500 Miles – Ruins
By Princess Alexandria
Flashes of light and dark shadows combined spinning, turning, to much, to fast. Christy was still screaming as she felt her body hit air again. She tried to focus as blurs of color she passed before her eyes. She felt a jarring shock as she hit something.
Don't hurt me. That last thought as foreign to her as a telepaths thoughts would be. As Christy fell to her knees the presence seemed to fade.
"Did you see what that mutie did?" A harsh voice drew Christy's eyes up were three men were standing around her, looking menacing. "What was that?" He then turned to face her. Christy hid her confusion and glared right back. It didn't take a genius to see these men meant her harm. Why they were standing there as if they'd been waiting for her was a mystery though. "What'd you do mutie? What's with the bright lights and all?"
Christy moved to stand up, and had to quickly stop the hiss of pain when she put weight on her left foot. Damn that hurt. Christy stood tall as she gave the now nervous men a confident smirk. She wished she knew what the hell was going on. She sent a quick thought to her hands as she held them up, only to see they didn't have claws. Startled and now worried her eyes widened a little. Her voice was a bit hoarse as she spoke, "Not all mutants are pushovers." She growled as she spoke, "You just might want to turn around and leave or I'll show you what I mean." The red drop of blood she felt roll off her cut finger and fall through the air had more of her attention then the men did at that point. Blood? Real blood? Oh shit! What the hell happened?!
How was Emma? That pained thought was shoved away as she dealt with the threat in front of her. She was in a world with mutants, but that was all she knew for sure.
Her words didn't seem to scare them all. Christy took a painful step back as the largest man moved forward with a punch. Her ankle felt like it wouldn't hold her as she lashed out with her good foot as hard as she could. He only stumbled back a little and Christy felt a wave of fear she did her best to cover. Terrified she wondered where her powers were. Were they all gone? How would she ever get home to Emma?
Suddenly he rushed at her. His body slammed into her and shoved her hard into the wall. Her head hit the wall with a loud crack and her vision began to dim as she fell to her knees again. Shaking her head she tried to recover from the blow and concentrate on the fight. She felt something sharp under hand as it rested on the ground. Christy gripped it without looking and glared up at him. She didn't have time to draw this out. Something was clearly wrong with her. "I'm warning you, run now or I'll kill you."
"Oh look, I'm terrified" He mocked as he stood over her. His size dwarfed hers as he continued, "Little mutie with the glow bright eyes is gonna hurt me. Didn't think we'd see those eyes did you freak. Stupid bitch, hiding in the dark like that." He moved forward, clearly planning to swing at her again. Christy's grip on the sharp object tightened. She ignored the pain the edges caused her as her own fingers were cut. She lunged up and pressed hard into his stomach. Warm blood ran down her arm as he gasped and looked down to grab at the large piece of glass embedded in his body.
As much as she hated it, the feel of death made her smile in relief. She still had some of her powers. Standing up was a little easier knowing that. It was disgusting plan but she smiled; and laughed her shrill voice sounding insane. When she brought her blood covered hand to her mouth and licked at it like it was a fine chocolate, she knew she had their attention. This had better work she was in no shape for a real fight; even her reflexes were slower. Christy never realized how much she relied on her powers to help her with everything until it was gone. "Mmm such a big one too, this should feed the kids for a few days."
Her laugh was more natural this time as the others turned and ran. Once she couldn't hear them she wiped the blood off on his shirt and spit out what she could of the blood in her mouth. "Now, let's figure out what the hell happened." She spoke softly, almost as if she were talking to him. Looking around a shoe in the alley drew her attention, simply because it seemed to match her other one. Shoes that came off? Why was she wearing real clothes? Christy limped over and picked it up.
"Let's just figure out where I am first." She muttered as she struggled to put the shoe on a slightly swollen foot. As she walked around the dead body she shook her head. "No trip is complete without a death at the end" She sighed.
The broken windows and crumpled bricks in the street were eerily familiar. Christy looked up into the day sky and didn't see the glow of an asteroid, but this looked so much like home before the end. She saw various people rummaging through shops, but they appeared to be cleaning more than scavenging. No one looked at her as she limped down the street.
She moved to a broken window that showed a reflection. A study of her face showed a bruised forehead and glowing eyes. Christy stared at them, thinking they looked a bit strange. Why did they do that? She thought about what her eyes were supposed to look like, as if she were trying to shift them and slowly the glow faded. It was better to not advertise her mutant abilities if those three men were the norm around here. She found a broken fire hydrant nearby and did her best to wash the blood off of her face and hands. She looked like a killer and someone somewhere was bound to notice it if she didn't do something. She was surprised that no one had said anything about it as she walked past stores. She'd been like this for three or four blocks and no one noticed. These people must be in shock from something. Once it was only her own blood on her hands Christy ripped her shirt and made a bandage so it wouldn't drip everywhere. It stung, but she ignored it for now.
The Hotel Pennsylvania and Madison Square Gardens finally answered part of her question. They were looking like they'd seen better days as well, but it made it clear she was in a New York of some world.
As she walked she tried opening her shields, and they would fall, but she had trouble processing the power that she could sense floating all around her. Her cut fingers and swollen ankle didn't respond to the powers. It looked like her days of self healing were over.
At this rate it would take a while for her to rebuild her reserves enough to create another portal and try to go home. Christy took a deep breath and felt the tears start to fall as she had to sit. Try was the key word. How could she find home? It was like setting out into space to find a specific star without any directions. Shit, Emma was the one that taught her how to open her portal on purpose without a world dying around her. The blonde telepath had helped Christy explore the power that made her an Omega and helped to determine how Christy managed to make them.
Getting back to her feet, Christy's eyes hardened. It didn't matter how hard it was to do it, she'd go home. Her Emma loved her and Christy had seen the look in her eyes right before they were attacked. There was no way she'd ever give up on seeing that again.
…………..
The smoke was a clear indicator something was wrong. Christy just continued to walk, hoping that something she ran into would give her an idea of what to do now. Yelling, angry yelling made her feel like turning around was the better idea, but something changed her mind.
A large blue man vaulted up the side of the four story building. Christy stood still and stared as Henry broke a window to get inside. She started to move forward, her steps only faltered for a moment as she felt a death. She started moving faster when she saw the glittering diamond form fall from the building. Oh God. Christy's ankle rebelled against her pace but she ran, while watching horrified as Emma fell. She was too far away.
And Scott caught her. Christy stared in shock. Scott saved Emma?
Christy's eyes widened as she made it to the edge of the angry crowd, a crowd that paid no attention to her; their mistake. Christy's eyes were cold as she slammed one man hard in the head. He'd been aiming at the blonde telepath running back into the burning building. A small humorless chuckle escaped her lips and no one looked away from the building for his pained grunt or his fall to the ground. She was among them and they didn't even notice. She would have grabbed the gun he dropped but it was being trampled underfoot and she worried that if she bent down she'd be trampled too.
Her heart beat quickly, nervously, as Emma went where Christy couldn't follow. Fire was a death sentence for her, but her lover would be able to survive it, she had before. Christy was jostled as she tried to make her way to the front of the crowd. Angry humans stepped on her swollen foot and only clamping her mouth shut kept a pained whimper from being heard.
Her eyes scanned the crowd as she made her way towards the opening before her. The screaming of the crowd grew louder and Christy glanced up to see people being dangled out the fourth story window by a familiar blonde. Henry was talking to her and Christy could see Emma was angry in the way she held those humans, but she handed them over to Henry and disappeared back into the building.
When Emma stepped out of the building with a boy in her arms Christy breath caught, knowing he was dead. Oh Emma, her mind mourned for the woman as she stepped away from the crowd towards them. One of the sisters was sobbing.
She could hear Emma's voice as she stepped closer. None of the mutants noticed her since they were so concerned with the dead boy. It made her more aware of the crowd around them. This stand still wouldn't last and yes it was sad someone died, but you don't cry on the battlefield.
Emma was glaring at Scott and handed to body over. Christy saw movement out of the corner of her eye and screamed, "GUN!" as she dove to the target, knocking one of the sisters to the ground. Emma, Scott, Henry all turned to her in shock. They should have seen her coming. The fire in her chest made her look down to see blood, her own, which she wasn't used to seeing anymore, running down her body.
"Hey Phoebe" Christy spoke softly to the scared girl under her. She recognized her. "You okay?" Christy felt cold.
"I'm… I'm fine." The girl answered her, clearly confused.
Christy's arms started to weaken and she fell onto the girl she'd saved. "Emma would've been so upset to lose you." She whispered. Her mind screamed that she had to get up, but she blacked out.
…………….
The beeping was making her frown as she started to come too. It was too loud, too irritating. "Someone turn that damned beeping off." She muttered; still half awake, if that.
"I'm afraid that beeping is what tells me you are still alive." A deep male voice answered her and Christy opened her eyes, shocked. The brightness was a shock, so was the place. She was staring up at the med lab ceiling.
"It wasn't a nightmare was it?" Her voice cracked as she turned her head to see Henry. She wasn't home anymore.
"If you mean did you get shot saving one of our young charges, no it wasn't. I do want to thank you though. Your actions did save the sisters from losing yet another loved one." His voice grew softer. "It's been a very hard year for the girls. It's been a hard year for all of us." He turned away. Christy swore she heard tears in his voice. It worried her.
"Is Emma okay?" She asked before thinking. She normally asked about her lover, but his questioning glance told her here it was considered odd. She should play this like a local, shouldn't she?
No. Christy tried to sit up. This world was a mess, in ruins. She'd never be able to fake understanding what happened. Not and stick around. Christy had no where else to go and she wasn't going to be ready to leave until there was enough death to recharge her.
Of course, after seeing the mobs running around the city, maybe that wouldn't take too long.
"I should call the others and let them know the mysterious stranger is awake." He smiled at her, his fangs prominent. "Does our mysterious stranger have a name?"
"Christy" Christy muttered as she glanced around the familiar room. "Demise" Until she knew more about her double in this world her real name might not be a good idea.
"Demise?" He clearly didn't believe her. Christy didn't really care. She moved to try and sit up.
"I changed it." It didn't take long for her to be left alone as he went to call whoever was in charge in this world. Maybe it was Emma.
Her Emma helped her understand her powers. Christy wondered if this Emma could help her learn how to find a needle in a haystack.
……………….
Christy stared down at the bandage on her hand while she waited for the Xmen to finish coming in and sitting down. Her eyes traveled to the wrapped foot and then her latest gun wound. This one was a first to actually bleed. She knew she was lucky it didn't hit her lungs, but to believe she'd actually almost bleed to death was hard to grasp.
"So you're from an alternate world." Christy just sighed. The way they'd all stepped out to talk after she'd explained how she'd gotten to this world screamed don't upset the crazy lady to her.
"No one ever believes me when I tell them. You'd think I'd learn to just lie." Christy rolled her eyes at her own naiveté in thinking telling the truth was the way to go.
"So you've done this before?" Scott asked. Christy's eyes traveled to the blonde telepath she'd tried not to stare at during this little interrogation. Here's to hoping they had more in common than their looks.
"Emma Grace Frost. The heir to her fathers business, but she turned him down."
"And anyone capable of picking up a business magazine would know that." Emma told her, but Christy recognized the hint of curiosity in those familiar eyes.
"She was angry at him for manipulating her brother. Your brother was gay and happy with a man that your father had deported. He sent the only family that loved you completely into a mental institution for trying to kill himself, where he actually went insane. He didn't like that you wanted to be a teacher so he…" Christy stopped speaking, and her voice softened. "I can go on. My Emma told me the whole story."
"Your Emma?" Scott asked. Christy didn't bother looking at him. Just being around him gave her the creeps.
"She told me the day before we went to her mother's funeral together. Your father is a cold, cold man. He didn't like me." Christy smiled at the memory of Emma making it clear that the Frost family now had another gay member. He'd sputtered and threatened Christy privately, but really… he had nothing on her and she knew it. Mr. Frost hadn't liked it one bit when Christy laughed as he suggested that rumors could be created. Her life could be destroyed if she didn't leave his daughter. Her smile faded a little as she remembered Emma coming in from the kitchen, angry and eyes flashing as she did what she'd promised she wouldn't do. She'd reached into her father's mind and changed him so he wouldn't threaten Christy. Where Christy didn't feel threatened, Emma had. Emma had held her more tightly that night. "When he threatened me, Emma stopped him."
"I stopped him?" Emma spoke more softly and moved to stare into her eyes. Christy could feel the brush of a familiar telepath against her shields and she lowered them. She could feel the warmth and it brought tears to her eyes as she ached for the Emma that would look at her with love as she did this. Christy felt Emma reach in and touch Christy's soul.
"Why would he threaten you?" Henry asked and Christy had to keep herself from shaking her head at how little these people knew about their Emma.
"He didn't approve of our… friendship." She hesitated with that word as she noticed again how close Emma and Scott tended to stand. It was a horrible idea, it made her sick at the wrongness of it, but she suspected she'd found a world where her lover was with a Summers. Christy's eyes caught Emma's understanding and surprised eyes as the telepath withdrew from her mind.
"She is what she says she is." Emma stared at her, "but there's something else. There is another consciousness in there."
"What?" Christy's eyes widened as she felt for another inside her, but she didn't know what she'd have to look for. She didn't feel different.
It turned out that Christy had somehow merged with her double. Emma told her that, but no matter how hard Christy thought she couldn't feel anyone else in her mind with her. It was only slightly comforting that it wasn't her blood that was low, her body that failed to do what it normally did. Christy now possessed another Christy, one that while a mutant, didn't hold nearly her level of power. At least not yet, Christy almost pitied her for a moment, until she thought about what it took to develop her powers to the level she had. Her doubles life must have been more peaceful, safer, until now, but Christy's full powers would have been more helpful in Manhattan.
How did her double survive Manhattan? It wasn't like she could have proved she was a mutant could she? Maybe she knew how to make those eyes glow. It would have kept the mutant vultures away. From what she'd seen on the news mutants had taken over the city and humans were attacked regularly. Maybe her double wasn't as disadvantaged as Christy assumed.
After getting an invitation to stay at the school, which she accepted despite the fact that the place was in ruins the Xmen got up to leave so she could rest.
"My mother" Emma spoke casually as she stood by the bed. "How did she die? In this world she's still alive."
"It was an overdose." Christy stared at the woman by her hospital bed and ached to reach out and touch her. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you grew up in that."
"I imagine father wasn't too happy to see me show up with my lesbian lover to the service was he?" Emma gave Christy a small smile.
"My Emma was never so demonstrative in public before or since." Christy sighed. "She's in trouble. Scythe can affect time, and I tell myself that I can get to her before…" Her voice cracked. "I don't know how to control them."
"Well, we'll have to work on that then dear, won't we?" It sounded so much like the matter of fact blonde Christy loved that Christy felt an ache. "We'll get you home."
"Thank you."
"Scythe?" Emma asked.
Christy gave Emma a slightly embarrassed smile. "I named my portal. Death's biggest weapon is his Scythe. It just made sense."
"Oh, Demise and Scythe. I see." Emma's eyes held some amusement. It faded with her slight smile. "I think perhaps we should look into your poor double."
"I can't sense her."
"I barely get echoes myself." Emma stared at her. "It's hard to believe the potential you've just dropped into her lap. The world isn't too comfortable with Omega mutants, or any mutants, right now."
"What happened?" Christy thought about the ruins of the city, and this school. The mobs, So much pointed to something huge.
"Magneto happened. He destroyed Manhattan." Christy just blinked as Emma told her that. This world was really different. Her worlds Manhattan was fine. Mystique lived there, and Christy had stayed in the city with her a few times. It seemed so unreal. "I really need to go check on the children."
"Okay." Christy swallowed hard as she watched the sway of white clad hips as the telepath left her alone with a too busy Henry. It was boredom that finally forced her to try and rest again.
……………….
"I don't know who you are, but you really shouldn't have let yourself get so weak." Christy spoke with a bit of disapproval. "You're a mutant for god's sake. This world isn't a picnic for our kind."
"It looks rather odd for you to talk to her like that." A coolly amused voice drew Christy's attention away from the mirror in the gym. "And from what I hear Christy, whichever Christy, is not unusually weak. She's just not a fighter."
Christy glanced once more at her reflection then back to Emma, who'd talked her into trying out the pieced together gym. She felt a little embarrassed having been caught. It wasn't like her double ever answered. It usually felt like she was talking to herself, but she was frustrated that all the things she'd spent the couple of years learning she couldn't do.
"When I first found out I'd lost my physical body I was horrified." Christy set the weight down and moved to grab a towel. "Now I miss not having it." She toweled off the sweat her physical therapy caused. It almost felt like she was talking with her Emma as Emma smiled at her. No one should have to go through this confusion.
"I have a free hour. The construction is going well and I thought we could talk."
Christy found her eyes once again traveling to the mirror, taking in her sweat soaked hair and clothes. Not really how she'd like to talk with Emma, especially since this Ms. Frost was so busy with the reconstruction that they hadn't talked much in the past two weeks. "Sure."
"Are you healing well? Henry told me that you seem to be pushing yourself a bit much."
"I got her shot. I really should take care of the body while I have it." She sighed. "I wish I could teach her to fight, protect herself… but I don't know that she's even aware of me." Christy sat down on the bench. "If I hadn't come she could have died. I don't know if that kind of death would have triggered our powers, it might have been permanent."
"Ah, yes. You are yet another woman that tends to come back from the dead." There was an edge of bitterness that Christy felt a bit insulted by, but knowing Emma it wasn't directed at her really. "Would your lover wait for you to return even if she'd buried you in the ground? Gone through the motions of moving on only to talk about when you returned?"
"What are you talking about?" Christy stared at the blonde wishing their link existed in other worlds, because this Emma confused her. "I am going home. I won't leave her; I don't care how hard it is. She's my Queen" Her eyes unfocused as she spoke, "She's lost so much, I won't make her lose me too." Oh Emma, I miss you so much Christy thought to herself.
"You really love her." Emma spoke with a sigh as she sat down. "I must admit it is a bit disconcerting to see you pining away after my double like she is more important than the air you breathe."
"In my own body I don't really need the air." Christy gave Emma a slight smile, teasing her. It faded to seriousness. "But I do need her. We're linked you know. Like Scott and Jean…" Christy watched the subtle flinch Emma gave as she finished that thought. "were" The awkward silence was more than slightly uncomfortable. Christy gave up and forged ahead. "Someone tried to kill her. That's how we found out about our link. It's still rather new. I was out of range and I suddenly felt her fear, felt her reaching out for me to comfort her. She was always so strong on the outside, but she was as fragile as anyone. She just let me see that though, no one else."
Christy swallowed as she talked about the night she nearly lost her world again. She had never sat with her own Emma and talked about how scared that had made Christy. "I ran all the way back to the car so fast the others couldn't keep up and I raced back home, all because I knew, I knew she needed me. The call didn't come until I was halfway there. I was too far away. They told me she'd been attacked and she was in the hospital. They told me she might die." Christy's tears started to fall and she barely moved as she felt the hand on her shoulder. "I called in every favor I could, every promise I could make, I made, to get a healer to her hospital room before the night ended. I needed to arrange transportation, protection, because someone had tried to kill Emma and they wouldn't like a healer coming in. I had to take control and be strong; all the while I could feel her slipping away from me. It felt like I was dying again."
Christy went quiet, feeling odd about how comforting the arms around her felt. She didn't let herself look at this Emma, because it hurt. "My Emma needs me."
"I'm sure she does." Emma squeezed her more tightly then let her go. Christy risked looking up then. Her eyes stayed on the ice blue staring back at her and Christy felt herself leaning closer.
"Emma." The man's voice had Christy pulling back quickly, her eyes widening as she realized what she'd wanted to do. "Oh Christy, didn't know you were here."
"It's okay Scott." Christy had to force her eyes away from the blonde as she glanced over at him. His stance screamed he wanted to talk to Emma alone. "She's all yours." Christy grabbed her bag and towel and left, watching the ground as she moved.
"Christy?" Emma called out to her and Christy looked up. "You okay?" The warm touch to her shield just made it hurt all the more. This woman wasn't hers.
"Fine" Christy gave Emma a soft nod. Don't worry. I just… she let her shield down to talk privately.
You miss her Emma sent back, her mental voice sounded so soft and gentle.
Yeah.
"Emma, I wanted to talk to you." Scott dismissed Christy from his attention, fully unaware of the private conversation he was interrupting.
Christy walked past the RV's and campers, past the tents in the mansion yard and the port-a-potties. She skirted around the group of people having lunch on the picnic benches and started down a trail in the woods.
"Christy." A voice called to her from the trees. Christy looked up to see Kurt hanging from his tail in the taller branches. "Ms. Frost asked that I work with you today." A popping sound and Christy found him standing in front of her. "Perhaps my teleportation experience will prove helpful to you, ja?"
He followed her to the spot she liked to sit and think. She didn't do what she normally did, which was lower her shields and try to absorb more power, because something like that was best done in private. In the heat of battle she could control her reaction some, but she didn't want anyone to see her arch into the air, wanting it. She hadn't really bothered to explain where her power came from; she just said it took time to rebuild it. She'd learned her lesson about how even mutants could be disgusted by her power and she didn't need to deal with it here.
Christy sat on the waters edge, staring out at the soft waves that hit the shore. Her temporary teacher sat on the rock nearby. "When I teleport I need to visualize my destination. Not being able to clearly see it in my mind means that I could end up in the wrong place." Kurt explained.
"So you visualize it?" Christy sighed as she tried to see how this was so hard for her. Visualizing her world wasn't hard. It was a destroyed world with little going for it. She'd tried thinking of Emma when she hit the last portal, but she ended up with the wrong one. Did that mean the dead world might actually be different dead worlds? It was a sad thought that there was more than one of those. How many Christy's died when the asteroid hit? How many Christy found a way out and now sat on worlds they weren't born to? Did they have Emma's? She wished there was a way to know, but with so many realities she never would.
"You could visualize the beach you came from."
"There is a beach like that on probably every world." Christy pulled her knees more tightly to her body. The ache in her chest where the muscles were still working on recovering reminded her of her mortality. "I usually focus on a person." Her eyes moved away from his yellow ones. She hadn't told anyone else yet. "Emma."
"You focus on the White Queen?" He looked a little thoughtful. "I see. Well, there are apparently as many Emma's as there are beaches."
"I know." Christy sighed. She had thought of that herself. She didn't need Kurt to tell her how hard her task was.
They talked for a while then he moved to lie beside her on the grass, further from the water. "You don't appear to be surprised by my appearance. Did you know a Nightcrawler on your world?"
"No, I never met him." Christy glanced at him. "But Mystique was my teacher. She taught me about my shape shifting powers, the ones I don't seem to have now." She smiled as she remembered her best friend. "She's a handful, but she really knows how to teach."
"Mystique?" He seemed stunned. Christy glanced at him, knowing why that look was on his face. Before she left her doomed planet she'd read comics, not realizing that everything was possible, and worlds like the ones she read about existed. It was another thing she didn't want to explain to her temporary homes. It just upset people, and she'd learned that details varied too much to assume anything anyway. She'd learned to see someone she'd read about and know that all she really knew was their name. Everything else may or may not be true.
"Different worlds are interesting aren't they? My Mystique is a spy, is yours?"
"Ja" He was a bit quiet. "Ja she is."
"My Emma was so mad at her when she heard how Mystique forced me to walk around naked all weekend until I learned to create clothes." Christy shook her head and pretended to not realize how Kurt might feel about his mother. "I hated it, but I can… or I could… keep my clothes pretty well. I didn't get startled out of them anymore." She sighed. "I miss being a shape shifter."
"Your Emma?" He was changing the subject and Christy could tell he was uncomfortable with the Mystique talk.
"Yes, she was my Emma." Christy decided that this Emma didn't seem to shy away from it, so it didn't have to be a secret. "A few people weren't thrilled with our relationship, but she is worth it."
"I should probably go back for my shift working." He stood up. "You'll get there."
"I know." Her eyes were intense. "Because I don't care if I have to walk through a hundred worlds, I'm going home." She had to believe it. The power of her thoughts drove her portal, and she wasn't risking any weakness. Not with this.
When she was alone again she opened her shields and let herself try to absorb what she needed. It wasn't something she could do quickly. The last portal was sparked by what she'd pulled in at the moment, but she'd been storing up the power for over a month.
…………….
Christy traveled the trail again on her way back and stood to watch the others work for a moment, a deep sigh escaping her. If she were able to use her full powers she'd be able to help a lot. Now she felt like a free loader, taking their food, one of their more comfortable campers, their time and medical supplies, and she gave nothing back.
Maybe if her arm wasn't weak from the gunshot she'd be allowed to help with repairs, but no one wanted her risking her health, especially since it wasn't all her own. With that argument Christy reluctantly had to agree. It just left her bored far too often, because everyone, Emma especially, was always so busy trying to rebuild the school before Fall Semester started.
…………….
"We found a few records." Scott spoke after taking a drink. They were sitting at a picnic table for dinner. Christy noticed the uncomfortable looks Emma and Scott got as they sat down. In the two weeks she'd been here Christy had heard about the affair, and how Jean had just died a day or so before Christy came there. Many people weren't happy with Scott or Emma, but to their credit they kept it quiet and Christy only knew because she knew how not to get noticed when others were talking. "Christy, the other Christy was supposed to fly out the morning of Magneto's attack. She appeared to be here on vacation. Her flight got cancelled and she rescheduled for that night."
Christy just chuckled. That just sounded so unlucky. Her small smile seemed to distract Scott, so she explained herself. "I'll bet she never took a vacation like this in her life and the one time she goes all out she ends up in the middle of World War three." She chuckled again. "Poor thing will probably never want to leave home again."
"You sound distinctly unsympathetic." Henry addressed her attitude. Christy smiled at him.
"What? She got further away from home than I ever did when I was on my own world." She moved to poured herself another glass of juice. "And it isn't like she got too hurt. I didn't see anything too bad. That she did herself, I should say. I got to live with the pain of a hole in my chest. Any vacation you can walk away from." Her teasing smile faded a little as she thought about her last vacation. It took a little effort to cover it up.
"Well, she does have a family. I managed to get some phone numbers so we could inform them that she's alive. A lot of people didn't survive that war." He sounded a bit angry and his glare told her he'd taken something she said personally.
Christy went quiet as she realized he wasn't angry at her, not really. She never really liked him, but she had liked the Jean, at least the Jean she'd seen in the comics of her own world. Her voice was softer, but still firm. "If I can't find thing to laugh about, I'd spend all my time crying. I'm not heartless; I just refuse to let death touch me any more than I have to. I learned it the hard way."
She stared into his eyes. "And you've got to admit," She smiled at him, making an effort for Emma's sake and for the sake of peace while she stayed here. He was grieving and bound to be a bit angry. He had lost his soul mate and whether he'd realized that or not, she did. Emma wasn't his soul mate. It had always been Jean. "If she wanted to do something to remember her time in New York, running for your life and hiding in alleys is memorable."
"And no one forgets their first possession." Someone at the other end of the table teased, but she didn't see who said it.
"Actually, I think a lot of people forget that." Christy smiled at Emma and winked. The telepath looked a little surprised for a moment, but the smile Christy got in response was small but beautiful. "If you do it right."
The conversation thankfully moved away from her, but Christy noticed Emma looked at her a little longer than anyone else had. It would have been nice to know what she was thinking. It was almost a reflex to lower her shield enough to ask silently. What?
We didn't get a chance to finish our conversation. Emma was watching Scott as if she were paying attention to what he was saying, but Christy suspected it was just for show. And I had promised to start training you, but I've been rather busy. I do want you to know I have every intention of helping you.
I know. Christy gave her a small smile, not caring if people realized she was talking with Emma telepathically. You wouldn't be an Emma if you weren't a workaholic. She was used to being rescheduled, and she'd admit if it weren't always so important she'd be bitter about it.
Tonight I have to work on a few things, but if you aren't asleep when I'm done I could drop by and we could start training. Emma was watching her for her reaction. Christy liked the idea. It got so lonely in her trailer at night. She didn't really try too hard to mingle.
Wake me if you have to. It was hard to see this woman at times, but even being around a different Emma helped her feel less alone.
Scott did manage to find the phone numbers for a few of the other Christy's family. They might be worried.
Not a job she wanted, but she understood how worried they'd be. Get me a cell phone and the numbers and I'll do something. She'd probably lie. There was no way to know if her double had told anyone about her being a mutant, and that was something Christy wasn't going to do for her.
"Emma, I was thinking that if we are opening for classes in August we need to tell the students." Scott interrupted them again. Christy sat back and watched the slight irritation Emma didn't quite manage to conceal.
"I've already taken care of that Scott dear. Classes will begin a little later this year, but everyone is aware that we are not shutting down." It sounded a little strained. Christy felt the urge to glare at Scott and she didn't even know what for, just that he'd done something that upset Emma. Instead she pushed back from the table and started to get up.
"Christy." Emma stopped her retreat. "I'll send those things to you as soon as I manage to get back to the office." The office was a temporary structure Emma was using to organize reconstruction. "Will you be by the water again?"
"Yeah." A slight blush covered her cheeks. She spent a lot of time at the waters edge working on pulling her power to her. To people that didn't know about how her powers worked, and here it would be all of them, she would seem rather strange. Well, maybe Emma had run across what her powers were while telepathically scanning Christy, but the others wouldn't know.
……………..