Molly Meets a Giant Squirrel (Julian, Dori, Molly)

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Trying to be helpful, Julian invites Molly to meet Doreen so she can see that squirrels aren't something to be afraid of. Things do not go according to plan.

WARNING: Cuteness Code Red!


The next morning, Molly sat in the library with Julian while she waited for Dori to come. But after a few moments Molly decided she didn't want to sit anymore so she kept herself busy by looking at books, occasionally eying the door.

Julian was looking over the business section of the newspaper, checking the overnight on Keller Industries. "Don't worry, Molly- Dori probably just got held up playing World of Warcraft." He wondered if his squirrelly friend would enjoy the new DC Universe game, but shrugged it off when he saw that the stocks had dropped three points. "Damn."

Eventually Molly decided the books were boring and occupied herself by turning one of the reading lamps off and on. She laughed.

"Dude, that's a bad word."

It was funny how old people could say bad words all the time but they wouldn't let her.

Either way, it was keeping her distracted from what she was really thinking about: zombie squirrels...with babies.

She didn't know why babies would be bad but apparently they made animals foam at the mouth. And moms say bad words.

Doreen had indeed gotten caught up in WoW, and it wasn't easy to weasel one's way out of guild chain heroics. She felt bad about doing it, but she had real world friends too. And they were important to her, and so she had signed off once she was able to find a place to drop that wouldn't screw the whole team. But at least DPS was easy to replace, she thought. She picked up Monkey Joe and walked to the library, with him riding on her head comfortably.

"Hey!" she said, cheerfully when she saw Julian. Dori looked a lot like the squirrels she was so close to, claws on her fingers, walking barefoot with clawed feet, slightly bucked front teeth and most glaring, a large, fluffy tail that matched that of the squirrel on her head, who was sniffing the air curiously, taking in the scent of New Person. "Sorry I'm late!"

Julian set down the paper and watched Molly carefully- hoping that Dori remembered that the child was actually afraid of squirrels- she had been mid-raid when he told her. "Hey, Dori, how are you?"

Molly had continued to be preoccupied with the lamp but turned around when she heard a voice. It sounded nice. But as her eyes fell on Dori they suddenly grew very wide. She hadn't entirely been paying attention when Julian mentioned Dori. She had heard 'squirrel' but not the rest.

"THE SQUIRREL ATE HER!" Molly screamed in terror. She quickly disappeared into the stacks of books around the corner, finding a hiding spot in one of the cubby holes that only someone her size could really fit into. Robot men she could handle, but not squirrels. They had pointy teeth and beady eyes.

She warned Julian. She told him squirrels were bad. And did he listen? No, his friend got ate right up by a squirrel. Its tail and pointy claws were right there!

"Huh?" Doreen was now totally confused, "A squirrel didn't eat me. Squirrels don't even bite me."

Laughing on the inside, Julian stood up and shook his head, trying to keep a straight face. "She's afraid of squirrels," he held up a hand, "she was bit as a child."

"You didn't say that," Doreen protested. Great, now she felt awful. Here she was the walking manifestation of this kid's fears. Good going, Doreen. She was always doing something wrong, it seemed, but she smiled anyway, "Well, you don't have to be afraid of me. Or Monkey Joe," she said, taking her friend off her head, "We don't bite. At all."

Molly was no longer in sight, having run to hide the moment she saw Dori.

"I don't believe you," a small voice said from somewhere in the stacks.

"Ugh, Dori, I totally told you! Should have known better than to have told you while you were raiding." Julian held up a hand, "Sorry, look, I just figured it would be better to have this happen on your terms."

"I had ten people talking to me at once!" Doreen pointed out, "So... uh... should I go or something? I don't want to scare anyone."

"No, otherwise you're going to be to her like Logan was to you," Julian smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I also figured you two would get along really well. Molly wants the codename Supergirl when she gets old enough. She's a total nerd."

From her hiding spot, Molly fiddled with her hat as she listened, only hearing half the words as they weren't talking really loud now. Why was he talking with the giant evil squirrel? He should be running.

Squirrels were sneaky like that, yup. That's what happened before. It looked nice and then there was a lot of blood.

"Well, that's awesome, but if she won't come out and talk to me I'm not going to go back there and drag her out," Doreen said, "That's not going to do anything, right? I mean, she's already afraid of me," Doreen said sadly, grabbing her tail for comfort. She wasn't paying attention to Monkey Joe, who was sniffing around Julian now, looking for candy that he expected Julian to carry now.

"She's not afraid of you- she just doesn't know you. And like I said, squirrels scare her." Julian turned toward the sound of Molly's voice, "Kid, you can come out on your own, or I can float you out- your choice. Remember, I promise that nothing bad will happen." It was a bluff, he didn't want to risk hurting her with his TeeKay. Absently he handed Monkey Joe a fun size christmas Snickers.

Molly curled her nose. "Those aren't very good choices," she said, hunkering down for a few long quiet moments as she weighed her options: come out and get eaten by a giant squirrel, or get dragged out by the glowing eyed man who was apparently hypnotized by the giant squirrel.

There was one thing she hadn't had before, though: Supergirl muscles. If the giant squirrel tried to eat her she could punch her!

Molly pushed up her shirt sleeves to show off her (lack of) muscles and slowly crept out from her hiding spot, pausing just around the corner where she could see Julian and the giant squirrel and its baby eating a candy bar.

A pair of hot pink knit kitty ears peeked out from the stack as she watched, her big green eyes eying the two of them carefully, then looked behind them at the door, then back toward them, not quite at their eyes, though. Because if she used her eyes to hypnotize people then she could do that to her.

"I want to leave the library now, thanks," she said, half request, half warning. She flashed a bit of lack of muscles.

Dori gave Julian a look, "I'm not going to force her to talk to me," she said and turned back to Molly, "But I'm not going to hurt you, you know? A squirrel didn't eat me, I guess I kinda am one, and I don't bite people. Neither does my friend."

Julian inwardly sighed, slightly defeated, this had not been how he wanted it to go. Perhaps he should have started with a picture of Doreen instead. "Molly, you have nothing to be afraid of."

Molly stared at the woman for a few moments. Her mom and dad had lots of people over that didn't look like everyone else. She met a man with scales like a fish once and a lady who had bird legs. Maybe she was part squirrel. So if she was part squirrel and not all squirrel maybe she was okay.

"You promise?" she said. She would believe the part squirrel but still had to wait on this actual squirrel business.

"I promise," Doreen said firmly, "I'll never bite you. Julian's my best friend ever. He can tell you this."

Julian nodded his head, confirming Dori's promise and hoping that the librarian wasn't about to rush in telling them to quiet down. "You have nothing to worry about."

Molly bit her lip, furrowing her brows. She nudged her toe against the edge of one of the rugs, staring down at her shoes. She finally looked up at them.

"Okay," she said, then added quickly.

"But if you turn out to be evil you'll be sorry." She was going to protect her new friends.

Doreen gave the other kid a very odd look, "I wasn't evil last time I checked..."

As the small girl approached them, Julian crossed his arms and smiled warmly, "See Molly, she's a mutant, like Doctor McCoy or Mister Sefton. Not evil at all."

After giving Dori another extreme once over, Molly eventually nodded, reluctantly creeping towards Dori before stopping to glance up to her.

If she got close to the giant sqi--Dori and she didn't bite her that was a good sign so maybe she could trust her.

"C...Can I touch your tail?" she said.

"As long as you don't pull it," Doreen said, "It's pretty sensitive."

Molly took a step closer and nodded again, a focused look in her eyes. Her hand shook a little as she reached out and gently ran her fingers across Dori's tail. She looked to Dori expectantly, but when it was clear there was no flashing of pointy teeth she petted her tail again, a quiet, hesitant smile forming on her lips.

Julian continued to smile and remained silent, flashing Doreen a thumbs up and feeding Monkey Joe another snickers treat.

Doreen was trying not to giggle because the light touches had a tendency to tickle pretty bad. That, and though she'd never openly admit to it, her tail was pretty ticklish in general, "See, not evil and very fuzzy. Nothing fuzzy is ever evil."

Julian considered that Monkey Joe could be evil on occasion, but that was typically only if you took his food and would not be helpful given the situation at hand. "So, Molly, will you give Dori a chance? I think you two would really get along."

Molly cocked her head to the side as Dori squirmed a little, her expression having grown into more of curiosity than fear. She didn't really believe that quite yet for the tinier fuzzy things but for Dori she could maybe see it with her.

She finally nodded.

"Okay," she said quietly.

"Awesome," Doreen said, "Now I totally have to go, I kinda left some guildies in a lurch, but you can bring her by later if you want."

"Well, I'm not really watching her or anything, I'm sure she'll stop by though," Julian nodded to Molly, "right?"

Distracted by wondering what the word 'guildies' meant, it took her a moment to realize she was being spoken to and nodded.

"Oh...later, yes," she said.

She wondered if she lived in a giant tree. That would be interesting to see.