Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men.
Thanks to everyone who looked at the previous chapter. I appreciate you guys taking time from your busy lives to look at this chapter and story. Thank you to Jehilew for awesome beta work on this chapter. :). And thank you to Coco-Chic for a sweet review.
Not long after Remy left the spacious home, Anna took over the breakfast preparations. Pancakes weren't a notoriously hard dish for even basic chefs, but it became rather challenging once her five-year-old shadow kept adding in his two cents. Everything she did, from flipping the circles to pulling out the plates, was not how daddy did it. By the time the food was ready and placed in front of the two kids, Anna was, quite understandably, more than a little annoyed with Oliver the Picky.
The boy thanked her, convincing Rogue that Remy had at least taught his son some manners, and dug into his two pancakes. Amelia, on the other hand, merely gazed at the dish with slight uncertainty. Anna pushed the plate closer to her, but the kid shoved it away. Trying to outthink the little girl, she pulled out the bottle of syrup and poured a nice sized drizzle over the slightly burnt pancakes.
"No," Amelia stated when Rogue tried to cajole her to eat by reminding her they were delicious. "Bunny."
"Bunny?" Anna sighed and left the girl alone for a moment when the cell phone in her pocket spit out its cheery tune.
"Hello?" She mumbled into the receiver, still shocked anyone else would be awake at this hour besides her crazy group of strangers.
"Anna," Kitty's weary voice replied over the sound of a crying baby, "Look, I know we promised the kids a trip to the museum today, but Addison woke up in the middle of the night with some kind of bug. And with her dad out on that rescue mission, I really need to stay here with her."
"No problem." Anna held the phone a few inches from her ear when the baby began to cry at ear-piercing levels. Really, Anna did feel a bit sympathetic for Kitty and her daughter. Having a small taste of this lunacy offered her a new insight and sympathy for families. "We'll just skip this museum thing."
"No!" Oliver dropped his fork and directed a look of growing frustration at her.
"Stop shouting." She grumbled and walked closer to the upset boy, "Kitty can't go so we are just going to skip it for now."
"You promised!"
"He's right," Kitty, obviously hearing Oliver's protests through the noisy phone line, added, "There is no reason you guys can't go. Addison, Ellie, and I will go later, but you should go and have fun. I mean we kinda like owe them after having to flake because of missions twice now."
Anna looked at Oliver, his jaw set in a stubborn stance that appeared, even to her, to be a pure mix of a Rogue's temper and a Cajun's determination. So this whole museum trip meant enough to him to throw that much pouting out? Well, being jilted for X-Men stuff probably got rather old to anyone, let alone a kid. It still seemed like a bad idea, but Anna had to do something with them all day anyway. How hard could a simple trip to the museum be?
While she delivered the news to Kitty and hung up the phone, Oliver cheered happily and even offered her another sincere thank you. It was a pretty neat feeling to have done something that made the kids happy, even for a stick in the mud like Rogue. When she glanced back to Amelia and the untouched pancake, though, the feeling of confidence wavered.
"Look, kid," She pushed the plate back at her supposed daughter and gave her a stern expression, "You need to eat something."
"No bunny," Amelia repeated leaving Anna as confused as ever.
"Daddy always makes them bunnies." Oliver, feeling a tad bit happier with his strangely behaving mother, added.
"Bunnies?" She grumbled and the boy just shrugged his shoulders. "Look, Amelia, these taste the same as bunny pancakes."
"Bunnies!" She screeched growing more annoyed.
"Alright, alright," Anna dragged the plate away and started carving the circles into something resembling a bunny. Couldn't be that hard to make a bunny head out of a circle. "There. Now eat."
Amelia and Oliver stared at the pancakes with wide eyes. Neither appeared all that impressed with the hack and slash job their mom had done with the food. Resistant to eat a different shaped breakfast, Amelia stuck her thumb into her mouth while Oliver poked her food with his fork.
"They look like they got hit by a truck."
"Truck hit bunny?" Amelia asked with newfound concern.
"No, Amelia. The bunny is fine."
"Where's its other ear?" Oliver pointed it out with his fork, "It got hit by a really big truck."
Amelia's eyes started to water out of sympathy for the injured flapjack, "Bunny hurt…"
"The bunny wasn't hit by anything!" The tired woman exasperatedly reminded the kids again.
"How do you know?" Oliver, shining with the same stubbornness as his mother, pestered her further.
"Because I was hit by a truck, okay? Now quit picking on the stupid pancake."
"Mama hurt?" Amelia's large green eyes shifted from the rabbit and up to her mother, who was currently muttering a long string of words under her breath.
The whole thing was becoming far more ridiculous than any sane person would tolerate. She knew the kid needed to eat, but there was little strength left in her to fight the pancake war. Instead of pushing the topic further, she grabbed a jug of fruit juice from the fridge and filled up a big cup for Amelia.
"Daddy always puts water in her juice." Oliver corrected her as Mia happily took the Sippy cup.
"Hey," Anna lightly growled, "Who's the parent here?" She held up the jug and noted the ingredients. Based on the juice company's calculations, a glass that big was worth double the fruit servings and had only… "That is a lot of sugar."
Rogue turned her head back to the little girl as the curly-headed mosquito sipped the last drop of juice and held out her cup like a drunk demanding another beer.
…
The North Salem Museum of Cultures was only ten minutes from Remy's house. At least, that was the pretty number the GPS offered to normal people. According to the watch on Anna's wrist, it took their ragtag group a total of twenty-four minutes to merely arrive at the parking lot. Between fights in the car, over no one wanting help with their car seats, no one agreeing on a radio station, and, of course, no one being able to stand another minute of the hyper Amelia's version of screech-singing, they somehow managed to survive the brief road trip.
"Okay," Anna kept a tight hold of Amelia's hand to ensure she did not wander off. She was painfully aware of how many families were staring at the little girl decked out in the wildest outfit most rational people could imagine. "Now, two rules here." Oliver hung his jacket in the public coat room and gazed at her with less than respect, "One, stay near me. Two, what I say goes. Got it?"
"I wanna look at the rain forest first." He countered her statement with his own obstinate response, proving he was not sold anymore on her than she was on this life.
Despite the rocky start to the morning, and Amelia's constant attempts to race through the exhibits, they made pretty good time. By noon the trio had explored their way through two continents worth of countries and even Anna was willing to admit it wasn't the worst way she could have spent the day. When the giant clock in the center of the England display dinged loudly to announce the hour, both Oliver and Amelia started chanting for lunch.
Years may have passed since Anna's real time frame, but overpriced museum cafeterias hadn't changed in the slightest. The menu boasted tons of authentic dishes from far away places. There were even a few items that claimed to have insect ingredients, for the more daring connoisseur. Oliver, being strangely cooperative, settled for a hot dog and some fries.
"Two hot dogs." Anna ordered their dishes, before looking back at Amelia, "Want a hot dog?"
"Crunchy!" She shouted excitedly from her place on Anna's hip.
"What?"
"Crunchy!" She repeated and pointed her hand up to the list of a million different foods. "Crunchy sweet!"
"Look, let's just get you a hot dog, okay?" She tried to reason with the two-year-old, proving her inexperience in the parenting arena. "They are good."
"Crunchy sweet! Want Crunchy!" The last part of her demand was held out to ridiculous lengths.
When Rogue shook her head negatively again, not wanting to feed the kid any more sugar and still unsure what the heck a 'crunchy sweet' was, Amelia's adorable nature began to fade in record speed. She kicked her legs, let loose a stream of tears and shrieks that left Anna's ear with an unshakable ringing sound, and when all that failed to produce her goal, she bit the hand Anna used to try and push the hair out of her face.
"Ow! Damn that hurts!" Anna grumbled out, forcing whoever wasn't already staring at Amelia's tantrum to turn and glower at her with judgmental eyes, "What the hell was that for?"
Amelia, now on the ground, screamed her demand once more, and then began stomping her rain boot covered feet. Rogue cradled her sore hand against her chest and tried to fight the urge to run away from all the madness and noise. She couldn't take much more of the tantrum or the never ending stares silently, and some verbally, calling her a bad parent. It wasn't like she'd signed up for this social experiment disaster!
"She wants a churro." Oliver finally explained to Anna and pointed at the big picture displayed over the desert menu. "You get one every time."
"Why didn't you say something earlier, Oliver?! How was I supposed to know what the heck she is screaming about!?" Rogue, letting her frustration with the situation out on the kid, barked out. She turned back to the man behind the counter, seemingly missing the look of dejection that crossed her son's face. "Give me a churro, right now."
Once the prize was clutched tightly in her hands, Amelia stopped crying and happily devoured the treat. Anna and Oliver stared apathetically at their hot dogs, neither interested in eating after the scene at the counter. The boy hadn't said a word to her since they sat down, but every time they locked eyes, Oliver immediately shifted his gaze. Part of Anna wanted to say something, to apologize, for yelling at him, but she couldn't form the right sentence in her head. It been a rather long time since she had to face anyone she'd upset that significantly, and she was unsure how to even start talking to him.
Turns out, as Amelia shoved far too much churro in her mouth; the option of talking things out with Oliver was pushed to the wayside. She swallowed the last bite with an audible gulp then placed a hand over her tummy. Mother of the year material or not, Anna knew the universal sign for an upset stomach and instantly grabbed napkins from the table dispenser. Before the kid could even tell Rogue her stomach felt funny, everything went crazy.
Amelia cried due to a mixture of throat pain and fear of having just thrown up on herself. Oliver continued to make various mentions of how gross it looked and how horrible it smelled, forcing Mia to cry harder as her two-year-old pride took a hit. Anna shushed Oliver roughly and tried in desperation to clean the kid up before she started hyperventilating from the sobbing. The napkins helped a little, but even Anna realized she'd need water and paper towels to fix this mess.
"Come on." She grabbed Amelia up into her arms and drug Oliver by the hand over to the restrooms.
"No way!" Oliver protested as they reached the door. He dug his heels into the carpet and shouted to be heard over Amelia's sobs, "That's the girl's room!"
"Ask me if I care!" Anna growled back and tried to stop Amelia from slipping off her hip.
Between the throw up coated girl, the stubborn boy threatening to go dead weight, and her own intense headache, Anna was in no mood to entertain resistance to the plan. She dragged Oliver, still trying his hardest to pry her hand off of his own, inside and ordered, "Stay right there and don't move a muscle."
Once Oliver was settled, Anna set Amelia on the counter. It took her a second or two to calm her own thoughts, before wetting a paper towel and gently wiping her daughter's face off. Anna forced herself to push all of the raging emotions aside and speak calmly to Amelia. It took only a few minutes before the cries decreased in volume to small, pitiful whimpers. By the time most of her outfit was cleaned up, she sniffled loudly and held her arms out to Anna.
"Hug mama…"
The request was so tired and heartbreaking that the stressed out woman relented and hugged the kid tightly. There really was no way to explain it in Anna's mind, but the simple hug and whispered, 'Love mama' by Amelia offered her a drop of strength into her overwhelmed mood. Maybe they could finish this trip in one piece after all.
"Alright, Mia," She remembered the nickname used by Remy earlier as she picked the girl back up and carried her over to the hand dryers. She pushed the button and the noisy machine spurred to life, "Let's get you dried off a little and get out of here."
"No dryer!" The girl suddenly shrieked and struggled in Anna's arms. "No dryer!"
"Amelia you can't go out in freezing weather wet." It puzzled Anna as she held the kid up to the dryer and Mia offered a new yell.
"No dryer! Scary!" She kicked and flailed, but when she got no further with her escape plan, she leaned over and bit Anna's shoulder with enough force to almost cause her to drop the girl.
When the weary duo finished the dryer fight minutes later, Anna gazed towards the wall with no shred of good humor left in her body. Her heartbeat started to quicken when she spotted only empty space. She raced down the rows of stalls, calling out to Oliver in hopes he was just hiding somewhere in the area. Upon the realization he had indeed left the group, her mind sped up to new levels of terror. Maybe he was a bit of a stubborn thorn in her side, but she couldn't believe Oliver would just run away like that. What if some anti-mutant crowd noticed his eyes and took him away?!
"Oliver?!" She yelled into the crowds after bursting out of the restroom and raced around the eating area like a madwoman, no longer giving a single care to what the people staring at her with judgmental eyes thought. All that mattered was finding Oliver.
"Oliver, where are you!?"
At the first sight of a security guard, Anna darted over and began babbling so quickly the man held up a hand to demand she stop talking, "Whoa there, young lady."
"Oliver. Lost the kid." She panted out, exhausted from fear and running through the various exhibits. "Can't find. Short, green eyes on black."
"Ah," The man crossed his arms and stared down at her disapprovingly, "I've been getting quite a few complaints about your family today."
"I have to find him. He might have been taken by somebody."
"Are you sure you didn't just forget where you left him?" The man rudely sneered, feeling no pity for both an obvious mutant and, in his opinion, a horrible example of a mother.
"Why I oughta-"
"Excuse me," The scratchy female voice broke into their conversation before Anna could tear the man a new one. Anna looked at the newcomer and felt her bad day worsen by several degrees since standing in full security guard uniform, and her trademark aviator sunglasses was her smart mouth waiting room guide. "I got this one, Bill."
Bill grumbled something about no good mutant families under his breath, but before Anna could strike him, the sunglass woman grabbed her tightly curled fist, "Now, now. Why don't we focus on getting back to Oliver first?"
"You know where he is?" Anna asked hopefully, her anger at the guard lost for the moment as more important things came to her attention.
The mystery woman led Anna and Amelia down the hallways and back into the rain forest room, decorated in a canopy of fake trees and statues of various animals that made their home in the area. Sitting by the display of rainbow colored frogs was a solitary and despondent Oliver. Anna's heart swelled with a sense of relief she'd never experienced before as she immediately raced over to the kid.
"Oliver!" She set Amelia down on the bench and grabbed the boy in a tight hug, "Are you okay?" She held him out at arm's length and once he half-heartedly nodded his head, she gently shook his shoulders, "Don't ever do that to me again! You can't just run away like that!"
"You did yesterday." He grumbled out and broke her hold.
"I'm not the one who could have gotten lost or-"
"Excuse me," The sunglass woman butted into the conversation and pulled Anna up from her kneeling position on the floor. "I think we need to have a little talk. Oliver," The little boy looked up at her attentively, "Why don't you and Amelia go play in the climbing space over there?"
Once the kids scampered off to the area, leaving the women to have a conversation in semi-privacy, Anna let out a very long breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. The whole day once seemed so simple; Take the group to the museum and take them home. How could it have gone so wrong? All she did was try to play by the crazy woman's rules!
"Of course, they listen to you…" She groused through a deep frown.
"Tough day?" The smile on the woman's face did nothing but infuriate Anna.
"This is all your fault."
"We've had this conversation before." She reminded the stubborn brunette, "You and I both know you earned this all on your own."
"No," She countered, "The only thing we know is that you are some evil jackass who enjoys torturing people." Just to add a little extra burn to her insults, Anna gave a bonus jab, "And the whole sunglasses inside thing died out in the nineties, just so you know."
"Someone's in a testy mood." The woman laughed as if the whole growled statement was hilarious.
"You know what? Just shut up and let me out of here. I played your stupid little game and I am done."
"Played?" The words were repeated in surprise and slight disappointment, "Oh no, my dear. You made a few hollow attempts at joining in, but you aren't close to really trying yet. It doesn't count for you to barely attempt to figure things out. Remember, you are here for a reason, Anna."
"Thanks, Yoda. Real helpful and all," Anna snarled sarcastically and turned on her heel to stare the lady in the eyes, or sunglasses as the case was, "Just tell me what the reason i-"
The woman who'd been standing no more than two feet away from Anna was gone.
She'd heard no footsteps racing away and saw no hint of the lady near any of the doorways. As another security guard strolled by, she flagged him down and tried to think of something more intelligent to ask, besides 'Did you see a lady in sunglasses disappear into thin air?'. The guard explained slowly, to the frazzled woman, that not only had he seen no sign of another guard in the area, but that there were no women matching the description working at the museum.
Anna sat down on the bench next to the climbing area and tried to dissect what in the world she was supposed to do now. She'd tried running away and she'd tried playing along. Nothing was going to get her out of this nightmare. She rested her head in her hands and took a slow breath as the overwhelming panic started to settle into a rather strong urge to just crumple into a ball and call it quits.
"Are you my real mama?"
The soft, timid question pulled Anna out of her depression and forced her to stare at Oliver standing directly beside her bench, "I don't really know." She answered honestly, at least in her opinion, "Not exactly."
"When will you know?"
"I think," She took a slow, jagged breath and looked him in the eyes, "Once I figure out how to make all of this work."
"Is that gonna be a really long time?"
"For both our sakes Oliver," She patted his shoulder gently, "I hope not."
The somewhat sweet moment between the two was disrupted as Anna's phone started to buzz in her pocket. She pulled out the device and let Oliver punch in the code since she'd forgotten to change the lock the night before.
Once the screen opened to the text messages, she clicked on the newest from a number her phone did not recognize; Scheduled an earlier flight to make it to town in time to help with last minute party prep. I'll send you the new flight itinerary tonight. See you soon, M.
"Oliver," She looked at the boy, who seemed just as tired as her, "Who in the world is M?"