Dreamweaver: Part Twelve
"I really appreciate you guys coming with me to pick up my stuff," Cecilia Reyes said politely.
"No problem, doc," Rogue said in her soft Southern accent, giving Cecilia a grin as she unlocked the front door of the mansion. "Like ah said, anytime y'need anything, just ask. We girls have gotta stick together." An ironic light flashed in her green eyes as Bobby and Joseph finally got out of the car, still arguing vehemently. "'Specially when the men act like such morons most o'the time."
"You're not getting any argument from me," Cecilia said darkly, giving Bobby a simmering glare. Both men were carrying heavy boxes, but that didn't seem to bother them, or slow down their debate.
"--the Rangers are the team to beat, Joe. Trust me! I mean, you don't have any memories beyond the past year, so what makes you think you know anything about hockey? I've been watching the game since I was five years old!"
Joseph gave an irritated growl. "Perhaps, but I have watched a great deal of hockey with Logan during the last couple of months, and it seems quite clear that Montreal's team--the Canadiens, correct?--has better technical skills and the advantage in experience."
"Maybe, but the Rangers are younger and bigger. Size is the key, I tell you--"
"Your emotions are obviously clouding your judgement. Hockey is a game of finesse, not brute force."
"Logan would rip out your tongue for that, Joe. Hockey's practically his religion, and I'm fairly sure that he'd look on that comment as blasphemy--"
"Will the two of you SHUT UP?" Cecilia snapped, at the end of her limited supply of patience. "Good grief! If you're going to argue about something, you could at least think of something worthwhile, rather than hockey."
"Go easy on them, doc," Rogue said slyly as they walked into the house. "Boys, why don't y'take Cecilia's stuff up to her room?"
"Of course," Joseph said stiffly, and shot Bobby an arch look. "Drake, can you manage those boxes or do you require assistance?"
"Bet you I can beat you up there," Bobby said with a fierce grin, icing up. They glared at each other for a moment, and then bolted for the stairs.
"You break any of my stuff, Drake, you're DEAD!" Cecilia hollered after him. Rogue chuckled.
"He's showin' off for you, Cecilia."
"As if!" Cecilia blurted, cursing inwardly as she felt her face go red. Rogue laughed again, and pulled her towards the kitchen.
"Didn't mean to embarass you, sugar. But Bobby's transparent at the best of time. Subtle just ain't in the boy's vocabulary." They got to the kitchen and Rogue started fussing with the coffeemaker, humming wistfully to herself. Cecilia watched her with some sympathy.
She's thinking about Gambit again. Cecilia had never met the man, knew next to nothing about the mysterious circumstances under which he'd left the team, but if she ever did meet him, she'd break his neck herself. Rogue was one of the few people here that she was really beginning to care about. Cecilia was beginning to think of her almost as a sister, and it was fairly clear that her 'sister' had gotten her heart broken over the whole mess with the ex-X-Man.
"I wonder where everyone is," she said idly as Rogue came over to the table with two mugs. Rogue set them down on the table with a thoughtful noise.
"Good question, Cecilia." She strode over to the computer interface beside the door. "Computer, location o'key personnel?" she inquired.
/Designate: Joseph and Designate: Iceman in personal quarters 6-A/ the computer said in its sweet alto voice. /Designates Rogue and Reyes, Cecilia, located in kitchen./
"Is that all?" Rogue asked, frowning. "Where'd everybody go?"
/Designates Cyclops, Phoenix, Beast, Storm and Cannonball departed in the Blackbird at 0718 hours./
Cecilia saw the sudden tension in her friend's face. "What was their destination?" Rogue snapped.
/Alberta, Canada,/ the computer replied promptly, and displayed the coordinates on the small screen.
"Wasn't that where Logan and Bishop were?" Cecilia asked, frowning. "Chasing those two mutant bank robbers?" She'd made a wisecrack or two when Bobby had told her about them. When he'd given her the details, she'd stopped laughing.
"Yeah," Rogue said darkly. "Ah guess they must've run into trouble." She sat down opposite Cecilia, and sank her face into her hands. "Who am ah kidding?" she sighed. "Of course they ran into trouble. Trouble follows those two wherever they go."
"I'm sure they're all right," Cecilia said awkwardly, and Rogue gave her a wry smile. Cecilia flushed again. "Sorry. I'm not really good at comforting platitudes."
"You're a straight shooter, doc," Rogue chuckled tiredly. "Don't be apologizing for that."
/Priority transmission from the Blackbird,/ the computer said, the screen flashing red.
"Ah'll take it!" Rogue said swiftly, rising from her chair. The screen switched from a status report on the mansion's various systems to a view of Hank's face. He looked tense and worried, but as he saw Rogue and Cecilia, his eyes lit up with relief.
"Thank God you're back!" he said. "I've been trying every ten minutes for the last two hours!"
"What's goin' on, Hank?" Rogue asked urgently. "What made y'all take off like that?"
"Rescue mission, Rogue. Logan and Bishop and Cable ran into Sinister and the Marauders."
"Sinister--" Rogue almost hissed. Then she frowned. "Wait a minute--ah thought Cable was off huntin' Sentinels?"
"Jean sent him there to help--look, Rogue, this really isn't the time," Hank said impatiently. He looked past Rogue to Cecilia. "Cecilia, I need you to prep the med-lab. It has to be ready by the time we touch down--which should be in approximately forty-five minutes. I want the ICU unit set up with the specialized psionic-monitoring equipment I showed you last week. Rogue, I need you to set up a vid-link with Muir Island. And tell Moira we need Dana over here as soon as possible."
Dana? Cecilia thought with a frown. That was a name she hadn't heard before.
"Is Jean hurt, Hank?" Rogue asked, having gone quite pale at his mention of psi-monitors.
"Wrong psi, Rogue."
"CABLE?" Rogue asked, an incredulous note in her voice. "God almighty!"
"As hard as it may be to believe, Rogue, yes. Time is critical here. He's not in good shape." Hank rubbed at his temples, as if he had a headache. "I'll leave the channel open. Patch Moira through to the Blackbird as soon as possible. I need to brief her on Nathan's condition."
"We'll get right to it," Cecilia assured him. Hank nodded and the screen blinked off, going to stand-by. She stared up at Rogue, who looked distressed. "Sinister and the Marauders?" she asked.
"Bad news," Rogue said softly. "Let's just leave it at that. C'mon, let's get things set up." As she and Cecilia headed for the door, Rogue shook her head, a look of disbelief on her face. "How the hell did the Marauders manage to take down Cable?"
"What do you mean?" Cecilia asked, puzzled.
"Sugar, we're talkin' about the man who went one-on-one with Stryfe, Magneto, and Bastion and lived to t'tell the tale. If it was the Marauders, they must've gotten awfully lucky." Rogue sighed. "Scott and Jean must be going out o'their minds with worry."
"Mmm," said Cecilia, who had had a great deal of trouble swallowing Bobby's explanation of exactly who and what Cable was to the X-Men's first couple. I mean, a time traveler? From two thousand years in the future? I've had to deal with a lot of crazy things since I ended up with the X-Men, but 'willing suspension of disbelief' only goes so far. "Who's Dana, Rogue?" she asked as they continued on their way to the med-lab.
"Dana Hawkes," Rogue said briskly. "She's Sam's girlfriend." Frowning, she shook her head. "At least ah think they're still involved--hard to tell with those two. She joined the X-Men a couple o'months before Onslaught, but she's spent most of the time since then on Muir Island with Dr. MacTaggert." Rogue actually smiled. "You'll like her, Cecilia. She's a healer--that's her mutant power, ah mean."
Cecilia stopped dead for a moment. Rogue was halfway down the hall before she realized she was alone.
"You okay?" she asked, looking back at Cecilia inquisitively.
"Fine," Cecilia said, forcing herself to smile, and caught up. Inwardly, she was trying to fight back the most profound envy she'd ever felt in her life. "I just--I wouldn't mind being a mutant if I could have a power like that."
Rogue gave her a quick, sympathetic smile. "Ah know, sugar," she said wistfully. "Believe me, ah know. And if y'want to talk about it later, ah'll be here. But right now, we've got work t'do."
Cecilia nodded briskly. Time to stop worrying about her own problems. She was actually looking forward to this, her first real chance to be a doctor in weeks.
***
"DANA!" Kitty Pryde phased right through the door of her room and Dana Hawkes gave a startled yelp, dropping the pictures of Sam all over the floor. Kitty looked down at them for a moment, raising an eyebrow, and Dana flushed. Great, just great. Now I'm going to get another one of her little lectures about how infantile it is to be brooding about Sam instead of trying to work out our problems. It wouldn't be so annoying if I didn't know she was right.
But Kitty said nothing. As Dana reached out to her empathically, she realized there was something seriously wrong.
"What is it?" she asked, her heart suddenly pounding faster.
"We have to go to Westchester. They need you at the mansion," Kitty said, still out of breath.
Dana froze, stricken. There could be only one reason why she would be summoned out of the blue to return to the States. Someone needed her mutant power. "Not Sam," she said through numb lips.
Kitty shook her head. "No, it's not Sam." Relief flooded up within Dana, but faded instantly as Kitty continued. "It's Cable. I don't know all the details, but Hank was fairly insistent that we get you there as soon as possible."
Not Sam, but almost as bad. Her heart gave a queer little jump, but she rose to her feet, leaving the pictures where they had fallen. Kitty offered her hand, and Dana, taking a deep breath, took it. They started to phase downwards through the building towards the hangar. Dana closed her eyes. Phasing with Kitty still made her dizzy, even after months training with her and the rest of Excalibur to keep her combat skills up while she was away from the X-Men.
She didn't open her eyes until they came to a stop in the hangar. The Midnight Runner was already prepped for departure, and as Dana followed Kitty towards the hatch, Brian Braddock appeared from behind the wing.
"Pre-flight's already been taken care of, Kitty," he said, wiping some sticky-looking substance from his hands with a rag. Dana didn't even want to ask. "Don't be afraid to push the old girl. With the tinkering I've been doing, she should be able to manage top speed all the way across the Atlantic."
Kitty gave Brian a quick hug. "Thanks, big guy. When Pete gets back, tell him what happened, all right?" Brian nodded and quickly left the flight deck. Dana followed Kitty into the plane. They were airborne in under five minutes, speeding out of the hangar before the doors were fully open. Dana was taken aback by the apparently recklessness of Kitty's piloting.
"Uh--we do need to get there in one piece, Kitty," she said hesitantly, although part of her wanted to wrench the controls away from her friend and push the plane even further.
Shadowcat sighed and eased back a little on the stick. "Sorry." Dana sensed a curious combination of emotions from her--worry, regret, and a strange determination.
"You're worried about him too," Dana said. "I didn't know you and Cable were close."
"We're not, really," Kitty admitted a little sheepishly. She gave Dana a faint smile as the Midnight Runner ascended to a cruising altitude and went supersonic. "But Rachel and I were very close, so I can't help worrying about Nathan. He's important to so many of the people I love--and he does have a certain charm himself, if you like the stone-faced, obsessive type." Kitty's hands were sure and steady on the controls, despite the troubled note in her voice.
"Rachel," Dana said thoughtfully. "That was your friend who disappeared. Scott and Jean's daughter from an alternate reality--the second Phoenix, right? So she'd have been Cable's sister, in a way."
"No, not in a 'way'. In every way that counted," Kitty said. She smiled, but Dana sensed the sorrow in her as she remembered her lost friend. "Rachel and Nathan's relationship was--special, even though they only knew each other for a short time. In their minds, most of the X-Men still can't connect Cable with Scott and Madelyne's baby. But not Rachel. She loved him without reservation when he was a baby, and she felt a connection to Cable even before we knew he was little Nathan Christopher grown up."
"I wish I could have known her," Dana said honestly. Kitty smiled again, a little more brightly.
"She wasn't the easiest person to get along with, Dana, but I think she would have liked you. She was a lot like Cable--a walking bad attitude with a heart as big as the whole world." Kitty looked sideways at her. "We'll get there in time, Dana," she said firmly. "And whatever's happened to him, you'll fix it."
"I wish I could be that confident," Dana said quietly. She shook her head, giving a humorless laugh. "Damn! If I'd gone back to the mansion when Sam asked me to, I'd be there right now!" Instead I stayed on Muir to sulk. If anything happens to Cable, I don't know how Sam will ever forgive me. I KNOW I'll never be able to forgive myself.
"Don't start blaming yourself for this, Dana!" Kitty said sharply. "You're not responsible for whatever happened to Cable. You needed some time away from the X-Men--that's not a crime, you know."
"I was so stupid," Dana said, wallowing in her guilt. "Blaming Sam for what happened with Tabitha at the Christmas party--"
"You know how much I love Sam, Dana, but I'm the first to admit that he acted like an idiot. You were right to be angry with him."
"Maybe, but I sure couldn't have picked a worse time to run away from my responsibilities! First I miss the whole mess with Onslaught because of that stupid trip to Indonesia with my brother. Then, when I come back, I act like a selfish little twit because I think Sam's avoiding me, when really he's risking his life undercover in Graydon Creed's campaign--"
"I suppose you blame yourself for not being there during Zero Tolerance, too," Kitty said wryly.
"No," Dana snapped, flushing, "actually I blame Moira!" She felt her cheeks grow even more heated as she remembered Moira's threat to lock her up if she even thought of trying to leave the safety of Muir Island. Kitty snickered, and Dana gave her a furious look. "Get real, Pryde! When you saw the X-Men's plane shot down, you wanted to go as much as I did!"
"True," Kitty admitted. "But I didn't try to steal a mini-jet, did I?"
Dana would have said more--she hated it when Kitty got the last word in--but the comscreen suddenly switched on to show Dr. MacTaggert standing in her lab. Moira looked pale and worried, and Dana suddenly remembered that she and Cable were old friends, too.
"Lass, I'm setting up a three-way link with Henry in the Blackbird. While I'm at it, ye need to break out some provisions and eat a solid meal. Your energy needs t'be at its peak when ye get to Westchester."
"That bad?" Dana asked, going pale.
"Aye," Moira said wearily. "Stand by. I'll let Henry fill you in." The screen went blank for a moment, and Dana looked over at Kitty, whose expression was grave.
"What could have happened?" she asked helplessly.
"I don't think that's important right now," Kitty said, a look of flinty determination coming over her delicate features. She leaned forward, making some adjustments to the console. "All right, let's see how much more I can squeeze out of these engines. I hope Brian wasn't just bragging about his improvements--"
to be continued...
alicia's stories | [ARCHIVE] | comicfic.net