Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: G
Summary: Scott and Emma have both experienced a great deal of sorrow and grief, but together, hand in hand, they'll walk into their brighter tomorrow.
Warnings: Het, Established Relationship
Word Count: 898
Date Written: 20 June, 2011
Challenge: For the XDisneyDreamers LJ comm's weekly challenge
Disclaimer: Emma "White Queen" Frost, Scott "Cyclops" Summers, Sean "Banshee" Cassidy, Jean Grey-Summers, all other characters mentioned within, Generation X, and the X-Men are & TM Marvel comics and Disney, not the author; are used without permission; and may not be used without permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
"Wow!" Scott looked up at the astonished whisper and noted the look on the boy just a few kids ahead of him. The child wore the same worshipful expression he had so often worn himself when he had first started training to be a hero. He wondered which of his many friends the kid was looking at but saw no adults ahead of the boy and his pack. Then he noted the girl who was the closest thing he would ever know to a granddaughter and smiled to himself as he heard the boy's next comment. "I bet her parents are legends!"
The children hurried away, eager to catch up to the girl and her companions, and Scott's thoughts grew wistful as the boy's remark circled around in his mind. They still didn't know who Hope's real parents were, but to Scott, she would always be a Summers. She would always be his son's daughter. "Her father was," he whispered, his heart aching. He and Cable had certainly had their differences, but there wasn't a day that went by that he didn't think of his son, his sacrifice, and how terribly much he missed him.
"Yes," a soft voice next to his ear whispered as a gentle hand touched him even more softly. "He was, and if there was one thing that Cable proved with his time traveling, it was that nothing is impossible." A slight, sad smile curved Emma's light lips. "I know you miss him, Scott, but I doubt we have heard the last from Nathan."
"Do you really think so?" he asked.
She smiled up at him, forcing her smile to brighten to reassure him. "I would be willing to bet my enterprises upon it. You Summers men are quite . . . " She leaned into him, pressing her body against his, and his arms went around her as though there was nothing more natural in the world to either of them than for him to hold her and for her to let him hold her. " . . . indomitable." She ran her left hand over his face, drawing her fingers softly across his hard skin whose every scar she knew as well as her own. "He made you proud already, Mister Summers, and your son will return to do so again."
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against him. His head rested on top of hers. "I hope so," he said.
"There is a man who taught me something I never possessed before," she spoke quietly, "something I still have trouble believing in wholly: trust. Trust in your son, Scott, and you'll see him again some day. In the mean time, care for the children we still have, and . . . " She leaned up on the pointed toes of her boots to look directly into his handsome, albeit tired, face. "Have a very happy Father's Day for you are certainly the best father I've ever known." She kissed him.
She had been a single mother for years, first through caring for her beloved Hellions and then later when trying to protect Generation X from their own foolishery. She had tried to reach out to Sean and make their team a family, but though there had been times that they had began to come close together, he had always pushed her away eventually. In the end, she had lost both him and their children when she had done the only thing she could to protect them.
It had taken her years to overcome her losses, but she had finally come to accept that there would always be more children who needed her special brand of parenting in their lives. The new fledgling mutants arriving on Utopia today were just the latest calves coming to the herd. She would protect them, but she no longer had to do so alone. She was not a single mother any more. She had Scott, and he cared for her, and even loved her though they dared not put a voice to the actual feeling save on very rare occasions. There was no one else left in her world beside whom Emma would better care to face the future.
Their fingers entwined, and they walked side by side to the orientation class. Though sorrow still plagued them, their future was the brightest it had been in years, because they had each other with whom to weather life's storms. Nathan would come again. Sean and Jean might yet still return. Even if they did, Emma knew where she belonged now. She knew who loved her and where her destiny lay, and she was done fighting it. "Happy Father's Day, Mister Summers," she whispered beside him, and he drew her back against him again with one muscular arm wrapped around her slender shoulders.
"You can give me my present again shortly behind our closed bedroom door, Miss Frost," Scott whispered with a sly grin that made Emma tingle. He wondered, as he spoke her name, if she would ever grant him the honor of calling her his Missus Summers, but that was a story for another chapter of their shared life. Today was another day where they were needed to be parents, and they would fill the roles perfectly together. He kissed her gloved hand and walked with her, side by side, into their future.
The End