A/N: The wait is over. I can officially say I'm back. Thanks for the reviews!

Snow and Fire Don't Mix!

Ch. 16

Collision Course

Still stunned, John sat on the edge of the bed facing the window. He had never lost that lighter. His lighter wasn't just the source for his gift, it was more than that. Without it … he was only human.

Rogue, Kitty, and Bobby entered the silent room. At first they didn't think he was there. A room is never silent when it's occupied by John.

Rogue noticed John was sitting on his bed; his back was facing them. Rogue pointed to the door, and Kitty and Bobby exited the room.

Without saying a word Rogue sat on the bed next to John. She knew when he was ready he would talk. As an hour went by no words were spoken. You would think looking out the window would be boring; however, at the moment it was better than television. John and Rogue watched as kids threw snowballs at each other. A fat kid had a hard time running through the snow. As a result, he was the kid that got hit with the most snowballs. John grinned to himself picturing the fat kid falling and rolling down the hill… eventually turning into a gigantic snowball. Then you had the snowboarders, John refused to watch the skiers; the snowboarders were doing all sorts of impressive tricks. John squinted as a new snowboarder came into view. Rogue noticed this particular snowboarder as well. They quickly looked at each other before turning back to look out the window. It was Bobby. He was the only person they knew that had a yellowish-brown beanie with white stripes going horizontally around it. It was the most horrific article of clothing John had ever seen. The beanie literally looked like shit. Hence, when Bobby wore it, he literally looked like a shithead.

Bobby decided to get cocky after doing a few tricks successfully. Instead of the intermediate hill, he went to an advanced ramp. Standing on top of the ramp Bobby took a moment to observe his surroundings. He took a deep breath and pulled goggles over his eyes before sliding down the ramp. As Bobby slid down his confidence grew. There was no doubt in his mind that he wouldn't be able to pull this jump off. The end of the ramp came and Bobby effectively landed the jump. He instantly raised his hands in excitement, but soon after he lost his balance, fell, and rolled down the hill forming a human snowball just like John pictured the fat kid doing.

Most people would have laughed but this was a typical Bobby thing, therefore, John didn't find the scene amusing. Left and right, people dodged out of the gigantic snowball's way. The gigantic snowball almost hit the fat kid, but to avoid getting hit, the fat kid jumped out of the way causing him to also roll down the hill forming another human snowball. Without hesitation John laughed out loud, now the result of a failed attempt at showing off was getting more interesting.

Both gigantic snowballs were heading straight for a wall. Look at it this way… if the wall wasn't there; John, Rogue, and Kitty would have never seen Bobby again. Wait. Isn't that a good thing?

Both snowballs crashed into the wall and broke apart seconds after. On his back, Bobby lay in the snow, "Whoa."

His beanie wasn't on his head. It was in the snow a few feet away from him.

The fat kid stood up trying to stop the dizziness in his head. He stopped in front of Bobby's beanie. "I think I'm going to hurl." And he did a few seconds later.

"Did you have to vomit on my beanie?"

"Did you have to run into me?" he retorted.

"I didn't," Bobby replied defensively.

"Whatever, it was kind of fun being the snowball instead of getting hit by them." The kid glanced at the ruined hat. "I did you a favor anyway."

Bobby chuckled to himself as the kid walked away, picturing himself icing the snow under the kid's feet and watching him fall on his ass, but that would be mean and that's not his style. He stood over the vomit-covered beanie that was once his favorite article of clothing.

"That's disgusting," announced Rogue. She made a face and turned around to look in the opposite direction. "Are you all right?" she asked over her shoulder.

"I'm fine," he said as he brushed himself off. "Where's John?"

"Still in the room." Rogue grabbed Bobby's arm and pulled him away so he would stop staring at his stupid hat. She helped remove snow from his back. "To be honest, I wasn't going to check on you, but John said to make sure you're all right because you have the car keys."

He let out a snort, smirking, and then he turned around to face Rogue. He jiggled the keys in her face and dropped them in the snow accidentally.

Rogue hit his shoulder with the heel of her hand. "That's not funny."

"Uhhh right ..." Bobby agreed and quickly picked them up out of the snow and put them back safely into his pocket.

John sighed, falling back to collapse on the bed and stare at the ceiling. When is this nightmare going to end? he thought to himself. He felt around for the remote not bothering to sit up to use his eyes instead. After minutes of just gripping the cover and sheets, the TV powered to life. The last thing he wanted to hear was the first thing he heard: a huge snowstorm was coming. His skin paled several shades. "I said ... when is this nightmare going to end … NOT get worse!" John grabbed a pillow and threw it at the television set. He stormed out of his room and blindly ran into a woman. She fell to the floor dropping numerous things.

"I'm sor—" John stopped short when he saw his wallet on the floor. "Look at what we have here." John picked it up and opened it. It was cleaned out, however, his ID remained. "Tossing the evidence, huh?" He shoved the wallet into his front pocket.

"Can you help me up?" She outstretched her arm toward him.

John folded his arms over his chest showing no sign of helping her. He smirked and said, "So you can swipe my watch?"

Unable to hide her own smirk, she put her hand down. "You read my mind," she acknowledged, looking up at him from the floor.

"I want my money back or I'll have security search your room." He noticed that she didn't show any sign of concern. "You don't have a room do you …"

She shook her head.

John offered to help her up and she took his hand. "Your name is Brooke right?"

"Yeah."

He helped her pick up the rest of her things and introduced himself, "I'm John."

"So John … where were you headed in such a hurry?" she asked.

"I found out a huge snowstorm is heading this way. Look, I don't know if you need to steal or just like the rush, but can I have at least two hundred bucks back? If I'm going to be stuck here longer I need money to spend so I don't kill myself."

"Fair enough." She handed him two one hundred dollar bills and then cocked her head to the side. "So you thought you could beat out the storm by running as fast as you can?"

He winked at her as he put the money in his sock instead of his wallet. "I just wanted to grab my friends and jet, but that alone would take a miracle. However, knowing my friend Bobby, he's going to want to wait until after the storm. He wants me to suffer more than I currently am."

"Inclement weather can be fun. You can embrace the one you love in front of a roaring fire."

He frowned at her last word.

She noticed the slight change in John's facial expression. "Hey, if you don't have that special someone … you can hug yourself or your friend Bobby."

John made gagging noises in response. "The last person I want to hug is Bobby. He can hug or touch himself all he wants." He paused and added, "Whichever floats his boat."

Brooke laughed and hooked her arm around the back of John's neck. "You're buying me a drink."

A/N: So … Brooke is back, a storm is coming, John is still in hell, and his lighter is still missing, well, at least Bobby won't be wearing that beanie anymore. Reviews are very much appreciated. I slightly revamped chapters 1-9. I can definitely say my writing has changed for the better, and I can guarantee it will continue to get even better. If you glance at this chapter and glance at the first and second you can simply just see the difference.