Past Visits
Gemini sighed in resignation. Jay wouldn't let this drop until she did it. She had to go back—had to face her past. She closed her eyes and let her mind expand and sink into the time stream. Thousands of threads, paths traveled by everything alive with some beginning and some petering out as new creatures were born or died. The threads crossed and touched, merged and split, and quite often branched off to disappear into a different sector.
The sectors were divided by a dense blackness that just looking at made her shudder. Gem took another deep breath and reached out to grasp a familiar pink thread and was immediately submerged in the life of Remy LeBeau. For a minute, she just stood, watching him joke and play with his brother and wife, then with a thought sent his life into rewind at hyper speed, making sure she stayed on the main track until she reached the proper branch and let herself be hurtled down it, now in fast-forward.
She knew the instant she broke through into the proper sector, into her "home-line" by the sickly clinging, penetrating cold sensation that seemed to last forever, but was over in an instant.
Even passing through at hyper speed, Gemini's heart went out to her dad as he sat by a dying Damia's bed, holding her hand as she died. Gem slowed slightly, not to real time, but enough to watch what was happening, she'd never stopped to watch this before…never steeled herself for it, now she did. She saw Damia open pink eyes that glowed slightly. A small smile graced her lips as she reached out to take his hand. She licked dry, cracking lips before speaking. "Stop that." He voice sounded as dry as the rest of her looked. "You can't keep draining it off." Damia cupped his cheek and Gemini noticed for the first time that her skin looked papery and transparent. "I know you don't want to, but you have to accept it. I'm going to die."
Gambit shook his head. "Non." Gemini saw the tears welling in his eyes and barely kept from stopping to comfort him. "Dis i'n' s'pos' t' 'appen. Mia don'…don' do dis. Please, yo'r no' s'pos' t' die… yo' c'n' die." His voice was still steady, but the tears started to overflow, leaving trails down his cheeks before falling onto their clasped hands.
"Remy." Her words were cut off by deep, harsh coughs and the monitors started going haywire. Gem felt the instant Gambit reached out and clutched her to him with his empathy, binding her life to his as he yelled for Hank. Gem saw the secondary path Gambit had used and smiled. Not lifemates my ass.
Hank arrived, Kurt right behind him. Kurt glanced back and forth between the two before clutching Gambit's shoulders and shaking him. "Let her go, Gambit!" Kurt practically yelled. "What good will it do for her to pull you down as well? Victoria and Alexander need you. Let Damia go. Let her go to the peace the Lord offers and go to your children. They need you. Mia is beyond you now. Let her go."
Gemini flipped back into hyper speed, not wanting to see the actual death. It's funny, the things our mind does and doesn't remember, Gemini thought as scenes flashed by at an astounding rate. I remember Dad coming in and holding Xander and I close and tight, telling us what had happened…but I don't remember his tears. Time flew by as she watched it all, smiling at the happy times and trying to ignore the bad. Finally she stopped. She released her hold on Gambit's thread and gave a hard mental tug to pull her body through. Gambit sat across the room from her, staring into an empty fireplace. He turned to look at her and Gemini could have sobbed. His face was sunken in and his eyes were hollow and glazed, they went wide as he looked at her, taking in her black jean mini-skirt, deep green tube-top that stopped just inches below the "indecent line", combat boots and worn jean jacket.
"Mia?" His voice was more of a croak than anything, hoarse as if he hadn't used it in ages, and full of longing.
Gemini shook her head. "Oh daddy." She barely kept her voice from cracking, but couldn't keep the pity from it. "What happened to you?"
Gambit's eyes cleared a little and his gaze intensified. "Victoria?" She nodded and saw the smallest smile in his eyes and lips before he held an arm out to her.
Gemini practically ran across the room and threw herself into her father's arms. "Oh papa…" She fought to hold back tears, but they fell anyway, soaking the front of his shirt as he held her tight.
"Shhh, dere no reason t' cry, Tori."
She nodded. "I know, mais 's s' so goo' t' see yo'."
Gambit chuckled. "Yo' been in N'awlins all dis time? I' soun's li'e i'."
She shook her head. "No, I just lost it for a minute." She pulled back as the door flew open.
"Tor!" Alexander yelled in excitement when he saw her. "I knew I felt you." He grabbed her by the waist and spun, lifting her off her feet. When he sat her back on her feet, Gemini returned his embrace, squeezing him as hard as she could.
"How have you been?" Gemini couldn't keep her thought from going back to the last time she had seen him, facing him as a bitter enemy.
He shrugged. "Alright, the headaches stopped after the first week, and I can block out its voice now." She reached out to touch his temple and he pulled away. "Don't! We don't know what'll happen." His face split into his usual smile. "But that doesn't matter anymore, you're home now!"
"No, I'm not," Gemini spoke quietly.
"What?" both father and brother said in tandem.
"I'm not staying." She met their disbelieving stares. "I'm not staying. I came to wrap things up her, say a final good-bye to everyone."
"Why?" It was Gambit who broke the silence, seeming genuinely curious.
"I found something better."
"Where?" Now she knew he was curious.
"616," she said simply, knowing he would understand.
Gambit nodded, accepting it, but Alex spoke angrily. "No, Tor, you can't. You belong here, with us."
She shook her head. "I have to go back. I promised."
His eyes flashed and she felt the Falcon trapped in his head crash against the barriers that held it. "Who is it? What do you know about him?"
Gambit blinked. "Him?" He looked from Gemini to Alex and back, before smiling. "Yo' doin' dis fo' some homme?" She nodded. "'ow well d' yo' know 'im?"
Gemini smirked. "Oh…very well." Gambit laughed as Alex fumed.
"What are you thinking Tori?" Alex practically screamed. "Have you forgotten…"
He didn't have a chance to finish. Gemini whirled around, throwing knife appearing in her hand from her sleeve and threw it, pinning Alex to the wall by his shirt. "Do not even try to compare him to Jason."
Gambit put a hand on his daughter's shoulder. She looked up into his face. "Yo' love 'im petit?" Gemini bit her lip as she went to retrieve her knife before nodding. "D' Remy know 'im?" She nodded again.
"When are you leaving?" Alex asked, deciding to relent. "At least stay for a while?"
After a second she nodded. "No more than a week." She returned Alex's smile.
The first days passed quickly, and then began to drag as she started to miss Jay. People came and went, tears were shed and time went on. The final day of her stay, Gemini had and unexpected visitor. She turned from the window to see Jay leaning against the doorframe. "Ever heard of knocking?" she asked only half joking. She saw, and could almost feel, his eyes slide slowly over her.
"I like the new look," he said, ignoring her question. "It suits you much better than you old fab-and-glam style." Gemini hid her shock that he knew what her friends had called her old style as he entered he room fully. "How have you been?"
Gemini smiled, but kept it polite, not personal. "Fine," was the simple reply.
He was standing in front of her now, and reached out to cup her cheek. Gemini stepped back. "Ouch," he said, still smiling flirtatiously. "What happened to being my biggest fan?"
"I'm still 'Jay's' biggest fan… just not yours." The smile dropped from his face. The silence stretched out until a voice behind Jay spoke.
"You heard her, big shot, so fuck off before I decide to singe your pretty plumage."
Gemini sighed as Jay left, then smiled. "Thanks, Uncle Pete."
He ruffled her hair. "No problem. Now get going before somethin' else happens." She nodded and closed her eyes, retracing her steps back to 616. She opened her eyes as she was pushed back onto the bed, pinned beneath someone. She smiled up at Jay, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Don't do that again," he told her with more of a plea in his voice than a command.
"No worries," she reassured him. "I'm all done there and they know it."
His smile seemed to light up his face before he kissed her.