Scott Summers hadn't expected anything unusual when he returned home. The room looked subtly different, as if things had been moved and put back not quite where they had been before. Some of the small knick-nacks on the shelves were gone, with the small trash can empty. And Maddie was holding a broken lamp, crying. That really made everything else seem inconsequential.
Moving towards her, he called, "Maddie? Honey, what's wrong?"
"I... I had a nightmare, and there..." Maddie looked at the lamp, "There must have been an earthquake."
"An earthquake? In Alaska?" Scott blinked, trying to figure out why Maddie would be making such a statement. Of all the things to blame a messy house on, why an earthquake? The house didn't even look that messy, and he hadn't felt anything that might have been an earthquake from town.
"We do get them around here, and something seems to have shaken the house. Things fell on the floor, some of the little fragile shattered, this lamp broke, the dishes rattled... Doesn't that sound like an earthquake to you? If you didn't feel it in town, it must have been a small one." Maddie countered.
"I suppose it does," Scott admitted, even though part of him still wanted to insist that if it was strong enough to shake the house then he should have felt it in town. "Now what's this about a nightmare?"
"You'll think it's silly," Maddie was still looking at the lamp. Not at him, but the broken lamp. It bothered him that she wouldn't look at him.
Scott walked over, sliding his arm around her shoulders, "Maddie, you're my wife. Even if the dream was silly, it's obvious that it bothered you."
"But it's silly, and it could never happen - I know it couldn't happen. It would be impossible. So I shouldn't let it bother me..." A few more tears slipped down Maddie's cheeks.
"Telling yourself that it was silly and impossible obviously isn't helping," Scott murmured.
"You left me. Abandoned me and N.C. to go back to New York," Maddie sniffled, letting herself lean against his shoulder.
"Why would I do that? I married you," Scott didn't understand why she was so upset. He didn't plan to leave her - didn't ever plan to leave her, but while that sounded absurd, it wasn't in the realm of impossible to happen.
"You left me because Jean wasn't dead anymore, so you went back to her. People don't come back from the dead, which make the whole thing impossible..." Maddie mumbled.
Shame and guilt stabbed through Scott, as he was flooded with the reality that so many of the things that had first attracted him to Maddie were traits that she shared with Jean. One of his earliest thoughts about Maddie had been to think of her as someone much like a vulnerable Jean... Someone that he could be strong for, someone who might need him in a way that Jean didn't need anybody.
He could never tell Maddie that he'd first been interested in her as someone so very much like Jean. The knowledge would break her heart. Then she'd kill him. And he'd deserve it.
"People don't come back from the dead. Even with all the powers that we've seen different mutants possess, dead is... well, dead." Scott tried to hug Maddie as best he could around the lamp.
"It was a dream." Maddie shook her head, the short locks of her hair bouncing.
"You're my wife, I'm not going to leave you, leave our home, our family," Scott whispered.
"Jean wasn't dead anymore, so you went back... back to New York, back to her." Maddie sniffled, and then whispered, "And the pair of you were going to take N.C. away from me so you could have your family... a family without me."
"No... Maddie, that's..." Scott couldn't find the words. Impossible and never going to happen and dear God how upsetting a dream like that must have been tumbled through his mind, tripping before they reached his tongue.
She shook her head, "I've been trying to tell myself that it was just a dream. Just an awful dream that it wouldn't... couldn't happen."
"I'm here with you. We have a life together, a son. I'm not going to give that up, not going to give up what we have together," Scott pried the lamp from her hands, dropping it to the floor. "I have a life with you, Maddie."
Scott tried to tell himself that he loved Maddie for herself. That while it had been her resemblance to Jean that had first attracted him, her own traits had kept him. That he loved her for herself and not for reminding him of Jean in so many ways.
In that moment, he was glad that Maddie wasn't a telepath like Jean. And he hated himself for being glad that this was something she didn't share with Jean
Thinking of the things he loved about Maddie, he cringed inside when he realized how many of them were traits that she shared with Jean. How many others were things that he couldn't swear differed. In that moment, Scott realized that it would be so very easy to hate himself. Because Maddie deserved better. She deserved a husband who could be certain that he loved her for Maddie, and not for reminding him in so many ways of their dead girlfriend. Someone who could cherish her.
And he hated that he wasn't that man.
He still couldn't imaging ever giving her up. Which made him a possessive ass... but she was his. He would just have to become the better man, the one that loved her for herself. To value and appreciate her for herself, and not for reminding him of Jean. Because Maddie deserved that. And Jean was dead.
"I'm not leaving you," Scott whispered.
end Maddie Dreams: Attempted Comfort.