Well guys, here we have it. A milestone in many ways. On one hand I just hit my eighteenth birthday. Thus I'm legally an adult. Scary thought ain't it? On the other hand, this story's end is in sight. Gimme about five chapters and I'll have this pup wrapped up. So if you wanna say something and get replied to this is one of your last five(or so) chapters to say it!
disclaimer: Yeah I'll own X-men alright. Maybe when my kid sister walks on the moon...Hey Al, you always wanted to be an astronaut...right?
OH AND PS ASSUMING MAKES AN ASS OUTTA U AND ME!
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Pietro stared in disbelief. Of all places, all people in the world this was the last combination he expected today. He blinked mutely at the car's driver, astounded.
"How'd you-?" He started.
A smirk crossed the driver's features. "What, it's not like it was hard or anything. I saw you leave so I followed. Now I want to know what you think you're doing? You are literally on your death bed-well, you should be anyway."
He began to respond but his vision blurred momentarily.
And suddenly he was standing next to somebody who could only be himself in a few years. The man was standing in a line at dairy queen, smiling at the little girl whose hand he held.
"Luna, do you know what you want?" He asked the girl.
The girl turned to fave him, bright blue eyes wide with excitement about the ice cream in her immediate future. "I want a cone dipped in cherry shell stuff, Daddy." She grinned.
He nodded and turned to the young boy beside her. "Hey Oliver do you know what you want to order?"
The boy, who was wearing sunglasses looked a little older than the ten year old girl beside him nodded shyly. "May I please have a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate sauce Mr. Maximoff?"
"Why not?" Pietro grinned. "After all, you're gonna be a big brother later today if everything goes well."
The boy wrinkled his brow. "Yeah." He said quietly. "Hope mama's alright."
Pietro put a hand on the boy's shoulder in an encouraging way. "Don't worry, she'll be ok. And by the time we get home, you'll be a big brother. You excited?"
The boy nodded. His parents had decided after a difficult pregnancy with Oliver, that maybe they should stop at one child. However in one way or another, his mother had ended up pregnant again. She was worried it would be another tough carriage but so far everything seemed alright. She was still relatively young and in decent health, though she was kept under constant survelance at the hospital. Today after her water had broken, Remy had requested Pietro take Oliver out for ice cream with Luna. Pietro had decided the idea was good since the two kids got along very well and it would help keep the kids' mind off anything that could go wrong.
"So do you know if you're getting a baby brother or sister?" Pietro asked gently, trying to stimulate the shy boy into a conversation.
His lips crinkled into a smile. "No. Momma an' Papa didn' find out. They wanna be surprised."
Pietro snapped his fingers. "Drat. I thought they just didn't want to tell me."
The boy laughed, revealing his braces.
Luna turned to him suddenly. "Olly, which do you want?"
He pondered his response. "Well, Ah thank m' pére wan's a baby girl. Dono bout Mama. Ah don' mind too much either way. A li'l brother or sister would be fun in diff'ren' ways."
"Well if it was me, I'd want a baby brother." Luna said thoughtfully. "Daddy can I have a baby brother?"
Pietro, both of them choked. "Why would you want a little brother?" Her father asked in a somewhat strangled voice.
The little girl shrugged. "Well Rachel has Charlie, and Talia has TJ and Katie has Max. And now Olly's getting a baby brother or sister. But I don't have anybody like that."
Pietro knelt down at his daughter's eye level and gently brushed a strand of strawberry blond hair from her face. "Well princess, I don't quite think that I can promise you something like that." He said sadly.
"Why not?" She asked in a soft voice.
"Because...because of the other thing Rachel and Talia and Katie and even Olly have that you don't."
Luna looked down. "A mommy right?"
Pietro nodded glumly. "Yeah. And without a mommy you can't have a little brother or sister."
"Yeah, I guess so." Luna sighed. Then she peeked up at him, an impish smile tugging at her lips. "What about Miss Meltdown?"
"What about her?" Pietro asked, confused.
"Well, she could be my new mommy couldn't she?"
Pietro choked and gained a pinkish tint to his cheeks. "Now why in the world would you say something like that Princess?"
"Well, I saw you kiss her the other day..."
Pietro cleared his throat and flushed. "Well Sweetie, um...when two people stand under the mistletoe, it's tradition to kiss." He explained.
"Oh." Luna shrugged. "Well, that's not all."
"Oh?" Pietro raised an eyebrow.
"Nope. I heard auntie Wanda telling Katie's daddy that she liked you."
"Hey Ah 'member dat too!" Oliver grinned.
"Well Auntie Wanda has to like me, Princess. She's my sister." Pietro joked.
"Daddy!" Luna laughed. "I meant Miss Meltdown and you know it."
"Yeah, y' know what she meant." Oliver chided softly.
"Alright maybe I did." Pietro admitted to the two, turning to the lady at the counter to place the order.
"Annnnnnd?" Luna prodded gently with an amused smile.
"And what?" Pietro asked, handing over the money.
"Do you like her!" Luna asked, widening her eyes.
"Where do you get these ideas, Princess?" Pietro chuckled.
"I just wanna know!" Luna pleaded.
"One chocolate dip cone for Olly, one Cherry dip for Luna, and a plain cone for me." He said in a noncommital way, distributing the ice cream.
"Daddy!" Luna rolled her eyes.
"What, you want sprinkles?" He grinned cheekily.
"Daddy this discussion is not over." She informed him.
"Oh is that so?" He laughed.
"Yeah. We're gonna talk all the way back home to the institute. And you are so gonna answer the question!"
"So you think, Princess."
"No. So I know!"
Pietro shook his head and discovered his would be jail warden staring at him in concern. He groaned.
"What are you doing here, Tabitha?" He asked weakly as he was still slightly disoriented from his relatively quick vision. He was just not in the mood to hear about how he should be resting and wasting the last ever night of his life staring at the infirmary walls.
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Well I was making sure you were alright. But obviously you aren't."
"What you've never gotten dizzy?" He snapped. "How'd you find me?" He demanded, a bit more harshly than he meant to.
"It's not like it was hard." She scowled. "I saw you leaving the mansion all secretively and I was curious. Cuz knowing how the prof and badger get all freaky and parental when one of their precious little X-geeks gets so much as a paper cut, I'm wondering how you got an ok to go run crazy round the streets of New York in your condition."
"That answers why, but not how you managed to find me." He narrowed his eyes.
"Well, after you hailed a cab my curiousity was peaked so I hot wired Scooter's ride and tailed ya." She matched his narrow blue eyes with her own. "And it's obviously lucky I did! What the hell did you break into somebody's apartment for!"
He sneered. "For starters I didn't break in, the window was unlocked."
"Oh cuz that makes it so much better!"
"You're more an X-geek than you give yourself credit for you know?" He said coldly.
The insult stung. "It's not such a bad thing. They gave me a home when you and those other jerks tossed me to the curb!"
Pietro frowned. "It was nothing personal. Mystique came back and-"
Tears of hurt filled Tabby's eyes. "I know what happened! I was there. The boss lady came back and totally dissed me. You not only bowed down and kissed her boots, you made me do it too!"
"I-"
"I thought all of you were so strong and brave. I didn't think you guys were really filthy cowards or stupid dogs that would roll over when your damn mistress came home." She glared.
Pietro was speechless. "I...we..."
"Save it Pietro." She sighed. "I don't want an excuse. What I want to know right now is why you went into some random apartment. What were you looking for? Drugs? Whores?" She said with a scowl toward the club behind him.
"Funny." He glowered.
"Not really. I know you, Pietro." She frowned disapprovingly. "Wouldn't surprise me in the least."
"For your information," He scowled fiercely. "It wasn't a random apartment. It's the one I lived in before Daniels landed me in juvie."
"Do you blame him? You wrecked those lockers and used him as a scapegoat!" She rolled her eyes.
"Yes I actually do." Pietro said calmly.
"Gah! You are so stubborn!" She growled. "I can't believe that- hey wait...that was your old apartment?"
"One point for the slowpoke." He said teasingly.
"Why'd you go through the window?" Tabby frowned softly.
"It was my old room." He said simply. "I knew that there wasn't a lock because I broke it off but made it look like it still locked for when I snuck out."
"Oh." Tabby blinked. "But...why?"
"I don't know." He shrugged uneasily. "I saw they replaced all my stuff with stuff for the little girl they finally had and I guess I wanted to get my stuff."
She tilted her head to the side and bit her lip. "Did you find anything?"
Pietro shrugged one shoulder. "I found a box with my stuff. I left most of it, but I took a couple things...for...my sister...cuz you know..."
"Right." She said softly. Then she looked at him expectantly. "Well? What'd you take?"
With a sigh he gently removed the tokens of his childhood.
"Why'd you take the little girl's doll?" Tabby asked in confusion.
"I didn't that's mine!" He snapped and she giggled in disbelief. "No it's Wanda's or it was...until Father put her into that-"
"Shhh, it's alright. Secret's safe with me. I promise." She laughed.
"Whatever." He dropped the issue. "I thought I could give 'em to Wanda. I mean, with my father being an asshole, and me...you know...I thought she might like something from before our lives got screwed up."
"That's so sweet." Tabby said, her voice catching.
"Well, ya, she's my sister." Pietro sighed. "And I don't want her to be all alone."
Tabby smiled. "I didn't know you were actually capable of caring about anybody outside your reflection." She attempted to joke. But truly his sentiment touched her.
"Well, shows how much you know." He smiled half heartedly.
"Look sorry I spazzed before asking any questions." Tabby sighed. "But I'm freakin' out major here. I mean one minute you're climbing out of an apartment and then you have another one of your little scary dream things and...I don't know what to do if you go unconscious."
"Don't mention it." He shrugged. "Really I mean it, please don't. I'd rather not focus on how little time I have left until..."
She bit her lip. "Can't honestly say I blame you." She said softly. "I mean, it's hard enough for me to get the concept that you're ...well, I don't even know if I could take it if it were me." She confessed then cast her eyes to him in concern. "You must be freezing. Hop in." She climbed back into Scott's car and revved the engine.
"No!" He surprised himself and her. "No, I'm not goin' back yet."
To his surprise she laughed. "Speedy, nobody said anything about going back! You still got some life in you. Relax for a little. We're in NYC. And we're gonna go find things to do, people to see, and parties to crash!"
He chuckled and climbed into the passenger's seat. As soon as he was in she grinned wickedly and sped down the road.
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Alright now show of hands who thought it was Scott come to be the party pooper he is? Bet I fooled a buncha ya. HEHE but oh well. Now I can tell you this chapter wasn't as long as I intended but I felt the place I left it at was nice. We got Tabs and Pie out on the town and his clock is ticking. Next chapter I'll cover what actually happens. The end is in sight folks. If you have any special requests of what you want to happen before then leave it in your review. Maybe I'll cover them if they fit my story line. And speakin of reviewers...
xmengirlzrule- Yep this one's quite a pickle. Glad you like it, thanks for the review!
JediTwitch- Yeah I don't much like Crystal either. Yeah, one would think that he would wouldn't one? Just one problem in this story...Yeah but he's Remy so we all love him whether he named his bear Roguey or not. He's just that cool. And ya, that's an honest to goodness fact about Pyro. It makes me laugh greatly. No ya prolly don't, I mean, if it were me I'd imagine I'd be a wee bit short of temper ya know? Yup have fun with Carmen's death. Thanks for the review!
howlerdrode- Well ya see, it isn't so much that I enjoy it, it just seems to work so well! Yeah crazy huh? Just goes to show ya there is nothing out of character for Johnboy there. But it is an honest to Marvel fact. Scary fact, but true nonetheless. Yeah I know the Crystal sitch but I liked my way more. It works for me. Hm, well I guess you're wrong about who busted him, but hey nearly everyone assumed it was so no fault to you on that one, I deliberately misled everyone to believe that. Glad you like it, thanks for the review!
ishandahalf- Yes I loved that little argument. And I just thought that it would be so cute if Remy slept with a stuffed bear so the idea kinda mutated and came out a lot better than I initially thought. I liked it too. Glad you liked the chapter, thanks for the review!
Shira's Song- Hey glad you like it. Wouldn't actually call them time jumps so much as visions but either way glad you like it! Thanks for the review!
Dis Chick Digs Da Fuzzy Dude- I don't really like Crystal either. Oh yeah I don't imagine those kinda visions being too easy on one's mental health even if it isn't the final day of life. And while Jott does ruin a lot of things, sadly they had no fault. Though you're free to blame them as I do for anything that ever goes wrong. Glad you liked it, thanks for the review!
waterlily- Glad you like it, thanks for the ...identical...reviews...Oo how'd you manage that one?
MagCat- Glad you liked it. Well that was just a crazy vision thingy. There will be more Jonda in the next chapter, I assure you. LOL thanks for the review!
AC- Whew, I'm really glad you like the story so much. Ya one could say that. Glad you still like it, thanks for reviewing!
el diablo- Glad you like it, thanks for the review!
lifeofla-silverwolf- Glad you like it thanks for the review!
And there we have it, chapter 12 of 24 Hours finished October 11, 2005. Which of course means the next thing to look for is a chapter in Hearts' Desires. Audios folks!
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