Chapter 14: "What Do You Remember?"

The bamfs were down in Hank's lab after the fight was over, fussing over their friend who had gotten his arm busted up and getting patched up for a few minor injuries just so that they could sneak sweets from Hank. But when they saw some of the others trickling in and out, they made it a point to spoil them too. Kaleb, of course, got totally spoiled, since they had a clear preference for their elfling buddy, and Kate was getting lots of love, too.

And, to James' surprise, a couple of the bamfs even poofed over to give him little looks of concern, but only one of them approached him — with a can of stolen beer that he set on James' lap with a 'bamf' and a sheepish kind of smile.

"No thanks," James said flatly.

The bamf frowned at that and pushed the can toward him a little more, chattering away in his one-word language — though even if this little guy wanted to be understood, it seemed to be the case that the rest had to agree to it too.

James picked up the can and set it on the table next to the bed, then closed his eyes, doing his best to ignore him. "Go away."

The little bamf chattered a few more attempts to get James to talk to him and even carefully tapped James's arm, but when James ignored him, he let out a little sigh and teleported away to go snuggle with Kaleb.

James was still leaning back with his eyes closed when a text came in from Alyssa: I saw what happened on the news. How is everyone holding up?

James took a moment to think about his answer before he answered. Everyone's here. Little banged up, but no worse for wear, really.

Everyone but Chance, you mean. I saw that fall.

No, Chance … he's got a nasty concussion. Forgot a little bit of time. He's in awe of my sister. Again. Worse than before somehow.

That's good. Did you get Lifeguard there in time? It looked fatal on the newscast.

James frowned and then turned to Hank. "Do you have footage of that riot?" But he was already searching for it online before Hank could answer.

"That would be a question best answered by your godfather," Hank told him. "He was monitoring, after all."

"Well, he's not here right now," James said under his breath, then sat up and put his legs over the side of the stretcher he was on. "Can I go?"

"I don't see why not," Hank said with a kind smile.

"Thanks, Uncle Blue," James said, quickly getting to his feet and pointedly ignoring the beer that he'd left on the table as he left. Lifeguard is in Chicago. I need to see the footage. I didn't have the best angle from where I was, he texted back to Alyssa.

Let me send you what I've got, Alyssa replied.

Please and thank you, James replied on his way up to where Scott was still working.

A few minutes later, he got the first of several videos Alyssa promised to send him, showing various angles of the fight in general, though the first one showed a solid view of Chance being shot out of the sky. It looked enough like Angel's fall that it was a pretty good guess on her part as to how it had ended.

"Oh, crap," James said under his breath not three steps from the door to Scott. He finished the video and then knocked on the open door before he stepped inside. "We got a big problem."

Scott looked up from what he was doing and frowned James' way. "What happened?"

James made his way over to him and simply handed him the cued up video on his phone. "This is being broadcast. We don't have a way to explain why Chance isn't dead from it."

Scott's frown turned into more of a scowl as he watched the footage, and he ran a hand over his face before he swore under his breath and leaned back, pushing his hands against the table. "It isn't exactly something we could keep secret forever," he said. "The first time someone hit him and the damage faded fast…"

"I know," James said. "But I was hoping he'd get more room than this. First nasty mission?"

"He has spectacularly bad luck with the Superior Rising group," Scott muttered, clearly frustrated by this turn of events.

"Dad's with him now," James said. "He lost a lot of memory, too."

Scott's head came up at that. "How bad?"

"He … thought he died and went to heaven when Elin kissed him — so I'd guess a few years. Dad said it should come back, but still."

Scott let out all of his breath as he nodded. "Alright. I'll talk to Logan about it," he said. "In the meantime, you were right to come to me on this. We don't have a good explanation for Chance's recovery other than the truth."

James nodded at that. "Alyssa asked me about it - and offered up one possibility if you wanted a cover short term."

"Lifeguard is at the clinic right now," Scott pointed out. "That's easily disproved."

"Never mind then," James said. "It was a reasonable thought."

"It was," Scott agreed. "And honestly, I should have had him stay on here after Chance got his healing so we had him in our back pocket just in case, but…"

"I haven't told her anything," James said as he turned to leave.

"I didn't think you would," Scott assured him.

"I'm just clarifying," James said over his shoulder. "I'll tell her I'll explain later. She knows part of the truth on her own, but she's not going to report on us without our clearing it."

"But when the time comes, she might be a good option to do the reporting, honestly," Scott said. "Start small and start with someone we know."

James nodded at that. "She's got a huge following now," James said. "Goes a little crazy every time she does a live feed, too."

"Do you think she could handle a story like this?"

"I think … she's our friendliest option," James admitted. "But if we go to break the story with her, she'll need protection."

"She's here a lot anyway with your 'study dates'," Scott pointed out. "I'm sure we can accommodate her."

"True," James said, blatantly ignoring Scott's tease. "I'll set it up for you to talk to her — that ought to give you time to decide how to handle it first."

"Let's at least wait until Chance has his memory back. That would be one horrible surprise if we did it without him."

James quietly agreed but stopped to write down Alyssa's number for him. "I'll tell her to expect a text then." He left Scott behind and finally responded to Alyssa. This is over my head to answer. But you can expect a text from someone that can answer you. If you want the story.

Oh really? Alyssa replied, and even over text, James could imagine her excited look. Of course I want it! Who is it?

My godfather. I gave him your number.

The response from Alyssa was simply a whole lot of exclamation points at that point.

It's likely to be him, anyhow. Small chance he might make Dad do it instead.

Either way, that's a huge story! THANK YOU!

You earned it. Most friendly non-directly-associated resource. David's on staff. And his stuff is more forums than interviews.

Plus, he's married to a senior X-Man, Alyssa said. They are really cute, btw.

Yeah … that's … true, I suppose. Just relax. Don't speculate on the story. I'll see you, what? Couple days?

Count on it. I'll be there for coffee and English professor investigation.

James laughed at that and had to shake his head. She was clearly flying high. Don't get started without me, Ace.

Oh, okay, if I have to wait…

I know. Terrible drag on your career. I should be ashamed, but I'm not.

I know.

James was smirking to himself as he pocketed his phone, but he didn't get much further before there was pink smoke around the corner, and then Kari appeared, grinning at him as she all but tackled him in a hug.

"My little brother said you saved his life!"

"He's overselling it," James said flatly.

"Oh, so you don't want me to give you a kiss and dramatically thank you for saving him?" she teased.

"Well, you kind of already did that," James pointed out.

She laughed and kissed his cheek before she all but fell into his arms again. "Why, thank you, kind sir," she teased.

"You're welcome, sweet elfling," he said. "But take it easy, please. Ricochets hurt more than regular shots."

Kari straightened up and frowned at him, almost absently brushing off his shoulders. "Oh, I'm sorry — are you okay?"

"You didn't know — and I am or Hank wouldn't have let me leave," James said.

"Well, I was just down there, and Hank's busy with an overdramatic bamf trying to get more Twinkies out of his broken arm," Kari said.

James let out a little grunt at that. "Not surprised."

"Your little friend said he brought some beer for you," Kari said with a smile.

"I don't have a little friend," James said, looking perfectly serious. "And I don't drink."

"Well, I told him you were too young, but they all seem to think beer or whiskey is the perfect cure-all for anything ever. Plus… they're demons," Kari said.

"Yeah, there's that," James said, putting on a tight smile.

Kari let out a breath and then popped up on her toes to kiss his cheek again. "This is progress, James. No one ever killed one of them before; they just… needed time to get past it."

"They can stay away; it's fine," James insisted.

"Even if they're ready to be friends again? Seems like one is, at least."

He let out a sigh. "I think they're better off not being involved with me."

Kari matched his sigh and lightly rapped her knuckles on his head. "Still got some progress of your own to do, I see," she said. "When are you going to remember that you deserve to be loved — even by little demons?"

"You're biased," he said.

"I am. But I'm also right," she said. "You're no less a child of God than I am, James."

"I'm not feelin' real philosophical tonight, Kari."

She let out a sigh before she threaded her arm through his. "Well at least let me curl up with my best friend while he heals from ricochets. You can pick the food."

"Thought I'd inhale something quick and easy then just pass out. Unless you have something to share?"

"Other than my undying gratitude for saving my brother, you mean?" she teased.

"Like he wouldn't do the same," James said.

"He would," Kari agreed. "He's a good brother." She kissed his cheek. "Okay, well, heal up, James."

"If you want entertainment, go watch Chance. He lost about …two or three years. His mind is blown."

"Mama already showed me the video she shot on the jet," Kari giggled, her tail swaying behind her. "It's so ridiculously cute."

"They're insane. What your mom failed to catch, though, was that Dad gave them a week off so Chance could heal."

"So… are you prepared to be an uncle again?"

James couldn't help but laugh at that. "I don't know if Chance is past the pure awe stage to get down to business."

"So pure and innocent and sweet," Kari said, and though her expression was one of delight, her eyes were twinkling with impish enjoyment.

"Pretty sure he'd just stare at her for most of it," James said, still smiling. "He was half afraid to kiss her."

"Well, of course — he was afraid to ask her out before Viper," Kari pointed out. "Kissing is a whole step beyond that…"

James gestured with both hands as if that was full explanation. "You know what? Screw it. How hungry are you? I'm cooking."

"Oh, if you're cooking, then I'm definitely very hungry," she said with a smile, latching onto his arm again. "Lead the way."

Jana had been making some progress talking with Leslie Ann — not to mention all of the work that Remy and Rachel had put into her emotionally and mentally. But there was only so much that they could do from one room, and Rachel had suggested that she try to at least get out to the kitchen, living room, that kind of thing. She didn't have to talk to anyone if she wasn't up to it — but she needed to get out.

Of course, the mansion looked different than she remembered it. It always got a facelift when it was destroyed and rebuilt, and she hadn't been there, even as Sinister, since Apocalypse's Horsemen had screwed it up. But the paths were more or less the same, and she found herself walking through them with an air of familiarity. It felt like she was visiting something from a past life. She'd only been in her early twenties when Sinister had taken over, and walking through the halls of Xavier's felt like visiting a childhood home.

This was going to take some getting used to.

Meanwhile, Elin had gone downstairs to find a wedding album for Chance, since he'd been non-stop questioning her about the wedding. She'd only had to tell him twice about the engagement, but he was completely fixated on the wedding itself — and she'd finally decided to just get the pictures for him.

She found it and pulled it off the shelf, shaking her head still when she crossed the living room to find the pictures that they'd taken on the honeymoon too — even though he hadn't quite breached the questions on that yet. But she was totally sideswiped when she saw Jana.

She stopped dead in her tracks and frowned at her. She looked a lot different than she had when she'd been possessed by Sinister — but more than that, her scent was entirely different. "Hello," Elin said, holding the photo albums to her chest.

Jana looked honestly a little scared of Elin as she took a slight step back. "Hello," she said cautiously.

"You smell a lot different than you did before," Elin said.

"Well, that's good," Jana said hesitantly.

"It really is," Elin agreed, taking a cautious step toward her. "The antiseptic and English tea is gone."

Jana took an almost unconscious step back even as Elin stepped forward. "I'm sorry about what happened. I couldn't stop him."

"That's what Mom and Dad said," Elin agreed with a nod. "And Leslie Ann says you're amazing when you're not possessed by a Victorian creep."

"She told me that too," Jana said, hugging her arms. She hadn't come to terms with no longer being Sinister and bearing the guilt that came with it, but she was trying not to disagree with people's kind assessments of who she once was — especially when Remy had refused to let her speak the first time she tried something like that.

"I wish I could remember you from before," Elin said.

"I wish I'd gotten to see you grow up," Jana said quietly. "I knew you guys when you were babies — got you in trouble then, too. Which I am very sorry about too."

"I don't remember that," Elin said before she gave her a little smirk. "Family hazard, right? You came by it honestly."

"Yeah, it is," Jana said. "I have a very screwed up family."

Elin looked down at the books in her arms. "Mom said she was bringing you something from home - no idea what she's talking about, but she and Kurt left a little while ago. Both of them were snickering like they were going to cause some kind of trouble … so if that means anything to you …"

Jana shook her head lightly. "I'm… still getting used to … all of this. I can't imagine what it is."

"Knowing my Mom? Who knows. But I think I heard her talking about the mitten?" Elin said before she took half a step toward her and stopped. "All of the photo albums are in the next room over. I was just taking these two up to Chance. He kind of lost a few years after a head injury, and I'm tired of answering the same questions over and over. Did you want to take a look before he moves into the pictures?"

Jana looked shocked. "I… you should take care of him," she said.

"I am. He's fine right now," Elin promised. "And I'll bet you won't pour over them like he's going to." She held up the books. "You missed us growing up, but... you know. Pictures."

Jana slowly nodded. "Alright," she said. "Thanks."

Elin came over and sat down nearby. "I know you're not the same person. It's going to take some time to get past the image, but … people's scents don't change like that. And your voice is much prettier."

"Thank you," Jana said with a little flush of pleasure. "I was thinking of cutting all my hair off and dyeing it. Might help. I know it's hard — I can hear it in people's thoughts — and I want to fix it."

"Well, it's a symbolic thing anyhow," Elin said. "But I think … honestly? My family will be quicker than the others." She tapped the side of her nose. "It means so very much."

Jana visibly relaxed at that as she sat down on the other end of the couch. "I wish I could change all of it. My hair, my face - I don't want you all to see me and remember what he did."

Elin shook her head vehemently. "No. Don't. Don't let him screw with you like that. Cut your hair. Dye it if you really feel like you need to, but all the rest of it will pass." She raised both eyebrows. "Get a tan. That would make you feel better too."

Jana couldn't help but smirk at that. "Probably," she agreed. "I don't know if I can, but I can try it out."

"Maybe pick a color to wear other than black and red … not really your look," Elin teased as she opened the wedding book.

Jana smirked a little more at that as she moved slightly closer to look over the pictures and let out a little noise as she saw all of the happy faces. "I was your age when he — it's so weird to see you guys all grown up like this," she said in almost a whisper as she lightly ran her finger over the picture of all of the families posing together.

"And I'm sure you're not used to seeing everyone smile either," Elin said.

Jana shook her head. "Not for years," she said, still speaking in a nearly reverent whisper.

"If you can believe it, Chance is grinning that wide right now. At least."

"I'm really glad he's alright," Jana said, glancing up at her. "I tried to stop her from killing him, but I …"

"You didn't have any control over your own body or mind," Elin said. "We have a few of those right now around here. And not one of you has been able to separate from it yet."

"It's a hard thing to do when it was the only thing I knew for over ten years."

She nodded at that. "I just wanted you to know you're not the only one struggling."

"Is James alright?" Jana asked. "And Cody?"

"Cody's a lot closer to it, of course," Elin said. "But they're both making progress."

Jana nodded and looked back down at the wedding album, smiling at the grinning Summers family. "When I was an X-Man, Cyclops was my hero," she told Elin without looking up at her. "And when I was Sinister, I tortured his family. It's a hard thing to reconcile."

"You know Scott was always sure that we didn't kill you when we were going after him, right? Because you should know that. He always had it in his head to save you."

"Maybe he should have killed me," Jana said. "It would have made things easier."

Elin shook her head right away. "No way. It would have crushed him and Remy."

"Remy…" Jana shook her head. "I don't know what to do with him. I never had a father and he's so... " She bit her lip. "He doesn't know what to do either:"

Elin let out a slow breath. "I … would go ahead and blame Sinister for that too," she said. "Just … get to know him. You don't have to do anything with him or about him. But you have to admit you kinda want to know more about him, right?"

Jana nodded. "He already offered to teach me how to pick locks," she said with a small smile.

"He hasn't offered up the family gumbo recipe yet? Because I'm pretty sure that's right there with lockpicking."

Jana shook her head. "No, but I'll keep an eye out for that," she said.

"Dad says it's all the fish that isn't fit to be eaten any other way," Elin laughed.

Jana smiled over at Elin before she looked back down at the album, pointing specifically at the cake-cutting picture that James had gotten when Chance was grinning at Elin. "You two haven't changed at all," she said. "When you were little, you both did that. Right there."

"Cupcake kisses," Elin said with a smile.

"Exactly."

"I never did want the stupid cupcakes," she said with a shrug.

"I'm pretty sure we all knew that. Leslie Ann was dreaming up your wedding last time I talked to her — well. Last time I talked to her before Sinister," Jana amended. "It's kind of comforting to see at least that much stayed the same."

"It wasn't easy getting there," Elin admitted. "Both of us were kind of … dumb."

"And I wasn't helping things trying to kill him half the time…"

"We had plenty of our own trouble," she said. "I refused to consider him. He flirted with every single pretty girl within a hundred miles …"

"That also doesn't exactly surprise me. I remember Leslie Ann telling me about his first Kindergarten girlfriend."

"Yeah, he was a pretty terrible flirt."

Jana smiled as she turned the last page. "Do you have a wedding album for Krissy and Sying? Leslie Ann said they got married and I still remember him bribing her with cookies to get her to play with him…"

She pointed toward the next room over. "The spine is purple glitter."

Jana smiled as she handed Elin the book. "Thank you. And… and good luck with Chance."

Elin smiled at her warmly. "I'll do my best. He … kind of woke up not realizing that we'd even dated." She cringed at that. "So I don't know for sure where he is right now mentally? But … he hasn't argued it either, so …"

"I'm sorry," Jana said with a frown, unable to stop herself from wondering if she - no, Sinister - really had done more damage to Chance than anyone thought.

"Not your fault," Elin said. "And it'll come back, so … until it does, I'll just enjoy him being all … awestruck."

"You should enjoy it," Jana said. "I hope he comes back soon."

"Have fun with the albums," Elin said as she gathered up the books and headed up for Chance. She was still shaking her head, thinking over the obvious change she could scent with Jana and the anxiety soaking that scent, as she pushed the door to their room open. "Should I come back later?" she called out to Chance.

Chance grinned up at her from where he'd been looking through their room - still thrilled with the fact that there was a 'their' room. "No, no, come on in," he said quickly.

"I … did have a little question for you," Elin said. "What … what's the last thing you do remember?"

"Well," he said slowly, looking almost sheepish. "I was finishing out my last semester in Canada? Mac and I took the flight suit on a solid run, and I was headed home for a team practice tomorrow. Or… tomorrow a long time ago."

"Oh," Elin said, nodding slowly. "Okay. I was just curious."

"For the record," he said quickly, "I am really, really glad that I figured out how to — I meant to ask you out months ago. I was going to ask you at the fall formal, but I just…" He turned red and looked down and away.

She sat down next to him and gave him a kiss as she handed him the album. "On that note … here. Photographic proof that I'm not screwing with you. Not sure if the dress meets up to that last one you do remember…"

"You look amazing in it, I'm sure," Chance said before he'd even opened the book and then smiled widely. "Yep. I was right."

She had to chuckle at that and kissed his cheek. "Handsome."

He grinned brilliantly at her as he looked back down at the album. "Hey, sunflowers — I was right!" he said, sounding pleased with himself.

"You really were," she agreed, then leaned her chin on his shoulder as she peeked down at the pictures with him.

"Mom looks like she's gonna burst," Chance said when he saw the picture of Annie dancing with him. He turned the page and grinned at the picture of Kate and Chelsea dancing with Kurt. He was dancing with K in the background - and it was obvious K was pregnant.

He paused at that picture in particular and then glanced over at Elin, his eyes slightly narrowed. "Okay. I have a question to ask you, and I don't want you to read too much into it, because remember, I don't remember anything and this is a legitimate question."

Elin rolled her eyes at him and kissed his cheek again. "Shoot."

"Am I imagining remembering you saying you'd like to stop trying not to have kids or am I just… looking at K and misremembering a conversation I overheard with her or something?"

Elin stared at him for a moment, cleared her throat, and nodded. "Why am I surprised that of all the things you could remember - that's the first?"

"Well, how long ago was it?"

"Not very," Elin said.

"Maybe that's it," he said.

"Or … you've had it in your head for forever."

"Elin, you know my family. You know my whole extended family."

She tapped his nose with the tip of her finger. "And you know that there is a vast difference between how things run in a family and having a person in mind," she pointed out.

"Well…" Chance flushed a bit. "I just… I've always liked you, El."

She shook her head and decided to let him off the hook. All things considered. She gave him a long kiss and then rested her forehead against his. "I already said yes. I know you want at least one little one. And if that's what you want - then I'm on board. But … maybe wait until you can remember that conversation?"

He smiled at her and kissed her lightly. "It won't take too long to get it back, right? Logan said about a week."

"That's what he's guessing," Elin agreed.

"I hope that's the case, because I really want to remember all of this." He tapped the wedding album with one hand.

"Such a rush. Last you remembered, you were still doing maple syrup shots — and now?" She shook her head and kissed him again. "I'm trying to decide if it's you being smitten or just trying to get in my pants."

He couldn't help but laugh at that as he curled into her a little more. "It's just that I've wanted this my whole life," he said. "Are we sure I'm not in some weird reality shift? Because last I remember… I couldn't figure out how to dump a stupid blonde."

Elin's eyes widened slightly at that. She had no idea how to broach that topic, especially considering how Viper had left him so traumatized that his mind had taken him there with Sinister. And she didn't want to make him relive that. "You … you actually broke up with her," she said carefully. "She didn't take it well. But … it … stuck."

"Oh good, because I didn't want to date her in the first place," Chance said with a sigh. "This is much better. By a mile. Or twenty."

"Yeah, she … and everyone else kind of knew that," Elin said. "She was evil."

"Yes, sorry, didn't mean to bring up an ex with my wife. That's bad form," Chance said with a smile.

"Oh, it's not a problem," Elin promised. "You know. Because I …" She paused and couldn't think of a way to soften it. "I killed her."

"Wait, wait, you what?" Chance asked, turning toward her with wide eyes.

Elin shrugged. "She was evil. She … had very bad connections and tried to kill Dad."

"I had no idea," Chance swore.

"I know. We didn't know for sure about her connections until the end. And then it all happened very fast." She gave him another kiss. "Guess I got a little territorial too. Maybe."

He grinned at her. "I really wish I remembered it."

"No, you don't," she laughed. "How about we just curl up in bed when you're done looking at the wedding pictures? Maybe I can coax your memory into working right."

He couldn't help but grin at her as he nodded. "Yeah. I like that idea."

Almost a week to the day after Chance had hit his head, he had nearly gotten all of his memories back. He was missing a few details from the Superior Rising/Friends of Humanity mission itself, but the rest was clear.

And Cody couldn't stop watching his brother.

Ever since realizing he'd lost time, Chance was orbiting Elin red-faced and apologetic, though she assured him he'd been darling and genuine and as Summersy as she'd expected him to be. He was mortified by the fact that everyone had seen him like that, but he kept getting the same response: it wasn't his fault.

And it wasn't. It was Cody's.

Cody knew he shouldn't blame himself. He knew nothing Sinister did was his fault. But Chance had been augmented as a guinea pig, and Cody felt that hanging around his neck every time he thought about Chance's new abilities.

He was beyond relieved that Chance's memory loss wasn't more permanent. He had no idea what he would have done if he'd been part of an experiment that slowly chipped pieces off of his brother like that.

He was so caught up in watching Chance and Elin taking their turn cooking for dinner — complete with plenty of good-natured teasing — that he almost missed when Nate and Hope came in as well. Nate was big enough to catch his peripheral attention, but otherwise, Cody had been oblivious.

He berated himself for that too. Sinister would have been disappointed in his lack of telepathic awareness.

God, I'm still trying to make her happy.

Cody ran his hands down his face and took a steadying breath that hiccoughed slightly when Nate sat down next to him.

"Gets easier, you know," Nate said.

Cody let his shoulders drop. Eavesdropping?

Yes.

Cody almost laughed. Well, at least you're honest about it. When Nate smirked in response, Cody tipped his head his way. "Haven't seen you around for a bit."

"I promised Chance I'd check into something for him — in every timeline I could find where this happens," Nate said, gesturing toward Chance and Elin, the latter of whom was gracefully feigning deafness until Nate was ready to spill what he knew. And you do this in almost all of them, too. I know everyone keeps telling you to stop blaming yourself.

Yeah, it's a regular choir.

Nate smirked. I get it. Hard to separate what happened. And that's fine as long as you don't sit in it.

Thanks, Nate, Cody said and rolled his eyes. I'll just get right on that.

You're missing the point, Nate said, shooting him a dry look right back. You want to take responsibility, how about you look out for them? Better than just sitting here feeling bad about it.

Cody opened his mouth and then closed it again. Yeah okay, he said, which just had Nate raising one eyebrow before he went ahead and pushed past Cody's surface thoughts into the memories simmering just below that surface. Seeing how Cody was still following the impulse to do what Sinister wanted and to measure up to what Sinister expected, Nate went ahead and cut that thread.

No reason for Cody to have to put himself back together with Sinister's influence still sitting right there.

"Is Annie coming to this party?" Elin asked sweetly, since she was kind of tired of seeing the telepathic exchange that left everyone out and let Nate keep doing what Nate did best. It didn't help that she'd been taking time in shifts to keep an eye on both James and Cody when she wasn't with Chance — so she wasn't entirely feeling Nate-friendly.

"She was talking with Leslie Ann when we came in," Hope put in helpfully. "But I'd never say no to more Grannie Annie."

"Just seems like a good time for adult supervision," Elin said, smiling tightly at Nate.

"Oh, never," Cody said straightfaced just to tease Elin, though he was clearly enjoying the increasingly unamused look Nate was wearing. "Unsupervised chaos is more fun."

Nate let out a huff and ignored them in favor of Chance. "Looked into the other timelines for you. Wade was right; it could've been worse. But here, you'll be alright. A little more prone to more like what happened here when you get bad injuries like that, but nothing out of the ordinary from what other healers have experienced, honestly."

Chance let his shoulders drop obviously. "Good. After that… I was starting to worry." He bit his lip, glanced toward Elin, and then said, "I'm absolutely going to regret this, but uh… what about the other timelines?"

Nate gestured outward with both hands. He didn't need to ask what Chance wanted to know; his little brother was all but screaming projecting that he was worried about not just his mind but what Elin had to go through when she'd already been through the wringer. "The memory issues are the most common for you," he admitted. "The worst of it, you never know what time you're living in. Getting names wrong, that sort of thing."

Chance rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, Pappaw's that way…"

Nate nodded. "Elin stuck with you, whenever you were in your head. Helped the older you got when most of your lucid memories were just the two of you."

Chance shot Elin a smile, though he nodded for Nate to continue, sure there was more to it, since he had asked what could go wrong.

"There's a few where you've got the same issues as Wade." Nate pinched the bridge of his nose. "He hates it but won't stop trying to make the most of it."

Chance visibly winced. "Oof."

"Yeah, Elin and Logan and Dad all at some point or another threatened and inflicted bodily harm to get him to stop egging you on." Nate shook his head, though Chance was almost holding his breath. "The other timelines…" He met Chance's gaze. "There were a few where you lost everything that was you. Tried bringing you back, but your mind went blank every time you healed." He tipped his head significantly toward Elin. "When no one could fix it, rather than let someone use you like that…"

Chance held up both hands. "Got the picture, thanks," he said. That was what he'd been worried about, and while he was relieved to hear that was the case in a different reality than his own, knowing it had been a possibility confirmed for him how much he needed to be careful, to keep Elin from bearing something like that.

"You got lucky, Chance," Nate told him frankly. "You could have lost it and forced her to have you locked up. Or gone further and joined the other side. We could have been looking at a timeline where she had to kill you to stop you from killing anyone else. Memory issues are nothing. And you've got enough of a handle on reality and on your healing in this timeline that you'll get to have a normal life. Occasional blip like this one? It's nothing." He leaned back. "So yeah. I checked. I'll do what I can to help in those timelines, but here? You'll be alright."

"Doesn't matter," Elin said, breaking in when Chance was still blinking in shock. "At all."

"El, it matters if you had to—"

"How many timelines did you look at where the same thing happened to me instead? How many were there that you saw where I was the one that was screwed up to the point of being a vegetable?" She didn't wait for Nate to answer before she fixed Chance with a sharp look. "If it can happen to one healer, it can happen to another. So unless you're having buyer's remorse or looking for a way out of this … unclench and be happy with what you have — which is a lot."

"No, no, not looking to back out. That was the opposite of what I was thinking," Chance promised quickly. "Just… helps to have the reminder that it could've been worse. For some reason. Perspective, you know?"

"It can still be worse if you want to dwell on it," Elin said.

"Not the point," Chance said. "Besides, if that happened, I'd be right there beside you to look out for you, so again, not looking for anything but perspective, okay?"

She crossed her arms and looked up her nose at him. "This whole morbid attraction to the worst case scenario isn't attractive."

Chance rolled his eyes hard. "You knew I was a Summers when you married me, right? Gotta know the options on the table."

"You advertised yourself as 85% Hale."

"15% means it still exists."

"But you're missing the point now," she said. "Mom always said the whole point in having the healing is to not dwell on the awful things that happen and focus on why you're still around." She tapped his chest. "If you go Dad's route, you'll be stressy and mopey."

Cody dragged a hand over his face. "You two need subtitles," he said, waving his hand between them. "Chance, you doofus, she's trying to pull you out of your head. How you're missing that is beyond me." Before Chance could argue, he pointed at Elin. "And you're missing the Hale undertones of asking for the worst case. He's not happy with the memory loss, so he's finding a silver lining by reminding himself how he got off mostly scott-free." He shook his head and looked toward Hope. "Telepathy sucks. You know that, right? I'm gonna be pissed off listening to half the language barriers around here."

"You're probably about to get more pissed, because she'll just tell her family to think in Japanese or something awful," Hope laughed.

"I will," Elin agreed.

"Do it," Chance said, smirking hard. "Cody still hasn't lost his temper since we found him, and I wanna egg him on."

"And I'll only talk to you in something I know you don't know. How's your Polish coming along?" Elin asked.

"El, why are you like this?" Chance groaned.

"I just am. I guess if I'm going to be misunderstood, I'll go all the way," she teased.

Chance rolled his eyes but leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Thanks for being my rock, El. But if we're gonna talk past each other, we can skip words and do something else," he teased right back.

"Też cię kocham."

"I'm going to assume that means, 'yes, sexy, let's leave these horrible siblings of yours behind for better things'," Chance said and scooped her up, smirking hard. "Bye, guys. Dinner's in the oven. Just take it out when it beeps."

"Hey Nate — if you want a cookie for doing what you should have at the beginning of all this, you'll need to talk to your stepmother. That's her department," Elin called out.

Hope broke into a huge grin. "I will absolutely ask her for one for you," she said in a tone dripping with relish as Chance and Elin swept off. "Right now."

You're enjoying this far too much.

Yes. Yes, I am. And after this? We're going to see them when they're babies and I'm going to watch you drip with step-mother sweetness. This is what I want for my birthday.

You're serious?

I'll bet you a hundred bucks we'll witness a baby kiss between those two.

Hope, we're not screwing with the timestream if it's not necessary.

It's necessary. If you have to pick something big, we could always help with some big bad when they're little...

I don't mean necessary to your amusement, kiddo.

Just for me? Hope smiled at him brightly. For Grannie Annie?

Nate rolled his eyes hard. We change anything and it'll affect everything else.

Hope rolled her eyes right back in exactly the same manner, pressed her lips together, and then reached out to brush Annie's mind, smirked, and drew herself up. Kree invasion. Annie remembers us coming to help. So we have to now or it'll change the timelines.

You really shouldn't meddle with things like that, Nate replied, though it clearly wasn't a 'no'.

Aww, learned from the best. Now, come on.