Title: My heart
thrown open wide.
Series: X-men
comic-verse.
Rating: PG.
Pairing: Hints ofScott/Jean, Scott/Maddie, and
Scott/Emma.
Disclaimer: Own nothing.
Notes:
JeannieXSlim Vacation challenge. Takes place somewhere after
the '04 reload, but I'm not sure where.
Summary: Vacation
has never been Scott's thing. Neither has fatherhood.
A blinding flash of light filled the headmasters' office of the Xavier school for gifted youngsters. Headmistress Emma Frost didn't even look up from the game of Tetris she was playing on her laptop while going through the motions on the telephone with a concerned parent.
"He's out back Nathan, and no I don't know what this is all about." Her telepathic voice was honey and rusty nails as she rolled her eyes while defending the schools decision to keep the students on campus for spring break. The slightest hint of a smile on her lips as she scored the four line 'Tetris' she had been waiting on for a minute or two.
Cable sighed audibly while turning for the doorway wondering exactly what this urgent summons from his father was about.
---
The senior staff had come to the consensus that the students should stay on campus for the duration of spring break. The anti-mutant climate, their inability to effectively chaperone such large groups, and of course; the nightmarish field trip to, and subsequent banishment from, the museum of television and radio a month earlier led to the decision to keep the students home. On the other hand; just because the students were stuck at the mansion didn't mean that the senior staff had to forgo the well earned time off that 'spring break' provided.
It was Kitty's idea to put Noriko's team in charge of running the day to day while the teachers took staggered two day breaks. Theoretically this would leave four members of the senior staff on campus to supervise. Theoretically of course, because Hank wasn't about to leave his lab and a few days before spring break began Logan hopped onto one of Scott's bikes and disappeared.
Emma, of course, insisted on going first. She spent her first off day at a posh spa. The next evening she spent with Scott; who had driven upstate to meet her for a night that involved too much champagne, not enough sleep, and what he had to admit was a pretty inventive use for coconut shavings.
Vacations had never really been Scott's thing. They usually involved someone trying to kill him. Now on the second day of his mini-vacation, an unseasonably warm early April day, he stood alone in a field behind the mansion. In the distance he heard the sounds of giggling and splashing from the pool. The aquatic antics of his students were not quite loud enough to mask the sound of heavy footsteps approaching him from behind.
Nathan Christopher Charles Dayspring Aksani Summers has been, and is, called by many names. He's not quite used to 'Son.' The man he approaches, though with certainly less names, is desperate to live up to the title 'Father."
"Nathan." Scott's trademark monotone as he pulled off the backpack he was wearing over one shoulder.
"Scott." A quick and emotionless reply as his eyes narrowed. "What's this urgent summons about?"
"Catch." Again Scott spoke in monotone as he unzipped the backpack and reached inside, still not having turned around.
"Catch?" Nathan questioned, unsure of the situation.
"Catch." Scott turned around to face him while tossing a relatively well worn baseball glove toward Nathan, hitting him in the chest and falling onto the grass.
"You're kidding… right?" Nathan crossed his arms and leaned back slightly while staring into Scott's glasses.
"Pick up the glove Nathan." Scott slid his glove on, pulled a ball out of the backpack, and dropped the backpack on the ground.
"Catch." Nathan stifled a laugh.
"Indulge me. I'm your… father." Scott took a deep breath. "I'm on vacation."
"And you want to play catch." Nathan looked down at the baseball glove, then back up to his father who appeared to be at least half his age.
"Very perceptive." Scott backed up a few steps popping the center of his glove with the ball. "Pick up the glove."
"Scott- -" Nathan started to reach down for the glove.
"Dad." Scott interrupted. "Let's try dad."
"…Dad." Nathan slipped the glove on, flexing his mechanical hand inside the soft leather.
"Alright." Scott reached back in a light windup and threw a strike into Nathan's chest. Though he was a bit uncertain, Nathan caught the ball with a light clang. The soft leather of the glove only slightly deadening the impact of the leather and twine ball as it struck his metal hand. After both men recoiled slightly at the sound, Nathan repeated the action, Scott having to jump to catch a ball thrown over his head.
This process continued for the next half hour or so in relative silence. Nathan's aim improving the whole while as the two men threw the ball back and forth; each taking a few steps backwards every couple of minutes. Other than the occasional, trivial, 'how are things?' asked in each direction their silence grew from awkward to companionable.
Scott had just caught the ball when a piercing squeal came from the pool a few dozen yards away. Apparently Julian just realized a really good use for his telekinesis. Scott shook his head.
"Someone else's problem; I'm on vacation." He threw the ball back, imagining the way it should be. What should have been Nathan's eighth birthday a few months behind them; tossing a ball around the back yard of the ranch house outside Anchorage, preparing his son for Little League try-outs in June.
A few more minutes pass, the crisis pool-side apparently neutralized. Scott was sure that his shoulder would be paying him back for this in the morning.
"I miss mom." Nathan broke the silence, snapping Scott out of his subconscious daze of what ifs and should haves.
"Yeah… Me too." Scott replied flatly while catching the ball and quickly returning it. A thought crossed both of their minds simultaneously. A few moments later, as it turns out, Nathan was the one strong enough to voice it.
"Wait… Which one?"
Scott tried desperately not to laugh. Tried. The next fifteen minutes of their game he spent with a goofy half smile on his face.
At the end of those fifteen minutes that half smile grew to a full grin when the game was interrupted by Rachel as she strode across the lawn carrying a blanket and a picnic basket. She stopped the ball in flight midway between them and floated it into her hand while spreading out the blanket.
---
From a window on the third floor overlooking the backyard Emma smiled sadly, noting that this was the first time that she had given Rachel an order that was complied with immediately. She shifted into diamond form to protect herself from the miasma of 'would have could have should have' thoughts that were radiating from Scott as persistent and depressing as 'south of the border' billboards. She was content however knowing that deep down, he wanted her to share the blanket with them.
He even scooted over and left her a place.
Near Wild Heaven.
(Asitiswhenitwas)
Thank
you for reading. Feedback is adored.