Chapter 10 - Bottled Up Emotions
When Jana had first come back to herself, she'd enjoyed sleeping in immensely. She'd been college-age when she last had control of her body, and getting back to those sleeping habits felt like reclaiming part of her youth that had been lost.
But lately, she'd been motivated to get up early, though if anyone had asked her why, she would have been too embarrassed to answer truthfully.
Because if she was honest, she'd have to admit that she kept sneaking down to the kitchen to see if Daken was around reporting to K and Logan about what he'd been up to. She couldn't just telepathically check for him, and he usually slipped in and out in the morning without many other people knowing. So she had to time her breakfast appearances carefully or she'd miss out on seeing him entirely.
Ever since he'd helped her get her tattoo in Japan, she had been trying to figure out how she'd even approach flirting with him. She had no idea what she was doing in her own body, and the concept of dating was so far beyond a bad idea that she'd eventually just settled on getting to see him every once in a while — at least until she was better at expressing herself, her desires, and her boundaries.
That last one was crucial.
That particular morning, however, she got busted. And not just by anyone, but by Cody Summers.
"I can almost guarantee he's noticed you staring," Cody said, startling her out of her thoughts as she was headed to the kitchen. He wasn't usually up this early, but a quick scan of his mind told her he'd been up late texting back and forth with Zoe and was actually grabbing something to eat before sleeping through the morning if he could.
"I don't need relationship advice from someone who can't tell a girl he likes her," Jana said, blushing bright red. "You and I both know neither one of us is dating material right now anyway. I'm enjoying having a crush, okay?"
"I'm just saying: even if he hasn't noticed the staring — which is a long shot — you know that whole family and the scent thing is a real sticking point, right? He knows."
Jana bit her lip and nodded. "Yeah," she said, then tried to deflect. "For the record, I can hear your crush too."
"Mine is aware of my trouble saying no and doesn't want to date me until I'm better at expressing my boundaries," Cody pointed out. "Daken has trouble with consent at the best of times. It's not the same."
Jana blew out all her breath from her cheeks. "I know. Leslie Ann thinks I have crap taste too."
Cody smirked, especially because when she said things like that, she was so far from being Sinister that it was even easier to see her as Jana. "You sure you're not hung up on him for evil reasons?" he teased. "He is technically a crime boss, you know."
"I think I liked you better when you were scared of me," Jana said — and then immediately winced, glancing up at Cody to make sure he wasn't upset by the joke. She was starting to get back her sharp sense of humor, but she didn't want to make Cody think she wanted anything like the power Sinister had once held over him.
Thankfully, Cody didn't seem bothered at all. In fact, he grinned crookedly. "I know. I'm a pain. It's kind of nice to be one again, actually."
She shook her head at him but couldn't help but smile. She totally understood the sentiment. Sinister had quashed both of their senses of humor and their sarcasm and wit until they were molded into his tools. "It is nice," she agreed. "He'd hate it, which makes it even better."
Cody winced slightly at the mention of Sinister but otherwise didn't balk, which was another good sign. Instead, he simply cleared his throat. "Just… I just came to tell you to be careful," he said. He paused. "I… I care about you. I don't want you getting hurt."
Jana's eyes widened, and she took a tentative step toward him. "Is it alright if I hug you?" she asked. When Cody hesitated and then nodded, Jana hugged him around the middle — though not so tightly that he couldn't escape if he wanted to. "Thanks," she whispered into the hug. "I promise I'll be careful. I won't even think about doing anything with him until I'm sure I won't get hurt, okay?"
Cody seemed to relax at that and finally returned the hug. "Okay."
Cody wasn't the only Summers trying to look out for heartache that morning, either.
Everyone in the mansion was well-aware of the fact that, as the holidays approached, Chance's usual baby face was getting worse. He was clearly thinking of the day when he could spoil his own kids for Christmas. And that would have been fine if Charlie couldn't hear Elin getting more and more terrified as the prospect of having kids loomed over her.
The problem was that Charlie had already told Chance to try to temper his expectations. She'd told him that Elin was terrified and that he needed to back off. And his response had been to tell her exactly what Elin had told him when he'd promised not to push her:
"Last time Elin heard that other people were sticking their noses into this and I told her I was being patient and not pushing and that everyone keeps telling me she's not ready, Elin practically snarled at me and pointed out that she wasn't being coerced and that she'd made her decision. So, yeah, I'm not pushing but I'm also really sure that I'll get in trouble with my wife if I try to pull the plug, even if I wanted to. Which I don't. Not like we don't have plenty of time to get around to it anyway. She can take her time, but I'm not gonna act like I'm not ready when she is, either."
Chance could be such an idiot sometimes.
So, Charlie determined that she'd have to talk to Elin if she wanted to stop an impending disaster. She knew that Elin and Chance were nowhere close to being on the same page with the topic of timing when it came to kids, and it was such a big decision that Charlie felt justified in throwing out her rule of noninterference.
She had to wait for the team practice to end before she had any hope of snagging Elin, but after practice, Chance was supposed to meet up with some other students for a basic gun safety course. He was going to be on the teaching staff part-time starting soon, and in the meantime, he was getting his teaching feet wet, so to speak. Which meant Elin wouldn't be with Chance after practice. It was the perfect opportunity.
Of course, the practice ended up running long. They'd gotten a call from Hisako to say that one of Chance's old Alpha Flight teammates — the youngest one, the shapeshifter Alex — had passed Hisako's classes with high enough marks that he might have been a good candidate for the X-Men. And the kid had been eager to be a hero when he'd been at the Canadian school, something the department had taken full advantage of. But he hadn't been sold and he was never a willing participant in the worst that the team had been asked to do, so the team was actually considering him.
Before they'd let him test in, though, Chance and Elin were running the team through a few different scenarios. Yes, the department was dead, but it had been dead before. So, out of an abundance of caution, they ran through scenarios not just involving the Canadian government but Chance's old team — the whole roster.
Still, it was a good practice. Charlie could tell that they were all proud of themselves for how they'd measured up against the scenarios, and that was a good starting place, she figured, for the conversation she wanted to have.
So, once Chance and Elin parted ways — after a long kiss — Charlie sidled up to Elin and fell into step with her as she headed for the elevators.
"I need to borrow you," Charlie said, taking her sister-in-law's arm. "Please."
Elin raised a single eyebrow. "Why?"
Charlie sighed. "For oh, so many things," she said but didn't elaborate until they had slipped into one of the smaller gyms near the Danger Room. Then, she bit her lip. "Chance told me what you said about what you think of other people butting into your kids discussion, but-"
"Did he now?" Elin interrupted her, already on the defensive. "Did he bother to tell you it's none of your business?"
"He did, but-"
"You're going to stick your nose in anyway."
Charlie flushed red but wasn't about to be deterred, either. "Elin, you're absolutely terrified of motherhood right now. You're not on the same page at all, and I'm worried about you!" she said, speaking fast so she couldn't be interrupted. "You can tell him you're not ready. He'll wait for you; I know he will. Especially now that he heals!"
"Wow. That … is incredibly unhelpful. Especially since this isn't new and you sure weren't worried before."
Charlie twisted one of her curls between her fingers. "I spent the first while after Cody got back just listening to his song and trying to help him," she admitted. "And when I picked up the terror from you, I thought it was just because of everything that happened. I mean, Wade made it pretty clear there were some risks with getting healing you weren't born with, and Chance did lose his memories for a while there…." She sighed. "You know I can sense emotions; I don't always know why they're there, though. So I'm sorry with all the crazy going on I didn't immediately notice the pattern of terror was related to the green light you gave him. But now that I have, I'm trying, okay? I even talked to Chance-"
Elin glared a little bit harder. She was incredibly tired of everyone choosing them to be the one couple that was getting slammed with unwanted advice on this particular subject. It was bad enough to have this discussion endlessly when she didn't want to hear it, and another thing to have to live with the fact that everyone else had opinions and wanted to discuss their sex life and family planning considerations. The fact that most of them were advising the Summers on how to control his Howlett was just the cherry on the cake. "I'm going to bet he told you to butt out of his sex life, right? Because I didn't appreciate it the first time you pulled this crap with me, and I definitely don't appreciate it now."
"I — I don't want the dirty details," Charlie said, her eyes wide and her hands thrown out in front of her. "I'm just trying to help."
"Sure you are," Elin said. "Hey. Charlie - none of this is your call, and neither of us asked for your opinion."
Charlie let her shoulders drop. "I don't want you to get hurt."
"I'm fine," Elin insisted. "Worry about yourself." She got up to leave, considerably more annoyed than she'd been before — and Charlie could feel every bit of her annoyance directed her way.
Charlie sighed as she watched Elin leave and hugged her arms to her chest. She just knew that those two were headed for a collision course, and she didn't want either of them to get hurt. But Elin was ignoring how scared she was because she wanted to make Chance happy, and Chance was under the mistaken belief that he could leave the whole thing in Elin's hands and it would all be fine even though she was caving to his pressure … pressure that wasn't even intentional.
They both thought they were helping each other, and instead, they weren't communicating and were going to get hurt. She didn't want them to end up resenting each other.
She pinched the bridge of her nose. No wonder those two were giving Rachel headaches. They were giving Charlie headaches.
She made her way upstairs still deep in thought, sure that she had failed at what she set out to do, but before she could get too caught up in herself, she heard two songs full of longing and peeked around the corner to see that Kari and Chloe were sharing snacks and watching a movie together.
Right, Charlie realized all at once. James and Kaleb had dates lined up after practice.
For just a second, she thought about stepping in to say hello. But then, she remembered how badly her attempt to advise her little sister about her obvious crush on Kaleb had gone and decided today just wasn't her day. As much as people gave her grief for being the Summers who bulldozed into emotional minefields, she wasn't immune to the emotional stress her interference caused.
She just wanted her friends and family to be happy; was that so much to ask?
So, rather than peek in on two girls who couldn't admit that they were in love with unavailable boys, she reached out with her powers until she found Gerry's song and then made her way to where he was talking with Zoe — who was doing her best to pretend she wasn't looking for Cody. Not that she was fooling anyone.
"He's helping Chance with his shooting lesson," Charlie called out to Zoe.
Zoe looked like she might argue, but to Charlie's relief, she didn't. Instead, she opened her mouth, closed it, and then smiled and skipped off to go find Cody. So at least that was one relationship she'd helped nudge in the right direction.
People were so exhausting.
As Charlie dropped into the seat next to Gerry, he smiled and picked up his arm to make room. Once she was snuggled into his side, he kissed her forehead and teased, "Long day?"
"Yeah," Charlie said, resting her head on his shoulder. "No one wants my help, apparently."
"They know you mean well."
"You're biased," Charlie said, her tone decidedly down. "You don't hear their annoyance. They don't want me poking my nose in, and they say so."
"Yeah, but how would you feel if you didn't warn them? You'd drive yourself insane," Gerry pointed out. He kissed her cheek. "Besides, it's not always bad. I thought you told me half the reason you and 'Nessa got along so well was that she would always thank you for your insight."
Charlie's smile softened as she thought about Vanessa. Not many people had known her, and while Charlie was glad James had been able to move on, that didn't mean he didn't miss her sometimes — or that Charlie didn't miss her too. "It was nice to have someone to cheat with," she admitted.
"Should I be worried?" Gerry teased — purely to get a reaction out of her.
Predictably, Charlie rose to the bait and hit him with the back of her hand. "Not like that and you know it."
"You left yourself open, and you know who my dad is."
"Yeah, yeah." She stuck her tongue out at him and then set her head back down on his shoulder. "You know what I meant. It was nice to have someone who was also trying to keep everyone safe."
"You made a good team."
"Yeah. Yeah, we did." Charlie snuggled into him a little deeper. "Maybe my idiot brother would have listened to her instead of me. Or Elin would have. I don't know."
Gerry chuckled. "Yeah, you're talking about two of the most stubborn people we know outside of your dad and Elin's parents. Good luck with that."
"Thanks, Gerry. You really know how to cheer me up when I'm worried out of my mind that my brother and his wife are going to end up hurting each other because they can't stop putting each other ahead of their own needs."
"Those two have always been a little bit self-destructive, though," Gerry pointed out. But when Charlie looked that much more depressed when she heard it, Gerry sighed and pulled her into a kiss. "Okay, talking isn't working. I've decided we need to go upstairs and fool around now. Not even gonna dance around it."
And, just like he'd hoped, Charlie was surprised into a delighted laugh — especially when he scooped her up and made good on his suggestion immediately.
