Hitchhiker
By Princess Alexandria
Brooke sighed heavily as she looked at the clock and saw only ten minutes had passed. It felt like an hour. She swiveled in her chair and looked around again, but this time her eyes caught someone staring at her a bit differently. Brooke stared back at the man, her memory nagging her as she looked at him. He looked familiar, but she couldn't really place him.
His eyes stared into her and Brooke took a chance, she ordered another beer and then picked up hers and the new one while standing up. She moved toward him and felt a little apprehensive as she hoped she was right. If not she'd look foolish. "Do I know you?" She asked as she got to his table. A few men nearby laughed at something, but she didn't look over at them.
"Perhaps." His voice was slightly weary and Brooke slowly moved to slide into the other side of his booth and set her beer down, and then pushed the other one across the table. He took it, but didn't take a sip. He stared at her. "Why?"
Brooke looked into his eyes again and was finally able to relax a little as they flashed yellow for just a second, confirming her guess. "I wanted a baby." Brooke sighed and stared down at her drink. "I was on my way to get artificially inseminated. It wasn't a procedure I was looking forward to, but I didn't know any other way. I knew a few men that would have loved to give it to me for free, but either their genes were nothing special or I thought they'd expect the marriage route and I'm not interested in men. I just wanted a baby." Brooke's fingers played with her glass nervously as she went quieter. "When I found out you could be a man, well, I thought maybe that was a better way to go. You were just enough man to make it possible. I don't feel anything for men, but you stayed woman enough that I could do it. I even enjoyed it." Brooke blushed a little and went quiet.
Brooke looked up slowly and watched as Mystique in a male form stared at her. "Why me? You had to know what she'd inherit."
Brooke glanced around and realized that Mystique didn't feel free to talk about that here. Brooke rarely said the word, it just didn't come up, but she leaned forward and spoke quieter. "My little girl is beautiful just the way she is. I wouldn't change a thing about her. Yeah she's a mutant, and some day she'll realize what that is. I'll just help her as best I can." Brooke stared into Mystique's eyes and spoke slower. "I saw so much in you that I wanted for my little girl, a little blue skin was hardly a deal breaker for me. You have good genes, I didn't know how good, but I did know they were good." Brooke stopped herself just shy of talking about good breeding and remembered what Jimmy said.
Mystique looked rather thoughtful as she stared at the table and Brooke just watched her. "I'm sorry if you feel it was wrong of me." Brooke spoke softly. "And I'm sure this was a shock. I'm sorry you found out like this." Brooke went quieter and stared into Mystique's eyes. "But I'm not sorry for picking you, and I'm not sorry for having her. I was right in picking you, because she came out so beautifully. She's everything I wanted, everything."
Mystique just shook her head and smiled a little, just a little, at Brooke. Brooke noticed the slight amusement. "I always thought if I was involved in a conversation like this I'd be on the other side of the table." The amusement faded. "I've been there before Brooke. Kurt was the result of numerous one night stands in an attempt to get pregnant." Mystique sighed. "It didn't end happily ever after. I didn't raise him. I adopted Rogue later and I raised her, but I didn't raise him. It would have been hard to raise a blue child."
"I'm okay with hard." Brooke said slowly, but she felt strange thinking that the woman wouldn't have raised her boy. She couldn't imagine walking away from Mercy.
"Did you really expect her to be blue?" Mystique asked.
"Of course. Something like that has to be the dominant genes." Brooke spoke, thinking of her horses and how she picked studs or mares for her own horses. "Also thought she might change forms like you, but she hasn't done anything like that yet."
"She might not." Mystique glanced around the bar. "I got a room, we could talk there."
Brooke had been starting to relax, and the idea of a change of scenery had her tensing up again. It felt awkward, just as it was starting to feel comfortable. "Okay." She spoke as she grabbed her beer and took another deep drink before setting the glass down. A bit more to drink would have been nice.
When they got up Brooke noticed that Mystique hadn't had anything to drink, and there was no glass on her table. She stared at the untouched bottle and then up at the form Mystique was wearing.
"I thought it would be a good idea to stay sober. I don't need to father any more children." Mystique told her and there was a hint of steel under the kind sounding voice, a hint of anger, but it wasn't nearly what Brooke expected.
Brooke smiled weakly as they started to walk out together. "Well that's a shame, Mercy would have liked a sister." She semi-joked, as if she hadn't considered it.
"I think you'll find raising her enough trouble once she's old enough to go to school." Mystique said and then opened the door for them to leave. "If you'd asked me I would have told you raising an obvious mutant will be hard." Brooke sighed as she stepped out into the slightly warmer night. The door closed behind them as Brooke waited to see which direction Mystique went, toward the motel a few blocks away or toward a car to get to the one across town.
Mystique just started walking, so Brooke moved to walk with her, noticing they walked passed all the cars in the parking lot. That answered that question, she thought, but she still felt a bit nervous. "I think I've been doing okay so far." Brooke spoke quietly as they walked over the rock covered parking lot toward the road.
"Well at least you got this far without a lynch mob chasing you." Mystique muttered. "I was still giving birth when I had to grab Kurt and run." Brooke's eyes widened a little at that idea. Giving birth had been rather hard on her, she couldn't imagine doing much of anything right afterward. She'd never even considered that people seeing Mercy would put them in danger, she'd been more worried about a safe delivery.
"My Doctor was a little stunned, but she covered it up and treated us well." Brooke spoke quietly of the day she'd given birth. "I know that not every mother got to keep their baby in their room, and it was probably to keep other people from seeing her, but I was happier with her nearby anyhow."
Mystique glanced over at her, before looking along the deserted road and shifting to her true form. "Lucky you, your doctor was probably a closet mutant."
"I don't think so." Brooke considered the words quietly. "Maybe, but I hardly think it matters. She was nice enough." Mystique's expression said it all, the woman didn't believe Brooke's words. Brooke just sighed and stared at the ground to make sure she didn't twist her ankle on a rock kicked into the street from the parking lot. There were a few as drunk men liked to spin their wheels.
They were silent for a while, and Brooke debated about the wisdom of saying what she was thinking, but she just felt she had to. "I thought you'd be a bit madder. My brother said if it were him a woman did this to he'd be pissed."
Mystique's sigh was loud enough to hear and Brooke glanced at the woman's face. "I was pretty mad. I wasn't sure you hadn't done it to have a shape shifting daughter, that it wasn't about my powers. I've had to stop scientists from cloning me." Brooke stopped walking as she just turned to stare.
"They can clone people now?" Her voice rose in her shock.
"They aren't supposed to, but they don't really consider mutants people." Mystique's jaw was clenched and Brooke felt a wave of empathy as she felt she was finally starting to get some idea why Mystique had been apprehensive years ago when Brooke stopped to help her.
"Damn." Brooke whispered and when Mystique was still in motion Brooke had to continue to walk. "I can see why they'd pick you, but that's just wrong."
"My powers are my own." Mystique sounded passionate about that.
Brooke spoke more slowly. "I was thinking about your genes actually." Her mind on horses again she forgot her brother's advice. "You've got nice lines, you're strong and fast, I'd say you were a prime racehorse if you were a horse, probably make a killing breeding and racing you. You're no barnyard horse."
Mystique laughed. "Oh I forgot how uniquely you saw the world." The woman shook her head and Brooke blushed. "I can't believe you see all that and ignore the obvious mutation."
"My horses don't really care about each other's color." Brooke muttered and waited for Mystique to start walking again. "I figure that's the way everyone aught to be."
The blue woman stared at Brooke a little too long, a small look of sympathy in her eyes. "You'll find people aren't like horses Brooke, so will Mercy."
"I know they aren't." Brooke's voice snapped a little. Her brother was always saying that to her. "It's why I prefer horses."
"So why didn't you have a little centaur?" Mystique asked in a lewd way and Brooke blushed hotly while glaring at the woman.
"So here we are." Mystique turned to the parking lot they were standing in front of. "Yet another dive in my long line of dives I've stayed at." Brooke looked at the building and had to agree the place wasn't pleasant looking. There were probably more truck drivers here than anything else, and in a place like this the desperate had no choices.
Brooke looked at the place and then at the woman next to her. "You inviting me here for any special reason? You don't seem mad, so what do we have to talk about?" Brooke's eyes lingered on that form that inspired her plan to breed this woman years ago.
"You interested without the secret plot to steal my sperm?" Mystique smirked at her and Brooke nibbled on her lip a bit. "I know you aren't much for romance, so I figure this dive isn't going to drive you off."
Brooke grinned just a little. Part of her had hoped for a repeat performance. "Jimmy said he'd watch Mercy all night." Brooke said with a small smile.
Mystique just looked at her a moment after she'd said that and it dawned on Brooke that it sounded like she'd planned to stay. She had hoped, but hopefully it wasn't a deal breaker.
"You're family okay with Mercy?" Mystique asked quietly as they just stood in front of the parking lot.
"They love her, but she doesn't see anyone but Jimmy and Grandma often. Jimmy stays for the summers and Grandma lives in a small house on the corner of the property. My parents don't live in Texas and they don't live together. They thought they needed at least a state between them when they split up. They almost never visit and I don't take Mercy on joyrides to places I don't know." Brooke answered Mystique, wondering at the concern.
"That's a good idea. From what I've seen of your town they are unusually accepting of mutants, but strangely they don't like Kurt too much." Mystique smirked just a little.
"They think he's the daddy." Brooke admitted as they started to walk towards the buildings.
"Yeah, I gathered that when he got a lecture about treating a woman right from one of the locals." Mystique grinned a little.
"It is none of their damned business." Brooke shook her head in disgust.
Mystique started to pull a key out of her pocket as they moved towards the rows of doors. "It felt a bit strange to watch him take the blame when I know the child's mine." Mystique spoke quietly. The word mine in that line worried Brooke a little. She wasn't sure how to deal with it, because as far as she was concerned Mercy was Brooke's and Brooke's alone, but then there was how happy Mercy was to see other blue people. This was getting messy and Brooke had gotten pregnant this way to avoid the mess. It didn't work.
The door opened and Brooke looked in at slightly broken furniture and a lamp that barely did its job. "Welcome to the Love Shack." Mystique teased as she waved her arm out to encourage Brooke to go in first. Brooke looked down to make sure there were no visible rats before she did. It was that nice.
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