Marvel owns the rights to Sabretooth & Birdy, all others are my creation.
Reviews and constructive criticism welcome.
Creed's eyes opened slowly and came to focus on Emma. She was sitting against the large wooden headboard with a pillow propped behind her back and one on her lap. She was twining thin gray yarn among her fingers and tiny double pointed needles. She hadn't noticed he was awake yet and was quietly talking to herself. He listened to her for a while enjoying the moment of normalcy.
"Good morning, sweetheart." Emma murmured, noticing his breathing had changed. He growled at her choice of affectionate nickname.
"Get me a coffee, will ya?" Victor sat up and ran his claws through his hair, messing it up worse than sleeping had done. "An' make sure Birdy was the one ta make it? Your coffee sucks." He lifted himself up out of bed and padded to the washroom, leaving it wide open as he lifted the toilet seat.
"Have I told you 'I love you' this morning?" Emma put her knitting aside, followed him out of bed, and leaned against the door frame of the bathroom.
"No." He replied over the sound of urine hitting the water.
"Really? I wonder why." Emma picked up a light blue robe and wrapped it around herself.
"Well feel free t'do so now." The flush came and Creed appeared behind her.
"Maybe after you wash your hands." She gave him a beautiful smile then headed downstairs to greet Birdy and start breakfast.
oooooo
Birdy had already rolled her suitcase out to the front door when Emma came down the stairs. Creed had business is Ohio this fine morning and their plane was due to leave in only a few hours. At first it had made her jealous that his assistant would accompany him on these trips while leaving her at home alone, especially when she was not blind to the fact that Birdy was very attractive, but after a few months and no indications that an affair was taking place behind her back, Emma had to learn to relax and trust her husband, at least in this. Emma was not stupid and knew Victor had slept with other women during their marriage, and may still be doing so, but Birdy was not one of them, and for that she was thankful.
"I have something for you." Emma tossed her a bottle of pain killers.
"Funny, I have something for you too." Birdy handed her a travel mug of steaming coffee, just as Victor liked it. "Is he up and ready to go?" They both heard the shower start from upstairs and no answer was needed. "Any plans while we're away?"
"Nothing fun, I have to get to paying the bills and sorting through our paperwork. Sometimes I hate being a grown up." Emma curled up on the steps leading to the second floor. The carpets on the staircase were annually replaced due to the large volume of blood they seemed to accrue during the year. This year, while she was away, Victor had chosen red shag carpeting. It most likely decreased the value of the house, but it was rather comfortable on bare feet. She took a few sips from his coffee.
"I hear ya, but the good news is – you can afford to buy your own candy." It was a bad joke but they laughed anyway. The shower stopped.
"The maid will be here soon and I want him out of the house. He's scared off all of the help except the gardeners and I'm running out of places to call. Do you need any help?"
Birdy shook her head no. "I'll just start loading the car – actually, if you want to grab the stuff on the kitchen counter, I made breakfast to go for both of us." As she opened the front door and made her way to the understated blue Camry parked out front in the roundabout, Emma went for the travel mug of some weird smoothie concoction Birdy enjoyed drinking in the mornings and what looked like two bagel sandwiches. When she exited, Victor was walking down the stairs towel drying his hair and gripping a duffel bag.
"Coffee?" He grunted at her and left the towel at the foot of the steps. She obliged with a bit of shuffling as Birdy ducked in and took his bag from him.
"Call me when you arrive?" Emma said to both of them as they piled into the car. Creed sat in the passenger seat today and was already ripping into one of the bagels.
"Yeah, yeah. You just be here when I get back." His usual parting words. The car took off around the fountain and out the gated entrance to the property.
oooooo
Emma worked at her desk in the office that was located between the two staircases that led to upstairs. It sat facing the large double door entrance to the mansion so that she could keep track of the comings and goings in the house. At least that was the intention when she and Victor had first bought the place and she had still held out hope for children. Her body just did not see eye to eye about that part. She had had many miscarriages, more than her husband probably even knew about. Finally, about two years ago, she had decided that her healing factor treated a pregnancy like a cold, and fought it off, however she had never verified her theory.
At the desk, she was setting up accounts through her bank to pay major creditors and do away with mailing in checks every month to pay for hydro bills and the like. She opened the mail that had collected in the past few days. Last month, she had killed a man by shooting shrapnel into his heart with a fancy pen, today, she was clipping coupons for laundry detergent. Emma put down the flyers and with her head in her hands, let out a long and painful sigh.
The phone began to ring beside her and she wouldn't have answered it had the call display not said it was Birdy's mobile calling.
"Yes?" Emma asked wearily into the receiver.
"Em? Ah – we've had a bit of a situation." Birdy sounded a bit high pitched from anxiety. They were supposed to have landed back in Vancouver an hour ago.
"Is there a delay?"
"Sort of. Mister Creed's been detained. He's going to be in lock up for three days and has to pay a fine."
She lowered her head against the cool wood of the desk a moment before replying, "What happened exactly?" Creed had a nasty temper, but he was rational enough to know that causing a ruckus on the plane could get him banned from flying, which meant no work.
"Well he didn't say anything to me, but I guess he was having another headache at the time. Anyway there were some kids on the plane a few rows behind us being loud and rowdy and Mister Creed just sort of snapped. The police were called in to meet us at the gate even though I got him to calm down by, um, knocking him out with a mental blast, but they won't let him fly again for six months." Birdy was calming down slowly.
"Come on home then, we have three days to figure something out." Emma gave a second sigh that afternoon as she hung up the phone. She was sure Victor would be good while in lock up as not to increase the charges and elongating his ban from flying, though she would bet anything he would be quite unpleasant to deal with once he arrived home.
