Disclaimer: X-Men and any related characters belong to Marvel. This is a piece of amateur fiction and I make no money of this.

Archiving: Nadja Lee's Web Pages, the rest, ask and I'll say yes

World: Movie II

Pairings: Scott/Ororo

Summary: Scott thinks about his and Ororo's life together

Dedicated to: Nadja Lee and Avrora Monro with love

Great thanks and all my love go to Nadja Lee for great beta and being a part of my life! I love you! hugs

This is an (unexpected) sequel to 'No dream'

Written from Scott's POV

Never

It's a beautiful Sunday morning. Like every other Sunday, Ororo is in the garden, watering the flowers. And like every other Sunday I am sitting by the window, watching her. As I watch her I hold the most precious gift my beautiful wife could ever have given me close to my chest. That gift is our sweet baby girl, who we named Camilla. She has inherited her mother's brownish skin, and the few hairs on her head are as white as snow. A few minutes later she falls asleep in my arms and I kiss the top of her head, before turning my gaze back to my wife.

Ororo is always so caght up in her work that she never notices me. Maybe, if she saw me, she would find it bizzare that I just sit here and watch her, but for me it's a slice of heaven. I take in every one of her gracious movements, completely awed with her never ending love and care for all living things- nature's children, as she so sweetly calls them. She is one of a kind, and I know I am the luckiest man on earth for having her. I smile at the very sight of her, how could I not? But now I feel myself pulled from my contemplation of Ororo by a stream of thoughts whose currents pull me deep, with no chance of escape.

It has been three years now. Plenty of time, but I can still remember it as if it had just happened. I do not know how many times I have thought of this, but the thing I do know is that it keeps coming back to me, but luckily with longer and longer intervals. Our last days at the mansion.

I had watched over Ororo for two days until she had felt well enough to leave sickbay. I had no idea how to break the news of Xavier's betrayal to her, or how to tell her I wanted us out of there as soon as possible. It had been her home for many years, and Xavier had been much more than a mentor for her, just as he had been for me. I could only pray she would agree to come away with me. To my joy then our love proved much stronger than this barrier placed before it. I know what she must have felt when we drove away, leaving behind all that we had called home until then. Ororo is a proud lady, and I could see the pain in her eyes as she knew we were both leaving all those children in that mansion still trapped in Xavier's and Magneto's game, and doing nothing about it. I still hate myself for making her accept this defeat, for making her give up on all those souls left back there, but it was beyond our power to do anything more than save ourselves.

I love you, Ororo, and I am sorry for having to make that decision, but I made it for us, please know that I made it for you.

I never thought I could feel so accomplished without being a super hero fighting evil and protecting the innocent, but the simple life I now lead is more satisfying than anything I could have done. Ororo and Camilla are the bright stars in my life, and I know that they do not fill my life; they are my life.

We both completely gave up being super heroes. The names 'Cyclops' and 'Storm' are long forgotten and our old uniforms are now only a pile of dusty clothes up in the attic. There is no room for Xavier's puppet soldiers between us two and our little girl. The place in our hearts and minds that was once filled with duty and commitment to Xavier's false dream is now only filled by love. And you know what? There is no comparison. The only duty we now have is to build a good future for our daughter, and the only commitment we have is to each other and our child. I had once thought Xavier's dream gave me direction and my life purpose, but now I know that the meaning of life is to share it with the one you love.

Camilla moves slowly in her sleep, and I am for a moment torn from the vortex of my thoughts only to be pulled in by another once I make sure she is still asleep.

I will always be grateful to Ororo for teaching me how to show my feelings, how to exteriorize them and how to make me live by them. Cyclops – the very name makes me ashamed I still have it in my mind- has never lived by feelings, only crude calculations and cold leadership. My relationship with Jean did not help either. I was never used to showing feelings, and with her I didn't have to. The link she had created between us told her what I felt without me showing it.

With Ororo I felt there was no need for a link. It always felt like she knew how I felt or what I wanted, and she always gently made me push forward and exteriorize my feelings, and push cold Cyclops further and further back until remembering his lack of emotions almost hurt. Oh, Ororo, how gentle and patient you were with me until I could show you on the outside what I felt inside. You made me a romantic. As Cyclops I would have never pictured myself taking long strolls down the beach in the evening or late night. I would never have thought that I would be holding your hand while whispering soft words of love to you and then making sweet love to you in the sand, with only the stars watching us and only the sea singing it's infinite ballad in our ears. But with your help, it happened, and each time was better than the last.

Thank you for helping me be what I am today, and for helping me bury the one thing that tied me to Xavier, Cyclops.

Every now and then I can't help but think I should go back there, and try to put Cyclops to some good use and save those people. And each time I think that, I find one more reason for why I shouldn't, but the main one always is that I cannot leave the one being that gave my life true sense and purpose. The one person whom I love beyond any words ever written or spoken or thought... you, Ororo.

Every now and then a voice calls me back to that house of lies desperately trying to convince me to give Cyclops one last dance and the super hero one last chance to vanquish evil. But then I look and see Camilla's face, and I know I am needed here, and nowhere else. It is here that I belong, by my wife's side and with our child.

Over these past three years I have often thought about returning, and every time I push the thought away, it comes back rarer and rarer.

 I kiss my baby again, and I know I have put down the thought of returning to the mansion again, but I can't help and wonder when the torment of doubt will sweep over me again.

One look at the love of my life, Ororo, and one look at my beautiful Camilla gives me the answer...

Never.

The End