Title: "For The Memories"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: R
Summary: Sometimes she awoke to hope, but always he came too soon.
Warnings: Het, Character Death
Challenge: Peja's 23-3-09 XMenFantasies challenge to write a theme fic; I chose angst, as I always do when dealing with Emma's current place in the comics for she no longer belongs with Scott than our sky should be purple with orange polka dots!
Disclaimer: Emma "White Queen" Frost, Sean "Banshee" Cassidy, Scott "Cyclops" Summers, Jean Grey-Summers, Logan/Wolverine, and the X-Men are © & TM Marvel comics, not the author. Everything else is © & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Sometimes she awoke, thinking there was still hope and forgetting the tragedies that had bombarded her life. Sometimes she awoke to an empty bed, stretched leisurely, and finally, foolishly thought herself safe again. Sometimes she awoke to sunshine flooding the bedroom and her heart fluttered at the thought of going downstairs, seeing the man whose handsome visage filled her every dream, and being greeted by his charming smile and Irish lilt.

Always her hopes were not too last. Always she would see the man fate had forced her to partner with far too soon, and all the pain, heartache, and torture would come flying back. It never left her for long, but when it did, it seemed to hurt twice as much than before. Yet always she would bare it with a smile and greet her heart's foe with a kiss for she knew that it was only her alliance with him that allowed her to stay on as a member of a team where her team mates hated her but with whom she retained a chance, no matter how slim, to make a difference in the world and keep the loss of those she'd dared to love from ever becoming meaningless.

Each of the X-Men had a reason they fought for the Good Dream, but time had stolen every one of Emma Frost's away. She had nothing but memories left now. Still she lingered on, surviving in her personal Hell on Earth, fighting for the Dream the man she'd loved had believed in, existing only to pay tribute to those memories she clung to.

And if ever she called Scott Sean, he pretended not to notice just as she failed to hear his cries for Jean. She allowed him to take his frustrations out on her in full, physically and emotionally, and hid the scars well. Whenever another drew too close to the truth, as Logan often did whilst curiously tracking the scents of fresh blood, she hid the facts from their own minds, refused all help, and carried on, pledging her life in honor of those she'd lost, paying homage to them each day, and letting her sins and mistakes be beaten out of her every night until, at long last, love prevailed and death granted the once-proud White Queen the sweet release she had secretly begged for every night since her beloved Sean's death.

The End