paw smacked a butcher knife that was precariously placed by the sink, which was propelled through the air, and stabbed into the wall, a mere eight inches from Maverick's muzzle. The husky stared with green eyes as big as saucer plates at how close that knife was to his face.

"Holy fuck."

"Ohhh my."

"Gabby...I think I better go."

"Well I hope you had fun!" she smiled and laughed. "I sure did."

"Yeah~ It was a real head knocker~" Maverick chuckled.

"We should do it again sometime!"

"Perhaps~ Have a good night Gabby."

Maverick stepped through the door and closed it. He rubbed his head and put his gray papakha back atop his head. He took two steps and then stumbled, falling over the railing and landing in a big pile of snow on the ground below. "Oww."

---

Sitting at a booth in the back of Tee Jay's, Maverick and Joey waited for breakfast over mugs of coffee. It was another gray and cold Saturday morning. The big husky sat looking exhausted; he had spent half the night at the emergency room being treated for a concussion. Joey looked calm and content as usual as he glanced out the window, sipping his coffee.

"I can't believe I got hit in the head with a bowling ball." Maverick admitted. "Man, did that hurt."

"I could imagine so." Joey chuckled.

"I think there's a reason why Gabby is thirty-two and has never had a successful boyfriend. Weird." Maverick cynically joked. "She also drives like a maniac. I was slamming my foot on the invisible brake the entire time. She about killed seven people on the interstate, including a state highway patrol officer. I'm convinced she put my truck's bumper at least within about a foot and a half of this little old lady and her Prius."

Joey just shook his head.

"The officer called her a fucking idiot. I had a good laugh at it. I also about lost unconsciousness by laughing." Maverick smirked. He tried to laugh, but it made his head hurt too much. "Man that hurt."

"Could be worse..."

"Yeah, I could be Russ with David driving him into the North Fork of the Licking River." The husky chuckled.

"True~ Or your brother."

Mav shuddered. "Fucking Tina. I can't believe Dmitry got back with her after she cheated on him."

"The fact there's someone more desperate than your brother..."

"Terrifying isn't it?" Maverick shook his head. "'D'OH TINA, LICK THE CHICKEN GREASE OFF MY NIPPLES~'"

"Okay, whoa, let's not get carried away." Laughed Joey. "The fact that you guys are so mean to your brother."

"Oh please, like you haven't got a zinger or two in there."

"Okay, he is an easy target~"

"A big target too."

"Remember when you had him run out into a field and you hit him with a baseball?"

"Hey his dumbass agreed to it." Maverick laughed. He then recoiled in pain. "God damnit, Gabby! I can't believe she swung that bowling ball around and hit me!"

Maverick let out a sigh. He pointed to various parts of his face. "It doesn't hurt here...or here...but right here? Man...its throbbing sore..." The husky pointed to a large bump on the right side of his scalp. It was all swollen and bruised. "Is this noticeable?"

"Nah~" Joey smiled.

Walking up to the table was a red Doberman, Travis Rocha. Looking rather chipper, he enthusiastically greeted them. "Yo Joey! Morning!"

"Morning!" Joey smiled.

"'Sup broski- what the fuck did you do to your head?"

"I KNEW IT!" Maverick exclaimed.

"Hey, I was being nice~" Joey grinned.

"You look like you got hit in the head with a bowling pin yo!" Travis laughed.

"Well...close...I got hit with what hits the bowling pin!" Mav exclaimed.

"Dude, how?"

"My date got her fingers stuck in the ball and she swung it around and hit me!"

"Oh who, Gabby?"

Travis immediately smacked a paw over his muzzle and his hazel eyes went wide. He abruptly looked at Joey and then at Maverick, who suddenly grew irate looking. The Doberman started to laugh.

"Oh boy, here we go again..." Joey smiled with a roll of his eyes.

"Travis....how do you know Gabby..."

Travis slowly lowered his paw, revealing a playful smirk on his face. "Bro...what don't I know about Gabby?" A grin curled up on his face. "Oh no! It's Anton's shower all over again."

"Travis!" Maverick shouted. It made the red Doberman burst out laughing.

"Lemme tell you something about Gabby!" grinned Travis. "She's a fucking klutz...dumber than a box of rocks... and when you put your dick in her she goes 'ohhh my!'" He tipped his head back and laughed as Mav grimaced.

"...surely you can't be-"

"I'M NOT SHIRLEY!" screamed the husky. Other patrons of Tee Jays turned to stare at Maverick. The husky was livid at the Doberman, who simply laughed at him.

"You know what? I want an entire list of every broad in the tri-county area you banged!" Mav pointed.

"Hold on! That might take me a few days yo!" Travis teased with a big grin.

Joey chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Maverick, I think we all knew this was going to happen."

"Hey! I'm the landscaper! I come and go!" Travis jokingly defended himself. "Plus! Everyone needs a sexy Brazilian guy in their life! Like me!"

Joey looked over at Maverick. "He does have a legitimate point there~"

"Pfft~" the husky brushed it off. "You just agree with that because you think you're perfect~"

Joey smiled and wagged a finger in agreement.

"If it makes you feel any better...let me give you some advice~" Travis suggested.

"Oh boy...what kind of advice is this going to be?" Maverick rolled his eyes.

"When you hit your age...pussy is like buying a used car...you gotta get the one with lower miles~" Travis explained. He tried to keep a straight face, but a smile wiggled up and he ended up breaking down in laughter. "Unless you're Joey's brother."

The black and Doberman grumbled under his breath about his brother Roberto. "My brother thinks banging teenage girls is like going to the store and getting fresh meat."

"That's pretty disgusting." Travis nodded.

"'You want the young fresh meat man! Not that old shit~'" Joey mocked, impersonating his brother. "Man, how I'd love to beat the shit out of him."

"And eat him?" Maverick added. "Make him into soup!"

Joey shook his head at Maverick with a sarcastic, disdainful gaze. "You're something special."

"Does your Mom and Dad say you're special, Mav?" Travis grinned.

Maverick grumbled and picked up his coffee and took a long, slow sip to the derisive laughter.

---

One Week Later

Under the intense glow of studio lights, Maverick stood slightly hunched in his efforts to service his massive studio camera. Armed with a jeweler's screwdriver, the husky carefully turned the pots to some of the logic boards inside the camera, in an attempt to correct a scanning issue with the luminance tube's yoke. His best friend Rob, finally out of the hospital, sat in a chair watching the monitor on the camera's CCU station, as he adjusted settings to get the camera "painted up". It was a tedious process to get the EMI-2001 working optimally for their "Tube Talk" shoot. Maverick was facing up to reality that his "cobbled together camera" was not meant to be.

A product of the 1960's, the EMI-2001 was a brute of a machine; a heavy, hot-running, four-tube studio camera, that looked like a giant square on its Vinten pedestal. It's Angenieux lens was mounted internally, inside the camera chassis, giving it a compact appearance. The particular camera Maverick serviced was built in 1968, and while it was marked up as a Thames Television EMI-2001, it had spent its long life working for BBC in London. The BBC's engineering department introduced numerous modifications to the camera during its twenty year life, followed by Maverick's own modifications to make the camera work with their company's 30mm Diode-Gun Plumbicon tube. But these modifications made the camera a real nightmare to work on as some of the equipment did not conform to the manuals. When built, the EMI-2001 was a basic camera, using integral mesh tubes, zero comet-tail suppressing circuitry, and even vacuum tube nuvistors on its first stage head amplifiers. BBC modified the camera in the early 1970's to replace the nuvistors with solid state amps, introduced separate mesh tubes with a "comet-tail gun", bias-lighting, and "High Overload Protection", "HOP" circuitry to flood discharge the tubes during their fly back cycle. These additions, while improving performance, made calibration a tricky ordeal, as any slight misalignment with HOP's voltages, would damage the tubes.

Years after it was retired, Maverick had modified the camera to accept the Diode-Gun Plumbicon, as he had no trielectrode tubes in 30mm. But it was a very difficult retrofit as the new tubes required extensive modifications to the scanning yokes, driver boards, pre-amps, beam circuitry boards, and voltage regulators. The Diode-Gun design gave it a finer beam structure and higher resolution, which introduced weird distorting effects with bright highlights. Rather than a normal flare that tapered off on a rapidly moving highlight, the comet-tails in the new tubes had a tearing artifact, creating a flickering flame like appearance. Maverick was able to suppress it for the most part, but it still wasn't a perfect fit. And without a properly calibrated luminance tube to "see" the white channel; he was forced to operate a second green calibrated tube in the socket due to Barev not making luminance channel tubes, it messed with the colorimetry and introduced noise in low light shots.

"There, you got it!"

"There we go!" Maverick breathed a sigh of relief. He practically tossed the screwdriver and slammed the lid shut. "Only took ten minutes of back and forth, back and forth."

"Coulda shot it on the TK-47..." Rob suggested with a sarcastic smirk.

"I could have, but art is pain, Rob." Maverick chuckled.

"If you insist." The wolf-hybrid shrugged.

"Plus, I gotta justify lugging these motherfuckers around." The husky rolled his eyes. He took control of the camera and swept it around the studio, watching the bright studio lights streak across his picture. Rather than the traditional crimson red flaring that Plumbicons gave, the 2001's color matrix in generating color turned the comet-tails a weird green color. They were green, with a blue flare in the center. Mav adjusted the camera and panned down to look at the makeshift set they had made for "Tube Talk", one of the online programs they posted on their company website.

"You want to talk about pain?" Rob suggested as he got up. He winced and slowly stood, his body aching. "This is pain~"

"Well, don't let a propeller fall on you next time!"

Rob glared at Maverick as he slowly hobbled his way around the studio to double check their set for "Tube Talk". The set was nothing more than three propped up structures, made of two by sixes and OSB sheets, covered with sound deadening foam pyramid spikes. Their unique shape, when lit up, produced an interesting backdrop that Rob and Mav both liked, so it became the backdrop to "Tube Talk". Instead of the usual desk, the set was dominated by a giant Klystron tube, which sat on a rolling base, and the third EMI-2001 that Maverick owned; they were the subject matter of today's video session.

Taking over the two idling cameras were Marcus Barion and his older brother, Borr Eklund. The two Nordic huskies worked over the controls as Rob directed from his chair off camera. Maverick stood on camera explaining Barev's newest products. The Russian husky gave his usual enthusiasm, which always worked well with the casual atmosphere of the program. He pointed out the features of the Klystron, then showed off and explained his vintage "Emmy", which lead into the introduction of the new 30mm Plumbicon tube, and Saticon V tube. Rob announced "cut", and he and Maverick quickly made their way to the editing room, to review the footage.

---

On an old Sony Trinitron played the edited footage of their latest episode of "Tube Talk". It had been cut together in real time by Ryan McDowd and Corey Wilhelm in the VTR room, edited on the old Ampex station, and recorded to one inch on one of the Sony BHV-2000's. Maverick and Rob sat around the old TV set and watched the playback, as they jotted down notes on their notepads.

"See? This is what I'm talking about." Maverick pointed on the screen. "Look at this low light noise and that weird green tint in the blacks."

"It's very subtle, but I see it." Rob nodded.

"It's so irritating because I know that's from the use of a green tube for the Y-channel." Maverick shook his head. "No matter what I do, I can't overcome that oh so subtle green tint- unless I want to crush the black levels."

"And there's your flickering comet-tails." Chuckled Rob with a tap of his pen on the screen. A close up shot of the Angenieux lens showed reflections of the glass, which comet-tailed when zoomed out. The pinpricks of light gave the tearing flare effect, which Maverick annoyingly groaned to.

"Like I always say- you have to design the camera around the tube." Rob smiled. "The Diode-Gun has too fine of a beam to the line structure, and its tearing through the scans because the camera can't interpret the fine structure."

"Yeah, yeah." The husky brushed off sarcastically. "Fuck it, once we get a batch of standard tubes, I'm demodding these."

"I'm sure I could ask the engineers to check to see if there's a few Plumbs we could get as a genuine luminance tube."

"Oh that'd be great. I'LL TAKE TEN THOUSAND! D'OH!"

"Well, think of it this way, you got it to work at least."

"That's right~"

"Wanna do lunch?" Rob suggested.

"Sure~"

Maverick helped Rob get up and assisted him to his truck. The wolf-hybrid walked with a pain filled, slow shuffle as Maverick kept an arm around his best friend to stabilize him. Rob just could not sit still as he recovered from his surgery and therapy sessions. He was helped into Mav's Silverado, and they took off from the former bus depot, onto Church Street. They continued discussing about the "Emmy" as they made their way up 21st Street, to Tee Jay's, their usual lunch spot together.

"Jesus...why the fuck does this happen to me..." Rob winced as Maverick helped him into his booth. The husky took a seat opposite of him. "Everything hurts when I walk."

"Well, everything's still healing." The husky chuckled. "Once you heal back up, you'll return to being the terminator!"

"I guess." Rob said in a plain way. "It sucks, just lying around all day. I wanna be sedated till I heal all up!"

"The Ramones made a song about that." Maverick chuckled. "Want me to sing it?"

"No."

"Okay~"

"I guess don't get hit by a prop." Rob concluded sarcastically.

"Good point. You're such an intellectual." Mav nodded.

"Some days I wish I could change my life and not be like this...but I'd have to fundamentally change in so many ways...and I'm not comfortable embarking on that journey... another time."

Maverick nodded in understanding as the waitress returned with their food.

Rob picked up the salt shaker and slowly and methodically salted his French fries. "I'm probably gonna be off my feet 'till April at the earliest according to the orthopedic specialist."

"Hey, take that time to yourself."

"Heh, I'd go insane without keeping myself occupied." Chuckled Rob.

"Wait you're not already insane?" Maverick grinned. Rob glared and shook his head at his friend.

"No comment." Was Rob's reply.

"You've been through a lot~" Maverick added, reminding Rob that he knew where Rob came from.

"And knowing there's more to come." Chuckled Rob cynically.

"That's life though."

"Yep."

---

Following lunch, Maverick hit the road with Rob for the neighboring town of Hebron. Making a left turn off 21st Street, they hopped onto Route 16, which looped around on the off ramp to Route 79, Hebron Road, which cut through Heath. The blue Silverado rumbled through the rain, which fell from a low, milk gray sky. They were on a mission for work; to visit the Hebron Business Park.

Situated just outside the small city of Hebron was the crumbling, forlorn industrial park. It had once provided thousands of jobs for Licking County residents, but now the complex was desolate, dotted with numerous empty factories and offices. Parking lots that once held cars were now cordoned off, the pavement cracked and bleached by the sun and snow. Buildings were sealed up, their exteriors roughened by the lack of care. Rob and Maverick entered on Milliken Drive and drove around the complex, looking at all the abandoned factories, in search for the next building to grow Barev.

"I'd like to, in the long term, have a second factory set up in Ohio, and move research and development over here." Rob explained as he examined an abandoned facility that passed into view.

"Maybe get more involved in the solar panel industry? Since that's a viable, long term growth strategy." The husky nodded in agreement. "Especially since Fairfax makes some solar components for other companies."

"Big money maker around the world, even here! Despite the troglodytes in Washington~" Rob rolled his eyes. "Plus, I think Fairfax is starting to get swamped."

"Yeah."

"Have Fairfax focus manufacturing of magnetic tape, tubes, transistors, and lighting products, and then move future development over to an Ohio factory to take pressure off them. And also have R and D in its own separate facility. I want things a bit dispersed for potential contingency mitigation."

"I guess don't put all your eggs in one basket?"

"Exactly. Especially in these volatile times." Rob shook his head. "I fear for this country, Mav."

"I do too."

"What are we going to leave for our future generations? A burnt out society up their eyeballs in debt because people are fucking stupid and greedy? Like I always say, we live in a world where goodness is murdered and mediocrity thrives."

"Short term takes precedence over long term."

"Yeah, and it's gonna be our downfall."

Maverick made a right turn off Milliken into an empty parking lot of an abandoned factory. The giant facility had a small office section up front, with a large warehouse like building immediately behind it, all clad in dingy tan concrete. Maverick and Rob got out, the wolf-hybrid severely limping along. The husky put his arm around Rob and held his best friend up as they walked, examining the dejected building. There were a few murmurs between them as they checked the building out. Their assessment was to the point; the building could serve Barev's growth well, but it would need a lot of work to remediate the facility.

"This building has got to be at least three-quarters of a mile long." Rob pointed out. "It's got potential."

"Great potential, once the gremlins get ironed out." Mav nodded. "I can already tell just by the water damage here, that the roof is all fucked."

"Yep~" Rob nodded. He turned and slowly shuffled his way towards the retention pond, which showed some signs of erosion around the storm drain. The wolf-hybrid approached, to examine the erosion when his foot slipped. The ground practically disintegrated as Rob went down. He fell face first into the gray, lifeless water with a frigid splash.

"Rob!" shouted Maverick. The husky ran over, only to slip on the mud and go flying into the water beside Rob. He splashed around as he got his footing and got up, to quickly grab Rob and help him up to his trembling feet.

"FUCK!" shouted Rob. "Damnit!"

"Oh fuck me~" Maverick groaned. "This is murky water!"

"No shit!"

---

Sitting on the toilet, Rob looked a bit embarrassed being nude in front of his friend, who tended to cleaning up a scrape he got on his arm. Maverick, who was nude as well, dabbed at the wound with a cotton ball soaked in peroxide to clean it up. Rob's dour face was scrunched in pain from his lower extremities. Both he and the husky were covered in mud.

"That should do it." The husky said as he threw the cotton ball away. "Let's get you...and myself cleaned up."

"Oh boy, just what I always wanted...showering with my best friend..." Rob rolled his eyes.

"It's not gay if your balls don't touch~" Maverick teased with a hearty laugh. Rob shook his head at him in mock disdain. The husky grabbed Rob and helped him up to his feet, which he winced and groaned from his aching knees and hip. Turning on the water, Maverick checked its temperature, and assisted Rob into the shower. He practically had to lift him up over the tub to get him in.

Rob didn't say anything as he braced himself against the wall. His legs constantly looked like they would give out as he stood up with all his strength. Maverick cleaned Rob's fur up; he gently washed his face and got the mud out of his wavy locks of brown hair. He grabbed the soap and washed the top of his head and face, which he rinsed off gently with the shower head in his grip. He grabbed the bottle of body wash and scrubbed Rob's pelt of brown and tan fur down, without hesitation. The water flowed brown with mud that came off his pelt. He was mindful of the still healing surgical sites on his left hip and both his knees, which he took extra time to clean to prevent infection. He finally then rinsed Rob completely off, which he turned his attention to himself under the hot stream of water.

"Thanks~" Rob complimented.

"Anything for a friend." Maverick responded as he rinsed himself off casually. He struck a sarcastic pose and flex, with a snort and a grin. Rob shook his head at him; he couldn't hold back from a smile.

"Stud service, Rob! Look at it!" Maverick boasted. "Russian beefcake right here!"

"Pfft. Please." Rob snorted. "If you were stud service, Travis wouldn't be out fucking your chicks~"

"TRAVIS!" Maverick exclaimed. "Call me Shirley again!"

"What!?" Rob burst out laughing. "Maverick, what the fuck are you talking about?"

"Travis calls me Shirley!"

"Uhhhhhh..."

"He calls me Shirley, as if he's doubting my masculinity!" Maverick griped. He pointed at his floppy uncut member. "This is my masculinity right here!"

Rob rolled his eyes. "You make me roll my eyes so much, I'm amazed they haven't rolled out of my skull yet."

"Wouldn't be the first time you lost a body part or two!" laughed Maverick. "Too soon?"

"Har, har."

Getting out, Maverick helped pat Rob dry, followed by himself as he tossed the towel aside and looked at himself in the mirror.

"Oh my god, you're so full of yourself." Rob laughed as Maverick looked smug at his own reflection. "You are becoming Roberto."

"NO!" Maverick snorted. "I don't fuck fourteen year olds!"

"Good point~"

"My big dick would clobber them!"

"Please. You tried this challenge and lost with Joey. Remember?"

"...don't remind me." Maverick shook his head. "HEY! Want some Man Butter on your face!"

"Oh my fucking god, no! Not this shit again."

Maverick picked up a tube of "Man Butter", a lotion for his goatee. It was an opaque, white colored gel that he squirted into his paw and rubbed into his thick goatee. "But it makes my goatee nice and soft! Plus it has aloe in it to keep the skin soft! I even put some on my lips here!"

"...hope it's not poisonous~"

"No." Rob reiterated. He glanced back over to find Maverick rubbing the gel all over his lips. The white, gooey color and appearance made the wolf-hybrid burst out laughing at the sheer suggestiveness of it.

"You look like you just guzzled the cum of five guys."

"My name's not Rusty, or TRAVIS!" Maverick exclaimed. "How would Travis feel if I fucked all of his girls?"

"I honestly don't think he would give a shit~" Rob admitted with a shrug.

Maverick looked disappointed. "Damnit..."

Maverick helped Rob to the couch, where he stuffed a pillow behind his friend's head. The wolf-hybrid laid on his couch with a blanket pulled over him.

"Just rest." Maverick suggested. "You've only been out of the hospital a week now."

Rob slowly exhaled. "I overdid it."

"Just rest." The husky reiterated. "Recover and get better, and in the meantime, I have things fully under control at Barev."

"Okay~" Rob nodded in agreement.

"Trust me!" Maverick smiled.

---

After dropping Robby off at school, Maverick made his way to work. In the early morning hour, the sun hung low on the eastern horizon, casting long shadows amongst the homes and trees of Newark. Making his way down Church Street, he endured the stop and go of every intersection, as he made his way to his office, located at the former school bus depot. The big husky sat in his truck sipping a mug of coffee he had made and listened to some music that blared on his truck's radio. His one ton sat higher than the sedans in front of him, allowing him to see over traffic as he waited for the light to turn green. Finally, after what felt like eternity at the intersection of 21st, he began his way down Church for the right turn onto Day Avenue.

Just as he crossed through the intersection, Mav heard sirens; he glanced in his tow mirror to see an ambulance rushing towards him. He quickly pulled over and watched it fly past him, their sirens blaring and lights flickering. Maverick turned the wheel and got back to driving, but noticed immediately that the ambulance was slowing up and turning onto Day Avenue, its siren cutting off. It was turning into the parking lot of BVS.

"Oh boy."

Spinning the wheel, Maverick turned quickly onto Day and immediately into the parking lot of BVS, where he immediately spotted the ambulance parking next to a fire truck. The garage door to the studio was open, and the faint waft of smoke was emitted through the open door as fire hoses were brought inside. Jumping out, the husky looked gobsmacked.

"Maverick!" called Marcus. The white and gray Nordic husky with blonde hair and goatee marched over, looking about as dour as Rob.

"What the hell happened here?"

"Part of the roof fucking gave out and the lighting gantry hit Shane."

"Wow." Maverick muttered.

Out of the corner of his eye, Maverick spotted a couple paramedics moving Shane on the stretcher. Maverick rushed over to see the tan husky clutching bloody bandages on his forehead. His face had a couple streaks of oxidizing blood cake his sable colored fur. His clothes were covered in dust and torn up in a few places.

"Morning, Mav~" Shane Phyllis said in a sardonic fashion. He even mustered a smile.

"Jesus Christ, you alright?"

"Probably! I think I might have broken my leg! Heh! Break a leg they say! Ha!" he laughed with a wince. Even as he was loaded into the ambulance, he continued speaking to Maverick.

"This building fucking sucks, Mav! The damn roof gave in!" Shane shouted. "The building downtown better not do that when I get back!" Shane laughed as the doors were closed and the paramedics climbed aboard to make the trip to the hospital. Maverick looked dumbfounded.

Marcus walked over to stand with Maverick. "This building is a piece of shit."

"I know."

Turning to look at the building, Maverick gazed at the yellow bricked bus depot. It was an inadequate facility for Barev's broadcasting division, and each and every day reminded him, Marcus, and Rob, of its inadequateness. It was the product of extreme exigency when their former home, Baker House, was burned down by arson. Moving what was left into the bus depot was a compromise; the building was purchased in 2014 and used mostly for storage by Rob, but it's transforming into a broadcasting video production house was a very poor fit. It didn't have the power to run all the power hungry videotape machines, didn't have the space to even fit the VTR's and editing station, let alone workers! The studio was nothing more than a former maintenance garage, and it required almost a half million in upgrades to just come up to minimal specifications. What made Maverick upset was the fact that the roof to the garage was reinforced to handle the weight of the lighting gantry, and it still gave out.

"Tell the others to not bother coming in." Maverick suggested to Marcus. "Give them the day off, and just fill out the incident report for OSHA."

"Alrighty." Marcus nodded.

"Friday's aren't supposed to be like this."

"Life's full of bullshit." Marcus shrugged.

"Yep~"

Once the minor fire was extinguished, Maverick and Marcus made an assessment of the damage. A gaping hole in the roof let the morning light in as the smooth concrete floor was littered with debris. Photos were taken, and statements were filled out for OSHA as it now fell under their jurisdiction.

"Just how I love my Friday's!" Maverick quipped sardonically.

---

Arriving downtown, a flustered looking Maverick pulled up front to the former Newark High School, which was cordoned off by a fence. It was the future home of Barev, its BVS division, and Viking Records, VRS, the business owned by his friend, Varg Eikemo.

Hopping out, he popped the back door open on his crew cab and fiddled around with his camera suitcase. He pulled out his BVP-3 Betacam, and a cassette and smacked the door shut. Going through the fence barricade, he made his way inside the old brick school. It was time to capture the usual "Friday Update" on the building. Always on analog. Always on tube cameras.

"Mornin' Maverick!" greeted Connor McDouglas. A brown furred, Irish wolf, the thirty-six year old Connor lead the construction team that was in the midst of restoring the old high school into the headquarters of Barev. He spoke with a friendly Irish drawl.

"Mornin'!" Maverick returned the greeting, but with a manic grin and wide eyes.

"You look extra crazy today~" chuckled the wolf.

"Well, it's been one of those days." Maverick laughed cynically. "Nothin' starts a Friday off right like finding out one of your workers almost died when the fucking roof gave in!"

"What?" Connor exclaimed. "I thought you guys reinforced it?"

"I thought so too!" the husky exclaimed. "But this morning a gantry fell on Shane and broke a leg. And started a minor fire! So once fuckin' again we're out of a studio! YIPPE WHOOP-DEE DOO DA!"

Connor grimaced at the news. "Well...not to add fuel to the fire...but I have some bad news."

"Oh joy! I love getting fucked in the ass with no lube!"

A grin curled up slightly on Connor's muzzle. "Well...I wasn't going to word it like that... you ever thought about coming out of the closet?"

"Ha!" the husky pointed. "Joke's on you motherfucker! I might be gettin' me some pussay for the weekend! Hitting up lunch with this artist chick at the Sparta~"

"Oh boy~" Connor chuckled.

"Her name's Susan. She's kinda quirky, but man she's got some titties on her." Maverick pointed out.

"Well before we activate the launch sequence to your testosterone... I have some bad news." Connor chuckled, his smile fading. "So we found some issues with the gas lines leading into the building...and we're gonna have to replace that. So it's gonna set the timetables back just a wee bit."

"WHOO! Sounds explosive!" Maverick mockingly quipped. "That's just what I want to hear!"

"Thought you might like to add more bad news on that bad news cake~"

"That's right. I'm a glutton for punishment with Rob gone!" Maverick laughed.

"You handle these things with humor rather than Rob's frustration." Connor admitted.

"Well yeah, since I'm not the love child of Nixon and Goebbels." Teased the husky. The quip made Connor laugh, who was Rob's boyfriend from years ago.

"That's quite a way of describing Rob, Mav~"

"I know right?"

Getting down to business, Maverick recorded his segment about the building progress onto his Betacam. He explored around the building to gradually find the interior slowly coming together. From its gutted, spartan start, the walls and floors were slowly coming together as workers labored in the cold interior. The husky got his shots, thanked Connor, and departed for his truck, to continue on with his itinerary for the day. He drove down two blocks towards the courthouse, to what was once the Sparta restaurant, a long time fixture in downtown Newark. It was repurposed into a sort of artsy club that served coffee and snacks. It was the place where Maverick planned to meet Susan, a freelance artist who lived in town.

Inside the small, narrow restaurant, it was dim, the interior having a dark stained finish, reminiscent to its origins from the early 1900's. Ceiling fans slowly turned above, dangling from the textured ceiling.

"So you're a freelance artist!" Mav smiled over coffee and a pastry.

"Yeah, it's fun." Susan smiled back. She was a black and white furred husky, short and squat, the same age as Mav. "Sometimes money's a bit tight, heh, heh, starving artist, right? But I love what I do~"

"That's what counts." Maverick nodded.

"So you do some art as well you mentioned?"

"Yeah! Well, it's a bit different. I do some painting and drawing work for my company me and my friend run. I'm the vice-president of United Barev Industries."

"Heh, is this one of those heartless corporations that enslave people?" Susan teased.

Maverick tilted his head a bit at the quip. "Well we're not a corporation... a growing company of aviation and broadcasting services..."

"Sorry, I just have a thing about corporations and greed in this country." Susan admitted. "That's why I'm freelance, I'm not controlled by anyone or anything."

"Different strokes for different folks." Maverick shrugged a bit. "I did that basically when I was in my twenties- me and my best friend Rob, trying to start our own company while working for the school district."

"Ahh, I see." Susan nodded. "Right here in Newark?"

"Yeah~ I was one of the videotape technicians for NETA, the Newark Educational Telecommunications Association. That convoluted name." chuckled the husky. "When they shut us down, we created RJB Television, which evolved into Barev, and now United Barev."

"Schools are a joke anymore because of how people want to run it into the ground." Susan shook her head disappointedly. "I think education should be completely free for anyone, free college, free schools, just like healthcare."

"Well nothing's free in life~" chuckled Maverick. "I hear people always talking about these pipe dreams, and let's be honest, nothing is free in life. Taxes pay for things. Money just doesn't grow on trees~"

"Well we just need to tax the rich~"

Maverick chuckled a bit. "That's kind of a pipe dream don't you think?"

"If Bernie Sanders gets it, it'll happen~"

"Pfft." The husky brushed off with a sarcastic swipe of a paw. "Do you really think anyone, let alone an almost eighty year old man, can overcome the political orthodoxy that is Washington? There is so much money already rooted in Washington- do you really think anyone, including Sanders himself? Would want to cut that away from them? I mean I get it, and I think people need to be taxed fairly in proportion to their income... but come on now."

"What the fuck are you, a conservative or something?"

"Lemme break out my MAGA hat." Maverick joked.

"You sound like a Trump supporter."

"I'm not, respectfully~" Maverick gazed with somewhat serious eyes. "I am a registered Democrat in the state of Ohio. I disagree heavily with huge aspects of the conservative agenda, but I'm kind of a realist in this hold the carrot out, everything's free shit, is not going to work. This full on embrace of socialism- which I don't have a particular problem with socialism...but this naïve, it'll fix everything! Approach, is not going to work out."

There was an awkward silence between them as they sat.

Mav cleared his throat. "Anyways..."

Susan inhaled and exhaled slowly. "So you draw?"

"I do." Maverick nodded. He fiddled through his phone to find a couple photos he had taken of his various doodles and drawings. A lot of what he had photographed was destroyed in his house fire. He swung it around to show Susan, who scanned through them. They were various drawings; some were done with pastels, a couple with watercolors and oil paints. A painting of a hard-nosed, stern faced Rob, a silly caricature of him and his brothers, a terrible sketch of his overweight brother Dmitry as Jabba the Hutt, and a painting of his ex-wife Amy. Susan fumbled her brow as she examined them, the husky looking up at Maverick.

"I think a lot of these are really condescending?" Susan admitted, rather bluntly.

"Excuse me?" Maverick muttered with a bewildered smirk.

"You seem to depict a sense of male patriarchy? You body shame with your work, and you assume gender roles." Susan critiqued.

"...is this a joke or something?"

"No." Susan stared back at Mav. "The painting of the woman holding the whisk and bowl. You painted her in a flower pattern blouse holding kitchen utensils with a kitchen background. You automatically assume that because she's a woman, she belongs in the kitchen."

"...that's my ex-wife? She's a chef?"

"You automatically assigned her gender role with that painting."

"She's a chef?" Maverick muttered. "What the fuck did you want me to draw her as? A bull dyke with a Sinead O'Connor buzz cut? Biker bitch with a leather jacket? That's my ex-wife!"

"See there you go again."

"Bullshit~"

"And you depict your brother as this fat loser."

"Heh, well that's quite accurate."

"Body shaming, tisk, tisk. There is nothing wrong with his body."

"Other than his huge body mass index running the risk of heart disease? Diabetes? Strokes? Heart attacks? Being mentally retarded?"

"You're lucky you're a well in shape guy, who's never faced discrimination like what you propagate unwittingly. That's the kind of power you hold in society- you're like all the other guys, oblivious to your societal power."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the fuck up." Maverick cut in. "You literally just sat here and ripped my shit apart because it's 'discriminatory', then fire back with that quip? You really had the audacity to say that? Look Susan, discrimination goes both ways. You sitting here and lumping me up with "all the other guys" is just as stereotypical and discriminatory? That makes you a glaring hypocrite! If you want to be PC go right ahead, but I'm just going to be me, and I take people for what they are. I'm morbid, yes, is it kinda offensive, yeah...I get it...but this condescending bullshit from you...it's stupid. It really is stupid."

"At least my work tries to empower people, like my drawings of female superhero concepts!" Susan retorted as she held up her sketchpad.

The Russian husky blurted out laughing. "Oh my fucking god, PMS Gal? You're gonna have a superhero over women's issues?"

"Take the taboo out of it!"

"What her superpower? Being a fucking bitch?" snorted Maverick. "What's next? You gonna have Abby the Abortionist? Pregnancy Girl? She shoots milk outta her titties at enemies! At least mine are funny."

Susan ground her teeth at Maverick. She looked visibly upset. Slamming her sketchbook shut, she quickly got up.

"I thought you were a good looking guy, but you're like all the other misogynist pigs."

"Same to you toots. You're just another moonbat Bernie Bot wantin' the gooberment to subsidize your lifestyle~ Want more money? Get a fucking job ya bum!"

Susan stormed off in a huff with her belongings.

"Hey! Get the sand outta your vagina! It'll feel better!" Maverick laughed. He finished his coffee and got up, to pay the tab and leave. He felt blindsided by the whole thing.

"Maybe pussy isn't the all mighty goal at thirty-six..." Mav thought to himself as he left for his truck. It was not turning out to be a good day for him. At all.

---

The weekend gave Maverick time for some respite. After a hectic, "in your face Friday", Maverick decided to take the whole weekend to himself and his son. Away from the headaches of Barev, away from his other friends, Maverick and his son Robby spent a Saturday morning working in his garage. The only structure left from the original house, the two enjoyed a sunny, mild morning, as the sounds of construction filtered through. In the background, through the open door, their new home was in the midst of construction. An army of laborers worked to slap new siding and roof shingles onto the prefab home that was finally laid onto its foundation.

The garage was a large two-car unit, with one half of it dedicated as Maverick's workshop. The other half of the garage held his two exotic cars; a pale gray East German Trabant, and a military green "Soviet Jeep", a GAZ-469, in the markings of the "Group of Soviet Forces in Germany". In the workshop half, under the glow of a work light, Maverick and his son worked on servicing a studio camera the husky was restoring back to operation.

Sitting partially dismantled on a tripod was a vintage Hitachi SK-110. The latest acquisition by Maverick for his tube camera collection, it was a boxy looking, beige studio camera, built in 1981. It had a large Canon lens attached to the front, and a tiltable viewfinder on the backside. Cosmetically it was in good shape, but it had come in completely dead; Maverick had spent some time cleaning the logic boards up and recapping dead capacitors to bring it back to life. He was in the midst of changing its video pickup tubes out. Not far away, two other SK-110's sat idling with their lens caps on; Maverick had changed the tubes out on them and were running them to stabilize the cathodes to their new set of Saticons.

Helping his Dad out, Robby unpackaged a new set of tubes. The big inch and a quarter Saticons were neatly packaged in a blue Barev box, which was appropriately labeled "Saticon V ABO". The tan husky took the cover off and found the three tubes neatly packaged in Styrofoam, their sensitive imaging targets covered with a plastic sleeve. "So how does one of these work again?" Robby asked as he handed the green tube off to his dad.

Maverick swung himself around on his swivel seat and accepted the green tube from Robby. He popped the plastic sleeve off, revealing the Saticon's glossy purple imaging target at the end of the tube. "So basically any charge storage vidicon type tube works on this same principle. Light focused by a lens hits the image target and it builds up a charge, which is held by the phosphors. A scanning electron beam from the cathode, or 'gun' scans the target and discharges it. The scanned image is converted by the camera into a video signal and sent out."

"It's got a neat purple color~" Robby noted.

"That's how you can always spot a Saticon." Chuckled Maverick. "It's an amorphous glass target- made of Selenium, Arsenic, and Tellurium. It's got a number of unique features compared to the Plumbicon that I like~"

"Oooh~" Robby responded.

His father reached over to his desk to pull a big 30mm Plumbicon from a case. It was one of the black sleeved Diode-Gun Plumbicons. "You can always tell these two tube types apart by the color of their imaging target. Saticons have a very deep purple, almost black, imaging target, while a Plumbicon has this light tan color, from the lead-oxide and a wee bit of sulphur. Plumbs also have this neat little anti-halation hood on the target, since they suffer from light haloing from reflections in the prism splitter and target region."

"Ahh." Robby nodded. "Which tube is better?"

"Oh boy." Laughed Maverick. "That's where me and Rob have been having this argument now for almost twenty years!"

"Heee!" laughed Robby.

"They're both good tubes, since they've been used in a lot of broadcasting applications, and they have a number of unique advantages and disadvantages."

"Right~"

"Saticons have a very long tube life, and they don't get blemishes like Plumbicons sometimes. The way the target is manufactured, it can be very thick, or very thin, and it will not affect the overall sensitivity of light gathering power. They have a much stronger red channel, and they're much easier to manufacture. However...they're more susceptible to highlight burns, and they have a higher noise profile in low lighting conditions. They also tend to be about 10 foot-candles or so less sensitive than a Plumbicon. The latter tube was basically the defacto broadcast tube for nearly thirty years. Plumbs have a very high burn-in resistance, and they tend to be quieter even in high gain settings. The only issues I get annoyed with is their shorter gun life, and the issue with holes, and blemishes sometimes appearing as the tube is used. They can get laggy if the bias-light isn't configured right, and you have to be very strict on the camera flare suppression because of the halation issues with the target bouncing light around."

"Ooooh~" Robby nodded.

"Needless to say, they both have advantages and disadvantages, but both are adequate tubes for broadcasting applications. Now everything's chip based. Boring!" the big husky laughed in conclusion.

Robby watched as Maverick went to work on installing his new tubes into the optical assembly of the camera. Maverick pointed out the steps and technique as he installed the tube into its magnetic deflection yoke. They were installed into their yokes and given a half-turn to lock into place, with Maverick pointing out the proper orientation needed. He let Robby install the red and blue tubes, with his oversight. With the tubes installed, he very carefully picked up the assembled optical assembly and carried it over into the camera, where it was gingerly wedged into and screwed into place. Maverick then wedged his big paws into the space and installed the wiring harnesses to the base of the tubes.

"That'll do it, then it has to be calibrated and 'painted' up~" he pointed out. He adjusted a few other bits and pieces to the optical block and its light baffles before he reached over and powered the camera up via its CCU. Very slowly, he engaged the tubes and allowed them to warm up for their first time. Robby watched on an old Trinitron, a picture beginning to emerge. The screen turned white for a second, with an inverted, X-ray like image of the garage coming into view. It turned green, then magenta, and blue, which signaled each tube coming online. The picture was dim and uneven with severe aberrations from misalignment of the color channels. The young husky grabbed the easel with a calibration chart on it, and sat it in front of the camera for his Dad, who began the tedious process of aligning and calibrating the tubes. Robby was shown how the scan amplitudes were adjusted on each channel to cancel out the aberrations of the lens. Black and white levels were adjusted, and the shading and flare suppression channels were tweaked to eliminate a contrast issue that stemmed from the tube's bias lighting. It took about twenty minutes of adjusting to get the camera to produce an optimal picture.

"And that's how you get one of these back up and running~" chuckled Maverick as he secured the side panels back on. "Now we'll let this idle for about forty minutes, to stabilize the tube guns."

"Cool~" smiled Robby. "Think one of these are ready?"

"I'm sure. Let's test it!" suggested the husky as they walked over to fiddle around with one of the SK-110's. Mav pulled the lens cap off and adjusted the iris settings for the lens, finding a strong, sharp picture in the camera's viewfinder. He turned the controls over to Robby, who looked up at the monitor as he panned the camera around the garage. His Dad showed him some of the controls as the young husky zoomed in and slowly focused a tight shot of a can of spray paint on the desk. He liked watching the bokeh change shape and focus, as the spray can stood out from the blurred background. Robby whipped the zoom handle and rapidly zoomed out; the lens was very responsive. Panning the camera, Robby watched as the spotlight was caught in his view. The bright light was overblown in his picture, comet-tailing with a long white trail that streaked across the picture, leaving a momentary afterimage that faded away slowly.

"And that's your Saticon image quality." Smiled Maverick as he took the controls from his son and messed around with his camera.

"Neat!" Robby exclaimed. "We should shoot something with them!"

"In due time! For the cooking show with Amy." Maverick said as he patted the side of his camera. "How about you and me test out the SK-97's?"

"Oooh~"

Walking over to the workbench, Robby picked up one of the SK-97's, Hitachi's "Computacam". It was another three-tube camera, encased in a rectangular beige and gray body. It had the usual carry handle on top, with a microphone bolted to it, and a large Fujinon lens, complete with SRD-52 zoom grip. The young husky placed it on his shoulder to give it a try.

"Yeah, I got these from my buddy, Santornini- our salvaged broadcast wonder." Chuckled Maverick as he checked out the second camera. "It's one of Hitachi's cameras that use automatic computer assisted setup, hence the 'Computacam' like my Z31's. These cameras use the low-capacity Diode-Gun Saticon tube~"

"We need to test these!" Robby suggested.

"I think we can do that!" Maverick agreed.

---

Lobdell Reserve was a prairieland park, situated just outside the little city of Alexandria. It had a large, largely circular trail, crisscrossed by horse trails and other walking paths, leading to various fields, woodland, disc golf, and the Lobdell Creek, which cut through the middle of the park. It was Maverick and Robby's destination to go play around with their cameras.

The Lobdell Creek was subject to Robby's camera. The young husky stood near the creek on a flat opening, looking into the viewfinder of his SK-97, which sat on a tripod. He got a crisp, monochrome image of the creek, as water flowed over rocks, creating little eddies and swirls. Winter turned the water a clear, steel blue color as it flowed. Working the controls, Robby very slowly zoomed out, his left paw gently turning the lens to maintain focus as he zoomed out. He followed his Dad's advice. Not only did he have his bulky tube camera, but the husky had a videotape recorder strapped to his side; a bulky BVU-150 U-Matic deck. Maverick looked the same, with his VTR and camera combination.

The two huskies spent some time at the creek, capturing the sights and sounds onto videotape. The sway of naked branches, the calming sound of water flowing over pebbles, the wind rustling browned leaves that littered the woodland floor. They spent an hour by the creek, before packing up and continuing on their hike through the prairie.

Robby kept up with his Dad as they walked through the mud soaked grass trail. He lugged the camera on his right shoulder, the VTR strap bouncing on his opposite. His backpack had the tripod lashed to it. His skinny body could just barely hold the weight.

"This is a lot of gear, Dad." Robby admitted as they marched along.

"Art is pain they say." Chuckled Maverick, who's muscular body easily handled the gear's weight. "This is how it used to be in the eighties when this stuff was in its prime."

"People had to have been body builders." Laughed Robby.

"And to think, that U-Matic deck was lightweight! Compared to monstrosities like the VO-3800, which wasn't even high band!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, the first portable U-Matic recorders were thirty pound beasts that recorded about twenty minutes of video on a single battery." Maverick recalled. "Low band U-Matic looks terrible."

"Even the name gives it away!" Robby chuckled.

"Indeed!" Maverick chuckled as well. "So how'd you like the Computacam?"

"I like it!" Robby agreed. "I can't wait to edit the footage."

"That I'll show ya how it's done. I'll even show you how to 'grade' a picture."

"Cool~"

"Yeah, the tedious part." The husky laughed. "Me and Rob sometimes sit for hours playing back each shot and reviewing it."

"I'm excited to see how this camera is going to look picture wise."

"You'll be pleasantly surprised what sharpness you'll get with the Diode-Guns verses your JVC with its industrial grade Saticons."

"So how does that work?"

"Most standard tubes are a trielectrode gun design, which is your heater, cathode, and the grid. On the Diode-Gun design, it's a two terminal type gun, which has positive voltage applied to grid one. In principle, this design allows a finer, 'cooler' scanning electron beam, which in turn improves target resolution. It also allows enhanced beam reserve for highlight suppression, but that's partially disabled in the camera."

"Why's that, Dad?"

"Me and Rob have partially disabled comet-tail suppression- I mean, why restore a tube camera if it's not gonna make comet-tails? Plus, if you don't get the voltages and current correct the first time... You can really damage and brick the tubes."

"Ohhh."

"We partially disable a lot of the circuitry- it's just easier to set them up that way, and yeah, I'll admit, I bricked one set of tubes when I got to set up a TK-47EP. Comet-tail suppression on a Diode-Gun type tube is basically positive feedback. The camera detects a highlight overload from say, a bright light, and it increases beam current on the fly back cycle to stabilize the highway, to prevent the overload. You have to factor in that beam reserve when you set up the tubes because if it gets too high, you condition the cathode for an early failure. They burn out, in essence. I had accidentally set the beam current a wee bit too high, maybe ten milliamps or something? We were calibrating it and goofing around and I was playing with a drop light that had a bright LED in it. Camera picked that overload up and initially handled it well, but we watched the picture just fall apart and go to black. All three tubes burned out."

"Ouch. That's not good!"

"Try changing those big thirty millimeters out with these BIG SAUSAGE FINGERS OF MINE! D'OH!" Maverick laughed. "Pain in my rear end! So me and Rob just disable the circuitry- we leave a few bits and pieces intact since we can control and modify comet-tail flaring, colors, and intensity through a few tweaks. Heh, analog magic~"

"Sounds fun!"

"I'll show you some more when we do maintenance." Maverick chuckled.

Returning to his truck, they packed their gear away in the backseat, and took off for Newark, down the two lane country road. Route 114 lead to the sole intersection in tiny Alexandria, with a left turn that took on Route 37 for the main highway, Route 161.

"When do you think we can move into our new house?" Robby asked curiously as he watched the scenery pass by on the highway.

"Hopefully mid-next week." Maverick assumed. "They got it attached and secured to the foundation, and are finishing up with the siding, roof, and interior. Then we can get some more furniture, and turn that place into our home again!"

Robby nodded and had a look of introspection on his young face. "Scares me to think about the house fire."

"I know~"

"I hope that never happens again."

"I agree completely." Mav nodded. "Sometimes I feel like life hasn't been normal for a long time. After everything you and me have been through."

"Mhmm. We've been through a lot together."

"And I wouldn't have it any other way~" Mav smiled in return. "Things will go back to normal, I promise."

"Do you think you'll ever find a girlfriend?" Robby asked curiously.

"One that won't kill me accidentally? I mean~" Maverick laughed. "Oh who knows. But you're still fine with me dating, son?"

"I am." Smiled the husky. "Fine with me!"

"You know I always consult stuff with you."

"Mhmm~"

"It's you and me Robby. In it for the long haul." Chuckled Maverick as he continued on driving back home.

---

After spending an afternoon with his son shooting and editing video, it was dinner time, at his parent's house. Living on the north end of Newark was Alexei and Tatiana Tokarev, the aging Russian-Ukrainian parents of Maverick and his brothers, Kalash, Vlad, and Dmitry. They lived in a big two story house that was covered in brown siding. It was the home they had purchased after being resettled by the US government in early 1987. Every month, they liked to bring the whole family over, for a meal and catching up on everyone's hectic lives.

The door bell rung, which brought Tatiana moving quickly to answer it. Always dressed in gray slacks and a pink sweater, the aging Ukrainian husky opened the door to reveal Maverick and Robby.

"Hello! Mavvy! Robby!"

"Hello!" they greeted.

"Come on in!" She warmly greeted. She gave her youngest son and adopted grandson a tight hug and took their coats from them. At the table sat Maverick's oldest brother, Konstantin, "Kalash", a short forty-one year old husky with his Russian wife Maria, and his two teenage kids, Ivan, and Julia.

"Hey, where's Vlad, Nico, and Dmitry?" Maverick asked.

"Heh, probably scraping dum-dum's bottom feeding ass up." Kalash shook his head. "I'm hungry! And I gotta wait on the Dmitrysaurus."

Mav rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Worthless."

"Yeah~" chuckled Kalash.

Robby took a seat at the table, while Maverick ventured into the kitchen, to find his parents working to finish up food that was in the process of cooking. The kitchen was upgraded with a whole new kitchen suite that Maverick had surprised his parents for Christmas. A new Whirlpool fridge, oven, and dishwasher, all adorned in black stainless steel.

"Oh Maverick! I love my new kitchen suite!" his Mom exclaimed excitedly. "So much more space in the fridge! And the oven is so fancy!"

"Yeah, it's great." Smiled Maverick. "It's totally not like someone forgot to clean everything for a month. Ridiculous!"

"I still miss the simplicity of my old Kelvinator's~"

"Well considering they haven't made a new Kelvinator since I was three..."

"I guess it's time to get an upgrade then!" Alexei exclaimed as he stirred a large pot of borscht that cooked on the stove.

"This isn't the Soviet Union anymore~ You don't have to keep everything for whole decades!" laughed Maverick. "THIS IS 'MERICA! EXPLOIT CHEAP LABOR FOR MAXIMUM PROFITS! PFFFFFFPFFFFFFPPPFFFFFT!"

The door bell was heard in the kitchen.

"I'll get it!" Maverick exclaimed.

"Oh thank you! Food will be done in about ten minutes!" Tatiana figured with a happy smile.

Maverick left the kitchen and walked over to answer the door. He swung the door open to reveal his older brothers, pudgy Dmitry, and skinny Vlad, and Vlad's lover, Nico Timofeyevich, tall, gruff looking red Doberman, from Serbia. Dmitry and Vlad looked similar to Maverick, with the same "husky mask" pattern on their face, but with blonde hair.

"About time you fuckers showed up!" Maverick jokingly scoffed. "Come the fuck in, ya fuck!"

"Hey fuck you, Mav!" grinned Vlad. He and Nico both pointed to Dmitry. "Dum-dum held us up."

Nico shook his head. "We had to take Tina home..."

Mav looked at his brother with a bewildered smirk on his face. "What the fuck happened to your car? You wreck it eating a taco off the passenger seat again like a moron?"

"No!" Dmitry snapped back. "It has a flat tire in the driveway!"

"Those tires do have to hold a lot of weight..."

"Fuck you, Mav." Dmitry shook his head. "I must have punctured it when I hit a bunch of wood that was lying on the road!"

"Yeah, maybe not hitting road debris would be a great idea! Just a suggestion to use common sense!" Vlad exclaimed.

"That way we don't have to suffer with Tina in the truck..." Nico grunted.

"Fuck you guys!" Dmitry snapped as he made his way through the door and shoved Maverick aside. The husky hit the coat rack and fell onto the ground, much to the laughter to his brothers. Maverick grabbed Dmitry's leg and made him trip as well. He landed on the living room floor and everything rattled.

"Whoa! Earthquake!" Kalash laughed as he got up. "Hey Dmitry! Where's your dumbass girlfriend? You put her in a food coma again?"

"No! She had to go home."

"For what? She's a grown ass woman in her thirties!"

"She has to help her Mom!"

"Oh, her Mom with 'back problems'. Pfft." Kalash rolled his eyes.

"Or your girlfriend who doesn't work because she 'doesn't like people'" Vlad teased with a grin.

"One of these days I'm going to snap and-"

"Do absolutely nothing, flubbumms." Mocked Maverick. "You've been dealing with this for thirty-six years, why would it be any different?"

"I guess..."

Shedding coats, they took a seat at the table. Nico, Vlad, and Dmitry revealed their arms that were tattooed up with sleeves; Vlad and Nico had both arms sleeved, while Dmitry had his right arm decorated in a colorful sleeve design. Tatiana and Alexei came out momentarily to greet everyone, and mentioned about their cousin Sergei visiting with his husband Ryan. She went back into the kitchen, to finish up on her borscht that was boiling on the stove. There was some food on the table, which the brothers nibbled on while they waited.

"When are you moving into your new house?" Kalash asked Maverick.

"Hopefully mid-next week. I need to get furniture and appliances."

"Heh, gonna get Samsung again?" teased Dmitry.

"NO!" Maverick exclaimed. "And what? Have an instant replay of what happened the last time?"

"Or don't run the oven busted?" Vlad gestured with a sarcastic grimace.

"And eat minute rice until they fix it? Screw that!" laughed the husky. "I'm getting Maytag."

"Oooh, so fancy~" Vlad laughed.

"Black stainless steel bitch! I'll get all the chicks to make me a sandwich!" Maverick blurted out with a laugh.

"I'm helping him install the appliances!" Robby grinned.

"What? You're not having Lowe's do it?" Nico asked curiously.

"Yeah, and what? Get a bunch of third-party goobers come and fuck everything up like the last time? Then I have to deal with that bitch named Sam at Lowe's? Yeah, fuck that~ I'm a real man, Nico! I can do it myself!"

"Oh boy, can't wait to watch this unfold." Dmitry chuckled.

"Ha! Coming from you?" Kalash shook his head. "Idiot." He chuckled as Dmitry flipped him off.

"I bet you couldn't even put a water line on a fridge you dolt. In fact, what is it that you even do at Barev?"

"I'm the graphic designer?"

"Wow."

"You completely forgot didn't you?" Vlad pointed and laughed.

"Well I mean, all I ever see Dmitry fucking do is just draw phallic shaped stupid shit on a computer."

"I draw dick shapes, Mav!"

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK PHALLUS MEANS!?"

"Oh..."

"Moron~"

"Oh yeah? Call me stupid again! In fact! I got a e-mail from Central Ohio Technical College, that's C-O-T-C by the way!"

"We know..." Everyone responded in unison.

"They e-mailed me, inquiring if I could teach a class or two on graphic design!"

"HA!" Vlad burst out laughing. "You teach graphic design?"

"You can barely keep gravy in a mashed potato volcano..." Nico shook his head at him.

"You could barely spell your name for the tattoo artist as well, dimwit." Maverick pointed.

"But I got a nice sleeve out of it!"

"Yeah! To cover it up ding-dong!" Kalash rolled his eyes.

"Keep laughing! Everyone keep on laughing! One of these days you're gonna blink and I won't be here!" Dmitry scoffed.

Maverick blinked. "Not today!"

"SHUT UP!"

"Why don't shut up and eat your pelmeni, ya fuck!" Kalash laughed as he threw a dumpling at his brother, which hit him in the forehead.

"Don't throw pelmeni at me!"

Vlad, Kalash, and Maverick grabbed their dumplings and chucked them at Dmitry, which smacked him all over.

"STOP IT!" he yelled.

Emerging from the kitchen as Alexei, who juggled a large tureen of borscht in his grip. "Dinner's ready!" he happily exclaimed.

"Oh Dmitry..." Tatiana muttered. "You are such a messy eater."

Everyone erupted in laughter as Dmitry sat and sulked. He slowly grabbed a dumpling and ate it while dealing with his brothers and their relentless ribbing.

---

By mid-week, the new 623 Karen Parkway stood completed. The surprise Christmas gift for Maverick sat surrounded by a yard that was completely destroyed by construction. It was another ranch style home, sheathed in cedar siding that was a mottled honey brown color. Even the garage got repaired and overhauled in the same cedar siding. It looked superficially similar to the old home, but a front porch adorned the front of the house, complete with awning. The roof was slate gray.

Inside, a new hardwood floor covered most of the house, a streaky, earthy, hardwood made of maple. The kitchen had a smooth tile floor that looked like granite, and it was completed with an island, countertops, and cupboards, all stained a dark mahogany. The countertops were a dark granite color. The kitchen and living room were painted in an inviting rich blue, with white trim around the corners and baseboard. The whole house was empty, devoid of furniture. But that was soon to change.

Maverick and Robby pulled into the parking lot of the Heath Lowe's. It was an impromptu visit to the home improvement store; the delivery team from Lowe's had arrived with his kitchen suite, but an oversight on the paperwork meant the washer and dryer didn't get delivered. So Maverick decided to go grab it himself and install it with his son, who was off from school on account of a "teacher professional day".

"I was going to do it all myself... and I should have." Maverick said to his son as they walked across the parking lot. "But then I realized that I'd probably break the fridge before I even got it inside the house!"

"Yeah, those are heavy, Dad." Chuckled Robby. "We can manage the washer and dryer!"

"That's right! Put that gym workout of mine to use!" laughed Maverick.

Going back to the appliance department, Maverick met up with a salesperson and explained the situation about the missing washer and dryer. He showed some paperwork, and a search through the ordering system brought up the discrepancy. It was quickly resolved with the washer and dryer, boxed up, being brought out from receiving on a blue flat cart.

"Okay Mister Mav! Two Maytag black stainless units!"

"Perfect! I'll be right back, gonna grab the hookups!"

Maverick walked with Robby two aisles over to pick up appliance accessories; a set of hoses for the washer, a power cord and vent for the dryer. Maverick juggled them into his grip as he walked back to collect his washer and dryer for checkout. His eyes spotted his cart, and he watched as an Indian couple approached it, apparently mistaking his appliances for theirs. They grabbed the cart and started to roll with it; Maverick quickened his pace and practically dropped everything onto the floor. He ran, his paw ripping a random flyswatter that hung off the rack for sale. The big husky charged over and slapped the man across the paw with the flyswatter, practically startling the husband and wife.

"GET'YO THIRD WORLD PAWS OFF MY CART!" Maverick yelled through clenched teeth. He held the flyswatter raised up like a weapon. His quip only startled them more before they retreated away.

"Dad! I got them! I got them!" Robby yelled as he came running over, the accessories nearly bouncing out of his grip.

Maverick took charge of his cart and pulled it along behind him. It was easier to maneuver around that way. Robby walked behind the cart, following his Dad as he dodged customers wandering about the store. As he approached the checkout lanes, the husky spotted the Assistant Store Manager, a woman in her late thirties named Sam Weiss. She was a white furred wolfess with a bob cut, "Karen" hairdo. She looked like a "Karen". Mav could just hear "I want to speak to your manager" in his head. Mav could not stand her; she was a "colossal bitch" during his original suite delivery the year before, and was just as uncooperative during the latest delivery debacle. She made eye contact with Maverick, her face souring into a glare. Mav glared back sarcastically, only to suddenly smack his head into a support column. He fell to the floor comically, other customers stopping to stare. The husky got up, regained composure, grabbed his cart and continued walking, his head following Sam as he glared at her. He slipped around a corner, only to peer around and glare back for a few seconds. He then slipped from view again.

Returning home, Maverick and his son unloaded each unit and brought them inside on his dolly. Maverick stopped to just glance in awe at his new home. He was ecstatic about finally getting his place back. He walked into his kitchen and just looked on happily at his new kitchen appliances. The black stainless looked perfect.

"It's coming together! Slowly!" Maverick exclaimed to his son. "I think Friday is when they're bringing the furniture. So next week, we can finally get everything back on track!"

"I'm excited." Grinned his son.

"I know! Same here!" Maverick grinned in return. "No more having to hear Andrew and Marie argue about how deep a pan is before it's a pot!"

"Or about who invented the back yard!" Robby laughed.

"Come on! Let's get this washer and dryer installed!"

"Okay!"

Pulling the washer out of the box first, Maverick checked it over before placing it on his dolly and wheeling it to the steps to the basement. He was just about to make the first step down when the dolly shifted over the transition strip at the edge of the stairwell. He watched as his expensive Maytag fell off the dolly and came crashing down the flight of stairs. It bounced and struck the concrete wall of his basement, coming to grief completely smashed up. Maverick and Robby stood staring at it.

"Dad, I don't think that's how they're supposed to go down the steps..."

"I know, Robby."

A second trip to Lowe's got a replacement washer, after Mav had lied about it "coming out of the box damaged". He managed to get both units down the steps and put into place in the laundry room, where he began to put things together with Robby. Sitting behind the units, Maverick sat on the concrete floor, hooking up the drain hose, while Robby put on the hot and cold lines.

"Dad, this line isn't threading on I don't think?"

"Lemme see."

Maverick reached over and fiddled around with the coupling. "Try that?"

Robby turned on the water, only for the hot line to come flying off and hitting Maverick in the face with a stream of hot water. He grabbed the hose and fought with it as it flailed about and hit everything with water. Robby quickly shut the water off.

"IT'S HOT!" Maverick exclaimed. He quickly threaded it back on and tightened it down with a pair of pliers. "Holy crap~"

"Did that burn, Dad?"

"Just a lil~"

The husky got up and took the corrugated drain hose and shoved it down the drain pipe. "There we go! I shoved my hose down the throat real deep! It ain't coming out!"

"There we go!" Robby cheered as he grabbed the zip tie and secured the hose to the pipe.

"Yeah!" Maverick cheered. He gave his son a high five. "We did it!"

"Let me just plug the dryer in and-" Maverick was cut off midsentence as he plugged in the dryer cord, only to suddenly have a jolt of electricity throw him practically across the room. His wet paw made contact with a prong and electricity shot through his whole body. Maverick landed on the floor and had a whole body twinge. The fur on his head stood puffed up. He stared with blank looking eyes.

"Oh my god Dad!" Robby yelled. "Dad! You have an afro!"

Without words, Maverick got up and stretched his arms. He simply pushed the dryer back into place and blinked a few times, his face having a bit of a spasm. "Wow."

"Dad are you okay?" Robby asked.

"I will in a bit." Maverick nodded. "That really hurt~" He grabbed his arm and shook it and walked away.

"At least that's all done. We're getting there!" Robby mustered a smile with a hesitant laugh.

---

With the Friday morning sun slowly emerging over the hills outside of Coshocton, Maverick arrived into town to visit his ex-wife on Valentine's Day. He pulled off Chestnut Street and onto the square where he drove straight into a parking spot in front of Amy's workplace. He parked next to the blue Ford Fiesta that was Amy's rental car. Stepping inside, Maverick found a very quiet scene; the restaurant had only a few people eating breakfast at such an early hour of the morning. He scanned the eatery quickly, and met up with the manager, who let him into the kitchen.

Emerging through the flapping double doors, Mav spotted Amy at work at the griddle. He tilted his head in concern at the pain filled posture Amy gave as she cooked.

"Hey Amy?"

Amy turned her head around, revealing an exhausted face. She breathed slowly, methodically.

"Hey, Mav~"

"You doing okay?" the husky asked out of concern.

"I'm in some pain..." Amy admitted as she moved a tray of cooked hash browns to the prep table. She let out a slow exhale. "I'm having a pain flare-up attack again..."

"Oh no, what happened?"

"This happens sometimes... I aggravated some nerves when I fell in the tub this morning..." Amy said with a wince. She forced herself to keep moving. A wrong twist of her torso made her practically stumble, which Maverick rushed forward to help.

"Amy let me help you-"

Maverick grasped Amy by her side, and she literally fell on the floor in writhing pain. The husky looked on in shock as he pulled his paws back.

"Oww! Oww! Don't touch there!" Amy exclaimed. "Oh man did that hurt!"

"Oh my god, I'm sorry! Amy I'm-"

"It's okay~" the wolfess muttered. She clawed her way back up to her feet and braced herself against a sink. "It is what it is."

Getting a chance to take a break and rest a bit, Amy grabbed a cup of coffee and sat with Maverick in a booth by the window that overlooked downtown Coshocton. Mav surprised her with a Valentine's gift; a heart shaped box of candy, and a red furred teddy bear. It brought a smile to an exhausted face.

"These pain flare-ups are terrible. Nothing helps at all- I just have to let it run its course." Amy sighed. She tapped her fingers on the rim of the mug. "It's what I have to deal with. Damaged nerves from my burn injuries."

Mav shook his head sadly with pursed lips. "How's the car?"

"Well, not totaled. Amazingly~" Amy forced a smile and a laugh. "There was a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit from the insurance agency, as usual, but they're going to repair it. It's just going to take a bit of time."

"Well that's good, kinda~" chuckled the husky. "Sometimes automobiles don't go back together the same."

"Gee, thanks..." Amy cynically laughed. "Such encouragement!"

"Hey I'm honest!" laughed Maverick.

"You are honest." She smiled at him. "Oh well. Is what it is, Mav-O."

"Yep~"

"So you're moving into your new house soon?"

"Hopefully by early next week. Furniture is getting delivered today and tomorrow. That's really all that's left, other than our stuff at Andrew and Marie's."

"I'm going to have to make time and come see the new home!" Amy cheerfully exclaimed.

Maverick showed her a picture of the exterior of his home, which Amy excitedly commented on the beautiful cedar siding.

"You should get Travis to do your landscaping." Amy chuckled. She watched Maverick tilt his head a bit and give her the stink eye at such a suggestion. A grin curled up on her face before laughing at him.

"Yeah, and what? So he can find out which broad I'm dating next so he can make his move and sow his wild oats?" Mav grumbled sarcastically.

"Oh my god. Here you go." Laughed Amy.

"I gotta pick my battles Amy!"

Amy shook her head and laughed. "Are you taking anyone to dinner for Valentine's Day?"

"I am in fact~"

"Oh yeah?"

"This chick named Megan, I met on this dating site. We've talked a bunch, she seems nice and not batshit insane, plus I just might get laid~"

"Heh, your last two were real victory lappers weren't they?"

"...no comment."

"Heh~ I might have a dinner date myself."

"Oh yeah? She got a nice cooch to lick?"

"Oh my god, stop it!" Amy exclaimed with a grimace as she looked around.

"Hey, you know how I am~"

"I know..." Amy stared sarcastically. "His name's John, a regular here..."

"John sounds like some dirty old man."

"He's my age!"

"People still name their kids like that? Wow, I thought we've evolved to names like La-Dash-A, Quantisha, Kashton, Braxton, McKayla, or Question Mark?"

"You are so stupid." Laughed Amy. "Take a friggin' look around this town and ask yourself- would anyone name their child that?"

"No- because Coshocton's full of aging wonder bread boomers, with their trash ass families." Laughed Maverick.

"There you have it~" Amy chuckled. "John is his name! He's my age."

"Neat~" Mav raised a coffee mug to it. "Hope you have fun~"

"Don't get hit with a bowling ball this time, Mav~" Amy teased as she raised her mug in support.

---

Returning back to Newark, Maverick stepped foot inside BVS to find himself inundated by everyone and their paperwork and issues that were going on at the former bus depot. He simply pushed them aside and walked as Marcus, Charles, Nico, and Borr were all clambering about budgets, repairs, and publications.

"One at a time people! One at a time!" Maverick exclaimed as he went into the VTR room to greet Shane, who was back to work with his leg encased in a plaster cast.

"How are you feeling, Shane?" Mav asked with genuine concern.

"Better!" the husky laughed. "I'll get the cast off in about a month."

"Good~" smiled Maverick.

"You should check out the new lighting gantries!"

"The roof is fully repaired, and it's been properly reinforced this time." Marcus added as he handed Maverick the purchase order and receipts.

"Perfect. Next!"

"Purchase order here for a case of new videocassettes." Charles explained as he sorted through his stack of paperwork. "And bills. The bills!"

"Ahh the bills!" Mav exclaimed.

"The bills, Maverick!" Charles chuckled as he handed them to the husky.

"Next!"

"The rough draft for the Barev website updates." Nico explained with his copy.

Borr spoke up. "Just letting you know, we are transferring the Magnuson videotapes right now to DigiBeta."

"Perfect!~ Gentlemen! Thank you!" Maverick exclaimed.

Continuing on, Maverick stepped into the studio, finding a break between a production of another episode of "Thinkabout". Ryan and his friend Corey manned two of their four TK-47A studio cameras, which sat idling on the set with a couple local Newark talents. The studio roof was repaired, and a brand new, fancier lighting gantry now hung, with further reinforcements to keep it from collapsing again. The studio lights above glowed brilliantly. Giving a brief scan of the studio, Maverick left and returned to his "office", which he had to share with Marcus and Nico. The other two were hard at work at their workstations crunching information. Maverick shoved some paperwork aside and worked on the stack he carried about. He read through gobbledygook, initialed in some areas, and signed his name in other areas with a blue felt pen. He was interrupted periodically by messages from his date, which he answered on his phone before always going back to work filling out his paperwork. He was looking forward to his dinner-date with Megan. They messaged the time and location, interspersed with little sarcastic quips and one-liners.

The telephone interrupted his thoughts as Maverick traded his cellphone, for his desk phone.

"Barev Video Services, Maverick Tokarev speaking~"

"Maverick! Just the man, it's Connor laddie!" came the Irish tinted voice of Rob's ex. "How's it going?"

"Chuggin' along!" laughed Maverick. "What's up?"

"Hey, I wanted to bring you good news that it looks like the gas line repair isn't going to be as extensive as originally envisioned~"

"Oh good."

"No explosion hazards." Chuckled Connor.

"Yeah, not that I have firsthand experience to fires. HA, HA, HA." Maverick laughed mockingly at himself.

"We'll replace a coupling and a small section of the line and it'll be good to go for inspection."

"Perfect, thank you!"

"Thanks, Mav~ Goodbye."

"Goodbye~" the husky concluded before hanging up the phone. "Even better news, Marcus!"

"Oh yeah?" the Nordic husky asked as he typed an e-mail.

"Gas line to the new building isn't going to be as complex to replace, so that's great."

"Less money expended."

"I love pissing away money~"

"Gotcha, Trump."

"And I don't have to launder Russian rubles!"

"At least things are looking up~" Nico nodded.

"I'm glad. Rob would kill me~ Metaphorically, not literally."

Nico and Marcus simply shook their head at Maverick, who laughed at himself and his morbid jokes.

---

The steak house was a dimly lit, artfully dark restaurant on the east end of Columbus. Candles flickered on tables, the warm amber glow of lamps casting long shadows on the dark lacquered walls. Couples filled the restaurant as Valentine's dinner was underway.

Lead to his table, Maverick followed the waitress who carried menus tucked under her arm. Maverick walked with a big vase of red roses in his grip. The husky was dressed in a charcoal gray sweater that had a snowflake pattern on it, and a neatly faded pair of Rock Revival jeans. He walked up to his table, sat his vase down and took a seat. He now waited for his date to show up.

Maverick glanced around at all the other couples; it made him think about his own desire to get back into a relationship, and move on from his divorce four years prior. The husky tinkered around his phone to pass the time as he waited. And waited. And waited. He checked the time and watched as her expected arrival time slipped further and further away. Ten minutes, then twenty, then forty minutes elapsed, and there was nothing. No text, phone call, nothing.

"Hey...uhh...are you coming?" Maverick sent Megan a text. He didn't get anything back as he checked the time again.

"Jesus Christ...fashionably late..." he thought to himself. He sent another text five minutes later, to no response again. His face grew scrunched in frustration as Maverick fired off another text. The thought of being ghosted, loomed in his mind. Finally, after many annoying minutes, he got an incoming call from her.

"Yeah~" Maverick greeted.

"Hey." Came a soft voice.

"Where are you at? It's been like, an hour."

"Yeah, I know."

"Okay?"

"Look, I'm sorry, I'm not coming. I just...don't want to do this."

"Thanks for leaving me hanging?"

"Sorry."

The line went dead.

Maverick pulled his phone away and looked at the screen, which read "call ended". He looked dumbfounded, blindsided by the abruptness of it all. It was replaced by a depressing gaze of disappointment. The husky looked around at all the couples that surrounded him, and felt the sting of being snubbed.

Getting up, he grabbed his vase of flowers and just left. It was a complete waste of money for the reservation. He even blew almost three hundred dollars on a five star hotel room for them after dinner. The husky looked bitter as he sat the vase in his passenger seat and buckled it in. Jumping into his Silverado, he turned the key and fired his turbodiesel up, but paused. He just sat in the parking lot, fuming, pondering just what he did wrong? Was it a comment he had made in passing? A joke that wasn't taken as one? He didn't know. The husky smacked a paw against his face and grumbled at "me fucking myself up as usual". It was times like this that he felt like he was defective; a flawed, worthless person.

A buzz from his phone pulled him away from his sulking thoughts. Glancing at his phone, he saw two new text messages, one from Amy, and one from Megan. He read Megan's first, which read "I hope you have a good night, Mav", to which he replied "Yeah, fuck you too.". He blocked her number. He took a deep breath and read Amy's next.

"So my date completely fucked me over." Read Amy's note.

"Oh yeah? My date did the same to me..."

A minute later, he got a reply back. "Wow, that really sucks. Sorry Mav~"

Maverick called Amy, which she answered after two rings.

"Hey, sorry to hear your date stood you up as well, Amy."

"Yeah. I get a text like ten minutes before I left saying he just couldn't go through with it because his family didn't want him to date a foreigner."

"Wow. Fuck that guy."

"Pfft. Yeah!"

"My ho just straight up ghosted me! Said she couldn't do it. Pfft. Her fucking loss!"

"That sucks."

"Hey, you wanna grab dinner Amy? Maybe take Robby and go someplace?"

"Sure!"

A smile brightened up Maverick's face. "I'll be over."

He popped the shifter into reverse and he quickly backed up to leave. He had a long drive ahead of him to Coshocton.

---

In Hilliard, the Dave and Busters sign glowed, overlooking the outerbelt of Columbus on the west end. It was the site for Maverick, Amy, and Robby, who arrived for an evening of fun together at the arcade and sports bar. Inside, the atmosphere was loud and energetic, as colorful lights flashed on arcade games.

"Hey! Let's tear it up on Dance-Dance Revolution!" Maverick suggested excitedly.

"Oh my god, do you not realize what my body has gone through?"

"Pain is just weakness leaving the body, Amy!"

"Spare me that shit." The wolfess laughed as she brushed it off.

"Come on Robby! Let's do this!"

"Okay!" the young husky exclaimed.

Amy chuckled and watched as Maverick and Robby took up their positions on the floor pads and picked an energetic song to dance to. Maverick worked his long legs as he slammed his feet onto the pads to keep up with the arrows on his screen. The husky showed off some of his dance moves as he twirled around and gave a playful grin at his ex-wife. He flexed his arms and gave a spin, to stick his landing on the right arrows to get a combo.

"Yeah!" Mav laughed. "Remember my clubbing days!"

"I remember when you threw up on the DJ~" laughed Amy.

"SOMEONE SPIKED THE PUNCH!" Maverick yelled at Amy. "BOOM! High score Robby! EAT IT!"

"Round two, Dad!" Robby laughed.

Amy watched a few rounds of DDR with Maverick and Robby, where they continued on to play some of the other arcade games. Amy joined in on some of the less intense games, which she enjoyed herself with her ex. They spent hours in the arcade, laughing and playing, before collecting prizes and enjoying dinner.

The dining section of Dave and Busters wasn't much quieter as the trio shared a booth in the back. Over hamburgers, and milkshakes, they enjoyed dinner. Amy sat on the other side of the booth, with a giant stuffed bear next to her that Maverick had won for her in a basketball contest game. She sipped on a brilliant blue mixed drink from the bar.

"Oh wow, that was so much fun. I don't think I've done anything like that in eons." Amy admitted with a laugh.

"Well, what can I say, I have fun~" grinned Maverick with a snort.

"I laughed pretty hard when you fell on your ass dancing!" Amy laughed.

"Hey! I was in the heat of the moment! Lost my balance!" Maverick laughed obnoxiously. He rubbed his shoulder, which was sore from falling and hitting the photography booth. "This shoulder's a bit messed up."

"Getting old, Mavvy."

"Look who's talking!" Maverick pointed with a grin.

"Please! You don't ask a woman her age!"

"Pretty soon you'll be rollin' them titties up!"

"HA! Jokes on you." Amy snorted. "I'd look better had some morons didn't dump hot water on me..."

"Hey, ass is ass." Laughed the husky.

"MAV!" Amy grimaced. "Jesus Christ we're in public! And in front of Robby!"

"Hey, gotta teach em' young." Mav sarcastically shrugged.

"Oh lord~" Amy shook her head sarcastically.

"Just think! Had you gone on your date with John, it'd probably been boring!"

"Well yeah, it's Coshocton..." Amy stared sarcastically. "The whole place shuts down at like, six o'clock."

"John sounds like a boring old man anyways~"

"He's my age!" Amy laughed. "John is not an old man!"

Maverick impersonated an old man with a raspy, gravelly voice. "Oh lemme put my chompers on that cooch!"

"MAV!" Amy exclaimed through clenched teeth. "There's people around us!!"

"So what? Life's a joke! Have a laugh~"

"Your sense of humor hasn't changed a bit~" Amy smiled.

"I'll be here all week." Maverick said with a nod. He took sip of his glass of water. "Jokes aside. Our disappointment turned into something more fun~"

"I agree." Amy nodded. "This dating game sucks."

"Well, we're a bit past our prime..."

"Oh my god, you're thirty-six!"

"Hey! That's four years from turning forty! Once you hit your forties it's all downhill!" Maverick joked with a laugh.

"I'm going to be thirteen~" Robby spoke up.

"Pfft. That's nothing kid! Wait till you're my age~"

Amy rolled her eyes and laughed.

---

The clock struck midnight when Maverick pulled up to Amy's apartment in Coshocton. Robby awoke from his slumber as he watched Amy climb out, followed by Maverick. Mav walked Amy to her apartment door, his truck's headlights illuminating them. Amy opened her apartment door and tossed the giant stuffed bear inside before flipping on the living room lights. Maverick handed her the vase of flowers, which she sat inside as well before turning her attention to her ex.

Amy threw her arms around Maverick and hugged him tightly. "Oh thank you for so much fun!"

"Anything." Smiled Maverick. "Seemed like old times, ya know?"

"It did~ So many memories." Amy nodded.

"Yep~"

"We should...do that again sometime."

"Yeah! I liked it."

"Just don't die doing DDR."

"Duly noted."

Maverick gave Amy a hug in return and smiled. "Have a good night Amy."

"Safe driving home Mavvy! Take care!"

"Good night!" waved the husky as he returned to his truck. Amy waved back and stepped inside her apartment and closed the door behind her.

Turning around, Maverick drove through the night with his sleeping son, who now rode in the front seat with him. The young husky's head rested on the window as he slept, the headlights peering into the darkness on Route 16. Maverick looked content as he drove home; he felt that his night went from failure, to a resounding success. Everything felt like it had fallen into place. He felt optimistic again. He had a nice Valentine's Day, and now he was ready to prepare the final move back into his own home.

---

The room that had served as his bedroom for three months was now nearly empty once again, as Maverick taped up the last of his boxes of personal belongings. He picked the box up and stood, staring at what remained, mainly the dresser with the big mirror on it. His own bed had now been moved to his new house up the road.

"Did you get everything?" Marie asked as she stepped into the room.

"Yep. This is the last of everything." Maverick nodded. "Thanks again Marie, for everything."

"You're a friend of our son, and we'll treat ya like our third son!" Marie smiled warmly.

"Aww, thanks!" Maverick smiled in return.

"It was a real treat!" came Andrew as he stepped inside. "Ya' know, you're like a son to us."

"Oh geesh. You guys, come on~ Now you can shower that affection on Roberto!"

"Who?" Andrew asked.

Maverick blinked a few times. "Your son?"

"Oh!" Andrew responded.

"...this is probably why he's the way he is."

Andrew shrugged it off with a laugh.

Maverick carried the last box out to his truck, which had its camper shell removed, and the bed completely filled with goods to go up the road. He sat the box in and closed the tailgate shut. Mav turned around and looked back at the Paulos' home; he was immensely thankful and appreciative that Joey's parents had taken him in a second time, out of the niceness of their hearts. It would be different again not hearing them argue about every trivial thing.

Climbing into his truck, Mav made the short distance up Karen Parkway to his new home, where he backed into the driveway. He hopped out and made his way inside to find his brothers and friends all helping out to get things set back up. The whole was fully furnished, and done to his liking. It was now home again.

"Hey!" Maverick greeted. "Whacha think?"

Rob looked up from his spot in the kitchen as he sat on a chair. "It looks great. They did a wonderful job~"

"I know right?" Mav exclaimed. "I'm impressed."

"Back to normal, eh?" Rob asked.

"Back to normal, indeed." The husky nodded.

The kitchen had two large windows by the stove, which adorned the kitchen island. Maverick glanced out the window to see a big view of Leslie Drive. He spotted Amy arrive in her rental car, which pulled into the driveway. Mav walked out the door to greet her.

"Hey!" Maverick greeted.

"Oh hey! I brought the food for the party!" Amy exclaimed. "Whipped up a bunch of stuff."

"Oh boy, can't wait. Let me help you."

Maverick helped bring in the food, which was sat on the dinner table for everyone who attended Maverick's moving in party. It was a joyous mood as Amy got to tour the new house with Maverick.

"Oh this kitchen is lovely."

"It's the set for your new cooking show~"

"I'm so excited to do that again."

"I am too." Mav nodded. "It'll be great."

The Russian husky took a step back and gazed at everyone flooding his kitchen to grab some food. He looked around at his entire house, and it brought a smile to his face. He felt that life had finally returned back to normal for him and his son.

---

Epilogue:

The VTR room hummed with the activity of videotapes being played back for archiving. Unlocking the hub to one of the big Sony BVH-2000's, Maverick loaded up a reel of one inch videotape. It was a gold lacquered reel that read "BAREV 525" on it. It had footage that Maverick had shot with Rob, the first promo for the cooking show with his ex-wife. He locked the reel to the hub and unspooled a bit of the tape, which he fed through the tape path; over the rollers and capstans, fed into the head drum assembly, and back up to the take up reel, where he secured it with several turns. He hit the fast-forward button and played back the footage to find the intro shot to "grade".

"Let's see what this is." Maverick said as he took a seat with Rob at the editing console. Rob sat armed with a pen, a notepad, and a stopwatch.

The promo was shot on his gigantic EMI-2001, which had finally been "de-modded" with a standard set of four 30mm Plumbicons. It finally produced a picture that Maverick found acceptable. The husky made point to Rob about his admiration to the soft, warm, pastel colors that the tubes gave to the picture, which had a unique colorimetry on account of the luminance tube channel.

"Let's do take one~" came Marcus's voice off camera. "Action."

The shot started on a tight angle of Amy, who was dressed in her chef attire, complete with the "poofy hat".

"Hello~ My name is Amy Golagonoff, and I'm a chef to the Crowtown Diner in downtown Coshocton Ohio. You may remember me in a previous cooking show that I did with my former husband, Maverick Tokarev. Well now we're back with a new cooking series, that we hope can provide you with some humor and know-how in the kitchen! Now, before I continue, I'd like to explain something, especially for viewers who saw my old program. Heh, you're probably wondering just what happened to me- I was assaulted in a workplace robbery, and was severely burned by being splashed with boiling hot water. It has left part of my face paralyzed due to nerve damage sustained. About half my body received second and third degree burns, and I required five weeks in a hospital burn unit in Zanesville to recover. It's not a major setback... but some of the things I used to be able to do with lighting speed, I can't anymore. I want to be transparent and honest to my fans, and I know there'd be questions about it. I couldn't have done this without the encouragement of my former husband, who will be accompanying me in this program~"

The camera zoomed out to reveal Maverick, who smiled and waved at the camera. He was dressed in a winter themed sweater, complete with an apron wrapped around him. "Oh hi, Amy. Nice to finally see you after that zoom out."

"Heh, shut up, you." She laughed.

"I really have no idea what I'm going to be doing, but I know there's going to be plenty of laughs." Maverick suggested with a grin.

"This is Amy N' Mav's Kitchen~ the newest YouTube series, courtesy of Barev!"

"Amy N' Mav? That sounds like we're hillbillies or something." Teased Maverick with a chuckle.

"Well dang, shucks~" Amy mocked with a southern drawl.

"Life's a joke! Have a laugh!" Maverick waved into the camera. "Coming soon!"