Mutant Sue Virus: Split - Chapter 2

[dazzledfirestar]

Title: Split
Fandom: Marvel Universe
Rating: 18+
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognizable characters here. They and the world this is set in are the property of Marvel Entertainment. The Purple Team is the property of ginevrasm (Morgan/Faye), ladydeathfaerie (Dare), sessys_fangirl (Jehnna), nanaeanaven (Roxxy) and dazzledfirestar (Haley). They are not to be used without permission. I make no money from this, and it is simply a form of entertainment.
Warnings: Multiverse fuckery, mentions of death, pregnancy and apocalypses.

Haley sat on the small dock for a long time as the sun started to dip to the horizon. She could almost pretend she wasn’t at the mansion. That she only had one life in her head, even if it wasn’t a good one. That things weren’t as fucked up as they seemed to be.

 

“I thought I would find you out here,” she turned quickly toward the voice and gave him a small smile.

 

“I guess it’s fair that you’d figure that out, given… everything.” She patted a spot on the dock next to her. Piotr sat down a moment later. “It’s been a hell of a day.”

 

“That is an understatement.” He sighed heavily. “I owe you an apology.”

 

“No, you don’t,” she shook her head. “Jehnna told me you’re in the same boat I am.”

 

He nodded. “When I saw you come in…” he sighed again. “That must have been uncomfortable.”

 

“Yeah.” She sighed. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

 

“With anyone or just me?” He looked over at her for a moment. “I’m sorry, Haley. That wasn’t a fair question.”

 

“It’s okay. This is all a lot for everyone right now,” she ran her hands through her hair. “And I don’t want to talk about it with anyone.”

 

“Have you talked to him?”

 

“Not since before the brief.” She shrugged. “Have you talked to Jehnna?”

 

“Not yet. I thought it best to find you first,” He put his hand on hers, but she felt the hesitation. “This is all very complicated.”

 

“It doesn’t really have to be,” she wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince him or herself. “You remember her being your wife, or at least close enough given the circumstances. I can’t tell you what she’s thinking or what she wants to do with that information obviously, but I get it if it’s something you need to consider.”

 

“That simple?”

 

“Probably not.” She sighed, wrapping her arms around her knees. “But I’m not going to stop you or anyone else from figuring this out, however that looks.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Okay, fine. Almost anybody.” She sighed and put her chin on her knees for a moment before looking over at him. “I’m not exactly in prime partner shape right now, Piotr. And honestly, this is a little weird.” She laughed softly.

 

He echoed the sound and nodded. “Are you saying it’s not me, it’s you?” She laughed again. “I don’t want to make anything harder on you.”

 

“I know. You aren’t. I’d rather we just… step away and not regret anything, right?” Haley sighed heavily and shook her head. “Besides, the whole on again off again thing… that’s probably a sign.”

 

“Perhaps,” He put a hand on hers for a second. “So that is it?”

 

“I guess so.”

 

He nodded again but didn’t get up. “It’s odd though. The school. The grounds… this should all be—”

 

“A smoking crater?” She nodded. “Yeah.”

 

“Well… maybe not smoking.” He sighed, giving her a soft smile. “There is some peace in having it back.”

 

“Technically we never lost it. Other versions of us did.” She glanced over at him. “Or something.”

 

“Is thinking of it that way helping?”

 

“No… not really. It’s just a lot to process and I’m not sure exactly where to start with all of it.” She blew her hair out of her face and moved to get up. “Want me to send Jehnna out this way?”

 

“No, I will find her later. Thank you.”

 

“Thanks for not making this any harder than it already is,” she smiled and started back up the dock. That was one thing she didn’t have to worry about at least.

 

****

He lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the bright burn filling the danger room. She was clearly working through something big, and she wasn’t the only one, but she was the most likely to actually tell him what the hell was going on. “Pull it back, darlin’.”

 

Dare didn’t answer right away but the fire slowly dialed down. She didn’t extinguish everything, but it was enough to let him through. “What do you want, Logan?”

 

“Just making sure you’re alright,” he sighed, moving toward her as she played with the flames. “Looks like you’re trying to prove something.”

 

“No.” She glared at him for a moment before she sighed. “Maybe…”

 

“You end up in some end of the world hellscape too?”

 

“No.”

 

“Good, cuz I don’t need to get smacked around again today.” Dare tilted her head a little and Logan frowned. “Haley. Apparently wherever her head was at, she wasn’t my biggest fan.”

 

“What makes you say that?”

 

“She threw me across the room without trying.”

 

“What’d you do to earn that?”

 

“No idea,” he frowned a little more. “Asked Cyke about it and he told me to go fuck myself.”

 

“That a direct quote?”

 

“Yeah, actually. This shit’s got people rattled.”

 

“More than rattled.” Dare frowned and pulled back the flames again. “It’s… confusing.”

 

“Feels like that’s probably an understatement.” Logan put a hand on her back, rubbing slow circles to help her calm down enough to talk about it. “What about you, darlin’?”

 

“What about me?”

 

“Something’s going on in that head of yours.”

 

“Yeah, a whole other life. It wasn’t me though,” Dare bounced a fireball between her hands. It was a nervous tick and Logan knew it. “Besides, Worthington does nothing for me.”

 

Logan’s eyebrow rose but he wasn’t going to comment. It certainly wasn’t the weirdest thing he’d heard today. “Just you and Angel?”

 

“No… but nobody wants to hear about more shit right now,” She sighed. “It’s stupid. There was nothing wrong with it all just…”

 

“Getting your powers taken away will throw anybody, darlin’. Why do you think Angel’s been circling the grounds for hours?” Logan sighed and kept rubbing her back. “It’s not stupid. It’s just different from the shit your girls are dealing with.”

 

“But…”

 

“No buts, Dare,” he pulled her close. “Whatever you want to do to get through this, you know I’ve got your back.”

 

“I know, don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere,” she smiled and kissed him. “You can’t get rid of me that easy.”

 

He wrapped an arm around her and smiled. “You convinced yourself you got your powers back?”

 

“Yeah, I think so.”

 

“Good. Let’s go upstairs.”

***

Jehnna wasn’t entirely sure how long she’d been waiting on the roof. She knew Warren had spotted her and it was just a matter of time before he’d join her. It gave her a little more time to think, but she wasn’t entirely sure she needed it.

 

The life in her head was so very different from the one she was living, and it was still a shaky thing to balance them both. The thing that amazed her with the memories wasn’t the later stuff. Parts of that were not worth thinking too hard on, but parts of it were good.

 

The important part was almost unbelievable; that she’d survived. Being hunted, hiding, together with her friends, she survived. She almost couldn’t wrap her head around it. She never saw herself as someone who could do things like that. Her teammates could, of course but not her.

 

That revelation was shaking her to the core and making her wonder if she hadn’t underestimated herself over the years.

 

When Warren landed in front of her, she reluctantly pulled herself out of her thoughts and stared up at him.

 

“I’m sorry I kept you waiting,” he said softly, and he pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

 

“It’s okay,” She kissed him back absently. “I… I know we need to talk but I don’t know where to start.”

 

Warren nodded. “It’s… it’s a lot. I know.”

 

“What—” Jehnna frowned. “Maybe we should go inside?”

 

Warren glanced back at the sky but nodded, leading her inside. The walk to his room was silent. She wasn’t sure what to think about that, but it probably made sense. Nothing they had to talk about weren’t really for public consumption.

 

Once the door closed behind them, she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “So…”

 

As Jehnna lifted her head and looked at him, she couldn’t hold back a memory. The school burning behind him as he fell, blood already colouring his hair and his chest. Haley’s voice in her ear telling her they had to move. “I… I can’t really tell when things are going to come back to me. It’s all so…” she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “I… I saw you fall… it wasn’t like it is now. We weren’t together but I… that moment stuck with me for a long time.”

 

“Jehnna…” He reached out and took her hand. “I don’t know what to say.”

 

“You don’t have to say anything. This life… you and me and the school and the team,” she sighed. “I… it seems unreal now. Like nothing has really started.” Once she started it felt like she couldn’t stop. “And it’s not like it’s all just hiding in the back, it’s right up front and I… it’s hard to tell which version of me is the right one…”

 

He nodded again, squeezing her hand a little, like he was trying to ground her. “It’s a lot even if it’s not front and centre. I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”

 

She shook her head, trying to clear it a little more. “What about you?”

 

“I…” he sighed, his wings twitching a little. “Do you ever have one of those nightmares that seems completely normal at the time? Like in the moment you’re fine with whatever it was but as soon as you wake up, it all hits you?”

 

“I think so.”

 

“I didn’t have my wings,” he said it softly, squeezing her hand again. “It wasn’t even a loss, they just never existed.”

 

“Oh… wow.”

 

“Yeah,” he sighed. “But at least there was a relatively easy way to remind myself that it wasn’t real.”

 

“Flying around until you’re exhausted doesn’t seem right either…” she said quietly. “There’s just so much going on.”

 

“What are you saying?”

 

Jehnna lifted her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know what I want. I don’t know how to fix anything.” She nearly growled. “I feel like I’m stuck between two worlds, and I don’t want to put you through that.”

 

“If you need time…”

 

“Maybe that’s for the best.” She swallowed hard. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to figure this out.”

 

“It’s okay. I’m probably not exactly the best person to support you through this right now anyway, right?” He sighed and leaned in, kissing her cheek. “Whatever you need, I’ll do it.”

 

“Thank you.” She got up, letting go of his hand. “I should go…” She wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or not when he didn’t try to stop her.

***

He hesitated for a second before knocking on her door. It wasn’t common to see Roxxy surprised but she definitely was shocked to see him standing at her door. “Am I interrupting anyt’ing?”

 

“No,” Roxxy shook her head and stepped back. “Come on in.”

 

“Not really sure how to bring dis up, chere,” he rubbed at the back of his neck and shook his head. “De t’ings going on here, it got ta me a little.”

 

“Remy…”

 

“Non, don worry, I’m not asking you for anyt’iing, Roxxxy,” he sighed, tried to find the right way to approach this conversation. “I just need a friend… somebody to talk it out wit’.”

 

She nodded and motioned him into her room. “Okay, but, and don’t take this the wrong way, but why me?”

 

“Heard you aren’t unpackin’ a lot of dis stuff for yourself,” he shrugged. “And de world I saw… you were someone I trust.”

 

“I hope I am in this world too,” she smiled and motioned him in.

 

“Course you are,” he managed a smile and took a deep breath. “It just… it like having a puzzle you know de picture for, but de pieces are matching up to be somet’ing else. I know how we all fit together here, but I guess now I see it don’t have to be de only way.”

 

“I can see how that could get tricky,” Roxxy nodded. “How… I mean, how much do you remember?”

 

“A lot. More den I’d like,” he shook his head. “It not front and centre. I know who and where I’m supposed to be, but it’s there, like background music.” He chuckled softly. “It not crystal clear, but you could dance to it, push come to shove. It just not a dance I t’ought I’d be good at.”

 

”What kind of dance could you possibly not be good at?” She smiled and shook her head.

 

“It was…” he frowned, trying to find the right words without putting too much on her. “Even if I didn’ have powers, if I wasn’ a mutant, my life was never gonna be normal,” he chuckled softly. “Dis life gave me a glimpse of dat.”

 

“So it’s the same one Dare’s dealing with?”

 

Remy nodded. “Lots dere dat just don’t make sense. Or it did, but not in de way it would here.” He sighed again. “Lots o’ people livin’ lives dey don’t belong in.”

 

“Well, from what Dare said, there were extenuating circumstances,” Roxxy shrugged. “At least from her perspective.”

 

He nodded. “Didn t’ink on it at de time, but yeah, dat seem like a safe bet. I hope I wasn’ dat bad an option,” he gave her a small smile.

 

“Remy, I’m sure whoever you were with got the better deal,” she laughed softly, getting a vague sense that she knew what he was getting at. “But it’s got to be strange seeing everyone in two lights at once.”

 

“Some o’ de drama going on right now? It not as surprising as you might t’ink,” he shook his head. “Glad it was Dare in dere and not somebody else. At least she was happy.”

 

“Until she came back and knew what she’d lost? Yeah…” Roxxy watched him for a moment. “So, what did you do? Warren flew around until he was exhausted, Dare’s probably going to take a shot at burning down the Danger Room… what about you?”

 

“I’m a few decks shorter in my collection now… kept t’rowing ‘em out de window until I knew for sure it was me and not just a lucky shot.” He shrugged. “Goes a long way to letting me know who I am.”

 

“Well, that’s good,” Roxxy smiled again. “Honestly I have to wonder if it’d be easier if everyone was on the same page.”

 

“Den who would pull us all back?” He tilted his head. “It easy to remember where we at, who we are wit’ people who know where we supposed to be. Wit’out dat? It take a lot longer to get t’ings sorted. More confusion, more hurt feelins.”

 

“It makes me wonder how that kid handles it all,” she sighed heavily.

 

“How’s he doin’? And de Professor, you heard anyt’ing on dat?” Remy felt better talking about something current. It made it easier to ignore the pull of the memories he had of the woman in front of him.

 

She shook her head. She closed her eyes for a moment and caught a flash of Morgan in the basement. “Benjamin isn’t alone anyway. I’m not sure how else that is going to go.”

 

“And de professor?”

 

“Henry would be the one to ask about that.”

***

He was a baby. He’d easily be the youngest student at the school if he stayed, and staying seemed like the best option, despite everything that happened. At least that was how Morgan saw it. At least here, people understood when something happened. Or they would. Eventually.

 

That part was still a little up in the air.

 

She’d woken up after the wave hit with the feeling of panic that comes with a nightmare. Giant robotic monsters tearing the school and her friends apart. Hiding where they could, barely knowing who would show up if the time came to pull back again. Kurt and Faye giving her snippets of news, but it was never enough.

 

And then they were there. Haley and Dare. She’d gotten to her feet when she heard their voices, not registering the grief and anger they were both in the thick of. It took most of Colossus’s strength to stop Haley from leaving the care they’d taken over as the Sentinels increased their hunts. Someone handed her something and she crumbled.

 

Dare’s anger burned out faster, but she seemed to shut it all down. Morgan remembered watching both women fall apart without actually doing it.

 

But those memories were tucked away, like the bad dream it all was, or it was until she’d seen what the wave had done to her friends. Most of the images had already faded for the most part. A few things stuck out. The red and white pattern on the back of a card in Dare’s hand, a flash of yellow in Haley’s.

 

But it would go away eventually, she was sure. And none of this was the boy’s fault.

 

She went into the psy-shielded room with a bag of Chips Ahoy and a bottle of water. “Hey, how’s it going?”

 

He looked up, a little wide-eyed and a little shaky. The kid was obviously terrified. “I… I didn’t mean to hurt anybody. Is everyone okay? What’s going on?” He looked even younger and it’s kind of broke Morgan’s heart a little.

 

“Everyone is… well, they’ll be fine eventually. We know you didn’t do it on purpose, and we know you didn’t want to hurt anybody. Stuff like this happens a lot around here,” she smiled and set the cookies down in front of him. “I know a lot of people need to refuel after they use their powers and there’s no better way to do that than cookies right?”

 

“Yeah, I guess so.” He sounded unsure but reached for the cookies. “I don’t want to hurt anybody…”

 

“I know. This wasn’t your fault,” she sighed. “Do you go by Ben or something else?”

 

The change in topic made him look up and Morgan sat back a bit. The look in the kid’s eyes was far older than it should have been. She figured glimpses of the multiverse would do that, but she hadn’t expected to feel it so fully. Even in a building full of literal mind-readers and enhanced senses, this kid felt like he could actually see through her soul. “My mom calls me Benji, but Ben is good.”

 

“Okay, Ben. Well don’t worry about the powers stuff. This is the best place to figure it all out and everybody here has lost control at least a couple times. Still happens to some of us,” she smiled, hoping the kid would feel better knowing that he wasn’t alone.

 

“Even the X-Men?”

 

“Yeah, even the X-Men.” Morgan smiled. “My friend Haley? Every time she got angry or scared, she’d turn to stone. Now she can do it a bunch of different ways, however she wants. And you know Iceman, right?”

 

“Yeah, he looks cool…”

 

Morgan smiled. Clearly the kid didn’t mean to make the pun, so she’d let it slide. “He is. But when he first got his powers, he froze a whole public pool, and they locked him up to keep him and everyone around him safe.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yeah, and you know Gambit, right?”

 

“Yeah, with the exploding cards?”

 

“That’s right. He had to keep his powers a secret for a long time, and they were so hard to control, he didn’t feel like he could stop from hurting people.” No need to tell the kid what Remy did about that and the fallout from it. “And even after training for a while, stuff can happen.”

 

“Yeah? Like what?” The kid seemed a little less pulled into himself at least.

 

“Well, before we were on a real team, my best friend set her teacher’s balls on fire.” She leaned in and whispered the story to the kid. The grin and giggle told her it was the right choice.

 

“Really? What happened to her?”

 

“She had to work harder to prove she could control it, but they’re pretty close now,” Morgan smiled. “The point is, you’re far from the first or the last kid to have power problems. And the best people to help are here.”

 

“What about the professor?”

 

Morgan sighed and did her best to keep her feelings on the subject in check. “It seems like your powers and his didn’t mesh well, that’s probably what caused the whole wave thing.”

 

“It’s never been like that before…”

 

“What’s it normally like, Ben?” She hoped to at least gage what kind of boost caused all this.

 

He thought about it for a second. “You know when they talk about basketball on the news, and they just show the important parts of the game? It’s kind of like that…”

 

“A highlight reel?”

 

“Yeah, I only see a little bit but the person who I connected with sees more, but not like, everything.” He rubbed at his hands a little, like he was nervous about it before grabbing another cookie.

 

“Okay, that helps. How do you usually connect with someone?”

 

“I usually have to be close… or touch their hand or something.”

 

Morgan nodded. That was really helpful. It would be far easier to help the kid with his powers if there was a limited range. “That’s good to know. We will find you a room, if you want to stay, Ben.”

 

“Will the professor be okay?”

 

“I’m sure he will be. He’s good at piecing this stuff together.”

***

Haley admitted that she’d taken her time getting back to her room. Thankfully she didn’t run into anyone on the way there, but as she turned the corner toward her door, she couldn’t help but groan. She dragged her feet a little before the other redhead lifted her head.

 

“Jean, can we not do this right now?” Haley hoped for a little bit of mercy but expected very little.

 

“You’re the second person to tell me that today,” she sighed, clearly feeling a little out of her comfort zone, and that said a lot. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

 

“I’m not, but thanks for checking in,” Haley moved to open the door to her room.

 

“Can I come in?”

 

Haley sighed and stepped aside, motioning the other woman in. There was no point in trying to keep her out. It was always easier to just give Jean what she wanted. Faster too. “Can we just… get to whatever you want to know? I’m exhausted.”

 

“You had a lifetime worth of trauma poured into your mind all at once. Exhaustion is probably putting it mildly,” Jean glanced around the room a little.

 

“It’s not the trauma you’re here about, is it?” Haley sat down on her bed and frowned. “I don’t know why you’re worried—”

 

“I’m not worried.”

 

“But he loves you. He always loved you. If you had magically popped up in the middle of the room, he’d have loved you and I wouldn’t have been a blimp on the radar,” Haley didn’t pull her eyes away from the other woman. “All I was was the best of the limited options.”

 

“I know you believe that, but that’s not what…” Jean sighed, sitting down on the makeshift sofa across from Haley.

 

“I can’t explain to you what is in his head, Jean. I can barely make sense of what’s in mine,” Haley sighed, trying to figure out how to say what she thought might help. “I… I remember my life with him, but that life ended for me years ago.”

 

Jean watched her closely, like she was trying to figure out exactly what she wanted. Haley waited for her to make up her mind. “I know this isn’t really something I should ask you to do but…”

 

“You want to see it?” Haley sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Is that really going to help?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“Is it only going to make it worse?”

 

“It might.”

 

“Then no, you can’t go into my head,” Haley sighed. “Look, this really seems like a conversation you need to have with your husband, Jean. He probably just needs some time to process.”

 

“I don’t know how to feel about all this,” Jean sighed and sat back a little.

 

“Can I say something, and you promise not to erase my brain?” Jean looked over at her and nodded. “It’s not really about how you feel about it. Scott’s the one that has to unpack a ton of shit that he didn’t ask for. Maybe focus on that.”

 

If she hadn’t spent years with a telepath under the same roof, she might have felt a little more like pheasant under glass. “You’re probably right…”

 

“It happens now and then.”

 

“You… you two should talk about this though,” Jean stood up, clearly off her game. It was a little off-putting. “It might help.”

 

“Yeah… maybe.” Haley followed Jean to the door. “It’s been a long day, okay?”

 

“Right, sorry.” Haley got the feeling she wasn’t really, but she wasn’t going to poke at that. I just want to help him, and he won’t let me.

 

Haley nodded. Sometimes things like that were easier to admit if you didn’t have to say it out loud, even though sometimes the difference was negligible for some telepaths. Tell him that.

***

They hadn’t heard back from their Shi’ar contacts yet. Hank was starting to think they’d been left on read but it was a big galaxy. There was no telling how long it would take to get a response to his inquiries. It hadn’t even been a week yet.

 

Everything he knew told him that he was looking at a case of extreme exhaustion. There was no sign of anything else but with telepaths in the mix, it wasn’t always obvious what was causing the issue. Either way, Charles had been unconscious since the incident with their newest student, and Ben’s presence had not been a problem for any of the other residents, even the ones who had been strongly affected.

 

“How is he?”

 

Hank looked up and sighed. “He’s comfortable. Jean has a theory about his mind being overloaded with the wealth of information Mr. Hall has access to but there’s no medical way to prove it. At least not on earth.”

 

“Any word yet?” Scott was obviously not in the mood for small talk, but Hank wasn’t entirely sure he shouldn’t push his luck.

 

“Nothing yet no.” He turned to face Scott fully. “How are you?”

 

“Hank…”

 

“And don’t tell me you’re fine. We both know that’s next to impossible.”

 

Scott sighed heavily and rubbed his temple. “You sound like Jean, you know that?”

 

“Good, then I sound about right,” Hank sighed. “Have you at least talked to her about this?”

 

“How exactly do I start a conversation about the life I lived with someone else with my wife, Hank?” He frowned like he’d been trying to find an answer to that question for days.

 

Hank assumed he had been. “I don’t know, and I don’t envy you that, but if anyone should be able to understand what’s going on in your head, it’s likely Jean.”

 

“Normally I would agree with you, but this…” he sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know, Hank. It’s not just Haley. I don’t want Jean to see the things I let happen, the things I did. I don’t want her to see that.”

 

“She would probably tell you it wasn’t you.”

 

“But it could be. If things got that bad, it could be. It could be any of us. That world… it didn’t start out that different than this one. Besides,” he shrugged. “I don’t know that she’s going to wait for me to be ready to talk about it.”

 

“Scott, you could drive yourself completely out of your mind with these kinds of questions,” Hank considered his options. “If you can’t talk to Jean about it, maybe… maybe you should talk to Haley.”

 

Scott actually smiled, which was a nice change. “Jean said that too but I’m pretty sure she’s avoiding me. More than usual.”

 

“It’s worth a try, and I would imagine you’re less concerned with her opinion of your actions than Jean’s,” Hank smirked, just a little. “Or has that changed too.”

 

“She already knows what I was,” he sighed.

 

‘And if I may say so, she didn’t seem to mind that much,” Hank shrugged at the look Scott gave him. “It didn’t take a lot of observational skill to figure that out.”

 

“That… Hank, that doesn’t make this easier. All of that is right at the surface,”

 

“And if anyone can muscle their way through that kind of temptation, I’d bet it’s you.”

 

One eyebrow crept up. “I don’t think I should take that as a compliment.”

 

“Probably not.”

***

“You’re going where with who?”

 

Haley was getting tired of that particular tone of voice. Over the last week she’d heard it repeatedly from her teammates. She’d done her best to push down the reactions from the other version of herself to all of them but moments like this made it hard.

 

“You heard me.” She threw a few more things in her purse and sighed. “Look, this… this is a conversation that needs to happen so, better to go somewhere where I won’t be dodging that look—” she pointed at Morgan, who was projected both disgust and horror in large amounts, “--instead of dealing with all this other timeline shit.”

 

“Haley,” Roxxy started slowly but didn’t get a chance to finish her thought.

 

“He’s an asshole!” Jehnna’s voice cut across whatever Roxxy was going to say.

 

Haley sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Yes. And?”

 

That seemed to stop everyone for a second. “And he’s been an asshole to you, specifically. For a long time.” Morgan didn’t stop for long.

 

Haley sighed. There was really no reason to point out that Scott had made a serious effort in the last few years to curb some of his worse tendencies. He was still an asshole, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been. “You’re saying that like I don’t know.”

 

“But you’re still going to do this?” Jehnna sounded shocked and a little put out by the whole thing.

 

Haley turned to face her completely. “How’s Piotr?” Jehnna’s jaw dropped and she had the good grace to look a little embarrassed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. And I’m not doing anything. It’s just a conversation.”

 

“Over drinks,” Faye popped in between Haley and the door. “Sounds like a date to me.”

 

“It’s not a date.”

 

“If he takes the Mustang, it will be,” Faye smirked at her.

 

It’s not a fucking date!” She nearly growled. “I wouldn’t be in this mess if you’d have just cut the vague bullshit and told us they were coming!” The words tumbled out without her thinking about it. It took a second to realize what she’d said. “You offered me up like a sacrifice.”

 

“No,” Faye shifted a little. “I offered him Morgan first.”

 

“Excuse me?” Morgan looked horrified.

 

Faye ignored the protests from the other side of the room. Her voice took on a quality Haley remembered well from another life. “In that place, in that time… he needed you. You needed him.” She raised an eyebrow and her voice shifted back to the Faye Haley knew here and now, in their day-to-day life. “And I don’t remember you complaining.” She popped back out and left everyone staring.

 

“What the fuck…” Dare shook her head.

 

“I have to go,” Haley opened the door with a sigh. “Go find somewhere else to talk about me and all the stupid shit I’ve done across the multiverse, please.”

 

Dare led Morgan, who still seemed a little shocked by Faye’s words, toward the door. “If he pulls anything, I’ll set his balls on fire.” There seemed to be something else, something beyond just her usual protectiveness behind Dare’s words. Haley wondered about that for a moment, but this wasn’t the time to talk about it.

 

Enter your cut contents here.Haley let out a small laugh, trying to cut the tension. “I think you’d have to get in line behind his wife.” Dare’s frown got a little deeper, but she nodded and kept moving. Jehnna didn’t look at her as she left, and Haley heard Roxxy sigh heavily. “Whatever it is, just say it.”

 

“Just… be careful.” Roxxy squeezed her hand before disappearing into the hallway.

 

Haley sighed again, closing the door before turning back to the mirror. She second guessed her outfit, throwing a leather jacket over the simple teal-blue maxi dress to look less like this was something it wasn’t. She slipped her feet into her sandals and headed toward the garage before she could change her mind about all of this.

 

She turned the corner and saw him, leaning against the Mustang. “Fuck…”

 

Comments

[ladydeathfaerie]

that conversation is going to be so fun. cannot wait.

and look how not reactionary my girl is being. she's getting so big. my little girl is growing up!

everyone is terribly raw and in need of some way to soothe it. even Benji. its nice to see that Morgan was looking out for him when everyone else was trying to deal with their shit. hopefully they'll get to find some resolution soon!

good work, sweetie!

[dazzledfirestar]

It won't be THAT bad... I mean yeah it will but oh well. LOL

Dare's got other stuff kinda related to this running through her head as the queen of who knew everything in her other timeline and I think that's influencing her reaction a little here. Also, yeah she's growing up! lol

They really are and it'll be a bumpy road to get everyone back to whatever centre will be for them now. And Benji needed a moment. Poor kid. It's totally not his fault and I'm sure once things settle down he'll be right at home.

Thanks! Hopefully I can get the next bit together quickly! LOL

[nanaeanaven]

I do not envy Haley. Not one bit.

Roxxy and Remy in Dare's 50's style powerless world, eh? Interesting.

Poor kid. I can't even imagine. Morgan did good.

[dazzledfirestar]

Yeah it's really only going to get worse before it gets better. lol

Roxxy and Remy, yes. Honestly they make a very nice couple in that world. One day I will write out like... collections of little stories from the 50s universe and the one Morgan saw (which is... kinda early Days of Future's Past ish?).

He is a sweetie and meant absolutely no harm. Sometimes powers get wonky. He'll figure it all out eventually. Morgan felt like a good fit for this because 1. she has access to a lot of information because she's so well connected and 2. Faye is kind of a buffer for the really weird shit sometimes, the way I see it. Or just can just cause chaos. ;) LOL

I'm glad you liked it, hun! Hopefully I'll have more soon.