Heart to Hearts

The rays of morning light filtered through the window and hit Lance in the eyes. Slowly he responded to them. After a few seconds of half blissful awakenings he realized something was amiss. He opened his eyes further. It was then that he noticed that he was alone in the barracks room. "Where'd the others go?" He scratched his head. He looked at the clock. "Oh man! I overslept! The Sarge is gonna kill me!"

He quickly got up and changed into his clothes and ran downstairs. He saw Sarge and Shipwreck sitting there calmly drinking coffee. "Well it's looks like Sleeping Beauty is finally awake," Shipwreck quipped.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Lance gulped. "I didn't mean to…wait a minute…Don't you guys always wake us up at 6?"

"Yeah we do," Sarge said. "But since you had a busy night last night we thought we'd let you sleep in."

"What are you talking about?" Lance scratched his head.

"You don't remember nothin'?" Shipwreck asked.

"No the last thing I remember was going to sleep," Lance shrugged.

"Well that's not totally unexpected," Sarge said. He and Shipwreck got up. "Come on kid, let's take a walk."

"Uh okay," Lance had a feeling that this was not good. "Where are all the others?"

"They're out training," Shipwreck told him. "Spirit's giving them all a little survival lecture. Don't worry. He's going to give you your lessons personally later. Follow us. We wanna show you something."

"Notice anything different?" Sarge asked as they walked down the hall.

"No I…" Lance then noticed a huge open cavern. "Uh, didn't there used to be a wall here?" He blinked.

"Yeah," Shipwreck said. "You made couple of rooms out to the mountain."

"Well look at the bright side," Sarge said. "Now we have a new place to put in a pool table."

"I did this?" Lance's jaw dropped.

"That's not all you did," Shipwreck told him. "Come on out back."

With a feeling of dread Lance followed. They went outside. "Is that a pool?" Lance gasped.

"Yeah apparently you found some kind of water spring last night and carved us up a place to swim," Sarge told him.

"What's with all the rock formations?" Lance looked around. "Did I do this too?"

"Yup," Shipwreck told him.

"I'll tell you one thing kid," Sgt. Slaughter whistled. "It takes a lot to impress me. I'd say this counts."

"I…I didn't…" Lance gasped. He looked at them. "You guys gotta believe me I didn't know! Honest! I didn't mean to do this! I just…"

"Yeah," Sarge said. "We kind of figured that. It seems you now move mountains in your sleep as well. Literally."

"How?" Lance staggered.

"Psyche Out thinks that this was a subconscious action," Sarge shrugged.

"Are you saying I did this in my sleep?" Lance blinked.

"Yeah pay attention will ya?" Shipwreck sighed. "According to him this is your way of trying to solve your problems in your sleep. To put it simply, you didn't want us to be mad at you any more so you wanted to make up for it. Somehow in your brain you thought by doing stuff for us it would make us love you or something."

"That's nuts!" Lance protested. "I mean…I…I…" He looked around. He was stunned.

"Let's see you put in a pool and gave us more room," Sarge chuckled. "I'd say that was a cry for attention."

"Look we're not mad at you for last night," Shipwreck told him. "Obviously there are aspects of your powers that are beyond your control right now. You just need to be aware of your feelings and be a little more careful."

"You think I'm crazy don't you?" Lance asked.

"Oh boy kid you are asking the wrong people to judge your sanity," Sarge laughed.

Lance looked nervous. "You're not going to send me away are you?" He asked.

"Of course not," Shipwreck waved. "We're just going to have to work on some things. Like that temper of yours. Psyche says that you need some new therapy. Like positive reinforcement. Come here!" He grabbed Lance and hugged him.

"Uh…Shipwreck?" Lance blinked.

"Come here and let Uncle Shipwreck love you!" Shipwreck said in a silly voice. "We love you! Yes we do! Yes we do!"

"I told you we were the wrong people to ask about sanity," Sarge groaned. "Kid maybe you better wait in my office until Spirit comes back. It's safer."

Lance quickly disentangled himself from Shipwreck and ran inside. Inside Sarge's office was a chair, a desk and a long couch. Lance sat on the couch and put his head in his hands, trying to fathom the latest turn in his life.

He didn't have to wait long. Soon Spirit walked in. "I see they've told you," He said.

Lance felt even more ashamed. "I'm sorry," He said. "I didn't mean it! I swear!"

"I know," Spirit motioned him to sit down on the couch.

Lance obeyed. "I really don't mean to screw things up. I just lose control sometimes. I know you don't think I listen to you but I do!"

"What makes you think that?" Spirit asked.

"I heard you talking to the Sarge," Lance told him.

"I see," Spirit said. "I guess you're not the only one who loses control sometimes. I get frustrated too. It's not easy when someone you care about keeps hurting themselves."

"Hurting?"

"When you act destructively with your powers it isn't helpful to you is it?"

"No," Lance admitted. "You really care about me?"

"We all care about you Lance," Spirit told him. "Did you really think we would just abandon you because things are a little rough?"

"Well it's not like it hasn't happened before."

"It won't happen this time," Spirit put his hand on his shoulder. "I promise."

"And I promise I'll work harder on controlling my temper," Lance said. "I've been thinking a lot about what you guys have been telling me. I don't want my powers to get out of control anymore. Maybe I do need more help."

"That's not all you've been thinking about have you?" Spirit asked.

"No," Lance admitted.

"Kitty?"

"Yeah," Lance sighed. "I just can't get her out of my head. I know we said some pretty harsh stuff to each other but...I still want to be with her. Actually I think she's angrier than I am. Why did it all have to get screwed up? Man we didn't even fight about normal stuff like other couples. I'm trying to think if we ever had a normal conversation that didn't involve our teams' rivalry or Magneto or Xavier or humans attacking us or interdimensional dinosaurs…"

Spirit raised an eyebrow. Lance noticed it. "It's a long story," He sighed.

"I can imagine," Spirit said.

"Do you think I should call her or something?" Lance asked.

"I think you should let her know how you feel if you still care for her," Spirit said. "Perhaps if you wrote to her…"

"You think she'd read it?" Lance asked. "I don't know. So much has happened, maybe it is best if I just stay away."

"You have to answer that question yourself, young one," Spirit told him. "Right now I think you should rest."

"I really don't want to face them right now," Lance motioned to the outside, indicating the others. "I don't think I can take them hassling me right now."

"That's understandable. We had a little talk with them so I don't think you'll have too many more problems with them teasing you on this."

"Yeah right. You don't know them like I do."

"They don't really mean to be hurtful you know."

"I know. They just act like little kids sometimes. They enjoy annoying me."

"They see you as their older brother. Of course they'll do that. Just like sometimes you annoy them?"

"You got me there," Lance sighed.

"Just try not to let them antagonize you too much," Spirit told him. "You can stay here until lunch if you like. Afterwards you and I are going to do some exercises to help you control your emotions."

"I'd like that," Lance said. "Thanks Spirit."

Spirit nodded and got up. He left the room.

Lance lay back on the couch. His eyes wandered around the room as he thought about what Spirit said. Then he noticed there was a phone on the desk. He debated what to do for about five seconds.

"Why not?" Lance said with determination as he started to dial the phone. "I just hope she doesn't hang up on me."

He got the answering machine. He took a deep breath and spoke. "Hey Kitty…it's Lance. Look I know things haven't been great between us lately but please don't erase this message. I really need to talk to you. I couldn't before. You see I'm in this place and…this is the first chance I've had to get to a phone. I've been through a lot lately and I just need to hear your voice to say how sorry I am that everything got so messed up. Kitty I swear I wouldn't call you if I didn't need to talk to you. I can't talk long because the others might catch me at any minute and …I…I need help Kitty….I…AAAGGGHHH! NO! STOP IT!" Lance screamed as he was tackled from behind.

"PREPARE TO SUFFER FOR YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS FOOL! MWAHHAHA!"

"TOAD WILL YOU KNOCK IT OFF!" Lance shouted as he wrestled Todd on the floor. "YOU BONEHEAD I WAS ON THE PHONE! GET OFF ME!" He shoved him off. He picked up the phone again. "Oh great! The machine must have run out of tape or something!"

"What?" Todd asked. "Who were you calling?"

"None of your business!" Lance slammed down on the receiver.

"Kitty huh?" Todd asked. Lance glared at him. "Hey I won't tell! You know we only tease you cause we don't think she's good enough for you ya know? Not the other way around. We don't like how she's got you wrapped around her little finger. You can do better than her pal."

"Oh really?" Lance smirked. "What if I might think the same way about Althea?"

Todd smirked back. "Well then let's look at the facts. Whoever in this room has seen their girl naked raise their hands. Oooh! Oooh!" Todd raised his.

"Peeking in the shower doesn't count!" Lance snapped.

"Uh uh," Todd grinned. "It was more than a peek. She made sure of that!"

"What?" Lance blinked. "Are you saying…? She…? Althea? She didn't!"

"She did."

"But…but…you weren't…"

"I was."

"Are you telling me you two…"

"No! We didn't really get to that. But maybe we would have. She was interested in the idea. In fact if I recall correctly it was her idea," He replied smugly.

Lance started at him with his jaw open. "Okay. You win."

Coming next: Three guesses which group finally shows up!