7 Hostilities Renewed (2/2)

”Nice.” Malcolm said as he nodded before taking more stuffing.

”Not anymore,” Dick replied as he looked back to his father, ”Once she finds out that you're still alive, she's going to assume I came here to avoid going out with her and I might not get another chance.”

”I was supposed to remove a cancerous tumor from an eleven year old girl.” David said as he found Dick's reasons trivial in comparison. ”While I am sure the doctor who went ahead and did it was competent enough, I would have preferred to have taken care of her myself to be sure everything went right.”

”I'm sorry David,” Artie said quietly to David.

”That's not the half of it,” Malcolm said as he was starting to warm up, ”If David's hospital finds out you're not dead, they could accuse David of faking it with you so he could get the holidays off. In many companies, that's a fireable offense.”

”He could?” Artie replied as he had no idea.

”Let's not get carried away,” David said with a grin, ”I might get a reprimand but they're not foolish enough to let me go over something like this. They wouldn't want to risk losing me to another hospital.”

”Watch it there, sport.” Malcolm said as he patted his shoulder, ”Anymore of that talk and your ego will be almost as big as Dick's.”

”Is that even possible?” David asked.

”Not likely,” Dick said as he had a good laugh at his own expense.

”I'm sorry Dad,” Kim then said as she chimed in, ”I didn't have anything important to do, besides watch the kids. I didn't mean to stay away, life just got in the way a lot and I didn't want to take the kids away from their father during the holidays.”

”A dad who wants to be with his kids? What a concept, eh Artie?” Malcolm said as it was delivered with the subtly of a sledge hammer to the skull.

”And what about you?” Artie replied as he turned to Malcolm, ”What's your excuse? Did you have a date? Lives to save? Or did I keep you from an appointment with a word processor and a bottle of scotch?”

Malcolm looked back at the old man before tossing his napkin onto the table. ”Fuck you, Artie.”

”Malcolm!” Kimmy said with a stern look that resembled his mother.

”Leave it to you to ruin a perfectly good funeral.” Malcolm said with disgust as he stood up to leave, ”Next time do us all a favor and actually die.”

Everyone watched in stunned silence and watched as he left the dining room.

”If that's holding back,” David said as he looked back at everyone else, ”I'd hate to be in the line of fire when he actually cuts loose!”