Eventually I was all cried out.
As I relaxed and wiped my face, Victor commanded, "Do not apologize. Moreover, I forbid any tedious or laughable questions such as 'Does this change anything between us?' or 'Do you want to back out now, knowing what you know?' Given that you are willing to love me sight unseen, how can I not be as unconditionally accepting as you are? Do you not think that I, with the resources at my command—including my own unsurpassed intellect—would not devote what ever it took to effect a cure, should it be necessary? When it would it be the happiness and wellbeing of my wife and my children at stake?"
"Well, then I won't say any of those things." I said. "But to think that the only reason why I was afraid for my future children was because I know that the abused often become abusers. That seems almost trivial now."
"Let me add another reason not to fear. You have none of the known genetic factors that cause schizophrenia." said Victor. "I have read over your genetic profile, and know this to be true. You have not only my word for this, but Magneto's. Did he not read it out loud? Had he come across any of the flawed genes, he would have announced it to all within earshot, just as he did your other tendencies."
"Yes," I admitted. "However, you said 'known genetic factors'. 'Known' would seem to be the cogent word. That suggests there are genetic factors as yet unknown."
"True—yet the geography of the genome is no longer terra incognita. More is being learned of the genetic code every day. It will be understood within our lifetimes."
"It would help if we could find out if my mother has one or more of the known factors—which reminds me. When you said that I lacked some of the developmental and environmental contributors that my mother had, you implied that you knew my mother had used marijuana. I don't know if she did or didn't. Where does that information come from?"
"I made discreet inquiries into her past sometime ago. Given that the records in question are not available on line, it was time-consuming to find them out, but discover them I did. Your mother was the one who told you that her life was idyllic before she became pregnant with you, was she not?" Victor asked.
"Yes—when she was in the mood to tell me how much better her life would have been had she not had me."
He paused. "She misrepresented her life to you. Whether she told outright lies or a recounted a delusion born of her schizophrenia, I cannot tell, but her school records do not bear out her claim of being a good student—and in her junior year, when she was sixteen, she was suspended for marijuana possession. At age twenty, she was arrested for the same offense, although it did not come to trial."
"I wonder how much else of what I thought I knew—about my family, about myself—is similarly false." I rested my head on my hand. All this emotion was tiring…
"I fear it is beyond my power to answer that. There is one thing I have noted—for all that you have said, for all that you have learned—never did you say that you did not want children—only that you were afraid of having them." Victor observed.
"I know. If you had said you absolutely did not want children, now or ever, I would have cried just as hard, only in private—and it would have been grief and relief intermingled. I do want to have a family. I always have. I'm just not sure I have the coping skills, with or without schizophrenia."
"I do not expect you to do this alone, for what that is worth." Victor pulled me back against him so I rested against his chest as if he were the back of a chair, putting an arm around me. "I was raised by men from the time that I was four—first by my father, and then by Boris, so I have firsthand knowledge of the importance of a father's role. I have the means to hire any number of nursery maids, nannies, governesses, tutors, and security forces, as well—and they will be necessary."
"Oh?" I asked.
"As eventful as these past few days have been, I fear they will be all too representative of our lives together. The Richards' approach to childcare provides an example of what not to do—which is to rely too heavily on the whims of fortune. Susan Richards is their son's primary care-giver—and she is too frequently absent on one of their adventures or missions. They absolutely require full-time help around the clock, but they lack the wherewithal or the foresight to find and pay competent caregivers."
"I thought I saw a nanny in the background when I was there today." I commented.
"No. She may have been a sitter, but since the death of Agatha, the elderly witch who acted as a nanny for a time, they have relied upon the services of Crystal, the Inhuman, who lives with her people on the far side of the moon—."
"That strikes me as an impractical commute, especially in an emergency." I frowned.
"Quite. Moreover, it is as dangerous an environment as the Baxter Building. Furthermore, Crystal is married to Magneto's son Quicksilver, and they have a small child of their own, a daughter. Their marriage is troubled, and Crystal actively seeks consolation elsewhere. Not, I think, a desirable trait to have in a care provider." Victor said. "The Richards' other sitter is Alicia Masters, an artist of some talent, who is Benjamin Grimm's inamorata—a young woman of character, certainly, but she, too, is less than ideal, as she is completely blind."
"That does not sound good. With the potential for trouble afforded by the equipment they have up there—and it didn't look childproofed—and various enemies likely to attack at any given moment—."
"Franklin Richards is in danger at every hour of the day." pronounced Victor. "He has wound up in the hospital on seventeen separate occasions."
"They're lucky that the child protective services haven't taken him away from him long ago! Ohhh—how could they be so phenomenally stupid?"
Even as I asked it, I knew the answer. The Laws of Heroics. A child in danger is a suspenseful, exciting, dramatic situation, so naturally he must be in danger as often as possible, even if his otherwise loving parents have to become blinder than Alicia Masters could ever be.
"I, too, have asked myself that question. I cannot fathom why allegedly caring parents would repeatedly and constantly endanger their offspring. I intend to profit from their bad example, and do otherwise." Ah…now I saw it. It was Victor's competitive streak. He was going to bring the same approach to fatherhood that he did to everything else—he was determined to be the best—and much better at it than Reed Richards.
That was an intriguing thought. Was he starting by being the best possible husband? I remembered some of the hints Sue had dropped as to Reed's shortcomings as a husband and father. He was prone to be forgetful, neglectful, absentminded, inattentive, and uncommunicative—he forgot birthdays and anniversaries, and to get his attention one had to hit him in the head with a brick. A very big brick. Sometimes the brick was named Ben Grimm.
It made sense. Victor was, (at least so far), being the exact opposite of all those things. I would have to think about this. It wouldn't be fake on his part—he would mean it. Interesting…
"Were you responsible for any of those hospital visits?" I asked.
"I was not. I would not endanger the life of a child. He is safe from me—at least until he reaches his majority."
"Why did I even ask? But what if he tries to date our teenage daughter?" I asked.
The look he turned on me was full of outrage. "That whelp of Richards will not be allowed within five kilometers of any daughter of ours!"
His reaction was so like what I had imagined earlier that I had to laugh.
"Goading me again. How many decades of this must I look forward to?" he grumbled, his humor returning. "I am glad you are feeling better."
"I am." I admitted. "It is a comfort to have a name to put to my mother's condition. I may be entering the danger zone of age, apparently, but I have the advantage, not only of having you on my side, but of knowing what might happen, and why—although any voices in my head might actually be real and not a symptom of schizophrenia, given how many telepaths there are around.
"And—right now, everything is all right. I am well. I'm happy. I have you. What might happen—has yet to happen. All we ever really get is now—the present moment. And at this moment, I am as happy as I have ever been in all my life." I told him, and it was true.
A/N: Then perhaps I should re-work it and list it as well as this version. Kind of how Blockbuster cleans up movies so they don't have to check IDs. Hmmmm...I wonder if Marvel would react to an e-mail campaign telling them they had to read my stuff...