Part Six
He woke, unsure of what had dragged him grudgingly towards consciousness until he felt Dom curled rigidly against his side. Nightmares again. Hers were like a rapidly bleeding wound--he could try to put pressure on them, so to speak, but he couldn't always stop it and some nights she still woke screaming no matter what he did. Nights like that were blessedly rare. Then, all he could do was hold her and will it to be okay.
Imagining her facing those dreams alone--jolting awake to nothing but an empty room gave him a sick feeling. It drove home just how torn up she still was and how much he wanted her to know it'd never come to that again. He'd made a commitment here, but then, he'd broken promises before. He closed his eyes as he felt her relax, thinking there had to be another way.
"Nate... time to get up."
There were, Nathan decided as he returned Domino's kiss, much worse ways to be woken up. He opened his eyes, reaching out to capture his partner around the waist as he sat up. Dom grinned. "Your mother is making breakfast this morning. Didn't think you'd want to miss out on that."
"Is she making pancakes?"
"In theory. Though, unless you get your ass out of bed, McCoy will probably eat them all."
"Well, he can try."
Domino just laughed and shook her head.
----
The kitchen was already crowded by the time they got downstairs. Dom made a bee-line for the coffee maker while Nate went to go snag his share of the pancakes. The table was already crowded; Scott was at one end, dutifully trying to coax his daughter into eating breakfast without much success, Bobby and Hank were fighting over a bottle of frozen maple syrup, while the rest of the house members sat absorbed in their own conversations, ignoring the surrounding chaos with an ease that came only from spending years at the Xavier estate.
She carefully wove her way through the busy kitchen, managing to pass one of the coffee cups on to Nathan, who had taken over for his father in the attempt to feed Rachel. She snagged an orange from the bowl on the table and found a free bit of counter space to lean against as she continued to watch Nate coax his little sister, with no more luck than Scott had been having.
"It is good to see him enjoying himself, is it not?"
She nearly jumped out of her skin. "Storm... I didn't see you there."
"I did not mean to startle you. My apologies."
"It's all right," she replied carefully. She'd never gotten along well with Ororo, that was no secret. Why, she wasn't exactly certain. Something about her had always grated against her nerves--something totally unconnected to her occasionally condescending attitude. Nathan, however, seemed to get along with her just fine. As did Logan, she noted wryly. It was probably worth putting forth more effort to play nice. She glanced at Nate again. "He likes kids," she shrugged. "Not exactly a secret. I mean you don't take in a pack of emotionally troubled teenagers unless you've got one hell of a parenting instinct."
"I take it you do not share his enthusiasm?"
Dom sipped her coffee, arching an eyebrow. "I admit, when he first asked me to help with X-Force, I agreed more for his sake than anything else. When Nate asks for help he really means it, after all. But I guess I warmed up to it." She set her cup down. "I didn't want to see them turn out like me."
"I believe that is at the heart of all of our motivations," Storm replied. "To prevent further generations from suffering as we have."
"Yeah, I suppose." Her eyes drifted back to Nate. "Need some help there?"
He looked over, grinning at her. "Nah. Haven't met a toddler that could beat me yet."
"She sure looks like she's trying," she replied with a lopsided smile. She watched for a few moments more with a pang of--envy? She shook her head at the ridiculous feeling. Still... maybe there was some truth to the thought. It was easy to be jealous of something that seemed to make him happier than anything she had to offer.
----
Cable lowered himself to the floor in the library, eyes drifting over the shelves before he looked back at Jean. After breakfast, everyone had gone their separate ways, and after a brief detour to clean up after the morning's adventures in child care, he and Jean had reconvened here to start training. The room was sufficiently large and infrequently used to allow them to conduct the sessions in peace--at least until she got him into more complex training. If they got that far--he wasn't as optimistic about success as he'd let on to Domino.
"I'm afraid we're going to start at the very basics here. I just need to get an idea of what we're going to have to work on." She gathered a stack of books and brought them back to where Nathan had already seated himself on the floor. She set the volumes down between them as she sat cross-legged on the floor. "Just lift those, and see how long you can hold them, all right?"
It was an overly simplistic task. He closed his eyes as he complied, letting his mind wander.
Stepping back into the mansion always felt like waking from a long dream, and he was only beginning to sort out the reasons for that. Here, immersed again in situations that had passed for 'normal' for most of his life, he could look backward with a sort of clarity he couldn't find in the little house in Oregon. The more he examined it, the more insane it seemed. The isolation, the strain hidden beneath a thin veil of normalcy--suddenly, everything that had seemed so right before was jarringly wrong.
What did he honestly expect? He hadn't exactly committed himself to anything. He was still waiting... for what? Divine inspiration? He was too cynical to believe anything of the sort was going to happen. And yet, in a way, wasn't that exactly what he was doing? Sitting back and letting Dom's actions tell him where to go? Where did he want to go? The question was met with resounding silence.
"Nathan?" Jean's voice broke him from his reverie. "I think that's good."
"Oh." He carefully set the stack of books back onto the floor.
Jean laughed. "Well, I guess there's nothing wrong with your multi-tasking abilities. What were you thinking about?"
"Dom... she was married once, you know," he said.
Jean blinked at the apparent non sequitur. "I had no idea."
"She'd probably tell you about it if you asked."
She arched an eyebrow at him. "I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable with that."
"No, probably not." He paused. "She was always pretty casual about it, though."
"Ah."
"What?"
"Nothing. I'm just curious as to why you're telling me this." 'Wrong thing to say,' she thought belatedly, as she saw his expression close up. #Nathan, I didn't mean...#
#Training session. I'm wasting time.#
Jean sighed inwardly and silently cursed her son's stubborn streak.
----
"Just like old times," Jean smiled wryly, noting the exhausted look on her son's face. They'd been working at various skill levels all afternoon--so far as she'd been able to tell, Nathan's control over his telekinesis wasn't compromised, exactly. But the strength he'd gained in the last few years was gone again, and it hurt to see how much that realization was affecting him.
"I'm not making nearly as much progress."
Jean sighed. "You always did have problems working within your limitations." She unfolded her legs, stretching cramped muscles. "I think that's good for today," she said, standing. "We can start the real work tomorrow now that I know where we're at." She put the items she'd borrowed away, then followed Nathan out into the hallway.
He slowed as they moved away from the library, stopping to glance over the wall of photographs. He reached out to straighten a frame, shaking his head.
"Nathan...?"
"I was just thinking," His eyes drifted over various shots--large team photos, scattered smaller groups, and the even rarer couples. "We're very good at deluding ourselves."
"Oh?" Jean stepped up beside him. "Care to elaborate, or should I chalk that up to another cryptic comment on your part?"
"Xavier's dream--it's all abut equality. About the right to live normal lives without persecution..." He gestured to the photographs. "We don't even know what it is we're fighting for. Of all the students, you and Scott are the only ones who've even come close."
Jean pursed her lips. "That's a fair argument, I suppose. But no one has ever forced any of them to stay, Nathan. It's not what they want." Her fingertips brushed the frame of her wedding picture. "Is it what you want?"
"I don't know what I want," he said finally. "I thought I did, but..." He turned away from the photos. "I thought I was distancing myself, that Dom and I were moving away from all of this. I should have known..."
Jean reached over and touched his shoulder. "No one will ever fault you for just wanting to live your life, Nathan. And I know the thought of starting over scares you after everything that happened. It's okay to be a little wary." She smiled wistfully. "Just ask your father about it some time."
"I don't think I know how to start over--" he said slowly, "and Dom..."
"Have you talked to her?"
"Nothing to say." He started down the hallway again. "She's happy enough just having space to breathe, I think, and I've asked too much from her over the years."
----
"This seat taken?"
"Of course not." Domino glanced up from her coffee as Nathan sat down across from her.
"You walked all the way out here?"
"Storm's team was using the Danger Room for a training exercise, and I needed to do something. Got some air, feel a little less restless now."
"Couldn't wait for me?" He sipped his own coffee, eyes scanning the near-empty street that ran adjacent to the cafe.
"Sorry," she replied, lighting a cigarette. She arched an eyebrow as Nate gave her a sour look. "What?"
"I thought you were trying to quit."
"Trying being the operative word," she retorted, flipping up the collar of her jacket against the chill.
"We can go inside if you're cold--"
She snorted. "Clever ploy. It's non-smoking in there and you know it. I'm fine. I like the scenery, anyway. How'd your session with Jean go?"
Nathan's mouth quirked up in a wry smile. "I'd like to say it went well, but--it's frustrating." He sighed. "I feel like I've hit a brick wall. I know I just have to push a bit harder. I feel ten years old again," he admitted.
"You poor thing. I'm glad you're trying, though." She brushed wind-blown hair out of her eyes with her free hand and frowned slightly. "Is something else bothering you?"
"No."
"Nate..." She shook her head. "After all this time, you should know better than to lie to me. But... I'll give you the benefit of a doubt and assume it's nothing important." She got up, tossing her empty cup into the waste can. "Care to give me a lift home?"
----
The next few days slipped by uneventfully, if somewhat blandly, at least from Domino's perspective. Used to visiting only on holidays, or with X-Force in tow, the female mercenary was finding it somewhat difficult to occupy the hours Nathan spent working with Jean. She'd idly considered asking him if he minded an audience on more than one occasion, but then thought better of it--it was doubtful he wanted her to see how much he was struggling to regain what he'd lost when he'd killed Apocalypse.
She'd resorted to making a nuisance of herself instead, poking into the goings on around the mansion, if only to keep herself from going mad with boredom. There was only so much target practice one could do in an afternoon, after all. Ironic, since that was what she was doing at present, albeit with Nathan along this time, which always made things a bit more interesting.
Almost always. Her erstwhile partner was lagging, she noted wryly as she took out another automated plasma gun, which had been training itself unseen on the back of Nathan's head. Granted, he seemed a bit preoccupied with the tangle of electronic guts he was ripping his way through. She watched the robotic adversary topple and winced. She should have never let him talk her into this, she thought tiredly as she picked a new target. Her options were many, as Nate has seen fit to program in a veritable robot army for them to dismember.
Ducking low to avoid another plasma blast, and smirking to herself as it took out one of the robots, she glanced over to where Nathan seemed to be trying to dismantle the damned things with his bare hands. She kicked another in the chest, finishing it off with a blast to its head. "You holding up okay?" She called.
"I'm fine," he grated, thrashing through his opponent and searching for another. The floor of the room was littered with the remnants of their efforts.
"Well, you look exhausted. Are the training lessons wearing you out?" Years of making sarcastic comments throughout a range of seemingly impossible missions had left Domino with the ability to carry on a casual conversation, even in the midst of raging combat.
"My sessions with Jean are pointless. I'm not getting anywhere." He replied agitatedly, comment rendered ironic as he separated the trunk of one robot from its legs.
"It takes time."
"How the flonq would you know?"
"Damnit. Computer, end program!" She yelled, wiping sweat-damp hair from her forehead as the robotic horde vanished around them.
Nathan glared at her. "What'd you do that for?"
She scowled at him. "Y'know Nate, I can understand that lifting heavy objects with your brain all day is probably tiring, and I don't expect you to be exactly perky, but I can really do without the manic mood swings. One moment you're annoyed with me and the next you're hanging on like I'm suddenly gonna vanish. Pick one, okay? My coping skills are rather limited as it is--I certainly can't deal with you going spastic on me." She glared at him for a moment, waiting for a reply, but none was forthcoming. "You're not even going to answer me, are you? Goddamnit, Nathan!"
"If I'm irritating you that much, I'll just get out of your way."
She reached out and caught his arm. "Fuck, that's not what I meant and you know it. But something is obviously bothering you. What's wrong?"
"I don't know, okay? I'm trying to sort this out and you keep harping at me!"
"I just want to know what's going on!"
"Turn about's fair play," he replied coolly. "You had no problem keeping me in the dark."
"None of that was about you!"
"You don't think any of that concerned me? Really?"
She sighed. "Fine, you win. Have your fucking midlife crises or whatever this shit is. This is me officially withdrawing from the issue." Scowling, she turned her back on him and strode to the door, slapping the control panel with more force than strictly needed. Nathan ran a hand back through sweat-damp hair, heaving a frustrated sigh as he watched her go.
----
Cursing the weather under her breath, Domino drew her jacket tightly around herself as she dug around in her pocket for her cigarettes. Her decision to quit really wasn't holding up that well, and it was annoying Nathan though he refused to say anything--well, let him be annoyed, she thought angrily. She was more than annoyed at him at the moment, anyway.
"Need a light?"
She carefully controlled her reaction, thinking that she really was slipping if she'd managed to miss Gambit half-slumped in the doorway, protected from the November wind that was whipping the estate. "Really, you of all people should know better than to startle people like me," she quipped, accepting the proffered lighter.
"Didn't know y' smoked," he replied. "Didn't think you'd be liable t' shoot me either," he added with a smirk.
Domino shrugged. "S'pose not. And I'm not--wasn't..." She trailed off. "Only do this," she gestured with the cigarette in question, "When I'm stressed. Or certain boneheaded time-travelers have pissed me off."
The Cajun smirked. "Oui, dat could drive anyone t' bad habits."
"I'd kick him in the ass, but then I'd anger his mother," she retorted. "Maybe I can convince her to give him a spanking." That remark evoked outright laughter from her stoop-mate.
"T'ink I'd pay good money t' see dat."
She grinned. "Maybe I could sell tickets."
----
When she wandered into the house again half an hour later, cold to the bone but having satisfied her nicotine craving and found a new, less irritating Danger Room opponent for later in the week, the house had gone quiet. It wasn't unusual, really. It was only half occupied--Scott and Jean had moved themselves and their daughter back to the boathouse as soon as it had been practical (dealing with the demands of an infant were rendered much simpler when said infant's room was not in another building entirely), while the number of X-Men in residence was in constant flux, depending on just whose headquarters had blown up that week.
Nathan had probably gone to bed the instant she hadn't been around--he had been exhausted, but he'd never have given her the pleasure of seeing him admit it. "Stupid, infuriating..." She muttered under her breath, having half a mind to just crash somewhere else for the night and leave him with the irritation of an empty bed. He got twitchy if she wasn't there when he knew she should be. It'd serve him right for saying what he had.
But then she'd have to sleep alone too, and that was less appealing, even if she was supposed to be angry at him. With a sigh, she mounted the stairs on her way to their shared room. She'd just ream him in the morning. Maybe he'd be feeling properly remorseful by that point.
----
The lights were off when she entered the room, but she was fairly certain Nathan wasn't actually asleep. She tossed her jacket on one of the chairs in the room, changed into pajamas and crawled into bed, starting a mental countdown.
"Look, I shouldn't have snapped at you."
Right on cue. "No, you shouldn't have," she replied, not turning to look at him. "I mean, yeah, okay, maybe I don't know how frustrating it is to lose control of your powers. I don't know what it's like to have control in the first place, if you'll remember." She yanked the comforter around her shoulder a little tighter.
"I didn't mean..."
"I know you didn't. Doesn't mean I should excuse you for being a jackass." She frowned, hoping he wouldn't notice she was shivering. Maybe she should have waited to warm up before coming to bed.
"You're cold."
No such luck. "No shit. It's cold out."
"Where'd you go?"
"Around." Let him wonder, she thought ruthlessly. She froze as he tried to coax her over to him.
He sighed. "Don't make me lay here listening to your teeth chatter just because you're angry at me."
"I'm not angry. I'm just not very happy with you at the moment."
"Let me make it up to you?"
She sighed. "Do you have to sound so utterly pathetic?"
"Well, it usually works," he replied, pulling her into his arms. "That better?"
"Mm." She lay there silent for a moment. "I'm still not happy with you."
"I'll work on fixing that in the morning."
----
She was supposed to be annoyed with him. Dom tried to firmly remind herself of that fact as a hand trailed its way down her side, resting on her hip. Keeping her resolve was proving somewhat problematic, however, with the way he was kissing her. "Nate..."
He pulled away slightly. "Problem?"
"I'm supposed to be irritated with you. You're making that rather difficult..."
"I could stop," he replied helpfully.
"You do and I'll be really upset with you," she replied, turning to look at him. "Call a truce?"
"That works," he grinned, leaning in to kiss her hungrily. She made no protest this time, preferring to melt against him as the psilink expanded, obliterating the boundaries between them. It was a feeling that was positively addicting, being so closely joined with another being that she could feel his heartbeat, feel the muted pain of the virus as if it were her own. 'Love you,' she sent fervently, knowing he knew--how could he not, as wrapped in their emotions as they were?--but wanting to say it anyway.
#Love you too,# he responded with a flood of warmth behind the words, hands sliding down the length of her body, skin hot against his own. Her own hands roved over his body, rolling them over so that she was poised above him, grinning down with a wicked sparkle in her eyes. "Dom..." His voice sounded rough to his ears.
"Shhh..." She leaned down and kissed him, lips capturing his roughly, head thrown back as he entered her, gasps escaping them both. His arms went around her, hips locked against hers as they settled into a slow, deliberate rhythm.