Hey fella's it's me again! Here to bring you the next chapter in what is undoubtedly turning into one of the longest fanfictions in history! I so did not mean for Torn to be this long! But, you know how it is. You get writing and your brain goes "Oh wait, I wanna explore this.." or "Nope we're taking it this way..." I gotta tell ya, my brain and I are about to have our fist marital fight...
So...ENJOY!
Mary woke early the next morning. She sat up and groggily rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Something wasn't quite right, she thought. Just the slightest bit off.
She looked round the room. Jeremy and Ericka were still there…
She pondered it for a moment, then shrugged. Chalking it up to being in a strange place, she rolled over to wake up Patrick. Her eyes widened in alarm.
Patrick was gone!
No…He wouldn't…
She hurriedly pulled her sweater and shoes on and rushed downstairs. It took her less than no time to find the elevator.
"Basement, one!" she panted once inside, remembering how Scott had done it.
For a moment nothing happened, then the doors slid shut, and the elevator glided down to the lower level. She shot out of the elevator and ran down the hall as if the devil himself were after her.
She hit the button, the door to Rhett's room slid open, and she hurried inside.
Rogue looked up from the book in her lap. She smiled, held a finger to her lips, and nodded meaningfully toward the bed.
Mary followed her gaze.
Patrick was sprawled across Rhett's bedside, fast asleep. His face had a look of such peace on it, a look she had never seen there before.
And his hand was wrapped around Rhett's.
Mary breathed a sigh of relief. She tiptoed silently over to Rogue and whispered as quietly as she could. "How long has he been here?"
Rogue shrugged. " 'e's been 'ere sawin' logs since ah started mah shift. Kurt 'as on afore me, an he said Mr. Donahue came sometime durin' Kitty's shift. You'd have t' ask her when 'e got 'ere. Ah couldn't say fer sure."
Mary nodded her thanks. She padded quietly over to Patrick, and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. He started, then looked up at her tiredly. She smiled and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. He sighed and bowed his head, reaching up with his free hand to cover her own.
She leaned down and gave him an understanding peck on the cheek. "Good morning." She whispered. He nodded.
"I've been a fool, Mary." He whispered.
Mary grabbed a nearby chair and pulled it close. She sat down and gently cupped his face. "Now, now. You know I wasn't much better." She answered quietly.
He opened his mouth to say more, but she cut him off. She had a pretty good idea what he was going to say. "You can't change yesterday." She said gently. "All you can do is apologize, and try to do better tomorrow."
A muffled thud and a slew of Russian mutterings woke Jackie. He smiled. That had happened two or three times throughout the night.
He heard Piotr pull himself up off the floor, but this time, instead of climbing back into the hammock, he grabbed the alarm clock off the top of his dresser. He muttered something about a shower, picked up a drawstring bag by the door and quietly left the room.
Jackie closed his eyes and gently ruffled Jonny's hair. A shower sounded pretty good right about now, he had to admit.
Aside from the flood the X-men had used to carry Jonny, Jeremy, and Trisha out, he hadn't had a bath since before Auger kidnapped him! None of them had. They'd scrubbed themselves using some of the drinking water Auger provided, but it wasn't the same. And as the year ran on and it began to get cold, they'd reluctantly drifted away from the practice for fear of getting hypothermia.
It had been surprising to get out of the warehouse and discover that they were only just at the end of summer's coat tails! Being buried so low in the ground and, he'd later discovered, next to the water coolers and air conditioning units for the entire building had made their cell considerably colder than it should have been.
He heard laughter out in the hallway, and glanced at the clock. Six thirty. Life sure began early here at the mansion.
He brushed his hair out of his eyes, glaring at the brilliant purple and gold strands. His hair had grown out considerably during his captivity. He needed to either cut it short so he was back to his normal blonde, or he needed to dye it again and trim it back to its former length.
Why did I even dye it that color in the first place? He wondered.
It took him a few minutes of questing thought to remember that he had done it on a dare. It had won him twenty bucks. He shook his head. It all seemed like such a long time ago. A whole other life time!
Maybe it was. He thought.
He wasn't the same person he had been, and he knew he could never go back to that earlier time. Things that he had once thought so important, he now found he could care less about them! And some things he had taken for granted, he now knew to be precious.
He looked down at one of those "precious" things.
Precious…he snorted as an image of Gollum huddled over his gold ring muttering "..my precious…" over and over to himself came to mind.
And Mom and Dad thought I was crazy before! He thought, grinning. They would so disown me if I started huddling over Jonny and calling him 'My Precious'!
A cynical part of his mind whispered that they still might when they found out he was a mutant. Jonny too.
He gently ruffled his brother's hair again, noting that Jonny's hair had grown long and shaggy to.
At least his looks good. He thought absently.
Jonny mumbled something in his sleep and rolled over against Jackie's chest. Jackie smiled. What would come, would come. He could face it….
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