Thanks for the feedback: Risty, Pandora, silhouette-Kitten
Jarol stared at the fax in his hands. Then he turned to Jeremy Bills and asked. "Lance was on duty for the freeway fire the other day wasn't he?"
"Yeah, why?" Jeremy asked. Jarol handed him the fax. "Shit." Jeremy swore.
"I'll talk to Lance. You tell the rest of the crew."
****** ****** ******
Lance towel dried his hair. He was glad to be rid of the smell of smoke and fire. Then he headed toward one of the station's more private phones. He was smiling a little at the thought of finishing his conversation with Kitty and Todd. He saw Jarol headed is way with a frown his face. "Whatever it is, I didn't do it." Lance joked.
"Come on kid. We've gotta talk." Jarol said directing him toward an office.
Lance rolled his eyes. "I'm 23. I wish you'd stop calling me 'kid'."
"You're younger than my daughter." Jarol replied automatically falling into familiar banter. "Trust me, you're a kid."
"Or you're just old." Lance said with a grin. ""So what's the deal?"
Jarol sighed heavily.
****** ****** ******
Jeremy looked around at his assembled crew. "Alright this is just a formality guys. There's nothing to worry about but we've got some people coming over from the hospital to collect blood samples from all of you. It turns out one of the victims in the wreck the other night had been diagnosed with the Legacy Virus. So far the disease has never infected a human, but considering the girl bled out they want to check us. Like I said, to the best of our knowledge this disease does not affect humans so there's nothing to get excited about."
"What about Alvers?" A member of the team asked as he glanced toward the office where Jarol had sequestered Lance with concern.
"Jarol's telling Alvers the same thing I'd be telling you guys if she'd been HIV positive. It's not likely to happen, this is just a precautionary measure."
****** ****** ******
"Don't look at me like that kid." Jarol said. "You followed safety procedures…"
Lance winced. "I may have deviated a little."
"Damnit Lance!" Jarol exclaimed. "You know better."
"Come on. I was tired. She was bleeding out in my arms. The fire was turning on us…"
"Okay, it's not the end of the world. Chances of you being infected are still low. There's no reason for us to go assuming the worst. Chances are nothing's going to happen. Except me signing you up for the first refresher course in safety procedures that I can put together."
"So I just take the test and hope for the best?" Lance asked. "Won't they figure out I'm a mutant? I trust you guys but I don't want those FOH bastards targeting me. I mean I can take care of myself but you really don't want me using my powers that way."
"I don't want some idiot taking pot shots at you. I don't care how immortal you think you are, you're not bullet proof." Jarol said. "I checked things out, it's a blood test not a DNA analysis. You've got a standard blood type. They shouldn't notice anything strange."
"Unless the test comes back positive." Lance said pessimistically.
"Don't borrow trouble." Jarol replied. "It's not going to happen."
"Probably." Lance said. "When are they doing the test?"
****** ****** ******
After letting the paramedic collect a sample of his blood Lance decided to use up a sick day and headed out to what he thought of as his spot.
Lance had left Bayville with no plans except to get away. He'd pointed the jeep west and started driving. He'd still had some of the reward money from the lady on the subway, so gas and food hadn't been a problem. The first thing he ran out of was road. Well technically he didn't run out of road, he got a second flat tire and realized he hadn't bothered to replace his spare after the first. If that hadn't have happened Lance figured he probably would have ended up in Alaska.
He'd found himself here. Stranded on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere at a scenic view point along Oregon's Costal Highway overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He'd spent the night there listening to the waves and watching sun set, rather than rise, over the ocean for the first time in his life and it had just felt right.
The next morning he hitchhiked to the nearest town. He got a spare to replace his tire and a ride back to the jeep. Then he drove back to town and started looking for a job and a place to stay. But this spot was his. It was the place he always came back to when he felt like giving up.
Lance parked the jeep. He sat on the broad stone guard wall and watched the waves break against the rocks fifty feet below his perch.
Several hours later another car pulled off the road and stopped beside Lance's jeep. A tiny lady, her once golden hair now predominately silver, climbed out and went to stand beside Lance. "Eddy said you'd be up here. And that you could probably use a home cooked meal."
"Mrs. Jarol," Lance greeted her. She gave him a mildly reproving look. "Becca." Lance corrected himself. "I guess you heard."
Becca nodded. "Brooding about things will only make you miserable." She said. "There's absolutely no reason for you to spend the whole night out here or alone in that apartment of yours. You'll have dinner with us. We can rent a movie or play cards. You can deal with tomorrow when it happens."
"That's when I'll get the test results back." Lance said.
"Everything will turn out just fine, you'll see." Becca promised as she urged Lance back toward the cars.
At the Jarols' house Lance paused in the entry to take off his boots. Their Siamese twined around his ankles and generally made a nuisance of itself while mewing plaintively. Lance quickly checked to make sure Becca wasn't watching him then slid a sliver of jerky out of his pocket for the cat. "Shhh, our secret." He whispered. The Siamese daintily accepted the treat with an appreciative purr.
Becca was putting some vegetables in the microwave as Lance came into the kitchen. "The roast is ready to come out of the oven and Eddy should be home any minute." She told him.
"Smells great." Lance said as he took some plates out of the cabinet and went to set the table.
"Of course it does. It's neither frozen nor does it come out of a box. I honestly don't know how you survive on that stuff." Becca replied tartly.
"Pizza covers all four basic food groups and it comes delivered or frozen." Lance insisted good-naturedly. He hoped he'd cut her off before they reached the 'I met a nice girl' phase of the conversation.
Becca sighed. "Don't worry. I'm not going to try to set you up with anyone tonight. But like I always tell Melissa, you can't blame an old woman for trying. That girl is utterly determined to not give me any grandchildren. I thought you and Nancy were getting along fairly well."
Lance rolled his eyes. "Nancy is scared of her own shadow. Totally not my type."
They heard the garage door opening and a few moments later Jarol came in. Becca glanced across toward the utility room. "Edward Jarol, don't you dare spoil that cat." She exclaimed.
****** ****** ******
Lance walked into the fire station the next morning and stared in shock. They'd been invaded by a bunch of loons in Haz-Mat suits. The invaders were corralling and interviewing his co-workers as they walked through the door.
A woman in one of the white all-encompassing suits came up to him. There was a clipboard in her hand.
"What the hell is going on?" Lance demanded.
"We are instigating quarantine procedures. If I could have your name and a list of everyone you've been in contact with in the past three days?"
"This is about the Legacy Virus." Lance realized. "Someone's test came back positive."
"Yes, we are attempting to contain the spread and determine how the virus jumped species."
"Who?" Lance asked.
"I'm sorry, medical confidentially prevents dispensation of that information. Now if you could give me your name?"
"I'm Lance Alvers." Lance watched the woman take a nervous step backwards. "I've got it don't I?" he said dully. "Stop harassing everyone okay?"
"I'm sorry." The woman verified. "But the implications of the disease infecting a…"
"It didn't happen." Lance said bitterly. "Hey everyone! Call off the damn epidemic procedures! Legacy is still a mutants only problem. No reason for anyone to get excited."
Lance saw most of the people he knew look at him with expressions of mixed sympathy and relief. The invasion of white-cloaked medical personnel shot him a few curious glances but went on about their business.
Angrily Lance clenched his fists, his eyes rolled back and the room jolted sharply. "If I've got everyone's attention now!" Lance shouted. He sensed Jarol moving to stand beside him protectively. "Stop acting like it's the fucking end of world! Call who ever started the damn panic and tell them they screwed up. I'm a mutant." Lance sighed. "Don't make the whole mutant/human mess any worse than it always is okay? Don't create another reason for hating us. Its just SOP. Humans don't get Legacy."
Lance turned to Jarol. "I'm going home okay? You can call off these idiots without me right?"
"We are trying to institute a quarantine." The woman interrupted. "Until we get new orders we can't allow anyone to leave."
"What part of I'm a mutant didn't you understand?" Lance demanded clearing his path to the door with a quick tremor to prove his point.
"Jeremy, go with him." Jarol instructed quietly as Lance stormed out. "I'm going to be dealing with things here most of the day. I'll call Becca, she'll be over as soon as possible but keep an eye on him please."
"If I know my guys the whole crew will be headed after him." Jeremy said.
Jarol sighed. "I'll ask them to space things out a little. Damn, I don't want him alone, but crowding him isn't going to help either."
****** ****** ******
The man at the podium slammed a book down. The bang effectively halted all discussion in the room. "I called this special meeting of the Coos Bay chapter of the Friends of Humanity because I have learned that the Mutant issue is not just an East Coast problem, it's not just a California problems, it's not just a Portland problem, it's our problem."
"One of the people we depend on when we are in trouble. One of our fire fighters is not a person at all. Allow me to introduce Carl Dreshem from our Portland Chapter."
"Hello, I work with the World Heath Organization. This morning an outbreak of the mutant born disease known as the Legacy virus brought me to your city…"
****** ****** ******
The only sound in the apartment was the drone of the TV. Lance sat on the couch. His eyes were focused somewhere in the distance. He mechanically clicked through the channels with no indication of being aware of what he was doing.
Jeremy wandered around the apartment quietly straighten things up. Anything to keep busy he thought.
Becca stood behind the couch. She brushed her fingers through Lance's hair. "Lance, I really wish you'd eat something." She sighed.
"I'm not hungry."
"You're just going to make yourself sick."
"It's a little late to worry about that. I'm already sick."
"I know dear, but…"
"It doesn't matter what I do. If you get Legacy you die. That's just what happens."
"Maybe someone will find a cure. You can't just quit living."
"Hell!" Jeremy cursed as he stared out the window. "Lance, I think we've got a problem."
After a moment Lance and Becca joined him. They stared down at the mob forming in the parking lot. "The FOH, great." Lance said darkly. "You two stay here. Right now the thought of dealing with idiots like them really appeals."
"Lance I don't want you going out there." Becca said. "We'll call the police."
"I can take care of myself Becca." Lance snapped. "Before I came here I was a part of the first Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. I'm not going to let a bunch of bigots push me around."
"Oh for God's Sake Lance. You were nineteen when I met you. You weren't a terrorist and you were certainly never evil." Becca stated.
"I'm sick and tired of acting like I need to be scared of morons like them." Lance said. "I should have done this years ago instead of just putting up with them."
As Lance stepped out of the apartment he sent a strong tremor through the parking lot. He grinned as he watched the FOH members tumble to the ground like bowling pins. "I've lived here for five years!" Lance yelled. "I never hurt anyone! I never used my powers to do anything but save lives! For five years! And you still hate me, attack me? Screw this! My powers weren't meant to protect people. I'm supposed to be a walking natural disaster. Get the hell out of my face while I'm still in the mood to let you go."
Out of the corner of his eye Lance caught sight of the muzzle of a gun aiming at him. He stamped his foot. A wave of concrete flew toward the shooter. The man was tossed aside like a rag doll a moment before his gun went off.
"Get out of here!" Lance yelled. Cracks in the pavement radiated out from where he stood. They raced toward the FOH members, threatening to swallow them whole.
The sound of approaching sirens provided the final blow to the mob's unity. As police cars pulled into the parking lot the FOH members broke ranks and fled the scene.
"Alvers, you okay?" An officer asked.
For a moment Lance's mind frame was in the past. He was a part of the Brotherhood again, living in a world where even the good guys looked at cops as unwelcome interlopers. Ineffectual idiots, who were unlikely to be able to differentiate heroes from villains and who just got in the way. Then he recognized the officer as someone he'd seen handling crowd control at some of the fires he'd dealt with. Lance recognized him as someone who worked with him, not against him.
Lance glanced around the parking lot. The pavement was torn asunder by his powers. Cars were listing into crevasses or tossed about like match box toys. His eyes lit on the window to his apartment and the hole a stray bullet had punched in it. A knot of ice formed in Lance's stomach. "Oh no." He moaned. He shook his head in denial. "Please no."
Lance dashed back inside to be met at the door by Becca and Jeremy. "Why did you go out there?" Becca scolded as she hugged him tightly.
"We were both clear of the windows when the gun went off." Jeremy said.
Lance's knees went weak with relief.
The police officer walked slowly around the parking lot and surveyed the damage. When he came back to stand over Lance there was something different about his eyes. "You really are a mutie." The officer said. "All the rumors flying around today… I didn't know what to think. I guess you were just defending yourself. Hell, could you have done any more damage? It's always the same with you people. No matter what happens you always manage to turn it into a disaster."
"Damnit, I don't need this," Lance exclaimed. He pushed past the officer and stalked over to his jeep. With a wave of his hand the ground smoothed itself enough for him to drive out of the lot. A second gesture and the earth heaved beneath the police car and high centered it.
"Lance wait!" Becca yelled as the jeep spun out. She turned and glared at the officer. "I called you so you could help, not make things worse."
****** ****** ******
It had been several days since Scott and Jean had left on their honeymoon. Several days since Lance had called. Since then Kitty had found it impossible to keep her thoughts from wandering off on tangets. The Institutes' weekly staff meeting ended without her noticing.
It was a good thing they kept graduating people with no place to go, Kitty thought idly. Every new class of mutants seemed larger than the one that had preceded it. After their numbers exceeded twenty the Bayville School District refused to deal with the influx of mutants that the Institute brought to the area. Over the years they'd found a handful of humans willing to teach at what the citizens of Bayville had dubbed 'Mutant Manor'. Still over ninety percent of the staff was always home grown. Over the years the Institute had expanded from one building to four. As the School's population increased property values in the area dropped sharply. Xavier had ended up buying out most of the neighboring estates as their owners moved away and no one showed interest in the property they left behind. Kitty wasn't sure what they got tired of first, the regularly scheduled anti-Mutant protests and attendant graffiti or the inevitable chaos caused by dozens of young mutants. The students were your typical teenagers in personality: hormonally crazed, excited at the prospect of living away from home, and generally rambunctious. They were also new to their powers and almost every class had at least a few students capable of leveling Bayville if they chose to do so or if they got too careless.
"Kitty is there something you wish to discuss with me?" Xavier asked. Kitty realized that while she'd been wool gathering everyone except Xavier, Ororo and herself had already left the room.
Kitty shrugged and glanced away.
"About Avalanche perhaps?" Xavier suggested.
"How could you have missed finding him?" Kitty demanded.
"Cerebro located him eight months after he left Bayville." Xavier said. "It was apparent that he'd left of his own free will so there was no reason for us to intervene."
"I was worried about him." Kitty exclaimed.
"Kitty." Ororo said her voice was pitched to calm. "We had reason for not telling you. When I observed him he seemed terribly fragile and the X-Men's record for handling things with delicacy is notoriously poor. I did not believe it was in his best interest to be placed back into circumstance he had chosen to leave behind.
"If he was hurt we should have helped him." Kitty said.
"He didn't want our help." Xavier replied.
"Well this time he called me." Kitty said. "And we are going to finish that conversation."
****** ****** ******
"I'm sorry. I can't help you." Jeremy Bills said coldly. The air in the fire station had taken on a hostile edge the instant Kitty had told them she was looking for Lance.
"I know he was here. Could you please just…" Kitty started.
"Miss, I don't know you or your two friends from Adam." Jeremy said. "It's not so much that I can't help you find Lance Alvers, it's that I don't intend to."
"Fine." Kitty snapped. "I'll find him myself. Todd, Wanda, come on."
"That went well." Wanda commented as they left the fire station.
"We know he was here." Todd said. "I was thinking that phone call came from a ghost for a while there."
"I think something must have happened." Kitty said. "Did you see how tense everyone got when I mentioned Lance? Lets split up and scout around to see if we can figure out what."
****** ****** ******
Wanda held her coffee mug with both hands to keep herself from hexing the group sitting in the booth behind her.
She'd over heard them talking about a fight with a 'mutie'. Wanda had decided to follow them. She'd also decided that should wouldn't hex them as long as they were freely spilling the beans. She really wanted to hex them. She'd just have to wait till they shut up then she could make sure they didn't know anything else. Just to be sure.
****** ****** ******
Todd chose to hang around the fire station. When he saw a group of people leaving after work he followed them.
He hung back and listened quietly. What they were saying scared him, but at the same time he was glad Lance had found friends that worried about him.
****** ****** ******
Kitty looked from the cracked, folded pavement to the boarded up window with a bullet hole in it. She thought the chances were better than average that Lance had been there.
She knocked on the apartment door. When no one answered she walked through it. The apartment was like a neater version of Lance's old room. There were posters from the same movies hung on the walls. The CD's scattered around the stereo came from the same kind of bands. There was a stack of automotive magazines on the coffee table and a guitar carefully leaned against the wall. Of course there were differences as well: Evidence that the apartments owner understood the need to use both a vacuum cleaner and a dishwasher. A calendar with a reminder to pay bills circled in red and several well-worn textbooks on the shelves.
Kitty found herself transfixed by a picture on the desk. It showed Lance and group of people, friends, standing in front of a pile of rafting gear. Lance was several years older than her mental image of him. His dark hair was plastered to his head and he was laughing. There was no trace of the bitterness that had almost always clouded his features in Bayville.
Wistfully Kitty brushed her fingers over the picture. She remembered rare moments between them when everything had seemed perfect and Lance had lost his habitual scowl. She remembered a time when she'd hoped those moments could last forever.
Kitty heard light footsteps coming up the stairs and the sound of a key turning in the lock. She phased into the coat closet. Kitty listened while the other person moved around in the apartment. She knew it wasn't Lance. From the sound of the footsteps she guessed that the other person was a woman. Kitty chastised herself for letting that thought bother her. It had been too long for her to still feel like that about Lance hadn't it?
She listened to the sounds of packing. Kitty knew she could easily phase through the closet's wall and back out of the apartment. She could knock and walk in like she'd just arrived and ask about Lance.
There was a pause in the sounds from the apartment. Kitty strained her ears and heard muffled sobs. Without thinking she stepped through the closed door of the closet. Her first thought was relief because the woman staring at her was easily old enough to be Lance's mother. The second was "Oh damn."
"Shadowkat," Becca exclaimed. Her mouth dropped open as she recognized the X-Man from her powers. She looked down at the stack of pictures she'd taken from Lance's room. Her eyes went even wider than before. Becca's laugh was a trifle hysterical. "All these years Eddy's been teasing him about his celebrity infatuation and you're the girl from his high school dance."
"Um… hi." Kitty said with a sickly grin and a tentative wave. "I was looking for Lance."
****** ****** ******
After dropping Wanda and Todd off at X-Force's base Kitty flew back to the Institute. She stepped off the X-Jet to find Piotr waiting for her in the hanger. When he saw she'd returned alone a hopeful smile lit his face. Kitty bit back an unhappy sigh.
"Avalanche did not come back with you." He said. His face was an open book.
"Please Piotr, I don't want to get into this." Kitty said. "Lance has nothing to with you and I."
"Kitty. I'm sorry I left. I'm sorry I pushed you away but Illyana's death was something I had to deal with on my own." Piotr said.
"I know that!" Kitty exclaimed. She felt a pang of sorrow as she remembered the Legacy Virus' first casualty had been Piotr's young sister. "I was just trying to be your friend when I offered to help. I owed you that, but it wasn't what you needed. I understand that, I always did, I was never upset about that. Please don't make me spell this out."
"Kitty I love you. We belong together."
"No we don't!" Kitty cried. "You were there for me when I needed you. I'll always be grateful for that. Back then I needed someone to reassure me that I'd made the only choice I could have. I needed someone to tell me over and over again that if I hadn't killed Raynolt he would have killed me then he would have killed all those kids. Eventually though, I got better Piotr. You never wanted to admit that."
Kitty sighed. "You're the best knight in shining armor that I've ever met but I can't handle being nothing more than your favorite damsel in distress. That's not me. Piotr, because owed you I wanted to make you happy. What we had wasn't good for either of us. Please let it go."
"You are still in love with him are you not?"
Kitty leaned into the hanger wall. Dramatically she let her head thump against it. When she faced Piotr again there was an angry light in her eyes. "Maybe I am." She said. "Maybe I want to see him again. See with my own eyes that he's alive. Maybe then I'll know how I feel about him. Lance was the first person I ever fell in love with and he was the first person I ever buried. I'm not sure how I feel about him. I just want to see him."
"Piotr, you and I dated and broke up and tried again more than once. We'd finally realized that it was best if we were just friends when you left. Nothing has changed between us since you came back."
"Lance and I got in fight and we never spoke again. Then he was gone and I thought he was dead. Right now a part of me is so mad I could strangle him. At the same time hearing his voice made me want to dance. I got jealous at the thought of him being with someone else. I just found out he was diagnosed with Legacy the day after he called and there's a part of me that says I don't want to find him because I've already grieved for him and moved on. That hurt really bad and maybe I'm a little scared to go through it again. And he up and disappeared again. I don't know if he wants to be found."
"So maybe I am still in love with Lance Alvers. It's going to take me a while to figure that one out. Not to mention what I want to do about it if I am. I've got more than enough relationship chaos right now without looking for more."